Visual Riddles: California
Visual Riddles: Iceland
In Húsavík, it wasn’t uncommon to see a full can of beer half-buried in the snow. You might wonder: why not use the fridge? but sometimes it’s too far away, and it’s easier to just pick up your beer on the way to wherever you plan to drink it (apparently).
It’s a practice I’m sure most people wouldn’t dream of adopting in a larger town. Or in a town with teenagers.
Which, now that I think of it, I don’t think I saw any. Just little kids and grown-ups. How strange…
Visual Riddles: Vancouver
A sharpie, a cleaver, and a toy plane in the middle of the sidewalk. There’s a good chance this story didn’t have a happy ending…
Life of Sherpa (abridged)
Song for a Punch in the Face
At some point in your life, if you’re anything like me, you are sure to come to the realization that everything in Existence falls into one of two categories: things that you can punch in the face, and things that you cannot punch in the face. You can punch a squirrel, or a politician, or a banana tree; but you can’t punch the economy, an annoying sound, or a system of government. It is with this in mind that we must choose the nature of our battles, and you can be sure that it is from this dichotomy that I judge pathways of conflict resolution in virtually all situations.
BOOKS: Anastasia, by Vladimir Megré
Outlining alternate ways to raise children, keep bees, grow crops, and build a spaceship.
In search of a method of how to extract a valuable nut oil found in the Russian taiga, the author comes upon a young beautiful forest recluse named Anastasia. She has been living there alone (excepting visits from her grandfather and great-grandfather) since she was a child, because her parents’ brains exploded when they got too close to a tree.(pg 125) The story is presented as a true account, and the series (The Ringing Cedars of Russia) has apparently sold millions of copies and given rise to a religious movement.
BOOKS: Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson
I’d been looking forward to reading this book for years — for decades. All I knew was that there were three books: Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars, and that it was about the long term colonization and terraforming of the red planet.
It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but it did not disappoint.
