Wednesday, January 26, 2011

A Poem to Share

I actually stumbled upon this while reading the introduction to a scientific journal article (further proof that scientists can be thoughtful poetic people as well!)
It made me think of Dayton...

I do not know much about gods; but I think the river
Is a strong brown god|sullen, untamed and intractable,
Patient to some degree, at ­ rst recognized as a frontier;
Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyer of commerce;
Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges.
The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten
By the dwellers in cities|ever, however, implacable,
Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder
Of what men choose to forget. Unhonoured, unpropitiated
By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and
Waiting.
T. S. Eliot, The dry salvages

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Totally Ballah!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/01/12/132831729/sudden-words-suddenly-gone

Ice skating at Riverscape

First off, I hope everyone has had a wonderful winter break! I'm pretty excited to everyone again this coming semester. One weekend during my break, I decided to travel back to Dayton and ended up visiting Riverscape along with various other things. It was right before dusk and a storm was blowing in when I went Riverscape, there is outdoor ice skating at Riverscape right now for those who don't know. Being outdoors, winter, almost dark, and super windy add up to below zero temperatures. Despite the chill there was quite a coward at the rink, it provided a unique experience with the ordinary Dayton people. While the children skated, most of the parents sat around little gas fire-places chatted about various things in Dayton. I found it very interesting to listen to the non-professional view points on subjects from the city of Dayton to metro-parks to everything in between. Before leaving the ice rink, I did visit the river and took a couple photographs.