Fair
Luna
hides behind
snow laden clouds
painting the night sky
in crystalline
luminous
dabs of
pink.
kat ~ 23 January 2016
Category Archives: Random Thoughts and Musings
Full Moon Glow
Sitzmark – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku
Happy Friday to you! I love the German language! So many German words are colorfully descriptive when used in English context. Today’s word of the day fits that bill. According to Dictionary.com, Sitzmark derives from the German sitzen meaning “to sit.” Merriam-Webster adds the English “mark” (as in to leave a mark) to round out the original meaning of the word. It entered English lanquage in the 1930s.
I am not a skier, so this word is new to me. I skied when I was much younger. These days the idea of speeding down a mountain gives me pause. I am sure I would struggle to remain upright. Were I to take a fahrt (Trip) down a mountain I doubt I would simply make a sitzmark upon tumbling, but rather a quite lengthy skid mark! I’ll leave you to your own imagination on this English word picture…keep your schadenfreude (pleasure at someone else’s misfortune) to yourself, thank you!
An exploration of the word “skid mark” in Wikipedia reveals that it is an important forensic tool providing evidence that helps investigators with accident re-creation…(once again, consult your own imagination!)
Okay…I’ve completely lost it at this point, as I sit here grinste wie ein Honigkuchenpferd (Iiterally translated: “grinning like a “honey-caked horse”!) Or if that doesn’t make sense to you…honigkuchenpferd can also mean “Cheshire Cat”. I’m not exactly sure how one makes a connection between a horse-shaped cookie and a maniacal cat…but that’s German for you…how I love German words! 🙂
So without further ado, kugelschreiber (literally, ball scriber, or in English, pen) to the paper, (or if you insist, fingers to the keyboard…I just liked the word kugelschreiber that literally means “ball scriber”…BALL scriber! … I am grinste wie ein Honigkuchenpferd at this very moment!) here is this week’s Haiku!
Sitzmarks – The Haiku
Skiers make sitzmarks
When tumbling on the slopes
Me? I’d make skid marks!kat ~ 22 January 2016
(Or a snow angel, in my attempt to convince you that I planned to stop, drop and roll, arms and legs flapping just so. Let’s get real. You will most likely find me on the ski slopes safely tucked inside the lodge experiencing blissful Gemütlichkeit (the feeling of comfortable/cozy)!
Echoes of my Neighborhood
Happy Thursday! And another installment of Echoes of my Neighborhood in response to the challenge from my friend Jacqueline of the blog, a cooking pot and twisted tales.
I have worked in Admin for my entire career (decades…though I won’t mention how many!) and for the most part my working space has been located in a dark corner cubicle…or in an office with no windows. During the winter seasons it was not uncommon for me to spend an entire day never seeing sunlight, because I would leave before sunrise and return home after sunset. I have always packed my lunch as well, so I would often eat in front of my computer screen while catching up on emails or the news of the day.
So you can imagine my delight to now have a window seat of the Blue Ridge Mountains each day. My current office setting is still a cubicle (in that I am partitioned from other staff members by temporary walls), but an entire WALL of glass flanks my left! Floor to ceiling windows! I love, love, love my new digs! (well actually not new, new…been here for almost 4 years now). It doesn’t matter to me if the sun is shining or if it is raining or snowing. I don’t even care anymore that in the winter I still leave at dawn and return home after dusk. At any time during the day I can glance to my left and see that there is a beautiful world out there with trees and clouds and a sky. It has made a huge difference in my life resulting in less stress. I suppose after decades of dedicated pecking at keyboards and answering phones I have earned this esteemed spot. 🙂 At any rate, I am quite happy in my little corner of the world and happy too, to share it with you! 🙂
A Failed Six Word Story Turned Haiku
So, Sometime Stellar Storyteller’s challenge this week was to write a six word story based on the prompt word “Amusement”. I came up with a few. You can read the proper Six Word Stories HERE.
But there was one idea that I could just not hone down to six words. It features my dog and his dizzying happy practice of chasing his tail. He is so amused with himself and so proud when at long last he catches said tail.
I shake my head thinking, “It doesn’t take much to make a dog happy!”…and then I realize I’ve just sat their watching him spin over and over. Apparently, it doesn’t take much to make me happy either! 🙂
This is Maxwell’s happy face. You can stop laughing now…I’m not amused! 😉
A Failed Six Word Story Turned Haiku
Happy DogChasing tail, spinning,
My dog amuses himself
Silly me…I watch!kat – 18 January 2016
Blink
I am fascinated by the assymetrical properties of the face. Studies have shown that we instinctively look at the right hemisphere of each other’s faces to perceive emotions. This phenomenon, known as left gaze bias, is not just a human trait, but a behavior shared by animals as well. To read someone’s face is not necessarily a conscious thing that we do…it happens quite naturally, no doubt aiding our intuition. A reminder to trust my own.
An Update:
Several of you have commented on this amazing phenomenon. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia’s article on Animal Emotions:
Psychology research has shown that when humans gaze at the face of another human, the gaze is not symmetrical; the gaze instinctively moves to the right side of the face to obtain information about their emotions and state. Research at the University of Lincoln shows that dogs share this instinct when meeting a human, and only when meeting a human (i.e., not other animals or other dogs). They are the only non-primate species known to share this instinct.[66][67]
…and a humorous note…I have long had difficulty telling my left from my right. That would explain how quite honestly I mistook “left gaze bias” for a propensity to gaze at the “left” side of the face. In fact, emotions are ruled by our left brains which in turn displays those emotions on the RIGHT sides of our faces. It all makes sense. We gaze left to view the right side of someone’s face…duh. That’s why I write poetry and leave logical thought to the mathematicians and scientists. Spock I am not! I’m more of a Yoda. 🙂 I did feel compelled to correct the poem though. Now it’s all good! 🙂
the
dark side
of one’s face,
right hemisphere,
reveals full-on
emotion unveiled,
informing intuition
through aeonian instincts
hard-wired to perceive…
survival in play
a reminder…
don’t let them
see you
blink.
kat ~ 18 January 2016
(An ascending/descending Septet)
Most Inspirational Blogger Nominee
like mercury colliding... 