3431 A Nerd's Christmas, The Goddess, and A Tastless Xmas

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Borrow money from pessimists. They don't expect it back.
-- Steven Wright --

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This is North Point Ministries' iBand. It's 7.5 minutes, but well worth it. (I was especially fascinated by the iPhone maracas. How does it know you're shaking it?)

[http://youtu.be/F9XNfWNooz4]

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I've had a necklace for the past twenty years or so that Daughter loved. Every time I wore it, she said she wanted it. I gave it to her today, along with a nearly matching bracelet I'd found at a craft fair. The Goddess's stones are all different, hand polished and hand set on sterling silver. The goddess figurine is a hair over two inches long, and hangs just above the breastbone. She is horn, the panther is bone. Ignore the larger stones in the photos - that's the bracelet, which isn't nearly as nice or well made.

I present "The Goddess":

I'm going to miss her.

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This is around the corner and down the road a bit from my house. There are flashing lights on the house and the top and bottom of the fence and in the trees, so likely any one photo isn't going to capture all the glory - or the music playing from the speakers. All kinds of stuff is just jammed together without any rhyme or reason. And it all seems to have to do with consumerism. The shorthand "Xmas" was made for displays like this. Forgive the blur, I didn't have a tripod or anything to brace against, but you get the idea. I want to get a photo in daylight sometime. No hurry - if last year is any indication, it'll all still be there in February.

Note the hot-air balloon in the back yard.




Yep. None of the photos caught the flashing lights on the roofline or fence.

My taste runs more toward a wreath on the door and candles in the window, or monochromatic lights on the shrubs at the foundation and along the walkway (no blinking, please), that says "this house is quietly joyful and welcoming". Or a softly lighted manger scene (please, no Snow White included), which says "we honor".

There's very little of that in this neighborhood.

Sigh.

1775 Attitude

Monday, April 22, 2008

Laurence J. Peter: “If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?"

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I rediscovered Glenn Feron's website, "The Art of Retouching". If you choose a thumbnail and then pass the cursor over the photo, you can see it before and after retouching. Some of the differences are amazing. It reminds me that when we look at a photo and compare ourselves, we have to remember that we probably won't be able to recreate the look with diet or makeup. That look never really existed.

Here are some of the more startling:
http://www.glennferon.com/portfolio1/portfolio30.html
http://www.glennferon.com/portfolio1/portfolio31.html
http://www.glennferon.com/portfolio1/portfolio50.html
http://www.glennferon.com/portfolio1/portfolio40.html

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I read an online essay (that pretends to be a treatise) on differentiating between original old, new reproduction, and cheap imitation Asian, Indian, and Middle-Eastern jewelry. I got very annoyed very quickly, for several reasons.

The author constantly refers to the jewelry as "ethnographic jewelry". Um, ethnographic refers to the study of a culture, and more specifically to writings about that culture. So this might be an ethnographic essay, but the jewelry isn't ethnographic. It's ethnic.

It was quickly apparent that the word "ethnic" wasn't big enough for her. "Ethnographic", having more syllables, was obviously preferable. That isn't the only example. It looked like she wrote the essay, and then went through it and used a thesaurus to find the fanciest replacement words she could. I guess that makes it sound more learned?

I have a huge reading and listening vocabulary, but when I write, I use simple little words. Most people do that. It's more comfortable, and there's less chance of being misunderstood. There are people who use the biggest words they can find, in an effort to impress, I guess, and many of them use them incorrectly. They might impress some, but they look foolish to others. Oh well.

Anyway, a second thing that is annoying is that she presents the topic as if she's an expert and has gone into it in depth. I was hoping to learn something. But what she presents is obvious to the most casual observer. She makes some sweeping generalizations that even I, a mere dabbler in the subject, know should not be made.

The same thing is true of jewelry as of textiles: it doesn't have to be made of the best material, or beautiful, or well made to be old and valuable. Even 300 years ago, less expensive existed. It's just that the better stuff was more likely to be preserved. In fact, because of their rarity, sometimes the simple crude village-made examples are more valuable. (The most valuable oriental rug I own is a small lopsided trapezoidal thing. It's valuable because it was crafted on a nomadic lap-loom, and commemorates a family event.)

Every so often I see a "pasha". Someone who sets him- or herself up as an expert, the guru, the leader, in something. They somehow gather a worshipful following. Mental image of a person sitting on a pile of pillows, with followers gathered around sitting on the floor gazing up admiringly, offering tribute, as the focus of their attention dispenses pearls of wisdom, and glances of favor. No one can criticize the guru without suffering the fury of the followers.

I don't know how they do it. Much of what they dispense is pure poop. You see it here and there in the blogosphere, where a blog owner (usually female) reaches mythic status, and woe be to anyone who offers a correction or disagreement in comments. At some point, comments must be worshipful, or you die. (It was especially bad in AOL journals, because you can't hide your identity there. It was one of the reasons I had to move from AOL journals to Blogger.)

It seems to be an attitude thing. I suspect this woman wants to be on that pile of pillows.
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1254 Fried Day

Friday, May 18, 2007

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights I got to bed before midnight, and was up about 8 am. Said "oh what a good girl am I" and decided to do that some more.

Last night I went to the Third Thursday Mensa dinner (Zig, Bets, Roman, and me), got home about 9 pm, and then lost track of time. I crawled into bed about 1:45 am, worked on some crossword puzzles, and didn't fall asleep until after 5 am. I don't know why. I wasn't thinking about anything in particular, just couldn't get to sleep. I woke up a few minutes before noon.

I had taken a rather powerful antihistamine before leaving for dinner last night, and maybe that's what kept me awake, but I don't really think so because the dose was supposed to be repeated every 4 hours, so I don't see how it could have lasted for 12. I dunno.

Piper called before I'd even had my morning yogurt, and we decided to meet for late lunch and conversation. I had a screwdriver. For breakfast. Bad girl.

Then I stayed in his office for a few hours to use the WiFi to peruse a backlog of videos people had recommended or had sent me. At one point a client came in, so I wandered off for a bit to the antique shop around the corner, where I found a beautiful ring. It's a rectangular red stone set crosswise on the finger, in a sterling silver antique-looking setting, with marquisite (sp?) on the sides - for $20. It looks like a ruby! It can't be at that price, in silver rather than gold, but it is a beautiful ring.

You know, I'm always finding very beautiful rings in antique shops, yard sales, and at auctions, and what's amazing is that they always fit me perfectly. Then one day I realized that I wear an unusually small size (4.5 to 5.5), and the reason that these beautiful rings that fit me perfectly are sitting there waiting for me, not already bought, is that they fit hardly anyone else who might have been tempted. Cool.

Got home about 5 pm and got an almost immediate call from Russ at the museum. He wanted to know exactly what the problem was with the membership data base, so he could work on it. I described what was happening, and he said yeah, he'd seen that before, which felt good because that means I probably didn't cause it.

Then FirstWoman called. It had been a while since we had talked (I had assumed she'd be at last night's dinner, and was disappointed when she wasn't - especially since I had finally remembered to bring some disks I owe her), so we were on the phone for a while.

Then Russ called back - he was able to display the correct labels, and wanted to know if I could come in next Tuesday so I could try it while he was there. Oops, next Tuesday I'll be at Habitat. He'll be away for two weeks starting Wednesday. Sigh. So he's going to print the labels I need this evening, and they'll be in my mailbox for whenever I can get in next week.

I forgot to tell him that I hadn't tried printing the membership cards. I hope there's no problem with them. Oh, bleck.
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