A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Tonight we plan to turn off our lights for Earth Hour. My husband and I do care about our environment and try to do the right thing. We recycle even though where we live we have to drive it to the recycle center because we’re not on a pick-up route. We plan all our travel in loops to avoid needless miles. Make Do. Recycle. ReUse. Simple sayings to live by.

Here’s more info about Earth Hour:

If you haven’t Googled anything yet today, take a look. The Google logo that changes with holidays and special occasions hasn’t changed but Google turned out the lights on the website (background is black) to help bring Earth Hour to the attention of their users.So, if you care about Climate Change and our environment — Earth — join us in turning out your light between 8 PM and 9 PM tonight, March 29th, 2008.

The Earth needs all the help it can get.

Got to thinking again… In some correspondence with one of our reviewers, she wrote, “I guess I’ll work on reading that book–as if that’s really working.” Just the other day another person said, “I have a hard time sitting and reading a book for review because I feel like I’m not working.” Over the last few days, as we gear up to go live with the next issues of SFRevu and Gumshoe Review, I look at the steadily decreasing pile of books I’ve yet to read for the issue and every time I think, “why not just take a break and read for an hour” I think of the other stuff I have to do and I put it off.

Reading books for review is just one of the things I do in getting the zines together and online. It’s part of the process.  If I, along with others, don’t read the books and write reviews there will be no content — so the reading is fundamental (and like the poster I found on Amazon shows it’s also fun). Reading has always been fun for me. It’s what I do to relax. The perfect vacation for me would be to be able to hike to a nice place with a view, a snack, no mosquitoes or other attack bugs, and a good book. As I get older, this dream sort of includes proper seating or lounging to avoid back problems. But, the basic fact is I’ve always considered reading fun.

Now, I’ll also admit I come from a family of readers. Even my grandmother read, though she had to quit school about grade three to care for her younger brothers and sisters (Nana died a couple of years ago at age 100ish). I was also very lucky to have excellent English teachers who didn’t do the “what color coat did CharacterX wear in Chapter 3”. No, instead they talked of plot, theme, and character development. In high school, many of us talked about the books we read in class during lunch or after school — that’s how great the teachers made reading. In college, I learned that others hadn’t been so lucky and reading was a chore for them. I’ve never forgotten a woman with a college degree that I worked with, who when I asked at lunch one day if anyone had read a good book lately said, “I don’t read anymore. I got my degree, I don’t have to do that again.”

I can’t imagine a life without books. Books are escapes. Books can take you on visits to other places, other times, and other worlds. They are gateways to new thoughts, ideas, and philosophies. Whenever I have a task I’m not sure how to do, I turn to books. The public library has to be the best institution of civilized society.

But because I enjoy reading so much, when I read books as work it feels like cheating. You know reading a novel behind an open textbook, reading under the covers, reading at work when your supposed to be doing something else. Now my job is to read. How do you convince yourself that it’s okay to curl up with a book during work time? It is work, but it’s so entertaining — it just feels weird somehow.

Today I had jury duty. I got the notification quite a while ago and was supposed to call last night to see if my group had to report to the court house — I did. So today, I gathered lots of reading material, bottled water, and lunch and reported to the court house at 7:30. I’ve only done this once before so everything seems new to me.

First you have to go through security to get into the building. Smooth and quick and they let me have my sock knitting. Then sign in with the clerks and wait, and wait, and wait, and get assigned a panel color and number (criminal case), then wait, and wait, and wait some more. Five hours later we were told we were all dismissed. So, we turned in our colored numbered cards and could go home.

Last time I actually got into the court room and the lawyers and the judge whittled down our panel pool of less than a hundred and more than 50 down to the twelve jurors and the four alternates. So, this time it I spent the day in the jurors assembly room. Got a lot of reading done. Drank moderately okay coffee and my bottled water. But even though I forced myself to do isometric stretches every chapter and got up and stood every so often — those chairs are killers. I would have found them guilty in a heart beat. They weren’t even cheap chairs. I’m sure the county government spent an indecent amount on these padded chairs for the assembly room. I’m just not sure why chair manufacturers, especially those making chairs for people to sit in for more than ten minutes at a stretch, can’t make a chair that doesn’t kill your back or put your legs asleep.

So in discomfort and in between breaks, I observed my fellow potential jurors. Most brought something to occupy them during the long waits. Many, as I did, brought a book or two or three. Some had magazines. Some had portable craft projects. Some talked on the phone. Some worked on their laptop or PDA. And here’s the group that baffles me — some did nothing but sit and stare into space usually while turning their colored numbered panel card over and over. I’d go bonkers in about 20 minutes if I had to just sit with nothing to do. In an hour, I’d be climbing the walls. How do they do it? Are they all Zen masters? I’m totally baffled by people who can just sit like that and not go berserk. I’m not sure if I should be in awe of people so centered that they can quietly sit for hours or spend my time wondering what they’re thinking about while they’re sitting there — calmly, turning their cards over and over and over.

After I was dismissed, I called my husband from outside the building and walked a mile and a half to the nearest Starbucks to have coffee and wait for him. We only have one car so these sorts of things are a bit of a scheduling problem. While walking out the back tension, I found the day just wonderful. The sun was out and the sky was bright blue with white fluffy clouds. The forsythia was in bloom with its jaunty yellow flowers proclaiming spring to anyone with eyes to see. The Bartlett pears are also filled with their white flowers. But even more startling because I hadn’t yet noticed them this month was the magnolias — white and pink — beautiful blooms that look so startling on the trees without leaves.

In spite of the chairs, it was a glorious spring day.

The weather has been pretty good the last couple of days. Today, I walked down to the mailbox and then decided to take some pictures of the yard. This one is just down from our side yard and after the fruit trees. As you can see we’ve got a lot of clean up to do.

I’m always surprised when the perennials come up. There’s a hyacinth struggling out of the leaf cover under the azalea. The peonies are starting to shoot up out of the ground. The strawberry plants we put in last year look like they’ve survived. My husband’s rose bush is getting new leaves, as are the two hydrangeas just off our front steps.

For many that may be just spring as usual but we live in the woods. We have a small plot that gets sun — the side yard garden area is about 20 by 50 feet and gets between 4-7 hours of sunlight and about 1/4 of that is our herb garden. Every where else gets partial to full shade. We’ve been here three years going on four and each year we try new plants in a test area to see if it will grow. Most is a bust. The Endless Summer hydrangeas did survive so now we have three of them. We tried another type.  It lives, but never blooms.

Since we have 5 acres tucked behind a lot of about 20 acres and next to another lot of 5 acres and bounded by a farm it is land with lots of trees and thus some pretty acid soil. Last year we moved some of the plants to containers and actually got some tomatoes, peppers, and a few cucumbers. We hope to do more containers or home-made earth-type boxes and see how that goes.

The house came with a fruit orchard: apple, pears, peaches, plums, and cherries. We’ve lost a few of the really young trees, all apples. The rest seem to do fine. They bloom, they actually get fruit, but so far in three seasons we’ve managed: 1 peach and 2 cherries. We bought a plastic owl with a head that turns in the breeze — no luck. The squirrels and deer just laugh at us. Last year a squirrel sat on the fence post eating an apple and when we yelled at him, he looked up at us like we were some sort of exhibit and shambled off with his apple tucked under his arm to eat in peace somewhere out of sight. And we won’t even discuss the bird.

This year we’ve got plans for shiny ribbon and cayenne pepper, container planting, and lots of hope and wishes along with the water and tender loving care.

Tonight we dug out The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain. We hadn’t seen it in a while and thought we take another look. It’s one of those movies that just make you feel better about being a part of the human race.

Based on the novel of the same name written by Christopher Monger, it tells the story of the mountain Ffynnon Garw in Wales. The townspeople took pride in having the first mountain in Wales (as you move west from England). World War I is raging in Europe and the people work hard to supply coal for the war effort. Then into town come two Englishmen to measure the mountain for the survey maps. Lo and behold the mountain is only a hill. The villagers band together to keep the Englishmen in town long enough for them to build a mound on the mountain, to have it remeasured, and return it to its status as a mountain.

It’s really the story of the indomitable will of people to not give up, to continue in the face of incredible odds in order to save what is important to them. To give them pride, to do something important, something that they can feel and see and touch. By maintaining the mountain status of Ffynnon Garw, they can forget the war and the men who may never make it back — they will maintain the home that they left behind — they will keep their mountain and the village intact.

It really is a heart-warming story of a community pulling together. I love happy endings. There’s a letter about the book, movie, and the mountain written by Ed Sullivan of Visalia, California for Professional Surveyor, Nov./ Dec. 1998. The story is really about Garth Mountain and the town of Taff’s Well. So there is some basis in fact for the novel and movie.

Simply done with no big fight scenes or special effects, it’s a simple film of hope and the spirit. A feel good movie that make one feel that maybe the human race sometimes gets it right.

Sunday, March 23rd, PBS’s Masterpiece Theater aired Emma (with Kate Beckinsale as part of The Complete Jane Austen series. I’ve seen this particular version of Emma several times — I have it on tape and need eventually to get the DVD version. I do have Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow on DVD but don’t watch it as often — not because it isn’t a decent version but just because I find the A&E version closer to the novel.

No matter which version of Emma you enjoy, all are based on the novel Emma by Jane Austen. Emma is a young girl, living alone with her father. Her sister is married to the brother of a neighbor, Mr. Knightly. Emma’s companion has recently married and now lives a half a mile away with her husband. Emma is a bit bored and thinking herself bright, intelligent, and wise in the ways of the world, she decides to befriend a woman of about her own age with no family but educated and mannerly and find her a husband. Of, course Emma is nowhere near as smart as she thinks she is and of course misunderstandings happen and through them growth occurs.

First I have to confess that Emma is one of the Austen novels that I haven’t read yet. While both movie versions listed above are interesting. I do think that I like the one that PBS chose for The Complete Jane Austen series. Here Emma is believable as the young lady who runs her father’s household and believes that she knows all there is to know about life. She’s confident that there is nothing she can not handle. And, of course, it’s that conceit that is at the core of the story. For, as you probably suspect, Emma must learn that there is more to being a young gentlewoman than being aware of her place in society. Emma has been a big fish in a small pond and when Jane Fairfax comes to live with her Aunt Bates — Emma learns that others may not be her equal in status but beyond her in sense, education, and talent.

The film allows us to see Emma’s flights of fancy as she leaps from a phrase or hope to full blown accomplished fact in seconds. She jumps to conclusions with little fact and less thought but with each failure or disaster, she learns until finally she learns to look within her own heart.

Austen, in Emma, creates a girl who has just stepped into womanhood, and must find her way to sense and thoughtfulness. A story of growth and filled with scenes that will make you laugh, some that make you uncomfortable, and others where you can feel the pain meted out and received.

I highly recommend this version and I’ll try to revisit my impression once I’ve had the chance to read Emma.

Long ago, I started calling days when you can’t concentrate or where the least little thing causes you to go off on a tangent, shiny thing days. Sort of like cats who chase the light from a flashlight all around a dark room or the way animals just go after every shiny thing they see because it catches their attention: shiny thing days are those where there is no straight lines from task a to task b.

Today started okay. But suddenly I realized it was a shiny thing day. How did I know? Well, my first clue was when I opened the cupboard to get my vitamins and instead saw the cereal. So, I got down the cereal and realized I needed a bowl. Opened the other cupboard to get a bowl noticed the coffee. So, opened the fridge to get water into the coffee pot so I could start it. Got out the water and flipped open the top and poured. Flipped it closed and snapped on the machine. (Note: I haven’t mentioned putting the grounds in the coffee machine.)

Well, the whole day has gone like that. It took me four trips up the stairs to get the dirty clothes before I actually got them down to the laundry area. I don’t want to even count how long it took to actually get them in the machine and started. Suffice it to say that in between email got read, some even got answered, mail got picked up, plants got watered, knitting got done, interviews got written up and sent off, articles got formatted, html tags got entered, news items got sorted and put up.

However, being a shiny thing day — no proofreading or copyediting was done. As interesting as it might be to find out what things would look like afterwards, I decided to give it a pass today. Maybe housework was invented to keep people out of mischief on shiny thing days. In spite of it all, tasks got done. They just took a lot longer with a lot of interesting side trips and I guess in the end that just makes the journey even more interesting.

So, I’ve got insomnia and I’m catching up on some of the tech sites I haven’t read in a while and I come across an article about a bill being presented by LeRoy E. Myers Jr. that would make it a crime to surf the internet using unsecured wireless networks without permission. The article quotes Myers:

He (Myers) told the House Judiciary Committee that one of his neighbors, after buying a new laptop computer, got onto the Internet, thinking it was through a cable TV hookup.
Actually, the connection was through Myers’ home wireless Internet system.
He said he didn’t want unintentional use like that to be prosecuted the same as computer hacking.
According to the bill, intentional unauthorized access to another person’s computer, network, database or software is a misdemeanor. The penalty is up to three years imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000.

A quick search of Amazon showed at least a half-dozen books on wireless network and the one shown here is for people who aren’t that techno-savvy but want to set up a home network. I checked the table of contents and there is a section on securing your network. In fact, most of the books with a look inside have a section on securing your network.

We have a home network and it’s secured. No one can use our network unless we put them into the allowed table of MAC addresses and give them the proper security key, or if we intentionally open it up for all users. It’s simple and easy to do. I’ve read about other states trying to pass similar legislation and find it hard to believe that our representatives are so clueless. If you don’t want people surfing by using your wireless network — secure it. Networks left open are assumed to be available for use since they are so easy to secure against outside users connecting.

It’s kind of like McD’s putting those newspapers up by the front counter. It’s assumed because the papers are there and there’s no price on them that they are for people to read and return. At least I’ve never seen anyone pay for using the papers there. On the other hand, in hotels there is prominently displayed price lists by the fridges in the room so that you know if you take something, you will be charged.

All use of an unsecured network is unintentional use, in that I couldn’t use it if you didn’t specifically allow me to. If you don’t want someone using your wireless network Rep. Myers then secure it. Don’t try to penalize others for your lack of attention to detail in such a critical area. It seems that Maryland’s motto should match that of the US — Never take responsibility for your own mistakes, just criminalize anyone who happens to stumble over your mistakes. Isn’t that why whistle-blowers still take the fall for pointing out errors?