Learning a foreign language as an adult

This hits a little too close to home. From Coming Home Crazy: An Alphabet of China Essays by Bill Holm. (A very good book from a superb writer.)

When you begin learning a language or try to use a new one, your adult power and resourcefulness slip away, and you sound to yourself, and to others, like a drooling child or an idiot. In a new language, you are first a baby, then a little child; then, if you work hard, a badly educated teenager with a low IQ.

Marketing schmarketing

This makes fun of me and my professional comrades. I like to think that this doesn't pertain to what I do. This makes me snort with laughter.

Thanks to Moe for sending!

First crack at a canvas

I painted this a while back to fill a space above an armoire. I used a pattern from Cressida Bell. It was the first time I painted on a canvas. It was quite fun and very rewarding. The pattern is in a funky style I hadn't previously tried.

Artsy Craftsy

I'm working on a picture that will hang over a couple of bookcases. I didn't find something just right so I thought, "Right, I'll make something myself."

I'm using as inspiration a Mischung (mixture) of a pattern from Jocasta Innes, my painting hero, and a piece I saw in Switzerland. It's meant to be a little rough, a little primitive. Here it is in its very early stage.

Painting gives me such joy!

Sept. 11 -- part 2

An addition to my earlier post about Sept. 11. I drive by this fire station on my way home from work. So many firefighters died that day. Both of my brothers are firefighters. These photographs give me the shivers.

Sept. 11 -- a very bad day

Sept. 11 is black memory for the U.S. This bad-day karma hovers over Chile, too. On this day in 1973, a coup, led by Augusto Pinochet, overthrew democratically elected Salvador Allende (Marxist). During Pinochet's dictatorship, Chile's human rights record was despicable. Thousands were murdered, tortured and 'disappeared.'

From the BBC's this day in history:

1973: President overthrown in Chile coup
President Salvador Allende of Chile, the world's first democratically-elected Marxist head of state, has died in a revolt led by army leaders.

One report says the 64-year-old leader committed suicide rather than surrender to the commanders of the armed forces and the paramilitary police.

Pinochet's obituary. Amnesty International's report on Pinochet.

New MacBook

New & improved!

Dog wisdom

Today's Note from the Universe. This one is especially lovely!

Do you know why dogs are so quick to wag their tails and cats are so quick to purr? Even the ones that have been lonely, abused, and betrayed?

Because, as is true of all animals, they were instilled with the distant awareness that no matter what the world shows them, they're still deeply loved and needed, that their presence alone has made a difference, and that in just the shake of a leg, seemingly without reason or rhyme, everything can FANTASTICALLY change for the better.

As is true of all people, except sometimes they tend to forget.

Purrfectly,
The Universe

Oh yeah, they also instinctively believe in miracles.

The Uncle Sam Interviews: Helen Thomas

Uncle Sam, from Funny or Die, interviews veteran reporter Helen Thomas. I love this very much.

The Uncle Sam Interviews: Helen Thomas - watch more funny videos

Unfortunately for Obama, there are no backsies

His hair is already going white. And he isn't even a year in. And who could blame the guy? (There may be an advertisement at the beginning of the video.)


White House Reveals Obama Is Bipolar, Has Entered Depressive Phase