In about 5 hours, I'll be headed for our largest state. I'll be hanging around with friends, riding the train, doing a LOT of hiking, hopefully eating fresh salmon, and did I mention hiking?
I've had the packing *list* ready for a week. I'm only assembling it today. For some reason, this triggered me to plow through EVERY stack of clothes I own. This is a task I've been putting off for a year that I need to do to thin out my closet, so when do I do it? When it's not on the critical path. Although I did find some useful hiking stuff. I haven't been using my serious technical gear here because of (a) not as much hiking and (b) short hikes and (c) hot weather. Turns out I had a couple piles of likely stuff that I hadn't used in a while that yielded choice goods. Doesn't mean I have an attractive hiking tops, but I did find my 2nd set of hiking pants.
Now I have a big pile of probably need and a modest pile of want. I'm trying to remind myself that I can buy souvenier clothes there, so it's not like I'll run out. Thinning out is going to be my hardest thing.
Here's my dain bramaged timeline
Laundry - early in week
Make gorp - first today
Put on some root touch up hair color
Repack first aid kit
Sort through all clothes
Try on just about everything I usually like
Pare down to giant pile
Realize I want that yellow shirt and do one more laundry load
Re-copy my travel itinerary
Oh crap! Still need toiletries!
Thin out clothes
Stuff all in bags
Doublecheck wallet
Figure out parking situation
Shower and dress
Fly to Alaska (Anchorage, train to Fairbanks, Denali)
I've been stressing out all week about not being packed despite knowing I had the list, the laundry, and all day today. I even woke up early for me (9am). But today, I'm feeling kinda zen about it all interspersed with short panicked intervals. I should really figure out the parking situation...
But Yay! Alaska! With friends!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Not Pinky
"They're Pinky and the Brain, Pinky and the Brain. One is a genius, the other's insane. They're laboratory mice - their genes have been spliced - they're dinky, they're Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain."
When I was in high school, brain imaging studies were new. There was a theory floating out there that we only used 10% of our brains. I'm never sure where this theory came from because it's one of the stupidest theories ever. Brains use a HUGE percentage of our energy intake. And any scientist, at least any (ahem) materials scientist, knows that everything tends toward a low energy state. Things that require lots of energy to sustain don't get sustained if they aren't important. This goes for muscles and neurons. If we only regularly used 10% of our brains, our brains would shrink to the size of a golf ball, just like our muscles wither and bones lose density if we stay inactive. Even plants do the same - removed from stressors like insects, they don't produce as much of their protective chemicals until the stressors come back. Our bodies plain wouldn't waste the calories on an inactive brain. Brains are enormously important and the body knows it and does a lot to protect them. If you don't eat? Your brain can starve - but only after it sucks nutrients out of every last cell you have outside your brain. But we're not perfect protectors of our brains.
There's a lot to love in this SEED mag article about neruogenesis including the theory (almost certainly correct and primary) that Prozac works by increasing brain cell growth, which is why its effects are delayed several weeks from initiation of treatment. Brains take a lot of energy and coordination. If they're not in the habit of growin, it can take a while to turn it around, grow new bits, link them up, and get them to be a useful part of the network.
But the article points out one of the things that pisses me off most about scientists and science news - scientists will dismiss ideas they can't fit in the current model, until they're forced to see a new model. On the one hand, science allows for new models. On the other hand, people resist change, have a vested (short term) interest in being seen to be right over actually being right, and not every crackpot theory is worth the bother of responding to.
But neurogenesis? Why would that ever be crackpot? Every other part of our body regenerates, why not our brains? "Scientists" dismissed brain growth for years and years. The article even says "10 years ago no one could have imagined that brains grew." Well, I wish I was blogging 10 years ago because I can tell you now that I imagined it then. Learning can't just reroute existing bits, there has to be some growth. It's only sensible. I think it's why reading and driving and paying attention in museums is so exhausting - your brain is consuming your energy allotment. The more you exercise it, the more it gets used to using the energy, and that energy has to do something beyond quivering.
The other "no one thought of that" was the cage environment. A lot of scientists didn't think the cage environment for rats and monkeys affected their experiments because it was a controlled, consistent environment. But we know people go quite insane when locked in solitary confinement, why wouldn't other social mammals? It has always been curious to me that people would dismiss the "home" environment of a lab rat as inconsequential. Yes, it can be tough to control an experiment if you've infected some rats and not others and they can't mix. But in recent years, researchers have found that enhanced environments means their little specimens live longer, heal faster, and grow better. Perhaps neurogenesis was never observed in caged monkeys because their boring sterile environment away from the comforting touch of friends and relatives led to brain tissue die off far outpacing neurogenesis.
Anyhow, statements like "no one could imagine it" really irk the bejezus out of me. But it irks me more to see the work of honest, outside-the-box-thinking scientists marginalized because of it. The extra special perk of this article is that a female researcher and professor is getting the snaps for "inventing" the field. Which really means changing the model. And here's hoping our brains are better for it.
When I was in high school, brain imaging studies were new. There was a theory floating out there that we only used 10% of our brains. I'm never sure where this theory came from because it's one of the stupidest theories ever. Brains use a HUGE percentage of our energy intake. And any scientist, at least any (ahem) materials scientist, knows that everything tends toward a low energy state. Things that require lots of energy to sustain don't get sustained if they aren't important. This goes for muscles and neurons. If we only regularly used 10% of our brains, our brains would shrink to the size of a golf ball, just like our muscles wither and bones lose density if we stay inactive. Even plants do the same - removed from stressors like insects, they don't produce as much of their protective chemicals until the stressors come back. Our bodies plain wouldn't waste the calories on an inactive brain. Brains are enormously important and the body knows it and does a lot to protect them. If you don't eat? Your brain can starve - but only after it sucks nutrients out of every last cell you have outside your brain. But we're not perfect protectors of our brains.
There's a lot to love in this SEED mag article about neruogenesis including the theory (almost certainly correct and primary) that Prozac works by increasing brain cell growth, which is why its effects are delayed several weeks from initiation of treatment. Brains take a lot of energy and coordination. If they're not in the habit of growin, it can take a while to turn it around, grow new bits, link them up, and get them to be a useful part of the network.
But the article points out one of the things that pisses me off most about scientists and science news - scientists will dismiss ideas they can't fit in the current model, until they're forced to see a new model. On the one hand, science allows for new models. On the other hand, people resist change, have a vested (short term) interest in being seen to be right over actually being right, and not every crackpot theory is worth the bother of responding to.
But neurogenesis? Why would that ever be crackpot? Every other part of our body regenerates, why not our brains? "Scientists" dismissed brain growth for years and years. The article even says "10 years ago no one could have imagined that brains grew." Well, I wish I was blogging 10 years ago because I can tell you now that I imagined it then. Learning can't just reroute existing bits, there has to be some growth. It's only sensible. I think it's why reading and driving and paying attention in museums is so exhausting - your brain is consuming your energy allotment. The more you exercise it, the more it gets used to using the energy, and that energy has to do something beyond quivering.
The other "no one thought of that" was the cage environment. A lot of scientists didn't think the cage environment for rats and monkeys affected their experiments because it was a controlled, consistent environment. But we know people go quite insane when locked in solitary confinement, why wouldn't other social mammals? It has always been curious to me that people would dismiss the "home" environment of a lab rat as inconsequential. Yes, it can be tough to control an experiment if you've infected some rats and not others and they can't mix. But in recent years, researchers have found that enhanced environments means their little specimens live longer, heal faster, and grow better. Perhaps neurogenesis was never observed in caged monkeys because their boring sterile environment away from the comforting touch of friends and relatives led to brain tissue die off far outpacing neurogenesis.
Anyhow, statements like "no one could imagine it" really irk the bejezus out of me. But it irks me more to see the work of honest, outside-the-box-thinking scientists marginalized because of it. The extra special perk of this article is that a female researcher and professor is getting the snaps for "inventing" the field. Which really means changing the model. And here's hoping our brains are better for it.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Butt Up!
In fast-n-furious vacation mode, I hit a minor jackpot when a work trip coincided with a planned rafting trip. Work paid to get me up to San Jose and back, and I extended the trip by a coupla days, as did the colleague I worked with who has family in that area.
My flight was easy, but my checked bag didn't show. But the airline assured me they knew where it was (back in BUR waiting for the next flight. The hotel was nice and gave me a bathrobe so I could let my travel clothes air out in case they became my work clothes the next day. (I'd gotten complacent about my "always pack a swimsuit and PJs in the carryon" rule.) The luggage arrived at 11:30pm via a shuttle service (my colleague had the rental car and took off for the time I could have collected it myself). At that point I was really grateful to be staying at the hotel for two nights so I didn't have to unpack and repack all within about 7 hours and then be conscious and unruffled for work.
The work stuff went fine. My colleague and I were doing a soft audit of a vendor who we are qualifying. The qual went ok but not smoothly so we went up to see if there was hope it would work smoothly in the future or if we should give up. I got the happy management song and dance, but it did look like they had fairly robust systems in place and we just had to work out some kinks and they'll be ok enough. Then next day was mostly a meet-n-greet because I wanted to see the facility and meet the people I was dealing with and putting my trust in to source some important materials. Their outfit is leaner than I expected, but seems to work ok, and I was glad to see it.
The second company's salesman has been trying hard for our business, and/or enjoys my company for lunch. He and his wife took me out for dinner on Thursday night. (I didn't even ask for dinner at company 1, I figured after a full day of sucking up they were kind of done with us.) I assured my vendor that I love chinese food and we went to a little place they like. It wound up being a little loud with graduation parties. I've honestly never seen an Indian family celebrating at a chinese restaurant before. Gotta love America - or at least the greater San Fransisco area for that. Then there were several other families including one graduate who had had my host's wife as an elementary school teacher! All that noise and chaos, and some low walls, meant we didn't really disturb anyone too much when I choked on my rice.
This paragraph is TMI. Skip to the next one if you don't like things gross.
And by choked, I mean almost called 911 choked. For some reason I choke on rice. It has happened to me since college. I get this very painful lump in my throat, make gagging noises that don't do anything to expel the rice, my eyes water, and I swallow convulsively for a few minutes until the lump goes down and I'm fine. This time, though, I tried to drink some water to help flush it down and it wouldn't go down! I didn't panic exactly, but I did worry and start testing my breathing. I had a little but not a lot. And this time I gagged up a pile of rice and broccoli. And mucous like there was no tomorrow. It didn't seem to stop either. So after the manager brought over some extra napkins and cleaned away my plate, I went to the bathroom - with the host's wife, I know better than to go alone in an emergency - I yakked up some more rice and mucous. Mom? This is why I don't own rice. Don't know why steak goes down fine and rice gets stuck but there you have it. Made a FANTASTIC impresson, I'm sure. Yet my host still schlepped me all the way to SF the next day.
/TMI
After the rice incident, I met with friend A for lunch in the Mission District for Thai food. sigh. Yes with rice. I was very, very careful to take small bites, chew thoroughly, and alternate foods. My friend and I had a nice chat then she kindly dropped me and my bags off at the BART station. I took the BART to the east bay and got picked up by my 4th ride of the day and spent and enjoyable afternoon window shopping with my college roommate M. After dinner, she (M) hauled me up toward Sacramento to meet up with yet another friend M. The friend to friend connections all went very smoothly. I showed them pictures on my camera and in retaliation, my roommate showed me games on her Nintendo DS which she loves as much as I like making people look at my portable slideshow.
Funny how on vacation, I always wind up getting up early. Two days of early for work, then two days of early for fun. Saturday my friend and I geared up and met up with more friends and friends of friends for a rafting trip. I went with this group 3 years ago just after I moved out here (in lieu of Dershstock) and decided to give it another go. The rafting company provides two-man kayak like inflatable self-bailing rafts which are awesome, and 3-5 man rafts which are not. It's critical to have even numbers for this trip or someone will not have a good boat. With all the friends and friends of friends, we managed an even number. Whew! It did turn out that we got one boatmate from hell, but on the whole, things went well.
The river level was down a lot this year. That meant that instead of fewer rapids and longer stretches of calm, there were more small rapids with exposed, or barely exposed rocks. We all spent lots of time exercising our ab muscles rocking and shifting our weight trying to get unstuck from all the rocks we ran afoul of. Sometimes the cry of "butt up!" was the only warning I got in the back of the boat that we were even near a rock - they were sneaky. We navigated by waiting for other people to make it through cleanly and following them, or waiting until they got stuck and navigating around them, or knocking them off the rock only to get stuck ourselves.
Aside from a couple of large rapids though, it's mostly a river you can do drunk and backwards. And we did some of it drunk and backwards. I think I drank more on saturday than I usually do in a month of sundays. I did manage not to do any of the river upside down - only getting badly stuck under one set of shrubs at the very end of the second day - although the same can't be said for everyone in our group. One couple lost one paddle and bent their remaining paddle. Fortunately someone was picking up floating paddles and redistributing them, or was at least willing to trade a paddle for beer. One of our peeps gave a found paddle to the guy "paddling" with an adult blow up doll (named Beyonce).
Everyone managed to get down the Cache Creek one way or another, with varying degrees of being wet. And the wetness wasn't all from dumping out or splashing. Did I mention the drunk part? There were also water toys. Probably the bit that most amused me was was when one of the bigger boats came by with 3 guys and a girl who shot at us with one supersoaker. Most of our group had just beached for some down time and to collect our errant rafts. Almost as one, 6 supersoakers came up out of the bottoms of our boats and returned fire. The look on the first boaters' faces was priceless! I have no idea how many if those supersoakers came home with us but we were prepared for none. It's the same river where I found my so attractive "rafting hat" that I keep in the back of my car for emergency sun protection; pretty much everything exits the raft at some point.
The rafting is a two day affair with camping in between. We staked out a good campsite and got the tents up. Then proceeded to get sunburned while sitting around drinking. There was more sitting around this year because the first day's river run was shorter due to construction. A couple from our group decided to use the time to take a "short walk" and wound up summiting a nearby hill only returned at dusk, missing the huge feast of appetizers and dinner they serve to keep us fat and happy. One pound potatoes, I kid you not. Usually they do some disco kind of thing, but not this year. I'm not sure if it was the temporary campsite or what, but being the weekend of the solstice we would have welcomed more group activity to burn up the daylight. We'd met some people (ok, drunken Irishmen) on the river who would have been fun to hang around with more.
I was surprised that I managed to wake up fairly easily after a night of very gusty winds and chittering bats and, well, sleeping in a tent with no air mattress. The sleeping bag was pretty padded, as advertised, but still. I'd hydrated fairly well and made it to breakfast and got the camp broken back down and my stuff packed up to be on the first bus. There was some confusion though and I didn't get to raft with my other friend because we didn't get the timing right and she missed the first bus out (or we took off without the last two, there are varying opinions). We did meet up later and spent more time swapping boat partners the second day since two of the first day rafters elected to bail on the second day. It was a little weird being the exact same run as the day before rather than an extension, but it worked out ok. The second day was faster since we were going home after, with some drinking, but not much. The last half of my run was spent with a young teenage girl with my first name. The all otter boat!
Finally, having manged to keep the sunburn on my shins to a dull pink, and picking up the picture of our boat shooting the big rapid with me looking serious and friend S looking zen with her eyes shut and her paddle straight overhead (which I only vaguely remember her doing since she paddled a lot early in the rapid and I was focused on steering), we headed out. I got a much needed shower, reassembled all my goods while friend M drove me back to the airport.
Despite checking in only 4 hours before the Southwest flight, I still got a great boarding number and was in the second row. Which put me across from my second big celebrity sighting! Seth Green was in the first row! They made him put a bag up over the second row due to no stowage space for carryons in his row, so he wound up getting off right in front of me. I'm pretty sure the 6'5" or so guy he was traveling with was at least part bodyguard. I gotta tell ya, I knew SG was short, but, dang! He comes up to just over my collarbone. Still cute though. I managed not to give into the impulse to nudge him down the stairs or initiate conversation or rest my chin on his hat.
All in all a thoroughly successful trip, full of friends, small bits of drama, lots of water for splashing in, not lots of water for bathing in, food, shared tasty beverages, a chance celebrity sighting, and the work went smoothly.
Next week, Alaska. Friend M from the rafting and I will be traveling together to meet up with another book club friend and doing touristy stuff and local stuff. Expectations are high.
My flight was easy, but my checked bag didn't show. But the airline assured me they knew where it was (back in BUR waiting for the next flight. The hotel was nice and gave me a bathrobe so I could let my travel clothes air out in case they became my work clothes the next day. (I'd gotten complacent about my "always pack a swimsuit and PJs in the carryon" rule.) The luggage arrived at 11:30pm via a shuttle service (my colleague had the rental car and took off for the time I could have collected it myself). At that point I was really grateful to be staying at the hotel for two nights so I didn't have to unpack and repack all within about 7 hours and then be conscious and unruffled for work.
The work stuff went fine. My colleague and I were doing a soft audit of a vendor who we are qualifying. The qual went ok but not smoothly so we went up to see if there was hope it would work smoothly in the future or if we should give up. I got the happy management song and dance, but it did look like they had fairly robust systems in place and we just had to work out some kinks and they'll be ok enough. Then next day was mostly a meet-n-greet because I wanted to see the facility and meet the people I was dealing with and putting my trust in to source some important materials. Their outfit is leaner than I expected, but seems to work ok, and I was glad to see it.
The second company's salesman has been trying hard for our business, and/or enjoys my company for lunch. He and his wife took me out for dinner on Thursday night. (I didn't even ask for dinner at company 1, I figured after a full day of sucking up they were kind of done with us.) I assured my vendor that I love chinese food and we went to a little place they like. It wound up being a little loud with graduation parties. I've honestly never seen an Indian family celebrating at a chinese restaurant before. Gotta love America - or at least the greater San Fransisco area for that. Then there were several other families including one graduate who had had my host's wife as an elementary school teacher! All that noise and chaos, and some low walls, meant we didn't really disturb anyone too much when I choked on my rice.
This paragraph is TMI. Skip to the next one if you don't like things gross.
And by choked, I mean almost called 911 choked. For some reason I choke on rice. It has happened to me since college. I get this very painful lump in my throat, make gagging noises that don't do anything to expel the rice, my eyes water, and I swallow convulsively for a few minutes until the lump goes down and I'm fine. This time, though, I tried to drink some water to help flush it down and it wouldn't go down! I didn't panic exactly, but I did worry and start testing my breathing. I had a little but not a lot. And this time I gagged up a pile of rice and broccoli. And mucous like there was no tomorrow. It didn't seem to stop either. So after the manager brought over some extra napkins and cleaned away my plate, I went to the bathroom - with the host's wife, I know better than to go alone in an emergency - I yakked up some more rice and mucous. Mom? This is why I don't own rice. Don't know why steak goes down fine and rice gets stuck but there you have it. Made a FANTASTIC impresson, I'm sure. Yet my host still schlepped me all the way to SF the next day.
/TMI
After the rice incident, I met with friend A for lunch in the Mission District for Thai food. sigh. Yes with rice. I was very, very careful to take small bites, chew thoroughly, and alternate foods. My friend and I had a nice chat then she kindly dropped me and my bags off at the BART station. I took the BART to the east bay and got picked up by my 4th ride of the day and spent and enjoyable afternoon window shopping with my college roommate M. After dinner, she (M) hauled me up toward Sacramento to meet up with yet another friend M. The friend to friend connections all went very smoothly. I showed them pictures on my camera and in retaliation, my roommate showed me games on her Nintendo DS which she loves as much as I like making people look at my portable slideshow.
Funny how on vacation, I always wind up getting up early. Two days of early for work, then two days of early for fun. Saturday my friend and I geared up and met up with more friends and friends of friends for a rafting trip. I went with this group 3 years ago just after I moved out here (in lieu of Dershstock) and decided to give it another go. The rafting company provides two-man kayak like inflatable self-bailing rafts which are awesome, and 3-5 man rafts which are not. It's critical to have even numbers for this trip or someone will not have a good boat. With all the friends and friends of friends, we managed an even number. Whew! It did turn out that we got one boatmate from hell, but on the whole, things went well.
The river level was down a lot this year. That meant that instead of fewer rapids and longer stretches of calm, there were more small rapids with exposed, or barely exposed rocks. We all spent lots of time exercising our ab muscles rocking and shifting our weight trying to get unstuck from all the rocks we ran afoul of. Sometimes the cry of "butt up!" was the only warning I got in the back of the boat that we were even near a rock - they were sneaky. We navigated by waiting for other people to make it through cleanly and following them, or waiting until they got stuck and navigating around them, or knocking them off the rock only to get stuck ourselves.
Aside from a couple of large rapids though, it's mostly a river you can do drunk and backwards. And we did some of it drunk and backwards. I think I drank more on saturday than I usually do in a month of sundays. I did manage not to do any of the river upside down - only getting badly stuck under one set of shrubs at the very end of the second day - although the same can't be said for everyone in our group. One couple lost one paddle and bent their remaining paddle. Fortunately someone was picking up floating paddles and redistributing them, or was at least willing to trade a paddle for beer. One of our peeps gave a found paddle to the guy "paddling" with an adult blow up doll (named Beyonce).
Everyone managed to get down the Cache Creek one way or another, with varying degrees of being wet. And the wetness wasn't all from dumping out or splashing. Did I mention the drunk part? There were also water toys. Probably the bit that most amused me was was when one of the bigger boats came by with 3 guys and a girl who shot at us with one supersoaker. Most of our group had just beached for some down time and to collect our errant rafts. Almost as one, 6 supersoakers came up out of the bottoms of our boats and returned fire. The look on the first boaters' faces was priceless! I have no idea how many if those supersoakers came home with us but we were prepared for none. It's the same river where I found my so attractive "rafting hat" that I keep in the back of my car for emergency sun protection; pretty much everything exits the raft at some point.
The rafting is a two day affair with camping in between. We staked out a good campsite and got the tents up. Then proceeded to get sunburned while sitting around drinking. There was more sitting around this year because the first day's river run was shorter due to construction. A couple from our group decided to use the time to take a "short walk" and wound up summiting a nearby hill only returned at dusk, missing the huge feast of appetizers and dinner they serve to keep us fat and happy. One pound potatoes, I kid you not. Usually they do some disco kind of thing, but not this year. I'm not sure if it was the temporary campsite or what, but being the weekend of the solstice we would have welcomed more group activity to burn up the daylight. We'd met some people (ok, drunken Irishmen) on the river who would have been fun to hang around with more.
I was surprised that I managed to wake up fairly easily after a night of very gusty winds and chittering bats and, well, sleeping in a tent with no air mattress. The sleeping bag was pretty padded, as advertised, but still. I'd hydrated fairly well and made it to breakfast and got the camp broken back down and my stuff packed up to be on the first bus. There was some confusion though and I didn't get to raft with my other friend because we didn't get the timing right and she missed the first bus out (or we took off without the last two, there are varying opinions). We did meet up later and spent more time swapping boat partners the second day since two of the first day rafters elected to bail on the second day. It was a little weird being the exact same run as the day before rather than an extension, but it worked out ok. The second day was faster since we were going home after, with some drinking, but not much. The last half of my run was spent with a young teenage girl with my first name. The all otter boat!
Finally, having manged to keep the sunburn on my shins to a dull pink, and picking up the picture of our boat shooting the big rapid with me looking serious and friend S looking zen with her eyes shut and her paddle straight overhead (which I only vaguely remember her doing since she paddled a lot early in the rapid and I was focused on steering), we headed out. I got a much needed shower, reassembled all my goods while friend M drove me back to the airport.
Despite checking in only 4 hours before the Southwest flight, I still got a great boarding number and was in the second row. Which put me across from my second big celebrity sighting! Seth Green was in the first row! They made him put a bag up over the second row due to no stowage space for carryons in his row, so he wound up getting off right in front of me. I'm pretty sure the 6'5" or so guy he was traveling with was at least part bodyguard. I gotta tell ya, I knew SG was short, but, dang! He comes up to just over my collarbone. Still cute though. I managed not to give into the impulse to nudge him down the stairs or initiate conversation or rest my chin on his hat.
All in all a thoroughly successful trip, full of friends, small bits of drama, lots of water for splashing in, not lots of water for bathing in, food, shared tasty beverages, a chance celebrity sighting, and the work went smoothly.
Next week, Alaska. Friend M from the rafting and I will be traveling together to meet up with another book club friend and doing touristy stuff and local stuff. Expectations are high.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Pictures
I had all sorts of intentions regarding posting pictures of my weekend. There was a rollerskating glassblowing demo that got decended upon by the midnight riders. I have a series of tree photos from one of my hikes showing the seasonal change. I have some more scraggly trees. I don't have photos from my sunday sailing adventure because I wasn't willing to risk a dip in the drink or dropping the camera. Then I came home from sailing and crashed because regulating my body temperature and making vitamin D is exhausting. So all those hours of uploading photos and lovingly crafting them into a blog went all to hell as I slept the day away.
If you need a picture fix, my Vegas travel buddy has posted a good account of our trip. A lot of his pictures look like a lot of my pictures - I was hard pressed to know which were which, so anything I might eventually work up might look a lot like this anyway. Or you can go back to the scraggly tree slideshow.
At any rate, I'm going to be traveling for work tomorrow and for pleasure over the weekend so the update rate here might drop off. (Go look at the pictures! Plus I added "Solano Skipper's Log" to the sidebar - I'll be hanging with her this weekend. If you like pictures, check out her blog!)
If you need a picture fix, my Vegas travel buddy has posted a good account of our trip. A lot of his pictures look like a lot of my pictures - I was hard pressed to know which were which, so anything I might eventually work up might look a lot like this anyway. Or you can go back to the scraggly tree slideshow.
At any rate, I'm going to be traveling for work tomorrow and for pleasure over the weekend so the update rate here might drop off. (Go look at the pictures! Plus I added "Solano Skipper's Log" to the sidebar - I'll be hanging with her this weekend. If you like pictures, check out her blog!)
Gah!
I keep seeing the headline today about Sotomayor "defending" her membership to an elite Latina's lawyer's group. I'm ok with someone asking why it's ok for her to join an exclusive group when it's not ok for white men, but I'm not ok with someone equating it with a "men's club" and failing to see the reasonableness of the association. Over on the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi recently wrote something I found very profound, and this fits the theme perfectly.
The reason a female hispanic lawyer would join a group of female hispanic lawyers has nothing to do with discriminating against non-female hispanic lawyers and everything to do with responding to discrimination against female hispanic laywers. When you make no headway in the established structures, you make your own structure. For someone to call that group out as racist or sexist is to miss a point so obvious I can barely find the words to point out its obviousness.
I belong to a group of Women Engineers. (What is a group of Men Engineers called? IEEE... yes it's joke.) I've never had problems joining a group of male engineers, but there still exist reasons to join up with women. There are still issues that need to be worked on. There are still power struggles that get exacerbated in mixed sex gatherings. The chances of me taking a leadership position - which is a skill building thing to do - is much greater in my smaller group. Then I can take that experience and build off it and use those skills in my career.
I could probably do something similar in a male dominated group, but Sotomayor could not have. Heck, 10 years earlier and she might not have gotten into Princeton at all. Do people have no sense that the reaction to being discriminated against is not, in itself, discriminatory? If not, why not? If a male judge in this day and age was shown to be in an exclusive all white, all baptist, all straight, all male group of lawyers, it would not be ok. Because that is a group where people with power are excluding those without power, for the sake of excluding people without power, generally because they consider those other people inferior. People without power joining up to gain power and experience and voice so they can break into the ranks of those with power, is a proactive way to work for equality, not against it.
May the day come when we won't have women's softball and men's baseball or need Women's engineering or lawyering groups, but that day is not here yet. And to deny someone the very real benefits of joining such a group is the very height of not understanding why they exist in the first place. Sheesh!
Conservatism, with its belief in institutions, traditions, and the past, will seemingly always privilege (perhaps inadvertently) the powerful over the powerless. Institutions, traditions and the past belong to those with power. Privileging them, privileges their agents. ...
To be a true conservative is to be more disturbed by victimology, than actual victimizing. It is to claim to abhor evil--but to abhor the response to evil even more.
The reason a female hispanic lawyer would join a group of female hispanic lawyers has nothing to do with discriminating against non-female hispanic lawyers and everything to do with responding to discrimination against female hispanic laywers. When you make no headway in the established structures, you make your own structure. For someone to call that group out as racist or sexist is to miss a point so obvious I can barely find the words to point out its obviousness.
I belong to a group of Women Engineers. (What is a group of Men Engineers called? IEEE... yes it's joke.) I've never had problems joining a group of male engineers, but there still exist reasons to join up with women. There are still issues that need to be worked on. There are still power struggles that get exacerbated in mixed sex gatherings. The chances of me taking a leadership position - which is a skill building thing to do - is much greater in my smaller group. Then I can take that experience and build off it and use those skills in my career.
I could probably do something similar in a male dominated group, but Sotomayor could not have. Heck, 10 years earlier and she might not have gotten into Princeton at all. Do people have no sense that the reaction to being discriminated against is not, in itself, discriminatory? If not, why not? If a male judge in this day and age was shown to be in an exclusive all white, all baptist, all straight, all male group of lawyers, it would not be ok. Because that is a group where people with power are excluding those without power, for the sake of excluding people without power, generally because they consider those other people inferior. People without power joining up to gain power and experience and voice so they can break into the ranks of those with power, is a proactive way to work for equality, not against it.
May the day come when we won't have women's softball and men's baseball or need Women's engineering or lawyering groups, but that day is not here yet. And to deny someone the very real benefits of joining such a group is the very height of not understanding why they exist in the first place. Sheesh!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Ripe Old Age
My parents have the amazing ability to keep pets and plants alive long past their usual lifespan. Such is the case with the family cat. We got Tanga when she was a too-small kitty who would hop around like Tigger, and had the stripes to go with the name. But that seemed a little wrong, and her coloring did have a bit of the grey kangaroo so we mixed up Kanga and Tigger to get Tanga.
She was a bit of a standoffish alleycat in temperament. She liked to go into the wilderness of the back yard, also shared with deer, enormous racoons, a snotty woodchuck, birds, rabbits, squirrels, and the occasional fox or bobcat. Her 'street smarts' stood her in good stead though. She became deaf as a reaction to her vaccinations, so we made her wear a bell on a harness. Even deaf, declawed, and wearing a bell, she could still stalk the birds and rabbits and squirrels and avoided the predators.
The thing with deaf cats, though, is they aren't afraid of motor noises. Her favorite thing in the world was to be vacuumed. (I've spent fruitless time looking for a picture of her during a vacuum massage.) Second place was probably getting her damp paws blowdried after a romp outside in wet grass or snow. Third was knocking over breakables or eating guppies out of the fish tank - "what, I thought they were snacks!" - until mom figured out where the fish were disappearing to. Mom said she got cuddlier with advancing age, but my allergies to her which weren't noticeable when I lived there full time became horrendous when visiting after moving out, so I have to take that on faith.
Recently though, Tanga'd been having trouble walking up stairs. Then this weekend she stopped walking pretty much at all, and didn't eat anything either. So mom took the day off to hold her for a while before taking her to the vet to be put down. Dad emailed back that they buried her in the yard under a new plant. It's hard to lose a pet, even if I haven't seen her in about 3 years. I'm not sure how my parents are going to take it, even though they knew the end was near. They've had Tanga for 21 active years (maybe even 22, we lost track) which is a good run for a cat. Bye, kitty.
She was a bit of a standoffish alleycat in temperament. She liked to go into the wilderness of the back yard, also shared with deer, enormous racoons, a snotty woodchuck, birds, rabbits, squirrels, and the occasional fox or bobcat. Her 'street smarts' stood her in good stead though. She became deaf as a reaction to her vaccinations, so we made her wear a bell on a harness. Even deaf, declawed, and wearing a bell, she could still stalk the birds and rabbits and squirrels and avoided the predators.
The thing with deaf cats, though, is they aren't afraid of motor noises. Her favorite thing in the world was to be vacuumed. (I've spent fruitless time looking for a picture of her during a vacuum massage.) Second place was probably getting her damp paws blowdried after a romp outside in wet grass or snow. Third was knocking over breakables or eating guppies out of the fish tank - "what, I thought they were snacks!" - until mom figured out where the fish were disappearing to. Mom said she got cuddlier with advancing age, but my allergies to her which weren't noticeable when I lived there full time became horrendous when visiting after moving out, so I have to take that on faith.
Recently though, Tanga'd been having trouble walking up stairs. Then this weekend she stopped walking pretty much at all, and didn't eat anything either. So mom took the day off to hold her for a while before taking her to the vet to be put down. Dad emailed back that they buried her in the yard under a new plant. It's hard to lose a pet, even if I haven't seen her in about 3 years. I'm not sure how my parents are going to take it, even though they knew the end was near. They've had Tanga for 21 active years (maybe even 22, we lost track) which is a good run for a cat. Bye, kitty.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
There is No Try
In the attempt to get fit and maximize my nearly free karate lessons, I did another class today after work. We did some really good stretches and standard calesthenics to warm up. Then they paired us up M-M, F-F and we choked each other. Some moves were fairly easy, but some were above my third lesson abilities. (Picture Ferris Bueller saying "never had one lesson".) People were still really nice to me, as they generally are to new people. I cracked one guy up by introducing myself as the "FNG".
I did notice a difference between how seriously I tried to do the holds vs. the other ladies I was working with. One did some things very well, and the other was pretty hesitant and kind of limp. On one hand, it's unnerving to grab a stranger by the throat after a pleasant greeting, and not hurt them while learning to hurt them. My thought on doing the exercise was that I don't want to practice doing the moves so wrong that it would be worse than not knowing. But I also don't want to hurt someone accidentally either. I can't claim any great skill, but I tried to stay focused and do the moves properly but gently. I'm not sure I'm great at gently.
Grabbing someone by the neck was very freaky. I don't really know my own strength generally. We played with a standing choke with thumbs on the throat (above and below the adam's apple) by swallowing to feel the throat parts move and it was an odd sensation. I abstained from doing a takedown from upright to floor with my arm wrapped around someone's neck. I did do the other ones. They got complicated and a little silly. There was throwing a leg up and over a shoulder then neck. There was tickling.
I did notice a difference between how seriously I tried to do the holds vs. the other ladies I was working with. One did some things very well, and the other was pretty hesitant and kind of limp. On one hand, it's unnerving to grab a stranger by the throat after a pleasant greeting, and not hurt them while learning to hurt them. My thought on doing the exercise was that I don't want to practice doing the moves so wrong that it would be worse than not knowing. But I also don't want to hurt someone accidentally either. I can't claim any great skill, but I tried to stay focused and do the moves properly but gently. I'm not sure I'm great at gently.
Grabbing someone by the neck was very freaky. I don't really know my own strength generally. We played with a standing choke with thumbs on the throat (above and below the adam's apple) by swallowing to feel the throat parts move and it was an odd sensation. I abstained from doing a takedown from upright to floor with my arm wrapped around someone's neck. I did do the other ones. They got complicated and a little silly. There was throwing a leg up and over a shoulder then neck. There was tickling.
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