… and Zebra wins!

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch.  San Antonio, TX.

A work in progress…

Inspired by wayfinding iconography… Especially from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport where I took these pictures:

Lusting after the man modeling the Hugo Boss suit? No, this wayfinding sign was the main object of my infatuation.

I took a picture because of the encased McDonald’s sign here… Mmmmm… French fries…

So, what am I up to now? Well, let’s see if this project is ever realized…

Yes, I’m being lazy tonight.  Just a link to a ToolCrib.com post tonight: The Laser Guided Hand Saw (and 6 Other Stupid Laser Tools).

These go in the category of “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

Other things that belong in this category: PowerPoint slide transitions with screechy tire sound effects, and websites that automatically play bad midi music upon visiting (They still do that??? Reminds me of high school days!), just to name the first two things that popped into my head.  And… For that matter splashy flash intros that take an eternity to load and play.

I recently revisited my alma mater Rice University when I joined friends Sandra, Carlos, and Sara at a football game against the University of North Texas. What a great game that was! Before I met up with my friends, though, I did a quick tour of the campus…

Lovett Hall. What a pitiful sight! This is the worst I’ve ever seen these Italian cypresses and hedges! Compare this with pictures I took circa 2001 with a 35 mm camera…

What happened to the hedges???? Such scrawny Italian cypresses!

Rice regularly replaces its Italian cypresses, but this was a sad, sad sight! When do they replace them? In the middle of the night??? I’ve never seen them actually do it!

The new coffee house… Built after I graduated… A very jarring sight when approaching from the west… So out of place in my eyes… The interior wasn’t that much better… EXCEPT when you’re looking out! I didn’t have any time to take any photos of that, but I love inside-outside spaces…

Eh… Reminds me of the fountain that I hate by the business school…

Here, I began changing my mind about this space… Starting to see how this might be an enjoyable place to read a book or people-watch…

Love this…

And this.

The game!

Whomp! Go Owls!

Hi, Sammy!

Post-game. Way back when, this stadium hosted a Super Bowl! Super Bowl VII or VII? I guess I could google… But too lazy!

Ordinarily, I would be writing this in my pen-and-paper journal and not in my blog… Debate against myself on this will go in my journal…

But I couldn’t resist commenting on a selection in Leigh McLeroy’s latest book, The Sacred Ordinary: Embracing the Holy in the Everday, which can be purchased from Amazon, among other places.

In “My Window Malfunction,” (pgs 106-7), McLeroy describes the acrobatic moves and “idiotic sign language” that she had to do to “accommodate [her] handicap” of not having a functioning car power window in order to avoid the cost of fixing the real problem. She then draws an analogy between a malfunctioning car window and malfunctions in life caused by the problems of personal sin. Instead of circumventing the malfunctions, it would have been much easier to address the issues at the very beginning: in the case of the car, fix the window, and in the case of sin, repent, seeking forgiveness.

Hrm… As a person not raised as a Christian and who came to Christ at the age of 21, I can see how that last bit may seem a little… esoteric… to some. Even now, as a 8-year-old Christian, I’m still learning the meaning of sin and repentance. Ms. McLeroy goes into more detail in her book and she is much more elegant in her descriptions than I am in this very brief synopsis, so pick up a copy of the book for the complete text of this and many other meditations in finding the holy in ordinary places, people, things, moments, and words. In fact, I think I butchered her words, so please go to TheSacredOrdinary.com to read an excerpt from her book.

For me, since I’m very much of a DIY, take-things-apart-and-put-them-back-together kind of person, and since I enjoyed fixing my own car window, I can’t relate DIRECTLY to this analogy, but that doesn’t take away from its worth. My own interpretation, as an offshoot of hers and a question to myself is, I spend all of this time and energy “fixing” external things, but how much time do I spend being still and expectantly anticipating Him? And also… Many other questions for myself that will go in my journal!

Ms. McLeroy’s book is filled with many wonderful devotional reflections. On one hand, it can be a very “quick read,” but on the other, I can spend hours reflecting on each of the 112 meditations and the truth contained within! Pick up a copy!

FYI, my favorite meditation is “Shine” (pgs 144-6).

As a small disclaimer, I am blessed to have Leigh as a very dear friend, but knowing her only serves to give deeper meaning to the words she’s written!

National Science Foundation and Science Magazine’s 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge First Place winner for Informational Graphics:

“Mad Hatter’s Tea,” Alice’s Adventures in Microscopic Wonderland, by Colleen Champ and Dennis Kunkel, Concise Image Studios!

From the NSF’s website:

While wandering through the forest of wonderland, Alice stumbles upon three beetles having tea. That’s not exactly how Lewis Carroll’s classic tale goes, but this recreation of the Mad Hatter’s tea could certainly belong in the story.

Freelance illustrator Colleen Champ produced her own version of the scene using micrographs by photomicrographer Dennis Kunkel. The goal was to demonstrate the fantastic nature of reality by arranging the actual images in fanciful ways, Champ says: “You cannot create anything yourself that hasn’t already been created in nature.”

She used Photoshop to transform three beetles into the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and the sleepy Dormouse. They sip tea at a table made of butterfly wings, set in a field of crystallized vitamin C while aphids fly overhead. A key beneath the main illustration identifies the source of each image, including the mold spores that make up the vast underground.

Kunkel says the work is a fruitful partnership between science and art: “She’s taken images from the minute world and put them together in such a way as to make them really compelling, exciting, and funny to look at.” Kunkel plans to develop a series of children’s books based on Champ’s images.

The interplay between fact and fancy also impressed the judges, who used the words “innovative” and “delightful” to describe the piece. Panel of finalist judges member Michael Keegan called it a “palatable introduction” to science, saying it provides an excellent way to attract children to the subject matter.

This story was also described in National Geographic and MSNBC.

I emailed Ms. Champ and she’s going to let me know when the book is available. But I want the book NOW!!! But I’ll wait patiently. :)

Okay, so this makes me want to reread my copy of Alice in Wonderland. I put that book in my “do not resell/I want to keep” stack of college books… Victorian fiction class, I think? I think we also read Peter Pan in that class…

FYI, “jabberwocky” comes from Lewis Carroll.

Also, as far as other photography/illustration contest winners, I also love the Little Shop of Horrors squid suckers and the Bible interconnectivity visualization!

Perhaps I’m too easily amused or too simple-minded or maybe I just need to get out more, but I found this shopping cart escalator FASCINATING!

This almost matches the glee I felt upon discovering escalators in Germany that would alternate between going up and down, depending on whether a person was at the top or at the bottom, as determined by a weight sensor! (What happens when one person at the top and one at the bottom both trigger the sensors at precisely the same time???)

This shopping cart escalator was in a Chicago Target near my cousins’ apartments.

Yes, that’s me in the video saying that this looks fun! Yes, I AM easily entertained! Kay, you missed out! That’s what happens when you snooze! You lose!

Note the special attachment between the front wheels.
Also note my cousin Patty and her dad in the background!

You know, now that I think about it, the Whole Foods in Austin, TX has a pretty steep escalator/moving sidewalk-type conveyor system where you get on WITH your cart to move between floors.  Somehow that’s not as cool as this, though.

Real Estate

The Ultimate Luxury: A Garage

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

Published: August 31, 2008

It adds convenience, privacy and security. And the oversize door is handy for moving big objects in or out. One owner even turned his garage into a music room.

Standard Airport Parking Rates:

Outdoor Self Park: $4.75/Daily

Rates do not include 8.250% tax, 6% access fee and one-time $2.00 per stay fuel surcharge.

Rates subject to change without notice.

Fuel surcharge so we can pay for your shuttle’s gas to take us from the parking lot to the airport?  How far is your lot from the airport???

I understand you have to pay for gas, but trying to make your rates seem more competitive by trying to hide the total cost elsewhere???  Pretty sneaky.

Reminds me of the ol’ used car salesman’s four-square bit of prestidigitation or legerdemain… or even necromancy…

But who knows.  Maybe all of the companies do that, and I just haven’t found the small print yet.

Note to self: No FastTrack Airport Parking.  UNLESS, I suppose, I want to leave my car for a very long period of time.

It distracted me!!!

Source: NBC Video

Okay, I’m probably the only one who noticed this…  My friend couldn’t find the flag in the picture above.  It’s in the background in the crowd on the left, to the left of the Olympics rings.

Stars are supposed to be on the LEFT when hung vertically…

Flag draped over the Pentagon after 9/11.
Photo by Michael W. Pendergrass.
Source: B-1 System Program Office.

But hey, we have people who made the trip to China to support our teams, so I can’t complain too much.

Maybe NBC could have digitally altered it to correct it!  JUST KIDDING!!!

But that technology to show world record paces (eg, in swimming) is incredible!!!  A step up from showing the 1st down line in football, huh? And that’s pretty amazing in itself.

As far as the time lapse videos…  Stro-motion???  I can’t help but think of high school physics class and parabolic trajectories of balls being thrown in the air.

Now I hear blame is being placed by various people on the Beijing officials and even NBC in the delay of Alicia’s start on the beam…  This in addition to the much-discussed underaged Chinese team…