16 January 06
New Pencils
Before we spent a couple of hours yesterday standing in line at the Oakland Museum, we stopped off at the art store at the foot of University Street in Berkeley, where I picked up a set of the new Derwent Graphitint pencils. These are water-soluble graphite pencils that have some colored pigments thrown into the mix. They’re intriguing pencils, with a subtle color range, good for landscapes, with the colors becoming more vivid when wetted with a brush. Above is a sketch of Charlie and Diego snoozing on their kitchen countertop mat.
15 January 06
Standing in Line
I’d have done so for even longer for the privilege of seeing Don Larsen’s perfect game ball and Yogi Berra’s mitt behind it, but that was a LOT of waiting around. A word to the wise: order your tickets online ahead of time…
14 January 06
Hedwig Visits Davis
The snowy owl, first spotted yesterday about 12 miles south of our house by local birder Joan Humphrey, has stuck around for another day. I saw the bird yesterday, heading to the spot with four other folks from my lab, and this morning I returned with Pica. The bird was eventually refound a couple miles north of the original spot and was hunkering near a white motorhome amidst some farm equipment. Above is my sketch of the scene; it was pouring rain so I sketched from within the car. Since our outing was successful, Pica called her Mum who came out here from Bodega Bay for the owl. They saw it this afternoon, a life bird for Pica’s Mum!
13 January 06
A full day
I’m just back from a day of a) Macworld b) going to the SF Center for the Book on the bus (plus very long walk) to retrieve my Art Bin I left there on Saturday, only to find it closed c) Macworld d) SFCB again, got bin, minus camera which has mysteriously disappeared in the interim e) sharing a bustop session with a Peruvian con artist on the way back from SFCB f) sharing train seats with two furniture buyers for some unspecified department chain, probably Neiman Marcus (GOD how boring AND stressful their lives are) f) a rejuvenating visit to the Coop g) arriving home and finding that Numenius had gone looking for a frickin’ snowy owl without me (he does NOT chase birds so this is something of a first).
I did take my sketch book and will post a sketch once I’ve gone for the snowy owl myself tomorrow.
12 January 06
Green Eggs and Ham
Or at least the green ham bit. Taiwanese scientists have bred several pigs that glow in the dark and whose skin has a greenish tinge. They accomplished this trick by introducing jellyfish genetic material into the pig’s embryo.
The aim of this research is not improved forest camouflage for the hogs, but rather to aid in tracking pig genetic material when their cells are introduced into other animals, for instance in stem cell research.
11 January 06
Memed
I was reading this over at Sister Spirit and was thinking about doing it even before I knew I’d been tagged by Chris, so here goes:
Four Jobs You’ve Had
1. Interpreter for a project of hail suppression in southeast Spain
2. Bilingual secretary (yes, that was shorthand in FRENCH) in a reinsurance office in Paris
3. Clerk in the electoral offices of Santa Barbara County
4. Administrative assistant in the liver transplant section of the UC Davis Medical Center
Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
1. Casablanca
2. The Rookie
3. The Singing Detective (I know this was made for TV but I saw it on the big screen)
4. Lord of the Rings
Four Places You’ve Lived
1. Madrid, Spain
2. Montpellier, France
3. Cambridge, UK
4. Cambridge, Mass
Four TV Shows You Love to Watch
I don’t have a TV…
Four Places You’ve Been on Vacation
1. Barrow, Alaska (life yellow-throated loon)
2. Bisbee, Arizona (on the way to life buff-breasted flycatcher)
3. Gibraltar (yep, it really is one of the craziest places in the world.)
4. Opatija, Croatia (I think; it was Yugoslavia then)
Four Blogs You Visit Daily
1. Via Negativa
2. Toad in the Hole
3. A Brit Abroad, though he’s in a different abroad now and doesn’t post as much, are you listening, Richard?
4. Fezoca’s Blurbs
Four of Your Favorite Foods
1. tofu cilantro
2. the veggie soft tacos at Mariachi in Davis
3. the veggie soft tacos at the roach coach on the UCSB campus
4. Jefferson Davis pie
Four Places You’d Rather Be
1. anywhere in Sweden, anytime
2. at the dinner table with good friends
3. a baseball game
4. with my sleeves rolled up, making mudpies (literal and metaphorical)
Four Albums You Can’t Live Without
I can and do live without lots of albums. I think as a couple we need music therapy. But I seem to be recreating some kind of iTunes collection which is in process and I’ll report back at a later date.
Four Vehicles You’ve Owned
1. Subaru GL hatchback (my first car I got at 37)
2. Honda Element (bought two years ago when I donated the Subie to a coworker in great need)
Four people I’m tagging
I’m not tagging anyone. Whoever would like to take this on, please do. Jenny ? Fer ?
9 January 06
Ping
Late this afternoon I returned from a meeting over on West Campus. Passing within earshot of the ballfield, I heard the ping of an aluminum bat. It’s baseball practice time already! The Aggies’ season begins 4 February, with a home game against Sacramento State.
8 January 06
Printfest
Well, I’m back.
Here’s how you do this: you get some unflavored gelatin and make it according to the instructions on the package (about 4 tablespoons per 4 cups water). You pour it into a mold and allow it to set.
Then you spread ink [water-soluble block printing ink] over the gelatin with a brayer, put something like a feather down on it, and put a piece of paper down on top of all of it. Pulling it up gives you print #1. Pulling the feather off and putting another piece of paper over the whole thing gives you print #2, the ghost print, where the most remarkable detail is preserved, almost photographically.
It’s fast. It’s not toxic. It’s unbelievably cheap. And I made at least 120 prints yesterday…
6 January 06
Dangerous Idea
The online journal Edge annually asks a provocative question of a large number of leading thinkers. This year’s question, asked of 117 scientists, was “What is your dangerous idea?” That is:
The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?
My favorite response was by Irene Pepperberg, who has studied cognition and communication in Grey parrots for over 25 years, most famously working with her African Grey parrot, Alex. Her dangerous idea is that The differences between humans and non-humans are quantitative, not qualitative. As she puts it:
If we do not believe in a clear boundary between humans and nonhumans, if we do not accept a clear “them” versus “us”, we need to rethink other aspects of our lives. Do we have the right to clear-cut forests in which our fellow creatures live? To pollute the air, soil and water that we share with them, solely for our own benefit? Where do we draw the line? Life may be much simpler if we do firmly draw a line, but is simplicity a valid rationale?
5 January 06
Illustrated Letters
Danny Gregory of Everyday Matters announced a contest late last year: people were to send him an illustrated letter and the winner would be sent a copy of his new book. I do covet the book but mostly I love the idea of illustrated letters so I sent him one; it appears in the gallery.
Taking time not only to write to a friend but to include sketches, drawings, paintings: what a luxury. If any of you out there think this might be fun, let me know…