Kristin’s Playground

Here’s my down-to-the-wire entry for this week’s Free-For-All Creativity meme. The theme this week is “flight,” and since I’ve had quite a busy week, it seems appropriate. My last-minute entry is a remote-control helicopter that Logan got for Christmas. Sadly, we crashed it once too much, so it keeps flying right back into the wall. We need to re-balance something or other.

Check out last week’s entries on the theme “empty:”
Puss Reboots
Ravens Rides
Kristin’s Playground

The squirrels on our campus are known for being fat, complacent, and rather docile. They’ve been mistaken for small cats before, and we even have a “Michigan Squirrels” club that feeds them. Last year, we had a squirrel build a nest right outisde our office window. We would leave seeds and peanuts for him on the windowsill, and he happily lived outside. Over time, he disappeared, and so did his nest. However, he has returned! (Really - it’s the same squirrel. Yeah.) With nice weather yesterday, we decided to open the window, and Mr. Squirrel decided that he’d much rather find the whole bag of sunflower seeds inside the office than eat the few we put outside. When my co-worker and I came in, he ran back outside, but I guess we have to be a bit more careful when we want some air. He’s a brave guy, and he’ll come relatively close to me when I put out more seeds or am just standing there. When I pulled out the camera, he was a bit skittish at first - running away at the shutter. Eventually though, he let me take more photos, even with flash. So here he is. Mr. Squirrel (also known as Herb):

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Happy Easter, everyone. It’s been quite the low-key holiday here this year. Anya (the dog) woke me up as she does every weekend to let her outside, and I ate the head of a chocolate turtle (from my mother-in-law) for breakfast. Hubby had a three-hour long meeting with his advisor today, so I spent the time at home watching movies and eating too much. The folks are in Florida this year, celebrating my grandpa’s 80th birthday and Easter. I’m sad I couldn’t be there (it was a surprise party, too!) but in our family’s true fashion there were poems and songs all celebrating the event. I even wrote a poem and made a little video to send along, so I guess I was there in spirit. Too bad spirits don’t get to eat cucumber dip or play sheepshead with the crew!

Anyway, the sun was beautiful today, just like yesterday. The 7.5" of snow we got on Friday night are almost gone, and the snowman hubby made yesterday is fading fast, too. He’s leaning over quite precariously today. I’ve been feeling a little antsy recently. Cabin fever perhaps? So, this afternoon I went to go fill up my bike tires to take a brief ride outside. Unfortunately, after I pumped up the tires, I realized I didn’t know where my helmet was, so I couldn’t go. It might be in my office, but I might have to go buy a new one if I can’t find it. Either way, my grand plans for a bike ride were foiled, so I’m still inside. I just hope that Friday’s snowstorm was the last of the season. As it is, it pushed us into the snowiest winter on record here. 85 inches.

That’s probably enough rambling for now. I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of spring, even if the weather isn’t agreeing yet.

This week’s FFA Creativity theme is empty. It seems quite appropriate, as I’m feeling particularly drained this week. I wasn’t quite sure how to put the sense of mental emptiness into a photo though, so I went with a more literal interpretation, and you have to project my state of mind on the photo. I like that you can see me in the glass in this photo. That makes it seem more appropriate somehow.

And while you’re at it, check out the entries for the previous FFA - Centered:
Pussreboots’ “Centered on Center Street”
My yoga-based take on “Centered”

Here’s another quick Tuesday Update:

• We won our inner tube water polo game last week. I even scored a goal! To be fair, much of their team didn’t show up, so we were playing 7 (plus 2 subs) vs. 4, so it’s not exactly fair. Game ended under the mercy rule. I wonder if our opponents tonight will show up.
• That pound I “lost” last week? Yeah, it came back. Not terribly surprising, but still disappointing. My eating habits started out well last week, but they deteriorated towards the weekend, culminating in a birthday party on Saturday and some tasty pizza I didn’t need on Sunday. Ah well. I’m in it for the long haul, and this is only a minor setback. I just need to focus a little more.
• The weather this morning is miserable. Rain that is turning into a frozen slushie all along the sidewalk. Where’d the sun go?
• I have a lot of blog posts that I mean to write, but I’m not much in the mood for writing much right now. I spent the weekend writing (wait, mostly procrastinating) for something else, so I’m a little burnt out on it for now. Fear not, I won’t abandon you, though!

13 March 2008

After taking Anne’s pictures, I headed over to the area in front of Bar Louie. The lighting was beautiful, so I took a few shots of the area and waited for the right subject. Lori soon walked up behind me and asked what I was taking pictures of. “No one yet,” I replied, and invited her to get in front of the camera. She readily agreed, although she had to grab her bike and put on some lip gloss first. She is apparently a multi-talented lady - playing mandolin, keyboard, drums, and many other artistic/creative things I can’t quite remember. She easily kept up a stream of dialogue, telling me that she used to be a model when she was younger, about a photographer friend of hers, about her new cellphone, about how she’s given up alcohol (mostly), etc. Definitely an interesting character. She pulled all sorts of poses in front of the camera, and seemed to have a lot of fun with it. It was certainly an experience.

Lori is stranger #7 for my 100 Strangers project. For more information, check out www.100strangers.com or the 100 Strangers Flickr group.

13 March 2008

Thursday was an absolutely beautiful day, so I walked in circles for awhile trying to find my courage and a stranger. In Nickels Arcade, I saw this woman approaching with orange sunglasses atop her head, so I asked her to help me with my project, and she agreed. Anne is an English major here, and when she graduates in April, she plans on going to work for the democratic campaign. Sounds exciting!

Anne is stranger #6 for my 100 Strangers project. For more information, check out www.100strangers.com or the 100 Strangers Flickr group.

According to my preliminary observations, the current 24-hour period is Talk Like a Physicist Day! The day coincides with the anniversary of the birth of one Albert Einstein, as well as the day on which we celebrate the transcental number π. Under the assumption that I am not a physicist, it would be necessary to use a perturbative approach to alter my speech patterns to more closely match that of other physicists. However, that assumption is only valid for cryogenic temperatures, and it breaks down under typical laboratory conditions.

On a side note, the ambient temperature lately has been orders of magnitude warmer (on an arbitrary temperature scale), and the average amount of solar radiation penetrating the atmosphere to reach the surface has increased in statiscally significant quantities. These effects jointly combine to improve the author’s temperment. Of course, the data could be compromised by the increased concentrations of caffeine in the author’s bloodstream. This effect, however, is beyond the scope of this blog entry and will be discussed in future work.