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| Fine Time Art 58 by Marion 2018 |
Monday, April 02, 2018
Saturday, March 31, 2018
A thing about Easter eggs by KimB
I remember the fun of making colored eggs. Mom would get all the paraphernalia out and would hard boil a dozen eggs. There was a wire egg holder and different glasses to hold the various colors. A mysterious wax colorless crayon was often employed to make interesting designs on the eggs. I remember the smell of vinegar too. I think it was used to activate the colors but it may have had another use .. like making deviled eggs at the same time.
My brother and I would crowd around Mom as she supervised the dunking and re-dunking of eggs. My brother was able to put the eggs in the wire dipper and dunk them himself but Mom did the dunking for me. She would dunk as I directed into each color, rotating the eggs so the colors overlapped.
I never associated the colored eggs with anything other than a mysterious milk chocolate bunny in a pretty carton showed up around the same time.
Sometimes we would go to the Museum of Science to watch the baby chicks hatch in their giant display incubator. It was always near the front lobby and was always a first stop whenever we went to that museum.
Other times we would have a picnic in the gardens there. We would find a shady spot and Mom would lay out a blanket on the grass and we would have a grand time eating the surprises she packed for us. When my brother got a bit older, he started playing musical instruments and he would bring a banjo or guitar to the park and we spent the warm spring afternoon singing folks songs. We had no problems singing the same song over and over until we got it "just right".
As I got older sometimes our picnic would be at Griffith Park. There were huge trees and the 3 of us would fan out to sketch them. We each had a sketch book and selection of pencils and off we would go, but not too far, to sketch the trees and limbs. While we were sketching Mom would get the briquette hibachi grill heating up. 1
When the grill was hot, Mom would cook pancakes with warm syrup and scrambled eggs with toast on the grill. Then we would show off our drawings. Full of food we would all take a nap on the blankets she brought and spread out on the grass under the trees.
One of my friends is making colored eggs with her grandchildren. I remarked about all the different styles of colored eggs that mark this part of the year: Easter.
When I lived in Silicon Valley, friend would to bring me one of the special eggs from the Eastern Orthodox Church in San Francisco. She explained that no one really had time to make the intricate designs and so special decorated wrappers were placed around the egg instead.
There are the fabulous Fabergé eggs. 2 50 Imperial Easter Eggs were commissioned for the Tsar and his family of which 43 still exist. Another 15 sets of eggs were commissioned from Fabergé workshop. In all 65 eggs were created and 57 survive.
I remember making a papier-mâché Easter egg. It those ancient times, we had Art Class in school. I remember we all got a balloon and the teacher puffed all of them up for us. Then we layered news print strips dredged in a flour and water paste over the balloon. Once the paper wrapper had dried, the teacher popped the balloon, leaving an empty shell that resembled an egg. The remaining weeks were devoted to painting the interior and exterior of the shell. Lastly, we made colored grass by shredding colored paper and placed this inside the painted egg. I don't really remember what it was we put inside but I remember we put something inside on the colored grass and then the teacher sealed the opening with clear cellophane as a window.
Thinking of all the different ways egg shells get decorated, I checked in at my favorite deli and asked if they had the "decals" for the eggs. They explained they don't use decals but have pre-printed sleeves with various images that you separate and put over the egg. Then you immerse the egg in hot water. Modern meets Ancient.
References
My brother and I would crowd around Mom as she supervised the dunking and re-dunking of eggs. My brother was able to put the eggs in the wire dipper and dunk them himself but Mom did the dunking for me. She would dunk as I directed into each color, rotating the eggs so the colors overlapped.
I never associated the colored eggs with anything other than a mysterious milk chocolate bunny in a pretty carton showed up around the same time.
Sometimes we would go to the Museum of Science to watch the baby chicks hatch in their giant display incubator. It was always near the front lobby and was always a first stop whenever we went to that museum.
Other times we would have a picnic in the gardens there. We would find a shady spot and Mom would lay out a blanket on the grass and we would have a grand time eating the surprises she packed for us. When my brother got a bit older, he started playing musical instruments and he would bring a banjo or guitar to the park and we spent the warm spring afternoon singing folks songs. We had no problems singing the same song over and over until we got it "just right".
As I got older sometimes our picnic would be at Griffith Park. There were huge trees and the 3 of us would fan out to sketch them. We each had a sketch book and selection of pencils and off we would go, but not too far, to sketch the trees and limbs. While we were sketching Mom would get the briquette hibachi grill heating up. 1
When the grill was hot, Mom would cook pancakes with warm syrup and scrambled eggs with toast on the grill. Then we would show off our drawings. Full of food we would all take a nap on the blankets she brought and spread out on the grass under the trees.
One of my friends is making colored eggs with her grandchildren. I remarked about all the different styles of colored eggs that mark this part of the year: Easter.
When I lived in Silicon Valley, friend would to bring me one of the special eggs from the Eastern Orthodox Church in San Francisco. She explained that no one really had time to make the intricate designs and so special decorated wrappers were placed around the egg instead.
There are the fabulous Fabergé eggs. 2 50 Imperial Easter Eggs were commissioned for the Tsar and his family of which 43 still exist. Another 15 sets of eggs were commissioned from Fabergé workshop. In all 65 eggs were created and 57 survive.
 |
| The Gatchina Palace Imperial Easter Egg 3 |
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| The Gatchina Palace Imperial Egg Opened 3 |
I remember making a papier-mâché Easter egg. It those ancient times, we had Art Class in school. I remember we all got a balloon and the teacher puffed all of them up for us. Then we layered news print strips dredged in a flour and water paste over the balloon. Once the paper wrapper had dried, the teacher popped the balloon, leaving an empty shell that resembled an egg. The remaining weeks were devoted to painting the interior and exterior of the shell. Lastly, we made colored grass by shredding colored paper and placed this inside the painted egg. I don't really remember what it was we put inside but I remember we put something inside on the colored grass and then the teacher sealed the opening with clear cellophane as a window.
Thinking of all the different ways egg shells get decorated, I checked in at my favorite deli and asked if they had the "decals" for the eggs. They explained they don't use decals but have pre-printed sleeves with various images that you separate and put over the egg. Then you immerse the egg in hot water. Modern meets Ancient.
 |
| Shrink Wrapped Easter Eggs4 |
References
- The traditional Japanese hibachi is a heating device and not usually used for cooking. In English, however, "hibachi" often refers to small cooking grills typically made of aluminum or cast iron, with the latter generally being of a higher quality. Owing to their small size, hibachi grills are popular as a form of portable barbecue. They resemble traditional, Japanese, charcoal-heated cooking utensils called shichirin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibachi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shichirin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briquette
- The House of Fabergé made 65 easter eggs. 50 of these were Imperial Eggs created for the Russian Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II. Virtually all were manufactured under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé between 1885 and 1917.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabergé egg
- The Gatchina Palace egg is a jewelled, enameled Easter egg made under the supervision of the Russian jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé in 1901, for Nicholas II of Russia. Nicholas II presented it to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, at Easter in 1901. The egg opens to reveal a surprise miniature gold replica of the palace at Gatchina.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatchina Palace (Fabergé egg)
- Cut out one of the selections from the Easter Egg Decoration Sleeve. Slip this over the hard boiled egg. Dip in very hot water. The plastic sleeve will shrink wrap about the egg in a few seconds.
Project Updates
Knitting:
The afghan with a Saxon Braid is looking good. I have to pay close attention to each of the 24 stitch sequences of each of the 16 row repeats, but as I progress, its getting easier. I had to backtrack so many times due to errors, that now I just take a deep breath and concentrate on counting. I have everyone trained not to chat with me while I'm working on this blue afghan. Usually I can chat and gossip when knitting, but this project requires my full attention.
Gardening:
The Kentucky Wonder beans and cucumber plantlets are now big enough to start climbing the strings attached to the top of the wooden fence. The hibiscus plant called Confederate Rose is still in the planter pot from the garden center. We haven't decided just where to plant it. It will be a focal point with its showy flowers and we don't know if we want it in the front of the house so those passing on the street can enjoy seeing it, or if we want it in the back yard to admire while we sit poolside.
Current Reading:
I'm reading a copy of the 9th printing of ISBN 0-8165-0401-6 LC#73-101103 Recollection of a Warm Springs Apache. James Kaywaykla, a Warm Spring Apache, tells the history of the Mescalero Apaches during his childhood and the warpath years of 1800s to 1886 when they were shipped to Florida. The story is about the lives of the women and children and the great chiefs as they fought to keep their freedom from confines of reservations.
The afghan with a Saxon Braid is looking good. I have to pay close attention to each of the 24 stitch sequences of each of the 16 row repeats, but as I progress, its getting easier. I had to backtrack so many times due to errors, that now I just take a deep breath and concentrate on counting. I have everyone trained not to chat with me while I'm working on this blue afghan. Usually I can chat and gossip when knitting, but this project requires my full attention.
Gardening:
The Kentucky Wonder beans and cucumber plantlets are now big enough to start climbing the strings attached to the top of the wooden fence. The hibiscus plant called Confederate Rose is still in the planter pot from the garden center. We haven't decided just where to plant it. It will be a focal point with its showy flowers and we don't know if we want it in the front of the house so those passing on the street can enjoy seeing it, or if we want it in the back yard to admire while we sit poolside.
Current Reading:
I'm reading a copy of the 9th printing of ISBN 0-8165-0401-6 LC#73-101103 Recollection of a Warm Springs Apache. James Kaywaykla, a Warm Spring Apache, tells the history of the Mescalero Apaches during his childhood and the warpath years of 1800s to 1886 when they were shipped to Florida. The story is about the lives of the women and children and the great chiefs as they fought to keep their freedom from confines of reservations.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
What DO Facebook and Google know?
[Editor's Post]
The HOT news of the moment is the "surprise!" discovery of what "private" corporations store about us. It's not "new news" its just that someone "woke up" and looked.
Such "looking" has been done in the past but has been swept away quickly. This time there is a bit of momentum and more people are "looking". It's a bit like discovering your Credit Score and checking in to make sure nothing is too horribly wrong.
The following 2 articles are pretty good and one has an excellent description of how to check what's out there. What is worth remembering is that this is just a portion of the data held by Facebook and Google. Similar data is held by every company you have ever dealt with on-line or who has a computerized interface. Corporations used to purge old information but these days, they rarely purge because even after you're dead, the data helps them target people around you and your surviving family and friends. This goes forever.
There is an aspect of the data that is "stagnant" and another that is "active". Letting "active data" become "stagnant" is about all you can hope for. The way to do this is:
Beyond the settings, there is an enormous industry in the background that accumulates data from all sorts of other "public" or "permitted" or "open" systems. Anything that is Public Record is harvested. There is little or nothing you can do about these sources.
KimB Editor
References
The HOT news of the moment is the "surprise!" discovery of what "private" corporations store about us. It's not "new news" its just that someone "woke up" and looked.
Such "looking" has been done in the past but has been swept away quickly. This time there is a bit of momentum and more people are "looking". It's a bit like discovering your Credit Score and checking in to make sure nothing is too horribly wrong.
The following 2 articles are pretty good and one has an excellent description of how to check what's out there. What is worth remembering is that this is just a portion of the data held by Facebook and Google. Similar data is held by every company you have ever dealt with on-line or who has a computerized interface. Corporations used to purge old information but these days, they rarely purge because even after you're dead, the data helps them target people around you and your surviving family and friends. This goes forever.
There is an aspect of the data that is "stagnant" and another that is "active". Letting "active data" become "stagnant" is about all you can hope for. The way to do this is:
- Remove unused or unnecessary stuff from your computer and phones
- Don't use or download stuff you don't need
- Drop all links to "cloud" storage or apps that "auto sync" to multiple devices
- Take a few hours to be bored and click on every option in your phone from Top to Bottom and verify the setting is what you want or are willing to tolerate. This exercise has to be repeated on every device and every time there is an update.
- Learn to turn on/off the DATA option on the phone/device
- Learn to turn on/off the WIFI option on the phone/device
- Clean out and delete old information
Beyond the settings, there is an enormous industry in the background that accumulates data from all sorts of other "public" or "permitted" or "open" systems. Anything that is Public Record is harvested. There is little or nothing you can do about these sources.
Control what you can.Reveal what you want.Protect those around you.
KimB Editor
References
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/28/beware-the-smart-toaster-18-tips-for-surviving-the-surveillance-age
- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/28/all-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy
Monday, March 26, 2018
Monday, March 19, 2018
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Danny Boy
Danny Boy 1
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summers gone, and all the flowers are dying
'tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summers in the meadow
Or when the valleys hushed and white with snow
'tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.
And if you come when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me
And I shall hear tho' soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me
References
1. "Danny Boy" is a ballad set to an ancient Irish melody. The words were written by English lawyer, songwriter and entertainer Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848-1929) in 1910 and usually set to the Irish tune of the "Londonderry Air".
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Gardening update
I'm just amazed at how quickly the Kentucky Bean seeds sprouted! We just planted them 4 or 5 days ago. We have a long row of beans sprouts at the bottom of the fence and soon the plants will start to climb the strings we've attached to the top of the fence railing.
We have strings on the fence for cucumber seeds which have sprouted too. I'm looking forward to picking fresh green beans and cucumbers while standing up- no stoop labor here! The flower seeds have also sprouted and we've used blooming bed plants in the same planter circles so we have color long before summer gets here.
I hope my son is able to get a Confederate Rose plant at the garden center. It isn't a rose, but a type of Hibiscus with beautiful flowers that are white in the morning, pink at noon and red in the late evening, changing color all in one day. The plant is from China and was brought to this country in the 1600's.
We still have seed packets to plant. I'll post updates on our gardening projects, but I think some packets may be put aside for 'another time'.....We are getting a good workout with all this labor. we're not used to it. Sooner or later, someone is going to say, "enough is enough!"
We have strings on the fence for cucumber seeds which have sprouted too. I'm looking forward to picking fresh green beans and cucumbers while standing up- no stoop labor here! The flower seeds have also sprouted and we've used blooming bed plants in the same planter circles so we have color long before summer gets here.
I hope my son is able to get a Confederate Rose plant at the garden center. It isn't a rose, but a type of Hibiscus with beautiful flowers that are white in the morning, pink at noon and red in the late evening, changing color all in one day. The plant is from China and was brought to this country in the 1600's.
We still have seed packets to plant. I'll post updates on our gardening projects, but I think some packets may be put aside for 'another time'.....We are getting a good workout with all this labor. we're not used to it. Sooner or later, someone is going to say, "enough is enough!"
Monday, March 12, 2018
Monday, March 05, 2018
Gardens
There must be something in our genes that coax us to plant something when the winter days of ice and snow leave and March winds announce that Spring is on its way. Today my son went shopping for garden supplies. I suggested we try growing Kentucky Wonder Beans along a portion of the wooden fence that encloses the back yard. I had been successful in growing some many years ago when we lived in one of the student apartments in Stanford Village.
Our apartment was the only one that had a large, screened in porch. I strung string from the ground to the top of the porch and planted Kentucky Wonder Beans, which vine. It wasn't long before I could pick fresh green beans to cook for dinner. Not only did we have fresh garden produce, the vines shaded the porch so that we had another room when the weather was nice.
We have seed packets of cucumbers and flowers. If all the packets get planted, we will have a long row of sunflowers along the back yard fence and sprinklings of marigolds and other colorful flowers in the various planters in the patio.
At this point, all we are doing is looking at the pictures on the front of the seed packets. Perhaps our greedy imaginations of thriving colors will come to naught. Its a lot of hard work to accomplish what we have in mind and who knows---as some famous people have been heard to say, "We'll see".
I'll post updates.
Our apartment was the only one that had a large, screened in porch. I strung string from the ground to the top of the porch and planted Kentucky Wonder Beans, which vine. It wasn't long before I could pick fresh green beans to cook for dinner. Not only did we have fresh garden produce, the vines shaded the porch so that we had another room when the weather was nice.
We have seed packets of cucumbers and flowers. If all the packets get planted, we will have a long row of sunflowers along the back yard fence and sprinklings of marigolds and other colorful flowers in the various planters in the patio.
At this point, all we are doing is looking at the pictures on the front of the seed packets. Perhaps our greedy imaginations of thriving colors will come to naught. Its a lot of hard work to accomplish what we have in mind and who knows---as some famous people have been heard to say, "We'll see".
I'll post updates.
Thursday, March 01, 2018
a poem
A Foggy Morning
A cloud came down
and touched the earth,
surrounding all with a
misty shroud- a
foggy shield of vapors
hugged the ground.
Warming rays of
sun came piercing thru
to let the fleeting haze
reveal, a thousand
sparkling gems of
glistening dew.
Marion
March 2018
March 2018
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
The Far Horizon
[Editor's Post]
Our first featured article reprint for February 2018, was originally published Tuesday, October 19, 2010. A wonderful story about living in the mountains above Redwood City, California.
You can re-read and enjoy this article again here:
Our March 2018 reprint is a terrific story originally published May 31, 2005. It still rings with the warmth of family, love and laughter!
Our first featured article reprint for February 2018, was originally published Tuesday, October 19, 2010. A wonderful story about living in the mountains above Redwood City, California.
You can re-read and enjoy this article again here:
At The Sky Ranch by Esther
[Editor's note: This story was written by Esther]
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Our March 2018 reprint is a terrific story originally published May 31, 2005. It still rings with the warmth of family, love and laughter!
Telephone Chat with Elizabeth
[Editor's note: This story was written by MrsB]
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Monday, February 26, 2018
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Painting Rocks by KimB
Recently, a friend invited me to come "Paint Rocks" at her home. She explained it was a "new thing" her whole family had started to do and was a very popular past time.
She explained that you find a nice rock or cobble stone and paint it however you like, then you "hide" it for others to find. People put some sort of identifier on the rocks so the finder can post a message on line that a particular rock was found. The finder can keep the rock or re-hide it in the same spot or another location.
How could I possibly resist?
So I spent an enjoyable afternoon painting my rock and chatting with my friend and learned about painting rocks. It's easy but then not so easy.
First thing: You gotta pick a rock.
Next up: What are you going to paint.
Then the hardest part: What colors.
Since the main object is for someone to find it, I selected some bright colors. It was surprising that some colors worked better than others and I had to re-do-over a few spots when my selected color turned out to be a dud on my particular rock.
The last item is: Paint the Rock.
While concentrating on my rock, I considered how "not new" this activity really is. Humans have been painting rocks for a very very long time. 3 One of the prime indicators of "human-ness" is art.
There are the major cave works like Lascaux and Pech Merle 4 in France where the wild life and spotted horses of prehistoric times are recorded. There are myriad images painted in caves, on cliffs and overhangs all over the world. There are carvings and etchings of great intricacies that are some humanity's earliest expressions of the universe.
There are portable artworks too, rocks etched and carved in great detail; their purpose is not known but they were carried far from the location of the rock's origin. Deer horns, bones, ivory and just about anything portable served the same purpose. 5
We've been creating and carting around a lot of stuff for a long time.
The Mani Stone 6 is an example of portable art. The stones are marked with a Buddhist mantra and placed in a variety of locations, generally locations of Buddhist significance but they can also be found along rivers and roadsides.
Perhaps many many years from now, some future person will come across our current expressions of universal connection. They will ponder the meanings of the designs and images. They will analyze all the colors and paint types and consider individual brush strokes under powerful microscopes. They will consider the origin of the rocks and maybe extract DNA captured during painting. They will wonder at the variety and styles and no doubt completely lose their way in ascribing some massive, theoretical meaning to each rock.
Then again, maybe they will be correct, because there is some ancestral need to say "I was here". A need that transcends our current status, arising from our collective humanity. A need to match the universe against our most enduring weapon: our imagination.
I left my completed masterpiece in the care of my friend.
But it's "My Rock".
References
She explained that you find a nice rock or cobble stone and paint it however you like, then you "hide" it for others to find. People put some sort of identifier on the rocks so the finder can post a message on line that a particular rock was found. The finder can keep the rock or re-hide it in the same spot or another location.
How could I possibly resist?
So I spent an enjoyable afternoon painting my rock and chatting with my friend and learned about painting rocks. It's easy but then not so easy.
First thing: You gotta pick a rock.
A rock is a rock is a rock. 1It sounds simple but you know when you are about to become a Leonardo, all of sudden the shape, size, texture and color of the rock becomes a Big Deal. My friend had a large selection of rocks to pick from that had already been washed and dried. I must of looked over a dozen before I selected "My Rock".
Next up: What are you going to paint.
What do you paint, when you paint on a wall? 2You can paint anything you like on the rock but some rocks "hint" at an idea, sort of like the adage that the sculptor's marble block tells them what's inside, rocks can hint at images that would fit their configuration. My friend had a lot of samples of rocks her family had painted. Sunshine rays, geometric decorations, complex geometries, free form drawings and cartoon images created from transfer paper.
Then the hardest part: What colors.
What are the colors you use when you paint? 2Like any work of art, the colors make a difference. My friend had about a hundred different colors and paint media to chose from. The basic paint is an acrylic poster type paint but there are painting marker-style pens for fine details and you can finish the job with an overlay of clear acrylic for a high-sheen look to your rock. She said they pick up a load of paints when the craft stores have sales and she had a dozen or more small brushes to select from.
Since the main object is for someone to find it, I selected some bright colors. It was surprising that some colors worked better than others and I had to re-do-over a few spots when my selected color turned out to be a dud on my particular rock.
The last item is: Paint the Rock.
I paint what I paint. 2
 |
| Magdalenian Horse c. 15,000 BCE 5 |
There are the major cave works like Lascaux and Pech Merle 4 in France where the wild life and spotted horses of prehistoric times are recorded. There are myriad images painted in caves, on cliffs and overhangs all over the world. There are carvings and etchings of great intricacies that are some humanity's earliest expressions of the universe.
There are portable artworks too, rocks etched and carved in great detail; their purpose is not known but they were carried far from the location of the rock's origin. Deer horns, bones, ivory and just about anything portable served the same purpose. 5
We've been creating and carting around a lot of stuff for a long time.
 |
| Bison Licking Insect Bite c. 15,000 BCE 5 |
 |
| Mani Stone6 |
Perhaps many many years from now, some future person will come across our current expressions of universal connection. They will ponder the meanings of the designs and images. They will analyze all the colors and paint types and consider individual brush strokes under powerful microscopes. They will consider the origin of the rocks and maybe extract DNA captured during painting. They will wonder at the variety and styles and no doubt completely lose their way in ascribing some massive, theoretical meaning to each rock.
Then again, maybe they will be correct, because there is some ancestral need to say "I was here". A need that transcends our current status, arising from our collective humanity. A need to match the universe against our most enduring weapon: our imagination.
I left my completed masterpiece in the care of my friend.
...after all,It is just a rock with some paint on it....
It's my wall . . . 2
But it's "My Rock".
 |
| Fire Pit painted rock KimB 02/2018 |
References
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_is_a_rose_is_a_rose_is_a_rose - I Paint What I See by E.B. White
First printed in The New Yorker of May 20, 1933.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._B._White - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_art
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_painting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stone_Age_art
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pech_Merle - Magdalenian Horse, c. 15,000 BCE
Bison Licking Insect Bite c. 15,000 BCE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_stone
Monday, February 19, 2018
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Warming days and seed catalogs
Our days of freezing weather is over and today it was warm enough to sit by the pool and watch the breezes blow the pool toys around. One can get fixated on the toys escaping traps as they float on the current of circulating circles of water across the length of the pool. A breeze will often nudge a toy out of the lanes of water circles and cause a log jam, then eventually another breeze will blow it out of the trap into the water circles again.
While I ate lunch by the pool, spotty rain clouds began to out number the few spotty white clouds indicating our days of spring rains are due. This is the time of year I begin thinking of seed catalogs and imaging bountiful harvests of tomatoes and cucumbers. These imaginary harvests never develop into what I call bountiful. Considering the amount of labor and the cost of watering the plants, the effort is hardly worth it considering one can buy beautiful tomatoes grown in a professional greenhouse for pennies. I'll wait until after the rains to decide if its worth the effort.
While I ate lunch by the pool, spotty rain clouds began to out number the few spotty white clouds indicating our days of spring rains are due. This is the time of year I begin thinking of seed catalogs and imaging bountiful harvests of tomatoes and cucumbers. These imaginary harvests never develop into what I call bountiful. Considering the amount of labor and the cost of watering the plants, the effort is hardly worth it considering one can buy beautiful tomatoes grown in a professional greenhouse for pennies. I'll wait until after the rains to decide if its worth the effort.
Monday, February 12, 2018
update on knitting project
Things are not going smoothly. I researched stitch patterns and knitted swatches of the patterns I liked best. I spent days learning how to knit a Saxon Braid; after knitting a swatch without errors, I was ready to start the main body of the afghan. I had already knitted the border, so all I had to do was select the number of stitches for each pattern across the width of the afghan.
I placed the Saxon Braid in the middle of the width with special stitches on each side to show it off. The patterns on each side were complex requiring counting and concentration. Even though I used pencil and paper to keep track, I often lost count and had to start over. I had started over numerous times by the time I got to row 5.
My son could tell I was getting stressed and reminded me that I had planned on making a church, not a cathedral. When the cathedral crashed for the umpteenth time, I decided to change some of the patterns, choosing simpler, but traditional ones.
I'm too far into this knitting project to give up, but keep tuned It might even turn out to be an Aran afghan that I will be proud of.
I placed the Saxon Braid in the middle of the width with special stitches on each side to show it off. The patterns on each side were complex requiring counting and concentration. Even though I used pencil and paper to keep track, I often lost count and had to start over. I had started over numerous times by the time I got to row 5.
My son could tell I was getting stressed and reminded me that I had planned on making a church, not a cathedral. When the cathedral crashed for the umpteenth time, I decided to change some of the patterns, choosing simpler, but traditional ones.
I'm too far into this knitting project to give up, but keep tuned It might even turn out to be an Aran afghan that I will be proud of.
Friday, February 09, 2018
A birthday
Today I'm celebrating my sister, Adeline's birthday by having a frosted cupcake. She is no longer with us, but I continue to celebrate the birthdays of family members even when they are no longer with us. Yesterday, when unpacking things that had been in storage, I found a swim suit I had forgotten about and remembered when Adeline and I went shopping for swim suits. We had been invited to spend a week in an apartment in Carmel, Calif. owned by my daughter and her husband, but they only used it on weekends, so Adeline and I had the apartment all to ourselves.
The apartment was only a few steps away from the ocean, but there was also a swimming pool and we anticipated doing a lot of swimming. We took long walks up and down the beach but I was the only one to use the pool, Adeline never went swimming although I coaxed and coaxed. She never used her suit. which was the prettiest. I had had to settle for a plain, ordinary one because it was the only one in the store that was my size.
We went to fancy restaurants, visited all the wonderful shops in Carmel and found a wonderful store for kitchen ware. We browsed there and even bought a couple of the cheaper items. Back in the apartment, we had tournaments of Spite and Malice and worked a jigsaw puzzle. The prize of the card tournament was something from the kitchen store. Unfortunately when we went to the store to buy the prize, the shop had closed and went out of business so the winner of the tournament went without a prize.
We finished the puzzle in time to leave it constructed for my daughter and her husband to see, but instead of leaving it on the table, we carefully moved it in one piece and put it on the floor in a corner of the living room. A few days later, my daughter wanted to know how we had been able to put it there.
There is a special place in my heard for memories of Adeline. She was truly a gift from the heavens when she joined out family. Happy Birthday, dear Sister.
The apartment was only a few steps away from the ocean, but there was also a swimming pool and we anticipated doing a lot of swimming. We took long walks up and down the beach but I was the only one to use the pool, Adeline never went swimming although I coaxed and coaxed. She never used her suit. which was the prettiest. I had had to settle for a plain, ordinary one because it was the only one in the store that was my size.
We went to fancy restaurants, visited all the wonderful shops in Carmel and found a wonderful store for kitchen ware. We browsed there and even bought a couple of the cheaper items. Back in the apartment, we had tournaments of Spite and Malice and worked a jigsaw puzzle. The prize of the card tournament was something from the kitchen store. Unfortunately when we went to the store to buy the prize, the shop had closed and went out of business so the winner of the tournament went without a prize.
We finished the puzzle in time to leave it constructed for my daughter and her husband to see, but instead of leaving it on the table, we carefully moved it in one piece and put it on the floor in a corner of the living room. A few days later, my daughter wanted to know how we had been able to put it there.
There is a special place in my heard for memories of Adeline. She was truly a gift from the heavens when she joined out family. Happy Birthday, dear Sister.
Wednesday, February 07, 2018
Shift by KimB
Shift
Shift the day to the night
Shift the left to the right
Shift the up to the down
Shift the spin of the world-go-round
Shift the light to dark
Shift the fire from the spark
Shift the high to the low
Shift the path of the way to go
Shift the door to a bar
Shift the welcome from afar
Shift the young to old
Shift the wary to the bold
Shift the way the story's told
Shift the way to know what's sold
Shift the mind to find the place
Shift the body to match the state
Shift the race to match the pace
Shift the end of starter's gate
Shift time from the start
Shift until the last depart
Shift the day to the night
Shift the left to the right
Shift the up to the down
Shift the spin of the world-go-round
Shift the light to dark
Shift the fire from the spark
Shift the high to the low
Shift the path of the way to go
Shift the door to a bar
Shift the welcome from afar
Shift the young to old
Shift the wary to the bold
Shift the way the story's told
Shift the way to know what's sold
Shift the mind to find the place
Shift the body to match the state
Shift the race to match the pace
Shift the end of starter's gate
Shift time from the start
Shift until the last depart
KimB 01/2018
Monday, February 05, 2018
Saturday, February 03, 2018
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.
So take a moment to share the memories, we're happy to have you with us.
KimB Editor
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
Thursday, February 01, 2018
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.
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 |
Monday, January 29, 2018
Wednesday, January 24, 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.
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.
Monday, January 22, 2018
Monday, January 15, 2018
Saturday, January 13, 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.
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
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.
Lucky with his happy-go-lucky personality, his grey coat and his extra long tail is one very smart cat.
References
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 |
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
 |
| 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.
- 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. - 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. - 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. - 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. - 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
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinematics
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarin
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity#Newton's_theory_of_gravitation
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricochet
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics
- a) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtonian_mechanics
b) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_mechanics - a) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamical_system
b) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamical_billiards - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Euclidean_geometry
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_billiard
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumper_pool
Monday, January 08, 2018
Monday, January 01, 2018
Thursday, December 28, 2017
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!
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!
Monday, December 25, 2017
Wednesday, December 20, 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 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:
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.
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:
References
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.
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
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_25
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6
- a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice
b https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_solstice - a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Martin_(song)
b https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Barton_(privateer) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solstice
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic
Monday, December 18, 2017
Monday, December 11, 2017
Monday, December 04, 2017
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
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:
There are others that do:
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 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:
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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
References
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
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
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_Inc.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Alphabet
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_authority
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_media
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch.tv
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL
- a) https://mrsbizzybsayshello.blogspot.com/2017/03/when-is-link-link.html
b) https://mrsbizzybsayshello.blogspot.com/2017/04/why-links-aint-links.html - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System#Function
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_cache_poisoning
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(security_device)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob%27s_your_uncle
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_haven
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_map_1024_-_transparent,_inverted.png
Monday, November 27, 2017
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