I wasn’t going to do 7 Quick Takes this week; I told my husband, “I am not staying up late, and I mean it this time.” And then, as I was shutting down my computer, I remembered this bumper sticker I saw today:
What are these symbols? Other than the Keys of Peter, I don’t recognize any of them, because I guess I’m culturally illiterate like that. Is this like a Catholic version of the popular bumper sticker which many people have strong opinions about and this is not really a post about that other bumper sticker? Or is this just a different set of symbols?
UPDATE: Ha! I was WAY off – see the comments…
I’ve been using Google Plus for sharing photos for several months now instead of Flickr. Nobody in my extended family ever really “got” Flickr and Google Plus seems to work pretty well for the relatives who have Gmail accounts. But for those who don’t, it’s been pretty confusing. So now I’m thinking of switching back to Flickr. Anyone want to have a Google Plus vs. Flickr gang fight? Flickr is old-school so you best watch yourself.
This year, my two older kids go to a fine arts immersion program one day a week and it is seriously saving my sanity, homeschooling-wise. They really enjoy it, it’s not stressful in terms of requiring a bunch of outside commitments, and I have a day with my youngest, which is kind of fun. It also makes us more productive the other four days of the week because I know we need to squeeze everything into four days instead of five.
Having said that, all is not wine and roses around the homeschool shelf-and-rooms-into-which-books-spill, as one individual in particular rants about how much he hates school right up until the moment when he grasps the latest concept in long division, at which point he bursts into song. I tell myself this would all happen later in the day re: homework if they were in traditional school
I have spent WAY TOO MUCH MENTAL ENERGY pondering the Ideal Travel Journal. I actually know a guy with a cool print shop and I may or may not have commissioned journals for my kiddos, depending upon whether or not that was a special favor he is doing for me because we had him over for dinner and made steaks. He also has this zombie novel you may have heard of.
Anyway, tonight I spent a good 45 minutes in the sketchbook aisle at Michael’s. I am eschewing the need for vegan leather hand-sewn-by-monks blank paper books in favor of a $10 mixed media sketchbook that costs $15 at Amazon for some reason
I also think the plainness of the cover will help me overcome my terminal case of Journal Paralysis, where nothing I could write or draw could ever be worthy of the beautimousness of the blank book in which I am scrawling. This book has no expectations of me. I am free to be ridiculous and/or bad at drawing. Perfect for traveling.
My newest laundry-folding show on Netflix is Warehouse 13. Have you seen it? It’s fun, lightweight sci-fi, about a mysterious warehouse of artifacts from the past that have special – usually destructive – powers, and the team of agents who retrieve stolen or newly discovered artifacts. Each episode involves an item that belonged to a Famous Historical Person and is imbued with powers associated with that person – so, for example, Mata Hari’s stockings enable the wearer to become a perfect seductress, and Edgar Allan Poe’s pen…does weird stuff that I don’t remember because I was trying to match a whole household’s worth of mateless socks and wasn’t paying too close attention.
There’s appointment television, and then there’s chore television.
And then there are virtuous people who eschew Netflix so that they can devote themselves to inner contemplation. Those people probably write in really nice blank books, too.
The journal thing is related to our upcoming trip to France, for which I am trying to not overpack. My kids really like to draw, and so do I, and so I am hereby giving myself permission to do terrible drawings of France, because hey, it’s just a $10 notebook.
I recently happened upon a box of unopened artist pencils, graphite, erasers, and other supplies. When my dad was at home, receiving hospice care, he really liked looking out the window at the various birds that would come to our birdfeeder. He loved to doodle and would send me cards with clever, minimalist sketches from time to time. I bought him the art supplies thinking he could draw from his bedside, but his condition soon deteriorated and he never used them.
I haven’t wanted to open up the pencils, even though it’s been ten years since he passed away, but now, I showed them to my kids and explained that we will get to use them on our big trip. Feels like an okay reason to not let them sit unused any longer.
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Your last Take was so sweet and made me cry for the loss of your dad and of my dad too.
I prefer spiral-bound journals because they lay flat when opened. The ones that are bound like real books never get any love in my house.
I think a special trip is the perfect time to use your special art supplies!
Also, I love Flickr for the sole reason that it offers a TON of creative-commons-licensed hi-res images, which is very important to poor graphic artists like myself
That’s definitely true re: Flickr. The main reason I switched to Google Plus initially was that I have an Android phone and it makes it really easy to upload photos. But now that I have an actual DSLR, that doesn’t really make much of a difference in terms of which site to use.
I do like the Picasa desktop application, which integrates with Google+ or Google Plus or whatever.
I tried to get into Warehouse 13. I gave it 4 or 5 episodes. It never hooked me. Maybe I should have been folding laundry or doing something useful while watching. I was clearly giving it too much attention.
Do you watch Fringe? Warehouse 13 is my “Fringe is almost back on” replacement show. It doesn’t require as much knowledge about the underlying mythology, etc., but I probably wouldn’t watch it if I didn’t want something to be background for menial tasks.
http://www.tonyfelich.com/2012/08/a-bumper-sticker-i-might-consider.html has a list of them…including the one you posted. Not the papal keys..
Hahahahaha! Oh, I’m SO embarrassed. But thank you! For a person who lives in Texas, I don’t know a thing about…the actual symbols on said bumper sticker. (Answering with an air of mystery so that folks will click your link to see how amusingly wrong I was with my guess).
In my defense, when sitting in traffic, that middle symbol doesn’t look THAT different from the papal keys. And there’s the yellow cross on the blue background. It could be religious…
Ha! This bumper sticker business makes me laugh. I guess we’ll have to save our heartfelt theological reflection for another sticker.
Oh, enjoy the pencils and enjoy France!
The Warehouse show sounds very cool.
I’ve definitely wondered about the symbols on that sticker too.
Warehouse 13 does sound interesting. If I got Chuck Yeager’s flight suit could I fly like him? I think I’d really like to have Michael Jordan’s shoes.
In lieu of carrying an actual travel journal book, I buy one postcard per day. Then I jot down whatever I did that day on the back of the postcard. The space limitations make the prospect of Writing A Journal Entry less threatening, and the built-in visual is nice, too.
I hope when one of your children does finally grasp a new concept you jump up and down and shout, “See I told you you could do it. Who was right? Who was right? Mama! Say it! Mama was right!”
Or not. Hugs work too. I always cherish those moments.
“tonight I spent a good 45 minutes in the sketchbook aisle at Michael’s” That’s right. I spend a like amount of time there in the marker/prismacolor aisle trying to match brick samples.
“free to be bad at drawing” You hafta get the bad stuff out of the way before the good stuff will come out.
I was a big fan of “The Lost Room” which seems to be what “Warehouse 13″ is based on, but I have yet to give it a chance. There’s too much other stuff on, and “The Walking Dead” became my don’t-pay-attention-show-because-it’s-kind-of-good-but-not-really show over the summer while I was on break from teaching. We haven’t had a truly great sci-fi show on since “Battlestar Galactica” left the airwaves in 2010.
We haven’t had a truly great sci-fi show on since “Battlestar Galactica” left the airwaves in 2010.
Good sir! What of Fringe?!
Ha, Fringe was one of those shows that got the axe when more good shows kept coming out and the days did not add hours. Many apologies if I am offending you, though!
It’s okay – the show was weak in spots, but we have really enjoyed it overall.