30 August 04
The Flying Pinto
Back in our family library, we used to have a book entitled The World’s Worst Aircraft. I think this tale of the ill-fated marriage of a Cessna Skymaster and a Ford Pinto qualifies. (Be sure to see here for pictures.)
7 August 04
Off to the Sierra—A Year Later
On August 10th last year, Numenius and I got married in the hills above Winters. Our planned honeymoon to the Eastern Sierra Nevada never happened because I had a slight mishap, a snapped achilles tendon, and spent weeks on crutches.
So we’re leaving tomorrow to celebrate our first anniversary for a week of camping, meteor shower watching, pondering on old bristlecone pines, sketching, birding, hiking, and generally taking stock of where we are a year later. We will not, however, be blogging, so we’ll see you when we get back.
31 July 04
On Treating A Computer As A Wastebasket
This afternoon we went into Pica’s office to download something from her computer, and as I had a scrap of paper to throw out, I looked underneath her desk and saw a rectangular object with light sides and a dark interior, so I started to throw the paper there. In fact this wasn’t a wastebasket but Pica’s Mac G4 computer.
These perceptual errors always make me think of the theory of affordances, a term coming from the renowned perceptual psychologist J.J. Gibson. To quote Donald Norman, “the term affordance refers to the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used. A chair affords (“is for”) support, and, therefore, affords sitting.”
Gibson explains:
The affordances of the environment are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill. The verb to afford is found in the dictionary, but the noun affordance is not. I have made it up. I mean by it something that refers to both the environment and the animal in a way that no existing term does. It implies the complementarity of the animal and the environment…
There is a language which objects communicate to us in. If you see a door with a flat panel rather than a handle on it, you know to push on it to open it. Boxes suggest opening them and looking inside, and if you’re a cat, laptop computers suggest walking over them!
29 July 04
Decluttering The Feline Way
We’ve been on a major tidying tear these past several weeks. Yesterday it was going through the box of all the things that were in our old car Blue, transferring some of them to Nellie the new vehicle, and tossing the rest. Today we cleaned up the space under the glass table in the living room. Clearly the cats have something to do with this binge; they are certainly quite happy to supervise at any moment. Our one reference on the topic, Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui (for more details see the author’s site on Space Clearing), has nothing to say about the role of cats. But it is well known that cats are masters of feng shui, and we are learning what we can.
28 July 04
Apologizing to Cats
Being part English condemns you to apologize for things for which an apology is totally inappropriate, as in, “Sorry, do you mind if I just open the window?”-and must get thoroughly tedious after the third or fourth round. Unfortunately I find myself apologizing to kittens-if THEY get underfoot, if THEY are finicky about their food, if THEY are (much worse) finicky about their litter.
But they’re going to have to put up with it, I’m afraid. Pending approval from the landlord, we’ve decided to keep both Diego and Charlie. We’re out for too much of the time for one cat to be in here, cooped up, by himself and not start becoming neurotic. At least this way they’ll have each other to play with and make mayhem with.
For someone who isn’t a “cat person,” I’ve done a lot of cat stuff in the last few weeks. It’s been entertaining and far more fun than I’d ever have believed. And-yes-sorry to all of you who are bored out of your minds by all this kitten-blogging.
26 July 04
Roast Duck Curry
Our intrepid traveller friends put in a request last night for Thai food tonight. Not just any Thai food (they had been to lots of Thai restaurants in Australia); Thai food from Thai Nakorn, one of the newer Thai restaurants in Davis and our personal favorite.
Seems like it hit the spot all round. Nicole ordered Roast Duck Curry, which she claimed was never on the menu where they were; a couple of vegetable and tofu dishes and vegetable tom-ka soup sorted us all out.
Thai Nakorn opened around the same time last year as the Davis premiere of Finding Nemo (just next door). We mentioned both things in our blog entry for May 30, and were amused to find that entry pasted in the window of Thai Nakorn for a couple of months afterwards, apparently replacing any bona fide restaurant reviews.
Not that it has ever needed any; this restaurant has easily sifted its way to the top ranks. It seems always crowded now.
23 July 04
Discover Your Inner Smile
While we’re on the theme of Bay Area New Age eclectica, let’s not forget the dental practice in Berkeley, located near the Claremont Resort, entitled transcendentist. “Imagine entering a dental environment like no other: a wellness spa designed for your comfort and the first eco-friendly dental office in the country.” You too can receive a twenty-minute foot massage while you’re getting a teeth cleaning or a new crown put in.
21 July 04
Nellie
On Sunday, we had two tasks. One was to take the two remaining kittens to Petco to try and get them adopted (we failed-hooray!-, but saw Fernanda who ended up adopting a young adult Siamese cross, Roux, of whom we’ve grown quite fond, and also Virginia and her daughter Alexandria who was visiting and who had babysat the kittens when we first got them and given them names). The second task was to buy a car. (The kittens were MUCH more stressful.)
My ‘86 Subaru hatchback is still running fine but having spent a good ten years in New England ice and snow (and salt), is a bit the worse for wear. It was getting so that I was not feeling comfortable going on long trips—or even relatively short ones out of the way, such as going to Bodega Bay. Blue was my first car, and I bought her for $700 from my roommate back in 1995. Yesterday I sold her to a coworker whose car died a couple of weeks ago and who needs a reliable commute car, which Blue is.
So—this evening we picked up a new Honda Element at the Davis Honda dealership, which was surprisingly low-pressure and even pleasant. This car is the butt of many jokes as being the ugliest thing on the road; it’s fondly known as a toaster, an elephant, and worse. But you can hose out the inside, you can sleep in it, and we can fit our tandem INSIDE. We’ll be rigging up all kinds of gizmos for hitching things in there and are-finally-able to go on a delayed honeymoon for our first anniversary. If only Nellie were a hybrid…
13 July 04
Older Bloggers
In March of last year Numenius posted about Samuel Pepys’ blog. We had only just started Feathers of Hope at that point; looking over these older entries is a bit like peeking over someone else’s shoulder.
Now it seems Thoreau has his own blog too. (Thanks to Dave of Via Negativa for alerting us to this.)
11 July 04
Bye Bye, Louie
Louie got adopted today by a sweet girl called Jane. He was her sixteenth birthday present. We’ll miss his lively chirruping around the house. What a change he is from the poor little huddled creature one May Wednesday morning in the carport…