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2013-01-01 01:46:59 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

2012-12-27 00:29:45 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

Reading Update

The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Here's another book that has been sitting around for a long time because I just couldn't get into the beginning. Tilo is the main character - we meet her when she is already a Mistress of Spices, someone who can use spices to help people with their troubles, whether physical or emotional. Then we go back into her past, when she was a willful and proud young woman who always knew better than those around her. She eventually finds herself on an island, where she will receive training to become a Mistress, and then be sent out into the world in a wizened old body, to live and work in a spice store that she has been instructed never to leave. Her task is to help those who seek it, but not to go beyond that, and never to try to bend the will of the spices to her own.

You can probably see where this... more »

2012-12-25 17:44:14 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 19 +1s)

2012-12-23 00:51:03 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Reading Update

Renoir, My Father by Jean Renoir

This biography of Renoir by his son Jean is very much like what you'd get if you said to someone, "tell me about your dad." You'd get a mix of memories, stories handed down in the family, what other people said about him, snapshots of daily life, and so on. Although Jean does talk about the public's response to Renoir's work, much of the material about his work in the book is really about the models, the approach to art in general, and the experience of posing for him. Renoir worked out of a studio that was separate from the house, and it wasn't until late in Renoir's life that Jean was around him much at all while he was painting.

I don't have a lot to say about the book, really. If you're interested in Renoir and his contemporaries, and don't mind some wandering around a... more »

2012-12-22 19:47:24 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 16 +1s)

Discovery: When someone says "Take a minute to read this, you will be glad you did."

I am never, ever glad that I did.

2012-12-22 15:18:30 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 15 +1s)

Last night while out looking at Christmas lights, I also got this. 

2012-12-22 04:25:47 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Just got back from our 2nd outing to see Christmas lights. Man, do people in the Denver metro area go all out.

2012-12-21 23:02:01 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

"Goosinator" deployed to keep poo in check

Denver Parks and Recreation managers' faces lit up when the Goosinator, a roaring, orange robot predator with crazed yellow eyes, chased the birds from City Park on Thursday.

The Goosinator's inventors say what makes it a goose's worst nightmare is that it zips as fast as 25 mph across land, water, ice and snow — right to where the birds aren't used to being chased.

2012-12-21 15:02:30 (17 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

I guess it makes sense that each step along the evolutionary path of social networks would seem to be better than the last, but it's still weird to say that I think the new MySpace is pretty cool.

2012-12-18 16:10:59 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Reading Update

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (1001 Books list)

I'm not a huge fan of short stories, so I wasn't that thrilled when I picked this up and realized that's what I was in for. It was an odd collection - musings on reality, fate, chance, knowledge, faith, fate, to name a few. The stories vary in length and complexity (well, I believe they're all pretty complex; his writing is dense and multi-layered). Some are difficult to penetrate, some lead you right in. Themes, words, events and characters recur in various guises. The word "labyrinth" appears frequently, and appropriately (and yes, his book Labyrinths is also on the 1001 Books list).

At times, I wondered if I was really up to the task of reading these stories. Even his introductions to them (the stories are in two sections) are occasionally intimidating. He understates:... more »

2012-12-18 03:53:41 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Maybe the Weather Channel got their end-of-the-world forecast mixed in with tonight's. Current weather for Denver says:

Next 6 hours
Rain showers ending around 9pm. Becoming sunny with temperatures steady in the upper 30s.

2012-12-17 00:46:40 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Although I have exactly zero interest in climbing a mountain myself, I read and watch kind of a lot of things about mountaineering specifically and adventuring more generally. I think it started when I saw the IMAX movie about the 1996 season on Everest, and read Jon Krakauer's (excellent) book about the same expedition, Into Thin Air.

Recently, I was watching a series about Everest on Netflix instant. Today when I opened Netflix, this movie called 180º South was recommended for me, so I put it on while I drew some Christmas cards. The idea is that this guy wanted to try a climb that had originally been done by Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia) and Doug Tompkins (founder of the North Face). So he sets off on a boat to South America and hilarity ensues. Not really - I was just seeing if you were still paying attention. He goes with some friends to try to climb the mountain, he meets up... more »

2012-12-16 04:21:49 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

We went to look at some Christmas lights tonight. This was not something I was expecting - now, I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep.

2012-12-14 15:32:55 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Weather forecast over the next week: No snow. No snow. No snow. No snow. No ....

You get the idea.

2012-12-13 18:48:12 (19 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Looks like I will come up just under 50 books read in the year - probably 47.

I had started out with a goal of 75. Well, that's what next year is for.

2012-12-11 21:49:30 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

I don't have an Android phone. I don't do photography with a phone. I don't have a Human Resources job. I don't play roleplaying games. I don't speak Vietnamese, or Turkish. I don't like trains (in fact, I have serious issues with them). I'm not in France.

I am not interested in being directly invited to your community unless you have some specific reason for believing it's something I'm interested in! 

(And yes, I realize that the people who would need to see this message will probably not see it, and would definitely not pay attention to it if they did.)

Also, if I were more interested in being humorous rather than just venting, this would have been perfect for a mock-Dr. Seuss style.

2012-12-11 18:11:39 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I had no idea the history of Cheesman Park read so much like the plot to Poltergeist.

2012-12-11 16:31:14 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Reading Update

Persuasion by Jane Austen (From the 1001 Books list)

One of the interesting aspects of going through this list of books is revisiting authors whose work I read a long time ago and so have just vague impressions of how I felt about them. Jane Austen is one of those. I never went through a Jane Austen phase. Years ago I read Pride and Prejudice, which I remember enjoying, followed by Sense and Sensibility, which I remember not enjoying. But the rest of Austen's oeuvre is unsurprisingly on this list, so I will be reading it. 

The events of the novel, such as they are, center around Anne Elliott, middle daughter of a baronet who has managed to sink himself in debt but who has too acute a sense of propriety to do much to bail himself out. Anne's older sister, Elizabeth, is just as silly and status-obsessed as their father. Her younger sister, Mary,... more »

2012-12-08 23:36:37 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

A serious post, the title of which gives you a general idea of where it's going.

2012-12-08 21:34:38 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 14 +1s)

I wonder if the mailman is judging me for being in my PJs no matter what day or time he knocks on the door.

I mean, he's probably jealous, but still.

2012-12-08 18:05:20 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Reading comprehension. Try it.

2012-12-08 17:29:16 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 13 +1s)

Look at this face. It might not survive the day.

2012-12-08 14:30:14 (16 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

There is a certain kind of weather that happens here that I don't believe I ever got back home in the Bay Area. This is not exactly that, but close ... we get a low temperature overnight and then the next day it just never warms up. So strange.

2012-12-08 13:24:32 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Two of Johnny Cash's letters to June; one after she died.

So freakin' sad. I know, touching too and all of that. But it's the one thing I hate about marriage and being with someone you care about so much - except in rare circumstances, someone is going to be left behind.

2012-12-07 21:30:48 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

It had been a while since I blocked multiple people in one day.

2012-12-07 19:17:41 (27 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

WTAF (A=actual) is Elf on a Shelf? And yes, Google it, I know. But I don't want to read a Wikipedia article or whatever. I see what it is - apparently a little figure that can be posed in seemingly endlessly stupid ways. I want to know why it is.

2012-12-07 02:27:56 (17 comments, 0 reshares, 17 +1s)

Oh god, community invitation overload.

2012-12-06 22:55:42 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Apparently sort of viral, so sorry if you've seen this a million times - scroll on past. 

The moral of the story? Well, one possibility is this: we're all morons at bars.

2012-12-06 22:00:20 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Just got back from an estate sale that made me wish I had a whole lot of money. Camera collection central - they had about 30 there when we arrived this afternoon and the people said "oh, you should have been here earlier, we had a lot more!"

Also, I thought of you, +Tom Chamberlain - they had a large format camera even!

2012-12-06 14:57:05 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

I'm always disappointed when I see an intriguing photograph or piece of art and it's untitled. (Or "Untitled.")

2012-12-06 03:06:55 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 14 +1s)

Latest finished drawing. As always, available in my Society6 shop. Also, there's a free shipping promotion going on from now through Dec. 9 if you use this specific link: http://society6.com/UrsulaRodgers?promo=e93efd

A few things are excluded (the framed prints, the canvas prints, and the throw pillows if you order the insert with it), but everything else is part of the deal.

2012-12-02 21:05:44 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Reading Update

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

I bet you thought I'd quit reading or something, didn't you? But no, I was just busy with this one, a 600-page behemoth even in mass market form. It's hard to know where to begin - the back of my edition proclaims, "The earthy, torrid story of a lusty, yelling, Paul Bunyan of a man and his battles with society." (In fact, it proclaims that all in caps.) That sort of describes an aspect of the book, but mostly it's kind of like those ads for action movies where they play up the love story angle to try to get the women to come and see it - you know how they cut together the 5 minutes of time actually devoted to the supposed love story and then have a voiceover of something like, "a love that wouldn't be denied"? Like that.

Okay, let me back up and explain a little about the... more »

2012-11-30 03:37:34 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

I am so pleased. One of the magazines I picked up at an estate sale today has some of the most disturbing pictures ever in it.

They're from an article on "doll first aid."

2012-11-29 00:53:11 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 13 +1s)

My Santas are always kind of grim.

But anyway, since I wasn't feeling up to doing anything more taxing, I drew this for +Draw All The Santas!

2012-11-28 19:50:29 (12 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

So, I figured out that I'm not sick. I had a flu shot yesterday. I've never had one in my life and didn't really know what it would be like.

I like the smell of burning wood.
I don't like the side effects from the flu shot.

2012-11-28 15:43:31 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

I'm sick.

How can I be sick? I don't even interact with other human beings.

Lame.

2012-11-27 21:06:21 (14 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

I like eggnog.
I don't like people who yield when there is a sign telling them to merge. (Or vice versa.)

2012-11-27 16:00:48 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Something for you to chew on while I get some work done and think up my like/don't like post for the day --

I'm reading a biography of Renoir, and here is a quote from him:

"The more you rely on good tools, the more boring your sculpture will be."

2012-11-27 01:53:06 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

New dog obsession: Ibizan Hound. I guess I am a sucker for dogs with big, stupid ears.

2012-11-26 21:28:23 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Let's see here ...

I like Christmas lights.
I don't like black licorice.

2012-11-25 15:28:01 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Bored yet?

I like watching football.
I don't like asking for help.

2012-11-24 21:49:33 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

I like sketchbooks and notebooks.
I don't like swimming.

2012-11-24 21:32:03 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Nevada is #26. Finally more states are done than are not done.

Edited to say: Jeez, I was so happy to have it done I forgot to mention that prints etc. of this or any of the other states can be purchased at http://society6.com/UrsulaRodgers

2012-11-23 23:00:42 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

I like going to the movies.
I don't like talking on the phone.

2012-11-23 21:33:43 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Two separate,related questions:

When is the last time you sent a postcard? 

Do you think old correspondence should be physically preserved?

2012-11-23 19:52:42 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Yes, Thanksgiving was yesterday but honestly, aside from the brief part that has to do with that day specifically, it pretty much applies to Christmas, too. As I mentioned recently, I don't even particularly like holidays, and I still think this rings true.

(Mildly annoyed that he references Algernon in Flowers for Algernon as if he were the human rather than the mouse, but it doesn't negate the entire article.)

2012-11-22 21:29:53 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Me: "Are you going to throw the rest of the wine into our smoothies?"
Morgan: "I don't see why not."

2012-11-21 18:25:17 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 10 +1s)

You know how I feel about hashtags, but I decided to take a break from my dots to attempt drawing a Santa. I've never tried that before, and I've never been someone who could draw from imagination very well, but disclaimers aside, here is my 5-minute Santa.

#drawallthesantas  

2012-11-21 17:09:12 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Obsession.

2012-11-21 16:11:33 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

I like my Windows laptop.
I don't like when people use "lol" as some sort of punctuation.