Dammit, Kentucky, I move back here and then you have to go do something unforgivably stupid.
Tag Archives: observations
IdiotCam©
I’m very excited that Brendan has made an archive of the IdiotCam©. It’s always been one of my favorite things about his journal, and it was ever a sad thing when a really good one would end its run and be replaced, thus being lost to the internet forever. But now they are all there and ripe for the viewing!
Brendan’s IdiotCam© inspired me to get a webcam way back when, where I decorated my own site with silly images until moving around got too much for it. Maybe I should pick it back up, you know, since just about everything cool I’ve ever done I’ve copied from Brendan.
Anyway, I highly recommend the Plastic Mullet Series (that $5 has paid for itself and then some). Blam! http://www.flickr.com/photos/brendanadkins/sets/72157600140681624/
Books and Weather
I believe I’ve hit a new reading record for myself: A 435 page novel in less than 6 hours (subtracting some time of boarding and unboarding the plane, the drive home, and the time it took to eat a late lunch).
Also, I wanted to make a clarification. Judging by the bewildered expressions and exclamations of people I told about the heavy, 14 inch snowfall here in Louisville, it seems there is a huge miscomprehension in New England that everyplace south of Pennsylvania is a vast, burning desert with year-round heat waves.
This is not true. Just wanted to let you guys know.
Merry Christmas! It’ll be below 0 for ours.
Snow…boooo
Yesterday was the first time I couldn’t enjoy a snowday because I’m a grown-up. Booooooooooooooo.
Motto
Lately, all around I’ve been seeing bumper stickers, magnets, and signs reading “United we Stand,” which is the first part of Kentucky’s state motto, based on a song, based on some Aesop quote or something, it’s a pretty popular saying. However, I’ve never seen the complete quote, and they’re leaving out the second and just-as-important part, you know, “Divided we Fall?” That’s kind of an important piece of the puzzle to just toss away.
St. Nick’s Day
Being from Kentucky, and growing up in Louisville no less, there was a time when I thought that the Kentucky Derby was a normal holiday, like Easter or Halloween. I just figured everybody celebrated it. When I got a little older and the scope of my mind expanded beyond my immediate surroundings, that changed rather quickly.
However, I discovered this week that *apparently*, not *everyone* celebrates St. Nick’s Day. Who knew! It went like this:
(Tuesday)
Me: “Oh drat, I totally forgot about St. Nick’s Day!”
Boss: “What’s St. Nick’s Day?”
Me: (after I figured out he wasn’t kidding)…WHAT?
Boss: Huh?
Me: You know, St. Nick’s Day, with the shoes and the candy!
Boss: …WHAT?
Horrified, I proceeded to ask every person who walked in the prop shop that day if they knew about St. Nick’s day, what with the shoes and the candy. Nobody did. I had NO idea, people in Connecticut apparently don’t know anything about this holiday, or maybe just people in New Haven? I then attempted to figure out what regions the celebration of St. Nick’s day fell into, but I had no luck whatsoever.
For those who don’t know: On the Eve of the feast day of St. Nicholos (Dec 6), you hang stockings on the fireplace mantle. You then get goodies–small things, usually candy or a slinky (having most assuredly broken last year’s slinky, at least that’s how it was with my family). If you want to be super-traditional (or if you live in a dorm), you leave a shoes out in the hall overnight, and St. Nick (your RA) leaves candy in them for you. Perhaps not the most sanitary of holidays, but still! You get goodies! It’s like pre-Christmas gratification.
My props carpenter said that the tradition probably died out as the whole St. Nick/Santa Claus/giving presents thing got merged in with Christmas. But hey, WE still celebrated it!
What other holidays am I mislead about? Time for research.
Thanksgiving Thoughts
If anyone remembers the christmas cactus I rescued from the gloom of props storage last year, I’d like to announce that it is blooming like crazy. It’s ready to be re-potted, too.
A more general thought: every now and then, I am forced into some situation (being stuck in an airport lobby, for instance) in which McDonalds is the only feasible means of nourishment. I usually buy something, eat it, gag in disgust, and make a dramatic proclamation that I will never, NEVER, eat McDonalds again EVER. However, deep in my heart, I know the next time I stop at a rest station on a long trip and that’s the only food for miles, I’ll shrug off my promise to myself and eat again….only to be disgusted again….only to swear I’ll never eat it again.
What is it about us humans that we constantly and even knowingly make the same mistakes in life, over and over and over again?
Happy Thanksgiving!
Recalling
Does anyone remember pocket rockers?
I’m pretty sure I had a pink one.
Baseball??
Connecticut is between New York and Massachusetts, thus I’ve been surrounded by both sides of this rivalry for the past couple of weeks. Now, I don’t even like baseball, but I suppose that because more people at my workplace are Red Sox fans than Yankees fans, then through association, or diffusion, or some other means of physics, that makes me a Sox fan too. And, as
In other news, my computer is down for the count at the moment (I’m at work). I guess after all this muttering to myself of “I spend too much time on the computer” and “I need to quit the internet”, my puter thought it would be nice and help me out.
Ponderings
Point of order #1: Things that were really funny when they happened that I totally forgot about and then was suddenly reminded of. Specifically, “Science is so cool, we’re replacing the word ‘cool’ with ‘science’!” I’m going to miss going to SETC with the Centre kids next year.
Point of order #2: And I apologize in advance for this, but, I MISS MY BOYFRIEND *sob*
Point of order #3: Artstuffs, selling artstuffs, and commissions. So far I’ve only ever done 2 commissions (3 if you count the T-shirt design I did for CentrePeace), both special cases for one person, who was a friend, which helped in working out how to go about doing a commission. I’m half-wondering if it’d be a good idea to take commissions now and again. I know the basic “bewares”, such as not taking on a bunch at the same time and getting burnt out, and getting payment things worked out and such. I dunno if I should do commission auctions, or just have flat rates for particular mediums, or what. I’ve done pretty well auctioning off the occasional piece of glass on ebay, and this year will be the first year at Conglomeration that I have 2D art so we’ll see how that goes. Just pondering over whether it’d be a worthwhile thing to try out or not.