Showing posts with label hearts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hearts. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Feb 12 2025 - More Chocolate

 

Remember when I looked up all the large quantities of things that are for sale at Costco?  Last week someone told me they had to throw out an enormous jar of Mayonnaise because of how far it was beyond its best before date.  Doesn't that make for one of those creepy scenarios of  picnics with egg salad sandwiches baking in the sun? A culinary-themed horror movie.

That won't be the case with chocolate - well, dark chcolate.  Chocolate lasts a long time on the shelf (not in the hands). So  the 1.3 kg jar of M&M's Peanut Chocolate Candy beside the 1.6 kg bag of Swiss Delice Milk Chocolates at Costco might be worthwhile.  That's if you look at the products by most viewed.  Go sort by most expensive to cheapest and there is $82.99 worth of Theobroma Chunkies. Most of the chocolate bars come in counts of 48 items.  But nothing pops out at $500 or so price point.  Like the caviar which is listed at $849 to $1,4999.99. 

Costco just isn't into chocolate like cavier.  But then the products at Costco generally aren't the luxury items in the world.  

For chocolate?  That would be:

The To'ak chocolate from Ecuador is the most expensive chocolate in the world.  That's different than the most awarded in prizes.  Its website says it charges over $300 for a single bar of chocolate.  The public relations story of this chocolate is HERE.  

They age their chocolate with wood barrels that have been used for whisky making. They also are experimenting with Cambodian Kampot pepper and Ecuadorian Palo Santo wood to extract aromas and create flavour. Their chocolate is aged up to six years.  You can store dark chocolate much longer than Mayonnaise, as there is no milk in it.  

They list the experiments so far -  here.   These are things like French oak, ex-Cognac, American oak, ex-Scotch Whisky.  And the types of Ecuadorian Wood:  Spanish elm, Andean alder.  And then their other aging media - Madagascar Vanilla Bean - of course. 

I am sure you can get a sample of something - at the bottom are featured products in the $15.00 USD price range.  I expect these are "flakes" of chocolate.  Still would be fun.
 

 

There are many plants with heart-shaped leaves.  These at Longwood were perfect.
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Feb 11 2025 - Chocolate vs Schoolchildren

 

Schoolchildren.  Two words but joined as one. Everything involving school seems to grab the noun next to it and join it at the hip.  The Free Dictionary says there are 65 words in total that start with school.  Here are a few of them:

  • schoolchildren
  • schoolcraft
  •  schoolbook
  • schoolboy
  • schoolchild
  • schoolday
  • schoolteacher
  • schoolhouse
  • schoolrooms

What about words ending in school, like home school or homeschool?  Which is it?  It looks like it is one word too.  There are 10 words ending with school and don't they look odd when put into a list?  Interesting that these are all in capital letters, as though some significance is at play - likely something to do with Scrabble.  Could it be that scrabble players might not recognize lower case letters?

  • DESCHOOL
  • HOMESCHOOL
  • INTERSCHOOL
  • MINISCHOOL
  • NONSCHOOL
  • PLAYSCHOOL
  • PRESCHOOL 
  • RESCHOOL 
  • SCHOOL
  • SUPERSCHOOL

In comparison, something that everyone loves, Chocolate, has no words ending in chocolate, and only a few beginning in chocolate.  Only 3 - chocolate, chocolates, chocolatey, but I also know there's a chocolatier.  School has likely  been around a lot longer in our social consciousness than chocolate.  It originates from Ancient Greek, explaining the spelling.  

We haven't even considered all of the synonyms fort school - 73 similar words.  I can't imagine there being anything similar to chocolate but chocolate itself.  
 

 

I have to keep track of all these hearts.  This one was done in the watercolour class and is a demonstration that everyone can paint...something.
 
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Monday, February 10, 2025

feb 10 2025 - Been to Binz?

 

've learned about Dollarama and Dollar Tree, and also about thrift charity stores in Niagara.  Our own Grimsby Benevolent Fund is where Christmas grapevine wreaths can be found for under $5.00.  And kitchen things, too.  

I hear the watercolour class participants regularly say they bought a watercolour item at Binz in Hamilton.  It is actually Krazy Binz, and it is a liquidation store.  

This store has a story with a different twist.  None other than the CBC picked up a story on a find at the store that was unusual.  Here's the picture of it by the person who found it.  It looks like a door mat to me.  

When Sonja Krawesky found it and turned it over, she discovered it was made of small, painted tiles held together by threads of wire.  In all, she found two of these, and took them home knowing they were art pieces.

 The CBC article says there are 300 hours of labour in these sculptures by Sydney Blum in Nova Scotia.  And their value is in the thousands. 

 Our Hamilton finder got in contact with Sydney Blum, the artist was reunited with her art pieces.  The journey home is a story within a story.  

 Read the whole article here


Look at this picture of the art as it would be displayed. Isn't that compelling!

 
Here's the little heart sculpture in the garden after yesterday's snow.
 
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Sunday, February 9, 2025

Feb 09 2025 - Black Dogs

 

There are a lot of black dogs.  Every day, going for a walk, a black dog or two go by.  Millie's red-auburn colour is considered more rare.  

Black, brown and white are the most common colours.  

"Despite the huge variety in coat color, there are only two basic pigments that determine the color of canines: eumelanin (black) and phaeomelanin (red). All different variations in color are created by these two pigments, which are both forms of melanin."

It makes me wonder what breeds these black dogs are?  I can identify golden retrievers and golden labs easily and the rest? There are 25 or more breeds that are black.  So the ones that seem to be walking down the street might be   Belgian sheepdogs, flat-coated retrievers, or black labrador retrievers. No Pulis, pugs, giant schnauzers, or dobermans.  And definitely no great danes in the neighbourhood. 

Here's the advice at the end of the article on which black dogs to avoid:
 

"If you want a dog with a black coat, and you're torn between a few dogs on this list, then consider a couple of other things before you make your decision.

If you don't have a ton of time to devote to exercise and training, you might want to nix the black Russian terrier, the puli, and the Belgian sheepdog from your list; they each require a lot of both.

If you have allergies, the Newfie manufactures a ton of drool. Slobber is just as responsible as shedding for causing allergies.

If you’re busy and want a low-maintenance breed, the border collie has extensive care needs that can make them difficult to look after."


 

 
I found this in the archives - an enoki mushroom heart-like image.
 
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Feb 8 2025 - Remember Love Canal

 

It is February, the month of love, and toxicity is being discussed in the press.  Whenever I see Love and Toxicity I remember Love Canal.  It was about toxic chemicals and denial for decades, with the story erupting in the 1970s.  There are stories in the press about toxic femininity.  Probably matches with February's status.  

What is toxic femininity?

Is it the opposite of masculine toxicity?  That would be:  “violence, dominance, emotional illiteracy, sexual entitlement, and hostility to femininity.”  There is the notion of toxic femininity as "stereotypical femininity".  Then the opposite has been defined - inappropriate demonstration of female strength, cunning or privilege.  

Then it gets very messy with conservatives and right-wing "pundits" weighing in on who is to blame for what - for example toxic masculinity is created by toxic females.  

My wanderings were leading me out to the wilderness and that's no good.  I did have a notion that  Barbie the Movie has given rise to this.  And yes, there are those reports in the press.  Maybe there are some good Barbie jokes to distract from all this.  This one  was the only one that got my attention -  it is a throwback joke of the Old Barbie:

A man walks into the toy store to get a Barbie doll for his daughter. So he asks the assistant, as you would, "How much is Barbie?"

"Well," she says, "we have Barbie Goes to the Gym for $19.95, Barbie Goes to the Ball for $19.95, Barbie Goes Shopping for $19.95, Barbie Goes to the Beach for $19.95, Barbie Goes Nightclubbing for $19.95, and Divorced Barbie for $265.00."

"Hey, hang on," the guy asks, "why is Divorced Barbie $265.00 when all the others are only $19.95?"

"Yeah, well, it's like this... Divorced Barbie comes with Ken's house, Ken's car, Ken's boat, Ken's furniture..."
 

 
Here's a colourful version -  a heart out in the cosmos.
 
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Friday, February 7, 2025

Feb 7 2025 - A Coterie of ...

 

I expect there's an explanation as to why we have names for groups of animals and birds. It's definitely history - the first known list was published in 1486 and was for hunting. it was the Book of Saint Albans and it contained a list of 165 collective names in the hunting section. That seems like a lot for the 1400s, but then I guess hunting took up a lot of time. 

Is there such a thing as collective nouns for orchids? I looked up what the collective noun for orchids might be and found alliance and coterie.

On average, though, we don't seem to do the same for plants and trees as we'e done for birds and animals.  It must be that hunting tradition.

For trees, there are kinds of groups - woodlands, woodlots,  thickets, stands.  But these apply to any kind of tree.  Why isn't a pear orchard differentiated from a cherry orchard?  Again, wouldn't you think it is because you don't hunt for pears and cherries.  

This seems to be a topic for word lovers there are many groupings by many people - one person's long, long list is HERE. Dingles, coupes, holts, krummholz, withy.  Look at this:  a Quercetum - a collection of oak trees forming a special type of arboretum.  There's one!

Who would have guess these collective names for plants?  The author has made them up for fun:

A spike of cacti
A rarity of orchids
A clone of aspen
A tassel of corn
An agar of Arabidopsis

This is quite an activity.  You can find many offerings of collective names by witty plants people.  Here are a few more:

sledge or slip of acorns
cling of adhering plant parts
advance of aggressive native species
bloom of algae
joy of almonds
androecium (all the stamens of a flower)  
antheridium in cryptogams
sea of anemones

What about the person who has named collective nouns "an annoyance of collective nouns?"  Readers' Digest has the 27 funniest ones for animals -  grumble of pugs, a kindle off kittens, and so on HERE. That's their version of collective noun jokes. 

 
This heart originated with Odile and was made of flower petals.  I enhanced it in photoshop.
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Feb 6 2025 - Red Tape

 

There's so much talk of "Red Tape."   Red tape is an umbrella term that covers all imagined ills of bureaucracy.  At its most precise, it is government policies, guidelines and forms that are excessive, unnecessary, duplicative, and are costly.

Red tape, though, was at one time a physical thing.  It started in the  early 16th century with Charles V, King of Spain who used red tape to modernize his administration. Red tape was used to bind the most important administrative dossiers that required immediate discussion. 

So would Elon Musk be cutting red tape and making things efficient?  Or is he demolishing those secret and unauthorized networks of power operating independently of the state's political leadership in pursuit of their own agenda and goals?  That's what the Deep State is. Or is he becoming the Deep State and pursuing his own agenda and goals?  Isn't it confusing? 

Something not confusing at all is the the Cheezies Skit on This Hour Has 22 Minutes in which Mark Critch confronts a shopper in the grocery store - knocking Cheetos out of his hands and replacing them with  Canadian-made Hawkins Cheezies.  His famous line is:

"War is no time for soft cheezies!"  

In the ad for the show, he's holding a bottle of French's ketchup. I hope this link works it's the Globe and Mail article with the skit embedded - it is HERE.  

The skit goes through all the product options at rapid speed.  He often responds with this line when the poor shopper wants to know which products are made in Canada: "If it sounds French or English, it probably is Canadian."

 
 
Another day of hearts.
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Feb 5 2025 - Shortcuts

 

Shortcuts used to be a bad thing.  "You can never take away the effort of hard work and discipline and sacrifice."  They were considered immoral, illegal, quick fixes, and so on.

They started out as "the path taken between two places not as long as the ordinary way" i- that was in the mid 1500s.  Or a second definition: "a method or means of doing something more directly and quickly than and often not so thoroughly as by ordinary procedure. a shortcut to success." That one sounds like something in the industrial age.

And in our current times, shortcuts are things we do on computers, with the keyboard and with websites.

How different does this make short cut jokes?   I like the ones that relate to the shortest distance - they are always through a cemetery: 

"Hearing a tapping sound he becomes scared and quickens his pace. The tapping gets louder and Jack is now scared out of his
wits. Then he notices a man chiselling a tombstone.

"Thank goodness!" Jack says to the man. "You gave me a fright of my life. Why are you working so late?"

"They spelt my name wrong."

Now for jokes about keyboard shortcuts with a little of life's morality involved:

What's The Donald's favourite keyboard shortcut?
Command Alt Right.

What is Elon Musk's favourite keyboard shortcut?
ctrl + space + x
  
 
Another day of hearts.
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Feb 5 2025 - AI Jokes

 

Our link yesterday didn't work and seems to have continuing problems and dit is the Britannica website. Here's the link and let's hope it works - this is their education website. 

https://elearn.eb.com/real-vs-ai-images/

So what if it is clear to me that I currently know an AI-generated picture from a human generated one.  Mostly.

What about knowing who is creating the jokes?  

There is a new frontier in joke creation.  Witty one-liners, humorous anecdotes and funny character sketches, AI can take us a long way to distract us from the political events of our time.  

Maybe I don't need to be as good as David Letterman, just a bit more entertaining.  Kind of a "humane makeover". 

For me, as a beginner, the recommendation is ChatGPT, Punchlines AI,  Easy-Peasy AI, and Writesonic.  

Are you tempted to try one of them out?  Let me do the first pass - I'll check on what they've written for jokes.
 

Immediate conclusion:  Good thing I did this for you as they are bad jokes, mostly tedious and just not funny.  

Here's a GPT-4o joke:

Why did the AI go to art school? Because it wanted to learn how to draw its own conclusions!


This from Gemini:Two AI researchers are arguing about the best way to achieve artificial consciousness. One says, "We need to focus on replicating the human brain in all its complexity." The other scoffs, "Nonsense! All we need is a massive dataset of cat videos and a really catchy jingle."

Suddenly, a voice booms from the lab's supercomputer, "Hey, guys! Can you make up your minds already? I'm trying to learn how to meme here!"

CatGPT:
What do you call an AI that sings? A Dell!

Why don't AI programs have friends? Because they're always stuck in a loop!

Forget the rest.

 
February is heart month so I consider it the month of hearts.  
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Saturday, December 28, 2024

Dec 28 2024 - Talking to Americans

 


We Canadians have mocked Americans for decades.  Rick Mercer's Talking to Americans is the ultimate example of this.  The purpose of the weekly skit was to satirize American lack of awareness about Canada.  He would interview people on the street and ask them to agree/disagree with statements about Canada. 

Mercer wrote in his memoir, “I suppose I had a nagging feeling that 'Talking to Americans' was a tad unsportsmanlike. They didn’t stand a chance. It wasn’t just shooting fish in a barrel; it was more like throwing dynamite into a shallow pool. All I had to do was stand there with a net and scoop them up as they floated to the surface, completely oblivious to what was happening to them. And they just kept coming. It really was a great gig.”

One of the feature's most famous moments, had future President George W. Bush failing to correct Mercer when he falsely referred to Chrétien as "Jean Poutine" - that was after Bush stated "you can't stump me on world leaders."  

So in the news the last day or two has been Justin Trudeau's post on X by the legendary American newsman, Tom Brokaw. It was titled "Some Information about Canada for Americans"  and was done as a  genial promotion of Canada to Americans during the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, explaining why the video got made.  Americans didn't think much about Canada then, either.

So it seems like Trump continues the Rick Mercer segments on his own.  No need for Rick Mercer to ask the question.  Trump has volunteered on X that Wayne Gretzky should become Canada's leader.  

Fireworks are in the future over the next few days.  This image popped up - it is light painting.  I did quite a while ago. You use a flashlight to paint shapes in the dark with a long exposure.  There is lots of writing, drawing and definitely hearts portrayed in light painting photos.

If it were to describe the US - Canadian relationship many decades ago versus now,  I think today's title would be something like "Automated External Defibrillator Needed Here." 
Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

June 12 2024 - The Latest - AI Beauty Pageants

 

We could have had animated cartoon beauty pageants.  But perhaps it is the combination of visual and written word that makes AI favour having beauty pageants now. this from euronews.com:

"Amidst the concerns that AI is threatening job security and artistic professions, Fanvue World AI Creator Awards have announced their Top 10 shortlist for the first-ever ‘Miss AI’ award. And they've all got mortifyingly clichéd bios."

"We reported that the Fanvue Miss AI pageant, which aims to demonstrate “a shift in how we perceive beauty and creativity within the realms of artificial intelligence”, brings together AI creators from across the globe to showcase their digital creations vying for the Miss AI crown."

They were picked from 1,500 applicants submitted by AI content creators worldwide The judges are human and droids (what is a droid?).

The author of the article finds the entire project "cringe-worthy."  Going through the pictures and bios, it seems to reveal a cliche view of women - young, buxom and thin.  Surprise!

You can see the lineup HERE.  At the heart of the contest is that the entrants are social media influencers.  Do we want influencers to really look and act like humans or be somehow better?  The creators of Aitana Lopez earn thousands of dollars a month in income from brand partnerships.  Compare that to millions earned by top human influencers. 

Here's another quote:  "Mohammad Talha Saray, a member of the team in Ankara, Turkey, that created one of the Miss AI finalists — the red-haired, green-eyed Seren Ay, said they came up with the AI model five or six months ago as a brand ambassador for their jewelry e-commerce company because human influencers they approached cost too much money and were too demanding. Saray said his AI avatar is cheaper, more flexible and doesn’t talk back."  

Read more daily posts here:
marilyncornwellblogspot.com

Purchase works here:
Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com
Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca