While looking for some Victorian line drawings and patterns I stumbled over a book from 1860 that is filled with dozens of prints of mid-19th Century Japanese printed and patterned fabrics. Copyrights have expired for both United States and Japanese copyrights according to the research I did.
I have attached titles to the works that are entirely my own. While some traditional Japanese styles of representation just do not grab me, the sense of pattern and whimsy that is so often found in the detail of the images or on painted fabrics and household decorations delight me to no end.
The titles given to these images in the included captions below are mine.
I have always loved turtles, and I hope the great Turtle Goddess forgives me for once eating soup from what may have been an endangered turtle. It was a Christmas Feast generously and graciously put together and hosted by a restaurant owner in Playa de Humacao for the group of monkey watchers who lived near their restaurant. The group included a professor whom they considered an adopted daughter. One does not ask about ingredients, even if you are, as I was at the time, a vegetarian. I did manage to skip roast goat served at a wedding party a few weeks later.
Anyway, I love the simple pattern that capture the essence of “turtle” for me.
Similarly the whimsy of the birds incorporating themselves into the pattern of the flowers is clever and something that has a very contemporary feel to it. As I look at more and more images from the 19th Century I realize there is nothing new under the sun, only variations on a theme.
Japanese themes capture iconic images in ways at which I can only marvel. The 2008 economic turmoil for me, for example, was perfectly illustrated by The Great Wave which I chose to illustrate an article I wrote for a client. The client felt the image was too negative. I thought it showed the fierce determination of the persons in the boats who were navigating the wave. The best images are open to interpretation and allow us to put our own understanding into them.
I was fortunate to be able to see an exhibition of Hokusai entitled, “Beyond the Great Wave, Hoskusai’s Images of Mount Fuji” at the Art Instititute of Chicago this summer. The Great Wave is probably the best known image from Japanese Art in the west. I recommend checking out the online information about the exhibit to learn more about Hokusai, his famous imagery and a bit more about Japanese art.
Reframing September: Peace, Chocolate, Generations and Museums
I in no way desire to diminish the remembrances that so many people observe this month related to the sad day of the 11th of September. I try to re-frame as many sad events as possible in order to live as positive life as I can. So if you, like me, want some fun things to focus upon apart from somber remembrances, I have decided that this year I will celebrate some different things this September to positively focus my energies.
I always love the official turning of the seasons, and that will occur this month when Summer gives way to Autumn on September 22nd at 1:44PM here in Tucson (MST). I adore TimeandDate.com
Sunday September 8th Grandparents Day
The original effort to have a National Grandparents day is chronicled here on a slightly out of date site.
Photo credit: click from morguefile.com
You can download a Generations United Activity Guide. This is a wonderful up-to-date 19 page booklet that is comprehensive for individuals, families, organizations, groups and seems to cover all the bases. There are links to active groups and Facebook pages and methods for reporting back and linking up if desired. This is via GrandParentsDay.org
And no there is no reason to contain these activities to a specific day or week.
My friends over at Generation Fabulous are sharing their stories about Grandparents this Sunday.
September 13th International Chocolate Day
Why haven’t I been celebrating this day all my life?
Photo credit: cooossta from morguefile.com
Do I really need to say anything more about chocolate than to simply refer you to these images of just two of the delightful forms in which chocolate can be enjoyed? Well, okay, if you insist. Here is a link to my favorite article on the benefits of chocolate.
Photo credit: aophotos from morguefile.com
Saturday September 21st International Peace Day
Over 30 years ago the UN declared September 21 to be International Peace Day, or World Peace Day. This year the theme is Education for Peace
Philly has a great observance celebration and they have also put together a downloadable 18 page pdf you can use for ideas and inspiration on how to observe the day.
Making Peace Cranes is always a good activity. Click the image to be taken to the wiki page.
Saturday September 28th Museum Day Live
Smithsonian Magazine hosts an annual Museum Day Live which affords you and another person entry into any participating museum at no cost simply by printing and presenting those downloadable tickets from the hundreds and hundreds of participating museums.
Good Enough vs Top of the Line Writing Tech
I love technology. There is some sort of undeveloped engineer somewhere inside of me.
In yesterday’s post I wrote about my recent experience with process of computer repair and replacement, the importance of protecting the technology that supports my business from pets, and the need for having a service and equipment providers you trust.
There are a few more aspects of the process that I would like to highlight as potentially informative and instructional to other small or micro business owners who are struggling as a start up or just dealing with the less than optimal economic environment for small business.
Photo credit: imelenchon from morguefile.com
What I Learned
- Zero interest consumer accounts can help a gal out when she starts a business on a shoe-string .
- A generous return policy allows for assessment of products and the likelihood that an unacceptable product will be replaced by a different, often more expensive product that meets the needs of the consumer.
- Tech reviews can emerge from trials and tribulations. I have experience with Windows 8 and with the Chromebook because of I tried them and found them to not meet my needs.
- Open Box, or returned, items rock.
The Chromebook
Many people, including sales reps in computer stores do not care for the Chromebook because it is not really a computer. The Chromebook functions as a vehicle to connect to the internet. It may work very well for writers who are looking for a portable tech product for working on cloud-based apps, Google docs, and websites. I found that I was pleasantly surprised by the number of things that I could work on and with while using the Chromebook.
For the record I was using a Samsung Chromebook. It had a good battery life, could connect with my WordPress sites with no problem, was just fine for accessing and altering my Google docs. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of applications within Google Play, the equivalent of an app store, that allowed me to do many things I did not anticipate that I would be able to do.
I happen to think, overall, that the Chromebook, at $250 or less, is a great option for bloggers who are working with very limited funds.
The two major things I did not like about the Chromebook were:
- the less than accurate cursor tracking that made graphic manipulation and game play (even simple Facebook or Zynga games) exercises in frustration.
- the low quality resolution of the screen that left my astigmatic and presbyotic eyes tired unless I was very disciplined about taking a break from the screen every half hour or so.
The Chromebook is good enough for my basic needs.
Upgrading to a MacBook Pro
When my MacBook Air was deemed irreparable I had to determine whether I would just work from the Chromebook which I had purchased while the MacBook Air was in the shop, or whether I would replace the Mac with another Mac. My reasons for choosing Best Buy have been stated before in yesterday’s post and above in today’s post. The specific equipment decision rests elsewhere beyond store or brand loyalty.
The first question I asked after being told by MacBook Air was junked was, “What open box Macs are available.” I had not anticipated going top of the line, especially since having my iPad stolen via a pickpocket this summer and realizing that I could not always afford to replace stolen equipment. I had the funds from the MacBook Air return, the clerk let me know I could also return the Chromebook with no problem, The Chromebook protection plan would also be refunded to my account. The only open box item available then and there was a retina display equipped MacBook Pro. I looked at the new MacBook Air models in stock, but they were close to $350 more than what I had paid for the open box one. I wasn’t sure it was really worth the price.
I think the retina screen is what won me over in the end. The resolution is so crisp, even for document editing that I can not wear my progressive lenses and work on the laptop. My eyes become strained when I wear progressives and the change in focus from keyboard, to bottom screen to top screen stresses my eyes with the constant shifting and refocusing. The Mac retina display is so much better than most screens that I can work without glasses and read everything n the screen. This is a personal constraint, but less eye-strain is a good thing, even if you still keep your glasses on. The resolution also allows me to work with detailed graphics and there is no tracking problem I have ever encountered on a Mac. The increased storage and the ability to play games are nice features but not deal makers or breakers. The lesser price of the open box item made the Pro fall within a price range I could afford. A new one fell outside of the range I could justify.
I am still perturbed that my cat started this whole saga with her fur-brained actions, but it turned out well. And it turned out in a way that allows me to have a great amount of confidence that I made a good choice among the options open to me.
Of Cats, Keyboards and Chromebooks
My recent tech saga, The Cat Vomit Chronicle, appears to have come out with a rather happy ending after all. This is NOT a sponsored post, not one cat-scratched word of it. But every word of it is true.
Some of you may remember my griping in an earlier post about my cat spitting out kibble on my Apple MacBook Air keyboard. I came down with a horrific cold/flu but and the week after I returned from the vacation at my daughter’s home in the North Country. I needed the vacation after attending the Chicago BlogHer conference where my iPad was pick-pocketed by well-organized thugs. Needless to say, I was not happy about this. My Siamese cat getting crushed kibble under a key I needed to use log in to the computer was the Pièce de résistance of a tragic few weeks. Or so I thought. But I managed to learn a couple things from these events.
It can always get worse.
I had purchased the accidental damage coverage for the MacBook Air when I purchased it from Best Buy as an open box item. That was good. I did not read the fine print and I over-shared with the nice young man at the counter who seemed intelligent. When am I ever going to learn to quit giving people the benefit of the doubt?Actually, the clerk saved me some money by suggesting I just purchase a portable backup drive for $65 rather than the $85 it would cost me to have them do data recovery since we knew the computer hadn’t lost any data after having hooked up an external keyboard and accessing files.
As the nice young man (Geesh am I really old enough to be using this phrase?) was writing up the paperwork associated with this repair I did not supervise what he was writing. Mistake. I thought he would write something like “keys sticking” not “cat vomit” on the form. I really expected him to write what was wrong, not how it got that way. I mean it wasn’t liquid vomit. It was partially chewed kibble dropped on my keyboard by a cat who was annoyed with me. And I had explained that to him, and that the internal thing-a-ma-jigs were working just fine if you hooked up an external keyboard. There was just a couple tiny pieces of kibble under a couple of keys that I couldn’t get out.
But early this week I got a call from the tech section at Best Buy, and “could I please come in and talk to the store manager?” Ut oh. The repair people, whoever and wherever they are, refused repair because of bodily fluids. There is a bodily fluids clause in the fine print. I went to the store and talked to the manager. The manager on duty at the time was a reasonable man. Thank you Goddess! I explained that there were no fluids in the mouthful of kibble that was ejected by my cat. He understood that if there had been fluids as in bodily fluids that the internal thing-a-ma-jiggy drive would have shorted out or be non-functional. But that wasn’t the case everything worked well except for a couple keys.
He had a clerk re-write the repair order and explain that the original receiving clerk mis-wrote the ticket.
Three days later I got a call that “they” had deemed the computer irreparable. The store was authorized to refund the purchase price of the MacBook Air.
Not all big box stores are evil.
I have a good Best Buy store near my house. One of the reasons I like purchasing from Best Buy rather than the Apple Store is that I can get to the counter without feeling like I’m at a rave. The packed body to body experience that is our Apple Store at the shishi La Encantada Mall is just too much of a “line up for a cool experience” place for me. Apple Stores do not have open box items either. I like returns. I buy my cars as certified used cars with less than 10,000 miles on them whenever possible. I like to buy computers the the same way. Knocking a few hundred bucks off a major purchase is always good in my book.
I’ve already told you about the manager helping me out by being understanding and re-submitting my laptop for repair.
What I haven’t shared is that the folks at the same store agreed that buying a tablet of any sort would be silly at this time because the new iPad will come out this fall. What I did buy was a Chromebook (which I will review in the post) so that I would have some ability to write and work “on wheels” at a local co-working space while my “real” laptop was in for repairs that would probably take three weeks before I got it back.
When the verdict came in that I would get a refund rather than have my laptop returned to me, I was unsure what I would do. The clerk who was helping me let me know that I was within the time period when I could still return the Chromebook. So I had a little bit more money (credit actually) to work with in deciding what kind of a replacement laptop I could get.
This takes me through the trials and tribulations part of this story, so the next post will cover what I learned about laptops and web access devices over the course of the summer.
Everything Old Is New Again… Like Measles. Part 3
ONCE A COMMON DANGER
When I was young measles was one of the “childhood diseases” that every person seemed to get sooner or later. For me it was later and I remember having a very nasty couple of weeks with it in the 7th or 8th grade. There was a distinct scent associated with the disease that was not pleasant, I was covered, head to toe, inside and out with the rash. I had a high fever. It lasted for days and days and days. A half a million people a year got the measles when I was a kid. Before the recent anti-vaccination movement the number of cases per year, in the U.S., was down to 63.
Complications that can develop from the measles includes: otitis media
- croup
- diarrhea
- pneumonia
- encephalitis
I think we have forgotten how dangerous such diseases are.
I cannot imagine forgoing the immunization for my child. My daughter was among the last, I hope, to have chicken pox as the immunization became available the year after she contracted the disease. Thank heavens she had a mild case of chicken pox and that she did not have to experience the measles, mumps, or rubella.
I understood there was a possibility that reactions to immunization could happen. I also understood that the risk factors for having the diseases was greater than the risk factors associated with immunization. Being a bit of a science nerd I checked out the facts in the university library where I worked when my daughter was little. Now with access to government information finding out facts is so simple that I don’t understand why parents don’t rely on legitimate medical information that is freely available.
STILL A DANGER
How serious is measles?
Measles can be dangerous, especially for babies and young children. In the United States in 2011, 38% of children younger than 5 years old who had measles had to be treated in the hospital.
For some children, measles can lead to pneumonia, a serious lung infection. It can also cause lifelong brain damage, deafness, and even death. One to three out of 1,000 children in the U.S. who get measles will die from the disease, even with the best care. About 150,000 to 175,000 people die from measles each year around the world—mostly in places where children do not get the measles vaccine.
—- This information is from the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention.)
In fact the ongoing outbreak in Texas is traced to an individual who developed the disease after coming back from Indonesia.
153 people contracted the measles so far in the U.S. this year. The 20+ individuals from the current Texas outbreak is expected to grow.
Around 20 years ago standard immunization schedules began to include a second shot for measles, and MMR booster, for 4-5 year old children as a follow-up to the first shot received around 12 months of age. Individuals who only received one immunization are probably still susceptible to contracting the measles. Chief epidemiologist for the Tarrant County Public Health Department, Russell Jones, told UPI that, “People who [have] already graduated from high school probably missed the second shot,” Jones added. “If they are healthcare workers or traveling abroad, they need to get that second shot.” The 21st person identified as having the measles in the Texas community was a healthcare worker who received one shot only before the current schedule for 12 months and 4 to 5 years became routine.
Health officials say all cases trace to the Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark, Texas.
Please let me make it clear that I am not church bashing (well, okay, maybe a little bit when it comes to those institutions that deny scientific findings and insist in the literal divine truth of the current translation of documents that have been edited, rewritten, excised, and created by men, politically motivated men for the most part, for two millennia) just ignorance bashing. There is a trend in many distinct communities in the U.S. to blame immunizations for the rise in cases of autism.
AUTISM
Immunization does not cause autism. You can read the CDC information that debunks the dangerous popular myth that links them. Unfortunately, due to one UK study that has since been retracted by the journal and by most of its authors that published the research findings that suggested that autism might be related to immunization. Hundreds of other studies have found no linkage between the two. The single most common reason the false causation continues to be believed in and spread as truth in many groups is that the age at which immunizations begin and the age at which the symptoms of autism first appear are the same. We do not know why the rates of autism have grown exponentially, but my own totally unscientific suspicions would be far more likely to fall upon environmental pollutants such as insecticides, pesticides, drugs, metals, and fertilizers that make their way into our water supplies though they are known to be toxic and in many cases neurotoxic.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Get the facts. Click the CDC links above.
- Get your children immunized per your pediatrician’s advice.
- Check with your physician to see if you need a second shot if you don’t know if you were immunized and did not have the measles.
- Encourage others to act from informed positions and act in their children’s best interests per the best scientific information available to us.
- Support the efforts of Shot@Life and its Partners.
Everything Old Is New Again…Like Measles. Part 2
The current outbreak of measles in a Texas community unfortunately illustrates where group-think based in ignorance, power over children to the detriment of those children, and ridicule of non-believers that keeps members in check can lead. I wrote about this yesterday in conjunction with Shot@Life, an international campaign to vaccinate and immunize the world’s children. Today I rant about some of the issues behind the self-imposed ignorance and blindness that is a type of medical child abuse.
Cycles and patterns intrigue me. If we don’t know what is likely to occur, how can we know when something truly different emerges. Scientific knowledge comes about through the understanding of cycles and patterns and the ability to replicate what we understand.
Ignorance, and all things superficial, may be hot commodities, as per reality TV and conspiracy theory politics, but the market for them will bottom out as the value of knowledge gains respect again. Respect is nearly always tied to the realization of the need for something. Respect for parents comes about eventually with the realization that home, food, education and clothing are not guaranteed in all situations. Respect for community comes about when a cultural support system is needed and not present. Many people I know stay in communities with which they have major disagreements and value differences because they cannot imagine life without a ready-made support net. I was different, I left the support structures of family and small town community before I was even 20 years old because the cost of conformity was just too high to pay. Curse or gift, I cannot block out all the things I see around me. Politics, religion, sexuality, these were all things to which people just don’t give much thought. Like all things in life we have to have to strike a balance.
But me, I had to know why the Republicans of the middle 19th Century had more in common with the Democrats of the mid-20th Century than 20th Century Republicans. I wanted to know how and why people allowed a radical woman-inclusive, egalitarian, peace-oriented, religious movement that began 2000 years ago among the poor, landless underclass to become hierarchical, steeped in ritual celebration that showcases wealth and prestige, and linked to the imperial military aspirations of Constantine. I had to figure out how, if not why, women had been imprisoned by cultural roles that allowed only two states of being: mother or whore, when the eons had allowed for the intricate linkage of pleasure and creation for both sexes. The status quo was built on lies.
I have found that most people will admit that the status quo is a made up of at least some bogus constructs to some degree when I speak with them in a one to one setting. But put everyone together out in public and we get mob mentality with the most animalistic attributes celebrated:
- Ignorance (lack of and scorn of a complete education)
- Aggression (the overpowering of those at a disadvantage in particular situations)
- Derision (contemptuous ridicule based on mockery and not a logical critique)
When I see any of these characteristics in people or movements, I take it as a warning to stay the hell away.
The most I could do is provoke or wound someone. A wounded person is a dangerous animal and when cornered, that wounded person will attack to save him or herself just as would a wild animal. We ARE animals; we are made of flesh, have emotions that motivate our actions, and have a tendency to guard our territories through violent actions.
I believe that through collective action we move toward goals. Attempts to force change or compliance will eventually fail. We cannot create exactly what we envision, but we can move toward that ideal.
It is only through logic, knowledge, and love that we can overcome our animalistic tendencies. For me, and for those many I have met in life and recognized as kindred spirits, in churches, at protests, at conferences and recognized, sometimes with no more than a flash of recognition in our eyes acknowledged with a smile across some random room or street, we choose to define ourselves with positive states such as learning, kindness, and compliment; but when society breaks down we sometimes have to step back and check our own actions to see if we are open to learning or are cloaking ourselves in ignorance, if we are overpowering others when we can, or if we ridicule others rather than commenting upon our sameness.
Live your faith, your beliefs, I have certainly have mine that I try to have guide my actions, but use every bit of knowledge to which we humans have access, and for God’s sake do not deny your children access to the knowledge and wisdom we have accumulated over the eons. Have the grace to grant every person the right to live as an educated, respected member of your community. Allow them to act in love based on information through the free will that “the great organizing principle in the sky” gave them.
Tomorrow I retreat from ranting and get back to facts about measles and immunizations.