Hmmm... I seem to have changed to posting my WITL daily photos on the morning after. ( :-) )

So, yesterday afternoon I finally got around to downloading and installing Spybot Search & Destroy, per anda's recommendation. So, all was going well -- installation, update, search & destroy; then it said, "just one more thing: restart". When I restarted, for some reason, IE opened all by itself, twice!, and kept opening tabs, many many tabs. It wouldn't let me close the windows, it wouldn't even let me turn off the computer. Finally, I took out the battery.

But -- happiness -- when I started the computer up this morning, nothing weird happened and also, instead of being sloooooow, Spirit (yes, my laptop is named after the Mars rover) was his former peppy self! Hooray.

Now for yesterday's photos! ( ... )

( Deadly dull day! )

( Notes from Long Distance: A Year of Living Strenuously, by Bill McKibben: )

Well, kind of a slow day ( ... )

Interesting how knowing I might photograph and post any given activity somehow focuses my attention! Very Zen.

( Day 1... )

Okay, I've started taking pictures for the WITL challenge.

---
A Week in the Life
Aim of the Game
For one week you are to post photographs taken during the day.

Rules
You must take between 6-8 new photographs each day.
Your WITL must be CONSECUTIVE. No skipping days.
You must post your photographs at the end of that day, sometime after the last picture is taken.
Each photograph must have the time taken beneath and ... a title, with no other explanation.
---

I decided to do this because I've been so enjoying mrs_picard's WITL.

I'll be posting my photos in the late evenings.

This is a link to a NYTimes article (or, probably really blog post) about the spinning dancer/left brain-right brain claim. Not so much connection, according to the writer.

The article contains a link to a wikimedia post with a moving gif (really two, or three including the original) that makes it easier to see the dancer go whichever way you can't see her go (if you're like me and mostly only see her go one way). This is the link to seeing her go right; scroll to the bottom of the page for links to the left-spinning and original gifs.

This is author John Varley's official website:
http://www.varley.net/index.htm

He's the author of Red Thunder, Red Lightning, and Rolling Thunder (among many others); the first I read some time ago, the second I just finished, and the third I've just put on hold at the Rio Rancho Public Library. He calls them "The Heinlein Tribute Trilogy"; they do quite harken back to those Robert Heinlein novels with young adolescent protagonists that were the first SF I read back when I was 13.

The website is of interest because of its very simple and clean design and for the breadth of topics he covers. My (future) website should include: movie reviews, top movies (and books), library, and definitely MeridianiWalks! Furthermore, he's got an annual pass to Disneyland!

"Every talent is the result of a single process: deliberate practice, defined as 'individuals engaging in a practice activity (typically designed by teachers) with full concentration on improving some aspect of their performance'. Deliberate practice means working on techniques, seeking constant critical feedback, and focusing ruthlessly on improving weaknesses."

Last night I watched about 30 minutes of CNN's New Year's broadcast, with the lighted ball falling in New York's Times Square. Of course, it was actually 10 p.m. here, but to me, since I grew up and lived in New Jersey for nearly 40 years, that's when the new year really begins. All the partying and revelry still doesn't really make sense to me, but the call to stop for a moment and look back over the past year and take stock, and then to look forward to the next year with enthusiasm, hope and plans gives a great sense of renewal.

My LJ resolution is to post more frequently!

It's snowing!

Is the dancer turning clockwise or counter-clockwise?

Clockwise, for me. I tried to make her go the other way, but no success.

Finished:
Star Trek S.C.E. Book 1: Have Tech, Will Travel, a bunch of short stories by various ST stable writers. It was okay, a bit repetitious but with a few interesting ideas.

Recently read and finished:
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, © 2002
The Hungry Gene: the science of fat and the future of thin by Ellen Ruppel Shell, © 2002

Currently reading:
Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl, © 2001
12,000 Miles in the Nick of Time: a semi-dysfunctional family circumnavigates the globe by Mark Jacobson with additional commentary by Rae Jacobson, © 2003

Finished:
Daddy Needs a Drink by Robert Wilder, © 2006

Last night, after a wonderful dinner at Sinju Restaurant in the Pearl District, we stopped at Powell's and I bought:
Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts by Michael Westmore, Alan Sims, Bradley M. Look and William J. Birnes, © 2000
Star Trek: Conversational Klingon cassette tape, by Marc Okrand and presented by Michael Dorn

I have actually been making progress in two books, both of which are easy reading:

Perfectly Reasonable Deviations (from the beathen track), the letters of Richard Feynman, edited and with an introduction by (his daughter) Michelle Feynman; this reminds me that I have never actually managed to read The Feynman Lectures on Physics, which I bought almost 30 years ago, so they're on the plan for when I get home. I'll probably start with the copy of Six Easy Pieces: essentials of physics explained by its most brilliant teacher, which I found for near-free recently and which contains some of the easier lectures.

Daddy Needs a Drink, a collection of short essays by Santa Fe (NM) writer Robert Wilder, no doubt most or all reprints from his newspaper column of the same name; this reading is relevant since I've acquired two new grandchildren in the past five weeks.

It's been a long time since I posted about my reading. Basically, I haven't finished any of the books that I've (more or less) recently posted that I've started. Except, I've totally given up on The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier because (1) the breadth is minimal and the depth is non-existent (though I did enjoy the math/statistics section) and (2) she has some kind of weird idea that unexpected, unrelated, bouncy triads of modifiers are especially fun if the last one is completely nonsensical; instead they are simply confusing as the scientifically-minded reader searches for their relevancy (which is nonexistent). Basically, in the Physics for Poets vein, the book is 80% Poets. Better to read something that has actual science.

Last weekend I watched (from Netflix) Mozart and the Whale and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The first was okay, the second was very good.

I received my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday afternoon (because I pre-ordered it rather late) and I started reading it last night. I haven't actually read any of HP, though I listened to the first two or three on CD. And I've watched the first four movies. So I'm reading from a somewhat innocent... or uninformed... point of view, but I figured I'd better read Deathly Hallows before I heard the outcome.