A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Since we’d marked the calendar and set an alarm, we were ready this year for Earth Hour 2009.  We turned off all the lights outside the house.  We shut down the laptops, router, printer, UPS, and electronics and then turned off the lights, fan, and everything else.  All we left on were the appliances (furnace, fridge, water heater).

Throughout the year we try to do what we can to conserve and reduce our footprint on the Earth.  We only own one car.  My husband drives it to work and back during the week.  He makes a loop on the way home to the post office or store so there’s no additional travel since their on the way home.  We shop once a week or every other week depending on our needs.  That weekly shopping trip is on a loop so we drive to the recycle center to drop off all our recycling (we’re not on a pick up route), then we hit the stores in order  and come home.  Many times we do the shopping on Saturday and thus don’t drive or go anywhere on Sunday.

We have a small vegetable garden during the year and eat out of that for fresh veggies when we can.  Of course, most years we’re struggling to get the fruits of our labor before the critters get them.  (We live on five acres in the midst of farm country and often have deer, rabbits, and other critters in our yard.)

We also have a small fruit orchard but even though we do get peaches and plums and apples by they time they ripen the deer or other critters get them.  We have managed to get our strawberries and raspberries (and we put the blueberries in planters on the deck so we could get them.)

What angers me sometimes is the questions on surveys: Will you drive less because of gas prices?  No, we won’t. We’ve reduced our driving years ago and they only way we could further reduce it is not to go to work.  Many of us have been cutting down and doing what we can for the Earth for years and have very little we could still cut back on so the questions don’t truly get at the current status of some of us.  For other, who have never considered cutting back, they probably could find ways to reduce driving or use of resources but others of us have already done the hard stuff and we’re working on refining where we can.

So, this year we did our bit for Earth hour and now we need to consider what more we could do.

Last year we turned off all our lights and the computers and everything we could find in the house except some appliances. We cranked up our wind-up radio and our wind-up LED Camp light and some candles and listened to music and read.

It wasn’t as quiet as the time when a hurricane blew through and we lost power for a week. One thing that power outage and Earth Hour taught me is just how much noise there is in our lives from our electronics. If you’re reading this on your laptop or PC, just listen for a moment. Do you hear the computer’s fan? Do you hear the hum of electronics? We’re so used to the background noises that we don’t even hear them anymore. But they’re there — subliminal and slightly annoying.

When the power went out, everything was off — not just the non-necessary lights and gadgets. The silence was unbelievable. In our bit of the world, our home, was only the sounds of wind rustling in the trees, birds chittering and tweeting, and that was it. Just our talking or turning a page — just the noise of life.

This year, I’ve marked the calendar and we plan to turn off all non-essential electronics again. I hope you join with all of us throughout the world to give the Earth an hour. Vote for the Earth by turning off your lights and non-essential electronics for one hour on March 28th from 8:30 PM (your local time). You’ll be amaze at what the world around you sounds like.

I’ve been grappling with a cold or the flu or a just plain nasty combination of the two. What it means, other than feeling like I got run over by a especially large convoy of sixteen wheelers, and as if I ran at least 10 consecutive marathons, is that my brain doesn’t run on all thrusters. In other words, since my life doesn’t make any sense anymore and I can’t seem to wrap my mind around the simplest tasks of living; like cooking, cleaning, or doing the wash; let alone trying to proofread or copyedit (without 30 gallons of coffee per item), I read.

I dip into someone else’s life and universe and just enjoy their adventure. That’s basically what reading is…suspending belief and immersing yourself in some other world/culture/universe/life.  To imagine that soon maybe your life will make sense again.  If fiction makes sense then shouldn’t reality?

So, these past two weeks I’ve read a lot — and taken a lot of notes.  Now that my head is beginning to clear and a bit of coherence is returning, it’s time to tackle my email, proofread the April reviews that are piling up and begin writing my own reviews from my notes.

The end of the month is coming towards me at a pace that seems like a billion miles and hour — the zines need to be done and ready to go live on April 1st and I’ve been out of it most of this month. Sometimes you slay the dragon, and sometimes you’re just lunch.

Cassandra and Jane by Jill Pitkeathley is a fictionalized account of the life and times of Jane Austen, told from the point of view of her sister Cassandra. So, while it’s about Jane and her life and writing it’s a step removed and filtered through Cassandra’s feelings and beliefs. I’ve read all but one of Jane Austen’s novels — some several times over — but other than an occasionally link to a letter on the Pemberly site, I haven’t read any biographies of her life. I thought this fictionalized account would be a good introduction, better than the two movies I’d seen (Becoming Jane and Miss Austen Regrets).

For the purposes of the book, Cassandra is looking back over her life with Jane and wanting to make sure that Jane is seen as she should be, as Cassandra wants her remembered. It’s a given that Cassandra burned most of Jane’s correspondence prior to her own death. Cassandra didn’t want to leave any possibility that people would see Jane’s rapier wit and misunderstand her gentle nature. It’s tragic that Cassandra didn’t put the letters in trust to be opened and seen at sometime in the future so instead we’re left with bits and pieces of Jane’s life and her view of her world.

Told from Cassandra’s point of view, beginning with Jane’s birth, then using bits of letters and other material with fictional narrative to tie the bits together, we get a look at these two sisters — their lives, their loves, hopes and dreams. Cassandra is definitely a woman of her times. Jane on the other hand is a woman out of time. She’s very aware of the unfairness of being a woman in a world run by men. In another 70-80 years she’d probably have been active for votes for women. Without making an advantageous marriage, the sisters would be at the mercy of their brothers and their brothers wives for their home, money, comfort, and there was little to no chance of independence.

Jane chaffed at this while Cassandra tried to help Jane come to terms with her view of the unfairness of the world. Cassandra, much like Jane Bennet, is willing to be used by her family as they feel is best because that is her duty. Luckily, or unluckily depending on your point of view, neither sister married. I find that lucky since if Jane had married it would be unlikely to say the least that we’d have ever have had her novels.

While I enjoyed the tale and the history behind the story, the narrative structure gives us a deep look into Cassandra’s thoughts and feeling and while she never does anything to hurt Jane or put obstructions in her path, she’s jealous of the time Jane spends away from her and is hurt when Jane turns to others for discussions of her works in process. The relationship between the sisters is believable and has all the expected ups and downs of family relationships. Even though I found I didn’t care for Cassandra much, I do have to respect her and her defense of sister and her works.

A worthy addition to anyone’s Austen collection.

Today, I forget how, I ran across an article in the New York Times “Whoopie! Cookie, Pie or Cake, It’s Having Its Moment” that stopped me in my tracks. Just last weekend when we stopped at a local Amish Market I saw whoopie pies in their bakery section, and now here was an article in the Times.

A bit of Googling found a Wikipedia entry, a recipe at epicurious, a slew of recipes at Cooks.com, and a bit of history and another recipe at What’s Cooking America.

I grew up in Maine, born in Mexico, ME (yes, the place on the sign) and went to college and graduate school at the University of Maine in Orono. Whoopie pies are big in Maine. Most stores, bakeries, and Mom and Pops have (or had) them available. But mostly, I remember my grandmother made them. She didn’t make them often so they were a special treat. When I was an adult she gave me her recipe for them. I’ve made them myself a time or two but mostly when I’m missing home and family.

For me Whoopie Pies are a comfort dessert. There not something you actually see anywhere here in Maryland. At least they didn’t used to be. Last weekend I spotted them at the Amish Market and later at the bakery in Giant. I’ve been thinking about them ever since with a longing I can’t really express.

Mostly the longing is for my grandmother, who died several years ago. I still miss her more than I can ever really express. To sit and have a cup of tea or coffee and a whoopie pie and talk with her again would fill my heart to bursting with joy. So, I guess for me a whoopie pie is a tangible link with my past and the people who I now communicate with only in my heart.

I guess maybe I’ll go look up my grandmother’s recipe and think about tradition, family, and continuity on this the second day for Spring where we look forward to the new.

I’m the Capclave Chair for 2010.  That means that starting now we’re gearing up for the convention that is to be held in October of 2010 somewhere in the DC area.  This year’s Capclave 2009 will be in the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville, Executive Meeting Center, 1750 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.  The convention guests will be Harry Turtledove as Author Guest of Honor and Sheila Williams as Editor Guest of Honor. If you’re in the area please make and effort to come to the convention.

As for my convention, I’m in the early planning stages. In order to get guests of honor, you need a hotel and a date to hold the convention. The hotel liaison for the past several years has unfortunately burnt out and the previous liaison is still recuperating from her multi-year stint, so this year two wonderful, energetic, and stalwart volunteers have stepped up to work in that position. This means that the job duties can be shared and that, hopefully, the stress will be lighter. It also means two more people in the club (WSFA) will have experience in working with hotels on events. The more the knowledge gets shared the less likely such knowledge will be lost to the club. The past hotel liaisons have been unstinting of their time and knowledge and have been helpful in answering questions from all of us who are new to event planning (and that includes myself).

Today, we met and went over the requirements we have for function space (how many rooms, what sizes, what has to fit where), the events to include during the weekend of the convention, and other items that are necessary in order that we can properly negotiate a contract with a hotel. Now that we’ve pretty much hammered out what we need/want/wish for/desire, it’s time to put that in the context of what we need to know from the hotel (can we, is it possible, cost, and other factors). Hopefully, we’re now just about ready to actually talk to the hotel and find out if we still are a good fit.

No matter what, there will be a convention in 2010 and it will be in October. Hopefully, I’ll be posting updates on the planning process as we go along. There’s a lot more involved in putting on a convention than what you might think. I’ve volunteered to work at many local and national and international conventions and I’m finding out a lot that I didn’t know. All I can say is that the people who put on science fiction and fantasy conventions are a great group of people who are dedicated to seeing that the convention goer has a great time. They do not hesitate to share their knowledge and their experience and have, at least in dealing with my questions, the patience of Job.

Today, I  saw the news that the SciFi channel was changing its name to SyFy. Okay… but what were they thinking to do this? Then came the reason…

“The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular,” said TV historian Tim Brooks, who helped launch Sci Fi Channel when he worked at USA Network.

Mr. Brooks said that when people who say they don’t like science fiction enjoy a film like “Star Wars,” they don’t think it’s science fiction; they think it’s a good movie.

“We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it’s called Sci Fi,” Mr. Brooks said. “It’s somewhat cooler and better than the name ‘Science Fiction.’ But even the name Sci Fi is limiting.”

Mr. Howe said going to Syfy will make a difference.

So, let me get this straight. First you insult your core audience and then you hope to widen that audience with the name change? Does this make sense to anyone but a TV executive? I’m female. I’m an avid reader of science fiction and have been all my life … at least since I ran into it about age 6 or 7. I’m also technologically literate and have been at various times a programmer, web designer, computer tech, and system administrator. I was also, once part of that core SciFi Channel viewing audience.

I say once because as the reality shows and wrestling seemed to take over I stopped watching. Guess maybe the name change is a good idea since as it stands now it has nothing to do with science fiction, little to do with science, and certainly nothing to do with excellence in programming.

I’d been putting off giving in but last night I had to admit that I had a cold — maybe flu but it feels more like a cold. This morning with a temp in the 100/101 range, I stayed in bed read, napped, and did the alka selzer thing along with orange juice.

I feel a bit better tonight. Throat is sore — feels like I’m swallowing broken glass. Cough drops help numb it a bit. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be on the mend.

That could be my optimistic-persona trying to take over control. I hope that part of me is right. I’ve got too much to do to be sick right now. Yuck.