(His honest idiocy of flight)

Charon and a soul

jackfirecat — Sat, 02 Apr 2016 17:35:28 GMT

First posted 2009 a little after the Ashmole re-opened - a good point of the refurb was more pots (some rather than previously none, in fact), although at that point just one cabinet full of mixed ones, which this was in. There are more cases now too, and this one, still in the original miscellany by the foot of some stairs, now has a label so I now know it is Charon, looking not at all his usual dour self.

I saw it with label earlier this year - must have been Jan - before succumbing to this illness I was making lunch-time trips to the Ashmole and the University Museum, almost as if I knew something were coming - I remember thinking to myself that these little trips would be bucket-list items for me if I were on the way out - premonition as it turns out but also joking with self that my horizons were not large but also should celebrate & enjoy these things so easy to take for granted so nearby.

Cancer news: I've started round 2 of chemo, but oncology Professor not impressed by how round 1 went - liver is HUGE and not shrunken by chemo 1 which we would have hoped to see, so they were a bit in doubt over whether round 2 worth doing, but we'll do it and see in case it will start working better this time.

lunch notes

jackfirecat — Sun, 13 Dec 2015 22:06:44 GMT

Only Two Sith at any one time, wasn't that a thing? but there were lots in the past?

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rule_of_Two

saw a film in the cinema

jackfirecat — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 17:40:50 GMT

Just caught The Martian on, I think, its last day at George Street. Excellent film!

two pictures of Tim

jackfirecat — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 21:03:45 GMT

jackfirecat — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 12:11:24 GMT

jackfirecat — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 20:47:24 GMT

When I set out for Rathlin,
I forgot my passport,
And worried about that quite a bit,
On the bus to Heathrow.

What would bechance at Rathlin Isle
While I should sojourn there
No prophet durst declare,
Nor could the celv'rist clerk file
What would bechance at Rathlin Isle
If I ruddy well didn't get there, thought I.

When I came back from Rathlin
Without a passport,
And a bit smug
I got the bus back to Oxford.

Rathlin

jackfirecat — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 02:07:53 GMT

R is for Road-ramble across ruggèd moor, the view rakes down to the shore
A is for Athwart the Atlantic
T is for Thrift, sea-pink, in the sheltered nooks, and Tuatha Dé Danann, absent gods
H is for Heather, hedgerow, and hot chocolate at the Harbour Café
L is for Lighthouses, lunacy at Lughnasa, and lochs
I is for Isolate?
N is for Not so much.

(another) attempt to draw the face in the tree seen out the back yard (only visible at night)

jackfirecat — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 00:32:09 GMT

Chilswell Valley

jackfirecat — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 22:13:03 GMT

Interesting after Rathlin to see some different versions of same families - Greater Knapweed as well as standard, Betany (rather than self-heal, although the latter is common around here too), Field Scabious rather than Devil's-bit. And too, St John's Wort, plus here Red Bartsia (new for me to identify), and agrimony, pignut, black medick, chicory, hedge woundwort, ragwort, pinappleweed, and I presume Lady's Bedstraw (?)...

Rathlin Island

jackfirecat — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 20:40:49 GMT

Had a wonderful, relaxing time on Rathlin with Andy Luke staying in the hostel he's working at. People there all so friendly, Weather bright and sunny (forecast before I set off was cloud and rain every day - in fact it only rained once, at night) - caught the sun a bit on first full day there walking to the West in the morning - and that was a long, foot-achy day since we walked to the southern tip in the afternoon, hung out with 65-or-so basking seals for a bit and then came back and went to the pub. Suzy's fry-ups at the Water Shed Café are great (had two), and they also do a great hot chocolate there. Andy regaled me with stories, e.g. the Turbulent Priest (recent visitor); and we talked Marvel superheroes, remembered cowsheds, watched the sun set, listened to the sea, drank Guinness, Irish whisky, courvoisier, and gin, and looked at the stars.

Were eaten by midges, and thanked the swallows. Saw a stonechat, bats, dragonflies (brown hawker), .. and lots of flowers in the marshy heath/moor uplands, which I'm currently identifying from photos - all common things, but seemed particularly bright and lovely on Rathlin (some of that may have been the sunstroke).

And to that end, CAN ANYONE HELP with the first one below the cut. White flowers on a spike, in hedgerow/verge, serrated leaves (= white dead-nettle family?) - I can't find anything like it but I'm sure I'm just being thick/failing my search rolls. Not melilot, not mullein, ...

Rathlin Island with Andy Luke

jackfirecat — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 02:10:07 GMT

.
.
.
.

perseids

jackfirecat — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 22:48:37 GMT

Well, colour me chuffed. I've just seen (an hour ago) my first real proper perseid that burnt a fiery trace across the heavens like a falling star. Seen many others tonight and before which were brief streaks, natch, but that one, wow, full burning could see the flames glory.

Similarities between the Silver Surfer and the Sorrows of Young Werther

jackfirecat — Sun, 09 Aug 2015 17:43:35 GMT

Werther
a young artist of highly sensitive and passionate temperament
staying in a peasant village much removed from the sophisticated life he is used to
He meets Lotte, a beautiful young girl who is taking care of her siblings following the death of their mother. Despite
knowing beforehand that Lotte is already engaged to a man named
Albert who is 11 years her senior, young Werther falls in love with her.
... befriends her and him
... lots of Sturm und Drang. O, poor Werther!

Surfer
lonely herald of world-destroying Galactus
injured and recovering on a primitive world far removed from the cosmic milieux he is used to
He is cared for by the blind sculptress Alicia Masters. Despite
knowing beforehand that Alicia is going out with the Thing
who is made of rocks, the Surfer falls in love with her.
... befriends her and him
... lots of Sturm und Drang. O, poor Surfer!

"When I consider the narrow limits within which our active and inquiring faculties are confined; when I see how all our energies are wasted in providing for mere necessities, which again have no further end than to prolong a wretched existence;
and then that all our satisfaction concerning certain subjects of investigation
ends in nothing better than a passive resignation... when I consider all this... I am silent."

"Those to whom no distant horizons beckon ... for whom no challenges remain ...
though they have inherited a Universe ... they possess only empty sand!"

"In happy ignorance, I sighed for a world I did not know, where I hoped to find every pleasure and enjoyment which my heart could desire; and now, on my return from that wide world... how many disappointed hopes and unsuccessful plans have I brought back!"

"I examine my own being, and find there a world, but a world rather of imagination and dim desires, than of distinctness and living power."

[speaking to an animal] "Unlike the humans, who call you beast, there is no violence in your heart. No hint of avarice, no smouldering hate! Yet man, who has won dominion over all this world, is a stranger to peace — a prisoner, caught in the web of his own nameless fears."

"Paradise unearned is but a land of shadows!"

I went walking and I saw...

jackfirecat — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 19:48:33 GMT

Wild Carrot - I love these with the one 'red' (I'd say imperial purple) flower in the centre

Ivy seeks ingress

jackfirecat — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 21:15:26 GMT

... but cannot read

I went walking and I saw...

jackfirecat — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 17:45:26 GMT

(It's wing pattern just looks so drawn!)

... and of course numerous gatekeepers, also green-veined whites, and by surprise at the end two marbled whites, the last being what I was after in the first pace .. but sadly no pics.

Ant Man

jackfirecat — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 18:23:15 GMT

Well, having sufficiently ramped down my expections not only before the film but also during the beginning of the film, I left the cinema with a massive grin on my face, having laughed a few times during it (for the right reasons), sat up to marvel at some of the visuals, and clapped at the end of the mid-credits sequence, as did the row of 12-or-so-year-old boys in the row in front of me. So after that it seems really mean to the director et al. to say, totally predictably, - but I will becasue it's true - that I wondered intermitently while watching and afterwards still, what it would have been like if Edgar Wright had directed it (and suspect it would have been better, comedy-wise and action-sequence coregography-wise). But it's good! (amazingly.) The we-feared-irredeemable Ant Man is not unredeemed.

(which is not to say I could tell if it would work for someone who didn't have notaligia re marvel superheroes from childhood, the original of this one in particular, and a liking of insects.)

Dreamt I was in The City and the City

jackfirecat — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 22:07:45 GMT

that I was in Besźel, walking fast down a street, noticing people walking in a particular way dressed in certain colours (reds), and others walking in a different way - oh quick, un-notice them - while aping the first way of walking myself but not doing it well. I was running from something and clearly I was a foreigner here, and in breach!

IRL, my boss at work has been seconded to REACH, a pan-OUP project group above our usual divisions of Ed-UK (secondary education), ELT, and Academic, etc. The people in REACH tell all the divisions what to do. (They have an almost supernatural, draconian authority ... etc.)

jackfirecat — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 21:21:12 GMT

A signal received from the New Horizons spacecraft shows that it survived its horrific encounter with Pluto.

the face in the tree

jackfirecat — Sun, 12 Jul 2015 21:39:05 GMT

jackfirecat — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 00:37:40 GMT

wild goat style

jackfirecat — Sun, 05 Jul 2015 23:32:52 GMT

jackfirecat — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 22:08:11 GMT

'granularity' heard at work count: 3.
At home: a wren in the plumb tree
hopping from branch to branch, singing,
and picking critters from leaves,
intermittently.

jackfirecat — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 21:43:50 GMT

Mad Max

jackfirecat — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 17:36:25 GMT

Nowadays I only get around to seeing 1 or 2 films a year in the cinema. Good one to pick! wow