Tuesday on the Web

abandoned grain elevator - duluth minnesotaGreetings from Duluth, Minnesota!  I'm here on business so can't post all the awesome photos I'm taking of and on giant boats loading coal, grain and iron ore.  It's really the best part of my 9-5 job. Every now and then though, between visits, I can stop my colleague and tell him to hang on just one second while I snap something cool on the docks.  The abandoned grain elevator (?) to your right there is one such snap.  There's a whole bunch of stuff like that out here and abandoned stuff is definitely one of my favorite photographic subjects.  Too bad I don't have time to get those shots or access when I'm not following around my colleague.  For now I'll have to be satisfied with the passing glance.  Onto the roundup!

On the Web

Each Tuesday, I post a roundup of the best stuff I saw on the internet that week.  Enjoy! Around the Solar System via The Big Picture I don't always click on Boston.com's The Big Picture - a collection of awesome photography on various subjects - but I do always click if the photos are from space.  I will never tire of looking at photos taken from outside our atmosphere.  How fascinating the universe is! Binder clip keeps beverages stacked in your fridge Genius! Ant Death Spiral via mental_floss We know that ants figure out where to go by following a scent trail left by their buddies.  In this amazing video clip, you see that played out to an unbelievable end - a "death spiral" that can last for days.  Really fascinating! Undercover Surveillance FAIL I admit it, I subscribe to failblog.  Mostly the posts are dumb but sometimes they are awesome, like this one. XKCD on physicists My husband is one, so I'm sorta obligated to include this link. Amsterdam Falafelshop to franchise! If that doesn't make sense to you, the article won't be interesting.  For us D.C. falafel fans, it's the best news since Congressional recess.

1/12 Books: The One-Week Job Project

The major problem I had with this book is that it's not quite what I thought it would be.  The other problem is that it was written by a 25-year-old for 25-year-olds.  Apparently I require a lot less navel-gazing than other people my age. The One-Week Job Project is about Sean Aiken's quest to find a job he is "passionate" about.  He travels around Canada and the United States in a variety of roles, boosted by some media coverage he received over the course of the year.  I must have caught some of that coverage because I knew about the book before it even came out. I thought it might be a short overview of 52 different careers.  Instead it was a somewhat pedantic quest for the author to "find himself."  It also quickly devolved into a love story of sorts featuring, naturally, the author. It was an entertaining enough read but I can't say I'd recommend it.  Also, I realize this isn't the best of book reports.  But it's my kind of book report.

12 Books

This post comes to you as part of E's 12 books in 12 months project.  The goal is to read 12 books in a year - 12 books that we might not ordinarily be too motivated to read, but that have been on your to-read list.  Next up: Infinite Jest. 1. Story of O, Pauline Reage 2. The Four Hour Workweek, Tim Ferris 3. Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality, Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá 4. The One-Week Job Project, Sean Aiken 5. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace 6. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman?, Richard Feynman 7. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce 8. Light in August, William Faulkner 9. For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway 10. At least one book from my photography collection, TBD. 11. Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion 12. A Scanner Darkly, Philip K. Dick

HFStival

My camera was denied entrance to the HFStival, despite my holding a lawn seat ticket and carting in less than 85mm worth of glass.  Nevertheless, I had a fantastic time. In the 90s, I was in high school (well, after I was in elementary and then middle school!).  It was a good time for complete obsession with music.  That obsession came full-circle at the HFStival.  First, I got dressed. hfstival dressed up in 90s gear I wasn't done, though.  I got some pigtails in and put on my husband's Doc Martens.  Then it was complete. It's maybe a good thing that I couldn't get my camera into the festival because I was totally, completely, unabashedly into the music, particularly Third Eye Blind. In high school, I played Semi-Charmed Life (the record, not just the single) about a million times.  I played it blasting from my car, shouting out the lyrics.  And yeah, I did that on the way to the show, too. I also got to see Everclear, Presidents of the United States of America, Naughty by Nature, Ed Kowalczyk (the guy from Live) and Billy Idol.  It was really, really cool to see Billy Idol, even though he hardly counts as a "90s" performer.  One of those bands you can say you saw.  Plus, he was pretty seriously awesome. But Third Eye Blind... I never saw them when I loved them like mad.  I'm pretty sure I made up for it at the concert.