family, woodworking, photography, K-pop
N showed me this video last night. It’s of the winner of “Ukraine’s Got Talent.” In it the artist, Kseniya Simonova, uses a light box and sand to animate the story of Germany’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII. It’s rather long but I thought it was neat.
If you liked that, here’s another video of her performing.
Both E and my brother Steven love trains. So last week we drove up the canyon to Heber City and we took a ride on the Heber Valley Railroad. There were two trips to choose from: a 3-hour trip and 90-minute trip. We went on the 90-minute trip and it turned out to be just the right length. The ride was a lot of fun. You could sit in the open cars or in the old passenger cars. We switched between the two.
Chugging along next to a reservoir.
E and his Uncle Steven.
E liked climbing around on the benches.
The wind gives E a stylin’ do.
The fall foliage in the canyon was a nice bonus. It was breathtaking.The only downside to the trip was that E got carsick on the drive back home through the canyon and threw up a couple of times. It put a bit of a damper on things. But overall it was a really nice outing.
If you’re local and have avid train fans in your family I think it’s worth going once. The train rides are fairly pricey ($24 for 90 minutes, $30 for 3 hours), but kids under 3 are free which helps. I don’t think we’ll be going again anytime soon but I’m glad we went this time.
Foliage in the canyons, taken earlier this week.I love fall and October in particular. Besides Halloween, a holiday that legitimizes buying 5 lb bags of candy and dressing toddlers in cute costumes even against their will, October also includes my birthday (*cough*next week!*cough*) and my church‘s semi-annual worldwide conference. Here in Utah the conference is televised and curling up on the couch listening to the inspiring talks always leaves me refreshed and recommitted to be better person.
It’s been a crazy-but-fun two weeks shuttling Steven and E around to various attractions but I’m a bit wiped out now. Steven flies home today and after I get back from the airport I might try and catch a nap–either that or get started on the huge laundry pileup I’ve been neglecting. How funny is it that I’m looking forward to doing laundry all day tomorrow while watching conference? It probably has something to do with the fact that I’m wearing yesterday’s socks again today. (Too much info? –probably.)
Anyway, I hope you have a great weekend (and an abundance of clean socks)!
Last night was the second week of woodworking. I didn’t post about week 1 yet so I thought I’d post pictures from both weeks today. I hadn’t quite figured out how to fix my jewelry boxes so for the first two weeks I worked on cutting boards.
The lumber: (from left to right) walnut, cherry, and maple.
I cut the wood into strips of varying widths.
And glued the strips together.
Then last night I sanded the panel smooth and then cut it into strips.
I flipped every other strip around (to make the pattern) and then glued them all together.
These cutting boards are kind of addictive. There’s a lot of saw work and sanding involved but I think they’re really fun to make. I had some leftover wood and so I started another one.
Steven tagged along with me to class the last two weeks. I thought he might be bored but he wanted to go again last night so it must have been kind of fun for him.I picked up a roll of black and white film I shot with my Holga at the state fair.
A carny on the midway.
E running around outside a livestock barn.
My brother Steven and N and I went to a sneak peek of Whip It, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, over the weekend. The plot arc is pretty standard to coming-of-age films and so at times it feels predictable but I still enjoyed it. Even though I knew where it was going it was still fun getting there. The movie has a good cast: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Alia Shawkat (Maeby from Arrested Development), Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, etc…. I thought Kristen Wiig did a nice job in particular.
The roller derby scenes are shot well enough that I think most people (including guys) will enjoy them. After all, cute girls in fishnets body-checking each other are pretty easy on the eyes. And it’s a riot to hear the punny roller derby names (e.g. Smashley Simpson, Dinah Might, Malice In Wonderland, etc…).
Overall, Whip It, is a smart, sweet, offbeat movie that works well for a date movie or for a night out with the girls. If you get the chance, check it out.
One of N’s coworkers used to manage a comedy club and still has some connections. He got us some tickets to see Jim Gaffigan tonight. We watch stand-up on tv sometimes but don’t go to a lot of live shows so I’m looking forward to it.
Gaffigan is probably best known for his “Hot Pockets” bit but I thought this one was funny too.
With N being a lawyer I’ve picked up a small measure of legal knowledge by sheer osmosis. When the Supreme Court is in session I like to read Dahlia Lithwick’s columns on Slate.com to follow the decisions. Lithwick writes so clearly and in such a personable way that I find her columns fun to read.
During the court break Lithwick was told to work on some sort of ambitious long-form type of journalism. And so she decided to attempt to write a chick-lit novel in about a month, posting each chapter as she finished it. She talks about her goal here, and you can read the chapters so far here.
Like a lot of people I know, I have some secret writing ambitions which is one of reasons I’m enjoying following Lithwick’s project. She solicits and receives quite a bit of reader feedback on Facebook. She’ll post questions about legal matters or ask for divorce horror stories or solicit names for characters and within minutes people will post their input.
I chimed in on one thread about possible names for a stepmother. My picks sadly didn’t make the cut but it’s interesting and fun to feel like you’re contributing (albeit in a very small way) to a fast-moving project like this. If you’re interested you can follow the project on Facebook here.