Feliz Navidad from Taco El Paisa
16 years ago
21 November 2007
19 November 2007
Campus Art-Multicultural Bench
There was some sort of project where many different organizations sponsored artistic benches throughout the city. Many of them weren't practial because they were suseptible to water damage. I don't know if this bench was part of that effort. But it is indoors.
10 November 2007
Sandwich Board Man
I have seen sign turners many times before in San Diego. But, this is the first time I have seen a man clad in in a sandwich board. That a person's labour should become so cheaply bought that it may be commonly employed in such pursuits, does not in my mind bode well for the economy. That a high end product such as condos would want to associate itself with such a practice speaks volumes of what has become of our society of opportunity.
02 November 2007
Charlie as a Puppy
Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures of Charlie as a puppy. But this is one of the ones we did take.
Hawk
I saw this big bird of prey at my bus stop coming home from school. I think it is a hawk, but I don't know much about birds. It looked incredible. I tried shooting it with optical zoom which would have made for a better picture but my hands were too shaky. Any way this was taken without zoom then cropped from the bigger picture. I think it is good enough that you can see it is a hawk.
26 October 2007
Clean Air / Fire on Fith
There was finally some clear air today. I can't describe how sweet it tasted. On my way home from the library I started to smell some more smoke. I thought the wind had changed and brought more smoke into town. But It turned out to be this fire. I took a couple of pictures. These were probably the best of the bunch.
23 October 2007
All Things Japanese
I have always been interested in Japan, especially since my brother introduced me to karate. But lately every thing has been coming up Japanese. My sister her family now live in Tokyo. A classmate of mine from high school is living in a small (200 000 population) research community about an hour north of Tokyo. My sister-in-law is playing competitive sudoku. And, finally the above is a picture of the building that faces the bus stop where I get off to go to school.
22 October 2007
We Are OK
You can follow the progress of the fire here. This is the local English language paper. I wouldn't recommend it for any other purpose. The best resource for San Diego is Diario San Diego. A decent English language resource is the Voice of San Diego.
The major effect the fires have had on us so far is that has been that it looks as though we are going to have a few days off school, a bit like a snow day. Last time white ash fell from the sky very much like snow.
Above is the latest effort on the art front. It took much longer than I am willing to admit to complete. But I did learn a lot about Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape.
20 October 2007
Campus Art-The English Tree
This is at San Diego City College. I love this sign for English Center. The hanging letters spell out "English Center". There is a butterfly at the bottom and a dragonfly at the top of the tree. It looks amazingly uncheesy.
18 October 2007
My Blowback Article on Justice Thomas
latimes.com published another blowback article by me. This was not as fun an article to write as the one about Charlie, but it contains some things that I felt had to be said.
Sphere: Related Content17 October 2007
16 October 2007
12 October 2007
Love Stamp
This is my attempt to do a stamp. I am really into the whole mixed media thing right now. I like how this turned out.
08 October 2007
Charlie's Store
This is where we get Charlie's food. It is the kind of high density urban development I love. There were lots of places like this in London. I don't know if you can see. But it is an Albertson's with a huge apartment complex on top.
06 October 2007
03 October 2007
First colorization effort
This is a picture of my good friend Daniel and two of his friends from his hippy days. The photo was damaged so I cut out the figures and put them in front of the fractal background. Unfortunately, Daniel came out the worst of the three. I still have the original scan. So, I will try as they say to fix it in post.
30 September 2007
A quick preview of the Homless project
Name: Robert Starks
Date of Birth:12/14/55
Date of First Homelessness: 1974
Duration of Present Homelessness: A few days
Reported Diagnosis: Schizophrenia
Health Insurance: VA
Status of Treatment: Medication Non-Compliant
Employment: Ralph's Security guard
I have actually seen Mr. Starks working at Ralph's. I wish I could have gotten a picture of him in his uniform.
A response to Applebaum's Editorial on Diana
I wrote this essay as response to Anne Applebaum's article Candle in the Wind.
I was somewhat disappointed that it was not run by the Washington Post. After talking to Mike, my brother, I thought I should take both Applebaum and myself less seriously. But I decided to go ahead and put it here anyway.
Ms. Applebaum's article regarding the anniversary of Princes Diana's death is not only poorly written, but frighteningly poorly written. Her argument is sound enough. Princess Diana was indeed an emotional dimwit, or as I liked to think of her, the stylish wacky older sister I never had. My younger sister is stylish, brilliant and studious. But all of Applebaum's points in support of her argument were either exaggerations, half truths or outright falsehoods. At one point in the article she claims that she is a "Briton." She may well be, but the fact that she was born in the United States and, at least according to Wikipedia, lives in Poland, one might consider to her be American, European, or Polish. Any of which would allow us to judge her breathtaking ignorance of the United Kingdom a tad less harshly.
Funerals are generally planned to reflect the personality of the deceased. There can be no question that Diana's funeral would have been her "dream" funeral if she had ever considered such a thing. Although I imagine she might have preferred that her brother had just kept quiet. One must remember also that her death was sudden and unexpected. Britons had only days to consider how to mourn her. Her grave site was chosen explicitly to reduce tourist visits. Britons do not enjoy road trips.
The late Queen Mother on the other hand had been an fixture of British society for over three generations. For years the BBC did a yearly dress rehearsal, complete with black suits stored in lockers against such an eventuality, of the announcement of her death. The disparity in self reported reactions to the funeral is probably more likely a reflection of British ambiguity regarding celebrity and the individualism it entails than a true variance in public feeling.
Diana influenced even the insanely conservative institution that it is the British monarchy. I doubt that Buckingham Palace would have made a point of sharing a picture of Prince William washing a toilette if it had not been for Diana. Ironically, her struggles with the monarchy undoubtedly made possible Charles' eventual civil marriage to his true beloved. As for the princes, they were shielded from the press by a gentleman's agreement with Fleet St. made at their births, not after Diana's death. Prince Charles has never been shy about expressing his opinions which are as wacky as anything from Diana. He even expressed his wish to do duty as a hygiene product for the Duchess Camila.
On the political front, the transition from Blair to Brown was the result of a political deal between the two made before Diana's death. Even so Blair, enjoyed an abnormally long tenure as prime minister despite leading the nation into an unpopular war. He was certainly never rejected by the British public as soundly as his even more manipulative counterpart, Bush, was by the American public. Diana's true legacy is that she hugged Aids patients. It was just like her to respond to a world wide epidemic with hugs. Her hugs were pivotal in moving beyond irrational fear of Aids to realistic solutions. Even today when I take my leave of my HIV positive friend, and dog walking buddy, we hug warmly. As corny as it sounds, a little bit of that hug is from the princess.
In contrast a pat on Queen Elizabeth's royal bum by the Prime Minster of Australia, threw Australia, the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth into constitutional crisis which was, thankfully, resolved diplomatically. However the assault, gentle as it was, was an intentional and maybe even sexual political act that still, a decade later, has repercussions in Australian politics.
Unfortunately, Ms Applebaum's arguments are not only a shame to her, but also a reflection of the Bush era of American incompetence. It doesn't take a Marshall scholar to know you do not chose a winner take all parliamentary form of government for a nation racked by sectarian violence, or to know that during a war on terror it is madness to elect a vice president with serious heart trouble. I fear that the current model of supposed meritocracy in America is anything but. We have systematically replaced apprenticeship with costly education affordable by only the wealthy few. We have striven to segregate the intellectual elite from anyone from different culture or different economic background. They are never challenged or humbled. This is very dangerous in a world where history is made by the Archie Bunker's and John Bulls of the world, not the pampered elite. Even the Titans of business are generally of average or slightly below average intelligence. I wonder if Ms. Applebaum would write with such breezy carelessness if she had spent her youth as a gofer at the Washington Post rather than at Oxford.
24 August 2007
Dogs Are Wonderful, Especially Charlie!
This is a little article that I wrote about dogs. I was lucky enough to get published on latimes.com as a blowback to an editorial by Joel Stein. Unfortunately it was replaced much more quickly than the blowback before it. But it still was really neat to see it on the site.
I was very much influenced by Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin. It is a really good book and I would recommend it to everyone.
I got two e-mails in response to the article. One was positive and the other was negative. I guess that is pretty good. I also got much appreciated kind words from family and friends.
I know it seems like a small thing. But it was a happy thing to happen.
23 August 2007
A new start
This blog is mainly going to follow me as I change my career. Somewhat late in life, 35, I am trying to start a career in computer science. When I first saw my first computer, an Apple II, it truly blew my mind. I was the classic computer geek. I took some programming classes in high school but at the time I didn't seem to have the discipline for professional programming. Now I think that I am ready. I would really like to work for Apple or Mozilla. But I am not completely forgoing the option of trying to start my own business. With my good friend Daniel, I am starting a project to interview the homeless in downtown San Diego. We have completed a few interviews already and it has been really rewarding. So far the people we have talked to have been friendly and fascinating. I am trying to imagine how to create a web page that truly conveys the reality of these peoples lives.
My family has been both technical and creative. My sister is one of the smarter people I know. She is a chemical engineer, though she is taking some time off to be mommy. My brother works for the Wall Street Journal. The headlines for the articles, those are written by my baby brother. I am trying to comfort myself that if my siblings can do it, so can I.
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