May 30, 2012

Stitching Time



There is little to report, but a nice calm before the next life hurricane is cause for celebration, not consternation.

May 29, 2012

Chicks With Gardens and Guns


Much the same way that I can't prevent people down here from parroting "Minn-e-SOH-tah" back to me down here when I say where I'm from, it's common for non-Texans to immediately mention guns when we say where we live now.  I thought the gun thing was an exaggeration, like "Minn-e-SOH-tah", but as with many stereotypes, a generous nugget of reality probably gave birth to the depiction.

Shortly after we arrived last winter, a book called Chicks with Guns was released nationwide, featuring a variety of women posing with their preferred weapons and other props.  Not surprisingly, Texas was well-represented.  The situation first came to my attention while I was reading the society gossip rag here in Houston over morning coffee (see above clipping).  Even though the paper lacks substance and is mainly a city shopping and party list, I do find useful restaurant and culture tidbits there once and a while.  It's a nice way to take the pulse of this place.  And gawk at the fancy people, of course.  What I have learned is that there are certain key players, who host every fundraiser and have new unbelievable outfits for every party.  One such figure is Lynn Wyatt.  You can tell just by looking at her that she does what she wants, and that people pay attention.  I'm dying to be a fly on the wall just once when she walks through a room.  Regardless, when I came across the spread of the book-signing party for Chicks with Guns, I should not have been even a little surprised that the after-party was hosted at her house, and that she was dressed in clingy leopard prints for the occasion.

May 21, 2012

Big Cotton: Light Reading

I've been reading about cotton, and it has a fascinating story.

Here are some of my surprising discoveries so far:

  • Cotton was referred to as "vegetable wool" by the armies of Alexander the Great, during a time when the dominant sources of clothing were related to animal fibers and materials.
  • Even though Eli Whitney made the cotton industry unimaginably profitable (and indeed, possible) with the invention of the cotton gin, his net profit from his invention never amounted to more than a few thousand dollars, due to ill-advised business decisions, piracy of his invention, and the resulting legal battles.
  • The four varieties of cotton which evolved to produce cotton lint originated in present-day Pakistan, sub-Saharan Africa, coastal Chile/Peru, and Central American/Mexico.
  • Cotton originally grew in a variety of colors, but after the invention of the cotton gin, only the white-ish colored cotton was selected for production, in order to simplify sorting and manufacturing.
  • Upland cotton, or Gossypium Hirsutum, accounts for ninety-five percent of all cotton grown and used around the world.
  • The cotton gin revitalized the waning institution of slavery by greatly reducing the hours required to prepare cotton for textile manufacturing and therefore making it again worth the cost of feeding and housing a labor force.
  • Seventy percent of early textile mill workers died of respiratory illnesses caused by cotton lint inhaled in the poorly ventilated factories, whose windows were often nailed shut in order to keep humidity levels high enough to prevent thread breakage during production.



May 10, 2012

Dream Job

Starting down a new professional path at the age of thirty has been humbling, periodically carrying me past the point of healthy humility, and instead dropping me into morass of self-doubt.  It's not supposed to be easy; that makes sense to me.  If the act of chasing a dream was not covered in roadblocks and obstacles, more people would do it, they wouldn't be called dreams, and mind-numbing dead-end jobs wouldn't exist.  However, the blows to my self-confidence still surprise me when they come.

May 04, 2012

Foliage for My Friend

I was talking to my girlfriend who lives in Chicago, telling her that there is relatively impressive greenery in Houston.  I say relatively because what I expected was no greenery.  Instead, what we have here is quite lush.

I do not have a history of noticing or being inspired by plants.  Yards in the Midwest usually just upset me; they always struck me as greedy for water, energy, time and chemicals.  However, down here I am actually inspired by plants.  They grow everywhere, in spite of concrete which conspires to hold them back.  They are fragrant, sturdy, variable and colorful.  Maybe there's hope for me and nature.

In the meantime, I took these pictures this morning, on my way for morning coffee, for my friend in Chicago.