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On Love
One reason I have always kept my notebooks and journals is to go back and see what has changed. It always seems to turn out that I haven't changed much on the inside. My first blogging efforts have long been removed from MySpace, but I saved the posts I thought were worth a second look. Today, this post one speaks to me. Remembering, in our modern American culture, that I am loved by my husband without spending a dime on best eye cream for wrinkles can be a challenge.
The following post was originally published on my old blog on December 13, 2006. Every word is still as true as when I first wrote them.
Perhaps the feelings that we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love shows a person who he should be.
Anton Chekhov (1860 - 1904)
Certain things in my life have been completely natural. These are the things in life that once they are a part of your life, you forget there was a time before whatever it was came into your life.
Untitled Poem About.... Me.
I've not made a secret on the internet how I'm going through some pretty heavy stuff right now. Between Facebook and Twitter, it's obvious some things are happening in my personal life. It's nothing I'm ready to blog about in detail. It's not a simple thing like a need for prenatal vitamins would be to explain in a blog post. I don't need those right now, just a simple daily vitamin.
Anyway, I wrote this poem for Chris without the intention to publish it for the world. With my husband's approval, I'm sharing it here. My struggles with depression and anxiety are regular features on my blog, so there is nothing else stopping me from publishing this very personal poem.
Feel free to suggest a title:
Untitled
Just because I did not write
Does not make me not a writer.
Just like I'm still your wife
Even when I withdraw from our life.
I fell on the path to being
Everything I can be
Just sat there, knees
scraped and bleeding.
It's time to get up
Brush off bitterness
Rushing to catch up
Reaching for your hand
And taking up a pen
Hoping the passion
And the ink
Have not run dry.
By Christina L. Kubala
February 15, 2010
Amazing Grace (Or the Grandmother of Computers was the Grandmother of Girl Geeks, Too)
While my blog is usually more word centered, this guest post from my best friend Kate is too good to pass up, like a cure for Mesothelioma Cancer even if your insurance doesn't cover it, I'm publishing right after my Pi Day post. She wrote this paper for a math education class. Since Kate and I lived in the same Navy housing when we met in sixth grade, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper is an extra special historical girl geek for both of us girl geeks. Enjoy:
“Amazing Grace”
History of Mathematics
April 12, 2008
It is a testament to human ingenuity that the “Grandma of computers” was born before the Model T. Grace Murray Hopper was born on December 9, 1906. She was an inquisitive young girl, particularly fond of gadgets. A natural storyteller, she recounted many tales of her youth. An alarm clock caught her eye at seven; she opened the clock to see how it worked. She was not quick enough to see the positions of the parts before they sprung out. Little Gracie was not a quitter, a constant trait in her life. She opened every clock in the house trying to catch a glance at its workings. Luckily, her mother, Mary Murray, understood her nature and fostered the learning process, although, she did limit Grace to one clock.
Grace was an athletic and agile child. Her family, father, mother, sister, and brother, spent many summers in the country at Wolfeboro. The summer “camp” had a workshop for her father, Walter. His handiness for tools was passed down to Grace. She built many things from Structiron kits, much like Erector sets. Grace could often be found on the lake or up a tree. Grace spent many happy summers at Wolfeboro. It was here she met her future husband, Vincent Hopper.
A failed Latin test kept Grace from attending Vassar at age sixteen. She spent a year at boarding school and entered at seventeen. In 1928, she graduated from Vassar with a Bachelor’s of Mathematics and Physics, Phi Beta Kappa. Her education took her to Yale, where she earned her Master’s in Mathematics in 1930. Vincent and Grace married the same year. While an apprentice teacher at Vassar, Grace obtained her Ph.D. from Yale.
A brilliant teacher and creative force, Grace Hopper influenced many young minds. However, her true gift to mankind came from a determination to serve. War swept the world, and good men were called to action. Grace was not about to be left out. She was over-age, underweight, and too valuable as a teacher. This did not stay her conviction to join the Navy. A recent separation, and later quiet divorce, granted Grace a new freedom. She acquired a medical waiver, governmental permission, and leave of absence. In 1944, Grace Murray Hopper became Midshipman then Lieutenant (junior grade) Hopper, Mathematical Officer US Navy, Bureau of Ordinance.
Lt. j.g. Hopper was ordered to Harvard University as a programmer of the Mark I, the first large-scale computer. She served under Commander Howard Aiken, the visionary behind Mark-I. He was tough man, with high standards. Arriving late the first day, Grace was treated to a harsh dressing down and ordered to provide the interpolation coefficients for the arc tangent the following Thursday. Ever perseverant, Hopper did not crumble beneath Aiken’s strong-arm tactics. She believed in him and his work, becoming unquestioningly loyal.
The Mark-I provided an entire new world for Grace’s insatiable curiosity. Grace became a programmer. The Mark-I required human transcription and imputation of codes. The numbers, aiming tables for various conditions of Naval weapons, required the team at Harvard often worked 24 hours straight. Harvard rented the Mark-I to the Navy for $800 a month; ironically this was Grace’s starting annual pay at Vassar just a few short years before. Working with the Mark-I and its team was a very rewarding part of Grace’s life and paved the way for her lifelong love affair with computers, programming, and the Navy.
After the war, Lt. Hopper was released from active duty and placed on reserve. She took a position with Eckert-Mauchley Computer Company, EMCC. (E=MC ?). She began work on what would be the BINAC, a computer with a true stored program. The BINAC was programmed in octal. To speed up her work, Grace taught herself to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in octal. This talent played havoc with her checkbook. Realizing that she could not work in octal and live in decimal, Grace decided to make the computer work for her. This revolution would later become programming, as many of us know it today, making the computer work in our language.
EMCC was bought by Remington Rand, and then merged with Sperry Corporation. Grace Hopper remained through it all. The BINAC led to the UNIVAC. It was a system that used compilers, translators for mathematical and machine code. (Grace Hopper invented the word compilers, but not computer “bug”, which is often attributed to her.) These compilers worked as subroutines, enabling programmers to call up long codes with three letter names. Facing much criticism, Grace Hopper began her next project, compiler B-0 or the “FLOW-MATIC.”
The “FLOW-MATIC” was a true revolution. It enabled the computer to recognize English commands. The UNIVAC I and II were taught twenty English-like statements. With this improvement, computers began to sell commercially. They were used in insurance, payroll, and billing offices. Grace Hopper had laid the groundwork for the modern office. Computers could understand English statements, but consistency was needed. A standard, universal language was, pardon the pun, compiled by Grace Hopper and her staff. They unveiled COBOL, in 1959. Grace, with others, created standard manuals and tools for COBOL.
In 1957, Grace Hopper achieved the rank of Commander in the US Navy. Ten years later, she was made to retire due to age. However, it seemed as though the Navy could not survive without her. Exactly seven months after putting her out to pasture the Navy reinstated Commander Hopper. This was the first recall to active duty of a woman officer. Originally a six-month assignment, Grace began standardizing the computer programming languages for all naval computers not part of weapons systems. Her reinstatement lasted nineteen years when she retired as the oldest serving Naval Officer.
By the time of her death in 1992, Grace Hopper had been promoted to Rear Admiral. She had begun work on computers in their infant stage and lived long enough to see what originally took the entire room fit into a briefcase. She did not directly change mathematics, but her work enabled others to. With computers to do the dirty work, mathematicians have made many leaps and man has landed on the moon.
Rear Admiral Hopper was loved and respected in her time. Her name and spirit live on in awards and the USS Hopper, a destroyer. The Association for Computing Machinery gives to a young, 35 or under, computer professional the Grace Murray Hopper Award who makes a single, significant technical or service contribution. The Hoppers are a group of more than 3000 worldwide members who work for Microsoft. They have established a scholarship in her honor. Arlington, Virginia, outside her former residence, is the location of Grace Murray Hopper Park. The Navy has named many buildings and avenues after Rear Admiral Hopper, but the greatest tribute is the USS Hopper. The Hopper, or “Amazing Grace,” is one of very few ships named after women.
It would be lovely to report that as the “Grandma of computers,” Grace Hopper led the way for many women. Maybe she did, but maybe not. At the time of Grace’s Ph. D. less than 16% of all U.S. Ph. Ds in Mathematics went to women. By her death that number had only reached slightly more than 20%. Ph. Ds aside, Grace provided leadership and vision. She insisted she had a job to and she did it. Well done, Grace, well done indeed.
Resources
Burton, David M. History of Mathematics, The. 6th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2007. 737.
"Rear Admiral Grace
Murray Hopper, USN." Biographies in Naval History. United
States Navy. 14 Apr. 2008 <http://www.history.navy.mil/
Riddle, Larry. "Grace
Murray Hopper." Biographies of Women Mathematicians. 18
May 2007. Agnes Scott College. 14 Apr. 2008 <http://www.agnesscott.edu/
Williams, Kathleen B. Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute P, 2004.
“Grace Murray Hopper Award.” Association for Computing Machinery. 14 Apr. 2008
Pi, Pie, and Pizza Pie (Or How a Word Geek Understands)
When you have as many reminders as I do, even a word geek like myself cannot forget the most revered day on the math and science geek calender. I don't need to turn on my computer and a fancy lcd monitor to remind myself when March 14th comes around. For those who need a Pi education, the Pi Day 2010 site is still up and informative.
Of course, I am a day late in my celebration. But anyone I love will tell you, I am the kind of person who can buy a birthday card well in advice - up to a year - and forget to send it. I don't forget the person's birthday, simply which day I'm living in relation to when the birthday is coming. It's a simple issue with the space-time continuum. A certain amount of historical fiction and Star Trek will do that to a person.
My one and only
Chris, my husband, is a natural mathematician. He loves pizza. My mother-in-law tells stories about how he added up the items in her grocery cart when he was barely in school to help her stay under budget. What people tend not to understand about the story is that she didn't teach him to do it. Nor did he need a pencil or calculator. Now, he can factor in tax on items that are taxed and can hit it to the penny without breaking a sweat. Usually he rounds to the next highest dollar or simply tells me if we have enough to get take out after shopping. I can't conceptualize numbers in my head, so having a walking scientific calculator as a mate makes life so much easier for this walking thesaurus. Linguistics is too inexact a science for some situations.
My best friend Katerbell81 is a math teacher. Notice I did not say she teaches math. No, she went to school and got certified in something she was born able to do. Her problem is being almost as gifted in words as she is in numbers. She could teach English or history in a pinch. Her classes celebrated Pi day by feeding her students pizza and cookies after they calculated the circumference of a snack.
Yesterday, shopping at a local mall with my parents, I ran into by happenstance, the man who draws pi, Jason Padgett.
See, the funny thing about life, the universe and everything is how random isn't always random. Circumstance brought me to Seattle the weekend of Emerald City ComiCon without the means to attend. I am sorely disappointed to be so close and yet so far from seeing Leonard Nimoy in the flesh before it is too late to meet the man who gave the world Mr. Spock.
But it was also Pi Day and we happened to shop in a store where this brilliant natural mathematician was holding a sale on futons for Pi Day. And he'd rather talk about Pi than sell a futon.
If you are ever in Western Washington, I would recommend stopping off in Federal Way for a lesson in fractals and a look at math on paper which could just as easily hang in an art gallery as in a science center. I don't understand fractals or the math of chaos theory only the analogy of the butterfly effect.
Oh, I can read it, comprehend it and parrot it back. I may even someday put my lifetime of research in science fiction and science into trying my hand at some fictional explorations of space and time. What I can't do is hold the understanding of space-time in my head for more than a microsecond.
I try not to worry because another Pi Day miracle was the birth of a little Jewish boy named Albert who wasn't any good at arithmetic. Somehow, he forgot to brush his hair when he was looking for the truth about God in math and physics and in the vastness of space. As for me, I like the feeling of remembering to use a comb in the morning even when I'm reading a fascinating book that will change my understanding of the whole world.
I do understand how Douglas Adams died at at the gym, far too young, and clutching his towel. The answer is forty-two. We are all still looking for the ultimate question. Doing out the formula is the part that matters.
Illustrious and Illustrated Books
For this week Booking Through Thursday asked:
How do you feel about illustrations in your books? Graphs? Photos? Sketches?
Short answer: Where appropriate.
Long answer: I can discount non-fiction in my discussion. It's sort of it's own animal in this regard and no one would argue a plan text book about chemistry or craft how-to would be better. Okay, a person can argue anything, but I'm a word geek and I don't argue it.
What I do not like is to see graphical elements shoehorned into the text or otherwise printed in the book when they don't illuminate the story. I can't think of any examples, to be honest, because a book like that is such a turn off.
An idea of what I don't like is the web content that is big in YA novels now. Not every story needs barcode scanner for more goodies online. Artemis Fowl does extended content well. But Artemis and Foaly would have created the content if they were not fictional, so it works in their universe
I think the origin for the best way to use drawing and maps in fiction must trace back to the exacting work of Tolkien. I'm pretty certain my dog-eared copy of The Hobbit
had a map in the front. I drew a map of Narnia of a class project, but C.S. Lewis was more an off the cuff writer, so I think the maps are all in my head. Fantasy and science fiction are, of course, the most often appropriate for maps and diagrams. They do something other fiction doesn't by creating another universe in which to tell a story instead of telling it in our own space-time or the commonly understood past. For that reason, sometimes words are not enough. I'm also open to family trees and other things that make a story real to the reader. In order to save time for you, the reader, I have compiled a short list of books and authors I can think of with graphic elements.
Lloyd Alexander - Young adult fantasy. Would recommend for LOTR fans who are not strong enough readers for the books.
A Wrinkle in Time - Who would read my blog and think I would forget the tesseract? L'Engle books also run toward family trees.
Michael Crichton - When your science fiction is science first, a diagram is perfect.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Coming of age story about a kid who dreams of being a comic book artist.
James A Michener - When your history is epic, you need a map or two.
Think of any I missed? Do tell.
Find Great Booksales
As a rule, I ignore unsolicited email. Of course any insurance marketing professional will tell you, advertising is all in choosing the right words.
When the webmistress of Book Sale Manager emailed me last year, I knew I would not only sign up but also blog about the service. It's a simple idea. But like all ideas, it's making something happen is the trick. Book Sale Manager is a simple database where you can sign up for email alerts for any kind of used book sale. I say simple, but of course, I am incapable of coding even the personal book database I've wanted since I saw my first online card catalog more than two decades ago.
Before I digress to far into my daydreams of huge shelves of books, let me remind you of my running series of book-lover porn in the form of pictures I snap of my book sale hauls on my living room floor. I like to hit a big one every year, then local libraries. Supporting my local library without bring books back is idea for me. Book Sale Manager supports both kinds of sales, so you are always in the loop.
I got another email from Book Sale Manager to let me know the site has been upgraded. It does so much more than email you about a sale now. There is a link maps and GPS. Lots of other goodies, too. Keep your Kindle. I want technology to lead me to where I can get as many books as I can carry for the price of a couple of digital downloads.
Boondock Saints
Hey Jack
Kerouac,
I've written
Once before
I was young
And naive
Didn't understand
How you saw
The sacred
Within the profane.
Now your life
Your words
your drawings
your mistakes
All make perfect
Sense to a sinner poet
Learning to love
boondock saints.
Until we meet,
A fellow Darma Bum,
Christina L. Kubala
Feb 28, 2010
Sometime soon, I'll try to write a poem that isn't based on something. I feel like I need to get an insurance quote just in case the Kerouac estate decides to sue. Then I remember even Shakespeare look inspiration from writers who came before him. There is a reason we often can't remember if a phrase comes from the Bible or the Bard. As for me, I'm still struggling to find my writing voice. Of course, if I stop struggling, I'll stop writing.
Hitchhiker Zen
Writing poems is so much better for stress relief and overall well being then natural weight loss products. For me, nothing works better. I have been experimenting with the haiku for a few months. I hated writing anything but free verse in creative writing classes. I blame Twitter for making me think in short and sweet words.
Oh, and this is a derivative work
. Can it be fan fiction if it's not fiction, but metaphor? Hitchhiker Zen
Today I'm a bowl
Of petunias fell from space
Becoming a whale.
by Christina L. Kubala
March 1, 2010
Change in the Air
Sometimes life is too much for a blogger to talk about. Yeah, like now. So, excuse any oddities you might find for awhile. If only things were always as simple as exciting news about the latest home gyms I'm considering for purchase.
The only important thing here at The Creative Nerd is my renewed commitment to living that label I gave myself when I registered this domain so long ago. My tag line is "from a bookish brain and a creative soul." For me, it is about the two halves of me - intellect and artist.
I started blogging to share my journey as an aspiring writer struggling to write. And to share my thoughts and feelings with the world.
For a while, I've felt I'd failed as a blogger. Not that I don't have a nice blog, but that I have not done what I set out to do.
I'm not saying every post is going to be a precious jewel from here on out. I can't make that promise.
What I am saying is be on the lookout for more fearless publishing. I've got some poems on deck and might have some short stories soon, along with more opinion based writing. Still, nice and friendly, but with a strong and steady voice. Like me when I struggle to do my best work.
Be warned.
Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my!
It's a record. I have convinced my BBF Kate to guest post on my blog twice in a month. Since she doesn't have a blog of her own (yet), I am honored to publish the following piece of creative personal writing. It's fitting since I am the unnamed friend with the active imagination. Take a deep breath and prepare to see the St Louis Zoo as magic - not just a fun day trip doubling as a great fat burner. Hey, you chase a toddler at the zoo all day and see if you don't burn calories. I dare you.
Now, my picture of the baby elephant and my best friend's words:
We excitedly board the train at the River’s Edge Station. Three dark tunnels and full trip around the zoo deposit us at our beginning. Animal footprints emboss the cement walkway. A giant anteater and two warthogs later, the winding trail curves around a large open habitat. Brittle pale grass shrouds a barren dusty patch of earth. The sign says “Black Rhino.” I have never seen him. I do not believe he exists. A friend has insisted that she, on several occasions, has witnessed the presence of a black rhino: she has an active imagination.
Hippo tracks scatter amongst the embossed footprints, as if a renegade hippo trotted along to visit with friends. His gentle, swaying track leads the way to the Hippo Hide-away. A forcefield-like clear wall holds an entire pool of water at bay. Proud and immense hippos glide through the water like synchronized swimmers. They are graceful, magnificent, and HUGE!
Sabrina drags us along to the elephants. Two girls have been born in the elephant family in the last few years. They are about Sabrina’s age. Thank God I didn’t have to deliver them. The elephant enclosure appears to be the largest in the zoo, as it supplies the last third of the riverwalk.
Sabrina energetically hikes the entire zoo. Old stone buildings with forbidding faces contain snakes and reptiles. We giggle at the superior expressions upon the Moorish Viper. His condescending appearance suggests he is contained simply because he allows it. The Emerald Tree Boa is her favorite color. No one disputes the regality of the King Cobra.
Uphill, as the zoo is a geographical oddity and every direction is uphill, a slightly less aged facade reveals the birdhouse. We munch Fruit Loops in front of the toucans and smirk. Sabrina chats to the parrots and finches. A joyful keening song swells the building and leaves ears ringing.
We are off to the Fragile Forest to see its ape inhabitants. Sabrina presses the back of her hand to the pane beside an ape. (A zookeeper had demonstrated this form of greeting to her last year.) As she communes with our brethren, I concentrate on blocking the foul odors from my burning nostrils. It smells as if someone has unearthed an unwashed Port-A-Potty from a Green Day concert. Luckily, the visit is short.
My favorite animal is our next stop. It is a duck. He is an ordinary duck with extraordinary friends. He lives in the puffin half of the Penguin and Puffin Coast. The coast is frigid with blasts of frozen air shooting from beneath false rock. We always rush through to confirm the duck’s residency and have to double back. The Rockhopper Penguins have a wild hair rocker appeal. While the King Penguins maintain a classy, Hepburn charm.
A stroll past the bears orients us with the Zooline Railway. It is a two-station trip to the River’s Edge Station and our exit. After a brief, yet expensive trip through the gift shop, we meander towards the car, sweaty, sticky, and happy. Peter, Paul, and Mary sing us home. “Daddy’s takin’ us to zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow. Daddy’s takin’ us to the zoo tomorrow and we can stay all day.”
The Clown's Meme
Sunday Stealing: The Clown's Meme 1Note: Answers 1 - 23 twenty-four were answered Sunday and 24 - 33 on Monday. I flaked, okay?
1. How old will you be in five years? A math question? A word problem? What kind of meme is this? I'll be 34.
2. Who did you spend at least two hours with today? Myself.
3. How tall are you? I think the question is better phrased, how short am I? I tell people I'm 4'10.
4. What do you look forward to most in the next six weeks? Spring.
5. What’s the last movie you saw? In the theater, Star Trek.
6. Who was the last person you called? This answer is usually the same: Kate.
7. Who was the last person to call you? Kate, I think. Or a wrong number.
8. What was the last text message you received? Kate asking if I needed anything while she was at the mall.
9. Who was the last person to leave you a voicemail? I think it was the cable company.
10. Do you prefer to call or text? I prefer to call or chat online depending on the person.
11. What were you doing at 12 am last night? Sleeping for a change.
12. Are your parents married/separated/divorced? Divorced from each other, but still married to my wonderful step parents. More parents are better, right? After all, parenting is a hard job.
13. When is the last time you saw your mom? October 2006. Unlimited long distance may be one of the greatest modern advances.
14. What color are your eyes? Blue with a hint of gray unless I wear something that turns them green.
15. What time did you wake up today? 3 am.
16. What are you wearing right now? T-shirt and panties
17. What is your favorite Christmas song? Not strictly a Christmas song, I love Winter Wonderland. I'm also a fan of the classic Christmas hymns - Oh Come All Ye Faithful and that type.
18. Where is your favorite place to be? Home.
19. Where is your least favorite place to be? Doctors office.
20. Where would you go if you could go anywhere? I'm where I need to be.
21. Where do you think you’ll be in 10 years? Somewhere in America.
22. Do you tan or burn? Bright red. Pale is beautiful.
23. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child? I never had monster in the closet issues. Nor was I afraid of the dark. A true night owl, I enjoyed those twilight moments.
24. What was the last thing that really made you laugh? I hate this question because it's usually a long story and you usually have to be there
25. How many TVs do you have in your house? One. I don't believe in a tv in the bedroom. Of course, I'm siting in the bedroom on my laptop as I type and Chris has the desktop to himself. But I'm a one tv household person when it comes to married couples with no kids like us - I have trouble with the idea that TWO people who are married can't compromise on tv.
26. How big is your bed? Queen sized. Any shorter Chris has his feet hanging over the end. Now, go back to question three...
27. Do you have a laptop or desktop computer? Both. But I use the laptop.
29. What color are your sheets? Plaid is not a color, but white, red and black.
30. How many pillows do you sleep with? Two if they are new. Four if they are smushed like the one's I use now.
31. What is your favorite season? Fall and spring. I like them about the same because I like moderate weather.
32. What do you like about Autumn? The leaves changing, harvest, the crisp days. Our wedding was a one of those crisp, okay cold, autumn evenings. I love those memories.
33. What do you like about winter? Ummm... trick question?
Pretentious Blogging Meme 2
Sunday Stealing: The Pretentious Blogging Meme 212. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? Only a handful saved in my blogging software. A few jotted in notebooks.
13. In what medium do you draft your posts? Mostly right in my blogging platform. If I'm away from the 'puter, I write it out longhand.
14. How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas? The only time I delete is when I go hunting for something to publish only to find some weird post title with a line of text or a link. More often than not, I have no idea where I was going with the idea, so I delete.
15. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? I don't think I would leave it to another blogger. I would want my best friend Kate to take it up. I'd be happier if she started her own before I kick the bucket, but at least keeping my domain active would be a start.
16. Are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice? I have no idea. Readers, do you have any thoughts?
17. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging? Bloggers are nice and helpful. I heard so much about drama, but I seldom see it.
18. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Keep on rolling. I would love to blog more often and with more meaning behind each post, but the best I can promise is to keep writing.
19. Do you make any money from your blog? (optional) about how much a month? Some, but not enough to make blogging worth it if I wasn't going to do it anyway. It varies from month to month.
20. What blogging system do you use? GoDaddy's Quick Blogcast.
21. How did you come up your blog name? My URL is my first and last name and The Creative Nerd is a description of the parts of myself I write about here.
22. How many blogs do you have? What was your peak? This is my only active blog. I have Window in the Web which I have started and stopped a couple times. It was I also own a domain for a food blog my husband Chris and I have been planning to start for a couple years.
23. Are you having as much fun as when you started? Blogging is like romance. The fun changes as the relationship deepens. I don't get starry eyed at the thought of being published for all to see like I did in the beginning. Sometimes I have to work harder to see the blog posts in everyday life. But, I know for sure I'm a blogger and I'll always be a blogger. Blogging is comfortable and therapeutic pleasure.
24. Where do you find other bloggers like you? My RSS Feeder is constantly overfilled with amazing content. All I have to do to find more bloggers I'll like is to click links on blogs I already read.
25. What’s your one wish when it comes to blogging? I'd like to be more active in making friends with other bloggers. Much like in real life, I tend to do my own thing and keep to myself.
Barbie's Dressmaker
My little niece, Sabrina, has gotten in Barbie in a big way in the last year. As her mommy, my best friend Kate says, they have more blondes than Hugh Hefner.
I've been waiting since they knew Sabrina was a girl to get to buy Barbies. Even more so, once I moved to Missouri and knew I'd get to play with them, too. The most important toy of my childhood was, by far, Barbie. I love the clothes and endless creative play. I had so much stuff for my Barbies. The three story dream house and the beach house, furniture, appliances, everything but plumbing fixtures.
As I've shopped for Barbies for Sabrina, I've found the options for clothes less than impressive. It's all small and shiny and overpriced. None of it appeals to a five year old. And even less of it appeals to two twenty-somethings enjoying the benefits of having a kid's toys to play with.
Months ago, I planned to take Barbie's wardrobe into my own hands. As with any of my craft projects, the inspiration and trip to the craft store often precedes the work by half a year. I finally have gotten a few things made. I hadn't sewn anything from a pattern since I was about ten. And that was Barbie clothes.
For your enjoyment, here is my personal model with the outfits I gave Sabrina for her birthday.
The purple dress isn't perfect. For one thing, it was meant to be floor length, but I didn't notice I needed two of the piece for the skirt until I'd already cut. That's what happens when you stay up real late crafting. I also didn't get the pleats in the skirt as the pattern intended. But I still like it. And so does my model.
The denim is from an old pair of my jeans. I was worried about the jacket - lots of pieces - but it came out perfect.
The stretch denim was easy to work with until it came time to putting the Velcro closure on the top. It's a hassle, but makes play much easier. Plus, with the newer Barbies are slimmer in the bust and thicker in the hips. The pattens, however, are made for the old style dolls.
I can't claim this outfit is less shiny than the commercially made clothes, but it is better.
My personal favorite is this orange number. I wasn't sure the cotton fabric would work with the fancy dress, but it was perfect. Who would expect a quilting square from Walmart could shine up so nice?
Sun Belt Software: Anti Virus without the Slowdown
The following post is sponsored content. The opinions expressed are all mine.
While I don't understand it, there are still people who don't use antivirus programs every time they connect to the internet. The only thing I would use a computer without anti virus software to do is go download anti virus software. No checking email. No Twitter.
If you are not currently running antivirus and anti spyware programs right now, please stop reading my review and click over to Sun Belt Software to download their antivirus software.
For those of us already protecting our computers from the nastiest online elements, we can evaluate the benefits of different programs.
Looking into Sun Belt Software antivirus software has me impressed for a couple of reasons. The biggest advantage in this new program is how you won't even notice it's running. You know how antivirus always seems to make your computer drag? This all new program doesn't slow a computer down. As an impatient computer user, I love it. Since it's not such a drain on the resources, it's ideal for Netbooks.
Let's not forget about value. For about thirty bucks a year, you get protection from all kinds of bugs. And at the end of the year, they will not zap your credit card until you tell them it's okay. The product must be good if they know you'll renew without the arm twisting.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
My friend Kate and I have decided we haven't read enough classic literature. One of the hardest thing about reading classics is feeling like one ought to like them. We have formed a two person book club to correct the problem. The difference between this and our usual sharing of books is getting to copies and reading at the same time. Having a like minded reader to discuss and validate opinions which many be outside the accepted analysis. I even got Kate to write up her thoughts as guest post. The bold text at the bottom of the post is hers.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
is a story deeply implanted in our cultural psyche. To me, it makes reading the original story all the more complicated. It is hard to separate my preconceived notions from the story as it was written. One interesting note is the description of Hyde in the story is an underdeveloped and deformed in body, along with being the evil monster we are familiar with. In the movies, Hyde is built more like Frankenstein
's monster than hunchbacked Igor. I imagine Hyde would have trouble getting a good rate on life insurance due to overall poor health. Robert Lewis Stevenson explains how Dr. Jekyll developed his good traits, so his darker tendencies manifest as a small and weak man. Less impressive for horror films, of course, it also seems to illustrate how evil was viewed in his time and ours. Now for some thoughts from Kate, who you can find on Twitter @Katerbell81:
People assume I'm smart and I never correct them. Thus, I felt connected to Dr. J in his self-imposed virtuous exile. People assume he's nice and he has never corrected them. He simply doesn't want to be good anymore. Really, who can blame him? Nice people has massive amounts of expectations placed upon them. They must not just be nice but nice ALL the time and to EVERYone. Nice people never turn to the ever present annoying person and say, "Do you like games? I've got a great new game. It's called hide and go ---- yourself. You start." So Dr. J is simply finding a way to express his dual nature and we get an amazing view on the human condition. Mr. H is malnourished and (unlike his movie star likeness) short, diminished, and ill-fit. I enjoy this view as it greatly demonstrates the restraint Dr J has maintained. The book is not a favorite and I probably won't revisit it. The story lacks rhythm and flow for me. We are simply told Dr. J has desires and impulses, but they are never fleshed out. The implied is they are sexual in nature but without description or detail I am left wondering. Is Dr. J into some odd S&M fantasy? under-aged girls?or horror upon horror for a prominent man of the era is he simply gay? All we the readers are sure of is the separation of good and evil allows for Mr H to displace Dr J as the man in charge, thus eventually resulting in death. Personally I find Dr J to be weak in the story. He wants to allow his inner desires to be fulfilled but creates not an alter ego that he can exercise control over but an entire different being so as to avoid culpability. Smacks of wussy behavior and leaves me doubting his inherit goodness from the start. Reading this paragraph I notice several contradictions, I have decided to allow them to stand as is. I am my own Hyde.
Pretentious Blogging Meme
Sunday Stealing: The Pretentious Blogging Meme1. How long have you been blogging? My first blog was on MySpace. I started around September 2006. I registered TinaKubala.com in July 2007.
2. What made you start? My primary reason was to use blogging as a journal and to get back in the habit of writing. My goal was to be ready to start writing a novel in a year. Didn't happen.
3. Who inspired you? It sounds awful, but I hadn't read other blogs when I started. I was more inspired to follow in the footsteps of great authors who always advise that work comes before inspiration. That was before I saw blogging as an end in itself. Now, of course, I read too many blogs. I am constantly inspired to be a better, more honest and faithful blogger by too many to name.
4. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog? It varies. First, we have to ask if visiting other blogs to leave comments and using Twitter count as time on my blog since they are extensions of blogging. Writing posts would be five to ten hours a week.
5. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing? Hundreds of hours writing in spiral notebooks from the time I was ten years old until high school. Journal entries, poems, short stories and other scribbles. It sounds sad, but I never had much of a social life, so I held the conversations about life with a steno pad. I don't feel sad about it, because I loved sitting at my desk with the blinds closed on a Friday night filling pages in response to some book I read.
Back then, too, I wrote letters. Remember when long distance phone calls at ten cents a minute was cheap? I was separated from friends Kate after seventh grade and Renee during sophomore year. I would keep a running letter for a week or two before mailing.
My formal writing background is only school stuff. I took as many English credits as possible. Lots of essays and book reports, plus creative writing. I miss it. And blogging fills the gap.
6. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas? The best ideas come about naturally while going about my day to day life. An experience or conversation that screams "I'm blogging that" has a natural energy when translated into a post. Otherwise, I blog about books, movies, television, current events or do memes.
7. What or who inspires you and your blog? I'm inspired by the great and powerful idea that anyone with an internet connection exchange ideas with anyone else in the world. In the totality of human history, this is unprecedented.
8. Where and/or how do your brainstorming for your blog? Doesn't everyone brainstorm in the shower?
9. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow? I follow a simple rule in all my online activities: I am the same online as I am in person. In all reality, I'm a little nicer and a little more social on the web. Blogging under my first and last name helps keep me honest.
10. Is there anything you will not blog about? I do not air other people's dirty laundry. No matter what frustrations I deal with in interpersonal relationships, I don't blog about it. Goes back to number nine, plus I loathe drama and gossip.
11. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic? The calender at my sidebar answers for me. I'd love to publish more often, but it doesn't always work out.
Self Portrait with a Little Help
I broke the Self Portrait Sunday rule of using a picture from the last week. My niece Sabrina took this a few months back on an evening that I babysat. The angle is less than flattering, but I'm enjoying the few years she'll be shorter than I am.
Don't you love the wall paper in the kitchen?
I have trouble consitering it babysitting when it's Sabrina - it's more like going over to play.
This was the same evening Barbie had a pool party in the kitchen. I will trade childcare for access to Barbies. Is there drug rehab for toy addicts? And are the meetings held in a town with a Toys R Us? I'd really love to see what new stuff is in.
A Little Magic
(Logo lovingly borrowed from
The Magic House Website)
Little Sabrina is newly five. I'm biased, of course, but independent sources confirm she is an exceptionally bright child. No surprise, she is highly verbal with a vocabulary that rivals many adults. Watching the world through her eyes is amazing. She'll tell you exactly what she is thinking.
Visiting a place like The Magic House a few times a year is especially cool, because we can watch her development against a static environment. Not to mention, the experience is a workout and a half. Since they have expanded, a membership would be a better weight loss plan than food that burns fat.
On our latest trip, I made a point to take some pictures to post here on the blog - so without the child in them. Lucky for us, her teddy bear, Bear, still goes everywhere with her.
Bear posed with Curious George
at the special exhibit on loan from another children's museum. 
In the last couple years, The Magic House has doubled in size. Much of the new stuff is better suited to older kids. One thing the younger set has a love/hate relationship with is the Soy Beanstalk pictured above. It runs from the first floor to the third floor with an outlet on each floor. Too small for grown-ups, running up and down the spiral staircase around it is pretty much the only way to keep an eye on little kids. If they get stuck or scared, all you can do is talk them down. Kate and I are always glad when Sabrina decides she has had enough.
A super cool new exhibit they call the Star-Spangled Center. It features a senate chamber, Oval office, and court room. I would love to take a middle school social studies class to enact mock government proceedings.
Pictured above is Bear on the witness stand. As his attorney, I objected on the grounds he is unable to participate in his own defense. Judge Sabrina overruled it and Bear took the stand.
Fun was has by all. As always, I highly recommend taking the kids in your life to your nearest children's museum.
Consumer responsibility and spam
I saw a piece on Fox News a day or so ago about spam that frustrated me. Supposedly, 90% of email world wide is the unsolicited advertising and scams that were dubbed spam in the earliest days of email. When I open my Yahoo mail, I know that I got spam, because I see the number of messages in my spam folder. Yahoo is very good at flagging spam, so I hardly ever see it in my inbox. So, unlike the newscaster I saw, spam does not bother me. What few unwanted messages that make it passed the filter, I just hit the little flame button – no harm done.
What bothers me is the idea that obviously someone out there in cyberspace is indeed opening those messages about a low cost home loan or natural penis enlargement. Not only are they being opened by someone, someone is buying these products and services based on the spam they receive. I've never known anyone to admit to it, but they are out there.
How do I know this? It's simple economics. If in the last ten years – if we consider only the time this writer has been online – no one had responded to or spent money based on a piece of spam, then spam would have ceased to exist.
As hard as it is to imagine, much time, money and thought goes into sending out mass email with the subject line "hot barely legal nude girls" or "shampoo for hair loss." If spammers had gotten no incentive from the beginning, then we would again be able to think of Spam as a canned meat product.
Whoever you are, stop, okay? Just because it's in your email doesn't mean you need to open it. If you need a dating service, mortgage, or herbal supplement, Google it. For one thing, the service you find will be much more reputable. Most important, you will help stop one of the time wasting nuisances of the modern world.
Remember, it is everyone's responsibility to stop Spam.
Online Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership
The following post is sponsored content. The opinions expressed are all mine.
Being out in the corporate world without a college degree has taught me a couple of things. First, not having a degree keeps even the most experienced and best workers from moving up beyond the most basic positions. Second, staying motivated year after year in a job where it's hard to see any greater good coming out of your daily labor isn't easy. I'm all for business and customer service, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't always make a worker warm and fuzzy.
One thing I notice is the higher up in an organization a person is, the more job satisfaction they appear to have. I know part of it is better salary. Still, I don't believe it is the only reason. Having a bigger picture of the organization can make work feel more purposeful. Also, the opportunity to make a positive impact on employee's lives. Being the person who negotiates better health care coverage, for example, would feel better than being the person who gets yelled at by customers forty hours a week.
The question becomes how to go from the lower end of the pay and prestige scale to the higher end. Education is the answer. For busy working adults, an online Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Lewis University is a ticket out of entry level positions.
With five concentrations to chose from, no matter what kind of organization you want to work with, there is a degree program for you. From the corprate world to non-profit and school settings, Organizational Leadership course teach prized skill sets.
Getting ahead is just a degree away.