Virtual Brush Box

Linguistics of the outside & of fictional worlds. “For my presentation at Scintillation 2018 on Linguistic Myths and Fictions in Myth and Fiction, click here: Vardomskaya Scintillation Presentation.“ Tamara Vardomskaya.

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Part I. [DragonCat, Guest Art]

Part II.

DragonCat arrived from Tamara Vardomskaya in a cloud of electrons.

He was sent over the wires to a place where he could achieve paper form, in preparation for getting a frame.

I arrived to meet the embodied DragonCat.

Lovely.

Initially, DragonCat is excited about getting a new home.

We discussed frames.

Perhaps something classic in wood?

Good in theory. In practice, it was the sort of thing one would use for Important Certificates.

Gold frame? Too flashy.

Why don’t we work on mat color.

How about green?

Nope? College and husband’s work both have green as their color. In fact, the green mat with a wooden frame is exactly how my diploma is framed. Moving on.

Yellow? Too sallow.

Double mats?

No mat at all?

At about this point, DragonCat began to lose patience.

Will you people please make up your minds!

Finally, we decided on wood painted to look like stone, giving DragonCat a lair from which to peer at the world.

Thank you to Craig Zernik and the team at Four Corners Gallery.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. Adazing: Lord of the Rings Book Cover Designs, McDaniel, April 12. Some I’ve seen. Some live/have lived on my shelves. Some I didn’t even know existed.

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Back when we had only just finished copying out books by hand, I worked at a science fiction & mystery bookstore. Fantasy was subsumed under science fiction.

I got asked for recommendations. A lot.

Customer: I like X. What else should I read?

I was good at it.

If I liked X. Here, read this. And this. And this one.

If I did not like X. Internal dialogue, I dislike that. Here, I dislike this one for the same reason.

Customers were happy.

The only book that I recommended across the board was The Princess Bride. You like the kind of books I like, here read this. You like the kind of books I don’t like, here read this.

Friends were happy.

You need to read the book. Seeing the movie is not the same. I’m not going all book snob on you. The movie and the book are different beasts. The frame narrative in the book is an entire plot unto itself.

Read it. You will thank me. I’d also try to find a copy without a movie cover, to help keep the two separate as you read.

But I digress.

My biggest victory was when someone came in looking for a book, the only thing they could remember was that it had a two-headed dragon on the cover.

I had no idea.

But I had a … feeling? I wandered around the store, looking like a water dowser without the stick. I put myself in book shelving mode. The feeling was stronger over … here. This shelf. I reached out and pulled down The Prophet of Lamath by Robert Don Hughes.

The customer was impressed.

So was I.

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Cover image from Goodreads.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “Birmingham’s high on Tuesday was 27 degrees, breaking the previous record in 1977 of 30.” AL.com: These 4 Alabama cities had record low high temperatures on Tuesday, Morgan, Jan. 17, 2024.

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Alabama 19o
January 2024

A coat of ice. Dangerous. Pretty.

Technical Details

Phone camera. Partly, didn’t want to drag big camera out into freezing temps. I’m sure cameras can cope. Wasn’t sure what precautions were needed. If any. Mainly, majority of my brain space taken up by arctic blast. [The Cold Is Coming]

Many more photos snapped. This was the lucky shot. Need to be a better photographer than I am in order to capture sun on ice.

Onwards!
Katherine

Internet issues. Have some cats.

Sebastien with ribbons

Blondie with saddle

Stepping Stone Farm

[Cat Pictures Please, Observer Effect]

[Cat Pause]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Kevin Drum: Is the world really all that scary? January 13, 2024. A) No. B) there’s always something to get your knickers in a twist about.

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We have been taking the horses for walks in the morning just about every day since April of last year. We’ve developed some habits.

Habit one. Toss the leadrope over the neck. Let the horse amble along on his own. Doing this depends where we are in the walk. The first lap often has a few stops while we all process the arrival of a new day. Also depends on the marching order. The following horse will follow. These days, the lead horse will often go on his own as well. And so on.

Habit two. Stop at a particular turn on each lap for cookies. This started as a reward for going solo. Now it is a tradition. Rodney often gets to the corner first, on his own, and has to wait for the rest of us to catch up. Cookies happen once the everyone is present. There is no point in getting there early. Rodney has not gotten this message. Fine. You do you. We’ll be along shortly.

So, last Friday. Early on. Rodney was marching down to the cookie corner. The rest of us were coming along behind. Rodney got halfway down the short side of the pasture, hung a hard right, and headed back to the barn.

From a distance, I reminded him about cookies.

He stopped.

He considered.

… cookies … barn … cookies …

Nope, I’m outta here.

The three of us – me, Greg, Milton – looked at each other. Storms were forecast for later. The sky was Wagnerian.

You know, maybe he’s got a point.

Maybe it’s time to call this game.

Took Milton’s halter off and we all headed home.

On Sunday, we were back to status quo cookie.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Alabama A&M is the school that opened the Macy’s Parade last year. [Fall Foliage]

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Alabama Winter Tournament Association, #2
Agribition Center
Alabama A&M
Huntsville, AL USA
Saturday 13 January 2024

All with Optimus.

2. Advanced Horsemanship WTC Adult –5th of 8
3. Advanced Equitation WTC Adult (Pattern) – 4th of 4
8. Pleasure Horse/Pony WTC Adult – 6th of 7
14. Masters Pleasure 50+ – 1st of 2
26. Academy Driving – 1st of 1

Thank you to the Gray Family for the Outstanding Optimus.

Now that I’ve started the series, may as continue. Still get to show in five classes. Still want to make progress. [Academy Represent! Playing With The Big Kids, Show Report AWTA 2023-2024 #1], [Show Prep Part Two, The Rider Who Did Show, AWTA 2013-2024 #1]

Blow By Blow

Riding ribbons. Add another blue from the driving class.

First Class

Couldn’t get my position as snappy as it has been in my lessons. Did better with my plan to concentrate on being clean. Got both leads and kept the canters, despite Optimus having opinions on the length of the second canter. He wasn’t wrong. We did go around a bit. We also did an extra trot. Meant the judge was having trouble deciding and wanted another look. 5th of 8 is a good placing in that company.

Second Class – Pattern

Less clean. I made an interdisciplinary error. Got flummoxed asking for the canter away from the the rail (saddle seat). Then, asked for the canter with my inside rein (hunter/jumper/evening/dressage). Instead I should have employed an interdisciplinary fusion, i.e. canter anywhere (h/j/e/d), from the outside rein (saddle seat). I used to do this with Sam all the time.

Optimus, being a good dude, gave me exactly what I asked for, the wrong lead. Took me halfway down the long side with Coach Courtney yelling, “No. No. No. No. No …” for me to look down and think, ‘Hey, that’s wrong.’

After my brilliant display of counter canter in the rail work, a good pattern couldn’t save me. And I had a good pattern. Didn’t quite hit it out of the park, a few spots I could done better, but I did hit it deep into the outfield. I am the pattern queen.

Third Class

I don’t care what the judge thought. We smoked it. I blew into the ring first. We had big trots. I made passes. Ah well, everyone else improved as well. 6th of 7.

Fourth Class – Masters

Schedule is such that I get my game in gear right in time for the smallest class. 1st of 2.

Fifth Class – Driving

Even if it’s a solo class, you still make the effort. More big trots. A little bit of speed in the corners. I channeled what I learned from Alvin. We weren’t there yet, no drift, but I tried.

“If dirt wasn’t hitting me in the face, we weren’t going fast enough. Between the inside lines and the speed, we got some Tokyo Drift going in the corners. Alvin was loving it.” [Show Report: Team Awesome, Pro-Am 2016]

Going Solo

Went to show without emotional support husband. First time in many years. A) I was on a kind horse. I could believe that I was probably going to be okay. B) I was in open classes against performance riders. I was so outclassed that there was no pressure. C) Getting the horses fed by 6:30 and then leaving them and the dogs alone all day was sub-optimal. Everyone would have been fine, but given the other factors, staying home was reasonable.

This is the second time we have bailed on going somewhere together. The house really is set up for someone to be here all day. [Of Mares & Warmbloods]

Going Double

Showed in a double bridle. Not to the point of actually using it. Still at the Do Not Annoy The Horse phase. Getting better at this. At one point, horse rolled his eyes at me, I was able to send my hands forward and readjust.

The point of Winter Tournament is a place to try new things. The point of a school horse is forbearance with a rider’s learning curve.

Helmet Watch

Spotted more helmets in the adult classes: a second rider in my first class and one in the five-gaited class.

Media Note

Photos are the ones I sent home as updates. I meant to ask someone to take a picture of me with Optimus, but well, horse show.

Weather Note

When the series started, I grandly announced that i wasn’t going to show if it was cold. I was wrong. It was 28oF when I woke up. Amazing what you can tolerate when you are motivated.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. My outside world is going to be limited to a small, but intensely watched area for the next few days.

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Screenshot of local weather for this week. Taken 11 Jan, c/o ABC 33/40.

One night at 16oF, two at 17oF. One day that never gets above freezing. Every winter, we have a week like this. This one has a bonus of starting off with precipitation to put a nice coat of ice on everything.

Blankets. Hot water. Resist the urge to shovel hay at them. Rodney would be okay with free choice. Milton would stuff himself. Keep the hot water going even after the temps go up. The water coming out of the ground can be chilly. We want nothing that would discourage drinking.

For reference. This is way cold for this area. We get often get below freezing at night, but only just. Perhaps 30oF for a few hours. 16oF is half of what we used to or what the buildings are designed to accommodate.

It’s hard not to be anxious about any weather extreme.

Note. This was written & scheduled on Thursday due to storms on Friday and scheduling ahead for the weekend. As of Sunday, the projected low for Wednesday morning is down to 13oF. Strangely, not during the wee smalls. It will be coldest around sunrise & after.

Onwards!
Katherine