Now this is carving - Happy Halloween

I watched a segment on CBS Good Morning America this morning on carving pumpkins. I believe that this is the gentleman that did it. The quoted text below is what I received later in the day in an email message with the below images. There are more, but I think you'll get the picture, this guy is talented!!!

"Artist Ray Villafane began carving pumpkins on a lark for his art students in a small rural school district in Michigan . The hobby changed his life as he gained a viral following online and unlocked his genuine love of sculpting. Here are images of pumpkin carvings Villafane created over the past five years."

Biting his tongue


Brainiac


David Letterman


Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde


Got my eye on you


Motorized Medusa


Would you open this zipper

What makes a successful writer?

“Constructing “pictures with words” is paramount to creating enjoyable and satisfying novel reading.”

This morning I read this in a newsletter that I subscribe to and it got me to thinking about writing. For years now, I've been dabbling with writing what I guess I'll call my memoirs. Fortunately I have no schedule or deadline to meet so I can bounce in and out of it whenever the mood strikes me. Hence, the years..

I mention this because I've been struggling with my writing style. Of course right away I'm thinking to myself, I have a writing style. Ya, right. So as I write I tend to be very factual in style. By that I mean; I might write that I did this and then that. But, then on occasion I might do that and then this. The point is that I'm writing as if I were creating a technical reference manual full of facts. The quote above uses that phrase "pictures with words". I realize now that, that's what's missing in my writing. You can't, I don't think, read what I've written and see a scene in your mind’s eye.

How do you accomplish this? Is this a talent that one learns or is it simply a built in quality? Is one born with it, the ability to create a picture in words? I guess that's what makes a successful writer, a successful writer.

Thanks for listening.

The Eye's have it

It seems that I have been fascinated with beautiful eyes since I was a kid. My first experience was with a second, third or something cousin. She had the most beautiful blue eyes and blonde hair. I was mesmerized with her. I remember riding in a car sitting next to her and our legs actually touched. What a magical moment! But being a shy, pimply faced kid I didn't dare to utter a word. I just sat there and fantasized about her. I use the word fantasize, but it certainly wasn't sexual in nature. Remember shy, pimply faced kids couldn't fathom such a thought. As a side; I saw her as an adult about 20 years ago and I certainly can see where my love for blue eyes came from, but lest I regress. :-)

Then another experience happened to me, maybe 17 or 18 years ago. I was attending a weekend long group help thing. One of the exercises was to stand and stare into a partner’s eyes for an extended period of time without looking away. WOW, what an experience that was. I partnered with an older black woman and by the time we stopped looking, I think we were both in love. It was really interesting because you went through different stages, like fright, laughter, joy, sadness. Just from looking intently into another’s eyes. In the beginning, I thought how dumb can this be, But by the end, I didn't want to stop.

So, that kind of explains my fascination for beauty within women's eyes. Now let's jump to more current times. For some time now, as you may know, I have subscribed to DOMAI, which is a web site of "joyful nudes of beautiful women". While looking at the images, I started paying attention to the eyes and started setting aside some of these pictures, just to enjoy. Somestimes I feel like I can almost see clear into their soul with these wonderful closeups. It is a chance to really look into one's eyes without being questioned at all about motives. Can you imagine staring into a pretty girls eye's and the responce you might get. For me, it's an ugly picture indeed :-(. So with DOMAI founder's Eolake Stobblehouse permission, I have put together a couple of collages that I like. First I gathered together a bunch of images, cropped them to just their face and then secondly I cropped them again to just their eyes. Let me know what you think or have I fallen off the edge on this one? You can click for a bigger image.

First, here are their faces.



And now just the eyes.

50-year-old kit to capture spectacular nature images

This is a picture taken by phtotgrapher Archer Fish. Click here to see the article containing more spectular images as well as a picture of his setup. Enjoy.

Now here is a fast helicopter!!

To quote www.tvkim.com;

"World's new fastest helicopter
Helicopters have trouble moving at high speeds. That's because their rotor blades start doing odd things. This new design from Sikorsky helps eliminate that problem. It uses two rotors and a pusher prop. That lets it hit speeds over 280 mph."

Watch and see all the plastic in our oceans

Uncle Ron sent me a pointer on this video and I really feel that I need to let everyone see it and be aware of this very serious problem. Thanks Ron.

A cruise you do NOT want to be on

I had seen this before and just ran across this video again. I am glad that I was not on this cruise.

A fantastic claymation microscopic adventure

This is way Kewl, a video shot through a microscope.

Nokia 'Dot' from Sumo Science on Vimeo.

I might take a ride in this airplane

Shall we go for an airplane ride?!?!?

Don't try this at home folks!!

Rip Van Winkle Bridge

My wife and I took a trip to visit the Olana Estate yesterday. Wow, what a building. I provided a link for you to take a look at it yourself. While there I took this picture of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge crossing the Hudson River. You can click for a larger image.

An unbelievable tale of survival

Social Networking Map Created

Now here is an interesting map that was created as a Map of online communities showing the world of social networking

Pulled-Pork yesterday (updated)

I made pulled-pork yesterday and it is sooo goooood!! A friend of mine from North Carolina said that this is the best that he's had and that's a great compliment. I really don't want to post the recipe here, but we got it from Bon Appetit magazine, the July 1999 issue. The recipe is called Carolina Pulled-Pork Sandwiches. Maybe it's on-line somewhere, I don't know.

Basically, a rub is applied to the pork and kept in the refrigerator overnight. Then it goes onto the smoker for about 6 hours, during which it is mopped every 45 minutes. Then it cools a bit and gets shredded (pulled) with a fork.

If you like pulled-pork, I can highly recommend this one.

Uncle Ron found the recipe for Carolina Pulled-Pork Sandwiches on-line. Thanks Ron.

Humming Birds

More words of Wisdom

Because they had no reservations at a busy restaurant, my elderly neighbor and his wife were told there would be a 45-minute wait for a table. 'Young man, we're both 90 years old,' the husband said ...'We may not have 45 minutes.'

They were seated immediately.

Climb to Heaven

I saw this, this morning on another blog and just had to put it here as well. Holly Crap!!!

Stairway to Heaven (climbing towers) from Joe LaGreca on Vimeo.

Now, here is some Justice

I was in the six item express lane at the store, quietly fuming. Completely ignoring the sign, the woman ahead of me had slipped into the check-out line pushing a cart piled high with groceries. Imagine my delight when the cashier beckoned the woman to come forward, looked into the cart and asked sweetly, 'So which six items would you like to buy?'

Wouldn't it be great if that happened more often?

Google tests cars that can steer without drivers

Now, here's an interesting tidbit to share you with. I seems that Google is branching out a bit with road-testing cars that steer.

Move over, here comes the future.

Journey to the edge of space from Newburg, NY

Here is a father and son team that sent an iPhone and a video camera into space. This is what I call a quality father/son experience.

Check out the
pictures and scroll down to see the video.

Alice in Wonderland

I just finished watching this. Just as a kid, my favorite is still the Cheshire cat. :-)

Wood for the fireplace

My son was in town for a few days this past week and we got several trees cut down and now there's new wook on the pile. Of course, the truth be known, he actually did most of the work. I've learned that what I used to do all night (oops, all day) it now takes me all day to do. :-)

If you read this Will, thanks again for all the help. And next, we'll start on that addition to the house..

Change my blog look

Hey, I'm trying to change the look of the blog. You can see that I've changed the overall width as well as the post area width, ok. But, the text of the posts was not stretched nor can I figure out how to move the rounded corners to the right on the post area..

Any thoughts anyone. Obviously, I'm changing the HTML in the template.

Thanks..

Around the world in 20 YEARS!

Now, this what you call a road trip!!!! :-)

The Greek Antikythera Mechanism

In a previous post is information about a modern mythical computer, the H.A.L.-9000. Well, here is a real ancient computer. Very interesting, indeed.

Enter Watson (a young H.A.L.-9000)

Introducing - the Shweeb

Check this form of mass transit out. It's Kewl...

Remembering the old days in Elgin Park

Walkway Anniversary - a day later

I came home last night with such sore feet! :-( But, for the most part a fun time was had by all.



At one point I was out on the bridge and saw a barge being pushed up-river by a tug boat. Lest we forget that this is a shipping river and channel as well as a place to enjoy the great outdoors.

Dancing at the Movies

I saw this on Eolakes blog this morning and thought it was so much fun that I had to share it..Enjoy..