Despite my recent absence, Howard Dean remains my No. 1 presidential candidate.
Monday marks a year since the discovery of Neptune! http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jul/10/neptune-orbit-anniversary-astronomy
On a less momentous note, the river looks to be up about a meter during the past week from snowmelt; extraordinary!
And we made jam from the remainder of our plums today. Hot during the day, about 102 degrees; but near sundown it became very pleasant in the shade, with a nice breeze from the river bottom. Miyoko's finger is doing pretty well considering, but still has some healing to do.
Now to go back and get caught up a bit on the blog!
My prayers have been with Holly for so long, I thought there would be an empty space in my prayers now. But I find that they overflow with gratitude and gentleness. She was always so compassionate and humble, caring and concerned toward others. She long prayed for Ally and rejoiced with us that Ally had clear scans all this year. It saddens my heart that Holly’s scans couldn’t also be clear. She’s just the sort of person one wants to have around for a long time. But tonight my heart is full both with sadness for what could not be and with the sweetness of hope and light, mulling that Holly has passed through the veil into life eternal.
Going through the recent blog posts, I note puddle's computer problems; I have a malfunctioning fax/answering machine (sends but won't receive). Will try to get help by phone on Monday morning.
I didn't know we had a second page either!
I have never felt any need for a chat function here. Have found them sometimes helpful for problems with the TV/satellite hookup or similar things.
Our kitty sometimes catches little lizards and brings them inside (or tries to). Miyoko most definitely does not like that!
We were at Costco today and I saw Bibendum (the Michelin tire man) has a new look. It isn't his first: http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1600&bih=1020&q=bibendum+michelin+man&gbv=2&oq=bibendum+michelin+man&aq=f&aqi=&aql=undefined&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=0l0l1l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0
I spent about 3 hours yesterday on scheduled Skype chats for staff of this year's Worldcon. There are similar chats for staff members of next year's Worldcon. And my boss/client and I use Yahoo chat to stay in touch and work things through quickly. But I've never used chat just for chatting and didn't really grasp the concept without having it explained.
Here's the link. http://www.scribblar.com/xw7h9bbj It will ask you to type a username to log in.
Even if I'm not online, you can see a few pictures under "assets"--pretty much my animals. I shared pictures of my kids as well yesterday, but did not want to leave them up.
Actually, "horrible" and "ghastly" are inadequate IMO; words fail, as has our society. I cannot accept the prejudice that the wealthy are so because it is God's reward for their lack of sin. Put me down for a depressed cynic if you will, but I feel that the inevitable decline of our country has been seriously mismanaged. We could have had a centuries-long gradual decline, but instead it shows promise of being needlessly short and brutal. The old-fashioned Republicans would have managed it better, but they are extinct.
In good news here, the temperatures for the week are predicted to be around 90 degrees, give or take a bit. That's nice weather here. Almost all the reservoirs are near capacity, and releases are at record levels for this time of year. Sections of the rivers are closed for recreation, but flooding is minimal. Driving around town I see that the ponding basis (used for flood control and for ground water recharge) are essentially full.
Big farms are making money hand over fist, and the trickle-down economic effects long promised by Big Ag and their political allies have not materialized; this area remains "The Appalachia of the West:"
A 2003 University of Chicago study by Devah Pager sent young white and black "testers" to apply for real low-wage jobs. Some of the testers were randomly assigned felony convictions. The study found that whites with felonies were slightly more likely to get callbacks than black applicants without criminal records.
That is unconscionable! What kind of world do we live in?
Oh, how I miss being able to see the Milky Way clearly; where we lived when I was young, we could. Of course the human eye can't see anything like some of these photos; some sorts of special techniques obviously were used.
Ever since I downloaded the newest update to Thunderbird yesterday, maybe the day before, I don't remember, it has been driving me crazy!
So I open or maximize Thunderbird and run through any new mail that has been downloaded. That's fine. Then I delete a message and a box pops up asking if I want to compact folders now. Fortunately, it only does this the first time I delete, not every time. Still, it is really getting on my nerves! I hope they smooth out this glitch in the next update!
On top of that, Window-eyes' performance is degrading fat. First I had to start highlighting blocks of text before WE would read. That's been going on so long I hardly even notice it anymore. Now, it doesn't reliably read highlighted text and it has stopped reading e-mail at all. Nor does it reliably echo typing when replying to an e-mail or read what is there already at all. I am reduced to copying e-mail text into Notepad to read it and writing replies in Word.
The thing is, I need the newest WE, but when I tried to go through the automated process to order it, the system refused to recognize my cereal number. That is not something I can read and then type in by hand, much too long. So, I'm stuck.
It's been quite a day here. We got up and out as early as possible and went to a horse show about a mile away, as our Daughter-in-Law's horse was in it (his 3rd show), being ridden by a teen (her 1st show) whom she has been coaching. We stayed for awhile and they placed, which is nice. Then it was hot, so we brought granddaughter to the house and later Son came and picked her up.
He is an international referee and told us quite a story of an incident which occurred at the TaeKwonDo Nationals recently. After losing a sparring match between two 16 year olds black belt, while the winner was waiting for his next round the loser walked over and kicked him really hard in the face! It was most unexpected, though those in the vicinity went right into action. The referees nabbed the perpetrator and held him in place. The EMTs went straight to the injured. The father of the injured jumped the fence and went after the perpetrator, but the cool heads of the referees prevailed and held him back too. Meanwhile the police arrived and the perpetrator was arrested for assault (and later released to his parents). The injured was treated then taken to hospital where he underwent dental surgery. He is now home but has more surgery ahead. The saddest thing is that the injured was then not able to continue to compete in this event. Apparently the perpetrator felt that it was unfair how the injured had kicked him when they were sparring earlier and was out for vengeance. However, especially at such a lethal level of competition, it is not tolerated at all. His coach was very upset...as the coach has a fine reputation.
Y'know what? I find I cannot tolerate sunshine which is hotter than 80 degrees for more than an hour. I utterly wilt. I must be the sort of plant that is made of mostly water, like cabbage or broccoli watermelon. LOL!
When my son was competing (brown belt) I got to hang around a lot of shows. Under 8 or 9, they didn't divide by sex. So the boys got to compete directly with the girls. If a girl was good, it was amazing *how* out of control the boys got. Many of them ended up disqualified for that type of attempt. . . .
listener--my mind boggles at the the attempt to picture broccoli watermelon! [Does not compute! Does not compute!Does not compute!] But it is nice to have a real intellectual challenge! :)
As children we learn very young from our parents, particularly from the same-sex parent. Or, as the old saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. My guess would be that many of the young boys were there because of the aggressive, perhaps even violent, natures of their fathers. Many of the girls were probably there to learn self-defense. Ideally martial arts should teach self mastery, but I'll bet dollars to doughnut holes that few instructors take that to heart and can teach it.
When I studied fencing I saw just what my fencing master told us about such things. Some teams relied totally upon speed, strength, and aggression. That won them matches for two, or at the most three years. After that the students who (because of good teachers) concentrated on technique began to regularly trounce the "hamburgers" without breaking a sweat. Women's foil is the best spectator sport in fencing because it is slow enough to see the blades; men tend to be faster, and be it men's or women's, sabre is too fast to see the blades. But it is really gratifying to see a competent woman take on an aggressive male hamburger at foil; his speed and power do him no good at all. He is greatly surprised to find a blade bent double against his chest--time and again.
Ah, fencing. That was my sport (and diving) when I was in college. Didn't get nearly as far as you, though. Three quarters, and it was just me and one guy in the class. He dropped out, and I had no partner, so concentrated on the diving.
Tai Chi, if learned thoroughly and performed correctly, can be self defense, too, listener. It is a martial art too, as well as a fine form of exercise and of meditation.
I always wanted to learn to fence. That was the only class at the Carroll Center for the blind that appealed to me. Of course, my mother went into it aggressively negative and was astonished to find that the instructor had taught other multiply disabled students and even more that the assistant instructor was herself partially sighted. If it had been possible to go in just for the fencing, I would have done that for a while. But, it was a residential facility, and neither Mum nor I liked the atmosphere.
Yep, it's a martial art. But it is always done at my speed (verrrryyyyy slllooooowwwwwllyyy) and I have never ever been asked to use it to kick someone!
That may be the case at times, Alan. But it certainly wasn't the case in our family. We played ONLY cooperative sports and games with home schooling. Later on our eldest played Cricket. Three of our sons took up Taekwondo at the college level, two later becoming black belts. Actually, one of them tried it at age 8 for a short time, along with his dad, but they both decided the style of instruction wasn't for them.
Eldest went into refereeing exactly because he did not want to compete at the upper levels. One has to either compete or referee to be an active member at the National and International levels. So refereeing is a little like becoming a helicopter pilot used to be within the military. Before there were attack helicopters, if you flew a helicopter you were only sent out to rescue people and were never expected to kill anyone.
A very key component of a proper school of Taekwondo is self discipline. A person testing for black belt could do the forms perfectly and win all their matches and still be denied a black belt if they do not carry themselves with appropriate dignity and fairness. It has been amazing to observe how eldest's natural tendency toward aggression [first-born-itis] has been gentled and controlled more and more the higher he has achieved in belts and degrees.
Yes, it makes me sad too. There are also people who have lost their ability to interact socially from all they have endured. One such soul comes into the Library to look up genealogy and other stuff and he does not have any boundaries about talking. He not only talks to staff all about what he's doing, but he will even come over and start talking to us while we're already helping someone else. We have to gently explain that we will be with him in a moment. Saturday I had to go over to the computers and explain (again) that folks aren't allowed to converse with others while at the computers, because he was trying to tell another patron who was busy on computer all about what he was there for. I have compassion for him because he served in Vietnam and in the Gulf War and has some disabilities from chemicals that the US used over there that our Government has never owned up to.
Despite my recent absence, Howard Dean remains my No. 1 presidential candidate.
ReplyDeleteMonday marks a year since the discovery of Neptune!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jul/10/neptune-orbit-anniversary-astronomy
On a less momentous note, the river looks to be up about a meter during the past week from snowmelt; extraordinary!
And we made jam from the remainder of our plums today. Hot during the day, about 102 degrees; but near sundown it became very pleasant in the shade, with a nice breeze from the river bottom. Miyoko's finger is doing pretty well considering, but still has some healing to do.
Now to go back and get caught up a bit on the blog!
Howard is first.
ReplyDeleteHolly is also first.
Tonight word came that Holly died last night. :-(
My prayers have been with Holly for so long, I thought there would be an empty space in my prayers now. But I find that they overflow with gratitude and gentleness. She was always so compassionate and humble, caring and concerned toward others. She long prayed for Ally and rejoiced with us that Ally had clear scans all this year. It saddens my heart that Holly’s scans couldn’t also be clear. She’s just the sort of person one wants to have around for a long time. But tonight my heart is full both with sadness for what could not be and with the sweetness of hope and light, mulling that Holly has passed through the veil into life eternal.
{{{ {{ ♡ Holly ♡ }} }}}
I'm sorry I missed the Chat tryouts. How did it go? Do we need Chat in addition to Blog?
ReplyDeleteOh my; sorry to hear about Holly, listener.
ReplyDeleteGoing through the recent blog posts, I note puddle's computer problems; I have a malfunctioning fax/answering machine (sends but won't receive). Will try to get help by phone on Monday morning.
I didn't know we had a second page either!
I have never felt any need for a chat function here. Have found them sometimes helpful for problems with the TV/satellite hookup or similar things.
Our kitty sometimes catches little lizards and brings them inside (or tries to). Miyoko most definitely does not like that!
We were at Costco today and I saw Bibendum (the Michelin tire man) has a new look. It isn't his first:
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1600&bih=1020&q=bibendum+michelin+man&gbv=2&oq=bibendum+michelin+man&aq=f&aqi=&aql=undefined&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=0l0l1l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0
I spent about 3 hours yesterday on scheduled Skype chats for staff of this year's Worldcon. There are similar chats for staff members of next year's Worldcon. And my boss/client and I use Yahoo chat to stay in touch and work things through quickly. But I've never used chat just for chatting and didn't really grasp the concept without having it explained.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I like the front-page picture.
Lol! *THIS* is the one I remember best. . . .
ReplyDeletehttp://retrografix.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/housegarden41greeuoft_0415.jpg
Just loved it when I was little.
Here's the link.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scribblar.com/xw7h9bbj
It will ask you to type a username to log in.
Even if I'm not online, you can see a few pictures under "assets"--pretty much my animals. I shared pictures of my kids as well yesterday, but did not want to leave them up.
Qualitatively not a surprise, but quantitatively ghastly: a (I dare not say the) horrible story of the day:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.modbee.com/2011/07/09/v-print/1768099/black-economic-gains-reversed.html
Actually, "horrible" and "ghastly" are inadequate IMO; words fail, as has our society. I cannot accept the prejudice that the wealthy are so because it is God's reward for their lack of sin. Put me down for a depressed cynic if you will, but I feel that the inevitable decline of our country has been seriously mismanaged. We could have had a centuries-long gradual decline, but instead it shows promise of being needlessly short and brutal. The old-fashioned Republicans would have managed it better, but they are extinct.
Pardon the rant, friends.
In good news here, the temperatures for the week are predicted to be around 90 degrees, give or take a bit. That's nice weather here. Almost all the reservoirs are near capacity, and releases are at record levels for this time of year. Sections of the rivers are closed for recreation, but flooding is minimal. Driving around town I see that the ponding basis (used for flood control and for ground water recharge) are essentially full.
ReplyDeleteBig farms are making money hand over fist, and the trickle-down economic effects long promised by Big Ag and their political allies have not materialized; this area remains "The Appalachia of the West:"
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/07/09/2459224/ag-prospers-but-valleys-crop-of.html
Guess I still need some rest. Grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch--I had better get cracking.
Gorgeous photo, listener!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the article on Neptune, Alan. I would have missed that.
ReplyDeleteGlad Miyoko is doing better. Sending healing vibes.
It went well from my standpoint.
ReplyDeleteI donno. It's different, something in addition that is nice to have.
A 2003 University of Chicago study by Devah Pager sent young white and black "testers" to apply for real low-wage jobs. Some of the testers were randomly assigned felony convictions. The study found that whites with felonies were slightly more likely to get callbacks than black applicants without criminal records.
ReplyDeleteThat is unconscionable! What kind of world do we live in?
Marvellous Milky Way photos slide show:
ReplyDeletehttp://news.yahoo.com/photos/views-of-the-milky-way-galaxy-1310066008-slideshow/#crsl=
Oh, how I miss being able to see the Milky Way clearly; where we lived when I was young, we could. Of course the human eye can't see anything like some of these photos; some sorts of special techniques obviously were used.
Grilled cheese sandwiches, yum!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alan. Glorious!
ReplyDeleteGRR!
ReplyDeleteEver since I downloaded the newest update to Thunderbird yesterday, maybe the day before, I don't remember, it has been driving me crazy!
So I open or maximize Thunderbird and run through any new mail that has been downloaded. That's fine. Then I delete a message and a box pops up asking if I want to compact folders now. Fortunately, it only does this the first time I delete, not every time. Still, it is really getting on my nerves! I hope they smooth out this glitch in the next update!
On top of that, Window-eyes' performance is degrading fat. First I had to start highlighting blocks of text before WE would read. That's been going on so long I hardly even notice it anymore. Now, it doesn't reliably read highlighted text and it has stopped reading e-mail at all. Nor does it reliably echo typing when replying to an e-mail or read what is there already at all. I am reduced to copying e-mail text into Notepad to read it and writing replies in Word.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, I need the newest WE, but when I tried to go through the automated process to order it, the system refused to recognize my cereal number. That is not something I can read and then type in by hand, much too long. So, I'm stuck.
Again, GRR!
For now, knock on wood, WE reads everything here just fine. Thank Heaven for small mercies.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure. I went looking (not very hard) for wallpaper versions but didn't find them.
ReplyDeleteYes. What you said.
ReplyDeleteI have great appreciation for articulate rant, Alan. Rant all you like.
ReplyDeleteIt's been quite a day here. We got up and out as early as possible and went to a horse show about a mile away, as our Daughter-in-Law's horse was in it (his 3rd show), being ridden by a teen (her 1st show) whom she has been coaching. We stayed for awhile and they placed, which is nice. Then it was hot, so we brought granddaughter to the house and later Son came and picked her up.
ReplyDeleteHe is an international referee and told us quite a story of an incident which occurred at the TaeKwonDo Nationals recently. After losing a sparring match between two 16 year olds black belt, while the winner was waiting for his next round the loser walked over and kicked him really hard in the face! It was most unexpected, though those in the vicinity went right into action. The referees nabbed the perpetrator and held him in place. The EMTs went straight to the injured. The father of the injured jumped the fence and went after the perpetrator, but the cool heads of the referees prevailed and held him back too. Meanwhile the police arrived and the perpetrator was arrested for assault (and later released to his parents). The injured was treated then taken to hospital where he underwent dental surgery. He is now home but has more surgery ahead. The saddest thing is that the injured was then not able to continue to compete in this event. Apparently the perpetrator felt that it was unfair how the injured had kicked him when they were sparring earlier and was out for vengeance. However, especially at such a lethal level of competition, it is not tolerated at all. His coach was very upset...as the coach has a fine reputation.
Tai Chi is about my speed.
Tonight: more quilting, of course...!
Y'know what? I find I cannot tolerate sunshine which is hotter than 80 degrees for more than an hour. I utterly wilt. I must be the sort of plant that is made of mostly water, like cabbage or broccoli watermelon. LOL!
ReplyDeleteWhen my son was competing (brown belt) I got to hang around a lot of shows. Under 8 or 9, they didn't divide by sex. So the boys got to compete directly with the girls. If a girl was good, it was amazing *how* out of control the boys got. Many of them ended up disqualified for that type of attempt. . . .
ReplyDeleteAh, flattery will get you far, listener.
ReplyDeletelistener--my mind boggles at the the attempt to picture broccoli watermelon! [Does not compute! Does not compute!Does not compute!] But it is nice to have a real intellectual challenge! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I realized how to put in the smiley thing!
ReplyDeleteFOTCROTFL Alan
ReplyDeleteAs children we learn very young from our parents, particularly from the same-sex parent. Or, as the old saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. My guess would be that many of the young boys were there because of the aggressive, perhaps even violent, natures of their fathers. Many of the girls were probably there to learn self-defense. Ideally martial arts should teach self mastery, but I'll bet dollars to doughnut holes that few instructors take that to heart and can teach it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I studied fencing I saw just what my fencing master told us about such things. Some teams relied totally upon speed, strength, and aggression. That won them matches for two, or at the most three years. After that the students who (because of good teachers) concentrated on technique began to regularly trounce the "hamburgers" without breaking a sweat. Women's foil is the best spectator sport in fencing because it is slow enough to see the blades; men tend to be faster, and be it men's or women's, sabre is too fast to see the blades. But it is really gratifying to see a competent woman take on an aggressive male hamburger at foil; his speed and power do him no good at all. He is greatly surprised to find a blade bent double against his chest--time and again.
From 60 Minutes tonight: homeless veterans
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/10/60minutes/main20072997.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel
It is a shame and a disgrace, the men and women who serve our country, forced to live on the streets!
Ah, fencing. That was my sport (and diving) when I was in college. Didn't get nearly as far as you, though. Three quarters, and it was just me and one guy in the class. He dropped out, and I had no partner, so concentrated on the diving.
ReplyDeleteTai Chi, if learned thoroughly and performed correctly, can be self defense, too, listener. It is a martial art too, as well as a fine form of exercise and of meditation.
ReplyDeleteI always wanted to learn to fence. That was the only class at the Carroll Center for the blind that appealed to me. Of course, my mother went into it aggressively negative and was astonished to find that the instructor had taught other multiply disabled students and even more that the assistant instructor was herself partially sighted. If it had been possible to go in just for the fencing, I would have done that for a while. But, it was a residential facility, and neither Mum nor I liked the atmosphere.
P.S. I've tried Tai Chi but can't do it. Haven't even mastered The Form. Balance all shot to hell.
ReplyDelete:-D
ReplyDeleteCome to Vermont! I can assure you that the Milky Way is right where it ought to be and looks as fabulous as ever.
ReplyDeleteFOTCROTFLtoo!
ReplyDeleteIt appears I left out an "or"! Small wonder you were spinning in circles! LOL!
ReplyDeleteYep, it's a martial art. But it is always done at my speed (verrrryyyyy slllooooowwwwwllyyy) and I have never ever been asked to use it to kick someone!
ReplyDeleteThat may be the case at times, Alan. But it certainly wasn't the case in our family. We played ONLY cooperative sports and games with home schooling. Later on our eldest played Cricket. Three of our sons took up Taekwondo at the college level, two later becoming black belts. Actually, one of them tried it at age 8 for a short time, along with his dad, but they both decided the style of instruction wasn't for them.
ReplyDeleteEldest went into refereeing exactly because he did not want to compete at the upper levels. One has to either compete or referee to be an active member at the National and International levels. So refereeing is a little like becoming a helicopter pilot used to be within the military. Before there were attack helicopters, if you flew a helicopter you were only sent out to rescue people and were never expected to kill anyone.
A very key component of a proper school of Taekwondo is self discipline. A person testing for black belt could do the forms perfectly and win all their matches and still be denied a black belt if they do not carry themselves with appropriate dignity and fairness. It has been amazing to observe how eldest's natural tendency toward aggression [first-born-itis] has been gentled and controlled more and more the higher he has achieved in belts and degrees.
Alan! I'd somehow missed your note about your river being up about a meter.
ReplyDeleteHoly Bananas!
Yes, it makes me sad too. There are also people who have lost their ability to interact socially from all they have endured. One such soul comes into the Library to look up genealogy and other stuff and he does not have any boundaries about talking. He not only talks to staff all about what he's doing, but he will even come over and start talking to us while we're already helping someone else. We have to gently explain that we will be with him in a moment. Saturday I had to go over to the computers and explain (again) that folks aren't allowed to converse with others while at the computers, because he was trying to tell another patron who was busy on computer all about what he was there for. I have compassion for him because he served in Vietnam and in the Gulf War and has some disabilities from chemicals that the US used over there that our Government has never owned up to.
ReplyDeleteWell now, 43 comments is pretty good for a Sunday. :-)
ReplyDelete