Challenge fail.

Back in March, I said I'd try to post every day for 30 days. That didn't happen. I posted a total of 18 times during that time period. That's a pass at some schools. I just don't have much going on other than a lot of hard work to try to get something going on. And I've been all over southern Ontario.

Hopefully, fingers crossed, I'll soon have a new adventure to photograph and write about! At least I'm back into blogging.

Hello.

Today I thought about my blog a lot. I plan on getting back into regular posting this fall. I'll have a new place, my own space, time to be allotted as I wish. I'm excited about all of this and I hope it gives me a fresh outlook towards my creative endeavors and my new job.

On the other hand, unfortunately, this is the view I'll be leaving behind.


I just ran across the icy cold, wet grass in bare feet to snap this shot off the end of our dock. It was worth it.

Orchids, pitcher plants, squids, and little green things.

More Haeckel art I've collected.

Cass St.

So, I wasn't able to post every day in November. That was pretty unreasonable, anyway. I should pass 30 posts in one month though, and that's a record for me. Just to get my post count up, I'm adding this.

I saw this street name on the map and thought I'd have to go way out of my way to take a picture. And into a not-so-scenic part of town. Luckily, it turns out the Knitter's Warehouse, a not-so-scenic woolshop is just past this street, so I was actually heading in that direction.


Let's just say it took a few tries to line this up. And I did it just for you. This is a blog special edition photo. And you don't just come across one of these every day. I might not post as often as the challenge said I should, but I have great content.

The fun theory.

I just liked this. I also joined NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) where you challenge yourself to post every day during November. This might be a little tricky, but I've always wanted to join and I'll try my best. Other variations on this include the original NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where members attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November and NaSweKniMo (National Sweater Knitting Month) where members attempt to knit a 50,000 stitch sweater in a month. I like this one because you don't have to count anything, just try to post.

And I've done well so far.

Today was an overcast, slightly rainy day, but Liz, Ollie, Liz's brother Shannon, and I had a really great afternoon. They took me down to Mission Bay to have lunch on the waterfront and we all ate greenshelled mussels with garlic, onions, and celery and Shannon and I drank Belgish Beer. I bounced around with Oliver so Liz could finish her lunch. He's such a funny little fellow and I'm so glad he doesn't cry when I hold him. He's just starting to recognize people and he has the sweetest little crooked smile. I will definitely post some pictures in the next few days.

Tomorrow I'm going to go explore Auckland City and visit the Auckland Museum near the hospital Jonathan works at. I'm really interested to learn more about the history and geography of this place. Auckland sits on about 50 volcanoes and the traditional Maori culture is really celebrated here. Then of course I'll stop in at a couple of the local wool stores too!

Today.

Blog needed some organization today. The list of blogs I follow keeps growing and growing. I decided to add categories to make things easier to keep track of. I think I like the new set-up.

I'm really glad I started writing here. Whenever I need a break from anything I can come here and feel completely refreshed. Writing out all of these things that usually swirl around in my head makes me feel much more focused and pulled-together. Also, I've found endless sources of inspiration in the blogging world and it's really nice to know that they are all in order here. Every time I open up this page I find something new and exciting.



Now that I've become more comfortable with html editing I know how to make the changes I want to make before I tell other people about this place. Today I figured out how to make a little icon for my blog tab. This why my personal style will show up on the tab as well and readers will be able to collect it for their bookmarks. The one I added today is not simplified enough to show up on such a small scale. I just clipped one of my favourite images from the title bar and used converted it to an icon file with this free converter: converticon.com. It's cute and worked well ad has a little Mac interface design. Then I uploaded it to this spot to make a direct link to the image: Image Boo Hosting. So, I'll work on the header and the icon over the next little while, but things are starting to come together!

O, and I almost forgot to mention, check out this collision of art and science:


Fluid Sculpture from Charlie Bucket on Vimeo.

Cass

Right Now.

I have just finished eating my grapefruit. Doug called my style 'monkey-head grapefruit eating all the brains'. I usually refer to it as 'pumpkin-head grapefruit that takes at least one hour to eat, maybe two if you're sitting in front of your computer. Mainly this is the situation that occurs when you slice off the top of the grapefruit, cut up the insides, and clean it out with a spoon. I adopted this method this winter after becoming tired of eating messy grapefruits. I find that this method cuts down on grapefruit juice spray immensely. I am able to avoid becoming a sticky mess and take time to savour the delicious fruit simply because it is a labour-intensive way of consuming citrus.

I'm feeling really happy today because I just made all the corrections Uta suggested on my thesis. There really weren't that many. I need to focus on defining all of the parts of my experiment and referring to each of them but a short name. This makes it much easier to read through the results and understand what I'm saying.

Just now, I realized I was tired of all that so I came here to update the labels for the posts. This makes it much easier to go back and find the things I wrote about, obv. I really want one of those word clouds where the most frequently mentioned words are big and then all of the other words are smaller and floating around them. I tried to find a gadget that did that, but no luck. I have, however, managed to attach all of the other blogs I watch on the side of my blog. This has cut down on the clutter along the link bar at the top of Firefox. I was almost out of room.

Next, I really want to fix up my header. I can't figure out how to make a design that fills the box in exactly. There has to be information about the dimensions around here somewhere. I still love Haekel's art, but I might switch from the black to his old fashioned ink-drawn tea-stained herbarium entries. There are many more of those so it would give me a lot more shapes to work with. Also, the title will show up better if I can make it black or grey on the off-white background. I also want to work on my science family posts and I've collected a bunch of ideas for posts about childhood inspirations. I'd like to collect more information about Edward Gorey, Shel Silverstein, and others for inspiration in my art and science.

eta: apparently no one else in the world eats a grapefruit the way I do, photographs the image, and posts it on google images. I was trying to steal a nice bright grapefruit picture to spice things up around here, but no luck.

Inspiration.

This is so beautiful:



I found it on one of the crafty blogs I follow for inspiration. Every time I finish a section or a bit of thesis I get to look at one. This prevents me from sitting around and daydreaming about all of my knitting projects at home. Uh, yeah, I do that. It's so strange how you can care so much about so many different things and yet some things just seem so much more fun to do. I suppose knitting is easier for me than this science gig since I've been actively practicing craft for so much longer. Not to mention, science still has that schoolwork vibe attached to it for me. I can't wait to be a free agent and just float around in the world for a bit.

For now, I'll type away and post pretty things. This particular blankie is made with a wide range of Koigu Premium Merino (KPM). The colourways are rich and beautiful. Imagine the possibilities with this stuff for giant granny squares which happen to be one of my favourite crafty items. A throwback to easy days in Warsaw at Nana's house. And possibly every summer weekend in Cottage Country, Ontario.



Okay, I'm out. Enough pretty internet pictures. I've promise myself that I'll send my Hypotheses, Predictions, Methods, and Results to Uta this afternoon for proofreading. Got to buckle down and show up, I just had to post this first.

Summertime Water Issue Awareness.

This morning I received an interesting e-mail from one of the student's I TA'ed last semester in Doug's EcoMethods class. His name is Dylan White and this summer he's taking on an epic journey: Dylan and his friend Garrett will be riding their bikes across Canada. Not only is this one seriously long trek, but it's an expedtition with a much greater purpose than seeing our great nation. Dylan and Garrett will be carrying with them equipment to produce a film about water issues across Canada.

I think this is an amazing feat to take on at a critical time for natural resource management in Canada. Our neighbours to the south have finely elected a worthy candidate to lead their country. I imagine the pressure to move water to the States will relax and we NEED to move away from the idea of privatization of our fresh water sources. This line from the Canadian Odyssey Quest for Water website is truely inspired, "One of the film’s objectives is to help build a sense of commitment and even pride in our natural waters, an awareness approach that we hope will encourage a change to the current complacency Canadians have towards inefficient water use and pollution." The emphasis is my own, but just imagine taking pride in something that we've taken for granted for decades. So out of Canadian character. I think there's opportunity for change and these two are on to something.

You can find the group supporting this journey on facebook. Or at their previously mentioned website.

And while you're at it, check out what these two are up to this summer. Another student from BIOL*4110 is heading the opposite way across Canada to create a film about water issues and how they are perceived by Canadian Youth. I haven't been in touch with them yet, but I can't wait to hear all about their journey as well.

Official Travel Blog.

This morning my blog has officially become a travel blog because I just went and had my first passport pictures ever taken. They are absolutely horrible, I look like I'm sleep-walking in them. I had just gotten up from my snooze on the bus to school and I'm wearing an antique sweatshirt passed up from my younger brother when he outgrew it at age 12.

I suppose I really need to work on that new header now and turn this into I want to be a (traveling) Arts and Scientist. I plan on posting all about my journeys to conferences in far away places over the next year. I'll have to tell more people about this place before I leave.

p.s. If you think that's cool, here's a new blog that I've been following lately: The Impossible Cool. It's all about icons of personal style in our recent history. I think it's neat to see what this person will find next.

One other thing.

This has been a good afternoon. I've been cruising along on the statistical analysis section of my thesis, had a good lunch, and a good chat with Doug and Uta.

I read over the entries I posted in January and I added some pictures. Good blogs have good pictures. (As a great example I'd like to direct your attention to 1001 rules for my unborn son. I've been following this blog since he started, can't remember how I came across it, but I love seeing updates. His tastes in music, art, and whatever, are similar to mine. I admire his sense of tradition, quirky ideas, and simple style. Also, he's just cool.) As I went about adding the pictures I had a chance to think back on what I had written.

I've learned a good lesson over the past few weeks. It goes a long way to explaining for myself why I started this blog. I have always been self-consious, critical of my own work, and determined to understand how exactly I fit in to all of the situations I come across. I think all of this is necessary on the way to becoming a content, aware, enlightened person (I mean, I guess that's what I'm aiming for). However, it's very easy to take this all too far and put a lot of unneeded and exhausting pressure on myself (same goes for most people, I suppose). When I started this blog I wasn't so intent on figuring things out completely, but more on sorting out the clutter and defining my problem and I'm identifying this as a very insightful concept. I'm starting to realize that you can't ever figure everything out completely. No matter how you try and how many hours you spend puzzling over everything in your life, figuring it all out would require more energy than one person has to spare. I mean, follow your heart, sure, but who the hell knows where their heart is going to lead them next? Why put so much effort into trying to guess what the next thing you want will be?

So, the idea behind this blog, I suppose, remains as an attempt to focus the chaotic creative energy around me. Staying positive in the place I am. Doing good work and being good to myself. Truly appreciating the people around me, but not trying at all to figure them out. Spending time with good music and activities that enrich all of my hours.

Yep. I like to write here, so I should be back soon.
Cass