Another Gingerbread House submission. I walk past this house every day. It’s nice to see these historical homes being restored. We had another house jacked up on on stilts 18 months ago while the foundation was repaired. ~Vic
Adult Category
12-09-2020
Click for a larger view.Girl holds up the house. Trick the Eye
12-09-2020
Click for a larger view.Window Insert 12-09-2020
Click for a larger view.Prior to construction. Folk Victorian Home
07-14-2020
Click for a larger view.Initial work begins.
07-21-2020
Click for a larger view.Just starting the frame
for the concrete basement/garage.
12-08-2020
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The Forrest House
12-05-2020Two tiny reindeer pulling a sleigh. Same Front Yard
12-13-2020
Click for a larger view.Lovely greenery. The Crawford House
12-13-2020
Click for a larger view.There is normally a pink bird house here.
You can’t see this house from the street.
12-13-2020
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Adult Category
12-09-2020
Click for a larger view.The Saratoga Grill
07-06-2019
Click for a larger view.The building complex at dusk.
07-11-2018
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Here’s to the Charlie Brown way of decorating. ~Vic
Just a few ornaments.
12-05-2020
Click for a larger view.Or, no ornaments at all. “It’s all fun and games until
Santa checks the naughty list.”
12-13-2020
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Natural ornaments are lovely.
12-13-2020
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And, if you don’t have snow,
make your own.
Winter Wonderland. Have a beer. Hot Tin Roof Bar
12-13-2020
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Youth/Family Category
12-05-2020
Click for a larger view.04-30-2019Lot 23
Site of Edmund Fanning’s House 1762 Eagle Lodge #19 1791 Masonic Lodge #71 1823 Civil War Hospital 1865
04-30-2020
Click for a larger view.
[For the next 15 days, I will be posting pictures of local Christmas stuff as Christmas Day draws near. If anyone wants to participate in their own Christmas Countdown and post local stuff from their area, hit me up with a link back. ~Vic]
Our residents and business owners are participating in a Gingerbread House competition. They are re-creating some of the historic homes and historic buildings. At some point, someone will be doing a re-creation of the Occaneechee Speedway (part of the birth of NASCAR).
Spanish artist Manel de Aguas doesn’t consider himself human but, something else. A founding member of the Trans-Species Society (a now defunct website), he uses technological implants to experience the world differently than the rest of humanity. Twenty-four-year-old Manel […] first made international news headlines in August of 2017 when he built the first prototype of a device that allowed him to feel atmospheric vibrations. At the time, it was nothing more than an exposed circuit board that hung on a headband at the back of his head. The following year, he started attaching a pair of fins to the sides of his head and announced his intention to have them implanted into his skull. Earlier this year, de Aguas did just that, turning those decorative fins into functional organs that perceive the temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure and, send sounds to Manel’s brain via bone conduction.
In June of 2019, the […] artist sat down with VICE Magazine and explained his intention to have [the] artificial [organs] […] implanted:
“The atmosphere will sound inside my head, and depending on the atmospheric conditions in any given moment, I will have the experience of being submerged in one type of medium or another. As for the outer part, the organ will have an appearance inspired by the fins of flying fish and I will implant a fin on each side of my head, at the same level as the temple bone in my skull.”
“I have always felt a special connection to the rain, so when I found out that there was a way to feel this sense within me, I thought it would be good to create [an organ] that would connect me even more to rain, as well as other atmospheric phenomena. As for the shape of the organ, I have always been interested in marine species, both real and mythological, so the idea of creating a fin-shaped organ simply came from within.”
“I will be exploring the weather through this new sensory organ,” […] de Aguas posted on Instagram, where his new look has been getting a lot of attention.
Manel described himself as a propioespecie, or his own species, his response to the anthropocentrism of today’s society, which puts human beings on the highest echelon of a false hierarchy of species. In January of this year, [he] was finally able to make his dream a reality. He had the artificial fins implanted into his skull at a clinic in Japan, after being refused by several doctors in Spain. The fins weigh 500 grams, can be recharged with solar energy and can connect to various devices via WiFi.
After [his] military service, Klavs, [the] son of Martins Viksna, is returning to his native village [of kolkhoz]. After [the] war, his father, the collective farm chairman […], was killed by guerrillas. Even after many years, the remote village of the Latvian countryside is still under agitation from those old days events. Klavs meets and falls in love with Bille [but], Bille is [the] daughter of Ance, his father’s first love. Klavs starts work in [the] collective farm but, after a conflict, however, decides to leave the village. After the death of his mother, Klavs [returns] and [remains in the village]. [This] is his real home.
Klāvs, the son of Mārtiņš Vīksna, the first chairman of the kolkhoz, comes out of the service and starts working in his native kolkhoz but, does not understand his colleagues, so he goes to the city. The chairman of the collective farm agrees that he will eat his hat if Klav does not return. Klava’s mother Ilze dies in the hay meadow and the chairman offers the boy to come in her place as a foreman. Bille is waiting for Klava in Ilze’s house, whose mother, milkman Ance, once loved Klava’s father.
I saw this at a side door at our Historical Museum. I have no idea how old it is or if it was always there, outside or came from inside. It’s interesting, though. ~Vic
Cosmic-Observation 