Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wicked cool cycling!
Octopi!!!!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Today is a bit different though. I'm stuck at work and treading water in a sea of emotions. Writing just seemed like the best release ...
Death. It is sad, it is scary, it is dreaded. Personally, I do my best not to think about it. I ignore the fact that I'm not invincible. I don't go out and do stupid things, trying to bring my own death on prematurely, but I also don't live in daily fear of dying. I just try to live the life I have to the very best. Let the universe/God/the fates take care of the serious stuff.
But every so often I'm faced with it, faced with death. Today was one of those days. I had two very sad pieces of news. The continued and more serious failing of my grandmother's health, and the death of a friend/classmate who, from outside, looked to have everything going for her and was just on top of the world.
My 90+ year old grandmother was hospitalized after having a heart attack. She also suffers from advancing dymensia. While I wasn't there to witness it, my mother said she was rather combative in the hospital, trying to fight her way out of everybody's hold. She just wanted to go home, even though she doesn't really know where home is anymore. She can't remember the year, let alone the decade, and my mother is easily confused as one of her own seven sisters. An original Southern Belle from South Carolina, Alexine has always been prim and proper but generous, loving, elegant and active. As a nurse in WWII she met and instantly fell in love with my grandfather. They were married in secret almost immediately. To watch such a strong, loving, independent woman unravel, a byproduct of the aging process, has been eye opening and terribly sad. The past few months have been particularly hard on my mother. My grandmother calls her at all hours, confused with how to operate the phone or upset that her clock won't work. My mother's patience is unwavering and her emotional strength is truly amazing. My grandmother has been effectively dying for months now, her body slowly shutting down, and her mind retreating into its own depths. To live to her 90s but to slowly fade away like this. It is heart-wrenching.
But then I got another piece of news this morning. A phone call from a friend revealed that a classmate and good friend of mine died last night due to complications/internal bleeding from a stomach problem. She was 27. Graduating from grad school in May. Engaged. Getting married this September. I'm still a little in shock. Just terrible.
My grandmother in her 90s. My friend in her 20s. One facing death after a full life. One who has died, barely letting her spread her smile and joy very far.
I'm an athlete. I swim/bike/run just about every day. I am scared - truly scared - of the day when I have to stop because my body just can't do it anymore. I'm scared of a day when I might not recognize who I'm with or where I am. I know it frustrates my grandmother. I can see it in her face. She is ashamed when she can't remember a name or place a memory. Like a child who can't remember the right sequence of numbers when counting 1-10 in front of the class. But then there's my friend. She was 27. Quieted too early.
Such opposing forces, such different situations. Both make me sit and cherish the life I have, the life I am living while mourning for both of them. Mourning the life my grandmother can't hold onto, mourning the life that my friend lost.
What a sad and gut wrenching day.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
A Magic Wand

Wow. Now you too can be Harry Potter in your own home (just don't try to ride the broom, please!) with your very own magic wand. They Kymera is everything from a universal TV remote to something that can control the fans in your house - or anything with a sensor - all with the flick of a wrist. For real.
Thrillist notes: The wand uses a tiny silicone chip to measure g-forces and detect even the slightest movement in any direction, letting you assign specific motions to particular functions (adjust volume, change channel, skip track ...), and is all wrapped up in a sleek scepter design, with its own presentation box made from "faux dragonhide", since the real stuff is pretty pricey, and is compoletely imaginary.
ENJOY!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Walk a Mile ... or more.
Setting out in November of 2007, Rehage initially planned to walk from Beijing to his home country of Germany. He didn’t quite reach his goal, but he did walk almost 2,900 miles over varying terrain. He recorded almost daily self-portraits, with diverse locales behind him—the imperial burial grounds in Shaanxi, the Great Mosque of Xi’ian, the ruins of the ancient city of Gaochang—quickly flipping by. The result of a lot of sun and wind shows, as well as the passage of time through beard growth and increasingly wild hair. Cleverly edited to the Kingpins “L’aventurier,” this five-minute-plus clip shows one man’s adventure in a new and very entertaining way."
http://vimeo.com/4636202
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Breaking the Sound Barrier - You can see it!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090630/sc_livescience/whatsupersoniclookslike;_ylt=Au74cVzUh2S.E34KCPFpVpiCfNdF
Basically yo
u can actually SEE the moment the airplane breaks the sound barrier. Pretty amazing and really interesting."The phenomenon is not well studied. Scientists refer to it as a vapor cone, shock collar, or shock egg, and it's thought to be created by what's called a Prandtl-Glauert singularity.
Here's what scientists think happens:
A layer of water droplets gets trapped between two high-pressure surfaces of air. In humid conditions, condensation can gather in the trough between two crests of the sound waves produced by the jet. This effect does not necessarily coincide with the breaking of the sound barrier, although it can."
Enjoy :)Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Bubble Rings
Very cool article and video of dolphins blowing bubbles into a ring and then playing with the rings! Who knew!?!?! These dolphins tip their heads and expel brief bursts of CO2 through their blowholes; internal forces break the bubbles’ centers open to create tightly structured, spinning rings. The dolphins then flip the rings around, poke their noses through them, twirl them into different shapes — they even bite them in half. It’s evidently one of the best shows in Orlando today, and these aquatic impresarios thought it all up on their own. Enjoy!!! :)
Monday, February 23, 2009
http://www.veryshortlist.com/
So, so, sooooooo cute. :)
Happy Monday!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Facebook Funnies
Another great YouTube video. :) About Facebook. Really -very funny. :)
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
More beautiful photos ...
This is just a quick filmstrip of a few winners ...
This is a link to all of the winners, including the children's category.
For the picture you see here, check out the description from the photographer: 'I was in north Sulawesi, Indonesia, and didn't wash my clothes for days so I could pick up the smell of the troop and be accepted as a follower. One day, a curious young adult came and groomed me. That close, I could see every eyelid flicker, every wrinkle. With a wide-angle lens and the knowledge of what a respectful distance was, I got the portrait I wanted.'

HE WAS GROOMED BY THE FREAKING BABOON!!! Amazing. Just amazing.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
More randomness ...
The planter you WANT to get on your next birthday
And of course, a plug for my friends at TuVida - buy local in Baltimore (or just buy from this AWESOME store) http://www.tuvidaonline.com/ - yeah jewelry and announcements and scarves by yours truly! :) (so really this is a plug for myself too I guess... :))
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Also, to the guys who tried to steal my pink bike.
#2 - Broad daylight outside my office. I don't know how you got as far as you did (almost cutting completely through my braided steel "super secure" cable), but thankfully somebody stopped you (then left me a note).
#3 - IT IS A PINK BIKE! STEAL FRAME! HEAVY! BEAT UP! WHY ARE YOU STEALING IT!?!?!
Idiots ...
Nikon Small World Contest
Oi!
Couple things. First of all - love the photos on this website! Wow. Talk about some amazing photography!


http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/gallery.php?grouping=year&year=2008&imagepos=35
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Terribly Confused
2 comments here:
1- Who pulled the prank and got this stuff sent to me?
2 - Is is funny that the first thing that crossed my mind when I opened this were: "Bad cover design for the booklet but the pamphlet has a really nice paper stock!!"??
Yeah. I'm a dork.
BUT if you are curious about Isalm, feel free to visit http://www.islamic-message.net/English/index.htm which is the parent site of C.I.M.S. Corp. in Alexandria, Egypt - the people who posted this lovely packet of materials to me. C.I.M.S.= Conveying Islamic Message Society.
Irony: the book, A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, was ironically printed in Texas in 1997 and even has its own Library of Congress number in front. So this little booklet traveled all the way to Egypt from Texas (don't mess with Texas!) just so it could get put BACK into the mail and get sent to me in the states.
PS I don't know what to do with this stuff as throwing it away would probably just be wrong of me (I always feel guilty throwing religious stuff away, even when it has been handed to me by the most raving of zealous lunitics on the street). So - any takers??!?!?
UPDATE: as of today, 10/30/08, four other people in my office have received the same thing. AND I am also now suddenly subscribed to VOGUE and it is arriving at my office. No, I don't read VOGUE. No, I don't like fashion magazines. And NO I didn't pay for it. I work at a university. Sure - I get free subscriptions to fundraising magazines - but VOGUE? Really? Evidently somebody somewhere is telling me I need to convert and learn to dress better. Obviously the answer to all my problems ... :)
UPDATE #2 (12/19/08): Thank you to all the people who have commented here/emailed me. Turns out people literally around the country - mostly at Universities - are receiving these things. Random! Anybody else?!? Let me know! AND - if anybody comes up how/why these are coming to us - let me know!! :) Happy Holidays!!!
UPDATE #3 (3/11/09): So interestingly enough I found some more answers this week. When I originally got the packet, months ago, I got curious and visited their website (the one listed on the mailing materials), and then sent an email to the listed contact email address on the site. Months and months later and finally - I received a response! The body of the email that was sent to me is copy and pasted below:
Assalaamualaykum wa Rahmatullah wa Barakaatuhu,
First of all we are very sorry for taking this time for reply but a technical problem happened in our email database which make some emails fall from the data and your email was one from them , we are very sorry again
We know that you may surprise in who you get these books , we have a project called ( know Islam ) its just a peace project which we want by it to let the people know the true meaning of Islam as we try to
We are an Islamic society that are tired of the one-sided information about Islam in the media and the ignorance in most societies about Islam. We would like everybody, man and woman, young and old, to take a look themselves and read a book about Islam. We are not out to convert anybody to Islam, we only want people to read for themselves what Islam is about, to clear away all the misunderstanding and misconception there is among so many people about Islam.
You may live in a Christian part of the world, where most people call themselves Christians. But most Christians do not really know their own religion, and wrongly think Islam or Judaism is a very different religion than their own. Not so. We invite you to our books. This will lead you to the true concept of Islam and Muslims, and not least help bridge the gap between those major religions.
We have so many free books for you to read on many subjects. We are sure these books will lead you to greater understanding of Islam and what it means to be a Muslim. Only God can lead a person to faith, we just want to make books available and to reduce the tension and misconceptions about these subjects among non-Muslims.
So make contact or go to our web place to download our books in PDF format, or ask that we send you some books by mail. Please tell us what your primary interest is.
Best Regards
Conveying Islamic Message Society
http://www.islamic-message.net/
Steep and Cheap!!
How can you not love a website that sells outdoor wear for REALLY CHEAP!??!?!? I'm in love. {sigh}
This is an addicting website, so buyer beware. I have to tear myself away from the refresh button, constantly seeing what is on sale next.
YIKES!
:)
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Here comes the Sun!
http://www.veryshortlist.com/science/daily.cfm/review/637/Web_video/brilliant-noise/?vp
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Preacher with 86 wives gets court reprieve
ODDLY ENOUGH from Reuters makes me laugh daily. This is just another such instance.
------------
LAGOS (Reuters) -A Nigerian court has granted temporary reprieve to an 84-year-old Muslim preacher with 86 wives after local leaders threatened to force him to leave the area unless he divorced all but four of them.
Mohammed Bello launched a legal challenge after local chiefs and Muslim leaders in Bida, a town in central Niger state where he lives with his wives and some 170 children, gave him until Sept 7 to comply with Islamic sharia law, which allows a man to have no more than four wives at a time.
The Islamic preacher said in his petition that the threats violated his right to life and personal liberty.
"Leave is hereby granted to the applicant to enforce his fundamental human right to personal liberty, life and to freedom of movement," state news agency NAN quoted Abuja High Court judge G. Kolawole as saying.
The ruling gives Bello temporary protection from banishment while the court decides whether his rights have indeed been violated. The judge adjourned the case to September 18.
Bello has received a number of death threats in the last few weeks after the Nigerian media began reporting on his unusual marital situation, his spokesman said.
Some newspapers said last week that Bello had agreed at a meeting with local officials to divorce all but four of the women and had asked for time to return them to their families.
But his spokesman denied the reports and said the preacher intended to marry more wives instead.
His case has stirred controversy in Africa's most populous nation of 140 million people, roughly half of whom are Muslim. Many Muslim scholars say Islam allows men to have up to four wives at any given time who must be treated equally.
(Writing by Tume Ahemba; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Sami Aboudi)
Out of touch.
That said - I have many posts to catch up on and many links to pass along. In honor of Claire and Emma though, I do want to pass this along as I find it a great way to travel and a wonderful idea. Perhaps I am an idealist, but if we all took some time to talk to people from other countries, did some global networking and even gave people who needed a couch a place to sleep for a night, this world could in fact be a better place.
http://www.couchsurfing.com/
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
One Hundred Push-ups!!!
Want to be able to do 100 pushups at one time? According to this site it is a possibility - and doable in a 6 week time frame.
Anybody want to try it?!? :)