Friday, November 8, 2024
No Politics Today
These pictures are from a wall of student art that I pass every day when I go down to our Lower School. I love the variety and the harmonic colors. Looks to me like a teacher set out some flowers in vases and had the kids paint a still life. It's fascinating how each person has a distinct vision or style, even at a very young age.
I'm making a no-politics vow today. To quote the title of Roz Chast's memoir, "Can't We Talk About Something More PLEASANT?"
How about the fact that I solved my home movie crisis? Remember how I recently discovered that the thumb drive that held the digitized version of my family's old Super 8 movies had died, and I'd somehow failed to back it up? So then I was left with DVDs, which are better than nothing, but I wanted a video file I could post online and edit as needed.
I couldn't copy directly from the DVD because the files were locked and/or in a strange format -- VOB, or something like that. So I took the DVD to work and one of the computer guys there figured out a workaround. Et voila! I now have the movies in a simple MP4 file, which I have posted privately to YouTube as a backup (minus a scene of me in the bath as an infant, which I edited out, because YouTube gets squirrely about naked children and rightly so).
Or how about overdue books? You may be wondering if I have successfully retrieved all our summer checkouts. The answer is still no, believe it or not, but I'm down to only about five kids who are holding out. One of them has his book in his bag, according to Mom, but he has yet to drop it off in the book return -- a process that should take a fraction of a second but that for some students takes weeks. It's always amazing to me that a kid would rather needlessly carry a book around in a backpack than drop it off in the library.
Or how about rescuing plants? My favorite topic! I had to walk to the post office yesterday to return a book the library accidentally bought twice. On the way back, I found part of a flat of violas next to the trash bins on the St. John's Wood high street. They were wilted but otherwise fine, so I brought them home last night and I'll pot them up this weekend. Violas are good cold-weather annuals so they should last well into winter. I guess someone bought too many bedding plants and simply discarded what they didn't need.
I've also been reviving the Christmas (Thanksgiving?) cactus at work, the parent plant of my own cacti. It had a terrible mealybug infestation -- every time I looked at it it made me itch. So I treated it with alcohol a few days ago and then laboriously lugged it outside to hose it down. It's much better now but it's going to need repeat treatments. As if I don't have enough to do!
These paintings are very artistic and pleasant
ReplyDeleteAren't they? I love the color choices.
DeleteThose paintings are good to see...the result of a teacher knowing that when you set twenty artists to the same project or brief...you get twenty different correct answers!!
ReplyDeleteWell done on the plant care...not just a responsible librarian!!
Exactly -- there are no wrong answers when it comes to art!
DeleteI love the quilt effect of the paintings displayed. And your creating a respite in here today. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThey would make an interesting quilt!
DeleteWhy the no-politics vow? Did something happen on that front? Being able to access computer geeks is one of the very few perks of working in a school.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I take advantage (in a good way) of our tech department all the time!
DeleteUf! Mealy bugs are a nightmare! I love the student art!
ReplyDeleteThey really are disgusting, and they're so hard to get rid of.
DeleteYou sure do have a green thumb. And I love those paintings. I have always loved student art. I have a lot of it up in my house from projects that students have done over the years.
ReplyDeleteIt's great when displayed together, with an obviously common theme.
DeleteGreat picture wall, so cheerful.
ReplyDeleteI agree!
DeleteI have been speaking of more pleasant things--except for the blog post I have today--and will speak again, but we all need a breath.
ReplyDeleteI love the kid's art. At first I thought those were pictures of quilts!
You and several others! I can see the quilt comparison.
DeleteThe children's artwork is just so wonderful. Each picture a picture within itself of some child's spirit and eye.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on getting those old home movies into a format that they can be viewed in. AND for mostly getting the overdue books in.
Those violas will cheer you for many months.
Exactly -- I love how personal and distinct they all are. It's fascinating to think how individual humans are even at such a young age.
DeleteI love the children's artwork. It would make a beautiful quilt.
ReplyDeleteIt would! I wonder if painted designs could be transferred to fabric? It would probably cost a million dollars.
DeleteI always enjoyed walking through my kids' school and seeing the artwork on display and the various interpretations of the assignment. In my own home, we have turned our front hallway into a display of sorts where we have select art works from all of us, hung up on display. It brings me great pleasure every time I stop to admire them.
ReplyDeleteI can see that. They really are little captured elements of time and experience.
DeleteI love those paintings - they're my favorite kind of art. And I love that you are a plant whisperer - it always makes me smile to hear your latest plant shenanigans.
ReplyDeleteThey never stop, do they? So many plants, so little time!
DeleteI love the pretty artwork by the children! Thanks for sharing it. I still have samples of my children's art hanging on the walls in my bedroom. Now adding some grandchildren's art to that!
ReplyDeleteGlad you got your movies back. I always think that many of my childhood memories actually stem from the home movies as we watched them again and again so they are fixed in our minds. Have a nice weekend, Steve.
It is very interesting to consider whether our "memories" are really memories, or mental images influenced by photography and other visual records of an event. There's a whole philosophical discussion to be had here!
DeleteTwo across two down I like
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorites as well!
Deletethe kids' paintings are great. children are so free and uninhibited when it comes to art and then somewhere in middle school they convince themselves that they can't paint or draw and they stop convinced that their efforts are terrible. what a shame.
ReplyDeleteThat's also about the time they stop reading books. They become "too cool." (Or whatever kids say nowadays.)
DeleteI love the kids art! Your photos of them look like a colorful quilt. It's good to hear you found a way to get the movies to work. I'm going to have a recovery project myself. I need to recover all the things I had posted in my "Notes" app on my phone. Yesterday, I noticed the whole app was empty. All the files gone. I kept a lot of personal information there, dates of vaccinations, prescriptions, dates of foreign travel, etc. I hope I can get it back because it will take a lot of work to reconstruct.
ReplyDeleteOh, yikes! I wonder how that happened? Do you save things to the cloud? Maybe they'll be there.
DeleteI did get them back. It was in the cloud but I still don't know why they disappeared. There were lots of queries about the same problem, so I'm not the only one it happened to.
DeleteMy favorite comment from a kid with a missing library book is "I can't find my book but it's not overdue." Some kids think little different than the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteHa! Yeah, I get that comment a lot. Or, in regards to an overdue book, "I know where it is." Well, BRING IT IN, then!
DeleteThe art wall is great. The children must love seeing their art on display.
ReplyDeleteThankfully there are usually good work arounds for tech problems. You are lucky to have a resident guru on-hand.
Good bug infestation rescue. You saved another plant!
I'm usually pretty good (if I do say so myself) at coming up with my own workarounds, but this situation really stumped me.
DeleteI love that art wall! I'm trying to keep my small pots of cyclamen alive until I can replant them in the pot where the lantana refuses to completely die. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, it's a good idea to put them together. Then you'll have lantana in summer and cyclamen in autumn/winter!
DeleteIs a viola similar to a pansy? I know I could look it up myself, but I also know you like talking plants!
ReplyDeleteYeah, exactly. They're small pansies. (I never even heard of a viola until a few years ago -- I think I've always called them pansies.)
DeleteIt is is interesting to see children's art, that is to wonder what they were thinking or trying to get across. That's all lost once they begin trying to paint well.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I love how it's really THEM, just doing what they want to do.
DeleteThe kid art is the best. I love seeing something like this, one subject and loads of interpretations. It's just so darned happy and we need that today. Glad to hear your movies are safe and that another plant is being cared for.
ReplyDeleteWe DO need that right about now!
DeleteFor the mealy bug cactus I suggest changing the soil and the pot too, I can't be positive but I suspect the mealy bugs hibernate or live in the soil when tey aren't on the plants.
ReplyDeleteOK, good to know. It's not really practical for me to repot the plant but maybe I can turn over the soil and spray the outside of the pot.
DeleteP.S. Love all the kids paintings, one caught my eye right away, top selection second row down, third from the left.
ReplyDeleteSunflowers in the snow!
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7cKOaBdFWo&ab_channel=TheWeeklyShowwithJonStewart
ReplyDeletewhat we need right now, brilliant clarity!
DeleteJohn Stewart (and HCR) are always good at distilling reality!
DeleteI love all the colors in the art work!
ReplyDeleteMe too!
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