Monday AMuse

from artistic

to absurd

from traditional

to tacky

Happy Hanukkah

SundayStills - technology

You may recall awhile back I mentioned my broken television.

Well, it took until yesterday to get a replacement. Mostly because I will put off anything for another day if I can, but partly because I realized I did not miss having a television all that much. all that much. but still a little. (and lordy, has it been that long?!)

I was house sitting for another neighbour last week and during a period of non-sleep, I thought, I'll just wander downstairs and see if her plants need watering... and who is on Ellen... and maybe catch up on Y&R, the news, then Corrie... by the time Jeopardy and a repeat of The Office came on I realized, maybe, just a little.

Then my cable bill came in. I looked at how much money I had wasted spent without enjoying any of the benefits of the transaction. So a deal was struck and I came home with a second hand television.

Except, I cannot get the blessed thing to work. It looks simple enough - you put the colour coded cable thingies into the correct colour coded bits, plug it in and voila! But there was no voila!
There was a bit of merde! and a few other choice words as I manoeuvred and plugged and unplugged, then sat on hold for 15 minutes with the cable guys. Then had an almost incomprehensible conversation that included the words 'coloured thingies' and 'the thicker cable' (oh the shame).

Now, I'm thinking it was not the fault of the television set at all, but the digital cable box. There seems to be a loose connection because of certain noises it makes when certain cable thingies are jostled. All of which is strange as that little box has not moved from its prominent position on top of the television set since it was set up a few years ago.

I hate technology, sometimes.

But, this is a photo challenge and I am up for it.

Look at the sleekness of this beauty. It is elegant. It swivels and tilts. It is incredibly lightweight.

You can't even buy a big-assed television set like the one under my newer sleeker model.

Isn't technology grand, sometimes?

tweets in the 19th century?

Every morning around 6 am I get a special email. Courtesy of The Telegraph: an online novel by Alexander McCall Smith. It is reminiscent of the old serial novels. One chapter a day. Just enough to keep you engaged and hanging on for the next installment. No cheating and reading further ahead. No reading on and on until you fall asleep and disrupting the flow of the story by an inopportune stop. The chapter ends and you wait...

I consider it my bedtime story. The most fun part is that you can even have the chapters read to you by Andrew Sachs - he who was Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
And if you haven't experienced any of Alexander McCall Smiths' books, I am here to tell you he is a delightful read.

The first serial, The Corduroy Mansions began a year ago and ran for 100 chapters. This story, The Dog Who Came In From The Cold, is book two and has been running since September. You can find the story here.
Novel serialisations are an old art form, probably best and most famously done by Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens. And last week, I heard that there is an online publication of Wilkie Collins' A Woman In White. Celebrating its 150th anniversary, it is being reproduced in its original form every week. The story first appeared as a serial in a Charles Dickens' periodical and is available to read in its "original tightly compact form of 19th century typography" or, much easier on the eyes, as a pdf that can be delivered right to your inbox every Monday. It will take until August 22, 2010 to reach the end of the gripping tale.

We are already up to Chapter Three, but you can catch up quickly by going here
and you can subscribe by emailing Paul Lewis at paul@paullewis.co.uk
AND there is MORE!
You can even follow tweets of Wilkie's life as his novel was being published during 1859-1860!
How much fun is that? Well, what are you waiting for? You have to get reading.

Monday AMuse

SundayStills - pets

Absynthe

What do you mean "I want a picture, look cute?"

I was sleeping... and I'm going back to sleep.

Go take a picture of the turtle...

oops, Otis isn't too happy about this photo taking either.

Abby is now 14 years old and Otis is an astounding 25 years old.
Neither are terribly cuddly.
Luckily, only the cat likes to sleep on my chest.

Pets was the first Sunday Stills photo challenge a year ago, and we are revisiting the same challenge with dozens of newer participants (myself included), so check out the other pets who rule over us here.

another postcard

Apa Khabar?

How are you? in Malay.

Absynthe and I received a postcard from Brunei today! I bet none of you have ever had a card from Brunei, have you?

I bet most of you couldn't find Brunei on a map - I found out it wasn't quite where I expected it to be when I looked it up.

So, here are some facts about Brunei:

> it is a Sultanate formed in the 14th Century and was a British Protectorate for nearly 100 years

> Brunei (pronounced /bruːˈnaɪ/ in English), officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: بروني دارالسلام), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia

> it is one of the smallest countries on earth, being only a little over 2200 sq mi.

> His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah is the head of state

> a soul and jazz singer, known as Zul F, (Haji Mohammad ZulFakhari bin Haji Muksin) won the Brunei Idol in 2005, and sang before the Sultan at his 60th birthday party

> a Pittsburg Penguin, named Craig Adams, was born in Brunei and raised in Calgary

> the Istana Nurul Iman palace (meaning Palace of the Light of Faith) is the world's largest residential palace (and the world's largest residence of any type)

> the interior of Istana Nurul Iman was designed by Khuan Chew, Design Principal of KCA International, whose other works include the Burj-Al-Arab, Dubai

> it was built in 1984

> Brunei became independent from Britain in 1984

> oil wealth allows Brunei to have one of the finest health care systems in Asia

> there are five hospitals in Brunei

> the population of Brunei is around 385,000

> the government owns a cattle farm in Australia

> the farm is larger than Brunei itself

> Brunei's coastline is 161km

> the weather is tropical, hot, humid and rainy

> typhoons, earthquakes and severe flooding are rare in Brunei

info sourced from: wikipedia, lonelyplanet, cia factbook and tourism brunei

under a violet sky

Today, at about 2:45am it snowed. Sortof. It was more like a slightly whiter, slightly more crystallized rain, than snow. But, it was enough to get the woman at the checkout counter in the grocery store clapping her hands with excitement (seriously, clapping her hands?!) And then it was all over by about 3am.

But, it was after midnight.

And this has made all the local weather forecasters and climatologists, and morning radio people, almost giddy with excitement. Never, ever, ever since records began - and they began way back over 160 years ago - have we made it through this most dreary of months, this cold, sunless, usually wet month, November, with NO SNOW. Not a drop, nary a flake, nor even a flurry. In fact, for most of the month it was bright and warm and full of sunshine. And coloured leaves. Highly unusual, but most enjoyable.

There is now (at 6am) salt on the roads, though the skies are clear and the moon is shining brightly and the stars are fading... a storm is brewing...

For the past decade, I have been delivering papers and the first thing I do when I get up is look out at the sky. If I am going to be spending hours outside, I want to know what to expect. Is it clear, or foggy? Dark, or bright with snow? Is it a moonlit night? Are the stars shining?

Do I need to bag the newspapers, or can I get away with just an elastic band?

Can I spend the rest of the night daydreaming...? writing blog posts in my head?

Because that is when most of my posts get written.

In my mind, I can transform the sky from however it appears, to be beautiful, in a violet way. It can be a dark violet, or a pale violet. It can be a stormy evil violet, or an intense bright sunrise violet. No matter what is overhead, I imagine myself creating under a violet sky. When I see the stars, what few are on view, I get a renewed sense of awe. A lunar eclipse is magical. A sunrise is a reward.

There are some people in Ottawa who thought my blog name was vee-o-LET-ski. They were very wrong and have been set straight.

I am a Violet Sky.

Who is taking my coffee to bed to sleep off the morning. And wait for this "storm".

See how easy it is to change the sky view - get a medium cup and it is all brightly dark; get a large and we have the pale, dusty look.

This post was inspired in part by the lack of snow and in part by Ruth over at synch-ro-ni-zing who asked "how did you get your blog name"?

And in part by coffee.

Monday AMuse

not quite decked out cont'd

ah, so here we have the tree as it appeared early this morning.
that's better looking.

a bit dull on the ornaments, though you can't quite get an appreciation for how big these ornaments are are on this very tall tree.

but, when I went back this evening to capture it lit up -

look what had appeared!

notice how it is all so boringly colour coded with red and gold.

and then my flash blanched out all the strings of white lights

but they're there, as is a view through the window of one of the lamp posts that line the driveway.

.

a little anti-climactic, isn't it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday
tried again this morning, with a different camera.

hmmmm, see the colour difference between the old camera and the new one?
the new camera has a wide angle lens, so I could turn it sideways and get the whole tree in the shot, but I still have to figure out the night photos by the looks of it! both of these were taken on "automatic" setting.

not quite decked out

Yesterday, in the corner of the lobby by the window,
sat a lonely chair.

Today, the beginnings of a tree.

Apparently, this decorating lark needs to be done s-l-o-w-l-y.

It doesn't look like much now, but I am certain it will grow into something beautiful. Or maybe not. Maybe this is just an ordinary sized tree on an very long pole?

And it's hard to see in this shot, because the ceiling is so very tall,
but the top branch is squished!
Now, how will they fit the star, or angel, on top?