who da Photoshop queen? who? who?

Teaneck T goes wild with Photoshop. Rendering done 7/29/07. Original photo of this wall at Sainte-Chapelle (Paris) at taken 10/16/06.


My eternal gratitude to the greatest Photoshop guru in America is still going strong. Norman, wherever you are, I hope I am still your teacher's pet.

For you Photoshop colleagues out there, making a photo adjustment like this entails the following: Make a dupe layer, then go to filter --> blur --> smart blur..... and then do 20 other complicated things, including making a sacrificial offering to the gods. Or you can just take the way awesome Photoshop class at Cooper Union with Norman. He. Kicks. Ass.

The original (unrendered) photo is below.

poll era begins

London. The top of some famous retail store near Picaddily Circus. Photo taken 6/14/07.


I loooooove survey questions. And since I can do whatever the hell I want in my corner of blogosphere, I would like to list some of my top picks on certain topics, and I would love to hear your responses of your favorites too. The part where you share your picks is important to me, so please see this as an open door invite. And let me know if there's a topic you want covered.

First up:

Top 5 Nonfiction Books I've Read the Past 5 Years -- and a brief explanation on why

1. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert = I felt I was reading about my twin sister. Teaneck T as travelling, meditating, feasting white woman. After I read it, I looked at the amount of reviews on Amazon that pelted the author for being so self-absorbed, and I was like, "Holy chihuahua! Mirror, face thyself!" Reason why I haven't jumped out the window yet given this discovery is that one of my favorite people of all time loves this book too and finds it one of the most beautiful book she has ever read.

2. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz = I loved this book so much that at one point I announced I would buy it for anyone who personally asked me for a copy.

3. The Modern Library Writer's Workshop by Stephen Koch = when I read this for a CUNY Grad class called Being Prolific, I said, "my goodness, no one has ever told me any of this!" My high school friend Linda, who happened to be my classmate (reunited and it feels so good...) felt the same way.

4. Two-Part Invention: Story of a Marriage by Madeleine L'Engle = her Crosswicks Journal books, which are her musings while living out in the country, are far more beautifully written to me than the fantasy trilogy that brought her fame. This book in particular stands out for its eloquence. And the structure of the book mimics the Bach work (hence the name) -- left hand's notes upholds the right hand's; flashbacks contrast the present; spouse supports the spouse. It's brilliantly done.

5. You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay = this book opened up a whole new paradigm for me and forever changed the way I think. It has also oriented me towards other books that kept altering and deepening me.


Top 5 Nonfiction Books I Hope to Read in the Next 5 Years:

1. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

2. Wayne Dyer's upcoming book on the Tao

3. Zen Driving by K.T. Berger -- ha ha!

4. The Portable MFA in Creative Writing by the New York Writer's Workshop

5. Spiritual Traveller: New York City by Edward F. Bergman = looking forward to going to every place in this book with camera on hand

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What about you?

the book I'm so grateful for

Holiday window display at Macy's. Photo taken 11/25/06.

I've just finished reading the final Harry Potter book. I must share with you my conviction that this is the most satisfying, most thrilling, most complete book I have ever read in my whole life. It is the pinnacle example of why stories, through books, have created book-lovers -- and truth-seekers -- like me through the ages. I am SO proud of J.K. Rowling for hitting this one out of the ballpark.

I haven't read the NY Times review by Michiko Kakutani yet, and I don't know if I will, but in case you'd like to, I've provided the link referencing it. My sister said that Ms. Kakutani deemed this last HP volume to be worthy of Joseph Campbell's mythos, and when I heard that I was skeptical, perhaps even jeering. Yeah right, my snob self said. Or rather, I would guess it said that, since I can't remember. Either way I definitely doubted such claims.

But now, after having completed reading the book, I definitely agree with this view. And I add that I am so glad that I took my time with it and did not rush through or stay up reading it like many people I know or heard about, because it was I who needed to be alert and rested when I got to the crescendo moments, the points of ultimate truth in the book's final sections. All the myths, and by myths I include the myths of major religions, came together in the book's climax, and when it does it is the reader who must stand up to it as the steady witness.

For those of you still in the midst of this tome, happy reading! This is the first time I've experienced a phenomenon where when I sat on the subway or on the bus there was always someone next to me or 2-3 seats away from me reading the same book. On the bus today I was absorbed in my copy, and when I happened to look up because the bus lurched I saw that the woman next to me was also reading her copy. Two strangers sitting side by side on an express bus, reading the same book. It's quite surreal. I commented to my fellow passenger how strange it was for me to see us reading like that, and she said she read the book already and was on her second go at it.

I don't blame her. I am now going back to book 1 and starting the adventure all over again. I still remember asking for it from my mom along with book 2 exactly 7 years ago for my birthday present. (Note the number 7 here, HP fans.) My mom was like, "You want what? Harry who? Under children's books?! But you're turning 28!" And I was like, "Look, you asked what I wanted for my birthday...."

J.K. Rowling has achieved quite the feat in creating this long, well-sustained symphony of a series. Right now, at least at this moment, I think she really does deserve to be the richest woman in England.

pinpoint even when it's pointless

Self-portrait, 5/16/06. This is standard, quintessential me -- in my study, with jeans and sweats and white socks, surrounded by paper and books and cluttered wires.


So I'm back. The wonderful A-goes-B, who is my co-rescuer in the murky depths of artistic aspirations, pointed out to me that I have not added new entries in this photoblog.

I could only respond with a sigh and a what's-the-point attitude. But really, there is a point. All people who are trying to create anything real and honest, and who make the creative life the centerpoint of their focus, battle everyday with the knowledge that they must stick with it even if, for all practical and social purposes, it appears pointless.

Not that blogging is it for me. It's not like this is what I do, or what I've quit my full-time job for, etc. But this photoblog does reflect an honest part of me, and A-goes-B has given me a sweet nudge and a nod, saying, basically, that this endeavor isn't all that stupid. And that in fact none of it is.

So let me resuscitate Friday Five. Granted, it's not technically Friday yet, but it will be in three hours, so let's just pretend it already is.


Teaneck T's Top 5 Reasons Why She Went Offline:

1. No one reads this blog --> not true, it turns out

2. I've forgotten this blog exists --> not true. That's just defense mechanism talking.

3. I've been unhappy from the sad events that have occurred these past few months --> true

4. I've been happy from the wonderful events that have occurred these past few months --> true

5. I've been addicted to the DVDs of 24's season five --> very true


Teaneck T's Top 5 Reasons Why She's Back Online (for another round):

1. I still have photos I want to post.

2. The idea of coming up with new formats on what to write about using this photoblog interests me.

3. I respect my buddy A-g-B, and if he says I should continue it, I continue it.

4. Photoblogging is waaaaay easier than coming up with a new draft of a fiction or nonfiction piece.

5. Because I can.

...but this IS a photo of me!

OK, I'm making an exception to the photoblog rule just this once, because I really do have to include this entry in the archives. Those of you who know how madly addicted I am to that P&P miniseries produced by A&E will know exactly why I went ape shit when I got my quiz results back.

All props go to Pax (aka the recent birthday girl) for letting me know about this survey.

Take the Quiz here!

Central Park blossoms

Central Park on 5/4/07. Middle photo was outside Belvedere Castle.

holla to my twin brother

Photo taken 4/10/07 at St. Marks Place.


I did agree with this photo two weekends ago when that godforsaken nor'easter flooded our basement, but I've gotten over it. Me and this state with its rich heritage of questionnable governors are pals again.

Hey, speaking of the Garden State, Zach Braff -- director of the awesome movie that goes by that name and is better known to me as My Twin Brother -- has a blog! What a find! You can see it here.

Now why would I in my craziness make such an outlandish claim not just of common ties, but of conjoined blood relation? Answers below.

1. When I first started watching Scrubs earlier this year, which I began with the pilot episode courtesy of a DVD rental (and not with the episodes being aired now which are stale and not funny at all), I swear to Yahweh I was watching myself as his character named J.D. This guy has a very rich inner life, is always running some interior monologue, sees fantasized scenes played out in front of him, and ALWAYS says the wrong thing which ends up upsetting his friends even though he started off trying to be tactful. So I thought, "Hey, the writer of Scrubs (not the actor) sounds a lot like me" but little did I know....

2. ....that Zach Braff as the writer and director of Garden State is also me! The movie deals with isolation and the attempt to find purpose and connection in the face of suburban, contemporary American life. If I were to direct a movie, I would want it to have the atmosphere, the sense of disconnection and wry humor that this movie has.

So. Funny ZB as the character J.D. equals Teaneck T, and now serious ZB is also TT when she's alone and all serious. And then....

3. ...what's with the acoustic folk and heartfelt indie music like Joshua Radin, Zero 7, and Thievery Corporation that are played not just in Scrubs, not just in Garden State, but also in his latest movie called The Last Kiss? What do the three have in common? Mah man Zach, of course! And what are the songs in my iTunes collection well before I even knew this guy existed? The very songs that I heard in his shows and movies. Plus...

4. ... he's got those big facial cheeks. What's the one most prominent facial feature I have? Bingo. I used to be embarrassed about my chipmunk cheeks before, but not anymore thanks to you, twin brother!

5. And my all-time proof: When Lorin was watching one of the 20,000 episodes of Scrubs I have devoted myself to since the pilot episode, he -- not knowing any of my claims, mind you -- actually said, "You know, sweetie, this guy's gestures and expressions remind me of you."

Man alive, if I wasn't married to him already I would have proposed right then and there. He recognized me! Not just that, he identified my kin!

Btw, if you do check out his blog, see if the meandering humor and wordy, senseless asides sound eerily familiar to you. Take out all the mentions of famous Hollywood people like Brad Pitt and P. Diddy and what do you have? A guy who could be living in Teaneck, that's what.

P.S.
Writing this post made me curious where my twin really did come from. My research tonight courtesy of IMDB shows that he hails from.... Maplewood, New Jersey! I done tole ya we're peeps! So what if I'm actually from Staten Island by way of Manila. I am shocked by how much proof there is in my chemical-saturated Jersey pudding.

day of prayer

Along the fence of Marble Collegiate Church on 5th Avenue. Gold ribbons represent prayers for the American soldiers who died in Iraq since the war began in March four years ago. The blue ribbons are for the Iraqi casualties. The green ribbons represent prayers for peace. Photo taken 3/23/06.


The death toll for American soldiers in Iraq is now over 3,200, twenty of which are from the beginning of this month alone (and the month began only seven days ago). The number of Iraqi civilians killed is much higher, estimated to be over 60,000.

On this holy week of Passover and the Triduum, when the energy of prayers throughout the world rises as people come together and pray in groups, may the prayers for peace and for understanding, the prayers of grief and of pain, transform us all.

In case you cannot read the name tags in the above photo, the legible words are:
- "Pfc. Darrien A. DeBlanc -- 20"
- "Sgt. Dave Stensma -- 36"
- "Lance Cpl. Torrey L. Gray -- 19"

my museum contest

Today (3/28/07) at the Guggenheim, while waiting in line.


Without really planning for it, I ended up catching the last day of the El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth & History exhibit at the Guggenheim museum. My much-adored 71-year-old Photoshop teacher raved about it during class last week, and he strongly recommended that we see it before it ends on March 28. He explained that one of the compelling things about this exhibit was that it was arranged not chronologically but by theme, so you get to see how a 17th century painter like Velazquez treated the subject of children, for example, alongside Picasso’s or Dali’s versions. “Go just to see the hands!” my teacher gushed. “How those Spanish painters handled hands through the centuries is worth the exhibit! Plus you get to saunter down sideways in that museum, so that part is fun.”

So while washing dishes this morning the dismaying thought occurred to me that today might be the 28th. Sure enough it was. And sure enough today really was the last day to see it, so off I went, scruffy and barely prepared.

But man, is Professor Sanders right or is he right. Being there today really was worth it. The woman at the ticketing counter said the exhibit starts at the bottom and you work your way up, but I said screw that, and took the elevator to the top and worked my way down. A group of people, all of them with the look about them of “I’m a native New Yorker and I know what I’m doing” were all in the elevator with me. And when I got off I zoomed down, we’re talking speedy Gonzalez here (get the pun?), just glancing at each painting to get a general gist of it, and I made it down to the landing in 25 minutes. I thought of my friend Pax who has a 1-hour expiration period when it comes to museums; if she exceeds that she turns into a pillar of salt. Pax would have been proud of me.

No, not really. For I then donned one of those headphones the docents were giving out, and then I turned right back around to inch my way up, intending to look at each painting while listening to the audio tour, and hopefully have the time of my life in the process.

The exhibit featured painters ranging from Goya, Velazquez, Dali, Miro, Picasso, Murillo, and this guy I never heard of whose work I really liked named de Zurbaran. To make things even more fun, I spontaneously decided to hold a contest on whose painting is the best per category. So here are my results.

Winners of Teaneck T’s Time, Truth & History Contest: In the category of….

- Monks = “Saint Francis of Assisi in His Tomb” by Francisco de Zubaran

- Bodegones (which come from the word bodega. The subjects here are objects that would ordinarily come from the household pantry, which thus make them still-life paintings, but here the perishable nature or mortality are emphasized) = “Still Life with Fruits and Vegetables” by Juan Cotan. This one was pretty haunting to see in person.

- Vanitas (a type of bodegone that features actual dead animals, like dead rabbits and fish on tables and other stuff that made me cringe) = “Imperial Violets” by Dali (1938)

- The Domestic World = “House of Nazareth” by de Zurbaran (1644)

- Women in Public (yes, there was such a category) = “Girl Seen from Behind” by Dali (1925). This one was quite special to me since I wrote a fictional scene using this piece as a prompt two years ago during one of my freeflow writing sessions.

- Weeping Women (yow!) = “Weeping Woman” by Picasso (1937)

- Virgins and Mothers = none (or rather, nada). Sorry, hombres. Though I liked how in the “Madonna of Port Lligat” by Dali (1949), mother Mary is doing Reiki on baby Jesus.

- Nudes = This one had a clear winner. The very lengthily-titled “Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate, One Second before Awakening” by Dali (1944). The painting was huge and quite overpowering. I stood there transfixed.

- Childhood = Nada para esto. Those muchachos painted children like they were adults. You could tell they didn’t have respect for children in the 17th century. The audio guide said that children back then were considered more defiled than adults because they were closer to the state of original sin and were more like beasts than grown-ups. Yo! Tell THAT to Kayla!

- Monstrous (royalty and aristocrats in 17th century Spain liked to keep dwarves, lunatics, and deformed folks around for bizarre entertainment. Hey, maybe these are the ancestors of Quentin Tarantino) = “Don Sebastian de Morra” by Velazquez (1643-44). This man’s dignity was so captured by the great artist.

- Knights & Ghosts (bizarre phrasing but it makes sense. The ghost part is really what the Spanish called “fantasma,” which was the self-conscious appearance of the subject versus his actual real-world appearance. Put another way, the subject could have been an asshole but when the artist painted him he came out looking like a saint.) = There were two winners here. “Portrait of Luis Bunuel" by Dali (1924); and “Portrait of a Man” by El Greco (1590-1600)

- Ladies = Another clear winner: “Woman in Blue” by Picasso (1901). This is a huge painting that was hard to look away from. Btw, I didn’t know Picasso did a lot of realist paintings. Goes to show what I know.

- The Fallen (you know, sinners and people who like sex and the like) = ya think I’m gonna select something in this insulting category? Just kidding. I didn’t find any that grabbed me in this section.

- Flyers (“volandisimo” according to the espanols, aka angels) = “Liberation of Saint Peter” by Juan de Valdez Leal (1657-59). See page 10 of the linked PDF file.

- Crucifixions = um, this one was too dolores for me. Though I did like the red at the bottom of Alonso Cano’s "Crucifixion" and the audio guide’s lecture about it.

- Landscapes = “Pass with a Cape” by Goya (1793).


Doesn’t this make you feel you too saw the exhibit after reading this entry? (If you got this far, that is). Hope you appreciated my little summary vis a vis a little contest.

new camera, new (life) format

Taken 2/26/07, during the last snowfall we had which we had thought (ha, ha) was going to be the last one of the season.

This photo is courtesy of my new pet -- aka the SONY cyber-shot DSC-H5. It's the closest I'll probably get to having an SLR. The reason is inane but true. As much as I aspire to hunting with the high-brow amateur-yet-serious photographers out there, I am so myopic that I've a hard time looking through the small viewfinder with one eye shut. The Nikon does have an LCD panel you can shoot from -- as opposed to viewing from an LCD panel only after the shot has been taken, which is what 99.99 percent of SLRs have. But this Nikon is apparently heavy both on your arms and on your wallet, so I'm sticking with this SLR-like SONY puppy that got good reviews from dpreview.

The up side: I can finally take macro shots where the background is blurry but the foreground is clear, like the one above. Plus I get to play with SLR settings like varying ISO ranges and shutter speeds.

The down side: Not having an oh-so-fiiiiine SLR camera. Boo hoo to me, but only a very small one. I always end up fully appreciating what I have.

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Stuff about today (my new format for this p-blog is to have this as the category to fill in):

- Snow/sleet/rain still going on, several inches already accumulated outside.

- both of us now have the very bad cold but hubby forced himself to run the snow blower outside, which I hope didn't make him worse. Ended up also helping our neighbor whose snowblower died.

- our favorite little person, the mighty K, still has pneumonia. But hope is not lost. "Do you want to talk to Auntie?" her mom asked. "No!" the little one answered. She then added in a small voice, "But I'm feeling better now..."

- It's Mama's (my maternal grandma's) birthday today. She passed on in 1988. Mom braved the snow and wind during her lunch hour to go to mass to light candles for her and for Kayla's health. She said that she was slipping and sliding so much that she kept grabbing men's arms whenever she was about to cross the street and asking them if they could escort her across. Good lord. I told her those guys probably felt so good afterwards for helping a little old lady cross the street, which is the classic feel-good thing to do.

- Started a reader's journal in which I'm writing all my reactions to whatever the heck I'm currently reading. I have GOT to find out if I'm genuinely interested in writing literary fiction, in reading literary fiction, or if I only think I do. Or it could also be that what I liked when I was younger (what Wayne Dyer calls the morning of your life) is no longer as interesting to me now (in the afternoon of my life). So far the journal has been so helpful. I start writing on it and end up writing about all kinds of stuff not even related to what I've read. It's the perfect situation of letting my mind open to one thing to get to all sorts of other goodies roaming around in my head. I finally found a new way to have fun doing what I'm doing again.

watering the plant that is 2007

Marais district of Paris. Photo taken 10/20/2006.


Ha ha, me li'l blogger site, I got you where I want you again -- i.e., forgotten; tossed aside; dead as far as the eyes of others are concerned. You can be just like me once more, growing at your own quiet pace. I love creating you when I know no one is looking. And I love that you create me everyday, even when my head is often turned elsewhere, dreaming other dreams.

As time spins another set of days for us I think of all the chances to live this world again. The older I get the more I am aware of myself as a spirit looking out from these eye sockets, the noticer noticing. More than anything I wish to live the days connected, not to something or to someone, not even just to my own core, but as a state of consciousness. The way one is when there are no more thoughts and feelings, and out of that calm and silence one feels oneself as an entire singularity, lacking nothing.

Thank you, Life, for always guiding me. Wherever I turn, I see you calling out my name.

why I do what I do

Lorin and me, hiking in Tuxedo, NY. Photo taken 4/30/06.


"I feel happy to be keeping a journal again. I've missed it, missed naming things as they appear, missed the half-hour when I push all duties aside and savor the experience of being alive in this beautiful place."

- the ever-great May Sarton
in her book At Seventy

carrots, eggs, and coffee

Mercer Street (Greenwich Village, NYC). Photo taken 3/13/06.


Here's a cute story taken from Wayne Dyer's latest book called Inspiration (copyright Wayne Dyer, of course).

Carrots, Eggs, and Coffee

A young woman complained to her mother about the hardships and difficulties in her life. She didn't know how she was going to continue and wanted to give up. The young woman said, "I'm tired of fighting and struggling. It seems that as soon as one problem is solved, a new one appears." In response, her mother took her to the kitchen and filled three pots with water, placing each on the stove over a high flame.

Soon the water came to a boil. In the first pot she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about 20 minutes, she turned off the burners. The mother then fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She removed the eggs and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she said, "Tell me what you see."

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," the daughter replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and they noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After peeling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich flavor.

The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, Mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity, boiling water, and each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile, its thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior, but after the boiling water, its inside became hardened. But the ground coffee beans were unique -- after they were in the boiling water, they'd changed the water itself.

a roomful of Buddhas

Photo taken 10/31/05 in Tagaytay, Philippines


When I sit zazen by myself, I like to imagine a roomful of Buddhas sitting zazen around me. When I write, I like to imagine a roomful of Buddhas writing alongside me.

Sometimes when I sit zazen, I sense my true loneliness seeping out, getting some fresh air in the quiet.

I want to write well, but I don't need to be considered great at it. I am fine unrecognized, while not fine short of talent. But is it talent that I want? Or is it a path?

Most likely I am okay not having natural writing talent, but not okay with having no writing path.

- from a 10/21/2001 journal entry

purpose

Looking up from the Staten Island ferry. Photo taken 4/13/06.


to breathe clean and true
the blue sky in my belly, the vast
breadth of horizon imprinted on my lungs
behind my eyes, porpoises that dive
to the bottom ocean, that layer of time
old as the ancient souls, and my every breath
is quiet, so full and brave. And I too am just as
wise; I too will last forever.

- 6/18/06

new weather

Photo taken 3/11/06 at Overpeck Park.


I came across part of this poem today, by complete "coincidence" -- it was in a March 2001 journal I was archiving -- and I was struck by how much it spoke to me given all the circus my body has been doing and given my impending gloom-and-doom appointment tomorrow. Also by complete coincidence, I was just telling Lorin about how having fatigue and discomfort and limping from pain, et al actually transformed me. I've let go of a lot of mental crap, and I've simply no patience for anything that smacks of guilt, shame, perfectionism, or obligation. And I'm quieter, which has been heretofore unheard of. I actually said these words to him, "It took me getting sick to feel lighter." A few hours after that, I went upstairs and continued my journal archiving, and that was when I came across this:

Often I think I should be like
The single tree going nowhere,
Since my own arm could not and would not
Break the other. Yet by my broken bones
I tell new weather.

- Paul Muldoon

Ate's turn to slide

Ats and Kayla. Same date and place as below.


Here's the link to the short clip of Ate sliding. As with the video below, you have to tilt your head to the side to watch it. I thought you could hold the camera when taking videos the same way you hold the camera when taking photos -- i. e., portrait or landscape, depending on the framing you want. Duh!

Anyway.

So. This is what litigators do when they're not annoying the heck out of people in court.

the first video -- watch Kayla slide (sorta)

watch the cockamamy video I took of Kayla on the link below. Photo taken 5/31/06 (Memorial Day weekend) at Wyckoff, NJ.


I was experimenting with my new Exilim camera and didn't realize that when taking videos with it you have to hold it a certain way. Ooops. But here's the video if you want to see it. Just don't forget to tilt your head to the side. The video was taken at their house. (I know... a whole playground set for one tiny child!)

Watch the video here. (aka http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TyBBUkEUus)

forest flowers

I've no clue what kind of flowers these are. Photo taken at Sterling Forest (Tuxedo, NY) on 4/30/06.


"When it's over, I want to say:
all my life
I was a bride married
to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking
the world into my arms..."

- Mary Oliver

foto pherret word = hot

this sure was a freakishly hot hike we took. Photo taken 9/19/05.


I discovered today a photo meme website called foto pherret, which gives out a word each week and you're then invited to hunt around your photo collection to match it. The word this week is "hot."

I'll tell you what's hot in this photo (besides my husband. padump-bump). What he's looking at is the start of a trek across a volcano crater. That's right, friends, strangers, and countrymen -- we actually hiked across a collapsed crater with plumes of steam still coming out of it one blazingly hot morning last year. It was so hot that the walk across Kilauea Iki crater felt like a walk across Venus. It was so hot that I did not expect that *not* wearing sunscreen on my brown skin would affect me, but it did. It was so hot that a few days after this hike I had to go to the emergency room because I was so sun poisoned that my skin turned into a mottled mass of swollen lumps and rashes. (Now that made me look hot.)

Iki in Hawaiian means "a little one" or "a little bit." Kilauea Iki thus means "little Kilauea," for it sits not far from the main Kilauea caldera that everyone oohs and aahs about when they get to Volcano National Park in the Big Island. In November 1959, when all the signs were pointing to an imminent major eruption, all these volcanologists and geologists set up equipment by the main Kilauea crater. Then ka-boom! It turned out the show was somewhere else. They looked up to see a previously-ignored section of the park shooting lava more than 1,900 feet into the air. The eruption was so huge that people in the town of Hilo thirty miles away could see it with the naked eye. There are more details of that eruption here, but some of what I've written were told to us by a local Hawaiian ranger.

The best guide-book writers ever showed us how to find this hike, where to descend 450 feet to get from the top of the crater walls to the bottom, and then inch your way across. I still remember that incredulous feeling -- all the while we were enclosed inside a real, still-active volcano, with the open sky gaping above us, we knew while crossing the crater that this was probably one of the most special hikes we will ever take in our lifetime.