The falling leaves...

"... drift by my window. The falling leaves ..." Ahhh, the first signs of autumn. The trees are still all green but there are leaves that are brown, shriveled, and lying alongside the road or dotting the ground beneath the trees. There's a certain chill in the air making a person think of football games and warmer jackets. Weathermen are casting a wary glance at the thermometer and predicting highs in the 70's instead of the 80's or 90's.

It has now been five full years since I moved to Sacramento. On this day five years ago, Carolyn, Natalie, and Richard helped me move into an apartment on Marconi then headed back to Long Beach leaving me to face the new job, the new apartment, the new EVERYTHING the next day.

And what an adventure it's been. Several people have accused me of going to Sacramento to retire. That certainly was the plan but just not quite as soon as it turned out. Still,, it's turning out okay even if I do get a little nostalgic about this time of year.

Digital explosion

Apparently someone thinks my retirement party won't be dull enough so they want to get some pictures of my past to really put people to sleep. I, of course, have nothing to hide except the fact that I have gained 60 pounds since getting married some 40 years ago and most of that in the last 20 years. Well, maybe I should say I'm pretty sure there's no photographic evidence of anything I may or may not have to hide.

One of the reasons for the lack of evidence is that photos were just not as common in the past as they are now. Film and processing was expensive so we were careful in selecting what warranted capturing for posterity. Now digital photos are so inexpensive as to be virtually free.

In order to help out with this photo presentation, I reviewed the 14 slide trays that I have been scanning into digital form as well as the pictures I have taken in the past 8 or 9 years since I began using a digital camera. And the difference is astonishing.

From 1966 to 1980 or about 14 years, we managed to take enough slides (that being our preferred picture taking mode back then) to fill 14 trays. So approximately 1,400 slides and roughly 100 slides per year. Of course, some years might have had 200 and others less than 50. We weren't very systematic.

From February 2006 to September, I've taken 1,582 pictures on my camera alone. Carolyn has taken 585 pictures with her camera during the same time. The total amounts to about 310 pictures per month (10 per day) and will come to over 3,700 pictures if we continue at the same pace for a year. In other words, we are taking almost 40 times as many pictures as we did in the 60's and 70's. What a legacy we're leaving for our kids! Thousands of pictures and most of them with only a date attached - no description, no place, no nothing.

Celebrity lineup

It's that time again. I feel like a Hollywood booking agent or a Washington deal maker. Everyone who's ANYONE is calling the Loveridge household.

Let's see, former President Clinton called this morning, Senator Barbara Boxer just a couple of days ago. Last night it was the Governor followed closely by his opponent Phil Angelidees. It's getting so difficult to keep track of them all. And then there are the "near greats": Assemblyman Doolittle reminding us that his opponent wouldn't even know who Jack Abramoff is, let alone cut deals with him - deals that, by the way, were perfectly legitimate, unlike some that Jack made.

I've stopped answering the phone anymore unless our caller ID identifies the caller as someone less famous than Mayor Fargo or the Maloof brothers. Then I might pick it up. So, if you're calling and your phone line has caller ID blocked, just leave a message and I'll get back to you.

A Matter of Degrees - book review

A Matter of Degrees by Gino Segre has the subtitle: “What temperature reveals about the past and future of our species, planet, and universe”, a daunting subject, to say the least. This book is popular science at its best. We’re all influenced by and often obsessed with temperature. In fact, we allude to temperature in referring to the latest fads or heroes as “cool” or “hot”. We want to know what the daily temperature is or what we can look forward to for the weekend. But how much do we really know about temperature.

Do you know what causes a fever? Or what good a fever does for our body? Did you know that Einstein registered patents for an improved refrigerator. Did you know that the earth has gone through several periods of runaway greenhouse gas? Did you know that we know the temperature of the center of the sun much more precisely than we know that of the earth?

Segre ties together so many branches of science in so many ways that it is difficult not to appreciate how much the study of temperature and heat affects all those branches. From deep sea biology to far flung astronomy, from medical cures to food preservation. A really great book.

First reading

The cast list was published last week and the first reading of the script was announced for Monday evening. We're all feeling a little more comfortable now that we have a role in the musical and have some idea what we'll be doing. Some of us have rented the video Oliver! to watch "our" character in action one more time.

The director passes out the scripts at the same time the house manager is collecting the applicable fee. Shelling out money for something not only keeps the costs down for the DMTC but it also provides a little incentive for keeping track of your own copy.

We're given a rundown of the house rules such as no food in the dressing rooms, no food on stage, no food in the seating area of the theater, no food while in costume, no... well, you get the idea. It's best to leave your food at home or in the car. I suspect this rule is based on many years and bad experiences.

The director finally gets us all to settle down in the first three rows, middle section of the theater while she takes a seat center stage. She outlines her vision of the play which will be a mix of the theatrical version and the movie version, taking the best of both. This will lead to some interesting twists and turns in the actual script we have in front of us but nothing we can't handle. I hope.

And, finally, reading through the script. We skip the musical numbers except where the lyrics are vital to understanding the story line. I'm surprised that my Mr. Brownlow has much more to say than I remembered in the video. This is going to be a lot of work but a lot of fun as well. The full impact of what I've gotten myself into begins to sink in.

The next rehearsal is announced, the cast list with email and phone numbers is passed out, and we're asked for our "bios" for the programs/lobby pictures. Oh, and another request is made to find us a pianist.

Sockpuppet

I just learned a new word today - Sockpuppet. Oh, I don't mean I just learned what those cute little puppets are called that are made out of socks or sock material. I learned that sockpuppet is a technical word used to describe someone who is using a second identity on an Internet forum or discussion board in order to say or do things that his main identity can't.
For example, a person might use one or more sockpuppets to make it look like several others agree with his viewpoint. Or he might use a sockpuppet to argue with and be a "straight man" for positions he wants to attack or make fun of.

In some cases it is easy to tell when a sockpuppet is speaking because the grammar, spelling, or MO is simply too much like the owner. Other times, real participants are labeled sockpuppets incorrectly because they sound so much like another participant on the board. There's even a word - dank - that refers to someone attempting to use a sockpuppet alias but forgets to change to the proper account when he posts over the sockpuppet signature. That must be embarrassing.

I must be one of the few people who haven't heard this word used this way. Yesterday's Sacramento Bee used the term in a headline referring to a PG&E shill hired for $200,000 to campaign against an expansion proposal of our local electric utility. The term was never explained or even used in the article.

Carolyn also reminds me that the practice is hardly new. Ben Franklin regularly published articles in his newspaper and almanac that he credited to other people thinking that he would have no credibility if all his articles were just self-published. I'll bet Ben would have appreciated the term "sockpuppet".

Terri, the truth - book review

Terri, the Truth by Michael Schiavo with Michael Hirsh is the one-sided story of the Terri Schiavo case. This case dominated the news headlines for months and led to such outlandish activities as a member of the U. S. Senate diagnosing someone over the television without ever meeting the patient, a governor asking the husband to be prosecuted without ever having seen the facts of the case, and the law of the land in Florida to be held up to ridicule and suspicion.

I say one-story because it is obvious from the start that Michael, Terri’s husband, is telling only his side. He is so convinced of his side that there is no other side.

Michael is not a nice man. That doesn’t make him a criminal. Lots of people aren’t nice and sometimes you have to be “not nice” to get your way. But in this case being “not nice” may have gotten Michael more than he ever bargained for.

To summarize the case: Terri Schiavo fell early one morning and had to be resuscitated by emergency personnel, called to the home by Michael. Terri lapsed into a coma from which she never recovered. Her apparent consciousness was misleading, fooling many visitors into thinking there was some hope for her recovery from a “persistive vegetative state”, which medical experts repeatedly diagnosed. The cause of Terri’s fall and illness was at least partially due to her bulimia, a condition she hid from everyone including her doctors and therein lies the root of the problem.

Michael, not wanting to believe that Terri was not going to recover and wanting “some to blame” for Terri’s condition sued her pre-injury doctors for malpractice. Had he lost (which I believe he should have), we would never have heard of the case and Michael admits as much. But he won, and with winning received a settlement. With that settlement, he could continue hoping for Terri’s impossible recovery. But, more importantly, he became a target for Terri’s parents’ greed.

Michael made many enemies of Terri’s healthcare providers in making demands for her care over and above any standard of care. That did not help his case when others questioned whether he should be the sole guardian. His decision to begin dating while still maintaining that he hoped for Terri’s recovery didn’t help either.

Although, he didn’t outline the other side of the story, this book has enough details of Michael’s life and thoughts that I think I could even write a convincing “other side”. Interesting book but not uplifting.

Have a Seat

Have you ever been walking along in the city and wished there was someplace to sit down and just watch what's going on around you? Even bus stops often don't have any place to just sit. And I can think of lots of times when we've been out geocaching like this morning when a well placed seat would have been welcome. Well, Caroline Woolard may just have the solution.

On Caroline Woolard's blog for August 29,2006 is the following:

Have a Seat: Caroline Woolard’s Project at ConFlux: the annual NYC festival for contemporary psychogeography where international artists, technologists, urban adventurers and the public put investigations of everyday city life into practice on the streets. In Brooklyn, NY from September 14-17, 2006.

Have a Seat is Caroline Woolard’s gesture towards reclaiming public space. It is a platform for a new vantage point on the street. As seating bolted to no parking signs in New York, Have a Seat offers rest and contemplation in transitional spaces. Installed for ConFlux in Brooklyn from September 14-17, these temporary seats are the culmination of three years of prototypes in New York and Rhode Island.

In the city, the street should be a destination in itself. Many people use the street to get from one place to another, but it is an invaluable arena for immediate interaction. Instead of walking to a park or other zone calculated for relaxation, Have a Seat serves those people who want to pause amidst action for a direct perspective on the momentum of the city. The seat is a signal at the scale of the human body in a city of buildings that consume space and light at the expense of pedestrians who are swept forward by wind tunnels in the shadow of skyscrapers. Unlike monuments that overpower people in scale and pretension, these wooden chairs wait to be used by a single body on the street.

Have a Seat makes everyday environments strange, pushing for a moment to reevaluate the monotony of consistent routine. Robert Musil writes, in The Man Without Qualities:
“Everything we feel and do is somehow oriented “lifeward,” and the least deviation away from this direction toward something beyond is difficult or alarming. This is true even of the simple act of walking: one lifts one’s center of gravity, pushes it forward, and lets it drop again- and the slightest change, the merest hint of shrinking from this letting-oneself0drop-into-the-future, or even of stopping to wonder at it- and one can no longer stand upright! Stopping to think is dangerous.”

This project celebrates individuals actively shaping shared space and the interactions in it. It encourages pedestrians to stop and think. Although disembodied conversations (Blackberry, cell phone, etc) and narrative accompaniment (iPods) inevitably insulate individuals from this reality, I hope that a symbol of rest amidst action allows some people to create immediate connection with the street.

Akeelah and the Bee - movie review

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate; our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, talented, and fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in ALL of us; as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

– Marianne Williamson (from Akeelah and the Bee)

I can't imagine a much more daunting challenge than writing a screenplay for a movie about a spelling bee. In this world of fast action sports and extreme activities of all sorts, spelling a number of arcane and mostly unusable words doesn't rank high on my list of sports - spectator or otherwise. For that reason, I was pleasantly surprised how fun the movie Akeelah and the Bee was. It had just the right amount of tension to keep you interested without getting too hokey. Okay, it was a little hokey but still tolerable. A modified version of the quote by Marianne Williamson at the beginning of this review was used as part of the storyline plot to give some overall substance and moral to the story. Do any of us really live up to our potential?

According to the special features on the DVD, this movie was produced on a shoestring but there is nothing second class in the production values. Everything comes together to make this a pleasant viewing experience for the whole family. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm in!!

The cast for Oliver! was posted on the Davis Musical Theater Company web site this afternoon and like an anxious schoolboy I scanned the list for my name. There it was - I am to play Mr. Brownlow during the second act and be part of the Ensemble during the first act. Mr. Brownlow, in case you missed it in an earlier post, is a "wealthy gentleman, Oliver's unknowing grandfather, kind, mannerly, sympathetic." It's the perfect part for me, at least as far as everything but the wealthy part. I have several important lines revoloving around the end of the play as Oliver discovers who he really is but I don't have to sing a solo which would probably really terrify me.

The first cast meeting and reading through the script is next Monday. Then the adventure really begins!

Callback

Callback n - more fun and games at the Davis Musical Center Theater.

At the end of the evening of auditions, many (if not all) of us were invited to come back on Tuesday evening for what was called "Callback". I have no idea what to expect since we weren't asked to prepare or bring anything. Since we were dismissed at different times, usually by way of a quick word from the director, we don't even know who else has been invited back until we see them again.

The crowd is slightly larger than the Monday evening group. I think there are two or three that aren't here but there are several new faces in their place. Many of the others seem just as puzzled as I am about what is going to happen.

It turns out that the audition evenings were primarily to separate out those who cannot carry a tune and therefore won't be assigned parts requiring singing. However, that doesn't mean they won't be in the play. Tonight, the purpose appears to be deciding who can sing a solo. This is done by having, for example, all the men who might play Mr. Bumble gather around the piano to rehearse "Boy for Sale". The song is completely new to me but I feel like I have a handle on it when rehearsing. However, when performing it solo, the pianist plays just enough accompaniment to keep me on tempo but no melody. My music sight reading is good but not that good. I'm a little discouraged but continue to accept tryout roles throughout the evening.

In between the musical trials there are more reading exercises, groups of two or three with a small section of the script to practice with and then read for the director. I'm intimidated by the obvious acting experience my fellow auditioners have. And some of them talk like they've just stepped off the boat from 19th century England. How can I compete with that?

I manage to stay until there are only a half dozen of us. Then the director thanks me and says the casting will appear on the website Thursday evening. She turns her attention to the others still there. No hints, no promises, no "thanks but no thanks". I'll just have to wait.

I can't say that anymore!

The email was innocuous enough. It read as follows:

Auditions for Oliver!...September 17 & 18, 2006
Oliver!

Audition dates: Sunday, September 17 and Monday, September 18, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.
Callbacks: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.
Directed & Choreographed by Jan Isaacson At the Hoblit Performing Arts Center, 607 Pena Drive

Character Descriptions

• Oliver (9-13 years old) strong boy soprano, loving, sad, hopeful.
• Fagin-Character actor, must sing well, houses and trains pickpockets, miserly, welcoming
• Nancy-Strong belter, rough, kind, strong-will, sympathetic, Bill Sykes girlfriend
• Mr. Bumble-Legit Tenor, workhouse boss, mean, over bearing, pompous
• Widow Corney-Strong character actress, workhouse mistress, domineering, fussy, proud, sharp-tongued
• The Artful Dodger (12-25 years old) Fagin’s brightest pupil, friendly, optimistic
• Bill Sykes-Baritone-Bass, must sing, a villain who associated and does business with Fagin, rough, brutish, glowering, violent
• Bet-idolizes Nancy, pretty, sweet, strong-willed
• Mr. Sowerberry-Character role, funeral home owner, grim, formal, graceful
• Mrs. Sowerberry-Character actress, Funeral home owner’s wife, sour, middle-aged woman, mean
• Charlotte-Daughter of Funeral home owner, lazy, mean, sour-faced
• Noah Claypool-Lazy, shop keeping apprentice, mean, taunting, coward
• Mr. Brownlow-Wealthy gentleman, Oliver’s unknowing grandfather, kind, mannerly, sympathetic
• Mrs. Bedwin-Brownlow’s housekeeper, kind, motherly
• Dr. Grimwig-Aristocratic doctor for the wealthy, friendly
• Charlie Bates-2nd in command of Fagin’s boys
• Who Will Buy Sellers-Men and women legit singers.
• Fagin’s Boys-must sing and move well
• Workhouse Boys (girls and boys)
• Large Ensemble of singers and dancers (of all ages) who will fill in numerous roles

Performances November 10-Dec 3, 2006; Fridays and Saturdays at 8:15 p.m. and Sundays at 2:15 p.m.

You do not have to come both days. Please bring sheet music for a song that you already know and are comfortable singing. You do not have to sing the entire song, just enough to give the director and music director an idea of how well you can carry a tune and follow our piano player’s accompaniment (no pre-taped music or a cappella, please).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Davis Musical Theatre Company
The Hoblit Performing Arts Center
607 Pena Drive
Davis, CA 95616

I don't consider myself a "legit tenor" or bass or baritone for that matter. If anything, I'm an "illegit baritone", my higher notes having suffered from age and unuse. But I somehow got it into my head that I should audition. They'd surely at least cast me in the ensemble as one of the "unwashed masses" in the back of the stage.

So with knees shaking and a voice in my head asking "what do you think you're doing?" I went to the Monday evening audition. When my turn came, I stood on stage, announced my name and musical number, and informed the audience (consisting of the director and all the other cast hopefuls) that I had never auditioned before in my life. When I was greeted with cheers instead of jeers, I cued the pianist and belted out what was hopefully recognized as a reasonable version of "We'll Sing in the Sunshine". And, just like in the movies, the director yelled "NEXT" just as I finished - to another polite round of applause. I can't ever say "I've never auditioned" again.

And at the end of an entertaining evening, I was asked to come back the next evening - whatever that might mean.

Carmichael Library - part 2

Yesterday was the big grand opening of the library and what a party! There are parties when you hope someone shows up and there are parties when you're glad someone shows up and there are parties when you almost wish so many people hadn't shown up. I think this was one of the last kind. I didn't see any official statistics in the paper this morning but people who probably would have known yesterday were estimating the crowd at over 4,000. Of course they all weren't there at the same time but it seemed like it. People stood outside the library for over an hour before the doors opened. It was like some sort of grand opening sale. I guess some were worried that there wouldn't be any books left to check out.

Other than the fact that you couldn't move around inside the library until an hour after it opened and some people were really crabby, it was a successful party. The Friends of the Carmichael Library (our branch affiliate to the organize I'm treasurer for) occupied the patio off the main entrance for the purpose of selling donated and surplus books. They sold hundreds of books.

In the community room, there were plates of fruit, cookies, and cake which were emptied as fast as the caterers could fill them. Same for the punch bowls. Outside in the parking lot, children's entertainers kept some of the little ones entertained under the large tent that had been set up for that purpose while a local radio station van DJ'ed from another section of the parking lot. People were parking in the overflow lot of the overflow parking area of the church next door which had kindly offered parking for the event since the library parking was overfilled an hour before the party started.

We saw all sorts of people we knew including, of course, Ed, Tiffany, Tim and Jake. There were also several neighbors and church friends. I made sure I congratulated Anne Marie Gold, Executive Director, and Alison Landers, Associate Executive Director of the Sacramento Public Library. They actually recognize me (when I wear my Friends of the Library t-shirt.)

Sentence completion test

When I blogged a few days ago about a psychologist studying bloggers I listed a set of questions that I answered as part of the study. I also wondered in that entry how those questions were supposed to measure anything.

After a little bit of Googling, I discovered those questions were one version of the Washington University (St. Louis, MO) Sentence Completion Test (or WUSCT for short). This test was developed by Jane Loevinger in 1970 for use in measuring a person’s personal organization and personality development, sometimes called Ego Development in the literature. However, this Ego is not to be confused with the Ego developed by Freud or that used in the common vernacular.

According to the literature, this test has high reliability and consistency when scored by properly trained people. It does not lend itself well to automated scoring by machine. Since one of the scoring manuals is over 450 pages, I’m not likely to try to score my own answers.

How did people ever find out about such things before the Internet? Before Google?

Carmichael has a NEW library!

Tomorrow, an open house will welcome the public to Carmichael's newly remodeled library. And what a gem it is! As volunteers and Friends of the Library, Carolyn and I were able to get a sneak preview and we really liked what we saw. This was a complete makeover job with hardly a wall remaining in place from the previous library. Only the location and parking lot looks the same.

Through the cheery front entrance from the parking lot, you see the central information desk where you can also check out books if you don't want to use one of the four "self check-out" computers on your right.

Your next impression of the place is how wide open it is with tall ceilings filled with bright skylights. Although the place is filled with books as a library should be, there is so much air space that you don't feel claustrophobic.

Rows of empty tables are available for the after school studier or for those who want to bring in their laptops to take advantage of the wireless Internet connection available throughout the library and even in the parking lot.

For those who'd rather use the library's computers, there is a block of 24 computers arranged in a classroom formation. Most of the time they'll be available for patrons to reserve but the library is also expecting to have computer instruction available. A "pay per page" print server is also connected to these computers.

Next to the computer area is the teen "den" complete with diner style booths for a more casual atmosphere.

From inside the teen den you can also watch their wide screen TV (controlled, of course, by the librarian).

For children and their parents there is the reading room complete with moving aluminum sculpture. I found it a little unsettling to watch metal butterfly nets flying backward.

There are also extra-wide chairs so that moms and dads can read to one of more kids and still be comfortable.

The shelving in the children's section is appropriately short so that kids can find and retrieve their own books.

We're so exciting to be getting our library back. It's been a long 18 months but it looks like it was worth the wait.

Oak, the Frame of Civilization - a book review

Oak, the Frame of Civilization, by William Bryant Logan is one of those books that is hard to categorize. Part history, part anthropology, part documentary/coffee table book. Logan uses the fact that oak is one of the oldest known species of tree and the fact that it has adapted to so many different climates and growing conditions to write about such diverse topics as Native American acorn-eating cultures, the importance of colliers (charcoal makers) and coopers (barrel makers) to civilization well into the 20th century, the War of 1812, and growth patterns of different types of oak. There is a little bit for everyone in this book - sort of like an encyclopedia but much more interesting.

And the forecast is ...

The following quote is from David Merrill’s blog

My younger brother is a meteorologist for an NBC affiliate in Salt Lake. I remember him telling me about accurate weather forecasting, explaining that the technology and weather pattern models existe to create very accurate 2-week local forecasts. The problem is the processing time would take 2 months or more. With the recent heat in Dallas (4 weeks of 100+ degree weather), I would be willing to wait if the forecast was any measure of improvement.

Besides the fact that David apparently missed the irony of his brother’s statement (waiting 2 months to get a forecast that is by then 6 weeks out of date) the statement does say a lot about forecasting. And forecasting is something I know a bit about since I did it for about 35 years.

As a Chief Financial Officer, I was expected to report on the financial condition of each of the companies I worked for. However, just giving a report of where we stood was merely an exercise in accurately describing history with maybe some exciting details of how or whether we’d survived some of the challenges we had encountered.

More often, my fellow executives and board members were interested in what was next, where we would be a year, 2 years, or 5 years down the road. And that, to borrow the logic of David Merrill’s brother, was easy to do. It would just take me 1.5, 2.5 or 5.5 years to do it.

Forecasting the future isn’t of course a matter of blind guessing. There are lots of things you can use to minimize the amount of guesswork. Things such as current and past trends; plans that you, your competitors, or customers have committed to; and technology and resource changes that you are aware of. But ultimately, none of these things can be counted on to behave in the future the way you think they will. There’s no guarantee. So you do your best. And when your best isn’t good enough you change jobs, or careers, or just retire.

Purple trellis

"So, is this a tribute to those women's basketball champions, the Sacramento Monarchs?" I asked Carolyn. "Or are you just hungry for blueberry yoghurt? Maybe, you've been reading Alice Walker's "The Color Purple"?"

She just smiled at me and continued on with her painting job. I had helped her earlier to try to piece back together the trellis that had suffered the past couple of winters. One of the legs had a spot of dry rot so all the pieces going into or coming out of that leg were loose. But I had no idea that small repaiar job would lead to this.

What do you think? It certainly adds a bit of color to our back yard. Just not in the way I would normally expect.

300 posts!!

It is hard to believe that since I started this blog 8 months ago I have posted 300 entries - 300 bits of my life that I felt like sharing with you (and the world for anyone who cares).

I probably wouldn't have even taken notice except that Carolyn has been after me to "archive" this blog in the event that Google should suddenly decide to pull the plug. It would be a shame to loose all of this because somebody somewhere decided that I no longer deserved a free forum to discuss whatever I wanted and to share photos and thoughts whenever I felt the urge.

It turns out that Google's Blogger software doesn't have an archive function. Pulling the plug is probably anathema to their way of thinking so why have a feature that will never be needed? But there is a setting where you can make up to 999 posts appear on the main page (instead of the usual 6 or 10). When I did that I got all 300 posts including the scores of photos that I have shared over these many months. Then I could save the page locally giving me a pretty good archive. Not something that I could easily restore but something I could use for research or even publication. Can you imagine - Too Old to Know Better, the BOOK!

Anyway, I'd like to thank you for indulging me and even letting me know from time to time that someone out there is reading. And I look forward to the next 300 posts.

Are you safer?

Like many people today remembering the tragic attack on the World Trade Center, I wondered if I felt more or less safe as a result of the events of the past 5 years. And I’ll have to be honest that I don’t.

During my time in the Army and National Guard, I learned that professional soldiers think it’s a good idea to have a little war every once in a while. Military exercises are helpful, but there’s nothing like a real war to test the effectiveness of both offensive weapons and defensive equipment. The military is sometimes accused of “fighting the previous war” and to some extent that is a valid argument. They don’t know what the “next” war is going to be like so all they can do is be better prepared for the last one. Another good reason to have frequent small wars to stay up to date.

The problem I have feeling safer is that in spite of our being the most powerful nation that has ever existed, in spite of our having a record breaking non-wartime budget, we can’t stop our troops from being kidnapped and killed. And it appears we can’t stop terrorist attacks on our home territory without invasive, annoying searches before every airline flight as well as at entrances to stadiums, concerts, and amusement parks.

Hardly a day goes by when I don’t read about the president or one of his assistants insisting this administration needs more power, more unrestricted, unchecked, unsupervised power to listen to, probe, arrest, detain, torture enemy combatants for an unlimited time in this undeclared war because it’s “different” from all our previous wars. Even U.S. citizens can and have become “enemy combatants” and lose all rights normally due them. Another reason I don’t feel safer.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his 1933 inaugural address told the nation in the depths of a severe depression that, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." What a difference from today's headlines.

Strapped - a book review

I’m not sure why I originally picked up Strapped by Tamara Draut. The cover didn't particularly strike me. But this modern day horror story from the New Books shelf at the library with the subtitle: "Why America’s 20- and 30-somethings can’t get ahead” speaks to a large and ever-growing concern of my own. After all, we have 6 children that fit in that age category and, indeed, they are having trouble making the transition for young married students to middle-class homeowners. The harder they work, the more their goals seem to slip further and further away.

Tamara Draut, a self-identified Generation X-er, spends five chapters of this book explaining just how bad the problem is and identifies specific problems such as the high cost of education, housing, credit and childcare as well as the increasing lack of middle-income jobs. There are young adults who are doing very well, thank you, but that just makes the frustration even greater for those who see their net worth as a negative and getting moreso by the month.

To a large degree, Draut blames this on the young people themselves and shows how they have dropped out of politics and the public arena. They have become convinced that the government is ineffective and wasteful and has no intention of helping them. In fact, they believe more than any previous generation that it is up to them to solve their own problems so they don’t even consider that one purpose for government might be to solve wide ranging economic suffering.

Draut ends her book with some concrete solutions that will sound socialistic to many and certainly liberal to most. But everyone except the hard-core libertarian will usually admit there is a role for government to play when the free market has failed and it is no longer within the power of the individual to reach his or her potential. Draut argues convincingly for more affordable education and housing, more jobs with real earning potential, and wealth redistribution that would reward families. The alternative is a growing lower class and economic instability.

Cold Duck salad dressing

According to Wikipedia:

Cold Duck is the name of a sparkling wine made in the United States that was at one stage the best-selling sparkling wine in America.

The wine was invented by Harold Borgman, the owner of Pontchartrain Wine Cellars in Detroit, in 1937 and based on a traditional German custom of mixing all the dregs of unfinished wine bottles with champagne.

The wine he produced was given the name Kalte Ende (cold end), until it was humorously altered to Kalte Ente meaning 'cold duck' in German. Legend has it that a Paulo Gamboa - known commonly by his nickname "The Cold Duck" - was a frequent drinker of the product, thus inspiring the name change.

I took the photo at the top of this entry to ask the rhetorical question - Could a decent salad dressing come from mixing all the dregs of unfinished salad dressings, perhaps with the addition of more vinegar & oil or mayonaise?

I also took the picture to illustrate what can happen when you take salad to several pot luck lunches or dinners always returning with a bottle or two of dressing that is not quite empty. In fact, only one of the 16 bottles in the picture is even less than one-fourth full. This is truly a case of our refrigerator runneth over.

As a side note, in the family household of my teen and pre-teen years we had only one type of salad dressing - Miracle Whip. I remember being absolutely puzzled when as a teenager during one of our rare times eating out, the waiter asked which dressing I wanted for my salad. "There's more than one kind?" I replied.

Thirty-nine wonderful years!

Thirty-nine years ago the most wonderful thing in the world happened to me. Carolyn and I were married for all eternity. At least that's how we feel about it. Families being together forever sounds too much like an Erma Bombeck vacation description but being together with Carolyn for the rest of this life and whatever comes next is really something I can visualize. For one thing, we have had the past five years to live together without the blessings or the baggage of family and friends accumulated during the past 60-odd years. And we've found that we really like each other.

In the past 5 years I've been able to nurse Carolyn through some major surgeries and life-altering medical crises. She's been able to support me through one of the most disappointing periods in my corporate career. I've been able to enjoy seeing her thrill at trying on several new jobs that took varying advantage of her many skills. She's been able to help me enjoy testing the waters of retirement.

We move around the kitchen like a team. We finish each other's sentences and thoughts. We act like horny high-school kids when we are alone or have only our kids to embarrass. We've learned how to give each other space while keeping in touch. And when one of us messes up, we've learned to laugh about it and do what we can to minimize the consequences.

Happy anniversary, darling. And here's to many more!

Annual spot check

As I've mentioned before, I have dozens of spots on my body and it just seems to be getting worse now with age as liver spots are joining the moles and freckles. For that reason I saw my doctor recently for my annual "spot check".

He did the usual overall examination. Then, at my insistence, he checked a couple of the spots a little more thoroughly. Interestingly, the ones that looked or felt the worst to me were of no concern to the doctor. He called them Seborrheic Keratosis (or skin barnacles) and pronounced them perfectly harmless. However, he did find three very small spots - one on my neck and one on each ear - that he labeled "pre-cancerous". His reply to my question about what that meant was "oh, over a long period of time they could become cancerous but they're nowhere close right now." Still, he fetched his liquid nitrogen "gun" and zapped those three pre-cancerous spots as well as three of the more gross looking harmless spots.

Now, except for six sore spots on my body, I feel much better.

Tomato plant update - final

Although tomato season isn't over yet, this will probably be my final report on the hanging basket tomato plants that we experimented with this year. As you can tell from the pictures, the plants never really got very large, which isn't surprising given the limited size of the root ball. So the advertised advantage of not needing additional wire cages or strings to corral the tomato plant is certainly valid. They never outgrew their suspended roots.

Actually, the size restriction on the roots seemed to cause the other concern we had - watering. In the Sacramento summer heat (several consecutive weeks of 90 plus temperatures) the limited root system in the hanging basket simply couldn't protect the plants or give them an adequate reserve. We watered daily but three or four times daily probably would have been necessary to really keep the plant healthy. And even a two day vacation was out of the question without someone to tend the plants. Plants growing in well-watered properly balanced soil could go for several days.

We did avoid any problems with snails or cutworms as the plants were never in contact with the ground. It was therefore more of a surprise (although it shouldn't have been) to find a big fat tomato caterpillar on one of our vines. His voracious appetite gave him away.

We harvested 2 or 3 tomatoes that didn't have a brown spot on the end caused by uneven watering. All the rest started out looking good but suffered before maturity. We're probably going to try again next year with cherry tomatoes in the hope that their maturing cycle will be shorter.

Forty years ago

About 40 years ago, an event took place that was either the hand of God or the most wonderful coincidence - my sister went to college. Well, it wasn't exactly her going to college that was such a wonderful coincidence but rather the assignment of her dorm.

Revabeth's three older brothers (including me) had all lived at home while attending college because it was only a 10 mile commute and living on campus was expensive. We were all just a little envious of the extra expense being paid for this extravagence but also figured it came with the territory of being an only daughter. By mid-summer she had her dorm assignment and we had even driven over to see where in the campus complex it was.

Less than two weeks before school started, Revabeth received notice from the school that her dorm/room assignment had changed. No explanation. Just the change. And that, as Robert Frost would say about the Road Less Taken, has made all the difference.

In that 3-bedroom campus apartment, Carolyn was one of Beth's 5 roommates who were all invited to our house for dinner shortly after school started. But there was no "instant romance" or love at first sight. In fact, after dinner while everyone crowded around the piano to sing while I played and basked in the attention, Carolyn was in the kitchen helping Mom wash dishes and put things away. I don't know that Carolyn and I even said more than a couple sentences to each other.

However, with Revabeth acting as my publicist, I had an "in" that I wasn't even aware of until months later.

More to come.

Under the microscope

I have been asked to participate in a blog study. Halle M. Aten, a graduate student at Alliant International University in connection with her doctoral program is undertaking an interesting study of blogs and the bloggers who blog them. The following two paragraphs come from the informed consent that is required nowadays for any human study to make sure we human subjects are not harmed in any way.

I understand that this confidential study involves research that will be conducted by Halle M. Aten, M.A., a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University in Los Angeles, California, as part of a dissertation project. I have been asked to participate in this study because I have a weblog (“blog”) published on the Internet, and I am over the age of 18.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between existing measures in clinical and developmental psychology. I am aware that although I may not directly benefit from this study, my participation in this project will benefit Halle M. Aten, M.A., in her pursuit of a doctoral degree, and the overall field of psychology in broadening the scope of knowledge present in the literature. I understand that my participation in this study will involve giving permission to use my “blog” as data, the completion of one demographic questionnaire, and the completion of one other measure. I am aware that my involvement is expected to take approximately twenty minutes of my time.

Even more interesting are the questions in this survey. After a half dozen questions to determine age, sex, education, etc. of the blogger, the following 18 open-ended questions are asked as "complete the sentence" questions:

1. When a child will not join in group activities
2. Raising a family
3. When I am criticized
4. A man's job
5. Being with other people
6. The thing I like about myself is
7. My mother and I
8. What gets me into trouble is
9. Education
10. When people are helpless
11. Women are lucky because
12. A good father
13. A girl has a right to
14. When they talked about sex, I
15. A wife should
16. I feel sorry
17. A man feels good when
18. Rules are

These sound like the kind of questions you'd find in a book called "How To Start A Conversation With A Stranger". How this is going to tell anything about the blogger or the blogging community puzzles me. But they're at least interesting questions. How would you answer them?

Reading styles

My wife Carolyn and I are avid readers but probably couldn't be more different in our reading style. She may check out 3 or 4 books from the library but will read each one in turn until she finishes it before going onto the next. I'll often have 10 to 12 books checked out and be partially through half of them at any one time. She will read almost exclusively fiction and has particularly favorite authors. I read almost exclusively non-fiction and only rarely the same author. Her selections come from the main shelves. Mine come from the "New Books" shelf. About the only thing we agree on is the idea of using the public library to order, catalog, and maintain our books for us. Not that that has stopped us from collecting more than 1,000 books of our own in the bedroom we pretentiously call our "library" (a small portion of which is shown below).

But the biggest difference in our reading styles is that Carolyn listens to books on cassette tape or CD while I read the old-fashioned way, page by page, book in my lap, reading lamp over my shoulder.

This difference has some interesting consequences. Carolyn can read while she's simultaneously performing other tasks such as cooking, driving, gardening, or even falling asleep at night. I'm limited to reading only as a focused activity and can't multitask. Carolyn (and others) might be put off or intimidated when I am reading and not want to interrupt me. I, on the other hand, have sometime talked to Carolyn for several second before I realize she has her headset on and hasn't heard a word I said. When she wants to share something with me that she's read, she can simply play it the next time we're in the car together. I share something by reading aloud the passage that I wish to share.

When is a coffe mug the same as a bagel?

The recent citation in the New York Times (further quoted by Steven Colbert in the Cobert Report) about a mathematical proof brought back to me dear memories of what now seems like a prior life.

Grigory Perelman, a Russian mathematician from St. Petersburg has proved what is known in the math world as Poincare’s Conjecture. This isn’t a recent development. He posted a preprint of his proof in 2002 and filled in many of the details during a speaking tour in 2004. It was only this year, however, when the possibility arose of his receiving the prestigious Fields Medal for mathematical excellence and/or a $1 million prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute that the proof suddenly became newsworthy. Some news media were even using phrases like “this could change the way we view our universe”. Poppycock! Everyone has assumed Poincare’s Conjecture was true since he proposed it in 1900 but the proof has been elusive. Now that it’s proven, mathematicians can go onto other things but our view of the universe isn’t going to change because of it.

I have a Masters degree in mathematics. When I was actively studying it, this branch of math, called topology, was probably my favorite. Topologists look at the world in a strange, highly symbolic way with objects in 2, 3, 4 and higher dimensions defined by their unchangeable properties. Spheres don’t have to be round like in geometry or algebra. They just have to be closed and have no “holes” in them. Thus a block, a ball, or an elephant shaped soap bubble (remember Dumbo?) can be molded into a 3-sphere (a sphere in 3 dimensional space). But a donut, a bagel, or a coffee cup can’t be. Topologists love to “deform” objects, remold them like clay models, to tease out which properties are unchangeable and which aren’t.

In topology we would prove, as well as dream up, theorems and conjectures. These are the ideas that filled my head while mindlessly cleaning acres of floors for the telephone company or drifting off to sleep at night. More than once, Carolyn was rudely awakened as I would suddenly sit up in bed with an “Aha!” moment and grab a pencil by the side of the bed to jot a potential proof down before it escaped my thoughts. Amazing how good the good old days can look when you’re looking back 40 years.

How many forum posts to change a light bulb?

I found the following on AtheistParents.org

How many forum posts does it take to change a light bulb?

* 1 to change the light bulb then post about it
* 14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could've been changed differently
* 1 to move it to the Lighting folder
* 2 to argue and then move it to the Electrical folder
* 7 to point out grammar/spelling errors in post about changing light bulbs
* 5 to flame the spell checkers
* 3 to correct spelling/grammar flames
* 6 to argue whether it's a light bulb or lightbulb
* 2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is Lamp
* 15 know it alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "light bulb is perfectly correct
* 19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take the discussion to the lightbulb forum
* 11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum
* 36 to discuss the dangers of changing light bulbs without a professional opinion
* 5 to post a disclaimer that they are not light bulb experts, nor do they play one on TV and that anyone planning on changing their own light bulb should consult a professional
* 7 to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs
* 4 to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly and then to post the correct URLs
* 3 to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group
* 13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add, "Me too."
* 5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy
* 4 to say, "Didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"
* 13 to say, "Do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs."
* 1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again