| T plus one year. (The T stands for Tater Tots) |
[25 Sep 2008|09:54pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 accomplished |
] |
Ladies and gentlemen, it has officially been one year since Sophia and I tied the knot. One could argue that the year lapsed on Tuesday on the fifty-second week, but screw it, it’s today. It was a wonderful first year, with lots of lovin’ and huggin’ and kissin’ and other mushy crap. So there were some arguments and childish tantrums and whining, but that just means it’s a real marriage - with lots of room for the both of us to mature (an abyssal trench worth of room). Anyway, it was totally worth it and would totally do it all over again. I highly recommend this marriage racket. I got a life-long companion out of it, and it makes me giddy every time I think about it. See? Mushy crap. Anyway, so you must wonder what we did to celebrate the occasion. First, we dined at Mai (formerly Haru) Sushi and the food was heavenly. If you like sushi, do yourself a favor and go there sometime and try the tuna and avocado salad. We intended to swing by next door to Dave’s Comics and celebrate our paper anniversary in apropos geek fashion, but Dave’s was closed. So we drove to Sticky Rice ToGoGo to buy a take-out order of Tater Tots and do you know what happened when we walked in the door? The Sushi chef who was on duty the night we wed was on duty tonight and he recognized us! And he remembered our world tour! And like a year ago, he gave us our tater tots on the house! (We left a massive tip…) And that’s about it. We came home and watched My Name is Earl and ate our tater tots with spicy mayo and Sri-Racha. And although we did not drink Champagne with our tots this time, we took a nice picture of the champagne bottle next to the tots. So, almost as good… It’s been a good year. Here’s to the next year and all the years after. |
|
| Pictures from Israel Posted! |
[01 Apr 2008|03:04pm] |
I finally finished uploading and labeling the pictures Sophia and I snapped in Israel. The trip was very relaxing and had a balanced mix of traveling and visiting with friends and family. Thank you so much to all who hosted us and fed us; we can't wait to come back and see you all again.
Click here to see the pictures. Please leave comments, you know we loves them and you to, dearies.
|
|
| Michael Douglas |
[05 Mar 2008|02:37pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 chipper |
] |
OK, this was supposed to go up on the 17th of February, but if you know me, you know I'm a giant procrastinator, so no big surprise here. Enjoy:
---
Last night Sophia and I had dinner with Michael Douglas. He visited Richmond (his first time) to speak (though the Richmond Forum) about his life, career, and advocacy. We started with dinner at the downtown Marriot hotel where he was introduced and spoke for a few minutes. After dessert we took several busses to the Landmark Theater where Michael spoke for about an hour (I think, I wasn't timing him). The theme for the talk was finding peace in his life from his first moment of peace when his estranged parents first met after separating to his current role as UN Ambassador of Peace and advocate for nuclear weapon non-proliferation and disarmament.
I found most interesting the parts about his relationship with his father, Kirk, especially telling him that he was too old to play the lead in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and repairing their relationship when Michael won the Academy Award for his role in Wall Street. There was also a funny anecdote on how after Kathleen "I'm a duuuude" Turner and he pranked Danny DeVito one too many times on the set of Romancing the Stone they were pranked in return when they starred in The War of the Roses which DeVito directed. In the scene toward the end of the film where Douglas and Turner are hanging from the chandelier the crew set them up on safety harnesses and right before the scene was to be shot DeVito called "LUNCH!" and the crew left for lunch with the two actors hanging from the chandelier for the duration.
After a ten minute intermission he returned with a question and answer session moderated by Jeffrey Brown of the PBS television news magazine "The News Hour" with Jim Lehrer.
After that we re-loaded the buses, returned to the Marriot, and enjoyed a buffet of desserts. As Sophia and I were nibbling on some strawberries and possibly some cheese the door nearest to us opened and Mr. Douglas and his entourage entered. Sophia and I were literally the second and third people respectively that he shooks hands with; and you know what surprised me the most? Michael Douglas has extremely soft hands! They're as soft as over-ripe bruised fruit. A little disconcerting, but you don't really mind because you're shaking hands with Michael f*cking Douglas!
Anyway, if you want to see some pictures, mosey on over here.
|
|
| Happy F*$&ing Hallmark Day |
[14 Feb 2008|11:44am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
Rebellious |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Clare de Lune |
] |
No offense nor ill-will meant toward those of you who celebrate Valentine's Day but neither my wife nor I celebrate it. We both think:
A) It's a ploy by Hallmark et. al. to make money.
B) It's silly to set aside one day per year to show your love to someone when you should show your love every day.
So today we're continuing a tradition we started last year - we're celebrating what we've decided is the true meaning of Valentine's Day (Death, Violence, Pain, Blood, Martyrdom, Massacre) by staying in and away from all the desperate crazies "going out" tonight and watching a bloody movie together.
Last Year's movie was "RAN" by Akira Kurosawa. It was a bit long and slow in parts but had some delicious Samurai Battles and beheadings. Unfortunately, we kinda fell asleep part-way through; I did mention it was long and slow, right?
This year we're watching my favorite Werewolf flick: Dog Soldiers. The werewolf effects are done completely with actors in suits and robotics and the only CGI is in one change to an actor's eye color to yellow to indicate he's about to transform. The cast is all British with absolutely fantastic ensemble acting and humorous dialog. There are also plenty of Sci-fi and fantasy references including two characters named (Sergent) H. G. Wells and (Corporal) Bruce Campbell. There's plenty of cheese to go with the blood and gore, and I can't help but love this movie. I ordered the British Version (Region 2) because it actually contains special features - documentaries and the like - and because Sophia had the forethought to purchase a Region Free DVD player.
|
|
| Sweeney was smooth, Sweeney was subtle. Sweeney would blink and rats would scuttle. |
[12 Jan 2008|01:42pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 anxious |
] |
( Cut for saccharine tripe )
On to Sweeney Todd! Keep in mind that I love the Sondheim stage show. It is arguably my favorite musical, actually. I love the vocal virtuosity, the black humor, the technical wizardry involved with the chair, chute, and Mrs. Lovett's and Sweeney's apartments. I love the dark musical themes, especially those based on Dies Irae. And I loved Angela Lansbury's performance as Mrs. Lovett; she was a complete hoot!
I liked the movie, all things considered. They had to cut some of the songs and alter others to match some minor changes in the order of event sin the plot, but most of the songs cut were unnecessary to begin with. "Parlor Songs" was a particularly annoying part of the stage show that I appreciated was cut. It did demonstrate Beadle Bamford's complete and total lack of testosterone (Dude's a freakin' castrati!) but I just wanted to yell out, "Get on with it!"
I did miss "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" (This is the one based on Dies Irae). I read that Burton did record the various incarnations of this song to place throughout the movie (Sung by Sweeney's victims, including blink-and-you'll-miss-him Anthony Stewart Head aka Rupert Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) but did not include them in the movie for whatever reason; probably that it would work quite right. This is one reason I am looking forward to the "Special Edition" DVD; it would be the acme of foolishness to exclude these songs from the special features section.
Anyway, the movie was pure Burton Magic. Dark, twisted, nightmarish, dirty, and bloody as hell. When Sweeney starts slitting throats, the audience sees this close-up. The blood drips, sprays, squirts, and runs and the audience sees it all. This is in no way a movie for children under 18. The music is orchestrated very well and although the major characters played by Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, and Sasha Baron Cohen weren't particularly strong singers, they made up for this fact by selling the song and scene though their acting. The camera was right there in the scene, so they didn't need to project quite as much as the stage actors. The supporting, or shall I say, younger cast of characters (Johanna, Antony, Toby) were cast by unknowns and were fantastic singers! Of particular note and pleasure - look out for Johanna's "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" and Toby's "Not While I'm Around."
Now, Sophia is not a big fan of blood, gore, and the creepy crawlies. She does not deal well at all with horror movies and spent much of the latter part of this movie with her face in her hands. She did enjoy much of the earlier parts of the movie, especially the humorous scenes such as "A Little Priest", "By the Sea", and "The Worst Pies In London". She also likes the sweeter side with "Johanna" (Sweeney's version) and "Pretty Women".
The production values were outstanding. Sets, costumes, props, were all very rich and detailed. You can expect no less from Tim Burton, really.
And as gruesome as the final shot is, it's one of the most striking beautiful and horrifying images I've seen on the silver screen.
If you like Tim Burton's work, you'll love this movie. If you like Sondheim you might have some problems with the cuts and alterations in the songs, though the music itself is still very powerful. You may also dislike the underpowered vocals from the older, better known cast members, but the younger crowd is amazing.
And if you like horror movies and don't mind a little song and dance, you'll probably like it, too.
|
|
| Apparently, I'm famous... |
[07 Jan 2008|11:40am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 amused |
] |
Although it's a time-limited proposition, if you browse to the main page of BlackLava.Net you should be able to see me in all my hirsute (but fully clothed!) glory. If said time has lapsed said image can be found Here.
Sophia knows Ryan Suda, proprietor of Black Lava and has used her insider's influence to finagle the appearance of my image in their gallery. If you purchase something from Black Lava, I'm sure she could help you make the cut, as well. Or, you know, you could just send it in by email...
And yes, I have been in several situations in which I could have used the conviction that I am indeed not a terrorist. If you were an airport security employee, who would you pull out of line for an extra-strength security check? The pretty blonde valley girl? The slick but pissy business man yacking on his cell phone? The overburdened mother con toddler sans father? The cranky, holier than thou grandmother? Any of the other generic stereotypical faces?
The pale, long-haired dude with dark circles under his eyes, vague attention span, and the only beard in line?
It's OK, folks! He's married to an Asian chick! It's the perfect cover!
What's with that, any way? What is it with the white dudes and Asian chicks? It's like I'm now a member of TWO global conspiracies...
|
|
| If it wasn't for the terror and the physical agony... |
[30 Dec 2007|09:42pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
amused |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
The Sound of Music |
] |
Sophia and I went ice-skating today; it was Sophia's first time ever, and my first time since 1991, I'd estimate. Back then I was 13 years old, my family was living in western New York State, and my youngest brother had not yet been born. Although it had been over 16 years it took me only about an hour today to remember the very basics of skating; it was all intuition and muscle memory. It was a bit strange for me to use hockey skates this time around; in the past I'd always used figure skates since I could never get used to not being able to move my ankles while skating. It was weird and constricting. Anyway, while I had this minor irritation with my skates Sophia's were causing her chronic agony. Like C-clamps where her arches should have been! Oh, have I mentioned that my beautiful, darling wife has no arches on her feet? They're flat! Like pizzas! She'd be the perfect grape stomper, just like Lucy and Ethyl. So not only has she never skated before, she must learn how in terrible pain! Terrible The Little Mermaid after she was transformed into a human but before Disney got their claws into her pain! Apart from all that scheiße it was a lot of fun for us. Sophia was so cute in her largely successful attempts to skate. She did not even fall down once and progressed from hugging the wall in blind panic to coasting past other wall-huggers with only moderate anxiety and skating away from the wall for 10 - 20 seconds at a time; at moderate speeds, too. My wife excels at learning new skills, and I am very proud of her. We started by skating half-a-lap to the penalty box together whereupon she'd rest and I'd skate a lap or two and then we'd skate to the bleachers together - she'd rest again while I skated some laps, rinse, repeat. Eventually the pain was too much and we decided to turn in our skates and call it a day, but we managed over an hour of skate time without actually strangling the little shits that would skate circles around us and generally get in our way. If I may indulge in a bit of schadenfreude; one of said "little shits" who actually skated in between us while I was trying to keep Sophia steady somehow got knocked upside the head. I saw his father leading him to the bleaches whereupon he applied and icepack to his head. Good times. |
|
| New W&M Logo |
[28 Dec 2007|11:36pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 irritated |
] |
  To the left you can see four versions of the new logo for The College of William and Mary in Virginia; my alma mater. To the right, you can see the old logo. I won't go into details about why the logo had to be changed or what I thought about the old logo; this blog post is dedicated to bitching about the new logo. The new logos are pretty terrible, with the exception of the second one from the top which is tolerable. My problem is that all but the second logo are bland, boring, and evoke zero emotional reaction from me. If they were ugly or tacky or anything that evoked a negative gut reaction they would at least be arguably worthwhile; I'd more readily be able to accept that they have some stylistic content that someone else could appreciate if not me. But these, these are boring corporate logos; I have a hard time accepting that they have artistic value anyone could debate over. Ugh, I'm sure my grammar is as irritating to you as these abominations are to me. Anyway, I figure if the College wanted a new neutral logo they could have saved a lot of money and just paid the royalties to adopt one they already display quite widely: You can read about why the old logo had to be changed and how the new logos were selected at the following links: |
|
| Shulamit "Micah" Peled, Z"L, 5/21/1927 - 12/9/2006 |
[09 Dec 2007|10:41pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 pensive |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
My Savtah's bedtime stories |
] |
One year ago my maternal grandmother, Shulamit "Micah" Peled passed away. It was a Saturday morning and I was visiting my new girlfriend, Sophia, in Richmond. I heard my mobile phone ring and in the instant that I picked it up I knew something was terribly wrong.
I'm sure in some internet or email based survey I've encountered the questions, "What is the worst feeling in the world?" or, "What is the worst sound in the world?" I know the answer to these two questions without a doubt or hesitation. The worst sound in the world for me is the sound of my mother crying and it induces the worst emotion in me, utter despair. There was a timbre in my mother's voice that told me unmistakably she had been crying; and there was little I could do to keep from crying myself. One instant I was hysterical, in the next I was empty.
Mom informed me that I had to drive to Galax immediately to take care of dad and my youngest brother, Ben. Dad had recently undergone cancer surgery and was still on the mend; I had to ensure he didn't strain himself. Ben was still in High School and I just had to make sure things ran smoothly while mom was away taking care of the funeral arrangements and the rest of the family in Israel. I took a shower while Sophia made me breakfast and food for the road. And then I drove the four-and-a-half lonely hours from Richmond to Galax...
Thank you, Sophia, for taking such good care of us in our time of grief. I love you, my wife.
I meant to post about it last year but too many things occupied my time and so instead I will now post the short eulogy I wrote about her for the hometown newsletter:
There is a specific memory of my Savtah that is especially precious to me. One night after dinner Micah and I walked from the dining hall to my parents' apartment in the Kabarah neighborhood. We became so engrossed in our conversation that we walked right past the apartment and did not realize it until we had passed several more buildings. We laughed about it and didn't care; we were having such a wonderful time talking about my favorite subjects of the day: Volcanoes and Outer Space. We walked back to my parents' apartment and found that no-one was home so we decided to walk to Savtah Micah's apartment all the way across the Kibbutz next to the Field School. Again, we were so engrossed in our conversation we walked right past her apartment and again had to turn back. I loved talking with my Savtah and I think it was from her that I inherited my sense of wonder and love of the sciences. I love you Savtah, and I miss you very much.
|
|
| Night Market |
[02 Nov 2007|12:24pm] |
|
The missus and I are visiting Taiwan. We took off from Richmond on October 27th and after about 26 hours of traveling and layovers in Chicago and Tokyo we landed in Taipei. Sophia's family gave us a day to "recover" and then we embarked on a three day long family reunion style road trip on a charter bus with many of Sophia's aunts and uncles (and parents, who preceded us here by two weeks).
I'll post more details about the trip later with some pictures (and major venting), but for now I'll just mention the Night Market from which Sophia and I and her cousin Jien and his girlfriend just returned. Sophia was very excited about taking me there tonight. An aunt had offered to take the day off to drive us to and around Taipei and Sophia had to somehow explain to the family that we were going to visit Taipei next week and if we went today we'd not get to see her family's hometown since our schedule is full for next week and that we had our own trip schedule we're trying to adhere to... You see, when Sophia's family makes an offer, for example: to take a day off to drive us around Taipei, or to spend thousands of dollars on a chartered bus tour of Taiwan for two to three dozen members of the family for our benefit... it's not really an offer, it's a mandatory demand. It doesn't matter that Sophia and I want to tour the Island by ourselves as a couple or that we have our own schedule or there are specific things we want to see; if they make an offer/demand we'd better accept it, like it, and follow through or we're ungrateful little bitches. Oops, that was meant for the venting section of that other post...
Somehow Sophia got us out of spending the day in Taipei (her family probably still thinks she's spoiled and ungrateful for it) and we walked around her family's hometown and picked up some lunch and snacks. We spent the whole day napping and recovering from our family trip and at about 8:40 walked with Jien to the night market. Oh, it was fun! There was plenty of new and strange foods for me to try: fried squid balls on a stick, friend quail's eggs on a stick, oyster omelet, chicken nuggets (real chicken, not that processed paste you get at McDonald's) with five-spice (salt, white pepper, cinnamon, and two others I can't recall), and a Taiwanese corn dog. Said corn dog is a bit different from American corn dogs in that instead of corn meal casing it's more or less wrapped in doughnut. Mmm, doughnut dog.
We also bought me a new pair of house slippers for use here at her aunt's house and we also won a huge bounty of cheap toys at the games. I won a pair of plastic binoculars at a kid's "pachinko" "parlor", a squeaky hammer at a water balloon dart game, a small stuffed dog at a BB gun balloon game... I don't rightly remember how we ended up with so much more stuff than that. Oh yes, we cleaned up at the ring toss; we won, like, four or five items there. I also took pictures of an archery game; the vendor there was pretty cavalier about walking out in front of a loaded bow...
Then we stopped by a pearl tea stand outside the night market and then hung out at a mountain overlook spot where we looked over the lights of the town. Apparently this was also a hangout for street racers and people "parking" which is why the po-po stopped by every so often and why Sophia told me it was a bad idea to take pictures with the parked cars in the background. I did come away with some very pretty shots of the city lights. Messing with exposure times is fun!
|
|
| PALOOZA updates |
[03 Sep 2007|12:47am] |
AmitAndSophiaPalooza has been updated! We have added a Forum that doubles as a guest book, in part. Go to http://www.amitandsophiapalooza.net and click on SPEAK! to sign the guest book, ask us questions, or just yammer on about whatever you want.
Actually, I have another thought - if you have any pictures of myself or Sophia please send them to my babagannoush at livejournal dot com address or contact me through the http://www.amitandsophiapalooza.net forum; there is a thread dedicated to posting pictures.
Thanks!
|
|
| The Official Wedding Website |
[26 Aug 2007|06:19pm] |
Hey folks. I know I haven't updated in a dog's age, but I've been either busy or lazy. Take your pick, I don't care. Actually, I would care very much if you took the time to check out Sophia and my wedding/marriage website: http://www.amitandsophiapalooza.net/.
We're treating it like a rock tour; look for us in a city near you. We have a gallery, blog, tour schedule, band bios, and other sections up and running. Check back regularly for updates.
|
|
| The Ring! |
[27 Jun 2007|04:08pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 giddy |
] |
Blue Sapphire flanked by two white diamonds mounted on 18 karat white gold. It's so sparkley!
|
|
| [Fwd: Great news!] |
[27 Jun 2007|04:07pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 ecstatic |
] |
My friend Arlie is stationed in Afghanistan so I didn't have a way to send him the good news apart from email. The result follows below, make sure you're sitting down for this (as opposed to reading LJ while water skiing). -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Great news! Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 23:23:31 Arlie! I hope you're sitting down (as opposed to reading email while scaling a mountain) because I have some great and wonderful news to share with you: Sophia and I are engaged to be married! I don't think I got around to telling you anything about my girlfr...fiancée so here's a quick summary: - We met at William and Mary and got along quite well (despite me dating someone else at the time).
- We lost touch after our respective graduations (she's class of 2001) and while I moved to Boston she moved to Spain for a year.
- She tracked me down through a mutual friend after I moved back to Roanoke and started pestering me to come visit her in Richmond.
- Eventually we reunited in Lynchburg for an evening (she had a huge crush on me to which I was completely oblivious).
- A few months later we again reunited when mutual friends of ours got married in Williamsburg. I needed a place to crash for the weekend and Sophia jumped at the opportunity to have me around so she invited me to a Halloween costume party on the Friday before the wedding as well as invited me to crash at her place. It was over this weekend (Last Halloween) we started dating.
- I moved in with her at the end of April of this year (at this point we were already secretly engaged. Shh, don't tell anyone) and am currently looking for a career in Richmond. I am no longer working with the Cardinal Glass factory; I had lost all passion for the job.
- This weekend Mom, Dad, and Ben visited us in Richmond. They met Sophia's parents yesterday for dim sum brunch and enjoyed Sophia's dad's cooking for dinner (Sophia's parents run a Chinese take-out restaurant here in town).
- Today (June 24th, 2007) we got our families together for lunch at a fancy Italian restaurant where we announced our official engagement. As the story goes: I toasted the families and commented on how well we were getting along and, "I hope we get along well for a long time because flash the ring honey, flash the ring! we're getting married!"
- We've spent most of the day calling friends and family. Damn, we're tired now.
Here's the plan for the wedding: - Civil Ceremony on September 25th.
- Quick and dirty, no muss, fuss, or enormous cost.
- We found a pretty cool sounding "Civil Celebrant" to conduct the ceremony. Her name is Gwen. She lives less than three miles from here.
- Sophia found a pretty red dress to wear to the ceremony, too.
- Wedding bands are to be in the "pipe cut" style and engraved with "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine," in Hebrew and "Forever" in Chinese.
- We take the money that would have been spent on the wedding and reception and use it to visit our friends across the US and rest of the
world. We're calling it: AMITANDSOPHIAPALOOZA!!!
- We're buying a domain name and will post "tour dates" soon.
- Locations include Galax! Roanoke! Richmond! The Greater DC Area! New York City! California! Portville/Olean, NY! London! Israel! Taiwan!
- Kabul, Afghanistan TBA following finalization of venue security detail.
- We'll send out tickets, possibly sell t-shirts at venues; on-line ordering TBA.
- Profit!
It's getting late, I'll tell you more about the lady tomorrow but for now I'll say that she's incredibly smart, beautiful, she's a wonderful cook, and volunteers for everything. She's a classy dame and don't you forget it! Picture attached, stand by for cuteness. Take care of yourself and I hope to see you stateside healthy, happy, and soon. Amit 
|
|
|
| Nice guys finish FIRST!!! |
[26 Jun 2007|04:40pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 Stunned |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Paul Potts Singing "Nessun Dorma" |
] |
Click the link: http://paulpottsofficial.com/videos/video1.htmlMy God! It's impossible for me to to not tear up while this man sings. This is a thirty-six year old schlimazel that until less than three weeks ago was working a dead-end job selling mobile phones retail, £30,000 in debt, recovering from a motorcycle accident. In the course of a week Paul went from nothing to winning Britain's Got Talent, signing a £1,000,000 contract with Simon Cowell, and being scheduled to sing for the Queen of Great Britain. He is a Charles Dickens character come to life. You can read about him, see videos of his other performances, and pre-order his upcoming album at http://PaulPottsOfficial.comThis is reason #2 that I love Cardiff, Wales. Reason #1 is that Doctor Who is also produced there. |
|
| Pep-Boys, HHGTTG, and Haiku |
[25 May 2007|09:44pm] |
 |
I bought new tires at Pep-Boys today and it took them ALL DAY to get to my car and install the tires. I handed over my keys in the morning and drove away at 3:30PM. Ridiculous. I had inadvertently left my book (Ellis Peters' St. Peter's Fair, a Brother Cadfael mystery) at home so I only had my new Creative Zen Nano Plus to entertain me. So I listened to a few episodes of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (original radio broadcast) and wrote haiku on a notepad. |
Three arms, two noggins,
and a single hoopy brain:
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Mice tell me they'll get
the screaming heebie-jeebies
if they rebuild Earth.
Slartibartfast warns
hairless ape descendant,
"late Dentarthurdent."
|
|
| Richmond Opera Fund Raiser |
[23 May 2007|07:53pm] |
Sophia tends to volunteer for many causes both through her job and outside it. Sometimes she volunteers me as well; call it a fair trade for all the free stuff she gets me into. A few weeks ago we volunteered at a cocktail party, dinner, and auction benefiting the Richmond Opera; she checked in guests and I ushered them to the cocktail party and showed them their dinner tables at the beginning of the night. At the end of the night I helped the auctioneer spot bids out of the crowd and she helped them check out with their auction purchases. It was a swank affair and I got a first hand look at how real-life rich folks are just as weird and crazy as their television counterparts.
Most of the lots on the auction block were week-long or weekend getaways to places like the Outer Banks, rural Midwestern or Virginian highlands; or dinners for 10 cooked by local celebrity chefs. One of the really cool lots was a one-day rental of a photo booth; you know, the kind you find at malls and fair-grounds that takes four shots of you and spits them out in a strip?
Et Viola!
This last panel in currently my mobile phone background image.
|
|
| Jared Diamond |
[23 May 2007|08:55am] |
A couple of weeks ago Sophia and I attended a presentation by Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel among other works. After the presentation we went to a reception where we got our pictures taken with Dr. Diamond and also had the chance to talk to him for a few minutes.
Since I know my brother, Matan read and enjoyed Guns, Germs, and Steel we picked up his other books and I got one signed for him. I'll bring it with me to San Diego when we come to attend Comic-Con; that will also give me a chance to finish reading it.
PS - the question I asked him was, "Past civilizations kept records on highly durable materials such as stone, clay, bone, and leather and so present day archaeologists can find plenty of records of these civilizations. Current society keeps an overwhelming amount of its information on flimsy materials like paper or various digital formats which become obsolete after a few years or even months. Is there any hope future archaeologists will recover a significant amount of information about us given our record keeping practices?"
Dr. Diamond reassured me that our global society spends a lot more time, effort, and money keeping long-lasting records than any other society in history.
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
scared
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
