Category Archives: Life
This is a bit of a drive-by posting. (Look at it this way: “Oh, goodie: more pictures!”)
I confess part of my distraction these days is being caught up playing with POV-Ray (which I’ve described quite a bit recently). Boy with a toy, I guess, but it’s just so much fun! It does open some great doors for blog illustrations down the road, so it’s worth building some degree of skill. (Plus, did I mention the fun?)
So just to keep my hand in posting-wise (it is so easy to get out of the habit), here are some pictures of what I’ve been working on while I’ve been ignoring you.
Bonus points if you know the post’s title reference!
Continue reading
4 Comments | tags: planets, POV-Ray | posted in Computers, Life
Feeling a strong sense of blog ennui. Work is part of it. After five months of largely fruitless effort, my trees are showing signs of budding and maybe eventually bearing fruit. After a holiday slow down, things are heating up, so my attention is focused there.
And as I’ve mentioned before, this new position has a lot of communicating — it’s really a combination of architecture and project management — and it tends to dry up my usual urges to communicate. Sculpting a blog post too closely resembles the careful sculpting of work communications.
So this post has a bunch of pictures instead of words.
Continue reading
25 Comments | tags: cute, pixels, rainbows, sunshine | posted in Life
This is a post I’ve had sitting on the shelf for when I wanted an easy one. I don’t know about other bloggers, but it takes hours for me to crank out a post. Some can take most of a day. (There are some where I spent days making graphics, and an upcoming one has work that took weeks! (You saw a glimpse in a recent post!))
The situation this concerns is long past. This is no rant, just a piece on a life change that surprised me a little, made me sad a little, and which doubly reflected the end of an era.
I could write this any time, but today I got another plea from Scientific American magazine. Again they beg me to come back. Again I won’t.
This, then, is an open letter to SciAm, a dear old friend with whom I’ve parted ways.
Continue reading
17 Comments | tags: Carl Sagan, Scientific American, trees | posted in Life, Science
I’ve been encountering a bit of blog blah recently, and it’s tempting to go on another hiatus until I retire and don’t feel the work pressure and negative energy. But I have a growing backlog — new ideas keep popping up — and I really do enjoy the writing.
Things are returning to normal around here; page hits are finally back to their low numbers. The party has died down considerably, and that lets the host leave the remaining guests so he can whip up some new treats (and maybe open that bottle of wine I’ve been saving).
Speaking of which, I meant to open two bottles this weekend, but life did one of those unexpected detour things. I’ll pour both those articles very soon, but today’s snack catches up on some things.
Continue reading
16 Comments | tags: blog, blog blah, BOOL, hiatus, retirement, Sun, sunshine, Versatile Blogger Award, Winter Solstice, work | posted in Life
Another co-worker lost a battle with cancer this week. This is the second one washed off the sandbar, and the universe is now 2-0 on taking really good, wonderful people long before their time. Throw in unexpected brain aneurysms, and it’s 3-0.
(On the other hand, my mom beating it three times kind of evens the score. Throw in several strokes, and you’re talking about someone who’s pretty good at dodging bullets. Wonder Woman as a Music Teacher and she — literally — sneers at death! She’s just slightly awesome!)
But today raise a toast, shed a tear, tie one on, fly the flag at half-mast, beat the drum, read a poem, howl at the moon or hug a loved one. The fucking dragon won a round this week.
RIP, Sharon. You leave a hole.
19 Comments | tags: in memory of, mom is awesome, RIP, the dragon won | posted in Life
It happened again last month. My heart is broken, I’ve lost my love and now I have to find a replacement. I’ve been in this position before; the “good ones” are so hard to find. And even when I do find one, the relationship never seems to last.
I will admit that my tastes have evolved over time. It used to be that simple and refined… and white, very white… was my preference.
Actually, it was all I knew. Back then, it was all white. But as I matured, my horizons expanded, and I came to prefer more complexity and a darker coloration. I rarely go with white now — only for rare occasions that insist on it. I’ve learned the beauty of going brown!
Continue reading
61 Comments | tags: bread, bread sticks, Brownberry, cake, frosting, ginger cookies, Hostess, icing, Natural Ovens, Nature's Pride | posted in Life, Rant
You know what bugs me? Well, a lot of things bug me, but this post is about something that’s bugged me for a long time. It also concerns a lesson learned about things that bug me. And it’s about why this post is being written in the first place.
Let me start with that last one. (Because it just now happened again!) I have notebooks, Post-It Note collages and scribbled note collections of blog post ideas. But new ones pop up constantly (like the idea I thought of while writing this paragraph). Some of the new ones are so demanding, they shove the patiently waiting ones aside. The backlog is building, yet my time is short. Very aggravating.
Which brings me to the post’s point: my aggravation about counting change.
Continue reading
25 Comments | tags: amount tendered, bills, cashiers, coins, insanity, mangoes | posted in Life, Rant
Did you feel it? The Earth swung past a certain point in space; there was a little spacetime “bump” as we ran over the notch. Didn’t you feel it?
It’s kind of an important point in the cycle. Lots of people stay up to watch it happen. (Although, I grant you, the whole thing is about 10 days late. Problem is, back in the day it took them a while to recognize what had happened.)
To commemorate the occasion, some will look back and some will look forward. And some will riff on how this is an arbitrary moment in time that doesn’t mean anything at all, really.
Continue reading
27 Comments | tags: 2013, be excellent, beauty, Bill and Ted, Chillaxmas, goals, looking back, paths, roads | posted in Life
Just about all of 2012 is in my rear-view mirror now. It joins well over 50 others, most of them so far back they are lost in the mist and fog of life. My car moves forward at its full legal pace: 24 Hours Per Day, just like the markers say. (You do not want to be pulled over by the causality cops for violating the reality limit. The fines are truly Lovecraftian.)
Up ahead I see the border markers for 2013. Less than six hours away, so there’s no need for more stops. It’s an easy drive, and there’s something very poignant about watching the last mile markers roll past. This is country passed through once, never visited again.
It’s a time to look back in my mirror for some last glimpses of the path traveled.
Continue reading
12 Comments | tags: 2012, bridges, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Little Big Town, looking back, paths, rear-view mirror, roads, Tornado | posted in Life, Music
I’m of an age to have seen the arrival of 1984 and 2001 as an adult. Those years are significant due, respectively, to the famous George Orwell book and to the famous Stanley Kubrick movie (authored by Arthur Clarke). Because of those stories, those years were mileposts in future imaginings. Would the world turn out per the dystopic 1984 vision? Or would space travel come along per the 2001 vision?
Fortunately and sadly (respectively), the answer was, “Nope.”
This evening 1984 came to mind due to thinking about 2001, and that came to mind due to thinking about this post. My 201st blog post. A small milestone for long-time bloggers, but a milestone, nevertheless.
Continue reading
12 Comments | tags: 1984, 200, 2001, 2013, BOOL, Chillaxmas, Freshly Pressed, Spock, stats, WordPress | posted in Life
You must be logged in to post a comment.