A Roll in the Universe

I have a bookmark that reads, "You are never lonely with a book." Books have been my allies for as long as I can remember. Getting immersed in a story that takes double-digit chapters to resolve or following someone's theory or life over hundreds of pages adds a break from life like nothing else. And unlike other pauses in life, what you read in a book can stay with you for years, and maybe even change your life. Alice has written about the paper-based book and has linked to an article whose author feels that a Kindle would be as distracting as his computer apparently is. First of all, anybody who wants to have a good read will shut their computer off. You are not a Real Reader if you can’t figure out how to hide away (i.e. have an arsenal of sneaky tricks and good excuses) from things and tasks and people and clocks so you can Read! Secondly, when I’m reading something that really interests me, I lose all sense of time and place, anyway. (Which is absolutely wonde...

…that happens to be in the wrong place. Yesterday's photo is a close-up of the sunflower that has surprised me. I started this summer with pansies in all my flower boxes, but they quickly died. One did manage to sow a seed, though, so I have a pansy plant in one flower box. Weeds took over the other flower box. I decided to leave them as an experiment and to see what they would turn out to be. Most I recognized as local flora, but one was a bit odder. It turned out to be the sunflower. The other weeds do seem to be the flowering kind. And since they are welcome where they are, they are no longer technically weeds. PS: I can't remember where I first heard the definition of a weed introducing this post. The closest I can get to an original is by E.J. Salisbury, found at this delightful page of weed quotes .)

So, if you scroll down a bit, there's a list of stuff I read. I have a lot of this on RSS-feeds but decided to share here. Under the category "READ" are blogs and sites that are mostly for reading but may contain photos. Here be some good writing by friends - not necessarily opinions or language you'd agree with, but good writing - a couple of health blogs, a blog for web designers and design junkies, and the official Getting Things Done blog. Under the category "VIEW" are blogs and sites that mostly for looking at or watching. In the first four are three friends of mine who photograph, and do so very well. Don't miss! The Periodic Table of Videos and Sixty Symbols offer videos that explain chemistry and physics, respectively. I would have aced my high school chemistry class and maybe gone into physics if I'd had these videos! Ugly Overload and Walk the Wilderness are about critters: One has the intent of finding things humans deem unappealing, ...

I own the extended DVD set of "What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?" , also known as "Down the Rabbit Hole". I can't remember now how my browsing the internet today started, but I ended up learning a lot about the science in "What the Bleep": It's terribly inaccurate. There are other inaccuracies or downright errors, but for the most part quantum mechanics only work on quantum levels, not at sizes like a basketball or a universe or even a mere atom. And that spoils all New Age claims that it is quantum physics that explain the Law of Attraction or any other woo-woo belief, like spontaneous healing, psychic phenomenon or near-death experiences. Dang. I was so hoping science could explain these things by now. My surfing has brought me to The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry . There I have found good writing, and proper skepticism. Not the finger-pointing pooh-poohing of beliefs, but rather a behind-the-scenes look at some claims and what's factually ...

I have never understood the food-as-hobby thing. Of course, I’ve never understood the car-as-hobby thing, either. Some things are just used by most of us, while others of us delve into the inner workings, the bits and pieces, and know the subject from the inside out. I have a friend who delves into food, and with it, food policy. I have left my comments on her blog since food policy (rather than actual cooking) fascinates me, too. A comment in her blog post about avoiding animal fats almost had me using up her comment space. My goodness, arguing about food! Not what it tastes like or whose going to cook it, but what it actually is . I realized that my opinions about food were in part colored by what I had read and heard about it. Part of what I had read was that animal fats are not the reason for human obesity. Or heart disease. And that’s when it hit me: Food policy is like a religion. People argue about what the tenets are, whose canon to follow, and which prophet to listen to...

I first saw a computer in the 1970's and my first job out of high school was for a manufacturer of so-called mini-machines: The size of a washing machine, with storage and memory measured in kilobytes, not megabytes, and running BASIC. Barely 10 years later, I was an expert with WordPerfect on an IBM PC, after several years of using a Wang (look it up), and what I learned about Lotus 1-2-3 back then has helped me use Excel ever since. Then came e-mail. What fun! Then came the internet, and I got hooked up at home in 1997. More fun! I even learned HTML and designed my own webpages. I became an eager user of Usenet. I even figured out IRC and took an entire course via ICQ. Web 1.0 was good to me. Web 2.0 came along with interactive applications embedded in the web browser. Some were cooler (and more useful) than others. I like del.icio.us and still use it, and Twitter and Facebook are also in use. And blogs and Blogger, of course! I found a good use for Google Docs the day I ...

The tips of the acupuncture needles have colored caps. As I looked down my body, I saw cheerful light blue and pink sticking out of my leg and foot. One needle went into my hand and when the acupuncturist pulled it out, I was surprised to see it had been more than a centimeter (half an inch) deep in my flesh. No blood. As I look at that hand now, I can hardly tell it was poked. As I said to my acupuncturist, who turned out to be a girl I had sat next to for nearly three hours at the astrology meeting last Thursday (I'm such a ditz sometimes), I have managed to spend a lifetime immersed in New Age stuff but only now have I tried acupuncture. I'll have to ask her on Friday (my next appointment) what my pulses and tongue told her today, but based on what I told her, she focused primarily on my digestion. She told me that the meridians for the intestines cross the shoulder and since I do have digestive trouble, she decided to work on that. So she started with a needle in my foo...

I'm back on Twitter . And Facebook . I'm kafox9 on Twitter and kafox on Facebook. There. I am no longer a dinosaur. I am no longer hitting myself in the face with a hammer. I have decided I can't beat them so I join them. And I owe it to these two ladies . Speaking of two ladies, here's a pair I want to be like when I grow up and here's why . I love people who call a shovel a shovel.

I'm watching the Eurovision Song Contest for a change (it's been a few years since I last did that) and it is a perfect opportunity to do some housekeeping on the computer. But what to do with pithy sayings found here and there? Put 'em in a blog post, that's what to do. Truth was the only daughter of time. (Leonardo da Vinci) Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. (Arnold H. Glasow) Re middle-aged: I'd like to say we're in gliding-age. We've been yanked and pulled up into the air, blasted by cold winds, hurled through turbulence and now we're gliding, finally both old and smart enough to enjoy the view and the pace, while also being young enough to still experiment and fiddle with our course. (Me, in a comment on a friend's blog) We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. (Kahlil Gibran) If an item resists classification, it is easier to deem it unworthy. (Unknown) The secret of ...

Yeah, I joined the great unwashed, er, wordy and have a Twitter account. See sidebar at right. No, your other right. Thanks.

These past few days I have been busy doing other things besides sitting in front of the computer. I got some energy back (in spite of darker mornings), and a good reason to clean house (electrical inspection coming up), and have actually enjoyed taking before-pictures, clipping my iPod Shuffle to my clothing and chasing the goal of clearing off all horizontal spaces not meant for storage (countertops, tabletops and floors). The after-pictures are a huge encouragement. It's also pretty amazing that what looks like an impossible pile can relatively easily be shrunk and even removed. I give you Exhibit A, my "left" kitchen counter a week ago: Exhibit B: Same counter, with a new turquoise candle. (When I look at the before-picture, I wonder what the heck was I thinking?) I'll give you a hint for getting through paper clutter: Do it in the dark, or at least bad lighting. When dusk came and I couldn't make out details any more, I considered turning on a light,...

Wordless Wednesday Courtesy of xkcd - because it wowed me.

One of my regular diets is Fail Blog and recently it gave me a really good laugh: Now, if that guy were Norwegian, he could be a proud man, because the Norwegian alphabet runs from A to Å (not Z):

I sometimes wonder if I should have become an architect, even though my spacial abilities are not much (in spite of getting an "A" in geometry). One of my favorite waste of times secret joys is to surf the 'net looking for cool houses. I am especially fond of Spanish style homes (which are typical of California) and Bauhaus cubes . (Whadyamean they have nothing in common? They have me in common!) One architect I admire is Frank Lloyd Wright . I am also fascinated by earthships , because I love the idea of environment-friendly architecture . Treehugger often has buildings (and furniture and interiors) that turn me on. ;-) My fascination extends even to RVs - and just because it's pr0n, I surf the luxury models. I am fascinated by the efficiency and creativity designed into a small space to make it a full-featured residence. Boats hold a similar fascination for the same reason. Not so much yachts, because they can deliberately build roomy. But efficient cabin d...

I find myself hungry for knowledge, but unsure about what to read to get said knowledge. I surf blogs looking for someone who "speaks" to me, without much success. Now I'm surfing the podcasts at iTunes and am trying out iTunes U. I love listening to good speakers, people who present coherent thoughts in complete sentences with multi-syllabic words, and who are able to present their case and address any rebuttals without getting personal, off-topic or shallow. It is a nice change of pace from the talking heads on TV, and far more educational. It's funny what I find interesting: "Saturday Morning Physics" strikes me the way I've heard shoe stores strike more typical women. I look at the list of topics, like "String Theory: What is It Good for" and "The Music of Quantum Physics" and get all goose-bumpy about it. There is something about listening to a voice (or watching someone speak), about hearing something explained with the i...

I'm vegging. That means a lot of surfing (and catching up on reading). A few things I have tripped over that make me go hmm: The bacteria helicobakter pylori , which a few years ago was found to be the real reason for stomach ulcers, may actually be protecting children from asthma . With cleaner water and modern antibiotics, the prevalence of the ancient bacteria in newborns is shrinking, while at the same time, asthma is on the rise. Now, I've been having some stomach trouble, and thought that if I really have an ulcer, I need to have that doctor of mine give me a round of antibiotics. Now I'm not so sure. (Actually, I think I just need to watch what I eat.) The Dutch have figured out Stradivarius's secret: Wood density . Generations have been baffled about how violin makers Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù made their instruments produce such rich sounds. Thanks to the latest technology, it is now possible to look at the wood itself in the precio...

It's been a somewhat nerdy Sunday. After successfully solving all the sudoku puzzles in a couple of newspapers, I then tackled the computer. Apple has upgraded and changed its online service "dot Mac" to "Mobile Me" . So I spent a little while this afternoon upgrading to a cloud. When that was done, Apple offered me yet another store to shop in. *swoon* So now I'm looking for the next great to-do list app. On my aging Zire 72 (now used only for more sudoku games) I had HandyShopper , the neatest little app and best reason ever for sticking with the Palm OS. It isn't just a to-do list; it's multiple databases. And it is free. One can only hope that it will reincarnate on the iPhone/iPod Touch. But until then, I'll be surfing the new store for alternatives. Whee!

I'm sending my name to the moon. My name - Keera Ann Fox - gets a ride with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter , on a microchip. I love the idea of getting to send my name. Makes me go back to the giddy days of the 1960's and the space race and those who first orbited the moon. Go here and send your name to the moon, too! You have until July 25. (Thanks to Neatorama .)

I always knew I was smart, and I appreciate it. I don't want to lose my brain. But I'd like to expand other qualities, like courage and compassion. Your result for The Best Thing About You Test ... Intelligence Intelligence is your strongest virtue Intelligence (also called intellect ) is an umbrella term used to describe a property of the mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason , plan, and solve problems. And you? Your brain shines. All 7 virtues are a part of you, but your intelligence runs deepest. It is likely you're a smarty-pants. And it's likely (but not necessary) that your discipline score is high also. It takes a certain resolve to maintain all those neural thingies. Intelligent famous people: Einstein , Shakespeare, Da Vinci . Your raw relative scores follow. 0% is low, and 100% is perfect, nearly impossible. Note that I pitted the virtues against each other, so in some way these are relative scores...

This ad I happened to come across gives a peculiar but oddly appropriate description of presidential candidate Barack Obama (except, perhaps, for the size). (It's an ad for a magnet.)