Thursday Thirteen #12

Click photos to enlarge; some are better that way.

Thirteen of my favorite self-taken nature photographs 1. Yang Shuo, China 2. Halifax, Nova Scotia:3. Cape Cod, Massachusetts 4. Cape Cod, Massachusetts5. Cape Cod, Massachusetts 6. Cape Cod, Massachusetts7. Jilin, China (The other side of this lake is North Korea)8. Seattle, Washington9. Seattle, Washington10. Kenmore, Washington11. Kenmore, Washington12. Jilin, China13. Guilin, China (This is inside a cave)

Tuesday Travels: China, Part III - The Forbidden City

Mao at the entrance:

The front exterior:

The back from a distance:

It was under renovation while we were there:

There are many plazas inside. Their size and quantity are overwhelming:

There are also quite a few stairs and rooftop pathways:

Only the emperor was allowed to walk on or pass over the dragons in the middle of the stairs. If being carried in a chair, the servants would walk on the steps on either side and carry the emperor over the dragon.

Stay tuned for: Old Beijing

Thursday Thirteen #11

Thirteen Great Websites For Slacking 1. Facebook: You can get lost for hours on this thing. The following quote expresses it pretty well: "If AIM is a gateway drug, Facebook is internet crack." 2. YouTube: pretty much anything you want - it's there. Also, archived footage at thedailyshow.com 3. Overheard in New York: hilariously real! 4. Ebaums World: Ridiculous things (albinoblacksheep.com is good too). 5. Addicting Games: I'm a fan of the puzzles and the helicopter game. 6. Recovering Frat Boy: He publishes a bimonthly column. 7. Wikipedia: You can get severely sidetracked by clicking on links in the middle of articles. As a friend said, "Wikipedia is like alcohol. You start into it, wake up a few hours later, and can't remember how you got there." You can play the "Jesus Game." Either click "Random article" on the left hand column, or go to a random page yourself. See how few clicks it takes to get to Jesus. 8. College Humor: fairly ridiculous and sometimes funny articles. 9. LOL Catz: Sooo juvenile but sometimes hilarious. 10. The New York Times: If you want to do something a little more refined (or you want people to think you are sophisticated when they look over your shoulder), NYT has great articles, photo slideshows, and videos on tons of topics. 11. Memes: You're probably familiar ;) 12. Google: There are so many games and funny things to do with google. One option: put in the searchbar: Your Name needs Your Name looks like ...does ...hates ...goes ...loves ...eats ...has ...will 13. prettymuchanything.blogspot.com: Like wiki, one can spend hours surfing blogs by following blogrolls.