Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

Let's see if this works:

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:08:56 GMT

Okay, the other day I gave in and bought Dragon quote NaturallySpeaking, since it was 40% off for one day. After it arrived in the mail I tried to run the speech recognition, only to discover that the microphone was not properly plugged in to my computer. So I had to wait for Audrey to come by today to plug-in the new microphone headset which came with the program I've now spent about an hour fiddling with the tutorial and I am now using the program to write this entry.

We are still learning each other; one trick we are having to learn is distinguishing between directions and what I actually want to say. And of course, On my end actually knowing what I want to say. So far so good however.

Dragon dictate does not recognize DreamWidth's entry window directly, but openness and dictation box from which I can transfer the text. Which I will try to do now…

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Has it really been a week since I last posted?!

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:58:32 GMT

First. Cute overload of the day, or week, or month, or until the next time I squeal out loud at an image on my screen: Linked Tails (photo of three harvest mice siblings perched on a branch, holding tails the way humans hold hands)

Second. Re: Feeling ... not so much left out as pushed out of Valentine's Day (it's the only holiday I can think of that puts people in a second class based on relationship status, and for those of us who have been historically and culturally discouraged from thinking about having relationships, well... yeah. And being the sort who doesn't like feeling left out and bitter, I spent yesterday trying to think of a positive alternative way to frame it -- or a new one (my old fall back of it bringing a shot of bright color into the grey depths of winter doesn't work as well in Virginia as it did in New York).

This is what I came up with: For the Romans, it was a fertility fest celebrating the founding of Rome, and the suckling of Romulus and Remus by the she-wolf... According to the Christian story (aiui) Saint Valentine became associated with lovers because at one point, married men were exempt from the army, so the Saint would perform marriages as an act of civil disobedience. So I propose that we singletons of that bent use the day to celebrate conscientious objection and other "loving" acts of social change... (hey, "pinko" is already a color associated with it!)

Third. Working on a YouTube video of my "harvest" poem... which is why I haven't been talking here much (which is why I was researching mice to draw).

Fourth. Still need to schedule an inspection of my central heating/AC

Fifth. Need to schedule repairs to the van (may be the transmission). :-/

Sixth. After 30 or so years, This Old House is finally doing a series on wheelchair-accessible design. My feelings, they are mixed. On the one hand: yay! On the other hand, it's still being framed as "Something we should do for our elderly family members." (And again, disability = elderly, rather than disability = everybody). Also, it's a two-storey house and the downstairs is being converted into a self-contained, one-storey, living space with the upstairs being renovated for future live-in help if needed... And once again, I'm thinking that that would probably have been the better option for me to adapt my New York home instead of moving down here...

Seventh: OMG! Asteroids! Meteorite! Eek!

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Idea for a Halloween costume that didn't come to me until after Nov. 1 # .. aw, Hell -- lost count.

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:22:52 GMT

A costume for a trio of friends:

"Hey Diddle Diddle" from Mother Goose -- Human version:

Hep Cat on the fiddle: dressed as a beatnik musician (helps if person really is a violinist, but a mock violin would work too)

"L'il Dawg": dressed as a Rapper, with fake gold letters on a chain spelling out the name (craft stores sell cardboard die cut letters for scrap-bookers, which can be painted)

The Dish: dressed as a glamorous woman from the 1940s (with a bandit's mask, and carrying a large spoon or ladle)

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5 things

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 02:25:13 GMT

One: Thought which came to me, this evening --

What it means to be Human: to Ascribe Meaning to Everything Else (whether we get it right or not is immaterial).

Two: The English noun, "Sweet," has meant both 'an edible high in sugar' and 'a beloved person' for about an equal amount of time (since circa 1300, C.E.)... I think that's rather ... sweet.

Three: Dragon.

Four: Caught a YouTube video the other night, where some professor dude was explaining about dyscalculia by comparing it to dyslexia... And he said that dyslexia really had nothing to with how the eye scans across the page, but its just that children with it have trouble understanding the proper connection between sounds and letters.

I'm sorry, but (no, correction - not sorry) -- I make a very strong Vexation Face at anyone who discounts and/or tries to explain away reports of people's own experiences in their own words.

My philosophy teacher in college had dyslexia, and so, when we handed in a typed paper for grading, it had to be in a font with serifs. The way she explained it to us (paraphrased, if I recall correctly) was that the arrangement of serifs in relation to each other in a word gave her eyes something to focus on, so she could scan a line of text without the letters going in and out of focus.

That doesn't sound anything like an incomprehension of phonics to me -- especially since she could read handwriting just fine (or with much less trouble).

So naturally, I have my doubts about how he tells us to cure dyscalculia, too...

Five: And the opposite of vexation comes in the form of this post, from last month -- it makes me very, very happy: Choosing lessons.

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Let's see if I can come up with 5 things, shall we?

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 04:54:41 GMT

1: ( My reaction to 'Hellboy: the Fury' (Motion Comics YouTube version -- no doubt abridged) )

2: The other day, while playing around with NoteWorthy Composer (a point and click music score/midi processor, for making up tunes), I held my headphones up to Trixie's ear, to see if she showed any interest at all in this thing I call "music." Absolutely zero reaction. I switched to the "bird tweet" instrument sound, and her ears perked up at that, a little bit (but she looked out toward my Great Room, 'cause she knew the bird couldn't really be inside that plastic thing). But it didn't take long for her to twig that it was fake.

And she gave me a Look that said: "Really. I have higher expectations of you, besides such foolishness."

And, with that, she turned and walked over to her napping spot, and went to sleep.

I admit: I laughed.

3: I've heard, a few times (the latest today, on a radio show about "Summer Reading") about a debut novel called Wonder, by R. J. Palacio. Every review I've heard or read has been a rave. My interest is piqued. It's a middle-grade chapter book about a boy with severe facial deformities, and how he learns to live with other people's reactions to him. What interests me most is that the protagonist doesn't describe what he looks like, only how other people react, which is an interesting way to handle and introduce, perhaps, the issue of ableism. And it's the age-group book I've also been most interested in writing.

However, I have misgivings as well. First, all the reviews I've seen call it "Heartwarming" and "Inspiring," and mention that all the teasing the protagonist endures is from his fellow classmates, but that all the adults in his life are supportive.

And second? my hope for being satisfied with this book is diminished because the Author's webpage about the book is inaccessible to screen readers (I checked).

Bah -- Humbug!

(But I might check to see if my local library has a copy).

4. Today, I learned that there is no vinegar in sauerkraut; it gets its sourness from the same bacteria in yogurt, and (in small portions) it's healthy for your gut in the same way as yogurt. Cool (Imnsho).

and (\o/):

5. Does anyone (besides me) find these two lines an example of chuckle-worthy wit:

When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her, though I know she lies.

?

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The problem with...

Thu, 24 May 2012 02:43:07 GMT

Writing in iambic pentameter is that it's been used so often before.

There's always a risk that whatever turn of phrase you're puzzling through will wake a slumbering ear worm (And here, I'm using "worm" in the medieval sense, to mean "Dragon")

Just this evening, while trying to compose a line about generations of medical doctors, my brain dug up this gem:

"We are sober men and true" (link to a YouTube video)

( Lyrics by William S. Gilbert, behind here )

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This post is not at all random: All these things were in my head today :P

Thu, 10 May 2012 05:05:38 GMT

So, thanks to the Geek and Sundry channel on YouTube, I've discovered this show called "The Guild." I like it. It passes the Betchdel Test. But it's still bothersome in its ableism. Being a fan of problematic things is tricky enough when you're viewing from the comfortable distance provided by privilege, but it's squirm-inducing when you're a fan that's targeted in the jokes, and you find yourself still laughing... even if it's not at those particular jokes.
- How sad is it that I identify most with Zaboo, arguably the most socially inappropriate of the bunch (he seems to have improved over the seasons, though)?
I seem to be going ahead with Camp NaNoWriMo Here's what I've got up, so far, as a novel synopsis (Definitely subject to change). Yesterday (I think, might have been the day before) I decided:
1. That it should be a book of Shakespeare's sonnets, and
2. When it forms the silhouette form of itself to explore the world, it will shape itself into a little mini-Shakespeare-shadow, based on an illustration in the book, about three inches tall. Cute, right?
- Monday, I learned the technical term for the size of book I'm thinking of: If it was born in Britain, it will be a "Medium Sixteenmo" (for serious!); if it was born in America, it will be a sextodecimo (seriously! Ain't language silly?)
- Still not sure what will happen in the story, but I suspect the phrase "They Fight Crime!" will fit into the synopsis sooner rather than later...
Dragons!
Ice Cream!
Some things, you never outgrow:

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A recent thought which amuses me:

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:57:31 GMT

As I was snacking on an apple, the other day (Yesterday? The day before?), I realized that the tiny, dried, green leaves at the apple's blossom end were the dried remains of the calyx, which, when the apple was still a flower, had hugged and protected the ovules.

So: does that mean we could say that the apple's blossom end is its belly button?

Why yes, I am easily amused. Why are you looking at me funny?

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Long sigh

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:50:59 GMT

So, yesterday, I went to Walmart to buy stuff. One of the stuffs I bought was a webcam.

I just assumed that the cheapest camera there would be compatible with my old Windows XP machine; it said Windows XP on the package.

It wasn't until I was halfway through trying to rip the package open that I noticed the "System Requirements" that said it needed an Intel Pentium 4 processor with 2.4 GHz (or AMD Athlon equivalent), and thought to double check -- it looked familiar, but ....

I have a 2.21 GHz processor... and about a third of RAM I need.... I also noticed the date on my machine: 2002. Nine. Years. Old.

Damn.

And because I've already torn into the packaging, I won't be able to return it (but not torn into it enough to actually get the camera out of its blister pack)...

That'll learn me to double check these things before heading out the door...

Other things I bought:

A yard of burgundy poly fleece for my monster teddy, a new pair of scissors, so I can cut the fleece, and a packet of needles with a needle threader, so I can sew the fleece (threading the needles when I get to the end of the thread is what takes the most time and energy for me, in hand sewing).

A headset microphone/speaker combo thing (So at least I can record my voice, now... maybe my YouTube videos will be limited to storytelling with drawn & scanned illustrations).

And a wreath for my door, as a sign to the neighbors that I do, indeed, notice the passage of the year and the Holiday Season) -- it's a wreath of pine cones entwined with fake holly berries and leaves -- red and brown with highlights of green.

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Brain-dump: Things that are not my novel, to clear my head:

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:45:35 GMT

Season Final of Chuck (So far): Three down, ten to go.

I'm really liking this. ( Spoilers for seasons 1-4, strictly speaking, but only in the very broadest of strokes )

Ye Muses and Storytellers! There needs to be more of this! Please!

Another snippet from Rolling around in my head:

(quote) ( Read more... ) "If our most important invention was the wheel," he said, "why did we follow up with the stair?" (unquote)

Thoughts that come to mind from wanting to talk back to Brian Greene in his new "Fabric of the Cosmos" series:

I am really sick of the Theory of Entropy being treated like it's a hot, new, exciting idea. ( Read more... )

And, thanks to Life, a chaotic and falling-apart Universe is a lot more fun and interesting that the super-ordered moment at the very start of the Big Bang. I'll take it. Thanks.

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Random thought-snippets:

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:27:50 GMT

Thought that has been gradually coalescing toward articulation and thesis: 20th and 21st century attitudes toward Disability parallel 18th and 19th century attitudes toward Womanhood.

Notion that proves I think too much: You know those M&M candy commercials, where each color is given its own personality, and neuroses? You're led to believe that these "people" get eaten shortly after the spot is over. And yet, they keep returning in new spots. Does this mean that the spirit of each color is immortal, and continually moves on to new bodies as the old body is eaten? Um... Yeah. Like I said.. I think too much.

Another think-too-much thought: in both series of the NCIS television franchise, the visual hook coming back from, and going into commercial break, is a freeze of the action in the form of a black and white photograph; in the original series, you even get the photographer's sight-cross-hairs, and hear the camera shutter clicking. Who the heck is taking the picture -- and why? Will this person ever be revealed?

The Art Garden's next theme is "Charms..." As usual, I am thoroughly stumped as to what to write for it. An idea came to me that maybe I could write about using individual words as charms (in the sense of amulets), in that understanding their key idea can be held in the mind as a protection from verbal / emotional onslaught. But that may be too far afield. I queried the organizer about it earlier this week. I have yet to hear back. The deadline is November 12.

When it gets near Christmastime, I'm going to have to write about Tiny Tim for my blog, aren't I (From Dickens' A Christmas Carol, just in case you forgot)?

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Random thought-snippets:-- the multimedia edition (Short stack)

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 17:26:24 GMT

I recently read, on lizbee's journal, there's a meme going around Tumblr that the last music you listened to will be played at your funeral. It probably only counts if it's the last music you listened to before learning that trick, 'cause otherwise, it would be too easy to be artificially dignified. But if anyone is taking notes, and my demise comes unexpectedly, I think this would be pleasingly confounding for the surviving cousins:

( lyrics (With chords): )

--

Early this morning (in the official, awake-too-long, wee hours) YouTube recommended a video clip from Primeval -- the one with the tiny pterosaurs that killed people. I knew that probably was all wrong, so I went hunting around online for slightly more accurate information. And I found out that Mark Witton has a pterosaur book coming out this fall. :::Squee!::: I first found Mark Witton's Flick'r gallery several years ago, back when he was still working on his doctorate. He's the main reason I resent the PBS kids' show dinosaur train, because the Pteranodon Family at the center of it is all wrong, according to current theories (like 40 years out of date, or so).*

--

However, I do enjoy most PBS kids' shows, so I've been checking out their online site to learn more about the programs, and I found one site that's web only, dedicated to teaching 6-9 year olds basic music theory and how to write in five popular genres. I have been thinking it's a while since I tried writing a song, so I might hang out there for a bit: Chuck Vanderchuck's *something something* Explosion. *grin*
--

*The show's gender-roles ideas are more like 60 years out of date. And that's a whole 'nother gripe. But, in a kids' show about dinosaurs and pterosaurs, where the creatures themselves are wrong and bland? Utterly unforgivable. Especially from the Jim Henson workshops.

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Random thought-snippets:

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:22:29 GMT

1) How is it that I can enjoy a television show like Bones even when I'm cringing about five times per episode due to ableist dialog, and really stupid stereotypes about politics and nationality? After each hour, I find myself wanting to apologize to... me

J) There's this Lipton Ice Tea commercial that's been airing, lately, with a woman singer-voice-over singing a mock "Inspirational Ballad Hook" (It's just one line, and except for the final spoken tag line, it's the only language in the whole spot, which makes me think it was written just for this ad, and not a borrowed line from an actual complete song). The line is: "I ... Belong ... to all ... That I've... Been Through!"

And it wouldn't bother me so much if the music and singing and visuals that go with it weren't written well. But they were well-written.

So that line gets stuck in my head for the whole day. And it drives me up the proverbial wall, because it's backwards. That's the opposite of inspirational. That means that we are owned and controlled by our past, that we have no power to redefine who we are.

But the individual words in that line probably got pinged by some focus group as "feel good words," and so they were written into the lyric, regardless of what the whole sentence means. This is what gives the Advertising Industry its creepy reputation, boys and girls.

7) Speaking of industry, every time I hear on the news, that the "new home construction" statistics for each month indicates the current health of our economy, I can't help but think we need to find a new foundation for our economy. That can't be sustainable, can it? Every new home built needs to have more land cleared to build on, so that our suburbs keep sprawling, and more highways get built, and more cars get driven, and more petroleum-based fuel gets depended on... and... Really?! That system is the best indicator of a healthy economy in this day and age?

I mean, I understand that when America was starting out, and the various governmental systems were working out the kinks on the way to our current Constitution, having political power meant owning your own land and the home you built on it. So the idea that the more citizens owned their own homes (rather than renting or squatting) the greater personal stake they'd have in making sure the government kept going, and they'd be less likely to start their own revolutions. ...At least, that was the theory (and that's why home mortgage payments are tax-deductible). But isn't it time we moved on to some other measure?

I mean, I'm no economist, Jim. I'm just a former English major. I'm just saying.

b) Speaking of "Bones" (Hey, I warned you this would be random!), I'm wondering if "procedurals" (whether police or medical-based) are especially prone to ableist nonsense in their scripts and long story arcs, because the sellers-of-advertising in these shows depend on promising a loyal audience who's hooked quickly and consistently, even when they've missed the first four episodes of the season, and the first twenty minutes of this particular episode. And What's the cheapest way to do that (in terms of cognitive capital and time, at least)? Pit the Normals as the good guys against the Abnormals as the bad guys. 'Cause that way, you don't have to waste any time explaining or exploring an unfamiliar idea...

You know what genre of TV I miss most? Variety comedy shows, like "Laugh-in" and "The Carol Burnett Show" and the Flip Wilson show (IIRC, it was just called "Flip").

~) Part of me wants to adapt Kant's "Second formulation" of the Categorical Imperative into a tee-shirt. But I'm not sure it's possible to convert formal 17th C., translated-from-German, philosophical language into a pithy, snarky, tee-shirt saying. That second formulation goes like this:

(Quote) "Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end." (unquote)

I like it because it does acknowledge that we are "means" to each other (and ourselves) -- that human do rely on the help of others to accomplish what we cannot do alone. But it says we must Also accept that simply being the best human we can be is a worthy goal in its own right -- and it makes the point that you are not being a good or moral person if you lie down and play doormat.

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5 good ... or, um, actually, "it's a mixed bag, honestly" things:

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:37:06 GMT

1) Woo! Now, when you cite an LJ Community, using DW's tags, you get the community icon, instead of the "single user" icon. I was wondering when that code would catch up.

2) OK-Go: I like their YouTube videos, but a couple of weeks ago, I guess it was, I caught them as the "musical guest" at the end of "The Late Show with David Letterman." And from seeing them just standing on the stage, I realized I don't like their music very much. It might be good, but I can't tell, because the sound balance is off between voice and instruments, and it just strikes my ear as a loud, jaunty, muddle. Also, I suspect they are covering their vocal weaknesses with AutoTune.

3) Speaking of "striking the ear," Vihart (of "doodling in math class" videos) has recently put up a longer work, that's a mix of live action, stop action animation, and montage, that wonderfully explains the biology, physics, and mathematics of sound, here: What's up with Noises? (The Science and Mathematics of Sound, Frequency, and Pitch). On the one hand, it's a wonderfully poetic explanation that validates all my love for music. On the other, it also validates the feeling I often have of being overwhelmed by hearing All The Sounds, All The Time.

4) I'm trying to figure out how to write about the Grimms' tale Hans-my-Hedgehog; usual (i.e. Jungian) interpretation generally frames his half a life as Hedgehog-boy as being metaphorical, and his shedding of the hedgehog skin (and emerging with milk-white complexion and blue eyes) as being the "reality." And I want to turn that on it's head. But I'm not sure how to frame that.

5) Still thinking of writing up a Similes Meme. But 30 is a lot. So it will probably end up being Seven Days of Similes, instead.

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Tidbit: what (my) cerebral palsy is like:

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 19:32:49 GMT

Back in May, I wrote the following analogy about what living inside my body with cerebral palsy is like:

(Quote) Imagine trying to open your door, and go inside your house. Simple, right? Now, imagine that your arms are full of a dozen loose oranges [snippity-snip]

So reaching out to turn the doorknob is interrupted several times in order to catch a threatening orange avelanche with your chin, and then you have to pause, and rearrange your load. (Unquote)

(The whole thing is here: Musing on the idea of "I," and what "Me" means to me...

Well, yesterday (or it may be the day before), that analogy came back to mind as a perfect little example played itself out:

I went to the water dispenser in the refrigerator, to fill up my coffee mug. Only, I'd left a water class on the shelf. So I put the mug in my left hand, grasping the whole top of it in my fingers, and took the water glass in my right hand, and moved to put it down on the counter.

No matter how I tried, I couldn't get my right arm to extend comfortably enough that I could put the glass down with any confidence that it wouldn't go crashing to the floor (and it's one of only two glasses I have that are actually glass... for this very reason.

The way I got around the problem? I stopped, and changed the grip on my coffee mug, so my left hand was more comfortable.

After that, my right hand and arm worked perfectly and smoothly as if I had no (or hardly no) balance problems at all.

Heh. Sometimes, my right hand knows far too much about what my left hand is doing...

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Disability Pride Flag? (with questions)

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:06:04 GMT

(cross-posted from disability)

Back on July 31, Dave Hingsburger, author of "Rolling around in my Head," blogged about the International Maritime Signal Flag "Foxtrot" (a red 'diamond' on a white square field), and its meaning: "I'm Disabled; Communicate with me." And announced that he would be using that as his "Disability Pride Flag" to wave at parades, and hang out his window.

Here's a link: Wave Your Flag

I have mixed feelings -- five of them, as a matter of fact:

1. I like the idea of a disability pride flag.

2. I like the idea of a disability pride flag that is an abstract symbol (rather than something like the wheelchair access icon -- which privileges visible, mobility-based disabilities over others)

3. I don't like the idea of appropriating an existing flag, which already has its own set of meanings (which vary by context, and is complicated by the fact that NATO has decided that, for them, each flag means something different). If I'm going to wave a flag to show my pride in my community, I want it to be unique.

4. Besides, the flag's original meaning for "Disabled" is "I'm stuck. I need help!"

5. I see this as a challenge to come up with my own flag design. (*grin*) Hence, the questions.

---
A) Should I start with the maritime signal flag idea, and modify it (I've already come up with two designs by combining two different flags, but I'm not sure I'm happy with them), or should I start from scratch?

B) Each element on a flag usually represents a key idea or belief. My ideas for a Disability Pride flag are: eccentricity (in the literal sense -- we're "off-center" in our wider communities, and need to find our own way through), self-advocacy, adaptability, and community. What are yours?

C) Now, this is pure fun -- what are your favorite flag colors?

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The sad-making and the happy-making:

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:55:31 GMT

I finally wrote that changeling post: Changelings: When parents fear the child they did not expect. I ended up not using the story of the boy I knew who died, because my memories are vague enough that it's entering into the legend territory that I'm criticizing.

But it's still a subject that brings me down...

In happier news: I have half a peck of fresh, local, tree-ripened peaches on my kitchen counter (minus two peaches, 'cause I couldn't resist, and one just wasn't enough)

I also have my daily art still to do. I think I will try something silly and jolly. -- maybe just spirals and stars. I don't know, yet. I'll find out when I start.

Also, my cat is calling me to come pet her, please. So I will go do that. Yes.

Later!

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Just wondering ('cause I can't be the only one):

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 03:19:51 GMT

Is there a website or some general place to go, for those rare birds, like myself, who actually want spoilers for stories and things?

I actually like knowing how a story will end before I begin, so I can sit back and enjoy the way a story is told, without worrying if it will all go in a direction I Do Not Want.

Is there a "Please Spoil Me" Database or some such out there?

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Thoughts on things:

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:43:51 GMT

ETA: Testing, testing.... Is LJ back enough to allow cross-posting ? (According to the tech wonders at DreamWidth, there needed to be some shifting of code to deal with the kerfuffle)

ETA #2: Apparently so, but there was a typo in my password...
One:

The trouble with the "Ugly Duckling" model of "Stick it through, it'll get better when you grow up" pep talks:

The ducks who abused the cygnet for being an ugly duckling would have abused the swan for being an ugly drake, if he'd stuck around: "Your neck's too long!" "Why don't you have a nice green back like the rest of us?!" etc.

Things got better for the title character, true. But not because he "grew out of" an "ugly" phase (he was never in an ugly phase). They got better because he escaped an abusive community and was found by another where he fit in.

Two:

There seems to be a common meme among Theists that atheists view the world with a cold and calculating eye, and thus, live in a world without beauty or wonder. To those theists, I would like to pose the following question:

Is a garden rose, cut and put into a bouquet, inherently more beautiful than a wild rose, growing spontaneously in the forest, simply by virtue that it was bred to be a gift?

Three:

I'm planning on making my next "Plato's Nightmare / Aesop's Dream" post on the Northern European Chaangeling tales (Trigger Warning: discussion of abuse and murder of disabled children). I found one such story on Google eBooks, about a troll-changeling. At first, I thought I'd copy and paste it into my blog, and then write up my thoughts on it.

...Every other story in the book converted to plain text to make this process easier -- except a ten-page span where this particular story appeared.

...It's things like that that lead people to the feeling that The Good People are watching us.

Four:

I miss my parents.

Five:

I forgot to get cocoa at my last shopping trip. A whole week without chocolaty goodness! Will I be able to make it?

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Random stuff: what it says on the tin...

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 21:48:19 GMT

1) Today, the mercury in the thermometer (without factoring in the Heat Index) reads 102 F [39 C]. Question: is it better to turn off my Air Conditioning momentarily, to ease the strain on the local power grid, or to keep it running continuously, so it doesn't have to work as hard when I do turn it on again? The heat's gonna be the same tomorrow, so they say.

2) Today would have been my parents' 49th wedding anniversary. It was a true "Till Death do they Part" affair (Mother died in '91... Father never remarried... It wasn't until his deathbed that he admitted to me that that might have been a mistake, for loneliness). And, for the most part, it was a happy marriage... I mean, I'd come into the kitchen, sometimes, and find them kissing spontaneously, or dancing to the radio (Sometimes with each other, sometimes with the dogs). I'm the last one alive for whom remembering the day is important.

3) From the Lexiphile file: "Preposterous": "pre-post-erous" I.E: Latin for Ass-backwards, or, as we sometimes said, in grade school, to avoid a 'dirty' word: "Bass-ackwards". *grin*

4) I love what Google's doing, in honor of Alexander Calder's Birthday, today. Alexander Calder, like Jim Henson, and Richard Feynman, was one of the world's coolest guys. And speaking of Jim Henson, here's a YouTube clip of a film with Calder that we watched, one day, in my puppetry class, when I was in high school

5) Speaking of artsy stuff, will there be naarmamo again, this year, jekesta?

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I've been tickled by a memory today, that my mind keeps going back to.

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:38:10 GMT

Today, for some reason, my mind keeps going back to a "limberjack" toy I had, as a kid.

On their own, they don't seem like much, until you realize how closely the "nonsense" dancing of the puppet actually matches the look and sound of their living human counterparts:

A YouTube vid showing human clog dancers

A YouTube vid showing a clog dancing puppet at work

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5 fingers (usually), 5 senses (usually),* 5 days (usually) make a work week,

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:41:41 GMT

And 5 things make a post:

From the Lexiphile file: Watching all these old movie musical rom-coms, I got to wondering about the word "candy" (such a nice word for a lyric). According to the Online Etymology Dictionary Candy came into English the late 1200s, via Old French, via its Persian and Sanskrit Great-grandparents: qand and khanda.

At around the same time, the word "Sweet" was used to mean both a piece of candy and a person -- "a beloved."

I find it rather reassuring that these words have remained stable for 800 or so years... The things that are really important to communicate, we don't mess around with.
Coming soon: A post about Danny Kaye's penultimate leading role ("On the Double," 1961), and how the contemporary New York Times movie reviewer and I saw two essentially different films, thanks, more than anything, to the 50 years of cultural change that has flowed on between then and now. Someone has uploaded the whole film to YouTube, in ~10 minutes clips, and there is one part (part 6), and it's the one chunk that has the most emotionally mature scene, and makes me wish with nearly my entire heart that Danny Kaye had been allowed to play dramatic roles before he retired from Big Screen films; he was 48 when he made the film, but the role he'd been given was still the wet-behind-the-ears Innocent Schlep. But for three or four minutes, you see (and hear, in his voice) the grown man.

The company that released the DVD did an utterly "Bare bones" version -- without even closed captioning (which, I don't understand how that's legal, since it was released just last year, and we have this little thing called the ADA). So I want to try to post the clip here with a transcript. But transcribing ten minutes of a Danny Kaye film will need a full load of daily spoons, and be undertaken in bite-sized chunks, so...
Yesterday, sometime in the afternoon, the fan of my air conditioning conked out (and I don't have money in my budget right now, to get it fixed). So I opened the one window I could a) reach, and b) still had the bug screen up... just to get some fresh air in the house. Then, the fan started working again. But now, the window is stuck, and I can't close it again (*Augh!). Also, the weather service said today is Code Orange for Air Quality, which means it's bad for people with asthma (like me). Joy. Today will be one of those short-spoon days, I think.
Last year, on one of my favorite radio programs (The Splendid Table), there was an interview with a neurologist who discovered that the senses of hearing and taste/smell are so closely linked that what we hear actually affects how we smell and taste (and I note that Laurent Clerc --one of the founding teachers of Gallaudet University-- lost both his sense of hearing and smell at the same time (whether from birth, or from an accident in babyhood).

So, lately, I've been playing a little game with myself, associating singers' voices with flavors / aromas. In this clip, for example, of Joan Baez and Pete Seeger singing a duet, Baez's voice reminds me of fresh, plain, strawberries, and Seeger's voice brings up the scent of pine resin / freshly cut wood and wet clay.

What about your favorite singers / sounds? What "flavors," if any, would you say they have?
I swear, there was a fifth thing, when I started out. Q.V. short-spoon day.

*Actually, there are seven senses, if you include the senses of balance, and hunger/thirst (the two internally-generated senses)

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A Mary-Sue plot-bunny I often daydream, but would never, ever actually write:

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:17:48 GMT

A Meddling Monk type person* from the future decides to do a little experiment, and pulls Shakespeare from his own time into the late Late 20th/Early 21st Century to see what would happen with the ripples -- yet somehow working it so that Shakespeare's own, real, timeline is not disrupted. -- Maybe by reconstructing his consciousness-cum-body via their signatures left behind in the Space-Time matrix?

But -- and this is the key thing -- not so that the world can be graced, once again, by the Genius of Shakespeare ('cause we already have that, thank you very much), but so that he can be the instantly-recognized bellwether to the people following in his wake -- people that only he would recognize: Anne, his children, Susanna(h?), Judith, Hamnet...

So that they could have the chance to show what their Genii were.

And my role in this drama? To witness this, and to have quiet, long conversations with Susanna and Anne about ...stuff... and how the world has changed, and how it hasn't

*or maybe it's just Fate, or random anomaly, or even the Gods of the Arts, or what-have you.

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What do you do with an earworm?

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 06:06:46 GMT

Do you
A) seek out the offender, to listen to it again, and try to get over the hump (so to speak)

B) Seek out a completely different sound / song, to try and drive it out

C) Inflict it on your friends, in the hopes that once it infects their brains, it will leave yours alone

D) Scream.

E) Other.

PS. You know I have insomnia, because I stopped to make a new icon just for this post, before I even wrote it... :-/

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Is ElleJay under attack again?

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:26:25 GMT

I can read my friends page, and when I click on user names and profile links, individual journals open just fine.

But when I click on "reply" or "read replies" I get an "OMG! You've Lost the Interwebs!!" Message (with: "Could be any one of a number of things..." when I click "more information" Which ... I don't think they know what "more information" means).

So, at the risk of being cryptic and incomprehensible, here are the replies I was planning to post (to open, public entries)

To: haddayr -- Damned if I know, never having done it. But it's my secret belief that that's why so many people are cranky and irrational all the time.

To: gordon_r_d -- That's frustrating... but possibly good news? Fingers crossed and *hugs*

To: daibhid_c -- Whoa-ho! (I missed all of them, btw). I remember hearing on the radio, years ago, about consciousness studies, comparing cultures. I wonder if that trick would work at all, for, say, a Japanese audience.

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Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

Let's see if this works:

Has it really been a week since I last posted?!

Idea for a Halloween costume that didn't come to me until after Nov. 1 # .. aw, Hell -- lost count.

5 things

Let's see if I can come up with 5 things, shall we?

The problem with...

This post is not at all random: All these things were in my head today :P

A recent thought which amuses me:

*Long sigh*

Brain-dump: Things that are not my novel, to clear my head:

Random thought-snippets:

Random thought-snippets:-- the multimedia edition (Short stack)

Random thought-snippets:

5 good ... or, um, actually, "it's a mixed bag, honestly" things:

Tidbit: what (my) cerebral palsy is like:

Disability Pride Flag? (with questions)

The sad-making and the happy-making:

Just wondering ('cause I can't be the only one):

Thoughts on things:

Random stuff: what it says on the tin...

I've been tickled by a memory today, that my mind keeps going back to.

5 fingers (usually), 5 senses (usually),* 5 days (usually) make a work week,

A Mary-Sue plot-bunny I often daydream, but would never, ever actually write:

What do you do with an earworm?

Is ElleJay under attack again?

Long sigh