Author: Heather Meadows

First Canal trek with Yuuri

Yesterday I headed over to the Augusta Canal trail for some biking. I rode from the headgates to the pumping station without stopping at about 12 mph average, then relaxed on my way back, stopping frequently for pictures.

glacier-esque

I was interested to see that the construction at the Waterworks is done. Now there’s a nice paved trail above the paved parking/work area for the pumping station. It looks pretty nice.

Augusta Waterworks

I tried this time for some interesting depth of field (DOF) shots by using the manual focus. I was marginally successful.

red flowers and vines

battered leaves

The headgates waterfall was barely a trickle, and the river was low. There was a woman standing out on the exposed rocks, fishing. I got a few pictures of her.

woman fishing

I also took the opportunity to take some nice pictures of Yuuri.

Yuu-chan

All in all, I’m fairly happy with these photos. I’d been feeling lately like I’d just been phoning it in, so on this trip I took my time and seriously tried to get good shots. That the pictures didn’t all turn out the way I’d hoped just means I have more to learn :)

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NaNoWriMo approacheth

Two days till NaNoWriMo. I am going to participate this year, and this time I will actually keep writing all month, instead of stopping after a week, or whatever it was I did last year.

The rules dictate that I can’t have written any of this work beforehand, so I can’t continue any of my old stories. It’s good to have a clean slate, but for awhile I wasn’t sure I’d be able to think of something to write about.

However, an interesting concept came to me recently. It touches on personal privacy issues and the paranormal. The story will take place a couple generations from now, so things will still be recognizable, but there will be plenty of new technology.

Even if this has been done before, it’s never been done by me, so I think it will be worth doing even if I can’t publish it.

Having a concept is all well and good, but the characters are paramount. Right now I’m seeing two principal characters, a teenager and a younger sibling, and I’m thinking they’re being raised by a single father who has become very overprotective since divorcing his wife, who is an abusive alcoholic. I haven’t figured out the kids’ genders yet, but right now I’m leaning towards the idea of both of them as girls.

I’m considering using my old AMRN character, Natalie “Byron” Ryan, for the teenage daughter, but I haven’t decided yet. This would actually be somewhat convenient, because the closest character I’ve played to how I envison the girls’ father is Bill Anderson, who was Byron’s self-appointed guardian. However, I don’t want to trap myself within old story ideas–this is going to be something new and different. (The teenage daughter will not have high levels of Spiritia ;P)

I’m also not sure from whose perspective I will write. It’s tempting to write from the father’s perspective, because his motivations are key and I feel the urge to explain them, but ultimately I think it will be best to have the father represent a circumstance rather than act as protagonist. With the teenage daughter I have the perfect foil for both the reaction to the father’s actions and the realization of the phenomena surrounding the younger sister…

I do think I’ll stick to third person, though, because a teenage girl’s perspective would be tiring to write (and read).

Our wedding photos

Sean and me, just married, at Augusta Golf and Gardens

Thankfully, we didn’t lose our wedding pictures in the fire. They were all digital, and Mom had full-size copies. She gave them to me when I visited last, and today I uploaded the full images to my smugmug. Those of you who saw my wedding pictures over on the old Aubrey Family website will find new pictures in the Reception gallery: I’ve uploaded the pictures from the disposable cameras as well as the digital images. Most of them didn’t come out very well, unfortunately, but I do like this one:

Connor taking a picture of me taking a picture with a disposable camera

If you don’t want to wade through all those shots, and instead are interested only in the pictures that I think are good, click here. (Bear in mind that I love them all, but from an artistic point of view only the ones I’ve tagged as “good” make the grade.) If you’d like to nominate a photo to be tagged as “good”, just comment on this post! (I plan eventually to go through all my photos and tag the best ones.)

I’ve also added a “funny” tag to some of these pics. Check it out ;)

Ben with his eyes crossed, holding a sign that says 'Mom says I can't eat between meals, so please don't feed me'.

My baby brother, ladies and gentlemen.

A deluge of bouncy balls

multicolored bouncy balls pouring down a street

This is awesome. And it was done without CGI! From the About page:

In an age when CGI is commonplace, this makes the commercial all the more extraordinary. Every single frame was shot over two days – with the main sequence involving a 23-man camera crew and only one chance to get it right.

An entire block was closed off and special compressed-air cannons shot the balls into the air, while earth moving equipment poured thousands down the street. Not that you’d know it from the finished product, but these balls can do some damage, so all the cars were props and crew members went so far as to having protective shields and crash helmets.

But when you get it right, you get it right. The goal at the beginning was to deliver a “really simple, visual celebration of colour”. We think you’ll agree the results speak for themselves.

Via BoingBoing.

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Under the right circumstances, people use "under" instead of "in"

Arnold Zwicky over at Language Log has been looking into the phenomenon of “under” versus “in” occurring before the phrase “[modifier] circumstances”. I, personally, couldn’t recall ever hearing someone say “in the circumstances”, but Zwicky stated previously that not only is this how he says it, but it’s considered proper.

Of course, it’s Language Log’s purpose to debunk prescriptive language rules, so he did a little googling to see how people are actually using the phrase. Not content to simply check with “the circumstances”, he tried “these”, “all”, “no”, and several other modifiers.

In summary: the Google data suggest that “under” is preferred to “in”

(modestly)
with determiners “the” and “these”
(more strongly)
with determiner “which”
(very strongly)
with determiner “what”
(almost categorically)
with quantity determiner “no”

but that “in” is preferred to “under”

(almost categorically)
when “circumstances” means ‘personal situation’
(strongly)
with determiner “those” in general
(almost categorically)
with determiner “those” plus certain following relatives
(modestly)
with quantity determiners “all” and “some”
(strongly)
with quantity determiner “many”
(almost categorically)
with quantity determiner “a few”

This just scratches the surface of the phenomenon, but it’s enough to indicate that several effects are probably going on. As usual, the facts of usage are complex, subtle, sometimes surprising, and not easy to derive from first principles.

Ah, science.

Today’s Overuse of an Expression Award goes to: Breck Mickelson, Nicholasville

They’re talking about putting a huge Jack Nicklaus signature golf course over off US 68 in western Nicholasville. (Ugh. They only just finished the lane expansion over there…) It would be a golfing community, similar to The River in North Augusta, with houses and townhomes averaging $500,000 apiece.

Breck Mickelson, a Nicholasville resident, is understandably perturbed.

“We didn’t want to live in the city. That’s why we moved out here.”

I’m with Breck, really. US 68 (aka Harrodsburg Road, aka my favorite way to get to my parents’ house) has gone to crap in recent years, with construction (notably Southland Christian Church, which seemingly quadrupled in size) and added lanes out the wazoo.

I actually used to be a proponent of widening Harrodsburg Road, and it really does help traffic congestion to have those extra lanes, but now I think I was short-sighted. With Harrodsburg widened, now people are going to want to build up all along it, just like what happened to Nicholasville Road. We’ll lose ancient farmhouses and traditional stone fencing. We’ll lose old trees and rolling farmland. We’ll gain…shopping outlets, and a golf course? (There’s already a golf course along Harrodsburg, thank you very much.)

So yes, I am with Breck Mickelson. I agree with him 100%. And when he said,

We need 660 houses in Jessamine County like we need a hole in the head.

I thought that was pretty clever.

But then he said,

We need more traffic on Harrodsburg Road like we need a hole in the head.

Now come on, Mr. Mickelson. I know that redundancy can be powerful, but the cliche “like we need a hole in the head” is powerful enough. Redundancy only cheapens the sentiment.

In this instance, we need redundancy like we need a hole in the head.

(See what I did there?)

Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to replace USS Kitty Hawk

The Kitty Hawk is pretty old; it’s past time to decommission her. The main reason she’s stayed at Yokosuka for so long, or so I understand, is because she’s diesel. The Japanese have historically refused to allow nuclear vessels to dock, due to fears of leakage. Indeed, this new agreement with the US includes some specific guidelines:

“Japan believes that the continued presence of the U.S. Navy … will contribute to Japan’s safety and … stability in the Far East,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Friday.

He said the agreement would not threaten the safety of Japanese residents, who have long been wary of a U.S. nuclear presence because of radiation leaks.

“The U.S. side has told us that it will maintain safety … and take strict (measures),” he said.

Hosoda added that to ensure safety, the carrier will stop its nuclear reactor while anchored at a base in Japan and conduct no repairs while in Japan.

This reticence towards allowing nuclear vessels is probably not indicative of a general resistance to all things nuclear, as I had previously assumed. The Japanese have had their own nuclear power plants since the 1960s. The fear of leakage likely stems from an awareness of the very real danger of nuclear radiation. Japan has had nuclear incidents in the past, most notably the Tokai-mura incident in 1999.

So, in other words, the fact that they’re letting us park a nuclear aircraft carrier at Yokosuka is pretty big news. It’s a huge demonstration of trust.

I imagine there will be quite a few unhappy citizens.

[Edit 4:35pm:] I told you!

Asahi.com: U.S. Navy plans nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Yokosuka; city outraged

The U.S. Navy said it will station a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, starting in 2008, drawing immediate outrage and bewilderment in the city.

[…]

Yokosuka Mayor Ryoichi Kabaya said the city definitely opposes the plan, and criticized the way the decision was handled.

“The fact that the announcement was made without any prior word makes us wonder if the feelings of our city were taken into account,” Kabaya said. “Anxieties that residents of the city and Japanese as a whole have toward anything nuclear remain strong, which we have emphasized to both governments.” The Navy made the announcement Thursday, apparentlyspurred by the agreement reached by Japan and the United States the day earlier on realigning U.S. forces in Japan.

The mayor seems to be invoking Hiroshima and Nagasaki there, doesn’t he? At least, I’m sure that’s what people will think of when they read his statement, rather than the Tokai-mura incident, which, for example, I had never heard of until I read about it last night.

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A rather grisly news story

Via BoingBoing’s post “Hanging Halloween dummy wasn’t“, this article.

The apparent suicide of a woman found hanging from a tree went unreported for hours because passers-by thought the body was a Halloween decoration, authorities said.

The 42-year-old woman used rope to hang herself across the street from some homes on a moderately busy road late Tuesday or early Wednesday, state police said.

The body, suspended about 15 feet above the ground, could be easily seen from passing vehicles.

State police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Oldham and neighbors said people noticed the body at breakfast time Wednesday but dismissed it as a holiday prank. Authorities were called to the scene more than three hours later.

Ewwwwwwwwww.

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The Brazilian Saga, Part Two: I totally caved

I have a confession to make.

I just couldn’t take it anymore!

So this morning, in the shower, I did it.

I…shaved.

Before you freak out on me, let me assure you that I did not shave the happy place. The Brazilian is still on. No, I just shaved everything else…my legs, and my underarms.

And boy does it feel good!

I can wear shorts again! (And skirts, like I did today.)

It had been so long that shaving wasn’t even all that bad.

For now, since we’re scrounging for money to buy a house and I just blew quite a wad of cash on a bicycle, I’ve decided to stick to shaving the usual places…but I made a commitment, to you my readers and to my husband, that I would get the Brazilian, and by gum I’m going to do it.

Hopefully sometime next week!

///

Read the other chapters in the Brazilian Saga! (You know you want to.)

Foreshadowing
Part One: Oh the Hair, the Hair!
Part Three: OW OW OW OW OW OMGWTF OW
Part Four: The Day After
Epilogue

I GOT A NEW BIKE!!!!!!

Yesterday I called Outspokin’ to see if they could get me the same bike I had before. As you may recall, I had a Fuji Cambridge that I had named Syuusuke, after Fuji Syuusuke from Prince of Tennis, and I was planning on naming my new bike Fujiyama, or Yama for short.

However.

Brett from Outspokin’ called me back today and said that they didn’t have the exact same bike in stock. The Cambridge I’d had was equipped with extra “touring” features, and the ones they had in the store didn’t have those. He remarked, however, that Trek (an American company, he was careful to point out) has a new line of bikes with the same scooping frame as the Cambridge, and he had a couple in stock with all the features I’d had on Syuusuke. He suggested I come by and check it out, and if I liked it I could go ahead and get one, and if not we could special order a Cambridge.

So I ran off to Outspokin’ immediately (forgetting to clean up my lunch dishes, which apparently caused my in-laws some consternation when they got home) to see the 100.

It looked a lot like the Cambridge, actually. The frame is essentially the same, as are the handlebars and the gearshift. The bell is different, but not bad. (And it does make that lovely ping!, so I can’t complain.) The seat is actually a little bigger and more comfortable.

I took it out for a test drive in the neighborhood behind Outspokin’, and was easily able to ride no-handed, shift gears, turn, and all those other important things. It was fun and comfortable to ride. I rode it back to the store thinking that the only reason to order a Cambridge would be to indulge in nostalgia…and that wouldn’t it be more fair to Syuusuke to not simply replace him with the same model?

And so I decided to get it, and I had the Outspokin’ guys load it up with a headlight, blinking tail light, Trek brand odometer, and water bottle holder (I picked a bottle with the Outspokin’ logo on it. Why not advertise?). I also picked up a bike lock and an air pump. My bike rack and bike helmet were in the car when the apartment burned down, so I didn’t need to replace those. I decided I didn’t need a bike bag just yet either, since my new purse is a backpack. So with that, I’m pretty much set.

Outspokin’ had two of the 100s in stock. One was black with grey/silver features, and one was a purplish blue with white features. Can you guess which one I picked?

my new bike

You were wrong!!!! ;D

Somehow, the black and silver bike really appealed to me. It seemed so elegant…and plus, black goes with anything. Totally psyched, I strapped the tricked-out bike to my car and headed home.

It wasn’t until I was turning onto Cheryl and Reid’s street that I hit upon the perfect name for the bike. Obviously Yama was out–this bike wasn’t a Fuji. I couldn’t think of a name to derive from “Trek”. But then it hit me: the bike is black.

Guess who is revered for his black hair and black eyes?

Shibuya Yuuri

Yuuri it is :D

(Don’t worry. While I may refer to him as “Yuu-chan”, I will not put my bike in a dress!)

I am an egomaniac, and this is unnecessary

Oh dear. Just when I thought Penny Arcade had gotten me good, Scott Adams (of Dilbert; I don’t read it either, I found this via Andy Gray) goes and writes this:

When I see news stories about people all over the world who are experiencing hardships, I worry about them, and I rack my brain wondering how I can make a difference. So I decided to start my own blog. That way I won’t have time to think about other people.

People who are trying to decide whether to create a blog or not go through a thought process much like this:

  1. The world sure needs more of ME.
  2. Maybe I’ll shout more often so that people nearby can experience the joy of knowing my thoughts.
  3. No, wait, shouting looks too crazy.
  4. I know – I’ll write down my daily thoughts and badger people to read them.
  5. If only there was a description for this process that doesn’t involve the words egomaniac or unnecessary.
  6. What? It’s called a blog? I’m there!

The blogger’s philosophy goes something like this:

Everything that I think about is more fascinating
than the crap in your head.

The beauty of blogging, as compared to writing a book, is that no editor will be interfering with my random spelling and grammar, my complete disregard for the facts, and my wandering sentences that seem to go on and on and never end so that you feel like you need to take a breath and clear your head before you can even consider making it to the end of the sentence that probably didn’t need to be written anyhoo.

If that doesn’t inspire you to read my blog, I don’t know what will. You can find the Dilbert Blog at

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/

:D

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