another day in pictures

I had the chance to spend a day with my brothers David and Sean. What follows is a smattering of images from Tuesday and Monday.

First up: the blackmail photo, below. David took this shot after I had stripped down (our house isn't nearly as cool as my dorm/studio in Seoul) and collapsed onto Sean's old bed.

David actually took a whole series of shots while I was asleep, and this was one of the tamest. Among the shots were some scary closeups of my toes and my crotch, which I refuse to air for fear that my readership's brains might explode after experiencing the sheer magnitude of my grossosity.

David would make a good stalker: he knows how to leave evidence of his own presence for others to find. Sometime Monday night, David quietly snapped and uploaded the damning photos to Dad's computer-- which was on when I fell asleep-- then "covered" the photos by activating some other screens, and left the computer on. Sure enough, I woke up early in the morning, started tabbing through various windows, and came upon those horrifying images of myself. I had a good laugh. It was only much later, in the afternoon, that I thought to see whether David had left the original photos on Dad's digicam. He had.

The next shot is more civilized. This one, like the one above, comes from my parents' 7.2 megapixel Sony Cybershot digicam. It shows me and my parents posing together at the Korea Times building on Monday. It includes a view of Dad, whom you didn't see in the photos I had taken.



The next five photos are from Tuesday's trip to Skyline Drive. Befoe I talk about that, let me back up and note that my day out with my brothers began with lunch at a Chinese resto called Harvest Moon, somewhere in Vienna, Virginia. Sean was able to accompany me and David, but he had to leave because he was teaching cello from 3PM onward.

After Sean drove off (we had taken two cars to the resto), David and I elected to hit Skyline Drive, which proved to be a good decision. We drove over forty miles along the Drive from its Front Royal, Virginia starting point. We saw a good bit of wildlife, too: a black bear, several deer (a dead one on Route 66 as well), a bunch of brown rabbits, sundry caterpillars and other insects during two short walks, and a few sightseers of both the car and motorcycle variety. Regular old bikers and hikers were scarce.

When we turned around, I noticed a gravestone in a mown patch of grass. We decided to pull over and see what that was all about, and the results of our reconnaissance were rather unsettling. See the following five pics.




A clarification about the above photo: the gravestone has four names on it. I wrote "same three names" in the caption, but should have been more specific, as I was referring to the three children's names.







David wanted to call the Skyline Drive info line to find out more, but we forgot to make the call. I bet there's some information about these folks online, but I have yet to look it up.

David and I got home rather late. We rented two DVDs, "Thank You For Smoking," which I've seen and enjoyed, and "Mission: Impossible 3," which neither of us had seen. We watched MI3, which turned out not to be all that great, but which had two things going for it: (1) more of a sense of humor than the previous two films, and (2) the stunning presence of Maggie Q, whose slave I would gladly become. I knew right away she was a fellow half-and-half, and that dress she wears to the Vatican left me drooling.

I've got one more full day with my brothers before I turn to other matters. Again, if you're in the Northern Virginia area on Saturday and have some time from noon to 2PM, please drop by the book signing at the Korea Times building (third floor). We're selling the book for only $20 there, which is much cheaper for you than ordering it online, where you will pay the cover price of $21.95 plus shipping.

More later.


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