20 Yards of Leaves

The city lets you sign up to get a dump truck full of leaves (or 2 or 3 dump truck loads). I'm sure this saves them a ton of money - they don't have to manage composting them, and us folks get something back directly (as opposed to paying for the compost this could turn into).

The load size is about 20 cubic yards. That's a lot. If my math is correct, that's an area 32'x32'x6 inches deep. Pretty big (my first guess was about 4 times that much, so it's actually a relief).

Here's what the pile looks like:

One guess as to what I'm doing this weekend...

Mother And Daughter In A Cabinet

I liked the setup. It was kind of dark in the room, and I didn't want a flash. So I held still - it came out pretty sharp for a half second exposure, don't ya think?

One Hundred Push-ups Update

A while back I started a 100 push-up program. Every week has gone according to plan, until now.

Well, that's not quite true. The first week-3 was very difficult, the jump was a bit much for both Mary and me, but we persisted and did push-ups during the week we were on vacation. However, we both fell off the wagon that following week.

Two weeks passed, and I started up the program again, doing week 3 over b/c I tested at 30 push-ups. I tested at the end of week four and had progressed to 41. Week 5 was challenging: I logged over 550 push-ups for the week. I was able to do everything as scheduled - except the last set which I generally did in two parts.

Last night was the test after week 5, and the results were ...

41

I've got to re-do week 5.

I seriously doubt I'll be able to do 100 at the end of week 6.

But, I do know that I can do 200 push-ups in less than an hour, which is tons better than when I started.

Balanced Supreme Court?

I don't know that much about the Supreme Court. I listened to a book covering the important Supreme Court cases - which was interesting.

Anyway, I remember hearing talk of this article somewhere, so I dug it up. The main point that stuck with me was:

In 1980 Stevens often operated as the Court's median member; in many cases he (along with Powell) was the Justice Kennedy of that era. But Stevens is frequently described as the most liberal member of the current Court. If he qualifies for that position, it is not because of any significant change in his own approach, but because of a massive shift in the Court's center of gravity.

Kind of boggles the mind what we think of "liberal" now.

Simone In October

Just some pictures of Simone. She's reading tons - she knows most all the titles to her books (not by reading, but she recognize the cover and say them). She's also singing lots. There's an album to the Boynton song book, and Simone sings along (the "Cows" song is very cute).

Without further fawning, here are some pics:

Very serious reading, "Gossie and Gertie"

The whole gang is ready for Halloween (which costume doesn't match?)

Checking out the festivites downtown. Only one person recognized Simone's egg basket as one.

On our way to the playground.

At the playground, playing peekaboo.

Ooh, a picture of me?

Posing by the pumpkin.

Philip Zimbardo shows how people become monsters ... or heroes | Video on TED.com

Remember the infamous psychology study done at Stanford, where college kids were divided into jailors and jailees? That was Philip Zimbardo's study.

He has a very interesting talk about that, and how it relates to Gitmo.

Philip Zimbardo shows how people become monsters ... or heroes | Video on TED.com

Time For A Change?

Election is over, Obama won.

Many people are ecstatic about the potential for change, and FSM bless them, I'm sure there will be a change. How can we not have a change from one of the most incompetent unpopular presidents ever?

What strikes me most about this election was how little change in voting there was. Imagine the setup: most unpopular president ever, financial crisis, very unpopular war, same party candidate voted nearly identical to the most unpopular president - versus a dynamic, charismatic leader preaching change. Would you have predicted popular vote margin of only a 6%?

That's actually very disappointing. If you look back (ignoring W's two elections) you have to go back to Carter vs. Ford to find a presidential election where the popular vote margin was less than 6%. Seems like people still (for the most part) voted party lines.

Obama may be able to find middle-ground with the Democrats and Republicans, but I don't know that "middle-ground" is the change people were wanting. Obama certainly doesn't sound like FDR - though pundits are making comparisons, Obama certainly didn't win the election like FDR did.

Many pundits say he should govern from the center (though were perfectly happy with W governing from the extreme). I fear that's a road to disaster and disappointment. I fear Obama will do just that.

To me, it seems as though the Republicans play politics, and Democrats try to be the nice guys - which means Democrats get sand kicked in their faces, and Republicans generally win. For instance, when Republicans were in power, you constantly heard about the Democrats filibuster. Yet when the power shifted, Republicans have been filibustering - but you never hear of it. McCain and Palin made stump speeches out of lies (Obama raise taxes, against the bridge to nowhere, etc.), and even when called on it - they continued to say the same things. Hillary and Obama never did such things. So, after 8 years of being governed from the extreme by W, having Obama govern from the center would (IMO) simply be weak.

Perhaps Obama will lead in a direction the Democrats and Republicans haven't. That would be leadership.

The problem with running a campaign on "change" is that the slogan is very vague, and people are believing it means what they want it to mean - and Obama is going to have a terribly difficult time living up to all those diverging beliefs.

Scalzi said it best:

Your next president is going to disappoint you. Barack Obama does not fart cinnamon-scented rainbows. He is not trailed by angels and unicorns. Reality does not reshape itself to his wishes. Dude’s a human being, and a politician, and he’s going to have to work with other human beings who are also politicians.

Take a look at this short article which examines Obama's position on Iraq. In analyzing his most recent (at the time) speech this was the final point (the first being that Obama didn't mention troop withdrawal):

Third, and most troubling, Obama says that Americans will have to tighten their belts because of the "cost of the war in Iraq." Doesn't that mean that the war will continue?

As much as I want to believe Obama will make some radical, long-lasting changes (for the better), I fear his election can be attributed to what Krugman said: "there was a national wave against Republicans, suggesting that we don’t need a complex narrative."

I truly hope he'll bring about change for the middle (lower) class. I hope he'll focus on the environment. I hope he'll put some regulation back into the economy (or at least transparency).

Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

(For a detailed examination of Obama's foreign policy, read http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080721/dreyfuss.)

Sleepy Kitty

Sauerkraut

Mmmm... sauerkraut.

That's the answer to the question, "What do I do with two large heads of cabbage?"

Just grate, mix with salt, and pack into a jar.

A couple of weeks ago we had dinner with friends, and they had a crock of fresh sauerkraut at their table. It was pretty tasty (Simone even seemed to like it). They talked about how easy it was to make. I'd considered it in the past, but was always discouraged by every recipe's mention of mold on the top and having to clean that off.

But, armed with a recipe, and 2 large heads of cabbage, I began.

Shred 5 pounds cabbage, mix in 3 Tbs salt, pack in jar. Done.

It was that easy. I used the "plastic bag filled with water" method of keeping the cabbage submerged under the brine. It has the nice affect of actually keeping the brine from getting any air, and thereby prevents any mold from building up. woo-hoo

I kept it in a cupboard for 2 weeks. I checked it every couple of days, packing the kraut down to get rid of air bubbles in the middle/bottom that were due to the fermenting. I tasted it a few days before it was done and it was actually kind of spicy. But now that the fermenting is done, it tastes like sauerkraut should taste.

Simone helps pack the cabbage in

Jar packed and topped with a plastic bag full of water (that's what causes the blue tinge)

Ethanol Thoughts

For some reason, I've been thinking of ethanol fuel lately. Perhaps I heard Obama or McCain mention it, or maybe I saw a car w/a bumper sticker.

Either way, I started thinking about it - and what struck me was the question of where the biomass (corn/soy/switch-grass) was going to come from.

Ignore for a minute the fact that even if we turned all the corn/soy we grew into fuel - we still wouldn't have enough gas to run our vehicles. Ignore for a minute the fact that nobody has come up with a cost-effective (and efficient) method of converting biomass into fuel.

Where is this biomass coming from?

Farms/forests/grasslands.

Ok. Fine.

What do all farmers know? They know that to get something out of the ground you need: water, light, seed, and nutrients. After a few generations of anything, you need to feed the soil. Where is the fertilizer going to come from? You can't compost - you just turned all the biomass into fuel. You need fertilizer - and that's going to increase the cost. People talk about using switchgrass - and that it is responsible for the fertile soil in the Midwest. Yes, it's how we got such fertile soil - by having switchgrass grow there for generations - not by harvesting it twice every year.

Yes, stuff grows in the ground, but it's not an unlimited bank account. This is something everyone knew before the industrial revolution. But now ... people think you only have to harvest/harvest/harvest.

Sigh...

Also, to get an idea of the scale of the problem, I was reading this article: The Oil Drum | Cutting Through the Coskata Cellulosic Ethanol Hype, and it breaks down an analysis of a particular company's claims. The part I found most interesting was the quantity of biomass required:

In Coskata's case, they promise 100 gallons (+) per ton. How much biomass then to run a 100 million gallon per year facility? A million tons per year. How much biomass is this? If we return to the Douglas fir example, it is the biomass equivalent of around 1.2 million mature Douglas firs per year.
[...]
To put in the context of rail cars, the coal cars lined up outside of a coal-fired power plant are a familiar site. According to this, each car carries about 100 tons of coal. For a million tons of coal a year, you would have to have 1 million/(100 tons per car) = 10,000 cars per year coming into and leaving the plant. That's more than a car an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And of course coal is quite a bit denser than biomass, so more cars would be required in the case of biomass.

Wow, a train car every hour, every day, to produce ... 100 million gallons of ethanol. That's a lot of biomass. But 100 million gallons is a lot, isn't it? No: we use 390 million gallons of gas per day. And, that's ignoring the fact that ethanol only has 2/3 the energy of gasoline.

How are you going to solve the logistics of getting that much biomass shipped around? To cover all the gas we use in vehicles we'd need nearly 1500 such ethanol plants, each requiring at minimum - one train car full of biomass every hour.

The numbers are simply staggering.

File This Under Kinda Creepy

I remember when EFF first pointed these out four years ago. The printers still do it - be aware.

EFF's "Yellow Dots of Mystery" on Instructables | Electronic Frontier Foundation:

it's deeply troubling that printer manufacturers implemented this surveillance mechanism under the table after secret meetings between government representatives and technology manufacturers. Printer companies don't disclose the tracking to their customers and so the existence of these yellow tracking dots remains secret.

How Long Will President Obama Last?

People have been noticing McCain's supporters are out of control. McCainiacs think Obama is an Arab, a terrorist, Muslim, and much worse.

The lady who told McCain that Obama was an Arab still thought Obama was an Arab after McCain took the microphone away from her and said Obama was not an Arab.

It turns out there's a study on this: The Power of Political Misinformation: "Bullock and others have also shown that some refutations can strengthen misinformation, especially among conservatives."

So, we've got McCain (and Palin) doing all they can to play up doubts about Obama's patriotism/trust/heritage, so much that their supporters believe these falsehoods and actually boo McCain when he tries to correct the falsehood. And, conservatives are much more likely to believe in something false after the falsehood has been revealed.

How angry are these people going to be when McCain loses? To an Arab/Muslim/Terrorist? Oh, throw in the fact he's black. They're gonna be pissed! They're gonna go postal. And, trying to talk them down will only further convince them they're right!

Obama's days are numbered if he is elected as president.

U.S. Iraqi Agreemnt, Bush Signing Statement: "All Your Oil Belongs To Us"

From a blog I read - an Iraqi voice on politics.

Raed in the Middle: U.S. Iraqi Agreemnt: Final Draft leaked:

I think it's really interesting that while the bush administration are putting the last touches on this long term agreement with their Iraqi allies, bush issued a new presidential signing statement last week specifically to allow the U.S. government to control Iraq's oil resources! The statement was issued as a response to a congressional law that prohibits the U.S. government from taking control over Iraq's oil and gas resources.

Shroom Class

On Sunday I did the field trip portion of my mushroom class. The instructor (again) made a comment about how he didn't sign up to teach the 30+ people, the class was supposed to be limited to 20. I agree that the class was too large to get good exposure to the instructor - hopefully the parks and rec will enforce the class limits they set up next time.

That being said, I had a good time. The class split into two groups that each headed down different roads on Mary' s Peak. I joined the smaller group, which had the two "assistants" leading it. We all had a great time looking for mushrooms and sharing our findings with each other. I had the typical knack to find LBMs (little brown mushrooms) and initially had trouble finding anything but the LBMs. But I did end up finding two Chanterelles on my own, as well as a couple of Lobster mushrooms. Unfortunately, Lobster mushrooms are very popular with a number of insects so you have to find them before the insects.

I plan on going out to look for mushrooms in the future - it was a hoot.

A bunch of Chanterelles, some Lobster, and a very pretty purple shroom

My first Chanterelle

A collection of some of the mushrooms our group found

A jelly tooth mushroom in it's infant stage - the feel like gummy bears

No idea what mushroom this is, but one of few the non-LBMs I found

A fungi forest

My second Chanterelle

Cute little LBM

One of the many choral mushroom varieties

Pictures Recovered (mostly)

Well, thanks to a flash card reader and ZAR, I was able to recover most of the pictures off the memory card. A couple were corrupted, but most turned out. ZAR worked well, especially for a trial version - they specifically tell you to use the trial version for photo recovery.

I've learned my lesson, never use auto-delete, even when it's doing the "safe" delete. I may switch to ACD See (which Sam swears by) instead of Picasa (evil software which deleted my photos).

Here are some of the cute Simone pictures.

Simone and me in a pile of corn

Simone in a pile of corn

Simone running through a hay maze

Simone and Mary making pizza dough

Simone riding an elephant in Newport

Simone and Mary at home

I Want My Pictures Back

I just somehow deleted all the photos on my camera. Picasa2 was "importing" them, doing a "safe delete" - which only deletes the photos after they're copied to my computer.

It didn't work, I lost all the photos. Some were very cute photos of Simone (she's cheesing it up now), and photos from my mushroom class.

Not pleased.

St. John Monastery

A while back, we traveled up to see the family in Yakima. I forget the trip details, but it was fun - Simone loves her cousins.

On the way back we stopped at the St. John Monastery's roadside store. We've always wondered what it was like, but we've always driven by on a Sunday (for some reason we don't notice it while driving to Yakima). But, because it was Labor Day weekend, we came back on a Monday - and it was open.

We stopped in and picked up a pan of spanikopita and baklava. The spanikopita rocked, and the baklava was pretty good (though I'd prefer to make my own).

If you're in the neighborhood, check it out.

Licorice

Mary and I went to the coast on Monday. Nothing terribly exciting, just a nice day hanging out with each other.

We stopped into a little market that had odd snacks, picked up two huge pickles and some licorice.

I've got to say, it was the best licorice I've ever had.

Pirate if you do, Pirate if you don't...

From xkcd:



So true.

East Coast Trip 2008

Mary, Simone and I traveled back east to show them my own stomping grounds and the fall colors. Plus we spent a couple days in Maine visiting Mary's cousins (from her dad's side). We had a great time, the weather was good (only one day w/rain), the food was good, and Simone traveled really well.

We walked around Cornell - campus hadn't changed very much - though the U-Halls were gone (my freshman dorm) and had been replaced with some slightly larger buildings. We ate hot-truck, lunch at Moosewood, college town bagels, and (surprisingly still around) Aladdin's.

It was also nice to meet Mary's extended family - unfortunately I didn't get any photos of them.

One surprise was that we found out Simone's namesake (Mary's great-aunt) spelled her name with two "N"s: Simonne.

Check out the photo album:

East Coast 2008

FM 100 Hue Test

I scored 11, not too bad (0 is perfect).

FM 100 Hue Test

700 Billion

We, the tax payers, have decided (through our elected officials... wait, an appointed official from the most incompetent president ever... sigh) to bail out the financial markets.

It's disgusting. Is it needed? Maybe, but the people who are saying we need to do it are the same people that let us get into this mess. I've got friends who swear by the capitalist system: it's the most efficient, generates most progress, etc. etc. And when you throw up critiques like it has led us down the path of destroying our environment, commoditizing the commons, preying on the un-educated, privitizing public programs, and so on. Of course the standard response is something along the lines of, "well, that's because the costs were not set up properly... blah blah blah" Nice out, it's akin to saying, "X is the best. Oh, it's not working? You're doing it wrong."

Anyway, transparency is a good thing all around. Mark Cuban thinks that's what's needed to get the bailout to work: 700Billion bailout ? Ebay it ! « blog maverick

September Simone

It's been a while since the last photo post. Here are some snippets of what we've been doing the past month. It's mainly been: going to the park, to the water fountain, to the farmer's market, hanging around at home, working in the yard, the usual.

Simone always gets her own pretzel when we go to the market. Lucky for me, she shares.

Simone and I on a walk after dinner, she's a little sleepy

Her favorite mermaid, having some raisins on the rug

Like my do?

What? You wanted me to wash the dishes, right?

So soft...

Doing some yoga at the fountain

Is it cold?

Eyes on the prize

Having a dinner of PB&J (well, cashew butter) at the playground

Momma and Simone giggling in the kitchenLook what came in the mail!

Fireplace, Take 2

Wow, I just looked, and I never posted pictures of the finished fire place from last year. I know we've got them - they're probably on the other computer.

So, if you don't know the story about the fireplace, it was finished last fall. It was beautiful. You really need to see the pictures. Notice the past-tense. In November or so, during a big storm, it collapsed. Mary and I had just gotten into bed when we heard a huge, "whump!" I sleepily got up, knowing what it was - Mary was a little more panicked because she thought it might have been Simone falling out of bed.

Kiko came out (apologizing profusely) and figured out the flashing wasn't quite right, and the water had dripped down and saturated the front of the chimney at the base - and that's where things collapsed. He'd come out earlier when we saw the chimney starting to weather poorly, and we'd wrapped it up in tarps, but I guess that wasn't enough to save it.

Long story short, we no longer had a fireplace.

Well, now we have one. It's a completely different design. I really need to find the older pictures so you could see. But here it is. We fired it up two nights this week and it works pretty well. You can't see the chimney in any of these photos, I'll have to get another picture.

Kiko looking at his handiwork

The fireplace before the plaster finish

Backside of the finished fireplace

Our first fire

Fancy long exposure fire shot

Eggs, take 2

A month ago we started getting eggs, and the girls have been steady at producing 2 nearly every day. I find that amazing - how do they know to balance their laying out like that? Why don't we ever get 3 on one day?

The eggs have steadily gotten larger, one day we even had one that would have qualified as Jumbo (I should have weighed it).

We get produce scraps from the co-op every week or so to supplement the girls' diet - they plow through a 40 pound pile of lettuce/melon/apple/whatever in a few days. With the scraps from our kitchen and the co-op, they end up not eating very much of the pellet food. And, when we're in the back yard, we usually let them out to roam around to find whatever bugs/greens they want to eat.

Here are the girls:

100 Pushups, week 1

We just finished the first week. It has been relatively easy (motivation-wise) to do the routine. I still have a little trouble imagining being able to do the 6th week's schedule (250 push ups in an evening), but it was easy enough to progress along with the first week's plan. I ended up doing 168 push ups total, which has to be more than I've ever done in a week before. Mary out performed me with 192 - you go girl.

Hot Chocolate Cakes

Mary and I ate at Sybaris for the second time about a week ago. The food was delicious, as expected. Dessert was a chocolate sampler, the best of which was a souffle-like cake with a molten center - absolutely delicious.

I thought I'd try making my own. I looked on David Lebovitz's site for a recipe that sounded like the cake, and I found this: Individual Hot Chocolate Cakes.

The cakes didn't turn out quite the same. The recipe has you unmold the cakes onto plates - so the presentation is different. And, even before that, the Sybaris cake had a crispy top, where the Lebovitz cake was a little softer. The center of the Lebovitz cake wasn't molten, just very soft.

That being said, Lebovitz provided yet another winning dessert. The cake was rich and delicious. The cake is so soft it barely holds itself together, and when you "bite" into it, what little structure remains just melts away inside your mouth.

Plus, the cake is very easy to make and doesn't take much time. I'd only change the recipe slightly - I'd be sure to use superfine sugar to line the ramekins, and I'd use ramekins (I don't own any, I used coffee mugs). As it was, the sugar on the outside of the cake was a little grainy and distracted from the cake itself. Plus with such a tall cake mold, there was just too much sugar on the outside.

The next time I want to impress folks with a dessert, this is the one I'll make.

100

Mary found this page a week ago: one hundred push ups.

It's a simple workout, the standard pyramid where the sets decrease in number of reps as your muscles tire. The goal of the program is to work your way up for 6 weeks until you're able to do 100 consecutive push ups. It should take about 30 minutes a week initially, probably more like an hour a week at the end, and then you should be able to do 100 in a row.

Mary and I just started. We both tested at 20 push ups (I'm doing traditional, Mary is doing the "knee"), and we completed the workout Monday night, which was about 50 push ups in total. By the end, the workouts will result in 250 push ups.

I just think it'd be pretty macho to be able to drop and do 100. We'll see if it sticks. Check back in 6 weeks.

Barack Obama and the “End” of Racism

After a long-winded introduction to the author, the piece wonderfully illuminates how some view Obama's rise as it relates to racism in this country. I found this particular passage interesting:

The Fourth World: Barack Obama and the “End” of Racism:

"Obama plays the role of a Black Cinderella. He does for Black folks what Cinderella does for girls. He shows that oppression and silence can be good for you – at least if you are the one the prince chooses, or if you are the one who gets to be the prince. It’s total fantasy. It’s a glass slipper that will break at the arch and be turned on us like a broken beer bottle or a jagged-edged knife; the same knife Obama has threatened to turn on the people of Iran and Pakistan."

Well worth the read.

hat tip: letterstotheoregonian