Another excellent blog...

by Maira Kalman

The Pursuit of Happiness Blog

More later on why I like this blog so much, so for now; enjoy!

BOSTON!

Erin and me at Fenway!

Fenway!!!!

Erin at the Charles River...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things I Like, Part ll

Josef Frank - an artist, architect, and most importantly for me, a textile designer.

I LOVE his botanical prints...such as; 

and...

and...

I mean, really, what's not to like about his designs? Erin would say it's a bit busy, or too busy, but I think it adds a richness and depth that might be lacking in something more simple.

Getting Older?

or is it getting better? Today, it's def just getting older :-(

As a result of my upcoming physical exam, I went in for my bone density test this last week, and, unfortunately, I got my results back from my doctor already and I have osteoporosis.
Shit.
My physical isn't until the 19th, so I have to wait to find out more information. On the good side though, I also had my mammogram last week and I'm thinking no news is good news on this one, as I've heard nothing so far. 

(Aside: I woke up at the ungodly hour of 5am, and I think I couldn't either sleep or get back to sleep because I was worried. I used to wake up this early a lot, but haven't in a couple of years.  I've forgotten how light the sky is during the summer! There was no fog up here today, and the sky seemed so light and bright that I even looked up the sunrise time to make sure I wasn't dreaming; 5:58am.)

Anyway... getting this diagnosis may very well be related to my high TSH levels in my thyroid test that I received about 8 months ago, and which I will be re-tested for this upcoming physical.  I do know that I've felt in my bones (no pun intended) that I was shrinking sometimes, and that I also knew I wasn't getting enough calcium in my diet, but then again I've always disliked drinking milk, mostly because of the way it effects my digestion. In any case, as of today, I'm going to be taking some calcium supplements, and to increase the complimentary Vitamin D intake.

Oh yeah - and I really should just stop smoking too.

More soon!

Funniest-thing-I've-seen-all-day dept.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Jesus statue hit by lightning

Hmmm...I never knew

Today is Dennis Gabor's birthday. Who is Gabor, one might ask? He is credited with inventing holography, that's who!
Somewhere I read that holography can be used to increase data storage, such as on a DVD. Some ungodly high terra bit figure was used an example...will post more on this sooner than later. 

Great blogs (and sites) of interest

Love this blog! =Martini Mom


And this site; Creating fashionesta sets with cut out pics of clothes and accessories from around the 'net; so much fun! =
http://www.polyvore.com/


This one caught my eye because of Dennis Gabor, and really, a pretty catchy title = Vaudeville of exhilaration

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

keep those doggies rolling - Rawhide!

(I really don't know exactly why I just wrote that...ummm...)

Resigned, to my life at 54

Well, (a deep, dark hole, as we know) I'm 54 today. It's my birthday.

Try as I might to be chipper and all, I feel predominately portly, ineffective, lackluster, and to top it all off, resigned.

Now that I've got my melodrama out of the way; happy birthday March.

 I'll be posting another revelation about singulation here soon too. (Remember Singulation?) I'm reading a book about Color, and in the first chapter she talks about the electrons getting hit with light and how they become something else at that point, through a process called "transitions". Sounds like another word for singulation. More on this later.

Time to go out for a walk, with the dogs, before it rains again.

Erin doesn't really like to dance...

But in my dream last night, I had woken to music on my radio, and had risen to get up and dance a little...it was a great tune; Spencer Davis Group's Gimme Some Lovin'...As I was dancing around, I saw Erin get up out of bed too, and in a one motion silent movement, she shuffled over to where I was and slowly started to join me in dancing. She was a bit thinner than she is now, and she was older too, maybe after or in college?, but she and I were either living together or she was over visiting. She's always said she didn't like dancing, and/or really didn't know how-to, dance,  but she was holding her own now, mostly doing the foot shuffling/stomping body swaying type of  dancing - kinda like how I dance, but with more fot action and no arm waving. I was proud of her just getting up like that to dance with me, and it was also just kinda cool to be dancing around with your daughter, to Spencer Davis...

Looking at 4MAT, again

Thinking about paradigms and ways, frameworks, structures, that embrace the way we perceive, think, process, design.

I thought of 4MAT, again... (well, really, it was an article in the New Yorker that struck my thoughts...the article was about the theater, philosophy, writing, etc. of artist William Kentridge. He was talking about his early theater training and how 'There was this theater school I'd heard about in Paris, L'Ecole Jacques Lecoq, whose approach was very different from traditional forms of theater training. Instead of starting with a text, Lecoq started with movement as the basis."

Somehow, that reminded me of 4MAT, and how that design philosophy says that we begin with experience (one could also say movement too) as how we 'process' our experiences. I also begun thinking about my past training with 4MAT because work hired a ID and asessment person to come in for the last faculty retreat and her book mentioned Kolb, which mae me think about the system again. I heard that her workshop wasn't very engaging, or ? - in any case, I'm thinking about my own knowledge and training.
(A big plus in my book is that 4MAT is also very artistic and looks pretty! LOL)

 

Talking about food on the 'net

Wow! There are some really good food blogs on the 'net these days! The ones I like focus more on fresh, healthy (sometimes veggie-only) foods, and the blogs oftentimes contains scumptious pictures too. I also found that I like the blogs that give some sort of story or background to the why and how of posting a story, recipe, or image about food - a bit more focused on the intimate, juicy details. These blogs also keep with my mantra about fresh (lots of references to farmers markets!), local, primarily organic, and not the least of, seasonal.

This reminds me that I had to work this last Saturday, and I was bummed mostly because I could not do my usual Saturday routine; yard sales, followed by a visit to the Berkeley Farmer's Market
(I'll have to save my raves (and ratings) of the local farmers market's (guess who's Number One?) for another post, so to be succinct, the Berkeley FM is one of the best).

With that being said, here's a few of my favorite food blogs:

101 Cookbooks
Great photos here too (of food of course!)

The Migraineur
Strange name, I know (the blog author has a history of migraine headaches, which even includes a picture, seemingly hand-drawn, of what she sees during one of her migraines ((and believe me, as a former sufferer of migraines, the picture is eerily similar to what I used to see too!)).   But this food blog is where I got my inspiration for my Moroccan Chicken with Quince Tagine recipe, and that dish was downright spiritual to eat!

The Iron Chevsky Wine Blog
OK, not technically a food blog, but I've linked this to the posting in this blog that matters the most to me and here's why it's listed; he talks about one of my most favorite wines - a 2006 Schloss Schonborn Riesling (of course there will more on wines later (you need not have asked :-), and how could I leave out my favorite?!

[eatingclub] vancouver
 I think this one is already pretty famous - you can even get an RSS feed from this blog. Great recipes, photos that match throughout the recipe building/cooking process...overall a very enjoyable foodie blog site!

Do YOU care to share some of your favorite food blogs? I'd love to hear from anyone who would like to share their list.

Things I like (probably Part 1)

Chintz.

What is Chintz you might ask? Chintz is a boldly patterned fabric originally produced in India. It became very popular in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, and numerous European producers created their own facsimiles of chintz to take advantage of consumer demand. This bold, assertive fabric can be seen in many museum exhibitions from this period in European history, and chintz fabrics continue to be produced today in India and other nations. In the sense of cheap or common, “chintzy” was first used in 1851, in a reference to the then-abundant fabric. (thanks to Wisegeek for the def!) 

There's just something about the floral patterns, the largeness of the flowers, the scrumptiously colorfulness of the tints and shades. It just wows me, even when I see a yellow hued pattern (I usually and generally am not a yellow person).
Here are some example pictures if you have no idea what I'm talking about:

and this one:

and the third:

and lastly, probably my curent favorite:

Here's a blog that has some information on Chintz fabric, but I guess it took a 'break' from publishing...but I see it's back as of Sept. 2009 - so, I have to look through the archives to find that article again - so until later - enjoy!

This is sorta how I'm feeling lately...thanks to Dave Matthews for the music...

Lying in the park on a beautiful day,
Sunshine in the grass, and the children play.
Siren's passing, fire engine red,
Someone's house is burning down on a day like this

The evening comes and we're hanging out,
On the front step, and a car rolls by with the windows rolled down,
And that war song is playing, "why can't we be friends?"
Someone is screaming and crying in the apartment upstairs

Funny the way it is, if you think about it
Somebody's going hungry and someone else is eating out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
Somebody's heart is broken and it becomes your favorite song

The way your mouth feels in your lovers kiss
Like a pretty bird on a breeze or water to a fish
A bomb blast brings a building crashing to the floor
You can hear the laughter, while the children play "war"

Funny the way it is, if you think about it
One kid walks 10 miles to school, another's dropping out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
On a soldier's last breath his baby's being born

Standing on a bridge, watch the water passing under me
It must've been much harder when there was no bridge, just water
Now the world is small. Remember how it used to be,
With mountains and oceans and winters and rivers and stars?

Watch the sky, the jet planes, so far out of my reach
Is there someone up there looking down on me?
Boy chases a bird, so close but every time
He'll never catch her, but he can't stop trying

Funny the way it is, if you think about it
One kid walks 10 miles to school, another's dropping out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
On a soldier's last breath his baby's being born
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
Somebody's broken heart becomes your favorite song
Funny the way it is, if you think about it
A kid walks 10 miles to school, another's dropping out.

Standing on a bridge, watch the water passing under me
It must've been much harder when there was no bridge, just water
Now the world is small. Remember how it used to be,
With mountains and oceans and winters and rivers and stars?

Dream last night...

I dreamed that we (Russ, maybe one of the boys? and I) were living in this very old castle-like house overlooking the ocean and a river confluence. I can't remember specifically the whole scenario, but a storm was coming and becuase of the sand and wind erosion around the house, they (the owner? some demolition co?) were going to raze the house too, so it was quite a startling dream - almost scary and tense. I saw the waves and breakers coming closer and closer, and also saw the demo team bringing in their tractors and what not, and I was in the bedroom, peering out the window and telling Russ to hurry up! Grab some essential items (and fussing at him about how to discern what was essential, which of course he was doing a terrible job with). We also had a small baby in a crib, and I was trying to get her(?) dressed and ready to get out of the house ASAP...and having a hard time grabbing her clothes and such, then thinking about what was essential stuff that would get us through until we either could get back in the house or what we could do w/o.