Preony

Preony, originally uploaded by ComicNurse.

Couldn't resist posting just one more photo - there's something about a flower on the verge of bloom that I find so incredibly compelling.

Alice Considers

Alice Considers , originally uploaded by ComicNurse.

Once again, Alice had a pretty decent weekend.

Happy Buddha's Birthday

Happy Buddha's Birthday, originally uploaded by ComicNurse.

Engaged Ellen

Photo of the Week 20

Tree Flower 3, originally uploaded by ComicNurse.

Chicago Memories?

Almost two years ago I illustrated a book. The small Indianapolis publishing company has been bought by a larger one since, and I'd mostly given up on ever seeing that project come to light. But now I'm hearing otherwise - a projected late June, early July release. As my dad used to say to me all the time when I was a kid, "we'll see." I am pleased with how the cover looks - the font they chose is very compatible with the drawing style and the colors are seamless. More info here.

Photo of the Week 19

Tree Flowers, originally uploaded by ComicNurse.

It's been a great week for photos with my newfound appreciation of Flickr and one of my posts there being chosen as Thursday's photo of the week on WBEZ's website.

Also a great week for quotes, this one being my current favorite, a restating of Annie Dillard's notion that our needs are guaranteed:

"True abundance does exist; it flows from sufficiency, in an experience of the beauty and wholeness of what is. Abundance is a fact of nature. It is a fundamental law of nature, that there is enough and it is finite. Its finiteness is no threat; it creates a more accurate relationship that commands respect, reverence, and managing those resources with the knowledge that they are precious and in ways that do the most good for the most people."
-- Lynne Twist

Alice v. Tabby

Alice v. Tabby, originally uploaded by ComicNurse.

it was a draw. Both parties chose to walk away.

Sit Stay Read in the News

Channel 5 in Chicago visited our program at Manierre.
Check out the report.

Photo of the Week 18: Lakeside Daffodil

Photo Stream

I didn't think I'd be using another photo site. After taking the time to upload my photos, I would then find a fatal flaw to the site- the photos don't look good on the site, they don't make decent prints, I can't link to them indidually, I can't organize them in a way that works for me. So I'd given up. But Flickr has a great thing going - I should have gone there first. I wanted to submit one of yesterday's Graceland photos to the Chicago Public Radio photo of the day competition. So I took the time to put my best stuff on Flickr.

See what you think.

History of Medicine Follow-Up

Two things - first, the vocabulary list. Again, don't forget - the test is using it in a sentence. If anyone requests definitions in the comments, I'll be glad to oblige in a future post - unlike my dad, who always made me look it up myself. I'm not sure that was such an effective strategy.

pathocenosis

shibboleth

concatenation

weltanschauung

meretricious

apotheosis

accoucheur

parturient

Second thing, Thursday we found out my professor was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. Very exciting. Her research will focus on “science and identity politics in the Internet age.” She intends to study highly publicized identity politics controversies involving academics and the response of marginalized groups when they feel the work of scientists injures their rights and reputations.

Photo of the Week 17: More Signs of Spring

An Unusual Week

Two things that a "never" happen here happened this week.

First, on Monday a cougar was reported wandering in the Roscoe Village neighborhood, hiding under front porches. Police chased it around and finally shot it dead in an alley. It was quite sad to see the cougar trying to escape, so clearly lost and backed into a corner. And it must have been alarming for neighbors to first see a cougar tooling around their yard, and then to have Chicago police shooting at it like target practice. Today reports say the cougar might have been from the Black Hills of South Dakota. The Washington Post reports that, "Government protections on cougars (also called mountain lions and panthers) in the Upper Plains states have caused once-threatened populations to rebound to the point of saturation, forcing more of the big cats to migrate far afield."

Second, we had an earthquake last night. I slept through it but this morning working at my desk I definitely felt an aftershock.

Never say never.

Alice at Work

Will she ever stop with the lake views?

Not when they're this cool!

Photo of the Week 16: First Flowers

Alice's New Website

A classmate brought it to my attention that Alice's old website is a mess. In an attempt to learn iWeb better, I created Alice's new website. It links primarily from her Sit Stay Read page and is still in "beta", so comments are welcome.

Grad School Update

It's new quarter time. Last night was my first "Medicine & The Law" class. I have high hopes. How can you not when your teacher is an improv comedienne?

Last quarter was, as you might have guessed from the summarizing cartoon, "History of Medicine." Not what I expected, in that we didn't study a timeline of great discoveries, but more and different. I learned about the importance of establishing context. Understanding history is not about dates, events or people. It's about context. I think that's going to come in handy. The other important lesson seems to be that history isn't something you learn, it's something you do.

Bottom line: I'm enjoying grad school way more than I think is advisable.

Photos of the Week 15: April Lake Update

(Click photos to enlarge and see detail.)



The above-water sandbar of a few weeks ago has been reclaimed by the lake, so the shore is back to its expected appearance for this time of year. This morning the air and water were almost impossibly still.



The lake may have taken most of the sandbar, but it does give back. This time of year is phenomenal for beachcoming. Look at all the stuff along the shore - including an entire tree that begs the question as to how it got where it is.



Potential finds include: beachglass - blue is the most valuable. Much needs to be thrown back as it's not been worn to a milky finish yet. More elusive to me are crinoids - or as a friend of Maddie's calls them, "nature's cheerios". They are the remains of plants that lived, according to my sources, as recently as 359 billion years ago. It's also a great time to find rocks with holes left by crinoids, treasured because you can make all kinds of fun stuff with them.