So, I don't update LJ except when I force a picture over from Flickr (attention Flickr, there's a reason people keep bringing up the "post multiple pictures to my blog" idea!) since I blare my thoughts into the ether regularly via Twitter (which feeds into my status update on Facebook, and, yes, there is a way to spam-loop Web 2.0, you just need Facebook, FriendFeed, and Twitter...someday I will show you this dark art) so I'm often left without much to say.

In any case, once again I offer pictures in lieu of actual text about my life:

Calvin is Cool


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Calvin. On the fridge. Where we hoped he wouldn't go. Ah well.

Press-ing Reflections


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The Press building, reflected in the chiller plant behind us.

Spring. Dammit!


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Though the first day of spring in Chicago was colder than the last day of winter, the trees are thinking optimistically.

Athenae got us tickets to the Grant Park Rally. Yeah. I was somewhere in the middle of that crowd. Mind you, behind what they showed on TV, in the entire other half of Grant Park was a crowd just as big that didn't have tickets.

After the acceptance speech we spilled through the Loop. So many people. So few cars. So bizarre. And, at the same time, incredibly cool and awesome to be right in the middle of history, y'know?

It's all behind a cut because the only decent flickr batch bookmarklet I found does original size, and these are relatively huge (2048 x 1536).

( The photos. )

Also, I'm in the middle of a collection of letters written by Jane Goodall in her "early years" and, apparently, on the first trip she took to Africa (before the one where she did the chimp research) she was quite the middle-aged-married-man magnet. Who knew?

Pluralism is an important goal. Even those of you who are saying, "Hey, I'm a) not religious OR b) atheist OR c) a secular humanist OR d) something else entirely," you know what extremism and totalitarianism are. The Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC, www.ifyc.org) has as its goal to train young people all over the country from a variety of religious backgrounds (including "none") to be leaders in interfaith dialogue through community service.

From IFYC's site (and cribbed from Eboo Patel's book and speeches):
"One hundred years ago, the great African-American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois warned that the problem of the 20th century would be what he called “the problem of the color line.” The 21st century might well be dominated by a different line, no less divisive and no less violent: the faith line. The faith line does not divide people of divergent faith traditions, or religious people from secular people. Instead, this line divides religious totalitarians from religious pluralists.

On one side of the line, religious totalitarians believe that their way of life is the only legitimate way; they convert, kill and condemn those who are different. On this side of the line stand all those religious extremists, from the KKK to the radical remnants of the Kach party in Israel, who are willing to act against others who do not fit into their restricted worldview. On the other side of the line are religious pluralists like the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who believe that peaceful coexistence is possible with the willingness to invest the effort to get to know each other and come together around common goals."

So, show your support for IFYC. They're doing their annual fundraising drive through a multi-channel approach (mail, email, and e-philanthropy). Here's a link to the Cause on FaceBook, I AM Interfaith Youth Core: https://www.causes.com/fb/donations/new?cause_id=46931&fundraiser_id=7343719&m=a8965384.

Even facebook is a problem. Half the reason I use twitter is to update something.

Biblio-Cat II

More kitty-lit.

Flowers You Cannot Cage

Freebird...er...flower...Freeflower...yeah!

Vandalism Ahead

Just a warning...

Feelings of the Artist

I guess he just can't feel happy.

Leafy Mantis, again

At some point, it decided I was suspicious-looking.

Leafy Mantis, final

Really suspicious. (Probably because I was stretching my arm out in macro mode to get a good close-up.)

I've powered through quite a few books. I'll work on an update at some point.

...plus, y'know, easy to post without putting too much brainwork into writing something.

Passing Trains Overhead

I couldn't pass up taking this shot as the South Shore freight went overhead.

Working inside?

Construction equipment? Inside?

Venice?...

...or Chicago?

Venetian Midway

The flooded viaduct underpass makes it look like there's a canal to the Midway.

Shadow of Myself

Shadows can be more interesting self-portraits than reflections

Forked Sky

Inverted lightning.

Follow the White Butterfly

I arm-reached this macro shot trying to capture the little butterflies I kept seeing on my walk.

Biblio-Cat

Kunst only reclines on the finest literature. See the flickr page with notes to find out what he's resting on.

And, I suppose a reading-list is in order:

• Finally finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel, and, like most Murakami, the effect was to melt my brain in an intriguing way.
  
• Finally got around to reading Once Upon a Crime (The Sisters Grimm, Book 4), and I'm very happy that they keep getting better. Want 5 and 6.
  
• Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles (Myths, The) is the second book from "The Myths" series that I've read. It's good. Quite good. The whole book manages to be as much about writing and myth as it is about Atlas and Herakles. I want to read more of this series, especially after Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (Myths, The).
  
• And currently, I'm working on Slant by Greg Bear.
  

That's all for now. This was the most mellow, but cleaningest weekend ever. I like it.

That' my attempt at Arlo Guthrie-ness there. Sorry.

So, now that I've run out my free flickr account, I guess I'll have to start posting pics from the free unlimited one (ATT/Yahoo decided to use flickr instead of their own little photo-hosting service, considering Yahoo owns flickr). Well, free so long as I keep their DSL.

Hero's Throne


Now, if I could just find out if they mean Greater or Lesser Ajax. Considering it's a port-a-potty, I'll assume it was Lesser Ajax, continuing to suffer his punishment for raping Cassandra and defiling Athena's temple.

Fog Descending


Fog + El + downtown = nice cyberpunk feel

Butterfly Harvest


The butterflies working the earth outside the press building.

"A Panda" under the Metra tracks


I'm usually more a fan of graffiti that's more...extensive?...involved? than this, but the simplicity of the figure appearing to stand under the unlit light-bulb is intriguing. I feel like I should try to get a shot of this at night sometime.

Now, this one is special because Smokey recently passed away. This is probably one of my favorite shots of him:


So, life, yeah. I realized that I've recently read a whole lot more books than my updates on FB would indicate. Off the top of my head, I've recently finished:

• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
  
• After Dark by Murakami
  
• The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4)
  
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
  
• Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
  
• How to Be Good by Nick Hornby
  
• Elvissey (Yes, I, of all people, finally read Elvissey.)
  
• Icelander (An immensely interesting book. Really worth a look. Published by McSweeney's ('course the paperback is from Grove Press, so, if you care about the publisher, well, buy the cloth, I guess.))
  
• A Song for Summer
  

I'm pretty sure I've forgotten a few. I've just found myself happily in the habit of consuming one book and moving to the next.

At the moment, I'm knee deep in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel but I'm not sure it's being any better for my psyche around bed time than Invisible Man.

Ah well. Must sleep now. It's taken about 2 hours to write this post. (In time-elapsed since starting, anyway.)

EDIT: I made more clear the heinousness of Lesser Ajax's crimes.

So, I'm crappy at posting. I generally don't give myself the block of time necessary on the computer to make a good post. I've got tons of Flickr stuff I want to post. I have to use the account connected to my DSL line now (free Pro account) since I ran out my free account. (200 pix max).

Um...let's see. It seems like the "microblogging" (I can't believe I typed that) I do via Twitter (actually I just use it to update my FB status) is probably the best way to keep track. Unfortunately, I kinda intentionally separated LJ from FB/Twitter because I'd like to assume a minor version of anonymity-ish-ness. (That's a good word. It's just like "truthiness".)

Many files to load and process. Much to be done toward credentials. Need to get contact with landscapers/gardeners about jump-starting our backyard for us.

Y'know, the usual.

So, I thought we'd pretty much eliminated the weeds from the gravel-and-dirt-mixed back area, and was loosening the soil in order to level it, when I came upon a root.

Actually, a whole root system.

Which weed was this?

And then I saw some of the strands coming up to the surface. Ah. The damn creeping charlie.

When we're done getting out as much as we can, landscaping fabric goes over this crummy growing spot so that we can put bricks down between some planter boxes.

Occassionally, I get the chance to walk around Hyde Park because I have an errand to run in the area, and the Press building is south of everything in HP.

So, here are some shots from work and from Hyde Park. Enjoy.

Chicago Street Lights


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These street light controls are all over Chicago. I find them fascinating for no apparent reason, other than that you can hear the mechanism throw the switches back and forth when you are standing near one, like those on the Midway.

Flowering Hyde Park


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I just liked these flowers and took an athenae-type shot upward.

Typeface Samples


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These are samples from a font-seller who gave these out at the AAUP production managers' conference here in Chicago. (I only got to go to the reception, but my boss did the whole shindig.) There are notes on the image at Flickr, so click on through.

I have to say that I guess "lorem ipsum" isn't for everyone, eh?

( Which of these do you like better, and why? )

Apollo, half-lit. Kinda cool effect. Hope you like!

So in the last couple of days, I've shot the following two objects with my camera:



Why do I care that the box is "pizza delivery style"? Seriously, why? I bought a frozen pizza to avoid the hassle of delivery. I didn't want to wait. I didn't want to go out and get one. I bought a frozen one specifically to avoid the crap that goes with ordering out. So why is "pizza delivery style box" a selling point?



Lovely pink and white flowers on the tree outside work. This is why I like to see spring appear in Chicago.

As a final note, Invisible Man is probably not the best thing to read as you're getting tired and ready to hit the sack soon. Dis-tur-bing. And that, of course, is the point.

So, where I work, we do short-run digital printing (SRDP) and electronic books (mostly PDF-based for disability use).

Basically, most of what we store is high-quality PDFs of book interiors and paperback covers or cloth dust-jackets.

We encourage presses to use our services for storing everything they need to print a book, so they'll even send us a PDF of the spine die in case they decide to do a cloth run again.

Hence, we tell member presses that they should store a spine die with us for their hard-back books.

It appears that someone took the idea of sending us the spine die...well...a bit literally.

The Author:


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The Title:


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And, oddly enough, a print out from the file we probably actually wanted (a PDF with the spine die outline) next to the full spine-die:


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So, I've noticed that LJ has essentially become the second-level outlet for my attempts at photoblogging on Flickr.

Combine this with the fact that I am now obsessed with using Twitter to update my Facebook status and the ability to passively use Facebook to keep tabs, and you've got a good reason why I haven't posted anything in a while.

I rarely feel like I have too much to offer the world, but here's some things I've been thinking about.

I'm getting ready to take the Illinois Teacher Certification Basic Skills Test. It is approximately 12 hours of testing. Yes. You read that right. Twelve hours. (I know, I know, mixing font styles is not kosher in the design world, but y'all gonna have to deal with it as I attempt to make my point.)

I've now managed to get through reading:

• Catch-22
  
• East
  
• Peter and the Starcatchers
  
• The Water Mirror: Dark Reflections, Book 1 (Dark Reflections)
  
• Howl's Moving Castle
  

...and I'm currently in the middle of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.

All in all, much fun has been had.

Edit: I can't believe I almost forgot Howl's Moving Castle up there.