September 2003 Archives

When I woke up this morning, I realized it was still raining. I listened to the good noise of the drops meeting the leaves and the wet ground. On a morning like this, the light doesn't so much shine in as it does glow outside, accidentally illuminating indoors. I was thinking about this unfocused quality when I noticed that it was a bit chilly, in that it-might-be-a-fall-day way, as opposed to a we-turned-the-ac-too-low way. I tested the air for fall qualities--the first autumn air feels heavier, thicker. It smells nostalgic. It lights up my mind and makes me think that nothing can go wrong in my world while I feel this way, and that everything is possible.

I picked up a copy of RubberStampMadness at Borders today, and the Letter to the Editor section had me sputtering with disbelief. Apparently a previous issue had projects that used postage stamps. It seems the instructions suggested that you cut up these postage stamps to include in a collage. Okay, fine, what could be inflammatory about that? Well, someone got their panties in a wad and actually wrote in saying that people who want to use postage stamps in their art should photocopy them first, so as not to ruin the original stamp, thereby rendering it useless for stamp collectors. Good grief!! We all know the world revolves around philately, right? And RSM actually took this seriously, printed this letter, AND an excerpt of an editorial from a philatelic newsletter agreeing (not surprisingly) with the censure. The philatelic editorial suggested that hobbyists who would like to make such a collage could use pretty wrapping paper instead. BUT HEY! What about all those wrapping paper collectors? Huh? Who's looking out for them?

This is so stupid I could just spit. Who's to say that the art created with these mutilated postage stamps won't someday be more collectible than the stamp itself someday? Get a grip, people. It makes me want to rip up a book and break a vinyl record just to be perverse.

Mark and I celebrated Constitution Day by shooting two rounds of skeet at American Shooting Centers. This is the first time I've shot in something other than sweltering heat--what a treat it was! And despite a couple of months without shooting (sad, I know) I got 10 on my first round. And even better, I hit at least one from EVERY STATION except those two nasties in the middle at the end. I was doing the happy dance after that, believe me! Second round I only shot 5, but I'll blame lack of conditioning (I was getting tired) and the declining light (I only had sunglasses) for that. More realistically, I was still too giddy from the first round to concentrate properly on the second....

Also fun to discover that the low-recoil shells we bought really do make a difference. I shot one box of regular target shot and one box of the low-recoil and I'm ready to give away the target shot. If I ever get a proper recoil pad on my gun I won't even know I actually pulled the trigger!

God bless America. I love my husband and my gun.

Lidge, Dotel & Wagner

just heard from Jim Deshaises....

This posting just came across one of my email lists:

We are a small elementary church school library. We received a donation of 19 hard cover books about different types of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the last 2 pages of the books contain information pertaining to when (read millions of years) these dinosaurs lived. We believe and teach the Biblical view of creation. The books are colorful and would be very useful, except for the last 2 pages of statistics. I can't cut them out because the last of the story is on one side of the statistics page. After reading the paragraph on the title page regarding reproducing, photocopying, utilizing etc. and that one shouldn't do this, I hesitate to solve the problem by simply gluing the last 2 pages together and pasting a page of statistics on the blank back page. Is this legal? I love working here and don't want to create problems.

Wow. "Statistics." That's one way to look at it. Mark points out that at least they're just disagreeing over a timeline, and not something like whether various sorts of people deserve to live or die, but still. What's wrong with leaving the books the way they are, and explaining to the children that there are lots of viewpoints in the world? Discuss faith, belief, science, historical conflicts between the two.... It seems like there are lots of ways to use the books as they are.

I haven't read any responses yet (and there are a LOT of them!) so I'm a bit curious to see what this group comes up with!

Update: Here is a link to the whole thread in the list archives.

This is just TOO much fun. It takes a while to get the hang of the perspective, but you could spend a lot of time here. Now if I just weren't at work....

[Link from LockerGnome.]

The ONP's resident photog has some incredible new pictures. Definitely worth a browse.

I got money back from the dentist the other day (insurance paid more than they expected--wow!) and I figure that's basically found money, so I made a trip to Nan's and ended up with War & Sheep and The Settlers of Catan Card Game. Mark isn't in the mood for a game this evening, so I've had to settle for reading the rules and looking at the cards, but both games look like fun. I've also found favorable reviews here & there, including at The Games Journal, which I've just added to my favorites list.

I think a game group sounds divine.... Our friends are very tolerant and are generally willing to play games after dinner, but it's never the main focus of the evening. Also, we're usually somewhat tipsy by then, so we tend to lean towards the familiar and easier games. I'm really not knocking this--Ivanhoe, Quiddler and Battle Cattle are SUPER games and I love playing them. I just know we have some great stuff that would be even better with more people (Galaxy comes to mind right away). I'll just have to be patient. After all, someday we'll have kids, and they're a captive audience :-)

I've finally gotten around to putting up the last two themes in our Photoshop project. Played with Quickie some and added watermarks and formatted the headers and footers. Woo woo!

Protector


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If "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" just doesn't do it for you any more, there are lots of other pangrams (a passage that uses the whole alphabet) to try here and here. Of course, remembering any of the sentences from that second site would be the challenge, as they are rather long. There are actually lots of links from a google search on "pangram" but these two came from the BOOK_ARTS listserv.

It's football season again :-) Despite losing my 8th and 9th round fantasy draft picks to injuries in the pre-season, and despite ending up LAST in the draft order, I'm fairly satisfied with my team this year. In fact, unless Eddie George just really messes up and fumbles for more points than he runs for, I'll win my first game of the season. Against the commish, my dear husband.

Three cheers for this Angry White Male. Sometimes someone says something just exactly right:

Only a fool couldn"t help noticing what it meant: they want us all dead. They want a world in which my daughter is a slave - and even though they"ll never get it, they will kill someone else"s daughter a half a continent away just to make their point.

Margaret does, apparently. I've wondered about all those weird names. It's kind of nice to know there's a method to the madness. I remember first seeing an Ikea store when I started traveling to Houston lo these many years ago. I was entranced. The mystique has worn off somewhat by now (actually, I think I was ruined for life when we bought our sofa, which has since been joined by a morris chair and ottoman, with plans for a bed, dining table and chairs, and who knows what else) but it's still a fun place. If you can find somewhere to park, that is.

As if I needed any further proof that my man loves me, Mark forwarded to me an email newsletter from ThaiGem.com. You can sign up for it here. This newsletter is just as much fun as their regular newsletter. The only thing I don't like about their website is that it doesn't work very well on IE5 on my Mac. But you could browse for hours there. Stones, beads, finished jewelry, you name it. Even design-it-yourself jewelry--I know all about that, since I'm wearing the results of Mark's surfing on my left hand :-)

This is a project that has been languishing for... well... over a year, at least. My friend Ann and I have instituted the Bead Project Lunch once a week. My focus for a while is going to be to finish up some of the stuff I have in my largish stash of unfinished projects. I have a lot of things that just need clasps, which was the case with this necklace. I made it on a visit to LA when Mark and I went to a CLUI opening. Now that you can't take scissors on planes anymore (like I'm gonna stab somebody with cuticle scissors), beadwork is not as convenient as it used to be, but I have logged many airline miles with needle and thread in hand. I'm so glad those days are over! (Because of the flying, not the beading, of course!)