There's certainly some irony in the fact that I created three SHORT SLEEVED shirts yesterday and this morning was the coldest we've had in a long time - below freezing and only 52 degrees inside when I woke up. [rolls eyes]

Now this isn't IRONY per se, but it certainly seems chronologically impaired - I took this photo some days ago, as we were leaving Tom's house. The day was warm and sunny and we had to use the air conditioning in the car. All over the trees were blossoming like crazy, as in this photo. (The impaired part being that I'm REALLY COLD right now as I blog about this - get it? [nudge, nudge] GET IT?)
posted:8:37 AM | link |

In anticipation of the warmer weather, I sewed three shirts today, an all-time record! One for John and two for me. The second one I did for myself out of scraps from other clothing creations - kind of a semi-patchwork shirt with three different colors/fabrics - it came out REALLY cool and actually looks deliberate instead of scrap-based. Very satisfying. :-)
posted:5:27 PM | link |

Two pieces of graphic art - photos of 1. curtains, and 2. ice in a cup, both taken to unexpected places:

What's really making itself obvious to me about the RIAA's stance on mp3s and music downloading, is that the actual CONSUMERS experience is so obviously different. The more they download, the more they BUY. Period. The internet is HELPING that. So it becomes more and more obvious that the RIAA is first of all just NOT in touch with consumers and secondly has a tremendous agenda of control. But of course, downloading makes it easier to tell if an album really SUCKS too... John made the comment that he remembered when artists had four or five hit songs off of one album, and we wondered if it's another manipulation to do just one song per album that's pushed - because, after all, if a person already OWNS the album that doesn't bring in any more sales if another song on it gets airplay, does it?

On the flip side, I see more and more people putting increased energy into the idea of independent artists and the ways they can really USE the internet, circumventing the RIAA altogether - brings tears of joy to my eyes. The geographic boundaries that the RIAA helped artists "overcome" are erased by the internet - POOF. *grin* The energy really does feel like it's shifting past the "we're stuck with them even though it sucks" phase and into the "I really think there's something new and terrific emerging" phase - woohoo! BTW, Matt Haughey of Metafilter writes a good essay encompassing a lot of these ideas and thoughts - definitely worth a read. The old system isn't grounded in the new reality that's coming into focus, which can only be a good thing!
posted:10:29 AM | link |

Tom calls inside, "Hey - you guys should come see this!" John and I dash outside. It's an upside down rainbow! Amazing! Apparently these are VERY rare - I'd never even known they even existed - they're officially called a circumzenith arc. Here are a few links about them:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/weather/arc.shtml
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF14/1435.html
And here's a little symbolic information from http://www.wiredweb.com/~shades1997/Upside-Down_Rainbow.html: Understanding will turn things upside down.
posted:7:06 PM | link |

I don't know what the name of this flower is, but they all look 'in disarray' like this. Tom pointed out that their petals are gathered more around the stem as they grow sort of 'blown back' from the actual center of the flower. In any case, the local grocery store had a bed of them outside their doors and I had to stop - I'm especially happy that the pink tones came out so vivid.

This shot? *grin* John, Tom, and I were in the yard catching some cow action on video for posterity. After a while the cows wandered off and we switched from video to still digital and examined the old shed in our yard for interesting photo opportunities. So many knotholes, so many stupid jokes. LOL.
posted:8:37 AM | link |

By the way, the search in the right column is now working again - sorry for any inconvenience.
posted:10:56 AM | link |

Eeek - two days without a post - how can I live with myself? *grin* I know, I'll overcompensate for not actually doing much WRITING by posting more photographs - utterly brilliant.