A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Today has been a real challenge. Most of last week I kept having lower back pain on top of the usual fibromyalgia issues. It was constant pain with, now and then, a bad twinge. Finally, today I just couldn’t take it anymore and took a muscle relaxer.

I figured I’d been thinking it was kidneys and drinking water like crazy but it still hurt and every bend and lift was…let’s just say not fun. So, the muscle relaxer. It helped. So, I’m guessing it was the muscles in my lower back all the time and while I was trying to take it easy lifting anything I was probably just making it worse ignoring it. I’m a bit floaty but the pain is now in that “over there” place. You know — you’re in pain and you know it but it’s like one step to the side of you so while it’s here, it’s over there and ignorable.

Meanwhile, we’ve got all the ornaments off the tree and packed. We’ve managed to get all the branches smooched together. Next we need to take it apart and wrap it up for storage. That’s the sticky point with my back as it is. Guess that waits a bit until either I feel better or Hyperion tackles it on his own.

I really hate it when the spoon just get all used up while I still have a full TO DO list and lots of day left over. Meanwhile, I’m doing mindless knitting on my sock — the stocking knit bit in the foot so I’ve got 3 more inches before I have to think about the heel.

I really need many more spoons in my life. So much time so little energy and so few hours not in pain. Okay, I’m whinging again but darn it sometimes you just have to get it out so you can move on.

Okay, this has nothing to do with muscle pain, but a lot to do with mental anguish. Gayle and I watched two sci-fi movies today. Supernova and The Black Hole. Neither are the “classic” by that name, but newer and if anything, worse. Worse because you’d think after all this time movies could actually afford to have a science adviser that could tell them they’re making complete idiots of themselves. Actually, maybe they do have advisers. Just because you have one doesn’t mean you have to listen to them. And in these cases, they most certainly didn’t. Let’s take a second to hit the highlights on the lack of any conformity to high school level physics knowledge.

First in Supernova we have our sun about to go supernova. Okay, we can stop right there. Our sun would need to be about half again its current mass at the very least, so the very premise is already impossible. But wait, there’s more. Why is it going supernova? Because a planetoid crashed into it. Never mind the fact that you could dump the rest of the solar system (which, including ALL the planets, is less than 0.2% of the mass of the sun) into it without causing much more than a ripple. But no, this single planetoid has “punched a hole” in the sun and caused it to become unstable. The instability causes Coronal Mass Ejections which, for some unexplained reason, seem to be aimed at the Earth time and time again. But wait, there’s more. Despite the fact that CME’s are huge energetic clouds of gas larger than the Earth itself, in the movie, they arrive as swarms of little fireballs that rain down and blow up individual buildings. UGH! And the solution to the problem of the impending supernova requires a suspension of disbelieve far above the capacity of this viewer. In most ways, the biggest problems with this movie revolve around the fact that the writers were incapable of understanding anything about the scope of what they were trying to meddle with.  The sun is just too big to fiddle with, and CMEs are just to big and diffuse to cause any problems on less than a hemispheric scale.

Next up is The Black Hole, in which an “accident” with a particle collider causes a black hole to form in St. Louis. Obviously based of the nonsensical ravings against the Large Hadron Collider, this movie quickly goes from the absurd to the disparagingly laughable. Quick lecture in two points. First: The energies produced by the Large Hadron Collider are of a lesser order of magnitude  then the energetic collisions taking place every second in our upper atmosphere between air molecules and cosmic rays. If those collisions haven’t created a black hole in the last few billion years, the LHC isn’t going to be any worry. Second: Assuming a black hole was formed, it would be a microscopic black hole which would flash out of existence in a few microseconds due to Hawking Radiation. Despite what you may have learned about black holes, they do actually emit energy due to quantum mechanical effects at the event horizon. And the smallerl the hole, the faster they evaporate.

So in the movie, we have an impossible event, creating something that wouldn’t actually be of any danger at all.  Furthermore, any black hole that did form, would be subject to gravity like anything else. And since gravity is a universally attractive force, the black hole would fall into the earth (the larger gravity field) and make its way to the core in no time at all before being snuffed by the aforesaid laws of physics. But that would make a short and pointless movie. So instead we get a full scale black hole, hovering over the ground, and eating St. Louis. Interestingly enough, the black hole appears to think (like Khan in Star Trek 2) in two dimensions. Instead of gobbling everything up all around it, it swirls like water going to down the kitchen sink, slowly expanding outwards, but letting helicopters fly over it with impunity. Now we get the part that REALLY doesn’t make any sense. If we ignore physics (and boy do we ever), there’s not much one can do to stop a black hole that’s on the rampage. So we get the addition of an alien entity that uses the black hole as a transit system from planet to planet, and feeds it by sucking in electricity. And “all” we have to do to save the Earth is kick the alien back through the black hole and all will be well again. Gayle and I yelled the solution at the TV about 15 minutes in when the alien first started moving around. Pity it took until 15 minutes from the end for the protagonist to think of it as well.

Okay, that’s enough ranting for now. But be warned, there are two more movies in the collection, and as soon as my craw can take it, we’ll dive into those stinkers as well. When? You’ll be the second to know.

Woke up to find the house surrounded in fog.  At first I didn’t notice because the rain was pattering on the sky light and it was rather dark.  Once I got up and looked out there was fog, the thin grey blanket type over, around, and cloaking everything.  It made for the kind of grey, lazy day where you just spend your time catching up on all the little chores you’ve been meaning to do.

Picked up the kitchen and cleaned the counters and stove top.  Then started on the big job.  Taking down the Christmas tree.  Wish we could leave it alone since my back has been quirky for days now.  But, it’s not the decorating statement I want to make.  The hold up was having to replace the ornament boxes which we’ve had for years and were more tape than box now.  So, lots of shopping and checking in stores as we did errands over the last couple of weeks and found a couple of reasonable substitutes.  It seems that ornament boxes have become tiny little things that won’t hold ornaments — go figure.  So, today we took all the ornaments off the tree and got them packed up.  We started going branch by branch to pull the branches towards the center: you know when you separate and fluff them when you put the tree up that you just have to squeeze them all down again.  Got about 1/6th of it done.   Hopefully, tomorrow we’ll finish that bit of it and get the tree apart, wrapped, and stored.  Then it’s clean the living room and rearrange the furniture and the plants.

Meanwhile, I’m almost done with a sock … maybe another 1/2 inch and bind off. Then start the second one.  I joined the Rocking Sock Club and I’m really looking forward to the first package.  I’ve never joined a sock club before but heard a lot about this one.  I  just never remembered about it during the signup period.

I’ve found the black yarn for the bear’s face so hope to get that done tomorrow or at the very least over the next week. I’ve been finishing things lately and that’s a good thing.  Got the cowl done.  Just need to sew in the ends and block.  Should have pictures up for that soon.

Meanwhile, I’ve been reading in all the in between times to get my commitments for reviews done this month.  Trying to catch up and arrange some interviews before it gets too late, too.

Gumshoe Review published it’s first original short story this month.  We’ve already chosen the story for February.  We hope to have a new story featured each month.  This is a new venture for us and we’re still working out how to streamline the system: reading the submissions, ranking them, going over our favorites, notifying the authors whether we’re interested or not.  We’re getting better but still need to get a system that’s easy for us to deal with and make swift decisions for the sake of the authors.

Nevertheless, I still feel even though I got a lot done today that I’m still running in place rather than moving forward.

Bear Update:
When last we left the little bear in a previous post, it was rather scary looking. Parts scattered all over the place. I’d managed to make a back, front, two arms, and two legs. However, I couldn’t find my buttons for joints or my needle. So, things got put away.

Finally, I managed to dig out the buttons and find a workable needle. I needed buttons big enough that a child can’t swallow them even though the buttons that make up the joints are inside the bear and a child can’t get to them without a severe desire to dismember said bear — shivery scary thought. The intended bear recipient is rapidly growing since she was born in Feb and I’m totally behind.

What’s needed now is the face– eyes, nose, mouth. Those are embroidered on so there are no pieces for a child to pull off and choke on. I just need some time — a good movie should do it. As soon as I find the thick velvety cord I use for this. It’s in the house somewhere.

Baby Fan Mitts:
I’d seen Patons Silk Bamboo yarn at A.C. Moore and fell in love with the sapphire color. It felt so soft and silky but I couldn’t think of any reason to get it — I just didn’t have a project in mind or planned.

Then as these things tend to happen, I was reading the Rainey Sisters blog and saw the Baby Fan Mitts. Perfect. One skein of the yarn would make the mitts (which is true if you don’t waste any in a long tail when you cast on the stitches. Of course by the time I picked up the yarn, I couldn’t remember how much I needed so I got four skeins.

The mitts came out beautifully and fit and feel great. Much closer fit making them a bit dressier than some others I have. But as I was making them for me and after making two cowls for the moms for Christmas. I got to thinking that a nice matching cowl would then make a nice dressy set. So, out came all the stitch dictionaries and I found a cable-fan that I thought would look like a close match but would also be warm and pretty. Here’s the bit I’ve got done after a bit of experimenting and changing the pattern a bit.

I think it’s going to come out just like I want. I made it a bit loose so that if I decide it will work I can make it longer to pull up over my head to cover my ears if it’s really, really cold (like it has been the last week or so).

Anyway, tomorrow is major last minute house cleaning. Pick my son up at the airport. Buy the Turkey and catch up on his life. Just what he wants: the mother interrogation. Naw, we’ll all have fun. We’re planning to go see the new Sherlock Holmes film. I may or may not be able to post for a while. So, everyone have a great holiday if I don’t get a post or two in.

November and start of December have seemed to pass in a haze at times. Hyperion and I have both had swine flu. However, we both had lots of commitments — things that just can’t be pushed off. Some days it seemed like pushing that boulder up a mountain just to do it over and over and over again.

However, I did find a December coffee cup. I spotted this at Home Goods and just burst out laughing. After the rough few weeks I just had, anything to make me smile, let alone laugh out loud just had to be the December cup. The only drawback to this design is it has to be used right handed. So, good ole lefty me has to remember to pick it up with the right hand.

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love it. I love the smiles, the happiness, the anticipation. The happy holiday wishes from everyone. I don’t like buying gifts, wrapping them, or doing all that other stuff. But I love the feeling behind the holiday, not the commercialism. Heck, today is December 11th and I’ve only watched two holiday films so far this month. Well okay we’ve been watching the Star Trek (original) movies and just finish The Undiscovered Country but still I miss not seeing the Christmas ones. The ones I did see are The Polar Express (this is the 25th Anniversary of the book) and Love Actually. Maybe if I finally get caught up on my writing and reading I can watch some more as I quickly knit to finish off Christmas gifts.

Last year I complained because we’d looked and looked and looked and couldn’t find a tree topper. We ended up buying a Santa that was made of white painted tin in a conical shape that fit on the top though it wasn’t an actual tree topper. This year, we stopped at one store and looked and found this one. This one looks much better lit up than in the box. It’s sort of poinsettia shaped and has lights inside it. It took a while to get it up since the cord is short and the tree we have has the lights already on it so the cords for each section go all the way down. Took two days to find an unused extension cord. But it really does look good at night.

We didn’t feel like going all out for Christmas this year, so just did the tree and put out my collection of Santa statues — or most of them, some are still packed. We’ve been collecting Santa and folk art ornaments for years and the statues were just an extension of that collecting. If you look very carefully at the tree you’d see that most of the ornaments are Santa variations, bears, or folk art type, or some from our childhood trees.

My son is coming down for Christmas this year. He normally only comes down for Thanksgiving, but this year he couldn’t make it then and will be here for Christmas. We’re looking forward to his visit and we hoped to put up all the decorations since he hasn’t seen the house fully done up. We normally put up the tree the evening of Thanksgiving day or the day after since he lives in a small apartment and has a teeny tiny tree when he bothers with one at all. We may do more later but probably we’ll call it enough this year since we still catching up. I feel like I lost November all together.

However, I hope that you’re all enjoying getting ready for the holiday and forget the stress and the rush and just enjoy the spirit that’s in the air– I think it’s pine, cinnamon, and spice.

A bit late to say so but it snowed most of Saturday. We didn’t intend to go out but realized that mailing deadlines were approaching and some things just needed to be finished so we could mail them out. So, we got all the odd jobs taken care of on Saturday — driving wasn’t too bad actually as the snow was mostly melted or slush.

Today, we got the tree up and the ornaments on. I’ll post a picture tomorrow. It’s been a quiet day of decorating the tree, catching up on all the volunteer work we’d said we do, and then watching The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I managed to nearly finish a Christmas gift.

The cough is mostly gone — I’ll be glad when it’s completely gone but finishing a project — or nearly so just makes me feel that things are looking up.

Last year, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee knit up an absolutely beautiful cowl that she named Pretty Thing. Recently she released the pattern for sale on her website (scroll down to the post called — The moral of the story).

Now it happened that this is the time of year I begin to cast far and wide looking for possible Christmas gifts. So, as soon as I managed to purchase the pattern, I cast on. Now, I have bought some lovely alpaca/wool blend yarn but the version in the photo is done with sock yarn in a variegated white/grey/black that has a lot of stretch to it. I’m not going to even attempt to block something that has that much nylon bounce to it. You can get an idea of the pattern but the variegation sort of hides the details. When I make my next one in a solid color I’ll post another picture.

The reason for sock yarn in a stretch yarn is that the person who will get this throws everything into the washer and then the dryer. Labels are for sissies. So, knowing my giftee, I plan accordingly. This will go well with her coloring but will also survive the washer and dryer and it will hold its shape without being blocked. It also stretches enough that it won’t muss the hair too much.

I tried it on and it fit wonderfully but I think I’ll add another pattern repeat for the next one since it won’t have as much stretch to the yarn and evidently I and some people I know have big heads. [Hyperion: As she found out when she asked me to try it on.] We must be big head people– but that just means that we have more brains and thus will be the choice of zombies everywhere. [Hyperion: She says the sweetest things :blush:]

Anyway, having knit my first Pretty Thing, I can say that the pattern is clearly written. I didn’t even have any problems with the sewn cast-off — and I’d never done that before. It makes a lovely stretchy edge to the cowl.

We went live with the magazines at midnight on September 1st, but we just finished all the tweaks and polishing of the chrome this evening.  The major problem this month was me.  Yup, me.

I got the flu or a cold but it might be the flu.  Yes, I googled the symptoms and I’ve got all of them so I don’t know what I’ve got.  So, I’ve been dragging around for a couple of weeks barely getting out of my own way and trying to do the things that absolutely had to be done and smoothing over the rest.  That means I OCR documents, put the pages together and proofed  them.  Entered and proofed reviews that were sent to me.  Stared at the screen for inordinate amounts of time but didn’t add a line to my novel.  Sent out the announcement of the finalists for the WSFA Small Press Award. I answered some email and entered books.

And I read.  I don’t know what most people do but when I don’t feel good I read.   I read nearly everything I was assigned this month and then some.  The problem is that, feeling as crappy as I did — I didn’t write the reviews immediately but waited.  I thought, silly me, that I’d write them the last three days of the month since I’d already taken notes and stuck stickies in the books to remind me of things I could do that.  Except I then got laryngitis and Hyperion got sick and several people who normally don’t wait to the last minute did and ….

Well, I ended up adding new material on September 1st and 2nd.  So, now we’re really done with the zines and so, if you already checked it out — check again — there may be new stuff because I combed my email today for everything I missed and now–deep sigh,  it’s time to start all over again for the October issue.

Speaking of upcoming events, I’m hoping to get an interview with Monica Fairview the author of The Other Mr. Darcy in October.  She’s doing a blog tour and I’m hoping she’ll be able to squeeze it in between stops.  I’ve got the list of the blogs she’ll be visiting and will post it closer to the start of her tour and just before I post my review of the book.

Gumshoe is going to be running an interview with Laura Childs in October to go with the release of her new book, Tragic Magic (A Scrapbooking Mystery).  I’ll also be reviewing season one of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

On the SFRevu side, I need to see what books we’re reviewing for October and start contacting people to line up an interview.  The problem is usually not that there aren’t enough people to ask but that I dither on trying to decide who to ask because I want to ask them all.

Then there’s the knitting.  I’ve got a pair of socks on the needles and the first one is nearly to the heel.  I’ve got a sweater that needs to be steam pressed and hemmed and a button added.  And, I’ve got two other started sweaters that I hope to finish this fall.  Then there’s the spinning of yarn that I need to do.  I’d hoped to get some spinning done by requesting an audio book for review but when it arrived it was print–no problem but I was looking forward to the listening time.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to get my act together to get geared up for Capclave 2010. I’m really excited about the opportunity to be a convention chair and hope that the convention will turn out to be one that everyone enjoys from the Guests of Honor to the Volunteers to the attendees.

Looking this over, I think I may be over-committed…nah…it will be fun.

Huge thunderstorm tonight. Sky was a strange pink between the trees and the lightning. Rained hard with blowing wind. I love storms. It tailed off again, then back, then gone again.

We got in our copy of True Blood and watched the first four episodes. Quite good but I’ll do more on that later when I’ve seen the full season.

Finished all the parts of the sweater I’ve been working on and started sewing it together. Goofed on one of the shoulder seams and now need to decide what to do — pull it out (difficult because I already did the ends in; try to fix by doing a bigger seam just deeper to take in the ripple; or just leave it because I’m probably the only one who’ll even notice it.

Right now I’m liking option three. Another knitter might notice the badly sewn seam. But I know in my heart that it will bug me. So, I guess tomorrow I’ll have to tease it apart and start all over because as much as I’d like to just leave it be — I know I’d see it as a big whopping “look at me” sign that would drive me crazy. So, big sigh, I’ll know I’ll take it apart but I’ve just got to pretend for a while that I won’t.

What do you do when you see a mistake you made? Fix it? Ignore it? Pretend it isn’t there and try harder next time? Me. I can’t ignore it because it tasks me with its existence even when it’s my mistake. I have to make and effort to fix it or get over it and move on.

I guess often knitting and craft work is a microcosm for how you deal with life…but I really don’t want to examine that thought too much right now.