Fifty things on my mind

For those new to the program, occasionally when I haven't nailed down a blather topic and don't feel like just posting I've got nothing, I'll do a fifty list.

Fifty what, exactly?

I don't know. Whatever comes out. Can't say I ever have it planned before I start typing. Sometimes I'll give myself a vague subject, but today I'm just going with the first thing that comes into my head. And then the second thing. And then the third thing.

Well, I suppose that you'd figured that out already. I guess I should start, then.

Any time, Dee.

Ok, here goes. Fifty things on my mind. And I hope that there really are fifty things on my mind...

1. This computer is sooo sloow.
2. I hate that I'm stopping in at work on my way home just to prepare for a stupidly early booking tomorrow.
3. Is it wrong that I'm in my forties but I still love that my flash drive is shaped like a crocodile?
4. I like cats.
5. I'm allergic to cats. The universe sniggers.
6. I originally typed carts instead of cats. Should have left it and kept my two fans wondering what kind of carts I liked. Or that I'm allergic to.
7. Should I have turkey for lunch again, or should I save it for the rest of the week?
8. I'm currently rather glad that I don't live in Calgary, what with the power outage. Actually, I'm generally glad that I don't live in Calgary.
9. Kinda hate this bra.
10. I don't hear any pounding upstairs. The kittens must be asleep.
11. Are fish ever more than decor? I mean, can a person have feelings for a fish? I certainly don't.
12. Would really like to get Surfin' Bird out of my head this morning. Here, why don't you have it instead?
13. Ok, that video was stupidly awesome.
14. Should I have turkey for supper tonight, or pizza? Probably pizza. Gotta avoid turkey fatigue.
15. Maybe I should make my own pizza. That'd be good.
16. I hope the highway isn't too busy. I'm not feeling too creative with my swear words today.
17. Yeah, I swear in the car. Harmless, except when I have a passenger. Then it's embarrassing or funny, depending who's along.
18. Email or e-mail? Email when texting, I think, but e-mail when you're being formal.
19. I can't believe that's an issue in my life.
20. In my life. That could be an earworm for a while.
21. I think that my brain radio is stuck in the sixties today. I'm ok with that.
22. Should I be paid for always keeping the work twitter feed on in the background on Dad's computer? Nah, I don't mind.
23. It's weird that we do so much of our work with twitter, though. I may have mentioned that once or twice.
24. I've probably mentioned most things once or twice or twenty times. Gotta love/loathe long-time blogging.
25. Twenty-five. Half way there! Sigh, only half way there. Keep draining the brain, Dee.
26. Is it odd that I've come to think of myself as Dee a lot of the time now, rather than by my actual name (which, of course, is Dimenhydrinate). I mean, people used to call me Dee in university, but should I be thinking of myself that way?
27. How many of you just looked up dimenhydrinate? Of course that's not my name. It's really Diatomite.
28. Did you seriously just look that up too?
29. I like traffic lights. It's an incredibly stupid Monty Python song, and it's how I can often get rid of earworms. Not linking to this one; you can find it yourselves.
30. I once read a Stephen Fry book that was entirely devoid of semicolons. He used commas for everything. Everything. Drove me frigging nuts.
31. I'm told that's more of a putt than a drive.
32. I don't consider myself a grammar granny, but the misuse of unique bugs the crap out of me. Loose instead of lose comes a close second. Learn your language, people.
33. I haven't been updating my reading shelf on the sidebar lately, but I recently reread A Shropshire Lad. Here it is through Project Gutenberg, and worth a look if you're not familiar. One of my all-time favourites. Apparent simplicity that hides a lot of skill and thought. My favourite poem? Probably Terence, this is stupid stuff... I used to be able to recite it from memory, but it fell out of my head at some point.
34. Just read the introduction supplied with that Gutenberg edition. Man, was that flowery horsecrap. And I hate when academic writers use One instead of You. French has On, yes, but using One in English is just pretentious.
35. In real life I would have said horseshit instead of horsecrap. I have juuust enough of a linguistics background (yeah, I did take some linguistics in university. Doesn't everyone with a zoology degree?) to be dangerous in my thoughts about language usage. Swearwords only are offensive if you let yourself be offended by them, really.
36. And if that last has you wondering, I try to keep it less blue here on the blog because I know that my two fans come from many different backgrounds and likely don't agree with all of my language opinions.
37. My two fans, by the way, is a joke to and for me. I know that I have more than two fans. Three, even.
38. I still don't hear any thumping upstairs. That's kind of suspicious.
39. Why is it that so often when I type the it comes out teh?
40. I should have lunch. But there's still ten to go...
41. Still enjoying my rolling ring, if anyone wondered. It feels weird to have it on today, though. I don't usually bother with jewellery at Dad's place.
42. And now we've reached the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
43. Back to language for a second. Do you use the Oxford comma like I did above? Look it up if you don't know. I'm done linking.
44. Ebola. Yes, it's very serious. But why are so many North Americans worrying about ebola and then not bothering to get a flu shot? The "plain old" flu kills way more people here.
45. And don't get me started on the anti-vaccination crowd. I'll just say read some science, people, and leave it at that.
46. I hate it when I find typos in old posts. I'll probably find some here tomorrow, but I don't have much time to proof today.
47. My wrist is starting to hurt. Just a few more, wrist.
48. There was a thump. Sounds like a Dad thump rather than a cat thump though.
49. I'm going to change this list thing to twenty things instead of fifty, I think.
50. Maybe my name is really Dysmorphia? No, that doesn't seem right.

Aaand... done. Does it make sense? Don't know, don't care, not rereading until tomorrow. Happy lunch, everyone.



Would that be Canadian lunch or American lunch, I wonder?

Chapter 1591: Wherein Dee gets all self-obsessed

The oriental poppies are in full bloom at the moment. I really love poppies of all sorts, but these are sentimental favourites because the seed came from my grandmother's yard. I usually take too many photos of them, but I restrained myself this year. No worries about the blog becoming All Poppies All the Time, then.

No promises about the irises, though.

----------

Man, was I long-winded yesterday. I didn't realise just how much until I read it back today. Ah well, it is Pointless Blather Blog, after all. Emphasis on the blather part now and then.

To keep to the apparently wordy theme of the weekend, I guess it's time for another 50 Things list. I used to do these semi-regularly on the old blog, but only recently resurrected them here. The idea is to pick a topic and list fifty things about it. I generally try to keep it positive because I need the practice, but that's not a hard and fast rule. It's my house, after all. I can change the rules whenever I want to. And with that... today's topic?

50 Things About Me
(in absolutely no order, because I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to type)

1. I'm very strongly left-handed, and I truly believe that I'm wired differently than most of the right-handed world. It sure seems that way, at least.
2. I'm an oldest (well, technically older. There's only two of us) child and an only daughter.
3. I like cheese.
4. I played oboe and tuned percussion in the school band. Tuned percussion because I was trying desperately to escape the oboe. I like the oboe, but there's nothing quite as lonely as playing oboe in a small-town band.
5. I have a very serious interest in historical fashion.
6. I hate it when movies get history wrong.
7. I studied Classics with my available option space when I was doing my Zoology degree. It was a nice break from the labs. My academic advisor thought I was nuts.
8. I don't currently own an MP3 player. When I go walking I like to hear what's going on around me.
9. I almost always have a song in my head. When I don't, I get worried because it's a bad sign.
10. I write two blogs and maintain a third, but I don't own a computer.
11. I'm a lyric mezzo-soprano.
12. I love Louis Armstrong. To the point where I (somewhat pedantically, yes) don't call him Louie because he never referred to himself that way.
13. I'm a comparative anatomy junkie and I frankly found my dissection labs in school fascinating.
14. I no longer cut up dead animals. The live ones are more interesting these days.
15. My cell phone is five years old because I'm having trouble deciding whether I want to change providers so I haven't renewed my contract. Is it worth the bother to switch, do you think?
16. My mother died unexpectedly in 1999 from complications from what was supposed to be routine surgery. The last time I saw her, I thought it would be the last time I saw her. This would freak me out more if I didn't realise that the memory of feeling that way wouldn't be nearly so strong if things had turned out fine.
17. As you can see from #16, I'm skeptical of premonitions and things like that. Skeptical, but not adamant in disbelief. I leave a window open in case proof ever actually decides to come in.
18. I like cats.
19. I'm allergic to cats. The universe laughs.
20. I dislike yellow in almost anything but flowers. I'm not sure why they get an exception.
21. I read far more non-fiction than fiction. I like to learn things.
22. If I get gift cards I go out of my way to buy something that I wouldn't normally buy. That way it's more gifty.
23. On a related note, my brother and sister-in-law have been supporting my art habit for years. Yay new toys.
24. I own the complete Monty Python TV series, including the German episodes.
25. Ditto A Bit of Fry & Laurie. Well, except for the German episodes since there weren't any.
26. I like sharing my books. With only a couple of exceptions, I'm not even overly concerned if they don't come back. Fly, book. Fly...
27. If you asked me what I'd save from my apartment in case of a fire, I'd be stumped. My ID? Honestly, my things are becoming less and less important to me as I grow older.
28. I got the English award at my high school. I know, kind of hard to believe.
29. I can write in fluent dry academic, but life's too short to be that boring.
30. I like playing with words, and think of language as organic. Proscriptive, rule-bound grammarians need to look at language as it actually exists as opposed to how they think it should be, as far as I'm concerned. In other words, go stuff yourselves.
31. My favourite curse word is bugger. It's extremely versatile.
32. I could have easily studied library science. Or linguistics. Language evolution is a very cool thing.
33. I hate dusting. It seems so pointless.
34. I (and my coworker) once used a keyhole saw to cut the breasts off of a mannequin. I should probably tell that story here sometime.
35. I've been walking the same trails in the Sanctuary for over twenty years now, but under the right circumstances going for a simple walk can still make me ridiculously happy.
36. When I was doing youth theatre with the choir I sang in, the lack of boys meant that I always ended up playing male roles. This despite the fact that I'm 5'2" and... erm, round. Apparently no one was supposed to notice?
37. My favourite colour is purple, but I look better in red.
38. I haven't had my hair cut in two years. Sheer laziness. When I do get it cut, it'll be short(ish). Then I'll let it grow again, probably.
39. I tend to have serial hobbies. I'll do one thing for a while and then move onto something else. Then, a few years later I'll go back and do it all again.
40. I once threw a full file folder across the room at my office mate (known here as Wheat. Long story). Missed. They're not very aerodynamic, file folders.
41. I have some pretty weird scars. Or, more accurately, scars gained in pretty weird ways.
42. I once gave myself a minor concussion by running into a tree during a pond study program. Long story. Again.
43. I didn't learn to knit until I was thirty. Now, I knit mostly toques. Too short an attention span for anything else.
44. I used to be pretty good at needlepoint and embroidery. Probably still am. It's not exactly something you forget.
45. I think that being nearsighted changes every single facet of my life. I'm always going to be more comfortable with the details than the big picture. Literally and figuratively.
46. I don't share many of my beliefs on the blog. I have beliefs; they're none of the internet's business.
47. I'm nearly terrified (think beyond scared, but not quite to the point of full-on phobia) of being burned and have been since I was a kid even though I've never been seriously burned in my life. It made it really hard to learn to cook as a teen because I didn't want to get anywhere near the stove. It's the one thing that might make me believe in reincarnation, really. Maybe I was a witch in another life. Hmm. Wonder if I weigh the same as a duck?
48. I'm allergic to the cold. No, I'm serious.
49. I like changing the words in songs. I think we can blame that one on my father, who used to stick nose into every song when we were children. As for me, I have a few favourite inserts. Just about every song about money is better with monkey, if you asked me.
50. I'm very pattern and shape oriented. Any weird photo cropping you see on the blog? Not accidental. I generally aim for things that appeal to my brain, even if they miss the point for everyone else.

And... 50. That was... very random.

But it equals another post, so good on me.





Blogging over the week might be pretty wordless since we're coming to our school year end, so  I might suggest that if this seems too blathery today you should wrap some of it up and save it for later.

Or find something else to read, I suppose. That works.

Done typing now.

50 Things: Aesthetics Edition

For those new to the program, every once in a (great) while when I feel like things have been getting a little too negative on the blog I'll do a 50 Things list. Fifty things that I like, that is. Or that make me happy. Or whatever, so long as it's on the positive side. This time around I thought I'd give myself a challenge and see if I could come up with a list focussed on the artistic side of life. I'm giving myself a little leeway here by calling it aesthetics, but that's mostly just so that this doesn't become a list of only painters or only colours or only carbon pencils. That'd be tricky. Erm, all of the above are allowed to appear on the list, by the way, and probably will.

Are you ready? Keep in  mind that I'm doing this entirely on the fly, so I have no real idea of what's going to come out:

1. Spiders. Yes, spiders. I find them aesthetically pleasing, in case you hadn't noticed. They're built very well for what they do, and there's a beauty to that. Just check out the Thin-legged Wolf Spider on the typing stand above. Kind of pretty, right? She's been my morning companion, you know. Doesn't talk much, but keeps the place bug-free.
2. Carbon pencils. I'm in love with carbon pencils. Absolutely sensuous to work with.
3. Lilies. Fantastic bold lines.
4. Interesting paper. And note that interesting doesn't necessarily mean expensive.
5. Renoir. A bit cliché, I know, but really my first introduction to impressionism so I'll always have a soft spot there.
6. Black paper. I like the occasional challenge of not being able to erase my mistakes. Only occasionally, though.
7. Branching patterns.
8. Patterns in general.
9. Diagonals.
10. Leaves. Leaves are a great way to practice drawing what's really there as opposed to what you think a leaf's supposed to look like.
11. Purple. Like the Early Blue Violets below (which are purple, despite the common name). They're all over Dad's yard right now.
12. Ok, violets of any colour.
13. Smudging. When it's on purpose, that is.
14. Moleskines. And I hate that I do, because it feels like I got sucked in by the advertising.
15. Watching people create almost anything. Even industrially. Remember the motorcycle-building shows that were all the rage a few years ago? I was heavily into them. And I haven't been on a motorcycle since I was a kid. Um... it was with my uncle, I should say.
16. Tulips.
17. Learning the thinking behind artistic choices.
18. Dale Chihuly. Well, his work. I honestly don't have an opinion one way or another about the man himself. But if you ever get the chance to see Chihuly in the Hotshop when PBS reruns it, watch. You'll be amazed.
19. Rich wood grain. You know, like an old library. I don't understand how people can paint over that sort of warmth and comfort.
20. Watching work progress. Someone I follow on twitter is currently tweeting photos of a mural that he's working on and it keeps interrupting my thought process here, to be honest. Not that there was much thought process to begin with, but...
21. Making myself get messy. It's completely against the grain for me, but every once in a while I just really need to open up my mess of a mixed media journal and make it even more of a mess.
22. Texture. It's one of the reasons that I've not had much urge to learn to paint. The brush is too much of a barrier to the media for me. Maybe I should take up fingerpainting?
23. Monet. Again with the impressionists, yes. I like impressionism, I guess.
24. Greens. Plural.
25. Actually getting something right. I spend too much time not liking my doodles, I'll admit.
26. Water drops. Take a closer look at water droplets on leaves or flowers after the next rain. Thousands of tiny magnifiers, really. Which leads me to...
27. Seeing things in a different way. Magnified, stripped down, opened up... whatever. I like seeing different facets of familiar things.
28. Daffodils. Geez, lots of members of the Liliaceae today. Not too surprising, though. I really do like the lines.
29. Am I allowed at this point to say flowers, period? I'm going to anyway.
30. Being surprised by a style or genre that I didn't think that I liked. Has anyone out there seen one of the seasons of Work of Art: The Next Great Artist? I'm not going to debate the merits of the works as actual art (and the whole idea of artists even competing like that) because I'm up in the air about it myself, but the show does have the advantage of introducing a person to methods of working and end results that you might not have even remotely considered in the first place. Stretching your boundaries is always a good thing.
31. Just plain doodling without an aim. I don't do enough of it at the moment (well, I don't do any of it until my wrist heals a bit more), and I need to make an effort to start again.
32. Hidden detail. Things you won't notice the first time around but surprise you the second or third.
33. Crud, am I only on 33? Ok, unexpected results, as long as it's not in something I'm doing for work. Work stuff needs to turned out as planned. Nature of the beast.
34. Inktense pencils. I kind of suck at using them still, but I'm having fun with the mistakes at least.
35. Trying out new media on someone else's dime. In other words, thank you to my enablers who keep giving me gift cards for things that I'm far too cheap to ever think about buying with my own money (yeah, I'm laughing at myself here, but it's true).
36. Masking fluid. It's still sort of a new toy for me, but other than the smell it's kind of fun.
37. Really good soft graphite pencils.
38. The Group of Seven. Being Canadian I grew up seeing their stuff on calendars and things like that to the point where it was boring and routine. A number of years ago, though, I was lucky enough to see many of the actual works on display in Ottawa and... wow. In person you really get what all the fuss is about.
39. The way things are put together in nature. Growth patterns, things like that.
40. Being nearsighted. And this is the only place you'll see my myopia on a "like" list. Overall I'd rather not be nearsighted, but I think it's given me more of an appreciation for detail.
41. Digital cameras. I said before that I like seeing things in different ways, and digital cameras allow me to do that without the worry of the cost of developing a bunch of wasted film. Sure, film photography has more craft to it, but digital has the freedom. I mean, just try googling camera tossing. Would that have ever happened without digital?
42. Lichtenberg figures. Look it up. They're amazing. Frozen lightning.
43. The internet, for making it so easy to find art.
44. Shells. Again with the strong lines. I suppose I'm not really into fussy.
45. Art stix. Another thing that I'm still figuring out how to use. Maybe I like things that I'm incompetent with, I don't know.
46. Pewter. Or, rather, neat things made from pewter.
47. Coloured gemstones. Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but aesthetically I find them fairly boring.
48. Butterflies. And moths, actually. And ladybird beetles. Insects add interest to flowers for me. Like a brooch on a nice jacket. Shut up. That's not weird.
49. Having an art gallery at work. It'll probably be gone with the upcoming renovations, but I'll certainly miss the opportunities it's brought along with it. Opportunities of all sorts, including having some of my own stuff exhibited (which I never would have imagined happening in... ever).
50. Soluble graphite. Ink wash without the ink, and at least partially erasable (thank goodness).

There. That's fifty. I'm not going to read them back just now since I've been called for lunch, but when I do I'll no doubt cringe. Ah well. The cringing is all part of the... fun?

Or whatever this was.

Type at you later.

Fifty things

I know that I said it'd be violets for today's pointless photo, but they weren't quite open yet so instead here's some of the crocusses that are.

Now, today's blather. First off (well, second off, since the flowers were first), I have yet another sinus headache today so you just know that's going to colour everything I blather. I'm tired of whinging about this cold, though, so in the spirit of avoiding that we (me 'n alllll the voices) are going to do another list. Haven't done this for quite a while, I guess, so for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, here's how it goes. Fifty things. I have to make myself think of things. Sometimes it's positive, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's themed, sometimes it's not. Today? Well, since my head's in a snot fog I think we'll just go with a very simple fifty things that make me happy. And for those of you who have had the pleasure: yes, I expect that at least a few of these will be repeats from previous goes at this. After all, there are only so many things that make me happy.

Here we go, then. In no particular order except the way in which they pop into my head, fifty things that make me happy:

1. This
2. Malted milk eggs
3. Lilies
4. Mandolins
5. Purple
6. Carbon pencils
7. Cheese
8. Vanilla
9. Mozart
10. Cats. For the most part. Max in the middle of the night? Occasionally.
11. Alstroemeria
12. Comparative anatomy
13. Jumping spiders
14. Actually learning things from TV. Yeah, I'm one of those annoying educational television types.
15. Historical fashion
16. Limes
17. Books
18. Logic puzzles. Not saying that I'm any good at them, mind...
19. Chickadees
20. Tulips
21. Deer. Except when they eat the tulips.
22. The smell of play-doh
23. Interesting paper
24. Patterns
25. Absurdity
26. Singing
27. Sixties pop
28. Seeing people enjoy learning. Especially about the natural world.
29. Pizza
30. Dry humour
31. Houseplants
32. Good design
33. Chocolate
34. Putting worcestershire sauce and dry mustard in with my scrambled eggs. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.
35. Knowing that I have something to contribute.
36. Watching talented people do what they do well.
37. The blues. The music, I mean. Not having the blues.
38. Making up alternate lyrics to songs. Blame my father for that one, I think.
39. This. Especially the piano bass line. One of the best ever.
40. Carnations
41. Pigma microns
42. Doodling. Guess I should have said that before mentioning the art supplies.
43. Baking cookies
44. Looking at things in a slightly different way.
45. Old-school jazz. They kind of lose me in the Sixties.
46. Listening
47. Yarrow
48. Saskatoons, especially in a pie.
49. Social history
50. This. 'Nough said.

Well. That wasn't so bad. Good thing I wasn't aiming for a theme, though. It would have been heavy on the flowers and food.

Anyway. I think that about does it for me on this Easter Sunday (and that's the only mention of that you're going to get here today). I expect to be away from the computer tomorrow, so we'll see you in a day or two.





Oh, and if anyone was wondering, I did manage to get out to vote at the advance poll yesterday. I even managed to vote for something that wasn't None of the Above.

Yay me.

50 things that I like

Yeah, I generally spend a lot of time whinging on this blog.

Believe me, I notice.

It's hard not to notice, really.

It's just a fact of pointlessness, I guess.

Honestly, since I didn't give the blog a particular focus it's easy to just say what can I complain about today? and make that the default. In an effort to lighten the mood a bit today, though (in honour of Pi Day, I suppose? And yes, I do know that makes no sense whatsoever), I'm going to attempt to come up with fifty things that don't involve me and bitchery. It's going to be tough -- and completely off the top of my head -- but here goes:

Fifty Things That I Promise That I Can't Find Anything -- Or At Least Much -- To Be Annoyed About

1. Today's pointless photo. Yep, sometimes they're pretty pointless and this one's no exception, but there's something about this particular pointlessness that I like. For whatever reason.
2. Cheese.
3. Art supplies.
4. Craig Ferguson. In a purely he's-entertaining-as-hell fashion, of course.
5. Good chocolate. Ok, almost any chocolate.
   
6. The Muppet channel on YouTube.
7. Cats.
8. Spiders.
9. Pop rocks.
10. Jane Austen.
11. Squirrels.
12. Pizza.
13. Roper slip-ons.
14. British sketch comedy.
15. Sleep. Too bad it's such a scarce commodity.
16. Patterns. They speak to my inner OLF.
17. Singing.
18. Flowers. I was going to be more specific and list individual flowers, but that seemed like it would be cheating on my fifty.
19. Project Runway. Yeah, yeah, I know.
20. Cooking competition shows. See above for resigned comment.
21. Louis Armstrong.
22. Trivia.
23. Clementines. The tangerines, I mean.
24. The Blues.
25. Melons.
26. Fred Astaire.
27. The Discovery Channel.
28. DVD extras.
29. Sudoku.
30. Chickadees.
31. Baby Coots. They definitely qualify as so ugly they're cute.
32. Terra chips.
33. 60s rock. Well, classic rock in general. Stuff I can sing along with in the car.
34. Watching talented people in their element.
35. Kids. Yes, I do like kids. Doesn't mean I want any of my own, but it also doesn't mean I can't like other peoples' kids.
36. Mozart.
37. Chamber music.
38. Absurdity.
39. Learning.
40. Blue Jays.
41. Digital photography. There's something appealing about how disposable it is.
42. QI. Thank Whomever for the internet, because I'd never get to see it otherwise. Oh, and BBC? I'd really love to be able to see it in a non-pirated way hint hint hint.
43. Folk festivals. Haven't been in too many years, but they're sure a lot of fun.
44. Monet. Which I initially mistyped as Money. Which I suppose I like too...
45. Historic fashion.
46. Social history.
47. Ouzo.
48. Internet radio.
49. Having an art gallery at work. Even when the displays are iffy, it's still something to talk about.
    
50. Chicken.

Well, that'll be my fifty for this time. Fairly random, I think you'll agree. I know I've done this at least once before, so if you're really obsessive I suppose you could use the search bar at the top of the page to see how many repeats there are in the list. Unless, of course, it was on the other blog before I deleted the old posts. Then you're mostly out of luck.

I'm sure you're heartbroken...