43 Pieces

For the last 43 days that I'm 43 years old (that is, starting today), I'm doing a self-portrait art/photography project over at Flickr. Each day I'll be posting a photograph, art piece, or whatever else strikes my imagination. If you're interested, you can visit me at flickr. Who knows what might show up?

Sherry likes to...

I snagged this hilarious meme from my sister Krista--in fact we just spent a long time on the phone doing these for all our family members and laughing about the results.

The instructions: Go to Google and type in quotation marks your name and then "likes to" (ex. "Tom likes to"). Post the first ten things that come up. Does it sound anything like you?

1. In her spare time, Sherry likes to read, forage for mushrooms, canoe, hike and quilt. (um, I do like reading and hiking...)

2. Sherry likes to play the banjo and collects tacky antiques, such a lamp of 2 frogs kissing! (er...no)

3. But Sherry likes to go at her own speed. (true enough)

4. Sherry likes to be random. (maybe sometimes...if I understand what this even means)

5. Sherry likes to be "on the edge," as she describes it. (don't know if I'm really very "edgy")

6. In her spare time, Sherry likes to paint and she also sings in the Arkansas Chamber Singers. (I'm a long way from Arkansas!)

7. Certainly, Sherry devotes himself earnestly to the study of Conrad, but Conrad remains a giant whose feet are the only thing that Sherry likes to look at. (okay, that's just frightening)

8. Sherry likes to be asked to do things by the teacher. (actually I always was a bit of a teacher's pet...)

9. Sherry and Terry like to ride their bicycles at the playground. (my husband's name is Terry!)

10. Sherry likes to teach each client how to protect their own energy field. (errr...)

Earth Day Checkup

Since yesterday was Earth Day (and it was a lovely afternoon) I went outside and started some of the spring yard-cleanup. It felt wonderful to get out in the fresh air and start making the place look tidy again, and the occasional clumps of crocuses and other green things starting to poke up out of the ground were delightful and encouraging.

Today, though, I thought I'd check in with myself and see if I've made any improvements since I did that Green Meme back in January.

1. What do you for the birds and the bees? I did feed the birds through the winter and have seeds started and ordered that should make our backyard a haven for birds and pollinators again this year

2. Household products. Chemical or organic? I've begun checking all cleaning products for phosphates and other undesirable ingredients--if they have them, I don't buy them.

3. Do you junk? Since January I have had our names taken off several junk mailing lists and continue to whittle down the pile as I can.

4. Air-dry or tumble-dry? I hang about one-quarter to one-half of our clothes to dry inside the house, and we've discussed putting up an outside line this spring.

5. Old gadgets. Recycle or toss ‘em? Still recycling this stuff.

6. Lightbulbs - incandescent or fluorescent? Okay, we haven't started to change the bulbs yet but plan to. We also started making a nightly ritual of ensuring that all computers in the house are turned off overnight. I think we've made a big difference that way.

7. Meat or veg? I try to have two meatless nights a week now, and recently invested in cloth grocery bags. I take them into most stores now, not just the grocery.

8. Loo paper. Virgin or recycled? Switched to 100% post-consumer waste recycled toilet paper and paper towel. I have a beef that the paper towel is not well-perforated and doesn't tear off well, but I might write a letter about that...

9. Tap or bottled water? Haven't bought any bottled water lately, just using the filter jug.

10. Dating - metrosexual or ecosexual? Hubby is becoming "greener" all the time at my...persuading.

**********

Also still composting, and I've begun to take more notice about water use in the house--filling the kettle only to the level needed, re-using water for plants, etc.

I'm pleased to see big improvements in our household's environmental footprint since January!

Thinking Blogger Award

My dear friend Karen has thoughtfully put me on her list for the Thinking Blogger Award, and as you can see I'm proud to display the logo in my sidebar. It's particularly nice because although I've had this blog for quite a while, it's only in the past year that I've really kept it up and used it to post a lot of things that are on my mind. I've been especially inspired in that wise by Karen and by Helen on her blog A Was Alarmed. (They both would have been on my list but have already been named by others...)

Now it's my turn to award it to five other bloggers:

M.D. Benoit for Life's Weirder Than Fiction, an eclectic collection of thoughts on writing, reading, and just about anything else.

Edward Willett for Hassenpfeffer, lots of science and fun.

Charlotte for Charlotte's Web, a blog that always seems to cheer me up when I visit.

Kerryn for White Thoughts No-One Sees, because she has a particular talent for writing about everyday things that make me ponder my own feelings and thoughts on similar matters.

Krista for Chocolate is Kryptonite, a new-ish blog which I feel is destined for greatness.

Here are the rules of participation:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

Heavy Heart

The past two days I've been carrying around a very heavy heart because of the tragic occurrences at Virginia Tech. My only (very nebulous) connection to the losses is the knowledge that the father of one of the slain professors is a well-known science fiction writer, and I know some people (via the internet) who know this writer. However as a mother, as a person who abhors violence, I can't get the story out of my head. So much grief in one place. I visited the website of the professor, Jamie Bishop, who was also an artist and photographer, and very talented (the site is www.memory39.com). Such loss, such waste.

Yesterday afternoon there was a bomb threat at my daughter's junior high school. It turned out to be a false alarm, but the students were evacuated to another neraby school (where I happened to be volunteering in the library at the time). They had to leave all their belongings and evacuate as quickly as possible, then walk to safety in the cold. It was upsetting, of course. Does no-one even contemplate the consequences of their actions? How have so many people become so dissociated from the notions of compassion, empathy, and social responsibility? And what can we do about it?

Someone on the radio yesterday opined that we need to be more observant, more vigilant, to see when people are exhibiting signs of mental trouble or distress so that they can be helped. This struck me as a particularly naive view. I know someone who went through a very bad time, was clinically depressed, very near to suicidal--and it was impossible for this person's family to get any help from the medical system. I know another person who is mentally unstable, living in impossible conditions and barely able to care for themselves; but there seems to be no help for this person, either. No one can "interfere," not the police, not the social welfare system. We have set up a system where other concerns override getting help for people who obviously need it. Today came the news that the perpetrator in the Virginia Tech case was indeed a person with mental problems and known to police--what more proof is needed that the "system" doesn't work. Observation was not lacking in that case--it was the ability, or possibly the will, to do something about it.

Sadly, I have no answers, but these are the questions that are on my mind today.

Story Progress III

I worked diligently on the story Friday and Saturday, although it was very slow going...I'd write a few paragraphs, go get some coffee, write a few more lines, check my email, drag myself back to the story...you get the picture. Finally around midnight on Saturday, when everyone else was gone to bed, I wrote the final few paragraphs.

The program hung when I tried to save the file. I waited, waited, unbelieving. I could see most of what I'd just written on the screen, so before I did anything drastic I grabbed a notebook and copied it down, just in case. Good thing, too, because I did finally get the program to close, but it didn't save, and the recovered document had none of those final passages. I lost only about one paragraph, so I quickly re-wrote it as best I could. The next day I re-typed it in and saved successfully.

I have no idea if the story is any good. I know it's about 1500 words over the limit so I have some major trimming to do, but I think the beginning is rather rambling anyway, so that should sort itself out. The thing is, I won't be able to put it away for a while to simmer, then take it out again in a few weeks' time. I'll have to look at it briefly this week, then hand it off to my trusty readers for opinions. That will be difficult! But it's the only way I'll be able to have it shipshape by the deadline.

Time for...an Image Meme!

This one is a bit of work, but it sounded like so much fun I had to try it. I snagged it from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

The instructions: Plug your answers into Google Image Search and post the first image that comes up.

1. Your age on your next birthday.


2. Your favorite color:


3. Your middle name:


4. The last meal you ate:


5. Your bad habit:


6. Your favorite fruit or vegetable:


7. Your favorite animal:


8. The town you live in:


9. The name of your pet or last pet:


10. Your SO or best friend's nickname:


12. Your crush's name:


13. Your occupation:


14. Your birth city:


15. Your favorite song:


(Apparently there's no #11. I'm not sure if that's deliberate or not.)

Tidbits of the Past

I've been helping my daughter work on a family tree project for school these past few weeks. I did some genealogical work years ago and then it got shuffled into the "later" pile, but it's been fun working on it again. Now that the Historical Vital Statistics for Nova Scotia are accessible online, we've found quite a lot of information that I didn't have before.

I have to admit, I find it fascinating looking at the old death records. Not only have I found a lot of dates I didn't know previously, but I always have to satisfy my insatiable curiosity by looking at the "cause of death" section. Is that morbid, or only natural? I'm not certain.

My favorite entry of this sort so far has been for one of my husband's forbears. There were three things listed in the "cause of death" section (this was in 1944): it said

Heart (sudden)
Chronic nephritis
Frightened by a dog two weeks previously

"Frightened by a dog"--that's just such an excellent entry. Conjures up all kinds of images and stories for me. I'll bet there are hardly any entries these days with that kind of storytelling potential. ;-)

Gathering of the Blogs 2007 - Clans Hay and Ramsey

Clan Hay ~ I have Scottish roots through my maternal grandfather, George Thomas Hay. Although he was born here in Nova Scotia, his father, Alexander Wilson Hay, was born in Glenmavis, County of Lanark, Scotland in October of 1874. He came to Canada from Caldercruin about the year 1900 and worked for the Nova Scotia Steel & Coal Company, in the company store and also as Pattern Keeper at the company foundry.


This is the Hay Tartan (the ancient version). I remember when I was a child one of my aunts had a long pleated skirt in this tartan. It was terribly heavy and the wool very scratchy, but I thought it was extremely cool and great fun for playing dressup.





This is the Hay crest, which is properly described as "Issuing out of a Crest Coronet, a falcon volant Proper, armed, jessed, and belled Or." You can also see the Motto, which is "Serva Jugum." My grandfather used to joke that the motto meant "Pass The Jug," (which was especially funny as he was not a drinking man) but in actual fact it means "Keep the Yoke."




A few other tidbits about the name/clan:
* Gaelic Names: MacGaraidh (Surname) & Clann 'icGaraidh (Collective).
* Slogan: "A Hay! A Hay!".
* Pipe Music: "Delgaty Castle".
* Plant Badge: Mistletoe.
* Animal Symbol: Falcon.
* Arms: Argent, three escutcheons Gules

Clan Ramsey ~ I also married into a family with a Scottish name, although the "proper" Scottish spelling seems to be "Ramsay." However, I am taking all things pertaining to Ramsay to pertain equally to Ramsey.

This is one of the Ramsey tartans; the modern version is red but I like the blue hunting version of this one. I haven't been able to uncover as much about the family history for this name, although the "distance" from Scotland seems to be about the same; my husband's great-grandfather was born in Scotland.



The Ramsey crest is "A unicorn’s head couped Argent armed Or," and the Motto is "Ora Et Labora," which means "Pray and Work."

More about the Clan/Name:
* Gaelic: Ramsaidh
* Plant Badge: Blue Harebell
* Arms: Argent, an eagle displayed Sable




Here's the updated blogroll of all participants:

Tartan Day 2007

I've just found out that tomorrow is Tartan Day and that there is an annual "Gathering of the Blogs." So of course I've joined up. Everyone participating (the blogroll is below) will be posting something Scottish-related tomorrow, so it should be great fun to take a virtual tour with a Scottish flavour this way.

I have fairly deep Scottish roots and have just been doing some work on our family history while helping my daughter with a school project, so I'll be posting some of that information here.

Virtual Book Tour and Launch

Canadian SF/F author M.D. Benoit is on the fifth day of her virtual book tour for her new book, Synergy. There's an interview I did with her at The Scriptorium, and you can follow the progress of her tour on her blog, Life's Weirder Than Fiction. Here's what she said when I asked what the book was about; I think it sounds really interesting:

The story is set in Ottawa, Canada, in 2096. Cloning, accelerated growth of replacement organs, DNA repair are all possible, but forbidden by law. Three people will defy these laws to save the life of a young child. But, once developed, the cure can also be used as a gene-specific weapon. The question becomes, is the life of one child worth the potential of unleashing a reign of terror?

The Stars Shine Bright North of the 49th

Derryl Murphy has a great essay about Canadian SF and fantasy online at his blog, If You Can't Say Anything Nice.... Stop by for an interesting read.