Big Sky Patagonia

http://picasaweb.google.com/radley.responses/PatagoniaPhotosI/photo#s5090972992170929618


A slideshow of Radley Balko's trip to Patagonia--gorgious rocky flatlands with mountains and lakes at one end. I'm not sure that it looks better than the western US--it may just be too long since I've done a cross country trip. It's definitely at least comparable.

In my ongoing battle to get lj to include something other than text, I've posted the link which works to take you to something beautiful, inserted the image (which is just producing one of those empty blocks at the moment), and embedded media, which doesn't seem to work at all. It's plausible that a slideshow isn't exactly media, but I wanted to cover all the bets.

Big Sky Patagonia

http://picasaweb.google.com/radley.responses/PatagoniaPhotosI/photo#s5090972992170929618


A slideshow of Radley Balko's trip to Patagonia--gorgious rocky flatlands with mountains and lakes at one end. I'm not sure that it looks better than the western US--it may just be too long since I've done a cross country trip. It's definitely at least comparable.

In my ongoing battle to get lj to include something other than text, I've posted the link which works to take you to something beautiful, inserted the image (which is just producing one of those empty blocks at the moment), and embedded media, which doesn't seem to work at all. It's plausible that a slideshow isn't exactly media, but I wanted to cover all the bets.

Two Harry Potter essays and on playing with toddlers

http://www.theamericanscene.com/2007/7/24/potter-tolkien-war-complex-events#comments

The link title says it--Rowling, Tolkien, the world wars, and major fantasy.

One more parallel: Luna's dad is exactly the kind of person who'd wear a swastika because it's Hindu good luck symbol.

http://www.theamericanscene.com/2007/7/22/a-brief-and-general-comment-on-harry-potter

This one is mostly quoting G.K. Chesterton, and it's good stuff:

It has no more claim to be good literature than the daily conversation of its readers to be fine oratory, or the lodging-houses and tenements they inhabit to be sublime architecture. But people must have conversation, they must have houses, and they must have stories. The simple need for some kind of ideal world in which fictitious persons play an unhampered part is infinitely deeper and older than the rules of good art, and much more important.

http://www.campusprogress.org/soundvision/1732/in-defense-of-harry

I don't know if you need to read the rest of the essay, but I like this:

Everyone is rooting rather for his own interpretation than for the hero we know will win in the end.

http://www.theamericanscene.com/2007/7/25/a-kind-of-benign-coma#comments
Actually, adults generally don't play with toddlers in most human cultures--maybe it isn't an important part of the job of being a parent. However, I think the post and the article it links to probably underestimates the importance and the amount of time toddlers and small children get with other children in most cultures.

All of these links are from The American Scene. I think I will become a habitual reader.

Two Harry Potter essays and on playing with toddlers

http://www.theamericanscene.com/2007/7/24/potter-tolkien-war-complex-events#comments

The link title says it--Rowling, Tolkien, the world wars, and major fantasy.

One more parallel: Luna's dad is exactly the kind of person who'd wear a swastika because it's Hindu good luck symbol.

http://www.theamericanscene.com/2007/7/22/a-brief-and-general-comment-on-harry-potter

This one is mostly quoting G.K. Chesterton, and it's good stuff:

It has no more claim to be good literature than the daily conversation of its readers to be fine oratory, or the lodging-houses and tenements they inhabit to be sublime architecture. But people must have conversation, they must have houses, and they must have stories. The simple need for some kind of ideal world in which fictitious persons play an unhampered part is infinitely deeper and older than the rules of good art, and much more important.

http://www.campusprogress.org/soundvision/1732/in-defense-of-harry

I don't know if you need to read the rest of the essay, but I like this:

Everyone is rooting rather for his own interpretation than for the hero we know will win in the end.

http://www.theamericanscene.com/2007/7/25/a-kind-of-benign-coma#comments
Actually, adults generally don't play with toddlers in most human cultures--maybe it isn't an important part of the job of being a parent. However, I think the post and the article it links to probably underestimates the importance and the amount of time toddlers and small children get with other children in most cultures.

All of these links are from The American Scene. I think I will become a habitual reader.

(no subject)

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_life/?cat_id=16567&ew_0_a_id=285669

”Don’t make so much noise by that hill there. Someone might be trying to sleep inside it!”

An Icelander is suprised to find that most people don't believe in elves.

Link thanks to elisem.

(no subject)

http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_life/?cat_id=16567&ew_0_a_id=285669

”Don’t make so much noise by that hill there. Someone might be trying to sleep inside it!”

An Icelander is suprised to find that most people don't believe in elves.

Link thanks to elisem.