Saturday, July 8, 2006 B

"Skyline"
8:06pm


Web graph of http://www.aztriad.com/joanalll.html

If I invert the colors, it looks maybe like fireworks over a city skyline:


this is my illo for the Friday Illo theme of SKYLINE.

That's how I found out about the web graph thing, as well. I went to the website of the person who suggested that SKYLINE theme. Danielle's graph looks quite different than mine. That is because of the coding we use:

What do the colors mean?
blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags

I tried it also for http://www.joanlansberry.com/fav_art.html and the result was more like a single star burst:


I never use a 'div', nor do I use 'forms', hence no green or yellow spots...

Flicker has a gathering of various people's site graphs at http://flickr.com/photos/tags/websitesasgraphs/. Quite extensive, I gave up after page 23 or so. Compared to other graphs, the two pages I tested are about average in terms of general complexity.

Saturday, July 8, 2006 C

"More Self P Silliness"
11:16pm


My new glasses have not arrived, so I couldn't do the detailed one I'd hoped for, so thus this silliness...

I learned when the tongue is extended, the eyes widen slightly and the eyebrows raise a tiny bit. My nose is not that short, but my tongue is. That's all the further extension I have.

To see the fabulous diversity of all the self portrait marathoners, go here:http://crackskullbob.squarespace.com/self-p-marathoners/.

Sunday, July 9, 2006 A

"The Day It Was"
9:35am


Curtain man, who always hides more than he reveals
listens as broccoli man tells his troubles.
Lizzard dudes problems are simple: he just wants fed...

Sunday, July 10, 2006 B

"The Day It Is"
3:41pm

Memorable Quote from 'A Prairie Home Companion' (2006)
Garrison Keillor: "We come from people who brought us up to believe that life is a struggle, and if you should feel really happy, be patient: this will pass."

That's one way of looking at it. I sure don't like to think that way. But sometimes...

Oh, I will tell my troubles. They are small as troubles go, but they're sufficiently disconcerting. Julia had been wanting to see Prairie Home Companion, so when I learned it was at the Main Street Cinema, I thought we'd better see it while we knew we had the chance. So often, a movie that is not wildly popular only shows one week.

The Java on the Main wasn't open, so we had to use the other refreshment place. I got a bottle of water, Julia got a soda and we both got pretzels. That was the last I remember having my wallet. I didn't notice its absence until after the movie and after our meal at India House. I checked the table there, and then we headed back to the theater. No, no one there had seen it. I am usually so careful to get that wallet back into my skirt pocket. Could I have absent mindedly left it on the counter? I did that once many years ago.

Could I have been pickpocketed as we left the theater? I don't know, but that wallet is GONE! I checked our account activity, nothing there that wasn't expected. The debit card has been cancelled. I ordered online a new driver's license. However, to apply for a duplicate social security card, I must have that driver's license. And here is the thing I learned that maybe will be helpful for you to know. Always, it used to be, I carried that card with me. With identity theft being so prevalent now, that is not the thing to do any longer.

(from the social security website):
PROTECT YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND CARD
"Protect your SSN card and number from loss and identify theft. DO NOT carry the card with you. Keep it in a secure location and only take it with you when you must show the card, e.g. to obtain a new job, open a new bank account, or to obtain benefits from certain U.S. agencies."

So now I am very nervous about this. I guess I will always be nervous about this now. Maybe at least you can learn from my experience.

Meanwhile, the movie was good. I marvelled at the set, how truly old it looked. I thought if it had been specially manufactured to get the patina of age, they did a good job. Some business establishments such as restaurants try to have an old timey feel about them. But they look that way in every city in which they have a branch outlet. Real age and gradual acquisition of oddments really can't be faked. So I was thinking if that old theatre in which the show was shot was merely a stage set, it was dam impressive. We've got one such historic treasure of a restaurant in Yuma here. The deco inside Lute's Casino took a long time to get that patina of age and quirkiness.

So I had to find out about this theater. Sure enough, it is real. The Reeling Reviewers tell us "Except for its bookending opening and closing scenes, the film was shot entirely at "Prairie Home's" real theater." And as far as I know, the radio program upon which the movie is based is still going strong. It's a good movie. The flavor of Keillor's radio show comes through very well in the movie.

It is sweet, bittersweet and humorous at varying levels and times and in just the right balance. Yeah, life is like that.

Monday, July 10, 2006

"Brighter Security"
8:55pm

I spent the work day slightly in a fog. I was still feeling 'off' from the disappearance of the wallet. Once home with Julia, I got to poking around on the web, digging further on items that intrigued me. So absorbed, I'd forgotten my upset. Then the phone rang. I could tell from the timbre it was an older thin woman. (Laura was first to speak of being able to tell about a person's appearance through their voice. I'm finding as I listen, I can do this sometimes, too.) She'd found the wallet and thought it best to contact me directly. We decided upon a meeting place, and yes, she was older and thin, with even the brown hair I'd visualized. She didn't want payment for returning the wallet. She must have been first to find it, for everything was intact. I am so grateful and wished her 'many blessings', as we each returned to our separate ways. I wish for her much joy and strength and good fortune.

Oh, my fortune has definitely improved. My 'security' has returned and in better shape than it was previously. I put that little social security card in a safe place. Also, when I ordered the driver's license replacement, I had them change the number to a random one, as the old one had been my SSN. Not a good idea these days, either. So in '7 to 10 days', I should have the new debit card and driver's license. Should. The '7 to 10 days' that the eye doctor told me for my glasses didn't prove true.

But with or without new glasses, the world seems to have brighter, crisper colors now:


Tuesday, July 11, 2006

"Closer Look"
8:07pm

The new glasses have arrived. Fortunately, the eye doctor's was still open after I picked up Julia, so I was able to get them adjusted. Tiny dots were on the lens. I was worried they were flaws, but those marked where the correction began and were easily cleansed. Afterwards, being we were near a grocery store, I suggested we get a few things. It was a bit trippy at first, things in and out of focus until I got the gist of moving my head just right.

After putting away the groceries and eating three pieces of chewy bread with olive oil and four windmill cookies with soy milk, I had to see how a self portrait would result:

Our round mirror has a magnifying side, so I used that. My left eye (which looks to you like my right eye) appears a little smaller. That's not a mistake. It appears smaller when seen through the correction for its worse far vision. However, that my earrings are a kimbo is solely a mistake. The blue streaks on my right eye area are the shadows caused by the glasses.

I wondered why I never used the magnifying side before in these self portraits. Alas, without the corrective close vision, that magnifying side is all a blur to me!

Thursday, July 13, 2006

"Memory Hoarder"
1:28am

I have finished it, my looking back over the past year, for my Book of Life project. This drawing I did earlier this evening captures how I feel:


I am indeed a 'memory hoarder'

As I went through the past year's worth of entries, this excerpt speaks to me:

September 11, 2005
"(excerpts) "Memory"

I live in the present, but it is all the memories of my past which are there in the subtle background of my consciousness. All that I have experienced is held in the hand of memory, the happy, the difficult, the triumphant, it is there. As I remember the past, I also embrace the present being more aware of the growth that has occurred. Without those memories, I have no measuring stick by which to measure this.

There's a Chinese proverb which declares "The best memory is not as good as pale ink." That was penned by a writer or artist who 'froze time' so that a previous moment could be perserved as it was. It's been nearly nine years of chronciling my life. Nearly nine years of savored bits. I celebrate each one. It is the mind of the writer which collects these bits. I do not live for 'the record'. But this record serves as a scrapbook of hoarded moments. The words and images cue my memory. It all comes back to memory.

This Spanish filmmaker said it so well:

"You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realize that memory is what makes our lives. Life without memory is no life at all, just as an intelligence without the possibility of expression is not really an intelligence. Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing."
Luis Buñuel (1900–1983), My Last Sigh, ch. 1 (1983)

And so I savor these hoarded memory-aids, this record of my path.

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