IF - Spent

His life was spent – as were his two coins.

(I thought I would keep today’s drawing in theme with this weekend’s festivities.)

IF - Racing

 Nothing to heat up the blood like a traditional polar wolf race across the tundra.




And with a little color:

The Value of Manual Labor

I present Mike Rowe from the TV show “dirtest jobs” giving a TED lecture on America’s misguided view of vocation.  He also talks about castrating sheep.  Its long but well worth it.

Paul Graham on Suburbia

”Why do people move to suburbia? To have kids! So no wonder it seemed boring and sterile. The whole place was a giant nursery, an artificial town created explicitly for the purpose of breeding children.

Where I grew up, it felt as if there was nowhere to go, and nothing to do. This was no accident. Suburbs are deliberately designed to exclude the outside world, because it contains things that could endanger children.

And as for the schools, they were just holding pens within this fake world. Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done.”

From an essay by Paul Graham about nerds that you can read in its entirety here : http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

IF - Spooky

The Hogwart's house ghosts: (from left to right) Bloody Baron, Nearly Headless Nick, Fat Friar, and the Grey Lady

And the spooky inverse version (because inversing makes anything spooky).

Brazil - Graffiti

We noticed an unusally large amount of really artistic graffiti when we were in Brazil.  So I started taking pictures of the walls when I could.

Manaus and the Rainforest

Our bed and breakfast on the outskirts of town.

The Rio Negro right before it flows into the Amazon.  It was big.

Another boat on the river.

Cool twisty trunk.

We went tree climbing with the tour company Amazon Tree Climbing.  They were amazing guides and we had alot of fun with them.

Laura getting suited up for tree climbing.

And up she goes.

I am following behind.

Up in the tree about a hundred feet off the ground.

Looking back down at the forest floor.

Monkey!

An Ants nest.  Our guide conviced us that they didn't hurt and got Laura to cover her hand in ants.  She reported that they did indeed bite - they just didn't leave welps.

Waterfalls at Presidente Figueiredo

We have clothes on I swear.

Delicious grilled river fish.

Opera house in Manaus

Fish market on the river.

They had some pretty big fish

and alot of shrimp.

Brasilia

Juscelino Kubitschek ran for the presidency of Brazil in 1955 on the promise that he would create a capital city for Brazil from scratch somewhere in the interior of the country.  He won and by the end of his term in office – 1960 – the new capital city of Brasilia was inaugurated.  Niemeyer was the head architect for the new city and was the head designer for all the major government buildings as well as many smaller city projects. 

Luis Costa laid out the city – resembling a bird or an airplane – with two major axis.  The north south curved axis contains the city’s housing and services arranged into superblocks and the east west axis contains all the government buildings and monuments.  

Brazilian National Congress Building



Congress - Senate in the dome on the left, House of Deputies in the Saucer on the right, and administration towers in the center.




Inside the House of Deputies' saucer




Inside the Senate's dome





The other four main government buildings: Presidential offices (Palácio do Planalto) top left, Foreign Affairs (Palácio do Itamaraty) top right, Ministry of Justice (Palácio da Justiça) bottom left, and Supreme Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal) bottom right. 




Presidential offices (Palácio do Planalto) at night



Supreme court with lady Justice sitting outside



Ministry of Justice on the left and Foreign Affairs on the right



The absolutly amazing staircase in the Palácio do Itamaraty



The entrance to the National Cathedral



Us inside the Cathedral




The Cathedral at night




The contemporary art museum.



Inside the museum

The amazing ramp system that was not open when we visited.

The national library

The memorial to Juscelino Kubitschek

The brotherhood statue in the Plaza of the three powers.

To brag a little I included this picture to show the extent of how much we packed.  2 backpacks, one satchel, and one purse for our two week journey.  We didn't have to check a bag once despite getting on eight planes.