In reverse order of the titles, some of you might notice that I have added Facebook Comments below, so now you can leave comments with the old style or the new style. I left both systems in place since there are so many good previous comments, and they are not really convertible. The New Facebook comments are pretty cool because they re-use your Facebook info, and it extends that community and network of friends, since all these networks come together nowadays. It took a tiny bit of coding to set myself up as a Facebook Developer, but it wasn’t so tough (I knew that major in Computer Science would come in handy some day!).

There is a very nice community of people that come here to the site! You all are very nice and helpful… you give excellent comments, help one another out, give me advice, and drop all kinds of cool info bombs on the crowd. Thanks for that! I hope this Facebook comment thing can help more people to join the fun.

Anyway, to the photo for the day. This is not the usual, but it was such a cool slice of life, I could not pass it up! I was walking through the streets of Malacca in southern Malaysia, and building after building have all sorts of industry spilling out of them. Many of them are just deep garages where people have holed up to perfect one craft or another. This one was full of thousands of little bicycle parts. I stood out front for a while, watching all of them slowly convert the metallic entropy into bicycles…

The second photo below was taken in a similar fashion, although it was in the backstreets of Bangkok, Thailand.

Filed under the categories: Malaysia, Melaka, Nikon D2XS, Travel

Some towns seem to have taken the meme of painting everything in nice colors very seriously.  I wonder how these things get started.  I assume, like other things, a few well-connected neighbors in conspicuous places start painting their homes with interesting colors, and then it spreads on its own.   Anyway, however it starts, I think its cool and I wish stuff was colorful like this everywhere!

Filed under the categories: Malaysia, Melaka, Nikon D2XS, Travel

There I was, minding my own business in the part of the temple where I probably was not supposed to be. But sometimes when you are just wandering around, you can meet interesting people. It reminds me of the Douglas Adams book about Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. If you are lost, follow someone that looks like they know where they are going, and you will end up somewhere you probably needed to be anyway.

So here I was in the back halls of the temple and this guy popped onto the scene. He seemed friendly enough. There was not a lot of spoken words, but there was a lot of international wild gesticulation which appeared to indicate that he worked part time at the temple to help clean up. Since we were in a remote part of Malaysia, I don’t think he got to see many white people with devil-blue eyes, and he seemed to enjoy twisting his head this way and that while grunting at me.

After just a short while, we ran out of things to wildly flail our arms about about, and I asked him if I could take a photo. He happily agreed, and started twisting his head again, looking into the camera.

It was a nice experience all around, and a gentle reminder that the most interesting things seem to happen when you are somewhere that you are not supposed to be, talking to someone you probably have no business talking to in the first place.

Filed under the categories: Malaysia, Melaka, Nikon D2XS, Travel

Isn’t it? Of course it is… I’m really not too much of a materialistic guy. I think my three biggest expenses are travel, good food, and camera equipment.

Speaking of that last one there, the Nikon D3x was finally made official, and I’m gonna be the first (or so they tell me) person to get one in Austin! Sadly, I think I will have more fun with that camera than with this car.

Filed under the categories: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Travel

I went into this small Hindu temple to do a bit of exploration. The colors and scents were rich and I did my best to stay out of the way of the blessing cycle. The priest asked me if I wanted a blessing as well, but I said no because I did not want to dilute Vishnu’s awesome power. The priest nodded in agreement, so I must have made some pretty good sense.

Filed under the categories: Malaysia, Melaka, Travel

The little streets of Malacca had all sorts of interesting temples and stores full of antiques and curios. I don’t normally talk about curios in such high regard. Curios in other countries always seem better than curios in your own country. And thus, we end this diatribe on curios.

Filed under the categories: Malaysia, Melaka, Travel

I’m back in Montana for a few days!

We were graciously invited by Jack Horner up to northern Montana to join him on a dinosaur dig, My 7-year-old son (and the 7-year-old in me) is excited as can be by this once in a lifetime experience. We are not sure yet, but we think there is a special kind of Tyrannosaurus Rex that has been uncovered near Rudyard, Montana. Jack has his dig team out there, so we are going to camp out with them for a while and help with the dig… we are mega excited.

For a few nights before the dig, I took the family unit here to nearby Glacier National Park. We stayed at the Many Glacier Inn, which is this 1930′s Swiss-style chalet on a beautiful lake looking out at Mount Grinnell and several glaciers.

I woke up early in the morning to get this shot, while the rest of my family and the inn was still asleep. As usual, I had my ipod on full blast while I took in the scene and snapped away.

If you look down at the bottom, you can see all the rocks through the crystal-clear glacial lake.

Filed under the categories: Glacier Natl Park, LA, Malaysia, Montana, Musings, Travel

It’s a great city! I always have a good time there… I wish I could get back more often, and I’ve been about 7 times! I’m always surprised how I much I enjoy the times over there even though I should be getting tired of it by now.

Filed under the categories: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Travel

This was taken in the Chinese area of Malacca along the southern coast of Malaysia. All of the buildings in these streets are lit up with red lights as night falls and families gather for dinner.

Filed under the categories: Malaysia, Melaka, Travel

This is the top floor of the Hilton in Kuala Lumpur.

The club floor lounge area has all this really cool furniture and decor. They serve breakfast in the morning and drinks in the evening. The view is amazing too (as you can tell)!

Hiltons in Asia are typically 100x nicer than most others for some reason. Why this is, I have no idea.

Filed under the categories: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Travel

This was one of the most intricate burial sites on a remote hill outside of Kuala Lumpur. Janus and I stopped there on the taxi ride down to Malacca for some exploration and photography. You can look at the large version of this to see all the details of this single family’s grave.

Filed under the categories: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Travel

Here is what greets me and several close friends many times a year upon entry into Malaysia.

Filed under the categories: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Travel