Monthly Archives: July 2009

Disney World trip photos

We recently took a vacation at Disney World. I was determined to get a decent camera before the trip, so I snagged a Canon EOS Rebel XS, an entry-level DSLR camera. The consequence of this is that I took way too many photographs during our trip:

I’m still a newbie when it comes to photography. But I did manage to scrape some decent shots off of the camera during our trip. Below are some of my favorites. Click the photo to see it on Flickr; there, you can click “All Sizes” to see larger versions.

Disney World trip - day 6 - Magic Kingdom

This shot of Cinderella Castle in Magic Kingdom has a postcard-like appeal.

Disney World trip - day 7 - Cinderella Castle floating in the clouds

Cinderella Castle appears to float amid the clouds.

Disney World trip - day 7 - Wilderness Lodge - Ferryboat at dusk

In the waning sun, our ferryboat from Wilderness Lodge to Magic Kingdom arrives.

Disney World trip - day 7 - Sunset over Magic Kingdom

Sunset imparts a golden hue to the Magic Kingdom.

Disney World trip - day 7 - Wishes fireworks show

I like this ominous silhouette of Cinderella Castle during the Wishes fireworks show.

Disney World trip - day 7 - Wishes fireworks show - Flying Spaghetti Monster

Is that the Flying Spaghetti Monster above the castle during the Wishes fireworks show.???

Disney World trip - day 8 - Epcot - Iris gets her face painted at Outpost pavilion

Kathryn took this wonderful shot of Iris getting her face painted at Outpost pavilion at Epcot’s World Showcase.

Disney World trip - day 8 - Epcot - Spaceship Earth at night

Spaceship Earth at night. Ooh, shiny.

Disney World trip - Day 2 - Wilderness Lodge

Posing in our room at Wilderness Lodge before heading to Magic Kingdom.

Disney World trip - Day 2 - Wilderness Lodge

The magnificent lobby of Wilderness Lodge.

Disney World trip - day 3 - Hollywood Studios

Iris reacts to Catastrophe Canyon’s fires and floods on the Studio Backlot Tour at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Disney World trip - day 3 - Hollywood Studios

Eris riding a pony at Hollywood Studios.

Disney World trip - day 3 - Disney's Beach Club Resort

Night view of Disney’s BoardWalk from Disney’s Beach Club Resort.

Disney World trip - day 4 - Epcot

Iris is happy to arrive at Epcot.

Disney World trip - day 4 - Epcot

Spaceship Earth. Best pentakis dodecahedron I saw that day.

Disney World trip - day 4 - Epcot

Iris and Princess Aurora. Princess Storybook Dining at Restaurant Akershus at Norway pavilion.

Disney World trip - day 4 - Epcot

Cinderella signs Eris’ book. Princess Storybook Dining at Restaurant Akershus at Norway pavilion.

Disney World trip - day 4 - Epcot

Eris at Restaurant Akershus enjoying one of several hundred of her birthday cupcakes.

Disney World trip - day 4 - Epcot

Spaceship Earth meeting resistance from the stubborn palmettos. “Take me to your leader.”

Disney World trip - day 4 - Epcot

Storm brewing over the glass pyramids at Imagination.

Disney World trip - day 4 - Epcot

Iris vs stars at ImageWorks: The What-If Labs.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

African percussionists putting on a great show at Animal Kingdom.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

Upside-down tree (baobab tree) at Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

Gazelle at the Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

Giraffe and baobab tree at the Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

Upside-down tree (baobab tree) at the Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

Taking the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

Iris and Pocahontas negotiate a sum of wampum at Conservation Station at Rafiki’s Planet Watch.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

Iris chases and scrubs the goat simultaneously at Affection Section petting zoo.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

Crazy cat lady on stilts at Mickey’s Jammin Jungle Parade.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

The Tree of Life, though fake, still seems naturally picturesque in this setting.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom Lodge

Incredible lobby of Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom Lodge

Incredible lobby of Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

Expedition Everest roller coaster.

Disney World trip - day 5 - Animal Kingdom

Expedition Everest roller coaster.

Disney World trip - day 6 - Magic Kingdom

Eris and Iris with Piglet. Character Dining at the Crystal Palace.

Disney World trip - day 7 - Wilderness Lodge - Iris and cousin Danielle at Whispering Canyon Cafe

Iris showing her affection for my cousin Danielle.

Disney World trip - day 7 - Wilderness Lodge - posing with my uncle's family

Uncle Craig’s clan.

Disney World trip - day 7 - Walt and Mickey

Solid Walt and his little rodent pal stand over their creation in everlasting tribute.

Disney World trip - day 7 - massive crowd gathers for parade

Massive crowd gathers for the nightly parade and fireworks.

Disney World trip - day 7 - sunset at park docks

Sunset at the park docks.

Disney World trip - day 8 - Epcot - Family poses at World Showcase Lagoon

Kathryn and Iris pose in front of the lagoon. Is Iris trying to get water out of her ears?

Disney World trip - day 8 - Epcot

Mila wakes, sees photographer, kicks photographer.

Disney World trip - day 8 - Magic Kingdom - Cinderella Castle

Cinderella Castle jutting into the clear sky. How much bloodshed have those battlements been witness to?

Disney World trip - day 8 - Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

Iris investigates the pool at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

Disney World trip - day 8 - Character dining at 1900 Park Fare

Character dining at 1900 Park Fare. Cinderella takes a break from magical thinking to pose with Iris and Eris.

Disney World trip - day 8 - Disney's Polynesian Resort

Disney’s Polynesian Resort. Iris and Eris celebrate a successful day of fun.

Flagler Beach, Florida - Restaurant

Restaurant at Flagler Beach. Kathryn be describin’ the size of bilge rats on ye last voyage.

Flagler Beach, Florida - Restaurant

Restaurant at Flagler Beach. Joanie gets Mila to smile and laugh.

If you made it this far, your stamina is remarkable.

On Existence

“He saw that even in an age of science and unbelief our ideas are dreams, styles, superstitions, mere animal noises intended to repel or attract. He looked around the ring of munching females and saw their bodies as a Martian or a mollusc might see them, as pulpy stalks of bundled nerves oddly pinched to a bud of concentration in the head, a hairy bone knob holding some pounds of jelly in which a trillion circuits, mostly dead, kept records, coded motor operations, and generated an excess of electricity that pressed into the hairless side of the head and leaked through orifices, in the form of pained, hopeful noises and a simian dance of wrinkles. Impossible mirage! A blot on nothingness. And to think that all the efforts of his life – his preening, his lovemaking, his typing – boiled down to the attempt to displace a few sparks, to bias a few circuits, within some random other scoops of jelly that would, in less time than it takes the Andreas Fault to shrug or the tail-tip star of Scorpio to crawl an inch across the map of Heaven, be utterly dissolved.”

John Updike, in his story Bech Panics.

When I came across the stark snippet above, it made me think of similarly stark passages spoken by Wolf Larsen in The Sea Wolf by Jack London:

“What do you believe, then?” I countered.

“I believe that life is a mess,” he answered promptly. “It is like yeast, a ferment, a thing that moves and may move for a minute, an hour, a year, or a hundred years, but that in the end will cease to move. The big eat the little that they may continue to move, the strong eat the weak that they may retain their strength. The lucky eat the most and move the longest, that is all. What do you make of those things?”

He swept his am in an impatient gesture toward a number of the sailors who were working on some kind of rope stuff amidships.

“They move, so does the jelly-fish move. They move in order to eat in order that they may keep moving. There you have it. They live for their belly’s sake, and the belly is for their sake. It’s a circle; you get nowhere. Neither do they. In the end they come to a standstill. They move no more. They are dead.”

“They have dreams,” I interrupted, “radiant, flashing dreams–”

“Of grub,” he concluded sententiously.

“And of more–”

“Grub. Of a larger appetite and more luck in satisfying it.” His voice sounded harsh. There was no levity in it. “For, look you, they dream of making lucky voyages which will bring them more money, of becoming the mates of ships, of finding fortunes–in short, of being in a better position for preying on their fellows, of having all night in, good grub and somebody else to do the dirty work. You and I are just like them. There is no difference, except that we have eaten more and better. I am eating them now, and you too. But in the past you have eaten more than I have. You have slept in soft beds, and worn fine clothes, and eaten good meals. Who made those beds? and those clothes? and those meals? Not you. You never made anything in your own sweat. You live on an income which your father earned. You are like a frigate bird swooping down upon the boobies and robbing them of the fish they have caught. You are one with a crowd of men who have made what they call a government, who are masters of all the other men, and who eat the food the other men get and would like to eat themselves. You wear the warm clothes. They made the clothes, but they shiver in rags and ask you, the lawyer, or business agent who handles your money, for a job.”

Optimism that only a programmer can appreciate

“A programmer is a person who passes as an exacting expert on the basis of being able to turn out, after innumerable punching, an infinite series of incomprehensive answers calculated with micrometric precisions from vague assumptions based on debatable figures taken from inconclusive documents and carried out on instruments of problematical accuracy by persons of dubious reliability and questionable mentality for the avowed purpose of annoying and confounding a hopelessly defenseless department that was unfortunate enough to ask for the information in the first place.”

— IEEE Grid news magazine