StumbleUpon | Margir's blog posts

http://Margir.stumbleupon.com/review/37399978/

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:54:19 -0800

I drove down a road last night that I hadn't driven in a long time, probably since high school. I wondered if the pizza place was still there... yup, the sign was lit - Dominics. Seeing it brought up a clear memory of Eric playing a simple tune he was learning on his guitar leaning on his car outside the restaurant.

I had hung out with him for a number of months, going on long drives on summer nights in his rusty convertible Spitfire that he was constantly tinkering on, going to Bible studies together... We went to the Air and Space museum, and he ate freeze dried ice cream from my fingers. He had a deep voice with a booming laugh. Loose flannel shirts over a rock hard body... a gentle, chaste young man. Summers his hair would be flecked with paint from his job painting water and radio towers. He was proud of how tough his feet got, walking barefoot all summer, climbing trees.

I looked up his family's names this morning. I found a YouTube video of someone who might be his older brother, teaching biology now. The lower notes of his voice sound familiar.

It's a little jarring how clearly I can see his face today. Often it's difficult, it's been so long - over 25 years ago he fell from one of the radio towers he was hired to paint the week after I graduated high school. He was already in college, diving into an electrical engineering degree.

His smile made me melt.

http://Margir.stumbleupon.com/review/37367992/

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:45:35 -0800

...and it's pretty.

http://Margir.stumbleupon.com/review/37303887/

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:13:44 -0700

I'm supposed to write a paper listing major Chinese dynasties and briefly summarize them. Man, what a hugely boring project.

Don't get me wrong - I love learning about history. But I have no context for these historical events. I need a story to pull me in, a character I can be fascinated by. The movie Hero snuck a *little* history into my brain as did the more historically based The Last Emperor. For other eras the whole series of From the Earth to the Moon about the space race, Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides about rescuing the soldiers of the Bataan Death March in World war II, Ripples of Battle by Victor Hanson about the Japanese suicide bombers of World War II, the battle of Shiloh in the Confederate War, and going way back to the battle of Delium in the Peloponnesian War... all of them revealed people and events to me in a way that I could understand and build upon when reading or watching about events in other historical contexts. Even historical fiction will do. Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield about the Battle of Thermopylae was amazing.

I found all of these books and movies about historical events fascinating. But this project is tossing 4000 years of history down in front of me and expecting me to pick through and find something that is important and interesting in the scope of the whole sequence of events. That's just ridiculous to expect of a student that has no background in Chinese history.

Anyone recommend any books about China? Not the garbage-y ones with only timelines and dates. I want ones where they give a context and explain the reasons why a person or event was important in influencing the events that followed. I'd prefer something that focuses on a particular era instead of pre-history to now...

http://Margir.stumbleupon.com/review/37215681/

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:18:57 -0700

Professor seems very pleased with these two so far. He thinks the white space in the orange painting needs... something. I rather liked the contrast there, so I'm not sure how to "finish" that space. I'm happy - it's encouraging to hear that. I think photographing these shows me some things that I don't see in person - how contrasts and drips and layers look from a much farther distance for example.

I find it strange that the vast majority of the class right now is painting stripes. There is a lot of very thick muddy colored paint with lines horizontally or vertically crossing the canvas. Sometimes people are even using tape for very straight lines. I find them very dull. I think I may try to do some figures or imitate real objects a bit more in my next paintings just for a contrast.

There's one guy in class who always paints these stunning abstracts. He applies thin paper to canvasses with a gel medium and peels them off leaving ripped edges and paints over them in acrylic and oil paints. The paper absorbs the paint in varying saturation of color. I always end up looking at his for a long, long time. I hope to own a few before he becomes famous.

The next project is supposed to be 36 square feet. I need to visit an Anne Truitt exhibit downtown and write a paper for Chinese calligraphy and do more characters...

AND I have to get my kitchen ripped out and replaced. I'm a little exhausted.

http://Margir.stumbleupon.com/review/37184469/

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:35:01 -0700

I was reading a friend's cancer blog at bloopatone.com about how he discovered his illness and how he his dealing with his treatments. They sound devastating. Yet this is how he talks to his doctor.:

(Doctor) "You should be fine, you can exercise normally."

"I'm just concerned because I get into a lot of fist fights." I smiled.

She laughs a big laugh, "Oh you might want to avoid the bar brawl."

"Its ok, I only fight children."

http://Margir.stumbleupon.com/review/36889660/

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:06:15 -0700

I just IMed an old boyfriend from my twenties (one of the FEW guys I always wished well after things dissolved between us) who I hadn't seen on-line in a while -- just poking my head in to say hi. He tells me he has cancer. Shit. I hope treatment is going o.k. I'm going to check his blog to see what's been going on.

http://Margir.stumbleupon.com/review/36887736/

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:29:36 -0700

I have a problem with faces. I can meet a person a number of times (sometimes over many years), but if I see the same person completely out of context, I am at a loss. Especially people with blandly attractive faces -- there is not enough for my memory to hold onto.

I saw a guy in Starbucks this morning who looked familiar, like I'd met him a couple of times, and he said "Hi Margit". Shit, he knows my NAME and I have no clue who he is! I waved and said hi, but sheepishly didn't say anything more. Man, it's annoying not being able to pull up who a person is and where I know them from. I had a nagging suspicion I had met him at a happy hour with some friends. I described him to a co-worker, and ding-ding-ding! Yup, that's where I met him. A number of times.

And SU expects me to remember people by their SU handle and their avatar which can CHANGE?

I talk to people here whose real names I don't even know. Some don't have their picture as an avatar. Some don't even reveal their gender. I hope SU changes their mind about taking away the option of tagging people as friends. I love having them grouped together so I can find them easily instead of burying them in an anonymous cloud of subscriptions. Shoot, I bet I'd have trouble finding CousinUrsula who is MY cousin, yep, named Ursula.

http://Margir.stumbleupon.com/review/36886379/

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:27:07 -0700

DO NOT spam me with email requests for friending/sharing if I don't know you.

I bet this annoying practice will blossom with the new SU terminology...

And glittery gifs make me want to puke.

http://Margir.stumbleupon.com/review/36829341/

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:08:03 -0700

...tastes like PlayDo.

http://Margir.stumbleupon.com/review/36743531/

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:02:42 -0700

The Shakers own a great deal of land with large amounts of farmland for cows and sheep. They have an orchard, and I remembered an article I had read in Mother Earth News years before about letting chickens run free in orchards so they could double as a natural pest control. I asked Eldress Frances why they did not have any chickens on the grounds.

It cracked me up that this powerful woman, even though she is in her 80's and has to drag around an oxygen tank, leaned into my face and vehemently said, "Ooh, they're dirty disgusting creatures!" I just started grinning at how strongly she was repulsed by the idea. I read in her book later about how they had chicken slaughters there where they cooked and canned for days. It sounded like a filthy, smelly chore.

In the church service that Sunday after reading a Bible passage to the gathering, she said, "I never liked this passage". It was refreshing to see her barely mask her annoyance at people in her church instead of feigning unconditional love. (She might be horrified that I noticed...) I would love to hang out with her and get a little toasty on liquor which I hear she likes to do on occasion, listen to her stories.