Thanksgiving

"If you read too fast or too slow, you will understand nothing".
"A mere trifle can console us because a mere trifle can distress us".-- Blaise Pascal
I went to the cafe today and did some crochet and reading. After reading a few chapters of the book on China I borrowed, I picked up one of the Harvard Classics on the bookshelf. It was on Blaise Pascal's writings. I like the quotes in there. There are many of those volumes of Harvard Classics and it's too bad that I won't have time to read them all before I leave for Korea.

Here are some photos of myself on yesterday's Thanksgiving:

Museum of Fine Arts

Today I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was the second time I went to an art museum this year.
I first went to a special exhibit on Assyrian art. The Assyrian empire was one that was mentioned in the Bible. I knew they were a people that were feared and the art showed why that was true. There were many relief sculptures that showed battle scenes. There were some winged lions, symbols of Babylon there. The Assyrian empire had existed in the area of Babylon for a while.
I also saw the medieval art which was mostly religious stuff. There was a wall and dome from the twelfth century one the end of one wall. Christ and his disciples were depicted there. I couldn't make out all their names, but I saw "John" spelled as "Ioannes" and "Matthew" as "MVTHU".
I enjoyed the impressionists the most. There were paintings by Degas, Monet, and Renoir there. A large Gaugin painting was there, it showed a number of Tahitians on a beach. I like his style, but not all his personal views.



There were also many Renaissance paintings, some by Velazquez the court painter for Philip IV. There was a large painting of St. Francis of Assisi that I really liked by another painter named Zurbaran.
I saw a minimalist exhibit by Rachel Whiteread. I don't particularly care for minimalism. Many of the things in there looked like a ten year-old did it.
Of everything I saw, "The Seventh Plague" by John Martin is a close favourite:



The part that I enjoyed the most would be the photography exhibit on Karsh. There were many portraits of his all around the room. Many of those were familiar. The story of Winston Churchill's portrait made me chuckle. He didn't know his portrait was to be taken and he growled and chomped on a fresh cigar. He finally got talked into it and reluctantly put his stub down.

Trying to get my visa

This morning my sister and I left the house to go to Newton, Massachusetts. We were to go to the Korean consulate to get my visa. We first got gas and some snacks for the ride, then we went on the interstate. After about 15 minutes there was a loud popping sound and the car was dragging. She pulled to the side of the road and I got out of the car. The right front tyre was flat. The roadside assistance was called. We started cleaning out the back of the car. It was filled with lots of stuff. My sister is an art major and she had many projects stowed away there. There was also other stuff since she recently moved and didn't take everything out yet. I found a DVD of "Spirited Away" among the things. I found it strange since I was posting about the movie on another blog this morning. After enough things were out of the car I pulled the spare out.
Just before the man came, my sister turned the key and found the car was dead. She called the service again. Soon the man came and put the new tyre on. She was still on the cellphone and the person on the other line asked if he would jumpstart the car. The repairman was on the ground and heard the phone and started laughing. He said "No, I think I'll drive off and then wait for another call and the come back to jumpstart the car". My sister started laughing. The car started again.
We then went to Jiffy Lube to see if they would put on a new tyre. We waited in line with Poulenc's organ concerto playing in the car. I didn't recognise the music. My sister informed me that it was the same music we listened to while at a concert over a year ago. I remembered then. I went there to meet a man I met on an Adventist singles website. He had gone to Atlantic Union College as a music major and studied under William Ness, who was the organist. Dr. Ness was the minister of music at that church now. The man made it a point to go to every concert Dr. Ness put on, even if it meant he had to drive a few hours. I admired the deep respect he had for his former teacher. The concert also included the AUC orchestra. I liked watching Dr. Ness

News on Einstein

I recently took three books out of the library: Ballistics by Billy Collins, Shakespeare by Bill Bryson, and Albert Einstein by Walter Isaacson. Yesterday I returned the first two and renewed the last one because I didn't get around to reading it. It looks very interesting and it even has an epilogue on Einstein's brain. Today I took out Lost on Planet China and sat in the cafe to read the first chapter. Today I found this article on Einstein:

PARIS (AFP) – It's taken more than a century, but Einstein's celebrated formula e=mc2 has finally been corroborated, thanks to a heroic computational effort by French, German and Hungarian physicists.

A brainpower consortium led by Laurent Lellouch of France's Centre for Theoretical Physics, using some of the world's mightiest supercomputers, have set down the calculations for estimating the mass of protons and neutrons, the particles at the nucleus of atoms.

According to the conventional model of particle physics, protons and neutrons comprise smaller particles known as quarks, which in turn are bound by gluons.

The odd thing is this: the mass of gluons is zero and the mass of quarks is only five percent. Where, therefore, is the missing 95 percent?

The answer, according to the study published in the US journal Science on Thursday, comes from the energy from the movements and interactions of quarks and gluons.

In other words, energy and mass are equivalent, as Einstein proposed in his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905.

Blue Heron

This is at Cargill Falls in Putnam, Connecticut.

I have my visa number

Thank God! I have my visa number, now I can finish the process to get back to Korea.

Cambodia 2005/2006

It's hard to believe that it's been 3 years since I went to Cambodia. That's the place where I learned how much I like doing photography. I have always enjoyed taking pictures, but there was where I finally fell in love with doing the art. I filled up my memory card. Angkor Wat was great with its ancient look and character.

Church

Today the union youth director came to church. He preached the sermon. His topic was on "ice". ServICE, SacrifICE, etc. I thought it was a good sermon. It was mostly aimed for adolescents, yet I still enjoyed it. I think it's important that SDA youth get interested in serving God while they are young. I later talked with him and his wife. They are nice people.
It was funny that he mentioned Facebook at the pulpit. He had joined two days before and was amazed at the amount of people he came across that he knew. Many of them were people he hadn't seen in years. I was trying not to laugh out loud because I had actually found him on Facebook that very morning and added him as a friend. He said those sites are addicting and I agree. I have Myspace and Facebook, but I use the latter more. It's mostly because many people I met in Korea are on there.

a polka by "Weird" Al Yankovic in anime!

"Weird" Al Yankovic is known for making polkas out of popular songs as part of his many parodies. This is one of them put to anime. It's funny.

Gallery Near the Falls

Tired.

new puppy

There is a new puppy at the house. It's so small that it fits in the palm of my hand. It's a miniature poodle. It's cute, yet I am so afraid of stepping on it. I have had it outside on the leash and it hops around my feet. I was calling it "Caedmon" before, for the poet, but my mother and aunt dislike the name. It will probably be "Rusty" or something like that later.

Sea Turtle

I saw this sea turtle in Newport, Rhode Island a few months ago. It's rare to see those so far up north, yet some of them get caught up in the warm currents from the Gulf of Mexico.

I love Fuare's Requiem! It is so beautiful. I have the music to a few requiems. I think I like Fuare's and Mozart's the best. This piece can make me visualise angels singing it.

Stephen Hawking Gets Sarcastic (funny)

Here Stephen Hawking gets interviewed and is constantly asked questions about his handicaps and wheelchair. I do think it was uncouth for the interviewer to keep bringing that up. Hawking was funny in his comebacks.

Obama wins the presidency

I went out and voted yesterday. While in line I was interviewed by a news reporter for the Norwich Bulletin. I just said why I went to vote. I said I felt it was my duty to vote because people fought for my right to do it. I wondered if it would be in print later on. Journalists don't use everything they gather.
I watched the election coverage until nearly midnight. At 11 pm, after some states already gave their winner predictions, the announcer said that the media felt it was safe to release the fact that Barack Obama would be the 44th president. He mentioned a line from the Declaration of Indepdence that was penned 232 years ago, that all men are created equal. The country hasn't always treated everybody equal. This is a historical event.
I didn't see too many differences between Obama and McCain. Yet, I do think that an Obama administration would make a bigger difference than with a McCain one. McCain would be a lot like G.W. Bush. I do hope that his presidency does make foreign relations better. I think Joe Biden was a good choice in a vice president because of his experience with foreign relations.
Yet, I do know that the future will be rocky, and I do know where things will eventually lead. I am not worried about the future. God has it in His hands and I know things will be all right.

Korea, snags

I was supposed to have returned to Korea a week and a half ago. I was told on Oct. 14 that I have to wait until December to go because the two current teachers won't be leaving until later. Their new job isn't ready for them. I was supposed to leave on the 23rd of October.
That's OK, I am sure there's a reason for it. I can also have some more time to see some people before I leave. It's not easy to make appointments with people because most of the people I know are very busy. I also have stuff to do. I can also have more time to go through my things. I would like to sell a few things and give some other things away.