3526 Punished

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Humans are one of the most complicated things we can mass produce through unskilled labor.

(Oddly enough, being more skilled doesn't produce a better product.  Just maybe more of them.)

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I went to Rakkasah.  I swore I wouldn't buy anything there - just look at stuff and watch the dancers.  I don't need any clothing, jewelry, or anything else.  Since in the past almost no one there took credit cards, I took a little bit of cash for entrance fee and food, and one credit card for emergencies, and figured I was safe.

I forgot that there's a difference between need and want.  Also that in the past few years venders have acquired fancy devices for internet connection, and therefore can more easily take credit cards.  Two skirts and a blouse later....

But Fate punished me.  Immediately after I had paid for the last purchase, a woman spilled her entire cup of light & sweet coffee smack into my shopping bag and everything in it.  She also got the skirt I was wearing, my stockings and shoes, and onto and into my purse.

I left immediately, drove home, and tossed everything into the washing machine before they dried.  One of the new skirts had little (plastic, sequin-like, bound in embroidery thread) mirrors on beaded strands just above a ruffle at the hem, and I guess they couldn't handle the (gentle!) tumbling in the machine - 24 or more of them came off, the beaded strands suspending them broke, which I didn't discover until I took the skirt out of the dryer.

So now somewhere in the workings of my washer and dryer are a thousand tiny glass beads, and at least two small mirrors.
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3525 Elegant, and not

Saturday, May 5, 2012

The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.

-- Jacob Bronowski --

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Elegant.  Elegant is the word I was looking for in the last post.  Everyone who had ever explored code written by Jay described it as "elegant".

The word elegant, in general, is an adjective meaning of fine quality. Refinement and simplicity are implied, rather than fussiness, or ostentation. An elegant solution, often referred to in relation to problems in disciplines such as mathematics, engineering, and programming, is one in which the maximum desired effect is achieved with the smallest, or simplest effort. Engineers, for example, seek the elegant solution as a means of solving a problem with the least possible waste of materials and effort. The elegant solution is also likely to be accomplished with appropriate methods and materials - according to the Elegant Solution Organization, duct tape is not likely to be part of an elegant solution, unless, of course, the problem involves taping ducts.

(A bit of trivia:  Duct tape is, in fact, not suitable for taping ducts, except perhaps on the outside of insulation around the duct.  Temperature extremes will destroy the glue.)

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I'm going to Rakkasah Spring Caravan today.  I do not plan to buy anything beyond an entrance ticket and food. We'll see how well I can hold to that.
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1843 Weekend

Monday, June 9, 2008

I drove home from Rochester on Friday (round trip = $97 in gas!), and then left for NJ on Saturday. Ostensibly I was going to Spring Caravan, but in reality it was to see The Man. He's been working like 16 hour days, big project, and trying to fit in tournament practice, and I knew if it was left to him I wouldn't see him again until the project was over (damn nerd). So Spring Caravan was an excuse. "Hey, I'll be there, driving down Saturday morning, and back home Saturday evening, unless you can get Saturday evening free, and then I'll stay over." He agreed he needed the break. If he hadn't been able to meet me, I doubt that I'd have gone at all.

As proof of my intent, there were five dancers I would have liked to have seen, and I got there too late for two of them, and left to meet the Man for dinner before the others were on, and it didn't bother me at all.

I met him in the bar at a hotel up the road, where we could watch the race. The minute Big Brown came out of the gate, the Man was yelling at the jockey. Horses have different styles, and BB is an end sprinter. The jockey pushed BB into third place behind two steady runners and held him there, and it was a long race, which means he ran BB out before the end sprint. He should have held him back, so he'd be able to pour it on at the end. Bad bad. You don't use up your horse before the sprint.

He went back to the office at 2pm on Sunday, I stopped back at Spring Caravan for an hour, again missing some local dancers, and then I drove a half hour further south to Daughter's to pick up a Waterford lamp. I wanted the floor lamp that matches this lamp, too, I even ordered both two years ago, but it seemed like they were never available, possibly because the crystal shades tend to break in shipping. It looks like they're not even making the floor model any more, and I think this one may be discontinued. (BTW, ignore the web site price.)

I'm not surprised the shades proved fragile. The box had shaped foam padding holding the heavy metal base tightly, but the shade was in a box inside the outer box, floating free in the smaller box in plastic peanuts - but not enough peanuts to keep the shade from sliding around in there. Most of the other lamps have the crystal on the base and fabric shades, and it looks like this packing was designed for them, not this lamp.

The Waterford warehouse is only about 20 minutes from Daughter's house, so Hercules picked it up for me, rather than having it shipped up here. Much safer.

I am very tired, but I've calmed down from the Rochester trip. The Man and I didn't talk about it, but just being with him helped to put it all in perspective. It all seems so unimportant now.
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1507 The Weekend

Sunday, October 14, 2007

According to the PBS program on child brides mentioned in the previous entry, parents in India will marry off very young daughters "to have one fewer mouth to feed". But that doesn't make any sense at all, because the child brides don't go to the husband's house until puberty. So the parents still have to feed her, AND they have to come up with a dowry to marry her off.

Maybe the real reason is that the dowry is lower if she's very young?

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On the new math mentioned in the previous entry, what I didn't say, and don't want to say, is that the new methods are very close to how some math whizzes think when they do multiplication and division "in their heads". I didn't point it out because it comes too close to a defense. The difference is that the whizzes come up with it themselves out of a complete understanding.
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I went to Rakkasah, and was met by my friend. I had a very good time. I am trying very hard not to fall in love. It's good that we've held off on any great declarations. Truths are being slowly revealed, and are being accepted. Trust is getting built. If this goes anywhere, it will be solid. If it goes nowhere, there will be no terrible disillusionment, no unbearable pain. This is good. I'm learning.
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1506 Denver, Math, Plans

Friday, October 12, 2007

PBS had a tribute to John Denver this evening. It reminded me of a reaction I had back in the very late 70s or early 80s, when John Denver was at the top of the charts with one song after another. I was driving, and there was a new John Denver song playing on the car radio, and then the announcer said "And that was Annie's Song by John Denver." Well, back then, car radios weren't all that good, and what I heard was "And that was any song by John Denver", and I laughed and thought, "oh, yes, they do all sound alike!"

Not to knock JD, I loved him, too, but hey, they DID all sound alike!

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If you have children in school, or know anyone who has children in school, you MUST watch this video. It's about 15.5 minutes long, but it's interesting, important, and frightening. The teaching of math is changing again, and not in a good way. As a former math teacher, this scares me!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI)

There have been several responses to the above video. At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOH9gwImyXg, a guy has timed the old algorithms against the new methods.

At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9skRrnN2_HU (Part 1) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1tPHInrEk0 (Part 2) a college professor attempts to defend the new against the old on the grounds that students must understand the concepts behind what they are doing, and must learn the logic, as opposed to simply memorizing the algorithms. However, he admits that he is unfamiliar with the new books and methods. He apparently doesn't realize that the new methods DON'T get one closer to the concepts. Taught correctly, the old algorithms should be backed by concepts. I can assure you MY students understood what they were doing!

Finally, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx5KDyvlG3Q is an amusing (and very well done) look at the topic.

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It's been two weeks since I've seen The Man. We were supposed to get together in Newburgh last night, but work pressures intervened, so it's tomorrow. I'm heading to NJ for the Saturday performances at Rakkasah, and he will join me there.

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Whoops. A PBS program on child brides in India is starting. Gotta sign off.
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1253 Rakkasah Spring Caravan Videos

Some Caravan videos are up on YouTube.

Willow with Djinn:


For more, go to www.youtube.com and search on "spring caravan".
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1233 Spring Caravan

Saturday, May 5, 2007

It's a hair after midnight, but I'm still considering it Saturday. Posting from the host hotel for the Rakkasah Spring Caravan.

I got about 2 hours sleep last night (Friday night). I wanted to get to Somerset, NJ, by 2:00 pm, Willow was dancing at 2:37 pm, so I'd have to leave the house by a little before noon at the latest, so I'd have to get up by 10 am to take care of everything I'd have to do before leaving. Shouldn't have been a problem, except that at 3:30 am I decided I really needed the underskirt for the Assuit dress I want to wear Sunday, and it needed hemming. When I finally got to bed I was so worried about oversleeping that I couldn't fall asleep. Finally got to sleep about 8 am, and then - of course - slept through the alarm.

I flew around the house, and got out at 12:15 pm, and stopped by the bank ATM for money. The guy in line ahead of me took forever and didn't seem to do anything. When I was my turn, the ATM took my card, asked all the correct questions, then said thank you and gave me my card back. No money. So I had to go into the bank. Turns out the guy ahead of me had the same problem.

Now, I figure the cashier has to do two things: 1) find out if the ATM debited my account, and if so, cancel that transaction, and 2) gimme the money.

Instead, the cashier decided to find out what was wrong with the ATM and try to fix it. Agh! I don't have time for this! Gimme the money!

I didn't leave the village until 1 pm ish. This gave me 1.5 hours for a 2 hour trip. (Mapquest says 2 hrs 12 minutes, 135 miles.)

Now, I don't much speed. If the sign says 55, I do 55. Maybe 57 if I'm in a hurry, and I feel guilty about that. Today I did 80 in a 55 zone on an interstate limited-access highway (and if anyone in law enforcement is reading this, uh, I made that part up for the sake of the story). I made it in time to see Willow dance, with literally 2 minutes to spare. (So Mapquest must be wrong, because using their figures, I had to AVERAGE 90 mph.)

Spring Caravan is a bit different from the fall Rakkasah East, because this one is billed as Tribal Fusion. It's a different crowd, and a different style on the stage. I like it better.

As usual, I spent a bunch of money. I bought a beaded purse, some sheer beledi dresses, a dress similar to my purple SCA dress that looks so good on me, but in black and a smaller size, and some silver and stone (lapis, carnelian) necklace pendants. I can't feel guilty, because the prices are much much lower here than you'd find anywhere else. $40 for a caftan you'd pay $70 for online. $20 for beaded shawls you'd pay $50 for elsewhere. Last year I bought a cut velvet beaded and fringed opera coat for $50, and saw the exact same coat in an uptown Kingston store for $120. I would come to Rakkasah just to shop.

Sixteen of us went out for dinner, overwhelmed a Ruby Tuesday, "Do you have reservations?', "Uh, no, but it's only 4:30, you can't be that busy...." Back for more performances after dinner. Something funny - as Willow was getting up from the table, her fingers got pinched between two chairs. The general reaction was, "Oh well, it's ok, who cares, you've already danced."

Party in the hotel bar after the show paused for the night. Dance floor full of belly dancers. Djinn played. Every male who had a drum joined in. One group of women started up an ATS group on the lower floor, group improv via hand signals, and that was fun to watch. Usual Rakkasah prices did not apply - my one Amaretto on the rocks was $10.43.

Thence to bed.
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