wallpaper Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon


I watched this 3 hour movie streaming on Netflix this afternoon. I can't believe I'd never heard of it before I put it in my Instant Queue a few weeks ago. I had not planned to watch it today or anytime soon really but it was one of 30 movies on my Instant Queue that were going to stop streaming as of January 1. This was the second of the two movies off that list that I got to watch today. The fist was Ghost. I chose both via two main criteria: it was unavailable from the library so I'd have to use one of my 3 Netflix DVD slots to send for it and it was something I thought I could watch with half an eye while crocheting. Ghost fit this latter criteria because it was a multiple rewatch for me and I wanted to listen to the soundtrack more than I needed to see the story again. I chose Barry Lyndon based on the reviews complaining about its slow pace and length.



I was so wrong to think that a movie based on William Makepeace Thackeray's picaresque novel that was slow paced could be watched with half an eye. Not only did I end up having to take out and redo in the second half of the film the two rows of the baby afghan I'd accomplished in the first half, I discovered late in the film that I'd been missing a lot of story that was presented visually. It is not enough to listen to the narrator and dialog only.





Besides missing many story elements by glancing at the screen one or two out of every five seconds, I had missed a lot of the visual artistry Kubrick had given this film. Every scene was like a 18th century painting come to life and choreographed like a dance. The use of color and light was enchanting.

As enchanting as the visual elements was the musical scoring of this film with the use of many classical pieces including Handel's Sarrabande as the primary theme throughout which was given several distinct renderings according to the mood of the scenes via use of different instruments and pacing. That and several other pieces I've not yet identified by name and artist continue to haunt me hours later.

I do believe I'm going to have to send for this one after all. In order to watch it start to finish without taking my eyes off the screen for more than the occasional blink. In fact this is probably going to go on my short list of movies to own that I would watch repeatedly.




Above is the scene in which the Irish rake Barry seduces the married Lady Lyndon during a card game. Note the sparsity of dialog. I actually missed most of this scene during the movie and only got its full impact while watching this YouTube.

Below is the scene near the end of the duel that takes place about ten years after the above scene in which Barry Lyndon and his stepson Lord Bullington square off. Because this was the third of three duels that framed the story as told by Kubrick, I do believe he was trying to say something about the duel as a concept or its role in that era but I'm not clear exactly what.





Lending to the poignancy of this scene are both the memory of the duel Barry fought at a similar age to Lord Bullington and the fact that shortly before his own son with the Lady Lyndon had died in an accident and thus the death of this son in the duel would leave her bereft of both sons.

Based on the material I've read online after watching the movie, I understand that Kubrick changed the story dramatically by including this scene which was either not in the novel or had a quite different outcome and by leaving out the several decades of Barry Lyndon's life that followed in the novel. Now I'm intrigued to give reading the novel a try. I don't believe I've ever read a Thakeray.

wallpaper Have a Secure New Year

wallpaper wallpaper Clay Bennett

wallpaper Happy New Year in 2011!

Hello out there!

I hope everyone had a great holiday week. I basically took the whole week off from doing much of anything and it was very nice. Slowing things down can be fun too. I wanted to share a few recent items as well as a few words.

First off, the big snowstorm that came early last week turned out to not be too bad here. Maybe 8 inches of snow, but it snowed for like 18 hours so it seemed like more. Luckily it was the super light stuff, easy to move. Here is the House after the storm looking very pretty all wintered up:
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Don't bug me about the house color, it is atrocious and will be repainted next year I think.

For Christmas dinner I made a 7 pound Prime Rib on the Big Steel Keg. I had never cooked in the cold air before (it was about 20 degrees) and thus I had some temperature control issues as the cold air was like jet fuel for the lump charcoal! I had wanted to cook the roast for about 4-4.5 hours at 300 degrees, but it was more like 3 hours at 350-375! The meal tasted wonderful, but there was only medium done meat, no medium rare to rare was achieved. What can you do. Here is the roast before:
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And after it was done:
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Still looks great at least!

The last news item refers to the new addition to the family! A little kitten was adopted from our local Humane Society! Long time readers may know that I love cats very much. When my last cat died a while back I was seriously hurt and it had taken a LONG time to even think about another cat. After about 6 months of trips to the Humane Society (who do a great job!) I found a new companion, her name is Jessie and she is a torti mix who is as sweet as it gets:
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Of course all tortoise coat cats have a wild streak and she set out right after the Christmas Tree ornaments as fair game:
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Little monster!

Our Pug dog Norman was upset for the first couple of days with a new competitor, but he has settled in well now. It is fun to have a cat again.

I know I am supposed to say something memorable or uplifting going into the New Year. I guess I am going to come up short. 2010 was at times great, terrible, successful, a mess, fun, and sad. I would imagine most can say that about any year. All I know is I am committed to getting myself rolling in 2011 and that means some real work on my trading. I kept a bunch of models of various things I had wanted to work on and they would have done really well (what didn't in 2010?) but I was just not into it. In 2011, I want some money! I am looking forward to writing more as well. Who wants Friday Night Blogging back?

Most of all a fresh start is always the promise of New Years, and that is a good promise indeed. I wish everyone a wonderful 2011 and I would hope the promise of a fresh start will help you as well.

Have a good night.

wallpaper Boo Hiss!

If you watched the Pinstripe Bowl, you saw what was probably the worst case of bad officiating ever. As the game ended, K-State made a touchdown and a K-State player saluted the crowd. Yes, a proper salute not the one finger New York, "We're number One!" The officials threw a flag for excessive demonstration and made them try for the extra points (which would have tied the game) from the 18 yard line not the three. I have seen more jumping up and down in the end zone than I would ever care to see and in a bowl game where no one was hurt, they throw a flag. Jesus! Stupid....

The temperature fell 40 degrees yesterday evening. I am sure glad I had a chance to get out when it was 70. The old game of fetch the stick with the dog just doesn't seem to ever get tiring. Oh well, it will be January tomorrow so I'd better expect to have some cold. This morning everything has about an inch of ice on it. It took about 10 minutes to clear the window on the truck so I could take out the trash.

I had a couple of people comment on the enchiladas. About any meat will do, My son loves left over Turkey and I prefer beef. I have also made them with smoked chicken and they are wonderful. I mixed a couple of pounds of hamburger and a half pound of sausage cooked with onions and garlic. I start with fresh corn tortillas and fry them in oil for a few seconds on each side. Throw them in a pie pan of sauce and then put them in another pan to fill them. Fill them with a mixture of a tablespoon of the meat, a teaspoon of the Mixed Vegetables and a pinch of cheese. I use toothpicks to hold them together and then put them in a pan and pour a little more sauce on them a little more cheese and about 20 minutes in the oven. The mixed vegetables are a filler that we had in a Mexican restaurant and I love it. You can skip that if you wish but try it once and see if you too don't find that it adds to the taste. They are great right out of the oven and better re-heated the next day. Be very careful of the hot oil and the tortillas. Never put them in the oil with anything but a good set of tongs and make sure you don't have and sauce on your fingers when you handle them. Splatter city if the tortilias have been frozen and have some ice on them. In fact, I find it best if you have one person doing that step and someone else getting messy putting the filling in them. It is messy but the results are worth it to me.

I have some chili to make and big old steaming bowl full with some corn bread sounds wonderful.

MUD

wallpaper Sick

wallpaper funny pictures-I haz a hed'ayk  rub mah belleh wallpaper
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I'm having one of those days. I want nothing but sleep but when I close my eyes I feel like I'm falling. And falling...

And the light inside my eyelids is brighter than a summer sun.

I haven't [picked up the afghan since I woke up so no progress today. I made it half way through row eight before quitting near dawn and I timed row 7 at 55 minutes which really changes the math in yesterday's estimate based on 90 minutes per row.

Today also changes the calculations based on daily quotas too as it reminds me I can't always count on getting to work at all. So an average quota of 4 rows means occasionally doing 6 or even 8 in one day.

wallpaper My Least Favorite Weather

wallpaper wallpaper My general line is that there are three kinds of bad weather: wet, cold and windy. Any one isn't bad; any two are unpleasant, but all three together are miserable. However, there's one more that's in a special class of miserable all by itself: freezing fog. It doesn't have to be below 32 F; mid-thirties and down, the fog just cuts through you. It's more painful than having your tongue frozen to icy metal and harder to get away from. I have been more miserably cold in fog in the upper twenties than I have been in sub-zero temperatures in northern Ohio and Ontario.

All this means I'll probably stay indoors until it's burnt off tomorrow. Interzone will be closing early, 3:00, and closed all day on January 1. I've been getting no signal at home over the last few days, so I may not be posting much until Sunday. If I don't end up posting anything tomorrow, have a great New Year's eve, celebrate, and drive sober or not at all.

wallpaper Thorsday: Dwarves

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Image from Wikipedia, more info at the main article. Following are the names of Norse dwarves from various sources: Nyi, Nidi, Nordri, Sudri, Austri, Vestri, Althiolf ("Mighty Thief"), Dvalin, Nar, Nain, Niping, Dain, Bifur, Bofur, Nori, Ori, Onar, Oin, Modvitnir ("Mead-Wolf"), Vig, Gandalf ("Magic Elf"), Vindalf ("Wind Elf"), Thorin, Fili, Kili, Fundin, Vali, Thror, Throin, Thekk, Lit, Vitr, Nyr, Nyrad, Rekk, Radsvinn ("Swift in Counsel"), Draupnir, Dolgthvari, Hor, Hugstari, Hlediolf, Gloin, Dori, Duf, Andvari, Heptifili, Har, Siar, Skirpir, Virpir, Skafinn, Ai, Alf, Ingi, Eikinskialdi ("Oak Shield"), Fal, Frosti, Finn, Ginnar. (List from Sunnyway.com) See also verses 11-13, here.

I was reading through the book of Norse mythology that Dana lent me, and while I generally tend to blank out over lists, especially long ones, as I skimmed over the list of names of the Norse dwarves, I was suddenly on alert: many of these were quite familiar to me! Skim over the list above and see if you can tell the connection I came to quite quickly.

For a hint, note that about a third of the way through, one of the dwarves is named "Gandalf," or "Magic Elf."

As it turns out, Tolkien used the names of the Norse dwarves as the source for the names of the dwarves in The Hobbit and the LOTR. Here are the names of the dwarves in The Hobbit, from Answers.com: Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Thorin Oakenshield, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, and Ori. There are two names in that list I don't see in the first (Balin and Bombur), but I was quite surprised I hadn't realized this until recently.

wallpaper The Onion Gives Me Tears

This made me laugh... I can Sooooo relate.

Area Man Looking For Whatever The Hell Is Beeping

wallpaper Enchiladas

We asked our good friends the Triggs to come over and have supper with us last night. It gave us all a chance to meet and greet Riku their little girl. You can sure tell that she is Daddy's (Travis) little girl. Such a smile and a pleasant personality. Her mother Britany was a joy to visit with also. I made up a big batch of enchiladas and man were they good. I made some turkey and some beef enchiladas and I am hard pressed to pick one as my favorite.

I can tell that Barb is nearing the end of her cold but Dave came over and helped me make the enchiladas. It really helps to have one person putting the corn tortillas in the hot oil and the into the sauce. If you get the red sauce on your hands, it does not pay to handle the corn tortillas as they go into the hot oil. It is splatter city unless you use tongs and keep everything dry and clean as you use hot oil. Yes, I know that it adds calories to fry the tortilla a little but I have tried to make them with out that step and they are just crappy without it. If someone can find a better way, I'll skip frying but so far nothing I have tried works or tastes the same. Dave worked it all out to a matter of timing and did an excellent job. We both smelled like enchiladas after cooking but what a great smell.

I ended the evening watching the KU JayHawks play basketball. The coach really moved the line up around (for a lot of different reasons) and again a different set of guys stepped up and really helped the team win. Texas-Arlington was a great team for about 1/3 of the game, a fair to middling team for about 1/3 of the game and provided the hawks with someone to play against for 1/3 of the game. Thankfully it was at the end of the game that they just were there and the hawks won handily. For the first 10 minutes of the game it was hard to watch but the last 10 minutes were great. Come on Bill, a win is a win. They are kids playing a game and winning.

This morning it is in the mid 50's and windy. Normally this means that a cold front is headed our way. Warm air sucks up from the south and meets a cold front with mixed results. Many times when I was in the Guard, there would be a blizzard closing I-70 and a tornado near Pittsburg, KS. Who knows what this front will blow up.

Better run...

MUD

wallpaper Baby Afghan Begun

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So, after all the frustrations of the last several days that prevented me from getting started, I'm pleased to report that I've begun the baby afghan and completed four full rows in the last 24 hours.

Above is a closeup of the two ends of the approximately 36 inch strip showing both front and back. The first two rows went quick at 70 minutes each but they were straight double crochet and I wasn't surprised that the first row to interweave with the row below, alternating triple crochet stitches with double crochet slowed me down considerably. But I was surprised by how much and anxiously hoped throughout that it would be a fluke and later rows would go smoother. That hope was met when the next white row interweaving with the blue went off without a hitch and seemingly quick tho I forgot to time it.

I'm concerned about how long rows will take because I hope to get a reliable estimate of how many hours I need to dedicate to this project and so I can establish a reasonable quota of rows per day in order to finish before March 1.

My intent for the size is approximately 30 inches by approximately 40 inches. Before or after the 2 inch fringe I'll be adding to all four sides.

When I made the starting chain I stopped and measured it after every 100 count and it went over 30 inches by several after 300 chains. Now it measures nearly 18 when folded in half and laying flat which means it is nearly 36 inches.

I started the fifth (yellow) row in order to confirm that there will be five rows to the inch. To get forty then I need 200 rows. But I also need to satisfy my aesthetic sensitivity by insuring that there is a complete iteration of the pattern in those final inches. One iteration involves 10 rows: white--blue--white--yellow--white--lilac--white--pink--white--green. Thus I need 20 interations to make 200 rows. But also to satisfy my aesthetic taste I'm insisting that it ends in blue as it started so I'll add another white and blue and then two whites, the first interwove with the final blue but the last a straight double crochet that is not interwoven which I am thinking will make adding the fringe later easier. So, counting those first and last rows and the white--blue--white added atop the green of the 20th iteration, I'll have 205 rows. Or I could leave off at 19 iterations and have 195 rows plus the fringe.

I am guessing, based on today's experience, that my time per row will average 90 minutes. For 200 rows that adds up to 18000 minutes or 300 hours. Which means 4 to 5 hours per day through the end of February.

The picture below shows the full strip folded in half along with the six spools of bamboo thread inside sandwich bags which was my solution to the problem of the loops of thread slipping off the roll and tangling. The main source of my frustration Sunday, Monday and Tuesday as I posted about preciously. The solution really does seem to be working.



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If you're wondering what that teeny baby doll seen next to my work is all about. Well those were from my Mom around my birthday in November. They are vinyl I think. She got them for me because she knows I'm really into baby dolls of all sizes and also into all kinds of miniatures. She also thought I might be able to use them as decoration for the bookmarks. I probably will eventually with at least some of the 10 but meanwhile I discovered their usefulness as unravel prevention by putting the loop where I'm leaving off around the baby's waist and pulling it snug. At first I was just slipping it over the head but that was kinda creeping me out.

wallpaper Wednesday Wednesday

wallpaper wallpaper Darlene Copeland's Wednesday tattoo, from Wednesday's Korner.

wallpaper Random Stuff

In an effort to be informed, I scanned the US News on my web browser. It was almost a complete failure in that all the stuff reported there was titillation not real great or bad news. I read the local paper and other than a police shooting and a fatal traffic accident, the comics were the most informative. Even dear Abby was one of those columns that you read and go - Duh! To make it all worth while, I read the obits and again I escaped the clutches of death.

I escaped the Christmas season without the world piling up more stuff for me to take care of. A new pair of jeans, a multi tool and a good book was the total haul. The thing that has made everything really great is the people and great meals we have had this week. Tonight we will host a few more people over for enchiladas. Some will be turkey and some will be beef. I will make Barb wash her hands well and not touch anything. She has had a head cold for over a week and She is Sick and Tired of being Sick and Tired. For the record I am sick and tired of her being sick and tired of being sick and tired. Poor Baby. For the record, all I have is one ear that flutters from being full of fluid. Not much I can do about that.

I have kind of made up my mind to not make any resolutions for 2011. Yes, I know in a way that is a resolution but if you can't live with it, bite me! I do wonder how many hours it will take to figure out the taxes this year. I have complicated the matter and have several new irons in the fire. I am pretty sure that I have to upgrade Turbo Tax to the one that has Partnerships in it.

Oh well, better get things on the road.

MUD

wallpaper Snarl

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I just spent most of the last two days getting this snarl out of the blue bamboo thread I'm going to be using for the baby afghan. From 3 Monday afternoon until noon today (with brief interruptions for dinner and tending to laundry) and again from 5 to 9pm this evening. After all of that I'm not going to be able to use the thread I salvaged for the afghan or any gift quality work for that matter. I may use it for practicing new stitches or testin guage with various size hooks. Though there are long stretches of it that look fine in texture and color, there are too many snags, splits, frizzies, and dingy looking sections.

I did follow though on my idea of putting the thread balls in to separate sandwich baggies. The kind with the zip lock. I haven't tested it out in action but it does seem likely to work--to allow the thead freedom to unspool as I wok without falling off in great gobs. It also keeps the spools from rubbing against each other which will minimize friction fraying. I'm anxious to get started now. I'm three days past my intent to begin and three weeks past my hopes for an earlier start.

Oh, I did take time out last night to make another Joanne.com order. I'm so excited. When I told Ed there was another free shipping coupon in my email but for a minimum of $50 order I didn't really expect he'd be able to make it happen for me but he didn't even hesitate.

It's my biggest order yet and I'm getting several new treads. I'm also stocking up on the yellow and lilac for the baby afghan with 3 each because those two colors are hard to get in the store. The lilac is available only online and the yellow has only occasionally been available at the store. If I'd known how to estimate how much it was going to take I might have stocked up on the other colors since the white, blue, green and pink as well as the yellow were also nearly a dollar less than the regular price. The lilac wasn't sale priced and it's regular price is a bit more than the regular price of the other colors.

But I'm just as glad I don't know yet how much I'm going to need as then I'd have felt obligated to make the order about the afghan and I wouldn't be getting all the little treats. Which I will wait until they arrive to talk about as then I can have pictures. Besides I am so about getting started on that afghan NOW!

I won't

wallpaper Tuesday Tits

wallpaper wallpaper Parus holsti--Yellow Tit, from "Passeriformes, Paridae & Aegithalidae."

wallpaper Camoflage or Warmth?

I just noticed this will be my 2501st post in about 2 1/2 years. What better to note the milestone than a cat being weird and funny. (H/T @Dhunterauthor)

Followup: Some are suggesting that the clip may be reversed, i.e. the cat is actually taking the hat off rather than pulling it on. And if you watch it cleaning itself near the beginning of the clip, it does look backward. Still, cute.

wallpaper Reverse Bucket List

REVERSE BUCKET LIST I saw this weekend that there will be a special showing of the Bucket List and in honor of that showing, I am writing again my reverse bucket list. It is a list of things I probably won't do in my lifetime. Some I have done, some I haven't but am pretty sure that I won't ever do them.
 Roller Skate or ride a skate board.
 Drive a car as fast as it can go.
 Kiss my Mother.
 Own a new car.
 Climb a mountain.
 Shoot a deer.
 Go to war.
 Shoot anybody.
 Fly in a small personal aircraft
 Water or Snow Ski

MUD

wallpaper Duh Dennis!

Yesterday, I wrote a letter and then also put the card from the old DirecTV receiver in an envelop to mail. I went upstairs and asked Barb if she wanted to get out of the house. She was almost finished with a book and asked me to wait about 20 minutes. Did that and then proceeded to forget the letters when we went out. Duh Dennis! I hate it when that happens.

It does give me a good excuse to get out today but dang, I hate to start making a "To Do" list in retirement. I do put shopping items on my I-Phone from time to time but don't want to run my life from a list.

Is it just me or did the delay in the passing of the Tax Bill by Congress delay the release of Turbo Tax this year? This will be the most complicated Tax year for us ever. I love the Tax programs but throw in a sale of a house and a Partnership and Oil Royalties and it gets convoluted.

Oh well, moving on...

MUD

wallpaper Dressed and Blessed

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Sweet Dreams

I got two of the bookmarks I crocheted recently tucked, blocked and dressed last night. They're all dressed up because they do have somewhere to go.

The one at top is the one I experimented with the new Interweave stitch I discussed in last night's post with the bamboo thread I'm intending to use on the baby afghan for my niece. I've decided to send it to her as a congrats gift upon the birth of her son, due January 7. But I'm still debating whether to tell her that I'm making an afghan for the baby based on that thread and pattern. See she will have reason to wonder whether I'll have it finished by the time he starts school because I have yet to finish the needlepoint bible cover I started for her sixteen birthday nearly ten years ago.

Below is one I made for the daughter of a friend. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift.

One of the things I've developed a habit of doing when I know who the bookmark (or any item actually) is for, is to think loving thoughts towards that person as I work, send blessing to them. A kind of meditative prayer state as I work. Hence the 'blessed' in the post title.

And as you can see I continue to name my little darlings.

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Jazzed


Well I've got a lot on my agenda tonight. I'm going to be doing laundry throughout the night while watching 11 episodes of Castle season 2 which was due back at the library today. I'll be crocheting as I watch of course. I'm hoping to start the afghan before I sleep. But I found a huge tangle in the blue bamboo thread when I woke today and I've already spent two hours working at it. One of the drawbacks of working with this lovely thread is that it won't stay on the ball. It keeps falling off in loops as in bunches of loops and if I don't discover it immediately it is liable to tie itself in knots. At least this time it was only with itself and not the five other balls in the bag.

I'm about ready to set this ball aside and break out one of the new ones for the project so I can get started. I have a plan in mind to prevent it from happening again. I am going to stick each individual ball into sandwich baggies so they aren't rubbing on each other.

wallpaper What Does It Mean?

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wallpaper wallpaper In 1983, a tornado blew our house down on us. As the house shifted to the half in and half our of the downstairs, it broke off the gas meter. When everything stopped moving, I could see that Barb and Dave were both unharmed and able to get out of the rubble. I was still trapped against the foundation by a vanity, the furnace and a hot water heater. It was all I could do to move the pile up just enough to move a few inches forward. I told barb to get out and take David with her. I continued to lift the pile and crawl forward. Finally after a few minutes I cleared the pile. All the time I expected the gas to explode but because the electricity was shut off by the storm luckily there was no fire. A few minutes after the tornado passed, the sun was out and people started showing up. One of those people was an employee of the Gas Company and he crawled under the pile in the back yard and shut off the gas meter. What was left was a pile of stuff and little that was any where as important as the fact that My wife and Son were alive and well. I wasn't exactly pissed off to be out of the pile, but it wasn't about me as much as my family.

Based on that and much good fortune also, I often say I have everything I need and most of what I want and a Walmart near by. I apologise if you or anyone else think it is bragging about things just related to money. While I am truly blessed to have a good life after a lifetime of working, the true blessing to me is the love and life of my wife and son.

MUD

wallpaper Sand Through the Hourglass: Bits of Geoscience

I'm feeling pretty uninspired. Between staying up too late reading (for several nights running) and what might be a mild cold- which may or may not be part and parcel with the weird, mild headaches that make me feel as if my skull is deforming like a kneaded lump of clay- I just want to go home and go to bed. But I have a backlog of interesting geology and earth science posts I've been meaning to get to, plus a couple more that came up today, so with a minimum of fuss here are some recent bits from the geoblogosphere and related news.
  • Silver Fox spent much of the weekend tracking down the original Dutton quote poetically describing Basin and Range as an army of caterpillars crawling north out of Mexico. Like Ron Schott, I'm most familiar with this from the sign at Dante's View in Death Valley, but this has clearly been misquoted many more times than quoted.
  • Callan has a slew of mashed-up rocks (what I personally think of as metacrappite, in my own mental categorization of rock groups, without the slightest bit of derogatory intent), in his continuing series on the geology of San Francisco. Also check out the mashed cherts; these are some of the hardest and most competent sedimentary rocks that exist, and to see them folded, spindled and mutilated like taffy should give you a profound respect for the power of the earth.
  • Christmas day's EPOD was a stereopair of a beautiful snowflake. I've been meaning to transform this into a wobble-gif, but haven't got to it. I may not. Like I said at the outset...
  • Cian at Point Source summarizes her highlights from the recent AGU conference. I'm intrigued by the emphasis I've seen, and not only in her post, on scientists taking a lead role in communicating on their disciplines. As I and numerous others have repeatedly noted, the journalists just aren't getting it done.
  • Evelyn at Georneys has a wonderful post about a wonderful map. As familiar as this beautiful bit of cartographic art is to me, I had never realized its importance, nor how recently (alright, okay, I get it, I'm old.) it had been completed. Heartfelt thanks for clarifying, Evelyn.
  • Bryan at Hot Topic summarizes a recent interview of James Hansen by Bill McKibben, highlighting the degree of confidence felt among climate scientists regarding global warming, its consequences, and how to ameliorate its effects.
  • NatGeo has a gallery of images of what are thought to be collapse pits over lava tubes... on Mars.
  • The Guardian has the most complete article I've seen on the reopening of Molycorp's Mountain Pass rare earths mine.
  • In a semi-related bit of economic news, Krugman's column today deals with rising commodity prices in a recovering economy, on a finite planet. As I've noted before, geology and economics are much more intimately related than I think most people recognize.
  • Also at The Guardian, an article that largely dismisses concerns over the recent news about Cr VI in US drinking water. He makes some valid points, and in my reading, I had already come to much the same conclusion- that the panicky reaction was overblown. However, I think the middle ground is more appropriate here. There's no reason to panic, but his level of dismissiveness is unwarranted as well. This should be of concern, and should be studied more carefully.
  • Louisiana will be coming to Oregon to study hurricane storm surges. Huh? Oregon State University has one of the largest wave tanks in the world: The Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory.
  • The explosion and subsequent destruction of the Deepwater Horizon, and the ensuing oil spill, made the new chairman of The House Science and Technology Committee, Ralph Hall (R-Texas), feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
    "As we saw that thing bubbling out, blossoming out – all that energy, every minute of every hour of every day of every week – that was tremendous to me," he said. "That we could deliver that kind of energy out there – even on an explosion."
    You probably don't want to read that entire article if you would prefer to be optimistic regarding science in the US in the near future.

wallpaper The Hokey-Pokey ... Shakespearean Style

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My friends, family, and readers often send me humorous e-mails and videos. I am so appreciative when they do because, first of all, they usually make me laugh. Secondly, they give me "fun stuff" to share out here on the blog.

My friend, Cathy Witbeck, recently sent an email that contained this note:

The following is from the Washington Post Style Invitational Contest, a weekly contest that the Post runs. In March 2003, they asked readers to submit “instructions” for something (anything), but to win this particular time it had to be written in the style of a famous person. The winning entry was the Hokey-Pokey as written by William Shakespeare.

Hokey-Pokey by William Shakespeare

By Jeff Brechlin


O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.
Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from Heaven’s yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
The Hoke, the poke—banish now thy doubt
Verily, I say, ‘tis what it’s all about.

----

I hope you enjoyed that little ditty as much as I did. May 2011 be a wonderful year for you!

------Blog article © C.L. (Cindy) Beck; "The Hokey-Pokey by William Shakespeare" reported to be from the Washington Post------


wallpaper Crochet 101

wallpaper wallpaper
101 Stitches to Crochet
edited by Erika Knight
Published by Interweave Press.
one of their Harmony Guides



This box of cards featuring 101 crochet stitches was part of my Christmas present from Ed. There is an accordion folded booklet with some basic instructions and visual how-tos for the several basic stitches and their abbreviations which will help me learn to read patterns finally. There is a card with a key to iconic images of stitches and other instruction used in the graphic patterns.

The rest of the cards, measuring 5x6.5 inches, feature one stitch per card with a nice actual size photo of a sample swatch of the stitch on one side and the instructions on the back in both words (with abbreviations) and a graphical pattern to follow for however many rows are needed to complete one iteration of a pattern.

The card I've featured here is of the stitch I chose to use on the baby afghan I'm going to make for my niece in Montana who is due January 7th. I won't get it done in time obviously but I hope to finish by early spring. It isn't a winter afghan anyway. I'm using bamboo thread size 10. I made that bookmark seen there in the middle to practice the stitch and pattern and experiment with hook sizes and so forth.

The stitch is called Interweave and lends itself well to multi-color patterns. I'm going to have fun with it on the bookmarks too. I'm picturing dozens of color combinations that have me mentally drooling as I type.

The pattern you see there in the bookmark is what I'll be doing for the baby afghan. It alternates white with the five pastels: blue, lavender, pink, green, and yellow. In order to get the interesting effect of color on color you must change thread on every row. That bookmark has 23 rows. Which means it had 46 tails to tuck.

I have no idea how many rows the afghan will take but I intend to make it approximately 33X44 inches probably including the 2 inch fringe on all four sides. On the bookmark, when using the size 6 hook which I think I've settled on, I got about 10 stitches to the inch working a row. I got about 4 rows to the inch.

I haven't done the math yet to figure out how many stitches per row and how many rows I'll likely need to do. I'll have to do that in order to know how long to make the starting chain.....

33X10 = 330. 44x4 = 176.

Yikes. How to I keep track once I get past ten chains? I have trouble with that doing the bookmarks that use 11 to 40 odd chain.

Ai Yi Yi.

The bookmark with 13 stitches by 23 rows took me most of a night to work. Of course I was learning the stitch and there was the factor of having to stop and switch threads after every thirteen stitches so I could not build up a rhythm. I guess I'll see how it goes once I start working the 330 stitch rows.

I hope I have it done before the kid starts school!!!!

wallpaper Sunday Funnies: Boxing Day Edition

I had intended to do a dedicated post of Christmas funnies etc. Friday or yesterday, but Interzone closed early Christmas eve, and I have weak to no internet at home. What I do have is hijacked anyway, and I'm not all that comfortable using it, especially for composing long posts that might get partially lost when the signal fails. Then I stayed up until about 4:30 this morning reading, and in turn woke up at the crack of noon today. So, long and short, I'm just muddling all the seasonal stuff together with the more run-of-the-mill Sunday Funnies, ranging (as usual) from uber-cute and saccharine sweet to deeply offensive and mortifying. That warning issued, I hope your Christmas and boxing day were warm, festive and fun. Happy Boxing Day, and enjoy!
wallpaper Funny Pictures - Cyoot Kitteh wallpaper
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
wallpaper funny pictures history - WHAT did you say you wanted to be when you grow up, Lizzy? wallpaper
see more Historic LOL
wallpaper wallpaper Complaint above and response below from What Would Jack Do?
wallpaper wallpaper
wallpaper wallpaper Bits and Pieces
wallpaper wallpaper Criggo
wallpaper wallpaper What Would Jack Do?
wallpaper funny celebrity pictures - Jim Beam me up wallpaper
see more Lol Celebswallpaper wallpaper Skull Swap
wallpaper wallpaper Calamities of Nature
wallpaper wallpaper Non Sequitur
wallpaper funny pictures - Airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? wallpaper
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
wallpaper wallpaper FuckYeahAlbuquerque
wallpaper wallpaper Stages of Succession: cold-blooded cuteness.
wallpaper wallpaper Blackadder
wallpaper wallpaper My First Dictionary
wallpaper wallpaper EpicPonyz
wallpaper wallpaper The Daily What. Oh, I'm so terribly sorry! Next time I'll say "Fuck you and your sanctimonious sense of self-entitlement. Jesus, Joseph and Mary would like you to know there's a whole stable full of barnyard animals waiting to blown." I'm sure we'll both feel much better about that greeting.
wallpaper Funny Pictures - Christmas Cats wallpaper
see more Lolcats and funny pictures. Awww...
wallpaper wallpaper Via Pharyngula; two more strips at the link.
wallpaper wallpaper Gingerbread Falling Water, from all over the place this week. This image is from EpicPonyz. Click for full size; the detail is breath-taking.
wallpaper wallpaper Chinleana
wallpaper demotivational posters - SANTARAPTOR wallpaper
see more Very Demotivational
wallpaper wallpaper Above and next two: three funnies from Bizarroblog
wallpaper wallpaper wallpaper wallpaper wallpaper wallpaper The Daily What
wallpaper wallpaper Non Sequitur
wallpaper wallpaper The Daily What
wallpaper wallpaper Sofa Pizza
wallpaper funny celebrity pictures - DOCTOR wallpaper
see more Lol Celebs
wallpaper wallpaper Regretsy
wallpaper wallpaper Sofa Pizza. "Advice from Sarah Palin."
wallpaper wallpaper Criggo
wallpaper wallpaper Blackadder
wallpaper funny pictures - Too manee shinees fur my brain to handul! wallpaper
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
wallpaper wallpaper Literal snowman from the The Daily What
wallpaper funny pictures - I got it! wallpaper
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
wallpaper wallpaper Darius Whiteplume's Tumblr
wallpaper demotivational posters - SLEEP LEVITATING wallpaper
see more Very Demotivational
wallpaper wallpaper What Would Jack Do?
wallpaper wallpaper Great White Snark
wallpaper wallpaper I Hate My Parents
wallpaper wallpaper Alphaville
wallpaper wallpaper Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
wallpaper political pictures - LOOKS LIKE A PENIS  ONLY SMALLER wallpaper
see more Political Pictures
wallpaper wallpaper ChannelAte
wallpaper 4 koma comic strip - Nice Video wallpaper
see more Comixed. And yes, that's a real thing. Caution: you can't unread this.
wallpaper wallpaper Alphaville
wallpaper wallpaper What Would Jack Do?
wallpaper wallpaper Bits and Pieces
wallpaper wallpaper Cold toilet seats are a nightmare, but this is ridiculous. Bits and Pieces
wallpaper wallpaper Sofa Pizza

Via Sofa Pizza. Silly drunk guy... those are sweat pants.
wallpaper wallpaper The Daily What
wallpaper political pictures - CRY HAVOC wallpaper
see more Political Pictures
wallpaper wallpaper What Would Jack Do?
wallpaper wallpaper ChannelAte
wallpaper wallpaper A young Allie Brosh decides to improve upon the Christmas story in "The Year Kenny Loggins Ruined Christmas." It's a longish read, but hysterically funny
wallpaper demotivational posters - STUDENTS wallpaper
see more Very Demotivational
wallpaper awesome photos  - You Will Be Eaten! wallpaper
see more Epic Win FTW
wallpaper wallpaper Bits and Pieces
wallpaper wallpaper Cyanide and Happiness
wallpaper wallpaper Criggo
wallpaper wallpaper Sober in a Nightclub
wallpaper wallpaper Non Sequitur
wallpaper wallpaper Sofa Pizza
wallpaper wallpaper Sober in a Nightclub
wallpaper wallpaper Sober in a Nightclub
wallpaper demotivational posters - NIGHTMARES wallpaper
see more Very Demotivational
wallpaper wallpaper Sofa Pizza
wallpaper Woman in The Blob (1958) Totally Looks Like Eric Idle wallpaper
see more Celeb Look-A-Likes
wallpaper wallpaper Fake Science
wallpaper engrish funny - A Gambler's Prayer wallpaper
see more Engrish
wallpaper wallpaper EpicPonyz
wallpaper wallpaper Sofa Pizza
wallpaper wallpaper xkcd
wallpaper wallpaper FuckYeahAlbuquerque- this is basically a nostalgic laugh for me. 25-30 years ago, various roommates and I would laugh hysterically at the 3-hour show, I think on PBS, "Yule Log." An unedited, unnarrated, sans-soundtrack video of logs burning. The action sequences consisted of a hand reaching in with a poker, rearranging and settling the embers. I suppose you had to be there, but I assure you, it was very, very funny. Recreational substances helped, but weren't really necessary.
wallpaper wallpaper The High Definite
wallpaper political pictures - The Paris Hilton of Politics wallpaper
see more Political Pictures
wallpaper Bunday Delights Gif - Bunday Delights wallpaper
see more Gifs
wallpaper wallpaper Clay Bennett