Welcome to a new season of Colin postings.

As probably all of you readers have noticed, I inexplicably stopped writing here during this last month. Alas, this was not because I was attacked by pirates, eaten by sharks nor sucked out in a rip tide. Nope, I was just busy working, and this site was put on the back burner. When this happens, I always feel bad that I am not keeping you up with the latest Colin musings.

Fortunately, I have been thinking about things I need to post for about a month now, and I am now going to put that all down in one massive post. Let us begin!

That is right, there is now an online Lite Brite site. So if you ever want to relive your childhood in a kinda artistic sorta way, have at it.

Next up, I learned recently what the largest automobile looks like. Scarry. Have a look:

They use this beast in strip mines in Germany to unearth coal. The one you see in the picture here is the second largest land-based machine, in transit between one stripped-out coal mine to another not-as-stipped-out mine a few miles away. You can read more about bucket wheel excavators at Wikipedia, and check one out from above in Google Maps. Who would have thought that strip mining would be so entertaining?

Finally, in a fit of geek, I found a site that is all about color. While I doubt that many of you put much thought into color theory, I periodically find myself working on something in Photoshop or Illustrator and I need a nice looking color palate. If you ever need some matching colors, this is the place to go.

A Second Guest Visits

Had a guest here last week, one Avery Kong. He is a friend of mine from Philmont, and he is on a tour of this continent for a month. I did what I could to show him the sites of Sydney. He is traveling north now, training up the coast, and he will eventually make it up to Cairns, from which he'll fly to the southern island of New Zealand, tour around there, fly over to Melbourne then make his way back here. I am jealous of his journey, as I have not gotten to the national tour yet. (Worry not, Christy and I are planning on such a trip before we leave.)

Godspeed, Avery. I'll see you in a few weeks.

The Atlas

Christy spent most of this month writing a paper about Gerhard Richter's Altas. For me, I knew of Richter, but not of this Atlas. What it is, to explain inadequately, the Altas is an ever-growing encyclopedia of Richter's source material. To see the source material, is to see the puzzle pieces before they are put together, a view into Richter's art-making mind. I think that I will leave it at that, since a certain Richter expert is known this blog, I will let her field any Richter questions you may have.

With all the research material scattered about the house, I have had Richter on the mind recently. It reminded me of a theory that I have been toying with. Specifically, it relates to his painting Betty

You see, I love going to bookstores. I go to them just to hang out, blow off some steam and get my mind off of the moment. Nine times out of ten, I never buy anything; I just look around the place, check out the latest releases and flip through any cool picture-filled books. Perhaps, I am trying to be erudite with proximity to all those little packages of knowledge. More likely, however, I simply amazed that the bookstore clerks never get annoyed with my loitering behavior.

I like to think about book covers when I am in bookstores. There are trends with them, because we really do judge books by their covers. Watch me when I go into a bookstore with no author in mind, an good cover is enough for to me pick something up. I have noticed over the last few months a kind of a Betty trend in covers. I call them Hide-The-Face covers. No, it is not usually an image of a woman turned backwards per se, but all the covers go to great lengths to hide as much of the person's face as they could artfully do. What I am supposed to do to see this person's face, read the book or something?

Let me show you what I am talking about, I trolled around Amazon to find some latest releases, and here are a few examples.

What Should Colin Video?

If you have made it this far down, you are a dedicated reader to this site, and the exact person that I want to talk to. When this site comes up in conversation, it is always the videos that stand out in people's minds. I like making videos, and you like watching them... What should I record next? Any ideas?

Posted by Colin J Allen at 10:59 AM | Permalink

Nifty thing I figured out. If you double click on a word in the online New York Times, it pops open a word that tells you the definition.

I sit now on a fixed chair. Yep, the DIY project of the moment is now finished. I successfully put back together the chairs that had broken apart with some well placed glue, screws and nails. These chairs, which I am the guardian of, are now stronger than they have ever had been in their lifetime. And they look as good as new. Who-Ra.

I have no exciting pictures to show you, however. Despite the pleasure I get from putting things together, it just ain't no fun if you're not holding the hammer. Trust me, you don't want to watch a video on chair repair. As I have avoided injury this round, there isn't really much entertainment to post. What is a good project for me is boring for you.

In other DIY news, I tried my hand at sushi making this weekend, and it came out as surprising success. While this Gaijin may lack superior rolling techniques, I did it well enough keep everything together. And that was all I needed enjoy the amazing tuna and salmon that we picked up at the Sydney fish market. Yum, fish plucked fresh from the sea, rushed straight into my belly. If only all my food could be like that.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)