Flying Crooked
by Robert Graves
by Robert Graves
~
The butterfly, a cabbage-white,
(His honest idiocy of flight)
Will never now, it is too late,
Master the art of flying straight,
Yet has — who knows so well as I? —
A just sense of how not to fly:
He lurches here and here by guess
And God and hope and hopelessness.
Even the aerobatic swift
Has not his flying-crooked gift.
The butterfly, a cabbage-white,
(His honest idiocy of flight)
Will never now, it is too late,
Master the art of flying straight,
Yet has — who knows so well as I? —
A just sense of how not to fly:
He lurches here and here by guess
And God and hope and hopelessness.
Even the aerobatic swift
Has not his flying-crooked gift.
The March random thread and poem are open for business!
Repeating this question from February: “I know Fiddler’s met all four GAPAs. Has anyone else? I’ve met Paul and Robert, so I’m halfway there!”
I’ve met Robert and Roseanne, I think.
Didn’t you meet Rebecca too? I thought she was there when we met with Pan and THF and Robert.
Yes, I was there.
Whoops, Rebecca, not Roseanne. I don’t sleep much.
I’ve known the GAPAs longer than any of my IRL friends and never met them. Internet’s a weird place.
Hello, hello! Speaking of kokonventions and meeting GAPAs, we got too caught up in everything going on to make a post, but I spent the weekend with Rebecca! Also in attendance was a friend I know through Paul, and one of Rebecca’s friends, John, who’s made guest appearances here on the blog as a bluegrass expert, I think. Fairly loosely kokon-ish, but the spirit of the thing, friendship, weirdness, and enthusiasm, was all very muserly. And I did wear my Mostly Harmless shirt on one of the days, at least!
We talked and laughed and played tons of music and ate good food and it was generally flamablamablous.
Looks like a kokonvention to me.
Left to right: Lady Bunniful, Midnight Fiddler, and Gabriela the Ukulele Lady (emissary from Paul Baker)
“The folks in the crowd/ Say ‘They’re laughing too loud,/ And they don’t look mostly harmless to me!'”
The photo marked the end of 12 straight hours of playing music (or in my case, sketching the musicians and audience).
If I can’t be there, I like to send a loony by proxy.
You chose well.
She’s a delightful one!
I thought she might be appreciated.
Today’s work agenda: Two morning kid’s shows (morning concerts are awful) involving 2000 kids in the audience playing recorder.
I don’t know what I did in a previous life, but I’m very very sorry for it.
At least they’re learning SOMETHING, even if the result is excruciating. And they might just come to more concerts.
You’re just partial to recorders.
They have their place.
I have sadly been a recordor kid.
All I remember musical wise on the recorder is figuring out how to play the first 3 notes of “Linus and Lucy”
Scott Kelly has returned to Earth, but his headline was stolen by politicians.
What do you mean stolen by politicians? Did the politicians say something about him?
I think KaiYves means that news of Kelly’s return was buried in an avalanche of headlines about people running for President.
Aha! Yeah, election cycles tend to take over the news in general, but I bet Scott Kelly had some headlines! It was a really cool study that he was doing.
Yeah, I meant that I was hoping to see him on today’s front pages, but the Wall Street Journal had nothing and the New York Times was all election stuff above the fold (which was all I could see in the newspaper box, but there might have been something further down the front page.) Then again, they landed around 11:30 Eastern, and I don’t know if the morning papers were already printed by then. So maybe tomorrow if something bigger doesn’t happen. *knocks on wood*
Wait… does Lapras have a horn because the “gargoyle head” photo that was supposed to show the Loch Ness Monster (but was really just a tree stump and creative image processing) showed it as having horns? I swear I never really thought about why the Pokemon would have a horn when plesiosaurs didn’t until today.
I love this month’s poem!
The author of this book has managed to maintain suspense about who lived and who died for almost a hundred pages, but on Page 98, he says he interviewed two people after the events described, meaning we know they lived. Why break the suspense there?
My six-year-old self is jumping with joy because I just learned that a prototype amphibious motorcycle was unveiled back in the fall that can go 55 miles per hour on water and converts between land and water modes in five seconds. They say it’s production-ready, but there’s no announced price yet or timeframe for it to be sold.
But still! I think I’ve told this story a few times here, but back in first grade, we had an assignment where we were supposed to draw “your 21st century invention” (because it was going to be the 21st century in a few months and all that), and I said I wanted a motorcycle that turned into a jet ski.
So, six-year-old me predicted a real 21st century invention.
In elementary school I predicted the smartphone! I drew a pocket computer that was also a telephone and camera.
You should contact the Department of Ideas. Randall Munroe tells me they do a good job.
Oh, I wouldn’t want any of the profits, in fact, I’ll donate money to the company if it means they can get it into production faster.
Can you buy their stock?
I guess probably.
I have an idea for a fanfic for a canon where most of the main action of the plot is unknown to the public at large, except for a few events that are just considered mysterious. The story would be a fictional story written in-universe by a writer who was inspired by the “mysterious” events to write a story offering a fictional explanation– but of course, en doesn’t know any of the details of what really happened, so it’s very different from the real story. Would this be too much like original fiction to be a proper fanfic?
I wouldn’t worry too much about the distinction. A lot of good fanfic that becomes well-known is actually rather original fiction anyways. The concept sounds cool!
Robert, if I could trouble you for another scan from fin-de-siecle Science, I’m really curious about the rest of the letter “Facts About Tornadoes” that begins on page 269 of the issue for May 2, 1890.
Hey Robert, Rebecca, Rosanne, Paul, and everyone else (in approximately that order. This probably won’t actually apply to Paul but I was on a GAPA-roll.)
Does anyone know anyone at the Museum of Math in NYC? Let me know if you do. Thanks!
It’s a quick walk to there from where I live, I could probably go and ask someone a specific question if you have one.
Not exactly what I need, but thanks for offering.
I could also ask for contact info, tomorrow’s my day off.
Oxlin,
Oddly, I seem not to know anyone currently at MoMath. I know people who know people there, but that’s all.
I called them on Friday! HOpefully my message will get through.
Several more of my comments got consumed by the spam filter.
Maybe your the Spam Filter’s meow!
I have no idea why our spam filter keeps picking on you, Cat’s Meow. Sorry!
I wonder if it has something to do with the very old email address that I’m still using for posting because it’s the one I’ve always used here. I checked that account last night, and it turns out someone who speaks Indonesian created a [social media] account using my email two years ago – and I use that account infrequently enough that I never noticed. Oops. I wonder if they were doing nefarious things else-Internet that somehow got my email blacklisted.
I’m logging in now to see if that helps.
Who else is watching a livestream of the solar eclipse from one of the areas in the shadow-path?
It was really cool! The totality was shorter than I expected, but it was still so pretty (and I was playing Brian Eno’s “Ascent- An Ending”, which really fit well). The hosts reminded me that next August will be the first total solar eclipse visible from the US mainland in almost 40 years, so I really want to take a trip with my family next summer…
My astrophysicist boyfriend’s birthday is August 24th, so he’s already told me that we’re taking a road trip to southern Illinois next summer to see it. Maybe you and I will both end up there!
I am so excited for that one!! I’m hopefully going to be visiting my parents so we’ll be able to see it!
Eclipse Kokon?
I am writing a first-person story about this person who is basically two people in one. They have two different minds inside them, yet both minds speak individually. Is this possible in first person? How would the format be for dialogue between the two if they are both one person speaking from a first person perspective?
Like Smaegul in the first person? Hey, I like that idea. I think you could definitely do it, but you would need to characterize the different tones, and separating by chapter would help distinguished them too. Good luck!
Oops, sorry. SMEAGOL.
Maybe write the different “voices” in different fonts? Like one in italics and one in standard text? Or bold?
“We need to get home right away.”
*”No, we can stay a little longer.”*
“No, we can’t.”
*”Yes, we can. I’m in control right now and I say we stay.”*
Is there an Internet law to describe how the comments in any discussion of Ellen McArthur justify wanting to spend a few months alone on a boat yourself just to get away from the idiocy?
That’s how I usually end up feeling when I visit the Internet outside MuseBlog. No wonder we named part of this place the Oasis.
I just don’t understand how she earns so much ire simply for being a woman and a very good sailor.
Finished binge-watching season 4 of House of Cards. Not quite in one sitting, but almost (over a few days). Does anyone else follow this series?
Would it be offensive if I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day on External Blogging Site by posting about record-setting space things and called it “Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day With Guinness (World Records)”?
I don’t see why it would be, especially as the brewing company created the books.
Well, I don’t want to seem like I’m reinforcing the “Irish people are alcoholics” stereotype.
I think that stereotype has been reinforcing itself, actually.
believe me, in Ireland, no one was happier about the “Irish drink so much” sterotype as every single irish person I befriended
Pi day tommorow! I have made a shirt. And maybe decorated old jeans.
Nice! Will you have any pi(e)?
Hey GAPAs, does anyone know anything about Quanta Magazine? It seems neat. In any case, I recommend it. It has a bunch of math articles online, as well as other science-related articles!
Are they related to a certain Australian airline?
I doubt it.
I just started reading it now- looks interesting!
Quanta’s writers are some of the best in the business. I heartily second Oxlin’s recommendation.
I was excited to see a high proportion of math articles!
Any other magazines you’d recommend?
Have you ever read Smithsonian magazine? It reminds me a lot of adult Muse, with a wide variety of science, history, and culture articles, written for an educated general audience.
I’ve picked up a couple of them, on the theory that it would be adult Muse given that they were one of the influencers of Muse! It was pretty good. I’m looking for stuff online though.
Smithsonian is very good, albeit somewhat less humorous than Muse. (There is some humor sometimes, especially in clever turns of phrase, but not as much as in Muse.)
How about a blog? Some excellent people write for “The Last Word on Nothing” (www . lastwordonnothing . com).
I’ll check it out, thanks!
Oxlin,
Another recently launched online science magazine worth investigating is Undark (undark. org) (@undarkmag). Again, some fine writers are working for it.
Happy Pi Day, everybody! How are you celebrating? (I’m planning to do it in the obvious, delightful way.)
J.’s college girlfriend just got home and will be staying with us for Spring Break. Once they get back from seeing the town, we will all go out together for pie.
The pie was very good, we drew a Pi symbol on it in red food coloring and played some Pi-themed songs.
Pi-themed songs? Like “I Get Around” and “Circle Game”?
No, just two songs that were the digits sung to different beats.
I wonder whether any songs start with words containing the number of letters in each successive digit of pi. Maybe I’ll have to write one. Hm… “How I love a happy basketful of snakes…”
Rhyming could be hard, but a non-rhyming poem with that pattern would be interesting.
Come on, it’s a song. It ain’t worth a dime if it ain’t got that rhyme.
The real challenge will be fitting in all those eight- and nine-letter words.
Come now! Surely I am not the only one who remembers our history with Caediac Cadenza?
“Poe, E.
Near A Raven
Midnights so dreary, tired and weary,
Silently pondering volumes extolling all by-now obsolete lore.
During my rather long nap–the weirdest tap!
An ominous vibrating sound disturbing my chamber’s antedoor.
‘This,’ I whispered quietly, ‘I ignore.'”
Also: snakes ♥
Wow, ten years ago. That’s ancient history!
“Near a Raven” has been reprinted on MuseBlog several times, but you were the first:
https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=224#comment-19385
oh now I feel old D: And 10 years since that post specifically, I hope at least it wasn’t in the mag TOO long before then or I’ll really feel the cruel press of time…
Happy Pi day! I unfortunately don’t have any pie, but I did get some cream puffs from the bakery so my parents and I can continue to be the worst vegans on record.
Before the day is over, I must get these in:
beware!
Thanks for the warning, Lizzie! But the GAPA shall forth. The things that threatened me ne’er looked but on my back. When they shall see the face of Robert, they are vanished.
Currently enjoying flashbacks to 9th grade English class, where our teacher had us act out scenes, but stopped us right at “Speak hands for me”, because she did not want us to act out the murder of Caesar. I think the girl playing Caesar was rather relieved.
When I played Caesar, I got to skip the assassination scene, too.
Who else heard that in The Box Ghost’s voice?
“I am The Boooooox Ghost! Beware the Ides of Maaaaarch! They have nothing to do with boooooxes, but… beware!”
The subtitles on External Video Site (The Near-Universal One) are bad enough in English, but the translated ones are really something else entirely… Trying to watch documentaries in French is an exercise in frustration.
You know, I’d been thinking about relaxing MuseBlog’s hoary taboo about mentioning YouTube, Facebook, etc., but I’ve changed my mind. The euphemisms you all come up with are too entertaining.
If I’ve been on any social network long enough I eventually just call it the [Website Color] Hellscape.
That must get confusing, given that so many of them are blue.
I think my personal favorite is when I started calling FB the “Voldemort Site” (the Site-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named).
Or “Voldynet,” as it came to be called.
For most of the past week, I’ve been drawing up characters for a story about an international sporting event. I never realized just how many cliches and pitfalls there are to avoid in such a story… so far, the American is the quiet one, the Canadian is the aggressive one, and the strongest athlete is French and the favorite to win but not a Condescending Jerk Competitor.
I just changed my art style. I feel like a new person.
What was it like before and what is it like now?
Before it was kinda more anime-ish. At least that’s what I was going for. But then I found out that more of a cartoony Disney style was more fun to work with and it looked better.
I had a kind of disorganized style until a few years ago, it got’s gotten much nicer-looking since I read a how-to-draw book on retro cartoons and added a lot of elements from there.
Old cartoons are the best cartoons! I think one of the best ways to learn is to copy drawings of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and the like.
This is more of an angular style than the Disney style, which is “lollipop art”, but I agree.
Hey does anyone here know anything about fuzzy logic? I’m doing an animation for a fuzzy logic conference, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to visualize the process in a way that can be universally understood.
The logic quite a few popular figures use to make their conclusions seems a bit fuzzy to me, but I don’t think that’s what you mean.
A few old-timers might remember that fuzzy logic was part of the curriculum at Muse Academy. It was discussed briefly but amusingly on the December 2010 random thread. I’ll bet some of the participants know a lot more about it now.
(By the way, the random-thread discussion inspired a pie-winning Stupid Senseless Smiley Story at https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=6391#comment-393719 .)
“Schoolwork? What is schoolwork? Some silly little distraction from applying for internships and grants?” -Parents
I saw someone wearing a Hot Pink Bunny sweatshirt at a QB tournament.
Just out if curiosity, did the editors at Muse come up with the design of the HPB, or did they use a stock image or clip art or something of that nature?
YYS12, the bunnies originally came from an obscure Japanese font that I’ve never been able to install. But the Muse editors turned them pink. Did the T-shirt look like any of the designs in our Cafe Press store (http://www.cafepress.com/musery/2071581)?
Yes it did!
Thanks for the info!
Another question: Why bunnies? And why hot pink?
Here’s the short-ish version:
Muse did two issues, one about dogs and one about cats. Immediately, the letters to the editor section was flooded with letters by readers professing their undying love for either felines or canines. It got to a point of such insanity that the editors instituted the practice of cutting out sentences like “Cats are sooooooo totally the very best, I love cats, why on earth would you like dogs, cats are clearly superior, etc.” and replace the sentences with hot pink bunny symbols. (This led, for a brief period, to the institution of several other symbols, such as the Eye of Sauron, to replace things/convey meaning, to the point that there was a key of symbols in the letters section. But that’s another story).
The Musebloggers of the time saw these hot pink bunnies and said, “Clearly something is very wrong. Bunnies the color of pepto bismol? That’s not natural.” The Musebloggers declared that these bunnies were clearly trying to take over, and so the creativity began. And this launched the terror of the Evil Hot Pink Bunnies, which shaped many a thread on this blog: Off With Their Heads – The Origins and Culture of HPBs, 5 parts; Bunny Melee; and of course Bunny Apocalypse and Bunny Apocalypse: The Next Generation.
Great fun was had by all, long after the hot pink bunnies disappeared from the pages of Muse. I was actually introduced to Museblog via Bunny Apocalypse (hence my avatar).
Oh, and Bunny Apocalypse Rebooted, but the Reboot fizzled relatively quickly.
Also, that should be “and replacing the sentences with hot pink bunny symbols” at the end of the 4th line in the 1st paragraph (currently says replaced).
Once an editor, always an editor.
HBPs are not the color of Pepto-Bismol, Pepto-Bismol is more pastel (the packaging is just a little bit paler but the tablets are several shades paler.)
Point (why do I remember peptol bismol being used as an adj?). A better descriptor would be magenta. Like magenta azaleas.
There was nothing like Muse. *wistful*
The school orchestra read my piece today! It was really cool! They said they liked playing it!
Congrats, that’s great!
Exciting! Well done!
So there’s going to be a solo sailing race across the Atlantic from New York to France at the end of May! That’s after the dorms close, but before I leave for my dig, so I can hopefully come in and watch anyway, maybe with this kid who’s a friend of our family who really likes to sail. I don’t really know much about sailing, but I think it’s super-cool that these people will be going across the whole Atlantic all alone.
Aren’t thermostats naturally under the purview of fuzzy logic? Let cold=0, hot=1, scale according to the person who owns the house (or perhaps the climate zone, if you want to be social) and aim for half-true?
In random unrelated events, the Lesotho/SA border is remarkably easy to cross by accident. Twice. I think it’s something about Muse Academy’s irreverance of outside authorities…
Hopefully they didn’t give you any trouble for it if it was so easy to cross accidentally.
I ended up backtracking and clearing in/out like a normal person. It’s not hard to do it the proper way- I just realized that I could get away without it and then felt this itch…
Today I walked the whole length of the High Line. (I just wish it was a bit longer so that it could take you right to the Intrepid!)
Unfortunately, I was wearing my fancy-ish slip-ons that aren’t quite made for walking long distances and now I have a blister on my heel.
Errr, this is kind of an embarrassing question, but is Abu Dubai pronounced “Ah-boo Dah-bee” or “Ah-boo Dew-buy”? I swear I always heard the later growing up but now everyone seems to use the former pronunciation.
I think your confusion might be between two different cities. Abu Dhabi is pronounced “Ah-boo Dah-bee” while Dubai is pronounced “Doo-buy”. Both are cities in the United Arab Emirates.
Ah, I thought they were alternate names/transliterations-from-Arabic for the same city, perhaps with different pronunciations. Thank you, that clears things up.
(Like I said, a very embarrassing question.)
Different places, different (though neighboring) emirates. In Arabic they start with different letters. Are you going there?
No, no, just hearing some people talk about them.
Someday I want to go to Gorangosa National Park in Mozambique.
*Gorongosa. And that one WAS a typo, not two separate places.
Note to self: next time you need to file taxes for the first time, do yourself a favor and DON’T MOVE STATES in middle of the year. Or have W-2s from three institutions.
Attention, MBers! I’m on the road and won’t be able to do anything for April Fools’ Day this year. Any tomfoolery will be up to you. (Well, I could activate the Talk Like a Pirate Day plug-in if you think that would help set the mood.) Sorry!
I tried listening to 18.9 Hertz sound as an experiment after reading all of the articles about how it can cause you to freak out, feel uneasy, think you’re being haunted, etc. Just about two and a half minutes’ worth.
– Heard it when focusing
– Felt it slightly in the frontal bone of my skull
– A little dizzy, but this didn’t start until a several minutes after I stopped the recording, walking around and drinking some ginger ale helped
So I would say I felt some effect, but I don’t know how much of it was psychosomatic.
My parents visited recently, which was a lot of fun. We did lots of touristy stuff, like visiting museums, as well as a whole ton of baking (hamentaschen, cookie bars, and rolls).
Also, it’s a very nice feeling, showing your parents that you can adult. I did so by cooking them a nice meal the first weekend they were with us.
And then there’s Purim! We went to friends of ours for the festive meal, and enjoyed everyone else’s costumes (unfortunately, the Trekkie and I did not have costumes) One of our friends did a group costume where everyone dressed as a Pixar character, so we had Dad as Woody, Mom as Merida, their son as Dash, their daughter as Boo, and their infant daughter as Rex. Other costumes included an angel, a Scotsman, and a king and queen.
Much fun was had by all.
Arr, was hopin’ to discover some Space Squid this day. But how now, strange creat’rs be fallin’ from the heavens! Be they bugs, rodents, or strange Pokeman with wings and swords holdin’ thar WordPress symbol captive? Alack, so fast they fall, one cannot rightly see! Though dev’lishly tricksey they mus’ be, at least they are not PINK and furry.
Yet.
Or perhaps they be lemmings falling from the cliffs, only better prepared for their decent that is usual with lemmings.
*descent
I think the language filter might be affecting my ability to log into WordPress?
So it appears. I can’t log in, either. Repairs might take a while, as I’m traveling with only an iPad, but I’ll do the best I can.
SFTDP but MOST EXCITING OF NEWS:
The consortium just released its fall course schedule, and Pitzer will be offering a “Doodling in Math Class” with the description “We will use Vi Hart’s video series ‘Doodling in Math Class’ to introduce a variety of interesting and fun mathematical ideas, including Spirals, Mobius bands, and Hexaflexagons. We will then explore these ideas further with our own doodles and activities.”
What is the Consortium? Is this a college class? Please take this and report back to us!
Oxlin, the Claremont Colleges in Southern California are a consortium in which students at any of five colleges may take courses at any of the others. It’s a neat arrangement.
Yep, what Robert said! The five colleges are right across the street from one another, so it’s extremely common to take classes at the other colleges, unlike what I’ve heard about some other consortiums that are a little farther away.
So, yes, I could get credit for a college course about doodling in math with Vi Hart. Very tempting!
Do itttt. At the very least, who is the professor? I want their syllabus!
WOAAAH THAT’S SO COOL. I literally just got into her videos, and like TWO seconds ago I finished watching the second hexaflexagon one. That sounds like such an awesome class.
Sorry, everybody! It seems one of the plug-ins I activated for April Fools’ Day is making logins impossible. I can’t get in, either. And as I’m traveling with only an iPad, repairs might take a while.
Robert
Back in business now, I think/hope.
I’m getting this weird thing where it lets me log in but then the only thing that comes up under comments view are the threads I created.
How strange. I’ll look into it once I’m back with a real computer again.
I’m having the same thing.
Lizzie and ZNZ:
Any change now? Our role-defining plugin may be getting out of sync with the WordPress version. Or maybe it returned to its default settings after my post-April-First repairs. I’m working on it. Just let me know when you start seeing something different (and, with luck, better).
nope, still the same for me
Hmm… I’ll try something else tomorrow.
I can see everything now, but also I can edit everyone’s posts on every thread. So.
Where are you traveling, Robert?
From coastal Alabama back home to northern Virginia, by way of Georgia, Tennessee, and the Shenandoah Valley.
It was all just a prank anyway, right?
Not all of it, unfortunately.
Found this old bunny animation while cleaning up my files…reuploaded it in HD and changed a couple things. Are external links allowed now?
youtube . com/watch?v=WbqRxhLLexo
I remember that one! I see you replaced the zombified people with more dancing bunnies…
Yeah, the zombies were hard to explain to people who aren’t familiar with the bunnies (and the stick figures looked pretty amateurish). I also added Rebecca Lasley and TNÖ in the credits at the end.
Brilliant! For those who haven’t seen it, it’s well worth the minimal effort of pasting the URL into a browser and removing a couple of spaces.
I just finished rereading The Chronicles of Prydain . I honestly feel that every modern YA author stole bits and pieces of Lloyd Alexander’s thunder.