http://worldofwonder.net/archives/2005/Jul/26/snap_cap.wow

Check out the captions.

And of course, 100 Photographs That Changed The World looks more like 28 photographs. I guess the publisher wants you to buy the book.

Check out What's That Bug?.

Especially, check out Ichneumons--how bout that tail!

Some drawings about emotion.

I wonder how many days until the Google Logo Maker will be taken down.

Interesting Videos and Flash Animation. Check out Family Guy takes on A-ha, and Super Bowl Commercials.

Er, excuse me, there must be a mistake: Ypsilanti's Sidetrack Bar and Grill Makes the list of the The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die. After some research, I find that you can take a virtual tour of the Sidetrack, just follow the directions.

And try the Thursday special bonus link: Amaztype, which now offers the ability to display books or music.

My parents are coming up tomorrow for a visit. I just made some reservations for them at the local Marriott, and when I told the reservation person that I was making the reservation on behalf of my parents, she asked if they were older than 62. "Yes," I said. Then she said that the rate would be reduced to $76.00. Great! So I booked them for an extra night. Who knows; maybe they will stay until Monday.

I haven't told my parents that I made reservations--I can always cancel until 6:00 p.m. tomorrow. They are the kind of people who may turn down my good gesture and shop around for 2 hours looking for a better deal, not realizing that they have a good deal that is practially in our back yard. For them, thriving is different for them than it is for me. I guess we all got to decide what makes us thrive, then go for it. I just hope that they understand that I want them here for more than a few days, especially since they give so much more time, money, gas, and labor in their visits with my siblings. Am I jealous? I guess so.

I think that a few years back, I didn't want much from my parents, but I think that I realize they are getting up in years and that I now have some context for their ways. That is a sanitized way of saying that I've been through enough therapy to allow them back into my circle of friends.

I remember one of my grandparents. I was about 6 when she passed away. The other grandparents were gone before I was born. But the grandmother I remember ate a tomato out of the garden, back in Northbrook, where I grew up. Now I got tomatoes in my backyard, and I eat tomatoes off the vine, when I see a good one (the kids eat the cherry tomatoes, when they see a ripe one, though). It is interesting how I can remember a few simple things about my grandmother, on my dad's side, and even take on a simple habit that my parents shared with her, tomatoes in the backyard. I wonder what other traits my parents passed on to me without my explicit knowledge. It would be a shame to live one's life and not examine the blanket of behavior that passes down from one generation to the next.

Then again, too much analysis can drive one nuts.

I don't know if this guy is a genius, incredibly talented, or a fine craftsman, but I like his work: Panoramas by Francis Toussaint.

He also posts several wonderful portraits, of people and animals, if you visit his All Galleries page.

My wife and daughter went out scrapbooking Sunday afternoon. It's sort of a date for them to go to Chelsea and cut and paste the old fashioned way. So I asked my son where he wanted to go for a date with Dad, and he said "The Mall!" I said that was great, let's go and have lunch there.

So we first went to the play area, where he ran around knocking around not too many kids, and after 15 minutes, one of my neighbors and his daughter showed up. Turns out that his wife was out scrapbooking as well. (Me thinks that there was a quadruple date planned ... okay, it was planned.) After a short while, my son and I went to The California Pizza Kitchen, a restaurant in the mall, where we sat at the bar and watched the chefs prepare pizza. He wasn't as interested in the cooking as I thought he would be, but enjoyed playing up and down the tall bar stool. We ordered one cheese pizza and a lemonade. The pizza was great; he had two of the smaller pieces, I had four. I could tell he was getting tired, so after paying the bill, we left the restaurant, walked back to the car, and drove home.

At home, I put him down for a nap and continued reading some Robin Cook, Terminal.

Maybe sometime this week, I'll be done with my first novel in years.

I never researched sunscreens until recently. A few weeks ago on the news, I learned that one is to apply sunscreen 20 minutes before being exposed to the sun. Makes sense now. With a little internet research, I learn that not all sun screen will help prevent melanoma, and other skin cancers, but there are some new sunscreens that offer "broad spectrum" protection. Besides investing in these, it's also recommended to cover up, using a large brim hat (not my style) and loose clothing.

For further reading on sunscreen, check out this link or this link.

The kids found a bird in the neighbor's back yard Thursday. My son ran to our door to tell us about it as my wife and I were finishing some after dinner conversation. I told him not to touch it, but we'd have a look. We both got on our shoes then went to the back yard to check out their discovery. Sure enough, there was a little baby bird hopping through the grass. This guy must have been less than 4 inches long.

My wife explained to the kids that the little bird was probably learning to fly and the chirping they heard was probably its mother nearby. Then, after a couple of steps, the bird jumped and flew a few feet. Then it flew again a few short feet. The kids felt better that the bird was not hurt and was making progress, so we all moved on to something else--like weeding the garden and swinging on swings.

Art. I get to thinking about art every now and then. What is art? Yes, I know, it is stuff like paintings, or dance, or Shakespeare. But what about pedantic things, like riding a bicycle or garage sales? Can a garage sale be art? I read this week about a billboard somewhere (link here, or here, or here). Art, or something, I'm not sure. It is getting some attention. Now is that what art is all about--getting attention? So if I put my Olive Garden kids cup on my desk, it is not art. But if I put my Olive Garden kids cup on my head and I sit up on a chair in the middle of Interstate 94, I have garnered a lot of attention, and probably shut down the highway, but I wonder if this stunt is a few clicks from art. So drawing attention to X is not necessarily art.

Now does art need to communicate? What if I put the Olive Garden Cup on my head, sit up on a chair in the middle of Interstate 94, and put a sign on my body that says "Olives, not bombs"--is this now art? I have a message and I draw attention. But this is not art either, because I am breaking the law. What if I set up this scenario in my front yard, and pissed off the neighbors--would that be art?

I don't know if communication is comprehensive enough. Art is taking a medium and using it so that the message it conveys is unique and beautiful. Ahh, so I would have to set up in the front yard naked, with the message written on my chest, with the Olive Garden cup on my head. So I'd be beautiful, drawing attention, and communicating attention.

Hmm.

I'll let you know how it goes.

In the mean time, I'm going to invite you to check out photos at the Art of Science Competition. Check out the Fallopian Tube image, and the surfactant on a silicon wafer image. Be warned, no nudity, but it would be within the parameters of what I would judge for this competition.

So I'm a day late with this, but check out Google's Lunar Landing Sites. Remember, right click the map and drag to center the map where you want it. You may also zoom with the zoomer tool at the left.

Went to the Ann Arbor Art Fairs yesterday. You can info by drilling down at that link or this link. We ended up eating some pretty bad sandwiches, buying some cool shirts for the kids, and getting rained on at the end. A quick enjoyable time.

Last week Wednesday, I took my wife to her work and I brought my laptop, thinking that I would find a cafe in downtown Ann Arbor, and log into my work with RDC. I use RDC at home nearly every day, and it works great. In order to use it from downtown, all I would need was a hotspot. So I went to Starbucks, because I knew that the restaurant offers a wireless connection. What I didn't know is that their wireless is provided by T-mobile, not exactly a free option. I then went to Borders Books, across the street, and found out that they also have wireless, provided by T-mobile. Nevertheless, I powered up the laptop, and saw that there were some weak intermittent wireless connections that allowed me to access the internet, but because of the poor strength, my connection dropped several times in 10 minutes. This wasn't acceptable, so I left Borders and headed back to my wife's office to let her know that I gave up, and that I would read some fiction in the waiting room.

So I browsed around the internet this afternoon and found a page that supplies what I should have checked from home, before I left last Wednesday for my downtown exercise: Free wi-fi cafes and other wireless hotspots.

We lost power tonight, in the neighborhood, you know. Pulled out the smart orange generator, filled it up with gas and started her up. It was probably the "best" part of my day, getting the generator going, running the sump pump off the generator, and switching extension cords with the neighbors so they could run their sump pump. Around 9:00 p.m. I checked our drain hole and the water was pretty far down, so I checked with the neighbors and after 15 more minutes, I shut off the generator. I figured that I would check around 10:30 p.m. and power it up again if the water level started up again. So the generator was off for a few minutes, I tucked the kids into bed, came downstairs, and our power came on a minute later. It was still the best part of the day, helping out the neighbors and doing some work to get that generator going.

So now we have power and I have a minute to update the blog.

The buzz is that TiVo wants customers check out extended length commercials. I thought the whole point of owning TiVo was so I wouldn't have to get sucked into commercial alley.

It is weird, isn't it?

The pastor at our church/congregation was "selling" his book collection, and it was a collection of over 3000 books, I imagine. I picked up 4 books and I felt that I evaluated them properly and was certain that they would be mine for $1 each. Then after 15 minutes, I thought about the time I have for reading and the time I have for other things in m life, and I decided to put back Martin Buber and the other books in my collection.

My wife took a nap this afternoon. So I cut the grass and I was thinking that sometimes a nap is just a nap and sometimes a nap is something entirely different. Those of you in the inner circle of the Tumbarello clan know what I am talking about. Those of you who have not clue, must research the writings of Punga Umura, and you will find all answers there.

So on a lighter note, here is a not-so-waste-of-time-link: Serenity Environments.

The wife bought me TiVo for my birthday this year. I had a chance to hook it up yesterday and take it for a test drive. Actually, the set up process takes about an hour, then the machine takes a few hours to call home and receive some kind of updates before one can use its playback and record features. So we tested it out in the evening and the functions are nice. One big problem I have with it is that I could not find any way to turn the TiVo off. The problem is that I do not like to wait one second until I see a picture. I like flipping channels and having the picture come up immediately, but with the TiVo, there is a long, one second, delay before the picture comes up. During that second, the TiVo information for the forthcoming program comes up, then the picture comes up second. It is a small nit that I will have to get used to. The benefit is that I can watch the highlights of the Lions over and over again.

This post is for myself. Someday I'll be 99 years old and I'll say to myself, "What was that link of manga drawing techniques that I when I was 36?" And then I'll remember to go to my personal blog and search for "manga techniques". At the time that I find this post (I need to say "hi" to my future self-- "Hi!"), I can click on the link that follows and study up on manga techniques. So with no further ado: manga techniques and online forum.

Went to a garage sale in the neighborhood today and bought a wine storage shelf unit. It holds about 30 bottles. I needed to put on a back support piece, but it is a lovely piece of furniture. Too bad it is going to go in the basement: got to keep that wine nice and cool.

Did I ever post a picture of B's new (garage sale refurb) chest? Of course I haven't posted it yet. Stay tuned for pics in the next few days.

Shoot the penguins, earn points.

The wife and I saw a lawyer today. We were working on a will--this will be our first. You know, it's good to have a will in case tragedy strikes.

Time to pick up the kids.

So I send my daughter over to a friend's house for some afternoon swimming yesterday. My son and I then went shopping at Walmart and found some detangle spray for runaway, tangled hair--this would be for my daughter, of course. We also got some Gadorade, red beans, and I found a few $5.00 tee-shirts for myself. After Walmart, he and I headed towards McDonald's because I thought it was a good afternoon for a little treat. We went inside and I ordered two chocolate milks, two apple pies, and 4 chicken nuggets. We split the nuggets, then chowed down on the apple pies. Quite good.

Left Walmart and headed home. Actually, I was contemplating driving to our H's friend's house to pick her up a little early--or hanging out at the pool with them for a while. Instead, I got a surprise phone call a great friend on my soccer team. She said that she made a gigantic batch of baked macaroni and cheese and she was wondering if she could drop it off. "Sure. Sounds great!" So I drove home, I put another quick coat of paint on a storage chest for B's room. When the friend from soccer came over with dinner I was a little stunned. She probably used a pound of pasta shells and it looked like enough for 18. She also brought edamame soy beans in their salted shells. She explained that you suck the bean out and discard the shells. She also brought some terrific bing cherries and some zucchini bread. She was heading out to Chelsea so I said good-bye, then packed B into the car so we could pick up my daughter at her friend's house.

When I got to the house, about 15 minutes later, H was dressed and had her backpack and a water bottle with the label ripped off. She showed me a bug on the inside, swimming in some pool water. I learn that this water bug can do flips and tricks and is harmless to people. I said that's great, it may not last long at home. Well, the friend's mother explained that we could put the bug in a glass bowl and watch it do tricks for hours--provided that it doesn't fly off. Thanks, we'll do that, I said unimpressed. When we got home, I filled a glass bowl with water and H poured the little creature into the bowl. It flipped and swam happily. Hours later, when the kids were in bed, I watched this guy swim and flip around. I thought I could keep it for the next day, and my kids would greet a dead bug in the bowl in the morning, or I could dispose of this guy right away. I took the easy way out, and I hope the kids don't mind.

Now this is a game that I quit at level 11 or 12: Planarity.

Have you seen The Google Maps Pedometer. If you need to know how far you have walked, run, rode, swam, just click Record, then double click on your starting point, then double click at each turn. Easy to use. Another useful tool from google or just a waste of time? You decide.

Check out the mp3 of How You Make Me Hate, by The Essence. It is the first link at the top of this page.

Now that I looked at the lyrics--pretty wicked.

Other mp3 tracks can be found at their homepage: The Essence.

Now regarding my decision to return to school and get "educated" as an "educator": me thinks I will not pursue the endorsement in mathematics and instead take the easy way out and work for the endorsement in communications/theater arts. I know. I know. I am not a theater person. So before you all get excited and send me emails & comments about my lack of theater skills, I need to put this back in perspective for you all (yall). My major in college was Communications. My Master's was in Communications. My liberal interest is in theory and interpersonal communications. I agree, that mathematics comes easy to me, and if I were given a free ticket to school with no cost other than time, I would probably teach math in 2 or 3 years. But given that I am working 40 hour weeks and I have 2 lovely kids and a great wife, I need to accept that mathematics and the course work would take too much of my time for too many years. If my goal is really to coach men's cross country and track, then I need to keep my eyes on that goal. Nothing wrong with that. So it seems to me that taking the route with the least amount of remedial work (Communications would have none) gets me to my goal with the least amount of pain (and most amount of fulfillment). I have no problem with Communications and teaching the subject to high school students. I wouldn't have any problem teaching Advanced Algebra, Trig, or Calculus either. The hours I would have in the front of the kids would sort of be a means to an end, as I have discussed previously, see my discussion on April 6, 2005. And with my incredible ability to use both sides of my brain and communicate effectively in both worlds, I might as well begin with the side of my brain that causes me the least amount of pain.

Now, it is true that an endorsement in mathematics would afford me an easier route to a teaching position, but there is no reason why that couldn't be second in my multiple career life.

So enjoy the music (as much as you can enjoy "How You Make Me Hate") and I'll keep you posted.

Had a Fourth of July picnic at Mill Pond Park with the kids and wife in Saline this afternoon. We had more taking risks crossing the river than playing in the playground. Ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches and snacked on carrots and chips. After the park, we enjoyed some ice cream at Dairy Queen. That brought back childhood memories.

Now my daughter just created some invitations for her "Money Party", and she gives me one and says "Dad, can you come to my money party?!" I guess she wants money.

Nifty link of the day is this page that displays newspaper front pages from around the world. The click and drag and magnify interface takes a little getting used to, but this is a wonderful waste of time, for the news junky.

It's been a crazy weekend and I'm glad we made it through.

I guess the big news is that NASA has smashed a probe into a comet. In comparison to that, nothing I did this weekend seems to matter much.

There is also the news that this is the Fourth of July, some black birds are eating suet outside out back door, and our daughter spent 3/4 of the night outside with the neighbors, in their tent. Before that, we shared some sparklers and fireworks with the neighbors.

No plans today, for the 4th.