Logan's Web Log

Survival Skills

2010-01-10T23:18:00.002-06:00

I've gained around 18 pounds over the past year, and I've been thinking I need a new motivation to keep in shape.

In addition to what I'm calling a direct incentive, which is a plan to buy myself awesome custom jeans as soon as I maintain my target weight for four weeks, I had another idea.

I was thinking about all the physical activities I've thought about doing, but never tried before, I came up with the following list of what I'm calling "Survival Skills". My idea is to spend a day to a couple of weeks focusing on doing each of these things this year. Some of them I'll need to take some basic instruction, some I just need to do and/or practice. They don't all require athleticism, but they are all physical activities that I imagine I will enjoy more if I'm fit, and which will help keep me experiencing my body, which is the opposite of how I gained weight (zoning out of "the now" with food and inactivity).

Archery
Shooting
Basic self defense
Martial art
Equestrian
CPR & First Aid
Geocache/orienteering
Rock climbing
Sailing
Singing/Guitar

Part of the reason I haven't tried some of these things, or continued with some of the ones I have tried and even practiced diligently in the past, is that I felt a phantom of obligation along with the activities that seem like "hobbies" or "avocations", something you should do for a long time, or practice daily, so I just never got going. I'm eliminating that inertia with the survival skills list by deciding to only dip my toes in to each one once a year. If this works out well, I'll do it again in 2011, 2012, etc. I'l have a nice little repertoire of skills getting renewed in a yearly cycle, any one of which I can pursue more deeply or not. Either way, I'll get to try lots of things, and be all well-rounded and outdoorsey.

And yes, of course, this list will help me survive the monetary crash end-times. Or the nuclear armageddon. Or the zombie-pocalypse. (The singing is for around the fire at night. And 'cause zombies hate guitars).

Convenience Food is Convenient

2009-08-13T16:10:00.004-05:00

I've been a long-time enthusiast of food writer Michael Pollan. However, I got annoyed with him the other day. He was on NPR talking about avoiding "convenience foods" and insinuating that people who say they don't have time to cook, probably do, but just don't want to.

I know Pollan means well, but let's not forget that convenience foods are a technology which, along with the birth-control pill, made possible the mass migration of American women to higher education and the workplace. Sure, it's better to eat fresh food not laden with preservatives, sugar and hydrogenated fats, and cooking from scratch can be fun and meditative. But cooking could also be a thankless, time-consuming drugery for women before the Fifties, when many household conveniences were introduced, or became more accessible.

Yes, gourmet cooking at home has become trendy (or, as Pollen points out, watching shows about gourmet cooking at home has become trendy). And more men are into cooking. But there's still some historical baggage attached to cooking, at least for me, and I expect for others. Heck, let's not even say historical: women now outnumber men in attending college, but they generally still do most of the housework.

Sure, we all need to eat better, fresher food, and cook at home more often. But we should also enjoy the ease and extra time that food technology affords us, especially if the occasional frozen pizza helps crank the stress level down a notch.

All things in moderation, even virtuous cooking and eating. To celebrate this notion today, I bought a box of Bisquick, looking forward to some easy biscuits that always taste better than my scratch ones anyway. And then I had a sandwich: local, co-op grown tomatoes for Michael Pollan, and pre-packaged, pre-sliced Oscar Meyer bologna for Betty Friedan.

Gaiman & Gibson

2009-08-10T11:50:00.003-05:00

Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman, 1996. Fantastic as expected, based on what else I've read by Gaiman (Stardust, American Gods). Curiously, the Dante-esque plot and the motifs of an underground feudal society and esteem of rats, is painfully similar to China Mieville's King Rat of 2000. I actually didn't like King Rat very much and didn't finish it - which was disappointing largely because Mieville's The Scar is, no joke, my very favorite book of all time. Anyway, I'm sure Gaiman and Mieville know each other, and I wonder what they talk about when they talk about Neverwhere and King Rat...

Count Zero, William Gibson, 1986. Thrilling, freaky follow-up to Neuromancer. When I read Neuromancer, I could see how the movie The Matrix was a brazen copy, but I'm pretty sure Neuromancer doesn't even use the term "the matrix". Count Zero does contain that term, so I'm starting to think The Matrix is an homage to Gibson's entire opus, with bits taken from each one. I'm anticipating being irritated when the Neuromancer movie comes out and people complain that it's a rip-off of The Matrix.

The main difference between the Matrix movies and Gibson's work: in the movies the mystical stuff is allowed to stand in all its sappy, sentimental, he-is-the-one glory. With Gibson, the mystical stuff (a sort of cyber-vodoun in the case of Count Zero, the Rastafarian Zionists in Neuromancer), is only one perspective represented. With Gibson, you're never quite sure if, instead of god (or loa) pulling the strings, it's unthinkable wealth, corporate power, cutting-edge biometric circuitry, or a rogue AI that's causing all the unexplained mischief. I can't wait to read Mona Lisa Overdrive.

Recently Read

2009-08-04T11:01:00.005-05:00

The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley, 1982. Suggested by my friend Melissa. An epic young adult fantasy set in a desert environment. The attention to the world's ecology, culture, and language, plus the themes of destiny and love reminded me of Dune. McKinley is a beautiful writer.

Wizard's First Rule, Terry Goodkind, 1995. First book in the series which is the basis for the TV show The Legend of the Seeker. As with many media franchises, I found out this book is way more intense and dark than the TV show. I read the last two-thirds of it in an eight-hour sitting one Saturday.

The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It, Joshua Cooper Ramo, 2009. While mostly about matters geopolitical, this book is written to get you thinking about your own personal "deep security": meeting adversity by being adaptable, multifaceted, and sociable.

Dawn, Octavia Butler, 1987. First book in the Xenogenesis/Lilith's Brood series. I've wanted to read this series for a while, after reading some of Butler's Parable series. One thing disturbed me, though, about the cover art on the first edition copy I borrowed from the library. It shows a recognizable scene from the book, in which the protagonist, Lilith, a black woman, opens a stasis container and releases another woman. However, the illustration depicts Lilith as a very pale white woman. Wow. I mean, even in 1987, did Warner Books think they could sell more copies if they put a white woman on the cover instead of a black woman? Did they think it was worth creating a major disjoint between the cover and the story? Bizarre and ugly.

Recently Read

2009-07-01T20:51:00.003-05:00

A Colossal Hoax: The Giant From Cardiff That Fooled America, Scott Tribble 2009
I'm a sucker for entertaining historical monographs. While not quite of the calibre of Salt, this was fairly entertaining. It gives an interesting overview of 1870's American pop culture and religious and scientific thought, especially covering the Burnt-Over District.

Debt of Bones, Terry Goodkind, 1998
We've been watching Legend of the Seeker on TV. This is a prequel to the books the TV series is based on.

The Stone Fey, Robin McKinley, Illustrated by John Clapp, 1998
Robin McKinley was recommended by a good friend. This was all I could find checked in at my library one day. It was in the children's picture book section, but I don't know...it has some pretty heavy themes: the wild vs. civilization (the archetype of the fey, of course), obsession and desire, teen sexuality, and ambivalence about marriage. A gorgeous story, and gorgeous illustrations.

"Story of Your Life", Ted Chiang, from Nebula Awards Showcase 2001, ed. Robert Silverberg
I loved this novella. Every sci fi story has some science in it, right? In this case, the science is linguistics (and some really cool aliens).

"Mars is No Place for Children", Mary A. Turzillo, from Nebula Awards Showcase 2001, ed. Robert Silverberg
Nebula winner for "novelette". A gritty look at Martian colonization. Kombucha plays a role in the story!

"The Cost of Doing Business", Leslie What, from Nebula Awards Showcase 2001, ed. Robert Silverberg

"The Wedding Album", David Marusek, from Nebula Awards Showcase 2001, ed. Robert Silverberg
A look at AI - struck me as plausible, but maybe just because the characters were so good. Frightening; I cried.

"Judas Danced", Brian W. Aldiss, from Nebula Awards Showcase 2001, ed. Robert Silverberg

Recently Read

2009-06-01T13:02:00.002-05:00

Neuromancer, William Gibson
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester

Project: Cloth Napkins and Metropolis, IL

2009-05-16T19:07:00.007-05:00

Sometime around 1999 or 2000 I picked up a bunch of fabric at the famous Hancock's of Paducah, KY on the way from St. Louis to Nashville. One of these was this cotton with a swirly gold/purple/lime oil-and-water pattern. At the time, I'm sure I was thinking of making it into a dress or bellbottoms or a pipe pouch or some-such.

Well, we've been out of paper napkins for a few weeks, and we've been burning through the paper towels. So that I don't have to buy paper napkins ever again (I hope), I decided to make napkins. Since I still love this fabric, but no longer have the perverse need to wear it, I figured it was finally time to cut it up.

(I did sigh a little, noting the bitter-sweet truth that this beautiful raw article would lose its infinite potential once it became something. But by becoming something imperfect and narrow in scope, it could be seen, and touched, and stained, and worn, and faded in the sun, and remembered by people who came to dinner. The alternative is sitting in a dark closet being nothing.)

I tore eight 16-inch squares, then I pressed each piece, and pressed down a 1/2 inch hem. Then I went to the machine and folded a quarter inch under as I sewed the hem. I did a loose-ish miter corner freehand at each corner (Die, pins!), clipping the corner first. The eight napkins took me about two hours.

By the way, if you're ever driving between St. Louis and Nashville, you must stop in Metropolis, Illinois. Go see the shrine to Superman down town; the museum/comic book store, the statue of the Man of Steel, etc. But also go see this at the Metropolis Big John supermarket. It's got to be twice the size of the Superman statue, and way more impressive. If you're going to brand your town as a tribute to a fictional character, don't let another fictional character be bigger! I couldn't stop talking about Big John for weeks, but Superman was just kinda meh.

Homemade antenna

2009-04-10T08:34:00.009-05:00

I've been anxious to put these pictures up, but really tired from my new job this week, and therefore not getting around to it. Thanks MJ for the kick in the pants to post them.

This is the UHF antenna I built using these plans from Make Magazine.

The plans say all materials should cost $20 or less, but I spent around $28. My only disappointment is that I might have bought an antenna for less. But it was fun!

Some action shots:

It was a beautiful day, and I set up a workshop outside. It snowed the next day.

Plying the coat hangers. Nice perspective on this shot, husband!

Cutting. I'm not sure my Snap-On diagonal cutters were ever meant for this purpose. If mere coat hangers kill your dikes, will Snap-On still honor the warranty?

Assembled. Sorry for the blur. This thing seems to have a personality. It's just dripping with evil potential. We have to do something about the tines so no one gets their eye poked out, like I almost did dozens of times while constructing it.

And the final results:

Here it is tuning our TV (via the digital converter box) to KETC 9-4, the PBS DIY channel. I didn't see an increase in picture quality with the antenna versus the old rabbit ears, but it did catch about six additional channels, including all of the PBS stations.

I finished right in time, because we were hoping to watch a PBS documentary on water infrastructure the next day. "Liquid Assets" was recommended by Peter's sister, a civil engineer. It was really interesting and I'm glad I got to see it!

The pictures still cuts out A LOT when it's windy. But I'm starting to think it's just our crappy converter box. When we hooked the antenna up to P's eyeTV tuner and watched some TV on his MacBook, the picture was crystal clear, with no faltering.

Cable vs 'Nets and Sita Sings the Blues

2009-04-06T09:54:00.003-05:00

A few months ago, Peter and I cancelled our cable due to the Hurricane Ike flooding. You see, our cozy basement rec room was where the big screen and the only cable connection were, and our basement is now stinky and unliveable due to Ike and a subsequent flood. Thus, while the landlord continues her slow steps toward making the house ship-shape, we have no use for cable.

Around this time, we also resolved to watch less TV. We've replaced most of our broadcast-TV watching with hulu.com and watching short videos online, and the occasional DVD. Even though we consume a fair amount of video, we don't just zone out mindlessly in front of the TV for hours and watch whatever happens to be on Comedy Central, or Food or Travel Channel (yeah, like we used to). It's sad not to have access to Anthony Bourdain or Alton Brown, but good god, how many episodes of Clean House did I WATCH???!!!

Is it wishful thinking if I believe that watching videos on the 'net is slightly better for your brain than watching broadcast TV? After all, with nearly infinite options, I usually end up applying some criteria for choosing, or else I would be overwhelmed with choices. And normally, when an online video ends, the screen freezes, and you have to DO something to get it moving again; you can't just sit there and wait for something else to start.

Maybe it is wishful thinking. But there ARE some amazing things on the web that you would never find on broadcast TV, and here is one shining example; Sita Sings the Blues, a Creative Commons film that you can watch for free online.

The Enumerator

2009-03-20T15:34:00.003-05:00

I just got a call from the Census Bureau; I got a job as an Enumerator! For about eight weeks I'll be doing the preliminary work for the 2010 Census, that is, travelling the streets of St. Louis with a hand-held computer verifying addresses. Presumably doing this will lead to work next spring doing the actual census.

How many jobs out there are both clerical AND outdoors?

Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project

2009-03-20T14:28:00.003-05:00

This week I read this short overview of the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project by Spencer Wells, the director of the project. I was in the library looking for a book by Matt Ridley (whom I read about in Reason Magazine), when I spotted Deep Ancestry on the shelf nearby.

A couple of years ago, I bought a NGS Genographic Project kit for my mom for Mother's Day. The Genographic Project is a research effort sampling and studying indigenous people's DNA around the world in order to map ancient human migration patterns. Part of their funding comes from selling DNA analysis to curious people whose DNA they don't need. As NGS (politely) explains, the people who can afford one hundred bucks for a kit are not people whose sample is helpful to the project, because they generally live in industrialized, "melting-pot" societies, and not in the same physical places their ancestors lived.

I previously read all the literature sent with my mom's DNA kit, but I was happy to get into more detail in the book. It gives a great overview of contemporary genetics, especially the system of dividing humanity into different haplogroups, based on prominent shared mutations.

I also got to read more in the book about my mom's haplogroup, which turned out to be mitochondrial haplogroup X. X is spread throughout Eurasia and also arrived in North America about 15,000 years ago. I know, it's not a very specific result - less about geneaology and more about anthropology.

The haplogroup system is used primarily for tracing ancient human movement as we moved out of Africa and colonized the globe thousands of years ago. However, Deep Ancestry mentions that some of its researchers hope to also use the data to study the genetic effects of more recent events like the conquests of Ghengis Khan or Alexander the Great. I would love to read the results of that line of inquiry. Totally fascinating!

The most wonderful thing about contemporary genetics is in showing how closely all humans are related. There is far more genetic diversity within so-called "races" than among them. The incredible variety of appearances among humans is rather unique among animals, and fools us into thinking different groups are more innately different than they are.

A poem I wrote in 2001 (test post)

2009-03-20T12:27:00.000-05:00

EVENING IN DALLAS

There are only so many things one can say
to another person over a can of beer
under a buzzing florescent light
at the kitchen table with the dinner dishes cleared
but not yet washed.
There are only so many mundane,
peevish things one can say
before you have to go outside in the dark
and sit on rusty aluminum chairs
that tilt on the cracked dirt lawn.

You have to sit silently, the two of you,
through that last half hour of Texas
heat and static electricity,
your throats catching on the dryness.
Then, a long, yellow-blue bolt
tumbles down to the north horizon,
outshining for a moment the dull glow of Plano.
Thunder rolls harshly, as if the city were a vast puzzle piece
shoved hard side to side and finally falls
in its place. The lightning storm has begun.
You can now say things like,
"I hope to go see the new baby by the end of the summer,"
or "I dreamed this morning that my blue truck ran again,"
or "I always like it when you comb your hair that way."
And the air will begin to move
and it will even be a little cool.
And the cottonwood tree will shake
and sound like rain.