Slides, overheads, and pupusas

We've almost come to the end of our Conversational Spanish class. Tonight we had the chapter test on our final chapter and had the homework for that chapter checked and recorded as well. Then we got into the really fun part of the final three sessions - the class presentations.

Each class member is required to develop and present a 5 to 10 minute mini-lecture highlighting some aspect of some Spanish speaking country. Some of the topics covered this evening were Mexican food, Carnival in Mexico, flora and fauna of Costa Rica, El Salvadorian food, Guamanian brown snake, and "universal health care" in Costa Rica. Visual aids and creativity were encouraged. The use of PowerPoint was also encouraged. We saw some very creative uses of PowerPoint. It seems that some people feel so dependent on what slides they have available that they use the compose mode of PowerPoint rather than slide show. One person, feeling a need to project something had some overhead transparencies made of some postcards he had. Luckily there was still an old-fashioned overhead projector in the room along with the more modern computer and projector.

Two of the presenters brought food to demonstrate their topic. Thus, the Salvadorian pupusas and Mexican tamales shown above. The pupusas taste a lot like quesadillas so who cannot like them. I can hardly wait to see what tonight's presentations inspire in next week's presenters.

Christmas in November?

When I was growing up, we heard about and discussed in our family an Uncle and Aunt of ours who supposedly gave each other gift certificates for Christmas. As kids we just couldn't imagine something like that. It seemed so crass and commercial and non-romantic. In the extended family Christmas gift pool, they would give to our family about every 6 or 7 years. We learned really quickly to tell them what we would really like unless we wanted a box of old books or something just as creative.

Now that I'm older (older even than the aunt & uncle were at that time) I can appreciate their position. I am the world's worst reader of hints and gift suggestions. That's probably related to my talent as the worst hint dropper. I can't imagine anyone being able to tell my "Isn't that an interesting item" meaning I find the concept and/or engineering unique or clever from my "Isn't that an interesting item" meaning oh, please, please, please get me that for Christmas so I won't feel guilty buying it for myself.

So Carolyn and I go one better than the gift certificate route. We buy our own gifts . That insures that we get the kind, color, size, and model of whatever it was we were dying to get on Christmas morning. Not only that but I'm bound to actually be in a position of buying something I want when I see it whereas she would have to make another trip and hope that what I saw was still there.

There are two problems to this method. First (and I hesitate to say how often this happens) we buy it, put it away until Christmas and then either forget where it is hidden or forget that we bought it. The second problem is buying it and then wanting to use it right away.

We just purchased an i-Pod for each other. Not wanting to "waste" a full month of warranty before even finding out whether or not they work, we turned them on and connected them in turn to our computer, loaded some tunes and pictures, and played the tunes back and looked at the pictures. They truly are amazing machines. Then, reluctantly, we put them away. There's a real problem in seeing, handling, & playing with your Christmas gift 4 weeks before Christmas.

High-tech fund raising

Good naturedly locking someone up and then letting them go if they could "make bail" has been around some time. Still, it was interesting to see it wrapped in the high tech environment of the Internet with web pages set up for each "victim" and payments processed conveniently through credit cards under the auspices of Verisign.

My brother Mac is currently being "locked up" by the Spanish Fork, Utah branch of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. His bail has been set at $1,800 and judging from the response so far, I think he'll easily make that. His donation web site is at this address: https://www.mdaevent.org/ParticipantInfo.aspx?j=92678434-b3f4-4418-acb4-1f7ffdc5d652

I was also a little thrown by the list of donors available on the website. I'm not ashamed of a donation but I'm not doing it for the publicity either. Do I leave the checkmark on so that Mac will know we're thinking of him or take it off so that it will be a gift from the heart? I finally opted for doing nothing about the check mark which means our names go on the list.

And while I'm on the subject of fundraising, our Spanish instructor told the class last week that her husband had a policy of giving $10 to every agency requesting a donation from him. Some of us thought that was neat. Others thought it was a perfect way to get a stuffed mailbox. What do you think?

Later Thanksgiving projects

Mom feels that the Thanksgiving experience at our house wouldn't be complete without our visitors doing something useful during their stay here. The family members who arrived later thought they had it made since they had missed out on the early projects. Wrong! We asked them to put up the Christmas tree and decorations both inside and outside. And of course we had to have the lawn mowed before we could put up Christmas decorations there.

Thanks go to Steven and Richard for mowing the lawn and setting up the decorations and Christmas villages.


Here is our front lawn and walkway.

And here is the Norman Rockwell village.

The middle-eastern creche.

And finally, the Christmas tree.

This year we included special ornaments for each of the grandchildren. Each one was a jeweled snowflake with the child's picture inside. We had hoped to make it even more special as they would hang it on the tree but realized that they were more interested in knowing how their picture got in there. They weren't getting on the tree.

Newest grandchild

One of the best parts of Thanksgiving where family gathers together is to meet the littlest ones in the clan. This time it was Gavin Loveridge's turn to be oohed and aahed over.

Now six months old he is already starting on solid food because he's much too hungry to be pacified with just his mother's milk. As you can see, he loves his food but tends to wear as much as he eats. The supplement of solid food has extended his sleeping time so that he has recently slept through the night.

Another favorite activity is his bath. Daddy Philip is bathing him here in a tub that just fits the sink. Gavin giggles and laughs when his daddy finds his foot or knee hidden under the water.

When I took the previous picture he looked up as if to say, "Make sure all the pictures are decent so you can show them at family gatherings when I'm sixteen!"

After he's bathed and dressed for bed, Gavin enjoys a little snuggle time with Grandpa. He's attentive enough already that I can read a book to him or play peek a boo.

We took this the next day when he was all dressed to go out and celebrate Thanksgiving or help Grandma decorate the house for Christmas. Love his instructional t-shirt.

Young Artists

As our family gathered from southern California and the coast to our house for Thanksgiving, it soon became evident that we would have to have lots of things to entertain them. We only had 7 of our grandchildren here and one is only 6 months old and very easy to care for. But the other six were more than a handful.

One of the things that we did early on was provide paper, colored pencils, and crayons. A couple of the 5 to 6 year old would spend hours and hours on their drawing projects. For the most part we were able to satisfy their needs with blank copy paper. But then they started asking for pictures to color.

I quickly found three web sites with open outline pictures of characters the kids could relate to that I could recommend for various reasons. There was a fourth site that made new users register and process through more than 12 pages of "vendor selection" before they could apply for membership. Unfortunately I can't find that site now.

Sites for coloring picture (with comments)
1. coloring-book.info/coloring/ lists about 150 characters, each of which has a dozen to as high as 65 coloring book "pages" to print and color. The default borders and good.

2. www.coloring.ws/coloring.html The pages are listed by theme such as seasons, holidays, clowns, flowers, etc. and you don't see thumbnails of the pages until you've gone to the lowest level of the index.

3. disney.go.com/magicartist/coloring/Some kids will like this as it has so many Disneyland characters to choose from. For each character there are 7 coloring pages, one of which you can color on the computer screen and then print out to compare freehand.

First project this Thanksgiving

As I've mentioned in this blog, one of the Thanksgiving traditions we've had or encouraged is for out adult children to work on various projects around the house and yard before, after, and sometimes on Thanksgiving day itself. This year, one of the projects for the day before Thanksgiving was installing a tarp carport at the side of our house.

Now that Carolyn uses the little red Honda Civic so much because the mileage is so good, we kind were of puzzled about where to park it when the weather starts getting colder. It doesn't make sense to have a large garage and still have to scrape the windows on a cold morning. When I mentioned I had seen this 10' x 20' tarp cover with side and end panels at Sam's, Carolyn wanted to see it right away. Even though we didn't know for sure how it would fit, she bought it and brought it home.


Philip and Jenny being the first to arrive were given the task of installing what we had already begun calling the carport. Edward joined us about halfway through and helped with those extra hands just when we needed it.


Fortunately, the pieces were well marked and the whole cover was nicely designed. Someone had put a lot of thought into the construction of this cover.


The frame and infrastructure was very much like the cover we had in our patio area down in Long Beach which really helped us know how to put it together.


In no time at all we had the frame completed and the cover in place.


Then it was just a matter of tying up the straps and bolting down the poles so that the wind won't carry it away.



This is what it looks like from the back yard. The color is so close to our house trim color you'd think we had chosen it.


The end zips open and rolls up so that we can easily go from the back yard to the front.

And, as you can see the little "red rocket" fits rather nicely in her new home. Actually, we haven't decided for sure. We may put the van in the carport and the red rocket in the garage.

Thank you Philip & Ed.

T D A T

The Day After Thanksgiving. It has really become an interesting day. Many companies now consider it a holiday and employees would really balk at having to come back in to work that ONE day. Other companies, mostly retail, see it as Black Friday, the biggest sales day of the year. I don't know if the black refers to the color of the sky when the stores open, the mood of the employees who have to start work at 4:00, or the difference between red ink (loss) and black ink (profit) that a successful sales day could make for a company. All I know is that if you're in retail you DON'T take the day after Thanksgiving off.

Now if you do take the day off, what do you do with your time? A couple of our group made a foray into the stores to buy things the "just couldn't pass up", but most of the group stayed around the house. Those who were old enough helped dress up the house for Christmas.

It may seem a little early but this way we can host the two or three holiday events that we've committed to. If it were left up to Carolyn and me we'd still be putting things in place when the parties were all over.

Besides, the kids get up and down so much more easy than I.

What else do you do?

Play the piano for your own enjoyment or others'.

Lay back on the couch and enjoy a snooze or a good football game.

Help the grandchildren make sugar cookies and decorate them with icing and sprinkles.

And, of course, the ever pressing need to eat the leftovers from the day before.

A Happy Thanksgiving to All

Someone mentioned at our Thanksgiving celebration today that November 22 is the earliest in the year that Thanksgiving can occur in the United States where it is set as the fourth Thursday in November. For me it couldn't have come soon enough as 5 out of our 6 children were able to make it to Sacramento (or already live here) so that we were able to have a grand celebration with 11 adults and 7 grandchildren. There was plenty of food for all as these pictures demonstrate.

A couple of the families had to travel this Thanksgiving morning so we had our dinner late and didn't really plan on doing anything special other than the family get together.

While we put the finishing touches on the dinner, the kids played outside on the newly installed trampoline at Ed & Tiffany's house. And those adults who weren't needed in the kitchen sat around and swapped stories.

We managed to have a good Thanksgiving without any visible hurt feelings or arguments or fighting except the little spats among the children that are expected.

I'll take the next couple of days postings to tell about all the things we managed to put into the day besides sitting around eating.

Another version of hell

The kids have started arriving for Thanksgiving so I'll probably have a lot to write about the next four or five days. However, I may not get around to writing each day when I'd like because my time isn't exactly my own when there's lots of company to entertain and people to socialize with. I appreciate your patience.

I was going to talk about some projects that we've begun and in some cases completed around our house by using all the extra help in town for Thanksgiving. But instead I'm just going to mention a project at Ed & Tiff's house. Carolyn has been wanting them to have a trampoline for a long time and has finally convinced Tiffany that it would be especially good to have on to entertain cousins for Thanksgiving. Thus it came about that we were all surprised when Carolyn announced after our lunch today that she wanted to stop at Sam's Club and wanted Ed to follow us with his truck. The two large boxes in which the trampoline was packed filled Ed's pickup truck bed. I was glad that Philip and Edward were around to lift the boxes.

We decided to undertake the construction of the trampoline right then although at 3:30 the light of day was already beginning to fade and it was completely dark by the time we finished. The instructions were less than perfect and the parts were not easily identifiable. Through the process we discovered better and worse ways to do things that could have easily been included in the instructions. But the worst part of the whole thing for me was knowing how much quicker the job would have gone with just a couple of better wrenches and Phillips head screwdrivers or just some sharper bits. For a person who has the correct tools, it is a special version of hell to have to make do with lesser tools. I get so frustrated when I don't have the right tool for my own home projects that I can imagine how frustrated Edward was that he couldn't offer us better to use. Like he explained, he has lots of screwdrivers but finding the ones he needs when he needs them is a serious problem.

At least I know what kind of things he could use for his birthday.

Oh, the whole project was worth it when Jake said about this Christmas present from his grandma, "I love her so much, I can't forgive her enough! (meaning thank her enough)"

My daemon

Please see the blog entry regarding daemons in "The Golden Compass" then click on this image to comment on my daemon.

Utilitarian

Utilitarian means meeting the direct needs of, useful. I think it should also refer to utility companies such as the telephone company or the water company. Because when they do a job it is strictly utilitarian. It happens less frequently now with all the wireless phones but the cable company still does it. You know, you need an outset that is two walls away from the outside wall where the cable connection to the outside world is. And the company gladly agrees to wire the outlet for you. When he's done you can see every inch of the cable because it is stapled in the most visible corner of the room between the ceiling and walls.

Well, our neighborhood recently converted from unmetered water service to metered water service. Our water meter (see above picture) was installed 15 years ago when the house was built. It was installed in the driveway apron conveniently accessible for the water company and out of our way and out of our sight. When we began metered service, the water district simply had to start reading our pre-installed meter. But our immediate neighbor to the north had to have a meter installed.

We thought something was up when we saw all the pretty graffiti on our street. I guess each of the utility companies comes in before any digging begins and marks their territory with spray paint warning everyone where NOT to did.

But the job the water company did is priceless. The new water meter is smack dab in the middle of the neighbor's front lawn making it almost impossible to hide or camouflage with plantings. I guess they could paint it green. Now if that isn't UTILITARIAN I don't know what is.

If I were to start this blog with the words "seven score and four years ago" chances are that most of my readers would guess that I was talking about the Gettysburg Address which was, in fact, given on this day seven score and four years (or 144) years ago (November 19, 1863). "score" meaning 20 has become so archaic in our language that Lincoln's use of it has pretty much identified the word with him. It is interesting to read some of the background in an article in the Free Dictionary. We don't often consider how horrific that war was but over 7,500 men on both sides died on the fields of Gettysburg in 3 days of battle - twice as many as we have lost in more than 4 years in Iraq (although if you count both sides the casualties are considerably more than 7,500).

Building a national cemetery was a new idea and Lincoln's inclusion on the program was almost an afterthought. He certainly wasn't the main speaker and wasn't expected to give a long talk. The main speaker spoke for two hours. According to the Free Dictionary

Not long after those well-received remarks, Lincoln spoke in his high-pitched Kentucky accent for two or three minutes. Lincoln's "few appropriate remarks" summarized the war in 10 sentences and 272 words, rededicating the nation to the war effort and to the ideal that no soldier at Gettysburg had died in vain.

Despite folk tales to the contrary, Lincoln didn't write his speech at the last minute and didn't write it on the back of an envelope. Lincoln was well read and had many great works of literature at his disposal. Interestingly, there is not one "official" manuscript of Lincoln's speech but there is one that is considered the "standard one" as it was the last one produced and it has Lincoln's signature on it.

And now the 272 words:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Best pancakes around

In an attempt to get better attendance for our church's Activities Committee, Carolyn invited everyone on the committee to our house for a pancake breakfast. She promised them that I would be cooking pancakes and bacon, both of which I do extremely well (according to her). Only one member of the committee accepted the invitation, about 5 others responded with a no, and the other 3 or 4 members don't know that RSVP means a reply is not optional.

The morning of the breakfast, I was arranging everything to cook the bacon properly and fix the pancake mix. I don't use prepared pancake mixes. We prefer making them from scratch using a biscuit mix we make from scratch. While I'm doing this, Carolyn is fusing over the table, the counters, the stove, trying to make everything look perfectly clean and orderly. Twenty minutes before the guests are to arrive I put the bacon in the oven and mix up the pancake batter. Ten minutes before arrival time, I turn on the griddle to maximum heat.

Our guest couple arrives right on time. I check the bacon. It looks about half cooked. Although I had to thaw out the bacon to place it on a rack in the oven, I apparently didn't thaw it out completely and that has set back the bacon 10 to 15 minutes. Oh, well, there's still the pancakes. After 10 minutes the griddle should be plenty hot. I pour on four pancakes. They don't rise. They don't steam. They're dead. I flip them over and find the other side almost the same color. The griddle is only warmish hot. The griddle is dead.

I try to do three things at once while all this time Carolyn is still explaining to our guests how wonderful my pancakes are. I get out two frying pans and start heating them up. I look for another griddle I thought we had. And I disassemble the built in griddle to see if the heating element is loose. It appears that in cleaning the griddle area, Carolyn had accidentally dislodged the griddle. Once I've reseated the element all is fixed (except now I have two big frying pans in the way). Pancakes poured on the griddle sizzle and steam. Bubbles appear. I turn them over and they're perfect brown. They rise just enough to distinguish them from crepes but not enough to use as a Frisbee. The griddle is alive again! My reputation is saved.

Now, here's the recipe for my pancakes (in two steps):

Biscuit mix

5 lbs self-rising flour
2 Tbsp Baking powder
1/2 cup Sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups shortening

Stir all dry ingredients together first. Then mix in the shortening thoroughly by hand or using pastry cutter until shortening is completely distributed throughout the mixture. Should be stored in a cool, dry area. We keep it in a large Tupperware container. You can also include powdered milk and powdered eggs to eliminate the need for milk & eggs in the next step. In that case use 5 cups powdered milk and/or 3 cups powdered eggs.

Pancake batter

1 cup of biscuit mix
1 egg
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup milk

Note how easy to remember the numbers. Mix together the first 3 ingredients and about half the milk. Then use the remaining milk to thin the batter to desired consistency. You may not need the whole cup. Makes 8 to 10 four inch pancakes - about two servings. It's easy to multiply for more servings.

Grandma Moses

Today was another adventure of the what has come to be called the Sacramento Adventurers - a group that is roughly organized under the Relief Society women's group of our local church ward. Carolyn has been responsible for several outings of this group. This time our goal was the Crocker Art Museum and the special exhibit of works of Grandma Moses.

It isn't easy to find "the Crocker" recently because of the construction on the museum itself as well as on some of the neighboring city streets. And once we found a decent parking place we were faced with another puzzle: the sign on the curb clearly indicated that there was 3 hour parking 8 to 6 except Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. Otherwise the parking is unlimited and free. But right beneath the sign are parking meters which also clearly state 3 hour parking 8 to 6 except Sundays and holidays. Today is Saturday. Do we put money in the meter or not?? While all seven of us debated the situation, Carolyn fed the meter... for the car next to ours.

Here's the group (minus me) on the front steps of the Crocker Museum. As I mentioned, the draw today was the art of Grandma Moses, an example of which is shown here.

I don't know much about art but this gal had a great publicist. Her pictures are colorful and full of images of the American scene but her images are also very representational, almost resembling a child's painting. For example, she painted people's faces with two dots and a curved line just like a smiley face. Her perspective is all out of whack so that she'll paint the side of a bridge that is really fading into the distance as if you are broadside of the bridge. Still, she somehow captured the heart of the nation. Was it her age at starting to paint (76) or the Americana topics of her pictures or the bright colors and easy to understand motifs? Whatever it was, she had it.

It was a fairly small exhibit which allowed us time to wander around other areas of the museum. Here, a group of us are viewing a gallery that has been hung in the "salon style" where virtually every square inch is covered with a painting. It looks to me more like the style that would be used by a picture salesman who wants to get the maximum usage of his display space with a minimum of pictures not on display.

A great time was had by all. We capped the adventure with lunch at a new Logan's Roadhouse which has opened in Natomas just a little past where Carolyn used to work. Great food and great fun shelling peanuts and throwing the shells on the floor.

Keeping a sense of humor

My son Edward was explaining to me the new DVD rental service available at Save-Mart and Wal-Mart stores in our area called redbox. Now I don't know enough about the service to do a proper blog but then it's too late to do that anyway. What I did want to comment on was the sense of humor displayed by this new service. Based on that alone, I predict it will be successful.

Please note the login screen presented to me when I tried to rent a movie from my home computer (click on it to see a larger version if this one is too small). Not only am I instructed to "Log in here, lucky redbox account holders." but whilst doing so I should "Lean over the keyboard whilst entering your password to foil spies." The "whilst" gives it away as pure British as does the "spies". If it were American, it might say "while" and "Homeland Security" but probably wouldn't have any humor at all.

I'm late....... I"m late......So.....

Sometimes I get thrown a curve on my Meals on Wheels route. I get shorted a meal. One or two new clients have been added since I delivered the route last week. The city is doing some street work and I can't figure out how to get around the detours.

I apologized recently to one of the clients on my route for being late and began giving a long detailed explanation. She wasn't interested. "Don't worry," she said, "none of your customers is going anywhere." She was right, of course. One of the criteria to receive Meals on Wheels is the client's relative immobility. And as long as I'm still close to the lunch hour, that should be sufficient. My first deliveries are almost always between 10:30 and 10:45 and the last deliveries between 12:00 and 12:30.

Since realizing that my clients aren't going anywhere, I've felt less pressure to "finish on time" and more freedom to actually talk with each of the clients. When I asked "How are you today?" in a sincere way, several of them have opened up to me and expressed gratitude that I would ask.

Like I said, life throws enough curves at me without my having to add more of my own.

Energy vampires

There was an article in our paper recently speaking of "energy vampires" which is what it called all those little sources of energy leakage that we usually never think about. That would include the instant-on television (how many of us can remember when it took several minutes for a TV or even a radio to "warm up"). Also included are the many chargers, transformers, docking stations, etc. that we have to have for all our hand-held equipment. The article in the paper was taken almost wholesale from the California Energy Commission's Consumer Energy Center in case you want to look closer.

Apparently, while large appliances have been making great strides and actually using 1/3 as much energy as they did 20 years ago, small appliances and the "energy vampires" are picking up the slack. While standards have been set to encourage reduction of energy usage in large appliances, no such standards exist for many small appliances. For some computer and audio-visual related equipment there is the Energy Star rating which can sometimes mean as much as a 75% savings over non-rated equipment.

Unfortunately, after talking about the cost of energy vampires, the article never does tell us how much we're actually leaking. There is a nice table of how much eneregy is used by appliances while they're ON, there isn't a corresponding table for the cost of the same appliances while they're OFF. They simply recommend that users unplug such appliances when not in use or use an power bar that allows you to really turn off the appliances.

The Golden Compass - book review

My interest in The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman was piqued by my son-in-law Jonathan who had passed along a warning. This warning was making its way around the internet telling people that a certain author was hell-bent (if you'll pardon the expression, it seems uniquely appropriate here) on turning people away from God and His church. This is NOT an urban legend and is verified on Snopes at this address. While I would agree after having read the book, that it has some powerful images and language in it, it is not anti-god any more than most science fiction and the "church" that is cast as a nemesis is a church that doesn't exist, a catholic church that was never split by a protestant reformation, and one that exercises more power than most governments. For example, it has the final say on any scientific breakthrough making the determination that the new knowledge or technique is from god or from the devil. If from god, then it can be used and the scientist is praised. If from the devil, the technology or knowledge is forbidden to be further discussed or used in any way. The scientist is, of course, killed after appropriate torture to ensure that all his or her accomplices are apprehended. Many of us would protest against such a church if it existed today. Furthermore, the persons determined to bring down the church are represented as near or completely mad - hardly the message one fears from an atheist.

As for the book itself, I found it intense, exciting, well-paced, and thoroughly fun except for the ending which is a horrific let down. Now it's obviously the first book of a trilogy but I expected a little more wrap-up and a little less setting the scene for the next book. One can almost see the author putting a sheet of paper in the typewriter and saying, "I'm tired of this book. Let's tie up all the loose ends and get on with the next book."

One of the interesting devices in the story is that the humans of the Compass's world have their souls or "daemons" outside their body in the form of some animal. Children's daemons vary forms according to their emotions/needs while an adult's daemon has settled into one form. You can see after this post, that my daemon is an ocelot and by clicking on it, you can verify or negate that selection of daemon based on what you know of me. I hope at least somebody tries it out. You can also go to the movie's website and get your own daemon.

I understand the movie opens Dec. 7, 2007 and there should be lots of previews and advertising before then. I hope the movie ends better. From the trailer on the movie's website it looks like they've kept fairly true to the book.

Congratulations, Michaelson

Our grandson Michaelson turned 8 this past week. That is a pretty important birthday for families in the Mormon Church. At age 8 a child is considered competent to know the difference between good and evil and has some concept of the commitments he or she makes during baptism and the subsequent confirmation as a member of the Church and receiving the Holy Ghost.

Here's brother Ben at the keyboard. Family members were able to take care of virtually every aspect of the baptism except presiding and conducting the meeting which were left in the hands of the bishopric.

Although I couldn't get away from my commitments to attend the event, Grandma Carolyn did as did Blaine and Norda, the grandparents on the other side. As a birthday present, Blaine and Norda took Michael to Knott's Berry Farm. I understand he had a great time.

The Lives of Others - movie review

One of the mini-seminars I'm taking this semester at the Renaissance Society on the campus of Sacramento State is a movie review class. Unfortunately, it isn't well organized so we really don't talk about the "movie of the week" either before or after seeing it in class. Makes it harder to know whether or not I'm supposed to like it and for what reasons. On the positive side, whoever is doing the choosing of the movies is doing a great job of find some that are very thought provoking.

This last Friday's offering was "The Lives of Others". The title comes from the theme of the film which revolves around the German Democratic Republic (GDR) otherwise known in the west as East Germany starting in the year 1984 when the GDR was still a very buttoned down society. The government maintained a corps of 200,000 informers to spy and report on their neighbors, friends, even family members so that the state could always know everything there was to know about "the lives of others". Thus, if a student should ask the wrong question in class or even ask the right question at the wrong time, that student's future career choices may be limited. When thinking of secret police and totalitarian states we tend to think of Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Soviet Union but this film shows how a much "gentler" state can still be ruthlessly totalitarian.

Only when one of the characters sees that the system can be used for personal, non-state security, reasons does the system begin to unravel for this man. Torture of the most mild kinds is still torture and the movie seems to indicate that we all have a breaking point. While the movie does have it's very dark moments, it moves us through Glastnost and the falling of the Berlin wall so there is a sort of happy ending.

The scariest part of the movie for me was how easily it would be for the U.S. to slip into a GDR type of system given our current Department of Homeland Security, the unprecedented level of domestic spying, and recent reductions in the guarantee of habeas corpus and restrictions on torture. Anybody living in the U.S., citizen or not, is now subject to the same possibility of complete security oversight just by being declared an enemy combatant.

A change of seasons

I know the fall or autumnal equinox is on September 22 or 23 depending on the particular year and the position of the earth to the sun at that time.

But for me the signal of fall's arrival is the changing of our thermostat from "Cool" to "Heat". Actually, for the past month we could have moved it to the middle setting of "Off" since we haven't needed either the heating or the cooling part of our air system. And that says a lot about the mild weather we've been having in Sacramento these past four weeks and the insulation in our house.

As I look out the window and see the tentative sprinkles of a possible shower, I expect that I won't be changing the thermostat back until next spring.

the five people you meet in heaven - book review

the five people you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom is a story about the life of Eddie the Maintenance Man, or to be more precise it is about the death of Eddie with references to the life that he led up to that death. It is also one of those books that you almost don't pick up because you know it will be just so sickly sweet that you can't stand it like that email that Aunt Myrtle just sent you last week with the wavy flags and the drooly dogs. You know the one. But after you pick it up and start reading you find that it isn't easy to set back down. And you find that there aren't any wavy flags or drooly dogs after all.

The heavenly events described don't fit the religion I'm most familiar with. In fact they don't fit any religion I'm familiar with including the "walk towards the light" sort of religion that some people like to think is universal. Perhaps it would be better to call it a fable or a myth because it is a story the way that we could HOPE it would be when we die.

Eddie does meet five people, not all of whom he crossed paths with on earth but all of whom had something to teach him about his life. If I had to argue with anything about the book, it would be the arbitrariness of five. I could picture some of us having 1 or 2 while others might need a couple dozen to get the messages that would make any sense of our lives. It also supposes that each of us is of sound mind either at death or at least sometime during our lives in order to make sense of the meetings. I don't think that's true of everyone who has ever lived.

At 196 easily-read pages, it is a book well worth having on your bookshelf and to read every couple of years. And the last time I checked Amazon.com had used copies for as little as $0.01 plus shipping.

Sort of like a walrus, I'd say

I'd say I was pretty desperate for ideas when I have to use a picture of my own face as the topic for the day's blog. On the other hand, most famous people would consider it a wasted day if their picture didn't appear prominently displayed on the front page, headline, or other widely seen place. Besides, Carolyn thought I should do this to take a little bit of the shock away for when the family sees me at Thanksgiving time. So here it goes:

If you're really a glutton for punishment, you can click on the picture above and see an enlarged version. Doesn't get any prettier, just larger.

Yes, I've decided to follow my dad and my oldest brother and people have already told me I look more like them now. "more like you should look" was the way someone said. But I've noticed that although I've gotten lots of complements on the new look, no one has yet said it makes me look younger. Maybe a new Corvette would do that!?

Addendum (see first comment)...................

Here's Professor Slughorn from Harry Potter 6. Is there a resemblance?