Author: W. Smith

W. Smithhttps://sesquibits.wordpress.com
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Sad garden

Plants growing in a garden
I had a nice afternoon yesterday. Mom and Dad came up to help with my garden.

A friend helped expand it the day before. The new part was horrible… about half of it was *full* of rocks. We gave up after I had had carted almost 10 buckets and filled up 4 holes in my driveway. Dad was digging and I was picking up the stones.

There were so many rocks that we had to get more soil. Fortunately, my neighbor was working on her garden and offered some that she didn’t need.

I couldn’t decide what to plant, but we planted zucchini, onions, tomatoes and flowers. I had wanted to plant peppers but the Garden Gate was closed for Memorial Day. I went up today and bought a dozen various pepper plants. I’ll put those in later today after it cools off a little.

What was sad about the event was that mom found a nest of dead baby rabbits in the old garden. We carefully got rid of them, to avoid any possible disease from the remains. There’s been a rabbit in my back yard for years. I’m not sure if the babies belonged to it.

After the garden party, I went to the Y and walked a mile.

Spices for Cauliflower

A serving dish of hot food
I have an excellent cookbook “Rodale’s Basic Natural Foods Cookbook” edited by Charles Gerras. Mine is the 1984 edition.

It has lots of useful tables. How to prepare seafood, cooking methods for vegetables and quite a few others.

One table includes information about spice/vegetable combinations. The attached PDF summarizes the information. I haven’t tested many of the combinations personally but I trust the source.

(Although it’s not in the chart, I discovered that celery seed goes well with cauliflower.)

Spice Table

Climate change and the coal strike of 1977-78: Turn down the lights

A finger pressing a switch
When you read the history of the 1977-1978 Coal Strike, the reports talk about the negotiations, the rejected agreement and who the losers were in the final contract.

However, the effect of the strike on energy consumption is glossed over.

That year, I was a student at DeKalb High School in Waterloo, Indiana. The school took steps to reduce energy usage. I remember that we reduced lighting in the classrooms and hallways. We changed policies in the cafeteria and took other steps to cut back energy usage.

None of the changes that the school took required waiting for greater availability of renewable energy sources or capital outlays by industry.

Reducing the use of lighting in public spaces will not eliminate the imperative to reduce CO2 emissions. However, it will be a step in the right direction. It can be done overnight and does not need the cooperation of any elected officials.

Turn down the lights. It’s a very visible signal that CO2 emissions need to be lowered. It can be a start and it’s available everywhere.

Need any Passengers?

Headphones
I was just looking at my most recent mix CDs. I call them Bill’s Quirky Music since they’re pretty eclectic and some are far off the beaten path.

Out of the 118 songs on BQM X through BQM XVII there are 10 by Passenger. Four Horses is one of my favorites of those.

If I go back to all BQMs, Asia, Alan Parsons and Saga challenge Passenger for supremacy.

Although it’s not difficult, I was able to get my iPhone to play music from my desktop computer through iTunes sharing. However, it isn’t as useful as it once was because I listen to the desktop on Bluetooth speakers.

Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse.

a movie reel
I really enjoyed Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse. It was the first movie I ever saw twice in the theater. The second time was fun because I was the only one in the theater.

I’m not a bona fide comic book aficionado by any stretch but I still appreciated the times when the Miles’ thoughts were showing up as literal thought bubbles early on. I also liked that it didn’t take itself too seriously. It was so much fun.

When I was watching the credits and think that the coolest job title was for Michael Dolan as color scientist.

I was looking at buying the movie, also a first that I decided that I wanted a copy of the movie as soon as I saw it. It looks like it takes some care to get access to the special features that are available. Hint, Amazon doesn’t have them. I’ll be streaming it on Vudu.

Patreon

champagne glasses making a toast
I just created a Patreon account http://patreon.com/williamwaynesmith It’s focused on poetry.

I think having a venue like that to release my poetry is a big re-motivator and I’m much more enthusiastic than I have been for a long time.

If you’d like to support me that would be awesome!

Zorro the cat and my mouse

A green thought bubble
Cats like their mice.

Zorro has taken to lurking on my computer desk. Sometimes she starts watching the mouse on the screen intently. Once in a while she even tries to bat at it with her paw.

Today I noticed some ex-bird parts on the ground next to my car. Some cat had had a nice midnight snack and left me a couple souvenirs.

Windy Winter and Artificial Intelligence

A magnifying glass searching
I’ve noticed recently that it seems to be more windy here than in the past. Over the weekend, we had a strong wind storm with 60+ mph wind gusts. Yet I don’t think that the storm is proof. Just as a bitterly cold week doesn’t invalidate the process of climate change, a single wind storm doesn’t make it more windy. But I suspected changes before the weekend.

I mentioned my observation to a friend and he suggested I could use an AI tool to analyze the situation. I’m not convinced that artificial intelligence will help me get a better result.

The research in “Global trends in wind speed and wave height” by I. R. Young, S. Zieger, and A. V. Babanin indicates that it is an interesting topic. That paper in could help me identify the most useful questions. It also indicates that analyzing climate is not easy.

For my own situation, I need to find a source of historical wind speeds. Weather Underground has some data starting about 1940, but it isn’t easy to access. windfinder.com sells hourly data going back to 1999. I didn’t check the pricing of their data.

Another issue is what should I measure? Weather Underground has the maximum speed each day which is a good start, but may not answer my question. Windfinder has hourly data which is a finer granularity and might be more useful.

There would be a few more decisions I would need to make before I get an answer. When do I want to break between a historical base statistic to compare to recent data or should I look for a trend in the wind speeds? The number of data points in both groups can affect the statistical validity of my results.

Before I start looking for tools to confirm my observation, I need to make a lot of decisions. I don’t think an artificial intelligence tool will help me decide these prerequisites.

Artificial Intelligence is a trendy hammer, but not every problem is a nail.

It is time

Dark storm cloudsA mystical dream comes in sleep.

A black storm fills a sturdy reservoir. As the storm rages on, hope for mercy has become a hollow fantasy. Its winds destroy the innocent and powerless.

Time will stop.

Powerful barriers surround the proud, vain and arrogant. They know no storm can bring them down. The shadows hide their evil. Final victory will come soon.

Time has stopped.

In the darkest night, a dazzling power strikes with fury against the center of a hidden world.

Time starts again.

The reservoir descends into an abyss. A cataclysm collapses the barriers and washes away their filth. The night and its storm are over.

The mystery is complete. New vistas fill eyes with hope and joy.

Wake to see the sun rise on the horizon of a new world.

Left handed

Green coffee cup
A couple of months ago, I started doing journaling with my left hand. Before bed, I would write one page with my right hand and the reverse with my left. I’m not ambidextrous. I was wondering whether it would access a different part of my brain. I can’t prove that one way or the other. However, because it made me write more slowly, it made changes, if only because of that.

Last week, I got the clever idea of writing the journaling alternating hands. Write one word with the right, the next with the left, then with the right and so on. This style I can definitely tell that it’s different.

I have more of an idea of the whole sentence and things tend to flow together better. I also used the technique to write a poem and it came out so that it didn’t need so much editing. (Often when I write a poem, I take a long time editing and reediting which is tedious.

My left hand isn’t as legible as my right, although it’s getting better. My right hand’s writing isn’t that legible to begin with. lol