Waiting for the Train

One of the things I like about Calgary, and was nice about Brisbane too, is the public transport. It isn't quite London, but there is a train system called the C-Line and the bus system seems good. The C-Line has a stop about 3 blocks from our apartment. The portion in the downtown section including where we live is free!

Of course nothing is that far a walk in the downtown area. Another nice thing about downtown is the +15. The +15 is a enclosed walkway system that goes through buildings and crosses the streets at roughly 15 feet above the road surface. I'm about 3 blocks from that too so I don't have to walk too far outside when it is cold or wet when on my way to the office. The office is about 20 minutes if I take the +15 and 15 minutes if I walk along the sidewalk.

The picture is a young woman waiting for the C-Line downtown. It is part of a series of 4 that I took for my One Photo a Week blog that you might find interesting. Just after this shot the train stopped and she got on and left the station.

More on Ashcroft

StuMonkey asks how 2500 people could have lived in the View Hotel. In fact, there were many other fine buildings, not to mention the Blue Mirror Saloon which made this a very nice place to live.

Maroon Bells

The peaks in the background are the Maroon Bells near Aspen, Colorado. Colorado is glorious in the summer....

Ghost Town

Here is the View Hotel in the ghost town of Ashcroft near Aspen, Colorado. Founded in 1880 Ashcroft peaked at 2500 persons but had declined to only 100 in 1885 due to poor ore quality in the surrounding silver mines. Local mining took another blow in 1893 with the silver market crash. Postal delivery stopped in 1912 when the population was down to 50. The last resident was said to have died in the '30s of malnutrition.

Yellow-bellied Marmot

I also captured shots of deer, chipmunks, and birds. This handsome critter was on Pike's Peak.

Garden of the Gods

This shot is from the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

Becky's Koi Pond

A study in green, just like Becky. I don't mean the color green, but she likes the outdoors and care of the environment...

Bow River and Banff Park

Just another shot of the Bow River running through Banff National Park

Richardson's Ground Squirrel

When all else fails, I say post a picture of a cute furry animal. These little guys are sometimes known as "gophers" and this one lives in a small colony down by the river in Calgary. However, he does not live in a van, he lives in a gopher hole.

Hoodoos on the Bow River

These are hoodoos on the Bow River near the town of Banff. What are hoodoos? They are formed when a hard layer caps and protects the top of a formation and the softer rock underneath is carved away by wind and water.

Castle Mountain

Castle Mountain is in Banff National Park, the first national park in Canada. I hope I'll be posting lots of Canadian landscapes and wildlife in coming months...

Happy Father's Day

This one was taken a while back at Disney World... Note the cool Houston Marathon T and the ultra cool running shoes. Oh yeah, the cute kids too. Thanks for making me a father Teresa :-)

Security Crisis Averted

A security crisis was prevented today when a photographer (me) was stopped from photographing a building from a public sidewalk. Local security kops spotted me and made sure I knew "unauthorized photographs" are not allowed!

As I walked back to my office the full extent of what could happen started to sink in. What if somebody sneaked a shot as they drove by in a car! What if they were acting like they were using a cell phone near the building but were actually taking a picture! And me, someone who has been carrying cameras around the world for 30 years, shouldn't I know better than to take a photograph from a public sidewalk in plain daylight that had a building in it?....

I have done some research and the full security threat from photographers is only now being realized. The following investigative report exposes the risk all too well (warning - this is a graphic video and not suitable for young children):

==> CLICK HERE <==

Holy guacamole batman! I just looked up the building's address on Google and there is a picture of it right there on the internet along with the tenant's name!

V = 14,400

Korean Ball Joint Dolls

You can always count on me to find and document for you the latest in style, fashion, and anything hip. Actually, I may be a bit late on this trend... In doing a quick internet search this seems to have been going on for several years and started in Korea / Japan.

These two young women said they get together monthly to take pictures of their dolls. The dolls were made in Korea (you can special order them and they aren't cheap) and then dress them in various fashions and styles.

Here are some web sites if you are interested in more information. They recommended the first one and the others turned up in a quick google search:

http://www.denofangels.com/
http://www.samuraifiles.com/tsumi/samuraifilez/ningyo/store/esthetics.html
http://www.bluefairyint.com/

Apparently there was a Korean horror movie made about ball joint dolls. After all, there have been plenty of horror movies about puppets. But they seem a lot less threatening than a puppet to me (was Chucky a puppet or a doll?). I mean, these dolls can be posed but they can't actually move like a puppet.

Japanese Lantern

This lantern is inside the Japanese garden in Hermann Park and is beside the pond that has the turtles (and the koi) (and the minnows) (and maybe some frogs but I didn't see any although there were some ducks). The small bubbling fountain beside it does not look right to me. It is of a new and modern design while the lantern is a very old design. To my eye, they should not be together. Click on the picture to bring it to full size and you can see a spider's web...

Turtle & Turtle

Haiku for two turtles at the Japanese garden...

In warm green water
the still days float by slowly for
turtle and turtle


Observation: moss grows fast on a swimming turtle.

Calgary Architecture

There is something neat about this picture that you are going to have to click on and enlarge to see. In the center top of the penta shape of the walkway sculpture in the middle of the photograph is the crescent moon! A bit of modern stonehenge. It is more visible in the original (I've downsized it a lot here and there are JPG artifacts) but you should still be able to see it.

It was taken along Stephen Avenue which is the center of t he old business district. Today it is a pedestrian way for the most part with a lot of the old facades still present but skyscrapers behind them. Nice, especially since not much of old Calgary was visible (to me anyway). It is a bit like Houston in that way.

Space Needles, what's the big deal?

Just what is the thing with space needles anyway? This one is in Calgary (more to come on Calgary). Called the Calgary Tower, it is 191 meters (627 foot) free tall and is said to have been built for the Canadian Centinnial in 1968. I was there last week and took this picture.

Tower of the Americas

This snap of the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas was taken this morning. It is 229 m (750 feet) tall and was supposedly built for the 1968 World's Fair.

Coincidence that these two towers both appeared in 1968? Coincidence that I just happened to be in these two cities on the same week 41 years later? I want to believe.... In any event, the truth is out there.

Bye Bye Skippy

Kangaroo beside the golf course on the Gold Coast...

Little Corella

This corella was in a flock of a dozen or so on the Gold Coast. They are so common as to be pests in some areas.

Brisbane on a Tuesday Morning

Here is Brisbane from the Story Bridge in morning light. The weather is cool and nice right now.

Last Trip to Australia (and Japan) (and PNG)

It has been a while since I've had time to make a blog post - I've been on the road a lot lately. I just finished a trip to Australia for the project I have been working on for the last two years, as well as the last trip to PNG and Japan. Not that I might not go back sometime, but not on business for that project probably. So, here are the people I have been working with - do you see me?

Next month I start a project in Calgary, Canada! New adventures, this time in the mountains (and cold). Can't wait...

Geckos are Cool

Know what I mean? This one was on the window screen in Houston.

Portland, Oregon

OK, here is a parting shot of Portland. I've also posted a small slide show from the trip. Note the sakura (cherry trees) in bloom along the river and also in the slide show. There are nice Chinese and Japanese gardens, it was green, and it is very obvious that things grow well here in the summer.

Old Town

It is raining in Portland. There are lots of things things Portland has going for it and some not so great. I know some people don't like the clouds, rain, and such but that doesn't really bother me. There seems to be a surprisingly large homeless population. I wonder why? There were two beggars rotating and using the same sign outside the coffee shop yesterday. Just a shift change I suppose.

There was something that struck me when we flew in and that was how developed the land is - all under plow or with streets and buildings it seemed.

Lewis and Clark made their expedition between 1803 to 1806. By 1850, Portland was a pretty good sized town. By the late 1800' s, the railroads had tamed the West and the American Indians were all on reservations. Within a few more years a lot of the rivers had been dammed and a substantial amount of the forest logged. The entire area had been wilderness and now only remnants remain.

Two hundred years later it is all drastically different. I have always thought that change has accelerated in my lifetime but I am not so sure. At least you didn't see that much of a change to the landscape when the semiconductor was invented or the internet was invented (not by Al Gore as sometimes thought). To take a place from wilderness to tamed in 100 years is pretty dramatic. One hundred years doesn't seem as long anymore since I have lived more than 50 myself. I wish they had left a little more of it pristine.

I think I wrote once that the rain forest seems to go on forever in PNG. It must have seemed the same to the pioneers.

Portland, Oregon

Here we are in Portland, Oregon. I am not entirely sure what to make of it. I like it, but it is not all that it could be I think. There is a river running through it, but it hasn't been developed very well. The city has interesting architecture, a mix of old and new. There are restaurants, bars, hotels, and some apartments downtown. There seems to be a good art scene and the public transportation is good. The fashion seems to be predominately grunge and lumberjack. There is a huge bookstore, and inside was an engineer giving a lecture with old fashioned slides on bridges. The photograph shows an old draw bridge with modern sculpture beside it that I could not quite decipher.

Commemorative 5th Anniversary Blog

About five years ago I started blogging for the first time. I know that you are jumping up and down to hear the story so I interviewed myself. Here is the transcript:

Q: So, how did you get started with this blogging anyway?
A: Well, it started when I went to Japan five years ago to start work on a new project and my Mother asked me to make sure and write at least once a week so she would know I was OK. I did, and just to let others know I was OK, I copied them on the emails I wrote. Tried to make them interesting too… One day, my niece Erica suggested my stories were interesting enough that maybe I could put them into one of those new fangled blogs. That was the first I ever heard of a blog but I tried it. Since then I have made over 500 entries had over 13,000 visits.

Q: That is interesting. What made you name it Lost in Japan?
A: The hardest part about starting the blog was giving it a name. But there was a movie out back then called Lost in Translation (starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson) and it was filmed in and around where I was living. At the end of the movie you can see the apartment building I lived in. Anyway, I kind of ripped off the title and it seemed to fit because sometimes I felt a bit lost over there.

Q: What a great story. But you don’t live in Japan any more, why don’t you change the title?
A: Like I said, coming up with a blog title is hard. Anyway, sometimes I get lost in Kingwood, Texas but not so much anymore because I bought a GPS that speaks and gives directions.

Q: Fascinating. What about the pictures you post in your blog?
A: At first I didn’t put pictures in. In fact, I just copied my emails into the blog. But at some point I found you could put pictures in and I bought a little 3 M pixel Canon point and shoot and started sticking them in when I had an interesting one. Japan is interesting visually so usually I could find something during the week and I always carried the camera with me.

Q: This really is delightful. So, do you consider yourself a photographer or a journalist?
A: Actually, neither. I am an engineer. But I like both writing and photography. Lately I’ve tended a bit more towards photography. I like techie gadgets. Maybe I am a photojournalist who does both. I really like a good picture but it has to tell a story. But a lot of the time you don’t get the story from my pictures without a few words.

Q: You are just as interesting in person as you are on the printed page. And your pictures really are of a professional quality. I just love your pictures of Australia.
A: Thank you.

Q: Let’s talk about your favorite postings in the blog. What would those be?
A: I like it best when I’m able to elicit a response from my readers. So anytime I get a comment or an email response I am encouraged to keep blogging.

Q: Who generally responds? I would have thought anyone reading your poetry and seeing the artistic visions you capture would be compelled to write back to you.
A: I’ve had comments from all over the world but most of the comments seem to come from a guy named Stu Monkey and Megan. I heard that Stu Monkey had a facebook page but he hasn’t invited me to be his friend even though he invited Megan.

Q: I wouldn't worry about Stu Monkey if I were you but I have noticed that you have fans from all over the world. In what countries are you most popular?
A: Outside of the United States, I get the most hits from Indonesia followed by a tie between Thailand and Australia. I don’t know why Thailand or Indonesia. Interestingly, I’ve had two visits from the Islamic Republic of Iran but only one from Latvia.

Q: Where do you get your topics?
A: I try to see something everyday that interests me visually or something that I would like to learn more about. There is enough reporting of bad news in the world and the blogophere is full of whiners, so to distinguish myself I write about good things.

Q: I see. Why don't you write about your work. That must be really interesting too.
A: You have to have a life outside work. If you are going to bring work up, I'll have to end this interview right now...

Q: OK, OK, don't get your knickers in a twist. Thanks for taking the time to share your insights on blogging with us.
A: No worries mate. Hasta la vista. Mata ato de.

btw, the picture at the top is an iris blooming in the pond in the little park across the street. It has nothing to do with the story, but I had to stick a picture in...

Children Dancing, Papa Village

These children are dancing a welcoming dance in Papa village up the coast from Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. Dances are done to commemorate events, celebrate, prepare for war, prepare for marriage (more or less the same dance for the last two), and such. Some dances are very elaborate, masks are frequently used, and story telling aids might be carried. You really know you aren't back in Kansas when the dancing starts....

Dance to Commemorate Hail Storm in Kingwood, Texas

To commemorate the hail storm in Kingwood I have made up a dance which I do in my garage from time to time whenever I feel the story is worth retelling. The snowman reminds me of the cold hail and the dour mask with me falling to my knees shows the pain of being hit in the shins by ricochet'd ice.