1980 honda cm 400 t
Image by hvincentt
hi, everyone from cyclechaos! i have no idea who you people are, but you sure do seem to like this picture :)
never mind that the side cover says 400e; the previous owner busted it up and couldn't find a matching one to replace it. all the more class.
my first baby and i love her to death.
DSC_4199.JPG
Image by Rich Gibson
Heather puts the BIG CUP to use at the Hotel Champagne palace breakfast. The day before she had scoped out the coffee cup situation. All the cups were different. So she planned for the next day, and today scored the BIG cup.
11/22/2004 - Monday: in Rome Roma, the Vatican, train to Florence Firenze
tags: italy
Monday Reality
Left hotel a bit late...not too bad. Tried to get on the subway but there was a line up the stairs. We were going to take a bus, but then we got a cab. 10 euros to take a cab two metro stops...I sort of think that wasn't strictly kosher...but maybe it was. it was still fun. We got to go under a tunnel that we saw yesterday during our ordeal march of being lost.
the idea was to catch the capucin crypts on the way to the vatican. But they were closed...still. so we slipped down back into the subway. We had used our single use tickets when we were turned back by the line at the Termini station, but we decided that the moral constraints were met, so we slipped through and re-used the tickets to get to the vatican. AFter all, we had gone through the gate, but we hadn't gotten on a train...
so the train left at 4:48ish, maybe 4:47...basically right on time ...
Off we rushed to the Vatican museum. We arrived at 10:00...and the english tour was at 10:30, so just enough time to get oriented and rest a bit before the ordeal by marbel floor!
We had a nice tour guide. First she showed us a sort of parchement view of the sistine chapel-two rulls of text and pictures with details of the different scenes. She would wind it down to get the next view.
This was fascinating...I am phenomenally underinformed of art and cultural matters...it is almost a cliche to say that, but egads it it true.
on the other hand, there are things we know today that were unknown 200 years ago. Amazingly...apparantly the whole forum area was under dirt until 18-something. So much dirt that only the tops of the columns were exposed. and even now much remains.
The archeologists cringe over the techniques used to clear what is now exposed. There have been several recent archeological 'campaigns' among the ruins of palatine hill that have excavated pre-roman huts. one of the write ups discussed the findings of 27 flakes of flint, indicating tool maing. So infering thngs based on bits of things found...which is the whole point of archeology.
And it made me realize that they are not done excavating Rome Roma...an odd thing to realize, since only a moment's consideration would reveal how obvious that is! There are Indian mounds that the archeologists are intentionally leaving alone for now, with the expressed plan of letting future archeologists examine them when they have better techniques.
my ears are popping...and the gps lost its lock...I then look out and realize we are going through a tunnel. ah...sense is made.
maybe...perhaps it wasn't a tunnel...I can't tell. several more episodes of pressure changes are occuring.
There are sliding head rests on the cabin walls in back of the seats. they are padded and have vertical supports so that you can lean on them to sleep without falling into the window, or onto your neighbor. they slide up and down to allow you to adjust to your preferences.
We didn't see the capucini crypt, because it was closed, and it was getting dark as we got on the train, but we are doing pretty well.
The vatican tour took two hours...and it seemed that we were moving much of the time. they have these slick radio receivors so you can hear the tour guide even if you are in the next room back.
I had a strong response to a tapestry depicting the slaughter of the chilidren by herod. One baby is being held, barely, by its mother and a soldier has a dagger to the child's heart. The baby is about to die. Other mother's are using their bodies to shield their infants. it is truly horrible.
damn! the pressure changes are really frequent, and amazingly annoying.
I downloaded a bunch of stuff from 'hex'-a friend of Jo and Schuyler's. I'm reading
how to build a reality that doesn't fall apart two days later...file:///Users/admin/wa/web/downlode.org/etext/how_to_build.html
I'm on the train...fighting sleep. I need to pee, but to do that I worry I'll have to wake the gentleman seated in front of the door to our compartment.
passing through orte...at 5:27:00---possibly even got a track point. I had a signal for a moment.
well..more than a moment, but not too long. there is crying in the hall....
The GPS showed us going 115 mph, for a bit. not just one observation. interesting. fast.
The hall of maps was cool because I realized it was, or could have been, not about art and instead was about the simple matter of managing an empire.
I enjoyed the museum, duh, and the Sistine chapel...and then we climbed the dome! I loved that! I truly loved it. We got to the top and I could see radio vatican and the quiet parts of the vatican and various 'stuff.' I don't know why, but seeing vatican radio made me happy.
We descended...heather waited while i ran about St. Peter's one more time. I went back into the catecombs...and reflected again at st. peter's grave, and the crypts of the popes. different passageway's were open from last time...you went in and out on different sides. Saturday we went through more passageways, past bits of monuments, even broken bits, supposedly the memorials for past popes there had been recovered via archeological digs and the like...little rooms, with gates, and some stones mounted on the walls.
Today I looked through a grate and down at a compartment that seemed to be set up as a small chapel. maybe a particularly holy pope was buried there.
When they embalm a pope, or remove anything from one, they send the bits to a particular church in room so the bits don't become relics.
I was struck by how clean and non-catacomb like the area was that we were allowed to tour. There were passageways that looked like they might get more 'creepy' small and twisty, but it was all clean...I guess marble does that for you.
Heather was whipped. We walked the .4 miles to cafe ruggio (is that it? The antipasto bar place by gellati millenium. it is in the Rick steve's book. We tried for it Saturday, but it was still closed, and we tried today, but closed Monday. Both faux paws (sic) could have been avoided if we had looked at the book and actually _read_ that listign first.
I have so many books and things that I don't really need...
Well Heather felt really crappy...but we ate at the little place by millenium gellati. It was great. The woman dished me up two plates. First a bowl of pasta, and then a plate with veal, mushrooms, zucchine, and peas with ham. It was in little bowls and I got to pick...heather had a panini. I was jsut positive that I was suffering eyes bigger than my head syndRome Roma, but
(and here the laptop powered down, I was writing on the train, and now it is the next day and some, 1:20 am on the 24th) I ate everything, and had a gellato after. And we went to the big 'M.' We found the M, but there was no metro...it was up another block. We metroed to the train station. Identified a train time, then grabbed our stuff at the hotel.
We spent time at the internet cafe DSC_4285.JPG, DSC_4286.JPG, DSC_4287.JPG ... They didn't support ssh! well I finally did send an email to folks via the webmail at work.
Then the train! The train was great. And we whisked into Florence Firenze. We wandered streets for a bit, then I got lock on the GPS, and knew we were .15 miles, and we wandered. I didn't remember the street name (via nazzionale, #10), but when we stumbled onto it Heather identified it. And we were a half block away.
Check in went smoothly. We fooled around, and then took to the streets. We ate at trattoria Sostanza-Troia (see p285 of Rick Steves). There were tour de france pictures on the walls, and signed photos dating back. We enjoyed it! A bottle of table wine. Tortellini with a house sauce, and then pot roast with beans. Heather had a bean salad and a salad.
Then we wandered back and bought a bottle of wine and some chocolate. Heather studied our books, and I sort of watched the Tony Gatuf movie Swing. I think it was in Italian with French subtitles. After all of that Art, and trying to read the pictures, I watched it in a different way. Paying attention to the cultural signifiers and all of that jazz. Having thoughts like 'why did he frame that shot that way? What does that use of open space say?" etc...
HUMAN EVOLUTION
Image by Okinawa Soba
The above graphic should settle all arguments, both religious and scientific, as to who among us sits at the top of the evolutionary model in man's March of Progress.
This pictographic document has long been known by members of the KKK, the ARYAN BROTHERHOOD, the NAZI PARTY, and the Education and Propaganda Departments of both CHINA and JAPAN, who have been at each others throats for centuries, each claiming to be the SUPREME RACE.
Unfortunately, these barbaric tribes and nations could only agree on one thing : TO SUPPRESS THE ABOVE CHART AT ALL COSTS. Therefore, the peoples of the world were left with an incomplete picture of the Evolution of Man, which erroneously showed HOMO SAPIENS to be the crowing achievement of our evolutionary progress.
The discovery of this long-lost chart has now rendered all such arguments completely moot.
Found on a T-SHIRT in an Okinawa Souvenir Shop, the discovery of this here-to-fore unknown graphic has spurred evolutionary scientists to re-examined the DNA evidence, resulting in the surprise confirmation that the UCHINANCHU (Okinawans) do indeed form a new level of evolution that makes the normal Homo Sapiens seem like Neanderthals in comparison.
Scientists speculate that the upward evolutionary break from the homo sapiens came as a natural response to the negative environmental pressures of having to put up with both the US Military and Japanese occupation of their advanced Island Civilization.
While the lowly Homo Sapiens are known for being adept at inventing lots of things and making war, the more advanced UCHINANCHU life forms are known for not letting things bother them, getting along with everyone, drinking a powerful rice whiskey called Awamori, and singing and dancing he night away whenever they get the chance. They also seem to make a lot of babies in the process.
The Okinawans have invented many festivals and holidays as an excuse to indulge in these pastimes, and, as further proof of their separation from the lower forms around them, live longer, healthier, and happier lives than the CHINESE, JAPANESE, and US MILITARY they have to deal with on a daily basis.
On the other hand, the Okinawans also work a lot harder than the barbaric tribes mentioned above. And they work WAY harder than certain Officials of the US State Department who come here masquerading as so-called "Diplomats" --- especially a former director of the US State Department's Office of Japan Affairs (and former US Consul General in Okinawa) whose extremely LAZY approach to learning and understanding history is not unlike that of a corpse trying to learn what life is all about.
abcnews.go.com/International/us-diplomat-kevin-maher-repl...
In a scientific endorsement of the "ONE DROP RULE", it has also been discovered that if you can find even one drop of OKINAWAN BLOOD in your ancestral tree, your future prodigy has the best chance of making the world a better place.
Otherwise, like poor Okinawa Soba (that's me), you are doomed to a future that is controlled and directed by Homo Sapien idiots and nincompoops.
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The above information is completely true, and is supplied as both a service and a warning to all mankind. For further information on this new evolutionary discovery, please consult my still-unwritten book, THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT OKINAWA, complied from notes I forgot to keep while under the influence of 120-Proof Awamori.
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NOTE ON THE GRAPHIC : This "HUMAN EVOLUTION" graphic is by local artist and designer YUSATAKA HANASHIRO of the Okinawa City Tourist Bureau, and reproduced here with his permission. Tasked with coming up with a T-SHIRT and POSTER idea for the 2011 EISA FESTIVAL, he decided on a parody / spoof of the famous "March of Progress" illustration by RUDOLF ZALLINGER (1919-1995) that first appeared in the 1965 Time-Life book, Early Man.
Needless to say, it got a lot of approval from the local Okinawans, who --- after living with American and Japanese occupiers for the past 60 --- know that the funny parody is a lot closer to the truth than most people realize !
^_^
♥ THE ORIGINAL : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_Progress
♥ SIMILAR 1992 PARODY ALONG THE SAME LINES : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encino_Man
♥ EVOLUTION OF JAPANESE FOOTBALL / SOCCER : rlv.zcache.com/evolution_of_japanese_football_soccer_play...
♥ PURPOSE OF THE UCHINAA POSTER : EISA DANCERS and the ESIA FESTIVAL : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisa_%28dance%29
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OTHER PARODIES OVER ON PHOTOBUCKET NOT ENDORSED BY OKINAWA SOBA : i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa133/EpicKira/evolution.png
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RANDOM SOBA : www.flickriver.com/photos/24443965@N08/sets/
22/52 - Percy
Image by Sterlic
Went up to Falls today with some friends and their dog, kayaked a bit, burnt my feet on blazing hot pavement, took some pictures, and ate cookies. Good day.
I also decided to start shooting exclusively in RAW (okay, RAW+JPEG, baby steps) and when I got back home I downloaded the trial of Lightroom. Even though I have no idea what I'm doing with it yet it's pretty sweet, I'll need to grab the full version when I get some extra cash.
Tatiana Fitzpatrick's "Stone Flower" Best of Show 2010 Army Arts and Crafts Contest
Image by familymwr
Tatiana Fitzpatrick took best-of-show honors in the 2010 Army Arts and Crafts Contest with an elaborate “Stone Flower” necklace that topped the accomplished metals and jewelry category.
www.armymwr.com
Fitzpatrick’s ‘Stone Flower’ best of show in Army Arts and Crafts
By Tim Hipps
FMWRC Public Affairs
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Tatiana Fitzpatrick took best-of-show honors in the 2010 Army Arts and Crafts Contest with an elaborate “Stone Flower” necklace that topped the accomplished metals and
jewelry category.
Fitzpatrick, who hones her crafts at Army Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Arts and Crafts facilities at Camps Walker and Henry in Korea, relied on her “Tatiana’s motif” – a combination of embroidery, bead-stringing and braiding cabochon – to simulate “the Stone Flower” from Malachite Mountain that inspired Russian writer Pavel Bazhov’s folk tale.
“I wanted to express the attraction and intangibility of the mythical stone flower, whose living beauty was impossible for Danila, the rock-carving master of the tale, to make out of malachite,” Fitzpatrick said. “In my necklace, you can see the Malachite flower turning into a difficult-to-catch bird or butterfly.”
Fitzpatrick’s use of antique and vintage micro beads make the embroidered piece appear delicate and light. The bottom cabochon is specially made in a unique embroidered frame, which reveals the back of the stone’s beauty, she said.
Fitzpatrick also earned an honorable mention in the Army Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation-backed contest for her “Set Spring Nascency” necklace and bracelet.
“The idea of this set came to me while I was expecting a baby, and from the experience of spring on the nature of my home city with hills covered in thick snowdrifts sparkling under the sun on the thin crust of ice over the snow with billions of snow ‘diamonds,’” Fitzpatrick said. “And a real miracle – flying real butterflies among all this snow – showed me the exact image of this set.
“It has a deep sense of human’s closeness to nature, combining ideas of expectance by a mother for her child and Mother Nature for spring. I wanted to accent the beauty of the expecting mother and the beauty of the snow-melting time with its clear, thin delicate ice, sparkling snow and joyful spirit.”
Fitzpatrick appropriately spent nine months on that project.
It also took about nine months to inspire Lt. Col. Leon Pennington’s “Midtour” sculpture, which earned third-place honors in accomplished ceramics.
“I sculpted this piece as a gift for my wife to celebrate our mid-tour reunion during my Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment,” said Pennington of Fort Stewart, Ga., who took first place in accomplished wood with “The Fall of David.”
Pennington also earned third-place accomplished metals and jewelry honors with his bronze rendition of “LTC Phil Pugh – A Soldier.”
“This portrait of Lt. Col. (ret.) Phil Pugh was requested by his family in celebration of his distinguished military career,” said Pennington, who has enjoyed an accomplished career in the annual Army Arts and Crafts Contest. “The sculpture was executed in water-based clay then cast as a bronze using the lost-wax process.”
Sgt. Ryan Winch of Yongsan, Korea, took first place in the accomplished mixed media two-dimensional category by using a pencil, black ink pen and Photoshop to provide color and dynamic shading to his “Fixation of an Engineer” drawing.
“It depicts a man tinkering with machines in an attempt to understand them and give them a soul,” Winch said. “In the process, he slowly becomes a machine himself.”
Winch earned honorable mentions in the mixed media two-dimensional category for “The House of Bunglehon” and in the accomplished drawing division for “Tree of Skulls.”
“I’m not usually into the darker images,” he said of the latter. “But this one was fun to do.”
Jennifer Worthington, a Soldier’s wife at Fort Bliss, Texas, won the accomplished ceramics category with “Ekolu,” which is Hawaiian for “three,” so named because of the repetition of threes in the piece. She crafted the winning ceramic at the Army MWR Arts & Crafts Center at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, where she volunteered to help keep the shop vibrant while her husband was stationed at Schofield Barracks and deployed in Iraq.
“I used the arts and crafts center a lot,” she said. “I wish I could have used it more because it’s probably one of the best arts and crafts centers I’ve come across.”
For Worthington, a former Soldier who holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in 3-D design from Mississippi University for Women, crafting is a lifelong thing. Her work earned three first places and one runner-up finish in the past three years of the Army Arts and Crafts Contest.
“I just like the creative process involved in it – being able to express aspects of your personality through your art,” said Worthington, who hopes to own a studio some day. “My husband likes to work on his truck. I like to do art. For me, it’s a stress-reliever – something I can express myself in and feel like I’ve accomplished something.”
Fern Damour, a military Family member at Yongsan, Korea, took first place in the accomplished fibers category with a quilt named “In the Direction of Autumn,” an original design seemingly brought to life by a multi-fabric background with the use of partial piecing.
Carol Smith, a Department of Defense employee at Fort Monmouth, N.Y., won the novice ceramics category with “Wheel Thrown Teapot with Two Tea Cups” and received an honorable mention for “Japanese Style Lantern.”
CW4 Richard Kopitskie of Yongsan won the novice fibers and textiles category with “Halmoni’s Garden.”
“All of the flowers in the picture were grown by my mother in law, which is where the title came from,” said Kopitskie, who used batik, a drawing on cloth painted with melted crayon, crumbled, dyed and ironed.
Kopitskie’s “Razor Blade Rose” landed third place in novice metals and jewelry. The piece features copper wire, 18 single-edge razor blades, more than 50 double-edged razor blades, sewing needles, black silicone adhesive and a rubber ball.
“The barbed-wire stem was made from twisting stripped electrical wire and attaching it to a rubber ball,” he explained. “The rose leaves were made by heating 18 double-edge razor blades with a torch until they glowed red and were then glued to the stems. The torch-heating changed the color of the blades and allowed bending of the razors. The rose pedals were formed by holding 50-plus single-edge razor blades with needle-nose pliers until heated to a cherry red. Each pedal had to be fitted before being glued in place with black RTV.”
Seems perfectly fitting that Kopitskie also took third place in novice water base painting with “Tools of the Trade,” which features various artillery-specific equipment, such as multiple launch rocket systems, high mobility artillery rocket systems and counterfire radar.
Andrew Washington, another Army Arts and Crafts Contest regular who works at U.S. Army Garrison Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, won the accomplished oil base painting category with “Red Couch.”
“This painting started as a sketch and was later sketched onto canvas,” Washington said. “I wanted to create a character sitting and appear to be dancing on a flaming red couch. The challenge was adding shadows and light, focusing on the character and not taking anything away from the red couch.”
Washington, who regularly paints for passersby on the streets of Germany, also took second place in accomplished mixed media two-dimensional with “Mechanical Mind.”
“This piece started as an oil painting,” he explained. “Then I raised the right side of his face by using Impasto Gel for a 2D effect. I painted the right side of his face with acrylic and glued watch parts for a 2D effect. The material used for his collar and the cloth in his right pocket were cut from a handkerchief. His collar and handkerchief were glazed over with Impasto Gel for effect.
“His top pocket was raised with Impasto Gel and his black suit was painted with acrylic and oil. Pen and ink was used to simulate veins in his skull and was lightly painted over with oil. A ceramic button was used for his right eye, and oil was used for his face and background.”
Perhaps it takes creative minds to illustrate what makes mechanical minds tick – such are the stalwarts of the Army Arts and Crafts Contest.
