If She Weighs the Same as a Duck...

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Snap a photo of something that floats. If it's buoyant, it's in!

John Scalzi photographed "devil ducks" for this, and admitted that they don't float upright very well. I was immediately reminded of my own rubber duck, which is sealed on the bottom and therefore doesn't squeak, and which has an unfortunate tendency to float upside down.

The second thing this photo shoot brought to mind was the following:

BEDEVERE: So, why do witches burn? [pause]

VILLAGER #3: Be... cause they're made of... wood?

BEDEVERE: Good!

CROWD: Oh, yeah. Oh.

BEDEVERE: So, how do we tell whether she is made of wood?

VILLAGER #1: Build a bridge out of her.

BEDEVERE:Ah, but can you not also make bridges out of stone?

VILLAGER #1: Oh, yeah.

RANDOM: Oh, yeah. True. Uhh...

BEDEVERE: Does wood sink in water?

VILLAGER #1: No. No.

VILLAGER #2: No, it floats! It floats!

VILLAGER #1: Throw her into the pond!

CROWD: The pond! Throw her into the pond!

BEDEVERE: What also floats in water?

VILLAGER #1: Bread!

VILLAGER #2: Apples!

VILLAGER #3: Uh, very small rocks!

VILLAGER #1: Cider!

VILLAGER #2: Uh, gra-- gravy!

VILLAGER #1: Cherries!

VILLAGER #2: Mud!

VILLAGER #3: Uh, churches! Churches!

VILLAGER #2: Lead! Lead!

ARTHUR: A duck!

CROWD: Oooh.

BEDEVERE: Exactly. So, logically...

VILLAGER #1: If... she... weighs... the same as a duck... she's made of wood?

BEDEVERE: And therefore?

VILLAGER #2: A witch!

---from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

So, logically, I need to find out what floats besides witches. And ducks.



I had to go to the grocery store anyway. I returned home with a number of items that might or might not float.

Trident gum: yes.
Jello sugar-free cherry gelatin: yes.
A plastic-wrapped stick of Colby Jack cheese: yes.
A green pepper: yes.

Frozen crinkle-cut carrots: mostly, yes.

Orange-flavored cranberry raisins: not so much.

But enough with the food. What about witches, and wood, and ducks, and bats, and mice, and Eastern holy men?

For the first time in the 25 years I've owned it,
my rubber duck floated upright.
Rubber bat: yes.
Small jar of Play-Doh: yes.
Holy man with cell phone: yes, but only on his back.
Green skull: yes.
Orange spider ring: yes.

I don't have a witch to weigh, but I have a vintage troll, who floats.
Hollow rubber rat: not at all.


And yes, the villagers were right about one thing.
Wood: yes. Except it doesn't fit in the bowl.

I'm very tired tonight, so I'll postpone anything else I wanted to discuss tonight, except for two brief items:

1. The Round Robin Photo Challenges topic "In the Kitchen" begins midnight Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Click the link for details.
2. Hint: begins with a P.

Karen

Technorati Tags: Monday Photo Shoot, Scalzi, Floats, Monty Python

I Should...

I should...

• Write up the next installment of my neglected Mâvarin prequel, as I promised Sarah I'd do. The New Post window is open, and a single handwritten paragraph for it is an inch from my left had as I type. Yet somehow, I can't make myself work on it tonight.
• Put my everything-but-red laundry in the dryer, and start my red load. Okay. I'll be right back. Done. But I missed washing one white sock.
• Clean up trash and recycling. Well, I did throw some paper away. I'll try to catch the empty Snapple bottles on my way to bed. Done. That part, anyway.
• Put away that Starlog I photographed last week, the Dell logic problem book, three Barbie books, three L'Engle books, and Malibu Francie. Done.
• Do dishes. Sorry, not tonight.
• Tell you that the photo below is indeed of leftover pancakes. But what kind? Hint: the color in the photos is fairly accurate.
  
  
• 
• Clean out the fridge. Hmm. That gives me an idea.
• Explain why you haven't seen new sunsets from me lately. Well, it's dark when I leave the office now, and besides, sunsets are better when there are clouds. In short, it's the wrong time of year. Done.
  
• Email the church office with helpful links, and request the church bulletin in electronic form. Done.
  
• Post and write about that other photo I took last night. Nah, too tired.
• Take a bath and wash my hair. I'll think about it.
  
• Go to bed. Yes, that's the best idea of the lot! This time I'll take the allergy medicine so that unlike last night, I'll actually sleep.
  

Karen

Technorati Tags: Personal, Writing

A Pop Quiz and a Teaser

First, the pop quiz. What is this? Be specific.

This came home with me after a morning spent with a friend, first attending the second half of Mass (I was late), then Confirmation class, then eating at Mimi's Cafe (hence the food), and finally browsing at an interdenominational bookstore and gift shop.

None of the items in the second picture were purchased today, but they do pertain the confirmation class. The red Bible is my favorite translation, the New American Bible, St. Joesph Edition. Like everything else to do with religion, it's a bit controversial, but I like it because it has lots of scholarly intros and footnotes and illos and timelines and whatnot. None of this, however, inspired me or kept me awake long enough to finish the reading for this morning. Still, the additional material is very much in line with the content of this morning's class. Rev. Angela talked about the different parts of the Bible, the historical context, and the idea that both reason and tradition should be considered when reading scripture, as well as the content of the text itself in various translations. The little booklets above are a guide to the Daily Office Lectionary, a two-year cycle of readings that take the reader through most of the Bible in a fairly coherent order, and give some idea of common themes between the readings in a given week. I suppose that part of the "tradition" portion of the "three-legged stool" of Episcopal tradition.

Anyway, I was pleased to discover that most of what Rev. Angela said resonated with my own past researches and my own beliefs. I am more convinced than ever that I have found my theological home. Despite my intense aversion to controversy, I have much more to say about this. But not tonight!

Karen

Current lectionary readings


Technorati Tags: Food, Episcopal, Tucson

Words and Pictures

I didn't take any photos today, but I did scan this:

It's to illustrate a Wikipedia article called List of fictional books‎. A fictional book is a book referred to inside a fictional work, a book that (usually) doesn't really exist. I say "usually" because sometimes an author creates the book after the fact - but the fact remains that it's a fictitious book by a fictional character.

In my graphic above, C.S. Lewis postulates a number of amusing titles for books owned by Mr. Tumnus the faun in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. That's one of the things I love about fictional books. Much of the time, they have great, funny, intriguing titles.

Heck, a lot of the humor in the books of Douglas Adams comes from fictional books, from the text of the fictional Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy itself to the "philosophical blockbusters" of Oolon Colluphid:

• Where God Went Wrong
  
• Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes
  
• Who Is This God Person Anyway?
  
• Well That About Wraps It Up for God
  

There are other purposes for fictional books besides just making jokes. Jorge Luis Borges did all sorts of interesting things with fictional books, building whole stories around them, such as the one about a man who rewrites Don Quixote word by word, ending up with exactly the same text as Cervantes - and a book some critics consider superior to the original. Some day I'll read that story. Tolkien uses fictional books to establish the entire history of Middle Earth. Ben Aaronovitch quotes from fictional books at the beginning of each chapter of his novelization of Remembrance of the Daleks, using them as background and context for the story. Kurt Vonnegut attributes lots of book titles to his author character Kilgore Trout, thus establishing Trout's character as a prolific, eccentric, not-terribly successful writer. And so it goes.

And from time to time, people ask me about a book called The Horn of Joy by Matthew Maddox, a book mentioned in A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle. The Horn of Joy is a crucial plot element in the novel, a book Charles Wallace needs to know more about in order to save the world. L'Engle gave it so much verisimilitude that readers sometimes wonder whether The Horn of Joy is a real book. It isn't.

I must go read five chapters of a real book now and go to bed. I've got a Confirmation class in the morning. I was already confirmed as a Roman Catholic 36 years ago, but I'm going to be "received" as an Episcopalian. But first I have to read John 13 through 17. Good night!

Karen

Technorati Tags: Fictional books, Books, Wikipedia

A Childhood Full of Books, Revisited

A Message from the Blogfather, via Journals Editor Jeff (and Blogger Dan):

For this week's Weekend Assignment, John Scalzi wants to know: What were your favorite children's books? Tell us in your blog, and either link to the post in my comments section or over in John's audio entry. And have a great weekend! (Extra credit: "You forgot the ubiquitous Scalzified Extra Credit portion of the assignment asking us to recommend some books that kids might like to read... ")

Some of my children's books; that is, books meant
for children, but which belong to me. I have no children.

Having done every single Weekend Assignment since April, 2004, and every Monday Photo Shoot since whenever it was that started, I often read a Scalzi assignment and say, "Wait a minute. Didn't we do this one already?"

The truth is, some of these really are similar to past assignments, although they're almost never identical. My problem is that with my, uh, loquaciousness, and tendency toward overkill, I tend to obliterate not only the topic itself but also every similar topic in the near vicinity.

And so it is with this one. What I'm remembering is a slightly different topic:

Weekend Assignment #82: What was your favorite bedtime story as a child?

Extra Credit: As an adult, have you shared that favorite bedtime story with a child?

My response, called "A Childhood Full of Books," started out with the explanation that I didn't recall ever being read to at bedtime, and continued with a survey of some of the many books I loved to read as a child. I see I have pictures in that entry of many of the same books I photographed to discuss tonight.

But the heck with it. I'm going to talk about some of them anyway.

Whitman editions - from my 2005 entry

I really didn't have a favorite book, at least, not the same consistent favorite. In first grade I loved something called Little Dog Tim, but that was pretty much the last time I could identify a single title as my favorite. I loved a lot of books, especially as I got a little older. I devoured my brother's Whitman editions of the classics, and my own: Tom Sawyer, Black Beauty, Robin Hood by Howard Pyle, Little Women, The Little Lame Prince, The Bobbsey Twins Secret at the Seashore, Lassie and the Secret of the Summer... okay, maybe they weren't all classics. Funny thing, though - of all those titles, the one I remember most fondly is the one about Lassie and Jeff, even though Lassie belonged to Timmy by the time I was born.

There were other whole categories of books I devoured:

• Arrow Book Club purchases such as Follow My Leader (about a newly-blind boy and his dog) and Skip (about a boy and his newly-blind dog).
• Book series from the school library: the Mother West Wind series by Thornton W. Burgess, the Mary Poppins books, Beverly Cleary and so on.
• Hand-me-down books from Steve, my mom, my grandmother, and even my mother's friends: Pollyanna, Peggy Lee Stories for Girls, Winnie the Pooh, and The Little Prince.

This was not one of the titles Steve had in the 1960s

Special mention should probably go to all the books about dogs and horses. I read my way through Jim Kjelgaard's books about dogs and wild animals, and Walter Farley's Black Stallion series, Marguerite Henry's Chincoteague books, and of course Albert Payson Terhune.

A Wrinkle in Time. You know I have to
mention this book yet again.

And in fifth grade or so, a librarian recommended this when I ran out of books to read by Eleanor Estes and Elizabeth Enright. Actually, I almost certainly found the book while looking for more books by Lois Lenski. I don't remember any of the books I read by Estes and Enright and Lenski all those years ago, but A Wrinkle in Time is the book that changed my life. I'm not sure it was my favorite at the time, but I must have read it several times in elementary school. I later went looking for more books by L'Engle at the Manlius Public Library, but there wasn't much around by her back in 1968. In desperation I struggled through half of the only other L'Engle book that library had: her depressing second novel, Ilsa, which was very definitely for adults. It wasn't until college that I ever saw a L'Engle book for sale, and even then it was a hardback. I had to save up to buy The Wind in the Door, and later A Swiftly Tilting Planet. From that point on, I bought every new L'Engle novel as it came out in hardback.

So what one book, out of all of those, would I recommend to an 8-to-10-year-old? I guess it would depend on the kid. Horse crazy? Go with Misty of Chincoteague, or The Black Stallion. Would you reather read about kids your age? Try a Beverly Cleary book. Love fantasy? The Little Lame Prince, or maybe The Hobbit, which I read much later. And if you feel like a misfit, and you like to think about the big questions of Life, the Universe and Everything, you can't do much better than A Wrinkle in Time.

Even if you're ever so much older than 8 to 10 years old, I recommend all of these books. Not that you're likely to find Peggy Lee Stories for Girls, but oh, well.

Karen

Update: Scalzi has managed to add words to his entry, and the Extra Credit seems to have changed a bit from what I thought I heard:

The extra credit is to suggest a good kid's book from the current era (not including the Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket books, because, well, they're sort of obvious).

So I have to recommend a recent book, eh? The newest books for kids that I've read skew a bit older than the 8-to-10 age range, I think - they're basically all YA (young adult) books. Anything by Meg Cabot is good, or Diane Duane's Young Wizards series. If Daniel Pinkwater is still writing books for kids, then I'll recommend those, on the basis of his older books.

L'Engle's most recent books for children

I'd love to recommend a recent L'Engle title, but her newest one for kids is a picture book called The Other Dog, and I don't love it. The last one before that is A Full House: An Austin Family Christmas. Yes. That'll work. Christmas is coming, after all.

KFB

Technorati Tags: Scalzi, Weekend Assignment, Books

The Guy I Went to School With

Right: my high school yearbook.

Quick! Name a computer animated film!

Chances are you just named a film by Pixar: Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles or maybe their latest one, Cars. Fair enough. Pixar is #1 in its field, and deserves to be. But what if I say "other than Pixar?" What CGI animated film will you name them? I'm guessing the answer is Shrek, or Ice Age, or maybe Robots. I have no inside knowledge about Shrek, but as for those other two films, well, read on.

But first, name a major film of the last 15 years, Star Wars and Johnny Depp films excluded, that was a special effects blockbuster. Did you name T2? Men in Black? The Mummy? There are others, of course, lots of others. Most of them have the words, "Industrial Light and Magic" in the end credits somewhere.

If you've seen Ice Age or Robots, then you've seen a film directed by Chris Wedge, who graduated with me from Fayetteville-Manlius High School, Class of 1975. If you've seen Terminator 2, the Men in Black movies, The Mummy, Hook, Death Becomes Her, or even Star Trek VI, then you've seen the CGI wizardry of one of John's closest friends from college, John Berton.

Right: John Berton in 1997, from the Berkeley.edu website. He was scheduled to give a lecture there.

I worked on Wikipedia articles for both of these guys today. Chris Wedge already had a "stub" article, so I just added a couple of links and the fact that he went to F-M, SUNY and OSU. John Berton didn't have an article, so I wrote one. John (Blocher) thinks I should have asked Berton (John Blocher has always called Berton by his last name) if he wanted a Wikipedia article out there. He was a little shocked when I replied that Berton is a public figure, and most of the info is out there already.

Aside from their each having gone to school with someone in this house, Wedge and Berton have a number of things in common. Both are CGI wizards, of course, and they both supervise other CGI animators. Both got their Masters degrees in computer animation from Ohio State University, which was doing cutting edge stuff back when it took a supercomputer to animate a little bird figure. Both have lectured at major universities. Both have said in public that it's cheaper and easier to hire a human actor to do something (if it's not something impossible) than to make a realistic CG figure do it instead.

And oh, yes. Both seem to be completely unrepresented in the Blocher DVD collection. Odd, that.

There is one way in which these two guys are very different, at least with respect to their relationships with Blochers of Tucson, Arizona. As I said, John and John were close friends in college. Together they were two-thirds of a radio comedy troupe called Pith. We even had dinner with John and Susan a couple of years ago, at the Kon Tiki here in Tucson. But Chris Wedge...I have to admit that I don't remember the guy at all.

Karen


Technorati Tags: computer graphics, Wikipedia, Personal

Blogging the Vote

Vote aqui! The sign may not say that next
year, now that English is "official"

Most years, I do my voting when I get off work. Not today, though. The election was on my mind. So I did my last bit of pre-election homework - confirming which state legislative district holds my little city block neighborhood. I eventually found a page on the state website that drew the district lines, and let me superimpose a map of my neighborhood. Aha! It was the one with the guy whose name resembles the word "pretzel." Yes, I voted for him in the primary. And the Democratic state senator was running unopposed.

With this information nailed down, I compiled yet another cheat sheet from a newspaper's online list, and headed over to the local elementary school to vote.

This is just part of the parking lot.

When I got there, the parking lot was the most crowded with cars that I've ever seen it. There were open spaces, but well back. School was probably in session, though, so some of those cars may have belonged to school employees.

I'm glad they post a sample ballot at the door,
but it seems a bit late in the game for research.

One of the many anti-immigrant measures that have been on the ballot here in recent years was one that requires voters to show ID. It's kind of weird, though, because if you don't have a driver's license, you can make do with a couple of utilities bills addressed to you. Anyway, I got to the school, went to get out my driver's license, and it wasn't in my wallet! I took it out one night to take to the gym, and forgot to put it back. A quick trip home took care of that. I went back to the school, license in hand. Still, I wonder whether my security badge from work, which does have my picture of it, would have been acceptable ID. I actually don't have a problem with showing ID, as long as it's reasonably easy for non-drivers to have something that works.

I had the candidates memorized, but I did
follow my cheat sheet pages on the propositions.

It probably took me at least five minutes to vote. The ballot was about 11x17", something like that anyway, printed on both sides. I barely read the titles of the propositions, just enough to confirm which one it was as I filled in little YES and NO ovals with a felt tip pen. I think in the end I voted for three Republicans, one of whom was the mine inspector, running unopposed. John joked that he should have run for that office. Another Republican happened to be named Dean Martin, but that's not why I voted for him.

My Democratic congressional candidate won, and was congratulated in person by the retiring moderate Republican. Senator Kyl was reelected - too bad, but I expected that, and anyway the Democrat in that race was no prize. Janet Napolitano was re-elected with something like 62.4% of the vote.

The big thrill of the night for me is that the Democrats retook the House and are on the verse of reclaiming the Senate. The big disappointment is that a number of conservative, xenophobic anti-immigrant propositions have passed. The big squeaker was a proposition that would deny benefits to anyone who isn't legally married. That seems to be losing, by about 2% of the vote. I'm aghast that it was even close.

Still, as elections go, I'm pretty happy overall. It should be a lot harder now for GWB to make things worse than they already are.

Karen

Technorati Tags: Personal, Election