on monday night stephen colbert introduced the colbert transformer with the following:

it does not actually transform into anything because nothing is better than stephen colbert.

an ohio state university study found that conservatives believe stephen colbert is genuine.

so colbert is either a super hero or conservatives have truly lost the ability to discern reality, a symptom i would argue occurs from watching too much fox news and is not nearly as much fun as lsd.

at low tide, i was turning over large rocks to show my children the dozens of small crab, eel and snail that would retreat from the newly exposed light. each time my kids would jump up and down screaming woaa at the top of their lungs. they didn’t behave this way just the first or even tenth time, but every single time, and there were many. each discovery under every rock was greeted with the rapture of seeing it for the first time.

in the routine of getting my kids fed, clothed, bathed and to their daily activities this unrelenting enthusiasm is exhausting. on holiday, exposing them to the outdoors and mountains i enjoy so much makes it all worth while.

and my kids weren’t the only ones to enjoy a new experience. for the first time in my life i saw a bald eagle in flight in the wild (barely caught on film below). and while i have matured past jumping up and down and screaming i can assure you i was equally thrilled.

i know in days of old, photographers spent long hours in dark rooms tweaking their exposures to get an image that looked just right, but i’m totally sick of browsing photo galleries where most the pictures are hdr images.

i know there is something to the argument that composition and blah, blah, contribute to the success of an hdr image, but i’ve also seen photoshop do this:

its dialog like this that makes hurley one of my favorite characters on lost:

hurley: i don’t know why you won’t just admit it, you can trust me, i talk to lots of dead people

miles: you have conversations with them like they’re your pals?

hurley: sure all the time, sometimes we even play chess

miles: you actually see them?

hurley: of course, why wouldn’t i?

miles: because that’s not how it works

hurley: ah ha! you wouldn’t know how it works unless you can do it

miles: what i can do has nothing to do with chatting with ghosts you nitwit, its a feeling, a sense, when somebody is dead their brain stops functioning, which means there is no more talking, there’s just who they were and whatever they knew before they died

hurley: its how it works for me

miles: great, i’m happy for you

hurley: you’re just jealous my power is better than yours

never mind what he was writing all the time in his dharma initiative notebook for george lucas…

if you’ve been enjoying ethan’s quotes so far this week, make sure to take a look at the five pictures just added to his gallery:

museum of anthropology at ubc

stanley park (2 of 2)

stanley park (1 of 2)

how, kemosabe

capilano suspension bridge

ethan reflecting on being back in the pacific northwest:

ethan: things are finally back to normal.

me: how do you mean?

ethan: you take pictures all day and we look at them in the night.

another quote from ethan:

she spoke with a snake accent, she said “nice-sss ssshoes-zzz”.

ethan: what does “where there’s a well there’s a way” mean?

natalie: do you mean “where there’s a will there’s a way”?

ethan: yeah

[ long, irrelevant parental explanation omitted ]

ethan: i think it makes more sense for it to be a well. if they could wish in a well they could have thier way.

i’m very impressed with ethan’s tae kwon do instructor, he does a great job of both teaching the art along with encouraging respectful behaviors.

too bad at the end of the class the kids have to go home with their parents because with all the talking, wearing shoes (both against kwoon rules) and taking cell phone calls they certainly aren’t learning respect from their parental role models.

i’m somewhat loathe to say anything positive about american idol, but to its credit its the first show since seinfeld that requires live viewing to avoid being spoiled the next day at the water cooler.

luckily today, former senator norm coleman of minnesota can rest assured he is not the most ridiculous republican out there. the more ridiculous lot can be found at any of the tax tea party celebrations going on around the country.

but i’d prefer to focus on norm because i want to know how depriving minnesota of a senator and running up the public debt at a time of great financial hardship represents serving the people.

the way these folks all cling to their seats makes it pretty self evident there isn’t a better job to be had, unless of course you join a lobby and get your old cronies to siphon government funds to your new cause.

given the choice today of complaining about u.s. tax policies or poor representation, i will direct my scorn to the far more insidious poor representation.