Tags
dog run, donor walls at museums, elinor ostrom, flogging molly, freezing rain, how to write daily more easily, hyperbolic crochet, hyperbolic crochet coral reefs, hyperbolic geometry, know your bone, lady gaga, little falls, moby, skating rink, smithsonian institution, snow, the killers, the public commons, utne reader, walking on ice, wordpress new link system not working, writing spirit blog
I was going to write about thoughtfulness – as in the amount of thinking I do before responding to comments on my blog – but I’m feeling more random than that, so I’m going to go with randomness instead.
It’s snowing today in Little Falls. When I took pup out this morning, he looked like he had a case of really lovely dandruff. We had freezing rain yesterday, which has created skating rink conditions on all the sidewalks and roads. Walking a dog on skating rinks is quite the challenge. And kinda funny. Pup skates around on four feet, trying to keep them all underneath him. I’m grateful Aleksander likes snow and ice. No problem getting him out in it.
We put up a dog run cable yesterday – yes, in the freezing rain! The rain was intermittent, so it wasn’t too difficult, except for that part where the pup pulled it out of the wall. Umm, yeah. I reattached it in a different spot today and am hoping it will hold. Pup is now tired and taking a nap on the museum bench. In his walking harness. Darn! Forgot to take it off.
I’ve been trying my hand at hyperbolic crochet. Turns out crocheting is good for illustrating the mathematical concept of hyperbolic geometry, which is how many things in nature are formed. Coral reefs are natural structures based on hyperbolic geometry and fiber artists have set to work on building art installations of crocheted coral reefs through the Smithsonian Institution. Be sure you poke around that site for a while if you’re interested. Lots of goodies there, including a pamphlet you can download that gives basic instructions for creating your own hyperbolic crochet pieces. I’ve been using that today, but it’s a little short on specifics (do I add stitches before turning, like in regular crochet?), so be prepared to play.
(You know, I’ve had to add the last two links using HTML coding. Has anyone else noticed that the new WordPress linking system doesn’t seem to be working? I thought it was supposed to be easier to use. Maybe I’m missing something. Grrr.)
I’m listening to music while I blog. Lady Gaga, Flogging Molly, Moby and U2 are on tap. The Killers are on their heels.
I found a number of interesting articles online, which led to my randomness. Utne Reader has a post on Elinor Ostrom, a social scientist who studies the things we share – the public commons. Elinor suggests that neither markets nor government are suited to manage the commons; people are. Amen to that, sister!
Colleen at the “Know your own bone …” blog posted her thoughts a few days ago on donor walls at museums. Human psychology indicates that we are impressed with big names and seeing them on the donor walls of museums apparently gives the rest of us not-so-big-names encouragement in supporting museums.
(Time for The Killers – “Day & Age.”)
The next interesting article I found is from the Writing Spirit Blog. It’s called How to Write Daily More Easily — Part I. It was this post that gave me the impetus to write randomness because that’s how I rev up for writing more focused pieces. Not that I plan to do a focused piece online today. In my notebook … maybe.
But I have to get warm first.
How fun to hear that Aleksander has become the mascot of the museum! Sounds like he is making the walks more enjoyable during the seasons of change! Stay warm!
Sorry, Claudette, Aleksandr isn’t the museum’s mascot. The museum is closed Mondays, so he was home with me for the day. He would make a good museum mascot, except that dogs and the insects they bring with them don’t mix well with preserving artifacts.
I try to bundle up really well when I have him out in the cold. It makes things a lot more enjoyable for me. He doesn’t seem to mind the cold at all.