Space Cake Bake on the Titicaca Lake

(the title is funnier if you say it in a German accent)
MY VISA HAS ARRIVED.
Important stuff: Driving to Houston tomorrow to get my passport back from the consulate visa slag. Leaving 5:45 am from DFW this Thursday. Arriving in Narita on June 29, Friday, at 1:25 pm.
My time in Texas is at an end. Back [...]

Read Full Post »

Visa update

Houston Consulate –> Ministry of Justice –> Ministry of Foreign Affairs
在ヒューストン総領事館　ーー＞　法務省　ーー＞　外務省
My visa is now approaching (by intergovernmental snail mail) the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the last stop before confirmation can be sent back to the Houston Consulate. It takes one hour to process applications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
From there, an email will be [...]

Read Full Post »

Getcher motor running

The second Matrix movie, some people may hate, but I think it has a good reason to exist. Two reasons actually: the fight against the Smiths in the ghetto and the highway scene. The matter still stands though. There is no good goddamn reason for Neo to be gong-fu-ing anyone anymore. He can bend the [...]

Read Full Post »

Beautiful etching on this gravestone.

Read Full Post »

None of those pics are high-res….

Well shit. I’ll have to go back and redo the linking. I found out how to do it now with Picasa Webalbums at least.
*UPDATE* Finished the conversions. For the high-res, just click the photo, then “Download Photo” on the right.

Read Full Post »

The only well-kept grave in the Uvalde cemetery.

So what if I spent the weekend taking pictures of dilapidated graves in the rain?

Read Full Post »

Above my grandparents’ front door.

I know the five-point star is a symbol of Texas, but every time I see them I think of pentagrams and Wicca.

Read Full Post »

Spider running from the rain.

From my grandmother’s front garden.

Read Full Post »

Ironically, speeding tickets are probably a large part of the city financing strategy.

I have been seeing this sign since I was young enough to be embarrassed by the word ‘hell.’

Read Full Post »

What could this be?

A reference to the Morrigan, ancient Celtic gods.
“Mitakuye Oyasin” is Lakota Sioux for “All my Relations,” a “prayer for oneness and harmony with all forms of life.”
I’m guessing it’s a neo-pagan store or meeting-place.
Pic taken close to Lampasas, basically in the middle of fucking nowhere, among the hills.

Read Full Post »

This is nice, but if they love her so much…

…why the FUCK can’t they spell her name correctly?
Or even, consistently incorrect?
At least she’s back.

Read Full Post »

This is quite sad.

A precious one from us is gone.A voice we loved is stilled.A place is vacant in our homewhich never can be filled.
In memory of C.B. Hendricks, born June 30, 1866, died Jan. 4, 1892.

Read Full Post »

Massive petrified monument to the founder of Uvalde

“In appreciation for Reading Wood Black (1830-1867), who came to Texas from New Jersey in 1850 to found the town of Uvalde in 1852.”
Part of the cemetery that time forgot.

Read Full Post »

Bottles with XXX on them don’t contain liquid pornography.

I snapped this old distilling…still?…outside someone’s house in Uvalde. Wonder if that family gets ever gets any use out of it now?

Read Full Post »

D’hanis bricks

D’hanis is, I think, two towns down from Castroville. I don’t think this brick factory is operating any more. But these bricks are ubiquitous around the area where my grandparents live.

Read Full Post »

Absolutely disgusting.

Old name plaque, complete with translation from Gaelic (?) and a Biblical verse, as a large snail snots all over John 3:18 in a mad dash towards what I think is a weeks-old corpse of a cardinal.
This is from the greenhouse in a house my aunt and uncle just bought so they can keep tabs [...]

Read Full Post »

One bright spot in the storm.

This is a little bakery in Castroville, a town settled by immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine. Most of the older buildings are done in Alsatian style. This bakery makes some truly amazing desserts.
My grandparents always stop here and buy me a frosted cookie, usually in the shape of a cactus, something seasonal, or in the last case, [...]

Read Full Post »

Three of the original Hidden Valley attractions, in varying states of disrepair.

I love how the water silo is about to fall down. Collapsing, decaying things are what remind me most about Texas, really. All the new buildings around here feel so cheap.

Read Full Post »

Most of the sauce my family uses….

….came off these shelves.

Read Full Post »

None of the Jewish employees here came to work around Passover….

Read Full Post »

I do! I do want ice cream!

This is the entrance to the Dutchman’s Hidden Valley, a magical place filled with homemade candy, sweet venison sausage, german potato salad, and miscellaneous Texana tchotkes.

Read Full Post »

Someone is a marketing GENIUS.

Read Full Post »

"I’m sorry sir, which way to the land of Fairy?"

Read Full Post »

Twirling the baton, a favor to a friend.

外見でタイプを教えて下さい。内面でタイプを教えて下さい。恋愛対象はいくつから？無口と喋る人異性のどんな所に弱い？異性にされて、言われて嫌なコトは？好きな人が出来るとどんな行動にでる？積極的な方？消極的な方？告白したい方？されたい方？このバトンを回す人の恋愛におけるイメージは？？
Describe what your type looks like.Describe what your type is like on the inside.How old are the people you are attracted to?Do you like them to talk a lot or not?What causes you to become weak (like weak in the knees weak)?What kinds of things really bug you about the opposite sex?What are the things [...]

Read Full Post »

Shipwrecked in a sea of certainty

The above is a subtitle from one of the scienceblogs. What a great description for modernity…everyone thinks they’re right, all the time. In my case, I’m always right, until something comes along that I am wrong about, then I immediately switch to the new view and pretend I was never wrong. Honestly, this approach still [...]

Read Full Post »

Skinnydipping

Sinking to the floorEyes closed, forcing bubbles out my nose,defying gravity.
“For one small momentyou think you’ll fall forever.”Then two big toes curl
and my toenails scratchand scrape on the cracked cement.I made a small mark.
Lungs smoke like grass fire.Till quadriceps bend lowsnap in place for swift release.
One hard, quaking bangingagainst the balls of my feet.Head knocked [...]

Read Full Post »

Booooone Chuuuuurrrrch!

Bone church.
“Have you seen the very calcerous Sedlec Bone Church in the Czech Republic, decorated with the bones of 40,000 people? I was fascinated when I first discovered it. Until the advent of the ‘New Cemeteries’ in the early 19th century, people used to be buried in churchyards and under the flagstones of churches – [...]

Read Full Post »

"No, I sock ‘em in the jaw and yell ‘Pop goes the weasel.’"

Welcome to the final day of my isolation. I’ve actually been a man about town (a tiny, hot, and culturally backward town) the last couple of days. I drove around to get some bank transfer stuff done, stuff that Citibank disallowed me from doing online (whores), visiting a few mom-and-pop bookshops, and I even bit [...]

Read Full Post »

Day Three: Holy Shit Resident Evil Apocalypse is on Oxygen

More pics from the day. Gravel has apparently become part of my oeuvre. I’ve never lived like this before. Being all alone in the country like this is lonely if you are not married or something, which is probably why everyone gets married so young here. On the plus side though, if you are alone [...]

Read Full Post »

The house is calling me

My parents left today with my sister to go on a cruise in the Caribbean. They are in San Antonio right now coralling my disparately-located grandparents, and tomorrow they will embark from the Port of Galveston for a weeklong leisurely jaunt oer a bunch of islands named after saints.
I am still at home. I’m not [...]

Read Full Post »