Quite a number of years ago, I was given a cuckoo clock. I found it a few months ago, and last night I hung it up and gave the pendulum a push. It worked! The poor little cuckoo has no idea what time it is, or perhaps he's so happy at being alive again that he just doesn't want to stop singing. This clock has a cuckoo, a dancing couple and a mill wheel, over which water "flows." The hour is reached, the cuckoo and chime announce the time, a music box plays a tune while the couple dance and the water flows.
I guess I didn't expect anything to work. Fact is that it's keeping very good time but I had to latch the cuckoo's door until I can figure out how to synchronize him again.
In other news, George over at Brewed Fresh Daily quoted my comments about geeks. He's absolutely right about the terminology. What I think of and call geeks are rightly called "hackers"
Contrary to the popular press, a hacker is not a person who breaks into other people's computer systems. That is a cracker. A hacker could be said to be a consummate programmer, someone who has earned the respect of his fellows by programming well or coming up with an elegant way of programming a computer to do a certain job. For programmers, being a hacker is a great honor, and it can only be bestowed upon you by another hacker. Crackers are also often hackers, but their intent and nefarious activities put them into a different category. (suncoastlug.org) or go here for more definitions.
Someone who knows a lot about computers and very little about anything else. See also nerd.
So I hereby promise to call a hacker a hacker and a geek a geek henceforth. But everything I said about liking the real hackers I've known - totally true. And if they're mostly geek-like - that's ok with me too. Go here to learn more about hackers
Sometimes spam is just too funny not to pass along. So now for your reading pleasure, I reveal to you that apparently I have my own support team. I wonder who's paying them?
To: orientation@quiltr.com Subject: status Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 15:56:42 -0500 X-Priority: 3
Dear user orientation@quiltr.com,
Your email account has been used to send a huge amount of spam during this week. Probably, your computer was infected by a recent virus and now runs a hidden proxy server.
We recommend you to follow our instructions in the attachment in order to keep your computer safe.
Best wishes, quiltr.com user support team.
Hello - anyone home in my support team? Have I mentioned? I have a MAC!?????Of course the file they sent me..... was.....wait for it......a WINDOWS virus. Heads are gonna roll in the support team, I tell you.
Written at:
7/29/2004 07:33:00 PM
Slow but sure...
And that's about what it is slow. And sure. Another view. I purposely included an unquilted square in the first view so you can see the difference the quilting makes. Sometimes it's hard to start quilting but you have to know that the new version, the quilted version will be a good thing! (here's the earlier shot of the whole top.)
Written at:
7/29/2004 01:25:00 AM
A little hope is always a good thing
When you wake up and you're sitting at the kitchen table with your kids, and you're talking about the great possibilities in America, your kids should know that John and I believe, to our core, that tomorrow can be better than today.
Like all of us, I have learned a lot of lessons in my life.
Two of the most important are that, first, there will always be heartache and struggle; we can't make it go away. But the second is that people of good and strong will can make a difference.
One is a sad lesson, and the other is inspiring.
We are Americans and we choose to be inspired. We choose hope over despair, possibilities over problems, optimism over cynicism. We choose to do what's right even when those around us say, "You can't do that," we choose to be inspired, because we know that we can do better, because this is America where everything is still possible.
I have no idea but it ticks away whether you're being busy or goofing off, just the same.
I am still here and definitely more on the busy side of things. I have an "urge to purge" and I'm trying to keep that feeling alive for as long as possible. I'm doing some cleaning, some rearranging, so revamping. Even a little quilting thrown in there - I'm quilting on my blue and yellow quilt and mmmmm mmmm it's just lookin' fine.
The flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and the cats are doing whatever it is cats do.
Ever have one of those breakthrough moments all the while wondering -- did I think this before? That was me the other night. I'm inbetween project stages. Waiting to move on, start something new, whatever. Coming off the excitement and overload of being at the Vermont Quilt Festival and how well received my two quilts were. Just felt like I should be in there, doing SOMEthing. But what?
I picked out some lovely fabrics and spread them over my ironing board. Just lovely. I arranged, rearranged, added, subtracted. I sat back and admired. And then I went to bed because I didn't have a thought in my head as to what to actually do with these lovely fabrics.
Next morning, I get up. Go in, look at the fabrics on the ironing board. Just lovely. Go to work. Think about the fabrics now and then.
Go home, admire the fabrics. Go off and do other things but I don't have a clue of anything to do with them. As I was getting ready for bed I had this FLASH.
I just don't work that way. I NEVER start by pulling fabrics, no matter how lovely, together and saying - I think I'll make something out of these. Let's see, what could I make?
I always start with some sort of idea. A notion of colors or shapes or an overall image. I might make a thumbnail sketch of the design, do some figuring, take some notes. Then I go and pull out fabrics to make that thing happen. I adjust idea and fabrics as needed.
So BOOM - big self-realization. I actually grabbed my working notebook and wrote down these ideas so if I do get to the same point again, it won't be such a surprise, LOL. But then, life is always full of surprises. And I went and put away the lovely fabrics for that moment when they are needed.
My online quilting friend, Robbi Joy Eklow is what I call a mac-person. She uses and prefers Macs. But what to call someone like that? That was the question she put to David Pogue, who calls us "Mac Fans."
Well, I'm with Robbi here. I'd rather be a user than a fan (I'm a Rod Stewart Fan but have never been to a concert although I do own a couple CDs). To me fan indicates some degree of removal. User unfortunately makes me think of my being on the short end of the help desk-user spectrum (that would have been the user end....) but at least it indicates that there's some contact.
Actually "Mac-person" is how I generally describe myself if someone starts asking me stupid Windows questions -- ooops sorry - I'm a mac person - I've never HAD to reinstall my operating system because of some stupid computer problem in my life!
Sunny, clear, dry. No work! Big mug o'coffee and some buttered toast. A purpose. Some physical activity to attain purpose. Shoes chosen and packed. A friend calls to say goodbye just for a few days. Cats who are seriously glad I'm alive and care about them. A second mug o'coffee. Hard decisions made and done with. A quick peek at my fellow bloggers (see list left) and behold - new posts from many of them. Nice catching up with folks, even if I don't really know them except virtually.
In reality though, a good morning and a good time ahead.
Update on the current quilt in progress, aka "code name shine" -- finished ironing all the seams tonight and sewed and pressed the center seam,making one top. That was my goal so I can take the thing to the Vermont Quilt Festival and keep sewing on it, so I'm good to go. If you click the image above you'll see one view taken with a small flash. Here's another view that is taken without flash. Size of the whole is about 36 x 72".
