Posts

Showing posts from May, 2012

More Pics from Washington, DC: The Hirshorn & The Museum of the American Indian

Image
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei did a collection of sculpture called Animal Heads/Chinese Zodiac that's on display under the Hishhorn right now.  Born in 1973, I'm an Ox. This is the Dragon from the same collection.  You can see some of the other heads in the background. This is called something like Classical Sculpture by Rodin.  It's also in the Hirshhorn. This was one of my favorites from this trip. The Museum of the American Indian is a very sad place.  It starts by making a point of the fact that "Indians" are from India, and that even calling American Indians "Native Americans" is an anomoly in that they existed on the continents that we call America long before the continent itself had been given that name.  The people living in the Americas before Columbus had a rich culture, history, and heritage long before Europeans knew them. But then the museum dives straight into the conquest of America by the Spanish, and the plagues and wars tha

Visit to See My Father

Image
We visited my father on Memorial Day.

Centurion Six: Issue #1, Part 6

Our Story So Far: Captains Blaine “Centurion Six” Winters and Jacob “Zulu” Mbeke of the New York State National Guard Enhanced Forces Division (EFD) are called out to consult on a multiple homicide in the south Bronx.  The case seems like routine “skrag” gang violence until our heroes are attacked by some kind of killer cyborg robot-monkey mounting a highly advanced stealth/security system and a small-caliber machine pistol. Meanwhile, teenaged ultra-human club girl Rebecca Rodriguez uses her Telekinesis to sneak out for a night on the town in Upper West Side Manhattan.  She meets up with her friends, uses her Empathy to talk their way into  Pacha , and then parties like there’s no tomorrow. Having lost control of her powers, she then wanders drunkenly out into the streets of Manhattan at three in the morning. Author's  Notes:  Sorry for the short piece this week.  It's vacation, and I've taken a break from work of all kinds this week.  As always, to read the sto

More Pics from Washington, DC

Image
The Washington Monument , as seen from the new World War II Memorial . Sally and I both got really into the Renaissance sculpture.  This one is called   Diana of the Tower . This statue of Mercury is in the rotunda at the National Gallery of Art. Perhaps my favorite sculpture was this one.  It's called Flight of Europa .

Sunday Comics: The Adventures of Hiro Arturian, Samurai (Day 4)

Image
The Adventures of Hiro Arturian, Samurai .  Page 4. Click here to see the page at full size . And so, the fight is on!  Next week's page is my favorite from this particular story. To read the story from the beginning, click the Sunday Comics tab below.

Pics from the Smithsonian

Image
As I said yesterday, we're down in DC with the kids.  Well, yesterday we took them to the American History Museum and the Natural History Museum, both of which I think they really enjoyed.  Certainly I enjoyed myself.  Here are some pictures to prove it. A statue of George Washington, re-imagined as a Greek god. Hannah and an early DC generator.  I loved all this stuff from Thomas Edison's  workshop and the shops of his early competitors. Hannah and Emma and a giant telescope. I was looking for something for my wife at the gift shop, and this caught my eye. Hannah the predator.  Behind her is a sabertooth tiger skeleton. Hannah and Sally and the barbarian exhibit.  You can't really tell from this picture, but that barbarian girl is French; one of her breasts is exposed. Man-eating bird! Where else but the Smithsonian will you see a whale hanging from the ceiling?  Well, to be fair, they also have one hanging from the ceiling of the M

Trip to Washington, Part 1

We drove down to Washington, DC, for a long weekend yesterday, and so far what I can say is that I've learned a few things: 1.  Going from I-87 South to the George Washington Bridge and I-95 South is never a good idea.  We left the house at about 10:30 am yesterday, and got to the interchange around noon.  I figured that to the extent that traffic over the bridge is ever good, that would be about the best we could do during non-overnight hours.  Wrong! 2.  It costs a lot to drive through New Jersey and Delaware.  I think the tolls in Jersey were somewhere north of $13.50, and the drive through Delaware was another $8 or $12.  Wow! 3.  Driving through DC and northern Virginia is at least as confusing as driving through New Jersey. 4.  Mixing Sierra Nevada's new Hopnotic IPA with other beers is a mistake.  At 10.7% ABC, Hopnotic is a big beer.  But it still goes down really smoothly.  Today I have quite a little headache going.

Triathlon Revisited

Image
One of the ladies from my triathlon club sent me a letter this week that really meant a lot to me.  My friend was already a good runner when she joined the club, but she couldn't swim well at all, and she was hoping I could help her with it.  So we worked on it, and eventually, she got to where she swam very well. And then she sent me this.  I edited it a bit to protect her privacy. HI Dan, I don't know that I can ever thank you enough for teaching me to swim.  In the weeks since we first met at the Tri-Club Information session (what 12 weeks to the day?) I knew that this time the stars had aligned and sent me the Coach that would get me to finally crack the code and truly swim.  I can not put my finger on it but there was something in your "resolve"—that Dan could teach it and I could learn it—that made me a believer from the start.   It's a gift Dan, in two ways.  You are a gifted and generous teacher and giver.  I am a grateful receiver of this gift th

Bonus Hair Metal: Paradise City

Image
Apologies for all the G'n'R I've been playing on here lately, but this one I have to share.  I mean, I hadn't really considered it until this morning, but I'm starting to think that Slash and Fergie should get their own show in Vegas.  Seriously, listen to this.  The only thing they're missing here are Elvis's old sequined jump suits. Also, somebody needs to tell that she's getting a little old for those leather pants. And finally, how could I leave off Green Day, cover band.  This one's a riot. Today's my Friday, if you're wondering.  Sally and I are taking the kids to DC for the weekend, starting tomorrow.  Enjoy!

Woodruff Family YMCA 2012 Y-Tri Race Report

Image
F.I.R.M. Racing  held their annual  Y-Tri  at the  Woodruff Family YMCA  in  Milford, CT , over the past weekend, and as I mentioned last week, I ran it.  The race started with a short pool swim, followed by an 11-mile two-loop bike ride, followed by a 2.5-mile out-and-back run. I hesitate to call the Y-Tri one of my “A” races, especially since I wasn’t even planning to run it this year, but the fact is that it’s the first and perhaps only actual triathlon I’m doing this season, and more to the point, I’ve been coaching the Woodruff YMCA Triathlon Club for the past few months.  Truth is, I really wanted to perform well in front of my club.  So where in past years I might’ve worked through this race without resting more than a day or two beforehand, this year I wound up scheduling an entire Rest Week specifically in front of this race with the hopes that a bit of extra rest would help me do well.  Of course, we threw that planning out the window on the Saturday when Sally and I sp

Centurion Six: Issue #1, Part 5

Our Story So Far: Captains Blaine “Centurion Six” Winters and Jacob “Zulu” Mbeke of the New York State National Guard Enhanced Forces Division (EFD) are called out to consult on a multiple homicide in the south Bronx.  The case seems like routine “skrag” gang violence until our heroes are attacked by some kind of killer cyborg robot-monkey mounting a highly advanced stealth/security system and a small-caliber machine pistol.  There are several large explosions, and what looked like a routine case suddenly becomes an unholy debacle. Meanwhile, teenaged ultra-human club girl Rebecca Rodriguez uses her Telekinesis to sneak out for a night on the town in Upper West Side Manhattan.  She meets up with her friends, uses her Empathy to talk their way into  Pacha , and gets ready to party like there’s no tomorrow. Note:  To read the story from the beginning, click the  Centurion Six  keyword down below. * * * Shelby landed, looking like an angel—white diaphanous nightgown lit from

Surprise Treat!

Image

Sunday Comics: The Adventures of Hiro Arturian, Samurai (Day 3)

Image
The Adventures of Hiro Arturian, Samurai , Page 3. Click here to see the page at full size .

Update: Tour of California Stages 6 & 7

Image
I hadn't been paying that much attention to the Tour of California this year--up until yesterday.  The first four stages were--amazingly--won by the same man, Peter Sagan .  And, yeah, that's amazing and all, but the ToC is the biggest cycling race of the year in America , and Sagan is not an American, so bottom line, I just wasn't as interested as I could have been. But then Sagan  booted the Stage 5 individual time trial, allowing Americans Dave Zabriskie of Garmin-Barracuda and Teejay van Gardaren of BMC to get into first and second place overall , and suddenly the race got a lot more interesting.  Zabriskie is a talented all-arounder who's twice finished second in the ToC while van Gardaren, a climber, is probably the best young American cyclist of his generation.  Moreover, with significant climbing in both stages 6 and 7, yesterday's stage 6 promised to fireworks. Here, see for yourself: So yesterday the break almost got away, and Frenchman  

Friday Mad Science: Pliny the Younger and More...

Image
Happy Friday.  Boy, did this week ever suck.  I'm happy as all Hell that it's almost over. So, I don’t know that any of this stuff is important, but here’s a snapshot of what I found interesting this week: Medieval statue of Pliny the Younger , the namesake of the alleged best beer in the world.  According to  Slate.com ,  Pliny the Younger  is supposed to be the Best Beer in the World .  Who knew?  I’ve never even had a Pliny.  Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen one in stores.  Anybody out there on the Internets ever had one?  What makes it so awesome? * * * Also on Slate,  Farhad Majoon  says  that  Facebook’s  IPO mainly means the site will soon be featuring more ads .  That makes an unfortunate kind of sense.  With that said, I’ve been enjoying  Facebook  more than usual lately, and I think their algorithm for figuring out what I’m interested in is pretty damned impressive.  Bottom line: they show me links to triathlon training websites and vari