President Buckner gave a talk during church on Sunday about building Zion. The members lay the bricks, and Christ applies the mortar. That really does make a lot of sense, because no matter how many bricks I place, the wall won't stand firm without mortar. My works can't be without Christ; my intentions, any contributions or participation that may reflect 110% of an effort still isn't enough. It's just a vertical sheet of bricks waiting to collapse into a pile. Mortar is an effective image because of its binding properties. If I involve Christ in my life, every single one of those bricks counts. Every single one of those bricks has value; it can be used to stretch the wall upward, to give it breadth. Even broken bricks have a place. When I have enough mortar, there's no such thing as toss-away bricks.

I'm tired. I need a decent night's sleep. I'm not even kidding.


This was taken at Madison Square Park, at 23rd Street and 5th Avenue. I didn't want to get too close, and I even tried coaxing this buzzer to face the camera, but it seemed pretty shy. Bees have nothing to do with bricks, except that I can get busy as a bee, and the bees' wax that helps form the honeycombs could be compared to mortar, except that the hollow cells in a comb are not the same as cement bricks, and if you expose the wax to enough heat, the whole hive melts, whereas mortar and bricks are supposed to withstand the elements by the hair of my chinny chin-chin. Bees are socially adjusted insects. I do not resemble a bee in this regard, but I wonder if members of the church have ever tried pollinating bricks or if anyone has ever gone into anaphylactic shock from exposure to mortar. Pigs and humans have similar digestive systems. So huff and puff and try to blow the hive in, because mortar is the atonement, and Utah is the beehive state.

I've been checking my Google calendar throughout the day, and I already have two dates scheduled for the next month. That's like, a personal record.

I don't know one of the guys very well, and the other one and I have talked on occasion. Both are quite nice, and I'm sure they'll show me a fabulous time.

Ooh. Becky just told me of four other guys who wanted to sign up who haven't been to the calendar yet. Wanted to? Really? That's 6 dates, which is more than I could have ever expected.

This is just going to be fun. Fun to the nth power. Fun to the fun power, which is not the same as fun-squared. Googol? Google. Google calendar, I love you.

The other day I put some food in the dispenser in the rabbits' cage. It was dinner time, and Pig was waiting inside the cage. He took his time getting to the food but after a few moments he was eating quite contentedly. Chicken was wandering outside the cage, but she heard and saw me with the food. Chicken eventually hopped into the cage, but she, too, didn't go straight for the food. Pig was still chowing down. At the time, I was reading or typing something at the computer, so I wasn't watching them very closely. Well, it seemed that Chicken was more in the mood for something other than food, because the next time I looked over at the cage she had mounted him. And there was that ... mounting motion. Pig was minding his own business, and she wanted to get down to business. The whole act lasted all of a few seconds, because Pig could not eat with such a distraction. So he squirmed out from under his sister, away from the food. He scurried on out of the cage, leaving Chicken by herself right next to the food dispenser. She then stuck her nose in the food and started eating as if nothing had just happened. I think she planned the whole thing. What a sly little bunner.


     

Larger versions at flickr.

Plants are something else, aren't they? 

 
 

Yes, I'll probably be a little on the obnoxious side about documenting the growth of these little greenies. That's like an entire inch's difference than yesterday. I really like this soil. I still have about 15 pounds of it, and I'm not sure what to do with it yet. It's good for eight months, so maybe I can grow some squash later on, or try my thumb at other stuff. Just not pot. No drugs, people. This is a ton of fun.

You can see larger versions of these photos as Flickr. I put up a "Gardening 2008" set. 
Also at Flickr are more "I don't know you but"s. Just a few.

Yay.

I can't really sleep, so I'm toying with banners:

















That last one is up right now. Your LJ template may or may not be CSS customizable. You'll have to check that out. Basically go through your photos and see what might look okay across the top of your page. I cropped my desired photos to 1020X200 pixels. (You may have to adjust yours.) I saved them. I uploaded them into LJ. I tagged them. Each photo in the scrapbook has a corresponding URL. You can find that last photo here: http://pics.livejournal.com/mayiwrite/pic/00094z3h

Go to Home or User Info.
Mouse over Journal.
Go to Customize Journal.
Go to Customize your theme.
In the left-hand panel, click on Custom CSS
In the text box, enter: 

#header-inner {
    background-image: url("http://pics.livejournal.com/mayiwrite/pic/00094z3h");
 height: px;200
}

#header {
    background-image: none;
}


Notice the information between the quotes is the URL I want to use for my banner. I just copied and pasted it from a different browser window. You might have to play with the dimensions and/or cropping a little to get it to look right on your page, but for the most part, it should work. I have found a lot of the photos don't really work. Some of the objects look too out of context. Or the photo is digitally huge and it's hard to tell what the photo even could be once it's cropped - 1020X200 either is a lot of room, or it hardly any room at all. 

So voila, there I am, looking thoughtful. I'll be experimenting with more photos later. I've made myself tired, which was the point, so I'm gonna hit the hay.