It is interesting that several studies recently published are all saying the same thing. Slow Down! Stop and smell the roses and you will live longer and be happier. I have written about the study that looked at multitasking and how it does and doesn’t work. Now there is another study out about slowing down and living longer. Apparently taking some time for yourself is no longer selfish but healthy. Doing something that takes time and focus is good for the brain in the short term and the long term.
This dovetails into some other things I have been reading on various subjects. So doing one thing at a time and completing it is not a bad thing now. Taking time to relax no longer makes you a bad person or a slacker in fact it helps you to be a better person. Not getting everything done on your list in one day does not make you lazy. The new mantra seems to be pace yourself. Which is fine by me.
This weekend I finished cleaning the living room, cut out my doll, and got some stuff done on my website. I posted the pictures from December and January in the life of Caroline. You can find them at
http://homepage.mac.com/kathodavid/PhotoAlbum23.html
Today I plan to finish my application to the DragonCon Art Show and sewing my doll along with food shopping and a few other errands. If I don’t get it all done I am not going to beat myself up today. Tomorrow I will continue working on the costumes for FarPoint and see if I can get that done in a reasonable amount of time (like before the convention).
I am grateful for the time to slow down a bit.
The good news is that I don’t have nose polyps. The bad news is that this puts us back to a big Hmmmm on what is wrong with my nose. So I am to call the Doctor back today to find out if I need to make an appointment or if he is going to just write me up a referral to an Ears, Noses, and Throat Doctor and send me off to them. So the mystery continues.
I received two books from England that I ordered on marionettes. One is David Currell’s latest book called “Making and Manipulating Marionettes”. The other book is “The Marionette Sourcebook” by Luman Coad. I ordered them from
http://www.puppetbooks.co.uk/
Which is run by a very nice man and brilliant puppeteer named Ray DaSilva. If you are into puppets and/or puppet books this is a site to bookmark. He also has a lot of used and out of print puppet books for sale. I recommend it very highly.
I have to get together some sort of portfolio on the web for the DragonCon Art committee to see if I will be in the Art Show this year. They have a new thing with a Doll competition that sounds right in my wheelhouse. I need to work on that today if I can get some Caroline help so I can focus on just one thing rather than my usual multitask.
Today I am going to work on my Round Robin Doll. This is the first time I have done this so I would like to do it on time and at my skill level rather than slapping it together and sending it off. I have this and about 6 other projects I need to get done. Soon as in tomorrow, I have to get it in gear for the masquerade for Farpoint. Again it is a matter of time free to do what I need to do. Understand I do not regret for a moment any and all time I spend with Caroline. Each day is the only day she is going to be that age and she needs me. Last night she pulled a blanket over both our heads like a tent and was giggling up a storm at her accomplishment. She had Mommy all to herself.
Not much else to say. In fact I am amazed I had this much to say.
I am grateful for bookstores that specialize.
It is currently 0 (that’s Zero) degrees with a wind chill factor of anywhere from –5 to –15 depending where you are. I think we are probably closer to the –15. The tears in my eyes froze to my face when I went to get the paper. It might get up to 20 today. It might get above freezing tomorrow. Yippy! At it stands only the snow that is getting direct sunlight is melting. The deep freeze that is the outdoors is keeping the rest of the snow right where it is. I have two errands to run outside of the house today. I plan on doing both later this afternoon after it has “warmed up”.
Peter and I talked about what happened in California yesterday. He pointed out that I might be a little sensitive due to all the train riding I have done as a commuter. I have to agree with that assessment but it still was a stupid thing to do. I am glad I am not going in this week. There have been all kinds of problems due to the extreme cold including power lines not working and rails frozen. Delays have been from 20 minutes to 3 hours.
I have finished with Jury Duty. I faithfully checked in every day to see if I had to go to court and serve as a potential juror. I had a relatively high number in the 1800s. They got as far as 1300s and told the rest of us Good Service. Which means that I go off the roles for 6 years for local and 4 years for federal. I began to think about 6 years from now. Caroline will be 8 and in 3rd grade. Ariel will be in college for her sophomore year. Lord knows what Peter will be up to. His career is one of constant change. The only consistent is that he is a writer and will always be a writer. What he is writing changes from project to project. Currently I haven’t a clue where I will be or what I will be doing, but I bet it will be interesting.
I am grateful for footy PJs for Caroline so her feet stay warm at night.
Yesterday I took Caroline out to play in the snow. It was the first time she has been old enough and it was not so bitter cold that she shouldn’t go outside for a while. She had a blast once she sorted out what was going on. She didn’t like walking on the snow when she sank into it but she loved playing with it. I have pictures (of course)
http://homepage.mac.com/kathodavid/PhotoAlbum20.html
I think the last one is my favorite of the group. I hope to get a Christmas/Disney set up sometime later today. It depends on a number of things.
As long time readers know, I have not been feeling well for quite sometime (like before Thanksgiving). I have seen the Doctor a number of times and he has been working through what it might be including a cold that will not go away. It is during this I found out that I am allergic to penicillin the hard way. So it is now almost February and I still feel like a truck ran over me twice. I have a CAT scan today for a closer look at my sinuses. My Doctor is hoping to eliminate a bunch of stuff from this or be able to zero in on the problem. Either way it feels like a little bit of progress in the right direction. I would be happy to just be able to breath normally and have some energy again.
Juan Manuel Alvarez is a name we are going to be hearing for a while. He tried to commit suicide by placing his car on the train tracks just outside of Glendale California. At the last minute he left the car on the tracks and, so far, 12 people have died. These people were trying to do the right thing in LA and ride the train cutting down on the number of cars on the freeway. I have driven in LA and it is ridiculous. All these people were doing was going to work or home or school or running errands. Now there are families without family members because of Mr. Alvarez. Other facts are coming out including that Mr. Alvarez doesn’t have the more sterling past. His wife had a court order against him. I think we are going to find out more about the mind of Mr. Alvarez, but personally I think he is a very selfish and self-centered person. This was an “I’ll show you” cry that cost the lives of 12 people. Yes, he had problems and will probably be found mentally incompetent at the time of the impact, but that doesn’t change the fact that 12 people didn’t make it home last night. I hope he has a long time to think about what he did and how selfish he was being.
I am grateful that I was there when Caroline discovered the magic of snow.
On one of the many boards I read there is a debate going on about “Your body is your temple” and “What you put in is what you get out.” There is also a lot of talk/debate on whether is it cheaper to eat food that doesn’t cost much and might not be good for you but it is food vs. buy healthy food. There is a middle ground but no one seems to want to tread there.
One college student pointed out that he could get a pizza and a free one on one of these mad specials that are being advertised. He could freeze the pizza and have lunch and dinner for quite some time. Someone else gave them a breakdown of where they could get healthy food and make as many meals as the pizza for about the same cost. Now this person had about 5 places you had to go to obtain the items for his low cost food. It was pointed out to him that college students who work an almost full time job and carry a full course load don’t have the extra time to go to 5 places to save money especially when your transportation is the local bus. The response was well if you wanted to do it you could find a way. The implication being that this person is lazy since they rather order a pizza then spend a day shopping and cooking.
I have no idea where this college is, but if my experience at Yale were any indication of the kind of grocery stores and food markets available, then I would have gone for the pizza too. Yale is in an OK area of town. The closest grocery story is in a less OK part of town. The food offered there catered to the clientele that shopped there. There was very little choice and what there was of fresh foods was marked up to the sky. I had a car so I could go about two towns over to grocery shop. I would take a number of people with me each time I went so they too could get some healthy food at reasonable prices. There was also the matter of sheer time to cook these healthy meals. I had one day a week maybe to do any homework I hadn’t finished or cook or clean and then there was laundry that was always a time sink. So I gained a lot of weight while in graduate school because I made easy choices that I now know I shouldn’t have.
Health Food Stores all sound good but I have found that they are for the upper middle class to the extravagantly wealthy. The mark-up on stuff that is good for you is amazing in those stores. It is a good racket that someone has going there. There are exceptions but they are few and far between. Also I know of close to none that are in poor areas of a city. “There is no market there.” is excuse given. One of the suggestions was to shop in Chinatown or other ethic areas of the city were food is cheaper. Well not every city has that sort of area or again getting to the area is very hard to do with public transport. Also have you tried to haul a 20 pound bag of rice on a bus? Not a fun experience. Not counting all the other bags you might have from shopping.
Buying in bulk works IF you have a place to store the bulk until you use it. Most college students I know don’t have that sort of room. Heck a lot of working folk I know don’t have the room to store 15 pounds of chicken in their freezer. For fresh produce this really doesn’t work well for one or two people since the majority of the food will spoil before being eaten. My parents have a large freezer in their basement to store stuff they bought in bulk along with spaghetti sauce my mom had made and other things she made in bulk to be used over time. That is how they made it work but then they have the room for a large freezer in their basement most people don’t.
I have a series of places I go for healthy food for the family. I am fortunate that I have a car and about 5 different grocery chains in the area vying for my business. During the summer there are produce stands I can go do that have local product for sale. There is a butcher with in driving distance so I can get really fresh and lean meats. But I have to plan my trips around the needs of a two year old. This system works because I have the time to make it work. If I didn’t, then I think our food choices would not be as healthy or fresh. It isn’t about being lazy, it is a matter of time and what can be done in it.
I remember years ago reading an article about teaching welfare mothers how to shop so that they could cook healthy for their families. The mothers all said they wanted to do better by their families but some of the stuff that was being suggested was impractical or not available in their area. The social workers on this project agreed to go shopping with the women to show them that their system would work. Lo and behold, they couldn’t get many of the items they were recommending or the cost of those items was in some cases 4 times what it was in the suburbs. Poor people don’t have many options and are taken advantage of was the conclusion to this class exercise. Well this is true of college students and the working middle class too. They might want their bodies to be more of a temple but they don’t have access to the building blocks that would make it so.
I am grateful that I did learn how to shop healthy.
Behind the cut is anything I think might be spoilers and I erred on the side of the cut rather than have someone blast me for giving something away. So the replies do NOT have to be spoiler free. If you don’t want spoilers then don’t read behind the cut or the replies because I am telling you at the get go that both will probably contain that which you wish not to see/read.
Overall it was pretty good. I enjoyed it. I took Ariel who has never seen the stage version so for her it was a totally new experience. For me it was the stage show with camera angles, a slightly larger budget, and a few additions to the script mostly in the second act.
Understand that I am a Phantom Fan. I think I saw it from all angles including the stage managers stand back when it opened. I saw Crawford perform the Phantom at least 5 times. I knew every line and every song. I could have practically called the show by that point. I occasionally pull out the CD and listen to it bringing back memories of the time. I found the movie satisfying but....
I am grateful for Phantom of the Opera in all its forms.
Crawford will always be the definitive Phantom to me. Gerard Butler does a very nice job with the role and most of the problems I have with his Phantom are not actor choices but director, casting director, and make-up. Crawford is not a big person and he is not ruggedly handsome both of which Butler is. Crawford’s make-up had to read from the last row but still allow him to sing the role in a theater. They had a little more latitude with Butler’s make-up but made him look like a slightly bad burned victim rather than say the hideous reveal with Lon Chaney Sr (Another performance I put all my Phantoms to). That really bothered me. Butler’s singing was fine and he hit most of the nuances that Crawford made his own but again I am so use to hearing the Crawford version those notes hit me as wrong even though I know they are not. Butler does do a good job of the pent up anger, love, and self-loathing of the character.
I did like the use of black and white for the present and color for the past. The color choices were vivid. The costumes looked like upscale versions of the stage costumes. Nothing really new unless you are into men in sexy shirts with heaving chests. The opera costumes were much closer to those of the time but I think that has more to do with quick changes rather than costume budgets. I think Masquerade could have used a lot more color than it had. I know it is in contrast to the Phantom but still there is a larger color pallet they could have used.
Emmy Rossum was better than Sarah Brightman who I never really thought was the amazing singer she was made out to be. I really liked her understudy better than her in the stage play but then that’s me. Rossum is the right age, shape, and voice for Christine. She does well with the arc of the character and her damsel in distress is very well done. Minnie Driver I did not recognize until I saw her name in the credits but she does an admirable job as Carlotta the Diva. Part of what made her character was her entourage. That was brilliant casting of the characters around her. Miranda Richardson was understated as Madame Giry but wonderful. She lurks in corners with the best of them and she did have the exposition monologue. I recognized her about half way through when the phrase “Who’s Queen?” ran across my brain.
Raoul is really a thankless role except he gets the girl in the end. Patrick Wilson did just fine in the role as the handsome man with lots of money who happens to love Christine. His chest did heave nicely. Ciaran Hinds and Simon Callow had very solid performances as Andre and Firmin the new owners of the Opera House. They are sort of the comic commentary on the situation. The rest of the cast did very well with the roles they played.
There was not really any additional music but then the run time on the stage play is long enough for a movie and there is no intermission. As I have said before, I felt I was watching the stage play with camera angles. They mucked more with act 2 than act 1 but act 2 has been sort of the weaker act of the stage play anyway.
So final conclusion, I enjoyed it and want to see it again but could wait for DVD rather than seeing it in the theater.
We topped out at 17 but it is the drifts of snow that are keeping it fun. My husband and I got the sidewalk to town standards (They have been ticketing a lot on that since they don't want people to walk in the street) and our lawn care people plowed the driveway so we can almost get the cars out. I can't get into my studio due to a snowdrift that is blocking the door. I am glad I know that I have a good seal on that door. I have a heater in there that keeps stuff from freezing. Today I am going to put some salt out on what could become slippery spots in hopes that they dry out before the sun goes away from them.
We saw Two Towers but football and Sunday TV watching kept us from Return of the King which we will probably watch today since Ariel is home from school today. I think it is so the county can finish snow clean up and there is a lot of ice today on the roads.
So it is Eagles vs. Patriots in the Super Bowl. Another east coast match-up. I though the Steelers had a chance making it an all Penn. match-up but they really didn’t do much on the field. The Eagles are really hungry for a win but the Patriots are working towards those magic words “Dynasty” which haven’t really been able to be uttered since the Cowboys managed to string a few together.
Caroline has named something. She would repeat the name of something but now she has given one of her stuffed toys a name. She has a stuffed white bunny that she plays with quite a bit. She bounced it up and down and says “Hop, hop, hop, hop.” It is really cute. Yesterday she was settling down for nap and she points at the coffee table and says, “Hop!” I look at the table and there is the white bunny. I picks it up and say, “Caroline is this what you want?” She nods and says, “Hop.” She cuddles the bunny and goes to sleep on Peter’s lap.
That evening I took her up to bed, covered her with her favorite pink blanket, made sure her usual stuffed toys were in the crib with her, and told her good night. She says, “Ma, Hop?” I saw that Hop the Bunny had been tossed out of the crib after nap apparently. So I picked up the bunny and said, “Here’s Hop.” She snuggled the bunny and I left her to go to sleep. She does know that Hop is a bunny. She has called it a bunny on a number of occasions but now the white bunny has a name she picked for it.
Funny thing is that the oldest stuff animal I have that I own is a very beat up rabbit I named “Ruzzy” that I got when I was very young. He was fuzzy when he was new but like the Velveteen Rabbit, over time his fur was loved off. I wonder if the same thing is going to happen to Hop.
I am grateful for Hop the Bunny. He shows me my daughter’s expanding grasp of the world.
They say Blizzard conditions may occur. I say that I occasionally can’t see the house across the street due to the blowing snow. It is still snowing but the wind is adding a whole other set of variables to the picture. I am not going out to get the morning newspaper which might be buried out there somewhere. I am not going to shovel the walk since with the wind it is an exercise in futility. Last night at 10:00pm I heard one of my neighbors out with is snow blower clearing his walk and driveway. I look at his house this morning when the wind dies down and it is no different than any of the other houses that didn’t try to make a little headway in their shoveling. The plows are coming through but they are leaving a track that is being filled in with the wind. They have given up on plowing the whole street and are going for a car width down the middle. I did get to watch a Hummer spin out which was fun. They had to get out and remove the car from the snow bank it came to rest it. By the time they finished they were covered in the snow that the wind was whipping around.
OK so my mutant ability to keep snow away by being prepared didn’t work too well this time. We did watch Fellowship of the Ring last night and plan to take on the Two Towers after everyone gets up. Since the power and cable lines are covered with ice and snow I am betting we lose one or both before the winds let up. I took pictures yesterday and plan to continue today. We weren’t planning on going anywhere today anyway and it’s a good thing too. I am not going to even try to shovel anything until this storm is over which might be by tomorrow. If it continues like this most of the day I expect that school will be cancelled Monday to give everyone a day to dig out of the storm.
So today I am going to work on my doll body for the Round Robin and possibly my Spring Doll for the Spring Doll Challenge. If I can find my clay which I think may be out in my studio I might get some sculpting done. If the clay is not in the house then I won’t. I need to get some stuff together for the DragonCon Art Show since it is juried. I can send them a website link which would be fine by me. I just need more examples of my work to show them. LunaCon is not happening since it is the same weekend as Ariel’s play this year so I will hope for next year.
I am grateful for heat and hot water.
I am betting we get next to nothing for snow today. Why, you may ask, with all the warnings and hoopla? Because every time this season they have been making predictions of the dire snowfall we have gotten squat. It goes to the north of Long Island. But they predicted a light dusting and we got 6 inches. Sure, the weather map looks like we are about to be hit but I am going to go on believing that it will not be a problem here. I will concede that the winds whipping up the snow can be a big problem because we have had only 2 inches of snow, which was a pain because of the wind.
Just in case, I am going to bring in a couple of things from my studio to work on in case the snows do come. I figured the more prepared I am for a storm the less likely we are to get one. As I type this the skies are getting darker and looking more like snow.
Caroline is turning into a bit of a Drama Queen. She is now setting herself up to look like she took a spill and then cries for someone to comfort her. It worked the first couple of times but I watched her fall and figured out she was doing it to herself. She now knows that we are on to her so she is not doing it as much. We have also been having a problem with her waking up in the middle of the night. She wants up and out and we have been trying to get her to go back to sleep. It worked last night but the night before she woke up at 4:15 and didn’t go back to sleep until 9:15 and she was perky the whole time. She is testing her limits and ours every day. I take the view that she is learning from each of these experiences.
Not much else going on that I can really talk about. Peter has the next cover the Hulk on his website. It is based on the Frazetta drawing for Molly Hatchet. You can see it at www.peterdavid.net. I think it really looks neat. He is having a lot of fun being back with the Hulk and then there is the super secret Marvel project I can’t talk about yet. I really have to check and make sure I don’t let certain cats out of bags before they are to be let out. I tend to take my cue from Peter’s website since he is very careful about this sort of thing.
I am grateful for really good ice melters.
A rather late entry I know but I was getting ready for the possible storm that might be blowing in our direction. We should know more tomorrow night but they are predicting anywhere from 6 inches to 18 inches depending on a number of weather conditions. So I stocked the larder and made sure we have plenty of popcorn since if the storm does hit we are going to do our EE Lord of the Rings Festival. There is a blizzard warning for the area from noon to noon. Should be fun.
The interview went well I think. I can never tell. All I know is that 5 years ago I was doing this same sort of thing trying to convince Del Rey to hire me. Who says there is no ageism in corporate America these days? Yes, I may be over qualified but this job is the only way into the club since they tend to move people up from within the company. I’ll keep y’all posted on it as I find out more information.
I shoveled off the walk and salted it so that anyone coming up to our front door would be able to do so in safety. The down side is that we are now tracking salt into the house that has to be cleaned quickly off the floor.
I am grateful for milk and bread (Yes, I got both hoping to hold the storm off)
OK, I am off to the city for that interview I didn't have yesterday. today it is at 10 AM. I'll report how things went after I get back.
Oh and I had another case of hives last night. My face looks like I went 4 rounds with Jack Johnson.
Apparently the word "dusting" of snow means 6 inches these days. It is pretty slick out there.
I am grateful for the interview.
Thanks to one and all for your good wishes. They mean a lot to me. There was a fly in the ointment however which was no ones fault it just kinda happened.
I made it into the city on the slow train because the express was cancelled. It was 10:10 which gave me 20 minutes to make my appointment. As I made my way through the city my cell phone rang. It was the assistant to the person I was interviewing with. They were out sick and can we reschedule. * Sigh* Well these things happen. It was not a total loss. I got a majority of the Human Resources stuff out of the way and I had lunch with a bunch of friends who I hadn’t seen in a while. Out of this I agreed to make a large snake puppet. Should be an interesting challenge. I think I am going to make the eyes light up among other things. I have until 2006.
So we have rescheduled the interview for 10:00 AM tomorrow so if you could keep me in your thoughts then.
This does get me back in the train riding habit. On the way to the city I read Peter’s first draft of the script for Starpoint Academy. I really liked it and that’s about all I can say on the matter right now. On the way back I read through both the Daily News and Newsday along with two other magazines (one on dolls and one on fitness).
It was sort of snizzling in the city but as I moved further east the snow became heavier and thicker. By the time I made it home it was snowing hard. This morning they were saying a dusting. Well if they mean 3 inches then they got it right.
I am grateful for the Lunch Gang. It was great to see y’all again.
There has been a lengthy and at times rather heated discussion in a group I belong to about costuming, Masquerade, and judges. It has been very civil considering the heat of the topic. When I started out in costuming for convention, I hadn’t a clue what I was doing but I got a couple of wins for either the costume or the skit and the beginnings of my reputation. Then I got involved in a cross state extravaganza for an Atlanta Fantasy Fair of the X-men vs. the Hellfire Club. That was my first big costume and we won quite handily. A couple of years later we did the New Mutants vs. the Hellions, which we also won big on. After that I found myself drifting from making costumes to working the Masquerade from runner to tech to judge to Masquerade Director to stage manager and anything else that you can do. I dropped out entirely from that part of conventions partial due to the fact that I was stage-managing full time and my job took precedent. Then Peter and I got together and I found myself costuming again, which I found that I still really enjoy doing.
Most of my costumes at Conventions recently have been more for the audience than the win. My husband and/or Ariel will come up with some loony idea that will then be executed by my husband and me usually with Ariel as either "the" warm body or one of my warm bodies to dress. The exception was the Labyrinth costume I did at Shoreleave this past summer. That one was for me and I had to do it within my window of opportunity (i.e.: my daughter will only be Toby size so long). I didn’t care if I won an award (OK, I did care a little considering I did all the costumes by myself but I digress). I did want get a certain reaction from the audience, which I did get in spades. I found out later that we got the tech crew too. Backstage had to calm down one of the spot operators who thought I had tossed Caroline 10 feet into the air.
Most of what we do is based on skit mentality. We have a joke we want to impart to the audience and then we get off stage. The KISS of costuming is our rule. (Keep It Simple Stupid).We did a costume called “Shlepper the Leaper.” I did the costume in about 4 hours including dyeing the bandages to wrap Ariel up with. The makeup was done in about 40 minutes and I forgot my brushes and had to fingertip the whole thing. I rigged two F/X on her face so she could “peel” skin off with bloody results and an eyeball trick. The MC introduced Schlepper and gave about 2 lines about how hard life was for a leaper but that they did have moments of happiness. He told Ariel to “Do the Dance of Joy” (Buffy Reference) and Ariel perks up and dances to “Can’t Touch This” with pieces of skin coming off her face and popping an eyeball out on “look into my eye.” The audience split between shrieking and laughing all through out. That’s what I want to do. I want to affect the audience and give them something to react to. The one time I thought I had failed, we found out later that we had scared/shocked the audience into not reacting at all.
The problem of playing to the judges is that, with few exceptions, you don’t know until the last minute who is judging. Sometimes the judges get it and sometimes they don’t. It really depends on their background. Celebrity judges are fun but don’t ask them to recognize your costume from a TV show they have never heard of other than auditioning for a part and not getting it. Documentation can be your good friend but only if the judges get the documents in time for them to look at before judging. I have to admit I am not a good documenter but plan to work on that for my more obscure costumes.
For a while a lot of people felt I was getting shut out of Workmanship because the workmanship judges didn’t “get” the amount of work and design goes into making puppets/puppet costumes which can be just as much a pain and a time sink as beading or boning a corset. For a while I considered dropping out of Workmanship but others convinced me to continue to enter. I did get a Workmanship award for Labyrinth that pleased me since a lot of work and skill went into those costumes. I think sometimes Furries get the short end of the costuming stick unless it is a furry convention because those that make the costumes know how much work goes into them. The rest of see it as “Oh a Mascot Costume.” I know workmanship can be very hard to judge and I have respect for those who do it. Workmanship is where documentation can pay dividends since these judges will look carefully at the reference documents and your costume.
I am grateful for my costuming opportunities.
It’s snowing today. It is the finely powdered snow that blows all over the place and doesn’t really stick to anything. It is no good for snowballs or snowmen but it looks pretty. This is the first good snowfall I have seen this year. There was apparently another in December but we were in Florida so for us it didn’t count. I like snow. I don’t even mind having to clear off the steps and walkway for others. Someone put the “Eskimos have 40 words for snow” theory to the test. Currently they have 28 known words for snow. They listed them and the kind of snow being described. The people doing the survey do point out that because of the lose of native language usage among many of the various tribes; some of the words for snow may have been lost. I call what I have now ‘Snow that blows all over the place’.
You know how parents like to predict what their children are going to be based on what they do very early in their lives? My current prediction is that Caroline is going to be some sort of engineer. She loves taking things apart and examining them closely. She then brings them to me to fix and watches me put whatever she has taken apart back together. She also loves to build with her blocks. She is working out what can go on what and not fall over until she knocks it down. She is also trying to figure out how to get the round peg in the square hole. She knows it can go in the round hole but believes she can get it into the square one. Her memory is already amazing for things she has done or seen previously.
It’s Martin Luther King Jr. day. I don’t think the kids would have gotten a snow day even if they had school today. The roads are clear so buses can get around to get the children to and from school. I grew up in Atlanta where Martin Luther King was based. In school we learned about Dr. King about the same time we learned about Gandhi. They emphasized nonviolence and the Civil rights movement a lot. I think that in the South more is taught in the classroom about both the Civil Rights movement and the Civil War (War between the States) than in other parts of the country. Both effected the South more than the North or the West. Dr. King was a good person who was trying to get a better life for the people he was pastor of. Yes, we all know that he had his faults but then everyone does. Overall Dr. King became a symbol of the possible in the face of the impossible for many people. So today we celebrate the life of a man who tried to make the world a better place for all and to some degree succeeded.
I am grateful to Dr. King and all people who tried and are trying to make this a better place for all of us to live.
In the “Just stop and think who told you this” category
OK if you are going to get that upset over something that someone who does not have the greatest reputation for truth telling either in Real Life or on the Internet has told you that someone else supposedly said in reference to you, then you have bigger issues that have nothing to do with what was said. You know if you had just checked with either someone else who was there at the time or the person purported to have said such a hateful thing, you might have found a different set of words being used. Instead you have taken this as gospel and yet again jumped on your high horse. If this makes me a fascist meanie pooh-pooh head for telling you the truth of the matter then so be it. I, frankly, am tired of the drama. And yes I do know that you read my blog.
To anyone who bought “Goblins” by Brian Froud
Could you do me a favor and look in the back of the book and see if you have an envelope attached to the last page with a goblin talisman in it (It is a card with the picture of the talisman)? I have two copies and one has the envelope with the card and the other one shows no evidence of ever having the envelope attached. So there might be two versions of the book available or my first copy is missing the envelope.
In the “Where is this month going?” category
I didn’t realize it was the 16th already. I really wonder what happened to the 3rd through the 15th. I know what I was doing the 1st and 2nd. I think part of it has to do with ill health since that time is so focused but I haven’t any idea how I got so far into the month. Hmmm, may have to start looking around the house for a time portal that I accidentally stepped through.
The “Who decided that Wednesday is a good day for TV shows I like?” category
On the plus side there is very little I watch the rest of the week but Wednesday has become such a cluster frell that at one point I have 3 VCRs going to tape everything we watch. This does give us a week to spread out what we are watching but still. Also we know that at least one of the shows we like will be cancelled due to low ratings since it is up against other shows that genre lovers as ourselves love.
Last night Peter and I watched half of the Eddie Izzard “Definite Article” performance. I laughed so hard that tears came to my eyes making it hard not to skip stitches while I was knitting. He is a very funny comedian. I like how he takes a thing he says at the beginning of his show and works them in all the way through the show like the word “hairnet”. Apparently about 4 of his concerts are out on DVD now.
I am grateful to VCRs and DVD recorders.
I have a job interview Wednesday for a position that I would do really well in. I just have to convince those hiring of that fact and a few other things as well. It is the first interview since the literary agency that like me (they really liked me) but had concerns about my commute and their schedule since they do a lot of work on the west coast. I wrote here about some of my concerns about the hours so I think it worked out for everyone for the best. This would be basically the same as I had at Del Rey.
I had one of those weird incidents where a set of words keep popping up in things I am reading or watching. The words are “Wabi Sabi” . It is a Zen concept that cannot be easily summed up in a few words. Of course then the writer tries to do so. Part of it has to with finding the perfection within imperfection. I first saw an article about it in the Daily News that was touting it as the next Feng Shui which it really isn’t. Then I was watching an episode of “King of the Hill” I hadn’t seen where two individuals who own a head shop give Bobby (the kid) a book on gardening and Zen when he wants to raise championship roses. In the book was the concept of Wabi Sabi which was used later in the show to great affect. Then a friend and I got into a “conversation” online about a bunch of stuff and she told me that she had been reading about Wabi Sabi and how it was helping her with her problems with depression and overeating. So I got a book on the subject from the library and started reading. It is something to think about. One of those Zen ponderables that you can spend a life pondering and then you think about it some more.
I do have a lot to think about these days. I feel my signal to noise ratio is finally going down to a dull roar so I can think a little without feeling guilty that I am not doing anything at the time. I felt earlier this week that I had wasted a day playing with Caroline but then Peter pointed out that time was needed for Caroline and the house will be there when she wants to nap or play by herself for a while. These are precious years in her life and they will be over too soon. There is so much I want/need to do but I have to start by not beating myself up when the list doesn’t get that much shorter because other people or situations changed the game plan. Perfection in Imperfection. It is a place to start.
I am grateful for those things that make me slow down and look at the big picture rather than all the puzzle pieces.
I think I have some green fun fur somewhere in my office. I need it for a project that is taking shape for Farpoint. Yes, we are going to Farpoint this year. It will probably just be Ariel, Caroline, Peter and myself. For more information you can go to http://www.bcpl.net/~wilsonr/. I might even convince someone to give me a panel or two to do this year. I like Farpoint for many reasons. The people who run it are very nice. It is not a crowded convention. In some ways it reminds me of ChattaCon as a relaxacon. Unlike ChattaCon, it does not have the beer garden. Some day I would like to get back to ChattaCon but it is not this year. Farpoint has a media mix with fandom activities for all. I think you can find someone who shares your media interests there. It is also one of those conventions that people go to year after year to hang out with friends that they met at the convention. Nice family atmosphere with a hotel that is glad to deal with fandom in all its forms. They really don’t mind when the Storm troopers and the Klingons have a sing off in the bar.
Why do I need green fun fur you might ask, well Peter and Ariel came up with the next loony idea for a costume. The one we were thinking about doing will have to wait until Shoreleave when I know I will have my warm bodies to cloth and put on stage. This one we are keeping to the family since we know we are going to be there. So if anyone knows a good source for shaggy grinch green synthetic fur, I would like to know.
I already have two new doll projects for 2005. Both are different than anything I have done before so it will get me the stretch my abilities. One of the dolls I see in small green gardening boots for some strange reason.
Caroline just came up to me while I was typing this and pointed to her Play-doh and said “play-doh”. I opened it up and pulled out the Play-doh. She shakes her head no and says, “Ball”. I roll the play-doh into a ball and she takes it to the table and starts to play with it happily. It takes only minor effort to keep her amused but it is so worth it. Today’s installment of the comic strip For Better, For Worse said it best, “Time with my daughter isn’t spent, Elizabeth...It’s invested.” I am going to go invest some more time in my daughter.
I am grateful for juror summons when I can actually do it and not interfere with the rest of my life.
Foggy is the word of the morning. I can’t see a block down the street. It is kind of eerie and comforting at the same time. Running lights on cars are a must today. Rumor has it that the fog is going to burn off and then we will have clear skies and sunshine for a day or so along with mild temperatures for today.
I spent most of yesterday playing with Caroline. Peter had gone into the city for a business meeting at Marvel. Caroline needed some Mommy and Caroline time. So we played with her puzzles and Play-dough and Mrs. Potatohead and her blocks. We spent a lot of time with her blocks. She had learned that she can build as well as destroy. I am going to try to get some pictures of her structures the next time we play with the blocks. I can’t just leave them around because the cats have decided that they are the purrrfect cat toys and have already destroyed a couple of the pieces. I got lots of giggles, hugs and kisses from her. It was a good day to be her mommy.
Ariel and I went out to dinner to talk about the play she is in and other stuff going on in her life. School is speeding up for her in some ways. They just had the standardized English tests for the past two days. She is hoping not to write another essay until next week since she had to write a number of them for the tests. Most of her afternoons are now filled with either Show Choir or the play. On the weekends she likes to spend time with Caroline or with her friends.
I am trying to deal with the number of “floaters” I am having in my eyes. They are not a threat to my vision. I have had them checked out by more than one expert who said that the floaters are annoying but there is really not much I can do about them. I seem to get more of them when I am stressed. The real annoyance is when one takes up residence in the middle of my vision and I can’t get it to move to the side. Eventually they do break down and I have learned to look “around” them. They also tend to show up right before that time of the month.
Oh and Happy Birthday to Orlando Bloom who is 28 today.
I am grateful for clear vision.
There has been a small flame war on a board about using the word “frell”. Frell, as you may remember or may not, was the all-purpose swear word used in the TV series FarScape. One individual got bent out of shape and asked people please not to use made up words on the board. If one wanted to swear then swear. When it was pointed out to her that all words are made up, the board dissolved into flames with a lot of people saying “frell this”. I can remember when the word of choice was “Shazbot” or before that “Felgercarb”. There was a great issue of the comic book “Nodwick” in which one of the characters was trying out a new swear word “Krutz”. They found out that if the word was used a certain number of times, a great evil would be unleashed so they had to find a way to stop everyone from saying it. The solution was brilliant. In our school for some strange reason the word “boink” became a swear word as in “this boinks” not the sexual connotation which none of us knew at the time. All words are made up. We use them to express things. It is just easier when we all use the same words. I think using frell rather than some real swear is in the long run better. You can get the emotion out with the word but you are not stepping on social landmines. People just look at you funny.
Proud Mommy Moment (well for me it was)
Caroline has my old flip phone that was destroyed by water. She holds the phone with the bottom facing me and opens and closes it a little while saying “Rawr, Rawr, Rawr” as she opens and closes it. She turned the phone into a puppet. Sniff I am so proud. She then took the eyes from Ariel’s Mrs. Potatohead and put them in her fingers and pretended to be Oobie by having her hand talk to me. Then she wanted me to put the eyes between my fingers and be a hand puppet. Peter came in on the middle of this and said, “She’s your daughter.” Yes, she is and I am very proud of her.
I am grateful for my daughter’s expanding world.
There has been a discussion in a group I belong to about dieting and making changes in one’s eating habits. Part of it steamed from the New Year but another part began after one of the members who teaches on the college level received her teacher evaluations for the courses she taught last semester. Among the comments were several from the students commenting on her weight. That just floored me.
I have been on both sides of the student evaluation form and I never commented on the teacher’s personal appearance nor was mine commented on. What a teacher looks like never entered into it for me. Do they have the knowledge to teach the class and can they express this knowledge so others can learn from it were the two biggies in my book. I had one math teacher who was a wonderful teacher and made learning advanced calculus a breeze. He did have a problem with body odor that could be quite strong, as the weather got warmer. I did not even think to comment on this when evaluating his work as a teacher. There was no reason to since it didn’t affect his teaching.
Another member said that they had comments on the clothes that they wore and one suggested that they get a more appealing haircut. I really don’t see how fashion tips are going to help a teacher teach better. Their implication was that the teacher dressed frumpy or low class. Again my question is can the teacher teach the material? The fact that they don’t dress in clothing that is currently “hot” is not relevant to this. I feel sorry for those teachers trying to keep up with the fashions of the day and end up looking a bit silly. Also not everyone looks good in tweed.
I know that appearance is important to how you present yourself to the world especially for those all-important first impressions. When going for a job interview I dress more corporate than I do around the house. Around the house I tend to wear jeans or cargo pants with t-shirts or sweatshirts with sneakers. These are clothes that I have always been comfortable in. I know that they don’t present the image that businesses are looking for so those are not my “work” clothes unless I am stage managing or puppeteering and then I tend to wear all black.
I am not a fashion model. I have never been one. I have been skinny and put on weight over time. Would I like to get back into the jeans I wore in high school? Sure, but I know that to get back to that weight would probably be close to impossible at my age. I am working on losing weight now. I am not on a plan or diet but making choices about what and how I eat and keeping a log of how much. I am trying to get back to drinking water in large amounts and making some headway in that. I know that these changes don’t happen overnight. The weight did not appear overnight no matter what I think. It was a slow process on and it is a slow process off if I want to keep it off. Probably my biggest stumbling blocks are beer and soda. I love both but know how quickly the calories can add up. Eat less and exercise. That is my mantra now.
I am grateful for sensible weight lose.
In about 2 weeks I believe I will have been officially writing a blog for a year. It has been interesting writing about my life and thoughts and then throwing them out there for the world to see. I think if I did a break down of what I have written about that Caroline would top the list. Which is not a bad thing since she is so important to my life. I have blown off some steam through this blog and gotten great answers to questions I have posed. I like this blog thing and will continue to write in it.
California is very soggy right now. Some friends had mudslides around their house but so far their property has had little damage. Part of it might be that when they built the house they were very careful about leaving as many trees and shrubs as possible so they have older growth on their property than those around them who landscaped their properties to death. The forecast doesn’t look much better for large chunks of California. The only positive thing is that the western half of the US needed water badly. I don’t think they needed it all in one shot.
We have had rain off and on for the past week. It will probably rain again today. There hasn’t been much snow this year. It has been a warm winter for New York. Which is bringing down the cost of oil since the demand that they thought was going to be there really isn’t right now. We may get some freezing rain tonight but then the temperatures will go back up and we will be back to rain. I would like to see some snow before winter is over but then that’s me.
I sent my resume for my next chance at a job in publishing. We’ll see what happens. I could really use this one due to a number of things that have happened this year. I would just rawk at this sort of job. It can get frustrating trying to convince others of that fact. But chin up, I have always done my best and will continue to do so.
I am grateful for all the opportunities I do have right now.
My favorite poet is Shel Silverstein with T.S. Elliot and Seamus Heaney close seconds. e.e. Cummings is in third place. I was reading “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” the other day and found it more profound then last time I had read it. Elliot is a poet that grows with each reading and with age. I see things now in his work that I didn’t see at 20. The same holds true of Shel Silverstein. He wrote some really wicked stuff that adults get when reading it but it flies right over a kid’s radar. I loved Silverstein when I was a kid but I think I appreciate him more as an adult.
We are now a week into 2005. So far I can’t say that this has been our year. We lost some good friends and colleagues in this short time. I haven’t been health a day this year and am tired of getting sick or being sick. I can feel myself being pulled in to a morass that I really don’t like to go into so I am going to find a way to pull myself out of it.
Positive things in 2005 so far
Gwen! had her 20th birthday and did well in school this past semester.
I got to spend the first day of the year with my husband, Caroline, Shana and Ariel. I love my family very much and they strengthen me with their love. My husband believes in me and my talents and abilities. My daughter gives me unconditional love and joy even when she is sick. My stepdaughters support me and cheer me on.
Caroline got over her fever in pretty short order. It was scary for a little while but she is on the mend and much more herself then she has been since before the holidays. I loved that she needed my lap to be comfortable and safe.
We got back home in one piece from the trip. I still think driving was a better option than flying especially when I keep reading about all the problems that occurred over the holidays. The lost luggage story alone was scary enough. I have heard back from friends who had missed connections due to weather in the Midwest and cancelled planes for no reason. I feel like I dodged a bullet.
I have been able to help some people on various newsgroups and lists I belong to. I have used information that I know to give others knowledge so they don’t have to start from scratch on some projects and find the same mistakes I did. I really like being helpful to others.
We have tickets to Spamalot which are getting hard to get.
There are probably more as I think on it but I need to take care of Caroline and get the rest of the day started.
I am grateful for Poets.
Scratch feeling better. I woke up with half my throat feeling like it had been rubbed raw with 20 grit sandpaper. That along with some yet more bad news doesn’t make me the happiest camper right now. We got a little good news too but our bad news to good news ratio is not very good so far this year. I just hope it improves rapidly in the coming weeks.
I know where to go to next to look for a job in my chosen field. So continue those good thoughts for me. If nothing else they do make me feel better about the situation. I am going to work on my introduction letter and resume over the weekend then get it to those who will be hiring
I finally put up a 2005 calendar and Gwen! You were right. Her birthday is the 5th and Friday was the 7th so Caroline was 25 months this past Wednesday. Now I will actually know what day of the month it is this month. I have been looking for a Cirque Du Soleil 2005 calendar. I missed getting one before the New Year just in case someone got one of me for the holidays. Now they seem to be scarcer than hen’s teeth. I am glad my sister got me that Tolkien Calendar. The artwork inside rocks and it was all drawn by J.R.R. himself. I really like that pen and ink style.
Caroline is getting interested in what things are called. She will point to things in books and look up at me with an inquisitive look and I will tell her what she is pointed at. She will do this several time and then start to point to things in a different order just to make sure I was telling her the correct thing. She nods when she is satisfied and we move onto the next page. She is starting to move to baby babble which makes sense to her and single words to sentences that are quite precise. It takes a bit to sort out what she is saying but she is saying things now. One word she has down to a “T” is No. We are trying to get her to use Yes too. We tend to get Yea rather than Yes if we get an affirmative at all. She definitely has opinions about things and how they affect her.
I am grateful for a greater understanding of what my daughter wants and needs.
Caroline woke up without a fever. She is a bit congested but I can deal with that in various ways. She was her typical morning self this morning. She wanted her morning hug and kiss. She wanted her milk and small pink blanket. She is playing with her toys pretty much back to being Miss Caroline. I am soooo relieved. Fever is scary. We get fevers to combat illness but fevers can also cause damage to the organs if they are too high or sustain for a long period of time. Fever seems like a crap-shoot to me.
I think I am feeling a little better too. I seem to have a little more energy this morning than I have had in a while. I am still congested and coughing more than I would like. I want to slow down a bit on the decongestants since I had a nose bleed yesterday. I am going to try to drink more water today and see if I can’t flush this out of my system. I also want to reclaim the living room having reclaimed the Kitchen.
There is a fabric sale at Joanne’s Fabrics this week. They are trying to dump the rest of the fall fabrics which I tend to use for puppets a lot so I am hoping to go give that a gander. We have an idea for our costume for Farpoint. I need to go and see if it is 1) feasible and 2) cheap to do. Since most of the characters are fall fabric colors, I am hoping for some bargains on the cloth I need. I also have an idea for another project I want to do that I need to price out. I figure if I get the creative juices flowing I might feel a bit better about myself. I feel the best when I am being creative and can pull off something that I have never done before and done it well.
Caroline is 2 years and one month old today (25 months). I know that once she turns 2 we are suppose to not keep a monthly count on her but I still find myself doing the math in my mind. I do love her so much. I hope to get some pictures of our trip up later today but am making no promises.
I am grateful for purring cats warming my feet.
I didn’t get the job I wanted and now have to figure out the next move. I was already steeled for this outcome but it still ticks me off on so many levels. A lot of baggage came back into play that I thought I had dealt with. Apparently I hadn’t.
Caroline ran a temperature most of the night even with meds. She was a miserable bug. I saw up with her from 5:00 to 6:30 AM just rocking and holder her which is what she needed. She took a long nap this afternoon and seems much better. The fever is gone for now and she is acting more like our Caroline.
Peter’s first issue of him next run on the Hulk is out and I recommend it highly. It seems to be selling out all over the place which is a good and bad thing. It means that the shop owners under ordered and demand was high than their orders. I hope this means that they up their next order accordingly but I had hope for that job too.
I am grateful for the abilities I have that would have made me great in that job. I hope that someone will recognize them and hire me so I can kick butt and make profit for them.
Not much to say this morning. I have been listening to the Radio and NPR about the conditions in the countries that have been hit by the Tsunami. The words “the devastation” are repeated over and over again. Of some villages there is nothing left.
John Kovalic had a good cartoon about all this in his Jan. 3rd Cartoon. Matt and Ken are standing behind a wall ala Charlie Brown and Linus. Matt says “Well this was the worst Christmas ever. I didn’t get the Return of the King extended edition DVD. I didn’t get the new edition of Warhamster 40,000. I didn’t get Buffy season 7 and I didn’t get a cool new mini iPod. What didn’t you get?”
Ken replies, “Hit by a Tsunami losing my family, friends, home and possibly my life.”
Matt says while doing a face palm, “I could also use a rock to crawl under now. I didn’t get one of those either.” Really does put things into perspective.
Right now we have a wet drizzle that makes me want to curl up with a good book, a warn blanket and a hot chocolate but I have things to do and in the back of my mind I am thinking about all the people there who don’t even have a blanket. I grumble a bit while picking toys from the floor but then think of all the children who don’t have their favorite toys anymore. I can turn on a tap and get clean water. People are having to use contaminated wells because there is no other source of water to drink and no way to clean it. I can go to my fridge and get food. There have been numerous riots for what little food has made it into the effected areas. I am doing what little I can to help by donating to charity but these people need us to remember them six months from now.
I am grateful for my current crappy weather.
We got the car unpacked but that was about it. Yesterday was more about recharging the batteries than anything else. Driving for long periods of time can take it out of you. This morning I feel like my brain is functioning again at some sort of normal rate but it is still a little fuzzy.
We have Mommy and Me today. I also want to shop for groceries since the weather is turning into an icy mess and it is not going to get better.
Will Eisner died. He is probably best known for his comic book called the Spirit. His art style was the influence of so many comic book artists today. I met him once. Peter introduced me to him at the San Diego Comic Con about 2 and 1/2 years ago. I was pregnant with Caroline at the time. We did the short catch up on what our families were doing these days. He was a very nice man.
We lost Frank Kelly Freas earlier this week. He was the guest Artist at the first Science Fiction convention I worked staff for. I would run into him and Polly over the years and it always felt like old home week. I remember when Polly passed away. I sent a card to Kelly and the family. I heard that he remarried and was very happy. I felt happy for him since he deserved to be happy. I will always remember him at a young fan panel where he looked at what they have drawn and gave them praise and good advice all at the same time. He was always willing to teach or show others the how to of art. Like Will, he was a gentleman through and through.
I am grateful that I got to meet these great men.
I can't believe I forgot that today was Tolkien's birthday.
So raise a glass in celebration to the man who created the myth.
We spent January 1st getting out of Disney and over to Jacksonville to visit my eldest stepdaughter Shana. It was great to see her. Caroline had lots of fun playing around her house and with her cat Biscuit. Her other cat Butter hid from us the entire time we were there. We spent some pleasant family time and then hit the road for home. The drive was rather straightforward but long. There was traffic but for the most part it moved smoothly since there was no road construction happening on the 1st or the 2nd. Driving through the Richmond/D.C./Baltimore corridor is total different on a holiday weekend than it is during the week. You can actually drive at the speed limit or a little bit over. We made it back to the house about 3 pm. We still have to unpack the car and figure out where things are going. I figure it will take us a day or two to get everything back into shape around here.
Overall I think the trip went well. We did have a few mishaps like Caroline getting the croup and then me picking it up. Caroline is now much better and I am on the mend now. Other than people getting ill, we had a great time. I enjoyed seeing my family a lot. Christmas was a mix of the familiar and the new. We figure the next time the cousins get together for Christmas both of them will have a much greater understanding of what is going on. I like that we made a pact not to push ourselves to do everything at Disney but to go at our own pace. I really think we are going to avoid Christmas to New Years at Disney if for nothing else but the crowds that are there. It was great seeing our friends down there and Shana. The Adventurers Club still comes with my highest recommendation as a fun place to go once the parks are closed. We did find out that they have a deal where you buy the first night and then for $5.00 more you can go the next 5 nights which is a deal if you spend a lot of time on Pleasure Island at night. Caroline recommends the Carousel at Magic Kingdom highly.
I am grateful that we made it home safe and relatively sane.
Happy New Year!
We had a very good day. We didn’t go near the parks but did a lot of stuff on property. The Fantastia Mini-Golf course is a lot of fun. We then went to dinner and to La Nouba for a special New Years Show. It was great to see and the seats were fabulous. Caroline loved it. She watched the High Wire Act and said “Up! Up!”. She loved the little girls with the yoyos. Finally she fell asleep on Daddy’s shoulder. She had a great time earlier in the pool which wore her out.
New Years Resolution which came to me while I was watching the show. My resolution is to become a better person. A better mother. A better wife. A better artist. Better at all that I do. I figure I can keep this one. I strive to be better at what I do so I want to exit 2005 a better person than I entered it.
I am grateful to the promise of a New Year.