2010 Durango Snowdown Beard Growing Contest

The first snow

The sky is bright orange and it’s nearly midnight. When it snows, it gets like this. One of my favorite memories as a child — in bed, sleep yet to come….me watching the orange sky and all the flakes flying down, streaming this way or that under the glow of the sole street light.

I’m married now. This is a picture of me watching the rain pour down on our wedding day. The indoor ceremony worked out. Now my favorite thing to watch late at night is Jeff sleeping in bed (he almost always falls asleep long before I). I also like to watch our little dog, Mona, as she barks and runs in her sleep.  She’s ridiculously cute.  Seriously.

I have a new job and it’s keeping me busy. It’s a challenge, to say the least, but I love it. In the last three months, I’ve learned how to do a bit of graphic design using Illustrator and even a little Indesign. And I’ve learned (and am still learning) Final Cut Pro. Here’s my favorite video I’ve pieced together so far. A ripoff from old Mr. Warhol.  So simple, yet so touching for some reason:

Broken but Beautiful

Beauty in destruction.   Reminds me of this dude who wanted to make his own world-renowned creation by destroying something beautiful (Michelangelo’s “David” statue):

In 1991, a “deranged” man attacked the statue with a hammer he had concealed beneath his jacket^[6], in the process damaging the toes of the left foot before being restrained. The samples obtained from that incident allowed scientists to determine that the marble used was obtained from the Fantiscritti quarries in Miseglia, the central of three small valleys in Carrara. The marble in question contains many microscopic holes that cause it to deteriorate faster than other marbles. Because of the marble’s degradation, a controversy occurred in 2003, when the statue underwent its first major cleaning since 1843. Some experts opposed the use of water to clean the statue, fearing further deterioration. Under the direction of Dr. Franca Falleti, senior restorers Monica Eichmann and Cinzia Pamigoni began the job of restoring the statue. The restoration work was completed in 2004.^[7]

Animas High Photo Show

Please join us Friday October 16, 5:30-7:00 PM, for the “Children of the Dump” photography exhibition at Animas High School.  A group of children in Fausto Gonzalez, a Tijuana dump neighborhood, took cameras in hand to document their lives and our students at Animas High School will soon be starting a pen pal program with these children.

We hope you can join us for refreshments at the photo exhibition on Friday.  Donations from the sale of photographs will go towards an educational fund for the children in Fausto Gonzalez.  Please pass this invitation on!!

New home in the big city!

Jeff and I moved from Bayfield to Durango this week and man am I excited!  Here’s our quick promise to Durango:

1. We will bike and walk to work as much as possible

2.  Durango offers recycling pick-up on our street!  We will continue to recycle everything we can!

3.  We’ll pick up after our dogs, even in Dog Park where it’s semi-socially acceptable not to

4.  I’m bringing the Red House Gallery to Durango, which means more art shows!

5.  Jeff will attend a city council meeting.  With a mustache like Jeff’s, there’s really no way he could stay out of small-town politics!

BuzzTown is about to get a whole lot cooler

This week, BuzzTown is launching new features that include intelligent recommendations of local friends, businesses, events and groups
BuzzTown Version 5.1 allows new and current users to enter key words, or “interests,” which it then uses to make connections.

Type in words like “hiking” or “biking” and watch as BuzzTown does the work for you — finding local people, businesses and happenings that you’ll likely be interested in.

“The internet is an enormous collection of information,” explains BuzzTown creator Steve Linn, “and what’s cool about BuzzTown is that we’ll show you just the stuff that you’re interested in and just the stuff that’s happening locally. We’re the only interest-based social network out there. The goal of BuzzTown is to make people’s lives easier.”

Along with the revolutionary interest-based feature, BuzzTown will be launching a new homepage, which encourages people to log in or sign up before they use BuzzTown. The site will work significantly better and smarter for you once you’re logged on, explains BuzzTown’s resident computer programming nerds.

Users of BuzzTown will also notice a few other adjustments and improvements on the site. Photos and videos can be arranged in albums, people can comment on photos and videos and the slide-show and photo viewer features have been jazzed up. It’s all coming this week, so be sure to email us (info@buzztown.com) and let us know what you think!

Some other new functions and changes include the BuzzTown integration with Open Table Reservations, which means you can make online lunch or dinner reservations right here on BuzzTown.

Take note of the “Shout About” function if you haven’t already, and use it when you come across something on BuzzTown that you feel deserves a little extra attention.
There are a few other changes that will be taking place on BuzzTown and there are a few more to come (shhhh…they’re secret for now!). BuzzTown is staffed with adventurous geeky types who strive to make this site awesome. Help us make it awesome by trying out our new features and letting us know what you think.

BuzzTown is about to get a whole lot cooler

Carrotmob Durango

Durango is holding its first-ever CarrotMob event. For more on Carrotmob Durango, click here.

BuzzTown classes coming up

Robot shots are back

So, I’m going to start taking pictures again.  My digi cam is gone, but I’m back to film.  It’s hard for me to be as inspired as I was in bright and beautiful Tijuana, but I’ll do my best to keep it quirky.

BuzzTown is looking for freelance writers

BuzzTown is looking for freelance writers: Pitch your story idea to kinsee@buzztown.com today!