Entries Tagged 'random' ↓

My son and I went running this morning before dawn. We normally walk for a few minutes to loosen up before running. While we were walking in the dark, I sleepily stumbled through a spider web that was strung across part of the road. No biggie, just a few strands of web that I casually brushed off.

About 30 seconds later, I suddenly realized there was a BIG HONKIN’ SPIDER CRAWLING ON MY NECK!!! Whoop! Whoop! Alert! Battle Stations! Man the adrenaline pumps! I slapped at the spider to brush it off, but it got caught in the collar of my t-shirt and I ended up having to grab it and throw it off of me. The spider, fearing for its life and rightfully so, bit me at least twice on the back of my neck to the left of my spinal cord.

At first, the bites didn’t bother me; in fact, I didn’t realize I was bitten for a couple of minutes — probably thanks to the wonders of adrenaline. However, it’s now been an hour since I was bitten and it feels like I’ve been stung by a wasp (albeit without the swelling) and the site has an infuriating fiery itch. So, just to be safe, I googled the spider, an orb weaver, and am assured that there’s no danger.

Thank God for that, it would s u c k t o . . . . . . <thud>

I ran across this today and found it interesting. Do you see the dancer spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise? According news.com.au, you use more of the right side of your brain if you see the dancer spinning clockwise.

Personally, I first saw the dancer spinning counter-clockwise (no big surprise there), but by looking away and back again, I can see her spinning in either direction now. Although, try as I might, I can’t see her change direction while looking at her.

Update: The animated dancer illustrates an interesting browser difference. In Internet Explorer, the dancer moves jerkily, leaves blips on the screen, and consumes an inordinate amount of memory. Firefox, on the other hand, displays a smooth animation with no blips and only uses 20%-25% of memory compared to IE.

I was recently asked as part of an exercise, to list 25 things I would like to do before I die. What a waste of time, I thought, this exercise will be trivial drivel.

However, once I got past the initial impulse of glib responses — what glib responses, you ask? Well, a few that tickle my sense of humor would be:

• place huge beanie/propeller caps on Mt. Rushmore
• slip a Whoopie cushion into Oprah’s chair
• set a bratwurst on a rotisserie over JFK’s eternal flame
• save a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico

So, as I was saying, once the initial glib responses were past, I found this exercise to be no small task. It’s quite easy to list a few things, but 25 becomes difficult. And I found myself scratching out some items just as soon as I wrote them down. On the other hand, some items jumped onto paper with a will of their own and actually surprised me when I saw them.

Here’s my list in no particular order (except numerical, of course).

1. Achieve financial independence.
2. Learn to speak Spanish fluently.
3. Learn to weld.
4. Visit Italy.
5. Visit Spain.
6. Act in a movie.
7. See my son hold his son.
8. Learn to fly.
9. Watch a sunrise from the top of Mt. Fuji.
10. Visit the Bahamas by boat.
11. Weigh 225 lbs. (or less) the rest of my life.
12. See the Aurora Borealis.
13. Take up photography as a hobby.
14. Become a writer.
15. Learn to really drive my Porsche.
16. Read a book per week for the rest of my life.
17. Fish and hunt more.
18. Help solve a truly major problem. A world-changing solution.
19. Become proficient at magic.
20. Receive a black belt in karate with my son.
21. See my wife truly and finally quit smoking.
22. Taste the perfect vodka martini.
23. Change someone’s life for the better.
24. Try a different career.
25. Find time to do all these things.

Try this exercise and see if you don’t find it to be an interesting activity. And if you care to share your list with other people, 43things is a web site dedicated to this type of list.

Since the passage of the Brady Law, the U.S. imposes a three day waiting period to prevent impulse purchases of handguns. In Amsterdam, the mayor has just proposed a three day waiting period to prevent impulse purchases of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

And in other news, an original issue of the comic book that introduced Batman was found in an attic. The issue is worth $250,000! Holy windfalls, Batman!

For the last 20+ years, I’ve made my living as a computer programmer primarily utilizing the logical left side of my brain. Oddly enough, I spent the first few years of my adult life working as an artist specializing in black and white illustrations. Although, in truth, I find a lot of similarities between developing software and creating a picture. In both professions, I’ve achieved the best results by "broad brushing" in a general layout and then working in progressively more detailed iterations over the entire project.

Despite the similarities, I’m finding myself chafing at the atrophy of the creative right side of my brain due to two decades of forced submission. I suddenly have a desire to re-awaken my creativity and break down those self-induced limitations. This desire is part of my motivation for keeping this blog; even though this blog is not creative writing, it is a form of personal expression that will hopefully evolve from a forced discipline into an easy and natural act.

I’ve also picked up my sketchbook again. After two decades, my skills are naturally very rusty. By skills, I mean my ability to "see" what I’m drawing. I maintain that anyone who can write legibly has the technical competency to draw; in other words, they can manipulate a pencil to produce the line they want. After all, anyone can trace a picture right? Tracing lets you "see" your subject in a way that makes it easy for you to reproduce the image using your pencil manipulation skills. To draw from life, you merely need to learn to "see" objects in new ways.

This is the premise of the book Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, a classic book on the subject of learning to draw. I’ve unearthed my 30 year old copy of the book and am working through the exercises in it. While I haven’t felt the scale and rust falling away yet, I can definitely see some improvement already. So, I’m pushing out of my comfort zone into areas that I used to habitate but are new again. I have a dim memory of this landscape but am having to learn how to navigate it again. Look at the difference between an idle doodling of a fisherman at rest that I did 25 years ago versus my earnest efforts with some of the exercises from the aforementioned book.

It’s like trying to ride a bike again after 30 years; you can still do it, but you sure are wobbly. It will be a while before I can do a wheelie again.

On Saturday, October 6th, I attended the 207th annual Indian Field Campmeeting. What a unique Southern cultural experience! Camp meetings are ostensibly religious revival meetings, but to my eyes, they’ve become as much about fellowship and food as their original intent.

The meeting ground is a large open area, probably 5 acres in size, that is surrounded by 100 “tents”. These tents are really tin and wood barn-like structures with a cooking, dining, and sleeping areas. Each tent has its own outhouse outside the perimeter of the tents. The tents are private property and most have been passed down through generations of families. Of course, since this camp meeting has been active for over 200 years in the Deep South and is steeped in tradition, it is a segregated event and all of the families are white. Interestingly, there is a corresponding black camp meeting that occurs a week later at a nearby “campground”.

Inside the circle of tents, in the middle of the open area, is a large open-air tabernacle. Worshipers are called to service with a large handmade horn. Since all of the buildings have bare earth floors, fresh straw is strewn over all the floors to keep down the dust.

Arguably the main attraction of the camp meeting is the food. Traditionally, each tent hires a black cook to prepare meals all week long. These women prepare huge and delicious meals of traditional Southern country dishes such as pork, fried chicken, collard greens, rutabagas, lima beans, black-eyed peas, etc. These meals are prepared over handmade, wood-fired stoves. Even though I was only there for two meals, I think I gained 5 pounds.

This is the obligatory first post in which a new author introduces him(her)self to the world and declares their best intentions to discipline themselves to regular postings.

I won’t be doing any of that.