Fun Monday: True Words from the Master

This week Robyn has given us this challenge for Fun Monday:

{P}lease share words that inspire and motivate you--brief or bloviatory, silly or serious, from great world leaders to last night's Comedy Central...from a Hallmark greeting card to your favorite book. Choose one, choose many; let the quotes stand on their own or...

Well there is no greater carpenter of words than Oscar Wilde. Here are a few of his most memorable quotes:

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

Ah, well, then I suppose I shall have to die beyond my means.



An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.

Finally,

A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.

(That goes for women too!)

On an Old Thought

While I was looking for another post (trying to remember how to embed bold face type) I encountered this unpublished draft from March of last year. How funny!

A Day in the Life

I get up. I meditate. Depending on how late I'm running, I may or may not do my yoga. I wolf down breakfast (usually eggs) and race to school to teach my first class. I grade papers and eventually get to go home so I can walk the dog and fix dinner. I grade more papers and do my reading for the next day (If I have had art class in the afternoon, I upload my recent progress or complain about my lack thereof and then have another cup of coffee. My husband almost always brings home a video - this week we have had one version after another of the Merchant of Venice!

The big difference is that the videos my husband is bringing home right now are different versions of Pride and Prejudice. Le Plus ca change... (Actually very little changes!)

A Curiosity

Here is something I have wondered about over the years. I am not originally from the frozen Northland, but in looking out my window longingly, this is not an uncommon sight.



The snow falls on the balustrade of our deck and leaves a scalloped pattern. The points are always directly above the posts. The valleys fall above the railing gaps. Sometimes the snow is an even cover of the handrail and sometimes it is decoratively wavy. I don't know why it settles in this cozy pattern and have often contemplated what could possibly make it choose just this geometric configuration. No doubt it has something to do with wind currents passing through the gaps, but I am always amazed when I see this lovely flourish and it is a reminder to be appreciative of the things I have and not continually waste my hours wishing for other times.

Those times will come and we appreciate them all the more for the wait. In the mean time we should drink in the sights of what we have around us. It is rarely as barren as we like to assume.

Low-fat Topping

So, I'm not too happy with the outcome, but I guess it will have to do. Here is the final version of the mosaic cap.



In case you are wondering about the homely model - the camera fisheyes at a close distance and I can only hold it over my head as far as my short little arms will reach. (Objects may appear farther away than they actually are! as it insists on all those mirrors.) I'm not saying I look better than this, simply that I look different.

Spring Daffodils

Okay, we have snow everywhere right now, so even though ChrisB was able to post pictures of her garden doffodils on March 1st, we won't be doing so for quite a while. SO...................... here are my Spring daffodils, fresh from the garden (er) center of the local grocery store. I know - its not very green of me to buy things shipped from elsewhere,



but sometimes one just needs a flower in one's life!! It helps me remember that some day in a neighborhood near me, Spring will really truly arrive.

Updated Cartoon

I thought the Easter holidays would provide me with lots of time to work on a little animation project that I have been wanting to do, but when I went in to the film lab, it turned out someone else had the same idea and my terminal was busy. That was okay, since I needed to draw my characters anyway. The topic is "a day in the life" and so here is my main character - a teacher who is having a rough day.



Here are the students in her class. A tough audience to say the least!

New Hat

Okay, here is the hat that I messed up so badly on yesterday. I ripped it out and fixed it and although I think it still needs a pom pom - at least you can see the pattern a bit from the picture.



I gotta pay my models more - this one sure isn't woking too hard at looking beautiful!!

What I am Working On

I was going to post a picture of the new hat I am knitting, but when I looked at it after several hours of work, I noticed a big mistake, so instead I'm going to show you the model characters for the cartoon I'm doing on "a day in my life." I don't draw very well on the computer and this would be so much quicker with a couple of magic markers and a pad of paper, but this is what I have so far. The teacher:



And here is part of the class:



That is about all for now.

Solitary stress

Well, I've been overworked and stressed out of late and I know you can see this from the quantity and quality of my recent non-blogs. I do have one good thing to report - I have broken my own record for incredible waste of time. Here is what I have done.



Now if I can only get to 50 wins in a row, I'm sure all my stress and troubles will disappear! (Or else I could get off my bottom and actually start taking care of some of the problems! Hmmmm.)

Twins anyone?

I saw this in the Sunday paper.



Baby sale, huh? Two for the price of one is a heckuva deal!

This is what I am working on right now.



The brown yarn is an alpaca/silk mixture and the white is dog hair. I spun both fibers and am making a cap to keep me warm during this endless Minnesota Winter.

Pensieve's Challenge

(crocuses courtesy of the bbc.com website)


Robin at Pensieve had a (now elapsed) challenge to finish the lines of her limericks and then write one of our own.

Fred, a green leprechaun
In Spring, flew a kite until dawn.
On Easter, so windy,
His shamrock kite got all bendy.
_________________________________

"Fly a kite!" you might want to shout.
When Poetic License I've asked you to tout.
Or perhaps, you'll agree
And you'll write two or three--
_____________________________________


Here are my responses

In Spring a wee leprechaun
flew his kite, a shamrock, 'til dawn.
One Easter, so windy,
His kite got so bendy.
it looked like a little green prawn

(The alternate line to that last one using her last recommended word "irish" is:

it looked like a green Irish prawn.
_________________________________


"Fly a kite!" you might want to shout.
When Poetic License I've asked you to tout.
Or perhaps, you'll agree
And you'll write two or three--
Or write none and sit home and pout
_____________________________________

She also challenged us to write our own limerick, but she is an amazing Eirophile and gave us a bunch of words that all shout to the world IRELAND. (Yes, I know why!) Well I have just finished racking my brain to do IRELAND in the poems above and I am tired of Leprechauns, Guiness and kites, so I wanted to have a different tone - not all of us live in a green world of rainbows and pots of gold.


As the season of lent has gone by
The talk is of blossoms and sky
Alas, the Spring crocus
Will hit Minnesota's
Gardens May, June .... or July.



(Actual Spring flowers in Minnesota from June (Smartstepfamilies.blogspot.com))

PImerella

My sister's movie:



A woman from outerspace has far out sex and tries to stop evil - all in a days' work for Pimerella.

Soylent Pork

Do pigs eat People's meat? Maybe I don't really want to know.

Look What target has!

These pictures are for my youngest sister!



She wanted gold, but there are only silver and blue (but they are way cheaper than the chairs she found from Japan!)



Go find some flowers!