Two blogs are better than one

I started my blogging "career" here on Blogger. I enjoyed it, but the Blogger framework had only limited customization. So, I moved to Wordpress.com. It was much more customizable, and I fell into a nice relationship with Wordpress.com that I maintained for quite some time. Then, I decided I wanted to host my blog myself. I opened up a hosting account with Dreamhost and purchased the domain "eclecticdefined.org". I have hosted my blog there ever since, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

I took a break from blogging - a two year break. Facebook and Twitter took precedence. Microblogging was all the rage. It seemed as though we no longer had time to read full-blown blogs. We were too busy following our grandchildren, far-flung relatives, and high school classmates on Facebook and Twitter, and playing Farmville, to spend time perusing blogs. I stopped blogging and spent time Facebooking and tweeting. And yes, I did succumb to Farmville's allure for quite some time.

Times change. I no longer play Farmville. I deleted my farm, which was replete with European-themed buildings - I had the Eiffel Tower, L'Ecole Militaire, French chateaus, Italian villas and sidewalk cafes, an English castle, the Swiss Alps and Bavarian villages - and U.S. regionally-themed sections, with Cape Cod beaches, lighthouses, and homes, southwestern adobes with bobcats and cacti, and west coast surf scenes. I had lost interest in, and no longer had time to play, the game.

I don't Tweet much, nor do I read the tweets of the people I follow. No time. I do update my Facebook status regularly, and post photos, mostly because it is so easy to do from my smartphone. I try to keep up with the status updates of all my family members, most of my high school classmates, and a few local friends and coworkers, but my hectic schedule makes that challenging at times. While I crave the social interaction that Facebook provides, my time is so limited I miss many important updates from those I care about. I need to find a way to slow down my life. And while Facebook is terrific, it doesn't really provide one a venue for extended musings, the way blogging does. 

So, I decided to revive my blog. I'm probably crazy to do so. If I barely have time to Facebook or Tweet, how on earth will I find time to blog anything other than idiotic drivel? I have no idea. But I'm going to give it a go. Now, the question is, do I completely abandon this blog, or do I feed my posts from my domain to this blog? Or do I do something completely different here? That is a question I have yet to answer. For the time being, I am going to feed the posts from eclecticdefined.org/blog to this blog, and ponder the direction in which I will go. I don't want to give this blog up because I have some cool stuff posted here, and I really am a pack rat at heart. So, onward, to see what the future holds....

Moving day, or "Where to find my blog now"

Okay, kids. I'm moving. Yes, I know, I know.... you're going to whine about how we'll have to make new friends, get used to a new home, figure out how to arrange the cupboards, learn our way around, all the usual complaints when one moves. I like to look at all that as an adventure, a fresh start, and a chance to throw out some stuff I never use, sort of like doing a major spring cleaning. I really like the new home. I like the layout of the house, the new wallpaper, the fresh clean look and feel. I love the landscaping at the new place. It's very easy to care for, and making changes is super simple. So, please come visit. I'll have a housewarming really soon. In the meantime, update your address books with my new address, okay? I really don't want to lose touch with anyone!

It's still eclecticdefined, but it's at WordPress.com instead of Blogger.com (if you want to enter it manually, it's http://eclecticdefined.wordpress.com).

By the way, there are some really nice homes in the neighborhood and the prices are great! You can even select your floor plan, colors, cabinets, etc. Maybe you need to move too! I've added a feed to the sidebar on the left that will show the three most recent posts to that blog. I'm trying to make it as easy as possible for you all to get to my new digs.

Charlie posted

Hey guys, for those of you how don't have an RSS feed for Charlie's blogs, he has posted two things on his "Thanks for all the Fish" blog. Check it out.

WordPress Blog

For a variety of reasons, I decided to check out WordPress. It's another blogging site. Since I have not decided to move completely to WordPress, I am running both blogs simultaneously. It's easy to import all your lovely posts from Blogger into WordPress, though you can't import your template and various customizations. If you're a CSS whiz, it's a piece of cake I suspect. For those of us who are somewhat challenged in this area, it's not that easy. But they do have some nice templates from which one can select. WordPress has some advantages over Blogger, and some disadvantages. If you're interested, check it out. http://eclecticdefined.wordpress.com. It's still a work in progress. I have yet to figure out all the cool things I can do. For an idea of what all you can do, click the link in my blogroll on the left here to Emoglasses. That's my son's freshman roommate's blog. He's been on WordPress for a long time now and has all sorts of nifty widgets and whatnot in his sidebar.

Oh yeah, if you put your cursor over any of the links in my sidebar on the new blog, this cool add-in shows you a thumbnail of the site. Pretty neat.

What is that strange, bright thing in the sky?

Oh, I know! It's Helios in his chariot. Duh!

Seriously, it's supposed to be pretty nice today - partly cloudy, highs in the mid-60's. I can live with that. Oldest Son and his family are staying at The Daughter's house. They're all going up skiing today. Should be perfect up there.

The Daughter-in-law really wants to move to town. I guess she's tired of living in the city, and since everything they love to do is here - jet ski, ski, go to the beach, visit family - it makes sense to LIVE here. They both sell property and casualty insurance, so can pretty much work from anywhere in the area - Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, or Sandpoint - so that won't be an issue. What is an issue to Oldest Son and Granddaughter 1, is basketball. Granddaughter 1 is an avid (even rabid) basketball player. She has been playing since she was 7 or 8. She's now nearly 13. She plays AAU basketball year round. She is now playing junior high basketball as well. The level of competition here, well, in all of North Idaho, leaves a lot to be desired. Our high school girl's basketball team finished 2 and 20 last year. Oldest Son finds that problematic. But the reality is, Granddaughter 1 will probably not play basketball much beyond 9th grade in Spokane unless she gets dramatically better, and grows about 5 inches. Moving here is a quality of life decision. Basketball should not be the deal breaker or maker. Daughter-in-law is frustrated. They have a 4 year-old too. The decision has to be what's best for all of them, not just GD1.

At the mere mention of moving here, GD1 gets emotional. Last night, she went crying from the room. I found her and told her, "don't cry about it now. It's all just talk so far. When they start packing up your bedroom, then you can cry." She laughed. I harassed her for not being thrilled that she could come visit me every single day if she wanted to if they lived here. She laughed a little at that.

I know what she's feeling. We moved constantly when I was a kid - a new school and town every year from 1st grade through 6th grade. I'm convinced my dad was/is ADD. He'd get bored with his job, and we'd move. When I was a freshman in high school, he announced we were going to move from Santa Maria, CA to Williams, CA. At first I cried. Then I got used to the idea and kind of got excited (I'm one of those silver lining kind of people). Williams would be in the mountains with trees, snow, and cool stuff like that (I was a kid who'd never even seen snow falling from the sky). It never panned out, and I was actually disappointed. The next year my parents divorced. I wondered for a long time if things would have been different had we moved to Williams.

I think moving here would be really good for Oldest Son's family for a lot of reasons. They really could stand to spend more time with the family and get out of the city and all its distractions. They could really stand to play a lot less basketball. But those are decisions they'll have to make. This isn't the first time they've looked into moving here. It probably won't happen. I'm not getting my hopes up, and I'll encourage GD1 not to worry - yet.

Now I have to go make my bed. Lorraine made me feel guilty.

I have a new cat

Well, not really, but it seems like it. You see, with this whole pet food scare, I started doing a little research. Fortunately, none of the food I've been feeding my cat are part of the recall - yet. But as I've mentioned before, my cat pretty much eats her food, and almost immediately pukes it up, undigested. How it is that she's such a porker - about 12-14 pounds I suspect - given how much food comes OUT of her, is beyond me. I've tried expensive "all natural" foods that vow to cure your cat of everything you could imagine - and she still pukes. When dry food was added to the recall, I decided to consider making our own cat food. I found a site called catnutrition.org with instructions for doing just that. But more importantly, there was a link to an article that was published in the Journal of Veterinary Medicine, about what cats should be eating, versus what we all feed them. It was as though someone had switched on a light bulb. Duh! What does a cat do when it's left to its own devices? It catches mice, birds, rabbits (yes, I had cats that brought down rabbits), basically rodents of every imaginable variety, fish, and eats them, puking up the parts that don't digest, like feathers, fur, some bones, and so on. Cats are obligate carnivores - or true carnivores. They don't eat corn, wheat, rice, carrots, apples, stuff like that. Yet, we feed them cereal based food. About the only non-meat item cats eat is grass. A cat needs 5 times as much protein as a dog! And their systems are not designed to handle a lot of carbohydrates very well. That's why all our cats fed kibble get fat - they don't know what to do with all that cereal, so it's stored as fat. It's also why they develop kidney, thyroid, and pancreatic problems. It really makes so much sense. A dog will eat pretty much anything, even in the wild. Cats eat critters, and little else.

No way was I going to put in the time to make this raw food. As The Daughter pointed out, I can barely make meals for The Spouse and myself (not for lack of skill, simply lack of time), let alone the cat. She made this comment in a room filled with the Oldest Son, three grandkids, The Spouse, the Son-in-Law, and me, and it was followed by much laughter, especially by the oldest granddaughter. But the concept of what the cat should be eating, as opposed to what she has been eating, made total sense to me. So, when I went to the store, I sought out cat food that was composed of meat and good fats, not cereal. I discovered that all the Fancy Feast canned food contains wheat gluten - the culprit in this catastrophe - with the exception of the fish meals. They contain no cereals. The worst thing I could see on the labels was guar gum, and since I know that's just a thickener, and it was way down on the list, I wasn't too worried. I bought several flavors of the fish meals - fish and shrimp, trout, salmon, etc. That night, I removed her dry food and gave her half a can of the Fancy Feast. She devoured it - and no puking. The next morning, she got another half a can. Now, these are the small cans, so she's not getting a lot of food. I half expected her to down the portion I gave her and come begging for more, but that was not the case. For the past four days, she's had only the canned food,with a few little dry treats thrown in to help keep her teeth in shape. Since I'm not making the raw food, she's not getting bones to keep her teeth clean and strong, so I will be giving her some tartar control treats every couple of days. For the past four days she has not puked once. And she is suddenly frisky and active and silly. She is like a kitten again. I am amazed. She wakes me up at 4 AM, which is not all that cool, but she does it by patting my face with her paw over and over, like she wants to play. She is a new cat. I am so amazed what this food change has done, but it makes so much sense. Maybe, when the days are longer, I will undertake making the raw food, because ideally, cats need RAW meat, not cooked meat. But for now, I am relying on Fancy Feast.

Italy - I want to go there!

I talked to YS via IM this morning. He is loving Italy. He is in the Lake Como area right now, specifically today he was in Bellagio (I thought that was a casino in Las Vegas). He said that no picture he could take could show how amazingly beautiful it is there. This is from a kid who's been to the Lake Louise and Banff in the amazing Canadian Rockies, to Yellowstone, to Scotland and the Isle of Skye, and who has been in France for the past two months. He said The Spouse and I have to go to Como. I asked him if his dad would be bored there. He said "you guys like small towns with nothing to do, right? LOL." He reiterated that it is awesomely beautiful. He spent two days in Florence before arriving in Como, and loved it. Unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of time, so he didn't get to go inside the Duomo!!! He didn't climb the 436 steps to the top of the dome - Brunelleschi's famously beautiful dome. How sad. From what I've seen of Italy in travelogues, you need at least 3 days in Florence to see the major sights. He did see Michelangelo's David and went to the Uffizi Gallery, though his lack of art history classes meant he didn't recognize most of the artists. I, on the other hand, am an avid fan of Italian Renaissance art, and seeing a real live Giotto or Caravaggio in person would make me cry. He did appreciate the artwork, though he wasn't familiar with the artists.

I am watching a DVD called Visions of Italy and it is breathtaking. It is shot from a helicopter, and the two DVDs cover all of Italy. I am watching the part on Rome right now. I have to go there. I watched the part on Northern Italy earlier, and it showed the Lake Como area, specifically Bellagio. It really is breathtakingly beautiful. I have decided that I want to spend the rest of my life traveling around Europe. I'll be taking donations on my special website so you can all contribute to this worthy cause. Sigh.

Now, back to reality. It's sunny today, and I think it's supposed to be near 70. I will go for a nice walk at lunch. For now, it's tme to hit the showers. Ciao, mi amici!

Was this the intent?

I admit it. I watch the train wreck that is American Idol. I usually zip through the show (thank you, TiVo) and stop to hear the songs and the judges' comments. Paula's are completely worthless. Randy's are somewhat meaningful, but now and then... Only Simon's have any real value, in my opinion. He is honest, albeit brutally so at times, but he doesn't sweet talk the contestants like Paula does, and he doesn't gloss over their flaws. He calls it as he sees it. Anyway, I digress. This season is kind of weird, Sanjaya insanity aside. For those of you who don't watch the show and have no clue who Sanjaya is, he is this year's contestant who has no business being this far along in the competition. There is one every year. Unfortunately, it's gotten out of control this year, and I'm afraid Sanjaya will be in the competition way, way too long.

Anyway, there are two kinds of contestants this year. There are true amateurs - kids who have only sung in church or in a school musical or choir, and then there are the pros. One of the contestants, who consistently outshines all the others both in vocal and performance quality, has been a backup singer for Michael McDonald, Anointed, Mandisa, Aaron Neville, Jonny Lang, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Alabama (band) and CeCe Winans. Given that résumé, shouldn't she be an amazing vocalist and know how to perform? And she's not the only pro in this year's contest. So, is it fair to the others? And does this change what American Idol was supposed to be all about? I think so. One thing I used to like about the show was watching the kids go from being really good singers, albeit a little geeky and awkward, to really amazing performers. This season, that has been the case with only two contestants - Jordin Sparks, a 17 year-old who sings like nobody's business, and LaKisha Jones, a single mom who has undergone an amazing physical transformation along the lines of Clay Aiken's, though her singing has always been incredible. The rest of the contestants are virtually unchanged from when the contest started, both as far as singing ability and appearance are concerned. They are either good or not, and that hasn't changed. One contestant I really like is Blake Lewis. This kid is going places, no matter where he finishes in the contest. He is unique, talented, cute, and can dance. Oh, and he's from the Pacific Northwest. So is Sanjaya, but let's not mention him, okay?

So, is it fair to let "pros" compete? Does it change the original intent of the show? It makes me hope the amateurs win.

Hamster tails, err tales

Continuing from below....

In college, for a bit, my ex and I lived in married students' housing. No pets were allowed. Well, no cats or dogs. You could have birds, fish, rodents, anything but a cat or dog. We were animal people. We wanted a cat. We settled for hamsters - the beige teddy bear hamsters that were so popular in the early 70's. We wanted a gerbil, but they were (are they still?) illegal in California. So, we got these two adorable hamsters and played with them constantly. We also had two tropical fish tanks, a canary, a parakeet, and two chinchillas. I told you. We were animal people.

The hamsters lived in this tall wire cage with a great wheel in it, and lots of steps they could go up and down. This was before Habitrails came out. I think we did eventually have one of those balls you put them in and let them roll all over the floor in. Anyway, these guys, of course, had kids - usually four at a time. We sold them to the local pet store. But they became really adept at getting out of their cage. The male would lift the door over and over and over again, endlessly. At first, it wasn't a concern because he couldn't lift it far - a quarter inch or so. But eventually he figured out how to open it and get a limb under it to keep it open for a second or two. The female caught wind of what he was up to. Next thing we knew, she was sneaking out under the door to freedom. We snatched her and put her back in the cage, figuring this was a fluke. Of course, it wasn't. They eventually learned how to get out of the cage together. We'd get up and find them in all sorts of places - in the laundry, under the bed, everywhere. We'd put them in the cage, try to figure out some way to keep them from lifting the door, and they'd find a way out.

Their cage was in the spare bedroom on the second floor, so finding them was pretty easy - there were only two bedrooms and a bathroom on the floor, and it was not a big place. One morning, I went downstairs to make coffee. I noticed that my small schefflera (umbrella plant)was knocked over. I went to pick it up, and saw that it was pretty much gone. What I mean is, something had eaten the plant to the stalk! Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. Mr. Hamster was scurrying around the living room. In another corner of the room was Mrs. Hamster. These two little rodents had escaped their cage and gotten down the stairs and were eating my plants. Now, the floors in this apartment were uncarpeted, old-fashioned asphalt tile floors everywhere but the living room, where there was carpet. The steps were slippery. We could not imagine how the hamsters had made it down an entire flight of stairs. So, we scooped them up, put them back in the cage, and decided to watch them. They had become so adept at escaping from the cage by now, that in a matter of seconds, they were out and headed for their veggie feast downstairs. It was then that we noticed the narrow strip of wood that lined the stairway on both side - sort of like the baseboard for the steps. These little rascals were scurrying down that strip of wood like it was the Bonneville Salt Flats. They were downstairs in seconds. We laughed like idiots. Being the starving college students we were, we couldn't afford a new cage, and the construction of the one we had pretty much precluded being able to lock the cage door shut, so we took the whole shebang to the pet store and sold them back to him.

Then there's the chinchilla story...but another time.

That reminds me....

Jon's post about the great hamster disaster of '69 made me laugh - and remember. It made me remember two stories, actually.

When I was in the 4th grade, we lived in a trailer park in Cathedral City, CA, outside Palm Springs. The hills behind the trailer park - the "Sage & Sand Trailer Park" to be exact - were nothing but rocks. No trees, no vegetation, just big rocky hills. This family of kids with whom we'd become friends had a really cool fort up in the hills. It was a cleft in the rocks, set back where two hills came together. It was really, really cool. So of course, we played Army and tried to take over their fort. We never succeeded. But what really sucked was that we didn't have a fort of our own. We were newcomers. All the good forts were already taken. So, in a gesture totally out of character for them, my parents hiked up into the hills with us and helped us build a fort. It was pretty bleak. It was basically a ring of rocks piled about a foot high, in the middle of the blazing sun, on the side of this rocky hill. We gussied it up (I'm using that word a lot today) by making "rooms" in our fort. We did this by dividing the big circle with "walls" of rocks piled about a foot high. It wasn't nearly as cool as our friends' fort, but it was ours. And of course, the other kids wanted it, so we had tons of fun playing Army and trying to capture each others' forts.

So, what does all this have to do with hamsters, you ask? Well, that year my mom decided to get us some white mice. Maybe she was using them for sex ed. I'm not sure what prompted her, because she wasn't big on rodents as pets, especially mice. Nevertheless, we had a pair of white mice. And before long, we had 10 white mice. I remember watching them being born. And like Jon's hamster, one of the parents decided to make a meal from some of the babies. But we rescued most of them by removing the offending parent (I'm sure it was the father mouse). Like most little kids, we four were enthralled with the mice. We carried them everywhere with us, played with them non-stop, the usual. But mice stink. I'm not sure if it was Mom or Dad who decided we'd had them long enough, but the time came to get rid of them. We four kids were crying and begging to be allowed to keep them. A compromise was reached. We could let the mice live in our fort - in the rock walls. We kids thought that was perfect. They would live there, we'd see them every day, feed them, etc. I don't know what we were smoking. I think I caught a knowing look pass between my parents, but didn't have a clue what it meant.

Off we went to release our little rodent friends into the walls of our fort. We played with them in their box for a while, then it was time to go home. We bid them goodbye, vowing to return the next day to play with them. I'm sure you can figure out what happened next. Lots of tears, and suggestions as to where they might have traveled off to when they escaped their rock-wall home, and several attempts by me for days thereafter to locate the mice among the rocks that covered the hills, all unsuccessful of course. My little 10-year-old mind imagined them all playing and scurrying about the rocks. My 52-year-old mind realizes they were probably some snake's or owl's dinner that very night.

I have a hamster story next.

Since I can't go home...

I thought I'd post. I am too blah to actually work.

I have eyebrow envy. I have these very skimpy eyebrows that disappear into my face if I don't gussy them up. It's a hereditary thing. My dad and my brother have half eyebrows. There is nothing from the middle, where the arch should be, to the end. Zip. Nada. Mine at least have a few straggly hairs. But a little eyebrow powder, and an angled brush do wonders, and most people who know me have no idea that my eyebrows are brushed on - until I go swimming. Then, my dirty little secret is exposed as I emerge from the water missing a major facial feature. I'm seriously considering having them tattooed on.

Since I have these pathetic eyebrows, I notice beautiful eyebrows, a lot. Gwen Stefani has great eyebrows. So does Paula Abdul. I noticed them both while watching a little of the most boring season of American Idol ever. I want beautiful eyebrows. I envy women with beautiful eyebrows. The Daughter has perfect eyebrows. I wish I had Brooke Shields' eyebrows because with heavy brows, you can have them waxed into the perfect shape. With non-existent brows, you're screwed. Candace Bergen has great eyebrows. I don't. And the problem with having to create eyebrows every day is, they're never the same twice. Some days they look great. Other days they're too thick, too skimpy, not arched enough. It's such a pain. Is it too much to ask to just have eyebrows like one of these three ladies? I think not.

I think I've caught Lorraine's flu

Tuesday morning, when I was at the workshop on wikis and podcasts, I wasn't feeling too well. During the morning section, I had the chills, and sort of ached all over. I just wanted to put my head down and sleep. When we went to lunch between the workshops, I ate nothing, just sipped some tea. I took a couple of Advil capsules, and within an hour, I felt great. I chalked it up to PMS or lack of sleep the night before. This morning, every joint in my body aches. I'm super tired and didn't sleep well at all last night. My stomach is unsettled, and I'm a little warm, although I don't have the chills. I have taken a total of 5 ibuprofen caplets so far, and I still ache. I don't know how long I'm going to last here at work. My dilemma is, I'm the boss today. Every other supervisor is gone. If there is some sort of patron issue, I'm the go-to gal. I would feel like I've abandoned ship if I leave. So, I'm sticking it out until noon. If I'm not feeling hella better by then, I'm going to go home and sleep all afternoon.

Spring Break = Rome, Florence, and Milan

Don't you wish you were a college kid embarking on Spring Break? When I was in college, Spring Break meant I could pick up more hours at the restaurant because I wasn't in class. I never got to go on any wild Spring Break trips. I had rent and bills to pay. Youngest Son, on the other hand, as you all well know, is in France, and tonight he embarks on his 9 day trip to Italy. He and five of his female classmates are leaving at 7:30 PM Paris time for Rome. The timing is perfect. It's supposed to snow in Paris tomorrow, but it should be sunny and breezy in Rome. While I would love to talk to him every night to hear about his impression of our native country, he'll be roaming on his cell, and incoming calls, instead of being free, will cost nearly 1 euro a minute, so calls will be limited to, "we got to Rome safely" or, "we have arrived at the hostel in Florence safely". I can't wait for photos.

Speaking of photos, he has uploaded about 250 photos from his trip thus far. His most recent addition was nearly 100 photos from Normandy, so click the link on the left and take a look (the hyperlink that says France Study Program, not the slideshow).

Now, off to the shower for me.

Is it Spring yet?

The calendar says it is, and today, the sunshine outside confirms the calendar's statement. Yesterday it was actually in the high 50's! Sadly, I was chained to my desk for most of the day, and never got to take advantage of the gorgeous day. Today I will remedy that situation. I plan to walk at lunch today - come hell or high water. I have to get while the getting is good. It's supposed to snow on Sunday and Monday. Yeah, you read that right. Snow. That's proof that it's definitely Spring. Spring is nature's nickname for schizophrenia.

Honi Kaua Wiki Wiki

Today I have been at a workshop - two actually. Workshop 1 was on podcasting. It's something we may start using at the library for storytimes, weekly announcements, etc. Workshop 2 was on wikis. Okay, this one is cool. I have actually started a wiki at the library on our staff page. What we did as an exercise in this workshop today was create a wiki of our own. So, I created, logically, "eclecticdefined wiki". Once I get something useful on it, I'll post the link. I MAY move it to a different wiki host. The place I'm on at the moment is okay, but the templates are way limited, and they want a monthly fee to get the cool stuff - $10 a month to be precise. There are other free options, which I will be looking into.

As for the post title, when I was a kid, my little sister was about 5, my uncle was an executive for Hertz. He lived in Honolulu. He visited the mainland often. He taught us the above sentence - "honi kaua wiki wiki" - which means "kiss me quick" in Hawaiian. My little sister's nickname was "Rikki". My uncle would say "honi kaua wiki wiki, Rikki" and she would wrinkle up her nose and run to him to give him a kiss. She became our trained pet. We took great pleasure in shouting "honi kaua wiki wiki" to her at the most random moments, and she would obligingly come running, face all squinched up, to give us a kiss. Very cute. So, I knew what "wiki" meant long before it became a cool tech thing. And, by the way, wikis are way, way, way cool!

Workshop is over, so now it's time for the long drive home.

Quickly

I have promised to finish this one computer project TODAY, so this is going to be really short. I have decided not to post on "hot" topics again. It just isn't what I wanted this blog to be about, usually. Unfortunately, most of my blog buddies are of the opposite political persuasion than I, so I am sure reading my thoughts, however thoughtfully I try to explain them, probably isn't enlightening or entertaining. In fact, it probably has some of them clenching their teeth and shaking their heads in frustration. I know that because that's how I sometimes react to some comments and posts on some of my blog buddies' blogs. It's okay that we don't agree on everything, but I want readers of this blog to laugh, to be entertained, to be uplifted, maybe enlightened, not to get all knotted up inside with frustration and aggravation, wanting to whack me over the head with the "come to your senses" whacker. So, no more political posts for me. From now on, it's all fun and games on eclectic defined! Enjoy.

Spring Things

My crocuses are blooming! I pulled away the dead leaf mulch that has protected them all winter to reveal their gold and purple blooms. I won't actually get to see them open until this weekend, since they are still closed when I leave in the morning, and are closed for the night when I get home. I love these colorful little welcomers of Spring. Soon, I'll see my Siberian Squill poke their little blooms up. The greenery of the daffodils and tulips is coming up - thrusting up through the cold, wet dirt higher and higher each day. Even our grass is greening up.

I was going to take a picture of my fingernails. I like to call my current look the "garden manicure". The dirt you get under your nails is so hard to get out, and who has time for gloves when you're doing some impromptu gardening as you're heading to the car on your way to work? So, my right hand has traces of dirt embedded under my nails, and the nails themselves are sort of ragged, while my left hand, which was holding my purse and cell phone during this little gardening moment, has nice, clean, smooth nails. So gauche.

This weekend will certainly entail some serious gardening, unless it snows, which has been known to happen in late March. Heck, it's been known to happen on July 4th! Anyway, I'm going to get all my pots ready, plant some actual seeds, put them in my actual little greenhouse, and maybe, for once, have my own pony packs to start my flowerpots instead of having to go buy them. Yeah, that's my plan. Let's see if it pans out.

(It was time to get off politics and controversy and back to more fun topics.)

I'm not trying to make waves

In a comment on my rant about politicians, and specifically regarding global warming, Sara referred to "the legimate (peer-reviewed) scientific evidence that is in overwhelming abundance", stating that, "It's a known tactic of these sort of groups and politicians [those who don't necessarily buy into the belief that global warming is anthropogenic]* to try and plant a seed of doubt in people's minds regarding the scientific validity. (see also, "evolution is only a theory!")"

Here is a link to a document listing numerous peer-reviewed papers that refute components of the global warming argument. Not all the scientists who disagree are quacks, funded by oil companies, whose works no peer-reviewed publication will print. I'm sure there are those who will quickly point out that the source of this list is the "infamous" Friends of Science organization, who clearly has an agenda. Duh. Who else is going to provide a list of papers refuting global warming theories than an organization whose agenda is just that? Does that make this list any less valid? Does it make the list less valid than one citing papers upholding global warming theories presented by, say, Greenpeace?

If one wants to take an informed stance on any issue, one must be willing to study both sides of an argument with an open mind. To often people claim to have read "the other side's position" and found it lacking, when the reality is, they've read it with the attitude that it's going to be bunk, and they scoff at any argument presented by the opposition viewpoint. I am really, really trying to understand this subject, so I am open to everything I can find on it. I am not going to automatically dismiss scientists who might be funded by oil companies in favor of those funded by environmentalists. Both sides have their biased points of view. I will try to discern their biases, try to determine who is funding their work, but I'll also try to find out as much about the scientist's background as possible to try to determine his/her credibility and standing in the scientific community.

In a lengthy, ongoing discussion on a LiveJournal blog on this topic, one with many, many comments by Tom Harris, the Executive Director of the NSRP, and during which he was NOT treated kindly at all, one of his most ardent detractors asked this:

"Would you be so kind as to present us with said list of the actual climatologists not associated with the IPCC who disagree with the findings of the IPPC FAR. I request just one more qualifier, - in addition to being actual climatologists (and not a geologist, or an engineer, or a broadcast meteorologist, etc.) - that they have recent, peer-reviewed papers on the subject of climate science in a journal which you will then cite."

This poster insisted that no reputable climatologist disagreed with the findings of the IPCC FAR. After being presented the above list, this poster said "I would concede some amount of skepticism is still out there."

That's all I'm saying....some skepticism is still out there among reputable climatologists. I'm trying to understand this issue as well as I can, so I'm not dismissing positions on either side of the issue just yet. I'm still undertaking research.

Oh, and as for Sara's comment meant to show how stupid it is to disbelieve in global warming by comparing it to those who are skeptical about evolution by saying "see also 'evolution is only a theory!'" - well, it is. The definitions of a scientific theory follow:

A comprehensive explanation of a given set of data that has been repeatedly confirmed by observation and experimentation and has gained general acceptance within the scientific community but has not yet been decisively proven. See also hypothesis and scientific law.
http://college.hmco.com/geology/resources/geologylink/glossary/t.html

And....A theory is generally only taken seriously if it:
is tentative, correctable and dynamic, in allowing for changes to be made as new data is discovered, rather than asserting certainty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory

And finally:
A theory is a well-substantiated explanation of an aspect of the natural world that can incorporate laws, hypotheses and facts. The theory of gravitation, for instance, explains why apples fall from trees and astronauts float in space. Similarly, the theory of evolution explains why so many plants and animals—some very similar and some very different—exist on Earth now and in the past, as revealed by the fossil record.
American Museum of Natural History

I suspect Sara was referring to those who use the term "theory" to mean "an untested hunch, or a guess without supporting evidence", and there are those people out there. Evolution is most assuredly not that kind of theory, but it is a theory.

I'm either boring, or....

I'm surprised by the lack of comments lately. Though, not really. I mean, how interested are most of my fellow bloggers in NCAA basketball? Obviously, not too. And the post this morning - well, I suspect some people just don't know what to say. That's okay.

I did "meet" a really interesting person, thanks to my post on Duke University. He has two kids who graduated from Duke, lives in CA, and is a really interesting fellow. We may even actually meet some day over dinner. And he's invited us to his new condo in Zihuatanejo when it's finished being constructed. Pretty cool, huh? I've always wanted to go to somewhere in Mexico other than Tijuana. Anyway, I'm not going to reveal his identity, but he's a really bright guy who has been instrumental in bringing some life-changing medical technologies to market. He calls himself a serial entrepreneur. He's quite well respected in that industry, and we'd never have "met" had it not been for my Duke post, so yay Blogger! Turns out we share the same opinion about the Duke lacrosse rape scandal/hoax/tragedy. That gave us lots to talk about.

I'll try to be more interesting/entertaining so my "fans" will return.

New France Photos

If you click the link to the left to "France Study Program" you can see a bunch of new photos from France. Youngest Son uploaded about 80 pictures today. Obviously, there are some photos that will be boring to people who don't know him or his classmates, but he's got some nice shots of Strasbourg and Paris. He didn't have time to caption them all yet, so you won't necessarily know what they're of. I tried to put captions on things I knew. Anyway, take a look.