
Last night just before bed I shot a frame of the Tibet Temple in the distance. Funny how the eye is not as sensitive as the camera. In this case I didn't see the colors in the clouds and the dark blue sky in the distance. Nor did I see the green color light reflected from our lodge.

In the old days I would have had to wait a week or more for the film to come back. Instead I immediately saw the results, made some corrections, and took some more frames.
(This was a 8 second exposure at f2.8 using a 11-16mm Tokina lens set at 11mm. A Nikon D300s in-camera processor rendered the photo. No after photo corrections were made.)

...dave
Enough about me. Let's talk about you. What do you think about me? - unknown
Shangrila - The Timberline Lodge
0 Comments Published by daveterry on Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 9:38 AM.


It's quiet, clean, and rustic. Huge pine timbers run vertically through the rooms. Mud walls, rough hewn doors, the floors, and furniture add to the Alpine cabin feel. There is even a porch out back where we can entertain friends over a glass of wine. Maybe we should move here?
Today we took a ride of about 15 kilometers. We saw horses, goats, sheep, and pigs. (No lions, tigers or bears, oh my.)


It was 10:30 when we turned on the heater, climbed under the covers, and switched the lights off.
...dave
I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee. - Carly Simon

We ran into lot's of slow moving busses, tractors, and four axle trucks. Trucks with rocks, bricks, logs, pigs, cattle, you name it. The air conditioner in the car didn't work too well so we had to leave the windows open. We ate a lot of dirt and soot from the trucks ahead.



We made it into town and toured through the shops some. But mostly we watched the local line dancing in the square as the sun went down. We had a great time shooting mixed light photos in the streets and back alleys.
Eventually we made it to bed and heard nothing. We found a place outside of the town square where it was very quiet except for the distant occasional dog bark. Climbing to 8,000 feet near the Tibetan border means thin air, cool nights, and tired souls.
We were out within minutes snuggled in comfy beds and covered in layers of blankets.
...dave
If you don't go to other people's funerals, they won't go to yours. - Unknown


We rented a car and drove here rather than fly. It's a longer trip but certainly a more beautiful view of the countryside. Eric is in town so we decided to take a trip to Lijiang and Dali is on the way.

The real reason we stopped is The Bad Monkey Bistro, a micro brewery and restaurant. They brew a wonderful orange and coriander ale, copper in color and creamy on the finish.

As the sun set we walked through the town and made videos of the small waterfalls cascading through the streets.
Finally, near the inn we found a granite yard and snapped a picture under the moonlight.
At a mountain spring up the hill we filled our water bottles for tomorrow's walk around town.
...dave
Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember. - Oscar Levant

Nothing is wasted here. Even after a building is taken down (and there are lots of them coming down) ants of people scurry through the dust and unstable debris to hunt for recyclable materials: iron, plastic, paper, cardboard, and glass. All of it is collected, bundled, and hauled off. Families set up camp next to the destruction site with their own portable stoves, makeshift beds, and wheeled carts. Together with their children they scavenge night and day for weeks in exchange for a few jiao (pennies) of discovered material.
"What happens to the people that were living in the buildings?" I've asked a hundred times. I get different answers. Some say the government gives them some money to move further out of the city. Others say they find a place among relatives in an already confined room. Still others say there is nothing they can do. China's rebuilding program has accelerated like a time-lapse movie, people get in the way.

When the wealthy move in, so do the companies that cater to them. There are now five Starbucks Coffee Shops in our area. I decided to check one out. It looked like an American Starbucks: important people sitting at impossibly small tables, typing madly into their WIFI computers, texting/talking to business contacts, gulping hot black liquid, etc.
But . . . I waited 10 minutes to get a cup of the day in a paper cup AND it cost me four dollars. In America a cup of the day costs a buck ninety and it's served in a pre-heated mug within 60 seconds. I will not be going back anytime soon.
I think I'll boil my own coffee on a make-shift cinder block stove over a wood burning fire and charge admission to watch the buildings come down.
...dave
The road to success is always under construction. - Lily Tomlin

Yeah, it's really crazy. I don't get it either.
Anyways, this was a stronger than normal sewage odor I was smelling.
"Where is that coming from?" I said to no one in particular. (Who could understand?)
"Did I step in something?"

But then I reasoned: How could one guy smell so bad?

It was then that I discovered the source. It was the water itself. He had dropped his hose down a manhole and was pumping sewage water onto the plants along the roadside. This gave the roadside that toilet aroma.
A culture 5,000 years old and still no understanding of diseases transferred via human waste?
...dave
Behave so the aroma of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere. - Henry David Thoreau

I've been following Amazon's Kindle 1 and 2 for sometime but the 3 is where it's at.
I now have about 120 books in it and still have lots of space to spare. I've loaded 36 free classics from gutenberg.org like The Complete Works of Sherlock Homes by Arthur Conan Doyle, Roughing It by Mark Twain, etc. And I've loaded other books I found either free or cheep at Amazon.

Of course, the best use of the Kindle for me is loading my own books. I've crafted 13 reference works from encyclopedias and websites. Now I can carry them with me. (I'm always waiting for someone, somewhere, sometime.) I usually wait at a bus stop, on my moped, or at a park. Sure, I'd rather sit in a comfy chair with a window behind me but, well, what can I say, that's all behind me now.

I've also loaded several Chinese reference works into the Kindle. (There is a special sequence you'll need to follow if you want the Kindle to display Chinese correctly for you. See below for details.)

So the big choice for me was: What do I want for my own Kindle screen savers? Photographs or sketches? I couldn't decide. So I loaded 12 of each. I alternated them so that when the Kindle goes to sleep it cycles through the photo and then the sketch.

"Ruth! Where's the chocolate biscottis?" (She actually makes them herself! They are awesome.)
...dave
When I fly I always go first class. Not the whole way, just until they kick me out. -Pauly Shore
Further information:
Other eBook sites:
www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
www.feedbooks.com
www.manybooks.net
Cheep books at Amazon
Get Dave's Custom Kindle Screen Savers for your Kindle.
If you want to see Chinese characters on your device, do the following:
- Home > Menu > Search
- Then type the following into the search box:
- ;debugOn
(the little arrow key above the Home button) - ~changeLocale zh-CN
- ;debugOff
- Restart your Kindle
Labels: gadgets
Wine & Cheese to Beer and Seeds
0 Comments Published by daveterry on Saturday, June 4, 2011 at 10:31 PM.


Now these seeds are not the David & Sons sort of sunflower seeds you get in the States, no way, they are far superior. They are so habit forming. I think they might be injecting something into them. You know, sort of like the cocaine that Coca-Cola used before the FDA existed. Because, let me tell you, the only way I can stop eating these seeds is to buy only by one bag at a time. When it's empty, it's over.
I'll keep looking though for a good China wine. So far I have been unsuccessful. I can get bottles from the U.S. here but I can't bear to pay the price. One $7 bottle from the States cost $15, and it's not even good stuff. This is simply intolerable. It's so annoying. There has got to be someone here that is making good wine. After all, China is a big place.
I'll keep you posted.
...dave
Do not drink water any longer, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent cases of sickness. - 1 Timothy, 5:23