Category Archives: Random Neuron Firings

Wet Weekend

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Blah. Hate the cold and rain in August. But hey, it’ll beat the heck out of 93 and humid tomorrow. And speaking of beating…why is it that the Tribe waits until it doesn’t matter anymore to start winning games?

Grammie's joyHad another sleepover with Jakey last night. We played and wore each other out. Keeps me young. And don’t you know, I looked all over town for a simple oversized bat, ball and free-standing tee this morning (the Indians need a lot of help so I thought I’d start batting practice early), and nobody had one. Off to Mansfield.

~

As many of you know, I had a test at the hospital (all results normal, yay), and they shot me full of iodine to light up my innards. Well of course, as has been the case in the dozens of surgeries I’ve had over the years, they couldn’t find a vein in one arm after digging around a while, so they abandoned that effort and tried the other arm. Lovely. I am grossed out daily. Jake pointed at my arms this morning and said, “Uh-oh.” Indeed.

So what’s everyone up to this weekend? Playing around? Traveling? Knitting one’s dog or cat hair into a scarf? Share.

FO

Yeesh, where’d the week go?

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It’s Finkday already. ¡No lo creo! Time’s flying by (and getting tougher than tough…). School year weeks never go this fast, ya know? Anyway, let the flipouts begin.

I laid some “haven’t” science on myself this morning:

  1. Haven’t updated choir tour accounts and details yet.
  2. Haven’t given a single thought to the upcoming Joomla training session, or the wholesale changes that come afterward.
  3. Haven’t done *any* score study or choreography or transpositions for Bye Bye Birdie. Nice.
  4. Haven’t any players for the orchestra yet; don’t even know what kind of pit I want.
  5. Haven’t yet bought the eleventy-thousand-dollar textbook I need for the last class I will ever take in my lifetime.
  6. Haven’t begged the Thriller to get the garden roto-tilled.
  7. Haven’t cleaned those last two closets.
  8. Haven’t seen this much fur come off a dog in one brushing session, ever. Could have made a small sheep out of it. The photos don’t do it justice, honestly; it was all over the yard, just flyin like an eagle till it was free.

However, I also….

  1. Haven’t had this much fun in one summer (with one bad spell, albeit brief) in forever.
  2. Haven’t enjoyed my family and friends this much in a long time.
  3. Haven’t “grown” as much professionally in the last five years as I have over the last few months.

Hmm. Does this have anything to do with turning forty in a couple-a weeks? Not sure I can take all this self-realization and huggery. Cloying.

All right, off to the showers. Meeting my good fiend Stoney at 10:00 for our annual cutting-the-score-to-ribbons session. Me likey.

FO

Well, look who it is.

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The Fink, with a Mac. HA

Bet some of you never thought you’d see the day. Actually, I must say that Macs have come a long way since the old days. I have to admit that this machine feels and acts a lot like a Windows computer. Right or wrong, that’s how it feels to me. It’s all good, though.

Now I have to get Boom Boom up here to do his mammoth Logic Studio training session (and believe me, it will be mammoth). Willie boy, there’s a whole lotta chocolate and vino coming your way as gifts!

Still, I love me some XP at home (and I also got a new PC desktop at school), so you could say that I’m playin’ for both teams. Heh.

Speaking of teams, the Tribe won one last night. I also got all the high school choir music ordered, survived a nasty hospital test (no worries, all is well), and got some other issues straightened out. Things’re lookin’ up, fiends. Things’re lookin’ up.

Off to play with Jake for the morning.

Fink out.

What the world?

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Lars used to ask that when he was little. “What the world is that?” “What the world are you doing?”

Cute.

Today, I wax philosophical. Or maybe I’m just wondering about stuff.

While listening to Slacker Radio on my Storm (salaam to whoever put that app together…Lawd), I heard “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” by Marvin Gaye.

Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east”

Indeed. And not just in an ecological sense. This morning I ponder things, at random of course, as is my wont:

  1. What the world are people doing when they talk poison and hurt those they supposedly love?
  2. Why are we bailing out/fresh-starting/overhauling the auto and banking industries, but not public education?
  3. Why do we tend to blame others for what we’ve become?
  4. Why is marijuana illegal, but alcohol isn’t?
  5. How and when did empathy fall out of favor in our culture?
  6. Tell me, where is fancy bred? In the heart, or in the head? (“Shall we roll on?” Heh.)

Pick one or two and weigh in, if you get the hankerin’. No judgment passed here in Finkville, promise. Well, except maybe by me.

KIDDING :-)

Have a dandy Tuesday. I’m off to the school house, with Jake riding shotgun. Yee-haw!

Now don’t go gettin all riled up.

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Cuz this ain’t about politics.

I noticed these images on a couple of blogs yesterday, and followed some links. It’s amazing (and gratifying) how visual art, after several millennia, still moves people to all manner of emotions.

A gaggle of different feelings will serve as reactions to the following picture. (You know the Law, so I ain’t interested in what those particular reactions are for you personally, or why. Just be nice and play my little game for today, k?)

Maybe this evokes less of a “convicted” response. I think it’s funny, myself:

Art has been controversial for centuries, but there was a time not too long ago when it was the only commercial visual stimulus available, and much attention was paid to its viewing, criticism and social commentary. I like art history — especially the periods which coincide with music history (Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionistic, Contemporary).

I won’t go into the whole of it, as I’d be writing all day instead of planning my glorious return to the school house, but imagine the shock of looking at this painting up close, when you hadn’t been raised on watching realistic reenactments of it on television:

Judith Slaying Holofernes, by Artemisia Gentileschi, 1618Artemisia (yep, a girl) painted several versions of this scene, over and over. Traditional misinformation classifies the painting as channelling the artist’s personal revenge against the men who humiliated her in her lifetime (she has an interesting story if you ever want to search it out), but in fact she maintained a closeness to the real story of Judith, who performed this grisly deed on an enemy general to scare his troops into retreating and leaving her people alone. Therefore, it’s more an indictment of tyranny than a kicking, screaming fit against the misogynistic ruling class of the day.

Interesting stuff.

Still, look at the determination on the women’s faces. Then look at Holofernes. How do you think the men of 1620 Italy reacted to it? And the women (though likely in secret)?

Did I mention I like visual art? It was the subject of one of my very first posts here at RtB. I could talk about it all day, really. Alas…

I found this quote from Artemisia herself:

An artist’s feeling is the white-hot core of painting…You’ve got to use your own emotions and paint with your own blood if need be in order to discover and prove the truth of your vision.”

If only we all felt that way about our own visions, eh?

FO