links for 2007-12-01
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All disapproval. All the time.
Travel Adventure
I’ve always wondered this myself – why is it more interesting that Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Everest than the sherpas who guided him up the mountain? Interesting article on adventure travel:
I stayed on at the Lotus Guesthouse and struggled with my article for the Major American Adventure-Travel Magazine. Every time I researched some upscale mountain trek in the Nepal Himalayas or two-week scuba diving excursion off the coast of Papua New Guinea, I couldn’t help but ponder how pointless it all was. I began to e-mail my editor pointed questions about how one should define the “extremes of human experience.” How was kayaking a remote Chinese river, I asked, more notable than surviving on its shores for a lifetime? How did risking frostbite on a helicopter-supported journey to arctic Siberia constitute more of an “adventure” than risking frostbite on a winter road-crew in Upper Peninsula Michigan? Did anyone else think it was telling that bored British aristocrats — not the peoples of the Himalayas — were the ones who first deemed it important to climb Mount Everest? My editor’s replies were understandably terse.
Wow – busy time
Long time, no bloggy. Hmmm.
Went to our traditional Thanksgiving trip; Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Iowa with the extended Mineart family. Almost everyone was there – something like 48 family members all in the same house at the same time. Yep. I took lots of photos; most from the trip are up on Flickr.
While we were there, we drove out to Eldon, Iowa to see the little house from the famous Grant Woods painting American Gothic, and took photos of us in front of the house. (Obviously, you can see one of them a few posts down.) I’ve been wanting to do that for years. The house is designated an historic landmark owned by the state of Iowa, and this year the state opened a visitor’s center/museum near the house so you can find out more about the painting and get help getting your picture taken. The proceeds from the center help pay for the maintenance of the house, which is nice. And the volunteers there are pretty fun-loving and enjoy tongue-in-cheek parodies of the painting.
A few years back, I read “American Gothic : The Biography of Grant Wood’s American Masterpiece” so I knew a lot of the background of the painting, but the museum was really interesting, and it makes me want to go back and read it again. Strangely, I know I wrote a review of the book for my blog, but it’s not coming up in my searches. Hmmm.
Speaking of Flickr and photographs, I finished uploading all of the digital photos I have to Flickr. I still have a lot of captioning and tagging to do, but they are in sets in roughly chronological order going backwards to September, 2000 when I bought my first digital camera. I also need to pull significant events into sets, as well, and then embed galleries throughout my site. I have some of that done, but not nearly enough. I had quite a nostalgic time going through all my old photos. And a bit of a sad time, too, coming across photos of our friend Joe. I have more of him I haven’t added to that set, but I stopped hunting for them after awhile because it made me too unhappy. I’ll have to complete that task later.
links for 2007-11-28
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Wish I could afford one. They’re pretty awesome.
Indianapolis
There are times when I love living in Indianapolis. And there are times when I can’t imagine why I didn’t leave on the few occasions that I’ve considered it and looked around at other places to live.
I find myself feeling the second emotion after reading the IndyStar’s talkback forums regarding Congresswoman Julia Carson’s recent announcement that she has terminal lung cancer.
Sadly, Indianapolis is home to some truly vile and disgusting people.
American Gothic
At the American Gothic House Center in Eldon, Iowa, where the house from the painting is located.
See all photos in this set.
links for 2007-11-23
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The new font for german license plates resists people altering the letters with black tape or paint.
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Salavon recreates the Ikea catalog removing items and only showing color.
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Not your grandmother’s cross stitch. I thought I had bookmarked these before, but I guess not.
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Your “Beddian year” is the year you are the same age as the year you were born. I was born in 1968, so my “Beddian year” will be 2036, when I turn 68.
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yep, really; a life sized whale.
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