Loxosceles

1. Archer Farms "Indian-inspired" meals from Target. I never thought I would stoop to buying groceries from Target, but look! For $4 you get rice, curry sauce, a side dish, and some over-sweet chutney. It feeds two people heartily. (We add our own meat or veggies to the curry sauce, and cook extra rice, but the total cost is no more than $8 for dinner for two.)

2. High-waisted skirts like this one. I don't know what suddenly made me stop hating this style and start loving it. Maybe the fact that it looks AWESOME on me. (I made my own with Vogue 8425.)

3. Text adventure games! I never liked these as a kid because I could never guess what to do next. Well, either my brain grew or they started writing 'em better, because I devoured three of these things recently and found them intriguing and intelligent and not impossible to play.

First I played Everybody Dies, which starts out all "go east"/"go west"/"it's boring here" but gets interesting after you die the first time. As far as I can tell there's only one ending, but the puzzles are fun and I found the story stuck in my head for hours afterwards, which I think means it's a good story.

Since Everybody Dies was the 3rd-place winner in the Interactive Fiction Awards, I then went and played the first-place entry, Violet. This is an awesome game for procrastination from your nanowrimo novel and/or paid writing projects. In it, the major puzzle is battling procrastination so you can write, because bad things will happen if you don't. (I played this game while waiting for a call back from someone I was interviewing for an article, which is the freelance writer equivalent of "my code is compiling").

4. You see where this is going. After playing about three games in two days I was flooded with ideas for text games I could write. Like one based on my nano novel! Or one where you don't move in space but you can travel through time! or one where you're asleep and have to destroy your alarm clock so you can get back to the quest in your dream where you need to get to the airport that is also a mcdonald's!

Want to play along with the Beth's Craziness game? (the metaphorical one, not the inevitable text adventure) Just apt-get install frotz inform inform-doc. Tell me how yours comes out.

[psst zcode linux ... just trying to help out the googlers]

I'll keep updating this post as my nanowrimo progress - you can also catch me on twitter or nanowrimo.org.

What follows is my svn commit log for the story.

The background: Lizzie Dodge, a notorious criminal, was offered a one-way ticket to a newly discovered earth-like planet named Eos instead of life in jail. She smuggled her teenage daughter Sarah in with her, and they joined a small miserable village of about two dozen people. They live in the desert, in an orbit-locked planet with boring weather and boring geography, but eventually things get interesting. The daughter, Sarah, is the main character.

How the story is going so far:

11/02
committing!! almost 4,300 words
Lizzie wanders off. Helena takes Sarah on a tour.
Sarah ponders Eosian rocks
Sarah learns that the habitable strip is really narrow.
wc 6,536 - Sarah harvests algae

11/03
wc 7058: Helena begins telling the story of the woman who chased the porcupine to the Sky World.
wc 9024: sarah hears bedtime story, sleeps and wakes up, mom returns

11/05
wc 10,518 : Lizzie takes Sarah to the cave. Sarah learns about the Ox. I add a Table of Contents and proper chapter breaks.
wc 10,788 - just talking about Stinky the cow

11/06
wc 11,025
wc 13,582 - sarah learns about the land claims and what Helena is in for. And she's mad at her mother.

11/07
wc 14,905 - sarah and helena start spinning some wool
wc 17,113 - the story of the man with no story
wc 17,576 - getting ready to kill off the mom ... getting cold feet ...
wc 20,200 - food is moldy, sarah gets sick while village faces famine

11/08
wc 20,800 - Sarah rolls around in her cave and vomits
wc 24,096 - Millard (a red shirt) just died

11/09
wc 24,520 - rambling thoughts about food
wc 25,468 - history of agriculture on the planet AND I BROKE 25K BABY
wc 27,021 - Sarah gets better, wakes up, learns what has happened so far

11/11
wc 30,310 - Millard's funeral and Helena tells a story in which Death is a character
wc 33,889 - mountains and desert plants. Sarah meets and tames the purple tentacled space plant.

11/13
wc 35,193 - they pass through the mountains and see the glittering alien valley below. And there is a village. WTF.
party wanders slowly toward the new village.

11/15
wc 44,294 !!! Ending all plotted out.

11/17
50,015 - Pioneer Village has suffered an earthquake and the people who were sleeping in tents are just fine. But Lizzie lives in a cave made of soft rock that, like silly putty, snaps under high stress.
wc 52,197 - sheriffs from New Hope City are sniffing around the village. They notice something interesting about the geology...

11/19
wc 54,403 - NHC sheriffs discover culmenite and begin negotiations. This could change the face of a(nother) world.

11/20
wc 56,100 - city people take over, sarah & crew sneak over to the city. Helena starts telling the story of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse but falls asleep halfway through.

11/22
wc 59,427 - our gang is in the town trying to figure out what to do. Miles & Isac are getting in trouble again. But oh, what trouble.

11/23
wc 63,727 - THE END.

warning: girly post!

I love 1920s style, and when our swing dance club holds a charleston night I am all over it like setting lotion on a flapper's head. Tonight I finally got the look just right, and here is how I did it.

The Hair

For hair, I did finger waves. Finger waves were everywhere in the 1920s; here is a 1930s how-to that clearly shows what it's supposed to look like. My own inspiration was a minor character on a BBC Hercule Poirot episode. Can't find a pic or remember the character's name, unfortunately. (Here is another fabulous example).

What you need if you are Roxie Hart, stuck in jail with no supplies but still must look fabulous:

• water
  
• a comb

What you need if you are slightly less talented but have access to a Sally Beauty Supply:

• water
  
• a comb
  
• setting lotion like Lottabody, about $3
  
• finger wave clamps like these, I paid $5 for 8

I won't repeat the detailed directions that you can find anywhere (including here) but here is the basic idea:

1. Wash your hair (it doesn't have to be clean, but it does have to be very wet).

2. Spray it down with setting lotion. (Setting lotion is like hairspray in reverse: you apply it before creating your style, then when your hair dries the style is frozen in.) Keep the hair wet until you are done.

3. Part and comb your hair, pulling every strand of it smooth and tight. Get used to this feeling, because it's the key here. You should feel the teeth of the comb down to your scalp, and the comb will be pulling/stretching the hair as fully as possible (not just skimming the surface).

4. Time to wave! Comb the hair back from your face, hold a finger on it, then comb forward toward your face. pinch a ridge between two fingers. Clamp that ridge (optional if you know what you're doing.) Repeat to make more waves. Make them as big/small as you want, start them forward or back, make them continuous and S-shaped or sharp and C-shaped. All up to you. Check out this expert fingerwaver on youtube to see the fingers in action.

5. It takes me 6 clamps to do the front of my hair. If you have short hair and lots of patience, go ahead and try to match the waves in the back.

6. My hair is shoulder-length, so I rolled it in the back. Here's a video on rolling hair (the back-of-head roll starts at 4:40). She rolls her hair around a rat, which is an optional shortcut.

Another tactic is shown here in Fig. 6. You part your hair ear-to-ear and put the back hair into a bun. Then, do your waves, and finally pin the front hair over and around the bun to hide it.

You can also make a ponytail and tuck it up like Angelina Jolie allegedly does.

UPDATE: The Gibson Tuck would be another option. It's period-appropriate, and way easier than any of the above. (D'oh!)

7. When the waved hair is very very dry (takes an hour or two, for me) remove the clamps. Bobby-pin any stray hairs, and off you go!

The makeup

The twenties were a big time for eyeliner, specifically kohl (which the internet tells me was made of soot, lead, and goose grease). Here's how I imitate the look (ignore my photos, the makeup looks washed out):

1. Apply a skin-colored shadow all over the eyelids & brow bone

2. Apply a dark gray shadow on the lids

3. With the edge of the sponge q-tip thingy that comes with the eyeshadow, apply black shadow all around the eyes, like some raccoon version of eyeliner. Blend it in and pile it on. Too much is never enough.

4. Finally, top it off with black mascara. (Clumpy is fine - the real stuff back then was a type of wax that you'd have to melt yourself!)

5. I finish with red lipstick and pink blush. Face powder would also be appropriate but I don't bother.

Best music video I've seen in a long time. Simple, fun to watch, story makes sense, tiny ballerinas, cute guys. Now was that so hard?

Here are some other songs I have enjoyed lately:

Stephen Stephen by the guy from Apples in Stereo - love the song as well as the visuals

Waking up in the City by the Ditty Bops. Terrible bootleg video, great song. Fun fact: these two got married in California during that brief sunny time before Prop 8 passed.

Best song that I couldn't find a video for: I Love Math's Run Back Inside (link only available temporarily - then you'll have to get your own)

Here's an interesting idea, from Michael Pollan's latest:

...we need to recognize the value of farmland to our national security and require real-estate developers to do “food-system impact statements” before development begins.

That's a very interesting idea. It would keep suburbs from sprawling over their food sources; it would keep farmland close to where people live. It would mean you can't go around whining that you can't buy local because no food is grown locally.

Or at least, it could be a start.

Read the rest: it's an open letter to the next president about how rejiggering our food system will fix many of the problems we're facing in energy, security, and public health. (Optimistic? Yeah, probably.)

Amazingly, I remember playing almost all of these Top 10 most influential video games from the 1980s.

Jezebel writes, "The graphics might not have been great, but the educational value was priceless. SimCity taught us all how taxes go to pay for new roads, Carmen Sandiego took us on whirlwind trips around the globe, and the Oregon Trail made us all aware of the importance of axels and the dangers of amoebic dysentery."

So true. My young mind was also impressed by Mavis Beacon, and one that didn't make the list, that game where you play a fish.

I convinced Chris to do NaNoWriMo this year, a project in which participants write a 50,000 word novel in a month (specifically, November).

To be supportive, I am taking the simple step of also writing a 50,000 word novel in a month.

I can't write fiction to save my life. Fortunately, my life doesn't depend on this.

Bottlemania: how water went on sale and why we bought it. An excerpt from the book of the same name. See also A tall, cool drink of ... sewage by the same author.

The story of the shit knife:

The Inuit didn't fear the cold; they took advantage of it. During the 1950s the Canadian government forced the Inuit into settlements. A family from Arctic Bay told me this fantastic story of their grandfather who refused to go. The family, fearful for his life, took away all of his tools and all of his implements, thinking that would force him into the settlement. But instead, he just slipped out of an igloo on a cold Arctic night, pulled down his caribou and sealskin trousers, and defecated into his hand. As the feces began to freeze, he shaped it into the form of an implement. And when the blade started to take shape, he put a spray of saliva along the leading edge to sharpen it. That’s when what they call the “shit knife” took form. He used it to butcher a dog. Skinned the dog with it. Improvised a sled with the dog’s rib cage, and then, using the skin, he harnessed up an adjacent living dog. He put the shit knife in his belt and disappeared into the night.

Athletes on the edge: interviews with a traceur, a cold-water endurance swimmer, a sword swallower, a competitive eater, and a human cannonball.

Protective RNA virus - this is pretty neat: "The "protecting virus" contains an altered gene that makes it harmless and prevents it from reproducing in a cell. If another influenza virus invades the cell it still remains harmless, but rapidly reproduces and prevents infection by literally crowding out the new influenza strain."

Wreck this journal: you can buy a journal with wrecking prompts in it, or just follow along with a book of your own. Some ideas are here.

Flying Trapeze: explains itself. I took a trapeze lesson once. It's as much fun as it looks!

Finally!

That is the white lighthouse at the end of the pier where the Inlet enters Cayuga Lake.

If the Vibram FiveFingers fit my long toes better, I'd run in those. But since they don't, I bought a pair of these.

I've had trouble with arch pain (NOT plantar fasciitis, something else) with every pair of running shoes I've ever owned, except the Nike Air Presto and - so far - these.

Having eliminated most of the other possibilities, I realize that my arches, being a complex and flexible part of my body, just want to do their job. They can't do that in shoes that have soles like bricks. I went looking for extremely flexible running shoes, and found the Nike Free 5.0 (The 3.0 sounds like more my style, but I couldn't find it anywhere.)

So I had a nice pain-free run today, a 5K route plus I was feeling so good at the end I tacked on another half-mile jog and some hill sprints.

My thoughts on the Free: I love love love the flexible sole, though I think they should have made it more flexible. And why make the heel so thick while the forefoot is nice and thin? Nike, you perplex me.

Overall they feel almost exactly like my old Prestos! The shoe that was billed as "a T-shirt for your feet" and derided by the few real runners that bothered to express an opinion. The only running shoe that ever really sorta worked for me.

Here's hoping every run is as good as the one I had today.

That's me and Chris singing.

Youtube link

          C                 Am
Well I've heard there was a secret chord,
     C                   Am
That David played and it pleased the Lord,
    F                         G      C       G
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
   C                   F        G
It goes like this, the 4th, the 5th,
    Am                 F
The minor fall and the major lift,
    G               E7          Am
The baffled king composing hallelujah,
     F           Am          F           C   G   C
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelu------jah

Some of the world's strangest fences

"IN A WORLD without Don LaFontaine ... we'd all make a lot more money." (RIP)

A recipe misprint leads to nutmeg poisoning

Hollywood's 5 saddest attempts at feminism

Chris has convinced me to start blogging about random scientific topics. I wrote a little thing the other day on phantom pain, mirror therapy, and the rubber hand illusion: Whose limb is it anyway?

When representing a negative, why not turn the chart upside down? Check this out for an example of representing weight loss:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/34183/description/Against_the_grains

PS. on my Flickr account, there are lots of pictures of Yellowstone and three great ice cream recipes. Check it out.

and this:



and this:



Find out what Yellowstone looks like tomorrow.

I'm off to Yellowstone, where there is no internet. I'll be back in July if the bears don't eat me.

Photo by Fort Photo.

Yes, I did get used to walking in them. It takes time for your feet to get stronger - a few weeks. At the same time you learn how to place your feet for maximum comfort. Experiment and you will see.

I wear them everywhere, including hikes in the woods and walks around town. I wear them kayaking and gardening and shopping.

EVERYONE notices, and asks where I got them. Then I have to explain about VibramFiveFingers.com. I sound like a commercial.

After walking in the FiveFingers, I'm no longer afraid of going barefoot. Gravel on the driveway? Whatever. I just step carefully.

I have a greater appreciation of soft ground like dirt, moss, grass, and playground padding. Mmm.

The Flow is good in cold weather, but doesn't keep you dry. FiveFingers in the rain = waterlogged. I wonder if the R&D people are looking into gore-tex?

It seems I am drawn to weird footwear. High heeled sneakers, say - I've owned more than one pair. Saddle shoes. Dance shoes of all different kinds. And don't forget the shoes with wheels on the bottom, or knife edges on the bottom, for skating on various surfaces. I've even owned the Air Rift.

This one is even weirder than all of those. It even comes with a nutty ideology that, I suspect, is grounded in truth: your feet work fine without any shoes. Better, in fact.

So, here they are: shoes to walk barefoot in.



A recent New Yorker article entitled "You Walk Wrong" put words to a suspicion I've been having for a while: even though I "need" running shoes that correct my overpronating gait, there is probably nothing actually wrong with my feet.

Normal running shoes make my feet hurt in one way. Special shoes make my feet hurt less, but differently.

Yet, no matter how my feet hurt - whether after a run or a day in dress shoes - taking the shoes off always returns me to normal. If running shoes really corrected some problem with the way I naturally use my feet, wouldn't I feel better with the shoes and worse without?

The You Walk Wrong" article suggests that most people's barefoot stride is just fine, and supportive or extra-cushioned shoes might do more harm than good.

But enough about me. What about these shoes?

They're called the Vibram FiveFingers. They have a very thin but tough rubber sole, individual toes, and my version has some velcro closures to adjust the fit.

It's almost not right to call them shoes (the first time I stepped onto a gravel driveway was my wake-up call). Think of them like a strap-on callus for your bare feet.

In shoes, I (and, probably, you) slam my heel on the ground pretty hard. The heels of my shoes are always the first part to wear out. I took the Fivefingers for a trip to the store. On parking lots, sidewalks, and hard floors, my heels hurt.

But then, what about those times at Alfred when Amy and I took our shoes off and walked across campus? We avoided gravel driveways, for one thing. And when we got to a grassy field, I'd put my foot down to enjoy the feel of it. I did not put my foot down heel first.

In fact, when I step on unknown grass, or a kibble-strewn floor like the ones in my house, I step with the flat or the ball of my foot first. I land softly. Barefoot hikers call this fox walking.

Now, I have two problems. One is re-learning how to walk, since I drop into my heel-slamming habits whenever I'm outdoors. The other is strengthening the muscles in my feet. After a few hours in the Fivefingers, my arches and toes feel tired! This is normal in the beginning, they say.

Will I one day be able to run without running shoes? Hike without hiking boots? Here's hoping.

I posted this as a comment at Ask the Readers: Advice for College Grads over at Get Rich Slowly. The question: what financial advice would you give a recent or soon-to-be college grad?

When you’re unemployed, and interviewing for jobs, remember that the light at the end of the financial tunnel does not come when you start your job. Not even when you get your first paycheck, since that check will be paying last month’s bills. It takes a couple of paychecks, even a couple of months, to get a comfortable cash flow going. Resist the urge to celebrate too early!

Ask. Negotiate. Do not wait for perks, raises, or fun assignments to be handed to you. While you wait, they are being given to people who had the guts to ask.

Do not buy lots of stuff to fill up your empty first apartment. Your future self does not want your poor ass student self picking out furniture.

Similarly: when you buy stuff, consider its whole life cycle. What will you do when the item goes out of fashion? When you give up that hobby? When you move? Go through a couple of moves and you’ll realize that every time you are trashing stuff that you once thought was worth spending money on.

Career-wise, figure out what you WANT to do, not what you feel like someone with your major should do. Remember there are always more opportunities in the world than anybody has thought to tell you about.

Develop a hobby that could, theoretically, pay the bills. This may become an alternate career path, OR you may be able to blend your expertise here with expertise in your regular field. Similarly, if you change majors or careers, don’t forget that your former field left you with skills that are still useful in future jobs. Real world jobs/careers/opportunities are rarely contained within exactly one field.