Sunday Song: Feeling Emu

You lot take me to some weird places.

So I post a picture of a green beach rock, and next thing I know, Heliconia’s comparing it to an emu egg and RQ’s asking if emu eggs are green. So I got curious. And I looked. And day-yamn. They surely are.

Emu egg purchased at the farmers' market in Mountain View, California. Image and caption courtesy Shuhari via Wikimedia Commons.
Emu egg purchased at the farmers’ market in Mountain View, California. Image and caption courtesy Shuhari via Wikimedia Commons.

Remarkable. The resemblance, as Heliconia said, is striking. Now I want an emu egg. Lots of emu ranches in Washington state, so perhaps, one day…

Of course, I resolved to post a picture of an emu egg for you, and then I couldn’t think of what I wanted for the Sunday Song, until I remembered emu eggs and wondered, are there emu songs? Lo and behold. Continue reading “Sunday Song: Feeling Emu”

Sunday Song: Feeling Emu
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Fundamentals of Fungi: Wood Mushrooms Can Be Beautiful

One of the things I’ve had to get used to round here is the stuff growing on trees. People told me as a kid that you could find north by looking at what side of the tree moss was growing on. This assumed the person attempting to ascertain north wasn’t living in Arizona. I spent a long time trying to find some moss in order to establish the truth of this claim.

Then I moved here to the PNW. Good luck establishing north by moss. It grows 360° around the trunks. It grows pretty much everywhere. And then you get these enormous patches of lichen and wild outbursts of wood mushrooms. It’s a wonder you can see bark. Continue reading “Fundamentals of Fungi: Wood Mushrooms Can Be Beautiful”

Fundamentals of Fungi: Wood Mushrooms Can Be Beautiful

Any Thoughts on Speech Recognition Software?

You may have noticed a bit of a drop-off in in-depth posts round here lately. Part of that was ye holidays, part of it’s the seasonal blahs (when the sky’s gray for the billionth day in a row, productivity drops and brooding rises), but there’s also the fact that when the weather makes an abrupt change from dire to delightful, the wrists don’t react well. They want a break. I don’t want to give it to them, because there’s too much interesting stuff to write about. Luckily, these days, they can have their break without mucking up the blogging. It only requires finding the proper speech recognition software.

That’s where you lot come in. Some among you must have favorites. What should I get as my software secretary, my Archie Goodwin or Ms. Lemon, the software that will efficiently take my dictation and (hopefully) set my brain free? Of course, software probably hasn’t achieved those heights yet, so I’ll settle for something that doesn’t make me want to strangle it every ten seconds. Thank you in advance for your recommendations, my darlings!

Any Thoughts on Speech Recognition Software?

New At Rosetta Stones: 12 Month Meme, Plus Reader Extras!

More than a wrap-up post – some recent reader questions and contributions are addressed, so head on over for a gander at the 12 8 months of Rosetta Stones. Meanwhile, I shall be going back to explaining to all of the electronics that quit working this week just why I will brook no arguments from the likes of them. Silly defiant buggers.

New At Rosetta Stones: 12 Month Meme, Plus Reader Extras!

First Mountains

Seattle celebrated the new year by allowing the sun to come out and play for a few hours. After a bit of a lie-in with the kitteh, lounging in the first sunbeams of 2013, I went chasing scenery. I’ve been longing for snow. Not precisely sure why – I hate the stuff, and especially hate driving in it, but it does make things rather pretty. Happily, I live in a state where I can view snow live from a safe distance at any time the clouds part. And then I can bring back beauty for you, while the kitteh continues to lounge in the sun. A win for all.

A thin layer of clouds was starting to creep in by the time I bestirred myself, but even though it threatened to swallow the Olympics, they were still out in force, a gorgeous first set of mountains for 2013.

Olympic Mountains from hill on 240th St., Bothell, WA.
Olympic Mountains from hill on 240th St., Bothell, WA.

Continue reading “First Mountains”

First Mountains

Tuesday Tunes: New Year’s Day

Oh, hai, 2013! Glad u maed it!

 

Ai tink we shuld taek this srsly. We shuld haev srs tradishunal song. Culdn’t find wun in lolcat, soree. But it’s pritee.

We culd drink to dat! Who haz teh bubblee?

invisible champagne

Furst rool grate drinkin’: start wid champagne an build.

tequila cat
Dunno. Don’t tink moderashun iz here. We’ll have anodder drink while we wait. U culd haev wiskee, if u no like teekeela. Wiskee an a tradishunul sawng. Wi’ bagpipes!

We culd have anodder tradishun, too. Dis iz mai tradishun. Alwayz play dis sawng at Noo Yeerz.

An den I gives u mai favurite Noo Yeerz wish:

“May the best you’ve ever been be the worst you’ll ever see.”

Wuv u, mai darlings! Happee Noo Yeer!

Lol love

An latur tooday, we kin say:

rum gone kitteh

Dat’s how we know it wuz gud partee.

Tuesday Tunes: New Year’s Day