Spinning Uncensored

It should make noise
it should easily snag on claws
it should have a tail
it shouldn’t take more than five minutes to make
it should require recycled material
it should be ugly.

That’s right, cat toys are often designed to appeal to the human, not the cat. They are going to end up ratty looking anyway, so why bother making it pretty?

How do you know if your toy is a success? Immediately upon receiving new toy, your cat walks away from you, toy in mouth like a dead mouse and starts to torture it at the base of his favorite scratching post. Sans catnip mind you. If it’s a really good toy, it will remain a favorite for over a month.

It struck me while reading a paper this evening, that there are some words that become as familiar to you as your own name. It’s not just the look of the word or its sound. It’s the context, feelings and memories that are associated with the word. It’s how often you hear and read it. That word for me is ‘library.’ What’s your word?

I wish I could just fly out and see the current show at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

Photograph from the exhibition.

Right. Another feature of Spinning Uncensored long neglected. But then, for many months there I wasn’t reading any books or watching movies or much tv. Rhianna was about the best I could come up with, and because she was mentally the least taxing, I was able to get through the end of last fall semester without blowing my last fuse.

But, moving on:

Keeping It Real (Quantum Gravity, Book 1) by Justina Robson. She currently has three books out in this series and one more out in Aug 2009. Quality trashy Sci-Fi. I was very entertained by the notion of a cyborg human housing an elf soul, married to an elf/demon and demon. Two husbands mind you and neither human. Thank you Ms. Robson for putting all of my many issues to rest.

What to Eat by Marion Nestle. She answers those most essential questions about food that drift through the back of your mind but then are quickly forgot.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Naturally.

NBC Kings. For the moment I’m finding this show entertaining. It’s sort of on the edge though. More dirt, more scandal please. More humor, more something…

The last of Battlestar Galactica. May she rest in peace. I had issues with the final half of the ending. Problems with story/cinematic continuity.

The Moth podcasts, especially Mike Birbiglia and his story about sleepwalking. I believe I listened to that story, oh, maybe 6 times.

And I’m enjoying That 1 Guy, a far cry from Rhianna. For your viewing pleasure:

J- and I took a long bike ride today through Emeryville and Berkeley. I had to keep him from plowing on ahead up the Albany hill. He was really excited for a moment there. But it’s a really big hill. All told, we biked approximately 13 miles. Nothing compared to the 80 miles one of our friends does every weekend.

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…what do you carry?

The human skull looks a bit long in the face, but I was using my iPhone and it tends to do that. See last post on my current camera situation.

Help me name them by submitting ideas in the comments. One is your generic skull, and one is a golden eagle skull. The human skull may be the model of future hat projects.

I have had three different instances of food poisoning in the span of one year. Each one with very different symptoms. Two from restaurants. This last one is from a faulty fridge. Here’s the email I sent to my friend about my discovery:

Subject: Food safety barometers

Hi ———-,

I have a small story you’ll get a small kick out of. This morning, while hanging out in bed for a few extra minutes, I noticed a book that I didn’t immediately recognize. It was your “What to Eat” book. So I started reading the section on dairy and pasteurization. Interesting stuff, as you well know. Then I got to the section on temperature and the NYC sell by date of milk and then something dawned on me. I’ve had low level food poisoning. The last few days Jake and I have been monitoring the temperature of our fridge and trying to lower it. All week I’ve been saying “no thanks” to even the smallest doses of dairy and starting to speculate that something else is going on . And yes it is the dairy and no it isn’t. The milk (which is my special brand for lactose freaks) hasn’t gone bad per se because the fridge is still on the cool side, but not quite cold enough to keep bad bacteria from growing. I’ve got a really sensitive digestive system, which Jake doesn’t. Weird.

Anyway, it’s a good thing I haven’t returned that book to you yet, and it’s a good thing I have today off so that I can find that damn receipt. Otherwise there would have been two more cases of food poisoning. –mia

Oh ugh. Now I have to pitch a bunch of food (costly) and get the refrigerator repaired. And I’ve also come to the realization that I have to also replace the battery in my laptop and in my camera. More costly. Update: I dropped said camera and subsequently broke the zoom.

Nontheless! I am not down about all of this. These are all highly manageable things. Plus, I have the day off, the cats are chasing a fly and sunning themselves, it’s a gorgeous day out and I intend to ride my bike up to Solano Ave. and purchase myself a generic cast skull and look at bones. I’ve also finished a pair of socks. It only took me a year.

Happy Cesar Chavez Day

Fridge update 3-28-09: the repair guy came out and thought that the compressor might be going. He was rather stumped, said it didn’t look promising and went his merry way. Actually, he was a very nice and earnest guy. So, I cranked the temperature down, took a reading 10 hours later and was satisfied that it was cold enough to keep going. J- and I decided to run it til it dies. Heck, why not? It’s just past it’s year warranty. And either this is all in my head and the fridge will run for ever, or the fridge is not very long for this world. We’ll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, there is no hope for my camera. J- dissected it to the bare bones. Shocked himself in the process too.

Drawing:

There are a few things that I wanted to get better at in art school and didn’t. My own fault really, I should have taken more drawing classes. I wish that I had learned to draw faces, feet and hands. I did learn to draw them, just not very well. I also wish that I had gotten better with shading. But I can draw a mean ass torso and legs.

I love breaking down the parts of the human body. Where muscles flow into on another and connect. The curves and soft lines versus hard lines. I really like the points where bones come to the surface: the clavicle, the elbow, the patella and the femur.

So I’m taking the time on weekend mornings to sketch. At first I went about this very seriously, must break down the form of whatever object, look at it’s proportions. I went about the face the same way, just as I’ve always done. Two days ago, I finally realized that wasn’t working. I understand the proportions, divide the face into thirds, ino halves. The eyes should about here, and then the nose. My faces weren’t turning out. So I decided to abandon this method and draw faces the way I mentally perceive them. This is working much better.

I also checked out through inter-library loan (one of the perks for working in a huge and connected library system) a book called Facial expressions: a visual reference for artists, by Mark M. Simon. Page after page is packed with the facial expressions of ordinary people. The book is divided into sections devoted to one person at a time, ranging from young to old. My favorite is the oldest woman.

All week I waited to dive into this visually information rich book. And I’ve been rewarded for my wait this morning. I abandoned all preconceived analytical notions of what I learned in art school. Roughed in some faces and found great improvements. For the most part, my sketch looked like the guy I was drawing. And I found that working with an expressive face is easier than a neutral face. You gain a better understanding of the structure of the face when a person is grinning, scowling, laughing or screaming. Way cool. I suppose this is why in my intro to drawing class included an assignment where we had to draw two self portraits conveying different emotions or aspects of ourselves. Those drawings are lost to the wind, thanks to the incompetency of the art school submissions process.

The black and blue wrist warmer was made by Jake, who recently taught himself to knit. Quite well I might add. I include the desk shot because it is a moment in time, reflecting current projects and mental pursuits. The fern is my new baby, which I shall try not to kill. The green is the new knitting project: a sleeveless hoodie. And the sketch relates to what is described above.

School update:

Anyway, art is one of the reasons I yearn to be done with school. A master’s degree in Library Science is all well and good for supporting one’s self, but it sure does cut into any semblance of a personal life. However, this semester has been a nice break since I’m taking only one class. It’s a breather from the intense stress of last semester. I’m pretty sure I have gray hairs (saw them at one point, believe it or not), but I don’t know how much since I’m addicted to coloring my hair.

I do have excellent projects coming up though. I’ve decided that I’m pretty well tired of writing papers, so I’m taking a Professional Projects class and an internship. The professional project allows me to come up with a project for a library (like consulting without pay) and complete that project within the semester. My project will be to create an online space for digital exhibitions for the architecture archives. My internship will be to help with the library staff tech classes. I still have yet to come up with my learning outcomes and tasks. But I believe the tasks will include instruction, learning more web technologies and helping develop the program website. Maybe even come up with a low cost way of filming the classes. That leaves me with one more official course and my e-portfolio.

Things done this weekend:

• Re-potted the lemon tree and won the war on the ants. (They were setting up a nest in the soil of my potted lemon tree. Drowning wasn’t working and I wanted to avoid chemicals.)
• Went to Wilbur Hot Springs and had some serious bath and relaxation time. (I’m not even going to post a link. It’s getting more crowded these days. STAY OUT!)
• Watched the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica and the season premiere of NBC’s Kings. So far, I like; ‘cept for the final scene. Blargh.
• Sketched faces, knit and fantasized about sewing projects.
• And will soon make banana bread and start homework. Cleaning.

Not Turkey basting, but sewing basting. I’m working on Jake’s jacket and am taking my time, doing things properly. This is usually how it works when making things for Jake. Not so much for me.

The piece I’m working on at the moment is a single welt pocket. This took about ten minutes of visualizing before I could even begin to baste the pieces. Burda pattern directions are incomprehensible at times. Still… now I am at the stiching stage.

In other news, I’m still working through this upper/lower respiratory junk that I’ve had for a month now. Still coughing to the point of pain at night. My ribs have taken a beating and are painful to touch. I could deal with being stuffy, but this coughing is another thing entirely.

We watched both the older and newer version of War of the Worlds. The consensus was that the newer one is much better. Freakier and scarier. Tom Cruise was in his element as the working class, idiot, self-centered, jerk father. He was bearable for once.

While watching said movies, Jake and I companionably knitted. Yes, that’s right, Jake was knitting. He’s working on a present for his friend, so I can’t reveal details. But he picked up Stitch-n-Bitch, taught himself how to cast on, knit and purl.