Life and times, iv

sunsets that dazzle in the dusk

 
homegrown


library haul!


(like I have nothing else to do)

Going to watch The Remains of the Day (finished the book!).  Working on my Dracula story (Emiko says it's good so far!).  GMM was hilarious today!  School is frustrating (AHAHAHA laughter is the best medicine).  

Today was week 6, so there are five weeks left.  It turns out I have not officially declared my major (comp-sci) yet, but that is coming up, and it is more or less set-in-stone.  I was a bit down in the dumps yesterday, feeling that maybe I'd have made different choices if I'd had a better understanding of the way things were going to be.  However, at the time, I'd made decisions I really believed were the right ones, and that's all you can do, right?  It's way too soon to be regretful. 

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Update on a boring blog

Last week in pictures:

by Dake
This week in pictures:

by Finetooth, Like tears in rain, U.S CIA

 by cyclonebill

From top to bottom: Dracula (4.3/5 stars) and green tea; diagram similar to those in my lab assignment for Physical Geography; map related to Shackleton's book/narrative South; two cups of green tea.

In other news--my application to transfer to another college was reviewed, and I got accepted!  I may or may not be in the IT school yet, but in any case next fall I will be studying for my major LIEK FOR REALZ!!!!1  (I'm a comp-sci major, dear, not an English major.  Extra credit if you catch the reference.)

Actually, I'm not thrilled at the idea of having to get used to a new school, but once I get used to it after a year and a half, all will be well.

And now I leave you with photos of lilacs, because the internet needs more lilac appreciation:

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Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Hope you all are having a great Tuesday with your loved ones!  I think Valentine's Day is a lovely tradition for couples, and (for those of us single people) an extra opportunity to appreciate family and friends.  :)

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Logic. . .

copyright: SnaPsi Сталкер
Bridges aren't heights.  I won't walk within two yards of the edge of a cliff, but bridges don't scare me.  Every time I go to B.C., the billboards showing the Capilano Suspension Bridge give me the proverbial chills.  In a good way.  I dearly wish to someday cross a suspension bridge.  That must mean my fears are inconsistent/irrational, or I'm just plain out of my mind.  Hm.

I neglected to finish posting my Canadian Rockies photos, which is a shame because they include the most stupendous gorge I've seen, in or out of the Pacific Northwest.  Maligne Canyon is so profound that, in some places, you stare in vain for sight of the bottom, only to see an abrupt, a very abrupt, absence of light. 


It is hardly easy to fathom what distances can make the bottom of a canyon invisible, and in broad daylight. You can hear the river, always.  You can see it, running through the rocks with many large twists and turns.  Then it's gone.  Did it go too far?  What makes darkness so imposing--the effect or the cause?

I like what my history teacher remarks:  I don't know.  You tell me.  


Like all such remarks, it isn't meant to be answered.

I digress, I suppose?  Well, not really. Bridges rest atop chasms, but I prefer to be on a bridge than anywhere near the edge of said chasm.  Logically, it makes no sense.  I'm afraid of heights, aren't I?  Tall buildings especially.  Well, it makes no sense; at least, not at a glance.

It makes me think of writing.  There's such a fine line between writing three-dimensional characters and soap opera characters.  All I can surmise is that it boils down to this: some unexpected, unusual, "inconsistent" character traits are consistent with a given character.  The rest are simply not.  The trick is to find which ones match the character and to limit yourself to those.  Because a good character is always, always consistent, even if there are seeming inconsistencies within their lives, actions.  You can think of a character as a square with distinct sides and boundaries.  Within the square, the character may be anything.  But they must stay within the boundaries you already established.  [I am talking about a type of character development, not a character arc per se.]

And now I've really gone off-topic. 

But whilst on the subject of writing, we could talk about paragraphs and one of my greatest pet peeves, the topic sentence.  The overrated topic sentence.  Case in point (emphasis added):

He gained the bridge and returned to the north shore, where he remembered having seen in one of the narrower streets a little obscure shop stocked with cheap wood carvings, its walls lined with extremely dirty cardboard-bound volumes of a small circulating library. They sold stationery there, too. A morose, shabby old man dozed behind the counter. A thin woman in black, with a sickly face, produced the envelope he had asked for without even looking at him. Razumov thought that these people were safe to deal with because they no longer cared for anything in the world. He addressed the envelope on the counter with the German name of a certain person living in Vienna. But Razumov knew that this, his first communication for Councillor Mikulin, would find its way to the Embassy there, be copied in cypher by somebody trustworthy, and sent on to its destination, all safe, along with the diplomatic correspondence. That was the arrangement contrived to cover up the track of the information from all unfaithful eyes, from all indiscretions, from all mishaps and treacheries. It was to make him safe--absolutely safe.

Descriptive or narrative?  I'd say both, and a brilliant paragraph at that.  But some people might tell you to split it into two and get rid of those random sentences that make it magnificent. 

I guess it would be logical, but again, I don't believe logic enters the equation.

Thoughts?

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6 inches exactly.

Wearing my mom's blue wellies. <3

Got a little carried away with the toy camera app...

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Rain...rain on the Barrow Downs

It's late afternoon, and the weather outside is rather curious.  The ground, the trees, everything on the surface of the world is black and green, almost as dark as sunset.  But behind the fir-tree tops, the sky is chalky white--an utterly bright, pale grey.  Until you get right up close to the window, and then you can see darker, feathery clouds, right above.     

It changed just a moment ago--now everything has a greyer, more mellow look to it.  The darkness and light are more evenly distributed.  The rain's picking up, too. 

The lights just flickered...

I wish I had a picture to share, but my camera is practically oblivious to atmosphere and rain.  It can only see black trees and grey sky...so narrow-minded!

In lieu of a photo, check out this stormy painting, by Bierstadt:





And this ocean scene by Friedrich:





Which somewhat resembles the Oregon Coast:


credit: USFWS Headquarters


Utterly gorgeous. 

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Peyto Lake {Canadian Rockies}

My favoritest lake--indeed, one of my favoritest places on the trip--was this lake:












Just like a fairytale world.  {These photos are unedited, by the way--the water is even brighter blue-green in real life.}

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Yet shall not melt

A dreamer may dwell so long among fantasies that the things without him will seem as unreal as those within.

Sometimes, too, the Past comes back, and finds me here, and in her train come faces which were gladsome when I knew them, yet seem not gladsome now.

And when, at noontide, I tread the crowded streets, the influence of this day will still be felt; so that I shall walk among men kindly and as a brother, with affection and sympathy, but yet shall not melt into the indistinguishable mass of humankind.  I shall think my own thoughts and feel my own emotions and possess my individuality unviolated.

In our brief summer I do not think, but only exist in the vague enjoyment of a dream.

all quotes from "Foot-prints on the Sea-shore", Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Canadian Rockies: Sheep, Bears, Gondola

Our next major animal sightings were a herd of bighorn sheep, and two baby bears:  Sheep, Bears, and Banff

I thought we might see the mama bear, too, but we didn't...  From what I've heard, they can be pretty scary, so probably it was a good thing.  :)  As for the bighorn sheep, that was super exciting because we'd never seen them before, and there were so many (more than in the pictures)!

There's also a picture I took in Banff...nice town with lovely mountain views, though very touristy.

We took the nearby gondola ride, which was amazing:  Gondola Ride

The views were well worth it--360 degrees of epic mountains, valleys, and lakes; and on several levels, because once you get to the top, there's a boardwalk you can take up to a "cosmic ray" tower (looks like a Gondorian beacon to me).  The large, castle-like building in the valley is the Banff Springs Hotel.

Next installment: glacier rides, elk, and creepy canyons...

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Canadian Rockies: Ghost Town, Trees, Lake Louise

IT. RHYMES.

Here's our next slideshow:  3 Valley Gap Heritage Ghost Town

The first photo is the roof of the 3 Valley Gap resort.  The others are of the ghost town, which is comprised of original and imported buildings from the late 1800s, and retro/vintage collectibles.  They also had an antique vehicle & train collection, which was pretty cool.

We were really heading into the Rockies, by this time.  We started to see mountains, rivers, & aspen trees, and we also saw Lakes Louise and Moraine.  Another of our stops, much lesser known, was a boardwalk through a cedar wood--a really lovely trail!  You can see photos here:  Trees, Lake Louise

The last lake photo--the *really* blue one--is Lake Moraine.  Louise is nearly as blue in real-life, but it didn't show up on the camera...

Again, let me know if the slideshows don't work--I can re-post them here, if so.  :)

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Canadian Rockies: Minter Gardens

On the map, driving from Washington to Banff, Alberta, looks like a piece of cake.  But our first day involved an estimated 400 miles of driving, and that was just to Kelowna, B.C.

Our main stop was one of our favorite B.C. places: Minter Gardens.  The weather was unusually warm and sunny, and there were still lots of flowers.  And since flora is my favoritest thing to photograph, click here:  Minter Gardens slideshow
{Let me know if the slideshow doesn't work}

That eccentric building in the last two photos is a new feature...not sure what it's supposed to be.  I call it the 'home of the mad scientist'.  ;)

As we continued on to Kelowna, the landscape changed, ever so gradually.  I'd seen two types of forest-mountains so far--Mt Rainier and Yellowstone--and this was something different yet.  The trees stand very close and dry.  Some of them suffer from some kind of bug or disease, and all that's left is a grey husk.  The mountains make ours look like miniatures; and the green, dusky undergrowth crawls right up to the stream's edge, by which the road seems to be always running, in a very winding kind of way.

I muchly enjoyed this scenic route, myself.  :)

Coming soon, Day 2--ghost town, cedars, and Aspenglow...

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Hello again!

I've been dreadfully un-blogger-y this month, with my last *real* post being on August 7th!  It doesn't feel so long ago.  But I suppose that's what happens when the pages of your life start turning faster.

The week of the 14th involved not one, but two summery picnics.  And the weather here was sunny for both.  The church picnic was lovely as always, and our family picnic was fun.  We visited with relatives we hadn't seen in months, and I met relatives I didn't know I had.  :)  And of course, there was KFC and the most fantabulous salads & deserts. 

Then the next week, we went on a driving trip to the Canadian Rockies, and just got home yesterday.  It was a great vacation, with dry, sunny weather all week long!  I'll be blogging about it soon, so stay tuned for more pics...

In other news, we are getting four new chickens from my aunt--we're actually going over to pick them up today.  I'm not really an animal person, but it is exciting.  :)  We have three hens already, but they're six years old and approaching retirement.  I just hope the hens aren't mean to the newbies...they're going to be separate at first, but eventually they'll have to learn to get along in the same living space.  Two of the hens are pretty mild-mannered; but the third one has no manners whatever.  In fact, I'm a bit scared of her.  :P

Her name happens to be 'Daisy'.  Ironic, I say.

School starts about three weeks from now.  I always study like crazy; but this year, I'm also quite resolved on Order and Method [to quote a certain detective].  Neatness, methodical study, and more confidence.  And, in order to further this goal, I have a list of things to-do in the meantime:

• Clean my desk.  Once I do that, I'll actually have space in my room for writing; and I mean to work on my stories every day, if time permits.


• Clean out & organise my files and folders, on my laptop.  


• Sort through my shoes, and hem coat sleeves.  I love having a variety of jackets (more than shoes or tops), and my mom found several amazing ones for me this summer!  Two of them do need a little hemming, but it's no big deal.


• Lastly, do some pencil sketches, while I still have free time...

We'll see how this whole 'order and method' thing works out, in the light of a ton of homework.  *sigh* 

Oh, another thing I did was solve a math puzzle correctly!  The puzzle is called "Petty Cash", and it's from a book of such puzzles called A Tangled Tale, by Lewis Carroll.  You can read "Petty Cash" here.  I have a whole new respect for Carroll.  The book is much more about logic than math--the math, in fact, is the easy part.  The logic is incredibly complex.  "Petty Cash" is, to me, the easiest of them all, since it involves minimal use of logic.  Altogether, the fact that I figured it out is more due to my reviewing Algebra rules/techniques, than any real talent of my own.  :P  Additionally (no pun intended), I found the answer a bit differently than Carroll, but I think the procedure is similar and equally valid.  If more convoluted...

I love the ending quote:

   “You can do Arithmetic, I trust?” her aunt said, a little anxiously, as Clara turned from one tablet to another, vainly trying to collect her thoughts. Her mind was a blank, and all human expression was rapidly fading out of her face.
   A gloomy silence ensued.

I can relate.

Speaking of Carroll, I'm reading Sylvie and Bruno.  It's part fairytale, part nonsense-fantasy, and part romance.  I really like it so far.  It gives you a better perspective of the author than the Alice books do.  I think that, rather than writing pure nonsense, Carroll simply used nonsense and fantasy as another way to illustrate [or study] logic and the real world.  I do think artists with highly analytical minds will often bury their ideas behind fantasy or vague prose, because,

1. Fantasy is an effective, flexible outlet for expressing complex ideas; and 


2. Analytical people themselves are so used to "hunting for hidden truths", that it seems natural to them to write enigmatically. 

But I digress, dreadfully.  I have a sewing project to post about as well, but I'll save that for another day.  ;)

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First photo of THORIN!

...at TheOneRing.net

All I can say is...wow!!! 

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First PHOTOS from The Hobbit!!

Click here.  Three photos, no less!

Cinematography, costumes, Bag End...it looks amazing.  It's possible, of course, that this mightn't be an actual screencap, just an early promo photo.  Nevertheless, it's very exciting...  And my sister and I have been following this production for a year or two now, so December 2012 doesn't seem like much of a wait to me.  ;)

What do you think of the photos?

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Travels in Photochrom

Just discovered the Library of Congress's Photochrom Print Collection.



And I.  Love.  It.

It's photography...but it's also art.



I don't pretend to understand the process, but photochrom is basically a way of colorizing B&W photos.  I think it's quite amazing.  I love the Victorian solemnity and vintage color schemes, with a pink/peach tinge and emphasis on warm colors. 




Forget Blu-Ray--find me a DVD player that plays in photochrom!  ;)  No, seriously.

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ocean skies

Taken this summer, on the Oregon Coast:









I've been to this particular beach several times over the years, and it amazes me how it hasn't changed much, compared to other places.  There are few tourists, a lot of wildlife, and cold weather even in the middle of summer.  Maybe that's part of the reason it seems somehow sheltered from the rest of the coastline, or even isolated in a different time.  It's really one of the most perfect places I've seen.


wallpaper (click for full-size):

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:

Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever - Psalm 146: 5-6 (KJV)

*Photos and wallpaper are copyrighted.  They can be used as desktop backgrounds; but they may not be re-posted, distributed, modified, or used in any other way.

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ocean.

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Another New England photo

This one reminds me more of home, though.  At home we have more evergreens than fall trees, so that each glimpse of autumn color, in all its striking solitude, is made even more special.

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