It is traditional, I hear, for plumbers not to come when expected.
And, as someone who has always been fond of tradition, I am pleased to report that the plumbers taking care of our house have upheld that tradition.
They did make sure we had hot and cold running water before they left last time--and I do assure you that hot water showers are heavenly--even staying quite late one night to do so, an almost unpardonable break with tradition.
They are now, however, seeking to make up for their lapse. We played our part by making sure someone was at home at all times during the last two days. They played theirs by neither coming nor calling until this morning.
Rumor has it they'll be here Saturday to repair the gaping holes in the walls and install the new dishwasher. We, of course, will be up, dressed, and breakfasted well before their expected arrival.
Welcome to my dragon's hoard. It's full of book reviews, TV reviews, photographs, musings on life, sewing, gardening, crafting, modding, and whatever other wonders catch my attention.
My blog is hopelessly general purpose, but also relentlessly keyworded.
Welcome!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Lurking in the Library
Among other places.
See, our landlords decided that the plumbing in the house should be redone now, rather than later when it eventually decided to break somewhere (This is not paranoia--many of the houses up and down the street have had pipes burst at unpleasant times (Come to think of it, there are no pleasant times for a pipe to burst)). So, we've had a house full of plumbers and varying amounts and temperatures of water the last several days.
It's been noisy, dusty, and rather uncomfortable--one of those times when the long term gains will outweigh the short term discomfort but only after said discomfort is actually over.
Anyway, I've been spending as much time as possible Away. Walked around Laguna Beach taking pictures which was fun, and which I spent too little time at, visited the lovely Central Newport Beach Public Library and left with a pile of books, and spent some time at the also lovely but more familiar Central HB library, where I discovered that there is at least one turtle living in the large fountain outside.
Today, alas, all libraries are closed (Whose idea was that? What good is a holiday if you can't go to the library?), so I lurked at the mall instead.
I'm getting good at lurking.
See, our landlords decided that the plumbing in the house should be redone now, rather than later when it eventually decided to break somewhere (This is not paranoia--many of the houses up and down the street have had pipes burst at unpleasant times (Come to think of it, there are no pleasant times for a pipe to burst)). So, we've had a house full of plumbers and varying amounts and temperatures of water the last several days.
It's been noisy, dusty, and rather uncomfortable--one of those times when the long term gains will outweigh the short term discomfort but only after said discomfort is actually over.
Anyway, I've been spending as much time as possible Away. Walked around Laguna Beach taking pictures which was fun, and which I spent too little time at, visited the lovely Central Newport Beach Public Library and left with a pile of books, and spent some time at the also lovely but more familiar Central HB library, where I discovered that there is at least one turtle living in the large fountain outside.
Today, alas, all libraries are closed (Whose idea was that? What good is a holiday if you can't go to the library?), so I lurked at the mall instead.
I'm getting good at lurking.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Peaceful Trees
I like the way this one turned out. The colors and shapes & general peacefulness of the image are just what I was after.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Random Bits
1) I have a cold & therefore no brainpower.
2) I'm meant to be walking the dog but some machine keeps phoning us and beeping; I do not want the answering machine full of beeps, so I'm here with the phone off the hook in hopes that if no one answers, the machine will get tired of calling us and go bother someone else.
3) I just finished coding the second most frustrating script set for the Mage Trio. It did not look like a difficult bit, but it crashed the game each and every time, and I had to block out every single line of the scripts and dialog, one line at a time, and reload the mod to see if I had fixed it before I found the error. It wasn't just that it was in the last line I checked; it was in the last line left to check.
4) I'm very happy now that it is fixed and
5) Even happier because the person making the Spooky Wood for the Trio has finished, and it is gorgeous. I'd post a screen shot for you but a) I suspect it won't mean much to non-game players, and b) I'm saving it for the game itself.
2) I'm meant to be walking the dog but some machine keeps phoning us and beeping; I do not want the answering machine full of beeps, so I'm here with the phone off the hook in hopes that if no one answers, the machine will get tired of calling us and go bother someone else.
3) I just finished coding the second most frustrating script set for the Mage Trio. It did not look like a difficult bit, but it crashed the game each and every time, and I had to block out every single line of the scripts and dialog, one line at a time, and reload the mod to see if I had fixed it before I found the error. It wasn't just that it was in the last line I checked; it was in the last line left to check.
4) I'm very happy now that it is fixed and
5) Even happier because the person making the Spooky Wood for the Trio has finished, and it is gorgeous. I'd post a screen shot for you but a) I suspect it won't mean much to non-game players, and b) I'm saving it for the game itself.
Listening with My Eyes
Someone once looked at some of my pictures and said that I was "listening with my eyes."
I'm not entirely sure what she meant, but it is true that, at least at this point, taking photographs means slipping into another mode, one where I'm concentrating on seeing almost to the exclusion of all else.
I usually have to take a couple of "throwaway" pictures when I set out, just to warm up.
And I can't do it and talk with someone else, not very well anyway. On walks I take with other people, I tend to take one or maybe two pictures at most. The dog, on the other hand, makes an excellent companion. She doesn't talk much and is quite happy to stop and sniff things while I take pictures. She doesn't always understand why I stop when I do--I may pass up several delightfully smelly trees before I pause at some not very interesting grass, but she's quite cheerful about the whole thing. And, sometimes it pays to stop when she wants to and take a look around.
It turns out that I can't listen to music on walks, either. I've been out a few times this week with the MP3 player, and even though the music is familiar, I still didn't end up taking many pictures.
So, yes, I guess I am listening with my eyes.
I'm not entirely sure what she meant, but it is true that, at least at this point, taking photographs means slipping into another mode, one where I'm concentrating on seeing almost to the exclusion of all else.
I usually have to take a couple of "throwaway" pictures when I set out, just to warm up.
And I can't do it and talk with someone else, not very well anyway. On walks I take with other people, I tend to take one or maybe two pictures at most. The dog, on the other hand, makes an excellent companion. She doesn't talk much and is quite happy to stop and sniff things while I take pictures. She doesn't always understand why I stop when I do--I may pass up several delightfully smelly trees before I pause at some not very interesting grass, but she's quite cheerful about the whole thing. And, sometimes it pays to stop when she wants to and take a look around.
It turns out that I can't listen to music on walks, either. I've been out a few times this week with the MP3 player, and even though the music is familiar, I still didn't end up taking many pictures.
So, yes, I guess I am listening with my eyes.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Photoshop
I have long standing love/hate relationship with Photoshop, one that has only deepened as I've taken the photography class this semester.
Consider the following pictures--or rather picture. The first has not been photoshopped at all--it's what came out of the camera. One is pretty much "normally" photoshopped, that is, the color and levels have been tweaked a bit to bring out what is there, but nothing has really been altered--it looks like what I saw and fairly faithfully reproduces a pleasant evening in the park.
The second has been far more drastically altered. It's now a somewhat psychedelic sunset, no longer peaceful, and no longer much like the evening on which I took it. It's fun, but where does it fall on the scale of things? Does it even qualify as a photo any more or is it something else ("digital art," a term I'll figure out one of these days)? Or does that take more drastic changes still? Is it "Art" or just scribbling with crayons (metaphorically speaking)? I had fun making it, but it definitely no longer reflects "what was really there."
Added to that, of course, is the whole printer-computer relationship: When printed, none of these will look quite like what they do on screen, which means I'll probably have to tweak some more.
Consider the following pictures--or rather picture. The first has not been photoshopped at all--it's what came out of the camera. One is pretty much "normally" photoshopped, that is, the color and levels have been tweaked a bit to bring out what is there, but nothing has really been altered--it looks like what I saw and fairly faithfully reproduces a pleasant evening in the park.
The second has been far more drastically altered. It's now a somewhat psychedelic sunset, no longer peaceful, and no longer much like the evening on which I took it. It's fun, but where does it fall on the scale of things? Does it even qualify as a photo any more or is it something else ("digital art," a term I'll figure out one of these days)? Or does that take more drastic changes still? Is it "Art" or just scribbling with crayons (metaphorically speaking)? I had fun making it, but it definitely no longer reflects "what was really there."
Added to that, of course, is the whole printer-computer relationship: When printed, none of these will look quite like what they do on screen, which means I'll probably have to tweak some more.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Not With a Bang
Another TV post. And, herewith, a spoiler warning for those few people who (like me) have waited a few extra years to watch Babylon 5.
The Shadow War just ended.
And the moral of the story is: Spout enough cliche's at the bad guys and they'll run clear out of the galaxy (universe?) to escape you.
That and the Shadows are really big wimps, scared of the dark. So are the Vorlons: "Will you go with us?" the Shadow representative asks the first old one plaintively. "Then we won't be alone," the Vorlon adds. Oh, and they want to know if all their friends will be waiting for them when they get there (wherever "there" is.).
It was, to put it mildly, a letdown. I mean, this sort of "talk them down by demonstrating our maturity/logic/stubbornness" is something James T. Kirk can get away with (kind of), but it really doesn't work here.
And, while I can see making all sorts of thematic and moral arguments as to why having a war end with a lecture rather than a battle is a good thing, I can't see any real plot-related arguments for having the big letdown. Yes--peace talks are good. Cliche'd monologues, not so much so.
That and the Shadow and Vorlon motivations as revealed by the exposition made no sense at all. Nor did their quitting "You can kill us," Delenn says, "and then those who come after us, and those who come after them..." Quite right, and I'm not sure why they didn't.
Actually, the Shadow motivations made some sense & were consistent: They foster growth through violence, and have a great time running around asking people "What do you want?" and then giving it to them--as long as it is sufficiently bloody. (And why did they side with the Centauri & not the Narn? Their representative asked both amassadors). The Vorlons, however, are supposed to be trying to drive people toward order. When I thought that they thought they would win the war by wiping out everyone who had followed the Shadows, it made a certain amount of sense, but when it turned out that their goal wasn't to wipe out the Shadows, themselves, it stopped making a whole lot of sense. Dead burned out planets are orderly, but the dead can't then agree that you were right all along and it is better to keep books in alphabetical order. I guess maybe they were hoping for a head start with the living sentients while the remaining Shadows recouped?
It was confusing, frustrating, and a complete letdown. For this we had Sheridan's Second Coming?
The Shadow War just ended.
And the moral of the story is: Spout enough cliche's at the bad guys and they'll run clear out of the galaxy (universe?) to escape you.
That and the Shadows are really big wimps, scared of the dark. So are the Vorlons: "Will you go with us?" the Shadow representative asks the first old one plaintively. "Then we won't be alone," the Vorlon adds. Oh, and they want to know if all their friends will be waiting for them when they get there (wherever "there" is.).
It was, to put it mildly, a letdown. I mean, this sort of "talk them down by demonstrating our maturity/logic/stubbornness" is something James T. Kirk can get away with (kind of), but it really doesn't work here.
And, while I can see making all sorts of thematic and moral arguments as to why having a war end with a lecture rather than a battle is a good thing, I can't see any real plot-related arguments for having the big letdown. Yes--peace talks are good. Cliche'd monologues, not so much so.
That and the Shadow and Vorlon motivations as revealed by the exposition made no sense at all. Nor did their quitting "You can kill us," Delenn says, "and then those who come after us, and those who come after them..." Quite right, and I'm not sure why they didn't.
Actually, the Shadow motivations made some sense & were consistent: They foster growth through violence, and have a great time running around asking people "What do you want?" and then giving it to them--as long as it is sufficiently bloody. (And why did they side with the Centauri & not the Narn? Their representative asked both amassadors). The Vorlons, however, are supposed to be trying to drive people toward order. When I thought that they thought they would win the war by wiping out everyone who had followed the Shadows, it made a certain amount of sense, but when it turned out that their goal wasn't to wipe out the Shadows, themselves, it stopped making a whole lot of sense. Dead burned out planets are orderly, but the dead can't then agree that you were right all along and it is better to keep books in alphabetical order. I guess maybe they were hoping for a head start with the living sentients while the remaining Shadows recouped?
It was confusing, frustrating, and a complete letdown. For this we had Sheridan's Second Coming?
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