i am an unrequited astronomer, pretend patient, gentle adventurer, pedal enthusiast, recovering calligrapher, occasional thespian and unfinished poet living in portland, oregon. contacting me via email is usually a good idea.
4:31 PM: weather report
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* michaelmas, mph, sven & i went to see the dark knight, which i liked till rachel got killed. and though i liked gordon's character a lot, i was irked that his son was the most important person (why didn't we even see barbara gordon's face? it's not like she's going to be important someday or anything). one of the best things was that this was the quietest theatre i think i've been to in years. i think people were enjoying themselves, but nobody felt compelled to comment about it every 2.5 seconds.
* but sven & i saw beowulf later in the week and it was TERRIBLE! i don't have anything against the original literature, but this movie made me wince the whole time. i didn't realize that it was essentially an animated movie, and it felt like i was watching 2 hours of animated interstitials in a computer role-playing game. the most enjoyment was trying to figure out later which part neil gaiman had any hand in: it seems like he could have said interesting things about the old gods leaving and the new gods arriving, or about what it means to live most of your life as a lie. but that certainly wasn't how the movie played out.
* i visited melanie, who lives not far from here, but it meant i got to bike to her place! it was a lovely visit, since i got to meet her son, her cats and her new puppy anna freud. i really enjoys days where i just get to sit and talk with friends, though i still don't have really good answers about what i want to do in the studio come fall. i'll start thinking about that in more earnestness after my birthday next week (eek!).
* i bought a new-to-me art table via craigslist. it's like the ones in art departments: the large table top is easily adjustable from flat to almost 90 degrees, it has two storage drawers and electrical plug-ins from the side.
* i'm taking a hooping class in kenilworth park on saturdays. now i get the trick i've been trying to do for a year: i can bring the hoop from my waist to over my head and back down again! not consistently, but i understand the mechanics now (understanding hand placement & timing is pretty important). i need a place to practice where i'm not going to destroy something, though.
* after the hoop class i went to the division street fair and bought shiny things from local artisans. in fact, i'm wearing some right now!
* i biked to the lents farmer's market after i woke up and couldn't make myself go on an organized bike ride i had planned on. i came home feeling better and with blueberries, honey, lettuce, basil, cilantro, flowers, a ring and earrings. then i stopped at trillium since it's open on sundays while the farmer's market is happening (yay!).
* on my way home from the farmer's market i passed a house in the neighborhood that has a cherry tree that was a little overripe, so i knocked and asked if i could pick some. i rode home, grabbed a ladder, and picked whatever i could reach that didn't have worms. as i walked home i knocked on dinique's door and shared the cherries w/ her family. the cherries were a bit bitter, so when i got home, i made a cherry sorbet that was intensely flavored and delicious.
* i finally got my inbox to zero! i only had to take 2 months off to do it. :)
* i saw an interesting bumper sticker: "militant agnostic: i don't know and you don't know, either." it caught my eye because chet raymo writes a lot about being able to say "i don't know," both in science & religion.
Comments:
Well, that was a bit of an unlabeled spoiler for Batman :(