It's Friday, I have a heap of work (among them several things that need to be dealt with soon, sooner, soonest) and no idea where all that time of all that week went to.

In addition, I am fresh out of a glorious idea of what to post today - so instead you get a gratuitous cat picture.





Of a relaxed cat.

Because cats are always something postable on the IntarWebz, right?

It's finally spring! Though it's still cool outside, the winter garden gets warm enough during the day to sit there, in a T-shirt, and enjoy the sunshine while working. The first crocuses are in bloom, most of our pruning work has been done, and it's really nice to be out in the garden and get the hands dirty again. Even though the garden is small, there is plenty of opportunity to get dirty hands...

And yesterday I put the first tomato and chili seeds into soil for this year. Much of them was seeds that I took from plants myself last year, so I will have an even harder time waiting for them to sprout than usually - since I cannot be sure that they will sprout. (Due to this, I might have put a few more seeds into the ground. Like usual... good thing we have friends and neighbours and family who do not mind a tomato plant or two in case they all grow!)

It's time to revisit (and re-vamp, or rather re-make) my info leaflet, and add a new one with info about workshops. Which means that I get to spend quality time with my camera, all kinds of picture-prettying programmes, my trusty layouting programme... and of course with all the little arghs and oh-noes connected with that.

One of the two pages of the workshop thingie is about finished now (at least I hope so) - there's still a few tweaks and stuff to be done, but I think the general layout and direction is like it will stay. Much of this progress is due to the book that I was sent teaching graphic design to non-graphic-designers...

The other page, however, is still much more uncooperative. I had this idea, you see? That touches on picture shape and alignment? That, together with a limited selection of piccies that can not all be re-done has turned out to be much more of a pain in the brain than I had expected. Well, never mind - I'm not ready yet to give up regarding that one, and I think I might be able to get it to a reviewable stage today.

I have been spring cleaning the bookshelf - there are quite a few journal issues that I have two copies of, plus a handful of other books just taking up shelf space since I do not use or need them.

It's mostly Exar Bilanz books and GHWK journal items, but a few other things are on the list as well. The list is German (since most of the books are as well). If you are interested, please download the list in .pdf format and have a look. I'd be happy for these things to find a new home where they will be appreciated!

Well, not a launch in the Bronze Ages, nor the launch of an actual old boat, but that of the replica made in the NMMC in Cornwall during the last eleven months.

A friend of mine was very much involved in this project, and I heard about it when they were preparing to get it started, more than a year ago. I'm really happy to see how nice the boat turned out. It's large, it's impressive, it's on Facebook (with lots of pics), it was sewn together out of planks and yew withies, and it will go out to sea for its first voyage on March 6.

That's the day after tomorrow!

In preparation to this event, you can watch the last stitch being made right here:


and day after tomorrow at 11 o'clock UK time (that's Greenwich time) you can hop over to this page where there will be a live webcam showing the boat launch. The actual launch is scheduled to be at 12 noon. Isn't it nice how modern technology makes it possible to see an old boat type being launched?

Edit note: Of course it's not tomorrow like first posted, but the day after tomorrow, since it's Monday today, not Tuesday. You can have some webcam time tomorrow too, though: 07:30 - 10:00 UK time, the cam will be on as well.

Cats are known for many things, and among these things is the fact that sometimes they pee on things. Now there's a whole lot of reasons for why a cat might pee on something - it smelled like pee before, the cat is stressed, the cat is in pain... but whatever the reason - the result is cat piss on something.

And that something might even be a manuscript. Which they might also not use as a perfect place to piss, but just walk over it.

Go follow this link to see for yourself. Me? I'll be checking on the cat now. Maybe she wants a book.

Thanks to a colleague tweeting, I stumbled across this really nice article about really nice research regarding the influence of our culture on how we perceive, for example, fairness. Or see the world. Or how easily we are fooled by optical illusions.
The research team's paper is titled "The Weirdest People in the World?”, it's 58 pages long (well, including the abstracts) and available for free online (just click the link).

When I read the article, I was instantly reminded of Chimamanda Adichie's speech about the danger of a single story... which sort of goes into the same direction. It's also a beautiful speech, and very thought-provoking, and I can really recommend it.

In case you have no time or no desire to follow those links, I can tell you in a nutshell what I personally am going to take away from this: It's hard to judge people from a distance; it's easy to fall into your own preconceptions that are based on your own background; it's way too easy to suppose that everyone else will see things similarly to you while that is probably not the case. And the further you get away from your own culture the greater the differences will probably be. Which also applies to getting away from your own culture in time - with the added complication that you can travel to pacific islands and try to figure out the cultural differences, but you can't travel back to the ninth century to do the same. So, just to be on the safe side, we should suppose that those medieval folks did think, and act, and perceive things much differently from us today.