Monteverdi

This music was mentioned in a book I recently finished reading, Firebird, by Tony Rothman. (More about the book later. If I get around to it.)

Spoiled, Privileged Person First World Problem

It's funny how we so quickly become dependent on little conveniences that we were perfectly fine living without for most of our lives. Take, for example, package tracking. I hate when I order something and there's no or only minimal tracking info, such as only the date shipped and an estimated delivery date. But sometimes knowing can be as bad or worse than not knowing.

I ordered a t-shirt from an Etsy shop. (It's going to be a gift.) It shipped from Seattle via DHL. From there it went to Raleigh, NC. My package spent several days in Raleigh then finally shipped to Grand Prairie, TX, where it apparently spent several more days. I say "apparently" because on the day it finally arrived here Tracking showed that it was still in Grand Prairie.

I have the t-shirt and I didn't especially need it in a hurry but I would just like to know why. I'm pretty good at map reading but you really don't have to be to know that North Carolina is way far the other side of Oklahoma from Seattle, WA. And then there was the extra stopover in Texas. I admit that I really don't know a lot about how shipping works but that route seems terribly inefficient and wasteful.

And while we're on the topic of shipping, how long do you think it should take for a package to get here from the other side of the planet? I have only ordered internationally a couple of times but from my limited experience and reading the experiences of others three to four weeks seems to be typical. I just don't know. If you, personally, traveled around the world by plane how long would that take? According to this page it's possible to do in three to four days. That's a complete circumnavigation. Since we're talking about packages though, I'm talking about, at most, halfway around the world. And I know there's a lot of handling of packages that adds time but still, it seems to me that it should be possible to get a package from Europe to the middle of the U.S. in about two weeks.

But what do I know? As I said, I'm not a shipping expert, just a spoiled, impatient consumer. You know, if someone could finally invent the transporter we could get packages in just an hour or two. Sometimes Star Trek makes the real world look so lame.

Beautiful and Stupid

An incident Sunday morning made me think of a line from Cathrynne Valente's novel Space Opera: "Life is beautiful and life is stupid." A 79 year old man was injured trying to rescue a turtle on the highway.

That was beautiful. What a sweet old man, caring about the life of a turtle. But it was also stupid. There is a lot of traffic on that highway and most of it going 10 - 15 MPH over the speed limit. I understand, but it's not worth it.

I wonder if the turtle is okay.

Just Some Links Because My Brain's Too Lazy to Write Anything

Biggest Bird Eggs Ever, and where to find them

Curiosity Cabinets

Seafood and Cheese

3-D Murals

Foot fungus - actually, sneakers made out of mushrooms

Stuff Seen on Twitter

Beautiful, colorful art by Iris Scott.

I love these rain photos. They almost look like paintings.

This 1920's hair dryer:

I sort of want it. Not to use but just to have people walk into my house and say, "What the hell is that thing?!"

This must read article about "cultural appropriation". This subject ("cultural appropriation" but involving a different culture) came up a few months ago on one of the sewing blogs I read and a lovely woman of color said pretty much the same thing. We often make the mistake of forgetting that people of other cultures have differing opinions within their culture just as much as we do. Just be respectful. That's all you need to do.

Umbrella street, Portugal:

A disturbing short story about smart homes. I'm not a big fan of most "smart home" technology. I find all of it unnecessary and some of it just a little creepy. This story is also anti-GMO which I am not so that part of the story annoys me a little. I suppose bad things could happen but I think the potential for disaster is exaggerated.

And another artist, Tomasz Alen Kopera.

Mesmerizing Piano and Light Show

Still Here

Yep, I'm still here. I had a pretty busy week last week. And I turned 60. I might have more to say about that (and other things) later. Lately I have not been much in the mood to waste time on the computer. Wasting time on Twitter, on my tablet or phone, on the other hand...

Anyway, I just wanted to let the one or two people who still check this page once in a while know that I haven't disappeared completely.