Haircut

Funny world. I put up a photoset of Renee's summer haircut (taken at her request), and within hours someone had added several of the photos to their favorites. Said person seems to specialize in hairstyle photos/images...

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum

Back in February, Jean, Renee and I went to an all-day Robotics Tournament at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. I took my P&S camera, and took scads of photos. I finally got around to uploading the better images (mostly in focus), and the banner is a sample.

Twenty-two Years Ago

This time the banner samples a mere twenty-two years ago (February of 1989). I was working at what was then called the NASA Lewis Research Center (it was rechristened the Glenn Research Center in 1999). I really can't recall anymore where this picture was taken. Truth to tell, I look a little stoned, holding my precious lab notebook. Perhaps I'd been working to hard (I was known to take classes and work fulltime in those days).

Odds are this was somewhere in the microgravity research labs, where I worked for Arnon Chait. The dude next to me is Mike Fuller. I have no idea what he went on to do.

Sorry, no long hair this time. I was trying to pass as a normal. Still am...

Hunky Dory (and Hanna)

A couple of weeks ago I went to see Hanna, after reading this interview with the director, Joe Wright, who had previously been known for more arty fare, such as Pride and Prejudice. The conflict between a tense spy action movie and a coming of age drama struck me as intriguing. As it turns out, I enjoyed the movie very much. Saoirse Ronan is striking and has great stage presence. The supporting cast seemed perfect. And, the jumps between action and long, contemplative passages where Hanna revels in the new world, are very appealing.

However! There was one scene which tormented me for the last couple of weeks. In it, Hanna has 'stowed away' in a family's van as they drive across Europe on holiday. The scene is meant to show how she is exposed to the casual love and playfulness of a family, so unlike her own boot camp relationship with her own father, played by Eric Bana. But as the family is playfully mucking about, with Hanna observing from her hiding place in the laundry box at the back of the van, a whimsical tune is playing. I knew I had heard this tune many times, but just could not place it.

Well, I tried to look up the song in the soundtrack credits, but they don't include it. The soundtrack for sale is just all Chemical Brothers (the electronica duo responsible for most of the music). Okay, they are fun, but this was not what I wanted to know. No matter how I rephrased my search in Google, it always turned up Chemical Brothers. Wrong!

I had given up.

So tonight, for some reason, I'm browsing album samples on Amazon MP3. I come across an old David Bowie album, Hunky Dory, which I remember listening to in early college years (it had already been out perhaps five years by then). And what a surprise, Kooks is the damn song I was looking for! Interesting synchronicity there, as the song was written by Bowie for his son, whom I knew for years as Zowie Bowie, but whose full legal name is Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones. He is now a well regarded director, responsible for the lovely scifi film Moon (starring Sam Rockwell), and the more recent scifi puzzle/thriller (echoing Philip K. Dick): Source Code.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to uncover this when the Internet failed me. So I'm logging it here in case anyone else is going through the same struggle I did.

Kaiji Second Season

Thanks to Tom, I was alert to the beginning of the much-delayed second season of Kaiji!

I watched the inaugural episode this weekend, and man, I have no words to express this. Something about Kaiji, the minutes-long internal monologues and the endless tears and angst, just tickle me. So I'm in for the next umpty episodes!

Update

Oops! Forgot the endless revelations of what Kaiji is feeling, his plans, his tricks by the omniscient narrator! Hot damn ain't that special?!

Carrots and Lentils in Olive Oil

I found this recipe via one of my numerous rss feeds (yeah, I know, rss is supposed to be dead, go figure). I cooked it up this weekend, minus the mint, and it was very tasty. Jean agrees, Renee opts out due to her aversion to cooked carrots.

One thing I learned is that one does not need to soak lentils before cooking them. The dish tastes fine, but I'm afraid by the time I finished cooking it, it was more of a porridge than a lentil dish. I'll try adding the lentils (washed but not soaked) later in the recipe, and add less water so it doesn't need to boil down so long.

Note to myself: once I have revised this recipe to suit my tastes, record the differing version here.

First Post!

...of 2011, that is.

I don't think I'll be posting much this year, just too busy. But I got tired of staring at the banner picture. I mean, the woman is cute, but the guy? Creepin' me out! So I dug this picture out of Easter 2006 (see if your kids are that 'happy' on Easter).

Anyway, I also missed posting about the tenth anniversary of this weblog, which was in October. Given my general absence, it seems appropriate.