A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Greetings to all you fans of “A Curious Statistical Anomaly”. In addition to the many other bits of fluff that have caught Gayle’s eye, I was lucky enough to attract her attention twenty years ago and convince her that marrying me would be a good idea. I generally lurk behind the scenes, but Gayle has been pointedly hinting that perhaps I should write a few entries myself. As a guy, I can be pretty oblivious to such subtlety, but I guess there are limits that even I have to respect. It’s not that I don’t like posting, it’s just that once I do, it’s the first step towards a tradition. And as a confirmed procrastinator, I live by the motto: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can put off until next week”. The Canadian Lynx to the left is my avatar. I’ll be using him so that there will be no confusion as to when I write a post and when she does. Although, our styles are sufficiently different that I wouldn’t think telling us apart wouldn’t be that difficult.

So, what do I bring the this blog? What interests me? These are both excellent questions. I’m glad you asked. Like Gayle, I’m interested in a variety of things, but mine are more science and technology related. Gayle likes to tell you what’s on her mind. I tend to rant about things I don’t like. There were a couple of possibilities that I’ve come across: There’s the JPL employees that are being required to sign away their right to privacy. And there’s the new legislation that would make open WIFI providers responsible for the content that flowed over their networks. Both are rant worthy, and I might come back to one soon. But today, I’d just like to tell you a couple of things about my job. I’m a computer programmer by trade, working for a small company that subcontracts to a bigger company that subcontracts to the government. That makes me a pretty small fish in the corporate hierarchy, but it puts me in the position to see some of the insanity that Scott Adams uses to make Dilbert such as success.

We have a cooperative agreement between our agency and another, somewhat related, one and right now we’re having a bit of a hardware issue that’s brought everything we do to a screeching halt. Fortunately for us, the problem is with the other guys, so we’re just twiddling our thumbs waiting for them to fix whatever it is that broke. I got a call today from my counterpart over in the other agency telling us that they were keeping their heads down for a while. It seems someone in my agency called my counterpart’s boss’ boss’ boss to ask what the ETA was for getting the issue resolve. Problem is that apparently nobody had bothered to tell the B’B’Boss about the issue and he was more than a little perturbed to have to hear about it from an outsider. Now everybody in both agencies are trying to maintain low profiles while the bosses have meetings to discuss the matter.

The other day my company boss (to distinguish him from by project boss or my division boss) told us that the company had changed a couple of its corporate policies and that we were to go on-line and read the updates, then sign a form and hand it in to him before he left. I offered to sign it right then because I was going to be busy for a while and didn’t know when I’d get to actually read the updates. He looked at me blankly and tried to explain that I was suppose to sign it after I read the updates. I asked him if we could opt out of the policy changes. He, of course, said “no”. So I asked, if that was the case, what did it actually matter if we ever read them or not. They applied to us just the same. I think it’s situations like that that make him not want to talk to me if he can help it. He (and the rest of management) really think they’re employee friendly. And I have to say that the company’s policies and benefits are still head and shoulders above any of the other companies that have contracts here. But the fact is, the company makes whatever changes it wants, whenever it wants. We, the employees, have the choice of accepting them, or finding a new job. That’s the way it is, and I understand that. I’d just prefer they drop the pretext. It’s like the security at the airport asking if it’s okay to do whatever they want to do. Everyone knows that you’re not allowed to say no. If you want to fly, you have to let them. So why pretend that you have the choice. Why not just say, “Excuse me, but I have to …” I hate being put in situations where I have only the illusion of choice. I prefer honesty any day. Anyway, that’s my first rant.

Well, we were hoping to get some more leaves raked up before the snow came down but the snow beat us to it. At least we got most of the driveway cleared but the garden and orchard is now a lightly snow-covered carpet of leaves. I’m now telling myself that leaves make great mulch and by spring it will all be a moot point — except that was my mantra last winter and in the spring, when things dried out, we had to clear up the leaves before planting and doing all the yard work. You’d think I’d learn but somehow, there never does seem to be enough hours in the day or days in the week. We have weekends to do all the errands that couldn’t be done during the week and while I work at home that usually means I get the wash, dishes, and some house chores done while waiting on connections or downloads, but I don’t get out in the yard much — not even when it wasn’t too hot or too cold.

All that aside, when the snow started I took a cup of coffee and stood just inside the sliding glass doors to the deck and watched the flakes slowly drift down through the trees. Since what leaves are still on the trees are yellow, faded green, and a bit of a burnished orange, it was very beautiful to watch. At first every flake landed and melted, but after a few minutes it started to accumulate. Then it stopped and melted again. The second bit of snowing, I noted but didn’t take the time to watch, left about a quarter inch of snow over everything. Unless it snows more tonight it will probably all be gone by morning.

Still there’s a certain magic in seasons. The progression from spring, summer, fall, winter and back to spring. The passage of time marked by the changing weather and colors of the environment. Sometimes it just makes me feel so alive to be part of it all. That is, it does, unless I have to shovel — today there was no shoveling needed so I can wax poetic about snow (otherwise it’s a four letter word).

[Image from Snowflakes and Snow Crystals at http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/ ]

I was talking with friends the other night about something that’s been bothering me since my dentist visit and the hygienist’s evil eye roll with sigh. Okay so I hadn’t had my teeth cleaned by the hygienist in years but I brush 3 times a day usually. But you’d have thought that I’d committed a crime against nature. Then there was the lecture on the importance of brushing my teeth — as if I never did. (This is going somewhere, honest.)

Anyhow, once I got home and calmed down, I began to wonder why she thought I didn’t brush my teeth enough when most people (when they’re honest) barely brush twice a day — morning and night. So, what do you do when you want to know something — you google, and I found out some interesting stuff.

First, I learned that if you have an electric toothbrush you’re not supposed to move the toothbrush except to move from tooth to tooth. It’s vitally important that you don’t use it as a normal toothbrush because that could damage your gums. Hmmm, I don’t recall ever hearing or seeing anything about that when we got our first electric toothbrush. But we’re back to regular brushes now anyway — it was just an interesting aside in my search.

Next, and this is really interesting because it showed up on several dental sites; you’re supposed to brush each tooth for 10 seconds. Now the average adult has 32 teeth (I have 24 because 2 molars never came in and 4 I had to have pulled because they came in sideways). However, let’s use the average adult with 32 teeth. That means you should brush your teeth for 320 seconds total or 5.3 minutes every time you brush. That’s just over 5 minutes just for your teeth. I don’t know about you, but I barely spend 5 minutes on my whole ‘get ready to face the day’ routine.

At first I thought well, maybe I’m just clueless (I often am) so I’ve been asking around my usual sample group about it. No one knew about the 10 seconds/tooth thing. So, I’m wondering how people are supposed to know about it. I know that over the years and several dentists, not one has ever mentioned this time/tooth thing or even that you should brush for 5 minutes for a totally clean set of chompers. So, before the internet how were we supposed to find this out if the professional people we go to don’t tell us?

Then I starting thinking about the things that as an adult I realized I didn’t know, and realized there was a lot of stuff that I just ‘learned’ without being specifically told, or somehow figured out for myself. Kids observe and they learn lots of things. And because it appears that they know something, no one jumps in to explain so sometimes they learn the wrong things. One of my favorite scenes in Starman is when he runs the red light and causes chaos behind him in traffic. He’s asked (paraphrased), “You said you’d watched me. You said you knew the rules.” The alien replies, “I watched you very carefully. Red light stop, green light go, yellow light go very fast.”

See, he learned by observing and while he learned the actual rules of the road, he didn’t learn the correct legal rules of the road. Now, we observe drivers for years and I’m sure many of us found out what we knew and what were the real rules were very different when we actually studied for our learner’s permit.

I know I’ve learned a lot from books. The research and background material that goes behind a good mystery or science fiction book does sort of get packed into the unconscious as you’re reading. I learn from movies, too. It’s from books and movies that I learned about bringing gifts to the host/hostess in some situations; about multiple forks and spoons and finger bowls at fancy dinners (not that I go to any); about valet parking; about tipping maids in hotels; the workings of the bail bond system; forensic house cleaning after a death; and much much more.

I also remember those childhood songs we used to sing and the games. I don’t recall any adult every teaching us the “I’m going to go eat worms” song. But it seems, in my memory, that one day all of us just knew it somehow. Sort of as if the wind just blew the knowledge into our ears one night.

So, I guess I’m still curious about how we’re supposed to learn things when the professionals don’t tell us. Is it ESP, the wind whispering in our ear, should we have picked in up by observation somehow (can’t think of a single movie/book with a five minute tooth brushing scene though I can think of several with a toothbrush scene.

Guess, I’ll continue to ponder this question of how we learn.

Today we went out and did our usual weekend shopping. You know running all the errands that you can’t or didn’t get to during the week. Yesterday, we spent some time getting housework done and since the air pressure is changing I was pretty migraine-y so we stayed close to home. Since the weekend only has two days it was shop today or else try to squeeze it into all the weekday to-do lists and that just wasn’t happening.

So, off we went hoping to get the to-do list whittled down before pain levels got too high. But, it turned out to be a beautifully clear coldly crisp day. The stores weren’t even that crowded (Hurrah!!!). Item after item got checked off our list — including the few things we needed to pick up to finish off the packages we need to mail to our mothers for the Holidays. Once home we put everything away and started working on clearing out the living room so we could move in the tree — this is where we might have a problem. You see in the past, I didn’t realize that I was supposed to or could bring the scented geraniums and the lemon grass into the house to winter over. The problem is the only sunny spot for the plants is the rug in front of the sliding doors on the deck — you know it’s coming, right?. The spot where we put the tree. Therefore we’re clearing up space in the corner, the corner where a big chunk of my fiber/yarn stash was hidden in nice baskets and boxes. Now, my to-do list has grown with the need to re-arrange the living room to make space for the tree by the end of the week — along with all the other tasks — including finishing a Christmas sweater for my son.

Even so, with the colder air, the shopping for gifts done — don’t feel bad we only buy for 3 people: my mother, my husband’s mother, and my son. I’m actually looking forward to the Christmas tall tale letter (otherwise known as the yearly Christmas letter — but then that’s another challenge and a story for another post.

NOTE: The photo of the wreath is from http://www.wreath.com — I just love their photos of their products. You can almost smell the balsam from the screen. I really miss the scent of pine trees and balsam firs.

I’ve been puttering about slowly working on my Lady Eleanor. I like shawls. They’re great to wrap up in on a chilly evening. We’ve got a wall of windows in the living room and since we’re in Maryland — they’re not insulated. We’ve added that insulating film to all the ones we could reach easily but it still cools off in the winter and we don’t turn up the heat, so shawls are a must. I was looking for something a bit bigger and warmer than the usual shawl when I saw the Lady Eleanor.

I’d never done entrelac before, but I liked the way it looked. The other thing I really liked was the way the color shifts worked for the blocks. I checked out the yarn from the pattern and with my budget I just couldn’t swing it. I looked around and swatched a few different variegated yarns and ended up using Caron’s Simply Soft Shadows. I didn’t do a swatch for gauge — I was swatching for the color changes and happily it seems to come out the appropriate size for the shawl to be nice and cuddly on a cold winter night.

I found that once you set up the first row and the second that picking up the pattern and memorizing it is quite easy and then you can travel with this project without bringing the book. However, I did type up the square and the edge on a half sheet of paper to bring in the bag in case I forgot what I was doing. The other skill that I’d been meaning to learn but hadn’t taken the time to practice was knitting backwards. If you’re doing entrelac, it really does make sense to knit backwards rather than turning on a purl side. Once I figured out what I was doing it wasn’t so bad. The trick was to keep my tension the same whether knitting left to right or right to left.

Since this is for me I don’t need to worry about having it done for Christmas but I’m hoping to have it finished in January. But we’ll have to see whether that comes about with all my other projects in the queue.

It’s been the usual end of month hectic scramble to get everything done. If you’d like to see what I’ve been working on check out SFRevu.com and GumshoeReview.com — we go live on the 1st of each month. Being hit with a bit of reality, it seems that I’m having a problem trying to post daily once the end of month crunch begins. So, I’ll probably miss a few days towards the end of each month unless somehow I get far more organized that I am at present.