I should have gone to the Emergency Room...

It did feel like someone had stabbed me in the ear with an ice pick.  It was late Friday night though... I hate hospitals... I hate waiting around in emergency rooms..  and I had googled my symptoms...  I guess hindsight is 20/20.  As popular as internet self-diagnosis is, turns out I was incorrect.  I thought it was a blocked Eustachian tube which google told me would go away in a few days and decongestants would help.  They did enough to finally let me get to sleep, but it got worse over the weekend.  Saw the doctor Monday, its an ear infection.

Leaf and the boys had headed down to visit her family for the weekend while I stayed behind since I had been feeling so crappy all week.  They all ended up coming back early.  Two very grumpy boys - Mars also has an ear infection.  Not sure about Odin, but he has a regular appointment Tuesday for updating his shots, so I'm sure he'll get checked too.  Mars and I are both on antibiotics.  Unfortunately, it will take a few days for the ear infection to clear up, so an extra few days of excruciating pain and suffering since I didn't try emergency on Friday.  Serves me right.

I feel bad for Mars.  His infection isn't as bad as mine, but much tougher on him.  Ear infections are pretty uncommon with adults, I think we forget how awful it can be.  Not just the pain and the headache, but not being able to hear right must be unnerving for him.  He is actually in the midst of a morning nap right now, and I can't remember the last time he had one of those.

Garbagemetrics

I've been thinking about garbage recently.  Its the smell.  I forgot garbage day last week and had a bag of garbage sitting in the recycling closet waiting.  We used to have a two bag limit in town.  We'd get special fluorescent stickers to put on bags of garbage.  No sticker... no garbage removal.  This year, garbage stickers have been abolished as a cost saving measure.  Hand delivering a package of stickers to every household apparently became more expensive than dumping costs.  There was even a public meeting to debate options...  I didn't care much, seeing as we never used our allotted stickers with our family of either four or five.

There is also a bylaw that all garbage had to be put out in clear bags, theory being that this would encourage recycling.  I haven't exactly grown up with the idea of recycling, but we're young enough to still have been adaptable.  Many people aren't.  It always shocked me when taking big items to the dump how many easy recyclables - that had a weekly pickup - still got dumped.  Paper, tin cans, and pop cans.

Anyway, waste wise, in a typical week (there is more garbage when we have a foster kid.  We have yet to have one who understood the concept of recycling!) we dispose of:

• One full 35 litre kitchen garbage can - bitty things, non compostable food waste, dumpings from the vacuum canister, plastic, styrofoam, whatever else.
• Between half and two thirds of a 12 litre step on garbage can - mostly diapers and wipes.  We used to be 100% cloth diaper, but Leaf had a hard time keeping up with laundry when the septic froze last winter & I was away at school.  Getting better again, but still use disposable 10-15% of the time, most often when carrying bags of wet and smelly cloth diapers is not practical.
• Between half and two thirds of a 50 litre blue box with aluminum, steel, glass, and plastic
• Between half and two thirds of a 50 litre grey box with cardboard and paper
• Three 2 litre ice cream containers of compost (this goes into our own compost pile)

I've managed to improve my recycling skills.  The kitchen garbage would get overfilled by one or two days before garbage pickup.  The lid wouldn't close, it would smell bad, the bag would get pushed down into the container and make a mess...  I started being pickier about what got recycled instead and managed to cut it down by enough that  we now fill, rather than overfill, in the course of the week.

I feel bad about the amount of food we waste, but that is inevitable with two young kids.  Other than that, I think we do a pretty good job without going overboard or being inconvenienced in any way.

Books of February 2010

16 Books
7510 pages 

I think this is still more than what I read in an average month.


Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
ISBN 0-812-55070-6
324 pages
Feb 28

This is one of those books that I reread every few years.   A most amazing book, I only wish that I had discovered it in 1985 when it was written.  A Hugo and Nebula award winner.


George's Marvelous Medicine
Roald Dahl
ISBN 0-590-03274-7
89 pages
Feb 27

So I haven't been counting children's books.  This one I read on my own though.  Picked it up today for when kids are old enough & read it because I like Roald Dahl stories.



Robot Visions
Isaac Asimov
ISBN 0-451-45064-7
482 pages
Feb 26

I liked this.  A nice variety of quick robot stories.


Robots and Empire
Isaac Asimov
ISBN 0-345-32894-9
468 pages
Feb 23

Conflict between spacers and settlers.  Many interesting thoughts on long lifespans and the consequences.  I find it mathematically improbable that there isn't intelligent life out there.  Many reasons have been put forward as to why no contact.  Conspiracy - they already have.  Physics - FTL travel is impossible.  I like what Asimov alludes to in this novel - decadence.  You're a technologically developed species with long life span and many robot servants - why bother exploring?


The Robots of Dawn
Isaac Asimov
ISBN 0-345-31571-5
398 pages
Feb 20

I finally finished reading this book.  Its taken me over 25 years.  Picked it up at the library when it came out, but it was too 'heavy' for me as a little kid.  Still a bit of a slog at times, but an entertaining detective story.  It helps that in the meantime, I have read other Asimov robot stories, so I understand more of the background.  Currently working on the sequel.  As sci-fi goes, nobody beats Asimov in either quantity or quality.



Tales from the White Hart
Arthur C. Clarke
ISBN
148 pages
Feb 16

One of the greats of science fiction.  A collection of cute sci-fi stories slash tall tales.


Happiness
Will Ferguson
ISBN 0-14-301271-1
339 pages
Feb 15

"Our entire way of life is built on self-doubt and dissatisfaction."  This one has been in my 'to read' pile for a few years now.  Ferguson is also a past participant of CWY.  I'd like to read "Why I Hate Canadians".  The book reminded me of the style of Douglas Adams.



Stonehenge
Bernard Cornwell
ISBN 0-06-109194-4
482 pages
Feb 15

Yep, human beings have always been ignorant, superstitious savages.



The Plague Tales
Ann Benson
ISBN 0-440-22510-8
675 pages
Feb 14

A combination sci-fi and historical novel.  It did predict full body scanners at airports, but overall fell flat.  The continued stupidity and illogical decisions of the protagonists (supposedly intelligent scientist types) eliminated all chance of suspension of disbelief. 


Hot Springs
Stephen Hunter
ISBN 0-671-03545-2
527 pages
Feb 12

Found this today.  I stopped reading another book - an extreme rarity - because it wasn't working for me.  Figured this was a good quick read.  Lucky find really for fifty cents, probably the only Stephen Hunter I hadn't read already.  Not literature by any stretch, but I enjoyed it.  The background was helpful for some of the other Swagger novels.

By Heresies Distressed
David Weber
ISBN 0765353997
640 pages
Feb 10

I like the characters & the story & plan to read the next book when it is released, but it hasn't lived up to my expectations from the first novel, Off Armageddon Reef.  Still, I hate waiting for a new book from a series to be published.


By Schism Rent Asunder
David Weber
ISBN  0765353989
736 pages
Feb 9


Less enjoyable than the first book in the series.  A whole lot of political machinations, very little science fiction.

Off Armageddon Reef
David Weber
ISBN 0-765-31500-9
592 pages
Feb 7

Another common sci-fi theme.  Technologically advanced person stranded or marooned with a more primitive society.  In this case, humans have been all but destroyed by alien invasion.  A colony is sent many light years away, but must avoid technology so no transmissions or energy signatures will ever be detected by the evil aliens.  How do you set up a society to stifle the science, free thought, rational thinking, and innovation that leads to technology?  Two words: Organized Religion.  That and you ban the metric system (since only the ignorant still use imperial ;).  Ah, the wonders of Organized Religion as a tool of control, oppression, and hypocrisy.  Some the of colony founders set themselves up as gods, some were opposed.  Two sides kill each other off.  The opposition left behind an android which was reactivated 800 years later with the intent of overthrowing the religion and reestablishing technology.  The colony is at a medieval swashbuckling stage of technology, so the book at times reads like fantasy.  Sword fights and old school naval encounters - think Horatio Hornblower, or any of Alexander Kent's books.  First of a series, I'm re-reading because there have been two more books published & I want to refresh my memory before tackling them.


Darwin's Children
Greg Bear
ISBN 0007132387
480 pages
Feb 6

Ultimately unsatisfying.  Jumps around too much, too dependent on having read the first book, too much science.  I could usually get the gist of the technical talk, but what is the point of writing  pages of viral biology science that most people won't understand?  Way too much for a novel, not enough for a textbook.  Plus I don't believe the sudden 180 degree attitude change about the virus kids at the end.  Don't get me started on "the caller" either.  Ended up reading to finish the book rather than hanging on, sad that there aren't enough pages left.  An aside, I couldn't find a hard copy of this book.  Out of print (no surprise).  Read it in pdf.  I know apple's new ipad toy is all the rage, with kindle before that, but from a personal standpoint, I can't see reading books on a screen.


Glory Season
David Brin
ISBN 0-553-56767-5
764 pages
Feb 3

Leans more towards fantasy than I like.  A planet where humans have been genetically engineered not only for the planetary conditions, but to establish a "feminist nirvana".  Matriarchal society where the primary means of reproduction are female clones.  Clones at the top, naturally conceived persons have lesser status, and men have lesser status still.  I found the "niche" system of careers interesting.  Did you know that women are genetically superior to men?  The book also incorporates Conway's game of Life, which I think is mindblowing.  The game, not its inclusion!

Timescape
Gregory Benford
ISBN 0-671-50632-3
366 pages
Feb 2

More hard science fiction.  Scientists discover the FTL properties of tachyons, use them to try and communicate with the past & stop the environmental disaster of the present.  Lots of mind-bending paradox, physics, and hard science. The book is best known for Benford's law of controversy, which says "Passion was inversely proportional to the amount of real information available."

A decimetre of snow

WTF is a decimetre, you might ask...  Simple, its 10 centimetres.  My early schooling was during the change from imperial to Metric, so I was taught all about decimetres.  In the meantime, I have never actually used or seen the decimetre as a unit of measurement... until now.  Oh, the excitement!  Seriously though, I love the metric system.  Did you know a cubic decimetre has the same volume as one litre?  At that one litre of water weighs one kilogram?  Distance, volume, and mass can be related in the metric system.  Ingenious. 

Anyway, the teacher snow dance yesterday must have worked.  We have a decimetre of wet, heavy snow.  The kind that really sucks to shovel.  Our road hasn't been plowed... yet... and I'm not looking forward to it.  Its a snow day, so got to sleep in a little bit.  Main roads are fine having been plowed, or "bare and wet" as per the radio, but side roads wet, snowy and slippy.  Its funny that just a few days ago I was thinking we haven't had much snow lately.








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Figure Skating is Not a Sport

Sorry figure skating lovers, but it isn't.   Definitely not an Olympic sport.   The Olympic motto is "Faster, Higher, Stronger", not "Nicest Costume, Most Artistic, Best Choreography".  Sports are competitions decided by fact - highest score, shortest time.  Figure Skating is an activity decided by touchy-feely subjective judging.  (Also known as a popularity contest).  Yes, figure skaters are athletic.  But so are ballet dancers... and ballet isn't a sport either.  Figure Skating is only in the Olympics because it brings in tv ratings.  Just like the tight swimsuits of women's beach volleyball.
 
* Also not a sport - any event with extra points for "style": Ice Dance, Moguls Skiing, Aerials Skiing, Nordic Combined, Ski Jumping, any snowboarding event.  So basically 25% of Olympic events are not even sports.  Sorry to be the one to break it to you.