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Posts Tagged ‘Thoughts’

Map from the Past

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , on December 29, 2021| Leave a Comment »

I am feeling particular affection for my past self today.

Earlier this year I needed to design and print multiple versions of a complicated spreadsheet. It was the sort of project that should have been easy but was a verifiable pain. After more time on it than I want to remember, I had my printouts finalized. Yay. I have a vague memory of thinking, “Self, this is great, you have this covered allllll the way to the end of the year. Go you!” And then I forgot about it.

Yesterday I went to flip December over to the next sheet. You can guess what happened next.

There is no next printout. The stack only went to December and now here I am at the end of the line.

Usually this would mean having to start over from scratch, trying to remember exactly which hoops I had to jump through to get the end result.

Not this time.

This time, Past Me realized that there was no way I’d remember all the annoying details required in each of the multiple applications used. This time, Past Me not only took notes but also clipped them to the last printout in the stack.

I left myself a map.

And so today I am feeling grateful for my past decisions. I’m also asking a question with the potential to make the future a better destination: 

What can I do today to help myself tomorrow?

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Photo by Julentto Photography on Unsplash

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In Case You Were Wondering

Posted in Science!, tagged , , , , , on December 28, 2021| Leave a Comment »

I accumulate a lot of random facts. Here’s one I found interesting: Spiders can’t spidey so well when they’re on drugs.

Just say no, spiders, just say no!*

* Unless you have a constant source of delicious insects supplied by your organization’s graduate students and no pressing engagements, in which case, you do you, spideys.

* * *

NASA Tech Briefs, April 1995 – NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), file p. 106, document p. 82

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Comfort and Defend

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on December 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

I just read half a dozen short stories looking for a piece to share with you today. All were excellent. All were depressing as hell.

This is story number seven.

GO. NOW. FIX. by Timons Esaias

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Photo by Roger Bradshaw on Unsplash

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Boxing Day

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , , on December 26, 2021| 1 Comment »

Today is Boxing Day, a Commonwealth holiday unfamiliar to most Americans, and a national holiday in Canada since 1871.

And it has nothing to do with fighters in a ring with a bell.

While its history is a little fuzzy, traditionally Boxing Day was thought of as a time for alms-giving, and for lords and ladies to distribute gifts to household servants, dependents and the poor. It was originally known as Offering Day.

Fiction-related note: Charles Dickens mentioned Boxing Day in “The Pickwick Papers,” which was published as a monthly serial in 1836 and 1837.

These days, Boxing Day in Canada is more like a second Black Friday, an excuse for big sales and shopping shopping shopping. 

I have no servants but as you may know, I like to contribute to the community and causes that matter to me. So today, I’ll help support some of the groups out there doing good.

No boxing necessary.

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Photo by Skön Communication on Unsplash

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Merry Christmas!

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , on December 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

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A First

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , , , , on December 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Today is the first time I will be making Swedish meatballs for Christmas Eve. I’ve helped my father, many times, but have never made them in my own house. 

The recipe we grew up with was my grandmother’s. Every year we would pull out the little wooden recipe card box and find a three by five index card in her handwriting, with my father’s annotations at the edges. You could tell which one it was by all the lingonberry stains. 

I loved that it was a family recipe, and that every time we made it I remembered Christmas as a kid at my grandparents’ house in Chicago. 

I will admit that I didn’t exactly love the recipe. A decade or so ago we all admitted that maybe, just maybe, the meatballs weren’t all they could be (sorry, Grandma!), and tried an alternative. Here’s what I had to say about that:

… a few years ago we made the shift from Grandma Johnson’s handwritten recipes (so homey!) for dishes like Swedish meatballs and limpa and roast pork to the spectacular versions of same in Marcus Samuelsson’s Aquavit. Yes, an Ethiopian-born immigrant throws down on traditional Swedish food and wins big. See what I mean? The food still says home, only better:) 

— The Universal Language? | J.R. Johnson

So this year we’re doing the new old family recipe. It won’t be the traditional Christmas Eve smorgasbord with family, but it will feel like the holidays.

Mr Man and I have already made the quick-pickled cucumbers and are letting them steep (half the sugar though, and no apologies!). As soon as the juice is at full flavor it will be time to make the meatballs. 

Until then we’ll kick back, listen to classic Christmas music and make the most of this Christmas Eve. 

God jul everyone!

* * *

Photo by Valentin Petkov on Unsplash

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Can’t Be Serious All the Time

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , on December 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.”

— Dr. Seuss

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Photo by Darius Bashar on Unsplash

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Uphill From Here

Posted in Science!, tagged , , , , , on December 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Today is the winter solstice, marking the Northern Hemisphere’s shortest day.

Why solstice? It’s science so there must be a Latin connection, right? Right.

During the course of a year, the subsolar point—the spot on the Earth’s surface directly beneath the Sun—slowly moves along a north-south axis. Having reached its northernmost point at the June solstice, it starts moving southward until it crosses the equator on the day of the September equinox. At the December solstice, which marks the southernmost point of its journey, it stops again to start its journey back toward the north.

This is how the solstices got their name: the term comes from the Latin words sol and sistere, meaning “Sun” and “to stand still”.

— December Solstice 2021: Longest & Shortest Day

The good news is that it’s all uphill from here.

* * *

This is an analemma, a map tracking the sun’s position over the course of a year. You remember that diagram Tom Hanks drew on the cave wall that one time? Politikaner, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Playing Grandma

Posted in Food and..., tagged , , , , , on December 20, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Today, a recipe that has an important place in our family history.

* * *

Swedish Pancakes
(Mike Johnson)

Mike: The history of this recipe begins with Olga, my father’s father’s (far far in Swedish) sister. For most of her life she was a live-in maid and nanny for a rich family across town, from the time when Swedish girls were brought over to replace other ethnicities in the service industry. She also cooked for her brother and his children, and later grandchildren on the weekends. After that she took care of her son. She worked all her life, living with the same family for 30 years and only retiring at 85. She died at the age of 99, tired and more than ready to go.

Jen: My father often spoke of Olga and how she would stand at his grandfather’s stove flipping seven thin pancakes at a time in the special cast iron pan, piling plates high on Sunday mornings. She didn’t have a recipe, just mixed the ingredients together until they “looked right.” Dad finally made up his own and still uses it to play the role of Swedish grandmother, eating over the stove as the rest of us spread butter and sugar and lemon or lingonberries on the pancakes,* then roll them up to eat. Delicious!

Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 ¼ C. milk
  • ¾ C. flour
  • ¼ C. sugar
Photo by M Draa on Unsplash

* * *

* We do the dishes after so Dad can relax. We’re not monsters!

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It’s All Relative

Posted in Science!, tagged , , , , , on December 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Some days I feel like I am getting nothing done. Despite the fact that I have been working on a number of projects and fighting bad tech mojo on multiple fronts,* today is one of those days.

Am I am getting nowhere? Maybe, but I’m also doing it very, very fast. Thanks to the magic of plate tectonics (ok, that part’s pretty slow) and orbital mechanics, so are you.

If you’ve ever wanted to know how fast you are moving (even when you aren’t going anywhere), check out this fun site:

Speed

* * *

Photo by Abed Ismail on Unsplash

* Really, keyboard, backup drive, laptop, and printer, you’d have me believe that this wasn’t all planned?

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