"As My Whimsy Takes Me"

Flowers

2007-07-06T15:15:00.001-07:00

What am I doing in Atlantic City??

2007-07-06T15:13:00.001-07:00

Helena

2007-05-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

Helena has no fear of being attacked. Her domestication has almost completely erradicated the normal feline saftey sleeping techniques that a cat should employ while napping.

Almost still life

2007-05-06T20:03:00.000-07:00

Amazing Max

2007-05-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

The maintenence men asked me how I grew my cats so big. This is Max in his favorite sun spot.

The second picture is a typical napping sprawl. He takes up about half of my bed when he gets the chance.

The Masked Couple

2007-03-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

Can you really pretend you don't recognize someone when they are wearing half a mask?

Masquerade

2007-03-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

Before and after

Beauty

2006-12-04T19:23:00.000-08:00

Where did summer go?

2006-11-19T11:56:00.000-08:00

I've been reflecting over my semester and was reminded of the good memories I had of the summer. This picture is me in New Haven visiting Yale. (I really am in the picture in the bottom right!) The building behind me is a memorial to the students who died in service to the country in various wars. What a paradox to have received such an education to then sacrifice it for the rest of us.

Season Changes

2006-10-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Whenever the seasons change I get homesick. But what am I getting homesick for? At first I thought it was for Memphis, but this most recent move has made me realize that is not it. I am not home sick for Chattanooga either. Yet, what I feel is the same thing that I feel every year at this time. I think it is a homesickness for periods of my life that are past. Those periods are made up of the relationships and events of those times. The two are interconnected becuase even if the same people were still a part of my life, the ways that we can be together and spend our time and workout our friendships will never be the same. I guess that is where the location fits in, a connection of a place with good memories. I miss my house on Florida Ave. When I am honest with myself, I remember that point in life as one filled with confusion about many things but along with that was the chance to spend time with some of my best friends during our first freedome from college without many of the responsibilities of being an established adult, Some of those friends are gone and some are still my best friends, although moved and married. I have learned that lack of growth and change is unhealthy but with growth and change often comes growing pains. Perhaps homesickness is a mix of new growing pains along with the mourning of relationships that are gone and changed.

Gymnastics Team

2006-10-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

I just came accross this picture that was taken of the Signal Mt. gymnastics team at the end of the year party. I miss this group of girls, they were so much fun to teach. I just started a new coaching job at a gym here. I am teaching beginners and boys classes one night a week. It is fun to be back in the gym.

ying-yang

2006-10-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

Max and Helena - the grandkitties!

The James and Sarah

2006-09-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Yea! After who knows how many months, I have finally been able to upload a picture onto my blog. Actually, I only just remembered that I had a blog. Sarah and I went hiking along the James River back in May. It is an interesting river. You can hike along it on the rocks and practically cross to the other side without touching the water.

because i like to share

2005-11-29T19:17:00.000-08:00

I have been reading articles by Christopher Falvey on his web site the VN/VO. He seems to have a pretty decent perspective. At least he doesn't seem to be touting the media party line. Check out some of his writing here if you get a chance and let me know what you think!

Hot Water Mystery

2005-11-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

While I am very happy with my new little apartment I have had a few complaints. The second biggest being the apparent lack of quantities of hot water. (the first being the large insect population) I like hot water. I like it for washing dishes, I like it for washing my hands and I really like it for showering. I quickly discovered that the capacity of the hot water heater in this new place was not quite up to my long, hot, luxurious, water-wasting shower standards. In fact, I had to relearn the art of the 4 minute shower, this being the approximate duration of the hot water's issuance from the shower head before exhausting itself into cold. While not inspiring of great showers, I decided that it could have a positive effect on my water bill and perhaps even my electric bill and figured I'd grin and bear it.

ast week I began to notice that my water wasn't even getting hot. It was only reaching that mild baby milk level of warmth. I attributed this to the decided drop in mercury that occured this past week and figured I just needed to have the heat adjusted on the water tank.

Wednesday I woke up to NO HOT WATER AT ALL!!!!!! I didn't panic. I called my trusty neighbor (who has a beautiful shower with hours of hot water) and was granted the use of her shower facitilies for the morning. On my way to her place I noticed a brand new hot water tank sitting outside the apt. building. I had a hard time containing my excitement and I quickly located the maintenance men and asked them if they were fixing my hot water. Joe (the maintenance guy) told me that no, this was for the apartment below mine, but he wanted to know if I was having problems. I let him know my problems but we both figured that the lack of hot water that morning was due to the work they were doing on the apt. below mine. Needless to say I checked out the water situation as soon as I returned from work in the evening. It came out of the faucet just fine and warm so figured I'd give it one more shower before calling in my own complaint. The next morning I jumped into the shower with mixed emotions. (I was struggling with jealousy of my downstairs neighbors as I envisioned that shiny new hot water heater chugging away in their service and at the same time reminding myself to be thankful for the bit of hot water I did have) I washed my hair and conditioned my hair, then I stood under the hot water to savor the last bit of warmth knowing that at any second it would turn cold, and I stood and stood and stood...and I checked my watch and still the fountain gushing from the wall remained nice and hot! I like to experiment and would have kept myself in the shower till it turned cold just to see how long it would last but I had to get to work at some point. Since Thursday, I have had hot water past the four minute mark and I still have not discovered its depletion time.

So What Happened?!! Did they give me the new tank by mistake? My theory is that somehow my neighbor's and my own hot water are combined. In fact, I suspect that I may be paying for my neighbors hot water bill. The other theory is that while fixing my neighbor's hot water tank, they ajusted something on my own tank. But this would be very out of character for my landlord. Of course they could have fixed it accidentily which would be much more plausible... So although good, it is still a mystery and one into which I must make further inquiries.

Quote of the day

2005-11-19T09:28:00.000-08:00

There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternally new now that builds and creates itself out of the Best as the past withdraws.
J.G. von Goethe

Writing

2005-11-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

Some people write from the depths of their soul, the words that appear are representative of the deep feeling and ideas they have inside. This is not the case with me. When I write, what is produced is merely the white noise that covers my thoughts. I get so frustrated with this. When my mind is filled with ideas that are growing, points of baby green only lasting for a moment before becoming incorporated into the dusky green of adult obscurity, I sit down with a clean piece of paper and my favorite pen and begin to write in an attempt to capture them. After some time has passed I reread the words that have mussed the page only to find a mess of my daily thoughts reproduced there. So why keep writing? I suppose it clears my brain enabling me to think about what really matters to me. So while nothing of value is produced on the paper, the value is found in the clarity of thought inside.

Bistro Dog

2005-11-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

I just shared a nice bottle of Bistro Dog Shiraz with a friend. It was a nice wine, not a ton of flavor but easy to drink with just a slight hint of berry sweetness. It doesn't have the greatest scent, but neither my olfactory epithelium nor my palate (craial nerves X11 & IX if you are interested) is trained to be discriminating beyond my own personal preferences. Anyway, the guy at the liquor store recommended it and it is easy on the wallet so I wish someone else would try it out and let me know your thoughts.

Slide Staining Correction

2005-11-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

We continued to work on stains and counter stains in lab tonight. I am proud to report that all my slides turned out nicely. However I need to correct the things I said about inks. I had orignially stated that inks had either a positive or a negative ion, in actuality the inks that we use for staining have both a positive ion and a negative ion. In acidic stains the color is in the negative ion and in basic stains the color is in the positive ion. So, when staining a slide of bacteria, which has a slightly negative charge, a basic stain would be used. And with a positivly charged organism the acid stains.

New Job and Staining Slides

2005-10-31T11:14:00.000-08:00

Guess what!!?? I have taken a third part time job! I decided I wasn't busy enough so this new job works perfectly. I'll be working for the real-estate company of a friend about 7-10 hours a week. This should be fun! What in the world am I doing trying to go into nursing? I hate being in a building all day!
On that note, we have been learning to stain slides in my micro lab. This is so cool. My favorite stain so far is nigresine. It is the most beautiful blue color and makes the organizm under the slide so attractive that it is hard to think of them as having the potential to be an evil pathogen. Last week we also did some stains with India Ink. What an interesting life scientist lead. Not only do they need to know about microorganisms but they have to learn about the properties of various inks. Certain types have a slightly positive or slightly negative charge. Depending on the charge of the organism being stained, it will either attract or repel the stain! We never talked about that in art class! Too bad I can't post slides from my lab here for you to admire.

What is my problem

2005-10-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

I scare the good guys away. There is no doubt about it. Someone please knock me over the head and tell me what I am doing wrong. I went to a concert tonight. It was fun! I danced, laughed, chatted with everyone around me, and I looked HOT! I know I did. I wore these nice stretchy jeans and an awesome red halter top with embroidery on it. It was fun. I had all the guys around me trying to dance with me and asking me why I wouldn't go out with them. So what is the problem? I don't like them. They are loosers, I sound like a snob but these guys haven't grown up. They are still living in an extended high school beer party, and I have no problem attracting them. Yet as soon as I meet a cool, interesting guy who thinks beyond his next TV show or beer, I seem to scare him away after one or two conversations....What is wrong with me???

Quote of the Day

2005-10-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

Christianity is based on far more than naked human reason but by no means upon less. Though divine revelation carries us beyond the limits of rational speculation, it does not sink below the bar of rational intelligibility. -sproul

Gymnastics Leotards

2005-10-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

I wish everyone could see how cute my little gymnastics girls are when we start talking about their new leotards! When we pull out the catalogues and the "create your team design" books, they all become little fashion designers and have very definite opinions on the future image of the team. The intended new look was to be a shimmery silver leo with a swirl at the top leading into a sparkling black velvet neck line (I am still a bit bitter at the ugly styles we had when I was a kid, then again these new styles are a bit much) But the price has turned out to be greater than anticipated and we are having to move to option 2 which is as of yet undetermined...

Sobriquets

2005-10-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am very happy with myself for using the above given term. In fact I have used it several times this week but I still doubt my ability to pull it out of the cranium in a stressful moment of verbal exchange.
But on to the point of this post. Is it a good thing or a bad thing for a guy to call a girl babe or baby or baby doll etc...? I think that it depends on the guy and the context. Anyway, I got on someone's case for calling me "baby doll." He apologized as he considers himself a liberated man of some sort. I wasn't expecting the apology, in fact the more I thought about it, the more I realized I sort of didn't really mind him calling me that b/c I knew it was just to make me mad or to be funny not because he really looked down on me. I am kind of surprised at myself. Shouldn't I be cheering for the victory of one more male put in his place in realizing the inherent chauvinism that exists in all males no matter how hard they try to think of women as equals? What does this say about me???!!!!

I have no answers for the above questions but for you curious males out there here are my conclusions on nicknames for women:

Baby Doll - this is bad. It reeks of male condescension. Of course if you are just trying to be funny, it could possibly be funny.

Baby - A guy can potentially use this term in a positive light regarding a female. But he should be wary and careful. He should probably be at least dating the woman he dares to call this...

Babe - this word can actually be used to the male's advantage. Every girl, no matter how into the feminist ideology she is, secretly wants to be considered "hot." The word "babe" can easily be used to indicate this hot status. However, the male should still be careful.

Justification Reminder

2005-10-10T18:22:00.000-07:00

For you few but faithful who check my blog I just needed to clairify the fact that I only started this blog to figure out how it worked. I don't have any great wisdom or insight or political/spiritual truths I am trying to impart. The best thing I have found about it is getting to read your comments.

When bored eat donuts

2005-10-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

Right now I am bored and I am craving donuts. (I don't usually like donuts). I wish that I had 1)a Fresh glazed yeast donut from Krispy Kreme 2) a Chocolate cake donut from Dunkin Donuts 3)a Sour Cream Cake donut with sugar glaze from either place. Along with this I would like a nice fresh cup of Celebes coffee from Greyfriars and a good book that I have never read before. Perhaps some nice like-mooded and sugary-interested people to join in the eating and reading would make this a completely perfect picture.

And life goes on

2005-10-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

I've had an interesting scenario lately with my next door neighbor. She lost her job, has two small kids and a boyfriend whose entire family has been staying with them in her little one bedroom apt. None of them work and she is the only one looking for a job. Well, she finally got up the courage to kick the family out of her place, they did nothing but live off of her anyway, but the boyfriend continued to hang around. I think, simply to use her car, which she would continue to let him do inspite of the fact that on more that three different occasions he took it out and drove it around till it ran out of gas and then just left it there. He'd call her and say, "your car is out of gas but I am not putting any more gas in it so if you want it you have to go get it." Now, why would you keep letting the looser borrow your car? Well she does and myself and another neighbor have been involved in driving around trying to help her find her car when it has been abandoned. (that was another thing, he could never really tell her where he left it). Well, she finally found a job and she came home from her job last night to find that looser boyfriend had pawned her television for $20 for cigarette money and supposedly for gas money. But of course he has not been able to find the money to give it to her. So she spent the next hour trying to call him to go get her tv back or to bring her the money. Of course he did neither and he also stopped answering her phone calls. I've told her she can do better than him. I asked her why she would continue to be with a guy who would steal her tv and her gas from her car etc...she refused to answer and she refused to call what he had done stealing. She then went into her crying routine telling me that her tv was all she had. I usually have some sympathy with her and have been willing to help her with gas on certain occasions, but this time I knew she really just wanted me to drive her accross town to get her tv and also to give her money for gas since she didn't have any money left. Not having a tv of my own, I couldn't find much sympathy for her on the need to have a tv right away, which she insisted she did. I write all this, not to complain about my neighbor but becuase I wonder how to show help and support to someone who has so many obvious needs but at the same time is willing to manipulate and not really change if she is getting what she wants. How to show her compassion with out condesension. How to help her and not just enable her to continue in her current lifestyle? I told her that I didn't mind helping her if it was b/c she was working on getting things straight but beyond that I couldn't do much. I hate feeling manipulated but I also want to stay sensitive to needs and bondaged mindsets.

Microbiology Lab

2005-09-14T19:47:00.000-07:00

Well exciting news. I made two cultures of E. Coli & Serratia marcescens on a petri dish implementing the quadrant streak method A and the radiant streak culture technique. Supposedly the way that you "smear" the bacteria onto the nutrient rich agur can affect the results making them more or less readable. So, why you ask did I choose the quadrant streak method A and the radiant streak method? (oh, you didn't ask?, well never mind I'll tell you anyway) I chose these particular culture techniques for their inherint artistic quality. After all, if you are going to grow bacteria it may as well be in an attractive pattern. After careful study of the four choices we were given, I was able to narrow it down to three (I discarded streak method b as being too disorganized to the eye), finally after realizing that the T method, while aesthetically pleasing in its neat organization, didn't really "speak" to me I was able to pass over it as well. Thus I was left with the two techniques listed above. Method A looks a bit like a work of modern art with groupings of 4-5 lines circling the plate in an ever closing space while the radiant technique is sort of the sun rise look, with the streaks flowing from a horizontal line upward to the top of the dish. Quite uplifing. I won't know until after the incubation time if I've managed to grow some nice colonies of the bacteria. I'll keep you posted though.

Fundraising ideas...anyone????

2005-09-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

We are desperately in need of some new mats and equipment for the Signal School of PE gymnastics team. The parents would like us to put together a fund raiser to help with this. Car washes are not an option and the group isn't big enough to do a cookie/candy sale type of thing. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

Human need for order

2005-09-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from an email I received from my friend AM. I thought she had some great points.

"...I think, psychologically speaking, that as humans there is nothing more damaging than to feel helpless and out of control. Americans feel helpless in the face of this disaster, and that's why people are giving their time, money, and anything else to help relief efforts. Finding a way to help is one antidote to feeling out of control. Another antidote to helplessness is to blame someone, to find a scapegoat for the problems because blame gives us a sense of control. It happens all the time - "If he hadn't taken his bad mood out on me I wouldn't have run up the credit card by shopping to comfort myself." [I've never done that, by the way] Or like the New Orleans chief of police said when one of his officers committed suicide, "I thought he just needed a break so I gave him the day off. If I had kept him with me maybe he wouldn't have done it..." and he broke into sobs. By the way, have you ever seen so many grown men cry on national television? I've seen more men cry the past week than I probably ever will the rest of my life. Crying is a natural response to a horrible, horrible tragedy. So is a call for justice, for accountability. If we can assign responsibility, blame someone for the chaos, then we have a measure of control - to bring our world back into balance and to hopefully keep it from happening again. In fact (as the quote from the police chief indicates), we'd rather blame ourselves than feel a sense of chaos - it's that important to us to feel in control. And it's a way to get justice, really. Justice helps makes things right again. When something bad happens, there needs to be payment to bring balance and order. That's why Christ came to earth - to satisfy divine justice. The need for justice is stamped on our souls because we're made in the image of God.

But sometimes it doesn't matter as much to have the right scapegoat just as long as we have one. For instance, there were plenty of intelligence failures leading up to 9/11 but no one focused on that because we already had Bin Laden for a scapegoat (and rightly so) and didn't need another one. 9/11 might have been prevented, too, but that doesn't play a very big role in our perception of those events. We could do something to eliminate the cause of that tragedy and so we bombed Afghanistan. In the case of this disaster, we can't put Katrina on trial or hold her accountable, so someone else has to pay the price to make us feel a sense of control. We can't control the weather, so we grab for whatever control we can find. Also, it's emotionally unsatisfying to blame the storm (because it would forever be unresolved), so we blame the response to it. But even though we think we see these as two distinct things, the storm cost us something emotionally and we're pinning the bill for it on the response. As the dust is starting to settle, it looks like most of the fingers are pointed at Michael Brown (director of FEMA), and now that the public has figured out who they want to hold accountable, they're starting to feel better. If Michael Brown goes or pays the price in some way, then this exact thing won't happen ever again, we think. Justice is served and the situation is resolved. We can fix it, we're in control, and the world's in balance again. We can keep this from happening somehow if we try hard enough. For a few days we had the awful suspicion that we're not actually in control, but that fear has been laid to rest. Someone will pay, and everything will be okay again.

So anyway, as far as the response goes, I think that there are plenty of reasons it was slow and inadequate - the shock factor (shock is paralyzing), red tape, and unpreparedness. There were too many weak links in the system to count, and they've been exposed. We realistically can do something to be better prepared in the future, and that's a comforting thought. But when it comes down to it, all this is really Katrina's fault in the first place. No one person or organization or host of people can carry the weight of Katrina's responsibility and the problem with having a scapegoat for this is that it will never feel fully resolved. It's impossible to blame a person for the weather. Nevertheless, we will try hard to make someone pay, and it really will make us feel better in the long run."

quote for the day

2005-09-08T06:27:00.000-07:00

This was in an email from a friend:

quoting old Archibald Alexander of Princeton (back when it taught the Gospel:)

“For your more rapid growth in grace, some of you will be cast into the furnace of affliction. Sickness, bereavement, bad conduct of children and relatives, loss of property or of reputation, may come upon you unexpectedly and press heavily on you. In these trying circumstances, exercise patience and fortitude. Be more solicitous to have the affliction sanctified than removed. Glorify God while in the fire of adversity. That faith which is most tried is commonly most pure and precious. Learn from Christ how you ought to suffer. Let perfect submission to the will of God be aimed at. Never indulge a murmuring or discontented spirit. Repose with confidence on the promises. Commit all your cares to God. Make known your requests to Him by prayer and supplication. Let go your too eager grasp of the world. Become familiar with death and the grave. Wait patiently until your change comes; but desire not to live a day longer than may be for the glory of God.”

Responsibility

2005-09-07T19:16:00.000-07:00

I never thought to blame the federal government or more specifically the Bush administration for the horrible chain of events that took place in New Orleans following the hurricane and flooding of that city. That is, until I read the local newspaper, watched the television, and checked out several web sources on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday...following the flooding. Then I was puzzled. Weren't a few steps of blame missing? Didn't the city of New Orleans have an emergency plan for just such a disaster? After all, Katrina was not exactly a surprise. Not only did the entire country have the opportunity to view the swirling cloud on every iwitnessweather channel as it approached the gulf states (I would have taken up running again to get away from the coast, that was a big cloud!) but after last year's close call weren't the powers that be claiming that it wasn't a matter of "if" New Orleans were to be hit but "when"?
Finally I have read an article that puts some perspective on the issue. It is an editorial by Mr. Bob Williams in WSJ.com from 9/7

quote of the day

2005-09-06T08:24:00.000-07:00

The following is the final paragraph of my microbiology textbook's section detailing the history of microbiology and the series of experiments and scients who disprooved the theory of spontaneous generation.
"Pasteur's work provided evidence that microorganisms cannot originate from mystical forces present in nonliving materials. Rather, any appearance of "spontaneous" life in nonliving solutions can be attributed to microorganisms that were already present in the air or in the fluids themselves. Scientists now believe that a form of spontaneous generation probably did occur on the primitive Earth when life first began, but they agree that this does not happen under today's environmental conditions."

Jokes on paper

2005-09-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

It is definitly a mistake to make jokes on email to people you don't know very well, epecially if they possess the grey matter in much larger quantities or much smaller quantities than you do yourself. Too much opportunity for mistrued interpretations. The problem? There is no way to impart tone or a smile or a sence of the ironic in print. Certain web pages let you choose from an assortment of emotion faces, or whatever they are called. (my avoidance of web ligo has left me bereft of the proper word for these idiotic yellow faces that punctuate sentences followed by LOL or some other such flipant abbreviation. But back to the point). I know this. I know that I have stuck the proverbial foot in the mouth on numerous occasions in my attempts to be funny over email (in fact, I seem to do it in real life on occasion as well) yet, I am ever the flighty person who looks in the mirror only to walk away and forget what she looks like. Forgetting my lessons learned, making them lessons unlearned, I try once again to impart my great humor and wittiness to the unsuspecting victims, only to find that I never hear from them again or if I do it is to let me know of their less than amused perpective towards my insouciant comments. Sigh.....another one bites the dust.

blog world

2005-06-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I am still trying to figure out how to get picutres to my blog. I have downloaded the "hello" and "Picaso" software but have not had success beyond that point. Infact, my computer is now running about 5% slower than it was before, the only evidence that I have tried to get this to work. Hopefully you will soon be seeing from me.

"As My Whimsy Takes Me"

2005-06-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

"As my Whimsy takes me" is the motto for the Wimsey coat of arms. If you have not had the priviledge of meeting Lord Peter Wimsey through the books of Dorothy Sayers, I would love to introduce you.