10 Lovely things

These are 10 lovely things I have recently experienced (notice a blog-trend developing?):

1. Peaches - Yum, the peaches are so good right now. I do so love living here in California when being a locavore is the right thing to do. This morning's breakfast was a sliced peach on a piece of toast. Simply perfect.


2. Octopus - WOW. Mary talked about it on her blog, but I'll add my perspective. WOW. We took a trip to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium last weekend. Mary was excited about the otters, I was excited about the jellies. Both did not disappoint; the otters were entertainingly frolicking for us while the jellies are pure art in the aquarium's display. But the octopus... WOW. I have never ... never seen anything like that. We approached the 2 octopi (each in their own tank) after enjoying the touch pools. The first one was obvious as it was plastered against the tank glass: a mass of suction cups. But the other one was tucked in the corner of its tank. Then it started to move, to dance, to amaze us. It stretched out its tentacles into a massive parachute and then shrunk down to the size of a couple of fists, then shot off across the tank, tentacles trailing, then stretched one tentacle with the slightest of tickles at the end of one, then it would slowly cross the tank for us all to get a view of its staring eyes ... and it kept going, but not in that typical "animal pattern" where you see an animal retrace its steps defining its territory ... the octopus was truly just experiencing its body. You couldn't help but get why people have always made extraterrestrial aliens so octopus-like. The whole act seemed otherworldly ... but then you just realize that you just have too narrow a view of the world.

Here is a taste of what we experienced from someone else's visit:


3. Sam X-sports - Last week, Sam had X-Sports camp in the city. He spent the day flipping on trampolines, walking balance-beams , hanging from bars, flopping on mats and learning the parkour art of using walls to propel yourself. Mary has a couple of videos from the Big Show at the end. Sam got a good shiner from learning to keep his knee away from his face during a flip.


4. Cubs games - The Cubs were in town. I went to 3 of the four games. It was a pretty even split with both teams winning a blow-out and close one each. As a fan of the game, I even had to appreciate Tim Lincecum's performance (especially since he is on my fantasy team). It was good to immerse myself in baseball again, especially the Giants vs. Cubs with my reading of the aforementioned Crazy '08

5. Conferences - 2 fun conferences coming up back-to-back in July. I am volunteering with some students at the PSFK conference here in SF and then going to the planning conference in Miami where it will be nice to see everyone, especially Heather in her hometown. Unfortunately, these are in the midst of the semester and will make for a busy schedule!

6. Ranger's Apprentice and the summer movies - Good geek fun this summer. I have been reading the globally-popular Ranger's Apprentice series with Sam this summer ... it is fun sharing books with him. And the summer movies have not disappointed either. We have enjoyed big screen viewings of Iron Man, Hulk, Wall*E, Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones ... and even Kung Fu Panda on the IMAX. And I still have my two most anticipated ones to come: Hellboy 2 and The Dark Knight ... not to mention a few possible joys in Clone Wars, The Journey to the Center of the Earth (as a 3-D ride) and a new Mummy ... this will definitely be a summer the geeks remember.

7. Oh Canada - Powell family reunion is not in "Seattle" as I thought ... it is in Birch Bay, WA, which is really more a Vancouver suburb. I am excited about meeting new family, hiking some new territory and especially seeing Vancouver, which has always been pretty high on my "I'd like to live there one day" list.

8. What I do - planning and marketing and design and stories and anthropology and interaction and technology and social responsibility ... all the things are really fun these days. I am just having fun with this work whether teaching it, learning about it or doing it. I am glad I got into this world.

9. Internet connections - WOW - getting to see Avery and Ian splash and jam really rocks. But meeting new people through Facebook and other communities has been great fun. I am so glad the neighborhood/campfire is expanding so much these days.

10. Mom's birthday - YEA! MOM! Happy birthday! Thanks for being born, so I could be born. And thanks for helping me appreciate the many things I appreciate. Love you. Thinking of you.

So those are some positive things going on in my world, please feel free to share yours with me anytime, any way you want.

Love,
Cam