Archives: May 2005
Mon May 30, 2005
Witches Bend
It is common in wiccan circles to say that "wicca" comes from an old word that means "bend," and modern wiccans interpret this to mean "bend with the will," or to "bend" energies and direct them in desired directions. I am just finishing a book that puts the witches' relationship to "bending" in a whole new light. More...
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Sun May 29, 2005
Sargent Pepper's Mystery Tour
I've lived here more than twenty years, and yet I am still amazed how wonderful Santa Cruz is. It's the weather, of course, and neighborhood stores, and waterfalls in Big Basin, and Auburn Beach. And it is the arts, creative and performing. And it is the opportunity to experience the live concerts of the While Album Ensemble. More...
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Sat May 28, 2005
Aphrodities and Evolution
Mark Morford's column this week entitled Female Orgasm: Proof Of God; Science can't explain it, evolution can't understand it and men can only lie there in awe is just great. Go read it right now. The only thing I can add is that I remember reading somewhere, probably "The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" that to say "orgasm" in Greek you say "Aphrodite."
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Moths the Size of Hummingbirds
Over at Dharma Bums, people are writing hummingbird haiku. Later in the day after I read some of it, I saw this dead moth at the Engineering building. I should have taken an establishing photo because you can't tell from the picture that it has a four-inch wingspan. More...
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The UPTE Strike
My union had a one-day strike yesterday, and it was a fun as these things can be. We had just the one-day unfair labor practices strike, not an open-ended economic strike. The point of the strike is to draw attention to our issues, which --despite the Sentinel story--go a little deeper than "we want more money." The campus was pretty quiet, lots of people stayed away, and we'll see if this first statewide strike by UPTE shakes something lose. More...
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Fri May 27, 2005
Sims in Comfortable Shoes
I haven't enjoyed a computer game since "Fool's Errand." I'd heard of a game called "The Sims" because back in the 80s I got to play "Sim City" *at work.* Long story. But "The Sims:" what I didn't know, until this AfterEllen article, is that the current version of the game supports playing The Sims with lesbian families, and that all characters in the game are inherently bisexual. More...
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More Macintosh Switchers
I was quite surprised to find in my weekly "Network World" this article by Winn Schwartau, a security writer, lecturer, and president of an awareness consulting firm. He seems to be saying WinTel machines are broken and insecure. Imagine that? His consulting firm has a blog where they will chronicle the entire staff's experience switching to Macintoshes. And yesterday, the CEO of Intel said that if you want a secure platform, buy a Macintosh.
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Thu May 26, 2005
SC Crime Logs Now Available
Well, this is very cool. The City of Santa Cruz Police crime logs in pdf are now available, and apparently because the Chief pushed for it.
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Group Video Chats
I've been looking forward to seeing how Apple's multiple-person video chat in its latest OS release. But I have had time to install it yet. So I'm contenting myself with reviews, like this one from TidBits. More...
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Wed May 25, 2005
"Best Of" Craig's List
You all probably already know about this, but I just discovered the "Best of Craig's list". Here are a few I enjoyed. More...
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Sun May 22, 2005
Some Old Postcards
I probably won't be able to write much this week because of the strike so here are a few old views of Santa Cruz to amuse you until I get back. More...
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Sat May 21, 2005
"If You Could Teach The World Just One Thing..."
Another cool collection of great teachers' ideas at spiked-online. At the top of the list, Ralph Abraham says: "Science can validate experience, but not deny it."
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Chemistry for Everyone
I thought I posted this already, but I think this is one of the many things I've wanted to write about but haven't had the chance. Molecule of the Month! another wonder of the web. How I wish that molecule of the month had been available when I was a chemist. More...
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Inside the World Of Networking
I don't remember now where I saw this, but Ken Norton tells an interesting story about the time he met with Enron to discuss trading excess internet bandwidth the way that they traded natural gas. The story is interesting because it is about Enron and fraud, but it is also interesting because of the technology it describes. This is a good explanation of how the physical parts of the network are put together.
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How I Hunger for My Blog
I have not been able to write for days and my queue of writing is really starting to bug me. It's not like I write pithy 1000-word essays that can be collected in bathroom-books, but even the little I do is something I need and enjoy. As I suspected, too much union-related stuff. Last night me and a brother member when to a student coalition of supporters. The meeting didn't start until 8 pm, and wasn't over until 10:30. Yet, it was more productive, respectful, and fun than any meeting I've been at in network operations.
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Tue May 17, 2005
Canine Coultre
I love dressing my dog up in clothes. She likes to pose. What else is there to do but post this photo? More...
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My Skilz
I have a technical job, so I do things that seem like magic to other people all the time. But sometimes I do something so technical I really impress myself. Last week, for example, I was able to pay for, download, and install a ring-tone on my new cell phone. It sounds like a telephone ringing. A telephone with real bells inside. I'm still so amazed that I could do this, that when people call me, I don't say "dammit, that effing cell phone."
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Mon May 16, 2005
Another UPTE Strike
Well, it looks like my union is going on strike again. They are so hard and divisive and expensive and effective. So here goes. I haven't been able to write much at all this month and helping out with the strike is going to take most of my writing time, not to mention time for noodling around on the internet. So that's where I'll be if you don't see me here. More...
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From the Mountain
Astronomy is sort of cool, and the nineteenth-century is very cool, so put them both together and you get Lick Observatory. More...
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Sat May 14, 2005
Pantry
Today's chore was cleaning the pantry. As usual when I'm doing housework, I went back in time. More...
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Tue May 10, 2005
Etymolgy of "Stig"
BH, aconstant reader of this blog mentioned the name "Stig" as a very British name, so I started looking a for it. "Stig" is not listed in the Etymology of First Names nothing even close. More...
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Relative History
Living in a place where "history" begins around 1789, I'm beginning to understand what it means to live in a place like England, where people pull all kinds of cool stuff out of the ground all the time. And China! wow. The last two links are via cronaca, linked at left.
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Sun May 08, 2005
Our Audible Worlds
...via Arts and Letters Daily, Garrison Keillor in The Nation on the future of radio, even those small stations that Clear Channel bought up. Here's a snippet: More...
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Fri May 06, 2005
Mystery Gravestone
Remember Riverstreet over hear Bulkhead, where Trader Tots and George Wilson Plumbing used to be? It's a big hole in the ground now, and earlier this year, someone found a *mystery gravestone.* More...
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No Progress Yet On Shopper's Corner Mual
Although there's been little change in the mural at Shoppers' Corner, inside the store is a story from the Sentinel. It's going to be a trompe l'oeil of some kinda pipe aquarium thing. I'll keep everyone posted. More...
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Ersatz History
The other day I saw an interesting poster at Kresge College. A few minutes later, I learned something sad and shocking about it. More...
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A Disappreciation
Every writer should be able to write in different genre and mode. I can. But I think I really shine in parody and flame. I mothballed a computer earlier this week and found an example of the latter. I wrote it several years ago, and today I took some photos to illustrate it. More...
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Tue May 03, 2005
What It Means to Have a Man's Job
I'm a "network analyst." I work in an industry where men hold 95% of the jobs. Very, very few women do what I do. It is common for me to be only "technical" woman in a room of ten or twenty people. Most of the women I meet in my job are in sales. Being the only woman in the room is not usual for me. Very few women majored in chemistry either. Every once in a while I experience something that shows me what it means to have a man's job. Today's example was horrifying. More...
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Sun May 01, 2005
Not Posting: Reading
I haven't been posting because I've been reading, or being read to. I bought my first audiobook from Audible.com and it is hard to "put it down." I read His Dark Materials trilogy years ago, when it was first published. Now Audible is selling it narrated by the author, Phillip Pullman, with a full cast. I doubt other audio books are going to be this enjoyable. For one thing, the regional accents of charcters add depth and increase my understanding them. Mrs. Coulter's voice is sinister as she attempts to be "kind," and Lord Asrial's voice contains both his strength and cunning.
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