Crrrash update

Ha-ha-ha--Time to recycle these haiku gems (below).

It's fun to laugh and feel the immense humor of it all.
Luckily, Norm, the computer guru at school, retrieved my data today from my hard drive. So, I'm not off the hook yet--I'll have to finish my portfolio afterall (or, as my friend Paul calls it, that pesky portfolio) :) !
Not sure yet about the status of my crashed iBook, though. I should know more tomorrow. I'm chanting healing mantras for it--and you can, too. I'm also fantasizing about the "better" "new and improved" "fast and powerful" Macbook I will somehow manifest if my little iBook has to be e-recycled....
Gratefully, I was able to save my Beethoven symphonies and Yo-Yo Ma music from my iTunes library, plus some other favorites.

Okay. Here's the haiku.

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The Web site you seek cannot be located,
but countless more exist.

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Chaos reigns within. Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

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Program aborting: Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.

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Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

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Yesterday it worked. Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.

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Your file was so big.
It might be very useful. But now it is gone.

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Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire. The network is down.

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A crash reduces your expensive computer to a
simple stone.

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Three things are certain:
Death, taxes and lost data. Guess which has
occurred?

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You step in the stream, but the water has
moved on. This page is not here.

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Out of memory. We wish to hold the whole sky,
but we never will.

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Having been erased, The document you're
seeking must now be retyped.

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Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
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Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

teapot no. 60

teapots 56, 57, 58, & 59

I painted teapot 59 this morning entirely with my left hand and without my glasses--even the writing! First I wrote with a Conté pierre noire drawing pencil, followed by a watercolor brush pen. As I give myself more opportunities to practice writing, drawing, and seeing with my non-dominant left-hand, I develop better motor control and balance. Writing/drawing left-handed doesn't feel as difficult anymore. And, drawing without my specs allows my myopic eyes a chance to see at close range in their "natural" environment.







teapot no. 58









teapot no. 57













teapot no. 56

Check out my growing set of 100 teapots.

teapot no. 55

Another left-hand experiment.

it's the light

Seeing, in Three Pieces

Somehow we must see
through the shimmering cloth
of daily life, its painted,
evasive facings of what to eat,
to wear? Which work
matters? Is a bird more
or less than a man?

There have been people
who helped the world. Named
or not named. They weren't interested
in what might matter,
doubled over as they were
with compassion. Laden
branches, bright rivers.

When a bulb burns out
we just change it --
it's not the bulb we love;
it's the light.


~ Kate Knapp ~

Wind Somewhere and Shade

teapot no. 54

Made with construction paper cut-outs and glue stick; cut with an exacto blade.

teapot no. 53

Black Sharpie marker on a brown paper bag, colored in with colored pencils.

Teapot no. 52 - tea in black

Teapot no. 52 - tea in black, originally uploaded by tortuga del desierto.

Kaimei sumi brush pen in a Volant Moleskine journal.

Teapot no. 51 - tea & ak-mak

Teapot no. 51 - tea & ak-mak, originally uploaded by tortuga del desierto.

Kaimei sumi ink brush pen in a Moleskine Volant journal.

Crash wham bam plop

My iBook crashed. I'll know in a day or two if the data can be pulled off the hard drive. Now I have to decide, do I replace the logic board as was suggested by the Apple dealer, or do I get a whole new iBook? Either way, I'd have to use credit...just more debt to add to the debt that I'm already indebted for. As my friend Kathy, said, "it's endless." What is "it"? Everything!
We have to brush our teeth every morning, wash ourselves everyday, clean up over and over, make food everyday...that's just how things are. So, I may lose some data (but the technician may be able to save it). The really important things I cannot lose: all the people, beings, and nature I love, the big sky, breathing in and out, smiling and laughing, and enjoying this very moment. Really, I am indebted to the whole world for my very existence--and that makes me smile.

mala, crystal turtle, amethyst; no words

teapot no. 50 halfway pot

See the entire set here!

teapot no. 49

Drawn with a Conté pierre noire drawing pencil on Walgreen's sketch paper. Almost halfway there.

Finally

(Vatican members clapping for condoms)

The Vatican is studying the effectiveness of condoms. No promises they say, they just want to study.... Maybe the study will eventually loosen the funds to find a cure. The cure is not abstinence.

teapot no. 48

After a walk with Yuki on the coastal path around Lovers Point, we parked on the Asilomar side. There I enjoyed tea on the dash (which I watercolored above) and ate the noodle lunch I had packed. On another walk, in the tide pools at Asilomar, we saw a large duck (or maybe a goose?) walking around on the rocks. I followed him or her until I saw another goose sitting on a nest. I snapped these photos then backed away so as not to disturb them.



















And I saw these flowers:

The Yes Poem

The Yes Poem

Yes!
If the whole world said Yes
Think what could be if Yes
was on the tongue of every woman, child, and man

Yes to all our wishes, dreams, desires
“Yes, I’ll do it,” “Yes, you’re as wonderful as I am” and
“Yes, isn’t it positively yes?”

Yes to naps, passion, roses in winter, butterflies, kites with rainbow tails
stories we create as we stroll through the woods
Yes to clear skies
to fogged-in coastal mornings
We sit by the fire while the calm sea is out there

Yes to wrinkles
Yes to helping ourselves
Yes to the bag lady
to laughter
to juggler, poet, clown
Yes to the mumbling man, to musician
gardener, painter, cook

Yes to clean air, to breath
to up and down
In and out
love and hate
and everything in between the spaces of duality

Oh,

Yes!



~Nicole Raisin Stern
Paris, 1990

News Flash!

News Flash!, originally uploaded by tortuga del desierto.

My new specs are so spectacular we were photographed for the cover of The Spectacle.

* * * * *

The Yuki Story

Thirteen years ago, I met Yuki, a furry little fluff ball of only six weeks. He had sharp pointy white teeth, a very black nose, white eyelashes, black round-almond eyes, a curly tail, the fluffiest whitest, softest fur, and what's most incredible of all--he didn't yet know how to bark! No barking. Not even a peep. Nothing. From the beginning, Yuki only pooped outside; I never had to train him, he just trotted over to the door and waited for me to let him out.

I first saw Yuki on Easter Sunday, 1993. I was walking towards the Modern Languages building on the campus of the University of Arizona, on my way to visit a DJ friend who worked at the classical radio station, KUAT-FM. I was halfway across the mall when I spotted a white furry puppy nestled in the arms of a woman with a toddler in a stroller. I changed course and ran over to see the puppy. Within moments, the woman told me her aunt was the breeder, that they had seven more to give away, and would I like one. Would I like one?

I was going to have a little white furry dog. My first dog. I'd always wanted a dog, but knew I could never buy one (buying and selling beings does not sit well with me). The woman gave me her aunt's pager number, telling me she would return my call within ten minutes. She also asked if I'd prefer a male or a female dog. I didn't have a preference, but asked if there was a difference in behavior. The niece said that the females may be mellower. I decided on a female dog.

The next day I went to my job all excited to tell the residents and my colleagues about the new puppy I would soon have. I worked as an activities coordinator doing art and playing with adults with severe mental illness. I told them all about the cutest little fluff ball puppy I had ever seen and how I'd always wanted a dog. They were excited with me. So, I made the call on Monday morning, and left a message. I didn't get a call back within ten minutes or even in an hour. I tried again and again and again. Nothing. I called everyday, a zillion times a day for almost two full weeks. I wanted that dog.

One afternoon I was up on the roof helping Ray, the maintenance man, install a water pump on one of the swamp coolers. I was telling him how I'd been leaving messages on the breeder woman's pager, but getting no response. Suddenly, Ray's face lit up. Laughing, he said he knew what I'd been doing wrong and that he almost lost a potential job that way. We went inside to the phone, dialed the number and Ray then put in the number of our workplace. Sure enough, within ten minutes, breeder woman was on the phone! I didn't know the pager was a numeric pager, since I had never used one before. I had been leaving voice messages, probably pleadingly near the end (please, all I want is just one little white furry dog with a curly tail...), but the pager could only recognize numeric input. She had one puppy left, the "runt of the litter" she told me on the phone, "and not a female like you wanted." "I don't care, that's fine", I said. "A male puppy is fine."

And the rest is history. This little puppy bounded into my house, smelling fresh, so white and furry, and so-o cute. He was about 6 weeks old then. That night I lay awake thinking up names for my new puppy: Kyoto.... maybe, Nieve.... maybe, Yuki (snow) ..... hmmm. That was it! Yuki! I fell asleep with Yuki nipping at my toes with his sharp little needle teeth, with Yuki curled up at the bottom of my futon. For thirteen years, Yuki. Yuke-ster. My furry white fluff ball.

teapot no. 46

See the whole set here.

Birthday Pot

I used these two photos as the model for my teapot no. 45. Interestingly, the watercolor looks more like my mom, I think, than it does me.

If your parents are no longer living or you live far from them or you were adopted, all you have to do is look at your own body: look at your face or the palm of your hand, and you will surely see your parent is with you all the time.

This is teapot no. 45 of 100 teapots, in celebration of my 45th birthday on Sunday.