Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 64
October 21, 2010
From Twitter 10-20-2010
09:15:46: RT @robinmckinley: 1 parent cannot set curriculum: Yes RT @radmilibrarian New Hampshire Parent Challenges 'The Hunger Games' http://t.c ...
09:22:44: RT @NASA: Satellite data reveals that massive "fire-breathing dragon of clouds" are more common than thought. http://go.usa.gov/aRv
12:28:56: RT @NASA: Real World Design Challenge http://bit.ly/chIqO4 kicks off today with NASA aeronautics mentors and judges
12:30:33: RT @NASA: Just because its gorgeous: Alaskan glacier from our Terra satellite. Amazing what you can see with infrared. http://go.usa.gov/anY
12:41:02: Proof of goofing off--trying to get a word count on the ms from the "Tools" button in Firefox while in Twitter.
12:41:48: Just because I came in from hanging out clothes, was that a reason to sneak off to the internet?
13:17:46: RT @KSmithSF: Kochs, Chamber, Beck and big business plot to steal it all http://t.co/pYQ4T4j
13:19:18: I never thought two characters originally sep. by place & time would end up talking to each other--both names starting with Ar-. Urg.
13:22:32: RT @NASA: [News] NASA Open Government Summit Emphasized Data Exchange: NASA is working to publish more of its data sets onli... http://b ...
18:25:22: RT @KSmithSF: IL-Sen: Kirk fundraised in China, then voted to ship jobs overseas http://t.co/9XrUCHb
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October 20, 2010
Squirrelly
Last night, well after dark, the squirrels were still at it. This morning, before dawn, the squirrels were at it again. They beat the early birds out of bed. They prefer this side of the house when they're in the mood, and although it's sometimes fun to watch them flirting their tails and chasing each other up and down trees and turning somersaults (however many are in the mood at the time) they make enough noise to be disruptive. Both vocally and in the noise they make rushing around or falling ka-thump! on the water tank (which, when not full, booms like a big drum) and rustling in the leaves.
I wish they'd just go on and get it over with. They won't, of course. They're going to be leaping, running, chasing and being chased until the last pair finally give up sometime in December. (Ah. The first bird just spoke up--a blue jay. And that pair of squirrels is now silent (or much farther away. Back to work.)
I wish they'd just go on and get it over with. They won't, of course. They're going to be leaping, running, chasing and being chased until the last pair finally give up sometime in December. (Ah. The first bird just spoke up--a blue jay. And that pair of squirrels is now silent (or much farther away. Back to work.)
From Twitter 10-19-2010
08:26:22: RT @KSmithSF: Who are the 'Concerned Taxpayers of America' http://t.co/KZoB13j
08:27:44: RT @KSmithSF: Rachel Maddow: The Best Summary By Far http://t.co/7FMq5Zw
08:29:59: RT @KSmithSF: Gingrich scam continues, even as presidential rumors float http://t.co/V7kyqHn
11:00:13: RT @NASA: The latest Hubble Heritage image highlights a pinwheel galaxy 68 light-years away. Check it out! http://cot.ag/9XFSaq
13:23:58: RT @patinagle: RT @bookviewcafe: Today's Special from Deborah J. Ross: new chapter in Jaydium - read it for free at http://www.bookviewc ...
13:25:26: RT @KSmithSF: DE-Sen: O'Donnell is a Con Law expert, but she's never read the Constitution http://t.co/wxfigck
16:37:40: RT @KSmithSF: Why Karl Rove and CoC are laughing at their critics - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/10/why_karl_rove_and ...
17:00:39: Nothing like a pair of randy squirrels falling off the gutter to interrupt the careful crafting of a phrase.
17:02:15: Oh, well, "the perfect is the enemy of the good." (Alas, imperfection only means it's not perfect...not that it's good.)
18:03:35: Birdfight: snowy egrets, gorgeous picture at http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/129556177
18:16:31: RT @KSmithSF: KY-Sen: Aqua Buddha victim says Jack Conway ad is legit and accurate http://t.co/tuEKnrs
18:46:28: Plugging along with wip, finding new ways to write badly. Not sure if apparent reveal is right, either. #writing
22:41:27: RT @MarsRovers: Oppy paused to take in the Martian view as her trek to Endeavour crater, 8.5 km away, continues. http://twitpic.com/2z60g3
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October 19, 2010
From Twitter 10-18-2010
11:32:11: RT @patinagle: RT @bookviewcafe: Today's Special from Judith Tarr: new chapter in Alamut. Read it for free at http://www.bookviewcafe.com
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October 18, 2010
From Twitter 10-17-2010
07:13:49: RT @BarackObama: There's no reason why our tax code should reward businesses for creating jobs overseas. http://OFA.BO/aRtSKB
07:16:00: RT @vondanmcintyre: Ballard land-use planning: http://www.myballard.com/2010/10/15/proposed-mix-use-castlecondo-for-ballard/
10:12:49: Courting squirrels on the windowscreens....up close and natural.
17:20:41: RT @WFv2: Old Twitter will soon be gone. Please RT if you prefer #oldtwitter to #newtwitter and think it should be available as an option.
17:23:04: RT @KSmithSF: Concerned Taxpayers of America supported by only two donors http://t.co/MVIlPGz via @washingtonpost
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October 17, 2010
Blades
While peeling apples last night, I was reminded how little force it takes to penetrate skin with a really sharp blade (cooks develop callused thumbs, and this is a good thing...no blood on the apples, just a sting.) A friend in the SCA told me about research done to determine if someone could "accidentally" stab someone else, and the answer is a definite "Yes." Human reflexes are too slow to pull a knife point back if either the knife-holder's arm is moving forward, or the other person is, when the first contact is made...because to a sharp point, human skin is hardly a barrier.
The edge of a really sharp knife is just as efficient at parting skin (or lopping off fingernails...I can't count the number of times I've left my thumb that tiny distance too close to a chef's knife and removed part of my left thumbnail, sometimes including a bit more than thumbnail. A somewhat duller knife will also do it--which is why dull kitchen knives are more dangerous than sharp ones; they can "skip" on a tough bit of what you're cutting and leap onto a finger...and again, reflexes are too slow to reverse the move.
So now I have new paring knives, which feel a little strange (esp the one I used to peel the apples) but are good-quality steel, with larger handles. And they're very sharp. They came with little tip-protector rings (small and easily lost...I think the manufacturer expected buyers to have a knife block. I don't; instead, I'm making little cardboard sheaths for them.) The way I learned to peel apples from my mother, the thumb of the hand holding the paring knife helped control the blade of the knife as it slid through just under the skin and was used as a sort of buffer (if the length of peel was sufficient) when the knife rose through the skin. My thumb tells me that I've gotten in the habit of working with duller knives than the new one. I'm going to like the "bird-beak" one--the actual peeling went much more easily--but by the third apple I was very carefully not using my thumb as a buffer.
The first money I ever earned (painting a fence) I spent on a knife. It wasn't for cooking; it was a general purpose hunting knife and until I broke the tip off trying to learn to throw it (Davy Crockett movie had a lot to answer for) it was use on camping trips. Even after, for jobs that didn't require a point. It's probably the childhood years in the hardware store that gave me the fascination with blades (oddly, not firearms, which the store also sold.) If you have been around good iron and steel as a child--if you know metals by smell and touch--and you've also grown up with cooking-from-scratch, doing prep for a cooking mother and then cooking yourself--then appreciation of, and desire for, good metal--and good metal in blades--is a reasonable result.
And that led to other blades, and fencing. In sport fencing, as we do it (Renaissance style) the edge and point of a blade are merely symbolic. The tips are ground off, if they're purchased sharp, and covered in addition with a protective blunt rubber/plastic "button." Edges are not sharpened. The lethal possibilities of the steel are reduced as much as possible and protective steel (the gorget protecting vital structures in the throat) reduces the danger from blunt blows. Groups that fight "sharp" wear substantial protection (it's difficult to explain to the police that you stabbed someone with a sword but didn't mean to hurt them." The grace of the blade is thus reduced, but there's still the gleam of light along it and the awareness that, if not for the protective restrictions, the swordblade is mortality.
This is probably why some people collect swords, rather than use them, or keep a fully sharp one (a katana is the current fashion, I gather) around. Practicing with a sword, even a rebated (blunted) one, forces a certain awareness of one's mortality. There's a (pardon another pun) point to that awareness. In civilized places (or what think they are civilized places) awareness of one's own mortality can be savored, not feared, increasing appreciation of the gifts of life.
What is less recognizable, to most, is that the paring knife used to that halve and quarter the apple and scoop out the seeds is just as lethal. Only time with swords led me to realize that, in spite of having worked in EMS and seen knife wounds, and knowing that most blade deaths in the country today (not all, but most) are the results of knives. Accidental and intentional, stabs and slices, with knives that live in kitchen drawers, on kitchen counters...knives that are designed for, and good at, peeling and cutting up fruits and vegetables, fish and fowl and red meat. The big ones are thought dangerous for children (the chef's knives, the cleavers, the larger boning knives) but measure a paring knife against the distance to a major artery--or, in a thinner, person, the heart--and its lethality is clear. Mostly, cutting up carrots and celery and potatoes and apples and onions and so on, peeling and chopping and dicing, I don't think about that. Knives are tools to me, not weapons, and when I'm thinking about preparing food, I'm not often thinking about mortality. The task takes over; the goal is feeding people.
But last night, working with the apples, as the new and very sharp blades kissed the ball of my thumb just enough to give me a tiny sting, fair warning, the newness and sharpness of the blades brought it to mind. These little kitchen blades, these tame little tools...are cousins of every other blade. In these modern days, in this place, we can have specialized blades at many price points for every purpose, not only in the kitchen. Long, short, thin, broad, dozens of designs, hundreds at least of choices. We don't cut our meat with the same dagger used to stab an enemy any more, which hides, in part, the fundamentals of blades. They sit in the knife block, or lie in the drawer, gleaming and helpful. Innocent. And lethal.
Which is how they end up in murder investigations.
In a day or so, all this will have sunk back into the under-surface of my mind, and I'll be using the new paring knives casually, with just enough care not to cut myself. They will be tamed--in my mind--by my assumption that they are merely some of my kitchen tools, existing only to prepare foods. Peel, slice, dice, chop, one blade after another will come out of the drawer, be used, be cleaned and dried and resharpened and put back without a thought of its potential for other uses.
The edge of a really sharp knife is just as efficient at parting skin (or lopping off fingernails...I can't count the number of times I've left my thumb that tiny distance too close to a chef's knife and removed part of my left thumbnail, sometimes including a bit more than thumbnail. A somewhat duller knife will also do it--which is why dull kitchen knives are more dangerous than sharp ones; they can "skip" on a tough bit of what you're cutting and leap onto a finger...and again, reflexes are too slow to reverse the move.
So now I have new paring knives, which feel a little strange (esp the one I used to peel the apples) but are good-quality steel, with larger handles. And they're very sharp. They came with little tip-protector rings (small and easily lost...I think the manufacturer expected buyers to have a knife block. I don't; instead, I'm making little cardboard sheaths for them.) The way I learned to peel apples from my mother, the thumb of the hand holding the paring knife helped control the blade of the knife as it slid through just under the skin and was used as a sort of buffer (if the length of peel was sufficient) when the knife rose through the skin. My thumb tells me that I've gotten in the habit of working with duller knives than the new one. I'm going to like the "bird-beak" one--the actual peeling went much more easily--but by the third apple I was very carefully not using my thumb as a buffer.
The first money I ever earned (painting a fence) I spent on a knife. It wasn't for cooking; it was a general purpose hunting knife and until I broke the tip off trying to learn to throw it (Davy Crockett movie had a lot to answer for) it was use on camping trips. Even after, for jobs that didn't require a point. It's probably the childhood years in the hardware store that gave me the fascination with blades (oddly, not firearms, which the store also sold.) If you have been around good iron and steel as a child--if you know metals by smell and touch--and you've also grown up with cooking-from-scratch, doing prep for a cooking mother and then cooking yourself--then appreciation of, and desire for, good metal--and good metal in blades--is a reasonable result.
And that led to other blades, and fencing. In sport fencing, as we do it (Renaissance style) the edge and point of a blade are merely symbolic. The tips are ground off, if they're purchased sharp, and covered in addition with a protective blunt rubber/plastic "button." Edges are not sharpened. The lethal possibilities of the steel are reduced as much as possible and protective steel (the gorget protecting vital structures in the throat) reduces the danger from blunt blows. Groups that fight "sharp" wear substantial protection (it's difficult to explain to the police that you stabbed someone with a sword but didn't mean to hurt them." The grace of the blade is thus reduced, but there's still the gleam of light along it and the awareness that, if not for the protective restrictions, the swordblade is mortality.
This is probably why some people collect swords, rather than use them, or keep a fully sharp one (a katana is the current fashion, I gather) around. Practicing with a sword, even a rebated (blunted) one, forces a certain awareness of one's mortality. There's a (pardon another pun) point to that awareness. In civilized places (or what think they are civilized places) awareness of one's own mortality can be savored, not feared, increasing appreciation of the gifts of life.
What is less recognizable, to most, is that the paring knife used to that halve and quarter the apple and scoop out the seeds is just as lethal. Only time with swords led me to realize that, in spite of having worked in EMS and seen knife wounds, and knowing that most blade deaths in the country today (not all, but most) are the results of knives. Accidental and intentional, stabs and slices, with knives that live in kitchen drawers, on kitchen counters...knives that are designed for, and good at, peeling and cutting up fruits and vegetables, fish and fowl and red meat. The big ones are thought dangerous for children (the chef's knives, the cleavers, the larger boning knives) but measure a paring knife against the distance to a major artery--or, in a thinner, person, the heart--and its lethality is clear. Mostly, cutting up carrots and celery and potatoes and apples and onions and so on, peeling and chopping and dicing, I don't think about that. Knives are tools to me, not weapons, and when I'm thinking about preparing food, I'm not often thinking about mortality. The task takes over; the goal is feeding people.
But last night, working with the apples, as the new and very sharp blades kissed the ball of my thumb just enough to give me a tiny sting, fair warning, the newness and sharpness of the blades brought it to mind. These little kitchen blades, these tame little tools...are cousins of every other blade. In these modern days, in this place, we can have specialized blades at many price points for every purpose, not only in the kitchen. Long, short, thin, broad, dozens of designs, hundreds at least of choices. We don't cut our meat with the same dagger used to stab an enemy any more, which hides, in part, the fundamentals of blades. They sit in the knife block, or lie in the drawer, gleaming and helpful. Innocent. And lethal.
Which is how they end up in murder investigations.
In a day or so, all this will have sunk back into the under-surface of my mind, and I'll be using the new paring knives casually, with just enough care not to cut myself. They will be tamed--in my mind--by my assumption that they are merely some of my kitchen tools, existing only to prepare foods. Peel, slice, dice, chop, one blade after another will come out of the drawer, be used, be cleaned and dried and resharpened and put back without a thought of its potential for other uses.
From Twitter 10-16-2010
07:34:28: Awake. Stayed up too late, so...wishing for more sleep. Alas, not happening until tonight...too much to do again.
07:35:48: OTOH, the last 700 words of writing, all post-midnight, accomplished something important. Now for the next 8000. Or so.
13:27:40: Today is "cut down the rotting/leaning tree" day. And "prune the live oaks" day. The song of the chain saw snarls across the land.
15:54:59: Our barn cat Cleo was attacked this morning by a larger cat and lost some fur--I levitated out the door, chased the baddie away....
15:57:03: ...checked the damage--less than expected, thanks to very heavy undercoat, some now missing. Long petting session in afternoon.
16:02:26: Benoit B. Mandelbrot died at 85...NYT obit http://tinyurl.com/2b3xdyb
18:17:31: Tree-trimming resulted in room to put picnic table and benches under tree at side of vegetable garden. V. handy location.
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October 16, 2010
From Twitter 10-15-2010
06:55:54: First hot chocolate morning since last winter.
09:07:56: RT @KSmithSF: US Chamber of Commerce funded by top offshoring companies http://t.co/deYZVtu
09:09:53: Farrier's been--horses trimmed. Soup's on (got it started before farrier arrived) and growing. R's gone to get M for weekend.
10:46:17: Fancy rose place doesn't accept my kind of plastic. Just as well, probably.
10:47:40: RT @NASA: Fall colors busted out all over Pennsylvania this week. Check out these images from our Aqua satellite. http://go.usa.gov/aKJ
10:49:13: RT @NASA: [Image of the Day] Hubble's Lagoon: Like brush strokes on a canvas, ridges of color seem to flow across the Lagoon... http://b ...
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October 15, 2010
Soup (again)
Since a lot of what I cook is soup, this is yet another paeon to the Season of Soup (when it's not too hot to turn the stove on, in other words.)
There's really no secret to making good soup. You put enough things that have a lot of flavor into a pot--things that have a lot of flavors that don't clash also helps--and you cook them to the point where the flavors suddenly go "Oh!": It helps to start with good stock. (I saw a TV cooking show once that suggested ways to make store-bought chicken stock taste better. Um...by the time you've made store-bought chicken stock taste better--and their way involved *wasting* a pound of ground chicken by throwing it away after using it--you could just make your own chicken stock which would be better anyway.)
Stock-making takes awhile, but most of it is spent walking through the kitchen and sniffing appreciatively as the stock develops. Depending on your family background, you may already have made stock for years, but if you've never seen the process...it's not hard, just (in places) tedious. My stock recipe basically the same for both chicken stock (except for using chicken bones & meat) and beef stock (except for using beef bones & meat.) If you have the freezer space you can make a boatload of stock at once and make it only every now and then. Celery, carrot, onion, garlic, parsley, bay leaf (plural usually), rosemary, sage, thyme & any other herbs you want go in with the bones & meat. I usually roast the beef bones first, but it's a choice, not a law. So a set of vegetation goes in with bones & meat, and cooks until the bones are dry-white looking and the vegetation is a limp mess. Fish out the bones, the vegetation and discard into the appropriate setting. Fish out any meat and immediately chill for later cutting into chunks. Continue to simmer the resulting liquid until it's a nice, rich color (golden or brown). Transfer to smaller pot and chill overnight. This makes lifting off the fat easy. Some people filter the stock to make it perfectly clear. I like mine more opaque. It's a choice.
You can make soup with just water + whatever's in the soup, but stock gives you a head start--it's got some flavor, some essences of what went into it. Without stock, you might use bouillon cubes (not for people with high BP--too salty) or demi-glace to give your soup some body. Soup, like bread, is a very basic food, and pretty forgiving (esp. in large batches) as long as there's enough flavor elements in the pot. You can almost always add more. (Though my earliest "making soup at home" memory was of my mother salvaging vegetables in the face of the Big Freeze in the early '50s, when she started with one pot, moved to a larger one, moved to her largest cooking pot, and finally used a washing machine tub, balanced across the burners. So if you start a soup in a two-quart saucepan, watch out...it might grow if you start making adjustments.)
There's really no secret to making good soup. You put enough things that have a lot of flavor into a pot--things that have a lot of flavors that don't clash also helps--and you cook them to the point where the flavors suddenly go "Oh!": It helps to start with good stock. (I saw a TV cooking show once that suggested ways to make store-bought chicken stock taste better. Um...by the time you've made store-bought chicken stock taste better--and their way involved *wasting* a pound of ground chicken by throwing it away after using it--you could just make your own chicken stock which would be better anyway.)
Stock-making takes awhile, but most of it is spent walking through the kitchen and sniffing appreciatively as the stock develops. Depending on your family background, you may already have made stock for years, but if you've never seen the process...it's not hard, just (in places) tedious. My stock recipe basically the same for both chicken stock (except for using chicken bones & meat) and beef stock (except for using beef bones & meat.) If you have the freezer space you can make a boatload of stock at once and make it only every now and then. Celery, carrot, onion, garlic, parsley, bay leaf (plural usually), rosemary, sage, thyme & any other herbs you want go in with the bones & meat. I usually roast the beef bones first, but it's a choice, not a law. So a set of vegetation goes in with bones & meat, and cooks until the bones are dry-white looking and the vegetation is a limp mess. Fish out the bones, the vegetation and discard into the appropriate setting. Fish out any meat and immediately chill for later cutting into chunks. Continue to simmer the resulting liquid until it's a nice, rich color (golden or brown). Transfer to smaller pot and chill overnight. This makes lifting off the fat easy. Some people filter the stock to make it perfectly clear. I like mine more opaque. It's a choice.
You can make soup with just water + whatever's in the soup, but stock gives you a head start--it's got some flavor, some essences of what went into it. Without stock, you might use bouillon cubes (not for people with high BP--too salty) or demi-glace to give your soup some body. Soup, like bread, is a very basic food, and pretty forgiving (esp. in large batches) as long as there's enough flavor elements in the pot. You can almost always add more. (Though my earliest "making soup at home" memory was of my mother salvaging vegetables in the face of the Big Freeze in the early '50s, when she started with one pot, moved to a larger one, moved to her largest cooking pot, and finally used a washing machine tub, balanced across the burners. So if you start a soup in a two-quart saucepan, watch out...it might grow if you start making adjustments.)
From Twitter 10-14-2010
18:06:52: RT @BarackObama: Anybody who wants to serve in our armed forces and make sacrifices on our behalf should be able to. DADT will end & it ...
19:04:59: RT @Quotes4Writers: "You can fix a bad page. You can't fix a blank one." Nora Roberts (Born 1950) Best Selling Novelist http://bit.ly/NR ...
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