Photos
09.21.2003/20:24
Click here for photo
Mountains and Range
Gunnison National Forest, Colorado.

News
09.21.2003/12:20
Lunar power
Harvesting the benefit of the moon, via the sea.

Sites
09.20.2003/19:22
Last meals
Not for the faint of heart (or stomach): final meals of prisoners on death row. What would you ask for?

News
09.20.2003/19:16
Sportsmanship
Because this happened, you may have missed this.

Drivel
09.20.2003/11:45
Fumble!
I had a dream that our friend Jon had come over, with a new kitten. This was a spunky, playful kitten and Jon and I pretended to be passing it back and forth as a football, adding to the merriment by "dropping" it now and then and grabbing for it, yelling "Fumble!" while it scrambled around at our fingertips. Then, in the dream, Jon said, "You know, Fumble would make a pretty good name for a cat." Now, awake and out of the dream, I agree with him.

News
09.20.2003/11:43
Big one
Big rodent.

Photos
09.19.2003/10:52
Click here for photo
Devil’s highway
For reasons detailed here, U.S Hwy. 666 in northwestern New Mexico was renumberd, and the road no longer has the devil's number 666. Do you feel better?

Photos
09.19.2003/10:51
Click here for photo
Three Dumpsters
Mesilla, NM.

News
09.19.2003/10:28
Ancient cities
" The findings show the Amazon was not, as was once thought, all an untouched wilderness before Columbus came to the Americas."

Sites
09.19.2003/10:22
Bite me
Lots of info on venonmous critters.

Photos
09.18.2003/11:37
Click here for photo
Very Large Array
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array in the high desert of New Mexico.

Photos
09.18.2003/11:35
Click here for photo
Bird tracks
Bird tracks at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socoroos, NM.

Photos
09.18.2003/11:34
Click here for photo
American Avocet
American Avocet at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, NM.

Photos
09.18.2003/11:32
Click here for photo
Roadrunner
Greater roadrunner sunbathes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

Drivel
09.18.2003/11:11
Lightning Field
We spent Tuesday night at Lightning Field in the New Mexican high desert. Much information of the organization's web site, so I won't detail it here.

We did not see any lightning strike the poles (few visitors actually do), but the experience was so fulfilling that I would almost suggest that they change the name so that the more literal-minded will not be disappointed if there aren't lightning strikes as they watch.

The land art medium has so few extant pieces of work, it is necessarily the case that any one piece is as much about the medium as the particular work, i.e., you are filled with a sense of wonder that anyone could execute such a project at all, aside from the question of how this particular work expresses its artist's intentions.

My favorite moment was wandering around in the field in the pre-moonrise darkness, lit by the Milky Way, and being able to see a pole only when closing to within 10 feet or so of it.

Being in a tiny cabin with a few other people in an isolated place with no city lights around is in itself a nice experience (we made friends with a delightful couple on their way back to live in Thailand), and the artwork only adds to it.

One of the more interesting facts for me about Lightning Field is that in the 20th century, such a work might be constructed without a strong drive for astronomical references in the citing of the pieces. I'm not sure this has been done in previous centuries. But we lay out and watched shooting stars, the Milky Way, and passing satellites... so we did get plenty of astronomy in the mix!

Sites
09.17.2003/21:33
Red classics
Old Russian radios.

News
09.17.2003/21:27
Get out of town
Reasonably fresh take on hurricane evacuation photo.

Drivel
09.16.2003/09:49
Wide open spaces
On Sunday, Susan and I toured the artworks of Donald Judd and others at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX. The installations themselves are interesting, of course, but it is difficult to not move on to pondering the way that the open spaces of west Texas are not merely a setting but in fact an essential point of the exercise. The sculptures and inatallations are often found in huge buildings abandoned by the military or agricultural industry, and it's difficult to not muse over the difference in real estate values in, say, the Soho that Judd was fleeing when he turned his interest to Marfa, and the west Texas where he bought up building after building and eventually an old military base.

In west Texas, there's not much money, not much bustle, and even, despite the delicious new bookstore that sits incongruently in downtown Marfa, not much in the way of culture; but there's plenty of space.

News
09.16.2003/08:58
Indiana casino
"LJB Gaming Associates uses Bird's initials in its name, but an attorney for the group says the basketball Hall of Famer does not plan to accept profits if the casino effort is successful."

Sites
09.16.2003/08:55
Devilish proposition
Sell your soul online!

Photos
09.15.2003/11:21
Click here for photo
Salt Basin
Salt basin east of El Paso, TX.

Photos
09.15.2003/11:16
Click here for photo
Artistic Dishwashers
Three dish washers in the large kitchen at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX. The foundation was formed by sculptor Donald Judd and has many of his works, which seemingly inspire even the arrangement of the appliances.

Photos
09.15.2003/11:11
Click here for photo
Donald Judd
Donald Judd's 100 untitled works in milled aluminum, at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX.

Photos
09.15.2003/11:00
Click here for photo
Guadalupe Lizard
Guadalupe National Park, west Texas.

Photos
09.15.2003/10:56
Click here for photo
Milwaukee Rain
Downtown Milwaukee, WI.

Photos
09.15.2003/10:52
Click here for photo
Ars Longa
Broadway Theatre Center, Milwaukee, WI.

Photos
09.15.2003/10:46
Click here for photo
Trompe L’Oeil
Composer Julie Brandenburg shares music with a seminar group using her iBook, at the Broadway Theatre Center in Milwaukee, WI.

Photos
09.15.2003/10:41
Click here for photo
Moon over Milwaukee
Downtown Milwaukee, WI.

Sites
09.15.2003/09:13
Talk like a pirate
International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

News
09.15.2003/09:03
Saved by the arts?
"Almost all involved in the planning to rebuild at ground zero have agreed on at least one thing: whatever comes next should include cultural institutions."

Sites
09.14.2003/20:58
Wipe out
Sites That Are What Their URLs Say They Are Dept.:
toiletpaperworld.com

News
09.14.2003/20:54
Spamelot
I'm ready to order my ticket now to go and see this.

Sites
09.12.2003/14:45
Ancient man
A look at the old days. The really, really old days.

News
09.12.2003/14:42
Ringed planet
Saturn.

Drivel
09.12.2003/14:33
Nice collection!
I went to a party last night that held at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The museum has a cool new architecturally interesting wing, but what was really a delight to me was that we were allowed to stroll about the museum's excellent and well-focused collection. A great illustration of how you don't have to go to a super-large city to experience a terrific museum art collection. There have been very astute acquisitions made here, and made for a long time.

Sites
09.10.2003/07:18
Vintage spookiness
Sites That Are What Their URLs Say They Are Dept.:
victorianhalloween.com

News
09.10.2003/07:12
Double booking
Two powerful south Louisiana forces: sports and Mardi Gras. I'm putting my money on Mardi Gras.

News
09.9.2003/20:31
Elusive happiness
This article from the New York Times is one of the most interesting things I have read in this decade. I am not kidding.

Drivel
09.9.2003/18:25
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday, Susan!

Sites
09.9.2003/08:31
Same place, new name
What became of Upper Volta, Ceylon the Friendly Islands, and other places sporting new names.

Sites
09.9.2003/08:27
One grain at a time
The Salt Monument.

News
09.9.2003/08:21
Opening soon, we hope
Around where I live, we're all hoping that this works out.

News
09.9.2003/08:19
I'm here!
When thinking out of the box involves getting inside the box.

Sites
09.8.2003/20:38
After Life
This is maginficently executed and deliciously moody.

News
09.7.2003/21:08
Action figure
Wow! I definitely want one of these!

Drivel
09.7.2003/10:48
Little Peculiarities I Put Up With
I have a desktop computer running Windows XP that sometimes doesn't show the F: drive, a CD-R drive, causing me to sometimes have to reboot once or twice to even have it show up, so that I can copy something to it. Sometimes it also boots up without finding the network and I have to use the network wizard to re-make the connection.

These are bothersome quirks, but I put up with them. They may even be repairable if I took the time to sniff out the problem, but it always seems that it's just less trouble to put up with it than spend days searching the internet for answers, or worse (far, far worse), time on hold waiting for some support person to finally speak to me.

It seems that there are often little peculiarities like that which we will put up with, certainly with computers and high tech devices, but also with cars, TVs, refrigerators, combination locks, etc., all of which lead us to personify these insensate objects with character traits or label them as "tempermental." When someone sits at your desk, you just accept it that you might have to do a little explaining about what it takes to make things work on your system.

I am tempted to think that in some cases we may tolerate these imperfections of our technology because it does, after all, give us a slight bit of an upper hand to know that these machines are imperfect enough that they need to be stroked in certain ways to perform their tasks as required. And there seems a strange bond between you and your computer if only you can make it, say, recognize the F: drive.

Are there any little peculiarities of your machines that you just plain put up with?

Sites
09.7.2003/10:18
What Bagwell makes
Track baseball player salaries. Example: Jeff Bagwell, who deserves every penny.

News
09.7.2003/10:14
All look same
To a machine, maybe us folks all look alike.

Sites
09.7.2003/10:10
Google me!
If you're going to Google me, try adding New Iberia to the search!

News
09.7.2003/10:07
Make mine Google
"Instead of looking for the pages that every search engine returns when searching, Professor Jansen and his co-author recommend that users become as familiar as possible with one search engine and stick to it."

Photos
09.7.2003/10:00
Click here for photo
Catenary
Catenary for St. Charles streetcar line in New Orleans, at Upperline St.

Photos
09.7.2003/09:59
Click here for photo
Aspidistra trimming
Upperline St., New Orleans.

Photos
09.7.2003/09:57
Click here for photo
Guy Wires
Guy wires for St. Charles streetcar line catenary in New Orleans, on Upperline St.

Sites
09.6.2003/04:39
Swine art
Love the illustrative drawings for this page.

Sites
09.6.2003/04:02
How dry I am
A look at the US Drought Monitor gives a vivid picture of how dry it is currently in the Rocky Mountain states.

News
09.5.2003/20:13
Double trouble
Nice view from space of two big storms at once.

News
09.5.2003/08:54
Take the bait
Bait cars.

Drivel
09.4.2003/17:05
Dreamy Dreamweaver
Last night, I went to the monthly meeting of the Acadiana Macromedia Multimedia User Group, where, like similar groups all over the world, we watched an internet presentation on the new Macromedia Studio MX 2004, the package that draws together ColdFusion, Flash, Dreamweaver and a few other odd bits. The most interesting thing to me was that the new Dreamweaver component is centered around the use of CSS rather than HTML. This is both astute and a good reflection of how web designers are working these days: tables only for tabular display, CSS for design. The Flash component looks like it has an easier-than-ever learning curve and has more visual tools than before, and I suspect will result in our seeing more horrible animations than ever in the coming months and years. But we'll also see the occasional nice thing or two also, I suppose. I hope.

Sites
09.4.2003/15:09
Dead Letters
"Once you find a letter you want to keep, bookmark it. You may never find it again."

News
09.4.2003/15:05
Storks!
Indian painted storks.

News
09.4.2003/15:03
Big screw
Nice photo of an aircraft carrier's immense propeller.

News
09.3.2003/16:31
Zoo loss
Dead orangutan in the news.

Sites
09.3.2003/08:55
Meteor shower
The Quadrantids.

News
09.2.2003/08:51
Rodin of Godzilla?
Art snit!

Sites
09.1.2003/19:18
Austen City Limits
Heavenly haven for Jane Austen fans: The Republic of Pemberley.

News
09.1.2003/19:15
Snake thief
Burgled pythons in the news.

News
09.1.2003/19:11
Good forests, clean water
Interesting look at how forest areas are important to urban water supplies. "A recent evaluation showed it would cost $7 billion to build a water treatment plant against a $1 billion bill for actively managing the forest catchment area by raising water taxes and paying farmers to use less fertilizer and reduce grazing."

News
08.31.2003/21:26
Too close too call
"We don't know how the judges will tell us apart - we look exactly the same in every way, even down to our measurements and dress sizes."

Sites
08.31.2003/11:56
Old view
"ePodunk post cards are vintage images, dating from the early 1900s. They are not intended to depict current views."

Photos
08.31.2003/07:43
Click here for photo
Bus Garage
The Whole Foods Market store on Magazine Street in New Orleans is an adaptive re-use of an old city bus facility, and the most fun part might be parking in the old bus garage.

Photos
08.31.2003/07:36
Click here for photo
High Water
Last night we had dinner at Cypremort Point, LA, on Vermilion Bay which leads to the Gulf of Mexico, with our friends Ed and Shereen. Our share of the wind and water from Tropical Storm Grace brought the level of the canal they use for bay access to heights Ed said he hadn't seen in years.

News
08.30.2003/11:21
Snit!
"I hate that these people copied my house." But did they?

Sites
08.29.2003/18:13
Nadia
Wow! This sure seems like someone it would be neat to know!

News
08.28.2003/20:31
Suburban bloat
" Unlike people in old-fashioned urban centers who can walk to work, shops, and public transport, those in the spread-out communities cannot walk even if they wanted to because sidewalks and crossings are lacking and homes, schools and workplaces are far apart." So no wonder they're too fat.

News
08.28.2003/16:33
Just a little Roomba
Brand new advanced models of the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners. Nice advances, although I still like my original Roomba and use it regularly; perhaps I'll be a generation skipper and buy the next new model of even more improved Roomba!

News
08.27.2003/22:43
Fish story
Patagonian toothfish (a.k.a. Chiean sea bass) in the news.

News
08.27.2003/18:27
Dough-nuts
Krispy Kreme mania: "A lot of people probably think I'm a nut for doing this." Maybe so... but others of us do not.

News
08.27.2003/18:24
Tomatina
How much fun must this be?

Sites
08.27.2003/08:50
Our mascot?
A page all about Myocastor Coypus, better known as the nutria, with sample tracks, map, etc.

News
08.27.2003/08:40
Good chocolate
Dark chocolate may be good for you.

News
08.27.2003/08:35
The Cajuns of southeast Asia
The product is called "Cajun Boy Brand Crab Meat." And where do you think this Cajun Boy has been getting this crab meat?

Drivel
08.26.2003/15:40
Generally speaking...
I have been feeling slightly out of sorts the last couple of days, and I asked Susan if she thought that there might be a health problem called Chronic General Malaise Syndrome. She answered that there was already a term for that condition: hypchondria.

Sites
08.26.2003/09:38
Skies for sale
You can buy the sky.

Sites
08.25.2003/07:34
The CIA for kids
Your tax dollars at work: The CIA for kids on the web.

News
08.25.2003/07:31
Rice fight!
Have a rice day!

News
08.25.2003/07:28
Cyberchurch
"Worshippers will be able to log on to the church's extensive website to watch and listen to the Anglican church service from their PC."

Photos
08.24.2003/10:43
Click here for photo
Andy Griff
I photographed this bit of sidewalk today to add to the sidewalks page at my New Iberia site.

Sites
08.23.2003/21:32
Retouching magic
Amazing portfolio of digital photo retouching. See the finished work, roll mouse over that to see the original. I think I looked at every one, they are very impressive. But they do remind you to look at all presented images everywhere with a proper dose of incredulity. (via Haddock)

News
08.23.2003/13:30
Attack date nears
With conditions ideal and the distance relatively short, we should expect the invasion of the Martians at any moment.

Sites
08.23.2003/09:49
New Zealand view
Interesting paintings depicting New Zealand scenes, some mythologically.

Drivel
08.23.2003/09:27
Triple relief
We were in the video rental store, looking at the titles. It was Friday afternoon, after work. We were tired.

We pawed a couple of the shiny covers, dispirited.

Then we had a moment of inspiration. If we didn't rent a movie we (1) wouldn't have to wait in the check out line that snaked past the point-of-purchase junk food; (2) would not have to return the video; and (3) would not even have to watch a video.

We left happy, relieved, and uplifted.

Sites
08.22.2003/08:32
Spam on my mind
Don't let email spam ruin your life... celebrate it! Or, if you're not wanting to read spam, you can always just read about it.

News
08.22.2003/08:19
For whom the toll tolls
''I'd rather get lost than pay the $2."

Photos
08.22.2003/07:40
Click here for photo
Sign with a veiw
If you're not going to spell conventionally, you can at least claim to spell consistently.

Photos
08.22.2003/07:38
Click here for photo
Louisa bridge
Construction of new high-rise bridge at Louisa, LA. The old bridge has been hit numerous times by barges.

Sites
08.21.2003/14:05
Fiction Contest
What kind of writing wins prizes? Depends on the prize! You could win with "They had but one last remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that two-flavor entwined string cheese that is orange and yellowish-white, the orange probably being a bland Cheddar and the white..."

News
08.21.2003/13:58
The sky fell
"The Ministry of Defence has admitted the chickens were frightened to death and paid the compensation."

News
08.21.2003/13:31
Quite a Depp
I think Johnny Depp would make a great Willy Wonka!

Sites
08.21.2003/09:32
Another world
The World of Mosses.

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