Random Tidbits

I am starting to build up quite the collection of potential blog posts in my unpublished pile. Most of them aren't very good. This post will be an attempt to include all the stuff that looked half decent and chuck out the rest.

The photo on the left is one of my favorites from our California trip. There's a gorgeous stretch of I-15 that weaves back and forth through towering Arizonan canyons for a few dozen miles. Then, just as you're cresting the hill and crossing the border into Utah, you get this shamelessly showy golden landscape rising over the horizon, and the road drops for miles downward toward those mountains. I was trying to make a picture that both captured the impressiveness of the landscape and the feel of driving into it.

Next on the random list, there's a fungus that's actually digesting the radioactive materials inside of the Chernobyl reactor. That article's a wee bit dodgy, by the way, but you can find something more level-headed if you look for a bit. It's already amazing that a life form can live inside of a heavily radioactive environment, but actually using the radioactivity as a food source earns mother nature yet another hat-tip: She's smarter than we are. Again.

A while back, on the freeway, I saw what was apparently an ad for a (self-published?) book. I didn't catch the title, but in large letters, the contents were described as "Harry Potter Meets Star Wars." This struck me as such a fantastically bad idea that I immediately wanted to read the book. Luke Skywalker confronting the school bully Anakin, waving a light saber that only works when you yell Latinesque phrases? Harry flying a broomstick powered X-wing in some kind of mega-dangerous, octane charged intergalactic race to defeat the evil sorceror? The possibilities are endless and, almost universally, very stupid.

Finally, it's about time to get some entries up for the family photo competition. My first entry is a picture of Cavan, who having apparently woken up a measly 13 seconds earlier, is still stunned by the extremely rapid sequence of events that resulted in him sitting inside a precariously rocking skyline on a windy day. At least, I think that's what the facial expression means.

This next picture is entitled "too much fun." One of Disneyland's less- advertised features is that after a few hours, your kids will be so totally overstimulated that they will collapse in little exhausted puddles. This is a picture of my nephew, chilling in the stroller between rides. I spent a lot of time with the Kjars, and I have to say that this little guy did a stellar job of behaving. He demonstrates wisdom and patience beyond his three years.

This next shot is just cute--Granny's chilling with the grandson, while everyone is hurrying up and waiting for the next family shot. I love it when you can get good shots of people just being themselves without trying to pose for the camera. They always look a lot more relaxed and genuine. If the shot happens to be well-composed, so much the better.

I have some other pretty good shots, but I think that will do for now. Also, this post seems to be trying to set some kind of length record. Congratulations on reaching the end of it!