Althouse: At the Staring-at-the-Ceiling Café...

May 20, 2009

At the Staring-at-the-Ceiling Café...

... you can ventilate your grievances... perceive the patterns...

58 comments:

traditionalguy said...: I think I see a Fed-Ex arrow in the lower right corner. No, wait it is morphing into a great work of Art.; 5/20/09, 3:04 PM
Anonymous said...: oh ann. is that a homage to the chinese or islamic tessellation.; 5/20/09, 3:10 PM
ricpic said...: Geometry is a great comfort, the solider the better.; 5/20/09, 3:21 PM
Anonymous said...: yes, it is how the universe is being built and dismantled as we speak and takes me back to that seventh grade spatial relations test. it was when i learned i was different than all the rest of my friends going through puberty.

I walked out of the room thinking that was the funnest test ever. I could do that all day instead of reading and answering what was the main idea of paragraph four. everyone else said it was hell. Right afterwards they lest us take a clerical speed and accuracy test, which was unfair after coming done from that high of the 3-d test. For me. That's when

It was when i learned I saw boxes differently, and i hated typing.

Back in those days we didn't have a gblt-d, girls built looking-three dimensional for people like me. we just suffered. later someone decided we needed a support group. they created Pixar right after i graduated from high school. mostly they admitted men.; 5/20/09, 3:36 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: takes me back to that seventh grade spatial relations test. it was when i learned i was different than all the rest of my friends going through puberty.

Ditto. Always did very well in those types of tests. I took a test for aptitude for the military waaaaaay back when, for kicks The test that all the guys took to see what skill sets they might have that the military would want.

For a couple of years the Air Force tried to recruit me as a navigator, until they realized that I wasn't a guy.

That ceiling would make a great quilt pattern.; 5/20/09, 3:48 PM
Anonymous said...: Funny i went to Iowa to study fashion design.

i made an outfit for the navy, but never could understand why anyone would join the navy. I always liked tall men in bell bottom pants so I made the skirt in a asymetrical button down style for me.; 5/20/09, 3:56 PM
KCFleming said...: When I was a kid I was fascinated with the patterns by M. C. Escher, especially this one and this one.

I myself however never saw patterns where it was useful.
What was the girls-liking-you pattern?
What pattern solved the teenage blues?
When can I use the pattern to solve the upcoming fistfight after school?

I was clearly born with the wrong brain.
One of you guys maybe have it laying around?

Here's an LOLcat about Escher.; 5/20/09, 4:11 PM
rhhardin said...: There's a vent. Voici le vent.

Erik Satie, piano performance notes to Next-to-last thoughts:

The Poet is shut away in his old tower.
Hear the wind.
The Poet is musing, without appearing to.
All of a sudden, he has goose-bumps.
The Devil!
No, it's not Him: it is the wind,
the wind of the spirit passing by.
The Poet's head is full of it,
of wind!
He smiles dryly, while his heart weeps like a willow.
But the spirit is present!
It gazes on him with an evil eye: a glass eye.
And the poet grows meek and blushes.
He can muse no more:
He retches!
a terrible retching of bad blank verse and
bitter disillusions!

6 October 1915; 5/20/09, 4:16 PM
traditionalguy said...: DBQ: I did not know that they tested for astronaut sex abilities at that age? What did they tell you about your skills in spatial relations?; 5/20/09, 4:17 PM
traditionalguy said...: Oops...Sorry DBQ, that was for commenter. My spatial relations are in outer space today.; 5/20/09, 4:20 PM
Donna B. said...: Great quilt pattern, yes. Many similar to it have been done, but probably not this one exactly.

I'll have to get to work on that :-)

Now, I'll vent happiness:

For 10 years, my house has been the receptacle of things inherited from relatives dying and of things left behind (or worse, brought back home!) by children.

This week, my son removed all his furnishings stored here to what I hope is a place he's decided on as permanent.

Tomorrow, a daughter is visiting and is planning on taking a few of the possessions of her grandmother's that I've been storing for her.

I can regain use of an entire room!!!; 5/20/09, 4:22 PM
Anonymous said...: funny about the military. Now i remember in iowa. It was the assignment right before doing a positive to negative design. It wasn't a tessellation it was just the formation of negative space into positive space.

Right before that we had a free drawing class in design lab which confused me because this wasn't about drawing it was design.

Guess where the professor took us for the free drawing period: the rotc hall where the guys were practicing. I goofed off the entire period. i remember that specifically.

Next i think the military was near me all throughout my adult life.

this is kinda spooky when i start seeing this for what it is. paranoia, right?; 5/20/09, 4:23 PM
Anonymous said...: i was in the 99th percentile. highly unusual for a girl. they didn't tell me anything. I never had special consultations or anything like they do now with parents.

i just did my school work and then later i had to timeshare. The summer of eighth grade i went to work in a burger fastfood place, and always worked through my whole high school life.

I knew i would only have enough money for junior college so there was no use for tests after that.; 5/20/09, 4:33 PM
KCFleming said...: The tests are pointless if the student lacks access to good advice and someone who dares them, or rather expects them, to take a chance.

"High school career counselor" seemed to me a job that could have done some real good, but it was always the spot for someone to expend the least effort possible.; 5/20/09, 4:51 PM
JAL said...: Funny. I was out the roof on spacial visualization in the careers test I took a gazillion years ago at BOCES -- Board of Cooperative Education Services (? on the last word) in Katonah, NY.

It was supposed to help you make education / career choices as you headed out of high school.

The guidance counselor looked at my record and said he was sure he could get me into the state education school at New Palz, since he had a friend there.

Ha.

We need to look up. And look down. More.; 5/20/09, 4:56 PM
Anonymous said...: The vent ruins the visual experience for me. I'm looking for eye-pleasing vents for my house now, because I just can't stand to look at the crappy standard vents we have now.; 5/20/09, 5:08 PM
Anonymous said...: do people think you cant use your spatial relations intelligence in being a mother? not just quilting or handicrafts.

what about being in three places at close to one time for your kids events. I used this all the time.; 5/20/09, 5:22 PM
KCFleming said...: I'm usually the vent in other folk's pattern reverie.; 5/20/09, 5:30 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Shame on me:

I tried to convert my fake buddy-list on MySpace, into a Facebook Friend list...and Facebook sent me a warning message.

Just wait till they find out that 80% of my Facebook friends are people that I brought over from Friendster !; 5/20/09, 5:37 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Just wait till Twitter finds out that all of my (nearly) 200 Followers are fabricated !

I don't think Twitter really cares about fake Followers, do they?; 5/20/09, 5:49 PM
Ralph L said...: DBQ said ...
For a couple of years the Air Force tried to recruit me as a navigator, until they realized that I wasn't a guy.

I know some men with the surname "Queen", but the "Bunny" should have tipped them off.; 5/20/09, 5:58 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I don't think Twitter really cares about fake Followers, do they?

I'm crushed Maxine - that you would consider me a fake follower ;); 5/20/09, 5:58 PM
Penny said...: How odd, tg. I was also looking for the FedEx arrow.

I saw my first FedEx truck today since Ann had that post about hidden things in logos. It was NICE to see an arrow where I never saw one before. Funny how at least two of us were looking for arrows in that ceiling. Did anyone else do that?; 5/20/09, 5:59 PM
Titusiseatingfageyogurtthankyou said...: At this moment I am having a divine salad of arugula, goat cheese, pears, strawberries in a non fat orange rasperry vinagrette.

It's absolutely delish.; 5/20/09, 6:05 PM
Anonymous said...: I wish I had practiced the piano more when I was a kid. I had more time then.; 5/20/09, 6:06 PM
Titusiseatingfageyogurtthankyou said...: I love when ordering my delish salad I say, "no bread".

I say "no bread" with a hint of disgust.

thank you.; 5/20/09, 6:14 PM
Anonymous said...: that's not a vent. that's a perspective adjusted photo in a frame of the aon center in chicago on randolph street across from the pritzger pavillion.
the digital camera does that with the moire of the stripes.

also a term from fabric design

---; 5/20/09, 6:14 PM
Titusiseatingfageyogurtthankyou said...: I have decided that my choice of snack this summer is baby carrots.

organic, natch.; 5/20/09, 6:17 PM
Anonymous said...: oh excuse me it is a mathematical term

http://www.mathematik.com/Moire/

if you look up at the standard oil building of indiana as i call it, you can get your eyes to do the effect sometimes. you don't have to be drunk.

The artist in the plaza below repeats this pattern with the sculpture of prairie grass which then repeats the harmonics with the sounds.

i love that plaza when it is empty on the weekends. it has very many mathematical cues. that is why it's cool that piano's art institute modern wing kinda resounds inbetween the reflections.

they have built a bridge with frets to carry the waves of people into the building.thats cool too.; 5/20/09, 6:24 PM
Penny said...: "I say "no bread" with a hint of disgust."

I order my cheeseburger on a toasted roll with

A N T I C I P A T I O N

Carly Simon is never there with me, except in spirit.; 5/20/09, 6:28 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: When I see pictures like this I imagine Althouse is working on a "Pictures I Took While Having Sex" series.

Not having a mirror makes it classy.; 5/20/09, 6:28 PM
Palladian said...: "I have decided that my choice of snack this summer is baby carrots."

Baby carrots are flavorless, especially the bagged, peeled ones. Much better to get a more mature carrot and peel it yourself.

But of course some people like immature, trimmed little morsels and some of us prefer big, firm, tasty ones with the skin still on.; 5/20/09, 6:36 PM
Palladian said...: And arugula is a terrible main green for a salad. If it's to be used at all, it should be used very sparingly as an accent herb. Same goes for frisée, dandelion greens and so on.; 5/20/09, 6:38 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: But of course some people like immature, trimmed little morsels and some of us prefer big, firm, tasty ones with the skin still on.

Baby carrots are mature carrots, just ones that have been pre-cut and put through a potato peeler.; 5/20/09, 6:44 PM
Penny said...: Interesting, Jason. I always think about how juiced up on caffeine Althouse must be.

In the same way I doubt that someone who spends alot of time in a bar would order Shirley Temples or Virgin Marys, I just can't imagine Althouse sitting in ALL these cafes ordering decaffeinated coffee.

It's a bit of a disconnect for me personally when she uses the "cafe setting" to tone down her site a notch.; 5/20/09, 6:45 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: I'm feeling an attack of OCD coming on.

I should look at something else to raise the serotonin.; 5/20/09, 6:50 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Penny : It's a bit of a disconnect for me personally when she uses the "cafe setting" to tone down her site a notch.

The first coffee houses were places where people would come together and talk about things. Philosophy, insurance, politics you name it. They were like a Parisian salon, but less formal. And we're all friends here, even the trolls (just don't sprinkle water on them or feed them after midnight).; 5/20/09, 6:52 PM
Anonymous said...: althouse, again do you copy ideas from my photos are are you just using your esp?; 5/20/09, 6:52 PM
ricpic said...: My divine salad is a big wedge of iceberg lettuce with a generous dollop of ranch dressing. Not some Titus hodgepodge with five or six competing flavors that cancel each other out. I'm not enough of a sophisticate to 'preciate such overkill.; 5/20/09, 7:04 PM
Palladian said...: "Baby carrots are mature carrots, just ones that have been pre-cut and put through a potato peeler."

That explains everything. The heart of the carrot is the least tasty part. And real baby carrots are much better tasting.; 5/20/09, 7:05 PM
Palladian said...: "My divine salad is a big wedge of iceberg lettuce with a generous dollop of ranch dressing. Not some Titus hodgepodge with five or six competing flavors that cancel each other out. I'm not enough of a sophisticate to 'preciate such overkill."

Ah, so you prefer no flavor over five or six competing flavors. Interesting.

Titus is not a sophisticate, he's a vulgarian. Americans often confuse expensive and sophisticated. But you can be sophisticated cheaply.; 5/20/09, 7:09 PM
Titusiseatingfageyogurtthankyou said...: Can I just enjoy my salad Palladian and my baby carrots?

I just went to take the dogs out and the rich 25 year old neighbor who's parents paid for his place in full was in the hallway. He got his hair completely buzzed off. I would love to point you to his website so you can see how how he is but I think that would be unprofessional. He looked hot. He said, "hey" and I said "hey".; 5/20/09, 7:09 PM
Palladian said...: "He said, "hey" and I said "hey".

Whenever people address me with "hey" I tell them to check the stables and they'll find what they're looking for.; 5/20/09, 7:10 PM
Palladian said...: The best snack:

Half a Hass avocado, with the hole left by the pit filled with the best extra virgin olive oil you can find and a couple of drops of white wine vinegar. Sprinkle with a few large crystals of sea salt and eat in one bite.; 5/20/09, 7:13 PM
Titusiseatingfageyogurtthankyou said...: I don't watch much tele but my girlfriends all called me last night raving about Glee.

Did anyone here see it?

The queen from Nip/Tuck did it. I heard an interview with Terry Gross and him and he is hilarious and very smart.

My tibetan maids came today. They are married. The guy is hot and so very nice. I always put my Dalai Lama's book of wisdom out when they are coming. Just to show that I am one with their cause. It's the little things in life that I do that makes the world of difference.

Another example would be if I meet and Indian. I always tell them I loved Bombay Wedding or say something disparingly about Pakistan.; 5/20/09, 7:14 PM
Titusiseatingfageyogurtthankyou said...: OK, Palladian that snack does sound awesome.

I am tempted to run out to the store and get that now.; 5/20/09, 7:15 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: ricpic, iceberg lettuce? I think I prefer it too. It has a bitter flavor that works really well with ranch or Russian dressings. It's probably the perfect choice if you're making a chef or taco salad.; 5/20/09, 7:17 PM
Penny said...: "But of course some people like immature, trimmed little morsels and some of us prefer big, firm, tasty ones with the skin still on."

Yes, I'll have some of that, please.; 5/20/09, 7:20 PM
Palladian said...: "It's probably the perfect choice if you're making a chef or taco salad."

Boston lettuce is better. The only thing iceberg lettuce has going for it is crispiness, which is why I think it's used so often. Romaine has a bit of that bitterness.; 5/20/09, 7:27 PM
Penny said...: Jason, if you talk to me about either a chef salad or a taco salad, it will ALWAYS be about the few pieces of meat and cheese they toss in there to make me forget that I am not, nor was I ever meant to be, a rabbit...(in this life).

AND...if I am lucky? I might be able to avoid that reincarnation totally! ;); 5/20/09, 7:37 PM
Anonymous said...: I feel the need to remind you all that lettuce is a socially unacceptable food!; 5/20/09, 8:38 PM
Penny said...: Henry Buck?

No wonder that apple looks sad. :(

No lettuce?

What is a key Waldorf player like yourself going to do with a bunch of nuts?; 5/20/09, 9:46 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/20/09, 10:00 PM
Anonymous said...: It's an asian pear, but it sliced that way, and I thought it was worth capturing.; 5/20/09, 10:56 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Half a Hass avocado, with the hole left by the pit filled with the best extra virgin olive oil you can find and a couple of drops of white wine vinegar. Sprinkle with a few large crystals of sea salt and eat in one bite.

Amen.

Except in itty bitty tiny bites so the experience lasts longer.

I have a friend whose daughter lives in Santa Maria and a few times a year he will bring us a grocery bag FULL of Haas avocados. For a few weeks, we go into an orgy of guacamole, avocado and cheese omelettes, quesildillas, shrimp and avocado cheese casseroles and anything else.; 5/20/09, 11:06 PM
amba said...: Is that a Meade Ceiling?; 5/20/09, 11:42 PM
Anonymous said...: now i understand this all a bit better seeing i believe i am just someone's toy in a field of dream. that's why ann put the grid on a slant. why people get all sexed up in Ann's orgy here and i the prude find this disgusting. I guess i will have to find my holographic match elsewhere and Ann fans can go about their orgies together and they can laugh at those who are alone and not having to talk about hitler wet dreams of guns and butter.

The moiré effect can be used in strain measurement: the operator just has to draw a pattern on the object, and superimpose the reference pattern to the deformed pattern on the deformed object.
A similar effect can be obtained by the superposition of an holographic image of the object to the object itself: the hologram is the reference step, and the difference with the object are the deformations, which appear as pale and dark lines.; 5/20/09, 11:46 PM
Anonymous said...: ann,

i never knew behind some of those fake grins in your videos and batting eyelash shallowness that you understood this higher mathematics.

imean formulaic i believe you took a few courses to get whereyou are academically, but i didn't take you for a deep understaning in visual mathematics.

congratulations you had me fooled behind those naive looks talking to all those other women on your slate.

frayed not. wow somehow i sense something here from my online past deformations, annexcafe, slate, msn networks.; 5/21/09, 12:01 AM