black & white

kate & ana
Originally uploaded by wck

Just picked up a roll of black & white film from the summer, and I can't get over this picture. They look like they stepped right out of the 1950s. This picture is why I still shoot with black & white 35mm film instead of a digital SLR converted to B&W in photoshop. I swear I would never get this look that way... especially the texture in their dresses and the skin.

Vegetables at Pike Place Market

Vegetables at Pike Place Market
Originally uploaded by wck

This photo is reminding me how much I miss summer. It's freezing and muddy out here recently.

c7y

Why No One Comments on Google News

Look at the comment threads on Digg, for example, or Ars Technica, or Boing Boing. Why are there such long, boisterous comment threads? Because we know that the news we are reading there was driven by human beings, and when we respond, those human beings are paying attention, and want to be part of the conversation. But Google News is driven entirely by a computer algorithm. There is no explicit community. No one goes there to engage in community. Even if one can argue, as one can with web search, that the News algorithm is derived from community actions, it is not subservient to them, as is Digg's. In short, there are no stakeholders in the Google News community. It's not a place people go to be social.

Why am I at Meetup now? Because that cheesy old quote that people are the killer app of the internet is true.

Clouds

Clouds
Originally uploaded by wck

A peaceful view of NYC from 6000 feet for a quiet week.

scottish

I have to write this up, lest I slip & start thinking my family might be normal. For almost a week I've been sick- sore throat, headache, whatever. Last night I was curled up in a chair, buried under blankets with a small sheltie snuggled nearby. My dad lit a nice fire, turned on the Christmas tree lights, and turned up next to my chair with a bottle of Drambuie.

Drambuie is really really sweet liquor made from scotch and honey, and if you drink it straight up, it will quite literally take the lining off your throat, and your stomach, and probably strip off a few of your teeth. It's strong. Really, really, bite-your-head-off nasty stuff. My family is cuckoo & Scottish, so whenever one of us got sick as a kid, we were treated with a nice shot of it.

So here's my dad, with his guaranteed sore throat remedy, trying to heal me. When I declined to drink any (come on, I'd brushed my teeth already!) he launched into a "you won't get better until you drink it!" speech. On Christmas Eve. Yes... we think Drambuie is actual medicine around here.

Meanwhile, I've been stumped about how to back up all the text messages I have saved on my sim card in my phone for a few days, and it finally occured to me that I should just type them out or something. So here are a few that I've been carrying around on my phone over the last 5 years.

"Happy no longer working for Gooooooogle" -my sailor 6/15/07 (yes, he put all those "o"'s in there himself. and yes, that was my last day working there)

"She said yes!" - Brian 10/22/06 (after many text messages working up the courage to propose to his now wife)

"Heh i locked myself out of my apt" - my sailor 7/13/05 (might I note that he is an actual licensed locksmith?)

"Ticket 0000XXXXX - Impact 1 - HP6 Automated warm fuzzy" - amazon's ticketing system 7/13/05 (paging me for a not so small bug)

"Hi beautiful. Miss you" - my sailor 11/12/02 (awww. he's so sweet)

round ball of fuzz

round ball of fuzz
Originally uploaded by wck

I love this photo of Declan. He LOVES the sofa in the living room (when he can't reach the doggie bed I made him that's in the green room, behind closed doors). The living room has a huge ceiling with skylights, and the upstairs hall extends to a balcony that runs across it. Right underneath is this sofa. So... you can walk across the balcony, look down, and see a fuzzy sheltie napping. Awwwwww. He's sleeping on a fisherman's cable blanket that my grandma made for me to take to college.

We had a crazy christmas around here- just like always. Yesterday Kate & I made cookie press cookies (sandwiched with apricot and strawberry jam then dipped in chocolate!) and then panettone. Mmmmmm. This morning I made scones and then we had waffles and THEN most of the presents were opened (chaos!) and then french toast. Ana and Tom, as expected, liked the wrapping paper better than the gifts.

I'd finished a quilt for each kid, so the one picture I wanted to get was each one on the sofa with their quilts, but of course that didn't happen. Maybe next year.

christmas!

The trees are up!

boats

Poli Sci 221 at Wellesley taught me two things (at least that I remember). First, what the prisoner's dilemma game is, and secondly how your brain becomes rather hard wired to see the world through the lens of the culture and background you were raised in. We were talking, mostly, about international relations and yadda yadda heavy stuff. I was reminded of it today, though, for much lighter purposes. I was talking to a coworker about how Boy would like to get back out to sea as soon as possible and the coworker asked me why he would prefer to be on a ship. Seriously, I was stumped what to say. I grew up on boats, and my summer still revolves around the lake almost completely. So, well, it makes absolute sense to me that given a choice between being at sea for a few months at a time and being in a land office, you would take the sea job. Putting that "it's so much better" into actual words, though, was rather hard. And what really stopped me was that he asked- kind of the moment where your implicit worldview becomes visible.