It’s Raining

Posted on 08 February 2025 by Isabel Gibson

My professional blog focuses on developing (and surviving) proposals. Seth Godin, marketeer and social philosopheer, never writes about proposals. Like, never. And yet, I often cite Seth Godin’s blog on mine. How come?

It turns out that management–of projects, of processes, of ourselves–has common themes and things-that-are-true, independent of the specific domain of activity. It turns out that people are much the same, no matter what they’re doing.

Seth’s blog today–Rainy day surfer–merits a broad audience, so I’m linking to it here.

They need us the most when it’s raining.

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Yeah, No, Ah

Posted on 07 February 2025 by Isabel Gibson

Yeah, no. This angle of attack won’t work.

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Fauna | Tagged | 6 Comments

Palm Trees in Reflection

Posted on 07 February 2025 by Isabel Gibson

Remember the palm trees across the street? Of course you do, but here they are again anyway.

And here they are again again, as seen in the hood and windshield of the car, still in the garage but with the overhead door open.

Changing the angle of attack seems to untether some of  the trees from the ground. I presume it’s due to the curves in the hood, but I can’t claim to really understand it. But I don’t really need to understand it to enjoy it.

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When in danger . . .

Posted on 07 February 2025 by Isabel Gibson

. . . or in doubt,
run in circles,
scream and shout.

Attributions? There are various:

  • a sort-of similar exhortation in a US Infantry Journal from 1929
  • an “ancient” naval adage quoted in (or made up for?) The Caine Mutiny in 1951
  • a Robert Heinlein novel (different novels cited, so maybe 1973 or 1980 or another year altogether)
  • a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon (1985 – 1995)

The latter is, I think, where I picked it up, but Heinlein is always a possibility.

Versions? Just these that I saw:

When in danger/trouble
when/or in doubt
etc.

Is it good advice? Not really, but then it’s not really advice, is it? It’s a comment on what happens, not on what should happen.

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Tap-Tap

Posted on 01 February 2025 by Isabel Gibson

It looks innocuous, doesn’t it? After all, nothing about it triggers the “harmful or offensive” sense given by Oxford Languages.

Boy, can looks be deceiving. This mug is definitely nocuous.

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Contrails and Cybertrucks

Posted on 25 January 2025 by Isabel Gibson

Some people go to exotic destinations; I spend more time at the grocery store. But parking lots are not entirely devoid of exotic stuff.

To wit, today I saw my first in-the-flesh Tesla Cybertruck. They’re very long; even a generously proportioned parking spot barely accommodates them. Worse, their matte-ish finish doesn’t reflect very well. Maybe I should ask Trey to mention it to Elon. Clearly, the photographer lobby isn’t connecting properly with car designers.

Anyway, Cybertrucks do have windows, so there’s that.

On the same shopping trip, different parking lot, I saw a lovely tableau–contrail, high cirrus clouds, and palm tree–and I learned how patient Americans are with old ladies who stop in a driving lane to take a picture. Thanks, all y’all!

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Laughing Frequently, Photos of Built Stuff, Photos of Flora | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

218 Frogs

Posted on 25 January 2025 by Isabel Gibson

He kept all 218 frogs in the wheelbarrow.
– Trey Gowdy, Congressman (ret’d)

I didn’t quite spit out my unsweetened iced tea. Trey (we’re on a first-name basis because I’ve seen him on TV) was describing Speaker Mike Johnson’s success in navigating a vote with his narrow majority of 218 fractious Republican congresspersons. But this is not a political post. (I say again . . . .)

Since Trey retired from the congressman gig several years ago and returned to practicing law in his native South Carolina, I’ve seen him on TV as a political commentator (occasionally). He’s Southern-polite (invariably), interesting (almost always), insightful (usually), and screamingly funny (often). I thought I knew most of his distinctive habits of speech, but this expression was a new one on me. Keeping the frogs in the wheelbarrow?

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Posted in Language and Communication, Laughing Frequently | Tagged , | 4 Comments

There’s a Bush

Posted on 18 January 2025 by Isabel Gibson

There’s a bush,
There’s a bush,
There’s a bush
at the end of the driveway.

Meh. It doesn’t scan as well as There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea, which I knew as a church-camp song and which my mother would have known as a Grand Ole Opry song if she had listened to same, which I don’t think she ever did, not being a fan of any genre of country music. Actual opry, albeit light, was more her style.

Anyway, there is a bush at the end of the driveway in our rented house in Tempe, far from any sea. It may not make for a good song but it’s quite a nice bush. I took a photo so you can see for yourselves. Here it is, as seen from the front. Nice, eh?

Of course, it’s one of those modest, muted-green, small-leafed plants that the desert is known for–not the splashy, dark-green, large-leafed plants of a rainforest, tropical or temperate–but it’s nice. It’s even been nicely shaped by someone who knows how.

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Laughing Frequently, Photos of Flora | Tagged | 12 Comments

Step In, Stand Back

Posted on 18 January 2025 by Isabel Gibson

Stand waaaay back.

One of the cooler capabilities of my current camera phone is its wide-angle view. I’d been able to zoom-in for a long while–The better to see you with, my dear, at least until it’s just the fuzzier to see you–but the zoom-out or slightly wide-angle view is an ongoing revelation.

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Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Landscapes | Tagged , | 6 Comments