Peru - Day 1

Pictures with captions from my first day in Peru are up on flickr. Start here to read the captions in order if you are so inclined.

Avoidance

Four things that I am pretty sure I would enjoy, that I avoid out of self-preservation.
1) Uppers.
2) Baking.
3) Playing World of Warcraft.
4) Learning to like beer.

Pics

Peru pictures are coming soon. I really want to put them all up this weekend ... and I think I should have plenty of time ... unless I'm lazy ... which I usually am ... so yeah. In fact, I already did a little "best of" set on flickr, so feel free to follow the link on the sidebar. There are no titles and stuff yet, but the pictures are pretty, I think.

Books

I'm a bit behind in my quest to read 2 books per month this year, but I have read three in the last few weeks to bring my total for the year up to 10 and give me some chance to catch up. For some reason, I've always found it nearly impossible to rate a books and albums on a scale of 1 to 10, so I won't do formal reviews, but here are few quick thoughts on each my most recent reads.

We'll start with Omnivores Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm sure this has been frequently described as "The Foodie's Bible" (or some such thing), and with good reason. The book is amazingly educational, and at times eye-opening. It contains a fountain of information about what it means for something to be "factory farmed" or "organic" or "all-natural" or ... well, you get the idea. It doesn't quite reach the gross-out levels of that a movie like Supersize Me did, but it definitely makes me want to avoid factory-farmed meat whenever possible.* All that said, it was a long book and a sloooooow read. Although I was generally satisfied whenever I put the book down, I definitely didn't find myself in any rush to pick it up again. It's most certainly worth reading if you like to cook (or to eat), but I would recommend reading it along with a Harry Potter novel or something like that.

* - Conversely, he also presents a nice ethical argument in defense of eating meat ... as long as it's raised humanely.

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaman, is a young adult-y novel from that won the Newbury medal last year. It mixes a coming of age story with a fairly light fantasy adventure. It was aiight, but the pacing felt a little choppy at times, and as a result it never really reached out and grabbed me like his very creepy Coraline did.

The Lost City of Z, by David Grann, a non-fiction account of an early 20th century Amazon explorer and the group fanatical followers (Mr. Grann included) that he attained after his disappearance in the Jungle. Now this one was a page turner. Combine lots of good stories about all the crazy crap that can kill you in the Amazon (toothpick-shaped penis-infesting fish, anyone?) with a good old fashioned search for lost treasure and you've got a novel that reads like a combination of Bill Bryson and Treasure Island. This one is well worth checking out.

Dragging my feet

A proper set of Peru pictures is coming soon ... really. For now, a few more samples.

Animation

Working on getting some more photos online later tonight, but for now, this.

Picture Preview

Hey all, I'm back from Peru and it was a pretty fantastic trip. I've got something like 800 pictures to sort out (not to mention the ones from other cameras). I'll probably post a set from each day and then my overall favorites over the next week or so, but for now, here are 2 or my favorites.

Me and Machu

Milky Way

Zen

Justin, floating.

Ups

Justin, flying.

Rewind

Backing up. This is from Easter. Matias is quite pleased with himself

Me, Charlie and Nick

Two normal looking guys ... and Charlie.
(I stole this one, and yesterday's picture, from Daneen, btw. Thanks, Neeners!)

Alexa and Man #3

Last and most certainly least. Man #3.
(And, Alexa somehow even knew it at the time)

Alexa with Man #2

Alexa and I after ice cream at Maple View

Alexa with Man #1

Isn't Sasha always Man #1?

3 Old Men