New Hotness

Soooo, Amy got me a Nikon D40 for which to play with. Perfect timing on her part, as I was lamenting my lack of a decent digital camera for our trip to Costa Rica following the wedding. This here's a little shot I took with it yesterday before the blizzard hit.

I've had similar thoughts as Davis on my lack of thought and writing as of late, but I feel that things have been building in my mind for a bit and that I'll be back in the swing of things soon. Most of my free time during the past few months has been devoted to fixing up the house that Amy and I will be living in, and learning the hard way (read as: REAL way) a lot about building and home repair. I've had tools and materials on the mind, to the point of getting trapped in Moscow Building Supply just wandering around and ogling the many manly contraptions and gizmos, as well as getting excited about brackets and handsaws.

All this to say, I'm looking forward to getting back into something of a rhythm of writing and posting. So hold on dear reader, and your wildest blog fantasies will be realized in a wizardly cloud of 1's and 0's. Whillikers.

Can You Put a Price on Security?

This is amazing.

C&L

I'm usually a big fan of the C & L Meat Locker, and man, that smoked salmon we had last night was the best ham I've had in a while.

"But There's More. There's MUCH More!"

So the lovely Amy K. Ballard and I have been engaged for about two months now, and for those of you who haven't heard the story and would like to, here goes:

We'd been looking around at road bikes for Amy ever since she moved up to Idaho in January, usually by stopping by bike shops and taking different styles out for a test ride. Bike shop owners are surprisingly cool with letting you ride out of their store on $5000 worth of equipment with nothing but your driver's license as collateral/evidence.

I'd had the idea of proposing on a bike ride for a while, and had even thought about the one-two punch of surprising her with a bike, going for a ride, and asking the Big One midway through. Not finding any good deals and wanting to have done the deed before we both went to Wisconsin, I opted for the test-ride freebie deal. I suited Amy up in one of my racing kits from UI, she hopped on a Giant OCR-3 from Paradise Creek Bikes, and we took off down the Latah Trail towards Troy.

The ring was tucked into my jersey pocket and I'd hoped to find a nice spot in the wheat fields to stop. We turned off of the trail and headed into farm country 7-8 miles from town. Amy was doing so well, and really enjoying the views along with the challenge. We started climbing a good sized hill that I was a little worried about, but she powered up like it was nothing. A bit longer found us on another hill and Amy mentioned it starting to get pretty hard. I suggested turning around after we got to the top. to which she agreed with a laugh.

At the top, we got off our bikes stretched a bit, and I started getting the Nervous. I repeatedly told her how glad I was that she liked biking, and scratched/rubbed my head. I then told her that I wanted to buy her a bike, which she thought was great. This not being the climax of the afternoon, I threw my hands in the air and said,

"But there's more. There's MUCH more!"

Boom.

Mawage

Idaho

A Change of Seasons

After 5 merry years at the Malebox/Wisconsin House pt. 2, I'm moving on to a little house down the hill. Triple the billz is worth a home that can be clean, quiet, and free of television.

Sooooo, Chris Aberle, Drew Nicholas, and Jordan Smith are looking to fill my spot ASAP here on Polk St. Four bedrooms, wood stove, two living rooms, huge kitchen, and bidet make it a castle among shacks in a college town. Asher is staying in NY through January, and would also appreciate roommates to ease the rent burden on his end. If you or anyone you know of is looking for a place, there are two openings.

New Pictures

Hola, just posted some new shots on flickr from my time in Colorado with AJ. I had the great opportunity to take a group of guys out from Wisconsin on a three day trip in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. It's, you know, scenic...

The Palouse Cup rages on, we're currently 1-1 with two games to go tomorrow.

Vocab

The Book Club, consisting of Nate Wolff, David Hoos, and myself had its first meeting last night. We discussed Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables a bit, and made plans for our next reads, which will probably include some Tobias Wolff short stories, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. Yes, we set out to read some Catholic writers.

Besides the learned words listed below, we talked about the sometimes insultingly obvious tools many classic authors employ in relating themes. For example, much of THOT7G is about generational sin and curses. In order to make sure we hadn't missed it before, Hawthorne goes to great lengths to tell us how a descendent of the cursed ancestor bears an uncanny resemblence to the orginal Pyncheon. This led me to revisit one of my old gripes about middle/high school literature programs that tell kids that the classics are simply too dense and difficult to understand. Oh, and they also were written too long ago to have any bearing on a 17-year-old who drives a Mazda and has an iPod. The fact is, many of the classics function as textbooks on Themes in Writing. Dickens, much to Nate's frustration, will carry you along a nice little theme in his novels, show you bits and peices here and there until you are comfortable and fairly pleased with having gleaned something from the text, then say something like 'And the wooden table was a metaphor for the Clark family.' To which the appropriate, Wolffian response is to bring an open hand to the forhead, hold it briefly, extend the hand and cry "Dude."

Words I've learned:

lugubrious - ridiculously, excessively mournful.

Daguerreotype - an obsolete photographic process, invented in 1839, in which a picture made on a silver surface sensitized with iodine was developed by exposure to mercury vapor.

matutinal - pertaining to or occurring in the morning; early in the day.

escritoire - a writing desk.

obstreperous - noisy and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous.

piquant - agreeably pungent or sharp in taste or flavor; pleasantly biting or tart.

dromedaries - the single-humped camel, Camelus dromedarius, of Arabia and northern Africa.

approbation - official approval or sanction.

effulgence - shining forth brilliantly; radiant.

physiognomy - the outward appearance of anything, taken as offering some insight into its character.

alacrity - cheerful readiness, promptness, or willingness.

testator - a person who has died leaving a valid will.

propinquity -

1.	nearness in place; proximity.

2.	nearness of relation; kinship.

3.	affinity of nature; similarity.

4.	nearness in time.

augury - an omen, token, or indication.


And I'm only halfway through...

Lewis on the Lazy

Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort. But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy boy is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other boy understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes. Laziness means more work in the long run. Or look at it this way. In a battle, or in mountain climbing, there is often one thing which it takes a lot of pluck to do; but it is also, in the long run, the safest thing to do. If you funk it, you will find yourself, hours later, in far worse danger. The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.
It is like that here. The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self - all your wishes and precautions - to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call 'ourselves', to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be 'good'. We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way - centred on money ore pleasure or ambition - and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing by grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown

From Mere Christianity

Return

Back from Estes with pictures to come soon. I ended up not only taking out a backpacking group, but helping the rock climbing guides on their two trips as well. Moody Bible Institute did a little write-up on First Adventure that you can read here.

Check It

I have a lot of foam-core and mat board left over from the Spring Gala. If you have photos or art that you would like matted or mounted onto foam-core (or both), let me know and I'm sure we could arrange something. I haven't had a chance to do much in the way of photo-ing or writing since starting at the TerrorMark, but in exchange I'm now relatively wealthy. So I'd love a few projects to work on.

In other news, I'll be down in Colorado this next week helping my good friend AJ Dudek start his guiding company, First Adventure. A group of guys from a church back in Wisconsin are coming out for a week of climbing, backpacking, and fly-fishing and AJ has asked me to guide the backpacking trip. We'll be tramping about just south of Rocky Mountain National Park in the Indian Peaks Wilderness and Roosevelt National Forest. Hopefully some good pictures to follow.

Hancock: Probably my least favorite Will Smith movie , but hey, that's like describing the least delicious ice cream. It's all tasty.

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

When first the Fox saw the Lion he was terribly frightened, and ran away and hid himself in the wood. Next time however he came near the King of Beasts he stopped at a safe distance and watched him pass by. The third time they came near one another the Fox went straight up to the Lion and passed the time of day with him, asking him how his family were, and when he should have the pleasure of seeing him again; then turning his tail, he parted from the Lion without much ceremony.

Bands and Galas

So I have a few pictures of Jared Dunn's newly renamed band Lafayette up on Flickr, as well as some shots from the Spring Gala. Enjoy.

Mo' Pics

Just got around to scanning some B&W film from the past few months. Adventures in homebrewing, canyoneering, local music, and Mormon wackiness, all captured in two-tone wonder.

Artsy Heartsy

Yes yes, Thee Malebox Spring Gala is set to kick off this Friday at 6:00 with the above schedule of music and readings. We'll be wrapping up music by 10:00, but all day Saturday will be devoted to art showing, with contributions from Paula Gibbs, Vicky Trochez, Austin Storm, Laura Blakey, Mark Beauchamp, Paul Tong, Asher Weinbaum, Yours Truly, Tara Oar, Liz Hall, Caroline Jones, Evan Wilson, Nate and Alexis Stevenson, and Bethany Hoyt.

Hope to see you there, email, post, or call with any questions. If you're reading this and have a site of your own, perhaps you'll mention it?

Rock

Bon Voyage, Von Submarine will once again delight your senses this Saturday at Thee Gallery on Washington, across from City Hall. Also enjoy the alt-country sounds of Whitebird Canyon, the frantic folk of Paul Tong and the Anymore, the electro-stylings of "Josh" (Stevenson), and a possible appearance by Mike Siemens. Show starts at 7:30 and will be $3 or donation.

More Nonsense That I Find Hilarious

For their families of diseaseful brats. They had fierce in
disposition, unlovable, and impervious given unto him by
the celestials. Dhananjaya seated i make no answer in fingersigns,
as needs must disappeared into conjugal obscurity, but ayesha's
had bristled up to prevent them from retracing all very
charming to behold. Artificial woods enthusiasm into imaginative
fact, has woven a david kirke was much dissatisfied with
the agreement, host, terrible to behold, the kaurava marched
hostess. The play was given, he said hoarsely, coffin was
clumsily covered with too short a pall, girl betsey sits
between him and her father. That yudhishthira, having listened
to this excellent near the presence of the king? Mel. I
did. Cal..

People Who Look Like Their Names

1. Wilford Brimley

Under Blackpool Lights

If you're a fan at all of the White Stripes, I highly recommend the "Under Blackpool Lights" concert DVD. It was recorded around the Elephant era and they rock through 26 songs from all three albums they'd released at the time plus a few covers.

Jack White can shred that toy guitar.

Utah

Another great trip to the canyons of Utah. Pictures to follow.

Live

Maybe we could change our name to The Facelesses...

It is a Yoke

I have been getting the most hilarious spam emails, promising me all sorts of, you know improvements... Ahem. But the really funny part is the engrish-like quality of the writing, which shows up not only in the description of the product ("You will be a giant of Bad!"), but in small stories(?) included in the email. I give you example:

Like an enthusiast in his profession and john, failure. You
served me well enough, but you were going without my preparing
you with explanations lawrence succeeded in leading ashore
a body of 'you went to the shed, then? How did you get the
glory be! She exclaimed. Leaning over the rail, have come
with a keen desire to get back to the (fig. 44), which retired
many centuries ago towards on the last syllable. Ta coot
peoples up in ta like, and couldn't make nothing of him
but the sons and poirot said, you mean, i take it, that
aloud for help. Malcolm was already at the north transcripts
of the french 'archives des colonies,' and i don't want
to play with ellie and essie, did happen. She was nearly
frantic. What was she.

Introducing...

Our first show is tonight...

I was searching through all of my old photos and came across some gems. Mormons dancing at the African Children's Choir, my old stickered Telecaster, an amazing sign in Wisconsin, my first car, the world's largest Indian in Michigan, and pole vaulting in high school.

A Charred Aorta

NYC - After years of strife between acid-reflux sufferers and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, a breakthrough early this week may have settled an age-old dispute. Rolaids in fact does not spell relief, alphabetically or otherwise.

The lab results came in from the Bureau of Intestinal Affairs late Sunday night.

"We'd always thought there was something fishy about...that product" said Dr. David Crosby, whose research led to the breakthrough discovery on the medical end. "But hell, who am I to say what spells relief? I'm a doctor, not a...a word guy. We just know that it don't work."

Andrew Heuser, a self-proclaimed wordsmith, had heard about the struggle and offered his linguistic talents to the support of these belching brethren and the confused medical field.

"I didn't have any trouble with the product personally, but when I heard all these complaints from people, I started looking into it. I don't want to say that what I found necessarily won the argument, but when I came into that meeting with my findings I could sense a feeling of...of... despair in those corporate monkeys."

Heuser, whose tireless efforts have won him world-wide recognition in the field of Idle Academia, is credited with the first documented proof that no matter how you slice it, "relief" can't be spelled from Rolaids.

Some staunch supporters of the archaic claim began a rally outside the BIA, wearing shirts promoting the popular antacid and touting signs reading "Relief is a State of Mind," but disbanded shortly after a lunch catered by El Sombrero amongst a whisper of tearing foil and chalky crunching sounds. No comments were offered for the group's departure.

Zie Germans

I think that this is hilarious.

Moscow Mountain

More fun with Gimp, I took five shots here at the end of Orchard Street and stitched them together, adjusted the contrast and saturation, and gimped out a few branches and stitch lines with the oh-so-handy clone tool. The slight fish-eye effect seems to come with the territory of stitching.

Tonight...

As Long as it's the Goodest...

The Slow Descent

1. The Dress T-Shirt - These are the shirts that are unblemished and fit appropriately, usually with that soft feel you can only get with that 15 year-old blend of cotton and polyester. If they do have irregularities, they add to the overall charm and hipness, as I see it. Often used as an undershirt; in the off-chance that the outer layer must be removed, fashion will remain.

2. The Work T-Shirt - Shirts that have suffered a permanently disfiguring moment, or were never really that dear to my heart, but that I still find cool enough to wear outside of my home. This group is rife with the once awesome ringer-t.

3. The Only Wear to Sleep T-Shirt - A few have made it to this category after starting as a Dress-T, but usually these shirts are the ones that had that neckhole that was just a bit too large, the sleeves that kinda poofed out and further humiliated my poor arms, or just didn't have a humorous/retro enough design.

4. The Now You're a Rag Cleaning My Bike Chain Shirt - Avalon for t-shirts. They never die here, but are instead put to a final, never-ending task. The lucky ones enter this blissful state immediately following an arm or head being put through a hole that didn't exist at the shirt's birth.

If You're Into That Sort of Thing....

There are a pair of wing-tipped Beatle-boots at the Goodwill that are just a hair too small for me. My guess is about a 9.5, for $14.99. And they're in the normal spot where all the great men's shoes are found: the women's shoe section. Also, if you're the tiniest man/boy in town, there are some amazing Levi's "Sta-Prest" slacks that sport faux-corduroy and perma-creases and a 28-inch waist. I couldn't quite pull them off and not feel like an indie metro. But hey, if you can rock em or like dressing like a girl, hit it.


For myself, a new translation of Anna Karenina for .99 and a pat on the back for my most heavily hyphenated post to date.

Scuttling Tick

What the deuce is this?

Racism Revealed

We kicked off Black History Month with a viewing of Song of the South last night. I think that now I understand where all the controversy over racism in the movie came from, and I must say, I am a bit offended. I mean, didn't Disney know that they could be stigmatizing an entire race of people for generations to come? Sure, we crackers may have worn knickers and lace collars in the past, but now we've got it together, man. It's not fair to judge us by our lameness back then. SotS unfairly portrays white people as spoiled, obnoxious brats with little to no sense of style, and I have to overcome that obstacle every day I stand in front of the mirror before leaving home. Sometimes all I can see is a privileged, unhip sucka, and it's almost too much to bear...

Also, found this satire of Song of the South on the Wiki called Coonskin. Looks crazy.

Repelled

Asher, Amy and I were soundly beaten back from Stanley hot springs yesterday by waist deep snow about a mile from the prize. After today's additional foot, I can't imagine getting in there until March, even with snowshoes. I sank to my chest with them on at one point, then decided to throw in the towel. Sigh.

Record snows I hear, the most in Moscow since 1996. I love a real winter.

From All Over

I've scanned some more film. These are from the Austin wedding, College Station, home in Wisconsin over break, a few leftovers from Eagle Cap and Moscow, and two from our road trip between Texas and Idaho. The black and white wedding photos were shot with Kodak TMax 400, and the others in Fuji NeoPan 1600. The bus and Eagle Cap were Fuji 100.

Hardy Har

I heard one of the best expressions of disgust with Christ Church today:

"They're just so...inclusive."

We Dare to Disagree

After much thought and discussion with Amy, I can safely say that The Golden Compass was the worst movie I saw in 2007. My interest in and opinion of this movie enjoyed quite the roller coaster ride, which ended up being far more enjoyable than sitting through the movie itself. I began with a low opinion when I first saw the gigantic banner at the Village Centre Cinemas this fall, and thought “Lame. More child-oriented fantasy schlock that somehow looks even cheaper and more derivative than the Harry Potters. And somehow Daniel Craig got roped in.”

A few weeks later I read an article on the books and coming movie in the Atlantic which stressed the anti-Christian vibe of the books, and the Hollywood diluting of said vibe. While the article was somewhat interesting, I still haven’t finished it and Pullman’s whiny complaints that his books haven’t caused as much controversy as Harry Potter stirred up, did little to entice me into the theater.

And then I read Joshua’s thoughts. While I don’t usually notice the same things he does in films, the overwhelmingly positive (and interesting) review was too much to resist. Amy and I saw it in Texas over the break, and we have yet to think of one good thing about it, with the possible exception of Kate Bush’s hilarious song over the credits (Lyraaaa, Lyraaaaaaaaa…..and her face….full of grace).

First off, Lyra’s character was embarrassingly unsympathetic for me. I just can’t handle the “sassy and defiant child hero/ine,” who always knows what’s best beyond her years, and is constantly flying in the face of authority to “teach them a lesson.” I don’t know if it’s the sheer annoyance of kids who are actually like that, but think that their rebellion against doing chores is a worthy cause, or the fact that bratty know-it-all kids being heroes is tired news in movies. Meh.

Josh’s review noted a number of ways that the movie inadvertently glorified Christian principles, which sounded like an interesting nugget lodged in an attempt to humiliate Christianity. I went into it knowing that I probably wouldn’t feel as strongly about these moments, but was prepared to look for them. When the credits rolled however I found myself not only lacking the conviction of themes seen, but flat out disagreeing with a few, specifically the line that, “all human beings are composed of dust and when humans die, they become dust again.” It was during the witch attack scene (?) that I realized that the human bodies were dying and lying cold, while the animal-soul vaporized into dust. To me, that spoke more of a direct connection between a man’s body dying and his soul vanishing into nothingness.

While we’re on the subject of witch attacks, it was moments like that that really ruined the movie for me. I really wouldn’t have minded if Jesus wasn’t jumping out of every character and situation if they had at least put together a show that didn’t feel like Eragon, that is, written by a 13-year old. Why did witches have to appear? Well, to defeat the crazy-ass Icelandic army that similarly came out of nowhere. And even if these leaps in the story remained, aesthetically the movie was one of the hardest for me to sit through. I thought the CGI was absolutely wretched compared to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. As with Narnia, I felt that the CGI just looked awful in lots of light. Peter Jackson’s films came off almost spotless because of the gloom and, of course, the forgotten arts of costume, makeup, and camera angles instead of CGI.

CDs Acquired in the Last Few Months

The Lonely H - Hair
Apollo Sunshine - s/t
Fruitbats - Spelled in Bones
Beulah - The Coast is Never Clear
Muse - Absolution
Albert Hammond Jr. - Yours to Keep
The Apples in Stereo - Discovery of a World Inside the Moone
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
The Stills - Without Feathers

Goodness

Wha?

Well Will, I suppose after so many years of being the Fresh Prince something like this was to be expected. And I'll probably watch it.

Rad Pictures of the Packer Game

This looked like the game to be at.

Beeeeeyoouuuu

While I maintain that I Am Legend was great, I have been thinking a bit on one of it's flaws/shortcomings/whathaveyous:

Computer Generated Imagery - CGI use nowadays in film might be likened to the use of synth in 80's music. "Why use a guitar/drum kit/human voice? We can just hit this key!" It seems that the excitement at the possibilities of electronic elements proved too great a temptation for most. There have been countless times I've heard a great 80's song covered by some guy and his guitar that sounds way better than the soulless, bleeping original. I'm all about electronic beeps and hums thrown in to augment a great rock song, or electronically based music (sometimes) but the problem seemed to be the forcing of a perfectly good rock song through a Casio mold.

Likewise with CGI in movies, there's definitely a way to use it that doesn't feel like an obnoxious keyboard solo, which is sometimes what the special effects in Legend felt like. Could they really not find someone to lie on a table with makeup on and breath quickly? Or someone else, again with makeup, to run out of a dark doorway and frown at Will Smith? Why did it ALL have to be CGI? I'm actually surprised that Sam the dog was real. Sure, there were a few times that the Darkseekers were pulling some crazy shiz that necessitated some computer help, but it should have been by far the exception. This is one of the areas that The Lord of the Rings excelled in. Wherever possible characters were living, breathing, often slime-excreting characters. CGI was used to create vast numbers of them, or to render a creature that probably couldn't be physically created realistically enough to blend with the film. Legend, with a youthful Tom Cruise, is another example of what costuming can pull off, and that movie was made in 1985.

I think that much like we look back on 80's music and laugh (or I do anyway) at the excessive use of electronics, we'll look back at movies of this time and chuckle at the excess of CGI. And not because the effects will look out of date or "old," just like we don't listen to an 80's hit and think "Man that fake trumpet sounds sooo fake, we could totally make a fake trumpet sound way better now." Thankfully we came out of the era of replacing instruments with synths and returned to using a snare drum where a snare drum would sound good.

So, like Mr. Gibbs, I'm kinda looking forward to more guys in rubber suits in the cinematic future.