marlyse.com

Another Hello, another Good-bye.

marlyse — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 23:47:39 +0000

The past 2 1/2 weeks have passed in a flurry of activities, talk and work. As usual, it was great to have my dad visiting. This time around I decided to make a little photo “story” book as I had made on my birthday, capturing some of those fleeting moments (yes, in-between I plain forgot to take pictures, my bad). A few hours ago we dropped him off at the airport where he promptly fell victim to one of those random searches – and they did it thoroughly!!! – what, you don’t believe that 89-year old passengers could be mean bomb carriers? They looked close to request him to take off his shirt! – but anyhow, he made it through that hassle just fine and thus is the time to release the collected photos from his visit – with emphasis on cat pics because he likes them so :

Thanksgiving – my way.

marlyse — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:48:07 +0000

Once again it’s the last Thursday in the month, the day that millions of Americans come together and “say thank you” and “be thankful” for things, gathered around tables with stuffed turkeys and bellies.

On one hand it sounds great but on the other actually pretty gross.

Originally I thought the day is meant to prepare and share food with others – something I could see as a very worthwhile endeavor back in the days when there was a lot of poverty around while the country was established. Doing something for others which they might be thankful for. Doing something for others – cooking and sharing some great food - to also say “thank you”.

Oh, I finally realized how wrong I was.

I’m all in for traditions. You would not have thought so, correct? But yes, I am for the traditions which brings people together, I like gathering of Christmas (but not the shopping frenzy nor the fact that Xmas songs and decorations are being hammered onto and into you already by the end of October). Thus I also like the family gathering on Thanksgiving. Usually I could do with less food, but that is another story and has rather todo with poor personal control than the fact of the gathering.

Thanksgiving though is an odd one for me. It’s this “let’s all hail together and be happy together because it’s this day”. Huge aversion to something the like. Now be happy and say thanks. BE THANKFUL ON COMMAND. Ugh. It’s the same as LOVE SOMEBODY ON COMMAND because it’s February 14th. A day created and gotten on the gravy train by Hallmark.

Of course I’m thankful for a lot of things. But I do not feel compelled to go around and announce it to everyone what a good person I am that I’m such a grateful person! Too close to be nothing more than a lip service and we have enough of that when it comes to various religions and politics.

Thus, for all it’s worth, I will keep enjoying the gathering aspect of it and the food itself, while glossing over the points which remain alien and fake to me after all these years.

Malcolm Thain

marlyse — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 02:00:03 +0000

With much sadness have I heard of your passing.
I remember you as a kind man and a great spirit.
I remember good talks, hanging out on the Platter.
Personal talks. Fun talks. Creative talks.
I remember and wish you well, wherever you are now.

Birthday

marlyse — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:06:09 +0000

As I’ve been dead here for pretty much a year I thought this the perfect day to start rolling again. Of course I need to re-fresh and re-design the look and feel here… and some fixes would be in place too. But apart of that, I just missed my daily explorations and musings.

Currently I am playing with a cool little app on the iPhone called STORIE – you can get info about it @ http://www.storieapp.com and it allows you to bundle photos under one theme / subject. The cool thing about this is that you can embed it via an iframe on any website.

OF COURSE the theme of today would be, guess what, my birthday – with emphazis on DAY.

Thought I’ll track my day – THE day I generally devote just to myself and my current moods. Today is devoted to hanging out, spending some money (including my $200 cash gift from last Xmas), going to the movies and eating to much while the first winter cold and snow front is approaching.

Steps

marlyse — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 06:40:01 +0000

Today I’ve consiously decided to NOT complete this time the SketchBookPROJECT. It’s a really cool project, but rather than doing a half-good job, rushing through to meet the submission date and then be unhappy because I know the result is not what it could and should be, I decided to stop here and to submit next year again (with some better planing I hope!).

Next to this decision I’ve made some good progress this week on several projects of mine. Of course never as much as I would like it to be, but good enough to feel it moving. A good feeling.

One of those larger projects was to transfer my PhotoBlog from Pixelpost to Wordpress, from a sub-directory to a sub-domain. Over the course of 7 years a lot of photos have accumulated and getting all over and not losing dates, comments and the lot plus to transfer the monthly grid – a biggie for me – I dreaded it for a long time. But the past year almost made the site fall into absolute non-existence just because I no longer was able to send photos easily via the iPhone to the site. It just HAD TO be done.

And here it is in it’s new glory: myVIEW – life through the viewfinder.

Tomorrow will be another big step – I’ll be back in the painting room. No words to describe that feeling.