Tuesday, June 16, 2009 | by nathan

Samcat

This is Buzzer:

Buzzer is a cat who lives across the street from me. The day that we moved into our house, we had the screen door open in front and Buzzer came wandering in just as happy as you please. He’s the friendliest cat I’ve ever known; his name is Buzzer because he is always, always purring. Like, ALWAYS.

As far as his personality is concerned, Buzzer is the cat version of my dog, Sam. They’re even the same color. The other day, when I took these photos, I was out weeding the garden and Buzzer came wandering into the backyard. He sidled up to me and started rubbing his head all over my leg, my arms, my hands - he went a little nuts with happiness when I started petting him. When I stopped he’d start to meow, softly, and then follow me around wherever I walked. It was rather adorable of him.

Eventually, though, Buzzer decided that he wanted to go chasing after the squirrels who live in the very back of my backyard, and he started to sneak, ever so stealthily, to the bush where they make their home:

When the squirrels saw him they quickly took off, and Buzzer came back to begging me for love. He was still in my backyard when I got done weeding, keeping an eye on things for me. I don’t want a cat of my own, but with Buzzer it’s like I get to have one without having to keep the litter box in my house, which, I admit, is a huge plus.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 | by nathan

Some Buttermilk, Some Flour, And …

Now that we’ve started seeing real, live, edible food coming out of the garden, I thought it was high time we start consuming the, ah, fruits of our labor. So yesterday, when I found yet another ginormous black beauty zucchini on the vines when I got home from work, I bade my handsome husband go to the grocery store to get some buttermilk, and we sliced a few of those babies up and fried ‘em. Other than the moment when I almost started a grease fire, I’d have to say my first attempt at frying zucchini was a huge success, and although we have much healthier fare planned for the remainder of the crop, this was a fantastic way to kick off.

Monday, June 15, 2009 | by nathan

Stones In The Road

I was recently privy to an online conversation in which a couple of my fellow amateur photographers were ripping hard on Photoshop, claiming that it was cheating and that the only people who need Photoshop are people who are incapable of creating a good photo in the camera. It’s all nice for them, I suppose; it seems that not all of us are able to do things perfectly the first time. Personally I think that’s a crock; what writer creates a perfect first draft? Occasionally I’ll get an image that needs no enhancement whatsoever; more often, I’ll run it through some actions or filters just to see what comes out. In the case of this image, taken at Grape Ranch a couple weeks ago, I found that creating a separate layer and mixing it with Hard Light, then turning up the saturation a bit, created a much more interesting, textured, and colorful image. Out of the camera this photo was sort of drab and lifeless, and if I’m cheating - oh well. I really like this one.

Monday, June 15, 2009 | by nathan

Weekly Reader - 15 June 2009

The Best Airline Food
Esquire compiled this list of the tastiest snacks available on airlines worldwide. Seriously, some of these items would almost be worth the price of the ticket in themselves. Also worth noting is that almost none of the entries are for U.S.-based airlines.

Co-Op Canyon
"Inspired by the cliff-side villages of Anasazi Indians, Co Op Canyon is a terraced urban oasis full of vertical gardens and lush spaces that aims to create a holistic, community-centered, sustainable city block. Designed by LA-based architecture and design firm, Standard for the Re:Vision Dallas competition, the canyon harvests enough rainwater, solar energy, and agriculture to completely sustain its 1,000 residents."

Dork Yearbook
If you dressed up for Halloween as anyone from any of the "Star"-based franchises, if you built your own computer instead of having friends, if you had glasses so thick that they were regularly mistaken for ashtrays, then your photo may be on this site.

Tworphans
“After examining some 300,000 Twitter accounts, a Harvard Business School professor reported last week that 10 percent of the service’s users account for more than 90 percent of tweets. The study dovetails with recent analysis by the media research firm Nielsen asserting that 60 percent of Twitter users do not return from one month to the next. Both findings suggest that, thus far, Twitter has been considerably better at signing up users than keeping them.”

Friday, June 12, 2009 | by nathan

I Shall Call Him … Mini-Me

So, I need to tell you that I hate American Idol. I mean, I loathe pretty much everything it stands for. Now, full disclosure, I don’t hate all of the artists who have come out of American Idol; I pretty much dig Kelly Clarkson’s new album - or part of it, anyway - and I really dug Breakaway. I rather like Carrie Underwood so far, and I sorta want to have Jennifer Hudson’s baby. Still, the show gives birth to so much mediocrity that I find myself able to list only two artists it has birthed that I hate - Daughtry and Clay Aiken - and anyway, that it launches mediocre careers gives me no more reason to hate it than I have to hate most of FM Radio.

So all that is to say, I don’t like the show. I don’t watch the show. I used to enjoy the first few episodes of each season, when people who genuinely believed themselves to be talented stood before Randy, Simon and Paula and warbled like asthmatic donkeys before seeing their "dreams" crumble before them. Even that stopped being fun after awhile; you suddenly realize that every single person in America has "dreamed" of being a rock star at one time or another, and it’s very sad that some people never had that moment of dawning realization where they realized, "Hmm. I seem to have little or no musical talent. It’s possible that I should not be a rock star." The members of Nickelback seem to have missed this realization, for example, as did Ashlee Simpson.

So I didn’t watch this season, though you’d practically have to have been living in a cave not to have heard something about it somewhere. Still, I guess I’m cave-adjacent, because I’d never heard Adam Lambert sing or speak until this morning when he was on Good Morning America. And I’m just wondering if anyone else has caught on to this similarity: 

On the left, Idol runner-up Adam Lambert. On the right, Garth Brooks’ late-90s alter-ego Chris Gaines. Now, I haven’t really heard enough of these two gents’ music to compare them, but the physical resemblance is a little uncanny, no?

Friday, June 12, 2009 | by nathan

Almost

Soon the backyard will be alive with color and life, just in time for a little event we’re planning back there. This, along with the now-ripening tomatoes and squash (and soon, peppers), are going to make it a really colorful little urban … well, paradise may not be the right word, but close enough for now.

Thursday, June 11, 2009 | by nathan

Black Beauties

So last night I went outside to sort of look around at the garden. This is a twice-a-day ritual for me; I go out in the morning when I let Sam out to pee, and then again in the evenings. The morning visit to the garden is usually a pretty quick affair, as I have to go inside and get ready for work pretty quickly. But the evening visit to the garden is very zen, as I get to take time and just be around these plants I’ve helped to bring into the world, these whole life forms I’ve ushered up and which I will someday eat and share.

Last night I was on this visit, and I looked down and saw this:

A HUGE! black beauty zucchini, and the first real bit of harvest from my garden. To be honest, I hadn’t had any clue that the zucchini were getting this big, and I might not have even seen this guy if I hadn’t been looking REALLY SUPER CLOSE. So then I enlisted the help of my super-handsome husband, and we managed to find two more just like it:

Brian knocked a little stem off some of the purple basil while we were picking, and so we washed that off and brought it inside as well. The biggest one here is the one from that first photo, so the other two are not as big as that first one I found. There are some yellow ones out there but they’re not as big as the green ones.

So here it begins. We’re going to make black bean and zucchini quesadillas out of these tonight, and I JUST CAN NOT WAIT, because once the food starts coming in the house - well, when it rains, it pours. BRING IT ON.

Thursday, June 11, 2009 | by nathan

Eternal Birds

Saw these on a bird feeder hung outside a second-story office window recently and thought they were fantastic. Old ceramic and concrete stuff always looks so good in black and white; that’s how Ronald Reagan was able to become a movie star.*

* Too soon?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 | by nathan

Bucolic

I dream of one day having some land like the land the Grape Ranch sits on; verdant, a little hilly and with a nice river running through it. Far enough out of the city to afford a good bit of peace and quiet, and some excellent views of the stars, but close enough so we don’t feel isolated. So, just gotta make those millions of dollars. Excuse me while I go get on that.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 | by nathan

Feel Small For A Minute

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Thanks to Sweetney for posting this; it really does murk with my brain to realize just how tiny we all really are.