This is the archive for February, 2009.
- Day 59 – Coffeehouse, Calvin Stockdale
This is my friend Calvin Stockdale playing guitar at the Parents’ Weekend Coffeehouse. Calvin is very good on guitar, but his speciality is banjo, which he plays in his band, The Hilltop Moonshiners, and his family’s bluegrass band, the Stockdale Family Band. He is an excellent musician and entertaining to watch. Click the photo to view it larger.
- Day 58 – Birthday Wishes from Home
For the past 5 or 6 years, my Dad has sent my cousins a photo of him holding a sign somewhere with their birthday present. This year, since I am away at college, I got one in my email! Here, Dad just finished snow-blowing the driveway after a big snow and is covered with snow and ice in the backyard. (By the way, the sign says “Aaron” because my family calls me by my middle name.)
- Day 57 – Art on the Great Plains (Not Necessarily Great Plains Art)
While driving over the Great Plains with my parents a few years ago, I encountered a plot of land that had many large pieces of art like this. The only one I can distinctly remember is a large yellow hammer. To get an idea of the size of these all-metal objects, look at the tip of the bull’s horn. The little dot on top is a hawk sitting there. These objects were massive. I tried to find the artist who makes these creations, but my search efforts, though short-lived, were fruitless. Click on the photo to view it larger.
I turned my paper in today! I also listened to a speaker from the Koch foundation talk about applying market-based management to your person and career. He gave an interesting talk that made me think. In very-near future events in my life, my parents are coming up to Hillsdale tomorrow evening for Parents’ Weekend. I am excited to see them!
Time to get back to studying the Constitution and working on improper integrals (not necessarily at the same time…).
- Day 56 – Safari 4 Beta
As many of you already know, Apple released the Safari 4 Beta yesterday. I will spare you all of my thoughts on it, but I like it a lot. Its design has changed slightly, but the big improvement is all of its back end additions that are really paving the way for new web standards. Check out Apple’s list of 150 Safari 4 features to see what I am talking about. Click the photo above to view a larger screenshot.
I have one grievance right now: the 1Password plugin is not supported right now. I am sure it will be as soon as Agile figures out how to make the plugin work with the new layout and back end. I should cut them some slack since it was released yesterday.
- Day 55 – Fat Tuesday
Today’s post is also going to be pretty short because I want to devote as much time as possible to working on my paper for Dr. Jackson and getting all of my reading done for my other classes.
There is no picture today because I was not back in Amherst to get the photo that fits today. Today is Fat Tuesday, the day before the start of Lent, the forty day liturgical season before Easter. The photo I had in mind today would have been of the lines of people at Kiedrowski’s Bakery at 6 a.m. waiting for one thing I think about when the beginning of Lent comes around: Paczki. For those of you who do not come from an area with lots of ethnic people around, paczki are deep-fried pieces of rich dough filled with fruit and other fillings. They are of Polish descent. Traditionally, the reason for making paczki was to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house, which are (or at least were before Vatican II) forbidden during Lent. I am sure they are made now because people think they are tasty and bakeries can make a lot of money on them this time of year, but for whatever reason they exist, I am glad they do.
I was sad today because Hillsdale had cheap knockoffs of paczki which were more like jelly doughnuts. I wish I could have been in line waiting for Paczki this morning, or at least had a few paczki that someone else in my family picked up. I am not going to get to eat them for another couple years now, since they are only made during this time of year. How sad!
- Day 54 – Quake Lake
Earthquake Lake (also known as Quake Lake) is a lake within Gallatin National Forest in southwest Montana. It was created after a massive earthquake caused a landslide to block the Madison River on August 17, 1959. Click on the photo to view it larger. I took it in July 2007.
Oh, how I would like to be there right now, thinking, reading, and relaxing! The post is short tonight because I am busy writing a paper.
- Day 53 – Filming “Roland”
Hillsdale junior Allen Shoff is in the process of making a new film. He has made a few short films before and I hear they are very good. They have been writing scripts for weeks and I saw his group setting up a scene today, so I stopped by to take a couple shots. In this photo, Doug McAlister and Kellie Eder study their lines, while Aaron Mortier prepares to record audio.
Here is what Allen Shoff wrote about his film: “Stolen Fire Films today began its most ambitious project to date: the feature-length film ‘Roland’. The story of Roland James Payton, a young, newly-married police detective struggling to return law and order to a troubled city. When a enigmatic new criminal element enters the city, brilliantly seizing power and predicting every move by the police, Detective Payton faces an impossible situation. As his marriage and his career spiral into a morass of treachery and lies, the line between justice and vengeance begins to blur, and Detective Payton is forced to make the choice that could mean the difference between the salvation of the city and his own damnation.
The screenplay of Roland was finished in late January, and filming began on February 22nd after a lengthy pre-production process. The ensemble cast and dedicated crew put in their first afternoon and evening of filming, transforming the room of Niedfeldt’s house director Scott Henry into the loving home of Mr. and Mrs. Roland Payton.”I had a pretty productive day so far. I did all of my laundry, shot some photos for the Collegian, and worked on my English paper. Later tonight I need to read Racine’s Phaedra and work on some calculus problems. Tomorrow I am going to go see Jim Shepard read a piece of his fiction and then on Tuesday he is going to talk about historical fiction. It should be interesting. I will not post a photo of him speaking because my cousin Hank D told me he is sick of seeing speaker photos since I did so many during the CCA week.
- Day 52 – Ann Arbor
This afternoon, Richard, David, and I drove up to Ann Arbor to check out the city. We ended up eating at Chipotle (excellent), shopping at Briarwood mall, and then eating dessert at a neat little place downtown called The Chocolate House. They had great expresso and chocolate cake. At Briarwood, I bought two pairs of jeans that were on sale at American Eagle and Hollister, and a nice polo that was also a good price at Hollister. We looked at many other stores, but there were no great deals elsewhere. I took the photo above later in the evening when we were walking around downtown. It is not a great photo because I did not have my tripod to keep it steady and I had my ISO too high.
Oh, one neat thing about Ann Arbor is that all of their sidewalk lights were LEDs. Very cool.
Also, I finally posted the answer to the math problem from 12 days ago. It is the comment at the bottom.
