WAY Beyond Must See

To anyone who may stumble upon this humble blog posting: if you have not seen "The Dark Knight" in an IMAX theater, please do yourself a favor and get thee to an IMAX theater before it's gone. To not do so will leave you forever chastising yourself for missing one of the most historic moments in cinematic history.

Yes. It IS THAT good!

Hey, I work at a facility with two IMAX theaters and today is the first time I had the chance to see it. My son, who had already seen it in a regular theater, joined me to see it at my work. Even he was totally blown away, and he knew what was going to happen!

The opening scenes, the scenes in Hong Kong, all the scenes where they used an IMAX camera completely fill the six-story screen at the Boeing IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center in Seattle. I assume the same at your local IMAX theater. Combine that with the awesome surround sound system and the total environment is unreal.

Of course, all that great cinematography, IMAX, sound system and so on would be a total waste if not for the incredible acting, directing and writing that goes along with it. The storytelling is incredible. The death of Heath Ledger is even more profound now that I've seen what he did. I cannot imagine anyone trying to fill his shoes in future portrayals of The Joker.

Bottomline: go see The Dark Knight in IMAX. Even if you've already seen it. Once it's gone and relegated to DVD the magic will be long gone. It was incredible.

Dunstan Orchard

So, there I was perusing my RSS spew when I spotted an item about a cool new feature of Flickr. They now offer embeddable slide shows that can include video. Cool! Clicked the link to the Flickr blog item and what do I find? A sample slide show by a guy named Dunstan Orchard. Weird.

Well, I don't know the guy, so when I say weird it's referencing the closeness in our names. He works for Flickr, so it's no wonder he has a ton of pics on the site. You can find out more about the new slide show feature here. Here's his slide show.



This all comes not long after I heard from another Stan Orchard (no Dun), a world renowned frog expert in Victoria, BC. Sheesh! I'm feeling kinda inadequate. The Stan Orchard (no dun) to the north is helping eradicate an invasive species from Vancouver Island, while the Stan Orchard (with a Dun) to the south is helping create awesome online tools. I'm just an old Web hack in Seattle. :-(

Maybe we should start a club so I can hang out with the cool folks. At least I share their name!

A Day At The Pretend Beach

I just love how the old fountain at Seattle Center turns into a beach when the weather gets hot. Complete with plenty of water, seagulls, swim suits in all shapes and sizes, Frisbees flying, food, drink...just about everything you'd find at the beach except for sand. I snapped this with my iPhone on the way to my car this afternoon.

Seattle is a wacky place. The weather is rarely cold or hot. It's usually pretty mild compared to the rest of the world. We have our occasional mean storm, but for the most part it's mild. When the temperature goes to one extreme or the other we turn into weather wimps. Especially if it snows. But when it gets hot you immediately hear complaints. But then there are those places like this where we get out and enjoy it. Alki Beach, the Green River Gorge, Cedar River, Lake Washington, Sammamish...I just love it. When people are out and happy for awhile. A great mix of young and old enjoying this warm weather for a short time.

Soak it up people. Before we know it, we'll be complaining about the rain and cold again.

Some Help Please?

So, there I was. Sitting in the living room watching the Mariners beat Tampa Bay when all of a sudden things got golden outside. Looked out and saw we were in the midst of yet another summer downpour AND the sun was shining. So, grabbed the camera and headed for the front porch.

Thing was, I could not figure a way to do this shot justice. Didn't have time to grab the tripod and do some experimenting. The weather was changing way too quickly. Braced myself against a post and took some shots but just couldn't capture it all.

What I was seeing was everything golden. The forest that surrounds us was golden, the sky was golden, and the clouds had a golden hue. But there was actually blue sky up there along with a steady rain. The clouds were white and gray and black with the blue sky behind them. But my picture doesn't capture it all.

If anyone sees this and can offer some suggestions please do.

Ferris Wheel Sunrise

Spotted this on the way to work this morning. Walking across Seattle Center I saw the sun coming up behind the Ferris Wheel at the Fun Forest. The Mural Amphitheater is in the foreground. My iPhone wasn't able to get the top of the Space Needle in the shot from where I was standing.

Funny thing is, or sad thing depending on your point of view, the sun is actually setting on the old Fun Forest. It's slated to close forever next year or the year after. Seems folks just don't go to the old amusement park like they did when I was a kid. This was the first place we went when my friends and I were allowed to take the bus in from the south end on our own. I was 12 or 13 at the time. It seemed SO far from home.

Not sure what will replace this landmark. Hope it's something that generates as many memories for so many others.

Hot Dog

Finally got around to trying the new Klick app on my first-gen iPhone. Works great! Just snapped this shot of our dog, Lilly. She was keeping cool in the shade on the front porch.

What I really like about Klick is that you can view all your Flickr pics as well as your friends' and you can upload to Flickr as well. So, instead of having to always keep my photo gallery up to date, I can just open Klick and access my Flickr photostream to show off pics of my grandchildren or whatever.

I like it, though I had to uninstall it once then install again before it finally took the Flickr authorization. Hey, it's free.

What Is This Stuff?!

So one of my co-workers brought in some new snack she and her husband found last night at little grocery in south Seattle. They had never seen this before and they don't know what it was called.

It's sorta like corn nuts that have been popped. Not as crunchy as corn nuts but not as soft as regular popcorn.

All I know is...this stuff is awesome! I could see me going through a pound in one sitting without blinking. I will be traveling to this little grocery store soon.

Does this fit on my diet? Uh...those tasty little kernels HAVE to have loads of fiber, right? There must be some redeeming value.

Space Needle Sunrise

I love mornings. Especially early morning when the sun is just up, when hardly anyone is around. The air seems cleaner and everything a bit fresher.

Today promises to be a scorcher in Seattle. If the temps get over 80 it's hot around here. So, being out in the city early is the best time of day when the weather heats up.

BTW...this was snapped with my first generation iPhone running the new 2.0.1 software I installed last night. Uploaded to Flickr via AirMe. Not sure, but everything seems to be running a little snappier today. Maybe it's the fresh air.