1776

The year 1776 probably strikes you as familiar as the year the Declaration of Independence was approved by a congress of representatives from the original 13 colonies established in the English governed area of North America. It is also the name of a musical play that has been performed since 1969 and tells the story of how the Declaration of Independence was finally agreed to by this very diverse group meeting in Philadelphia that hot summer. I'm sure that some creative license was taken in making the story more of a cliffhanger than you might have imagined.

Virtually all the action takes place in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the stage is set to make it appear we're looking through invisible walls as we listen in and watch John Adams and Benjamin Franklin scheme and manipulate their way through to first getting Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence and then getting unanimous consent of the Congress to the Declaration. Lots of good humorous lines and for some reason the audience found the digs at an impotent congress especially funny. Maybe they still see the humor in today's congress? Of course it was dangerous business committing treason against the king when that was still a capital crime.

Two days ago my Random Event Generator emailed me a short note asking if I'd like to see 1776 which just happens to be the closing musical for this year's Musical Circus season. It's been a couple of years now since we've seen a play in the Musical Circus so we decided to make this the opening event in our celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary. Rather than do one big thing we will do several "medium-big" things (and I consider a play where the tickets cost $48 each medium big). A fellow church member Jeanette Compton who interned in stage production this year at the Music Circus got us the tickets which were about as good as you can get.

We had a light pre-play dinner at the Buckhorn Grill, a trendy place off the Capital plaza where Carolyn is already a "frequent diner". Nice place to eat. Good food and reasonable prices.

Critical Thinking - part 2

In a discussion facilitated by my Critical Thinking instructor Richard Kowaleski, he said,

One of the most difficult things for humans to do is accept, or at least consider, information which contradicts personal experience. It is ironic that most people understand that their personal experience is unlikely to be representative, yet when confronted with contradicting information the first response is usually skepticism. Further, if the personal experience has been internalized into one's belief system, it is very unlikely that the belief system will change without a lot of effort.

He went on to say that to be effective critics of viewpoints different from our own, we must be able to see the other viewpoint even if we can't agree with it. As he notes, this becomes even more difficult to do this if we have internalized an opposing viewpoint and incorporated it into our belief system. Some people claim that most scientific progress does not occur when scientists change their opinions but when scientists holding a particular paradigm die and those replacing them bring along a different paradigm. Even Einstein didn't fully accept quantum physics and kept trying to find ways to "fix" it.

So it's a real trick to keep an open mind for new ideas while defending and building on the ideas that you've found to be true and useful.

The Reason Driven LIfe-book review

The Purpose Driven Life written by Pastor Rick Warren of the 7,000 member Saddleback Church in Irvine, California has enjoyed phenomenal success. Its use of easy to understand bible translations and basic concerns of life has made it a best seller for much of the past 5 years. Reading it is almost like having your own personal pastor helping you understand what God has in store for you and how you can use the Bible to give meaning to your life.

There's only one slight problem: The Purpose Driven Life (hereafter called simply "Purpose") follows the Fundamentalist Christian doctrines. A large percentage of Christians including Catholics, main-stream Protestants, and Mormons will find much to complain about in the language and examples. Jews and other non-Christians will likewise find the book less helpful than it might be. A Catholic has written "A Catholic Perspective on The Purpose Driven Life" as an attempt to "translate" Purpose for the use of Catholics.

"The Reason Driven Life." by Robert M. Price is not so much a translation or adaptation of Purpose as it is a refutation, an alternative way of looking at the same problems and having the same goal in mind. The Reason Driven Life (hereafter called simply Reason) covers the same general topics in the same order but the chapter headings come from a little different direction and the content is oh, so different.

While Purpose is very God-centric and explains that your purpose in life is really God's purpose, Reason is centered on the God-given facility of reason and claims that we all have different purposes in life that we will have to find through reason and hard thinking. Purpose assumes the Bible is the direct, literal word of God while Reason assumes that inspired men wrote inspired words which have become the Bible.

But Price goes even further by attacking Christian Fundamentalism, Christianity, and sometimes even theism. Certainly an atheist or secular humanist will enjoy Reason much more than Purpose. A mainstream Christian might be just as uncomfortable with Reason as with Purpose.

For example in "Day" 6 (chapter 6) Purpose says: "This world is not my home. " While Reason says: "This world is fleeting, and so am I. Maybe I should learn to surf instead of drowning."

On Day 7 Purpose says: "It's all for Him." While Reason says: "What difference could it possibly make to an all-sufficient Being whether I worship him or not?"

Although Price has impeccable credentials for biblical criticism, he has chosen not to use his ministerial ability to make his theology warm and fuzzy like Warren does. Reason thus comes across as cold and businesslike with much of the responsibility for a person's happiness and success placed firmly on that person's shoulders. Warren, on the other hand, is definitely from the "give your burdens to the Lord" school of religion and Purpose is full of warmth and welcoming.

In the end I found neither book completely satisfying. I could only read a couple of chapters from either book before needing to switch to the other one for respite. However, if I had to choose only one book for my library it would definitely be The Reason Driven Life.

Moon glow

And what were you doing early this morning, say about 2:30 am PDT? Carolyn and I were sitting out on our porch, holding hands, enjoying the 68 degree breeze, watching the eclipse of the moon and wondering how many more eclipses we'll watch in our lifetime. This morning's eclipse was a total lunar eclipse that lasted 1 hour 31 minutes. The partial eclipse phases on each side of the total eclipse lasted for probably two hours more so it was quite a show. We don't often get them that long. Actually the conditions were perfect for moon watching.

This morning I had some fun doing a little research on the Internet on lunar eclipses. I had thought that lunar eclipses were much more common than solar eclipses but that isn't the case. According to InfoPlease, each year "a maximum of seven eclipses can occur, either four solar and three lunar or five solar and two lunar". But solar eclipses can only be seen by those on the earth's surface which are in a very narrow path described by the moon's shadow across the face of the earth while a lunar eclipse is seen by almost half the world (although because of the weather, local vegetation, and atmospheric conditions, far fewer than half can really see the eclipse.

MrEclipse.com has a great essay on Lunar Eclipses for Beginners which includes the great photos I've included here as well as a table of all the lunar eclipses between 2000 and 2010. You can mark the next one on your calendar and not have to say, "darn, I missed it again!"

By reading the essay you can also know more about the moon than one of my elementary school teachers who insisted that there was no difference between the monthly phases of the moon and the eclipse of the moon. Both were caused by the shadow of the earth covering part of the moon. Sad. I tried to set her straight but I don't think she ever did believe me.

Jared, the Subway Guy - book review

I generally avoid, as a genre, self-help books but this one appealed to me because it had written at the top of the front cover "Not a diet book! Not a diet book! Not a diet book!" when it obviously was a diet book. Such counter-intuitive advertising appeals to me. So, perhaps not surprisingly, Jared, the Subway Guy appealed to me as well.

For those of you who, like me, weren't watching TV commercials in 2000, Jared Fogle became an unofficial spokeman for Subway sandwiches when he started doing commercials for the franchise chain in which he claimed to have lost over 235 pounds going from 425 to under 200 pounds simply by eating only two Subway sandwiches a day. He admits in the book (and the ads cautioned as well) that this diet may not work for others but it worked for him because it was something he could live (and lose weight) with.

The book, to my surprise, does not come off as a 220-page ad for Subway. And it is therefore more credible than it would have been. Instead, it comes across as some good advice from an average Joe who found a solution to his weight problem and hopes it might help you find YOUR solution - which may be quite different from his.

Indeed, some of his helpful 13 Lessons for Turning Your Life Around are as counterintuitive as the front cover. For example, rather than suggesting small steps, his Lesson 3 suggests "Reach for the stars." Instead of making a commitment "unbreakable" by telling at least one other person, Jared's Lesson 7 suggests that you "Don't tell anyone". His reasoning is that you don't need additional pressure at this point. Rather than measuring your progress daily or more often, Lesson 8 suggests that you "See the big picture" and avoid micromanaging. Jared himself did not measure his progress on a scale until after he had lost over 125 pounds. Just seeing his clothes hang on him differently was feedback enough.

I liked the book. I think I'd like Jared. And I know I like his suggestions.

Lab results

I suspect Kaiser has been working on the system for some time but from this patient's point of view a lot of things are coming together in a good way. I think I've mentioned the ability to email your doctor with questions or quick comments. The Kaiser doctors have made a commitment to get back to you within 48 hours and they monitor compliance to make sure this isn't just an empty promise. This has saved us countless phone tag message calls.

Another major improvement is bringing the lab and x-ray into the medical information system. For the past year or so x-ray requisitions have been going through the computer system so a patient simply needs to show up in x-ray if the doctor tells him to do so. The details of which x-rays are needed is entered during the physical exam and are waiting for the patient when he arrives in the x-ray department. As of just a few days ago, the same system was put in place for lab work. No longer does the patient receive an order slip that is all too easy to lose between the physical and the time the blood is drawn, especially if a 12 hour fast is required. The system is easier for the lab clerks who no longer have to transcribe which tests are necessary and which draw tubes to prepare.

Finally, the lab provides results within a day or two and most doctors try to forward the results on to the patient immediately. The reports have the patient's results, the "normal range" and a flag indicating out of the norm. Not only could I see the results hours after I was in the lab but I could tell if I should be worried. Fortunately, this time all my tests looked great except the "good cholesterol" isn't as high as we'd like. But both bad and total cholesterol are down well under the "standard".

Traffic cop pills

When I was a little boy, the story goes, I asked my dad to tell me about all the pills he took. He carefully emptied a little box of pills into his hand and began, "The little round white pill is to strengthen my blood; the orange and white capsule is to keep my stomach from getting upset; the long blue pills are to help my kidneys; and the large pink pill is to make my heart pump slower.

"But Dad," I complained, "what does that little red pill do?"

"Oh, that," Dad replied, "is the most important pill of all. It is like a traffic cop. It tells all the other pills where they're supposed to go!"

I recently visited my doctor (primary care physician, to be exact) because I've been having some pain in my feet when I walk much and sometimes the left foot tingles like its gone asleep. The doctor, after checking for potential side effects from my current medications, said I had "peripheral neuropathy" and prescribed Nortriptyline. (My doctor thinks I won't think he's done his job unless he prescribes something so I didn't think anything of picking up the prescription.)

When I got home and read the insert material for Nortriptyline, I was really puzzled and thought about asking the doctor for one of those little red pills my dad used to have. The insert says,

This medication is used to treat mental/mood problems such as depression. It may help improve mod and feelings of well-being, relieve anxiety and tension, help you sleep better, and increase your energy level.

A later paragraph in the insert material says this:

Other Uses: This medication may also be used to treat other mental/mood problems (e.g. anxiety, bipolar disorder) and certain types of pain (e.g. nerve pain such as peripheral neuropathy). It may also be used as an aid to quitting smoking.

Even more wonders for this drug. But at least I found the magic phrase which cause my doctor to prescribe it. The official designation for my sore feet is "peripheral neuropathy"

Obviously, what we have here is a wonder drug that just needs a little direction. Where is that little red pill when you need it? With so many options, How is the Nortriptyline going to know where to start and what to start changing?

Another thing I found interesting with this medication was the "starter pack" which consists of 5 blister packs labled week 1 through week 5. The first week's pack had one row of capsules; the second week, 2 rows; etc. When you've reached you optimum dosage, you call a special number where they will prepare a refill with the proper number of capsules for continued doage at that level. Titration of medication to get just the right dosage is becoming more and more common

Bid4Prizes (New Motion) scam

Three weeks ago while I was surfing for some information an ad for Bid4Prizes, a product of New Motion, appeared on my screen. Normally, I won't respond at all to an unsolicited ad whether it appears as spam or as fluff on a web site. But this one appeared to have a unique method for "winning". It is like an auction with a twist. For each prize being offered, participants can "bid". The lowest unique bid wins. Thus someone can beat you by tying your bid, or bidding less than your bid if there's room to do so. And, as near as I could tell, there is no charge to play the game. As you would expect there are tons of ads on the web site and those ads must pay for the service. In fact, if you "win" the auction you aren't expected to pay anything, including your bid, to actually obtain the prize.

There's also a way to play from your cell phone. Since this is a live auction, you wouldn't want to miss out because you were away from your screen at the wrong moment. The cell phone version has a charge of $9.99 per month presumably because they can't flood your phone with ads. Trouble is, the form you fill out to play the game includes a blank for your cell phone number and if you fill it out you are signed up for the cell phone version of the game. No separate notice alerts you to the fact that you have committed to a monthly charge of $9.99.

Within minutes I got my first text message about the first possible bid and I realized my mistake. I terminated the service by texting STOP to #81000 as pointed out in the signup but it was already too late. Even without using the service once, we got the $9.99 charge on our cell phone bill for the month. Carolyn called customer service and demanded a credit and we think she was successful. But you never know until you see the actual credit.

So the warning is, don't enter your cell phone number on a registration form if you don't know what it will be used for. You can always enter it later.

Standardized Minds - book review

One of the first exercises I was given in my first computer science class in 1962 was to program a correlation between the high school GPA, and the ACT and SAT scores of 20 or 30 college freshmen with their first year grades. Once we got the "best fit" we were then to apply our answers to another batch of 100 freshmen to see if the model was a good one. The idea of the exercise was to show how the brute force of computational power could solve a problem that would normally be the target for sophisticated mathematical and statistical formula called regression analysis. And the problem was explained as a timely and practical one.

I find it fascinating that 45 years later universities and businesses are still struggling with the "best fit" for predicting success in school or career choices. Ideally, we would like to know which high school graduate will find success at MIT so that we don't end up with failing students, impoverished parents, and frustrated teachers. Likewise, there are specialized paper and pencil tests to supposedly select people most fit for fire fighters, swimmers, wine tasters, baseball umpires, plumbers, ball room dance instructors, Bible scholars, and art collectors. It's as if we are afraid to use observation and experience as criteria when a nice "objective" test can shield us from charges of discrimination.

The problem is that some people test poorly even on subjects they have down cold. And some people test well on subjects in which they are walking disasters. Although virtually all colleges require either the SAT or the ACT, it has been shown again and again that neither predicts college success as well as high school GPA does and none of the three predicts ultimate career success.

In "Standardized Minds", after convincing us that there is a problem with using standardized tests, Peter Sacks explains the difficult task of turning around a battleship. There is a huge vested interest in the testing industry and traditions that aren't easily thrown out. "Standards" based on test scores don't equate well with standards based on observed performance. And there's always a lawyer or two in the wings waiting to yell "foul".

I found Standardized Minds an interesting read, maybe twice as long as it needs to be, but still interesting.

Pictures in context

Many years ago, a friend told me that he never took a picture without a person in the picture he knew. I don't recall that he used the term but I like to think of it as placing the picture in a context. I haven't always followed his advice but I have mostly regretted it when I haven't.

Two days ago I finished scanning 72 slides that were processed in June 1982. That doesn't mean the pictures were taken in June of 1982, only that they were taken some time before that. None of the slides have any annotations on them and the boxes only have England '82. Elsewhere I had written down that we went to England on a hospital tour in 1981 so that means one of the dates is wrong and without any further context there's no way to resolve the issue. I might be in one of the pictures but only if I was 40 pound lighter at that time (which is certainly possible).

But worse than not knowing the date is not having any idea what the pictures are about. As they are, they are virtually useless. Imagine what a difference just a small note about the above photo might have made. Or if a photo in the same batch had shown a signpost for a village in England or Ireland. Another good reminder to me to keep things in context.

The World According to Mr. Rogers - book review

Some superheroes don't wear capes and tights. Some wear cardigan sweaters and loafers. And some spend more time talking about feelings than trying to show how superviolence is the answer to violence.

I'm of course talking about Mr. Rogers who has been my hero for many years even though his puppets were hokey and the dialog contrived. His tone of voice was always comforting and calming.

Likewise, his book The World According to Mr. Rogers isn't a puff piece with lots of numbered lists or slogans that start with (pick a letter). The items in his book are merely observations of a wise man. For example "I find out more and more every day how important it is for people to share their memories." Or "As different as we are from one another, as unique as each one of us is, we are much more the same than we are different. That may be the most essential message of all, as we help our children grow toward being caring, compassionate, and charitable adults."

This one summed up his attitude of caring: "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." There are only four sections in the book: The Courage to Be Yourself, Understanding Love, The Challenges of Inner Discipline, and We Are All Neighbors. They were all wonderful.

Fred McFeely Rogers was an ordained minister. His ministry was unique but powerful and though he died February 27, 2003, his influence continues. This book would make a nice gift for someone you love.

Ponderables

(with thanks to Barbara by way of the Internet)


1. The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow.

2. Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail.

3. If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense at all.

4. Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs.

5. How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the
dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night?

6. Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without.

7. Why is it that at class reunions you feel younger than everyone else looks?

8. There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4 AM. It could be a right number.

9. Think about this ... No one ever says "It's only a game" when his team is winning.

10. I've reached the age where the happy hour is a nap.

11. The trouble with bucket seats is that not everybody has the same size bucket.

12. Do you realize that in about 40 years, we'll have thousands of OLD LADIES running around with tattoos? (And RAP music will be the Golden Oldies!)

13. Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Corvette than in a Yugo.

14. After a certain age, if you don't wake up aching in every joint, you are probably dead.

Hello, Redding

Well, my Random Event Generator struck again. A few days ago, I was quietly contemplating what trouble I could get into this weekend seeing that there was nothing cluttering my calendar. I noticed that we had on the calendar a visit from Linnea, a friend from Long Beach. But that was all. Then Carolyn dropped the question, "What do you think about spending the weekend in Redding?" Honestly, it hadn't crossed my mind until right then. I'd have to miss church on Sunday morning along with the PEC and Ward Council meetings but I could probably make that sacrifice.

Turns out that Linnea needed a ride to Redding to visit her sister and Carolyn thought she might use up another one of her "free nights" that she earns by being on the road so much for business purposes. It would be a whirlwind trip.

Linnea's daughter Kendra and her family dropped her off at our house Saturday afternoon after a short visit with our son Edward and his kids. Carolyn and Linnea then had a luncheon visit with Linnea's aunt & cousin. Linnea, Carolyn, and I then headed north. Linnea provided the travel entertainment by bringing us up to speed on all our old Long Beach friends we have in common.

Three hours later, after making sure that Linnea was in the safe hands of her sister for the coming week, Carolyn & I checked into our hotel then surveyed our options. Some of the activities we undertook:

We managed to eat well (Carolyn pictured here at Logan's Roadhouse);

look for several geocaches in the neighborhood;

and take a tour of Shasta Dam, the 2nd highest dam in the United States.

We didn't try to do everything possible. That contributed to making it a very enjoyable mini-vacation.

"Coin of the realm"

According to Miriam-Webster coin of the realm means
something valued or used as if it were money in a particular sphere
For my grandson Jake the coin of the realm is stickers, any kind of stickers.
Hardly a visit goes by when he doesn't bring along some stickers to show and to share. And he really is good about sharing.

Yesterday he shared with us his sticker box in which he keeps a huge number of his stickers.


And the first thing he wanted to do after showing us the box and its contents was to give us some stickers. Throughout the evening he put stickers on our clothes or other personal effects or simply gave us a partial sheet of stickers to decide what we wanted to do with them. He's like a king with a fortune he wants to share with his subjects.

A couple of days ago I got a sheet of gold star stickers in the mail from someone soliciting for donations. Of course, I thought of Jake and set the stickers aside while I threw away the donation request. The next time Jake came for a visit I gave him the sheet of gold star stickers and you would have thought I had given him real gold stars. A few minutes later with the sheet of gold stars balled up in his hand, Jake confided to me, "These stickers will calm me down. Right, Grandpa?"

Nice little surprise

When we got home from church this past Sunday there was a message on our answering machine saying they had drawn Carolyn's name at the local Home Town Buffet and she had a week to claim a free meal.

Being the generous sort of person she is, she immediately called our kids and set up an evening when we could all meet at the Buffet, enjoy a meal together (hers being free, and she paying for the rest of us), and talk aboaut the first day of school for Tim and Jake. (It sure seems that school starts earlier every yeaer!) Anyway, a nice evening was had by all.

The school report from the boys was brief but positive.

Critical Thinking - an example

Apropos of yesterday's topic, last week's Newsweek had as a cover story the issue of global warming. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the cover text said in bold letters: "Global Warming is a Hoax*". The asterisk referred to the real topic of the discussion which was the significantly influential, but scientifically bankrupt segment of our society who deny the existence, the human cause, or the danger of global warming. I use the word "unfortunately" because I believe a large number of people will get no further than the x before the asterisk. They will turn to their companion and say, "See, I told you it was all a hoax!"

The Newsweek article talks about how the deniers have changed strategies over the years - from "the evidence of warming is not really there", "the science isn't in", "there are many possible causes", to the most recent strategy of hinting that "it is all a big hoax to cool down or even ruin America's economy".

But what I found really ironic was the following week's op-ed in Newsweek by Robert J. Samuelson who agonized over the previous week's diatribe for the simple reason that "Global warming is just too complicated and [possibly] intractable". In other words, Why blame the deniers when we really can't do anything about global warming anyway? If we deny every problem that is difficult to solve, we will certainly make things easier in the short run. Is that what it's all about?

Critical Thinking - do we?

Last semester I attended a Critical Thinking class in connection with the Renaissance Society at Sacramento State University. I was expecting a deep, philosophy-heavy class that would examine the different ways we think and how they have been used at different times in the past. Instead, we got a different but delightful discussion each week that was facilitated more than led by the "instructor" Richard Kowaleski. He also invited guest lecturers in to cover specific topics such as alternative medicine.

But the main point of the classes was that we need to be critical of ideas that are presented to us rather than just automatically assume the ideas are good or bad. Although we had a text, we often used newspaper articles and letters to the editor that sounded factual. Instead, upon closer inspection we found most pieces highly subjective IF (and it was a big if) we could in fact determine what the point of the piece was.

Before taking the class I assumed that I was more critical of pieces that were further from my opinion and less critical when I felt a kinship with the author. That indeed was the case although I'm finding the need to criticize all viewpoints. One side certainly doesn't have a monopoly on rational thinking.

How's your critical thinking?

The Eye of the Beholder

I recently came to realize there is more to the saying that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" than I used to think. Certainly, what is beautiful for one person may not be beautiful for another and the difference is quite often in the beholder. However, there is another sense to the word play here.

Carolyn recently was in charge of a Relief Society Enrichment Night and had as part of her responsibility decorating the tables. I don't know what the usual table decoration consists of but this time Carolyn chose to select various items around our house and arrange them in tasteful centerpieces. As a beholder, she was able to pick out and arrange beauty while at the same time giving participants at the Enrichment Night a taste of the decor of our home.

Latest indignities

Just in time to make our last flight more "memorable", the airport security people instituted a new rule for carry-on of liquids and gels. No single container can be larger than 3 oz, all such containers must themselves be placed in a 1 quart clear plastic bag, and the bag must be removed from your carry-on for visual and x-ray inspection.

Now, although the 3 oz size is cited as "readily available at convenience stores" we tried to find toothpaste, pre-shave, hair spray, and deodorant at our local Target and couldn't find anything in that small a size. The best we could do was 3.5 oz. We did find out from experience that you can get by with a half-full 6 oz bottle.

What further new and interesting security hoops will we have to negotiate before we beat the terrorists?

California Speaks

America Speaks is a non-profit, not partisan organization which has taken as their mission bringing back the old fashioned town meeting with technological enhancements to scale up the discussion for our current society. Rather than having everyone speak either at once (which would be chaos) or serially (which would take forever), these new-fangled meetings have facilitated discussions at individual tables. The essential inputs are recorded on a networked laptop by one of the participants (not the facilitator). Periodically, votes are taken to measure the popularity of suggestions. This is done through the use of hand held wireless voting devices which look like 70's style calculators. A typical table, then, looks like this:

California Speaks, on the other hand, is a project of America Speaks. Specifically, this project electronically united people in 8 California cities to discuss what needs to be done to "fix" the healthcare system in California. There were speeches by several major players including Governor Schwartzenegger. Presenters spoke to all groups at once, questions were put to participants in all cities at the same time, and votes were taken simultaneously. By nature of the small tables, however, the discussions were lively and interesting. Facilitators made sure that no one or two people hogged the discussion either. The plan is that at the end of the day, there will be something concrete and meaningful to present to the legislature, governor, and other decision makers regarding how to craft the best healthcare system for California.

A couple of features of the meeting I found interesting were the band greeting the arriving participants:

and an artist commissioned to record his impression of the event. (I don't know if every venue had an artist but I talked with the one in Sacramento and saw the one in Los Angeles on the broadcast.)

My part in this whole affair was as a volunteer. I get regular notices about volunteer opportunities and when this one came up, it sounded like something I could do with few strings attached. It did mean getting up at 5:00 a.m. so I could be there when they requested. They could easily have had us report an hour later, when they actually needed us.


As you can see, I worked the registration desk. We were swamped from about 8:45 to 9:00 and were busy 15 minutes before that and 5 minutes after. Entrance criteria consisted of showing an invitation to participate, being on a list of participants (not generally self-invited), or be affiliated with a target group. In other words, it wasn't open admission but it was pretty loose.

The other significant project we were involved in was serving lunch. To minimize the down time, we sorted the meals for each table and delivered them in large IKEA merchandise bags. I think the hope was that everyone would work through lunch and get more done that way. Trouble is, people need that time for potty breaks, phone breaks, and just plain breaks.

IDEA "meal" bags:

As a volunteer opportunity, it was pretty good. While taking care of my assignments, I was also able to walk around and see the discussion process. I could probably have been a facilitator but that would have tied me to my table and entailed considerably more work and time. Apparently, not enough people signed on as volunteers so the event managers went to a local temp agency to get enough bodies. Of course, those people wanted to work more hours than the volunteers were asked for.

Magical Potions 101

I'm sure that if I were enrolled in Hogwarts, I would get a miserable rating for the Magical Potions class. And all I'm trying to do is a little household magic!

You see, our shower enclosure has lots of beautiful, clear glass. Or at least what should be clear glass. As you can see by the above photo which has been taken at a slight angle, we have so many water spots that at certain angles it is impossible to see through the glass at all. Even when you can see through, the water stains are less than attractive.

Now being the clever lad my mother raised me to be, I didn't just rush to our local hardware store for the solution to my problem, I used the Internet and Googled "disolve water desposits" and similar queries. Sure enough, I got answers. Virtually every single cleanser we had in our house was suggested as the cure as well as several I hadn't heard of.

I spent several hours trying all the potions we had in our cupboard with little or no success. Some of them looked like they were solving the problem but as soon as I dried off the glass, the white outlines of the water deposits began to show up again. The spots look like little amoeba's in the vast ocean of the glass surface. Several of the potions didn't do anything at all. I had to wonder how serious the water stains were which had given way to those solutions.

When I finished with the on hand potions, I made a trip to Home Depot where I picked up a couple of potions we didn't have including a commercial grade product that had been recommended on a professional cleaning service site. Back home the experiment continued with the same result - nothing.

The only product which seemed to work at all is something called "Nothin's Better", shown in the front row above. And it turns out that it isn't a cleaner at all but a very fine powder that acts as an abrasive/polishing compound for the glass. Using a damp rag, you grind this powder onto the glass surface until it squeaks. Then you do it a little longer. The little "amoeba" spots get smaller and smaller until they disappear and the glass looks like it originally did. The polishing compound is so fine that it doesn't scratch the glass. The only problem with this product is that it takes about 10 minutes to polish a 3 inch square. I have to question whether our shower or windows are worth this level of effort.

Has anyone out there had better luck with some other solution?

Why Size Matters - book review

I confess I picked up this book at the library because I thought the title was "Size Matters" which we all know is true in spite of protestations from some females. But "Why Size Matters" is almost as good even if the topic isn't what I thought it was.

Why Size Matters by John T. Bonner is a small book which, in this case, matters as it makes it even that much more enticing.

Despite the titillating title, the book is a serious piece about scalability in nature. Much as comic books or movies might want to lead to you to believe that you could find a race of humans 1/12 the size of us or another race 12 times as large. Bonner gives the rationale behind the restriction, namely that weight increases as the cube of height while strength and diffusion (which includes breathing and feeding) increases only as the square of height. Thus, one expects small creatures to have thin, spindly legs and bodies while large creature would have massive lungs and extremities.

Equally fascinating is the relationship between size and heart rate or metabolism or expected longevity. There are good scientific reasons why, in general, larger animals live longer, reproduce slower, and have slower heart rates and metabolism. An interesting and quick read although the latter chapters started sounding much more scholarly and boring than the first half of the book. Maybe the size of even a small book matters.

Back from New Guinea

Our son Steven, the research chemist and adventure diver, recently returned from Papua, New Guinea with stories, pictures, and souvenirs of his adventures half way around the world. We listened to many of the stories and saw some of his souvenirs but we missed seeing his pictures this time around.

Here we see some of the native artwork with the fruit bowl, decorative mask and figurine, and an intricately carved walking stick that could probably also be used as a low tech weapon.

The final item on the table is a low-tech g-string, a penis gourd which is apparently typical of something still used by the highland men in New Guinea. Doesn't look at all comfortable to me.

Crazy weather!!

The high temperatures last week were supposed to fall from 98 at the beginning of the week to the low 80's at the end of the week. Instead, it just kept getting hotter and hotter each day until on Saturday we had a local high of 108 degrees. It was warm enough outside at 7:00 pm that we seriously considered eating under the misters ecen if that meant getting soaked in the process.

Sunday looked like it was going to be a blistering day again, when suddenly the wind came up and the temperature dropped 28 degrees! By evening time we had temperatures in the high 60s and the sun was still up. According to the Sacramento Bee this morning, Sunday and Monday were all time low "high temperatures" for those days. I was seriously considering whether we'd need to turn on the heat over night.

Mom enjoyed having a couple of lap warmers during our visit with Ed and Tiffany.

da Vinci experience

Steven and Lisa came to town this weekend so our Random Event Generator (Carolyn) arranged for our Sacramento family to join them in a visit to the da Vinci Experience currently being presented by Sacramento's very own Aerospace Museum of California.

Although it was a bit pricey, it was a really good exhibit for kids as it allowed "hands on" for about half the exhibits. The inventions of da Vinci mean more when you can actually see them in action. Unfortunately, it wasn't made clear which ones were simply demonstrations of machines common in da Vinci's time and which ones he made significant improvements to. Here the kids are examining a jack which made use of levers and gears.


Entrance to the da Vinci Experience also included entrance to the Aerospace Museum. It was way too hot to climb around and into the airplanes that are on display outside the museum building but there were some interesting exhibits inside. There was also a "simulator" one could ride for an extra $5. Rather than a real flight simulator, it was a 6 person theater where they showed video clips taken out the front of various aircraft while altering the pitch and yaw of the seating cluster. That gave some feeling of actually flying while not being so extreme as to cause sickness. I didn't take the chance but most of our group did. Here they're anxiously awaiting their turn.

2007 Family Camp Photo Story

Greetings!

On Saturday evening of the 2007 Loveridge Family Camp, RevaBeth showed a delightful slide show containing many historic photos of our family. Since it is getting more and more difficult to find and set up a slide projector, I suggested that I scan her slides into digital photos and put together a slide show that can be seen on any (Windows, at least) computer. I’m calling that a Photo Story since slides are no longer involved and since that is the software I used (Microsoft PhotoStory 3).

To distribute this Photo Story to all in the family who are interested, I have made a CD for it since at 36 MB it is larger than most email systems will allow. Also on that CD is a folder with the scanned slides (in JPG format), cropped and color corrected. There is also a folder of scanned slides and pictures we had around our house that seemed to fit in with the theme and some recent photos of this year’s family camp.

The Photo Story is a Windows Media Video (wmv) file so it should run on any Windows based computer with standard software including Windows Media Player. In fact, after inserting the CD, your computer will probably ask if you want to do just that. Pressing F11 will give you a full screen view of the video. You can pause, backup, and jump forward with the Player using the controls at the bottom of the screen.

No attempt has been made to represent every family or family member equally or not equally. We worked with the pictures we had. We have attempted to use accurate names and dates but no guarantee is stated or implied. Corrections and additional photos will be gratefully accepted for inclusion in the next edition. Call or email me with questions or suggestions.

Call or email me if you'd like a copy of this CD. A donation of $3 to offset some of the costs would make it a little easier on me but certainly isn't necessary. In addition, the Photo Story and the individual photos are available on Photobucket.com at the following links:

Photo Story (slide show)

RevaBeth's slides

Additional slides


Enjoy!

Ready for a change

The card said, "Your electric meter was ready for a change." It suddenly dawned on me what those two power outages were about that we experienced a couple of weeks ago. Although one had occurred while we were home and could have been the result of the weather, the other was a little more puzzling. Now, I remembered the article in the paper about the power company wanting to replace all the residential electric meters in our area.

The new ones, besides being digital and easier to read, transmit their information wirelessly to a technician riding through the neighborhood. This eliminates the necessity of walking into people's back yards or dealing with unfriendly dogs. It should also make for more accurate readings. Too bad I can't pick it up on my computer.

Water Audit - Part 2

I'm impressed!

As promised, the Carmichael Water District just sent us the 6-page results of the recent water audit that was done for us. The first two pages recapitulate the measurements of the auditor such as "Toilet #1 uses 2 gallons of water per flush" or "Toilet #2 was installed in 1992". There is a notation that no leak was detected but as I mentioned in the previous post, there was no attempt at detecting a leak so, of course, none was found.

The third and fourth pages compute our estimated usage with current practices and with the suggestions for saving water. Interestingly, those worksheet indicate that only 1/4 of our water usage is for indoor usage. The rest must be for watering our lawns, trees, and flower gardens, for which no water saving suggestions were made.

The fifth page of the audit compares our water bills for the past year as we actually paid them and as they would have been with a metered rate. Turns out that we would have paid $12.79 less per month with the metered rate.

Then the sixth bill estimates the savings in average water usage if we were to install the toilet tank reducers, faucet and shower flow restrictors, etc. She estimated we could save 500 cubic feet or 3,740 gallons in an average month. And this translates to.....(ta da !) $3.91 per month. I'm underwhelmed. I'm impressed with the audit but enderwhelmed with the result.

And she still didn't mention the largest savings we can probably make: cutting the size of our water feed from 1 inch to 3/4 inch.

Grave Matters - book review

"Grave Matters, a journey through the modern funeral industry to a natural way of burial" by Mark Harris almost tells the whole story in the title and subtitle. I have already decided that I want to be cremated and have my ashes buried in my garden. This book certainly did nothing to change my mind and, in fact, probably made my resolve even firmer.

Harris begins by detailing the "traditional American funeral" with the embalming, the viewing, and the fortress-like cement vault burial. Not only does he explain how completely unnatural and environmentally unfriendly this procedure is, he also explains how non-traditional it is and how it dates back barely to the Civil War era. Of course, 150 years can be sufficient time to create a tradition.

Harris describes how the body orifices are plugged, the body fluids drained, and the internal organs suctioned out to prepare for the infusion of embalming fluid and packing of inert material to give the body a "lifelike" quality. Probably the best quotation in this section of the book was the statement on page 29 that "Embalming restores a lifelike appearance to the deceased. Refrigeration does not, which may only matter if you expect the dead to resemble the living."

According to many funeral directors and associations, having a body to view, a body that appears to have just "gone to sleep" is one of the best ways for a grieving family to process the death of a loved one and that therefore becomes the goal of the funeral process. I along with Harris question both the need and the solution.

Cost is another consideration. A typical funeral can run $10,000 to $20,000 depending on viewing arrangements and how elaborate a coffin is chosen. Alternatives are more in the range of $500 to $2,000. What a difference to a family.

And there are alternatives. Cremation is rapidly becoming the most favored alternative and by 2030 will become the number 1 choice in the U.S. It is already the majority choice in Japan, India, Switzerland, and Great Britain. For people choosing cremation the alternatives for disposing of the ashes range from burying them in a family plot, storing them in a mausoleum, keeping them in an urn at home, disposing them at sea, firing them into the air with fireworks, burying them on private property, mixing them with concrete to make artificial reefs, or pressing them into artificial gemstones. There's almost no limit to the possibilities.

Even if a person doesn't choose cremation, the body can be buried at sea or in a natural cemetery without the environmentally unfriendly casket or embalming process. I appreciate Harris's book and heartily recommend it to anyone considering their final resting place or that of a loved one.