Instead I'm staring in awe at these awesome vintage space travel posters by Steve Thomas. I've been dying to replace one of the pictures in my dining area so out with the dorky castle/dragon fantasy poster! In 2-7 days this will be what I see at breakfast everyday:
Via BoingBoing, I have been browsing through this website which sells artwork by elephant in order to fund elephant conversation. It's a very interesting idea and a novel approach. Not to mention several of the elephants are actually pretty good.
My favorite is "the first and only abstract pointillist elephant artist to date". She paints patterns! Quite good ones too. For example:
It's nice to know my obsession with patterns extends even between species.
We share a planet with some seriously interesting creatures....
As in the reason why I haven't blogged in almost two full weeks. I ended up going right back to Arizona the next week (for totally different and more time-consuming reasons) and this week, I've been out and about around San Antonio. But, don't worry. I managed to get a few photos done and they'll be some more posts this weekend.
Now, in the full post we have: "Arizona, The Sequel" and "Patterns I found while traveling around San Antonio for meetings"
Teaser: WARNING! This painting is NOT a hidden picture trick. Letting your eyes go out of focus will cause permanent damage.
For this trip, we stayed on the Mexico side of the border. The hotel was cheap and had a fantastic restaurant in it. I greatly prefer Sonora style Mexican food to Monterrey style. For one thing there's more vegetables involved.
The rooms also possessed industrial strength heaters. These were unfortunately necessary. My last morning there is was 19F!
Another highlight of the hotel....Even with the relatively plain rooms, I still hit upholstery gold:
We didn't really have time to engage in any tourist activities this time around. But I managed to snap some pictures on the drive from AP to the airport.
Here's a much better picture of the mine entrances in Bisbee:
One benefit of this trip is that I got to appreciate the view along I-10. Last time, I drove so I couldn't really gawk at the scenery, which is quite nice:
In the category of "I can't believe I missed THAT last trip", here's a sculpture from the Tucson airport: 
With the recent cold snap, I saw something surprising out my airplane window on the way back:
After the Arizona trip, I was all set for a nice relaxing week in the office. This was not to be. However, in addition to traipsing across town for meetings, I also made some interesting discoveries around San Antonio.
One day, we were out to lunch with a supplier and I noticed the carpet. 
Also, after the meetings were done, we had to drive some visiting co-workers to their hotel. JACKPOT! 
Hopefully, I don't have to travel next week. My goal is to spend more than two days straight in the office for the first time since the New Year. We shall see.....
Here's the second post on my recent Arizona trip. Unfortunately, most of the rest of my trip was spent engaging in (gasp) work. Most touristy type activities close before 5pm which is usually before I was off work. But I did manage to have a little bit of fun here and there.
Link to part one. (visits to Kratchner State Park & the Queen Mine Underground Tour)
Teaser picture: Arizona sunset....
In full post I discuss: The Lavender Pit Mine in Bisbee, On the Road to Agua Prieta, La Frontera, Tombstone, and Tucson Hotel Decoration.
I had to drive through Bisbee a couple more times when going to the border and back to my hotel. Totally aside from the mines, there's some fabulous scenery. North of Bisbee the hills aren't as colorful but at sunset, the exposed rock practically glows.
There's also a short tunnel through a hill:
Back in Bisbee, on the other side of the mountain from the mine tours, there’s the old pit mines. The mountains of either side of the road become Technicolor:
The pit mine is actually two pits. The largest is called “The Lavender Pit”. One cool thing: when you’re driving on 80-South, Bisbee has a scenic view on the side that looks over the main pit. Unfortunately, someone's vandalized the historical plaque:
Ugh, punks.
Aside from that, the scenic view is really nice. Whoever built it was considerate enough to have camera-sized holes cut into the chain link fence so you can get unobstructed pictures. And you do need that fence, less than 3ft past it the ground just drops away. I could only stop in the early morning on my way to the plant but it’s a truly majestic view:
Note the size of buildings in the last picture. Sorry about the last one being so dark; the sun was rising behind the mountains and it overwhelmed the view a bit. Also, if you look at the first two photos in full size, they are a little blurry. My camera wasn't able to focus on the other side of the pit because the other side was too far away.
Across the highway and just past the Lavender Pit, three large semi-circular structures loom over the road. 
I think these are medium-old mine entrances, maybe from mid-1900s? They look too recent to be from the late 1800s and the style reminds me vaguely of WWII bunkers.
Also, in South Bisbee, there’s a round-about! These aren’t very common in the US and certainly not in rural areas so I was a bit surprised to see it. 
On the way to Douglas after you get clear of the mountains around Bisbee, there’s a gravel production facility of some kind. They are basically grinding up one of the hills out there. Right now, the hill appears like a real-world section view:
Right off SH80 where I took the above photo, there's a historical marker:
As a Texan, it’s difficult for me to adjust to the fact that there is no natural boundary, like the Rio Grande between the USA and Mexico. When I crossed into AP, I reflexively had my money out for a toll bridge that does not exist in Arizona. There’s just a little light for Mexican Customs Inspections.
Honestly, would you believe this fence keeps people out?
Yeah, me neither...The lack of natural boundrary makes waiting in line at the border a bit surreal:
On the way back to Tucson, you can drive through the famous Tombstone. I wanted to get a picture of the OK Corral but it was dark by the time I drove through. Besides, the OK Corral is walled off.
Yep, the OK Corral is completely enclosed. My first thought was “They fenced in the OK Corral?! Blasphemy!” My second thought (imagine in a know-it-all tone): “Technically, it’s always been enclosed. That’s why it was called a corral.” And there’s a reason for the walls. There’s a reenactment show that reproduces the famous shoot-out inside the corral for tourists. I don't suppose they either want people injured or watching without paying.
Tired and a little bit sick of Arizona, my hotel in Tucson was a wonderful surprise. The patterns were just the sort of out-of-control madness I love. It was a nice pick-me-up. Here's the hallway carpet:
Even the elevators got in the action with a wild combination of textures:
The hotel room had two different kinds of chairs. Easy chairs:
And the desk chairs:
And finally, the bedspread
Needless to say, my collection of upholstery patterns is delightfully larger after this trip.
My flight out of Tucson was too early Friday morning for me to be snapping pictures. But, while waiting for my connecting flight in Dallas, I noticed something across the aisle:
This sucker's huge. You can literally walk through it!
An hour later, I was back in San Antonio. All in all, the trip was quite enjoyable as far as work-required travel goes.
So, back from LA. As part of my personal enrichment goals, I made an effort to take some pictures while I was there. Here's a teaser pic of a storm over downtown Houston.
More after cut.
I think this is the first instance where I didn't have to run to make my connecting flight when travelling through Houston Intercontinental. Which is how I noticed the strangeness of the George Bush statue they have at the airport. What's with the coat?
It's perfectly orthogonal to his body. I mean, if they wanted to convey wind the tie (blown to the side) would have done it fine. Personally, it looks like the sculptor was just showing off.
My rental car: 
Which was terrible! Uncomfortable to drive with a huge blind spot. This picture makes it look blue but it was really this incredibly weird purple color. I felt like I was driving a clown car.
Usually, when I go to California, I spend my time in Orange County (for training / visit relatives) or the Carson area (for work). This time I got to go drive straight through downtown LA:
In a bit of LA strangeness (to me), there were these rather nice apartments right next to the freeway (as in you can see the sign on the left):
You could actually watch people out on their balconies while waiting in traffic. Who would want to live there?
Finally, I discovered the BEST RADIO SHOW EVER while in LA. When driving my crap rental car to the hotel, I listened to 88.1 KKJZ. Now usually, they play jazz and are pretty darn good. But on Sunday nights, they have a blues show which I caught for the first time. IT WAS AWESOME. Aretha Franklin covering Marshall Tucker Band? Comparing the original Statesboro Blues with the Allman Brothers cover? When I got to my hotel, the first thing I did was log-on to my computer to listen to the web feed.
For my last post tonight, I wish to talk about something I feel very strongly about....weblog icons. Specifically for various fandoms I keep an eye on. Because this is an unheralded fan wonderland. "Brevity is the source of wit" people and it doesn't get more brief than a 100pixel square.
Disclaimer: I didn't make any of these and have no idea who did (I'm terrible about saving an icon without recording who made it). All fictional characters/people are the propery of their respective big-name entertainment companies or selves.
So, these are some of my favorites. Just peruse and enjoy the work of some truely funny and talented fans. Fandoms involved are Stargate, Stargate: Atlantis, Literature - Poetry, Veronica Mars, Harry Potter, Supernatural, Pinky & the Brain, Pride & Prejudice, Serenity/Firefly, Star Wars, Disney Movies & Eddie Izzard.
More beneath the cut.
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