Back From the Berkshires

I spent a longish weekend in the Berkshires with Brenda, an old college buddy.  We stayed in Lee, MA.  We shopped in Lenox, where I bought a light, tencil shirt with a Japanese-themed print.  It came from a fun shop called The Purple Plume.

For more information, you may wish to consult my Picasa Web Album on the trip.

Albino Slug Sighted in Neighbor's Patio

Dynamic Duotones

Recently I've been fooling around with the duotone (tritone, quadtone) option on Photoshop, and I think I like it even better that HDR.

Really False Advertising

We all expect a little exaggeration in movie posters.  For instance, in a Star Wars poster Princess Leia is pictured in a low-cut dress that she doesn't wear on screen.  But I have discovered a case that goes too far.  I recently purchased The Wasp Woman, a Roger Corman flick from 1959.  Please examine the DVD cover art below:

So you would assume from this picture that the Wasp Woman had a wasp's body and the head of a pretty woman and was significantly larger than the average human being.  But, when you watch the actual movie, what do you see?

The Wasp Woman has a woman's body and a waspy sort of head and is the same height as she is as a human woman. 

Condominium Life

I just love my condo association meetings.  We had one tonight.  The highlight of the evening was the story of a man whose window faced the pool.  He wanted the tree near said window to be only lightly pruned and only on top, so that the branches would cut off people's view inside his place.  However, the board felt that the trees should be pruned alike with the lower branches cut back.  This guy said now his privacy was gone.  (Why couldn't he use a curtain?)  There followed a long discussion, which I won't even try to reproduce.  Suffice it to say that it ended with this guy and our property manager calling each
other liars.

At that point I felt I had done my duty and left.

The On-Campus Farmers' Market Starts Up Again

And they were offering these digitally enhanced edibles:

The Only Way I Could Enter this Contest

Today I received an e-mail from Amazon.com attempting to tempt me into signing up for e-mail alerts regarding stuff I would want to buy.  In exchange, I would have the opportunity to win a $1000 gift card.  I checked out the Official Rules and found this troubling statement:


"How to Enter. You may enter the Sweepstakes beginning at 12:00:01 a.m. (PST) on April 15, 2010 and ending at 11:59:59 p.m. (PST) on May 31, 2010 (the "Sweepstakes Period")."

There's only one way I could enter this sweepstakes:

Not That I'm Competitive, But...

...Sue's African Violet is making more flowers than mine!%#$*

Tapas is Tops!

Yesterday Julie and I ate tapas in the Conservatory at the Faculty Club.  At last they were open to the public again after their norovirus outbreak.  I photographed the menu, because my scanner is giving me nothing but error messages.

We both chose plates 2 and 3.  The sea bass was our hands-down favorite.  Our favorite bartender, Angel, made the sangria; it was wonderfully refreshing, not too sweet, and strong.  Two glasses was enough for us, though we could have had more and coffee too, if we had wanted.  The citrus flan was also quite tasty.  Then Angel stopped by to chat.  Owing to the  norovirus, he was down to 121 lbs.  Julie recounted her and Dave's experience with the virus, which was basically very unpleasant.

$20 for such great food and all the sangria you want is a great deal.  We hope the FC will offer this again and that Sue and Dave can come next time.

Living in Los Alamos Circa 1963

Harvard's Loeb Design Library has a pamphlet aimed at potential Lab employees.  It is not dated; but the catalog record says"1963?"  I would have been 8.  I didn't recognize anybody pictured in said pamphlet, but I offer scans of the cover and first 3 pages for your pleasure.