ProseKnitic – of Words und Wolle

In 2010 when Noah and I went North along the Eastern Seaboard on the Costa Atlantica, the last landfall we made prior to Dover was in Sydney, Nova Scotia. There were a number of merchants set up with stands in the big open area of the cruise terminal (which I think also doubled as a shipping warehouse). One of them reminded me strongly of the Filk pushers at your average SciFi convention. Stacks and Racks of CDs with interesting names and even weirder covers featuring music and artists a bit out of the ordinary.

Music in Nova Scotia, traditional music that is, still holds tight to its Scottish roots. Fiddles are present but so are pipes. Of the six CDs I found, all but one were anthologies in order to be able to sample a variety of artits.

Newfoundland harkens back to Irish roots in the old world. High on the fiddle with a smidgen of French influence from the trappers transversing the area.

in recognition of the arts

I found two music peddlers – the first was Fred’s Records almost right across the street from the Fixed Cup where I first found wifi and coffee.

After my wander around town including out and back with the yarn store I mentioned yesterday – I found and O’Brien’s Music two doors down from Rocket Food and Bakery where I had a lovely bowl of curried cauliflower while writing this note.

So I now have a collection of CDs, primarily instrumental recommended in one of the two places which I can’t play till I get home!
The Empress – Dwayne Cote and Duane Andrews – mostly fiddle
Weaving the Wind – Ed Kavanagh – celtic harp
Sea of no Cares – Great Big Sea – mostly traditional and modern updates
Gavin Simms and the Garrison Hill Band (seems to be sea related material)

then also Fiddles and Reels – Newfoundland’s Anthology
Rufus Guinchard – Fathers of the Newfoundland Fiddle Vol 1
Vive La Rose – Emile Benoit – more fiddle.

I am back to the ship, so expect to hear from me live about the third in Reykjavik.

computer games.

I think you have probably guessed that I have not exactly been the height of ambition since returning home. When faced by another day of dreary weather accompanied by some snow, ice and sleet I had the perfect excuse to stay in bed with a cup of tea and my computer.

So what I should be doing is telling you all about the intellectual reading/listening that I am doing.

Instead, I will be honest and call it easy listening…. and easy knitting and three kinds of naps. Except for the Pirate Solitaire and Bird Town.

Have I mentioned my love/hate relationship with salt?

First – the book. Salt by Mark Kurlansky is $2.99 last viewed on Kindle and $6.99 in audio. A journalist known for his off-beat views (who else would put forth the proposal that Cod – the fish – was key to world development, travel and certain groups domination) and interesting non-fiction.

Anyway – I have both the eBook and audio courtesy of some deal or another.

I have been enjoying listening as I knit. It didn’t hurt that for most of the book (non-fiction I listen to in spurts unlike fiction where I plow right through) I was on a cruise ship in the Eastern Med sailing past many of the ports mentioned and thinking about the Phoenicians, Greeks and other early sailors on the waters.

The other part of salt relates to everyday issues of diet and rationality. at home I don’t use salt in anything beyond the minimum needed in baking to control yeast. I don’t add it to food. I don’t put in water to make it boil quicker and there probably has not been a salt shaker in my house in decades. I don’t particularly like the taste and my guy just happens to have some issues with his blood pressure. Since he grew up with a mother who believed that “a little bit isn’t going to hurt” while on three meds and later died of a stroke, I take such things rather seriously.

Then there is cuisine on cruise ships where the cooks are young and healthy, the passengers often old and not and salt use goes by the handful not gram. Normally I come home at the same weight as I left courtesy of a bit of disciplin and a lot of time spent in the fitness center.

This time not so – I managed to trash my shin significantly in Alayna (first loop) and found that the pain and leg swelling caused by treadmill/elliptical/bike attempts simply was not worth it. So I skipped all of that. I still watched the food but was appalled to find that it appeared that I had gained a couple of kilos over the three weeks.

Not so as it turns out – this morning I was back to my pre-cruise weight. More importantly, my ankles and feet felt normal. As it turns out, all that salt certainly made an impact and even the amount of water I was drinking on the ship wasn’t enough to make up for the cooks love of the salt.

Maybe it was the lack of exercise and sweating that turned the tide? In any case, I will continue to read about salt and, disappointed, will have to watch what I eat while indulging in future cruises….

Reading is always a wonderful alternative to “accomplishing” anything around this house especially when it seems that anything done just winds up needing redoing. Dishes seem to generate spontaneously and we all know what socks do in the dark. On those sort of days sitting with a book in hard eliminates just about anything else.

No multi-tasking: not cleaning, laundry or knitting. Just curling up under a comforter with the book.

Besides half a dozen eBook freebies garnered from Barnes & Noble and Amazon I have had a pile from the library. Your mileage may very

1) Dark Storm - Christine Feehan. Oh, ho hum. Here we go again – another Carpathian – this one buried in a South American Volcano for centuries with his requisite vampire opponent. Then there is the love interest always centuries younger. I view these books kind of like train wrecks – how many different ways can the same plot crash, over and over and over? Nothing really new here – give it a pass

2) The Long Earth – Prattchet and Baxter. A totally different look at the future as well as different from either author alone. The writing feels occasionally rough (styles probably not blending as well as they might want). It took me a while to get into it, but was worth the time and read.

3) Existence – David Brin. In a future of complete and total tracking, exposure, public, social and government observation the question becomes – who else is watching us. Interesting characters and a plot that weaves together multiple threads seamlessly. I don’t like this future but it is fascinating reading.

4) Return to Willow Lake. Susan Wiggs. Yet along book in the Lakeshore Chronicles. Her characters are growing up, some more so than others. Overall rather superficial but love conquers all. I’d classify it as a beach read (if you lose the book while at the beach you can mentally write the ending by about page 50).

5) When Elves Attach – Tim Dorsey. If you don’t like his insane characters, drugs, mayhem and total disregard for societal norms you won’t like this book.

6) A Wanted Man – a Jack Reacher novel. Lee Child. Well written up a little too pat. I have to admit I am starting to wonder about how long Reacher can go without growing up, getting a job or landing permanently in prison. Takes me back to the question of how long a series (this is #17) before either boredom, repetition or skepticism sets in.

Up front, I would like to offer congratulations to all my colleagues who do not procrastinate. I know you are out there somewhere sitting smug, safe and secure on the 24th of December knowing that you, once again, have completed your recertification requirements prior to the end of the year deadline.

For the rest of you normal people like me who haven’t learned to “Eat that Frog” (link is to the Brian Tracy Audiobook) all my best to you and whatever you absolutely have to get accomplished by the end of the year.

No, I am not speaking about those resolutions that you lost sight of sometime in the last 12 months or the things you do every month (pay bills, hound spouse,  drool over travel schedules). Rather I am looking at those once a year deadlines which can have consequences in excess of not filing your taxes on time. Birthdays’ and Anniversaries may fill this requirement for you – there are those which, if you miss, are going to wind up either never getting forgiveness or costing so much in terms of emotional heartache that making a mistake of any kind is simply not worth it.

For me, other than death and taxes – and since I am not planning on leaving this mortal coil any time soon that only leaves the taxes which I foist off on George if at all possible – I have the annual CME requirements from the American Board of Family Medicine.

Knowing myself quite well, when the opportunity to move from a seven year cycle to a ten year cycle came up ~2005/6 I jumped on the bandwagon. To really keep the pressure on myself, I prepaid for the ten years. Being the basically cheap soul that I am, this almost completely insured that I didn’t quit somewhere along the line since you don’t get refunds. Money spent? Need to get my value back out of it! Each year, in addition to regular CME, I have to complete an on-line learning module by the 31st.

Now, I have a couple of good friends doing full time clinical practice. They sail through the modules, using them as review for the types of things they are seeing in daily practice. No muss, no sweat, minimal crying and pain. Me?  I have been doing primarily Occ Health/Public Health/Travel Med for … let us say ….. 20 years or more? I know my limits in family medicine. Being quite computer literate, I have no problems looking things up as I go, asking for assistance, finding answers. I routinely conduct various on-line searches. I have been doing this since PUBMED first went on-line. Over the years, I have expanded the tools which I use as other databases, searches and methods have become available.

For heaven’s sake, I have an MPH, epidemiology, study design ,and several stats courses under my belt. I know how to evaluate research, studies and be objective. The idea of evidence based medicine being problem-based, learning and life long isn’t an issue.

The process involves:

♦ Converting information needs into focused questions.

♦ Efficiently tracking down the best evidence with which to answer the question.

♦ Critcally appraising the evidence for validity and clinical usefulness.

♦ Applying the results in clinical practice.

♦ Evaluating performance of the evidence in clinical application.

is very sensible and provides better results for both patient and practitioner than randomness, tossing darts at the wall or most empirical guess work.

So why can’t I wrap my head around the sentence structure and format that the ABFM wants me to use in its scenarios? It just shouldn’t be all that difficult. The concepts are there, PICO (Patient/problem, intervention, comparison, outcome) I get – it is just that my sentences don’t like up word perfect with theirs and I am sick of not being able to see the difference between what I just filled in the box and what they would like to see filled in the box.

I’ll let you know tomorrow if I survive this section. At least this is not the 31st so that means that I am not howling as late in the year as has happened in the past. I do have a couple of days ahead of me in which to complete it.

Argh – so far I am having by far more fun frogging an old project than studying!

frogging an old project

I was listening to Simon Winchester’s “The Professor and the Madman” while exercising this morning and hit a point in the story where I just had to stop. Then I had to analyze why it irritated me so much. On the surface the discussion was innocuous and related to how early writers knew and were sure that they were using words correctly in selection, meaning and pronunciation.

I almost fell off the treadmill in shock.

Excuse me? Isn’t that a rather modern and arrogant assumption? Started in Victorian England by scholars with the absolute assurance of learned men of that time that there was TRUTH.

Didn’t it occur to them that perhaps authors were perfectly happy to use the words that felt right to them? That Shakespeare was know for coining words and phrases? That the English language since the 400s (CE) had happily, cheerfully and bloodily ripped words willy nilly from what every source took its fancy at the time?

I don’t think in the 1500 and 1600s that authors were as worried about fact checking as they are at present. For one thing, facts were acknowledged as a lot more fluid and subject to personal beliefs. For another, stories are stories. As such, truth is mutable and the story is the thing.

Today’s authors, whether fiction or non-fiction have to meet style, spelling, formatting and data rules that would have left those of former centuries shaking their heads. Structure and correctness have triumphed over story telling capability and content.

Perhaps this is why fantasy and science fiction are popular: they are built worlds subject to their own rules and as such are pretty much exempt from the pettiness of fans writing via that wonderful media of the Internet about a street in San Francisco being one way in the opposite direction or a restaurant in Chicago being four doors from the corner rather than three.

Admittedly the book to which I am listening is the story of the OED (Oxford English Dictionary), that extensive and codified tome that attempts to define what is and is not proper to use in the English Language. Perhaps in the late 1800s such an undertaking made sense the same way that Wikipedia developed over the last 15 years in response to a perceived need.

What also must be remembered about the Victorian time was the CofE argument. Spreading English (and doing it properly) was to the benefit of the Empire and not at all of benefit to Rome. God’s work – as delegated to the Englishmen and their self appointed rightful place in the world.

I would hate to think of such minds as Shakespeare and Chaucher having been limited by the Chicago Manual of Style, or the precise definitions of English as defined by learned men. Would they have written such interesting, occasionally elegant or baudy works which have survived the centuries had they been so constrained? What is the effect on authors today who are picked to death by readers who focus in the one-way street reference and lose the whole context of the story.

I need to finish listening to the book, knowing that all is never as it seems on the surface with classification, regimentation, and categorization lending clarity, structure and occasionally choking the life out of ideas.

Not really needing any supper either, we wandered around town for a good hour before stopping at the Glacier Brewhouse for some locally brewed ale and a couple of salads before calling it a night.

BTW – if you read mysteries – I highly recommend reading either of Dana Stabenow’s series (Kate Shugak or Liam Campbell) or Sue Henry while traveling in Alaska.

What I think I appreciate most is not the stores, but all the murals. I headed out early to wander around. No surprise, it was drizzling. Breakfast was in this great small place at G & 3rd that had excellent coffee and wonderful crepes. Also free WiFi in case you were wondering about why you were finally hearing from me. We were put up at the Marriott last night. In fine high end hotel tradition they charge both for coffee in the lobby and all Internet.

Given that it has been too hot to knit (yes, I know – go see post back a few days) I have been reading.

I think I have mentioned both BooksontheKnob and PixelofInk before as sources for free eReading material along with the Baen Free Library.

According to the “read” bookshelf, it has been 42 books so far on this reading junket of which I have probably read somewhere around 30-31 all the way through. When I was a lot younger I finished everything. Now it just seems that life is too short to waste on books which are of marginal interest or worse, so poorly written that even I can find the grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Mostly Sci-Fi with a bit of romance and mystery thrown in, I am afraid that I can’t recommend a series of new or brilliant authors. Otherwise, the weather is hot, obviously.

a bit more progress

Maybe knitting another dozen rows of a 275 stitch fairisle (plus steek) doesn’t seem like much progress but considering there is are 1/2 a dozen color changes just in this short segment, I am pretty pleased with the progress. I can even recognize what might be trees started above the large leaves. At this rate, without much effort I should be at the armhole steeks by next Saturday.

Considering that I also read a couple of books (like three in the quick 225 pages each category) and played the latest for Mac entry in Jewel Quest – my day may not have been all that productive, but I had fun

Once again I was reminded of the reality of US calendars. Or rather, the US federal holidays.

I hadn’t planned on making a post office run today – they are always closed on Mondays, but I had planned on making a refill run over to the Heidelberg Hospital/now clinic. Migraines are so much less a problem with medication on hand. It avoids taking the anti-nausea stuff and the sleepy making tablets so that I can possibly function. But no, it is a federal holiday which I figured out before I went over there from the simple process of checking email.

All of these places are having President’s Day Sales. Oops. If there is a sale for President’s Day, then there must be a ….. and since it is Monday – it has to be today. Did I mention that I also had DH underfoot since it is a German Holiday (Rosenmontag for those who track such things)?

Double whammy on a Monday.

Ignoring the laundry which will still be there tomorrow or the day after, I spent a quiet day reading more than knitting. I have a whole collection of eBooks downloaded from Amazon and B&N on various free deals. Then there is Michelle Sagara’s series which I bought last year and are still in the queue along with the new Robyn D Owens urban fantasy (no vampires) set in Denver (sort of). Light reading all.

The Old Tower stands at one end of what is now a pedestrian zone in La Laguna at the Placa de la Conception. Its stones are old, the wood frames of the windows looking only a few decades old and well cared. There are 24 stone steps inside leading to the first main level. From this point, obvious new wooden construction lets you climb another 112 stairs up to the point when you literally hit your head against the glass ceiling at the top of the cupola. The bells are one level down from there and the highest section at which you have access to the outside world without benefit of glass separating you from the weather.

Since I was just here in Nov (as apposed to Nov of 2007) when I had seen some of the museums I decided to take the tram across the northern part of the island from Tenerif. From one end of the line to the other takes close to an hour starting from near the old fort at water’s edge and ending at the Pedestrian Zone at the other.

It is easy to see that we are back in Spain; the fancy patterned stone side walks with their lines, symbols and insets are gone in favor of ordinary cobblestone and pavement. The architectural highlight in this city is the door. Old wooden doors pitted but lovingly tended. Newer doors (well 100 years old is newer, right?) gleam with varnish and sealant. Also of interest are the wooden frames to upper windows.

I hope you can handle doors two days in a row. Oh, and did I mention the tribe of Scouts complete with backpacks, sleeping rolls and a weary looking couple of adults escorting them down the street. From the variety of languages heard I don’t think they are local kids.

Reading -

I am trundling through Monica Ferris’s Needlework Shop Mystery series. Not exactly in order by chronology but by alphabetical order as I picked most of them up over the last year on the various Audible Sales.

Knitting.

It takes much longer to finish a section repeat on the Shadow Jacket now that I have added the body extensions on both ends to to the sleeve sides. ~150 stitches suddenly had 220 added, which does slow me down.

and of course, packing. It is not that I really have all that much to take home, it is I don’t want to leave the extra suitcase here. Good thing that my Frequent Traveler card with Lufthansa entitles me to the extra suitcase (and only a bejillion miles to go to reach Senator status).

Reading

I had mentioned the reading in the my first note this year. I am attempting to shift my reading to free sources as much as possible. It may stop me from spending as much on books (all formats) as I did last year. There is a lot of material free (B&N, Amazon, iTunes and even occasionally on Audible). In response, there was a wide variety of reading from all of you. Ron, for example answered -

What am I reading? Just finished the “Hunger Games” Series after Deb kept telling me I need to read them. I could not put it down, 3 books in 7 days, over 2000 pages. Well written. Interesting fiction with socioeconomic subtext about distribution of resources (food) in American future at some distant point yet to come. It is not deep, but it will grab your attention and hold it. It reads like an ancient Roman story set in the future… food and blood sport used as tools to control the masses. Play the colonies against each other for the good the the empire. I am probably going to read them again to see if I missed anything… It is about to be released as a single movie, that has a big list of stars in the key characters.

These are books in which I, to this point, have had no interest. I had mostly heard teens talking about them. After being totally irritated by poorly written wizard stories and sparkly vampires, I had been ignoring YA fiction. Sounds like these might actually have some redeeming worth and I might reconsider.

Ignoring all those books out there which fall into the SVS group (stupid vampire stories), I have been listening to mostly mysteries and the occasional non-fiction.

For something completely different in non-fiction, I would recommend “Looking through a Keyhole” a memoir by Julia Spencer. With sharp, clear prose Ms Spencer unflinchingly interweaves her past into her present situation. Having inherited retinitis pigmentosa, she must come to grips with going blind; changing her life, reclaiming independence and finding her place in the world. This is also a story of Irene – a golden lab – who makes the difference. Most of us have issues with trust, wanting to do things for ourselves. Having to define relationships, especially in one’s seventies is really pretty impressive. I don’t know how the book would read – I have it in audio (and at $3.95 it is cheaper than print) and the narrator is awesome.

Otherwise, have deleted a number of free books, read a couple of so-so urban fantasies and am working my way through some of the early Sharon McCone books by Marcia Muller (again, Audible has nice sales).

Knitting

One does not want the daughter of a knitter to get cold. Someone who has moved to Chicago didn’t have a decent warm neck scarf. So, I knit her a scarf

just the pattern portion of a larger shawl design

Last year I joined a lovely Ravelry Forum called “52 Books in a Year.”  Obviously, reading 52 books in a year is not a particularly difficult goal for me being part of the subset that read more than 200 books. (Obviously, being deployed heavily contributed to my reading numbers along with eBooks and Audiobooks).

Listening to books and reading books electronically can  be financially wallet breaking if you are not careful since it is extremely easy to just hit the buy it now, load and go. All of the on-line book stores continually have special deals as does Tantor, Audible, GraphicAudio and numerous other sources for audiobooks. (please note that I am not providing links for you, I am not going to facilitiate increased expenditures).

This year, instead of spending large amounts of money on reading and audio material, I am going to concentrate on what I can read for free. I have a decent local library; that solves the best sellers reading. I have plenty of access to paperback swap shelves, so portable books for take-offs and landings are solved. My backlist of audiobooks to be heard is long enough that it should last months. Finally, there is a wealth of free eBooks – I must have a good hundred between various accounts (B&N, Amazon, Kobo) and more are available every year.

The end result is that I plan on reading what I find, writing reviews, recommending new authors and limiting my spending. I am willing to be honest in a review here; I am unlikely to post on an otherwise open site if writing is significantly lacking. Something about the old “if you can’t say anything nice…….”

There are some others from Ravelry joining in. If you want to play as well, just let me know. I am more than happy to link to anyone else participating and also put up links for anything interesting that I find. Pixel of Ink and Books on the Knob are a good sources for listings and recommendations on free eBooks. ITunes has the occasional freebie, not as often as Amazon or Barnes&Noble but more than snow in Florida.

Currently on hand from the Library:

Aloha from Hell (A Sandman Slim Novel) – Richard Kadrey which I thoroughly enjoyed. Yes it is violent; no – there are no vampires. Gritty Urban Fantasy with imagination and minimal romance.

Three-Day Town (Deborah Knott Mystery) – Margaret Maron. Deborah and Dwight on their one year delayed honeymoon no sooner arrive in NYC than there is a murder in their apartment. Bringing Sigrid Harald (1980s-1995 mystery series) in as one of the NYC detectives is both interesting and effective.

The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz. After writing a whole series of YA mysteries – Horowitz was selected by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate to pen a new Sherlock Holmes Mystery. It is next on my reading list.

Son of Stone (A Stone Barrington Novel) - Stuart Woods. The latest in the Stone Barrington novels – sometimes life takes some rather interesting turns.

Spellbound – Blake Charlton. With all these mysteries – I just had to pick up one fantasy book complete with dragons didn’t I?

What are you reading? Write a post, write a review, I will happily keep the links and conversation going.

we spent, Carmen and I, first relaxing with coffees and knitting then wandering the isles of Barnes & Noble.

Since the demise of Borders, Barnes & Noble is the only large scale chain that actually offers service, miles of in house book shelves and on-line ordering. Yes, I know that Amazon does on-line ordering, but I really like to hold the books every once in a while and believe that rewarding the store that supports my book addiction to be a worthwhile endeavor.

Then there is the small matter of e-books. I don’t mind reading books on either my computer or iPad; but again I want to know what I am purchasing before I commit myself to the large layout of $$. Currently being in the US means that I can happily download books from both B&N and Amazon (funny, but the price is always the same in both locations) onto my computer.

Then, there are all those knitting and craft magazines to which I no longer subscribe since they never have anything that is all that interesting. As you probably guessed, I am not much for current fashion nor knits completed on needles the size and weight of lightening rods.

I made progress on the current scarf

Nessie II

all the pretty sparkles

someone is tired

The theory of my making some particular clothes for the Maus is that she puts in some time and assistance. To a large extent, this has happened. When she vanished partway through the day, I went to find her. All this clipping, pinning, snipping and ironing apparently has taken more out of her than planned.

Knitting

Just to show of totally and complete pictures of the City Sweater ….

the City Sweater

looking at 1/2 the sweater back

Books and Audio Books

I have been doing well in various Bookcrossing Virtual Book Boxes having been able to send off several books to people who are interested and picking up a few more that I would like to read. That takes care of the Dead Tree side of things. Unfortunately, Audible has another sale, so my “to be heard” queue is actually longer than my TBR pile is high. Go figure.

Brand new and Huge. LH400 from Frankfurt to New York’s JFK was via Airbus A380-800.

You know a plane is large when there are four (4) different boarding ramps. When row numbers run up to 94. When frankly the departure gates are separate for the business/first class sections and the rest of us mere mortals. Downstairs, below stairs, dungeon we are while rows 1-9 are First Class and 10-18 hold all those self important business passengers. Did I mention that they are upstairs? Penthouse view while we should be glad to have new seats, windows, decent over head bins and individual seat back displays.

The seating is 3-4-3 for most of coach. Lucky me with an isle seat in row 70 which turns out to be the last group to board the plane. Even better wis when you get to polite but insistent oversize people in the other two of your group of three who want to swap your precious isle seat for a window location. Now normally I prefer sitting next to the window. But my bag with camera was already stowed for the flight and there was not way that I was taking a chance on not being able to get out of my seat for the entire flight.

In an amazing turn of luck, the flight was not completely full. Just across the isle and up a row (69G) there was an empty seat which I nabbed just the moment the flight crew shut the doors giving me elbow room which translates to knitting room.

The flight was smooth, the food was barely warm (they are going to have an issue if they don’t properly heat up the food), and the peons had to wait at JFK while the entire upper class departed the plane through the single gangway.

I managed to find the bus to Central Station and a train in the direction of Scarsdale. Of course, it might have helped if I had managed to take along the directions so that I got off at the correct stop or had an easy time with the cell phone. In any case, I wound up at the right location with some small bit of insanity in time to snack, knit, read and crash for the evening after taking a short walk in a lovely neighbourhood.

Knitting

Started Polo II – a sock yarn version of a Hanne Falkenberg Cowl. The multicolor is African Grey (parrot) from Cherry Tree Hill Yarns and the grey is a sport weight from Louet.

Konkylie is a knitted collar/scarf – also a HF which I am knitting out of some sale coned yarn (with double strands as directed on 5.00 mm needles

Audio Books

Beach Lane – Sherryl Woods
Trick of the Light – Rob Thurman

A long plane flight is a great way to go through more t

from Scarsdale, NY

I am making slow but steady progress.

Two more boxes have been emptied and most of the knitting books are back on the shelves. Yarn is in storage bins and clothes bags are in the bedroom although not sorted out or unpacked. I made nice piles of stuff on the dining room table (His, theirs and mine), and have steadily been adding to the “going out box.”

A good friend is taking a lot of the older audiobooks off my hands. She has a cassette player as well as CD/MP3 and I am happy to pass these along. Also in the box are leftovers of sock yarn for her “going to be how big?” blanket from scraps. I have thought about doing one of those, then decided to forgo it in favor of sweaters and comforters with flannel covers.

Lastly, I have been cataloging books again. As you might remember, the audiobooks (real vs electron versions have been done, I am now starting on the books… the hundreds and hundreds of books we have in the house. I broke down and have purchased a bar code reader. Even with a number keypad, data entry was just taking too long….

I had extensive catalogs once. The computer crashed and locked files which I was never able to open. It is time to try again….. meanwhile, letting me avoid other parts of the organization and cleaning!

Or Indian either for that matter.  

Instead, in the tradition of DFACs everywhere – the breakfast service was moved up by 30 to 60 minutes and stopped by 0730 in order to prepare for the main meal which is served at noon. Also, like many other facilities, the senior personnel – officers, first sergeants and command sergeant majors staff the serving line. The only significant variation that I saw is that all of us senior types were in ACUs rather than Dress Blues.  

At Aviation DFAC there are two lines – for this meal both the same. First station is roast carving, followed by choice (more than one ok) of turkey, prime rib, ham, pineapple chicken and corn on the cob. Following that was self serve for mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, collard greens and black eyed peas. There was a separate ham carving station along with a seafood area featuring cold crab legs and shrimp cocktails. In the next room were the salads, fruits and deserts.  

My line, of course, was the most efficient (grin). I spent a bit over an hour before my back said enough. I will attribute all of our ability to serve at double the speed of the other time to both the CSM asking everyone what they wanted and the SPC who was fast and efficient at the roast carving.  

 Seriously, the BDE Commander from 10th Mountain stopped by to say hello later and asked how we managed. His CSM and a good carver. In fact, the only thing that slowed us down at all were people self serving multiple side dishes. Oh, yes, Mac&Cheese, there was Mac & Cheese. I will need to ask Bonnie why, but it did give me something with protein besides ice cream.  

I am now back in the office with the following to finish before the end of the day

1) ABFM Part II Patient Simulation. Since this is open anything (as far as I can tell) I finally located a couple of great review articles to walk me through the two main diagnoses. With luck I will be done today – a bit in advance of 31 Dec….

2) two awards

3) review another award

4) Dari.  

My reward for getting through each section is to be able to stop and listen to an episode of Owner’s Share by Nathan Lowell. The first five episodes are up and I managed to download them last night and today at the USO. Remember those old 56k modems? With the limits on the USO system it takes about an hour to download 35 MEG. I also have the new Rawlins Cross album (Heart Head Hands) which came in the mail this week.

And it was a quiet day here at Camp CRC. At least it was after the morning session of IED and UXO training. As a Health Care Provider they exempted me from the first aid training drills for the afternoon giving me a chance to organize, pack u things and read junk books.

There are not many worthwhile books on the swapshelves here – mostly old romances of the “stupid helpless young woman rescued by the older, experienced alpha male” variety. Means that you can read a dozen books in an afternoon. Or, as it more like the case, start a dozen before tossing each aside as not worth the time and effort!

For those Harry Dresden fans – Changes – by Jim Butcher has hit the streets, the library and arrived at my APO box courtesy of amazon.com. Take an interesting plot twist involving the return of Susan, add in the White Council plus a pending “peace proposal” from the Red Court (give us a break – trust a vampire? I mean, really…..) and it is Harry and gang against the world as he knows it

Any thing more than that would involve serious spoilers. Even though each book stands alone and Butcher is relevant but sparing with his back story, I would really recommend reading this series in order. The books just keep getting better.

Now – back to the re-read of Sci Fi Classics  (and thanks to Ruth for the nagging) the partial list of which includes – iRobot and the Foundation Trilogy by Asimov, Cities in Flight by Blish, Waystation by Simak, Dune by Herbert, Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein, Rendezvous with Rama by Clark, More than Human by Sturgeon plus todays -

The Left Hand of Darkness – by Ursula le Guin. (FantasticFiction Link here). Published in 1969 (university time, before medical school; long before marriage and children) the story is set in a far future universe where mankind and others are far flung across the galaxy and loosely organized into the Concordance. Newly discovered worlds are sent a single Envoy who establishes a toehold by peaceful means.

Genly Ai is posted to Winter, by himself with just his wits, an ansible and belief system which undergo transformation during his time. For Winter, you see, is populated by hermaphrodites and provides a challenge to deep seated assumptions and prejudices. A population that can and does change genders over the years and dependant on social situations beyond the understanding of a short term visitor.

Hailed at the time and discussed for years after, The Left Hand of Darkness is considered a key work in the genre as it explores both society and the role of the individual against the backdrop of other than traditional belief systems.

I read it when it first came out, finding it fascinating. Unlike other SciFi of the time which portrayed strange looking creatures with otherwise US/UK mores, language, and behavior, Le Guin created a society that challenges those beliefs while maintaining a complexity and internal consistency.

40 years later, this Hugo and Nebula winner still stands the test of time. Because it is person and society centric rather that hard technology dependant, it has aged well. The questions raised – how to initiate first contact, how to understand new societies and cultures, are as relevant today as then.

Superficially, the roles of women in western society may have changed drastically in the last four decades. But have we really evolved? Do we still want to know if someone is “a man or a woman”? Isn’t that the first question asked of parents about their newborn?

And are we not all a bit uncomfortable when we can not identify the gender of an individual by their first name? Needing that little bit of knowledge to carefully slot one into our own privately constructed pigeon holes of roles?

At the end, a book that makes me think as well as being a good read is certainly worth putting in my classics pile and recommending it to you.

In this case,

miter + mitrer + more

Progressing apace, I am on the last full row of miters for the skirt area of the jacket. I am now going to have to figure out a right facing half miter.  Once that is done, the whole piece is rotated 180º in order to start the bodice portion. Sleeves are last.

I am even being such a good kid and weaving in ends as I go.

Books

Since you can see that I have made less progress than any one may expect I will confess to reading a few books this weekend:
Cockatiels at Seven and Swan for the Money – Donna Andrews, both books of which are fine if you like comedic mysteries, but some of the characters in this series are getting pretty dull. Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon was probably the best.
The Enchantment Emporium – Tanya Huff. Lovely book, similar to her Keeper series (1998-2003) in attitude, characters and fluid description. Good urban fiction completely without vampires or werewolves. Perhaps you have to be from the northern tier to manage? (Charles de Lint and Emma Bull come to mind. Great writers – Canada and Minnesota. Proof that it is completely possible to write interesting stories without pandering….

You are familiar with Bookcrossing.com – right?

It is not the same thing at all as Library Thing. Admittedly, you can catalogue all of your books if you have enough energy but that is not the purpose of the site.

Passing along books to others – now that it something to support.

All of us have our shelf of books that will stay with us for the duration of our existence: those books which we love/hate and read over and over. Then there are all the other books which are bought or received. All books are too good to throw away, but finding a home for books that do not fall in the “keeper” category can be a challenge.

Enter Bookcrossing.  Started in 2001, there are more than 800,000 individuals participating world wide with supporting websites now in multiple languages. You can post books as available for anyone who is seeking them or tag books and release them in the wild. There are various assorted get togethers in different communities (I have met some really neat people in both Germany and the UK this way).

Go, take a look. Register. Participate. Share the wealth of books.

Tell them I sent you!

(Proseknitic)

(Why am I thinking about this? I looked at my joining date – three years ago today!)

Coming late to the party, I am taking the plunge into modular knitting.

It was the arrival of that lovely book by Jane Slicer-Smith that pushed me over the edge. After having been a student in the 60s and 70s, I absolutely loathe granny-square type patterns. Kind of the following refrain – if you were old enough to wear it in the 70s you should know better than to wear it this time around.

End result is that I have just flipped by most of the mitered patterns as being either too like those times of 40 years ago or just too full of ends to weave it. Loose ends are even worse than granny squares.

Then over the last couple of years I have been seduced by garter garments designed by Hanne Falkenberg, Vivian Hoxbrø and Garn Studio. Mitered just seemed like the next thing to try. After all, if I can manage fairisle on 2.5 -3.0 mm needles I should be ale to manage garter with dk yarn.

(Shall I mention that I have all this lovely dk weight merino in my stash from Army-Navy closeout this past fall. Purchased at 50-70% off meaning I can manage a whole jacket completely out of stash?)

I am going for the Mitered Jacket in my favorite colors (red, grey, burgundy) which should not be a surprise to anyone.  Hold on, I knit a gauge swatch!

4.0 mm needle = 5"

before moving on to carefully read instructions.

(Yes I know, totally shocking and out of character, but who wants all those strange lengths of yarn that are going to happen if I have to do much frogging).

and it doesn't take much time to knit the first square

As it turns out, it really gets kind of addicting…

3 full, one half square

and it is back to more squares to go with Criminal Minds… or Kay Hoopers “Fear“  series in audio. Humm – too much FBI?

We have all studied literature in school. Defined by me as that portion of writing in prose in which a point/commentary is delivered through the expression of the story.

Fiction on the other hand, is all about the story.

The difference is the writer’s intent. Not what professors of language, literature or social analysis decide later, but what the author intended in the first place.

For example, it is fairly clear that Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain were using the medium of storytelling to provide commentary on their societies. Both have even commented so in non-fiction essays.

Similarly, in genre fiction there is little question in most people’s minds that mystery stories are all about solving the puzzle and romance is about relationships.

That leaves Science Fiction – which is about some kind of future – based on technology rather than magic. The wisdom about 30-40 years ago was that authors wrote their vision of the future. Meaning that science was going to lead to outbound travel while really not fixing much of anything with the people involved. Postulations of doom and gloom abounded.

What was also noticeable were the characters – present day attitudes superimposed on future science. Makes as much sense as an enlighted man of the 13th century expressing 21st century US views about the roles of men and women in society.

And then along comes Ursula Le Guin with The Left Hand of Darkness portraying a society different in concept from the known and accepted in her time. If you need a summary, perhaps you want to detour to Wikipedia or an excellent discussion of gender roles in science fiction and society by Rebecca Rass.

I originally read Left Hand of Darkness in 1969 when it was first published and was stunned by the book, the thought and the society portrayed. It is not an action adventure which was what I had quietly assumed was most science fiction (see Andre Norton, Robert Heinlein, James Blish……..) but a thoughtful portrayal of what was certainly alien to someone fighting basic gender discrimination in school.

Since this is the first one on my Classics of SciFi List, I am still decided how to approach the commentary. Assume that you will hear once to several times about each book since I am as interested in how they strike me now as when I first read them.

Perhaps that is my definition of classic – a book that keeps appearing fresh with each re-reading.

.

Smart name from Raverlry last year right about this time.

What better way to deal with the mid-winter doldrums than to knit a nice vest?

Rather than something complicated, fine yarn and fiddly, I decided to choose an easy, fast pattern. In fact, Drops #115-24, a cabled top looked to be right about my speed.

Purchased a few years ago, I have this bag of Shakespeare by Artful Yarns, 100% wool in a lovely combination of blues and purples

Color #5

Casting on 95 stitches (yes, that is around. Total number that 95!) on size 8.00 needles to set up the pattern before moving up to 9.00 needles with two strands held together

cables plus ribbing

it has not taken long to get three balls (135 yards each worked from inside and outside) into the project.

not quite to the underarm, but close.

I am rather pleased to think that I will shortly have a nice warm vest.

I did look through other’s projects: Nicole knit a lovely version without sleeves, as did Katharaina. Then there is Donna’s (which is located here on her old blog) which I hope she ports everything over from Blogspot as she has such a nice collection of pictures and finished things.

There were another three or so finished vests, but none of the rest have projects that seem to be posted outside of Ravelry.

Audio Books

The Mercedes Coffin – Faye Kellerman. A Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus mystery, this was one of several downloaded from iTunes a few months back when they had books on sale ($6.95 seemed like a really good deal).

I read it (library book( when first released in hardback) and enjoyed it then. It is holding up well on listening, the reader is a pretty gruff sounding guy which seems to suit the story well.

on other fronts

By the simple expedient of heading into London, the Mole managed to avoid returning to school this afternoon.

On return, we had a serious conversation about what comes next. He is a good kid, knows that the budget is not unlimited (school year prepaid) and that transferring schools – except to mean mom’s – is not likely.

No one really lost their temper and we will talk on the way to Croughton in the morning.

Managing a wander up Oxford Street early this morning.. well, early apparently for Berkeley. Not even joggers out and about at 0730 on a Saturday morning, just homeless blockaded into doorways by their laden carts.

I was looking for Beth-El and the 0830 Minyan. Having the address was good, the building is not signed. Held in their smaller Beit Am, the group and folding chairs felt more welcoming than many of the formal, decades established Shabbas services, complemented by a locally produced prayer book designed for all levels of Hebrew ability and vision.

Sliding out before the Torah study, the walk back to the hotel is downhill. Hill direction can be terribly important when you are on the edge of the foothills. Having a house seven blocks from Shul is good. Would be much better if those seven blocks were not straight up hill…

Friends

Feeling truly fortunate, I spent a lovely afternoon with Ruth (aka the Scrabblequeen). I also met her husband, one of those great guys willing to take a Saturday afternoon and wander a section of Solano so that we could visit.

Part of the plan had been to visit Stash. Well, it seems that they had moved. No sign in the window of the old location. We wandered through other shops and books stores, totally missing looking up the street from where we had lunch. Stash, as it turns out, was just around the corner.

Tea, Chai and knitting were also in order for the afternoon. Ruth’s current sweater project has a lovely look and feel and she is such a warm and welcoming person. There are those times when you can feel awkward meeting someone who you know only through email. Both yesterday with Alison and today with Ruth it was sitting down with old friends, picking up threads of conversation like no time had passed at all.

Flashback Challenge

Wanting to read old science fiction/fantasy classics, I was facing a dilemma. Few of the books I will be re-reading are currently in publication and rarely in hardback, eliminating the library as a source for the books. I probably have most of them, somewhere in a book box.

But then there are used books stores and I found:

I still have to track down:

• Strange in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
• Way Station – Clifford Simak
• Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M Miller

What is on your reading list?

Whether or not you are a fan of New Year’s Resolutions, the fact remains that many of us make them and few managed to keep up the good effort for more than a few days to weeks.

Then along comes an idea that is just made for signing up and actually completing. The Flashback Challenge, started by Aarti, a young Chicago book lover, is based on a Robertson Davies (you know, the Canadian novelist, author, journalist, professor) quote -

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

The Challenge is simple – go, sign up, and commit yourself to re-reading somewhere between 3-12 books from earlier times in your life. If really ambitious, there is nothing stopping you from reading more. Three books in a year, that is not an overwhelming number. You don’t even have to decide which books right now. Read during the year. If you have energy, you could even use each as the subject for a blog post; you could right a review.

I haven’t decided which books yet, but I am going to re-read classic children’s literature and what I consider true early classics of SF/Fan. Perhaps a bit of Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain or Kenneth Grahame (if your mind just went blank - Wind in the Willows was first published in 1908). Then there are the books I read as they were being published in my childhood and early teens by Andre Norton, Clifford Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Walter M Miller, and Ursula Le Guin.

Yes, there are a lot of new and very interesting books being published. Perhaps by doing this and writing about it someone else will become interested in a particular book. It couldn’t hurt.

And you know what is really special about my plan? It is totally and completely vampire romance free…….

Waiting for the electrician (Did I mention that the florescent lights have gone out in the kitchen? Both of them, leaving it a bit challenging to do anything in that room any other time than between, oh lets say, 0830-1530?) I figure knitting should keep my fingers warm. After I get through all the work related email that is.

For those who celebrate the Christmas Holidays and like to decorate – Garn Studios (those wonderful people who make the Drops yarn and put all of their patterns on the web for free) has put up a Julekalendar with a new pattern every day.  The link is also part way down the home page.  Not normally watching such things, I saw a note by Maria who is already started on some really cute and speedy projects.

(many hours later) – I now have lights again in my kitchen and a scheduled time for the plumber tomorrow (I think) as well as all day next week Thursday for the heating system to be fixed.

End result is that I discovered something else today that was not to my benefit. BigFishGames have now organized their MAC games, making it extremely easy to download and try new games. Unfortunately for me, there were a couple of new games I just had to try. Knitting time was impinged.

Books

Grave Secret – Charlaine Harris. Simple. Neither complicated in plot or characters, it is a nice change from her other paranormal series. Most of the ugliness is in the past, and a major mystery is solved in this book. All the same, it is probably about time she ends this one.
Missing in Death – J D Robb, read by Susan Erickson. Novella taken from a new story collection (this is the only one of the four stories available in audio so far – I think they are missing a trick or three). Slightly under 4 hours, it is quick, tightly plotted and wastes only a couple of minutes on sex scenes. Writing is more consistent than Kindred in Death (new out in Oct) which was quite uneven. Honestly? I would believe she changed ghost writers about an hour into the story.

Strange day here in the UK.

Temperature has been low, the electrician will be returning on Thurs morning to fix the overhead florescent lights which buzzed out over the weekend. And, the heating guy certified my boiler as kaput. A new one is on order. Meanwhile, I have two small electric space heaters on loan.

Funny thing, that. I had been doing ok without them. Not great, you understand, but ok. I had convinced myself that wearing four layers, sitting under comforters, and burying my hands with knitting wool was a completely normal way to live in the evenings.

I now have the heater running. The temperature has reached 16°C (a balmy 60°F for some of you) in the bedroom and my nose is no longer frosty at the tip.

Knitting update

Ok, there are four things on the needles right now.

four projects underway

The two vests both have backs completed; fronts are now cast on. I think I might wind up ripping out part of cul-de-sac and reknitting because my gauge isn’t quite right on the one side.

back of Cul-de-Sac

back of Lima vest

Then there is the diamond shapes pullover has two sleeves to be attached while on which I completed one of the lacking 4 quarter diamonds.

diamonds and triangles

adding shoulder and upper back bits

Finally, the garter square cardigan needs the steek cut on the front and sleeves finished prior to completing the bottom panel. I now have four 3.00 mm needles dangling from here or there which can make it a challenge at times.

starting second sleeve

I am thinking that the green vest should be the fastest finish followed by the garter diamonds. Then, I might just take a break and knit myself a winter hat or two. I just happened to find a couple of wonderful patterns and I have this lovely alpaca yarn …..

Books

In my effort to decrease the reading pile – in paper version, I finished Thai Die by Monica Ferris, Whisper to the Blood by Dana Stabenow and The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint. All were rapid reads. The Kate Shugak novel does require familiarity with the series, Ferris has pushed the series far enough and the de Lint was a bit different than his other books.

Not that I am really complaining since it meant that I could race through all of them in an afternoon while waiting on the heating guy.

We are all familiar with the concept of UFOs – and not as Area 51 or flying saucers – but as unfinished objects when the subject is knitting/crocheting. Perhaps it would be more accurate to use UFPs – unfinished projects – but UFO seems to have caught on and stuck.

The phenomena has spread in my life. Since becoming an affectionado of audio books, I now have the problem of UFBs – unfinished books. Having mentioned before that I have been known to have the attention span of a gnat, you should not be surprised.

I have often had several hard copy books in progress between professional reading, paperbacks and the hard covers that I check out from the library. I might misplace a book, leave one in the car or at the office and it certainly would not do to be out of reading material. Book monogamy has never been my thing so the idea of having a book on the night stand, professional reading in the office, an audio-book in the car CD player and something else on the iPod for treadmill entertainment didn’t bother me.

At least, not till yesterday morning when I realized that things were a bit out of control. Getting on the train, I hauled out the iPod and could not remember which book I had been listening to. When I had been listening to a book became the operative question. I spun the wheel down the list.

I can no more delete an audiobook than I can toss out a regular book. It doesn’t matter that it didn’t appeal to me at the time, I could change my mind. Or, it might get better if I listened a bit more. Or, I might just not have been in the mood for that particular kind of story at the time.

And on, and on, and more excuses. I started counting. One, two, five, twelve …. Never mind, I am not sure that I want to admit to the final number of books in progress.

It made me feel much better about having four knitting projects underway. That is a positively puny number, totally under control!

Especially compared to started books.

Knitting, on the other hand, at Costa Coffee this after was a combination of two diamonds forward, frog one back as I once again was not completely all there. Yes, I know how to drop down and reknit just an area to correct a mistake, but this was not one of those occasions where it would not have shown.

Pictures tomorrow, I promise.