today was a delivery day. everything i ordered over the past several weeks came in three back-to-back deliveries this morning. i got some seeds from a farm via our Local Harvest, some lovely salve from a dear wise woman herbalist friend and the test-shirts i designed and put up on http://www.zazzle.com/lindasaboe
i'm extremely happy with the way the shirts printed up. especially the "tangled hares."

i would not be embarrassed to see someone (anyone) wearing these designs and i'm encouraged to produce more.


*gringringrin*

and of course, my special vulture...

The dreams that have plagued me for the past 3 or 4 nights have been intense and somewhat troubling, but I think with the moon waning, my nighttime excursions should even out a bit. Last night's dream was vivid but lacked the power of the others, which is good because I woke a bit more relaxed and so had a reasonably good and productive day.

Managed to get all the errands done in an efficient manner. Hit the post office, pet food store, picked up my laptop from the "Computer Renaissance" repair shop, stopped at Whole Foods for a dinner for one type meal since Brni is down in Virginia (yet again). Made it home in time to log into my online, live herbalism class and then spent the next couple hours watering, weeding and generally poking around the yard.

I like poking around the yard. Makes me happy.

So there you have it....a reasonably good day.
Time for a reasonably good beer.

well, it's raining again--how different. heard it was supposed to stop in a couple years.
*grumble*
so, to entertain me, here's some pictures of my skull/facial reconstruction thus far. have one more lesson next week before it's done.
after that, i think i'll scrape off the clay and start over to see if she ends up looking the same. and then maybe i'll do a man-skull. and maybe i'll put a face on my pony skull if it's not too delicate.

a very rainy day yesterday with much flooding in the area. got a shot of storm clouds rising up from the southern sky.




a closer look...

Just came across a little gem of a movie called "Honeydripper." It's slow, sometimes stilted, making me wish for more depth/plot, but omy, amazing music and more atmosphere than a balmy night on the bayou with a touch of mythic whimsy.
More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeydripper_(film)

One afternoon last fall I took some pictures of a crow who lives on my street and then promptly forgot all about them. I found them today while I was poking around my files. They are by no means good photos, not having a decent lens for distance, but I like them all the same.

This one looked nice in black & white.


I took a lot of this one harvesting cherries in the big cherry tree in my gully. These are the only ones that even came close to turning out ok. I need a bigger, faster lens sooooooo bad.





after she finished eating, she cleaned off her beak on a branch. how i wish i could have gotten closer.

Brni made a very cool, sorta portable sculpture stand to help make working on my skull easier. The design comes from my teacher, Jan Flood, which Brni modified a bit to work with my space. So here it is!



also, some pictures of the rest of my recently, as in yesterday, re-organized and thoroughly cleaned office/studio/spare bedroom.

my work corner where i do my...uh...work!


where i sit and figure out what to do, and also where overnighters sleep.


the pooter alcove. all things digital get done here and so do the bills, the taxes, mindless game playing, much cursing and email posting.

So, I was sitting here, minding my own business while watching mindless stuff on TV when the cable signal died. So TV is gone, internet is gone, and brni is in Ashburn, basically gone. I'm all caught up in my various art projects and am too tired to trudge upstairs to start something new.

I read but I'm terribly distracted and can't figure out a way to settle. The story I'm reading is really well written but I keep drifting off. It's not the story's fault--it's my stupid brain reacting to the unstable weather. I am totally at the mercy of the weather, phases of the moon, planets, stars and dust. It's rather annoying, but whatcha gonna do?

So, I'm thinking that this is such a cool story, so well written (thank you Elizabeth Bear), that I end up feeling envious. I wish I could write. I mean, write well. As in good. But, aside from (usually) getting the grammar down okay, I'm not even a hack. So I think, why can't I write? Why can't I sing (yes, it's related weirdly in my brain)? What is it that I can do other than complain and put myself down for having no talent whatsoever?

Here's what I came up with...

I have ideas, thoughts, stories in me but no writer am I. I wish I could spin a good yarn, tell a fine tale, but try as I might, creatively coupling words to engage and transport is not one of my talents. Like singing. I want to but the attempt ends in flat screeches and embarrassing notes.

I make pictures. I draw my stories. I make them out of pulp, graphite, water, oil and earth. My stories are elementals. Things to be peered at, edges to be filled in with someone else's words, emotions and reactions.

When I talk out loud, I have trouble finding the correct or perfect word. I have never liked talking out loud. I talk in my head -- a lot! I've learned, as most of us do, how to communicate with others on a day-to-day basis, but that's not what I'm typing about...

To be heard. understood. sorta. idunno

My method of communicating with the world in any real way, is through pictures. drawings. pen to paper. hand to clay.

My latest attempt to tell a story is to put a face on a skull. Not a real skull of course...a replica of a woman. No age known. No ethnicity. Nothing but a plaster cast of her very basic form. I'm told she's of the European persuasion, though I'm not good enough--forensically speaking--to really know what I'm doing. I just hope to be sensitive enough to persuade her to reveal herself under my hopeful caress.

*sigh*
this is what happens when i'm bored

David Carradine was found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok this morning. Bangkok police are saying Carradine hanged himself, but I dunno...I find that hard to believe. Just feels wrong to me. I have no idea if this site is reliable, but I see other news headlines disputing suicide.
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/popvox/archive/2009/06/04/carradine-s-suicide-disputed-rep-calls-hanging-accidental.aspx

so, after the teacher gives me feedback, i get to remove all the clay from the skull and start over with tissue depth markers. I wonder who my skull used to be? The only thing I know is it's a female.

I'm taking a forensic facial reconstruction class. This is my practice attempt at putting muscle on bone (before we learn about tissue depth). Haven't heard back from the teacher yet, so this could be totally wrong. Here it is anyway...

After 3 unsuccessful attempts to kill Brni's alarm clock, I shuffled out of the bedroom thinking sweet thoughts of coffee, but a blinding light stopped me dead in my tracks. The living room and kitchen were lit with an unholy yellow glow. I couldn't focus! I couldn't move!

It was the sun! No longer a thing of stories, a myth. The sun was up and shining, stinging my eyes, assaulting my sleepy brain with rays of hot gold. Oh, glory day. No more rain.

The day is hot, the deck dry and the grass, now a good foot tall is begging for a mowing.

things are looking brighter

I find that I can still be surprised at how stupid our congress critters are and how sheepily people follow, banging pots and jumping on bandwagons.

Case in point, the new and improved problem of Guantanamo Detention Camp. We finally begin to admit that it's wrong to detain people in off-shore prisons without some nod to due process. Some even admit that torture is indeed torture and that we shouldn't oughta do it, even to non-christian foreigners and sympathizers. Even Cheney is having a difficult time defending torture without sounding as if he's pouting.

So our new and slightly improved administration says NO to torture and announces we will shut down Guantanamo (the prison, not the song), and everybody who's everybody, repubs and dems alike, start shouting in 2 part harmony, "Not in our backyard!"

*huh?*

Where the hell did they think we would transfer the prisoners--I mean, detainees? To a different off-shore prison where we can't keep tabs on what the hell is going on with these terrifying people (can I call them people?)? And hey, what ever happened with those other secret, off-shore prisons anyway? Anybody? And exactly how is it dangerous to put these prisoners--er--detainees in some maximum security military prison? I mean really, this country knows how to imprison people. We do it all the time. We keep all sorts of people locked up for all sorts of scary reasons--shoplifting, pot smoking--we even imprison thieves, rapists, and murderers, whether they are guilty or not. We do it better and to more people per capita than any other country in the world, ever.

In our backyard is exactly where we want to imprison suspected (and maybe even real) terrorists. We want to keep our enemies very very close so that we can watch 'em and also watch those who are charged with their keep.

Yes, this one got me. Thought I'd seen all the stupid we had to offer, but damn, this stupid is over the top. When will my country grow up and stop embarrassing me?

so....

after the terrible crash and untimely death of my poor, pre-owned iMac, the new machine is finally, totally up and running. the files are all migrated. the old hard drive is safely packed away. the new 1 terabyte backup drive is installed and running.

i hate computers.
long live computers.

There is a thing I never heard of called "kernal panic." This is a term to describe a sudden, terrifying system failure that can happen to a Mac. We've all heard of the "blue screen of death." Well, this is the Mac version, also known as the "black screen of death" and yesterday, I experienced it first hand, and I have to say, it was way more dramatic that what happens to a PC when it crashes.

I had just begun to work when a semi-transparent gray veil slowly fell over the image. It dropped from the top of the monitor and smoothly scrolled down over the display, like a curtain over a stage. Then the words (in four languages). Here's an image of what I saw:



A most shocking computer crash! I shut the machine down. Restarted. Blackness. Nothing but blackness. No startup noises, no wiring of the fan, nothing. I ran from my office, banged on the bathroom door (brni was showering) and told him I needed him right away.

Some might think I overreacted, but I have over 7000 image files that I was convinced I'd lost. I hadn't done a full backup since December, and only one minor backup for the job I'm working on a few days ago. So, this was a majorly HUGE loss.

Thinking back a day later, it's quite amazing to me how panicked I was. How the breaking of a computer, an appliance, a tool, could cause a reaction akin to a medical emergency or the death of a loved one.

After Brni valiantly tried to perform Mac-CPR on the thing, he declared it thoroughly dead. There was nothing to do but rip the hard drive from it's gaping belly and run to the Mac store to see if we could salvage my files. An hour later, we were home with a shiny new iMac and this cute little case that looked just like a tiny Mac Pro in which we placed the disembodied hard drive in, basically turning it into an external drive. My files were all there!

So, a warning to all Mac owners: back up on an external drive every day and make portable backups to DVD as often as you need. Oftener even. And, BUY THE 3 YEAR WARRANTY!

Decided that I needed not to do a whole lot this weekend. I didn't even draw, though I thought a lot about drawing. We actually went out Saturday evening to see our friend, Bruce in concert. He's one of the drummers for PlasmaDance Theater's Megamorphosis. The show was wonderfully fun, a sort of combination rock concert, modern dance, drumming circle.

Apparently, they've done the Philly Fringe Festival but I don't know if they intend on being there this year. If you get a chance to see them, GO! and bring a drum or rattle or tambourine, or just your dancing shoes.

ok...just this one more, then i'll stop.

So on the TV "news" last week, one of the stories was about school closings to try and stop the spread of the mild but dreaded swine flu. What do the brilliant parents arrange for the kids? PLAY DATES! Yes, yes, we get all the kids together in the park, or at someone's house and have them all tumble around together, share food and drink out of the same cups. I don't even want to think of all the tweens and teens prowling the malls and food courts.

stupid humans.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm old and survived the first wave of swine flu that hit in the late 50's. I also survived the Hong Kong flu in the late 60's and pretty much all the regular influenza epidemics that happen every winter, either by not getting it (the usual for me) or getting it and not dying. What did almost kill me was the measles, but that's a different story.

anyway...

Forgive me for not being properly terrified by this current pandemic. In fact, forgive me for being highly amused by the media hype and government published guidelines on how to wash my hands and take my vitamins. But really, I just can't help it. Let me relay two examples that I found exceedingly silly.

Last week the evening news reported on many school closings. In one story it was reported that an entire school district shut down because one student in one of the schools was diagnosed with swine flu. Tucked in with these stories was one where a family was quarantined in their house because it was confirmed that three of them had swine flu. While cameras took dramatic footage of the family's front door, the reporter read a statement issued by the father, reassuring his neighbors that they were all okay. He said their symptoms had been mild with only slight fever, mild sore throats, dry cough and minor muscle aches. After three days they were all feeling much better.

Yes, this made the evening news--three people are all better.

But it gets even better. A friend of mine, a vegan with a good heart, forwarded me an announcement regarding the swine flu telling me to read it through carefully, even though the content was quite technical. Uh, ok....I'll try.

Here's the beginning of the forwarded email:

Dear Friend,

Although everything is possible, the emergence of the swine flu pandemic can only happen if this is a genetically engineered virus. As in the past with the avian flu pandemic in limiting serious amounts of the population, we pray this will also fail.

There is one of the 72 names pronounced: nun lamed kaf, which is specific for nullifying plagues. Gabriel encourages all people who get this to spend a little bit of time each day repeating this mantra with visualizations of this virus dying out and their attempt at creating a pandemic failing and visualizing the whole world being healthy and happy.

The previous protocol for protecting against the viral flu that the Tree of Life has put out in the past is very effective against this human bird swine flu and for protecting the immune system combined with adequate sleep, live food, good hydration, and a loving attitude. This protocol applies to building the immune system against all flus.

Previous vaccination programs have been between 0 and 14% effective according to the CDC and 1% effective according to Israli research. Israeli research has also shown that vaccinations compromise the immune system. Research at John's Hopkins over a 10-year period showed that 5 consecutive flu vaccinations resulted in 10 times greater amounts of Alzheimer's Disease, which fits with research by Russell Blaylock M.D. Neuro Surgeon, which suggests that one single vaccination can cause brain inflammation that can last up to 2 years.

Gabriel recommends people have some level of preparedness and in advance an overall flu protocol. Gabriel also recommends getting a bio-photon machine, which neutralizes viruses and vaccinations. These are available through the Tree of Life Dispensary.

The very first sentence sent my coffee right out my nose. After I'd wiped the monitor off, I read on, realizing that not only is this an amazing conspiracy theory, but this dude can sell me everything I need to survive the flu! The protocol that he's come up goes something like this...

Eat 80-100% raw foods with periodic fasting. Drink "green drinks" and eat 16 cacao beans a day. He goes on to list 26 supplements (all available from his "dispensary") all of which have different dosage requirements. One of the supplements is "rectal ozone" which you must take once a day.

I gagged this last one out to Brni between fits of hysterical laughter and he said, "hmmm...so you have to blow smoke up your ass?"

Today was exciting! I started a new ceramics class called "Raku Madness." I was given my first lesson on the wheel and managed to throw 8 very tiny, somewhat lopsided pots. Feeling disappointed in my output, I was assured that I did very well for a first attempt. I'm not so sure, but pottery people are very kind and I decided to accept their kind words as true.

I also finished a small clay rabbit that I started yesterday, which will take a good long while to dry out before I can put it in the kiln. Normally, you need to hollow them out, but my teacher thinks it's small enough that it won't explode as long as it's very very dry.

At the end of class, we all clean up the work area so that it's ready for the next group. I noticed that everyone put their stool upside-down on top of the wheel and then the foot pedal in the stool. What I didn't notice is that they turn the pedal switch off before picking it up. Yes, yes, when I touched the pedal, the wheel started spinning and the stool went flying off! Luckily, it hit my hip and ricocheted to the ground rather than flying off into the other students behind me.

Anyway, I think this will be a really fun class (as long as the stools stay put).

I am desperately sick of this broken foot. It's been four weeks now since I dropped my heavy cutting board on the poor thing and I still can't put my full weight on it, go for a walk, drive, or wear a normal shoe. I am not a good patient and my patience (what little I have) has worn completely away.

That's all. Just needed to whine. Gonna hobble over to the kitchen for more coffee.