Last night I watched Inception, on loan from a friend. It certainly does not fall into my “favourite” movie category. It definitely doesn’t fall in into my “wanna see it again" category, nor even into my “good film well worth seeing once” group. I don’t think I’ll even go so far as to say “well that was interesting”. I think it’s in the “Yep, I saw it” category, after which I can politely listen to whatever anyone thinks of it: be it good, bad or indifferent to them, I will at least know whereof they speak. Okay, so you want a positive note? There were some interesting scenes.
While watching the film, I was fixing one of my chairs. I had to take it completely apart, scrape down the flanges, scrape old glue off and out of the various rabbets, maintain a clear idea of which end went in which rabbet, reglue, reinstall all the pieces and knock it all firmly into place for the glue to set up. It made the time pass as the film unravelled itself. I have another chair that is also in need of the same attention.
This morning I decided to plant two onion bulbs. They’d sprouted and I’d done some investigating only to find them surrounded by rotting onion, which I discarded. Anyhow, finding suitable pots, enough – just enough – potting soil and so on, revealed a huge supply of plastic bags, plastic bottles – not the redeemable kind – and all sorts of typical (for me) collectables; roots and bark for dyeing; dirt; things meant for the compost; dog biscuits; a small assortment of rocks collected walking with the grandkids…. I got most of the real trash ready to go out and reorganized the rest so that at least it looks less, ah what shall I say: chaotic; um, messy…. I also found a handy pot full of potting soil which is perfect for a plant that needed re-potting. So now I have two onion bulbs planted and a re-potted something or other, in addition to a much tidier cupboard.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Eclectic
I am eclectic. That should be very apparent to anyone who knows me, perhaps less obvious to those who don’t know me well. How does this work, why does this work, what happens if I do this, does that make any difference, can I learn to do that? These are some of the underlying questions that drive me. Of course there are some things that I wouldn’t do – bungee jumping for example (of course with my osteoporosis it would be dangerous, but even before I knew I had it the idea of jumping from a height – no heights please – didn’t appeal).
Recently I was giving a bit of a history lesson. Lilja had just finished reading The Lord of the Rings (LOR)and we were discussing kings, nobility and how government has changed through the millennia from family groups, through tribes, and on to kingdoms and today’s modern world. She’s still into the LOR world, so I drew a parallel to the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA - see sca.org), which is something Lilja would enjoy taking part in.
One of my SCA friends, Adeliza, suggested I share some of the film clips of SCA stuff available on youtube with Lilja. So off I went to Google. And yes I found some great stuff on the SCA on youtube. I spent hours looking at things, trying to narrow down the choices to something sensible for ten year old Lilja.
Among the things I found was a song: I’ll See Your Six (c) copyright 1993 W.J. Bethancourt III who is known as: Ioseph of Locksley in the SCA. You can find the lyrics at: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/sf/filk/seeyrsix.htm, the song itself at www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1TTLtxzNTU. Once you get there, you may want to hear Bethancourt’s Mongol Doodle Dandy and his Unanswered Questions too, in fact you might enjoy most of his music! I suppose what I like about I’ll See Your Six and Bethancourt's other music is the eclecticness it portrays.
Recently I was giving a bit of a history lesson. Lilja had just finished reading The Lord of the Rings (LOR)and we were discussing kings, nobility and how government has changed through the millennia from family groups, through tribes, and on to kingdoms and today’s modern world. She’s still into the LOR world, so I drew a parallel to the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA - see sca.org), which is something Lilja would enjoy taking part in.
One of my SCA friends, Adeliza, suggested I share some of the film clips of SCA stuff available on youtube with Lilja. So off I went to Google. And yes I found some great stuff on the SCA on youtube. I spent hours looking at things, trying to narrow down the choices to something sensible for ten year old Lilja.
Among the things I found was a song: I’ll See Your Six (c) copyright 1993 W.J. Bethancourt III who is known as: Ioseph of Locksley in the SCA. You can find the lyrics at: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/sf/filk/seeyrsix.htm, the song itself at www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1TTLtxzNTU. Once you get there, you may want to hear Bethancourt’s Mongol Doodle Dandy and his Unanswered Questions too, in fact you might enjoy most of his music! I suppose what I like about I’ll See Your Six and Bethancourt's other music is the eclecticness it portrays.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Day before Christmas
Tis the day before Christmas... the days are getting longer, there’s snow and the weather is clear and about minus 25 Celsius. This month I have treated myself to all sorts of wonderful indulgences: movies and books. Actually I have overindulged in these areas, undoubtedly to my personal detriment, but such is life.
Books: I have made the difficult but challenging decision to not purchase Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books – yet. I will beg my friend Hanna to permit me to continue to abuse her copies instead. I have borrowed (consumed) her copies of Breaking Dawn and Eclipse… or they consumed me. I found them completely un-put-downable. I’d read through the night – even after I’d already read them once, twice, three times and OUGHT to have been reasonable enough to put a book mark in, close the book, and go to bed. After I returned them to Hanna, I decided they were too dangerous to my health to actually own them simply because I could not stop reading them – unless they are safely ensconced on Hanna’s bookshelf and under her lock and key!
So instead of the Twilight books I have ordered Patricia Briggs’ Raven’s Shadow, and Raven’s Strike; and Lois McMaster Bujold’s: Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, and the Hallowed Hunt. All of which I have read, loved, want to read again and HOPE that I have the self-disciple NOT to stay up all night reading them again. I should put a qualifier here. I did not really even like Paladin of Souls much less “love” it, but it is definitely worth reading again and it is part of the series.
Movies: Instead of the Twilight books I bought the Twilight movies! The books are better than the movies but that’s okay, I like the movies well enough. I also bought Music and Lyrics, and How to Train Your Dragon both of which I like for their positive feel and I can watch these without getting tired of them. For an additional change I also bought a McGyver movie… um well, I have not taken to it. I know there will come a time when I’m very happy to have it though. It will be a relief, a change. That time will probably be in March. There are still a few more movies I wish to acquire.
Meanwhile, Funlayo and I are making tentative plans to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We plan to take Lilja and possibly Sofia if she meets the age limit. I think none of us anticipate being entirely happy with the movie version – which could of course ruin the film for us. We’ve spent so much time seeing the story while reading the book; that we’d really like to have that vision brought to the screen. I do think it is possible to love both a movie and a book for the different element they expose. I also think it is time for the movie/script writing industry to re-evaluated what the audience wants in book to movie translations.
Books: I have made the difficult but challenging decision to not purchase Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books – yet. I will beg my friend Hanna to permit me to continue to abuse her copies instead. I have borrowed (consumed) her copies of Breaking Dawn and Eclipse… or they consumed me. I found them completely un-put-downable. I’d read through the night – even after I’d already read them once, twice, three times and OUGHT to have been reasonable enough to put a book mark in, close the book, and go to bed. After I returned them to Hanna, I decided they were too dangerous to my health to actually own them simply because I could not stop reading them – unless they are safely ensconced on Hanna’s bookshelf and under her lock and key!
So instead of the Twilight books I have ordered Patricia Briggs’ Raven’s Shadow, and Raven’s Strike; and Lois McMaster Bujold’s: Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, and the Hallowed Hunt. All of which I have read, loved, want to read again and HOPE that I have the self-disciple NOT to stay up all night reading them again. I should put a qualifier here. I did not really even like Paladin of Souls much less “love” it, but it is definitely worth reading again and it is part of the series.
Movies: Instead of the Twilight books I bought the Twilight movies! The books are better than the movies but that’s okay, I like the movies well enough. I also bought Music and Lyrics, and How to Train Your Dragon both of which I like for their positive feel and I can watch these without getting tired of them. For an additional change I also bought a McGyver movie… um well, I have not taken to it. I know there will come a time when I’m very happy to have it though. It will be a relief, a change. That time will probably be in March. There are still a few more movies I wish to acquire.
Meanwhile, Funlayo and I are making tentative plans to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We plan to take Lilja and possibly Sofia if she meets the age limit. I think none of us anticipate being entirely happy with the movie version – which could of course ruin the film for us. We’ve spent so much time seeing the story while reading the book; that we’d really like to have that vision brought to the screen. I do think it is possible to love both a movie and a book for the different element they expose. I also think it is time for the movie/script writing industry to re-evaluated what the audience wants in book to movie translations.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Miracle
Yesterday I received a miracle. I’ve probably missed millions of miracles each day. But yesterday’s miracle hit me in the “this is a miracle and cannot be ignored” sort of way.
Funlayo came to bring me a few supplies (milk, bread) because of the overzealous PT session I been to on Thursday. She said she had something special to give me and took out a red-foil wrapped goodie. Then she began to tell the tale behind this tiny package.
She’d been in Helsinki last weekend. While there, she met someone she doesn’t see often, or know well. He came up and asked her if her mother was "Susan". He was looking for Susan. He had contacted someone else about Susan and had been directed to another person with that name. He quickly realized she was not the Susan. But he told Funlayo that when he saw her, he knew that she was the right “Susan’s” daughter.¨
He’s an interpreter and had been working in Turkey with a group visiting Edirne (formerly Adrianople). Among the group were three young women from Iran, who became very excited to know he lived in Finland. They asked if he knew Susan, because they wanted to send her a gift.
Merci Khanumha your miraculous gift has been received.
Funlayo came to bring me a few supplies (milk, bread) because of the overzealous PT session I been to on Thursday. She said she had something special to give me and took out a red-foil wrapped goodie. Then she began to tell the tale behind this tiny package.
She’d been in Helsinki last weekend. While there, she met someone she doesn’t see often, or know well. He came up and asked her if her mother was "Susan". He was looking for Susan. He had contacted someone else about Susan and had been directed to another person with that name. He quickly realized she was not the Susan. But he told Funlayo that when he saw her, he knew that she was the right “Susan’s” daughter.¨
He’s an interpreter and had been working in Turkey with a group visiting Edirne (formerly Adrianople). Among the group were three young women from Iran, who became very excited to know he lived in Finland. They asked if he knew Susan, because they wanted to send her a gift.
Merci Khanumha your miraculous gift has been received.
Friday, November 19, 2010
In the heart
Early decisions can make for some challenging moments throughout life. I encountered a poem when I was thirteen. I’ve no idea who wrote it, or which magazine it was in – I suspect it was in Chronicle of the Horse but I’m not sure now. Definitely it wasn’t in any of the glossy teen garbage that I bought occasionally, and it wasn’t in a school book. Chronicle of the Horse was the only magazine I subscribed to and at that time it was black-and-white slightly better than newsprint quality. I think the poem was on paper like that. I do not remember the entire poem either, which is most unfortunate. It went something like this:
There was more to it than that and I wish I could do more now to credit the author and publication.
At that transitional age, 13, I saw that grasping someone - the embrace – was no guarantee of keeping them. I have the memory that the poem implied the opposite. Love required allowing the loved one to go. I decided several things more or less at that same time. I would love my loves in my heart and get out of the way if they chose to leave, and that I would not accept a guy who ditched someone else for me, on the premise that if he’d leave one for another, he’d leave me eventually too. I decided I would not compete with another to “get” someone. Instead, I would hold each love only in my heart, and that is where they are.
Hold all life tenderly
Lovingly
But not in an embrace
For that is limiting
Hold only in the heart
There was more to it than that and I wish I could do more now to credit the author and publication.
At that transitional age, 13, I saw that grasping someone - the embrace – was no guarantee of keeping them. I have the memory that the poem implied the opposite. Love required allowing the loved one to go. I decided several things more or less at that same time. I would love my loves in my heart and get out of the way if they chose to leave, and that I would not accept a guy who ditched someone else for me, on the premise that if he’d leave one for another, he’d leave me eventually too. I decided I would not compete with another to “get” someone. Instead, I would hold each love only in my heart, and that is where they are.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Musings
I haven't mused in a while - at least not here. It's quite normal for me to muse while walking mutts, or semi busy doing other things that don't take consentration.
The past few weeks have flown by in a blur. My days are fractured and irregular, so anything that requires planning and doing needs the space of time in which to get it done. Because I had to plan an Academic Reading course, something I haven't taught in a couple of years, I needed swaths of time to focus on that. The planning phase is now over, the first third of the course is done. Most of what remains involves what the students actually do. Therefore I have a breather now.
I began the breather by reading Marked the first of the House of Night series. I was rivited to it for a couple of days - it only takes one consentrated day to read, but having read it once I had to read it again, and then I dipped into some of my favorite sections. Once the first third of my course was over I came home and watched Twilight (Thank you Hanna for the loan of both!). It is spectaculary performed, in spite of its deviation from the book - I assume though I have NOT yet read the books, rather I'm basing my opinion on the unfinished raw version of Midnight Sun available as a pdf download from Stephanie Meyer's website. This latter presents Edward Cullen's take on meeting Bella, and it is supurb! I HOPE that Ms. Meyer's will eventually be able to complete it in spite of everything.
What with all the vampyre and vampire things I began to contemplate a "course" on Vampires in in literature and film. It should be interesting. It would be more interesting if one of the participants were a vampire.
Other than these musings, I have only one other: this Thursday I should be able to see, study and examine a real finished version of the blouse that I am trying to make. Since I only got a few color copies of how the fancy stichery ought to look, and basically no guide lines on how to put it all together, where facings go, where they don't, what sort of neck opening, what kind of button holes, and about 30 other questions, I really can't proceed without a better understanding. I certainly will not waste time doing fancy stichery on something only to find out that the pattern really is wrong in even more places - currently the collar is WAY too long, the cuffs aren't right, so I suspect there just might be a few other details that need close attention. Which reminds me: I need to buy mm graph paper so I can remeasure EVERYTHING.
The past few weeks have flown by in a blur. My days are fractured and irregular, so anything that requires planning and doing needs the space of time in which to get it done. Because I had to plan an Academic Reading course, something I haven't taught in a couple of years, I needed swaths of time to focus on that. The planning phase is now over, the first third of the course is done. Most of what remains involves what the students actually do. Therefore I have a breather now.
I began the breather by reading Marked the first of the House of Night series. I was rivited to it for a couple of days - it only takes one consentrated day to read, but having read it once I had to read it again, and then I dipped into some of my favorite sections. Once the first third of my course was over I came home and watched Twilight (Thank you Hanna for the loan of both!). It is spectaculary performed, in spite of its deviation from the book - I assume though I have NOT yet read the books, rather I'm basing my opinion on the unfinished raw version of Midnight Sun available as a pdf download from Stephanie Meyer's website. This latter presents Edward Cullen's take on meeting Bella, and it is supurb! I HOPE that Ms. Meyer's will eventually be able to complete it in spite of everything.
What with all the vampyre and vampire things I began to contemplate a "course" on Vampires in in literature and film. It should be interesting. It would be more interesting if one of the participants were a vampire.
Other than these musings, I have only one other: this Thursday I should be able to see, study and examine a real finished version of the blouse that I am trying to make. Since I only got a few color copies of how the fancy stichery ought to look, and basically no guide lines on how to put it all together, where facings go, where they don't, what sort of neck opening, what kind of button holes, and about 30 other questions, I really can't proceed without a better understanding. I certainly will not waste time doing fancy stichery on something only to find out that the pattern really is wrong in even more places - currently the collar is WAY too long, the cuffs aren't right, so I suspect there just might be a few other details that need close attention. Which reminds me: I need to buy mm graph paper so I can remeasure EVERYTHING.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Two recipies
I do not remember which TV program I saw this recipe on sometime in either 2001 or 2002… but the host(ess) was visiting a posh New York NY restaurant and lemon garlic chicken was prepared. I’ve made this several times since. Here’s what I do:
Lemon Garlic Chicken
4-8 boned skinned chicken breasts
2 lemons, squeezed
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbs oil
Salt to taste
Coat frying pan with oil, sprinkle minced garlic into pan, place chicken breasts on top of garlic. Sauté gently, turn and sauté other side gently. Add lemon juice. Sprinkle salt on top. Simmer gently to reduce lemon juice almost to caramelized state – it is nice to have a bit of the lemon garlic sauce left over. Turn chicken regularly to be sure both sides absorb the lemon garlic flavour as they cook. Rice would accompany this very well and left over lemon garlic sauce can flavour the rice.
This second recipe is more traditionally Finnish, from the eastern part of Finland
Karelian Stew
¼ - ½ pound of beef and the same amount of pork. These can be second cuts and should be cut to bite size pieces. I do not trim the meat.
Onion: 1 large, or 2 medium, or 4-5 small cut in chunks
Garlic 3-5 cloves coarsely chopped
Bay leaf
Black Pepper – to taste
Water to cover
This can be made in a crock pot, or cooked in a glass casserole, but I prefer to use a cast iron pot with a lid. Assemble ingredients, place into pot, put lid on and put the pot into cold oven (unless using a crock pot). Turn oven on, set at 325 F, 140 C. Cook for at least three hours. Add water, add salt to taste. Serve with mashed potatoes.
It is possible to add other things to the stew, but traditionally it is this basic. Things like carrots and turnips would most likely be side dishes: first boiled, then mashed to puree, then allowed to sit a day before being baked as casseroles.
Lemon Garlic Chicken
4-8 boned skinned chicken breasts
2 lemons, squeezed
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbs oil
Salt to taste
Coat frying pan with oil, sprinkle minced garlic into pan, place chicken breasts on top of garlic. Sauté gently, turn and sauté other side gently. Add lemon juice. Sprinkle salt on top. Simmer gently to reduce lemon juice almost to caramelized state – it is nice to have a bit of the lemon garlic sauce left over. Turn chicken regularly to be sure both sides absorb the lemon garlic flavour as they cook. Rice would accompany this very well and left over lemon garlic sauce can flavour the rice.
This second recipe is more traditionally Finnish, from the eastern part of Finland
Karelian Stew
¼ - ½ pound of beef and the same amount of pork. These can be second cuts and should be cut to bite size pieces. I do not trim the meat.
Onion: 1 large, or 2 medium, or 4-5 small cut in chunks
Garlic 3-5 cloves coarsely chopped
Bay leaf
Black Pepper – to taste
Water to cover
This can be made in a crock pot, or cooked in a glass casserole, but I prefer to use a cast iron pot with a lid. Assemble ingredients, place into pot, put lid on and put the pot into cold oven (unless using a crock pot). Turn oven on, set at 325 F, 140 C. Cook for at least three hours. Add water, add salt to taste. Serve with mashed potatoes.
It is possible to add other things to the stew, but traditionally it is this basic. Things like carrots and turnips would most likely be side dishes: first boiled, then mashed to puree, then allowed to sit a day before being baked as casseroles.
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