A Curious Statistical Anomaly

It’s raining again today. At least it is off and on. I’ve been told that this is the wettest May in 55 years and the month isn’t even over. Flooding has caused a lot of problems and damage in other areas. Here at our home, we’re on fairly high ground. The only problem is that, last week, Paul had to drive an extra 20 miles out of his way to find a route that wasn’t closed off due to flooding in order to get home.

Currently, I’m reading Bring it On by Laura Anne Gilman. The review will be in the June issue of SFRevu. I’ve been having a lot of migraines lately and reading is something I can do with a headache. Can’t think myself out of a paper bag, but I can read. I guess if I concentrate hard enough on the plot and the characters then I can sort of put the migraine to the side. But, if I have to think to write, it comes to the front and next thing I know I’m hugging the porcelain express and wishing for unconsciousness no matter how much medication I take.

Anyway, I’ve read the first two books of this series and really enjoyed them. This is more of the same — convoluted plots, lots of atmosphere, witty people, smart writing, engaging characters, and so well done you’re there watching the story unfold and no one can see you — because you’re the reader.

Along with the rainy weather and up and down barometric pressure, I’ve been doing some thinking about mother’s and daughters. Mom called today and asked what I was doing. So, I explained that I was working on a web site project, getting it revamped and updated with new functions for a professional women’s group. After Mom finished laughing, she explained to me how ridiculous that was, since women couldn’t possibly be professionals or organized so I should just forget it. I realize there is a generation gap every time something like this come up.

Before I left my last job to work from home because of health issues, I did the same job as my husband (computer analyst with some system administration). She was all excited about what he did but never asked for details about what I did. Arrgggh. (Do you sense the frustration?).

Most of the time I can just tell myself that it really doesn’t matter. She grew up in June Cleaver world and I reached for what I wanted. Many times, I was the only woman in the room, on the team, or in the building who wasn’t clerical. I got used to working with so many men–some who didn’t quite know what to do or how to act about this strange creature intruding into their environment. Now, things have changed and where I last worked I think the male/female ratio was about 50/50 at the worker (computer programmer) level. The ratio is much more skewed to men in management and in some areas (hardware and systems administration) but even that it is changing–slowly, but changing.

What I wonder is what do other daughters do when their jobs are belittled by their mothers? I’m comfortable with myself and not defined by my job but it does take up a large portion of my time. I take pride in what I do and would like to say I finished X project and think I did a good job. Even a “that’s nice” would be better than telling me it wasn’t worth doing in the first place. I want to note that I fully realize that my mother loves me, that’s not at issue. It’s just that her definition of a woman’s place is so decidedly different from mine. I’m fully aware that I don’t meet her expectations of what a daughter should be like. There are so many things in my life that I can’t share and I feel sad about that but the only way I’ve found to reduce the stress is to just change the subject to something we can share like our shared love of mysteries for example.

I’m wonder how other women deal with this issue in their lives. Do other daughters and mothers have a problem understanding each other as the roles of women have changed. Have any of you, had to come up with coping strategies for a similar situations? Comments as always welcome…

Netflix came through again. I’m trying to see all the Hugo nominees before I vote and today we got The Golden Compass. The disc we got was the widescreen, single disc, with no special features. You can check out the YouTube trailer for the film and related videos if you haven’t seen the film already.

Based on the novels by Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass is the first book of His Dark Materials trilogy. I read The Golden Compass several years ago and have forgotten a lot of the minor details but pretty much remember the major threads of the story. I also remember the big bru-ha-ha when the film was being made about the changes that were made in order to soft-pedal the anti-religiousness of the film. Personally, I thought at the time that that was a bit much since the book wasn’t against religion exactly but against blindly following anything without questioning the authority, integrity, or morality of that which is being followed.

The movie has been changed from the book, which is to be expected, all books go through tremendous changes before they become films, it’s just the nature of changing from one media to another. The film was also a lot lighter than I would have thought based on the material in the book. Some may find it was too dark, after all they are kidnapping children and experimenting on them. What is barely touched on is what that experimentation does to the child, why it is being done, and the ramifications for the others in that universe/world. Some of the explanation can be garnered from the film but mostly it is barely mentioned or visually represented unless you’ve read the books and have prior knowledge to understand what’s happening. Then the film ends prior to the end of the book. Granted the book ended on a very dark note for Lyra but why not end at the ending if you intend to do a follow up with book two (The Subtle Knife)?

What they didn’t change is Lyra. She’s still a wonderful character: strong, witty, intelligent, headstrong, quick thinking, brave, and just about every quality that makes a hero. She’s also young and knows when to ask for help and a keen judge of character in most situations. The other characters are more supporting roles, Lyra is the center of all the action. She’s on a quest to set things right and the others fall in with her on her adventure. But, like most adventures, she’s lacking a lot of the information that she needs to make her decisions and so she goes with her heart and what she feels is right.

The animation of the Ice Bears is wonderful. They really look like armored talking polar bears. The daemons are varied and delightful, though not fully explained. The fight scenes are fast, furious, and not pleasant; but then no fights are pleasant and they shouldn’t be here either. The world is wonderfully realized for the film with a lot of detail and small touches that make you let go and believe.

So, while it wasn’t as strong on story as I would have liked; it made up for it in special effects and some nice scenes. Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra was excellent from start to finish, doing a marvelous job of making the audience believe in her character. All in all, well worth seeing — even if you haven’t read the book. Perhaps even better if you haven’t read the books because then you don’t have prior knowledge that would cause you to be disappointed.

Some people just love this program. Many have told me that it’s on the edge and as funny as can be — my humor center must be damaged. I’ve just watched the entire first season and well, it’s okay but I’m glad I didn’t pay for these disks (renting is a good thing).

The animation is fine, colors are bright, scenery is not fully developed so it often is lacking in texture and depth but still okay. After all, it’s supposed to be cartoonish. The dialogue is even clear and understandable (except when beeped for language–and I’m wondering if the beeps were in this when on TV or only on DVD).

Underlying some of the episodes is some serious material but it’s so buried in juvenile sex humor that you’d be hard pressed to pay enough attention to catch the other themes. At least for me it was. I just don’t care for sex, sex, and more sex jokes. Which is weird since the only two characters that have any redeeming characteristics are Six (the love slave robot) and Gus (another robot). Most of the humor is on a level with junior high locker room bragging and showing off.

All in all, I’m glad I saw it so I know what everyone has been talking about but I’m very happy that I didn’t go with the hype and buy the set. On the other hand, I wish it could have risen above the juvenile level when dealing with the rights of robots/clones, political payola, control over one’s body, ecology, gun control, and some of the other topics that were in the series — I’m sure they could have found a way to be just as funny (or in my case, funnier) without stooping to the lowest common denominator.

So, if you’ve wondered about this series…rent it first before buying just to be sure it’s your idea of comedy.

It took me much longer than I thought to find a cup that said “May. I’m the May cup. Over here.” I looked at a good number of cups until I found this one. The big leaves and bright orange flower just reminded me of May flowers — so, it’s now my May cup. While searching, I found a number of sunflower cups but sunflowers somehow seem fall-ish to me so I picked one up and declared it to be October’s cup and put it in the depths of a drawer until Fall. (Now if I can remember it’s there everything will be fine.)

It’s been raining the last few days. Not constantly but in those on again off again spurts that mean you can’t work in the garden because it’s just muddy glop. So, I’m happy to announce that the tomato plants I started have begun to sprout. One variety is already up with one set of leaves. The second variety just poked 3 sprouts out today. No leaves of course, just the first hint that the seeds are sprouting. I brought pots and trays in a few days ago fearing rain, so hopefully tomorrow I can start some more seeds.

We have a Meyer lemon tree. This is its third year. The first year we got one lemon. The second year we got two. This year there were tons of buds (at least 25). The entire house smelled wonderful as the blooms opened up. Some are now dropping the flowers and we hope to have a lot of fruit buds soon. We keep the tree in the house during the winter near the sliding glass doors on the deck so it can get sunshine. As soon as the temps stay up during the night, we’ll put it out on the deck. It seems to really like it there. I’m hoping for much more fruit this year.

A big limb fell off one of the trees in the driveway during the night last night. Luckily, it landed between the rose bush, the car port, and the azalea. So no damage. Once things dry out a bit, we’ll haul it over to the pile of downed limbs to be cut up and stacked for firewood. It seems that every time it rains limbs just drop off here and there. At least this time they didn’t land in the driveway or the road.

So, it’s still raining. I can hear it softly spattering on the windows, the deck, and the skylight. Think I’ll go cuddle up with a cuppa tea and a book.

Hyperion here: We did get a good sized limb down in the driveway. I went out first thing and hauled all the various fragments (it was probably 10′ long and 4 inches thick before it hit the ground) to the wood pile. The good news is that most of them are already small enough to fit in the wood stove, so in the minute or so it took to haul them to the racks I gained nearly a full days supply of firewood with no cutting, chopping, or splitting. It works for me.

On the other hand, all this rain is really getting in the way of getting the yard cleaned up. During our last dry spell, we managed to get all the leaves cleared out of the garden area and to get all the leaves beside the carport raked up into piles. Usually I get one of our really large tarps and rake all the leaves on to it. Then it’s just a matter of folding it up like a fajita and hauling it out into the woods and dumping it. Of course, now all those nice piles I had prepared are 75% water by weight. I need at least three dry days to turn them over a few times and dry them out before I’ll be able to do anything with them.

Such is life in the land where trees rule with an iron limb.

Just got back from seeing Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man (Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger, Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes). It’s based on the Marvel comic. I never really got into Iron Man comics, leaning more to superwomen than supermen, so I didn’t get a lot of the hidden easter eggs in the film. However, the film is action packed with a lot of really cool special effects and even has some hidden depth.

Tony Stark is an engineering/inventing genius and head of Stark Industries along with his father’s partner Obadiah Stane. Stane stepped in when Stark’s parents died. The movie opens with a few scenes to show us Stark as a multi-millionaire playboy who loves his toys and thinks he’s doing his best to protect America by building bigger and badder weapons than the other guy. Until, that is, he’s captured by terrorists who seem to be amply supplied with Stark Industries armaments. His captors want him to make them the newest missile system and get him the parts to do so — otherwise they’ll kill him. His cell is complete with a doctor who hooked him up with a magnet and battery to keep him alive and acts as his translator. As the pressure amps up to build the missile, Stark and his cellmate become friends in a way. This is Starks first taste of what life is like for the people who are on the receiving end of his company’s products. While in the context of the movie it seems to take a little time, the detail of this first bit does make you believe in the transformation of Tony Stark into a person who now questions what he’s been doing with his creations.

Of course, the film goes on with a bad guy who turns out to be only a puppet and some, for me with my unfamiliarity with the comic origin story and Iron Monger story line, to have some interesting (thought partially expected) plot twists. And after a number of really interesting scenes of building machines, equipment, wonderfully realized high tech gadgets and toys, AI assistants, explosions, battles, flights of fancy, witty dialogue, and of course the requisite number of special effect spectaculars, we have a very satisfying ending. However, if you wait until the credits finish rolling, there’s a hint of more to come in a bit of a scene at the end.

So, all in all, lots of fun with a bit serious talk about weapons and their place in war, peace, and power struggles. So, while it’s a lot of what’s expected in a movie based on a comic, it also has that underlying note of seriousness that leaves you with some things to think about when the show is over.

We’ve been going to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival for several years now. This year we went on Saturday. We got to the fairgrounds about 10:30 a.m. The fairgrounds opened at 9 but the parking was already up into the hills above so it was a bit of a hike down to the gate. There was a pretty fair sized crowd. Of course, since it’s over an hour’s drive and I drank coffee on the way the first stop or line was for the restroom. Then it was off to admire the animals and the fiber.

Since the parade of sheep, sheep shearing, sheep farming lectures, and sheep judging goes on all weekend, it not uncommon to see people out walking their sheep. Of course, some of us who can’t afford sheep must find appropriate substitutes to walk around the fairgrounds with.

There’s so much going on and so many vendors that it’s often difficult to see everything. So we missed the sheep dog demonstrations, the auction of spinning equipment, and many of the lectures and demos. Though we did stop for awhile to watch the women who were making socks on sock knitting machines. It’s rather fascinating to see them crank the handle and have a sock slip out the bottom. It looks like it is more difficult to make multicolored or patterned socks. We stood and watched this woman for a while but the observers were packed pretty tightly in a building that was getting warmer by the minute, or so it seemed.

One of the problems is that May, while relatively cool, can be in the upper 70’s to lower 80’s and then walking around in the open air or in enclosed barns can be a bit overwhelming. So, naturally we had to take a break and eat. One thing there is plenty of is lamb — lamb burgers, lamb sausages, lamb gyros, lamb just about everything. We tried the lamb burger and lamb sausage. Really good, especially if you can grab a piece of shade to sit in and wash it down with old fashioned lemonade (the kind made by using a real lemon, sugar and the lemon is plunked in the glass.

One booth I always stop at is Goldings. I own a couple of his spindles and love the balance and the way they spin. In fact, I have several other spindles but like the feel of these more. I usually stop at the booth and look wistfully at the spinning wheels. While there are many artisans at Maryland Sheep and Wool — this is where you can truly see that a tool can be both functional and beautiful. These are the kind of tools you want to have around you house because they make you feel special while doing something you love to do. And yet, they are all perfectly balanced, rugged, and work as they should.

I didn’t buy much this year. I picked up a pound of soy silk to spin, and enough sock yarn for three pair of new socks, and a cable needle. Mostly, I just enjoyed the color, texture, and feel of many fibers. Maryland Sheep and Wool is a feast for the senses. If you’ve never been and you love fiber, fiber animals, and yarn it’s a great festival. It’s always the first full weekend in May. Check it out.

Not much to report on. Was going to skip posting tonight altogether but figured what the heck — hit the highlights.

* Went to Maryland Sheep and Wool on Saturday. Got some great sock yarn and one pound of soy silk to spin. I’m in heaven but haven’t been able to start spinning yet. Will post some pictures later.* Tomato seedlings are sprouting. I planted two different kinds of tomato seeds and only one has sprouted. I have hope for the others but how much longer do I hope for new sprouts. Got to start some more seedlings tomorrow.

* Finished Sara Beth Durst’s Out of the Wild. I’m reviewing it for SFRevu’s June issue so check there in June. But I loved the quirky take on fairy tales in Into the Wild and this one has a few more surprises.

* Started reading The Host by Stephanie Meyers, also for a June review. So, far I’m finding it an interesting take on alien invasion tropes.

* Pain, pain, go away and don’t come back another day. Today, I have a migraine. It’s all on the right side and after three Advil and an Imitrex — it’s still here, thumping away. So since I’m not thinking clearly anyway, I’m giving up.

So, it’s migraine fall back time, dark room and an ice pack. Doesn’t work but it feels good in this heat.

Finally got a copy of Sense & Sensibility from Netflix. This is the Jane Asten movie that we missed during public televisions The Complete Jane Austen series. Directed by John Alexander and starring Hattie Morahan, Charity Wakefield, Dan Stevens, Janet McTeer, Mark Williams and others. The screen play was by Andrew Davies who did most of the other movies featured during the series.

This is a lovely and lush film. There are some scenes that don’t exist in the book but are hinted at in the backstory or off the pages. However, I read the book so long ago now that I’m going to have to go back and reread the original story. I’ve now seen three movie versions of the film (including this one) and while the central story remains that of Elinor and Marianne some of the details change depending on the film. In fact, one film eliminated Margaret from the film entirely. While Margaret may have a small part to play, she is essential as a younger sister being taught the code of conduct that the older sisters have or should have already internalized.

This film has focused more on the differences between the family’s life at Norland and their new life in the cottage in Devonshire. There is a lot of use of the sea and the landscape in Devonshire to highlight the isolation of the Dashwoods from the life that they once had. From being women of leisure, they now live in a cottage with only two servants and must do much of the menial tasks themselves. They are learning but it’s difficult for them as they must learn to economize and yet still maintain their manners and style of living to associate with Sir John and his family and neighbors.

There’s obviously a bond between the sisters but where Elinor controls her feelings, Marianne allows her feelings free range. In fact, Marianne at times seems to glory more in showing her feeling to the world than in feeling them herself. Elinor holds her feeling close to herself as treasures, while Marianne paints them on a marquee. In a society where appearance and surface adherence to propriety is more important than the actual propriety, it is dangerous to allow oneself to show what is felt. Elinor’s mask of calm protects her from censure or ridicule but Marianne has no such protection as she hides nothing of what she feels.

Because of their character they each come close to loosing what they love. Davies may have changed, added, deleted, or emphasized some of the books scenes but he’s nevertheless maintained the heart and soul of the story. We feel for these people and because of the writing and the directing we get a feel for the rigid society in which they lived.

It’s almost impossible for those of us who have grown up in today’s vastly different society where women do have rights and can inherit or work at employment of their own choosing to understand the much narrower choices available to women of the Dashwood’s level of society. Remembering too that much of their problems came from their father’s son refusing to honor the promise he made to take care of them. Much of the movie revolves around promises made, promises kept, and promises left unfulfilled. Then, as now, a person isn’t honorable because of their place in society, the amount of money or status that they have, but because of their actions.

All in all, the film was an excellent rendition of the the novel (as I remember it). Now, I have to slip the book into my reading stack so that I can refresh my mind on the details.