Hey guys,
I decided to do my daily blogging that I talked about earlier on a different blog dedicated solely to Spain. I will still update this one with the occasional short story, but being abroad has put constraints on my time, so they will be irregular. I'd love to see you on the other site.
It can be found here: http://wilderinspain.blogspot.com/
Best,
Tim
Friday, January 28, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
The favorite blanket
If I had to go on a Sound of Music style naming binge of all the good things in the world, somewhere in there would be the favorite blanket. It's that piece of fabric that on rainy days, after failed tests, with a bowl of icecream, a favorite book, or whatever else is your personal catnip, you are content to curl up with and sit in blissful, comatose lethargy. It's Leo Bloom from the producer's panic button, Linus of Peanuts constant companion, and one of the few things in many childhoods as ever-present as our cell phones are now. If you've ever had one, you know that blanket.
Mine used to be what I called dino-blankey. I found it the other day cleaning out my room before going to Spain and took a long moment to think of days gone by. I would take that thing through mud puddles, living room forts, Pokemon-inspired romps through the woods, and rolling down grassy hills on a daily basis. Understandably it ended up about as bedraggled and grisly as Snooki after a night at the bar, without all of the unfortunate side connotations. My mom, ever the faithful caretaker managed to repair the thing some countless dozen times, but inexorably it grew ever patchier. The memento sitting in my closet is a cobweb of cotton that still makes me smile whenever I chance across it.
Is it just me that hoards these things? I have dozens of similar 'treasures' stowed away in random bags and boxes in the obscure corners of my house. It feels like a Toy Story inspired tragedy where the haunted soul of a once loved possession calls out to its owner begging not to be tossed whenever I consider trimming things down. How could I ever throw away the favorite blanket though? Do you have any relics like that?
Best,
Tim
Mine used to be what I called dino-blankey. I found it the other day cleaning out my room before going to Spain and took a long moment to think of days gone by. I would take that thing through mud puddles, living room forts, Pokemon-inspired romps through the woods, and rolling down grassy hills on a daily basis. Understandably it ended up about as bedraggled and grisly as Snooki after a night at the bar, without all of the unfortunate side connotations. My mom, ever the faithful caretaker managed to repair the thing some countless dozen times, but inexorably it grew ever patchier. The memento sitting in my closet is a cobweb of cotton that still makes me smile whenever I chance across it.
Is it just me that hoards these things? I have dozens of similar 'treasures' stowed away in random bags and boxes in the obscure corners of my house. It feels like a Toy Story inspired tragedy where the haunted soul of a once loved possession calls out to its owner begging not to be tossed whenever I consider trimming things down. How could I ever throw away the favorite blanket though? Do you have any relics like that?
Best,
Tim
Sunday, January 9, 2011
The strangeness of Picasa
Google's Picasa is a piece of photo-management software that has what is simultaneously one of the most useful and most strangely unnerving functions that I have seen in image managers. It can look through a library of your photographs and identify one particular face, then take a close up cropping of that face and display it. This is intended to make it easier to see all photographs of one person, and does, but when the images are aggregated over a large collection, the effect is odd.
When all photos of one person are displayed contiguously, the wall of slightly similar and yet mostly identical faces that result are just plain strange. Have you ever gotten to consider what your picture-time smile looks like in a complete vacuum? Have you ever seen your friends doing it? There's no doubt that the way we grin for the camera is distinct from our real smile, and even for the most photogenic that trend is abundantly apparent with volume.
Here is one small portion of the map of me. I noticed looking at it that I have a fairly distant expression in most photographs. If you're looking to pass some time I advise checking this out. You can find Picasa for free here: http://picasa.google.com/.
Best,
Tim
When all photos of one person are displayed contiguously, the wall of slightly similar and yet mostly identical faces that result are just plain strange. Have you ever gotten to consider what your picture-time smile looks like in a complete vacuum? Have you ever seen your friends doing it? There's no doubt that the way we grin for the camera is distinct from our real smile, and even for the most photogenic that trend is abundantly apparent with volume.
Here is one small portion of the map of me. I noticed looking at it that I have a fairly distant expression in most photographs. If you're looking to pass some time I advise checking this out. You can find Picasa for free here: http://picasa.google.com/.
Best,
Tim
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
2011 and new directions for the Blog
Hello there,
We've spent another year working, playing, laughing, crying and doing all the other random junk that makes being alive worth the time, and now 2010 has come and gone like the fat guy who danced to that one O-zone song.
In the spirit of annually changing relatively minor parts of our behavior and then likely reverting back to our old actions in no time, some new things are coming for this blog.
I'm going to try to post more often and worry about the content less. I mentioned doing this earlier, but every time it came to posting some random evening journal entry, I couldn't just throw it up on the internet since it feels like I should provide at least a semblance of quality to readers. The whole point of this project though is to practice writing, and that doesn't happen in as meaningful a way when I just do not post.
In other news, I am going to Spain in about a week for the remainder of the time until Summer, and will likely transition content here into mostly observations on Spanish culture, its oddities and the experience of a foreigner trying to deal with them.
Finally, here are some pictures of cats that I thought you might enjoy. They are lifted from http://kittenwar.com/. Don't say I never did anything for you.
Best,
Tim
We've spent another year working, playing, laughing, crying and doing all the other random junk that makes being alive worth the time, and now 2010 has come and gone like the fat guy who danced to that one O-zone song.
In the spirit of annually changing relatively minor parts of our behavior and then likely reverting back to our old actions in no time, some new things are coming for this blog.
I'm going to try to post more often and worry about the content less. I mentioned doing this earlier, but every time it came to posting some random evening journal entry, I couldn't just throw it up on the internet since it feels like I should provide at least a semblance of quality to readers. The whole point of this project though is to practice writing, and that doesn't happen in as meaningful a way when I just do not post.
In other news, I am going to Spain in about a week for the remainder of the time until Summer, and will likely transition content here into mostly observations on Spanish culture, its oddities and the experience of a foreigner trying to deal with them.
Finally, here are some pictures of cats that I thought you might enjoy. They are lifted from http://kittenwar.com/. Don't say I never did anything for you.
Best,
Tim
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