Random thoughts too small to stand alone...

• The music video that calapine made of the song "What About Everything," using Doctor Who images, was one of the things I missed most when I switched to a new computer. I think what makes it stick in my brain most is the refrain "I am not in need."
  
  You see, "Not" is one of those strange words that is only understood by a very small part of the brain -- the cold, rational, logical part of the brain. To the deeper, ancient, emotional and instinctual parts of our brains, "not" is effectively silent -- outside their range of perception. So while the argumentative part of our brain hears: "No problem. Everything's fine and dandy," the feeling part of our brain hears: "Help me! I'm lost, I'm hurt! Ack! :::Flail::!"* Which is how I've been feeling since Dad called, back in January, right when I was getting ready for his visit, to tell me he'd broken his leg -- and then called again to tell me they'd found lung cancer (It wasn't a "midnight phone call," but it sure did wake me from my peace). So the song validates how I feel. Also, Dad used to fly aeroplanes, and whenever we went out to eat, and the waitress would come by and ask: "How is everything?" we'd always answer with something like: "Well, we can't say about everything in the universe, but right here, it's dandy!" So ... it just fits (also, calapine did a faboo job of finding just the right clips for each line).



• I've been wanting to come up with an lj icon for glarmaco, with the motto, in Latin, for: "Life is short. Art is messy" (a take off on "Vita brevis. Ars longa"). But those militeristic, order-obsessed, Romans didn't really have a good word for "messy." But after a bit of Googling, I found a guide to Latin grammar and translation from Notre Dame, and came up with a few alternatives for "Mixed up"
  

  1) farrago -inis f. [mixed fodder for cattle , mash; a medley, mixture] -- which is a lot like the English word "sloppy" (from the slop we feed to pigs). or, 2) vinolentus -a -um [mixed with wine; drunk , intoxicated] -- So my motto would end up being "Life is short. Art is drunk," or maybe I should make it: "Life is short. Art is intoxicating." Which do you prefer?



• And finally, with a new computer, comes a new photo/picture management program. I now have Photo Pro for Windows. Anyone here familiar with it? Specifically, anyone know if I can use its 'slide show' function to make animated gifs for lj icons (like, say, ones where I want to fit a Latin motto with a translation and a picture? ;-))

*To prove this point, try to follow this instruction: "Do not think of a purple polka-dotted elephant." Could you do it? ;-) That's why it's better to tell yourself: "I'm brave" instead of "I'm not scared."


( 'What About Everything' lyrics for my Dad, and others who cannot see the video )