More Susan Kemper
"I have determined through both empirical data and literary research that what goes up to a high altitude will certainly go as low in absolute value."
"Life is a comedy for those who think
A tragedy for those who feel.
--Horace Walpole (1717-1797)
Oh my, how sad and funny and true. Who was this Horace Walpole? What kind of mind dreams up a beautiful quote like that?
Punxy Phil saw his shadow, meaning we will have 6 more weeks of winter. Of course he saw his shadow, it was a clear, bright and sunny morning. He was blinded, poor Phil. Currently it's 32 ° Farenheit with clear, dark, starry skies. It's been beastly cold. For my birthday, Thursday February 10, 2005, we're to get some snow and the temp will be 29° Farenheit. The whole week threatens snow, but it's seems to mild in temperature for any really good snow drifts to pile up. Most of the old snow has washed away and we have terminal buds on the lilac. I can't wait to see a robin red breast.
This is where the musing begins; this is my very first home for musing on the web. Along with my music I have been busy keeping my mind challenged with this website, or my alternate home, what with me spending so much time here. I've learned all sorts of things about layout, styles, fonts, search sites--ooh, what I've learned about Ghastly Google--why I think I've surprised myself and my husband. The cats are so young they've not noticed the difference in me. Really, what surprised me the most is the Wal-Mart-ish nature of (read all about it) Google.
Lately I've been mulling over this: The main factor in successful resolution of a reality (that is, for anyone who wants to resolve their reality) is one's ability to find rewards in ordinary existence and to form caring relationships with people who are not of the same...(perhaps unbalanced) reality. In clearer words, we all might as well get on with things because this is what life is all about after all.
What will the President think of next? Well, he's going to fix the Social Security crisis. Please don't believe him.
I opted not to talk about Valentine's Day this year. It't not that I don't have a good Valentine--I have a great one and his name is Andy Tolins. But clearly those times when I didn't have a Valentine. I'm realizing that the Mental Health Centers can't post Valentine hearts and other decorations because of those in love crises.
I even had the background on St. Valentine. There is no clear connection betwwen him and lover's holiday. Yeah, St. Valentine was a Saint, but he really didn't endorse lovers. Now a day for St.Patty I can understand. That guy drove away all of the snakes.
When is our next big day to rejoice? Passover and Easter come to mind, but they are religous and somewhat exclusive. Is the closest May Day? We all work at something and it also counts as a Spring-time day. Then the music will play loud.
The Infrequent Local Weather Updates
The weathermen are telling us it's unseasonably cold. Yes, that's true, it's cold and icy. I know I'm saying it every chance I can, I just can't wait 'till Spring. You're not supposed to wish your life away, so I still love the days, I just love the warmer weather even more. March came in like a lion, what is it going to be when it goes out? An angrey wet cat? Yes, we've had petulant weather.
Week of February 14, 2005
We'll have dreary weather for the rest of the week. Mabye we'll get some snow for this winter--real snow. Be prepared to pull out the sunboxes.
I'm not agreeing much with our beloved leader, President Bush, but that is certainly not anything new. I just hope he doesn't decide to invade Iraq's' neighbor, Iran. What motivates his ballsy and wrong decisions? His whole show, Condi, Rummy, et.al. included, speak as if they were blind to all matters bad but then act with straight ruthlessness. But I don't know a damned thing. This is not a good thread--I'm moving on. This thread depresses me more then the mid-February dreary weather here in the Appalachian mountains.
Well here is some news: There are only 21 days left until Spring arrives. Yes, I do fixate on the weather because of the very nature of nature right now. It's drab, cold, dreary, foggy, chilling, almost sad, actually. After our beautiful 3 1/2 inch snow showers last night here in State College we are now left with patches of sloppy slush, gray-blue skies, misty atmosphere, and dripping plus ice on the eaves and streets. It's a perfect setting for a Sir Authur Conan Doyle scary story. Only 21 days left to endure.
We've been working with our new recorder. It's a mobile, field recorder with a 15-inch PowerBook interface. Andy recorded someone's new song, complete with his multi-instrumental stylings and vocals, right at our dining room table. He did a good job. Perhaps we can announce the song and post it if the songwriter lets us. I'm to work on my special project,Whistle, Daughter, Whistle during these upcoming weeks. I can't wait.
I've been doing lots of reading about the whole concept: The songs are traditional American folk music that portray women lives in history. I'm reading Born into Libery, a book about all the different cultures and families of women that helped form this young republic of ours. At first I was very disheartened at reading about our lifestyles and roles during our Colonial Period, pre-Civil War, and up to the suffragette controversies that then we realized victory. In many ways, we really weren't given too much room to move (figurately) within our gender roles. But the more I poke around, the more I notice that our influence was very strong while forming communities, raising families, maintaining households and relationships, and performing the services of everyday living including making clothes and utensils, cooking, washing, gardening, and marketing. We helped form the links of community; we provide the nurture, compassion, tolerance, and patience. This leads to kindness towards others and empathy that helps us realize we are human and all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Our strongest motivations were maintaining family, religion, and then, outside the home, politics. They are not separate entities; one cannot make policy for the republic or draft a Constitution if one's stomach is empty, clothes are dirty, and children and chickens are running wildly about with supervision. We conducted lots of business. Oh, I will learn and write more. There are so many women I must introduce and include in this song program.
February 27
Here we go again, we're gearing up for a new snow storm. We had a beautiful storm last week; the 4-and some inches of snow that we got made the world look so pretty, but it did cause accidents.
We live in such beautiful place; I feel so lucky to live in mountains. We've had a mild winter season, so a few more inches of snow will be nice. We just have to clean the muck off our boots and cars and clothes; no biggie.
Tell Andy that I love him more than anything in the world. Tell him I never knew love could be this joyful, intoxicating, secure, tolerant, passionate, and friendly--all at the same time--all with one person.
March 7
We're getting rain, snow, and dandelion and daffodil shoots. How's that for springing weather? I found the Buddah below on another blog and absolutely had to save it. I've always loved the Mandelbrot, but to have it rendered into the Buddah, well, that's just too cool. We've been singing a new song that Andy wrote. It's very sad--the song, I mean. With all of his jaundiced attitude, I forget how sentimental he is.
"This heart without love is so empty,
the blues is all that lives here."
That's sad. His whole song is like that--you'd never guess that from talking to him. That's what is so cool about his music. A lot of his personal expressions come out when he's playing. I can't account for what's making him so sad, though.
Please, if anyone knows anything about Pilates, please drop me a line.
March 17
Way too long since I posted; I know we're in the tail end of Winter and I'm slugging out the wait, waiting for this Spring to spring. Today is St. Patrick's day and Andy is playing everywhere. I'm re-arranging the whole site, making new names for each page. I can't wait for the official start of Spring--whatever the weather. I'm going to open up the house, open the website, open up my music, and get outside. My fingers are slow, they need to run up and down the fretboard. It's time for me to start scales. We're playing Saturday at Stone Soup with Richard and I want to be able to keep up with him and Andy. I love playing with those guys. We don't know each other's songs and arrangements so the music suddenly becomes *very* stream of conscience; it happens and flows and we hope we don't fall down. I'm pretty good at playing through the instrumental crashes, hell, I just keep on going. It's like getting stuck in a sentence, I stumble and keep on talking. I just keep on playing. We'll see how it all flows on Saturday.
I really wish that the press would make a lot more noise about Tom DeLay's bad behavior as Minority Leader; just an aside.
Cool Pics Found on the Web
Here is a Mandelbot Fractal regenerated and rendered as the Buddah. This looks cool.
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