The Far Horizon

[Editor's Post]

It seems just a short time ago we started MrsB's blog but it has been more than a decade! So many great stories have been passed along and many of the tellers are no longer with us. The treasury of stories remains a reminder of what family is: a living experience.

Even when members pass away, their wisdom and humor remain with us and give us insights and hope and laughter when we take a moment to reflect on who we are, the directions we selected and the paths we next decide to follow.

We are introducing a re-introduction to some of those wonderful stories with a monthly feature: The Far Horizon. We will select a story from the past to reprint and revisit. After all, this is what we do went we gather together sharing the stories of our lives.

• "Do you remember ..."
• "There was this time ..."
• "How could we forget about ..."
• "I laughed so hard ...."

So take a moment to share the memories, we're happy to have you with us.

KimB Editor

Knitting

My latest afghan knitting project is more complicated than I thought when I first decided to knit it. In fact, I'm having a lot of problems with it. I've been knitting for years and considered myself a skilled advanced knitter; I've lost count of the sweaters, afghans, baby blankets and scarves, many with complicated patterns that I've knitted over the years, but this knitting project is giving me headache!

I planned this project when we had days and nights of hard freeze with danger of water pipes bursting. While waiting for warmer weather, I thought it would be nice to make an Aran afghan. I wanted to knit it in one piece instead of the usual 5 or 6 bands which are then sewn together. I started knitting swatches of traditional Aran stitches that I found on the internet.

Little did I know the trouble I was in for when I chose Saxon Braid as one of the designs. The Saxon Braid is a series of special stitches knitted out of sequence, creating a series of intersected crosses or X's as the design develops. Its only 24 stitches wide and 16 row repeat pattern. After I started the swatch I discovered this was not going to be ezpz.

I took me three days to knit the first row, and once I got that knitted correctly, it took another week to get past row three. I either had too many stiches left at the end of the row, or not enough to finish the pattern. I counted and recounted the stitches, unraveled what I had done and started over. I only knitted a foundation of 2 rows before starting the pattern, so starting over meant that I had to begin at the real beginning. That meant casting 24 stitches onto the needles and knitting a couple of rows then start the Saxon Braid. That took more time than trying to knit the 24 stiches correctly.

I've reached row 8 and keeping my fingers crossed. If I do a swatch without errors, I'll add Saxon Braid to my afghan.

Saxon Braid

Fine Time Art 49 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 49 by Marion 2018

Skiing

The other day I watched Alpine skiers in a speed contest on television. The mountain runs were steep and the numerous curves designed so skiers really had to show off their skills to finish a run without mishap. In my opinion, it takes a lot of courage to commit oneself to sliding down a steep mountain with long narrow boards strapped to your feet and trust that your sense of balance and your judgment in timing is going to get you to the bottom of the mountain safely.

I marvel at the skiers ability to maintain their balance as they gain speed rounding each curve. They look as if they were flying without wings. It takes split second decisions to know when and how to balance a fraction more on one leg or the other and to control the skis while all the time looking ahead to the next curve. Their skiing is superb.

During the snowy winters of my childhood my brothers and sisters dabbled in skiing and ice skating. We skied the low rolling hills of Iowa outside of the town where we lived, I was never very good at it. My own memories of skiing consist of mostly climbing back up the hill to try again.

Fine Time Art 48 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 48 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 47 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 47 by Marion 2018

Lucky the Physics Wizard by KimB

Lucky is one lucky cat! Actually, he's lucky to be alive, lucky to have a home, lucky to have food and fresh water delivered directly to his bowls twice daily, by humans rather than by drone-drop. Lucky is coming 3 years old and is the quintessential "curious cat". He loves to explore and is an extreme cat-acrobat, finding his way to the top of bookcases and balcony perches to observe the activities of his human-pets.

Lucky also likes to "play ball".

I've only had one dog that liked to retrieve or "play ball", all the other dogs were far too smart to be enticed from their comfy positions on the couch, to run around chasing an object only to find that it gets hurled away again. Their attitude was: If you didn't want it, why did you ask me to go get it for you?

But Lucky the cat, loves to "play ball".

In and amongst the many cat toys purchased and normally completely ignored by the other cats (Othello and Bette), are small yellow tennis balls. I don't suppose the color means anything to Lucky but the fuzzy outside let him carry it around. Like most dull-minded humans, we expected Lucky to "entertain himself" with the toy: sort of like a parent's smartphone equivalent to not having to bother with their children in any meaningful way: Here take it, now leave us alone. Lucky did the common thing with the ball, bat it around, chase it a bit and when bored got back up on the bannister to watch the never ending chaos of human's doing purposeful activities like: sweeping up the tracked cat litter from the no-track-cat-litter that tracks anyway.



Lucky
The surveillance cat

Then Lucky found a new thing to do with the yellow ball. He brought it to me and dropped at my feet. It was rather like a cat present of a dead mouse, except Lucky is indoors and thankfully we don't have many mice, and it was a small tennis ball instead of a dead mouse. I thanked him and gave him a pat on the head and picked up the ball. Then I tossed causally it towards the pile of the other ignored cat toys. Lucky went ECSTATIC!

He raced to the ball, gave it a few perfunctory bats, picked it up and brought it to me, dropping it at my feet. When I tossed it again, thinking this was a one-off behavior, Lucky raced after the ball and brought it to me again and again and again. Lucky discovered the game of ball and was delighted that his normally dull minded humans, had learned something - at last!

Lucky found a more fun way to play ball when he insisted on me tossing the ball up the stairs so he could race up the stairs to get it. Actually it took him a few tries to get me to move to the stairs. First he dropped the ball just out of reach and if I didn't move to pick it up he lightly batted it towards me until I picked it up and he raced towards base of the stairs waiting for the toss. Finally, I got the message: he wanted me to toss the ball to the top of the stairs.

Pretty much anyone who has a cat has watched them play solo-soccer with a toy. They have such eye-paw dexterity that I'm sure human soccer players are hoping for a DNA transplant of cat-soccer-genes so they can do something half-way the same. They bat the toy here and there for a few minutes then head for the warm sunny spots to sleep off their embarrassment of actually having moved at all. Normally, I just smile and enjoy the show for as long as it lasts but never spent too much time thinking about it.

Animals are not stupid. They think differently than people and they certainly have completely different goals than we do. Animals seldom worry too much about anything, especially when they can see their food dishes are filled and they know that fresh water is in the bowl. And generally that's about all humans pay attention to too. However, people that work with or train animals of all kinds, know there is something else going on inside their skulls. Each animal and each species, like individual humans, has a hierarchy of priorities and behaviors that go with them. Cats are not particularly high on the list for training, but they have their own intelligence levels.

Nearly everyone has seen those Wild Lion documentaries where the lionesses surround a group of zebra and then on some unspoken signal rush the herd, like it's Super Bowl Sunday with 30 seconds left on the clock. They triangulate on a target, fake left-right and race up the center towards their goal. We've also seen the videos where some of the rookie lionesses jump off-side and everyone goes home with a no dinner for you tonight penalty.

They do some pretty intense calculations, the kind that takes some gnarly mathematics to explain but the kind that humans can do in a nanosecond. We have to teach our children not to cross the road without looking for cars (soon to be driverless empty cars going nowhere in particular because there is no one in them) but after a while they can calculate: Can I get across the street before the car gets to this point?

Humans and lions can calculate the velocity¹ of an object, which is the rate of change in its position with respect to a frame of reference, and is a function of time. ²

• How fast can I move
• How fast is the car/zebra moving
• What direction is it going
• Is it going to change direction
• Is it going to speed up/slow down
• Is there anything that can interfere like a stop sign or a stream
• How long will it take to get from here to there

Like the lionesses, if we think we can get to the other side safely, then we cross the street/race towards the zebra. Unfortunately for a lot of animals they have no frame of reference for cars, trucks and drones and we see the results as road kill. Humans outside of a driverless-car may not have a frame of reference either; now we have to add in: it is there a human driving or a computer? It may not be certain that the car "will" slow down but our experience shows human drivers "may" slow down. Computers are supposed to slow down but if they don't, you pay the same penalty as the ground squirrel crushed on the roadway. If you see a human holding a phone while driving you might change your mind about crossing the street; there is no way to know what the computer driving the car is doing: it is processing or noticing you or is it steaming a Netflix or getting an over-the-air real-time update that temporarily interrupts it's "view of you"?

Kinematics
mass m, position r, velocity v, acceleration a

Animals also have a sense about "The World". They know direction and up from down. A long time ago, I watched a documentary about different ways researchers were testing animal perceptions. The researcher had some small monkeys called tamarins ³ (exceptionally and fatally cute). He set up a large clear box with 3 black tubes on the outside leading to matching food bins on the inside. The monkey could not see that the researcher could change the pathway of the tubes, from the monkey's view: each tube lead directly to a food bin. The researcher showed the monkey the food item and dropped it into one of the 3 tubes. The monkey went to the food bin directly under each tube to get the food. Then the researcher changed the pathway and again showed the monkey that the food was going in tube 1 but it came out at food bin 3. The monkey stared and stared because even monkeys don't believe in magic. The monkey knew that things Fall Down, they don't Fall Sideways.

So, animals have a sense of the world and how gravity ⁴ works. Bananas don't Fall Sideways and they don't Fall Up. It was Isaac Newton ⁵ in 1687 that explained this to humans. ⁶

I admired Lucky's ability to race up the stairs over and over and play pounce at the top to get the ball. Lucky is sleek and quick and has the longest tail ever on a cat. Watching Lucky bounding up the stairs was like watching a lioness trying for a solo kill on a zebra. I didn't pay much attention when he carried the ball down the stairs to me and waited for the next toss. It's what dogs do when they play fetch and I just lumped Lucky in with dogs but of course, Lucky is a cat not a dog. What is even more remarkable is that whenever he wants to play ball, he brings a ball that he has hidden and sits with it at my feet patiently waiting for me to pay attention.

Then I noticed a slight shift in his play. He didn't want to lose his advantage of being on the middle step by coming all the way to the bottom so he dropped the ball midway and let it roll down the steps to me. OK, I will admit to being not too bright about what he was doing and it took a longish while for me to see that after he dropped the ball it always came directly to me.

That's right. It came directly to me.

It didn't matter where on the stairs he dropped it. It didn't matter if he dropped it more left than right or up one or down one from where he sat. He would give a push with his paw and it would bounce down the stairs where I could just pick it up. Once I began to notice I could see he did other things too to get the ball to me: he could bank it left or right against the walls lining the stair. He could double bank it. He could put spin ⁷ on it. He could combine spins: top and side and bank the ball at the same time. He used just enough force ⁸ on the ball so that as it bounced down the stairs it would lose velocity and come to rest in front of me. Occasionally, he would take a big whack and I would think "Oh, he's lost it..." only to realize he was hitting the wall behind me and ricocheting ⁹ the ball off the back wall towards me.

Of course, sometimes he does miss, but I think it's more that he doesn't want me to get bored and if he makes me move all of 6 inches to reach the ball then I will continue to play until HE gets tired.

Now as I watch Lucky play ball, racing up the stairs, making his pounce and then dropping the ball and pushing it in such a way as it reaches me, I think of all the things Lucky must be calculating . Things that even the smartest humans work hard to understand.

1. Physics ¹⁰ the 'knowledge of nature', is the natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion and behavior through space and time, along with related concepts such as energy and force. One of the most fundamental scientific disciplines, the main goal of physics is to understand how the universe behaves.
   The world around us and how it works.
2. Classical mechanics ¹¹ , also known as Newtonian mechanics ¹¹ is concerned with the set of physical laws describing the motion of bodies under the influence of a system of forces.
   What goes up, comes down. Why things move and why they stop.
3. Dynamical system ¹² / Dynamical billiards ¹² in which a particle alternates between motion in a straight line and specular reflections from a boundary. When the particle hits the boundary it reflects from it without loss of speed. Billiard dynamical systems are Hamiltonian idealizations of the game of billiards, but where the region contained by the boundary can have shapes other than rectangular and even be multidimensional.
   How banks, topspin, backspin work.
4. non-Euclidean geometry ¹³ when parallel lines drawn on a curved surface do not remain equal distant.
   Like cutting segments from an orange or drawing lines on a ball or decorations on a bowl or jug.
5. Outer billiards ¹⁴ is a dynamical system based on a convex shape in the plane. Outer billiards differs from a usual dynamical billiard in that it deals with a discrete sequence of moves outside the shape rather than inside of it.
   Like bumper pool which has obstacles in the middle of the table.¹⁵

The Bunimovich stadium
a chaotic dynamical billiard

Lucky with his happy-go-lucky personality, his grey coat and his extra long tail is one very smart cat.

Lucky
contemplating the universe

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinematics
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarin
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity#Newton's_theory_of_gravitation
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricochet
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics
11. a) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtonian_mechanics
    b) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_mechanics
12. a) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamical_system
    b) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamical_billiards
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Euclidean_geometry
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_billiard
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumper_pool

Fine Time Art 46 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 46 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 45 by Marion 2018

Fine Time Art 45 by Marion 2018

Happy New Year

What's the new year going to be like? I have high hopes that it will the beginning of a peace trend. This year is leaving the country with jangled nerves caused by thoughtless tweets and innuendoes, and the new national norm of a divided citizenry.

On a more personal level, I'm glad December is over. After weeks of flu, both my son and I were able to enjoy a very nice Christmas day. Our new year, 2018, will be greeted with enthusiasm and plans for Nu-House projects.

Our Houston, Texas weather is moderate compared to that of Lake Erie. My childhood was spent in Iowa, so I know what snow is, and how deep it can get, but the snow fall in Erie is truly awesome. In an old family photo album there are several snapshots of uncles standing on 20 foot high snow drifts. Now the only snow I get to see is that in a snow globe.

I haven't made my list of resolutions yet. I always make a list of about 10 things I know I'll probably do, and call them resolutions. I actually do many of them, but this year, I haven't given much thought to them. Who know? Perhaps this year I'll just watch the television news and complain about how things are going, while I sit back and ignore all the things I feel I should be doing. Perhaps this is my own personal 'new norm'?

For those of you that read this blog, I wish you a very merry and happy New Year. May 2018 bring you fulfilled wishes and continued good health. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Fine Time Art 44 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 44 by Marion 2017

Christmas 2017 by KimB

Another winter, harbinger of the coming new year, has come and in many parts of the world a Holiday Is Happenin'! For some, that holiday will start Dec 25 ¹ and others it will be 12 days later on Jan 6 ² . Still more will have different dates and meanings to mark this particular time on the planet.

While many in the USA are focused on the bargains to be had at stores both physical and ethereal, there is a lot more to be found besides tomorrow's trash-n-dump that the unceasing barrages of advertising, both subliminal and not too subtle, tell us We Must Have!

If we take a moment to look beyond what's pushed, shoved and splayed across the micro-screens that now capture and occupy our every waking moment, we might find something different in front of us.

• The flitting of a small bird.
• A single snow flake.
• The fracture patterns of frozen water.
• The reflection of light as it bounces from a glass pane.
• The smell of cold air.
• The degrees of wetness in mud.
• The quilting of fallen leaves.
• The warmth of a hand.
• The smile of a stranger.

These cost nothing and yet are everything. They are reminders of what is all around us, every day, every minute of our lives. These are more valuable than any purchased goods. They are enduring and last beyond the moment.

The winter solstice ³ marks the end of one period and the starting a new one. It is the day of least sunlight and the longest night.

An old song ⁴ commemorates this time:

They had not been sailing but a long winter's night,
And part of short winter's day.

The length of daytime depends on where you live on the planet. North of the equator, this day can be less than 4 hours long and gets longer as you move southward. The physical shape of our planet ⁵, it's path through the solar system, the tilt of the axis and it's relationship to the sun are what governs the solstice ⁶.



Solargraph: sun tracks

The solstice is a marker for seasons. Seasons are marked by calendars. In the USA we use the Gregorian calendar ⁷ but this isn't the first or only calendar ⁸. Calendars of all sorts and manners mark seasons and the repetition of days in a season. Clocks ⁹ mark the repetition of the hours for day and night.

But the solstice is not dependent on any of us. It happens regardless of us. We place extra meanings on some days and mark them as special but those are our determinations. The earth has it's own special days, and celebrates them with or without us. The winter solstice is one of them.

The solstice has been celebrated by humans for a very long time ¹⁰. It marks a special time not just for the planet but for us as a species.

It marks a turning point in our joint past, when we noticed the repeating patterns all around us. It marks not just our awareness but our ability to predict that repetition. The moment when our awareness, our consciousness, our sense of self in the environment, our ability to count and our ability to display that count and then to physically pass this information onward to future generations happened.

It marks the end of spoken memory and the beginning of modern memory: the memory of the solstice and what it means.

Take a moment to look around you. Notice anything special?

Something beyond price:

The solstice is happening

Winter Solstice Stonehenge

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_25
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6
3. a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice
   b https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_solstice
4. a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Martin_(song)
   b https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Barton_(privateer)
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solstice
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic

Fine Time Art 43 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 43 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 42 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 42 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 41 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 41 by Marion

Our Privacy Policy Update for 2018

[note: Editor's Post]

It's that time of year where the massive tracking industries are hard at work planning to detach money from your pockets and transfer it into theirs.

Yeppers, it's holiday time and in the USA people will do all sorts of odd things they would never do otherwise, in the pursuit of those "hot" new item(s) touted by these same massive tracking industries as being the "in thing"; which means: you really don't have a choice about what you are getting.

So to get the basics out of the way:

WE do not track or trace you.

There are others that do:

• Google (this is a Google blog site)
• We have a 3d party map that shows who visits the page
• An unknown number of trackers, tracers and surveillance devices

There! Feel Better?
Hmmm. Didn't think so.

In previous posts we have explored a number of issues regarding your privacy and the digital leashes go with all this mass data tracking. Those are all still happening. There hasn't been a lot of great news on the privacy front so far, but there are rumblings in different parts of the globe which may put a few dents in the "status quo" of monetizing the internet.

So, in furtherance of the annual explanation of why Everyone + Dog is tracking you and selling: you, your family, your kids, your friends, your neighbors, the strangers you pass by, the cars your drive in, the routes you take while walking, driving, biking and generally every time you take a "bio break", into digital slavery, this edition will review an area soon to be On The Plate of a lot of those who make vast sums of money from all that you provide them, like Alphabet / Google.

Alphabet (2016) 1
Alphabet Assets (stuff they own)	$167+ BILLION	$167,000,000,000
Alphabet Profit (weaseled)	$19+ BILLION	$19,000,000,000

Alphabet is now the top dog in the Google ² Complex of Obfuscations of their financial structures. All perfectly legal ... or mostly legal. The "mostly legal" part is important.

There is actually a lot of rumbling in the internet, much of which will be under explained, if reported at all, but the current structure has "a problem". There are a LOT of problems, but this one is going to be hitting the fan soon because it affects how the entire internet works. It is called the Domain Name System (DNS) ³ and Certification Authority (CA) ⁴.

DNS ³

Computers are essentially dumb. It doesn't matter that there are claims of Artificial Intelligence, with the emphasis on "intelligence", that are smeared like jam over the promotional advertising about AI, computers are just dumb and they only do what they are instructed to do. We instruct them to do lots of things from streaming movies ⁵ to twittering ⁶ to twitching ⁷.

The Domain Name System is how one computer can figure out where another computer is located on the internet. It forms part of the URL ⁸ that we type in or select by a clicking a link. But the URL we see or type is not necessarily where the browser gets directed (see our posts on Links ⁹).

Given that the internet was and is developed by a great number of folks happier to talk to a machine than another human being, the Grand Design was based on N U M B E R S.

Yeah, all that horrid stuff you had to put up with in grade school:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

The Number System: IP Address

The Internet Protocol address (IP) ¹⁰ is arcane, even to those dealing with the technical aspects of the internet . Even if you are a technical programmer, you just hope that someone else gets assigned to deal with any IP Address issues.

Yep. It's that bad.

It's SOOO bad, that the Domain Name System was developed so fewer people would ever have to deal with IP numbers. The Domain Name System uses "words" rather than "numbers". Something much easier for humans to process.

The DNS : IP Fix

To fix the numbers problem, the DNS uses a cross reference table to match "words" to "numbers". The internet uses the words we type or click on and looks up the matching numbers. Since computers are excellent with numbers they figure out what all the numbers mean and voilà! you get the web page you wanted. .. maybe.

This is an example of how words and numbers are matched ¹¹:

www.example.com
IPv4 Numbering	93.184.216.119
IPv6 Numbering	2606:2800:220:6d:26bf:1447:1097:aa7

By now, given the subject of this post, I think you can begin to see "a problem". It's glaring and one nearly every person on the planet has experienced or struggles with: incorrect information. A simple typo and BOOM! example.com goes "somewhere else".

There are a lot of safe guards and backups to prevent an unintentional BOOM! but it still happens and it can happen intentionally too by hacking parts of the DNS system: DNS Spoofing. ¹². DNS Spoofing is the same as a Re-Direct except ... it wasn't authorized. It is almost always "bad news". Re-Directs can be done much lower on the totem pole but DNS Spoofing hacks can happen anywhere along the entire length of the pole.

And just to be clear:

There is zero difference between people, businesses, agencies and governments engaging in such hacks.

It works for all. Very ecumenical.

So to prevent some of this... Enter Stage Right: The Certificate Authority.

Certificate Authority ⁴

Certificate Authorities are Digital Certificates/Encrypted Signatures that are supposed to let you know the "Destination You Land On" is the "Destination You Requested".

Companies with web servers and sites pay the CA Authorization Providers at the top of this heap, to give them a certificate that your browser will check to verify that said company IS said company. The certificate is an encrypted key (you know, a combination lock) that will only match with said company. It doesn't validate that the site is "honest"; only that the site is "registered".

Browsers act like gate keepers checking that the certificates are GOOD and if GOOD then the presumption is that the site is ... well... the site.

Because a good combination lock ¹³ actually works, there are those that work full time at breaking the locks. But a good lock, like any good lock, doesn't break easily. It's tough.

So what do you do if you cannot "break a lock"?

You steal one with the keys attached.

Once you have a valid lock and the keys too, Bob's Your Uncle! ¹⁴

All you have to do is get the Target to install the stolen certificate! Since the certificate appears to be all hunky dory legit, it's a snap.

WHEEEEEEE!!!

Except, there goes your bank account and your tax refunds (Is my name Trump?) and you get more headaches than just the normal after holiday bash hangovers.

The Bad Dudettes and Dudes in the world, work extra hard to make sure they can BOOM! these systems. They do a good job of it too. Open Season.

Oh WOW NOW?

There are agencies and governments and a few companies that are thinking of commencing to begin to get started on planning to ponder about these issues:

• DNS can be broken
• CA can be stolen

There are a lot of folks with heavily vested interests in NOT doing anything. Just another bandaid will do.

Nothing to see here.. move along
but don't forget to leave your money on the table.

However, even the biggest companies are subject to these problems, governments are subject to them, along with anyone who uses a computer, program/app or smartphone. We The People are subject to it because The Metaphysical and Almighty THEY make a tonnage of money off the status quo.

The Money taken lands somewhere. That somewhere has 2 features:

• No Taxation ¹⁵
• Cleaning It Up ¹⁶

There isn't any good method of repairing the system as is.

The existing system was designed for a different world and society, one where we trusted our friends and neighbors, and we talked with strangers and freely walked in parks. Where we housed the homeless and fed the poor and loaned our neighbors a cup of flour. When no one locked their doors and there was always room for one more at the table. One were we helped each other and exchanged knowledge without fear of reprisal, jail, torture and death. One where tolerance and trust was the most important part of our lives.

The new versions that are coming won't be any of the above.

KimB Editor

Partial map of the Internet January 15, 2005
Each line is drawn between two nodes, representing two IP addresses.
This graph represents less than 30% of the Class C networks in early 2005. ¹⁷

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_Inc.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Alphabet
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_authority
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_media
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch.tv
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL
9. a) https://mrsbizzybsayshello.blogspot.com/2017/03/when-is-link-link.html
   b) https://mrsbizzybsayshello.blogspot.com/2017/04/why-links-aint-links.html
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System#Function
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_cache_poisoning
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(security_device)
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob%27s_your_uncle
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_haven
16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_map_1024_-_transparent,_inverted.png

Fine Time Art 40 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 40 by Marion 2017

1st Thanksgiving

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving in the Gnu-house with all the 'usual' fix-ins.  We even had two kinds of cranberries, relish and sauce.  That's high livin' if you ask me.  After finishing all the leftovers, we followed my brother, Charles' tradition of serving Chili.  Charles always teased us by saying it was a 3 or 4 alarm; but there was an off chance that he was actually serious, and we had to wait for the tasting to be certain. 

We are still unpacking boxes.  I'm not doing any of the work, I'm leaving that to others. I'm sitting poolside while the weather is so lovely and either knit or read my nook.  The nook was a  present from my daughter, her husband and my son when my kindle stopped working.  I had to go to Barns & Noble and take a class to learn how the nook works and I'm still getting the hang of it. There are lots of aps on it that I have to learn.  I like getting library books at any hour and any day.

I finally got my old phone number back.  After cancelling the Comcast TV service, and going with another TV service,   AT&T had to give us temporary numbers until Comcast relinquished our old numbers, (the ones we had for years and years).  I suppose it was because of all the data gathering that goes on now.  Between all the data gathering and the constant advertising and touting of businesses, I long for the old days of life without digital progress.  Maybe we should get back to teaching cursive?  Maybe I would have to hold a real book to read a novel....  Are those days gone forever?  

Living in Gnu-House

We are adjusting to new experiences and routines. I haven't established a daily routine yet. The weather has been so delightful that sometimes I have breakfast in the patio and watch the three swirling rings of water that push the floating objects around the pool. Its very restful; like watching fish swim in an aquarium.

The other morning we had a small rescue drama. We noticed a tiny tree frog, about the size of my thumbnail, desperately trying to climb onto the disk that floats around the pool sending information to the satellite, which in turn sends information back to the pool monitor letting us know when and which chemicals to put in the pool, the green packet or the red one. The top of the disk was an inch too high for the tree frog to reach, but he kept trying. When we realized the little thing was not going to make it, we fished him out of water with a net. When we poured him out of the net onto the cement sidewalk circling the pool, he sat for a second, then totally collapsed into a flat speck on the cement.

We thought he had died. We just sat there processing the event and suddenly, the tree frog sat up and took a couple of hops. It didn't have the strength to hop again. After another moment or two, the little thing took another couple of hops toward the grassy area. It had to stop several times between hops before getting off the sidewalk, but eventually made it.

We surmised that the little tree frog had accidently fallen into the pool trying to catch a dragonfly.

Fine Time Art 39 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 39 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 38 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 38 by Marion 2017

Changes

A la Billie Holiday... There's been a change in the weather, and there's been a change for me. I've changed my place of livin' and things are new to me. All my routines are changin'; nothin's gonna be the same. The only thing I'm keepin' is my same old name.

I've moved from my city apartment into a country house my son bought recently. It's not deep 'country' but far enough for me. It has been many years since we've shared a living space and I'm looking forward to this arrangement. I have one wing of the house all to myself and he enjoys the rest. There is a lovely swimming pool and I enjoy having morning coffee in the patio pool side. One of the neighbors, on the far right corner of the back yard, has a horse that puts his head over the high fence and watches us as we chat over morning coffee.

I'm still settling in, but it won't be long before I start new projects and write about them. Keep tuned in.

Fine Time Art 37 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 37 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 36 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 36 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 35 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 35 by Marion 2017

Wontons

Many years ago, a young Chinese student from Taiwan, studying at Stanford, taught me a recipe.  It was how to make wontons and cook them in boiling water.  I was surprised that a young man would know how to do this. It was a simple, ezpz recipe and I made it often. 

Time passed; life presented turns and twists obscuring recipes and the wonton recipe was forgotten, until all these years later.  Today, when I checked Chef John's latest recipe, I was reminded of the wontons. Scrolling thru the internet, I found numerous YouTube variations of the young man's recipe, Wonton Soup.  Many of the recipes show how to flavor the boiling water, but many web sites prefer just plain boiling water, which is the way I learned this recipe. 

The basic filling for the wonton wrappers consists of
ground pork
chopped prawns
chopped green onions
chopped cabbage
chopped chestnuts
minced garlic
grated ginger
sesame oil
soy sauce
drop filled wontons into boiling water and cook for several minutes. 
The wontons can be eaten with any of the sauce recipes found on the web, or served in a bowl of hot chicken broth.
I often made this recipe with  just ground meat, chopped green onion and minced garlic in a wonton wrap, boiled in water and served only with a little soy sauce.



 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

KimB

How Does My Garden Grow? A Failure

This year, like many, I planted a garden. March rolled around and the smell of damp earth and the slightly warmer days indicated the beginning of The Pilgrimages to the Garden Centers was at hand.

Like other years, I planned and schemed how to grow a garden, even though my garden is now reduced to a dozen containers, and coaxing them to yield something akin to the images of the vegetables on the seed packets is still the prime directive.

Unlike other years, of varied results of both success and failures, this year was a doozy.

One popular online tech mag uses the acronym TITSUP (Total Inability To Support Usual Performance) to describe the myriad failures of modern technology which are only getting more frequent as the quality of software and hardware plummet.

My garden went TITSUP: a complete failure to grow anything at all.

First off, after a brief success getting the tomatoes planted and some bush beans and the never ending attempt to grow potatoes (I'd have starved long ago if I had to live on what potatoes I grow), my back yard irrigation pipe broke.

Actually, the line had been leaking for some time and I paid numerous people to come to find the break and fix it but gosh, not a one would get out a shovel and dig along the pipe line to look for the leak 'cause that's what you have to do to find it: dig along the pipe line.

Finally, I just had to do what everyone has to do when help (paid for or not) is not forth coming: Do It Myself.

So... with great care, as I was recovering from a back injury, I started The Hunt. Ever so S L O W L Y I started at the last known puddle and carefully removed the dirt in the area and LUCK was with me: I found the broken riser on the first go. It had broken at the base and I started down a new educational pathway of learning about PVC Pipes, Risers and their Assorted Accessories.

Having successfully replaced the riser I looked at the others in the garden and decided to replace them too and install new drip top caps.

You know about tech upgrades? You know when you get that message:

There's a new version available.
Upgrade your software.
Install Now?

and there's no way to say "NO!!!!"? Then your PC goes TITSUP and you cannot login to the Support Desk Website ('cause the manufacturer doesn't have phone support) or your not so smart smartphone goes TITSUP and becomes an expensive brick and you no longer qualify for a repair or replacement?

Well... yeppers, TITSUP went the irrigation.

The drip top caps I selected for the top of the risers had several options and never in a minute thinking that anyone would be able to displace them, I set up 2 drip lines for every tree in my back yard. It worked great. Trees were happy. No water flowing places it shouldn't. All looked just hunky dory.

Until, my gardeners made their twice a year foray into the back yard to trim the trees. Heavy duty waffle stompers make short work of cheap plastic parts. My irrigation upgrades were toast. Back to the garden center I went, selecting a completely different sort of cap and installed those.

With the water back ON things looked OK, just before the next TITSUP event: SUMMER.

It was HOT. I mean, HOT. Not HOT as is cool or kewl but HOT as in scorching.

But I figured I had my water timers working and the new lines were working so.. I'm good!

Oh SO WRONG.

My backyard exterior water timer had gone: TITSUP.

And I didn't realize if for a L O N G time. Of course that's the one that ran the water to the garden area.

So... now I had a BIG problem. I'd never dealt with a water timer. You know that thing that the landscape folks install that turns on and off the sprinklers? I've had to set the date and time occasionally but the gardeners generally do all the "programming": A B C programs, Stations 1 2 3 4 5 6, Frequency (we have water restriction days), and other gardener lingo options. My gardeners also have an extreme reluctance to replace anything they didn't install themselves even when I pay them for it. I expect it's because they never know that that OTHER GUY did or didn't do during the original installation and cans of worms being the result. It also impacts the 10 minutes of Mow and Blow scheduling they allot my tiny front yard.

So given the complete indifference of my gardeners to the plight of my newly discovered wilting plants, I made Pilgrimage to the Garden Center to learn about water timers. I had nightmare visions of complicated wires and plugs with E L E C T R I C I T Y (yikes!) but forced myself to face the onslaught of gardener lingo to preserve my poor wilting tomatoes.

Complicated it was. Hard to figure out it wasn't. For once technology was helpful: A big LED screen that had D I R E C T I O N S.

It wasn't long before I had it all sorted and was kicking myself for ever paying anyone to install one of these things again. You still need the pipes run and the valves installed and the base wires pulled near an outlet but the actually water timer is A SNAP. I spent more time trying to attach it to the exterior stucco wall than actually setting up the timer.

I was so impressed by the ease of setting up this timer I went back and bought another one designed to attach to the water spigot so I could run temporary water lines to some flower pots on the patio. No more dragging a hose or hauling a watering can to water the flowers which made my back VERY HAPPY!

So... with all this new water happiness how did the garden go TITSUP?

A power failure.

Nods. Technologies most fundamental flaw: it needs juice. No juice, no tech. Batteries only last so long and then: D E A D.

Without power a PC cannot turn on to log in to the support desk and a dead battery on a smartphone makes it just as bricked as a borked upgrade and a power failure causes water timers to reset to NOTHING and no water happens.

By the time I realized that the timer had crashed, with all that scorching heat, there was nothing left. The promising bush beans had vaporized. Not a green leaf to be seen in the potato pot. The sight of tomato vines draped over the edge of the pot in a laced lattice work of desiccated green lines was just pitiful.

Looking at the desolation of climate change, I had no recourse but to abandon any attempt at garden CPR. I didn't go to the garden area for a longish time. There was nothing there to check. Nothing survived the lack of water and the heat.

Or so I thought.

But you know, life is resilient. It never gives up. Plants have survived droughts and heat and cold for longer than we have. They are rather amazing.

I took a peek at the garden and was stunned.

There were 2 tomato vines struggling along. The plants were still trying. There won't be tomatoes for me but the plants don't know that. They only know to keep trying.

Next to the tomatoes was an eggplant. I thought it had long ago vaporized in the heat. The pot had certainly appeared lifeless but there it was ....

a beautiful eggplant

with flowers

Life lessons: Life is more resilient than technology.

We put one foot in front of the other. We keep trying. We don't always succeed but when we do, when we exceed our own expectations, when we overcome self doubts, when we explore new options and take a chance on new opportunities, when we cast off fear of the unknown then we are rewarded in the most beautiful and unexpected ways.



Kim's Garden 10 2017 Eggplant Flower

Fine Time Art 34 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 34 by Marion 2017

Wild Fires

My beautiful California is fighting terrible wild fires. Television news about loss of life and destruction of homes is difficult to watch. I no longer live in California, but I'm well acquainted with both northern and southern parts of the state, having lived there and traveled it many, many times.

My first glimpse of California came as I traveled by train from the east coast to California during WWII. When we reached southern California, the train passed thru miles and miles of orange groves. The train windows were down and for some reason the train had slowed. We passengers could reach out and touch tree branches as we passed. The fragrance of orange blossoms was enchanting. It was like being in an exotic fairy land.

It was early morning when we reached Oakland and had to take a ferry across the bay to San Francisco. I had never ridden a ferry before and found it rather exciting. As the ferry crossed, I could see strands of fog wrapping the hills of San Francisco while sunlight shone on the tops. That view has never left my mind and is part of the reason San Francisco is still my most 'favorite' city.

I've lived in San Francisco and the peninsula as well as in the Los Angeles area. During those long ago years, family members, grandparents, aunts uncles and cousins lived in various parts of the state. When we meet these many years later, and tell stories about happenings in such and such a place, we know exactly the place talked about.

As I write this, desert winds are spreading the fires and the destruction grows. As a distant bystander, watching TV news about the fires, I can only hope those fighting them can soon gain control of this terrible wild fire.

700 Post Milestone!

[Note: Editor's Post]

MrsB's Family Stories has hit another major milestone: 700+ posts!!

I don't think anyone imagined when we started MrsB's Family Stories that it would grow to become a favorite stopping off spot with so many people from around the world. People from all over visit here to read about our family and to share in our lives and adventures.

The repository of our family news and history has grown so much from those early days. While some voices have been lost, their memories and contributions remain. Every post and story reminds us of their wisdom and humor.

Take a stroll down memory lane and revisit some of their stories, try out a favorite recipe, laugh at their conundrums and revel in their insights.

Real memories are what you make. Real laughs and real tears too.

Hush Puppies, Cows Ears, Hot Peppers, Apple Butter, Learning to Crochet and a whole lot more are there to enjoy. Reminders that we are all pretty much going along the same path; so why not walk a fair piece of it with us?

KimB Editor (post 713)

April 2014 was our 500 Post Milestone

There are hundreds of paths up the mountain,
all leading in the same direction,
so it doesn’t matter which path you take.

The only one wasting time is the one
who runs around and around the mountain,
telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.

Hindu teaching

Fine Time Art 33 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 33 by Marion 2017

Country Music

When it was reported that the music concert shattered by gun fire was a Country Music Concert, I thought of my sister Adeline. She is no longer with us, but she was an avid fan of country music and performers. She followed their careers and subscribed to magazines with articles and photos of them. Adeline and I, and of course my brothers and other sister, grew up with country music. We heard the songs on the radio and sang them.

In those years, there was a radio program on Saturday nights the family often listened to. It was a live broadcast of a stage performance in Des Moines, Iowa, called The Barn Dance Frolic. It was an evening of country music, much like those held in Nashville, Tennessee at the times. As a young adult, I once attended a performance and remember how much I enjoyed seeing the performers on stage that I had heard on the radio.

I often think about the preferences my family had for music. Mom loved listening to piano music. One of my brothers loved Opera and another brother collected country music records. I enjoy the sound of violin, but listened to orchestral records of Mozart when I painted. My son likes Blue Grass. Adeline liked all kinds of music. When her children were young she checked out library music records by the arm load,; much of it, Broadway musicals. In later years when she visited me, she liked listening to one of the three famous tenors. Even so- she never gave up her love of country music.

Fine Time Art 32 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 32 by Marion 2017

Puerto Rico

E Gads! People are arguing over helping the Puerto Ricans recover from total destruction of their island! Doctors are pleading for medicines. Getting food and water to people and getting the communication system up and running again are things Puerto Ricans need. They certainly don't need criticism from persons enjoying the pleasure of playing golf as reported on TV.

Fine Time Art 31 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 31 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 30 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 30 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 29 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 29 by Marion 2017

Hurricane Irma

Water, water, everywhere water! Is it time to build and ark?

Fine Time Art 28 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 28 by Marion 2017

Hurricane Stress

I have to take breaks from watching the24/7 coverage of the disaster caused by Harvey. Having narrowly escaped the rising waters twice this week, I'm really counting my blessings! To watch the rescues and evacuations of hospitals, and hearing about the loss of drinking water in areas, plus the news of another hurricane heading this way, really adds to the stress of trying to grasp the enormity of this hurricane aftermath.

One almost forgets there are TV channels not covering the flood waters, but I did remember last night and turned the dial. So what did I watch? ICE ROAD TRUCKERS.

Tuesday afternoon weather report

Rain stopped, crickets chirp

That's my version of Haiku

Late this afternoon, around 7pm the sun came out! Harvey is moving on but still causing havoc.

Harvey

The lightening flashed
And rain poured down
The wind was blowing
When hurricane
 Harvey came to town
As Harvey churned
The Gulf coast waters
Creeks and bayous started to rise
As rain kept coming
Rivers reached new highs
Reservoirs and bayous overflowed
Creating new rivers
Where there were roads
Rains kept coming
And the waters rose

When will it end? No one knows

Fine Time Art 27 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 27 by Marion 2017

Rain, Rain and more Rain

I have a river flowing by my front door. There has been rain from the outer bands of Harvey, a cat 4 hurricane, before it even reached land. I watched the TV reports of the damage and flooding as the hurricane progressed, but my area was relatively free from the heavy wind and rain for a day or so.

Family and friends telephoned frequently to check on the weather where I live and to make certain I was not in danger. I responded to one and all that I had enough food and water to outlast any hurricane and I assured family members that all was fine. We discussed the predictions of flooded streets, but never having been discombobulated during past storms, I felt that in a few days Harvey would be history.

Weather reports warned of serious flooding and tornadoes, but it wasn't' until late Saturday evening that my area began having tornado warnings every 5 to 10 minutes, and that Houston would be hard hit around 9:00 pm. At 9:30pm, the street in front of my apartment building had become a fast flowing river. It was running so fast I could hardly believe my eyes. I had once seen water like that outside Tucson Arizona when I witnessed the Pantana running in a flash flood.

I'm writing this at noon Sunday and the river is still running. It has reached the top step of the landing to the entrance of an apartment foyer, but since the water hasn't gotten higher, I'll keep my fingers crossed. The sky is so dark with blinding rain I have to have lights on to walk around the rooms. The river is not running so fast now that is has become more of a lake. I think It's time for some COMFORT FOOD..

Fine Time Art 26 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 26 by Marion 2017

Equality

This nation is the only one in history founded on the moral principle that all men are created equal. Our founding fathers proclaimed to the world with the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal with rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..

A great civil war was fought and won, reaffirming the moral principle of this nation. The rights of men to life and liberty was won on the field of battle and these rights are ensured by our Constitution.

Words to live by

Gettysburg Address
   --------Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought upon this  continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Declaration of Independence
  ---------We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created  equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.                                                                                           

Fine Time Art 25 by Marion 2017

Fine Time Art 25 by Marion 2017

Eagle Huntress

I recently watched a spellbinding documentary filmed in2016 called Eagle Huntress. Its the true story of Aisholpan, the thirteen year old daughter of a Kazakh nomadic Mongolian family. Her family spend summers , living in a yurt in the Altai mountains, and spending winters living in a house in town. Her father is an eagle hunter and this 13 year old wanted to become an eagle hunter too. Its traditionally a male event, but with her father' help she learns to train Golden Eagles.

Her father also helps her capture her own Golden Eagle to train. Her father also supports her when she wants to enter and participate in the annual Golden Eagle festival where men show off their eagles in the many ways they have been trained to provide both food and furs.

Facing both disbelief and strong opposition from the men, she competes and ends up winning the competition. Her eagle even breaks a speed record in one of the events. After the festival, she must complete another stage in the bird's training in order to be known as an eagle hunter. She travels with her father during the winter into the mountains to hunt for foxes. After several misses, her eagle successfully kills its first fox.

This 13 year old girl becomes the first female eagle hunter in 12 generations of her Kazakh family.

Electrical outage

We had a power outage last night. It was different from precious outages. Not all the outlets in the apt went out at the same time. Around 8:45pm everything went pitch black and silent. The TV, the oscillating fans and the AC all stopped working. I managed to feel my way to the bedside table where I keep an emergency light.. It had been 95 degrees that day so I had to fish around for my tiny handheld fan.

I discovered that the oven light and the microwave were still working as was the outdoor light on a neighbor's garage. The shops on the other side of the street from my apartment complex had lights, but otherwise the whole neighborhood was dark. The garage light was quite a distance away, but the light shone thru my bedroom window. It was very dim but enough to let me see the objects in the room. I rolled up the venetian blind to let the light shine in while I sat in the dark room and contemplated the situation. What to do Percy? What to do?

I had watched a movie on TV the day before about a legendary escape of Marines during the Korean War. A group of Marines were completely surrounded by Chinese soldiers near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. A Marine officer decided to lead his men, single file over the mountains, in the dead of night where they couldn't even see their hands, during a blinding snow storm with temperature far below freezing. The details of that struggle are mind boggling, and as I sat in the dark, I thought of those men tying to make their way to freedom.

The day had been 95 degrees and I was unsure how long the battery in my tiny fan would last, so I waited as long as I could before turning it on.. When I thought of turning it on, I'd count to a hundred 2 or 3 times, then use the fan for a couple of seconds. As I counted my blessing and thought about the Marines as distraction, then counting thru the hundreds before using the fan, I managed to spend most of the evening sitting in a chair. When my watch said 10 o'clock, I went to bed. I knew the electrical workers were busy trying to rectify the situation, but having lived thru Ike, the hurricane when we were without power for 8 days, I didn't know what to expect. Happily the power came on while I was sleeping.