Spring in Burbank

[tealin]

For two mounths out of the year there are actually green growing things in this parched valley. Rejoice! Frolic! Take pictures!

There's a field between the studio and the freeway – I don't know who owns it, but it's used by people exercising their horses. Every time I'd park my bike in the morning I'd see how much bigger the little green shoots had grown, taking advantage of the four or five rainstorms we've had this winter. Only just last week I actually rode my bike through the field and was surprised how much was out there. I thought I should take pictures before they mow it all down in a couple weeks for fire safety.

        
    

I don't know what the weed-that-looks-like-geraniums is called, but it's grown in some form nearly everywhere I've lived. I've never seen it grow as tall as me before, though, not even in lush green Canada. Must be all the horse poo.

Look, trees!

    

This is an overview of the field from the second floor of the studio:


And look, the hill! THERE IS GREEN ON IT!


We're on the wrong side of it to get foggy mornings most of the time, but it makes for a neat effect anyway:


I walked towards it every day two summers ago, and lived at its base for a couple months before I learned that the world-famous Hollywood sign is just on the other side of that flat bit with the antennae. It's just the hill in my backyard! Mind asplodey.

If you catch the right light and crop it cleverly, Burbank doesn't look half bad, sometimes...

Hey Mac users! Do you ever find that if it's been running for a while (like over 24 hours) Firefox gets, for lack of a better term, tired? Like, it'll stop loading images or page formatting and sometimes you'll get to a page and just ... none of the links work. If I quit and restart it works fine, but I don't like quitting Firefox because I am not a quitter I have stuff loaded that I need to refer to and if I close it I have to reload it all, which is a waste of time and server brainpower. Is this a Mac thing or is it just my own personal MacBook McBuggy over here?

Comments

[trutitipudlian.livejournal.com]

In my expert opinion it is because they hate us, and we are really only a few years away from the machine uprising. My own troubleshooting advice would be to be very nice to one's computer. Name it a nice name like Fritz or Gerald, not something like Hal (it will only annoy them, and give them ideas). Greet them when you first turn them on with a cheery hello, and a goodnight when you turn them off. While it not very effective with the speed of the computer, common courtesy to it might just save one from coming doom of the revolution.

However, the interest of complete fairness I will allow the other side's opinion to be heard. My favorite English teacher disagreed with my advanced theory and opted for a more traditional viewpoint. "It is," he said staring at the screen trying to pull up a helpful website on why (contrary to my point of view) Emily Dickinson did not write insane dribble, "demonically possessed." The learned professor recommends dancing withershins about the desk of said computer while chanting "NaNaNaNa Hey Hey Goodbye," and flinging herbs about with a chicken foot. Its apprently drives out the demons placed there by Bill Gates The Lord of Hell.

I would not recommend that because a lot of behaviors can be ignored with the person in question has tenure, and are less tolerated in ordinary folks. Besides, the lack success he had with the method (and my own experiments in the name of science) would suggest that it is merely Old Professors tales. I have not yet experimented with bell, book and candle but perhaps you could try that method.

(I have heard it talked about by older, wiser, and geeker Mac fans about computers overheating with time. I am no expert on real things related to computers, so I've really no idea. But I generally say with some authority that there seems to be a correlation between the sluggishness of a computer, and upon touching the computer you pull your hand away screaming for a bucket of ice.)