More wildlife
Yep. I’m there. I’m so tired I bailed on bell practise tonight: this is the once a month practise at the next village over, where hearing the bells going again was going to rouse some local talent. Over a year after the monthly practises began, as supported by people like Niall and yours truly, we have exactly as many locals as we did when we started up: one. The nice lady who has the key, and lets us in. I go unless I’m dead, but the district practise was being held there tonight—there’s a district practise once a month, each at a different tower, and the idea is that it’ll both pull a few really good ringers, so the local band can try stuff it usually can’t, and it’s also a good excuse for the hoi polloi to visit a strange tower under cover of numbers—and I drove over hoping that the place would be heaving, so I could turn tail and crawl home. It was not only heaving, but included two of the really good Scariest Ringers** we have, and I would so not be missed.
I wanted to link you to the Guardian’s terrific photo, a few days ago, of the Whitechapel bell foundry but I can’t find it on line. I’ve just done one of my rapidly-becoming-notorious-time-engulfing-searches . . . you’d think I’d be getting better at it . . . and I can’t find it. Anyone cleverer than me—the Guardian [newspaper] has a photo series called Eyewitness. It has some amazing images. This is one of them. I suppose it could be a copyright issue, but why isn’t there a little listing, for the pathetically obstinate, saying, we can’t run this photo for copyright reasons so stop wasting your time looking?
But here are a few others. Forgive me for the school-project one but I thought it was kind of interesting, and a pretty good summary of the basics. I’ve probably learnt most of my English history out of cramming texts for taking O-levels and A-levels*** for example. Very useful if you like reading obscure biographies and/or folk histories that are so recondite that their authors assume you already know the bigger picture or you wouldn’t know to want to be crouched over here in a corner with their book and your magnifying glass.†
http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_my_p_workers/0_my_photos_workers_whitechapel_bell_foundry_1hh07.jpg
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/04_02/bellsDM1004_800x545.jpg
http://www.projectexplorer.org/ms/se/keywords/whitechapel.php
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1503802_3qGhY/1/72129948_XomNH#72129948_XomNH
Now about those cats in boxes. There were a lot of reactions to my outburst about the Schrodinger increased sample size:
They’re cats. Cats sit in boxes. It’s not a case of getting them to do it; usually it’s the other thing, pleading with them not to. I have been sorting out my tax receipts. Six boxes, all lined up. The fun two cats can have, bouncing from box to box, curling up on piles of receipts, digging madly to send all the receipts into all the other boxes…
Easy. Put the boxes on the floor, put something snuggly in them, and then firmly tell the cats to stay out of those boxes. My cats regularly cram themselves into cardboard boxes far smaller than their actual bodies, so they look like little furry muffins poofing out at the top.
The Schrodinger picture actually originally appeared on Cute Overload. You can see the entry here:
And someone yelled, Shrodinger! And ran for his/her camera. Ahhhhh. Of course. Duh. I’d assumed that someone had this bright idea first, and set it up to photograph. Not that they’d seized a brilliant opportunity. Thus we see demonstrated that even fantasy authors get all dull and literal-minded at the wrong moments.
*Please don’t destroy my illusions^ of an elite, literate community by telling me that someone out there doesn’t know Calvin and Hobbes.
^ I just typed ‘elusions’. Hmmmm.
** These are the nice variety of Scary Ringer however as opposed to the pigbutt variety. Or I might have felt compelled to stay and demonstrate solidarity.
*** Which are or were national tests you took over here sometime between 14 and 16 years old on specific subjects. How many of ’em you pass counts in stuff like university applications. They’re also just nonsense snob stuff, unfortunately, as tests so often are. If you get a lot of them then you’re a Better Person. Bite me.
† A situation perhaps not wholly unlike writing piano music when you can barely play with both hands at the same time.
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My Siegfried kitty still thinks he fits in those tubular 12-pack pop boxes…. at 16 lbs. he gets stuck once he gets his head, forelimbs and shoulders in. And at about 14 months he’s still quite irrepressible.
Oh I’m sure they missed you! I’m glad you have enough brain (maybe BARELY enough, but it’s enough!) to blog tonight, otherwise your adoring fans would have missed you! ;)
Here, I have a quick ferret link for you. The other day, Austin shed. (With ferrets, they usually do it poof, all at once. Mostly all at once. Twice a year.) I pulled *handfuls* of fur out — it was already loose and didn’t hurt him one bit, but he pretends otherwise — and…he changed colors. Before and after pictures:
http://jmeadows.livejournal.com/582343.html
Now you get some rest! The hellhounds will probably need *extra* walking in the morning, just to make things difficult. ;)
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Why is this horrible machine eating my replies????? I SAID, I hope my hellhounds don’t change colour! And that I like the background–we have a couple of Perfect Fit Gates!!!
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Your hellhounds are definitely beautiful the way they are!
I’ll have to dig out baby pictures of Suzi and Diego for you. You wouldn’t recognize them! But they were very young when they started changing, so I thought it was over…but Austin is four years old. I guess he’s going grey in his middle-aged-ness? ;)
The baby gate is really wonderful. It lets me have the door open in here, which is really important during the winter and summer. We don’t have central air or heat (the house is over 70 years old!), so it gets really cold or really hot in here really fast.
The ferrets like the box, too. They’ve been stashing their toys in it. I’m going to have to throw it away eventually, though. It’s starting to look worn. :D
Can the hellhounds get over your gates? Obviously they cause enough trouble for a ferret, but the hellhounds look rather…springy.
They can, but (mostly) they don’t. Last time Chaos did he was SEVERELY CHASTISED. :)
Sounds like teething problems. Hellcritter teething problems. It will be fine. :) It will.
::Hands over the chocolate milk and virtual mud cake with lashings of dark chocolate ganache::
Hellcritter teething problems
LOL! Yes!
http://3276.e-printphoto.co.uk/guardian/index.cfm?z=z&y=y&p_id=7827772&c_id=42104&action=view
is this it?
The picture from the Guardian?
i did several searches, and this looks like it might be the right website, if not the right picture…
yay.
If not, I’ll keep looking.
i too am far too good at the notorious time-engulfing search. FAR too good at it.
sigh.
hugs and chocolate and hopes you get some sleep!
–Julia
YES. You brilliant person. Can you magic it into being either bigger or not having the copyright stamps on it? One or the other would make it easier to see what you’re looking at. Although now that I know I can ORDER YOUR VERY OWN copy . . .
THANK YOU. :)
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I can try?
very nice to be called a brilliant person, as i feel anything but brilliant at the moment. especially when it is you calling me brilliant. yay.
now i get to keep working on my paper in which I call YOU brilliant, in a roundabout way, or at least am equating you to Mark Twain, which is a mark of brilliance and awesome-wonderful-inspiringness if nothing else.
except I can’t seem to do anything other than stare at a blank word document, then open up firefox and do more research– I am GOOD at doing research. Not so good at stopping, reading through the massive amount of information I have accumulated, and then actually setting words to paper.
so maybe I’ll procrastinate a bit longer, and try to locate a copy of the picture that is larger/ sans copyright stamp.
I still have several hours to kill before I have to interview for the theme house dorm thing I am trying to get into for next semester– it is just after 8.00 now, and my interview isn’t until 11.30. which is kind of crazy, but whatever.
I’ll go look for the picture now.
:)
except I can’t seem to do anything other than stare at a blank word document, then open up firefox and do more research– I am GOOD at doing research. Not so good at stopping, reading through the massive amount of information I have accumulated, and then actually setting words to paper.
********* this is a problem with LIFE so better start learning to cope with it NOW.
So i found it without the copyright stamps. i didn’t want to post until I found one that was larger. But I wasted [spent] WAY too much time. so then I thought I could just enlarge the picture that i found. so i tried that on photoshop. I’m still fiddling with it, but i will send you the smalll-ish but clear copyright-stamp-less image. i don’t know if i can attach it to a comment post thing, so maybe i should just email it to you. that’s what I’ll do. I have to go to class soon, but in a few hours when I get back, i’ll send an email with the picture and the link to where i found it, and the other sites i searched, if you want…
Yay.
:)
Don’t flunk anything! ****Sweating**** Thank you and all that–and if it’s bells I’ll always find it interesting–but GO TO YOUR CLASSES. (And don’t forget to EAT.)
p.s. did you just not choose to ‘unhide’ the comment thing I wrote prior to the one from this morning announcing my success– the one from the other night thanking you and blathering a lot [well, that narrows it down/ will help distinguish it from all the other comments I write to you! haha]
and stuff?
i moaned about writer’s block and praised you and so on. tuesday night.
8.00 ish (my time, that is)
???
or did it not get through for some reason?
Whatever.
Not a big deal.
must dash [again]– this time i am running off to acapella rehearsal.
hugs and happiness!
Julia
I have no idea. I’ve just caught up with the backlog so far as I know, so if it still hasn’t come through–send it again. Cursing optional. :)
NOOOOOOO! do I WANT to know?!??
I’m so sorry you’re suffering such a bad flareup, Robin. I can sympathize, as I’m pregnant, and that seems to cause a wonderful, nine month flareup of my fibromyalgia. And then I keep stupidly taking on freelance work that I have to get done.
Rest up and I hope you’re feeling more normal soon!
Oh golly, good luck! (How’s Klio?)
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She’s doing great and as hilarious as ever. My one-year old cries, and she says, “Oooooh,” sometimes followed by, “What’s wrong?” Most of my birds have had previous owners, but she really sells me on buying babies, because man, it’s nice to have a parrot who’s just silly and doesn’t have /issues/. She has foibles, of course, after all who doesn’t want head scritches before getting their food and water bowls changed out, but she doesn’t have complexes from previous humans.
I might change my mind once she really hits puberty and (in all likelihood, giving her present bonding to me) starts courting me more, but at the moment, my flock is behaving quite nicely and I’m basking in the wonderfulness of birds who mostly know they’re birds.
*****They sit on your good black coat (if they’re white or orange or tabby) or the white shirt you just ironed for the interview (if they’re black or orange or tabby), the kitchen counters, and the computer keyboard too, in very much the same spirit of devilment. They only do it to annoy/ because they know it teases.*****
Cats do love to be the center of attention. If you’re watching TV, you will soon observe a bizarre defect in the picture in the form of a cat tail hanging from the top. If you’re reading a newspaper, you will soon have to try to peer around a warm, furry body to see those latest sports scores.
*****Please don’t destroy my illusions of an elite, literate community by telling me that someone out there doesn’t know Calvin and Hobbes.*****
Oh, I MISS those daily installments! I remember being out of work on disability after one of my numerous misfortunes and reading one of the collections in book form. You go on and on, and eventually they have a collective effect on you and you start laughing so hard you risk doing yourself an injury. Not the safest thing to read when one is recovering from an injury!
Judith
“*Please don’t destroy my illusions^ of an elite, literate community by telling me that someone out there doesn’t know Calvin and Hobbes.”
No. Never. Not gonna happen. How could anyone not know the wonder that is Calvin and Hobbes?
There’s a comics service that every morning emails me a classic Calvin and Hobbes. Sometimes, it’s the only thing that gets me through the morning.
I must research how to format my comments here. Iis that even possible? Never mind, I am Research Woman, I will Figure It Out.
I wish you a good night’s sleep, and me one of those too, while I’m at it.
I love Calvin and Hobbes, and so does my 13-year-old son. He now owns all the trade paperbacks (picked them up a couple at a time through the Scholastic Book Club at school). And, the school’s library collection includes most of the trades – they get checked out a LOT by the kids. I’ve had to mend a couple, and replace a couple more that were too shopworn by umpteen-zillion readings. While there may possibly be a few ignorant adults out there, I think the younger generation has embraced Calvin and Hobbes with enthusiasm.
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But I would have walked a long stony road for a line like ‘so they look like little furry muffins poofing out at the top’.
That’s a high compliment, considerin’ the source and all! :) Glad it was evocative.
I think a good number of the photos on Icanhas and cuteoverload are opportunistic shots, it’s really hard to pose a cat effectively. I almost never get good photos of my beasts. This, on the other hand, might well be rigged: http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/04/just-dooooin-ma.html . Not because dogs don’t do that, but because the odds of the dog immediately scampering off yelling “chase me! whee!” when confronted in this manner seem ridiculously high.
And on that note, Orange Cat is insisting that I join him in a game of fetch rather than continue wasting time on this infernal machine…. If only I could photograph THAT. Hmm, might be time for Youtube footage.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS. :)
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Interesting foundry pictures–based on my very limited viewing (from the ground, outside) of bells in belfries, these looked small. Am I way off base?
I was impressed by Austin the quick-change ferret. Some Danes–fawn ones, usually–blow coat by getting these great white fuzzy patches of loose old hair that usually take days and days to come out–they look like your great-grandmother’s fur coat after the moths have been at it. I only had one that shed like that, and anyone would have thought she’d be bald after losing as much hair as finally came off. I can well believe that the pile of ferret hair would have looked bigger than two ferrets sitting side by side.
Yes, they are small. Although the one the fellow is face down in is a good medium sized! :)
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If it is any consolation I also thought somebody had put the cats in boxes on purpose and at the same time; however, I used to have a mind like a sieve and now I’ve deteriorated into a goldfish-memory (I will literally forget what I opened my mouth to say) so probably not:).
(And I’m 36! Heaven help me in the future…)
We had national tests here in Sweden too – I suppose they still do, but since they changed basically everything a few years after I left – what do I know? (Please feel free to ignore following rant: The Swedish one included writing an essay – about a subject our teacher said would be easy and we’d all know about – by which I immediately concluded it would be something about which I knew nothing. I was, unfortunately, right. Tourism – a class trip to Visingsö was all my experience of it. I’d been to other countries – a car trip from Sweden to Pakistan in 1977 before all h— broke loose over there and of which I, sadly, remember very little – and visits to relatives – but not tourism. There was supposed to be an option for which one did not need to present one’s own opinions – there wasn’t. The national test weighed very heavily in your grade – very heavily. In the autumn term my grade had been 5 and I graduated with 4. I still resent it – not because it has had A Great Effect on my life or anything – but just because I am an unforgiving person. When a certain locality freezes over…)
I’d like to say about the new blog – it’s much easier on the eye, so to say. From a visual perspective.
LRK
This is the sort of thing that happens with mass testing. I got chewed up by the system too and it bothered *me*. I really don’t give a flying any more, but when you’re young you haven’t got much else to offer yet and test results are *bullies.*
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“They’re also just nonsense snob stuff, unfortunately, as tests so often are. If you get a lot of them then you’re a Better Person. Bite me.”
Aargh! OK, your blog, your rules, of course. So I’m dragging my teeth back from the vicinity of your virtual leg! :)
Just for interest, what system would you have, that would allow 16/17/18 year olds (or many older students) to demonstrate what they were capable of in terms of knowledge and skills (given that at 16 – 18 they’re unlikely to have much of a CV)? I think an awful lot of youngsters are currently being taught too much about how to pass exams, rather than being encouraged and supported in developing an enthusiasm for and pride in learning as a life skill. However, finding a way to demonstrate both potential and achievement within a mass system is a problem that concerned people have been wrestling with for years – admittedly without having found an ideal solution yet that is responsive to all needs.
And – I’ve just got back from a long day in Birmingham to find that the suddenly blazing April sun has today scorched some of the seedlings I had in the greenhouse. Aargh!! (again) Bl**dy floods one minute, now this!
You’ve answered your own question–and I agree with the other side of it. The only point I was trying to make (gods, think of how many toes I’d step on if I were TRYING. There usually IS another side. There are, for example, Microsoft engineers who KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOING) is that one of the effects of the test system is that people use it to set up a false hierarchy of superiority. As a lifelong bad tester, this is a sore subject for me too. From the other side.
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As someone who was always good at tests, I have to say, if it isn’t test results it’s something else. There is always a bunch of people who will do their best to feel superior and make you feel inferior. Unfortunately, you usually have to deal with them before you get the tools to help you cope. Being better able to connect to books rather than to people also doesn’t help. But then I spent a good deal of my childhood and adolescence avoiding humans in all forms, for as long as I could, and living through books. It has much to commend it, but I wish I’d looked around at some of the people more, as well…