REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Be Prepared to Toast and Quiz on St. Patrick's Day

Be prepared to toast on St. Patrick's Day!

Sophia, my art mannikin, Cookie, and I will mix something or other up today.

Raise your glass and toast your Irish friends with one of these phrases from Slainte on the History Channel.

May your fire be as warm as the weather is cold.

Health, and long life to you
Land without rent to you
The partner of your heart to you
and when you die, may your bones rest in Ireland!

As you slide down the banisters of life may the splinters never point the wrong way.

May you get all your wishes but one,
So you always have something to strive for.

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.

Here's to your coffin...
May it be built of 100 year old oaks which I will plant tomorrow.

May your neighbors respect you,
Troubles neglect you,
The angels protect you,
And Heaven accept you.

May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.

An old Irish recipe for longevity:
Leave the table hungry.
Leave the bed sleepy.
Leave the bar thirsty.

May you live to be a hundred years, with one extra year to repent.

May you never forget what is worth remembering,
Or remember what is best forgotten.

May you be in heaven one half hour before the devil knows you're dead.

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been,
The insight to know where you are,
and the foresight to know when you've gone too far.

May you have warm words on a cold evening,
A full moon on a dark night,
And the road downhill all the way to your door.

May God bring good health to your enemies enemies

May you never make an enemy
When you could make a friend–
Unless you meet a fox among your chickens.

And if you are still in pretty good shape after your toast, you might want to try this History Channel Irish Quiz. Let me know your results. I got 6 out of 10. My knowledge of Ireland mostly comes from my priest and nun friends--and my dear Mary Lou. 

Steve Wozniak on Dancing With the Stars

So, did you watch Steve Wozniak on Dancing With the Stars last night? I love this guy! But, then I love all things Apple and I rarely watch Dancing With the Stars, but I HAD to see this guy who, with Steve Jobs, helped launch Apple in 1976. How many geeks do you see with the spirit he has? He reminds me of my big teddy bear long time friend Bruno who is one helluva enthusiastic and expressive dancer. There's more than one way to enchant a ballroom.

Though he and his partner Karina Smirnoff got the lowest score of the evening, I (and a whole lot of media and the general audience) hope he hangs in there for a while. What a great sport and lover of life he is. I'm so tired of perfect technique and movie star looks as the show's main criteria. If you didn't see the dance, here it is: 

Chris Gaither at L.A. Times blogs reports that, “The man known as the Woz created the original circuit board used for the Apple computer and teamed up with Steve Jobs in 1976 to sell it. He quit working at Apple full-time two decades ago and, after years working on different projects, reemerged last week as the chief scientist at Fusion-io, a computer storage start-up. -- Not only must his computer chops be pretty sharp still, but he must also feel pretty good about his dancing skills. -- Wonder if Wozniak, who's 59, has programmed an algorithm to calculate his odds of winning? -- It wasn't Wozniak's first appearance on reality television; He was a regular on "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List" because he was dating the comedian." 

At Wozniaks blog, Woz.Org, he commented today, "Someone has to try things a bit out of the normal. 

Well, the judges gave us the lowest score. But the audience applauded one of the judges saying that what we did was what the show was all about. I don't believe that they did much similar applauding for any of the other dances. 

Afterward we spoke with press for an hour. They all said how in the press room they had cheered us only, loving our dance. One press person said she was getting lots of messages saying how much people loved our dance. She didn't get any such messages for any of the other dancers. 



When Karina and I returned and finished our post-interview, the other dancers all told us how much they loved our dance and how fun it was. I have made a lot of good friends among the dancers and celebrities, and being nice helps.

Karina and I did exactly as we planned, so we came away extremely happy. I hit every beat. I didn't hear any specific comments about not leading with toes or having toes pointing wrong, or a hand upside down, or leaning forward, or having a foot miss even a single beat (it didn't happen). All I heard was some teletubby comment, which might be valid. I would say that there is a big mismatch between the judges' votes and the audience responses. That might be a matter for the producers.

I went into the dances deciding in advance how little the judges' scores mean. Through the dress rehearsal, it was easy to see two equal performances getting very different scores. I truly expect, from things I'm seeing and hearing, that I may even wind up winning last night's contest once the online voting ends. 

I do love all my fans who actually vote for me, via phone or online. We can show the DWTS people that we represent a large demographic that is new to the show. 

More tomorrow after I see the doctor.
floating, Woz -- -- tv is wake zone"

I didn't realize until today how the voting works at Dancing With the Stars, but you have to call or text in during the night of the performance. All I know is that I am going to at least e-mail and say how much I loved he and Karina's first dance. Let's hear it for one of my two favorite geeks! 

Happy Valenswine's Day a la Mark's Musings

Kay Dennison of Kay's Thinking Cap is the queen of the groaners, but thanks to Mark’s Musings: A daily joke, a daily link, a daily thought for you to think, I’m passing on a few valentine's day groaners to you. Mark’s blog is absolutely amazing!

By the way, this is one of my Red Lion amaryllis blossoms up close. They’ve been slowing growing since late November and I am considering them my valentine to myself today as well as to you.

VALENTINE GROANERS

If you give someone a really small Valentine's Day card, that's called a "Valentiny."

I told you about the painter who was in love, didn't I? He loved a girl with all his art.

So what's a good gift for the man who loves his car this time of year? A Valenshine!

Two boat oars went out on a date. They dined and wined and were very row-mantic.

I saw a pig give a box of chocolates to another pig. Apparently it was Valenswine's Day.

What did one pickle say to the other on Valentine's Day? "You mean a great dill to me."

Why do valentine's come in the shape of a heart?
Because a spleen would be pretty gross!

Knock, knock!
Who's there?
Jimmy.
Jimmy who?
Jimmy a kiss?

Anyhow, happy valentine's day to you all! I'm settling in with a schmaltzy movie, my tuna casserole dinner, a bunch of old magazines to chop up for SoulCollage--and Cookie at my feet. Sounds like my kind of day! 

Plastic Tape Figure Casting for Your Average Joe or Joanne

Personally, I have never seen clear plastic tape figure casting as an art project, but I’ve seen it now—and I’m utterly fascinated.

 On the wall in the main entrance to the library of my school, are four knock-your-socks off plastic figures on display this month. They were created in the Art I classes as group projects. The teacher explained the process to me but it seemed so easy I wondered why I had never seen this art form before. 

One student becomes the model in whatever posture the team decides upon and one layer of plastic wrap is adhered all around—leaving nostril hole space. The rest of the students quickly wrap the plastic tape several times around so the cast will keep its shape. Finally, the tape is carefully slit down the back so the model is free of the cast and the piece is retaped to cover the slit. 

Several Internet sites explain this art form, a site called Tape Sculpture has a four step tutorial with pictures, as well as a video of how it is done. Another site, the Incredible Art Department, lays out the art form as a lesson plan.

This much I know. My body is considerably larger than it was when I was a girl. Maybe if someone made a plastic figure cast of me and I saw it, I would finally “get it” and do what I have to do get smaller and healthier. Maybe is the operative word.

I currently have two mannequins and one life-size cardboard cutout of James Dean in my home. Maybe I'll make one of each family member. In a Steve Martin-ish move, I won't be a lonely gal anymore. 

 

 

From Mystical Underwear to Pareidolia and Apophenia

My post yesterday about Blaugustine’s mystical underwear was my take on the face she saw in her brassiere. However, it was not a mystical experience to her, darn it. In her comment she says, “I didn't see my 'apparition' as anything mystical or even mythical! It was just one of many such illusion that I often see in objects or surfaces such as a carpet. I've just learned (via some of the commenters on my post) that Flickr has a site devoted exclusively to photos of things people have 'seen' in all sorts of places and objects. And that the phenomenon is known as pareidolia. Google has a lot of interesting info on it."

My vocabulary is pretty good, but thanks to Natalie and a little Google research, I now know that the term pareidolia (pronounced /pæraɪˈdoʊliə/) describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse. The word comes from the Greek para- —"beside", "with" or "alongside"- meaning, in this context, something faulty or wrong (as in paraphasia, disordered speech)—and eidolon—"image" (the diminutive of eidos—"image", "form", "shape"). Pareidolia is a type of apophenia.

Say, what? I don’t know what apophenia means either. See, blogging is definitely a way to get smarter or to at least think you are smarter. Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad, who defined it as the "unmotivated seeing of connections" accompanied by a "specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness".

Did you know that?

This is a photo I recently took inside the Redondo Beach Power Plant which I think might be pareidolia because I see a naked woman just about to blow off steam. What do you see? 

Blaugustine's Mystical Underwear

Artist and Renaissance woman Natalie d'Arbeloff hosts the wonderful blog Blaugustine and she had a mystical experience this week that you can read about at the blog. She has had a female Goddess type face appear in her underwear!

Periodically we hear about apparitions appearing in all kinds of strange places, so why not underwear? Last week on the news I saw a story about a man whose dog door had an apparition of the Virgin Mary and he said he had no takers yet on eBay where he had placed it for $1,000. They kept the dog door for years, but didn't need it anymore. I Googled but all I could find was this article on Pagan Prattle in 2005. When I Googled on eBay, that article was gone and so were others of a similar nature. But I did find a nice Our Lady of Guadalupe bamboo room divider. I hope I'm making you smile versus making you mad by being disrespectful. I actually believe that Our Lady does appear often and we are so busy that we don't even see her.

Anything Looks Good With Wings

When I went to the twice-yearly Rubber Stamp Convention earlier in the month, I took lots of photos. With the economy struggling, many of the vendors aren't coming and a lot of the rubber stamp and paper craft stores are going out of business. Tonight I sorted all my Somerset Studio, Legacy and Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazines and began to sort my art books. Maybe I won't have a convention anymore to get ideas from. 

I always need someone to jump start my creativity and these two photos have given me lots of ideas for a Cookie art journal. Will I do anything about it? Who knows? Many people in the collage and paper arts have a fixation with putting wings, crowns or dunce caps on all kinds of images. Since I admit to having a thing about angels, I've got my own share of winged everythings--but never a dog. The following are pages in a person's art journal displayed at a booth at the convention. 

I've done virtually nothing about Christmas presents, cards or decorating and have no plans to do anything--yet. My blender literally went up in smoke on Thanksgiving day so I ventured into the stores today and they weren't very crowded. I now have a new blender and three poinsettias. I couldn't believe how many people were buying trees at Home Depot already.

Maybe I could make Christmas cards featuring Cookie with wings? 

Help Me Caption a Computer Witch

I used this graphic (which I could not find attribution for from Google Images) on the front of my Mac Users group newsletter for October, inviting people to help me caption it. I had no takers.

Would you help me to caption this? I'll link to everyone's blog or e-mail that wants to play along.

Are you ready for Halloween on Friday? And are you ready for the time to fall back on Sunday a.m.? I'm not.

Christopher Columbus Trivia and Groaner

October 13 is  Columbus Day in the United States. He was the first explorer to discover the Americas, or so the history books go. Did you know that no portraits of Christopher Columbus were made during his lifetime, but he has inspired artists through the ages to capture his essence from the descriptions made by contemporaries? What you see below is by someone named DeBry from an old textbook.

But, how about a Columbus groaner to cheer up your day? Kay Dennison at Kay’s Thinking Cap will love this one. She's my groaner guru. 

We all know that Columbus believed the world was round when others believed it was flat and that if you traveled far enough you would go over the edge. We also know that Columbus reached what we now know as America. While there are still a few who believe Columbus returned to Spain and told Queen Isabella that he discovered a new world, most believe he had told her he had reached India.

Recently documents written by Queen Isabella's official scribe were uncovered revealing what Columbus actually said on returning from his first voyage. His first words were, "I'll bet I'm the first man who ever got nineteen hundred miles on a galleon."

Thanks to David G. Hallstrom, Sr., featured by Resources For Attorneys, a Law and Better Living director. 

 

New Wine for Seniors

Like everyone, I get a lot of e-mail forwarded to me, but I just couldn't resist passing this one on to you. It came via my niece whose brother sent it to her.

This is what I needed tonight. I've been reading all the different opinions on what the heck John McCain is trying to accomplish and there just has to be more to this than meets the eye. I'm watching the debates on Friday night whether McCain comes or not. And you?

In the meantime, U.S. seniors, we must unite as one coalition for a new wine just for us. We have to stay focused on what is important--not let ourselves be distracted by political shenanigans. 

 

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New Wine for Seniors  California vintners in the Napa Valley area, which primarily produce Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio wines, have developed a new hybrid grape that acts as an anti-diuretic.  It is expected to reduce the number of trips older people have to make to the bathroom during the night.  The new wine will be marketed as  PINO MORE  I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE I just could not help it.  That's funny , I don't care who ya are.