April 26, 2005

• Here is the T-shirt, looking as Chanthaboune said rather like an antelope's face, or maybe by now a zebra. I am trusting that it will, at some point soon, make a dramatic switch from fauna to flora.

  
  

  For those who keep track of such things, I am a weaver, not a floater, and I use two hands, one for each color. With multiple colors, I prefer to use bobbins, but for two colors, I just use the skeins.

  
  

  We have succeeded in installing a CD burner into our computer. I say "we" because it was #1 daughter who said where to buy it, #2 daughter who mentioned the master-slave issue, I found the discussion on the subject that said to reverse our jumps and we'd be sorted, and #1 son knew what those words meant. He was also the one who did all the work. My involvement proves that someone with really good research skills can use those skills even in a complete absence of knowledge and comprehension, and that it is therefore worthwhile to develop those skills.

  
  

  I was reminded of a nice old lady who called the store one day to say that her nephew had bought her a computer and she couldn't figure out how to use it. She felt sure that she would be able to, since she had the manual, as soon as she figured out what the words meant. Did we have a dictionary that would include words like "modem"?

  
  

  This also increases the urgency of finding a good legal source for music. I have turned up emusic and Rhapsody All Access. Anyone out there have experience of these services? #1 daughter says that the law on music downloads is currently is such a state of flux that it is a mistake to make much investment in any solution. Wired magazine says that discs are on the way out, so it is a mistake to make much investment in them. I just know that my teenagers will be tempted by filesharing if they do not have an alternative. In my youth, we had the expression "sex, drugs, rock'n'roll" (we apparently did not feel the need for verbs at that time), and of the three, I would rather they were tempted by rock'n'roll. But I am still hoping for honest rock'n'roll.

  
  

  And for the next random note of the day, we have tinea corporis at our house. I have a 1" spot on my calf, which the doctor figured I had probably picked up at the gym, but then #2 son turned up with a big patch of it across his chest and back, so the source is a mystery. The really interesting thing about tinea corporis is that the ointment you buy for it is marked in large letters "CURES JOCK ITCH!" (tinea cruris).

  
  

  Now, I have always found it odd that people will, when they buy things, blurt out nervous explanations about why they want them. After all, if we thought there were something unseemly about flash cards or handwriting practice books, we wouldn't sell them, would we? And sudden, detailed explanations about a need for ph paper just convince us that it is destined for a meth lab. So I said nothing as I bought the jock itch ointment.

  
  

  This is not the only medical issue we are dealing with. There are still #1 son's X-rays to be done (I swear it is not my fault that this has been delayed -- it is the end of the semester and not a good time to miss school) and my further adventures with lipids. Dear young people, you also have lipids, but no one will care about them until you are middle aged. Mine have improved. I had the blood work done following a weekend in Midwestern flesh pots when I saw no vegetables beyond a frill of kale garnishing a plate. It was quite good kale, but the remainder of the weekend was 100% simple carbohydrates and saturated fats, so I was expecting to fail my blood test for lack of studying, but instead the numbers were better. Does this mean I should give up brown rice and subsist on quiche and pizza? I'll ask the doctor when I go back next week, but I am not sanguine.

  
  

  Well, the Jewels of Knowledge may not eat vegetables, but they are always heading out for a run or a soccer game or a stroll up eighty-eleven flights of stairs, so perhaps they will never have to fret over their lipids.

  
  

  Back to the zebra-cum-flower.

  • 6:10 am
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