Tags: graffiti, photography, photos, residential, san francisco, urban, urban decay, urban photography, usa, жызнь, интересное, фото

On Sunday, a steam special came through Linlithgow. It was hauled by a GWR Castle Class locomotive (of the type seen in the Harry Potter films). These are rare visitors to Scotland, so I went down to the station to take a look. Unfortunately, it was very tricky to photograph - the train it was hauling was very long, so the loco ended up stopping well beyond the end of the platform, and a very badly timed train heading in the opposite direction obscured the view of it as it pulled in. After legging it to the station car park, this is about the best shot I could manage of it. Not great, but never mind - I hope you like it...

Tags: pentax k-m, photography, railways, steam, trains

1. Bullying At Work: How to Confront and Overcome It by Andrea Adams with Neil Crawford
2. Philosophy For Dummies (UK Edition) by Martin Cohen
3. Heidi by Johanna Spyri
4. Pravda: Inside the Soviet News Machine by Angus Roxburgh
5. The Official British Rail Book of Trains for Young People by Michael Bowler
6. Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2 Manual published by Amstrad
7. Night of the Crash Test Dummies: A Far Side Collection by Gary Larson
8. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
9. I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan by "Alan Partridge"
10. Along Lost Lines by Paul Atterbury
11. Jennifer Government by Max Barry
12. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
13. Catching Fire (Hunger Games, Book 2) by Suzanne Collins
14. Mockingjay (Hunger Games Trilogy) by Suzanne Collins
15. Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder
16. Tony Hart: A Portrait of My Dad by Carolyn Ross
17. The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex by Mark Kermode
18. Booky Wook 2: This time it's personal by Russell Brand
19. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
20. Come Lucky April (also published as After the Plague) by Jean Ure
21. Watchers at the Shrine by Jean Ure
22. At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
23. Z For Zachariah (Puffin Teenage Fiction) by Robert C O'Brien
24. Setting Up a Successful Photography Business by Lisa Pritchard
25. What's Wrong with America?: How the Rich and Powerful Have Changed America and Now Want to Change the World by Jonathan Neale

I picked this book up at The Lit List, a bookshop in Callendar Square shopping centre in Falkirk. It's worth mentioning because small independent bookshops are a rarity, and this one is great. It's full of great value books, and you also get free books and lots of special offers when you buy things. The lady who runs the shop is knowledgeable and enthusiastic and always happy to talk about books she's read and recommends, so if you live nearby, go and support it. It's near the food court, so go and buy a book, and read it over a coffee. :)

Anyway...I digress.

This book looked interesting because it's an analysis of the direction of American politics since Reagan began shifting the country massively to the right. It looks at how the civil rights movements of the sixties gained ground but then lost it to ultra-conservatives who have a very different agenda - that of promoting inequality in order to maximise business profits.

It was written in 2004, just before the second term of the Bush presidency, so it's a bit out of date now - obviously a hell of a lot has happened since then, such as the worldwide financial meltdown and the Arab Spring, both of which were things that the author could foresee happening.

It was interesting to see that the progressive left has lost clout because it has become so splintered, and has divided into single-interest factions that no longer have any solidarity with each other. "Solidarity" is obviously a word that gets bandied about a lot in socialist circles, but I never really grasped what it meant until I read this book - if one group suffers, then a lot of other people suffer too, and we should be more willing to support each other in fighting for equality and social justice.

Another point the book makes which struck me as interesting is that of politicians dealing with the consequences of their actions. Whether those consequences are intended ones or not, for as long as a policy is in place, it's clear that those in charge are willing to live with those consequences. So...for example, the current clampdown on benefits in the UK is driving people into poverty and homelessness, and preventing social mobility. It's worth remembering that David Cameron is perfectly happy to tolerate this, and that speaks volumes about his character and priorities.

The rest of the book looks at lots of issues in which America has taken centre stage, such as criminal justice, drugs, AIDS, the Middle East, oil, globalisation and free trade. While it was all interesting, I soon got the impression that the book is rather shallow and one-sided, tending to take a rather naive view of certain things and not backing up its assertions very well. Towards the end of the book, the author mentions that he's a member of the Socialist Workers Party. This was enough to make me lose rather a lot of respect for him and the book. I'm sorry to say this about a group I probably have a lot in common with, but the SWP are living in cloud-cuckoo land most of the time. Whatever good ideas they have are negated by the fact that they won't stand in elections, and believe in the coming of a socialist revolution. Errr...no. It ain't going to happen. Even now, after all the chaos of the last few years, I can't see there being a revolution, at least not in Britain, which is a (depressingly) deeply conservative nation. Hoping for a revolution is not the answer.

Anyway, that aside, the book is interesting, although the author's political affiliation makes it very clear that it's very biased in favour of one particular left-wing view of the world. It was good enough to make me think a lot about social justice and what we need to do to see it happen, and the biggest thing we need to do is repair the splits in the left. One thing the right-wing has done successfully is drive mainstream social democratic parties like the UK Labour party well to the right, and left-wing politics have splintered into loads of small groups without much support. I think what we should do here in Britain is rally round Labour and attempt to drive it back to its progressive socialist roots. I think a lot of people would actually welcome that in the face of the neo-con onslaught we're facing right now.

So...not a bad read, but not a brilliant one either, given how one-sided it is.

Tags: books, books 2012, politics

http://strangedavid.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/i-really-would-like-an-answer-beer-question/

http://strangedavid.wordpress.com/?p=467

Please feel free to answer in comments here OR on Facebook (where many of you comment because it’s easier there than here on WordPress).

I am planning on brewing a batch of beer pretty soon… but I have not decided what to brew. Last time I made a whiskey barrel porter.

So: what kind of beer should I brew next (and, if you have a reason, why)?

http://strangedavid.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/comedysportz-buffalo-my-delayedsaturday-post/

http://strangedavid.wordpress.com/?p=464

I had the opportunity to play with ComedySportz Buffalo and with their longform (non-family-friendly) troupe, IMF. To me, the most interesting thing about playing with other cities is to find what things we do differently.

Some of those things are only interesting to me and perhaps to other “insiders” — for example, there’s a difference between how Buffalo and Indianapolis divide up cleaning duties. I’m sure those of you who aren’t part of CSz are dying to know, right? Right. Moving on.

The first thing that struck me about the Buffalo troupe was the seamless camaraderie that I sensed during warm-ups. For example, we played a warm-up called “Hot Spot.” This is normally my least favorite warm-up. (I didn’t tell them this.) The warm-up is a simple one, in theory. One person starts singing a song in the middle of the circle; the others step in and start singing a different song as soon as the current song inspires them to think of another one. There’s no “wrong” song. It doesn’t matter what made you draw the connection — you just step in and do it.

It’s normally my least favorite because I can’t seem to think of a secondsong while listening to someone else sing a first one. Nothing gets triggered in my brain; I’m usually just struggling to hear or recognize the song being sung. Every now and then, I’ve been standing on the perimeter when someone sings a song and the rest of the group joins in, and I’m standing there thinking either “I’ve never heard this song before” or “I have absolutely no idea what any of the words to this song are.” In fact, in the ten years I’ve been in ComedySportz, I’ve jumped into the circle once.

In Buffalo, for some reason, the substitutions came just a little bit more slowly, which gave me time to recognize the song or at least hear some lyrics so that I can get a word in mind, and then I could think of a song. I got in a few times, which was an odd experience for me. I was even more surprised that a couple times, everyone joined in with dancing or harmonies. In Indy, I’m used to the warm-up feeling like a contest; in Buffalo, it felt like a group game. I don’t think either way is “right” or “wrong,” but I definitely preferred the way it was done in Buffalo, because I was actually able to get involved.

I was given the role of team captain, which surprised me when I first heard — usually captains have to have some idea of the strengths and weaknesses of teammates in order to help make game choices. However, a few quick conversations made me feel confident that no matter what I threw at my new teammates, they’d be ready to roll.

As team captain, I went up for the “coin toss” — the way that it’s decided who gets to pick the first game of the match. It’s usually anything but a coin toss. I was astonished when the ref announced that last year, when Indy hosted the World Championship, my friend J-Co and I had produced a series of videos “welcoming” the other cities with smack talk. Our Buffalo video had insulted Buffalo wings (or, as they actually call them in Buffalo, “wings”). The “coin toss” ended up being a wing-eating contest. First one to finish five got to pick.

I heard Ann laugh. She knew the issues that were running through my mind. For one thing: how hot were these wings going to be? (Answer: not hot.) But more concerning: how messy were these wings going to be?

Ann knows that I rarely eat with my hands if there’s a good chance of getting messy. I have a thing about messy hands. In fact, when we eat wings, I usually get “boneless wings,” even though I know that’s basically chicken nuggets. If I’m getting real wings, I stick to drumettes, because it’s easier to stay clean.

These wings were positively soaking in wing sauce (probably not what it’s actually called). There was no way to stay clean. I did manage to bogart the five drumettes, even though I knew they had more meat. By the time the other team captain (Brian) had finished his five wings, I had four and a half drumettes’ worth of meat in my mouth, with very little actually swallowed… and I had buttery, peppery sauce all over my hands.

It was hilarious and delicious. I survived. And those were honestly some of the best wings I’ve ever had.

We played “What Are You Doing?” — one of my favorite games. I lost the one round that I was in when I ran out of activities with the initials K and Y. (After “kissing a yak” and “knifing a yo-yo,” I got a little stumped.)

My team played “Sing It,” in which we perhaps didn’t have the best technical improv, but there were a lot of really good moments in it. Alex, Michelle, and Justin all sang their hearts out when they needed to. NO FEAR. Awesome to see.

The other team played “My So-Called Life,” which I know as “Dinner at Joe’s.” They acted out the life of an audience volunteer who had given them a short outline of his family and hobbies; when they got something right, he tapped one player from my team who acted as a bell; when something was wrong, he tapped another player from my team who acted as a buzzer. He was a great volunteer and a good sport.

We then played “Anything You Can Do,” which is a game that I actually invented a few years ago (with significant consulting help from Ann). I took a slap to the face that didn’t hurt at all, but later the ref had me show the audience that I actually still had fingermarks on my face. (I still think this is phenomenally fun and hilarious.)

We then played “Six Thingz” — similar to “Five Thingz” that Indy plays all the time, but done as a head-to-head.

After halftime, we played “Radio” — the only real difference between Buffalo’s and Indy’s versions is that in Buffalo, they got a suggestion that influenced what all the radio stations were about. I was a tad nervous when I heard we had the suggestion of Whitney Houston. I don’t know much about her, to be honest. My station was “rap,” so I rhymed Whitney with Britney once, and said rocket ships were boostin’, getting higher like Whitney Houston (without realizing that people would take that to be a drug reference and not a pitch reference), and some “crack is wack” worked its way in too. The funniest station had to be the station tuned to “war propaganda,” where the other team’s Richard turned it into a massive conspiracy theory involving Whitney Houston and “Haddam al-Sussein, er, Hussadam al-Suddaim… uh…”

The other team played a game I’ve never seen before, “Double Replacement.” Two players do a scene while the other two are outside the room. Then one player is “eliminated” by audience vote. The remaining (second) player replays his scene as exactly as possible, with the third player filling in the other role (which means they’re putting in new lines and actions, of course.) Then, the second player is eliminated and the third player replays HIS scene with the fourth player taking over for the second.

We played “Marshmallow” — make the audience laugh, shove a marshmallow in your mouth. Simple but fun, and a game I’ve always wanted to play.

We closed with “It’s Not You, It’s Me,” a game Manchester introduced at the Portland tournament, and another one of my favorites.

Finally, we had a closing that was not the usual “Chariots of Fire” ending we usually do in Indy — we did an “Animal House” ending. Music from the movie start up, and Mr. Voice gets to “extroduce” each player by telling what they go on to do (inspired by something that’s happened during the match). I think it gives Mr. Voice a great opportunity to get involved at the end, as long as the overall ending is done efficiently. I’m looking forward to trying it out with our troupe. (Phil, Joe, Andy — I’m looking at you three for potential Mr. Voice on this.)

One line I already plan to steal, the next time I give out a “ref treat” (candy) for a unique suggestion: “There you go! …Oh, good, you take candy from strangers.”

I’ll write about IMF sometime soon, as soon as I can figure out how to censor without over-censoring.

 

What are all these goths doing here? I thought I came to a post-punk show.

Mirrored from jwz.org.

Tags: firstperson, music, photography, sf
Current Location: 37° 45' 43.80" N, 122° 25' 9.60" W

Future Noir:

Turning down the block and ducking into a futuristic newsstand revealed the most humorous touches of layering, for it was here that this author immediately noticed that a number of faux twenty-first-century magazines had been stuffed into racks mounted on the newsstand's walls, and that many of them sported decidedly tongue-in-cheek covers.

These publications had been designed by BR art department member Tom Southwell. Periodicals of note include Krotch (going for $29 a copy!), Zord (at $30), Moni, Bash, Creative Evolution, and Droid. Horn, the "skin mag" of the future, had a cover which offered articles such as "The Cosmic Orgasm" and "Hot Lust in Space." Kill (whose logo was "All the News That's Fit to Kill") sported cover stories like "Multiple Murders - Reader's Own Photos."

Mirrored from jwz.org.

Tags: movies, perversions, robots, the future

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2012/05/26/hp-laptop-with-preinstalled-software/

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/?p=4129

I purchased an HP 17″ laptop with some software preinstalled in order to save myself some time. Normally I would prefer to buy from Dell, but this was the only 17″ machine that I could find with the latest generation (3rd; “Ivy Bridge”) of Intel CPUs.

The computer arrived in good shape, but once opened the purchased software was nowhere to be found, except for Microsoft Office, which was on the hard drive but demanding a product key. HP has invested heavily in a support application that enables their technicians to see everything on the hard drive. I opened a chat session and authorized HP to look at everything on the hard drive. Unfortunately the folks on the other end of this have no way to look up orders, apparently, and the hapless fellow had no clue as to whether or not purchased software should be preinstalled or not. He gave me a phone number to call.

I called the 888 number and waited for my turn. The woman who answered said that the purchased software should be on the hard drive. In fact, it was on the hard drive, she asserted (though she did not have access to the fancy support app that would have enabled her to see the hard drive). I pointed out that was nothing in the Adobe folder under “Program Files” other than Reader. If Photoshop Elements was on here, where was it hiding on the disk? She continued to assert that all of the software paid for was there and when I asked to be transferred to someone more familiar with Microsoft Windows she dumped me into HP’s tech support queue.

I called the same 888 number again and got someone different on the phone. He also had no access to my hard drive, but believed me when I said that the software was not there and that Office was demanding an activation key. He said that this case was being escalated to the highest priority available and that I would be called back by someone from HP within two business days (i.e., on Wednesday of next week, given that Monday is a holiday). I said “Given that I need an activation key, wouldn’t it be simpler for you to have someone email it to me?” That, apparently, is not an option.

My attempt to save myself some time delayed my usage of the software by at least a week (I could have purchased all of these things for download and activated immediately) and will cost me at least two hours of phone and online chat with HP.

More interestingly, I think this shows one reason why economic growth isn’t hugely accelerated by clever technology such as the latest Intel chips or HP’s fancy “look at the customer’s hard disk” support application. The fancy technology is eventually put into the hands of the same workers who made a mess of the old stuff.

http://cetan.org/index.php?showimage=1660

Fuzzy headed flowers in the Lurie Garden in Chicago's Millennium Park.

http://strangedavid.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/strangely-i-was-strange-but-not-strange-20-years-ago/

http://strangedavid.wordpress.com/?p=461

Some highlights from recently discovered columns I wrote for my school newspaper 20 years ago:

“This year the Homecoming dinner was a delicious meal served by the Juniors, returned by the Sophomores, over the net again by the Juniors and OH! WHAT A BACKHAND BY THE SOPHOMORES! Game, set, match!”

“My topic today, for all you finicky readers who for some reason have the idea that I should actually have a topic, is deadlines. And shortcuts. Shortcuts like using sentence fragments. But not around English teacher. Gets upset. Real upset. But shortcuts fun. Sound like Neanderthal. Or Tarzan. Grunt, grunt. Ugh.”

“…everyone knows that Santa rides through the night, pulled by his reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Curly, Larry, Moe, Eddie, Huey, Louie, Dewey, Bashful, Grumpy, Sneezy, Dopey, the San Diego Chicken, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver.”

“Weasel has a gold tooth… and it doesn’t belong to him.”

“…I will be opening a Deer Retaliation Outfit. Since I am against guns, the deer will not receive any of those particular weapons. Instead, all the deer will receive (for a small fee — a little doe, maybe a few bucks) camouflage (not the bright orange junk — the green and brown) and ninja training and weaponry.”

“Q: What is an acrostic?
A: An acrostic is a word made up of the initials of other words, such as MADD — Monkeys Angrily Devouring Donuts. Note that an acrostic is not to be confused with a lacrosse stick, which is a device used to spread blood across the gymnasium. Most words could be used as acrostics.
Q: How about cities? What would WACO stand for?
A: What A Cook-Out.
Q: Isn’t that a little crude?
A: Yes.”

“…the economy is collapsing, there are floods and hurricanes and droughts and fires and tornadoes and disco is returning…”

“…hyperventriloquation (when your lips aren’t moving but the dummy next to you won’t shut up)…”

“Q: Do cannibals ever suck their thumbs?
A: Only twice.”

“Q: My sister and I got into a fight about whether John Tesh of Entertainment Tonight fame played a Vulcan or a Romulan on Star Trek: the Next Generation, and she called me a “stupid mollycoddled jerk,” so I hit her with the dictionary. My mom took away the dictionary before I could look up the word “mollycoddled.” Can you shed some light on this subject?
A: Yes.
Q: Will you shed some light on this subject?
A: Of course. John Tesh played a Klingon.”

 

DNA Lounge update, wherein I think out loud about webcast upgrades.

Mirrored from jwz.org.

Tags: dnalounge
Current Location: 37° 46' 15.63" N, 122° 24' 45.70" W

Mirrored from jwz.org.

Tags: art, mpegs, robots, toys
Current Music: Liberator DJs -- Are 'Friends' Electric?

The weather was more than just awesome today - it was awesomesauce. It was really hot and sunny all day, and so I decided that an afternoon at the beach was called for. When the kiddies got in from school, we went to Aberdour and had a most excellent time.

Here's pictures to demonstrate the fun that was had by all. First of all, here's some infrared photos. The bright sun works a treat for IR.













Next, here are the "normal" photos - well, mostly normal, given that I used the Holga lens for some of them...


Eddie enjoys the sea


Mucking about with a polarising filter.


Not a cloud in sight, and not too many people either.


Eddie and Connor


Tully


Ruined pier

Finally, here's a handful of Instagrams to finish off.


Aberdour station garden


Beach at Aberdour


Some sort of mine/buoy thing used for charity collection

After all of this fun and enjoyment, it was time for a tasty meal in the Aberdour Hotel before coming home again. I'm hot and sweaty and knackered, but it was more fun than you can shake a stick at.

Tags: aberdour, beach, centon dc5, family, holga lens, htc desire, infrared photography, pentax k-m, scotland

Conway's Game of Life, emulated in Conway's Game of Life:

The life simulator used is Golly which has a built-in script to generate these metapixel grids (select a pattern, and choose "metafier.py" from the scripts list).

Outer Totalistic Cellular Automata Meta-Pixel:

The metacell uses a period 184 tractor beam, which acts as a clock. It pulls a block downwards by eight cells per impact, releasing a glider in the process. Some of the gliders are utilised; the rest are eaten. When the block reaches the base, it is restored at the top to begin the cycle again. Period 46 and 184 technologies (which are compatible) are used extensively throughout the configuration.

The rule is encoded in two columns, each of nine eaters, where one column corresponds to the 'Birth' rule and the other corresponds to 'Survival'. The nine eaters correspond to the nine different quantities of on cells (0 through 8). The presence or absence of the eater indicates whether the cell should be on in the next meta-generation. The state of the eater is read by the collision of two antiparallel LWSSes, which radiates two antiparallel gliders (not unlike an electron-positron reaction in a PET scanner). These gliders then collide into beehives, which are restored by a passing LWSS in Brice's elegant honeybit reaction. If the eater is present, the beehive would remain in its original state, thereby allowing the LWSS to pass unaffected; if the eater is absent, the beehive would be restored, consuming the LWSS in the process. Equivalently, the state of the eater is mapped onto the state of the LWSS.

Previously, previously, previously.

Mirrored from jwz.org.

Tags: computers, mad science, mpegs
Current Music: Mono -- Life in Mono

http://cetan.org/index.php?showimage=1659

Purple Salvia in the Lurie Garden, Millennium Park, Chicago

http://strangedavid.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/sage-5-months/

http://strangedavid.wordpress.com/?p=458

Well, Sage, it’s past midnight, so technically it’s the 25th. I would have gotten to this sooner, but this week you have not had good sleep habits.

Part of that is the unfamiliar environment. You’re in upstate New York right now, visiting relatives — most of whom had never seen you before. Your Grandpa Ray and Grandma Max came to Indiana to see you, and so did your Uncle Matt and Aunt Lisa, but nobody else had been able to visit yet. So we brought you to them. You’ve met a bunch of them so far, and there are still more to meet before we head back home on Saturday. There are even more that won’t get the chance to meet you this time around.

You’ve continued to laugh, but not nearly as much as I had hoped. You giggle, but the deep belly laughs don’t come every day. We still can’t figure out exactly what makes you laugh, so we can’t get you going. I’m really impatient for that phase to kick in — where we know how to trigger that laughter.

You’re also getting ridiculously strong. You’re able to stand for remarkably long periods of time, although your balance is such that you have to be hanging on to something, or have our hands around your torso simply to stabilize you. We think that’s also contributing to your lack of sleep this week; last night all I had to do was to give you your pacifier and give a careful massage to your legs for you to conk back out. And we’re glad you’re conking back out, because the past few nights have involved hours of trying to comfort you and hoping we can stop you from screaming at the top of your incredibly powerful lungs.

You like reading time, although I often feel guilty that I’m not reading to you nearly as much as I had intended to. Part of the reason for that is that we’re very busy — we’re preparing to move houses soon, to a bigger place with a better commute for me so that I can spend more time home with you. Part of the reason is that your attention span for books is still kind of limited.

You like the TV; when it’s on, you want to see the pictures. We discovered today that you also like live performances — we took you to your cousin Lucy’s first dance recital. (She was really good for a five-year-old.) You were absolutely entranced, despite the fact that we were really far back in the auditorium. You even seemed like you were trying to sing along to the music after a few numbers. You did fall sound asleep during the final number (“Flashdance”), your head nodding so far forward onto your chest that it looked like you were curled up in a ball.

The toughest part of this month, for me, has been that you’ve become totally and hopelessly devoted to Mommy… which would be fine, except that it’s at the expense of Daddy time (and Mommy sleep). When you want to be comforted, you want Mommy, NOT DADDY. We’ve told you that it’s kind of unfair to both of us, because Mommy needs sleep too, and Daddy needs to feel like you still need him.

We know that we can’t take it personally — you’re five months old, for Pete’s sake — but it’s still emotionally a little rough. I know that if you’re like most girls, somewhere down the line you’ll want Daddy, NOT MOMMY. I’m going to try really hard to not act smug about that when it happens.

You’ve tried rice cereal twice. The first time, Daddy had to hold your hands while Mommy spooned it in; the second time, Daddy was at work and Mommy said you spent the whole time excitedly grabbing at the spoon with your hands and then stuffing your hands in your mouth. Maybe five percent of the rice cereal made it to your mouth that way. You’re not the tidiest eater.

And your hands have to be in everything. You want to grab everything and pull it to your mouth, and you have sharp nails and an amazing grip. Daddy’s already lost a fair amount of arm hair. Mommy, fortunately, has not lost her earrings or necklace.

We’re probably a little biased, but you seem astonishingly smart to us for your age. You’ve figured out how to trigger sound from a couple different toys, and we think you may have already started using a little “baby sign language” — the sign for eat.

It’s so hard to believe that in just one month, you’ll be half a year old. Time is flying by.

My advice for this month: have patience. Patience is one of the hardest things to develop, because you want itright now. As a five-month-old baby, you obviously have no patience yet (at all). Don’t live life that way. If you haven’t done so yet, learn patience. You will never, ever regret having it.

Mommy and Daddy love you so much, Sage. It’s not possible to tell you the extent of our love for you. I can’t wait to see what you’re like a month from now… even though I don’t want you to grow up too fast.

Announcing our brand new nephew...Joseph Karl Navta was born today at 5:29 Indiana time.  7lb. 3oz., 20 inches long.  

Welcome to the family Baby Joseph!

My kids' responses to the news....

Nathan: "yay."

Lillian: "I want see dat baby.  I see her and him and her baby.  I go their house. I go now see dat baby."

After fretting about it for a bit, in case it ended up not happening, I was happy to get a start date (June 18th) and joining instructions for my new job by e-mail on Monday evening. So...I still have a bit of time to relax and enjoy the sunny weather before it starts. :)

The office is in a part of Edinburgh I didn't know very well, so I punched all the details into Google Maps which told me it's a 25-minute walk from Haymarket station. On Tuesday, I went and did a test run of the walking route, and discovered that Google Maps has pulled a blinder and picked a beautifully scenic route for me, via the Water of Leith walkway.







Not bad, eh? Walking this route twice a day, which is pretty hilly, will really help keep my fitness levels up. I've been doing loads of walking recently, combined with finding quite a few caches, and it's making me really fit.

Tags: edinburgh, pentax k-m, photos, water of leith, work

http://cetan.org/index.php?showimage=1658

Before the storm on Sunday, the clematis flowers were in full force.

GRRRRR.  I am waiting waiting waiting for an Old Navy package to arrive.  It's got a swimsuit that I am hoping will fit me, so I can pack it for my trip to Galena this weekend.  I am down to the line, here, people!  And so I've been tracking this package since the moment I ordered it.  And all along, it has said it was supposed to be delivered today.  Today!  Which is what I need!

But instead, I find that it has INDEED been delivered to MY POST OFFICE today, and that it's going to be another day or two before it gets to my house, and I am SO ON EDGE, already, people, that I am just super pissed off about this.  I called the post office and asked really nicely if I could come and get it instead of waiting for it to be delivered, and they were like, "We are not set up to...blah blah blah..." 

I want my fucking swimsuit.  

Have I mentioned that I've been wearing the same swimsuit for about seven years?  It's nice, but last year it finally broke.  Like, broke broke.  The underwires broke in half, and I had to pull them out.  And I still wore it for the rest of the season.  Even though it's super uncomfortable.  But I need a new one.  And so this year I've tried and tried, and ordered and tried and returned SO MANY FUCKING SWIMSUITS.

And the one in the package from Old Navy is MY LAST HOPE.  And it's not fucking HERE.  And I am going to have to wear my old broken down seriously I'm not kidding BROKEN SWIMSUIT this weekend, and I am really really really really unhappy about that.

Unless that thing arrives tomorrow.  Which would be good.

BUT I WANT IT NOW.  

Why won't they let me pick it up?  I hate you, post office!  I hate you so much!

I did not get much sleep last night.  I am a bit frazzled.



ETA: um...package was in my mail box.  I love you, Post Office!  Besties!

You guys.  I am so antsy about my sister and brother-in-law and the new baby coming, which is coming, like, rightnow.  I am so antsy that I am not focusing on stuff I'm supposed to be doing.  But I think I would be able to distract myself if I had a big enough project.  So, for reals, I just realized that I was procrastinating on the breakfast dishes and packing for our trip, but considering TOTALLY REARRANGING MY BEDROOM and also RETHINKING ALL WINDOW TREATMENTS.

I need info on that baby.  ;)

My sister is having her baby.  Like, in labor at the hospital right now!  I'm all fidgety and I can't settle down.  :) :) :) :)

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