Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

My day did indeed improve. I think I packed everything despite my sinking suspicion that I didn’t. It’s only a 2 day trip so it’ll be fine regardless… right? dropped me at the airport and there were no lines to speak of to get through security. I sent the two laptops, shoes, carry ons, fleece vest and Freedom Bag through the x-ray machine, not at all comforted by the fact that the TSA thinks it is safer if I separate out my liquid and gel toiletries into a ziplock bag. I feel no safer having to put my laptops in individual bins nor more secure knowing all my fellow passengers have taken off their shoes and walked across the icky floor as well. I can’t even muster up the suspension of disbelief for the illusion of security.

When I got on the plane the flight attendant asked me if I was from here in Philadelphia… always a hard question for me to answer with a yes or no, but since he was asking as I was getting on a flight I went with, “Yes.” His response was to congratulate me on “your Phillies making the playoffs.” I laughed, “Oh, thanks but I’m a Red Sox fan!” He apologized profusely - clearly he’s met some Red Sox fans who would have been offended by the mistake.

I took an earlier flight than usual this week. I like arriving when I’m not already tired. As an added bonus, I could actually see things on the ground during the descent into Providence. Like trees… glorious early autumn trees, still gloriously green for the most part but with little sparks of color here and there. A branch here, the top half of another tree there, Autumn is starting to creep in and send up its warning flares that Winter is coming. I was delighted and grinning like a Chesire Cat the whole descent.

Checking into the hotel was pain-free. I’m at my current favorite - other people’s favorite too apparently since it’s often booked by the time I try to make reservations. I like it because it’s convenient and comfortable and has enough space to spread out without feeling like you’re always in bed. (Some hotels I’ve stayed in require sitting on the bed in order to work on the desk. Not this one!)

Anyway, now I’m at Starbucks in Mystic, CT. I went through a print copy of the story I’m working on. I’ll need beta-readers sometime later this month if anyone’s interested. It’s a short story, fairly self-contained, but the beginnings of a world. I’m not sure the story is interesting enough on its own though. (I did put it down for 4 years. But this weekend I not only cleaned and completely reorganized my desk I also started editing this story again!) Hopefully I’ll be able to read my own handwriting when I get home. I didn’t bring an electronic copy with me and while the technique of completely retyping a story to edit it intrigues me, I don’t intend to try it out this week. Why is my editing hand so much messier than my normal handwriting?

My world needs more little cafes and coffee shops. I used to write in the cafe in the Chapters in downtown Vancouver in the evenings and on those long weekend afternoons when I didn’t have plans or my plans had been rearranged by the weather. It was terribly convenient to the hotels I ended up staying at most of the time and had lovely views of the city.

The weather here is gorgeous. Gorgeous. Cool, clear and crisp My favorite weather. Happiness thy name is sub-65-temperatures-with-low-humidity.

tags: airport security, airports, autumn, baseball, starbucks, travel, vancouver, weather, writing

Explosives, light and cameras, oh my!
I’ve posted a set of my fireworks pics from last week. These are all from the Upper Darby display on the 1st. We saw fireworks on the 4th but it was raining so I didn’t pull out the camera. I’m definitely going to take my tripod next year! Fritz has some awesome fireworks shots up as well (they’re up over here too). You can never have too many fabulous fireworks photos to distract you, right? Most of Fritz’s photographs actually look like fireworks and are totally amazing. (And they are exactly what convinced me that I need to take my tripod next year!)

Several of my photos look odd and funky - vaguely like sci-fi sky vistas from a far-away planet. That’s part of the fun though - seeing how the random shots come out and how even the ones that aren’t strictly “good” make your imagination wander much like your imagination gets going during the display itself. There’s something about fireworks that just inspires glee in my heart. I think I mentioned that I had my screen saver using the fireworks photos. Seeing them drifting across the screen when I glance over at the Mac while working is fun.

Visitors for the new guest room!
Jon and Kirsten arrived last week on the 4th proper and we settled them into to the freshly painted guest room! The baby animals are gone and the walls all have fresh sheetrock and are a lovely blue!! (Before/beige and after/blue pictures! Remarkably the rug still kinda works.) This also means the walls are smooth and mostly flat! Very exciting for our rather unique house. The contractors have another week or so until they finish up the master bath and patch the ceiling and paint in the dining room. The celery-hay color got old and I need it to go away! We picked a sagey green for the walls and will be keeping the trim white. It’ll be nice to get an even coat of paint on the walls. I might even put up curtains after this! (Don’t hold your breath!)

Excursions while Jon and Kirsten were here included Independence Mall, the Liberty Bell, Monk’s, the Japan House (the koi have grown) and a vain attempt to see the Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute. Alas I had not grasped that the tickets had times attached to them and we didn’t have quite enough time to wait for the next available slot. And probably the week of the 4th isn’t the best time to be trying to see the big sights in Philly… But at least it wasn’t as hot as last time they visited us!

Weather = too hot
This week is as hot as the last time Jon and Kirsten came to visit. It’s 100° F out there and the heat is staying through Wednesday. The National Weather service has had a heat advisory in effect since yesterday. In short, it’s bloody hot.

I’m missing the WebCT reunion tonight, which is kind of a bummer but I really couldn’t justify a trip to Boston with how work is going this month. Next week I’ll be in Connecticut for meetings and stuff - if only they hadn’t been rescheduled! (Originally they were scheduled for this week so I would have been up in the area for the reunion…)

June Stats!
Oh hey, I’ve been meaning to post these too…

June Stats:

• Flickr: 8 new photos, 184 unique visitors.
• Miscellaney of a Cheshire Cat: 13 new posts, 7707 hits.

tags: 4th of july, fireworks, fourth of july, heat, home improvement, house, liberty bell, philadelphia, photography, sight seeing, statistics, visitors, weather, webct

Weather Happiness: It’s a beautiful day today… meaning that when I went outside to take these photos this morning it wasn’t 95° F already nor was the sun glaring down with its angry rays. This made me really quite happy. Other things that make me happy include my cat, my car’s starter getting replaced under warranty, and the fact that the guest room not only looks like a room again but will probably get a coat of paint today.

In all seriousness, I’m happy for the gray, dark morning and brighter gray afternoon. I got enough sun and heat yesterday!

Gardening and the Evil Vine of Doom: Yesterday after work I spent about 40 minutes clearing the Evil Vine of Doom. The EVoD is a trumpet vine that got out of control and tried to eat the garage. And by eat the garage I mean completely consume it with its ever-spreading greenery. The vine was covering most of the side and half the roof when we tried to remove it 2 years ago. I cut it down to the ground first. Then the roots got pulled and dug up.

Alas, this didn’t work. This vine has running roots… and those roots run along the side of the garage and into the corner behind the rhododendron. It comes back each time I pull it up. Hence its moniker as the EVoD.

So I’m letting the trumpet vine eat the corner of the fence but I’m trying to keep it from devouring the garage again. I planted my rose bush approximately where the vine had started so when the vine tries to come back, it hangs out with the rose bush. Unsurprisingly, I procrastinate weeding, especially when it’s hot, so the rosebush and the trumpet vine were rather intertwined. My wielding yielded a garbage can full of EVoD and a lovely view of my rosebush.

I also took a bunch of indoor gardening photos which I’ll post separately because… well… I can.

Philly Mayor in line for an iPhone: On a random note… slyppi just sent me this great link to Philadelphia Mayor John Street sitting in line for the iPhone. On one hand, go him for doing it himself. On the other hand, if he’s not filing for the vacation day, I hope he gets caught. Yes, the mayor of the 6th largest city(formerly 5th and boy are they sad to have been bumped by Phoenix!)… right, let’s start over. The mayor of the 6th largest city in the U.S. is spending his Friday sitting in the rain for an iPhone.

Oh wait! In an update on Philly.com: Street’s place in line is being held by an unidentified male aide. Street sounds a bit defensive though, don’t you think?

Before he left at 11:30 this morning - he was third in line of about 15 people waiting - he defended himself and declared:

“I’m taking care of my business. By 4 a.m., I sent my first e-mail to my chief of staff. I was doing my job while the city was sleeping. I have my Blackberry with me.”

[…]

“How can you sit here with 200 murders in the city already?” [22-year-old Larry West of Mount Airy] asked.

Street announced that “I’m doing my job.”

Perhaps it’s just the sleep-deprivation making him cranky - Street got in line at 3:30 this morning. But seriously, what was he thinking?

Edit: Hanging out on the sidewalk at 3:30 a.m. is an excellent way to get shot in Philadelphia, regardless of location. There were better ways Street could have done this that would have made him look good rather than make people question him. This would have been a great opportunity for positive PR!

tags: evod, gardening, gardens, iphone, john street, murder, philadelphia, philadelphia mayor, photographs, photography, roses, trumpet vine, yellow

So… The Sopranos is over. I have yet to see more than a snippet of an episode or two and I’m just fine with that. Apparently I will remain a luddite when it comes to that particular facet of popular culture because I just don’t care. Am I alone in my apathy?

I am forced to note that NPR cares a lot about The Sopranos since almost every program I’ve listened to today has touched upon the finale and reactions to said final episode. I’m fascinated that NPR is giving this rather violent HBO drama such press but I couldn’t care less about the show itself. I think the secret is out: the entire staff of NPR is addicted to The Sopranos. Oh, and apparently there’s very little real news today, probably because everyone newsworthy was watching The Sopranos last night. I half expect the next pre-presidential debate to contain a question about the candidates’ reactions to the finale.

I am very proud of myself. I cleaned my craft desk this weekend. Now there’s space for my sewing machine to stay setup all the time! I dug out my copy of Omiyage by Kumiko Sudo as well. This book is beautiful and fun - it contains lots of little fabric projects. Pretty bags and pouches! And they’re small, short projects which is an excellent way to ease myself back into being productive on my sewing machine again. I don’t know if I’ll sew much of anything for Pennsic. I am keeping the bar low this year. I am glad I’ll be able to putter at my machine anytime now that it has a spot on the desk. (Maybe I’ll even plug it in tonight!)

Tennyson is being quite cute in the box and apparently I am not allowed to reappropriate said box to use for recycling. When I was taking photos of said cuteness, I was shocked to find schmutz on my camera’s lens. I spent a tense 4 minutes painstakingly de-schmutzifying it carefully with my cleaner and a microfiber cloth. The schmutz came off without any damage to the lens but now I’m paranoid. I really need to get a UV filter or two to pop on the ends of my lenses.

The total number of murders in Philadelphia reached 180 as of last night - averaging more than one a day so far this year.

tags: camera, crime, murder rate, npr, philadelphia, photography, pop culture, radio, schmutz, sewing, television, tennyson, the sopranos

The City of Brotherly Love is a myth.

• Thursday, 29-March, 97 murders in Philadelphia this year to date.
• Saturday, 31-March, 100 murders.
• Monday, 2-April, 104 murders.

… and there are 3 gunshot victims from yesterday alone in hospitals in critical condition.

Last I checked, NYC still had fewer than 90 murder this year. Philly has been in the lead all year. Sadly, many of the murders have been committed against innocent people. (Like the honor student who was killed for parking in the wrong place or the mother of 4 who was in the wrong place at 10:30 a.m. on a weekday last week.)

The police commissioner has sent his commanders and supervisors back to the streets in uniform. Commissioner Johnson will be out there too. This means about 300 more cops in uniforms on the street. The catch is each one of them is only going to be out there 1 night a week for 4 hours from 6 to 10 pm. I haven’t studied the statistics that closely, but that doesn’t sound like the right time for them to be out. 40 more cops a night could make a difference but how much of a difference? They are targeting the hot spots, walking the walk and talking the talk. But will it make enough of a difference? I’m all for giving it time but the announcement was made on March 27th and there have been 9 murders since then. Is this too little too late?

Honestly, I don’t think the police are going to be able to stop the escalating crime and murder rate in Philadelphia. Unless the City populace itself rises to its own defense, the worst neighborhoods are going to stay just as they are until gentrification comes along and refurbs the $9,000 row homes into $300,000 condos. That gentrification is just going to displace and concentrate the problem elsewhere anyway.

I tried but there’s very little I know how to do to help other than stay out of the way to avoid becoming another victim. This makes me even more frustrated with the city. It’s not that there’s nothing I could do, but there’s nothing I will be allowed to do that will help. The Philadelphia inner city culture needs to heal itself from within, probably with a raging fever to burn off the disease. I just don’t know what it will take for it to actually happen. Some of the sweetest kids I’ve ever met play in these neighborhoods. Some of the most passionately devoted parents and grandparents live there. Unfortunately, the great people are woefully outnumbered and, in a culture of violence and guns, the great ones barely stand a chance.

For those of you who wonder why I hate living in the Philadelphia area, this is a big part of it.

tags: crime, murder rate, philadelphia, violence

I put up a generous handful of zoo photos to finish out the Janaury visit posting. There are cute ducklings and happy peguins as well as more excruciatingly cute snow leopards and a bunch of tiger photos. Trust me, the penguins were happy. (Check out the happy honking penguins too!)

I think I’ve chosen a scanner too. The Epson Perfection V700 will probably be mine once my tax return comes in. Oh and once I figure out where the heck it’s going to live in my office. I need to do some massive spring cleaning and then some I think. And after that my next major photography purchase will probably be either an IS lens to replace the one the came with my camera or a proper macro lens of doom. But first, organizing the office is required. I should really dump a bunch of my old technology detrius… but you never know when you might need a 100MB Zip disk!!!
The Flower Show on Saturday was… frustrating. I did get some good photos, but they used more gels in the lighting than I remember from last time I went. Oh, and going on the preview day is actually a Bad Idea. Too many people. The Legends of Ireland theme was lovely and there were some very creative displays… I just couldn’t get close to many of them without being rude or without someone bumping me while I was trying to take photos. Next time I’ll just take Monday morning off to go or something. I did buy a whole bunch of tiny little shrubs and trees for bonsai and a fresh supply of training wire! Retail therapy! I also picked up a brochure for a Bonsai studio, Rosade Bonsai Studio, that offers classes and workshops. They had a gorgeous exhibit that included a bunch of hand-made rocks (which they offer a class for of course!).

After the the “adventure” that was the Flower Show we hit Reading Terminal Market, where neither mshireman or myself had been before. It’s a pretty nifty place! I love urban markets like that - lots of stalls of cool stuff, almost all food in this case. This market has been up and running for over 75 years! Despite being closed in, the fish smells from the many seafood vendors didn’t permeate the market - total bonus. There were some amazing baked goods (we got cookies), chocolates, specialty kitchen shops and oh the cheeses! We had a late lunch at a diner in the market and I had the best BLT I’ve tasted in years. Words cannot describe how incredible it was, so I won’t try, just trust me. I’d like to go back on a non-Flower Show day and see more. Unsurprisingly the market was also packed but considerably less scary probably because people were moving. For my next trick, I’ll make it to the Italian Market.

tags: amur tiger, bonsai, duckling, food, gardening, humbolt penguins, penguins, philadelphia flower show, philadelphia zoo, reading terminal market, scanners, technology, tiger

• Part the First: Bald eagle at the Philadelphia Zoo

The zoo has a pair of bald eagles who like to pose for the camera however last time I visited only one came out to strut about. I should take pictures of their claws as well. They are impressively powerful birds. Majestic? Not so much. But definitely powerful carnivores who are not to be messed with.

• Part the Second: In which I take a quick walk and don’t get rained on

I took a quick walk at lunch today - about 2 miles in 35 minutes or so. I enjoyed it despite the cold, gray, damp weather that was actively threatening rain. However, this afternoon I feel incredibly mellow and spacey. It’s been a while since I had such an exercise high. Once upon a time I lived in Vancouver and would go jogging in the morning along the Seawall. I ended up giving it up because the post-exercise high made me a danger to myself and others during my morning commute. I would be in such bliss that I simply wouldn’t care about traffic or potentially getting in an accident or anything. I considered this to be, generally, a bad state of mind to be in while driving, even in Vancouver. Thank goodness Vancouver has some of the most polite drivers on the planet otherwise I might not have lived through my morning jogging phase!

So I sit here all mellow, drinking my water, and wonder what I can do to counter act this annoying yet blissful state. I am vaguely useless … well, at least I think I am. Tomorrow morning I’ll look at the presentation I whipped up after lunch and see if it’s any good. Perhaps I shouldn’t have skipped making tea for lunch. At any rate, we’ll see if this is just a one-time relapse of mellow-spaceyness or if it persists. I think I’ll really like lunchtime walks. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely little high, just not a very productive one!

• Part the Third: In which I send a quick little e-mail and make a lot of folks happy

Communication is easy. I don’t know why more people don’t do it. Once my project was approved I sent a quick update to a group of potential users who had helped out with a questionnaire and providing their input. You’d think they’d never been updated before! Half of the group responded gleefully, grateful to have received the update and enthusiastic to do more. Each of the respondents mentioned that most often whenever they provide feedback it seems to go into a blackhole. I admit that I updated them specifically because I hoped they would volunteer to help more with the project but I didn’t expect quite the response I got. Even if I hadn’t wanted to leverage them for other work, I would have sent them a thank you note with the news of the project. That seems just simple common courtesy. Their feedback was incredibly useful in supporting the proposal I wanted to put forward. They responded quickly and on short notice.

My my mission shouldn’t be to become Wiki Queen but to instead ensure that no one feels their feedback is going into a blackhole in the future! (Of course, my master plan for this includes a wiki…)

tags: bald eagles, communication, eagles, exercise, philadelphia zoo, technology, vancouver, walking, wiki, zoo

The lions wouldn’t even come out of their warm enclosure, but the cheetahs were hanging out as usual. You’d think the cheetahs would look more perturbed about the snow and yet they seem pretty content. I do suspect that they might be taking turns warming that spot on the rock though. They are such beautiful creatures, especially in the afternoon sun.

My snow here is seriously melting. It’s been in the high 40s the past couple of days. There are large green areas on the church lawn across the street now. I need more winter before I’m willing to give in to spring, thank you very much.

Under the heading of work glee: My wiki proposal was accepted yesterday afternoon. I’m really excited to get going on it too. There’s another side project that may be able to piggy-back nicely on it too. Hopefully we’ll be able to implement a useful enough wiki space that inspires our project managers to contribute to and actively reference the material. Well, really there are 2 side projects, but they go hand-in-hand.

tags: cheetahs, philadelphia zoo, snow, weather, winter, work, zoo

The house still smells like curry. Yum. Why does it smell like curry? Because last night I made tasty little turkey mini-burgers (not mini-turkey burgers) with curry, ginger, garlic and cumin happiness. I used slightly sweet Hawaiian rolls instead of dinner rolls since a) I couldn’t for the life of me find pre-baked dinner rolls in the grocery store and b) I thought the sweetness might compliment the curry nicely. I was right about the latter too. I tweaked the recipe (ripped, literally, from Bon Appetit) by cutting it in half and dropping the cilantro. I think I will tweak it further by adding a bit of garlic to the ground meat instead of just to the curry mayo.

Saturday was fun and productive on several levels. I did a large grocery shopping trip. I may shop on Saturday morning more often. The customers are nicer. I chatted over rump roast with a lovely little couple. We were trying to find smaller roasts for our small households. Then another older gentleman asked me about cooking pork chops. This is so much better than the usual grocery store experience I have. No one even tried to walk off with my cart! At the checkout, I was reminded why I prefer to bag my own groceries but even that wasn’t so bad. When I got home, the Fop (who woke up feeling not quite well) was off to an event.

For some reason I decided it was time to clean out, purge and organize the major cupboard of food stuffs in the kitchen. I hauled the step stool up from the basement and dove in. An unknown amount of time later, the cupboard of doom was under control. I have a little pile of old crackers to put out for the birds and squirrels (well, mostly the squirrels).

In the grinder this morning is Kenya AA from Armeno. It came out of my French press this morning positively perfect. Some people have good hair days, I have good coffee days. This morning I am sipping divine coffee: rich enough that I know I’m drinking coffee but gentle enough for a Monday morning. There’s not even a hint of bitterness or acidity. I love my coffee and my French press.

To our left, we have the elusive Giant River Otter. Actually, they’re not elusive at all! They just move too fast for me to catch uber-cute pictures of them. They also do cute little human things with their hands. The zoo announced that they have more Baby Giant River Otters (say that 3 times fast! it’s fun!) this spring so I’ll be going back to try to catch photos of more than just their backs.

In other weekend news, I got a small snow flurry yesterday much to my great glee. It’s going to warm up later this week so some of the snow we have now might melt. Then again, the snow is packed so solid right now that it might as well be ice. I had a great time (really!) Saturday morning when I finally decided to get the snow and ice off my car. It was actually much easier Saturday than it would have been mid-week. The bottom had iced up so that it all came off my car in big chunks. For my next trick I drove out of the driveway I hadn’t bothered to shovel. I was hoping for some dramatic crunchy of crusty snow or something. Nope, the trusty Subaru drove right on top of the 3-4 inches of packed snow and ice. There are barely tire prints. I’m not sure why this inspires such glee.

Alright, now time for another round of random links. From the open tabs section of my bookmarks:

• Snow crystal photo gallery - high-res pictures of actual snowflakes. This photographer’s work was featured on the snowflake postage stamps many of us used over the holidays.
• Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique - (Snagged from Bruni) Science communicators unite! Their merit badges rock. Jon, this one’s for you.
• The Physics of Bras - A fascinating read. “Making a bra is like building a bridge…”
• The Neil Gaiman Magic 8Ball - “Do not get into an argument with the mystical and oracular ball of enlightenment. It will win.”
  

And last week’s best comic award goes to Chickweed Lane:

Scary how apt it is, no?

And now my coffee is gone, many work e-mails written, some status reports reviewed, and other miscellaneous things have been addressed. Oh, and a couple of out of date applications are now updated. Did you know that Fetch (beloved FTP client of Dartmouth alums of a certain era) now has an OSX widget as well as its standard interface? There are lots of other cool features available, but the widget is shaped like a dog bone. Jim Matthews (the mastermind behind the cute little dog) purchased the source code from Dartmouth after being on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and started his own company. How exciting can an FTP client really be? For those of you not yet in the know, Fetch turns your cursor into a running dog while it’s uploading files. Beat that, Unix command-line ftp-ers!

tags: coffee, cooking, fetch, food, ftp, ftp clients, giant river otters, links, philadelphia zoo, political cartoons, random, snow, technology, weather, weekend, widgets, zoo

The Amur leopard was very handsome and picturesque during my last visit to the zoo - handsome in that mysterious and dangerous way. His eyes were positively mesmorizing. I took many many photographs of his eyes and face. And I spent several minutes just staring into the intelligent depths of his beautiful green eyes. The glory of an empty zoo is that there’s no one else scaring the animals away. The Amur leopard is a cold weather cat as well which contributed to his mellow availability. He was even very tolerant of the flash. What struck me was how small he really is. He’s a lean and compact little cat - not as tall, long and lanky as the cheetahs.

While I won’t go as far as to call him friendly, he was quite content to sit there staring at me. I love the cute-face look in the first image below. He maintains his feline dignity yet still melts my heart. And those paws are just amazing.

Happy Friday, by the way! I am finishing up a great work week the likes of which I haven’t had in a while. My last project was huge and scary and chaotic so my weeks were often this productive but it was always reactive productivity. This week - proactive all the way, baby. This must be what it feels like to love your job and not be in fire-fighting mode! Talk about exciting! Oh plus, I got happy feedback from one of the big bosses today regarding my work on the new project. Not only am I having fun and enjoying the work but apparently doing a good enough job that people are noticing! It’s pretty cool to get praise out of the blue for something I’m already pretty happy about.

In other exciting (to me) news, it’s staying cold down here. The snow is staying put! It might really be winter after all! The Fop has mostly recovered from being sick and I have apparently avoided getting sick this round. Hurray! There was much excitement (where excitement = loud complaining) about how cold it was last night when he went to take out the trash. Well, it was 16° F out so I guess it wasn’t completely unwarranted but the silly Fop didn’t actually put on a coat either. Today the outside temp is hovering around 20-25° and there’s snow in the forecast for Sunday! Well, in one of the forecasts. Yahoo Weather does not concur with the weather forecast provided by my weather widget.

tags: amur leopard, leopard, philadelphia zoo, snow, weather, work, zoo