Another Format Test, this time of Ecto

OK, here's how it is. I'm fighting Ecto's desire to add both the paragraph break and the basic break after each sentence.
I really don't like that.
Viewed in the HTML editor, they aren't there. But post them…

Whidbey artists

I scored some major enthusiasm today by visiting the Made Right on Whidbey show up in Coupeville, WA.

I went originally to see Linnane Armstrong and her woodcuts, but as I wandered about, I stumbled across Bev McQuary with some of her lampwork beads! I hadn't read closely enough to discover that she was going to be there.

To make this short, I came home with a boat-load of enthusiasm for getting back to art. Oh, sure, I took some pictures of the flames in the wood stove yesterday, as sources for doing custom flame paint jobs (haha, like I'll ever get back to doing that), and have been doing paper miniatures for wargaming, but really: these two are real artists with work to show and sell.

I managed to avoid descending into wood block prints (having done some before as well as serigraphs), but I find myself all fired up (no pun intended) to light the torch and make some beads.

Imagine! I want to make something!

Scanner's Dilemma

One of my sisters gave me our grandmother's doll book. The book was made in the early 1900s and each outfit was handmade from scraps of clothes my grandmother acquired from her sisters and aunts.

Each outfit has a long page of darling text, added some fifty years later.

The thing is, receiving this book reminded me that I hadn't finished the last photo album yet. I went to the computer to remind myself how far I'd gotten.

Not far enough. But I saw that I had not made adequate backup of what was there, so I set about burning DVDs to record it. That lead me to check on the other things, including the withering web site. Oh dear! I haven't changed it in ages. I better look into that.

I discovered that the older software I had used did not survive the upgrade to the Mountain Lion OS upgrade. While I was debating the merits of using TextWrangler to manually manage the site, I got an email from CircusPonies saying that for a limited time, I could buy macFlux, an almost-WYSIWYG editor.

I bought it. I ported the old site to the new program. Reading about the new macFlux, I got off onto HTML5/CSS3 and the benefits of same.

I got a book or two on HTML5. I went looking for some samples. That sent me off to build two new sub-sites as experiments. One of them is for Hope's grandfather, Rene Weaver. I did his (Rene Weaver) and that reminded me of the genealogy projects I have going.

I renewed my account at Ancestry.com, and searched a few days for some missing pieces of information. Reading about my ancestors in my research reminded me that I needed to update my resumé.

When I finished the updated resumé, put it on the web, I remembered I wanted to add some pages for the conlang (constructed language) I have finished. It's used by the imaginary space faring race I sometimes write about.

That got me off on the obscure language tangent. I recalled an interest in the Washington state names that sound strange to a Californian. It turns out most of them are from Chinook Trade Speech.

Well, you can buy books about Chinook, so off to Amazon I went and bought one.

Which reminded me that I have budget issues. So I downloaded the latest statements from the bank and loaded them into Moneywell. Which reminded me that I am behind in the budget data.

Fortunately, the cats jumped up on the counter and dug into the dirty dishes, so I dropped everything to shoo them away.

I think it's time for lunch.

First day of Summer

A blistering Fourth of July!
When the thermometer hit 70F, I had to take the bike out for a spin. There are no flat rides on Whidbey, so the 30 miles I rode made me proud. And 1500 kcals burned are not to be sneezed at either.
With the hour of walking earlier plus a bit of yard work later, it was a good day.
Happy Independence Day to you all!



- Posted by iPod

Anchor Books

Anchor Books (Clinton, WA) is my new secret hang-out. Used books, really good coffee, and plentiful seating is a hard combo to beat.
One may sit out in the stacks in peace and quiet or at a cozy table to listen in on gossip!
They even have a jigsaw puzzle exchange and Thursday game night.
I like it here. Please don't stop by, OK?




- Posted by iPod

Maybe mobile will help

Using the iPod Margo helped me buy, I'm hoping to find it easier to post here. Content unlikely to improve in quality.


- Posted by iPod

I forgot to blog

I know. It happens to us all at some time or another. In the rush to keep living, I have I suppose that's fair, since I seldom read blogs either.
I'd sure like to know the answer to one question: why does anyone read a person's blog? Really. It's probably just me, but the things I have read are seldom worth the time it takes to read them. Certainly, that is true of what I have previously posted. I don't even read my own blog.
I do, however, make my living as a writer. Or did, until recently. (That's a whole other story). That means that I know how to write and do not consider it a trivial thing. Maybe that's the problem. Is blogging really writing? Or is it a form of diary one has no intention of keeping secret?
I don't really write in a diary, either. Except as a cathartic, I don't see the point. I have the diaries my grandmother and my mother kept, back in the days when a person bought a hardbound book for the year and wrote actual entries for each day. Most of the ones my grandmother wrote consist of "tired today" and little else. Some few are very sad. No happy entries. I guess I never gave much thought to whether or not she was happy while I knew her. Now that she's gone, there's not much I can do.

My mother's diaries are a bit happier, but I never knew her as she died when I was age two.
Is that what I leave for others to read when I'm gone? This blog? Man, how depressing is that?