15 October 05
Pesto With That?
The oldest noodles ever discovered were just found at the Lajia archeological site on the Yellow River in China. The settlement at Lajia was hit by a catastrophe, probably flooding following an earthquake, 4000 years ago. These noodles were made from millet flour.
It is not known whether the researchers tucked on in to their culinary find after documenting it for science. But followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are rejoicing at this new evidence.
(From Slashdot)
13 October 05
Arrival of the ATCs
The first week of the month has become a week of waiting eagerly for the mail. Ever since I started participating in the Cyberscribes swap of Artist Trading Cards, I can’t wait to see what other people have done with the theme—this month’s was Equinox of where you are.
Though these are calligraphers, there are lots of other talents there too. The format is so small it’s manageable for a small edition.
This month’s theme is black and white. I’m pondering the skeleton.
Meanwhile, Beth of Cassandra Pages had a nasty Tuesday night; head on over and wish her well…
13 October 05
Office Harvest
It’s a fine fall day when one arrives at work to see bins of purple grapes outside, the laden vines being scooped into the 13-foot tall contraption that separates the stalks from the grapes!
Yes, I share a building with viticulture folks.
11 October 05
We Arrive Home to the Plumber
“We go brass to copper, galvanized is no good, we’ll be fine. Teflon inside.”
“Oh, no, this is great” (in response to an offer of a blanket to lie on)
“We may have to drill through the sheetrock, gotta see what we got here”
“They ain’t gonna warranty shit, are they?”
11 October 05
Look Out For Your Vegetables
The full moon will be here in a week, and there might be garden-ravaging beasties about. That is to say, we went to “The Curse of the Wererabbit”, the new Wallace & Gromit movie, this evening. It’s an excellent movie. Poor Gromit! He is such a long-suffering companion.
Sadly, Aardman Animation just suffered a terrible fire, losing the warehouse where sets and props from the first three Wallace & Gromit films were stored.
9 October 05
Walk, and Baseball
We walked into campus today to get the paper. It’s not that far—2 miles—but Numenius made the mistake of saying the word “Wuffles” while we were in the middle of silently kicking an oak gall forward, which I mistook for “waffles,” and so we ended up walking all the way to Cafe Bernardo for brunch.
(“Wuffles,” to the uninitiated, is the name of Pratchett’s Lord Havelock Vetinari’s mangy terrier. Vetinari is the closest thing in contemporary fiction to Machiavelli. It’s said the dog is the only thing he really cares about. Why Numenius said this word at this time is still a matter of some conjecture.)
The Astros managed to eliminate the Braves over 18 innings, the longest game in post-season history. The Yanks squeaked through 3-2 and will now head to Anaheim for the deciding game.
It ends so quickly, the baseball season, forcing us to ponder how on earth we’re going to get through the winter…
9 October 05
Hug Your Local Archivist
This is California Archives Week, an occasion perhaps not on most people’s calendars, but in celebration the California State Archives had an open house today in Sacramento. We went to this event, which featured displays from several of the archives in the vicinity (such as Sacramento State University and UC Davis), and then a behind-the-scenes tour through the state archives. My inner librarian comes out at such moments. Archivists are a bit different than run-of-the-mill librarians. For one thing, they think in terms of cubic feet—as in they just acquired 3500 cubic feet of papers from former governor Pete Wilson, but they’re prohibited from looking at them for another 50 years.
For records concerning juveniles the time period is 75 years. The archivist who lead our tour had on display a volume open to documents concerning a lad who ran away from home in 1923. He fled San Francisco bound for Los Angeles, and before being picked up got as far as San Jose entirely on roller skates!
7 October 05
Enhorabuena
I don’t have children so I can barely imagine what it must feel like to give birth to a baby who within seconds has medical personnel screaming for oxygen, transfusions, needles, and who is then whisked off to intensive care.
This happened to some friends of my parents’ in Spain some 33 years ago. Aránzazu was born with a hole in the heart. By age 12 she’d had at least five open heart surgeries.
She got married last week in the village of Aránzazu in the Basque country, and she wore the biggest of her scars like a precious necklace, urging us all to embrace life, the life she’d had to fight so hard for.
Hermosa, te queremos mucho…
7 October 05
Daily Habit
The Daily Kitten is always good for a smile, even on a bleak day.
5 October 05
Adobe CS2
Mostly a new version of software is much like the old with a bit of razzmatazz thrown in so you’ll buy it.
There’s plenty of razzmatazz in CS2, most notably the incredible vanishing point in Photoshop, but how many buildings am I realistically going to change the siding on, unless I suddenly start DeChirichoising my newsletters?
Some of the new features, though, will save me a ton of work. The object style in InDesign, the live trace feature in Illustrator, and the new Bridge browser across the platforms. Installed today. I’m looking forward to having a bit of a design session indulgence over the weekend.