Comments for more crap from johan

Comment on Crystally Christmas by Eric I

Eric I — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:08:51 +0000

Beautiful!

Comment on Farewell New Forest, on to the Isle of Wight by johan

johan — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:28:45 +0000

All that rain, mountains, and trees really does cut down on the rainbows, but hearing about the drought (and fires) that have hit Central Texas, i think i’d chose that. At least you can grow some of your own food without a $300/month water bill!

Comment on My brain is such a weird place. by johan

johan — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:26:33 +0000

We definitely plan to visit both… perhaps next Summer; i hear Scotland can be chilly in the Winter, and it rains a lot in both places.

On the few occasions when i’ve gone into great detail about my (varied) ethnic heritage whilst talking with people here, most seem more (pleasantly) amused than impressed. I think it’s amazing to them that people from the States go to such lengths to retrace ancestry to places they may never visit. I can see what they mean, but i think one of the reasons we do it is to have more history — for most European Americans, our history and lineage in the area started within the last 200 years. For a lot of people in Britain, they know that it may go back (in the area) thousands of years — they just don’t know exactly how. (Though i have noticed that some of the English are very proud of their regional histories and birthright. For example, the people of Kent county submitted to William the Conqueror, but from what i’ve read, they are still proud that they were not beaten, and their county motto is still, Invicta or “Unconquered.”

Comment on My brain is such a weird place. by moux

moux — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:04:32 +0000

I think you come to this honestly since you are both Irish, English and perhaps Scottish on your mom’s side. I just finished reading a Walker Percy novel, “The Thanatos Syndrome” which was great (except some 2nd-hand descriptions of disturbing encounters with children by weird characters in the novel) and Percy (your distant relative) talks about our common ancestor whom he doesn’t name, but is in fact Charles Percy. Your Irish roots come through the Gilmores, but also possibly through Charles Percy’s first wife, Margaret whom he left in England. Upon establishing himself in Feliciana (and Mississippi) he married again, Susanna. Walker Percy is descended from Susanna. I hope you and M. can get to Ireland one of these days.

Comment on Farewell New Forest, on to the Isle of Wight by moux

moux — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:50:14 +0000

Ah…rainbows….I used to see them all the time in Tucson, AZ when I was driving around the city a lot (I taught at 5 schools everyday as a traveling strings teacher). This was in the years when we actually remembered what rain looked like…before the onset of the 10 year drought that has lasted 20 years.

I would drive to what I thought was the ‘end’ of the rainbow, (that must be where the lyrics to the song came from” I’m always chasing rainbows”) not really looking for the pot of gold, but thinking that I would see some giant bands of color coming to rest in the desert.

Now that we live in Vermont, I almost never see rainbows. ..and we have so much rain. They are really spectacular in Arizona however.

Comment on Farewell New Forest, on to the Isle of Wight by johan

johan — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:32:59 +0000

Ah.. well, you know i’m sure you have the full force of basic algebra and optics to back you up, but that’s really just leprechaun propaganda designed to keep you from finding their pots of gold! :)

Thanks for the refresher of some basic science. The idea that i wasn’t going to be able to back up from some refracted and reflected light was somewhere in my head, but i could not remember exactly why. The Wikipedia article on rainbows (unsurprisingly) has a very thorough description of the phenomenon.

I had forgotten that the special angle is 42 degrees in the opposite direction of the Sun. Good ole Douglas Adams.. last night i was just re-reading about him after M and i were watching a Dr. Who and i couldn’t remember who the second manifestation of Romana was played by. It turns out to have been Lalla Ward, and she and Adams were good friends — Adams even introduced her to Tom Baker (then the Doctor) and Baker and Ward married… for a little while at least. Now she’s married to Richard Dawkins.

I really must remember to have a towel with me next 25 May. Nearly every work day, i ride through a part of Islington Adams lived in.

Comment on Farewell New Forest, on to the Isle of Wight by Eric I

Eric I — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 04:08:05 +0000

Nice! By the way, rainbows don’t have a size. They have an angle. Being an optical effect, backing up doesn’t help. :-)

Comment on In the English Countryside by delia mayoff

delia mayoff — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 23:55:01 +0000

And wooly coos to boot!

Comment on “If you can’t riot with your toys properly…” by Jeanne

Jeanne — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:58:47 +0000

Perhaps you could draw a chalk circle where the bin USED to be and simply place items to be disposed in said circle? Or hire the French street artist who paints shadows on streets? Banksy may be available for collaboration…

Comment on New flat, and the variety of Spring in London by delia

delia — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 05:29:03 +0000

It looks beautiful there. I’m glad you had some nice weather to ring in the new flat.