A Curious Statistical Anomaly

I Survived the Sinking of the Titantic, 1912 by Lauren Tarshis. Scholastic Paperbacks (June 1, 2010). ISBN: 978-0545206945. 112 pages. Cover by Steve Stone. Interior Illustrations by Scott Dawson. RL4 007-010. Includes Facts about the Titanic and an Author’s Note.

Book Blurb:

Ten-year-old George Calder can’t believe his luck — he and his little sister, Phoebe, are on the famous Titanic, crossing the ocean with their Aunt Daisy. The ship is full of exciting places to explore, but when George ventures into the first class storage cabin, a terrible boom shakes the entire boat. Suddenly, water is everywhere, and George’s life changes forever.

Tarshis opens the story on Monday, April 15, 1912 at 2:00 a.m. on the deck of RMS Titanic, the ship is sinking and ten-year-old George Calder is on the deck holding on to the rail in the freezing cold. The ship begins to tilt and George looses his grip and is knocked unconscious. Thus ends Chapter 1. What? The ship is already sinking and our main character is unconscious. I doubt there is a reader born who could put the book down at this point. We’re hooked.

Chapter 2 starts nineteen hours earlier on Sunday, April 14 at 7:15 a.m. in a first class suite on B Deck. Now we go back and meet George and his eight-year-old sister Phoebe. They are returning to America after visiting London and the surrounding area with their Aunt Daisy.

As we follow George, we learn that he is always getting in trouble and is as curious as a cat. He’s been all over the ship even to areas where he is not supposed to go. He’s made friends in steerage and exasperated his aunt and his sister — not to mention a number of the other first class passengers.

George, in other words is a typical boy who if there isn’t an adventure handy will invent some of his own. We also learn that his behavior had previously been causing problems between him and his father. Since George and Phoebe’s mother died a few years ago the family just hasn’t been the same. This trip was a time-out for father and son — a chance to get some distance and calm down.

So, even though he’s only ten, George is observant and makes a great point of view character for us. We see the ship through his eyes as he explores the ship. He meets some of the people who become famous or infamous due to their connection with this ship and the tragic end of its maiden voyage.

The author researched the ship and the accident that sunk her and tells a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat even knowing what is going to happen. Now though, it’s seen and told through the experiences of a ten-year-old boy who will never be the same. He saw great courage and great cowardice. He found strength he didn’t know he had. He survived and, while he doesn’t understand survivor’s guilt, he nonetheless feels it keenly.

The George who survives the sinking of the Titanic, is not the same person we got to know when we flashed back nineteen hours and then moved forward to the collision with the iceberg.

At the end of the book there’s an author’s note listing the references used and a section of Facts about the Titanic. I think it would have been nice to list some books where young readers could learn more about the Titanic and the people who survived and died that night in 1912.

I can’t think of a better way to learn about history than through fictional stories that allow you the opportunity to see how a historic event affected the people who lived through it. If you know a young person who is interested in the Titanic, this just might be the book they’re looking for.

On a side note, a few years ago I attended a convention in California where the Queen Mary is anchored. The ship is now a hotel. In walking about the decks that first day I wondered how much smaller it was than the Titanic. I found a chart target in the little soda shop and learned that the Queen Mary is much larger, which surprised me. The Titanic always looked so huge in the movies and reading about all the decks and people (staff and passengers), I just assumed it was huge. We all keep learning all the time.

Things are very busy and a bit confusing here at the house of chaos. I’ll try to do a post tomorrow…yeah, really…mumble, mumble…I’ll try at least.

You know the type of day where you either want to pull out your hair by the roots or sit down and cry or maybe laugh hysterically?  There’s no real way to handle a day like I had today.  So, you plug along doing what you can and hoping that when it arrives, tomorrow will be a better day.

Then tonight as the sun was setting, I looked out and the garden area was filled with fireflies.   Sparking on and off.  Rising up like embers from a fire.  Blinking here and there among the trees and the garden plants or in the air.

It was a magical end to a very frustrating day.  Sometimes the  world does give you a sign that life is very much filled with beauty.  You just have to open your eyes and look.  Well, I looked.  My heart is full.  Tomorrow will be a wonderful day.

What does it take to turn your bad days into confidence that tomorrow will be better?  For me — today — it was fireflies at twilight.

This morning I caught sight of an article entitled, “U.S. scientists design underpants that could save lives“. Actually, the article I saw pointed to this article and said something like “Military pays for Hi-Tech underpants”. It was the title that caught me but it’s the article that got me thinking.

Here’s a the information that got me:

Printed on the waistband and in constant contact with the skin is an electronic biosensor, designed to measure blood pressure, heart rate and other vital signs.

The technology, developed by nano-engineering professor Joseph Wang of University of California San Diego and his team, breaks new ground in the field of intelligent textiles and is part of shift in focus in healthcare from hospital-based treatment to home-based management.

Well, since the military is paying for this experimental underwear, I’m sure it will get a workout in the field. But the scientist seem to be on my wavelength. Many elderly want to live at home but most have health problems. My grandmother, for a while, had the service where she could call for help if something happened to her. She canceled it because they were always bothering her to find out if she was okay. I’m sure lots of people don’t like their routines upset — because we all know those phones calls only come after you’ve sat down with a good book and a cuppa, or settled in and are just dozing off for a well-earned nap.

But if you just get dressed in the morning and the waistband of your underwear sends biological information back to a central area that monitors — if something happens you’ll get the help you need even if you’re unconscious and can’t get to a cell phone or landline. More people could stay independent and in their homes. Sort of a person security system instead of a home security system.

Now if they also get these briefs to deliver medication or administer the required medications as a stroke or heat attack occurs — where minutes can mean the difference between paralysis and a quick (or relatively quick recovery) that would be even better. (And yes I’m way, way overgeneralizing.)

So, something that at first looked/sounded silly has on second thought and more reading turned into one of those things you wonder why no one thought of it before. Of course, before now the technology just wasn’t available to do the job.

Imagine smart underpants may be in all our futures as we live our lives in the forward direction that usually means growing older, wiser, and most likely a bit frailer.

Remember that curse — May you live in interesting times.

Well, I think this is a very, very interesting time. I used to think that if I got organized then everything would just somehow work out. I am so naive. All week I’ve been working on the TODO list I got ready last Sunday for Monday.

Well it had 20 items on it. Monday I managed to get one item done and half of another one. Then it occurred to me that I hadn’t factored in the network going crazy on me or the PC locking up for about half a minute every ten minutes or so — doesn’t sound like much but when you’re trying to get things done and find it locked up on you and you don’t know what it kept and what it missed in the buffer.

Anyway, here it is Thursday and I finally got half the TODO done. Half. Might have gotten farther if I learned to put the steps of each task in so I can cross more things off each day.

What’s better: having a TODO list that breaks the tasks down into all the steps required so you can see that you’re making progress but the list is 5 pages for a day OR just the over-all task so the list fits on one page? What do you do?

Bibliographic info: A Woman of Influence by Rebecca Ann Collins, Pride & Prejudice sequel series, Book 9, Sourcebooks Landmark, Pub. Date: June 1, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4022-2451-5, 336 pages, List: $14.99. (Amazon: $10.19 / Kindle $9.99)

I came late to this series, so I first met Rebecca “Becky” Tate in Recollection of Rosings where she seemed a bit like one of those women who, at loose ends, trys to take charge of the lives of those around her. Becky, throughout that book, tried to impress upon her sister Catherine that her daughter was making the wrong match. Over the course of the novel, Becky began, as she became closer to her sister and reacquainted herself with Huntsford and the surrounding area, to realize that her London friends were not really friends at all. She began to question her values and just what she wanted to do with her life. Most of this story was in the background because Recollection of Rosings is Catherine’s story.

In A Woman of Influence, Becky Tate is the main character. She’s sold her London house and moved to Huntsford to the house that she fell in love with…Edgewater. She’s within walking distance of the small church that her father, Mr. Collins, preached at when she was a child, and to the home of her sister, Catherine, and also the school that she helped Catherine establish for children in the area. She’s changed her life and she’s content but feels restless and is often overwhelmed with grief when she thinks of the death of her daughter, Josie, and the estrangement that caused with the Darcys.

It is little wonder that Becky becomes embroiled in the life of a young woman and her child. The child was caught looking into the windows of Edgewater and he refused to say what he was doing there. The mother rushed up in time to explain that the child didn’t talk since his father was arrested. Becky thought the young woman was well-spoken and, concerned for the woman and her child found living rough,  she employs the girl in her home. The girl’s story causes Becky to take an interest and she begins to unravel the threads of the story and to look into the facts. This task becomes difficult as Becky must find a solution that will bring the family together while managing to not let anyone involved know that she is looking into the legalities of the original arrest and testimony.

Becky’s quest to help this young girl is the thread that keeps you reading as she follows the clues and gathers information. There is a secondary love story as Becky once again meets a gentleman who had helped her through the worst of her grief after her daughter’s death. As they renew their acquaintance, they find that they pick up their friendship as if only a day had past rather than years. Will it deepen to true love? For that you’ll need to read the book.

Once again, Collins uses straight narrative from Becky’s point of view, mixed with letters, diary entries, and other material to lead us through the story and to fill us in on necessary information without having to resort to long information dumps. Though one could say the letters and the diary entries are just that — info dumps — they don’t feel like it to the reader because they fit so nicely into the setting of the story.

Rebecca Ann Collins’ writing is well paced but slower than many readers might be used to.  However, it has much the same tone and pacing of the original Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice, which was the precursor to the series. Collins continues the characters of Pride and Prejudice, taking them forward in time and allowing them to change and grow with the changing times. The Appendix lists the main characters in the book and their relationships to each other. The main characters of Pride and Prejudice now have grandchildren and the world is changing around them.

Becky Tate was a women of her times with dreams and ambition that would be difficult to achieve for a woman. She married to achieve some of those goals. However, that marriage was a partnership rather than a love match and while she had much influence and did a lot of good with her charity work, she was dependent on her husband. In A Woman of Influence, you’ll see how much the world has changed and women have moved forward and gained some ability to steer their own course through life, but they are still not as free as women are today to be able to choose the life they wish to lead. It’s important to remember that Collins didn’t make up the rules that women in this period must live by, she’s only reflecting the historical period in which these books take place.

So, visit the world of the 1860s, take the time to slowing sink into the narrative and, for a while, enjoy a time when people took the time to talk to each other without a cell-phone or ipod in sight. Life was lived, at least on the economic level of our main characters, at a more leisurely pace. Curl up with this book and a cup of tea and enjoy.

Some days it seems that no matter what you do to get ahead, you end up behind.  We came home from Balticon and set up all the laptops and the network again and found that the printer won’t work with the network anymore.  So, it’s now hardwired to my USB port and we can only print using my laptop.  That’s great except that out of the 8 USB ports on this laptop only three of them work — the one with the mouse, the one with my external hard-drive, and now the one with the printer attached.  So, to upload photos I’m going to have to take one of those out and then put it back.  Not such a big deal in the scheme of things.

But, here’s the next thing; my laptop is not doing to well lately either.  It takes forever to boot and while most of the time I can use the etch-a-sketch method of getting rid of the line across the bottom 1/3 of my screen so that it looks fine, it is getting slower and slower and slower.

Before someone mentions running stuff here’s what I’ve done to try to speed it up.  I ran SpywareBlaster (nothing found), Spybot – Search & Destroy (found two cookies that were removed), AdAware (found nothing),  ran MS Disk Cleanup, and MS Disk Defragger (said I didn’t need to run it but did so anyway).  Not one bit of difference.  Our in-house network is password protected and we live on five acres in farming country.  I’m stumped other than to think that it’s just that the machine is old (nearly 6 years) and maybe things are failing — it does make a wicked racket while turned on — there’s the fan and a constant humming, stuttering sound.

I’ve heard that clearing everything off and re-installing the system would help but I don’t have the system disks, if I ever even got them when I bought the laptop.  I do know that Hyperion’s machine, which is newer than mine, didn’t come with the system disks unless we paid extra.

So, it’s looking like I need a new machine once I get the budget figured out and save up a bit more.  On the other hand, when you have to wait so long between asking a file to open and it opening — I manage to get some housework done.  I think tomorrow I’m going to sit here with my knitting — maybe I can intimidate the machine into behaving when it knows that I’m going to have some fun task to work on when it drags its proverbial feet.

I realize it’s now Wednesday and I hadn’t written up the last day of Balticon which was Monday, May 31st.  So, here goes…

First, we had a couple of items on our agenda for Balticon.  The top one was to not embarrass myself when on a panel.  I think I managed that except for the last panel   — the one on getting adults to read YA.  Big fibro-flare and lack of coffee and I might as well have been thinking though insulation.  Luckily, the audience was great and the panelists forgiving.  Much discussion and comments from everyone in the room — I even got a few titles to add to my TO BE READ pile.  So, maybe I didn’t do so badly after all.

Next, we needed to be at the Capclave table as much as possible and we hoped to get at least 20 memberships.  We did just that and got 20 new Capclave memberships.  We also explained and expounded on the joy of coming to Capclave to many people who live in the DC area and had not realized there was a convention there.  So, I think we did a fairly good job in getting the word out.  If you live in the DC area or would like to have an excuse to visit in October of this year, check out the Capclave website and blog for updates on the convention as we finalize the planning and get things up online.

So, Monday, we opened the table again at 9:30 am. And we pretty much just greeted people going up and down the hall. We had some good discussions about books, cons, parties, writing workshops, and other miscellaneous stuff. Finally, we decided to close the table at noon and head home. We gave a friend a ride.

Once home it was unpack the car. Hook up all the electronics and laptops back where they belong and start working on getting the zine up on time. Both SFRevu.com and GumshoeReview.com go live on the first of the month. We made it but we’re still missing a couple of my reviews which I really hope to get done and up tomorrow.

Basically, Balticon is a wonderful convention. It’s a big one and has several tracks. Because I’m this year’s Capclave Chair, I didn’t get to do as much as I would have liked as far as attending panels but I still had a great time. If you love science, Balticon has a terrific science track. Check out their website for programming and look under science to see what you missed — and think about signing up to attend next year.