Lemon Drops

A quote...

2007-08-19T10:28:00.000-05:00

"In the Middle Ages they would have burned me, now they are content to burn my books."

-Sigmund Freud,

of Hitler burning his books

Donkey rides...free, apparently.

2007-05-18T15:41:00.000-05:00

My dad is a dog trainer, and this is one of the dogs he was training with our donkey. I have another picture similar to this of a goat on top of a horse. The dog isn't mine, but it's a mini dachsund, I believe. I think he looks like a Chihuahua painted black. "iEstoy montando en el burro!" he cries...

Typo Generator

2007-04-28T13:05:00.000-05:00

As I was trying to make a banner for my other blog, I ran across this site and thought that it was really cool. It's called TypoGenerator...you enter a subject and it creates these little collage things...sometimes they're really cool and others they're just odd. As you can see, I made one for Lemon Drops [in the sidebar]. Here are a few more that I thought were neat:

London:

Violin:

Weezer [the band]:

Franz Ferdinand [the band]:

Violins

2007-04-13T19:53:00.000-05:00

These are some pictures that I took of my violin just a minute ago...I think it's always neat to get things from different angles than people are used to.

Happy Tartan Day!

2007-04-06T22:49:00.000-05:00

Today, the sixth of April, is Tartan Day. Have a great one!

For more on Tartan Day [or so that you know I'm not just making this up], click here.

Exciting News

2007-04-05T19:48:00.000-05:00

I've known this news for a few weeks now, but it's still exciting nonetheless.

I get to go to Scotland! And England!

We're not going for over another year, but that's all the more time to save my money so that I can buy a lot of plaid things. [I'm kidding...kind of.] So anyway, the thing that really prompted me to post this [it's horribly out-of-character for me to post about myself] was that Google Earth is like the coolest thing ever. Due to my abnormal fascinations with geography combined with those of England/Scotland, I took some screen shots of some cool places I'll get to see. Here they are from the air:

[Below] Stonehenge from nearly 5000 ft.

[below] Downtown Glasgow from 22,000 ft.

[below] The London Eye from 561 ft.

So...there you have it. Hopefully we'll be able to see all of those things, but there's so much to see and so little time!

I'll just note that the pictures are all Copyright Google...just as to ward off any freak-outage (not that I'd expect any).

[Sort of] Back

2007-03-30T21:00:00.000-05:00

We are on Spring Break from school, so I thought that I might post something. I've not taken too many pictures lately, and have no new wisdom to impart, here is a picture that I took the other night.

I like to write with a calligraphy pen...this is a picture of something I wrote and I realized how pretty it all was. [It's blurry for a reason, by the way. It looked too crisp with a flash.]

To make it more like spring...

2007-01-15T18:59:00.000-05:00

-
It's really rainy and gross here...so I thought I'd post a picture from this spring.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T22:25:00.000-05:00

These were the New Year's fireworks in Edinburgh, Scotland. [Not just my Scotland fetish, they're very pretty, too.]

Have a great New Year!

I got this picture here, by Googling it.

Don't forget to make it your New Year's Resolution to visit Eavesdroppers more often!

Let's Scottify...

2006-12-04T20:32:00.000-05:00

This made me happy. I found it on Google Images. It's supposed to depict Craig Ferguson, a late-night TV host (12.30 AM weeknights on CBS). He's Scottish, just so it all makes sense...

Have a great day!

"All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray..."

2006-11-28T19:49:00.000-05:00

These are some pictures I took at the beginning of fall. I'm just getting around to posting them. I thought that they were very fitting to "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas and the Papas...

-
This is one of the trees in our front yard with our dog, Raven, in the background. She was out there with me the whole time I was taking pictures. Her nose got into quite a few of them.

This is of the same tree buy while laying on the ground. I thought it was a cool angle.

One for the holidays...

2006-11-23T18:06:00.000-05:00

I was cooking the cranberries last night for this afternoon's Thanksgiving feast. I, of course, followed the directions. I found this snippet especially helpful:

TO FREEZE: Place this bag in the freezer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I also posted this on Eavesdroppers. If you haven't seen this blog yet, check it out!

Scotland pictures...last of 3

2006-11-17T23:48:00.000-05:00

And the long-anticipated final installment of the Scotland pictures...

--
[Below]The first two are of the same little building ruins that I showed in the last post on this...just different shots of it. I think that this little building is really cool. If it was acceptable to live outside, I'd pick to live there. Right there in that little half of a cottage. Or somewhere just like it (with less tourists).

--
[Above] This is the University of Glasgow. It's a really old, pretty campus. I have this picture in a little black polka-dotted frame right here next to my computer. I love it. I'd love to go to a college that's that pretty.

Cemetery

2006-11-17T23:39:00.000-05:00

This is a picture that my mom took at a cemetery. It's kind of sad, but happy at the same time. I also painted something based on this picture. I haven't worked on it in forever...the tree just needs flowers and a few more little things like that and then it will be finished. But still the picture's probably better. I'm not the best artist in the history of the world...

This also reminds me of when we were down at Mammoth Cave and passed a little cemetery. A sign showed us that it was called "Little Hope Cemetery". Take that as you may.

Scotland pictures - second of 3

2006-11-09T19:15:00.000-05:00

The previous post was of some Scotland pictures that I really liked...here are a few more.

[Above] A castle back in the woods.

[Below] Another castle. This is my desktop background now...I love it.

- -

[Below] I'm not exactly sure where this is or what it used to be. It's ruins of some sort, I suppose. A picture that I'll put on the next post has the same building but with lots of really pretty flowers...

For background on these, see the previous post.

scotland - first of three

2006-11-07T16:15:00.000-05:00

I haven't been to Scotland. However, I just got done watching Braveheart and I'm in a very Scotland-loving kind of mood. (As if I'm ever NOT in that sort of mood...but whatever.) So...yesterday I got these pictures that my grandparents took while they were over there a few years ago and I thought that I would share... [There are a lot of these, so I thought I'd do them in 3 sets...]

[Above] Sheep! For you, Sarah...haha

[Above] Sheep in the valley

[Above] Stone wall and flowers.

-
Excuse the big white boxes around them...they're scans and I've yet to sort this out.

out west...

2006-11-07T15:56:00.000-05:00

We took a trip out west a long time ago - long before I even knew what a blog was. I was looking through my pictures the other night and I thought that these few were really neat.

-
[Above]This is the St. Louis Arch from below. I presume that everyone visiting the arch takes a picture just like this one or at least one very similar. I think it's really neat though. I got lots of these.

-
-
[Above] This is Bryce Canyon, in Utah. It isn't as well known as the Grand Canyon, where we went, too, but I think it's a lot cooler.

Notice the orange printed dates in the corner...long before my digital camera.

organ views

2006-11-07T15:45:00.000-05:00

I was at church this Sunday and thought that I would take some pictures of the organ pipes from different angles. Here are the results:

I didn't take these on my camera, I took them on the church's because I had forgotten mine. It was a little more difficult to use - it was a much earlier version of mine. I'll bring my beloved camera next week and try again then.

jaws strikes again

2006-11-05T12:19:00.000-05:00

Jaws strikes again ? Nope, just an art exhibit.

The Caption:
Surfers walk past work titled 'Pedestrian Portait' by Australian artist Jennifer Cochrane, as part of the annual of the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition at Sydney's Tamarama Beach, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006. Staged along Sydney's spectacular Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk, Australia's largest annual outdoor exhibition of contemporary sculpture attracts over 400,000 visitors and exhibits over 100 works by artists from Australia and overseas. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

From Yahoo! News

Talk to the Hand

2006-11-04T20:29:00.000-05:00

I recently (Oh, I lie. I finished a week ago.) read my second book by Lynne Truss. It was Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door. I liked it a lot, though probably not as much as her first book, called Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Talk To the Hand was still a really good book about rudeness, as the title implies. It discussed a lot of issues that I think are pressing in today's society.
The introduction was quite lengthy, and then it went into the "six good reasons". These discussed common issues in the world that have to do with rudeness. She told a lot of stories that were quite comical, which made the book very entertaining and enjoyable.

It wasn't what you'd think of as a book about rudeness, though. It didn't tell what you should do in certain situations, and it wasn't really about etiquitte. It was just kind of like when you realize something is a problem and feel that you need to rant about it. It was that and a lot more.

It's truth made you laugh and realize that you'd been in a lot of the same situations. People talking loudly on cell phones all over the place (of course, I thrive on this so I can later blog on their stupidity) and others cursing at complete stragers or yelling at store workers or commiting various other acts of rudeness.

It also made me see rudeness in a different light. It made me realize when I'm about to do somthing that would make people think "How rude!" and makes me hesitate.

That's something you hear a lot around places.

One person cuts in front of another in the hall.

"How rude!"

Someone bumps into another or burps or whatever and doesn't excuse themself.

"How rude!"

Someone doesn't hold the door open for the person behind them.

"How rude!"

Of course, there are some times when rudeness is obvious, but need we state it so blatantly? I was recently at the mall, waiting in line for a soft pretzel. I never like it when someone stands directly behind me in a line, so I never do it. I was about 3 feet behind the woman in front of me - clearly still in the line - when a man came up in front of me and cut into that 3 foot space, like I wasn't even standing there. There was no "excuse me," no "may I get ahead of you, I'm in a hurry" and no convential getting-in-the-back-of-the-line.

But I kept my cool and didn't say a word. It got even more frustrating, though, when he didn't know what to order and then his kids came up to him (crowding me further, of course) and started demanding their orders, too.

I got the pretzels that were fresh from the oven though, didn't I?

As cliche as it is, sometimes you want to yell "how rude!" and sometimes more than that. But we must hold ourselves back, because isn't yelling "how rude!" rude in and of itself?

If you want to read more about Lynne Truss or any of her books, click here.

Pictures for Today...

2006-10-29T10:56:00.000-05:00

Aurora

-
I really really like all of the pictures that the NASA website [see link to the left] puts out on a daily basis. I think that they're neat and they make you think, too. Call me a nerd, but I look at them most every day.

[Caption]

Aurora from Space Credit:Don Pettit, ISS Expedition 6, NASA
Explanation: From the ground, spectacular aurora seem to dance high above. But the International Space Station (ISS) orbits at nearly the same height as many auroras sometimes passing over them, and sometimes right through them. Still, the auroral electron and proton streams pose no direct danger to the ISS. In 2003, ISS Science Officer Don Pettit captured the green aurora, pictured above in a digitally sharpened image. From orbit, Pettit reported that changing auroras appeared to crawl around like giant green amoebas. Over 300 kilometers below, the Manicouagan Impact Crater can be seen in northern Canada, planet Earth.

For the full article or more pictures of auroras, click here.

There were a lot more NASA pictures that I really liked. To see a few of them, click the links below:

Sunspot

Bubble Nebula

Mediterranean Trip - Part 3

2006-10-27T18:11:00.000-05:00

The last part...

I've had two posts (actually 3, but whatever) before this about my trip last year to the Mediterranean. This is the last of them and will chronicle my journeys to Rome and Vatican City.
-
When we got off the boat in Civittavecchia, we stayed in another hotel in Rome. It was on the far other side of the city from where we stayed the first time. It was closer to the Vatican, because that was where we were to go the next day. I forgot my camera when we went, so I used Mom's. I'm not sure if the pictures in the post are mine or hers, but that's beside the point.
It was a really really cool thing to see. There was so much history crammed into a space of barely .2 square miles. That's teeny. And there were just so many things that you've always seen in books or wherever.
We went to the Vatican museum (Musei Vaticani) where we got tickets into all of the tours and went through security. [Vatican City is actually a country. It is the only country in the world that does not require a passport to enter.] So we got in and started touring through what seemed like miles of corridors filled with statues and historical things. Eventually it opened into a courtyard that had the "Vatican Pinecone" and lots more famous statues. [The Vatican Pinecone is (I think) Bernini's creation. It's a huge pinecone made of copper, but it's turned green by now, of course. Dante gave reference to it in The Inferno, in reference to something really ugly. It was one of the less beautiful things there, I will say.] After all the museums, we went through the Sistine Chapel museum, which was filled with a lot more art, lots of which were by Rafael and Michelangelo. Then it opened into the Sistine Chapel [bottom left - the big square-ish part towards the top], one of the most prolific works of art of all time. They don't let you take pictures or talk in there, but it was truly beatiful. And HUGE. All of the paintings seemed life-size, but they were way up there, so they were really much bigger. Lots of wellknown glimpses of art are in there, like the one where God's and Adam's fingers are almost touching, and the wall on the far end that shows, in a sense, heaven and hell. I can't think if they have names or not, but they're definitely recognizable. It's got to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Speaking of what I saw, we also saw...the Pope. We were there at about five o'clock, and they were having Mass at St. Peter's Bascilica, so we went in. There was standing room only, so stand we did. We stood on the right side where the choir sits. They were singing in Latin, so I didn't know what on earth they were singing, but we were right there next to the baritones, and one of them moved his book over so we could read off it...very nice of him, but we couldn't read it. I hummed, though.

Then we looked up towards the front and there was the Pope (Benedict XVI, or Papa Bendetto XVI, in Italian. That name made me giggle.) in his white robe and little hat thing...just kind of standing there. He didn't say anything. As far as I ever saw, he was just standing there.

After we were there for a while, we decided it was time to find some dinner, so we left. On the way out, I accidentally dropped my water bottle. Of course, everything else was silent, and the water was icy. It rolled about five feet and a Swiss Guard in the vicinity looked at me kind of mean. I picked it up, muttered a "scuzie", and went on my way. So across Italy, on televisions or hundreds of Catholics, they hear a big THUNK. Yeah, that was me.

After we saw Vatican City, we stayed a last night at the hotel and then flew back. Seeing the sign after customs that said "WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" was a sight to behold. Of course, we then had to drive home. It was good to be back, but great to have gone.

[NOTE: I found a good picture of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Click here to see it.]

I never cease to be amazed...

2006-10-22T15:10:00.000-05:00

Another genius in the world...

[We are in Walmart, in the crafts section. Sunday afternoon.]
Mom: Excuse me?
Worker 1: [bewildered] Yes?
Mom: Do you all have self-adheisive felt?
Worker 1: No.
Worker 2: But we do have the kind that you can stick to things.
Me: [smirking] That might just work.

Have a cheery day!

Mediterranean Trip - Part 2

2006-10-21T22:19:00.000-05:00

[This is my second attempt at posting this.]
-
There are some posts below this about my trip a year ago to the Mediterranean. I've been having a hard time getting anything posted - especially the pictures.

Anyhow, this is about the second part of the trip: the part in Greece and Turkey.

After Sicily, our next stop was in Turkey. When we woke up one morning, the above picture was what we saw out the window. It was a city called Marmaris. There were a lot of stores, so we shopped even though Americans got gouged for their money. The vendors came up to you as you walked down the street and asked you [in English] to visit their shop. If you said no, it wasn't rare to get yelled after...one man yelled after us, "You insult my family!!" They really took it personally. The best thing to do if you didn't want to go in was play foreign. We often just replied "No hablo ingles" or "No parlo iglisi" [Spanish and Italian for "I don't speak English."] They only spoke Turkish and Engish since Americans were their top customers and they were from Turkey. They charges us higher prices, too.

After Turkey, we went to Greece. The first stop there was in Patmos. We walked up to the site where John wrote Revelations...it was way up on a mountain. The picture at the right is out of the window there. There's also a well-known monastery there, but we didn't hike that far up the mountain. It was a really neat place in the cave - there were lots of paintings and really old things and it had the place where John is said to have sat writing, and shows where it said he laid his head, etc. You weren't allowed to take pictures in there, so I just bought a postcard for my scrapbook, because it really was nice.

After Patmos, we went to Santorini, a little town situated on top of a mountain out in the middle of the ocean. It looked like it would topple if you so much as stomped. To get to the top, you either rode a cable car or a donkey...we chose the cable car - the donkeys were expensive and we can ride a donkey at home anyway! There was a lot of shopping there and we went to a Catholic Church [someone who lived there told us that it was one of hundreds on the island]. It was really a cool place. The clock tower shows what most of the buildings looked like. Most of them were shades of white and blue, and all square and plain. They had porches and gardens, and their occupants seemed to be very carefree. There were lots of cats there too - I got a really cool picture of me with a little black kitten that lived outside a bakery. I was offering it food and it looked pleased [though not too much in need].

Note: The previous and next pictures would not load. For the clock tower, click here. For the boat, click here.

Like I said, almost all of Santorini is situated up on the cliff. There was just a little bit down at the bottom, like information and the cable car station, etc. There was also a place that rented out boats and gave rides. The boats were really cool - kind of like a pirate ship. I took lots of pictures of them. We didn't ride on one because it, too, was very pricey. And we only had so much time there - there was so much to do! After Santorini, we started back towards Italy. We had a few days at sea, where we did things like go to concerts, watch fruit carvings, and go to paper-flower-making classes. That was just as fun!

Coming up next: my favorite part! The Vatican's coming at you.

Mediterranean Pictures

2006-10-21T17:43:00.000-05:00

Ah...finally I have given in. Posting these pictures with Blogger is just not going to work. I have tried every way I know - URLs, new posts, Print Shop, and countless attempts...with no avail.

But I have done the next best thing.

To get URLs for pictures to post, I use Photobucket, and they give you links you can use to get to pictures. So...here they are.

The Colosseum:

This is one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken. I took it just as we were going to tour the Colosseum.

Roman Forum:

Another very cool place...This was just a big building (I want to say a church?) but I'm not really sure about it. But right next to it was a place where a famous martyr was burned at the stake. His last words were "Flip me over - I'm done on that side." Ah...the wit.

Tower:

I'm not sure what this is called, but it's in the general are of the Forum. When I got my pictures developed, I couldn't remember where it was, and I only found out when I saw it in the background of another Rome picture.

Sicily:

This was in the public square in Catania, Sicily.

For more on the trip, see the post two down from this one. Sometime soon, I'm going to post parts 2 and 3. Better luck then, I hope.

[Note: When I tried these links, they took awhile to load. But my internet is very slow, so that could just be it. Stick with it, though - they're really neat to see.]

light in motion

2006-10-20T22:10:00.000-05:00

When I was at Sarah's house last weekend, the moon was really pretty. We thought that we would take pictures of the moon...but that was difficult as usual. (See a post a few down from this...) Then we decided to move the camera deliberately...hail the results:

My brother says that this looks like the new iPod commercial...but whatever.

[Note: If you view it in the actual size, you'll see a little blue dotted line right under the big white one that is the moon...the blue one is just a light on a house in the distance. There was much confusion over what it was...but then we looked out at the horizon again and figured it out.]

Mediterranean Trip: Part 1

2006-10-14T19:02:00.000-05:00

Ah...it's been a year exactly since I was in...Greece.
That was part of a trip I took in 2005 that brought me to Italy, Turkey, Greece and Vatican City.
I saw a lot of really, really neat things. That was my second time going to Europe, and it is quite the experience. It's not just the things that you see, but the oddities of foreigners: languages, food, mannerisms, and feelings toward Americans. And the feel of it all. It's completely different from going somewhere in the U.S. where you understand what you overhear, you know what every dish of your dinner contains, you know how to ask directions, know how much what you're buying REALLY costs, and you don't act like you're from a different country so that you aren't charged more for everything. You're wandering back to wherever because you've lost your way and your ears are filled with the sounds of the street: babbling Italians (or whomever), street vendors, and - usually - a cat. (I'm telling you, I've never seen so many stray cats. And they're FAT. Thanks to the tourists like me who give them a pinch of whatever they happen to be eating...)
So...now I've finally gotten my scanner up and working (this trip was before the reign of my digital camera) and this was the first thing I did.
I have quite a few pictures that I thought summed a lot up. Because my computer is so horribly slow, I'm only going to do a few at a time.
-
The first little section, I guess, is going to be the first few days in Italy.
-
We flew to Rome, where we stayed in the Hotel Imperiale, just down from the Hard Rock Cafe Roma (I wear my shirt all the time). The first day, we took a bus to the Roman Forum - home of the Colosseum. We took a tour nearly four hours long of the Forum. (May it be noted that we had just disembarked a cramped plane after a sleepless eight hour trans-Atlantic flight, taken our suitcases to the hotel, and then gone straight to the Forum on the Roman equivalent of a Greyhound bus. I was feeling a bit off-color, I admit.) There was a lot to see there - the Colosseum was the main attraction, but there was also the Arch of St. Constantine, the tomb of Julius Caesar, and various basilicas and statues.
-
Our next stop in Italy was Civitavecchia, a port-town about an hour from Rome. Here we boarded our ship, the Costa Tropicale: home for the next week or so. Our first stop after boarding was in Catania, Sicily. (Sicily is a region of Italy - and island to the Southwest.) It was really quite rough and there was a lot of evidence that it was a port city - it was messy, fishy, and there were a ton of boats around. I have lots of pictures taken just of some of the trash and fish piled high on the sides of the roads. The streets were filled with markets and everything for a while once you got there. We were starting to think that there had to be something more to Sicily when the busy street we were on opened up into a courtyard - downtown Sicily. Here we found an abbey (Very, very pretty - I couldn't find a picture of this, though), lots of statues, a place that sold Coca-Colas (one phrase that can be recognized in any language), and even a "Euro-Store" - the European equivalent of a Dollar General. (Here I bought lots of gifts for people. They were cheap, but still authentic. We also gave the store's workers quarters and candy from the U.S. - they spoke only Italian and were very interested in us.)
-
We left Catania at the end of the day: laden with packages from the Euro-Store, full on pastries and Cokes, and about ready to be back on the ship for dinner and a nap.
-
Thus ends the first leg of the trip...I'll pick up on the rest of it sometime soon! The next post should be on Turkey and Greece and the last one will be about the Vatican, etc.
-
[Note: My computer is currently being disagreeable and refuses to load my beautiful pictures. I've even tried a few different computers and it still doesn't work. It does this often, so I will just post this now and try tomorrow to get the pictures up...they're the best part, I think.]

[I beleive that I have surpassed the deadline I set for myself at the beginning of this "series" - I wanted to get it all done during the 8-18 of October, because that's when I was there last year. However, it is currently the 20th of October (nearly the 21st, for that matter). I'll get it done eventually. I think my picture troubles are nearly over. I'm trying again. It hasn't worked. I'm off to bed...I'll try once more tomorrow.]

a promising friendship...

2006-10-11T22:42:00.000-05:00

I was in Kohl's tonight shopping when I heard two workers talking. They were two girls folding turtlenecks and I was just a few racks away, and their conversation lured me in. They were talking (with harsh language) about a girl they didn't like who went to their school/college.

The best part went as follows:

Girl 1: So then we went to the store and got a couple dozen eggs.

Girl 2: Then what?

Girl 1: We went to her house and we SO egged it. Her mailbox, her house, and even her car.

Girl 2: Yeah?

Girl 1: And her parents knew it had something to do with her, because she's just so [insert adjective of choice here]

Girl 1: But we're good friends now. She'll just never know I'm the one who egged her mailbox and everything will be just fine!

Girl 2: Cool!

beware of [shy] dog

2006-10-10T20:19:00.000-05:00

[Garfield]

I read this Garfield comic in the paper this morning and then it was on my homepage, too. I thought it was really funny.

Next to Peanuts, I'd have to say that Garfield is my favorite comic. It's one of those that you pretty much always get...but it's hardly even comparable to Peanuts. It doesn't have the same kind of qualities...Peanuts is just so very true. C'mon - you've got to admit that anyone can sympathize with Charlie Brown. Or at least I can.

[I couldn't get the comic to load. I don't think they like it when you try to use their comics in other places...but if you click on the word 'this' at the beginning of this post, it should go to it. Or try clicking here. Or, for that matter, read the latest edition of your hometown's paper. Unless, that is, you live here, which means you only get the town paper once a week, and even then it doesn't have comics. The site only keep comics up for like 2 weeks, so if it doesn't work, that would be why.]

lace bookmarks

2006-10-10T20:12:00.000-05:00

I spent most of the day today at my grandparents' house. My Nannie and I made bookmarks, because she does a lot of sewing stuff. They're made completely of thread, and the machine weaves them into a kind of lace. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the green one on the left is just a kind of Celtic-looking knot and the purple one on the right is a flower.

The green one I'm keeping for myself...and - yes Sarah - you can have the purple one.

I can see how this sewing stuff would get quite addictive...it's a lot of fun.

feeling miniscule

2006-10-09T19:59:00.000-05:00

I was doing a little Google-ing earlier and found...this:

"But what IS it?" you ask. [Besides fascinating] It's called a "horsehead nebula". Here's what the source had to say about it:

Horsehead Nebula. This photo was taken on the morning of October 5, 2000, at Kitt Peak Observatory as part of the Advanced Observing Program. The telescope was a Meade 16 inch LX200 (f/6.3) with an SBIG ST-8E CCD camera. Adam Block, lead observer, Betty Peterson and Mel Peterson were the photographers. This picture was processed using LRGB color production with exposures of 48 minutes for the luminance (greyscale), 10 minutes for the red component, 10 minutes for the green component, and 20 minutes for the blue component. The full size image is 1522 x 1006 pixels. Kitt Peak is the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc. See Astronomy, October, 2000, page 80, for an article on this program by Adam Block.

I got this from a really neat site about the astronomy program at Augustana College, in Illinois. There were lots of other really cool pictures besides this one. [Click above where the word 'source' is highlighted for the whole page.]

I like to look at big pictures of the universe - it makes you realize that our day-to-day trifles are miniscule in the grand scheme of things...hmmm...now that I've gotten all philosophical, I beleive it's time to go off and watch the Twilight Zone before Sarah demands her DVD returned.

After delving a little further into the site, I found out they have an astronomy picture of the day. Here's a link: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

the sky is falling!

2006-10-09T19:38:00.000-05:00

"The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"

- [That's right] Chicken Little

-
The moon was full last night or the one before that, and it was really golden-orange. The problem I was having was that in order to get a long enough exposure to be able to make it out, I had to sit still for that long. I was sitting in the middle of a feild of dew-covered winter wheat, in the dark, and freezing cold. On this first one, it actually had a pretty interesting effect. Instead of a shooting star I supposed it was a shooting moon. I kind of like it, even though it's not what I was going for.

I finally did get a decent picture, but the moon was the only discernible thing in the whole picture. You couldn't see the trees or anything. I suppose I'll try again another time...

bookends

2006-10-08T13:02:00.000-05:00

This is June and Riley in our den, napping. I think they look like bookends.

We have three dogs. Raven is the other and she was outside when I took this. Lots of times, they all sleep there together.

I took lots of pictures of them sitting there like that. I think it's really cute.

...and I quote...

2006-10-07T18:15:00.000-05:00

I love quotes. These are some that manage to stick with you...

"Yes, ma'am - I am drunk. But in the morning, I'll be sober and you'll still be ugly." -W.C. Fields

"Some are born greaat, others achieve greatness, others have greatness thrust upon them." -William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night

"Ignornace more commonly begots confidence than intelligence." -Charles Darwin

"It must of really been worth hearing about if it was too awful to mention." -Olive Anne Burns in Cold Sassy Tree

"Without music, life would be a mistake." -Freidrich Nietzche

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today; it's already tomorrow in Australia." -Charles Schultz

"When they give you ruled paper, write the other way." -Juan Ramon Jimenez

"No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is not try." -Yoda in Star Wars by George Lucas

"Don't be so humble, you're not that great." -Golda Mier

"My one regret in life is that I'm not somebody else." -Woody Allen

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." -Mark Twain

"The world is but a canvas to our imaginations." -Henry David Thoreau

"Happiness isn't getting what you want, it's wanting what you got." -Garth Brooks

"Give me a museum and I'll fill it." -Pablo Picasso

"Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted." -John Lennon

"Feminism is a way for ugly women to get into the mainstream of America." -Rush Limbaugh

If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it." -W.C. Fields

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than to be crowded on a velvet cushion." -Henry David Thoreau

"The cup of life is for him that drinks, not for him that sips." -Robert Louis Stevenson

"
In three words I can sum up everything about life: it goes on." -Robert Frost

"Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same." -George Bernard Shaw

"To be positive: to be mistaken at the top of one's voice." -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

"We know what we are, but we know not what we may be." -William Shakespeare, Hamlet

"Someday we'll look back on this moment and plow into a parked car." -Evan Davis

"Get your facts first. Ten you can distort them as much as you please." -Mark Twain

"It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it." -Mark Twain

"I gloat! Hear me gloat!" -Rudyard Kipling

A sufficient start...but not even the beginning of all of them that I have.

the same sun

2006-10-06T22:51:00.000-05:00

It always gets me that every time you see the sun, it's different, but the very same...ah, the complexities...I love to take pictures of the sun in all different places, and probably take one of every sunset and most sunrises. This is one of my favorites since the last time I posted pictures of the sun. I took a lot more at the same time as this one, but they're all a lot the same. I often find myself taking about twenty pictures of the same sunset. Once I printed them all from one day and it was like one of those cartoons where you can flip the pages and see it like it's actually happening. I still have them in a book so you can flip and see them in rapid succession.

[Above: A picture of a recent sunrise off our back porch; the sillhouette of our dinner bell. Yes, we have a dinner bell.]

are you there? no.

2006-10-06T14:05:00.000-05:00

When I was doing the post on last words, I was reading about Ambrose Bierce and his disappearance. I've always thought that disappearances are very odd (and quite depressing) but here are some notable ones from througout history.

[Note: all of the following have an article or more on Wikipedia. That's were I got my info...]

The Princes in the Tower
These were two illegitamate sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. Their names were Edward V of England (1470–1483?) and Richard of Shrewsbury, first duke of York (1473–1483?), and they were placed in the Tower of London in 1483. Nothing was heard of them after that.
-

John Cabot
John Cabot was an Italian explorer. He is often noted as the first modern European to discover America. He, along with 4 other ships, dissapeared while trying to go west from Europe to Asia.
-

The Corte-Reals

Gaspar Corte-Real was a Portuguese explored who was trying to find a NW passage from Europe to Asia int he early 1500s.
His brother, Miguel Corte-Real was also a Portuguese explorer who disappeared while searching for his brother Gaspar.
-

Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English explorer (1570-1611) who was set adrift by fellow crewmen and never heard from again. His widow, Katherine, tried to find him, but there was no trace.
-

Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce, an American writer (notably of THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY) very much like Edgar Allan Poe, disappeared in Mexico while travelling. In a letter shortly before his disappearance, he is said to have written:
"Good-by — if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico — ah, that is euthanasia".
-
Anastasia
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia and her family were the last of the Romanov autocratic dynasty in Russia (early 1900s). Her family was murdered in 1918 in a house sometimes referred to as "The House of Special Purpose." Some say that she was murdered with her family, while it is also claimed that she survived the executions. In th 1990s, the remains of most of the family were found, but those of Anastatia and her brother Alexei remain missing. Some researchers say they were buried in a "seperate, undisclosed location." This has not been proven and her death remains a mystery.
Her identity was claimed by Anna Anderson, but these claims were found to be false.
-
Percy Fawcett
Percy Fawcett was a British archaeologist and explorer who was lost while trying to find a lost city in Brazil. He named this city only "Z". It was supposed to be in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil; the city, Fawcett, and Fawcett's son Jack are still yet to be recovered.
-
Felix Moncla and Frederick Valentich
I'm just going to directly quote Wikipedia on this one:

Felix Moncla, Jr was a United States Air Force pilot who disappeared while pursuing an unidentified flying object over Lake Superior in 1953. The Air Force reported that Moncla had crashed and that the "unknown" object was a misidentified Canadian Air Force airplane, but the RCAF disputed this solution, reporting that none of their craft were near the area in question.
This is not the only aircraft disappearance associated with a UFO; over two decades later, Australian Frederick Valentich vanished after reporting an unusual object near his small plane.

-

Roanoke Island - The Lost Colony
Roanoke Island was an early American settlement in what is now NC. [The Outer Banks region] The city appeared abandoned and its occupants gone without a trace.

-
For more click below: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_disappeared

poe...the sequel

2006-10-05T22:37:00.000-05:00

That's right...I'm blogging on Edgar Allan Poe again. I recently bought a book at Barnes and Noble that had the "Essential Poe" and his biography (about 100 pages) at the beginning. It's a huge book - about 800 pages. The first section is poetry...and these were some of my favorite poems. You can definitely tell a huge difference between the poems he wrote earlier and the poems he wrote after the death of his wife, Virginia Clemm. After she died of TB, life got darker for Poe.

-
Anyhow, here are some of my favorites.

-
The first one is "The Sleeper." It's kind of creepy, but in a mystical way.

-
THE SLEEPER
by Edgar Allan Poe

At midnight, in the month of June,
I stand beneath the mystic moon.
An opiate vapor, dewy, dim,
Exhales from out her golden rim,
And, softly dripping, drop by drop,
Upon the quiet mountain top,
Steals drowsily and musically
Into the universal valley.
The rosemary nods upon the grave;
The lily lolls upon the wave;
Wrapping the fog about its breast,
The ruin molders into rest;
Looking like Lethe, see! the lake
A conscious slumber seems to take,
And would not, for the world, awake.
All Beauty sleeps!- and lo! where lies
Irene, with her Destinies! -
O, lady bright! can it be right-
This window open to the night?
The wanton airs, from the tree-top,
Laughingly through the lattice drop-
The bodiless airs, a wizard rout,
Flit through thy chamber in and out,
And wave the curtain canopy
So fitfully- so fearfully-
Above the closed and fringed lid
'Neath which thy slumb'ring soul lies hid,
That, o'er the floor and down the wall,
Like ghosts the shadows rise and fall!
Oh, lady dear, hast thou no fear?
Why and what art thou dreaming here?
Sure thou art come o'er far-off seas,
A wonder to these garden trees!
Strange is thy pallor! strange thy dress,
Strange, above all, thy length of tress,
And this all solemn silentness! -
The lady sleeps! Oh, may her sleep,
Which is enduring, so be deep!
Heaven have her in its sacred keep!
This chamber changed for one more holy,
This bed for one more melancholy,
I pray to God that she may lie
For ever with unopened eye,
While the pale sheeted ghosts go by! -
My love, she sleeps! Oh, may her sleep
As it is lasting, so be deep!
Soft may the worms about her creep!
Far in the forest, dim and old,
For her may some tall vault unfold-
Some vault that oft has flung its black
And winged panels fluttering back,
Triumphant, o'er the crested palls,
Of her grand family funerals-
Some sepulchre, remote, alone,
Against whose portal she hath thrown,
In childhood, many an idle stone-
Some tomb from out whose sounding door
She ne'er shall force an echo more,
Thrilling to think, poor child of sin!
It was the dead who groaned within. - -
-

This next one is one that I quoted in my last post on dearest Edgar..."Is all that we see or seem/but a dream within a dream?" I like this, and it is one of his more familiar and - go figure - one of the brighter, happier ones.

-
A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM
by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream. -
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream? - -

-

This one is another example of the "comfortable desolation" that I beleive I've mentioned feeling before. "...Yet that terror was not fright/but a tremulous delight..." I like this a lot.

-
THE LAKE. TO __
by Edgar Allan Poe
In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide world a spot
The which I could not love the less-
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that towered around. -
But when the Night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot, as upon all,
And the mystic wind went by
Murmuring in melody-
Then- ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake. -
Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight-
A feeling not the jewelled mine
Could teach or bribe me to define-
Nor Love- although the Love were thine. -
Death was in that poisonous wave,
And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his lone imagining-
Whose solitary soul could make
An Eden of that dim lake. - -

As it's now midnight, I'm off to read some more Poe. Or something like that.

Note: I got all these poems here because I didn't want to type them. It's a really good site. It probably has about as many short stories and poems as the book I bought. Were I not such a feind for books, I might just read things off the internet.
-

let's talk about henrik

2006-10-01T11:54:00.000-05:00

In my post about last words, I mentioned those of Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I thought that his picture was entertaining. The only acquaintance I've ever had with him was when I had to read A Doll's House for English I. It was pretty good.
Have a nice day!

Famous Last Words

2006-10-01T08:19:00.000-05:00

I have a book that shows the last words of a lot of famous people and I find them quite intriguing...but maybe that's just me. So here are some of my favorites.

-
From "Famous Last Words: Fond Farewells, Deathbed Diatribes, and Exclaiations upon Expiration" Compiled by Ray Robinson

-
"Am I dying or is this my birthday?" -Lady Astor
"I wish I had drunk more champagne." -John Maynard Keynes
"It’s very beautiful over there." -Thomas Edison
"I’ve never felt better." -Douglas Fairbanks
"On the contrary!" -Henrik Ibsen [when his wife said he’d get better]

NOTE: I love the picture of Henrik Ibsen on the link above.
"Death is nothing, nor life either, for that matter. To die, to sleep, to pass into nothingness, what does it matter? Everything is an illusion." -Mata Hari
"They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist-." -General John Sedgwick [of Confederate sharpshooters on faraway ridge]
"[Tell them] that I loved to draw. Then go home." -Edgar Degas [instructions for his funeral]
"Drink to me!" -Pablo Picasso
"What have I lived for?" -Lorenz Hart
"Let us cross over the river and sit under the shade of the trees." -Stonewall Jackson
"My dear, before you kiss me good-bye, fix your hair. It’s a mess." -George Kelly
"I wish the whole human race had one neck and I had my hands around it." -Carl Panzram
"As to me, I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination." -Ambrose Bierce [before disappearing]
"More light!" -Johann Wolfgang von Geothe
"Curtain! Fast music! Light! Ready for the last finale! Great! The show looks good! The show looks good!" -Florenz Ziegfeld.
"Lift me up, for I am dying. Don’t be frightened. Thank God it has come." -John Keats
"All my possessions for a moment of time." -Elizabeth I
"I’m tired of fighting. I guess this thing is going to get me." -Harry Houdini
"sister, you’re trying to keep me alive as an old curiosity. But I’m done, I’m finished, I’m going to die." -George Bernard Shaw
"God, don’t let me die. I have so much to do." -Huey Long
"What an artist the world is losing in me." -Nero
"There’s fun in the air." -Maurice Chevalier
"Goodnight my darlings, I’ll see you tomorrow." -Noel Coward
"Dear world, I’m leaving you because I’m bored. I’m leaving you with your worries. Good luck." -George Sanders
"I shall hear in heaven!" -Ludwig van Beethoven [other sources say his last words were "Friends, applaud. The comedy is over.]
"Goodbye, I’ll see you in heaven." -John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
"I have just had 18 whiskeys in a row. I do believe that is a record." -Dylan Thomas
"Cool it, brothers." -Malcolm X
"I want nothing but death." -Jane Austen
"I paint as a means to make life bearable. Don’t weep. What I have done is best for all of us. No use, I shall never be rid of this depression." -Vincent van Gogh
"Go on, get out. Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!" -Karl Marx
"I had it all, I did it all, I loved it all." -Sid Luckman
"I do not have to forgive my enemies. I have had them all shot." -Ramon Maria Narvaez
"I’m losin’." -Frank Sinatra
"I die happy!" -Charles James Fox
"Wait a second." -Madame de Pompadour
"It has all been very interesting." -Lady Marot Worthy Mantagu
"Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something." -Pancho Villa

more pointless stupidity

2006-09-30T15:00:00.000-05:00

You've got to hold at least a little admiration for idiots.

Football games are a fabulous place to hear them in their prime.

Girl: So are you a sophomore?

Guy: [about 14] Naw, I'm out of school.

Girl: You're probably just in like special ed or something.

Guy: [looks around] WHO's in special ed?!

At Barnes & Noble [Yes, there are some idiots in bookstores, too.]

Kid 1: Mommy, are you and Daddy still fighting?

Kid 2: Yeah, do you still hate eachother?

Mom: Yeah...[in direction of "Daddy"]...because he's a DIRTBAG!!!

Okay, that one was just kind of depressing. As is this one:

At our school's Constitution Day:

5th Grader: [to Betsy Ross impersonator] So how many times have you been married?

Betsy Ross: I've been married twice.

5th Grader: HA! My mommy beat you. She's been married THREE times!!!

And finally, one of my friends, of another girl at the football game:

"She has a gap in her teeth and a gap between her brain and her spinal cord."

Have a lovely day!

i'm in an edgar allan poe sort of mood

2006-09-24T20:33:00.000-05:00

A recent project for our Honors English class was to research the Spanish Inquisition, since we had just read The Pit and the Pendulum, a not-so-short short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Being the overacheiver that I sometimes am (and being bored), I stumbled upon a website where one can download Poe stories for free. Naturally, I did just that.

Also, I found some of his most famous quotes, which I found quite lovely:

-All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
-Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.
-I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.
-I have no faith in human perfectability.
-I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity.
-Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
-I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.
-It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.
-Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.
-Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.
-Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow - You are not wrong who deem, That my days have been a dream; Yet if hope has flown away In a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none, Is it therefore the less gone?
-The true genius shudders at incompleteness - and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.
-They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
-We loved with a love that was more than love.

My favorite work by Edgar Allan Poe is "The Raven," a poem which can be read here.

In my research I also found that when you have to research torture in the Spanish Inquisition, be ready to find some very strange articles on torture. Very creepy.

We also watched a documentary about him, and he happens to be a very interesting person. Here is his Wikipedia article, and one on the Spanish Inquisition.

ummmm...

2006-09-23T21:33:00.000-05:00

After browsing some blogs that other people keep [I hear your cries of "NERD!!" from here], I realize that a lot of people have far too much time on their hands. Some of these people seriously write pages and pages a day. Of course, this is my fourth post of the day. But it is the weekend, and I'm waiting on my stupid computer to finish downloading a song...so what else could I do?

Anyway, I hope my blog's not awfully boring like some of these that people dedicate their lives to. I just like to write and since there aren't any magazines or anything around to work at, and our "city"'s paper is...[insert adjective here], I take out my writing whims on the internet. So there.

And now iTunes has finished with my song, but still - I type. The patter of keys fits nicely with my current serenade of The Beatles.

Hmmmm...so that this post has some sort of purpose, here are the lyrics to another of my favorite songs.

"YOU OWE ME AN I.O.U." by Hot Hot Heat

He was in the habit of taking things for granted

Granted, there wasn't much for him to take

And the only thing constant was the constant reminder he'd never change

Tight fisted with his compliments, it didn't seem to bother him

that talk is even cheaper told in bulk

And the only thing constant was the constant reminder

He'd never change

And so she yelled at him:

You owe me an IOU - owe me an IOU

You owe me an IOU

Don't think that I'll forget

You owe me an IOU - owe me an IOU

You owe me an IOU

Don't think that I'll forget

I know what I should get this time

She was in the habit of reapplying makeup

Makeup eaten up by crocodile tears

And the only thing constant was the constant reminder she'd never change

Overtly individual - covertly traditional

She couldn't seem to make up her mind

And the only thing constant was the constant reminder she'd never change

And so he yelled at her:

You owe me an IOU - owe me an IOU

You owe me an IOU

Don't think that I'll forget

You owe me an IOU - owe me an IOU

You owe me an IOU

Don't think that I'll forget

I know what I should get this time (yeah)

Oh...What is it real?

I don't know

But, I'll act as if it is

What's the deal? I don't know

But, I'll act as if it is what I think that it is

If it is, then this might just work

They were in the habit of taking things for granted

Granted, they never quite knew what they had

And the only thing constant was the constant reminder they'd never change

And so they yelled out loud:

You owe me an IOU - owe me an IOU

You owe me an IOU

Don't think that I'll forget

You owe me an IOU - owe me an IOU

You owe me an IOU

Don't think that I'll forget

I know what I should get

Yeah I know what I should get this time

Gotta love that...and them. A bunch of Canadian guys...I like the twangy sort of accent.

Well...it's about to storm. So before I die from being shocked from the computer or anyone reading this dies of boredom, I had better get off and go...do something.

Until next time...

japantown? no.

2006-09-23T21:00:00.000-05:00

Sarah did a post not that long ago about stupid things that she's overheard...always fun. We both read this book called Overheard in New York that was full of these overheard wonders.

Our school is a goldmine for stupidity.

For example, I overheard the following during Algebra Thursday:

GUY 1: So you're going to Chicago?

GUY 2: Yeah.

GUY 1: Are you gonna go to Chinatown?

GUY 2: No. What's that?

GUY 1: Where all the Japanese people go to, like, feel at home.

GUY 3: No, it's just where the Asians go, or something like that.

ME: [unable to contain myself] CHINAtown is where the Chinese go, and China and Japan are BOTH in Asia.

GUYS 1,2,3: Oh.

If you want to be at least mildly entertained, click here for the OVERHEARD website.

newsworthy?

2006-09-23T16:22:00.000-05:00

I'm getting very tired of the news. It's always a conglomeration of the most pathetic criminals and their pathetic deeds, and a moment cannot be taken to glorify the small margin of good remaining in our world.

At our school yesterday, there was a program honoring the shipmates of the U.S.S. Garrard, a ship named after our county that was in WWII. The veterans were there and a painting and model of the ship were dedicated, there was music by the band and others (I played my violin...) and some students made speeches. All very nice...but was it on the news? Of course not. Too cheery.

This is why I've started watching Katie Couric when I do watch the news. She at least lets a little light into the news.

However, I usually just fill my news whims by watching latenight tv. What could be better? Funny AND informative.

In a good way.

UPDATE: I recently found a site that was full of good news. I thought that it was a really neat idea to have a blog that's just all good stuff in a world full of depressing things all around the news. The url is www.goodnewsblog.com . Check it out!

my kind of answer

2006-09-23T16:18:00.000-05:00

I thought that this was really funny. It was forwarded to me and this was the explaination:

Blonde Geometry

Attached is problem 3 on a geometry examination. It is the solution submitted by a beautiful blonde student.It is our understanding that after careful scrutiny, the student was given credit for the answer by the teacher. When hearing of this the Board of Education warned math teachers to be more explicit in the wording of examination problems but was hesitant to suggest how.

superflous!

2006-09-17T20:31:00.000-05:00

This came from a job interview help site and it was talking about how you shouldn't use too many big words to try to seem smart during an interview.

I like big words. [That sentence did not include any...]

Here it is:
Next time, in promulgating your esoteric cogitations, or articulating your superficial sentimentalities and amicable, philosophical or psychological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosity. Let your conversational communications possess a clarified conciseness, a compacted comprehensibleness, coalescent consistency, and a concatenated cogency. Eschew all conglomerations of flatulent garrulity, jejune babblement, and asinine affectations.
Let your extemporaneous descantings and unpremeditated expatiations have intelligibility and veracious vivacity, without rodomontade or thrasonical bombast. Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic profundity, pompous prolixity, psittaceous vacuity ventriloquial verbosity, and vaniloquent vapidity. Shun double-entendres, prurient jocosity, and pestiferous profanity, obscurant or apparent!!
** ** In other words, talk plainly, briefly, naturally, sensibly, truthfully, purely. Keep from slang; don't put on airs; say what you mean; mean what you say. And, don't use big words!"

[I don't know the URL of this...I have to ask my brother because he's the one who sent it to me. It might even be on his blog.]

My nana ends every meal by exclaiming:

"I have masticated sufficiently, any more would be superfluous!"

You see the source of my fetish...

...and my poor violin doesn't get to come!

2006-09-10T09:26:00.000-05:00

See - I'd like to go to Hawaii, but my poor violin couldn't even come! [See previous post]

From Yahoo! News:
Standing under a pair of palm trees, people watch the weekly Waikiki fireworks show put on by the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort Friday July 14, 2006 in Honolulu. Though Hawaii is notoriously expensive, crafty travelers can easily revel in much of what the state has to offer while holding tight to their pennies. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

I can't buy a ticket for my cello?!

2006-09-10T09:12:00.000-05:00

This infuriated me a little when I saw it on the news and now I was just reading about it on the internet. Someone had a bomb plot involving an instrument they were carrying on a plane, so...

You're no longer allowed to carry-on an instrument on a plane. This means that you have to check it. I've never taken my violin anywhere because I didn't want to carry it on, much less have it put under the plane. Things get broken all the time, which is too big of a risk to take with an instrument that costs thousands of dollars and, at least in my case, has a very significant sentimental value on top of its monetary worth.

For somewhat obvious reasons, this has enraged many professional musicians who have to travel overseas with their instruments. It can't be with you - there was even a case where they wouldn't let a cellist buy an extra seat just for his cello. Honestly!

Anyway, this is the picture that went with the story on Yahoo! News. I thought that it was kind of a neat picture.

From Yahoo! News:
[A violin. A group of top classical musicians has warned of the threat to artistic life from a hand baggage ban introduced after British police foiled an alleged bomb plot against transatlantic airliners.(AFP/File/Jeff Pachoud) ]

monty python

2006-09-09T20:25:00.000-05:00

I think that I should just give up on numbering the list of my favo[u]rite Brits/Scots because this is getting ridiculous to have to keep track of...because now I've remembered 6 more...

MONTY PYTHON is a group of British comedians known for their sketches on 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' and also their movies, which came after the show but are probably better known. (I, personally, prefer the show.)

-
Top Row (L-R): Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam

Bottom Row (L-R): Terry Jones, John Cleese, Michael Palin

Wikipedia has a huge article on them. See it here.

For the original Accents list, click here.

on the tenth...

2006-09-09T15:29:00.000-05:00

My birthday is tomorrow, and I share the birthday or someday with these people:

-

Births
1169 _ Alexius II Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (d. 1183)
1487 _ Pope Julius III (d. 1555)
1550 _ Alonso de Guzman El Bueno, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, commander of the Spanish Armada (d. 1615)
1588 _ Nicholas Lanier, English composer (d. 1666)
1624 _ Thomas Sydenham, English physician (d. 1689)
1638 _ Maria Theresa of Spain, queen of Louis XIV of France (d. 1683)
1659 _ Henry Purcell, English composer (d. 1695)
1714 _ Niccolò Jommelli, Italian composer (d. 1774)
1758 _ Hannah Webster Foster, American author (d. 1840)
1788 _ Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes, French archaelogist (d. 1868)
1836 _ Joseph Wheeler, Confederate Lt. General and United States General (d. 1906)
1839 _ Isaac Kauffman Funk, American publisher (d. 1912)
1839 _ Charles Peirce, American philosopher
1844 _ Abel Hoadley, Australian confectioner (d. 1918)
1852 _ Alice Brown Davis, Seminole chief (d. 1935)
1861 _ Niels Hansen Jacobsen, Danish sculptor and ceramist (d. 1941)
1866 _ Jeppe Aakjær, Danish writer (d. 1930)
1886 _ Hilda Doolittle, American poet and novelist (d. 1961)
1890 _ Elsa Schiaparelli, French couturiere (d. 1973)
1890 _ Franz Werfel, poet and author (d. 1945)
1892 _ Arthur Compton, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
1896 _ Ye Ting Chinese military leader (d. 1946 )
1896 _ Robert Taschereau, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and Governor general of Canada (d. 1970)
1897 _ Hilde Hildebrand, German actress (d. 1976)
1898 _ Bessie Love, American actress (d. 1986)
1898 _ Waldo Semon, American inventor (d. 1999)
1904 _ Max Shachtman, American Trotskyist politician
1907 _ Alva R. Fitch, American World War II and Korean soldier (d. 1989)
1914 _ Robert Wise, American film director (d. 2005)
1915 _ Edmond O'Brien, American actor (d. 1985)
1917 _ Miguel Serrano, Chilean author and diplomat
1920 _ Fabio Taglioni, Italian motorcycle engineer (d. 2001)
1922 _ Yma Súmac, Peruvian singer
1924 _ Ted Kluszewski, Major League baseball player (d. 1988)
1928 _ Jean Vanier, Canadian humanitarian.
1929 _ Arnold Palmer, American golfer
1931 _ Philip Baker Hall, American actor
1933 _ Yevgeny Khrunov, cosmonaut (d. 2000)
1934 _ Charles Kuralt, American journalist (d. 1997)
1934 _ Roger Maris, baseball player (d. 1985)
1938 _ Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer
1941 _ Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist (d. 2002)
1941 _ Christopher Hogwood, English conductor
1941 _ Gunpei Yokoi, Japanese inventor and video game designer (d. 1997)
1942 _ Danny Hutton, American singer (Three Dog Night)
1943 _ Eldridge Coleman ("Superstar" Billy Graham), American professional wrestler
1945 _ Jose Feliciano, Puerto Rican singer
1946 _ Jim Hines, American athlete
1946 _ Don Powell, English drummer (Slade)
1948 _ Tony Gatlif, Algerian_born director
1948 _ Bob Lanier, American basketball player
1948 _ Margaret Trudeau, former wife of late Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau
1948 _ Judy Geeson, English actress
1949 _ Don Muraco, professional wrestler
1949 _ Bill O'Reilly, American journalist, author, and commentator
1950 _ Joe Perry, American musician (Aerosmith)
1952 _ Vic Toews, Canadian politician
1953 _ Amy Irving, American actress
1958 _ Dan Castellaneta, American voice actor
1958 _ Chris Columbus, American film director
1958 _ Siobhan Fahey, Irish singer (Bananarama and Shakespear's Sister)
1959 _ Peter Nelson, American actor
1960 _ Colin Firth, English actor
1960 _ David Lowery, American musician (Cracker (band))
1963 _ Randy Johnson, American baseball player
1966 _ Joe Nieuwendyk, Canadian ice hockey player
1968 _ Big Daddy Kane, American rapper
1968 _ Guy Ritchie, British film director
1969 _ Jonathon Schaech, American actor
1972 _ Ghada Shouaa, Syrian athlete
1972 _ James Duval, American actor
1973 _ Ferdinand Coly, Senegalese footballer
1974 _ Ryan Phillippe, American actor
1974 _ Ben Wallace, American basketball player
1976 _ Gustavo Kuerten, Brazilian tennis player
1980 _ Robert Green, English football player
1980 _ Mikey Way, American bassist (My Chemical Romance)

-

Deaths
918 _ Count Baldwin II of Flanders (b. 865)
954 _ King Louis IV of France (b. 920)
1167 _ Empress Matilda, wife of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1102)
1197 _ Henry II of Champagne (b. 1166)
1308 _ Emperor Go_Nijo of Japan (b. 1285)
1419 _ John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy (assassinated) (b. 1371)
1519 _ John Colet, English churchman and educator
1559 _ Anthony Denny, confidant of King Henry VIII of England (b. 1501)
1591 _ Richard Grenville, English soldier and explorer (b. 1542)
1604 _ William Morgan, Welsh Bible translator (b. 1545)
1607 _ Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Italian composer and organist (b. 1545)
1669 _ Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I of England (b. 1609)
1676 _ Gerrard Winstanley, English religious reformer (b. 1609)
1680 _ Baldassare Ferri, Italian castrato (b. 1610)
1749 _ Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician and physicist (b. 1706)
1759 _ Ferdinand Konšcak, Croatian explorer (b. 1703)
1797 _ Mary Wollstonecraft, English author (b. 1759)
1801 _ Jason Fairbanks, American murderer (b. 1780)
1851 _ Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, American educator (b. 1787)
1867 _ Simon Sechter, Austrian composer (b. 1788)
1898 _ Elisabeth of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1837)
1915 _ Charles Boucher de Boucherville, Premier of Quebec (b. 1822)
1931 _ Dmitri Egorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1869)
1935 _ Huey Long, American politician (b. 1893)
1937 _ Sergei Tretyakov, Russian writer (b. 1892)
1948 _ King Ferdinand of Bulgaria (b. 1861)
1961 _ Leo Carrillo, American actor (b. 1880)
1965 _ Father Divine, American religious leader (b. 1880)
1966 _ Emil Gumbel, German mathematician and pacifist (b. 1891)
1971 _ Pier Angeli, Italian actress (b. 1932)
1975 _ George Paget Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
1976 _ Dalton Trumbo, American writer (b. 1905)
1979 _ Agostinho Neto, Angolan politician (b. 1922)
1983 _ Felix Bloch, Swiss_born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
1983 _ John Vorster, Prime Minister of South Africa (b. 1915)
1985 _ Jock Stein, Scottish football player and manager (b. 1922)
1991 _ Jack Crawford, Australian tennis player (b. 1908)
1996 _ Joanne Dru, American actress (b. 1923)
1997 _ Jack Adkisson, professional wrestler (b. 1929)
1998 _ Carl Forgione, actor (b. 1944)
1999 _ Alfredo Kraus, Spanish tenor (b. 1927)
2000 _ Zaib_un_Nissa Hamidullah, Pakistani journalist and writer. (b. 1921)
2004 _ Brock Adams, American politician (b. 1927)
2005 _ Clarence Gatemouth Brown, American guitarist and singer (b. 1924)

-

Holidays and observances
Calendar of Saints _ Virgin of the Wonders; Nicholas of Tolentino
Also see September 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Gibraltar _ National Day
World Suicide Prevention Day
Teacher's Day in China
Day of the Child in Honduras
Grandparent's Day (US)

-

Other
10 September was the name of a communist faction in Turkey.

-

I copied this from Wikipedia.
It can be found in full here.

A Familiar Letter

2006-09-09T11:52:00.000-05:00

This is probably one of my favorite poems ever. It's long, but I like it anyhow.

A Familiar Letter

YES, write, if you want to, there's nothing like trying;

Who knows what a treasure your casket may hold?

I'll show you that rhyming's as easy as lying,

If you'll listen to me while the art I unfold.

Here's a book full of words; one can choose as he fancies,

As a painter his tint, as a workman his tool;

Just think! all the poems and plays and romances

Were drawn out of this, like the fish from a pool!

You can wander at will through its syllabled mazes,

And take all you want, not a copper they cost,--

What is there to hinder your picking out phrases

For an epic as clever as "Paradise Lost"?

Don't mind if the index of sense is at zero,

Use words that run smoothly, whatever they mean;

Leander and Lilian and Lillibullero

Are much the same thing in the rhyming machine.

There are words so delicious their sweetness will smother

That boarding-school flavor of which we're afraid,

There is "lush"is a good one, and "swirl" is another,--

Put both in one stanza, its fortune is made.

With musical murmurs and rhythmical closes

You can cheat us of smiles when you've nothing to tell

You hand us a nosegay of milliner's roses,

And we cry with delight, "Oh, how sweet they do smell!"

Perhaps you will answer all needful conditions

For winning the laurels to which you aspire,

By docking the tails of the two prepositions

I' the style o' the bards you so greatly admire.

As for subjects of verse, they are only too plenty

For ringing the changes on metrical chimes;

A maiden, a moonbeam, a lover of twenty

Have filled that great basket with bushels of rhymes.

Let me show you a picture--'t is far from irrelevant--

By a famous old hand in the arts of design;

'T is only a photographed sketch of an elephant,--

The name of the draughtsman was Rembrandt of Rhine.

How easy! no troublesome colors to lay on,

It can't have fatigued him,-- no, not in the least,--

A dash here and there with a haphazard crayon,

And there stands the wrinkled-skinned, baggy-limbed beast.

Just so with your verse,-- 't is as easy as sketching,--

You can reel off a song without knitting your brow,

As lightly as Rembrandt a drawing or etching;

It is nothing at all, if you only know how.

Well; imagine you've printed your volume of verses:

Your forehead is wreathed with the garland of fame,

Your poems the eloquent school-boy rehearses,

Her album the school-girl presents for your name;

Each morning the post brings you autograph letters;

You'll answer them promptly,-- an hour isn't much

For the honor of sharing a page with your betters,

With magistrates, members of Congress, and such.

Of course you're delighted to serve the committees

That come with requests from the country all round,

You would grace the occasion with poems and ditties

When they've got a new schoolhouse, or poorhouse, or pound.

With a hymn for the saints and a song for the sinners,

You go and are welcome wherever you please;

You're a privileged guest at all manner of dinners,

You've a seat on the platform among the grandees.

At length your mere presence becomes a sensation,

Your cup of enjoyment is filled to its brim

the pleasure Horatian of digitmonstration,

As the whisper runs round of "That's he!" or "That's him!"

But remember, O dealer in phrases sonorous,

So daintily chosen, so tunefully matched,

Though you soar with the wings of the cherubim o'er us,

The ovum was human from which you were hatched.

No will of your own with its puny compulsion

Can summon the spirit that quickens the lyre;

It comes, if at all, like the Sibyl's convulsion

And touches the brain with a finger of fire.

So perhaps, after all, it's as well to he quiet

If you've nothing you think is worth saying in prose,

As to furnish a meal of their cannibal diet

To the critics, by publishing, as you propose.

But it's all of no use, and I'm sorry I've written,--

I shall see your thin volume some day on my shelf;

For the rhyming tarantula surely has bitten,

And music must cure you, so pipe it yourself.

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

For lots and lots of poems, click here.

For more on Oliver Wendell Holmes, click here.

Princess Diana

2006-09-08T15:40:00.000-05:00

Recently, the thirty-first of August marked the ninth anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, the world's favorite royal (or at least mine). She died tragically in a car accident in 1997, about a year after divorcing her husband Prince Charles, the current heir to the British throne. He later married Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, to whom he is still married.

Click on the names of each of the people mentioned to see their Wikipedia article.

This is a picture of Princess Diana dancing with John Travolta at the White House.

[Note: The death date of Diana is disputed. Some sites say it is the first of September, whereas our school ventured so far as to claim it as the seventh of September.]

honorable mention number...?!

2006-09-03T20:04:00.000-05:00

I'm afraid that I have yet another honorable mention for my "Favorite People with British/Scottish Accents" List...

Benny Hill: The British comedy show host. What else to say? Just that he's hilarious.

I'm very surprised that I forgot him the first time. He's great, if you ask me. I was only reminded of him when I was talking to Sarah and she mentioned that she was surprised I didn't include him. So I did.

For the original post, click here.

"Cassiopeia"

2006-09-03T19:31:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! Photos again...
I thought this one was really cool.
In other planetary news (or not) Pluto has lost its planetary status; it's now technically an "icy dwarf." My brother blogged on this. Click here for more.

From Yahoo! News:
This photo, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and released 29 August 2006, provides a detailed look at the tattered remains of a supernova explosion known as Cassiopeia A (Cas A). Astronomers say they have recorded a supernova in real time: the death explosion of a massive star that is typically only ever spotted days after the blast.(AFP/NASA/File)

emmys results

2006-08-28T17:19:00.001-05:00

I'm usually not one to get very into any kind of awards show...but this year was something of an exception to that rule.

I let myself watch when someone I really like has been nominated.

Craig Ferguson (see my post on my favorite people with accents) was nominated for one of his episodes of The Late Late Show.

He lost it to Barry Manilow.

I was angry and turned off the tv right then.

Anyhow, you can see more Emmy results at: http://www.nbc.com/Movies_Specials_More/Emmys_2006/

For more on Craig:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Ferguson

For more on Barry Manilow:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Manilow

Better luck for Craig next time, I guess.

Craig Ferguson [above]

Barry Manilow accepting his Emmy [below]

lynne truss

2006-08-26T20:18:00.000-05:00

Ohhh...I'm ashamed.

I made my list of my favorite people from Britain, Scotland, etc. and forgot to include one of my favorite authors in the world.

So here she is, and she even gets her own post!

Lynne Truss is the author of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: A Zero-Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. It's a book about the carelessness regarding punctuation in today's world - but it's very humorous, too. She also has a new book out that I've not yet read called Talk to the Hand, which is about rudeness.

To go to her website: http://lynnetruss.com

For more: http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/

For the original accent list click here.

most expensive

2006-08-26T20:05:00.000-05:00

Ah, how bored one can get on a Saturday night...

I found this website called The Most Expensive Journal, and they tell about the most expensive things sold in lots of different categories...

Here are some that I liked:

http://most-expensive.net/jeans-designer

http://most-expensive.net/actress-hollywood-movie

http://most-expensive.net/photograph-world [a very cool picture, too]

http://most-expensive.net/sandwich-world

http://most-expensive.net/violin-world

http://most-expensiv e.net/pie-world

http://most-expensive.net/movie-ever-made

http://most-expensive.net/painting-in-world

http://most-expensive.net/amazon-sale-2005

http://most-expensive.net/coffee-in-world

Enough for now.

That's just a fraction of them.

Find more at www.most-expensive.net

soak up the sun

2006-08-26T19:54:00.000-05:00

This is probably one of my many favorite songs from Sheryl Crow...Kinda does something to cheer you up...I especially like the bold parts...

"Soak Up The Sun"

My friend the communist

Holds meetings in his RV

I can't afford his gas

So I'm stuck here watching TV

I don't have digital

I don't have diddly squat

It's not having what you want

It's wanting what you've got

[CHORUS:]

I'm gonna soak up the sun

Gonna tell everyone

To lighten up

(I'm gonna tell 'em that)

I've got no one to blame

For every time I feel lame

I'm looking up - oh

I'm gonna soak up the sun

I've got a crummy job

It don't pay near enough

To buy the things it takes

To win me some of your love

Every time I turn around

I'm looking up, you're looking down

Maybe something's wrong with you

That makes you act the way you do

Maybe I am crazy too

[CHORUS]

I'm gonna soak up the sun

While it's still free

I'm gonna soak up the sun

Before it goes out on me

Don't have no master suite

I'm still the king of me

You have a fancy ride, but baby

I'm the one who has the key

Every time I turn around

I'm looking up, you're looking down

Maybe something's wrong with you

That makes you act the way you do

Maybe I am crazy too

[CHORUS]

I'm gonna soak up the sun

Got my 45 on

So I can rock on.

Lyrics from http://www.azlyrics.com

For more on Sheryl Crow: www.sherylcrow.com

To buy a CD: www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=835220

accent pictures

2006-08-21T15:20:00.000-05:00

Here are the pictures of the people that go with my last post, about my top ten favorite people with British/Scottish/etc. accents.

Left Column (top to bottom):

1 Craig Ferguson

2 Rik Mayall

3 Franz Ferdinand

Second Column:

4 The Proclaimers

5 JK Rowling

Third Column:

6 Queen Elizabeth II

7 Audrey Hepburn

Right Column:

8 Tony Blair

9 The Beatles

10 Rex Harrison (and Audrey Hepburn)

11 The Flags of the British Isles...

The links to sites about all of these people and, in most cases, the pictures are in the websites listed at the bottom of the previous post.

Accents - Top 10

2006-08-19T17:46:00.000-05:00

Once more, I feel inclined to remind the world that I love accents of all kinds.
I’ve compiled a list of my top ten favorite people with British/Scottish/etc. accents. They are (in no particular order):

1. Craig Ferguson.
Craig Ferguson is a comedian and host of The Late Late Show on CBS. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland and has lived in the US for 12 years. I think he’s hilarious.

2. The Proclaimers
I’ve mentioned them before, I believe. They’re a Scottish duo from the 80s.

3. Queen Elizabeth II
The Queen of England, of course. I think that she’s great. She’s the Queen, and what’s better than that?!

4. Tony Blair
Another very cool Englishman...the Prime Minister of England.

5. J.K. Rowling
The author of the Harry Potter series. She’s from Scotland and has written 6 books about Harry Potter, with a seventh on the way. And let’s face it - the books are the best.

6. Franz Ferdinand
The band...not the guy they got their name from. They sing stuff that never fails to cheer you up or make you generally cheery. They’re Scottish, once again.

7. The Beatles
Felt that they needed to be included...for Sarah...

8. Audrey Hepburn
She plays Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, my favorite movie EVER. She actually even sang most of the songs in the movie, except for "Without You" as it was madly out of her vocal range and likewise dubbed.

9. Rex Harrison
Also in My Fair Lady, as my favorite fictional character, Henry Higgins. Henry Higgins is a professor of phonetics, and teaches Eliza how to speak proper English. I’ve posted about My Fair Lady before, too. More information there.

10. Rik Mayall
Drop Dead Fred in the movie Drop Dead Fred. It’s one of the stupidest movies ever, but comedy nonetheless. It’s one of those movies that you find yourself going around quoting all the time.

HONORARY MENTION 1:
Helen Baxendale. She's the girl who plays Emily in Season 4 of FRIENDS. Emily is engaged to Ross and is from England. They are in the marriage ceremony when Ross says "I take thee Rachel" rather than "I take thee Emily." (Rachel is Ross’s ex-girlfriend)

HONORARY MENTION 2:

Sarah Ferguson. The Duchess of York. She's in the same episode of FRIENDS.

I realize that I’m way too bored and have way too much of a fascination with accents. Just think, we sound funny to them too...

LINKS:

Craig Ferguson: http://www.cbs.com/latenight/latelate/

The Proclaimers: http://www.proclaimers.co.uk/2003/

Queen Elizabeth II: http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page412.asp

Tony Blair: http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page4.asp

JK Rowling: www.jkrowling.com

Franz Ferdinand: http://www.franzferdinand.co.uk/

The Beatles: www.beatles.com

Audrey Hepburn: www.audreyhepburn.com

Rex Harrison: www.imdb.com/name/nm0001322

Rik Mayall: www.imdb.com/name/nm0562201

Helen Baxendale: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0062636/

Sarah Ferguson: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0272601/

At some point, I'm going to add pictures for all of these lovely people, but my computer's not letting me upload any right now, so I'll try later.

You can get most of the good pics at the above links, though.

Almost Better Than Llamas

2006-08-16T15:40:00.000-05:00

Giraffes are almost cooler than llamas and alpacas in my book. Especially baby giraffes.

-
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, mother giraffe 'Anqi' kisses her four-day-old baby in a zoo of Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province Monday, Aug. 14, 2006. The 180-centimeter (5.9-feet)-tall and 80-kilogram (176-pond)-weight baby giraffe made its debut on Monday. 'Anqi' has given birth to two babies successfully within three years. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Lu Chuanquan)

quiero...

2006-08-13T14:32:00.000-05:00

An alpaca.
Or a llama.
That's right. I want one.

Or two.

Or, for that matter, a whole herd of them.

-

Has anyone noticed that I like alpacas? And llamas? I think they're hilarious: so ugly that they're cute and so very reminiscent of E.T. (At least to me...)

"The new It animal? The alpaca, with more than 100,000 roaming U.S. Ranches and a nascent market for its soft fleece. Jack (above) is from Wyoming and recently visited kids at a Laramie library. Says owner Jamie Tharp: 'He loved the camera and wanted to be the center of attention.' Clearly."
Photograph by Barbara J. Perenic, picture and caption from the 11 August edition of "LIFE" magazine, p.3.

This picture is hanging on my closet door.

Also, from Yahoo! News:

An alpaca is shown at the Good Fortune Farm in Parkdale, Oregon. May 25, 2006. A relative of the llama, alpacas originated in South America and werefirst introduced to the US in 1984. They were initially popular in the Northwest, primarily among llama farmers wanting to diversify.But the alpaca has since generated a "Green Acres"-like following among nonagricultural types nationwide. AP Photo, Rick Bowmer.

I, however, will use my caption: "AHHHHH!!! E.T. go home!!!"

For more on alpacas: www.alpaca.com

For more Yahoo! News pics: www.news.yahoo.com

For more on LIFE magazine: www.life.com

For the definition of the word "nascent" (what?! I didn't know what it meant!!) :

www.thefreedictionary.com/nascent

"Admiring the Moon"

2006-08-13T09:55:00.000-05:00

This is yet another Yahoo! picture. I love them! They're always of the very coolest of things. This is a full moon (obviously) rising over Athens, Greece. I love the crowd of people standing in front of it - it makes it look like something from a movie or a book or something...very cool, if you ask me.

From Yahoo!:

Admiring the Moon : People admire the moon as it rises over Cape Sounio, some 60 kilometers south of Athens, Greece. (AFP)

Go to: www.yahoo.com for links to more Yahoo! pictures.

"Throw the 'R' Away"

2006-08-12T18:32:00.000-05:00

Like I've said, one thing that I really like is accents.

Of all of them that there are in the world, my very favorite has to be a Scottish one or an English one. Words are just more fun that way. Heny Higgins might not be a fan, but no matter.

This is a song by The Proclaimers - a duo from the late '80s consisting of two twin brothers from Scotland, Craig and Charlie Reid. They're one of my friend Sarah's favorites, and I'll admit that they're growing on me.

The name of this song is "Throw the 'R' Away" - and it's pretty self-explainatory from there.

The Proclaimers - Throw The 'R' Away

I've been so sad

Since you said my accent was bad

He's worn a frown

This Caledonian clown

I'm just going to have to learn to hesitate

To make sure my words

On your Saxon ears don't grate

But I wouldn't know a single word to say

If I flattened all the vowels

And threw the 'R' away

Some days I stand

On your green and pleasant land

How dare I show face

When my diction is such a disgrace

I'm just going to have to learn to hesitate

To make sure my words

On your Saxon ears don't grate

But I wouldn't know a single word to say

If I flattened all the vowels

And threw the 'R' away

You say that if I want to get ahead

The language I use should be left for dead

It doesn't please your ear

And though you tell it like a leg-pull

It seems your still full of John Bull

You just refuse to hear

Oh what can I do

To be understood by you

Perhaps for some money

I could talk like a bee dripping honey.

I'm just going to have to learn to hesitate

To make sure my words

On your Saxon ears don't grate

But I wouldn't know a single word to say

If I flattened all the vowels

And threw the 'R' away

You say that if I want to get ahead

The language I use should be left for dead

It doesn't please your ear

And though you tell it like a leg-pull

I think your still full of John Bull

You just refuse to hear

He's been so sad

Since you said his accent was bad

He's worn a frown

This Caledonian clown

I'm just going to have to learn to hesitate

To make sure my words

On your Saxon ears don't grate

But I wouldn't know a single word to say

If I flattened all the vowels

And threw the 'R' away

Flattened all the vowels

And threw the 'R' away

If I flattened all the vowels

And threw the 'R' away

For more on The Proclaimers, go to their website: www.proclaimers.co.uk/2003

For more of their lyrics, go to www.lyricsdownload.com/proclaimers-lyrics.html

donkey

2006-08-12T18:24:00.000-05:00

Pictures of Cinco are some of my favorite farm pictures to take. She loves to have pictures taken of her, too.
Once I was trying to get a picture of a goat that was close to her, and she wanted to be in the picture so bad that she almost knocked me over trying to get into it.
She's in it though.

This is just a picture that I took of her over the fence: she halted her grazing to come pose for me.

civil war minutes

2006-08-11T15:45:00.000-05:00

Like I think I've said before, I like history. In the record of Minutes of the Session at First Presbyterian Chruch of Somerset, Kentucky, there is the following entry from the 1860s. At the top of the page, you can see that they're just talking about the basic church stuff: baptisms, etc. That's what the whole book's about. But after that, in the middle section, is what's interesting to me. I don't know if you can see it in the scan, but it says that there were two year without an entry because the church didn't have services during that time. That's because the Civil War was raging nearby, and the church was opened up as a hospital.

One church member said that she remembered, as a child, looking at the back wall of a closet in her Sunday School room. In there was a lot of writing - writing written by a soldier in the Civil War who was staying at the hospital. She doesn't remember what it said, and no one can see it now. The wall was painted over shortly after, and since then the church has been renovated extensively - and this wall was probably covered with paint again, or perhaps torn down in the construction.

The church reopened two years after it closed, and they began joint worship services with another area church, Pisgah Presbyterian. There are countless books of these church records. That's why I love old books. You never know what you'll find.

Thanks to Carol for getting me a copy of the above page.

For more info on the Civil War, go to: www.civilwar.com

flowers of the sun...or just sunflowers

2006-08-08T16:04:00.000-05:00

Like I think I've said before, we have a plethora of sunflowers around here, and I love them, so I take pictures of them. I was outside on a picture-taking rage and got lots of them - every one of them is different.

[below] A very happy sunflower with a very large bumblebee on it.

[below] Our dog, Raven plays with a stick behind another cheery sunflower.

Hope your day is bright and cheery...

Sarah reminds me that 'Flowers of the Sun' sounds like a horrible movie. I think it sounds more like a really bad '70s band, but whatever.

llama

2006-08-08T12:39:00.000-05:00

This was yet another picture that I found on Yahoo! and I thought that it was really funny.
It seems to me that it's saying "Hullo guysssss!!" in a really weird cartoon-like voice, but perhaps that's just me...

From Yahoo!

A Llama appears to make a face at a visitor at the Cherokee Trace Safari in Cherokee County, Texas on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006. The East Texas Piney woods park is home to over 300 exotic and endangered animals. (AP Photo/Dr. Scott M. Lieberman)
AP - Aug 05 9:34 PM

Have a great day!

church

2006-08-07T18:27:00.000-05:00

This Sunday, I played my violin for Union Church in Berea, KY. It's a really pretty church, and has a lot of history to it, so I - naturally - took plenty of pictures. Here are a few.

[above] The pipe organ in the church is the centerpeice in the front of the church.

[below] Chairs in the choir loft, which runs around the whole top of the church in a horseshoe shape.

desolate

2006-08-06T20:45:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite paintings in the world. My grandparents bought it during one of their frequent overseas travels. It hangs in their living room.
Whenever I see it, it reminds me of a certain type of comfortable desolation.

"Men fear silence as they fear solitude, because both give them a glimpse of the terror of life's nothingness..." - Andrew Maurois

Why Can't the English...?

2006-08-05T22:22:00.000-05:00

My favorite movie of all time is "My Fair Lady." The one with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn.
It's the story of a linguist (Henry Higgins) trying to teach a common flower girl (Eliza Doolittle) how to speak proper English.
I've also read Pygmalion (the original play version by George Bernard Shaw) and it is one of my favorite books. The play was later turned into "My Fair Lady" by Werner and made into a musical.

One of my favorite songs (the other being "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?") is the following, "Why Can't the English?" and it is about the corrupt of the English Language.

...enjoy...

HENRY HIGGINS:

A woman who utters such disgusting and depressing noise, she has no right to be anywhere, no right to live. Remember that you're a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech, that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and the Bible. Don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.
Ohh! Look at her
A prisoner of the gutters
Condemned by every syllable she utters
By right, she should be taken out and hung
For the cold_blooded murder of the English tongue

ELIZA DOOLITTLE:

Ohh!

HENRY HIGGINS:
"Ohh!" Heavens, what a sound
This is what the British population
Calls an elementary education

COLONEL PICKERING:

Come, sir, I think you picked a poor example.

HENRY HIGGINS:

Did I? Hear them down in Soho Square dropping "H"s everywhere
Speaking English any way they like
Uh, you, sir, did you go to school

MAN ON THE STREET:

What do you "tike" me for a fool

HENRY HIGGINS:
No one taught him "take" instead of "tike"
Hear a Yorkshireman, or worse hear a Cornishman converse
I'd rather hear a choir singing flat
Chickens cackling in a barn - Just like this one!

ELIZA DOOLITTLE:

Garn!

HENRY HIGGINS:
"Garn"! I ask you, sir, what sort of word is that?
It's "ohh" and "garn" that keep her in her place
Not her wretched clothes and dirty face
Why can't the English teach their children how to speak
This verbal class distinction by now should be antique
If you spoke as she does, sir instead of the way you do
Why, you might be selling flowers too

COLONEL PICKERING:

I beg your pardon?

HENRY HIGGINS:
An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him
The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him
One common language I'm afraid we'll never get
Oh, why can't the English learn to
Set a good example to people whose English
Is painful to your ears
The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears
There even are places where English completely disappears
Well, in America, they haven't used it for years
Why can't the English teach their children how to speak
Norwegians learn Norwegian
The Greeks are taught their Greek
In France, every Frenchman knows his language from "A" to "zed"
The French don't care what they do, actually, as long as they pronounce it properly. Arabians learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning
The Hebrews learn it backwards which is absolutely frightening
Use proper English
You're regarded as a freak
Oh, why can't the English
Why can't the English learn
To speak?
Thank you.

For more information on "My Fair Lady," click here.

(Or go to www.imdb.com/title/tt0058385/)

pretty clouds

2006-08-02T10:28:00.000-05:00

When I saw this, I thought that it was just a really cool picture.
It was on my Yahoo! page and it made me go "oooooohhhhh!"
It was taken in Antarctica by Australian scientists. This is a rare cloud formation.
Anyhow, if you want to see the full picture, story, and photo credits, click here.

-

The link above didn't work on my computer - but it doesn't always work, so the story is below. But still, to see the picture full-size and to see lots of other great pictures, try the link.

From Yahoo!:

AFP/Australian Antarctic Division/File - Tue Aug 1, 5:48 AM ET
A rare and spectacular nacreous cloud (top) appears high in the stratosphere some 20km above Australia's Mawson station in Antartica, July 2006. Australian scientists have said they were studying what rare iridescent clouds over Antarctica can reveal about global climate change.(AFP/Australian Antarctic Division/File)

Have a great day!

a trip outside...with my camera

2006-08-01T20:41:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I was outside - equipped, of course, with my camera - and thought I might take some pictures, as I love to do so and there's certainly plenty to photograph around here.

[captions are below pictures]

[The view between the trees behind our pond - looking up at the sunset.]
[A very happy sunflower. We have acres of these...]

[ My dog, June, poses on the bridge.]

[A birdhouse in the grove. There's a little creek that runs through there and we have a little picnic area, fire circle, hammock, etc.]

other blogs

2006-08-01T10:14:00.000-05:00

I thought that I would post a link to my friend Sarah's blog because I like it...it's pictures and all sorts of stuff.
Her URL is notquitelikeatop.blogspot.com.

While I'm at it, my brother's blog is about books - and he discusses recent books and things in the news about books.
His URL is offshelf.blogspot.com.

Have a nice day!

open the books!

2006-07-25T11:54:00.000-05:00

In my last post, I had the pictures of the old bookstore. So I thought that on this one I might post pictures of some of the writing inside the books, which is what interested me the most about them.
You can barely see it in most of the pictures, because it's faded so much over the years - one of the books dates back to the 1800s.

Captions (Left to Right)

First Row:
1.) From "Palaces and Courts of the Expostition" Copyright March 1915
"To my dear friend Annie Nourne,
from Fannie H Goddard
August 13th, 1915
Sacramento, California"

2.) Later in the same book (title page):
"Arrived in San F. Monday Aug. 16th, 1915.
Stopt at Y.M.C.A. Hotel"

3.) On another page of the same book: Written August the 26th, 1915. Notes on different breeds of dogs. (odd because this has nothing to do with the rest of the book...)

4.) My cat, Butterfinger, was very interested in my photography of the books...it was strange that he posed with this particular book because the inside cover is the exact same green as his eyes, which you cannot see in the black and white picture...

Big Picture in Bottom Left:
The title page of a book of short mysteries, copyright 1909. The book apparently belonged to a certain "E.G. Moody." Notice that Butterfinger (or at least his nose) also appears in this one - he seems to be very interested in this particular book...

Middle Right:
From a small, leather book called "Backbiting Reproved."
Glapton, Mo. 1st Presby-
terian Sabbath School Library
No. 7
I, personally am Presbyterian and bought this book for that very reason. The ink in which this was written looks like it might have gotten wet at some point...

Bottom Right Corner:
1.)The back of the book above:
Glasston Sunday School, No. 7, 1881
They were, I think, not in agreement as to the location of this church...

2.) Inside the back cover of the book of mysteries, we find Mr. Moody's address at the time: #109 E. 14th Street, Austin, Texas.

Hope you enjoyed these as much as me!

Old Books

2006-07-22T16:15:00.000-05:00

Recently, I visited a bookstore in Frankfort, Kentucky with one of my best friends. It's called Poor Richard's Books, in the old part of downtown Frankfort. Upstairs they have lots of used books. We sat up there for hours poring through ancient books. I loved the look of all of them sitting on the shelves - it was so...comfortable.
The books that I bought there were mainly ones that people had written in so many years ago - my friend found a book over 150 years old, and it had lots of beautiful cursive writing in it. I spent seven dollars on 4 books - they're all old and pretty, with names scrawled in the front and notes made in the margins. It makes you wonder about the people who wrote in them...but today they just don't make books like that! These were leather or cloth-bound, whereas today's are paper and the occasional plastic; you have to wonder how long they'll keep. But still, we can have fun looking at other people's...
Speaking of books, check out my brother's blog - which is all about books.
His url is offshelf.blogspot.com.
Have a fabulous day!

not too much

2006-07-22T15:45:00.000-05:00

Not that long ago, I noticed that I hadn't written in so long - the monotony of summer has been getting to me! There is plenty to do - but life is melancholy, with no initiative in sight!
These are just a few pictures of some things around here... I took these a while ago, but I'm just getting around to posting them, I guess.
Taking black and white pictures is my favorite, and I just put all these together on one page! You can see them all at once...

First Row:
1.) Old Barn
2.) Riley
3.) tulip
4.) Raven

Second Row:
1.) Riley
2.) Goat!
3.) goat in field
4.) another goat

Third Row:
1.) Goat in Tractor Tire
2.) Sunset and barn
3.) Yodel
4.) Feild, tree, house

I'll try to be more prompt with my next post.
Have a great summer!

alaska pics

2006-06-06T15:33:00.000-05:00

We got back from a trip to Alaska just over a week ago. It was lots of fun and not nearly as cold as expected - it was 60 or 70 degrees every day and I only had to put on my coat once! But I would strongly recommend going if you ever have the chance - it's truly beautiful.

The first picture is of the coast just outside of Juneau.
The second is a lighthouse somewhere at sea.

I'll post more pics later if my computer will work!

farm animals

2006-06-03T18:48:00.000-05:00

Here are just a few of our many animals. We live on a farm and have a lot of them - and I like to take pictures of them...

1.) This is our donkey, Cinco, in her stable.

2.)These are our four dogs (clockwise from bottom left): Raven, June (both black labs), Yodel (a great Pyranese puppy), and Riley (a golden retreiver).You can barely see Raven and June because they're black, but I'll probably post another of just all the dogs later. They're all quite photogenic. It was just the only picture I had with all four of them!

3.) This is Peppy (short for 'pepperoni'), one of our many goats. She is my favorite.

4.) This is my cat, Butterfinger. I've had him for forever and his favorite place to sit is in my window.

violin story

2006-06-03T11:21:00.000-05:00

Okay, I finally figured out how to get the picture, but it's sideways. Oh well. I'll perfect that later.
Anyway, as I said, the first thing I would blog about would be my violin, as it is very important to me. I've played the violin for the better part of my life, and I'm in three different orchestras.

If you are a musician, you know that a lot of what you can do with your music depends solely on the quality of your instrument. Before I got the new violin, I was playing a student violin that was great to start out on, but could only take me so far. I had been talking to some people in my family, and they said that my maternal great-grandmother had played the violin. She had promised her violin to the first member of the family who could learn how to play it. One of my aunts tried, but never really learned.
Eventually, everyone forgot about the violin.
You should know that a high-quality violin, which is usually old and handmade, can cost anywhere from $5,000 up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the luthier and the condition of the instrument.
I had begun to "outgrow" the limits of my student violin, and my parents were dreading having to buy another. My mom later asked her mother if there was any way to find the violin that had belonged to my great-grandmother. My grandfather sent out an email to all of the family (they're wide-spread throughout the country) asking if any of them had the violin.
He never got a reply.
Mom told me this, and I was very upset that it couldn't be found - it had to be out there somewhere.
A while later, everything started to be kept secret from me. One of the family members had gone up into the attic one day - and there it was. In a crumbling case, with the strings, bridge, and tailpeice removed, and in desperate need of an oiling.
They sent the violin to my grandparents, who took it to a friend of theirs who is a luthier. He fixed it up so that it could be played. It had, amazingly, suffered very little damage during its life in the attic.
As a surprise, my grandparents gave it to me for my birthday. I polished it and changed the strings, bought a new case for it, and researched its origins.
My violin was made by an apprentice of a man named Giovan Paolo Maggini, an Italian luthier, hundreds of years ago. We've estimated that it was made in the 1800s, and was then considered a cheap model of the original Maggini. It was made in Italy and brought to the United States probably around the beginning of the 20th century, or the late 19th century.

The tag on the inside says as follows:
Giovan Paolo Maggini
Brescia - 1636

This basically meant that it was modeled after a 1636 Maggini violin. By looking at it, you can tell just that. It has an extra twist in the scroll, double purfling, and elaborate wood-grain. It wasn't made by Maggini himself, but I researched it and found that foreign luthiers in the 19th and 20th centuries often put the name and origin of the luthier whose violin they had modeled. The only way that you can tell a difference between the original Maggini violins and the later models, are that the originals were often decorated with elaborate gold inlay, which mine is not.
The other way that I can tell the difference is that, in one of the winds of the scroll, there are some very tiny initials engraved. You can't really tell what they say, but they form a kind of a logo, which was probably the luthier's way of claiming it, even though he had tributed it to Maggini.

Next post: my most recent travels

Other Stuff

2006-06-02T19:20:00.000-05:00

I got the idea of having a blog from my brother, who blogs for the Advocate Messenger - a newspaper out of a town near where we live. His blog is about books, as he is an avid reader.
Once I figure out how to post links and such things, I'll get a link to his blog; he's already linked to mine.
And also, once I download the software to do so, I'm going to put up my first round of pictures - of my violin. I'll also write about how I came about inheriting it.
After that, I'm going to post some pictures from trips I've taken in the last year, which include: Maine and the Northeast, The Medditerranean (Italy, Greece, Turkey, Vatican City) and the most recent trip to Alaska.
I'll get them up as fast as I can!

Enjoy.

the first drop of lemon

2006-06-02T18:40:00.000-05:00

I have seven favorite things.

They are:
hammocks
lemon drops
old violins
black and white pictures
travelling
people with accents
"my fair lady"

This blog is going to be a mixture of those seven things. I take a lot of pictures - everywhere I go. And I LOVE music - of every kind.

So here goes....