Pointless photo essay of the day:

First, a triptych that I'll title Hot Cats Think that Brass Music Stands are Cool:

Then, Spiders I Found in Various Places Yesterday:

 This is a Crab Spider (on Shrubby Cinquefoil, which used to be a Potentilla but has been put into a different genus now. I'm too lazy to look it up), and I'm thinking that it might be a Goldenrod Spider, although the markings aren't showing. Crab Spider of some sort, at any rate.

 Also a Crab Spider (and on the same plant, a couple of flowers away), and this time the markings are making me a bit more confident that this is a male Goldenrod Spider. The females are quite a bit different. And larger.

Crab spiders are ambush predators rather than web builders. They sit there on flowers (or leaves, depending on the species of spider) with their two front pairs of legs open, waiting for an unsuspecting bee or other insect to not notice them.

Very cool to watch.

I'm not sure what spider this one is. The markings look a little like a Hammock Spider, but I didn't get that close of a look. The sunflowers were pretty busy with ants... maybe this particular spider was in the mood for something acidic?

And finally, the spider that you can barely see. That speck there in the centre of the leaf, I mean. You can probably see the shadow better than the spider. Tiny spiders and autofocus cameras just don't mix. What's more a shame, though, is that you can't see the perfect web the spider made on that leaf. If it's still there today maybe I'll spray it down a bit so that it's more visible to the camera.

That'll do it for me today. I'm housesitting this week (more on that later), so you can probably expect a few more pointless yard photos than usual since I'll have more time for them.

Lucky, lucky you...

To boldly go

Ok, today's photo -- which accidentally ended up to be one of my most truly pointless creations ever -- is going to take some explaining. In honour of the Mars Curiosity Rover landing, I was going to take a picture of the Apollo mission models that I played with when I was very little. I thought I knew where they were in my closet here at Dad's, but that box turned out instead to have plastic Inuit models in it. An igloo, a man in a kayak, a polar bear... I have no idea why I have them.

Then I thought I might know where the Apollo stuff could be downstairs. No luck, but I did find my collection of patience cards (you know, those mini cards you use for playing solitaire. I like solitaire. I liked it even as a kid. That's probably sad, isn't it). I wasn't in the mood to delve into searching the store room just for some plastic models, so in the spirit of something spacey I decided to pose C-3PO on the shuffle board (I didn't pose the shuffleboard rocks. They were already there). Then I added Jasper the Bear (whose faded sign says CANADA. Well, where else would you find Jasper the Bear?) and an assortment of small boats because my family keeps weird stuff.

It, erm, made sense at the time.

Also, I need to clean the cat hair off of the shuffleboard. I notice that you can see Max's launch pad to the basement window ledge in the background...

Anyway.

I didn't stay up for the Mars landing, and to be honest I was astonished that it went off successfully. When I saw the descriptions of what was supposed to happen I could understand what the JPL was calling "seven minutes of terror" or however they put it. It just sounded so unbelievable that something so complicated could work. But it did, and I imagine that it wouldn't be hard to find a few happily hung over rocket scientists in California today.

I bet my two fans are waiting now for me to tell them that I've always been a huge fan of the space program and... no. I'm not going to be saying that, actually. I'm interested in the space program and I'm not against it by any means, but I'm not one of those who follows each mission with fish breath (you know, baited). I was a little too young to understand the Apollo missions (although I'll admit to being alive during all but the first moon landing. Well, I was alive even then, I suppose. Just hadn't made my entrance), I don't remember Skylab. I was aware of the Shuttle program and, as a reformed Trekkie, was sort of nerdily thrilled that they named the first one Enterprise, but that's about it. Yes, I remember where I was when the Challenger blew up (I had a spare first period that day and was watching the whole thing on live television as I got ready for school, in case you wondered), but then that's not the kind of thing you forget even if you don't really care about space exploration.

So why am I even bringing the Mars Rover up if I'm not a space junkie? A few reasons, I guess. First... IT'S ANOTHER PLANET. We've landed something on another planet. And we've done it more than once. A small step in the grand scheme of the universe, yes, but it's a pretty big thing for our species. We have the opportunity to study a whole different planet, and I think some of us forget just how science-fictiony that really is.

For those who deplore the waste of money, well, I see your point. Really, I do. If a person has to look at things from a purely economic standpoint I suppose I could bring up the old saw of the potential spinoffs (think of Teflon and Tang. No, wait. Not Tang. That's a myth. Tang wasn't developed for the space program), but you've already heard that from other people so I'm not going to bother with it. I guess I fall more on the side of those who say it's important for humankind to keep exploring, although I don't do it with nearly as much enthusiasm as the space evangelists out there.We are more or less programmed to explore, though, and have been since our ancestors left Africa.

Oh, I just outed myself as an evil evolutionist there, didn't I? Well, I'm sorry, but despite what my beliefs about how life did or didn't start on earth are (and, frankly, you can't claim to know what they are even if you think you do), I can't ignore the masses of evidence that show that I wasn't created from Adam's rib.

We need to keep learning. We need to discover. The worst thing we can do is stagnate. We need to learn, and we never really know what benefits that learning is going to give us. That's my true interest in things like this. The science is pretty cool on its own, but the fact that we'll be able to look back at things like this fifty years (or less) down the road and see that this led to that which led to that which led to that is even better.

And I'm going to stop going down that particular blather avenue now before things start to sound preachy.

For any of my two fans who are now wondering if I'm excited about the prospect of people on Mars, I might surprise you a bit again by saying no. I'm not. We're not there yet, in terms of our capabilities. We likely will be someday, and maybe even in my lifetime, but not now. I'm all for working on figuring it out, but at the moment I'm far more excited about these rovers and the things that they might teach us. Let's learn a bit more before we take the next step, I think.

And in the meantime, I'll be following Mars Curiosity here.

One of those days...

I hate it when real life intrudes on my ability to formulate blather, you know? I have no idea how much of a post this is going to be, but I fully intend to fill the space by telling you why.

Oh, and today's pointless photo? Completely pointless. I just didn't want anyone to get confused, seeing as how you had two posts in a row of only SEMIpointless photos.

So, we're back in a hot spell, and will be for a while according to the forecast. Sigh. As is usual this time of year, hot days almost invariably mean severe thunderstorm warnings in the evening.

We had one last night. Both a warning and a thunderstorm, even. It was impressive. A very noisy, very loud light show accompanied by a helluva downpour. I don't think we had any hail, at least, so mostly it was just nature showing off.

Except.

I got in to work this morning (and on weekends I usually get here about an hour before the front desk staff does so that I can have some quiet time to get things done) only to hear the unwelcome but all too familiar buzzing of the septic alarm. We have an aging septic system that's a bit too low-lying, and the rain we had in July saturated things so much that any little bit of water will overwhelm it. Yay. So, off go the pumps. On goes the hope that an hour's worth of sitting will let things clear enough that we'll have bathrooms available by the time the building opens.

Um, nope.

So up go the out-of-order signs, and on goes the process of trying to coax the thing to clear by putting them on manual for a few minutes and then turning them off for a while. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I've got things working now (for the moment), but with a big warning to the girls up front to keep an eye (erm, ear) on that alarm. There's another storm predicted for late this afternoon, but if we can offer plumbing services to the visitors for the majority of the day I'll be happy.

Did I mention that while this was going on our fire alarm control panel started giving off error signals and we've had to call in the control company? Uh huh. I'm waiting for the HVAC system to go on the fritz next.

In the meantime, I'm supposed to be leading a plant walk this afternoon. It'll only be about 30C out there, with a storm looming. Here's hoping that the usual plant people are too busy with long weekend plans to show up. Not that I'd mind doing the walk itself, but keeping visitors' attention when they're hot and worried about being struck by lightning isn't the easiest thing in the world to do.

Ah well. Back to work for me. I wonder how long it'll take for the ceiling to cave in?

How do you doodle?

I'm going to try to make this quick since I'm sort of in the middle of work things. That, of course, means that it won't be quick.

What you're looking at in today's pointless scan (ha! You thought I was going to say photo, didn't you?) is a page from the small moleskine sketchbook that travels in my purse. I was manning a booth at some event or other (can't even remember what, now), and there were long periods of nothing. Nothing isn't good for those of use with short attention spans, so I got out the sketchbook. I did do a couple of actual sketches which you're not seeing here, but after a while my brain went into pattern mode, which is a pretty normal tendency for Yours OLFly. The result is what you see here. And if you're thinking it's suggestive of of anything, well, that says more about your brain than mine. I was just making random shapes and filling them with checked patterns.

In case you're wondering, the inclusion of the ribbon in the scan was entirely deliberate. Now it's black and white and red all over...

Anyway.

The reason you're seeing this particular pointless pattern is because of this article about the value of doodling. It's worth a read. And you should also check out this link, which is from the bottom of the first one. Doodles by famous authors. It's pretty cool.

So, ok. Doodling's a good thing. But is it a good thing that if I'm doodling-doodling as opposed to sketching-doodling, it's almost always a pattern of some sort? It's been that way my entire life, really. My old grade school binders didn't have cats and flowers and possible boyfriends' names in them; they had patterns. Often the same patterns show up again and again. One you see above (this is the front inside cover of the same sketchbook. I was trying to make sure it was already "wrecked" before I started it. Otherwise I try to keep things too pretty. And the date? Well, I go through on and off periods with sketchbooks, so this one's been on the go for a bit. It's almost done, though. And if you wondered, I am, indeed, a doofus). One I've called The Brain because that's sort of what it ends up looking like. You've already see the checks; there's also a whole series of branching patterns where I set myself up some general branching rules beforehand and then see what comes of it.

I'm... kind of weird? Well hey, there's no surprise.

No grand conclusion's coming out of this, by the way. It was just a question I had. And if what you see here gives you more of an insight into my psychology, well then... um... good? Or bad, I don't know. After all, I am, in fact, a self-professed doofus.

----------

Congrats to today's medallists. I was able to see most of the trampoline competition before I left for work (including our gold medallist, who absolutely deserved it), but I'll have to watch the medal ceremony replay when I get home.

Which I have the option of. I don't know how you American fans can possibly put up with the NBC mess you've got on your hands. Here in Canada we're getting nearly twenty-four hour coverage, and on several channels. The live stuff's been keeping me great company on those sleepless nights (much better today, thanks). I'm almost glad for the difference in time zones, as inconvenient as it's making it for everyone else in North America.



Well? What other attitude would you expect from a sleepless doofus?

What's on your hand today, Dee?

Great shot, that. A truly pointless photo. Taken with the 3DS, since my two fans will remember that I feel a little weird about using the work camera to take pointless personal photos. And gotta love the angle -- I wasn't sure how to... um... "pose" to give you an idea of the wonder that is today's ring, so you ended up with an inadvertently strained pseudo-thumb's-up.

Ah well. The place is called pointless for a reason, after all.

What you're semi-seeing in the photo is a wonder of the early nineties, boys and girls. If you think you're seeing a silver cat-faced ring, then you have a pretty good imagination. It is, in fact, a silver cat-faced ring, but how you could tell that from a 3DS photo is beyond me. What you can't really see in the photo is that it's one of those rings that's adjustable and not joined up. It's kind of winding its way around my finger in a vaguely catish/snakish fashion. It has two sort-of limbs that make it look like it has its hands tucked in its pockets, and it's pretty much incredibly tacky. Real silver, though. Marked and everything.

I used to wear it a lot in university, which in itself is kind of odd when you consider that I was a zoology student and that my days were spent in dissection labs. Funny that it didn't poke through the gloves. Anyway, I haven't worn it for years, but on a whim this morning I polished it up and figured I'd see what it felt like.

Not too bad, all things considered, but I certainly wouldn't wear it for a pond study.

I'd mentioned a while ago a little bit of a resolution to try to vary what jewellery I wear, and it's been interesting. Oh, there's plenty of days when it'll still be the regular gold earrings and the silver pinkie ring you see in the picture, but I generally try to wear a chain or pendant instead of my flash drive around my neck, and I'll have at least a couple of days a week where I'll go fishing through the earring drawers to change things up a bit. Has anyone noticed? To be honest, I haven't asked and I don't really care. This is for me.

You see, I'm remembering now how I used to express myself through junky earrings and things like that. When I was (an awful lot) younger I used to match my earring themes to my programs. My family would give me interesting-looking earrings because they knew I'd always find a use for them, and I know one relative in particular who took a weird sort of delight in bringing back earrings from holidays that she knew I'd never find anything like around here.

Somewhere along the line I lost that.

I suppose it's a pretty simple combination of getting older and getting lazier, but I just stopped caring about adornment at some point. I still don't think it's especially important -- if I go out without a piece of jewellery on I definitely won't have a panic attack -- but I'd forgotten that it can be fun.

The last few months I've been having a little more fun again.

That's cool.

Anyway, back to work for me. And if anyone's wondering if the cat ring meant the sacrifice of other personal decoration (after all, I did have to take an extra thirty seconds this morning to polish it), the answer is nope. Rose quartz danglers, amethyst studs, silver ear cuff (I've been wearing that pretty regularly, actually), and a labradorite pendant. I'm the silver and stone queen today, boys and girls.

And it's sort of a nice change.

Type here

Honestly? The post title's a placeholder I use sometimes. I think it'll stay today, just because I have no idea what the blather's going to be. That's what happens when I get busy working at work, you see. Somehow I just get too distracted to come up with essay topics.

Hey, the topics here may be inane (or even insane, I suppose), but technically the blather sometimes does become an essay.

So, what to talk about? I suppose I could tell you what's been going on with the work day, but now that I stop to think about it the whole thing's going to sound like one of those you get paid for that? moments that happens so often in my interpretive life. Amongst other things, I've tweeted, I've "previewed" some nature games on a website (read that as: I played computer games), I did an old word find that we no longer had the answer for to make sure that the answer was both appropriate and... well, appropriate in more than one sense, let's say, and then I remade the word find on the computer since the original had been had done by hand back in the Nature Centre Dark Ages.

I've done more than that, naturally, but the above sort of makes it look like I'm a five-year-old pretending to work as an interpreter. Ah well, a little bit later I'll be throwing crickets at salamanders, and...

Hmm. Still a five-year-old, then.

In other news, it was nice to see the Ladies Eight get their medal this morning (yeah, I was up watching rowing at Stupid O'Clock again. At least the Olympics is giving me something to do when I've given up on sleeping), and the Men's C2 Whitewater competition was pretty amazing. Gold and silver for the home teams is kind of neat to see.

I was talking to my father last night, and he can't really figure out why I'm into the rowing and paddling events. That's all right; I can't either. The best I could come up with is that maybe I like people in boats?

Ok, in all honesty when it comes to the flatwater events I'm sort of fascinated by the combination of strength and strategy. And as for the whitewater, it's very definitely the wow factor. As in: wow, I could never even attempt that. Ever.

Ok, there's a post. I'll leave you with the reason for the pair of grape leaf photos, then. I was taking a shot of the front side (the top, here) because I liked the way the backlighting brought out the leaf textures. Then I noticed an odd spot and looked to the back of the leaves to find... THE SURPRISE SPIDER!

Always a good thing, a surprise spider. I haven't had nearly enough spider pictures these past couple of summers.

Ok, I'll try for a post tomorrow

No, really. It's just that right now I'm operating on tired brain and I'm not sure I could string the words together.

Which, of course, made my morning program just awesome.



Not sleeping did give me the advantage, however, of being able to watch the live feed of the Men's Eight winning their silver. A very respectable silver, considering that the Germans have been pretty much untouchable this year, and that our guys totally sucked rocks in their heat. Nice to see them get it together, and you have to admit that the last push was pretty darned exciting.

You know, if I could see rowing more than once every four years I might actually watch sports now and then. Just saying.

Now if I could only get my head around synchronised diving...