Corvus tristis

Adventures.

2008-04-23T14:48:56Z

I've been trying to fit in all the little adventures I can. For one, I met up with some much-missed and infrequently-enjoyed family and wandered around Denver for a few hours.

This is actually the first time I've been to this place -now called the Downtown Aquarium in Denver- since it was Ocean Journey, went broke, and was bought out by a restaurant, and it slightly unnerved me to see how commercial and overblown it came off as- that is to say, I liked it better before, when it had less of an amusement park sort of feel. However, if that's what you need to make it profitable I understand and support it completely, and the food was fantastic (finding good seafood in Colorado is a rare thing indeed).

Octopus

Easily one of my favorite animals. I was careful not to flash the guy, but he still responded when the red light on my camera lit up, quickly cycling to white and then back to red again.

Moon Jellies

Nettle

I may have gone a little overboard with the jellyfish pictures.

The Hoard

Laying on the Bottom

In my defense, there's got to be a craft or motif in there somewhere.

Into the Dark

Good Aim

These are archerfish, so named because they'll spit jets of water like arrows at bugs above the surface and knock them down for lunch. That's mad skill.

A Portrait

Of course, I took lots of pictures of the tiger as well. This is a Sumatran Tiger; the last remaining island tiger (both the Javan and Bali tigers are long extinct) and one of the smallest subspecies of the cat. I distinguish them from other subspecies not only by size, but by the redness to their fur, the density of their stripes and the big fat cheek ruffs they tend to have.

Yes; I am so nerdy I don't just look and say "That's a tiger!", I look and say "That's a Siberian Tiger, which is native to this-and-this region and which has this-and-this unique behavior and eats this-and-this and blah blah blah GEEK!"

Getting a Good Whiff

They had scent marked its cage. This expression, which strikes me as somewhere between comical and "oh-my-what-big-teeth-you-have" scary, is a flehmen response; the mouth is open, nose wrinkled and tongue hanging out so the tiger can get a better "taste" for whatever it's smelling. This traditionally means that what it is smelling is another tiger.

This also means that, commercial overload aside, the aquarium still takes pains to keep their animal's lives interesting.

Stonefish Under Blue Light

Eels

I love the pattern on those eels. There's got to be a craft project or motif in there, too.

Seahorse

Lots of 'em!

Thing #3 I took too many pictures of: Seahorses!

Cutthroat

And we end with a Colorado local: the Cutthroat Trout, so named for the big red splotch around the gills that makes it look like somebody, well, cut the poor thing's throat.

Can you see why it might be rather annoying to go to a zoo or aquarium with me? I never shut up.

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Further adventures! Next up I took a good friend of mine down to the cabin. The cabin is located outside of Westcliffe, Colorado in the beautiful Sangre de Cristos, and provides vast amounts of entertainment for those with a taste for the great outdoors (heck, if you're in Colorado and would like to stay there, I can introduce you to the man to talk to).

There was much hiking:

Hiking

And much snow:

What Snow?

There was fire and s'mores and Scrabble (I won), and many other lovely things.

My Macro Shot Obsession Continues

There was also Bishop's Castle, which is possibly the most ambitious creative project I've had the pleasure of falling down stairs in.

Castle

It is, just as it sounds, a castle: built by one man with his own two hands and many, many years of intensive labor.

Ironmongery

It is glorious.

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In the interest of a) getting back into shape, which I've let slip in the latter half of this semester, b) enjoying the spring and c) having more adventures, I'm trying to get in a hike every other day, minimum. Prepare for many pictures of the general Fort Collins area, and maybe a trail review or five.

All these little adventures, however, are nothing compared to what I've got coming up, which I will make an announcement about very, very soon. Trust me, it's all sorts of cool.

Ooo, the suspense!

Me and myself.

2008-04-07T16:21:39Z

I've been keeping my polymer clay stash on the floor next to my computer and fiddling around with it whenever I get an idea or need a break from whatever computer-stuff I happen to be working on (which is relatively often). There's been no theme to what I've produced thusfar, outside of the shared media. I've made skulls -even more than you saw previously, though none are remarkable enough to photograph. I've made rainbows, which I believe to be destined for brooch-dom:

Rainbows

I've made cuttlefish, these for necklace-dom. I named them after PZ Myers, who I greatly admire as a scientist, blogger and (from what little I know of him a la internet) person. Having clay cephalopods named after you is a dubious honor at best, but hey, it makes me smile.

I call them P and Z

After deciding the rainbows just didn't cover all the bases, I've made little purple-magenta-blue triangles, also destined for brooch-dom (and maybe a necklace... maybe).

Represent!

And then, faced with a wealth of pink pearl clay and a distaste for pink, I began to make me. Now I've never been much of a doll girl- I've rarely owned them, rarely played with them as a child, and certainly never made my own. I've never been much of a self-portrait type either, outside of my art journal (wherein it's never just me but instead me with symbols and words and the ilk- me as an accent to communicate another idea, not me as the focus, not me as just me).

Well, I thought, I'm always up for trying something new. Thus decided, I took up my clay and I began to sculpt.

...it's a leg. Yeah.

I started with the kind of basic, stylized form I've seen from other polymer clay artists with a penchant for doll-making, then looked at my little clay stick figure and said "That's not me." For one thing, I've got curves.

Strange reflections

And so I added breasts and hips and thighs. I pinched in wrists and ankles and contemplated how hyperaware I was of my own flesh at that moment, while trying to rebuild it in malleable pink clay. I contemplated how I couldn't fool myself about what I was proud of (strong calves- fill those in) and what I was uncomfortable with (I'll come back to my thighs later), and contemplated why it is I'm uncomfortable with my own anatomy. I did a lot of contemplating.

I don't know what I'll do with it when I'm done, but that's okay. This one, I'm definently in it for the process.

Gaining Ground

2008-04-06T20:15:07Z

Something Like Science

One of the things keeping me occupied this semester is my capstone: my very own research project in an active disease research lab. My subject is Francisella tularensis, the causitive agent of Tularemia. More specifically, my target is an F. tularensis enzyme, alpha enolase. Waxing poetically about what precisely I'm doing to and with this enzyme (and why) strikes me as too geeky even for this craftblog, so we'll leave the science babble at that for now. Anyway, this work typically takes multiple hours out of each days and leaves me little down time until I stumble back home at night; at which point, for some reason, I've been driven to cook.

I'm not quite sure why I have such an urge to throw myself into the kitchen when perhaps throwing myself into my textbooks, or even my bed would be more advantageous. After all, cooking is essentially what I do in lab each day: mix so much of this with so much of that and incubate this way at this temperature for this long, etc etc. So it's "standard operating procedures" rather than "recipies" and "data" rather than "dinner"; you'd still think I would have had enough.

(Side note: this is not an oblique confession to cooking my data. If I were, I'd probably be a lot further along in my project right now.)

The point of all this jabber? Simply that, as I previously resolved, I'm gaining confidence in the kitchen along with enough successful recipies to begin assembling a kind of personal cookbook. This is a milestone for a girl who has repeatedly and disasterously failed at preparing a simple box of Mac and Cheese.

Today, I bring you one of my favorite desserts in the world (barring Walrus Ice Cream, which you MUST HAVE if you're ever in Fort Collins), baklava.

Baklava!

This was a joint effort between myself and my good friend James. We began with this recipie from the wonderful Simply Recipies blog and took off from there: we used nutmeg instead of cloves (hey, it's what we had), increased the cinnammon content considerably (because cinnamon is the stuff of greatness), and made half of the pan a walnut-almond mix as versus pistachio (almonds and walnuts are also the stuff of greatness).

James handled the nuts, which might not have been the wisest decision considering he spent part of the evening cracking pistachios open with his forehead. Armed with a pastry brush and a bowl of butter, I took on the phyllo. We triumphed mightily.

Mmm, sugar.

So very good, though I do have ideas to tweak the recipie in the future. Next up? Basboosa aka Namoura, once my sugar high wears off. It may take a while.

Other Things I Did on Spring Break: the Wild Animal Sanctuary

2008-03-27T01:25:24Z

One windy morning once most of the snow from the first days of break had melted, I grabbed some good company and headed a short ways southeast to The Wild Animal Sanctuary. If any of you have seen Animal Planet's "Growing Up Black Leopard" you've seen the sanctuary, and yes, it really is that cool.

If you're in Northern Colorado, drop by. You could say I sent you, but you'd just confuse them. For those who are not in Colorado (and why not?), I took pictures! Unfortunately for anyone with a taste for variety, it appears that when I am surrounded by lions and tigers and bears (andleopardsandpumasandservals) oh my!... I only take pictures of Tigers.

What? I like tigers!

* * * *

In other news, I've been on a serious new music kick lately. How do you find new music? I have three methods: a) asking friends what they love, in just those words b) leaving Pandora.com running in the background whenever I can and c) browsing allmusic.com, which is like IMDB for music.

Here. Have a song.

Train Conductor

2008-03-26T20:11:04Z

My boss in lab (oh yeah, I have a lab position now; more on that later) is one of those people whose minds seem to run at a rate and capacity an order of magnitude greater than the rest of humanity. This can make following him hypothetically difficult, though I think I've managed well thusfar (as long as he doesn't unknowingly switch languages or start quoting Shakespeare). I lag like dialup on Youtube, but even if I'm buffering about as fast as glass flows I get where I'm going eventually. One day, however, we were discussing my work and my ever-irksome schedule and I totally and completely lost my connection.

Error. Empty dial tone, blank screen. Bzzzzzt. Noticing my confusion, my boss paused.

"I've lost you train of thought, is all." I explained.

"I don't have a train of thought." he replied (and to get the full effect, you'll have to imagine this in an Irish accent). "I have thousands of trains, all running at once, and I'm just trying to keep them from crashing." His image lit up like a lightbulb in my mind, because I'm like that too. It shows in my work and school, in my writing and conversation, in my reading and learning and yes, in my crafting. Now I can put it into words, or even better, into images.

So what trains do I have running which are at all relevant to this blog? I'm still working on the cross-stitch and embroidery, but my progress has not been notable enough to deserve photography. The mittens, however, I can't resist snapping shots of:

Thrums delight me.

My progress has slowed considerably with the end of Spring Break, but I'm determined not to let the project slip off into inactivity. Mittens, particularly thrummed ones, are just too cool a train to let rust in some forgotten junkyard somewhere.

Remember this comb, which I claimed I was keeping for myself? I changed my mind. I want this one more:

Green

I haven't worn the other one yet, so I have no qualms against selling it (probably titled something like "Blackberry Vines"- thanks grrlpup). I'm not real good at doing my hair- for one, it's quite fine, and for another I've never been much of a girly-girl in that way and thus never really learned the art- making a lasting bun remains an arcane and alien idea to me. I'm proud when I can put it up in pigtails which aren't lopsided, much less figure out how to work in decorations like this. I'm always up to learning new things, though, even girly-girl ones... so I'll try new things and I'll keep a comb or two.

Finally, I've been playing with my ancient Sculpey stash.

Skulls

The eventual hope is to use up said Sculpey stash, but that may just take a while. There's a lot of it, and most of my grand ideas require a pasta machine.

One last thought: I'm notoriously bad at finishing things- I can prevent most major collisions in my train-conducting duties, but I'll be damned if I have time to get them all where they're going. This is something I'm working on.

Spring Break

2008-03-17T00:33:35Z

This is how Mother Nature chooses to wish me a happy Spring Break:

Brr.

She and I will have words.

In other news: my mittens.

Wait for it...

They are blooming.

Ka-pow!

Spring a la sheep. Baa, baby.

Stitch

2008-03-15T23:57:18Z

As both an aspiring artist and (still aspiring) crafter, I suppose an interest in embroidery was inevitable. After all, it’s little more than drawing with thread. It’s also cheap, portable and surprisingly satisfying, not to mention OMG ALL THE SHINY COLORS. So yes, I like it. I like it lots.

There’s something about the simplicity and freedom of the craft that’s quite soothing. Each stitch is straightforward, quantifiable progress towards a concrete (and hopefully beautiful) goal- a kind of inevitable progression I don’t often run into in the rest of my life. I make a stitch, and I’m that one stitch closer to my goal. It’s really quite the nice mental break from what’s largely been consuming my mind lately, my research, which has been doing anything but progressing in a straightforward and inevitable way. Murphy’s law for the lab: all that can go wrong will, and if said going wrong is impossible, it’ll just do it faster. No wonder I’m loving embroidery- the way I’m doing it, I don’t even have to think about drawing the original design. Sometimes it’s lovely just to follow along, and know you’ll get where you’re going some day.

Right now I’m working on a shirt using Sublime Stitching patterns.

Sublime

In addition to this, I decided to give cross-stitch a try. If the careful stitching of embroidery puts me into a Zen kind of state, then cross-stitch is the ultimate craft or slowing down my oft-chaotic mind and finding some kind of still focus. You know exactly where each and every stitch goes, exactly how you’ve gotten where you are and where to go next, and with each stitch your work grows. It’s like prayer beads –meditation by repetition- only you get something nifty when you’re done. Zen progression with bonus shiny.

Not that my subject matter is all that Zen-ish.

Crossstitchin'

Inevitably, the next step will be designing my own patterns. So it goes. So I go. One stitch at a time.

Getting Back Into Things

2008-03-10T01:42:32Z

The window is open and through it I hear birdsong. Oh, sweet hope for Spring.

This weekend has been a bit odd for me, mentally. Saturday I spent the entire day feeling like a ghost (thank you, sleep deprivation); I felt so faint, so colorless that it was almost surprising and somehow wrong to see that I cast a shadow. If my mind is so distant and disconnected from the world, after all, what right can my body have to be so monotonously concrete?

The longer you stay awake, the more life becomes a dream.

Today I’ve simply felt uncomfortable in my own skin- not mentally, but physically. It’s as if someone took my brain and moved it into another body, indistinguishable from my own to all but myself. This part’s a little too long, this one a little too sharp, this one tight and this one itches funny. Rather strange, that- perhaps it has something to do with being sick recently? Damn you, influenza.

If this sounds like whining, please know it’s not intended. The loss of inflection, of tone and cadence on the internet is something I have not quite adjusted my style of communication to- were I speaking to you right now, my voice would sound not exhausted and beaten, but quietly speculative. All these myriad sensations of life are still a marvel to me, even the ones that I categorize as "bloody weird".

But enough philosophical jabber (I get philosophical when I'm tired. You have been warned). I’m here to introduce you to my new knitting project. What of my old knitting projects, you ask? Shhhh. I’ll finish them eventually, promise.

So here we go. My best friend bought me a present, and it is this:

Grapes and Oranges

What is this, you ask? A thrummed mitten kit! All winter I’ve been dreaming of a pair of these things (my circulation and usual core temperature both resemble the living dead more than a healthy 22-year-old girl, so my hands freeze fast), and the fact that Spring is stirring beneath the dead grass and frozen soil does not damper my excitement in the least. It just means I’ll have to knit fast is all.

(I can hear you people who have read me for a while laughing at that “knit fast” comment. Shh again.)

I love the colors. I’ve grown a real taste for vibrant colors in the last few years, and there’s no point I crave them more than on those cold winter days when I’ll use these mittens.

This brings me to a recent post on All Things Lilliput. Frequently I’ll stop and ponder the things that make me smile in my day-to-day existence and, inspired by said post, I figured I’d let you in on a few today.

1. Mittens!
2. The relatively warm weather we’ve been having, and the promise of Spring to come (and Spring break, the week after this one- woot!).
3. I got to take a nap today. Naps are awesome.
4. Grapes. Big fat red grapes.
5. I’m keeping this one to myself, but trust me, it’s good.

* * * *

Final comment: I have a goal and it is this: one project per week for the next month. I will define what constitutes a project, as something like “get my photo book up to date” is impossible, while “get the San Francisco pictures into the photo book” would suit a week's timespan perfectly. That shouldn’t be too hard, right? Further goal: blog about all of ‘em. One post per week. Minimum.

Hold me to that one, okay?

Snippets: Where did she go?

2008-03-09T23:35:37Z

I've been doing a lot since the last time we spoke. A lot of what, you ask?

A lot of small-scale adventuring:

Hogback

In Shadow

A lot of skeletonizing grapes. Seriously, I'm going through multiple bags a week:

Ambrosia

A lot of thinking:

Good Advice

A lot of new-piercing-aftercare:

See it?

A lot of collecting bruises in mosh pits and the front rows of various punk shows:

Like a sunset, only disturbing.

(All well worth it, mind you, though I'd like to know what I did to my ribcage to make it hate me so.)

A lot of doodling and painting:

A lot of finding of lost things:

What once was lost

A lot, a lot, A LOT of studying and even more time in-lab researching:

Argh.

And finally, over the last few days, a lot of much-neglected crafting:

I make messes, not projects!

All this is merely my way of apologizing for my absence, and (for any reader which may remain, given my tendency to randomly disappear) giving you a heads up: I've got things to share. Ciao, then, and see you soon!

This could be a fun challenge.

2008-02-07T14:21:19Z

Hmm.

What do you all think, having seen what passes for my art skills? Do I have a chance? And would anyone like to help me with a little brainstorming?

Consider this a short precursor to a massive "science in the arts/crafts" post. Links and such relevant to that topic would be much apperciated- I've got a bunch already, but this is the internet. There's always more out there.

Fun with Cameras.

2008-01-25T04:28:26Z

Remember what I said about how taking self-portraits with an autotimer is a fine art? A fine art I've yet to master?

Let it never be said I don't revel in the fun of being an amateur.

So here's a photography game challenge to whoever wants to play: use the autotimer to take a self-portrait in motion. Should you want to try the leaping-onto-something-squishy (bed, boyfriend, etc), go for as much air as you possibly can. If you do not get your body horizontal, it does not count. Post your results or links to said results in the comments.

If you're anything like me, you'll be giggling so hard by the time you hit the matress you have to crawl to the camera to see what you got.

What I Did With My Winter Break

2008-01-20T17:20:55Z

I think I'm going to write a manifesto for this blog, and maybe a few other things. Seems like a good dawn-of-the-year activity, no? A manifesto is defined as a statement, a public declaration, of personal intentions and principles- something I've always thought was important to keep clear and straightforward in my own mind, whether I take the time to write it out or not. It helps to clearly know what you want, what you're doing, what's driving you; how can you accomplish your goals if they're nebulous and unformed even in your own imagination?

Also, Manifesto is a cool word. I like words. I like words a lot.

What little gems do I have to unload upon you today?

So-called

Hey look, knitting! The pattern is My So-Called Scarf, and it's being made as a (very) belated christmas present for a friend. The "very belated" is because knitting such a cool pattern in plain old black is boring, and I am very bad at boring when it comes to my own hobbies. It's a hobby. Its purpose is to be interesting.

Still, even while boring, it's pretty and an easy stitch pattern. I may have to make my own next (in an interesting colorway, of course).

So-called, Redux

I've got a few thoughts on this next project. First off: when a crafting trend appears in Michaels, you know it's been played out. So it was with the centerpiece for this necklace.

Trendy

Second thought: I've never let what was popular or unpopular dictate what I like (is NOT liking something because its trendy really any better than being a trend-whore?), and damnit, I like birds. I mean come on! Extant therapods! And seeing as my wardrobe is largely devoid of these painfully popular icons of craft, I think I'm allowed a single necklace without turning in my "creative and original" card.

I figured while I was riding one trend to its inevitably messy end, I might as well take my first try at another: asymmetry. Never done it in a necklace before. Still not sure how to make it look good.

Don't Need Your Symmetry

Third thought: as I'm sure many of my fellow craft bloggers know, taking a picture with the self-timer is a fine art. I am no fine artist. Witness my many failures to bring you the utterly mediocrre shot below.

Screw it! This works.

Yeah. Some day, when I'm rich, I'll have a personal photographer.

I have today and tomorrow off and then Spring semster begins. I plan to touch on all of the following projects and activities in that time:

-Clean the house. All of it. Include in this further getting-rid-of-stuff. Focus particularly on cleaning up desk and/or project room. Also, clean up blog if there's time.
-Work on sea serpent painting (oils)
-Work on land fish painting which you haven't seen yet (gouache). It's an experiment- I recieved the gouache supplies for christmas, and quite like the medium so far.
-Continue embroidering a shirt of mine, for to make it awesome.
-Go to a movie or two.
-Post all the random stuff I keep tossing up here to the store
-Give the art journal some attention
-More pictures to ye olde picture book, in preparation for the batch I'm going to order from this last trip
-Upload the pictures from this last trip (and any other pictures I may want) to the place from which I order them, which is typically Snapfish.
-Go to the gym today. Monday will be a rest day.
-Finish my Mp3 player's quick thrown-together case, for to wear to the gym. I dropped it a few times too often whilst lifting yesterday.
-Find my !@%$^# DPN so I can knit those #@!$^& gloves. I have a knitting itch, and I need that lost DPN to scratch it
-Finish a letter to a penpal and get it in the freakin' mail already.
-Maybe play a little with black and white and/or color accent photography. It's been on my mind.

Damn, that's a lot. No time to lose!

I is kree-ay-tiv.

2008-01-19T18:31:16Z

"How hard can it be?" says I, as I stare at my computer screen. "You made it. Your brain was going before, during, and after you made it. How hard can it be to come up with a few engaging thoughts to put down?"

Meanwhile, the only response from the rest of my poor cerebrum is an empty buzzing, like a disconnected phone line. Doo-doo-beep! We're sorry, the number you have dialed is not available. Bzzzzzzz.

Riiight.

So. I made this thing.

The Necklace

I've been thinking about making something like it for a while; something with that blue-painted porcelain theme which has been floating about my neurons for ages. It seemed like it would integrate quite painlessly into jewelry, particularly once I found this great centerpiece bead.

Heron

And so off I went. Grab some transite, some findings, string a pretty line of beads. Simple. And hey, while I've got all these matching beads flaoating around, why not make a set?

I couldn't stop at the necklace.

Yep. That's a necklace all right, and earrings too. Made it all by myself.

*crickets*

Heck, I've been making all sorts of little things for which I can think of nothing to say -which is sad, because I'm so full of babble for my ideas before they get made that I spend more time flirting with my imagination than actually producing results. I like to make stuff, don't get me wrong, but I really like to think about making stuff.

Maybe the act of creation exorcises all that for me: what I needed to express is right there in my handiwork, and no longer in my head. The words and ideas have found their outlet and drained from my brain into the real world and all I'm left with is this empty, blog-killing buzz.

Well, that's not all I'm left with. I come out with some pretty cool do-dads too.

For me! Maybe.

Picture's worth a thousand words anyway, right?

Exerpts from a Travel Journal

2008-01-15T17:57:30Z

I did it again. Yep. I just couldn't take the thought of sitting around at home on break, and so threw some travel plans together one day and left the next with naught but my backpack and travel journal.

And tent. And sleeping bag. And fins/mask/snorkle. But that's all excusable excess.

So where did I go here in the midst of a Colorado winter? Somewhere warm, of course!

Prickly

I found the Desert

"Confession: it has been almost five months since my last notable expedition. If that isn't sinful, what is?"

Going down?

"I left Fort Collins on the 31st... with naught but my backpack, some outdoor gear, and faithful Doom Nugget, my most esteemed and glamorous Japanese-made chariot. We went south by the most immediate route possible, chasing promises of warmer temperatures all the way into New Mexico."

Popcorn

"South, south, and south some more. I was somewhere mid-New Mexico when the sun made its exit for the day. The two-lane highway was largely deserted, both by other cars and by any sign of human settlement. Orion rose directly over the road, his belt bracketed by its yellow lines. Chasing the lonely glow of my headlights and watching that grand universe roll over the horizon, I got the eerie and unshakable sensation that I was the sole, solitary living thing on a vast and barren planet."

Phallic much?

"Civilization reappeared near Roswell... I drove on, and by the time I made it to my lonely desert hotel I was almost too tired to unload the bare essentials."

More phallic!

"I abandonded my motel room early and drove to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The desert in that area is beautiful, with massive prickly pears and yucca studding rugged red-brown bluffs. I pulled over on the winding road up to the cavern entrance and found myself in near perfect solitude, and thus in silence."

Not-so-phallic

"And the caverns themselves? Words cannot describe. Carlsbad extends over 1000 feet below the desert, and even the paved, well-lit pathways and the outdated cafeteria wedged into a deep corner cannot mask its alien glory."

I be short.

Giant

"I slept that night in a Super 8 in Las Cruces after a drive that dipped down from New Mexico to Texas and back, and set off the next morning for sunny San Diego. I began shedding layers somewhere in Arizona. Oh sweet mother heat."

Home away from home.

"Hostel in the Gaslamp Quarter, with its entrance wedged incongrueously between two classy restaurants, neatly bisecting their classy year-round outdoor patios with a constant stream of young, dirty and often drunken travlers. I'm sure they loved us."

<
Bongo

"First day: the Wild Animal Park, which suffered with the recent fires in the area."

I called him 'Stanley'

Ready for his close-up

Diver

Local

Jump!

Shoebill

"As the day wound down I found myself sitting on the edge of an Echidna's small enclosure, trailing my fingers in his dirt and watching as he trundled back and forth on some unfathomable business, little more than a debatably motile ball of spikes. Geek that I am, I began thinking anatomy. I know the basics of human flesh- muscle and bone, artery and nerve- but what of something as alien as a monotreme? Are our shared evolutionary histories close enough to keep the basic structures similar, recognizable but for emphasis or specific attachment? Or do they have something totally different going on beneath their flesh? Is there an echinda rectus femoris, a monotreme ulna? Or did I spend all semester busting myself over words and definitions that apply only to my own pitiful form?"

For Peanuts

Gharial

See ya

Speaking of total animals...

Too cute to be anything but a Harbinger of the Apocalypse

Took this one for James

Klipspringer

Took this one for Ryan

"I am on a plane. Below me, clouds, and further, the Pacific. Hello again, my love."

"Guess where I'm bound? Maui! I cannot begin to express my excitement; my joy. I suspect, when I finally touch my tired feet to the soil of an actual tropical island, so long after leaving Seychelles, I will cry. Emotion is only natural when facing one's ghosts and the tropics have haunted me since half and again my lifetime ago."

Welcome to Maui

"The rain came to San Diego last night after a pair of nigh balmy days, just in time to soak me as I lugged my baggage into the airport. Good timing- behind me San Diego drowns; ahead, Hawai'i beckons with sunshine and heat."

Stella and Me

"I was right: the moment I got in my little white rental car (dubbed "Stella") and put the stress of the airport behind me -the moment, that is, that I really got the chance to look around- I couldn't help but shed a tear or two. I'm the sort that doesn't feel the slightest urge to cry at tragedies and sad movies, but will break down over PBS nature specials, so this is not at all unusual."

Haleakala

The Crater

"I drove directly to Haleakala National Park, whereupon the friendly gate ranger took one look at my Colorado driver's license and cut off his high altitude warning speech literally mid-sentence with an 'Oh... you'll be right at home.' That night I camped on the volcano's slopes, above her nigh-constant skirt of clouds. Before setting up my camp, however, I went to pay my respects to the barren, windy, and altogether alien summit."

Camping

"Camping was wonderful. I fell asleep to the roar of the wind in the eucalyptus and woke to birdsong and the Hawai'ian sunrise."

One-Way Bridge of DOOM

Detour

Vroom vroom

"Yesterday, I drove to Hana. You'd think driving anywhre on an island this small would be quick and easy. In reguards to the Hana Highway, you'd be dead wrong. It gives new meaning to 'narrow and winding' with a max speed limit of 15 mph and uncountable one-lane bridges where you have to let oncoming traffic through before charging in yourself, hoping no inattentive driver enters the bridge without noticing you and whacks you head-on."

Black Sand

Angry!Tala

"Either I'm the worst driver in the history of the Hana Highway, or people here honk to say thank you. Just a thought."

The Road Back

Surfing

Favorite Flower

"Last full day on Maui. I snorkled this morning on an unnamed beach around mile marker 14 on the road to Lahaina. Fifteen to twenty feet from shore the reef begins, and while I could tell it had suffered the kind of damage all reefs so close to human habitation must suffer, it was still amazing. Arm-length Parrotfish in brilliant warpaint, cowfish ranging in size from the length of my thumb to the length of my thigh speckled with bright white spots, a pipefish which easily outsized my head, torso, and thigh combined that I stalked through the reef for a good ten minutes before it lost me on a shallow bit and even a white-tipped reef shark, asleep and hiding in a small coral cave that took a bit of diving to get to."

Oops

"The phrase the Pacific Whale Foundation's crew used was 'whale soup'... I tucked myself into the fore/port corner of the railing and held on like a limpet as we jacknifed over swells which neatly carved my guts from my abdominal cavity. So much for the much-romanced motion of the ocean."

"First we met up with what appeared to be an 'escourt pod'- mama, calf, and unrelated male. The real show started when we left the party of three and fumbled our way into the midst of a 'competition pod'- one female and a bunch of males (three in this case) trying their damndest to impress her. I don't know about the whale, but I was certainly impressed."

"When I die, I want to come back as a whale. It looks fun, and I'd get to hang out in Hawai'i."

Whale Slick

"There is something breathtaking, something truly awesome about wild whales. Their power, their size, their infinite grace which seems such a contrast to said power and size. They act, for me, as a kind of undisputable reminder that we humans are NOT the sole inheritors of Earth; that there are entire worlds within worlds which are not concerned with us in the slightest."

Sunset

Lava Flow

"I half suspected actually using 'Aloha!' was something done strictly to please tourists. No longer. Between the cashier in the very much local market I visited the first day (I was the only face she didn't obviously know by heart), to the local guys yelling some variation of a suggestive 'Aloha baby!' out the windows of their dirt-covered trucks, the local language is definently still a part of the culture, for natives and more recent residents alike."

Aloha!

Leaving

"Ah, there. With a roar and a bump we have put Maui at our backs. It is difficult not to lapse into melancholia. Leaving is a part of living, I suppose, but I think I'd like to come back some day. I think I'd even like to live here."

Pineapple!

"At least I'm not going back alone."

States visited in ten days or so:

-Colorado
-New Mexico
-Texas
-Arizona
-California
-Hawai'i
-Nevada
-Utah

Quite the trip. Per usual, more pictures can be seen by clicking through the gallery the above pictures all link to.

I has productivity.

2007-12-21T16:38:26Z

Thought of the day: online package tracking is the ruin of all happiness. Oh yes.

With finals over and winter break upon me, I have returned to the making-of-stuff. In traditional Tala fashion, I began easing myself back into non-academic creative endeavors with jewelry. First, a huge pile of one of my more popular (and simple) earring designs:

Cherry 'Splosion

One pair is reserved, but the rest will go into the store as soon as I can find some more damn French hooks. Next, a couple of bracelets made to test out an approach for bigger projects in the future. First, in bright yellow and teal:

Something Like Sunshine

Close-up

And then in goldstone and quartz, like this set (which I may just add it to):

Goldstone and Quartz

Woven

The wire is tigertail and the number of strands, variable. Next I think I’m going to try this technique as a tube of some sort. I also think a thick choker made with an insane number of wires and either small sparkling beads or something inherently industrial –something bought at the hardware store, not the bead store- would be quite effective.

More to come! I recently completed a couple of necklaces, and today I’ve got a pair of earrings or two to assemble before I branch out into non-jewelry-related crafts; namely, the creation of a fascinator, knitting, and some embroidery. Also, I must paint, and maybe even go to a movie with some friends. I will fit all of this in between finishing my Christmas shopping (woe and agony!) and packing up so I can drive off to meet family tomorrow.

*gulp*

I suppose I better get started, yeah?

Doodles

2007-12-20T16:15:10Z

Have you ever had someone in the so-called “real world” let you know they’ve found your blog, and even though you’ve not tried to hide it –even though you told them about it- you find yourself suddenly glaring sidelong at your keyboard with uneasy distrust? Yeah, so have I. How strange, huh?

So.

So. To business.

I’ve never considered myself an artist, but I do like to doodle here and there. In fact, my love affair with drawing extends back further than any other creative outlet but writing- further than knitting, further than sewing, further than jewelry. I remember very specifically the first moment I looked at drawing as something I could do: I was on visitation with my father in DC and had nothing whatsoever to amuse myself during the days. Walking through a store, I tremulously picked up a small sketchbook and a box of thin Crayola markers and asked, sure I would be turned down, if I could have them. The first thing I drew was a sea serpent, sharp-faced and be-horned in yellow and purple.

Things haven’t changed much.

Sea Serpent

This is not to say I haven’t branched out in the intervening years. Not only can I draw sea serpents, oh no, I can do dragons too!

Joe's Dragon

And then there are the nonspecific monsters. These guys pop up more and more frequently in the pages of my sketchbook the closer I get to a major exam- pre-finals, they’re everywhere.

George

Big Smile!

It cares not for walls.
Nor bars, nor locked doors
It creeps through your halls
It treads on your floors.

Hell, I’ve even tried my hand at a few things that actually exist. In particular I like to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and draw the animals from the dioramas. This is easier than drawing animals at the zoo, because animals at the museum do not move.

A normal deer!

Double-Wattled Cassowary

Red Hartebeest

NOT a Porcupine

Baboon

I always seem to come back to the fantasy elements, however. Even when I try to draw something normal –a businessman, say, complete with tie and briefcase, or a victorianesque woman, or a candle- the fantastic finds a way to creep in.

...I got nothin'.

Automaton

Wick

And that sea serpent at the beginning? Well, I’ve decided to paint him (in yellow and green, not yellow and purple).

Scaly

The Big Wide World

2007-11-22T01:59:06Z

At this point in the year my various retreats and recharges tend to be far less "sit down and make something" and far more "head for them thar hills!". I have many hypothesis for why I start itching for the great outdoors so much in the fall and winter, but I think the most likely explanation is that I simply spend more time indoors (in class, at the library, avoiding the cold) in chill months, and have to make up for that somehow. I mean, there's so much out there!

I give you, then, some shots of the great outdoors. The first set is from Poudre Canyon, which is close enough that I can drive up for a couple of hours after class and get some wandering in. The other two are from Estes Park (more specifically, Rocky Mountain National Park), which tends to be more of a weekend escape for me.

Poudre Canyon

These particular shots are from early-to-mid fall.

It's a relaxing drive back home.

Estes Park

The pictures below are divided into two different visits a couple of weeks apart. In the first, the elk were still very much fans of the whole "herd" thing. In the second, most of the herds had dissipated, though I did run into one rather spectacular group (complete with impressive buck) blocking the road on my way out of the park. I'm guessing they were one of the only remaining herd hold-outs- no pictures of that one, though, as I was already running incredibly late getting back to FoCo.

I can never quite resist the urge to bust out the macro function on my camera. In fact, I picked this particular Powershot point-and-shoot precisely because the macro shot function produced such gorgeous pictures. Such things are important when one is photographing jewelry and the like.

Hiking boot love.

That particular expression is rather typical of me.

This guy was bedded down with his herd right in the center of the town park. It was rather impressive to wander into their midst whilst walking to dinner.

Thus ends the first set from the Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park area. The last four pictures were actually taken by Mr. David Vohsman (visible wandering about in the picture which prominently features my own feet), who is much better at the whole photography hobbiest thing than I (not to mention better equipped).

These next photos were taken a few weeks after those above, when I went back up alone. The park had grown a bit colder and the elk herds, by and large, had broken up.

Going Up

The trail starts out easy- wide, graveled, well-groomed.

Aspen Man

I find it rather interesting what people will carve into aspen trunks.

Light

The well-groomed trail grows more and more untamed with your ascent.

Then comes the snow. I saw my first snowfall of the year on this particular hike- small, granulated knots of ice drifting down sparsley from a blasted sky. By that point I was far enough from anyone else to hear naught but my own breathing and the beat of my heart in my skull.

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I appear to have a strange obsession with bark.

No, really. I have stacks of bark pictures. It's texture, you know?

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Growing Dark

The problem with hiking alone is what you do when you hurt yourself, which I did on a stretch of trail very similar to this one. That's why all the pictures end just past fan lake, shown below. I managed to lose my footing on a stretch of icepacked trail and not only earn myself one hellaciously angry ankle but also leave a lovely chain of aching bruises all along my left side. Oops.

I shall leave off on the details of the very interesting adventure that was getting back to my car with a bum leg and no flashlight, so I don't sound any stupider than I already do.

Fan Lake

That's all for now!

In which I ramble.

2007-11-01T17:16:27Z

The crafting community is amazing, and the internet its greatest showcase. From forums to blogs, from to businesses to zines, the imagination and ingenuity on casual display is extraordinary in vision, in execution, in quality and in sheer, unending volume.

And then there’s me. Watching a myriad of exquisitely inspired internet crafters I often feel the outside-looking-in sensation of the woeful underachiever. I look upon the creations of my crafty idols and see vital forests choked with growth, rich gardens of heartrending beauty, overflowing vitality. Myself, however? The sporadic grassy knot, yellow and crisp-dry and clinging to a emaciated sort of existence amidst a vast wasteland of blasted dunes. I’m sure I have readers who sympathize with the feeling; if not in the crafty sphere, than in some other area of your life (academically, perhaps?).

Here’s the thing about despairing one’s inadequacy compared to the masters of any field: that way lays madness, because it is totally, utterly and completely unfair (not to mention absolutely irrelevant). This is an important realization and talisman for any crafter. How much harder are you on yourself as versus everyone else? Why? Does someone else’s success degrade your own in any way, shape or form? Does brutally attacking your own confidence really make you do better, or might you succeed more if you gave yourself positive reinforcement, rather than going after your spirits with a proverbial chainsaw?

Here’s a good rule of thumb to start with: never treat yourself in a fashion you wouldn’t treat your best friend or deepest lover.

It seems to me that people often deal unfairly with themselves, imposing impossible standards and expectations, ignoring the good to revel in and magnify every failure. Perhaps people fear that looking at their own being without the razor of unfair, unabating criticism in hand is self-indulgent, even selfish. It’s not. I’d go so far to say that wallowing in self-criticism, two steps from self-pity, is about as self-indulgent as it gets. It takes no effort to perceive failure. The hard part is understanding –and working for- success. So I have a desert where others have rainforests- I would be remiss in my duties as a biologist if I didn’t tell you that the desert is as fascinating, vital and ultimately beautiful a biome as any other. (Ecology homework? What ecology homework?)

Both your time and your energies, physical and emotional, are limited. Why waste them when there’s so much glory not only in the world and in others but in your own short life, your abilities, and your infinite potentials?

All this pseudo-metaphysical rambling serves largely to make me feel better about my lamentable progress on the so-named Lottie Gloves:

Progress

Every stitch counts, though. Onward!

A Dapper Design

State of the Crafter

2007-10-22T12:55:12Z

What have I been up to?

-Studying Ecology
-Knitting on zee Lottie Gloves
-Studying Anatomy
-Reaquainting myself with oil painting
-Studying Genetics
-Playing dress-up
-Studying more Anatomy
-Playing the photo game. Previous themes: blue, feet, and circles. This week's theme: pumpkins. Join in!
-Studying Anatomy in a creative fashion:

<3

Gross Human Anatomy, complete with cadaver lab, is my favorite class right now and certainly ranks near the top of my college highlights list. It is, however, a class which requires a huge time commitment: to succeed on its beastly exams I spend hours each day in lab, in lecture, and in the library memorizing the finer details of flesh, both on paper and, well, in the flesh. One of my most effective study methods is to repeatedly draw and label the structures from memory; thus the pages of my sketchbook have taken a rather morbid turn this semester. Once I'm practiced enough at doodling anatomical details from recall, I sit down with my old polymer clay stash and repeat the process in 3-D. Rather than focusing on the diagrams, when sculpting various organs and muscles and bones I try to remember what it felt like to hold a heart in my hand in lab, or to run my begloved fingers over the sulci and gyri of the brain.

I also end up making some pretty cool trinkets.

If the cadavers have taught me anything, it's that tactile learning is quite effective (and, well, what goes where in the human body, and that my brain tends to produce very inventive dreams when I spend every day in open lab). I'm fully capable of naming every structure on this little sculpture and then some. I did quite well on the Thorax/Abdomen/Pelvis exam, and certainly did not miss a single question concerning the heart.

Fingers for Scale

I'm not sure what I'll do with it and similar creations (currently working on: BRAINS!!!) post-exam. I may turn them into jewelry, as I can turn most anything into jewelry. I may just resign them to my bookshelves to confuse people and gather dust. Suggestions?