Photo of the Week

Starting today, and continuing every Friday, I will be featuring a Photo of the Week from my collection. In addition to the picture, I will be including a short essay that relates to the picture.

Glacier Point High

There are many places in this world that do not live up to their reputations. Too many times I have been disappointed because works of art, scenic vistas, and other things have failed to reach my expectations. Fortunately, Glacier Point in Yosemite is not one of those places.

Standing thousands of feet above the busy Yosemite valley, Glacier Point is one of the grand treasures of our wonderful National Park system. A visit to Yosemite is simply incomplete without a stop here.

There are many wonderful sites to be seen from Glacier Point. Waterfalls, granite formations, and other wonders are to be found. Above all to be seen from this vantage point is Half-Dome.

A wonder of nature, it is truly a spectacle to behold. Whether standing on the valley floor, at the entrance to the valley, or above the valley at Glacier Point, Half-Dome commands your attention.

Of the sites that all Americans should see in their lifetime, Yosemite surely must be near the top. I feel fortunate that I was able to experience the grandeur of Glacier Point, and look forward to the day when I can return.

Moments in Synergy: Welcome to Danville! is up

Just a quick post to tell you "Welcome to Danville" is up on the Expat. WTD is a snarky and irreverent weekly comic strip about Vermilion County. Expect many more adventures to come with Scotty E. and his trusty sidekick Hicki Vaugen.

Quick Hit on the NCAA tournament

Another first weekend of the NCAA tournament has passed. Wasn't too exciting, really. A few close games, a couple small upsets (Duke lost! Hurrah!), and a tough loss by Illinois. After watching their second half collapse, I am glad I didn't watch any of their games this year.

Oh well, maybe the seeding committee did an excellent job, and we are setting up 12 monumental games next weekend. We shall see. All I know is I have my rooting interest set up: Go Salukis!

What hath Johnny Hart Wrought?

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed reading comic strips. Whether it was the trio of political cartoons in Newsweek, the page of comics in the Commercial-News, or the Calvin & Hobbes collections my parents owned, I have been a fan of the funny pages.

Back when I was twelve, it was pretty easy to amuse myself, I guess. I read mediocre strips such as Hagar the Horrible and Garfield, and still found them somewhat amusing. I avoided Mary Worth like the plague, and waited in anticipation for the next Calvin and Hobbes.

However, as my tastes grew, I started to notice the amount of crap that was turned out. 90% of the stuff was just the same junk over and over. Beetle Bailey, B.C., Cathy, etc... were the same four or five lousy jokes over and over. Yes, Cathy stresses over clothes, Sarge doesn't like Beetle's laziness, Jesus will defeat all with his army of talking ants, we get it. Could you please retire like Watterson did, and let fresh strips could get a chance to shine?

But it isn't all bad. Get Fuzzy can make me laugh out loud (which is an absolute coup for a comic strip), and...well, that is about it for intentional humor. I think I laughed at a couple of Opus jokes once.

Unintentional humor, however, can be found in droves. SBIG (so bad it's good) strips such as Mary Worth, Rex Morgan, and Judge Parker have plenty of things to laugh at. Apt. 3-G might be an accurate portrayal of the life of three cute single women, if the time was 1879 and the place was Peoria. From the creepiness and lack of reality in For Better or Worse (a once great strip now wallowing in the muck), to the lameness of Spiderman (really, he is literally lame; a brick can stop him these days), there is still much fun to be gleaned from the funny pages. Even Mallard Fill...no wait, that is never funny.

With that, I implore you to check out http://www.joshreads.com. This is a wonderful site, and can give you new enjoyment from the comics section. Also, check out the classics from Larson, Watterson, Schultz, etc... and revel in what a good comic truly is. And do everything in your power to get the evil power of Cathy removed from this mortal coil. She must be stopped, for the sake of our future.