True (but not real) Public School Sign

Here's a link to the Education for Well-Being blog post where I found the best public school sign ever (at the bottom).

1st Centro pic

Sent using AT&T Xpress Mail

Bizarre, I only meant to send the last one and it sent everything in the phone.

Food for Thought from Around The World

I don't mean metaphorical food I mean literally thinking about food from around the world. Peter Menzel and his wife, Faith D'Aluisio, traveled the world to find out what people actually eat every week and created a book called The Hungry Planet. They took pictures of each family surrounded by a week's worth of food and those pictures have been making the rounds by e-mail and blog posts like this one.

Here's are two examples,

the Aboubakar family from a refugee camp in Chad who spend under $2 (which is subsidized by relief organizations to cover the other $22 in cost)



and


the Melander family from Germany who spend just over $500.




Here's links to find out more:
The Book

NPR Story

Time Magazine Story- Part I - Part II

Map of 20 of the families

Mutual Portraits by Noah and Me

My friend Noah and I were playing with my Treo on July 28th and these
are the result.

More on My Recent Travels

I neglected to get a photo of the Sacramento Hostel I mentioned before but here are the other hostels I stayed at recently. First I stayed at the wonderful San Luis Obispo Hostel. It is a very homey environment that is welcoming and sociable. You can tell a lot by the signs shown in these three pictures.

The next night I was at the Santa Barbara Tourist Hostel. It is not nearly as homey, although the folks there were laid back and basically friendly. It seems to be geared towards the basic party amenities meaning that it is not conducive to a family friendly experience. The place was generally clean and seemed to be operating fairly well, it's just not a great place to expect much more than the most basic accomodation.



Then after spending a night at my cousins house in L.A. I was in Hermosa Beach at the Surf City Hostel. It is definitely party central. Thankfully it is off season. Located right above a night club that plays very loud music until late I was told by a staff person that it can be a very wild place when all the Aussies and Kiwis fill it up. I am blessed with the ability to sleep in spite of moderate amounts of noise so with the aid of earplugs I got adequate sleep during my three nights. This hostel is not affiliated with Hostelling International like the other two, so it does not even pretend to uphold any standards. It was basically clean and reasonably kept, but not much more than that.

On the Road

I am on the road. Starting with a memorial service for my grand aunt Helen B. Fenn, aka. "Aunt Honey Bee." The memorial was very moving and it was really great to re-connect with family members whom I have not seen in many years and some that I never met before. Here is a picture of my Mom and my cousin Kari on the road up from Three Rivers, California, in Sequoia National Park. The sun was setting and the light was fantastic. Too bad the only camera we had was my Treo.


My Mom and I are traveling together. We stayed in Three Rivers for two nights, then at the Sacremento Hostel for one night. Now we are staying with some old family friends in San Jose.

A Hair Raising Experience

Here's a picture of my friend Heron when we were playing at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portand. Unfortunately I didn't think to get the camera out when we were playing with the static generator, which was also hair raising fun.

Pacific Grace and her extraordinary boom

This is the Pacific Grace, which I photographed in Port Townsend on October 17th. What caught my attention about her was the short foresail boom and the extraordinarily long mainsail boom. The first picture to the left shows that the mainsail boom is so long that it has a substantial bow to it. The curvature is not an effect of the camera, it is the actual shape of the boom. Actually, looking at it this way it is a rather elegant reflection of the curves of the deck and the rails. Was that intentional, you think? The second photo on the right shows the information they had on display about her (you can click on it to see it full size.) The third photo, while it technically sucks as a photo, shows how short the foresail boom is and the odd distance between the masts that caught my attention as I was walking into downtown.



If anyone happens to know a reason for such an arrangement I would love to hear about it. Is there something about fishing, or the particular waters she was designed to sail in that would make this arrangement of particular advantage?

Interesting light on a VW

On my way home from work tonight around 11PM

My unusual view of the Wooden Boat Fest

I actually took a few more shots than this, some were even of boats, but they were not very interesting. I was also delayed in posting these because my computer had to be sent to California to be repaired and so I was almost two weeks without it. I was able to post the Gatekeeper story during that time because I was able to do e-mail through my phone.

More Dock Wandering Photos

Today I was wandering out of the Otter Crossing Cafe and onto the docks at Point Hudson . It was a rather low tide and revealed some rather interesting features. These are the best five out of about 20 shots.














FYI on the my photos- I am using my Treo 650 to take the shots then I open them in Photoshop and use the auto levels image adjustment to enhance the contrast and color intensity. I think I have published every photo exactly as composed, otherwise.

Wandering About The Docks

Here a few of the better pictures that I took today. I am beginning to get the hang of using this camera.



First off, the Adventuress, one of our local tall ships.














Next we have the North Star returning from the Tacoma Tall Ships event that took place last week.

On my way home from church yesterday

This is the former B.C. Lippencott House, now a healing center located uptown here in Port Townsend, WA, USA.

And here is a view into the backyard that my housemate so beautifully created over the last twenty+ years that she has lived here.