The Other Shoe

This is just a follow-up entry on some stuff I've posted over the last week or two. I'm not really up for much heavy thinking tonight. First off, today's news:

• The car - I got it back a little after 5 PM today. Battery terminals, fuel filter, fuel pump and tow - $585.64.
• The newer laptop - I don't really want to spend the money on it now. I'll see whether Michael's has appropriate lettering, and let it go at that.
• The older laptop - the CD drive / DVD player does still work on it, so I'll keep it out to use for that purpose. I've upgraded the 2-year-old AOL software, but the laptop still needs a number of things I can't easily give it, such as my AOL file cabinets and unexpired virus protection. Ah, well. It's usable, though, if I need it.
• Did I mention that John Scalzi uploaded one of his silly, PhotoShopped self-portraits to Wikipedia earlier in the month? I doubt anyone with Wikipedia would have had much of a problem with using the "devil Scalzi" picture on his Wikipedia article had it been tagged correctly, but he missed the drop down licensing menu he was supposed to use. Result: it was labeled as unlicensed, and deleted a week later, despite the fact that the description he put on it clearly stated that he released it for use on Wikipedia and related sites. If he was trying to prove that Wikipedia has no sense of humor about images, he missed the mark; but it certainly shows that the letter of the policies on Wikipedia often trump their intent and spirit. (Subjects of articles aren't supposed to contribute to them, either, but I supposed that providing a "free image" of yourself is a minor infraction compared to whitewashing your actual bio.) A 'bot labeled the photo as unlicensed because there was no drop down statement licensing it, and the bot didn't care that such info was provided in the description instead. Then a human deleted the photo from Wikipedia, because Scalzi didn't fix it within a week of it being tagged as unlicensed. (Well, he's been busy! Besides, I doubt that he really cared about keeping it on Wikipedia.) I doubt that the human who deleted the image paid any more attention to the image description than Scalzi did to the drop-down. But I, who did pay attention, re-added the image, used the drop-down, and referred to Scalzi's previous verbiage, which unfortunately I did not find cached anywhere. If someone at Wikipedia doesn't believe that Scalzi released it, then it will just get deleted again. But I'm hoping he'll humor me, and repost his permission / release. Have pity on this well-meaning Wikidrone, J.S.!
  

The other day I posted pictures of further close-ups, which nobody guessed about. Maybe they were just too obvious. But let's get them identified anyway.

Instruction: this is a sign next to the stairs at work, letting people know there are stairs there. Y'know, I really think people can figure this out without help.

Dusty: this is a glass globe I got from Mal and Sandy in 1994, commemorating some awards that Worldwide Travel won. Dust gets in the tiny dimples of it. Also visible: parts of North America, Central America and Hawaii.

Legendary: You probably recognize this as the back of a dragon's wing, from a resin figure I've photographed several times over.

Canonical? I know this is supposed to be Sherlock Holmes' magnifying glass, but it kind of looks like an ice cream cone.

Small: this is part of a vintage beaded coin purse. I'm pretty sure it belonged to my mom. Here's another view of the thing (same photo, cropped differently):

Most beaded purses I see are white or silver. I kind of like the copper coloring here.

Grandmother: this is part of the carved lid of my oldest jewelry box, which I got from my grandmother when I was about seven years old. I think she brought it back from Morocco, but I'm not certain. The whole lid can be seen below:

The fun thing is that about five years ago I bought another, larger wooden jewelery box from an antique shop that is clearly part of the same product line. I'm not even positive at this point that they are hand carved. They are definitely wood, though. One of the reasons the design is relatively visible in this photo is that, like the blue globe, this box gets dust trapped in the crevices.

Enough. This is one Friday night when I'm going to get to bed before 5 AM.

Karen