A Curious Statistical Anomaly

The zines go live on April 1st. Finally finished proofing everyone else’s work and need to go over all my stuff for the billionth time and finalize it and get Hyperion to proof it for me.

Meanwhile, I took a break and knitted on a sock for an hour this evening. Then dropped a stitch and had to unravel about 2 inches. I’m learning the Zen of deep breathing to calm myself down. I’m trying to learn to appreciate the Do-Over as a way of life. Hopefully this weekend, I’ll finally finish this sock.

Had to rip out nearly an entire sock yesterday. I’ve managed to finish the toe so far but have a bit of a way to go until I get to the leg area where I dropped a stitch and didn’t notice until it was way to late.

Is there anything other than knitting that teaches a person humility and the advantages of do-overs?

Worked on the garden again today. I’m doing things in 1/2 hour units. So far one per day (unless it rains). Between me raking and Hyperion hauling the leaves away we’ve got half of the side yard raked, 3/4 of the herb garden cleared, and the central area in front of the house.

Next up is to finish the side yard. Dismantle the existing square foot gardens. Replace those existing and rotting wooden sides with the new fake wood sided ones. This will allow us to have a garden area that won’t need to be replaced every three years as the moisture, weather, rain, whatever takes its toll on the wood.

We’ve cleared the strawberry area and now I need to weed it out and then plant the new everbearing plants we bought. I hoped to get this done during the past week but the temps plummeted down into the 30’s over night. So, meanwhile more yard work gets done.

Cut back all the raspberry plants so now their ready to go for this summer.

I’m hating being so limited by the fibro. I get a few good days and even when I really, really, try hard not to over do on my good days — I end up with a down-swing that lasts a few days. If it’s not the pain it’s the stultifying brain fog. — No wonder I keep having trouble with time management. It seems to slip away in the fog of fibromyalgia.

Got Gumshoe Review just about ready to go on April 1st. Lots left to do on SFRevu. One of the other associate editors managed to get an interview for SFRevu for April. Unfortunately, I’ve left Gumshoe’s interview until quite late — I never have figured out how to ask interview question until after I read the book. I’ll pull some questions together tomorrow and hope that once again a kindly author can manage to have time to answer a few quick questions.

Another month goes by without an artist interview on SFRevu. I feel really bad about that because there are so many that deserve to be spotlighted but it’s that time management issue combined with the lack of other personnel who feel comfortable talking/asking about art with someone who does such excellent work.

Got to find a way to get more spinning into my life. I’ve got my spinning wheel sitting in the living room and a basket of lovely green roving waiting to be turned into yarn. I’ve even got a pattern I want to knit from this stuff. It’s another time management issue.

Meanwhile, we’ve had so many days of grey skies combined with scattered showers that I’m pining for the color blue.

The one joy, or should I say one of the joys of life lately, is looking out my office window that faces the side of the house and the forsythia bushes which are cheerfully waving their bright yellow blooms — declaring that Spring is here and it’s time to dance in joy.

It makes me smile. It doesn’t matter what is going on in my life — those bright yellow flowers on their delicate stems bobbing up and down — dancing in the breezes — make me smile.

Life should be filled with things that make us smile. Sometimes it is the little things of life that are really the ones that count.

I was thrilled when Velvet of vvb32 reads told me she was naming A Curious Statistical Anomaly as One Lovely Blog. While I put a lot of thought and effort into this blog, I don’t often get a lot of feedback and it was nice to know someone (other than family) thought is was worth viewing and reading. Thanks Velvet.

The rules for accepting the award are:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link
2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
3) Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

As readers of my blog know, I’m pretty eclectic in my taste. Personally I have a lot of interests and often get taken in by the shiny things of life: science, philosophy, computer science, astronomy, reading, writing, reviewing, crafts (knitting, spinning), literature, publishing, and just about anything that catches my fancy and teaches me something or gives me a peak at new ideas, thoughts or way of looking at life and the world around me.

Thus, here are blogs that are rather new, according to my dysfunctional time-sense, in being added to my reading lists — in no particular order as I pull them out of my bookmarks — I think they are all exceptional.):

1.) Elspeth Thompson’s Weblog
2.) Joy’s Road Blog Ahead
3.) Jeff VanderMeer’s Ecstatic Days
4.) Dovegreyreader scribbles
5.) DP Lyle’s The Writer’s Forensics Blog
6.) Jane Brocket’s Yarn Storm
7.) Sheepish Annie
8.) Carol’s Go Knit in Your Hat
9) Internet Writing Workshops Blog
10.) Anne’s KnitSpot
11.) Lene’s Dances With Wool
12.) Lucy’s Attic24
13.) The Dodo Blog
14.) Franklin’s The Panopticon
15.) Pepperknit

I was going to say why I chose each of these blogs but I’ll leave it up to you to decide for yourself as you check out the links. Each of the blogs touches my heart/mind in someway: beautiful images, wonderful writing, witty observations on life/books/crafts/politics/society/whatever, and an openness and sharing of themselves with their readers.

I’m only sorry I had to leave so many of my recently found and favorites off the list. I hope you find at least some of these blogs worth adding to your own bookmarks.

And Velvet, thanks again for thinking of my blog as One Lovely Blog.

“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want – oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” – Mark Twain.

I love that quote and it really speaks to the way I feel when spring kicks off.  One of the first signs of spring is our Forsythia blooming.

Our poor little Forsythia isn’t as flamboyantly flaunting its bright yellow flowers as a neighbor who is out at the turn into the driveway. But then the neighbor’s bush is in full sun and ours is in partial shade. Still it does brighten up the yard a bit.

Our Hydrangeas by the front steps are starting to sprout leaves. I’ll need to give them some food soon and hope they’ll last another year in those pots.

The weather turned warm over the weekend so since I was feeling a bit better we went out and did a half-hour of work on Saturday and an hour on Sunday. That may not seem like a lot to those of you without fibromyalgia but for me that weekend work meant a lot of asprin, hot showers, and lots and lots of liniment, and some tender care of serious muscle aches — dare I admit that there was an inordinate amount of whimpering and whining too as Hyperion can attest.

But the corner of our yard that I remembered to take a picture of for before and after went from this leaf covered mess:

To this after shot which I admit looks like a dirt yard with some leaf cover where we didn’t get to yet. The upper hill near the house has a lot of hostas planted there and they’ll be up in a few weeks/days (hope springing eternal). We seeded grass over the rest of the lower yard last year and there are some tuffs of grass flattened by the leaves. We plan to sow more grass seed (for shady lawns) this coming weekend after we get the rest of the leaves up and dragged into the woodsy mulch pile (sometimes having five wooded acres is very nice).

We started clearing the leaves out of the herb garden too. The rosemary (lower left) and lavendar (upper left) made it through the winter. The upper right area is where the strawberry plants are we’ve got about a dozen in there and bought another dozen everybearing type to put in this weekend.

Checking out the garden area, it looks like the lemon balm, sage, and a few others managed to survive the winter cold. As well as this one in an above ground pot — until I find the label I’m not sure what it is though. I’m just a beginning gardener and I’ve so much to learn.

The blue buckets you see in the herb garden top-most right side are where we planted the tomatoes and other vegetables last year. The year before we bought plants from local garden centers (Lowes and Home Depot) and got them all in and the next day found neat holes in the ground and no plants. We bought more plants and planted them in the buckets (because the only plants left were the two in buckets) and those are were we got vegetables from last year. For some unknown but, I’m sure, arcane reason the critters that enjoyed our first round of plants wouldn’t/didn’t touch the plants in the buckets.

It started raining Sunday night and all day Monday. Today things are still damp and the temperature is dropping over the next several days. I’m hoping to get some seeds started this week sometime. If I can get seedlings started myself it should drop the cost of the garden somewhat. Considering that we’re on wooded arcres and have very little space that gets sunshine and that we’re in a constant battle with the critters that share this area (racoons, squirrels, deer, moles, voles, and so on)…it’s a wonder we got anything last year. The bucket trick worked so I’ll do it again this year and hope for more produce by trying to keep a better eye on things to get them before the animals do.

But still my spirit is soaring with the hope that spring always bring that this year I’ll feel strong enough and pain-free enough to actually get some goodly amount of work done in the yard. If we don’t get to some of the wooded area to clear out the Kudzu we’ll be fighting a loosing battle with that vine from now on.

The previous owners planted a line of irises and tulips and other bulbs in the woods by the orchard. Here’s what I see from our back yard and from my kitchen window. Yes, it is spring.

CORRECTION AND ADDITION:

We made a typo on last night’s post that needs to be corrected.  The price for last year’s Reincarnations is $28.00 including shipping and handling, rather than the $23 which was specified in that post.  We’ve also updated the previous post to avoid any additional confusion.

But in addition to the the offerings previously listed, we have added yet one more option.  This year for $60, you can pre-order a special bundle including all three books, which will also be delivered to you at Capclave.

Last year, WSFA Press was resurrected to help celebrate Capclave 2009’s Guest of Honor Harry Turtledove. The book Reincarnations premiered at Capclave and sold well. We have very few of the signed and numbered volumes left in stock.

This year, WSFA Press is publishing two books: Fire Watch by Connie Willis and The Three Quests of the Wizard Sarnod, by Jeff VanderMeer (with an afterwards by Ann VanderMeer–our 3rd Guest of Honor). Each book will be a limited signed and numbered edition of 500 copies, chosen to match the Capclave membership, which is being capped at 500 members. The books will be released at Capclave and only available to non-attendees after the convention.

WSFA Press Special Offer on Capclave Registration:
Included this year is the ability to pre-order WSFA Press’ two newest books, The Three Quests of the Wizard Sarnod, by Jeff VanderMeer–

The Wizard Sarnod has lived in isolation on an island in the middle of a lake for centuries. But one day, the Nose of Memory arrives to destroy his calm by dredging up the past, and he must send three of his familiars to the subterranean Underhinds on a quest to find two people, long banished: his brother and a former lover. In the Underhinds, they will encounter living dirigibles, fire dragons, the Bloat Toad, unimaginable perils, and long-buried secrets . . . Based on Jack Vance’s Dying Earth series, The Three Quests of the Wizard Sarnod is a longer and very different version of a story published in the Dozois-Martin edited Songs from the Dying Earth.

The Three Quests of the Wizard Sarnod will be published by WSFA Press in 2010, and released at WSFA’s annual Capclave convention as a special 500-copy limited and signed hardcover edition, with an introduction by Jeff VanderMeer and an afterward by Ann VanderMeer.Designed by John Coulthart, a well-known British graphic artist, illustrator, author and designer, the book will be signed by Ann VanderMeer, Jeff VanderMeer, and John Coulthart. (Capclave special price: $20).

and Fire Watch by Connie Willis:

Fire Watch is a science-fiction story written in 1982 by Connie Willis, involving a time-traveling historian who goes back to The Blitz in London, to participate in the fire watch at St. Paul’s Cathedral. This story is in the same universe as Willis’ newly released novel Blackout and the upcoming October release, All Clear.

Fire Watch will be published by WSFA Press in 2010, and released at WSFA’s annual Capclave convention as a special 500-copy limited and signed hardcover edition, with an introduction by James Patrick Kelly, designed by John Coulthart, a well-known British graphic artist, illustrator, author and designer, and signed by all Willis, Kelly, and Coulthart. (Capclave special price: $20).

Both of these volumes will be premiering at Capclave, and now is your chance to reserve a copy for yourself. In addition, we are again offering a special deal on last year’s WSFA Press special book, Reincarnations, by Harry Turtledove. There are only a small number of these signed and numbered, limited-edition copies remaining. The special Capclave price includes $3.00 for shipping and handling (Total: $28), and this volume will be mailed to you now.

For those now registering to attend Capclave, the option to pre-order the two new WSFA Press books or a copy of last year’s book is listed on the registration form.

If you have already registered for Capclave 2010 and wish to pre-order a book, send email to webmaster@capclave.org to receive information on how to pre-order.

I got a link to this video today from a friend.  It’s on “The Future of Publishing”.    If you’ve been seeing the recent bru-ha-ha about ebooks and their various readers and the pricing of ebooks for consumers, it’s possible to get the impression that books and reading are a thing of the past.  Roll this belief in with the belief that young people  don’t read, have short attention spans and don’t know anything about the world around them .  This set of ideas and beliefs are what seem to be driving much of today’s marketing.

I enjoyed the video.  Using the  same message to express two totally opposite points of view is amazingly well done.  It feed into the widely held beliefs and then turns them on their head.

Publishing isn’t dead.  I’ve got a Kindle and I love it.  I’ve  also got tons of  traditional books. I say tons because in the last move we had more books in boxes to move than the total of all other items we moved from our apartment to our house.  I love reading and can’t imagine a time when I won’t read.  If my eyes fail me — I’ll get the Kindle to read to me with its Hawking’s voice (imagine having a great physicist read to you).

What is most likely to kill publishing is the unwillingness of the industry to move forward.  The world has changed.  They way people live their lives has changed and they need to change with it.  I’ll still read books on paper but the Kindle is what I take when I travel.  As a computer programmer/software analyst who has helped put together a book or two to be published — I know that an electronic books should not be priced more than a paperback.  There’s a big difference between making a paper-book only and then using the same file to create an electronic version and not having storage and distribution issues.

I had several books on my electronic wish list at Amazon until the pricing thing happened.  Now those books are too expensive.  I’ll buy them at a library sale or in a used books store.  Electronic would have been nice but I’m not paying nearly hardcover sale prices for an electronic book.  It’s the same reason I don’t buy DVD until they hit the below $10 sales (they should never cost more than $10 anyway). Corporations should make a profit off their work but since the creative artists aren’t the ones reaping the benefits of these too-high prices — it’s the must-make-even-more-profit that’s driving the bus.  People will buy your product but only when it’s useful, usable, and priced appropriately.  Otherwise most of us can find other ways to spend our money.

Companies should learn to listen to their customers.  You know the people who actually buy or are expected to buy the products you produce.  Listen and learn.

March 14th is PI day 3.14.

It’s also the day to reset clocks…hmmm I think that’s a conspiracy to mess with my sense of time.

A NASA report says that the Chilean Earthquakee may have shifted the mass balance of our planet.

Earth is not a perfect sphere. Continents and oceans are distributed unevenly around the planet. There’s more land in the north, more water in the south, a great ocean in the west, and so on. As a result of these asymmetries, Earth slowly wobbles as it spins. The figure axis is Earth’s axis of mass balance, and the spin axis wobbles around it.

“The Chilean quake shifted enough material to change the mass balance of our entire planet,” Gross says.

On the whole this isn’t such a big problem the mass balance of Earth shifts about a lot but the shift due to the quake shifted the balance as much in minutes as it usually shifts in a year. Evidently the shift hasn’t been measured yet. Shifts can effect satellite transmission, tides, winds, and day length. Some of the possible effects may be mitigated because the quake was near the equator.

The interesting thing is no one really knows how big the shift really is or what the consequences will be. Quakes have been happening for thousands of year but now we have the ability to monitor and measure changes in our planet.

Sometimes knowledge can be scary — especially when previously we were blissfully unaware of the possible dangers that earthquakes can cause other than the loss of lives and property damage.

Perhaps learning more about earthquakes and their aftermath will help us understand planet Earth a bit better.