Last week, the British annual charity event BBC Children in Need kicked off with an all-star line-up of rock and pop’s finest, to take part in Children in Need Rocks at the Royal Albert Hall, organized by none other than Gary Barlow of Take That.

I was so lucky I got to hear all about this fab concert from friends’ emails, Facebook status updates and Twitter feeds.  Ch’invite peeps!

Anyway, thanks to You Tube, I was able to see. . .  not all, but a lot . . . of it.

One of the performances I loved was the Snow Patrol/Cheryl Cole duet.

Goosebumps!

Have a listen.  It’s fab.

I find the map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from ‘A’ to where you’d be
It’s only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place where I’d find your face
My finger in creases of distant dark places

I hang my coat up in the first bar
There is no peace that I’ve found so far
The laughter penetrates my silence
As drunken men find flaws in science

Their words mostly noises
Ghosts with just voices
Your words in my memory
Are like music to me

I’m miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
I, I pray that something picks me up
And sets me down in your warm arms

After I have travelled so far
We’d set the fire to the third bar
We’d share each other like an island
Until exhausted, close our eyelids
And dreaming, pick up from
The last place we left off
Your soft skin is weeping
A joy you can’t keep in

I’m miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
And I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

I’m miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
and I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

Scroll down for Blue Monday, Ruby Tuesday,
My World and Wordless Outdoor Wednesday too

After being sick
last week I am catching up
by multi-tasking

Here in Southern Cal
we don’t see many color
changes, but walking

recently I found
colorful deciduous
trees and snapped a few

photographs to share
in mosaics … splendidly
this week, just because

Poster Edges

Click to embiggen for better viewing

ALMOST

Colored Pencil

Solarized

/p>

Click to embiggen and for others participating in

Mellow Yellow, Mosaic, and Blue Monday …

Ruby Tuesday, My World, Outdoor Wednesday,
Color Carnival, and Wordless Wednesday too.

Thought for Today

“Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.” Dalai Lama

Click for comments at the TOP of the post under the title, rather
than at the bottom ;–)

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It’s a trap!

Okay, let’s get to the “meat” (or texturized vegetable protein) of this post. The past couple days have been full of wholesome neighborhood activities.

Yesterday, I marched in the St. Mortens Gos Day Parade.  I was joined in the procession by a man dressed as a viking, Sven – a plastic goose, a brass and sax band, random Andersonville pre-holiday revelers, a dachshund puppy, and a shaggy grey dog.  My favorite part of the parade was when we all gathered outside the Swedish Museum to sing off-key renditions of Andersonville-themed Christmas carols and drink hot apple cider out of Bridgeview Bank mugs.

Today I walked my early morning round and stopped to pet a rather ordinary looking lab-like black dog. When I asked the owner about the breed, he said that he couldn’t quite figure it out. The dog’s name is Mary and she is a Katrina rescue dog. She was brought up to Chicago during the floods and shown at an adoption event. Mary was classified as too old for adoption and was going to be euthanized, until her now owner decided to adopt her. Her owner thinks that she is a Catahoula Cur, the Louisiana state dog. Catahoula Curs (or Catahoula Leopard dogs) are hunting dogs, and were used in the past to hunt wild boars. One peculiarity these dogs share only with the Jack Russell Terrier is the ability to climb trees. Mary’s owner told me that he first discovered this when he was talking to a friend and the friend started laughing and pointed to Mary, who was 15 ft up in a tree. Catahoulas climb trees in the same way bears do, by hugging a tree with their front legs and using their back legs to propel them up the trunk. Just from looking at Mary, one would have no idea what a special story she has. You’re all probably asking ‘What does this story have to do with you, Claire?’ Well, I’ve been doing genealogical research on and off for the past year and discovered that I have a long line of Cajun relatives. Maybe one of them even owned a Catahoula dog.

And now for the art update. I have to admit that I haven’t been doing any painting as of late. I’ve been keeping up my artistic practice by taking photos of my neighborhood and exploring performance art and acting through the medium of photography. I’m basing a lot of my photos on the acting method of bringing an emotion to the surface by remembering, and in a sense reliving a situation in which I felt that emotion. Some of the resulting photos are pretty powerful. I’m also trying to learn basic website building skills within a week. I want to put up a simple website that can be a sort of portfolio for my work. I am debating as to whether I should put the photos up, since I would have no privacy if I did publish them. I really, really need to stock my etsy store and I hope to have that done by Thanksgiving. Eek! There’s a lot to do. How are you all doing?

Finally, let’s post the second installment of the reader shout-out feature:

Shouts out

to the reader in Italy.  I hope you come back and comment in Italian. That would nice.

Swindon, UK : Thanks for stopping by. You have really good draft cider over there.

Louth, Ireland: My last name was originally McLin. Maybe we’re family?

Waunakee, Wisconsin: I bought some spinach from Wisconsin the other day. It was quite tasty.

Simi Valley, California: Yay, I need more readers from the west coast.

Houston, Texas: For obvious reasons, I won’t mess with you.

Amsterdam, Holland: I know there’s more to your country than windmills, tulips, and wooden shoes.

Doesn’t look like much this meme thing does it ? mais faire des listes est un tantinet plus difficile qu’on le pense. Il faut y penser….

Random Fact about Moi #1:
I celebrate stuff : my period, good marks, anniversary of stopping my meds etc.

Random Fact about Moi #2:
I love giving gifts and have to discipline myself not to go overboard.

Random Fact about Moi #3:
I’m impatient when people don’t understand what I’m saying.

Random Fact about Moi #4:
I thought I would have been married with kids at 25. Now, I’m 35. Not married (except in our hearts) and no kids.

Random Fact about Moi #5:
I’m in love with London Fogs from Second Cup.

Random Fact about Moi #6:
I have dry skin.

Random Fact about Moi #7:
I take a folic acid tablet every day since I stopped the pill.

Random Fact about Moi #8:
I don’t think that someone’s my friend because they talk to me and I don’t think I’m someone’s friend because they tell me so.

Books Bought is a meme hosted by Cindy of Cindy’s Love of Books.  I’ve done more book shopping lately than I should have, but sometimes it’s just too hard to resist.

Carl took me out for dinner on my birthday last week and afterward, we wandered around a bookstore.  I found good deals on Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, An Abundance of Katherines by John Green and Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, so I just had to get them.  It was my birthday, after all.

I met Janna McMahan at the SIBA Trade Show.  When she emailed me last week to let me know that she has a novella (Decorations) in Snow Angels, and that Snow Angels is #6 on the New York Times Bestseller list under mass market paperbacks, I just had to buy a copy.  Plus, I can read this for the Holiday Reading Challenge!

Vance came home for his Thanksgiving break yesterday and he brought me Posed for Murder by Meredith Cole.  When the author had a book signing near him, he went and bought a book and had her autograph it to me.

What new books have you bought?

(See the wiki.)

From 1844-ish, Robert Boyle (1627-91), alchemist and natural philosopher, was among band of inquirers known as the “Invisible College” (later the Royal Society of London), who devoted themselves to the cultivation of Bacon’s “new philosophy” (Novum Organum [1620]): the Baconian method of inductive reasoning (by which a ”phenomenal nature,” e.g., heat, is reduced to a “form nature,” or cause that makes things hot), though he would never have admitted to being a student of any person or school, taking himself for a experimentalist par excellence. He relied on the documentation of first-hand observation of phenomena in the closed space of the laboratory, rather than hypothesis or calculation, as in the “Atomical” and Cartesian systems.

Reading in 1657 of Otto von Guericke’s air-pump, Boyle set himself, with the assistance of Robert Hooke, to devise improvements in its construction. The result was the “machina Boyleana” or “Pneumatical Engine,” finished in 1659, with which he began a series of experiments on the properties of air, an account of which was published as New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and its Effects (Made, for the Most Part, in a New Pneumatical Engine) (1660). He describes 43 experiments on the effect of air on various phenomena: the effects of “rarified” air on combustion, magnetism, sound, and barometers, and the effects of increased air pressure on various substances. He lists two experiments on living creatures: “Experiment 40,” which tested the ability of insects to fly under reduced air pressure, and “Experiment 41,” which demonstrated the reliance of living creatures on air for their survival (see the Wright image below).

(Among Boyle’s critics was the Jesuit Franciscus Linus [1595–1675], and it was while answering his objections that Boyle first proposed the law that the volume of a gas varies inversely to the pressure of the gas, the law that has taken his name.)

For Bruno Latour, Boyle’s innovation was to rely on a “parajudicial” metaphor (rather than logical, mathematical or rhetorical method), whereby

credible, trustworthy, well-to-do witnesses gathered at the scene of the action can attest to the existence of a fact, the matter of fact, even if they do not know its true nature.

What counts here is

not . . . these gentlemen’s opinion [a doxa, strictly speaking], but rather the observation of a phenomenon produced artificially in the closed and protected space of a laboratory.

In effect, then, as Donna Haraway has suggested, the witnesses become “invisible” and “transparent”; in fact, “[v]ision requires an instrument of vision; an optics is a politics of positioning,” i.e.,  (“Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,” Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature [Routledge, 1991] 193 [183-203]). As Joseph Wright’s representation of “Experiment 41″ shows, affect positions the witnesses vis-à-vis the object under examination.

Joseph Wright, An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump (1768)

This laboratory [L. workroom] is a new world: a designed micro-environment open to examination, a “theatre of proof”—not unlike a classroom, perhaps (We Have Never Been Modern [1991; Harvard UP, 1993] 18). And it is not an inside, an epistemological low pressure zone, of which society and politics are the outside that locate—or press upon—it: “No science can exit from the network of its practice” (ibid., 23). It is a microcosm where science and politics mingle—in the form of the quasi-objects of culture. That science and politics can be kept apart is the pretense of modernity, viz . . .

Thus, Boyle gives us a repertoire for speaking about nature (as constructed in the laboratory): “experiment,” “fact, “evidence” and “colleagues”—as Hobbes does for culture, i.e., politics (as embodied in Leviathan): “representation,” “sovereign,” “contract,” “property” and “citizens” (ibid., 25).

———

For Peter Sloterdijk, the air-pump might well have whispered something more sinister (see Terror from the Air, trans. Amy Patton [2002; Semiotext[e], 2009]). In “Air,” Latour summarises Sloterdijk’s argument that chemical warfare (“military climatology”), which united terrorism, product design and environmental thinking, ushered in the age of “atmoterrorism” on 22 April 1915 (Terror 19, 23):

[A]ir has been made explicit; air has been reconfigured; it is now part of an air-conditioning system that makes our life possible.

Latour could have argued that this episteme was ushered in—or announced, at least—by Boyle 350 years earlier.

Doug Chaplin has tagged me on this one. It’s a bloggers (though I’m still not so sure I am one) chain-letter. The meme asks us to share eight memorable musical moments, not favourite pieces, but the moments in which music combined to create memory. The rules are

Think of eight memorable musical moments, not necessarily all time favourites, but those when, for example, you felt compelled to wait in the car when listening to this amazing song on the radio because you just had to know who it was by. Or the piece you heard on the tv in a drama that drove you straight onto iTunes to download… (remember once we spent the princely sum of 6s 8d on a vinyl single?!). Optional details for each song give where, why and Spotify or youtube links …

At least I can say that I’m still too young to ever spent 6/8 (that’s 33⅓ p) on anything. Here are my eight, in no particular order

1. A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. When I was twenty, I bought a couple of editions of a jazz magazine. Each copy came with a cassette, and an excerpt from A Love Supreme was on one of them. I was rapt by its troubled passion, its prayer is total humanity communing with the divine. I love it, but jazz is musical marmite.

2. Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards by Billy Bragg. I remember buying a cassette of his album Workers Playtime as a teenager. This track is the last on the album, and I remember playing it over and over. The mixture of protest song, poetry and humour was an inspiring first to me, and turned me into a complete Bragg fan. Below is an updated version rather than the one I know. It’s still good, but I miss the lines “Doctor Robert Oppenheimer’s optimism fell at the first hurdle” and “The revolution is just a t-shirt away”.

3. Cantique de Jean Racine by Gabriel Fauré. This was sung by friends of the bride and groom at a wedding I took. The wedding was moving for pastoral reasons, and the gentle, thoughtful beauty of this song has remained with me. Last year, I sang this with the Wolfson(g)ians and loved singing its soaring, melodic tenor line.

4. Prelude, Adagio et Choral varie sur le theme du ‘Veni Creator’, Op. 4 by Maurice Duruflé. This magnificent organ piece came on the radio one dark and stormy evening. It’s a musical history of the Holy Spirit, and leads into the ancient hymn Veni Creator Spiritus.

5. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2. Just as U2 were getting big, before they got messianic, there was the Joshua Tree album. The live recording with New Voices of Freedom on Rattle & Hum is still my favourite.

6. Deus in adjutorium by Claudio Monteverdi. I sang this in a choir in Durham Cathedral as a young undergrad. It was my introduction to early music. Its monotonous opening is almost shocking, punctuated by outbursts of brass, before opening out like an estuary in the alleluia.

7. Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinéad O’Connor. I remember when this was all over the radio, and then I saw this video.

8. Goldberg Variations by JS Bach. I’ve got a Glenn Gould recording. This is perfect for sunny mornings at home.

I now tag cycads.

1. First book to leave a lasting impression?

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton.  Written in the years following World War II with the rise of suburbia, this speaks to today’s world with how much has changed since then.  We’ve made progress, sure, but are we happy with it?  This was my favorite book as a smaller child and I still think of it often.

2. Which author would you most like to be?

Barbara Kingsolver.  She’s managed to marry her love of biology with her talent for writing beautifully.

3. Name the book that has most made you want to visit a place?

Anne of Green Gables – Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, Canada

Margaret Truman’s Murder in Washington series – Washington, DC

Many novels, including Dracula, Great Expectations, and (dare I say it) Bridget Jones’s Diary just to name a few – England

4. Which contemporary author will still be read in 100 years?

John Irving, Barbara Kingsolver, Cormac McCarthy, Kazuo Ishiguro, Marilynne Robinson

5. Which book would you recommend to a teenager reluctant to try ‘literature’?

Anything by Mark Twain.  Or Ray Bradbury.  Or Markus Zusak.

6. Name your best recent literary discovery.

John Irving.  Despite my brother and mother having had adored his works for years, I’d been reluctant to tackle the looming volumes of his writing.   I’m glad I did, even if it takes weeks instead of days to finish the stuff.  It’s so detailed, so funny, so devastating.

7. Which author’s fictional world would you most like to live in?

Tralfamadore from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.

8. Name your favorite poet?

I don’t like most poetry, even though I can bullshit my way through analysis of poetry much more easily than through fiction.  That being said, I do like Marianne Moore and John Donne.  Some specific favorites include Andrew Marvell’s “To his Coy Mistress”, Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”, and Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce Et Decorum Est”.

9. What’s the best non-fiction title you’ve read this year?

All Creatures Great and Small – James Herriot.  (You could put this one in the books that have made you want to visit a place, too.)

10. Which author do you think is much better than his/her reputation?

Alice Sebold.  I adored The Lovely Bones, as she was able to conquer the point of view of a dead person with surprising results, and Lucky, the memoir of Sebold’s own rape and its aftermath allow us to know what a victim feels, thinks, sees, hears, etc.

In this house, weekend mornings are super chill. Slooooow Mo. No clocks, no plans, no obligations. One of my favourite things to do on a Saturday is listen to a little inspiring music, pour a fresh cup of coffee and do a good meme.

So this morning it’s all about Explosions in the Sky ‘Birth and Death of a Day‘ – which I believe is the most inspiring musical creation in the history of music … oh my GOD, this song and video are so good that my mind wants to explode in pleasure after I do something wild like grow wings and fly around the world sprinkling golden fairy dust while kissing millions of cheeks and delivering taser shots of love … it’s seriously so inspiring and gorgeous … a reminder of why I’m alive … to experience beautiful things like this.

Oh, and a meme my friend, Raino, shared on her blog earlier.

So, so much love to her … she’s a gem. Her generous and giving spirit will be remembered every Christmas when I set out the beautiful tree skirt she sent me last year from across the country.

As for the meme, it’s a deep thinking one and I love it. Let’s do it …

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Perfect happiness, hmmm. For me it’d be a combination of excellent health … madly and passionately loving and being loved … the ability to create something beautiful everyday … to give myself to the world in a way that would bring light, hope and joy to people’s lives who are less fortunate than myself … opening my bedroom window to sunshine and breathing in clean, fresh air every morning then drinking a glass of fresh squeezed juice made from the oranges I just picked off the tree in my backyard.

What is your greatest fear?

Forgetting people, experiences, feelings, memories.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

None.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Ego, negativity, desperation to fit in or being without passion.

What is your greatest extravagance?

An hour all to myself in a hot bath, glass of wine to sip.

What is your current state of mind?

Ease, peace, calm, inspired, open.

What is the quality you most like in a man?

Kindness, passion, compassion and the ability to love and be loved.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Kindness, passion, compassion and the ability to love and be loved.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

Amazing and awesome! I think a new world is due … amasome … awezing … ?

When and where were you happiest?

In this moment.

Who are your favorite writers?

The thinkers and dreamers, the songwriters and poets, the ones who inspire and who aim to touch the stars and beyond.

Which talent would you most like to have?

To dance like Michael Jackson or one of his dancers in This Is It.

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?

Our location – I’d love to steal them away to a warmer climate at the edge of the ocean in a hippie-esque community away from urban sprawl and pollution. A simpler, cleaner way of life.

If you died and came back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

A wandering, adventuring soul with only a notebook and camera.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?

Nothing. Acceptance and self-love is a pretty amazing thing.

Where would you like to live?

Like I said before, a warmer climate at the edge of the ocean in a hippie-esque community away from urban sprawl and pollution. Somewhere I can grow gardens, flowers and orange and lemon trees.

What is your most treasured possession?

My photos.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Being without love or the ability to love.

What do you most value in your friends?

Ease, laughter, the ability to share themselves as well as listen, sing, dance, smile, cry and hug … and the ability to have comfortable silences and quiet contemplation in each other’s presence.

What are your favorite names?

Callie and Lily … but also, Brooklyn. That’s what I was going to name my daughter if I had only one.

What is it that you most dislike?

Wet cold, alarm clocks, negativity, angry, egotistical and harsh people, close mindedness.

What is your greatest regret?

No regrets, baby. I’ve loved my entire journey so far.

How would you like to die?

Suddenly … like if Earth just exploded into dust in the universe.

What is your motto?

Focus on the moment. Be love.

No one really knows what a meme is, nevertheless when a good one comes around, everybody recognizes it…!

[graphic tag cloud via Wordle]

(via Wikipedia - Meme Transmission) Life-forms can transmit information both vertically (from parent to child, via replication of genes) and horizontally (through viruses and other means). Memes can replicate vertically or horizontally within a single biological generation. They may also lie dormant for long periods of time. Memes spread by the behaviors that they generate in their hosts. Imitation counts as an important characteristic in the propagation of memes. Imitation often involves the copying of an observed behaviour of another individual, but memes may transmit from one individual to another through a copy recorded in an inanimate source, such as a book or a musical score. Researchers have observed memetic copying in just a few species on Earth, including hominids, dolphins and birds (which learn how to sing by imitating their parents or neighbors).

Some commentators have likened the transmission of memes to the spread of contagions. Social contagions such as fads, hysterias and copycat suicides exemplify memes seen as the contagious imitation of ideas. Observers distinguish the contagious imitation of memes from instinctively contagious phenomena such as yawning and laughing, which they consider innate (rather than socially learned) behaviors.

Aaron Lynch described seven general patterns of meme transmission, or “thought contagion”:

1. Quantity of parenthood: an idea which influences the number of children one has. Children respond particularly receptively to the ideas of their parents, and thus ideas which directly or indirectly encourage a higher birthrate will replicate themselves at a higher rate than those that discourage higher birthrates.
2. Efficiency of parenthood: an idea which increases the proportion of children who will adopt ideas of their parents. Cultural separatism exemplifies one practice in which one can expect a higher rate of meme-replication — because the meme for separation creates a barrier from exposure to competing ideas.
3. Proselytic: ideas generally passed to others beyond one’s own children. Ideas that encourage the proselytism of a meme, as seen in many religious or political movements, can replicate memes horizontally through a given generation, spreading more rapidly than parent-to-child meme-transmissions do.
4. Preservational: ideas which influence those that hold them to continue to hold them for a long time. Ideas which encourage longevity in their hosts, or leave their hosts particularly resistant to abandoning or replacing these ideas, enhance the preservability of memes and afford protection from the competition or proselytism of other memes.
5. Adversative: ideas which influence those that hold them to attack or sabotage competing ideas and/or those that hold them. Adversative replication can give an advantage in meme transmission when the meme itself encourages aggression against other memes.
6. Cognitive: ideas perceived as cogent by most in the population who encounter them. Cognitively transmitted memes depend heavily on a cluster of other ideas and cognitive traits already widely held in the population, and thus usually spread more passively than other forms of meme transmission. Memes spread in cognitive transmission do not count as self-replicating.
7. Motivational: ideas that people adopt because they perceive some self-interest in adopting them. Strictly speaking, motivationally transmitted memes do not self-propagate, but this mode of transmission often occurs in association with memes self-replicated in the efficiency parental, proselytic and preservational modes.

In their book Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath describe characteristics of an idea that make it “sticky” (i.e. memorable or interesting).

Note: I personally recommend Cosma Shalizi “Memes” web entry. Center for the Study of Complex Systems,  University of Michigan (26 September 1997).

For Nov. 15-21

(Shot with a Nikon D60, using a 55-200mm lens)

I had a ‘trying to get sick’ kid at home most of the week and wasn’t able to get out much to take photos. I did sneak away one day and made it to the bayside park across town. I’ve been feeling a bit grey so I’ve included a few black and whites. I also captured another heart (this one’s for you Jen), and threw in a little color for good measure.

This guy scared the ever-lovin’ bejeezus out of me. There I was trudging through bamboo reeds and tall sea grass when he started squawking at me. I nearly jumped out of my Vans. Took me the longest time to find him, but when I did he was at least gracious enough to pose for a few photos.

More Weekly Winners photo galleries can be found at Sarcastic Mom. While you’re there, please leave our hostess Lotus some comment love.

EMO #1

Alzi la mano chi non ha mai sentito parlare di Emo. Ora alzi la mano chi sa definire con esattezza chi o cosa sia un Emo. Ok, ora abbassate le mani che vi puzzano le ascelle. Un emo, secondo la Cresikipedia, è un essere dal sesso poco definibile che ascolta musica che non mi piace, che vorrebbe tagliarsi le vene perché è depresso, probabilmente per aver visto “New moon”, ma non lo fa perché è troppo occupato a stirarsi i capelli. E qui lo dico con una punta di invidia, visto che io al massimo posso stirarmi le mutande o al limite i muscoli della schiena, dato che è una settimana che sono in modalità “slow motion”. Comunque, dopo aver letto un paio di articoli sul Cioè (IL e GLI per l’esattezza: aveva cominciato anche a leggere UNA ma non gli piaceva, troppo indeterminato) anche Cresico ha deciso di diventare Emo. Secondo me è inguardabile… Voi che dite?

Awww, I’ve been given a meme award.  *blush*

The lovely ladies of The Zaftig Chicks, Bianca and Sylvia have awarded me the Honest Scrap meme.

So here’s the deal.

1) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.

2) Tell those 7 people they’ve been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving the award.

3) Share “10 Honest Things” about yourself.

So the 7 other blogs I am sharing this award with are:

Adventures in Bad Parenting

Doing What the Cool Kids Do

Ellie Freeman

Katagal Kapers

Life of a Flibbertigibbet

Wild. Unfolded.

Zombietronics

All of the above are awesome lady bloggers, whom inspire, amuse and encourage me all the time.  Check out their blogs, I am sure you won’t be disappointed.

Now I guess you need 10 honest things about me.  Let me think…

1. I love to write.  If I could, it would be my profession.

2. I have a crappy short term memory.  If I don’t write things down, I won’t remember them.  Actually I will, only not until a year from now.

3. I have decided I don’t want to read any more sad books or see any  more sad movies.  They make me feel crap.

4. I am allergic to sheep.  The meat, the wool, the lanolin.

5. My tolerance for fools is getting less and less.  It was never much to start with!

6. My nickname in high school was Zappa.

7. My first crush was on a school camp instructor/counsellor.

8. I was secretly engaged at 16.

9. When I was little, I used to steal the vinegar to drink.  It had to be locked up.

10. I love the smell of new plastic, especially pencil cases.

So there you go.  Honest Scrap meme done by me.

Who won a prize? I won a prize!

The prize was for my speech!  We had our Visual presentations, and Miah said he’d give out prizes to the 1)humorous 2)inovative 3) page (from a tv show) presentations.

I did my speech on Memes. Surprisingly, not too many people knew about them… but I did get alot of laughs. I even imitated my favorite meme Bubb Rubb, saying “WooWooo”. I was so nervous to do it, but I did! and got an outburst of laughter.  Miah said I made him laugh the most, especially because of that, so I thought I’d get the humorous award. Instead I won the innovative award!

He said it was inovative because of the topic I chose (Memes).  He found it interesting how in a class of designers, because we are the people who create memes.  Instead he liked my approach to relating it to society within a design class.

I mentioned things such as how our society is staring to talk in lolspeak and eventually our society is going to transform the language and “o hai gaiz” will be the proper way for future generations to write “oh hi guys” (coined by my Linguistics friend Kelp).

So woo. Prize!

This was in the Innovative goodie bag..haha. “Innovative products”: A cushioned seat belt comforter, and the ever so innovative mouthwash.

I’m glad I won this award though, being innovative is good right?! plus the humor award got a highschool musical barbie doll thing… because Miah finds nothing more hilarious than High School Musical.. and if I got that I wouldn’t know what to do with it.

At least my prizes are practical in some way!

I’m glad I got people to laugh.

I would like to thank the following memes for their appearance in my visual presentation:

Yes, I mimicked those Woo Woos, which is something I wouldn’t usually do. When I was practicing I kept thinking about Kev saying it and thus making me always laugh.

Miah said I should have put more pictures/examples.. and I wanted to except I was afraid of the time constraint.. because I did have a bunch of memes I wanted to show but my speech kept going over 6 minuets with them.

Anywho, I’m proud of myself! because I was so nervous giving my speech/standing in front of people!

Also, my mom called my during my speech! It was embarassing, my phone went off and I couldnt turn it off since I was in front of the class… so I had to stop for a second and say that was my phone going off. Altha was nice to turn it off for me. But ugh. My mom calls me at the worse times.

We had a nude model in our drawing class today, an it was a female. I remember when I got a male before Kevin was like “QQ”.

Models aren’t fun for me because… their poses are often timed, and I take a long time trying to figure out my proportions and stuff.  Plus I’m a generally slow drawer (I like to take my time usually). That’s why these are all not a full body image.

I got my schedule for next quarter today.  I only had to make one adjustment because my color theory class was at 8 a.m – 12p.m. and I would have a 4 hour gap between classes…and I live semi far and wouldn’t know what to do with that time.

I actually went in, and it too 5 seconds! It was amazingly fast! I’m glad I got to switch my color theory times. Plus I get to keep my mornings <3.

I’m very much excited for my Game Survey class next quarter too! because it’s the first game related class  I get to take finally!

I also got a picture of Miah, who was sitting infront of me for the presentations.  He’s so hip and stylish!

I got this in an email. And since this is NaBloPoMo, I get to post a meme cause I need to plan my posts a little ahead this month

This test is for fun! I scored 34.

Dr Phil’s test

Be honest when answering – it might reveal some hidden truths.
So GraB a pen and some paper (or open up Notepad). Once you’ve answered, click MORE to get to the scoring part.
(Dr. Phil scored 55, he did this test on Oprah and she got a 38.) Some folks pay a lot of money to find this stuff out!

Read on, this is very interesting!

Don’t be overly sensitive!

Answers are for who you are now and not who you were in the past.. Have pen or pencil and paper ready.

This is a real test given by the Human Relations Dept. at many of the major corporations today. It helps them get better insight concerning their employees and in their prospective employees. It’s only 10 Simple questions, so grab a pencil and paper, keeping track of your letter answers to each question.

Ready?
Begin.
1.When do you feel your best…

A) in the morning
B) during the afternoon and early evening
C) late at night
2. You usually walk…

A) fairly fast, with long steps
B) fairly fast, with little steps
C) less fast head up, looking the world in the face
D) less fast, head down
E) very slowly
3. When talking to people you…

A) stand with your arms folded
B) have your hands clasped
C) have one or both your hands on your hips
D) touch or push the person to whom you are talking
E) play with your ear, touch your chin, or smooth your hair
4. When relaxing, you sit with..

A) your knees bent with your legs neatly side by side
B) your legs crossed
C) your legs stretched out or straight
D) one leg curled under you

5. When something really amuses you, you react with….

A) big appreciated laugh
B) a laugh, but not a loud one
C) a quiet chuckle
D) a sheepish smile

6… When you go to a party or social gathering you…..

A) make a loud entrance so everyone notices you
B) make a quiet entrance, looking around for someone you know
C) make the quietest entrance, trying to stay unnoticed
7. You’re working very hard, concentrating hard, and you’re interrupted…

A) welcome the break
B) feel extremely irritated
C) vary between these two extremes
8. Which of the following colors do you like most…..

A) Red or orange
B) black
C) yellow or light blue
D) green
E) dark blue or purple
F) white
G) brown or gray

9. When you are in bed at night, in those last few moments before going to sleep you are…..

A) stretched out on your back
B) stretched out face down on your stomach
C) on your side, slightly curled
D) with your head on one arm
E) with your head under the covers

10. You often dream that you are…

A) falling
B) fighting or struggling
C) searching for something or somebody
D) flying or floating
E) you usually have dreamless sleep
F) your dreams are always pleasant

 
POINTS:
1.      (a) 2 (b) 4 (c) 6
2.      (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 7 (d) 2 (e) 1
3.      (a) 4 (b) 2 (c) 5 (d) 7 (e) 6
4.      (a) 4 (b) 6 (c) 2 (d) 1
5.      (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 3 (d) 5 (e) 2
6.      (a) 6 (b) 4 (c) 2
7.      (a) 6 (b) 2 (c) 4
8.      (a) 6 (b) 7 (c) 5 (d) 4 (e) 3 (f) 2 (g) 1
9.      (a) 7 (b) 6 (c) 4 (d) 2 (e ) 1
10.    (a) 4 (b) 2 (c) 3 (d) 5 (e) 6 (f) 1

Now add up the total number of points.

OVER 60 POINT: Others see you as someone they should “handle with care”.. You’re seen as vain, self-centered, and who is extremely dominant. Others may admire you, wishing they could be more like you, but don’t always trust you, hesitating to become too deeply involved with you.

51 TO 60 POINTS: Others see you as an exciting, highly volatile, rather impulsive personality, a natural leader, who’s quick to make decisions, though not always the right ones. They see you as bold and adventuresome, someone who will try anything once, so meone who takes cha nces and enjoys an adventure. They enjoy being in your company because of the excitement you radiate.

41 TO 50 POINTS: Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical, and always interesting, someone who’s constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well balanced not to let it go to their head. They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding, someone who’ll always cheer them up and help them out.

31 TO 40 POINTS: Others see you as sensible, cautious, careful & practical. They see you as clever, gifted, or talented, but modest. Not a person who makes friends too quickly or easily, but someone who’s extremely loyal to friends you do make and who expect the same loyalty in return. Those who really get to know you, realize it takes a lot to shake your trust in your friends, but equally that it takes you a long time to get over if that trust is ever broken.

21 TO 30 POINTS: Your friends see you as painstaking and fussy. They see you as very cautious, extremely careful, a slow and steady plodder. It would really surprise them if you ever did something impulsively or on the spur of the moment, expecting you to examine everything carefully from every angle and then, usually decide against it.. They think this reaction is caused partly by your careful nature.

UNDER 21 POINTS: People think you are shy, nervous, and indecisive, someone who needs looking after, who always wantssomeone else to make the decisions and who doesn’t want to get involved with anyone or anything! They see you as aworrier who always sees problems that don’t exist. Some people think you’re boring. Only those who know you well, knowthat you aren’t.

What did you score?

We were born yesterday,
and more this morning,
and even more we hope tomorrow.

Why, I asked,
are babies born so naked,
with their water flowing to ground, and
their fire flowing to sky
so perfectly –  so automatically?

It creates currents that form
the vortical human mindscape
where every spin the now-ist sees
as yesterday’s pre-reality.

You can’t take a sacred snapshot twice:
no matter how terminally indignant
the weekly pattern-monger’s habit,
Love remains the fulcrum and
always takes a stand above it.

It’s a fragile eternity that yeilds
an allergy to urgency,
no appetite for the Bantu fractal or
the circumdancing flower of homo-spiritus,
or the growing rampant glory of identity
taming the local lizard.

I see the buds on gravid branches
all watching in their special ways
to be the stone, the bird, the tree,
the proactive jazz blossoms,
the spin-bombs of living Logos
bringing on more contractions…

Je suis le president de l’Europe. Votre argument est invalide

#151