(Wednesday) I was waiting at the doctor’s office yesterday when someone came in with a cute mid-size dog in tow. What breed of dog is he? I asked. I couldn’t make out what the man was saying, but did not want to ask again. And at home my on-line searches for dog breeds called cay-son or kashun produced nothing.
(Today, Thursday) I find myself in another office building and purely by coincidence there is a dog book on the coffee table. Alright! Let me see if I can spot the dog I saw yesterday, I thought. And there it was : a keeshond. What threw me completely off the scent was the Dutch pronunciation of ‘kayz-hond’. In my native Afrikaans we say ‘keeshond’ as in ‘leery’.
The keeshond is a very cute dog.Read over my shoulder to learn more of the keeshond.
From Up On Poppy Hill is set in Japan in the 1960s. The film was released only recently in the USA; it premiered on July 16, 2011 in Japan.
This poster for a new animated movie From Up On Poppy Hill is from a lamp post here on 15th Ave in Capitol Hill. Hmm, I thought, those little faces look awfully like those of the characters in the animated series Heidi* that we had in South Africa in the 70s, I thought. Sure enough, this is a ‘Goro Miyazaki’ film .. and he is the son of Hayao Miyazaki that produced the original Heidi series. The elder Miyazaki is one of Japan’s greatest animation directors.
*At the time, one of my colleagues at work told us that his daughter started crying when one of the Heidi episodes started on the TV. Why are you sad when Heidi is so happy? he asked her. Well, she knew that episode would soon end, and then she would have to wait a whole long week for the next one. Aww.
I’m happy that April 1 has come and gone, so that all the technical tomfoolery is now out of the way. Google released an April Fools video announcing ‘Google Blue’, a version of Google Mail that has been ‘years in the works’ (but it turns out all it does is be blue). Some commentators point out they are probably poking fun at a version of Windows 8 called Windows Blue that’s slated for release later this year. Google also offered a ‘Treasure’ mode of their maps and its new odor service called ‘Google Nose Beta’, with which you could search for odors or smells which would appear through your computer so that you could smell it. On Sunday, Twitter announced it will no longer allow the use of vowels in tweets, and that users will have to buy them. (Not true). Check out Joan Rivers’ creative response below.
Sunday was another blue sky day here on Easter weekend, and I felt compelled to get out of the house on Sunday afternoon. I walked down to the Japanese Garden and the Arboretum to check out the blossoms on the trees.
Mono no aware is a Japanese phrase associated with cherry blossoms. It literally means ‘the pathos of things’, or could also be translated as ‘an empathy toward things’ or ‘a sensitivity to ephemera’ (source: Wikipedia). So it is a term for the awareness of the impermanance or the transience of things, and a gentle sadness or wistfulness at their passing.
The Japanese Garden that is located here in Seattle’s Arboretum on Sunday. There is a cherry tree on the left of the pond .... with these blossoms on. The tree is a propagation from the Mt Fuji cherry tree planted by Japanese Crown Prince Akihito* in 1960, to celebrate the friendship between Japan and Seattle. *Since 1989 he has been the reigning Emperor of Japan.This is the foot path across from the Japanese Garden, leading into the rest of the Washington Park Arboretum. I really don’t know what kind of trees those are with the spectacular white blossoms!
Happy Easter! Yes, I know that 1. the Easter bunny is a very secular symbol for Easter, and 2. that I should not buy m&m candies to play with, because I will end up eating them all .. but hey, we all need a little fun and color in our lives, do we not?
See, I found the dark Lindt chocolate bunny after all, the one with the brown ribbon. (Previously I only had the milk chocolate one with the red ribbon).
Map of the area on Whidbey Island where there was a massive landslide [Graphic by Mark Nowlin, for the Seattle Times]
Early on Wednesday morning, a 1000-foot-wide section of the hillside on the west side of central Whidbey Island here in the greater Seattle area fell off into Admiralty Bay. Check out the link below from the Seattle Times for a full report and an amazing split-screen before-and-after picture. Only one house was completely destroyed, with thankfully no injuries or loss of life – but 17 others have been evacuated .. and of course there is concern now about the stability of the whole area immediately around the slide site as well.
Also from the Seattle Times, an aerial view of the landslide. It looks like the ‘end of the world’ said one news reporter on the ground there, looking out toward the newly created ‘cliff’.
A same-sex marriage marriage certificate issued in San Francisco [Source : Wikipedia].This is my little ‘meme’ that I made for Marriage Equality from a toy figure I have in my kitchen. The policeman says ‘Don’t Drink and Drive! and ‘Marriage Equality!’ (The gay-rights organization Human Rights Campaign issued the red-and-pink version of their normally yellow on blue equal sign logo, and people took to Facebook and Twitter and posted hundreds of personalized versions of it).
Sketch of Justice Ginsberg that appeared on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC.
Tuesday and Wednesday this week was a Supreme Court Superbowl of sorts with high-profile lawyers going before the highest court in the United States to makes their cases for and against ‘Prop 8’ (Tuesday) and DOMA (Wednesday). Prop 8 is short-hand for California’s Proposition 8 from the 2008 state elections there, that was approved and eliminated the rights of same-sex couples to marry there, leaving some 4,000 marriages already performed in legal limbo. However, Prop 8 was ruled unconstitutional by a US District court judge. The Supreme Court agreed to hear it. DOMA stands for the 1996 US Congress’s Defense of Marriage Act, stipulating that the federal government is not allowed by law, to recognize same-sex marriages from the States. There are about 1,100 benefits and privileges that come with marriage, so this is not a trivial matter if you are a gay person with a partner you want to marry or are married to already, under your State laws. (Some states allow ‘civil unions’ or domestic partnerships. Most others have explicitly banned it. Go west young man! or young woman, as that classic YMCA song says). So .. how to sort all of this out? ‘When did same-sex marriages become ‘unconstitutional’? asked conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, expressing his sceptisicm. But here is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg at a later point .. my answer would have been, Mr. Clement, (the lawyer arguing for upholding the Defense of Marriage Act), if we are totally for the States’ decision that there is a marriage between two people, for the federal government then to come in to say no joint return, no marital deduction, no Social Security benefits; your spouse is very sick but you can’t get leave; people—if that set of attributes, one might well ask, What kind of marriage is this?” Then Justice Ginsburg answered her own question. Under DOMA there were “two kinds of marriage; the full marriage, and then this sort of skim-milk marriage.” The Supreme Court should issue their ruling on both cases by June. Most legal pundits that hazard a guess at each of the outcomes say that first, for Prop 8, it sounds as if they will simply say that they are not going to issue a ruling. (It’s complicated and there are issues of ‘standing’ .. since the California Attorney General and Governor both declined to defend Prop 8, could the proponents of Prop 8 defend it in front of the Supreme court?). So if the Supreme Court does not issue a ruling, then the overturn of Prop 8 stands and same-sex marriages are good to be recognized (again) in California. As for DOMA, it appears that a majority of the nine Supreme Court judges will rule it unconstitutional .. or at least rule that the Federal government has to recognize all marriages sanctioned by the States. That would still leave same-sex couples in those States that currently ban same-sex marriage worse off, but hopefully those bans will also be overturned in time. The wheels of justice turn slowly.
This chart showing the 9 pink states where same-sex marriage is legal, is from http://statesthatallowgaymarriage.com/
A brilliant yellow daffodil (Narcissus) in a yard a few blocks from my house.
Daffodils are popular here in my neighborhood, and most are in full spring bloom right now. The bulb flower’s is derived from an earlier name ‘affodell’ and the probable source of the d in the front is the Dutch article ‘de’. So ‘de affodell’ became daffodil. Legend also has it that the plant sprang from the site where Narcissus became so obsessed with his own reflection as he knelt and gazed into a pool of water, that he fell in and drowned. That is where the genus name of Narcissus for the plant, comes from.
I couldn’t resist buying the Sunday Wall Street Journal when I saw this elephant picture in the ‘Review’ section. It is an Indian elephant : the African ones don’t have the speckled skins. The article makes the point that experiments designed to test animals’ thinking should keep their physiology in mind. Chimpanzees will readily use sticks as tools to reach food. Elephants do not, but are not dumb, since holding the stick with its trunk closes its ‘nose’; and it cannot smell the food that way. But they will go find crates from far away to step on, to reach food that was placed out of reach. The article also mentions that animals can be extremely keen observers of human body language – as was the case of Kluger (Clever) Hans the German horse of a century ago, that ‘could do math’. An audience would say ‘3 + 4!’ and Hans would tap seven times with his hoof. The secret was that he watched his owner very closely for a signal that the correct answer was reached.
Mr Elephant looks very pensive, somewhat sad? Picture from the review section of Sunday’s Wall Street Journal.
I made my way to Seattle’s downtown late afternoon to enjoy some of the weekend’s sunny weather in the Pike Place Market area. First Ave not far from there was closed for traffic, and filled with people at the Seattle Art Museum. They were there for the unveiling of ‘The Mirror’, a new kaleidoscopic LED panel for the Seattle Art Museum’s sign. The panel was created by artist Doug Aitken. Mayor McGinn spoke a few words, and then the sign was switched on. There is some fancy electronics behind the display that picks up signals from the traffic and the weather and more, and then the system selects displays from a library of images. Very nice, but I have to note that by today’s standards for outdoor LED panels, and by what I’ve seen in China : that panel is not very large! I suspect the space that was available on the side of the building was limited, that’s all.
The street in front of the Seattle Art Museum’s entrance was filled with people this afternoon.Here’s the new mirror sign ‘S A M’ for Seattle Art Museum sign, with bits of it containing parts of the changing LED picture behind it. The LED strips on the side of the building are also lit up and dimmed in line with the main image at the front.All of the items that follow are on display and for sale in the SAM’s store. This beautiful and colorful wire basket from South Africa goes for $150.This very creative Salad Tree is from the Netherlands. The salad utensils stand upright on their own on the table.Salt and pepper shakers from a New York artist .. I did not write down her name. Go easy on the salt! says a new report that says (again) that we all consume way too much salt.This is a ‘colonial’ figure carved out of wood from Nigeria or the Ivory Coast. I love this one, but I have eight of these ‘colonials’ already in my house that I bought in South Africa over the years, so I’m not ‘allowed’ to buy any more.An inverted Martini glass for you? Impossible to knock over if it is the 3rd or 4th martini !Here’s the ‘solar’ Queen of England. Put her in the sun and the solar cell will make her wave her hand in her trademark, royal manner (which is to say she wiggles it).And how about a solar corgi? Yes – cannot have the Queen and NO CORGIS!. I’m not sure where the name Elroy comes from, though. Wikipedia says in 2007 the corgis were named Monty, Emma, Linnet, Willow and Holly. Monty died last year, though.
The Hobbit is out on Blu-ray and I got to see it last night. It makes a fine prequel to the Lord of the Rings movies, with out-of-this world characters (of course : they’re from Middle Earth), and some wild battle scenes with the Orcs. The ‘unexpected journey’ takes a lot of twists and turns. Some of the turns take a little too long, though. The total movie time comes to 170 minutes. As for the characters, I liked the ogres around the fire, and afterwards I looked up the name of the foul, uncouth and bloated ‘king’ villain in the mountain (I have not read The Hobbit and I am not familiar with the Middle Earth characters at all! ). It turns out he is named Gorkin the Goblin King. I was shocked to learn the character is played by none other than -ready for this?- the Australian actor behind the outrageous stage show character ‘Dame Edna’, Barry Humphries (a sprightly 77).
*In March 2012, Humphries announced Dame Edna’s retirement from show business.
Gorkin the Goblin King leans in close to make a point with the dwarfs in The Hobbit. I am sure when he does that, he invades one’s personal space in a very big way!Here is a picture of Barry Humphries portraying ‘Dame Edna’ with her trade-mark lilac hair and bejeweled spectacles.
(Even though we do not have a whole lot of dust in Seattle and secondly, I do not mean to say I am unsympathetic to the cute B&O Espresso building’s demise). The B&O Espresso building is making place for a new 6-story mixed-use building after a 37-year run at the corner of Belmont and Olive here in Capitol Hill. The dessert cafe’s owners Majed and Jane Lukatah has relocated to Ballard for now, but intends to open up shop again at this same place in 2014. Was the building historic, and should it have been preserved? I am not sure. I just trust the new building that will take its place will fit in with its surroundings – and will have some architectural character to show, even if it is brand new.
Here’s what the B&O espresso building used to look like .. photo from the blog at http://www.hanamichiflowerpath.comAnd here is what is going on there right now .. it sure did not take long to tear down all of the construction ! Look for the locomotive sign on the fence – indicating that all is not completely lost for the B&O Espresso, that it will come back in the new building, I assume?
What is special about Ushuaia? Well, it’s the world’s southern-most city (pop. 56,956 from its 2010 census). It is situated at the south coast of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago (‘the Land of Fire’) in Argentina. Also, a very good friend of mine – in a party of five – is there this week and next, to check out the spectacular scenery and to do a hiking trip in the mountains close by. Summer is at an end in the southern hemisphere, but since it’s so far south, the temperatures are only in the 50s ºF (11ºC).
From Ushuaia, there is a tourist boat to The ‘Lighthouse at the End of the World’ some 5 nautical miles east of Ushaia. The lighthouse has been there since 1920.
Ushuaia is situated at the south coast of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago (‘the Land of Fire’) in Argentina. The city’s motto is ‘At the end of the world, the beginning of everything’.Have you tried walking around in other place with Google? Zoom in on a Google Map and then fly in to a spot with your virtual self and drop in and walk around by manoevering your mouse pointer. Ushuaia’s Virtual Tour is limited to pictures of the scenery scattered around the city and its harbor, but still good enough to ‘look around’ with.This might be the tourist boat that go out to the Lighthouse at the End of the World.
Tuesday was the last day of winter -but there’s more snow out east in the Unites States and a rain storm for us here in the Pacific Northwest. Good Morning America’s dramatic weather map makes it look a lot worse than it actually is here in the city of Seattle (this is Wednesday as I write this). The Olympic Peninsula with its mountain makes somewhat of a rain shadow for us here in the city.
The link below is to one of many articles doing the rounds on-line, commenting on the 10-year anniversary this week of the USA’s invasion of Iraq. Sure : there are neo-conservatives saying the Iraq-Afghanistan wars should not have been ended. There is a documentary out this week by public broadcaster PBS about Pres. Bush’s Vice President Dick Cheney in which he stands by his views with no apology whatsoever. He still believes a president should have virtually unlimited wartime power. I am a pacifist. Like someone said, wars do not determine what is right; they just determine what is left.
From the article : Ten years after the first American bombs fell on Baghdad, the United States is still paying the costs for the invasion of Iraq — monetarily, strategically, psychologically and morally. The decision to launch the war is sure to be re-debated ad nauseum over the coming days, but the simple reality is that the United States …
Happy St Patrick’s Day to everyone! I have ancestors from Wales, but as far as I know none from Ireland – but we’re all Irish on St Patrick’s Day, is that not right?
This enormous green beer balloon with a three-leaf clover* adorns the Harp Lager (Irish beer) display in the grocery store here by me. Three or four leaf clovers? Well, it’s usually three. The four leaf variety occurs only in 1 in 10,000 little clovers. Four-leaf clovers were Celtic charms, presumed to offer magical protection and ward off bad luck.
Here’s a friendly-feisty Bruce Lee figure that I was tempted to buy, but didn’t.
I really, really need to replace my circa 2008 desktop computer from Dell and ran out to Fry’s electronic store on Saturday just to check out the merchandise, and see if there are any boxes on display I should also consider. And then all the other options, like go with Apple or Microsoft? (Microsoft. I think I have enough Apple devices with my iPad and iPhone and besides, I want to check out Windows 8). Replace the 21″ flat panel screen with a touch screen? I’m not sure about that for a desktop. Will I really reach out and touch the screen in between typing and using the mouse? I think I will replace the box first, and hang with my dumb screen for a while longer.
One of the computer screen wall paper options for Windows 8 computers : a combination of Space Needle, Mount Rainier and .. what’s that? a sun? a double sun, reflecting off of the hill top? We have to hang in there in Seattle to get more than a few days of continuous sun here .. it’s not yet time for that.
I mentioned the internet meme ‘longcat’ in a previous post. Now there’s grumpy cat. Grumpy Cat lives in Arizona and she has her own Facebook page (of course). The kittty was even flown to the South by Southwest® (SXSW®) conference/ festival in Austin Texas* this week to make an appearance there.
*Running this year from Mar 8-17 it is an annual festival of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. Twitter took the show by storm as a start-up in 2007, and Foursquare did the same in 2009. (Foursquare lets social media users ‘check in’ at places such as restaurants and recommend then to friends. But lately there has been no big buzz start-ups emerging from SXSW.
Thursday 3.14 has now come and gone (it’s Friday morning here in the USA), but I was reminded yesterday that it was ‘Pi(e) Day’ : the 25th Annual Pi Day, actually. Pi Day celebrates the curious mathematical constant that says no matter how small or how large a circle is, its circumference is 3.14* times its diameter. There is even a geeky website for Pi day, at http://www.piday.org. They have a cute t-shirt picture on there that shows 3.14 can be made to read ‘pie’ when looked at in the mirror. There is also a page that shows pi to a million decimal places.
*3.14 is just the approximate value. The constant is an irrational number which means it has an infinite amount of decimal places with no pattern.
T-shirt picture from http://www.piday.org that shows ‘3.14’ can be made to read ‘pie’ when looked at in the mirror. I want one!
A classic useless machine featured in Wednesday’s edition of Wall Street Journal. You turn it ‘on’, and the ‘machine’ opens up and turns itself off.
No, it’s not that printer on your desk that has stopped working. This type of machine is specifically designed to have ‘no use’. It seems to me that a classic version of a useless machine is the one featured in Wednesday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal. The original one was invented in the 1950s by artificial-intelligence expert Marvin Minsky at Bell Laboratories, no less. Check out a video of the machine in action at the website Frivolous Engineering at http://frivolousengineering.com/ .
P.S. If the machine provides its owner with titillation, I would argue it is not a useless machine!
Tuesday was the last day of winter -but there’s more snow out east in the Unites States and a rain storm for us here in the Pacific Northwest. Good Morning America’s dramatic weather map makes it look a lot worse than it actually is here in the city of Seattle (this is Wednesday as I write this). The Olympic Peninsula with its mountain makes somewhat of a rain shadow for us here in the city.
