Candle Tunneling - How to Prevent

http://www.scentsnob.com/2013/09/how-to-prevent-candle-tunneling.html

This post suggests leaving the candle wick untrimmed (or slightly trimmed, if emitting black smoke), for the initial burn.

Books List - 2018

Ordered by most recently listened to, first.

Audiobooks 

1. Queue:
1. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974) - John le Carré 
2. The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (2007) - David Halberstam
1. Bob Hope performed in Pyongyang
2. Saying: "Die for a tie"
3. "Whom the gods destroy they first make mad"
4. Saying: "Uncle chump from over the hump" (meaning: cynical view of US support for Chiang Kai-shek via airflights over southern mountains)
5. Chinese attack music (e.g., bugles)
3. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race (2016) - Margot Lee Shetterly
1. Saying: "Think like a man, work like a dog, act like a lady" 
4. Small Fry (2018) - Lisa Brennan-Jobs
1. Toes are serifs of the feet
2. On painting: tree was just a shape
3. Verbal abuse from Steve clearly communicated in the audiobook
5. The Gods Themselves (1972) - Isaac Asimov
6. Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea (2008) - Chelsea Handler
1. Odd numbers catch the eye
2. Same blood type as Chelsea handler
7. Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World (2018) - Anand Giridharadas
1. Venture capitalists vs. Central planners (similarities)
2. Power poses Ted Talk by Amy Cuddy
3. B Corporations history
8. Barrel Fever (1994) - David Sedaris
1. Legit laughed out loud at the voice actor saying, "You can't kill the rooster"
9. Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation (2013) - Dan Fagin
1. "The dose makes the poison" -- Paracelsus
2. "All good work is done in defiance of management" -- quote over a desk of a reporter
10. Crazy Rich Asians (2013) - Kevin Kwan
1. So many adjectives
2. Western Christianity notes seemed discordant/autobiographical (?)
3. Suck cheeks in when taking pictures
11. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York 3/3 (1974) - Robert Caro
1. Robert Moses was a "synthetic figure"
12. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York 2/3 (1974) - Robert Caro
1. Moses was a natural bully ... he only seemed to respect those who stood up to him
13. Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World (2018) - Annie Lowrey
1. Stockton, California has a UBI (?)
2. Alaska has a UBI
3. UBI popularity and racial diversity (e.g., Norway, America)
14. The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy (2018) - Greg Miller
1. Team Trump used to using lawyers to their advantage (during private business), but seemed upset that not as effective in federal office
15. Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times (2018) - Mark Leibovich
1. Howard Johnson: secret for food consistency--increase cold or hot to mask differences
2. Film: Concussion (2015 film)
16. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York 1/3 (1974) - Robert Caro
1. This book won the Pulitzer Prize and represents a pleasure to listen to
2. "arrogance is, after all, one of the coefficients of money."
3. Song: The Sidewalks of New York"
4. LaGuardia! (E.A. Smith and the zoo animals)
5. Whipsaw: Definition
17. Democracy in America (1835–1840) - Alexis de Tocqueville
1. "The French, under the old monarchy, held it for a maxim (which is still a fundamental principle of the English Constitution) that the King could do no wrong; and if he did do wrong, the blame was imputed to his advisers."
2. "... the celebrated adage may then be applied to them, Homo puer robustus. This truth may even be perceived in America." The Latin phrase translates to, "a human being is a boy with strength".
18. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2014) - Yuval Noah Harari
1. It is uncomfortable to sit on bayonets
2. ‘Don’t believe a single word these people are telling you. They have come to steal your lands.’ (story)
3. Mathematics is not necessarily perfect; it can represent an approximation
4. Culture-ism
5. If you have the why, you can bear the how
19. Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture (2018) - Roxane Gay
1. This book helped me better understand the effects of many forms of sexual assault; probably one of my books of the year
2. We have to live in the house during the remodel
3. Min/max: bad enough vs. not so bad
4. Like re-breaking a crooked bone
20. The Federalist Papers (1787–1788) - Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
1. "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions." No. 51
2. Nugatory: of no value or importance
3. Cavil: make petty or unnecessary objections
4. "I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man." No. 85
5. Experience referenced as an argument on multiple occasions
21. My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands (2005) - Chelsea Handler
22. Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt (2014) - Michael Lewis
23. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (2018) - John Carreyrou
24. Leaves of Grass (1855) - Walt Whitman
1. O Captain! My Captain!
2. "Who are you indeed who would talk or sing to America?" (By Blue Ontario's Shore)
3. A real American treasure
4. "Concluding with two items for the imaginative genius of the West, when it worthily rises--First...that really great poetry is always...the result of a national spirit, and not the privilege of a polish'd and select few; Second, that the strongest and sweetest songs yet remain to be sung." - A Backward Glance o'er Travel'd Roads [Preface to November Boughs, 1888]
25. Fear: Trump in the White House (2018) - Bob Woodward
1. Archie bunker focused
26. Scrappy Little Nobody (2016) - Anna Kendrick
1. Started this with no context for her as an actress--never seen Pitch Perfect or Twilight
2. Clothing: get it tailored
3. Short people get teased too (e.g., juniors clothes)
4. Reminds me of Mindy Kaling's ability to pull back the veil vividly: hairdresser, awards, fashion, stars, acting, all the little details shared humorously and thoughtfully
27. Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America (2018) - James and Deborah Fallows
1. Understand a new town quickly: 
1. Visit the public library
2. View public art
2. Like watching slides at the house of a friend
3. Deborah Fallows' voice sounded youthful
28. Grant (2017) - Ron Chernow
1. In many ways, one of the greatest Americans, but flawed
2. Drinking (or lack of it) comes up frequently
3. Black people voting and bearing arms seemed the most terrifying to post-war southerners
4. John Brown's Body - basis for song Battle Hymn of the Republic
5. Major general John Sedgwick's (close to) last words: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
6. Who's buried in Grant's tomb? -- trick question comes from Groucho Marx
29. Wuthering Heights (1847) - Emily Brontë
1. Heathcliff's sociopathy reminded me of the character of Wolf Larsen, from Jack London's The Sea-Wolf (1904)
30. Call for the Dead (1961) - John le Carré
1. Delightful and fast-paced; George Smiley's introduction
31. The Haunting of Hill House (1959) - Shirley Jackson
1. While listening I attempted to see things from Hill House's perspective and by the end wanted to kill all the characters too
2. Note: it's actually quite fun to see things from the haunted house's perspective
32. House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia (2018) - Craig Unger
33. Thank You for Your Service (2013) - David Finkel
1. Outstanding; compassion and clear-eyed view
34. The View from the Cheap Seats (2016) - Neil Gaiman
1. It has moments, but often I felt the serial short bits unsatisfying (not Neil's fault, it's just when I was getting into it, it's over)
2. There is room for things to mean more than they literally mean
3. Bone comics
4. Neil pronounces the word corollary as "co ROLL ah ree"
35. Dear Life: Stories (2012) - by Alice Munro
1. Perspective of an octogenarian Canadian writer
2. Dinner != supper (thank you; I grew up in a mid-day dinner area)
3. Vancouver gets a mention--was there in 2017 and place names send me back
36. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016) - Matthew Desmond
1. Milwaukee as a segregated town
2. Poverty makes everything harder or impossible
3. There's money to be made off the poor
4. I've never experienced living in squalor as described: blocked pipes, leaking sinks, doors off hinges, no heat, trash everywhere; heartbreaking
37. In Search of Lost Time (Remembrances of Things Past) - The Captive (1913-1927) - Marcel Proust
1. It's Proust: joined clauses for days
2. "Jealousy fights empty air"
3. Next audiobook escapes copyright in 2020 : (
4. Narrator Neville Jason does such a great job; so sad he's gone
38. Meaty (2013) - Samantha Irby
1. Hilarious; she's a gem
2. Shaved Parmesan cheese way better than the powder stuff
39. The Book of Unknown Americans (2014) - Cristina Henríquez
1. Great book, I cried like a baby
40. Bad Feminist (2014) - Roxane Gay
1. Sweet Valley High - I shared this with Dawn
2. Scrabble champion - laughed at this
41. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (2010) - Michael Lewis
1. Sell-side people wear ties
2. Housing sales up in March/April because tax refunds arrive
3. Identifying train riders by subtle clues:
• BlackBerrys: hedge fund guys checking P&L in Asian markets
• Sleeping: Sell-side (e.g., brokers who don't have skin in the game)
• Briefcase/bag: Not on sell-side, because bags only carry brokerage research and brokers don't read their own reports in their spare time
• New York Times: lawyer, back-office person, someone who worked in the financial markets without being in the markets
• Guys who ran money: 
• Dressed as though going to Yankees game
• If buy-side guy dressed well, usually meant they're in trouble or meeting with someone who had given them money
• Blazer and khakis: broker at second-tier
• Three-thousand dollar suit and certain style hair: investment banker at J.P. Morgan, etc.
• Front of the train: downtowners--Goldman, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch
• Hedge fund guys: uptown
4. Ratings agencies dragged pretty hard in terms of intelligence of staff... In his opinion, they should be pinnacle of the industry, but sadly no
42. On the Origin of Species (1859) - Charles Darwin
1. It closed strong but man, I wanted a stiff drink to help slog through most of it
2. I loved the narrator pronouncing sloth like slow-th (long o)
3. Charles talks a bit about thinking in geologic time, imagining countless incremental changes over 100 million years ... He challenges the reader to try and imagine that time frame and I confess it's beyond me
43. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (2012) - Katherine Boo
1. Liked this book
44. Exit West (2017) - Mohsin Hamid
1. This was a bittersweet love story and done very well. Bravo
2. Depression is a failure to imagine a plausible, desirable future
45. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life (2017) - Samantha Irby
1. Laughed out loud multiple times 
2. Ms. Irby represents a national treasure
3. She wears Finn Comfort Augusta shoes
4. She mentioned something new-to-me: Meat and three (Nashville)
46. Talking as Fast as I Can: from Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between) (2016) - Lauren Graham
1. OK ... I haven't seen the show
47. A Line in the Dark (2018) - Malinda Lo
1. OK; I enjoyed the parts discussing her art the most
48. Less (2017) - Andrew Sean Greer
1. Had its moments--it felt wisely written
49. The Tao of Bill Murray: Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing (2016) - Gavin Edwards
1. Liked this book way more than I expected
2. Highly recommended
50. The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (2008) - Jeff Sharlet
1. A solid work that still rings true today (see: Mariia Butina)
51. Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less (2016) - Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
1. It's just ok. I think it might warrant more than one read
52. Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump (2018) - Michael Isikoff
1. Better than average ... but just ok
53. Her Body and Other Parties (2017) - Carmen Maria Machado
1. Wanted to like this one but it just didn't resonate ... I think the writing was fine, just didn't translate as well as an audiobook ... and I'm ignorant of Law and Order SVU, so the longest part of the book was meaningless and incomprehensible
54. Under the Udala Trees (2015) - Chinelo Okparanta
1. Loved it ... after the first two hours in, that is, when it introduced Amina
2. Lovely phrasings: "The saying goes that wood already touched by fire isn’t hard to set alight. ... Eventually our lips met. This was the beginning, our bodies being touched by the fire that was each other’s flesh."
3. Relationships felt honest and heartfelt
55. The Three Body Problem 三体 (2008) - Liu Cixin
1. I don't think I'll ever forget the scene of Judgement Day crossing the Panama Canal
56. The Other Einstein (2016) - Marie Benedict
1. Einstein as a deeply flawed person: from charming to asshole to wife batterer
2. "I'd become the embodiment of an old Serbian phrase, Ku a neže i na zemlji nego na eni; The house doesn't rest on the earth but on the woman."
57. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (2016) - Adam Grant
1. It's ... ok ... felt like it just moved from anecdote to anecdote without really convincing me
58. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010) - Rebecca Skloot
1. Liked this book for taking me inside the bubble of what descendants of famous people live through (and with)
2. Very human in many parts--visiting the graves, Deborah's mania
59. Lab Girl (2016) - Hope Jahren
1. Grateful to Hope and Bill for the often raw accounts: glass explosion, van overturning, mental health issues, etc.; it's all out there for everyone to absorb
2. Funding for science in America sucks 
3. I enjoyed the science discussions best, though at times the lack of empathy startled me (e.g., not letting the woman go home after overturning the van)
4. I found the more poetic writings (e.g., early childhood) overwrought with too much pathos
60. Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me (2017) - Janet Mock
1. Thank you Janet for helping me see life through your eyes
2. She used AOL Instant Messenger
3. Janet Mock commenting on Holly Golightly: "the outsider looking in"
61. A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) - John Kennedy Toole
1. "...when a great genius appears in the world the dunces are all in confederacy against him." - Jonathan Swift, Essay on the Fates of Clergymen (1728)
2. Loved Barrett Whitener's voicing of Ignatius' exclamation "Oh my GOD!" in a Southern American English dialect (which one? sounds like Foghorn Leghorn)
62. An Unkindness of Ghosts (2017) - Rivers Solomon
1. Worth a read; the ending confused me and I wish she kept going
63. The Underground Railroad (2016) - Colson Whitehead
1. Powerful
2. Memorizing the Declaration of Independence
64. The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World (2011) - David Deutsch
1. Finally, an explanation of the wave/particle duality which makes some sense
2. More important for politics to correct mistakes
3. Banning debate the worst of all
4. Instrumentalism
65. Outliers: The Story of Success (2008) - Malcolm Gladwell
1. Lots of interesting tidbits that help make sense of why some succeed and others don't (hello, hockey players born around January)
2. "Distance, distrust, and constraint": characterizations of children of the working-class and the poor (sociologist Annette Lareau)
66. Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China; also: Once Upon a Time in the East (2017) - Xiaolu Guo (郭小橹)
1. Liked this book for the honesty: food insecurity, domestic violence, extreme poverty, life in China as a native, artistic striving
67. Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness (2018) - Rick Hanson and Forrest Hanson
1. OK
68. Turtles All the Way Down (2017) - John Green
1. I enjoyed this for the perspective it provides on the protagonist, who suffers from anxiety
69. Jerry on Jerry: The Unpublished Jerry Garcia Interviews (2015) - Dennis McNally
1. Interview audio quality rough in spots
70. A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) - Amor Towles
1. Food and wine pairings delight
2. Near the end of this book it talks about Mishka's book, "Bread and Salt" :
1. "Papa, when they put the dirt on my grave, crumble a a crust of BREAD on it so the sparrows will come, and I'll hear that they've come and be glad that I'm not lying alone." (Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov)
2. Bread and salt on the table—“that ancient Russian symbol of hospitality”
71. Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (2018) - Steven Pinker
1. Ok
72. The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986) - Richard Rhodes
1. Learned Neils Bohr escaped to Scotland in the bomb bay of a de Havilland Mosquito and passed out from oxygen starvation
2. Interleaves the scientific, political, and military threads
3. Unflinchingly describes horrific suffering, both from atomic bombs (Japan) and traditional incendiaries (e.g., Dresden)
73. The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe (1993 second edition) - Steven Weinberg 
1. Loved this book
74. Just the Funny Parts: … And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into the Hollywood Boys’ Club (2018) - Nell Scovell
1. Good read
75. Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change (2006) - Elizabeth Kolbert
76. The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan (1991) - Robert Kanigel
1. Liked this book
77. It's a Long Story: My Life (2015) - Willie Nelson
1. Liked this much more than Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road (2011)
2. Anecdote about burning down his hometown's billboard celebrating him has stuck with me, as has his falling out of a tree (which got him a discharge)
78. Arcadia (1993) - Tom Stoppard
1. Ok--can see why it works as a play; as an audiobook, went by so fast
79. Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) - George Saunders
1. Didn't grab me
80. In Search of Lost Time (Remembrances of Things Past) - Sodom and Gomorrah (1913-1927) - Marcel Proust
1. It's Proust; it's complicated
81. A History of Ancient Greece (2007) - Eric H. Cline
82. How to Fall in Love with Anyone: A Memoir in Essays (2017) - Mandy Len Catron
83. Five-Carat Soul (2017) - James McBride
84. The Shadow in the Garden: A Biographer's Tale (2017) - James Atlas
1. Lots of interactions with Saul Bellows
85. Janesville: An American Story (2017) - Amy Goldstein
86. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) (2011) - Mindy Kaling
87. Why Not Me? (2015) - Mindy Kaling
1. Thank you Mindy, for giving me karaoke tips
88. Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) - Jesmyn Ward
1. Powerful
89. Alexander Hamilton (2004) - Ron Chernow
90. Anything is Possible (2017) - Elizabeth Strout
91. The Power (2016) - Naomi Alderman
92. Hamilton: The Revolution (2016) - Lin-Manuel Miranda (with Jeremy McCarter)
93. But Seriously (2017) - John McEnroe
1. Wanted to like this book, but didn't resonate
94. Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII (2011) - Chester Nez with Judith Schiess Avila 
95. The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–1845) - Alexandre Dumas
1. Lovely
96. Confessions of a Funeral Director: How the Business of Death Saved My Life (2017) - Caleb Wilde
97. Getting Off: One Woman's Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction (2017) - Erica Garza
98. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House (2018) - Michael Wolff
99. Al Franken, Giant of the Senate (2017) - Al Franken
1. Laughed out loud at a Ted Cruz joke: "When most people think of a cruise full of shit, they think of Carnival. But we think of Ted."
100. 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West (2005) - Roger Crowley
101. Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS (2016) - Joby Warrick
102. The Weight of Ink (2017) - Rachel Kadish
1. Libraries - a book that speaks to my inner reader
103. What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (2014) - Randall Munroe
1. Don't remember anything about this book...
104. The Little Book of Hygge (2016) - Meik Wiking
1. I think I can pronounce the word "hygge" now...kept saying it over and over trying to match the audiobook pronunciation 
105. In Search of Lost Time (Remembrances of Things Past) - The Guermantes Way (1913-1927) - Marcel Proust
1. It's Proust; unapologetically perceptive and revealingly descriptive

Using the Overdrive app.

E-Books

1. What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia (2018) - Elizabeth Catte

Print

1. None

Suggestions

• 2018-01-08: David Finkel's The Good Soldiers (via)
• Note: ebook only (Overdrive)
• Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) - George Saunders
• Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) - Jesmyn Ward
• President Obama's reading list (c. Dec 2017):
• The Power by Naomi Alderman
• Grant by Ron Chernow
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond 
• Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein
• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 
• Five-Carat Soul by James McBride 
• Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
• Dying: A Memoir by Cory Taylor
• ebook only (Overdrive) - audiobook recommended 07/18/2018
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
• *Bonus for hoops fans: Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Basketball (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano
• Josh Marshall 2017 Holiday recommendations:
• Eric H. Cline: 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History)
• Only History of Ancient Greece available
• Roger Crowley: Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World
• City of Fortune and Conquerers recommendable as audiobooks
• David Abulafia: The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean
• Nothing as of 07/18/2018
• James Romm: Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for His Empire
• ebook only (Overdrive) as of 07/18/2018
• Peter Heather: 
• The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
• Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe
• The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders
• Note: ebook only; audiobook not recommendable (Overdrive) as of 07/18/2018
• Hugh Thomas: Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico
• Nothing available as of 07/18/2018
• Lionel Casson: Libraries in the Ancient World
• Unavailable in any format (Overdrive)
• Life in Ancient Rome recommendable as Audiobook (Overdrive)
• Bill Gates - 5 amazing books I read this year
• The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui
• ebook only (Overdrive)
• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond
• Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens, by Eddie Izzard
• The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
• ebook only (Overdrive)
• Energy and Civilization: A History, by Vaclav Smil
• Audiobook recommended (or at least I can when it lets me recommend more)
• Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick
• Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
• The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
• ebook only (Overdrive)
• HackerNews
• Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?

Previously

Slow Slow Sloth Neul (South Korea)

As seen in Puuung.

30,000원

ORDERING
If you live outside Korea, you most likely find it very difficult to navigate the Neul web site--and even if you do, you may still need to pay using a Korean payment method.

Instead, I recommend using a Korea Buying Service Agent; we used AllThatSales, which has an online order form:
https://www.allthatsales.com/buy-from-korea

• Name: Enter your first and last name
• Paypal: Enter your PayPal email address
• Product URL: http://sevensloth.cafe24.com/product/detail.html?product_no=17&cate_no=1&display_group=2
• Order Quantity: Enter order quantity
• Delivery Address: Enter your mailing address
• Contact Number: Enter your phone number
• Shipping option: Enter the desired option (note: we chose Korea Post Sea Parcel--time was six weeks to deliver)
• Service type: Buying Service

AllThatSales staff responded promptly; I submitted the form on Sunday, 2017-09-03 at 7:07 p.m. PDT (Monday at 11:07 a.m., Seoul time), and AllThatSales staff responded by 2017-09-03 at 10:20 p.m. PDT (Monday at 2:20 p.m., Seoul time).

Invoices were provided automatically via Wix.com. Staff also provided receipts upon request. They were very helpful.

AllThatSales staff shipped the received package on 2017-09-09, providing a tracking number generated by Korea Post.

Purchasing fee:
Minimum Buying Service Fixed 2.5USD under 50USD: $2.50 x Qty. 1 = USD$2.50
Product 낮잠인형 '늘' $28.10 x Qty. 1 = USD$28.10
Paypal Fee (4.3%): $1.32
Total: USD$31.92

Shipping Cost:
Surface parcel (880g) to USA: USD$11.11 x Qty. 1 = USD$11.11
Package Forwarding 5USD Fixed Cost for International Package Handling: $5.00 x Qty. 1 = USD$5
Paypal Fee (4.3%): USD$0.69
Total: USD$16.80

Grand total: USD$48.72

Shipping details:
Shipped via Korea Post Seoul, 2017-09-09
Arrived Korea Busan, 2017-09-12
... unknown delays...probably waiting for container to fill ...
Arrived United States - USPS facility in JERSEY CITY NJ NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER: 2017-10-26
Delivered California: 2017-11-01

NOTES
The plush had a very strong perfume smell when first unboxed. It arrived wrapped in plastic, in a single cardboard box. Over time, the perfume smell has dissipated. It now has a faint smell, not unpleasant.

LINKS
http://neulshop.com/

http://www.7sloth.com/

http://seven_sloth.blog.me/

https://www.facebook.com/slothneul

https://www.instagram.com/slothneul/

Earthquake Santa Cruz

Just felt my first earthquake here in Santa Cruz, California, a 4.1 M temblor NE of here.

Destruction leads to a very rough road
But it also breeds creation
And earthquakes are to a girl's guitar
That's just another good vibration

-- Red Hot Chili Peppers, Californication 

Details:
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc72906781#executive

Last earthquake we felt was in Sacramento, California

Mike Browne Photography

Mike Browne's Photography Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs4S07E5NC0R7pVuzBJ0e8Q

Really like his videos on focal length. For example, this one shot near Avebury:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3A3SnPFPk0

Vancouver Trip - Day 12

TIMELINE

• 8:30 a.m. Awake
• 9:15 a.m. Breakfast - Skwachays Healing Lodge cafeteria
• 10:15 a.m. Walked to Gastown area; at Hudson House Trading Company - Gifts
• 11:10 a.m. Checkout - Skwachays, depart for airport
• 12:15 p.m. Arrive via Canada Line to YVR
• 12:24 p.m. Lattimer Gallery Shop - Vancouver International Airport
• 1:41 p.m. Starbucks - Lunch
• 1:47 p.m. Skyway Sandwiches - Lunch 
• 2:30 p.m. Flight departs for San Jose
• 4:45 p.m. Arrive San Jose
• 5:00 p.m. Call Air Canada to report broken zipper on luggage
• 5:45 p.m. Exited YVR Economy Lot
• 7:00 p.m. Penny Ice Creamery - Dinner
• 7:30 p.m. Home - Unpacking, cleaning, laundry, and so forth
• 9:15 p.m. New Leaf - Groceries
• 9:45 p.m. Home - Blogging, receipts, more laundry
• Midnight - Asleep

NOTES

• Feeling better but body still producing phlegm so not out of the woods yet...but much improved
• Two random artists not sure I mentioned:
• Les Finnigan - Guitar player on Granville Island
• Kaori Kasai - artist
• Called Toyota of Vacaville twice and finally got a callback saying the car was ready for pickup
• Finished watching Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - Air Canada charged for the headphones this trip, but they didn't on the previous flight (?)
• Bittersweet to leave Vancouver
• Public transportation just so seamless: Expo line to Richmond–Brighouse line to YVR...very easy and fast
• Missed opportunity to eat Tim Horton's smores donut...found two Tim Horton's in the USA departures terminal but one closed and the other sold out of them
• Skwachays Healing Lodge
• Viewed Smudge room and Sweat lodge patio; staff member helpfully volunteered to let us see it
• Has 7th floor, but rooms accessed via door on the 6th floor...that is, 6th floor rooms stacked...room 606 on 6th floor, but room 607, with entrance door right next to room 606, requires walking up stairs to 7th floor
• Samsung in-room audio speakers paired perfectly with our S7 Galaxy phone...listened to RHCP a bit
• Staff super-helpful; wish we had the $30,000 to buy the beautiful wooden artwork in the gallery
• Food:
• Skwachays: mini quiche, sweet breads, fry bread and cinnamon sugar fry bread, coffee, fruit yogurt jars
• Skyway Sandwiches: Veggie sandwich
• Starbucks: Chocolate loaf, americano decaf
• Penny Ice Creamery: Chocolate sorbet, Verve Coffee with chocolate almond praline, in a bowl with crushed waffle cone on top
• Supper: at home, Boomerangs (Australian hand pies)

Vancouver Trip - Day 11

TIMELINE

• 9:00 a.m. Awake
• 9:45 a.m. Skwachays Healing Lodge - Breakfast
• 11:45 a.m. Bloedel Floral Conservatory
• 12:50 p.m. Began walk to VanDusen
• 1:30 p.m. Arrive VanDusen Botanical Garden
• 1:40 p.m. Truffles Fine Foods Cafe - Lunch
• 1:55 p.m. Enter VanDusen Botanical Garden
• 4:00 p.m. Leave VanDusen Botanical Garden
• 5:05 p.m. Capilano Suspension Bridge Park
• 6:55 p.m. Lonsdale Quay - boarded SeaBus
• 7:15 p.m. Elephant & Castle Pub and Restaurant - Dinner
• 8:45 p.m. Hotel

NOTES

• Skwachay's Healing Lodge
• Staff was very friendly, assisting us in getting to our first destination by public transit
• Gallery had original and certified Canadian artists, but we did not find anything in our price range
• Overall a very positive experience here, but it does exist in an area transitioning to a better place (we hope)
• For example, as we browsed, we overheard an artist describe an assault as she made her way to the hotel (apparently someone awoke on the sidewalk and swung at her and missed)
• Bloedel Floral Conservatory
• Overlook of Vancouver--can see many landmark buildings and Grouse Mountain
• Warm and humid
• Koi pond--learned some live to 200 years old
• Posed with many macaws
• During feeding time, many birds landed right in front of us, and some walked along path beside us
• VanDusen Botanical Garden
• 55 acres
• We wandered through the hedge maze for about five minutes--very nice
• Dawn found a Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)! It was their tree of the month in July 2016
• Passed fountains, ducks, a sunning turtle, bridges, a Korean pavilion, a medicine wheel stone circle, totem poles, sculpture, and a lot of plants--they need 1,200 volunteers and six full-time gardeners plus interns to maintain it
• We really enjoyed the entire place--hastened to leave to overcome one final destination...
• Really cute kid in a stroller responded to smiley faces I made at him from across the bus; Dawn and I both enjoyed it
• Capilano Suspension Bridge
• Hustled to get there from VanDusen--Vancouver public transit just great
• Dawn successfully navigated the suspension bridge, the treetop adventure, and the cliff walk--even the scariest parts of the glass floor and open grating overhangs
• Rained on the reverse crossing of the suspension bridge and got pics of a rainbow
• Pumpkins out in celebration of fall
• SeaBus - Sunset crossing
• Food
• Skwachays breakfast: mini-quiche, muffins, coffee, maple syrup, sweet breads
• Truffles Fine Foods Cafe: 
• Classic roast turkey & brie with green apples, watercress, and mayo, on cranberry sourdough bread
• Dessert in Jar: Chocolate Mousse
• Pumpkin spice latte
• Really nice place, great food
• Elephant & Castle Pub and Restaurant - 
• Herbal tea, shepherd's pie: seasoned ground beef, lamb & vegetables, topped w/ garlic mashed potatoes, crisp onions & rich beef gravy. served w/ a mixed green salad
• Watched American football, no British flag in sight--food good though

Vancouver Trip - Day 10

TIMELINE

• 9:00 a.m. Awake
• 9:55 a.m. Cora Victoria - Breakfast
• 10:37 a.m. Rexall #7121 - DayQuil
• 11:45 a.m. Board BC Ferries Connector Bus, Victoria
• 1:00 p.m. Board BC Ferry Coastal Celebration
• 1:40 p.m. BC Ferries Cafeteria - Lunch
• 3:45 p.m. Bus disembarks ferry
• 4:05 p.m. Disembark bus at Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, take Blue Line to hotel
• 4:30 p.m. Hotel check-in
• 5:15 p.m. Leave hotel on Chinatown/Gastown walk
• 6:15 p.m. Trees Organic Coffee - Dinner 
• 6:35 p.m. Vegan Pudding & Company - Dinner
• 7:00 p.m. Black Lounge & Casual Kitchen - Dinner
• 8:00 p.m. Catfe cat cafe
• 9:00 p.m. Hotel

NOTES

• Cora restaurant chain has a sun very similar to one I used to draw 20 years ago
• BC Ferries Connector very nice experience, but traffic bad coming into Vancouver, so we got off early and took the Blue Line to the hotel rather than take the bus to Pacific Central Station
• Columbia Street between Keefer and Powell sketchy
• Heard steam clock chime 6:00 p.m., then watched it at 6:15 p.m. as it intoned the first four notes
• Maple Tree Square a lovely spot
• Hill's NW Coast Native Art store overwhelmed me with masks, heavyweight wool clothing, paintings, jewelry...great!
• Catfe:
• Walkin appointment late in the day
• A few cats out and active, a few asleep
• Purchased Catfe tee shirt
• Food
• Cora Victoria: 
• Strawberry-banana 3 layers of pancakes and a delicious mix of strawberries and bananas, drizzled with strawberry sauce and served with English cream Cora style. Also offered in a smaller serving.
• Ode to oatmeal: Oatmeal with English cream Cora style, blueberries, strawberries and harvest crunch*. All drizzled with pure maple syrup and served with toast. 
• BC Ferry
• Veggie Burger, fries, root beer
• Espresso shot
• Trees Organic Coffee - 
• Chocoholic Cheesecake For the serious chocolate lover. Layers of dark and milk chocolate will satisfy any craving
• Really great cheesecake!
• Vegan Pudding & Company - 
• Matcha Green Tea Pudding: with roasted black sesame sauce
• Cashier seemed like a sterotypical Japanese anime character, in a positive way...like a manic pixie with infectious enthusiasm
• Black Lounge & Casual Kitchen - 
• Pint of Guinness, Chicken Mushroom Alfredo spaghettini topped with pan fried mushrooms, spinach, fresh garlic alfredo, fresh tomatoes and green onion served with garlic toast
• Probably best chicken alfredo I've had
• Catfe - Chococat hot chocolate, Mulberry tea

Vancouver Trip - Day 9

TIMELINE

• 10:30 a.m. Breakfast - Jonathan's Restaurant
• 11:00 a.m. Royal British Columbia Museum
• Noon IMAX 4K Laser film - The Search for Life in Space
• 1:45 p.m. Lunch - Puerto Vallarta Amigos Food Truck (Behind museum)
• 5:00 p.m. Dinner - Fairmont Empress Hotel (High Tea)
• 6:00 p.m. Royal BC Museum
• 9:30 p.m. Leave museum
• 9:45 p.m. Hotel

NOTES

• Decided not to go to Butchart Gardens due to 5:00 p.m. tea time and rain
• Royal British Columbia Museum
• High quality exhibits, both natural history and modern history
• Our Living Languages and First Peoples exhibits/galleries outstanding
• Exhibitions:
• Terry Fox: Running to the Heart of Canada
• Our Living Languages: First Peoples' Voices in BC
• Natural History Galleries
• First Peoples Galleries
• Modern History Galleries
• Food
• Jonathan's Restaurant
• Oatmeal, side of potatoes
• Stuffed French toast with strawberries and brie
• Puerto Vallarta Amigos Food Truck
• Bean and cheese burrito
• Chicken burrito, root beer
• Fairmont Empress High Tea
• Savory
• Smoked Salmon On Blini - Classically presented with avocado cream cheese and pickled red onion garnish
• Hand Peeled Local Shrimp - Ginger lemon mascarpone, seaweed cone
• English Cucumber On Rye - Heirloom cucumbers from sunwing farms, fennel pollen, dill cream cheese
• Coronation Chicken On Brioche - Chicken breast, red pepper, red onion, almonds, pineapple; originally served for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and still a favourite at Buckingham Palace
• Signature Empress Warm Raisin Scones - House made clotted cream with strawberry lavender preserve
• Sweet
• Rooibos Provence & Hazelnut Delice - Rooibos tea infused provence served on a soft, local hazelnut delice
• Lemon Poppy Shortbread - A favourite of Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones, Princess Margaret's daughter
• Etenia Passion Fruit Cremeux Tart - Empress signature etenia chocolate with a balanced passionfruit cream centre
• Okanagan Apple & Crown Royal Spice Cake - Local blackberry butter frosting tops this classic royal spice cake
• Berry Pistachio Daisy - White chocolate cup filled with pistachio cream topped with fresh berries
• Tea
• Rose Congou Emperor - Five times layered with rose petals. A favorite of Princess Diana.
• Joie de Provence - An organic herbal rooibus tea. Fruity ripe berry notes balanced with mild lavender.

Vancouver Trip - Day 8

TIMELINE

• 9:55 a.m. Tim Horton's #2467 - Breakfast
• 10:15 a.m. Rexall drug store - anti-dizziness pills
• 11:00 a.m. Lucky Osaka Sushi at Pacific Central Station - Lunch
• 11:45 a.m. Depart on BCF Connector bus
• 12:45 p.m. Arrive at Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal, board ferry
• 1:25 p.m. BC Ferries Spirit of Vancouver Cafeteria - Lunch
• 2:35 p.m. Arrive Swarz Bay, depart ferry on bus
• 3:20 p.m. Arrive Victoria, depart bus, walk to hotel
• 3:30 p.m. Check-in at Royal Scot Hotel & Suites
• 4:00 p.m. Beacon Hill Park walk
• 6:45 p.m. Swan's Brew Pub - Dinner
• 7:35 p.m. Rocky Mountain Chocolate - Dessert
• 8:00 p.m. Hotel
• 10:00 p.m. Asleep

NOTES

• Took Fairmont Hotel Vancouver elevator to top floor, giving us a view of several gargoyles, a grand piano which Dawn briefly played, and a closed-off roof restaurant, but not much else
• Rose 31 perfuming body lotion a Dawn favorite
• Someone discarded their IROS 2017 tote bag on a fire hydrant outside the hotel
• Beacon Hill Park has flowers, ponds, fountains, ducks & geese, an overlook of the bay, a cricket pitch, and the world's largest totem pole
• Neither guidebook seems to say much about Victoria, so sort of winged it; used the Lonely Planet app to help narrow down what to see, but not much
• British Columbia Parliament Buildings and front fountain illuminated at night
• Horse-drawn carriages make clip-clopping noises through our windows
• Watched the Johnson Street Bridge open to allow a ship to pass
• Went to The Drake first, but found food selection not to our taste
• Munro's Books - Phoebe and Her Unicorn series has a new book which caught our eye, as did a new Sarah's Scribbles book, but we decided we didn't need more books to lug around...might buy when we get back
• Passed Bastion Square arch
• Almost all stores closed by 5:00 p.m. ... that was our running joke
• Pacific Central Station has columns in front and vestigial technology like empty phone booths inside; architecture of a different era (I liked it)
• Accosted by vendor wanting to show us the "eighth wonder of the world", which irritated Dawn further when he said, "How can you dismiss it like that?"
• Food:
• Tim Horton's - oatmeal (maple, berry), side of hasbrowns, pumpkin spice latte
• Lucky Osaka Sushi at Pacific Central Station - Veggie roll
• Central Station Cappuccino Bar - espresso shot, banana 
• BC Ferries Spirit of Vancouver Cafeteria - Veggie burger, fries, root beer
• Swan's Brew Pub - bacon mac & cheese, veggie panini & fries
• Rocky Mountain Chocolate - Chocolate covered brownie on a stick with M&M topping

Vancouver Trip - Day 7

TIMELINE

• 7:30 a.m. Awake
• 8:57 a.m. Blenz Coffee - Breakfast
• 9:15 a.m. Tractor Foods - Breakfast
• 9:45 a.m. Festal Paleo Cafe - Breakfast
• 10:00 a.m. On Canada Line
• 10:20 a.m. Begin False Creek walk
• 11:00 a.m. Pass Science World
• 11:25 a.m. Terra Breads #1 - Lunch
• 1:00 p.m. Ended False Creek walk
• 1:20 p.m. Stuart's @ Granville Island - Lunch
• 1:25 p.m. Rogers' Chocolates
• 2:30 p.m. Ainsworth Custom Design Art Studio
• 2:50 p.m. Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts - Lunch
• 3:05 p.m. Hotel
• 4:50 p.m. Met Dawn, ate dinner at Thai Express
• 6:00 p.m. Attended Jorge Cham talk at IROS 2017
• 8:25 p.m. Starbucks decaf to go with celebratory dessert
• 8:45 p.m. Back at hotel; news, blog, receipts, book ferry, and so forth
• 11:30 p.m. Asleep

NOTES

• False Creek Walk
• Pleasant walk, good weather
• One boat flew Soviet flag
• One boat name seemed vandalized, with "Blow Me" crudely painted
• Graffiti art of startled cat under Cambie Street bridge
• Watched a crow open an unattended backpack and remove a paper bag of food
• Jorge Cham talk:
• Points delivered humorously, in collaboration with PowerPoint 
• Credited Stanford professor Bernard Roth with challenging him to change his thinking on "things we have to do"--Dr. Roth proposed we do the things we do because we want to do them
• Proposed guilt as the main reason we avoid procrastination
• Food:
• Blenz: decaf coffee
• Tractor Foods: Cold day-old oats with blueberry and raspberry compote and granola, apple muffin
• Festal Paleo Cafe: espresso shot
• Terra Breads #1: mushroom, leek, and quinoa soup, with stecca bread
• Stuart's @ Granville Island: Turtle Cheesecake
• Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts: Lime Coconut Puff, Chocolate Eclair, Tropical Fave
• Thai Express: mediocre vegetable fried rice and yellow curry

Vancouver Trip - Day 6

TIMELINE

• 7:00 a.m. Awake
• 9:00 a.m. Blenz Coffee Bentall 5 - Breakfast
• 9:15 a.m. Vancouver Convention Centre - Breakfast
• 10:42 a.m. Capilano Suspension Bridge
• Noon Bus to Grouse Mountain
• 12:20 p.m. Start Grouse Grind trail ascent
• 2:24 p.m. Finish Grouse Grind trail ascent (2 hours, 4 minutes)
• 2:30 p.m. Grouse Mountain summit cafe - Lunch
• 2:40 p.m. Grouse Mountain summit gift shop
• 2:50 p.m. Board gondola to return to parking lot
• 2:56 p.m. Disembark gondola
• 3:10 p.m. Board bus to Lonsdale Quay
• 3:45 p.m. Lonsdale Quay - Boarding SeaBus
• 4:00 p.m. Canada Place - Disembarking SeaBus
• 5:30 p.m. Dawn's conference presentation
• 6:57 p.m. La Taqueria Pinche Taco Shop - Dinner
• 7:30 p.m. Hotel - shower, change clothes, receipts, blogging, and so forth
• 9:40 p.m. Dawn done with convention dinner
• 10:00 p.m. Vancouver Lookout
• 11:00 p.m. Back at hotel
• 11:30 p.m. Asleep

NOTES

• Sick - runny nose; moving forward nonetheless
• Capilano Suspension Bridge:
• Arrived around 10:30 a.m. and glad not later--coming back across the suspension bridge was a crawl by 11:30 a.m.
• Bridge wobbles but has fine chain fence enclosures and thick cable at my elbow height, so didn't feel afraid, just a bit off balance
• Skipped bathrooms by parking lot (line) and found bathrooms inside the gate empty
• Treetops Adventure was well done but I moved through it quickly...wanted to get through it and get to Grouse Mountain
• Cliffwalk was also well done but moved through quickly
• Wifi password: "csbguest"
• Grouse Mountain's Grouse Grind trail:
• Facts (via):
• 2.9-kilometre trail up the face of Grouse Mountain, commonly referred to as “Mother Nature’s Stairmaster.”
• Elevation Gain: 853 metres (2,800 feet) 
• Base: 274 metres above sea level (900 feet)
• Summit: 1,127 metres (3,700 feet) 
• Total Stairs: 2,830
• Completed in 2:04:00 (average time: 90 minutes)
• Saw woman with baby climbing
• Took a slow methodical climb and finished feeling tired--but not wrecked...rest of day was able to function OK
• Entrance was quite a bit away from the gondolas, out on the road
• Regretted not wearing technical shirt--cotton tee shirt soaked up sweat and shocked me with cold when put backpack back on
• Stopped a few times to rest, eat a bit of a cheese muffin, and drink water...really out to enjoy
• Quite a few people out for speed and let them by; easy to hear huffing and puffing as they approached
• Lots of trees and a few chipmunks...saw bits of the bay far below nearer the top
• Getting to "1/4 Mile" sign put in perspective how far/long ascent would take
• Another woman complained of asthma and stopped frequently...I trailed her and her daughter for some time, until I took a break and they disappeared on ahead
• Lots of handy ropes and stairs...helped me a few times keep balanced
• Gave up caring about wiping away sweat after about 30 minutes...realized no way to finish without getting drenched...accepted it and moved on
• Gondola down took only six minutes
• Proud I finished
• SeaBus: 
• No problems at all; super easy to board/disembark
• Saw a helijet with rotors spinning on the Vancouver side
• Learned "quay" gets prounced "key", not like "quail"
• Dawn's presentation: 
• Thought she did a great job; sounded confident and slides looked professional
• Enjoyed seeing other presenters discuss microrobotics topics, including a mini robot that follows plumes of aerosols to the source using Levy Walk and spiral surge techniques
• Vancouver Lookout: empty when we visited (10:00 p.m.)...beautiful city lights
• Food:
• Vancouver Convention Centre coffee shop - pumpkin muffin, sausage biscuit, cheese muffin, espresso shot
• Capilano Suspension Bridge - Earl Gray tea to help soothe throat
• Grouse Mountain Summit - Espresso shot
• La Taqueria Pinche Taco Shop - breakfast burrito special (black beans, soft egg, mini potatoes, etc.)
• Canada Place - Jugo Juice Acai Protein 

Vancouver Trip - Day 5

TIMELINE

• 8:00 a.m. Awake
• 9:00 a.m. Blenz Coffee - Bentall 5
• 9:20 a.m. Tractor Foods - 335 Burrard St.
• 10:00 a.m. Back at hotel
• 10:30 a.m. Left hotel for laundry
• 11:00 a.m. At Laundry Valet, 1238 Davie St, Vancouver
• 12:15 p.m. Heading back to hotel
• 1:00 p.m. Back at hotel
• 1:22 p.m. Hotel Fairmont Vancouver - Business Services print/scan/email
• 1:45 p.m. Caffe Artigiano - 763 Hornby Street
• 2:00 p.m. Vancouver Art Gallery
• 5:30 p.m. Pendulum Gallery
• 5:45 p.m. Vancouver Convention Center, West Building - Meet Dawn
• 7:00 p.m. The Hastings Warehouse
• 7:53 p.m. Bella Gelateria
• 8:15 p.m. Returned to hotel - put away laundry, receipts, blog, and so forth
• 10:30 p.m. Asleep

NOTES

• Laundry day
• Laundry Valet:
• Staff super helpful; best laundromat experience I've had
• Total cost: $CAD 5-6
• They name the washers and dryers: ours were "Samuel" and "Lady Gaga"
• Fairmont Hotel Vancouver charged fees way out of our price range
• Good deeds:
• Helped guy get back to his cruise ship at Canada Place
• Helped three young travelers looking for Vancouver Info Centre
• Vancouver Art Gallery:
• Claude Monet’s Secret Garden
• Paintings primarily from the Musée Marmottan Monet, I believe
• "The exhibition culminates in a major series of paintings executed in his famous gardens in the French village of Giverny, where Monet lived from 1883 to the end of his life. This series reveals Monet’s astute and sustained visual exploration of plants and water. His distinctive renderings of weeping willows, waterlilies and the Japanese bridge in his garden are among the most iconic imagery in Western painting today."
• Cataracts affected his ability to paint during his last two decades--later paintings seemed more abstract (though not all!)
• Stephen Shore: The Giverny Portfolio, another exhibit, showed 25 photographs of Giverny, including weeping willows, lilies, and arches
• Emily Carr: Into the Forest
• Contrast between new and old
• She painted most of her works in later life -- found myself wondering how age affected her perception of old and new trees in the art
• Easy for me to see the waving grasses she witnessed
• Elad Lassry
• A film projector displaying a motion picture art piece - I enjoyed the technology more than the art
• Pendulum Gallery - per a security guard, the pendulum was not moving due to work on the roof
• Bella Gelateria
• Cone with chocolate brownie and chocolate cherry gelato
• This place won first prize at the 2012  Firenze Gelato Festival with a "pecan and Canadian maple syrup gelato"
• Tractor Foods: they lost my sandwich order but gave me a free lemonade to say thanks--food so good!
• Caffe Artigiano - had an espresso shot and a ham/cheese pastry
• The Hastings Warehouse - meals for only $4.95! Slow but super good...best deal in town
• Kind of an overall catchup day today: apartment rental, tee shirt, Amazon return issue, laundry, and so forth. 

Vancouver Trip - Day 4

TIMELINE

• 8:00 a.m. Awake
• 9:10 a.m. Breakfast - Tim Hortons #4944
• 10:30 a.m. Check out, walk to new hotel, check in
• 11:00 a.m. IROS 2017 registration
• 11:53 a.m. Lunch - Tractor Foods @ 335 Burrard Street
• Noon - Bus to University of British Columbia
• 1:30 p.m. Nitobe Memorial Garden | UBC Botanical Garden
• 2:00 p.m. Museum of Anthropology at UBC
• 5:00 p.m. Bus back to downtown
• 6:10 p.m. Dinner - Yah-Yah-Ya Ramen
• 6:30 p.m. Back at hotel; blogging, news, UCSC CPSRC web page editing, receipts
• 10:30 p.m. Asleep

NOTES

• Scratchy throat...getting sicker
• Hotel Fairmont Vancouver:
• Resident black lab in their lobby (Ollie?)
• Roof access (?)
• Toilet handle needs jiggling to get the flapper down
• Electric/USB ports built-into nightstand
• View of Tiffany, Dior
• Large walk-in closet
• Rainfall shower head
• University of British Columbia:
• Nitobe Memorial Garden - lush, green, stone, grass, waterfalls, wooden bridges, tea house, koi fish, pond
• Museum of Anthropology - totem poles, masks, masterworks, pottery, exhibit on the Amazon, Dawn wondered about wearing the masks with the movable lower jaws, potlatch
• Fall colors appearing
• X̱wi7x̱wa Library (Squamish language-the number 7 represents a shorthand for glottal stop)
• Student Nest
• West 4th Avenue has a lot of commercial activity
• IROS 2017 registration went smoothly; found the room Dawn will present at; the conference wireless password starts with "v" and represents the name of a city....
• CityPass coupon saved us $18 already, so almost break-even ($25 cost)
• Called Toyota of Vacaville about car...corrected my email address, authorized car repair...way more than what it should cost and probably doesn't include labor, but there it is
• Make store at Granville Island responded and we settled on a color (heathered purple) for Dawn's tee shirt -- Lauren great at customer service

Ainsworth Custom Fabrication - Art Collective Storefront

This place represents my favorite Vancouver place, to-date:

http://granvilleisland.com/directory/ainsworth-custom-design

Felt right-at-home. Quirky and positive. Lots of care and thought put into almost every piece.

Wanted to purchase everything. Ended up with a Little Rabbit Notecard from Mary Kim.

Other links:
https://www.instagram.com/ainsworthcustomdesign/ (sporadically updated, since 2013)
https://www.facebook.com/Ainsworthcustomdesign/
https://www.yelp.ca/biz/ainsworth-custom-design-vancouver

Artist links:
https://chop-logik.deviantart.com/gallery/
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/claudiasegovia/
http://www.sunny-shah.com/

Vancouver Trip - Day 3

TIMELINE

• 8:00 a.m. Awake
• 9:33 a.m. Tim Horton's #4944 - Breakfast
• 10:15 a.m. Canadian Crafts on Robson St - Magnet
• 10:30 a.m. Picked up Vancouver CityPass from ICE Currency Exchange
• 11:00 a.m. London Drugs - mailing postcard and greeting card
• 11:30 a.m. Vancouver Public Library
• Noon - Cartems Donuterie - Lunch
• 2:25 p.m. Ten Thousand Villages - two greeting cards
• 3:22 p.m. Roger's Chocolates
• 4:39 p.m. Ainsworth Custom Design
• 5:15 p.m. Omi Japan - Dinner
• 6:15 p.m. 7-Eleven #35667 - Ibuprofen
• 6:20 p.m. Back at hotel

NOTES

• "My Name is Citizen Crane" - sign outside Vancouver Public Library
• Canada Post employees friendly
• IGA supermarket lives on in Vancouver
• Granville Island
• Ainsworth Custom Design
• Kevin's favorite find, to date
• Vendor for local artists and quality very high
• Pickle Punch
• Cartems Donuterie: 
• Purple Yam (Ube Halaya) donut, Poached Pear donut, and strawberry mint tea
• While eating, a male passerby kicked over their A-Frame sidewalk chalkboard, punching a hole through one side...the man continued walking and the employees let him go
• Omi Japan - mushroom udon soup, chicken donburi rice bowl
• Roger's Chocolates - cashier had same name as my mother
• Dragonspace seemed run by really friendly people
• Fruit Buddy pear holder
• MAKE Vancouver at Granville Island - Dawn spotted a shirt design she liked and will custom order with women's fit and sage green color
• OSGEMEOS mural
• Really wiped out -- will have to do better about fueling
• "Trump name to be removed from Trump Tower Toronto—could Vancouver be next?" (via)
• Vancouver Duck Lady on Granville St. with pet goose (link)

Vancouver Trip - Day 2

TIMELINE

• 8:00 a.m. Awake (7.5 hours sleep)
• 9:30 a.m. Breakfast (Doolin's Irish Pub buffet, next to hotel)
• 10:30 a.m. Left hotel
• 10:42 a.m. Canada Post - mailed postcards
• 11:15 a.m. Entered Stanley Park
• 11:31 a.m. Entered Vancouver Aquarium 
• 3:45 p.m. Left Vancouver Aquarium, walked to Prospect Point (Stanley Park)
• 5:10 p.m. At Prospect Point
• 6:00 p.m. Totem poles
• 7:04 p.m. Refilled Compass transportation cards
• 7:17 p.m. Japadog @ 530 Robson - #8 Yakisoba, #11 Croquette, Shaked Fries Umekatsuo
• 7:30 p.m. Return to hotel, receipts, blogging, etc.
• 11:00 p.m. Asleep

NOTES

• Doolin's Irish Pub buffet: mediocre quality by 9:30 a.m. (closes at 10:00 a.m.)
• Stanley Park
• Vancouver Aquarium was great
• Ate: sting ray-shaped sugar cookie, kelp brownie, screamer sundae (ice cream and slush), latte
• Favorites: harbor seal, otters, rays (cownose, southern stingray), two-toed sloth (asleep, barely visible in upper corner), dolphin, false killer whale 
• A baby seemed fascinated with me and started crawling toward me; very cute
• Prospect Point: purchased moose pajamas
• Pacific Banana Slug (Ariolimax columbianus) sighting along path between Prospect Point and Pipeline Road
• Black squirrel sightings
• Japadog was great
• Ordered CityPass book for discounts on attractions
• Will check on Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (season opener was 9/22)
• Claud Monet exhibition
• Called pet sitters this morning and they said they incorrectly texted us about not having our key x_x So, much ado about nothing
• Everything with maple syrup tastes good this week

Vancouver Trip - Day 1

TIMELINE

• 9:00 a.m. Awake (11 hours sleep, with some interruptions)
• 10:00 a.m. Dawn meeting with academic advisor
• 10:50 a.m. Tim Horton's #4944 - breakfast of pumpkin spice muffin
• 11:06 a.m. Davie Village HH hardware - precision screwdriver set to fix laptop
• 11:18 a.m. Tim Horton's #4944 - breakfast of egg/ham muffin and pumpkin spice latte
• Noon Left hotel
• 1:59 p.m. Left Old Navy #4218 (purchased sweater for Kevin)
• 2:53 p.m. Grand Maple Gifts - tee shirt, maple tea, postcards
• 3:33 p.m. Ma Dong Coul Korean - Beef bibimbap and kimchi fried rice
• 3:47 p.m. 7-Eleven #33036 - purchased DayQuil 
• Stanley Park
• Six mile walk along entire seawall
• Walked to Prospect Point overlook
• 8:30 p.m. Rocky Mountain Chocolate - Chocolate brownie
• 9:02 p.m. Harvey's 946 Granville St. - Chicken Build-a-Bowl
• 11:00 p.m. Postcards, journaling, receipts 
• 11:45 p.m. Asleep

NOTES

• Felt mildly tired today...not sure if sick or just stress/lack of sleep catching up to me
• Rode Vancouver bus (TransLink) twice, using our Compass cards
• Tap and pay very popular
• Chocolate covered brownie: brownie core, one side had chocolate truffle filling, with a hard chocolate shell...very good after a long walk
• Stanley Park
• Clear water and blue hues to surroundings along seawall
• Saw the Siwash Rock, a great blue heron, raccoons, Teahouse Restaurant, a cruise ship, rowers in racing shells, and--after sunset--the Lions Gate bridge, the Lumberman's Arch, the 9 O'Clock Gun, the lighthouse, the Girl in Wetsuit Statue, RMS Empress of Japan masthead, the HMCS Discovery building, and the Vancouver Rowing Club building
• Called Toyota Vacaville as no word on car status...left info and later in the day received text requesting approval to text me...so I'm getting some kind of texts
• Realized SMS texts not going through due to lack of US cellular network...installed Google Hangouts Dialer app which I think also allows me to send SMS via Google Voice...works great

Vancouver Trip - Day 0

TIMELINE

• 7:00 a.m. Awake (five hours sleep)
• 9:00 a.m. Left home
• 9:15 a.m. Left Companion coffeehouse on Mission
• 10:05 a.m. Arrive economy lot, Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)
• 10:30 a.m. Arrive ticketing counter
• 10:50 a.m. Arrive TSA PreCheck security
• 10:55 a.m. Eat soup and salad at deli First Class
• 11:15 a.m. Arrive at gate
• 11:20 a.m. Board
• 11:50 a.m. Takeoff (Air Canada Flight 8115)
• Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (first hour watched)
• Things that didn't work on plane:
• Dawn's in-flight entertainment screen (as others)
• Rear bathroom
• Velcro holding up the emergency exit aisle's door release handle cover
• Things that did work on plane: everything else thankfully
• 2:00 p.m. Arrive Vancouver International Airport (YVR)
• 2:34 p.m. Currency Exchange
• 2:50 p.m. Collect WifiCube cellular hotspot rental
• 2:56 p.m. Tim Hortons #595 (Pumpkin Spice Muffin, Pumpkin Spice Latte--verdict: creamy, not sweet)
• 3:03 p.m. Load Canada Line cards
• 4:00 p.m. Arrive Comfort Inn
• 6:03 p.m. Poutine at Smoke's Poutinerie (Traditional poutine)
• 6:54 p.m. Dessert at Tim Horton's #4944 on Granville (Cold Stone Creamery)
• 10:00 p.m. Asleep

Vancouver Trip - Day -1

TIMELINE

• 5:30 p.m. Leave work in Sacramento
• 6:35 p.m. Prius throws error code P0A93 - "Inverter 'A' Cooling System Performance" (Vacaville)
• 7:10 p.m. Better World Club requests tow truck
• 8:00 p.m. Tow truck delivers car to Toyota Vacaville 
• 8:20 p,m. Lyft arrives
• 8:55 p.m. Arrive Amtrak Suisun Fairfield station (after navigating to Amtrak Fairfield–Vacaville station, opening October 2017)
• 9:15 p.m. Schedule Lyft 11:30 p.m. service, from Oakland – Jack London Square station, to home
• 9:49 p.m. Depart Amtrak Suisun Fairfield station
• 10:00 p.m. Eat on Cafe Car (bean and cheese burrito)
• 11:00 p.m. Arrive Oakland – Jack London Square station
• 11:30 p.m. Lyft arrives
• 12:45 a.m. Arrive home, pack, clean
• 2:00 a.m. Asleep

NOTES

• As Dawn says: Planes, trains, and automobiles
• Vacaville rental services closed
• Toyota Vacaville had no rentals to offer
• Amtrak Capital Corridor Suisun Fairfield station train service to San Jose ends with the 7:34 p.m. departure
• Chose to keep going rather than stay in Vacaville overnight 

Gloria Steinem - My Life on the Road

Excellent book; some notes:

• Hate generalizes, love specifies.
• If you want people to listen to you, you have to listen to them. If you hope people will change how they live, you have to know how they live. If you want people to see you, you have to sit down with them eye-to-eye.
• That's why, if I had to name the most important discovery of my life, it would be the portable community of talking circles; groups that gather with all five senses, and allow for consciousness to change.
• "I learned from Flo Kennedy, who was a great civil rights lawyer and who was my speaking partner for a while. Nobody was better at a comeback. Some guy in some audience would say, “Are you lesbians?” and she would always say, “Are you my alternative?” and everyone would crack up. Again, it’s fun. And it’s consciousness-raising because you’re not just doing it for yourself and the other person, you’re also doing it for the people around you."
• She never learned to drive--when asked, she replies, "Because adventure starts the moment I leave my door."

NHLPA Hockey '93 - Was Bob Beers the Worst Overall Player (?)

Such a fun game.

Video accompaniment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL0nw1a28DE

During high school, a few friends and I spent Friday nights staying up late playing pick-up basketball and playing rented video games.

For several consecutive weeks, we rented the Electronic Arts game NHLPA Hockey '93 (1992) for the Sega Genesis, the second installment of the franchise:

The included photocopied manual documented each player's overall rating, which determined their in-game overall ability. On a whim, I looked through the photocopied manual to identify the player with the lowest rating.

It tickled me to no end to discover (incorrectly, it seems) Bob Beers, a Boston defenseman, represented said worst player. At the time, I suspected the developers used Mr. Beers’ surname as an excuse to rate him the lowest—in subsequent games he rated much higher.

NHLPA Hockey 93 MD US Manual.pdf (last accessed 08/21/2017)
https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:NHLPA_Hockey_93_MD_US_Manual.pdf&page=32

I had a lot of fun playing as the Boston Bruins and putting Bob Beers into the game. The excitement led into curiosity about the real-life Boston Bruins and I started watching the Bruins on satellite television (we lived in the country and could pick up broadcasts from all over the country). When I left for college, my studies preempted hockey and I lost the momentum of following hockey.

Circling back, it seems the version of the manual above, page 61, pretty clearly shows Mr. Beers was below average, at 28, but not the lowest. For example, even Lyndon Byers, on the same Boston team, scored lower.

I got that wrong, which bothers me. I'm still not sure how--it seems too obvious to miss, and I have a strong memory of looking through all the teams. But there it is. It consoles me some to think that I was likely up late and saw what I wanted to see.

Good times!

Note: Bob Beers seems like a great guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06XmQCrf3Tc

Note: Electronic Arts released NHL Hockey in 1991, but it seems that game only named the teams, not the players, so I'm nearly 100% we played NHLPA '93 Hockey, which, in addition to naming the players, also had the music I remember.

Ramen

A Sacramento ramen restaurant seems to use "Paitan Ramen soup EX" as their tonkatsu ramen soup base:

http://www.somifoods.com/products/paitan-ramen-soup-ex/
Product DescriptionThis authentic tonkotsu ramen base blends high-quality tonkotsu broth with vegetables and other ingredients.
How to useMake the ramen base by combining 1 part of this product with 9 parts hot water or broth.
Packaging
60 fl. oz. (1.8 L) x 6

The web site lists the following recipe. So simple!

TONKATSU RAMEN
Ingredients

• Noodles – 1 bunch
• Cha-shu (roasted pork) – 2-3 pieces
• Green onions – A small amount
• Bamboo shoots – A small amount

Cooking Directions
Pour 1 oz. of Paitan and 9 oz. of hot water or broth into a bowl. Add boiled noodles and desired toppings.

Add as desired

• Boiled egg
• Red ginger
• Kikurage
• Dried seaweed

Photographer In Training

What is good enough?

Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS camera

• 8.0 Megapixel
• Focal length: 6.2-18.6mm f/2.8-4.9 (35mm film equivalent: 38-114mm)
• Maximum aperture: f/2.8 (Wideangle) - f/4.9 (Telephoto)
• Shutter speed: 15-1/1500 sec.; Long Shutter operates with noise reduction when manually set at 1.3-15 sec.
• Sensitivity: Auto, High ISO Auto, ISO 80/100/200/400/800/1600 equivalent (Standard output sensitivity. Recommended exposure index)
• Light metering method: Evaluative*, Center-weighted average, Spot**
• Pixels: Still Image: 3,264 x 2,448 (Large),
• JPEG compression: Still Image: Exif 2.2 (JPEG)

Depth of field increases with f-number, as illustrated in the image here. This means that photographs taken with a low f-number will tend to have subjects at one distance in focus, with the rest of the image (nearer and farther elements) out of focus. This is frequently used for nature photography and portraiture because background blur (bokeh) can be aesthetically pleasing and puts the viewer's focus on the main subject in the foreground. 

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3845728#forum-post-55833477
http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/getting-started-with-your-new-monolight-kit--photo-14128
Monolights:

• http://www.blinkphotographic.com/collections/monolights/products/godox-ds200-200w-s-monolight
• http://www.amazon.com/Flashpoint-DG600-Watt-Second-Monolight/dp/B007JD3CZQ
• http://www.adorama.com/FP600DKT.html

Some helpful terminology:

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/which-camera-should-i-get/

Specifically:

Focal length describes the angle of view of a lens: how much of the scene it can take in. It is expressed in millimeters. The higher the number, the narrower the field of view. A 20mm lens is considered a wide focal length as it captures approximately an 84-degree angle of view. A 200mm lens, by comparison, offers a narrower, 10-degree angle of view, though with much greater magnification.

Photo Aesthetic

Aesthetically speaking, this resonates: clean and neutral colors, an honest but measured smile, thoughtful but minimal accessories, well-lit, focused on the face. It says, I am a comfortable person to be around

https://hired.com/how-it-works

Portrait Equipment

Lighting Kit Setups

• Beginners complete kit
• Lighting types
1. 1 main light: Flashpoint Cool Light 4
2. a1 fill light: Flashpoint Cool Light 1 (can be used reflecting into a white card)
3. 1 hair light (a small light with a snoot or grid)
4. 1 background light (any small fixture light will do)
• Lighting (other):
• 1 silver reflector umbrella: Creative Light 33" Silver Umbrella, (compare prices)
• 4 light stands: Westcott 750 Photo Basics 7.5-Foot Light Stand, (compare prices)
• Seamless paper background
• Miscellaneous:
• Extension cords (hardware store)
• Gaffers tape
• Extra bulbs (depends on fixture)
• Cloth work gloves if you are using hot tungsten lights (hardware store)
• An assortment of colored gels and diffusion material
• Clothespins for holding the gels

Photo Video Backdrop Stand Kit

• Ravelli ABSL Photo Video Backdrop Stand Kit 13' Tall x 15' Wide with Dual Air Cushion Stands and Bag (link)
• StudioPRO 3200 Watt Double 24"x36" Softbox Continuous Portrait & Video Lighting Kit - Film, Photography & Studio Essentials Includes Light Stand & 45W Daylight Bulbs (link)
• Main/Key light and fill light

Notes

• Backdrops
• Thin muslin white/black/green backgrounds...alternative (?)
• How to clean/press/steam (?)
• I use a small hand held fabric steamer (via)
• Lighting
• Types:
1. Main light (key)
• primary and strongest light
• Provides shape and form
• Can use umbrella or softbox
2. Fill light
• "fill in" shadow areas created by other lights
• provide an even, non-directional light
• adds  little character or shadows of its own
• nearly always weaker than the main light
• can use a shoot-through umbrella
• Alternatively: foamcore, at 45-degree angle, to the subject
3. Kicker light (rim, edge)
• accent the edges of the subject
• placed just out of view and, behind and slightly to the right or left of the subject
4. Hair light
• enhance hair texture
• provide separation from the background
• Should have a snoot or grid (note: maybe a filter frame?)
5. Background light
• Illuminates the background
• even or graduated, color neutral or colored with the addition of gels
• separate the subject from the background
• Notes
• Closer light to subject: softer; farther away: harder
• LumoPro LP180
• Softbox
• Emulate the soft, directional lighting produced by window light
• Directional
• Light modifiers
• Somewhat more expensive
• Slightly more complicated
• Basic knowledge of balancing main light versus fill light, so it won't produce contrasting lighting
• Octobox
• combines the benefits of both reflective and shoot through umbrellas
• Vendors
• http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/759870-REG/Lastolite_LL_LS2462JM_Joe_McNally_Ezybox_Hotshoe.html/BI/2388/KBID/3211
• Umbrella
• Cheap
• Broad and soft source of lighting that could, for the sake of simplicity, be considered to emulate outdoor lighting
• Indirect, bounced light
• Easier for beginners
• Lighting is much broader, softer with less modeling on the subject’s face and there’s more light spilling onto on background
• Light is bounced, so the quantity is less, which requires lower f-stop and higher ISO
• Reflective 
• Light is reasonably well controlled and doesn’t bounce around everywhere
• Can’t produce very soft light, as the design forces the flash head to be between the subject and the umbrella, which means that it can’t be placed close to the subject
• Shoot-through
• only about 60% of the light actually passes through
• the rest bounces back and, in a small studio, will bounce off of the ceiling, walls, etc.
• creates pretty uncontrolled lighting and if the light also bounces towards your camera lens it can cause flare
• Combination: removable reflective cover
• Vendors
• Smith Victor
• Adorama
• Lowel
• Photoflex
• Lastolite (hotbox)
• Manfrotto (stands)

Chris Schmauch, Good Eye Photography

• Camera
• Nikon D800
• Nikon D3
• Nikon D70 (backup)
• Lens
• 28-70/2.8
• 17-35/2.8
• 70-200/2.8
• 85/1.4
• 60/2.8
• 50/1.4
• Lights
• Studio strobes
• Foursquare softbox (containing the four Nikon SB-800 speedlites)
• Nikon SB-600 speedlite
• Profoto B1 mono light
• 30″ softbox
• Other
• PocketWizard Flex TT5, to trigger/sync speedlites
• Lightroom

Resources

http://www.adorama.com/alc/0013566/article/Softbox-vs-Umbrella-Which-One-Should-You-Use

http://photo.net/learn/lighting/guide-to-lighting-kits/beginner/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

http://www.portraitlighting.net/multilightb.htm

http://www.diyphotography.net/take-professional-linkedin-profile-photo-living-room/

http://www.portraitprofessional.com/

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-camera-lens-filters-flashes-and-accessories-for-taking-great-photos/