Friday, November 28, 2008

Thanksgiving 2008

This year Marissa returned home from her STF travels, Frank Alipini a visiting scholar from Benin joined us, and Hiroko (above all) and Tanja cooked and put together a magnificent meal for all of us.

Here are a couple of shots from our day together:

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

London

These pictures and report in part show scenes from my professional activity and responsibilities. But they also touch upon time in which I was able to enjoy the beauty of London

The first three pictures in this slide show are from an orientation session with religious leaders as we prepared for the Ceremony for merging sacred waters, a part of the festival on the following day.

The next picture is with Julius Alexy with whom I collaborate for youth education in Europe. After that comes a picture of a steeple shot out of a bus en route to the convention center.

Three pictures are of a swan in the rivulet that flows beside London's Excel Center. Two pictures are with Maya and her mom (with whom I had the pleasure to meet and stay with throughout the festival).

The four most important pictures are from the sacred waters ceremony, and the final 4 are the young people celebrating during the music at the GPF.



For any interested, here is a video of the entire sacred waters ceremony, narrated by Mr. David Hannah:

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Obama victory in Times Square

I had a good night on election night.

Sat in over a bite to watch the early returns, while the race was still anyone's to win.

Got to Times Square in time to see California called and the 270 cracked. President elect Obama.

In the live video you'll hear two sets of screams. Fox called Cali first, but only some caught that. The larger ABC screen then called Cali a touch later and the louder roar happened.

People lingered, hugged and sang in Times Square until the wee hours.

These first images here are still slides:





These second images are the live video I caught as the 21 month campaign finally came to an end:

My Visit with Steve in Chicago

On the weekend of October 31, following our work at the AAR, I had the lovely opportunity to visit Steve at his home.

As you can see from the 1st picture, Steve does not live in a very nice home. Nevertheless, he does have a lovely wife, and a darling little dog.

I had a wonderful and most relaxing time during my short stay. On the way home from our early morning nature walk, we stopped at a Walmart. To me it was like Disneyland!

Here are some pictures of our visit together: