Blog Post

Wit, unker, git: The lost medieval pronouns of English intimacy - English used to have more pronouns, specifically ones to denote two people.
Why So Many Control Rooms Were Seafoam Green - The short answer is color theory! Interesting look at workplace color usage.
A Brief History of Domain Names - A jaunt through domain name history, written last year to commemorate the 40th birthday of dot com.

So, I just thought I'd mention that I have a Tumblr blog. If you like scrolling through images and you seem to like my style then I invite you to check it out. Or not, totally up to you. I'll never know if you were there or not! You can get it via the RSS feed or go to the desktop version, which has a really cool green gradient background. I'm usually reblogging fancy jewelry (mainly art nouveau things), pixel art and old web gifs, cat things, the occasional meme, Godzilla. It's just whatever caught my fancy!

I did something pretty exciting this weekend - I went on a little road trip! I love going on road trips and it has been absolutely forever since I've been able to. It wasn't a long trip - just down to Tucson. But there was a really neat exhibit that I wanted to see - Ray Harryhausen: Miniature Models of the Silver Screen at The Mini Time Machine Museum. I have a special fondness for the miniature work in the old Sinbad films and Clash of Titans. Plus, I just adore tiny things!

This was my first time going to the museum and it is truly a wonderful and magical place! They have all kinds of miniatures and other small things. Some of their items were from the 1700s and they might have had even older ones. They named the museum "the Time Machine" because you can travel across the ages through their exhibits. If you like miniatures, head on over to their site. They have some videos showcasing some of their exhibits and many write-ups on specific pieces in their collection. You, too, can revel in the marvelous teeny tiny things!

On the way to the museum I made a slight detour to a site that's going to get written up for my Off the Beaten Path page. When I get that uploaded I'll make sure to mention it here.

Here are some photos from the museum. They aren't the best pictures - everything was in a glass case and it was very glare-y. Some of the pictures are at weird angles because I was trying to minimize the glare. And some are just because I'm a crap photographer! I'm trying to embrace more analog in my life so instead of using the phone I was rocking my Canon SX170 IS. Maybe the photos could have been better if I used it more often and was more familiar with all of its settings! I don't usually do it with my blog photos but I made it so these will open in another window and most will embiggen.

Here are some pics from the Harryhausen exhibit

Miniature figure of the Kraken from the Clash of Titans movie.

the Medusa figure from the Clash of the Titans

The Medusa from the Clash of the Titans.

miniature figure of the giant ammonite squid from Mysterious Island

Giant squid/ammonite/nautiloid from Mysterious Island.

The Hydra and 3 Fighting Skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts.

And here are some doll houses/miniature room box scenes

Photo that is angled upwards of a 3 story, 9 room miniature house. The front wall is pulled away so the inside is visible. Each room is decorated, including some of the ceilings. There are dolls in some of the rooms performing daily activities.

Dollhouse with 9 rooms. Angled upward to catch the ceiling detail in the middle rooms.

A miniature dress store. Above a rounded arched door are the words MON TRESOR. Through the windows you can see chandeliers, dresses on mannequins hats on dispay cases and cabinets with tiny items. On either side of the shop door on the outside are long display cases filled with all manner of tiny things like jewelry, bottles, handbags.

MON TRESOR, a miniature dress store. Look at all the teeny things displayed in the windows!

Photo that is angled upwards showing an apothecary's desk. It has many drawers, most of which are pulled open, and 3 cabinets at the bottom with open doors. The desk is full of all sorts of bottles and jars, test tubes and other lab equipment, a mortar and pestle, books and a bust of a bearded man.

Slightly cockeyed but look how cool! An apothecary's desk just filled with all sorts of bottles and jars!

A miniature display room box called The Silver Collection. It is a large fancy room with 2 large lighted display cases on either side, filled with all manner of miniature glass and silver items. The room has 2 chandeliers on either side, 2 square tables on the left with an assortment of dinnerware, 2 larger round tables on the right with an assortment of dinnerware, a glass topped table with a gold pedestal base in the center on top of an red Persian rug. There are 4 white upholstered chairs with arms arranged around the table. In the back of the room is a slightly raised area set off by a column on either sie, a door, and a display case on either side holding many small items of dishware. There is a small wooden round table in front of the door. On top is a vase with a bouquet of multicolored flowers.

Silver Queen. There is a short video on the museum site taking a closer look at part of this display and talking about the silver and glass pieces.

A miniature room box showing a weaving studio. There are weavings on the wall, hanks of yarn hanging from the wall and yarn on cones on shelves. There is a large loom on the right side of the room. There is an office area in the back. There is a work table and chair on the left side of the room. There is a long shelf up by the ceiling that extends from the right side of the room and covers the back wall. It is full of boxes, baskets, books, pictures and all sorts of other little things.

Weaving Studio - This room also has a short video on the museum site taking a closer look at the studio.

Pottery Studio

A 2 story miniature room box that is an homage to the designer Erte. It has paintings with his designs and dolls in dresses he designed. There is a seating area in the front left with 2 armchairs, a tall table between them and a low table in front. Behind the armchair seating area is a set of elevator doors. On either side of them are 2 round alcoves with dolls wearing Erte dresses. To the right is a raised area with 3 steps leading up to what looks like a work area with a chair and desk which is covered in papers. It is in an alcove with stained glass windows. There are 2 leopards on the floor in front of the desk and next to a marble base holding a statue of. On the second floor on the left mimics the bottom floor with the elevator doors and alcoves. Above the work area on the right is a small seating area through a door that holds a chair, some tables and some other decorations.

An homage to Erté - I love Erté's designs! You can read about him here

Listening

Some podcasts I listened to this week:

Reading

Before I get into what I'm reading, I wanted to share something from one of the blogs I follow:

"I picked up My Dumpling, Your Dumpling because I wanted a challenge. I think it’s important to read outside my usual genre preferences — not for escapism, but because good fiction offers a particular worldview. When an author succeeds, you’re not just reading a story; you’re trying on a different cognitive framework. That’s the part I find interesting." - REVIEW: My Dumpling, Your Dumpling by KE Bartlet (4-stars)

I thought the concept of "trying on a different cognitive concept" was interesting. This isn't something I do. I rarely stray from my preferred genres. I wonder if I might be cheating myself of something.

Anyway!

I finished The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson and, man, I am feeling a way about this book! I am still just gobsmacked by all the weird and occasionally improbable stuff that went down. But I am also pissed off at the attitude of the thief and the fact that he basically got away with what he did because of a diagnosis given by a psychologist who is associated with a lot of controversy. It kind of reminds me of when a drunk driver who ended up killing people got off due to "affluenza". Why am I so mad? Because it's unfair. Yes, I know. Life is unfair. For some reason this just really bothered me.

I'm currently reading the second book in the Cathy Marsden mystery series, Faces of the Dead. Cathy is a Leeds policewoman in the 1940s and she has been seconded to the Special Investigation Branch. This second case with SIB involves the strange disappearance of top criminals in Leeds. I really enjoyed the first book in this series and this one is just as good.

Watching

Best Son and I were going to watch a movie from my list last week - either The Mastermind or Left-Hand Girl. But he was really tired that afternoon and thought that either movie might not have enough action to keep him awake. So we ended up watching Seven Kings Must Die, the movie that wrapped up the Last Kingdom series. I really enjoyed that series and I'm glad they were able to wrap it up with a final movie, although it seems to me they fit a whole season's worth of storyline into a 2 hour movie. Destiny is all!

I watched a pretty cool video by Dami Lee on YouTube: Can Humans REALLY Leave Earth? [Interstellar Spaceship]. I've talked about her before - she's an architect and she does a lot of speculative architecture videos that I find fascinating. In this one, she and her team tested 3 different generation-ship ideas against the contraints of ..."gravity, radiation, closed-loop life support, cultural continuity across 400 years, and the selection problem — choosing who gets to go."

Link Lagniappe

Science Fiction is Dying. Long Live Post Sci-Fi?

The Offbeat Sari challenges cliches made about the 'traditional' and 'uncomfortable' sari

British Library Medieval Manuscripts Blog Posts - The British Library has a series of blogs about the medieval manuscripts in their collection. In Ferocious Fish, they take a look at several savage fish found in a 13th century Psalter.
Archaeologists Deciphered 2 Ancient Tablets—They Contained Records of Blood Money Payments
How We Think of Time Depends on the Language We Use For It - Cool look at how the language you speak can affect how you view and speak about time.
The Jellies That Evolved a Different Way To Keep Time - And speaking of time, these jellies track time in an unusual way.
Too Small to Mess With - Low power, community radio stations - what they are and how they're different from public radio stations.
Arabic document from 17th-century rubbish heap confirms existence of semi-legendary Nubian king
Toronto’s Winter Stations - there is a yearly contest in Toronto where artists are tasked with taking lifeguard stations (which are unused during the winter) and turning them into interactive public art installations.
Inhabit, Outhabit - A guide to 29 collective housing projects from across the world.

OK, that wraps up another week!

When I first started using Zonelets I had Disqus set up as a commenting system but it looked obnoxiously ugly and I ditched it. Some people are happy to not have blog interaction but I'd love to hear from you if you have any thoughts you want to share! You can respond through my guestbook or email. If you found this link on Discord or the 32-Bit Cafe Discourse, you can message me there or leave a message on my Neocities profile page.