Tee up.

head1ai.jpg

I am busy with learning WordPress. I am kind of excited about that as the opportunities are broad and there is a whole lot to this program/ approach. Tons of plug ins, tons of extras (like a calendaring unit that can derive info from either an Apple iCalendar calendar or a Google G-Calendar). Very fluid stuff...only one hitch, which is once one picks a template, you really do not have a ton of room to change except if you want to get into the CSS and monkey around (not my forte..yet)--but hey...once you just go for it, the work arounds with imagery, type, and the few elements that you have to work with--is still better than Blogspot, and not much more difficult. And, did I mention that it is very cost effective too?

Not much bandwidth for anything else beyond the day to day expectations that cross my desk as a designer/illustrator. I am working on some vector silver teapots to fiddle with reflection and study grays as a way of keeping on, keeping on...but my attention span and those things that normally resonate with me, seem to bounce off, versus sink in to make me pick up a pen and draw. But I believe a little more time and focus will help. Somehow just keeping up with the workload and life (as it is) is enough for me. Sad, but true.

My beer labels are out for Roosterfish...and though the labels are nice, the carrier and six pack graphics are really nice (black type on kraft with the six pack having the added white for sparkle). The Blonde has changed from a pin up girl, to that of a silent film star (movies made in Ithaca, with the stars vacationing in Watkins). And the former " Dog Tooth Pale Ale" has changed to Finish Line Pale Ale to celebrate a new change to the formulation, but also to celebrate the history of racing in Watkins Glen. So, more local pride, more loving our history, and embracing it. The cases are very sassy with more little "go team go" phrases that yours truly shoehorned into the layout. I like it...very bold, very woodtype-y. Hopefully, we will be rounding back on more work with this small brewery. Should be fun.

Working on some iterations for the future new Rongo. The Rongo has a tradition of lions heads as part of their brand, so I have revisited, inspired by the original.... interestingly, the head does not reverse well (white image on black field) so I had to redraw it to have it read well reversed (the issues were particularly with the eyes and mouth where it has to be right reading and not "what's black is white and white is black" thinking. We are busy finding things to put this mark on...and I am busy creating some other heraldic type stuff for the Embassy proper. Should be effective when done.

So, this short note is a chance to say "hi". I am still bumping along...though not at 100% firepower though I had glimmers of it last night laughing hysterically with my dear dear daughter as we trolled shopgoodwill.com in the Barbie section and also commemorative plates. A hoot and a holler was heard from above. May we hear it again, real soon.

Tremble Dance

Today is National Honeybee Day. I think that is pretty spectacular, that we have a day to celebrate this community of industrious girls who work to support their Queen (albeit, this is a community with not many job discriptions or titles).  These girls are going far afield for nectar, filling their saddlebags with goods, and then bringing it back to the community while on the way, waving on the sisterhood to good places to gather more food, to ease their challenge of new fields and new destinations. Single minded determination, single minded collaboration. One cannot exist without the other. One cannot exist without each other. These bees work hard...and really do not play but exist to keep the community going, moving, steady, comfortable. Perhaps instead of happiness, there is contentment in keeping the hive stable and keeping the poor exhausted Queen in food and place to keep spawning the next generation of bees.

Think of the winters here. The bees (when they do survive) eat down their reserves of honey--feeding on quick calories to keep them swarming in the hive--surrounding their Queen, generating enough heat to keep the cold somewhat at bay, and to get through this hard season devoid of flowers, of pollen, of nectar, of living life.  My god....look at how hot they keep the hive. Think of the energy needed to keep the Queen warm enough to resume laying...Wikipedia takes my clueless understanding and takes it to a lovely process:"

From Wikipdedia: Winter survival

In cold climates, honey bees stop flying when the temperature drops below about 10 °C (50 °F) and crowd into the central area of the hive to form a "winter cluster". The worker bees huddle around the queen bee at the center of the cluster, shivering to keep the center between 27 °C (81 °F) at the start of winter (during the broodless period) and 34 °C (93 °F) once the queen resumes laying. The worker bees rotate through the cluster from the outside to the inside so that no bee gets too cold. The outside edges of the cluster stay at about 8–9 °C (46–48 °F). The colder the weather is outside, the more compact the cluster becomes. During winter, they consume their stored honey to produce body heat. The amount of honey consumed during the winter is a function of winter length and severity, but ranges in temperate climates from 15 to 50 kg (30 to 100 pounds).[10]

Bees are symbolic of resurrection and immortality. They have been used on heraldic crests or to represent aspects of a religion or faith. Take the beehive and bee as it relates to the Mormons, the Quintessential American religion>> see here>>

So, there is something to think about at the crest of this time of fruitful harvests, glorious sun and rain, and days to buzz, collect pollen and prepare for more difficult times ahead. 

 

 

UFOetry 3

A storm approaching Spokane
the lights began to flicker in my house.
...daylight with clouds )...
strong winds pushing...
birds scattering around.

a black shiny polished orb flies over
in a perfect trajectory flying S.E...
...in an orbit like the ISS.
Did not make a sound

((NUFORC Note:
We spoke via telephone with this witness, and
we found him to be both eloquent in his description
of the sighting event, and sincere. PD))

Sighting Report Occurred : 8/2/2014 18:22 (Entered as : 08/02/2014 18:22)
Reported: 8/2/2014 7:21:27 PM 19:21
Posted: 8/8/2014
Location: Spokane, WA
Shape: Sphere
Duration:30 seconds

UFOetry 2

Low rumbling...
hot air balloon pulling the gas handle.
Low rumbling sound
 like hot air balloon above my neighborhood

Occurred : 8/6/2014 04:30 (Entered as : 08/06/2014 04:30 AM)
Reported: 8/6/2014 1:02:47 PM 13:02
Posted: 8/8/2014
Location: Wichita, KS
Shape: Unknown
Duration:3-5 minutes

This is an edited entry at NuForc.org, a website committed to UFO sitings

UFOetry

 

Reflection light,
change direction...like golden light,
took picture looked different from what I saw.

...a comet coming towards earth,
the brightest golden light
when I snapped the picture  
it was a reflection of a light. 

Occurred : 8/1/2014 00:00 (Entered as : 08/01/14 0:00)
Reported: 8/2/2014 5:35:28 PM 17:35
Posted: 8/8/2014
Location: Murrieta, CA
Shape: Unknown
Duration:

 

Poetry from other places

I do not know where this has come from. I somehow ran into the NuForce.org site and found these amazing entries about ufo sightings and was struck by these simple, short stories--notations from plain, normal people who are trying to communicate something they had seen that they could not really understand as it is an "unknown". I found that by taking a little sharp knife to some of the hemming and hawing, poetry emerged that was sublime, simple and elegant. This pleases me to no end. So, I will continue to torture you with this new fun, Qproject.

Isn't manifesting itself in imagery (yet) but I am certainly looking at end of time illustrations from the middle ages, of shooting stars and other portents that earlier people used to describe things that they couldn't understand or rationalize during the time they were living. We often think of ourselves as being so smart, so superior, so scientific--but when it gets down to understanding or observing something that is not known, we waffle and try to make it make sense through science and vocabulary. But to those normal people, they liken these oddities to things they know and understand: nature, color, light, sound, speed. Don't get me wrong...as I have been falling down this UFO/ alien/ odd rabbit hole....there are things that are truly odd and to some degree both fascinating and frightening, I keep looking for answers that are not there...but to that, isn't it wonderful that today there are things that go beyond our knowledge--big things that we can only look and take it in. And puzzle.

I have learned about the Taos Hum, more broadly called The Hum. Lots of ideas of what it is and where it comes from, but the Hum emerges as related to UFOs. All I know is that its out there and no one can really figure it out. The Hum.info  defines the hum as: "strange humming or rumbling sound whose source they cannot find." There are the strange "end of times" groans that are heard in different locations from around the world

Then there is the Norwegian Spiral (sometimes called the Norwegian Spiral Anomaly (wiki)) (see above) which is another thing we have been trying our hardest to 'splain, but really, why does this spiral with a bright blue, twisted umbillical cord need explanation? Wikipedia tries in their set-up:

"The Norwegian spiral anomaly of 2009[1] appeared in the night sky over Norway[2] on 9 December 2009. It was visible from, and photographed from, northern Norway and Sweden. The spiral consisted of a blue beam of light with a greyish spiral emanating from one end of it. The light could be seen in all of Trøndelag to the south (the two red counties on the map to the right) and all across the three northern counties which compose Northern Norway,[3]as well as from Northern Sweden[1] and it lasted for 2–3 minutes.[3] According to sources, it looked like a blue light coming from behind a mountain, stopping in mid-air, and starting to spiral outwards.[4][5] A similar, though less spectacular event had also occurred in Norway the month before.[6] Both events had the expected visual features of failed flights of RussianSLBM RSM-56 Bulava missiles,[7][8] and the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged shortly after that such an event had taken place on 9 December."

But you and I both know it's related to the aliens, and the man just isn't letting on. Right?
There is area 51 and the aliens, the autopsy aliens, the tall white aliens who confer with presidents and kings. There are marvelous light shows and ships, flashes and shapes that disappear in a wink. There are aliens that like vegetables, and ones that are not dependant on atmosphere and live underground. They can do anything and everything including build the pyramids, and act as our gods. Who is to say this is wrong or right? Maybe Joseph Smith had it right with Jesus being resurrected into the New World...and that the early American cultures were not primitive? 

Right now it's poetry for me.