Month: April 2011

bookmark_borderWe are fine

Posted on by PaulaO

The massive storm system that came through spared the mountains of western North Carolina. This time.

We seem to have gotten a lot of storms lately but luckily last night we missed the worst of it. We had some tornado watches and warnings near us and the wind for the last few days has been insane. This one was, what, the fourth or the fifth system to come roaring through?

My heart goes out to those in Alabama and the other states that got hit the hardest. As someone said, “you can warn people of the tornado but when it is a mile wide, there’s not much they can do.”

bookmark_borderHouse Projects: Roof!

Posted on by PaulaO

As I’ve said here before, many times, there’s the person(s) that built the house and did a good job. And there’s the idiot(s) that came along later and did stupid stuff. We are trying hard to either fix the idiot stuff or to not be the next idiot.

One of the biggest pain in our homeowner’s butts is the roof. Oy. There has always been a leak somewhere that ends up in the kitchen. We’ve done all sorts of things over the years to try and find the source but never have. On top of that, where it chooses to drip down isn’t well made anyway so just added to the problem.

“They” added onto the kitchen at some point. Pushed the house out several feet and instead of changing the slope of the roof, they made the new section flat. And in the worst possible place for a flat section. As you can see in the photo below, one quarter of the runoff from the roof hits the flat section. Add in the leak (which made rot which caused more leaks), and it is a disaster up there. It was “repaired” a while back but they really just made it worse.

One of the things on Jack’s List is replacing the roof. We thought at first we would do an extensive bandaid approach but coating the roof with some sort of plastic paint stuff. But after he did measurements the other day, the total replacement cost isn’t as bad as we thought it would be. And a piggy bank was born. By fall, we will have the money saved up and we’ll get a new roof. We’re sticking with the metal. Jack and Crew will take all the old stuff off, replace any rotted rafters, take both chimneys down (the little one to the right in the photo isn’t hooked to anything), and put on a new roof and a ridge vent (which we don’t have).

And before anyone asks, yes, Jack worked in roofing. He knows what he is doing. We trust this guy. He’s been a treat to have around. Give him a job, he does it. He is, literally, a Jack of Many Trades.

Anyway, he got up there the other day and looked around, did the measurements, and tried to remedy some of the leaking into the kitchen. It didn’t work but he tried. The wall from where Lorna is on the ladder to her right will be replaced as well. That wall is rotted not only from the leak but from the boxwoods that were right up against the house. We trim them down to the dirt but they keep coming back. They’re too close to the foundation to dig, dammit. But you can see where they have rotted the bottom-most board and discolored the wall under that nasty window. I’m standing in the dog lot, by the way. Barely visible to the far right of the photo is the dog ramp we built last year.


Click image for larger version

Soon I’ll have other “House Projects:” posts as we are going to work poor Jack ragged this summer. Next weekend, if the weather is good, we’ll be renting a digger and he’ll be knocking down trees, clearing out the old garage, digging out the stream, and anything else we have time for. Then it will be mulching all the piles of debris (or stacking it for a cool cookout we’re planning for when The Kids are here this summer). Then there’s the new roof on the pump house, knocking down the old shed, rebuilding the front porch….there’s a lot to do.

Donations to the “House That Jack Fixed” piggy bank are being accepted!

bookmark_borderWe Live in a Broken World

Posted on by PaulaO

There’s no way to prove it, of course. All we have is circumstantial evidence and personal observation.

Here’s one I offer to you:

I saw someone at the airport the other day who really caught my eye.

Her beautiful, long blond hair was braided back a la Bo Derek in the movie “10” (or for the younger set, Christina Aguilera during her “Xtina” phase). Her lips were pink and shiny from the gloss, and her earrings dangled playfully from her lobes.

You can tell she had been vacationing somewhere warm, because you could see her deep tan around her midriff thanks to the halter top and the tight sweatpants that rested just a little low on her waist. The icing on the cake? The word “Juicy” was written on her backside.

Yeah, that 8-year-old girl was something to see alright. … I hope her parents are proud. Their daughter was the sexiest girl in the terminal, and she’s not even in middle school yet.

That’s from an article titled “Parents, don’t let your little girls dress like tramps“. I knew from the title that the person being described was a child but how did you, just now, feel as you read it, not knowing the person’s age? About the same as Lorna, probably. Shocked? Disgusted? I hope so.

Abercrombie & Fitch came under fire this spring for introducing the “Ashley,” a push-up bra for girls who normally are too young to have anything to push up. Originally it was marketed for girls as young as 7, but after public outcry, it raised its intended audience to the wise old age of 12. I wonder how do people initiate a conversation in the office about the undeveloped chest of elementary school girls without someone nearby thinking they’re pedophiles?

What kind of PowerPoint presentation was shown to the Abercrombie executives that persuaded them to green light such a product?

That there was a demand to make little girls hot?

I mean, that is the purpose of a push-up bra, right? To enhance sex appeal by lifting up, pushing together and basically showcasing the wearer’s breasts. Now, thanks to AF Kids, girls don’t have to wait until high school to feel self-conscious about their, uhm, girls. They can start almost as soon as they’re potty trained. Maybe this fall the retailer should consider keeping a plastic surgeon on site for free consultations.

(…)

What adult who wants a daughter to grow up with high self-esteem would even consider purchasing such items? What parent is looking at their sweet, little girl thinking, “She would be perfect if she just had a little bit more up top.”

And then I remember the little girl at the airport. And the girls we’ve all seen at the mall. And the kiddie beauty pageants.

And then I realize as creepy as it is to think a store like Abercrombie is offering something like the “Ashley”, the fact remains that sex only sells because people are buying it. No successful retailer would consider introducing an item like a padded bikini top for kindergarteners if they didn’t think people would buy it.

If they didn’t think parents would buy it, which begs the question: What in the hell is wrong with us?

It’s easy to blast companies for introducing the sexy wear, but our ire really should be directed at the parents who think low rise jeans for a second grader is cute. They are the ones who are spending the money to fuel this budding trend. They are the ones who are suppose to decide what’s appropriate for their young children to wear, not executives looking to brew up controversy or turn a profit.

(…)

I don’t care how popular Lil’ Wayne is, my son knows I would break both of his legs long before I would allow him to walk out of the house with his pants falling off his butt. Such a stance doesn’t always makes me popular — and the house does get tense from time to time — but I’m his father, not his friend.

Friends bow to peer pressure. Parents say, “No, and that’s the end of it.”

(…)

In 2007, the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls issued a report linking early sexualization with three of the most common mental-health problems of girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression. There’s nothing inherently wrong with parents wanting to appease their daughters by buying them the latest fashions. But is getting cool points today worth the harm dressing little girls like prostitutes could cause tomorrow?

A line needs to be drawn, but not by Abercrombie. Not by Britney Spears. And not by these little girls who don’t know better and desperately need their parents to be parents and not 40-year-old BFFs.

We live in a broken world when girls are getting push-up bras at at 7, even at 12, and there not be a huge gawdawful stink about it. But he’s right. Execs at these big stores wouldn’t be trying to sell these things if they didn’t think there were enough people to buy them. And enough means into the thousands, not hundreds. Parents may say “I don’t want my small-chested daughter to be teased”. Fine. But you are doing her more harm by saying her chest is worthy of teasing. You should instead be telling her of how hard it is for big-chested girls. No one knows their eye color (trust me on this). Isn’t it better to just celebrate the body she has instead of supplementing it before she’s 16?

bookmark_borderStep(s) Forward

Posted on by PaulaO

The problem with being a writer, well, one of the many, is that you have to write something that makes sense to someone somewhere and hope that special someone finds your work and admires it. The more someones that it makes sense to, the better. There’s things to do to ensure that number is high. Editing, understanding grammar, plot, character development, etcetera. Then there’s marketing and promotion (which I stink at).

I got this story. It’s huge. I have mentioned it a lot since I’ve been working on it since 2004. I’ve finished it three times now. Maybe four depending on how I look at it. Each version is slightly different and, with each, it makes more sense to more people. I’ve had some people read it and they’ve all enjoyed it. Sure, there’s problems. But for the most part, they’ve liked it.

Problem is, I don’t. Yeah, yeah, I am so addicted to this novel I dream of it. But there’s parts of it I just can’t seem to get right.

The book is Simple Sarah (I can hear the groans from here). The problem I have with it is the Bad Guys and Evil and All That Bad Guy Evil Stuff. Where’d they come from? Where have they been? Why are some religious nuts allowed to kill them? Why doesn’t the gov’t step in and say, “Um, you are killing a lot of people.” It just never really felt right. I’ve danced around the issue in several different ways and I’ve discussed it with Lorna (spouses of writers discuss the oddest things at the dinner table).

Gods and Goddesses are odd beings. Where’d they come from? Are they static? Do they never change? Do the peoples that worship them change them in any way? How do those peoples even start worshiping them to begin with?

I realized the deities within Simple Sarah are like the Greek/Roman gods. They walk among the people at times, although they are not all that accessible on the whole. Which means perhaps that they have faults, just like the Greek/Roman gods did. And perhaps they were also influenced by the who and how of the worship directed toward them.

Many times in the Christian Bible we read of how someone sweet talked God into Plan B. Was that God’s intention to begin with or did He/She really get swayed?

Which led Lorna and I to develop a new religion base for the Simple Sarah novels. It actually feels better now. I feel as if I understand it now and feel more comfortable with the entire story arc. One of the things E. said about it when she read it was that while it was a good story (she finished the whole thing), she didn’t feel that anything actually happens. And she is right. Sure, lots happen but really, it was the WHY, not the WHAT that was missing. At least to me.

Evil plays a huge role in fantasy novels. People, things, places, abstract thoughts. Mean dragons or evil wizards or unholy trinkets wreak havoc on the world and someone has to fix it. But why did that dragon eat that village? Why did the evil wizard become evil and why did he stay that way? How did that unholy trinket come to exist? And, if it is oh so powerful, why does a simple blow from just the right hammer or a toss into just the right fire kill it?

I really feel that this is it for Simple Sarah. I really feel that in a few weeks, it will be done. For real. But I am not recommending you hold your breath. Unless you are underwater, then, yeah, go ahead.

bookmark_borderKeyboard Revisited

Posted on by PaulaO

So I’ve had this keyboard for a while now, the Kinesis Freestyle (I wrote about it a while back). I’ve almost gotten used to it and can now give a decent review of it.

For one, the keys being separated is weird. It truly feels as if each hand is doing its own thing. I mean, they’re doing the same thing if they’d been on a single keyboard piece but for some reason, it feels really weird. It took longer to get used to than I thought. I have slowly been putting them further apart, trying to find that placement as well, but the further I go, the more I have to relocate my hands on the keys. Weird.

Instead of resting on the keyboard like usual, my hands kinda float over them. I really really hate the placement of the backspace and delete key. I’ve slowly gotten used to the backspace location but I have to stop and look to find the delete key. The home and end buttons are odd too but I don’t use them that much. I do miss having a keypad. I’d just started to enjoy it now that I am using a desktop and now it is more like using a laptop again. Sigh. I am a touch typist and have realized, with this keyboard, that I am having to relocate my hands to the proper place. I have gotten into the habit of twitching my index fingers to make sure they are on the F and J keys (the ones with the bumps) whenever I stop to think or first start typing. It is almost like learning to touch type all over again. I am constantly hitting the / key when I want the . one. Which is probably why I know the backspace key location so well!

I’ve also been surprised at the horizontal angle my hands feel the most comfortable with. The left is not much different than before, straight on. A little turn (top toward the right) but not by much. The right one, though, wow, what a tilt. The top is really angled toward the left. That shoulder is my loosest and tends to splay outward so that is probably why. But it is strange to see it revealed this way. The right one is also more forward and the left is closer to my body.

I’ve tried the different ‘tenting’ angles. I don’t like the full one so far but I’ve not used it that much. I switch between the lowest and the mid one. (can’t recall the actual degrees). The left hand likes the midrange tilt. The highest one makes the hand hot faster. And that’s the other thing. My left hand gets very warm the more I type. No clue why. I need to ask my PT friend if she knows. The right one may eventually like the highest tilt but, like I said, I’ve not used it much. I am finally starting to type more lately and will do another review later.

In some ways, the keyboard seems solidly made. But in other ways, it feels cheap. Could just be the keys themselves and how they react to pressure.

I keep the mouse between the two pieces. It fits nicely, even when the pieces are fairly close together.

Overall, I like the keyboard. I like that my hand placement can be nearly anywhere, depending on how I am feeling and how I am using it. Ergonomic? Yes, definitely. Worth the money? Yes, definitely again. Recommend it to others? Only if you touch type. If you use the ‘hunt and peck’ method, you will hate hate hate this keyboard. But then, if you hunt/peck, you don’t need it.