Spring arrives in Northern California!
Two feet of snow in Chicago, all snowplows deployed and garbage trucks fitted with plows. Meanwhile, in the gentler climate we have in San Jose, the plants are bursting back in to life.
This page features every post I write, and is dedicated to Andrew Ho.
Spring arrives in Northern California!
Two feet of snow in Chicago, all snowplows deployed and garbage trucks fitted with plows. Meanwhile, in the gentler climate we have in San Jose, the plants are bursting back in to life.
Heading on down the gravel trail North of Moffett. Those are blimp hangars in the distance.
A gravel trail that wanders on down towards blimp hangars, water on either side. No, you don’t see that every day.
Unless your commute is weird.
The boat launch near the gate North of Moffett, where I figure the hunters paddle out to their blinds.
I was playing with either exposure compensation or the “My Colors” option on the camera. This photo comes out looking sharper than others in the series, though it would be nice to know which button I pressed that caused that. (Probably the “Vivid Colors” setting.)
You can see what I assume to be a hunting blind in the distance.
An assortment of trucks parked at the fence to the hunting area, North of Moffett Field.
This is the scene that first inspired the rambling in My First “Podcast” . . . I rode past and heard popping in the distance, then I rolled back to grab this picture. I reckon these trucks belong to hunters who came out in the morning to sit in blinds and claim some trophy waterfowl.
Beware the Shadow
Admittedly, not much of a photo. But here’s a shot from this morning’s local free paper. I always like to see what sort of petty crimes have made the Atherton Police Blotter. (Atherton is where we keep our rich people, sealed off in walled compounds.)
A sculpture of a boy waiting with the luggage at the Mountain View train station.
This photo brings the song “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” to mind. Though, this kid is sitting at a station in the Bay Area, with his back turned as the trains roll away.
He is taking a moment to idle and people watch and that is when you notice him. A nice piece of public art. I like having the bicycles and the light rail in frame.
A while back I purchased a Sony ICD-PX820 voice recorder for a different project I’ve been putting off. (Shame on me.) This morning as I was bicycling in to work I heard the pop-pop-pop of duck hunting. I stopped to take some pictures (photo a day?) and then noticed I had my voice recorder on me.
Listen, if you dare: morning-commute.mp3 (14m13s)
It starts out slow . . . just a test, but as it went along I started pausing recording and stringing together more overt narration. I then managed to trim out a little bit using Audacity. I enjoyed listening, but I am biased. It might be more fun to hear years from now: “Hello, younger Danny!”
Conclusions:
A Photographic Cliché
I admit this is a photography cliché.
An older, better picture I took. Heck, let’s crop that . . .
Come Sail Away With Me Instead?
Nah, I prefer the strong contrast (and non-graininess) of the top image.
My first experience of “Idaho” was hitching a ride to the Rainbow Family campground in Wyoming in a car with Idaho plates driven by a lady who took sips from the bottle of beer she kept pressed between her legs. At which point I concluded that Idaho must be Awesome.
Mind you I haven’t been fooled in to actually going to Idaho.
Some fantasies are best left untainted by reality.
Castro St Boulevard, Mountain View, CA
South of California St, Castro St widens to a handsome boulevard, rolling off toward the mountains, which most of the time remain unnoticed.
I saw these guys some weeks back planting their green wall. Coming along nicely.
An assortment of rabbits to greet the Lunar New Year
At Books Inc, on Castro St in Mountain View, an assortment of literary rabbits has been beautifully rendered on a blackboard. From left to right I think we’ve got:
The approaching Lunar (Chinese) New Year is the Year of the Rabbit, which is the same as the Lunar New Year in which I was born. The red envelopes are called 红包, (literally “red envelope”) and they are for gifts of money given to kids.
“Gung Hay Fat Choy” I believe is a Cantonese transliteration of æå–œå‘è´¢, which in Mandarin is gong1 xi3 fa1 cai1. A further clue is that the Chinese characters on the chalk board are the traditional Chinese characters, used outside of the People’s Republic of China, and more familiar to past generations of Chinese immigrants, often from Southern China.
You can see that the traditional characters (top) look very similar to their simplified counterparts (bottom):
æ喜發財
æå–œå‘è´¢
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