Mutterings - Nov 30

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. That’s awesome! :: Fist bump
2. Moldy :: Cheese
3. Cloth :: Damp (probably goes with the above!)
4. Boys :: will be....
5. Chains :: Slaves
6. Tennis :: Elbow
7. Chart :: Pi
8. Band :: Aid
9. Clinking :: Ice cubes
10. Pores :: Examines (closely)

Teaser Tuesday - Nov 24

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

'Yes, your Highness. Chota fought well,' said Jahan. He did not tell her how the animal had gored soldiers, and how he still felt guilty about having taught him to do so.

From Elif Shafak's 'The Architect's Apprentice' - our book group book of the month. Here's the review from the Spectator. So far, an easy read which I'm quite enjoying, lots of derring-do and holds the attention, as that review says there's a simplicity which might almost suggest a children's book apart from some uncompromising scenes. Shafak is a Turkish author who conjours up 16th century Istanbul well and in the plot I'm about to get to Rome and Michelangelo!

Prayer

This poem by Carol Ann Duffy seems appropriate with the debate about an advert containing the Lord's prayer

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, a small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child's name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, a radio's prayer —
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

It was quoted in a piece for Remembrance in a Guardian earlier this month.

Mutterings - Nov 22

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Plenty of :: questions (but no answers?)
2. Peanut :: Farmer
3. Gulp :: Gaping (I think I had Gaping Ghyll in mind)
4. Framed! :: You've been
5. Caged :: Animal
6. Chilly :: Morning
7. Instrument :: Solo
8. Officer :: Krupke
9. Solution :: Purple (going back many years all chemistry lesson solutions seemed to be purple, maybe the teacher could keep better tabs on what was happening if they were vivid?!)
10. Dolphin :: School (or is that porpoises?)

Tarn again

I've done a bit more on that terragen mountain scene and have installed the new erosion shader. I think I need to limit the erosion a bit!

And from a slightly different viewpoint having sorted out some more things:

From the same file having moved the camera and added a few more things, maybe I need to calm down those stones in the foreground a bit?

(I had to recover this post there appears to be some sort of blogger bug where changing tabs while editing ends up with a different post in the edit window and if you save it it overwrites the original!)

Getting boulder

After working my way through Neuspadrin's
fake stones shader tutorial here's my boulder.
Just lying on the ground with the default background - with some added shaders. Base of the boulder looks a bit as if it has been wrapped in clingfilm maybe that's the redirect shader altitude?

Teaser Tuesday -Nov 17

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

It is now William who is stepping into the sunset and Dorothy who has lost direction, looking behind her as she goes. She writes up the honeymoon as is she were feeling her way back into herself.

A final teaser from The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth' by Frances Wilson. I said last time I teased from this book that I was finding it very hard going. I found the final 3 chapters a lot easier. Maybe I was getting into the style but it did feel as if there were more of a narrative thread I could get a handle on towards the end. The honeymoon was that of William and Mary Wordsworth, Dorothy was 'just' an onlooker. I was reading in parallel with this the short stories of Somerset Maugham and it was spooky to be reading his tale the Bookbag alongside this (totally coincidentally!) which deals with a tale of brother sister incest told in the light of the probable relationship between Lord Byron and his sister!

Mutterings - Nov 16

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Polish :: Solidarity! (or maybe French)
2. Reshare :: Social media
3. Quality :: Street
4. Ordeal :: Fiery
5. Raindrop :: Prelude (Piano work by Chopin)
6. Cute! :: Kitten!
7. Soil :: Compost
8. Ice cream :: Freezer
9. Suffering :: Silently
10. Pressure :: Cooker

Mutterings - Nov 9

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Wired :: Ethernet
2. Whine :: Threaten
3. Umbrella :: Company
4. Wing :: Right
5. Corrupt :: Organization (trying not to name names!)
6. Symbolize :: View
7. Week :: Hours (as in working)
8. Wine :: Red!
9. Submit :: Button
10. Weird :: Atmosphere

Mutterings - Nov 2

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Habitually :: Check List
2. Generational :: Gap
3. Proudly :: Stance
4. Determined :: Look
5. Consoled :: Sympathy
6. Hosted :: Web
7. Creepy :: Spectral
8. Yelled :: in pain
9. Inept :: Broken
10. Success story :: Agile (software development, though whether agile(tm) is a success story is another matter!)