Monthly Archive for January, 2006

Mexico – Baja California Norte

Published on January 30, 2006 in photography and travel. 0 Comments

My first post in a while. I have some catching up to do.

Here are some photos from a recent camping trip to Mexico.

Click on all images to see a larger image

Removing calf’s brains for sesas tacos.

Fire-grilled chiles

A taco gets handed over a bed of cebollas – fire-grilled green onions.

Deep-fried lobster in Puerto Nuevo

Strolling musicians in Puerto Nuevo

Sweets in a dulceria – candy store

Packaged dulces

Dulces

Roasting nuts and then tossing them in sugar

Colorful Mexican wrestling masks. Lucha Libre!

Guitarrista

Musicians, Puerto Nuevo

Fish taco sign near El Rosario

Strange and alien-like cirio trees in the Cataviña Desert

Closeup of cirio trunk

Wild burros off the side of the road. They are descended from the burros that the Conquisadors brought over.

An octopus fisherman returns with the day’s catch, Bahía de Los Angeles, Sea of Cortéz.

Sunset at the Sea of Cortéz. Isla Angel de la Guardía is in the background.

Whale skull on the beach at Bahía de Los Angeles.

Whale skull detail

Kayaks at sunrise, Sea of Cortéz, with Isla Angel de la Guardía in the background.

Fish tacos

Cowboy (gaucho)

Two girls near the US border at Tecate. They followed us in the store and watched us curiously. They let me take their pictures and they found much amusement in viewing them on the LCD screen on my 10D.

That’s a rainbow painted on her forehead.

We bought some fresh tamales from this man before we crossed the border.

Fun with .ck domains

Published on January 23, 2006 in funny and geek. 0 Comments

A few months ago, I discovered that the Cook Islands got their own country code top-level domain, which is .ck. Much juvenile giggling ensued as we laughingly discussed plans to secure a domain name ending with www.something.co.ck.

On a whim, I decided to check up and see what it takes to get a .ck domain, thinking to myself that there’s no way anyone’s got a website registered that ends with co.ck. – I mean, that’s not getting past the censors. Right?

Wrong!

According to Oyster Internet, which manages the applications for .ck domains, the domain co.ck is currently being used by several businesses, and they apparently have rules and specifications for who can get some co.ck:

“.co.ck”: is used for business organisations. Companies must register their corporate name or trading name, or some form of abbreviation. For example, Telecom Cook Islands Ltd. has registered “telecom.co.ck” as their domain name.

I really don’t know how they keep a straight face.

Toasting the Ambassador

Published on January 23, 2006 in los angeles. 0 Comments

The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles has a long history; from the 1920′s to the 60′s, the Academy Awards were hosted here. Also, the hotel housed the famed Cocoanut Grove (why is it spelled “cocoanut??”) nightclub, which was the place to be among Hollywood’s elites in the 1930′s, 40′s, and 50′s. The Ambassador is also the site where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan.

The neighborhood around the hotel became a sketchy area frequented by drug dealers and gangs, and attendance in the hotel declined. It finally closed in 1989 and was occasionally used as a film location, but was never reopened or restored to its previous glory. The Los Angeles Conservancy fought a long and bitter battle to preserve the hotel as a Los Angeles landmark. It was purchased by the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2004, and they stated that they would be tearing down the hotel and building a new structure on the property. The LA Conservancy kept blocking the demolition efforts and tried to get the LAUSD to preserve the original structure and simply integrate it into the new school, but the LAUSD refused. After many standoffs, the LAUSD moved forward and demolition began in 2005. It was recorded pictorially in the blog The Ambassador’s Last Stand. The Ambassador has now gone the way of other extinct Hollywood landmarks such as the Brown Derby. If we keep knocking things down and rebuilding new, shiny things, how will we ever have any sense of history?

On Thursday, Feb 2, there will be a farewell to the Ambassador party at the nearby HMS Bounty, and I will be attending with my friend and fellow blogger, Mack Reed of LAVoice/