Useful Things

Today I sewed a patch on for the first time, after doing some more-pressing hole mending with strong thread lent me by my roommate. The patches have animals on them. The pants will be gorgeous. Pictures soon!

Relatedly, remind me to show you my knitting. It's a little lumpy, but I'm rather proud.

For You

Halfway through a lazy Sunday,
on the couchboat, eating Joe Joes;
watching virtual dissections,
stalking Facebook, writing blog posts.
Poetizing random lines,
loving all this cold sunshine.
Going up to clean my room.
Hope the snow melts off you soon.

Friday, Friday ...

Wow, remember that song? No? Apparently last semester they played it every Pizza Night. Three times. Normal, dubstep and the version done by the administration (too late to link, but worth a Google if you like silly people lip synching in a club car). Anyway, although I had a pretty lazy Friday, I am not guilty of the lyrics "Yesterday was Thursday, tomorrow is Saturday." For that I consider my day well-spent.

I did do a little compost hauling today, and then a little chicken wrangling, and then some painting; then a lot of reading, all the way through my backyard chicken book and through a childhood favorite by Garth Nix. I'm going to feed the fishies now, but I hope everyone has a smashing weekend! I'll try to post again. Meanwhile here is a great picture of Josh knitting his beautiful, beautiful scarf.

And one of Skarp with a slice of her birthday cake! I'll spare you the pictures with sparklers. Skarp is a Tasty Things maker, a circus performer and an aerialist. The next airshow is on Parents' Weekend, Mom, so you'll get to see her and other ridiculously talented acrobats fly through the air on silks. For everyone else, I'm sure Ma'ayan will post pictures.

Introductions

A few more pictures for your viewing pleasure. I still have some in reserve, too, but I'll try to take more this week.

This is Hillary! Wow, I forgot, you don't know Hillary. She's my roommate (remember the roommate-to-be I came across while we were both wearing dandelion crowns?). She's showing Ben-the-adorable-punk-rock-vegan how to play the musical saw. Curled up on the couch is Eleanor, Kye's roommate, who sings in the choir at my church and is very quiet and responsible and also awesome. 

Chicken in a box!

This is Josh holding one of the eleven pear pies he made in his capacity as one of our four Tasty Things Makers. Eleven. Pies. Also note the true lattice crust. Josh is one of the few Harkies here over break. Maybe he'll make me tasty things?

In awe of Josh's pies. From left to right, meet Jackson, who is in New York right now occupying the streets; Hillary (face occluded); Selena, who with Eleanor has become one of Josh's baking buddies -- they usually put out something delicious and vegan while he does cream puffs or petit-fours; Aaron, a sometime chickenkeeper and one of our Head Cooks, who is known both for his delicious meals and for using every single pot in the kitchen; and Sam, one of our DLECs.

What a sentence. Anyway, I promised Occupy pictures, so here is one of us in the morning. The night I went, 51 people slept out. I think about a fifth of us were Obies.

As Promised

Photos! Now, if this were an Oberlin Blog (one's coming, I promise!) I would have to sort through them for the three or four most likely to interest people interested in Oberlin. (Many posts merit more, but of these probably not.) However, at least a few of you would probably like to see photos taken every day, so I haven't culled them. Without further ado:

This is the night we all came down to work on the Harkness flag (which never got done). A jam sprang up and the lounge was full of beautiful noise. I took individual pictures of most people but this one conveys the whole scene very well. 

This is Jake and Neva making very characteristic faces. They are pizza cooks (Neva a head cook, Jake a helper). Neva makes desserts the likes of which have never been seen. (Vegan custard!) It is because of her and Finn that Hark Pizza Night is the Pizza Night of Pizza Nights.

This is Kye. I was going to tell you it's not characteristic of him to be curled up on the floor, but it totally is. I think we had tickled him?

This is Sarah cutting her moccasins to size. We made scrap-denim moccasins together a few weeks ago; mine are cut, but not yet sewn. They're basically just DIY slippers.

from left to right, this is Cecilia, Pepper, Little Red and White Black Chicken. In the back looking cowed is Darling.

This is a single day's harvest of delicious cherry tomatoes!

Tomorrow, stay tuned for a few of Occupy Cleveland, plus more pictures from Flag Night so I can introduce you to more Harkies.

Photos!

It's sunny and beautiful so I'll be in the gardens. Expect photos from this fall, late tonight!

Home[work] Free

TO DO FOR FRIDAY: study for one exam
                                      mess around with one problem set
                                      complete and check one lab report
                                      write one thirty-source annotated bibliography

TO DO FOR SATURDAY: sleep
                                            take care of chickens
                                            laze around
                                            meet behind J-house at two to start working on the rain garden
                                            socialize
                                            sleep

FRIDAY NIGHT: a little bit euphoric. I cleaned my room after turning in my lab report, went and visited the Qremlin, made a newspaper hat, went to Keep for fudge; too late for description, reflection, but expect garden pictures tomorrow. (Today.)

News and Explorations

First, good news: I got second my chemistry quiz back today. On the front was a big red 35/35! For comparison: my first quiz grade was a 20 out of 35. Granted, thermo is a lot easier and more interesting than equilibrium, but I'm also reprioritized and re-energized, and it feels really good. Taking the quiz felt even better than getting it back -- the grade was just a bonus. 

I'm blogging from a lab in the gorgeous Kohl Building, unveiled just last year. I've never been here before, except to the rooftop terrace, out of curiosity -- it's a jazz-studies building, boasting practice rooms, a coffee bar, and a keycoded lab, none of which I need. (I was here cleaning the printer. It's a state-of-the-art building, and I was half-expecting some space-age printer to match, but it's just a 4350.) 

On my way here I delved for the first time into the warren of Con practice rooms, searching for a make-believe printer. I didn't find a printer, but the search was a little surreal: the hallways dingy, the sound transcendent. Sonatas danced through lintel cracks and met arias in the hall; fragments of concertos collided with blues riffs and skipped away, hand-in-hand. I didn't know the Con was so big. I guess I thought they all practiced in their rooms.

Anyway, I'm due back at Mudd soon to turn in the workbag. I'll have to find something new to do tomorrow -- I've done every student printer on campus already. Maybe you'll hear from me around nine. 'Til then, ciao!

Tuesday in California ...

 ... where I'd love to go someday. I've been feeling restless but really there's no place I'd rather be. It's just as well, since with no email from the student offering rides to the East coast, this is probably where I'm staying over break. So, here's the plan:
 - Get compost from last pre-break compost run delivered to the AJLC.
 - Prep corn bed with newspaper, cardboard, etc.; dump compost; cover with leaves.
 - Rinse and repeat for all the garden beds! Maybe not over break, though, due to the lack of compost.
 - Make pretty signage for the gardens, including a "Meet the Chickens" sign, a "Lasagna Garden" sign, a "Wild Garden" sign, and a "Permaculture" sign! More on each of those later.
 - Make a fox mask out of paper mache for Hallowe'en.
 - Feed myself. There's plenty of veggies and eggs, of course, and staples at Hark for the eating, and the kitchen will be open. Lots of cooking! Lots of eating! Lots of happiness when people come back to cook for me again.

That's all I have the energy for right now; tomorrow is a class day, not a work day, so I won't be up and moving around to guard against falling asleep. Good night, sleep tight, hope to see you at Thanksgiving if I don't come home for break!

Chickens, class, class, class, lunch, lab, homework, reading, dinner, chickens, meeting, time-wasting, chickens, blogging.

Or:

Woke to sunlight! Watered chickens.
Learned about meristems (sounds like a holiday),
two minutes sunlight, feet in the grass;
learned about -- well, wasn't paying attention.
then spent four minutes breathing dandelion breath;
learned about entropy! minor epiphanies.
Got a chocolate bar in campus mail as a thank-you from Eli.
Fed chickens -- ate rice -- fed chickens rice.
In lab, heated compounds, dripped acid, used a space-age color machine.
Did homework. Shared data. Read Claiborne. Went home.
Ate dinner with Darling drinking dregs of sunlight.
Met about food and fair labor.
Read Claiborne.
Blogged.

A Brief Torrent

Yesterday was a beautiful day, painted, apparently, by a young artist enamored with chiarroscuro: the clouds cantered across the sky; the sun was bold but fleeting. I ran errands, mostly. But running errands is much different carless -- not a chore but a chance to be out in the world.* I biked to Wal-Mart to return some pants in a wind so strong I felt it in my bones. I had to fight the wind to cross the parking lot, and to find more friction I dismounted and walked my bike up to the maw of the beast. It really felt like that. I have been thinking too much lately about Society.

Speaking of: Last night Andrea Gibson came and spoke and I haven't words so I won't try. The performance was amazing. I don't know if I would recommend that you look her up. Poetry, like faith, should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

Anyway, I wanted to blog today and I might again later but I have an ecology take-home exam due tonight and so far all I've done is look at it and stew.

*Then I went on a compost run in the OSCA truck and leaned out the window like a dog and waved to everyone I saw. So to tell you the truth errands are pretty great carful too.