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| The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2225] |
Sat, 25 October 2008 20:22  |
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The Rich Complexity of Life
Blogmom: this post is back up and I think the problem is fixed. Please report any further problems viewing in Internet Explorer to me at blogmom@robinmckinleysblog.com
Looks like the Wordpress upgrade broke something in the blog theme, too. It's always something...
[Updated on: Sat, 25 October 2008 22:30] by Moderator
Smooshes!
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2228 is a reply to message #2227 ] |
Sat, 25 October 2008 20:30  |
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| Susan from Athens wrote on Sat, 25 October 2008 20:26 |
There be nothing there!
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No link? It's working for me...
Smooshes!
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2232 is a reply to message #2225 ] |
Sat, 25 October 2008 20:48 |
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Reading about you and Connie makes me want to ride so badly. One of these days. There is a school here but it's English tack, and all I ever rode--growing up in Texas--was Western tack. I don't know if I could ride all perched up on top of a horse. Not now, obviously. But when I get my leg back I just may try. Say, in a year.
I hope your shoulder behaves. Mine goes wonko every now and then and it just sucks.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2234 is a reply to message #2225 ] |
Sat, 25 October 2008 21:09 |
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I wonder if Sisyphus’ boulder sniggered?
I bet it did - my computer sniggers and cackles and...
Miles is grumping that he and his (nearly) bomb-proof pony have to play nanny to Mum and her young gentleman. So I offered to go out with Connie some time. This could be pretty funny
Hahahahahahahahaha (gasp) hahahahaha!
Did I tell you about trying to find a part time rider for my elderly fat connemara pony? A woman who normally exercised hunters came to try her. Pony was duly clipped, oiled and generally "frou-froued", and woman climbed on board and off they tootled. About half an hour later back they come, pony cool as a cucumber and woman lathered up. "This animal is not suitable to be on loan, ect, ect, ect" Finally we discovered that they had ridden past the house with free range hens where I rode every week. No way was pony passing those hens. Hunter-woman apparently nearly fell off!
I laughed til I cried. Woman left in a huff. Horses DO have a sense of humour it turns out (and ponies even more so); most excellent blog material in store I suspect...
[Updated on: Wed, 29 October 2008 16:44]
Someone says "pie" and we all go on alert, like meercats. "Pie? Where?" - Blackbear
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2235 is a reply to message #2225 ] |
Sat, 25 October 2008 21:09 |
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mine is working fine, go robin, go connie
Bonnie Holmes the faster ahead I go, the more behind I get
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2290 is a reply to message #2225 ] |
Sun, 26 October 2008 04:19 |
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 Diane in MN
Messages: 2756
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
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I'm sorry to hear about the computer woes, and hope they are resolved soon. Updates are supposed to improve things, hahahahaha . . . Although the rest of the day sounds like it went pretty well, and congrats on the Stedman successes.
I like Searle's illustrations a lot but I'm not sure I could get through several books of peculiar spelling--worse than reading authors' representations of dialect, which usually drive me wild. I enjoyed the essay about the Molesworth books, and while reading it thought about the first Adrian Mole (!) diaries, which I read maybe twenty-five years ago and found extremely funny.
I don't know the D'Aulaire's Greek myths--were they illustrated? My childhood exposure was through Bulfinch, in an old edition with a few classical-looking illustrations and no pictures of creepy monsters.
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2291 is a reply to message #2225 ] |
Sun, 26 October 2008 07:28 |
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Susan from Athens
Messages: 817
Registered: October 2008
Location: Athens, Greece |
Senior Member |
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I'm sorry the computer woes are ongoing, but happy that you have been so busy and successfully so. So what if some piddling composer has used the Dirge before? **ducking head and scuttling out of throwing reach**
It sounds as if the ringing is going great and the riding too. I know it is a sign of my one-sided education and general pathetic nerdiness but at first glance and before I went to the footnote:
"Computers could give Molesworth lessons in sniggering." I thought Molesworth was describing quantity. You know like cupboardsful, or a handful. Being that a mole is an SI unit of amount of substance. 6.022 (and some change) times ten to the power of 23. So I figured you meant massive and massive lessons. **headdesk**
I think life in general is full of Sisyphean chores. Housework being the primary example, but gardening too. You get the momentary satisfaction before it all goes back to chaos again, and you start all over again.
There are so many versions of the Greek myths that I read as a child, some with glorious illustrations, some with none. I remember being very young and my mother reading Roger Llancellyn Green's books to us and using Robert Graves to answer questions about the obscure figures. I've read Homer in translation (into Modern Greek not English) and other things like Antigone in the original (we studied the Attic rather than the Aeolean dialect at school), but there are so many myths and so many site-specific variants, it makes for fascinating reading.
“I have always imagined heaven to be a kind of library.” –Jorge Luis Borges
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2308 is a reply to message #2225 ] |
Sun, 26 October 2008 09:59 |
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Lucy Coats
Messages: 223
Registered: October 2008
Location: Northamptonshire, UK |
Senior Member |
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Can’t remember if I’ve done you any of my riffs on learning to live in this country, where you can still see Middle-earth and King Arthur among and behind the industrial estates and the relentlessly multiplying car parks. History–including imaginary history–is an extra dimension, as tactile and inescapable as height, width and depth.
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Those stories are indissoluble from the landscape, I think. They've sunk into it and made it their own, and go on existing and adapting and twisting themselves around it despite the horrors of modern life and architecture being imposed on them. That's why people visit places which have anything to do with King Arthur--even the slightest hint of a Round Table sends Arthurianists into a frenzy of speculation and delight and drool. On the Greek Myth front, I love the fact that all those places where the Gods and Goddesses did their stuff REALLY EXIST if you look for them. All those Herculean tasks can be traced on a real map (including the smelly Swamp of Lerna), you can visit the (severally disputed) places where Aphrodite emerged, foam-blessed, from the waves, as well as the place where Odysseus's dad, Autolycus stole cattle. If you really wanted to, you could make a whole journey round Greece, based on where all the myths happened. Oops--you just got me onto one of my favourite subjects. Please riff more, Robin!
Lucy xx
"'Thou shalt not' might reach the head, but it takes 'Once upon a time' to reach the heart."
http://www.scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2310 is a reply to message #2225 ] |
Sun, 26 October 2008 10:32 |
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D'Aulaire's was my first Greek myths too! That sea monster is nasty - not so much terrifying as simply gross. And poor Andromeda nearly got eaten by it, which is a rather sickening thought. It probably had really dire breath.
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2323 is a reply to message #2308 ] |
Sun, 26 October 2008 13:22 |
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Susan from Athens
Messages: 817
Registered: October 2008
Location: Athens, Greece |
Senior Member |
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| Lucy Coats wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 15:59 |
On the Greek Myth front, I love the fact that all those places where the Gods and Goddesses did their stuff REALLY EXIST if you look for them. All those Herculean tasks can be traced on a real map (including the smelly Swamp of Lerna), you can visit the (severally disputed) places where Aphrodite emerged, foam-blessed, from the waves, as well as the place where Odysseus's dad, Autolycus stole cattle. If you really wanted to, you could make a whole journey round Greece, based on where all the myths happened.
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It is great to stand on the rock of Sounion and figure that this is where Theseus' father might have stood looking to see him return (unlikely though as Athens was almost two days journey away by land in those days, a lot less by sea) - he probably stood somewhere on the rock of the Acropolis. Anyhow the location, like so many chosen by the ancients was wonderful. It is renowned for some of the best sunsets in Greece.
And there is some question whether modern-day Ithaca was the Ithaca of ancient times (because in many cases the Homeric descriptions are very accurate and in this case they match another island far better). So yes, it is fabulous to be in Greece (may as well plug my country) and see all these places, where mythical events are supposed to have taken place and places where real events did take place. But may I point out (blushingly) that Autolycus was the father of Anticlea, mother to Odysseus: Odysseus' father was Laertes.
[Updated on: Sun, 26 October 2008 13:24]
“I have always imagined heaven to be a kind of library.” –Jorge Luis Borges
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2358 is a reply to message #2356 ] |
Sun, 26 October 2008 17:24 |
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Susan from Athens
Messages: 817
Registered: October 2008
Location: Athens, Greece |
Senior Member |
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| Black Bear wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 23:13 |
Yes, and I yell at myself when I’m writing stories. And, lately, music.
I yell at myself when I'm just walking around the house. "Why did I leave that THERE, dammit? Whose stupid idea was this?? For god's sake, will you just CLEAN UP the kitchen???" 
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I mutter, along the lines of : "Where did it go? Why has it disappeared? It should be somewhere!" and "Put that book down and get going! Now!", "If you don't do it, it won't get done!". I can't say I always listen
“I have always imagined heaven to be a kind of library.” –Jorge Luis Borges
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 Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2362 is a reply to message #2358 ] |
Sun, 26 October 2008 17:51 |
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| Quote: |
I mutter, along the lines of : "Where did it go? Why has it disappeared? It should be somewhere!" and "Put that book down and get going! Now!", "If you don't do it, it won't get done!". I can't say I always listen
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Oof. Me too. Also, "Now why were we in here again? There was a reason - wasn't there?" and "It's still the same as it was five seconds ago. Did you really expect it to change? Oh, that's not nice. It might've changed. Well, it's unlikely. But things have to change sometimes, and it doesn't take long for them to do so, so it's just as likely it changed in five seconds as five minutes. Oh, for crying out loud. That's nonsense. Er - what's supposed to have changed?"
Sometimes things get a little out of hand. 
[Updated on: Sun, 26 October 2008 17:56]
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2364 is a reply to message #2225 ] |
Sun, 26 October 2008 18:58 |
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My mutterings are usually directions or orders. "OK, first do this, then that--where are the medical bills?"
Or I rage. Just a wee bit.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2387 is a reply to message #2225 ] |
Sun, 26 October 2008 20:00 |
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Loramir
Messages: 15
Registered: October 2008
Location: South Carolina, USA |
Junior Member |
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My computer is having a veritable extravaganza of sniggering tonight.
Windows Vista, which I have had for two entire years, (relatively) problem-free, has suddenly begun informing me that it is not (or Microsoft thinks it's not) a "genuine" Microsoft product. As such, it has gone to "reduced functionality mode," where I can't access my control panel, among other fun restrictions.
Argh.
Vista gets a pretty bad rap, but I actually like it pretty well. It has some great features and I've had no problems...until now. But still, no matter what Microsoft thinks of my software's legitimacy, they have no right to be so invasive as to start disabling things. *grrrr*
I'll be calling tech support tomorrow, and hopefully it won't be too hard to remedy. Obviously my software IS genuine, as it's been fine for 2 years, so I've just got to figure out why it's suddenly gone mad.
I can hear my computer sniggering gleefully.
[/end computer rant]
Loramir
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2444 is a reply to message #2358 ] |
Mon, 27 October 2008 02:31 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2756
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
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| Susan from Athens wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 16:24 |
| Black Bear wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 23:13 |
Yes, and I yell at myself when I’m writing stories. And, lately, music.
I yell at myself when I'm just walking around the house. "Why did I leave that THERE, dammit? Whose stupid idea was this?? For god's sake, will you just CLEAN UP the kitchen???"
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I mutter, along the lines of : "Where did it go? Why has it disappeared? It should be somewhere!" and "Put that book down and get going! Now!", "If you don't do it, it won't get done!". I can't say I always listen
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In my house, at least, it doesn't do any good to mutter OR yell at anyone besides myself; husband and dogs are impervious. I have to really be careful not to keep up the self-directed commentary in public.
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2446 is a reply to message #2444 ] |
Mon, 27 October 2008 04:34 |
b_twin_1
Messages: 2620
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
Senior Member
[Moderator] |
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| Diane in MN wrote on Mon, 27 October 2008 02:31 |
In my house, at least, it doesn't do any good to mutter OR yell at anyone besides myself; husband and dogs are impervious. I have to really be careful not to keep up the self-directed commentary in public.
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Aaahhh ... you too?
It's amazing how many times I can forget what I am fetching from another room. And the answer is always 'head back to where I had the idea'. ::sigh::
I was so tired and stressed the other day when I couldn't find soemthing which I knew was on the table I just said (very resignedly) to Mum "Where is it?" and she pointed it out ... right under my nose. LOL I figured it better to admit defeat than spend more and more time (which I didn't have) getting more frustrated and stressed.
[Updated on: Mon, 27 October 2008 04:35]
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: The Rich Complexity of Life [message #2449 is a reply to message #2402 ] |
Mon, 27 October 2008 05:45 |
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Lucy Coats
Messages: 223
Registered: October 2008
Location: Northamptonshire, UK |
Senior Member |
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| librarykat wrote on Mon, 27 October 2008 01:46 |
| Black Bear wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 19:54 |
| Susan from Athens wrote on Sun, 26 October 2008 17:24 |
I mutter, along the lines of : "Where did it go? Why has it disappeared? It should be somewhere!" and "Put that book down and get going! Now!", "If you don't do it, it won't get done!". I can't say I always listen
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Another frequent one with me is, "Why am I here?" This is not an existential question, but rather a query as to why I've walked into a particular room and forgotten my errand there...
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If you're at all younger than my mother-in-law (who is 83 and coined the phrase in our family), it's a "junior senior moment." Hubby and I are in our 50s and experience a number of them.
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In our family it's a 'CRAFT' moment. (Can't Remember A Flippin' Thing)....
Lucy xx
"'Thou shalt not' might reach the head, but it takes 'Once upon a time' to reach the heart."
http://www.scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com
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Re: The Rich Complexity of Life
