Saturday, January 26, 2008
Watermarks
Recently we were sent some proofs to view. As I looked through them, I couldn't get past the very ugly watermark and my thoughts turned to how easy it would be to take the watermark out. Now, before I go on, photographers want you to buy photos. I understand this, but just look at that watermark. It is huge!!! So, I fired up poor mans Photoshop called Gimp and had at it. Anyway, five hours later I got it cleaned up. It took a lot of touch ups, and I would never say it looks as good as the original, but it can be done. 
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Multicultural Festival
After going to the temple, we went to Multicultural Festival in downtown Chandler. It was pretty interesting.
We saw a Ti Kwon Do demonstration with lots of breaking boards. They yelled “Keyaaaaah!” in unison about every 10 seconds or so, and there was somebody’s enormous dog nearby that decided the yelling was a bark, so every time the group Keyaahed, the dog gave a thunderous bark, which sounded nearly the same! “Keyaah!” ARF! ……“Keyaaaah!” ARF! …..“Keyaaaah!” ARF! There was some giggling in the audience about this.
There was a girl in the Ti Kwon Do group that was quite impressive. She had long black hair, olive complexion, an extremely determined expression, and very lithe. She and this other guy did a sword demonstration to some very vigorous music from “Pirates of the Caribbean”, and it was fascinating to watch her wave that blade around in a blur. The sun sparkled off it. I could just imagine the little boys in the audience would probably go home and start practicing the same with their mama’s biggest kitchen knives. The same girl also did a staff-fighting demonstration, and a sparring exhibition. I didn’t like to watch the sparring. It’s all very well to watch people punch the air to atoms and kick their shadows into next week, and break pine boards into kindling, but I’d rather not watch anyone get flipped on their face and stomped into the ground by someone else, thank you.
The group was so disciplined. They kept up the discipline even when off-stage after their show. Every once in a while we’d hear a “Keyaaaah!” in response to their dragon master’s commands and communication, all while the MC on stage was introducing the next group. At that point the Keyah-ing started to seem ridiculous, probably because it was no longer appropriate to be yelling; it sort of distracted from the main focus on the stage. Imagine them going to Disney world together to see the sights. (“Have a magical day!” “Keyaaaah!” The parade goes by. “Keyaaaah!” They go on the Magic Mountain roller coaster. “KeyaaAAAaaAAAah!” They meet Mickey Mouse. “Keyaaaah!” Mickey runs in terror.) But I digress.
Next were some chinese dances, one with colored paper parasols, another with fans with material on them that fluttered in the breeze. It was very cute and feminine and gentle and watching it made me happy. The fans were interesting to watch because they used them all kinds of different ways in their dance. They pretended they were a hat shade, a beard, something to wave with, a flirtation device, and so on. I thought the costumes were a little peculiar, because they showed what appeared to be a Spanish influence. The colors were white, red, and black, their hair was tied back with a red flower behind their right ear, they had dangly things hanging from their shirt, and they wore what looked like gaucho pants.
Next were some Mexican dances done by little girls between the ages of 6 and 15. They seemed to emphasize waving large skirts around and stomping and hopping. There was one boy that did a solo dance, called “The Old Man”. In this dance he walked out hunched over at the waist, supported by a cane, which he waggled in time to the music to depict tottery agedness. Then he seemed to gain strength and do a lot of hopping about, and at the end, he keeled over on his back, as if the old man had died of a heart attack from the excessive exertion of dancing. A very cool touch of humor.
The announcer for those dances kept making jokes about how good-looking he (the announcer) was. He was a middle-aged, slightly pudgy guy, with no particularly distinctive looks, quite average. The first few times those jokes didn’t seem funny, but towards the end it was hilarious. I’m still not sure why.
Then there was Hopi Native American dance, one representing the introduction of the horse to the Indians, and it featured two guys in native regalia, one dancing and the other beating the drum and chanting. The costume of the guy dancing really did make him look like a horse. He had a long, thick, black tail of horse hair popping perkily out of the top of his waistband in back, which swooshed delightfully about, and he had a headdress of black feathers that started at the top of his head and went down his neck to represent a horse mane. He bounced around on alternating feet, shaking a rattle and occasionally waving a stick with feathers fixed to the end, and sometimes gesturing with an ear of corn. He represented the prancing, the galloping, the jumping of the horse, according to the wailing and caterwalling and guttural singing of his buddy beating the drum, “Ale-ale-ale-aa-aa-aa-ale-ale-aaaaaaa-ii-ii-ii-ii-ii-aale”. The guy singing seemed most partial to A and I vowel sounds and L consonant sounds.
After that, the guy who was drumming told the audience that the drum was supposed to symbolize the heart beat of mother earth and of all living things, and to this purpose the beats were even in rhythm and emphasis. He said that Hollywood depicted Indian drum beats differently, with a sort of BUM-bum-bum-bum –BUM-bum-bum-bum” and that if our hearts ever started beating like that we should go see a cardiologist. Much laughter in the land. Excellent to educate the audience and remove misconceptions.
Then they did the hoop dance, which was quite amazing. The guy doing it started by picking up one hoop and put his body through it in the most elastic manner in time to the drumming. Then he picked up the second hoop and made pictures with it and then put his body through and around both of them together. Then he picked up a third hoop and made a globe-like thing with the three hoops. He kept adding hoops and making all kinds of figures – butterfly, bird flying, planet earth with the moon, putting the body through all the hoops and making all kinds of designs, Olympic rings, playing jump-rope, etc. It was acrobatics to music and it was supposed to symbolize how interdependent everything on the earth is. I’d say it was an excellent object lesson for that. No wonder they like these dances and consider them great and important.
The Assyrian dance was a combination between female eastern European styles (lots of stepping and hopping in a line) and Israeli dances. (They probably would hate the comparison to Israeli dance, so don’t tell them I said that.) The last dance they invited the audience to participate and join in the line and a bunch did, including me, but I got my ears blasted out by the speakers when I went in front of them and that was very bad. On the whole, dancing with them was very fun and reminded me of folk dance at BYU.
We saw a Ti Kwon Do demonstration with lots of breaking boards. They yelled “Keyaaaaah!” in unison about every 10 seconds or so, and there was somebody’s enormous dog nearby that decided the yelling was a bark, so every time the group Keyaahed, the dog gave a thunderous bark, which sounded nearly the same! “Keyaah!” ARF! ……“Keyaaaah!” ARF! …..“Keyaaaah!” ARF! There was some giggling in the audience about this.
There was a girl in the Ti Kwon Do group that was quite impressive. She had long black hair, olive complexion, an extremely determined expression, and very lithe. She and this other guy did a sword demonstration to some very vigorous music from “Pirates of the Caribbean”, and it was fascinating to watch her wave that blade around in a blur. The sun sparkled off it. I could just imagine the little boys in the audience would probably go home and start practicing the same with their mama’s biggest kitchen knives. The same girl also did a staff-fighting demonstration, and a sparring exhibition. I didn’t like to watch the sparring. It’s all very well to watch people punch the air to atoms and kick their shadows into next week, and break pine boards into kindling, but I’d rather not watch anyone get flipped on their face and stomped into the ground by someone else, thank you.
The group was so disciplined. They kept up the discipline even when off-stage after their show. Every once in a while we’d hear a “Keyaaaah!” in response to their dragon master’s commands and communication, all while the MC on stage was introducing the next group. At that point the Keyah-ing started to seem ridiculous, probably because it was no longer appropriate to be yelling; it sort of distracted from the main focus on the stage. Imagine them going to Disney world together to see the sights. (“Have a magical day!” “Keyaaaah!” The parade goes by. “Keyaaaah!” They go on the Magic Mountain roller coaster. “KeyaaAAAaaAAAah!” They meet Mickey Mouse. “Keyaaaah!” Mickey runs in terror.) But I digress.
Next were some chinese dances, one with colored paper parasols, another with fans with material on them that fluttered in the breeze. It was very cute and feminine and gentle and watching it made me happy. The fans were interesting to watch because they used them all kinds of different ways in their dance. They pretended they were a hat shade, a beard, something to wave with, a flirtation device, and so on. I thought the costumes were a little peculiar, because they showed what appeared to be a Spanish influence. The colors were white, red, and black, their hair was tied back with a red flower behind their right ear, they had dangly things hanging from their shirt, and they wore what looked like gaucho pants.
Next were some Mexican dances done by little girls between the ages of 6 and 15. They seemed to emphasize waving large skirts around and stomping and hopping. There was one boy that did a solo dance, called “The Old Man”. In this dance he walked out hunched over at the waist, supported by a cane, which he waggled in time to the music to depict tottery agedness. Then he seemed to gain strength and do a lot of hopping about, and at the end, he keeled over on his back, as if the old man had died of a heart attack from the excessive exertion of dancing. A very cool touch of humor.
The announcer for those dances kept making jokes about how good-looking he (the announcer) was. He was a middle-aged, slightly pudgy guy, with no particularly distinctive looks, quite average. The first few times those jokes didn’t seem funny, but towards the end it was hilarious. I’m still not sure why.
Then there was Hopi Native American dance, one representing the introduction of the horse to the Indians, and it featured two guys in native regalia, one dancing and the other beating the drum and chanting. The costume of the guy dancing really did make him look like a horse. He had a long, thick, black tail of horse hair popping perkily out of the top of his waistband in back, which swooshed delightfully about, and he had a headdress of black feathers that started at the top of his head and went down his neck to represent a horse mane. He bounced around on alternating feet, shaking a rattle and occasionally waving a stick with feathers fixed to the end, and sometimes gesturing with an ear of corn. He represented the prancing, the galloping, the jumping of the horse, according to the wailing and caterwalling and guttural singing of his buddy beating the drum, “Ale-ale-ale-aa-aa-aa-ale-ale-aaaaaaa-ii-ii-ii-ii-ii-aale”. The guy singing seemed most partial to A and I vowel sounds and L consonant sounds.
After that, the guy who was drumming told the audience that the drum was supposed to symbolize the heart beat of mother earth and of all living things, and to this purpose the beats were even in rhythm and emphasis. He said that Hollywood depicted Indian drum beats differently, with a sort of BUM-bum-bum-bum –BUM-bum-bum-bum” and that if our hearts ever started beating like that we should go see a cardiologist. Much laughter in the land. Excellent to educate the audience and remove misconceptions.
Then they did the hoop dance, which was quite amazing. The guy doing it started by picking up one hoop and put his body through it in the most elastic manner in time to the drumming. Then he picked up the second hoop and made pictures with it and then put his body through and around both of them together. Then he picked up a third hoop and made a globe-like thing with the three hoops. He kept adding hoops and making all kinds of figures – butterfly, bird flying, planet earth with the moon, putting the body through all the hoops and making all kinds of designs, Olympic rings, playing jump-rope, etc. It was acrobatics to music and it was supposed to symbolize how interdependent everything on the earth is. I’d say it was an excellent object lesson for that. No wonder they like these dances and consider them great and important.
The Assyrian dance was a combination between female eastern European styles (lots of stepping and hopping in a line) and Israeli dances. (They probably would hate the comparison to Israeli dance, so don’t tell them I said that.) The last dance they invited the audience to participate and join in the line and a bunch did, including me, but I got my ears blasted out by the speakers when I went in front of them and that was very bad. On the whole, dancing with them was very fun and reminded me of folk dance at BYU.
Reality Distortion Field
Michaela was hit with RDF (reality distortion field). She needed shock therapy to come out of it, but that is another story.
So, Macworld was last week. And the keynote was Tuesday. And Michaela watched this keynote and was hooked on the Macbook Air. So much that she was sure her next computer would be said computer. As we went out for our annual post-Macworld walk (coincides with the daily walk), I asked her why she wanted this one over the already released notebooks. Well, she came up with lots of good uses for this aluminum jewel, but all of the new uses could be done with her current iBook with a airport card. But she had never expressed an interest in doing ultra-mobile computing before. Well, we went to Frys to look at sub-notebooks, and looked at Macbook Air reviews and finally the RDF wore off. She is now back to just wanting a nice plebeian Macbook.
So, Macworld was last week. And the keynote was Tuesday. And Michaela watched this keynote and was hooked on the Macbook Air. So much that she was sure her next computer would be said computer. As we went out for our annual post-Macworld walk (coincides with the daily walk), I asked her why she wanted this one over the already released notebooks. Well, she came up with lots of good uses for this aluminum jewel, but all of the new uses could be done with her current iBook with a airport card. But she had never expressed an interest in doing ultra-mobile computing before. Well, we went to Frys to look at sub-notebooks, and looked at Macbook Air reviews and finally the RDF wore off. She is now back to just wanting a nice plebeian Macbook.
Birthday
Okay, I have now cut off the date for my belated birthday.
I enjoyed a good birthday, and we went to eat at Golden Corral. I guess the days of being young enough to eat at all you can eat steak is gone. I ate about 1.8 plates and a bowl of ice cream before I was floored. The problem now is that it will take the whole year to burn off those 1.8 plates.
I enjoyed a good birthday, and we went to eat at Golden Corral. I guess the days of being young enough to eat at all you can eat steak is gone. I ate about 1.8 plates and a bowl of ice cream before I was floored. The problem now is that it will take the whole year to burn off those 1.8 plates.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
First Class
Okay, so we flew first class. As you can see, Devon's serenity after airport security, and a long vacation.What 1st class gives:
- Legroom and side room.
- A dinner (salmon and pasta).
- All the drinks you can drink.
- Hot roasted cashews, almonds, and pistachios
- Did I say leg room and a nice reclining chair.
Let it snow
"We had a white Christmas. Just like the ones we used to know. With snow drifts plenty and blight, and a cold wind blowing through the night."*Note: Blight was used on purpose. Michaela didn't follow, but it was suppose to be somewhat negative. In this case a blight shows negative activity by keeping people inside. Like a blight would keep a plant from growing. Okay, hard to follow, but I like the post. Made me feel clever.
Christmas presents
Michaela and Devon opening presents. Thanks everyone for the gifts.Devon and Michaela got a lovely blanket, wheat grinder, and a signed copy of " The Gift". Oh, and first class plane tickets lest we forget.
Michaela got scrabble and battleship board games, scarf and hat.
Devon received a scarf, shirt, coat, LooneyTunes DVD and Airwolf DVD.
FYI: Devon is still wondering if Airwolf is as cool as he thought. Anyone wanting to borrow the DVD, or another 80's show "Greatest American Hero" are welcome to. He now has first seasons of both.
Photos
Well, one thing we did on the trip is take photos. Here is a picture of the Walker family being situated, and I am sure Michaela helped out by taking pictures of the mayhem.
Hat trick
Michaela was working on making knitted hats for Christmas presents this year. At first she tried using circular needles but got frustrated so she started to knit a pannel and was going to sew two sides together. This was taking a long time, and just before they left Devon found a solution. A knitting rings was being used by a sister he home taught. After finding out about it he explained it to Michaela and after getting the ring two hats were done in two days.
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