It’s so nice to be appreciated.

Two of my photos will (perhaps) be used on the Washington State tourism website in some way shape or form. At least, they’ll be in the pool for use.

These two dudes (click for bigger):

The way this worked was that the ad agency putting together the state’s web site put out a call on flickr.com, and you could add your prospective photos to the pool. The pool itself has a lot of good stuff, but the final cull really stands out. Like, for instance, this.

So I’m happy. My first stock sale.

Yes, it’s quibble time, folks!

Go to your home page. Start up a new ‘blog entry. Click on the ‘Cancel’ button. A dialog will ask you: ‘Are you sure you want to cancel this post?’ You will be given two options: ‘Cancel’ and ‘OK.’

If you click on ‘cancel,’ you will be returned to the post.

If you think you might like it, you will.

If you think it’s irresponsible for Hollywood to make a movie about a terrorist who wears a Guy Fawlkes mask and blows up British Parliament, then you’ll hate it whether you see it or not.

It’s big, sloppy, messy (from a screenwriting standpoint), but all essential. It’s a paradox: The things that really matter are things that disrupt the flow, turn the narrative upside down, and turn the script into shambles.

I remember the first time I ever argued with my parents. No one said anything that ultimately mattered, because the intentions and the meanings were too complicated to really find lucid expression. And that’s how this movie operates. It’s just too full of Good Stuff to seem like anything but ranting.

Very much worth seeing, though. And I have to admit: I cried twice.

Bruce Sterling’s very excellent rant (mp3) at SxSW.

(via mefi)

Diggin’ the BLDGBLOG, or building blog, which takes us through a sort of architectural and geoscientifc scrapbook.

A recent entry tells of the new Arbonian Sea, which will one day soon, through cataclysm, parallel the Red Sea. It’s already 300+ feet below sea level and getting deeper and wider all the time. It’s enough to make a geologist want to go to Africa.

Something to keep in mind:

If you want to solve the idle problem on your Vanagon, fix the power steering.

A moment’s reflection reveals why.

I’m going to write ‘Zen and the Art of Passing the Emissions Test,’ and then I’ll arm-wrestle Robert Pirsig… AND WIN!

Also: Superglue reinforces fingernails. Dries quick, too.

‘Travelers and Magicians’ is a film out of Bhutan. I meant to see it when it came through in the theateres around here, but never did. Yes, a Bhutanese filim made it to about 5 or 6 different theaters here in Seattle.

It’s a really wonderful film. A road trip story and an ancient tale at the same time. The main character is a government official in a small village in Bhutan, and he has the chance to go to America if he can make it to the city before his friend leaves. So he sets off and, of course, misses the bus. He encounters a monk, a drunk, a paper seller, his daughter, an apple seller, and the tale of a young man learning to be a magician, told by the monk as their journey progresses.

It’s really well made. The actors are first-timers and non-actors, so they come across as very genuine. The cinematography is beautiful, and the heart of the movie is sweet and sentimental. The pacing is a little slow, but it’s supposed to be; the story is about a young man who wants to get to America in a hurry.

Well worth seeking out.

While I was at the video store getting ‘Travelers and Magicians,’ I saw that there’s a new Bill Hicks DVD release, ‘Sane Man,’ which is a live performance by Hicks in Austin in 1989. It’s a shame that guy died… A real shame. It’s a total contrast to ‘Travelers..’ by virtue of cynicism. Hicks was about as bitter a comedian as you can find.

This guy just makes me want to give up.

I’ve decided, though, that the next piece of absolute must-have equipment is one of those Cokin filter holder thingies and some ND Grad filters. 2- and 3-stop hard.

Once I went to Reno, NV, to buy tickets to Burning Man.

There’s a record store… I wish I could remember where exactly. A funky place with punks and emo kids all congregating and talking music and stuff. I can’t imagine how isolated a free spirit would be in Reno, Nevada.

Reno was on the way to Burning Man, and we stopped at that record store, and then we stopped a big ol’ warehouse-style grocery store in Sparks, NV, where we bought crappy food at discount prices.

I remember another time I was going through Reno, from the east to the west this time, and I stopped at a convenience store. The cashier dealt out my change like a hand of poker. I guess there are only so many dealer gigs available in town.

When I rented these two movies, I didn’t really see what the connection was. But somewhere deep in my subconscious, the connection had been made, and the need to view these movies one after the other became completely obvious on viewing.

The movies: ‘Aliens,’ and ‘Occupation: Dreamland.’

‘Aliens’ you’re probably familiar with. It’s the tender story of sending in the marines to blow up super-duper aliens and the threat to humanity that they represent. It’s also an interesting set of metaphors for a lot of things, and is quite well written. One of the things I kept thinking about while watching it is how stupid so many genre films really are, even if they have a lot of talent and money involved. And that this movie, and ‘The Abyss’ represented the best of what sci-fi/action movies could be, and how completely the innovations have been absorbed into cliche. Why watch this movie? I’ve played the video game!

‘Occupation: Dreamland’ is the tender story of sending the Army to restore order to Fallujah in Iraq. It’s a documentary. We get to know some of the soldiers, we hear a little bit from the people of Fallujah, and it’s all a big, huge mess. The main flaw of this movie is the war. Really. It’s a good movie, well made by some dedicated people. The subject matter, however compelling, is the result of the deranged policy of a lunatic in the White House. It’s a frustrating movie, because the war itself is frustrating. And that’s all I could think about, while watching this: How ill-advised and just plain wrong-headed the whole endeavour has been. These soldiers know it, and they talk about it. These guys are out there putting their life on the line for George W. Bush, and George W. Bush doesn’t really seem to value what that means.