Aaah! I used to look at this site all the time and haven't in forever now. Okay, I love Star Trek, but I would just know better than to do that.

My boss is going to a Star Trek convention in Vegas this fall, and he totally buys the photo ops, too. He already has pictures of himself with several of them, and he's filling in a couple of gaps this year. He keeps telling me, you and Wesley should just go. Just take a few days and go. Then, I actually looked into it, and it really isn't nearly as expensive as I thought it would be, but still, Wesley would never go for it. And it still would be several hundreds of dollars. I'd like to do that someday, but it's one of those things where I can imagine lots of other things to do with the money, too.

I guess I did have words, ha.

Funny Link

No words.

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/page/23/

waxingpoetic.net

This jewelry seems literary to me, so it fits here, I think. :)

Had to share with you!

Painting

I looked at some of Connie Chadwell's art. It was the kind of stuff I envision doing, but doesn't turn out well. That can be frustrating.

As a matter of fact, the last painting I did was horrible. I have these ideas of what things should be, but I don't have the knowledge or skill to put it on the canvas. (The one at right is a favorite of one of my own pieces. I forget at the moment whose house it's hanging in, but someone asked for it & I gave it to them. It required little skill, it was just colors & canvas, as most of my paintings are.)

My mom always says I should take art lessons and learn how to do things correctly, but it seems so contrary to the spirit of art for art's sake. If I have to learn how to do it, am I really an artist? I suppose the answer is, of course, yes, because even the greats usually apprenticed under some master or started out admiring someone else's work. I just can't bring myself to do that yet.

Of course, that may also come from that deep-rooted part of me, that wouldn't study for tests so that, if I failed, I could sheepishly admit that I didn't study in an "Oh, well.." type of attitude, as opposed to failing at something I actually tried - which would make me a failure.

Wow - look at that. I went from art to psychotherapy in, like, 20 seconds.

Connie Chadwell

Check out these paintings by Connie Chadwell. I've been looking at art recently and teaching Kayley a little about it, and I've been interested in Texas artists. She's located in Junction, on the other side of Austin. I would love to have some of these!

To the Teacher of Literature

Somehow I found myself reading some lists of the 100 greatest novels of the last century, of the English language, etc. I realized I wanted to read some of them and thought I'd give it a shot. I'm always intrigued by things like this, and I although I never complete any such list, it's fun to get started. So the first novel on the list I decided to go with was James Joyce's Ulysses. I've heard of James Joyce but never read anything of his, and I had never heard of Ulysses. It happened that the Chambers County Library on Eagle Drive had a copy, so I picked it up on my lunch break one day.

The thing is, I can't make heads or tails of it. It's a pretty long novel, but if it's good, that doesn't bother me. I've read 25 pages. I keep having the sensation that maybe a page was ripped out and that's why it makes no sense. But no, the page numbers are there and nothing's missing. It does throw me that there are no quotation marks when a person is talking. You just have to infer where they should be.

I didn't want to have my impression of the book spoiled by reading summaries and things on the web first, but I think I'm going to have to. Have you read Ulysses? Have you read any James Joyce? Is it just his style? I know the problem isn't just the age, because I've read older things than this with no problem, but maybe the style just isn't timeless? If not, how did it make number one on this list?

Not sure what to think, probably off to research it now. I'll try to find sources other than just wikipedia. :)

Nickel Creek, again

I know I keep saying this, but I really like Nickel Creek. They are my default music when I need to chill out or when I'm driving. When I listen to Robin & Marian or Out of the Woods, I feel a mix of passion and chill, which, I like to think, is the balance I live in ('cause I'm a scorpio? well-rounded? grown-up? I don't know.). As far as I know, there's no sound like theirs, because there's an energy in the instruments and a sweetness to the vocals that I just can't find anywhere else. Yes, I've been exposed to the instruments of bluegrass (I come from a heritage of Southern musicians), sweet ballads in young voices, and some minstrel-ish storytelling reminiscent of the singer-songwriters of the 70s, but for every track on their eponymous first album, I instinctively smile and say to myself, "Yep, I LOVE this song. There's just nothing else like this."

Am I wrong? Is there something else out there that I should be liking, too?