International Comment on Blogs Day

Christine over at bigpinkcookie.com has declared January 31, 2008 to be International Comment on Blogs Day

No more blurking, you guys! Leave the feedreaders behind, hop on into the browser and say something.

Blurking…it’ a perfectly cromulent word….

I have taken it upon myself to modify this to be International Comment on Blogs and Trackback Day. In that spirit I not only link to Christine’s post, I also link to Charles over at offthekuff.com who alerted me to this via this post.

The Geek Speaks

Once again the mighty news media empire calls out for a tech expert and Houston’s Best Tech Geek responds to the call!

Jeff Ehling wanted to come by and interview me for a a story on ABC 13 (KTRK) about about the new music service Qtrax that claims to be offering free and legal music downloads via P2P…

It’s available here for your web viewing pleasure:
Free online music downloads?

Jeff was telling me they’ve been getting mixed feedback on the new web site. I gotta say, I like it! It’s slick and easy to navigate. and I’m not just saying that because it was easy to find the piece featuring my interview so easily after the broadcast on the 6 o’clock news!

Urban Animal Joust

Got a text message from Conn reminding me about the Urban Animal Joust in The Heights. I was able to scoot on down to the Montrose Skate Shop and catch the last few bouts.

There’s just something compelling about adults on skates bashing each other with padded weapons….

It was humorous to watch as the crowd would shout out “CAR” to have the jousters get out of the street, just like when we used to play street ball as kids…



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A few more images in the gallery

Pigeons

Cynthia and I were heading down Richmond in an effort to get around some congestion on 59 headed back to the house. As we were driving past the Ragin Cajun we noticed the most enormous flock of pigeons in the parking out front of Jarinee’s Dressmaking & Alterations, which is in the same strip center.


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We had to circle back and investigate.

There were hundreds and hundreds of them all in the parking lot. They were also lining the roof of the building.


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Then this man came out of the building and they all took off…


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The birds flew around in a few circles, but landed again pretty quickly and the man just walked amongst them…


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He came over to me and we started talking. His name is Vichien and he’s been working at Jarinee’s Dressmaking & Alterations for over 22 years. He’s been feeding the pigeons for 10 years.

He expressed some sadness as he told me the property had recently been sold to developers and he worried about the fate of his “friends.” Vichien told me how he tried to watch over the pigeons and how much money he’s spent on feed over the years.

As we talked I saw a Red-tail Hawk circling above the parking lot. Vichien clapped his hands and the birds all flew into the sky. This caused the hawk to retreat a bit, but he stayed close. Vichien confided that he’s lost to the hawk on many occasions.

After we were done chatting he went to his truck and pulled out a bag of bird seed and began to pour it onto the pavement. That was a sight to see…


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Before I left Vichien gave me a copy of last month’s Houston Press. He pointed out a picture of himself and said that the Houston Press was making fun of him. He just smiled. He asked if I could bring him a print of one of my pictures and I said I would bring one by when I had a chance.

All in all, it was an odd encounter, but it completely made my day.

Remembrances

Cynthia continues to chug away at the scrapbook for the trip to Spain. She’s completed Madrid, Seville, Segovia and Toledo.

Granada and Barcelona are going to be HUGE.

She’s already filled 1 1/2 giant binders full of photos, ephemera and her own recollections of the vacation. I bet this will be 4-6 binders by the time it’s done.

This has propelled me forward in processing my photos. I have completed the following galleries here at baldheretic.com

Madrid Gallery
Madrid
Mardid - Retiro Park
Madrid – Retiro Park
Madrid - Segway Tour
Madrid – Segway Tour
Segovia
Segovia
Seville
Seville
Seville - Alcazar
Seville – Alcazar
Cordoba
Cordoba
Toledo
Toledo
Granada
Granada
Granada - the Alhambra
Granada – The Alhambra

There’s a partial gallery for Barcelona, but it is not complete.

Oh, and I should not forget the nearly complete gallery for William The Well Travelled Sheep


William The Sheep in Spain!

[tag]Spain, Madrid, Segovia, Seville, Toledo, Granada, Alhambra, photography, Sony Alpha 100, travel, Europe, Segway, Memories, Jay Lee[/tag]