Ancient History

In ancient times, The Citadel in Hué, Vietnam was a forbidden city where only the emperors, concubines, and those close enough to them were granted access; the punishment for trespassing was death.

I got in for $2 and lived to tell about it.

Become Ninjas

A few days ago, my brother e-mailed me a document composed by his brother and sister-in-law's daughter, Sydney, who's 11 years old.

Her eclectic and all-encompassing list of "Things to do This Summer" reads as follows:

1.) Lemonade stand

2.) Plays

3.) Visit Zoo = Brookfield Zoo

4.) Have a picnic

5.) Camp in backyard

6.) Make homemade Ice-cream

7.) Funway

8.) BlackBerry farm/Peckfarm

9.) Make up a dance

10.) go to the pool

11.) Have a pillow fight

12.) go to park

13.) go to Luems

14.) sleepover

15.) movie theater

16.) make pizzas

17.) become ninjas

18.) sprinkler

19.) watergun fight

20.) Bake a cake/throw a party

21.)

Sydney is destined for greatness. The city of Sydney, Australia doesn't have a "To Do" list this ambitious.

I gotta go...I need some loftier goals.

You Say You Want a Revolution?

You just don't see that many statues of Lenin any more. I photographed this one here in Hanoi, Vietnam.

According to Wikipedia, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (22 April 1870 – 21 January 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, author, lawyer, economic theorist, political philosopher, creator of the Soviet Communist Party, leader of the 1917 October Revolution, and founder of the USSR.

As head of the Bolsheviks, he led the Red Army to victory in the Russian Civil War, before establishing the world's first officially socialist state. As a theorist, his extensive theoretical and philosophical contributions to Marxism produced Leninism. He survived two assassination attempts, worked 14 to 16 hours a day, and his collected writings fill 45 volumes of approximately 650 pages each.

Wikipedia did not mention that Lenin was such a huge fan of skateboarding.