The Letter "U", Perri's Meme
Via comrade_cat , a letter meme. In this meme we were given the letters "H" and "U", and told to decide which of us got which letter. [Richard got "H". His "H" Meme can be found here ]. Feel free to comment on this "U" Meme--you will be given a letter by us only if you specifically ask for one. The direction are to give ten things that you like which begin with the assigned letter.
My ten items are as follows:
1) Ukrainian Easter Eggs
2) Ultramarine
3) Unabridged Dictionaries
4) The Undead (vampires)
5) An Undisturbed Night's Sleep
6) Unicorns
7) Upsidedown Cake, Pineapple
8) Ulura (Ayers Rock)
9) Ursus Maritimus (polar bears)
10) The Unseen University (located in Ankh-Morpork of Terry Pratchett's Discworld stories)
Explications and images of the above can be found here:
1) Ukrainian Easter Eggs are produced by a folk art for decorating eggs using strong dyes and wax in a process similar to batik. A friend of Richard's taught me how to do this when we were visiting one Easter weekend. It's fun and easy to produce simple designs, although the more complex designs take a good deal of experience and a very steady hand.
2) Ultramarine is one of my favorite blue colors. It's an ancient color, traditionally produced by crushing the opaque semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli. Because of its source, it was one of the most expensive colors until an artificial ultramarine was developed in relatively recent times.
3) Unabridged Dictionaries are one of the sources that Richard and I refer to frequently--so much so that we own two of them: Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary [more American-English oriented] and The Oxford English Dictionary [OED--more British-English oriented]. They're good for looking up the obscure words that we seem to come across all the time--also they're useful for looking up the etymology of words.
4) I fell in love with the original Dracula by Bram Stoker when I was in junior high school and have been fond of vampire stories ever since. As it turns out, Stoker's original title for Dracula was to have been The Undead. I tend to prefer my vampires 'straight'--that is, evil bloodsuckers, rather than the romantic types that are currently popular.
5) I've always been a very light sleeper and an Undisturbed Night's Sleep is a real luxury for me. I tend to be very sensitive to even the lightest sound [or cat activity]. On the other hand, because I sleep lightly, I frequently remember my dreams which can be quite vivid [some in color] and exciting/disturbing.
6) Who doesn't like Unicorns? I especially like Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn. Different, non-traditional, but interesting approaches to unicorns can be found in Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies and in Jim Butcher's Summer Knight.
7)Pineapple Upsidedown Cake is one of my favorite desserts. It has to be home-made [the few commercial ones I've tried were awful], and it doesn't keep well. A nice combination of buttery, sweet and tart if prepared correctly. In case you're thinking that I'm cheating a bit, there are a number of other upsidedown cakes, pear being the best known.
8) Uluru [also known as Ayers Rock] is located in the middle of Australia about 200 miles from Alice Springs, the nearest large town. Uluru is technically a sandstone 'inselberg' or 'isolated mountain', over 1000 feet high and about six miles in circumference. Geologically, it's fascinating. It's also sacred to the local Aboriginal Tribes, who would prefer that people not walk across it, which for some reason is a popular thing to do for white Australians. Famously, Uluru appears a glowing red at sunset, and photos taken then are probably the best known images of it.
9) Polar Bears, or Ursus Maritimus, is my totem animal and I was delighted when I realized I could include it under its Latin name. I could also have included Ursus arctos horribilis [the grizzly bear] and Ursus americanus [the black bear]. Not to mention Ursa major [the Big Dipper] and Ursa Minor [the Little Dipper], the last of which has Polaris, the North Star, at the end of its handle.
Ursus maritimus
10) Unseen University is the school of wizardry located in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels set in Ankh-Morpork. It's the home of the Librarian and Rincewind [with The Luggage], when they're not somewhere else. The Unseen University is an important element in The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Interesting Times, Reaper Man, Soul Music and Hogfather, to name just the major books in which it appears. A lot of very funny things happen there. The Tower of Art is an extremely tall tower in the middle of Unseen University.
The very top of the Tower of Art at Unseen University
My ten items are as follows:
1) Ukrainian Easter Eggs
2) Ultramarine
3) Unabridged Dictionaries
4) The Undead (vampires)
5) An Undisturbed Night's Sleep
6) Unicorns
7) Upsidedown Cake, Pineapple
8) Ulura (Ayers Rock)
9) Ursus Maritimus (polar bears)
10) The Unseen University (located in Ankh-Morpork of Terry Pratchett's Discworld stories)
Explications and images of the above can be found here:
1) Ukrainian Easter Eggs are produced by a folk art for decorating eggs using strong dyes and wax in a process similar to batik. A friend of Richard's taught me how to do this when we were visiting one Easter weekend. It's fun and easy to produce simple designs, although the more complex designs take a good deal of experience and a very steady hand.
2) Ultramarine is one of my favorite blue colors. It's an ancient color, traditionally produced by crushing the opaque semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli. Because of its source, it was one of the most expensive colors until an artificial ultramarine was developed in relatively recent times.
3) Unabridged Dictionaries are one of the sources that Richard and I refer to frequently--so much so that we own two of them: Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary [more American-English oriented] and The Oxford English Dictionary [OED--more British-English oriented]. They're good for looking up the obscure words that we seem to come across all the time--also they're useful for looking up the etymology of words.
4) I fell in love with the original Dracula by Bram Stoker when I was in junior high school and have been fond of vampire stories ever since. As it turns out, Stoker's original title for Dracula was to have been The Undead. I tend to prefer my vampires 'straight'--that is, evil bloodsuckers, rather than the romantic types that are currently popular.
5) I've always been a very light sleeper and an Undisturbed Night's Sleep is a real luxury for me. I tend to be very sensitive to even the lightest sound [or cat activity]. On the other hand, because I sleep lightly, I frequently remember my dreams which can be quite vivid [some in color] and exciting/disturbing.
6) Who doesn't like Unicorns? I especially like Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn. Different, non-traditional, but interesting approaches to unicorns can be found in Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies and in Jim Butcher's Summer Knight.
7)Pineapple Upsidedown Cake is one of my favorite desserts. It has to be home-made [the few commercial ones I've tried were awful], and it doesn't keep well. A nice combination of buttery, sweet and tart if prepared correctly. In case you're thinking that I'm cheating a bit, there are a number of other upsidedown cakes, pear being the best known.
8) Uluru [also known as Ayers Rock] is located in the middle of Australia about 200 miles from Alice Springs, the nearest large town. Uluru is technically a sandstone 'inselberg' or 'isolated mountain', over 1000 feet high and about six miles in circumference. Geologically, it's fascinating. It's also sacred to the local Aboriginal Tribes, who would prefer that people not walk across it, which for some reason is a popular thing to do for white Australians. Famously, Uluru appears a glowing red at sunset, and photos taken then are probably the best known images of it.
9) Polar Bears, or Ursus Maritimus, is my totem animal and I was delighted when I realized I could include it under its Latin name. I could also have included Ursus arctos horribilis [the grizzly bear] and Ursus americanus [the black bear]. Not to mention Ursa major [the Big Dipper] and Ursa Minor [the Little Dipper], the last of which has Polaris, the North Star, at the end of its handle.
Ursus maritimus
10) Unseen University is the school of wizardry located in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels set in Ankh-Morpork. It's the home of the Librarian and Rincewind [with The Luggage], when they're not somewhere else. The Unseen University is an important element in The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Interesting Times, Reaper Man, Soul Music and Hogfather, to name just the major books in which it appears. A lot of very funny things happen there. The Tower of Art is an extremely tall tower in the middle of Unseen University.
The very top of the Tower of Art at Unseen University