Pointless photo of the day:

And that'll be it for today.

Trust me, you don't want to be in my head at the moment.

Pointless very likely random post of the day:

I haven't really bothered to think of a blather topic today, so this'll probably be all over the place. And what was I doing instead? Oh, this and that. Folding the laundry that was hanging overnight; listening to a couple of sample tracks from Hugh Laurie's blues album (which... hey, I fully admit to being a long-time fan of Hugh Laurie, but that doesn't mean that I'm willing to up and purchase some actor's album just because I'm a fan. There's a lot of bad albums by actors out there. And this? Isn't one of them, from what I've heard so far. Seems really well produced, and the guy's undeniably talented. Yeah, I'll probably look for it when it's released in North America next fall). Then I switched to Cole Porter on the internet radio for some background music while I doodled a flower. Check the other blog for that one if you're so inclined.

And why Cole Porter? Well, I generally like to doodle to music. Often it'll be 60s pop or, erm, chamber music (depending on the subject matter, which I suppose goes without saying), but I guess that listening to the 30s blues tracks put me in the mood for some classic standards. I might have just put on the blues channel, I guess, but I'm not a huge fan of this particular outfit's blues mix for some reason.

Hmm. That's my morning, then. Pretty typical Sunday morning for me, really. So what else can I add to the blather? Well, I suppose I could tell you that today's pointless photo had me singing along with the Andrews Sisters in my head when I took it yesterday. Taking pictures of apple blossoms always does that to me. Not a terribly original earworm, I admit, but what can a person do?

And speaking of the Andrews Singers takes me to this song. Why? None of your business, really. But it's a good song.

Oh good grief. I'm rapidly heading  to pointless link land. Maybe I should cut this short while I still can...

Aaaaugh...

Can't help myself...

Must

link

to

the

Muppets... 





Yeah. I feel better now. And this is getting weird. I'm going now, ok?

I think we should all be ok with me going now, frankly.



Bye then.

Pen-sive

A post from Juniper the other day got me to thinking about pens. Well, somewhat. I've had a busy week and not nearly enough sleep (somewhat rectified last night, thank goodness), so there hasn't been much time or brain power to think of too many things, but I did fit in a few pen thoughts somehow.

Pens are one of the few things that I truly go all Leftie over. Oh, I'm willing to go along with the world isn't made for Lefties complaint/mantra (I swear, for some people it really is a mantra) to a certain extent, but I think most people will agree that most leftie-unfriendly things can be gotten past reasonably well. Right-handed scissors can be learned, for example (but please, folks -- if you have left-handed kids buy proper left-handed scissors while they're learning. And not just those "suitable for either right or left hand" ones. They aren't. Trust me). Pens? Pens are another thing. Pens can go a long way to making a person's life miserable.

Ok, ok, maybe not miserable. And as annoying as an annoying pen can be, the problem's easily fixed by getting another pen. I admit it. I hope I'm allowed a little blather hyperbole, though, because otherwise we'll be lacking a post today.

Anyway. When I was in school smudging was the bane of my existence. I had enough trouble with handwriting as it was, and then to leave massive streaks all over the end result? Very frustrating. It didn't help that there was a brief vogue for erasable ink when I was a kid; everyone thinks it will be easier for someone who's just starting out with a pen to be able to correct their mistakes like they would with a pencil, but those erasable inks were absolutely smudgetastic.

Like most lefties, though, trial and error (and, in my case, calligraphy practice for hand positioning. Yes, seriously) helped me find things that I could write with without leaving both the paper and the side of my hand looking like abstract art. Nowadays I know that there are a few brands of cheap ballpoints that I need to avoid. Rollerballs and gel pens are complete disasters for me, too. Surprisingly, I can usually manage fountain pens (there was a disposable brand that I used for years. It was kind of fun. I wonder if they still make them?). And ever since I started doodling with nylon-tipped pens, I've had a tendency to buy nylon-tipped writing pens now and then.

Which, I guess, neatly brings me to today's completely and absolutely pointless photo. Just for fun I dug out the old Osmiroid (old, notice. It's not an expensive pen, but at least it's not one of the new Chinese ones. Reviews on them are pretty horrible, I notice) I used to use for calligraphy. It's reeeally been a while, and now that I'm more used to drawing pens the drag of a calligraphic nib took me aback. Of course, it also took me aback that my ink was still at all usable. My B4 nib is a bit damaged now, I see, but overall the thing's not in bad shape considering the abuse it took.

After playing with the fountain pen for a bit (and incidentally, I'd forgotten about the "fun" of dealing with ink bottles. I think I might be wearing more on my hands than what actually hit the paper), I figured I'd may as well round things off with a line comparison between it and some of my art pens. Oh, and a couple of other random pens that I found lying around. The felt is just a chisel tip that was advertised for calligraphy years ago. Thought it might be easier than using the fountain pen, but the results were never good. The Uniball was on the piano from back when I was still teaching voice. I have no idea why I even had it; like I said before, rollerballs don't generally do it for me. The Spider Writers were a novelty for scrapbookers, I think. They have sticky ink that "webs" from point to point.

The others? My dip pen in the middle there (just a standard Speedball, if I remember right). I still use it on occasion for inking because I do like the lines you get, but the unexpected dribbles can be frustrating. I've never used a fountain pen for drawing -- maybe I should give it a try sometime? I'd have to get one specially, because I don't have anything like that around. Something to put on the possibles list, I guess. The other two pen sets are nylon-tips, and they're what I do most of my doodling with today. I'm still in love with my Pigma microns (easily still in the top five) but the Prismacolors I picked up with last Christmas's gift certificate certainly do a decent job. My Pitt pens are in my desk at work at the moment. They're ok (obviously, since so many people use them), but for my style (I want to say "style" in quotes, because it seems weird to think of myself as having a style at all) I think they're just a bit too... flowy, maybe. I went through the 01's ink supply in record time, and I just don't seem to do that with the Microns.

And that's probably just enough pointless wordage about pens, don't you think? I could talk more about... well, a lot of things I've touched on here, but seeing as I'm usually pretty hard up for topics on the blog, I think maybe I'll put my other thoughts in my back pocket for now.

Not the ink, though. Ink in a back pocket? Definitely not a good idea.

Pointless random question of the day:

Would you sooner go without mustard or ketchup?

Personally, as much as I'd probably miss ketchup I'd be more at a loss without mustard. Especially if I'm allowed to count in dry mustard as well as prepared mustard. I use dry mustard almost any time I'm making something eggy, you see.

Well, savoury-eggy anyway.

And really, there's so much more to the world of mustard than there is to ketchup. You've got your straight-up prepared mustard, your honey mustard, your coarse mustard, your deli-style mustard... so much mustardy goodness out there to explore.

Oh, and I suppose there's dijon mustard as well, although I can't say I've ever gone out of my way for it. I don't dislike it -- don't get me wrong -- but I just can't escape the feeling that ever since those old Grey Poupon commercials it kind of comes across as the king of mustard hype.




Um, yeah. For anyone out there wondering if maybe I've been thinking about this a little too much, well... no. I'm really tired, it's been an awfully long week for a short week, and what you've just witnessed is my brain heading down the are you really going to attempt to blog NOW??? path of incredulity.

I should stop typing now.

Or at least make tomorrow's post a bit more complete, condimentally speaking.







Oh, and today's photo has NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING. As usual. Cherry blossoms are just pretty, that's all.

But they probably wouldn't look quite as good in mustard.

Pointless photo of the very busy day:

Another busy day, yes. Tis the season.

Today's photo is of saskatoon flowers. That'll mean nothing to most of my two fans, but for those of us who live in saskatoon country, unfrozen blooms are a good thing.



Great. I've jinxed it now, haven't I?






Wonderful.

I don't know what this post will be about

And as a result it likely won't be about anything, as we all know very well.

Sorry for being so terribly inspiring, but the fact is that I'm trying to catch up on some of the work stuff that I missed last week when I was home sick. It doesn't exactly give a person time to come up with prime blog fodder, this working-at-work thing.

So...

Um...

Yeah, haven't come up with anything yet, so I think I'll just go back to working at work.

Oh, and today's photo subject is a cranefly. We always used to call them giant mosquitoes when we were kids, but they're nothing at all to do with mosquitoes.

Erm... just so you know, I guess.

Pointless photo of the day:

Currant flower, if you weren't sure.

That'll be it -- it's been a busy day, and I really just want to go home now.

If the world didn't end then why is Dad giving away the Lego?

And yes, I do realise that the supposed rapture wasn't meant to be the end of the world, per se.

And... that's all I'm going to say about the whole rapture business, really.

----------

Now, about the Lego. When I got to my father's place this weekend I couldn't help but notice a familiar homemade polyester sack sitting in the entryway.

That's the bag that holds the Lego. Of course I'd recognise it. And, naturally, of course I'd wonder what it was doing in the entryway instead of hanging around in the storeroom (sadly, knew exactly where it would have been hanging around in the storeroom, too). Turns out that he's giving it to a friend of his; I'm presuming for his grandchildren, but I didn't ask for any details so I don't really know for sure.

Dad? The Lego? Seriously?

Giving away the Lego.

Man.

My first reaction was to turn all five-year-old and whine about it, but then he said if I wanted it I should take it. Then I had to get all back to reality (that only sucks a bit) and remember that A) I have no place to put the Lego, B) I probably wouldn't do anything with it if I did keep it, and C) it's old enough that it's likely getting a little brittle. The last part I did mention to Dad, since it might not be a good idea for unsupervised kids to be playing with it if it's going to crack or shatter. Yay me for being a responsible adult.

And yes, much as it pains me to say it, I'm willing to let the Lego go.

Like a lot of kids, my brother and I had a period of really being into Lego. My brother built creative boy-type things, and I made houses. Almost always houses, yes. Looking back they probably weren't very exciting houses, but I liked them anyway. I don't know the why of the houses, really. I just liked making structures for some reason.

I still do, actually. Nowadays they're more likely to be free-form abstract-ish patterns than houses, but I still have my moments of just simply wanting to do something with my hands. Not with Lego anymore, but with magnets, coin-connectors, modelling clay... that sort of thing.

You know, maybe I should try sculpture sometime. I've never done that. Not unless you count the play-doh silliness that shows up every once in a while, which you really shouldn't. Oh, and I did make a clay duck head once. That's about it for me and sculpture on purpose, though.

Anyway, in the spirit of saying goodbye to the childhood Lego (and using pieces I found at the top of the bag, since I didn't want to dump the whole thing out. There's a fair amount of Lego there, and I didn't want to have to pick it all up again), today's pointless photo features one of the little modelling clay men (um, a fugitive from the other blog, for anyone who hasn't had the pleasure) being slightly confused about 70s Lego helicopter-headed ladder-tractor man's offer of a faucet and a set of wheels, while 70s Lego woman waves from her parapet.

I, um, did mention that I was using random pieces from the top of the bag...






Yeah. Maybe I should reconsider the whole sculpting thing after all.

Bye, Lego.

Still not dead

Sure have been feeling like crud for the past few days, though.

It's not making me terribly chatty, as you can imagine, so why don't we just call this one a pointless photo day and leave it at that, then?

Ok?

Works for me.

You're it...

Well, the office crud that we've been playing tag with around here for the past week or two finally decided it was my turn.

Um, yay?

Feeling better than I was yesterday, but to be honest feeling ill on top of still feeling fairly allergic (it's been pretty breezy lately, and there's obviously a whole lot of things in the air right now that don't make my sinuses -- or my eyes -- happy) is kind of taking the energy out of anything I might have had for blather today.

Don't worry, you're not missing anything much.

I'll try to be more talkative in a day or two.

Style-ish

The prairie crocusses (Pasqueflower, if you prefer. And no, I'm not linking to it today. Consider me lazy) in today's pointless photo definitely have one of my favourite colours in all flowerdom. Just saying.

----------

Well, the wind is blowing again so it'll be a bad allergy day, my wrist is still achy, I seem to have (slightly) sprained my little finger on Friday... so let's talk about art.

What? It'll save you folks a whinge.

As is usual on a Sunday, I've been checking out the posts on Illustration Friday. For those who haven't been following along, IF presents artists -- anyone who wants to take part, not just professionals -- with a weekly prompt. The idea is to create something that fits the prompt, and then post your link to the site so that everyone can see your work. I take part most weeks, if the word suits me and I have time to get something done on the weekend. Somehow I never seem to get anything done if I leave it any later than the weekend, so weekend it is.

One of the things I enjoy about IF is the chance to see people with so many styles interpreting the same word. Not everyone's style is going to do it for me, of course, but there are always a handful of people who simply amaze me.

And then I look at my own stuff and proceed to get down on myself.

Yeah, I'm capable of getting a really silly case of the blues when I look at what artists (notice that I don't say "other artists". I'm not an artist, personally. I doodle. They're the artists.) are out there doing. Some artists' work is so complex. Others have such wonderfully spare lines. Some seem to have endless patience, while other dash things off quickly and with so much energy. Some of them almost seem to be cameras (um... but I have to admit that I find myself less and less attracted to photorealism  as I get older. I guess I'm looking for a little more interpretation these days, even if I do admire the skill it takes to make a picture look so exactly like the original object). They all have such fascinating styles, and I find myself wishing that I could do what they do.

And then -- usually -- I remember something.

I have a style, too.

Yes, they have amazing styles, but they're their styles. Something they've developed. I have a style that I've grown into (and am still growing into, and will continue to grow into) that, for the most part, makes me happy. It's the way I do things. I've learned most of it on my own, and it's nothing to be down on. Sure, there's nothing wrong with admiring others' techniques, trying them out, emulating them... but in the end, I'm always going to do things the way I do them because that's the way I do them.

And shouldn't that be what it's about anyway? It's not like I do this for anyone but me.

And occasionally for work.

And I guess there've been one or two friends that I've done things for...





Ok, wait. This is heading towards completely off track, so let's back up a bit and make sure it gets completely off track. About the whole learned most of it on my own thing, then. It's true. I'm mostly self-taught, and there's kind of a weird reason for that.

I've had an interest in artsy things for as long as I can remember. I was big into music from an early age, for one thing, but like any kid I liked to scribble and doodle (not so much with the colouring, though. I had trouble staying within the lines). When I reached junior high and was able to choose optional classes, they were pretty much all about art. Art proper, drama, a really neat course we had called Creative Arts (improv, puppetry, you name it), band... yeah, I was an artsy for sure. I did well academically too and that was important, but for my me time it was always art (erm... and one Home Ec course, now that I think about it. My mom wanted to make sure I could cook, and she was finding me frustrating to teach on her own. More on that another time, though. Oh, and she made me take typing, too. Smart woman). And then...

*cue dramatic music*...

In Grade Nine, at midterm,  the high school guidance counsellor came down to the junior high to "guide" us into what sort of program of studies we'd be taking once we hit high school. I don't know if they do that anymore, especially since the system's gone middle school and the Grade Nines are already at the high school now, but it used to happen every year. You'd go in, she'd stare at your midterm marks, and she'd suggest what direction your apparent aptitude should take you in your further studies.

"Suggest", yes.

Now, I was a good all-around student and was intending to eventually go to university (for what? no idea. I just knew I'd be going to university), so it was obvious that I'd be taking what they used to call a Senior Matriculation (do they still call it that? Probably. No idea on that one either). University prep, basically.

But with a concentration in what?

*cue Jeopardy music*...

Let's see. Good all-around marks; arts options. It looks like you should...

Hmmm...

BUT WAIT. What's this I see? Could it be? Is it really?...





A NINETY-EIGHT PERCENT MIDTERM MARK IN SCIENCE!!!









Well, we know what we're doing with you, then.

That's right. One flukey midterm mark in science decided my fate in a big way. She loaded me down with sciences, and I was too shy about the whole situation to make any sort of objection. Five sciences in my first year of high school (the three available Grade Ten courses and two Grade Eleven courses as well, in case anyone's wondering how five science courses in a year is even possible). No room for arts options at all. In fact, about the only option I took at all through high school was computers. I tried to get into drama in Grade Eleven, but the school's brand new computer system couldn't fathom a science student taking drama and managed to eliminate my math to make room for it. Naturally, I had to drop the drama for the math.

My only art in high school ended up to be drama club.

Good thing I liked the science, though, eh?




Anyway. Long story short (whoops. Too late for that), I sort of semi-kept-up with doodling on my own, plus whatever drawing skills were needed for my university labs. After university I gradually started getting interested in art again, bought a few instruction books here and there, and began playing around with different media.

And developed a bit of a style in the process.




I bet you thought I'd forgotten about the style in the post title by now, didn't you?

Well, by now this particular blather should be giving you enough words to play around with for a while. If you arrange them in a different order they likely could make several more posts, even. And that's a good thing, I suppose, because I might not be around a computer tomorrow.

See you when I see you.

If you've managed to follow me this far, that is.

Pointless photos?

I feel like I should remind my two fans that now that things are starting to grow again, the fresh new pointless photos will remain as weird as ever.

But are they really as pointless as all that? Do I really just post random photos of flowers and spiders with no other reasoning behind it other than adding some colour to the blog?

Well, sometimes, yes.

But not always.

Sometimes they're space fillers, but sometimes it might be worthwhile looking a little closer at them. Sometimes, believe it or not, I'm giving you little hints on how I see things.

I like patterns. Textures. Lines. And I find that organic things have patterns, textures, and lines that interest me. If I'm giving you a weird close-up of a leaf or a flower, it might be because the way the thing has grown has, for some reason,  fascinated me. I also like negative space and the unexpected shape you can find in it, so if I take a middling photo and crop it oddly (like, say, today's featured grape hyacinth), it might occasionally be worth looking at the "frame" rather than the actual subject.

I guess I like the challenge of seeing things a little differently sometimes. Yeah, I'm taking pictures of "things", but I'm often looking at them in a more abstract context. Do I expect you to? Oh, not necessarily. Not everyone needs to see things the way I do. That'd be more than a bit odd.

Oh, and speaking of the way I see things, if you've been around the blog for a while and have noticed a distinct lack of landscape photos, I can assure you that there's a reason for it. Simply put, nearsightedness. Yep. In my myopic existence I tend not to find landscapes that interesting. Vistas, yes. I do enjoy the grand view. Your average landscape, though, is never going to hold my attention longer than the smaller things found within it. Why struggle to make out the far details when there's so many closer things to discover?

Anyway. All this is by way of saying that, as we move into my picture-taking happy place after the boring wasteland of winter, I hope that every once in a while you'll take the time to click on the photo and look at the larger version. Sometimes there'll be something more to it; sometimes not. Either way, there's always some sort of reason for the daily pointless photo.

Even if it is just to take up space.

Kind of like this post.





Too easy to tell that I had nothing on the brain this morning? Yeah, I figured.

New pointless photos AND!!!

Things have changed a lot in my father's yard since the last time I was home. Spring's actually trying to happen. There are green things out there. It's amazing.

Now if we could only do something about the bloody poplar pollen so I could enjoy it...

I was out briefly before supper taking a few shots, so believe it or not there'll be some new photos on the blog this week. Photos of leaf buds, for the most part (Spring's trying to happen, yes. Doesn't mean it's got too far yet, though), but new photos nonetheless.

Like these daffodils.

Which I could have sworn were yellow a couple of years ago. I'm going to have to look at the photo archives, because that's going to bug me now. Ah hah! Proof! Yellow cups back then, if not the whole flower.

Anyway, when I moved over to take a closer shot of one of the daffodils (which, sadly, are a bit past their prime. Not bad for having been out for a week, at least), I got a very pleasant surprise:

You see it, don't you? Bottom third of the shot?

SPIDER!!!

Yay spiders.

This is my first spider shot of the season, which makes me happy. For those new to the program, I should explain that I'm a bit weirdly enthusiastic about spiders. Yes, even after having suffered the abscessed bite earlier this year (which, by the way, is finally healing nicely. Thanks for asking). Long story which can already be found on the blog -- use the search box at the top of the page if, for some reason, you're genuinely interested -- but I like spiders, and I like the challenge of taking pictures of spiders with my little autofocus camera.

This particular Goldenrod Spider definitely decided to be a challenge. I mean, the things are camouflaged to begin with so my camera can't find them, and then this little girl (girl, yes. The males look very different) kept moving to the other side of the petal when I tried to get a better angle. Moving to other petals, even.

See? Completely unhelpful. I can tell you, though, that if you click on this shot for the bigger version you might be able to tell that you're looking at a head-on view.

Might.

Maybe.

Ah well. Hopefully this is just the first of many 2011 spiders, and the first of my talking about spiders way too much.

Spiders are cool.

And this, by the way, is coming from someone who trained in mammalogy rather than anything to do with invertebrates. So if I've come around to thinking that the creepy crawlies are cool, you just know that it must be true.

Oh, don't look at me that way. It's been a long day, and things usually get a bit weird when I try to blog in the evening. All things considered, this has been a pretty reasonable post overall.





And since I think that it's pretty reasonable and it's my house, my rules around here, I guess we're ready to call it a night now.

Ok?







Ok. Good night, then.

Oops

Ok, mood? Better, thanks. Still can't breathe because the wind's whipping up all the pollen, but at least I'm past people-hating for a while.

Anyway. Mood's better, but I've been busy with work stuff and forgot to blog. And now that I've said that, I'm going back to being busy at work.



Oh, and have a random flower picture just because I don't have anything new at the moment.





Later, all.

Go and sit in the corner

Today's photo? I felt like looking at a daylily, so now you have to too.

----------

I'm having a mood problem today, I'll warn you. The world is apparently out to tick me off (aaand that was about the fourth version of that simple sentence. I'm doing my best to censor myself here, folks. You don't need to know how it came out originally). It's a windy day so the allergies are pretty much sky-high, my various achy joints have all decided to ache at once, I'm becoming annoyed with coworkers who don't generally annoy me... yeah, someone has an attitude problem and is having trouble playing nicely with others.

Days like this make me feel like I'd be better off living in a hole.

Which, of course, would probably just make me more allergic.

Sigh.

The thing is, I know that I'm feeling whiny and I'm trying to ignore it, but the usual tricks just aren't doing it for me. I can often get by with the old whistle a happy tune trick -- replace afraid with anti-social to get the full effect -- but for whatever reason pretending I want to be around people instead of going home and pouting just isn't cutting it at the moment.

Why yes, I am a five-year-old.

Ah well. I'll get over it. I'll even get over myself, eventually.






Just not at the moment.

Now... go away, already. Or, wait. You don't have to go away if you don't want to. I take that back. How about if I go away instead? Sounds good to me...

Pointless photo of the day:

Pointlessly not from this year, since the peonies definitely aren't in bud yet.

I'm... tired. Like, really tired. The allergies are keeping me from sleeping well (or very much) ans I'm admittedly dragging.

I've also still got my wrist brace on, so typing's a pain.

All this is by way of saying that I'm not going to bother posting today.

Except for the pointless photo.

Oh, and the excuse.

Sooo... I guess this is sort of a post?





Yeah, whatever. See you later.

*falls down in dead faint*

The two posts below this one weren't blathered by me, as you'll notice if you check the byline.

That's right, folks. It was officially the Return of the Ontario Office. Just when you (ok, I ) thought she'd totally lost her way to Blogland she...

Got threatened.

Somewhat.

Hey, I'm not proud of it, but it did mean you got a two-day break from listening to me whinge. Always a good thing, if you ask me.

Anyway.

I'm in full-on allergy heaven today and tired besides (could have somethng to do with the whole not-breathing thing), so I'm not sure what I have for the blather. We could talk about today's pointless photo, although it would be a short talk. This is one of my favourite tulips. It's a double purple... or at least it was. I'm assuming it still is, but the last couple of years it's been chewed off by the deers before it had a chance to bloom. This year? Well, my father told me a couple of days ago that it was juuust on the cusp of opening, which means that by the time I get to see it it'll either have been chewed off by the deers, be past its prime, or will have flowered and THEN been chewed off by the deers.

I'm not holding out much hope of actually seeing the flower, is what I'm saying.

I'm also not holding out much hope of this post being any longer, because my wrist's braced up today (just an old injury being annoying and achy) and it's wreaking havoc with my typing accuracy. Just to get this far has been a heckuvan exercise for my back button, let me tell you.

Gives me an excuse to stop here, right?



Well, it's good enough for me at any rate.

Any word from the Ontario Office then?





Yeah, yeah, I know I shouldn't press my luck...

Always keep your promises - or best die trying

I don't need to be badgered, all that much anyhow, to make a completely voluntary post to the blog. Nope. Not at all. I told SWMBO I'd be here and here, I certainly am. I mean it's not like she frightens me or anything. Even though she knows where I live.

Moving on...coincidence is not something that impresses me which is to say I find things happen generally in an orderly fashion and if a person is really aware, it's possible to see the patterns of things as life unfolds.

Back on the 14th of August, 2003 hydro power was lost all over eastern North America for several days. As a bit of fun the spousal unit and prodigy and I went walking for awhile, enjoying the quiet and confirming my peripheral blindness in surroundings devoid of at least a glimmer or two. Anyway that outage lasted for several days and soon you'll know why I even remember it.

On the morning of April 28, 2011 the power went out. For three and a half days. The difference between here and there is we now live in a township as opposed to the Centre of the Universe (where grids are larger and things fixed quicker). Because most of what I buy is on sale, including all roasts, ribs and the like I have two full freezers so by the morning of day two this already wasn't amusing and off we went. *I* now own a generator. Geez.

Oh and the so-called coincidence. One of the outages was on the birthday of my husband and one, on mine. Coincidence, bah!

The above photo is brought to you by the pups. This is the entrance to one of the woods we often walk through - well, I walk while they chase furry things, from mouse-size to squirrel to cottontails to the three white-tailed deer last week. And it's so much more beautiful here than there. My surroundings feel much more - forgive me - powerful.

I love what you've done with the place!

And so... tonight it has taken me well over three hours to figure out how to operate (read: get photos from camera to new photo editing etc programme, on new and hated laptop, edit same and try to logically file them in files I cannot find as the programme decided where to hide them)....so what you see currently is what you get.

Frankly I'm a little concerned as the print on my screen appears to be for not only the myopic but perhaps for those who are a wee bit deaf as well - yep, that big.

Thus I am simply going to lovingly hit "send" with the hope this inanimate object will take pity and help me out.

Oh, the explanation. As you can see it's a Duchess dog. I could leave you guessing but what you see is not wings, no. But a decent enough photo to have you take a second look anyway so clicky-click to see what I'm on about.

Annnnnd edited to say that I shall make it my next challenge to find the brightness option and the "fill in flash" equivalents on this freakin' programme.

Total ignorance

I had something to post today, but work things have made it totally vanish. I'll probably remember it the moment I leave the building, but just now, nothing.

I really need to start writing things down.

Anyway, in lieu of the whatever-it-was, I thought I'd tell you about the unbelievable woman who was in front of me at the grocery store checkout yesterday. And Maam? If you happen to recognise yourself in any of this... well, good. You struck me as the kind of person who may need to see herself as others see her. After all, it's been thought a good thing in the past (think O wad some Power the giftie gie us...).

So. Picture the line at the till. She'd put her things on the till's conveyor belt, but there hadn't been enough room so she'd put the last few things on the very edge of the platform. That's not the problem, by the way. I'm sure most of us have done that with a big load while we're waiting for the conveyor to shift things forward. Most of us keep an eye on things, though. This woman didn't.

Surprisingly, that's still not the problem.

The problem begins with the fact that one of the things she'd left teetering on the edge was a dropper bottle filled with what looked like some herbal extract or other. She left it there and moved forward to the cashier without making sure that it had made it onto the conveyor belt. And what happened? The conveyor moved, and the vibration caused the bottle to fall off and smash into a big messy... well, mess.

Still not the problem. Things happen, right?

The problem comes with the reaction. First, she acted as though she hadn't noticed a glass bottle smashing on the floor. Then she didn't tell the cashier about it so it could be cleaned up. I had to. Then -- and this is the part that, as an ex-cashier myself, really gets to me -- she acted as though it had nothing to do with her. Didn't even acknowledge it. Didn't offer to pay for it, because apparently the bottle was suicidal or something and had decided to leap off of the till on its own. It was like the bottle didn't even exist in her world, except that she then stalled the entire line so that she could go get another bottle of what was probably fairly expensive extract, judging from the label.

And what bugs me the most is that she likely saw absolutely nothing wrong with her reaction. Hell, there may be some of you reading this that see nothing wrong with the reaction. And that? Pisses me off.

It seems like, for a certain segment of the population, it's not necessary to acknowledge any sort of responsibility for even small things. I'm not sure when that started to happen, but it's really kind of depressing. Are we that much of an urban automaton as a society that things happen, no one cares, and we all just shrug it off? That's the same sort of mindset that leaves accident victims bleeding by the sides of busy roads, you know. I didn't see it, and if I didn't see it I don't have to do anything about it.

Gah.

Now, I'd expect that a few of my two fans are looking at this as a total overreaction to the situation, but I guess I look at this sort of thing as a kind of symptom of a disease. In a way, at least. Lots of little occurrences of this type start to add up to a great big WHY DO ALL OF YOU PEOPLE SUCK??? in my world, I'm afraid.

And some of you may see that as a problem with me, and I suppose you're welcome to your own thoughts on that.




But would it have hurt her to at least say a quick sorry for the greasy gunk I ended up having to clean off of my shoes?







Yeah, people suck.

----------

And on that happy note, I won't be around the computer for the next couple of days. Maybe I'll be in a better mood by Monday? Oh, I'll give it the old college try. After all, I don't want to have to put myself into my own people suck category, right?

Incidentally, I do have a sometimes people don't suck label, too. It... doesn't have many entries in it. Go ahead, world. I dare you. Do something to change that for me, ok?

Have a good weekend, everybody. See you Monday, even if it might be brief.

Multigrain

And rhubarb. No reason. The new leaves always look like brains to me, though...

Anyway.

As I was making toast from the last, thin heel of bread to go with my egg this morning (I reeeally need to get groceries), I got to thinking about the whole multigrain trend. And trend it is, make no mistake. It'll be the thing until the next thing comes along, and then multigrain will go back to appealing to a niche market. I'm hoping that the same thing will happen to the misuse of NATURAL one of these days, but then then my two fans already know how I feel about that one so 'nough said there.

Here's the thing, though.

I think I like multigrain better than single grain even without all of its current advertising clout.

My last slice of twelve (yes folks, count 'em. TWELVE!!!) grain bread had me wondering how many other overly-grained products I had in the house. Just quickly, before I went to work, I found a box of cereal, a box of pasta, and a bag of tortilla chips which all proudly proclaimed their multigrainedness. And bear in mind that this is (as I said above) with a distinct need to get groceries sometime in the near future. Like, on-my-way-home-today-or-I-may-not-be-having-supper near future.

That's a fair amount of multigrain, considering that I don't exactly seek the stuff out for dietary reasons.

So why are these multigrains finding their way into my house, then?




I suppose that I like them. Didn't I already say that?

Gee, that was a short post.

Ok, the fact is that I tend to scratch my head at commercials for breads and pastas that taste just like regular! even though they REALLY REALLY contain multigrains, because I find that multigrain products have so much more flavour than white-flour-only items. Ok, sure. I can see that maybe some people might not like the different texture, but... no, I don't see that either. A variety of grains make the texture far more interesting.

Do you suppose that I'm a closet hippie and didn't know it? Should I invest in granola, or buy some birkenstocks before it's too late for me 'n the bad ankle?




Nah. I just like multigrains.








This may be in line for the top ten of Most Useless Posts On This Blog, you know.

Um, yay me, I guess. Going back to work now.

Tweet tweet

Ok, so it's an anthill, not a bird. The connection'll be there (sort of) though, so give it a chance.

You see, I'm not talking birds here. I'm talking Twitter, which I honestly never in a million years thought I'd be doing.

I've mentioned this before, but I tweet for work. At work, yes, but literally for work. On our work feed. I also blog for work (under my actual name, even. Fancy that). I refuse to Facebook for work (so far...), but that's only because I refuse to Facebook for anyone.

What I'm saying here is that I spend a lot more time on social media than you might expect, especially for someone who doesn't own a computer. Yes, I still don't own a computer. I get enough computer time here, and since I'm allowed to use the computer for personal things (like, say, this) on my breaks that's usually plenty. Believe it or not, I don't really even miss the computer when I don't have access to one. Erm... well, except that I always have stuff to catch up on (including work stuff) when I do have access again, of course.

Hmm. 'Scuse me. I seem to have lost my intended topic somewhere in that last paragraph.

Oh yeah. Twitter. Funny thing about Twitter. I'm actually finding Twitter... useful, in a work sort of way. Twitter. Useful. Yes, it's about the last two words I'd ever expected to find in the same sentence.

When Twitter started I thought it sounded like the stupidest thing I'd ever heard of. I couldn't figure out what the point of it could possibly be. I mean, if I wanted the general internet population to read something that was on my mind I'd blog, right? What would be the point of blogging a single sentence? And if I wanted to send a short message it probably wouldn't be for everyone anyway, so I'd send a text instead. Twitter didn't seem to add anything to the world that I needed. And when I checked it out, it seemed so mundane. Let's face it -- Twitter's first moments really did seem to be all about telling people what you were having for supper.

Pretty useless.

The interesting thing about Twitter, though, is that it's Twitter's users who've found out what it's good for. It's the users who've moved things away from the realm of boring and useless to almost a collective consciousness (and theeere's where the anthill comes in, if anyone was wondering. I'll leave you to elaborate the metaphor on your own). The users figured out that Twitter could be used for advertising, or as a beacon, or as a call to arms, or even just as simple entertainment. Oddly enough (for me), I've found it sort of fascinating to watch the thing evolve.

And for a small nature centre like us, it's become an important communication tool since things we tweet are often picked up and retweeted by others who reach people that we don't. Another thing I thought I'd never see, there: Twitter and Important coming to mind at the same time.

Anyway. If anyone out there is interested in our Twitter feed or our work blog (although I'm not sure why you would be, since the stuff we publish is generally pretty local), leave me some sort of contact info in the comments and I'll send you the address. The only reason I'm not just adding it here is that I kind of like to keep work-me and deeol-me at least slightly separated.

And if you're wondering if deeol-me has a Twitter account... yes, she does. Just to follow people with. I don't tweet myself, you see.




No one really wants to hear what I had for supper.

I guess that means that some things about Twitter are still useless...

Tired

That's all. Just tired. It's been a really rough few days for Yours Exhaustedly and sleep, to the point where I'm having trouble eating at the moment because I just feel nauseous.

Geez, is insomnia ever fun.

So, what else? Oh, I guess there was an election yesterday, wasn't there?

I have nothing to say about it.

In fact, I more or less stopped thinking about it after I voted at the advance poll.

Baaad Canadian. Bad.

But at least I did vote, so that's... good? I guess?

I'm tired, remember?

I have done a little bit of news surfing around the 'net today, though, and I find it interesting to see the myriad of opinions about the election results showing up in the UK media, and the absolutely nothing in the US sources. I'm not surprised about that, mind. They find it odd enough down south that it only takes us a little over a month to have an election in the first place, and at the moment they're still too busy with their celebratory death-hangovers to notice that our very short election is already over.

Ah well. Sometimes it pays to be a little under the radar, you know?





I'm going to stop typing now in case I accidentally start making sense, ok?

Ok then.