5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Happy New Year!

Tonight, as the audio-animatronic Dick Clark and the even less realistic semi- humanoid Ryan Seacrest ring in the New Year in Times Square, we'll be ringing in the New Year the way we usually do: dinner in, a movie in the player or a game, then cuddling together after everyone else is asleep. We found lobster on sale at Costco for $6.80 a pound, so we'll be having crustaceans, drawn butter, a salad, and baked potatoes for dinner; tea and sparkling cider for drinks, and crème caramel (egg custard) for dessert. And wine for toasting at midnight.

Times Square (NYC) by Michael McDonough(^),
used under Creative Commons License

Tomorrow begins a new year. Last year I made a few resolutions...

• At the end of last year, I resolved to lose weight, and I did - I'm down about 20 pounds. Yay!
• I resolved to exercise, and I did, some. I need to do more. Semi-yay!
  
• I resolved to not chicken out and finally do something about the pain I'd been feeling, and I had minor surgery in February. The surgery went well, and combined with no longer eating wheat, my pain is gone. Yay!
• I resolved to be neater, and made some progress, but probably not as much as I should or could have. I like clean, but don't really mind clutter. I wish it bothered me more, I guess. Another semi-yay!
• Work on crafty things more than the previous year. I did ok on this resolution. Probably could have done more, but did a whole lot more than the previous year, so I think I'm happy.
  
  
  Our dog, if he were green and made from polymer clay.
  
  
• I resolved to get out with friends more. I didn't really do very well with this one at all. Phooey. I will double down and make more of an effort in 2009.
  
• My final resolution, shared with my husband, was to follow the Compact. The Compact is a group of people who resolve not to purchase anything new for a year and to look carefully at their purchases to determine what is truly needed and what is merely wanted. It isn't a matter of debt or anything like that (for us, at least). It was an exercise in discipline and of discovery, of what is really important.
  
  You can read more about the Compact here at Good Magazine(^) or here at the San Francisco Chronicle(^) .

We did very well for a long time, then moderately well for a while, then not so well. We were disappointed that we weren't able to last a whole year, but are resolved to try again, starting tomorrow. We've written up our own guidelines for the coming year, which are:

Follow the basic Compact - no non-necessary spending on new anything unless it is a matter of health job, and/or safety, with the following details:

• Mutually agreed upon educational materials for SuperCat are exempt if we can't find them used or at the library. She's currently learning to read and we may need a book or two.
  
• Memberships may be exempt, as they are services. They would include membership to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and possibly to Costco.
  
• Mutually agreed upon materials to finish previously started projects - limited to those items only (i.e., bias tape to finish a previously started sewing project, nails to finish a wood project, etc.) may be exempt, as it is utterly wasteful to abandon a dress, for example, for lack of three buttons.
  
• New clothes for SuperCat if she needs them; only if clothes can't be found elsewhere (hand me downs, sewing, etc.
  
• Remodeling materials, always checking Restore(^) first.
• All gifts & cards should be handmade (I'm already working on Valentines Day ).
  
• Internet connection, computer parts, etc., necessary to keep the computers in good working order. Mutual agreement on new purchases in this area.
  
• Postage as needed.
• Try to move toward more sustainable habits, like: cloth napkins, hanging out more clothes to dry, etc.
  
• Dinner/lunch out no more than 2x week. Week starts on Sunday and ends Saturday night. Eating out is almost certainly more wasteful than eating in.
  
• Freecycle(^)/FreeSharing(^), hand-me-downs, antiquing, thrift, Restore(^), etc., is always preferable to new whenever feasible.
• Food, obviously, is exempt.
  
• Utilities, insurance, etc., to maintain our household are exempt. We have to stay warm.
  
• Medicine, medical care and pharmacy needs are exempt. We have to stay healthy.
  
• Car repairs as needed to maintain safety are exempt. We have to stay safe.
  
• Career-related materials are automatically exempt. Self-explanatory.
  

That's pretty much it. It's not too difficult in some ways, very difficult in others. Consumerism is a habit many of us don't think a lot about, it has become automatic.

My own resolutions this year are:

• Join a local knitting group. I had plans to join in October, but something came up and I couldn't. I have enough yarn to knit the entire year away without fear of running out, and the women in the group seem to be clever and smart and are obviously talented.
  
• Exercise an hour a day. I'm not quite there yet, but getting closer.
  
• Lose weight (who doesn't have this as a resolution?).
  
• Grow my hair out longer than it is now.
  
• Complete projects I've started but haven't finished. They include finishing some knitting, finishing a set of dolls, completing some earrings, a quilt, and some tutus.
  
  
  doughnut earrings on silver wire in need of findings to be finished
  (that's what jewelry parts are called, findings)
  
  
  cupcake earrings which need to be finished
  
• Try to reduce the amount of clutter in every aspect of our lives. To me, clutter isn't only stuff. Clutter is anything that we don't need or want.
  
• Make soap with lye. I'd like to try my hand at making a super-fatted soap to use as a shampoo bar.
  
• Make cheese from scratch. This just sounds like fun, doesn't it?
  
• Edge closer to an all-Linux environment, computer-wise. I'm more than half-way there. My desktop machine is all-Linux, and my laptop dual-boots.
  
  
  Resolved: to spend more time with Tux, the Linux mascot
  
• Make more of our food from scratch. We've made huge strides in this area, and I'd like to continue. Cooking from scratch is rewarding and fun.
  
  
  homemade french onion soup
  
• Make treats instead of buying them. I already regularly make Chex Mix, marshmallow treats, and cupcakes. In the last month or so, we've made double chocolate rocky road fudge (with marshmallows and walnuts), and hard lollipops. Both were easy and fun, and both were so much better than anything we could have bought. Next year we plan to pull taffy and make peanut brittle.
  
• Follow the Compact, and apply it to everything above.

So, how about you? What are your New Years resolutions? Whatever you choose,

Happy New Year!

Namaste.

Current Mood: cool

Greetings from the Uncanny Valley (Odds & Ends)

Recently, I met a member of the Single Action Shooting Society(^). Members of the SASS target shoot in competitions, dress in period clothing, use period weapons, and answer to a "Western" name that they adopt which is unique to each member. Calamity Rabbit has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

The fellow I met was very nice, taking time to explain everything to me, including the fact that about 40% of their members locally are women. Wow.

Simply put, single action weapons are those that have to be cocked before each shot, i.e., the hammer has to be pulled back before each round is fired. The trigger performs a single action when it is pulled (it drops the hammer). Cowboys in the Wild West (and everyone else) fired single action weapons before double-action weapons were invented.

I'm considering joining the SASS in the spring. It sounds fascinating; combing my love of sewing (costuming), history, and target practice. We'll have to see if I can find the time. How neat would it be to research and sew (and then wear) an authentically styled Western costume?

I was reminded of SASS when I saw something interesting about Annie Oakley recently. Annie Oakley was an amazing woman, accomplished in areas that were dominated by men at a time when women were generally afforded very few options.

As a young girl, Annie hunted and sold what she shot to help her widowed mother get by. She was so successful that she was eventually able to pay off her mother's mortgage.

Annie met her eventual husband, traveling show marksman Frank Butler when he placed a bet with a hotel owner for $100.00 (a whole lot of money in 1881) that he (Frank) could beat any local marksman. The hotelier got Annie to compete and she won. She and Frank were married the next year. When she died, at age 66, Frank, unable to bear life without her, refused to eat and died 18 days later.

She was an early promoter of women in combat roles, and once wrote a letter to President William McKinley offering the the services of a company of 50 'lady sharpshooters' to the government if there was a war with Spain. There was a war, of course, but McKinley never took her up on her offer.

Annie was an amazing shot; she could split a playing card edge-on and put several holes in it before it hit the ground with a .22 caliber rifle at 90 feet. She earned the title of Little Sure Shot of the Wild West from her days touring with Buffalo Bill Cody.

This was Annie Oakley as people would have seen her on posters advertising the Wild West Show:



and this was Annie Oakley as she looked in life:


And this, which I found when I was researching something else this week, is Annie Oakley on film:



How spiffy is that? First, it's Annie Oakley. Who hasn't heard of her? And second, it's one of the earliest Edison Kinetoscopes know to exist.

(Kinetoscope)

And then there's this, which is completely unrelated but spiffy nonetheless:

A couple of nights ago, Dan and I were watching The Polar Express, based on the book of the same name. The movie is about a boy who isn't sure he believes in Santa anymore. On Christmas Eve he finds a steam locomotive outside his door, and once aboard, he travels with other children to the North Pole to see Saint Nicholas. It's a sweet movie, and we enjoyed it, for the most part.

Not everyone did, however. It didn't review well(^) when it was released, and a large part of why seems to be because reviewers(^) felt that the characters were creepy and unreal-seeming.

Before we went to bed for the evening, I searched for the film online, and read about how it was made, using motion capture technology. Motion capture records the movement of the actors and uses computers to translate "real" movement into the movement of characters onscreen. It allows for more realistic human action on film.

And that is a huge potential problem. There is a hypothesis, put forth by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, that states that when robots are made to seem more human, humans (that's us) will respond with more empathy toward them. In other words, we'll like them better the more they seem to be like us. So, we will like a robot with two arms, two legs and a head better than a mechanical box with crane-like arms, no legs and no head.

But, the theory goes, as robots approach being indistinguishable from humans, they will cross over from cute and become repulsive to us.

For example:

The robot from Lost in Space(^) seems fine to most of us. He has two arms, two legs, a head, and a metallic voice. We recognize him as being human enough to elicit empathy.
(and)
A robot (or human facsimile in a film or elsewhere) that is indistinguishable from humans will be fine because we won't be able to tell the difference. If it seems human in every single way, we won't know the difference, and it won't bother us.
(but)
Somewhere in between Lost in Space and the indistinguishable robot of the future is the repulsive middle. It looks human, it acts human, but something is a little off and we humans know it. It will be uncanny, foreign yet familiar.

That gap between the Lost in Space robot or perhaps the Maria robot from the 1927 Fritz Lang masterpiece Metropolis and the Robot of the Future is the Uncanny Valley.

Robot Maria

Apparently, many reviewers found that the characters in The Polar Express fell within the realm of the Uncanny Valley(^). They found the characters looked slightly off and that unnerved some viewers.

We didn't find them creepy, exactly, but did find ourselves trying to figure out which actions were motion capture and which were straight up animation, and that definitely detracted from the movie.

Won't it be interesting when robots become indistinguishable? We won't know what we don't know, I guess.

Other links I've found in the last few days:

• Google has found that certain search terms used by the public are a good indicator of the severity of the flu, and have placed this information in a handy chart here(^).
• If you've ever wondered what those additives or dyes in various food and makeup products are, here is Food Additives World(^), an informative website that describe what they are and what they're doing in your food and/or makeup.

And finally, some pictures from the last few days:

This is Mar-Belles. Not Marbles. Mar-Belles.
Dan and I named her Marbles, which we thought somehow went with Waffles, but the SuperCat immediately renamed her Mar-Belles, which sounds like a character from Gone With The Wind.
Mar-Belles acts like a little lady, so the name is apt.
She is just teeny tiny, and so sweet. She sleeps on my feet at night and comes and cuddles in the early morning. She tolerates the enthusiastic pets of little people, and has perfect manners.

This is Neh-neh. He doesn't have any other name. We've tried several times to give him other names, but Neh-neh is the only name that sticks. His hobbies include being the dog's very best friend in the whole world, repeatedly falling into the bathtub once it's full of water, and waking me up several times a night. He really is a cute little guy, and we love him, but wish he wouldn't try to play at 4:30 AM.

This is what you get when you try to use that teeny little video screen on the digital camera to take pictures instead of using the viewfinder.
This picture was supposed to be a shot of my snow-filled backyard.
What it is is a picture of a ceramic squirrel stuck into the jungle of plants on the shelf above my kitchen sink.
I don't have the greenest thumb in the world, but can grow various Aloe and Sansevieria (mother-in-law's tongue) plants until they are practically sentient.

More squirrely goodness.
This little guy holds measuring spoons in his tail and has googly eyes.
How awesome is that?
The white glare is from the snow outside.

Santa lights up at night when the rest of the lights go on, not that you'd notice because our shared lawn looks like Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with all the inflatables.

Finally a bit of snow.
Not a lot of the it, and no pictures of the vast uninterrupted swaths I had meant to photograph earlier in the day, but snow nonetheless. This shows about a third of the inflatables in our immediate neighborhood.
Santa is lost in the crowd, but he's in there somewhere.

Namaste.

Current Mood: contemplative

A Basic Human Right

This is from a blog meme I ran across today called BlogDriveInsanity(^):

Wednesday Mind Hump

Welcome to another Mind Hump. Today is Human Rights Day.
What human right are you most passionate about?

My answer would be... Well, I would start with the fact that I've never heard of the United Nations' Human Rights Day(^) before now, even though this is the 60th anniversary of the first one.

Yay, learning new stuff!

And second, to answer the question, I guess I would say that I am most passionate about the right to self defense. Without the right to protect yourself, all other rights immediately cease to matter. If you aren't walking the Earth anymore, the right to vote; to property; to clean air and water; to food, the right to anything becomes meaningless.

I'm not talking about the dubious "right" to be an aggressor, or the ability to go to war. Simply put - I mean the innate right to stop aggression against yourself or those you care for. To feel safe and secure to the best of your ability without harming others who are innocent in the process.

I was a long time in becoming convinced that I could protect myself. And that even if I could, that I should. One thing that prompted me toward action was seeing other women taking the steps to defend themselves or others.

Women like Jeanne Assam(^), from my own neck of the woods, who saved untold lives at New Life Church last year.

Women like Stephanie Nielson, author of The NieNie Dialogues, who decided earlier this year to take firearms training and get her concealed carry permit because of crime in her neighborhood. She wrote about it eloquently in a post entitled NieNie get your gun(^).

And women like an unfortunate neighbor of mine whose home was invaded over the summer, and who was beat mercilessly. She didn't have the means to protect herself or her family.

So, I made the decision, took the classes, and did the most important thing: practice, practice, practice.


range practice

I made some interesting discoveries along the way:

• Women are most certainly welcome at firearm ranges. I'm never the only one there. Women made up exactly 25% of my training class, and there are often knowledgeable women working in sporting goods stores that sell firearms.
  
• People in the know are willing to answer questions, make suggestions, and offer explanations. There are no stupid questions, and all of my questions have been answered with respect and patience.
• Everyone involved with firearms that I've met takes safety and competence very seriously.
• It feels good to become competent at something that had previously seemed so scary and once I did become competent, the scare factor went away.

So, the right I am most passionate about is the one I consider to be most basic right of all, the one that all others flow from.

Finally, I mentioned Stephanie Nielson above, a blogger I've very much enjoyed reading for some time. Stephanie and her husband, "Mr Nielson" were in a terrible airplane accident in August, 2008, and they both sustained life threatening critical burns.

While they recover, their loved ones are reposting previous NieNie posts. To read her blog, click on the link above. If you'd like to learn more about these two wonderful people, or if you would like to help, click the icon below.

Namaste.

Current mood: