Goodbye 2017

Remember at the end of 2016 we were all saying that 2017 had to be better? Well, you see how that turned out. So I'm not going to say that 2018 will be better or even that I hope it will be better. I believe in thinking positive but years have a way of saying, "Oh yeah, I'll show you." But anyway, 2017 wasn't actually all that bad for me personally and if I never watched the news, read the news, or heard anyone talking about the news it probably would have seemed like a pretty good year.

Christmas was nice. I got to spend it with the important people in my life and I got some nice stuff and ate too much. I always look forward to Christmas but I'm always relieved when it's over and I can relax and get back to my normal routine. On the other hand, the coldest weather of the season is often right after Christmas and I really freaking hate cold weather.

I don't make New Year's Resolutions. Resolutions are so formal and you feel guilty when you don't keep them. Why do that to yourself? I do think about things I want to do in the coming year though and it's always pretty much the same. Read more, sew more, see extended family more often (though that one's not entirely up to me) eat less, exercise more, spend less time on Facebook. Actually, this year I did spend less time on Facebook but that was more than offset by spending more time on Twitter.

Sometimes I wish we didn't number the years or keep track of them in any way. They just go by faster and faster the older we get and help to make us notice that we're getting older. I don't even know what it would be like if we didn't number the years. Maybe it's one of those things we have to do whether we like it or not.

The Christmas Song

Why Can't They Make Them Right?

Warning: I'm about to bitch and whine a lot.

It's my perennial complaint: Why can't anyone make house slippers right? We have a choice between slippers that completely cover the foot and have more insulation than most snow boots or little ballet slipper things and other styles that are the right weight and thickness of material but don't cover the entire foot.

In addition to this, sizing is a big problem. You rarely find slippers that come in all the sizes. I wear a size 8 not a size 8-9. There is no such size as 8-9. In order to fit both size 8 and 9 it has to be a size 9, which means it's too big for a size 8 foot. Which means, they don't make slippers in my size.

So what about slipper socks? This is what I would really like - barefoot feeling but warm and non-skid. But here we have similar problems. There are lots of slipper socks or "lounge socks," some that are just socks, some with anti-skid dots. Some of these fit well but many are loose and saggy. Most of them are not really warm enough for cold floors. And the ones that are aloe infused? These usually fit very well but they shed worse than a pair of Persian cats in the summertime until you have washed them half a dozen times.

On the other hand, you have the famed Acorn slipper socks - nice thick wool socks with a leather slipper sole with a thick layer of foam padding. They're nice and a lot of people love them but they don't really work for me. I did have a pair years ago. The thick, padded sole is more than I want. I want something more like the sole on kids' footie pajamas. There's also the same sizing problem mentioned above. They don't come in exact sizing and with the kind of sole they have they really need to. Not to mention that they are ridiculously expensive.

Finally, there are the "muk-luk" socks. I got a pair of these last year. They have exactly the right kind of sole and the sock is a nice thickness but way too loose. The sole on them is a little short for me but it's about a whole inch too wide.

The only solution is to make my own and I am working on it. Which, at this point, means mostly just thinking about it. The problem is finding the right material. I did find a couple of different non-skid sole materials; I'm talking about the tops. I made a polar fleece pair and that didn't work well. It's not stretchy enough. It also makes my feet sweat and then cold. I suppose I just need to learn to knit or crochet.

So... the quest continues.

Not the Usual Carol of the Bells

My philosophy regarding Christmas music is, for the most part, don't mess with it. Do it right. Unfortunately, my notion of "right" is based on an album by the Longines Symphonette that I grew up with that does not exist anymore.

But sometimes I surprise myself. I rather like this non-traditional arrangement, though, to be honest, it doesn't sound very Christmasy to me.

Here's another one. I don't like it as well as the Trans Siberian Orchestra version but it's interesting. In a good way, that is.

I have been pleasantly preoccupied lately so in case I don't get around to posting again in the next couple of weeks, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays to you all.

BTW, I have still been spending a lot of time on Twitter. I'm @uppityokie in case anyone wants to catch me there.

Jim Nabors

I almost hate to post this because I don't want this to become primarily a death blog and it seems I post so little else these days but...

I never liked Gomer Pyle. Even as a small child I had a severely low tolerance for... how shall I put this? Let's say, annoyingly unsophisticated characters. To be honest, I hated Gomer Pyle, the TV show and the character. I knew, of course, that Jim Nabors was just an actor playing a character but I didn't put any thought into what he might really be like.

At some point I discovered that he was an incredible singer. I was amazed and delighted. Now I think it's a fairly well known fact and I hope that he will be remembered for his singing at least as much as for that silly TV show.

Random Linkage

Library of Babel - Weird. I like the minimalist design of this website. If nothing else you could use it as a soothing escape from all flashy, noisy websites that are always trying to get our attention.

Stuff You Do While Sleeping - Nothing surprising; I already knew about all of these but there's a really cute kitten at the top of the page.

Top Films About Time Travel - I have seen several of these. I'm not really a fan of the concept of time travel but sometimes it makes a good story.

33+ Reasons You Should Be Following Nathan Fillion on Twitter and Instagram

Dr Alesha Sivartha’s Book of Life - Illustrations from the 1898 book The Book of Life: The Spiritual and Physical Constitution of Man

The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel - WANT! But not at that price. (~sigh~ Sometimes being a cheapskate is hard.)

Miniatures - Everyone has been sharing this on Twitter and Facebook so you've probably seen it already but I just have to say, one more time, this is amazing!

Della Reese

A Little Something to Brighten Your Day

This 'n' That

I got a new Samsung tablet. So far all I've done on it is Twitter. I'm feeling a little guilty about having it. I'm feeling like, it's a very expensive toy and I should not waste that much money on a toy for myself. Here's how this happened. I mentioned last week that I thought I might like to have a tablet, thinking that someone might remember and get it for me for Christmas but my other half wanted to get it for me right away. He did ask yesterday if I wanted to go ahead and get or if I wanted it for Christmas. That's not how Christmas gifts are supposed to work! You're not supposed to know what you're getting for Christmas! So I said let's get it.

It's great for Twitter, except that typing on it actually seems slower than on my phone. I'm going to make an effort to do something with it besides just Twitter. I have to justify owning it. And I'll still do Twitter on my phone sometimes because my phone is always with me.

* * * * *

I finally started quilting on a quilt that I had intended to have finished by now. The actual hand quilting is the part I really enjoy but to get to that part I have to do a lot of other work that I find less fun. But anyway, it's started and having started it I'm suddenly excited again about other quilts that I want to make.

* * * * *

And a few quick links...

Recreating 17th century sailors' food

Lucas the adorable spider

Fulton Street subway tiles - tile murals

Weird things that washed up on the beach

Random Linkage

Bartending in Antarctica

Mian Situ - Wonderful, interesting art. (Warning: the "Other" section contains NSFW images.)

Information is Beautiful - Great website. Informative charts.

Excellent Idea - Would probably never fly in the U.S.

Playlist of the Lambs - I always knew Hollywood had that one wrong. (and yet, they will keep doing it)

Japanese Illustrated World Map, 1930's

Simona Ceci - Beautiful fantasy art. I absolutely love these.

The Rewards of Perseverance

I finished reading Bleak House this morning! I very rarely give up on reading a book once I've started and my experience with Bleak House confirms my feeling that it is not "a waste of time" to stubbornly finish a book "no matter what." I seriously started thinking about quitting when I was about a quarter to a third of the way into it but by the time I was halfway through it started to get interesting and I started to care about some of the characters. Others not so much.

I don't recall ever reading a novel with so many annoying characters, so many individuals to whom I wanted to give a severe tongue lashing. But the thing that made it hard to get into at first was that everyone used so many words to say the simplest little things. What you or I could say in one or two sentences took up one or two pages in this book. Everyone was so wordy. Generally, I like wordiness in novels; I like big books, I cannot lie (sorry, not sorry) but dialog is different. When someone has something to say I want them to just come out and say it plainly, without two or three pages of preamble.

I am glad I read it. Parts of it were sad and some of those parts made me feel like, "That's not fair! but that's like real life. A lot of it is not fair. And it wasn't all sad. For the most part it was a very good ending.

Elephant Child

This is the most adorable thing ever.

The baby elephant chasing the birds then falling down and running to mom is so like a human toddler and yes I know that's anthropocentric but I am human so it's the only perspective I have.

Fats

Rambling

I kind of hate that I neglect this blog so much now. I especially regret that I neglect to read other blogs. I used to enjoy this whole routine but I'm enjoying the other things I've been doing instead - reading, (a lot) sewing (not as much as I want to in terms of getting things done) and... um... Twitter. I find it to be a really convenient means of interacting with people online. I use my phone and my phone's always in my pocket so I can pull it out anytime I have a moment and often that moment turns into half an hour. So anyway, if you want to follow me I'm @uppityokie though, to be honest, I'm probably not that interesting. I mostly re-tweet stuff, including a lot of cat pictures.

I also have a sewing blog that I post on infrequently in case anyone's interested in that. I am almost done with a quilt top that I wish I would have finished early this past summer so I could use it now that quilt weather is upon us. And I have tons of other stuff I want to get done right now - several things for my granddaughter, another shirt for my husband (I have made several recently) and stuff for me too even though I really don't need more clothes. I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff to make room for the new stuff I'm making but there's really very little that I'm willing to sacrifice. I do wear it all, just some of it maybe not very often. But, though I don't need clothes, in terms of total number of garments I own, I do need more of certain things. This year I have decided more tunics and stretch pants. (I am stretch pants are awesome years old) I have some good fabric for tunics already but need to get some more of the good cotton spandex for pants. (BTW, for any British friends who might be reading this, by "pants" I mean "trousers." But you knew that, right?)

I have been wanting to comment about some of the things that are going on in the world. I've written whole blog posts in my head but just never get around to actually writing them. The world is such a freaking mess right now, sometimes I really want to start beating people over the head with a clue bat but, on the other hand, most of the time I feel strangely secure out here in my little sanctuary in the woods. It occurs to me fairly often that I'm really not but living scared all the time is just too tiring. Getting worked up over crap all the time is tiring. I guess some people don't have the ability to just ignore it all and live their lives but I don't have the ability to stay scared or outraged for long periods of time. I just can't. Maybe that's a failing but it does make life easier.

The leaves are just beginning to turn here. They have been late for the last two or three years. The peak of fall color used to come about the second week of October, sometimes earlier, sometimes later but now it's not until November. It's time for this video that I post just about every year. My favorite piece of autumn music with some beautiful autumn scenery.

Random Linkage

The Miss American Vampire Contest - a weird beauty pageant from the 70s

Greg Van Dye - very colorful landscape paintings

Cultural Snow - an interesting looking culture blog that I must take time to explore sometime

Harrison Ford Halloween - a few of Harrison Ford's Halloween costumes from the past few years

Hedgehog Goes Camping - cute

Leila Jeffreys - lovely bird portraits

Gentleman's Surprise Chair - plus 12 more beautiful and interesting items. I have seen pictures of this chair before and I want it.

Karen Knorr Photography - Beautiful animal photos in ornate interior settings. I love these.

The Real Mata Hari - Another case of what "everyone knows" being not true.

Good Morning

Oooo! A Book List!

Hello out there! Anyone still reading this thing?

I usually roll my eyes at any list of things I "must" or "should" do but I'm inclined to take this list of 200 Books Everyone Should Read at Least Once a little more seriously because, hey, it's books! Even if I don't agree that I should read them all (which I don't) it's still a good list. So, you can follow the link and read the whole list but I'm going to make two lists of my own out of it: books I have read and books I want to read.

Books I Have Read

Bleak House by Charles Dickens - I wasn't sure which list to put this one on because I haven't finished it yet. This is the book I'm reading right now. I'm 32 percent of the way through it. At first I found it charming but it soon became almost unbearably tedious and now I'm kind of between, "I can't take any more of this," and "Dammit I will finish this book!"

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Charlotte's Web, E. B. White - Does it count that I had this read to me when I was a kid?

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean M Auel - Do not waste your time reading this book. It's awful.

Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I have read this one twice, first in high school, mainly because I wanted to appear smart but I did find it interesting then, and then again just a few years ago.

Dune, Frank Herbert - Yes! Several times. I read the first 4 or 5 books in the series. First three are excellent, the rest were disappointing.

East of Eden, John Steinbeck - At least twice, maybe three times.

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley - Such a famous character I had to read the original. Actually liked it better than I expected to, though it is by no means one of my favorite books.

The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett ? - I did read one novel by Pratchett. I think it was this one. It was okay, not really my cup of tea but I might try one of his other novels sometime because I do sort of feel like I should.

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

The Green Mile, Stephen King - One of his better ones, I think.

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad - Didn't like this one. In particular one detail kept bothering me. He kept talking about how silent the jungle was at night. Sorry, I know better. My back yard out here in the middle of nowhere is not silent at night and I'm pretty sure the African jungle isn't either. Besides that, there was just nothing about it that I found interesting or enjoyable.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams - A long time ago and I'm not sure if I finished it.

Johnathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach - Yes! I loved this book. I need to get another copy. Somewhere in our several moves I let it go and now I wish I still had it.

Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien - I didn't love this one as much as I feel like I should.

Moby Dick, Herman Melville - Twice. I actually read it the second time because I hadn't liked it the first time and for some reason felt like I should give it another try. I think I "got it" a little better the second time around but still not one of my favorites.

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde - It was okay.

The Stand, Stephen King - Didn't care much for this one.

A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens - Two or three times. Excellent book, with arguably the best first and last lines of any book.

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee - I should read this one again. I read it when I was probably too young to really get it, I think.

War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy - I actually read this one because it has such a reputation for being a long book. I enjoyed it and it didn't seem unusually long to me because I have read other very long books.

War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells - I hate to say this but the movies were better.

Watership Down, Richard Adams - A lovely, unusual book. I want to read it again sometime.

1984, George Orwell

Books I Want to Read (An incomplete list, just the ones I most want to read)

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll - I've seen numerous cartoon and movie versions of this and it has never been one of my favorite stories but my mom once told me it was one of her favorite books when she was a kid so, for that reason, I have always sort of felt bad that I never read it.

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy - I liked War and Peace so maybe I would like this one too.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres - Have never heard anything about it but it's about a captain? and a mandolin? Sounds interesting.

The Color Purple, Alice Walker - Just because I've heard so much about it.

The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye - Because I like the title

Flowers in the Attic, Virginia Andrews - Because my mother mentioned it once or twice

The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway

The Once and Future King, T. H. White

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez - When I was in high school one of my classmates did a book report on this - the kind where you stand in front of the class and talk about the book - and I sort of thought I wanted to read it but never got around to it.

Ulysses, James Joyce - Because people have said it's challenging or "difficult"

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera - Maybe. I like the title but...

In addition to those, I of course want to read anything by Charles Dickens that I haven't read yet and I want to read at least one book by Jane Austen. And I want to read at least one more book by Terry Pratchett.

Dogs and Cats

The world is a dumpster fire so turn off the news and watch this instead. (Disclaimer: I watched this with the sound turned down because I'm listening to something else.) The gray cat with the whole litter of puppies is too cute.

This Is Not Star Trek (and Other TV Notes)

I think I might like Star Trek: Discovery if they didn't call it Star Trek. It just doesn't look or feel like Star Trek. It's supposedly set just a few years earlier than the original series. Of course I don't expect the clunky 1960's version of the future but they could at least make it look like it belongs in the same universe. Visually, everything is too dark and too busy. And they appear to have changed the Klingons yet again. Those scenes were too dark to clearly see what they look like but it's apparent that they don't look quite like the Klingons in The Next Generation and the movies.

Possibly even more wrong than the visual appearance of the show is the... I don't know what to call it other than the feel. The feel is all wrong. Everything is so deadly serious. There's no friendly banter, no chemistry between the crew members, and so far little in the way of real personality. I have only watched the first episode so far so maybe it just needs time to develop but I don't hold out much hope that this will ever be really Star Trek

* * * * *

I have been interested in the Big Bang Theory spin-off, Young Sheldon. After one episode, I think I like it. It's a difficult thing to do, to cast younger versions of established characters but I think they did as well as can be expected. The actors are all good. The writing? We'll see. In some ways 9-year-old Sheldon seems almost more mature than adult Sheldon and the dad so far is a more sympathetic character than was hinted at in The Big Bang Theory. Jim Parsons narrates, establishing the connection between the two shows.

Speaking of The Big Bang Theory, I watched the season premiere of that. No spoilers. It's starting to feel like this show might be winding down - like this (or maybe the next) might be the last season. It has developed so far from what it started out as. I think that's a good thing, actually. The fact that the characters were allowed to grow is part of what has kept the show going for so many years. I like the The Big Bang Theory a lot; I don't want it to end but everything has to end sometime and I think it would be appropriate to end with all four of the guys happily married and that seems to be the direction the show is going. There's no one for Raj yet but the writers could make it happen and I really hope they do eventually. It would be too sad if he got left out.

I haven't seen very many new shows and season premieres yet. The season is just getting started. I've watched the season premiere of Scorpion. The less said about this show the better. A nice set of characters with some really really bad writing. Gotham is back and is still one of my favorite shows.

In the non-fiction department, this past summer I got hooked on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, a half hour political stand up comedy show. If you like Donald Trump and Fox News don't watch it; you'll hate it.

I have seen some promos for several new shows that I might be interested in. I'll probably do another TV post in a few weeks when/if I've had a chance to see some of these. I have a somewhat limited amount of time to watch TV series though so I don't know how many new shows I'll be able to get into.

Random Linkage

Books in Books - 12 novels that mention lots of other books. I think I want to read Among Others just based on its hidden reading list.

Subway to Nowhere - If this was in the U.S. within a couple of months there would be a 7-11 and half a dozen fast food places nearby. In America if you build it they will come.

Ingo and Friends - Gorgeous photos of a German shepherd and his owl friend. Seriously, I can't tell you how much I LOVE these.

Pizza Forward

Museum Twins

Love and Skeletons - Oh those prudish Victorians! NSFW

And finally, the solution to all problems:

Books, History, and a Bit of Politics

I recently finished reading Foundation: The History of England From Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors after reading it off and on for over a year. It took me so long not because it wasn't interesting but because I was trying to read it while reading other books at the same time and that never works for me. It really is a fascinating book. I have always wanted to know more about early England and this was the perfect book to get a good overview.

The second book in the series, The Tudors begins with the reign of Henry VIII and I couldn't resist immediately downloading that one too. I have been reading it for several days and got through the section on Henry VIII. All most of us know about him is that he had six wives, two of whom he had beheaded, and that he established the Church of England, with himself as its head, because the Pope wouldn't let him divorce his first wife. The details, of course, are a lot more complicated and more horrifying.

As I was reading this book a thought occurred to me. A lot of people like to compare presidents they don't like to Hitler but if our current president has any historical parallel it's Henry VIII. (Now if this blog was popular enough to attract trolls someone would surely point out that the Donald has never ordered anyone beheaded, to which I would respond, "That's because it's illegal now days, dumba**.") Of course you can't really compare two people who lived over 400 years apart. The differences in culture are too great. No one can say what a modern U.S. president would do if he had the same powers as ancient Kings. But the similarities in personality traits are striking: egomania, paranoia, greed, demands absolute loyalty, can't stand criticism, overall kind of gross and disgusting.

Anyway, I just thought I'd throw that out there. Someone else can take it and run with it or tear it to shreds if they are so inclined. As for the books, I highly recommend both of them but maybe not The Tudors if you are prone to nightmares.

Silly Sci-Fi

Science fiction TV shows are sort of like cookies. Even if you know they're not going to be good they're still irresistible. At least that's the way it is with me. As they say, your mileage may vary. It's like, someone leaves an opened package of store brand sandwich cookies on the counter. I know those things are usually kind of awful but I will grab a couple and eat them anyway and, if they're not too terrible, later a couple more.

So that's why I watched The Orville. It is definitely "store brand" sci-fi and the name of the store is Fox. That said, I have to confess, a bit sheepishly, I did sort of enjoy it. If you've seen the commercials you already know that visually it's very much like Star Trek:TNG. The ship's exterior is sleek and white; the interior bright, clean, minimalist, and full of wasted space and the crew is a mix of humans and aliens but otherwise it is pure Seth McFarlane - casual, irreverent, and lowbrow.

I was expecting that it might be nothing but gags but it did actually have a plot and some action. The style of humor is not really to my taste but at the same time nothing offended me enough that I immediately wanted to stop watching it. There were a number of familiar faces. I was pleasantly surprised to see Penny Johnson Gerald as the ship's doctor and Brian George (of Big Bang Theory fame) in a guest starring role.

So I'll keep watching for a few more episodes, at least, to see how it develops.

Random Linkage

Precontinent - Jacques Cousteau's underwater habitat. I don't remember if I've ever heard of this before. I used to watch the Jacques Cousteau TV specials when I was a kid so I probably saw something about it once and just forgot.

NASA's Retro Space Travel Posters - I'm sure you've seen some of these before. They've been around for a little while and they seem to be popular but I wanted to put a link here mainly so I can find them again myself.

Retro sci-fi covers featuring impractical female attire

Hairy Selfie Nails - OMG! I can't even!

Yann Souetre - Science fiction art. Fascinating images.

Fungus Arrangements - Photography. Colorful arrangements of mushrooms.

Star Wars Galaxy Necklace - The planets and spaceships from Star Wars, including the Death Star, on a necklace

Quarter Trick - Useful tip

Pink Floyd Household Object Project - I haven't listened to these videos yet.

Woodland GIFs - These make me feel peaceful.

Cat and Vacuum Cleaner

This might be the oddest thing I've ever seen a cat do.

Great Space Opera

Oh! Wow! Space opera fans, you have to read this: Kit by Val Kubera. It's part crime drama, part political drama, part horror story, part romance, and 100% space opera.

The title character is a Tentari, who are hermaphrodite humanoids. Kit and a younger sibling are the only survivors from a starship that was destroyed under suspicious circumstances. They survive as best they can on a large space station inhabited by all manner of unsavory characters. He (I'll address the matter of pronouns in a minute.) has some memory chips given to him by his parent that contain information that everybody wants. He is taken in by a merchant ship captain who was close friends with his parent and thus the wild ride begins.

The author uses male pronouns when referring to the Tentari which is grammatically correct, I suppose, but it feels wrong in a number of ways. One, it reinforces our human tendency of binary thinking - every creature must be either male or female. I found it nearly impossible to think of Kit and other Tentari characters as anything but male. It also at times felt awkward and ridiculous since the author remained consistent in using the male pronoun even when referring to a character nursing an infant. I think it would have been preferable to use made up pronouns, such as Mary Gentle did in The Golden Witchbreed with the neuter pronoun ke.

Anyway, very minor quibble. Overall it was a fantastic, exciting, edge-of-your-seat, unputdownable book. A few scenes are not for the squeamish and there are a couple of fairly explicit sex scenes but nothing that a reasonable person could call "gratuitous," in my opinion.

Harvey

I commented on Twitter at the time when Hurricane Harvey was first approaching way out in the Gulf that hurricanes should not be named Harvey. Harvey sounds like a friendly but ineffectual guy. Well, it looks like Harvey decided to teach us a lesson about not taking him seriously.

So far I am impressed with Houston's mayor and FEMA shows signs that they have learned from past mistakes. Everything seems to be going as well as can be expected. I won't make any comments about certain politicians because they have nothing to do with any of this. I guess that's about all I have to say other than, my sympathy to all who are affected.

It's funny how things seem to intersect sometimes. Like coincidences but I don't think this qualifies as a coincidence but something like that. Last week there was a conversation on one of the sewing blogs I read. I mentioned that I had been thinking about trying some of the African wax prints (also known as Dutch wax because they were originally made in Holland, and some still are, for African trade) and the blogger encouraged me to go ahead and do it already!

Well, the last thing I need is more fabric but one has certain social obligations you know. One simply cannot declare a desire to do something, receive encouragement and then just drop out. [ahem] Anyway, I searched Etsy for African wax prints - for days. I favorited almost two dozen fabrics and spent almost every waking moment thinking about them and trying to imagine each one made into something until I woke up Monday morning and just knew which one I had to have. But then I realized that the seller is in Houston.

So now I don't know what to do. My heart goes out to this woman who might have lost everything and I feel bad about even thinking about myself and something as trivial as fabric shopping. But I guess I'll pick another fabric eventually. There are many more that I like but I am so in love with that one that I probably can't have. Right now I am back to looking and thinking and waiting for another fabric to say, "Pick me! Pick me!"

Eclipse 2017

First of all, before I talk about the eclipse, I have something to say to all those people who made a point of declaring their lack of interest: Nobody is impressed with you and nobody cares what you think. Just shut up and go on with your sad, pathetic little lives and leave the joyful people alone.

So, now that that's out of the way...

The sun was about 90% hidden here. It would have been only a two or three hour drive for us to get to an area of totality but when we thought about crowds and heavy traffic 90% seemed good enough. I would have liked to have been in the path of totality but what we did see was still pretty cool. We viewed it through those paper framed eclipse glasses, at first just going outside to look every 10 or 15 minutes then when it got close to the maximum we stayed outside and watched. The sun being almost directly overhead made viewing rather uncomfortable so we didn't watch continuously.

I think what I enjoyed the most was seeing it get darker even though it didn't get as dark as I expected. Ten percent of the sun's brightness is still pretty darn bright. It actually looked sort of like when you put on dark sunglasses. It also crossed my mind that this is what the light would look like on a planet that is farther away from the sun. The temperature dropped almost 10 degrees, enough to be noticeable.

I did watch some of the coverage on TV. It was nice to have a couple of hours when the country was focused on something besides politics. And you know, we could do that on any day - focus on something else, at least for a while. Most of us ignore the common, everyday wonders. Our sense of wonder and joy in nature are only awakened when a rare event occurs but there are wonders all around us all the time. I know that sounds like a cliche but it's true and if we don't, at least occasionally, slow down and enjoy those wonders we are not much different from those pathetic people who felt compelled to tell everyone that the eclipse was not a big deal.

Random Linkage

Dripping glass tables - I would call them sculptures. I don't see how you could use them as actual tables but they are cool looking.

Vault of Retro Sci-Fi - Art, photos, and GIFS

Beyond Paper - 13 creative maps

Yana Movchan - Beautiful art. I LOVE these. Lots of flowers and cats; also other animals and a few portraits.

Places - A computer program designed to recognize attractive landscapes

100+ Tumblr Cat Posts

Walden - a slow computer game

This is Gonna Get Ugly - Clever, funny, and weird ad campaign.

Lego Building Guides

Queen Victoria's Stalker - Fascinating story of a boy who hid out in Buckingham Palace

Overalls

This is actually my first pair of "real" overalls. Years ago I had a feminine pair with embroidery on the bib and no pockets.

Sorry to disappoint the overalls fans but I'm really not an overalls person. I bought these for practical reasons not fashion and I will probably never wear them in public. They're okay - comfortable enough except that they feel too heavy. I did wear them longer than I thought I would. I expected that by noon I would be too hot and have to change but it was a cooler than normal day (this was Saturday) and I ended up wearing them until late afternoon. But finally I had had enough and put on a dress.

The details: Roundhouse brand men's striped overalls. (because women's overalls are hard to find and more expensive) They're a little long because I allowed for shrinkage. I have washed them once and they didn't shrink noticeably. (Roundhouse overalls are made in Oklahoma.)

And, in case anyone's wondering, no, I did not run the excavator.

That Moment When...

Have you ever been reading a book and come across a line or a passage that suddenly changes your perspective on the author? Maybe it sends the author up a notch or maybe it's like, "Oh! I thought he was that kind of author but he's actually that kind of author." Am I making sense?

The first three books in John Scalzi's Old Man's War series were discounted during Amazon's Prime Day. I had always been kind of interested in these but also kind of not or maybe I should say less interested than I was in some other books but the Prime Day discount seemed like a good opportunity. Not only were they discounted but they are standard size paperbacks which seem to be increasingly rare these days, at least in the books I most want to read, which annoys me no end.

So anyway I got them and started reading the first book and it's good. I'm not a big fan of military sci-fi but this is fleshed out enough with personalities and interesting dialog, and of course, interesting technology, to make it seem like not just military sci-fi.

So I finished Old Man's War and immediately moved on to The Ghost Brigades. It's been a fun read. Then about three-quarters of the way through the book, maybe a little more, I come across this line:

And as for thinking, what about thinking requires you to observe yourself doing it?

This begins a couple of pages long discussion about consciousness. I'm not sure I'm buying it, or maybe I'm just not completely able to wrap my head around the concept of a being that thinks but is not aware. That's kind of beside the point though. What I am charged up about is discovering an author who explores tricky subjects such as consciousness. So, now I'm suddenly a Scalzi fan and I have added several more books to my Must Read list.

BTW, Scalzi is really entertaining on Twitter. I have liked so many of his tweets I'm starting to feel like a creepy celebrity stalker.

Well, There Goes Another Piece of My Childhood

Glenn Campbell was one of my favorite singers around the time I was about 9 years old. I liked several of his songs but I really couldn't get enough of this one. Of course, at the time I didn't clue in to the sad romantic story part of it. I just liked the tune and the imagery.

Random Linkage

Brin Levinson - Wild animals in decaying urban settings. Wonderful! I love these.

Last word on "Cultural Appropriation - Or at least it should be.

Books - a great collection of book and library related links

Valerian and Laureline - a 1960s French comic that looks strangely similar to Star Wars

Bird Palaces of Turkey - Wonderful!

Latte Art - Impressive. On the one hand, it's "too pretty to drink," but on the other I think it would be so cool to be served this. It would make me feel special, just like when I was a kid and my mom would do a little something extra just to make me happy.

Whatever Happened to Data - A slideshow about what former Star Trek actors are doing now. I knew some of this.

So ell enzina

I heard this on the radio this morning. It was composed by Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones. I love discovering wonderful little surprises like this. It's a lovely video too.

Musical Find

I was looking for a piece by Sofia Gubaidulina called On Leaving and found this instead. I haven't listened to all of it yet. Currently about four minutes into it and so far I'm liking it.

A Quote For Our Time

Or perhaps for all time. Today's Google Doodle honors Marshall McLuhan (whom I had never heard of before) "a Canadian professor, philosopher, and public intellectual." What a job title! Can I be a public intellectual? I think I would be good at it. How much does it pay?

Anyway... There are several quotes listed. This one seems particularly relevant.

A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.

I'm sure Mr. McLuhan had a point of view also but I suppose he was qualified. After all he was a public intellectual.

Don't know why I'm being so snarky this morning. I really don't know anything about the man. (I think the words "public intellectual" set me off.) Anyway, I like the quote. It seems like an awful lot of people these days are substituting viewpoints for understanding. I think most people don't know the difference.

This 'n' That

Okay, let's get this one out of the way first. Does It Fart? Haven't you always wanted to know which animals fart? Well, actually, I never gave it much thought. I just always assumed that everything that has a digestive system occasionally expels gas. But that's not always the case? Some of the Notes are, as you might expect, hilarious.

[ahem] How about something pretty to clear the air before we move on:

Cheese on apple pie? Yes, of course! Always. And only cheddar. (or maybe gouda)

The Concealed Revealed looks interesting. A blog but set up kind of weird. "Home" instead of being the most recent posts is a "About the Project" page then you have to go to the archives and recent posts links on the sidebar.

Dumpster Honey - the problems of urban bees

Owl Cabins - tiny, minimalist inside, so cute outside

86 percent of Americans draw circles in the counterclockwise direction. 80 percent of people in Japan draw them in the clockwise direction.

Insects, snails, flowers and more - Beautiful photography by Vyacheslav Mishchenko

Autochromes - Early color photographs. Here's one to finish up this post:

Books Books Books!

So I have been putting off blogging about my reading for months! It's not an obligation, of course. Nobody is obligated to blog daily, but see, I want to share this. I just haven't. So anyway, I've mostly forgotten what I wanted to say about all but the most recently read of these so I'm just going to put them all in one post and just to do something different I'm going to stick some completely unrelated photos in here as dividers. (These are not all of the books I've read this year, just some highlights.)

Earlier this year, thanks to Amazon's recommendations for me, I read two books with similar subject matter. Both are set during the Civil War era, including the pre- and post- Civil War years. Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim is about a young plantation owner's daughter's warm, loving relationship with her nurse, a slave woman named Mattie who is separated from her own son in order to nurse the white infant.

In the other book, Sister of Mine by Sabra Waldfogel, Adelaide is given a slave girl named Rachel to be her personal maid when they are both still children. The two get along well and soon discover that they are actually half-sisters. The story follows them through adolescence to young adulthood.

I highly recommend both of these books. The stories are interesting and the characters are fully developed and realistic. Both books manage to illustrate the tragedy and injustice of slavery without beating the reader over the head with brutality at the expense of the story. I don't want to give away the endings but I will say that both are satisfying though the ending of Yellow Crocus seems the more plausible of the two.

Of course one of the highlights of my reading year was Amongst the Stars, the third book in Kelly Sedinger's Song of Forgotten Stars series. This is the kind of fun and exciting adventure story that got me hooked on reading science fiction in the first place. While I now love a great variety of science fiction it's great that someone is still writing this kind of purely fun story.

I am a huge fan of fantasy writer China Mieville. His novella This Census-Taker is quite different from the other books of his that I have read. In it a young boy witnesses his father killing his mother. The authorities (and most other adults) choose to believe his father's version of events, that his mother abandoned them, but there are other hints that Dad is "not right." There are elements of fantasy in the story but they are so subtle they almost don't matter. This Census-Taker reads almost like a mainstream novella.

I have started reading Three Moments of an Explosion, a book of short stories by Mieville. They are also very different from the Mieville that I'm used to and I like some better than others. I have taken a break from it to read some other books though. The nice thing about a book of short stories is that you can spread them out, reading them one at a time between other books.

For some reason a lot of authors follow me on Twitter. I figure they're just trying to get attention, which is fine, but mostly I haven't paid much attention to them. I'm not sure what was different about S.E. Smith. Maybe the titles, maybe the cover art. Whatever it was, I followed her and followed her links to her books on Amazon and discovered A FREE KINDLE BOOK! A Warrior's Heart. Free. So I didn't even bother to read any reviews; I just downloaded it.

I am so glad it was free. Oh! My! Gawd! As I have already said on Twitter, it's pornographic. But dammit it's still science fiction and there was actually a bit of a story and I really hate to not finish a book; I mean like a Sheldon level have to finish so, quickly skipping over certain scenes, I kept reading. Turns out there were really only a couple of explicit (very explicit) scenes near the beginning and a couple more near the end.

Aside from that there was a lot in the book that just seemed silly to me. Two brothers who were kidnapped from Earth and enslaved as children grow up and fall madly in lust with two sisters from an alien warrior race. (Think Klingon but even meaner and cuter and purple) Anyway, in spite of the fact that these sisters are perfectly capable of kicking anyone's butt and feeding it to them, and the brothers really are not, the brothers constantly feel the need to "protect" their alien girlfriends.

Overall the story is pretty simplistic. The only real action (other than the aforementioned [ahem] "action") is a pretty standard escape. That's really unfortunate because the races and civilizations mentioned in the story seem like they could be interesting if the author would concentrate more on those and less on the "romance" and interpersonal [ahem] activities. But, you know, I guess some people are into that sort of thing. I won't judge. Or at least I'm trying not to judge.

Photos taken by me over 10 years ago.

Could Stores Please Just Behave?

You've probably heard that Hobby Lobby is in trouble again. I don't normally boycott anything. It's ineffective unless a really massive number of people do it and it just seems like a kind of childish temper tantrum or pouting. But it really bothers me to think about shopping at Hobby Lobby since the insurance thing and now this reinforces my instinct to not shop there. At the same time I really hate all this because, apart from their politics, I really like Hobby Lobby.

The take on this among people here in Oklahoma will be something like, "liberal judges picking on good Christian business owners," so they may actually see an increase in sales. So, much as I would like to see them suffer for their bad decisions, it's not going to happen whether I shop there or not. Still, the idea of shopping there makes me extremely uncomfortable.

Oh, and just to be clear, I am not anti-Christian but I do not believe that Hobby Lobby's business decisions are driven by Christian principles, rather they are using religion to justify illegal actions taken merely to save or make money.

Closing

I just found out this week that the local J.C. Penney store is closing. (It's in the same shopping center as the place where I get my hair cut.) This makes me sad but I have to admit that it's merely a sentimental reaction. There has always been a J.C. Penney store everywhere I have ever lived. It's just one of those places that have been around all my life and seems like it should continue to be around forever.

But the truth is I almost never shop there. I can literally count on one hand the number of items I have purchased there in the past 20 years. I go there more often than that - or I used to - but I rarely find what I'm looking for or anything that I would ever want. Part of the reason, of course, is that I make most of my own clothes and J.C. Penney mostly sells clothes, but I do buy things like sweaters, socks, undergarments, jeans, coats, jackets, and the occasional t-shirt. Every time I look for these items at JCP either they don't have my size or (usually) don't have anything I like. Everything is all so "trendy" and fussy and often slightly weird. There are no basics.

Obviously, I am not the only person with this problem. I never see more than one or two other customers in the store at the same time. Message to all the stores: Stop blaming millennials for all your problems. I'm not a millennial and I don't shop in your store either. It's not millennials' fault (or anyone else's) if you don't have anything in your stores that anyone wants to buy.

A Little Rossini to Brighten Your Day

A trio arrangement of The Thieving Magpie Overture

Eclipse (and a few more things)

As you probably know already, there will be a total eclipse of the sun across the United States on August 21st. When I first saw a map showing the path of totality I got excited because it is only about a three or four hour drive from where I live. But more lately the Scrooge in me has been coming out. I think about the traffic and the crowds because everyone is going to flock to somewhere on this narrow, 70 mile wide, path across the U.S. I picture traffic jams and general chaos. But still, it's the last chance I will ever get to see a total eclipse of the sun.

Then this morning I found this eclipse simulator. You just enter your city or zip code and it shows you what the eclipse will look like where you live. (or for any location) If this is accurate it looks like the sun will be eclipsed about 90% or more here. Technically not total but close enough to make it not really worth it to drive four hours and deal with the crowds.

Oh, and I still have my eclipse shades that I bought for the last partial eclipse we had, so I'm all set.

* * * * *

I did say, when I switched back to Blogger, that I was likely going to neglect the blog but I still feel a little bad about it when I go a whole week without posting anything and there are things I want to blog about, like a whole bunch of books. Well, maybe four books that I really have to mention sometime. But not today. Why not? I don't know. I just have to be in the right mood. Know what I mean?

I have been fairly active on Twitter lately. I am @uppityokie in case anyone's interested. I mostly retweet stuff but I do occasionally post a complaint or smart-aleck comment or a "wow, cool" or something and sometimes even get into actual little conversations with a couple of people. I'm typically on it on my phone during the commercials while I'm watching TV in the evening and I also check it a few times during the day.

* * * * *

Forgotten English looks like a fun site but I haven't taken time to really look at it yet.

Finally, enjoy these lovely images by Igor Zenin

Close Encounter

The most crazy awesome thing happened just a little while ago. (Sadly I don't have video evidence to prove it.) I had walked to the mailbox and was walking back up my long driveway when I saw a flash of brown in my peripheral vision. A dog? So I stopped walking and turned my head to look at it. It was a fawn and it was running toward me eagerly. I'm sure of it. It didn't just happen to be going that way. It saw me and was purposely coming toward me.

But then it stopped just four or five feet away from me and just looked at me for maybe ten or fifteen seconds. Then it walked around me, stopping to look back at me a couple of times and finally started running when it was well past me. I think the poor little guy (or girl, I didn't notice that detail) mistook me for his mom. I hope he found her. I'm flattered but I don't think I'd be a good deer mom.

Morning Walk

I spotted this beauty this morning in the woods behind my house. I don't remember ever seeing one exactly like it before. The photo is not as sharp as I would like. The little guy (or gal?) was shy and wouldn't let me get close so I had to zoom in from several feet away.

Random Linkage

Relax - a brief history of stress relief toys

Luxury Train - I want to take ride! It's in Japan of course.

Everyday Foodie Menus - How to make your ordinary meals sound pretentious

Sun Worshiping - great photos of cats, and a few dogs, enjoying the sun

Before Bond - Young Roger Moore, modeling sweaters and vests

Obnoxious Antiques - an online antique store

Textless Movie Posters - These are great. Movie poster art without the words.

Eat Your Cake; It's Good For You

Add to the list of questionable scientific studies I want to believe, eating chocolate cake for breakfast is good for you. It allegedly improves cognitive performance, memory, and abstract thinking. And - the really exciting one - it can help you lose weight. Yay! Just the good news we've all been wishing for! Now we can eat chocolate cake every morning and we'll all be thin and smart. What a wonderful world. I love science, don't you?

The scientists say that "your body converts food and energy more efficiently in the morning" plus there are those wonderful, beneficial "flavonoids" in chocolate but I have an additional idea about how this (the weight loss part of it) might work. Believe it or not I actually do tend to lose weight when I eat ice cream as opposed to when I pig out on things like pizza and giant greasy hamburgers. When I eat ice cream it's usually in the evening and because I know I am going to eat ice cream I "save up" during the day by avoiding snacks during the day and maybe eating a little less at supper. I can see some people if they eat cake in the morning "being good" the rest of the day because they think, "I had that slice of cake this morning so I better watch the calories the rest of the day."

Anyway, I don't think I'll be trying the Chocolate Cake Diet, at least not right now. A while back on Twitter I said that if I live to be 100 I'm going to eat ice cream for supper every night and tell people it's my secret for a long life. So maybe I'll add cake to my 100+ diet plan. Cake for breakfast, ice cream for supper = long life. I'll figure out what to have for lunch later.

Gotham

We can't all like the same things. Different strokes, no accounting for taste, and all that. I get it; I really do and I'm fine with it. But still, once in a while something comes along that is so awesome I just can't fully grasp the fact that not everyone loves it as much as I do. My brain has always known that there must be people out there who do not love Gotham but my heart and soul do not believe it's possible. So it was a bit of a shock to learn that there are at least two people who do not like Gotham.

In case anyone reading this has missed out, Gotham (Fox) is a Batman prequel. Bruce Wayne is a teenager - quiet, serious, and often surprisingly innocent. All the familiar characters are there, though some of the villains have not yet acquired their villain persona. Edward Nygma, for example, in the early seasons is just a shy young guy with issues that probably wouldn't seem all that bad if you didn't know what was coming and it is great fun watching him become The Riddler.

Gotham is incredibly fun to watch. The casting is outstanding. The actors all play their characters brilliantly. My favorite is Robin Lord Taylor as Penguin. I can hardly keep from giggling every time he appears on screen. I could list each actor and gush about how brilliant each of them is but you really just have to see for yourself.

Could it be though, that I am having so much fun watching the characters that I never noticed that there's no plot? Typically, shows that have a long season to season story arc tend to eventually lose focus and go off on weird tangents. I have to admit I'm starting to get a little bored with the Court of Owls, and if Penguin is "killed" and brought back to life one more time it might make me roll my eyes a little, but overall I don't think that's happening with Gotham. It does seem like they skip around a lot. Often the story will refer back to events of a season or two ago. I started watching during season two and I caught on fairly quickly but I don't think it would be possible to pick it up much later than that. This skipping around really doesn't bother me though. To me, it just makes it seem more real. In real life events do not always happen in a smooth, logical progression.

So anyway... I suppose I'm just defending one of my favorite shows and if it's not your cup of tea, it's not your cup of tea but if you haven't watched it yet try it. Start at the beginning and give it some time. And don't worry about the plot or lack thereof. Just sit back and enjoy it moment to moment.

Random Linkage

Starfleet Academy - It's a real place and you can take a tour! But you might be disappointed when you find out what it really is.

Artist Rick Stevens - I love this. Abstract and not quite abstract?

Language Links - A long list

Scardy Dog - Lots of pictures of dogs being afraid of things. Vacuum cleaners are a common fear and far from the silliest.

Tender Wings of Desire - OMG! Someone please tell me this is not real.

Digital Pin-Ups - I suppose that, as a woman, I'm supposed to be outraged about stuff like this but I like pin art. I can't help but appreciate the silliness and ridiculousness. These have a bit of a retro feel but at the same time modern and twisted. NSFW?

Sarah Forbes Bonetta - Interesting, little known history

The Orville - A Star Trek parody series. I'll decide later whether I love it or hate it. Of course you know if it's good Fox will cancel it after only 14 episodes.

Beautiful Tables

Train and Rail Yard Art

Sakura

Water Bucket

A simple but clever idea: put a camera in a bucket of water. I'm a little disappointed that no cats came to drink but I love this anyway.

This 'n' That

I tried Coca-Cola "Life", the one with the green label, and it's not awful. It took me a long time to get to it. The green label greatly bothers my inner Sheldon Cooper. I know it's silly but it goes against my sense of the way things are supposed to be. Coke labels are supposed to be red. The silver Diet Coke label and the black Coke Zero label don't bother me but green is just a color too far. Another thing is stevia. I assumed as soon as I saw the green label that stevia had something to do with it. I had tried it in the little packets before and didn't like it. It's supposed to be "natural" but it has a bitter artificial taste so I had no interest in trying the green label Coke. But then I saw in a commercial that it's sweetened with cane sugar and stevia. So, okay, worth a try.

As I said, it's not awful but it's not great either. I can't decide if it tastes more of less like "the real thing" than Coke Zero. I haven't had a "real" Coke in a fairly long time so it's hard to say. I think I like it slightly better than Coke Zero but it does still have a bit of that wrongness about it that artificially sweetened drinks have. I would be interested in trying a Cherry Coke "Life". That should have a colorful label. Maybe they could come out with it right before Christmas time.

* * * * *

Speaking of Sheldon Cooper, I just heard that there is going to be a Big Bang Theory prequel series about Sheldon as a child. I don't really have an opinion about it yet but I do think it's interesting that Sheldon's mother will be played by Zoe Perry who is the real life daughter of Laurie Metcalf, who plays Sheldon's mother in The Big Bang Theory. And the young actor who will play Sheldon looks enough like grown-up Sheldon to be believable.

* * * * *

I discovered Kenga Rex on Twitter. If you want to spend hours looking at collections of wonderful photographs this is the site for it. It uses a slide show format, which is one of my top pet peeves of the Internet but this is not too terrible. The photos load reasonably quickly and they are so beautiful and amazing that it's worth the relatively small annoyance.

* * * * *

Oooo! I must get the PlantNet app. (I forget where I first saw this.) At a glance, the website doesn't look especially well organized but the app might be more useful. There are of course other plant identification apps. Everything seems to be focused on useful or desirable plants but what I really want most is to identify all the interesting little "weeds" that grow all over my place.

Fascinating Fungi

We have been getting SO MUCH rain lately! I think maybe someone is supposed to be building an ark. We have had a few breaks, like yesterday, when the weather was nice and I could get out and walk around outside. Naturally, when we get lots of rain we get lots of fungi and it seems like every year I see something new. A few days ago I found this gorgeous fungus growing on this small tree. It actually seems a bit translucent.

Voices

Fillyjonk said something that caught me by surprise. Talking about Willie Nelson, that "He doesn't have a beautiful singing voice..." When I really think about it, I suppose that's true. He doesn't have the kind of voice that people normally think of as beautiful but I have always loved it.

I am attracted to unique voices, at least in popular music. With operatic singing I'm more interested in the music itself. I expect operatic voices to be well trained and I only want the singers to respect the music and "sing it right." But with popular music I want to hear voices that don't sound like all the other voices.

She mentioned Hallelujah. I hadn't heard Willie Nelson's version of that and I've had a certain fascination with that song recently so of course I listened to it. I was a little disappointed, probably because I have developed certain expectations for the song, so I'm posting one of my favorites instead.

Just a Few Links

Edward Gorey, Collector - This is not surprising at all. (I used to have a few of the Red Rose Tea figurines. I haven't seen them since before the last time we moved, over 20 years ago.)

Aging - Comparing photos of centenarians with their photos taken when they were young adults

Vintage Book Covers - I want these.

Russian Tea Containers

Alternate Universes

Fictional Butterflies - Lovely!

A Little Something...

Wow, have I really not posted anything all week and the week is almost over? I need to do a book post because I just finished another book and that makes three since the last time I posted anything about books. I probably won't get the chance tomorrow either because we're supposed to have a massive rainstorm, 4 to 6 inches of rain and hail likely and satellites apparently can't see through heavy clouds so no Internet or TV for me tomorrow. I should get lots of reading and sewing done.

So, for now, here's a little something from one of my favorite "lesser" composers.

Spring Skies

In With the New, Out With the Old

I have such a hard time letting go, even of things that I don't really like all that much anymore. The plate on the left in the first photo below is maybe 30 years old. I originally bought 4 10 inch plates and four 8 inch plates. They're actually a pretty hefty plastic, thicker and better than typical plastic plates but two of the large ones and one of the small ones eventually broke. Last year I finally found somewhere I could buy DallasWare in a small quantity. (They're a restaurant item, usually only available in cases of 48.) I bought 12 blue 10 inch plates and threw out the two yellow plates in that size but kept the three remaining smaller ones. The three that are left have stains that won't come out. I even bleached them and that helped some but there are still faint stains.

I had been looking at these aquatic themed plates at Walmart. I fondled them and left them in the store several times because I "don't need anymore plates." I thought about buying just one so my granddaughter will have something bright and colorful to eat off of when she comes over but today I finally gave in to the impulse and bought four of them. Which means I must let go of the old.

It shouldn't be hard at all to throw out some old, stained plastic plates that we don't even use all that often anymore but... but... they have been part of my life for almost 30 years. My children ate off of those plates! Okay, I did throw them away and right this moment I am resisting the urge to get them back out of the trash. Have you ever heard of such silliness?

I'm sure these new plates won't last that long. According to the label they are only "top rack dishwasher safe" but I know sooner or later (almost certainly sooner) someone is going to put them in the bottom rack and I won't notice and there goes my pretty new plate. Also, while they seem to be fairly decent quality I don't expect them to last more than a few years. Which, I'm kind of okay with because they were cheap enough but, for that reason, it seems sort of wrong to throw away something that is "still good" in favor something new and probably not as good.

Well, all that's probably more of the inside of my head than you ever wanted to see. Here are two more of the new plates. There were only three different designs so I bought two of the fish. When I got home I wondered why I chose two of the fish when the starfish is actually my favorite but I'm really not too disappointed with my choice. I like them all. I really wish there had been four different designs.

A Lovely Weekend

Guess who I got to meet yesterday!

(She was dressed for church. I was dressed for a long car ride.)

We drove down to Austin, Texas on Friday to visit family and drove back on Sunday. I have always had mixed feelings about meeting people I only know online, mostly because the people I'm most attracted to online are all better educated than I am and I worry about what kind of impression I will make. I'm really just a dumb redneck with a sort of weird variety of interests. Fortunately, my husband can talk to anyone so I knew I wouldn't have to worry much about awkward silences.

I really enjoyed our little get-together. It didn't feel like I was meeting Erica for the first time because she is exactly as I always imagined her. We had lunch at a little Italian restaurant called Roma's. I didn't really mind that it took them forever to bring our food because it gave us more time to talk.

* * *

Saturday with family (in-laws) was great too. There were cousins there whom I had only met briefly over 30 years ago and also some I had not met before including some really sweet and adorable kids. So it was a lovely and fun weekend.

Random Linkage

Rubik's Cakes - a cute party idea

Hidden Haikus

Artist Will Wilson - Portraits, still life, animals, and more

Six Pie Recipes

Colormind - I haven't taken the time to play with this yet but it looks interesting.

Glass house - Beautiful! Definitely do not throw stones.

Candy Geode - You'll need a few friends to share it with.

Planet Building Blues - An interesting blog if you have time to do some reading.

A Few Things

Turkish artist Huseyin Sahin creates beautiful, surreal scenes using photographs.

I just discovered Factinate this morning. As always, be skeptical of any "facts" you read on the Internet but this does look interesting and I noticed that they did get at least one thing right that often misleads people, about life expectancy in ancient times and how it's skewed by the higher number of infant and maternal deaths.

Black and WTF is a Tumblr devoted to odd old black and white photos.

I made this raspberry sour cream pie. I halved the recipe to make only one pie.I wouldn't say it was the best pie I've ever tasted but it was yummy and I will be making again sometime.

Book Quote

From Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds:

And though he did eventually return, his doubters had in a sense been right, because a large portion of his sanity had not come back with him.

Thanks to my son for sharing that with me. I have read the book but it was several years ago. ("Several" being something like 10 maybe)

Just Some Birds

Newest Vice

Prepared food industry, I hate you. You keep on coming out with irresistible stuff. And by the way, Mother Nature... I don't hate you because you do some really awesome work but let's be honest, you are a cruel bitch sometimes. Like, the way you make stuff that's bad for us taste so good. But back to the prepared foods industry and this evil temptation.

I know... almonds are healthy, right, so this isn't that bad? That's what they want us to think. They don't want us to read the required Nutrition Facts part of the label and see that it has 14 grams of fat and 13 grams of carbohydrates per unrealistically small serving.

So far we've tried it on whole wheat bagels and on graham crackers. The jar is almost empty. I'm going to try to resist the temptation to buy more. For a while.

New Old TV Episodes

In 1995 we moved from Virginia to Oklahoma. (This is closer to where we were originally from) The first season of Star Trek: Voyager had just finished. And, if I remember correctly, we were in the middle of the second season of Babylon 5. We found, to our intense disappointment, that in the Tulsa area both of these shows were on a weak channel that you can't get with an antenna unless you live practically next door to the broadcast station. It would be several more years before we got cable and then later, DirectTV.

So there are six entire seasons of ST:V that we have not seen. (Not to mention several seasons of B5*) Until now. BBC America recently started showing reruns of it on Monday night and I'm enjoying catching up. So far they have been showing episodes from the later seasons, mostly 1998, 1999 or around that. When the show first premiered I found it a bit disappointing. It was okay but just not... I don't know... not Star Trek enough. But I'm liking these later episodes a lot more. I am missing one of my favorite characters from the first season, Kes. I even named a cat after her.

Seven of Nine is annoying but I think I'm starting to hate her a bit less. I don't think I'll ever name a cat after her though. I can see why most guys like her so much. (You know, I really don't mind the token eye candy but it would be nice if we gals could see some too. At least in the original we occasionally got to see Captain Kirk without a shirt.)

But what I really wanted to talk about is the theme music. This is my favorite of all the Star Trek openings, both the music and the visuals.

There is also an extended version.

And then there's this:

(* No we can't stream it on Netflix or Hulu. Real high speed Internet is not available out here in the boonies.)

Cute Weirdness... or Weird Cuteness

I did try to think of something clever to say about this but, honestly, I don't think it needs anything from me.

Random Linkage

Clouds - This guy says we should spend more time talking about clouds. It does seem like a better topic for conversation than most I have been hearing lately.

Spiritual Perception - A beautiful surreal art Tumblr. Beautiful! I am so in love with this site!

Kawaii Monster Cafe - Not very monstrous. A colorful and fun Japanese cafe.

Ambiguous Abbreviations - Or perhaps one could say, unfortunate.

Food Carving - Artist plays with food

Ted Wilson Reviews the World - A hilarious review of butter.

Russian Fairy Tale Portraits - Beautiful portrait photography.

Real photographs that look like paintings

Village of Flowers - A Polish village with flowers painted on everything. Wonderful!

The Turban Trick - an interesting bit of history

Ambient Geek Sleep Aids - Background noise from science fiction movies and TV shows

Miniature Environments by Song Kang - Fascinating sculptures

Book Quote

From Helliconia Summer by Brian W. Aldiss:

Hate cheers you up, makes you forget guilt.

Make it Sew

I saw this on Facebook this morning.

This 'n' That

I came across a word that I don't remember seeing before even though it is an old word, probably considered outdated which would be why I hadn't noticed it before. (And it does seem sort of odd that I had never seen it so maybe I had and just forgot about it?) The word is botheration. This seems like a useful word. The way it's used in the book I'm reading, Helliconia Summer, it's an understatement. All kinds of big, really bad events are just botheration. With all the hyperbole we have in the world today I think more understatement would be healthy.

Here is a list that I actually, totally agree with: Top 20 Things No Woman Should Wear After 30. No, really. You have to go read it. I'll admit though, I might be tempted by the cursed amulet. Or maybe I'm trying hard to find something on the list that I would wear, just to be contrary.

I thought of an idea for a Criminal Minds episode. Disturbed blogger who never gets any comments hunts down lurkers and tortures and murders them after forcing them to comment on every single post on his (or her) blog. No, no! Not me! I would never do that. I wouldn't know how to find you anyway. But it would make a good creepy story, wouldn't it?

Fake fur in a spring fashion show seems a bit odd. Well, that's not the only odd thing about this collection but my inner child wants to pet these clothes and maybe even wear them. At home, alone, where no one can see me.

A nice post about body image. You know, body image is sort of important to me but not important enough to ever make me want to wear long sleeves in the summer. But then, I live in Oklahoma, not New York.

There are several books in this list, How to Escape in 9 Books, that I might want to read. It's not often that you see a general list of books that starts with a science fiction novel so I was immediately encouraged.

Finally, here's another one of those cool Animusic videos, because I simply can't resist.