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More Civil War Images

Images from the Civil War

Every year, the Civil War is held in the Central Library Park. Most years, at least some of us go to see it. Battles are fought, music is played, food is cooked, and, of course, stuff is sold.

And people have fun.

Usually, they pick the hottest day of the summer to hold it on, but this year they messed up--it was hot, but not impossibly so, and the three of us who went had a pleasant time wandering around and watching the fun. We did listen to some music and watched a little dancing, but we missed the battles this year.

Can't say I'm terribly sorry. The cannons are really loud. Often, my method of handling things is to go hide in the library; the windows shake, but it's down do a dull boom. At that, they're only using about 1/4 of the powder they would if they were really firing cannonballs.

Oh, and did you know they had submarines during the Civil War?1 And hot air balloons for surveillance and, on at least one occasion, bombardment purposes? I didn't, not til today. I also didn't know that they seldom actually washed their dishes, one of many reasons so many people died. It's an odd mix of knowledge and ignorance, don't you think?

Wonder what our imbalance is now? I know folk will look back on us and wonder how we lived without knowing "__," but will they think "How could they know ____ and not ____?"

Also, my sister brought up the fact that it is really rather odd to celebrate our own Civil War. Do other countries? I really do not know...

































1Wikipedia says they were not true submarines after all, but "only" Torpedo boats. *sniff. Spoilsports.

A Truly Magnificent Spider

I went to the Civil War today, and all I saw was this spider.

Well, not really.

But he was there, and isn't he (she?) magnificent?

Sadly, neither spider nor web was visible later in the day. I hope that whichever barbarian destroyed the web left the spider alive and well.

I had a hardish time getting the camera to focus on it, so it isn't as good a picture as I'd like, but it'll give you an idea of its beauty.

Mama Said There'd be Days Like This

No--not my car.

Just some poor unfortunate down the street.

Pic from the street fair

The Bread Machine Gourmet by Shea MacKenzie

One of my favorite cookbooks; I've had it for years. I love making bread by hand, but sometimes there just isn't time, or it's too hot to turn on the oven, and then the bread machine comes to the rescue.

And this cookbook has lots of intriguing and tasty recipes in it. Favorites include: Blackstrap Bread, Black Bean and Raisin Bread, Brown Rice Bread, Banana Maple Bread, and Chocolate Chip and Nut Bread.

Order of the Stick

Oh, I love this one!

Beans: A History, by Ken Albala

I'm a bit more than 2/3 of the way through and I'm bored and through trying. It was interesting learning that jicama is the root of the bean plant, slightly appalling to see Absalom identified as David's brother (apparently someone brought David beans while he was on the run from said "brother"), but overall rather dull. The book is basically a catalog of bean types with occasional mentions of "cultures" and "economic classes" eating them. Actual people, as in individuals one could care about one way or the other, were few and far between. Any sort of sense of history or event was similarly muted.

It's a pity, the idea is quite interesting, but the outcome quite otherwise.

Addictive Website Warning

The tropes wiki is a dangerous, addictive site. I sat down to read one, just one article, :Precursors; kindly ancient civilization or deadbeat parents? You decide, on today's episode of Judge Troper's Court! and am still reading, two hours later. Well, you can see from the single link above that the site just keeps going and going and going with lots of interesting, insightful, humorous discussion of tropes all over all kinds of stories.

So, whatever you do, don't follow any of the links in this entry!

Just don't.

Rose Beads Again

Another finished project: A necklace for my sister, all rose beads! The reddish-pink ones are from red & pink beads, just ground with no cooking; the yellow-brown ones are from mixed colors, cooked in a non-reactive pot and the black-brown ones are from cooking them with iron.

The rough look is kind of neat, making it more homemade in appearance, but I'd still like to know how to get them polished, since it's always good to be able to make these choices consciously.


Oh--the secret to keeping them from molding in a humid climate seems to be to keep a fan on them on low at all times while they dry.

Further Notes on Wasps

Notes one and two were posted earlier here.

Note: Should you actually, for some reason, want to find a wasp, none will appear.

Note: When one eventually does appear, it will prove nearly impossible to photograph because it will keep moving incessantly.

Doll Making

I just finished a long-term project I've been working on--making a doll for a friend, based on her gaia avatar.

I'm rather pleased with the way she turned out, though of course there are many things I learned while I was making her and somethings I'll do differently "next time" (that is, next doll, not next iteration of this doll. This one is done). Wish I had thought to photograph her standing up so's to avoid the bigfoot syndrome.

One project down, I'm-n0t-really-sure-how-many yet to go.

The pattern, by the way, comes from Dolls Puppedolls and Teddy Bears by Estelle Ansley-Worrell, by far the most sensible doll-making book I've ever come across.

I've adapted it, of course, to fit my purposes, but the body is the same.

Eureka: I Do Over

Oh my.

When they said "The End" they meant "the end."

No coherent comments yet, I'm still in shock.

Which says something good about the episode, on the whole.

This ep written by: Thania St. John

Edit: Oh no. Nathan is really, really dead :( Still processing otherwise....

But I had to throw things out!

Lately, I have been working on several projects at once--a doll, rose beads, books, photography, discovering collage, and whatnot.

If the craft books are to be believed, each and every one of these crafts requires a room of its own.

They don't have one1.

Normally, they share space happily enough, but then, normally, I stick to one project at a time.

I didn't this time, and the result was a predictable mess--nay, a catastrophe.

I finally finished a couple of the projects and decided to do some cleaning up.

The results were satisfactory, but it did involve actually throwing some things out.

Does anyone else have any idea how hard that is? It's not scraps of paper and bits of cloth--it's potential collage and homemade paper! It's not an old jam jar, it's a brush holder, a bead container, a paste-paint holder...

It was all I could do not to chase after the garbage truck when it came by.



1 Does anyone actually have the space "necessary" for their work?

Eureka: Best in Faux

Just watched. Immediate reaction: Fun but a bit flat. I'd say about a B/B-, partly depending on how some of what they brought up here plays out in the end.

What worked:
They had Stark & Carter paired up for part of the time which, as I've said before, is always fun.

The eccentric vulcanologist. I would love to see more of him, but like most of the third-string eccentrics, this is probably his only episode. Still, he was fun, and I liked the friendship he and Carter struck up. One of the things I like about Carter is that he is, on the whole, a laid-back and easy-going kind of person--a trait the town definitely needs.

What didn't work: The dog-show-volcano-fake mucus stuff dovetailed a little too neatly too quickly.

The Carter-Allison tension. She's marrying Stark. Enough already with the triangle.

And where's Callie?

Fargo winning the fake dog show with a real dog. Cute, but implausible even for Eureka.

What might work:
The Eva plot. She's Up To Something and it might turn out to be interesting--or not. I still haven't decided what I think of her as a character. She's still too one-dimensional to really like or to believe as a villain. Beverly worked because she was scheming, manipulative, and also a believable town psychiatrist. When she wasn't poisoning people, she actually was counseling them. It also remains to be seen whether or not she's part of the same rather murky and muddled plot Beverly was involved in or if we've got another Mysterious Organization out there pulling strings. I'm inclined to think the first, but the Beverly Plot was never fully explained, so it's too early yet to tell.

Henry and Carter teaming up together to figure out what she's up to. I like Henry coming to tell Carter about the oddity of his errand, but if Eva is any sort of decent schemer, anything like the wizard of organization we're told she is, she'll have some way of keeping tabs on Henry or at least the data he gathered.

Genius Zoe. It's an interesting idea, and I've enjoyed seeing her grow and adjust to her new place and her new role, but--well, it's a delicate balancing act. Can she be Genius Zoe and still be the practical, sort of rebellious but not really character I've grown to love?

The teaser for next week: "For one of these characters, it's the end." Um. We'll see. It all depends on what you mean by "end." It's really a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Personally, I'll be furious if they actually kill off any of the main characters, but I'll also be unhappy if they end up "only merely dead" instead of "really most sincerely dead."

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Laura Joffe Numeroff

The CD1 is on, making me remember reading this to kids (and once or twice to myself, just because). It regularly makes the "Read it again!" list.

Who knew that a simple act of kindness could result in so much fun and chaos?

"If you give a mouse a cookie" he'll want milk, and if you give him milk, he'll want a straw, and before you know it, he's cleaning up the entire house, making an enormous mess while he's at it.

Felicia Bond's illustrations are perfect showing a cheerful, hyperactive mouse on the rampage. They're done in an almost childlike style, simple, clean, and highly expressive.

I also love If You Take a Mouse to School, same mouse, same chaos.

If You Give a Pig a Pancake and If You Give a Moose a Muffin are also good, but the mouse is the best of the lot: the contrast between the size of the mouse and the size of the mess is part of the fun. Looking online, I see I'm well behind on Numeroff books; something else to look for next time I visit the library.

---
1One sister's birthday gift to another, along with some of Numeroff's books. I do not like the CD. The woman is waaay to cutsy-voiced; the man has what my sisters are currently calling a "1-900 voice", and the songs are, so far, not really worth noticing. Not outright offensive, just "why bother?"

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman

I just recently rediscovered Mrs. Pollifax and am enjoying a judicious reread of the series.

I love The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, the first in the series: Mrs. Pollifax is widowed, has several grown children, a number of charities, prize-winning geraniums, and she is more than a little bored.

Deciding this won't do, she dusts off her childhood dream, walks into the CIA an announces that she is willing to volunteer as a spy.

They need a courier, she fits the bill.

Things get complicated.

Mrs. Pollifax rises to the situation.

It's fun. She's an unexpected and delightful heroine, resilient, good-humored, and unwilling to quit.

And I periodically return to the books--or at least some of them. The later ones aren't quite as good as the early ones, and the last two or three, as far as I can recall, really aren't about Mrs. Pollifax at all, which is quite disappointing.

But I highly recommend this one, and also Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief and A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax, and, really, any of the earlier ones. Read away!

Wish me luck!

Well, I finally did it.

I finally really did put An Ordinary Orange into an envelope and send it off to a publisher.

Been a long time since I submitted anything non-academic anywhere.

Wish me luck!

Eureka: Bad to the Drone & What About Bob, A Night at Global Dynamics

Thanks to sci fi rewind I'm finally getting caught up with this season's Eureka, though I see there is another episode up for me to watch.

And it's good to have Eureka back! Especially since there's no new Doctor Who for a loooong time.

First, a stop to comment on A Night At Global Dynamics, last season's finale. I really enjoyed it all the way up to the end, plenty of suspense and interest, plus the wonder about Henry's motives, plus Carter and Stark at their best--sniping at one another and still managing to work together and even managing a bit of grudging respect. But... then we got to the end and discovered that Henry had done all t his to save Allison's son (Yay! He's a good guy!), buuuut he'd done it in this particular peculiar, convoluted, criminal way because--his feelings were hurt. At least, I don't know how else to interpret "You didn't trust me." as his reason for not letting at least Allison and Nathan in on his little secret and thus greatly simplifying matters, keeping him out of jail, and generally making the show shorter.

I wouldn't bring it up, but Henry is still in jail for those first two episodes, so I found myself irritated about it all over again.

That said, we come to Bad to the Drone. My immediate response "Hurray! Eureka really is back!" A rogue drone, a rebellious but also mature Zoe, Allison, Stark, Carter, Vincent, Jo, Henry--the gang's all here!

Loved the whole opening with us eavesdropping along with Vincent and Zoe.

Lines like "you're going to need to be able to navigate the walk-in fridge" are one of the reasons I love this off-beat show.

Plus, I love the fact that the Allison/Carter/Stark triangle appears to finally be resolving itself--and not in the expected "the hero gets the girl" way. Stark has developed into a complex, interesting character who may actually have done some growing up over the course of the last two seasons. All of the characters have, in fact, which is another mark in the show's favor.

I do wonder, though, what happened to Callie? Will we see her again, or was last season it?

And Martha was cute. I read a bit of the writers' blog--before I watched the show, which is why I only got a paragraph in--and Jaime was talking about needing a computer-generated Martha to get her character across. Odd, because to me it was the sound that made the difference--all those little chirps were endearing and gave the sense of an actual being out exploring rather than an evil killing machine. The "point of view" shots helped, too. I'd like to see her and Zoe as friends, but I doubt she'll show up again; Eureka has done well with its secondary characters and has pulled both season arcs through satisfactorily (mostly--see above on Night at Global Dynamics), but they're not at the Stargate1 level when it comes to keeping track of everyone and everything. Few shows are.

And immediately afterwards, I watched What About Bob. A de-evolution show. Not good. Reaally not good. I know there are only so many plots out there, and I usually don't mind a recycled plot as long as it is well done, but de-evolution is one of those plots that probably never should have been used and certainly doesn't need to be re-used. And, while I'm pretty good at suspending my disbelief, I can't buy "The ionized water" as an explanation, not even when you throw in some weird radiation as the starter.

And the Reality TV gag? Um. No. Let's not. Cute little metafictional devices like that might have been cute once, but the 'nudge-nudge, wink-wink' stuff gets old fast. It's even worse when coupled with the above-mentioned eavesdropping from the show before. Yes, I liked that--quite a bit--, and it was done with a much lighter touch than the TV thing, but I really, really hope there's not going to be some cute watching the watchers moment every episode of the season.

Those major issues aside (And, yes, I consider "The whole plot was a hole" a major issue), What About Bob was still entertaining: Character interaction has always been one of Eureka's strong points, and it still is. Zoe was cute worrying about her dad, Stark was fun worrying about Allison, and the odd bits of interplay were as enjoyable as ever.

Still: I'm glad this wasn't the season opener, and I hope Best in Faux is better.

Oh, the new character? Glad you asked, because I'm not sure what I think of the Fixer. So far, the only person she's had any sort of real interpersonal bits with is Jo, which means I don't know how much of a character she is. Is she going to add to Eureka or just be a sort of one-dimensional "corporate sort of baddie"? Or has she replaced Beverly as resident plotter? We shall see.

As always, there's lots of fun stuff up on the Eureka website. Personally, I like the "Made in Eureka" and Public Service Announcements best, and the "Won't You Be My Neighbor" is funny. Can't quite forgive them for the fact that one of the "Made in Eureka" commercials really is a commercial, but the rest pretty well make up for it.


1Speaking of which, I'm really looking forward to seeing the new Stargate: Atlantis episodes, but that has to wait til Dad gets back; I enjoy watching it as a family, but it means having to put things off sometimes. I"m not being terribly patient about it.

Getting Cultured

So far, it's been quite a cultural summer.

There's been music in the park every Sunday, big band, usually. Sometimes I've gone--we had a great family picnic at one of them. The dog came along and every time we clapped, she thought we were calling her over to play and got all excited, so we didn't end up doing a whole lot of applauding.

Other times, I haven't gone because I've biked to the beach to hear the drummers, a group of folk who just get together and drum every Sunday, year round, or watch the surfers.

And my sister1 found out about some neat gatherings elsewhere. We went together a couple of weeks ago to listen to Baka Beyond, hosted by the OC library up in Tustin. I don't have any really good pictures of them because it was getting dark and I didn't want my screen distracting people. Besides, half the time I was busy dancing to the music. My sister picked up a CD & I kind of wish I had too.

And then there was Shakespeare by the Sea. Both sisters and I went to watch a performance of Anthony and Cleopatra, a play I'd actually neither read nor seen before. It was really well done. Of course *anything* appeals outdoors on a summer's eve, but this really *was* well done and they used the outdoors to enhance their performance, which has got to be hard--what on earth is a Roman soldier to do when a helicopter comes over and drowns out his speech?

And there's the Tuesday night street fair. The Book Arts class has meant that I haven't been to it much this summer, but my sister and I made it last week and spent a long time listening to various performers--well, mostly to Seis Cuerdas, but then, they are geniuses, and I always have to stay long enough to hear the flamenco version of Flight of the Bumblebee, and that is always their last song, so...

1Not the one teaching in Mexico, the other one, the one who doesn't have a blog.

Power Lab/VBS Part II

This last week was busy. I helped in my second VBS of the summer1--I guess after years of not being around for VBS's, I need to catch up. Oh--and I'd better warn you before you follow that link: Last time I looked, they still had the music video for Avalanche Ranch up and it was LOUD. Why, then, am I linking to it? 'Cause I hope they'll get some of the Power Lab music up and most of that was really good. It passed the kid-test, too--I heard different ones singing or humming it during the day. Edit: Ah, ok, there are some clips on the Power Lab website. Before you go--turn your computer volume down. It's quite loud, and there appears to be no way of adjusting it on the site itself.

Backing up for a minute, as you might be able to tell from the link, this one was at my church, and this time rather than being a craftsperson, I was a crew leader, so instead of staying in one place and teaching bunches of kids a craft, I moved from place to place with the kids. It was, as I said, tiring, but fun. I had five kids and an eleven-year-old assistant crew-leader in my charge. Lots of giggling, some wiggling, both authorized and not.

The authorized variety included such activities as dancing and singing, walking around blindefolded, playing tag, and water fights2. The unauthorized involved chanting "MAKE IT GO BOOM" for five solid minutes while the storyteller set up her mock lab. No, I didn't start the chant. I also didn't try to stop it. And, they did, for a wonder, actually listen to the story and demonstration when it started, even though nothing ever did "go boom."

I am inclined to be somewhat critical evaluating these things. I don't, by nature, really like scripted setups, and this series of VBS's is made by some company out there who creates a very, very scripted sort of setup. Even the photographs are selected out of a list of "needed" pictures for insertion into a pre-made slide show.

But then I ask myself why I'm fussing. After all, the kids had a fantastic time, the photographers themselves didn't seem to mind the list, the kids loved posing, the songs may have been on video rather than 'really' led, but the kids danced to them and sang them all the same, and they got the really important messages loud and clear: God loves you, we love you, and church is a good place to be.

Hopefully they also got the focus messages about God's power: Jesus gives us the power to be thankful, Jesus gives us the power to help others, Jesus gives us the power to be brave, Jesus gives us the power to live forever, and Jesus gives us the power to tell others about God.3 And all of those are good things, worth thinking about and remembering.

And, yes, if I'm here next year, I'll do it again!

1Also known as Vacation Bible School, but who wants all those syllables?
2Strictly speaking, only one of the water fights was completely authorized. The other was supposed to be some sort of elaborate game where the crew attempted to get the other crew leader wet while protecting their own. However, it quickly became apparent that the only rule they'd actually heard was "Get the crew leaders wet"--though they had lots of water to spare for one another as well. Fortunately, it was a hot day.
3 After which phrases I'm now conditioned to yell "Ah-ha!" I suppose that part will pass. Each phrase, by the way, has a cute little buddy to demonstrate it. I was skeptical about those, too, going into the week, but they are cute and the kids love them, and hopefully they will help them to remember the messages, or at least the fun.

more cat pictures

Laughter is sacred.

It Helps to Have a Backup Plan

Today's VBS Bible story was Jesus walking on the water. After telling the story and commenting on Peter's bravery in getting out of the boat to walk to Jesus, and how he stayed brave as long as he looked at Jesus, the storyteller asked, "So, would any of you get out of the boat?"

Almost immediately, a boy's hand shot up. "I would! I would!"

He paused and added, "Anyway, I know how to swim."

more cat pictures

Pigeon by Mo Willems

A few days ago, I did some babysitting--first time in a while. Had a lot of fun, what with playing in the park, reading, and watching Thomas the Tank Engine for the first time ever.

The bedtime ritual includes reading three books out loud, which is how I got introduced to the Pigeon books1.

They're fun little books. My companion (6 1/2) could read them easily and loved the jokes, and I was impressed by that and by the way Willems had made apparently childish drawings of Pigeon incredibly expressive. Pigeon was happy, sad, angry, wistful, sleepy... you name it, that little crayoned figure expressed it. I'll probably grab a few more some time, next time I'm at the library, though it won't be as much fun without someone to read them with.

1 Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, Don't Let Pigeon Drive the Bus, and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late, to be precise.

In case you're not already hooked...

which you should be, take a look at this bit from Girl Genius.

And then read the rest of it. You won't regret it.

A Note or Two on Wasps

Note: Wasps, objectively considered, are quite handsome creatures.

Note: It is difficult to objectively consider a wasp when it is sharing the driver's seat of the car with you.