Umm.....

From my National Geographic picture of the day: Ultraviolet Bath, Russia

I don't know if you guys have noticed it, but English Russia has been killing it lately. A couple of weeks ago, they had these great old comic books listed*, and there seems to be quite a number of pagan-themed posts going on as well. Today, though, there's some photos of Lena's Stone Pillars, which is just one of the most amazing things I've ever laid eyes on. Anyway, check it out!

Incidentally, you'd be crazy to think that the pic I posted yesterday of a tank in a sunflower field wasn't from ER, but I actually found it while flipping through an old book and then scanned it.

*I've had that saved in a toolbar for weeks now and never got around to posting it. Apologies!

Go check out some Russian space program snapshots at English Russia, because... wait, do you need a reason for that? If so, you really shouldn't be here...

From English Russia

The Sword of Victory, Russian

So, I wanted to post some stuff about Alex Andreev's art the other day when I first saw it, but seeing that I don't speak Russian, I found his website somewhat tricky to manage. Obviously, this is a stupid reason not to at least superficially explore a website, but then my computer hasn't dealt well lately with flashy websites, especially since the Flinstonesian bird living in it died of heatstroke a few weeks ago.

Of course, he has a page on Livejournal that I didn't know about until I came across it on English Russia this evening. He refers to his art as Hermetic (is this to say that it is entirely uninfluenced? I'm not so sure...), and it might well be. But that doesn't matter, because much of it is absolutely stunning. Airplanes weaving through massive pillars that shooy skyward from the cloudline. Cloud cities. A few where boxcars are suspended by a thin strand of cable. The imagery presented here is gorgeous, and shows more premise than most of the movies being made today.

so yeah, there's something pretty to look at. I should try to use one of those websites to translate what he says on his page about these things, but I kind of like the mystery attached to them either way. Click one of the links above or check out some more here.

and while I hate to cram two great artists into one puny thread (in a time where my posting is scant at best, I should really be milking this into two threads), I also hate to post twice in a row from the same website. Had I more time for browsing, I could've at least spaced these a few days apart, but this is what happens when I have to catch up on several weeks of my favorite sites in a sitting.




Anyway, there's a beautiful set up there of a series of pictures taken from a rooftop at dawn in St. Petersburg. I think many of these were treated with HDR, and maybe some other effects, but my favorites might be the ones that aren't touched at all.
Dawn is something I don't see often, and when I do it's more than likely at the end of a night rather than the start of a day (much, I suspect, like these scruffs*), but the growing light is always nice, even when I feel more weary (or sometimes very drunk) than energetic, it's a comfort to know that a day is over and a night. You can go to bed knowing that at it's already another day no matter how you look at it. And if you're going to bed after dawn, chances are you'll sleep just fine.

I dunno, that's how I see it, anyway. See the rest of the set here.

Well, I'm off to watch one of my favorite episodes of the West Wing** and hopefully drift off to sleep soon after. Maybe I'll have something fun to write tomorrow when I'm done with my work?

*I was thinking at first that this term might seem offensive (I spend a lot more time thinking about that crap than you'd think while writing this. Or anything, for that matter), but then realized I would totally refer to myself in that way, so fuck it.

**I'm just starting this. Or at least I did a few momths ago, got through season 1, loved it, and now I'm watching it again to catch Carrie up. So far it's one of my favorite shows ever (I was seriously considering trying to get whatever friends I have that never watched it to start up a long-distance viewing TV club, but logistics somehow brought this down before it started), but I'm stuck a hell of a cliffhanger so I really wanna get the rest of this season out of the way.

If anyone wants to start watching this show now, I'm not going to hit season 2 for another couple of weeks. Think about how fun it would be, watch an episode or two a week, and comment about it! I'll start another blog for it! a ten year old sitcom that is one of the most watched shows ever! Ten years later!

okay, I'm going to bed... man, this post is all over the place....

I wanted to write something about the death of Harry Kalas, but I've got a truckload of reading in front of me and the way my day is going, I'd probably get gandraped by a herd of elephants before I get to finish writing it up. Needless to say, he was one of the greats and his voice is truly missed. and I'm glad he at least got to anounce the Phils' Series win.

As far as my day, it really was a shitty one of epic proportions. When, by 1:30 PM. you've decided that you're better off going home and not going outside for the rest of the day, you know things aren't going your way. I also got pulled over for the first time in awhile, and got my first ticket since... 2000. It was a nice streak, and the longest of my life so far, so now I got a challenge.
But then I found an article about a guy who had a 5 cm fir tree removed from his lungs. While that's pretty damned weird, I think the craziest part is that he "probably inhaled a bud and it proceeded to grow inside his body". Yeah. So, I got that going for me. That is, not having a tree taking root in my lungs. Which is nice.