Books, Bucky balls and going left handed

Good morning, Don.

I am open and accepting of hands jokes and puns, and even though I'm not laughing at this particular moment in time, I am celebrating. I am looking forward to the end of the pain so laughter is definitely acceptable. And yes, I will be motoring on.

I love your daily life  lecture. I so understand your better half. One of the things that drives my husband crazy is my inability to cut anything out. We've gotten to a place where we have pact: if I take on anything new, I have to give something up. I've been reluctant to take on anything new lately because I really like all of the stuff I'm doing right now.

Sitting on the sidelines of anything is not my idea of a good time when I could be rolled around in the mud or exploring new places. I guess for the next couple of months I might very well have to figure out how to sit on the sidelines. Maybe this is where I figure out how to relax and enjoy myself – I think you called it "therapeutic." I'm sure my family would be agreeable to that.

In a lot of ways, you remind me of my husband. He also has an alarm that goes off when there is a possibility of being overwhelmed. He loves being able to deal effectively with everything and he also loves having that buffer zone/margin of error just in case. Maybe that's what makes us such a good couple; I take on the adventure and he makes sure we get home okay.

As for letting the blog go for a little bit, I'm not sure I want to do that. I'm learning how to use Dragon, which is voice-recognition, and that has helped a lot with the typing I've been doing this week. I'm not sure that I remember to get all of the punctuation in the right places as I have to tell the program went to put in the commas, semicolons, and the periods. The point to this is, that with Dragon, I think I can meet the blog schedule. I probably won't have blogs that are as long as usual.

I got the books Wormhole Electric is showcasing this month on Amazon and the changes to the website off to the web developers this week. Both books are fantastic! I haven't finished reading all of Zack's book the Medieval Conspiracy yet, but I agree, it does sound like a futuristic Texas Rangers in the Middle Ages type of story. The Search is our first adventure light romance – it is so different from a smash, bash move on out save the universe story. I think it is a good change for Wormhole.

On the website we are offering Zack's first book, Long Patrol, for free for the month of July. Check it out! 

I spent this week getting ready to live life left handed for awhile. I've got all of the big laundry done, some of the cleaning, the planting and the replanting of our container garden, I've been walking about 3 miles twice a week, I have a bit of shopping left to do today, workshops are planned… I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff I forgotten but I'll either learn how to do it with just one hand or it won't get done and I'm okay with that.

I've been practicing how to brush my teeth and style my hair with my left hand. It ain't easy. I've also been trying to cook with my left hand and I have to say that the right-hand seems to have a mind of its own and it resents being cut out those activities that it usually does. So I keep finding myself using the right h

and. I think this is something I'll have to talk to the doctor about – I don't baby myself, I don't baby those parts of my body that might be  in pain, and this kind of attitude might interfere with the healing process. Of course, I have to admit, I have over 60 years of body teamwork experience so it might be a difficult habit to break.

I know that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body; the left side of the brain controls the right side body. Left side of brain is logical; right side of brain is creative. So are we in for a 3 month wild ride on the creative side of life? I have noticed that as I use my left hand more I also stuttered a little bit and I'm a bit more hesitant – it seems to be a little bit harder to find the right words.

I actually went to a real bookstore this week, and I touched and felt books. There is something about the feel of the book, the feel of the pages (don't forget the smell) – the cheap murder mysteries are on cheap course paper; the National Geographic book on the 100 scientific discoveries that changed the world is on slick thicker paper and the pictures are brighter and more colorful. The 1^st chapter of the National Geographic is on information and the 1^st entry is about nanolithography and carbon nano tubes. I love the fact that it's written in such a way that I can understand it! It also makes the distinction between the World Wide Web and the Internet. The web is the network of information – the Internet is what connects it all together. It goes on to talk about buckyballs, augmented reality, cloud computing, how we got our modern number system and that is just in the 1^st section on information. It has chapters on health and medicine, physics and engineering and earth science and astronomy. It is one of those fantastic books that helps pique my curiosity.

Have a great week everyone. I'll let you know how the world looks and feels left handed. And we've discovered some absolutely wonderful devices to help like a button puller!

Carolyn

All images retrieved from Google Images

Fig 1 – Balancing retrieved from dasilverman.wordpress.com

Fig 2 – Best quotes retrieved from meetville.com

Fig 3 – Playing in the Mud retrieved from www.flickr.com

Fig 4 – No more half-brained decisions retrieved from surfingyourenthusiasm.com

Fig 5 – bookstore retrieved from google images

Fig 6 – Multi-sphere-cool creations with buckyballs retrieved from www.chacha.com

Book covers manipulated by L.Varvel 

The Daily Lifeboat

Hi Carolyn,




Well first of all I have to say its most uncool that you’re gonna be facing the world single-handedly for the next bunch of months.  


  A “ basal joint arthroplasty “  sounds serious. Just your mention of borrowing a tendon here and a whatever there makes me a bit woozy.

I’m usually the crass joker who tries to mask or deflect the seriousness of it all by making a bunch of hand jokes and puns ( as witnessed by my opening sentence ) but I will desist simply because I’m sure you are not laughing a lot about this scenario. 


  If you’d like, we can put the blog thing into hiatus for however long so you can readjust with one less digital dexterity challenge.

　

Although I do get the feeling after having had a “ conversation” with you for lo these many months that you seem to relish operating with lotsa irons in the fire and hope to motor on regardless. You did mention early on, though, that you sometimes run into unintended detours and roadblocks because you have too many on the hearth.




Here's where I switch into sermon on the mount  mode:




THE DAILY LIFEBOAT

    My better  1/2 looks at things similarly. Every new challenge is added to those already being dealt with. The idea of balancing things by cutting anything out, even though the  daily life lifeboat is invariably already full right to the waterline, never seems to be up for consideration.  Sure!  A few more bodies can be added and the whole thing won’t capsize. 

 It ain't always worked out that way, though.

 I'm hoping that your situation won't evolve likewise.

 

　

　

As for the summer times and the livin’ is anything but easy tune you were singing. When I first read that I must admit I was sent back to the “Thelma and Louise” movie. because of one line therein -

 

 

 

 

“ You get what you settle for “ 

 

 
　

The  zip-lining, wall scaling Carolyn I’ve interacted with online for all this time would be supremely tested by simply sitting serenely on the sidelines, sipping cool libations in the sun when the overwhelming feeling was that one  could be up and out and about and squeezing twenty-five things into twenty-four hours. 

 

 

 

 

I mentioned earlier that I was revisiting Mark Twain and, lo and behold,  he had a similar observation:

 

" A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval. " 

  Silly me, I started out this entry with the idea of telling you to maybe take this situation as a time to relax and float downstream for a bit, for therapeutic purposes.  - oops, am I thinking out loud again ?

 

  You do  remind me of my best friend - he always feels that there have to be pots boiling or coming to a boil on three or more stoves all at once or life is lacking dimension. I like to have more than one thing goin’ on, it’s true. But I seem to have a very sensitive alarm that goes off when there’s more coming at me than I can deal with effectively - plus I like to leave a healthy buffer zone or margin of error just in case of a rogue situation or unforeseen whammy out there.

 

 

Okay, sermon is done. Pass the collection plate.



Not a lot else to pass on about the goings on up here. Today was the first time working outside in shorts was comfortable, functional and fashionable.


Gonna go and see Jersey Boys at the flicks and am looking forward to it big time. There were a few weeks in my age of discovery when I was really torn between The Beatles and The Four Seasons.


The riddle last time was sunlight.



I will send another after your next one and I want to emphasize that that does not have to be anytime soon if circumstances dictate thusly, Carolyn.

TTFN

 

 

Don

All images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - www. groupon.com
Fig. 2 - www.justinbuzzard.net
Fig. 3 - www.examiner.com
Fig. 4 - www.damesmercury.com
Fig. 5 - www. shutterstock.com

Summer living is easy

Good morning, Don!

I read your "summer season"  should be a slowing down and chilling out and had to laugh. When I was a child, that was so true! Summer was a time for bike riding, climbing trees, playing in the ditch, running through the sprinkler... as an adult, summer is running from building to building with hopes of not getting too hot in-between or diving into the car to turn the AC on. I remember everyone told me to become a teacher so I could have my summers off. I teach year round – have for many years. Even when I taught public school, I worked summers.

Ramped up is really not the word for my adult summer mode. I am amazed at how the concept of a "fulfilling day" has high-jacked my very concept of relax and have a good day.

Sorry to hear that you and yours experienced what sounds like a ground zero start of a tornado. We've had several form over our neighborhood and they are not fun – they are scary as in "I have no control now what?"  Did you lose any windows in the truck?

In a world where Wi-Fi is available almost everywhere, it is difficult to conceive of places where it is not available. The cloud thing has me a bit spooked. If ever there was anything that was easy to break into, the cloud is it. Having my records available to whomever wants to look at them is like creepy. Not that I have anything that someone would want to read or steal, but it is like voyeurism to the nth degree. 

I've been learning how to dictate to my computer and how to better use Dragon for voice recognition. I'm having a bit of a problem with microphones at the moment and the dictation process is definitely slower than typing  it myself – and I'm not a fast typer... all of this is in anticipation of basal joint arthroplasty surgery that I'm going to have next week. I will have the thumb joint of my right hand replaced using tendon strips from either my first finger or from the wrist area. I will be unable to use my right hand for about 3 months, and then I'll be 3 months in physical therapy.

This has caused quite a flutter here – like how do I get in and out of the house with all my stuff? I'll have to have a different container for my coffee as it takes 2 hands to open the thermos I am currently using. How do I peel potatoes? Cut tomatoes? We bought a salad shooter which is very helpful, but there are some things that it won't cut up. Thankfully it is summer and I'll be wearing sandals so I don't have to tie my shoes. 

And then again, because it is summer, the cast on my arm might just be hot and sweaty.

Grading is a consideration, as well as writing on the board – writing with my left hand is possible but not always readable. Guess the students are just going to have to step up and help out. The stamps that have "run on" and "punctuation" and "fragment" and "reference" on them are looking to be well used over the next quarter.

The biggest concern is driving. I have an automatic, but it is on the floor, on the right, and requires a strong thumb to engage the shifter. I practiced last night with my left hand and I have to say that I imagine that once I get the right hand back  in shape, the left thumb will have to be done. Turning the car on is quite the contortion!  

I marvel at how medical science has advanced over the years. How we have found ways to help people like me control the pain and lessen the damage of time and usage on the body. For this I am very thankful.

While you were reading Captain Jackson, I've been getting Lisa's The Search ready for July. Lisa's done a lot of work on the original story and it is tighter, clearer, and the sense of impending doom rings well through out the whole story. It is one of those stories that you're bound to ask: "Aren't you listening to the music?" It is a work she should be proud of.

My guess for your riddle is a high power line. Again I don't have one. 

Have a great week! 

Carolyn 



 All images downloaded from Google.com

Fig 1 – Summertime the living is easy retrieved from cheezburger.com

Fig 2 – Summerliving retrieved from www.flickr.com

Fig 3 – Rafting dog retrieved from www.kulfoto.com

Fig 4 – 50GB Cloud – Speicher retrieved from bestboyz.de

Fig 5 – Potatoes retrieved from everydaylife.globalpost.com

Fig 6 – Loop, swoop and pull retrieved from nspt4kids.com

Fig 7 – The Search picture manipulated by L. Varvel 

Twistin' the day away.

Hi Carolyn,



Ironic, ain't it, that the " summer season", when the overall vibe is supposedly one of slowing down and chilling out , seems to be the most busy and frenetic. Even after leaving the academic daily treadmill it continues.  In fact it seems to have ramped up a notch or three since then. It sounds like, from your last entry, that you're finding a bit of the same.





Anyhow, got back from the land that Wi-Fi forgot and it made me think  about the state of digital dependence I seem to be in.  I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this here  state,  either. What started it all was my thinking I was so smart by downloading the file you sent me with the Captain Jackson novel thereupon. I knew I was going to a household with no such thing as an internet anything, but I figured I'd download the whole file onto my trusty old 1st gen I-pad and I could at least read through the stuff while I was there.





Discovered that the file had been downloaded but backed up to " the cloud" so I could not get to it at all. Of course I had made a conscious choice to back up all my stuff to this location when I first set things up. It wasn't one of those dotty senior things so much as I just didn't plan for the visit the in-laws scenario when I made the choice to have my data sent to this location. Ahh... the future isn't always convenient, eh. 




Be back to the Jackson stuff before I go but on to more recent history.





The truculent weather has been kicked about  here lately and I have to harken back to it big time this week just because I was a first-hand witness most recently. We sat with my LSBH's parents watching the news about the big double-twister activity in Nebraska a day before we left.  I figured that most of it would have blown out before it hit our neck of the woods.







The next day, on the road home,  we got to within a couple of hours of our place and things got interesting. These were highways we've travelled all months of the year for decades and we knew that in the winter they can be quite bitchy, but this was summer and this was different. It turns out that the same system that kicked the crap out of Nebraska hopscotched over to mid-Ontario and touched down again.  The sky had that funny color thing that you always hear people talk about in post-tornado mode.  We got to see it pass all around us as we were driving and at one point it was ominous enough and rocked the truck to the extent that we had to pull off for about ten minutes and just be buffeted by the wind. . The sky did that funny color thing more than once. I got the feeling that  we should have been full-tilt storm-chasers.






So, briefly back to Captain Jackson . Having just finished a full-tilt re-acquaintance session I am still more than mildly curious to see if his creator was familiar with Jack Hays, the man who is generally credited with being the heart and soul of the original Texas Rangers.  Was Hays, perhaps, part of his inspiration. If you run into him anytime soon, Carolyn, please be sure to ask.



I would not be surprised to look up at the big screen sometime soon and see his marine unit thereupon.




Riddles are up now, and rightly so.



here's one:

Warming, comforting and

bursting with electrifying power

Searing, blinding and capable of killing those

not prepared or protected.

 

Catch ya later,



Don



All images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - vimeo.com
Fig. 2 - eofdreams.com
Fig. 3 - rt.com
Fig. 4 - zap2it.com
Fig. 5 - www. jackwhiteart.ist.com

 

Frantic and Amazed in Colorado

Good morning Don,
Sorry that this won't be a long blog - last of the quarter, lots of papers to grade from anxious-about-their grade students who are just now paying attention to their grades. On top of this, I have several end of the year reports that have to be completed by the end of the week. Nothing like last minute. For many, administrations and student alike, things never become important until they are on fire. Ah well.
Most importantly, our son and his wife are due to touch down in the US for a couple of weeks and will arrive on Wednesday. It's been a year since we've seen them, so we are excitedly trying to figure out schedules so that we can get together are a family. Never thought coordinating 6 adults and 3 children could be so time consuming! There is an answer!  Just haven't tumbled on it yet.

Isn't it interesting that a mean-spirited campaign no longer carries the success rate it use to. It is nice to know that people are waking up. I think it is easier to forgive people for being human and doing dumb, stupid things, but mean is no longer tolerated. Well Done, Canada! Now if we can only get people here in the States to do the same thing.

Read the headlines that water has been found 400 miles under the Earth's crust. Amazing! So this brings a lot of speculation to mind: is the water hot? Is the Earth's crust floating on this water bed? Are earthquakes just some thing turning over in the Earth bed? If some yahoo decides to drill for the water, and it is hot, will the earth loose steam, and like a balloon, be spun through the solar system? Just a thought.

And Don, what are the answers to last two riddles?

Have a great week everyone!

Carolyn

Deflated Earth retrieved from www.bigstockphoto.com450 × 321Search by image

Earth Balloon and hand with needle retrieved from www.colourbox.com480

Bad moon rising ??

Hi Carolyn,





Wacka-wacka.!!  it's been a week but it seems like a moment or two. I haven't gone anywhere so how did I miss, or misplace,  a whole freakin' week? 












Son-of-a-gun, it's Friday the 13th and it's a full moon  night - is it safe to come out? Also, apparently there is some kind of unusual alignment amongst some of the planets to make this a trifecta of ominousness in superstition-ville. ( is that a word? ). I have never gotten into the alignment/misalignment of the planets thing at all. Is it part of the horoscope scene or ??.





 Anyhow, a quick word or two since it appears that I have to make a somewhat unexpected trip, once again,  down to the land that wi-fi forgot ( i.e. my in-laws ) early to-morrow. It's one of those ticklish visits to parents who are clearly in need of leaving the homestead and moving to a  supervised living facility but are still fiercely independent and feel that no such thing is necessary.  





My recent re-acquaintance with Captain Jackson has only strengthened my conviction that, either consciously or subconsciously the author has been significantly influenced by that real life "Capitan Yack" fellow of the Texas Rangers that I was talking about last winter. That's my story and now, after revisiting the Captain Jackson world, I'm sticking to it like crazy glue I tellya!









Carolyn, vis-à-vis your last blog, I SO wish I was ten, in a number of ways. That's probably the golden age for the triumph of the spirit of wonderment in each of us. I'm not sure that I'd like to have the ten year old's spirit of wonder tempered with the adults pragmatic understanding of how the world actually works, however. I can't see how the two would find a common ground. The really brilliant minds, I sometimes think, are those that still include a very healthy proportion of that, unbridled, childlike inquisitive fervor. The Asimovs and the Jobs and the Lennons and McCartneys and such, all seem to be propelled to a certain extent by a youthful and inexorable spirit of some sort. Luv to get me a heaping helping of that!







Last night was election night here and my LSBH was in charge of one voting location in a rural district just south of Owen Sound. She had some interesting stories after her very, very long day at the polling booth. Wish I could elaborate here and now but maybe later. It certainly made her appreciate how democracy seems to be taken more seriously in the rural areas and by the ethnic population. 



Surprisingly, the incumbent party, which  had been at the reins for a a decade plus, and had been riddled by a few scandals, came through with a majority this time around. Many had thought they would be turfed out or at least humbled. The main opposition party ran a clearly mean-spirited campaign and this may have been a factor as well.





I had a whole menu of other things that I wanted to kick about this time but they will have to wait a wee bit. I also haven't been able to manufacture anymore riddles so my boast last time will be pretty hollow right now. But I will do the General Douglas MacArthur thing on this.




Catch ya next time.



Don




All figures sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - See previous entry

Fig. 2 - www.womansday.com

Fig. 3 - www. telegraph. co. uk

Fig. 4 - en.wikipedia.org

Fig. 5 - throughablogdarkly.blogspot.com

Wetter and Wilder

Hi Carolyn,

Hopefully you are almost finished with academia for a bit and have tamed all of those unruly marks and evaluations that come with the end of the year.  It always seemed to me that once you got past spring  break things just began to hurtle along and before one knew it the year was over.




The weather has finally made it a comfortable experience to be outside so the winter clean-up is almost completed here. Speaking of climate issues ( which I seem to be doing a fair amount of lately ) My LSBH and I had a chance to attend a presentation/discussion at a local church. It was organized by a local climate awareness group and centered around a presentation by John Anderson, a retired marine biologist and fisheries scientist. In the five years since he retired to this area he has been researching historic weather data back to the late 1800's  from Owen Sound and the Bruce Peninsula area and identified some significant local climate trends.







Mr. Anderson's research career was spent in St. John's Newfoundland as a research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and as an adjunct professor at Memorial University in that same province. The man has the credentials, to be sure, and was clearly quite passionate about the topic. The two plus hours  for this event just seemed to fly by as the topic was so thoroughly engrossing.






He has been able to  compare what is happening locally to what is happening globally over the same time period. Anderson said that his research has shown that since 1926, when a dry spell ended, the region has experienced steadily increasing precipitation levels.

" 2013," he noted, "was the wettest year in 135 years. It is quite a notable event."

Anderson said there are also signs that extreme events are on the increase in the region and this past winter when there were long stretches of record cold temperatures is an example of such extremes. These conditions are definitely signs of significant climate change.




There were many other intriguing parcels of information relating to the changing weather patterns in the area and beyond. I had more than a couple of my hunches confirmed, I must say.



I should also note that my own recollections of the contents of the presentation have been augmented by contents of  an article in The Owen Sound Sun Times written by Staffer Rob Gowan. That steel vault I used to have for a memory has begun to lose its holding power, I fear.



Okay, back to other stuff. My last riddle was a zipper, Carolyn. I am going to guess that the last one of your is a pedestrian crosswalk. It seems far-fetched, perhaps, but its the best guess I can offer.



I have to also confess to being in a dry spell of my own vis-a-vis riddles today. I do not have one to offer up. Next time, I assure you, the jar will not be so empty.

Catch ya later,

Don


All images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 -  www.salvomag.com
Fig. 2 - en.wikipedia.org
Fig. 3 - www.noaa.gov

Curiosity, Being 10, and Multi-tasking, Free book

Hey! Remember that we are offering a free book on the Wormhole Website! 

Good afternoon! 

I read that the Russians want to ban the US from the International Space Station. That the US is stepping up its production and testing of new bigger and greater rockets that will fling heftier payloads into the darkness of space. This might bend my brain a bit, but then I watch my grandchildren play, I hear the grandkids of our new neighbors playing and I wonder ...

Do you remember being 10 years old? Not many worries, wondering, asking questions, drifting from one thought to another, from one play action to another? Everything in your world is there for you to investigate; to hold and turn over and around and look at, I mean REALLY look at.

Our grandson is staying the weekend with us as his sisters are showing their goats at the Fiber Fair. As a 10 year old, I'm amazed at what he knows, how he can use and manipulate language a lot better than many of my college students and then wander off into a story he is creating in his head.

My husband has a 10 foot measuring tape with a tiny pencil and paper pad attached that the grandson borrowed. I've been watching him measure absolutely everything he can think of for the last hour. He measured the door to the shop, the tomato containers, the dogs (all three of them); he even measured his PBJ sandwich. And, he meticulously wrote down the measurements. 

The boys (grandson and grandfather) are off to the train museum for the afternoon. Grandson tucked the tape measure into his pocket – he wants to measure some of the wheels on the steam engines he's going to climb on.  

Don't you wish you had the curiosity and wonder of a 10 year old? I wish I had the time to devote to exploring the world the way he does. I'm glad that we are able to provide the time for him to explore. All too soon he will be required to step into the world and maybe loose his curiosity. That would be a loss for all of humanity – when 10 year olds lose their interest in the world they become like us – how sad.

I've started grading the final research projects. The ones that came in this week were great! My curiosity was satisfied. Have you ever wondered about the .01% bacteria germ that doesn't die when you clean with all the great anti-bacterial products we have available now days?  Scientists are calling it the "super bug" and there are now more of them around because we keep strengthening them and taking away their competition (the weaker 99%). I learned that starting in 2016 companies are going to have to prove the effectiveness of their products. In the meantime, I think I'm going to clean more with white vinegar – apparently it kills germs and bacteria and is 98% effective. What is great is that bacteria and germs can't become immune to vinegar. Some of the other topics included slaughterhouses (a tough topic for me the vegetarian), media and violence, and trail bikes. Now I realize that the trail bikes actually became a report instead of a research, but it was still fun to read.

As to my research on the Wired Generation – I am struggling with the "red-tape concept" that many Millennials refuse to go through. Several of the students in my transitional class want to "write the book" before they can construct the paragraph. And, they get ticked off when I say I don't understand what they are trying to say.  Their sharp comeback is that I'm not reading it right – they've written it clear enough. I think my biggest disappointment was when two students refused to read it aloud to me so I could understand. They are very defensive and afraid – and of course, right now, they have to be right. Too bad, I think they've got great ideas but their presentation sucks.

I've also been having problems with texting and multi-tasking in class. I think this week we're going to explore the concept of multi-tasking and its effects on memory and learning. I know that several students will be outraged and refuse to play; most will play and decide it doesn't really happen that way for them; and then that choice few will understand – they'll get it.

If anyone asked me to describe what I do, I'd have to say I was a chipper and a cheerleader; I chip away at ignorance one or two people at a time and cheerlead for anyone who needs to know they are enough.

Have a great week.

And remember! June's stories are available! Read and enjoy on your lazy afternoons. And if you don't have lazy afternoons, take a quiet evening – it's good for your soul .

Carolyn

All images downloaded from Google Images

Fig 1 – Curiosity Cat retrieved from Google Images

Fig 2 – Measuring Tapes Retrieved from www.promo-whlesale.com

Fig 3 – Funny 10 Yr Old T-shirt retrieved from www.zazzle.com

Fig 4 – Trail bike xr 125 cc dirt bike retrieved from www.pmxaus.com

Fig 5 – Multi-tasking: the art of looking stupid retrieved from jmdive.com