Good Monday Morning. Saturday was sunny and warm and felt more like late April than mid November. Dave and i went for a nice long walk and ended it at our local timmy's for a cup of coffee. It was nice enough for a visit to DQ, but sadly the local one is closed for the winter. The Christmas decorations looked odd sparkling in the bright warm sun. November is supposed to be the most depressing month of the year, always grey, dull, cloudy no sun, no light no colour... As this Thomas Hood poem so eloquently reminds us Two years ago we were in the middle of a November storm that dumped snow and ice on everything. Three years ago the snow started the day after Halloween and it stayed until Mid April. Needless to say, I'm taking full advantage of a mild and sunny November.
I think one reason I have been feeling blah and not quite in the pink, aside from swine flu, is that I ma not getting quite enough fresh air and exercise. I'm not a fitness fanatic and I don't spend hours on a gym, but I do like to get out for nice long heart pumping, sweat inducing walks. If I get home and i need a shower, then I've had a good cardio-walk. I haven't had enough of these lately and I think I'm a little out of shape. So more walking, less dressmaker's butt!
I've often expressed a fascination with fractals. I've tried to imagine how to "fractalize" fashion designs, with particular attention to how they add drape and fullness to a design. I've also mentioned that if offered a choice between regular cauliflower and fractal cauliflower, I willing fork over more money for the opportunity to ponder the infinite scope of the Mandelbrot equation while eating my dinner. And it impresses the hell out of the guy at the market, who actually looked up "Mandelbrot" and "fractal" on google. This guy had taken the Mandelbrot into the third dimension with 3-D "mandelbulbs" mandelcrusts" and "mandel-gateau" Needless to say, one of the first forms generated was the cauliflower.
I have a whole bunch of new screensavers and wallpapers. There's Ice cream from Neptune, Carmelized Hazelnut swirl, I think this guy has a sweet tooth! Or he was hungry when making these. These 3-D Mandelbrot's are all the rage over on The Fractal Forum. Yes, I check it out on occasion! I do more than look at shoes, clothes and sewing patterns!
If you really want your mind blown by fractals hen check out this: http://www.archive.org/details/NebulabrotRotation and if you want to download something even more mind blowing look at this: http://www.phidelity.com/blog/artwork/rena-jones-open-me-slowly-video/ The MP4 takes a while open (don't bother unless you have a broadband connection, it will take a day to open) but it's worth the wait. Truly mind blowing fractals.
Tonight is the Leonids Meteor shower. (Here is the news: The weather's fine but there may be a meteor shower) It will be going from about 11:00 PM to about 4:00 AM. i thin I will duck out for a while before bed to see a few meteors, I don't want to go out a three in the morning, I'm usually sleeping then. Those are always cool. Many years ago we went out to one, a Perseid shower. If you looked low towards the eastern horizon you could see them rising, it was like a spray of little sparkles coming from a central point at the horizon. it was quite cool. Here's a news story about the shower.
So onto less scientific things: Project Runway Season 6. Okay. Let's talk about it. Sure. Um. What to say? Seriously, this has been quite the lacklustre season. Slowly the creme of the crop has risen to the top, and the pretenders have fallen away. Did they plan for three hot chicks to make it to the finale? Or did it just happen that way? I think Carol Hannah is my favourite, with Althea a close second. I just saw the Michael Kors episode and I have to say that for a location as inspirational as Santa Fe, he sure made a horrible whatever it was! I would have made a long and flowing dress made of a print with sunset and desert rose colours with some sandy brown faded denim accents, lots of top stitching, and I would have included tons of copper jeans rivets. That would have been western and modern, perfect for hanging out on the porch of the Dude Ranch!
Also in the realm of fashion: In spite of my utter contempt for The Hills, I have been watching the spin off The City. At first i though Erin was being a bitch to Olivia, now I see her point. I can imagine she's ticked off she has to give up half her job to some un-reality show queen and hold her hand because she's to stupid to know how to actually perform the duties of a fashion intern. As for Whitney, she's also showing a big case of the Stupids. She went to a fashion buyer with DRAWINGS! No completed garments, just DRAWINGS! She's got learn how to sew, which she has been told several times. Even her boss told her that! If she does learn to sew she must start with sewing Roxy's mouth shut. Now. It's true that her boss hates happy people, however Whitney and Roxy don't help their cause. Again, i get the feeling Kelly is upset that she too is holding the hands of two spoiled rich un-reality show stars when she could have hired people with a real hunger for the job. Far more interesting than the spoiled losers on The Hills, although Spencer at the doctor, researching vasectomies was utterly hilarious.
We got new speakers yesterday. They aren't as high wattage as I would have liked, but they sounded better than the expensive high wattage speakers. Our set up is quite cramped compact and we don't need all that power. I'm looking forward to hearing the OMD/Liverpool Philharmonic concert preview in real surround sound, not on little headphones.
