She’s an artist. Her prefered medium: Head & Shoulders.
Tag: Art
The Dorsey-Lee Family attempted making valentines this year. We had two tries: one with finger paint and the other with markers.
The finger paint didn’t go as I planned (surprise!). Moxie was less a fan of finger painting than I thought she would be but towards the end she stepped up and slapped some paint on paper. We used cookie cutters to make heart shapes too. Then she took a break at the end and rested her head on my leg.
Our second effort was today with a box of hologram dinosaur valentines. We gave Moxie markers and let her go to town. In both tries we taped the thing she was painting to keep it still. That seemed to be a win.
We are sending out a couple and giving some to our friends at daycare. Really it was about seeing if we could do any kind of art. Turns out we can. So that’s fun!
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
In honor of what I’ve heard about the Hobbit, this post has a long and unnecessary preamble. Those with valuable time may wish to skip to the contest itself, the beginning of which is obvious even though it is incorrectly called a game. (It’s clearly a contest.)
Moxie is soon moving to her own room.
How does this affect me, you say?
That answer is currently unknown to science, so, officially, we have no comment. Unofficially, we expect you will be affected by the move, and that, in effect, that effect will be large relative to the effect on you of other things that have affected you.
Oh my, you say, then perhaps I should help!
Yes, otherwise you would risk being a feckless FoM, effectively.
FoM, you say?
Friend, Family or Financier of Moxie. You pick. (You may pick up to three, but must pick at least one. The last one. Pick the last one.)
Oh, you say.
Seriously?
This all a little Moxie-centric, you say, don’t you think?
You’re the one reading the blog that openly talks about her fecal fecundity.
You say, fair.
Yes. And listen, she’s moving to the other room soon. So let’s continue. Preparations really must be made.
Of course, of course! What can I, you say, do? Can I, you say, set her room up?
Well, Bob and Teresa have already done most of the heavy lifting and fancy interior design, so you can’t help there. The room is as it will be.
Hmmm, you say, mmmm.
Then perhaps I can get Moxie stuff to put in in her room to make it all feel more roomy?
Well, you’re always welcome to send Moxie stuff. But a lot of people have already thought of that, so the room is decently roomy. Perhaps try another command.
You say this: Well, poop.
Oh dear! Such language from a supposedly winning adventurer!
Say what?!?
Wait….
>go downstairs , you type.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
>Light the candle , you humor me.
It is not clear what you want to burn the candle with.
Ahhhh, everyone in the world says!
>LIGHT THE CANDLE WITH THE MATCH!
The match is not burning; you cannot light things with the match.
Just kidding. The room is lit and to the east you see a great idea for how you can help Moxie out with her room!
…, you don’t say.
The east. There’s the idea. Go over there. East.
<rude gesture>, you sign.
All right, all right. Let me do if for you:
>Go east
You come upon an old, battered sign that you can just barely make out. It reads:
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The Name Moxie’s Dragons Dragon Naming Game!
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Ok, everyone, Moxie has dragons, and they look like this:
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| The similarities between the purple dragon in the middle and the blue dragon next to it are a great example of convergent evolution. While both have bulbous bodies, rectusian tails, and ovid ears, their closest common ancestor is the primordial wing, which is the earliest undisputed organism in the dragon taxonomy. |
(If you’re lucky, you can click on the picture to make it bigger. If you’re not lucky, I’m so, so sorry.)
I won’t go into much of the backstory on these dragons because there’s a lot of pain–the real, gut-wrenching pain of love, loss and love lost–and going through it all again just isn’t fair to them. Suffice to say, they’re on the other side of all that and now Moxie has 10 dragon friends and one dragon wing friend, all of whom watch over her. (It’s a mobile; what else would they do?)
(To be completely transparent, there’s an additional dragon friend not pictured here that already has a name and will be discussed at some other point in time. This is not a page for dragon rivalry.)
So these dragons need names. (Again, long story, but there’s some people out there that’d really like to know where these dragons are. Some not so nice people. We don’t want to take any chances, so they all agreed to assume new identities.)
As is apparent from the prequel, Moxie’s dad is much too dorky to come up with these names himself, so he’s asking for help. He’s me, though, so let’s go back to the first person because I’m uncomfortable here in third. Ok, I’m handing off the naming duties to you all, but I’m too egotistical to just let this be entirely open. So I made some dorky rules for you to follow. Call them Naming Conventions.
- The name must be a real word.
- The name must tell me something about the dragon.
- The name should be three or more syllables long.
- The name should not be a commonly used word.
- The name should sound cool.
- The namer must be ok with their name or names not being chosen.
- The namer may specify which dragon they are naming, but must also be ok with that name being assigned to a different dragon.
Read the conventions with “must” as immutable; read the conventions with “should” as guidelines that can be bent if need be. The convention with “may” is entirely optional.
Ok, Convention 6 is there just in case I get too many names. I’m the final arbiter and will judge the names based on the Naming Conventions. And really, I just mean I’ll chose the ones I like best. I won’t take into account who sent the names, so reread Convention 6, please. Seriously. I’ll wait. Also, Convention 7 is pretty enjoyable, if you’ve got the time.
Here is an example from my childhood: I grew up with a dragon named Serendipity. She was a pink dragon that learned about being who she was. This is a pretty good example. Serendipity is a real word that sounds really cool, is long, and somewhat rare.
I don’t actually remember the plot that well, so I don’t know if Serendipity’s life was serendipitous, but I’m guessing it was, so Convention 2 was probably satisfied. As for Convention 6, well, I didn’t contact the author for this post, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he won’t feel bad that I’m not choosing Serendipity for Moxie’s dragons. She gets her own dragon names.
(I should mention that Serendipity is the inspiration for this. I don’t remember a time that I didn’t have some idea of what serendipity meant because of those books. So there’s a little bit of education motivation in all this. I hope that doesn’t taint it too much.)
All right, I know you all have favorite words that would just be great for dragon names. Leave comments. Private message me. Email me. Letter write me. Anything you want, just get me some names.
Here is an article I read:
I don’t have any problem with applying math to fashion or anything, but this article is ridiculous:
- “Mathematicians”? No, one mathematician. One mathematician that, in fact, is a mathematics honors graduate who now hosts a game show in Australia (yes, I googled her). I don’t require letters after your name to be a “mathematician,” but come on, a single expository paper as evidence may be lacking.
- “Stumble upon”? Other than pi, is there any nontrivial number more discussed in pop science than the Golden Ratio? And applying that ratio to the subject of subjective beauty…that’s as standard an application of the Golden Ratio there is. Stumbling upon this is like “stumbling upon” putting butter on your hand to more quickly escape a handshake; sure, maybe no one ever thought of it before, but butter is one obvious option for achieving a less frictionful interaction. And in this case, there isn’t even an alternative to the Golden Ratio.
- This article has caused me to capitalize “Golden Ratio” in this post. This is a terrible turn of events.
- “Ratio based on da Vinci’s Mona Lisa”? Really? This is where this ratio comes from? The Greeks, Sumerians and Ancient Chinese were just a bunch of innumerate chumps that lucked out once in a while? This makes it sound like someone said, “Hey, you know what’s beautiful? The Mona Lisa. That’s beautiful. Let’s measure her face.” And thus, the golden ratio.
- Ok, ok. Maybe it’s just a bad headline; that wouldn’t be the first. But look into the article at this newly defined term “Golden Number.” A woman’s personal Golden Number is defined as a woman’s shoulder height, plus heel length, divided by the golden ratio. What? Talk about an overly bombastic name. The whole point of “golden” in “golden ratio” is to use the fact that gold is special to indicate that the ratio is special, unique even, with a myriad of important applications. “Golden Number”? Not special, not unique, severely limited in scope. How about “Personal Suggested Sartorial Length”? Go crazy and replace “suggested” with “perfect”; I don’t care. But golden number? If I had a test for lack of creativity, there would be one question: “What should you call this term?” If you answer “golden number”, you pass with honors. (P.S. I’m guessing this name was invented by the “mathematician” that “stumbled upon” this dress length formula, so there are no innocents here.)
- As a friend pointed out, women generally have multiple shoes, probably with varying heel heights. If you have 13 shoes, do you have 13 Golden Numbers? It’s not even a number special for the individual!
- Besides, “Golden number” is taken, making this neologistic patricide.
- In case you were wondering, “perfect pins” are nice-looking legs. This is just an informational bullet.
- To return to razzing the “mathematician” (which I continue to put in quotes because I am an ungenerous, mean snark), what kind of discovery is this!??! This is a two step thought: beauty -> golden ratio -> adjust for big head. I’m thinking this was the result of procrastination. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe she looked at several formulae, some involving variables other than height of a woman, like width, stance, head-to-body proportion, strappiness of heels, etc. and measured their results against accepted images of beauty. I don’t know. BUT THAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH THE FREAKING ARTICLE. There is no indication to me that this was not just made up by the one person they found in Australia that can do calculus and wear form-fitting dresses. I know I have to take the research on faith to some extent, but come on. Come on.
- Ok, this is nitpicky, but when did we start “arm[ing people] with tools”? What are women going to do with their “golden number”, extirpate me with the visage of their perfect pins? (Yes, I just wanted to use the word “extirpate” and am allowed to slightly stretch the meaning since the “mathematician” has taken such liberty with “arm”.)
- As a side note, I cannot take any article seriously that suggests a women wear cropped jackets and high-waisted pants; I don’t care what your virtual waistline might be.
- On the other hand, the last line of the article, so simple and set apart as it is, enthralls me.
- I’m not making points anymore. Just sentences. Well, not even that.
- Seriously, though, this is math in the popular press. (I know it’s the Australian press, but the U.S. is not better; it just has less of an accent.) How is the layman supposed to value math when this is the treatment given by the information recorders and conveyors of our society? How is he supposed to have any appreciation for the work that goes into math when they report no work, just decree truth? How does this inspire any young people to try math and not think of it as stodgy? (It looks like fashion applications are played out because, according to this article, this “mathematician” found the number, so we’re done. Maybe a little work can done in its application to stockings.) Maybe enthralling youth is not the responsibility of this journalist but why, then, write this article as anything other than fashion advice?
While Bibi and Babu visited this week instead of hanging out around town, eating out at fun places, and taking in the Washington sites: we put those folks to work. Turns out–if you want to hang with Moxie you have to pay the toll. We rearranged furniture in the living room and hung photos:
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| Spread out the furniture, hung art, hung curtains, got a dog. Oh wait–we already had the dog. |
We FINALLY put together Moxie’s room. We originally intended to do a robot theme and have totally failed… but what came together looks pretty good.
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| Bibi hanging some Tinga Tinga license plates. Moxie will enjoy looking at them while she burps. |
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| Babu sets up the lighting, reading hanger, and rocking chair ready for Moxie late night. |
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| Finished product part 1. |
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| Finished product part 2. |
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| Little rocking, reading, burping corner. |
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| Super cute animal paintings given to Moxie by Aunt Peg, Anna, and Grace. |
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| Animal hanging from Tony, toy box my Sam, and toys provided by various Moxie fans. |
Strider and I own a lot of art. About two thirds of our stuff remains in boxes. Luckily we could pick out the art boxes pretty easily We hung some on the wall (see above and below).
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We hung shelves and put boxes in the guest bathroom. They will be filled with things. Strider can’t even think of all the fun stuff he will put in there.
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| Strider felt left out of the photos. He decided this would be his contribution to the set. |
We got a whole lot done. It feels good. We are all set for Moxie (at some point) to move into her room and get going on phase two: painting all the walls black, covering the windows, and opening our dream business–laser tag.