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The mostly harmless pedant.
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[May. 17th, 2012|02:00 am] |
I've been editing and posting a bunch of my pictures from Toronto as I lounge about in Chicago with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.7) lisagems this week. Here's one of them that I rather like. Pretty colors!
Guu Sakabar Mural
Copyright Stormdog 2011
I really love paint-on-brick signs and art, and this is particularly wonderful.
This is based on a ukio-e print from Katsushika Hokusai's series 36 Views of Mt. Fuji, made between 1826 and 1833. That was before the opening of Japan to contact with the Western world. I wonder what the artist would have thought of his work being used this way, in this context. |
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[May. 15th, 2012|08:23 pm] |
As well as photos and paper ephemera, I looked through some of my grandfather's things in his office and workshop. He had quite a collection of books about horses and about metalworking. He had quite a number of smithing tools around too. This Summer, I will get the forge and anvil out of the basement a few times and use some of them. Hopefully I can get a few plant hangers made before visiting Ceilidh!
He had a number of miniature anvils on a shelf in his office. Some small and cutesy, but some that were big enough to be functional for some uses. I saw one that I knew my sweetie lisagems would be able to use. I think my grandfather would be happy to know that it was being used. I gave it to her yesterday, and I'm happy to know that it has a good home with someone about whom I care enough about to want to give it to. She'll appreciate it, will clean it up, and use it to make things. There's beauty in that utility that I like to think Grandpa would appreciate. There were so many random things around the rooms he used that I wish I could ask him about the history of. I wish that I'd had more time during school to get out and visit.
My grandmother also gave me Grandpa's camera. It's a Pentax K100. I don't know a lot about Pentax hardware specifically, but it's a nice DSLR. A neat thing about Pentax is that they have not changed their lens mounting system for a long time. I can use any Pentax K-mount lens made since around 1975 with that camera. Other than having to deal with a bunch of manual controls (which I think I know enough theory of operation to do), they'll work just fine. There's a part of me that's really excited about learning to use it.
Most of me, though, starts crying when I take it out of the diaper bag he used as a camera bag ("Nobody's going to steal that!" he commented) and start looking at it. Especially when I look at the pictures of my family that are on the card from the last times he used it. I was going to use it to photograph the protests here in Chicago this week, but I don't think I can deal with it yet. |
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[May. 15th, 2012|07:10 pm] |
Being at my grandmother's house and looking through my grandfather's possessions was a strange experience. My mother, her siblings, and her mother (my grandmother) spent most of the day looking through boxes and boxes of pictures. They were deciding what would be in the memorial, and how to sort out the rest of them. I saw tons of pictures I've never seen of my family, and look forward to having copies of some of them. Maybe I'll share some here.
They were also going through a lot of things like holiday cards or birthday cards that were made or given to my grandparents by their kids, or vis versa. The family members were all very happy to have things like that. And I really thought they were pretty neat too. It was great when people read excerpts from elementary school report cards for my uncle, or birthday cards from my mother when she was little. I liked seeing these glimpses into parts of my family members lives from well before I had entered the scene.
And this puts me in something of a quandary. I've gotten to a state of mind where I want to have fewer possessions in my life. I have a tub full of all the birthday and Christmas cards and things like that I've recieved, and I'd kind of decided that I was going to throw them away. I thought a lot about it and concluded that I'm probably never going to open them up and read them, or put them on display, or anything like that. They'll just sit in a box until I die, and then my family (Whether I will have any children seems uncertain) will have to deal with them. Why not just save the effort, and avoid having them taking up space for the next bunch of decades?
But if they make surviving family really happy to have, maybe I have some sort of obligation to hang on to them. It's something of a puzzle. Honestly though, I think I'm still leaning toward not keeping them. For me, photographs have become something of a memory focus. I plan to keep taking lots and lots of photos through my life, and my surviving family will probably have enough of them to keep busy for quite a long time. And there will be all my other possessions too. I was talking about this with my youngest brother, akreaveter, and his comment was that my family members were probably happy just to have anything of my grandfather's. The fact that they were all these cards and photos was tangential to the fact that they were memories of him with personal connections. Those photos I looked through with my family this past weekend were definitely that. I hope that, someday, my photos will be as well. And maybe I can add all the photos there that we looked at to my own digital collection. I think I'd like that. |
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[May. 10th, 2012|11:39 pm] |
My grandfather died early this morning. I haven't figured out how to process that yet. It was not unexpected, and I'm told it was a peaceful thing, so I think that makes it as easy to deal with as this sort of thing can be. I haven't found my own words to express my feelings yet, so I'd like to share some from my father.
http://barton-fender.livejournal.com/5318.html |
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[May. 8th, 2012|07:36 pm] |
I've found all sorts of things going through my closet. A lot of random knick-knacks I can give away. A few really useful things like my Hair Glove. Some things I need to hang on to 'till I have more space, like art and a few cooking things.
There are just a few things that I've put in a box to let settle a while longer before I finally decide on what to do with them. There are other things that have been in there long enough for the feelings they inspire to be more approachable. When I found Kuma's collar, I decided at first to put it back into a box. But as I held it in my hands, turning it around and playing with the latch as I thought about my dog, I realized I'm at a place in my head where I don't need to hang on to my dog's collar. I miss my Kuma sometimes. But I have pictures, and I have memories.
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[May. 8th, 2012|09:50 am] |
I just pedaled down to the beautiful Southport Beachouse to vote in today's primary in Wisconsin. Please go out and vote today! Remember that there are Republican candidates who are being fielded as fake Democrats. It's important that the people you really want in office get your vote. This link has all the info you should need, and you can register at the polls today.
vpa.wi.gov |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 6th, 2012|06:52 pm] |
| [ | State of Being |
| |  thoughtful | ] |
I'm alternating between drilling Spanish verbs and cleaning out my closet and sorting its contents. I guess I just can't wait 'till after finals are done.
I found my bag of juggling balls! And for not having juggled since probably last Summer, I'm really pleased at how long I can keep five balls in the air.
I'm starting a list of things that I want to give away. It's probably going to get pretty lengthy over the next month or so. I'll post it here once I've gone through everything.
I've already found one item, and I'm sure there will be many more, that are in a category of objects I have trouble deciding what to do with.
What do you do when you have an object that you know you will more than likely never use and probably don't need around the house, but the object is connected to someone you care about who has died, or moved away, or is otherwise out of your life? I lean toward parting with the object and keeping the memories. There's only so much stuff one needs to have. How do you, personally, deal with these sorts of things? |
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[May. 5th, 2012|09:19 pm] |
| [ | State of Being |
| |  content | ] |
I had the most horrible nightmare I can ever remember having yesterday morning. I woke up around 7:30, gasping for breath through sobs. lisagems was next to me and must have been awoken by the noises I was making. She helped me get my brain back to reality over the course of five minutes or so, and I'm very grateful she was there.
Details are a bit fuzzy at this point, but somehow both of my brothers had been killed in an accident, or accidents, of some nature. I distinctly remember going over the prospect of never seeing them again in my head, thinking about how empty my house would be without Tim, how viscerally distraught I felt. But something happened in this dream that I've never had happen in a dream before. I woke up, and I was next to Lisa, and I told her what had happened, and she confirmed that, yes, in fact my brothers had been killed and was trying to be comforting.
But then I woke up. Yes, again, and this time for real. It took me I don't know how long to manage to put words together, and five or ten minutes for the terror and despair to full go away. I've never had an experience like that before. I'd be just fine with not doing it again, please.
Lisa suggested it might be some anxiety that's been lurking in my brain since my friend Devin was killed on his bicycle, and I think that's probably a big part of it. I've been riding my bicycle a lot lately and thinking about him from time to time. Plus, one of my brothers commutes around town by bike, and I worry that he's not riding as safely as he might be able to, despite me talking to him about it a few times.
I think part of the problem is that, unless you have a lot of experience driving a car, it's difficult to deeply understand how drivers perceive, or fail to perceive, cyclists. I know what it's like behind the windshield. That's why I ride predictably, use hand signals, and steer right down the middle of the lane. Hugging the curb means I could hit debris or encourage people to pass me without enough space. When I act like a car would, I'm much more likely to get the respect that a car does. But it's a point of view informed by my experience that my brother, who has never held a driver's license, does not have. I think I'm going to talk to him about it a bit more in depth the next time I see him; try to explain where I'm coming from a bit better.
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Well, to go on to less anxiety producing subjects, I had my Spanish oral exam on Friday and did decently well. I feel like I could have done a bit better. Last semester, my partner for the exam and I were told that we were the best students in the class, which made me feel really good! This semester, though, was a lot harder for me than last one. Most of it was preterite verb forms, which have a lot of weirdnesses and irregularities. I was expecting the class to be as easy as the last one, and when it wasn't, I didn't quite compensate for that enough. I'm expecting probably a B in this class, as opposed to all the other ones that I'm expecting As in. I'd be a little sad to not have a second 4.0 semester, but you know, 4 As and a B is still pretty good.
I am still pretty neurotic about school. I feel like I have to be if I really want to transfer to UW Madison after next year, and then go on to grad school. My original record from 10 years ago is poor enough that I have to really excel. Not to mention that grad school, I gather, is pretty competitive to begin with.
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So on Friday, after the exam, I drove down to Chicago to visit Lisa. We set up her new airbed, went grocery shopping, and were otherwise boring and tranquil. It was nice. Today we were going to meet up with danaeris for lunch after I spent the morning looking at condos with Danae, but she got a migraine and went back to the hotel she'll be staying in with her mother tonight and tomorrow. (Her mother is down from Canada to assist with the real-estate purchasing process from her perspective as a former real estate agent.) So met up with Lisa for lunch (and ice-cream at Baskin Robbins! *wags*) and drove her to Navy Pier where she was working at the green festival before joining up with Danae at the hotel, where I am now comfortably ensconced next to her in bed as she pores over her real estate spreadsheets.
I think tonight I'm going to stay until her mother arrives so I can see her again. I haven't since visiting her family over Christmas, and I like her a lot so it'll be nice to see her again. I had had it in my head that I might stay at the hotel and go out with them to look at places tomorrow but we hadn't all sat down and talked about it beforehand, so instead I think I'm just going to go back up to Kenosha tonight and use tomorrow to study for finals. I could see about staying with Lisa again and meeting up with Danae and her mother in the morning, but I think I'd rather go home and study before all the exams on Monday and Tuesday.
It's so weird to be ending my first year back at school! I'm a little sad, and a lot excited. My anthro professor told me that I did so well that I may not have to take her final. She also told me that the paper I wrote for her was excellently written and very nuanced, and that she liked it so much that she exclaimed on Facebook about how good the paper she'd just read was. I think I actually blushed. She keeps saying really good things about my performance. In fact, all my professors do. I might just be doing this school thing the right way this time. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 3rd, 2012|09:01 am] |
| [ | State of Being |
| | content | ] |
I've been commuting to school by bike regularly since Friday last. I missed Monday due to rain, but, altogether I've ridden about 60 miles since Friday morning last week. It feels good; I'm awake and alert when I get to school, and I get to enjoy being outside and feeling a little more connected to the world. I've found myself getting up earlier and going to be earlier. In fact, I've been getting up 8 to 8:30 without an alarm lately. Of course that's probably because I usually get up at 7:00, and my body is confused about why I'm still asleep. My Spanish class is not happening this week, and it's the first one, so I get to arrive much later than I normally would.
I was riding a lot when I was living in Chicago; I'd often go out and do fifteen or twenty mile rides along the lake front trail. But never this consistently. This is about a 7.7 mile route, and I do it twice a day in about 45 minutes each way, which tells me I'm going about 10 miles per hour. Slow for a nice street bike, but on top of me being relatively new to this again, I'm carrying a backpack full of school books too. I expect my time will improve.
The only problem so far is that bicycling is aggravating my wrist injury from a decade and a half or so ago. It actually comes from riding the self-same bike. I had become kind of fascinated by the fact that a bike leans into a turn, and I wanted to see how far over I could lean while making really sharp turns. Clearly, I discovered the limit to that phenomenon. I broke my wrist when the bike slid out from under me and ended up in a cast for several months after wrist surgery at a hospital in Milwaukee. It's bothered me on and off ever since, especially when doing a lot of typing. Sadly, I've realized it's bothering me while bicycling too, even if I wear a wrist brace.
This morning, I think I'm going to bike out to the local bike shop and ask about alternative handlebars. I'm riding a Giant Option, which is a hybrid and has typical straight mountain-bike bars. I think it would help a lot to have bars that are higher than seat level (mine are currently not) to keep me from putting much weight on my hands. I'd prefer to put that weight on the seat. It's not the most aerodynamic position, but I don't intend to be out racing; I just want to get to school and work.
If I had the money for a recumbent, I'd probably go that way, but I don't. Nor do I have space to keep one in. So I'm going to make do with what I have. I'm sure there's a way to make this work; I just have to figure out what it is.
I'm not exactly going to be saving money by using my bike. The gas saved comapared to things like buying handlebars is going to take a long time to even out. Even just buying the little reflective velcro strap I use to hold the cuff of my jeans to my leg so it doesn't get tangled in the gears cost as much as two days worth of gas to drive to school. But the fact that I'm getting about an hour and a half of exercise every day without having to devote any special time to it is worth the expenditure for me. I've been worried for some time about how little exercise I really get. I have aches and pains that are new over the past few years, and I know that my blood pressure was edging higher when I still had insurance and when I was donating plasma. I'm hoping that regular, significant exercise will start addressing all of those issues.
Plus it just feels wonderful to be out on a bicycle every day! |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 27th, 2012|09:08 pm] |
| [ | State of Being |
| |  bouncy | ] |
I had a really fun time in Chicago with my sweetie lisagems. We visited Chinatown today and drove around the south side for a while, looking at interesting buildings. One in particular caught my eye that I want to research further; it's a schizophrenic sort of thing with Art Deco massing and some detailing, but Beaux-arts columns and some other detailing. I'd really like to know more about it.
Yesterday was pretty neat too. In a search for parking, I ended up on Castlewood Terrace, which is a dead-end street off of Marine Drive that, in the midst of a relatively high-crime area, is lined with million dollar mansions. Just that one, single block. A former home of Studs Terkel is there, and I want to go back and photograph some of the houses, as well as learn more about their history.
Tomorrow, danaeris is coming to see me after looking at some possible dwellings in Chicago! *bounces*
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Ooh! This has a small blurb about Castlewood Terrace. The houses were built for film stars of the '20s before movie production moved to Hollywood. The article makes it sounds like the likes of Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin lived there!
http://www.uptownchicagocommission.org/jun_13b_07.html
Meanwhile, I had to convince myself to read more of my history textbook in preparation for writing the take-home part of my history final instead of starting on Studs Terkel's "American Dreams: Lost & Found".
Also, I'm embarassed to admit that I didn't really solidly know where Korea was until I looked at it on Google Earth while reading about the Cold War. I'm so grateful for the expansion of my geographic knowledge in general that school has spurred lately. |
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