I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston a few days back. It's a nice place, they have a fairly impressive collection. I was there with another seminarian and a priest acquaintance who is visiting from Brazil. The priest and I both took a ton of pictures, though he tended to have somebody photograph him next to particularly famous pieces (which the museum has a fair number of) while I took pictures of things that I liked aesthetically or thought could come in useful for world design. I won't bore you by posting a bunch of them, since I figure if anybody wants to look at a picture of a nice Turner painting there's no shortage of places online they can look. I also took the following picture in a clear attempt to prove that I'm not as witty as I think I am. I call it Self Portrait as Aizen.


I was also in Pandemonium books and had a little store credit which I used to pick up a copy of the Watchmen which a lot of people said i should read before I saw the upcoming movie. It was a good read. I'm glad I ended up having a chance to experience it. I can also see why some people are worried about the movie adaptation. The way the story is told does not lend itself to the screen, so it's really up to the director to figure out how to translate and that could go either very well or very poorly. I'm still kind of digesting it, and don't want to ruin it for anybody else so I think that's all I'll say on the subject.

The Portuguese summer program is going fairly well. I'm learning a fair bit, my instructors are good, the language and course is interesting, and while the book isn't great I'm not going to stress over it. Two of the five weeks are done and so far I think I'm doing okay. Though this course would have been a total killer if I hadn't have taken French and Spanish before. We're moving incredibly quickly.

I took a couple shots of the UMass Dartmouth campus, mostly because it amuses me with it's concrete esthetic. Wikipedia doesn't have a date for when the current campus was built, but I'm guessing the 60s. That strikes me as the logical time for an architect to think that the best way for a university to look is a ton of unpainted concrete. UCSD had a similarly inspired look. Though at least UMD has used the windows and similar design elements to make the buildings look a lot more interesting than, say, HSS (History and Social Science building, for those who didn't go to UCSD). Though how the architect thought that concrete spike (I guess it's a bell tower) was a good idea, I'll never know.





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Completely unrelated:

This story makes me profoundly sad. Originally I wanted to write up a sarcastic post taking that sort of reasoning further, but honestly bigotry just depresses me enough that I don't want to attempt to be funny.

I just purchased a computer, and will pick it up tomorrow. It'll be nice to own one again rather than be borrowing one, especially since I will want to have it with me over the summer and I feel a little odd carting something I borrowed around. It also helps that the new one has a lot more ram. I'm trying to remember when exactly computers stopped being that light gray color and became black. I think it was not long after the introduction of the first iMac. Kind of a "PCs can look cool too" thing. But that is just speculation.

I have been meaning to write something meaningful about the Eucharistic Congress for two weeks now. That has not happened. So I will just say that it was good and post a link I received recently showing a slideshow that a Pilot photographer put together from the pictures that he took during it. This is probably for the best since I was only there for part of the congress and this way a bit of the entirety can be shown and not just the part I attended.

The pictures are here.

Merry Christmas everybody. I hope that you're passing this cold winter's* night in warm surroundings of family and friends, as well as indoor heating where appropriate.

In the Polish tradition we opened gifts on Christmas Eve, among other things I got a new digital camera (Canon PowerShot SD750, Digital Elph) to replace the old one which was too huge to cart around considering its meager 1.7 megapixels. The new one is a marked improvement. There seems to be a law requiring the owner of a new camera to take and post a picture of their face at arm's length. I am nothing if not a law-abiding citizen.



* References to winter and cold may be freely ignored by people in the Southern Hemisphere, with their warmth and sunshine during December *shakes fist like a grumpy old man*

I got my hair cut today. This is not really news, and I'm mostly mentioning it so that I can look back for this entry next time I get it cut to make sure if my estimate of 4-6 months between haircuts is accurate. Still, I did take a picture right before and after the haircut so I might as well put them up and stop being the last person who hasn't put up an autoportrait taken by holding a digital camera up to their face, on the web.

     
I'm sure you can figure out which one is before and which is after...

The BBC reports that new studies show that the Amazon is longer than the Nile. Somebody found something that could be considered the start of the river which is further back than what has been considered its start up until now. I just bring this up because it was the first time I really thought about how arbitrary all of this is. It kind of struck me while attempting to draw maps a while back, but I just kind of assumed that real cartographers just kind of knew this type of stuff. Glad to know it's just as complicated in the real world.

An idea for a story came to me today, in the strangest circumstances. In short it would be an exploration of the free will / fate dichotomy, which is very well plowed land, but I'm going for a fun mental exercise and not an international award or bestseller. I'm thinking of a young man trained entirely to fight an ancient evil in a far away land, destined to win the hand of the princess and half the kingdom for his efforts. But who would rather go back to the land he grew up with and the love of his youth. Basically a ton of cliches with a slight twist. Oh and I'm thinking of illustrating it, and learning to draw mecha specifically for it. For some reason I want it to include mecha. 

Not sure whether it'll get very far, since I have a bad track record with these types of things. Also because I'm not sure what I'm trying to say with it. Then again I've finished short stories which started as ideas without endings and the ending kind of wrote itself. Some of them were not terrible either. Though that's based vague memories of their content rather than objective criteria or recent reading.

Also from the BBC: this is a pair photographs from a set of pictures taken by girls from a home for abandoned or abused girls in Nepal, I found them particularly interesting.
 

So San Diego people can expect me to be there from sometime on the 30th of July to sometime around the 18th or 20th of August. That's long enough to see people and enjoy the weather enough to justify the cost of the plane ticket, without being so long that it'd make me infringe on my other commitments or overstay my welcome. I hope.

I used to have a de facto policy of trying to break up the text of my journal with graphics. Where if I hadn't had a picture in a couple of posts I'd kind of force it in there any way I could. That kind of fell by the wayside. Don't know why, probably because I stopped posting regularly. Still I uploaded some pictures from Philly a while back so might as well toss them on here in honor of the old policy. They're both from outside the museum of art. The first is me and a couple of guys from the seminary under the, rather cheezy, Rocky statue. It does say something about America that when we were going out there more people asked if we were going to see a statue done in memory of a movie character than asked if we were going to see the Liberty Bell. The other is a fountain.

     

I've been taking very few pictures lately. Not sure why exactly, probably because I tend to be doing things in and around the seminary as opposed to my Krakow habit of walking a half hour to school along with regular excursions to the city. Still I was taking a few pictures while visiting my parents, and it got me to take the pictures that were already on my camera onto my computer. One of those is from a while back and it shows the only good thing about the fact I have to wake up early. My room faces the east, and while I can't see any sunsets, once in a while I get to see a pretty sunrise. This one is from the beginning of October.


The pictures I took today are of an oil lamp at my parents' house. I have a strange fascination with flame, among other natural elements, and so I took a bunch of pictures of the thing.

Waking up before sunrise is unpleasant.  I'm looking forward to daylight savings time. 

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Also the seminary is starting up a newsletter this year.  I submitted a proposal for its logo, and since the newsletter is currently at the printer's and I think the logo is still being used I figure it's not going to get changed any more.  As such I think it's not a problem to show it on here.  In the final version the logo will have the hills be in silver, which, I am told, is the color of the seminary.  The eagle is a traditional symbol for St. John, which makes sense here since the seminary is dedicated to him.   

Today I got a pair of books of the webcomic Sam and Fuzzy that Edgar picked up for me at the Comic Con.  Since, as you know, I'm a huge webcomic geek this made me very happy, especially since I believe that Sam Logan is one of the most talented writers in webcomics today.  It's even better because  both of the books are signed and one of them has a sketch in it as well.  I think Edgar suggested an "angel and demon" theme, which would explain the presence of two Fuzzies without either of them wearing a sombrero.  I just wanted to share that because it makes me happy.  A photo of the sketch is included below. 

Yesterday I went with most of the people from the house to the Museum of Bad Art. It's located in the basement of a movie theater, in a small antechamber to the men's bathroom.  Currently they have about 10% of their collection available for the viewing public, the title of the exhibit is “Hackneyed Portraits”.  The above picture is part of the exhibit, entitled the Athlete, though it is a piece not without controversy (it very possibly was meant to be bad, as such does not fit the spirit of the museum, which means to showcase things that are only bad on accident). 

The art in the show is all either donated by the artist, owner, or scavenged from yard sales, trash cans, or thrift shops (though the museum prides itself on never spending more than $6.50 on a piece).  It goes from "downright terrible" all the way up to "passable, but I wouldn't want it in my home" (on my very scientific and unbiased scale).  Some are bad due to lack of inspiration, others due to errors in implementation, many suffer from both.  What made the museum worth it though was the descriptions hung next to the pieces.  They were Mystery Science Theater 3000esque.  Sometimes they spoofed the stereotype of the description of a serious art, more often they mocked artistic choices made by the artist which, in hindsight, were probably not the best ones to make. 

Anyway, I enjoyed the visit to the place, it was my type of humor.  The fact they didn't charge an entry fee is a nice bonus.  Too bad that it's in a town called Durham which did not seem to have anything else going for it.  I was going to see a showing of Little Miss Sunshine at the theater a floor above the museum, based upon the recommendation of a blog writer I happen to read, but nobody else was interested so we ended up going home instead.  Still if you're ever in the area and have a half hour (plus drive time) to kill, check it out.  If you do it when they have a new exhibit I haven't seen, I might even tag along.  If not, and that type of thing fits your taste in humor, check out their website.  They have a fair number of pieces scanned and put on electronic display. 

I am trying to focus on writing, with only limited success.  At least it's moving a bit faster than it was when I was trying to write in Polish.  But I wanted to put up a quick post.  So, compromise.

Here's a picture I took at the Church of St. Anne.  It's a Baroque church so there are cupids EVERYWHERE.  This is the only one there that doesn't have hair.  In fact I have never seen another hairless cherub.  In fact I think it might be the only bald cupid ever sculpted in Baroque architecture. 

Took some pictures today on my way to campus and back.  Hosted a couple of them, and put them behind an ( ljcut )

I talked to my promotor today.  It looks like I'll have enough time to get the thesis written and defended, I can turn it in as late as mid June and defend it on July 7th at the latest.  These dates suit me fine.  He suggested that I might write faster in English, a sentiment I agree with.  He also came up with a good solution to the only problem I have with writing in English (all the quotes I would be using would be English translations of Polish translations or the original Latin, each step introducing a chance for misunderstanding and error).  The possibility of just not translating the Latin in the text, but instead just paraphrasing the parts that are relevant to my point would get around the problem.  I told him I'd see how I write in both languages this week and would tell him how it's looking after the long May weekend (the 1st and 3rd of May are holidays in Poland, since those happen to be Monday and Wednesday this year it makes for a nice couple of days I can concentrate on writing). 

The weekend in Warsaw was quite nice, though a bit too short.  I haven't seen my godfather in many years, and his family in even longer, so it was nice to catch up a little bit, even if it was too short to do so completely.  A bit more time would have allowed it to be a bit more complete, as well as giving me a chance to talk to their oldest son (who was out of town) and a couple of my cousins who live in Warsaw (one was out of town and the other in the middle of exams).  Staying with them really reminded me of back when my family used to live all in one house.  My godfather's house has a similar system of cohabitation, people coming and going at odd hours and eating partly together but partly each on their own.  It was pleasant to go back to that from living alone, although I have become a bit of a light sleeper and am not used to people moving around at night.  Likewise with living with animals, they had four cats and two dogs (though the dogs stayed in the yard).  I enjoyed watching how the cats interacted, each has a completely different personality.  One would come up to get attention constantly, while another I only finally got to pet after a long process of getting it to get a bit used to me. 

I also saw the town a bit better than the time I was there with Steve and Rastin two Summers ago.  It's a lot more pleasant to be in when you're not walking by embassies and their machine gun-carrying protection details all the time.  I was a bit shocked by just how similar all subways really look, though come to think of it there's not that much room for improvisation on that type of thing.  Still got to see some cool things, I enjoy little touches like some old-style restaurant signs.


We also went to Wilanów, where there is a palace built by King John III Sobieski.  The palace has a lot of old paintings on display, unfortunately they're paranoid and won't let people photograph anything (even without flash) which is too bad since they have some cool furniture and sculptures which I wanted to photograph.  Still it's always interesting to run into the original of a painting that I know from history books.  I got to do that a bit at the Wawel Castle too, but that one has a lot fewer paintings on display.  One thing that annoyed me was the restoration work being done, they're painting that poor palace in a terrible fashion.  It's entirely possible that the king's architect originally meant for it to look like it was painted by a 10 year old who just got a box of brightly colored crayons and figured out how to stay within the lines.  If so, then years of decay have improved the place, like a fine wine, and they should have left well enough alone.  I'll show you what I mean using the picture below, the part in the foreground is not restored.  The part in the background is restored on the left and not on the right.  The prosecution rests.

A longer post coming later.  I'm getting home too late right now to put together a post of any size.  I might get something written on Wednesday.

Until then I just want to let people know that I managed to avoid tripping and therefore didn't set the prime minister, or anybody else on fire.  I consider this a success.  The stations of the cross thing was a good experience.  Apparently a lot of people thought so since there were a lot more than anybody expected.  A lot more.  Basically the only way we got to move through the crowds at all was because ten burly soldiers formed up in front of the procession and just pushed their way through.  Crude, but startlingly effective. 

I mention these thoughts about this type of stuff, with prime ministers and cardinals and all that, because it's just interesting how many big events I kind of stumble upon during my stay here.  I don't search for such experiences, and I don't have a need for such experiences.  Still it's kind of cool that they hit me all the same.  Definitely chose the right two years to be in Krakow.

( Some rehosted pictures behind the cut )

Oh by the way.  My cousin's daughter was born this morning.  Her name is Amelka.  So congratulations to all the people involved. 

And just to end on a nice but irrelevant note, I got passed the silly useless Latin thing.

Saw an old BMW with Washington DC plates driving around Krakow yesterday.  Made me want to tell the guy driving that they make those in Europe too, he didn't need to ship it all that way. 

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Also saw a weeping willow covered with frost last night.  It was so cool looking, I wish I had a camera on me at the time.  Alas I did not.  You can kind of see the frost on the trees outside my house.


But it's not the same, the thing that made the willow so cool is that it almost looked like a frozen waterfall.  Well that and it was right next to the Grunwald Bridge, and the Wisła and Wawel Castle make a much better backdrop than the Communist-era block that I get a view of from my window. 

Had my ticket controlled on the trolley for the first time since I got to Krakow.  The two controllers were very efficient about it, they caught a couple of people two of whom also didn't have ID or the cash to pay the fine on the spot, leading to some sort of really long conversation that led to some conclusion I don't know since they all got off the trolley on the next stop. 

A pair of pictures from Zakopane to show the convergence of old and new.  ( Kept in a lj-cut since one is hotlinked and I don't feel like wasting their bandwith. )

I would have slept a full 12 hours last night if I hadn't woken up twice in the middle.  Made me a lot less tired than yesterday, but I didn't get as much done as I should have... Still got tomorrow off from school though, which is very good considering that there's a Latin test on Thursday (which for the record I think is sadistic, but nobody asked me). 

The 6th of December is the feast day of St. Nickolas, there's an old Polish tradition that on this day parents sneak into their children's bedrooms at night and hide a present or two (equivalent to American stocking stuffers, that tradition isn't present in Poland) in their beds while they sleep.  Well in honor of that day my small group for our church student organization is having a St. Nicolas day gift exchange.  I drew a picture of some orchids that I'm giving in a little frame and I'll add something more to it, though I'm not quite sure what.  Anyway, since I won't have the thing after Monday I decided to take a quick photo of it while I still have it just for memory's sake.  There are a bunch of things I would have done differently, but I didn't have the liberty to scrap it and start over.  Though I think it turned out okay, but the more I look at it the more glaring the problems are. 


The picture is based upon this image I found on the web (curiously by searching google images for "cherry blossom". No seriously, check the file name. And it's a site that only sells irises. I have no idea. 

Yes I did spend $20 to upgrade the lj just to be able to use that eye as an icon for this post.  I'm weird like that.

As promised there are a couple of pictures.  ( You have been warned. )

In another piece of random news, a couple days ago I randomly caught the end of the musical based on Pink Floyd's The Wall judging by how well things fit I would guess it's official.  Fact checking that would require a couple seconds on imdb, which I'm currently not willing to send.  I just wanted to mention that I thought it was really cool.  Especially the walking hammers.  It worked.  There may be further comment if something meaningful comes to me.  Thank you, that is all.