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Books

 

Last week I finished reading "Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose" by Lee Alan Dugatin and I thought it was pretty good.  It gave an interesting perspective on the beginning of U.S. history, tying together natural history with the politics and economics of late 18^th and early 19^th Century America and Europe.  It's also a small, quick read.

 

Over the weekend I started reading "The Little People" by John Christopher.  I picked up the book years ago because the cover art was irresistible; and didn't put it back on the shelf because I've read some other things by that author and enjoyed it.  However, I never read it, and it ended up in a storage box until I recently found it.

 

I'm about half way through, and it's pretty good so far, although it's unfolding slowly.

 

That cover art, though. Genius.

Science Cafe

February Louisville Area Skeptics Science Cafe is scheduled:
 http://www.meetup.com/Louisville-Area-Skeptics/calendar/15933616/

 

I'm looking forward to this; I enjoyed this speaker quite a bit the last time, when he talked about "Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose."  Anyone else want to go with me? Let me know.

 

In Pursuit of a Fiend

The gendarme, aghast, walked into a shocking scene. The killer had taken her torso!

Wedding Photo

He's only marrying her because all the other girls he's ever met have expected him to crouch on an egg for four months during a blizzard.

We spent New Year's Eve with Ol' One-Eye and Ms. Snuggie

A little (and I do mean a little) alcohol, combined with the excitement of Skip-Bo, makes these people go wild.

Louisville Science Center

Inside a giant bubble. Is it still a bubble if it's not spherical, or is it a soap tube?

On a space mission

Movies

I've had some discussions with family recently about top-ten movie lists.  Since I haven't blogged much lately, and movie discussions are always good filler, I thought I'd weigh in.  So, Dad and brothers, here's my list.

 

This is a list of just nine films, and just the ones I could think of in a short period of time.  I could easily change my mind and add or subtract from it with more thought. 

 

These are in no particular order, except the first one, which is my favorite.

 

"Miller's Crossing": This is my favorite movie.  I generally enjoy all the Coen Brothers' movies, although there are a few from recent years that I haven't seen.  They are great craftsmen, and all aspects of their work seem so well-integrated into one another.  It all just hangs together so beautifully.  I think "Miller's Crossing" is a great example of this, with the added benefit of being psychologically hard to puzzle out.  I find the main character's goals and motivations obscure.  This, combined with great dialogue, tense action scenes, and lots of plot twists, makes it a movie that I can watch repeatedly.

 

"The Moderns": This late-'80s film about American expatriates living in Paris in the 1920s is weird, pretentious, and full of arts-related in-jokes and caricatures.  It's probably not a movie for everyone, but I like it a lot, perhaps moreso because few people have heard of it.

 

"Rear Window": I've always enjoyed watching Jimmy Steward, and Grace Kelly is great.  The premise is a lot fun, the characters are a lot of fun, and some of the scenes are nerve-wracking. I think this is just an all-around fun movie.

 

"Jaws":  My memory of the first time I saw this—Dad took Kevin and me to see it at the theater during a re-release sometime in the late Seventies—is sort of unpleasant.  It was summer, and I was in shorts and a tank top, and the air conditioned theater was freezing.  I was very uncomfortable to start with, so when helpless innocent people started being eaten by a shark onscreen, I was pretty miserable.  Somehow, though, this did not translate into a hatred of this movie.  The first portion of the film is pretty good, I guess; but what I really like is the latter portion with the three main characters on the fishing boat trying to find and kill the shark.  It's atmospheric, tense, perfectly paced, and packed full of great movie moments.

 

"Star Wars": I can't not include it.  "The Empire Strikes Back" is a superior movie, but I'll have to put in this first film because it struck such a cord.

 

"The Wizard of Oz": Until recently I wouldn't have thought to include this, but I think I must, again partly due to re-watch potential. I've seen this plenty of times, and I still feel like I could see it plenty more without being bored with it.

 

"The Haunting": This was remade recently, and the remake is awful (I haven't seen all of it, and I have no desire to.)  However, the original black-and-white film from the early Sixties has what I want in a horror film, namely creepiness that plays on one's imagination.  I like the very classic haunted house setting.  Yes, a lot of the movie is kind of corny, but it's worth it to me to sit through that for the good stuff.

 

"Lone Star": Another film I can watch repeatedly because of the complex way the characters all relate to one another.  I've watched it with friends who compared it to watching paint dry, but I think it's a great movie that gets better with repeat viewings.

 

"Monty Python and the Holy Grail":  Do I really think it's funny, or do I just think I think it's funny?  How funny would I find it if I saw it for the first time today?  I don't know, but I still think it's really funny.

 

 

Gorgoneion

The gorgoneion is a decorative gorgon's head, face-on, which was quite common in Ancient Greek art for a few centuries. The gorgon features prominently in myth, and changed in form over time. Medusa was one of the three gorgons.

In its earliest depictions, the gorgon was a distorted, leering face, with serpents encircling but unattached. Over time, the face became more beautiful, and the serpents became the hair.

I based this small drawing off several coins (not mine, I don't have any, but I'd like one). It's a composite.

Pepsi/Coke

I don't know if it shows in this photo, Brian, but at Meijer, two sides of the sign say "Coke" but the third says Pepsi. It's the same ratio at both ends of the aisle.
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Two more

Here are a couple of Erin's

Self portraits

I get a kick out of the photos my daughters take with their cameras. Here are three self-portraits.

Farmington note cards

http://www.zazzle.com/farmington_historic_home_note_card_greeting_card-137544366141219888

One thing that has occupied a (very small) amount of my time over the past few days is a little mental game: attempting to sing the words of one Christmas carol to the tune of another Christmas carol. To make the game more challenging and amusing (and I do find it to be both), I substitute lyrics syllable for syllable, instead of trying to force words or stretch them out to fit.

So, the first two lines of "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" sung to "Jingle Bells" would be:

"Rudolph the, red nose rein, deer had a ver-eeee

Shiny nose, and if you ev, -er saw it you would even, SAY!" ..or something like that.

Anyway, since I have a hard time remembering song lyrics as it is, this is challenging. I think it would be tons easier if I had the words written in front of me, but that's just TOO easy.

Kim seems to find my attempts to sing this out loud to be equal measures of annoying and impressive. It has been demonstrated that there are other people who take to it much more naturally than I do, but I don't think they like the concept as much.

Another idea that hit me yesterday, and which keeps popping into my head, is how cool it would be if someone made a political thriller in which one or more vampires attempt to take control of one of the Houses of Congress (or a state legislature would work, too.) Werewolves might work better. I haven't worked out their reasons for doing this yet.

It's a great idea, and would work equally well either as a tight dramatic thriller with a few great action scenes, or as a goofy political-horror spoof with shades of "From Dusk Till Dawn" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I envision it involving a young idealistic senator going to the Capital to clean up the corruption, then realizing dark forces are at work, and teaming up with a vampire/werewolf hunter (probably a sexy blonde).

Of course, there would be a scene near the end involving massive gory combat inside the legislative chambers.

So many ideas, so little time.

Telework

"Why, I have a Rolodex, a calculator, and all sorts of pens.  What on earth do I need this old computer for? I don't even see a reason to turn it on!"

 

(Photo via computer training clip art at work.)
 

 

First snow

The morning after Thanksgiving
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bulbs

I worked outside quite a bit this weekend, and I feel like it. Right now, so far, nothing is actually sore (except my thumb, which has a small splinter), but I'm stiff and worn out.  Saturday, I mowed.  This not only evened out the grass but also chopped and mulched all the leaves that had collected in our yard. Then I raked out the daylily bed so that it looked a little more presentable.

 

Yesterday, I dug up and divided the asiatic lilies, and also unearthed and rinsed off about half of the gladiolus bulbs.  I'll probably just leave the other half for next year, although I'd like to get all of them up.  They always seem to overwinter pretty well, but some of the bulbs are getting a little crowded and I'd like to spread them out.  Also, digging them up is a great way to get the weeds out of the bed, and the bed is mostly weeds.  The weeding (separating the grass roots from everything else) was most of the work.

 

I don't know where I'm going to replant all those glad bulbs, but figuring it out is half the fun.

 

 

Big Rock - Beargrass Creek

Finally done.

As I previously stated, this is 10.5 x 13.5 inches on hot press watercolor paper, pen and ink.

Kids swimming at Big Rock, Beargrass Creek, Cherokee Park

in other news

You'd probably be dumbfounded at how much I haven't been knitting lately.
 

 

St. Louis Arch

This was from some years ago...2003? Anyway, I sure looked different back then.

Fawn can be a little dense

Jill and I were playing fairies this morning. She was Rosetta, I was Fawn.

Rosetta: "I'm going to fly up to my secret hideout. I want to be by myself."
Fawn: "Secret hideout? Is it up high someplace?"
Rosetta: "It's way up in the clouds."
Fawn: "Neat! I'd like to see a secret hideout in the clouds. Can I come?"
Rosetta: "No. I want to be by myself."
Fawn: "Oh. What about tomorrow? Can I come then?"
Rosetta: "No. Listen to my words...'secret'...'hideout.'"

the blurry line between artist and exhibitionist

We all knew it was just a matter of time before I started posting photos of myself nearly naked. Don't worry, there's nothing there that hundreds of people at the Y water park don't see in the summer.

I've been messing around with the image editor some more, and I've figured out the essential things I need to know for now. There is a lot more to learn, but it's not stuff I currently have a need for.

House of Madness

I've been messing around with GIMP, the free image editor. I'm not finding it very intuitive, but over the past couple of days I've been picking up more and more. Here's a photo from our first anniversary trip to Red River Gorge, warped by my nascent warping skills.

Halloween pictures 6, unless I've lost count

Here's the firebreathing chipmunk accepting her prize for best costume at the Parkside Halloween parade.  I won a prize, too.  The rainbow won a similar prize at our school's trunk-or-treat event.  Excellent designs by my daughters, and excellent execution of those designs by Kim!
 

 

Halloween picture 5

One is a family photo, and the other-of the two ladies standing with me--is just one Kim took of people having their picture taken with me.  I got quite a bit of that.  I don't know how many photo albums, Flickr pages, and Facebook photo albums I'm now showing up on.
 

 

Halloween pictures 4

 

 

Halloween pictures 3

 

 

Halloween picture 2

 

 

Halloween pictures 1

 

 

Happy Halloween

This is my head.
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Second Due

I answer to the question below, "second due" seems to refer to the second to arrive at an emergency scene.  They're making fun of the pokey firefighters behind them.
 

 

IMG00038-20101025-0847.jpg

What does the sign on the back of this fire truck mean?
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Big Rock work -in-progress

It's creeping along.

pumpkin picture

 

The text is the first part of a Halloween rhyme: "5 little pumpkins sitting on the gate/ the first one said, 'Oh, my, it's getting late!'"

 

I quite like this for a number of reasons.  One of them is that it reminds me of the peripheral legend on an ancient coin—encircling the picture and difficult to translate.  In that regard, I love the dots that separate the words.

 

 

 

Construction

 

 My 6-year-old made this all on her own.  I think it's very nicely done.

comets and meteors

 

I went out to look for comet Hartley 2 this morning and thought I was barely able to make it out (by not looking directly at it).

 

However, now that I've looked more at some star charts, I think was I was seeing was the stars Nu Aurige and Tau Aurigae.  The comet was riiiiggght theeeerre close to them, but was probably just a little too faint to register.

 

The moon was full and up, so viewing wasn't great.  Perhaps if I'd been further out from the city I could have seen it.

 

I did see three shooting stars inside of a minute, though, and I saw another one as I was driving to work.  The radiant for these is very near Auriga, the constellation that the comet is currently passing through, so I was staring straight at the first three meteors when I was them. Very nice!

 

These meteors are the Orionids, which are the remains of Halley's Comet.

 

Horse and Jockey

I did a lot of this work sitting in Jury Pool. I think it's done, though I might decide to darken a couple of areas. The size is about 8 x 10 inches.

Books

A couple of days ago I finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I enjoyed, and now I'm reading the oddly engrossing Mr. Jefferson And The Giant Moose. I've nearly given up on The Case For Christ, which I'm about half way through.

Yesterday I also finished a drawing of a horse and jockey, and I'll post a photo when I get a chance.
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IMG00036-20101014-1102.jpg

Jury duty
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Last night/Day so far

Last night I took another progress photo of my Big Rock drawing. I want to post an update on Wetcanvas.com. I also worked a little more on it. I took a photo of myself to use as a model to finish the guy swinging on the rope.

The power was out this morning so I overslept. No shower. Power came back just before I left. Made it to work only a little late and worked on budget data entries. Left work at 9:30 for jury pool. Now I'll sit and continue reading my novel.
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Indo-Sasanian coin

Here's another coin show purchase. It is Indo-Sasanian drachm, and I have tentatively identified this as a Chaulukya Dynasty era coin from Saurashtra, Gujarat, or Malwa in western India. This would date from AD 950-1150 (the guy who sold me the coin had it labeled 800-900, but I think it's probably in a slightly later date range.)

The obverse shows the stylized head of a Sasanian king, and the reverse shows a fire altar with two attendants.

...What, you can't see it? I'll outline the pertinent features in red to make them more obvious.

The design is hard to see because this is an example of something one sees from time to time in ancient coins: A very popular design that outlives its cultural context but keeps getting repeated. Over time, the people making and using the coins lose consideration of, or just forget, the original meaning of the symbols on the coin, and just keep using them because that's what money is supposed to look like. This means that the imagery becomes stylized and warped as it is repeated over the decades and centuries, sort of like a message being passed from person to person in that telephone game.

This coin was probably minted centuries after the deaths of the Sasanian king or kings that were depicted on the original coins. I don't know whether or not the die maker knew what he was depicting. Did he know this was the bust of a long-dead king, an altar with two sets of arms tending to the ritual? Did he ever see an example of the older coins?

There are many versions of these coins from a pretty broad region over a long period of time. I don't know if I'll ever nail down a more exact time or location for this coin.

Big Rock, Beargrass Creek WIP

Work in progress:  this is a drawing I'm working on of kids swimming at Big Rock.  It's been a bit of a struggle, and I'm not sure it will turn out.  It's pretty busy, and I'm having to really work to make it "read" right spacially and to give a good sense of values.  Also, there have been a few minor drawing screw-ups that have been demoralizing.  However, it's still coming along (slowly), and I'm optimistic that I'll be happy with the finished piece.