Update, whether you want it or not

Gut? Seems to be finally settling down enough that it doesn't cause me dread to eat. Head? Not great, but good old OTC seems to be damping the ache enough for me to function.

Guess I might survive after all.

Anyway, I've still got work to do before I leave, so I think I'll just mention that it is, in fact, me in today's pointless photo.

I'm the hairy one.

The snake and I were modelling for the upcoming newsletter, and I'd like to inform you that garter snakes are NOT the world's most cooperative models. This is actually one of the rejected photos, but I figured that I may as well use it for something so here it is.

And that'll do it for today, folks. I'll attempt to be more blathery tomorrow, when I should have the time.

You want news? I'll show you news.

Or maybe I'll just show you a fairly busy rose. Good thing for the bee that the Goldenrod Spider is so small, I'm thinking.

So, news. You're not actually going to get any here, because the only news I really have is the continuing saga of not being able to eat properly. And why? Oh, come on. Someone had to be paying attention to yesterday's whinge, right?

It's not the kind of thing you want to rehash, anyway. Especially when hash itself would cause a world of hurt.

Anyway. The news in the title just refers to the fact that I'm forehead deep in newsletter editing (which? Could probably use its own blog label at this point. Newsletter comma moaning about), and any of my two fans who are regular readers know that newletter editing puts me completely out of the mood to blog.

Having said that, I'm keeping this short. As in, going now. See you later.




Ok, actually I won't, but I will see you on my stat meter so that almost counts.

Oh, it's been an interesting couple of days

I'd tell you all about it, but I know for a fact that even one sentence in you'd all be TMIing all over the place. Can't say I'd blame you, either.

Let's just say that when the doctor tells you that there are a couple of stomach bugs going around and you should remember to drink lots of fluids, he's neglecting to inform you of the part where your whole GI tract is about do its impression of being squeegeed from the inside out.

Yeah, we'll leave it at that, then.

Back to work for me, now, since things are sort of piling up (work things, I mean. Not the other kind) and I'm not entirely sure how long my system is going to let me stay at work.



Gee, this is fun.

Pointless random question of the day:

Am I the only one in the world who doesn't think that Emma Thompson is all that and a bag of chips? I mean, don't get me wrong -- it's not that I'm a loathing anti-fan and I'm sure that she's a very nice person, but she just doesn't do it for me and I don't, quite honestly, get the gushiness that many people on the internet seem to have for her.

Of course, it doesn't help in my books that she won an oscar for that fairly terrible adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, or that she was nearly twenty years too old to play the role she did in the film. Just goes to show that Academy voters and real Jane Austen fans aren't the same thing at all, I suppose.

And yes, I do realise that most normal people would say that nothing is the same thing as a real Jane Austen fan, and that it's probably a good thing.

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Ok, in lieu of an actual topic since I had a pretty awful night, let's play naturalist and talk about the pointless photo for a change. The featured creature is a Police Car Moth. No, seriously. That's what it's called. Proof? All right, here. If it's on the internet, it must be true.

Um, seriously? That's from the Royal Alberta Museum's website, and it's generally pretty reliable. I have my sources, you know.

Police Car Moths are slightly unusual in that they're diurnal (active during the day). They get their weird name from their resemblance to the markings on an old-fashioned police car, right down to the orange lights on top. The moth in my photo doesn't show the orange spots very well, but they're there all the same.

It's a reasonably easy moth to take pictures of because it isn't that strong a flyer and tends to stay put for quite a while once it's found a plant to nectar on. It can often be found on Goldenrod, although this particular moth was bucking the trend and feeding on Yarrow instead.

Too bad, that. The contrast of the yellow Goldenrod flowers probably would have made for a better shot. Ah well. You take what you get, especially when you're not willing to put a whole lot of effort into it.



[/biologist nerd who hasn't had enough sleep]

To art or not to art

I love these orange daylilies. Fantastic texture, great colour.

Um, consider that a warning that I have a few daylily photos hanging out on my nerdstick at the moment.

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Now, that's funny. I almost even made the photo have a point today, and without planning to. I was about to talk about the upcoming staff show, and daylilies actually tie into that.

You see, last year (ish. Was it last year or late the year before?) for the first time we had a staff art show in the Nature Centre's gallery. That meant that for almost the first time ever I ended up with some of my doodles on display. In a real gallery. It was a pretty bizarre thing for someone who doesn't even think of her doodles as any kind of art.

I submitted a bunch of stuff because there was an initial worry that there wouldn't be any submissions (in the end there were plenty, thank goodness), and you can find bad photos (and, um, one scan) of the three that ended up being chosen here, here, and here. Interestingly enough, of the three I probably would have only chosen the spider. I though a couple of the other things I submitted were a lot better. Oh, and you did of course notice that one of the three was an orange daylily, right?

Anyway, it's been decided that our experiment of having a staff art show was successful enough to be repeated this winter. And now I have to decide a) whether I have anything worth submitting, and b) if I don't, do I get off my backside and do something about it in the next month or so.

Here's the problem. Both of those options take effort, and I'm notoriously bad at the effort thing. If I have anything worthwhile already -- and that could include photos, if you've seen anything you like lately -- it would likely mean spending the time and money to get something properly framed, since I'm not sure we'll have the saved-my-ass option of borrowing museum frames we had the last time. If I don't have anything worth it, I'll have to come up with something. That means I need to have ideas, and I need to execute them.

The thing with that last bit is that playing in my mess of a mixed media journal has given me some non-illustration ideas to try out. Great, right? Added creativity rather than just doing my best to make a doodle look like the thing I'm doodling has to be a good thing. But. Suppose I decide to try a few things out? Suppose things get a little weird? Suppose I get all olf at the thought of having my general weirdness displayed somewhere other than a blog and then back out of submitting things all together?

ALL THIS PRESSURE...






Ok, all this non-existent pressure. If I don't submit anything, I don't submit anything. I'd kind of like to, though, since seeing my doodles up on display actually turned out to be a neat experience. Which, by the way, I never would have expected. I figured I'd be cringing every day at the thought that people were looking at my stupid little hobby, but that's not the way it happened. Weird.


All right, weird for me at least.



Ah well, if any of my two fans would like to help with the general indecisiveness have a look at the nonsense album from my other blog here. If there's anything that strikes you as displayable or any idea that you think could be developed if I do manage to get some ambition, just leave me a comment.

I should...

... be working on the newsletter right now. I really should. It's up in the background as we speak. Um, as I type and you read, rather. Or it was up in the background as I typed this, but maybe when you read it I will have already gone home for the day...

I'm confused.

And my brain hurts, which is normal when I'm trying to work on the newsletter.

I've so got nothing, can you tell?

Anyway, I really honestly should get back to the newsletter, so I think I'll just tell you about today's pointless photo and leave things at that.

Today's pointless photo shows what happens when an area that's not usually very wet in the summer gets a lot more rain than anyone expected. The erigeron has taken over my father's perennial garden, yes. Or at least it had the last time I was there. Maybe he's pulled most of it by now.

It always used to be such a well-behaved plant, too. Who knew that it was genetically related to the blob? And if you didn't click the link just now, come on. You have to. Best horror movie theme song ever.




Um, yeah. Going now.

Pointless GAH!!! of the day:

I've posted about this before so this'll be short, but PEOPLE. If you are silly enough to have automated music on your blog and I can't immediately find a stop button, I WILL GO AWAY. Quickly.

And surely I can't be the only one.

Why did anyone ever think that was a good idea?