Virtual Brush Box

Words

Awareness of the outside world. “honestly frodo’s journey is so wild. like, imagine your uncle goes missing after his birthday party, and his old stoner friend from out of town tells you the souvenir he brought back from a vegas trip 80 years ago is actually satan’s mood ring and now zombie assassins are coming to burn down your town unless you and your lawn guy meet up with medieval hozier in a dark gastropub…” Paper Rose Doodles, Doodlin Stuff, a Tumbler blog, May 30, 2021.
~~~

Z stood in front of the chain link fence, considering the opening they had made with the Hole-In-Fence spell. It was a fiddly little spell. One had to specify exactly what sort of hole and where. After all, a chain link fence is more hole than metal. Most fences had some sort of opening for wind and water to pass thru. If you get down to the atomic level, everything is a cloud of holes.

They hadn’t gotten to the atomic level. It just felt like it.

Turns out magic has always been among us. It’s just not worth the time.

If you wanted to make a hole in your own fence, it was easier to grab a set of bolt cutters. Or saw. Or drill. If you wanted to make a hole in someone else’s fence, perhaps for illegal purposes, the owners of the fence and their security cameras were not going to take kindly to you standing in front of the fence for 45 minutes while you composed yourself.

Turns out you could design your own spells. Z’s D&D friends used to joke that Locate Parking Space would be a useful spell. So they tried to make it.

Turns out, once again, you had to be specific. Very, very specific. There was always space in the middle of intersections and on sidewalks. Even at the curb, you had to account for fire hydrants, No Parking zones, handicapped spaces, and so on, and so on. Given all that, it was easier to drive around & look for a space.

Every 25 or 50 years, someone discovers a dusty tome at the back of a shelf in a quaint, dimly-lit bookstore, or in the stacks of small, out of the way library.

What a treasure!

What possibilities!

What a lot of work!

What a waste of effort!

The dusty tome would go back on the shelf for another generation to find, and the wannabe magician would go off to become an engineer or quantum physicist or itinerant street chalk artist.

~~~ curtain~~~

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. Flu shot yesterday.

In other news, photo story by photo guru Meg. Alabama Newscenter: Alabama quilters escape to Lay Lake for ‘Building Better Quilts 2021’, by Meg McKinney October 12, 2021.
~~~

The Virtual Walk
Run For The Koalas, 2021 Kansas City Zoo Run
Date, IRL – Saturday, September 18, 2021
Date, Me – Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Birmingham Zoo
Distance – 1 mile
Time – 19 minutes

Nineteen minutes translates to a hair over 3 mph. Not a bad pace for me. Results are not up for the 2021 Virtual 1 mile. Going by last year’s results, I probably finished middle of the pack. RunSignUp: KCZR Results

Now that in-person races are resuming, many places are also offering virtual options. Dunno if it is to accommodate people who are unwilling to do IRL races yet, or as a way to make more money. I hope it is the latter and vote that the trend continue.

The IRL Walk

Each year, I renew my membership to the zoo, plan to come more often, then don’t get back until next walk.

An alt-zebra, since it’s hard to get photos of real zebras with a phone camera. Also, I’ve decided zebra’s are weird because I am so very (very!) familiar with the shape but not at all used to seeing said shape with the art deco covering.

After the official mile, I wandered about a bit.

Previous Zoo Walks and a Zebra

[Slower Than A Somnambulent Sloth, Nashville Zoo Virtual 5K, Walk Report, Birmingham Zoo] February 2021

[Zoo Stroll, Walk Report, Oasis Zoo Run Virtual 5K, Toronto Zoo, September 2020]

[Foto Friday: Equine Art Deco] 2012, photo, with my big camera. At least, I assume it’s mine. I would not have used someone else’s image, certainly not without photo credit. And this, campers, is why you should always use watermarks.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. “Seventy-one per cent of boys surveyed feared they would be made fun of if they played with what they described as ‘girls’ toys’ – a fear shared by their parents.” The Guardian: Lego to remove gender bias from its toys after findings of child survey, Russell, 10 Oct 2021.
~~~

What took me so long? Why haven’t I been taking hunter/jumper lessons all long? [First Lesson]

Yes, there was an element of rage and despair.

But also.

Because I have zero interest in jumping crossrails for their own sake.

Perhaps if I were a more enlightened individual, I would realize that any time on horseback is a gift, that every horse is a chance to learn, that …

Pfffft.

I have done way too much bad jumping over low fences. I have no desire to do more.

The only reason for these lessons is to get my head in the game for jumping big with my own horse(s). When that wasn’t possible, I didn’t see the point.

I don’t know that it is possible now, but I’m closer than I have been.

So, here we are.

As an aside, there exists the theoretical possibility of jumping big with other people’s horses. In order to do that, I would have had to …

A) Luck into a good situation.

Or

B) Lease a horse, same as with showing suit in saddle seat. This would have meant keeping a horse with a trainer, paying all the bills, and in some situations, paying an additional lease fee.

You can’t predict A and I had no interest in B. So there I sat.

Onwards!

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. “It turns out late fees for books don’t work. They don’t bring the books back.” NPR, Morning Edition, Transcript: New York City’s public libraries abolish fines on overdue materials, October 7, 2021. “New York isn’t the only public library system that has implemented such policies.” NPR: The nation’s largest public library system is ending late fees forever, Young, October 5, 2021.
~~~

The new barn has not filed a privacy preference plan, so I will be vague.

The lesson was exactly what I was looking for. Walk, trot, canter, and trotting crossrails on a school horse whose attitude can be summed up by, “Canter? Well, if you insist.”

At one point I released a deep breath. This was taken as a sign to drop from trot to walk.

I had a moment or two. Ducking one’s cute little head to bite at a fly on one’s chest can look a lot like ducking one’s head to commence hopping around like a wind-up toy. OTOH, I was bitten on the arm by one of the wicked flying things. School Horse was not wrong.

It was not the magical ride that I had on Sam all those years ago. [Sam I Am]

First, my first ride on Sam has grown to mythic proportions. The real ride is lit with the murky haze of memory, and colored by the subsequent eight years of riding and showing together. It can’t have been as magical as I remember.

Second, I am not climbing out of as much of a riding deficit. I’m still not where I wanted to be, but at least I’m on a horse on a regular basis.

My hope is that quiet, methodical rides will help me to remember that I know how to do this. Then, I will be able to come back to my own horses and be the adult in the room.

So far, so good. I am scheduled to go back today.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Patti & Ricki: Normalize Inclusion with Fashion is for Every Body & Ex Urbe: Medical Leave Reflections plus Empathy Sphere Essay.
~~~

Two horses in the clubhouse.

Numbers this week; thoughts next week. Yes, I am squeezing out every possible ounce of blogging juice from this. The Virtual Tevis was our main summer/autumn activity.

Rodney missed the same 11 vet and weather days as Milton.
… missed 5 more days due to shoeing.
… did 3 solo days once Milton finished.
… did 4 extra days as to make up for “non-trail” miles.

5 rides under one mile.
27 rides 1 to 2 miles.
22 rides 2 to 3 miles.
3 rides over 3 miles.

Longest ride – 3.1 miles. Doing trot sets to the corner.
Shortest ride – 0.63. Rodney by himself, complaining about the footing every step of the way.

Longest stretch of daily riding – 14 days, Milton.

Tortoise Power!

Data Dump – Rodney

Friday, October 1 – .91 miles, 23 minutes
Saturday, October 2 – 1.01 miles, 40 minutes. Two minor fusses over bushwhacking in the wilds of his own pasture. [Fit The First]
Sunday, October 10 – 2.54 miles, 1 hour 8 minutes. Aiming for three miles to end on a long note. No dice. Had to stop due to Milton having tack issues.

Distance this week – 4.46 miles
Time this week – 2 hours 11 minutes
Rides this week – 3 days

Rodney’s Final Stats, Official

Total distance – 100 miles
Total time – 45 hours 26 minutes
Total rides – 52 days
Total calendar – 78 days

Pace, time to go one mile – 27:16 m/m, per VT results page

Rodney’s Final Stats, Unofficial [Moving the Goal Posts]

Total distance – 105.68 miles
Total time – 48 hours 11 minutes
Total rides – 57 days
Total calendar – 78 days. Finished last Sunday. Today is 80. Took liberties with the title.

Milton’s Stats, for comparison [Milton Reaches The Imaginary Finish Line]

Total distance – 100 miles
Total time – 44 hours
Total rides – 49 days
Total calendar – 59 days

Pace, time to go one mile – 26:26 m/m, per VT results page

Numbers rounded off for ease of reporting. May not add up as given.

My Links
Last week [Moving the Goal Posts, Virtual Tevis, 98 Miles and Holding, 73 Days]
[VT Archives]

Official Links
Tevis Cup: Virtual Tevis 2021
RunSignUp: 2021 Tevis Cup – Virtual Western States Trail – 100 Miles in 100 Days
RunSignUp: VT results

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. National Coming Out Day.
~~~

If all goes to plan, I will have had a lesson last Saturday.

Shortly after I finished my extending whinge on the subject, the barn with the waiting list got back to me. Yay! [Looking For Lessons]

I am writing this on Friday and scheduling it for today, so that I don’t have to type over the weekend. As I do. [The Meaning Behind Mondays, Or At Least Behind Monday Posts]

Since Tuesdays are the Virtual Tevis, the lesson report is scheduled for Wednesday’s post. I will try pop in an short update, if I get back to my computer over the weekend.

Kermit Dance!

Ahem. I am planning to be as reticent as I am able. If all goes well, they will know my effervescent self soon enough. No reason to download my entire life story in the first 20 minutes.

Subdued Kermit dance.

Sunday update: Had a lovely time. Am going back for lesson #2 on Wednesday.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine

Images

~~~

Three stages of weaving on a screen, showing the progression as weave gets tighter.

Top. Holes are as wide as bands.

Middle. Holes are half the size of bands.

Bottom. Holes are one-quarter the size of bands.

I like how the three images show the difference as the holes get smaller. The top looks like a how-to weaving diagram. The bottom looks more woven.

Process notes. Inkscape. Weaving images by brute force. Made little blocks. Copied them. Moved them around. Resized them. The letter filling was equally inelegant. Piled weave blocks on top of each other until they filled an area the size of the letter. Couldn’t figure out how to crop the weaving to the letter. Could figure out how to crop a simple rectangle to the letter. Repeat. Made a mask. Stuck it between the black letter outlines and the blobs of weaving. Turned it white, voila background. GIMP to change file type.

The colors were chosen as temporary filler. By the time I got done mashing everything together, it was no longer possible to Select Same > Fill Color in Inkscape. I could select by color in GIMP but transferring files between the two programs leaves the edges of the objects blurry. The edge pixels are slightly different colors. Too much work to change half a dozen tones. Green & brown it is.

Down The Rabbit Hole

A far more complicated approach yielding far more complicated images, “To produce these simulated textiles, I wrote a simulated loom in software.” Andrew Glassner: Digital Weaving

Computer control of physical fibers. “The TC-2 is a handloom … The heddles are lifted by vacuum and are controlled digitally.” Digital Weaving USA: Resources

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine