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None of the Above

by Marble

Forcrying out loud we have debate about solid scientific models in this country, how can those percieving bias on the other side be considered in any way legitimate? I agree with Machiavelli, perception is reality. But that is only in politics because politics is artifice. It aims at misrepresenting the world. If you take that as the basis of your reality, then of course there is no objective perspective. What then is the point of communication? Solely bending others to your will?
-Smedleyman, at metafilter

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[ family ] 2002-05-20
Going on a trip: Tomorrow morning I'm taking off to Colorado for a couple weeks, to visit my mom and help her organize some stuff to make life easier when she moves.

I'll post a little while I'm there, probably. :)

[ books food mammalog ] 2002-05-16
Great visit with Elena yesterday: This week, Spencer has training at work all day every day, so he can't do our usual pickup with Elena at 3:15pm. Instead, he's having us pick her up at 10am, with Luba watching her until that time. The result is a much longer visit than normal :).

Yesterday we had a lot of fun. Here are just some of the things we did:

  • Tried out the new tattoo pens I got, which have food-grade ink in them. I made one tattoo on my ankle, and gave Elena about four tattoos on her legs (she kept insisting on more).

  • Invented a new game called "box monster", using the empty macaroni and cheese box (a big Sam's Club one that had previously held eighteen packs of the instant mac & cheese). I chased after her with the box, flapping the flaps open and closed with my hands like a monstrous maw. I'd grab her hair and hands with it, until she defeated me, and I'd fall down and she'd grab the box and chase me with it.

  • Made shrinky dink turtles using kits we got cheap from American Science & Surplus. They came out really well! I was impressed. It's been decades since I did shrinky dinks (if you are unfamiliar with them, they're plastic sheets that you decorate and then put in the oven, whereupon they shrink to a tiny size and become thick and stiff) but that signature smell as they cooked was oh-so-instantly-memorable.

  • Took tons of digipix with my new digital camera. They're huge, so I have to select the good ones and crop and re-save before I upload them. Haven't gotten around to it yet, sorry. But I will!

  • Played "shoot me with the Nerf gun", which involved me practicing my Nerf aim on her (at her request, nay, INSISTENCE, mind you). It was hilarious - she'd run around, I'd pelt her with the pump-action shooter til I ran out of ammo (foamy yellow balls), then she'd run and fetch the balls and bring them back to me. This went on until she ran right at me, and I shot her, and she was all "owie! owie!". To my horror, I saw that she had little red circles on her torso where the balls had hit her, and the game ended. She pleaded with me ten seconds later to resume the action, but I was so sorry and horrified that I had hurt her that I wouldn't give in. Then she got mad at me. Ah, well. Can't really win. (Yes, the marks went away later).

  • Played in the hot tub, having a fun time until after about the fifth time I tossed Elena towards the center when she got tons of water up her nose. She cried and screamed and lamented pitifully while I quickly dried her off, put the toys away, and put the lid back on the spa and brought her inside. I gave her some mini m&m's to cheer her up, and she recovered ok. Then she conked out in her car seat as soon as we were on our way to take her back to her dad's house.

Also yesterday, I gave Spencer his Father's Day present early: a copy of Alton Brown's book, I'm Just Here for the Food. Alton Brown is the host (& creator & writer & director) of the show Good Eats on the Food Network. It's very spiffy - he covers really neat information about food chemistry and so on - how cooking actually *works*, not just recipes.

Anyway, I'm also a fan. So I bought a copy of the book for myself, too :). I haven't really started reading it yet, but glancing through it so far, it looks great.

I was so thrilled when I found out he had a book coming out - I knew it would be the perfect gift for Spencer. I am not a good gift-giver, typically (more often than not I am a total deadbeat, not even sending a card, but I hope to improve on this). But sometimes I do stumble upon just the right thing for a person I know, and I just *love* the feeling of being able to get someone something that I know they'll enjoy.

Alton Brown will be in Austin on June 11th on his book tour, and I told Spencer to mark it on his calendar so that we can switch around looking after Elena so that he can go (it's not one of our usual visiting days).

[ good ] 2002-05-16
Newly inspired: Or re-invigorated, take your pick. I've had the domain birthsupport.com for awhile now, but I haven't really done all that much with it. I've felt bad about it, but the time just didn't seem right.

Now, I've decided that I want to start a business and really kick things off. I want to create a wealth of birth and breastfeeding (and etcetera) links and information at the site, to help new moms, other birth professionals, and generally get my name out there as a person with a clue.

I also want to offer web hosting for birth people and such at the site. But the big thing is I want to start doing postpartum doula work - helping new moms out by running errands, cleaning, bringing them meals, and so on (also doing baby videos, video editing, photography, etc). I've thought about this before, but I haven't felt the impetus to really go for it until now.

So I've got a lot of reading to do (I have two good books about starting a small business - one Texas-specific, one general), and TONS of planning and research and organizing and designing and writing of code.

It'll be awhile before I'm ready for prime time. But still, I feel like this is what I should be doing, and I feel it will be interesting, challenging, and hopefully successful. Even if it's not, I'll learn a lot, I suppose. It won't even cost me much money to get started - mostly just my time.

Yes, yes, I should have done this a year ago at least. But it just wasn't the right time. I had to heal from my mental difficulties and get more stable. Times feel right now. So wish me luck! More updates as things go on.

[ humor ] 2002-05-12
"Can you make a 'make windows stop sucking' button?" Such was the challenge issued to Daniel when he asked a friend of his for ideas on projects for little windows programs. See, Daniel's honing and expanding his skills in this area lately, and so far Slug is his greatest achievement.

Anyway, Daniel came up with a little app that does nothing but show the following window:

Well, I thought it was funny. :)

[ animals ] 2002-05-12
Kitties, kitties, kitties: 

Junior at the bird feeder

Fresh kitty pix!
  • One of the new kittens had its left eye stuck shut, so we named it Bobby and took it to the vet (at 17 days of age) to get it un-cyclopsed. Within a few minutes of diligent wiping with saline-wetted gauze and so forth, Bobby had both eyes open for the first time! We also learned that Bobby was male (I had guessed female. Doh!). Now, we have to put antibiotic ointment in his eye every morning & evening to make sure everything stays happy (and it sure is so far).

  • There's a hitch, though. Bobby has a twin, and since Bobby's eye looks so good now, it's hard to tell the difference between the little guys. We have to look for the slight residue from the ointment on Bobby's eye. So far I think we're ok, but we probably should put a string around his neck or something. David has suggested "McGee" for this one's name, and I like it. :)

  • There's another little boy in the litter - this one is what we call a "combo kitty" (part tabby, part white).

  • The one girl in the litter is a cute little calico. Since I hear that John Ashcroft thinks these types of cats are signs of Satan or something, hopefully this will keep him from showing up. Hah!

  • David snapped this portrait of Junior which I thought was quite nice.

[ random thoughts ] 2002-05-09
Got those reinstall blues: After not being able to get various pieces of software to install (or run), which had no excuse not to install (or run), I finally decided to upgrade from WinMe to Windows XP.

Unfortunately, the copy I had of WinXP didn't work, so I ended up using Windows 2000. It took awhile, but finally it installed (we had to leave it overnight while it detected devices, go figure).

So now I have a nice, clean, fresh install. I'm reinstalling apps here and there, starting with the ones I use most. Things are going well so far. I'm sure you'll see me rant if things don't go well later on.

That's about it, lately. I haven't been doing much. Sorry.

[ random thoughts ] 2002-05-02
More yard work: Today I picked up sticks and rocks and the rest of the dog poop so that David could mow the lawn.

I also wielded the Loppers of Doom with much prejudice, bringing The Weed That Thinks It's A Tree back into line so that we can actually walk on the path around it.

Then, while David was mowing, I went after the lower branches of the big cedar tree that the dogs like to sit under. I cut off anything that was pointing downwards on the lower 2-3 feet of the tree. Hopefully now the pyrs can fit underneath better, without having the tree comb their fur out.

I also pruned and lopped my way to the baby oak trees that grow by the fence. One of these has stretched its limb through the chainlink. Tsk, tsk, we can't be having that, so I gently (sorta) pulled the little branches out.

I'm going to have to do some serious cutting to the cedar tree that is shading it so that it has a chance of surviving. In case you didn't know, cedar trees are all over the place out here - they're an introduced species and they have a tendency to take over. And they're also highly flammable. Yeek.

Anyway, we have tons of the things, so taking one out so that we can get an oak in there instead is actually a good thing. So tomorrow I shall wield the Saw Of Doom and cut off large pieces of this tree.

I'm soooo tired from all this yardwork lately. But it's a good tired, the kind that says my muscles are getting stronger. And hopefully I'm burning a little fat, too.

I got tons of cedar needle thingies down my back inside my bra when I was doing all my pruning. Gah! Terribly itchy, it was. Glad that's over.

Oh, I also got Elena a cool leotard for her gymnastics class that's going to start soon. Actually it's a biketard - that is, the lower part is like bike shorts. So it won't ride up on her, which is a big plus if you ask me. I hope she likes it. I am half worried her cohorts in the class will laugh and point at her if she's the only one in a biketard. Oh, well. We'll see how it goes.

I haven't been surfing the net much lately. Mostly I've been working on my life and just getting stuff done. Which is *very* much overdue.

I just have to sort of run with the energy I have while I have it, because eventually I'll hit the low point of my cycle and be lazy and sit around and surf the net more. At least that seems to be the pattern lately.

[ animals ] 2002-05-02
Silver has a serious boo-boo: Our cat Silver came in limping this morning, and when we looked at her left rear leg, we could see a cut. So we changed our plans and took her in to the vet.

They told us it was an abscess from a bite that had become infected, and the abscess had burst. Yikes! Anyhow, they needed to keep her for awhile so they could sedate her and explore the wound, cutting out the necrosed (dead) tissue and cleaning it out.

While David went to pick her up, I worked more on the yard. I picked up sticks (in the morning I had picked up rocks) to help make the yard more mowable.

She's back now, and seems kind of cranky. She won't purr, poor thing. We put her in Elena's room with her own litter box and food and water, and of course a big comfy blanky to curl up in. I hope she feels better soon.

Hopefully she'll be back to normal quickly.

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