![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
discardable beauty
Monday, November 25th, 2024 12:59 amThe chocolate bar wrappers of shiny gold and silver. If I didn't so take them for granted, I'd keep each and every one.
Rather than crumpling them up and throwing them away once the chocolate is gone.
.
I've kept quite a few actually, especially the small ones of various colors from the Sjaak's vegan chocolates (they closed up shop a year ago but still haven't taken down their no-longer-functional website; odd. It no longer even shows the popup message about having closed up shop. Very odd). Compressed into various shapes, still some on this table, and in the container on that table, and in the box I brought back from work when the office was shut down.
Rather than crumpling them up and throwing them away once the chocolate is gone.
.
I've kept quite a few actually, especially the small ones of various colors from the Sjaak's vegan chocolates (they closed up shop a year ago but still haven't taken down their no-longer-functional website; odd. It no longer even shows the popup message about having closed up shop. Very odd). Compressed into various shapes, still some on this table, and in the container on that table, and in the box I brought back from work when the office was shut down.
cats, snakes
Sunday, September 22nd, 2024 05:05 pmI look out the window and see a little gray cat lying comfortably there in the dirt next to the azalea bush. How out of place cats seem, soft and cuddly and clean, in a cold hard world. It rolls over, stretches, gets up and walks on, no speck of dirt visible on it.
.
Tuesday night, Qiao's garage floodlight cam sent a "pet detected" notification to my phone. I was very surprised to see a black cat carefully toying with a snake. I went outside; the cat ran off. The snake was crinkled up like I've seen once before with a snake on the back patio, though in a curled position this time. So it was probably a non-dangerous "rat snake":
https://tulsaworld.com/rat-snakes-sometimes-freeze-with-kinked-posture/article_763dea4d-93e5-5e64-ab51-43256048e2fd.html
https://backyardwildlifeconnection.com/2018/09/29/rat-snake-found-kinking-in-backyard/
.
Tuesday night, Qiao's garage floodlight cam sent a "pet detected" notification to my phone. I was very surprised to see a black cat carefully toying with a snake. I went outside; the cat ran off. The snake was crinkled up like I've seen once before with a snake on the back patio, though in a curled position this time. So it was probably a non-dangerous "rat snake":
https://tulsaworld.com/rat-snakes-sometimes-freeze-with-kinked-posture/article_763dea4d-93e5-5e64-ab51-43256048e2fd.html
“When frightened, they often assume a ‘kinked’ posture and remain motionless,” noted the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. The posture makes it appear wrinkled.
https://backyardwildlifeconnection.com/2018/09/29/rat-snake-found-kinking-in-backyard/
The black rat snake is one of several snakes that assume this bizarre posture. When threatened, rat snakes sometimes don this folded or braided pose as a form of camouflage. Supposedly, to a potential predator, a kinked snake looks like nothing more than a stick, and will pass on by without attacking the motionless reptile.
With AI video generation, it may not be much longer that real people are typically employed for acting jobs, or at least not as has been done in the past.
It may become something that was known to be done in the past, but hard to comprehend in the modern day. As in, people used to pretend to be all these characters; they had special costumes created for them; some of them had to sit for hours each day while makeup was being applied to them! They would memorize long stretches of dialogue for their roles; they even used onions to help produce tears to feign sadness! They were able to make it appear that they really felt all those emotions that they were portraying! For TV sitcoms, the studios built fake houses that were open on one side for the cameras to record from!
Maybe human actors will come to be seen as the ecologically better option, and some movies will be advertised as such, "with real human actors!".
It may become something that was known to be done in the past, but hard to comprehend in the modern day. As in, people used to pretend to be all these characters; they had special costumes created for them; some of them had to sit for hours each day while makeup was being applied to them! They would memorize long stretches of dialogue for their roles; they even used onions to help produce tears to feign sadness! They were able to make it appear that they really felt all those emotions that they were portraying! For TV sitcoms, the studios built fake houses that were open on one side for the cameras to record from!
Maybe human actors will come to be seen as the ecologically better option, and some movies will be advertised as such, "with real human actors!".
woodpeckers and buttercups
Tuesday, February 14th, 2023 02:16 amFrom my daily notes today:
That woodpecker is intermittently pecking on the sunroom windows again. It goes from one spot to another, not angrily pecking, just a peck peck here and a peck peck there. Here a peck, there a peck, everywhere a peck peck.
I plan to hang up some strips of what they call "bird scare tape" to see if that will deter the woodpecker. This pecking noise isn't very loud or bothersome (unlike the rapid banging on the other side of the house which sometimes wakes me up), but the pecking itself is damaging my window screens. Today I managed to take a video of the bird when it flew to a nearby tree.
.
Last night in bed, I tried to remember names of stuffed animals I had as a child. It bothers me that I can't remember some of their names anymore. I may have written the names down long ago when I remembered them better, but I don't remember where.
The name "Buttercup" came to me as a possibility for the bunny with the wind-up lullabye music box. I don't think that's the right name though, as the rabbit was pink, not yellow. It doesn't feel right either.
Then I imagined Westley from The Princess Bride saying the following (I turned the light back on to write it down as it amused me):
"Oh Princess Buttercup, you're my cup of butter in the morning, my cup of butter in the evening; multiple cups of butter at night! Oh how I love your cups of butter more than a cup of tea!"
All this time, and I never knew the Princess Bride movie was based on an actual book. I thought the book part of it was just part of the movie! Have any of you read the book? If so, how does it compare to the movie?
That woodpecker is intermittently pecking on the sunroom windows again. It goes from one spot to another, not angrily pecking, just a peck peck here and a peck peck there. Here a peck, there a peck, everywhere a peck peck.
I plan to hang up some strips of what they call "bird scare tape" to see if that will deter the woodpecker. This pecking noise isn't very loud or bothersome (unlike the rapid banging on the other side of the house which sometimes wakes me up), but the pecking itself is damaging my window screens. Today I managed to take a video of the bird when it flew to a nearby tree.
.
Last night in bed, I tried to remember names of stuffed animals I had as a child. It bothers me that I can't remember some of their names anymore. I may have written the names down long ago when I remembered them better, but I don't remember where.
The name "Buttercup" came to me as a possibility for the bunny with the wind-up lullabye music box. I don't think that's the right name though, as the rabbit was pink, not yellow. It doesn't feel right either.
Then I imagined Westley from The Princess Bride saying the following (I turned the light back on to write it down as it amused me):
"Oh Princess Buttercup, you're my cup of butter in the morning, my cup of butter in the evening; multiple cups of butter at night! Oh how I love your cups of butter more than a cup of tea!"
All this time, and I never knew the Princess Bride movie was based on an actual book. I thought the book part of it was just part of the movie! Have any of you read the book? If so, how does it compare to the movie?
pine cones
Thursday, August 26th, 2021 08:14 pmLying back on the porch, looking up at the pine trees. I start counting the pine cones on one tree limb and estimate... probably a hundred on just that one limb.
It's quite possible the tree has more than a thousand pine cones on it! And therefore it's quite possible the other trees have that many too.
Occasionally I pick up pine cones when I'm cleaning up the yard. But I never pick up *that* many.
Do thousands of pine cones fall in the back yard each year, I wonder?
.
The pine cones are just shrapnel when they fall.
The trees are missiles.
It's quite possible the tree has more than a thousand pine cones on it! And therefore it's quite possible the other trees have that many too.
Occasionally I pick up pine cones when I'm cleaning up the yard. But I never pick up *that* many.
Do thousands of pine cones fall in the back yard each year, I wonder?
.
The pine cones are just shrapnel when they fall.
The trees are missiles.
ready to put on socks and shoes
Saturday, August 7th, 2021 10:02 pmbut my mind:
"It's just not right, putting dirty feet into clean socks!"
"It's just not right, putting dirty feet into clean socks!"
conspiracy
Saturday, July 31st, 2021 03:33 pmerrant thought: I believe there are secretive groups of people who are promoting conspiracy theories as a means of inciting chaos and violence and destabilizing governments, among other things. I suppose that makes me a conspiracy theorist too.
my fig tree
Tuesday, July 27th, 2021 06:19 pm... brings all the birds (bees, squirrels, flies) to the yard.
.
It has had so many figs this year (the first time it has been so abundant) that I've left many on the tree for them to get.
.
It has had so many figs this year (the first time it has been so abundant) that I've left many on the tree for them to get.
the unpeeled peel
Monday, October 12th, 2020 01:40 amerrant thought:
Is the skin of a banana called a banana peel, even before it is peeled?
Is the rind of an orange called orange peel, while it is still all on the orange?
Is the skin of a banana called a banana peel, even before it is peeled?
Is the rind of an orange called orange peel, while it is still all on the orange?
keyboard typing sounds espionage
Sunday, September 27th, 2020 06:28 pmErrant thought this morning while typing on my computer/laptop keyboard:
A program might be able to decipher what is being typed simply by the different sounds each key makes and/or the rhythm of the words being typed.
There are several devices around the house which could be hacked to take audio recordings.
- The Alexa Echo Dot. Often we keep it unplugged, but sometimes I forget that it's still plugged in and turned on.
- The cams; on some of them, I've turned off audio recording, but it's hard to remember which ones and if I've changed the settings or not.
- The cell phones or laptops themselves, or the TV maybe, if they've been hacked to record audio when they aren't supposed to.
This 2005 article cited a study showing it was possible: Acoustic Snooping on Typed Information
The article comments indicate similar things have been done in the past, possibly all the way back to World War 2. So intelligence agencies most likely do have and use that kind of spying.
And if intelligence agencies are using it, it's not too far-fetched that serious & determined hackers could use it too. So that's another keylogging thing for me to be concerned about in addition to the wireless keyboard signals being snooped on.
A program might be able to decipher what is being typed simply by the different sounds each key makes and/or the rhythm of the words being typed.
There are several devices around the house which could be hacked to take audio recordings.
- The Alexa Echo Dot. Often we keep it unplugged, but sometimes I forget that it's still plugged in and turned on.
- The cams; on some of them, I've turned off audio recording, but it's hard to remember which ones and if I've changed the settings or not.
- The cell phones or laptops themselves, or the TV maybe, if they've been hacked to record audio when they aren't supposed to.
This 2005 article cited a study showing it was possible: Acoustic Snooping on Typed Information
The article comments indicate similar things have been done in the past, possibly all the way back to World War 2. So intelligence agencies most likely do have and use that kind of spying.
And if intelligence agencies are using it, it's not too far-fetched that serious & determined hackers could use it too. So that's another keylogging thing for me to be concerned about in addition to the wireless keyboard signals being snooped on.
pretty orange butterfly
Tuesday, August 11th, 2020 04:33 pmbutterflies are like flying flowers
.
flies of butter
are flowers that flutter
.
flies of butter
are flowers that flutter
tiger, toe
Wednesday, March 4th, 2020 11:25 amIf it doesn't holler, you probably haven't really caught it.
errant thought while munching
Saturday, January 11th, 2020 08:19 pmJicama is like kohlrabi, except that it tastes good. It doesn't have that bitter cabbage-like flavor.
geese a-floating
Friday, December 13th, 2019 03:36 pm"There's actually enough water out there for the geese to float on!"
(my thought upon seeing the usually-mostly-dry weed-grown lake-bed behind Qiao's house after some rain)
(my thought upon seeing the usually-mostly-dry weed-grown lake-bed behind Qiao's house after some rain)
slipping by
Sunday, January 20th, 2013 07:58 pm
And the days slip by
keep slipping by
a whole year could pass like this
without breath, without life, without caring
whole years have slipped by
by and by
The days are short
half gone by the time I awaken
The nights are dark...
omega 3, selenium, vitamin D, T
everything is fine
except my head
gone, by quigon, gone
quoth the raven?
no, 'tis a dog that taps on the door, not a bird.
Perhaps I could live like this.
I don't seem to run out of things to do.
The veil between the real life which does not exist
and the electronic life which is not real
Nothing is real.
A delicate vase and statuettes
behind glass, safe from dust
I hate the ringing of the telephone
insistent shrill intrusion.
And then there isn't even a voice
on the other end.
Maybe I should quit my job.
Feeling anxiety even while on vacation,
trying to accomplish unpleasant tasks
which have been piling up unfinished
while working the job.
Summer vacation,
My summer vacation,
Where is my summer vacation?
The adult slave.
But maybe the job is the only thing
that keeps me numb.
That keeps me too busy, too tired
to care,
to despair.
Maybe it's why
I feel like everything is falling apart;
that everything will fall apart
if I don't get things done.
Slaving away to keep
the unimpressive status quo.
insistent shrill intrusion.
And then there isn't even a voice
on the other end.
Maybe I should quit my job.
Feeling anxiety even while on vacation,
trying to accomplish unpleasant tasks
which have been piling up unfinished
while working the job.
Summer vacation,
My summer vacation,
Where is my summer vacation?
The adult slave.
But maybe the job is the only thing
that keeps me numb.
That keeps me too busy, too tired
to care,
to despair.
Maybe it's why
I feel like everything is falling apart;
that everything will fall apart
if I don't get things done.
Slaving away to keep
the unimpressive status quo.
