A Roll in the Universe

I once got to visit the library at Trinity College in Dublin. It houses manuscripts dating back to the 16th century, including some exquisite hand-written Celtic books. The library proper has bookshelves two stories high. I stood between the long rows of books, gazing at the hundreds and hundreds of leather spines, and found myself grinning like an idiot. I was happy with the thought that so much human knowledge is put forth in such a way that other humans can gain the same knowledge. I was grinning over the limitless possibilities. For the digital age, The Universal Digital Library and its Million Book Collection is a good go. It is a work in progress, but you just may find the one gem you were looking for.

1,168,440 How Many Germs Live On Your Keyboard? That's my keyboard at work. 1,617,840 How Many Germs Live On Your Keyboard? And that's my keyboard at home. I guess I need to stop eating at the computer. But before you get all grossed out, this is how germy I am: See? That bar thingy doesn't go up all that high. See? (But they should compare it to kitchen sinks. Toilet seats are clean because butts never touch anything but toilet seats. (Via Paula .)

"Please tell us why you are deactivating your account." I selected, "I don't find it useful". Facebook then informed me that if I connected with more friends I probably would. No, Facebook. The few friends I had connected with were sending virtual drinks and teddy bears and graffiti and hugs and group messages all over and I was getting notified of almost everything because Facebook wants me to know what my friends are up to. And yes, you can opt out of the e-mail notifications. But what difference does that make? Next time you log in, a bunch of unread messages, another bunch of invites to be green or international or peace-loving or whatever, and virtual bouquets of flowers, martinis or gifts waiting to be collected - and it all means adding another app and with that, another icon. The picture shows my list of apps at quitting time. Some of it was fun, yes, but it got too - messy. Too many messages, too many updates, too many tabs to click and places to ch...

I am never the first one to jump on the gadget bandwagon. I was not the first to buy an iPod, the iPod I do have must be four years old by now and doesn't do color, photos or video, and I am not likely to buy an iPhone. But the Amazon Kindle e-Book Reader is definitely a gadget I want! I rarely fall for something the moment I see it but I did this time. It's small. It holds 200 books or something. I can read all I want, where I want, and not clutter my nightstand, my purse or my bookshelves! It requires no computer and interfaces to download like a cell phone. I am so sold! But should I buy it? Will it work in Norway? It's a bit pricy, but the dollar is at an all-time low compared to the Norwegian krone, so now's a good time to buy. I think that first I need to finish reading all the information on the explanatory page. I've seen only the little introductory video so far. Oh, and I have to wipe the drool off my keyboard. UPDATE: Time to let you guys know ho...

Paula, who prefers purple and who inspired me to do this blogtest, needs orange . Very well. What do I need? You Need Some Red in Your Life Red will make you feel energetic, passionate, and determined. And with a little red, you will project an aura of warmth. If you want to feel intensely, you've got to get some red in your life! For extra punch: Combine red with orange or pink The downside of red: Red can provoke anger or rage. Watch out! The consequences of more red in your life: You will feel more enthusiasm for life You will have the confidence to go after what you want You will have a lot more physical energy What Color Do You Need? How about that. Three days running I've been wearing something bright red, and I deliberately chose to. I hunted for red things to wear. And I have been feeling better these last couple of days in spite of not getting a full night's sleep for a couple of nights (darned perimenopause). Now, let's find some pink and orange...

That's it for NaNoWriMo for this year. I got stuck - partly because I didn't do an outline or anything, and partly because I, well, got bored with it. I don't write the way the writers I like write. Anyway, I've rather suspected that my strength is not in fiction, but in non-fiction. And while I was trying to write almost 2000 words a day, I found myself wanting to update both of my blogs. I found inspiration for Budding Yogini but not the time or calm to hash it out. And that is partly because I am distracted by my stomach and my day job. The advantage to an all-rice diet is that you do lose weight. When I gain weight, I lose my hourglass figure. My waistline is the first to go. Then my chin. Then the rest of me. Also, IBS means bloating. The brown rice was the first food I'd eaten in a very long time that did not give me gas once, which was wonderful. So I've lost a couple of pounds and my waistline is back, even when I relax my stomach. And my chin line...

Granted, there are many cute animal stories around. Me, I don't often get as good a look at a hippo as in this video, and it was fascinating to watch her behavior around people and dogs. A very sweet story.

Ooh, there's another group! What an interesting title! What are they talking about! Oh, I want to reply to that! My meandering around on Facebook tonight has been reminiscent of when I first got a computer at home with a modem and the world wide web waiting for me to dial, 10 years ago. I tripped over a weirdness called Usenet and fell in love. I do my best thinking through my fingers. Poking around Facebook and looking at all the groups to join and noting the discussions reminded me very much of my first foray into Usenet. There a few things I don't like about Facebook, but it may be because I don't know enough. I don't like the look of the main page. It's called "Profile" and is full of widgets, pictures and comments from friends. It very quickly gets cluttered-looking and I can't think straight with so much visual "noise". The other thing is Facebook's networks by region. All of Norway is lumped as one, and I'm trying to figure...

The above is sun sign astrology, but it uses keywords and phrases I haven't come across before, and is breaks with the stereotype. The above fits me, with a few exceptions: "Nice to everyone" is a goal not a fact (I'm still too irritable), and I am definitely not soft-spoken. Also, I'm not sure about being romantic (though I am a sucker for a happy ending, in both movies and real life). As for being rare and wonderful if found, let me know about that one if you find me, 'K? (Via Paula .)

Facebook is rather obscure. It could have answered my questions "why" and "why register" itself, if it had bothered to put this bit of text from its privacy policy on its main page somewhere: Facebook is about sharing information with others — friends and people in your networks — while providing you with privacy settings that restrict other users from accessing your information. We allow you to choose the information you provide to friends and networks through Facebook. Our network architecture and your privacy settings allow you to make informed choices about who has access to your information. Yes, I finally signed up. No, it's not obvious to me that registering equals being able to set privacy settings, or what "privacy settings" are. Registering on Facebook itself means giving private info (like full name and birthdate) to something public. OK, so my neurons travel in crazy wormholes. Point is, Alice's mention that she finds out about loc...

I already turned down one friend who invited me to befriend her on Facebook, and now here comes another. So why don't I sign up so I can see what they're up to? Because, honestly, after years of web use, there are so many places I'm registered with and ditto number of passwords to remember. I have Yahoo, Google/Blogger, NaNoWriMo, Flickr and LiveJournal (that last only to avoid commenting anonymously). I had Frappr and Orkut. I gave up Frappr because some men were trolling for women, and when I went to log in to turn the latest offer of friendship down, I couldn't remember what I'd signed up with. Took me two days to work that one out, so I closed the account. I obviously had no use for it. One attempt at joining something (Orkut?) stranded because I had to fill out all this stuff, like name and age and gender and sun sign and favorite quote (I don't have one) just to sign up, so I gave up. I don't even bother with Web 2.0 stuff like Backpack. Everyt...

I ran into a former neighbor yesterday, picking up my new LaCie D2 Quadra, and we stood in the snow talking for a good while about the weather. It is just about zero Celsius and snow is coming down. The first snow of the season is usually wet and fleeting, but it looks like this one is taking hold. The somewhat melted stuff of yesterday has been covered by a fresh blanket, and has turned the naked trees into models for Christmas cards. It won't stay, though. There's no freezing temperature reported for the coming days, so it'll all turn to mush and be a nuisance. But I am happy to see it. Last year's winter wasn't. We had no freezing temperatures and no snow and no days of clear, crisp weather. For three months straight, we had rain. It is so normal to have a first snow in November that doesn't stay. So it's nice to have. The new LaCie 500 GB external hard drive is so I can move some stuff off my tiny (umpteen songs and photos will do that) 80 GB inter...

Disclaimer thingy: I am writing about this because of something I learned during our last class, something relevant to today's political and cultural maps. If you want an actual history lesson with dates and stuff, try Wikipedia . The rise and fall of the Roman empire did not happen with any single event. The fall was actually a combination of reorganization, erosion and invasion that took about a millenium to complete and yet the Roman empire lives on, its spirit divided into three. Sometime in the 5th century CE, emperor Constantine, who simply didn't like the city of Rome, set up shop in Byzantion, and renamed it Constantinople. The empire then basically split into a western and an eastern part. Rome was already being abandoned by its population for various reasons, so when someone asked, "Shouldn't we elect an emperor of Rome?" the answer was basically a shrug. The Roman Empire, as a military power, continued in the east, while the Goths finally seized Rom...

on my novel, I've let myself be distracted by Google sets (via Paula . The trick is to do as Paula did, and ignore Google's example of a set. I entered "cat" and "angels" and got a list of things that fly , including "cars" (must be the DeLorean ) and "Buddha". (I'm sure cat + angel = Buddha, anyway. Entering "Norway" and "striptease" gives a surprisingly mundane list . "Dragons" and "striptease" was far more amusing, offering underwear and Disney (heh). Your turn!

I know there was something I wanted to say, but darned if I can remember... What follows is blogpost padding. Read at your own peril. I re-read the book "You Are All Sanpaku" which has made me somewhat paranoid, and very curious about other people's eyes. I'm also eating a lot of brown rice. The nice thing about that is that figuring out what to have for dinner has become very easy. It's also very confusing. I mean, the macrobiotic diet is antithetic to low-carb diets. Or vice-versa. So who to listen to? There's an attempt at leaving some white stuff on the ground today. Those crazy weather gods. They do like to tease. I discovered where the magpie sleeps during the night: In the tree next to its nest. Exposed to whatever those crazy weather gods think of. I'm rather glad I'm not a magpie (though I think it would be fun to be a crazy weather god). I wrote nothing yesterday. Well, I did, but it wasn't my novel. I finished up my course in t...

I'm supposed to be writing a novel. So what happens? My curiosity, as usual, gets the better of me and I end up delightedly poking around in this map and blogpost . So Rivendell was in Norway... That puts an interesting slant on things. And in other news: The Indians almost had a state . I didn't know that about Oklahoma's history. I tripped over the above thanks to a friend's (hi, Max!) linkage to this illustrative painting of Norway, Europe, and Norway's relationship with water. Do read the comments to the above blogposts. Very informative. Now, could somebody please come and tear me loose from strange maps ? I really must write my novel. Thanks.

Shamelessly stolen from Paula (who, I admit, is my mentor in all this. Bet you didn't know that, Paula!). Now to get that percentage into the double digits (like Paula).

The title of this blogpost happens to be the title of my work-in-progress (WIP) at NaNoWriMo (see widget to the left). It's actually the whimsical title of a couple of galaxies, which was the Astronomy Picture of the Day on October 12 . For lack of a better title for a WIP, I stole this. I have no clue how to write a novel, in spite of having taken a few writing classes and having read a few books on writing (including Stephen King's "On Writing"). My cluelessness may be due to the fact that I have never written any fiction longer than a short-story. But the idea behind the National Novel Writing Month is to just put the words down - 50,000 in all - by midnight November 30. Still, that leaves the challenge of having words to put down. I submitted over 1300 words (daily target should be closer to 1700) on Nov. 1. I got bogged down in some goings on between two characters that I didn't know the end of, and one of them I had given such a trendy name to, that I go...