2784 Stupid test day.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

We must never confuse dissent with disloyalty.
-- Edward R. Morrow --

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Your result for The 3 Variable Funny Test...

Your humor style:

CLEAN | COMPLEX | LIGHT
Your humor has an intellectual, even conceptual slant to it. You're not pretentious, but you're not into what some would call 'low humor' either. You'll laugh at a good dirty joke, but you definitely prefer something clever to something moist.

You probably like well-thought-out pranks and/or spoofs and it's highly likely you've tried one of these things yourself. In a lot of ways, yours is the most entertaining type of humor because it's smart without being mean-spirited.

Take The 3 Variable Funny Test at OkCupid

Yeah, I guess. The fastest way for a new acquaintance to turn me off completely is to tell a dirty or mean-spirited joke. I also don't find video clips of people getting hurt at all funny, no matter how stupid their actions were.

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Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test...

English Genius

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 100% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Take The Commonly Confused Words Test at OkCupid

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Your result for The LONG Scientific Personality Test...

INTJ -The Mastermind

You scored 18% I to E, 47% N to S, 52% F to T, and 42% J to P!

You are more introverted than extroverted. You are more intuitive than observant, you are more thinking based than feeling based, and you prefer to have a plan rather than leaving things to chance. Your type is best described by the word "mastermind", which belongs to the larger group called rationals. Only 1% of the population shares your type. You are very strong willed and self-confident. You can hardly rest until you have things settled. You will only adopt ideas and rules if they make sense. You are a great brainstormer and often come up with creative solutions to difficult problems. You are open to new concepts, and often actively seek them out.

As a romantic partner, you can be both fascinating yet demanding. You are not apt to express your emotions, leaving your partner wondering where they are with you. You strongly dislike repeating yourself or listening to the disorganized process of sorting through emotional conflicts. You see your own commitments as self-evident and don't see why you need to repeat something already expressed. You have the most difficulty in admitting your vulnerabilities. You feel the most appreciated when your partner admires the quality of your innovations and when they listen respectfully to your ideas and advice. You need plenty of quiet to explore your interests to the depth that gives you satisfaction.

Your group summary: rationals (NT)

Your type summary: INTJ

Take The LONG Scientific Personality Test at OkCupid

Hmmm. Ok. I mostly agree with the first paragraph, but not so much with the second. I DO express my emotions, my partner never has to wonder. I enjoy sorting through emotional conflicts, and I have been accused of repeating stuff, just to make sure they "got it" and completely understand it, you know?

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Your result for The Best Personality Type for You Test...

ENTJ - Commandant

You scored 75 I versus E, 40 N versus S, 80 F versus T, and 100 J versus P!

Your ideal mate is known as The Commandant. As a romantic partner, this type is inspiring, but also somewhat challenging. They have a strong desire to be in charge and their clear need for an organized life and home can be overwelming to a partner. They like to confront conflict directly, discuss problems unflinchingly, solve them, then put them behind you both. However, they can be too impatient or unwilling to take the time to listen to their partners and give them a chance to express themselves fully so that their partners also have a sense of closure. They are generally uncomfortable dealing with emotions, so they are apt to dismiss their partner's emotions as illogical. They feel most appreciated when their partners ask for their opinions, take their advice, and rely on them to get a job done right.

The group summary: rationals (NT)

The type summary: ENTJ

Take The Best Personality Type for You Test at OkCupid

Hmmm. When I took this test, I very carefully did NOT consider any of the men I've been involved with, ever. I really did consider the choices carefully, and tried to choose descriptors of the ideal man, one whom I could both live with and respect. Some of the choices were between those two - be comfortable with, OR respect - and in those cases I chose respect over comfort. I vastly prefer that I respect my man over his being easy to get along with.

I am shocked. I ended up with The Man. That's him to a T, except that he avoids confrontation. Not surprising, since in the one big area where we have conflict, he knows he's wrong. Plus he's all Man, and Man-types avoid emotional conflict (settling on a nickname for him was not difficult!) I've seen him address exterior conflict, and I have a lot of respect for him there.
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2783 When recycling is bad

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Among wild dogs, the family that preys together stays together.

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I went to the recycle center today. They have a huge metal building there full of things people drop off, from small furniture, kitchen gear, toys and clothing, to books. Anyone can take anything they like.

When Jay was sick, the most amazing thing happened. All three years he was ill, some doctor's office dropped off copies of those huge pharmaceutical reference books, listing all medications, their purpose, dosages, interactions, and side effects, and results of all clinical trials of them. Several times I was able to head off problems using those books. What makes it so very amazing is that after Jay died, the books never appeared again.

I hadn't been in the building in a few years, so I decided to see what they had today. Not to get anything, exactly, but to see what they were accepting these days. I'm getting buried in stuff again, and thought I might load up some dross and drop it off one day soon.

After I arrived at the center I discovered I'd brought all the recyclable paper and cardboard, but had forgotten the two big bags of glass/plastic/metal. Phooey. I visited the building, and left with a stack of hardcover books (new-looking, with dust covers), including
A Reporter's Life - Walter Cronkite
Dating Dead Men - Harley Jane Kozak
Rising Sun - Michael Crichton
The King of Torts - John Grisham
The Age of Turbulence - Alan Greenspan

Clutterwise, this is not helpful. Now I remember why I seldom enter that building.
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2782 Not at all politically correct

Friday, February 19, 2010

I distrust those people who know so well
what God wants them to do,
because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.
-- Susan B. Anthony --

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I watched Tiger Woods' statement this morning. He did well, will come out of this ok. There was one thing that bugged me, though. He apologized to everyone in his family, his fans, his supporters, his team, a whole bunch of people. Fine.

But he left out one group he should apologize to - all the women he used and whose affections he toyed with, whose trust he destroyed. He lied to them. He told (some if not all) of them that he loved them and needed them. In most cases it was not a simple "we both know what this is, a one-night-stand". He schmoozed them into falling in love with him. He hurt those women, each of whom thought they were the only ones, and who thought they were helping a man who was staying in an unloving relationship only for the sake of the children.

A lot of people have no sympathy for those women, because "they knew he was married". But those people don't know how easy it is to fall in love with a charismatic man who goes after you and really turns it on. Regardless of how one feels about those women, he absolutely owes them a public apology, too. He lied to them and he used them.

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The Palin family is now all upset at "Family Guy" for the episode where Chris is on a date with a girl with Down Syndrome. The girl was very nice and extremely proper. Taught Chris some date manners. The girl, after reminding Chris that he should ask her some questions about herself, said that "My dad's an accountant, and my mom's the former governor of Alaska." Clearly a reference to the Palins.

What bugs me is that Sarah Palin has said that it's "an insult." How is it an insult? Something is an insult when it offends. Something offends when it's not true, or if true, it's something you are sensitive about, or ashamed of.

So, Sarah, are you ashamed of your son?

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Which leads to another not politically correct thought. The definition of retarded is "slowed down". Ex#2's brother had a rough birth, and although he doesn't have Down's, he was most definitely developmentally delayed. When he was 16, he thought and acted more like an 8-year-old. However, he continued to develop, just much more slowly than the rest of the world. For the first half of his life he was quite literally retarded in the dictionary sense of the word.

I understand objections to the use of "retarded" as an insult. In using it as an insult, you're sneering at the condition. That's not fair. But as a simple description of a true condition, simply a descriptive term, it's not inherently a bad word.

It bugs me that so many of the people who object so strenuously to the word "retarded" in any context will quite happily use "dumb" to mean stupid.

Hypocrisy. As bad as people who frown at fur coats while wearing goat leather shoes and belts.
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2781 Feelin' Blah

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Too many people don't know the difference between "probable" and "possible".
-- Me --

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I hate winter.

Yesterday morning four different sources predicted 2-4" of snow. No big deal. It snowed gently all day, and by late afternoon, when we already had 5", they changed it to 6-10". Gee, thanks. I wish I could be paid so much for presenting bad guesses. I had scheduled "The Last Station" for my movie group, and canceled it when I heard that the roads weren't being plowed. Rescheduled for Friday.

I hadn't called Plow Guy, but he came anyway. I knew he'd arrived when the headlights swept across the den window and I heard the thumping and banging.

------------------------------

It seems like my life has become all about food. Three meals and three snacks all day, evenly spaced. Protein at every one. All low- or no-fat stuff. No fruit except berries until lunch. I eat slowly, so it seems like I'm eating constantly, or thinking about what to eat next. It also seems like I'm eating a lot more food, so I was afraid I'd be gaining weight, but the scale says I've actually lost a little bit. I have a few trips and hotel stays coming up, and I'm already fussing about how I can manage the regime on the road, or without a refrigerator, or on a long flight. Cheating or saying the heck with it is not an option.

When I go to the village this afternoon, I'm going to check on that Glucerna stuff, if I can find it. Maybe that would be good to fill the snack gaps. I wonder if I can smuggle it into Morocco....
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2780 Exploding water

Monday, February 15, 2010

You can tell you've made God into your own image when He hates the same people you do.

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I wanted a pot of tea this morning. I put a 16-oz glass measuring cup of water in the microwave oven, started it, and went to the den, where I forgot about it.

A few minutes later I went to the kitchen, and the water was hot but no longer boiling. So I set the microwave to 2 minutes and started it again, and watched it from the sink.

The water sat there. Nothing happened. No little bubbles. And then suddenly, all at once, ONE HUGE bubble sprang into existence in the bottom of the cup, shot to the top, and blew almost all of the water out of the cup with a bang that rocked the microwave on the counter.

Never saw that before. Bit of a shock.

Told ya I had hard water....
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2779 Ghosts of the past

Sunday, February 14, 2010

"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock."
-- Will Rogers --

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There's a male friend who likes me, and would like a more intimate relationship with me. But I have absolutely no inclination in that direction at all. None whatsoever. I've been thinking about why I can't even consider him.

On the plus side, he's cute, cheerful, social, and wealthy, and a good dependable friend. He certainly has a lot to offer and would treat me like a princess. On the negative side, he's a bit loud, a right-winger, and shaped like a brick.

I used to think that it was those negatives that held me back. But really, they're nothing I couldn't work with. Life with him would be pleasant.

I figured it out a few weeks ago.

When I was 21 years old, my apartment building was set on fire by a young woman who liked to watch fire engines. The fire was mainly in the ground-floor stationery store's storage room, directly under my apartment. I was 8 months pregnant at the time (married to Ex#1, who was in the army, in Germany), suffered smoke inhalation problems, and lost the baby the day after the fire.

When the fire department and the landlord finally let me back into the building, I found I just couldn't live there any more. I'd managed to save my cat and myself, but I'd lost my baby and the pair of lovebirds, and everything I owned was seriously smoke damaged. I found I couldn't sleep there. So I moved.

One of the more successful businessmen in town owned several apartment buildings, as well as car dealerships, etc. It was his office that I hid out in after that woman tried to kill me. I went to him to see if he had anything available. He had just installed a mobile home behind one of his buildings, which was ideal. I'd feel safer if I had control over my home, and direct access to outside.

He stopped by often to see how I was doing. Pretty soon it was almost every day. I didn't know quite how to handle him. He was 20 years older than I. At 22, 42 is ancient! Then the gifts started. Roses. A full liter of Jean Nate (the popular scent in those hippie days). A gold bracelet. I had to tell him it wasn't appropriate, and that I couldn't let him visit as he had been doing, and I certainly couldn't accept gifts.

So then he started turning up late evenings, almost every evening. I wouldn't open the door to him, so he'd sit on the steps outside with a bottle of whiskey, and talk. We'd talk through the screen door. And talk and talk and talk. I knew he needed to talk and had no one else to talk with, so I couldn't turn him away.

I knew he lived in (what in that neighborhood would be) a mansion on the golf course. I knew he was 20 years old than I. I knew he had no children. I asked around and found out he was married, but no one had seen his wife in fifteen years. She was rumored to be either an invalid or agoraphobic, had a live-in maid/nurse. At any rate, she never left the house, rarely left her bedroom, and seldom left her bed. When I asked him, he said she stayed in her room when he was home, and he was not allowed in her room. He seldom saw her. I didn't ask and he didn't say what was wrong with her, but I got the impression he'd never left her because they were Catholic and he expected her to die --- and had been expecting her to die "any day now" for fifteen years.

When the cold of winter came, he gradually stopped coming by, and then Ex#2 came home, and I moved away.

About five years later I went back to visit friends. We were in a tavern when he bustled in, bought a bottle from the bartender, and bustled out. He didn't see me. My friends laughed at him after he was gone. They said "There's probably a woman waiting in his car. He's been catting around the past few years. Don't know where he finds these women, maybe York or Lancaster. Real floozies. He's a joke."

I felt very sorry for him.

Anyway, I just recently realized that the reason I can't drum up any interest in my current friend might be because he reminds me so strongly of my old landlord. The age difference isn't there, but they look a lot alike, both play golf, both financially comfortable, both square-built, both get maudlin when they drink, both uncomfortable with sex, both lack confidence in sexual matters, both in sexless long-term relationships, both relate to me in similar ways.

My old admirer would be 85 this year. I wonder if he's still alive. If he is, I'll bet his wife is, too.
.

2778 Implosion in Texas?

Sunday, February 14, 2010

“Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny
are fueled by perpetually rejuvenated illusions.”
-- Albert Einstein --

---------------------------------------

Note: The following is not an endorsement for anyone.

Debra Medina is a Republican (Tea Party) candidate for governor of Texas. In a telephone interview on Glenn Beck's radio show, Beck asked her if she was a "9/11 Truther", i.e., if she or any of her advisers believed that the US government was complicit in the fall of the towers:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j2Ov6u9e38]
[http://politifi.com/news/A-Tea-Party-Candidate-Implodes-on-Becks-Show-185543.html]

Several social commentators and political bloggers whose opinions I usually respect (and a TV/radio host whose opinions I do not respect) have declared that, on the basis of this interview, she is a conspiracy nut and has blown her candidacy out of the water.

Huh? I don't understand.

That's not what she said. I'll agree she blathered a bit and didn't handle the question well, but what she actually said was that she doesn't have enough information to form an opinion either way. She said that there are good questions that have never been completely answered. Pressed on what any of her advisers believe, she said she didn't know and didn't care, and they weren't advising her on that anyway.

Now, I don't know anything about her, have no feelings either way about her, but I think there's something very wrong in concluding that she believes in a government 9/11 conspiracy.
Since when is an open mind suspicious?
Since when is it bad to say "I don't have an opinion because I don't have all the information"?
Since when is wanting the whole story before forming an opinion wrong?
Since when is it wrong to not simply accept what others tell you?
Is it a Republican requirement that one has to never ever ask questions about the motives of a Republican administration? (And the corollary - always question those of a Democratic administration.)

That attitude scares me. Don't think. Don't question. Follow the party line. Parrot the script. Above all, close your mind.
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2777 Confused about food

Saturday, February 13, 2010

The price is what you pay, the value is what you receive.
-- Salada Tea tag line --

----------------------------------

In this recent post, http://thesilkentouch.blogspot.com/2010/02/2772-cell-conspiracy.html, I linked to an article about research on the health dangers of cellular phones and towers. Now, there's this:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AI_chv7nCU]

I am horrified! Radar? Constantly bathing your body at close range?

Even when you aren't using your cell phone, if it's on it's periodically sending and receiving positional signals (using microwaves, which is essentially radar), but I suspect this is a much stronger signal. And it will not be broadcasting periodically. It will be constant. And anything that can go through a purse or pocket is going through to your hip bones.

I wonder if that guy would be willing to strap it to his infant daughter's forehead.

---------------------------------

After Thursday's visit to the nutritionist, I spent all of yesterday doing research. It's all very confusing. I'm supposed to have

• 6 servings of complex carbs
• 4-6 servings of protein
• 2-3 servings of fruit
• 2 servings of dairy
• 3 servings of vegetables
• 3 servings of fats

scattered over three meals and three snacks every day. But the nutritionist and the Mayo Clinic, among others, seem to differ on which classification various foods fall into. The nutritionist considered nuts to be protein, but Mayo put them in the fats group. The nutritionist wants me to have a protein with every meal and snack, but if I am to have 5 servings of protein a day, and one "serving" of beef, pork, chicken is 1 ounce (that's ONE!), I don't see how.

I discovered that you can't decide you're hungry, walk out to the kitchen and open the refrigerator or cabinet, and think, "What shall I eat?" When you have to parcel out what classes can be eaten in what combination, you have to plan the whole day's meals and snacks ahead of time. The diabetic diet isn't about simply avoiding sugars. It's about combinations and balance.

I looked in the pantry and refrigerator, and there's a lot of stuff I can't have any more. I should just get rid of it. I asked Daughter, and she doesn't want any of it. She said to give it to a soup kitchen or something, but they won't accept it because it's all been opened and decanted. Ever since an attack of nasty flour moths and some kind of tiny black beetle that could drill through soft plastic and cardboard, I've kept everything in glass jars and big plastic jugs. So there's flour, sugar, brown sugar, pancake mix, Basmati rice, dirty rice, five different kinds of pasta, dessert mixes, Bisquick, creamy soup mixes, on and on, almost all out of their original containers. I doubt anyone else would (or frankly, should) trust them.

I guess the raccoons and turkeys will be having a feast.

---------------------------

Later - the chocolate will stay. A long time ago I mostly stopped eating regular candy chocolate and switched to unsweetened or semi-sweet baking chocolate to satisfy my occasional but powerful chocolate cravings, with the occasional Lindt truffle. It won't be cheating, really. The nutritionist said I could have one dessert a week.
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2776 No more baked potato?

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Dean Koontz, in The Face, paraphrased: When no one ever listens to you,
really listens, you can begin to lose the ability to tell whether or not you
are really making sense when you talk.

------------------------------

I had a one-hour session with a nutritionist today. If I am not diabetic now, I am headed straight for it, so I figured it would be a good idea.

She says I am remarkably healthy for my age, that I've got the right ideas, based on what and how I've been eating and the supplements I take (she got all excited when I mentioned I take lecithin, and strongly approved of my fish oil capsules), but there are a few things we have to tweak.

She says I eat !way! too much fruit. I have to cut back to no more than three servings a day, and cut out fruit juice entirely.

"Cut out fruit juice? Howcome fruit is ok but fruit juice isn't? I buy the stuff without added sweetner...." "Because how many oranges does it take to make one glass of orange juice? How many grapes in one glass of grape juice?" "Oh. Ok."

I have to eat six times a day, and I should have protein at every meal and snack to balance the carbs. Protein isn't just meat. Cottage cheese, yogurt, peanut butter, low-fat cheese, tree nuts, etc. count as protein.

The part that hurt was "nothing white". Ok, doing without white bread and corn isn't all that bad, but she says that sticky white Japanese rice I dearly love, and my beloved white potatoes, are definitely out. I can have brown rice (yuck) and I can have those little red potatoes with the thin skins (oh, ok, I like them) and purple potatoes (available at Adams' Fairacre Farms). She says once I try the purples, I won't mind giving up the whites. I'm not big on pasta, so I don't mind being limited on that, and whole wheat pasta in moderation is ok.

She said to avoid wrap sandwiches. One wrapper is the equivalent of umpteen slices of white bread.

I can have my sweet liquors at about the same rate I drink now (about three a month), and for one dinner a week I can have anything I want (in reasonable portions). I can also have my favorite dessert once a week.

She wants me to keep a food diary, and I have to show it to her in a month.

Sigh.

Most of my freezer will have to be tossed. Seems like everything has white rice or potatoes in it. Maybe I'll take it all down to Daughter.
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2775 Magnesium

Thursday, February 11, 2010

In The Face, by Dean Koontz, the hero wants to arrest a motivational speaker
on "charges of felony cliché and practicing philosophy without an idea."

Oooo, I love that!
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The Plow Guy did somehow manage to go up the bank to the left of the mailbox. I'll find out what damage he did to the lawn when the snow melts, I guess.

------------------------

For many decades I've had either fibromyalgia or something similar. I have pain somewhere constantly. Not just little twinges. It's strong enough that I worry that I might someday have something serious going on and not know it.

Actually, that did happen once, when my gall bladder attacked me, and that's supposed to be bad pain, but I didn't worry about it until I started throwing up coffee grounds (that's partially digested blood for those who don't know). I drove myself to the ER in the middle of the night, and had emergency surgery two hours later.

On the plus side, I've delivered two babies completely without meds, and, "What pain? This is not pain. Hard work, yes. Pain, no."

Anyway, about four or five years ago I added magnesium to my daily supplements. I don't remember why I started taking it, but today it occurred to me that I've had very little random pain over the past several years. Sometimes I don't refill the weekly pill container, and I go without any supplements for a week or two until I get my tail in gear again, and --- surprise --- if I skip too long, the pain starts up again.

Hmmmm. If anyone out there has fibro or random pain, try magnesium and let me know what happens.
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2774 Driveway shock

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Mart Gross, biologist, on what behaviors get noted
or discounted : "Theory determines what you see."

That's so true. We tend to see what we expect to see,
and discount or explain away anything unexpected.
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All the weather sites and TV news I checked on Tuesday said we'd get 6 to 12 inches of snow yesterday (of course they didn't agree), so Tuesday afternoon I called Plow Guy and left a message that I'd need his services if we got 4 inches or more. At return from dinner Tuesday night, I left the car at the foot of the driveway so I could get out easily if we had a lot of snow. I figured I'd call Plow Guy and tell him to warn me before he arrived so I could move the car out of the driveway so he could get in.

The storm did shift southeast. The blizzard never arrived. When I went to bed last night, there were only 3 inches out there, so I didn't call Plow Guy.

Shock. I looked out the door this morning, and the driveway has been plowed.

How?!

At the foot, my driveway is one car wide. There's a steep uphill bank on the south side. On the north side, there's the mailbox on a small flat area, and then another downhill bank. This photo is from the ice storm last year, when I lost a bunch of trees. You can see the bank on the right and the mailbox on the left. Since the driveway is heading up, between the mailbox and the drive you can see a slope, and to the left of the mailbox the lawn rapidly gets steep enough to quickly get unmowable. My car is parked right there where the trees had fallen.
Now, how did Plow Guy, with his huge truck, get onto the driveway to plow it? Is my car still parked down there? (It was locked, so he didn't push it out of the way.) Is the mailbox still there? Did he chew up my lawn climbing the bank in the middle of the night?

And since we got only 3 inches total, why did he plow anyway? It's not insignificant. It's $55 per plowing.

I can't see the car from the house. It's below the brow of the hill.
I'll be going out after noon. Update and possible photos then.
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2773 Texting Haiti

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.
-- Isaac Asimov --

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Remember when "they" announced that you could text "Haiti" to a particular phone number, and donate $10 to Haiti relief? Well, wait for it. When the month's cell phone bills hit, you'll hear screams all over the country. Spanking will be reinstituted.

A lot of kids were unaware that the $10 would be added to the phone bill. They seemed to think that the money would come from some anonymous corporate benefactor, so they texted the code hundreds of times, proud of their texting skills.

Steel yourselves, parents.

-------------------------

I had dinner last night with the Orange County Outdoor Singles Meetup group, at a new sushi restaurant on the Newburgh riverfront. I guess I shouldn't feel so bad about the no-shows with my groups - 12 people had RSVP'd yes, and only 7 showed up, and this is one of the more popular groups.

We were the only customers, the service and food was terrific (lots of extras), and we were there three hours, having fun.

The topic of tying knots with your tongue in cherry stems came up, and three of us claimed to be able to do it, so we asked the waiter for three stemmed maraschino cherries. The waiter brought a huge bowl full! We all had a chance to try at least three.

I left a little after ten, and the snow, which was supposed to begin after midnight, had already started, light flurries. When I woke this morning, I expected to find several inches, but it looks like about 2, and it's still just flurries. I guess the blizzard will be later today. I hope it'll swing south and east and miss us.

Well, I can hope....
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2772 Cell Conspiracy

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Consumotherapy - buying something because it makes you feel good.

-----------------------------------

Please pass this link on: http://www.gq.com/cars-gear/gear-and-gadgets/201002/warning-cell-phone-radiation?printable=true. It's a long but well-written article on the various studies on the risks of cell phone/WiFi radiation, and why in the US even talking about the topic will get you labeled as a conspiracy nut.

"...most worrisome, though, are the preliminary results of the multinational Interphone study sponsored by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, in Lyon, France. (Scientists from thirteen countries took part in the study, the United States conspicuously not among them.) Interphone researchers reported in 2008 that after a decade of cell-phone use, the chance of getting a brain tumor—specifically on the side of the head where you use the phone—goes up as much as 40 percent for adults. Interphone researchers in Israel have found that cell phones can cause tumors of the parotid gland (the salivary gland in the cheek), and an independent study in Sweden last year concluded that people who started using a cell phone before the age of 20 were five times as likely to develop a brain tumor. Another Interphone study reported a nearly 300 percent increased risk of acoustic neuroma, a tumor of the acoustic nerve. "

The article makes the case that research has been stymied, shut down, and suppressed in the US because it is not in the interests of the telecommunications industry, the military, or the government. Consider who funds such research. Or, more appropriately here, who doesn't.

Did you know that it is actually illegal to attempt to stop installation of a microwave tower on the grounds of health concern?

Read it. The stories of the researcher's experiences are fascinating and illuminating. And if you can't get cell phone service where you sleep, rejoice.
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2771 There's no title that fits barrettes, choking, and consumerism.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The north pole is in Lapland.

----------------------------------------

You know you've screwed up when the second thing people say to you in greeting is "What happened to your hair?"

I've had a breakage problem. The top layer of my hair doesn't seem to grow past the bottom of the back of my head. I'd thought it was from overuse of heat straightening back in early 2007, but that should have grown out long ago.

I finally figured out it's because of those stupid "French clip" barrettes - the ones with the bar that goes up between two metal strips to hold the hair tight. I hated them when they first appeared on the store shelves a few decades ago because I knew they'd break hair, but they're about all you can buy now. I have many beautiful ones, and now I'm going to get rid of them all. I'll use scrunchies and simple bar barrettes from now on.

Two weeks ago I cut my hair to just above my shoulders, so it will all grow out together.

Males, in particular, don't like it short. They prefer it long, even if it is ragged.

--------------------------

"The Doctors" today were demonstrating infant CPR. When Daughter was small, we weren't taught CPR for little ones. I was reminded of one day when I was going through the mail. Daughter was sitting on the floor next to me, and I was dropping the envelopes on the floor for her to play with.

Suddenly she began choking. One of the envelopes had a cellophane window, and she'd somehow managed to pull it loose and inhale it.

I couldn't see or reach it, it was pretty far down, so without thinking I turned her upside down, held her against my body by her legs, and pressed on her middle with the other hand, and ran for the front door. The next door neighbor was a retired pediatric nurse, so I ran to her door, holding Daughter upside down, punching her in the chest constantly, planning to ask the neighbor to call 911.

I rang the doorbell and kicked the door and shouted, squeezing Daughter upside down the whole time. Daughter managed to cough up the cellophane far enough that I could get to it, so I lifted her high by one ankle and reached into her mouth to scoop it out before she could inhale it again. Just as the woman opened the door, I got the cellophane out and Daughter started wailing.

The neighbor opened the door to me dangling a kicking squirming screaming child upside down by one ankle, in front of my face. The expression on Mrs. Tribble's face was priceless.

----------------------------

I've been watching "The Age of Stupid" online. (I'm about 2/3 through it, and just now discovered it has been removed for copyright violations - which I don't understand because the distributors will give you a free copy if you agree to show it to multiple people.) It's a British production about global warming, supposed to get the message across better than "An Inconvenient Truth". (The producers seem to have an intense dislike of Shell Oil in particular.) All the pre-2055 clips shown are actually real archival footage from various sources, not shot just for this movie.

Anyway, one statement impressed me. Through the history of the world, there have been various religions, political systems, economic systems, philosophies that have come, gone, spread, affected life in good or bad ways. But none has been so pervasive, spread so widely, and is so potentially dangerous as consumerism, the idea that we must have more, bigger, newer, better to be happy.

I agree. Consumerism is, in the end, a very bad deal for everyone.

Let's stop listening to advertising agencies. We inherently know what we want and need. We don't need them to tell us.

---------------------------------

Along the same thought lines but from a different source is "proliferation". We usually hear the word in connection with "nuclear", but proliferation in general is very dangerous to the Earth, particularly proliferation of people. And consumerism.
.

2770 SB Commercials

Monday, February 8, 2010

Most people can work with any insanity,
as long as it is consistent and predictable insanity.
-- Me --

--------------------------------------

You can watch all the Super Bowl commercials at http://www.youtube.com/adblitz. Click on the button on the upper right to watch them one after another with no pause.

I guess some must have repeated, because there are duplicates, but you can skip to the end of duplicates by moving the bar at the bottom of the viewing screen.

I'm a bit disappointed. Nothing came up to the standard of the old Budweiser frogs. Or the young Clydesdale-in-training.

-------------------------

I saw "Small Change" with the movie group last night. It was, as advertised, charming.
.

2769 Mumps, Auction, Wealth

Sunday, February 7, 2010

If two people always agree on everything, then one of them is superfluous.

----------------------------

Remember when I wondered if I might have mumps, back in mid-January? (Post 2748, at http://thesilkentouch.blogspot.com/2010/01/2748.html.)

There's a mumps outbreak in Orange County, centered around Kiryas Joel, an Orthodox Jewish community. That's the general area where I go to a Mensa dinner the first week of every month. The timing's right. Damn. I bet it was mumps.

The article says that most of the kids who've come down with mumps were immunized, but that's not explained. Interesting. I'll bet a lot of adults who had mild cases weren't even counted. I know I didn't go to a doctor.

[http://vaccinenewsdaily.com/news/211359-mumps-outbreak-hits-ny-jewish-community]

-------------------------------

My singles' meetup group went to the auction last night. I had gone in Friday afternoon and reserved 8 seats for myself and the 7 people who'd RSVP'd. Three people showed up. Well, four if you count the guy who came without having RSVP'd (he did that at the dinner last month, too, showed up without advance notice).

I think the folks who did come enjoyed it, but I'm getting really annoyed at no-shows. It's not a rule, but I've noticed that many Meetup organizers kick people out after three no-shows. There's one woman who consistently says Yes to everything, and never shows up or cancels. She's supposed to come to the movie this evening, and if she doesn't, so help me, she's out. And no, it's not social anxiety - another member told me she's been to another group's games nights.

-------------------------------

Watching "Sunday Morning". Somebody just described the US as "the wealthiest and most generous country in the world". Sorry. Maybe most arrogant, but not most wealthy. There are several countries, especially in the middle east, that are absolutely more wealthy on a per-person basis. Several share the wealth with the citizens, so that no one has to work if they don't feel like it. They just hire foreign workers to do whatever needs doing.

Contrast that with here, where many families are struggling to feed and house themselves, where basic health care is not affordable for many, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and the rich aren't interested in helping the poor. They use and prey on them. Cattle. Where's that famous generosity? It's not at home....

[http://thesilkentouch.blogspot.com/2010/01/2752-perspectives.html]

Ach.
.

2768 Sand Painting

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Jay, during our very wet trip to England in 1995:
"The reason the Brits never had a space program is that they've never seen the sky."

---------------------------------------------------

I have posted this before, but it's making the rounds again, and it's worth seeing again. Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who recently won Ukraine's version of "America's Got Talent." She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOhf3OvRXKg]

Fullscreen version: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=vOhf3OvRXKg
.

2767 Static Lint

Friday, February 5, 2010

Reality is merely a consensus.

I really do believe that, by the way. Literally.

-----------------------------------

I just realized I hadn't posted in three days. A little bit of winter doldrums, and a lot of nothing much to say. Nothing happening.

The two Meetup groups I started have grown to 30 singles, and 34 indy movie fans. Most of those people I haven't yet met, and probably won't for a while. The singles' group will be going to an auction tomorrow night, and the movie group has a movie Sunday evening. And then both groups will be attending a documentary movie and discussion at the college Wednesday evening.

Otherwise, all is blah.

I'm getting a little worried about that trip to Morocco in April. The Meetup organizer sent us all an email a few weeks ago listing four possible dates in early February to meet in NYC with the guide, and ask questions. She wanted us to decide which dates worked for us. I responded the same day, and have heard nothing more since. The first two possible dates were last week. The next two are this coming Tuesday and Wednesday.

I sent her an email a few days ago, and have had no response.

Uh, I've been sending her a few hundred dollars every month for quite a while now. The last payment for the trip is due next week. I'm worried that she has suddenly gone silent.

Oh, well. Either I go to Morocco, or I learn another lesson. I guess I'll find out which pretty soon.

-----------------------------------

Something I've discovered about housekeeping - once you've gone a month without vacuuming or dusting, you don't notice much difference thereafter. It all seems to hit some kind of stasis.
.

2766 Sun!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

When your hand is in the tiger's mouth, you have to pet the head.

--------------------------

Oscar nominations were announced today, and for the first time in 65 years, I have seen most of the movies on the lists. I'm amazed that I saw so many of the nominees at our little local indy theater, the one I started the Meetup group for.

It's odd that in the past I'd seen so few movies. Jay's father got an Academy Award for technical achievement in the late nineties, and Jay liked movies, but it just didn't happen much.

--------------------------

It's been in the single digits to the twenties here for the past week, but when the wind isn't blowing, it hasn't felt that cold. There were a few inches of snow on my driveway from the last storm, and yesterday I noticed that it has almost all melted. The only place snow remains is up close to the house, where it's shaded most of the day.

It's the sun! The sun is so very warm, warmer than expected. I'll go out and it's 9 degrees, but the sun is warm on my face and hands. Hat and gloves are not only not needed, but might even be colder.

Loving it.
.

2765 Meltdown video

Monday, February 1, 2010

Help! I'm being chased by killer snails!

------------------------------

Quick! Watch this video before it gets killed for copyright violation! It's a British satirical explanation of exactly what happened with the subprime implosion. It really does explain it well, in terms we can understand. And remember - it's British humor. It's a hair under 9 minutes. (There's a good description of it at http://consumerist.com/2007/11/the-long-johns-explain-the-subprime-meltdown.html, but their copy of the actual video no longer works.)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-oIMJMGd1Q]


On the credit crunch:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXBcmqwTV9s]
.

2764 Feet Rant

Saturday, January 30, 2010

If we really believed in recycling, we'd sign our Christmas cards in pencil.

------------------------------

Back in the seventies, during that period when I was playing suburban housewife, I took a lot of aerobic classes - those dealies where you'd learn a heart-pumping dance routine. The classes all insisted that you had to wear big, stiff, clunky running shoes, claiming that barefoot or in soft shoes you'd slip on sweat on the floor and injure yourself.

I hated that requirement, for two reasons:

1.) Balance. In a soft dance slipper I can feel what my feet are doing in relation to the floor, so I can feel a slip beginning and recover quickly. Maybe I'd slip less often in stiff shoes, but if and when I did, it's likely to be much worse. Since the likelihood of a slip in running shoes is not zero, I prefer having more control over my feet.

I was later proven right on this - a slip in running shoes is more likely to result in much more severe ankle injury than multiple slips in soft shoes.

2.) Heel function. Humans are not meant to come down hard on our heels. We are meant to come down on the ball of the foot, and the heel is meant to be a shock absorber and stabilizer. I walk on the balls of my feet. My heels touch the ground slightly later and lightly. Running shoes force you to come down on your heel first, and that just isn't natural. I objected to wearing stiff shoes for aerobics exercises because it's high impact, and my hips and lower back just couldn't take that much pounding.

It's one of the reasons I don't like high heels - it's difficult to walk naturally because the heel is going to hit first unless you take tiny steps.

Well, after 35 years, I have finally been proven right on the heel-vs-ball issue, too. See the article at http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/foundations/articles/barefoot-running-easier-feet-running-shoes.

--------------------------

It's the custom in this country to put hard-soled shoes on a toddler as soon as he learns to walk, "so the foot will develop properly". Huh? Like, walking naturally on your foot will cause it to develop unnaturally? That makes no sense.

I was kind of lucky. I didn't get my first hard-soled shoes until I was in first grade in the north and the school insisted on them, because my feet were too small, and my mother couldn't find shoes that weren't so long they tripped me. So my legs, feet, and gait developed naturally.

According to the article above, walking ball first requires different muscle development in the calf and foot (so maybe that's why I have an unusually high instep and, uh, well-developed calves, to put it nicely). That makes it difficult for a heel-first walker to convert to ball-first.

Many hiking clubs require hiking boots that "support the ankle". I object to them for the same reasons as listed above. Plus, I can't walk in the damn things. I keep trying to point my toes, and the stiff ankle won't let me. They force a stiff heel-first flat foot. Very hard on my back.

And, again, a misstep in high ankle hiking boots might save the ankle, but is more likely to cause a more devastating injury to the knee.

I used to get into arguments with people who seemed to think they know better. I don't argue any more. It useless. People don't want to hear it. They already know what (the marketeers have told them) is true.

-----------------------------------

And don't even ask about those stupid "earth shoes" with "negative heel technology". Here's their theory: "When you look at footprints in beach sand, you see that the heel imprint is deeper, therefore the natural way to walk is with the heel down, so the best walking shoe brings the heel down first and lower than the ball."

Save me from their distorted logic.

Like, it hadn't occurred to anyone that 1) the beach walkers' gait had already been distorted by wearing rigid soles all their lives, and 2) the heel, being narrower than the ball, sinks deeper in the sand even when the weight distribution is equal.

That's like saying that since most people prefer a Big Mac to brown rice with vegetables, the Big Mac must therefore be healthier and more natural.

Sigh.

----------------------------

A bit of foot trivia - there's a reality show on PSB right now, a bunch of people who want to be vintners going through a bunch of exercises to avoid elimination and win an internship. They dumped grapes into a vat, whence they'd be fed into a crusher, and one over-enthusiastic woman threw a high-booted leg over the side of the vat and gave the grapes a stomp.

I'd have pitched her out right then and there.

Yeah, it's village tradition to stomp grapes with feet. Bare feet. Bare, not booted. Feet as opposed to any other tool because it's the yeast that grows naturally on bare feet that gives the wine a start on fermenting and a particular flavor.

I'd have thrown that woman out because although she knew of the tradition, she didn't know the why of the tradition, and that's basic.
.

2763 Haiti, S.K.'s Roadwork

Saturday, January 30, 2010

There are better ways to get to the top of a tree than by sitting on an acorn.

--------------------------------

3 degrees F out there today. I hate winter.

---------------------------

"The Doctors" yesterday had the four doctors in Haiti. The doctors worked in a tent, seeing people with horrific wounds that had gone days without treatment. They didn't have the equipment or medications they needed, had to make do with what was available. Many of the medicines were from other countries, and the labels were in some unknown language, and they had to assume it was whatever someone told them it was.

The camera didn't turn delicately away from injuries. Some were so bad I couldn't believe those people were walking, and many injuries had to be treated without anesthesia. The doctors had to go outside often to regain emotional control.

I'd seen a lot of photos from Haiti, and a lot of video clips, but this show affected me more than anything else. It wasn't a reporter standing on the street talking. It was the trenches.

From another direction, something I'd noticed that amazed me - when you see the Hatian people in the streets, or the tent villages, or even when they were turning up at the medical centers, the people are always wearing clean and neat clothes. Funeral attendees are wearing blinding white, without a smudge. I don't know how they manage that given the conditions - which, by the way, are not in the least exaggerated.

-------------------------

I'm halfway through Stephen King's Roadwork. It's one of the old "Richard Bachman" non-supernatural books. In the story, Bart and Mary have been married twenty years, I guess (I'm not going to look it up), through the loss of their only child. A highway is being built through their neighborhood, and through the commercial laundry where Bart is a manager. Bart goes a little crazy, refusing to accept the inevitable, and doesn't close on the new laundry building or the new house by the deadline, thereby losing his job, and ensuring that he and Mary will be homeless within a month or so.

When Mary finds out, she leaves him. For me, this was a THUD in the flow of the book.

Duh? There was no indication of problems in the marriage, like that she was unhappy and looking for a way out. I cannot conceive of leaving as a response. I would express shock and anger I suppose, then I'd take over. I'd find a place for us to move to, I'd get a job, and I'd sit down and talk talk talk with my husband to find out what's wrong, why he has done something so very out of character, and get him help dealing with his problems. Obviously, he's really hurting, and I would take care of him.

Mary's response was more like "If you aren't going to feed, house, and clothe me, I'm outta here!" I have no sympathy for her any more.
.

2762 XYZ Corp: "Call me MISTER XYZ!"

Friday, January 29, 2010

Huston Smith, on faith: "We may do things we think are wrong,
but we cannot believe things we think are false."

--------------------------------------------

The recent Supreme Court decision that corporations, being "persons", have the same rights to make campaign contributions as human people scares me. Future governments will pretty much be hand-selected by corporations, and eventually we peons will be governed by corporations. They'll get anything they want.

It's not only on the national stage. A large company that wants local concessions - taxes, prime residential real estate condemned for building a new headquarters, restrictive laws against smaller competitors - can just ensure that city or town candidates friendly to their goals will have huge war-chests with which to bulldoze the opposition.

I don't understand SCOTUS' thinking on this at all. They're supposed to address only constitutional issues, and I gather they think they're applying the first amendment to corporate personhood, but how can they possibly think that was the intent of the founders?

Congress has GOT to fix this, by changing the law that endowed corporations with "personhood". I think it had something to do with income tax on corporations. But given that they are more concerned with reelection than future effects, I doubt it. Term limits! It's the only way to make them honest!

Anyway, one corporation with a conscience (or maybe they're just worried about larger competitors legislating them out of existence, whatever) has taken the issue on, with humor.

"The progressive PR firm Murray Hill Inc. has announced that it plans to satirically run for Congress in the Republican primary in Maryland’s 8th congressional district to protest the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision. A press release on its website says that the company wants to “eliminate the middle man” [this is a link to Murray Hill's website, and it also is funny/not funny] and run for Congress directly, rather than influencing it with corporate dollars..."

The article is at http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/28/corporation-election/. It's amusing, and the short video at the end lays it all out. "It's our democracy. We bought it, we paid for it, and we're going to keep it." The longer video scared me a little.

Hey, Maryland - elect Murray Hill Inc.! At least they have a conscience, so they can't be any worse than what we've got. Send the message!

-----------------------
http://murrayhillincforcongress.com/
.

2761 Subdued snow

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Harvey Korman, on his using Viagra: "It would be like
putting a new flagpole on a condemned building."

--------------------------------

The weather guys were saying we'd get blizzard conditions this morning, but that total accumulation would be only 2-3 inches. I've got 2 now, and it's still snowing.

I hate winter.

I guess a lot of people must have heard only the "blizzard" part. I went to the grocery store, and the shelves were practically empty! Milk, eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, bread (my shopping list), all the good stuff was gone.

I parked at the bottom of the driveway when I got back, just in case.

BTW - do not buy the Ronnybrook drinkable yogurt in mango flavor. It tastes good, but that flavor just doesn't go with the texture and color. It's kind of like eating blue meat. Just not right. Cringeworthy.

-------------------------------

The vet told me Jasper might be a bit subdued this morning, not eating, maybe even a bit of fever, from his shot yesterday. He hasn't played with his ball-in-the-tube, but otherwise he seems to be ok. Yelled for food and petting.

I have heard that the greater the reaction that one has to inoculations, the better the preventive effect, since a reaction indicates an immune system response. So I'd rather he acted sick.
.

2760 Three days

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Ignorant men don't know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away.
-- Sophocles --

-----------------------------------

I've been watching the Bear Cam (www.bear.org - works better on Internet Explorer). Can't see much, but the cub is very noisy - even over the constant hum. Little motorboat putter, punctuated by squeals and screams when he feels cold, has to go potty, or can't find the nipple. I haven't decided whether the cub is so loud because momma is dormant, or that mother nature makes the momma dormant so she doesn't kill the annoying little bastard.

I know I would have by now....

-------------------------------

I'm hearing more and more about relatively young people with jobs, cars, and ipods borrowing from their IRAs and 401Ks, just to pay off credit cards. That's scary.

-------------------------------

I've been educated. "She been knew that" is the past tense of "She be knowing that", therefore it's more correct than the more commonly heard "She done knowed that".

-------------------------------

Saw Precious with my Meetup group on Sunday. There were originally seven, then one woman canceled the day before, one canceled two hours before, and one simply didn't show up, leaving four. Then three of us went to dinner after. Good conversation - and if you see Precious, it's a good idea to talk about it after.

A lot of people have described it as depressing. I did not find it so much depressing as realistic. The story would have been much more depressing if she hadn't gotten pregnant. Her life would have just gone on and on without change.

--------------------------------

Dinner at Cafe Maya last night. I was a tiny bit disappointed because they didn't have the chicken dish I'd had before - it was a special that night - but they have another similar, with just spinach and mushrooms under the chicken instead of the mixed roasted veggies, so I was satisfied. Three of us stayed talking for almost an hour after the others left. A good evening.

--------------------------------

Jasper went to the vet today for his annual exam and inoculations. He always has fits when I first put him in the carrier. He actually tore his nose and upper lip on the door grid trying to get through it. But at the vet's he's very good. Lets the vet do anything (Miss Thunderfoot used to fight the vet), and hides his head under my arm when the vet's not poking at it. He was purring so loud the whole time that the vet couldn't hear his heart, and his behind was vibrating from the purring.

That part I don't understand. The purring when he was obviously stressed. He doesn't purr that much at home.
.

2759 Thrum thrum

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Criminals do not die by the hands of the law. They die by the hands of other men.
-- George Bernard Shaw --

-------------------------------------------

My movie group is meeting this afternoon for "Precious" and dinner. Naturally, it's raining. There were seven people who signed up for this movie, but there's one woman who has signed up for everything so far in the two groups, and she has canceled (or not shown up) every time. As expected, she canceled again, so there'll be six of us.

Between the two groups (movie and singles') I have 53 members. The singles' group will be attending an auction the first weekend in February. After that, I don't have the faintest idea what to do with them next.

--------------------------

Heard yesterday:

A guy saw his girlfriend with another man, "engaging in sexual orientation with him." The girlfriend denied that any "sexual orientation was going on". They said it several times. They confused me.

A woman said of another, "she been knew that". Not a slip of the lip as I first thought. Repeated.

Sigh. Our school taxes at work.

I watched some videos of the next crop of Amazing Race contestants. A married couple said that they had always wanted to do this, and "were humbled by" getting "this far", chosen to compete.

Humbled? I hear that a lot these days, that someone is "humbled" by something that pleases them enormously. I guess they're trying not to gloat. Trying to look (inappropriately) humble. I guess that's PC talk. The correct word is "honored". It's the fashion to replace "honored" by "humbled", I guess.

I also object to overuse of the word "hero". I seems to me that someone hired to do a job, trained to do that job, who does something well within the expected set of duties for that job, not outside expectations, is not a hero for doing the job. Sorry, Scully. You're one hell of a pilot, but not a hero.

A professional firefighter who goes into a burning building is not a hero. That's part of the job definition. A volunteer fireman who does the same thing might be considered a hero, because he didn't necessarily sign up for that. And so on.

I just fuss that calling anyone and everyone a hero because we are grateful for what they do, or because they survived some danger, dilutes the meaning of "hero".

Same thing with standing ovations. When people get them just for showing up, they no longer have meaning.

I'm getting meaner and nastier as I sit here. That mysterous far-off "thrum thrum thrum" sound outside is back today, and it's driving me crazy. I can't escape it. Even high volume on the TV doesn't cover it.

Next house is going to be deep in a valley.
.

2758 Bear Cam!

Friday, January 22, 2010

The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but hold hands.
-- Alexander Penney --

----------------------------------------

At http://www.bear.org/ you'll find a real-time web camera in a hibernating bear's den. She's giving birth today, they think.

Firefox seems to object to the necessary addons, but Internet Explorer works.
.

2757 Who posted the party flyer?

Friday, January 22, 2010

The best helping hand that you will ever receive
is the one at the end of your own arm.
-- Fred Dehner --

------------------------------------

It's not yet noon, but I've already had 25 unique visits from 8 different countries today. What the devil happened? I've always been comfortable with a small tight group of "known" visitors. They're not coming from Blogspot's random "next blog". They're coming direct, or from crawlers and aggregators, or from specific searches for this blog's URL. Those're the scariest ones. Where did they get the URL? I purposely don't use tags, to be less interesting to aggregators and crawlers.

With strangers come spammers and trolls. Sigh. Well, welcome, please wipe your feet, sit down and have a cuppa and a cookie, no, it's ok, the kitty is merely a bit shy. Just behave yourselves, ok? Please don't make me hide again.
.

2756 Incompatible

Friday, January 22, 2010

The art of life is to show your hand.
-- E. V. Lucas --

---------------------------------------------------

Ever have two completely incompatible ideas in your head at once? Somehow, I have decided today is Saturday. I have been surprised several times already this morning that it's Friday, yet I persist in thinking it's Saturday.

I was surprised that the "wrong" morning programs were on TV. I worried over it for a moment, then I realized, no, it's Friday.
I was thinking of someone I was supposed to call before the weekend, and was feeling bad that I hadn't called her yesterday, then realized, no, today is Friday.
I've scheduled "Precious" for my Meetup group on Sunday, and was starting to panic because I had not yet checked with the theater about reserving seats, because like 6 people have signed up, and it's a tiny theater that will fill fast and early on Sunday. Oh, ok, I have another day.
I started to pack up the recycle stuff for the Saturday morning trip to the recycle center. Oh, yeah, tomorrow.
I was thinking about what The Man would be doing today, then realized, no, he's at work today.
When I go to the recycle center, I listen to "Car Talk" on NPR on the car radio. I wasn't going to the recycle center (I guess I forgot why), but I turned the house radio on, and was annoyed that "Car Talk" wasn't on.


I KNOW today is Friday, but somehow my body/mind is in Saturday mode, and I can't seem to reset it. I think this is going to give me trouble all day.

---------------------------------------

I found an amusing blog: http://hownottodateonline.com/. The lady writes cringeworthy Craigslist personals, and posts them, including some of the responses she gets from Craigslist prowlers. She makes some very funny video-dating clips. She posts profiles on dating sites, and when she gets a sniff from some poor unsuspecting guy, her response would, well, either attract a guy with an exceptional sense of humor, or make the average guy immediately delete his profile and hide quivering in the corner. (In her blog, click on the Craigslist text, then click again to enlarge it.)

It reminds me of the time I was looking for a friend's profile on a certain dating site which would not allow me to search unless I created a profile myself. So I described myself as a bald obese 94-year-old looking for a strong young man to assist me in bathing and colostomy care, along with "other expected benefits".

Here's one of her videos:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qddB5P0pl1Y]

-------------------------------

I just had a quick flash of panic - glanced at the clock and thought "OMG, I'm missing 'Car Talk'!" Toldja it was going to bite me all day....
.

2755 I may regret this

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Hold a true friend with both hands.
-- Nigerian Proverb --

-------------------------------------------------

I just did something I may regret. On the other hand, if it turns out I could have done it, and I didn't do it, I definitely would regret it.

I'm getting older, and I've noticed that the inevitable deterioration is speeding up, so I don't have the luxury of putting things off. If I want to do it ever, do it now, before I can't.

I just put down a deposit on a trip to, well, here's the short version of the itinerary:

Day 1 (Thu- 10/28): Group flight departs JFK at 6:10 PM.
Day 2 (Fri - 10/29): Arrive Delhi, India.
Day 3 (Sat - 10/30): Day tour of Taj Mahal.
Day 4 (Sun - 10/31): Fly Delhi to Kathmandu.
Day 5 (Mon - 11/1): Free day in Kathmandu.
Day 6 (Tue - 11/2): Fly Kathmandu to Lhasa.
Day 7 (Wed - 11/3): Lhasa tour. (B)
Day 8 (Thu - 11/4): Lhasa tour. (B)
Day 9 (Fri - 11/5): Lhasa to Gyantse. (B)
Day 10 (Sat - 11/6): Gyantse to Shigatse. (B)
Day 11 (Sun - 11/7): Shigatse to Xegar. (B)
Day 12 (Mon - 11/8): Xegar to Rongbuk Monastery. (B)
Day 13 (Tue - 11/9): Mt Everest Base Camp visit. (B)
Day 14 (Wed - 11/10): Rongbuk to Nyalam. (B)
Day 15 (Thu - 11/11): Nyalam to Kathmandu. (B)
Day 16 (Fri - 11/12): Fly Kathmandu to New York (JFK).
Day 17 (Sat - 11/13): Arrive New York (JFK) at 12:40 PM. Trip Ends.

I am going to Shangri La.

[Meetup trip announcements here and here. Travel company description (more complete) here. Eighteen people in the group, from two Meetup groups, from Albany and NYC. The price mentioned is misleading - that's just the deposit.]
.

2754 The cheese, the fox, and the scale

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The fragrance always remains
in the hand that gives the rose.
-- Heda Bejar --

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Rocky, the (random! really!) quote is for you.

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I found a pound container of cottage cheese with pineapple in the refrigerator. I couldn't remember when I'd bought it, but I knew it had been sitting there for a while. It's been cold, so I haven't been walking, so I've been avoiding calories. I love that stuff. I decided to check it, or throw it out.

The expiration date is on the lid.

It said March 24, 2008.

Almost two years? I suddenly felt very old, and very sick. I didn't want to open it because I was sure it was solid green, but I didn't want to drop the container in the garbage because, well, it was so heavy, and the container is recyclable. I opened it outside, on the way across the driveway to dump it in the woods.

It was pristine.

I smelled it. It smelled good. I stuck my finger in it and tasted it. It tasted not just good, but absolutely fresh. It didn't even have that "last week" tang. I took it back in the house, and ate some. It was good. I didn't die.

I don't understand.

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Have you noticed that the evening schedule on Fox is geared to attract very young people? Vampires and teen soaps. And Fox news is scheduled early, 10 pm around here, an hour earlier than the other networks.

Is that coincidence, marketing plan, or a conservative plot to indoctrinate them young?

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My next youngest brother is a fidgiter, which used to drive me crazy. He couldn't simply walk down the street without practicing his bowling approach, softball throw, bouncing, snapping fingers. Never sat still. Wriggle. Jiggling legs. Clicking pens. He also ate enormous quantities, almost constantly. Half a box of cereal with three cups of milk at breakfast.

And he never gained any excess weight.

Me, on the other hand, I'm still. I am the quiet smile in the corner. The calm in the eye of the storm. No excess movement. I am burgundy wine.

I'd had no problem with weight gain, though, because I never ate much. The weight problems came with menopause. By 2005 I was a good 50 pounds overweight. I lost 40 in 2005-2006, then gradually gained 25 back. In 2009, I lost 15 of those pounds, and then got stuck. I figure I need to lose 15 more, but my body rebelled.

I won't walk in the cold, I hate gyms, and the treadmill is so boring I can't motivate myself to get on it. I decided I needed to start fidgiting.

I've been fidgiting for three weeks now. Sitting at the desk, I jiggle my legs on my toes. Walking through the house I take tiny steps and lift my knees high. Washing dishes I wiggle my hips. I stand and walk in place to watch TV or read. When thinking, I roll my shoulders. If I catch myself being still, I move something.

It's working. I've lost five pounds over the three weeks, and it seems to be holding firm.

With all this jiggling, my typing has gone to hell. All the backspacing and correcting makes everything take twice as long, but if that's the cost of 10 more pounds, I'll pay it.
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2753 Blue Whale Trivia

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

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Blue whale songs are getting deeper. All over the world, the songs of blue whales have dropped in pitch by 31% since the 1960s. There are a lot of possible explanations, but none are convincing. Story at http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/blue-whale-song-mystery/.

Caution - the end of that article has a list of links that can drag away an entire afternoon, like

• Whales Might Be as Much Like People as Apes Are
• Male Humpback Whales Sing Duets
• Underwater Glider Hunts, Records Cryptic Whales
• Hidden Whale Culture Could Be Critical to Species Survival
• Supreme Court: National Security Trumps Whales, Environmental Law
• Bird Cam Captures Albatross, Killer Whale Rendezvous

... all are other Wired articles.
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2752 Grazer Trivia

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.
-- Jacob Bronowski --

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This is cool. I had noticed that cattle grazing in a field almost all seemed to be facing the same direction. I'd always thought it was just that they were all moving the same direction.

The folks at Princeton have discovered that the direction is always north/south.

From the paper "Magnetic alignment in grazing and resting cattle and deer", 04/2008, at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/08/22/0803650105.abstract:

We demonstrate by means of simple, noninvasive methods (analysis of satellite images, field observations, and measuring “deer beds” in snow) that domestic cattle (n = 8,510 in 308 pastures) across the globe, and grazing and resting red and roe deer (n = 2,974 at 241 localities), align their body axes in roughly a north–south direction.

That's magnetic, rather than geographic, north/south.

This observation was followed by an Oxford paper, "Extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields disrupt magnetic alignment of ruminants", 02/2009, at http://www.pnas.org/content/106/14/5708.abstract:

Here, we show that extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELFMFs) generated by high-voltage power lines disrupt alignment of the bodies of these animals with the geomagnetic field. Body orientation of cattle and roe deer was random on pastures under or near power lines. Moreover, cattle exposed to various magnetic fields directly beneath or in the vicinity of power lines trending in various magnetic directions exhibited distinct patterns of alignment.

So, power companies, want to tell us again about how power lines don't affect bird migrations, or bee navigation, or cattle health, or development of children, or leukemia, or autism, because they "obviously" have no effect on any living tissue?

An unaddressed thought - A lot of cows don't graze loose in fields, but are fed in barns or from bins next to the fence. For happier cows, should we arrange the "table" so the cows are facing north or south when they dine?
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2751 Perspectives

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.
-- Indira Gandhi --

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In my humble opinion, people who are against any kind of health care reform fall into at least one of the following groups:

1. don't understand what the problem is,
2. don't understand what the possible solutions are,
3. profit under the current system,
4. are heardhearted SOBs who figure I've got mine and anybody who didn't manage their lives as well as I did can't have any of mine 'cause I ain't giving anything away, (and yes, they exist, I know personally three people who have expressed that opinion).

The current proposal is a piece of crap that attempts to appease all four groups. I am annoyed because there has been no attempt to educate people. Sob stories is not educational. If anything, sob stories just harden number fours.

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I watch "Antiques Roadshow". When someone has something special, appraised at some large number, like a 150-year-old quilt at $25,000, my first thought is "Wow, that's a lot!" Then my second thought is "That's less than one year at an ivy-league college."

Folks are running all kinds of benefits for Haiti now. I heard that some local concert had raised $300,000 dollars, and I thought "Gee, that's a lot!" It had to come from people who have it to give, right?

I wondered, if Haiti hadn't happened, why couldn't charity concerts like that be used to help people who have lost jobs, who are losing houses? Not everyone in foreclosure bought more house than they can afford. Three months of unemployment can lose the house. You can do everything right, and still get shot in the foot. It's not a personal failing. I've heard that health care costs is one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcy.

But I guess bragging that you gave for Haiti has more cachet than saying you helped save a house for a family of five - even though the family had no more control over what happened to them than the Haitians did.

And then there's Scott Brown, the guy who won Ted Kennedy's seat. He campaigned on a promise to kill the healthcare reform bill. Campaigning is very costly, and yet he has several million left over! Those were donations, from people who have it to give. And they gave it to stop health care reform. Guess which group(s) above they probably fall into.

I'm getting the impression that Americans, who like to think they are very generous as a people, will give only for the kudos, or to protect what they have. They'll buy praise, or they'll protect their asses, but they don't give to whoever needs just because it's needed.

I don't understand.

Go kiss someone working in a soup kitchen. They may not have it to give, but they give anyway.
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2750 Crystal Columns

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Love is the only game you are sure to lose by declining to play.

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Cave, full of huge translucent crystals. Fascinating story with amazing video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8466493.stm

Further detail: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6518161.stm

2749 Old Photos

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully
as when they do it from religious conviction.
-- Blaise Pascal --

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Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photography blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.

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It's snowing. I hate winter.
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2748 Mumps?

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Barbara Kingsolver's character Adah in The Poisonwood Bible points out that God created vermin and microbes as well as humans, and "He's not necessarily rooting for just the humans."

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I'm eating coffee yogurt, and something very odd is happening. With every spoonful, I get biting pain under both sides of my tongue. The glands under my jaw are swollen. I've heard that the test for mumps is to feed the kid a sour pickle, and if it hurts, it's mumps.

Is it possible I have mumps? That would explain the pain around my left ear. Counting back the incubation period, I would have picked it up New Year's Eve.

I don't remember ever having had mumps. I remember chicken pox and measles, I don't remember mumps, but I doubt it was possible I escaped mumps.

Cute.
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2747 Better

Sunday, January 17, 2010

From "A Chorus Line":
I thought about committing suicide, but in Buffalo, suicide is redundant.

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I felt a lot better when I woke this morning, just a tired feeling remaining between my shoulder blades and in my arms and legs. As the sun is going down, however, the coldness is coming back, and the heavy feeling in my middle. Whatever it is, probably a virus, my body seems to be fighting it well.

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I get the Mensa Bulletin every month - a 46-page glossy magazine - and I almost never open it. It usually goes straight into the recycle bag. There's rarely anything of interest in it, and frankly, much of the writing, from people who seem to think they're fascinating, is annoying. The fiction is especially bad.

Yesterday, for some reason, as I was about to discard it, I flipped it open, directly to an article on handling problem members, and it just so happened that the specific problem on that page was people who can't seem to figure out how much their portion of the restaurant bill comes to, often stiffing the host.

Serendipity.

So I read it.

The author recommends handing out envelopes at the table. As each person orders, they are to write what they ordered and the price on the outside of the envelope. At the end of the meal, they total it up, multiply by the tax plus tip, put the money in the envelope, and pass it to the table host. That makes it easy to check that all items on the bill are claimed and paid for.

You know, I don't think that would go over too well with the Meetup groups. It sounds good, but the very people who cause the problem would think it silly, and be insulted that they're being treated like children, and probably forget to write down the wine and dessert anyway. Consider that one of the problem women said loudly, when the money was short by quite a bit, and it turned out she was the one who was short, "Don't you hate people who pull out calculators at the table?"

As usual for Mensa, logically sensible, but socially unworkable.
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