10,000 steps have to start somewhere

A powerful commentary on symbolism and its affect on our psychology. 

Despite the intentions of the group that created this, what I hope people see is: 1. the commonality among religious groups and their fervor when it comes to reinforcing their own belief system through rituals and symbolism; 2. everybody is doing it; 3. this kind of behavior tends to shut down the intellectual and logical part of the human brain and exalt the emotions over thought; 4. extremism appears in every form. 

In January 2002, a dull star in an obscure constellation suddenly became 600,000 times more luminous than our Sun, temporarily making it the brightest star in our Milky Way galaxy. The mysterious star, called V838 Monocerotis, has long since faded back to obscurity. But observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of a phenomenon called a “light echo” around the star have uncovered remarkable new features. […]

Light echo it is light from a stellar explosion echoing off dust surrounding the star. V838 Monocerotis produced enough energy in a brief flash to illuminate surrounding dust, like a spelunker taking a flash picture of the walls of an undiscovered cavern. The star presumably ejected the illuminated dust shells in previous outbursts. Light from the latest outburst travels to the dust and then is reflected to Earth. Because of this indirect path, the light arrives at Earth months after light from the star that traveled directly toward Earth. […]

This sequence of pictures from the NASA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys dramatically demonstrates the reverberation of light through space caused by an unusual stellar outburst in January 2002. A burst of light from the bizarre star is spreading into space and reflecting off of surrounding shells of dust to reveal a spectacular, multicolored bull’s eye. (via Hubble)

(via picturesoftheday)

My apartment has finally become my space. I feel relaxed here. I like being able to control the cleanliness of my environment and not having to deal with screaming children or miscellaneous infestations of critters/rodents.

Just this past weekend I got the chimbo (propane tank) filled. It cost 270 Lempira (~$16.50) but should last me at least a couple months provided I don’t cook beans. (I already made that mistake once. Four hours of propane fire and they were still aldente!)

 Getting it was half the battle because it was stored at the house of my predecessor’s landlord, who, at the time I wanted to collect it, was in Costa Rica attending a conference. Luckily, I already had met his wife. She let me grab it easily enough, but I also had to drag out a set of half-heartedly constructed (yet flamboyantly painted) chairs and their accompanying night stand. No one could carry all this stuff by hand in just one load, but just after I elected to take only the chimbo, the mancomunidad’s truck drives right by me without noticing my existence. (Typical Freddie!) I lugged the empty tank to the office, slogged it into the pick-up bed and commandeered the keys. Within fifteen minutes, the apartment looked like a managed address decorated by modern cubist artist.

THEN this weekend, I lugged the chimbo again by hand down to the highway where a colleague’s host mother told me that someone sold gas/would exchange the tank. It was a brutally bright and hot day and for whatever poorly thought-out reason, I was wearing white while carrying a rusting tank that simultaneous was shedding its orange paint. My friends thought I had been running by the time I entered their house to confirm where gas vendor was located. Then the cousins/misc  family members said not to go to the place across the street because the gas there is ‘filled with air’ compared to the gas that the other lady on the other side of town, uphill, past my house sells. So I retraced my own tracks carrying the thing like it were a massive tray and I were a busboy again, across the park into the house of a lady that my predecessor had introduced me to. The exchange was easy enough and even gave me the opportunity to reconnect with a friendly face. But a filled chimbo is a bitch to carry by hand; it’s about 60 lbs instead of 30. Nevertheless, I had to get it home somehow. At the moment, I am being super cheap trying to afford a fridge and, therefore, refused to pay (or wait for) the 10 Lempira ($0.50) taxi that would eventually pass. The gas arrived in my house, and I got both a workout and a boost to my pride. Score.

Butterflies are notoriously difficult to photograph. They are easily spooked and move so quickly and erratically that not even a sports photographer could get one in flight. 

Once you enter the woods, they surround you like falling leaves in Autumn. I even saw a few that are identical to the ones preserved in the clear boxes I bought in Puerto Rico. Once day they’ll leave storage…

Yellow outcrop? Yellow wings!

Blue fuzz.

Just plain rad.

The highlight of this weekend was a trip to the big waterfall in the mountains behind my town followed by a dip in the “Green Lagoon,” which is an uniquely-colored turquoise, spring-fed pool just land that will be turned into a finca.

This is the second time I have visited both. The hike up there takes about an hour and half to two hours. This time I wore my Chacos since you have to cross a river numerous times and wet sandals are far preferable to wet sneakers. But the bastards gave me whopping blisters near the big-toe lasso that will take at least a week to seal up.

Oh well. Valio la pena. 

This was one of my last nights in the host family’s home. Everyone was in bed except the muchacha and I. After completing the normal nighttime routine of brushing teeth and showering, I was killing time in my room when the urge to use the bathroom one more time hit me. Blocking my access to the bathroom, however, was a small highway of ants leading to an outright cannibalistic ant FEAST!

Some strange kind of beetle had died right in the pathway to the bathroom. From the looks of the scene, I’d say it was squished. ‘Cause if it wasn’t squished, it died in the process of giving birth. It’s still hard to decide if those white capsule bulging from its abdomen are guts or insectitos…

I promptly photographed the bizarre sight. Leo promptly noticed my crouching over something and interrupted my photo shoot with his feline curiosity. One furious blow of air from those nostrils and the ants wisely went scurrying. Half a colony disappeared in 20 seconds flat leaving Leo with a very juicy bug and what could be considered kitty caviar, perhaps?

But you know, it’s not food if you don’t play with it first. He didn’t even hesitate with the white, egg-looking globules, but once they were gone he had to rough up the exoskeleton before sampling. One or two crunches later, he decided it wasn’t worth his effort and pranced offed into the garden. Thankfully, he didn’t try to come cuddle because there was no way THAT face was getting anywhere near mine after eating miscellaneous bug parts. I know, it’s illogical. Compared to his kitty parts, bug guts seem like a healthy thing to put in his mouth. But still, yuck.

I loved that the sky gifted me such a lovely backdrop.

Yes, those girls are free-falling. 

The harsh sunlight reflects off the gongs and casts a gentle glow on her face.

More in-line dancing.

In the zone. 

Gurl, this hat sh!t gets HOT!

Werk it to the beat!

A coed group of dancer break it down Latino style with batons and jazz fingers. The men were quite talented and would have fit in excellently in a gay club in the states. But here, they’re just good dancers, or are they??? It’s just not acknowledged, ever.