Pre Solstice Musings

It's practically the summer solstice and the hummingbirds are particularly active this morning—I've seen two in the in the first five minutes of writing outside.  Normally, they visit the fountain in the half hour around dawn, and then at noon and sometimes in the very late afternoon.  Today has been the first clear and sunny day in about a week, so maybe they're wanting more water. 

The rainy May and June have broken the drought in the Willamette Valley; unfortunately, the rains didn't make it over the cascade mountains much, so Eastern Oregon remains in the arid grip of severe drought.  

Last Wednesday I was in a terrible funk.  This one seemed to come out of the blue—I don't know if it was sleep related, or a week of rain related, or not enough chocolate, or feeling isolated, or what.  Normally, the burdening numbness like a fist of stone living behind my ribcage only happens in January and February, which I attribute to low light levels.  By Wednesday evening, I just gave in and sat down with a bunch of Saturday Night Live comedy sketches on YouTube—which seemed to help?  In any case, Thursday didn't feel like living in a bleak Eurythmics (Sylvia or Loser or Peace) song.  

I was listening to a pod-cast the other day with Mark, which featured Neil deGrasse Tyson, and the take-away I got from it was when he said, "If your mind isn't being blown at least once a week, your not [reading, learning, or paying attention] enough."  So that's a wake-up call.

On the writing front, I am trying to get back into the groove of writing.  I'm currently working on a short story that needs the dialog and characterization tweaked.  The feedback I got was that the writing was good, but that the character's stakes were not clear and so the ending was confusing or unsatisfying.  

On the graphics front, I've been playing around with five pointed stars and trying to see how groupings other than of ten work.