Quote of the Day

"The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light." --- Felix Adler (1851-1933); intellectual, founder of the Society for Ethical Culture


I particularly like today's quote. By this definition, I know a couple of saints. I married one of them. I feel incredibly lucky to have them in my life; they keep me going!


News

Homework, homework, yep, more homework. I have a bunch of projects coming up in English that I need to get done (I have to tape myself during a tutoring session, and I have to observe another peer tutor as well as interview a member of the faculty that teaches writing. I'm feeling rather bluh about these assignments, and the writing center work is... kind of ramming home that while I enjoy helping out other people, maybe teaching them just isn't for me. I'm glad to have the job, but I can't figure out the trick of igniting scholastic fires in people, and... well. Without that knack, I can see being a teacher getting Really Old really fast.

I have another anthropology assignment, this one's a bit easier than the last. Again, I have to find three informants, or interviewees. I appreciate everyone that's helped out, and at the end of the semester, I'll work on a little token of gratitude. :)


It's been a busybusy weekend, but I think roho had a good birthday. I made chicken tikka masala with homemade naan for his birthday dinner, and had procured 'birthday cake' (3 little slices of different cakes) from a local bakery. We got some major projects around the house done (Bren's Dad is visiting, and he likes to help out while he's here) which was most excellent. We now have lighting in the basement- all of the overhead lights had gone out, and I had tried to fix them myself, but Dad knows more what he's doing than I do. Turned out to be burnt out bulbs. Ahem. >.> And before you say, 'Wow Lyds, how'd you miss that?' These are shop light flourescents, and... it's not as easy as it sounds to troubleshoot them. :) But anyway, we fixed that. We fixed the drain hose on one of our gutter drains? The little metal drain pipes that go down the side of the house? It was gushing out onto the foundation, rather than running through the hose to be drained into the water table further into the yard, so we fixed that... then we replaced our sump pump. Now when it rains, we can rest easy! Our old one wouldn't run properly, so when it rained, you had to run downstairs and plug it in, then unplug it later; it would run all the time, and didn't do much pumping. The new one is much quieter, works automatically, and we're very happy. Thanks Dad!

I picked up equipment for the MFF Artist's Alley this week; we have a new laptop for Alley use (so we're not using mine anymore) and a printer so we can streamline the process, make everything run more smoothly for artist and staff. I'm psyched about the stuff we're implementing from the staff side. From the aritst side, I'm running around looking at the calendar and whimpering; I have no idea how I'm going to get things done in time. I guess I have a lot of drawing and painting in my future. >.>


On today's agenda... laundry, cleaning up after the weekend (we have tools scattered everywhere), take Dad to the train station.... get back on my diet (birthday weekends are hard for eating properly). I probably will plink at my Anthropology assignment, and I have some blogging to do about the diet progress. (If you'd like to be added to that filter, please let me know!)


Elsewhere...


Links

MCA Hogarth, our very own haikujaguar, has a new book out! I'm about halfway through it, and yes. You want to read this. It's science fiction written like poetry. It's full of beautiful imagry and lovely writing. You can also get it via amazon, and if you have a kindle or ebook reader, you can purchase the ebook version directly from the author. Createspace gives her more of the sale than Amazon, and is a reputable vendor- so if you purchase the hard copy, support the artist!

Best of Wet Canvas Art Competition -- Send your best landscape, stil llife or portrait, deadline is October 31. I don't know if many of the artists that read this blog do these types of art, but the grand prize is $1,000 (with $100 for each category 1st place) and who couldn't use that kind of money?

Creepy Halloween Food Recipes -- Everything from mummy rolls to melting head cakes! My particular favorite is the headcrabs. I TOTALLY want to make those for Halloween, just so I can traumatize feren. (Link courtesy of rissani)