Avatar

No race for me this weekend. I spent all day Saturday in Bellevue at a quarterly non-profit meeting. It's worthwhile, but I would've liked to be out there.

Afterwards, I saw Avatar in 3D. Technically, I think it actually might be 4D, since it is a moving picture involving time, the fourth dimension, but that is a real nerdbomber point to make. The movie is incredible, but I’m not into the glasses. I think I smudged mine a little bit with the butter from my popcorn, and I didn’t do a good job of cleaning them, or maybe it is just weird watching 3D. The stuff really comes out of the screen and towards you.

Also, I don’t really understand how the good guys can win in Avatar, without some interplanetary law to preserve native cultures. It seems like the Universe of Bad Guys would just keep coming at Na Hav'i, even if the clans won the first battle. There's a whole universe of greedy miners out there, and I just don't think they'd give up to the bows and arrows that easy. 

I really liked the movie.  The whole 3D thing is just amazing. It made me feel like a kid for a little while. The technology was fresh, like seeing something amazing for the first time, like Disneyland, or the first time I saw Star Wars.

Footnote:  Little has been made of the the fact that the blue guys and gals are trail runners. They run on giant tree limbs and get chased by wild animals. They are fast.

Today I went north on Chuckanut, and ran out to Lost Lake, via the Fragrance Lake Road. Not much to say about this, except not really a good run. The drive out was good. Coffee, my old pickup, through farmland. I really like the first part of the drive, before you get to the waterside. The road is empty in the morning, the birds line the wires, and you can see the farmland out to the islands. Mt. Baker was out this morning, and the swans were still flying around. I saw two vultures. They looked bigger than hawks, at least, and they were sitting in two different fields.

If you're local, the following Tuesday night event might be worthwhile. The presentation is put on as part of sports psychology training up at WWU, I think, and the speakers are good:

BELLINGHAM – Erin Porter Bembry, a short track speed skater who competed for the United States in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympic Games, and Donovan Tildesley, a Canadian swimmer and multiple medalist who, blind since birth, competed in the past three Summer Paralympics, will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, in Arntzen Hall Room 100 on the Western Washington University campus.