A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Student Life has an article on The Top 10 Kids Movies Inappropriate for Kids. On this list are some of my favorite movies. There are ones that my son and I enjoyed together and watched many time.

While I can understand the reasoning behind thinking some of the films such as Time Bandits, Coraline (thought I haven’t seen it yet so only know it because I’ve read the book and seen trailers), Watership Down, and Black Hole being thought inappropriate, I think that’s more because adults hold them up to a different criteria than children or young adults. Children, in my experience, only enjoy the adventure of Time Bandits and the fact that the parents are jerks and get what they deserved. While adults worry about the death of the parents, the kids are hoping that the fireman that looks like Agamemnon will adopt the kid.

On the other hand, Black Hole was so boring I think that it was torture to watch it the first time and only time we saw it. It was forever known in our house as the movie that explained that time stretches out because they certainly took too little plot and stretched it to fit the length of a movie.

What I think lists like these do, is make parents aware that maybe they should watch the movie first and then decide if their children should see them. I feel that parents should always watch the movies with their children so that they are available to answer questions and talk about the film after … if the child wants to talk. Too many times, the DVD is inserted and the parents go off and leave the kids to view with no supervision.

Children like creepy movies and they like to be scared. They usually have a strong sense of justice and like to see the “bad people” punished and the “good people” rewarded. But parents should be available to talk with their children. Movies are a time for parents and children to enjoy time together on the same activity.

Don’t let lists tell you what your children should or shouldn’t watch. The list-makers do their best to advise but they don’t know your specific children, you’re the best judge of what your child is ready for. I know some adults not ready for The Dark Crystal and some very young children who totally get what it’s about.

Valentine’s Day — a day to celebrate love. Today, I did a load of wash, made a big pot of chili, hosted a Capclave PR meeting for the current chair, wished a friend Happy Birthday, finished a book I was reading (Death’s Daughter by Amber Benson — the review will be in the March SFRevu.com), and had a couple of chocolate no-bake cookies for dessert. In a way it was a day of love. Loving what I was doing and the people I got to interact with.

While I enjoy the fact that Valentine’s Day is considered a day to celebrate love and the person we love — shouldn’t we be doing that every day. When people lose someone, they don’t regret telling that person that they love and care for them; what they regret is not letting the people they care about know how much they love them. So, why don’t we make an effort to express our love every day by treating every day and every minute as if we might not get a chance to do it over because we don’t get do overs. We may have a chance to regret or to make it up to someone but we never get to relive a day and make it better. We can however, decide that each day we’ll try harder to be the person that we wish to be.

On another tangent, what is love? We say, “I love you”. But we also say, “I love this dress”, “I love summer”, and “I love chocolate” all with the same word. But we don’t love a dress, summer, chocolate, and our spouse in the same way or even with the same intensity. It’s one of those words that mean only what we want it to mean when we say it and the hearer has to figure out what that meaning is. I think the Meatloaf “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” says:

I started swearing to my god and on my mother’s grave
That I would love you to the end of time
I swore that I would love you to the end of time!

So now I’m praying for the end of time
To hurry up and arrive
Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
I don’t think that I can really survive
I’ll never break my promise or forget my vow
But God only knows what I can do right now
I’m praying for the end of time
It’s all that I can do
Praying for the end of time, so I can end my time with you!!!

We often say what we think the other person wants to hear. How often have you hear someone wish Mister/Miss Right would come along and then say their dating Mister/Miss You-Might-Do for now? How many people get caught up in hormones and pheromones thinking that’s love when it’s just nature’s way of continuing the species? To often, people wake up to realize that it was all lust and not love. How do you tell the difference when books, movies, and TV make the two look interchangeable?

Then there’s the fact that so much of the babblings on love make it sound like it’s always goodness, light, and happily ever after. Usually, there’s no mention of the compromises, the 2 a.m. feedings, jobs, sickness, worry about whatever — that love is also a partnership, a sharing of the load — happiness and sadness, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, adventure and mishap — it’s not an even road but journey that is shared with one then the other taking the lead.

Just some more musing on biology, sociology, culture, and language.

Occasionally, or as often as I can find a way to fit it in, knit happens. I finished the other pair of socks I was working on, except for sewing in the ends and writing up the directions. They actually came out pretty nice — more on them later in another post.

So, I bought some Red Heart Heart & Sole with Aloe. It’s a self-stripping yarn. Fiber content is 70% Superwash Wool and 30% Nylon. It feels pretty nice — smooth and easy to knit with. Haven’t had much problem with splitting. But I’m a bit disappointed in that the strips have these blobs of off color mixed in so the entire sock looks like a stripped sock that’s been washed a bazillion times. So, it is going to have that lived in look right from the start. You can see what I mean about the color smears from the photo.

I’m just using the standard sock pattern, nothing fancy. Actually, this is what I do so I don’t need a pattern. Guess I’ve finally made enough socks I don’t use a pattern when I do the plain vanilla ones like this. I’ve been in a bit of a brain fog lately so I needed something to do when I felt really off — something I could focus on that (hopefully) wouldn’t need a lot of concentration and would make me feel like I’d at least done something with my time other than stand around trying to figure out what I was supposed to do now that I found myself standing in this room instead of that one.

Things are looking up. I actually feel my brain rebooting and coming back on line. The pressure dropped and the headache/migraine eased off and I got my Celebrex Rx refilled. The joints still ache, especially the knees and hips but my fingers are fine and my arms and shoulders are lots better. Once it gets back in my system I should be nearly back to normal.

I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire and once the brain is back on line and running nearly optimally, I’ve got to get cracking on them.

I found out what the reddish mystery bird was in my Bird post. Today RefDesk had an article on Birds Shifting North During the Winter. The RefDesk had a picture of the Purple Finch along with a photo and it looks like one of our mystery birds — so I’m calling it a purple finch from now on.

Sometimes, serendipity just bring the answers to the questions of life — the trick is to recognize them.

For Christmas, I got a Kindle. Well, if you’ve been keeping an eye on the Kindle newsbits, I had a Kindle ordered for me for Christmas with a delivery date in March. Waiting has been difficult and still is.

Then, my hubby got the word from Amazon that the Kindle I’d be receiving would be the Kindle 2 rather than the original Kindle he ordered. I thought about it and looked again at the Kindle 2 features and now I’m all kinds of excited by this news. At first, I wanted to stay with the original because I liked the keyboard better and the sliding bar rather than the new keyboard and joy-stick key. But when I look at all the other upgrades and features, I find that they far outweigh the joy-stick and keyboard. So, I’m psyched again to get it.

I essentially read for a living. Well, I review books and that involves a lot of reading. With the downward spiral of the economy, many publishers are having to cut somewhere to save money and keep the books coming. That means fewer advanced reading copies (ARCs) and several publishers have already contacted me about PDFs. If they send PDFs as ARCs there’s no printing costs. However, many people don’t like reading on screen. I’d asked for the Kindle for Christmas because I could see the changes coming and I didn’t want to be chained to my laptop or desktop to read — not that my desk chair isn’t comfy but I like to curl up in my chair-and-a-half and read with a cuppa tea or sit on the deck or in the garden. Now I can — or I can when I get my Kindle.

The new Kindle 2 has a read aloud feature. I reported here about Text Aloud, a program that reads PDFs and text files to you in a sort of Stephen Hawking’s voice. Well, the new Kindle 2 has a similar feature. It seems that some people (the Author’s Guild) object. I found two articles on this today: BLORGE’s Kindle 2 prompts “reading Aloud” copyright claim and The Wall Street Journal’s New Kindle Audio Feature Causes a Stir. I can’t believe that anyone would take this claim seriously. It’s not like the book is being copied, and hearing it read by a computer synthesized voice is nowhere near the same as listening to an audio version of the book. It’s not like if I have a choice I’d pick the computer synth-voice over the acting and emoting human voice.

What’s next suing parents for reading to their children before bed. What about reading a bit of an article or a few paragraphs to your partner or friend or coworker in the next cubicle — violation of copyright. I’m also a struggling writer and I have a lot of interest in seeing that intellectual property and copyright are upheld but this argument is totally ridiculous and seems more for getting publicity and making themselves look foolish rather than being a real concern for their members. Obviously they haven’t learned from RIAA’s and MPAA’s mistakes — the more you cry wolf and demonize your users/readers/buyers the less respect you get (though in the case of those two their bottom lines prove them wrong in their basic assumptions — but that is another whole copyright rant…) Deep breath, relax…

I’m anxiously waiting for the message that says my Kindle has been shipped. Once I get it and use it a bit, I’ll probably have a bit more to say about it. Meanwhile, I’m counting the days…

There are some days that, no matter what you do — meditation, yoga, sitting quietly in the dark — it doesn’t help. The pounding just goes on and on. The least it could do is have a nice beat that is easy to dance to or sing counterpoint to. Guess that’s too much to ask of a migraine — at least it puts on a good light show at times.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll actually, do a post. Provided I can think.

Shortly after the New Year and before we took down our tree, this cardinal showed up on our deck. He’d arrive shortly after sun up each day. He’d spend some time looking in the sliding glass doors, hopping to the left and right and turning his head. Personally, I think the only thing he could probably see was his reflection but maybe he was seeing the tree. We weren’t sure because he repeatedly fluttered up and down the left hand door and then the right hand door.

Day after day for two weeks, he’d begin at sun rise and stay until shortly after sun set. Up and down the two doors. Time after time. He took a few short breaks of about 15 to 20 minutes several times a day. But basically he spent the days attacking our window. We took the tree down thinking that he was trying to get at it. That didn’t stop the fluttering. This photo isn’t very clear. I had a difficult time taking it through the glass because if I got too close he flew to the side of the house on the corner of the deck and waited until I left to start in again.

We were getting worried about this psychotic bird. When was he eating? Was he going to die trying to fight for territory with the cardinal he saw reflected in our doors? What was with this guy? Other cardinals in the area didn’t take to battering the door with their little bodies for hours on end. So, we worried.

In the end, we went out and bought a bird feeder. We set it up on one of the plant hangers on the deck across from the doors. We figured he wouldn’t have to go far to eat and could keep up his strength to attack our door — which was getting bird poop all along the bottom of it.

The bird feeder went up and non-migratory birds from all over came to eat. After two days the cardinal left. Haven’t seen him since. But these fellows have been photo’d at the feeder. The only ones we’ve identified — we bought a bird book — are the finches:

We’ve also had some black eyed Juncos and got a picture of one but I can’t find it now. We also have these birds that we don’t recognize. We can’t find them in our bird book — or at least can’t find a matching picture. If you know what they are let me know.

We’ve also had some woodpeckers at the feeder but they’re a bit big and just snatch and fly away to eat so I haven’t been able to get a photo. On the other hand, we have a number of ground feeders like doves getting the dropped food from the feeder on the ground level. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to bring the camera down to try for them.

It has been really nice having the birds around. Not as noisy as I would have thought. But I can sit and read and look up and watch them lining up to take their turns with the feeder. They’ve begun to share. At first they would fight off the other birds, especially those in another species, but now they will share. It’s interesting to watch the interplay.

Finally, got my act together enough to do a blog post. It’s been a heck of a week starting last Thursday when I appeared to be coming down with a cold. Then came the weather changes and the migraines to put the cherry on top. The last two days I’ve actually felt human again and have started to get caught up on the job stuff, the volunteer stuff and my stuff.

This month’s coffee cup, I’ve had for a while. It’s sort of a girly tea-time cup and saucer but I wasn’t feeling well and I thought why have things if you never use them. I enjoy utility matched with beauty or silly or fun. So, I washed it out and started using it. The words around the edge say “Home is Where Heart Is” and the design is by Mary Englebreit. I love her artwork — it’s so bright, alive, funny, and homey. I usually get a big calendar for the kitchen and a small one for the desk. This year I also got a small one in a folder for my purse (my PDA died a while back and hasn’t been replaced and the blackberry and their ilk don’t really seem to be built for people who wear reading glasses who might not have them on all the time.

I digress. The only problem with this cup is the size — it means multiple trips to the coffee pot (and I only have half a pot each day). Smaller cups also mean they cool faster too. But drinking out of it makes me smile and I love putting it down with a quiet clink into the saucer. So, I’m a happy person this month.

I’m also in my copious amounts of free time — NOT — working on a sock. I’ve had this sort of vision in my head and I’m trying to get it to translate to the knitting. So far I’m on my third try with this sock. The top looks good but when I switch to the ribbing it looks sort of okay but not great — I’m still thinking about what to do with that. It fits okay. At first I thought it would be way to big but it fits nice up the calf.

Unfortunately, the heel is a bit loose. Seems to be okay when I try it on but I won’t really know until I walk in it for a while but I’m debating now on whether to keep going or rip it out to just above the heel flap and decrease some stitches on the first row of the heel flap or narrow down just above it. It’s something I’ll need to decide on soon but after ripping it all out twice already — I can do it again.

Besides, once I get this sock all figured out the second one should be a breeze and then I’ll post the directions here so any of you so inclined can give it a try. Meanwhile, I’ve gotten a couple of knitting books to read but trying to fit them in for reading when I’ve got so many books I need to review this month is going to be a real challenge. I figure if I get all the review books done and written up I can move to one of these new books.

So, far for review in SFRevu, I’ve read The Sharing Knife: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold. This one ends the Sharing Knife sage and is the fourth in the series. For Gumshoe Review, I’ve read The Book of Old Houses by Sara Graves and A Veiled Deception by Annette Blair. These will be in the February issues of the zines. I’ve started Oolong Dead by Laura Childs (also for Gumshoe). At least as far as the reading goes this month, I’m having a lot of fun.

Well, I’m off to finish a chapter, have a hot chocolate, and get to sleep. Hopefully, I’ll have a dream where I figure out what to do about my sock. I’m open to suggestions — not necessarily to follow the suggestion — but to take it/them under advisement.

We went out shopping today. Saturday is the day we usually get the week’s groceries and run errands. So, in the course of doing that I happened to spot a nice looking young woman coming in from the parking lot as we were heading out. Leather jacket and large purse, nice turtle-neck sweater, jeans, and cute strappy heels at least 3 inches high maybe more.

I don’t wear heels. In fact, I trip over shadows, so heels would just add a level of danger that I’m not comfortable with. Even my dress shoes are flats. When I do get something a bit higher in the heel — well, we are talking maybe an inch and that’s without a separate heel just a wedge that lifts the heel higher than the toe of the shoe. My highest heels are on sneakers and that’s because the whole sole is so thick.

So, the upshot is that every time I see a woman in extreme high-heels, I just stand in awe that they can not only walk in them but maybe even talk on the phone carrying on a conversation at the same time. If it was me, I’d look like one of those comedy skits or that scene in Miss Congeniality where Sandra Bullock as the newly pressed and polished FBI officer comes out of the hanger looking like a million bucks and falls off her heels and lands on the ground. Later she has to hold onto things because her balance is all off — that would be me but not looking even close to the beauty of the actresses just managing the pratfalls.

A long time ago, I worked with a woman who wore heels all the time. She said her Achilles’ tendon had shortened and she couldn’t wear normal shoes. She had to have at least an 1 1/2 to 2 inches of heel or her feet hurt and she couldn’t function. Why do women do that to themselves. While I can admire the balance required to walk in them, I have to wonder why women wear them. They pinch the toes and make your feet hurt and yet women continue to wear high-high heels. Why? I’m stumped.

In fact, when women friends complain about their feet, I’ve been known to say, “Then why wear them. Get something pretty and comfortable.” The response is usually what you’d expect if you’d suddenly dropped sixty IQ points and grew a second head. Again, I’m at a loss. You see, I’ve never been a girly-girl. I always was a bit of a tomboy and boys got cooler toys. I actually preferred Lincoln Logs and chemistry sets to dolls and doll clothes. In college I was in a lot of science and technology classes … often the only woman in the class — so not being a fashion queen or even having someone to key me into the whole fashion thing, there’s a lot of things I just don’t get.

I’ll never wear high heels and don’t understand the women who do so when it causes them pain. But, I certainly have to stand in awe of their ability to balance and walk across broken gravel in shoes that see me making a quick trip to the emergency room for a broken ankle or leg.