Not Mic Mac
Mig Ma
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
BOOK REPORT: MESSY BY TIM HARFORD
INTRODUCTION
How German teen’s failure to get the right piano for a jazz concert turns into magic in a bottle thanks to the willingness and skill of Keith Jarrett to play within the limits of the instrument, recorded for posterity as the Köln Concert of 1975
Argument: sometimes we are better served by embracing a degree of mess instead of a tidy-minded approach
“I will stand up for messiness not because I think messiness is the answer to all life’s problems, but because I think messiness has too few defenders. I want to convince you that there can sometimes be a certain magic in mess.”
CREATIVITY
Brian Eno, West Berlin music studio 1976
Oblique Strategy Cards
Shuffle and deal (don’t pick and choose)
Takes you out of your comfort zone
eg Be the first not to do what has never not been done before, Emphasize the flaws, Only a part not the whole, twist the spine, look at the order in which you do things, change instrument roles, Water, Honor thy error as a hidden intention, think like a gardener
NP-hard problem in mathematics
Like a combination lock: given a solution, it’s easy to check if it works. Finding the solution is near impossible because you have to try every possible combination
Algorithms serve as recipes to work through possibilities
Randomness “simulated annealing”
Graeme Obree “The Flying Scotsman”, 1990s
Cyclist with random experimentations
Big gains until Union Cycliste Internationale banned this new ideass. Since then, only “marginal gains” have been possible
2014 London commuter strike
1/20 did not return to their habitual route. The unexpected forced them to a better route
Harvard test, Shelley Carson
Distractable brains have an innate tendency to allow creativity
Bernice Eiduson, 1958, scientists who switched topics frequently were more highly productive
Alexander Fleming/Louis Pasteur vs James Watson/Jonas Salk
Michael Crichton 1994
most successful novel (Disclosure), TV show (ER), movie (Jurassic Park)
Creativity researchers
Keith Sawyer/Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
“Flow”
Howard Gruber and Sara Davis
Pattern of different projects at different stages of fruition - “network of enterprises”
Four clear benefits:
Knowledge cross-fertilization amongst projects
Fresh content is exciting
Subconscious processing of other projects while paying close attention to another
Escape from the others (Soren Kierkegaard refers to this as “crop rotation”)
Twyla Tharp choreographer
Keeps a box for each project
“One of the biggest fears for a creative person is that some brilliant idea will get lost because you didn’t write it down and put it in a safe place” I don’t worry about that because I know where to find it. It’s all in the box.”
Monday, August 5, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: DUNE
I finally read this sci-fi novel last year, and I was surprised that I didn’t know it more. It had a lot of similar elements to Star Wars, with Arabic sounding names and desert worms. The pace of the book was very laconic, and I looked forward to seeing the modern movie, even though I hadn’t seen the first one.
Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya were predicable great on screen, and the grandeur of the desert and the interior shots were amazing. I really loved the presence of Oscar Isaac, and Jason Mamoa, but the scene with the Bene Gesserit testing Paul was the most terrifying.
It was an impressive adaptation, and I highly recommend seeing the movie after reading the book!
Next is Dune Part II. I think we are due for more water, if memory serves!
RHUBARB MUFFINS
Talking to my friend, married to a farmer, she was making rhubarb muffins. Turns out she uses a recipe from a book I have, The Best of Bridge!
I learned a lot about harvesting rhubarb differently than I had been. It's hard to kill a rhubarb plant, but neglect doesn't get the best outcome either. I had been cutting them, but when my friend said she pulls hers from the outside, I remember seeing the rhubarb in markets looking like that.
Saturday, July 6, 2024
MOVIE REVIEW: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
This was the second of the Jordan movies, and a friend came over to watch it with me, even though it was the longest one. Although it did include a short intermission and a black screen to start, the movie was listed as 3 hours and 47 minutes!
Lawrence of Arabia was the best picture Oscar of 1962. Based on a true story, I had only known T.E. Lawrence from the translation work of The Odyssey. Indeed, it was the story of his military life that was spent rallying a group of disparate Arabs, from the Bedouin desert to conquer Aquaba and move towards Damascus.
Set as a heroic story for an antihero, it was good at very prolonged suspense. It avoided all exposition, but I didn’t know what was going on sometimes. It needed editing, and a little more explanation. However, the story of the Arab uprising against the Turks as part of Britain’s WWI campaign was interesting.
While Lawrence was changing from his uniform to a desert costume, the main Arabic characters were played by western actors like Alec Guinness and Omar Sharif.
One highlight was when they rode by a rock I had stood on, with a photo to prove it!
Classic, interesting, strange dislikable character finding a way to belong.
MOVIE REVIEW: THE MARTIAN
This was the shortest of a trilogy of movies that I wanted to watch on returning from a trip to Jordan.
The Martian is one of the three films
Comparisons
Contrasts
That desert, full of satellites, rovers, and solar panels, was last full of litter and bedouins in headscarves and camels in my memory
As much as the stars fill the sky on film, there were not so many in the light haze of camp see you
Criticisms:
Why did they go out again in the storm? Without cinching themselves together in case electronics fail?
Where did he get all that plastic and tape?
How did we solve the problem of oxygen? Especially since H2O molecules take two each
Potatoes are far from enough nutrition
Why is he adding up meals, not calories? protein ability? Weight of the potatoes?
Plutonium : radiation poisoning?
NASA rooms: too many men
So many British actors for an American movie
A ribbon, not a knot? Really?! They were doing so well being realisticky!
The thing about space travel stories that I have read(The bio of Yuri Garagan, the autobiographies of Chris Hadfield and Dave Williams) is that they all return to earth firmly convinced that we much defend what we have more than pursue more desolate places to colonized. In this movie (I didn’t yet read the book, and I may not), there is a nod to a plant growing in pebbles, but then they are on to space travel again. I think we need to apply our energies to world cooperation in climate control, and less on dreaming of spitballing for aerospace disasters.
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Monday, February 19, 2024
ALLAN CARR'S AGATHA CHRISTIE
Greenway manor National Trust (Dead Man’s Folly - boathouse)
James Pritchard - grandson
Torquay, Torbay (born, bought 1938 her summer home, to her death)
English Riviera
Beach where she swam (ABC murder)
Beacon cove beach, microclimate allowed all year round
Rollerskating on the pier
Horse riding to cockington
Honeymoon hotel
Burgh (BURR) Island Hotel (And Then There Were None, Evil under the sun)
Palm Court
Art deco
Black Tie
Sea Tractor
Mousetrap
St. Marten’s theater
Harrowsgate Spa
Mystery
James Pritchard - grandson
Torquay, Torbay (born, bought 1938 her summer home, to her death)
English Riviera
Beach where she swam (ABC murder)
Beacon cove beach, microclimate allowed all year round
Rollerskating on the pier
Horse riding to cockington
Honeymoon hotel
Burgh (BURR) Island Hotel (And Then There Were None, Evil under the sun)
Palm Court
Art deco
Black Tie
Sea Tractor
Mousetrap
St. Marten’s theater
Harrowsgate Spa
Mystery
WATERCOLOUR
Paper brought from China by Marco Polo to Amalfi coast
90lb
Soak soft brush first, to prevent pain to get in brush, making it easier to clean later
Keep paper from curling by using four sides with butcher tape
Masking-cut tape, friscate, rubber cement- leaves white
Leave white between colours, or they will blend
PLAN!!!!!
Light to dark colours
Put drop in each cake colour to start
Use cheap brush to mix colour, expensive to paint
Bleeds
Try watercolour pencils
Toothbrush splatter à la Andrew Wyeth
Transfer paper- add in colour after the fact
Frank Hyde
Koy
Acrylic gel medium, with comb, then silver leaf into dried gel, then topped with acrylic resin, then painted
ZERO, A GIFT FROM INDIA
Naught (naughty meaning coming from nothing, now wicked)
"The concept of zero as a written digit in the decimal place value notation was developed in India."
"The word zero came into the English language via French zéro from the Italian zero...first known English use of zero was in 1598."
"The Italian mathematician Fibonacci (c. 1170 – c. 1250), who grew up in North Africa and is credited with introducing the decimal system to Europe, used the term zephyrum."
Zero Marks the Spot: Stuff the British Stole
Other gifts from India:
Chess (7th century, Chaturanga)
Buttons (Indus Valley, Kot Diji era, used as ornaments or seals rather than fasteners (circa 2800-2600 BC)
Shampoo (boiling a lychee with dried Indian gooseberry (amla)
Ayurveda (alternative medicine with eight components: general medicine, perinatal care of mother/pediatrics, surgery, upper cavities including eyes and ENT, pacification of possession spirits, toxicology, rejuvenation/anti-aging, aphrodisiacs )
Cashmere (goat hair from Kashmir in NW Indai)
USB (Did you know it stood for Universal Serial Bus?) This is a stretch since Indian born Ajay Bhatt was working for Intel in the US as a computer architect when he did it. We'll call him a "global Indian". I get it. As a Canadian, we do like to keep our global exports near and dear.
SEMAPHORE
An apparatus for signaling, usually within visual distance, dating back to the signalling systems of the Greeks with fires on fixed towers along the coast that would be lit one at a time in sequence with preset codes.
Modern examples are flags, lights, traffic lights, railway signals, telegraphs, and morse code.
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Thursday, January 25, 2024
ALPEN ROSES AND EDUCATING WOMEN
Bavarian's Kings' museum in Füssen near the Alpensee (with swans!)
Queen Marie (Ludwig's mom) - an avid hiker and club leader gave the Alpenrose with a pink bow to ladies who hiked a local mountain with her
Queen Theresia - given an unusual life of travel and science and was awarded an honorary degree at two Universities, one being Munich. The audioguide state that she was embarrassed by the attention.
Maximillian - given swan gifts
Queen Marie (Ludwig's mom) - an avid hiker and club leader gave the Alpenrose with a pink bow to ladies who hiked a local mountain with her
Queen Theresia - given an unusual life of travel and science and was awarded an honorary degree at two Universities, one being Munich. The audioguide state that she was embarrassed by the attention.
Maximillian - given swan gifts
Sunday, January 21, 2024
THE SPECTRUM OF PSYCHOLOGY
According to the overview given to me by Princess Pirate’s first year college friends, there are two themes. On one end is Freud’s psychoanalysis (evaluate personality from our unconscious mind) and Skinner’s Behaviourism (Measure what we do, no matter what we say and think). On the other is Carl Rogers’ Humanism (growth potential, and self-actualization).
Thursday, January 18, 2024
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S TOP TEN PICKS
I am on a mailing list for Agatha Christie newsletter, and they supplied a list I have folded up in my copy of her autobiography. It’s the list of all her books, with short stories and plays, in order, and it’s so long that I am pretty sure I will never make my way through it. The letter started with a self-selected top ten list, and I think that’s a great place to start!
I am in the middle of Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, and I have only read one of those above (and watched the play AND the movie). I will work towards expanding to the titles above!
Friday, January 12, 2024
EIGHTEEN
Princess Pirate had a birthday today. I spent it with her and three of her closest friends, with red velvet multilayer cake with cream cheese icing, and fluorescent mini-golf at the Spheretech Putting Edge . She is not what I was like at eighteen, and she is not entirely independent, but she is an adult, and I am glad to know her.
Sunday, January 7, 2024
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
I am sitting on my bed in a snowstorm, reflecting on the brilliant writing of the pilot for Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV, and how it only begins to show the arc of complexity that a singular life can have.
I am thinking how it’s hard to write without getting lost in the character, but that that writing a screen play forces dialogue and pacing of interwoven characters and plot.
I am thinking about how incredibly strong the themes spoke to me, moving me to tears when the protagonist in a more patriarchial gender disqualification role is validated in her colleague.
She walks in at the pinnacle of her tv show fame, confident, decisive, and obviously in charge.
We see her next, in her past, working as an overqualified lab assistant who also serves as 50s housewife, making coffee and cleaning up, while being excluded by her male peers and only able to work
She exists in the best version of her self within her limits until she intersects with a valuable but difficult colleague, and together they offer a better world than on their own.
There are flashbacks, though, and the show ends in her fleeing this new arrangement based on fear propagated from a previous yet to be defined, but clearly traumatic event.
In between there is a meeting of the minds, and the chemistry of a man and a woman seeing and valuing each other in a beautiful relationship that makes me crave more. There are sweet endings (how does she get out of an obligatory beauty contest at work that only objectifies the women further) and gorgeous food, and a burgeoning relationship that is bound to get beautiful and messy. The themes run deep and the chemistry is gripping. What happens next is the brainchild of talented writing, and I am hooked! How do I take my ideas, and transform them into something resembling that?
I can’t quite get the pacing and the tension, but I was sitting here on my bed, singing The First Noel from the pages of a Christmas magazine where I made notes about the epiphany cake that I just made last night. We have visitors, and Rebecca is being a good sport in a curtainless living room on a pullout couch. Meanwhile our guests came, and realized that one is highly allergic to our cat, despite us living in an apartment within our house, with the litter underfoot in the bathroom, and the living room and dining room off limits. In my head, and some of my correspondence, I carry the impending death of a woman I spend 4 hours trying to save the day before yesterday, and the myriad complicated patients that I left behind.
Surely that story could be just as interesting, if I could just write it!
IDEAS:
Write as a screen play (simplified but strong dialogue, scenes present but not written advancing plot)
State the obvious, brilliantly
Find an object to carry through (pencil)
Create a cast for my favourite characters
Don’t be limited by typical life. Write an extraordinary
Create chemistry
Think sound, visual, (smell)
Thursday, December 28, 2023
QUILTING VOCABULARY
Quilting Vocabulary
Stitch-cut-press-repeat
Block (square)
Chain stitch
Nest seams (while pressing, same direction)
Flimsy(just the quilt top)
Toppiece(quilt)
Sandwich (quilt top, batting, backing)
Charms 5x5 “
Layer cake 10x10”
Fat Quarter 18x20-22” (quarter yard is 9x44”)
- quilting yards are 41-45”, not 36”
Jelly Roll 2.5”x42”
Sashing-between blocks
See into blocks, rows, neighborhoods
Selvage(factory edges)
Square up (edges)
Long arm quilting
Hand sewn
STASH- special treasures all secretly hidden (things hoarded and forgotten)
UFOs -unfinished objects
Mount Scrapmore
WIP work in progress
WHIMM works hidden in my mind
Seam alliance
Fussy cut ( cutting out for special use
Fusing interfacing (for stretchable and slippery fabrics)
Disappearing 9 block (9 squares, cut into 4)
Log cabin block
Baste with safety pins
Stitch in the ditch
Narrow colour palate
Pay attention to value
Avoid too much contrast
Roll as you go
Quilt Sizes
- Crib: 36” x 52”
- Throw: 50” x 65”
- Twin: 70” x 90”
- Full: 85” x 108”
- Queen: 110” x 108”
- King: 110” x 108”
Saturday, December 9, 2023
MISTAKES
“It's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.”
Sophia Lauren
GIVING A MESSAGE
If the advice from “Daddy King” was good enough for Martin Luther Jr., it’s good enough for us.
“Make it plain. Make it clear. Make it real.”
From John Lewis, in Carry On
“Speak the language of the people. And make sure to understand with whom you are communicating. Who are they? What are their values? What are their needs? Your job as a communicator is to figure all that out and apply that knowledge to what you are saying.”
GOOD TROUBLE
John Lewis was the youngest member of the “Big Six”, that included Martin Luther King Jr. A. Philip Randolph, James Farmer, Whitney Young, and Roy Wilkins. He helped organized and lead the march on Washington, and spoke on that iconic day.
He was born in Troy, Alabama in 1940, and was 11 years old when he first saw how a desegregated society could look like when he went to visit relatives in Buffalo, NY.
He met MLK Jr AND Rosa Parks when he was 18, and attended workshops let by Reverend James Lawson on nonviolent protesting while a student in Nashville. That was the beginning of him following their example, and getting into “good trouble”, and becoming a Civil Rights Leader.
This led to the Nashville Student Movement which began staging sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in 1959.
He was one of the original Freedom Fighters who rode interstate buses to protest segregation in the south. He was assaulted and arrested over 2 dozen times in the years between 1961 and 19631234-.
He was one of many protestors that walked over the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in 1965. He suffered a fractured skull, and many other demonstrators were hospitalized following the assault of baton-wielding police. This was referred to as “Bloody Sunday”, and the televised images may have spurred President Johnson to submit a voting rights bill to congress.
He was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1981, where he lived with his wife Lillian and his son John-Miles.
He was elected to the US House of Representatives from Georgia’s 5th district in 1986, and was reelected SIXTEEN times as “the conscience of Congress”, according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
He introduces a bill to create a national African American museum in 1988, which is blocked 15 successive years by the Republican Senate. The bill passes in 2003, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture officially opened in 2016 in DC, affectionately called Blacksonian.
He continues to sit-in, calling for immigration reform in front of the Capitol in 2013. This leads to his 45th arrest, for getting into “Good Trouble”.
He leads a sit-in on the House floor in 2016 when the vote on gun control is refused by Republicans.
He endorses Barack Obama, who in turn delivers his eulogy when he dies with pancreatic cancer in 2020, saying:
“He, as much as anyone in our history, brought this country a little bit closer to its highest ideals.”
Chronology from Carry On, his last book. It may be small, but it carries big messages, just like the Congressman did.
CBC GEM has a documentary called Good Trouble, that is worth watching.
He wrote a graphic novel trilogy called March, a memoir called Walking with the Wind, and Across that Bridge.
Read about John Lewis, and you can’t help but be inspired.
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
SATURDAY NIGHT: A HERO'S JOURNEY
Nod to Joseph Campbell's HERO OF A THOUSAND FACES and the concept of MONOMYTH
DEPARTURE
The Ordinary World - introduction of the protagonist anti-hero
The Call to Adventure - shifts
Refusing the Call to Adventure - Sick call
Meeting the Mentor - bad bosses, charming colleagues, paying it forward, role model
Crossing the Threshold - signover
INITIATION
Test, Allies, and Enemies - blue light, catching mistakes (rib fractures, MRI delays, transfer errors)
Approach to the Inmost Cave - catching up and other calculated moves
The Ordeal - psychiatrist pushback, missing bedtime, eating late, code stroke at dinner
The Reward - RN support
RETURN
The Road Back - countdown to signover
Resurrection - the golden hour of catchup
Return With the Elixir - homeward bound
Jonah
Life in Niniveh
Called by God
Shirking responsibility
In the Belly of the Whale (inmost cave)
Vomited on the beach
A second life to live
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Monday, November 20, 2023
LEMON POPPY SEED BISCOTTI
Recommended by my friend and former roommate (one year by chance, and one year by choice!), who makes biscotti a regular breakfast decision.
It seems ironic that the website that supplies the recipe is Lord Byron’s Kitchen, as he was famously known to have a suspected eating disorder, and was probably body dysmorphic.
In any case, cookies look good, and I will try them as soon as I buy flour.
Today was a pyjama day, but tomorrow I will get dressed, and make it to the store!
PARTITION OF INDIA
The story of the partition of Indian and Pakistan was familiar to me, but it is strange that the story resonates from a Disney show about a young super hero called Ms. Marvel.
In 1947, with the British Parliament passing the Indian Indepedence Act, Lord Mountbatten announced the date, and the border was prepared at a distance by barrister Sir Radcliffe.
The previously integrated populations moved in hopes of the religious safety of a religious majority between India, and Pakistan, in the provinces of Bengal and Punjab. An estimated 1 million people died.
It reminded me of the troops leaving Afghanistan, with a vacuum that lead to violence and oppression, thanks to the longtime interference of a military power (the US instead of Britain, in this case).
DRESSUP IN YUNNAN CHINA
My friend lived in Spring City, Kunming for a time, and I went on tour with her and her friend, my daughter’s namesake. We dressed up once, and it was the traditional dress of the “Bai” people, which apparently means white.
BEST FOOD IN THE WEST ISLAND
https://montreal.eater.com/maps/meilleurs-best-restaurants-west-island-montreal-dorval-pointe-claire
Bombay Choupati 5011 Sources Indian
Aryana 4886 Sources Afghan
Becks 4886B Sources Filipino
Vivaldi 13071 Gouin Italian
Ooh! Crabe 4820 St Jean Cajun
Bistro 1843 376 Cherrier Ile Bizard French
Toasties 4710 St Jean submarine
Tacos Don Rigo 4740 St Jean
Matjip 3343A Sources Korean
Marko Sushi 3339 D Sources sushi
Birdhouse 63 Brunswick “wingerie”
Riccardo 4071 St Jean Italian
Bisto Nolan 3669 St Jean Cajun
Mama Dumplings 3597 St Jean Chinese
Scarolies 950 St Jean Italian
Tommy Cafe Fairview Tapas, blue milk latte
Bistro Grace 18425 Antoine-Faucon
Grill Select 2756 St Charles Persian noodle soup, mirza ghassemi
Cugini’s Pizza 275 Elm
Resto Pub Bord’eaux 53 Ste Anne homestyle cooking
THREE METRICS IN ADDITION TO DIVIDEND YIELD
Don’t just rely on the dividend yield, or a low-priced stock that pays dividends can lead to what The Motley Fool calls a « dividend trap »
1. P/E Price-to-Earnings ratio - the higher the P/E ratio, the more expensive a stock is relative to its earnings
Earnings per share = profits/ number of outstanding shares
P/E =stock price/EPS
2. Free cash flow
More cash in, even if not going out in dividend, is good.
If dividends are greater than cash in, this is a red flag!
3. Debt-to-Equity ratio = total liabilities/total shareholder equity
A Low D-E R is more funded through equity, which is preferred.
A high D-E R means a company is funded more by debt, which is riskier.
BILINGUAL TREES AND SHRUBS
Un Érable - Maple
Un Tilleul - Linden
Un Pin blanc, gris, rouge - Pine
Un Sapin - Fir
L’Épinette blanche, noire - Spruce (France: Épicéa)
Un Chêne - Oak
Un Bouleau - Birch
Un Frêne - Ash
Un Hêtre - Beech
Un Cèdre (Blanc/Thuya occidental) - Cedar (White)
Un Peuplier - Poplar
Un Saule - Willow
Un Tremble - Aspen
Un Châtaignier - Chestnut tree
Un Marronnier - Horse Chestnut
Une Caryer (ovale) - Hickory (Shagbark)
Une Pruche - Hemlock
Un Charme -Hornbeam tree
Un mimosa – Mimosa tree
Un sorbier – Mountain Ash tree (Rowan) - red berries
Un sumac – Sumac
Un lilac – Lilac tree
Un Prunus – Plum tree
Un Cerisier - Cherry tree
Un If - Yew (Château d’If, Conte de Monte Cristo) *frontyard
Un Noyer - Walnut
Le Mélèze - Larch
Un Orme - Elm
Le Sureau – Elder bush
Le Magnolia – Magnolia
L’Aubépine – Hawthorn
Le Brunellier – Blackthorn (Sloe) *backyard
Le Chèvrefeuille - Honeysuckle
Le Cornouillier – Dogwood *frontyard
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