the cat & dragon rag

Everyone's a critic

2009-11-18T21:59:54Z

We moved the cats and their litter box into my study because there are workers in the house. We've done this many times before.

My cat Biscuit just scraped one of my hand-knit sweaters into the litter box.

We clean the box three times a day!

Booklog: Silk Road by Jeanne Larsen

2009-11-15T20:43:28Z

Silk Road: A Novel of Eighth-Century China by Jeanne Larsen

Silk Road is a beautifully written, richly descriptive, meandering story of a young woman who is trying to find her family and who, along the way, finds her own power. It weaves together history, story, mythology, and poetry. Interspersed with the story (the chapters named "Parrot Speaks") are a number of fragmentary 8th-century Chinese texts, translated by the author, along with prose poems that address the reader directly.

The story itself and its writing style kinda scratched the same itch for me that Little Big by John Crowley does. I'm failing to come up with the right words to describe the similarities, though.

In Silk Road's descriptions of the life of a courtesan I am reminded a bit of the popular Memoirs of a Geisha (which was written quite a while later). But Memoirs of a Geisha is in the end a thoroughly conventional romance novel. Silk Road isn't conventional and isn't a romance-genre novel at all.

I don't know very much about Chinese culture, history, or mythology, except what I learn from watching Yimou Zhang (House of Flying Daggers) and Jet Li movies. I expect people who know more about those things would get more out of this book.

Finally, I'm going to describe how I found out about this book, because it amuses me. I am involved with a Buddhist sangha called Insight Meditation Center. A frequent guest speaker at this sangha is Thanissaro Bhikkhu, abbot of Metta Forest Monastery in California. I really like his dharma talks. So I was reading about him on the Web one day and I came across this interview with him in the Oberlin alumni magazine:
http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/spring2004/feat_monk.html
In the interview, he was asked whether he reads for pleasure and he said that the only fiction he reads is Jeanne Larsen and Harry Potter. That seemed like a good reason for me to check out Jeanne Larsen's books.

BAKICILJDWFB: dog with diabetes

2009-11-11T00:50:00Z

One of my parents' miniature Schnauzers, Pepper, was just diagnosed with diabetes. He's at the pet hospital for now. But once he is released, I am wondering what treatment regimen will be required. (I have diabetes, so I know in general, but I don't know if there are significant differences for treatment in dogs.) Will you share your experience?

Research Junky Stef sez: Ooh shiny!

2009-11-10T18:50:30Z

leftoverresearchquarterly: An awesome idea for information magpies and fiction writers. I hope it gathers many contributions.

From the profile:

We want to know all about all the cool stuff you found researching your latest piece of fiction, especially the stuff that didn't get used in the end because the subplot it was going to support got dropped.

Thanks snippy!

iDye experiment

2009-11-08T04:52:29Z

In this entry I was asking people for opinions about dyeing sheets in the washing machine. I haven't dyed sheets yet. I ended up buying some "iDye" prepackaged dye + fixative and dyeing some of my T-shirts to see whether the iDye is colorfast enough.

I dyed three cotton T-shirts. Two of them were white with some dye stains from a previous dyeing project. One was pink and had some black ink stains on it. I used iDye for Natural Fabrics-True Red.

I agitated them in the washing machine on hot for 40 minutes (the package said to agitate for 30 minutes, the web site said more time would be better for bright colors and colorfastness).

The white shirts came out not quite red but richer than pink. The pink shirt came out bright red. The stains on all the shirts are still visible although not as obvious as they were before.

I washed and dried two more loads of laundry after the experiment and no dye got onto that laundry.

The big test still to come is whether the color will bleed when I wash these shirts with other items.

i haz twitter

2009-11-06T03:59:04Z

Now that Twitter is letting me organize the entities I'm following into lists I might actually use it. I'm firecatstef on there. Pretty much everything I post there is cross-posted to Facebook.

Enjoyable interview (potential amusement for House fans)

2009-11-05T23:31:01Z

I liked this interview on tor.com with Kelly A. Joyce, author of MAGNETIC APPEAL: MRI and the Myth of Transparency. Includes the following quote: "There are many fantasies portrayed in House (e.g., the idea that a team of doctors can focus on and discuss only your case for days!)."

Curious

2009-11-01T07:42:09Z

What's the difference between Madonna and Lady GaGa?

Writer's Block: Mysterious benefactor

2009-10-29T20:55:03Z

If you could give a secret gift of any value to one anonymous recipient, who would you choose and what would you give them?

Submitted By enchantra71

View 789 Answers

It's a secret.

Writer's Block: Nature or nurture

2009-10-29T00:17:38Z

Do you think your moods are controlled by your brain chemistry or that your brain chemistry dictates your moods? Do you believe people are born with particular emotional temperaments or that they are primarily shaped by environmental factors?

Submitted By abelincoln1864

View 724 Answers

Embrace the power of "and".

(I know that these Writers Block questions are supposed to stimulate writing, but so many of them are yes/no or "this/that" questions or I'm tempted to start challenging myself to answer them in as few characters as possible. If this one were part of the challenge, my answer would have been "and".)

firecat @ 2009-10-28T16:41:00

2009-10-28T23:44:10Z

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

I tend to dislike fiction where the author breaks the "fourth wall" by popping into the text to say something clever. Stephenson does this a lot in his books (the ones I've read), but I tend to make an exception for him. Nevertheless, I liked this book better than Snow Crash or The Diamond Age because it seems he does the "clever authorial injection" less in this book. Also the plot hangs together better. So my overall impression of the book was that it is more "mature" than those earlier works.

It has all the other stuff that Stephenson does well: multiple complex societies with long histories, with echoes of old Earth cultures, interacting in interesting ways; hard science, math, and philosophy explained in lay language (he did a particularly good job of explaining the science in this book; he did a less good job with the philosophy); plot twists and puzzles; multiple points of view.

Stephenson is less good at portraying romantic relationships, emotion, and complex character development than at that other stuff. The main characters do develop and most of the characters have distinct personalities and realistic, if simple relationships. It works well enough and doesn't distract from what he's good at.

I particularly enjoy a novel that makes up a society I want to live in, and Anathem does a great job of that. (I've always kind of wanted to live in a monastery, except for the celibacy and believing in religion parts.)

Another reviewer on Goodreads complained about all the made-up words in Anathem. I think this is one way in which the audio version is superior to the paper version. I knew that made-up words were being used, but a lot of them sound enough like Latin and French words that I didn't get very distracted by them.

The audiobook is narrated well, mainly by William Dufris. Stephenson himself reads some of the definitions from "The Dictionary, 4th Edition, A.R. 3000" that preface each chapter.

The audio production includes monastic-sounding vocal music that was composed for it; it includes overtone singing similar to that performed by the Gyuto monks. (You can hear more of it on the Neal Stephenson web site.)

View all my (goodreads.com) reviews >>

Inducted into the cult of Fluevog.

2009-10-25T08:14:45Z

kightp kept raving about Fluevog shoes. I went to the web site and fell in lust with these. (Alas they're no longer available in my size.) But there was no way I was going to spend that much on a pair of shoes from a brand I'd never tried on before. So I started searching for them on eBay, and I snagged this pair:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230388157224&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

(Here they are on the Fluevog web site for when the ebay listing goes away.)

I usually wear a woman's 9 or 9.5 wide or double-wide. These are a men's 8. They are a little bit too long, but with thick socks they fit well. (I first tried a men's 7 but they were a little too short.)

There's plenty of room for my high instep.

They are very cushy and comfortable.

There's a name for it!

2009-10-22T03:13:55Z

I sometimes do this sort of gender expression when I dress up, and I like this name for it:

"additive gender"

http://genderfork.com/?p=4458
http://followsthesun.com/?p=364

Ursula le Guin's Birthday

2009-10-21T16:48:37Z

Happy 80th birthday to Ursula le Guin, my favorite author!

Happy 40th birthday to one of her best books, The Left Hand of Darkness!

Musical discoveries

2009-10-19T23:54:23Z

I've always loved David Bowie's "Wild Is the Wind." A few months ago I discovered that it's a cover of a song originally sung by Johnny Mathis. Then some time after that, I discovered that Bowie's version is a tribute to Nina Simone's version.

I could have learned this by reading the Wikipedia entry, but I learned it the long way:

I heard the Johnny Mathis version at my favorite English teahouse restaurant (The English Rose in San Carlos).

I found the Nina Simone version by listening to a Coverville podcast on Kurt Weill which includes Simone's rendition of "Pirate Jenny." I proceeded to dig around on iTunes for her other stuff and discovered several versions of "Wild Is the Wind." (I have two versions, one from Nina Simone Live at Town Hall and another live version from Four Women: The Complete Nina Simone on Philips Recordings.)

Fabric dyeing update

2009-10-19T21:39:34Z

I know I said I just wanted to dye sheets, but then I looked at the bag of clothing I've accumulated that is perfectly good except for minor stains that I can't get out, and the white T-shirts that I've managed to accumulate even though I hate wearing white, and I thought I might as well try to dye those things too, and in that case I might as well try the simpler "iDye" stuff and see if the results are colorfast enough that I could dye the sheets with it without the sheets then dyeing all the rest of our linens. So for now I've ordered some iDye and fixative, and if that doesn't work out, I'll go back and order the Procion dyes and take advantage of my friends' kind offers of small quantities of the chemicals that I didn't want to have large quantities of lying around.

Thanks to everyone who responded!

Baah

2009-10-19T17:38:04Z

I renewed my subscription for Nanowrimo this year. I gauge the likelihood of my writing much of anything this year as pretty small but you never know. I'm 'Stef' over there if you want to be a writing buddy.

Movie recommendation: Hula Girls

2009-10-18T03:24:20Z

Hula Girls is based on a true story and begins like this:

In the mid 1960s, Japan is switching from coal to oil as its primary energy source. The Joban Mine in the town of Iwaki is in jeopardy of closing, which will put two thousand people out of work. The town has natural hot springs so the mining company decides to build a Hawaii-themed resort to attract tourism. Once completed the resort will provide about five hundred jobs. Most of the mine workers aren't thrilled by this.

A dancer from Tokyo is hired to teach hula dancing to local women. Culture clashes ensue, etc.

The movie plot is predictable, but I liked the movie because it passed the Bechdel Test with flying colors, working class people were portrayed (a union was even mentioned), there was a lot of dancing, the cinematography is good, there were women of various shapes and sizes and gender expressions dancing, dancing was portrayed as a profession and not just as a dream of glamorous artistic fulfillment, and the plot wasn't cluttered up by a Hollywood-style heterosexual romance. Also the music is by Jake Shimabukuro.

If I were throwing a double feature movie party I would pair this movie with October Skies, which is about boys in an American coal town.

(Comments might contain spoilers.)

AKICODW/LJ/FB: dying fabric in the washing machine

2009-10-16T05:38:09Z

I have four organic cotton king-sized sheets in "ivory" and I want to dye them a solid color using the washing machine. I don't feel strongly that the dye job should be perfect but I'd rather avoid the sheets bleeding out over other stuff in the wash later on. I've done a bunch of research on this on DharmaTraders.com and I gather I have two options:

•"iDye" prepackaged dye + fixative
•Procion dye + salt + soda ash

DharmaTraders says "iDye" is not very color-fast. We wash all our linens together on hot, so I figured it might not be a good option.

-->Have you used "iDye" and would you concur with this opinion?

DharmaTraders also recommends adding a number of extra ingredients to the Procion recipe in order to get a more uniform, more intense, and/or more lasting color. The ingredients are:
•urea for brightening and fixing the color
•special detergent for pre- and post-washing
•calsolene oil for more uniform color

They also recommend that you premix the dye and then pour it through a cloth filter.

The urea, detergent, and oil come in large packages compared to the amount I would use for this one project, and I'm not planning to make this a regular hobby, and I don't want to have extra chemicals lying around forever. So I'm wondering how important they are. Do you use them? Why or why not?

I wish I had gone to that school

2009-10-13T22:29:06Z

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/10/09/toys/index.html?source=newsletter

"Some sixth-graders in Sweden have tattled on Toys 'R' Us for relying on gender stereotypes. Now, the country's advertising watchdog is publicly giving the company a rap on the knuckles."

via suzimoses

Booklog: The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

2009-10-13T18:10:52Z

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--And How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

Alan Sklar's narration is a little heavy, but adequate.

The first part of this book examines the process of scientific advance through the lens of an 1854 cholera outbreak in London. Johnson's research seems thorough and complete, and he does a good job of explaining relevant concepts and facts. From time to time he stirs in a narrative-style story of the outbreak and the two men who were studying it.

He uses this whole to discuss how science advances in fits and starts as new theories compete with old, established ones. I thought this part of the book was fascinating because I see the same process going on today. Johnson also does a good job of describing the role of chance in the story of the outbreak and its solution. (E.g., the solution would not have been found without the intervention both of a medical man trained in anesthesiology and of a clergyman who understood the neighborhood that was affected.)

Another of Johnson's themes is the nature of urban living and urban planning. He describes the patchwork of services, individual laborers, technological advances, and economic realities that made up London's inadequate refuse disposal solution, and explained how understanding the transmission of cholera led to the development of modern sewer systems.

The final third of the book is Johnson's ode to modern cities and human progress. It's not grounded in research the way the historical narrative was. I wasn't very impressed with it and didn't finish it.

In the part I did listen to, there is a lot of "gee whiz" about how the Internet will let you look up your nearest coffee shop and how dense urban living is good for the environment and for population control and for human interaction and progress. I have heard those ideas before and mostly agree with them, and he doesn't present anything new from my point of view, nor does he do a careful job of providing supporting evidence for his arguments.

He also goes on about how squatter cities are really where things are happening these days (apparently drawing on Robert Neuwirth's Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World). I don't know much about this but it seems he glosses over the infrastructure problems (and concomitant pollution problems) such cities have in order to talk about how they are cool because they have multi-story buildings and nightclubs and lots of (*ahem*) economic opportunities.

View all my (goodreads.com) reviews >>

An LJ-only post, because it's traditional

2009-10-09T05:06:13Z

My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul
firecat goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as Sylar.
alexanderjasper gives you 8 brown lime-flavoured pieces of bubblegum.
baratron tricks you! You lose 4 pieces of candy!
bastette_joyce gives you 13 purple spearmint-flavoured wafers.
brooksmoses tricks you! You lose 7 pieces of candy!
chaoswolf tricks you! You get a dead frog.
debbiethedogged tricks you! You get a toothbrush.
elynne tricks you! You lose 5 pieces of candy!
hfnuala gives you 18 brown licorice-flavoured jawbreakers.
kyubi gives you 16 mauve spearmint-flavoured wafers.
opalmirror gives you 16 green coffee-flavoured jawbreakers.
firecat ends up with 55 pieces of candy, a dead frog, and a toothbrush.
Go trick-or-treating! Username:
Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern.

Switch to online statements pleez pleez pleez

2009-10-03T00:21:29Z

This gives me a sense for how much a financial institution wants people to switch away from paper statements:

Win A Windfall With Online Statements
$10,000 Grand Prize, Plus 50 $1,000 Winners
Switch to online-only statements by November 16, and you'll be automatically entered for a chance to win in our sweepstakes.

I like the idea of online statements and bills because I hate filing and don't like the waste of paper. But for important stuff like utilities and financial records, I'm continuing to insist on paper. My reason is that if something happened to me so that I couldn't monitor them myself, then someone else would have to know and keep track of all the accounts and all the passwords for checking whether bills were due and checking the financial statements. It seems a lot easier for such a person if the stuff comes in the mail.

If you've chosen to switch away from paper statements and bills, have you put any measures in place to deal with this issue? If so what have you done?

In which firecat is a curmudgeon about the popularity of knitting

2009-09-29T23:59:32Z

I just got the brochure for Stitches West in February this afternoon. Class registration doesn't even open until October 6, but the hotel attached to the convention center is already sold out.

I might still take a class or two, but so much for my making a vacation out of it. I'm not interested in going to an event that's so crowded the hotel is sold out before the event is announced. (Wiscon doesn't count, besides, they send out notices when the hotel is about to sell out.)

Booklog: Bad Luck & Trouble by Lee Child

2009-09-29T06:43:28Z

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

My friend piglet/porcinea said that the Jack Reacher series is "like a feminist James Bond" and that's a pretty good description, although Bond is more upscale and camp, based on this novel. This is the first of the Reacher series I've read, and I'll be reading more. I liked this especially because it emphasized a team approach to solving a crime, rather than being all about the Lone Hero(tm), and because most of the characters are smart and competent (I dislike thrillers where the plot is driven by stupidity), and because Child takes a geeky delight in details, and the details actually make sense.

View all my (goodreads.com) reviews >>