This was the mask party of Coffee House Writers Group last Friday.
This is to show you writing comes before partying?!
I uploaded all these photos in the order I took them. The first mask I came in contact was Darth Vader, and for the rest, I let pictures tell the story.
Heidi's teramisu. Above is with rum, and the bottom, with whiskey.
Cameron gave me a ride, and we were talking about Heidi's teramisu.
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| The first cut of the teramisu. |
Hello Kitty said, "I made the mask using my printer." Her or his printer must be very good quality.
My photographer competitor. Rick M.
"This is my honey," Christine said. He exists for real, not a ghost although the house was known to be a haunted house. This was my first time there, and yes, the house had an aura of haunted like in movies.
A poet without a mask.
Beautiful Heather looks relaxed in the middle of Mardi Gras Carnival.
A youngest participant.
I love the design of this rug and the fur of this dog.
Guess who? Yes, me.
When I heard Rick won the mask contest, I thought this pig mask won. The nose was great.
It was a mask party, not a beauty contest.
"I made this," he said. The cheese cake with dark chocolate was really good.
I also love other people's foods and cakes, but they didn't carry them around as Wade did, so excuse me if they I didn't show up here. They all disappeared into our stomachs.
Darth Vader needs fuel, too.
This mask won one of two prizes. Rick M. said, "This is made of CDs. My wife made it." Look at the feathers on top. It was gorgeous. I love feathers. He and his wife gave me a ride going back home. Thank you, Cameron and Rick.
Here is his wife.
I thought his hair was a wig. It's like Cinderella's hair. He said, "No, this is mine." Lillian's husband took off his hat and showed the top of his hair. Too bad. I didn't snap a photo.
Isn't this gorgeous mask?
Thank you, Elyzabyth, Heather, and Christine for making this party successful.
He took his sword and pointed to the sky.
It was a beautiful ceiling, so I took the photo.
The time for awards!
Here it is!
Eric came just in time for the first award. The award went to the biggest smile as below.
The owner of the haunted house and the cockatoo.
And here is Janis with a large feather and exquisite coat.
12 comments:
A wonderful set of photos. Some of the party-goers look more exotic in themselves than the masks they wear.
Can you tell me more about that glass pen in your first photo? Do you use it a lot?
Vincent,
What a surprise! Thank you for your guest appearance!!!
It so happened that I took the top picture in the Thursday meetup. Lewis is our new member and I was impressed that he was writing using ink. He is the Darth Vader in the photos. He is young. The pen looks crystal or glass even the tip, and I thought about ZACL's blog that she talked about crystal or glass chopsticks she owns. I wonder if the material is similar. I wanted to try writing with that pen, but the meeting was almost over and he closed his ink bottle. Next time, I'll ask him if I could try it.
Keiko, It looks like you had a fun time and you took great photos. What a colorful bunch! I too admire that pen. I would be afraid I might break it.
Rebb,
That's exactly I thought when I saw that beautiful pen. But I think it makes us feel special and writing is precious. By going through with extra effort, dipping in ink, feeling the special pen, we can renew our appreciation for words we have acquired. I heard Shakespeare had 54,000 working words, but today, we use only 3,000. This s the video in which I heard it.
http://biggeekdad.com/2011/11/the-three-little-pigs/
Wow, that John Branyan got to the soul of Shakespeare in his narration! Thank you so much for the link to an inspired and inspiring performance. Poor Shakespeare languishes on my shelf unread, mainly because the volume (complete works) is too big to carry around.
Vincent and Rebb,
I wrote 54000 working words, but maybe 5400. I'm not sure, but I thought we have more words today, so working words should be more also.
I was reading yesterday something by George Steiner ("Language and Silence", a book of essays) and he says:
"Not including taxonomic lists (the names of all species of beetle, for instance) it is estimated that the English language at present contains some 600,000 words. Elizabethan English is thought to have had only 150,000. But these rough figures are deceptive. Shakespeare's working vocabulary exceeds that of any later author, and the King James Bible, although it requires only 6,000 words, suggests that the conception of literacy prevailing at the time was far more comprehensive than ours. The real point lies not in the number of words potentially available, but in the degree to which the resources of the language are in actual current use. If McKnight's estimate is reliable (English Words and their Background, 1923), 50% of modern colloquial speech in England and America comprises only thirty-four basic words ..."
FYI, on FB, Andrew gave me this site about Shakespeare's vocabulary .
http://zwischenzugs.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/shakespeare_unexceptional_vocabulary/
Below is what Andrew wrote. He is the artistic director of Yokohama Theatre group.
"Actually, I'm not sure how it was counted, but the real number is significantly less than 54,000. Some estimates peg it at 17,000, but it could be lower.
It really depends on how you count. Are fish, fishing, fished, fisher separate words? Or do we only count the root word, fish? Also, keep in mind that Shakespeare's texts contain alternate spellings for many words that a computer program might count at separate when they are truly the same. For instance: murder and murther."
I followed up that link to zwischenzugs' blog and found his statistics interesting but suspicious. After all, he acknowledges himself to be an "IT professional"--like both of us, Keiko!--rather than a literary scholar. I feel that others have done different analyses.
And the idea that Shakespeare invented more words than anyone else comes from the Oxford English Dictionary, which obviously was dependent on available texts to perform their analysis.
However, they have a lot more texts at their disposal than zwischenzugs, with his dependnce on downloading a few from Project Gutenberg.
Back to the pens! I looked up and there are lots of glass pens on sale like the one in your first pic.
But I agree with your sentiment when you say "I think it [writing with a special pen] makes us feel special and writing is precious. By going through with extra effort, dipping in ink, feeling the special pen, we can renew our appreciation for words we have acquired."
Inspired by that, I've composed, or at any rate drafted, my new blog post with one of my fountain pens in a special notebook, both gifted by my younger daughter, in a private calligraphic ritual that always feels auspicious.
Thank you, Vincent. It's all so interesting because we live in the internet age. ancient, classical, and modern documents are more and more available, so definitely accessing data and scholarship combined, it's possible to do a great job in research. But the fact that all those words people use but only 34 root words exist is fascinating.
Because what you wrote is interesting, I introduced to FB audience. I hope you don't mind. I added quotes around your words and Vincent said.
I think you're popular in the blog sphere. My readership is increasing.
Keiko and Vincent, I've enjoyed following your discussion.
I agree with Vincent about what you wrote about writing with special pens and renewed appreciation. Often I prefer writing with pen or pencil in hand first for physically connecting with the words, seeing them, moving them, crossing out, erasing The small poems I've written recently were written in a children's sketch pad that I wasn't using for sketching. I love the size--9x9.
I loved the video. I watched it again this morning with no distractions with headphones. It was entertainingly instructive. Thank you!
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