A Blog Post

We just judged everyone's blog post style today and I learned mine is rambling. I didn't know this before...but okay, I'll own it. This post should excel at rambling!

In case you weren't part of this conversation (or don't remember it) Joseph was adjudged to primarily write about human behavior, Andrew writes about biology--primarily animals, Ruth: two year olds and Chicago weather, Richard--words, and me rambling.

I prefer "writes about wide and varied topics with great passion and clarity" but whatever. :)

Ruth spent the weekend here! Thanks Ruth!

In other news...lots of stuff is happening and I've probably rambled enough.

Halibut

Hello once again people.

So I had a nice surprise yesterday/today. I got a call yesterday about an interview at Whole Foods to be one of their seafood team members. I became excited, because if there is a place I would want to work at with seafood, it would be Whole Foods, because they are very focused on sustainable seafood. This is very important because seafood is tasty, and as such tends to be over-exploited. I had the interview today, and I'm having another interview on Thursday.

The interview went very well today. I talked about how I liked salmon and about how passionate I am about sustainable fishing and harvesting practices, learned that they smoke their fish in house (so I'll probably learn how to do that if I get this job).

But I didn't write this post just to talk about my interview. While walking in I noticed that they had a sale on halibut. This post is going to be about this flatfish.

Halibut is a right-eyed flounder, which means that it's face is on the right side of its head. It consists of several species, some who are officially named halibut (Atlantic halibut, Pacific halibut, spotted halibut) and some named flounder (California flounder, olive flounder, etc.). Their name comes from their popularity as food for Catholic holy days, 'hali' coming from 'holy' and 'but' coming from 'butt', not just the posterior but the meaning as 'a flatfish.' They can get real big, the record (awaiting confirmation) being 515 pounds and 9 feet long. That's a big fish.

As flatfish, you wouldn't expect them to be near the top of the food chain in their habitats, but they are. They eat pretty much anything they can fit in their mouth, and their predators are such beasts as sea lions, killer whales, and salmon sharks.

Halibut are popular for eating because they have a nice but not overpowering flavor, are dense and moist, and you can get four fillets out of one fish. They are so popular that the Atlantic halibut is being considered as a candidate for an endangered species listing, due to overfishing.

Atlantic Halibut, Hippoglossus hippoglossus

Communication - Me and You too!

How have I never put this word in here? I feel like it defines what I am trying to do!

Communicate -
- to convey knowledge of or information about : make known
-to get someone to understand your thoughts or feelings

Latin communicatus, past participle of communicare to impart, participate, from communis common

- Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online
First Known Use: 1526

So, insight of the word: 

Does this comic show communication? Why, or why not?

What is communication by your view?

(And if you can be funny about it --> double points and chocolate brownies)

Love you all!

Asiatic Cheetah

As you may have guessed from the title, I am going to have a quick post about the lesser known subspecies of cheetahs, the Asiatic cheetah!

Illustration from 1037 of tame Asiatic cheetahs

These cheetahs once roamed a large portion of Asia and the Middle East, from Arabia to India. They were at first thought to be genetically indistinct from the African cheetah (according to Stephen J. O'Brien in 2009) as they only separated 5,000 years ago, but a more detailed study published in 2011 showed a lot more genetic diversity. They historically have been used by royalty in the region as hunting cats. Yes, they domesticated one of the fasted land predators to use for hunting.

Look at their blanket-coats!

Now, however, they are critically endangered. There are only from 20-76 Asiatic cheetahs left, and they all exist in Iran (although rarely they can range into Afghanistan). Thus this subspecies is now sometimes known as the Iranian cheetah. Because of the current geopolitical climate, the global conservation community (largely Western educated scientists), are left out of the species survival plans and research is spotty. There have been some attempts to obtain captive breeding cheetahs from the Iranian government, but they are correctly skeptical of many of the schemes. 

The future of the cheetah is unclear, but Iran is taking some measures, rehabilitating gazelle populations and conducting semi-captive breeding. Iran and Russia have also been talking about introducing the Asiatic cheetahs and the Amur tiger (similar to the extinct Caspian tiger [or, as recent studies suggest, maybe almost exactly the same, the two species having been separated only a century before the latter's extinction]) to the Caspian region. There has been some talk of introducing the African cheetah to India (based on Stephen J. O'Brien's assessment that they aren't that dissimilar, which is probably wrong); this has been suspended due to new studies suggesting that they separated 32,000 to 67,000 years ago rather than only 5,000.

The last three Asiatic cheetahs in India, shot by Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo

So as to not end on that sad picture, here's a picture of an actual living Asiatic cheetah.

While the future of the Asiatic cheetah is probably bleek, it is really cool and its future looks better than it used to.

Care

I actually got on today to see if anyone had posted new stuff. Then I realized much much later that I was to post new stuff!

Care:

1- suffering of mind; a cause for anxiety
2- painstaking or watchful attention
two synonyms: charge, supervision  

Origin of Care:

Middle English, from Old English caru; akin to Old High German kara lament, Old Irish gairm call, cry, Latin garrireto chatter

First Known Use: before 12th century

- Merriam-Webster Dictionary online


While I decided on the word for the second of the two definitions, I thought it interesting to look at both together. The second implies a watchful care, which will seek to spare someone of the first, or weighty, care.
The roots also denote both worry and coming together for conversation, presumably to comfort those in need.

I love you guys!

Do ALL THE THINGS!--or How to Get Everything Done.

Today's post is about achieving all of your dreams; having a perfect life; and accomplishing everything you ever wanted to do.

There are several ways to do this, which is why we know so many people who manage to keep their new year's resolutions not just for the year but for their entire lives. What? You don't know how to do this? Okay then, I'll let you in on the secret below.

The first method: Abandon your myopic view of time. Time does not have to be unidirectional. You missed that deadline for posting a blog on Sunday and now it is Tuesday. You might think you are late; that you didn't get everything done in time. You couldn't be more wrong.

This wrong headed thinking springs from a misunderstanding of time. Scripture says that all things are PRESENT with God. This obviously means that God as a perfect being has no deadlines! Every day or any day is Sunday. The blog isn't late after all! You typed it on both Tuesday the 11th and Sunday the 9th. Just click the schedule and post buttons and adjust accordingly. :) Done, and on time at that!

One of our* favorite characters, Dr. Who, uses time in this way traveling in any direction he likes and we all know how content and efficient he is. He always gets everything he wants done on time, is never hurried or pressured, and has no regrets for things not done or not done well enough.

If you find yourself unable to grasp nonlinear tasking or unpersuaded that it would really solve all of your problems because you simply cannot transcend your personal subjective unidirectional experience of time, never fear. There is another method to get everything done.

The problem may be as simple as adjusting what you want to get done. Simply stop wanting to do certain things! You didn't get that blog post done? Your dishes are piling up? You haven't earned enough money to buy food? Stop caring about it so much! We all know that as Siddhartha is remembered by many as teaching, to exist is to suffer and that our own wants cause much of that suffering. If we reduce our wants, we reduce our suffering. An obvious but overlooked corellary to this is that if we reduce what we want to do, to what we would do anyway we get everything done!

Simply stop wanting do do those dishes, or eat food, and your problem is solved!

Now I've given you two different and opposing methods which you can use to get everything done and live more happily because of it.

If for some reason you can't make these work, don't blame me--I've taught you better. I guess you'll just have to work out a balance on your own perhaps using Panda's advice: "There is no secret ingredient."

*'Our' here could be collective if you also like Dr. Who. If you don't like him, then obviously I was using our in the royal sense. Second person = first person. See I'm right either way!

Okay everyone. Serious stuff to be said.

I spent the majority of my morning making friendship bracelet valentines.
That's right. And they're pink and purple (and green and blue and gray and orange).

And now you're thinking: Who is this person writing this post and making pink valentines??!

Do not worry. I am still Ruth. I am still unaffected by cute kittens memes or clips of the puppy bowl. (If you still don't believe me, I know a quick way to convince you: I had a really delicious lunch. Split pea soup with a sleeve of crackers, followed by chocolate chip cookies.)

So while I was crouched on the carpeted floor, the heel of my left foot pinning down one end of a bracelet, my fingers twisting each strand (over, under, over, under), I pondered: "What should I write about for my blog post?"

The answer that eventually came to me? Doors.

You see, earlier this afternoon I had a conversation with our dear brother/son/friend Andrew. As he was leaving the room, he noticed that my door was not square. I knew this, but had not previously given the dilemma much attention. After briefly examining the frame, Andrew concluded that loosening the screws on the top hinge would allow the door to to ease back into its intended position. I immediately saw the sense in such a course of action. Basically, the easiest way to fix my door would be by messing it up in just the right way.

"And so I ran to grab the screwdriver to promptly rectify the problem"..... is not what happened next. My door still hangs crooked and sticks the tiniest bit. Here is the part where I make some kind of parallel to the experience we all share known as life.... Sorry, I'm not as good at this as Joseph is. Mostly, I thought it was funny. You agree, don't you?

It reminds me a bit of the emergence of humor in very young children. Some of the earliest jokes (both made and perceived) involve understanding that something does not work a certain way. A simple example: a teacher begins singing the ABCs with his/her class. When they reach "H," he/she replaces said letter with "Z." The children stop. "Q?" the teacher suggests. "S?" Before too long the children are laughing and shaking their heads. "H!" They yell. The teacher saying a different letter is funny because everyone knows it is wrong.

I guess it all ties back to heuristics. We have lots of shortcuts in the way we think of the world, schemas if you will (actually, still schemas if you won't). We assume that things work a certain way, because they usually do work that way. So, usually we are right. Heuristics enable us to spend cognitive resources on more complicated problems by saving us resources on simple processes (and then I go ruining it all by thinking too much about stupid hinges). Sometimes though, they make it difficult to see more effective solutions that are simply not accounted for by our schemas.

And that is my very own thicket of bramble thoughts!

Bush Thoughts

I am brimming with ideas. They come to me everywhere I look, everything I see. If I think about it enough, almost any subject will suggest an idea of some kind or another. My head is so bursting with them that I can't even get them all down on paper. They're always-present and ever-elusive. I scribble them in my bedside notebook before sleep claims me and they leak from my skull with the bleary morning light. The only sure way to catch them is to write them down. And if I don't anchor them down in time they evaporate into steam like dew beside a fire.

But the real problem is, even after nailing them down with a solid two-sentence anchor: what do I do with all these ideas?[1]

Because a new idea isn't developed. It isn't clear, nor it doesn't have the maturity of a well-rounded argument. Instead, it's vivid and bright and has a few principles of nature or science, famous faces and a couple of stirring one-liners. But that's it. Like a virus, an idea is powerful, but it won't go anywhere without a human host. Like an embryo, it has incredible potential, but will go nowhere if it's not properly incubated. Before it can be effective, it has to be refined, restructured to flow well, connected to other sciences and great thinkers, given analogies and anecdotes that will resonate with a wider human audience, and finally polished to a gleaming sheen that will glisten in others' minds long after you are gone.

But I don't have time for that.

So what do I do with all these ideas?

Hoard 'em, mostly. It is the sad truth. I would love to turn them all into glorious works and send them out into the world, but that takes time and thought and effort, and as previously stated, I have more ideas than I can develop. So they pile up. Only one in maybe fourteen or fifteen ever see more than a two-sentence paragraph. Sad in'nit?

Perhaps the real reason they pile up is that I don't often stick with one long enough to refine it. The minute I start to refine one idea, it sprouts three more and I just go around collecting more and more idea seeds without ever finishing planting any. This is a common problem seen in microcosm in my essays. I will have a "bush" of ideas. A huge, overgrown, monstrous bushy-bush of ideas that are all connected, but that don't flow in any central theme or purpose. It's just kinda growing everywhich way. I see this in my papers, and my blogposts[2]. Like this one. I was shooting for a three sentence intro, and then the pics and a sweet goodnight and off to bed. Yeah. Didn't happen.

How to fix my ineffectual, rambly bush?

I don't want to stop catching ideas. I just want to order and develop them more. So maybe I can...

1. Plan the trunk -  Figure out what I want to do from the outset. Set my argument-tree[3] growing right while still malleable, and have all the branches tying straight back to the central theme. Cohesive, constructive, purposeful and direct. Might have to throw away the first draft entirely, and start from scratch, but it's possible.
2. Prune the bush - In the words of the mortal Stephen King[4] "Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings." Cut out the fluff. Write to tell yourself the story/argument, edit and cut so it is only the story (or argument). More is not better. A knife point cuts better than a brick.

Yeah, I think that would help. We'll see if I can get a handle on my big-bushy multi-thematical rambles and instead churn out high powered punch-you-in-the-face essays made of nothing but thesis statement and muscle. Until then, enjoy the rambles! They're fun, and the ideas are all so great, how could you pick only one?[5]

[1] Maybe by now I should mention that not all ideas are good ideas? Some of them are just ok. Or bad. Sometimes it's hard to tell until you've worked with them a bit.

[2] Seriously, if you want to see what I mean, read some of my other posts. I would point you to the couch one, but I don't think that's fair. The point of that whole exercise was to write for 30 uninterrupted minutes without any plan or editing.

[3] My argument-tree-metaphor

[4] Never read his horror, but I really liked his book On Writing

[5] These pictures show just some of the list of possible topics for the blog. The "seeds" tab is now the running list of ideas and scraps of blog posts. I think I have five pages in it? We're not even getting into my other sections-- or the stuff in my paper notebooks that I carry around. Yikes. 

I Made This

Hello Everyone!

Another quick post tonight, and it's about something I made! And, no surprise, it's animal related.

So I had bought all these outdated field guides at rummage sales years ago, and sometime last year I cut out all the pages with animals on them, because they were pretty and the books were from the eighties, and so pretty much useless now. Classification changes a lot over several decades.

The stack of the cut out pages was approximates 1.5 inches high (I'm guestimating here, so it is very approximate), but so, a lot of pictures of animals.

I figured they could make a cool display on the wall, some nice interior designing. There was a box that wasn't being used, so I hacked it apart and harvested its flesh as panels. I then did a lot of measuring to mark where the edges of the pages would be for equal distance between pictures (trying to maximize aesthetic value). I then notched diagonal slots so that the pictures would stay in place but also be easily removed and replaced. This way it's a rotating display of cool illustrations of animals.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of Interior Decorating with Animals: No Need for Dead Bodies or Taxidermy. Tune in sometime later for the exciting new episode, No, Don't Taxidermy Your Pets, Display Them, and Pet Them Constantly: It's a Little Tacky and Weird for Guests.

From left to right: Insect panel, bird panel, amphibian/reptile panel, and fish/rays/assorted sea life panel. Sorry for the terrible picture quality.

Comradery!

I don't know what it is about words with the letter C, but they just keep showing up....


Comrade:

a :  an intimate friend or associate :  companion

b :  a fellow soldier

Origin:

Middle French camarade group sleeping in one room, roommate, companion, from Old Spanish camarada, from cámara room, from Late Latin camera, camara

Sweet right? Maybe you don't think so....

I find it interesting that this word became communist lingo for those who are united in their cause (those who supported communism). Whether or not we be communists, I think we all can have more comradery amongst us.