An Artist in the Family

For your artistic viewing pleasure, here is art from my sister Jaima...



The drawing is of a sculpture on the college campus where she works.
Notice the excellent shading.
Yeah, we're talented people : ).

Odds and Ends

You may have noticed that the two books I'm reading right now (according to this here blog, anyway) have been the same for quite some time now. Truth is, I have started both books and they are both excellent--interesting and thought-provoking. But then I got distracted. I'll go ahead and blame it on the season--no self-respecting summer reading list is complete without a big chunk of escapist fiction, huh? So I re-read the first three Harry Potter books, then I read two Agatha Christie novels (in one day!), now I'm working on Jurassic Park (One of my all-time favorites--I'm at the part right now where the T-Rex is attacking the two children in the cars!). I have a couple other works of fiction on my list and then, I promise, I'll get back to reading the good stuff. : )

Also, I thought I'd call attention to a little addition to TLaJ that I doubt anyone has noticed. Way down at the bottom of the page I've added a "Where I've Been" map. Quite fun. There is a feature where you can turn the countries you want to visit green, but I would just end up turning the whole thing green, so I didn't bother. Top three countries I am dying to see right now are Turkey, Greece, and Croatia. And Czech Republic. And Morocco and Spain. See, this gets out of hand fast.

More Summer Shenanigans

Yes, that is Gordon being pulled behind a speed boat in a kayak : ).

Captain Awesome

Kudos to Captain Awesome for getting FIRST PLACE at the Hydrotherapy kayaking competition last night. There were three categories (big air, entry tricks, and something else I forget--I was on my second (read: third) glass of wine by then), and Gordon took first in the Entry category for entering the wave with a killer dry roll then continuing to surf it. We took home some serious loot, too: A dry bag, beer cooler, carabiners, and gift certificate to the Olive Garden. Fun was had by all. For more info on Hydrotherapy, click here. Gordon should be posting video of last night's event here sometime today, so keep checking back.

LOLcats

I had been hearing a lot about some phenomenon called LOLcats over the blogosphere, so I went to my trusty Wikipedia link to find out what this was all about. I could sort of tell it had something to do with some sort of weird netspeak (read: poor grammar). But after reading through the entire article on LOLcats and even clicking on all the links and going to the supporting websites and seeing several actual examples of said LOLcats, I have to admit this is one web phenomenon that I just can't wrap my mind around. How about you kids?

LOLcats definition: An image combining a photograph, most frequently a cat, with a humorous and idiosyncratic caption in (often) broken English—a dialect which is known as "lolspeak", or "Kitteh". The name "lolcat" is a compound word of "LOL" and "cat". Lolcats are created for photo sharing imageboards and other internet forums. Lolcats are similar to other anthropomorphic animal-based image macros such as the O RLY? owl.

I know, I know. Now it's all perferctly clear, right? Here's more history:

There are several well-known lolcat images and single-word captions that have spawned many variations and imitations, including "Ceiling Cat" and "Basement Cat" which have become the lolcat equivalents of God and Satan, respectively. Others include "I can has Cheezburger," "monorail cat," "I [verb]ed you a [noun], but I eated it", "hover cat", "Oh Hai I upgraded your RAM," "WANT", "DO NOT WANT!," "Fail", "Nom Nom Nom" (used for eating), "Halp!", "Invisible [object]", "Proceed," and "Pew pew pew" for shooting. A related phenomenon uses photos of an elephant seal("lolrus") on the search for a blue bucket ("bukkit").

Such astounding clarity. And now for some examples:

Don't ask me why......

If you are having a bad day, this should solve it:

Aww....happy pandas!

Happy 4th!

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
~Barbara Ehrenreich

What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility ... a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.
~Adlai Stevenson

"My country, right or wrong" is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying "My mother, drunk or sober."
~G.K. Chesteron

There are two visions of America. One precedes our founding fathers and finds its roots in the harshness of our puritan past. It is very suspicious of freedom, uncomfortable with diversity, hostile to science, unfriendly to reason, contemptuous of personal autonomy. It sees America as a religious nation. It views patriotism as allegiance to God. It secretly adores coercion and conformity. Despite our constitution, despite the legacy of the Enlightenment, it appeals to millions of Americans and threatens our freedom.

The other vision finds its roots in the spirit of our founding revolution and in the leaders of this nation who embraced the age of reason. It loves freedom, encourages diversity, embraces science and affirms the dignity and rights of every individual. It sees America as a moral nation, neither completely religious nor completely secular. It defines patriotism as love of country and of the people who make it strong. It defends all citizens against unjust coercion and irrational conformity.

This second vision is our vision. It is the vision of a free society. We must be bold enough to proclaim it and strong enough to defend it against all its enemies.
~Rabbi Sherwin Wine