spring memories

two separate stories of parents told to me this weekend, by guys who are older than 50 but not elderly. i love to hear people's stories.

does spring makes us think of our childhood?

1. my father's mother took in laundry and that's probably how he got polio as a child. he had no use of his legs and in order for him to function at all, they had to destroy his knees and ankles. he was like charles atlas from the waist up, so muscular from pushing himself around.  he made platforms to sit on and after he died we found a big box of casters in the garage -- those were his way to move. Me: how did he meet your mom?  they grew up next door to each other. knew each other all of their lives. 

2. my mother had a day care at a bowling alley.  in a room this size (a 12 x 10 or so) she had up to 50 kids, including babies in cribs. this was when i was a teenager. she had no time to care for me then, and i was sent to live with an uncle.

the wrong door

open the door
walk into sunshine, birdsong, flowerglow.
how could this happen?
have i these long cold months
been opening the wrong door?

                                           ~mudpie

a bird in the hand

could be the fever, or the cough syrups -- my sore tongue drove me to google "why is my tongue sore" because google knows everything about me.
it was worth it for the laugh when i got to the third possibility!!  and the last one could be of interest to Salazar, as it seemingly involves maps.

 Searches related to why is my tongue sore
Vitamin deficiency
Any disease caused by chronic or long-term vitamin deficiency or caused by a defect in metabolic conversion, such as tryptophan to niacin. they are designated by the same letter as the vitamin.
Canker sore
A type of oral ulcer, which presents as a painful open sore inside the mouth or upper throat characterized by a break in the mucous membrane. its cause is unknown. ...
Thrush
A small or medium-sized songbird, typically having a brown back, spotted breast, and loud song
Herpes
Any of a group of viral diseases caused by herpes viruses, affecting the skin or the nervous system
Geographic tongue
Condition of the tongue affecting approximately 3% of the po

...

my arthur dent moment

where to begin is always puzzling. my way is to go to the beginning -- begin every story with the Big Bang.  or before the Big Bang.

 

when the glaciers slowed they first dropped boulders, then rocks, then stones, then gravel, then sand, then silt.  you can see this along river valleys especially where the gravel and sand are being excavated commercially.

when Irene riled up our rivers, they tore out their banks (and a few houses, many trees, roads and bridges) and carried them off.  as they slowed, they let go of it all.  first boulders, then rocks, then stones, then gravel, then sand, then silt.  you can see this in my back yard.

 

spring came and the snow melted and what to do... have a rubble strewn sandy weed lot impossible to mow or rake, or git 'er fixed.  i'm not fond of close living with snakes rats ticks, plus we may want to sell this house someday.

and so...after making a short story long -- my Arthur Dent moment.

 The word bulldozer wandered through his  mind  for  a  moment  in

search of something to connect with.

The bulldozer outside the kitchen window was quite a big one.

they arrived first thing in the morning before i was even up.  by noon 10 dumptruckloads of sand had been removed and they kept at it for the next few days, piling rocks at the side where the stone wall was. now days later, we have a level 1/4 acre waiting for grass seed to grow through the straw.

a long tailed cat

a visitor recently observed that Barney has an unusually expressive tail. 

it's true!  not only expressive, but quite long and useful. 

we actually measured to be sure it was not an illusion.  his tail is about 2" longer than Hank's.

here's a picture of Barney using his tail for stability on a narrow shelf.

all the world's a meme

lately i'm thinking all words are memes. 

and all objects too maybe.

anything we've learned a shared meaning for and then passed along.  you know?

so how is "the cake is a lie" different from when i first learned the word "serendipity"?

it pleases me to find phrases that will be perfect for many different circumstances.

usually i use one for awhile but then forget all about it.

my goal is to not have to come up with an original appropriate response.

or just to be gleefully annoying perhaps?

here are the few i can remember that i've used and then forgotten about;

get over it

that's what you say now

so it's come to this

that says a lot about you

feel free to use them! all are stolen from somebody else anyway.

gaudy gaudhi house

(click to enlarge)

i never heard of the architect Gaudi until i was sent some pictures from Spain.

omg - can this be real?

someone must have recreated his buildings in Second Life -- that's what people love to do.

sure enough, i found a recreation of gaudi, and even some copies of gaudi buildings for sale. 

here is one installed on a friend's plot of land.

American Tea

she's from London.  just visiting the USA.  

so of course we had the tea conversation.

me: "oh you are right, americans just don't know how to make tea. you can't get a good cup of tea in a restaurant!'

she had her own electric kettle she brought with her to use in her room.

how many times have i had this conversation?

i think i will not have it again.  i hereby declare that there is such a thing as American Tea!

you make it by pouring hot water over a tea bag.

we are busy people! we won the war, remember? (otherwise, we'd all have health insurance *ahem*)

she also said something i found very telling.

she is British.

her mother is German.

i said my father's family was German.

she said it is so nice to be in a place where that doesn't matter.

ah, America!

why is this film blank?

we've been wondering if vampires show up on film. 

this wasn't an issue in bram stoker's day, and i don't know if anne rice ever addressed it.  but i was sure google would show me the consensual reality here.

HOWEVER it turns out to be a complicated question!

what kind of camera?  does it rely on a mirror?

-- which leads to the whole problem of vampires and reflections.  it turns out that there are theories on that too -- is it light bending, or is it mind-clouding?  or is it just a myth (LOL), some scientific minded folks say if a vampire is corporeal, it will reflect light and therefore cause reflections.  HAH

then there's digital vs film.

if you want to amuse yourself for say 10 minutes, just google "do vampires show up in pictures."

whatever the TRUE ANSWER is, i will still avoid looking at mirrors at night.

Frustro the typeface was a jolly happy soul

if i meet someone who is involved in anything related to printing, i ask them about Comic Sans.
i do this because i like Comic Sans.
the answer is always the same
"DON'T USE IT."
so mostly i don't.
jeez.

here's a bit of an interesting font.. or typeface as they call it (is it not the same?) named of "Frustro" !

it reminds me of that thing i first saw in Mad Magazine, (and subsequently drew many times during the looong loong days of school) -- which later was called a blivet, even tho that word used to mean something quite stinkier.

luckily there is the World Wide Web so i followed the trail to -- ta da! - Wikipedia, which thinks it might be something like "In its most common usage, the word "blivet" refers to an indecipherable figure, illustrated above.[citation needed] It appeared on the March 1965 cover of Mad magazine, where it was dubbed the "Three-Pronged Poiuyt" (the last six letters on the top row of many Latin-script typewriter keyboards, right to left), and has appeared numerous times since then. An anonymously-contributed version described as a "hole location gauge" was printed in the June 1964 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, with the comment that "this outrageous piece of draftsmanship evidently escaped from the Finagle & Diddle Engineering Works" (although something else called a "hole location gauge" had already been patented in 1961)"
Wikipedia also explains other uses of the word if you are interested.

Frusto was apparently inspired by the Penrose Triangle, which i never heard of but recognized when i googled it. Frustro seems not to be available as a computer font.

read more about it here http://www.behance.net/gallery/FRUSTRO-typeface/2525513