Hegira

kuangning @ 2009-12-03T17:12:00

2009-12-03T22:12:16Z

I'm the only person I can think of who picks a 13C December morning to re-commit to swimming. My right shoulder feels a little pulled, probably from the breaststroke exercises -- like most people, I'm weaker on my left side -- but it felt absolutely wonderful to put in what I *knew* was a great workout even while it was happening. I'll just have to remember to work on my left side a bit to even them out.

I climbed out and felt just the right amount of smackdown from carrying my own weight again. I hadn't pushed myself so hard that I had no energy left, nor taken it too easy. Five hours later, I'm still radiating heat from muscles I'd forgotten I had, and I'll definitely be sore tomorrow. Whatever; I remember now why I didn't mind waking up at 5 AM every weekday for the chance to swim a mile before my academic classes started.

I have homework to do, and a test on Monday. Y'all have no idea just how weird that is.

Fractal of the Day...

2009-11-23T04:47:42Z

Tomorrow I have orientation for my phlebotomy class. I am going to need an Ativan. Today, though? Fractals are cheaper, even though this one, done this morning, is still the best I've managed all day.

kuangning @ 2009-09-22T10:16:00

2009-09-22T14:16:40Z

Oh.

It's that time again, isn't it? And I almost missed it. We slip over into autumn in seven hours, and summer's goodbye kisses are wet ones, this time. This neighborhood is warm red brick walls and glints of sunlight scattering through dripping leaves. It's a crisp edge to the air and somewhere a lone straggling cicada, bravely vocal despite the weather. Outside my window, the trees are revealing the first reddish brown patches beginning to peek through the many many shades of green -- more today than there were yesterday afternon, in fact. There will be golds and rich bronzes and blazing orange, later, but right now most of the fire hues are still in hiding, sheltered from the last late-summer rains.

October is coming, and I know it will have something heartbreaking in store -- it always does. In a lot of ways, I'm still reeling from the last one. But this is September and summer, for just a little bit longer, and today, it's enough.

augh.

2009-09-17T15:19:26Z

I know it's a small thing in the scheme of things, but I just saw the trailer for Disney's latest, and I'm still sputtering with rage.

Here you go, have a look.

Now, my first reaction was "ooh, she's not white." Sadly, that doesn't last.

* Apparently, Fairytale Magic isn't allowed to work on black people, at least not the first time. (See what happens when we let you people in? You break it!)

* What happened to the princess' intrinsic honesty in keeping her promise overcoming her delicate nature? Apparently, honesty *and* delicacy aren't allowed for black princesses, huh? Black chicks are allowed Attitude and tough-mindedness, 'cause they're all untamable and shit, but that's all.

* WTF voodoo? Did we drag out every stereotype ever? I bet we did!

* OMFG those accents.

* I bet somebody, somewhere, is going to drag his/her tired [white?] ass out of the woodwork to tell me all about how they deigned to do a story about a black princess and now I'm not grateful enough. That somebody had better watch how s/he phrases it today, and that's all I have to say about that. This is ... beyond tripe, and I was already fed up with the world. I'm starting to believe that we should manage things like this like we do certain forests -- sometimes, you just have to burn the shit to the ground and start over, to have a chance of ending up with something healthy.

have a purely amazing feel-good, no craziness involved.

2009-08-29T04:48:56Z

here I thought I already had my dose of outrage for the day...

2009-04-09T16:59:21Z

AUSTIN — A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.”

The comments caused the Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday to demand an apology from state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell. But a spokesman for Brown said her comments were only an attempt to overcome problems with identifying Asian names for voting purposes.

The exchange occurred late Tuesday as the House Elections Committee heard testimony from Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans.

Ko told the committee that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent often have problems voting and other forms of identification because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common English name that is used on their driver’s license on school registrations.
Easier for voting?

Brown suggested that Asian-Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible.

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

Brown later told Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

A: Asian-descent voters are Americans too. What she really means, therefore, is "easier for generic white people to deal with."

B: Her lack of faith in the reading skills and problem-solving skills of generic white people is noted.

C: What we really need is clearly a return to the days when Immigration officials renamed people when they entered the country! Yes!

D: Life is going to change fairly dramatically when her generation is displaced in positions of power, and I can't wait to see it happen.

I still say fractals are apolitical.

2009-03-14T17:25:20Z

Among the things I did this week that did not involve talking or reading about race: the fractal gallery over at tears-of-gold has been given an update and facelift. I'm pleased with the result, and the new style will be easier to keep updated -- every new set of ten fractals gets a new page and a link on the main page, and that is all.

The next site component that needs attention would be the e-cards, and I'm hoping to get to those this weekend. They do work, and do actually see a fair amount of use, but their style matches the old gallery instead of the new one, and I need to update the underlying software.

Then I need to tackle the main pages. That, I am not looking forward to. At least I will not be bored, or something.

fractal of the night

2009-03-02T08:10:15Z

I'm playing with background colors a bit, and happy with what I achieved on this one.

fractal of the day...

2009-02-28T06:18:07Z

This one is for Paul, who loves sailboats.

fractals are apolitical.

2009-02-02T08:54:11Z

fractal of the day...

2009-01-14T20:04:55Z

Quite literally, because it took hours to get the gradient and light source the way I wanted them.

Behold, Fifi!

2009-01-13T15:58:18Z

... Devourer of Worlds.

... Stop laughing. You'll hurt her feelings, and you don't want her to come over here, do you?

Also, completely different:

The Bremen Town Musicians. This title probably only makes sense if you had the same Collier's Junior Classics encyclopedia set I had as a child: the illustration for that story was very similar in feel to this. Cock atop cat atop dog atop old grey donkey, all set to frighten the wits out of those horrid old robbers.

fractal of the day

2009-01-11T16:54:59Z

No, I don't know why I'm awake, either.

kuangning @ 2007-11-29T02:00:00

2007-11-29T07:01:32Z

... that'll do. :)

kuangning @ 2007-11-29T01:00:00

2007-11-29T06:02:57Z

I'm not *quite* satisfied with this one -- the focus doesn't live up to the promise I saw in the raw fractal. But I think I've gotten as close as I'm going to get for now. I really need to experiment with matting, I think -- this is not the first time I've had this problem.

fractal

2007-11-29T05:35:24Z

First new one in quite awhile. I toyed with the gradient on this a lot, trying to make it different from others I'd done before, but nothing else looked quite right, and eventually I conceded and put it back.

fractal.

2007-03-31T15:34:57Z

... you know you're in a good place when your manager *asks* about your hobbies and encourages you to use company-issued equipment to carry on with them. So, this is the first fractal done entirely on the new laptop.

I just ordered silk samples from ColorTextiles.com, and I'm eyeing this printer fairly seriously. Back when I deferred the silk scarves idea, it was because the cost of the printer, the ink, and of course the silk, was too much for me to be able to swing it. If the silk from this company is good enough, and the printer capable of good quality printing on silk ... that idea is going to be resurrected. Better late than never, or something, yes?

new fractal.

2006-11-26T21:22:19Z

kuangning @ 2006-11-16T20:03:00

2006-11-17T01:03:29Z

This one's taken half the day, but I do think I'm pleased with it.

I am also pleased with my psych visit; I am officially not depressed this month either, and have not been written a prescription. Any visit that ends with me staying off the meds is a good one.

Second version:

I've upped the sample density and added a bit of light.

kuangning @ 2006-11-13T23:45:00

2006-11-14T04:45:57Z

This is utterly ridiculous.

Just so we're clear on this: it's okay to serve and be Wiccan. It's okay to die in Iraq and be Wiccan. But it is somehow NOT okay to be Wiccan when it comes to engraving a symbol on your monument?

... frankly, folks, if we sent you overseas, you fought for us, and you died doing it? I don't care if your widow asks for a Star of David, a swastika, or an engraved Satan complete with pitchfork, flames, and tortured souls on your memorial, as long as she's not demanding it be neon, larger than the others, or some different material -- that is, no more noticeable than any of the many others until you really look at the symbol -- let her have it. Memorials are for the survivors. If all we can give back to her that brings her any comfort is a symbol, what symbol it is makes no difference in the long run. Somebody smack the DVA around until they Get this, please.

kuangning @ 2006-11-13T22:10:00

2006-11-14T03:10:02Z

Not sure what it is that appeals to me about this one; when I figure it out, I'll play with it some more, try to narrow down the right location. In the meantime, it'll stand on its own.

"seahorse" version:

kuangning @ 2006-11-12T00:39:00

2006-11-12T05:39:30Z

kuangning @ 2006-10-09T23:41:00

2006-10-10T03:41:39Z

one more...

2006-10-06T01:36:01Z

Just because I still have it open and am still playing around.

If you really wanted to protect marriage ...

2006-06-05T21:37:48Z

You'd make sure the family's breadwinner(s) got paid a living wage. Couples run into problems because of financial strain more than anything else.

You'd tackle the problem of domestic violence so that people felt safe with their partners, or prospective partners.

You'd make sure healthcare was available, because the stress of caring for a sick loved one -- and their medical bills -- can wreck a family.

You'd make sure quality childcare was available and affordable as the norm instead of the exception, so that people felt comfortable going out to work to earn that aforementioned living wage.

You'd make sure employers offered enough time off to accommodate their workers who have families to care for, so the issue of absentee parents and latchkey children wouldn't be so common. Latchkey children tend to become problem children, and differences on how to deal with them can tear their parents' relationship apart. The stress of wondering if (or, y'know, knowing that) you're going to lose your job because your kid's been too sick for daycare all week long and you didn't have any sick days doesn't make for family harmony, either.

You'd make sure health insurance would cover at least some family counseling as a rule.

There'd be a waiting period between when someone could get a marriage license and when they were allowed to use it. No getting married on a drunken night or "just for fun".

There'd be a full battery of drug- and STD- tests with the results revealed to both partners as a part of the process of getting the marriage license.

There'd probably be some lessons on handling basic household finances in there too.

Teenage girls who got pregnant would be advised to seek counseling and there'd be support available for them as a rule, instead of the push to marry the child's father that there often is now. Just because you had sex and proved fertile together doesn't mean you ought to be in a relationship for life.

Divorce would be harder to get.

... but hey, those things are hard, so instead of doing any of that, I suppose pushing a Constitutional amendment to make sure those horrible gays get excluded will suffice.

I have nothing more to say on this topic.