Doodle Day

Posted by Adrienne on August 31, 2008 under Doodles | No Comments

Just doodlin’ along…

I absolutely love canoes. We got to paddle one around a lake in Wisconsin while we were on vacation, and it was tons of fun. Someday, I’d love to take a canoe trip, especially in Canada, which is supposed to be a great place to canoe. For now, I’ll let Stewart enjoy some quality paddle-time.

I was on TV!

Posted by Josh on August 27, 2008 under Mariners | 1 Comment

I am, sadly, 0-9 at Mariners and Brewers game after another loss today, though today’s game was the closest of all the games, with a final of 6-5 against the Twins.

Also, I am a failure.  I had my best chance at catching a homerun ever, and I missed out. The homer landed in the same section and row as I was in, but about 15 empty seats over from where I was sitting.  I made it over there perhaps just in time, and I probably could have caught it, but it carried further than I expected, and I was playing for the bounce.  There were three of us right there trying to pick it up off the ground, and I wasn’t the one who ended up with it, though another person from our group from work got it.
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Photo of the Week: Special Football Edition

Posted by Adrienne on under Football, Packers, Photos, Seahawks | No Comments

The NFL kicks off its season this weekend, and to celebrate (and give equal time to both Josh’s and Adrienne’s teams) we bring you a double photo of the week:

                         From Qwest Field                        From Lambeau Field

We’ve been to a game at Qwest Field, and we also took a tour, which is when Adrienne got to stand on the playing surface in her Steve Largent #80 throwback jersey. We haven’t been to a game at Lambeau Field (that’s pretty hard to do) but we have been to the Packers Hall of Fame, where we saw the three Lombardi Trophies won by the Packers, and we also took a tour, which is when Josh got to get close to (but not stand on, sadly) the playing surface.

Although we root for different teams, we’re looking forward to seeing some great action on the gridiron this season, and hopefully a championship for the Seahawks or the Packers. Hooray for football!

Doodle Day

Posted by Adrienne on August 24, 2008 under Doodles | No Comments

Today’s doodle is in honor of the end of the Olympic games in Beijing:

The dragon is an important symbol in China; the emperor’s symbol was a five-clawed dragon, and there are said to be four dragons that protect and control the elements: the gods, the wind and rain, the rivers and seas, and the earth and its gems. The Chinese dragon is very different from Western dragons, in that it is seen as a benevolent figure, and not a treasure-hoarding, fire-breathing monster.

While my dragon above has many Chinese characteristics, he’s striking a rather Western pose. But I like the sepia-tone that I got the scanning program to scan it in; I think that makes it look cooler. And the character in the middle of the drawing is one of several characters for “dragon.” I hope I got it right!

Book Count = 55

Posted by Adrienne on August 22, 2008 under Books | No Comments

Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 is one of those classics-that-everyone-should-read-in-their-lifetime and also a perfect example of dystopian fiction. In this flawed future world, reading books is against the law, and people are encouraged to report book-loving neighbors to the fire department. Once they do, the firemen come to the book-lover’s house and burn it down, along with everything inside, including the forbidden books. Guy Montag is one of these firemen, but after encountering a young girl who questions everything and an old man who used to teach English, Montag finds that he is unhappy with everything about his life. He quits being a firefighter, leaves his pill-popping wife, and runs away to join an underground group determined to preserve the most important books by memorizing them.

Bradbury’s book is a critique of censorship, but it also predicts our current information-overload and our culture’s preoccupation with having fun and being happy. It’s easier, in Bradbury’s world and in ours, to burn or shout down the words and opinions we don’t agree with or that make us uncomfortable than to think about them, discuss them or tolerate them. While the book is in many ways a product of its time (references to microfilming as a preservation technique and asbestos as a good fire-retardant made me laugh) it also deals with many of the same things we are dealing with today in our culture. Overall, Farenheit 451 is a fascinating read.