May 12, 2006
more spring runoff
I know I blogged about this before but my cousin Rhett and his wife in Twin Falls took more pictures of Shoshone Falls. Really amazing pictures and I had to share.
For comparison, here is July 2005:
October 2005:
April 23, 2005:
Posted by crystallyn at 08:13 PM | Comments (2)
April 20, 2006
while jogging
This morning, in a quiet neighborhood just a couple of blocks away from my house, I came across the Pig Mobile (and no, this picture was not taken by me, near my house...it was taken in Tampa Bay, FL a couple years ago):
I did some checking into it and an old True Majority Press Release describes it best:
The “Pig Mobile,” conceived of by Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s, consists of three different-sized piggy banks strung together to illustrate just how big a financial disaster the Iraq war has turned out to be.The largest pig (by far) shows the financial cost ($200 billion)[1] of America’s attack on Iraq, including the projected minimum cost of reconstruction. The smaller pig illustrates how much the federal government spends on K-12 education ($34 billion)[2]. And the third pig, which is a wee little pig, shows America’s dedication to lessening world hunger and poverty ($10 billion).[3]
Except those figures were two years ago so the numbers on the piggy have changed. And its belly is packed full of dollar bills.
It was so so quiet, not a soul around, just me, the birds, the squirrels and the pink piggy mobile. It made me feel very very sad.
Posted by crystallyn at 08:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 18, 2006
spring run-off
Southern Idaho is having its rainiest season in nearly 50 years. Here's a picture of Shoshone Falls, right outside of Twin Falls, where my grandfather and aunt live. Joe and I were here a couple of years ago but it was in the midst of a drought and barely any water was flowing over. Not quite the same this week!
Posted by crystallyn at 07:57 AM
February 20, 2006
Naughty naughty?
Greg is keeping me updated on the whereabouts of my panda. Turns out that my little friend is a bit of a wild one!
Apparently Greg came across "this photo of our little friend doing something covert. i didn't ask but when I got home last night he smelled of smoke and had lipstick on his scarf!"
Posted by crystallyn at 08:55 AM | TrackBack
January 21, 2006
Paku!
Over on one of my favorite websites, Cute Overload, Meg introduced us Westerners to a cute little stuffed panda which the Japanese take pictures of in various settings
and post to a website. Lucky me, my longtime friend Greg has been hanging out in Japan and I asked him about the pandas. He said that the website doesn't really sell them--just one store in Harujuku does. So he made it his mission to hunt down a panda for me.
It was my 5AM but for my little Paku Panda it was 6PM when he began his long journey on "a snowy Tokyo evening with two sweet Japanese chicks who kissed panda's forehead before his maiden voyage..."
Ooooo where will he go next?
Posted by crystallyn at 09:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 14, 2005
Velvet Yoda Elvis?
Oh I really want me one of these!!
via Boing Boing
Posted by crystallyn at 08:58 PM | TrackBack
May 08, 2005
checked out MASS MoCA this weekend
and Cai Guo-Qiang had a big presence there. Took some cool pics--check out that link for all the pictures.
Posted by crystallyn at 04:46 PM
April 27, 2005
Sweet Romeo Kitty
Testing out flickr with my blog...
Posted by crystallyn at 07:33 PM | Comments (1)
April 15, 2005
the pig olympics!!!
Piglets swim during a sporting event dubbed the 'Pig Olympics' at Heping Park in Shanghai April 15, 2005. The piglets, which come from a miniature species in Thailand, compete in several events like running, hurdles, hoop-jumping, diving and swimming. The four-legged athletes start training a month after birth and will continue competing until they reach one-year-old, organisers said. REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV
Posted by crystallyn at 06:59 AM
April 02, 2005
i love this picture
A man takes his goose chicks for a walk Tuesday March 16, 2004, in Taiping, about 1800 kilometers ( about 1100 miles) south of Beijing, China. China declared victory Tuesday in its fight against bird flu, saying it had 'stamped out' all of its known cases. But the government warned against relaxing vigilance, saying coming warm weather could bring new cases.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Posted by crystallyn at 06:17 PM
October 09, 2004
little jewels
I forgot to mention that the October/November issue of
is up! Some really great art this issue, as well as all the other lively bits of poetry, interesting memoirs and wonderful fiction.
Also, I want to show off the really beautiful necklace that I picked up while in P-Town.
The necklace is a Swarovski crystal pendant and what you can't see here is that it isn't a black cord, but rather little individual, thin black acrylic paillettes. It's really beautiful. Elegant but simple.
I didn't get the earrings...we were starting to spend too much! But the artist is a German woman, Carola Hiersemann, who is quite well known in Europe but not as well known here in America. I think though, that more and more boutique shops are starting to carry her line. I was just thrilled to discover that you could buy her jewelry via the Internet. Really, go check her stuff out...the necklaces are incredible. The designs are bold, beautiful and made out of really interesting materials: "hand-winded glass, shell, alabaster-glass pearls, eloxated aluminum, precious wood, coral, gold, silverand unique acrylic "paillettes" with mirrored surfaces." And the best part is that while it's fine, boutique jewelry, it's not a zillion dollars...it's actually quite moderately priced. The site doesn't really do justice to the beauty of the pieces...especially the Swarovski crystal. I think that this is the kind of jewelry I could really get into collecting--starting with the earrings to go with my necklace!
Posted by crystallyn at 07:55 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 10, 2004
turkey time!
So I've started a new job...filling in for a woman who is out having triplets! That poor girl. I just can't imagine. She won't sleep for a year.
It's a six month stint, but the pay is good and I needed a change from what I had been doing before. The old job wasn't challenging and it was a strange strange place.
So far so good! The new job is EXACTLY what I have been looking for...crossing my fingers that it turns into something permanent. But the people are nice and normal (WOOHOOO NORMAL PEOPLE!), the work is challenging and it's perfect for my skillset. It's 20 min from home, decent hours, did I say normal people?
But the abnormal bit about it is that there are lots of turkeys around. It's a very rural area in one of the most historic towns in the country. I usually see a couple turkeys each day, out the window that looks toward the woods. Coming from the West coast, I never saw wild turkeys till I moved to New England. Truth be told, I think I thought that there weren't any left, that, like chickens, they were mostly domesticated for good eating. The first time I heard a turkey gobble in the woods I was amazed. Then when I saw one! Wow, very different than the squatty types that I was used to seeing in books or that I assumed I was eating. They are huge birds, with really long legs, necks and freaky long wattles. Nearly as tall as me, I would bet, if they stood tall with their necks high.
When I met the controller for the company, she told me about how a few years ago a female turkey flew through one of the windows at work. I was incredulous...first of all, we're on the third floor, and second of all, turkeys could fly??!! I guess it had never really occurred to me. In my mind, turkeys still held the status of eating bird, looking a bit like these:
They don't fly.
Wild turkeys look a bit different...taller for one thing. Their legs are much longer and their heads are a bit smaller. Their tallness makes them look much more foreboding when they are walking around.
The other big difference is that wild turkeys do fly.
The woman who was telling me about the turkey that flew through the window says that in the winter you can see the whole flock...about twenty of them, flying. Crazy, huh? How terrifying would that be, to see a whole flock of 30 lb birds darkening the sky?
As for the turkey that shattered the window and freaked out the poor people sitting in the cubes there, it turned out to be alive and okay. Bit banged up but animal control came and took it to a vet where I'm sure they rehabilitated it. Or maybe had Thanksgiving dinner.
Wild turkeys are really freaky, I think. I wouldn't want one coming after me! In a way, I can understand why Ben Franklin wanted to make them the national bird. In a letter to his daughter he wrote...
"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
"With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country....
"I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."
Interesting...perhaps America has lived up to the image of the Bald Eagle in many ways. Maybe Ben was on to something.
"Don't fuck with Ben Franklin," Joe says.
Incidentally, Joe makes the best turkey gobbling noises.
Posted by crystallyn at 06:36 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
June 07, 2004
hellraiser
Just for Sean...these are the pictures I took of that room. But it was too dark to really take any pictures. I couldn't capture the swinging bullhorns, the sheer creepiness.
But this picture of joe is pretty freaky.
and this one...of the way out.
Posted by crystallyn at 06:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 04, 2004
Nobody ever called Pablo Picasso an...
I have pictures of last weekend's "Hellraiser" (as Sean mentioned) trip to MASS MocA.
But before I go there, let me post an old picture, which I rather like, taken a few months ago at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, when Joe's friend, Steve, was visiting. This picture is of an exhibit that is part of Da de los Muertos/Day of the Dead.
Now on to MASS MoCA.
A mirror picture in the bathroom, which is a strange bathroom.
And an odd picture which I really love. I don't remember the name of this exhibit...I should have written it down. It is, essentially, wall graffiti posters that take up an entire wall. This is just a bit of it.
And to see the Corpus pictures...keep going...
I really enjoyed this exhibit and I didn't have a sense of Hellraiser at all, but that could be because it's been AGES since I've seen those movies.
Ann Hamilton's Corpus takes up Building 5, which is about the size of a football field. Rather, I felt much like the artist intended, that I was in a cathedral of some ethereal sort. I loved the light, airy feeling, the sense of peace that I had while I was there. I especially loved the windows, which are covered in pink silk. The light was wonderful. From the ceiling bullhorns rise and fall, slowly, with numerous voices chanting and talking simultaneously. Pieces of paper randomly fall from the ceiling to cover the ground. When we realized that they must have just cleaned the floor, we were disappointed. I wish we could have seen it when it was completely layered in paper. Still, I really loved this exhibit.
And Joe, watching the falling paper.
Posted by crystallyn at 11:09 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
June 01, 2004
little bits of stuff
All sorts of things to chat about...
1. The June Plum Ruby Review is up!
2. If you are ever in the vicinity of North Adams, MA, you need to check out MASS MoCA. We saw many wonderful exhibits, including Matthew Ritchie's Proposition Player.
3. Hiking Bash-Bish Falls is a wonderful thing to do on a sunny Saturday!
4. Through LJC, I found some Ugly Dolls, and lo! At MASS MoCA this weekend, we found the Ugly Icebat! Perfect for our little nephew's 4th bday. ;) I want one too!
Posted by crystallyn at 06:27 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
December 09, 2003
romeo || bumble
We're eating dinner tonight (the wrong pizza from Bertucci's) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is on TV and Joe suddenly says,
"Romeo is like the Bumble!"
That's because poor Romeo spent the day under anaesthesia having SIX teeth yanked.
And the Bumble had his teeth yanked. It made him less dangerous. Except that kitty wasn't very dangerous before he had his teeth pulled. And he's definitely not now. He's super groggy and he is really unstable when he walks. He won't close his mouth all the way, understandably.
He really needed to go in. The pictures don't really show how bad they are. His large fang there was nearly hanging out of his mouth...3/4 of the tooth was terribly infected. You can sort of see how the third tooth in has a hole in it. A lot of them were like that. He still needs to have 3 more pulled but they just couldn't overwhelm him like that. Poor little kitty.
There was a woman there who said her cat had to have a lot of his teeth pulled and that he was like a whole new cat afterward and that mostly she didn't even have an idea how miserable he was until she saw the new pain-free personality emerge.
Oh, and like the Bumble, Romeo LOVES pig dinners. Can't wait till he feels better to enjoy one.
Posted by crystallyn at 08:48 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 07, 2003
let it snow more?
Here are the photos from this morning's outdoor foray (helping Joe get the snow off the cars!):
This is a picture of our two cars (both Kia's) and our landlord's car (in the foreground). Note that the snow pretty much just flows from the yard to level with the front window on our landlord's car. Look at my pretty snow shapes on my car windows!
Here is a shot up the street. There is no snow on most rooftops because of the intense wind the last few days. It was good because the snow didn't accumulate on trees and powerlines which prevented a LOT of power outages I'm sure. Note the buried cars. The cars you can see in the front have snow drifted on the other side of them:
For more pictures, keep going...
And the front of the house. Check out the stairs, which you pretty much can't see. Ignore the fact that the picture is crooked. :)
Lots of people shoveling!
This is the car that parks on the lot next to our house (see the crappy green garage/monster storage building thing). See the way the snow drifted around it? It's hard to tell but basically it drifts up high against the house, higher than the top of the car door is.
Joe shoveling. The snowbank is at shoulder level. He's going to hurt tomorrow!
Another shot of the cars from the other side. Weird how the wind will drift out those funny little tunnels.
Just be glad this isn't your car!
Posted by crystallyn at 01:12 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
December 04, 2003
monkeys monkeys monkeys!
I HAD to share this photo.
According to Yahoo News: "A monkey drinks cola on a round table 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter in Lopburi Province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2003 during the annual monkey festival which has been hosted since 1989 by a local businessman who believes the monkeys were behind his family's good fortune. A total of 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) of fruits were offered to the monkeys roaming the area." (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
What I thought was even more interesting was that they opened up the first hospital just for monkeys! (Niki, maybe you can specialize?)
Posted by crystallyn at 11:18 AM | TrackBack
June 17, 2003
bright eyed and bushy tailed
Joe and I went to MASS MOCA this weekend...
Make sure you click the MORE link to see all the pictures. There are a lot.
I think I did ok in the photo realm!
Window pictures...these are actual photos, none retouched.
Keep going for...
Joe and Steve and Steve and both and Joe...
And other random shots...
And at the Hancock Shaker Village...
Posted by crystallyn at 09:35 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
May 30, 2003
maiden?
Every day I have the fortune to look out my office window on the Friendship of Salem, a replica of a 1797 sailing vessel which they have been slowly building over the last ten months that I've been there (actually, they brought it to Salem in 1998 and have been building on it ever since, even after it was hit by lightning at one point). Every day I see this lovely image...
Today, for some reason that we couldn't figure out, they decided to sail it away. Well, not exactly sail it because not all the sails are rigged yet (only the lower tier are installed as you can sort of see from the pictures).
It was rather odd...they have been slowly adding the rest of the masts, the crossbeams, the rigging and in recent weeks the sails. Not all the sails were even on the ship yet. They sailed the one lifeboat/dinghy up to it, someone climbed up the ladder...they pulled the ladder and the boat up and that was the majority of the fanfare.
Read on for...
There were SOME passengers, but not really very many. A handful of people. There wasn't any press, which I thought was odd for the maiden voyage of such an amazing vessel. The wimpy coast guard ship played tugboat (which is odd since there is an actual little tugboat tied up in the docks nearby).
Finally they pulled away...you can sort of see the figurehead in one of the pictures...a woman in blue with a bouquet of flowers.
I was so surprised that they didn't wait till all the sails were on it before they sailed it away. It wasn't back at the dock when I left work at 5PM, so it must be staying somewhere for the weekend--maybe Marblehead or Boston. Ignore the factory in the background...I try to...
I scoured the web looking for news on why she was sailing but nothing. There wasn't any press, there was no fanfare except that she was sporting a strange amount of flags (with symbols that, for the most part, had no meaning for me). Human Resources even called the chamber of commerce...they had no clue.
I feel so lucky though, to be able to be watching the progress of her building...and to be there when they finally moved her out of the bay. She's a big ship and very beautiful. I should have taken a picture of the empty dock...everything looks rather forlorn now.
Posted by crystallyn at 11:29 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
May 24, 2003
lots of nature
spent the evening at Tapeo...mmm. Lots of sangria. Lots of tapas. Mmm. The goat cheese, honey and figs were the best part.
But back to earlier today at the Harvard Museum of Natural History...
They had a LOT of dinosaur bones but for some reason I was more amazed by these whale pictures...I mean, check them out! Joe is!
This was a funny pygmy whale, about four feet long:
They had cases and cases of mothball smelling stuffed animals from all the continents. It was amazing to see them all...that hummingbird case in the previous post was just a small sample.
Keep going to see more pictures...
They also had many jars of formaldahyde preserved creatures...fish, tapeworms, frogs, and more. Honestly, it was pretty damn cool. I didn't even really notice the million kids running around because I was so mesmerized.
I took lots of pictures. The worst part is that in looking back, I wish I had paid a bit more attention to WHAT I was taking pictures of.
For example, here is this great mirror picture I took but I am not entirely sure what the animal it is that I took the picture of...I just plumb forgot!
And this mirror picture...
But the best? The glass flowers. As the site says, "This unique collection of over 3,000 models was created by the glass artisans, Leopold Blaschka and his son, Rudolph. The commission began in 1886, continued for five decades, and represents more than 830 plant species."
I had heard about them for years but hadn't seen them. I walked in and after ten minutes I think Joe was ready to leave me there...I think I was driving him crazy saying, "These can't be glass! I can't believe they are glass!" But they were. I tried to take some pictures but they really don't do them justice.
This place was a botanist's dream as far as being able to look at the plants, their cross-sections, reproductive systems, etc. But for the rest of us...it was an exercise in pure admiration for the handiwork of the Blaschkas.
Here are some...ALL glass and trust me, you couldn't tell in person, so don't feel bad if you can't tell in the pictures.
Hurry...before now and the end of May, if you live in New England and have a Fleet card, you can go to this and other area museums for free!
Posted by crystallyn at 10:58 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
harvard museum of natural history
We explored the Harvard Museum of Natural History today...I can't believe I have never been there before. Only a short time to post a quick picture of one of the hummingbird display...
I'll post some of the pictures of the glass flowers tomorrow...it's shocking, the beauty and exquisite detail of the flower specimens there, all in glass. I also managed to get a couple neat pictures for the mirror project.
Posted by crystallyn at 05:48 PM | TrackBack
May 17, 2003
we scored
at Brimfield. Now we are exhausted, but we came home with a few treasures. I spent nearly $70 on postcards, sigh. I wish my scanner were hooked up! Paulette got me a cool, funky bracelet for my birthday (it's in a couple weeks) made by this guy from Tacoma, WA (we called it Tacky-Aroma when I lived in Seattle). He collects keys from old typewriters and makes bracelets out of them.
We also picked up a great plant stand for the balcony as well as some old milk bottles for me to use as flower vases. For the kitchen, we acquired a nifty print of the incubation of a chicken egg that had been hand colored by an artist. You can't see it well here, but the colors are beautiful and it's just so odd that we had to have it.
The artist said that she found it wonderful that Joe and I liked the same art (well, from what she saw!). She said that most couples would come by and one of them would love the prints and the significant other would hate them. Speaking of art, we came across a guy selling vintage posters. They were in excellent condition and the art was unusual and interesting. Some of them were quite beautiful. I wish we could have afforded the ones that we liked...this one I absolutely loved, from a series of public service announcements on working and behaving better...
and this one, which I found on the website, but didn't see at the show:
There were also many many strange and odd things, but I think that this was one of the strangest:
Tiles made on the thighs of a woman. I can hear the men saying YEEHAW!
Posted by crystallyn at 02:57 PM