Sunday, December 31, 2006

Cat Stuff

Just more goofy cats. Most of these are new to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6FfUJ5ptuQ&NR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjzvu6M8TpM&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8qt-OuqLgE&NR

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Dog Stuff

Dog freestyle dancing
Cute routine with dachshund
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlyN0L4IMck&search=canine%20freestyle%20dance%20K9%20dog%20dancing%20heelwork%20to%20music
Golden & girl in a black dress middle eastern music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5loHipl5Y8
Your the one that I want
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqbVbPvlDoM&NR
Woman and a Ternuven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcY6omZGANw&search=canine%20freestyle%20dance%20K9%20dog%20dancing%20heelwork%20to%20music
Boy and his acrobatic frisbee dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T1S-BO-0ZI
Pirates of the Carribean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yvq9jT2-Wo&mode=related&search=
A woman and a really good border collie mix, lots of it on hind legs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxjVPd6izRI&mode=related&search=
agility course demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fU619lWgCo&NR
Some clicker training videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqt74AOKkPY&mode=related&search=

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Photographic Photosynthesis

Pictures in grass. These are amazing. By regulating the amount of light the different areas of grass got they created pictures. No, not like that, not a peace sign or a happy face. Pictures like portraits, like so you you would recognize the people. Just go look. It's really impressive. And they've developed "stay green grass" so the pictures are, at least semi, permanent.
Photographic Photosynthesis
http://www.artsadmin.co.uk/artists/ah/photosynthesistext.html

Here's a site for moss graffiti.
http://www.storiesfromspace.co.uk/data/html/mossgraffiti.html

Monday, December 25, 2006

Ice Age

I'm sitting here crocheting strange, useless things and watching Ice Age. The sabertooth squirrel is cracking me up.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Haunted When It Rains: The Book Of The Dead

I'm not sure how I found this site called: Haunted When It Rains: The Book Of The Dead.
http://ame2.asu.edu/projects/haunted/ISA%20index/book%20of%20the%20dead/book%20of%20the%20dead%20photos.htm
Someone did it as a school project at Arizona State University and it consists of 20 photos of dead people from the Victorian era. Creepy, but also eerily compelling, I couldn't quit turning the pages.
Some of them are laid out on beds or couches or, like our own family's Loretta, in cribs. Some are propped up, usually children, or held in arms if infants. Several had their eyes open. Unbelievably sad. All are black and white, of course. Some are hand tinted.
My Mother's brother took pictures of my Mom in her coffin, when I was 10, and sent some to us. I threw them away when I moved out of the house I grew up in. What I remember about her in her coffin is that she wasn't wearing her glasses, which I never saw her without, and they had used the wrong shade of lipstick on her. That and that awful, frilly, white satin lining.
My Paternal Grandmother had a picture taken of her infant daughter because she wanted at least the one picture of her. She looks like she's sleeping. We still have it.
The site is fascinating, both for the pictures as well as for the feelings they evoke.
The site I linked to it from had a warning: These will break your heart.

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Mathmatical Knitting

I've stumbled upon these Mathematical Knitting Sites. Very interesting and quite beautiful as well. I don't understand any of the math but aesthetically they are wonderful.
This is a link to The Hyperbolic Reef Project. Mind blowing.
And another to an article about crocheting hyperbolic planes.
Crochet hyperbolic plane models
Here is a page of knitting links

This is from The Christian Science Moniter. There is a picture of one here too.

Crocheting what Euclid couldn't grasp

A visiting scholar at Cornell University has taken both the math world and, more recently, the art world by storm with a touchable form of advanced geometry. Daina Taimina,a mathematician and crocheter, discovered a way to create durable and easy-to-use models of hyperbolic space. People have been attempting this ever since the concept emerged in the early 1800s and overturned Euclidean geometry's assumptions about parallel lines...

Why spandex is like space/time
Who would have thought that spandex would come in handy to help people grasp Einstein's theory of relativity?

IT'S A WHAT? This crocheted 'hyperbolic pseudosphere' teaches students about three-dimensional relationships between parallel lines.
STEVE ROWELL/THE INSTITUTE FOR FIGURING

Jim Borgardt, an associate professor of physics at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., brings out a stretchy membrane to represent space and time, and places a marble or heavy ball on it to show how it's affected by various objects. Dr. Borgardt explains that the moon orbits the earth not because the two masses are attracted to each other, as Newton theorized, but because the earth forms a dimple in the space/time membrane, and the moon is trapped in that dimple. A heavier ball gets the class talking about black holes, because the ball sinks so deeply that it's surrounded by the membrane. "If you sit there and try to explain that just with words, some people's heads are spinning, whereas if you get something they can see - even though it's not a perfect metaphor - at least it gives them a road map," Borgardt says.
And yet another article
I think I may have to try to make one of these. There are some directions here. I wish I were somewhere I could take a class on how to make them.
Here's a book to check out. A Treasury Of Mathmatical Knitting . It got really bad reviews though.

Back again. Here is my first try at one. It wasn't hard but I can really see how it demonstrates how things grow exponentially. You start out with a 20 link chain, double a stitch every few stitches and add a link every time you reach the end of a line.

It isn't long before you're thinking "Yikes, am I ever going to get to the end of this line?"

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Orangette at Smitten Kitchen and Plate Techtonics

Just found another cooking website I love called Plate Techtonics. It has a bunch of recipes I really want to try.
Lemon Ginger Cilantro Chicken Soup
Spicy Ministrone
Moroccan Spice Mix
Pan Seared Salmon with Dijon-Caper Mayonnaise and Steamed Spinach (there is a recipe for tilapia that looks good too.
Actually I found this site via Smitten Kitchen which I also found today and I'll wander back over there when I'm done with Plate Tech. There is a recipe at
Smitten Kitchen for Orangette (candied orange peel dipped in chocolate) I'd really like to try
There is also a buch of tips on using the no knead bread recipe for dinner rolls at Plate Tech.
I'm still enamored of the bread recipe, I have a loaf in the oven right now.



http://not-too-shabby.net/eats/?cat=8

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

The Garlic Card

I saw this thing in a catalog called a garlic card and couldn't figure out what it could possibly be so I had to click on it. According to the explanation, a Swedish chef needed something to grate garlic on and for some inexplicable reason, he reached into his wallet and pulled out a credit card, which turned out to be the perfect tool on which to puree garlic. He's put out a bigger, fancier version ($6 - not too pricy) but I kind off like the idea off recycling credit cards. I wonder if it would work for grating fresh ginger as well.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Grand Illusions

I thought I had written about Grand Illusions, which is where the little blue and pink dragon is from, but I haven't. So Here is a link to the little dragon illusion and also to a garden thing, not really an illusion, per se, but very, very cool. It's the sort of thing that makes me want to have a big yard (even though I know I won't take care of it and won't be able to get to know my neighbors because I'm too embarassed about my yard.)
This comes from growing up in a neighborhood too fancy for my personality. I probably belong in one of those "Apalachian Roadside Art" sort of communities. I'll hve to come back later and put in a link to David Wilcox who wrote a song about it (Apalachian Roadside Modern Art).

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Cheryl Wheeler

I went to a concert at Swallow Hill with my cousin, Dave, and his girl friend, Cris, last night. We went to see Cheryl Wheeler who I thought I had seen before but I must not have or I would have been a lot more excited about going. She was so funny. When she was describing her 19 year old cat, I was laughing so hard that I had tears running down my face and couldn't breathe. Then she sang a song about the cats' birthday that at least I could breathe through but it was pretty funny and I'll need to have a copy of it at some point. She had several really funny songs (one about potatoes to the tune of The Mexican Hat Dance that Dave hates because he always gets it stuck in his head).
She always seemed so perplexed to have written them. Apparently her brain just takes off with her and she has no control over what it comes up with. She had another song about feeling guilty about, well, just about everything, and it was scary how closely it resembled some of the garbage that cycles through my head.
She has obviously been performing forever and is very comfortable with the audience. She had initially sort of hobbled onto the stage and when the concert was winding down she said that the way it is supposed to work is that she will play her last song and then walk off and then walk back on for an encore. She asked that we just pretend that she had gone and come back as she was happy to do the singing part but the walking part was a problem. It was a nice, casual concert and I'll definitely want to go see her when she comes again.
Just found this video on youtube of her singing a song called "Your God". It's kind of an odd video, the pictures are stills. The song is what's important though and there are words and a little bouncing ball in case you'd like to sing along.

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Thursday, December 07, 2006

Still Baking


Still baking bread. It's almost fool proof. I made two loaves today, I mixed a bar of crushed ginger chocolate into one of them. Ok, so the one with chocolate went pretty quick, I'm lucky I got a photo of it at all.


It's funny how almost everybody puts a picture of their bread on the blogs. We're all so proud of ourselves. It's such a surprise to lift the cover off of the pot and see this perfect little loaf of bread.

Little Dragon Illusion


I cut out the little dragon illusion and put him together today. This is such a weird optical illusion. It even works on the camera's "eye". I didn't touch his head at all, I just walked around him taking pictures. His head appears to follow you.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Another drawing

It's so much easier to draw off of a photograph than from life. This is from a photo. I just tried to sketch him while he was sleeping on the couch next to me and it didn't turn out well at all. I guess it's because they are both two dimensional instead of having to translate three dimensions into two.
I did read that they think Vermeer used primitive photography to help him get his wonderful lighting effects.



Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Great Grandparents



















We think that this is a picture of our Great Grandparents. Everyone thinks that when I was younger I looked like Magdeline does in the photo. It's weird how every little photo from back then is so precious and scrutinized and now we have so many pictures of every little thing that there will be no doubt about who looks like whom at any given stage of life. Or who wore what to which wedding. Or what color the couch was. Or if, yes, we really did wear our hair like that and, yes, we actually went out in public and thought we looked just fine.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Cool Paper Toy

This Link is to cool little paper toy. I haven't made it yet, but I'll post a photo when I do.
http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/mathematics/paper_ring.html
This is another link to more complex paper structures. http://nuwen.net/poly.html
I don't understand the math behind them, of couse, but I'm sure it's all very interesting.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Sarah Tryptich III




I Decided to make the pictures that Sarah took in the mirror into a triptich. This is Great Practice. I am not going to commit to doing a drawing every day, though, because that will just be shooting myself in the foot and I won't get anything done.

Who links to me?
Who links to me?