the sun is setting for me in San Francisco; it is time to move on. my flight to Santa Cruz, Bolivia departs tuesday noon. three seperate planes will take me from one of the most progressive and modern cities on earth, to one of the most primitive. i'm excited.

speaking of progressive, bikram's yoga is surely a pastime activity worth mentioning. this yoga is basically a sequence of 26 different postures in the time span of 90 minutes. sounds rather simple right? well, this is done in a room heated 35-40°C (95-105°F). imagine working out for an hour and a half in a sauna:

a) you sweat like a pig, making puddles around you
b) you can barely breath, due to the dense hot air
c) you discover all those people who didn't put deodorant on that day, and enjoy it for 90 minutes
d) you bend your body in directions you never knew were physically possible, and probably are not once you're back in normal room temperature
e) you start feeling sorry for all those lobsters you threw into the pot, now understanding the feeling
f) you finally understand why they drew a devil on their company logo

it took me 5 lessons to quit. however, i recommend giving it a try. just for the experience.

i met a great guy and photographer named scott haefner. among other things, scott does something very special called KAP; kite aerial photography. on his website http://scotthaefner.com/ you can find 360 panoramic shots taken partially from a kite up there in the sky. if you enter one of the images here, you'll be able to look around with your mouse, left right up and down, zoom in and out, as if you were actually there. i was very impressed and decided to get involved in this type of photography.

a photo-trip with scott to a park in paolo alto

i'm starting out with the most basic form of panorama. shoot and stitch. just to get the most elementary feel for the field. i decided to purchase a camera which will allow me to create 360 panoramic (bubble) images once i'm back from SA. this is definitely an area i'm interested to explore.

i have a fun riddle this time. the prize will be an exotic item i'll choose out from a bolivian market place next week. email me the answer to michael@thehermons.com - don't leave it in the comments. i'll conduct a lottery among the correct answerers:

someone in the uk made a million (1000x1000) dollars on his home page in just a few months. what did he sell? pixels. find waldo and tell me where he leads.

san francisco celebrated my big brother's birthday 28 days ago. watch the movie i made him at http://thehermons.com. happy 24th ethan!

i had a wonderful experience here in san francisco during the past 3 months. as much as i'm excited to leave, i appreciate the fantastic and bizarre moments i had here.

i mean, where else will you find people singing opera on the street?

where else do you come across a group of people dancing on stilts to the beats of a drummer who's banging on pans and buckets?

where else do people dance charleston out in the open park?

where else do you have pirates walking down the street?

hippies playing drums and smoking pot out in the open? homeless walking their fancy dogs? drag queen transvestites rushing around in their bright pink dresses? cable cars crossing the city ringing bells in the middle of all of the madness?

san francisco.

from now, you can use http://michaelhermon.com

mr poet, congratulations on the correct answer to my question. you won yourself a chinese dragon made out of sandstone. it's on its way to you.


stay tuned for the next question. next time it will be a little harder.

happy PI day! it's a great day for mathematicians, which reminds us the of the magical number which is found numerous times in nature and in scientific formulas; 3.14. my math teachers used to bring a cake in to class to celebrate.

i just got word from the Tel - Aviv university that I was accepted for school next year. i signed up for mathematics with philosophy and economics. mazal tov to me.

i'm working on some exciting 360 panoramic photography (check this). also, i purchased a ticket to santa cruz, bolivia for april 4th. a long journey in south america is soon to begin - and i'm excited!