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Celebrate (You Finally Felt Something), Ronan Day-Lewis

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[forestkodama]

It is currently being blocked, but -- I think I just evolved into a higher form.

I crocheted stained glass.

The pattern is NOT by me; you can find the tutorial here. However this is my prototype, and I am so blown away by how nicely it turned out on the first try.

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Jethro Buck (British, b. 1986, Oxford, England, based Cambridge, England) - Little Big Bang, Drawings: Liquid Gold on indigo dyed Hemp Paper

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[forestkodama]

please do not go so hard at "Elon is terrible and the Cybertruck is a dumpster fire" (which is true) that you somehow make your way to "electric cars are all ticking time bombs" (which is false, and mostly said by people who want to keep driving combustion engine cars perpetually because they think the climate crisis is made up)

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there is so much about modern queer discourse that could be fixed simply by understanding "straightness" to be a socio-political classification & reward for conformity rather than just a personal identity.

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so I'm in the office when I hear it. the EIC, in the corner, my manager's manager, lights up the batsignal and voices a cry for aid:

"is anyone here who speaks Welsh?"

immediately, all heads turn to Charles' desk. Charles is Welsh. Charles takes several days to recover from the shock every time someone on a National Trust podcast mispronounces Llanidloes. surely Charles will answer the call.

Charles, the bloody nerve of him, is on Annual Leave to spend the Easter holidays with his son.

at this point I realise that several heads, including my manager's, are turning to me.

I do not speak Welsh.

I was brought up by a Welsh speaker, my grandmother, but given that we live in London and noone else in the family speaks Welsh, I only really picked up the most basic of family pleasantries. I can say cheers and goodnight, I can offer and order hot beverages, and I can answer the six questions people immediately ask when they find out you speak even a little bit of Welsh (the answer to all of these is as far as I can tell, yes but nobody says that. yes but it's baby talk. yes but it was a marketing scam. you know the ones)

I also have a master's degree in, amongst other things, medieval Welsh. as attention turns to me, I weigh up the possibility that the EIC needs someone to urgently translate Culhwch ac Olwen into modern English.

it seems unlikely. however, my CV says I have basic Welsh, and I need this job, so I head to the EICs desk with the thudding tread of someone bound for the gallows

further context-- 90% of my job is combing through business documents for aside phrases indicating business changes. this takes a lot of cross-referencing and close reading. I find this hard in my native language. I find it extremely hard in languages I'm fluent in. the idea of doing it in Welsh, a language where my conversation options are limited to "good morrow sir! the English advance on our left flank!" or "Mr fishy likes to swim", fills me with fathomless dread. in my head, I am writing my application to the next job.

the EIC turns a page around on the desk. "how do you pronounce this?"

I look at the word, relief beginning to sink in. Welsh is phonetic. even if I don't know this word, I can read it.

I do a double take. "Dai?"

"are you sure?" the EIC asks. "should I call Charles on his holidays just to check?"

"it's Dai," I repeat.

"it's not different if it's Welsh?"

I have absolutely no idea what she thinks the Welsh are doing to innocent vowel sounds that the English are not already doing. "it's Dai. like Dai Llewellyn."

"it's the same every time?"

"... yes"

"oh good." the EIC puts away her sheet and lets me go back to my desk.

as I sit down, the news editor at the next desk looks up. "so," he asks. "is it true that the Welsh for jellyfish is

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GARIBALDI LINDBERG (detail)

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Typography Tuesday

We return to our facsimile of a 16th-cnetury calligraphic manuscript, Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta, or Model Book of Calligraphy, written in 1561/62 by Georg Bocskay, the Croatian-born court secretary to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, and illuminated 30 years later by Flemish painter Joris Hoefnagel for the grandson of Ferdinand I, Emperor Rudolph II. The manuscript was produced by Bocskay in Vienna to demonstrate his technical mastery of the immense range of writing styles known to him. To complement and augment Bocskay's calligraphy, Hoefnagel added fruit, flowers, and insects to nearly every page, composing them so as to enhance the unity and balance of the page’s design. Although the two never met, the manuscript has an uncanny quality of collaboration about it.

Our facsimile was the first facsimile produced from the collection at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. It was printed in Lausanne, Switzerland by Imprimeries Reunies and published by Christopher Hudson in 1992. 

View another post from Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta,

View more Typography Tuesday posts.

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from twitter user deejaygeejaygee

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✨everything is fossil-ble🦴🦖

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[forestkodama]

Jugendstil Pewter Bowl with a Snail Pattern in High Relief. Manufactured ca. 1899–1909 by the Osiris metalware factory in Nuremburg, Germany. Photography by Freia Beer / Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Digitaltmuseum id number: NK5184.

(Source: digitaltmuseum.org)

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[forestkodama]

Entirely non-carbon monoxide modern reasons why people may think their house is haunted:

Old creaking floors

Old pipes groan with hot water flow

Slightly slanted floors so dresser drawers gradually open themselves

Water odd-colored and tasting wierd from unused taps or new filtration systems

Discovering choices made from bad renovation attempts