Monday, February 20, 2006
application finished!

Yay me, I rock!

I'm off to post it now - and then it's bed sweet bed.

Posted by Kirstin Wright 2006-02-20 14:18:51

Monday, February 20, 2006
Writing a proposal is a difficult thing.

I am currently taking time out from typing, by... typing.

I find it very hard at the moment to clearly articulate my desires in the realm of furthering my visual education. Fortunatly I am getting over tired, so things are starting to seem quite coherent... which may not be the case tomorrow morning. (It's urrently 4 a.m...)

Sigh - back to proposing!

Posted by Kirstin Wright 2006-02-20 09:06:46

Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Something about Zoos..

Ideas are like animals in cages at the zoo of your mind.
Sooner or later, unless the idea is very small, you need to give them more space - either through designing a bigger and better enclosure, exchanging the idea with other ideas and starting a specialised breeding programme to ensure their survival, or setting the ideas free to run away into their natural habitat of the wild. (It might turn out to be a big game reserve - but hey, poachers can't be helped!)
Basically, you can't keep ideas boxed up, and if you have too many clamouring for your attention, you have to set some of them free. (Hey, you can always try to track 'em down again later, right?)
That's what I figure.

What is annoying about ideas, is the arduous process of finding out what they like to eat, and shovelling away the copious amounts of shit they produce. Ideas need grooming, maintenance, and a general health check once a year under sterile conditions. Ideas can get pregnant, and produce baby ideas, but as mentioned earlier, overcrowding may become an issue.

Some ideas pick a fight with others. Others beat their chest, and some throw shit at innocent passers by.
Some folk attempt to feed the ideas (despite all warning to the contrary). I haven't yet decided whether this is a good thing or not - generally, I think not, unless the person runs a zoo similar to your own, in which case they might understand the right nourishment that certain of your ideas require.

Some ideas only come out at night, others hibernate for a long time.
Sometimes the zoo is afflicted with a general malaise.
Sometimes folk lock up their ideas so tight, (fear that one might be stolen, reproduced, etc.), but as said before, ideas need space. And if you don't advertise your zoo, nobody will know, and the inhabitants will starve through lack of funding, and inattention.

The contents of zoos are amazing.
Some contain only mice-shaped ideas. But you can be certain that some of those mice are high quality mice.
Some contain exotic tiger-shaped ideas, but all too often in teeny tiny cages.
Some zoos advertise ideas that they don't actually have! Sadly, I think many zoos might do this.
Perhaps some folk are afraid that their zoo isn't good enough, and some of these owners wander sadly amongst beautifully ornate and gothic cages, looking at the gerbil-shaped ideas contained therein, and feel their ideas "aren't good enough". I think they forget that some people out there really like GERBILS.
And that "that gerbil-shaped idea over there" is uncommonly rare.
After all, folk like CATS and DOGS, right?

Anyway, my zoo is in the process of re-housing. It's a messy business, and sometimes the zoo has needed to close. I am seeking to open communications with the owner of another zoo, from Wales, and have enlisted the help of another zoo-owner to help clear out the worst excesses of shit. Ideally, I'd like to set up a harmonious display where several complimentary ideas live in a single large space.
It's a slow and arduous process, but cleaning out the cages must be done, and it's been a bit difficult with the feeding and maintenance lately, with all the bureaucracy of life outside the zoo, that also needs to be dealt with. One day I hope the zoo will be able to provide for itself, whereby I may be free to roam it at will.
Until then, let us deal with one cage at a time. Right?

;)

Posted by Kirstin Wright 2006-01-10 16:51:04

Wednesday, November 30, 2005
The Arm of Deadness...

So here, I am sleeping on my stomach, only to awaken and find this alien appendage on my pillow. What could it be?

It is my entire arm, and with no sensation in it whatsoever! I'm sure many of you guys have done that to yourselves at some point - resting awkwardly and cutting off the circulation.

It's quite eerie. Normally I might lose sensation in the region of the hands (from resting my head too long on my arms), but this was the entire arm! The feeling came back after a minute or so though.Told my story to a girl at work, who then told me that she'd awoken onceto find that she'd done asimilar thingto one side of her body! She thought for a while that she'd had a stroke or something.

Here's another one - "black dog", "black hag" ( I think I'll call mine "black haggis"... ;) ) - that sensation of something in your face, or on your chest, your eyes are closed, you can't move, you are too terrified to try! I don't generally wake up to that sensation, but it has happened to me during the onset of sleep. I figure it's them little chemicular things that tell the body to be good and lie still (and not thrash around getting caught in the sheets as one re-enacts a vivid dream about kung fu and fridge rearrangement) - only problem is, that sometimes the conscious brain jolts awake just before I would normally drop off... and it feels mighty peculiar. Fortunatly, my eyes are open, and there is no monster in the room. (besides which, I have swords behind the door and under the bed... ;) )

It used to give me a full on panic attack - I thought I'd die if I fell asleep as my breathing was so faint and shallow, and my skin felt weird. But then I went "fine - I'll just hold my breath then.." and sure enough I would breathe. So now I don't get the panic attack any more. I try astral travel instead, as I figure that'll while away the time before I - zzzzzzz.(body departure success rate - 0. That's probably just as well, or I'd really freak!)

;)

Posted by Kirstin Wright 2005-11-30 06:06:58

Tuesday, November 29, 2005
F is for fá

So, I have reached the "F's" in my transcibing of the glossary of Old Norse for Beginners (Oxford University Press) into a digital format for easier searching. I am still waiting to hear whether or not they may give me permission to host it online as a study aid. There are some very interesting words, and some words that cause my mind to do a double take. I am delighted to find words that mean specific things like 'having big eyes". The only problem is the sheer amount of variance in vowel spelling, and finding a fairly commonish font that can handle all of them! (so far, a mixture of Lucida Sans Unicode, and Times New Roman - on some machines!)

This will enable me to be a lot more active in writing"Blogiþrótta" - Beorn's blog. The problem with writing blogs for imaginary beings, is that if one's own day is primarily spent at work, "interim places", and at home, then there's not a lot of inspiration forhim!So Iam contemplating the unleashment of some of my other imaginaries (notably thecaberoi (cabers)), on him!Should be interesting, I hope.

I wish I had a nice new powerful home computer - it's a bit of a bug in trying to get the other things (like image-work and animation) done.

I suspect the imaginaries would rather play Tetris on it all day instead...

Posted by Kirstin Wright 2005-11-29 04:44:39