Postprandial Post

"Your love of gardening will take on new meaning in your life". That was the fortune from my fortune cookie today. I think the one from a couple weeks ago was better: "You will find much fulfillment with someone soon." Hmm, we'll see...

This is totally unrelated but here are my latest favorite new words:

par·ox·ysm \PAR-ick-siz-um\, noun:
A sudden outburst of emotion or action: a paroxysm of laughter.

spoonerism \SPOO-nuh-riz-uhm\, noun:
The transposition of usually initial sounds in a pair of
words. (i.e. I'm going nucking futz)

postprandial \post-PRAN-dee-uhl\, adjective:
Happening or done after a meal.

fugacious \fyoo-GAY-shuhs\, adjective:
Lasting but a short time; fleeting.

foofaraw \FOO-fuh-raw\, noun:
1. Excessive or flashy ornamentation or decoration.
2. A fuss over a matter of little importance.

discursive \dis-KUR-siv\, adjective:
Passing from one topic to another; ranging over a wide
field; digressive; rambling.


Oh and a random quote I stumbled across: "Formalism, by being an ‘ism,’ kills form by hugging it to death” (Peter Viereck)

sleep...

Grr, I hate how I can be SO tired all evening then get home and can't seem to get myself to go to bed for a at least an hour or two. I guess that's what blogs are for. It was a good night at Magdalenas though. Hopefully I can come home and take a nap on lunch tomorrow. Yeah, that would be really good...

Sculpture

So I'm finally almost done with my table / sculpture after 3 semesters of work. If you've seen parts of it in my car and received a confusing description of what it's going to look like from me, now you can see it assembled minus the actual table top:





It came out pretty close to my original 3D rendering:



On a side note, I took a close up picture of some of the rust on the side of the sculpture. I wasn't really happy with the picture, but started playing with the colors and adding some effects to it. The result is at least interesting if nothing else:

BEFORE:


AFTER:

Summer Thunderstorms...

I've always loved thunderstorms. Seeing the clouds building and approaching on the horizon. Feeling the excitement of the wind, rain, thunder, lightning. All the nice weather has reminded me of that summers coming and so are the storms. The ones at night are the best, when you don't care if the power goes out and especially when there's someone else to share the storm with:

a dark night,
a dark house,
a dark room,
an open window,
the heat of summer.
we sleep.
a breeze teases resting leaves,
a still lake begins to move, to shimmer.
a sparrow crouches in her nest,
grass stretches for the sky in anticipation.
distant flickers grow closer,
they dance, they flirt with the earth.
a glistening touch, a warm rumble, a light mist.
rivers rush and caress the hills,
clouds swell with lust and cover the stars,
heaven closes its eyes and we open ours.
trees writhe and arch their limbs,
crickets emerge and sing their delight.
doors slam and curtains flow like the robes of a monk on a mountain top.
cool rain frecklels our naked skin,
my fingertips drift through the valleys of your ribs.
they trace over your lips and whisper secrets to your soul.
our eyes meet in the shadows of the nights passion,
a millisecond gaze that feels like a thousand "I love you's".
hearts pound and fingers interlace.
lips meet and flowers wilt with envy.
inhale and rain pounds down.
exhale and winds collide.
inhale and lightning paints the sky.
exhale and clouds billow to great heights.
inhale and taste of the nights mad ecstasy.
exhale and we are one.

Plant Photos

Just a couple plant photos I took today:

7:02 Sunset

If you didn't see the sun set yesterday, you missed one of the best sunsets I've seen in a long time. It was incredible. I had just turned onto MLK from south Main. As I crossed over and looked down 496 I had a great view - the highway extended into a checkerboard of blue-grey clouds with a vibrant highlight of pink on the bottom of each. The sun itself was enourmous. The biggest I've ever seen it. Like in those paintings with a huge oversized sun setting over the ocean. Really, the whole thing looked like a painting. In fact it made me think, maybe there are days when the sun and clouds find their inspiration in a painting instead of us finding ours in them.

Kindergarten Clothes

There was a great conversation just outside my office a minute ago. A couple friends were talking about kids and how fast they grow out of clothes etc. One said "Well, when I have kids I'm just going to buy kindergartener size clothes and bunch of chip-clips. The supersize ones in the beginning, then the smaller ones, and then maybe paper clips. I think that's the way to go. And you know, the socks will go all the way up their legs in the beginning so you won't even need pants."

Poetry

So I think i'm just going to lump some poetry under this post until I make a place for it on my website or elsewhere.


I lie here beneath a rusty sun,
a dark moon,
a winter void.
to live,
to dream,
to sleep...
to be our mad whispers.
to taste your drunken kiss
to fall into your frantic sea
My sweet girl...

---------------------------------

elephants stampede and mourn the bones of their dead,
vultures stomp and dance for death in our path,
we walk, hand in hand.
dry and dust under a growing sun,
we swim in our passion.
I drink the thrill of your touch.
searing sand burns our feet,
but we spin; we dance.
frayed trees splinter and shed their limbs,
the sky burns and trumpets play,
we laugh and touch the sun.

---------------------------------



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Have your cake and know the date too

I was in Meijer tonight and saw these:

Except the box I saw had a large sticker on the front that said "Free Pocket Calendar Inside". A pocket calendar? What a weird thing to get with your Mini Potato Pancakes. I mean think about that. Potato pancakes and pocket calendars - they go together like... well like toothpaste and staples. But hey, you never know. Maybe I should give it a try. I could get one and carry it with me religiously. I'd paitently wait for the day when I'm standing in a checkout line while the person in front of me writes a check. They look up and ask the cashier, "Do you know what the date is?". She shakes her head as I confidantly pull out my King Kold pocket calendar, supply the date along with a couple upcoming holidays for good measure, and save the day.

Excalibur Open

Today was definitely one of my better days fencing. I went to the Excalibur open in Grand Rapids. It attracts some of the top fencers in Michigan including Ann Marsh, a 3 time olympian and "A multiple Pan Am Gold Medal winner, World Championship and World Cup Medalist, and one of the strongest team fencers in U.S. history" and Michael Cho 2004 Michigan Division Champion and ranked #16 in the nation. Most people would be happy to score just one point against either of them. I fenced Ann in my pool bouts and scored 2 points losing 2 - 5. I could have had 3 on her when she turned to look at the score box for no apparent reason. Stupidly I stopped to look too thinking "What is she looking at, I didn't hear anything..." when I could have just hit her and had another point. Oh well, I'm happy with 2.
I'm even more happy with my match with Michael Cho. He was my second DE bout. I was throughly losing 2 - 13 when time was called for the 1 minute break between the first and second 3 minute periods. I rethought my strategy a bit and ended up coming back to finish 9 - 15. Nine points on an A rated fencer, 16th in the nation, yeah, I was happy to say the least.

A Tilt-Shift Lens may be hiding in your Bathroom...

Tilt-Shift lenses are not cheap to say the least, but with a toilet plunger and a little ingenuity and you can make your own:

DigiHack - Digital Photography projects: Tilt-Shift PC Lens

Murderous Shadows and Ponies by the pool

I heard the strangest line in a movie today. It just seemed so out of place. It was "A murderous shadow lies hard across my soul". You would think a line like this would come from a movie like The Godfather or Scarface. Maybe a scene in some dark alley lit only by the flickers of a distant steet lamp... A mafia hit man stands over the body of the long time friend he just murdered. A heavy rain begins to pour down as small wisps of smoke still escape from the barrel of his gun. His boss walks up next to him and after a few moments of slience, the hit man looks up, a mix of rain and tears rolling down his face, and says "A murderous shadow lies hard across my soul..."

But, nope, it's nothing like that at all, it's from 'Babe: Pig in the City'.


Speaking of taking things out of context:
"You had my little ponies too?!"
"Yeah, a purple one with long hair. They invaded the Barbie house"
"Really?"
"Yeah..... because they wanted to sit by the pool"

Pro Toilets

This morning I got out of the shower and stood looking at the handle of my toilet. It recently fell off and I haven't been able to get it back on right, so it now sits a bit crooked and about 1/4 of an inch further out from the tank then it should. It occured to me that I really don't understand why toilets have to be so troublesome. Handles break, they run, they leak, are loud, tank bolts rust and break, hell they even sweat. It just really seems like they could be made a little more reliable. I think a big part of the problem are the components. They are all so cheaply made. Maybe that's just the "consumer" grade of toliets. I suppose I could go ask someone at Home Depot if they carry a 'Pro' or 'ProSumer' grade toilet, but what kind of person needs a 'Pro' grade toilet? That might, umm, carry some implications I may not want to associate myself with. Another issue I have is the noise. Why do they have to be so dam loud when they are running? I can turn on the faucet for the hose outside on full blast and you can hear little more then the water hitting the ground. It seems like since everything is contained in a thick porcelain tank it would be even quieter. Yes, I could go out and buy a really expensive toilet and it would probably be a lot better, but it's kind of ridicolus that I have to spend $600+ on a toilet just to have it work reliably and be quiet. I bought a cheap $130 microwave probably 10 years ago and it's never had a problem. That's a hell of a lot more complex then a toilet - the thing has to generate and shoot around microwaves.
Anyway, here's an interesting sign I found while I was looking for info on toilets. I asked a friend that speaks arabic what is says. He said it says "Wrong Position" and "Right Position". So, let this be a lesson to you:

French Toast and Neolithic Revolutions

Ok, so I have several random things to talk about. To start with, a word of warning. Avoid Meijer brand frozen french toast. I love french toast, but this stuff was one of the more disgusting things I've ever had. I've had their frozen waffels and those aren't too bad, but even as this french toast was cooking in the toaster it smelled bad. But, you know, sometimes things taste better then they smell. No such luck this time. Not only did it taste awful, it was crispy on the outside, but slimy on the inside. Yes, I cooked it well, very well. In fact part of it was burnt and even that part was slimy inside. Think toaster strudel with an uncooked raw egg filling... Yum.

I learned a couple new things tonight at open mic. I learned what the black body radiation theory is and the meaning of neolithic revolution. I'm sure you're dying to know what they are, but I had to go look them up, and if you're like me, now you will have to too ; )

I've had 3 different people tell me about the movie I Heart Huckabees. I watched the trailer for it back when I first heard about it and it looked really cool. Now that I had two different people in the same night tell me about it, I think I just might have to go rent it tonight.

I really need to fix the dead bolt on my front door. It's been getting harder and harder to unlock from the inside. It's now to the point that I have hit it 5 - 10 times with a hammer to open it. It does make me laugh though, it's just so ridicolus. Maybe I'll leave it for a while...

Feet and Love

The heat in my car smelled like feet for about 10 seconds today. I decided that 10 seconds of feet smell is ok because it adds interest to the day - "why in the hell do I smell feet??" I would say that 20 or more seconds though, that becomes a problem. Also if the problem recurrs more then once a month, that would not be good either. But today, one time for 10 seconds was ok.

On a slightly different subject, I think it often takes the ending of a relationship where you didn't know just how good you had it to realize how much little things mean, how much love and being loved means. Girls generally know this better then guys, but it often takes much more for a guy to see it. The tiniest romantic gestures can be such beautiful things - brushing the snow off your gf's car before you leave in the morning, a note hidden in a CD case that may not be found for days, weeks, years..., making her something - anything - no matter how simple, be creative... It just drives me nuts when I see guys that have a girl that loves them to death, but are just numb to anything like that. She can go out of her way to do something incredibly sweet for them and they are just respond with an 'oh, uh thanks...' Grrr... But, I know I was like that at one time though. I just didn't 'see' it. I really try to avoid cliches, but 'If I only knew then what I know now'. The note on the table, the song that 'just happened' to be playing, the kiss when I was sleeping, the hugs, the tears. All that meant so much, but I never knew it.