Here lie the adventures of Rhiannon
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| Friday, April 13th, 2012 | | 11:56 pm |
Freak Weather is Freaky
The tree outside my door, you know, the one that became confused and bloomed in December last year? Well, it's still having trouble coping with freaky weather. It bloomed and leafed out in late February/early March because of the warm weather. But now, since it's been BELOW FREEZING for the last four nights, it decided it must be autumn and its leaves are turning red. | | Monday, April 9th, 2012 | | 9:16 pm |
Greek Pots at the IU Art Museum
So the IU Art Museum is kind of a serious museum. I led tour groups over to it during our grad student conference, so I took the nickle tour. They have a Picasso and a Monet. Woo. They've also got a pretty amazing collection of ancient Greek pottery. It is elegant, beautiful, and delicate. Then you go around the corner and their Roman pottery collection looks like it was done by fifth graders. I'm not sure if that's just what you get (talented Roman potters moved to Greece for hundred of years, or perhaps talented Roman potters were forced to make concrete for bridges instead? Who knows?), or maybe the person who was collecting the pottery (all from one guy) had a preference for Greek pottery, but his family members, knowing he liked pots, kept buying him cheap Roman pots for Christmas. (Those of you with large families know that the latter is the more likely answer.) | | Saturday, April 7th, 2012 | | 10:50 pm |
Easter Eggs
Dyed Easter eggs this evening. Wow. The neon color pack gives good color. Well, you know, like always the blue is great, the green is great, the yellow is great, the orange is great, the purple gives you one good purple egg and then poops out, and the pink is just a looser egg that you give up on and dump over into the blue at some point. | | Friday, March 9th, 2012 | | 5:55 pm |
So far,so good
Okay, once all the firmware updates were done--- I think Lion is stable. The computer hasn't locked up once so far. Haven't had a chance to test the battery performance yet, but I will probably do that this week while visiting my Mom. | | Thursday, March 8th, 2012 | | 9:40 am |
| | Sunday, February 19th, 2012 | | 12:21 am |
Movies I've Liked
When I mentioned that I was watching far too much Netflix, someone asked me for recommendations. So I've whuffled through my history. Feel free to add to my Netflix Movie List: ( See the list... ) | | Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 | | 10:43 pm |
A Sad Day for All Macophiles
Steve Jobs 1955-2011 So strange to mourn a man that I never met, never shook hands with, never hugged hello. For so long though his vision of technology has impacted my life. I do things daily that I would never have been able to do without the WSIWYG interface. My professional life was originally built on PageMaker running on a Mac. Throughout the decades, I've faithfully followed where Steve Jobs has led, and was always rewarded with abilities that I never dreamed of having. Like so many users, I record in Garage Band, I make DVDs of family photos, I put up web pages for my interests, I carry my life around in my technology and it fits in my backpack. When I became disappointed with carrying my iPod, PDA, and phone, Apple introduced the iPhone. When I became disappointed with the weight of laptops, they brought me the Macbook Air. Watching Steve using the iPad during his keynote speech last year, I knew he realized that I was having to carry around both my laptop and my iPhone-- and he was showing me the next step. Every day of my life, my productive moments-- in work and in play-- are connected by a thin thread back through my past to Steve Jobs. It's like losing a mentor who is constantly coaxing you to learn new things or a kindly Uncle who sends you things you didn't know you wanted. I will miss him. Tracing my thread~~
~~Apple IIe (1988)
~~Mac IIcx (1990)
~~Quadra 800av (1995)
~~Powerbook 540c (1998)
~~G4 Flatpanel Imac (2001)
~~iPod (2002)
~~G4 12" Powerbook (2005)
~~iPhone 3G (2009)
~~MacBook Air (2011) | | Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 | | 4:30 pm |
| | Sunday, September 25th, 2011 | | 4:34 pm |
Who is responsible for the pain of love? (3rd Installment)
 The earlier segments of my retelling of La Belle Dame Sans Mercy are here....Smitten guy looks hurt by the Lady's cool reply. "Look," he says, "this just isn't right. Since it is my fortune that your beauty causes me to love you, and that love causes me pain, it's just not okay for you to disdain me." "Whoa there big fella. I don't disdain you, nor love you, nor hate you. If this love that youv'e been obsessing on gives you pleasure or makes you rave, that is completely none of my doing." The lady starts kind of looking around to see where her friends are. (Haven't you been to that party before where you're ready to go, but your ride has disappeared?) "Don't think that I'm just being presumptuous here. The god of Love chased me down and put me in chains. For someone in my position, the person who dies the soonest has the least pain." The Lady glances sharply back at him to see if he's making a dirty joke or not (all that "dying the little death" stuff), but he looks all sincere. She sighs a little bit, and thinks that she kind of half hoped that he might have been talking dirty to her, because then she could have shoved him off the bench and run off. Well, just in case he did mean it as a double entendre, best to make clear her position. "This sickness is easy to endure. Trust me, it causes very, very, VERY few people to die. Those that moan about this illness are just trying to get another to give them comfort with the remedy. Besides, if love is a painful sickness, isn't it better for only one of us to suffer, than for both of us?" "But if you were gentle to me, and only allowed me to serve you, then you could make two joys where once there was one grief." Trying to be as matter-of-fact as possible, she tells him, "I am a free agent, under no man's thumb, and I intend to stay that way." Smitten guy sees this as an opening, and scoots a little closer to her. "You wouldn't be under my thumb at all. Love sets ladies to rule over men. Any poor man who once gives fealty to Love, must pay a heavy fee before he can be ransomed." Just at that moment, the Lady had taken a sip of punch, and when she heard him saying that ladies are in charge, an unladylike snort and cough of punch overcame her. "Ladies are not so stupid that we believe words that are spoken in jest like that, no matter how you paint up the language. This is after all, the fifteenth-century." "Ah, but there's just no comparison between a man who is just pretending to be hurt and a man whose heart is truly heavy and in pain. True thoughts and words are proven to be true by the works that the person does." The Lady dabs at her dress with her napkin, and then pointedly looks at his napkin until he offers it to her. She ruefully thinks that there is no way that the punch isn't going to leave a stain and that he's starting to really babble... (line 269-341) | | Friday, September 23rd, 2011 | | 11:22 pm |
Fresh out of the shower...
Meeting with my advisor is like taking a nice long hot shower. I go in feeling all the guilt of the things I haven't done, and we talk about it all, make plans for the future, and I step out feeling all clean and fresh and ready to go. Really, just feeling so blessed to have such a good person to work with. So funny because her work habits are very different than mine, but that works really well. Especially for the oh-so-important motivational aspects of our relationship. I feel like I should bake her cookies. :-) | | Tuesday, September 20th, 2011 | | 4:36 am |
Archery with Supervision
( Tegan pics... )Tegan appears to be leading a more interesting life than I am, hence she's getting more livejournal time. Here's this week's archery practice with appropriate corgi supervision. She literally cried about not being allowed to chase the first round of arrows, but she quickly settled into the routine of shooting at the line, the call for range clear, and then going up to count scores. | | Sunday, September 18th, 2011 | | 2:25 pm |
Tool User?
I was thinking about the fact that they don't call dogs "tool users" this morning. So I guess "tool use" means picking something up and moving it to a new location, so that you can use it to do something that you couldn't do without it--having the intelligence to manipulate your environment in very particular ways to benefit yourself. For instance, chimps picking up a particular kind of stick in order to fish termites out of a termite colony. But I have to question the exclusion of dogs from the list of tool users. Tegan so obviously does view her environment with a view towards getting what she wants. Camping at Castellan last spring, some creature under my cot could not be made to go away, so after a brief scuffle, Tegan came out from under the cot (her favorite sleeping spot), grabbed my towel and pulled it off the end of my cot, dragged it to the middle of the tent, rummaged around on it to make a bed, and then sighed heavily and went to sleep. When her head was itchy two weeks ago, she went in the kitchen, got her big Nyla bone, came into the living room where we were, propped it up between her front two paws, and then used it to scratch the top of her head (which she has trouble reaching with her paws.) And of course, the most sophisticated tool use of all-- manipulating creatures who have opposable thumbs. On a walk, if Tegan gets a sticker, she does not attempt to remove it herself, but stops dead, holds up her paw to signal that she has a sticker, and stares fixedly at me. So I walk back, take the sticker out, and we go on. Like the chimp choosing the correct kind of stick, Tegan also exhibits an ability to selectively choose among her selection of opposable thumb roommates to find just the right one for the particular task. This morning, she jolly well knew that I was downstairs making breakfast, but rather than coming to me to ask to be let out, which would have meant that I would have let her out the back door into the patio, she went and got Nataliya. Since Nataliya was still asleep, this took a lot of perseverance to force her to wake up, and then even more persistence to force her to come down the stairs and open the front door. Apparently though, Tegan's keen sense of the appropriate tool for the appropriate task, led her to the (quite correct) conclusion that only one of the "tools" would get her out the front door (which, of course, is to be preferred by any animal of reason and sensibilities.) Nataliya is attempting to figure out how to get off Tegan's list of dog tools. :-) | | Saturday, September 17th, 2011 | | 9:37 pm |
Chipmunks
Nataliya caught chipmunks playing hide and seek today.  | | Friday, September 16th, 2011 | | 1:59 pm |
The brown truck isn't the good one
The doorbell just rang, and Tegan sprang up and away to go bark at the door. The translation of all that barkign being, "Hey that's the door. There might be friends. There might be the postal carrier with dog treats. There might be someone who wishes to give us a chipmunk. There might be Mormons, There might be a total stranger who needs a little corgi love in their life. This could be the signal of almost ANYTHING!" By the time she hustles me to the door, the UPS driver is already back in his truck. Tegan dashes to the edge of the sidewalk and leans out as far as she can without getting into the street. Then she emotes at the driver as hard as possible. He waves and drives away. She watches him in disbelief and tragic disappointment. Yet again, the UPS driver has failed to stop and feed her a treat, or even stop and pet her. She's developing a decided preferance for companies that ship their products USPS. Disgustedly, she huffs back into the house to finish her afternoon nap. | | Sunday, September 11th, 2011 | | 2:44 am |
 Archery Practice. Four pages of Gorgeous, gorgeous pics by Nataliya with her new camera. (There are little tiny arrows at the upper left of the pages to let you move to the next page. Once you are in the "big" view of the pictures, the little arrows let you scroll through.) I just love my nose in profile. :-) | | Sunday, September 4th, 2011 | | 10:48 pm |
| | Monday, August 29th, 2011 | | 10:46 pm |
| | Friday, August 26th, 2011 | | 5:52 pm |
Hiding in the Bushes
Second Installment of La Belle Dame Sans Mercy (Opening is here.) So Smitten Guy (the one who can't take his eyes off the one lady) makes an effort to be cheerful at dinner. But you know, they ask him to sing, and he sings about her beauty. They try to make small talk with him, and all he wants to talk about is her. You know how it is, we've all had to sit next to that person at dinner before. (Heck, we've all probably BEEN that person before.)
Traveling Guy, who's been watching all this, thinks to himself that he can see why Smitten Guy has it so bad for the lady. But he's also thinking that if her heart was as set on making Smitten Guy happy as she was beautiful, then everything would work out great. But you know, whoever trusts his eyes to make up his mind about where his heart should go, he'll be dead, buried and under a stone before THAT ever works out.
Traveling Guy is just getting more depressed watching Smitten Guy dancing with ladies (sometimes one, sometimes two). He goes out in the garden and hides behind a woven trellis that is so thick with leaves that no one can see him, and he can sit quietly and think about his lady who has died. Almost immediately though, Smitten Guy manages to get a dance with the lady, and then kind of manuevers her away from the rest of the company. They end up sitting right next to Traveling Guy, but they don't see him because of the trellis of leaves.
Smitten Guy lets loose with a huge sigh, and Traveling Guy thinks how it's kind of funny-- there is the sick person sitting next to the doctor who can cure him, but for all of that it's like bringing someone who is already too hot, next to the fireplace. It's obvious that Smitten Guy's heart is about to bust into pieces as Desire and Shame fight it out inside him. He finally blurts out (kind of crying, kind of angry) "What an unhappy day it was when I first laid eyes on you. The pain of loving you is killing me. I know I don't deserve you, so I just want you to let me be in your service. The god of Love has bound me to you without any hope of wages or reward."
The Lady, without blushing or changing expression, said really quietly, "Um. You know how silly that sounds, right? That's all folly. Don't think that you'll ever get peace in your heart on this matter. Best just to stop thinking about it." He looks a little glassy-eyed, so she points at herself and says, "Not - For - You."
Smitten Guy says, "No one can give me peace but you. You are the cause of the war in my heart. Your eyes wrote the declarations of war by which I am defied. Your pleasant looks are the herald that brought me that very declaration. The Lady coughs a little and says, "You've got this little fantasy thing going here, and I don't think it's healthy. So let's just say, that if you can't look at me and live in peace, you should just stop looking at me. Really, I promise, I won't mind-- look someplace else."
(lines 150-270) | | Thursday, August 25th, 2011 | | 8:47 pm |
Different Things All Day
Sometimes a Body Just Wants Something DifferentSo this morning we're walking along the blacktop path and Tegan stops at the big drainage pipes. I say, "Come on, we're going to keep going." But Tegan throws out her chest, has her ears perked straight up and dances a step to be as alert and upright as possible. She very pointedly looks at me, while standing at the edge of the gravel going down to the creek bed. We argue for a little and then I say, "Oh alright, but if those are sticker bushes, I'm not going." And she promptly takes off down the gravel skree. The little creek is down enough that we could walk along the rocks beside it and even cross over to the other side balancing on rocks. I had finished my coffee, so I picked up geodes and put them in my coffee cup to add to the collection by my front door. (Doesn't everyone in Indiana have a pile of geodes?  That's the blacktop path up on top of the culvert. You can see a grazing corgi on the right in the grass. Final TouchesThis evening the handy man came and drilled holes in the concrete for me. As it turns out-- if you have enough upper body strength, and are willing to bend drill bits, you can use a normal drill to put holes in a concrete slab. I'm not sure I'd have managed it on my own, but good to know. He went ahead and put down the trim that I'd already cut. (Once he'd screwed down the track, snapping the wood in was easy.) He hung all the doors back up, and I am SO grateful to have a solid wood door between me and the AC unit. You don't realize how bloody loud they are until you have to listen to one for a month. So that was the final touch on the kitchen repairs. Reading Required Moving FurnitureI've been trying to get work done all week, and it's just not happening. Funny how the loss of an office has completely destroyed my ability to get work done, but there it is. I admitted that I was going to have to figure out a way to give myself more work space in my bedroom. So I got out another table and wedged it in. The room is not aesthetically pleasing, and there is just a narrow little walkway between the bed and the desk, but I have some flat surfaces to put books down on, a place to put a lamp, and the computer doesn't feel as cramped. Hopefully that will do the trick. | | Monday, August 22nd, 2011 | | 5:46 pm |
RR doesn't just stand for Rhiannon Redwulf and Monopoly Railroads
Richard Roos (15th c) writes that he was laying in bed half asleep and then suddenly remembered that he'd promised someone he'd translate "La Belle Dame Sans Mery" for them. So he jumps out of bed, puts clothes on and runs over to a garden where there are a bunch of flowers. Seated in a properly romantic setting-- he begins translating. The beginning of the poem is about how the narrator is riding and thinking about his sweetie who had died, and thinking that he just wasn't ever going to be happy again. He gets where he is going and finds a room. There is a big crowd of people eating dinner and entertaining each other, but he keeps noticing this one guy who is pale and thin and kind of miserable looking. The guy keeps staring at one of the ladies. ---So that's the reading for the day. A guy translating a poem about a guy watching a guy watching a girl. Are you still with me? |
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