Archive for February, 2010

My Dailyshoot contribution for Friday, February 5, 2010 (#ds82): More fun on a Friday: Make a photo that goes with the title of a movie you’ve seen, interpreted any way you like! This is my take on Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window.

A million people live there and it’s the second-largest city in Great Britain. I lived there briefly in 2000-2001 for an ill-advised tilt at graduate school at the University of Birmingham. The poor city: it’s mostly reviled by the British and ignored by the rest of the world.

Birmingham natives have one of the most easily-recognizable regional accents of the entire English collection. And it has about as much cachet as New Jersey. Yet, I find it rather soothing.

That’s a photo I took in Birmingham. Of a rainbow.

It rarely happens, but I dressed up to go to our friends’ house for the Lost season premiere. I have this Galliano dress that wanted to be worn and a yen to wear it. It is made of heavy, peculiar black cotton and makes me think of the 19th century. Thus I posed here in an Alice in Wonderland-like confusion and fascination with my very own Cheshire-like cat.

Setting goals for reading a particular number of books in a year can be a good motivator, but there are trade-offs. Relentlessly chasing book count can alter reading choices (eschewing longer works, novellas get over-represented). What do you think: Are quantity-based goals useful or just a petty distraction?

Out of nowhere in the early 1200s, Genghis Khan and his Mongol “Horde” swept out of central Asia and in a sort of proto-blitzkrieg overwhelmed cultures from Korea to the Ukraine, acting as a catalyst in the development of cultural elements that we take for granted. Genghis’ horseback steppe nomads didn’t excel at traditional (infantry-focused) warfare, nor did they possess skilled artisans or tradesmen. They had neither prestige nor mercantile supremacy. What they had was the ability to start afresh, without being constrained by convention, and by thinking up new things were able to change the course of world history.

Early morning, and surprisingly sunny in our yard for an early February day. I should have actually stopped down a bit: the depth of field here is so fierce that almost nothing is in focus. The misty aura? My own breath, strongly visible in the cold morning air.

In my recent efforts to streamline publishing processes on my blog, I find that I need an automated way to use a custom single post template for certain of my posts. There’s a great plugin—Single Post Template—out there, but it means I’d have to remember to assign the right posts to the right template. I found a quick way to hook into WordPress and insert some logic to use my own custom single post template based on my own criteria: maybe you can use it, too?

WordPress icon by koka sexton

Here we go! It’s all the sundry occurrences and passing thoughts that didn’t warrant actual posts in January, as well as updates on popular or unusual items. January overview, February prognosis, a look back on popular posts and a few things that will probably bore you to tears!

I wanted a piece in my stationery arsenal to bridge the gap between business cards and note cards. I get asked a lot at social events what my site was called again? How do you spell “Lyza”? It is my hope that these new cards give an idea of what interests me and how to find me.

In the end, I have about 50 first-rate cards and about 100 acceptable ones. I considered numbering the run of 50, but that seemed a touch pompous. Want one?

The first week of February falls neatly midway between the Winter solstice and the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere. It is around this time that the very earliest hints of a coming spring make themselves known, though these promising signs can feel bittersweet when one recalls that there are still several weeks of winter yet ahead.

Holidays including Imbolc, Candlemas and Groundhog Day all share certain common roots that intrigue me.

Photo of an Imbolc festival in West Yorkshire by Steven Earnshaw.