Quote from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1964.
Month: January 2015
Utah Transit Authority Ad
Friday Unrelated Information
1. I’d say a good 20% of the agency I work at is out with the flu right now. I’m still healthy but the survivors are getting desperate–I made someone who thought he was coming down with it stand at the entrance to my office last night and brief me from there.
2. Related, I plan to fill the long weekend with multivitamins and sewing.
3. Here is an article about the revival of traditional Inuit face tattoos (which are quite pretty; not what one thinks when one hears “face tattoo”). One of the interviewee’s thoughts about her tattoos are what I’d like my potential one (not on my face; don’t worry, Dad) to accomplish:
It wasn’t the momentary pain or the ritual that connected her with her tattoos and her tattoos with her belief system — it was the daily routine of living with them…. “As I explain to people what my tattoos mean, almost every day, tracing over their lines reminds me of whom I respect and why.”
Don’t Hesitate
Some advice via prose poem from Mary Oliver:
Don’t Hesitate
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
Jewelry 2.0
Remember the jewelry board I made two years ago? It was simple paper covered Homasote with cup hooks screwed in, and it did the trick of getting my accessories out of the drawer and into rotation. It did the trick so well, in fact, that I got in the habit of wearing jewelry, so I kept buying it, so I ended up needing more storage that would handle the bigger pieces. Enter my dad!
I showed him this tutorial and he did his usual magic of making it even better–beefier brass that he polished up, nicer wood for the blocks, partly set-in rods, and a more intelligent and stable mounting system.
I love that there’s enough space for everything and that it doesn’t feel like the whole thing will come crashing down if I remove one necklace. Thanks, Dad!
Tuesday Project Roundup: Owl Hat
Ever since I packed up a lot of my handmade sweaters that don’t get worn because of fit issues, I’ve been sticking to little projects, like hats (and now socks). I made myself a hat, I made my nephew a hat, and because Doc declined a hat, I made this hat for my friend’s little boy. He’s the one who got a tiny owl sweater back when he was born, so I thought a return to that motif would be nice.
(Specs: I used this pattern in the kid size; yarn was Cascade superwash in my stash.)
Those owls get me every time. They’re so fun to make!
In The Mountains
“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us. Our flesh-and-bone tabernacle seems transparent as glass to the beauty about us, as if truly an inseparable part of it, thrilling with the air and trees, streams and rocks, in the waves of the sun–a part of all nature, neither old nor young, sick nor well, but immortal”
-John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierras
(Pictures from a snowshoe hike to Day’s Fork up Big Cottonwood Canyon; quote from the first installment of the Ken Burns’ National Parks series, which we started and watching and which the first installment thereof might as well be called “John Muir Quotes and Pretty Landscapes.”)
Friday Unrelated Information
1. One of my New Years resolutions is to go get measured and fitted for a “real” bra, one that isn’t the same brand I’ve been wearing since college and one that costs more than $20. I hear women who have been fitted love it and it makes a huge difference, so this article from The Toast is an apt spoof on what happens when “You’ve Finally Started Wearing the Right Bra Size“:
You look down at your phone. Your voicemail, your inbox, even your Direct Messages on Twitter are all brimming with remorseful messages from everyone who has ever wronged you. They were all wrong, and now they’re so, so sorry. There are no lumps, seams, or bulges under the lines of your shirt, and your father has come back from the dead to tell you how proud he is of you.
2. I am tempted to go through this workbook, “Unraveling 2015” but I have to admit that I downloaded it last year for 2014 and was overwhelmed by all the introspection. Even though it’s dated wrong, this little image is kind of the Cliff Notes version:
Something Cool
Via my brother, here is a cool project for Kerouac fans: Artist Paul Rogers drew a picture inspired by a line on every page of On The Road and published them in one long continuous “scroll.” Check it out: On The Road: An Illustrated Scroll.
Today’s Ultra-Specific German Vocabulary
Also known as the reason I’d rather re-watch MST3K than see any of the new releases on Netflix.