Blu-Ray Primer

Since all DVD's are now being replaced by the new Blu-Ray Disc (BD) format, we might as well understand what that means. USA Today put together 10 questions with plain English answers about the new video format and what it will mean for home video viewers. Read it here.

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I Like This

I like this video about Christmas -- see what you think:

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Delightful Video

One of Daniel's and Jennifer's friends from college is a guy named Chris Sinclair, a talented photojournalist who has traveled all around the world taking beautiful pictures and videos. A number of months ago, Chris posted to his blog what I thought was one of the neatest videos I've ever seen. It's a short segment he created to play at his sister's wedding reception, that captures how his sister and her fiancé met during their college years.

I only know of Chris through Daniel and Jennifer (he gave me some helpful camera advice a couple years ago), and I don't know Chris' sister or her (now) husband. But I have admired Chris' photography a number of times on his web site. When I first came across this video I was so impressed with it that I watched it a number of times. It seemed to disappear off his site for a while, but I noticed that it is back up. So I'm going to share the link hoping you'll enjoy it as much as I did. (And hoping Chris won't mind!)

What I liked about it: how natural Chris made it seem; how obviously talented he is as a videographer and composer; love the music; love the way he synced their words from the interviews with their actions in the video. Just a pleasure to watch.

The video is wide-screen on Chris' site, so watch it there at this link. (Chris also provides a few paragraphs of explanation about how he did the video for those who are interested.)

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Altering Reality

I tweaked one of the pictures of Ellen and Arianna taken over Thanksgiving. I am now guilty of altering reality via technology:

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Momentum Is Gathering

I just learned today of a new documentary DVD that is due to be released December 19 on the state of health in America and the role of diet and nutrition. All the speakers are advocates of a plant-based diet, and you've seen many of their names in this blog: John Robbins, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. John McDougall, and others. (On two separate occasions I have sent Dr. Esselstyn emails and had the phone ring within 10 minutes with Dr. Esselstyn on the line, responding to my inquiry. Really nice guy!)

The documentary is called Processed People. The website is here and the trailer is here:

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Drove to Daniel's and Jennifer's for a two-day Thanksgiving retreat. I'll let the pix tell the story:

Lots of reading Wednesday night -- The Goat Lady and Make Way for Ducklings:




Then Daniel continued the nightly installment of the George MacDonald stories. These are intensely deep, complicated, and fantastical, steered by MacDonald's biblical/moral compass. The fact that the girls can follow and comprehend these stories puts them in the rarefied air of those who even know who MacDonald is, much less appreciate what he wrote. If you're not familiar with him, read just the first few paragraphs of the Wikipedia article on him to see his influence on people like J.R.R. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, et al. While the girls look distracted, when Daniel would ask them questions later about what he had read, it was obvious they were listening:




The next day, Ellen read the entire Make Way for Ducklings book to me without missing a beat, and Arianna read me a chapter from one of her books. They are amazing readers:




I took my waffle maker for Belgian blueberry waffles on T'giving morning, ably assisted by Ellen and Arianna:



The tedium of waiting on the waffles was relieved by multiple helpings of the seasonal Kruidenier opiate, Silk Nog:




Chef Daniel helped prepare my contribution to the meal, a rice-eggplant-whatever dish that turned out surprisingly well:



Jen prepared an amazing vegan Thanksgiving feast: two Tofurkeys w/ dressing and gravy, her own (much better) stuffing, sage mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes topped with vegan marshallow, broccoli slaw salad, from-scratch cranberry sauce, croissant rolls, plus my rice-eggplant thing . . .









And her from-scratch apple pie for dessert (and brownies as well):



After recuperating from a wonderful meal, we took the obligatory post-feast walk in the neighborhood before tackling dessert:



Bookin' it:




Then it was time for pictures in the front yard:






















Look at this beautiful hair:




Then it was time to decorate -- while Daniel and I strung white lights on the outside of the house, Jen and the girls set up the manger scene and the Christmas village:










And a few miscellaneous shots to wrap up:

Arianna getting comfortable with Grandaddy's camera:




Daniel and girls in serious reading mode. Ellen and Arianna gave up their room for Grandaddy and camped on the playroom floor. I was happy to see their L. L. Bean sleeping bags that I gave them for Christmas a couple years ago holding up and serving well.




Here's Ellie getting in a few final pages before lights out. (Credit to Jen for this great shot.)




Thanks to DJEA for great hospitality and a good time and happy Thanksgiving. By the way, if anybody wants a copy of any of these pix (plus more that I didn't post in the blog for lack of space), just click on any picture and you'll be taken to my Flickr account where you can download various sizes of all the pix. (Click on "William Kruidenier's Photostream" to navigate away from a single picture back to a layout of all the pix, and go to succeeding pages via the arrows at the bottom of the page. Click on the picture you want, then click on the "All Sizes" icon above the picture and you'll see a download button for each size you click on.) And thanks to Jen for taking many of the pix on this page!

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Not Looking Good

Not to be an alarmist, but some analysts outside the U.S. don't think America will recover. (And who can blame them?) You can read the views of a Russian political analyst here -- he sees the U.S. being broken up into six smaller units. Granted, the Ruskies have always had an elevated opinion of their own competencies compared to others. But his views are just an example of how dire the situation looks to those who are standing at a distance and shaking their heads -- and anticipating the worst.

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Books Off the Floor

The bookcases are up and 98% (give or take) of the books are on the shelves. What a project -- can't believe I lived with the "mess" (below) for so long. Built the first six bookcases 2-3 years ago, then finally got the remainder up over the last couple of weeks. Thanks to my friends Dave and Paul for lending time and expertise to the process on two different days -- many hands and backs make for light work.

The need for more shelves:





Dave helped me move the workstation out of the corner and into the middle of the room, and move the new bookcases from the garage to the office:





Paul helped me space out the books in the existing shelves and begin loading new books into the new shelves:





Finally, most of the books are in the new bookcases, with expansion room left over:



And a little tour of the whole operation (with accompaniment from the FolkAlley.com streaming radio station -- great background music 24x7 -- folk, traditional, Celtic, acoustic -- great blend -- I started filming when some guy started wailin' that "love can be a messy thang" -- profound, though I can't argue). Still a lot of odds-'n-ends to put away, but you'll get the general idea: (Click the arrow to play.)



Lots of these books will (hopefully) be gone in the months ahead as I winnow out what I no longer need or have interest in. I dug into several boxes of books I had brought from my parents' home in Alabama -- lots of my childhood books, gift-books from my grandmothers when I was small (9-10 years old): not children's books, but biographies, histories, "documentary" books. I was really amazed to see them, and realize how much my own love of books and learning was fueled by grandmothers and parents who were constant readers themselves, and who made sure we had challenging books to read and well-worn library cards.

My focus the last 8-9 years has been on food, health, gardening, agriculture, sustainable living, and the like, and books on those subjects comprise much of what needed organizing and shelving, which I did in four categories:

Food Production (gardening, farming)
Food Preparation (kitchen, etc.)
Food Processing (processing by the body -- health, etc.)
Food Promotion (books on worldview and philosophy related to the above subjects, including a dearth of books from a biblical/Christian perspective, more of which are needed -- not needed to be bought, but written)

Now -- back to work.

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The End of the Great Avocado Experiment

The avocado trees have taken a beating in the freezing nighttime temps lately:







Strangely, there was one tree that had sprouted near the house that suffered nothing in the cold -- looked just fine. It's supposed to go down to 17 degrees tonight, so this afternoon I dug it up and put it in a large planter and brought it indoors (in front of a south-facing window) for the remainder of the winter. This was motivated by Daniel's friend Hector who has had an avocado tree growing inside for several years and is quite tall. So I'll make a house-tree out of this one and see what happens:

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Have a Nice Day

WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - U.S. economic and political clout will decline over the next two decades and the world will be more dangerous, with food and water scarce and advanced weapons plentiful, U.S. spy agencies projected on Thursday.

The National Intelligence Council analysis "Global Trends 2025" also said the current financial crisis on Wall Street is just the first phase of a global economic reordering. The U.S. dollar's role as the world's major currency would weaken to become a "first among equals," the report said.

The outlook is intended to inform U.S. President-elect Barack Obama of factors that will influence global events. It is based on a year-long global survey of experts and trends by U.S. intelligence analysts.

If that much of the article doesn't cheer you up, you can read the rest of it here.
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A Great Innovation

"They" often say that the best ideas are the simplest ideas. I've found something that seems to verify that observation. You may already be using this product, but I like it so much that I want to pass the word on.

At least two paper towel producers (there may be more) that I have found are now producing standard rolls of kitchen-type paper towels with a twist. Instead of the standard-size large sheets that you tear off the roll, that standard sheet now has an additional perforation in the middle of the sheet, allowing you to tear off only HALF a standard sheet instead of a whole sheet. I have found that the VAST majority of times I need a paper towel in the kitchen or bathroom, a half-sheet does just fine. If I use a half sheet instead of a large sheet, I use half as much paper (trees) and the rolls last twice as long. What amazes me is that these companies have been willing to introduce this innovation at the risk of reducing the sale of rolls of paper towels since a roll now lasts longer. (I may be missing something there -- let me know if you see it.)

The two brands I've found that are putting in the extra perforation in the standard size sheets are Brawny and Bounty. Look on the outside of the packaging: You'll see a feature advertised like "Pick-a-Size" or "Select-a-Size" for the ones with this feature.

So now instead of being limited to one or more standard sizes of sheets, you can tear off sheets in multiples of half-sizes. For me, a half-sheet accomplishes almost everything I need. Very cool idea.

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Okay, I Confess

I have laughed at these two movie trailers so many times that I finally decided to out myself and admit that Jim Carrey cracks me up. The older he gets as an actor, the more I like him. Even though he is still a wacko in his movies, there is a maturity in this one that I really like. He's a winsome, likable guy in this movie, which draws me to him -- and maybe one of the funniest people on the planet. I won't go see the movie because it (apparently) has stuff in it I don't want to pay to see, but the trailers are clean -- and hilarious. (Especially the "Red Bull" and "Korean class" scenes.)

There are two different trailers available for the movie "Yes" at the Apple trailer site, here. They are slightly different, both with very funny scenes, so watch them both.
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