Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

Painting is a language which cannot be replaced by another language. I don’t know what to say about what I paint, really."
— Balthus

Tuesday Tooth Report

The elastics are definitely done for this round so I'm really excited about my next appointment (in just 6 days!).

Farmers need to charge what their produce is worth

This young family has taken on a whole new approach to farming, including charging what their produce is worth rather than traditional prices. And why shouldn't they? They have a product that's organic and heirloom -- two qualities that are important to me as a consumer. And, given my shopping habits, I've already proven that I'll pay for it.
"Farming Future" video from the Globe and Mail. Time: 3 minutes, 43 seconds.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

You come to nature with all her theories, and she knocks them all flat."
— Renoir

Giant Octopus Eats Shark in Seattle Aquarium

This piece is very well put together. They make you worry for the octopus!

Tuesday Tooth Report

12 days until my next appointment and all's well. This set of elastics has likely done all that it's going to do. For the next 12 days, I expect they'll simply hold in place the movement achieved to date.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

At moments of great enthusiasm it seems to me that no one in the world has ever made something this beautiful and important."
— M.C. Escher

8 Largest Giants of the Deep Sea

According to Environmental Graffiti, these are the 8 largest giants of the deep sea:

• Japanese Spider Crab (up to 4 metres leg span)
• Giant Isopod (like a pill bug — remember the "You're fired!" bugs from A Bug's Life?) (14.5 inches long; 3 lbs)
• Giant Tube Worm (up to 2 metres long)
• Seven-arm Octopus (4 metres long)
• North Pacific Giant Octopus (they eat sharks)
• King of Herrings (up to 11 metres)
• Bigfin Squid
• Colossal Squid (up to 14 metres long)

Image: "Japanese Spider Crab" by Hans Hillewaer via WikiMedia Commons

Tuesday Tooth Report

This week's report is less about my teeth and more about the mark they're making on my lip. For some reason, the position of my teeth is causing me to suck my lower lip against them. So much so that I've actually created a dent in it!

Prehistoric Japanese Goblin Shark

This exciting video shows how the shark extends its jaw forward to capture prey. So many videos like this have nothing in the background to show scale but here there is a person (who is brave enough to offer their arm for the demonstration) in view.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

Every good composition is above all a work of abstraction. All good painters know this. But the painter cannot dispense with subjects altogether without his work suffering impoverishment."
— Diego Rivera

Tuesday Tooth Report

Today I had a double-elastic explosion! When the elastics wear out (about every 4 hours), they break and snap open against my gums. It can actually be painful. Well, today I was laughing a big, wide-mouth chuckle and whammo!, both elastics snapped at the same time — that's never happened before!

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

A painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things."
— Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Tuesday Tooth Report

This set of elastics continues to be easy to wear. I'd guess that since we're fine-tuning my bite, there isn't grand movement and therefore no real discomfort. I could get used to this!

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

You should keep on painting no matter how difficult it is, because this is all part of experience, and the more experience you have, the better it is... unless it kills you, and then you know you have gone too far."
— Alice Neel

Tuesday Tooth Report

This set of elastics is a breeze so far. Teeth are moving (4 are constantly loose and bring back memories of wiggly teeth from childhood) but there is no discomfort like there was with the last set. The Orthodontist said that if things progress as quickly as they are now, my braces could be off as early as July!

Researching Composting

In researching how to start a compost pile, I came across this interesting little Blog called Smell Like Dirt. For those of you unaware, this phrase is part of a famous quote by Margaret Atwood: "In the Spring, at the end of the day you should smell like dirt." I agree.

There are many videos on her blog and a wheel barrow load of advice. I really enjoyed her video on how to build a compost pile.

--Smell Like Dirt Blog

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

In Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."
— Margaret Atwood

Tuesday Tooth Report

This week I had another Ortho appointment. They took a 360-degree x-ray of my head, replaced a bracket and added 2 hooks for elastics to two other brackets. I have to wear two new elastics; one on each side. Spanning 3 teeth on the top and 2 teeth on the bottom, the elastic should (at the end of 8 weeks) give my small molars a perfectly aligned bite. The bonus about the visit was that the wire had to come off to put the new bracket/hooks on so I got to do a real flossing!

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
— Lewis Carroll