Bloomin Good Time

Last Thursday i took some pictures that I wanted to make a post of. Well some things came up and procrastination reared it's ugly head. I went to Atlanta over the weekend to go to Sal Grosso for a friend's birthday party, and packed ourselves with meats of various kinds. Then we spent some time playing on another friend's Wii. Then I came back home and left my friggin camera bag in Atlanta. Luckily I had copied my pictures already. Follow the link to my ramble if you want to see the pics.

This is the line of Cherry trees that grow behind the building in which I work. The picture really doesn't do them justice. The petals really started falling like snow yesterday and are carpeting the parking lot and bed with pink petals. But I can't take a picture of it. Oh well. maybe next year.


This is a picture of the space behind the library. I had to dodge the Bumble bees. They were flying around like madmen. It looks a little odd because the clouds were making some strange lighting effects on the open space. It was kinda cool. Anyway there are a bunch of Redbuds on this side and more pink trees on the other. The grass was the most amazing green, but what do you expect from a college build on agriculture and engineering.


A friend of mine worked for campus planning for several years and recommended Yoshino Cherries when they were replacing the trees in front of the library. I think it was a good decision. At the time Clemson was voted #2 party school. We joked that they should have been Maraschino Cherries instead.


In front of the library and cherry trees is a reflection pond with fountains. The seating around the trees overlooks the amphitheater, Hardin, and Brackett.


Farther up behind the amphitheater is Carrilon Garden that holds one of the bells from the bell tower.


This is a little zoom to show the bell off a little more.


I left campus and went out to the Botanical Garden on the outskirts of campus. If you are around, every Spring and Fall they have a sale. I recommend you stop by for some interesting plant choices. Plus the staff can answer almost any question you have about the plants. The entryway into the garden has a bell and some nice walkways.


There is an area in the garden planted with nothing but camelias. Here's an example.


There is a trail that goes through the camelias. It starts off and you think that there are quite a few of them.


Then you take a turn and realize that it's practically a camellia forest. When I got there some plants were in full bloom and the rest were on the way out. The smell was amazing. If I hadn't been taking my allergy medication it would have driven me crazy. As it was the sweet smell almost gave me a headache. I'm just glad it wasn't a Gardenia forest.


Getting into the rest of the garden you see several benches donated and placed in various nice spots. I like the azalea behind this one.


One of the benches overlooked this scene right here. You can barely see the water running behind the foliage and rocks.


Lets look at that from the bottom side. There's the bench I was talking about. You can even see the blue flowers from here too.


Down by the big pond the wildlife was enjoying the 80 degree day. The turtles were out basking on several of the logs.


The resident geese/mafioso were out in force. For the love of God don't feed them. They get quite aggressive. I walked by without making eye contact, but I managed to snap a picture.


I saw a white duck resting in the shade on the warm day, and then realized what I think is a mallard had plopped down for a rest under another one of the benches.


And as a closer, one of the other flowering plants. I think the label said it's an azalea.


I have more things I wanted to show at the house, but without a camera. Oh well. Maybe I can get it this weekend.

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Don’t talk to the crazy man honey

Last October I talked a little about Rockstar and Jack Thompson. Well Rockstar is owned by Take Two, and they have two games scheduled for release this year. Thompson has indicated that failure of his previous lawsuits will not deter him from trying to stop these games from being released. As a preemptive measure Take Two has filed to preemptively prevent Thompson form suing them. Normally I wouldn’t mention it, but Thompson has released a response that is interesting, to put it mildly. Basically it looks like the man is a few sandwiches shy of a picnic. Give it a read. I don’t think he helped his case any.

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Late light

As a friend of mine has said, the early daylight savings time has made it hard to get up in the morning, but it does give me an hour of light when I get home. I’ve been making some use of that recently. Spring really has started here early. I guess Phil was right. I’ve been using my best gardening too, Roundup, to clear the driveway and cut back on errant weeds. This past weekend I also sharpened my riding and push mower blades and changed their oil. I maintain the factory bevel angle on the blade, but I get them pretty sharp. Here’s a picture of a stick I ran over with the riding mower.

That was done by the mower, not a knife. Here are some other pictures of the signs of spring at the plantation.

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Three for some money

I’ve been meaning to write something up for a while, but I’ve been busy and lazy. Well last weekend and the weekend before I went to see a few movies. Let me tell you about them.

First I went to see “Astronaut Farmer.” It got some pretty good reviews. It’s a pretty good movie with both realistic and unrealistic properties. Thorton always has a way of playing a likable character that’s just a little off center. I found one part in particular jolting enough to jar me out of the smoothness of the experience. You’ll probably notice it. I kept feeling that it had to be a dream. Then when I realized it wasn’t I thought, “That wouldn’t happen.” Anyway, it’s an entertaining story and would make a good rental.

Then I went to see “Black Snake Moan.” That right there was an interesting movie. What is it with Samuel L. Jackson and movies with Snake in the title? Anyway, I had a good time watching this one. I don’t know what happened to Christina Ricci, but she had skank down pat. Plus you get to see her stomach all the time, and her boobs quite a few. It had some pretty funny parts, and would make a good drinking movie for renting.

Finally I went to see “300” with my brother. He saw it in Atlanta at the IMAX a few days before- the bastard. That’s just a entertaining movie right there. It should fill most of the action that woul would require of a movie. I really liked the stylized visuals of the movie. The almost colorized sepia tone nature that uses color to emphasize certain things was lovely. The red of the Spartan cloaks really popped. The movie is an adaptation of the Battle of Thermopylae, with poetic license of course. You can also tell that this movie is from the work of Frank Miller, and its style reminds one of Sin City. That means you will see quite a bit of skin as well. Some is female, but most belongs to the Spartan soldiers. Personally I didn’t find the leather Speedos that distracting, but I did find a few things disturbing. Xerxes, the man that would be a god, creeped me out quite a bit. My brother said he knew the Greeks were supposed to be a little short, but the “tranny” was just too tall. I about fell in the floor, cause I was thinking the same thing. He’s too tall, too touchy feely, and he talks like a Goa’uld. It just weirded me out. I was actually surprised at the tameness of the violence and blood, remembering Sin City. But I recommend it to anyone that likes over the top stylized action.

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