Night Space Needle

Night Space Needle
Originally uploaded by ntt.

A slightly better shot than yesterday's. Less blue, but more clarity and better framed.

We had a good day today, checking out both festivals in Seattle... one in Seattle Center, and one in Pike Place Markets. Then we went to Benaroya Hall where the Memorial Gardens are. There are an awful lot of names on those war memorials. So sad. :(

One and a half days until we leave Seattle!

Dusk

Space Needle
Originally uploaded by ntt.

Finally got to take some night-time pictures from the rooftop deck at our apartment building last night.
Was quite pretty.
Only a few days left before our global trek resumes!

Chicago is the next stop. We wanted to check out the commodities market like in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but it is closed to the public thanks to terror concerns. Stupid terrorists.

People enjoying the sun

People enjoying the sun
Originally uploaded by ntt.

Today the Seattle Folk Life Festival was on in Seattle Center. There were thousands of people there.

We, of course, were just going to do our groceries, but got sidetracked.

let there be heat

God decided to cook us today. Seattle got up to around 88F, which is 31C!
What a surprise, and our bodies have forgotten what this kind of weather is like, so it feels like 40C.

Poor snow-trooper.

Trooper on a trip

Trooper on a trip
Originally uploaded by ntt.

We went out to Discovery Park today. Its a huge park that isn't too far away from our place (about 15 min by bus). It was very green, very pretty, and very quiet.

Also, it was a clear day and as you can see from the new pictures in my flickr banner at the top of my blog, we could see Mt Rainier and the Olympic Mountains quite clearly! Its still a bugger to take good pictures of such objects though... I had to tweak my camera settings and then post-process the pictures on my computer.

Quickly eating dinner now before heading off to church!

ballard locks

Today we went to the Ballard Locks on the way back from Diana's bible study. We got the free 1 hour tour, and it was just the two of us so we got to ask all the questions we wanted.

Its a pity the salmon aren't spawning yet. Nothing to see on the salmon ladder.

You can check out the three new pictures in the 'flickr' banner at the top of the page. If you click on them it will take you to my flickr gallery, which you can navigate through by clicking 'next' and 'previous'. It isn't quite the same as having my own photo gallery, but I've run out of iiNet hosting space. hehe

trooper

A happy family reunion today...

star wars episode iii

Let me summarize Episode 3 by giving it a 9 out of 10.

And now, let me break it down without spoiling any of it (hopefully) for those who haven't seen it:

-- Dialog --
sometimes very clever... sometimes very flat and uninspired. I feel that the dialog was closer in some ways to the original trilogy in terms of humor and melodrama.

-- Special Effects --
Very pretty. Some bits looked a bit fake... but for a film with so many special effects, it was impressive that only a few stood out.

-- Action --
Pretty good. There were some scenes that were tenser than others. There was never any doubt who would die, but it was always interesting to see how a fight would end. I don't think anybody died too easily, although I wish some of the battles were a smidge longer, just for fun.

-- Plot and Integration with Previous Films --
The plot was not overly complicated, and definitely fills in many gaps that I was aware of. There is a lot that had to be covered in this film, so it is cut very quickly, and what must be weeks pass by in moments. Even some topics that I thought would not be addressed actually were. Very nice touches to tie this movie in with the original trilogy. Characters behave believably, making the plotting of the Sith seem even more devious... some people may complain that some characters change too quickly, but as I mentioned, the movie covers a lot of ground so weeks pass by in the blink of an eye.

What more can I say about this film? Was it perfect? No. But it is the second best Star Wars film to date, behind The Empire Strikes Back. There are many cool and amusing moments that will make me want to watch the film again. And in many ways it justifies the first two films (which I'd give a 6 and 8 out of ten, respectively).

So there you go. Watch and enjoy. :)

vancouver

Well, we made it back from out trip to Vancouver. We left Seattle on Tuesday at 7.45am and we returned last night at 11pm. What a trek!

I decided to upload every picture I took on the trip. There are 88 pictures or something like that. I'm going to link to the first picture and I highly recommend you click on the 'Next' links to follow our journey, reading the comments at the bottom of the pages. On a few I've made some extensive comments.

click the thumbnail to view the gallery

Enjoy!

cruising

We went out on a boat/yacht with a really nice couple whom Diana met through the women's shelter where she is helping out.

Took some pics. They are online here: click!

The first pic is of my new bible. Its pretty. But the beauty isn't in the packaging, its in the contents. :)

Oh, here's a sampler pic:

waiting for star wars

I found a bigger Star Wars geek than I. This man has been waiting for Episode III for 139 days. At first he camped outside Cinerama, then police told him to move. So he camped outside IMax until he was told they weren't going to show Episode III until a few weeks after it opened. So now he's got permission to camp outside Cinerama again.



I wish him the best seat in the house.

episode one and a half

We watched Star Wars Episode I on DVD the other day... little Anakin does his best to hit on Padme, even though he's about half her height. Poor kid. At least he's good at racing pods and shouting 'Yippee!'. hehe

Now unlike many I don't find Jar Jar to be annoying, just a little silly. And Anakin is a little kid, so I forgive his childishness. And I'm willing to believe that Darth Maul honestly was arrogant and stupid enough to fall for Obi-Wan's trick at the end... I guess this all makes me a Star Wars apologist. I just haven't yet rationalized midichlorians.

We borrowed Episode II and were intending to watch it today. But Diana had to watch Oprah. Its all about priorities!

mmmmm

Went out for steak and ribs for dinner with Tyron and Curtis from Seattle International Church.
That's the most filling, meaty meal that we have had since we've been in Seattle (I think!)!

Otherwise, its been a pretty quiet day. I spent most of it finishing off the code for my latest widget, a bible verse lookup tool. Diana was out working.

And now my brain is all burnt out from programming solidly for the last two days. heh

Now excuse me while the meat-coma begins to take hold.

bainbridge

Diana and I headed to Bainbridge Island yesterday. Its a 37 minutes ferry ride from Seattle, and it is a very pretty place. Its sort of a suburban small town, but on an island filled with greenery and pretty trees and stuff. Very nice. And an affordable trip, too.



Today I worked on my widgets for Mac OSX. So far the bible verse widget has had over 1000 downloads, and the todo list widget has had almost 2000! Wow.

God is good.

All our best wishes to everyone back home. We love you and miss you heaps.

pics

Excuse the poor presentation of these pics (my other program hasn't yet been upgraded to work on Mac OSX 10.4), but the pictures themselves are very pretty:

... click here to see more

We walked around Fremont and Wallingford today, stopping by GasWorks Park. It was beautiful.

But of course, the best picture is in the blog post below this. :)

things seen and slain

Today Diana and I found the infamous Fremont Troll, a giant troll sculpture under the bridge in Fremont, North of Seattle.

Needless to say, I slew the beast...

Bible Verse Widget

Those of you with Mac OSX Tiger are probably looking for more widgets for your dashboard, right?

Well, I'm working on one right now that pulls a daily bible verse from http://www.christnotes.org/
at the moment it only displays the NIV version, and doesn't display long verses... but here is what it looks like (front and back):



Let me know if you want a copy of it in it's current state. I'll post it up to the dashboard widget sites when I have added support for configurable bible translations, and when I have tested it more.