Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Huh. I was just looking at someone's birth and death dates, and caught myself in the following succesion of thoughts: "So he was a child during XXX, a teenager when YYY happened, middle-aged for ZZZ, and a grown-up when he died, not having reached old-age." Waitaminute. When did my definition of "grown up" get pushed to age 65? (Actually it was probably a glitched noun-grab by my verbal subsystem when I looked for a phrase that meant "past middle-age but not yet what I think of as old". But I was still startled to catch myself in it. What if I really did constantly change my definition of "grownup" to "significantly older than I am"? I can just see myself at 80, complaining about 70 year olds and referring to them as "kids". But it would be one way to achieve the Peter Pan state of never growing up, right?)

A meme from a couple of weeks ago that I'm just getting to:

1. Stop talking about politics for a moment or two.
2. Post a reasonably-sized picture in your LJ, NOT under a cut tag, of something pleasant, such as an adorable kitten, or a fluffy white cloud, or a bottle of booze. Something that has NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS.
3. Include these instructions, and share the love.

Well, it's not a kitten or a cloud, but it is something that popped into my head that would be nice to see in sort of the way that whale watching must be ...

... but only from a considerable distance. (An experienced rider might have wam fuzzy feelings about Shai Hulud closer up, but I'm betting that those feelings would be of the "eustress" sort, not the relaxing kind. So, a safe distance, please.)

(And yeah, I know the books were all about the politics, but I don't think a sandworm itself is inherently political despite its economic importance to Arrakis. And besides, it's not Earth politics. :-P )

It's just the image that sprang into my head when I first saw the meme, and it took me a while to get around to trying to draw it (a few days ago ... then I had to get around to uploading it and writing this). It'll probably take me several more tries before I get a version I'm really happy with even in a cartoony sense. But I learned a little more about GIMP anyhow.

FWIW, I have not yet seen the movie, and it's been long enough since I last read the book that I won't be surprised to discover I've gotten some significant detail wrong.

"Here's what Republicans of conscience have to understand about the machinations of Karl Rove and company. Fear isn't some emotion that can be easily bottled back up after it's been -- viciously -- unleashed. It isn't a once-every-four-years vehicle that can be wheeled out for a few months, then stowed back in the garage to be retooled for the next election cycle. Encouraging fundamentalist preachers to pound their pulpits and inveigh against gay people has consequences. It puts men and women in communities across this country at personal and professional risk. There's nothing more despicable than creating a phony political issue (just how many gay couples are clamoring for marriage certificates in the state of Ohio, anyhow?) and preying on people's prejudices." -- Timothy M. Gay, 2004-11-16 in The Washington Post (p. A25)