8oct2024

Whoops, sorry about the broken link in the last entry, I forgot to turn the page public—that's what I get for not making these things regularly. Fixed now, I hope. Also, I did not have allergies as a child, which was lovely, but now seem to be slowly developing them as I get older. The ragweed (I presume) was bad enough that I actually broke down and tried fluticasone propionate (e.g. flo-nase, though I have the generic) and wow, it worked in moments. Hurray for modern medicine.

But in a definite boo-hiss category, (via the wizard) The Mary Sue details a horrifying plan in Utah to limit what people stock in their own Little Free Libraries, on their own property. Of course they're cloaking this in that old bugbear, “protecting the children”. Um, why can't these lazy but oh so worried-and-protective parents can't keep their kids off private property? Or even discuss their values in a convincing way so their children aren't ‘corrupted’ by dangerous (oogah-boogah!) ideas not their own?

Abortion bans are continuing to kill women.

And horrid grifters like Marjorie Taylor Greene are spreading lies about FEMA assitance for Helene, or even more outlandish, that the government can control hurricanes (!) because it's in these liars’ interest to get a bit ahead, never mind they're causing 10 or 100x that amount of advantage in damage to the body politic (which is to say, the rest of us): I really do see these grifters as parasites of the most disgusting nature, excepting the average parasite has no control over its behaviour, whereas the grifters do.

It's now less than a month away to the US's election day, and more than ever I want to vote these controlling, lying, perverted assholes out. And as I have my absentee ballot I plan to, today. You probably can too...

Well, that's my rant for today. On a happier note, this is the back of an envelope for a card thanking the hosts to a kayaking party I went to; one of them is a fellow artist, and I thought she might enjoy this little token.

30sep2024

At last, that pile of blank pages I generated last June is used up, and oh yeah, this month I've managed two posts, so go me.

My sympathies to everyone affected by Hurricane Helene. One of my sibs is without power & has no idea when it will come back. The owner of our awesome new locally owned art supply store was nearly beside herself (& certainly not producing art) with worry for her sibs, also in North Carolina. Honestly, the devastation reminded me of some of Japan's disasters.

The northern edges of that storm extended all the way up to my (northern) midwestern state, where we really needed the rain, which for the most part alternated between drizzle, mizzle and mist. Since it was softened by the rain, I spent yesterday weeding the front bed of my sister-in-law's house, probably for the last time, and feeling pretty melancholy about it.

Take care, all. Oh yeah, and here's a winter-white mouse.

24sep2024

Oh, look at me, another 24-24 page, yay!

Except it's been a month since the last post, boo!

But hey, the bathrooms are mostly redone, the hideous green roll vinyl flooring torn up to reveal the original hardwood downstairs, and the hardibacker board that's been silently mocking me (for years) upstairs is now covered over in the mixed tile I've been planning (again, for years...) Bonus is that the upstairs toilet flushes properly:)

The occasion for all this was f2tY and Significant Other's visit, and visitors are always great for an all around clean and tidy, but three days after their departure, I'm still recovering. So that's my excuse this time. But in between bemoaning my exhaustion I watched an interesting OtherWords video on reading acquisition (in English). I'm old enough to have been taught the classic ‘hooked on phonics’ method of reading, which—spoiler alert—is evidently far more effective for teaching reading (to children learning languages with alphabets, at least...) than the “guess from context/recognize by shape” method that was popularized in Australia and evidently imported here in the 90s?

I mean, phonics isn't impeccable: I'm told I didn't truly learn to read until 4th grade, despite having all the advantages—parents who read to me, plenty of books in the home, phonics, even a parent who specialized in the speech therapy for children. I don't recall any of this, really, or even the teacher who finally managed to get me to learn, but the sticking point was evidently reading aloud, meaning all my mistakes were embarrassingly public; once I learned to read silently, off I went and by 6th grade I was testing, so I was told, at college level. This was, I'm pretty sure, an exaggeration, but the point was, once I got basic mastery, I devoured books, animal stories in particular.

But here's the thing: I'm attempting to learn 日本語, that is, にほんご, or in romaji, ni ho n go. The glyphs, or kanji, one could probably learn by shape, but the ひらかな　(hiragana, or syllabary, which [simplified] for the purposes of this discussion is roughly analogous to upper case alphabet just katakana is, again roughly [very, very roughly] analogous to lower case,) I really, really need to have firmly embedded what sounds they make, because if I'm say, trying to read My Happy Marriage in Japanese and I see something like わたしも。。。 embedded in a bunch of other hiragana I'm gonna do something like... ra-ta-shi-mo...unnnnh wa-ta-shi-mo...watashimo, wait, that's watashi-mo, 私も (“I also”)

IOW, I read Japanese so sloppily and slowly I can actually watch my brain doing it, and while I do recognize glyphs such as 私、猫、森、&　雨 at a glance (I, cat, forest, rain) the hiragana I figure out by sounding out and then assembling words (not helped by the fact that, unlikeEnglishJapanesetextdoesnothavespaces—they use the three writing systems, ひらがなとカタカナと漢字 to help break things up, and as you can see all of them look different, just as CAPITALS and lower case do.

So yeah, I can well believe phonics is critical. That said, the wizard taught himself to read with comics, and I can far more easily read 私　than I can わたし。。。let alone 森 for もり, not to mention the fact that I'm also finding manga far less daunting than the plain text. I mean, kids’ books have illustrations for a reason. But that sort of shape recognition, if I'm understanding the video correctly (not to mention my own learning processes) comes later.

Buuuuuut, I have to admit, I would be fascinated to know how written language acquisition works for, say, Chinese (all hanzi glyphs) versus Japanese (syllabary, with kanji to follow on) versus English (alphabets only). I mean, I presume that just as Japanese speakers recognize radicals, e.g., 木 in 森 to give a very obvious example, Chinese readers also recognize assorted chunks in Mandarin or other hanzi based languages. But that's not likely to be an experience I'll have myself: Japanese is already daunting, so the thought of having to learn a tone language with all glyphs seems almost impossibly difficult. (So kudos to all those folks bilingual in a Chinese and English—bear in mind, there's tons of dialects in both;)

In the mean time, phonics for the win. Along with mini-mice, such as this one f2tY selected to take back to Japan:)

24aug2024

Prepping, participating & recovering from a couple of kayaking trips ate up much of July and August, but hey, I thought I'd continue that patriotic series from last time (two months ago...)

As it turns out, the wizard and I were likely exposed to covid on the way home from the Isle Royale trip, and though neither of us manifested symptoms—certainly less than the time I know I was exposed, tested negative on my worst day (which basically meant, headachey & tired)—but we were pretty low energy.

Frex, I think I started this entry on the 23rd, am completing it on the 28th, but have worked on it sporadically for the 5 days in between, but I wanted another 24-24 post, so here we are; and without ado, a few linkies I have or mean to enjoy:

• via BB, Georgian (the country) bas reliefs —amazing, religiously themed monument that somehow managed to slide under the radar, instead of being yet another 100’ statue of Lenin. Kudos.
• Anne Applebaum on NPR discusses dictators and hope: the latter being critical to defeating the former. Certainly I'm appreciating the Harris’ campaign's pivot to what we can do, as opposed to the Biden focus on the dire consequences of what his opponent will do. Again, kudos.
• I've always thought it would be cool to ‘live off the land’, whatever that means—even our paleolithic ancestors banded together in groups to survive. Nevertheless, this guy is a lotta fun, answering survivalist questions.
• Alas, I think I'm gonna have to start exploring hacks for getting around paywalls. Can't subscribe to everything.
• ADHD professional organizers tips and tricks: I notice the first item on the list is decluttering. The second, set timers for tidying. That's it.

There would be more links, but multiple reboots have winnowed most of them away, which vis-a-vis that last entry...is a good thing:)

Enjoy the rest of your August!

24jul2024

Well, hello there, here's my 4th July post, 20 days late, not least because I had little germane to say on Independence Day—I mean, I've already posted what I feel to be the best historic speech in prior years—well, hey, at least it's 24July24, that's cool, right?

I was out of town at a kayaking conference, learning how to dump myself accidentally in the water (this has proven to be an extraordinarily difficult task for me, and I've achieved it, maaaayyybe, 4–5 times in the 2-1/2 years I've been paddling? But pushing to failure is, in my opinion the fastest way to learn) and owing to spotty cell phone coverage, didn't learn of the Democratic party's switch till I got back.

Frankly I wondered if they were hoping for a repeat of Obama—a relatively unknown (but talented) PoC who managed to beat the odds, with the added advantage of actually having had 3 plus years to practise for the job—but as he so often does, Scalzi pretty much summed up my feelings, and so on reflection, besides the important concerns expressed over there I'm glad the Dems switched for a couple of personal reasons, both extremely petty:

1. Biden gets to keep his promise of being a one term president, which I think is nice. No really. Not a big deal, politicians always lie about that stuff, blah, blah, blah, but now he can be elder statesman, and
2. I get a fun political post from Scalzi, I love those, and he hardly ever writes them anymore.

Yeah, I know.

That said, an awful lot of folks seem to be energized, and certainly now we have two very obvious, distinct visions literally embodied in the two candidates for president. I will admit, as a AFAB person, I really felt the hatred a lot of men had for my sex in the 2016 election results in a way that, like so many women of my generation, I'd mostly managed to tune out.

Here's hoping freedom for all prevails over hatred and fear. And on that note, some beads celebrating the USA.

22jun2024

Whoops, managed to fail posting noting the summer solstice (I was busy being a day late Juneteenth, you see) and the full moon (Thursday the 20th and Friday the 21st, respectively) That's me, always running behind...in my defense, the Solstice is pretty early this year.

Usually these little intros are my parking place for links I happen to find interesting, but for whatever reason I don't feel like doing that; instead, I thought I'd explain how I got an idea. It's probably gonna sound pretty dull, but if you've ever wondered how the ‘where do you get your ideas from?’ process works, here's an example.

As it happens, I was in fact thinking about the solstice yesterday—but the winter one: I was walking home from swimming, and because I have to leave my stuff unattended while doing my laps (all 10 of them), I don't take my phone, nor even my glasses, which meant I had no chance to photograph that adorable baby bun hopping near the bath house when I left—walks typically are an opportunity to think, but also to take photographs.

But I couldn't do that, my phone was at home.

I probably would've failed to photograph it anyway, but realized I could only share it with Fran (for whom I take bunny photos while walking—they don't really have many in Brooklyn, I guess, and she thinks they're cute, especially the babies, which is why I was particularly disappointed at not getting it) by talking about it or making art of it. Which perhaps reminded me of working glass with Fran a couple days prior.

I haven't been doing much with glass, I mean, we had heat advisories much of this week; but with Fran in town it was worth it. So last Wednesday, we visited while torching.

Because I'm that kind of person, I had started out by finishing off the blue-white shards leftover from making the red, white and blue omiyage I took to Japan this spring (which needs to be documented, sorry, but it's just a variation on earlier abstract); now that I hope to be going to Japan on a regular basis, I have a use for patriotic beads so making them is useful instead of mildly embarrassing. But even so, I started messing around with greys instead of the reds, making what was for me a softer and more subtle colour scheme: blue, white, touches of grey or cream.

By the time I'd used up the shards, I was starting to make progress with that, but as it stands now, the series is still kinda boring and unfinished.

Also earlier this week (well...maybe last week), while storing some beads I'd gotten from Page I looked at old projects stored in nearby drawers, and as a way of avoiding thinking about other projects I should be doing but are too intimidating (tidying up the sewing area, frex, or figuring out how to draw roses or dogwood—even peonies—in the Kyoto yuzen style), I came up with a scheme for finishing a necklace I likely started two or three decades ago: I realized I could make a 1.25" lentil and that would basically fix the weight/balance/hang issues. It would require a dark silver blue, red and grey colour scheme, which shouldn't be too hard, since I'm already thinking in those terms, but I've only been making 1/2" or 5/8" rounds, not over-an-inch lentils.

So I practised making lentils (using fuchsia because Fran was doing that). But once I finish this bead, then what? Fran and I are getting together Sunday to work glass again, one of three things will happen:

1. If I'm really lucky, the 1.25 lentil for the 30 year old necklace will go smoothly, and I'll need something to do
2. More realistically, I'll end up making round colour tests, several lentils, and that will take up the entire session
3. But also very likely, the efforts to make 1.25 lentil for the 30 year old necklace will go so badly I'll get frustrated, and need something easier to do

Hmmmm, what do I need to make that would be an easier alternative? Or, let's be honest here, ideas are so much easier to generate than the actual art, so I'm not actually certain I was thinking any more clearly than, huh, I'm working glass with Fran in a couple of days, what would be easy and fun? Unnnnnnhhhhh... Er, holiday beads for the family? I've done relatively clean patterns for the last three iterations (and, sigh, the 2022 beads also need to be documented...) so I was thinking something involving frits and powder and shards, like the Japan series I just finished up, might be fun, but problem is I've already done that, more or less Plus, the fam is probably getting bored of red and green, I know I am—But hey, just as my local guild finally switched it up from red/white/green to blue and white, what about that?

The sky was very blue that morning, and of course I've been making blue and white beads...the idea of doing something completely different than the red/green/white would make a nice change for family members who might like some other colour combo. Add in the softer, more subtle colour scheme (and siiiiigh, mebbe more of those blue/white shards, which I would have to make, and I just got rid of the last batch) and I have a not-too-demanding concept that nevertheless leaves room for exploring some new variations.

If this all looks like throwing a bunch of bits and pieces and mixing them together taking the parameters (holiday themed bead) and using recent work (the blue based shard variation on the Japanese abstracts) as a starting point, why yes, really, that's more or less how it's done. Now I have a not-too-difficult bead that will

1. easy to do,
2. small, definitely a plus during hot weather
3. while working glass with Fran
4. get a holiday to-do out of the way early (reducing stress)
5. which means I can make a lot of them, meaning I can dig into
6. a continuation of some mildly interesting variations on prior beads

If one's going for more serious art, you might have a more exciting set of initial parameters, such as ‘really exploit the fun effects of Double Helix silver bearing glasses’ or ‘explore the conundrum of being complicit in worldwide suffering and slavery’ but honestly, as far as I can tell—and other artists’ stories, for a variety of media seem to bear this out—this is the process.

It's really not rocket science. Anyone can do it, the tricky bits are getting the work to convey what's inside of your head—that's where the exploration and mastery of technique come in, but again, that mostly boils down to practise in the face of frustration, i.e., failure.

And, leading back to the subject of today's post, this 12 year old giftwrap also features blue and white. So, a little (or a lot...) late, happy Summer Solstice.

Enjoy.