Thursday, June 14, 2007
Hard-Boiled Eggs
Young Son Number Two went to work with me today. He and a couple of his friends have been taking the exhibit building class the museum is offering and they're having such a blast that he and one of his buddies wanted to come back today to examine books in our library. For lunch, Young Son and I had hard-boiled eggs. I noticed that Young Son wasn't eating the yolks and I asked why. He said it's because the yolks are too dry and it's hard to breathe when eating them. Got it. That's exactly how I feel when eating the yolks. I told them they go down easier if eaten in little bites with some salt. He tried the technique and got through the yolks with nary a problem.
How many things in life are like hard-boiled eggs?
How many things in life are like hard-boiled eggs?
Labels: books, class, hard boiled eggs, library, museum, yolks, young son
Friday, April 27, 2007
Perverse Pleasure
Most people who know me would say I'm nice. I'm not tooting my horn here; that's what they'd say because, for the most part, I don't try to ruffle feathers. However, I've got a mean streak. My weaving teacher in college recognized it once. The assignment that led to his recognition was to combine two pigments together on two notecards. On one, we were to identify the two colors we had used. The other was handed to someone else in class and they had to try to remix the color. My teacher saw the color I had made, a dark purply splotch, and what I had mixed to arrive at it, something odd, like green and blue, and he looked at me and said, "I didn't know you had it in you."
That sums up my mean streak. It's not a big thing, but it comes out once in a while in weird ways. For example, I've taken a perverse pleasure in doing blog searches on Dave Matthews Band and reading the negative comments people make. One blog writer used to like DMB, but quit listening after coming to Christianity. The reason? DMB's music wasn't holy enough because it glorified partying. Someone else - well, a lot of someone elses - think DMB's music simply sucks. Of course, I disagree, but I still like reading this trash talk. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's because I like to think of myself as a discerning individual and, if everyone under the sun likes the same thing I do, well, I'm no longer discerning, am I? I'm just one of the herd. And I don't like being part of the herd.
That sums up my mean streak. It's not a big thing, but it comes out once in a while in weird ways. For example, I've taken a perverse pleasure in doing blog searches on Dave Matthews Band and reading the negative comments people make. One blog writer used to like DMB, but quit listening after coming to Christianity. The reason? DMB's music wasn't holy enough because it glorified partying. Someone else - well, a lot of someone elses - think DMB's music simply sucks. Of course, I disagree, but I still like reading this trash talk. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's because I like to think of myself as a discerning individual and, if everyone under the sun likes the same thing I do, well, I'm no longer discerning, am I? I'm just one of the herd. And I don't like being part of the herd.
Labels: album art, blog, christianity, class, dave matthews band, dmb, mean streak, perverse pleasure, taste, weaving teacher
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Fortune Cookie Fortunes
I collect fortune cookie fortunes. Like most fortune telling methods, fortune cookie fortunes are what you make of them. My penchant for fortune cookie fortunes comes from an assignment I got in a college art class. The professor had a collection of fortunes and had each student pick one. The assignment was to take our fortune and illustrate it as a self-portrait. My fortune, which I still have almost twenty years later, was "Your everlasting patience will be rewarded sooner or later." I threw a towel over my head and drew myself as a wry-looking Virgin Mary, which is who I was named for. I did the drawing in chalk pastels, a medium I love using, but it's difficult to store over the long haul. I liked how it turned out - it was a pretty convincing rendition of me - but the thing was huge and I couldn't afford to frame it. I kept it under the bed as long as I could and then finally trashed it. Bummer. At least I still have the fortune, plus a burgeoning collection of fortunes I've gathered over the years. Along with inspiration for art pieces, they also make great writing prompts. For the creatives out there reading this, here's one for you to use as you will:
The fortune comes with lucky numbers, too: 20, 25, 37, 41, 9, 44.
If you choose to create something with the fortune, feel free to share, either by emailing me or leaving a comment.
The best men are molded of their faults.
The fortune comes with lucky numbers, too: 20, 25, 37, 41, 9, 44.
If you choose to create something with the fortune, feel free to share, either by emailing me or leaving a comment.
Labels: chalk pastels. art, class, drawing, faults, fortune cookies, fortunes, luck, virgin mary, writing
Monday, January 29, 2007
Eighty-nine Dollars
I wrote a diatribe today. In fact, I started it with "Welcome to my diatribe." I'm very tempted to print the whole thing here on the blog, but I'm afraid most of my readers (that means You!) will get upset at the length of it. I know that when I'm blog coasting, I don't always have time to read a long post, so I dare not do that to you. Suffice it to say, my diatribe is about a couple of field trips that the school has planned for two of our children. The total cost of both field trips is $89, a sum that we can't really afford at the moment, and on principle, don't want to afford. Let's just say that it's pretty shameful for a public school to divide children into separate classes based on income and that we didn't have any say in whether this field trip was necessary to our children's cultural development. If you want to read the whole essay, send me an email at sootch@gmail.com and I'll send you a copy. 'nuf said. Now, I'm gonna spend a little time working on my current story.
Labels: blog, children, class, culture, diatribe, essay, field trip, income, school, writing
