Posted by barb on Dec 6, 2004 in
Random Thoughts 
At Andrew’s suggestion, I took pictures at about 15-minute intervals as I decorated the tree last night. The whole affair took about 2 hours from stringing the lights to completion. Unfortunately, most of my pictures are out-of-focus. Even now, I can’t seem to get a good picture of the tree…maybe I need to set up the little tripod that I have.
That black lump that appears in a couple of the pictures is Ares — he’s having trouble deciding if he likes laying under the tree or laying on our new comforter more.
Posted by barb on Dec 6, 2004 in
Movies 3/5 stars
Okay, so I’m a sucker for cute romantic comedies. Despite the Christmas back-drop, that’s what this is. The latest Santa Claus discovers that he needs to be married by Christmas in order to continue being Santa. If he has not found a Mrs. Claus, bad things will happen to Christmas.
I liked it. There I said it. Scoff if you want, but I thought it was cute.
Posted by barb on Dec 5, 2004 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts After a quick trip to the grocery store, first up today was the English Toffee. I still don’t have it right, though. When I was only heating it to “hard ball” stage (265 F), it was chewy. I saw a few recipes on the web that said to heat it to “hard crack” (300 F), but now it’s grainy. It tastes fine, but I can feel the grains of the brown sugar. Sigh. Maybe next year.
Finally, I got around to decorating the Sugar Cookies.
This was just a cool picture:
And here’s the finished tin of cookies:
Posted by barb on Dec 4, 2004 in
Movies 4/5 stars
We watched Trekkies several years ago, and found it a fun documentary on the “out there” Star Trek fans. Some people complained that it made Trekkers look like freaks, but as someone pointed out in Trekkies 2, a documentary about the average Star Trek fan would be fairly boring.
With Trekkies 2 we look the broader picture of Trekkers across the world. In the first movie, they only looked at US Trekkers, but this one travels to Germany, Brazil, and England. They were even there for the first ever Star Trek convention in Serbia.
There were also a few follow-ups with people from the first film. They caught up with Barbara Adams, who had gone to jury duty in her Federation uniform prior to the first Trekkies. They also talked with Gabriel Köerner, who was a teenager in the first Trekkies, and it was speculated by someone that he would never get sex. He is now married. The extras on the DVD included a fan film by Köerner.
This one can stand by itself. The first Trekkies included more on the history of Trekkers, but that’s not necessary to enjoy the stories of Trekkies abroad.
Posted by barb on Dec 4, 2004 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts
| The first done, the thumbprint cookies |
Next, the Russian teacakes |
 |
 |
| Then the Nanaimo Bars |
Finally, the Corn Flake Wreaths |
 |
 |
I also baked the Sugar Cookies, but haven’t gotten to decorate them — I’m too tired to stand. I’ll decorate them tomorrow.
Posted by barb on Dec 3, 2004 in
Thesis/Grad Life Met with Kim and Chris again this afternoon, finally. Not much to say about the meeting — it was productive, and I know what I need to do next with my MCG-6 weirdness and the CenA fits. We’ve also convinced ourselves that I can fit just one model to all the data, and if certain components aren’t present, it shoudl come out in that fit.
Just plugging along…
Posted by barb on Dec 3, 2004 in
Memes, Etc. The year I was born…
In 1971 (the year you were born) |
Richard Nixon is president of the US
Charles Manson and 3 of his followers are convicted of multiple counts of first-degree murder
An earthquake in California’s San Fernando Valley kills 64 people
New York Times begins publication of classified Pentagon papers on US involvement in Vietnam
The $70 million Kennedy Center opens in Washington, DC
A four day revolt at New York’s Attica state prison ends after being stormed by 1000 state troopers
A new stock-market index called the Nasdaq debuts
Walt Disney World opens
Intel releases world’s first microprocessor, the 4004
Ray Tomlinson sends the first e-mail
Libertarian party established in USA
Kid Rock, Denise Richards, Sean Astin, Winona Ryder, and Ricky Martin are born
Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series
Baltimore Colts win Superbowl V
Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is published
The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour premieres on television
“Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel wins Grammy for song of the year
All in the Family premieres
|
Posted by barb on Dec 3, 2004 in
Science Musings Wow! It’s taken me much longer to recover from the wedding than I thought. No one said it was going to take a couple months to retrain my brain, and, frankly, I’m still not up to par. However, let’s take a stab at including some real content in this blog again. Here’s some recent news from the Universe of Astronomy:
- As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Swift launched in November. This is a mission to study gamma-ray bursts (GRBs; check out the text I wrote for the web site for more on what GRBs are).
The observatory is currently powering-on various instruments and testing them. The main web site has a daily log of Swift’s status you can check out.
- The Mars rover, Opportunity, has found proof that Mars once had water:
Researchers were able to determine – with the aid of Opportunity’s science package – that liquid water did flow on surface of Mars in the past, its currents etching ripples in stone as a calling card.
But it still seems unlikely that life arose on the Red Planet — the environment would have been very hostile. On the other hand, we have found life on Earth in environments that were once thought too hostile to foster life, so who knows?
- Just for fun, Space.com has a quiz to test your space IQ.
Posted by barb on Dec 2, 2004 in
Random Thoughts Salon had posted an article a while ago on the ineffectiveness and dangers of the abstinence-only programs. Now Representative Waxman has looked into the accuracy of the cirricula of these programs (PDF file), and found that they are not only ineffective, but scientifically inaccuate.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, I suppose.
Representative Waxman’s report finds that the 13 reviewed curricula:
- contain false information about the effectiveness of contraceptives
For example, teaching that condoms are not effective in preventing the transmission of HIV, which is not what medical studies have shown.
- contain false information about the risks of abortion
This includes telling students that women who have abortions are more likely to become sterile afterwards.
- blur religion and science
The curricula tell students that life begins right at concpetion — religions differ on this point, and to assert it as fact points to the writers’ biases.
- treat stereotypes about girls and boys as scientific fact
My favorite quote from the “Stereotypes that Girls Are Weak and Need Protection” section:
In a discussion of wedding traditions, one curriculum writes: “Tell the class that the Bride price is actually an honor to the bride. It says she is valuable to the groom and he is willing to give something valuable for her.” The curriculum also teaches: “The father gives the bride to the groom because he is the one man who has had the responsibility of protecting her throughout her life. He is now giving his daughter to the only other man who will take over this protective role.”
- contain scientific errors
These range from teaching that each parent contributes 24 chromosomes (the real number is 23) to telling students that HIV is transmitted through sweat and tears.
I’m not sure I can comment…I’m too mad. I was already pissed that so much money is thrown into abstinence-only programs, which don’t work, but now to hear that they are just pulling stuff out of their asses to scare kids is insulting. Maybe we can at least get the government to regulate these programs that they’re funding enough so they aren’t teaching out-right lies.
Read Pharyngula’s post on this, What Women are Supposed to Want, or the Washington Post’s article, Some Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says for more.
Posted by barb on Dec 1, 2004 in
Writing Total word count: 14,490 words
Way short of the 50,000 word requirement to “win”. My enthusiasm petered out about half-way through the month when I decided that my underlying story sucked. I’m not so sure, now, that it actually sucks, but I do need to iron out the details between the major plot points. Frankly, I’m still looking at this as a win for Barb — it’s the most words I’ve ever written in one month. Yay me! Maybe next year I’ll get over 20,000. And I will be doing this again next year.