Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Macoto Murayama - Inorganic Flora
Macoto Murayama creates computer generated botanical drawings, bringing an ancient tradition of flower illustration into the digital age. Pre-modern visuality meets here with cutting-edge technology; natural forms intertwine with scientific sharpness and descriptive precision.
Sunday, April 05, 2020
The ritual of cleaning
I think about my rituals every time I clean. Especially the bathroom. I have rituals and I have thought about talking about them here but never have. Maybe in this light of all the weirdness going on, I would like to make note of the little peculiarities of me. In case I am not around in a month or so. Yes, people my age are having these thoughts.
I love cleaning. I clean with toothbrushes, Q-tips and toothpicks. I always have. Even when I was a small kid, cleaning to perfection was "my thing". We lived in some pretty questionable places in my lifetime. Places that I did not want anyone to know I lived there when I was in Jr. High School. I would make sure no one would watch me going home (at this particular horrible duplex). I have also lived in some amazing places. That has been my life, sometimes the high life and other times, living in embarrassing ramshackles (in my view).
So back to my cleaning rituals. No matter where we lived, I will clean a room to perfection. Especially the bathroom. No matter how old, or decayed or wonderful ... they all get the same loving attention. We always had nice towels and the final touch would be to perfectly fold the towels and hang them like they would in a hotel.
I just did that again tonight in my bathroom. It makes me feel so complete to do that! Why? I have no idea. I always love to spray a special "cut grass" room spray but I don't think a dirty room deserves room spray OR flowers. No dirty room in my house will ever get flowers. It feels like an insult to the flowers.
I have bowls of my special rocks I have collected for years. Handmade bowls I found at the Goodwill. I wash and clean my rocks. I feel horrible if the rocks and shells have a coating of dust and hair. They deserve better.
I am pretty sure all of this has something to do with having control, especially as a kid. Having control of what my house looked like on the inside, no matter what it looked like on the outside.
I love cleaning. I clean with toothbrushes, Q-tips and toothpicks. I always have. Even when I was a small kid, cleaning to perfection was "my thing". We lived in some pretty questionable places in my lifetime. Places that I did not want anyone to know I lived there when I was in Jr. High School. I would make sure no one would watch me going home (at this particular horrible duplex). I have also lived in some amazing places. That has been my life, sometimes the high life and other times, living in embarrassing ramshackles (in my view).
So back to my cleaning rituals. No matter where we lived, I will clean a room to perfection. Especially the bathroom. No matter how old, or decayed or wonderful ... they all get the same loving attention. We always had nice towels and the final touch would be to perfectly fold the towels and hang them like they would in a hotel.
I just did that again tonight in my bathroom. It makes me feel so complete to do that! Why? I have no idea. I always love to spray a special "cut grass" room spray but I don't think a dirty room deserves room spray OR flowers. No dirty room in my house will ever get flowers. It feels like an insult to the flowers.
I have bowls of my special rocks I have collected for years. Handmade bowls I found at the Goodwill. I wash and clean my rocks. I feel horrible if the rocks and shells have a coating of dust and hair. They deserve better.
I am pretty sure all of this has something to do with having control, especially as a kid. Having control of what my house looked like on the inside, no matter what it looked like on the outside.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Covid 19
Today, a few in the household are getting testy.
Daily life is surreal. The quietness. The birds chirping away on a beautiful sunny day, at the feeder without a care as Covid 19 shuts down the world. Our neighbor's family stood outside their house and sang Happy Birthday to their mother/grandmother. Bri cried. Matt picked up a load of wood that needs to be split and dumped it in the driveway. I super-cleaned the fireplace. Then found my spot in my "big chair" and watched another movie. I do that, watch movies, a lot. I don't feel guilty about it. My favorite thing to watch these days, foreign mysteries. I get so caught up in reading the sub-titles, I forget to check my twitter feed or how afraid I am feeling at the moment. If you want a list of the great ones I have watched, just asked! Netflix, Amazon. I really should not be spending the extra money, but so worth it for sanity right now.
I try not to think too hard about what is going on in Seattle at the hospitals. In New York with the hospital staff putting themselves in jeopardy as they try and save lives. In Spain, an ice rink turned into a morgue. In Italy, where the numbers of dying has not dropped. I have not freaked out or shut down, but I fear it will come sooner than later. I constantly read statistics, numbers around the world infected and dead. So many not heeding warnings at Florida beaches. Cruise ships still unloading infected passengers in Miami. I try to keep my anger to a minimum, anger will not help. I watch trump thumping his chest at his daily briefings/hate rallies and want to vomit.
So far we have been lucky. My husband and I can work from home and still have jobs for now. I have been working from home, starting week 4. I tend to work too much because it is just too easy to stay logged on to work. It gives me something else to worry about besides Covid 19.
Matt has still been working, but furloughed as of Friday. Bri is not working in the salon for now. Mason out of school going on week 4. Only a few trips to the grocery store and I feel like we are playing a crap shoot every time someone ventures out. I try NOT to go to the store. I am really having a bad feeling about David and I getting this. We are way over 60 and not great health-wise.
We are living in chaos with the kids trying to find their way into this new world. I think the baby is teething so she is crying a lot. But we watch her grow a little everyday and that is fun. Mason is amazing, with this amazing vocabulary and she and I cuddle in my "big chair" most nights. Her with the iPad and Barbie on Netflix, me with my phone and a game or twitter feed.
I do things like call the Neptune Society to check how much I owe on my cremation and get the policy number. Talk to David about all of our accounts. I have started writing down my passwords in case something happens and people need to delete or update my accounts/feeds. I would usually blog all of these details for family but not many of my family members are left. My mom, brother, uncle have died in the last 4 years. Most of my Texas family estranged because of their dedication to trump. I was thinking the other day, I could die and only my immediate family would know or care. Weird! But that is where we are in 2020.
So I am documenting this like my family would be reading about life here during the lock down. I am not making deals with God to save my life when so many have died, so very many, old and young, have died. We are just trying to be smart here. Keep our heads straight. Keep the house somewhat clean. NOT stick our heads in the sand about the truth of the world-wide situation. Try to have a positive attitude about the financial situation of us and the world.
I have thought about blogging the pandemic. If I didn't write it down, maybe it wasn't really happening? I think that is what I was feeling. But I really need to come to terms with reality. And put this in my blog, that has been my diary of all things, bad and good, up until now. So hopefully, I will read this years from now, as I read about my mom dying and say ... yes, that horrible thing really happened.
I tweet all day about trump and his colossal screw-ups on Twitter and on Facebook. I will not stop hounding trump until he is out of office and out of our hair.
Daily life is surreal. The quietness. The birds chirping away on a beautiful sunny day, at the feeder without a care as Covid 19 shuts down the world. Our neighbor's family stood outside their house and sang Happy Birthday to their mother/grandmother. Bri cried. Matt picked up a load of wood that needs to be split and dumped it in the driveway. I super-cleaned the fireplace. Then found my spot in my "big chair" and watched another movie. I do that, watch movies, a lot. I don't feel guilty about it. My favorite thing to watch these days, foreign mysteries. I get so caught up in reading the sub-titles, I forget to check my twitter feed or how afraid I am feeling at the moment. If you want a list of the great ones I have watched, just asked! Netflix, Amazon. I really should not be spending the extra money, but so worth it for sanity right now.
I try not to think too hard about what is going on in Seattle at the hospitals. In New York with the hospital staff putting themselves in jeopardy as they try and save lives. In Spain, an ice rink turned into a morgue. In Italy, where the numbers of dying has not dropped. I have not freaked out or shut down, but I fear it will come sooner than later. I constantly read statistics, numbers around the world infected and dead. So many not heeding warnings at Florida beaches. Cruise ships still unloading infected passengers in Miami. I try to keep my anger to a minimum, anger will not help. I watch trump thumping his chest at his daily briefings/hate rallies and want to vomit.
So far we have been lucky. My husband and I can work from home and still have jobs for now. I have been working from home, starting week 4. I tend to work too much because it is just too easy to stay logged on to work. It gives me something else to worry about besides Covid 19.
Matt has still been working, but furloughed as of Friday. Bri is not working in the salon for now. Mason out of school going on week 4. Only a few trips to the grocery store and I feel like we are playing a crap shoot every time someone ventures out. I try NOT to go to the store. I am really having a bad feeling about David and I getting this. We are way over 60 and not great health-wise.
We are living in chaos with the kids trying to find their way into this new world. I think the baby is teething so she is crying a lot. But we watch her grow a little everyday and that is fun. Mason is amazing, with this amazing vocabulary and she and I cuddle in my "big chair" most nights. Her with the iPad and Barbie on Netflix, me with my phone and a game or twitter feed.
I do things like call the Neptune Society to check how much I owe on my cremation and get the policy number. Talk to David about all of our accounts. I have started writing down my passwords in case something happens and people need to delete or update my accounts/feeds. I would usually blog all of these details for family but not many of my family members are left. My mom, brother, uncle have died in the last 4 years. Most of my Texas family estranged because of their dedication to trump. I was thinking the other day, I could die and only my immediate family would know or care. Weird! But that is where we are in 2020.
So I am documenting this like my family would be reading about life here during the lock down. I am not making deals with God to save my life when so many have died, so very many, old and young, have died. We are just trying to be smart here. Keep our heads straight. Keep the house somewhat clean. NOT stick our heads in the sand about the truth of the world-wide situation. Try to have a positive attitude about the financial situation of us and the world.
I have thought about blogging the pandemic. If I didn't write it down, maybe it wasn't really happening? I think that is what I was feeling. But I really need to come to terms with reality. And put this in my blog, that has been my diary of all things, bad and good, up until now. So hopefully, I will read this years from now, as I read about my mom dying and say ... yes, that horrible thing really happened.
I tweet all day about trump and his colossal screw-ups on Twitter and on Facebook. I will not stop hounding trump until he is out of office and out of our hair.
Saturday, March 14, 2020
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Theme song
A good theme songs can send chills down my spin every time the series starts off!
"Midsomer Murders" is one of my favorites. Celia Sheen plays the theme tune from ITV's drama series "Midsomer Murders" on the Theremin. She has done so, along with incidental music, on the soundtrack of every episode for fourteen years. This fascinating instrument was the world's very first electronic instrument, invented in 1920 by Russian scientist Lev Theremin.
Vera
Endeavour
Inspector Morse
The 50 Best TV Theme Songs of All Time
"Midsomer Murders" is one of my favorites. Celia Sheen plays the theme tune from ITV's drama series "Midsomer Murders" on the Theremin. She has done so, along with incidental music, on the soundtrack of every episode for fourteen years. This fascinating instrument was the world's very first electronic instrument, invented in 1920 by Russian scientist Lev Theremin.
Vera
Endeavour
Inspector Morse
The 50 Best TV Theme Songs of All Time
Friday, December 13, 2019
Seeweed and love it
Collecting Seaweed
This handsome boxed set of notecards, Wild Sea Notecards, features art based on the wild and edible seaweeds of Ireland. The set contains six stunning designs, two of each. Rich colors and bold graphic shapes give a modern edge to a classic subject with timeless naturalist appeal. The box top is textured to evoke the printmaking paper of the original art.
“The Curious World of Seaweed is literally the roots of our ocean. For three generations, our family has thought about how to make a quality documentary about the importance of seaweed in the ocean ecosystem.
Nature Domesticated: A Victorian Seaweed Scrapbook
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Animal Village
Illustrations from the 1927 children's book Animal Village (動物の村), another gem from 50 Watts fave Takeo Takei
Monday, September 30, 2019
Sunday, August 11, 2019
Friday, July 19, 2019
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Monday, June 24, 2019
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