Antarctica Pictures Update

I've added some more pictures from the Antarctica leg of our recent trip. A sample includes:









More pictures can be found in my Antarctica Flickr set which includes pictures I've uploaded previously.

New Pix From Antarctica

(click to go to image)

I've added a few pictures to my Flickr Antarctica set. Check 'em out!

Leopard Seal At Paradise Harbor

(click to see flickr version)

My first edited photo from Antarctica. A really special moment on a really special afternoon. Hope this looks as good on other people's screens as it does on the netbook. We only saw one leopard seal on the trip and this guy was nice enough to sit around and pose for us. I guess when you're an apex predator you can make time for a photo op.

On the Road

Taking a trip for a few weeks down to South America and Antarctica. Currently chilling in Buenos Aires. More info can be found on our travel blog here.

Chomp 2: Expo Photos

Noelle, Wendy, and I went to the SF Conservatory of Flowers on Saturday to see the carnivorous plants exposition, but found there was a lot more to see there as well.

Is This Thing On? What I've Been Up To

Hi blog, long time no see. So, I did eventually get out of the hospital. I was well enough that I could lie in bed at home for free, although it took a while for my lipase counts to come down. Funnily enough, I had a trip to Montana planned for the first week of May, so I asked my doctor if it'd be all right if I went and had gall bladder removal surgery after that. She was ok with it, so I went to Montana. I have a few pictures here, but as usual I am behind in processing. Fantastic trip with great friends! Three days after I got back, I went in for surgery, which went splendidly. Recovery went pretty well also. I think all the love and support from my wife and friends helped smooth things along.

That would bring us to the beginning of summer. I took Noelle to Vegas for a quick trip to see the Criss Angel Cirque du Soleil show (yes, that's cognitive dissonance you're feeling, yes it's normal) as an anniversary present. Went to WWDC to hang out with the Apple kids. Mostly iPhone stuff, but that's cool. Flew down to the OC to see a composition lecture by the great Art Wolfe. At the end of June we flew up to PDX to see our friend Jesse get married. We also hung out with some other friends up there while we were in town. Some pix of that here, about half done with that weekend's photos. The next week both Noelle's and my company had a mandatory shutdown for July 4th week, so we flew to Maine for a few days so we could visit with family and chill. Perfect timing, too! They had a heat wave while were there and we got to enjoy upper 80s lower 90s with lots of humidity. Still, it was nice to get home. Went boating out on China Lake, visited with relatives I haven't seen in a while, and went up to Bar Harbor for a day. Last week was the annual pilgrimage to Comic-Con San Diego, which was great fun, but completely exhausting (zillions of pictures here). We got the best hotel ever for that con, the Hilton Gaslamp, right across the street from the convention center. I am a little sad, because I don't think I will ever get a hotel that good again for SDCC. Anyway, there were lots of cool panels and cosplay and other entertainments, including w00tstock 2.4. Good times, for nerds. That brings us up to the present. It's sort of tiring to look at what's been going on the past three months, but I guess it's been sort of tiring living it too. I need a break I think. :-) The good news is I don't think I'm traveling anywhere until September, so I get some down time now, right?

Anyway, that's kind of a capsule summary of what I've been up to these past few months. I'll try and be better about posting in the future.

New Zealand Sky

I was chatting with Dan about night exposures which led me to process a couple of pictures I took of the night's sky in New Zealand last year. It was so peaceful there that night.

News of the Times

Haven't blogged much lately on blogger. I've been caught up with the twitter experience (I'm TheChrisPaduan on Twitter). Have a bunch of things that have happened since the last post, but I'll cut to the most recent event. Last Thursday I was admitted to the ER with what turned out to be pancreatitus, which an inflammation of the pancreas caused by (in my case) gall stones or shards of gall stones obstructing the pancreas' entrance into the bile duct (shared by the liver, gall bladder, and pancreas, which empties into the intestine). My gall bladder is filled with gall stones and the best way to prevent a further outbreak of pancreatitus is to remove the gall bladder. All well and good, but they don't want to to do that until the pancreatitus setttles down. Unfortunately, the pancreatic lipase count (which correlates with the infection) has been going the wrong way. So, my surgery was scheduled for Monday, then Wednesday and has currently been pushed back to Thursday. If all goes well, I can leave Friday. I finally got to eat food today, which was nice. I've been on a IV since Thursday with no food during that time (I only got glucose added to the IV on Monday). Things move very slowly in the hospital and I can't wait to get out. My friends have been a great comfort, visiting me frequently. Noelle is holding together as well as can be expected. She wants me home badly as well. Anyway, slowly getting better, hope to be home RSN.

Death Valley Trip Highlights

View Death Valley Trip in a larger map

Here's a little map I've cooked up of places that could be cool to see in Death Valley this weekend. Not Sure what exactly we'll be able to see as the park is currently listing a lot of the roads as closed. They got rain or something. I will be especially bummed if we can't get to the Racetrack with its moving rocks. Hope the trip is cool.
Some general locations and things to do in them, as noted by the National Park Service:

Panamint Springs Area
Furnace Creek Area (We're staying there)
Stovepipe Wells Area
Scotty's Castle Area

Current Road Conditions

Chillin' At Tahoe

Using David and Nancy's place at Lake Tahoe this weekend. Everyone else went out skiing, but I decided I wanted to try snowshoeing, which I enjoyed a lot. Kinda tired right now, but I had a nice shower and am looking forward to some more chillaxin'.

2010 Travels

So for a variety of reasons my 2010 travel plans have largely shaken out. Here's a map:


View 2010 Travels in a larger map

Going to:

• Death Valley
• Coachella
• Yellowstone and environs
• Comic-con San Diego
• Hawaii
• Atlanta

I'm Going To Hawaii!! YAYYYY!!!

oblig: Yayyyyyyy! Hawaii! Yayyyyyy!!
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Honeymoon Photos Are Done

(click to go to flickr site)

At long last I have finished editing all the pictures from our honeymoon. Feel free to check them out. If you've been watching them over time, the latest pictures are in the Athens and Istanbul sets.

Hitler Finds Out That the GOP Won the MA Senate Race

You know, I don't completely agree with the sentiments in this video, but I kinda do.

Rush Plays Tom Sawyer On Rock Band

... and fails.

Coachella 2010

Whoa, the Coachella 2010 lineup was posted today and it looks good:

Thom Yorke (tentative)
Orbital
Porcupine Tree
Muse
Public Image Ltd
The Specials
Devo
many more...

Got a room already!

Fark Headlines of the Year 2009

The best headlines of fark.com for 2009 are out.

Lots of comedy gold here. I'm especially fond of:

20: Small plane rapidly plunges into bottom end of Virgin Islands, to be renamed Technical Virgin Islands

13: Plane crashes in Florida panhandle, no pilot found. Well there's your problem

5: 80-ton wave generator works briefly as advertised when it falls into the ocean

and

4: Baghdad's National Museum reopens six years after looting. Featured displays include mostly a bunch of really heavy stuff

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

A number of us went out to see the new Terry Gilliam movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. I was a little concerned as the reviews I'd seen were generally of the flavor: "The movie is pretty, but the story doesn't make much sense." Well, except for a bit of confusion on my part towards the end, I found the story pretty straightforward. It revolves around the eponymous Dr. Parnassus who at one point was a holy man of an esoteric religion, but had been granted life eternal as the result of winning a bet with Mr. Nick (aka the devil, as well played by Tom Waites). However, as the result of losing another bet with Mr. Nick, Doctor Parnassus is on the verge of some, well, serious consequences. The doctor travels around London in a completely implausible vehicle with a small band of performers, trying to get the good audience to pass through a magic mirror that transports them to a personalized world created from their imaginations and desires. I was afraid this movie would frustrate me like Tidelands (and to a certain extent The Brothers Grimm) did, especially after reading some of the reviews. To my pleasant surprise I enjoyed this movie probably as much as some of Gilliam's best work, a la Time Bandits or Brazil. With computer animation technology, I think Gilliam finally has the tools to show the world the crazy ideas in his head in a surreal, yet realistic way. If you're a Terry Gilliam fan, you should definitely check this movie out and even if you are unfamiliar with his work I still think this is a great movie.

That's Going to Hurt Tomorrow

Just got back from hanging out with the Rodenborns after ice skating after Noelle's Benihanna birthday dinner. My hamstrings are talking to me in a somewhat concerned fashion and I think the tenor will deteriorate sometime tomorrow. I need to get back into the gym. In happier news, I managed to only fall down once after not skating for three years and being in generally poor physical shape.

100% On Closer to the Heart On Rock Band 2 Bitches!

(Yeah, it was on medium, but I still feel accomplished.)

Happy New Year!

Recovering from too much fun last night. My head is actually ok, but my stomach has put me on report and I've been very tired all day. Had a bunch of people over and there was much merriment and good times. Looking forward to 2010: The Year We Make Contact

Lolrus Lives!

Have you seen His bukket?

(seen at the almaden expressway Barnes and Noble, context unclear)

New Guitar Controller FTW!

My rock band guitar controller has been getting progressively flakier as time has gone by so I've been thinking about getting a beatles wireless controller for a while, but balking at the price. Well, the in-laws were nice enough to give me a fair chunk of change in Best Buy gift certificates for Christmas, so today while at Best Buy getting batteries for the Wii, I pulled the trigger on the new Rickenbacker replica. Loving it! Even managed to talk Noelle into using the other controller for some Beatles Rock Band and she seems to be taking to this rock band thing. Yay!

Sherlock Holmes

It was all right, more of a Sherlock Holmes themed movie than a Sherlock Holmes movie. Jeremy Brett for the win!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

No matter where you are, I am hoping you're having a joyful Christmas! We're chilling here in sunny SJ (currently watching TBS' 24 hour Christmas Story marathon) wishing you could be here with us. Best wishes everyone!

Weird Stuff I've Seen Lately

The past 48 hours, swear to god.

1. Do Not Use - Someone at Best Buy neglected to print out the real tag:




2. Wine Glasses May Cause Battery Explosion - I'm not sure what the warning on Noelle's laptop box was supposed to infer, but it looks like:
Wine + LiIon Batteries = FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!



3. Santa On A Pickup - A bunch of plastic, lit up raindeer pulling a lit up Santa and sleigh on top of a pickup truck. Merry Christmas in SJ!

Almost Christmas

Gotta get some supplies for dinner tomorrow and do some last minute cleaning. Not too crazy, but we haven't ventured out to the stores yet. Hoping everyone is well and their Christmahanukwanzaa preparations are going well.

Off Work until 2010!

Woot! Almost two weeks off! Gonna be great!

Avatar

Went out with several friends to see James Cameron's newest adventure, Avatar. I was a little skeptical because the trailer didn't really do much for me, but on the other hand I don't think I've ever seen a James Cameron movie I've hated. Avatar was a pleasant surprise. The plot is solid if unremarkable, about earth interests who are trying to move an alien race off of their tribal lands to get the resources (Unobtainium, if you can believe it) that lay below. You can see the plot devices and developments coming from a mile away, but the ending is still emotionally satisfying, if predictable. The visuals, on the other hand, were amazing. The first half of the movie is just achingly beautiful. The character animation was also good, especially the facial expressions. The 3D where I was sitting (towards the front and to the side) was meh at times with out of focus objects becoming distractingly fuzzy. I will probably go again once more in the theaters to see this on the big screen before it leaves.

Rifftrax: Shorts-Stravaganza

Noelle and I went to see this last week. I saw the Rifftrax in-theater performance featuring Plan 9 From Outer Space and couldn't stop laughing at one, so I was really looking forward to this show. It was really funny, although not up there with Plan 9. They had some of the weirdest ass shorts I've ever seen including a tree "of no account" (the part where it gets cut down is the best part) and a weird Santa inspired dream with claymation dolls that would give me nightmares if they hadn't riffed on it. Also a promotional movie for Santa's workshop that was funny when I could understand the audio or tell what I was looking at (worst. cinematography. evar.). Oh, and they ragged on Twilight, so that was fun. It was worth going to just to hear Sparkly Vampires. Good time. Would go again.