Meet Kep

I have to step off the planet occasionally in the next days. In the interim, Kep, a trusted soul who knows me inside and out, will fill Ocean pages with typical Nina-like dribble. Several things you should know about Kep:

He does not want his identity revealed (even though he will allow me to say that he is known to many of Ocean readers).
He may not even be a he. He may be a she. Though let’s not squabble and move back and forth between genders: Kep is a male in Ocean’s eyes.
He knows Madison.
He has a digital camera.
He does not want an email address set up for his (short?) stint as an Ocean blogger. If you have comments to him, send them to my address. I will be checking email and forwarding things.
Kep will be using my account rather than that of a guest blogger. It’s easier that way and I trust that he will not fiddle with Ocean’s past. Right, Kep?
Kep is kind of an audacious and quirky guy. I am not responsible for whatever he puts out on this blog! He said he’d adjust his style of writing to my Ocean tone, but I’m wondering if that’s just him making fun of my East European way of framing things. I’ll be reading and I’ll wrap his knuckles good and hard if he oversteps boundaries.

I've asked him to write a few words by way of introduction in this post.

From Kep:

You know what is so fun about this project? I am to try writing as if I were a normal academic, with an oddball sense of humor and a lot of good ideas on what should go on a blog.

Only one of these three claims has any truth to it whatsoever.

I promised Nina I would post at least once a day on days where she goes into sleep mode. So, until further notice, I am here, ready to jump in and save the ship. It may be rocky, I may go overboard, but I am here to comment on things – and throw in some juicy gossip on the original Ocean liner herself, ms. nlc.

All this nautical lingo is really not my thing, by the way.

so, so, so...

So cool

A reader who happens to be a professional photographer took this Ocean photo, balanced the colors a bit and turned it into a poster. I found it in my office mail yesterday, on my first day back. Awesome! Thanks.

So good

… to slosh through cosmos and metros and eat this with a blogger friend:

where is it and what is it?
[ans.: seared tuna, at the Crave]

So pretty

Like a fresh dusting of snow, but really a neighborhood tree, releasing puffy clumps of seed.

white powder everywhere 

a tree grows, then sows