Thoughts
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Remembering Kepler
Yesterday I was listening to This American Life. I have not finished listening to the episode because one of the first things Ira Glass said was, “…it involves two scientists, one you have definitely heard of, Galileo, the other you may not know, you may just vaguely recall, he is one of the iconic figures of early astronomy, Johannes Kepler…” That was all I heard before I paused the show, and ran to find Joey and ask if he thought that a large population of people who were unaware of Kepler’s contributions to astronomy and physics actually exists. Joey agreed with Ira, that many people might not know Kepler, and…
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Smile when it hurts
Several weeks ago Billy and I began attending Body Pump classes at Gold’s Gym. A couple of our teachers mentioned that they enjoyed having me in class because I smiled all the time. One of the teachers even noted that I seemed to smile more during the harder parts of the workout. After hearing these observations, I began thinking about why I smiled during Body Pump classes. The most obvious reason is that I enjoy the class, which has upbeat pop music and movements matched to the beat of the songs. There is a large group of people participating, and an instructor shouting instructions and motivation throughout. All of the…
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The Physics of a Yarn Stash
So a few days ago, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot) posted about the troubles that knitters might encounter when packing for a trip (pretty much it boils down to not enough yarn, or incorrect tools for working with the yarn you have). There are two obvious solutions: carry huge volumes of knitting related items with you at all times or purchase new knitting items while traveling. I engage in both of these behaviors. The latter often leads to the increase in the volume of the yarn stash. One of the comments on Stephanie’s blog was extremely amusing to me, and I just had to re-post it. It seemed to…
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The Place of Etherlimits
Ever since my impromptu post the other night, I have been considering how I want Etherlimits to fit into my constellation of social media. I have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and Instagram. I have been working at consistently reading the information that flows to me from these outlets. Although I do post to each of them on occasion, especially while I am traveling, I have never felt that I am very good at distilling my thoughts down to 140 characters. I am not sure I have anything to say that would be that interesting to others… so why do I hang onto Etherlimits? If I don’t have…
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New poster helps me meet my deadline
Joey found this poster, and thought I might like to have it for my office. I really love it, and am bummed that I will be out of town, and so will not get to spend time in my office for a whole week! It was good encouragement today. I had a really big deadline for work this week, and I am taking off work tomorrow, so I had to fit everything in today! I managed it, in the end. Tomorrow morning early I am off to Chicago to meet up with Laura, and see her sing. While I was getting ready to take the photo of the poster, Elanor…
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10 Year Anniversary
2011 is the tenth year that I have been with my company. I started working as a temp for my current company in January 2001. I was hired on as a full time employee on 09 April 2001. So my official anniversary is in a couple more weeks, but my team celebrated a little early. My friend Amy made a slide show with pictures of me, and quotes from my colleagues about me. My manager had flowers delivered, 10 irises, one for each year. The iris color is almost the same as my company’s logo color. My team sent a box of cupcakes – they even knew to order yellow…
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No, you cannot log into your own blog
Back in at the end of 2010 Joey did a bunch of work to get Etherlimits transferred to the latest version of WordPress. The day he finished, I posted to share that news with the world. I was so excited! The update was done just in time for the new year, and I was thinking how awesome it was that I could start the new year with a blank page, so to speak. Etherlimits had other ideas. I could not log in. I could visit the public side of Etherlimits, but when I went to the log in screen and entered my user name and password the screen would just…
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Burke and Michele sitting in a tree…
I just got an e-mail from Burke, and I must tell the universe… After ten years together, Burke and Michele got married on Sunday, 10 October 2010! The opening line of his e-mail was, “Since 10/10/10 is 42 [in binary], it seemed like a good day to elope. So we did! I *KNOW*! I was surprised, too!” Congrats and best wishes to the newlyweds!
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Off again…
Well, I was sad about not traveling much in 2009. Turns out I got really used to having a regular schedule, and not having to worry about leaving town to plan haircuts and knitting dates, etc. I am back in the classroom, which I love, and back on the road, which is harder than I remembered! I had back to back trips to North Carolina in January, and now I am heading back to Raleigh. I will go to Wilmington the first week of March, and possibly stay through 19 March! Hopefully this means lots of airline and hotel points, and some solid knitting time! I must sign off so…
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The Jabberwocky
On the last leg of our crazy back and forth to Port Arthur on Saturday, I was driving, and by the end I was really tired. Joey was a champ at keeping me awake. He began reading excerpts from Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass. This was prompted by the Cheshire Cat moon that was in the sky that night. You know, a crescent moon, that looks like the Cheshire Cat’s crazy grin with no head or body. Eventually we got to The Jabberwocky. Joey has this poem memorized, and as he read it, I began repeating it back to him – working to get it all memorized. …
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For Char Lee
My co-worker and friend, Jamie, has a pet ferret named Char Lee Charcoal. He has been quite ill recently, and passed away Saturday. I know many of you have four-footed, furry “children”, and can sympathize with the pain of losing a beloved pet. Please keep Jamie and Char Lee in your prayers. Do not stand at my grave and weep;I am not there. I do not sleep.I am a thousand winds that blow.I am the diamond glints on snow.I am the sunlight on ripened grain.I am the gentle autumn rain.When you awaken in the morning's hushI am the swift uplifting rushOf quiet birds in circled flight.I am the soft stars…
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Queen of Waterfalls
It is against the company policy for me to say the name of my company, or give any information that could give away where I work. I will not tell you the actual name of the relational database that I train people at my company to use, however, I will tell you that its name is a long acronym, that is quite silly. I am fairly certain that someone came up with the word, and reverse engineered it into an acronym! For this post (and any future posts on the subject) let us refer to the system as WATERFALL. I have also changed the names of the people, and groups…
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Successful cleanse and new resolutions
Some people make resolutions in January. I have waited until June. Either I am very behind on the resolution making for 2009, or very early for 2010 – take your pick. I did a cleanse under the supervision of my acupuncturist at the end of May. It was not one of the starve yourself and drink a mixture of honey, lemon juice and water cleanses – I literally could not stomach that! This cleanse requires you to eat fruit, raw or very lightly cooked vegetables, vegetable broth, fruit and vegetable juices. You are actually supposed to drink as much of the liquid as you can hold, so you feel oddly…
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I think Emily would approve of President Obama’s manners
And now I am going to pause from all the Singapore related news to note that President Obama has lovely manners… During the election last fall we were asked over and over again to consider whether we would like to have a beer with the candidates. Well, here is a different twist… are the President’s manners up to your standards? Would you be embarrassed to have him dine at your table? or meet your friends? Thanks to my mother and grandmother, and a love of my Emily Post Etiquette book (thanks Kat and Ross for giving me the new 17th edition), I place a high premium on manners. It seems…
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New links and side menus
Joey rearranged the right menu on this blog recently. The random image widget is still right at the top. The formatting of both the archives and the categories have been changed. Only the main categories are visible, but if you click on the plus, the list will expand. The archives are now run by a drop down – much more compact. All of this was really to make room for my ever expanding blogroll. I have added links to several of my friends’ blogs, and I also linked to a few of the blogs I follow. Now you can see what I spend my computer time reading. I think Laura…
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…especially Barack, our president
I am an Episcopalian. The Episcopal Church is a Christian denomination, and a branch of the larger Anglican Communion. Episcopalians are Protestants, and while worship at any specific Episcopal church may take a form that best fits that community, worship is generally guided by liturgy. We take communion each week, and we use wine during the Eucharist. We believe in the Apostolic Succession. We say the Nicene Creed during our services. The Anglican Communion began with the Church of England, which has a long history, and famously, a break with Papal authority. King Henry VII, with the help of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer, broke away from the Roman Catholic…
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Inauguration Day
I feel like I should say something thoughtful and deep to commemorate this day. I cannot think of anything particularly meaningful. Joey and I did watch the inauguration live on TV this morning. I enjoyed President Obama’s speech, especially, “We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.” I am hopeful about the future. I realize that change is slow, and the expectations placed on President Obama are high, but the beauty of hope is that it can survive the most dire situations. Hope can exist when all else is lost, and, while we are in difficult times, all is not lost. I hope President Obama can…
