This is looking up at the building on Cesar Chavez and Brazos last Friday.
It was hot out.
by James Brush
Category: Random Stuff
The catch-all category for random things about life in Austin, food & drink, politics, the occasional rant, whatever else.
In June of ’01, we found ourselves driving from Maine to Montreal. We needed a break and so stopped at the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Waterbury, Vermont. I paid my respects to the dead in the flavor graveyard behind the factory.
And, it’s not even out in the back of beyond. It’s right there in Cedar Park, Texas.
Before we moved in.
When you’re at the beach it’s all so clear, but later, looking back it fades and blurs and starts to feel more like the lazy aimlessness you felt while there.
Sometimes photography yields happy accidents like this random shot made with a junky underwater throwaway camera. I find this blurred and washed out image far more satisfying than whatever I was actually trying to do.
This is the beach outside our hotel in Cancun. We were there in Jan ’98 for our honeymoon. The water was rough, black flags and all, so the calm Carribean seemed more Pacific to me.
We stayed in Cancun a few days drinking gringo drinks from coconuts before renting a car and breaking out for Yucatan. We visited Tulum, stayed a few days in Merida where we went to Uxmal (I posted a picture of some of the ruins here) and the Puuc Hills before returning via Chitzen Itza.
It’s high time I caught up with this little homework assignment George left me last week. It is the biggest meme I’ve ever seen…
FOODOLOGY
Q. What is your salad dressing of choice?
A. Olive oil and vinegar
Q. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A. Thundercloud
Q. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A. Right now? Fonda San Miguel
Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A. 20%, 21%, whatever it takes
Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick off of?
A. Bread. I would make a model prisoner since bread and water are two of my favorite things
Q. What is your favorite type of gum?
A. I was required to renounce all gum when I became a teacher
TECHNOLOGY
Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A. At home: this
At work, this view from our hotel last summer:
Q. How many televisions are in your house?
A. Two
BIOLOGY
Q. What’s your best feature?
A. I never directed a feature, only a few shorts.
Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A. Wisdom teeth and some front teeth when I was a kid
Q. Which of your five senses do you think is keenest?
A. Maybe I have a sixth sense that’s good for something
Q. When was the last time you had a cavity?
A. A few years ago
Q. What is the heaviest item you lifted last?
A. Forty pounds of toxic dog food
Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A. Yes. I’m told I went skiing in Colorado in 1991. There is, however, no proof of this.
BULLSHITOLOGY
Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A. Only if I could do something about it
Q. Is love for real?
A. Yes. Can I get a witness over here?
Q. If you could change your first name, what would you change it to?
A. Heironymous or Wolfgang, I go back and forth
Q. What color do you think looks best on you?
A. Blue
Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A. By mistake, no. In fact, I swallowed an ibuprofen just this morning
Q. Have you ever saved someone’s life?
A. I’m told I have.
Q. Has someone ever saved yours?
A. I don’t know.
DAREOLOGY
Q. Would you walk naked for a half mile down a public street for $100,000?
A. Perhaps out in the country
Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A. Prostitution isn’t my thing
Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
A. No
Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A. No, but someday I might never blog again for free
Q. Would you pose nude in a magazine for $250,000?
A. No.
Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000?
A. Hell, I might do that just for the bottle of hot sauce
Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A. Never
Q. Would you give up watching television for a year for $25,000?
A. Can I download episodes of Lost and watch them on an iPod?
Q. Give up MySpace forever for $30,000?
A. Yup
DUMBOLOGY
Q: What is in your left pocket?
A. iPod, memory stick, chapstick, contact lens solution
Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A. I liked it.
Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
A. No
Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A. Stand
Q: Could you live with roommates?
A. Not anymore
Q: How many pairs of flip-flops do you own?
A. None since I blew out the last pair, stepped on a pop top, and had to cruise on back home…
Q: Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A. I run into them all the time at work
Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A. This
LASTOLOGY
Q: Friend you talked to?
A. One of the other teachers at school
Q: Last person you called?
A. The vet
RANDOMOLOGY
Q: First place you went this morning?
A. The vet
Q: What can you not wait to do?
A. Finish my next novel
Q: What’s the last movie you saw?
A. Clue
Q: Are you a friendly person?
A. I try
Now that this towering meme is finished I tag (with humble apologies masking mischievous glee) my wife, Chris, and Danigirl.
Back when this blog was only a week old (and hosted on Blogger), I took on one of the big issues of the time: big, ugly billboards.
I was inspired (or should I say provoked?) by a gigantic billboard that was erected near our neighborhood, surely making it one of the biggest erections in recent history. Well, it seems the county has won its legal battle with the apartment complex whose billboard can be seen for miles, as I realized when I first drove on the new toll roads.
I’m pretty sure you can see the thing from space.
At any rate, it sounds like it won’t be up much longer, which is good news for anyone who (like me) sees billboards for the vile eyesores that they are.
I’ve been meaning to get back into Old Photo Fridays, but since we had the floors done, we haven’t got eveything put back and the old photos aren’t too accessible. And then, the screensaver served this one up, which is only a year old, but old enough, I guess.
I took it from the back of the boat on the morning we cruised up the Canyon of the Eagles. The view is looking downriver, below the canyon, looking towards Lake Buchanan, all glass early in the day.
It was a quick snap off the back, but I really like the flat colors and that bird who just happened to fly into the picture while obeying the rule of thirds. Smart bird.
I wrote two posts about that trip with more pictures. They’re here and here.
I’m guest blogging at In the Pink Texas again today: Even More Ways to Save Public Education in Texas
It hadn’t happened since July, but we went to a theater…
Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
Zodiac tells the tale of the investigation into the identity of the Zodiac Killer who killed at least five people in northern California between 1968 and 1969. The killer wrote letters taunting police and reporters until 1974. His identity has never been confirmed.
The movie focuses on the investigators assigned the task of catching him and the reporters and staff at the newspapers to which he sent his coded letters. Ultimately, the film documents the toll the investigation takes on the people attempting to find Zodiac, particulary Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), The San Franscisco Chronicle’s editorial cartoonist who becomes obsessed with discovering Zodiac’s identity.
Ultimately, Graysmith’s research led to the 1986 book, which is the source material for the film. My wife has been bugging me to read the book for years. It’s been updated to include Graysmith’s theoy about the killer’s identity, a man who died in 1992 without ever being charged. We ordered a copy.
Whatever the killer’s real identity, this is a captivating film about obsession, and in this case, it’s not the killer who is obsessed.