Well, not right this minute. We’re leaving Saturday morning. I have a metric buttload of stuff to get done between now and then, though, so blogging may be light to non-existent until I get back.
Month: August 2007
A Word of Advice to a Coworker
Please, for the love of all that is good and right in this world, do not pick your nose during staff meetings.
Sincerely,
The person who was sitting directly across from you
The Remembrancer: Had He Ploughed This Pathless Sea
The Remembrancer: Had He Ploughed This Pathless Sea
collage (anatomical illustrations, map, ticket, and altered poem) with Neocolors II water-soluble crayons and gesso
4 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches
But had he ploughed this pathless sea
He might have sailed eternally.
The Remembrancer: Default
The Remembrancer: Default
collage (altered Polaroid, anatomical illustrations, and brass brad) with Neocolors II water-soluble crayons and gesso
4 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches
I really like the way the altered Polaroid turned out. The original photo was of a stack of prints (lithographs, I think) lying on the mat room work bench at the art museum. We were discussing museum self-censorship (the director had decided not to exhibit the print of the nude, because we’d recently had complaints from a community member about nude artwork), so the preparator stuck a piece of black paper over the crotch of the woman and took a Polaroid of it. At the bottom of the photo, he wrote: Museum Censorship.
I kept the picture, intending to deconstruct it and use it in my own work. I separated the emulsion from the backing and washed out the right hand side of the image with a baby wipe, leaving just a bit of red and yellow. I then pasted an image of a woman from an anatomy text behind the photo.
Not Crankypantsing About Mr. Upstairs
1. The Bumpasses, bless their hearts, decided to watch the 11:00 news last night at a volume that surely made their ears bleed, because mine were dangerously close to bursting. The television finally went off around 12:30, which is way past my bedtime.
2. The complex I live in is made up of two horseshoe shaped courts. At the center of each horseshoe is a parking lot, which the apartments in that court all face. In my court, there are two families living on opposite sides of the parking lot who do not understand that patios (the concrete slabs in back of the apartments, yaknow?) are for partying. These two families–complete with squealing children–are stoop-sitters and party out front. They also like to communicate with each other by yelling across the parking lot, at the tops of their lungs. I find this behavior thoroughly baffling. It’s like they are partying together, yet separately. And loudly!
3. On my way to the laundry room last night, I noticed that the hallway smelled like bleach (not that unusual) and that the carpet outside the Bumpasses apartment was stained and soaking wet (very unusual). Should we be looking for a body?
4. I came home one day last week to find that one of my across-the-court neighbors had cranked up his stereo so loudly that I could hear it inside my apartment. I can’t even hear thunder or sirens inside my apartment, so that’s no mean feat. Double-paned windows and brick facade, you have failed me!
5. One of my neighbors owns a big-assed Cadillac (complete with fancified rims and a muffler that’s strapped into place with an old jump rope). The car is so ginormous that it does not fit into normal sized parking spaces. It hangs half-way over the sidewalk, and the other end still sticks out into the through-way. Yesterday, it was parked in the spot perpendicular to mine, with its ass end blocking my car, so that I could not pull out.
6. Number 5 is the same car that is often parked in the fire lane. Sometimes its evil twin from across the court, the acid green Cadillac, is parked there instead.
Random notes
1. I have not seen Mr. White Pit Bull (or the dog herself) in a couple of weeks. I wonder if he moved out? Or did he just get rid of his dog?
2. I have decided that Mr. Upstairs looks more like Rumpelstiltskin than Milton. Don’t ask me how I know what Rumpelstiltskin looks like, I just do.
A work-related rant:
One of my coworkers recently sold her house and is moving into a mobile home. Why, I’m not sure, but that’s not really any of my business. Except it is, because she’s done most of the realtor-ing from work, while she was on the clock. Not cool. It’s one thing to take care of the odd personal problem while you’re working (that’s what breaks are for!), but another to save it all up and treat work like it’s your own personal office.
Anyway, yesterday, when she returned from her morning break, she decided to take care of switching over her utilities. First, it was a 15 minute call to the water company. That made a certain amount of sense, because they are only open during work hours. Except, my coworker has a flex schedule and only works half days on Fridays, so she could have dealt with the water company then, instead of waiting until Monday.
After the water company, she called AT&T. WTF? Not only can you change/add/disconnect service with them online, but they have 24/7 phone support. There is no reasonable excuse for calling the phone company during work hours. She was on the phone with them for almost an hour, setting up phone, DSL, and satellite television service.
When she finally got off the phone, she commented that she was glad the call was finished before noon, because it was time for lunch. I think that’s when my head exploded. It must be nice to get paid to take care of personal business, plus getting to take a lunch (and breaks!) on top of it.
The mind wobbles!
Baby Nick
Oh how very angsty! Oh how very 80s! Mr. Cave is almost unrecognizable. It’s hard to believe he was ever such a round-cheeked young puppy.
The Marie Hoy remake of this song is a classic. If you can get your hands on a copy of the Dogs in Space soundtrack, it’s got some other gems on it, as well.
Bloom in the Barents Sea
I know it’s a bad thing, environmentally, but it’s absolutely beautiful. Like a painting.
NASA MODIS Image of the Day: August 7, 2007 – Bloom in the Barents Sea – SpaceRef
Source: NASA MODIS Image of the Day: August 7, 2007 – Bloom in the Barents Sea
It’s Not the Heat
There is something very wrong when the indoor humidity is higher than the outdoor humidity. The blowers are off, which means no breathable air. O gross.
Footman, fetch me my gills!
NGC 7293
NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula
Credit: NASA, WIYN, NOAO, ESA, Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), & T. A. Rector (NRAO)
Hmmm.
The Terrible Hours: What Each Girl Should Bring
A comment left at Flickr for the above image:
Very creative and well done, but for me a little too morbid making it uncomfortable to look at..
It seems like a pretty innocuous statement, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder, what’s the point? If taken at face value, it seems odd to me that someone would go out of their way to leave a comment that simply states that they prefer less “morbid” work. My response is, “That’s nice, dear, but what does it have to do with me?” In other words, I don’t really care what sort of art an anonymous passer-by prefers. M’kaythen!
Or is it meant to be constructive criticism? If so, good luck with that! I mean, really, telling someone that their work is too “morbid” is not exactly constructive, in that there is precious little chance that they will find it helpful, or that they will change their subject matter or style of work to accommodate your wishes.
And, I’m sorry, but “morbid”? I think that might be true of some of my pieces, but that particular collage is not one of them.
Ironically, the commenter in question has no photos in their Flickr photostream and no profile.
red paper boat 