Old Baltimore Snowstorm Video

.

Another snowy video uploaded: this one from three years ago, while I was in Baltimore during the President’s Day snowstorm that dumped over two feet of snow on the city in February of 2003. I was living in a little townhouse in Little Italy at the time, and while snowed in, amused myself by building windowsill snowmen and pointing my webcam out the window.

Photos of the aftermath of that snowstorm here. The townhouse I lived in is no longer there, sadly; that block was torn down to make room for a condo building.

Powder Pattern

.

(Powder Pattern, uploaded by brownpau.)

Falling bottle of shoe odor powder leaves a mark on my boots. I’m not sure why I felt compelled to take a photo of the bottle dispenser pattern.

Sunday Snowstorm 3: Timelapse

.

All of you searchers asking how long it takes snow to melt, the answer in this case is “As long as it takes Google Video to verify and approve user submissions.” (Update: moved to Flickr.) Yes, most of Sunday’s snow has melted off the roads and sidewalks here in DC, but here’s the snowstorm timelapse I took of the street below my apartment from early Sunday morning to Sunday mid-afternoon:

As you can see, the snow thawed away pretty fast as soon as the precipitation stopped and the sun came out. There’s not a whole lot of snow left in the parts of the city I frequent, except on some grass and other untrod surfaces.

Let The Pictures Tell You Their Own Moral

.

I might be asked, ‘Do you equally reject the approach which begins with the question “What do modern children need?” — in other words, with the moral or didactic approach?’ I think the answer is Yes. Not because I don’t like stories to have a moral: certainly not because I think children dislike a moral. Rather because I feel sure that the question ‘What do modern children need?’ will not lead you to a good moral. If we ask that question we are assuming too superior an attitude. It would be better to ask ‘What moral do I need?’ for I think we can be sure that what does not concern us deeply will not deeply interest our readers, whatever their age. But it is better not to ask the question at all. Let the pictures tell you their own moral. For the moral inherent in them will rise from whatever spiritual roots you have succeeded in striking during the whole course of your life. But if they don’t show you any moral, don’t put one in. For the moral you put in is likely to be a platitude, or even a falsehood, skimmed from the surface of your consciousness. It is impertinent to offer the children that. For we have been told on high authority that in the moral sphere they are probably at least as wise as we. Anyone who can write a children’s story without a moral, had better do so: that is, if he is going to write children’s stories at all. The only moral that is of any value is that which arises inevitably from the whole cast of the author’s mind.

– C. S. Lewis, “On Three Ways of Writing for Children,” Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories.

(I would also apply this advice to the work of Christian artists seeking to consciously impart a “Christian” message to their art as well. Rather than starting from the burden of “How can I make my art win people to Christ?” rather let the Word which pervades you overflow into your work as you create it. Also see this quote from Francis Schaeffer on Christians, art, and the totality of life.)

Sunday Snowstorm 2: The Photos

.

As promised, photos from today’s Snowy DC photo safari: (Full album here)

Green is Go for Snow Self-Portrait At Washington Monument

Washington Monument Tree Panorama Lincoln Memorial Panoramic Vista

I’m especially proud of this one: a full 360° (and then some) panorama of the view from by the Washington Monument, which I have dubbed “The Grand 360+° Washington Monument Hilltop Panorama of Snowy Freedom.” Click on the thumbnail below to get the full-size image, but be warned — it’s big, as in 19,624 x 1,572 px big, and that’s reduced and compressed so it can upload to Flickr:

The Grand 360+ Degree Washington Monument Hilltop Panorama of Snowy Freedom

Today was definitely a walking day: I walked along the National Mall this morning, snapping photos, detoured up 17th Street at 11am to get to church, then walked back down to the Mall after worship to continue from where I left off. Church was mostly empty, understandably, so that the few people who did make it were able to attend the scaled-down service from the chancel. It felt good to be able to worship despite the snow day, especially with Jim’s insightful and humbling sermon on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s perspectives on meekness and ministry. After the photo-walk, I dropped by the Watergate to get some chicken tenders and rice from the basement Safeway, then Metro’d home to upload these photos. Now I am going to go soak my aching feet. Hope you all Eastcoasters had a happy snowy Sunday.

Capitol Snowman NPS Ranger With Shovel

(Were you out and about in the snow? Leave a link to your photos in the comments!)

Sunday Snowstorm

.

Snow! Looks to be about 6-8 inches here in downtown DC as of 8am, so I’m going out to the Mall to get some photos before church. I’ve had the webcam pointing out the window all night; I’ll upload a timelapse of the gathering snow when the storm’s over.

(You know what’s funny? I was out of bread and milk and eggs in the refrigerator, so I had to go over to Safeway to stock up on victuals Friday night while the snowstorm forecasts were flying, all the while fighting the urge to tell the people around me, “It’s not because of the snow, really!”)

Update: Photos here.

Leopard Gecko

.

IMG_5246 IMG_5249

I’m taking care of my neighbor’s leopard gecko this weekend. She (the gecko, not the neighbor) lives in a large glass tank lit by a red heat lamp, and eats live crickets which are kept in a separate container. This means I have to pick a cricket by hand out of the swarm, shake it in a container of calcium supplement powder, drop it into the gecko’s tank and watch her stalk and pounce, then repeat the process two or three times until she’s full. The crickets themselves have to be fed orange cubes, else they begin eating each other. That’s right: you have to feed the food or else it starts eating itself.

More on Leopard Geckos here. She’s a cute gecko, and readily crawls onto your hand when invited, and even gives you a little lick, but I think I still prefer my cat.

Photo Retrospective: The House in Majayjay

.

Set1014_01 Set1013_01

Set1001_01 Set1012_01

This old Spanish colonial house has been with my dad’s side of the family since the 16th Century, in Majayjay, a small provincial town on the slopes of Mount Banahaw, about 50 miles south of Manila. The whole clan goes there once a year to eat lanzones, but we were visiting the place just after Christmas 2003 to inspect the property for future restoration. More photos here.

Well, I’ve finished uploading, sorting, and dating my photos for 2002 and 2003. It’s hard, tedious work that keeps me up late, so I’m taking a break before I upload the rest of my pre-Flickr life. For now, I’m back to posting current photos for a week or so. Browse the photosets for old stuff if you wish.

(Aside: Those of you who visit my weblog infrequently enough that you don’t catch certain entries before they slide off the front page, I would not have you miss this poetry-enhanced retrospective: Oh Baltimore!)

Tita Alice

.

Condolences go out to the Francia family in the loss of their plucky and outspoken matriarch, Mama Alice. (Tita Alice to me.) Tita Alice was my paternal grandmother’s first cousin, which made her my third-degree great-aunt, I think. (The Filipino concepts of “cousin” and “aunt” differ, however, from the American language. I need to look into that and explain it to you sometime.)

[Update: Bam tells me she’s my “first cousin twice removed.” I really cannot imagine thinking of someone of more than a generation up as a “cousin.” For me it’s always been “tita” (aunt) or “lola” (grandma).]

I first met Tita Alice here in the DC area via her daughter, a good friend of my uncle and aunt in NoVA. Still strong as an ox and tough as nails at 90 years old, she would regale me with stories of my father’s childhood, and the capers of my Filipino-Spanish forebears who lived in colonial times. It was through Tita Alice that I discovered that I have a fraction of French blood via my great-great aunt Calixtra Ordoveza (fourth or fifth degree, I think, and the French ancestry came from a direct ancestor above her). Tita Alice would tell me on more than one occasion that Lola Calixtra had a chronically twitchy eyelid, which caused her to grow a line of gentlemen suitors from all over the colony, men who thought she had been winking at them.

I wish I could have written down more of these stories of my ancestors that Tita Alice told me, but alas, I never got to it before she died of a stroke earlier this week. She will be much missed, by her wonderful family, by her many piano students, by myself, and by many others whose lives she inspired with the strength and vigor that sustained her right up till her very last hours. May she rest in peace till the promised Day of Rising comes.

RIP Alice Francia, May 1915 – February 2006