more urban picnic

urban picnic

perseid meteor shower

Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo.

Timelapse video of the Perseid Meteor Shower and the galactic core of the Milky Way as seen from Joshua Tree National Park.

These were taken between August 12 and August 15, 2010.



This is beautiful, and I'm sure it helps that it uses Sigur Rós song.

Next year I definitely need to watch this meteor shower.

josh reveals his true feelings the night ward prayer happened to be in my backyard

Ward prayer! Ward prayer! Who's excited for ward prayer?

I AM!

Ranks right up there with herpes.

julie realizes that her love for biographies does not extend very deep

Julie: I really like reading about peoples' lives.
Julie: But I like it better when they're fake people.
Becca: So...you like fiction.

ron artest's hair: a chronology

Speaking of viral, this viral infographic was created by my friend, Roger!

The original is found here.

Click to view larger, because, duh, you can't read any of that.

Thanks, Blogger, for shrinking every photo.

um, hello, most adorable little child in existence.

by kotori kawashima

some cams

hurry up, weekend. hurry up, weekend. hurry up, weekend.

tree pods

I'm in love. In love with these tree spheres.

Someday I'll visit these free spirit spheres that sway gently in the breeze on Vancouver Island.

Or maybe I'll just buy my own and suspend it form a tree somewhere. No big deal.


photos from this blog

flaming gorge

last weekend:

gas pump that wouldn't stop and so pumped onto my feet and the ground. cheez-its/goldfish. fossilized sand dunes. perfect, secluded campsite. wind whistling in the trees. s'mores sans chocolate. mad men on a laptop. leave no trace. mountain biking (so, so rocky). exploring. echoing shouts from the white water rafters. dutch john. hills reminiscent of carson national forest. vernal. ashley everything. delicious dinosaur burger. walking tour. scamp trailer. van from alaska. a quick strawberry reservoir stop. heber. lemon custard heaven.

full moon lift ride

Crisp mountain air, end-of-summer night, darkness lit by moonlight, peaks fading into the distance—it was all very mystical until we annoyed everyone by the intentionally-immature comments we'd make each time people passed us on the lift. Muahaha.

can i live here in this howard roark-ish house?

pros:
in portugal
swimming pool
wind turbines in the backyard (not pictured)
(the yard!)
bullet-proof windows
no neighbors saying you can't park in front of their house
in portugal

cons:
no cafe rio
no pinkberry
may develop reptilian characteristics from so much sun basking on those rocks
bugs

Want to see the inside? Watch this video. I don't know the Portuguese things, so I can't vouch for what it actually says.

photo by Feliciano Guimaraes

um, yes.

I love the sound of an eggplant.
-Julie

unconventional love letter

salt flat sunrise time-lapse

Roger* g-chatted me yesterday with this:

Roger: becca, it's time to stop complaining
flash can make a stop-motion movie in about 10 seconds
and export as quicktime

Haha. Why didn't I think of that?? FYI, Roger, the only reason I kept blog-complaining was in hopes that in so doing you and/or Kenny would come to my aid. And you both did! Huzzah for my smart friends.

So here is my first attempt at a time-lapse video. The next one I do will be longer. :)

Check out Josh's video of the Salt Flats too. It's much better than mine. Remember how I must post about all of his videos? I guess you'll have to deal with that, because I can't help it.


*That blog consists almost entirely of Roger's son, Miles, not of Roger himself.

slaughterhouse-five

From the almost-finished summer reading list.


She said about what you would expect her to say. There was a baby. And so on. (9)

And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep. (18)

I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee. (19)

This was a fairly pretty girl, except that she had legs like an Edwardian grand piano. (29)

With the help of fear and echoes and winter silences, that dog had a voice like a big bronze gong. (48)

When food came in, the human beings were quiet and trusting and beautiful. They shared. (70)

The champagne was dead. So it goes. (73)


image from here

stop motion jealousy

Christina's sister-in-law (see the twin here) made this, and I like, I like. I want to make one. Dumb iMovie '08.

kolarbyn

Calling itself Sweden's most primitive hotel, Kolarbyn consists of twelve little forest huts set in the forest by a lake. There is no electricity, just candles and a fire to keep you warm. Built in 1996, the traditional huts were created for people interested in the art of charcoal burning, but now they have been turned into tourist accommodation.

If you are looking for all the conveniences this is not the place. Here is what comes with the room: "sheep skin rugs, candles and matches, firewood for self-cutting, fresh water to be fetched from the spring, primitive kitchen facilities and equipment, dish place with running water in the creek."

Well, okay, but I still want to try it. :)

from here

speed week

I am not exactly what someone would call a car person, but visiting Speed Week at the Bonneville Speedway was very cool. Somehow I kept forgetting that the salt was, in fact, neither snow nor ice.

Josh and I left at about 4:45 a.m. to see the sun rise over the Salt Flats, and the beauty of that was quite worth the four hours of sleep (two sunrises for two Saturdays in a row!). I took 47 million photos in anticipation of making a time-lapse video of the sunrise, but iMovie 08 hates time-lapse and won't let me make the photo duration less than 0.25 seconds. I still have hope of figuring something out...

And then I had to take all of the reflection photos that I could find.

friday friday friday

October is only 49 days away.

what i love today

via dwellings and first home

meat mayhem

My delightful co-worker, Dawson, has bestowed upon all on my row

our very own meat illustrations to enliven our desks and boost our morale.

Behold this meaty snack. (If you do not find this as funny/clever/awesome as I do, then bah humbug.)

("Loin in a loin" is mine.)

puppeteering

Speaking of Josh Ritter songs, here's a video of his song, The Curse, which his drummer, Liam Hurley (who happens to also be a puppeteer), conceived, directed and produced. [The other] Josh and I went to this concert back in June, where I heard this song for the first time and was mesmerized.

(Note: When going to a 21 and up show, do not leave your purse at home thinking, "It's annoying to have a purse at a concert," because inside of your purse is your drivers license, and you need your drivers license to get into a 21 and up show.)

hot air balloons part 2

Josh created this video from footage captured at Saturday's hot air balloon festival. Josh Ritter's song, Change of Time might get stuck in your head if you watch the video multiple times, but that is not a bad thing.

Ever since Saturday we've been trying to figure out what other upcoming hot air balloon festivals we can attend (because they are cooool), and wouldn't you know, Wikipedia has an entire list of them. Thank you very much, Wikipedia. Too bad we've driven to New Mexico already this year, because the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is supposed to be amazing.

Anyway, watch and enjoy. And by enjoy I mean you'd better make a comment so that he knows you like his vid, or else he might be sad. Smiley emoticon :). OK, so he won't be saaaad, I just want the comments for myself. Boyfriend proudness abounds as does comment vanity. (Is proudness a word? I like it better than pride.)

the sandlot

Becca C., Kate, and I went on a search for the Sandlot baseball field last night in a completely ghetto area of western Salt Lake City, and (dun-dun-dun) we found it! (After much creepy, slow driving through the neighborhoods and thanks to some help from the lady working at Family Dollar.)

Was it completely unrecognizable? Yes.
Were Benny the Jet or The Beast anywhere in sight? Definitely not.
Was the search worth it? To Becca C. and me—yes. To Kate—that would be a no.
Did we get into any gang-related altercations? We can't be too sure...

evanston doors

On our way back from Bear Lake last weekend Josh and I drove through Evanston, Wyoming instead of back through Logan. We stopped for a Mexican food lunch and to walk around Evanston's historic Main Street, which was full of several cool hand-painted signs and buildings. We found some colorful doors, of which it was necessary to take several photos.

Then we decided that Evanston is a large version of Kearns.

19,121,672 views

I can't stop being obsessed with Rihanna's chorus (or Rihanna) in this song.

jónsi

I just found out that he's coming to SLC on October 22. I had to immediately buy tickets.

raspberry days

After the balloon non-launch Josh and I drove up to Bear Lake for Raspberry Days.

I think we might've missed some of the cool parts

(like, we didn't see anyone dressed up like a giant raspberry),

but we did buy raspberry jam,

ate a delicious raspberry shake,

and went down to the lake for a little while.

All of the most important Bear Lake things.

sunrise balloon launch

OK, so none of the balloons actually flew away due to winds being greater than five miles an hour at launch time.

Too dangerous, I guess.

But it was still worth waking up at 5 a.m. on a Saturday

if only to see the sunrise and all of the colorful balloons get set up and filled with air.