So far, we've visited Blackwater Falls, Kentuck Knob, the WVU Arboretum, and tomorrow we're headed to the DC area to visit another friend.
I am taking lots of walks and having a great time. :D
10.26.2010
Trip East: WV Forest
So far, we've visited Blackwater Falls, Kentuck Knob, the WVU Arboretum, and tomorrow we're headed to the DC area to visit another friend.
I am taking lots of walks and having a great time. :D
10.21.2010
Fall Anticipation
(This is the local, CO, color. :)
10.12.2010
Weekend in an Afternoon
Whew!
For the last three months, I've been working on a couple back to back projects with crazy schedules. (Well, the second didn't have a crazy schedule until we had to put the start of intensive work on hold until the first one was finished.) It's been intense and waaaay longer between breaks than is good for me, but the last crazy deadline is done and I have 4 weeks until the next one.
My immediate reward (besides the giant margarita immediately after finishing the deliverables for this morning's meeting over 16 hours before the meeting): take the afternoon off. I did some research shopping for a tape deck music converter, had my favorite salad at Il Vicino, paid my overdue library fines and got some more audiobook CDs (one of them is A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, read by Michael Jackson -- if that turns out to be the famous singer, I'm returning it immediately; he may be a fabulous musician, but his voice is creepy!), drove home and caught up on some internet stuff, went for an hour long walk and tested my new smartphone's tracking abilitiy, sat outside with the cats, started the laundry, and wrote this blog post. I'm going to try to go to bed early. We'll see how that goes.
It's amazing how ONE afternoon can recharge your batteries! :)
Additional: OK, in looking up the link for the late, great MJ, I listened to a few of his songs. Boy do they take me back to the 80s. I think I'm going to buy his Greatest Hits CD -- it's fun music, dammit!
Additional Additional: Dinner tonight was sauteed shrimp and green beans (frozen -- not as good as fresh, not as bad as canned). Dessert was a Dark and Stormy (dark rum and ginger beer, YUM!)
For the last three months, I've been working on a couple back to back projects with crazy schedules. (Well, the second didn't have a crazy schedule until we had to put the start of intensive work on hold until the first one was finished.) It's been intense and waaaay longer between breaks than is good for me, but the last crazy deadline is done and I have 4 weeks until the next one.
My immediate reward (besides the giant margarita immediately after finishing the deliverables for this morning's meeting over 16 hours before the meeting): take the afternoon off. I did some research shopping for a tape deck music converter, had my favorite salad at Il Vicino, paid my overdue library fines and got some more audiobook CDs (one of them is A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, read by Michael Jackson -- if that turns out to be the famous singer, I'm returning it immediately; he may be a fabulous musician, but his voice is creepy!), drove home and caught up on some internet stuff, went for an hour long walk and tested my new smartphone's tracking abilitiy, sat outside with the cats, started the laundry, and wrote this blog post. I'm going to try to go to bed early. We'll see how that goes.
It's amazing how ONE afternoon can recharge your batteries! :)
Additional: OK, in looking up the link for the late, great MJ, I listened to a few of his songs. Boy do they take me back to the 80s. I think I'm going to buy his Greatest Hits CD -- it's fun music, dammit!
Additional Additional: Dinner tonight was sauteed shrimp and green beans (frozen -- not as good as fresh, not as bad as canned). Dessert was a Dark and Stormy (dark rum and ginger beer, YUM!)
9.30.2010
Time for Writing
I am sitting here at work at 8 pm, taking a mental break by surfing a little (and extending the time I will need to be here by the same amount of time [arrgghh]) and ran across a post by Mr. Scalzi (yes, again, but apparently I'm skimming the good bits of gold from the gravel pretty handily) about finding time to write. This is a subject that's been much on my mind lately. I've taken a hiatus from writing for the last year or so, partly because I have a job that's been a challenge to manage and partly because I've been feeling cut off from my connection with... well, I don't know what to call it... certainly not my friends and family who have been and always will be so wonderful to be with. I've been scatterbrained and stressed and disengaged and ultimately, all of this is just what my current interpretation on my life is. And I want to change that. I won't go into it all, as I really should get back to work, but one big goal I have is to get back to writing, even if I feel super crappy at it right now. Because something that I've realized during the hiatus? You can't get better at something if you don't practice.
I've talked before about getting a better regimen going in my life -- damn me if it doesn't include a regular writing schedule.
I've talked before about getting a better regimen going in my life -- damn me if it doesn't include a regular writing schedule.
9.29.2010
Van Gogh Like You've Never Seen Him
Lately I haven't had much time to surf the internet, check out what people are saying/seeing/doing, engage in frivolous online discourse. You know because you've seen how dormant this blog has become.
HOWEVER: Today, following my nose I stumbled upon the following awesome image slideshow of Van Gogh paintings that have been manipulated in Photoshop. To clarify with words from the author/artist: "Nothing in any of these paintings been added or removed or had its proportions changed. The effect is achieved simply by manipulating the light in the scene and adjusting the areas of the image that are more and less in focus, as you will see."
Click here to go to the full slideshow. Well worth your time!
Simply amazing.
(Due credit to Mr. Scalzi for bringing it to the attention of his audience.)
HOWEVER: Today, following my nose I stumbled upon the following awesome image slideshow of Van Gogh paintings that have been manipulated in Photoshop. To clarify with words from the author/artist: "Nothing in any of these paintings been added or removed or had its proportions changed. The effect is achieved simply by manipulating the light in the scene and adjusting the areas of the image that are more and less in focus, as you will see."
Click here to go to the full slideshow. Well worth your time!
Simply amazing.
(Due credit to Mr. Scalzi for bringing it to the attention of his audience.)
9.02.2010
Sense and Sensibility
The Daily Show is on hiatus this week, so they're doing their usual thing and highlighting past interviews with a common theme. This week it's "brilliant banter" and the first one was so spot on, I had to share.
Jane Goodall is lovely, thoughtful, and supremely intelligent. Worth listening to:
I LOVE what she says about fundamentalism.
Jane Goodall is lovely, thoughtful, and supremely intelligent. Worth listening to:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Jane Goodall | ||||
| ||||
I LOVE what she says about fundamentalism.
8.26.2010
Loot! Loot for m..e?
Actually, I did not get super excited when I picked up the package from the post office this morning. (It was express, and they wanted me to sign for it.) I suspected and then saw that it was from John the Scientist and Nathan. I had a little thrill of apprehensive fascination, wondering what strangeness awaited me.
I did open it at work, but not with anyone nearby, so I didn't have to explain why someone was sending me food-grade bull penis. Mmmm... yummy! :D
I think the really raunchy jokes will be reserved for a more private venue, but job well done, boys. I think I was a little more icked out by the idea of meat that's been in the mail (with an ice pack, yes) for a day or two, rather than the source of the meat itself. I'm probably not going to eat it a) because it was in the mail for a day or two and b) because it's main attribute seems to be chewiness (and is a good treat for dogs). Nice try.
I did open it at work, but not with anyone nearby, so I didn't have to explain why someone was sending me food-grade bull penis. Mmmm... yummy! :D
I think the really raunchy jokes will be reserved for a more private venue, but job well done, boys. I think I was a little more icked out by the idea of meat that's been in the mail (with an ice pack, yes) for a day or two, rather than the source of the meat itself. I'm probably not going to eat it a) because it was in the mail for a day or two and b) because it's main attribute seems to be chewiness (and is a good treat for dogs). Nice try.
8.22.2010
Musical Bridging
I was fortunate enough to find out before it aired that PBS was airing "Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song." So, I set the DVR (no cable necessary -- this is PBS!) and recorded it. I didn't get a chance to see it until this weekend, and now I've watched it about three times. It's fabulous.
The musicians who played in Paul's honor were incredibly diverse and included: McCartney himself and Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, teen heartthrobs Jonas Brothers, jazz great Herbie Hancock with Corinne Bailey Rae, rock star Dave Grohl, country star Faith Hill, the not-as-lovely-as-Hot-Chick-Janiece-but-still-talented Emmylou Harris, classical pianist Lang Lang and the truly alternative Jack White, with remarks by Jerry Seinfeld. The least interesting part was Jerry Seinfeld, partly because half his jokes were about how horrible marriage is (which always bothers me), and the most interesting were the performances by Jack White and Dave Grohl -- neither of which I had really heard before. Jack White played a fascinatingly delicate version of Mother Nature's Son. Faith Hill, who followed him with a rendition of Long and Winding Road, sounded almost disappointingly conventional, until I played the mental game of pretending I was hearing them in a different order. Dave Grohl played Band on the Run with such great passion and skill (I liked this version better than the original) I had to Google him to find out why I hadn't heard of him before. Turns out it's partly because I'm always at least ten years behind the curve and partly because he's the type of fellow who plays in and leads strong ensemble bands not named after himself (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Them Crooked Vultures). Also, though I'm not usually a big fan of long hair on men, it really works for him. Really does. :D
To be clear, ALL the performers were excellent, including the great Sir Paul himself. Lovely lyrics, lovely performances, and it reminded me that I really need to pony up the cash to buy the Beatles compilation. I highly recommend watching the show. It can be found online at PBS. It's really fun when watching a show about music you love can broaden your horizons to music you may also love one you're exposed to it.
Edited to add:
Turns out Foo Fighters did a great cover of Band on the Run with a more hard rock edge to it. That is now my favorite rendition of the song. Hard rock guitar and drums... yum!
The musicians who played in Paul's honor were incredibly diverse and included: McCartney himself and Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, teen heartthrobs Jonas Brothers, jazz great Herbie Hancock with Corinne Bailey Rae, rock star Dave Grohl, country star Faith Hill, the not-as-lovely-as-Hot-Chick-Janiece-but-still-talented Emmylou Harris, classical pianist Lang Lang and the truly alternative Jack White, with remarks by Jerry Seinfeld. The least interesting part was Jerry Seinfeld, partly because half his jokes were about how horrible marriage is (which always bothers me), and the most interesting were the performances by Jack White and Dave Grohl -- neither of which I had really heard before. Jack White played a fascinatingly delicate version of Mother Nature's Son. Faith Hill, who followed him with a rendition of Long and Winding Road, sounded almost disappointingly conventional, until I played the mental game of pretending I was hearing them in a different order. Dave Grohl played Band on the Run with such great passion and skill (I liked this version better than the original) I had to Google him to find out why I hadn't heard of him before. Turns out it's partly because I'm always at least ten years behind the curve and partly because he's the type of fellow who plays in and leads strong ensemble bands not named after himself (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Them Crooked Vultures). Also, though I'm not usually a big fan of long hair on men, it really works for him. Really does. :D
To be clear, ALL the performers were excellent, including the great Sir Paul himself. Lovely lyrics, lovely performances, and it reminded me that I really need to pony up the cash to buy the Beatles compilation. I highly recommend watching the show. It can be found online at PBS. It's really fun when watching a show about music you love can broaden your horizons to music you may also love one you're exposed to it.
Edited to add:
Turns out Foo Fighters did a great cover of Band on the Run with a more hard rock edge to it. That is now my favorite rendition of the song. Hard rock guitar and drums... yum!
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