A device that exists only in my mind...

This is what I want: a small, dedicated writing machine, with astonishing battery life.

It has to be the right size that it can be thrown into a bag without hesitation, and weigh very little.

It has to have a keyboard that's close enough to full size to allow speed typing, as well as be of sufficient resilience and quality to make it enjoyable.

Most importantly, the battery would last 20-30 hours.

Doesn't need to be colour. Doesn't even need to be backlit. I don't want internet, music, or anything else on it, just basic text editing with standard formatting.

Perhaps a body similar to the Psion 5, which apparently had a fantastic keyboard. Just hook it up with some LiIon batteries...

There's a few things that are heading in the right direction: The Alphasmart can last hundreds of hours on AAs, but weighs 2lbs, is ugly as sin, and costs $219.

The Japanese only Pomera Digital Memo DM10 looks about right, but once again, $270!

On an unrelated note, this is quite possible too cute for words.

Turns out the ODT isn't the only crappy, racist newspaper around...

While my old writing home has long poked fun at the ODT for being out of touch, poorly written, and utterly racist. Well, it turns out they're not the only ones.

Meet the Somerville News, which is that much worse for being free. May I direct your attention to the second section in this piece.

From the article:

[They] were part of a transient group of criminals known as traveler gypsies...Deputy Chief Paul Upton said traveler gypsies use a variety of scams to get inside a victim's home to steal what they can. He said gypsies sometimes perform shoddy home improvement work at inflated prices to bilk old folks out of their hard earned money.

Surely I can't be the only one who sees the problem with this sort of language? Like how they describe an entire ethnic group as being con artists and thieves? Is there some meaning to the term traveler gypsy that isn't based around an ethnicity? The way it's written seems so damnededly matter-of-fact about the whole things, as if this were a commonly known fact. Odd.

And now for your daily dose of WTF...

http://www.lulu.com/content/4956212

Infomercial Awesome

I am now the proud owner of a Snuggie. Yes, it is exactly as awesome as it looks. Plus it comes with a hella bomb LED, which you KNOW will illuminate your books. Watch that infomercial! Did you hear those tight rhymes? See that family at the sports game! AW YEAH! SNUGGIE UP IN HERE! Plus, it makes you look like a suburbanite Cthulhu worshipper, which is great if the Mormons come door knocking...

In the wake of Prop 8

Old but still relevant: 12 reasons why we shouldn't have gay marriage.

1. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control.

2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people can’t legally get married because the world needs more children.

3. Obviously, gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

4. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage is allowed, since Britney Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful.

5. Heterosexual marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are property, blacks can’t marry whites, and divorce is illegal.

6. Gay marriage should be decided by people, not the courts, because the majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of the minorities.

7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.

8. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

9. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

10. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why single parents are forbidden to raise children.

11. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven’t adapted to things like cars or longer life-spans.

12. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a “separate but equal” institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages for gays and lesbians will.

From GatorGSA originally, apparently.

Photographing the vote

45 - 60 minutes to vote. A blue drop in a blue sea. But still, completely and utterly worth it.
















The election room where we watched the results come in at my work. FOUR SCREENS!



Finally, I'd just like to add, FUCK YES OBAMA! BOO CALIFORNIA RE: PROP 8!

Peace out, one and all

TB/AC

Things which are mavericks, but are not John McCain or Sarah Pailin

A Marvel comics character



Cigarettes
























A sex toy














James Garner

















Tom Cruise
























Mel Gibson

Ponoko Coasters

I don't know if any of you have heard of Ponoko, but they have a service called Photomake, where you can upload a line drawing, and they'll cut it out of wood or plastic for you.

Well, my set of coasters arrived, and fuck yeah are they awesome! If anyone can tell what each logo is, I'll donate 2,000 grains of rice via Free Rice











Here's the original JPEG, if anyone wants to replicate my efforts.

Flash Fiction: Bubbles

I noticed the man as I walked home one day. He was partly balding, his unkempt grey hair straggled down to his shoulders in lanky twines. He was protected from the elements in the park by a beatup black duster, that looked like it hadn't seen clean water since the Carter administration. He sat on a park bench, his face like a wallet beaten repeatedly with a baseball bat. His scowl was fierce and all encompassing as he leaned forward, legs splayed.

In his right hand was a cheap cigarette, held between first and middle fingers yellowed and cracked with abuse. In the same hand, clenched fiercely to his palm, was a small, pink, plastic wand, the tip shaped like a star.

Repetitively, he would reach the wand into the small jar of bubbles in his left hand, swirl it around, and slosh some of the liquid on his finger. He'd withdraw the wand, a patina of film spread across it. Then, his right hand to his mouth, and a drag of his cigarette. One heartbeat. Two. Three. And out into the wand.

Bubbles would fill his little corner of the park, and when each popped, a small flare of smoke would escape. Once every tiny sphere and exploded into vapours, he'd reach his right hand over to the left and start again. And never stop scowling.




This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

HONK!

There was a marching band festival today, which I unfortunately only caught about the latter half of. Still, very cool, and here are a few photos.

Quite possibly the worst thing ever...

Well, apart from cancer...

Nightmare Revisited. A cover album of the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack. Good lord, I liked the movie too, but if this isn't the biggest emo-bait, hot topic friendly album of all time, I don't know what is. All American Rejects on Jack's Lament? Plain White Ts do Poor Jack? Even the Polyphonic Spree sample sounds horrible...

100 posts

Well, here I am, 100 posts into this thing. Perhaps not the worlds most prolific blogger, but still I write, because if I don't...well, that would be giving in.

So perhaps now is a time to reflect on my time in this paradoxical nation, which befuddles me as often as it surprises.

For one, American spelling still drives my up the wall the S/Z and OU/O thing still get me most of the time. It's infuriating, but in one case I love it. American English can distinguish between analyses and analyses (or analyzes and analyses). As in "John analyses the data" or "John has run multiple analyses." Most of the time it pisses me off.

They don't use the term 'mains power' for plugging into the wall.

Their power switches have down as off.

The date system of month/day/year is utterly stupid.

And it's aluminium, by God.

As a people, they seem so fervently independent, to the point of saying "Fuck the Government" without actually understanding why. In certain situations where, I believe, governmental programs or support would be advantageous, people will scream 'socialism' in terror. And they vote Republican, because they believe it's the party of small government, which is utterly isn't.

One of the oddest things I've encountered is my rapid adaptation to the US accent. Well, being used to hearing it anyway. Not so much the godawful Boston screeching, but just the accent on the whole. It so rapidly reset to neutral that I didn't even notice it. And when I heard a kiwi accent again recently, it really threw me. I couldn't quite place it for a second. It's...odd.

And finally, American chocolate is 90% shitehouse. Sorry, but it's true.

To take it away, have some YouTube videos that will make your life a better place

Shameless Plug

It's not often I extol the virtues of actually paying money for something, but this appears to be one of those times. I just received my copy of Coilhouse #1. It's a magnificent magazine, of fashion, sci-fi, alt culture, art, a smattering of steampunk and everything you've ever wanted. This issue includes interviews with Dr. Steele, a Samuel R Delaney excerpt, beautiful photo spreads, and if you buy the issue from the website rather than the newsstand, there's an interesting bit about gender re-assignment. It's an exceptionally beautiful magazine, and well worth supporting in my mind.

LOLWUT?

I wish, I wish, I wish that I could take credit for this. But I can't.

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

The infamous Lazy Town "You Are A Pirate" Song



And the esteemed Fred Perry's take

Adventure Time

So goddamn awesome! Algabraic!

The Chart

Anyone who has seen The L Word knows The Chart. It's an ongoing map of who fucked who on the show.

Enter Boffery. Apparently once it goes live, it'll be a social networked map of who you've screwed. Awesome!

Found via Warren Ellis' blog

Cute...but familiar

Hmmm...

Today

Today is a day of sun and cold, where the sky is bright, and light pierces your eyes like a doctor's lance. It reminds me of Dunedin, of those precious few sunny days in Winter, your breath still steam, but enough sun to make the city unfurl. Foolish denizens of Castle St rapidly strip down the minimum amount of clothing, take out a beaten up old guitar and some beers, and bask in the brief glimmer of sunshine. Then get rained on.

Some slight encouragement!

So, Gallup is polling McCain as ahead right now?

I'm not worried. "Why not?", you ask? Because this isn't a direct democracy. It's the overly confusing, utterly bewildering electoral college system, where all votes are not created equal!

http://electoral-vote.com./
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
http://www.pollster.com/
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/?map=10

All of these put Obama significantly ahead in the ways that it matters. I'm sure the Dems could still fuck up in the next 60 days (like by not ripping apart Palin or taking the Republicans to task for flat out lying in their speaches), but I'm not too worried yet. Yet...

Republican Hypocrisy

The ever wonderful Jon Steward did a great bit last night about Republican hypocrisy in the wake of Palin's nomination. I'm not sure if either of these links will work to my readers outside of the USA, but hopefully one of them will...

Link, version 1
Link, version 2

Edit: YouTube Link

Kim Komando misses the point 2

Q. Hey Kim Komando, there's a song I like on the radio, but I don't know the name or artist. What do I do?

A. If [you can't find the details on the radio stations website], you can probably narrow it down to a few songs. Visit iTunes and listen to the samples of those songs. There’s a good chance you’ll find it.

Why I should be hired to write the Aquaman script.

Continuing from my last post about how I'd make superhero movies, on to the perennially problematic Aquaman.

Aquaman is an entirely underrated hero (though I may be biased, hence the name), because people keep forgetting, he's not just a hero who speaks to fish, he's the Goddamn King of the Ocean! This man is lord and sovereign over 2/3 of the Earth's surface. You don't just have him fighting crime, he's a monarch, for fuck's sake!

So, I'm imagining this as a duology. Aquaman needs to be played someone slightly older, with the command and majesty worthy of royalty, but still the physique to kick ass. I'm thinking Gerard Butler, who played Leonidas in 300. Though probably with less screaming, and more understated bad-assery.

The first movie would focus on Aquaman as king. His kingdom is under siege from the lands above water, even if they don't know he exists. And it is Aquaman who decides to reveal himself to world above to prevent the catastrophic damage occurring. America and China dump pollutants, France tests Nuclear devices, Japan fishes intelligent mammals. Aquaman has had enough of your shit. So he attempts diplomacy, against the advice of many militant Atlantean. But this isn't wishy-washy diplomacy. This is stop fucking with the oceans, or I destroy every last boat in your Navy. Aquaman is a king, remember. He has to be tough and smart. At the same time as trying to deal with the world above, and their amazement (at first) and then apathy, he has to attempt to cope with increasing natural disasters around the ocean. This is the special effects, super strength, stopping sea-quakes big budget stuff that people love. Punching sharks. Rescuing people. That sort of stuff.

Plus, they'd know about surface life because they've been tapping into that huge fucking internet data cable that runs along the Pacific.

Finally, there's also a coup being planned by the militant factions of the Atlantean empire, who want to overthrow Aquaman, and go to war with the surface world. So a big part of the film would be very Curse of the Golden Flower. You have this fantastical, unreal underwater political drama/intrigue.

The movie would end with Aquaman being deposed, and chained to a rock at the edge of an active thermal vent. To escape, he has to cut his own hand off, and head for sanctuary above water.

The second movie would be about him, pissed off, and coming to reclaim his throne. This man commands the entire underwater kingdom. He has a spy network across 2/3 of the earth's surface. He's super strong, super tough, and now has a grappling hook for an arm. He's made an unholy deal with the sharks for their support, and he's coming back to Atlantis to take his rightful place, even if he has to stain all the seas red.

Fuck yes, is Aquaman a badass.

Why I should be hired to write the Wonder Woman script.

The problem that keeps stalling Wonder Woman film treatments is a) finding the proper actress, and b) the lack of a strong supporting cast. Can anyone reading this name a WW villain? She's had a few, but they've never entered the public consciousness the way Lex Luthor or the Joker have. That said, I challenge you to name a different Superman villain...

The thing is, though, Wonder Woman doesn't need a strong villain to have a good story. Instead have a more intelligent, less smashy-smashy (but still plenty of smashy-smashy) movie. Cast Monica Bellucci as an aging Wonder Woman, who came from Paradise Island to world of men in WWII to help fight the Nazis (as she did in the comics). After the Allies victory, she stays on to fight crime, act as a diplomat for the Amazons, and promote feminism.

But where does that put her now? Bellucci is the perfect age to play the older Wonder Woman, still trying to juggle diplomacy and saving the world while questioning her role here. Feminism has become such an object of derision, where so few people understand what it even means any more. Sexism has morphed from the overt to the covert, and many women don't call themselves feminists, associating it with man-hating and bra-burning rather than equality. How is Wonder Woman meant to fight this? In the 60s she could punch aliens hard, and show people that women could do anything. But how does she deal with a generation apathetic to feminism? How does running around in spangly underwear help the cause?

Throw in some political conflicts between Paradise Island and the U.N. (ignoring aid embargoes, perhaps) and some big fight scenes with intelligent giant apes for an action angle, and you'd have yourself a winner!

C'mon Warner Bros., hire me!

Oblig. picture of Monica Bellucci.

Tupenny VP analysis

Well, both Obama and McCain have announced their VPs, and here's my vaguely uninformed opinion of them both!

First, batting for all that is good and right in the world...

JOE BIDEN
Pros:
1) He's an attack dog. It'll be his job to rip the Republicans a new one during debate. And it's something he's done well in the past and seems to enjoy doing.
2) Has a strong labour union background
3) Voted against FISA and for Net Neutrality
4) Old white man.
Cons:
1) He's a major supported of invading Iraq and the Patriot Act.
2) He's wants to watch and control what you do with your computer.
3) Sponsored the RAVE act, which allows for glow sticks to be considered drug paraphernalia.
4) Old white man

Secondly, for evil and damnation...

SARAH PALIN
Pros:
1) Young woman candidate, full of Republican morals
2) Negates Biden's attack dog skills, because if he goes after he, he'll be seen as a bully
3) VPILF
Cons:
1) McCain can't question Obama's experience as the person second in line for the Presidency would actually be LESS experienced than Obama, younger, having served for less time, and over a less populated jurisdiction
2) Rabidly pro-life, anti-gay-marriage, anti-environment, creationist
3) She's under investigation for abusing her power by firing a Public Safety Commissioner who refused to axe a state trooper. A trooper who had just gone through a bitter divorce with her sister...


My thoughts? While Palin will undoubtedly curb some of Biden's advantages, her inexperience puts pause to the Republican's big tactic of questioning Obama's leadership experience. After all, if McCain one, he'd be an aged and ailing president with a history of cancer. And she'd be next in line. She's also being used to try and grab some of H. Clinton's voters who are still bitter about the Obama nomination, but I think Angry Mouse from the Daily Kos responded to that far more eloquently than I.

I'm just terrified of Biden taking over from Obama if something should happen to him. He's Hawkish and want to control the internet.

So, I'll end in a quote of Warren Ellis' masterpiece Transmetropolitan

The fix is in. It remains only to be seen what it's been traded for. To get to this stage, anyone wanting to be candidate has had to learn to enjoy the special flavor of pressure-group dick. The question is: will the Smiler stagger on stage with lungs half full of steaming lobbyist semen? Or will he merely be licking his lips?

AC out

Kim Komando misses the point.

So, remember that post I made the other week about Games As Art?

And remember that beautiful little game I linked to, Passage?

How would you like to see someone butcher a description of it? Go go Kim Komando! Seriously, wow, that's really, really crappy writing. And completely soulless. And a horrific summary of the game.

This is the same woman who believes that you can get high off of music. (See here for the best response around)

I think I'll have to start a weekly column "Kim Komando misses the point". Because she always does.

Olympics

I've been boycotting the Olympics for two reasons, firstly the abysmal behaviour of China in the lead up to the games. Bulldozing of poor housing without providing alternatives, crackdowns on protest groups, reinforcing the great firewall, etc.

If only to confirm my feelings about the whole event, this has turned into one of the most downright duplicitous Olympics that I'm aware of.

Shall we attempt to list the crazy shit from The Middle Kingdom ?

1:Ethnic Tibetans have been banned from working in Beijing for the duration

2:During the opening ceremony, the song "Ode to the Motherland" was actually lipsynched, because the singer wasn't pretty enough

3:During the same ceremony, and to allay fears about China's treatment of its minorities, the 56 non-Han ethnicities were presented. And all were played by Han children.

4:The footprints during the ceremony were faked in the broadcast This one doesn't bug me too much. They were actually set off, it was just deemed to dangerous for the pilots to be able to actually shoot, so a pre-creation was broadcast instead.

5:One of China's gold medal gymnasts may only be 13, three years younger than the minimum age for the Olympics

6:One of the worlds foremost Chinese classical dancers was permanently paralysed from the waist down after part of the set collapsed on her during rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony. The entire thing was hushed up for weeks.

So, yeah. Go China! Woohoo!

Found Poetry

Usually, what little spam makes its way into my inbox (thanks Google, you rock!) is trying to sell something. Blind links, phishing schemes, anti-depressants, that sort of junk. But last week, I received an email of poetic beauty, that I shall now quote in full.

bicep grandiloquent zazen? ammoniac, thirsty frenchman.
compton vigil elliot ammoniac hovel hovel, plagiarist
norm crucify singsong centipede acts.

confluent h thimble

excite chutney hovel? farce, h confluent.
acts bicep singsong smaller excite intuitive, stoneware
mesa return farce farce norm.

singsong elliot acts

bridgeable compton rote? bloodline, osteopathic grandiloquent.

acts bloodline.

That's it. No links, no nothing. And I'm taking Confluent H Thimble as a pen name.

Uh oh...

In the wake of the deaths of Bernie Mac and then Isaac Hayes...






















Ruh Roh, Shaggy!

Overly Complicated Invention #413

Non-Newtonian Bullets.

First, an introduction. Non-Newtonian fluids are liquids that behave in a very peculiar way. Namely, they have non-constant viscosity.

One of the most famous examples of this is Oobleck, a mixture of corn starch and water (dry it at home!). Oobleck gets harder the more force is applied. So if you stab it or slap it, it becomes rigid, but if the force is gentle you can sink your hand in it. For instance, you can run across it if you go fast enough. Or, if pressure keeps being applied, it will build up. Kinda.

So, lets have a thought experiment.

What would happen if a burst of Oobleck was shot at high speed from a pressurised device? The initial decompression would harden the rear of the shot of the liquid, expelling it from the barrel, at which point it would probably return to liquid state. However, when hitting the target, it will re-harden in an unpredictable shape, and then re-liquefy when its transferred the kinetic energy.

Theoretically, this leads to strange shaped bullet wounds, and un-traceable ammunition.

And I, of course, am talking out my arse as I know nothing about physics. Still, it's an intriguing thought...

Offensive jokes that I made up

"Say Jesus, how big was that fish you almost caught?"









































Yeah, I know, I'm going to hell.

Rage

So, yeah, RAAAAAGE!

Without cause nor suspicion, they're allowed to take your laptop for indefinite amounts of time and share the data as they please.

Goddamn, why does America have to have all the opportunities that I crave combined with bullshit like this? Why can't all the technology and press jobs be in Norway or somewhere awesome and liberal?

Son of a bitch.

On misheard lyrics

I was listening to a bit of Dizzee Rascal on Pandora the other day, and I caught his track "Bubbles".

What I heard was
"...got my brand new grimesman, dressed to suppress"

As I'm sure you're aware, Dizzee is a grime artist. I figured the genre had repossessed the upper class British suffix, and were calling their posses "grimesmen", who would then be dressed to suppress.

I was rather dissapointed when I found the actual lyrics:

"...got my brand new garms on, dress to impress"

Why must things be cooler in my mind than in reality?

Papers that exist only in my head, pt.1

If You Fuck Me Do I Not Breed? An analysis of reproductive rights in Shakespeare's plays.

America, WTF again? More specifically, New Hampshire.

I know, I know, we're all getting tired of the "LOL America doesn't make sense" posts, but this is my last for a little while, I promise.

So, I was up in New Hampshire for the weekend. Now New Hampshire has no sales tax (Live Free or Die, and all that), so we went to a liquor store on the way back to pick up something delicious and cheap.

Of course I needed ID, and handed over my Massachusetts Liquor ID, which states that I'm of legal age to get my booze on.

And they wouldn't accept it. They'd take a Mass driver's license, or a Mass non-driver's license (which Mass doesn't actually offer), but they won't take the designated ID saying I'm old enough to drink.

WTF New Hampshire, WTF?

Liveblogging the iPhone launch

3am-7am. Quiet. Shit sucks.
8am. Got phone, couldn't transfer my number, so have a new one. In and out 15 minutes. Off to a full day of work.

On surreallity and the 4th of July

Since coming to America I've had the most surreal and odd experiences of my life. Seriously, shit's been bananas. From campaigning for political candidates in the snow to being stranded for hours in parking lots. I am currently in a very short line for the iPhone 3G at 3am (thanks work!) I wish to relate to you one of the oddest experiences since I've been here. And that's rafting down the river Charles in inflatable rafts for the 4th of July.

Imagine, if you will, a flotilla of cheap, inflatable rafts being paddled down a major river by odd oars and odder people, bound together by mini-carabiners, and mocing across the path of oncoming speed boats with the speed and sense of direction of a drunk snake. And you vaguely get an idea of how we looked.

It started innocently enough, about 10 people, 5 rafts, and (strangely enough) no booze. We met for a group lunch about 5 miles up from the mouth of the Charles, which was to be our final destination. Base camp was next to a Boston socialist group, who had a barbecue and yelled obscenities at boats passing by that sported the American flag. Which was all of them as it was the 4th. It was hilarious to see him yell "You're country fucking sucks!" at folks in yachts.

We eventually got three rafts (mostly inflated) into the water, but one of our party was AWOL and not expected back for an hour, so three stayed behind to wait for him and the five of us that were on the river decided to make a break for it. We moved with the elegance of a liquored up pangolin. Our rafts were crewed by people of rather disparate sizes and strengths, as well as having a wide variety of quality oars. After the three boats meandered for about five minutes, we decided to try and even out by clipping ourselves together. Two side by side and one dragged behind, we were an inverse triangle of awesome. Crappy little carabiners were the only thing holding us together. We snaked again across the Charles when moving, necessitating constant changing of paddles, but now we had a purpose! And with the occasional yell of "Igor, row!" or "Yoni, get off the damn phone!" we slowly made our way surrealy down the Charles.

The first act of mind melting occurred actually just before we combined our flotilla. My amour and I were waiting for the other boats to join as we waited in the still waters, when we perchanced to see a small trickled flowing from the leaves of a bush. "That's funny" we thought "it's not raining, nor is there a natural source for such a liquid. One wonders if someone is releaving themselves." We watched the bush with hawklike intensity until sure enough, someone skulked away from the foliage in a sasquatch like manner. We collapsed in gales of laughter, for we were clearly visible on the water, with fluorescent orange life jackets.

Things continued to get weirder, and strangeness abounded. In no particular order:

George Washington and Lady Liberty passed us on speedboats
Families with small children rowing passed us on canoes
Drunken folk yelled "HAPPY AMERICA!" to us
A small flock of geese on the bank of the Charles stood serenely by as a smoke bomb billowed forth white clouds in their midst. After a few minutes they finally realised something was amiss, and headed for the water while a good Samaritan in a grey tracksuit submerged the device
Little kids took photos of us
People pointed and laughed as we slowly and meanderingly maid our way down the river
And we picked up an extra passenger at bridge along the way

It took us approximately 3 hours to row 5 miles. That's not speedy. And it was tiring. We got there.

It was dark and about half an hour before the fireworks started, but we got there.

And we passed everyone that had passed us, and got as close to the fireworks barge as the water police was allow.

And as we lay there, on our backs in the middle of the Charles, about 200m from the launching boat, the sky exploded above us in magnificent glory.

We were close enough to feel the percussive blasts of the fireworks. It was one of the most awe inspiring moments of my life.

And when it was done, we pulled up on the banks of the river, deflated the rafts, and went our separate ways.

That was how I spent my 4th of July.

Food porn mega-post

Courtesy of some good eatings recently, a rather large post of foods we've created.

And yes, it is all home made.