Riddikulus

It boggles the mind, but China's just released regulations banning Tibetan monks from reincarnating without permission...

Seriously? Is this actually going to have any effect other than to galvanize opinion against China?

Grounds for Dismissal

Oh so true. I've never forgiven Orson Scott Card for Xenocide, although I can't say I think Speaker for the Dead was all that great either.

Karma Chameleon

Relieve your suffering now!

An Accidental Purchase

As Charity mentioned, we now own a Steinway piano. All I wanted to do was see how big they were so I could figure out how much space they'd take up in the living room once we remodeled.

Well, mission accomplished.

Volunteer Work

Did something new over the weekend: helped GRID Alternatives install solar panels in Oakland. Habitat for Humanity is rehabilitating a couple houses up there, and GRID was there to install the solar panels.

It was pretty interesting working up on the roof of a two-story house. It isn't very complicated work, but there's a lot of it. It was a two day project, but since I could only help out on Saturday, I didn't get a chance to see the finished product. I'm definitely going to try to volunteer again. Next time though, I'm going to work with the ground crew and see how the power inverter is installed.

Sunscreen

When we were in Mexico, Charity's mom pulled out a can of aerosol sunscreen. I didn't really like the idea of it, but used it anyway since I'd forgotten to bring any myself. Today I came across an article on sunscreens, and of course, the general message is that most of them don't do what they claim to do, and are potentially toxic to boot. As for aerosol sunscreens? Don't.

The story basically discusses a study done by the Environmental Working Group. Out of the 746 products they took a look at, only 19 were rated as both effective and safe. Scary!

Home Again

We're home again, and it feels good!

We spent our last two days in Mexico City visiting museums. On Tuesday, we went to the Museo Nacional De Historia Castillo de Chapultepec and the Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Both are worth a visit, although I felt that the second floor of the anthropology museum was pretty redundant. The entire floor is dedicated to all the different ethnic groups in Mexico, which sounds great until you realize that they're repeating very similar information over and over again for each group. It's more an issue of organization and layout; it would have been much better if they had made it easier to compare the different ethnic groups with one another.

Before catching our flight back today, we returned to the Palacio de Bellas Artes for their Frida Kahlo exhibit and then went to the Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño, primarily for its Diego Rivera exhibit. I must say I really like Diego Rivera's work. Kahlo's, not so much...

One last note: if you're ever in Mexico City, try to make it to La Fonda del Recuerdo. We had dinner there on Tuesday and it was muy delicioso.

Worms!

Went on another tour today. This time, it was to the Basilica de Guadalupe and Teotihuacán. Overall, I think the Basilica was much more interesting than the "pyramids" at Teotihuacán, especially the gardens behind the churches. The pyramids should really be called ziggurats instead, and while large, they're pretty drab. I may be a little jaded though after having been to Ephesus, Pompeii and the Parthenon.

For me, the highlight of the day was dinner at chef Patricia Quintana's Izote, which serves modern versions of old indigenous dishes. I ordered the crunchy maguey worms, the sautéed escamoles (ant eggs), and lamb shank wrapped in banana and maguey leaves. Once you get past the fact that you're eating what looks like large fried maggots, the crunchy maguey worms were actually rather tasty. Sort of like french fries... The escamoles was interesting, with the texture of corn kernels, but was a little lacking in flavor. As for the lamb shank, I've read quite a few reviews singing its praises, but mine was too dry for my taste. Flavorful, but dry.

Xochimilco and the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico

We went to Xochimilco this morning and took a boat ride on the canals. I was surprised at how many families there were picnicking on the boats. And talk about a riot of color...

In the evening, we went to a performance of the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico at the Palacio del Bella Artes. While the show itself was great, what amazed me the most is that they allowed photography! Which is how I ended up with these shots:

In between, we finally managed to file a report of yesterday's pickpocketing. We'd attempted to go to a ministerio publico (police station) the night before based on directions from the US embassy only to discover that it had closed down a while ago. Asking around for the nearest ministerio publico didn't yield any results until we asked a couple police officers, and by the time we finally got to one, all the interpreters had left for the day and we couldn't do anything. Which is why we had to wait till today to get it done. The scariest thing about this whole ordeal is that we were told more than once that we were lucky -- that it was just a pickpocket and not a robbery by a gang of thugs!

Bam!

First day in Mexico City, first subway ride, and we've already had our first misadventure: Charity's dad was pick pocketed on our way to the Zócalo.

On the bright side of things, the weather's been great so far -- nice and cool and breezy.

2.5 Weeks

The past couple weeks have been pretty interesting. I was in NY/NJ all of last week for the birth of my nephew, James Brown. He is perfection in a bundle and I can pretty much guarantee that he will be doted upon by everyone.

I spent the last week catching up on work, and tomorrow, I'll be leaving for Mexico City for the next five days.

During this time I've managed to catch Romeo and Juliet in Central Park, Spring Awakening on Broadway, and Iphigénie en Tauride by Gluck at the SF Opera. I'm not sure how Spring Awakening swept the Tony awards this year, but if this was the best musical of '07, then everything else must have sucked. The story just did not appeal to me, although the music was decent. As for Iphigénie en Tauride, I was amazed at the production. I'm normally not a fan of modern interpretations, but this completely worked for me. It had me mesmerized from the start with its amazing opening.

Uncle Mark

I'm an uncle! Jeanne gave birth to James Brown at 7:10am Thursday, June 14, 2007. Vital stats: 10 fingers, 10 toes, 19.5", 7 lbs. 5 oz., and cute as can be. He's got huge hands and feet, so he should be a great swimmer!

Worst Clam Chowder. Ever.

While we were in Monterey, Charity and I stopped at Sly McFly's on Cannery Row, primarily because they claimed to have the best clam chowder in Monterey. This turned out to be a horrible mistake. The soup was like something from the glue factory with some salt and clams thrown into it. We didn't bother finishing the thing and just beat a hasty retreat.

Nikon D40

I've been taking my time replacing my poor old Nikon CoolPix 4500 which died a few years ago. Charity had just bought a Cannon SD700, so it wasn't too big a deal. I'd been contemplating a DSLR, but I've been very skeptical on how often I'd lug such a big camera around. Well, after much hemming and hawing, I finally settled on a Nikon D40. It arrived just in time for our trip to Monterey over the Memorial Day weekend.

I shouldn't have worried. The D40 is a lot of fun to use. So much so that we sometimes have to fight for the camera. The click you hear when you snap the picture is just so reinforcing that it has a sort of Pavlovian effect on me. Must... take... more... pictures... to hear sound again...

The fun and games ended last night though when I finally uploaded all the pictures and started looking at them. And the big dark spot I'm guessing is caused by a speck of dust on the sensor. Grrr... I guess this batch of shots will definitely be getting the Photoshop treatment.

Joey recommended that I get Giottos' Rocket Air Blaster to deal with the dust, so now I'm just waiting for it to arrive.

Desktop Tower Defense

Timesuck alert! Desktop Tower Defense is freakin' addictive. Wasted most of my day on this... Normal was a breeze, and then I made the mistake of trying the 100 challenge. Best I did was level 77.

Rob warned me about this a while back, but I promptly forgot.

Women in Art

Speaking of something different, check out this YouTube video of women in art through the centuries. After the first few, there were very few I could identify.

Whim

Thought I'd try something different...

CFL Bulbs

There seems to be quite a bit in the news about CFLs lately. The one that raised the most eyebrows was a sensationalist article claiming that it costs $2000 to clean up a broken CFL due to the mercury inside it. However, it seems that this urban legend has been debunked.

I've been on the fence with CFLs for a while now. On the one hand, I like the fact that they use less energy and last longer. On the other hand, the ones that I'm familiar with tend to take a while to reach full brightness, emit a low buzz, and/or have a strange hue to them.

The last time I did any research on this was a few years ago when I was remodeling my house. I just bought a few brands and tried it out to see how I liked them. I wasn't very impressed back then, and decided to only use them in certain applications.

I've started paying attention again since Charity and I are remodeling our house, and we'll be putting in lots of new lighting. The good news is that it looks like things have improved. Popular Mechanics has an article reviewing newer CFLs and it looks like the color problem seems to have mostly been solved.

Dungeon Twister

Played Dungeon Twister for the first time last night against Danny. It's a pretty fun dungeon crawl-ish sort of board game. The fact that I won may have contributed a wee bit to my enjoyment. ;)

The only negative thing about it so far is that it's only a two player game, which limits the chances it'll be played. Fortunately, there's a 3-4 player expansion available...

"New" Bike!

Yee-haw! I've just bought a used 2004 Yamaha FZ1. From Ohio. Off eBay. Now I just have to figure out how to get it shipped here...