Bloody Frog: I'm not dead yet!

There was a frog in the middle of the path near our driveway. One of its eyes looked sliced off, the other was milky. It didn't move at all, even when I got very close to take its photo.

I walked inside and asked, "Does anyone want to see a dead frog?"
Both girls and Rodrigo said, "No!"
I said I wasn't sure it was dead, but if it stayed in the path, someone would step on it.

I went back out. The frog was still unmoving, but it had moved by about a half-foot.
I got very close to take another photo. It spun around, startling me, then froze.

I went inside to tell Rodrigo the frog wasn't dead, but he had already gone out through the basement to collect the shovel. By the time I got out again, the frog was gone.

Rodrigo said when he came out to bury the frog, it jumped onto his shovel. So he carried it carefully to a safer spot.

my child's future lost to a cell phone on buzz

A Montessori charter school for grades K-3 is opening up in Manchester this fall. Last spring, we entered our daughter in the lottery for a spot. She didn't get in. We didn't get a post card or any notification that she was on the waiting list. Months went by. We got over it.

Last Tuesday we went on vacation, a long car trip to New York, then D.C., then back to New York, then back home. In D.C. I had tried calling my husband's cell phone and he didn't answer it. I thought it was just museum noise.

He was driving us from D.C. to N.Y. around 9:30 at night when I noticed the cell phone in his pocket. "That can't be comfortable," I said, so I helpfully pulled it out. Then I noticed, "There are messages."

"Probably just you calling me yesterday," said Ro.

"I didn't leave a message."

I called and got one message from his mother, plus another from someone at the Montessori Charter school: "We need to hear from you by 5pm today if you want Rafaela enrolled."

"Oh my gosh!"

My family all worried that someone had died, I sounded so excited.

I emailed from New York, around midnight, and called them the next morning, around 8:30 am.  It was too late. They had given away her slot.

Now, I had been checking my email accounts daily. We did find the cell phone message within the same day that it was left. We just have never gotten around to figuring out how to retrieve messages from our home answering machine. We have never received any messages before that couldn't wait for us to return from vacation. Apparently, the school left us one message on Thursday, another one earlier in the week, and then thought to try the cell phone number on the day of our last chance. Had Ro's cell phone been set to ring instead of buzz, there's a good chance he'd have answered it.

Ro tells me he had explained that the cell phone, which was my cell phone before I got a new one for work, was stuck on buzz and he didn't know how to change it to ring. I don't remember him telling me that. It was one of those couple miscommunications--was he talking while I was looking like I was paying attention? or while I didn't look like I was paying attention? I could have fixed it when he said he told me, and then we'd have a daughter in Montessori school.

Today's Google Doodle celebrates the 142nd birthday of Maria Montessori. Yeah, rub it in, Google.

The important part of Clint Eastwood's RNC speech

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we — we own this country.

We — we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

And — so — they are just going to come around and beg for votes every few years. It is the same old deal. But I just think it is important that you realize, that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.

from http://www.allmediany.com/news/5709-text-of-clint-eastwoods-speech-at-republican-national-convention

Today's Split Pea Soup

• 1 package green split peas
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 small clove garlic
• carrots - peeled and sliced into disks
• potable water
• thyme
• small amount of dill
• small amount of tamari 
• salt
• hungarian paprika or cayenne (be careful)

Rinse split peas in the bottom quarter of a largish pot, then add more water to at least 3/4 full. Cook on high. Add a teaspoon or so of salt. When the water boils, turn off the heat and let the peas soak while you cut up the onions and peel and slice the carrots. Skim the foam off the top of the water. Add the onions and turn on the heat again to medium-low. After it has cooked for a while, add the carrots. Once the peas have started to soften, stir in the spices, cook on low for a bit, then let soup stand and cook on residual heat.

Tonight's Cream of Mushroom Soup

• 2 TB olive oil 
• 1 TB butter
• 1 diced onion (I used red tonight)
• 2/3 package mushrooms, thinly sliced & chopped (baby bella)
• 3 TB flour (1 www, 2 a-p)
• 3 cups milk (I'm really just guessing at quantities)
• shake in some worcestershire sauce
• shake in some tamari soy sauce
• 1/4 cup potato flakes
• 1/3 cup grated cheese (e.g. parmesan-gouda)
• salt
• fresh ground pepper
• thyme
• dill
• sage
• oregano

Melt butter in olive oil (or use all butter or all olive oil). 

Add the diced onions & sauté.

Add 3 tablespoons flour, stir, let brown for a minute or less.

Add chopped mushrooms. Stir.

Add 1 cup of the milk and stir. Then gradually add the rest.

Cook for a few minutes.

Shake in the worcestershire and tamari.

Thicken with the grated cheese, then the potato flakes.

Cook long enough to melt the potato flakes.

Season to taste.

Mushroom Paté:

If you use less milk, slightly more cheese, and grind it up, it probably makes a good paté.

DC: Smithsonian U.S. History Museum - Lots of Stuff

Sunday morning we found a parking spot that turned legal at 10 am, just a few minutes before we arrived. There was only one or two cars when we decided that it was probably OK to park, but we'd get out and check the sign again. By the time we got out, there were five or six cars there. The spot was conveniently located on the same block as the Smithsonian U.S. history museum.

In the entry hall, exhibition cases contained interesting tidbits. My favorite was Jack Warner's address book open to the D's: Drugstore, Irene Dunne, Walt Disney, Salvador Dali. There was also Harry Potter's Robe with Griffendor insignia.

There was a child-friendly transportation display with Trains and Boats and Cars. We looked at boats first. A docent provided a helpful in-depth explanation of privateers in response to our questions. There were lots of cool ship models.

Then there were big trains, and re-creations of trains stations, lunch counters, 1950's car-salesmen. There was a circa 1960 Chicago subway car that you could sit in. And an Indian and Harley motorcycle.

Rafi and I loved the first lady costumes, that is, gowns. At the Presidential exhibit. I took a closeup of Warren Harding's pajama pocket.

When Rafi got tired, there was a play area under the heading "Hall of Invention". There was a sign up saying the area was only open until Labor day, so parents of children tired of walking around will have to think of something else. In this play area were displays of the original muppets - Sam and Friends. There was also the TV Superman costume.

A later, but still early (1971) Kermit was upstairs, close to Adlai Stevenson's briefcase, in the section of the museum that had the ruby slippers at the entryway.

The basement, a.k.a. "LL" or "Lower Level" contains simulator rides, which cost $7 for 5 minutes. Of course I was too cheap to let Rafi go.

DC: Archives and Nat'l Gallery

We'd been thinking of taking our annual camping trip in Maine or NH this year, instead of Cape Cod. We love the Cape, but we live in NH, and I was wondering if my fixation on Cape Cod had to do with growing up near Boston. Why not save the two days being stuck in traffic (to & from), and try someplace closer?

Then a cousin of mine who lives near D.C. and whom I haven't seen in several years invited us all to a party she was throwing to celebrate a happy event. It was a chance to see some nice and interesting relatives I don't see too often, so we altered vacation plans to do some touring in Washington D.C.

The main problem with this plan was that I wasn't looking forward to waiting in lines and walking in the hot D.C. summer sun, but we actually lucked out with the weather. It was warm enough for us to enjoy a swim at the hotel in the late afternoon when we arrived, and then it was kind of cloudy and rainy for the next two days. There were some downpours, but we didn't happen to get caught in them. They just kept the air relatively cool. Decent museum weather.

The Spy Museum was top on my list, and the kids also thought it would be fun. We checked the website the night we arrived at the hotel and saw that it would cost our family of four $70 to visit. I had thought all the museums in D.C. were free, so balked at that price, particularly since I had never yet seen the National Archives or the U.S. History part of the Smithsonian, both of which are still free.

Saturday morning we found a parking spot across the street from the National Gallery. We walked to the archives. There was a bit of a line at the door, then a bit of a line to enter the Main Attraction--that is, the Rotunda containing the Declaration of Independence, drafts of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, two murals, and a funny letter complaining about the murals, and other stuff too. One of those awe-inspiring places to which Americans likely want to make pilgrimage to at least once. I was glad my children were able to appreciate it.

We ate lunch in the Archives cafeteria. The cans of soda were $1 each, which was refreshing. The street vendors and the roadside rest areas charge much more for drinks. My husband and I shared a cranberry-tuna sandwich. Cranberry turned out to be a good addition to tuna salad, so we learned something even in the cafeteria. All the sandwiches were $5.75 each. The kids didn't want tuna, so ate ice cream sandwiches, which were $2 each.

I dragged the kids into the National Gallery to see one of my favorite paintings, which looks like a science fiction landscape but is actually from the early Renaissance. St John in the Desert, by Domenico Veneziano.

We wandered around to see whatever we could in the time before we had to return to the hotel to get ready for the party. There was a really huge Rubens depicting Daniel in the Lions Den. Rafi and I sat on a bench to look at it and rest our legs. The lions had great fur and were very lion-y, but we started to notice that, as desperate as Daniel looked to be in his predicament, the lions had not yet noticed he was among them. The weren't looking at him. One was even asleep. There was a human skull at the bottom of the painting, so maybe they were still full from the last prisoner.

I tried to get the kids or even my husband to pose against Andrea del Castagno's portrait of David on a shield with their hand spread out like David's, but they all refused. One thing interesting about seeing it in real life is that you can see the bolts of the shield that are painted over. The surface is not entirely flat.

I wasn't aware that Leonardo's portrait of Ginevra de Benci was the only portrait by Leonardo in the U.S., but according to what I remember the placard about it said, it is. The girls did pose in front of that painting, perhaps because I didn't ask them to look silly while doing it. Rafi has a round face that more closely resembles Ginevra's, but I couldn't get a good juxtaposition of the two.

When I was in college, a lot of people had a poster of this girl in a garden by Renoir. Something about it always bugged me--something about the white face and blonde hair, the way it spreads out. I don't know what it is, because I like pretty much every other Renoir painting I've seen, but there's something wrong with this one. I looked at it in the National Gallery to see if perhaps it just wasn't translating well in reproduction, but no, I didn't like it in real life either. And, yes, all the other Renoirs in the gallery were beautiful.

I took lots of photos. If I post them somewhere, I'll link to them.

Fairfield Inn, Laurel MD

The most annoying feature of this hotel was the squeaky buzz that the elevator made to announce each floor. It was nasty and grating. Otherwise, the hotel was a clean and comfortable place to stay--quite mid-range, with a few amenities.
Our room had two queen-sized beds, one narrow window, a nicely functioning air-conditioner with controls that allowed us to change it to our preference. You could also open the window, if you wanted to attempt fresh air from the parking lot.
I had checked off "rollaway bed" when making the reservations, and it was dutifully standing against the wall, but I don't think there was enough floor space to open it. We told the desk people to take it away and they did. The kids shared the other queen bed.
I don't know why I've begun to assume that hotel rooms always have a mini-fridge. This one did not. There was a small coffee maker on the bathroom sink-counter, with one packet to brew decaf and another to brew regular coffee. I made a pot of the decaf when we arrived. It didn't taste very good, but I am kind of fussy about coffee.
The next morning, at the included-with-room-price breakfast, I poured some of the non-decaf to try it. It didn't smell very good. Alas, the hotel does not Proudly Brew Starbucks. Then I noticed that they had a hot-water spigot and tea bags, including Earl Grey and Constant Comment, so was happy to drink tea after that. The coffee and tea is available 24-hours, so I didn't attempt to brew the other packet of coffee after that.
I know I'll sound like those ladies at that Catskills resort who complained that:

This food--it's inedible! 

Yes! And such small portions!

when I say that I thought they should have replaced the vile packet of decaf the next day, but they did not. I mean, housekeeping couldn't have known that I didn't drink it and didn't want more. No, really, we didn't pay enough for mind-readers on the staff.
Sweeteners, lemon packets, and some weird creamer stuff was out 24-hours, but I was glad I nabbed a packet of honey at breakfast when I made myself some herb tea late at night. The honey was only available at breakfast, and honey is best with herbal tea late at night.
OK, for breakfast, the fun thing was the make-your-own waffle, which really worked out better if you took the time to read the short instructions as to how you were supposed to do it. I stayed at a Marriott in Pittsburgh earlier this year that had the same waffle-makers and two kinds of batter. The second batter was "blueberry", which was a ground-up purply gloop that I somehow couldn't resist trying, but it was pretty awful. I was glad that the Fairfield only had the plain batter. There was no real maple syrup. The syrup provided was not a good imitation, but my kids were happy with it. I was happy to find packages of real butter under all the margarine packets, but didn't find those until the third and last morning of our stay.
There was oatmeal, which suffered from the usual problem of institutional oatmeal in not tasting good after sitting out a few hours. Why don't they learn to change it hourly, like coffee? So one day it was okay, and the next day too glutinous.
There were hard-boiled eggs, too-sweet muffins, bread and English Muffins to toast, some sort of bacon-egg-cheese sandwich to microwave, and little cereal boxes. My kids were happy to grab Fruit Loops, which they've never seen at home. The first ingredient listed in Fruit Loops is sugar, not even wheat.
There were two brands of yogurt. One brand of strawberry yogurt was colored with carmine, which is made from beetles and therefore all-natural. The other brand had artificial sweetener and red dye. There was also apricot yogurt and fruit cups. The "super-fruit" fruit cups of pear in blue-juice was bad. The grapefruit sections were great.
There were also soft cookies in the lobby in the afternoon. That put smiles on the kids after a long traffic-delayed drive from New York when we first checked in. The staff was friendly, though we did not have to deal with them much.
My main complaint with the room was that the bathroom vent was too small and there was no fan. Taking a shower really steamed it up in there. I did like that the shower nozzle was good for showering, though lacked one of those quick switches at the top to temporarily shut off and save water while you're putting conditioner in your hair. I liked the clean smooth tub, and that the tub-plug worked for when I wanted to take a bath. Showering-only has become so prevalent that some hotels forget to make sure their tubs work. After walking around in museums two days straight, it was nice to soak aching muscles in a tub.
When we arrived, there were only three bath towels in the bathroom and not enough shampoo, even though the reservation said four people. After we mentioned this, more towels and shampoo appeared in our room when the rollaway bed was taken away.
We all enjoyed cooling off in the outdoor swimming pool in the evening. The pool opened at 10 am on weekends, but not until 3pm on week days. After Labor Day, it was either going to close or have shorter hours. The pool was not large, but not as small as the indoor pool in the Pittsburgh Marriott. The kids could have fun racing across and back, though they are not strong swimmers.
There is a fried chicken and fish restaurant next-door to the hotel. It might have been good, but it kind of smelled off. On the other side of the hotel is a large shopping plaza with a grocery store and lots of chain restaurants. Free and ample parking. Less than a half-hour's drive to D.C., depending on traffic.

North Truro 2010 - North of Highland Campground

This was our second year camping on the cape. We were not so fortunate with the weather as we'd been the previous year. It rained for the first three days. Soaking. Solid.

But we'd managed to reserve a campsite that was on higher ground, so we weren't entirely miserable.  The campground had a large blazing fire in its main lodge. We sat in front of it, dried our socks and raincoats, and ate toasted marshmallows.

You can walk to the beach from the campground, even with small children. It is not a short walk. You do have to cross two streets, but otherwise the trail is mostly through pretty woods. It is a very nice beach. Not too bad in the rain, depending on your stamina.

The people at the front desk were friendly, though strict about the rules. After you check out, they won't let you leave your car in the parking lot while you go to the beach one last time.

There was a playground, which the kids loved, and a store, which the kids loved, and there were ping-pong tables in the lodge. You could borrow ping-pong racquets from the store.

The campground was not far from a Stop & Shop, for restocking groceries.

The bike path was very close to the campground as well. With teenagers, you could probably bike to Provincetown. But that was beyond the range of my children's capabilities.

You definitely want to take your bike to the Cape.  The bike trail was beautiful, and relatively flat.

My husband thinks that walk-to-the-beach is a trap because, unlike the previous year, we didn't often drive to the other wonderful beaches in the area. I would rather not climb into a car if I don't have to.

I could see going back there to spend a relaxing week riding the bike trail, walking to the beach, playing ping-pong, and sitting in the lodge catching up on writing and reading. There was even a small adults-only lounge. (Not in the X-rated sense, but in the sit-and-read-in-peace-and-quiet sense.)

On the way home, stop by the Truro Vineyards and pick up a few bottles of the local grape for the folks you left to take care of your pets while you were away, and as a little bit of vacation to drink once you've been back in the real world for too long.

That was our plan, but unfortunately, we left on Sunday, and they close early on Sunday. We didn't get there in time.

If you're looking for a semi-rainy day activity, the winery also gives a free tour, which my husband and I found fascinating, while our children were bored out of their skulls.

Truro on Dwellable

Nickerson 2011

Kettle Ponds

The best part of Nickerson could be the Kettle Ponds, with their sandy beaches and beautiful water for swimming or boating.

Duck in Kettle Pond

Ranger Programs

When you arrive at the park, pick up a copy of the events schedule. There are guided hikes, such as the orienteering workshop that I found somewhat helpful in combating my 180 degree sense of direction. If you'd rather just sit, there are also campfire programs with folk tales and star gazing.

Both my daughters liked filling out their Junior Ranger books. The elder daughter completed her Junior Ranger requirements during the week of our stay, and was awarded a Junior Ranger patch. This is a great program that the State Parks, as well as the National parks, run for kids.

Ranger Todd collecting fewmets

Ranger Todd grew up in Cape Cod, and he seemed to know every single plant and animal around. He was really interesting to listen to and unfailingly polite. All the rangers were friendly and helpful.

Ranger Todd explaining animal bone

The Campground

There were actually campsites still available in August, if you didn't mind moving around every few days.  The rangers at the main station did not handle reservations at all. You had to connect to the Internet or call ReserveAmerica to reserve a spot, even if you were at the campground already.

It would pay to bike or drive around with the campground map to scope out where you'd like to stay the next year. There was a lot of variety.  The campsite that we thought would be walk-to-the-shore from the website map wasn't, since the map didn't show the steep dropoff between the campsite and the kettle pond.

The sites are somewhat close together, but not unusual compared to commercial sites. There were often empty sites, probably from people who reserved but couldn't make it.  The bathrooms were OK. Some were more modern than others. We brought quarters but didn't need them. The showers were free, when they weren't being cleaned.

There was a "pavilion" that would have been improved were there something to sit on within it.

There are folks who stay in the campground for the season and help out. They were good at their job and helpful if you need any sort of information about the park or surrounding area. One lady would put bouquets of wildflowers on the bathroom sink to brighten up the place. That was a nice touch.

The camp store sells firewood, which is the only firewood you're allowed to have in the park.

The canonical camping hot-dog supper

(Two years earlier, Nickerson was booked solid, so we stayed at Sweetwater Forest Campground, also in Brewster.)

Just outside the Park

There is a calm ocean beach, and grocery stores, and pizza places, and other restaurants.  You don't really need to bring a large cooler or worry about packing food.

Finding shells and hermit crabs in the ocean

Waiting for fish & chips at the Breakwater

Brewster on Dwellable

Until we have an intelligent or touch-sensitive windshield

Often the sun is too low for sun-flaps and too bright for sunglasses.  It gets particularly difficult when it is shining right behind a suspended street-light.

I've been in this situation several times, at a particular traffic light, about 7:30 in the morning.  I can't block the sun with the sun-flaps and still see when the traffic light turns green.  I end up sticking my fist out to block the sun.

An easy solution would be to have a disk of thin tinted plastic, about fist-sized--10 cm diameter--that can attach electrostatically to the windshield, with a small handle to pull it off and place it where it needs to go or store in a dashboard rack.

The ideal size and shape of the plastic could be worked out with user studies.  It would make sense to have the tinting stronger at the center, and fade out towards the edges.  It would also make sense to have an alternate shape that had a flat edge cut from the circle, not a half-circle, but cut it from a point about halfway from the center--this would be to line it up with a traffic light edge.

A more symmetric shape would work when the problem is just that the sun is very low and bright while you're driving.  It could get dangerous trying to drive with your fist stuck out, as I sometimes try to do, driving home around sunset.

Often the traffic report sites "solar" trouble as the cause of massive backups in the morning.  If everyone had these disks, we might get to work a little sooner.

A better and much more expensive solution would be to have the tinting built into the windshield.  You could touch the spot you wanted to darken.  You could touch it again to clear, or have a "clear-all" button on the dash.

A more advanced solution would be for the windshield to track the sun and the location of the driver's eyes, and adjust its tinting accordingly.

We need a half-sized rapid dishwasher

The current model of domestic dishwasher doesn't work for my family.

It sits, partly-filled, with rinsed and dirty dishes, while we wait for there to be enough to fill it and justify a full cycle.  We run out of spoons, or glasses.  Sometimes bowls.  We wash all the current dishes by hand, so the dishwasher never fills up.  We run the rinse cycle when there aren't enough dishes to justify that full cycle, then pull out the dishes and finish them by hand.  Or we get busy with other tasks by the time the rinse cycle is over, and the rinsed dishes sit in the dishwasher.  If we don't remember to open the dishwasher door, the rinsed dishes go through a warming phase that hardens leftover dirt.  The next day, the spouse who didn't run the rinse cycle thinks that the dishes are clean, and starts using the glasses from the top rack, which look clean from their rinsing, until one doesn't.

To avoid the half-filled problem, we wash a lot of dishes by hand.  Sometimes the best use of the automated dishwasher is that it gives us more rack space to dry the hand-washed dishes.

We don't need a "dry" cycle in a dishwasher.  Has anyone ever used the "plate warming" feature?

What we need is the restaurant-model dishwasher, a small version, to handle the plates from two or three people.  We should be able to place the unrinsed dishes in a simple rack, run a strong hot rinse cycle of less than a minute, a slightly soapy cycle, followed by another rinse.  Also have the option for just the quick, less than a minute, rinse.  We can finish what this doesn't clean by hand.

The cycle must be fast, so that we don't walk away and forget, and so that it is as convenient as washing the dishes by hand.

This would remove the problem of architecting placement of bowls, plates, pots etc to make most efficient use of the dishwasher and electricity.  It would prevent the fighting that goes on because of it.  Did you know that one-third of all divorces in this country stem from a disagreement as to how to load the dishwasher? (And thirty-seven percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.)

The goal of running as much as possible in one cycle would be relaxed.  We would relax.  And have clean dishes.

I know this invention isn't needed any more

but I would like it if my car stereo would let me play the radio while I'm waiting for it to re-wind the tape cassette.

Even when a car has a CD player, it would be nice to be able to play music on the CD and a news station on the radio simultaneously.

I suppose people listen to music or news on their radios and then play news from podcasts or music from their cell-phones nowadays.  I tried listening to my Galaxy Nexus Android but there was too much road noise.

That Galaxy Nexus is a great toy but a lousy phone.  It's hard to hear.  It's hard for people to hear me.  But that's another topic.

Aibo + Scooba = Yes!

We could never rationalize the cost of a robotic pet.  We could never rationalize the cost of a floor-scrubbing robot vs a mop and scrub brush, but,

Dear iRobot:

Could you please build us a cute robot with an intelligent personality that also scrubs the floors? 

It doesn't have to be a dog or a cat.  Sammy the Squid or whatever's appropriate would be fine.  It could be a science fiction animal, or just robotic.  But we want the feel of a pet again.  Without vet bills, or wondering who to leave it with when we plan a vacation.  But make it useful.  If an intelligent Roomba is easier, that's OK too. 

two years, one rabbit

Goodbye, Chestnut.  You were my favorite mistake.

#tweettypes

Tweets fall into three broad categories that can be sorted according to whether they link elsewhere.  The true and perfect tweets are self-contained units of information, a pithy saying or joke, some with the beauty of a haiku.  At the other extreme are pointers to get you to read elsewhere.  In between is a matter of degree.  Thus:

1. self-contained
2. useful by itself, with link to explain more
3. useless without expanding link.

When I don't have a WiFi connection, or am just looking for a quick diversion, I wish my tweet-stream could be filtered to allow only type 1). It shouldn't be hard to filter out all tweets containing links.
It would be nice to have the option to filter the type 2) tweets in and out, but that would be harder.

Another way to break tweets into three categories is

1. general interest
2. personal message
3. advertisement.

There are authors and others whose tweets I follow, but I would rather filter out what they had for lunch or some reply to a message I didn't get from a friend of theirs.  For now, when there is too little useful information in the mix, I just un-follow.

laptop logos should rotate

Because when the computer is closed, I naturally position it with the logo right side up.  But then I can't open it. I have to turn it around.  The PC makers want everyone else to see the logo right side up when the computer is open.  I understand that.  But a clever PC maker, who cared about usability, would have the logo right side up when closed, then rotate once opened.  A little gravity detector.  Like the way a phone screen rotates.  Yeah, sure, it could add to the cost.  But a really clever manufacturer would come up with a very cheap way to do this.

Of course, an entire generation of people have probably gotten used to making sure the logo is upside down. They might be confused by this.

A really clever NEW computer company would design a logo that had vertical symmetry.  Just for this reason.

please follow my blog, please?

At tonight's inaugural meeting of W.orD. (Write or Die, Jim Isaac's name for us), Susan explained that it was useful to have a blog that people follow, and that to maintain followers, we would have to update it at least every other day.  The blog could be on anything and still help us sell fiction.

This blog isn't about anything because it is about anything.  To un-jam my thoughts.  It's mine.

Would you follow it?  Who are you, anyway?  Does anyone see this?

Should I share it on Google+?

No, I've resisted that before, because I like it being "pull" not "push".  Once you cross-post to Facebook/Twitter/Google+, then it's push.  The link to this blog is on my Facebook page and Twitter profile.  If anyone's interested, they've been notified where to look.

Do people still use the terms pull/push to describe methods of accessing content?

We are so primitive now, passing out advice on current wisdom on navigating our presence in the Web.  We don't understand it yet.  We're getting vague ideas that are rightly scaring us.

I read once that people in the future will regard as quaint our belief in the separation between "real" and "virtual".

We are starting to teach our kids how to take care in creating their Web presence, how it will stay with them always.  The World Wide Small Town, with no anonymous Big City to escape to.

Meandering topic of a blog post.  If I post more often, I'd meander way more.  And stay up too late.

Very Slow on the Uptake

When I was a college freshman, my roommate told me that her father always paid cash when he bought a car. She looked very proud of this statement. It was pronounced in a similar way to other teachings of financial advice from her dad, like when she told me that he always knew to a penny what was in his checking account. I had a hard time puzzling out why it would be better to walk into a car dealership with that much cash in his pocket, instead of writing a check. I suppose I never forgot that statement because I couldn't figure it out. I was many years out of college when I remembered the statement again and realized that what she probably meant was he never took out a loan to buy a car, but purchased it with money he had in savings. That is good advice.

Tuesday 2 a.m.: Kill king, implicate princes

On the counter at the drugstore were some pocket-sized planning calendars--plastic coated, with kind of ugly designs. I noticed their labels said, "The Macbeth Collection". In small letters they said:

Plan Ahead.  A little planning goes a long way.

So what do you write in your Macbeth planner?

Boskone 2012 notes

Just the raw notes, now shared on Google Docs.

I was typing notes at some of the panels.  I kept thinking I'd edit them and post them here, but there's always something better to do.  In the meantime, I've uploaded them to Google Docs, and selected share with public. Maybe with them in Google Docs, I'll be more likely to edit them.  I deleted what I wrote during Elaine Isaak's writing exercise and just left the prompts (except the visual prompt that was on a card dealt from a stack.)

Working on my bio for zoetrope

I learned how to read so I could read the Oz books.  I grew up discussing science fiction dreams with my father.  I escaped Jr High and bouts of flu by reading Heinlein, Azimov, and back issues of Analog.  When I was fifteen, I met a disciple of Gerard K O'Neil, who convinced me that people don't need to live on planets: our future is in free-floating space colonies and hollowed-out asteroids  I've been writing about Mark Hankin, his family, and their friends since I was seventeen.

My next commuter car

What I'd like for the vehicle that replaces my '97 Toyota:

• Electric, with a range of 200 miles between charging.
• A really good sound system
• Built-in vacuum cleaning, like are in some houses, or a car-Roomba, to clean up the toast crumbs.  
• Good visibility
• Rear windshield wiper
• Good in snow and on ice
• Why not a front-windshield defroster?  Wires can retract, fold away, or be invisible.  Or wireless defrosting beams from around the windshield.
• I want it to teach me French and Spanish while I drive to & from work
• Ability to download podcasts to my car
• Variable-width cup holders. 
• Easily changed windshield wipers
• Voice-activated intelligent GPS
• Voice-activated cellphone interface
• Polarizing windshield with intelligent sun-blocking (shade intersection of line of sight to sun at windshield) with touch override.  Okay, maybe for the car after.
• How about at least the ability to toggle a shade-spot on the windshield by touching where you want the extra shady spot (or to clear it, of course)?

Today she's eight. World, just wait.

On Monday, school was canceled because of the widespread power outages.  At 6:30 a.m., our house is in its 26th hour without electricity.  I have to wake up to go to work.  I light a candle to find my clothes. 

Rafi hops out of bed.  Her sister is asleep.  Her father, having been up half the night feeding the wood stove, is snoring. 

On ordinary school mornings it is a chore to drag her out of bed by 7:35.   She has only caught the 7:45 bus that stops in front of our house once since September.  What is she going to do with no electricity?  Wait for the sun to get brighter then read a book.  Maybe practice her ukulele.  I can only hope.

I give her cereal for breakfast, with milk we've been keeping in a bucket of snow.

Isn't it strange, she says, how I always wake up when I don't have to wake up.  When I do have to wake up, I never can.

Uh huh, I agree. 

I wonder why I'm not more sleepy, she says.  Then she grins, for she has figured out an explanation: 
It must be that I get lots of rest on days when I'm supposed to wake up, so that I don't need the sleep now.

under the influence

Watched Julie and Julia Saturday afternoon.  Noticed we were low on bread.  Prepared whole wheat bread dough in what must be the first time in a long time, as the whole wheat flour seemed old.   The kids helped knead the dough and form it into rolls.

Since that bread  wouldn't be ready for supper, I also  baked quick beer bread to go under the Welsh Rabbit.  The kids don't like Welsh Rabbit, so I also cooked spaghetti. After supper I remembered the kids needed a snack for Sunday school.  I'd forgotten to buy popcorn on the last grocery-trip, so made fluff-krispie squares with cinnamon and chocolate chips.

Sunday, grocery shopping, the on-sale fish was cod and haddock.  It looked better made into chowder, so bought red potatoes to chowderize it, then baked corn bread on the side.  We all love corn bread.

Now, at work, I'm finishing my lunch:  Welsh Rabbit on broccoli, corn bread, and beer bread, with chowder and whole wheat roll on the side.  Very nice.  The time spent cooking and baking wasn't wasted, although there were a lot of other things I wanted to accomplish this weekend.  What's a good movie for getting other things done?

I am very sad Steve Jobs died

He created beauty and improved our world.

sacks for the tablet interface

Instead of user accounts to organize a tablet interface (as I mentioned in May)  it might be good if, when I turned on my iPad, I saw an icon of a sack, labelled "Margie's", and there'd be other sacks for the other people using the iPad.  The same app could be in several sacks.  The apps we most often use could still be splayed out, or in their "most often used" sack.

There should be a way to tell the iPad to put all the music stuff in a Music Sack, and, more specifically, to put all the ukulele apps in an Uke Sack.  All the kids' games should be in a sack, instead of cluttering up my view.  All the News Readers (Huffington, NYT, ABC, etc) should find their own sack for when I want to read a magazine or check the news.  Apps are very easily categorized, and they should be thus self-organizing.

My kids have downloaded a lot of games and I am tired of sifting through them all to find my stuff.  It is awkward to drag things to the bottom and then pull them out on the screen where I want them.  Just let the iPad organize this for me.  Why can't it?

As for email, if the user sack most recently opened was "Margie's sack", it would be nice, when I click on email, to get one of my email accounts, instead of Zoe's.  And vice-versa for "Zoe's sack".  Although, as her mom, it is good that I can read her mail.

A New Paradigm for Business: Company Showrooms replace Retail Stores

People are already behaving that way: They examine the product in a retail store, then go home and find the best price online.  Retail stores are going out of business as a result.

We like to see and touch many things before making a purchase decision.  To fill this niche, large manufacturers will create showrooms, like the Apple Store, to display their products.  Smaller manufacturers will pay to have their products displayed in new Showroom companies that will spring up to provide this service.

using ground turkey for spaghetti & meatballs

Why?  

• preference: I've grown less used to beef, since I haven't been eating it as often.  
• economic:  Ground Empire Turkey, $3.99/lb at Trader Joe's, vs $6.50/lb for beef when they have it.  
• Health: turkey's less bad for you anyway.

The fear was that ground turkey wouldn't taste enough like "real" meatballs to go with red sauce.  I think it turned out better, in a way, since it didn't have as much of the excess grease that beef burger produces.  

Spices to make the turkey more beefy:

• Worcestershire sauce
• tamari
• ground sage
• ground bayleaf
• coriander
• thyme
• oregano
• ground peper
• Ro insists on cumin, so I added a bit
• egg to bind it
• next time, I'll try potato flakes too.  Ro says he's been adding it to the turkey burgers.

Previously, meatballs turned into meat sauce.  Yesterday, I learned to have enough frying-pan surface to allow each to cook on the bottom and be turned before it can stick to its neighbor and be merged.

The sauce: sauteed red onion, rosemary, celery, garlic clove, zuchinni, in olive oil then added meatballs as I formed them.  Moved the meatballs to the auxiliary frying pan before dumping in a can of tomato paste and 2-3 cans of water.  After the water stirred in to a good sauce consistency, I put the meatballs back in.  Then added a few sprigs of chopped frozen broccoli and some frozen spinach to give it more green.

Served on top of whole wheat spaghetti.  Thought red wine would go with it.  Looked in Christmas-present crate from Gonzalo and Lisa.  Chose THE VELVET DEVIL MERLOT 2009 WASHINGTON STATE.  All caps on the label, so here too.  I liked it quite a lot.  The first Merlot I've liked.  Screw-top cap.  Fun.

quote from Slate: 3 Golden Rules for Book Review

from How Not To Write a Book Review, By Robert Pinsky, on Slate:

1. The review must tell what the book is about.
2. The review must tell what the book's author says about that thing the book is about.
3. The review must tell what the reviewer thinks about what the book's author says about that thing the book is about.

readercon links

quick summary:  http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2011/07/readercon-science-fiction-as-it-was-born.html

still waiting for my food pills, transcript posted by the author.  I wasn't impressed by the spheres in apple juice.  The caramel stuff was O.K. Very interesting introduction to Post-Modern Cuisine.  I was hoping for something on how compact foodstuff can be created for space travel etc.

Youtube link of Howard Waldrop reading near midnight Saturday, after Poland.  He was having trouble with his eyes.  Read part of a scary Hansel & Gretl en route to what seemed like an Auschwitz analog.  Then read complete "The Bravest Girl I Ever Knew" a fake Hollywood memoir about King Kong actress. (I was very sleepy, but I'd heard such raves about HW, I stuck it out... I kept thinking 1) it was almost over 2) it would have a point.)

Another youtube link of Samuel R. Delany Interviews Katherine MacLean.  Watch Spencer fix the microphones because I forgot to.

Joan Slonczewski's syllabus for course on Biology and Science Fiction

1. Evolution
1. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
2. Galápagos, by Kurt Vonnegut
2. Ecology 
1. Dune, by Frank Herbert
2. A Door into Ocean, by Joan Slonczewski
3. Genetics and Molecular Biology
1. Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton
2. Brain Plague, by Joan Slonczewski

(From Saturday evening Readercon panel on Science Fiction for Today's Undergraduate)

Random quotes from Readercon panels

At Saturday morning panel on Book Inflation:
Unlike other people, when I get to the end of a book, I quit writing.  (Howard Waldrop)

At Saturday evening panel on Science Fiction for Today's Undergraduate:
Paradoxically, Science Fiction is very much a dialog with its time.

At Saturday evening panel on The One Right Form of a Story:
I always think a lot about serious literary stuff, but I know that no one will ever know that I'm thinking about it.  (Judith Berman)

You can't write the story until you know the thang. 

(Judith Berman, quoting Howard Waldrop)

No two people have the same process. Learn what your process is.  (Judith Berman, possibly quoting Delaney's On Writing.)

At Sunday afternoon panel, Effing the Ineffable: Writers Who Think Cinematically:
I have lots of things to say that are ill-informed. (Maria Dahvana Headley, introducing herself.)

notes from Readercon talk/demo: Walking Through Mayhem, led by Madeleine Robins

Two lists of questions:

1. Who is fighting?
2. Where are they? What is the terrain?
3. What is the desired outcome?

Also,

1. What is the reason for the fight?
2. How serious is it? (e.g. Laertes & Hamlet vs Catherine & Petruchio)

In stage combat, the fight is divided into phases (x hits y on left shoulder, y parries,..), and there are 5 basic targets, numbered (left hip, right hip, left shoulder, right shoulder, head..)

Advice:

• Balance the panic factor ("I could die!!") with pain ("Ow!")
• Think about where someone winds up--reels back, turns.
• If your character is afraid of dying, he will fight dirty
• Write out all the actions, then edit it down, replacing actions with sensory observations (e.g. bad breath, sweat, pain, cold..) and interior monologue.
• Be realistic about effects of violence
• concussion->vomiting, then can't think straight for days
• after a muscle bruise, fencer won't be able to lift sword
• it's hard to pull a knife out of a muscle
• Only the young have the energy and stupidity to not notice how uncomfortable they are.

 

All the other kids with the foam duck kisses better run, better run

Fortunately, the DJ said: "that was Pumped Up Kicks..."

Wanna compete with Apple? Stop copying the iPad.

The iPad is nice, but--at least for me--it never feels like that smooth and beautiful experience I see on the TV commercials.  It's hard to use it without wishing for improvements.  How about:

• Add hierarchical or other better means of organizing apps, instead of having them all on pages and pages
• Let there be different user accounts for email and selections of favorite apps.  I don't need security between them, but a quick way to say which user you are and then see a different set of app screens and books and email accounts would be useful.  Even if a single user wants to organize himself into several virtual users--e.g. My Business Self, My Fiction Self, My Art Self, My Fashion Self...
• Include a stylus.  It's really hard to do fine-detail drawing or pointing (e.g. selecting that space between letters to fix a typo) without one.
• How about a shape that's easier to grasp?
• How about a tablet that comes with the protective cover?
• Do some usability studies.  See what confuses people in the interface.
• Improve touch-typing on the screen.  
• Let the person rest the fingers on the virtual keyboard, and have sensors notice the lift and re-drop.
• Make use of new friction technology: http://bit.ly/lco6b6   http://bit.ly/ivQtNd

obvious need for a klutz-proof phone

My Sony Ericsson was stepped on (we think), which broke the screen, so I was looking through AT&T choices for a replacement.  I was seriously considering a refurbished Rugby phone, which was the only "rugged" option in the free category.  Looking through the user reviews, there were a lot of complaints about the "Push To Talk" button being in the way so that users were hitting it inadvertently all the time.  It was notable that, in nearly all the reviews, nobody wanted the Push to Talk feature.  The phone was designed for job sites, construction workers in a team, that sort of thing, where Push To Talk would be useful.  But many people were buying it because, just like me, they wanted something less likely to break.  (I also liked that reviewers said it was very loud and easy to hear through background noise.  I could never hear my Ericsson sufficiently without putting it on speaker.)

There is a definite need for a rugged phone for individual users.  One with a good volume control.  One where you won't inadvertently connect to the Internet and be charged for it.  Why is this not among the current choices?

The other thing that annoyed me was the lack of protection for the camera lenses. My old Ericson's lens was covered when the phone number pad was slid closed.   All of the 2 MPixel and above camera lenses on cell phones that I saw in the AT&T store are exposed.  There was one 1.3 MPixel camera phone that did protect its lens.  Kind of ridiculous.

Bridegroom magazine

Of course it wouldn't be called that.  A better name would be Ready.  And, yes, a lot of men would not subscribe to it.  But a lot of women would buy their men gift-subscriptions.  It could have some low-key articles about wedding planning.  And also articles on:

• Guide to Formal Attire for guys who've worn jeans all their lives
• Honeymoon Options - Travel Section
• Honeymoon Techniques
• Financial Planning
• Recommendations for merging finances
• Should you have a Pre-Nup?
• Guide to buying Life Insurance
• Guide to buying Houses
• Guide to buying Condos
• Guide to buying Condoms
• Guide to buying Lingerie (with helpful photos)
• Engagement Rings - Alternatives to the Diamond
• The Six Things Every Couple Should Agree On Before Saying 'I do'
• Reasons to delay having children
• Ways to keep the romance when you can't delay having children 
• Preparing to be a stepfather
• Negotiating between your children and your future wife
• How Girlfriends Change When They Became Wives 
• Bachelor Parties - Stories and Advice
• When to Speak Up, When to Shut Up - Survival Guide to Wedding Planning and Beyond

..plus lots of amusing anecdotes sent in by readers.

The previous great idea for an invention

was a plastic mat shaped into a grid of lenses that you could lay down on top of an icy driveway or path.  The lenses would focus sunlight to melt lots of holes in the ice.  It would just take some knowledge of optics and plastics manufacturing to make this cheap and durable.

Another great idea for an invention

Is a napkin that fits over your sleeve, so you can wipe your face with your forearm, as is so natural to do.  It would be great on picnics, or at those stand-and-eat parties where your hands are already full.  I would love to see them introduced at a formal dinner party too.  Wouldn't that be splendid?

Zubie says this is fact an old invention--the accountant's sleeve, used to keep ink off the pen-and-ink writer's actual sleeves.  I say we can bring this back into the 21st century, and into our table manners.

Get out your sewing machines!

sf from cons - reply to tweet message

@pargery I'm so far behind in sci-fi. What do you recommend?

I’ve been too caught up in my own stuff to read a lot, but I guess Charles Stross is the current Gibson/Sterling heir. His Halting State is a mystery about stolen virtual money that I would like to take out of the library again to finish.  He was an engaging and amusing speaker at Readercon panels.

I did finish The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson whose main character’s hot flashes were paranormal events.  Somehow I found it a more compelling narrative.  She was also very sweet in person (at a Readercon “kaffeeklatch”.)

People do mention Scalzi. I read the first two of his books. There's an interesting alien race that seems to have war-making as a religion, not like Klingon-honor-code, but like, they want to spread the gospel of Really Bad War of the total annihilation variety. I'm curious if he develops them more in later novels. I enjoyed his blog post about borrowing an Oscar.

I read Elaine Isaak's trilogy because I kept seeing her at conventions, and she lives one town over from me. They're fantasy of the kings and pseudo-middle-ages variety, not sf. For some reason she denied her work was a trilogy, but when I read it out of order, the story really suffered. It was otherwise likable and sufficiently new.

And I keep seeing Jennifer Pelland too. I liked the story I heard at her reading a few years back.

some links to stories

• Jennifer Pelland Ghosts of New York
• Tobias Buckell
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies - E-zine
• Strange Horizons
• Joan Aiken story
• Charles Stross
• stories
• book

27January2011 cellphone photos...

Fire inspection finally done, we light the wood stove.

 From the kitchen window

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(For today's photos, see facebook album.)

Zoe and Rafi - Spring 2010 to January 2011

Click here to view this photo book larger

DSC00695.JPG

Click here to view these pictures larger

Arisia Workshop on Writing The Other, led by Nisi Shawl (notes)

f
http://2011.arisia.org/Writing: Nisi Shawl presents “Writing the Other”. In this workshop, Nisi will present a hands-on writing class featuring exercises and explorations of ways to create believable characters of a different race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or ability. Participants will be asked to bring some of their own writing to work on, but sharing is not required. Expect to spend three hours learning by doing.

First a discussion on defining differences: e.g. weight, race, bisexual, also a reader, a person who uses big words, disability issues, fibromyalgia

Difference is not monolithic.
For people in the dominant paradigm, you need an instruction manual for everyone else's differences.
How you are made to feel different: height, weight, age55, W.African religion

"dominant paradigm"=group with power, generic person, neutral, "unmarked state"
ROAARS = acronym for Religion Orientation(sexual) Age Ablity Race Sex(as in gender)
Differences that appear in US and Canada marked as important
ROAARS doesn't include economic status / Class
Vyar:
group promise
REPTILE brain function
If you have a personal fail, just acknowledge and own it.  We're all afraid of being labelled a bigot.
The primitive part of the brain needs dichotomy. stay/run good/bad - oversimplify reactions w/ others
brain scientist (Vicka Corey):
"reptile" is really deep structure, not educable, preprogrammed, weed out own species from others.
As social people we develop out to the cortex.
Personal interactions vs institutional.
What would we consider the Dominant Paradigm or
UNMARKED STATE
young, 30's adult white straight abl bodied christian protestant male medium build no facial hair
If you tell a story about man who fell in the river. Then people's picture of the man is of the unmarked state.  If the man turns out to be black and gay then it transforms from being about a man who falls into a river into a  story about a black homosexual who fell in the river, and people may ask why did you make him black or gay.  They could complain that he's "black for no reason."
Descriptions of black people in novels, someone brought up Starship Troopers where the main character (Filipino for no reason?) looks in the mirror and notes his curly hair.
Nisi says, "My hair is not curly, it's kinky"

exercise#1:
Pick a celebrity of any political/ethnic, like Lindsey Lohan. Now pretend you're the chosen one and you're meeting someone very different in the ROAAR, such as a homeless person.
Here Margie blanks out on all famous people and attributes it to having had less than 6 hours of sleep per night since the previous Wednesday.  I type nothing for about two minutes while everyone scribbles or types around me.  Blink.
OK, I'm Barack Obama and I'm meeting a homeless person.  I'd probably be relying on my background in community organizing and recommend some resources.  
That's getting no where.  How about that guy parodied on SNL, running for Mayor now, what's his name?  I can't believe I can't think of... So sleepy.
I'm the ex chief of staff. 
I'm Harison Ford, I used to be a carpenter.
Hello.
4 minutes are up.
Nisi asks:  Was one of the people closer to the unmarked state or not?
POV a lot like you?  Then did character have same view as you?

Someone reads a funny internal monologue of Snooky's view of a librarian.

New term:  PARALLAX
Similar to meaning of sighting stars from different points on the earth or how 3-d vision works with two eyes, different views.
Compare the views to pinpoint where object actually is.
Person of marked state's view of unmarked state.
People don't wake up in the morning and say, "Wow, I'm black today."
(Some remark about how adolescents sometimes do.)
XKCD web comic. view of color. what colors men see vs women.
Men tends to describe things less in terms of color.
She drew up in a '67 mustang vs a light blue sedan
Andy asks, Why do I need to know the color of this person's sweater?
Men may be more fixated on the size, dimension of things than women are.

Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler is a wonderful example of parallax. Is she an Alien? Late 19th century West. Woman sees her as suffragette. Chinese railworker describes her skin in terms of particular porcelin and asumes she's prostitute because she's ugly.

Exercise #2:
Pair off and write dialogue with each other.
everyone gets 2 card with characteristics.
I found something you lost with your phone number.  A calendar.  Do you need this back?
work out logistics of where you'd go to get it back.
8 minutes. (my card said I was a DJ with Alzheimers.  My partner's said she was a polyamorous man dodging child support.)

- Hello, hello?
-- Hi.  I was at Oak Park today, and I found something of yours.  A calendar?
- Huh?
-- You lost a calendar?
-Who is this?
-- Look, I found something of yours--uh, your name's Sarah?  It's a calendar with a bunch of numbers and names on it.  Looks like you have a lot of female friends.
- My friends?  Why?  You have my calendar?  My gosh, I need that back.  Why are you talking about my friends?
-- Oh, no reason.
-Why won't you tell me your name?
-- It's Joey.  Well, look, I can meet you somewhere to return your calendar.  Maybe at a bar?
-Oh, no.  I don't drink, very much, any more.  Could you come by the station?  I work at WKIZ.  The address is in the front of the calendar.  You could leave it with the receptionist.  She's very nice.  Pretty too.
-- Yeah, sure, that works.  You'll be there?  I'd like to return it to you, you know, personally.
- Yes.  I'm here now.  My shift ends at...  I'm sorry, who is this again?

-------------------
codexwriters.com pro is a good website for neo writers (major workshop or sales)
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What happened in workshop:
J Peland: struggle to bring up characteristics
My characteristics were bald and moslem.  It is hard to tell on the phone that someone is bald.
Brian Gardner: worrying about trying too hard with stereotype. Rural teen.
Julia Ross: I had Filipino English as 2nd language.  I know nothing about Filipino.

Andy: what's on card doesn't work itself into dialog per se but it colors the conversation.

Nisi: what people say may be reflecting what they think you are more than what they are.
------
Nisi: Going on from there.. I also wanted to talk about Categorical Thinking and the idea of Generalizing.
Vary: How Generalization helps and not. It is a 3-edged sword. Can be helpful. e.g. use more color names. Every man isn't like the generalized one. Need to know specifics of character. Raised by women who discuss color naming. (Denisov as a decorator should be more color-describing. W/ interst in art history, reference to famous paintings.)
Trying to apply a characteristic across the board. Hairless cats. Sphinx, disease, shaved, kitten.
How categories people use reveal their social structure. e.g. Fool's War by Vera? Patel? Her categorization point out that most people have brown skin and no religion.  Character describes another as having skin of milk and strawberries.
White Queen by Gwynyth Jones. colonization. alien talks about the idea of gender as astrological symbol-it's a parlor game. they are hermaphrodites, choose to be male/female as if it wer a cosmo quiz type.
Greg Egan - future in which humans are not born in bodies. They are uploaded intelligences.  Uploaded into a Virtual Reality that mimics now? Or specialy-organized tiojns.
Futures in which there is no race will still have categories.
Most married people are straight etc.
In science there's the issue of: data vs anecdote
darkmatter book. all african-descended writers. not all characters are. some s. asian, ...
Exercise #3:
Finding differences and similarities:
How 2 people in each picture are the same and How they are different.
(Handing out magazine photos...)

Both tough guys. Both have hats. Black Cop vs White Cowboy.
Cowboy independent. Cop enforces and follows rules. State trooper.
Horse/nature vs roads/cars/machines.
Away from people vs interacting w/ people
Both tough, disciplined, in good shape,
Cowboy more physical work.
Cowboy might just be guy on vacation in cowboy hat.  Trooper is definitely at work.  Or likes to dress up in costumes.  Like Village People.  So that in common: they both could be Village People.
Cop looking down at me.  Authority. Confrontational.
Cowboy looking down and away.  Contemplative.
oops was doing it wrong.  was supposed to do all similarities followed by all differences.  or the other way.  Oh well.
Cowboy looks peaceful, not troubled by others, looking at campfire, calm, untroubled, slightly hypnotized by flame perhaps, but not very.
Cop looks like he has a problem with persons.  Trouble . Staring down trouble.
Angle of photos very dramatic.  I'm looking down on cowboy from slight angle.  Cop looking down at me from very big angle.  Photographer must have been lying down in the road.


Nisi: Our default may be to look for differences.
With someone whose ROAARS are different you should certainly do [I wasn't paying attention. darn.]
Nisi writng Loisa May Alcott type potboiler W.Indian planter's illegitimate daughter imprisoned by relative who wants her inheritance, work with CONGRUENCE.
(e.g. Dowland: "love is love in beggars and in kings." [listen to Sting sing it..])
She reads and loves big words like me.
My intended audience also reads and have probably been in love.
Similarity in being religious even if different religions.
Find your similarity, analoguous experience to your character's.

Varya: Kidnapped sex slave in SF poor uneducated Korean potato farmer.
I haven't been sold in prostitution but I have been trapped in a horrible soul-sucking job.  She's compassionate to 3-legged bird and made things worse.  We can all relate to trying to help but making things work. Consulting with SME's help too.
Nisi: A point of relation.  For your readers and for yourself to the charcters.

Exercise #4 Congruence
Do 1 of 2 things. Your choice.
Mess with one scene in the writing you brought. Change at least one major ROAAR's characteristic to one that's different from my ROAAR, then they do something they love doing and I love too.
Select something that already differs.
OK, select a character with dffrent ROAARs or change if needed.
I guess I just don't get it.  My characters are already doing what they do.  Some of the things they do I like.  They have sex.  I like that. Others, would it , wow, it just occurred to me the woman guard character feels instinctively more different from me than the man, main character Denisov.
OK, if an old black gay man is bowling he's bowling.  How is that different?  Put him in a wheelchair and I can talk about physical differences.  Very old--the ball is heavy.  Once you bend down to roll the ball, it's hard to get up.
Bowling brings back memories about being younger and bowling w/ friends now dead.
Well, too late.  Exercise is over.
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Stafford changed his black ex-slave character to an Asian sheriff with different set of priorities.  Now can go back to original piece and no longer blind.  Can see views.  Parallax.  Similarities in not slaves but treated like slaves. Different set of problems.

Vicka: hanged gender and didn't make much difference but characters tried to find a common ground.

Jennifer P. had her profoundly disabled character dance. e.g. belly dancing.  only can use her arms. "I can't see how this looks but it feels so nice."  I never thought to make her dance before. Now an idea.

10 minutes left:

Andy: Animated TV show. characters can't grow. Need to start the same each episode.
Nisi. Unintended resonances. Clarion West example. German surname guy was torturing kids in their basemt. Everyone assumed he was a Nazi.
Run it by people and get feedback, as diverse a set of eyes on it as posible. Different ROAARS from yours. Some that match those of your characters. Hear about your mistakes. Consulting people familiar with the culture.  That does not give you a seal of approval bythe culture. e.g. "Approved by Koreans."
One thing my Korean friend told me was that Korean women speak with their eyes. Widened, narrowed. Not so many smiles.
A Hindu can't explain Budhist.
Nisi: You should pay for expertise.
1) Acknowledge any help you get.
2) Ask what you can do in return