pickers anonymous

hi. my name is sarah and i dead-end lilies. i've been picking withered flowers for most of my life now. i can't remember when it started...or even the last time i walked by a lily patch without having the urge to pick. the overwhelming impulse has ruined the last couple of weeks of my walks to work. you see, there's this long row of day lilies along the route to work, and every morning i get delayed by picking the dead lilies off their stiff stems. and as i am picking i usually wonder, 'why didn't God arrange to have these past-prime flowers fall as soon as they finished being beautiful?' He could have saved me a lot of trouble if i didn't have to play clean-up every morning.
but in the end, i have to say that i am thankful for the opportunity to feel useful.

actually, this morning i didn't dead-end at all. i guess that means i am celebrating one day of pickers sobriety. i'm gonna have a drink...or two. maybe three.

negative space

if you are a musician, a writer, a painter, or even if you get dressed in the morning, please read this blog.

reason: i am under the strong opinion that negative space is a very very important component of anything and everything that is composed, written, painted, or worn. let me explain.

imagine your favorite song. can you hear it playing in your head? my bet is that as long as your favorite composer is neither stravinsky nor britten (jk, dave), the song is pleasing to your ears. and why is the music beautiful? well, i am sure there are many reasons, but one very important aspect is that there are both 'positive' and 'negative' notes, i.e., play times and rest times. if the song were either playing or resting exclusively, then your ears would either tire from the many many notes, or not hear a sound at all. a balance between notes and rests is ideal and my bet is that the most pleasing ratio is 50:50. but i could be wrong. please comment if you think i am wrong.

now, what about getting dressed in the morning? are you one to put on a polka dotted shirt and striped pants with huge hoop earrings, 5 rings on each finger, cowboy boots, and a sailor hat? no, please, no. that would be waaaay too much positive space. maybe what would be best is to employ a little negative space here. pick your favorite of these items, and wear just the cowboy boots, or maybe one of the rings. then, make this item 'pop' by surrounding it with negative space. i.e., a monotone ensemble that compliments or contrasts the item on display.

and finally, please focus your attention on the photo above. can you distinguish the negative from the positive spaces? what is their ratio? would the photo be better if i had included more or less or either?

thats all. rock on and enjoy your negative space.

abstract storyboard

this post is intended for my mentor:
see the green and yellow post-its in the above photo for my HBV meeting abstract. read left to right, top to bottom. the title is, 'sequences within the HDV genotype III editing structure control editing efficiency and structural destiny'. i will come to your office for discussion points.

urushiol rashes. they ain't spreadin'

the itching started on my wrist. so i scratched. two days later, my neck displayed a red rash and i scratched again. a day after that, my chest was on fire. of course, i scratched.

i am fearful that by scratching the original rash on my arm, i caused it to spread (via the transfer of oils) to my neck and chest. but if this was the case, why isn't my entire body covered in itchy rashes - because i am sure that my neck and chest are not the only places that were touched after my intense arm-scratching episodes.
my hunch is that the rashes on the neck and chest were delayed...possibly by a traffic jam in the conduit for IgE cells?!

after a quick wikipedia search, i believe urushiol oil is to blame for the rash. both poison ivy and mango peels contain this oil. both, i have been in contact with in the past week. i am therefore diagnosing myself with a 'urushiol induced contact dermatitis'. and i believe, according to wikipedia, that this kind of rash can appear over a period of time. therefore, it can be concluded that all itchy/rashy areas of my body had simultaneous oil exposure, and it took a while for my immune system to react everywhere needed.

satisfyingly, it seems i can scratch til the cows come home, because this rash ain't spreadin' nowhere.

.nostril symmetry.

i've been thinking a lot about symmetry in the past week. my thoughts started when i listened to an NPR feed about how symmetry defines beauty. the gentleman interviewed on the program claimed that he did a study showing that female peacocks choose their mate based on the symmetry of the male's tail feathers. he implied that this was the sole basis for peacock romance. but i bet there is a little more to wooing a mate than spreading a symmetrical deck of 3-foot blue-green fronds. (and i have a feeling it has to do with the eye do-hickey at the top of the feather).
so, in order to test whether symmetry is the sole definer of beauty, i chose to do a little experiment of my own. in this study, i photographed 4 pairs of nostrils from some very beautiful noses of people i know. and i said to myself, all of these noses are very aesthetically pleasing. they must be symmetrical. but how do i test symmetry without a surfeit of sophisticated software? well, i assumed that outward beauty is recapitulated within and thus a nose that is beautiful from the outside must have beautiful nostrils within. right?! soooo, my hypothesis here is that all four of these beautiful noses will have symmetrical nostrils.
what i find is that they are not all symmetrical! see for yourself! no ruler required.
i guess i have to say that the results of my test are inconclusive because my sample size was way small, i didn't measure totally accurately, and ...yadayadayada. the noses are beautiful yet not symmetrical!!!
what i am getting at here, is that i think (and have partially, sort-of proved) that beauty has way more to it than just symmetry. what about colors or healthy glows?

¿ can bench choice disclose personality traits ?

definitely! whether the choice in bench is subconscious or not, your personality is directly related to which seat you choose. ...just like if you were to choose to buy cabbage and beans from the supermarket, we would know a little about your favorite past times.

the bench on the left seems 'proper' and takes a very serious, no jokes kind of gal to sit in. the bench on the right requires a risk taker. the sitter must be outgoing. she must be animated. she must love the idea that the geometries experienced by onlookers is quite entertaining.

which bench would you sit in?