Signatures

Remember when library books had a pocket that held an index-sized card glued to the inside cover?  Glued opposite the pocket was a piece of paper lined off in boxes.  To check out the book you removed the card and signed your name.  The librarian stamped the date due next to your signature and also on the paper glued in the book.  They kept the card in a file so they knew who had the book.

I still remember how grown-up it felt when I was eight and was asked to sign my name on those cards.  Now we just hand over our library card to be scanned or swiped.  Do kids currently get to sign their names anywhere?  On schoolwork they're probably asked to print ...

Adults don't sign things as much as we used to, either.  Few write checks when shopping and even for charges we don't have to sign unless the purchase is over some amount, $25 or $50 depending on the store.  Bills get paid on line; no checks to sign. 

Handwriting is becoming an old-fashioned skill.  It's not taught in many schools.  The increasing use of PINS, electronic signatures, thumb prints, retinal scans and whatever new techy biometric is on the horizon mean hand-written signatures as proof of identity are maybe already obsolete.  The tech solutions, especially biometrics, are certainly harder to forge, which means better security.  But we've lost the visible individuality of our John Hancocks.

(image from HERE)

The use of that famous man's name as a synonym for signature will become one of those sayings that no one under a certain age will understand.

That makes me sad.

Cultural Appropriation and The Lone Ranger

One of the panels I attended at WisCon was on cultural appropriation.  It has made me more aware of the issue, as these things should. 

There's a Lone Ranger movie.  Out?  Soon to be out?  I don't know; don't keep up with these things and not interested enough to Google it.  Johnny Depp plays Tonto. Now,  I feel Johnny Depp is a very talented actor who plays a wide variety of characters well.  I totally loved him in Chocolat.  

But. 

Please. 

An Irishman as a Native American?  Why aren't we past that? 

On Twitter, N K Jemisin shared a link to this marvelous post by Walkerwrackspurt, a Lakota woman.  Her image is not for sale.  She explains why. 

I learned a lot from Walkerwrackspurt this evening.  Maybe you will, too.

Eight Great Books

I decided to do another book post.  My other one for 2013 is here, where I confessed to reading all of four books during the first four months of this year.  I also committed to doing better.

I have! Here's what I've read since May first.

(5) Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, eds, Queen Victoria's Book of Spells, an anthology of gaslamp fantasy.  There are some wonderful short stories in here, beginning with the title story by Delia Sherman.  Others I liked include "The Fairy Enterprise" by Jeffrey Ford, "The Governess" by Elizabeth Bear, "Phosphorus" by Veronica Schanoes, "A Few Twigs Left Behind" by Gregory Maguire, and "Their Monstrous Minds" by Tanith Lee.  To be sure, there were no bad stories in the book.  These were just some I especially enjoyed.

(6) Seanan McGuire, Midnight Blue-light Special.  Book two in the InCryptid series (Discount Armageddon is book one).  The continuing adventures of Verity Price and the Aeslin mice as they work to save New York's cryptid population from attack.  HAIL THE MICE OF CAKE AND ALL CELEBRATIONS.  (I love the mice.)

(7) Steven Brust and Skyler White, The Incrementalists.  Enjoyed muchly.  This is one of the ARCs I picked up at WisCon; it comes out for everyone else in September.  Buy it when you can.  It' a very interesting read.

(8) Mary Robinette Kowal, Shades of Milk and Honey.  Set in a Regency England where skills manipulating glamour are required of ladies (Jane Austen with magic); first of three books.  I love the magic system Ms Kowal developed here. 

(9) Madeleine E Robins, Sold for Endless Rue.  Historical fantasy, with the emphasis on historical.  The action takes place in thirteenth century Italy.  A multi-generational presentation of women's challenges in society.

(10) Kate Elliott, Cold Magic.  Book one in The Spiritwalker Trilogy.  It's been in the TBR pile for over a year.  Damn, why did I wait so long?  This is a wonderful book.

(11) Kate Elliott, Cold Fire.  Book two in The Spiritwalker Trilogy.  I finished book one on a Sunday evening, prowled bookstores on Monday until I found this and stayed up until 4 AM reading even though I had to go to work on Tuesday.

(12)  Kate Elliott, Cold Steel.  The last book in The Spiritwalker Trilogy.  Wonderful series.  I'm sad it's over.  I really enjoyed the world Ms Elliott built and the characters who live there.  My favorite character is Rory; those who know me will completely understand why.

I'm pleased with all the reading I've done - eight books in just over two months.  The downside is I haven't been writing.  It all comes out of the same block of time and I admit I've been reading furiously ...  I just started another trilogy today ...

Itsy-bitsy Screws

I wear glasses.  There have been times when one of the itsy-bitsy screws holding the frames together fell out.  This hasn't happened to me recently, but I certainly remember the frustration.  If you wear (or have worn) glasses you may have had this happen, too.

Read this post by Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess) for the Best Ever portrayal of this experience.  And how it relates to a really bad, awful week.

You're welcome.

Lots of Water

It rained this morning.  Lots of thunder, much rain.  There's a retention pond by my building.  This is what it looked like about fifteen minutes ago.

I don't seem to have any pictures of it when it's empty.  It's probably ten feet deep or more.  The grassy "island" is the edge.  It stopped raining maybe an hour ago.

This is the view to the left, where the pond overflows into the street.  I'm cool with that because it means the water doesn't come up on my patio and into my condo.  However, it flows down that street toward the main street, and the sewers there can't handle the volume.

The lighter green tree in the center is in a vacant lot across the street.  One SUV went through about an hour ago.  The water was just at the bottom of the car.

It's raining again. 

Update from daughter who wandered out to check the situation:  a school bus went by and the water was nearly to the floorboards. 

Guess it's time to call work.  Thought I was going to be there early today.  I know better than to plan stuff like that!

Critter Day!

In an unusual turn of events, I left home before 7 AM this morning.  (On workdays I'm rarely out of bed before 8!)  The flowers at the botanic gardens were blooming in profusion and perhaps I'll share those pictures another time.  Critters became my focus today, starting with the first picture I took.

Guess the swans like to sleep in, too!  I roamed toward the English walled garden, then along the shore in the direction of the Japanese garden.

Sorry that one's a bit blurry.  Completely my fault.  The toad wasn't moving fast!  Just around the bend from the toad, a chipmunk scooted across the path, far too quickly for me to get a picture.  These little guys are everywhere; I see some every time I'm at the gardens.  Not far ahead was a bench.  I sat and watched.  My reward was a chipmunk approaching along a low stone wall.

Extra bonus was a second one (on the right) that I didn't know was there until I saw the photo.

Near where you enter and leave the gardens is a fountain.  The angle of sunlight was just right for a rainbow.  I took several pix from a distance.  When I moved closer I realized the cluster of photographers at the water's edge were not there solely for the rainbow.

The shore visible to the right is the western side of an island.  The swans were sleeping on the eastern side of that island when I arrived.

The swans continued on their way.

I headed off for iced coffee.