http://www.elizabethperry.com/woolgathering/2009/11/carrot-stick-1.html

( twitty stuff I said today - cut for your pleasure (or not!) )

Joel Salatin is an important person.

http://xkcd.com/662/

• 14:47 Delta's streak of bad press isn't over: RT @ajc: Delta suspends pilot jailed for alleged private plane hijinks. bit.ly/2hFxxb
• 14:54 Serial Bank Robbers in Atlanta: www.wsbtv.com/news/21581392/detail.html
• 14:55 Some hopeful news about small businesses, hiring and healthcare: tinyurl.com/y8egzrx
• 16:28 Firefox randomly deleted all my cookies again. *grr*
• 20:29 Leaving ~6:15 am for Savannah tomorrow. Debating whether I should shower tonight or tomorrow morning. Getting up early either way...

art by Virgil Finlay




( more art by Virgil Finlay )

I am at over 17k words. Need to be at 20k by the end of the night to be completely caught up with the "deadline." I think I'll make it - I'm on a roll.

I hear it gets easier at the 25k mark. I'm starting to get in the swing of it. It takes practice to let go of it having to be good and say things just right and be organized just so. Some of it isn't making a whole lot of sense. In some areas I'm saying way too much and in other areas that are keenly important to me my brain is completely dry. All that can come later.

I took a crack at writing the blurb on the back of the book today as a focusing exercise. It helped me know what I'm trying to write, the people I'm writing for and the problems I'm trying to solve in the writing.

Not sure if it was the day off or other things but at least today I didn't feel all grumpy and grouchy. But I was working from home today (and made spinach lasagna). We'll see tommorrow.

I'd write more but someone doesn't want to go to bed and is next to me reading the menu of a new restaurant in town - the Viking Restaurant (what would a Viking eat).

He just read "2 Litter Soda Bottles" - I have to chuckle at that one :)

To Montreal first thing tomorrow, with The Cloyce and Lorenzo. We’re going by train. The dogs are in kennels already; they love it there. I return Sunday, by-passing Nanookville completely and going direct to Toronto, where I’m at a research conference until Tuesday. I’ll be giving a presentation on the evaluation of the stigma campaign. Meirion and the others are staying in Montreal one day longer than I am, so they’ll be returning Monday.

We’re lucky. The Montreal trip was a prize that Meirion won for collecting the most money for our Local AIDS Walk in September. VIA Rail donated first class return train tickets and the two night’s hotel stay.

So I likely won’t be back on here until Wednesday. In the meantime, you'll behave, won't you?

Tonight I scan the horizon

for the next burst of imagination.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Finally, a proper portrait of Julia, so you can see her in all her sweetness!

• 18:54 @kenmyers then I'llbe seeing you on Saturday #
• 09:11 @kenmyers Yayee. I might get to meet the Bexter. #
• 09:23 Hey TWEEPS I'll be in Little Rock tomorrow and Saturday. #
• 16:51 @AmyDJohnson #PromiseofJustice ME too. and look hashtag #
• 17:50 haaaa RT @hypercubicle: @wernertplays Now that I think about it, didn't you enter the Miss Hendrix pageant? I bet I've got photos at home. #

As of tomorrow, I will no longer have a television (because it belongs to James) or internet at home (because I can't afford it).

I wonder if having less distractions will make me more productive and/or less depressed.

Guess we'll see!

Holy Mary, Mother of Goddess ... did I do something to piss you off? If I did, I am sorry. I cannot begin to express how sorry I am. Really, really, really sorry.

So do you think you could hand out some of that patience you usually have in stock? Because NotSoLittleAnyMore! and I sat down to do homework and she's left THE ASSIGNMENT BOOK at school. Yes, the assignment book. She's on her way back to school at this very minute to retrieve it.

I can't decide whether to laugh or beat my head on the wall, I really can't.

A sadly bass-less version of The Future. From the basement, with lead guitar overlay.

http://www.reverbnation.com/c./poni/6717539

We've made some additions and improvements to Notes!

The Notes feature has been added to two action-taking pages:

• You can now add a Note directly on the Add a friend page - handy if you'd like to mark down where you met them or another name you know them by!
• On the Ban and unban users page (under Account -> Privacy) you can now add a Note, including to a group of users all banned at the same time (so that next year you won't need to ask yourself "hey, why did I ban these guys?")

• When you're viewing your existing Notes they're grayed out; click in a field to activate it to change the text (this page can be found from the header by using Profile -> Manage Notes)
• Changes to editing:
  • When you're going to create a new Note but one already exists, you'll get a warning that you're editing an existing Note
  • You can now delete a note from the "Edit note" pop-up in the hover menu
  • You can now delete notes for multiple selected users on the Manage notes page
  • When you change Notes on "Ban|unban users" page, they can be edited and saved with "Save Changes" button

these are all shots of a single two ton block of azurite and malachite at tohono chul park in tucson.

Notes augmented

We've enhanced and de-bugged Notes. If you haven't tried it yet, now's the time! You can create a private note when you ban multiple users. You can also delete multiple notes at once. Lastly, paid users have the option to add a note (visible only to you) whenever you add or remove a friend (guaranteed to avoid embarrassing social mishaps). If you don't currently have a paid account, you can upgrade now! It only takes a few minutes and costs less than a bad shopping mall haircut (plus, it's way more fashionable)!

Product tweaks and bug kill

1. In another effort to zap spam, comments containing links from domains LiveJournal deems untrustworthy are now automatically screened
2. If you sign up to get notifications of the Writer's Block question of the day, you'll now see the daily question in the email notification, so you'll have a little extra time to ponder before you post. You can subscribe to Writers Block notifications here
3. The issue causing random comments to vanish has been fixed!
4. If you visit a LiveJournal page and get prompted to log in, you'll be returned to the same page after you sign in (Thanks, Dreamwidth)!
5. If you don't edit the timestamp for an entry at all, the entry timestamp will indicate the time the entry was posted instead of the time the Update Journal page was loaded
6. Comments with paddings/backgrounds render correctly within the comment box (and will no longer wrap outside the box and break frames/margins)

New FCK fixes rich text editor!

1. We've updated our RTE (Rich Text Editor) to FCKeditor version 2.6.5
2. When switching from the RTE to HTML editor, links for syndicated feeds are no longer broken
3. RTE now functions properly in Safari 4.0
4. An extra line/space will not be auto-inserted whenever you switch from RTE to HTML editor
5. The insert image link now works correctly in all browsers

LiveJournal Cares

We’re pleased to introduce you to lj_cares, a new LiveJournal community dedicated to raising awareness and funds for U.S. charitable organizations that improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Each month, we’ll spotlight a nonprofit that is making a significant global impact through medical research, public outreach, and/or humanitarian social programs. Charities will be selected in accordance with the U.S. calendar of national health observances based on a high rating (of over 60%) on Charity Navigator and global scope of impact.

In this, our inaugural month of November, we will celebrate national adoption month by offering a charitable virtual gift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that saves the lives of orphans with life-threatening diseases and places them in loving homes around the world. LiveJournal will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of charitable vgifts (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares and read about how they helped save Baby Kang and the Rainbow Twins from fatal illnesses, who are now thriving in nurturing families. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries gifts in the Virtual Gift shop.

Papered in postcards

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to send in postcards to surround us with LiveJournal community. Thanks for coming through! We've received postcards all the way from Germany, Finland, and Canada and from all over the US, including Texas, Florida, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, Hawaii, and Oklahoma just to name just a handful. We're thrilled with our improved decor.

Please keep the love coming for one more week by writing to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be drawing the names of ten random contributors next Thursday to win paid account credits!

Photos of the week

We have more dazzling images posted by talented LiveJournal photographers from around the world. We're hoping to span the entire globe, so please continue posting and tagging. Of course, you can also sit back and enjoy the view at lj_photophile.

You can see a sample of this week's gorgeous photos and check out spotlight communities and awesome user content after the jump!

Curtains

We thank you, once again, for joining us. See you next week!

Originally published at The Many Hats of Jason Specland. Please leave any comments there.

This is a pretty new blog (or rather, a new location for a pretty old blog), and I’ve already spent a great deal of time extolling the virtues of my beautiful and talented wife, Paula.

Well, I’m going to have to do that again, so bear with me.

My wife is part of a truly wonderful musical group known as “The Icky House Club.”

I’ve actually known all three members of this group for quite a while.  Naturally, I’ve known my wife for a good long time.  Carlos, the other singer, is a very good friend of mine with the most gorgeous tenor voice you’ve ever heard.  We were in a production of “Children of Eden” together.  (He played Adam.  I played third schlub from the left.)  Mickey, the guitarist, front-man, songwriter, and other other singer is also a good, long-time friend, although I’ve actually known him as a performer and songwriter for longer than I have as a friend.  He, too, is brilliant.

The musical result is a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts.  I’ve seen different incarnations of Mickey’s bands before, but Mickey, Paula, and Carlos make a perfect trio of vocal harmonies.  It’s as smooth and rich as butter wrapped in silk.

I don’t go around plugging shows all that often, and I wish there was a way to convince you that it’s not just because Paula’s my wife, and Carlos and Mickey are my friends.  They really are that good.  Please, if you can, do me a favor and go check out their show.  I promise, upon my honor, you won’t regret it.

The Icky House Club: Lost in Playland
With Special Guest: Uke Skywalker
Friday, November 13, 2009, at 7:00 PM
The Duplex: 61 Christopher St., NYC
$10 cover and 2 drink minimum

it's time to make a change, but i don't know where to begin.

So far today's been less exciting than yesterday, and that's a good thing. Yesterday started off with getting rear-ended on the way to our respective offices; the guy two cars back from me failed to stop in time and hit the car behind me, shoving it into my rear bumper. Luckily, the only obvious damage to my car is a slightly-bent license plate and a couple scratches on the bumper and it didn't seem like anyone was injured. I now see why people are tempted to leave the scene; we stood around in the cold and the rain for about an hour and a half waiting to get all the paperwork filled out and the police report filed.

Anyway, the main point of the post: I'm feeling inclined to go foraging in a thrift store or two this weekend to see what I can find. Anyone interested in joining me for an expedition to Unique Thrift Store in Silver Spring (on New Hampster just off the Beltway). I'm thinking early afternoon on Saturday, although if anyone really wants to go and can't until Sunday I'm game for that too.

In case you needed another endless distraction from the rest of your life from the Van Gogh Museum:

The artist speaks
9 October 2009 - 3 January 2010

From 9 October 2009 to 3 January 2010 Van Gogh's letters will take centre stage in the exhibition Van Gogh's letters: The artist speaks. More than 120 original letters will be on show alongside the works that Van Gogh was writing about. These important documents have seldom or never been shown to the public due to their extreme fragility and sensitivity to light.

The combination of more than 300 works from the museum's own rich collection, including paintings, drawings, letters and letter sketches, offers a penetrating and comprehensive insight into Van Gogh as letter writer and as artist.

Especially for this exhibition the Van Gogh Museum has been able to secure the loan of three special letters from Vincent van Gogh to the artist Emile Bernard (1868-1941) from The Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

‘There are so many people, especially among our pals, who imagine that words are nothing. On the contrary, don’t you think, it’s as interesting and as difficult to say a thing well as to paint a thing.’
Vincent van Gogh to Emile Bernard, 19 April 1888

I'm taking a four day class an hour and a half south of where I live. This makes for long 12 hour days but it just feels so freaking good to be learning something to be receiving input rather than giving output all day long. Also, I initially dreaded waking up at 6:30 but the drive in has been wondrous, morning light, fog, mountains, tips of fir trees, farm valleys, trumpeter swans in empty fields.
Oh beauty!
Oh life!
I am full of gratitude at the moment.

Originally published at The Many Hats of Jason Specland. Please leave any comments there.

This is mostly for my own educational benefit.  Feel free to ignore, especially if you’re not into improv esoterics.

Yesterday evening was my fourth improv class, and my third attempt at performance on the stage of the PIT during their Wednesday night Improdome free-for-all.  To recap: My first performance was a miserable failure.  My second was an encouraging success.   Last night, my third performance, has turned out to be an instructive failure.

It’s interesting to discover that the primary problem that ended my improv “career” before it could really start is the same primary problem I’m experiencing now:  Not trusting my partners leads me to jump headlong into huge initiations and I kind of “take over” the scene, which never actually goes well.

Sometimes I think the solution to that problem is to hang back a bit, and wait for my partner’s initiation.  That’s somewhat useful, but not entirely so, especially when you do have a strong initiation in mind, and your partner does not.  And if your partner does not have a strong initiation, the panic sets in, and there goes the trust, and then… things don’t go well.

After analyzing my performance both in class and on stage last night, I think that it’s not strong initiations I should fear.  It’s initiations that are not grounded in emotional honesty.  My mind conjures the situation so fast that it doesn’t take the time to put any flesh on the bones of the character, which comes out as a broad stereotype at best.  Taking just a brief moment to imbue the character with some emotional truth will probably help a lot.

There’s a reason that the bible of the craft is called “Truth in Comedy.”  When I got home last night, I pulled the book from my shelf.  I haven’t read it in years.  It’s time to crack it open, before I set foot on the improv stage again.

In other news.....

OTTAWA (AFP) - "Thatcher has died," read the short text message that kicked off a brief diplomatic flurry among members of Canada's parliament and their advisors at a black tie dinner this week, said local media Thursday.

Upon learning the "news" via mobile or Blackberry at a soiree honoring Canadian military families Tuesday, some 2,000 shocked Conservatives, said to revere the Iron Lady of British politics, and their advisors reportedly huddled to discuss a reaction.

The prime minister's office called Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street to confirm that Margaret Thatcher had indeed passed away -- baffling British officials, CanWest News Service said.

It turned out the message was sent by Canadian Transport Minister John Baird from his home in Toronto to a person at the gala dinner to say his beloved 16-year-old gray tabby cat, named for Margaret Thatcher, 84, had died.

The recipient then forwarded it to others.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office was not immediately available for comment.