New and Improved!

At this point, I hope you can tell that the site is pretty much done being re-costumed. In other words, if you think it's ugly right now, that's because you find my blog actually to be ugly. Which would be sad. (Especially since, you know, it's not.)

Sorry for any ugliness...

Note: I am in the middle of re-costuming my blog. If you're visiting here and it's ugly, chaotic, or unmatching, please know that the situation is hopefully temporary.

Another Weird Hippie Culinary Adventure

I just found out how to make homemade tofu. You know, for a vegetarian, I'm shockingly un-keen on this soy-beany little staple, but the chance to make it...that's a whole new level of "earthiness" that I just can't resist.
(Hopefully it will turn out better than that first souffle attempt of mine...apparently, sometimes when the directions say you need a mixer, you really do).

Manah-manah...logy

Okay, I'm sorry, but tell me that if you were in a class which uses the term "phenomenology" every two seconds, this song wouldn't be stuck in your head perpetually, too:



Gotta love the Muppets.

Experiential Painting

I've decided to write my paper on William Morris, a Victorian poet/writer/painter/socialist/home-decorator, and in my research I came across this passage, which begged to be shared:
"Morris, who both as a boy and as an undergraduate loved the arts of the Middle Ages, felt strongly that he could not hope to paint knights unless he experienced what it was like to wear armour, and had a helmet and suit of chain mail 'run up' to his own design by a doubtless surprised Oxford blacksmith. To the delight of his friends, 'Topsy' (Morris' nickname) succeeded in getting his head stuck in the helmet at a dinner party."
I wish I could have been there for that.

Just Weather

Today:'"That's why Camilla and I got married," said Denniston as they drove off. "We both like Weather. Not this or that kind of weather, but just Weather."' (That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis)

Spring

It's definitely snowing outside. Just thought I'd say.

Another Dose of Victorian Art

Doing research on art is very distracting. This painting ("Tree Shadows in the Park Wall, Roundhay, Leeds" by John Atkinson Grimshaw) has nothing to do with my paper, but I thought I would share (because I like it):
I'm becoming very attached to (and distracted by) the book in which I'm encountering these paintings. Almost 500 full-color pages of beautiful Victorian art along with their history and social significance. It's only $18.95 used on Amazon right now. Very tempting.

Appropriate Ceremonies and Activities

I just want it to be known that Amanda and I did our good patriotic duty today: homemade Greek(ish) pitas for dinner. (And we threw in a couple pecans for good measure.) Opa!

"A Hopeless Dawn"

I was doing research for a paper on Victorian art today, and I came across this painting ("A Hopeless Dawn") by Frank Bramley:

I found it quite arresting. There's an ocean view out the window; I think the young woman's new husband (maybe fiance) was lost at sea, and her grandmother is seeking to comfort her. Just look at her. She looks to be only my age.

Anyway. Sad, but so beautiful. I lift my glass (full of non-alcoholic sparkling cider which I don't really like) to Bramley. Way to paint.

Spanakopita, anyone?

This just in (as of 20 March 2008):
-clears throat importantly-
"I, George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 25, 2008, as Greek Independence Day: A National Day of Celebration of Greek and American Democracy. I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities." (Really...look here.)
I don't know how I feel about this. It sort of seems like we're stealing someone else's holiday and making it about us. And what about the other nations represented in our melting pot? But hey, I guess if the Greeks are okay with it...
(Can we make the "appropriate ceremonies and activities" be mandatory spanakopita- and baklava-eating? I could get enthusiastic about that.)
(It's also national Pecan Day, apparently. Do Greek people eat pecans?)

Discontent

So, I made the mistake of looking at pictures from my trip to the Redwoods a few years ago. Now, really, would you rather be here:



or stuck in a basement working on a philosophy of language journal?
-sigh-

Carrot Cake

Amanda and I just made a carrot cake, and it's amazing.
Really.
Too bad none of you get to eat it. Just us.
Here's to cream cheese frosting.

This-ness, Is-ness, and Being

So, in my Victorian literature class we've been discussing the poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (who, by the way is amazing...okay, I'm totally interrupting myself, but what's not to love in poetry like this:
"As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves--goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came."
Okay, end of digression...)
Anyway, Hopkins coined the word "inscape" to refer to a thing's (or person's or landscape's) this-ness, its individual essential quality (he borrowed the idea from Duns Scotus' haecceitas, to give credit where it's due). Bascially, everything has this completely unique "self" (which is why Hopkins hated seeing nature destroyed: each tree and hill and scene's inimitable inscape is lost to us forever).
I like this idea, and have been rolling it around in my head this term, and yesterday I came across this passage in Madeleine L'Engle's book A Circle of Quiet:
"Sartre felt depressed and threatened by [the isness of an oak tree]; the idea that the oak tree simply is seems to diminish him. I suppose the perfect isness of anything would be frightening without the hope of God. An oak tree is, and it doesn't matter to it--at least Sartre thinks it doesn't; it is not a thinking oak. Man is; it matters to him; this is terrifying unless it matters to God, too, because this is the only possible reason we can matter to ourselves..." (8).
Some of L'Engle's theology is a bit wacky at times, but somehow Hopkins and this passage are sort of bouncing around in my head right now and I thought I'd get them out there.
For what it's worth.
P.S. Hopkins is even better read aloud...

Old-Fashioned Daniel

I was messing around with some photo editing today, and I think this one turned out nicely. Sort of the old photo look. Of course, since I did it primarily through random and spontaneous tweaking, I'll never be able to do it again for another photo. But hey.

Holy Saturday

"O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who at this evening hour didst rest in the sepulchre, and didst thereby sanctify the grave to be a bed of hope to thy people...
Look down, O Lord, from thy heavenly throne, illuminate the darkness of this night with thy celestial brightness, and from the sons of light banish the deeds of darkness, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Be present, O merciful God...so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this fleeting world may repose upon Thy eternal changelessness, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
We will lay us down in peace and take our rest;
For it is Thou, Lord, only, that makest us dwell in safety...
Let us bless the Lord;
Thanks be to God." (adapted from The Book of Common Prayer)
------------
P.S. I'm going here--St. Peter's Basilica--this summer.
(-really big grin-)
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photo: wendel_jochen (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jochen2/2317623112/)

Waiting

Note to self: no more crossing the border on Easter weekend. Three hours and thirty-eight minutes in the southbound line. (And all for some peanut butter.)

snarkiness

i think my nalgene iz gr8, yo b/c i luv 2 drink h2o
more l8r

Filling up more space (but without the poetry)...

So, I'm having an OC moment and it's really bothering me that the sidebars on this blog are still longer than the main part. Thus, some more rambling for the sole purpose of filling up space (but without the help of T.S. Eliot this time). I also thought I would include a picture, mostly to see how to include pictures in posts. (And to fill up even more room.)Isn't this pretty? It's on my commute to school. Unfortunately, it's impossible to capture the sweeping, 180-degree mountainous surroundings photographically, because the only place for a really unobstructed view (e.g. without powerlines and trees) is from the middle of busy roads (i.e. you have to be in the car). It's amazing how much difference even a few feet one way or the other can affect that. But anyway. This is a sunset picture. I think it looks like a sunrise picture (maybe it's the pink), but it's not. I should know. (Since, you know, I took it.)

Narcissus

So, it's 4am, and I'm awake (apparently that's what happens when you're convalescing and have slept for the past four days). So I think to myself, I'll write on my blog! Isn't that what people do with blogs? Well, anyway, apparently it's what I'm doing with this blog.
-pause, thinking what to write-
I've just been looking at all the places in Rome I'm going to drag Julie to see this summer because they have Caravaggio paintings. One of my life aspirations is going to be fulfilled within the next four months. That's pretty exciting, when you think about it. (Oh, I guess graduation's in there, too. But Caravaggio? Way more important.)
-pause-
Hm.
I've decided that blogs must by nature simply be narcissistic. I mean, why would I assume anyone would want to know or read any of this?
(By the way, Carvaggio painted Narcissus. As in the half river-god, self-obsessed breaker of Echo's heart, not the flower. Presumably not from life.)
(He may have painted the flower at some point, too, I don't know.)

Senioritis (a haiku)

There's work to be done
Assignments, expectations
Oh look, a squirrel!

Honesty

Okay, maybe I just have a blog because I secretly do want to join the legions of people who find it entertaining to publically post random anecdotes and thoughts, and this way I can still maintain that I'm (mostly) anti-facebook. ;)

To fill up space (a little T.S. Eliot)...

-clears throat-

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
Through the unknown, the unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always--
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one."

(Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what it all means, either, but it's beautiful, hey?)

Exclusion

I was feeling excluded from the family blog frenzy. So I made a blog. Unmarried people count, too. So there. (Just what I need, another aesthetics distraction...I fear this may madden me.)