Posts Tagged: weekend

Tidbits for Palm Sunday

Posted by & filed under photos + text from the road.

The Snow, it is falling and falling this weekend in Mammoth
Sun. 04.09.17 – The Snow, it is falling and falling this weekend in Mammoth – photo by Ms. Jen with her Lumia 950

Tidbits for a Sunday afternoon’s reading:

The Art and Design of End Papers

The beautiful choral music of Suor Leonora d’Este

Thinker, tailor, soldier, spy: The extraordinary women of Ghiyas-ud-din Khalji’s harem

Erica Wilson, The Julia Child of Needlework

Which led to the Queen’s Coronation Gown and her Maids of Honor, then and now:
1. http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.com/2012/02/flashback-friday-queens-coronation-gown.html
2. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2089887/The-Pippas-day-aristocratic-beauties-stole-the-Coronation-60-years-ago-Now-share-scenes-stories.html
3. http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-04-21/the-queens-coronation-day-maids-of-honour-where-are-they-now

A book review that is a good read in and of itself:The Souls of China by Ian Johnson – the resurgence of religion after Mao

“Johnson spends weeks with Taoist musicians, whose ritual performances bring the deceased “over to the other side”. He attends an unregistered Christian church in western China that challenges the party’s claim to be moral arbiter of society. He dines with celebrity Zen Buddhists, who dispense wisdom to real estate developers, the offspring of party aristocracy, executives and bank managers. He practises qigong – religious breathing exercises and meditation – with a master in an apartment block reserved for once-persecuted party elders rehabilitated after Mao’s death. With nicely understated irony, Johnson weaves the political rituals of the self-proclaimed atheistic CCP through this calendar: its conferences held in the Great Hall of the People, a communist temple saturated with legitimising ritual symbols; the intensely ritualistic departures and ascensions of communist leaders. “Like a Taoist priest,” he observes of Hu Jintao anointing a successor at the 18th party congress in November 2012, “Hu emulated an immortal … dyeing his hair jet-black to make himself look ageless, and surrounding himself with propaganda banners conferring immortality on the Communist party.””

Note to Self: Go on one of these UK walks
It’s blooming spring! 22 great UK walks

After spending so much time in Arizona the past two years, this article on living in Arizona is spot on.
Mike Powell : Why I live Where I liveZonies: Part 7
with a link to Walter Percy’s Why I Live Where I Live

Unusually strong April storm headed for Northern California this week : This storm was fun. I spent it up at Mammoth. My Instagram documents: 1, 2, 3, 4

Tidbits for Your Weekend

Posted by & filed under ideas + opinions, tidbits.

Photo of Pear blossom taken by Ms. Jen with her Lumia 950

I have been collecting links for about a month now, some of these you may have already seen but enjoy the ones you have not yet read:

From the Stories, Myth, and Fiction Beat:

Tor.com’s short fiction and poetry series: Nevertheless, She Persisted containing the marvelous The Jump Rope Rhyme by Jo Walton, plus many others

A morning coffee break in the woods, with good companions

Four Kinds of Dystopia

The Fairy Tales of Giambattista Basile’s Il Pentameron

From The Science Beat:

Comet 41P/T-G-K Tangles with the Great Bear : Get out your binoculars and look for the comet in the next two weeks.

New Way to Fight Superbugs Found in Noxious Weed : When folk medicine helps fight MRSA

A Medical Marvel : Wherein reviewing old manuscripts yields a 1000 year old eye cure from Bald’s Leechbook, an Anglo-Saxon medical recipe book.

The Very Drugged Nazis : What is says on the tin

Gotta See It! Four Planets Directly Imaged In Motion Around The Star HR 8799

Researchers create ‘time crystals’ envisioned by Princeton scientists : How about adding a little time to your crystal molecules?

The Education Beat:

And for centuries, segregated by age but never by background, all students congregate in the large meeting room for their 40 minutes of quiet reflection every week. While the meetings always begin in silence, they can eventually be punctuated by the thoughts of anyone in the room who has something to share.

School officials concede that the meeting is sometimes viewed as an imposition by younger students, but say this tends not to be a lasting attitude.

“Invariably, when alums come back here, the thing they say they miss the most is our weekly meeting,” said Travis Larrabee, the high school director. “In what other part of society do you sit in silence with 500 other people?” – Before Matt Ryan’s Ascent, a Quiet Grounding in the Quaker Way

Wanted: Factory Workers, Degree Required

In Hillsdale College, a ‘Shining City on a Hill’ for Conservatives

The question remains is it possible to have a liberal great books education that builds on the western canon and adds in a diverse array of women, POC, the 20th Cent, and post-modernism? I know so. I learned it at Scripps College from 1986-1988.

Goodbye to Oberon the World’s Cutest (Currently) Charcoal Lab Puppy

Posted by & filed under fun stuff, news + events.

Oberon's fascinatingly disjointed puppy gait

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nikon D70s at Dog Beach on Thursday afternoon.

Sun 07.25.10 – I have a ton of things to do tonight before the workday starts tomorrow, but none of it is going to get done as I am crazy tired from the last 5 days of dog sitting Oberon and all of the family activities of the last 5 days with my sister Allison’s birthday & my cousin Kristin’s baby shower plus all of the other attendant family to dos. Emails are not getting sent, the blog posts in my head are staying there, the photos to be downloaded are still on the cameras. Etc. etc. etc.
The big excitement of the weekend was the fact that last evening Oberon, aged 12 weeks, go so excited that his poor bladder decided to empty itself on my bed. Yes, a huge puddle of puppy pee discovered only after I sat down to read. Most of last night was taken up with laundry of my clothes & bedding.
After I started the first load of my comforter & sheets, I was laying on my living room floor trying to compose myself with the front door open when I heard my mom tell Oberon to drink water out of a bowl and not from the algae infested garden hose area.
Oberon then escaped my Mom’s grip, and bounded in my apartment only to come plant his whole wet, algae encrusted muzzle on my mouth, as I gasped in astonishment, he then put his wet paw in my mouth and then proceeded to climb on top of me to reach Scruffy. I screamed, my mom caught him, I started laughing in reflexive hysterical waves all the while I was crying from being completely exhausted and overwhelmed.
Good thing for Listerine mouthwash and the fact that I drove Oberon back up to Culver City today at noon to be returned to his family. Oberon is a beautiful and amazing dog, but I was not really mentally prepared to dog sit such a young and active labrador retriever puppy with so much family & work obligations as well as having Scruffy around.
One of Oberon’s people texted me this morning when we were trying to arrange the drop off, “I hope the wee beastie has not been too naughty.”
No, just a wee naughty.
Now I am off to bed a couple of hours early. ‘Night y’all.

The Big Sleep

Posted by & filed under fun stuff, ideas + opinions.

During and after college at least once a month, I would work at having a Big Sleep. Basically, I would sleep for as long as possible, at least 10+ hours, and then stay in my nightgown/sleepclothes until at least 5pm on the day of the Big Sleep In. The post-Big Sleep always included reading a good novel whilst hanging out and about with no plan until 5pm.
Over the years as time and stress of adult life has creeped on, the Big Sleep has reduced to sleeping in once a month or once every two months and not getting dressed until noon. In the last few years, I have not really had a good Big Sleep and have gotten much more involved in working at my computer at all hours and all days.
This weekend, after many weeks of sadness, stress, back pain, and holiday family fun, I decided to stay off my computer and enjoy hanging out with friends. I returned home last night from Ryan’s exhibition and dinner with Lauren and determined that I would settle in for a Big Sleep.
I took a shower, finished reading a book, and then went to bed around 11pm. I woke up at 7:04am and determined that I needed to turn over and sleep more. I took a drink of water, went to the rest room, put on my sleep eye mask to take away the sunlight streaming in my windows, and turned over to attempt to sleep another hour or so.
The best part is that I woke up again at 11:56am this morning! Yay! I stayed in bed enjoying the relaxed happiness of waking up after a Big Sleep. While I did not stay in bed until 5pm, I did make it until 1pm – and then I went to lunch and took the dogs to Dog Beach.
Now I feel reset. This is very good.
I need to get back in the habit of turning off the computer for the weekend, settling in with a good novel, and have a good Big Sleep at least once a month.