I'm going to try to say less, and hopefully, by such practice, end up saying more. Not here, though. Here, I'll probably run my mouth as much as I please, as usual, regardless of whether I manage to say anything or not. Just elsewhere. I'm going to practice thinking first, before I put my fingers to the keyboard.

In short, no matter that I think it's almost surely true that people do like getting comments, just because I can say something, doesn't necessarily mean I should. I'll come up with some sort of litmus test. Well, I say that like it's something that needs thought out, when it doesn't. I need only ask myself, "are you actually saying anything, or are you just talking," then take it from there.

This will be a good resolution.

Based on an articulate post I came up with a while back, but never posted, I can even measure the effects of this resolution. The never posted articulate post was based on that thing in one's journal, where it shows how many comments you've made and how many you've received. My ratio, I believe, is quite low. So, the unposted post went something like this:

The LJ comment ratio: an indication of how much one does and doesn't say, both.

But, I knew no one would really get that - and if you have to explain a joke or poetry, yeah.

[I know this seems like silliness, and some of it is, but some of it isn't.]

My comment ratio is currently 829/5058=0.1639, and I've seen them as high as .5, so I will see if I can improve that.

Wait, though, that is silliness, for I know I had to have received more than 829 comments in the two years I've had this journal - I have almost 1200 undeleted emails, alone, here, and that doesn't count hundreds that I have deleted. I guess I'm going to have to run an experiment to see how LJ is counting these. Anyway, this silly part does not deduct from the more serious part at the top.

[Okay, now I see: LJ records every comment you make, everywhere, but only records the ones you receive at your own journal - and, perhaps, those you receive at entries you make in communities. But the math is unimportant, anyway.]

So I finally busted out my scanner for some high-quality-image-time!
( Sadly, I don't have skills when it comes to aligning the images straight. Forgive me. )

I hope you all had a merry Christmas (or happy holidays, Festivus, etc) & also have a great new year!
We spent ours with Heiko's family, and it was lovely. I have nooo photos whatsoever from Christmas (forgot the camera) & since then I've had the flu. But I hope it goes away before New Years.

Here is some Glücksklee that I found in the supermarket. Didn't know that you could BUY four leaf clovers. Seems a bit like cheating, but it is neat.


Also, Heiko got me some sets to finish my Moomin collection. :)

what the hell am i doing? again. i really need to get over this.

I'm running on 42 hours no sleep. I layed with my eyes open all night last night. Didn't even fade into sleep a little bit- just wide awake. It might be because so much change is happening and my mind is thinking about all of it all at once. I moved into my house today. I love my room. I love our house. I love my roommates so far. I love change. I love that I'm going to live in athens. I love that I'm going to UGA. I love my excitement about Chile and having that to look forward to. I love the Spanish language so much. I love the places I've been. I love how Mexico opened my eyes. I love how Mexico helped me heal. I love that I listened to the motorcycle diaries soundtrack as I was heading to Machu and the feeling it gave me. I love the people I've met traveling. I love Elena and Erica and the inexpressible richness they added to my life. I love how diverse this world can be. and how nice people can be. I love simon and garfunkel. I love charly garcia. I love mango. I saw the most cutest chilean on couchsurfing, I think I might suggest we meet for coffee when I come- dont judge me. I love my new antique nightstands. I love wine and laughing and visits from old friends. I love that life is infinitely inventive and how nothing ever really ends.
tylenol pm..kick in..must...sleep..

I walked home from a bus stop near Washburn earlier. Normally I would have to walk around Lake Harriet but I decided to chop a half mile off of my journey by trekking across the ice. I saw faded footsteps on the ice, making a trail to the other side of the lake, so I figured somebody had already taken the shortcut safely. Sometimes, water would soak into my fresh foot prints. That scared the shit out of me. Especially when it happened in the middle of the lake. The ice maked a snapping sound, which scared the shit out of me. There were hair-line cracks in some places. After a few cigarettes I saw somebody else on the ice and some perfect cirlcles made by ice augers for fishing. That calmed me down. Regardless, that was the most stressful shortcut I had ever taken. SIGH.

Были на презентации книги во Львове (по крайней мере официальная версия такая).
На самом деле, измеряли сколько медовухи и айвовки может вместиться в человеческий организм.
Поразило невероятное количество модных молодых мам (при каблуках и губах), с детьми.
Все дети в розовых уггах и с Луи Вуитончиками в руках. Короче, я поняла, что пока сильно не готова)))
__________________________________


На Львовской ярмарке вызвалась ковать монету.
Система, казалось бы, проста:
1) сосредотачиваешься
2) загадываешь желание
3) куёшь
С первым и последним пунктами справилась (несмотря на медовуху),
а вот с "загадываешь желание" оказалось сложнее.

В голове проносились мысли, невнятные (как номер львовского трамвая), не похожие на мысли живого человека,
а скорее на публичную речь Мисс Мира: что-то там про голод в Африке и мир во всем мире.

Кузнец посмотрел на результат и сказал: "Качественно. Значит сбудется!"
Теперь, благодаря мне, мир в следующем году вне опасности!

__________________________________
Вчера вечером перед сном пыталась подводить итоги года...
Короче, если вам тоже немного грустно, и как бы ни прошел ваш 2009 - скачайте, распечатайте и вырежьте себе
"Орден Диора 3-й степени", потому что вы "не понаслышке достойны этой награды!"

С наступающим!

I finally bought a scanner and got a roll of film developed.
All of these were taken not long before I left for Korea at the end of October.
All are film (35mm)


( more )

Also scanned two little drawings I did to distract myself at work. I think I will put them in the little journal I'm making for myself.

   

If I don't write before this weekend...
Happy New Year everyone!!!
And as only Neil Gaiman can say:
"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."

with love
xxx

It's four in the morning, the end of December, I'm writing you now just to see if you're better.
New York is cold, but I like where I'm living, the music on Clinton Street all through the evening. [They tell me?] you're building your little house, deep in the desert...

I just wanted to see how much I remembered before I put it on.

It's not really four in the morning, either, it's after five, but I did wake up at 4:30, which is close, and it is the end of December, and I do like where I'm living, but it's not in New York, and there is a little house I was going to build more of, but it's not deep in the desert, not that kind of desert, anyway, it's down the street.

Oh, I don't know where all that is going.

On Christmas, I thought I might get a text from her. But, then I thought, probably not. I thought probably not because I thought if she thought she might send one, she probably next thought, oh it's a family kind of day, I better not. Then I thought that would not have mattered, as there's more than enough of me to go around, and that, besides, no matter, some parts of every day belong to her, alone. But, I was driving at the time I thought all of this in the space of five or seven car lengths, and didn't manage to send that thought back to her when I got back home.

It's been a couple weeks since our chat conversations, since she said I could write, should write, write anything, tell her about the boys, and whatever else. After that, we've not seen each other over there. I re-open the mail, occasionally, though, re-read what I read the last time, but usually don't re-look at the picture she sent of herself lying on her side - the one she imagined was what she looked like when she was dreaming of me.

I had read those five or seven lines several times over several days before I actually noticed, or processed the part that said something about there is never time when we talk for her to ask me the things she'd like to ask me, concluding in Eliot's line that "there will be time, there will be time."

Anyway, last evening when I opened it, again, for the whateverth time, I hit reply and began to write...some of which I will have to censor, here, just a wee tiny bit...maybe.

( Because it's kind of long, not to mention a bit much, too )

By the time I got to my apartment, however, I kind of couldn't believe I had written and sent such a thing - and as usual, I did not feel like cooking and eating, so I went to sleep, dreamt, but remembered none of these, and woke up early - then documented my special kind of looniness, here.

( Also, Fat Cat in Cold Porcelain )