5 March 07
Plans for a Yakkety-Yak?
Temple Grandin’s talk a couple of weeks ago referred to people like me as Yakkety-yaks: we can’t stop talking. Now it seems I have a new way to do just that.
It’s not like I needed another hobby, folks. After some months of sparse activity, our warm weather has brought all kinds of action into the garden, and I will need to get working hard to transition from winter to summer with a minor spring garden in between, quite apart from planting ceanothus while blocking weeds in the space under the plum and nectarine trees. I’ve been working on more quince drawings. Let’s not even get started on what I need to be doing at work…
And yet, there’s something so appealing about the idea of volunteering a skill not held by many for the cause of supporting a long bike ride or endurance horse race: not to mention being of service in an emergency. Ham radio is not something I ever dreamed of getting into. It’s very male, for one thing (I was the only woman at my class on Saturday and at the exam, which more than doubled the number of people in the room). But I can yak it up with the best of them, and I just might…
4 March 07
Day Of Accomplishments
Yesterday we were busy — I helped break a world record and Pica passed her ham radio licensing exam! The world record was for the longest bicycle parade. The previous record was 614 bikes; we ended up with 913 bikes in the parade. The parade was organized by the UC Davis undergrads on the occasion of the final home basketball game of the season. It started off at the track and old football stadium on the east edge campus and wended its way a couple of miles through campus to end up at the basketball pavilion. It took us about a half-hour to get us out of the track leaving single file, and we moseyed along at maybe 7 miles per hour. The mayor of Davis officiated at both the start and finish, and there were cheerleaders en route.
Meanwhile, Pica was taking a one-day ham radio class sponsored by the Yolo Amateur Radio Society with a licensing test at the very end of the day. The class consisted of a grueling series of videos, and the exam was 35 questions multiple-choice. She passed, and in a week or so will receive her official call sign from the FCC!
3 March 07
Ekphrasis
I’ll be co-editing qarrtsiluni with Lori Witzel of Chatoyance for the next couple of months.
The full description of the theme and how to submit is here, but here’s a short version:
This qarrtsiluni theme pairs submissions in poetry, or poetic prose, with a form of visual art. Ideally they need not be by the same person: this is a collaborative experiment. Non-bloggers are particularly encouraged to participate. Find a partner whose work you admire and have at it!
The visual art contributions will be posted in our gallery awaiting writers – check back often over the next two weeks, as we will have more to share.
All work, visual and otherwise, will be reviewed and juried by the editors before publishing. Poems should be no longer than 30 lines; prose pieces should be no longer than 500 words. Image files should be a maximum of 500 pixels in width.
Please take a look, and consider partnering with someone (they can be dead: if you’d like to write a poem about or inspired by Las Meninas, please feel free), or if you’d like to send in a photo or a piece of art you think might lend itself to poetry, send them in!
2 March 07
Prosthetics For Bicycles
One of the local bike shops we frequent was running a special on tuneups, so we both took our commute bikes in a couple weeks ago for the work. No problem, but I quickly learned that my bike needed a whole lot of parts to be replaced, and the whole enterprise cost me about 5 times as much as I was expecting.
This of course begs the question — at what point when you replace part after part, do you have a different bicycle than when you started? I think the answer is when you swap out the frame.
28 February 07
Farewell to Ernie
Ernie’s gone. We had wonderful times taking care of him while Barbara was away. I’ve never heard such a loud purr, or seen an animal like such a vigorous brushing. We’ll miss him.
Phil Gross kindly compiled the following tributes:
Ernie was a hard hard hard working cat. He worked real hard at that, and it’s a hard job. We won’t forget what his loss means to the country.
— George Bush
The wanker was a complete fun loving goofball. He did cat very very well.
— Mick Jagger
I would have given him the locker next to me… he meant that much.
— Barry Bonds/Barry Zito
For people on E street, it won’t be the same now that he is gone. I think people will notice his passing more than they noticed my leaving. That goes doubly for the rat population… you know who I’m talking about.
— Suzy Boyd
Margaret Thatcher… a focking focker. Ronald Reagan, a total focker. George Bush, a silly little focker. Ernie Anderson, a very nice cat.
— Bob Geldoff
Ernie was a beautiful vacillating mixture of indoor/ outdoor cat. When he was indoors, he’d scratch at the door to go out… soon as you let him out he was scratching at the door to get in. We have all felt that way at times… but no one was more honest in expressing that feeling publicly… and loudly. Kudos
— Robert Bly
Barb, you picked such a serious professorial picture of Ernie, I fear some will be misled who didn’t know him well.
— Phil Gross
Always the most fun person to visit at that address.
— E Street neighbors
27 February 07
Methuselah the Date Sapling
Two years ago Dr. Elaine Soloway germinated a 2000-year date seed found at Masada in Israel. This was the oldest seed ever to germinate. The seedling survived, and now Dr. Soloway is planning to transplant it. If the sapling, named Methuselah, continues to flourish and is female, in several years time we may find what the dates of Judea tasted like — according to Pliny the Elder they were renowned for their succulence and sweetness.
26 February 07
Davis: Whither Cycling?
We just got back from a presentation and panel discussion on the history of Davis as Cycling Capital of America, and of the fact that its status as such is in doubt — unless we do something about it.
There are over 95 miles of bikeways in this town of 65,000. That’s impressive. Yet fewer people are choosing to ride their bikes into town to shop; fewer students ride their bikes to school. A well-subsidized bus system ferries students into campus and back out, at the cost of about $350 per student; considerably less would be needed to increase the quality of bike facilities and routes per person.
The event has made me determined to make more grocery runs by bike. I’ve become a fair-weather cyclist, a far cry from my Boston snow bike-commutes. We’ll be watching what this new grouping comes up with in terms of solutions and suggestions. It’s easy, and it really makes a difference…
25 February 07
Sudoku Pencils and Friends
If you’re getting frustrated with trying to solve Sudoku puzzles maybe you need a pencil specially designed for the task. This site Pencil Things sells everything related to the writing implement. Who knew that you could buy plastic caps to protect pencil points?
24 February 07
Attacked by a Pomegranate and Other Gardening Dangers
I was planting a pomegranate tree yesterday morning when I grazed one of the sharp branches with my right eyeball. No major harm done, though there are lots of sharp things in gardens and it’s good to be reminded to avoid them.
Numenius doesn’t do a lot of gardening, preferring to potter with radio stuff nearby while I dig. So when I begged him to go to a worm composting workshop at Project Compost today on my behalf, since I had a bird trip to lead for Duck Days, and he complied and schlepped a newly-filled worm bin to his office, he earned a nice lunch. There are now lots of worms in the house, but I’m hoping they’ll stay confined to their bins till we figure out exactly where they’re going to end up. (One will go to Mary and Jim’s across the street, I’m hoping, since I already pick up their scraps for the compost.)
The leeks have emerged from their potting soil disconcertingly quickly. I now have to work out how to keep them uncovered and their neighbors not… and at what point to pull the gardens apart and line them with gopher-proof wire mesh. Should have done that last year when I was putting them in.
Oh it’s all such a lot of work, and aren’t I happy as a clam when I have dirt under my fingernails…
23 February 07
The Joy Of Destroying One's Shopping
Yesterday I heard Richard Stallman speak on copyright and community. He started off by talking about the four freedoms that software should have to be considered truly free: the freedom to run the software, the freedom to modify the software for one’s own needs, the freedom to redistribute copies so one can help one’s neighbor, and the freedom to improve the program, and release the improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Of these, he noted, only the first two apply to physical objects rather than software.
It’s fun to buy something with the intention of destructively modifying it right away. I’m trying to build up a computer soundcard interface for my transceiver out of bits and bobs you can find at Radio Shack and OfficeMax. Today’s foray was to OfficeMax to pick a keyboard/mouse extension cable of which I promptly cut off one end. I just need the 6-pin connector at one end and bare wires at the other. No luck so far in getting the interface to work — I’m still getting the same RF noise back into the receiver as when I did when I wired it straight using a mono audio cable with 1/8” plugs. But that’s tinkering for you.