Monday, July 28, 2008

CCA Graduation



Last Friday I had the opportunity to attend an open house of student work at the California College of the Arts. The occasion was Sarah's graduation from the intensive pre- college program she took this summer, focusing on print making and drawing. The range of students was amazing, from all over the world and I think about 20 states. The range of work was incredible too as the photo album indicates - and there were many of the display buildings I didn't get to. Sarah's work was prominently displayed and we received some glowing comments from her teachers. Enjoy the pictures of the graduation HERE

Friday, July 25, 2008

Play - the Universal Language?

A most amazing brief slide show and talk by the founder of the National Insitute of Play

Click the window below to view the show.


Thursday, July 24, 2008

Dan & Elizabeth in Otovalo Ecuador

















Excerpts from an email from Elizabeth on 7/23.
___
Hola Steve!

Como estas? Estoy bien. Dan y yo estamos en Otavalo , Ecuador . We arrived on Sunday after a tough few days in Bolivia of high altitude, stomach issues, little sleep -- all in LaPaz, which is, well, a dump. We´re so glad to be here.. The difference is like night and day. We´re living with a family and going to language class every day -- 2.5-hour siesta included. Tomorrow we have an all-day field trip, which will be fun. It´s nice to not have to eat every meal in a restaurant and grapple with deciding what is safe to eat. The food is quite good and certainly better than what we eat at home. My profesor still can´t completely understand that neither Dan nor I cook.

Ecuador is nicer than both Peru and Bolivia , though we enjoyed our time in Peru , particularly visiting Machu Picchu , our trek, and our couple days in the jungle. Just yesterday, we received our plane tickets for Galapagos. We go there 2 August. I am really, really looking forward to finally getting there.

...I was pretty miserable.[in Bolivia] I had a cold, was quite hungry (we both have lost quite a bit of weight), tired, homesick (our tour ended the day before and all our tour friends were gone), and not enjoying dirty, overcrowded, noisy, hectic LaPaz. Did I mention that we didn´t really like Bolivia ?! We both are much better now. Dan has had stomach problems for much of the trip because of the altitude. My stomach hasn´t been so bad, but we´re both glad to be down a bit lower. I think Otavalo is at about 8,000´. LaPaz and Lake Titicaca are both over 12,000´, I believe. "
__________

Later in the day they SKYPEd me from an internet cafe. It sounded like they are really enjoying lush Otavalo where the air is oxygenated and they have a friendly family to stay with and looking forward with excitement to the last leg of their trip to the Islands.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Blast FromThe Past: LOK in Appalachia






















While shuffling through papers during my recent move, I came across a copy of a 1965 WellesleyAlumni Magazine piece written by Louise on her experiences volunteering for the Frontier Nursing Service in Appalachia. I thought you might enjoy it. (The scan isn't the best - set the size of the pdf up to at least 100% and you'll be able to read it.) Pretty amazing. I wonder: what is the current state of the areas she did her volunteer work in?

Kentucky Mountain Courier
"An American eyesore about which we have been very uninformed until the beginning of the Anti-Poverty Campaign is an area in the Cumberland Mountains of southeastern Kentucky, well known now as the Poverty Pit, the heart of Appalachia. As a courier for the Frontier Nursing Service this past summer I have seen first-hand the plight of the most backward and underprivileged part of our country. A child's tomach bloated with worms; a toothless mouth and saddle nose, the defects of familial disease brought about by two centuries of inbreeding...."
Read the rest of her magazine article HERE

Monday, July 14, 2008

Father of Economics Says: "Just Chill."
















Adam Smith : "don't worry- be happy!"
He was one laid back in-the-moment dude. Maybe a closet Buddhist. OK, I haven't been reading Adam Smith in my spare time as I should, but I happened to run into the following unlikely quote while reading a transcript of a radio interview of Pankaj Mishra, author of "An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World."

I'm sure Adam would have been a cowboy surfer if wet suits had been available in 18th century Scotland. I think now I'll check into Max Weber's rumored formative years at an ashram followed by his brief stint on the pro skateboarding circuit. Maybe there is something to it after all.
---------------------------------------------
Here is the quote:

"The poor man's son, whom heaven in its anger has visited with ambition, admires the condition of the rich. It appears in his fancy like the life of some superior rank of beings, and, in order to arrive at it, he devotes himself forever to the pursuit of wealth and greatness. Through the whole of his life, he pursues the idea of a certain artificial and elegant repose, which he may never arrive at, for which he sacrifices a real tranquility that is at all times in his power, and which, if in the extremity of old age, he should at last attain to it, he will find to be in no respect preferable to that humble security and contentment which he had abandoned for it. Power and riches appear, then, to be what they are, enormous machines contrived to produce a few trifling conveniences to the body. They are immense fabrics, which it requires the labor of a life to raise, which threaten every moment to overwhelm the person that dwells in them, and which, while they stand, can protect him from none of the severer inclemencies of the season. They keep off the summer shower, not the winter storm, but leave him always as much and sometimes more exposed than before to anxiety, to fear and to sorrow, to diseases, to danger and to death."

From: "Theory of Moral Sentiments" by Adam Smith 1759.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

HMB Library Drill Team In Action!



I was lucky enough to experience this in person at the July 4 parade. Take a look and see our home town library spirit in action. The first part of the video is their rehearsal & prize award followed by the live parade. Librarians Rule!!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Fire Pictures

Click the picture for beautiful and frightening set of photos from the CA fire scene taken by Alan Taylor of the Boston Globe

Sunday, July 6, 2008

July 4


















































Some of the July 4th goings on: Half Moon Bay parade ( the Library Drill team spinning their reshelving carts shown) Wonderful dinner on Ferdinand St. with the jordans and Phelps, fireworks though the fog at the HMB Harbor, Poplar St. surf session (Marty taking off) and a long hike with B around the harbor to Fitzgerald Marine Sanctuary. Nice vacation in place! Now off for a Sunday afternoon bike ride to the library on the Coastside Trail. and later dinner with Sarah. (Click on links for more pictures.)

Thursday, July 3, 2008

A Happy Anniversary on The Current River



Posted by Picasa


Here we are, Monday eve, June 30, 2008, on a gravel bar on the Upper Current River celebrating our 57th Anniversary. It was a wonderful trip. Bill and Angela are great river rats!- Papa Jim
Photo Bill Knight/image edit H.Domke