Month: April 2006

Pets, Photography

Easter Puppy

Shelly

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Harriet and I visited my family over Easter. To be truthful, I’d forgotten it was Easter weekend. My main purpose in visiting was to pick up an oak table. It was one my mom grew up with, then my brothers and I, so when it looked like it might be my turn to snag it, I jumped at the chance. The finish needs some work, but it’s a really nice size and has a lot of sentimental value.

Anyway, while we were moving the table out to the car, I shut Harriet in the downstairs bedroom. She’s good about honoring open doors and gates, but with all the chaos, I wanted to be on the safe side. One of the cold air exchanges for the furnace is in that room, so there is a cut out on the bottom of the door, to allow for air circulation. Harriet took advantage of the opening to keep an eye on the to-ing and fro-ing. I think she was hoping she could stuff her whole head and body through the gap, but she hasn’t perfected the art of bending space. Yet.

Crankypantsing

The Grammar Police Never Sleep

Shelly

Paging Wilford Brimley. Would Mr. Brimley please come to the white courtesy phone?

Don’t let on, but I’d like to smack him upside the head. I’ve mentioned before that I’m disturbed–on a near daily basis–by his mangling of the English language. I’ve recently discovered that he has a little friend. I don’t recall what product it’s for, but there’s a commercial on heavy rotation right now for a medication for some sort of “respitory” ailment. That’s right folks. I thought it had five syllables, too, so I’m just as shocked as y’all are. And, amazingly, if you go a-Googling for “respitory,” you get 174,000 hits. It is for to weep.

Photography

Say What…?

Shelly

Doesn’t anyone proofread copy for teevee commercials? I mean, if you’re going to spend eleventy bajallion dollars on advertising, the end product ought not make you look like an ignorant pantsload, right? So why is Ford bragging that one of its cars will allow you to make “less stops at the pump”? I swear, I want to pierce my eardrums every time that commercial airs.

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And now, a red bird for a spring day. I took this at my mom’s house. While I was outside, photographing paintings, two cardinals were dancing and displaying at each other, so I tried to get some shots of them. They didn’t turn out very well, but I was able to play around with this one in Photoshop and salvage it to some extent. I upped the contrast, decreased the saturation, increased the red and yellow channels, and added some noise.

The house in the background is due to be torn down. There was a fire in it over 20 years ago, and the owners did a crapy-assed job of renovating it. They were able to rent it out a few times over the years, but it’s sat empty more often than not. Now, if it’s not torn down, inertia will likely take care of the problem.

Pets, Photography

Happy Birthday, Harriet!

Shelly

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I’ve never been good at letting sleeping dogs lie. I’m more apt to poke them, just because I can.  Make of that what you will.

In the literal sense, this is why Boxers are one of my very favoritest breeds. They just do not care. If there’s nothing better to do, they’ll sleep, but as soon as it looks like there might be something more interesting on offer (poke, poke), they’re ready to go-go-go.

Right now, Harriet is crashed out behind my computer chair, napping away and generally being lazy.  Tomorrow is her 7th birthday, which is not an old age for a dog.  Boxers never grow up, but they don’t generally have a long life-span, so it’s a little sad to think that she’s getting on in age.  She’s been greying around the muzzle for quite awhile now, and yesterday I noticed that her front legs are starting to turn grey, too.  She’s also developed white patches inside her ears

So happy birthday a day early, because I’m likely to forget tomorrow, what with my swiss cheese brain and all.

Art, Collage, Pets, Photography

It’s a good, good (Fri)day

Shelly

I just saw two swallowtail butterflies flitting about in my yard. Spring has definitely arrived. Summer, too, perhaps. It’s supposed to be around 85F today. O ick. And it’s supposed to storm this afternoon, so I thought I’d update and upload while I can.

First, some spring photos.

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The first three were taken this morning. It stormed at about 4am, but the morning was absolutely gorgeous. The horse in the first photo had just calmed down. He’d been running around and rolling in the grass, full of joie de spring, which was super cute, but not so photogenic in a distance shot.

Next, Teh Cute and Teh Silly:

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What can I say? Boxers are unbelievably weird. They do a silly kidney bean dance, wherein they whip their bodies in half, bending back and forth, accompanied by hilariously funny nubbin wagging. It’s ludicrously cute, but not easy to photograph. I tried to get video of it, but no dice. In the second photo she’s just plain lost it. Boxers are notoriously sassy. They love to talk back. This is Harriet woo-wooing at me. My timing was not good, because I was laughing, so I missed the part where she scrunches up her floppy lips and purses them in a perfect O. You can see a little bit of the lip action, but it’s not as impressive as it could be.

And now, the art. Three of them contain Polaroids I’ve altered using sandpaper and/or bleach.

Diptych: Faun
Diptych: Faun

Diptych: Alba
Diptych: Alba
5 1/2 x 5 1/2
collage (altered Polaroid photo, brass beads, unbleached waxed paper, pieces of burnt paper, and fragment from 1854 patent book) and acrylic paint on 90lb Stonehenge paper

Reissue and Extension
Reissue and Extension
5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches
collage (stone beads, braided hemp twine, copper wire, and fragment from 1854 patent book) and drawing (Sarasa gel ink and dandelion pulp) on 90lb Stonehenge paper

The paper was stained beforehand with instant coffee. I made the flower by pounding a dandelion into the paper, then drawing around it using a Sarasa retractable gel pen and water brush. The ink in these pens is dye based. It doesn’t skip and it bleeds when wet.

The Bone of a Thought
The Bone of a Thought
5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches
collage (altered Polaroid photo, bone fragment, brass brads, unbleached waxed paper, and fragment from 1854 patent book) and acrylic paint on 90lb Stonehenge paper

Crankypantsing

Zzzzzz

Shelly

Someone poke me with a really, really sharp stick. And hurry, pleaseandthanks. I’m actually falling asleep while I’m typing. I keep standing up and moving around, trying to wake myself up, but it’s not helping. I hate knowing that I’m nodding off and not being able to do anything about it. It’s awful.

Uncategorized

And in Not-So-Awful Christian News…

Shelly

Check this out:

CrossWalk America

Check out, too, their core beliefs:

The Phoenix Affirmations

From the section on Christian Love of Neighbors. Number 8 is especially heartening, in light of the Ramsey quote D referrenced.

5. Engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God’s very image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, or economic class;

6. Standing, as Jesus does, with the outcast and oppressed, the denigrated and afflicted, seeking peace and justice with or without the support of others;

7. Preserving religious freedom and the Church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of Church and State;

8. Walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies;

Thank you! The whole thing is quite short. I recommend reading it.

Uncategorized

Instant Review: Degrassi

Shelly

Since Netflix has decided to start sending me random titles, I spent tonight not watching season 4 of Little House. Instead, I spent it watching Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi. Go ahead, laugh. I know you want to. The thing is, I love, love, loved the original Degrassi shows. They were amazing, in that they treated kids with dignity and allowed their voices to be heard. There wasn’t, and isn’t, anything else like it on television in the US.

I’ve only seen the first season of Degrassi: the next generation, but so far, it seems to have just as much integrity as the originals. So, at one point, I placed Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi in my queue (cuz, why not?), and via the magic of the Netflix Queue Randomizing Elves, it showed up in my mailbox yesterday.

I really enjoyed it. The DVD contains three episodes (plus extras) from the new series. I don’t know which season they were from. Only the first season has been released on DVD, I think, so it’ll be awhile before I’ll have a chance to see them in context. Though they stand alone fairly well, considering the soap opera-esque nature of Degrassi, it would be nice to see how they connect up with the rest of the shows. And that brings me to perhaps the most important point: do not watch the DVD thinking it’s a Jay and Silent Bob story. It’s not. It’s a Degrassi story, and if you aren’t familiar with the show, you’re likely to be a little lost and a lot disappointed.

About the extras: There is an interview with Kevin Smith, in which he talks about being a fan of the old series and how he ended up working on the new one. He makes some interesting points about what makes the whole project is so different from US teen television and about why the same shows could not ever be created here. He also talks about how some folks “get it” and some don’t, and why. It’s funny. My high school was just like Degrassi in some ways, and not in others. It was small and everyone knew everyone else. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s like living in a small town, in that everyone knows everyone else’s business. That level of familiarity can foster tolerance and understanding, but it can also lead to bullying and all manner of meanness. There was a lot of both going on in my school. There were plenty of mean kids (lordy, the girls on the volleyball team were insufferable!), but some really cool ones, too. Luckily, I didn’t have depend on my classmates for social interaction. Instead, because the school was located on a college campus, I spent my free time on campus. College kids were much easier to get along with, I found, and a lot more willing to take you as you were.

So, anyway, thanks to the Netflix Queue Randomizing Elves, I’ve spent the entire evening thinking about high school.

Uncategorized

Speaking of Awful Christians…

Shelly

So I was reading an article about the discovery of fossil evidence of a missing link between Australopithecines and Ardipithecus. Basically, this critter is the elusive missing link. That must really piss off the Christian Fundies. Actually, it probably doesn’t, because they don’t seem to be too concerned with science in general (e.g. the insistence that emergency contraception is an “abortion pill,” when in fact, that is not at all how it functions). Science-schmiance, eh?

Even given Fundies’ total disrespect for science, I don’t understand their refusal to acknowledge evolution. It’s such a basic process, and it occurs right under our noses. How do they think virus mutation works? Surely they understand that HIV, avian flu, colds, and other viruses change over time? That’s the reason why vaccines are so difficult to produce. If viruses didn’t evolve, we’d’ve long since cured the common cold. And bacteria do it, too. We now have antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, enterococcus, staphylococcus, streptococcus, pneumococcus, gonorrhea, sinusitis, salmonella, e. coli, blah, blah, blah.