Book Covers: A Game for a Monday

Good morning, everybody!

For the past few days I’ve been on the phone for hours. Today promises to be at least as lively, with some e-mailing, text messaging, and online chat thrown in. Oh, and the occasional potty break.

So, I’ve decided to post a small compare-and-contrast exercise. Possibly interesting for you. Certainly quick for me. (Apparently, Almostgotit, I’ve been liberated from my Aversion to Sentence Fragments.)

Below are two pairs of photos. One pair is of the front facade of two third-floor apartments for rent in Saint John. The other is of two sofas of identical quality of leather (somewhere between the superior stuff and the cowhide papier-maché ) .

I’d like to hear your feedback. Going by looks alone, which of each pair appeals more to you? Do you have any impressions as to workmanship, price difference, interior, etc?

i. Apartment fronts.

 

ii. Couches.

 

Have a great Monday, everyone!

License Plate of the Vanities

Standard issue: four letters and three letters separated by a crown. Plate is updated annually with a sticker in top right corner.

A few years back, Ontario opened up to its citizens the possibility of spending even more money for government services, with vanity plates for cars.

If you’re unsure of the concept, a vanity plate is a personalized license plate. Here in Ontario, you can choose to decorate it with one of over forty graphics — the Toronto Maple Leafs, the SPCA, and the Rotary Club are a few examples — or you can choose your own sequence of between two and eight letters or numbers. As long as your sequence is unique, you’re permitted to pay for it.

Some motorists like to monogram their plates. A married couple by the name of Sandy Jones and Kim Robertson, for example, might spring for:
SJ KR .

Others may give hints about their occupation, describe their personality, spell out their name, or converse with the drivers around them. Some licenses are harder to decipher than others; solving their puzzles helps to while away travel time.

Here are a few I’ve seen lately. I like how so many of them answer questions.

Who owns this car?

• WEE JAN
• KLANCY
• SIR JOHN
• GOTTFTHR

What kind of car is that?

• MYSOLARA
• MRS KIA
• INIW
• ALEC
• HYBRID Z

Tell me something about your job.

• CHEF 1
• SIGNS UP
• MT BTLS
• RAZOR 33
• CHUTNEY

How long are you planning to work?

• TL IWIN

How would you describe yourself?

• HOTLIPZ
• QRXZ
• TEXAS A
• WER CDN
• M84EVR
• RE KING
• FN 2 BME
• MR MOST

Have you anything to say?

• RU SXY 2
• CUQT
• GO 2 GO

How would you like your license plate to read?

Merry Guessing Game

Can anybody guess what this building is for?

If someone else has already correctly guessed before you arrive, you can still share with us what you were going to say. The more the merrier!

Time to Smile

The following melodrama is brought to you by… can you guess what word?

***

Mole Isle

Mist. Tim & Tom meet Elsie. Elsie: slim, lime tee.

Tim (to Tom) : “Elsie… I smile, I list, I tilt!”

Tom: “It’s time to test me mettle!”  (to Elsie) : “Elsie, it sleets. Let’s lose its site! It’s i mile to Mole Isle.”

Elsie: “Molé Isle? Let’s!”

Tim: “Tom stole Elsie! I see. I lose.”

Stile. Tom & Elsie sit.

Elsie: “Tom, see Tim? Is Tim lost?”

Tom: “Elsie, Elsie! Sit, & let’s see some toes! Sloe?”

Elsie: “Sot! Silo slime! Tim, Tim!”

Tim: “It’s time to smite Tom, lest Elsie is lost!” Tim totes steel stilt to smite Tom.

Elsie: “Olé! Tim smote Tom! O Tim — I melt!”

Tim: “Smile, Elsie. Is it… is it time to settle?”

Elsie: “Si, Tim, si.”

How to Jump Into a Picture

This is the glossy cover of a tourism brochure for Quebec City.

 Fold in half.

From the fold, cut toward the other side. Stop about a finger width from the edge. Make more cuts from the fold, to make strips.

Now carefully cut from the unfolded side towards the fold, stopping a finger width before the fold. (The photo above shows an error I made. That first cut from the unfolded side was unneccessary. ) The strips will now be half the width they were a moment ago.

Now, remembering NOT to do this at the very top and bottom, snip apart the fold line. Carefully open it out, and voilà!

 

You can now jump into the picture. Or maybe you prefer to walk under it, or sniff it, chew it a little… à chacun son goût!

Tape Loop with a Half Twist

It’s called a Mobius strip.

Nineteenth-century mathematician August Ferdinand Mobius didn’t invent it, he just studied it closely.

I’ve always been fascinated by the thing. It’s simple: make like you’re creating loops for a paper garland, get distracted, and tape the wrong edges together. Like so:

Notify the HR department.

Now take two drawing implements of differing colours. Use one to draw a line down the centre of the loop’s outside, and the other to draw a line down the centre of its inside. Draw until the colour meets its starting point.

Correct: black inside, blue outside. Mobius: Blue.

As you can see, the Mobius strip isn’t behaving very well: one colour did both sides before meeting itself.

Never mind. You’ve decided these loops are too wide for the garland. Snip them along their freshly-drawn centre lines, then, to make two loops.

Correct: two loops of regulation width and diameter. Mobius: one loop of regulation width, double diameter.

Maybe the scissors aren’t feeling too well today? Let’s try that once more, just to be sure.

Correct: four slimline loops, comprising two coloured and two plain. Mobius: One double-diameter slimline plain loop twined with one double-diameter slimline  coloured loop.

Uh-oh. The garland department union is crying foul, because the Mobius loop received only one cut while the regulation loops were given two cuts, one for each loop. The union demands that each of the two Mobius loops be cut, to keep pace with the proper loops. Here goes:

We’ve ended up with three double-slim, double-diameter, plain loops intertwined with one double-slim, double-diameter, coloured loop. Kinda pretty, isn’t it?

As for you four, excellent job! To reward you, we promise to cut and retape only three of you in order to proceed with the fabrication of slimline garland.

I Smell a Meme

So, Goodbear and I were discussing smells yesterday, and we thought a smell meme — a smeme? — might be fun. Goodbear designed a nice straightforward one, and answered it on her blog. Now it’s my turn.

PS my computer is ailing. It is excruciatingly slow. No photos today, then, and as few words as possible, because I get confused when I type something and watch it form on the page several seconds later.

Okay.

1. List five smells you love.

1. Cloves. I sneak them into my cooking whenever possible.
2. Rosemary. Sometimes I open the spice bottle just for a whiff.
3. Cedar groves. They smell deep green, with a light orange tang.
4. Hay. Haylofts smell warm, dry, and soothing.
5. Fresh sawdust or wood shavings. Mmmmm…

2. List five smells you don’t like.

1. The wind blowing from the direction of a pig farm.
2. Some kind of food processing plant, I’ve never discovered what, but it smells like burning rotten tomatoes.
3. The tar-melting machine when workers are sealing a flat roof.
4. Public washroom deodorizers.
5. Vase water when the flower stems start to go slimy.

Tada!

Anybody else wanna give this a whirl? Alyson, Gina, Almostgotit, Livingisdetail, are any of you up for it?

Xes and Oes

E.g. and I tend to sign our e-mails to each other with “xo” or “xxoo” or “xooxox” — some undetermined number of kissy xes accompanied by an equally unforeseeable number of huggy oes.

At some point, we realized that if the silly sign-off were to start with o instead of x, we’d be writing the Chinese horoscope year in which both our birthdays fall, the Year of the Ox.

So sometimes we get even sillier. We usually follow the affectionate ending with an explanation, in parentheses, of what the oxen are doing. The oxen’s activities often — but not always — have something to do with the content of the e-mail.

Here are a few of them.

{ox}   {ox}   {ox}    {ox}     {ox}    (oxen in papasans)

OX|     OX|    OX|        OX|   OX|   (oxen leaning against their stalls, snoozing)

 =      =  =     =   =    (oxen lying down)

“OX”  “OX”  “OX”  (oxen shrugging)

ox |||||||   ox||||  ox ||||||| (oxen poll clerks with voters lining up)

OXA OXb OXb OXb (alpha ox with beta oxen)

OX >.—.    OX >.—.   OX >.—.  (oxen pushing hand trucks)

OX y   OX y   y XO   y XO    (oxen with wine glasses)

oX   oX   oX    oX   oX   (oxen in shrunken wool sweaters)

xO   xO   xO   xO     (oxen mooning)

OX<*    OX<*     *>XO   (oxen with flash cameras)

OX<*    ^<<<<     *>XO   (oxen photographing migrating geese)

>x<o    o>x<    o>x<   (oxen chewing hay)

OX/_*~^?//||OX_*~^!///|\\⁾_~*\XO/|/OX|_*⁾|//   (oxen looking at kittens in the long grass)

OX |iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii|  (ox stepping up to play the piano [dots are the ebonies] )

Hands up, those who think Turtle has too much time on her hands.

C.O.L.A.: The Creators’, Observers’, and Lovers’ Awards

Good morning, everyone!

With yesterday’s blog entry/wine-and-cheese running to 700 words, I decided to leave the admin details till this morning. Here are the rules and regulations accompanying each award that was handed out yesterday, along with the lists of recipients repeated for your convenience.

Oh, and by the way, those “musts” and “have tos” in the regulations apply only if you decide to hang your award on your blogden wall; I have no intention of giving you all chain letters!

= = = = =

First, for the Arte y Pico award:

1. PICK FIVE BLOGS THAT YOU CONSIDER DESERVE THIS AWARD FOR CREATIVITY, DESIGN, AND
2. INTERESTING MATERIAL AND ALSO CONTRIBUTE TO THE BLOGGER COMMUNITY REGARDLESS OF LANGUAGE.
3. EACH AWARD HAS TO HAVE THE NAME OF THE AUTHOR AND A LINK TO HIS/HER BLOG TO BE VISITED.
4. EACH AWARD WINNER HAS TO SHOW THE AWARD AND PUT THE NAME AND LINK TO THE BLOG THAT HAS GIVEN HIM/HER THE AWARD ITSELF.
5. AWARD WINNERS AND THE ONE WHO HAS GIVEN THE PRIZE HAVE TO SHOW THE LINK OF THE ARTE-Y-PICO BLOG (HTTP://ARTEYPICO.BLOGSPOT.COM) SO EVERYONE WILL KNOW THE ORIGIN OF THE AWARD.
6. IN COMPLIANCE WITH SAID RULES, THE AWARD WINNER MUST SHOW THESE RULES.

The Arte y Pico recipients are:

Celtic Memory Yarns

Checkers’ World

Dog Daily Photo

We Three, Ginger Cats’ Tales   and

Wondering Eye.

= = = = =

Second, the Superior Scribbler award:

1. Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

2. Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

3. Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.

4. Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit This Post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

5. Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

The Superior Scribbler recipients are:

Huckleberry Days

The Marvelous in Nature

The Right Blue

The Unwound Road  and

Urban Observation.

= = = = =

And third, the I Heart Your Blog award:

Apparently, the rules for this one are lost in antiquity. Accept the award, refuse it, covet it, pass it on to whomever you will. Just keep it away from the teacher’s eyes.

The I Heart Your Blog recipients are:

Almost Got It

Cody Bear’s Friends

Gina’s Public Diary

Laugh in the Sun

Pennycat’s Weblog

The Aged Cat

The Chawed Rosin

Towards Sustainability

Wearing Stilettos   and

Yasashiikuma.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Creators, Observers, and Lovers

How’s that for a catchy title?

Welcome, blogroll members! This is a Friday Festival of Blogfriends, with doorprizes for most of you and nice words for all of you.

I’ve been given some awards lately. One of them is not mine to pass on, although it is yours for the taking if you enjoy the underwater explorations of The Right Blue as much as I do. I was specifically named as a Friend of the Right Blue, I think, because I suggested John Denver’s “Calypso” as a theme song for Bobbie and Jerry’s blog. Please go visit their blog if you haven’t, and learn about their “Right Blue” badge in their November 9th post.

Another award, the Arte y Pico,  was given me all the way back in August by Elizabeth, Wearing Stilettos and Living on a Farm. She must have wondered why I never posted it or passed it on, but the reason is this: On checking its raison-d’être, I found it was originally intended for creative people — specifically, for handicraft workers. This award’s purpose is to acknowledge “creativity, design, and contribution to the blogging community.” Okay, I can stretch the definition a bit to include creative writing or photography; but in August, I felt that I hadn’t yet proven myself. Now, however, with just over six dozen bits of creative writing or camera pointing on tap, I graciously and humbly accept the award, Elizabeth. Thank you for your encouragement!

On November 16th, Dennis the Lovable Vizsla gave me an I Heart Your Blog award — for the second time! (Dogs truly are the gifts that keep on giving. ) The first time, in early October, I wimped out and unofficially handed it off to everyone, so I think I should more properly award ten bloggers today.

As you can see, most of my blog awards emphasize my — er — soft skills. Generally, I think, my writing makes people want to smile and give me a little scritch behind the ears. Sometimes the entries are funny; occasionally they’re fierce; always they come from the heart. Like many of you, though, I harbour a secret, insane fantasy life in which I fancy myself a writer. It was with great pleasure, then, that on November 19th I found myself the recipient of the Superior Scribbler Award, handed out by Alyson at Laugh in the Sun.

So. This is the last time I’m ever gonna be able to pull this off, but — there’s an award for each of you. Sort of. Dennis and Livingisdetail, because you were co-recipients with me (Dennis from Elizabeth, and Livingisdetail from Alyson), and because of the categories I see you in, you’re gonna hafta carry those awards around tonight, as you make your way between the ale and the Oka.

Here we go:

I. The Arte y Pico award is for the Creators, the spinners of yarns, the wielders of cameras, the designers of comics and the mythifiers of the moon. You are:

• Celtic Memory Yarns
• Checkers’ World
• Dog Daily Photo
• We Three, Ginger Cats’ Tales   and
• Wondering Eye;

(and the sixth Creator is Dennis’s Diary of Destruction ) .

II. The Superior Scribbler award is for the Observers, the examiners of Nature or of Human Nature, the reporters of secrets, histories, small parts and large trends. You are:

• Huckleberry Days
• The Marvelous in Nature
• The Right Blue
• The Unwound Road  and
• Urban Observation;

(and the sixth Observer is One Little Detail ).

III. The I Heart Your Blog Award is for the Lovers, of which there are many types: the passionate and the compassionate, the advocates and the next-door neighbours, the pet people, the people people, and the plant people. You are twice five:

• Almost Got It
• Cody Bear’s Friends
• Gina’s Public Diary
• Laugh in the Sun
• Pennycat’s Weblog
• The Aged Cat
• The Chawed Rosin
• Towards Sustainability
• Wearing Stilettos   and
• Yasashiikuma.

Enjoy the party, everyone! In a separate entry, I’ll post the award icons and the rules that go with each.