and they're off...

I'll be taking a break here, until mid-January and making memories with my family on our travel blog. We are off to Australia until January 14th 2010- follow along on the adventure at Traveling Is My Hobby.
Have a wonderful holiday season- wherever you may be in the world!

speaking of maps

Steve O has been all about maps lately, dreaming about the book Maps As Art (while I have been dreaming about seeing the backs of my eyelids)
In all his visions and obsession with cartography, Steve O found Ian Hundley a Brooklyn based artist who makes really rad, inspiring quilts of maps. Watch a video of Ian Hundley here.
Perhaps we've been thinking of maps because in about 4 days we leave for a month long holiday to Australia. After a year of planning, saving and mapping- it's finally going down. All six of us, 1 RV, 30 days, a couple of holidays, and one giant continent. You can follow along on the adventure at the Traveling Is My Hobby blog.

Atlas Shrugged

I've been spending lots of hours sewing these last few weeks- or months- I can't recall, it blends... Anyway, I've done some serious viewing- (really working my way through the netflix queue) and even more listening. I just finished Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Entertaining, suspenseful and intriguing-perhaps now among my top ten reads ever.
Rand explores the philosophies of objectivism, liberty, altruism; objectivism meaning essentially having a objective reason and purpose for every action you commit. The book is the story of a railroad executive who struggles against the philosophy of not only altruism, but government enforced altruism. But the plot is about more than politics or business. The plot is also a great mystery, the reader gradually learning who is responsible for turning out the lights of world.
One need not agree with all of Rand's views to appreciate Atlas Shrugged, I believe it's meant to be compelling and thought provoking. Much is left up to you to interpret, to think through for yourself.
I just got a little happy flutter in my stomach when read that it's going to be made into a movie in 2011. Dagny Taggert played by Angelina Jolie or Charlize Theron, I vote for Angelina, she'd make a great Dagny- and Atlas Shrugged, if it's done right... an amazing movie. I wonder... who will be John Galt?