Bronze Clay, Mondegreens, and Healthy Eating

BRONZE CLAY RESULTS

Did I already mention that what came out of the kiln was less than stellar? I had three small bronze tube beads… two of them opened up at the seam. That doesn’t surprise me. I felt like a dweeb when I was making them. Hadar was really nice, showing me some tips and tricks, but I still felt I was doing a really bad job at them. And I guess it turns out I was.

One piece that survived the kiln was something that was GOING to be a pendant bead with holes on each side… holes that I forgot to drill before firing the piece. Argh!

One piece that didn’t survive was a plain pendant. It cracked down the middle.

Oh, and my pieces had blisters on the backs… this is the first time I’ve had blisters. Shrug… I thought that was a sign of over-heating…. But I didn’t have a higher temp.

I obviously still need a lot of experimenting to do.

Then there were two pieces that are too thin (IMO) and I did something stupid… It was going to be bronze textured background with copper inlay, but I forgot that if I don’t push the copper through the hole that I made (for the jumpring finding) it will bake in place. D’oh!

I didn’t polish anything yet. Y’know… it’s sort of anticlimactic. Maybe I’ll do the inlay ones and see if they’re salvageable.


HEALTHY EATING

Today is day five. I still have massive sugar cravings, but I haven't really caved. Not with sugar anyway. I did have some tamales with cheese in them. I'm not going to wig out about some things here and there that are still healthy but not exactly part of what I am doing at the moment. To me, it's still better to eat energy-giving food so I'm okay with things like cheese, a little fatty meat, a piece of bread… stuff like that.

There's been dark chocolate and cookies and stuff like that at the office this week. I haven't had one bite.

I also didn't eat one chip after the kids opened a big bag of cheddar potato chips to go with the hamburgers.

I'm not used to having will-power so I'm pleased by this. Hope it lasts.


MONDEGREEN

Do you know what a mondegreen is? It's when a word or phrase is misheard or misinterpreted. Like instead of "it's a dog eat dog world", the person actually thinks the phrase is "it's a doggie dog world". Or thinking "for all intents and purposes" is "for all intensive purposes". There are a TON of lyrics that get misheard. One of the most famous is the Hendrix song, "Excuse me while I kiss the sky..." misheard as "Excuse me while I kiss this guy…"

See… they sound pretty much the same. It's all about interpretation.

The word "mondegreen" was coined by Sylvia Wright (a writer in mid-20th century America) because as a child she was read a poem that went:
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl Amurray,
And laid him on the green.
But what her mind heard was:
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl Amurray,
And Lady Mondegreen.

Some more good ones…

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life (Psalm 23)
Becomes
Surely good Mrs. Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life

Half a league, half a league; Half a league onward," (The Charge of the Light Brigade)
Becomes
Haffely, Gaffely, Gaffely, Gonward

Stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from above (God Bless America)
Becomes
Stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from a bulb

The girl with kaleidoscope eyes (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds)
Becomes
The girl with colitis goes by

Then there was the 1943 backwards mondegreen song by Drake et al…
Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey; A kiddley divey too, wooden shoe
Was a clever play on:
Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy; A kid'll eat ivy too; wouldn't you?

And I guess I should admit my own…
"I'm a loser baby so why don't you kill me" (Beck song)
I swear (swear Swear SWEAR) that if you listen carefully it sounds much more like what I thought he was singing …
"I'm a lizard baby so why don't you kill me"


PHOTOS

Did I mention I got a new photo cube… and tried it out (sort of)? I'll probably explain in my next entry. I hope to be able to shoot tomorrow night.

TTYL!