Being prepared

15 June 2012, 7:51 am by Giggles
Categories: Life, Questions, Science & Tech

I read National Geographic while Brett makes us waffles. This month’s magazine has a cover article about solar storms and the effect they might have on the electrical grid in the future. Because of how connected everything in our world is to an electronic grid, a solar storm like the one that happened over 100 years ago and knocked out some telegraph stations would knock out not just electricity, but water, sewage, gas, communications, all kinds of stuff, and possibly for months. And they are expecting another big set of storms next year (there’s a cycle to the storms). So that got me thinking about how prepared we are in case of a disaster.

We’ve got some dry food storage – pasta, rice, beans, sugar, flour, wheat, powdered milk. We have a lot of cans of salsa and spaghetti sauce and some canned fruit. I have a bottle of chocolate syrup. Can you really call yourself prepared without chocolate? We have blankets if it’s cold and we have a house for shade if it’s hot.

But we could probably use a few other things. Like water. Lots and lots of water. And fuel (our BBQ charcoal won’t go too far). I’d really like one of those solar ovens. If not for a disaster, so I can make bread in the summer without heating the house. And I should probably make sure a large magnetic storm won’t destroy the only copy I have of a lot of electronic memories. You can’t count on online storage to have a back-up if the whole grid goes down.

It’s amazing to think of how much stuff we do in life that’s related to electricity. What have you done that doesn’t involve electricity today? I can think of two things I do that don’t involve electricity – reading books and knitting. Everything else involves electricity in one way or another. Knocking out the grid would really help me meet my reading goal to read all the books I own.

5 Shared thoughts

By any other name…

11 June 2012, 1:07 pm by Giggles
Categories: Gospel, Musings

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet;
– Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene ii

But is that really true? The words we use are powerful. The words we use convey more than just the physical object or the physical act. The words we use show how we feel about the idea.

For example, all of these words describe an adult human female: woman, lady, gal, miss, madam, hussy, floozy, wench, ma’am, babe, broad, chick, damsel. Each describes the exact same physical object. However each name conveys a totally different idea. Those words are anything but interchangeable. You’d turn up your nose at a floozy but think a lady smells sweet.

I have noticed that some universities have a department called the Disability Resource Center, while other universities have a department called the Ability Resource Center. Both departments do the exact same thing. But it makes a difference if you are focusing on the disabilities rather than the abilities. Words, labels, names, carry a lot of weight behind them.

I have been thinking about the names we use for things a lot lately. Right now I serve in the Young Women organization in the LDS Church. These are young women ages 12-18. Yet it is surprising how often they are referred to as “girls.” I have even been having to stop myself, or correct myself, a lot as well. Just as I think of a “woman” and a “chick” differently, I think of “young women” and “girls” differently. It’s a mental shift in my head. If I think of them as girls than I think they need to be entertained, coddled, and led. If I think of them as young women then I stand next to them and learn with them and give them opportunities to lead.

With the control I like to have some times it has been very interesting to watch myself step back and let the young women take charge. No, things don’t happen as smoothly as they might have if the adults had run everything (sometimes they happen better than if the adults had tried to run things), but the next time those young women plan an activity it goes even better. I learn a lot about myself, and them, when I think of them as young women who will be adults when they leave rather than looking at them as girls and children.

Think about it. What difference does it make if I call it Young Women Camp (what it’s actually called) or if I call it girls camp? What difference does it make to them if I call them girls when I’m talking to them or if I call them young women, or even ladies if I feel the need to save breath on syllables? It makes a difference. Nobody would call a 3-year-old a young woman, but there seems to be no problem calling a 17-year-old a girl. Calling them young women acknowledges their growth, maturity, and abilities. In my mind Young Women Camp is a preparation for their roles as women while girls camp is a fun diversion while school is out.

The young women I work with are incredible (and I’m not just saying that because I know some of them stalk my blog). They have big plans and they will see them happen. They have strong testimonies and caring hearts. I see the solid foundations they are laying for their lives and am humbled that I get to play a small part in that. They have grown from the sweet girls they were to the blossoming young women that they are.

4 Shared thoughts

From the Dennis Observatory

5 June 2012, 4:32 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Happy Things, Science & Tech

Dennis Observatory "telescope"

:sun: Two weeks ago we inaugurated the Dennis Observatory (our backyard) and watched the solar eclipse with a Cheerio box pinhole projector.

Today we’re back at the Dennis Observatory and Solar Laundry Service (95 degrees with a 12 mph wind dries your clothes really fast). This time watching the Venus Transit with a bit more sophisticated technology – binoculars duct taped to a tripod with a piece of card stock covering one side of the binoculars.

Everyone has been saying that this is a once-in-a-life-time event (well, the pair of transits is, it happens in pairs 8 years apart and then 105 years later). But that doesn’t impress Brett a whole lot. He says once-in-a-life-time events happen every day. I still appreciate that he at least pretends to be excited about astronomical events with me. Of course, in two weeks we have the equinox which is a very special astronomical event in our family.

Check back later when I upload photos we take of the transit from our observatory.

~*~*~

Update:

We teamed up with NASA Edge in Hawaii to watch their live broadcast of the transit as well. Brett came home and asked me what I was watching with my lap top out in our observatory and I told him I was “watching them watch this (the transit) in Hawaii.” Their telescope is a little bigger than ours so they got this image:

NASA Edge image

In their image you can see some tiny dots that are sun spots, in addition to Venus. We can see them with our set-up too but our camera system isn’t good enough to get a photo of them from Dennis Observatory. But trust me, they’re there. And I find it beyond cool that we can see sun spots in our backyard.

Here are the two astronomers at the Dennis Observatory.

Some of the images we were able to get.

14 Shared thoughts

Educated Prejudice

31 May 2012, 11:05 am by Giggles
Categories: Education

In my morning internet wanderings today I came across two articles, shared by two different friends, both about prejudice in academia – one at the college level, “An Acceptable Prejudice?” and the other at the pre-school level, “LR Christian Academy rejects Mormon as pupil.”

Perhaps I’m lucky, but the only thing I’ve ever noticed is that I have to ask for water at department lunches (and then have to remind the wait staff to keep refilling the pitcher because everyone at the table decides that’s a better idea than the iced tea originally provided). But I’ve been doing something similar since fourth grade when I volunteered to bring Sprite to a class party because everyone else was bringing Coke (and the Sprite was always the first thing we ran out of too).

Mormonism has come up in a class discussion every so often. The last time I had the opportunity to clear up some misunderstandings a few classmates had about what the LDS Church teaches with regards to science. But I’ve never felt attacked for my beliefs by classmates or professors.

But I know prejudice is out there. Which is why I don’t blatantly advertise my beliefs, I let them percolate out. I talk about the year and a half I lived in Brasil and don’t mention I was there as an LDS missionary unless asked. I have photos of us on our wedding day in front of the Bountiful temple in my office, but I don’t go into details about why we got married there unless asked. I tell people I got my undergraduate degree from BYU and taught in Utah for six years, and it’s pretty easy to assume from that. Being LDS is part of everything I do and I am very proud (that seems like the wrong word) of who I am, but I don’t shove it in people’s faces. Because I know that there are people who would be more than happy to shove it right back.

3 Shared thoughts

The evening news

25 May 2012, 12:08 pm by Giggles
Categories: Happy Things, Life, News

When I went back to Utah for college, there was something that was very familiar to me – KSL news. I remembered the newscasters from when we lived there when I was a kid. They were the same ones we’d watched as a family.

Working connections, I have autographed photos of Mark Eubank, Dick Nourse, Bruce Lindsay, Nadine Wimmer, Carole Mikita, and Len Randolph. I even attended Mark Eubank’s and Dick Nourse’s retirement parties and got to see the news from behind the camera twice.

This past Wednesday a third, Bruce Lindsay, retired, only I didn’t get to go see him retire because I’m not there now. The times I got to be behind the scenes he was a lot of fun to watch. When he was doing voice over for clips, so he wasn’t on camera, his facial expressions were beyond exaggerated. I figure he did it so he could make sure his voice wasn’t monotone because he couldn’t convey emotion with his face when you couldn’t see his face. It worked. He was good.

5 Shared thoughts

Your soundtrack

23 May 2012, 11:35 am by Giggles
Categories: Life

If there were a soundtrack to this portion of your life, what would be on it?

I’d have to include “I’m Yours” from Jason Mraz because that is “our song.” Brett and I still sing along to it when it comes on in the car and we still dance to it just like we did at our wedding.

As Brett and I face the world together, this is the song right now that plays in the background for me (another Jason Mraz song oddly enough, “I Won’t Give Up”). We’re not giving up on our dreams.

“Your Personal Penguin” by Sandra Boynton and sung by Davy Jones would of course be on it.

Here’s a good song for all the writing I’m doing to finish my degree – “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield. Hopefully it won’t all be unwritten for long.

And for those fun moments of dancing around the kitchen, and maybe cleaning it – “Fireflies” by Owl City

There should be some yoga type music on there too, but I don’t have a specific song for that.

6 Shared thoughts

Today’s anthem

17 May 2012, 1:44 pm by Giggles
Categories: Folks, Musings, Venting

I’ve heard people say there isn’t a musical anthem for today like there have been in times past, particularly in distressful times, times of war, times of economic depression. So I went looking to see if I could find one. And I couldn’t find one because there isn’t just one. It depends on your response to the economic and world wide problems of today what your anthem would be.

On one hand you have “Uprising” by Muse and “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars. You could even put John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change” in that group. Let’s complain about everything, but let’s not bother doing anything productive or constructive to solve it.

And on the other you have “Cost of Livin” by Ronnie Dun. Yup, the outlooks bleak, but we’re willing to work our tails off to do what we need to do, be active in finding our own solution and not wait for someone to come by and solve our problems for us.

Which makes me wonder if there were songs for the other side of the story in the past as well. And does the fact that we only think of certain anthems mean that the other side didn’t survive? Songs are part of our folklore. We sing them for a reason. They give voice to an inner thought. Which thoughts will be the ones to survive to the next generation from this crisis? What anthem would you list for right now?

2 Shared thoughts