Just jotting down some words F uses that we recognize.
Dada
Mama
Buba - for T
Sehsi - for M
Kiki (or Sisi) - for K
Baba = Bottle
Fishi = Fish
Oh!
Mine!
Whoa!
Uh-oh!
Hi
Bye or Bye Bye (with waving)
Okay
A surprised intake of breath = to convey excitement and get us to notice things, like when the garbage truck is coming
Sometimes she will string Whoa!, Oh!, Okay, Uh-oh! in a dialog as she looks at something or as we drive along--it is funny to listen to. She makes lots of other noises, many of which we can't recognize the words, and has funny and very expressive facial expressions. Just from looking at her face you can tell if she thinks something is funny or interesting, and she has a way of opening her eyes wide and leaning her face intently toward something to get you to notice it as well. She has also worked out some hand signs (we teach our children some sign language, which they can use before talking, like "more - food - please," but F has made up some of her own signs, like for opening containers, and an alternative for wanting food, that we have all learned now).
She also has this funny, loud sniffing sound to let you know something smells strongly. For example, there was an empty vitamin bottle in the kitchen recycle bin and it has a strong "fruit acid" smell from the powder inside from the vitamins. She "sniffed" at it to let me know it smelled.
We all take turns reading to her during the day and she has imitated this by « reading » to K. She is very interested in books, like T was, and likes going to the bookstore (the only one left in Honolulu I can find that has not closed down).
She is still doing a lot of communication by making upset noises and reaching for things or pushing them away. However, I think her vocabulary is on the edge of taking off--one of the reasons I am writing this. The other day, F, M, and I were at the store and I was looking for new sandals for F; she is about to outgrow her current ones. M and I were picking some out and trying them on F's feet when she started pushing our hands and the sandals away and fussing. We didn't understand and she got frustrated then she concentrated for a moment and said three syllables that were hard to understand, then repeated "I do it" again more clearly and confidently. So we let her down to pick out and try on sandals on her own.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
Welcome to the year 6254!
Yes, it's the 50's and we are in the 63rd century...⸮
This is the year 5773 in the Hebrew calendar, 5126 in the Mayan calendar (which was famous last month), 4710 in the Chinese calendar, 4346 in the Korean calendar, 2963 in the Berber calendar, 2557 in the Buddhist calendar, 2402 in the Zoroastrian calendar, 2013 in the Western Christian calendar, 2005 in the Ethiopian Christian calendar, 1729 in the Coptic calendar, 1434 in the Islamic calendar, 1013 in the Igbo calendar, and 169 in the Baha'i calendar... for example!
There is however a possible alternative calendar that starts before all of these. It also has the benefits of not having any negative dates in history (no missing year-zero adjustments), and the benefit of not being tied to any current world religion. (Objections have been made over the adoption of the Christian calendar for secular international activities.) The brightest objects in the sky were used to construct our calendars. Obviously this is the sun for days and years and the moon for months which was approximately divided into weeks. For a year-keeping system we need something with a cycle much longer than years. Also, the sun and the moon are the first and second brightest object, what about the third brightest⸮
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. It is the fifth closest star outside the solar system and is « only » 8.6 light years away. It was used by the ancient Egyptians to coordinate their calendar and time plantings after the Nile floods. In a 365 day year there is a small offset each year so that the beginning of the year creeps around the calendar relative to the first appearance of Sirius each year. One full rotation, when Sirius again appears at the same point in the year is called a sothic cycle. One sothic cycle is 533,265 days or 1,460 (365 day) years.
Working back there is a sothic cycle that began in 4241 B.C. (on the W.C. calendar). Using this as a starting point for our "year of history" calendar, this is 6254 Y.H.! (The missing year zero cancels out with the year 1 on the two different calendars.) Also, we are just over a quarter of the way into the 5th S.C. (sothic cycle), which began in 1599 A.D. So alternatively we could say this year is 5 S.C., 414 Y.H. Or the year 414 in the 5th cycle. In another sense, we are back in the 400's!
Sothic cycles are not completely without cultural tie-ins, which makes this calendar scheme a bit more interesting. In the West Sirius is referred to as the "dog star." It is part of Canis Major, one of the dogs following Orion the hunter.
Look for a bright star along the line back from Orions belt.
As I mentioned before sothic cycles were used by the Ancient Egyptians. About a century ago it was speculated in the West that this cycle point 6,254 years ago (4241 B.C.) was in fact the beginning of the Egyptian calendar. While this has been debated and is not widely believed now, it was used in some books as the beginning of the Egyptian calendar and as the timing for the opening of the "Crypt of Civilization." This air tight chamber was sealed in 1940 in Atlanta and is intended to be opened 6,177 years later.
Incidentally the Egyptians personified Sirius as Sopdet.
Note the star above Sopdet's head. In hieroglyphics Sirius is given as:
It is not surprising that the third brightest object in the sky would be recognized by cultures around the world (link). Recognizing Sirius as a dog or wolf seems to be widespread. Sirius was important in Polynesia and goes by several names in Hawaiian. Like the Egyptians Sirius was also used to time agriculture plantings in parts of West Africa and was very important in traditional religions in the region like the Serer and Dogon (and is linked to quite a controversy regarding Dogon religion, "Nommo" that came to earth, and the Dogon's knowledge of a companion star of Sirius, link--to have a look for yourself type "Dogon Nommo sirius" into google's search field and page through some of the results). Incidentally, since we are talking about calendars, the Dogon (and the Javanese) also have/had a five day week. In Scandinavia Sirius was also known as Loki's brand (~torch) and in Persia Sirius was a white horse, Tishtrya, that brought rains.
These inexact links to cultures around the world make a revised world year keeping system have components of human culture, but is not tied exclusively to any single human culture. I think this makes it even more appropriate for adoption by an international system.
This is the year 5773 in the Hebrew calendar, 5126 in the Mayan calendar (which was famous last month), 4710 in the Chinese calendar, 4346 in the Korean calendar, 2963 in the Berber calendar, 2557 in the Buddhist calendar, 2402 in the Zoroastrian calendar, 2013 in the Western Christian calendar, 2005 in the Ethiopian Christian calendar, 1729 in the Coptic calendar, 1434 in the Islamic calendar, 1013 in the Igbo calendar, and 169 in the Baha'i calendar... for example!
There is however a possible alternative calendar that starts before all of these. It also has the benefits of not having any negative dates in history (no missing year-zero adjustments), and the benefit of not being tied to any current world religion. (Objections have been made over the adoption of the Christian calendar for secular international activities.) The brightest objects in the sky were used to construct our calendars. Obviously this is the sun for days and years and the moon for months which was approximately divided into weeks. For a year-keeping system we need something with a cycle much longer than years. Also, the sun and the moon are the first and second brightest object, what about the third brightest⸮
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. It is the fifth closest star outside the solar system and is « only » 8.6 light years away. It was used by the ancient Egyptians to coordinate their calendar and time plantings after the Nile floods. In a 365 day year there is a small offset each year so that the beginning of the year creeps around the calendar relative to the first appearance of Sirius each year. One full rotation, when Sirius again appears at the same point in the year is called a sothic cycle. One sothic cycle is 533,265 days or 1,460 (365 day) years.
Working back there is a sothic cycle that began in 4241 B.C. (on the W.C. calendar). Using this as a starting point for our "year of history" calendar, this is 6254 Y.H.! (The missing year zero cancels out with the year 1 on the two different calendars.) Also, we are just over a quarter of the way into the 5th S.C. (sothic cycle), which began in 1599 A.D. So alternatively we could say this year is 5 S.C., 414 Y.H. Or the year 414 in the 5th cycle. In another sense, we are back in the 400's!
Sothic cycles are not completely without cultural tie-ins, which makes this calendar scheme a bit more interesting. In the West Sirius is referred to as the "dog star." It is part of Canis Major, one of the dogs following Orion the hunter.
Look for a bright star along the line back from Orions belt.
As I mentioned before sothic cycles were used by the Ancient Egyptians. About a century ago it was speculated in the West that this cycle point 6,254 years ago (4241 B.C.) was in fact the beginning of the Egyptian calendar. While this has been debated and is not widely believed now, it was used in some books as the beginning of the Egyptian calendar and as the timing for the opening of the "Crypt of Civilization." This air tight chamber was sealed in 1940 in Atlanta and is intended to be opened 6,177 years later.
Incidentally the Egyptians personified Sirius as Sopdet.
Note the star above Sopdet's head. In hieroglyphics Sirius is given as:
It is not surprising that the third brightest object in the sky would be recognized by cultures around the world (link). Recognizing Sirius as a dog or wolf seems to be widespread. Sirius was important in Polynesia and goes by several names in Hawaiian. Like the Egyptians Sirius was also used to time agriculture plantings in parts of West Africa and was very important in traditional religions in the region like the Serer and Dogon (and is linked to quite a controversy regarding Dogon religion, "Nommo" that came to earth, and the Dogon's knowledge of a companion star of Sirius, link--to have a look for yourself type "Dogon Nommo sirius" into google's search field and page through some of the results). Incidentally, since we are talking about calendars, the Dogon (and the Javanese) also have/had a five day week. In Scandinavia Sirius was also known as Loki's brand (~torch) and in Persia Sirius was a white horse, Tishtrya, that brought rains.
These inexact links to cultures around the world make a revised world year keeping system have components of human culture, but is not tied exclusively to any single human culture. I think this makes it even more appropriate for adoption by an international system.
Monday, December 24, 2012
An old picture: T helping with the car
Back in July I mentioned (link) T helping me replace a windshield wiper motor that I refused to pay a mechanic a ridiculous amount of money to do for us. This was many years ago when we lived in New York.
I was going through some old computer files backing things up and happened across this picture.
I didn't even realize I had a picture of this. It is amazing how much he has grown.
I was going through some old computer files backing things up and happened across this picture.
I didn't even realize I had a picture of this. It is amazing how much he has grown.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Thanksgiving
Sorry for the gap but between work, more van break downs, and the new baby I haven't been able to keep up with the blog.
Let me start back up again by first talking about Thanksgiving this year. V was busy with the babies and said she didn't want to fix a big dinner this year. I told her not to worry about it and went to M to plan. M was eager to be in charge so we made up a list of things to fix, prioritized it, and made a grocery list from that.
The day before we cleaned up the kitchen and set the turkey out to thaw. Then Thanksgiving morning we were up before sunrise getting started.
Fixing cornbread for the stuffing.
We set out the ingredients on the table to draw from while cooking. (There is much more here than we used. We buy the food in bulk at Costco where it is cheaper and store it until we use it again.)
The prepared turkey ready to go in the oven.
While the Turkey is cooking it is time to fix some deviled eggs.
By then the rest of the family started waking up, so M showed the eggs to K.
We washed dishes as we went and once everything was cooking for a while there was time to mop the floor.
Then it was time, after washing our hands, to mix up the stuffing.
Finally the turkey was done!
And we set everything out on the table.
(We cheated with the pumpkin pie; I have made them from scratch before but we just bought one at the store to make things a bit easier.)
So we had turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, strawberry jello and canned peaches. (We have a family tradition of pickled peaches for Thanksgiving, but canned peaches was the closest we could get this year.)
Then everyone sat down to eat.
I was surprised at how good the turkey turned out. We sort of made up an ad hoc recipe loosely based on other recipes. At work earlier in the week I was talking to someone who came up with the idea for putting whole lemons inside the turkey. I am writing down the recipe below so you can try it and so I don't forget.
11 lb turkey, thaw the day before.
Remove neck and giblets for gravy and stuffing.
Wash off the turkey and put it in a baking pan.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Quarter a whole lemon and squeeze over the turkey then place pieces in the pan next to it.
Put two whole lemons inside the turkey; they keep it moist while cooking and give a lemon flavor to the meat.
Chop up an onion, a potato, some celery, carrots, and oyster mushrooms and place them around the turkey.
Pour some chicken broth around the turkey.
Sprinkle some sea salt over the turkey.
Sprinkle some spices, (savory, marjoram, thyme, sage, oregano, basil, rosemary) over the turkey. (By the way, we have a rosemary plant growing outside and M picked fresh rosemary to use on the turkey.)
Cook for 1 hour at 350 F. Then rub some butter and more spices over the turkey.
Cook for another hour at 350. Rub some more butter and spices over the turkey.
Cook at 400 F for 30 minutes and it's ready to go.
The day after Thanksgiving we went back to the store and grabbed another turkey to put in the freezer because they were all on sale at a fraction of the cost.
Let me start back up again by first talking about Thanksgiving this year. V was busy with the babies and said she didn't want to fix a big dinner this year. I told her not to worry about it and went to M to plan. M was eager to be in charge so we made up a list of things to fix, prioritized it, and made a grocery list from that.
The day before we cleaned up the kitchen and set the turkey out to thaw. Then Thanksgiving morning we were up before sunrise getting started.
Fixing cornbread for the stuffing.
We set out the ingredients on the table to draw from while cooking. (There is much more here than we used. We buy the food in bulk at Costco where it is cheaper and store it until we use it again.)
The prepared turkey ready to go in the oven.
While the Turkey is cooking it is time to fix some deviled eggs.
By then the rest of the family started waking up, so M showed the eggs to K.
We washed dishes as we went and once everything was cooking for a while there was time to mop the floor.
Then it was time, after washing our hands, to mix up the stuffing.
Finally the turkey was done!
And we set everything out on the table.
(We cheated with the pumpkin pie; I have made them from scratch before but we just bought one at the store to make things a bit easier.)
So we had turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, strawberry jello and canned peaches. (We have a family tradition of pickled peaches for Thanksgiving, but canned peaches was the closest we could get this year.)
Then everyone sat down to eat.
I was surprised at how good the turkey turned out. We sort of made up an ad hoc recipe loosely based on other recipes. At work earlier in the week I was talking to someone who came up with the idea for putting whole lemons inside the turkey. I am writing down the recipe below so you can try it and so I don't forget.
11 lb turkey, thaw the day before.
Remove neck and giblets for gravy and stuffing.
Wash off the turkey and put it in a baking pan.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Quarter a whole lemon and squeeze over the turkey then place pieces in the pan next to it.
Put two whole lemons inside the turkey; they keep it moist while cooking and give a lemon flavor to the meat.
Chop up an onion, a potato, some celery, carrots, and oyster mushrooms and place them around the turkey.
Pour some chicken broth around the turkey.
Sprinkle some sea salt over the turkey.
Sprinkle some spices, (savory, marjoram, thyme, sage, oregano, basil, rosemary) over the turkey. (By the way, we have a rosemary plant growing outside and M picked fresh rosemary to use on the turkey.)
Cook for 1 hour at 350 F. Then rub some butter and more spices over the turkey.
Cook for another hour at 350. Rub some more butter and spices over the turkey.
Cook at 400 F for 30 minutes and it's ready to go.
The day after Thanksgiving we went back to the store and grabbed another turkey to put in the freezer because they were all on sale at a fraction of the cost.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Palestinian Statehood!
I heard the news on the radio today. The UN general assembly voted to recognize Palestine as a non-member state. 138 countries voted in favor and 9 opposed. It's about time!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Gaza Conflict
Reuters has posted that Egypt may be able to mediate and immediate end to the Gaza bombing (link). I hope so. This is a humanitarian crisis. From the linked article, "some 115 Palestinians have died in a week of
fighting, the majority of them civilians, including 27 children,
hospital officials said."
Below is a graph I made of the deaths in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from 2000 to 2011 (data from here). Many Palestinians are being killed, many of them children, in the conflict over the future of Israel and Palestine.
Every single death on either side is a tragedy. These are people, like you and I, with friends and families. However, the relative numbers show that the way this is often presented in the Western media (Palestinian militants firing rockets onto Israeli civilians) is not the complete picture, and this, especially the last six years, does not help convince us that Israel is practicing a great deal of humanitarian restraint.
Below is a graph I made of the deaths in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from 2000 to 2011 (data from here). Many Palestinians are being killed, many of them children, in the conflict over the future of Israel and Palestine.
Every single death on either side is a tragedy. These are people, like you and I, with friends and families. However, the relative numbers show that the way this is often presented in the Western media (Palestinian militants firing rockets onto Israeli civilians) is not the complete picture, and this, especially the last six years, does not help convince us that Israel is practicing a great deal of humanitarian restraint.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Modern Hobo Sign Code
I stumbled across a modern QR-code version of the classic North American hobo sign code (wikipedia).
Above are just some examples of the signs from here (http://www.worldpath.net/~minstrel/hobosign.htm).
This "Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.)" site has designed QR versions of hobo-like codes. Here are some examples.
It seems that the warchalk symbols (which are like the hobo codes and used to communicate wireless wifi access) are being incorporated into the hobo QR codes, as in the "free wifi" code above.
In the process I also found out about temporary, washable chalk spray as a non-permanent option for placing the QR codes from templates.
These codes might be modified with symbols in the middle to make both a human readable and scanable version like the hackaday.com logo above (here is a link to that article).
Another thought, QR codes seem perfect for the small black and white mosaic tiles, like the ones on bathroom floors. Secret messages could be worked into the tile pattern.
Above are just some examples of the signs from here (http://www.worldpath.net/~minstrel/hobosign.htm).
This "Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.)" site has designed QR versions of hobo-like codes. Here are some examples.
It seems that the warchalk symbols (which are like the hobo codes and used to communicate wireless wifi access) are being incorporated into the hobo QR codes, as in the "free wifi" code above.
In the process I also found out about temporary, washable chalk spray as a non-permanent option for placing the QR codes from templates.
These codes might be modified with symbols in the middle to make both a human readable and scanable version like the hackaday.com logo above (here is a link to that article).
Another thought, QR codes seem perfect for the small black and white mosaic tiles, like the ones on bathroom floors. Secret messages could be worked into the tile pattern.
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