Broadbent's "Morphology", a la Kafka

At some point in their life, everybody looks like somebody. Hopefully, most people usually look like themselves. Mel sometimes thinks that I look like somebody. And on even more rare occasions, she thinks that I look like somebody else.
When I was in High School, I had a few people tell me I looked like Chris O'Donnell. Sometimes it was a compliment, sometimes it was not so much. Mostly depended on if it was a girl or a boy who said it, and which movie of his they had just seen (and what they thought about it).
Present-day-ish:

1995 (Robin):

1992 (Scent of a Woman):

Generally speaking, I was okay with that. There were a few others that I don't (at least presently) recall. One has, however stuck with me.
Harrison Ford (good!) in "What Lies Beneath" (unsettling) as he is climbing, bloody-faced, out of the tub (highly unfortunate). Only that part, for some reason, and not any of the other shots. Maybe I was dark and menacing just after I returned from my mission. Who can say.
Not bloody (not me?):

Bloody (me?):
[edited for content]

More recently, Mel seems to think that when I have missed a day or two of shaving, and I am almost due for a haircut, that I look like Hugh Jackman. Or, rather, Wolverine.
Him:

Me:

Him-Me:

Me-Him:


I think that I am going to have to say that while there is a resemblance, it is more that I look like his younger brother, "Flustered Badger" than anything. The good news is that "Flustered Badger" gets to wear moose pajama pants instead of jeans with an oversized belt buckle.


Mom recently decided I had started to resemble a lumberjack. Personally, I felt I resembled someone who had their driving forces for shaving removed, at least temporarily. She also happened to catch me on a day when I was wearing a beanie, so she also decided I looked like a "Northwesterner". She was, of course, glad to see that I am integrating so well in our place of habitation.
Here is me, as close as I get to lumberjack. I don't own an axe. I suppose I could have put on my hiking boots to assist the image. Or socks and sandals for the Nor'westerner look.


Since we are playing with photos of me, here is me looking GQ:


I am not sure what it means to look "Gentleman's Quarterly". I believe that I am usually a gentleman, and I am at least a quarter something. So I think that I qualify most all of the time. Maybe I should have taken a picture of my back and called it Gentleman's Hindquarterly, GH.

The best part of it all is that the scruffy face that spawned all these opinions of my appearance does not show up well, if at all, in photos. At least not these photos. So much for trying to document something, even in a flippant, half-hearted sort of way.

One last shot: my Birthday Suit! My parents, feeling they could improve on the original model, decided to get me a new suit for my birthday. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the fine-looking, new suit. It looks great. The photo is a decent shot of the suit, and a horrid shot of me. However, the other options were bad shot of me and poor shots of the suit. All told, we look better, on average, in this unfortunate photo.

That was fun. Let's do it again!

Anya got tagged last year. By me, actually. I happened to go back and reread the post the other day (if you read it, there are 2 things I would like you to be aware of. 1 - the title is a bit convoluted (and misspelled); Anya was "it" since she was tagged, and Mr. King wrote a novel called "it" and it dealt with a scary clown, among other things, hence the title. I told you it was convoluted. 2 - the background was starkly different at the time of posting, so the questions are in orange and the answers in white. It actually ends up being kinda fun; you can read the question, guess at the answer, and then highlight the region where the answer is and it will "magically" appear. Or at least magically contrast). Long sidebars aside, I really enjoyed the post, so I undertook to recreate and horribly overdue it this year. I will be answering the same, or at least similar, questions about each member of our current family referencing this last year. The goal is that I will enjoy reading it when I happen across it next year. If you enjoy it along the way, well then coup-fourré (for my French-speaking and/or fencing aficionado friends, I realize this is not a strictly appropriate usage of the phrase, but it was introduced to me vis-a-vis Mille Bornes wherein I had no idea what it actually meant, but it was a happy stroke of luck where not only did I thwart my enemy, but I was able to get something good out of it, a happy happenstance - not too far off base from the true meaning, but completely alienated from true context and irrevocably orphaned, at least in my phraseology)! It is a pretty good sign that your parenthetical expressions are excessively long when you have to look back to see what manner of punctuation is required to finish the sentence; such is the case with the preceding sentence.

Without further preamble and ramble, my extra-large mini-quiz of my family members.

I make no claims that any of these statements are indeed factual, though they do reliably reflect my interpretation of reality.

What is the "cutest" thing you did recently?

Mel: threw an awesome b-day weekend for Chris, littered with surprises.

Leah: decided that all non-vital and some vital communications may be had in an imaginary language made up on the spot.

Anya: intoned "more Christmas lights!" the entire way home from Kent Station.

Ryan: almost laughed, 1 "ha yuk" ala goofy

Me: am I allowed to be cute? I did insist on being the one to wrap a certain gift I purchased for Leah.

What is the nicest thing you did for your mom/dad/spouse/sibling this week-ish?

Mel: good thing children is listed as an option - too much to list there. Otherwise, the 4th, 5th, and 6th come readily to mind.

Leah: allowed Anya to take turns having a story read by a grandparent over the phone.

Anya: actually went to bed peaceably one or two nights.

Ryan: after staying up a bit late waiting for Mom to get back from a party for meal time, slept all night to let her get some needed rest.

Me: slightly future tense, but prepare(d) a meal for Mel, of which no one else is likely to eat (certainly not Leah and I).

What was your favorite thing you did in the last month?

Mel: Disney on ice with Leah.

Leah: Disney on ice with Mom.

Anya: played with Annalynn all morning while everyone else was at a Primary Activity.

Ryan: found my hand!

Me: really enjoyed the pre-canned excuse to get up with the girls each morning and see them at the start of the day.

What was your greatest accomplishment in the last year?

Mel: birth is pretty extraordinary.

Leah: developed ability to empathize.

Anya: develop ability to speak semi-coherently.

Ryan: birth is pretty extraordinary.

Me: almost developed ability to empathize.

What is your favorite toy/leisure activity?

Mel: going out with friends, especially sans Ryan.

Leah: playing princess with friends. Elmo ad Kitty.

Anya: baby songs!

Ryan: chilling in the baby chair, watching the girls fight.

Me: volleyball.

What is your favorite animal?

Mel: not Lola.

Leah: Kitty and Elmo.

Anya: Lola and Crush

Ryan: -oblivious-

Me: can I have a puppy?

When do you like to go to bed?

Mel: 930-10 sometime.

Leah: 8-ish works ok. maybe 830. maybe 7.

Anya: never!

Ryan: frequently. At night, too late.

Me: 9 pm or 2 am.

When are you supposed to go to bed?

Mel: 10

Leah: 8

Anya: 8

Ryan: 830

Me: 9?

What is your favorite movie?

Mel: Sense and Sensibility.

Leah: Barbie and the ______. Currently 3 Musketeers.

Anya: Baby Songs! (not a movie)

Ryan: -oblivious-

Me: uncertain: Lion King; Monsters, Inc; Crouching Tiger; Matrix [edited].

What kind of music do you like [to dance to]?

Mel: Regina Spektor.

Leah: Natasha Beddingfield or ballet

Anya: techno/dance or ballet

Ryan: lullabies.

Me: whatever Leah and Anya are dancing to.

What is your favorite song?

Mel: the next to last song in the Nutcracker Suite.

Leah: You Belong with Me.

Anya: Down and Troubles, Edelweiss or Popcorn.

Ryan: dinner?

Me: Carol of the Bells (even when it isn't Christmas time).

When do you like to sing?

Mel: anytime.

Leah: evenings.

Anya: with everyone else.

Ryan: evenings.

Me: in private.

[may be appended as I think of other questions I want to know the answer to in a year]

Things that go bump in the night

Recently, Ryan and I were called upon to defend our more genteel young family members from a most horrid monster.

Do not let he cheerful and jolly appearance fool you. Much like the angler fish of the deep dark (think Finding Nemo), this monster's jolly appearance and "presents" or "toys" are clearly a ruse to attract unsuspecting toddlers and children. Fortunately, Mel and I have raised our young to be a little too wise for such cheap chicanery. They began screaming and wailing the instant they were enclosed in a large room with the monster. Even before we got there, Leah had started suspecting something was amiss. "Mommy," she queried, "Do I have to sit on Santa's lap?" "No, dear. You can just stand next to him." "Can you tell him I want a sweater for Christmas?" "Yes, Leah, I can." Good girl, Leah. Way to sniff out that ruse.

The camera angle is wrong, so you cannot see the terror on the girls faces, or the consternation on Santa's. Mel, here, is overjoyed at the survival instincts of the girls, not laughing at the futility of herding cats, I mean corralling panicky children.

Leah, balling, sobbing, weeping, wailing into her nightgown (it was a pajama party, as evidenced by my own attire, or maybe not so evidenced. I have worn that outfit to things other than pajama parties).

See the look of cunease on Anya's face? See the fear and trepidation evidenced in the way Leah dearly wants to hold onto Mommy, but is afraid of moving any body part any closer than absolutely necessary to the monster, and also afraid that Mom might hold her, bringing her within striking distance of the Santa? Mel, of course, is smiling beautifully for the camera. She looks lovely, even when herding cats, or scared kids, or performing some other impossible task. Me, I think it was a great show.

This is the end product. Anya can sense something looming over her shoulder, and Leah has put on her best brave face. Not bad, really. It is unfortunate we did not get any good shots of their faces in the initial stages.

Leah was so shook up, she refused to take the present from Santa (I believe Anya eventually took hers). The kids showed great resilience - as soon as they left Santa's lair, they instantly reverted to their previous levels of excitement and anticipation for the ward party. Leah wanted her present, and wasted no time in eating the fruit snacks and playing with the puzzle inside. No matter that it had come from Santa - it passed through Dad inspection, so it must be safe.

How hard do I really want to try to convince Leah that this fictional character is, indeed, real, and going to be sneaking into our house one night very soon? I am certainly not trying too hard this year. Maybe next year.... Maybe I should take the tack that the goodies left for Santa are actually left to ward him off, not unlike garlic over the door post. Equally tasty, and less offensive to those with whom I talk. What else is there that Leah and Anya might want to ward off, maybe with ice cream or fudge? What foul beast might be frightened of toffee or peanut brittle? It seems I will have to do a little research.

So long, Puissant Pustules

I deleted the book review section on the side of my blog. It seemed underutilized. I would, however, like to review a few books.
Books read recently (with acronyms to save me from typing out their names and italicizing them): The Name of the Wind (tNotW) (Patrick Rothfuss), The Gathering Storm (tGS) (Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson), The Hunger Games (tHG) (Suzanne Collins), In Defense of Food (iDoF) (Michael Pollan).
Tried to read, but quickly gave up on (we are talking less than 5 pages before opting out):
A Fire upon the Deep (Vernor Vinge)

Likely to read next:

The Omnivore's Dilemma (Michael Pollan) I am likely to quit this one part way through as I understand it to be a giant guilt-trip about how your diet is destroying the world.

Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins) - this is the sequel to the above book. My expectations are appropriately tamped.

Now, to the reviews.

tNotW: Exceptionally well written. This was recommended to Mel as a novel that would appeal to fantasy lovers and those indifferent to the genre alike. I would have to second the motion. If you are openly antagonistic against Fantasy,then don't bother. If you are anything but, it is a great read from a fresh vantage point that uses something other than the now-rancid stereotypical conventions of Fantasy. An infusion of new life, if you will. If nothing else, something else to have to wait for the next book to be published. It reminds me (not at all by content or style, but by in the refreshing breath of clean air-ness of it) of Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. None of his subsequent books felt that way, nor were they as well done as the first. Here is hoping that Patrick can rise above. Much like Rowling, the then-unpublished author spent years agonizing over and perfecting his or her first break-through novel. Hopefully, like Rowling, he will be able to keep up his performance under pressures from publishers, deadlines, and their ilk. Rowling did noticeably improve as she continued her work (if she had gone on as long as Jordan had, she would invariably be winning Pulitzers on a bi-weekly basis), and I hope Rothfuss can do the same. He is a rather vulgar man on his blog, so, unlike Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan, and Brandon Sanderson, I will take no interest in following Rothfuss' blog. Maybe when a fan site is developed it will be worth my while. In the mean time, I am pleased to report that he, like Jordan and myriad others, devised his own rules of profanity, so he can curse and swear and he feels necessary, without alienating sensitive readers, like me. Gratefully, there is not, as yet, any offensive matter with regard to birds and/or bees. I generally dislike it when my winged friends are maligned. Again, I hope this remains true. I recommend this book to anyone who is willing to wait between novels in a series. Take-away summary: very well written book, highly enjoyable, and, as evidenced by my rantings, establishes a great expectation for the second act.

tGS: If you read the Wheel of Time series, you should already have read this book. If you do not read the series, don't start here, but most certainly do start (at the very beginning: Eye of the World). If you have abandoned the series for whatever reason, pick it back up. Once you have made it through book 10 (skip it if you cannot make it through. It is much more readable, knowing that 11 is waiting for you than it was when you had a multi-year wait ahead of you after finishing it), books 11 and now 12 are careening towards an end at a break-neck speed. If you appreciated the pace and the doings of Knife of Dreams then you will certainly approve of tGS. Brandon has, I believe, done a nearly-flawless job of picking up the reins following the tragic passing of Jordan. While it is not true that there are no perceptible differences in the style, it is certainly true that those differences in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the book. There were even a few things that I enjoyed more under Sanderson's hand than under Jordan's. Particularly the way he writes females. Sanderson is able to do it in a much less annoying manner. And I should hope so, seeing as everything he has written so far either has a female protagonist, or has a prominent secondary character that is female. Thanks, Brandon. I no longer feel I must slay Egwene and Nynaeve. Elayne did not figure prominently in this book. I might still hate her, but I suspect not. Mel was pretty rusty on what was going on in the books. She went on Wikipedia and Dragonmount and a couple of other places to brush up on Randland. This served her in good stead, though I believe that she did ask some questions that were tantamount to "Who are the Asha'man?" At least it wasn't "What are Aes Sedai?" I recommend this book (series, really) to anyone who likes anything fun. If you like Rowling's work, and are not afraid to read a book intended for adults, pick up (or poke?) The Eye of the World. Take-away summary: read the book. Re-read the series if you can arrange it (at least re-read 11 if your memory is fuzzy or you are a bit short on mylar sheaths).

tHG: This is an adolescent novel that Mel borrowed from her friend. I am not sure how everyone was turned onto it, but Friend 1, Friend 2, Mel, and I all read it on a single check-out from the library (no renewal) as it is enjoyable, an easy read, and in very high demand (currently 371 holds on first returned of 120 copies in the King County library system - pretty impressive stats for an adolescent novel. Maybe Rowling has helped adolescents fall in love with reading. Or maybe she just helped adults realize that their preferred reading level is adolescent fiction. No comment). That about sums up the book. It was kinda fun, it was generally satisfying to read, and it sparked a few discussions between Mel and me (albeit predominantly via email). I can't ask for much more from an adolescent novel. I will try the sequel when Mel borrows it from Friend 1 (same hold backlog issue). I recommend the book to anyone in need of a few hours doing something better than watching TV but more distracting that doing chores. Take-away summary: easy read with a fun ride along the way.

iDoF: I liked most of this book. Probably because most of this book agreed with things that I already thought, or was coming to be convinced of. He has a few postulates with which I either disagree or am uncomfortable. However, in general, it has given me a bit of moral ground for some changes I wanted to make in my diet anyway. The book makes a lot of sense, which is a dangerous thing, but it also, unlike the Malcom Gladwell books I recently read, provided some concrete opinions and suggestions for me to either act on, ignore, or rebut. I like rebuttal. :) I also like action plans. The action plan for now is to get Mel to read it so that I can have a bit stronger lever when I try to change how we buy and consume food in our house. I also have to say that I like that he did not wax radical, self-righteous, or all-knowing at any point, which makes his medicine a little easier to take. I recommend this book to anyone who is trying to be healthy, wants to go on a diet, or wonders why their doctor tells them that they have a bunch of warning signs for diseases despite their best efforts. Take-away summary: good book with solid references and action items that agrees with my sense of how the world of food should be.

That will be all. It was a nice October/November, book-wise. I will let you know the next time I decide to read a few things. It always seems to come in spurts.

Biomimetics

It seems to me that a lot of the rage of current technologies (at least in areas that brush up against what I do) are moving along the lines of Biomimetics or bio-inspired solutions.
It also seems to me that we have already been there for far too long in some areas. I am thinking of automobiles, toys, small plastic things, appliances (large and small), computers, and I could probably list a few more. What might all of these have in common? Programmed Cell Death.
When was the last time something broke and you were able to have the warranty cover it? When was the last time something broke just after the warranty expired, just after the new model was released, or just in time for the holiday shopping frenzy?
Nice trend, huh? It was ingenious, in a money-hungry, stab them in the back, kick-them-when-they-are-down sort of way. Evil genius much? Maybe I should fear Biomimetics. I hadn't until now. I wonder what the programmed life cycle of my seat belt is....

close...

Leah had a riotous birthday party recently, and she was, of course, lavishly showered with expensive, decadent gifts. Mel got a little jealous. She "accidentally" "dropped" her camera. It now takes all of its pictures as if out of the side of a speeding car. I believe it has fallen off our common reference frame, and is displaying the image as we whirl by, spinning on the Earth. This makes sense because Mel says the camera is dead, which means it has gone to a higher/better place, which is obviously in a different inertial reference frame. I am not sure if camera heaven is near Kolob or not, but wherever it is, they move much more slowly. I suggested we let Leah take all of our pictures from here on in, hoping that the shakings will be non-harmonic (can't remember what waves are called when they are off by a half period - help?), and render the image clearly.
I didn't win that little contest.

Luckily, the recognition program at work had a few cameras to offer so we wouldn't have to shell out for a new camera.
Unluckily, the recognition program at work had a few cameras to offer, so we shouldn't shell out for a new camera.
Luckily, we wouldn't have to listen to anyone shill us a camera, for which we would have to shell out. :) Sorry - had to say it.

Mel's requirement were few and simple, and thankfully straightforward.

Requirement: Have at least as many megapixels as the old camera.
Solution: Piece of cake - all of the offerings were in the range of twice the MPs.

R: not have to change batteries a lot.
S: potentially tricky, as I think most of the problem laid with our tired, worn-out not-quite-rechargeable batteries anyway. We ended up with a camera with a Li-ion rechargeable (not AA) battery. Can't be any worse, just more costly to replace.

R: be a compact or subcompact, no SLR-types for now.
S: easier done than said.

R: take movies with sound that are of high enough quality to post on the internet easily.
S: tricky. It turns out that this is actually 4 requirements in one:
1. take movies
2. record sound on those movies
3. have decent (very poorly defined requirement) quality
4. transfer easily to the computer and from there to the ever-confunding (think Happy Potter - confundus charm, not me misspelling "confounding") INTERNET [play scary, Halloween-eske music].

Meatloaf claimed the 2 out of 3 ain't bad. I was never able to convince my teachers, professors, bosses, or really anyone of that fact, so I will try for 3 out of 4.

I nailed 3 out of 4 of Mel's requirements, and on the 4th that I did not nail, I rocked on 3 out of 4 sub-requirements. I think that should really count for something.

Unfortunately, as with all of my exams and performance reviews, the single point I missed was worth ~60% of the test. I did get a little extra credit, as Mel did not want to have to spend $ on the camera, nor did she want it relegated to a birthday or Christmas present. She feels that a camera is a staple, like a well-fitting bra, diapers for Anya and Ryan, and Elmo for Leah. While I contest that last point, I will take my extra credit and run with it.

The problem with the movies is this. Canon signed some pork-rind ear-marked deal with a software provider to use their special software to transfer your images/movies from the camera to the computer. It does do some neat things, like allow you to edit the photos 9 ways from at least Tuesday if not Wednesday, make stills of movies and movies of stills, and a number of other things I will likely never want it to do. However, to ensure that I was subjected to their inferior software of choice, rather than simply letting me open the camera as a folder and transfer the files to the place of my liking, they wrote the camera software in a manner that ensures that if you take that route, the movies will be jerky, skip frames, and lose the sound. Well, if I do that, I am missing several additional requirements, so I use their software. Well, after auto-starting because it detected my camera, it proceeded to tell me that I had no camera attached to the computer. Oh, thanks. When I manually launched the application, I was able to successfully transfer the files once in three attempts (way below the Meatloaf standard and therefore unacceptable). However, the movies were jerky, skipped frames, and the sound was poor in quality. The video was poor, but that is because the lights were off as everyone except Ryan wanted to sleep. When I took a video earlier (never successfully transferred, lost in a vain, fruitless attempt to reformat the SD card), the image was quite nice. It also played back well on my (not worthy of the HDMI cables used which came with the camera) television. Sound and all.

The camera takes great pictures. I don't.
Canon PowerShot SD780 IS Digital ELPH
I shall prevail.

The blogging gremlins like you, readers, as the video plays more nicely here than on the conputer. Riddle me this.... Actually, don't. I'll just have to reply "coddleston, coddleston, coddleston pie," and I get really sick of saying that.

2 new book reviews

Mark, seriously, read the second book and then call me.

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday, Mel, Mom, and Dad teamed up to buy me a lift ticket to Crystal Mountain: a great ski resort near our home.

Today, the planets finally aligned and I was able to take advantage of the opportunity.

File photo.
Any relation to persons, living or dead,
is purely coincidental and unintentional.

I learned quite a few new things while on the slopes. Some things I learned include

1. Spring Conditions
2. Slumbering Habits of Mountains
3. A Colloquial Definition of "Clearing Up"
4. Relative Growth Rates of Various Senses

I always understood "spring conditions" to generally mean that the snow is slow and slushy, the weather warm (images of people skiing in less clothes than I wear around the house), and you might get rained on.
That is not, apparently, the case. Or at least not always. Today, "spring conditions" mean that the weather forecast will be dead wrong, you will have no idea what condition the snow will be in, groomed, scraped ice, powder, powder over groomed, or crusty. The crusty is extra special, as it is >1' deep powder-crust. So, you can't push off of it - too much give and collapse, and you can't plow straight through it - it sucks and grabs you, then acts like powder when you try to stand.

Along with spring conditions are the slumbering habits of mountains. As I was driving away, I noticed several patches of snow that were subliming in the sunlight. That was new to me. I typically ski/snowboard at a time of year and in a clime where that is not really common.
It did explain a lot, however.
The mountain was perpetually shrouded in a cloud. No matter that it was snowing/slushing - that didn't impair me too much. However, not being able to see far enough ahead to plan out more than a single turn made things difficult. It also made it very difficult to notice small changes in the surface. We have already discussed variable snow conditions, but there were additionally bumps, depressions, rolls, and even moguls that I did not notice until I fell off of them. It was exhilarating in a sense, but it made the control freak in me a mite upset.
Every time I thought that the could/fog was thinning, it would redouble its efforts and clamp back down on the hillside. I attribute this to the mountain. Every time its warm foggy blanket (warm in the mountain's opinion) would be stripped off, it would simply regenerate a new one. Imagine if you were able to do the same. No one would ever fight over blankets again. You could just grow one when your partner hogged the blankets. Maybe Dad could teach his feet how to grow an especially thick one. In any case, I faulted this annoyingly intriguing attribute for the ever-present, ever-regenerating fog.

Right along with that is a new meaning (for me) of the phrase "clearing up". I understand that to mean that the clouds are breaking up and I should soon expect to see the sun poking through. However, in Washington, or at least on Crystal, "clearing up" actually means that the cloud bank is rising a bit in elevation. This does have the same net effect of improving visibility (albeit temporarily - the mountain didn't like his blanket slipping off and grabbed it back. or regrew it. It is tough to say). It was nice to be able to see the bottom of the ledge/roll I was about to start down. Even if my visibility was still severely impaired, I was making the most of it. 10 minutes round trip from lift line, up, down and back into lift line. There is no telling how long the respite would be, so it was best to assume that it wouldn't last. It didn't.

Relative growth rates. I have noticed that my sense of confidence has not grown as fast as some of my other senses, one in particular, to be mentioned shortly. In part, this is based on my confidence in my equipment, my familiarity with the terrain and mountain (and my ability to see it), and my confidence in my skill. My skills have lost their edge. I don't think they have much deteriorated, but it did take more than a single run to remind myself how things work. I was able to work myself back to a position where I felt, all things considered, that I was back on par with where I had been, years ago. It has been ~4 years since I was last on the slopes, and that was on skis. It had been at least 2 additional years (I think) since I was last on a board. For conservatism's sake, let's say 5 years since I last snowboarded. I am not at all disappointed with my muscle memory. However, I did notice that my sense of caution has caught up to my sense of confidence. Unfortunately, the factors which stunt the growth of confidence spur the growth of caution. Now, I am not a fuddy-duddy, or Mom, yet. While I did feel some hesitation and self-restraint at some things I did, I still did them. And did them fine in all cases but one. So caution has not, thankfully, grown so large and to dominate and smother confidence, but the argument was not as lopsided as it had once been. I'm okay with that.

Well, this post is already much longer than I had intended it to be, and I have truncated it severely and left off numerous topics of consideration. So I won't belabor the point any further.

I had a great day and really enjoyed my birthday present. Thanks and love to those who sent me up to stretch neglected muscles.

Australia

In deference to chronology, I had to do Australia before my next post, but I will have to come back to it. So this is my official Australia post. An unnamed post soon to come, which may or may not speak of Australia, will be the unauthorized, editor's/director's bootleg cut, stolen from the black market (that seems ironic).