Microscope as schematic

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flour sack towels

Everyone can always use dishtowels, right? I mean seriously. No matter how inventive dish-washer manufactures are, there are simply a number of items that don’t fit. Much less that favorite coffee mug or tea cup that is just right in your hand. Or various kitchen items that have been handed down in the family and are just too fragile to trust to modern standards of time and temperature. And, speaking of temperature – not all (or I really think most) plastics are truly dish-washer safe.

Growing up in the 1950s – we didn’t have a dishwasher. In fact, we didn’t have one in the 1960s either. Nor in the 1970s when I lived in various apartments during University, Med School or Residency. I washed dishes, I air dried dishes and occasionally used a dish towel if I needed a particular item NOW.

As I think back, I am not sure when a dishwasher became a standard appliance in my kitchen. Perhaps the 1990s? Thinking back that many living places and decades puts a strain on my memory. But there are some realities, even if you live in a location with enough resources to have one in your kitchen. If there are not several people in your household, you may run out of dishes before it is reasonable to run the dishwasher since you probably don’t use all that many items every day. It really isn’t particularly sanitary to leave items unwashed for days and days. It uses more water to rise/prewash dishes followed by a dishwasher cycle than it would to just wash the dishes in the first place.

All of these thoughts lead me to dishtowels. Everyone needs a few. Flour sack dishtowels, bought in bulk, are inexpensive and provide a wonderful blank canvas on which to test out machine embroidery. If it doesn’t look great – hey, it is a dishtowel. If it does? Hey, presto! I have just created a nice present.

Which leads me to the photo which started this particular discussion. If I am going to practice machine embroidery, the item should reflect the interests of the victim recipient, right? College guy is headed out for spring quarter. He is a science/engineering type. Since I haven’t found a schematic of a laser yet, he will have to settle for the microscope.

As far as I can go

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on my shawl for the Wild Swan MKAL. In case I haven’t explained it – MKAL stands for Mystery Knit Along. The pattern for the knit-a-long is published in increments which means that none of us participating have a clue as to what the final product will look like. Ravelry has updated their software so that it now possible to post progress pictures on the forums but have them hidden under a “spoiler” label so that each person can make the choice of whether or not to peek.

Me? I don’t want to wait until after the full pattern is published to start – that takes all the fun out of participating. But peeking means that if, for some reason, I decide it isn’t worth my time, I can bail out earlier in the process. I really don’t need any more UFOs (Unfinished objects) lying around.

So here I am – 6 rows short of completing Chart G, the last.

see the needle?

After reading most of the discussions, I decided that I could end the shawl after o this particular row with a regular rather than a picot bind off. Not enough yarn. I am stuck and am very glad that I contacted the dyer several weeks ago for more yarn.

I don’t wait well…..

Dodged that bullet

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You have heard about the “socratic method” of teaching? No?

Explanation: (lifted from criticalthinking.org)

In Socratic teaching we focus on giving students questions, not answers. We model an inquiring, probing mind by continually probing into the subject with questions. Fortunately, the abilities we gain by focusing on the elements of reasoning in a disciplined and self-assessing way, and the logical relationships that result from such disciplined thought, prepare us for Socratic questioning.

So that means that question follows question follows question until everything that could possibly be wrung out of the teaching point.

A Socratic questioner should:
a) keep the discussion focused
b) keep the discussion intellectually responsible
c) stimulate the discussion with probing questions
d) periodically summarize what has and what has not been dealt with and/or resolved
e) draw as many students as possible into the discussion.

The professor announced at the beginning of the year rather than random calling, he would just go down the rows and call on students one after another. Today it was my turn. So I sat through the beginning portion of the class. Not really worried, but I would rather not open my mouth unless I really feel that I have something to offer.

The hour progressed. We started on the cases. Not deliberately, but for whatever reason he thought I had already taken my turn and moved on to Heather. She looked at me, I looked at her. She was prepared just in case and handled the questioning. When I thanked her for stepping up right after the end of the class, the professor over heard me. He thought I had had a turn. Not to worry, I can be first up on Monday.

As if Monday’s aren’t enough fun on their own……

Avoiding assignments

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in spite of all my good intentions, I am heading to bed without completing an assignment due at 1420 tomorrow. On the surface, it seems to be an incredibly simple thing: take a list and turn it into an outline/table of contents. What turns out to be tricky is deciding what goes where, and why.

No problem – I can just take my favorite Army regulation and use that as a pattern – right? Except that civilian lawyers, especially those who have worked for various international organizations and NGOs just don’t think the same way as those of us who are steeped in the tradition of admin regulations.

And, as it turns out, the military is one of those exceptions to the APA (Administrative Procedures Act, 1946) so some of the standards which all of those who are US law school trained just don’t apply. One of the other students in this 8 person seminar has spent time related to military regulation drafting, he understands my point of view. But, being a law student, his attitudes are probably a bit more flexible than mine.

The upshot is that I knit four more rows on my Wild Swan – starting from here –

End of Chart F

Unlike a number of those in the KAL, I am not going to run out of beads. I have lots and lots of beads. Some of them are the wrong size or color, but I have the 250 that I will need to finish the shawl.

Yarn? That is another question. I think I have enough for maybe two more rows + the bind-off. The problem is that there are eight rows plus the bind off. I thought this might happen, so contacted Fierce Fibers two weeks ago and have a bit more on order in the darkest color. But it isn’t here yet…..

And then there was the embroidery tonight. Got through the pattern in spite repeated thread breakage (but no needle challenges) and bobbin snarls only to find that the last two colors shifted themselves right from where they belonged by about a cm. It is obvious. Really, really obvious since those two colors complete a frame around the main pattern. I am just glad it happened on a napkin. Not that expensive, I can try it again. But first – I need to figure out if it is the embroidery, the machine or me. Not inclined to repeat the same mistake.

And, oh, gee – it is too late to finish that outline. Or wire diagram. Or whatever the H it is.

Morning?

Sunshine

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Today started at 0615 (not counting the snooze alarm on my phone) and it will end with the conclusion of my last class at 1840.

So why am I talking about sunshine? Because there is sunshine and decent weather today. I am taking a break literally outside in front of 198 McAllister sitting at one of the cement picnic tables. Admittedly, it is not the most comfortable place to sit, but the sun on my back feels wonderful.

My first class was 0830-0930. From there I found a comfortable chair in one of the reading rooms. Now, figuring out how to get to the upper floor of the Gold reading room was a bit of a challenge. Officially it is on floor 3M which is somewhere between Floor 4 and the ground level. Now, 2M is between the ground floor and Floor 2. So I would have expected that 3M would fall between 2 and 3. Wrong – so much for logic. The elevator came down from 4, picked me up at 3M, then stopped to let off about five people on 3 before continuing its descent. The only positive portion of this experience was that one of the students mentioned that he usually took the stairs between these two floors.

Stairs? Where are the stairs? Would you believe the stairs connecting the upper gallery (3 Mezzanine) with the main portion of the reading room are outside the reading room.

All of which is too completely confusing for me. As I sit here with my back being warmed by the sun, I counted the floors since I am facing the building. Not counting the ground floor, there are four tiers of windows facing McAllister. The ground floor is not G, it is 1. I will leave it to the convoluted thinking of some architect as to why this was a good design for a building that houses some offices, numerous windowless seminar and classrooms in addition to endless rows of lockers in the basement.

It is time to review a bit more before I slog into the afternoon (Public Health Law, US Health Law, Legal Drafting). I am trying to decide between caffeine and chocolate.

Night Skies

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Taken 1 1/2 weeks ago, returning to OAK from Long Beach.

leaving the southern end

Watching the coast of Southern California recede from sight. Flying over land, ocean, and mountain range rarely out of sit of civilization. And then there are the shapes and patterns of communities and buildings.

blurry shapes looking more

like various motherboards

leaving me to wonder if architects imitate life

coming in to OAK

Visitors

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They wander into our yard on a regular basis. The boys, that is. Often we see them in the morning as they drift back up the hill from their night escapades. Other times, like when there is a light rain, apparently our recovering grass is viewed as mighty tasty.

the younger buck

bored

and blatant

Four Thousand Screaming kids

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In what is reputed to be an annual affair, there were literally thousands of school children at today’s Cal Women’s Basketball Game. Schools from San Jose south of us to Fairfield on the north (plus several Richmond primary schools), all the Berkeley Elementary Schools, a number from Oakland and (surprisingly to me) a number from both San Francisco and the peninsula. Since they announced all the schools, accompanied by lots more screaming, it was easy to determine who was missing (Albany, Marin, and about 1/2 the private schools).

As is there wasn’t enough noise, it was also Fire Prevention Education Day. Yes, Smokey walking around large as life was a real hit. I didn’t mind all the hints, but demonstrating sirens and fire alarms? That was a bit much.

Did I mention that the game started at 1130 which obviously put it at an excellent time for schools. It wasn’t a great time for the Straw Hat Band. They were out on their annual ski trip. As far as their usual alumni taking over, well, most had to work. I was really impressed that they managed to field about 20 with a bit of rearrangement as to who played what so that the important instruments (percussion & brass) were covered.

For a change, the referring was even handed and quite good. Very few questionable calls, and refs who were strict, The Cal Women’s managed to pull off a win over Washington State. Interesting to note, the Cougars didn’t have one native Washington State player on the team (Portugal, Australia, Israel, Eastern Europe – kind of like the University of Utah).

Timed it perfectly to catch the #65 up the hill to home. George spent the day doing various assorted meetings in San Francisco so he wasn’t home till late. My last missing textbook finally showed up. I thought about studying….

Two Quakes in a Row

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For the second day in a row, the small branch of the Hayward Fault that travels fairly near our house decided to shake a bit. The epicenter was just south of the campus (11.6 km deep), fairly near the tunnel on Hwy 24. The map link covers the whole world, but you can pull up regional maps. Since this is an area through which BART travels, obviously there needed to be a rail inspection. In my mind, this is a good reason for BART to be delayed.

[there are plenty of other reasons why BART becomes delayed. For the moment I will stay off that particular soap-box].

It lead to much discussion around school. And on BART. Mostly people were just glad that nothing serious happened and that they could blithely leave consideration of the potential for disaster sometime in the future.

Rainy Day Market

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Just the title should let you know that once again it was raining. This time in both Berkeley and San Francisco.

Wednesdays are either great or terrible depending on the week and my attitude. Today, I am on the positive side. Only one class which doesn’t start until 0940 giving me both enough time to get to Hastings and an early change to get home. That will change next week when classes kick in at Cal. But I will still have enough time between morning and afternoon to stop at my favorite Burmese Street Food Restaurant in Berkeley for lunch.

Today’s schedule was a bit different. Because of the holiday next Monday, there are classes that will not happen. Since this is essentially a Law School (writ LARGE) there are certain rules and regulations that must be followed. Part of those rules seem to be the number of hours sufficient in a class of a certain number of credits in order to be able to grant that class status. What does all of that mean? Make-up classes. Yep, can’t completely skip, especially if there are two hours of the same class involved which is the case for my International Human Rights Course. So today, after spending a painful hour going through several treaties (UN on various aspects of human rights) we had a break till  noon. There was a presentation scheduled with an invited speaker which was going to count as one of the two hours which will be missed next Monday.

[Of note to me, Cat and maybe a couple of others. Having a network of people around the world is wonderful. When a question came up on one of the treaties as to why Australia was not electing to play, Cat knew where to find the answer. Even more fun, the answer made total and complete sense.)

After all was said and done in the morning (skipping delayed flights leading to a delayed guest speaker) I wandered through the Wednesday Market set up at UN Plaza on my way to BART. I found orange beets, multi-color carrots, fresh spinach, onions and a very interesting version of a citrus fruit which I can’t pronounce.

I skipped running errands with the guys and elected to attempt a reorganization in my studio. By the time I was part way through, it looked worse than when I started, so pictures are being held until I can share the end results.

And it was still raining at the end of the day.

Dragging along

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

My first class on Tuesdays is 0830. Just to let you know that up front.

Backing up in time, I have to leave about 40 minutes for BART (safe siding) + about 15 minutes to get to BART, not counting the BART schedule. Then add in whatever amount of time I need at home to run around like mad finding everything, getting dressed and pouring that first cup of coffee down my throat. All of this means that I am up somewhere between 0600 and 0630.

My next official class is 1640 in the afternoon.

Yes, you read that correctly. Between 0930 and 1640 I have nothing official scheduled. Having said that, I am auditing a class at 1420 and another at 1530. It would be insane not to since the two classes (Public Health Law and US Health Law) are interesting and had lectures that conflicted with other courses on my schedule.

I am trying to treat those intervening hours the same way I did back in 1984-5 when I had some similar holes in my MPH schedule at Johns Hopkins. Every hour spent studying/working on assignments/usefully occupied while at school is one less hour out of my precious time at home. Right?

The end summary is that by the time my last class finished at 1840 I am done. Cooked.  Stick a fork in me. All I want to do is go home. I can’t imagine how horrible it is going to be once the baseball season starts and there are Tuesday night games. (2, 16, 23 April). Probably the only way I will survive is by not having to be at UCHastings until 0940 on . Wednesday.

I got home. Skipped dinner in favor of ice cream and went to sleep extremely early.

and today is?

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

It was partway through the day when I figured out that one half of the email list was dated correctly and the other half stated it was “19 Jan 2019.” Now obviously that was not true. What was probably worse was that I originally thought that the 13th was the incorrect date.

Something tells me that I was not feeling as well as I would like to have imagined.

It was obviously a slog to get to school. I made in through my two morning classes, the return through BART and was grateful for a pick-up by George. I was going to use the excuse of being completely brain dead as to why I wasn’t really studying for the rest of the day. But really, is knitting a complicated lace something I should be trying in a brain dead situation?

Through Chart E

the left “wing”

I won’t bother to tell you how many corrections I had to make on the return rows to finish the last portion of clue 3. Let us just say that there were a lot of yarn overs and beads involved.

Yep. Gave up. Went to bed with the intention of getting up early….

Wiped-Out

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This year, as apposed to previous years, I have been trying to write fairly early in the day. There was a time when writing at the end of the day was just routine. But that is something that is far easier to accomplish when one is deployed (see 1998, 2003-04, 2005, 2010-2011 –  months within those dates) and there are limited demands on time other than those which are work related. Come to think of it, I should probably add in the mind numbing time (2009-2010) in the UK where, if I hadn’t made some excellent friends, I might have spent my entire off duty time holed up with knitting. – Oh, wait a minute, that is largely what I did!

Anyway – I was in no shape to write this morning. In fact, I am not even sure that I recognized when morning occurred. Remember me mentioning the second Costco run – the one where I picked up a Fast-Trak for Dani? Did I also mention that they had cherries? Normally I only buy cherries in the spring when they are fresh. But Costco had 1 kg containers on sale. They appeared to be the same as all the other cherries I had purchased last spring.

So I bought them.

And ate them yesterday evening. After all, no one in this house expects me to share cherries. They know better. Nothing about them was strange, nothing tasted off. But those self-same cherries revisited me multiple times starting at 0 dark whenever. Since there was absolutely nothing else that I ate, I am blaming the cherries.

I think the last time I felt that awful was ~ 1995 after a trip to Taszar (Hungary) during IFOR. That particular episode was accompanied by fever and chills. (T*40C) and turned out to be a major salmonella outbreak. It was also the last time I ever ate scrambled eggs in a deployed environment.  And since then I have been meticulous about food and drink. Other members of my family have gotten food borne illness since then, but not me. Not norovirus, not anything, not me.

So why was I lucky enough to get sandbagged in my own house? To the tune of ill enough that I actually thought about going into SFVA for hydration?

No clue, but by not sharing my cherries, at least no one else became ill.

Oh, back in that line?

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

There were errands planned for early afternoon. They were only supposed to take a couple of hours. College Guy is back from CT and hanging out till school restarts, so he was willing to be the haul and tote person.

We went to Costco. Along with a bijilion and one other people on a Saturday afternoon. Unlike your average grocery store – there are no signs anywhere describing what is down any particular isle. Plus, they keep moving things around. End result? You have to push your cart through the whole store (getting into extra trouble) in order to find the things on your list. Often there isn’t a whole lot of choice, but that choice comes in a supersized container.

Example – go to your local Duane Reader or CVS or Walgreen’s drug store. There are 50 different sizes, brands and styles of tooth brushes, each in its own little package. Not so at Costco. Today there are two brands, each available in soft, medium or hard. That means six choices. Not 50. Since each package has 6-8 toothbrushes you simply won’t have to worry about buying toothbrushes for a few months.

Or laundry detergent for six months. Or tissues (package of eight large boxes) or garbage bags (box of 70) or dog treats for… forget that one – dog treats get scarfed up promptly.

I had a list from the eldest, from daughter #2 (see dog treats mentioned above) plus a two part list I had started. There were those items for the house and the items for UCHastings food pantry. It should not be surprising that there are students with little money once they have paid tuition and found a place to live. This fall, the student support office started a food pantry shelf. A number of us contributed to it regularly. The holidays pretty much had the shelves wiped clean. Costco turns out to be a good source of goodies in bulk (protein bars, jerky packages, rice bowls, ramen, cup-of-soup). I suppose I could use their purchase and ship option, but it is a bit cheaper to buy in the store and schlep myself.

We managed to pack everything in the car, then I went back to ask about buying an additional “Fast-Trak.” Oh – any register.  Argh. There are no express lanes. I looked around, not a check-out lane under 10 long and all with piled high carts.

We stopped at Pet Express instead for kitty litter then dropped off things for the Eldest before heading home and doling out the purchases. The dogs were pleased, beef treats were obviously for them.

I would have stayed home. I could have stayed home. But I couldn’t find my beads. The ones which I had just purchased for the Wild Swan. Out again, this time with Dani riding shotgun. JoAnn’s for the beads. CVS for the floss threaders, Daiso for seaweed snacks. And Costco, again. 15 minutes in line to purchase the Fast-Trak. But this way when Dani makes an airport run tomorrow, we won’t have to turn out everyone’s pockets in order to find enough money for the toll.

Swedish Tourism

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It was about this time last year that I went to Northern Sweden on a photography junket. Put off from the year before (2017) but that is a completely uninteresting story.

 

 

What brought back the memories and a relook at photos was a lovely notice from the Svenska Turistförenningen (Tourist Office in case you hadn’t guessed). They thanked me for my support last year and invited me to renew my membership. Even sent the form for the standard bank giro. Now, I enjoyed my time. Might even do it again. But voluntarily renew for 295kr + 185 kr Porto? Not likely. In case you needed the exchange – that comes to about $53.75 give or take a few cents depending on the exchange rate of the second.

They try to make it easy – I can pay on line by credit card, I can send a bank check. I can wire money. They won’t (any longer) take Euro Checks.

While it is true that the monies help their economy by supporting sustainable mountaineering and other valuable programs, I think I may keep my money a bit closer to home. But I did send them a polite email saying that I won’t be renewing, so please drop my name off their hard copy mailing list to save a few SEK.

What used to be here

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

A long time ago – or when I lived in Heidelberg – which may or may not be all that long ago in geological terms I wrote about some of the brass plaques inserted in various sidewalk locations in memory of those who had lived at that location and were taken and killed as part of the Holocaust.

As it turns out, there are plaques with a similar purpose set in the sidewalks here in San Francisco. These don’t relate to the Holocaust (obviously). So far I haven’t found any that relate to much of the California shame of the WWII internments. But what I found on my walk from the Powell Street BART to UC Hastings via various streets in the Tenderloin – was the following:

B’nai Brith arrived in San Francisco in 1855. Started originally to help widows and orphans, nationwide it became a strong supporter of the Anti-Defamation League, Hillel Foundations and BB Youth Organizations.

And here is a link to the California Digital Press Archives from 1897.  The archives are searchable and there are a number of contemporaneous articles on the 1906 Earthquake and the aftermath (1, 2 , 3- which discusses the libraries that were lost in the fire)

In researching more recent times – there were three remaining Lodges in SF which combined in 1997 to one. Of interest is that of those involved was still named the Golden Gate Lodge (see picture above).

In 1999, the official office closed and the organization became completely run by volunteers.

At some point, they even decided to admit women.  (gasp!  I remember the mother of a good friend saying – the men do B’nai Brith, the women do Haddasah. The local chapter likes to bowl, and bowling is just not a Jewish sport, I don’t belong! This was the early 1970s. )

In 2005, the remaining San Francisco lodge celebrated 150 years of activity in San Francisco.

It was at this point I ran out of time following various links down newspaper archives and various other bit-buckets. Something about a couple more classes this afternoon and maybe being prepared?

Wild Swan

now through 94 rows –

The Bay as a barrier

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

It most thoroughly was raining when I crept out of the house this morning, down to the car and drove over to North Berkeley BART parking. In fact, I was pretty damp by the time I had dashed the short distance between the back parking lot and the entrance. The only positive thing I was feeling at that point was a bit of relief that there were still a few open seats when I boarded BART.

Disembarking at Civic Center, the sky was overcast but the rain had ceased hours ago. Merchants were setting up for the Wednesday market. The usual overtones of human were absent in the air, instead the scents of coffee and oranges were teasing the nose.

I repeat – it was not raining.

I remember when we lived in Washington DC and experienced the Beltway phenomena. And no, I am not referring to all the bandits (excuse me, contractors) who lurk just outside DC proper just waiting to feed… Rather, I am referring to the influence of the actual physical beltway (think M25 motor way for you UK types) on the weather. It can be raining in DC, you cross under the Beltway on Connecticut Avenue going north and immediately run into a snow storm. The heat of the city plus all those cars create a micro-climate.

I actually made it through to the end of the day without a drop of rain in San Francisco; it would have been nice to have been able to say that as well as I dodged rain drops on my way home.

Doors open at 0700

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I am not sure why I thought that the UCHastings Buildings would be open early in the morning. After all, the school is located right off Civic Center, the UN Plaza and the hotbed of drug sales on Golden Gate Ave. Nope, the doors open at 0700 to both the classroom building (198 McAllister and the main office building – 200 same).

Since I have been bopping in and out now since August, I pretty much know all the morning security guards by both face and name. It was one of them this morning that reminded me that the only building open early (and security desk staffed 24/7 is that of the Towers (AKA dorm area)). OK, I can deal with that. George very kindly waited while I ran into PEET’s for coffee on the way to BART so my caffeination process was already well underway with the addition of a muffin in my backpack for later. I also have knitting – both a cowl I started while on the Rhapsody

~ lace weight gradient

as well as the Wild Swan shawl. And beads. And crochet hook. And pattern. And extra stitch markers.

You see, I have this huge gap in my schedule today, a very late class and a prospective dinner related to the J.P Morgan meeting. Can you spell – long day?

Back to the grind

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Well, classes have started up at Hastings for the “Spring” semester. The only thing remotely spring like is the rain (well, for anywhere else, spring = rain. Here rain = winter). But the weather is just a digression. To put it bluntly, my schedule in this new year sucks. I have two classes on Monday morning at Hastings. On Monday afternoon I need to be at Cal for the Intro to Public Health Infectious Disease course that I am a contributing lecturer. Tues I have one class at 0830 and the next is not until 1420 in the afternoon. Then my last seminar is for two hours starting at 1640. Wednesday is one lecture at 0940 followed by the trip back over to Cal.
Thursday starts with an 0830 lecture, then a seminar at 1420 for a couple of hours. Friday morning is two hours starting at 0940.

To summarize, I have to BART to San Francisco every blinking day. I have huge holes in my schedule. If I am smart, this means time spent in the library and I should have absolutely no need to do much of anything outside of all of those extra hours so kindly furnished me by the scatter shot schedule.

If my original choice of courses had not been cancelled, I would have been done by 1530 on Tues/Thurs and might have avoided that Wednesday morning completely. Argh.

In better nows – I am making progress on Wild Swan

Through Row 78

as this is a gradient yarn, just the first bit of shading from natural to pale blue can now be seen

And more rain

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Nothing like looking at the forecast and seeing rain.

Or, for that matter, looking out the window which just confirms what you already know – it is quite wet out there. There is a strong temptation just to curl up in front of the fireplace with a nice book, blanket. Or audiobook and knitting if I believed for even a minute that it would be possible to knit a complicated lace pattern and do anything else at the same time.

So instead I ran errands, replenished my bead supply (see knitting mentioned above and Wild Swan from a couple of days ago). By the end of the day I had made it to row 69.

The highlight (or not) of the afternoon was getting soaked on my way to the Cal Basketball game (which they managed to not lose).

from the opposite bleachers

and then it was home followed by a late in the dark run to OAK to pick up Noah.