The Way I See Things

IMAGINATION: 

Where some see a plain cup of coffee... 

others see whole worlds waiting to be explored.

B-E-A-utiful!

I did an image search the other day on Google, and was greeted with the most beautiful results I have ever encountered. Even though half my search involved the word "spider" I was pleasantly surprised by this lovely collage of arachnid eyeballs.

The Voyage of the Beagle

A young Charles Darwin

I just finished reading Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle. It was an excellent book, and I am more convinced than ever that I should have been born what Victorian England termed a "gentleman scholar". Darwin spent five years exploring, observing, noting, recording, pondering and contemplating everything from weather patterns, to mating rituals of insects. His job was basically to "check out" South America, and learn as much as he could about as much as possible. Awesome!
The book seemed a little daunting at first, both because of the small text and large stature, and because of some of the Latin names of things that seemed to jump off the pages as I flipped through it. But neither proved to be a detriment. The book was pleasant enough that I actually enjoyed the length of it, and it was divided into chapters that were easily readable in a sitting. Secondly, most of the Latin names were either accompanied by the more familiar one, or it turned out not to be that important. For example if he was talking about a certain kind of beetle or coral I found that most of the time it was more of an inventory and thus not important what genus or species it was. The same went for most of the birds. I could look things up when I found them particularly interesting, but most of the time it wasn't necessary.
I also got to "know" Darwin a little through his own voice. I guess because of my religious background I'd grown up with the vague impression that he was a trouble maker, subversive and sneaky, and somehow a bad person. Even after I became an adult and came to understand the truth about evolution and natural selection, and read about Darwin, I still thought of him as a rebel, an outspoken "go-against-the-grain" kind of guy. But boy-oh-boy was I wrong! He (and I mean the "he" that I can know through his writings) was the opposite of pretty much every thought I've ever had about him. He was quiet, kind, polite, sensitive and humble. He was thoughtful, observant, and ultra-sympathetic to all animals (except maybe fleas) both human and non. He loved nature, and life, and the mysteries of the earth. He was adventurous, and inquisitive, and at the time he wrote The Voyage of the Beagle, clearly religious to a certain degree. The last part was especially surprising since I kind of assumed he was sort of anti-religious. But not so.
Anyway, he just seems like a really decent human being. And I think it's unfortunate that such an admirable man has acquired such a bad rap from some religious circles.
My next book by him (since I am trying to go through them in more or less chronological order) will be On the Origin of Species. I am already sensing the difficulty with which he wrote it, on account of his nature, and his sensitivity to those around him. I know from other accounts that his wife was very religious, and I know that he (Darwin) seemed always to take great care in not offending anyone. It should be interesting!
As a naturalist and scientist he is clearly admirable, and his contribution to science is almost unfathomable. Only now I am starting to think that the human being he simply was is also worthy of our admiration and respect.

Santa Cruz at Sunset

While my family was in town we went sight-seeing all over the place. One of our stops was in Santa Cruz where we had dinner on the pier, and were treated to a beautiful (but FREEZING) sunset and moon rise.

Rainbows 2

This has really been the year for rainbows! Have seen probably 15 or 16 since the first rain of this year! I don't remember ever having seen so many! Here are a couple more of the better ones I was able to snap a photo of! The first I saw while waiting for a parking spot at Walgreens, and the second is over my house (my blue car is parked in front) a couple days later! I love rainbows they are so cheerful and such pretty phenomenon of nature!

Look What I Made!

Hand and ball

I ran out of stuff to keep my hands busy while watching football this weekend, and stumbled upon an idea. It's not perfect, i.e. I made a few bad decisions on some of the lines, but overall I thought this little doodle came out pretty cool. And best of all it kept me busy for the whole Seattle/Washington game!

The Playoffs

From NFL.com

Well, It's that time of year again. The regular season is over, and the playoffs have arrived. The Pack won the division, and I was happy about that. But that is the past, and there are  bigger "fish to fry" as the saying goes. A quick recap of wild-card weekend though before I jump into the Pack. First of all I none of the other teams I wanted to win won. I wanted Indie to beat Baltimore (however unlikely it was) because right behind Detroit, I have a soft spot for the Colts. I'm not super bummed that the Ravens won, and actually it was cool to see Ray Lewis win his last game at home, but still. I don't really care either way about the Bengals/Texans game, so I don't have much to say about that. But I really was hoping the Redskins could come away with the win against Seattle. I don't like the Seahawks. Not the players in particular, but Pete Caroll especially on account of the fact that when interviewed and asked about the fiasco of a game they played against us he lied several times about that final play that was clearly an interception. I feel that his coaching style is a little dirty, and I think they take a lot of credit for things they shouldn't. But whatever. They won. I don't know why Shannahan left RGIII in the game for so long with his bad knee, and I really think Washington might have had a chance if they'd pulled RGIII and put in Cousins.
Pack vs. Vikes
Our game went pretty well for a playoff game. We started out strong, and sort of faded toward the end, and that would have to be my strongest criticism of the whole game (i.e. we lost our momentum). I thought the offense played well, Our run game is getting better and Harris is turning out to be reliable. If I were the coach  the thing I'd stress to him this week is maintaining his sterling record of keeping the ball secure. He is doing so well, and I just want it to stay that way.
The offense was on track. Rodgers hit like 8 or nine receivers, and had time to do so thanks to the great play by the offensive line. Sure Rodgers got sacked like...5 times, but I think 3 of those at least were his fault for holding on to the ball too long. James Jones played great Jennings is finishing out the season strong. Jordy didn't get into the game until the second half, and came out with a limp after only a few plays, but did a really nice job.
The defense really showed up. Woodson is back and great, the secondary played well. They corralled AP and only allowed him 100 or so yards, which is not great but much better than 210 he got the week before!
All in all it was a good game, and we move on, but I'm not too excited about the win because I don't think the Vikings are really that good of a team yet, and I don't think they are tat hard of a team to beat. Especially without their starting QB.

Moving on to next week and our game against San Francisco. Now this will be a tough game. Here are a few of my thoughts about what we need to get done in order to win:

• I think the O-line has it's work cut out for them, but as long as they throw Kuhn, or a TE in there to help block I think Rodgers can get some long passes out to the receivers and work his magic. 
• AR needs to get rid of the ball sooner though, especially against the Niners. I know he hates to throw the ball away (which is why he is sacked so often) but sometimes it is the right thing to do. Otherwise people get hurt, and the penalties pile up. 
•  The entire offense needs to be reminded that ball security is going to be critical against the Niners defense. 
• We are going to have to be patient with the run game but stick with it.

On the defensive side of things,

• We need to limit Kapernick from running for 1st downs. 
• And I think that we need to keep Frank Gore to under 100 yards. It was very fortunate that we played the best RB (Adrien Peterson) in the league 3 times in the past five weeks. Hopefully that has prepared the D for the run game.

Hopefully everyone is back on the field and healthy by Saturday.
I hope we beat the Niners, because their fans are becoming a real pain in the butt, shouting at me, making rude gestures, and telling me how terrible my team is. I am not upset by it really, but it is pretty annoying. All I can say is:

Weird Clouds

About a week before Christmas I was out shopping, and noticed that the clouds had a strange "wavy" appearance. I have no idea what caused it, but I thought it was cool enough to photograph and post here. The quality of the photos ins't great because they were taken with my iPhone out of a moving car...but they are still pretty cool I think.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium

Over the holiday break (and while I had family in town) we went down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for an afternoon of under-the-sea adventures. My two favorite exhibits were the jellys (they are always my favorite!) and a new one on seahorses. Take a peek at some of my best shots;)

Holiday Projects

I know Christmas is over...boo. But not for me really. I still have my tree up (and not because I am lazy), and I am slowly refolding ribbon, and breaking down boxes, and enjoying the remnants of the season. I tackled several projects over the holidays including baking, crafting, and drawing, and finally I can show them to you! Here is a sample of some of my homemade holiday treats and gifts!

Ink drawing for my brother

Ornament for my little bro

Making Packers Xmas ornaments

Vegan truffles

"Light" writing picture for my cousin

Making chair ornaments out of champagne ties

And adding corks to complete the set

Some of my champagne chair ornaments for mom