Hypotyposis on a Good Day

rain, red, shadow

This afternoon, I was uploading old pictures from January to start rounding out my Flickr collection (which I want to represent all the pictures I've ever taken.) This one caught my eye; it was from a rainy January 26, 2005.

Phillip Johnson and intelligent design profiled in the East Bay Express

I saw the cover of the July 27, 2005 issue of the East Bay Express this morning. Phillip Johnson, known widely as the the father of the "intelligent design movement", is featured in the issue. I actually know Phil as a fellow elder at my own congregation, someone I see every Sunday morning.

What I actually think about ID is a topic for an essay some other day!

Engagement glow!

It's rather gratifying to see how much Laura and I were glowing in March, just after buying an engagement ring! We're still super-happy today, 2-1/2 months after the wedding! (Thanks to Holly, my mother-in-law for this great picture.)

To be funny and fair

About a week ago, I listened to the amazingly funny clip from Jon Stewart about Karl Rove and Valerie Plame. I don't know whether the clip is factually accurate -- but it sure made me laugh. I'm tempted to think now that in political discourse, it may be as important to be funny and entertaining as it is to be logically exacting and scrupulously fair. Oh to be funny and fair!

SF Chronicle headline on "Spare the Air" day

It was nice not to have to pay for the ride in on BART in my first "Spare the Air" Day. See Bay Area gets a free ride / Spare the Air Day incentive to get people out of cars to reduce pollution for more information.

Are these "real women"?

I saw this display all over the Powell Street BART station. It's hardly news that Dove would use scantily clad women to advertise its products. What I find more surprising is that these women are held to be exemplars of "real women" (as opposed to supermodels). OK, they aren't skin-on-bones type supermodels, but I would hardly think of these bodies as those of the typical consumer of Dove producs.

See for yourself. Dove:

Firming the thighs of a size 2 supermodel is no challenge. Real Women have real bodies with real curves. And Dove wants to celebrate those curves.

Join these six real women who were asked to be in our ad campaign for NEW Dove® Firming. Get to know more about them and their experiences with the campaign. Help by telling more women to stand tall and celebrate their curves.

Freakonomics sounds like an interesting read

Freakonomics is an extremly popular book at the moment. Has any of my readers read it yet? I have a hold on the book at the Berkeley Public Library, but there are 82 people ahead of me when I put the hold!

reading the quote about Lucille Isaiah, Laura, and myself in Tele-care article

East Bay: Lunch brings Tele-Care volunteers and clients face to face:

Raymond Yee, a volunteer caller for five years, brought his new wife Laura Shefler to meet Lucille Isaiah of Alameda, whom he calls on Saturdays to check on her well-being.

"I sweet-talk your husband," Isaiah told Shefler. "Don't worry, I won't steal him away."

"Legal Hanbook for Photographers"

My own copy of Legal Handbook for Photographers: The Rights and Liabilities of Making Images arrived in the main today. I found it so useful and so packed with materials that I decided to buy it. There are a lot of tricky issues to work out in taking and distributing pictures.

It seems that Half Price Books is coming to downtown Berkeley

As we were walking by the corner of Addison Street and Berkeley Square this morning, Laura and I spotted a sign for a new Half Price Books going up. How exciting -- another bookstore on a street that is becoming quite literary, as Laura noted.

Relief!

Laura and I share the relief of Lloyd and many others that a BART settlement was reached, thus averting a strike. Living in Albany, we have some more options than many. I could have taken the bus, driven to campus, dug out my bike from my old place, or even walked. But it was nice to return to the BART station this morning, the station to which I had said an uncertain good-bye the day before.

time to go see "March of the Penguins"?

The SF Chronicle review confirmed for me that "March of the Penguins" would be a fun one to see.

watermelons on sale

On the fourth of July, I had my first taste of watermelon in a while. Wonderful. Now, when I walk around, I notice the watermelons that are all around me, markers of summer.

Sunday afternoon thoughts

What I wrote on Sunday: Before I dive into the huge amount of stuff I have to do today, on this lazy, sunny, restful Berkeley Sunday afternoon, I will take some time to write. This morning, I heard a fantastic and challenging sermon by Josh McPaul, in which he challenged the congregation to move beyond fear and pride as the basis for building community. I'm now sitting in my old home office, trying to sort out the myriad tasks before me. I read a number of articles today, including:

• a bunch from the "remix" issue of Wired Magazine

• The New York Review of Books: The Tragic Tale of a Genius, a review of a new biography of Norbert Weiner

• Visualcy (Christianity Today Magazine) by Andy Crouch, who mentions Flickr.