Happy Birthday to me!

Family is a wonderful thing. Mine met me at the door after work today to say Happy Birthday and to herd me away from the dining room, where they were guarding a rather large box...










and onto the deck, where a nice glass of wine, a little brie, and a grill-full-o-steaks awaited. (That's the new grill from Fathers' Day, by the way.) For desert, an ice cream cake from Cold Stone:


A stack of funny cards later, and at last The Box. They knew it would drive me crazy, wondering what something that big could be.

Turns out it's a Canon PIXMA, which prints photos, makes copies, scans, faxes and probably makes coffee and takes out the trash.


I always said I wanted a copier, and more recently said I'd like a scanner, and it seems the guys were listening. Which is, of course, the best gift of all.

But wait! There's more! Tomorrow we're going out to the local botanical garden, which has recently brought in butterflies by the hundreds. Is this a great birthday, or what?

Better late than never

The last Round Robin Challenge was "Focus on the Details," a fine subject from Tammie Jean of Long Drives to Nowhere.

Between being out of town with no functional computer, and frantic catching-up once I got back, I missed the whole thing. Dang it.

However, I did take this close-up of a huge chunk of glass in my brother's garden while I was AWOL, and I love it, so I'm publishing it anyway.





AND

I hereby declare June 29 the second in the series of Hazy Holidays:

Better Late than Never Day

Celebrate by doing something you wanted to do on time but didn't quite get around to.


*Hazy Holidays copyright 2007, property of Maraca.

Smash an Annoying Electronic Device Day

They are everywhere. We are surrounded by hordes of evil, evil gadgets. Cruel and taunting monsters that worm their way into our lives oozing promises of service, whispering dreams of pleasure. Once inside the perimeter, their true nature emerges: They are emissaries from Hell, dedicated to the misery of the human race.

Therefore, be it known that I am declaring today, June 28, the first annual day of retribution for all that binks, buzzes and jams. Today is Judgement Day. The Revenge of the Meat Machines. Grab your hammers, shoulder your baseball bats and have at it.

And yes, it's personal:



One of these wretched things is beeping. Every 20 minutes. For days on end. There is no reason for it to be beeping, and no apparent setting to turn it off. When I figure out which one it is, it is toast. TOAST, do you hear?






*Hazy Holidays copyright 2007, property of Maraca.

Introducing: Hazy Holidays

As far as I'm concerned, there can never be too many reasons to celebrate. We get what, maybe fifteen official holidays in the year? Not good enough! Not by a long shot. We need more, people. Many more.

In an ongoing quest for the best of the rest, I have prowled the Web for years, unearthing such worthy treasures as Donald Duck Day and Sneak Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day. Which is is how I came to stumble upon Wellcat.com.

The fanciful folks at Wellcat sit around making up brand new holidays (and copyrighting them, so none will be used here). So I says to myself, "Self, we can do that. Let's have a go at it, whatta ya say?"

Herewith, in the next post up, the first ever Hazy Holiday:

Smash An Annoying Electronic Device Day

*Hazy Holidays copyright 2007, property of Maraca.

'Like water over bells'

Heading home from work today, I heard this remarkable clip on National Public Radio introducing a Swiss instrument called a Hang (pronounced "hung"). It's a kind of cross between a steel drum and a bell. The sound is haunting; it is at once tribal and unearthly, a hollow, vibrating breath from elsewhere.

I don't know about you, but discovering new experiences like this are what keeps me going. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

P.S. This is yet another good reason to support your National Public Radio.

Planes, trains, automobiles

They all bite. Especially planes.

I've just returned from a week-long visit to my family and, much as I loved seeing everyone, I am so glad to be home. The visiting part is great, but getting there and back is a slog through hell.

American Airlines no longer flies from our local airport, so using AAdvantage air miles now involves a two-and-a-half hour drive to Chicago O'Hare, listed recently in U.S. News and World Report as the second most miserable airport in the country. (Detroit -- my alternative possibility -- is number one. No help there.)

O'Hare lived up to its reputation, too, with long lines, surly security people, a late departure, packed waiting area, and every single seat on the flight filled. The only thing missing was a cattle prod. AND, get this: No more free peanuts. On the flight back from Raleigh Durham, they were hawking snacks at $2-$3 dollars a pop. Not that we're going to die from munchie deprivation, but is it really so much to ask?

Ah well. Could have been worse. I did not get bumped off, trapped on the tarmac, or stranded overnight. None of my seatmates had screaming babies. Nobody barfed or tried to blow us all up. Still, it's sad that any experience short of a total disaster is now a "good flight".

Fabulous freak

The Round Robin Photo Challenges: Fabulous Freaks Of Nature


Hello all,

This is my first attempt at the Round Robin Photo Challenge, and it is so nice meeting all these talented people who participate. Here's hoping I don't embarrass myself too badly.

The subject this time, proposed by Meg at In Quest Of, is "Fabulous Freaks of Nature".

This is a cutting that arrived in a florist bouquet over a year ago. The reason I kept it is that it has these flowers, or fruiting bodies, or whatever they are on the undersides of the bottom two leaves. It's been in a little bottle of water all that time. It never grows roots, it hasn't rotted, and no other leaves on it ever do this. It is, however, beginning to turn a bit yellow, and may be at the end of its strange little life.

I have been unable to find out what it is, and I've been unable to bring myself to toss it until I do. If anyone out there can identify it, please do?

Thanks, Carly, for inviting me to play!

Saving Scalzi

Oh Lord.

Over at Whatever they're passing the collection plate to send John Scalzi on a field trip to The Creation Museum.

He's demanding $250 total, via Paypal, by June 15 or the deal is off. (Proceeds go to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.)

Hey, that's worth a few bucks to me. I mean, it's Scalzi. In The Creation Museum. It's already funny.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy

It's Donald Duck Day!



Happy 73rd Birthday to Disney's bad boy. Gotta love that duck.

It's hard for me to pick my favorite Donald Duck cartoon, but I think I'd have to go with 'The Band Concert' or 'The Three Caballeros'.

The older Disney character cartoons were among the best animated shorts ever. Hardly anyone today has seen the remarkable Der Feuhrer's Face, a propaganda film from World War II that won an Academy Award in 1943. The link goes to a YouTube video that's worth checking out, if you're interested in classic film.

How about you? Do you have a favorite?

Lost without 'Lost'

I think I'm in withdrawal. What else can you call it, when on Wednesday nights you find yourself sitting all alone in the dark, staring at a blank TV screen, with a little tear trickling down your face.

OK, maybe it's not quite that bad. But ABC's 'Lost' is my favorite guilty pleasure -- and I have a lot of guilty pleasures. (Can a true pleasure not be guilty? A topic for another time.)

The show virtually wallows in my all-time favorite mysteries: The nature of reality, the nature of time, the nature of consciousness, coincidence and synchronicity, and the odd way a chance encounter or a single small event can change the course of one's life -- or the world.

It's got free will vs. destiny, the meaning of life, the butterfly effect, subtle allusions to myth and literature, archetypal characters ... a veritable smorgasbord of Deeply Geeky Goodies.

And we haven't even mentioned The Island itself yet, an apparently conscious, autopoietic system with the power to move people between many worlds. (That's my personal theory. There are others.)

Now you tell me. Where the hell am I going to get a fix of all that between now and the next season?

Pennies from Heaven

It is said that those who have crossed over sometimes make their presence known to the living by dropping coins in odd places. Strange as it sounds, I think there may be something to it.

Shortly after my favorite aunt passed away in 2001, pennies began to appear around me. I'd leave my desk, and when I'd return, I'd find one right there in front of the keyboard, or on my chair or nearby on the floor. They're always pennies, and they're always dated 2002.

The penny in the photo appeared last night. I walked from my desk to the closet, got some paper, closed the closet door and sat back down here. When I glanced that way again, there was the penny, on the carpet in front of the closet door. I'm sure I would have noticed it, had it been there before.

I've tried to pass this off as coincidence, or just heightened awareness of perfectly ordinary stray change, but ... why is it always only one coin, always a penny, and always dated 2002? On the other hand, why aren't they dated 2001, or maybe 2004 for when my dad died?

For a while, the coins seemed to follow me. When last I visited my brother's home in another state, where my father's ashes are kept in a place of honor by the front door, 2002 pennies began appearing on their doorstep. Oddest of all, when my sister in law and I went out for lunch, she opened her sandwich to add some mustard and there, embedded in the pickle slice, was -- you guessed it -- a penny. That one was dated 2000, but still. What are the odds? (According to the manager of the restauarant, the odds are zero. I'm sure she thought we put it there to get a free lunch.)

It's been about a year since the last penny popped up. Now, with my thoughts lingering so often among the dead, they seem to be reappearing.

I hesitate to post this, as it is both wierd and personal. I guess I'm hoping someone else has had this experience, or can explain it away for me. Any takers?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

*SPOILER ALERT!* LOOK AWAY NOW if you haven't finished the book.
This post is back-dated to keep it off the landing page. The actual date is July 29, 2007.


Scroll down to read this entry.













First, the good news: Harry lives! So do Hermione and Ron and Hagrid, the ones we were mainly pulling for. Voldemort is "really, most sincerely dead" along with the worst of his entourage. Hogwarts is still standing -- a relief, since I had heard a rumor that it would be destroyed.

The bad news is, of course, that so many of the good guys were lost in the bloodbath. I knew all bets were off when Rowling killed poor, innocent little Hedwig and the most powerful auror of all, Mad-eye Moody, in the very first battle. Hagrid looked like a gonner at two points, and Hermione's chances were not looking good once the Death Eaters got hold of her. I loved the rollercoaster ride of all that, really not knowing from one chapter to the next who was done for and who would survive.

The battle scenes were splendid, intense and terrifying from the first attack to the final battle. There was always that sense of relentless pursuit, of desperation and exhaustion. (I did find the "wandering in the wilderness" thing to be a bit too long, though.)

Rowling had me going about Snape, right up to the end. Based on earlier clues, I had predicted he was one of the good guys. But here, there really was nothing to indicate he was anything but Voldemort's right-hand man. I was convinced I had read him wrong, which I must say was a bummer. I did not guess that the doe patronus was his; Lily's yes, but not his. And I thought it was Dumbledore behind that tree in the woods.

I got Dumbledore partly wrong. He was indeed dead, as I thought, but did not return into the world of the living as predicted. He communicated with Snape via his portrait, which sort of counts, I suppose. However, there was a section in the last book where he speaks of being able to "hide" Draco and his family in death, so I was expecting him to have a way out. Turns out, he didn't.

I did not like the turn things took with Dumbledore's past, nor with what proved to be his manipulative influence on Harry. Yes, it made him more human. But I wanted him to be more than that, a better and wiser being than the rest of us. Part of growing up involves the realization that all idols have feet of clay, so I suppose it was inevitable for Harry to experience that. Still, to me it was yet another loss.

And speaking of losses, did anyone else cry over Dobby? I hated to see him go. The little guy was brave and loyal right to the end. He deserved to come through OK. And I can't even imagine George without Fred. Who's going to finish George's sentences now? I had a pretty good idea that Lupin and Tonks were doomed when they named Harry as godfather to their baby. It's an ironic turn of fate, that Harry would become the protector of an orphan.

It was great to see Neville come into his own. And how awesome is it that Mrs. Weasley took out Bellatrix? Too bad she didn't lay a curse or two on Lucius while she was at it. He got off way too easy.

When Rowling marched Harry into the woods to die I was sure that this was it, that she really meant to kill him off. In a way, of course, she did. Harry went into the woods a boy, in the company of his parents, his uncle and his teacher. He emerges a man, standing alone.

When Voldemort is killed by his own Avada Kedavra curse, the circle is complete. Harry ends as he began: the one who lived.

A lot of people don't like the epilogue, but I do. It is the "happily ever after" of the series, and how else would a fairy tale end? Besides, there is the tantalizing potential of a whole new generation of Potters, Weasleys, and Malfoys setting off for Hogwarts. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.