In retrospect, I should have taken my digital SLR for my first tript to Bali. Doh. But overall I'm pretty happy with how my pictures came out taken just with my iPhone4.
Of course, it's a gorgeous tropical island, so it's easy to take a good shot. Just shoot a lot and edit later. But most of these were on the fly and posted unedited, some from moving vehicles or other less than ideal circumstances.
Sorry about all the food pics. I know, I have a problem.
To the right is my favorite picture, taken on one of my first days in Bali, on my way to go jogging on the beach in Seminyak. It was early in the morning and I was having a lot of trouble figuring out by myself how to get to the beach from our villa. I was itching to run after a long flight and difficult first day in Bali. But I had to stop and capture this perfect image of a boy sitting by this gate facing the water.
I just got home from a really lovely and restful holiday in Bali, a long-due vacation.
I met up there with my friends David and Kim, who were in the last week of their yearlong round-the-world trip that I have been enviously following online. We were joined by Dave and Kim's other friends Karen, Orley and Warren. All-in-all, it was a mellow, nice bunch of folks to spend time with in a beautiful, tropical setting.
I knew very little about Bali before I arrived, other than that it is in Indonesia and lots of Australian and Dutch people go there on holiday. So I didn't have much expectations accept that it would probably be fun.
Just when I had pretty much given up on the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers project, they come out with this totally charming and wonderful short video, "Matched". Striking visuals, amazing dancing, and well-filmed -- just what drew me to the franchise in the first place before the poor writing and acting nearly killed it for me.
Directed by Charles Oliver and Christopher Scott, starring Glee's Harry Shum Jr. and Frances Manzo.
So one of the amazing things about being in Bali is how omnipresent their spirituality is. You litreally can't take two steps anywhere without nearly crushing a small offering on the ground in front of a store or a hotel. The offerings typically have some flowers, fruit and a cookie or cracker in a tiny woven leaf box. Thousands of them are put out every morning in each town, replacing the ones that get knocked over and weathered from the day before.
Temples are everywhere. Reportedly there are more temples than houses in Bali, some small structures in the entries of buildings and others massive structures with multiple buildings and courtyards.
Every block also has several idols, small statues and altars that are typically skirted by some fabric and sheltered by a small umbrella. Given the unpredictable weather, those skirts and umbrellas must need constant tending by locals.
A few weeks ago, I went to a really interesting talk by Wess Daniels on Quakers and mission at the lovely Friends Church of Berkeley. Wess is a doctoral student and a released minister from Camas Friends Church in Washington. I really had not idea what to expect, other than the fact that a cross-section of Friends from a number of different Quaker Meetings and Churches would likely be there.
Wess made a number of interesting points that I'm sure other Quakers who were there will be recounting on their blogs. I wanted to focus on the part that was most relevant to me, his comparison of "participatory culture" and Quakerism.
Wess's thesis is that participatory culture can help us to better understand the role of Quakers in the role, our "mission" as seekers of the Light. As a Quaker who has spent a good part of his career focusing on participatory culture, and seeking personal direction, it was like Wess was speaking directly to my condition.
So this was supposed to be the blog post where I tell you about all the amazing things I saw in my first scuba dive, from a lovely resort in Northern Bali. It didn't quite work out that way, but I still learned something important about myself.
Yesterday, my travel group met up at a local scuba shop to purchase a scuba tour of an old wreck called the USS Liberty. While expensive, it seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore underwater this shipwrecked boat in a beautiful setting. David, Kim and Karen, who had scuba'ed several times before, signed up for the full tour of the wreck. Warren and I, complete newbs, eagerly arranged for the $125 "discovery" dive, which would include instruction and constant assistance by a local dive master.
There was one critical bit of information about myself that would turn out to make it a very different day than I had planned.
Just a quick check-in from the Taipei airport, where I have a layover before the last leg of my flight to Bali, Indonesia. I will be vacationing in Bali with my friends David and Kim for a week, taking in the sites, sunning at the beach, and hopefully snorkeling / scuba diving. I might even see my Dutch-Indonesian friend Mireille and baby Sarah while I am here! And of course I'm excited about eating lots of yummy Indonesian and Balinese food. Nasi Goreng and Mee Goreng here I come!
It's been way too long since I've done any serious globe-trotting. Hopefully the first of many fun trips in the coming year.
Don't know what the connectivity will be like from Bali, but I don't expect to be online that much.
For the past two days I've been at the TechSoup Global Contributors' Summit at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View, California. It's a really interesting gathering of a select couple hundred TechSoup partners, NGOs, tech industry folks and funders talking about how to connect the best technology tools to support the most worthwhile social causes. For me the gathering was a great opportunity to meet a bunch of smart and inspiring individuals leading projects that use cutting edge tech for the common good.
Unlike a lot of other conferences I've attended, the Contributors' Summit was organized around a series of roundtable, open-ended conversations among people on a variety of topics of relevance to the participants. The few keynotes were short, punchy and inspiring. The breaks were long and frequent to allow time for informal chats and networking. The coffee was strong and on tap all day, the alcohol was free-flowing at night. In other words, everything was designed around getting people sharing and connected with each other.
Although I was pretty tired from the two day conference I just got back from, I decided to head out to catch B-boy Drew Looner's breaking class at Athletic Playground in Emeryville. Athletic Playground is a small and friendly space where they teach all manner of athletic pursuits from gymnatics to parkour, acro-yoga, and something called "monkey conditioning" which sounds really fun.
There were seven of us in Drew's breaking class, ranging in ages from teen to adult, most of them appearing to be at an intermediate level, knowing some basic breaking moves, toprock, floorwork and freezes.
For this Valentines Day, Spuds and I are happy to bring to you a very special edition of the Yehoodi Talk Show: "The Lindy Dating Game". Three lovely lindy bachelorettes and one lindy bachelor play our game to win a date and valuable prizes. Find out if Kevin ends up with Sarah, Kellie or Becca in this exciting fourth edition of the dating show. All this, and your usual wrap up of news and events in this podcast.
Of course, it's a gorgeous tropical island, so it's easy to take a good shot. Just shoot a lot and edit later. But most of these were on the fly and posted unedited, some from moving vehicles or other less than ideal circumstances.
