China's 60th Anniversary national day - timelapse and slow motion - 7D and 5DmkII from Dan Chung on Vimeo.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Judging the hit counts, you've seen this...
A very well made time lapse of the recent 60th Anniversary parade in Beijing:
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Family Time and a Date Night? That's Quite a Day
We are, by and large, much busier this fall than we have been in the past. I am out of the house at least one evening per week for band practice and She Who Won't Be Blogged is out for two evenings, as well as on Sundays with tutoring work. To compensate, we are attempting to be much more intentional about how we use our Saturdays. Our idea is to commit to an outing or family activity at least every other Saturday. We started this past Saturday with plans to hike Kennesaw Mountain.
We set out with full water bottles and my kid backpack for when Ava got tired. But, on the drive there we realized that the hike up & down the mountain was a few miles and, well, maybe we weren't quite ready for that. I'm basically out of shape and she had completed a strenuous workout that morning. We decided, then, to detour to the Chattahoochee Nature Center. Much shorter trails.
Having never been there, we were pleasantly surprised. They have a bird sanctuary with volunteers on the day we visited walking around with an owl and hawk on their arms. There are a few trails outlining the center with highlights and educational placards along the way. Both Christopher and Ava zipped along the trails as fast as they could. That worked to our advantage as, after a quick lunch on the way home, Ava fell fast asleep for what is becoming an increasingly rare nap.
That evening, we had our babysitter come over, so She Who Won't Be Blogged and I could enjoy a night out together. The weather was perfect (perfectly odd for August in Atlanta, actually), so we opted to ride bikes over to downtown Decatur for dinner at Leon's. After dinner, we strolled around downtown and visited Decatur CD. We picked up a nice cd that reminded us of the folk festival.After a bike ride home, we jumped into the car to attend a gallery exhibit for a design studio in town that I like. We discovered several galleries with their doors open and had quite a highbrow time for ourselves strolling among them.
What We Did On Our Summer Vacation
The last week in July, we hopped in the car and headed to St. Simon's for one last, end of summer, bit away. There are select places that live in the romantic parts of our hearts and memories, Asheville, NC and St. Simon's, GA being chief among them. We spent our honeymoon week, a number of years ago, on St. Simon's at a friend's house. Since then, we've made several visits, some with friends and others on our own. It had been, however, three years since we'd been back prior to last month. Some things about the island have changed; more development, including a fantastic public pool near the pier. But much of its charm has held true.
For this trip, we opted for a room at an Embassy Suites in Brunswick. The rate was cheaper and the suite afforded more room for the four of us. We were cramped in our room on Amelia Island last Spring and didn't want that again. Not being able to walk to the beach allowed us to do more exploring than we've done in the past. We spent a day on a Jeckyl Island beach and had a dinner in the nearby town of Darien. Aside from the afternoon of our arrival, the weather was terrific and the kids flat wore themselves out on the beach.
Christopher & I stole away for a few hours one afternoon to go kayaking through the marsh and out onto Sea Island. The highlight of that trip being the three dolphins (2 adults and 1 calf) that swam just past us as we crossed the channel from St. Simon's to Sea Island.
They were close enough that we could almost pet one as it swam by. Check that... the highlight was actually the mullet that hopped out of the water; once in front of our boat, then again onto the bow, then a third time right into Christopher's lap. He screamed and tried to sit up in his seat. The fish then dropped onto his seat &, while flopping around, managed to spank Christopher's behind three or four times before our guide finally reached in to get a hold of it & set it back in the water. After that was the dolphins.
We came home mid-week and relaxed at home together for one day before my Mom arrived. Aug. 1 was she who shall not be blogged's birthday. It was a momentous birthday. Her 30th, again, I think. As a gift to her and in honor the wedding anniversary to occur a week later, my Mom agreed to come be with the kids for three days while we flew to Newport, RI, for the folk festival that occurred on 8.1 and 2.
We'd never been to Newport (the location, by the way, that all wealthy people have chosen to park their sailboats in the summer). We knew that Gillian Welch was playing, and liked the list of the other acts as well. We had both (but she especially) wanted to take a trip this summer to someplace we'd never been. The music festival was a pretext for getting us to commit to doing so. We could not, of course, have done it without my Mom's help and for that we are grateful.
The festival itself was brilliant. I'd been to a couple rock festivals back in the day and they were what you'd expect. The folk festival was something different entirely. The crowd was very relaxed and friendly. They had three stages with acts playing at the same time. We set up our chairs in as good a spot as we could get in front of the main stage. We then had the freedom to move around to the other two stages on which people were playing without fear that anyone would bother our chairs or move our stuff in any way. They had a beer tent, but it was a good walk away from the seating/stage area and you could only drink the beer while in the tent. So, the festival area was not overrun in anyway by excessive drinkers stumbling around.
The festival takes place on the exterior of an old post-Revolutionary War fort, Fort Adams. They set the main stage up on an exterior wall that looks towards the Narragansett Bay, so our backs were to the water. It is a tradition for people to park their boats around the shoreline and listen to the show from them. (Billy Bragg memorably dedicated one song to all the poor folks who couldn't get a ticket and had to watch the concert from their yachts). It was nice to sit in the hot sun and merely have to stand up to catch the breeze off the bay and be cooled down.
We left early both days, much to my Mom's consternation since that meant we missed seeing Joan Baez. Saturday evening, we'd planned a dinner in a nearby town at a seafood restaurant that we'd read about. On Sunday, our plan was to make a slow drive back to the hotel and relax before the flight home Monday morning. We were in a shuttle bus on the way to our car when the phone rang.
My Mom was calling to let us know that she had been to the park with the kids and Christopher had fallen down. He broke his wrist. She claimed it was pretty bad, they were in the emergency room and hadn't been seen yet. And there we were.. 1,000 miles away. One thing about parenthood is that you always imagine you'll be there for your kids whenever they need you. Of course, it doesn't work out that way and it can be a pretty horrible feeling when not.
The docs confirmed that he broke both bones in his forearm completely just above the wrist. They put him under to reset the bones, something that is apparently standard procedure these days. They sent him home in a sling, which he wore for two weeks so the swelling could go down. He got a cast (black) that goes all the way over his elbow. He's wearing that for two weeks and then will get a shorter, waterproof cast that he'll then wear for another eight. He's managed quite well, once the pain went away. He travels with a silver sharpie so people can autograph the cast.
We had a flight out of Boston in the afternoon on that Monday. We thought about going up Sunday night & trying to catch a flight out, but realized we’d be stranded there if we didn’t get one (Newport to Boston was an hour drive). So, we bounced out of bed around 6 am Monday and rushed to the airport, hoping to fly stand-by early. All flights to the ATL were oversold that day. So, we got to sit in Logan airport for about five hours waiting for our flight. Ultimately, it was an uneventful flight home and we were reunited with the kids, much to my Mom’s relief.
For this trip, we opted for a room at an Embassy Suites in Brunswick. The rate was cheaper and the suite afforded more room for the four of us. We were cramped in our room on Amelia Island last Spring and didn't want that again. Not being able to walk to the beach allowed us to do more exploring than we've done in the past. We spent a day on a Jeckyl Island beach and had a dinner in the nearby town of Darien. Aside from the afternoon of our arrival, the weather was terrific and the kids flat wore themselves out on the beach.
Christopher & I stole away for a few hours one afternoon to go kayaking through the marsh and out onto Sea Island. The highlight of that trip being the three dolphins (2 adults and 1 calf) that swam just past us as we crossed the channel from St. Simon's to Sea Island.
They were close enough that we could almost pet one as it swam by. Check that... the highlight was actually the mullet that hopped out of the water; once in front of our boat, then again onto the bow, then a third time right into Christopher's lap. He screamed and tried to sit up in his seat. The fish then dropped onto his seat &, while flopping around, managed to spank Christopher's behind three or four times before our guide finally reached in to get a hold of it & set it back in the water. After that was the dolphins.We came home mid-week and relaxed at home together for one day before my Mom arrived. Aug. 1 was she who shall not be blogged's birthday. It was a momentous birthday. Her 30th, again, I think. As a gift to her and in honor the wedding anniversary to occur a week later, my Mom agreed to come be with the kids for three days while we flew to Newport, RI, for the folk festival that occurred on 8.1 and 2.
We'd never been to Newport (the location, by the way, that all wealthy people have chosen to park their sailboats in the summer). We knew that Gillian Welch was playing, and liked the list of the other acts as well. We had both (but she especially) wanted to take a trip this summer to someplace we'd never been. The music festival was a pretext for getting us to commit to doing so. We could not, of course, have done it without my Mom's help and for that we are grateful.
The festival itself was brilliant. I'd been to a couple rock festivals back in the day and they were what you'd expect. The folk festival was something different entirely. The crowd was very relaxed and friendly. They had three stages with acts playing at the same time. We set up our chairs in as good a spot as we could get in front of the main stage. We then had the freedom to move around to the other two stages on which people were playing without fear that anyone would bother our chairs or move our stuff in any way. They had a beer tent, but it was a good walk away from the seating/stage area and you could only drink the beer while in the tent. So, the festival area was not overrun in anyway by excessive drinkers stumbling around.
The festival takes place on the exterior of an old post-Revolutionary War fort, Fort Adams. They set the main stage up on an exterior wall that looks towards the Narragansett Bay, so our backs were to the water. It is a tradition for people to park their boats around the shoreline and listen to the show from them. (Billy Bragg memorably dedicated one song to all the poor folks who couldn't get a ticket and had to watch the concert from their yachts). It was nice to sit in the hot sun and merely have to stand up to catch the breeze off the bay and be cooled down.
We left early both days, much to my Mom's consternation since that meant we missed seeing Joan Baez. Saturday evening, we'd planned a dinner in a nearby town at a seafood restaurant that we'd read about. On Sunday, our plan was to make a slow drive back to the hotel and relax before the flight home Monday morning. We were in a shuttle bus on the way to our car when the phone rang.
My Mom was calling to let us know that she had been to the park with the kids and Christopher had fallen down. He broke his wrist. She claimed it was pretty bad, they were in the emergency room and hadn't been seen yet. And there we were.. 1,000 miles away. One thing about parenthood is that you always imagine you'll be there for your kids whenever they need you. Of course, it doesn't work out that way and it can be a pretty horrible feeling when not.
The docs confirmed that he broke both bones in his forearm completely just above the wrist. They put him under to reset the bones, something that is apparently standard procedure these days. They sent him home in a sling, which he wore for two weeks so the swelling could go down. He got a cast (black) that goes all the way over his elbow. He's wearing that for two weeks and then will get a shorter, waterproof cast that he'll then wear for another eight. He's managed quite well, once the pain went away. He travels with a silver sharpie so people can autograph the cast.
We had a flight out of Boston in the afternoon on that Monday. We thought about going up Sunday night & trying to catch a flight out, but realized we’d be stranded there if we didn’t get one (Newport to Boston was an hour drive). So, we bounced out of bed around 6 am Monday and rushed to the airport, hoping to fly stand-by early. All flights to the ATL were oversold that day. So, we got to sit in Logan airport for about five hours waiting for our flight. Ultimately, it was an uneventful flight home and we were reunited with the kids, much to my Mom’s relief.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
It's All Been Said Before
Over, I'd say, the last year, I have been re-reading some of the books that I'd previously read years and years ago. It started with "The Great Gatsby", progressed through some Jack London stories and led most recently to "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "Farewell to Arms". It's like high school English all over again; only this time with an actual true appreciation for the art.
I did this once before with U.S. history. I read an article, or blog post, or something that mentioned Cripus Attucks and, though I vaguely remembered the Boston Massacre, I realized that I didn't remember as much I wanted, or should. So, I set out to read one book, per month, for a whole year, on the revolutionary war period. I guess I have to relearn all the stuff I didn't learn well enough before.
So, high school English...
I was always a huge fan of Steinbeck. I had this weird notion of Steinbeck and Hemingway as rivals. They were contemporaries, to an extent. For some reason, though, I built up this strange competition between then and, liking Steinbeck as much as I did, I sort of dismissed Hemingway through some illogical loyalty, like they were sports teams or something. I'm not reading Hemingway that way now. I'm really reading him for what he's worth, which is a lot.
There's a great passage in "Farewell to Arms" when Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley meet for the first time that requires a couple of readings, it's so enjoyable. There's a similar passage in "Grapes of Wrath", in which Steinbeck describes a turtles efforts to cross a road. Reading these books makes me wonder how anyone can hope to write a novel today. It seems that it's been done. The best books have been written and we should just keep rereading the ones we have. I realize that's a horribly depressing thought & completely dismissive of original voices, so please, reader, understand I don't fully believe it. I just wonder how daunting it must be for a young writer.
I've been taking guitar lessons and learning songs outside of what we play in the band. It would be fun, I think, to get to a point where I could write a song of my own. Then, I put on Neil Young, or Wilco, or Radiohead and think "all the good songs have been written". You know... that would make a pretty good song. A whole song about how there's nothing left to write a song about.
Of course, Gillian Welch has already done that:
I did this once before with U.S. history. I read an article, or blog post, or something that mentioned Cripus Attucks and, though I vaguely remembered the Boston Massacre, I realized that I didn't remember as much I wanted, or should. So, I set out to read one book, per month, for a whole year, on the revolutionary war period. I guess I have to relearn all the stuff I didn't learn well enough before.
So, high school English...
I was always a huge fan of Steinbeck. I had this weird notion of Steinbeck and Hemingway as rivals. They were contemporaries, to an extent. For some reason, though, I built up this strange competition between then and, liking Steinbeck as much as I did, I sort of dismissed Hemingway through some illogical loyalty, like they were sports teams or something. I'm not reading Hemingway that way now. I'm really reading him for what he's worth, which is a lot.
There's a great passage in "Farewell to Arms" when Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley meet for the first time that requires a couple of readings, it's so enjoyable. There's a similar passage in "Grapes of Wrath", in which Steinbeck describes a turtles efforts to cross a road. Reading these books makes me wonder how anyone can hope to write a novel today. It seems that it's been done. The best books have been written and we should just keep rereading the ones we have. I realize that's a horribly depressing thought & completely dismissive of original voices, so please, reader, understand I don't fully believe it. I just wonder how daunting it must be for a young writer.
I've been taking guitar lessons and learning songs outside of what we play in the band. It would be fun, I think, to get to a point where I could write a song of my own. Then, I put on Neil Young, or Wilco, or Radiohead and think "all the good songs have been written". You know... that would make a pretty good song. A whole song about how there's nothing left to write a song about.
Of course, Gillian Welch has already done that:
Monday, August 24, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
This Is a Post About Politics
Just dropping by the blogspot to point out that one protester at an Obama event has his priorities perfectly in line.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
It Was Bound to Happen
When I was in college, studying the art & craft of theater sound design, it was a revelation to discover that a large amount of the technology used to record music today is based upon the inventions of Les Paul. I knew of Les Paul through his signature guitar, but I hadn't known that he invented multi-track recording and a number of effects and processors used to shape sound. He was an active guitar player and performer into his 94th year. I fondly remember his smack down of Eddie Van Halen, and players of his ilk, as decent guitarists whose solos all lacked soul, (though apparently he & EVH actually became good friends).
It was sad to hear of his passing away this week, but then he did have a prolific 94 years.
It was sad to hear of his passing away this week, but then he did have a prolific 94 years.
Friday, July 10, 2009
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