Jarn’s Journal, Day 712

Day 712

Well, I am alone again – alone as I have not been, except for a few days, since I rescued Songbird. The nomads left this morning. I teleported to their camp to see them off, and even accompanied them for the first hour or so. But by then my feet were starting to protest, and I bade them a good journey and joy at the Gather and teleported back to the shelter.

Are my feet so different from theirs? They look the same, except that Songbird has calluses on her feet that are thicker than the soles on the remains of my ship shoes. I don’t think she was born with them; a baby was born this summer and her feet looked like normal baby feet. Perhaps they grow extra skin thickness on their feet, just as I grow replacement teeth?

My feet burn on the sand, are cut and bruised by the rocks, and blister when I try to improvise something approximating shoes. In general I find it quite impossible to walk without injury. They walk and run everywhere, feet bare of any protection, without even thinking about it.

I helped them on a few hunts – not by hunting myself, but by teleporting to several points in the area and then telling them where I saw game. I’m also good at spotting the weakest animal in a herd, and Patches is good at turning back animals that are trying to escape, and even better at tracking injured animals. In return – or as an act of worship – they have presented me with several beautifully tanned hides, including one from a buffalo that is quite thick. Perhaps I could try again to make some kind of sandals? They would not be as good protection as the boots my people made for hiking, but at least they would protect my feet from heat and cuts. And making them would be something to do.

This year the nomads stayed a hundred thirty-five days. I think the year is around three hundred sixty-five days, give or take a few days, so they should be back in about two hundred and thirty days. It is going to be a long time with only Patches for company.

Six Sentence Sunday Posts

I started posting on Six Sentence Sunday June 11, 2011 and have posted just about every Sunday since. Here are the links to the six-sentence excerpts I’ve posted.

Tourist Trap riding scene 6/11/11
Tourist Trap dogs 6/19/11
Tourist Trap blizzard 6/26/11
Tourist Trap ski race 7/3/11
Tourist Trap sailboat 7/10/11
Tourist Trap start scene with Amber 7/17/11
Tourist Trap 7/24/11
Tourist Trap 7/31/11
Tourist Trap 8/7/11
Tourist Trap 8/13/11
Tourist Trap 8/21/11
Tourist Trap 8/28/11
Tourist Trap 9/4/11
Tourist Trap 9/11/11
Tourist Trap end of scene with Amber 9/18/11
Rescue Operation start of scene of Tod’s capture 9/25/11
Rescue Operation 10/2/11
Rescue Operation 10/9/11
Rescue Operation 10/16/11
Rescue Operation 10/23/11
Rescue Operation 10/30/11
Rescue Operation 11/6/11
Rescue Operation 11/13/11
Rescue Operation 11/20/11
Rescue Operation 11/27/11
Rescue Operation 12/4/11
Rescue Operation 12/11/11
Rescue Operation 12/18/11
Homecoming 12/25/11
Rescue Operation 1/1/12
Rescue Operation 1/8/12
Rescue Operation 1/15/12
Rescue Operation 1/22/12
Rescue Operation 1/29/12
Rescue Operation end scene of Tod’s capture 2/5/12

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

More quotes from Storm Breaking, by Mercedes Lackey. The first two are a continuation of the Shin’a’in proverbs bombarding Karal.

“Never sit down to eat with your sword at your side.”

“Better an honest enemy than a feigned friend.”

“Who is wisest, says least.” Karal finally manages to interrupt the leshy’a Kal’enedral’s proverbs.

“Despair was an emotion for weaklings or failures.” Emperor Charliss, as he sees his empire crumbling around him.

“The best plans never survive the first engagement with the enemy.” Darkwind, thinking of a Shin’a’in proverb and wondering how the Eastern Empire has survived so long when it insists on having plans for everything.

“As with cards, duels and death sports, look at the odds — but consider the stakes.” Melles, considering how to gain control of the Empire.

“Having power and not using it was a form of weakness.” Sue Ann Bowling, Homecoming. Part of Zhaim’s philosophy of life, but it would fit Charliss just as well.

Skywatching: DVD Course Review

Every now and then I order a course on DVDs from The Great Courses. Most recently, I’ve been viewing Skywatching, a course by Alex Fippenkio on the sky, day and night: what can be seen in it and the physics of why it looks the way it does.

Roughly the first third of the course deals with what we can see in the daytime sky. Dr. Filippenko discusses sky color in midday and when the sun is rising or setting, clouds, lightning, and the interaction of sunlight with water and ice (giving rainbows and halos.) This is closely related to what I researched and taught, so I didn’t really lean anything new. The presentation, however, was generally good. I did catch an error in one diagram, but I suspect that was the graphic designer. (The diagram is the one used to explain polarization in reflected light, and the error is that the angle of reflection and the angle of incidence are not shown as equal.) I was also rather disappointed that Dr Filippenko did not point out that frozen droplets are initially near-spherical, and develop their hexagonal prism shape (and the optical effects this produces) only later, by vapor-phase growth. But I suppose I shouldn’t expect everyone to be familiar with ice fog.

This section of the course should be of particular interest to writers needing information on sky and cloud cover, storms, and less common phenomena such as rainbows or sundogs. If you are going to describe an evening sky, you’d better have some idea of what’s happening.

Roughly half the course deals with the constellations and observing the bodies of the solar system. Most of this I was familiar with as an amateur, and I’ve used some of it — lunar phases and seasons, for instance — in my writing. Every writer who wants to put a moon in the sky should watch the section on lunar phases. Rising crescent moon in the evening? Nope. Just doesn’t happen. Neither does a narrow crescent high in the sky.

The lecture on solar eclipses brought back the one I saw, shortly after I moved to Alaska in 1963. I didn’t have a car yet, but two other graduate students gave me a ride down to Sourdough, Alaska to see the total solar eclipse of July 20, 1963. There were scattered high clouds, and while they added suspense –would the sky be clear during totality? – they wound up adding to the experience. Every bright spot of Bailey’s Beads had its own rainbow (technically iridescence.) I know I took a picture; I remember taking photos both before and after the eclipse, the ones after being a series with the exposure set at a constant value to capture the change in the light. I found that series, but so far the ones before and during totality are missing. They may have been separate from the others and lost during the fire twelve years ago.

Overall I’d give the course an A. Dr. Filippenko is a wonderful teacher, and with few exceptions the graphics are excellent. The course takes 3 DVDs and consists of 12 45-minute lectures.

North Pole Weather 1/23/12

The sun will rise this morning at 10:05 and set at 4:01 pm for a whole 5 hours 55 minutes of daylight. We’re gaining more than 6 minutes a day, now, and the sun is almost 6° above the horizon at noon. It was actually shining through the south window Friday, casting the shadow of the suncatcher on the north wall. It warmed up almost to 0°F last week, but it isn’t forecast to last. No more snow to speak of, though.

Driving is miserable, especially heading south into the low sun. At least the light now lasts long enough I can get some shopping done as well as getting the plastics and paper in to the recycling center.

No, we don’t have trash pickup here. Once a week I put the week’s trash into the car and haul it to the transfer station, which is a huge battery of dumpsters plus a recycling platform for things people might be able to reuse – furniture, clothes, toys – in fact, just about everything. This is supposed to discourage dumpster diving. It doesn’t.

Some things, such as plastic bottles, paper and cardboard, can be turned in for recycling at the Rescue Mission, and the University students recycle glass. So I generally have a pretty full car going into town Saturday.

The short light cycle and the lowered temperature in the plant room have worked their magic on the Christmas cactus, which has two to three fat buds on every branch. And the first blooms have actually opened on the sunquat. It’s still winter here, with temperatures expected to stay well below zero for quite a while yet, but spring is on its way.

Six Sentence Sunday

It’s Sunday again, and I’m still posting consecutive bits from the second chapter of Rescue Operation (working title.) Tod’s the youngest of a group of teenaged “freedom fighters” who’ve been captured by slavers. To look at previous snippets, click “Six sentence Sunday” under the “Writing” tab.

[Tod] thought she had the better chance of getting away, and the last thing he wanted was for her to give up any chance she had by trying to rescue him.

She hesitated, studying her bonds, and then nodded slightly, reluctantly.

Their captors were talking now, discussing the weakened dam and how they’d reinforced it.  Something about being careful not to damage the infrastructure.  Worried about the dam, but not about the people?  That didn’t make sense to Tod.

Visit the other authors participating in Six Sentence Sunday.

Three Approaches to Health Care

There are three ways of approaching less than optimal health: prevention, treatment and cure. All have their strong and weak points; all are political hot cakes at the moment.

I think most individuals and societies would agree that the best solution is to stay in good health. It is also a solution that is not always possible. It is, however, the approach that is responsible for the dramatic drop in childhood death in developed countries.

Prevention measures are generally lumped as public health. Clean drinking water, proper sewage disposal, nutritious food, clean air and immunizations all fall into this category. So do measures intended to reduce accidental injury or death (such as seat belts) and those encouraging a healthier life style. Prevention would also include such highly controversial measures as not passing on genes known to have a deleterious effect on health.

In general prevention measures are good for the population, but affect individual choice. They may also affect the bottom line of corporations with a great influence on public policy, such as the food industry.

Some of what I need for treatment of diabetes. I want a cure!

By treatment I refer to ongoing treatment — the pill (or shot) for everything or treatments such as dialysis which must be repeated regularly for the life of the patient. Certainly it is better to have a treatment than not! I am alive today thanks to insulin. But treatment is generally expensive and is often lifelong. Further, treatment of this sort almost always has undesirable side effects. In my case, insulin can produce hypoglycemia which can kill. It should be noted that some “cures,” such as organ transplants, may then produce a condition in which lifelong treatment (anti-rejection drugs) is needed.

A cure implies a return to normal health. In some cases (such as the common cold) a cure is mainly a matter of time, with supporting treatment to prevent secondary infections or ease symptoms. Some cancers are curable with surgery, especially if caught early. Broken bones or other traumatic injuries can often be cured, especially in the young. A number of conditions, however, have no cure. Research on cures is ongoing, but the profit from a true cure is usually not as great as from lifelong treatment. Given that most health research today is profit-driven, research on cures tends to take a back seat to research on treatments.

I’ll probably return to this in the future, looking at one of the three approaches at a time. For right now, how would you order the importance of the three approaches?

Jarn’s Journal, Day 672

Jarn’s Journal is the fictional journal of an alien stranded in Africa 125,000 years ago. He is being hailed as a god by the human ancestors he has discovered. His story is the remote background of the Jarnian Confederacy, the setting of my science fiction novels. The Journal to date is on my author website.

Day 672

The equinox is close, if not here. The grass is shriveling, though not yet as brown as when I arrived – that must have been a drier than normal year. Plant food is harder to find, and some of the animals are leaving. Already the shaman has asked me if I will go with them to the Gather. I wasn’t trying to read her mind, but I couldn’t help picking up what a coup it would be for her group to be accompanied by a god.

I am not a god! Why can’t I get that across?

Besides, I don’t think I can keep up with them.

They will be walking. The longest distance I’ve walked, since that first disastrous day, is from here to the camp. It takes the shaman a little over an hour. I takes me two, and I’m pretty well worn out when I get there. In fact I’ve done it only once, the time I took Songbird home. No doubt they’d carry me, but I don’t want to slow them down.

And to be very honest ….

I’m not sure I can stand the stench. They do the best they can, but water is carried from the stream, sanitation is non-existent, butchering is done in the camp … well, let us just say that any group of people that large, carrying out their life without benefit of the amenities I have in my shelter, stinks.

It wasn’t bad at first, when they had only been at the camp site a day or so. But odorous materials pile up with time.

Admit it, I’m spoiled. I like my shelter, which now has running water, modern sanitation, a comfortable bed, and smells faintly of whatever flowers or grasses I’ve brought in. I don’t want to leave it.

Now I just have to figure out how to tell the shaman no, politely. Perhaps this journal, which requires the computer in my shelter, could serve as an excuse? But I will miss having someone intelligent to talk with.

Technology Index

The Perversity of Inanimate Objects 1 4/10/10
Insulin Pumps 5/20/10
Wars With Word 5/28/10
The Perversity of Inanimate Objects 2 6/4/10
Float Chair (fictional) 6/24/10
Tricycles are not Bicycles 8/8/10
Why Temperature Remembered doesn’t match the Record 4/5/11
Does Banking Software Work? 4/21/11
My New Toy – an iPad 2 5/12/11
Before Computers 6/5/11

Quotes from Anne McCaffrey

All of the past week’s quotes but the last are from The Rowan, by Anne McCaffrey.

“Especially guard the guardian” Part of Yegarani’s prediction about the Rowan, which Lusena interprets as guarding the Rowan from the excesses of Siglen.

“Someday it would be nice to have something who loved me!” The Rowan, expressing a wish for something other than the cupboard love of her barque cat, or reaction to her Talent.

“Old horrors could indeed grab you at the most unexpected moments.” The Rowan, when a rough sea triggers the fears planted by her earlier experience trapped in a hopper caught in a landslide.

“Love isn’t as strong as it’s supposed to be.” Peter Reidinger III, Earth Prime, when his idea of breaking the Rowan’s fear of space travel by her love for Jeff Raven fails.

“One is forced to put away childish things.” The Rowan is remembering, with deep regret, the pukha she had as a child.

“Why have a dog and bark yourself?” One of Siglen’s sayings. In this case, the Talents have spotted an alien invader and must convince the Fleet that it is a real threat.

“I know what it’s like to be used that way.” Sue Ann Bowling, Tourist Trap. Flame, trying to explain to Penny the difference between being used as a slave and the mutual love she and Roi share.