| I outlined it (with light) |
[Dec. 31st, 2009|12:05 pm] |
I like sunsets, and I like photographing sunsets.
2009 has been a good year for them, too.
I remember it starting with a sunset flowing darkness down the Colorado river, as it lit the walls of the Grand Canyon with yellow light. I remember Ruby Beach, in the teeth of a gale, as a bald eagle drifted down the yellow light. I remember the flare of bright light as the sun fell over the Pacific on a Hawaiian evening, silhouetting the heiau.
I remember the lilac London summer evenings as volcanic ash reflected colours from the stratosphere. I remember crouching on the roof, trying to focus in on spiderwebs, hoping to catch a strand of gold in the evening sky. I remember standing on Beachy Head, watching the sun gild the autumn clouds, rolling down into a steely Channel. I remember the chill of New York December, seeing the Empire State Building turn yellow in the evening light.
There's one place, though, that I'll never forget, the place where the sunsets have been with me since I was born.
It's seems fitting to end a year of sunsets with images of the sunset from Christmas Day on my home island of Jersey.
St Clements, Jersey CI
December 2009 |
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| Movies of the decade: personally speaking |
[Dec. 31st, 2009|12:00 pm] |
I'm not going to pick either of the obvious trilogies (I still haven't seen the last POTC film and while I hugely enjoyed LOTR on screen, I still wish they hadn't distorted the characters so far out of shape for comedic effect - dwarf tossing and carrot stealing are funny, but but they're Not Tolkien). The Pixar movies are a fantastic set of films, and Up outdoes them all. The Miyazaki movies get an uneven ride in translation. There are lots of movies I've just liked. The first Daniel Craig Bond was good. The Harry Potter movies are a great way of not having to read all the books once they get long and turgid.
But the films I turn to again and again, that I've watched more than The Blues Brothers, that I enjoy as much or more every time - Oceans 11, 12, 13. Yes 12 is weaker, but I still like it - it puts a shell around the whole of the first movie so that I like 11 better because of 12. I love the dialogue and the pacing and the plot and the music (David Holmes' albums were all auditions to score these movies) and the faux jargon (a pinch, the biggest Miss Daisy you ever say, you called an Audible last night, you wowser) and the points where the actors juggle the fourth wall (try keeping the weight off next time/settle down and have a couple of kids) and the fact that they play *everyone* - even each other. They're movies I can lose myself in the complexity off without ever pointing and saying 'that doesn't fit the plot or the characters or the universe you've created' (well, maybe the Bruce Willis bit, but then you get straight back to the best cover story and exit strategy ever). I quote them all the time. The Vegas we visit two or three times a year is somewhere next door to Danny and Rusty's Vegas - it's changed in the same way and I wonder if the Vdara casts the same shadow on the Bellagio's pool as The Bank - and I wouldn't love it the way I do without the Oceans. And because of all of that, because of all the wonderful parts, I've watched these movies more than any other movies and they haven't worn out - and *that* is a good movie. |
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| Blast from the past: Cast a Deadly Spell |
[Dec. 31st, 2009|11:44 am] |
Himself tracked down a copy of this 80s HBO movie and we watched it with the goose and sparkling saumur. It wasn't the best copy and the creatures are a bit state of the 80s art, but it held up very well - still charming, still coherent. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tanais suggested it would make a great TV series for the Sci-Fi Channel and I can see that... |
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| ...for a reason? |
[Dec. 30th, 2009|11:36 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  impressed | ] |
 Lying in bed this morning with the cricket on, I heard Michael Vaughan: "Everything happens for a reason."
I was lying in bed last night, thinking: that this illness, bad news though it certainly is, did have one compensation: it pushed my wife and myself into facing a problem we'd not been dealing with. And as a result, I think our relationship entered a new phase, with much greater trust and love. Would it have happened without the spur of staring death in the face? Quite possibly yes, but equally possibly, no. Does that mean "it happened for a reason: to heal a rift between husband and wife?"
I know people who honestly think it does mean that. Vaughan shows just how fatuous the argument is.
In the cricket match, what happened to cause this expression of faith in Fate? I'll tell you; it's short, and sweet. A good batsman, last of the qualified batters, Mark Boucher was defying the England bowlers. With him, nowhere near as competent, Paul Harris - a bowler.
The England strategy was simple: let Boucher have a run. Then we can have a bowl at Harris, who will be easy meat. So England bowler Broad was mightily pissed off when the strategy worked, and Boucher got that single run - only for the fielder to let the ball run between his legs. Boucher got a second run, letting the feebler batsman off the hook, and meaning that Broad had to bowl at Boucher again. Consternation all round in the England team.
"Remember, everything happens for a reason!" said the former England captain, doing commentary for the BBC's radio show, "Test Match Special".
The idea that some Higher Power caused the fielder to miss the ball, so that Boucher would face the next ball, is completely fatuous. What Higher Power would give a toss about who wins a cricket match, never mind who faces the next ball!
So you can imagine my irritation when, next ball, Boucher mis-timed his attempt to hit the delivery, and a catch went to the wicket-keeper, and the batsman was out...
It only takes one such incident to confirm the convictions of the "everything has a Reason" brigade. Twenty small children dying alone in the dark from multiple injuries inflicted by their parents won't dent it...
Meanwhile, this is a holiday week for me.
No chemo. The main reason is simply that it's a bugger of a week to schedule a treatment. Two public holidays, lots of staff away, including the oncologist - and if anything went wrong (and we now know it can) depleted A&E staff to cope with any emergency. And, over this holiday period, emergencies can pile up. But also, my team decided that I wasobviously having a tough time with this treatment - so if I wanted a week's break, then I should get it.
What's less obvious is why I'm getting next week off, too. Answer: I was asked if I wanted the break, and I said: "Yes."
When I was asked, I was on the third day of chemo. I made it into hospital OK, and was greatly relieved to find that in those three days, I hadn't had any uncontrollable nausea of the sort that put me in the ambulance three weeks earlier.
But I was really, really tired and incredibly weak - as one is two days into chemotherapy! It's hard bloody work.
And two days later, to my dismay, I was even weaker. Climbing the stairs was exhausting, and the old days when I routinely took the stairs at a run, two at a time, were a fantasy. I couldn't have lifted my weight over two stairs, even hanging on to the bannister; I could barely manage one at a time! It got to the point where Saturday came, and I was looking at an unkind mirror which showed, clearly, that my legs had wasted away - much muscle lost.
I wrote to my oncologist in some anxiety;. She's amazing, always answers her email even when on holiday! - as usual, I got reassurance: "That's what chemo does, sorry, Guy." And she encouraged me to try the remedy I'd discovered for myself in the first cycle of chemo, from March: get exercise.
Trouble was, I was so weak, I really felt I couldn't do it.
Well, since then, Christmas; visitors, cooking, cleaningng, hosting two little girls (grand-daughters!) and other relatives (two daughters and their men) and friends. Plenty of exercise. And I'm back to taking the stairs two at a time, and feel amazingly healthy - healtheir than since June, in fact. I've regained that lost weight. I went for a two-mile walk Monday, and a half-mile walk yesterday (in the bloody rain!) and I've survived the sniffles and sore throat, too.
Hopefully, this means that the cancer is responding (certainly, the fur has responded, dammit - almost zero beard).
Next treatment 11th. Mary and I have resolved that however crap I feel, we are going to do those bloody exercises - even if all I can do is feebly raise and lower each arm in turn, or slightly lift my head off the pillow. As long as I have an adequate supply of extra-strong anti-nausea pills, I can cope.
There is one thing to resolve, though, and that's "the trots" which are apparently just as dangerous to me as nausea. The Irinoteacan treatment is vicious, and one common side effect is a runny tummy; and if you get it, it can very rapidly dehydrate you dangerously. So you're given Immodium with instructions to take it if there is any sign of "loose stools."
Here's the problem: the operating instructions say "Take one immediately you experience symptoms, and one every two hours until 12 hours after the last loose stool." Clear enough, except that I have never had a second loose stool.
The stuff works. What is awkward, is that it works too well, and I have now had two treatments in which I've had no stools at all for five days! I now know why people keep "Preparation H" in their cupboards.
So I'm hoping someone can help with advice on just how dangerous these runs are. I suspect that one Immodium is enough to settle my gut. But what if...?
Nursing problems, not oncology, are the bane of my life!
By the way, Paul Harris, that hopeless batsman? He ended up top-scoring for South Africa as they lost the match. He made 36 runs, which is an acceptable score for any batsman. Maybe "the reason" it happened was to make him over-confident about his batting for next time?
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| Commonly mistaken |
[Dec. 30th, 2009|01:15 am] |
It annoys me when people use plethora as it it meant 'many' when it means 'too many'. It infuriates me when people use détente as if it meant impasse. Decimating removes only one in ten of your opposition. The curate's egg was off, and 'up to a point, Lord Cocker' means 'not in the slightest'. So in the spirit of occasionally spotting the beam in my own eye, I'm recording the correct form of what's usually called Sturgeon's Law; despite the version in the OED, '90% of everything is crud' is actually Sturgeon's Revelation (March 1958 issue of Venture Science Fiction, 1951 talk at NYU); and Sturgeon's Law is 'Nothing is always absolutely so' (1956, Galaxy). |
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| Pixelations |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|08:23 pm] |
Always look up when you're in a city, as you never know just what you'll see.
That rule goes doubly so for New York, where much of its architecture looms over the street canyons and where new and old meet in a delightful visual cacophony. One such view is at Grand Central Station, where station's sculptures and the surrounding tours are reflected in a wall of curved windows. The images pincushion in the mirror glass, golden in the late afternoon sunlight.
New York, New York
December 2009 |
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| A year in motion: 2009 |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|08:39 am] |
I went to pretty much all the same places as Simon, and it was a very US-centric year.
Countries visited: US, Spain, Jersey (the original)
New states visited: Hawaii, New Mexico, Colorado (just done airport touchdowns before), Massachusetts, the New England states on the train line from Boston-New York
Familiar states become more familiar: Arizona*, Utah*, California*, Oregon*, Washington*, Nevada*, New York* (that's not just multiple nights, that's multiple visits)
Familiar airports: LHR, LGW, LAS, SFO, SJC, LAX, SEA, MCO, JFK, JER
New airports: Newark, Hilo HI, Honolulu HI, Boston, Ontario CA
New modes of travel: train from Boston to New York, BART from SFO into San Francisco, true monorail around Newark airport, barge around the American Southwest (I don't know what else to call the Grand Marquee we rented)
Trains revisited: London Underground, Barcelona Metro, New York subway, LA Metro
Road trips: Five national parks in five days (Grand Canyon, Navajo national monument, Monument Valley, Valley of the Gods, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce, Zion: Las Vegas - Arizona - Utah - Las Vegas) - Down the Washington and Oregon coasts to SF (Seattle, Olympic peninsula, Oregon coast) - Up the west coast from San Diego to Seattle (through the middle of Oregon via Crater Lake and the Willamette Valley) - Around Big Island (stopping just about everywhere) - Round the Southwest for Thanksgiving (via two Microsoft stores, one arcology, one petrified forest, the Rockies and the Salt Lake: LA - Mission Viejo - Palm Springs - Scottsdale AZ - Flagstaff - Gallup NM - Trinidad CO - Grand Junction CO - Elko NV - SF)
Novel experiences: tasting on a coffee plantation, tree frog choruses, watching turtles, doing a show at Madison Square Gardens, leaving a credit card in a ticket machine in Barcelona, reaching gold on Virgin, visiting two observatories (Palomar and the Griffith), liking New York
Highest point reached without a plane: 11,000 feet on the freeway through the Rockies |
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| Flying: pretty random |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|05:32 am] |
The reason there's so much FUD about the changes to in-flight and airport security processes is partly that the US government wants the process to be "unpredictable" - which doesn't strike me as the best idea in the world, because while it might stop a terrorist preparing it's just as likely to confuse staff and passengers - and partly that it's now down to the discretion of the captain. "At the captain's discretion, passengers can once again have blankets and other items on their laps or move about the cabin during the tail end of flight. In-flight entertainment restrictions have also been lifted. The airline officials spoke on condition of anonymity because federal safety officials had not publicly announced the changes." Because telling people what's going on is never helpful...
Virgin is saying 'arrive at the normal time, go straight to the gate' so I think we'll arrive a little early and stop in the lounge as usual. Before Christmas they told me upper class on our flight was almost sold out and there were no upgrade seats; the smaller upper class cabin on Vegas flights makes it harder to spend miles on upgrades but thanks to all sensible people wanting to stay as far as possible from airports for the foreseeable future we now have comfy seats at the front of the plane where the captain - and his instruments, the cabin crew - are usually in a much better mood and are less likely to take away my book and blanket... |
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| can haz goose! |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|04:41 am] |
For most of the years that we have been together, Simon and I have made the trek to Jersey for Christmas, to spend it with his family. Family good thing of course, but the Christmases I like the most have been when we've stayed home, seen friends and had a quiet time together, gorging on goose and TV/DVD/movies - I tend to be on the go pretty much all year round and we take a day here and there while we're on the road rather than a proper time-off holiday and those Christmases were a full hiatus. And while it's easy to pick up a goose off the shelf for Christmas, they tend to be all gone by New Year. Not this year; next to the very lovely and nicely reduced free range chickens was an even lovelier free range goose that we staggered home with. As I have man flu I'm close to hibernating with knitting and the goggle box (Burn Notice, The Closer, Raiders of The Lost Ark and Iron Man) and the goose will add the correct level of corpulence and torpor ;-) I think I'll skip my usual onions stuffed with apple and stuffing/apple stuffed with onion and stuffing combo in favour of using up a pile of the elderly apples in the kitchen in sauce and there will be the usual juggling of hot pans of fat and hot sterilised jars to produce both roast potatoes today and the promise of roast potatoes for years to come. After two or three meals of goose I usually strip the bones and shred and pound the meat with fat to make goose rillettes that keep for about a week; as we're off to CES on the 2nd I might strip/shred/pound/freeze instead. Am so happy I would cuddle the goose, if I could lift it ;-) |
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| 2009: The travel meme |
[Dec. 28th, 2009|05:40 pm] |
The usual visited places list:
Williams AZ, Tuba City AZ, Kayenta AZ, Blanding UT, Bicknell UT, Las Vegas NV*, Barstow CA, Cambria CA, Pacific Grove CA, San Francisco CA*, Paso Robles CA*, San Jose CA*, Sunnyvale CA*, Palm Desert CA*, Kirkland WA*, Aberdeen WA, Pacific City OR, Brookings OR, Barcelona, Cincinnati OH*, Orlando FL*, Los Angeles CA*, Palm Springs CA*, San Diego CA, Coronado CA, La Jolla CA, Escondido CA, Santa Monica CA, Campbell CA, Willlows CA, Eugene OR, Kailua HI, Hilo HI, Boston MA*, New York NY*, Santa Barbara CA, Scottsdale AZ, Flagstaff AZ, Gallup NM, Trinidad CO, Grand Junction CO, Elko NV, Cameron Park CA, Mountain View CA*, Jersey CI
As always * denotes a place with more than a one night stay.
Countries: USA, Spain, Jersey CI.
Airports: SFO, MCO, LAS, LAX, EWR, CVG, BOS, JFK, HNL, ITO, ONT, SJC, JER, BCN
Airlines: Virgin Atlantic, FlyBe, JetBlue, Alaska, Southwest, Delta, Iberia, Hawaiian Airlines
Aircraft flown: Boeing 747-400, various 737 variants, Boeing 717, McDonald Douglas MD-80, Airbus A320, Airbus A321, Embraer EMB-195, Airbus A340-600
Trains taken: Acela (Boston-NYC), London Underground, LA Metro, NJ Transit, NY MTA, BART
(Phew.) |
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| Extra travel security |
[Dec. 27th, 2009|12:27 am] |
One carryon rather than two for flights to US, same size but weight limit 6kg, baggage search just before boarding: inconvenient but understandable (means I will probably leave the big camera at home). Though I do wonder how long the policy will last in the face of lost duty free revenues. But suggestions of making passengers stay in their seats for an hour before landing? I won't quibble with things that increase security but why are we always restricting things based on what attackers did last rather than what they might do next? Because they're not likely to *do* the same thing again... |
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| Festive lurgy |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|08:59 pm] |
After a day of last minute shopping in Jersey I started sneezing and sniffling and now have a full-on head cold :( So id's a veddy mebby Chribsmass and a happy due yeurgh to you all. Must find whiskey for a hot toddy... |
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| Fly Be and Gatwick - just say urrrgghhh |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|07:54 pm] |
The roads are full, the car park has black ice, the gate gets announced as closing when it's not even open and they charge for water on the plane. Thank heavens I checked that priority pass covers the lounge right by security where the chilean merlot is - unlike the rest of the Gatwick experience - better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. |
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