For a person to blog well, she needs, of course, to have some writing skills. That’s fairly obvious. She also needs to be observant and receptive. She needs to have her eyes and ears and mind open and be ready to receive once THE IDEA presents itself.
I was reminded of these things this week as I readied myself to write the blog you’re about to read. Let me explain…
Several days ago, on the evening of December twenty-first to be more precise, I attended a “Winter Solstice” party that was organized by John, a colleague at AUC. The social gathering was to be held outside, in a large garden area behind a building that is owned by the university. Before joining the group in the backyard, I needed to drop my backpack off at John’s place, so I climbed two flights of stairs and then saw, much to my delight, that his young son had decorated the door leading into the flat with several paper snowflakes, the sort we’ve all made with a pair of scissors and folded paper. Standing there and looking at all those wonderful creations, the thought suddenly hit me: I could write this week’s blog about snowflakes!
A couple of days later, I discovered SnowCrystals.com, a site put together by Professor Kenneth Libbrecht who does research for the Department of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. As you’ll see below, a part of what he does at CIT involves the use of all sorts of high-tech gizmos to take pictures of individual snowflakes. He allows embedding of these images, so I’ve given you a sample of what’s available at his site.
Not to be outdone by Mother Nature, Les Barker makes an adult version of what I saw on John’s door the other evening. A thumbnail gallery of some of his work can be found here. Happy viewing!
Just like Bonita Hicks, I’ve always been a collector, going all the way back to my childhood when I had a couple of albums that I filled with colorful postage stamps. For years, I steamed those little buggers off envelopes and then pasted them down in their appropriate spots. It pains me to report that that old collection was lost some time ago, which is not surprising given the number of boxes of stuff I’ve had stored away with relatives while I’ve been roaming about in recent years.
Despite that loss, I still collect things. Recently, I’ve been into buying owl figurines. I have quite a group now, from many different countries and made of all sorts of materials. I began this collection a few years ago shortly after having a very interesting run in with a member of that species while out walking in the woods very late in the afternoon on a cold, wintry day. I’ll never forget that meeting. Woodsy stared at me, and I stared at him. We just stood there, like that, for a few moments until we both sort of lost interest and then I walked away. Shortly after that encounter, I went out and bought my very first owl.
Now, going back to the video, I have to say that I just get this warm feeling while watching Bonita talk about her Santas. I think that feeling is at least partly due to her saying that she hopes people learn an important lesson from her collection. She wishes that those who’ve seen it would just find a way to “enjoy themselves more.”
After watching the video, I got curious and went on the Internet and found this site and this one. I’m not surprised to learn that there are others out there who share Bonita’s love.
I want to finish by wishing everyone a Happy Holidays!
Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays because it inspires many people to engage in acts of imagination and creativity. To prove my point, I’ve included two must-see videos. If, as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, then I’d like to know how many words these clips are worth. A lot, I’d say.
The first one is simply entitled “Christmas” and was made by a young amateur Belgian filmmaker named Tim van der Linden. I was so impressed with this short video that I tried to find out more about him but had very little success. Tim, if you ever read this, I’d like to encourage you to keep making such films because you’re obviously very talented. It would be a shame to let such ability go to waste.
So here it is.
I don’t know how you felt while watching Tim’s film, but for me, I think like he captured the mood of the holiday season wonderfully! And the music was a perfect match for those images!
In clip two, it’s not the videographer that’s the talented one. It’s the person or people who conceptualized this holiday light display and then put it all together. The home you’re seeing is in Darby, Wisconsin, near Appleton. I have not been able to find out much more than this even though I Googled and Yahooed! as hard as I could.
The person who posted this video on You Tube explains that this home looks this way every year and that the displays are computer-driven. That makes sense. It would take a computer to do what is shown in this clip.
I have to guess that the music is broadcast via speakers so that passersby can hear it quite audibly from the street. Speaking of music, this is only one of many songs that have been choreographed. I actually had a hard time choosing which video to embed. I also very much liked the display accompanying the song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”
If you’d like to see more of these displays, check here.
