For some reason, I don't do much stitching over the summer. I picked up Frederick again in September and here's where I was as of Saturday, November 14. I did finish his paw on Sunday.

( Frederick )

Dear random Student mofo,

I know I likely shouldn't have an opinion on your rambling as I was eavesdropping, but your idiocy is like a bullhorn in my ear. Be glad I rant online instead of to your face. Be glad I have forgotten your face in the faceless masses that pack the halls of this college. Do not try to exude and illusion of being smart by thinking libraries should have funding cut during these financially tough times. Do not think you can write an entire 10 page research paper off Wikipedia. Do attempt to think beyond yourself in your cushy I-can-have-7-dollar-lattes-every-day mooching-off-parents life to the people that use the library regularly. I admit that am much like you in that I live with my parents, I have unfettered internet access, I have used Wikipedia for unimportant things often (and looking beyond it into the sources cited on each page if used for anything mildly serious, which is an action I do not belief you have the common sense to do), and I rarely need library resources... but when I DO? I REALLY do.

So here is to hoping that you find yourself like many people I've either seen or been told of: relying on a library to do everything from look up local job listings, write up your resume, check your email, do research, and maybe even find books to be a form of *gasp* entertainment. And many libraries have entertaining selections that actually expand beyond books; something I thought I should be so kind as to point out on the off chance you have Litteratura Unappreciation Syndrome (Offline/Non-digital Text Variant) and incapable of seeing reading of the written word as fun.

To much to hope for? Likely. But I can still smile wickedly knowing that the teacher you currently have instantly fails any paper that cites Wikipedia as a reference, and even has this warning on the syllabus.

~ A Librarian Fangirl

PS: No love for you mofo, so more love to spend on the librarian who is so awesome she told me about a plethora of scholarships offered in the area. I will likely ask her about this again once I am off PSEO. If I save money on my education because of a librarian? I shall look back on your faceless memory and laugh more heartily still motherfucker.

PPS: Here lies my first stop after getting my membership approval email. Thank you very much administrative rockstar. ^_^

http://www.bookslut.com/blog/archives/2009_11.php#015398

Our own feelings for Kalimpong felt fake, unfair, and we left rapidly for England then the States, journeying to where we had, half-consciously, half-unconsciously, assigned the centre to be, learning other rude lessons in our failure to locate our own story.

This Kiran Desai essay on the writing of The Inheritance of Loss is so overwritten it is giving me a migraine. I'm feeling vindicated for not reading it when it was winning all of the awards.

• 08:21 @_Quark_ yup :-) #
• 18:27 just set my dvr to record the new version of #ThePrisoner, but I don't know if I can bring myself to watch it. #
• 20:32 cutting text blocks, suckas! #bookbinding #

LT.

i'm stil out here- life has been sucking my stitching time so i'm not making any progress on "koi to neko" at the moment- too much of choir practices, christmas pageant practices, and knitting scarves to sell for relay for life in the upcoming bizaars this next weekend.

i'm still checking posts and looking at pictures tho- i wanted to hop in for a minute and say everybody's work is looking FANTASTIC and WELCOME to the new people!

It began snowing late yesterday afternoon and snowed through the night til about midday today for about 8 inches or so here I think. A cozy Sunday to go on a family coffee date and hang out in the coziness of a coffee shop for a little while. Then home again (home again, jiggety jig) for an early Broncos game (which they lost to the Redskins). Followed by some football in the snow. And it wasn't even 'freeze your face off' cold! A most relaxing day.

[a few more pictures if you click through the one above)

I intended to stay off the computer so it could charge quicker, but I couldn't stay off. I got to thinking there might be email, and being an email addict, of course I couldn't let it sit.

I went to church in spite of yesterday's snow. I was glad--the roads were bare, at least where you drive. There was packed snow between the lanes, but I don't drive there, and so it wasn't a problem.

It was a particularly good Divine Liturgy this morning. I'd noticed myself last week daydreaming even during the service, which I don't like doing because I can do that anytime anywhere, and so I made up my mind today I would keep my mind on business.

I started on the drive to town--and found that my worrying about the roads (which were fine) was giving me a stiff neck and headache, and so I changed plans. I would let my mind wander on the way to church. I pay enough attention to driving, of course, but one can drive and think of other things, too. It worked--within moments of letting myself think about other things besides the here and now, the stiff neck went away. So it seems that sometimes daydreaming can be a good thing--it certainly helps deal with stress.

I had left home a little later than I wanted to, and I drove slower than I would have needed to, so I was almost late. No, I guess I wasn't late, I was just right on time. I turned my car off just as they were finishing ringing the bells. I missed the reading of the hours, but had just enough time to light candles and find a chair before the service started.

My knee was sore, so I sat more than I like to, but I suppose that is okay. It is necessary, so it must be okay.

The lady who usually reads the prayers before communion during clergy communion wasn't there, so I got to. My throat was hoarse, so I thought I sounded like I was about to start crying. I wasn't, it was just my throat. After church someone told me that I'd done well, and so they must not have noticed. Or maybe those prayers full of repentence sound better when done in a croaking voice that sounds ready to weep--perhaps they thought it a dramatic touch...

Anyway. They did lots of new things--well, sort of new. They were sort of familiar, but not really. After we were all done, the director told me they were things we know in Slavonic, but what we did was the English version. No wonder they sounded familiar! I wouldn't have been able to tell you where I'd heard them, but I knew I had.

But the sort of new music was just what I needed to keep me on my toes. Having to sight read each new thing that came along, I had no troubles at all with a wandering mind. I haven't enjoyed a liturgy so much in ages. It was perfect--enough of a challenge that I had to pay attention, but not so much of a challenge that I messed up. I liked it that way.

We had stuffed cabbage for lunch. They dished up a plate that was huge even by my standards, and I didn't think I'd begin to be able to eat it all. I left a few green beans (soggy bacon in green beans does not improve them) but other than that, I cleaned the whole plate.

I came home and napped.

And when I woke up, I napped some more.

Then my Vanya kitty came and snuggled, and I napped again.

That was what made me late this morning, too. Vanya was cuddly, what could I do besides keep hitting the snooze button?

But I think I got the cat thoroughly snuggled, and the napping is done, and so now I am here at my sister's house charging up my computer. And it seems I'm not the only one plagued with overly snuggly cats.

My niece just called down from upstairs to her mom. Her mom is in the living room; I knew she couldn't hear, and so I, hear at the desk in the hall between them, relayed the message.

K: Mommy!
me: She says 'mommy!'
M: ask her what she wants
me: she says 'what?'
K: Tell her she has to come see the miracle that is the cuddling of the cat on my lap!
(I didn't think this would warrant a trip upstairs, but I'm just the messenger. I passed it on.)
me: she says you have to come see the miracle that is the cuddling of the cat on her lap.
M: Okay, tell her I'll be there in a minute.
me: (with surprise) She'll be there in a minute--hold that miracle!

And sure enough, moments later, the mother goes upstairs for no other reason than to look at the cat, snuggled on her lap. Now that is motherly love.

And you know what this interrupted? She is actually playing chess with her son. It was the booby prize--the deal was that if she lost at checkers, she would have to play chess, too! I can't believe she would make such a deal--and with this boy who has been able to beat me at checkers since he was four years old.

She's a gooder mommy than I'd ever be. I'd play him at scrabble, since I can still win at that, but never checkers or chess. I'm a lousy strategist.

And she says the cat really was a miracle. I'd assumed it was her cuddly cat cuddling, but no, it was the cat who never snuggles.

Cold weather brings on all kinds of miracles.

Today I went for a hike on Trinity Trail. I love hiking this time of year. The flowers depart, leaving darkened seed pods. The grasses turn from greens to vivid browns and yellows. Though we get a bit of Autumn leaf color in years like this, with chilly Octobers, the true north Texas Autumn and winter colors is in the vivid coloration of the grasses.

During my hike, one rider seemed concerned that I intended to appear to be hiding in the trees, causing a risk of fright for her horse. I explained that I was intending only to go to the side of the trail, and that I always talk to the rider, to let the horse know it is all right. We parted amicably, but with less than perfect sympathy of soul. I felt her tone a bit supercilious and didactic at the time, but immediately after the event, of course, I realized that I should focus instead on my own weaknesses, and upon how I could have, upon cold reflection, had a smoother encounter.

My best encounter of the day was with a great crested flycatcher. He perched atop a branch of a dead tree. This cool bird has a blue-gray-ish body and a yellow breast, but his head is a bit "buffed" (crested), giving him a name arguably more grandiose than his size might dictate. He did not perch long enough for me to take his photograph. I did get a great look at him through binoculars. I also saw crows, seagulls, and a great blue heron, which last bird was standing atop a dead tree in the lake. I enjoyed walking along, listening to cool music on my mp3 player.

Tonight I heard a great new tune which Verian Thomas created using my sample for a new Thomas Nunnally Ensemble piece. I myself created a song as well, which sounds for all the world like a cathedral organ at play. perhaps it is the Elgar biography I am reading. Perhaps it is that I bought an album on emusic.com by organ genius Frederic Champion. Perhaps it is a lingering Messieaen fascination I experience lately. Perhaps I long to be a human Hammond organ. I do not know. But I think the piece will suit its purpose admirably, where it will appear as a mildly weird(bient) tune amid more ambient and chill companions on a compilation. I like the preset that sounds like a British jazz amplifier.

I also heard from a friend who can sing. I had thought to have my friend put some wordless backing music to an ambient piece I hoped to create to The White Cube art exhibition. When I completed the piece, it came out not as ambient-perfect-for-ethereal-vocals, but as quirky, melodic music. We consulted about whether it is really possible/necessary to add a vocal to the track beyond its spoken-word source material. I sent off an instrumental version. We'll work together on this project, or perhaps upon another, which will be fun. I commit the sin of secret pride, because the tinkertoy tune effectively uses a kalimba sample.

This afternon it rained buckets, and I watched a sports team lose a game on television.

OK, Dreamwidth polls don't transfer over here. Le sigh.

Feel free to vote twice.

( Hiding inside )

Feel free to give additional answers in comments. Or complain. Or suggest new queries.

( a poll, a poll, my kingdom for a poll )

I've posted it in the next entry.

The baseball season is over, but baseball stories are all year round. Especially when it's Dock Ellis talking about his no-hitter on acid.

Big Sugar was founded in Toronto in 1991 and by the time I first saw them in I think 1995 they had frontman Gordie Johnson, bassist Garry Lowe, harmonica and tenor saxophonist Kelly Hoppe, and drummer Stich Wynston, formerly of The Shuffle Demons. the band had a south west Ontario element as Kelly is from Windsor.

Gordie Johnson's Current band Grady's website:
http://www.shadygrady.net/

Kelly Hoppe's website: http://www.mrchillhoppe.com/

The old Big Sugar website: http://www.bigsugar.com/index.php

I doodled.
A lot.

Drawn while watching the NLCS and WS:


It was made mostly in response to troyinwestvirginia's amusing "Matt Holliday Appreciation song", which treated this minor episode perfectly adequately.

But I was stung by the implication that Dodger fans cannot carry a tune.

So anyway. The episode turned out to be irrelevant, since the Dodgers discovered you can't get to the WS without a starting rotation. But hopefully good for a laugh or two.

My husband and I had a very productive week on our ornament project. Here's my latest WIP:

http://joce-in-stitches.deviantart.com/art/xmas-09-WIP-21-143698420

And I also got the finishing work done on 8 of the ones my husband stitched. You can see them here:

http://joce-in-stitches.deviantart.com/gallery/#Xmas-09

Thanks for looking! ^_^

Friends,
Yesterday was the last day of Pushkin's Little Tragedies at
the Baryshnikov Theater and we, a group of his friends, saw Peter
Von Berg play three roles and in particular that of the Baron in
"The Knight Miser". Here is Peter as Baron. and some other
pictures( Read more... )
and as you see I have added some thought on the Little Tragdedies.
After, good pasta and wine and talk and then coming to Grand Central
Station I saw the Chrysler building strikingly radiant in the mist
after a day of light rain. I put a small image at the end but here
it is larger( Read more... )
I realized again and newly what a beautiful building the Chrysler
Building and what a beautiful place the City is...
and perhaps you will enjoy seeing it with me here,
and as always inviting all your thought on these things or on
anything else at all, yours
+Seraphim
.
Perhaps it is partly the mist, like the fog of sherlock holmes' London
of romance, but we see a New York of romance don't we? Is that City always
there within the city if not always as clearly visible as here...?