Watermark

Friday Cats, on Thursday

 
Click for larger image

The person who lives with these cats is very, very tired.

While she rests, entertain yourselves at the Carnival of the Cats, the Carnival of the Dogs, and Friday Ark.

Blogs, Bloggers, and Blogging on Yellowstone Public Radio

From Yellowstone Public Radio:

Blogs, Bloggers, and Blogging

a live call-in
Tuesday, March 29, 7pm (that's TODAY!)
call 657.2941 or 800.441.2941

Join YPR New Media Manager Ken Siebert for an hour-long panel discussion about blogs: what they are, who's doing it, and what it means for traditional journalism and the Internet. The discussion will also feature the community of Montana bloggers and what they're saying about the state and the people who live here.

Guests include Ed Kemmick of the Billings Gazette, Billings Outpost Editor David Crisp, Craig Sprout, who runs the mtpolitics.net blog, and Karen Hergenrider, who runs the karbonkountymoos blog. Listener comments and questions are welcome throughout the program.

In honor of the event, for Moos, and courtesy of the sassy Tild ~, we have the new, feisty Calamity She-Blogger. I'm guessing that she may be added to the She-Blogger product line.

Up in the corner of the Yellowstone Public Radio site, I see a Listen Online notice; I assume this means we can listen to the program, even if we are not in Billings. I've never used my computer for this before, so I plan to test it out this afternoon.

I know that Karen, Craig, David, and Ed will do us proud; we have a wide range of politics, opinion, and style here. And I'm pleased that YPR responded promptly to requests for a bit more gender diversity on the panel. My guess is, though I don't know for sure, that all are white. I had a brief fantasy that Moos might be Jamaican or something, but judging from these photos, I would imagine not.

Note, however, that the issue of diversity in the blogosphere is a different (and more difficult) issue, than the easily resolved challenge for conferences, panels, and news reports (and blogrolls) to represent the diversity that already exists.

consider

distance

proximity

the shadow
cast by snow

falling

the slow
flow
of glass

its response
to gravity

the leaf turns
to the sun

Happy Easter

For those of you who have flash enabled, an Easter Bunny for your amusement (use your mouse):

adopt your own virtual pet!

Spring Crocus & Creativity

   
Click photo for larger image.

From Blue Pastures:

Creative work needs solitude. It needs concentration, without interruptions. It needs the whole sky to fly in, and no eye watching until it comes to that certainty which it aspires to, but does not necessarily have at once. Privacy, then. A place apart -- to pace, to chew pencils, to scribble and erase and scribble again.

But just as often, if not more often, the interruption comes not from another but from the self itself, or some other self within the self, that whistles and pounds upon the door panels and tosses itself, splashing, into the pond of meditation. And what does it have to say? That you must phone the dentist, that you are out of mustard, that your uncle Stanley's birthday is two weeks hence. You react, of course, Then you return to your work, only to find that the imps of idea have fled back into the mist.

Mary Oliver

The Stick

I have been passed the stick -- twice! So here goes:

You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?

As I recall, folks in this story memorized books to save them (to save the books) from the fire; they became the book they memorized. My memorization skills were never strong, even before time began to erode them. So I would choose a book my body could remember -- poems, by Pattiann Rogers, maybe, or Maxine Kumin. Both of these writers make my body sing.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

I think I usually have a crush on whatever character I am reading about at the moment. I tend to sink pretty far into fiction.

The last book you bought is:

• Year of the Snake, Lee Ann Roripaugh                  
• The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger                

[same order]

The last book you read:

• The History of God, Karen Armstrong                
• Blue Dusk, Madeline DeFrees
• The Spiral Dance 20th Anniversary Edition, Starhawk [again]
• a book of poems by Philip Larkin, which I can't put my hand on at the moment, and I don't remember the title Breath, by Philip Levine
• Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality, Judith Plaskow

[simultaneous]

What are you currently reading?

• Blue Pastures, Mary Oliver [again]
• A Poet's Work, Sam Hamill
• Peace Is Every Step, Thich Nhat Hahn
• Open Season, C.J. Box

Also several poetry books; I am always reading poetry. And, of course, blogs.

Five books you would take to a deserted island:

I choose these on the grounds that each should provide endless readings, with new revelations every time.

• The Complete Shakespeare
• The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
• Essential Haiku, Robert Hass
• The Four-Gated City, Doris Lessing

And, oh yeah:

• How to Survive on a Deserted Island in Comfort & Luxury With Minimal Effort (someone must have written this by now)

And since this is a fantasy, I'm taking music, too (I'll just happen to have with me one of those new- fangled music players, with a solar cell battery):

• The Goldberg Variations [probably the earlier recording by Glenn Gould]
  

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?

• moos
• Daisy

Because they will provide interesting  answers, and because they said I could . . .

. . . and a third not yet chosen -- I have a request still out there, and if he says no, I'll open it up for volunteers.

Thanks, Patia and Pearl, for passing it to me.

Where ARE The Women Bloggers?

Well, this bewilderment has come to rest in the west, goldarnit. Ed Kemmick at City Lights announced an upcoming Yellowstone public radio program on Blogs, Bloggers, and Blogging, featuring him, David Crisp and Craig Sprout. A discussion began  in the comments (ever so gently initiated by Patia) and continues here, about the absence of women on the panel. The panel is also pale.

Nothing particularly fresh here. If you are interested in reviewing the conversation so far, I have a fairly extensive list of links in my del.icio.us women blogging bookmarks.  Aldahlia, in a guest post at feminste, suggests a Google bomb to guide folks to the women bloggers themselves, instead of only to discussions about whether we exist. I already had nearly all of these on my sidebar, but not linked to where are the women bloggers -- which I think is a great idea, and I've done it. Here is my version [also at the bottom of the sidebar]: 

where are the women bloggers
where are the women bloggers
where are the women bloggers
where are the women bloggers
where are the women bloggers
where are the women bloggers

I was absolutely delighted to find, when I opened my Newsweek this afternoon, that they point readers interested in this to Body and Soul -- some of the best writing on the web -- and to Chris Nolan, whom I've not read before.

There are many women bloggers here in Montana, some of whom can be found in my Montana Links, or on the blogroll at  Big Sky Blog. Of course, we can circle back to what is considered politics, and what is considered media, but frankly I'm tired of circling.

A commenter at City Lights says:

White male bloggers who focus on news and current events have a lot of interesting things to say. But couldn’t it become more interesting if someone like Moos were included?

And I concur.

Ah, another excuse to use SHE-BLOGGER! We need a cowgirl one, though. Tild~ ??

UPDATE Saturday morning 26 March:  Annnd . . . Moos has been included!

Cats & RFOAC's

   

RFOAC's:

Felix
Joe's RFOAC
Amanda's Cat 
Brown cat pouch
anniebee's cat photos
The Cat Extending Project
Fuzzy Cat Hat knitting pattern
Embroidered kitty photo albums (hover over three)

This week's Carnival of the Cats; Carnival of the Dogs; Friday Ark.

Bird Days

I had hoped that Blue would find me (and the dogs) sufficient company to keep him entertained; but it was not to be. Budgies should be active, busy, noisy -- and he was not. He didn't seem unhappy, exactly; just not joyful.

So he has a new companion, whom I am calling Cloud for the moment -- but suggestions are welcome. I did careful introductions, separate cages, Blue out for visiting through bars each day. Today I left them together in the big cage while I went out to meet Patia (more about that later) and when I came home, they were kissing.

When I bought Blue, the pet store clipped one of his wings, but this never slowed him down for a minute. When I bought Cloud, they clipped both wings, and s/he (too young to tell) could only hop and glide -- this left Blue with a distinct advantage, and showed me why he may have been so difficult to train. So, after reading the books I have about parakeets, I took him back to have his wings clipped, too.

And now I wish I hadn't. He seems impaired to me. He loved flying -- and I know it's risky, and I know he should be trained first -- but I'll not do it again. My other parakeets never had their wings clipped after the first time, and neither will these. It means I have to be vigilant about potential dangers, so I will be.

Yesterday, when I went out to check the feeders, feed the squirrels and scatter seed on the ground for the siskins and juncos, this little woodpecker was at the feeder -- and allowed me to take photo after photo. Such a beautiful bird.

And this morning, dozens of robins, skittering about on the park lawn. They look like little formal people, in their gray-brown suits, with that one, tasteful rebellion of their muted orange vests. And ducks on the river.

      

[click photos for larger images]

25 March: look here!

In the Mail - NewWest

A launch party! And I see it actually starts early, at 6:00, so I may even be able to manage a brief visit.