Yesterday was a great day that didn’t feel like winter at all, so I said “winter is supposed to be cold, cloudy and rainy”. Today it’s cold, cloudy and rainy. Let’s see what happens with the statement in this post’s title.

As human cultures are becoming more and more developed they start to find out how and why things work. For example, if you lived in the middle ages and caught a fever, people would probably know the procedure of healing, but they wouldn’t be able to tell why. The whole process of becoming a more advanced civilization involves analyzing a problem and something that affects the problem, either negatively or positively, finding out the true reason behind it and using that information to improve life in some way. You can imagine this happening when fighting disease, but also in technical areas like bridge building and other architecture. The formula is quite simple: analyze something that you implicitly know is true, find out why it’s true, and use that information to improve something.

Interestingly enough programmers, whom you would expect to be the first to accept this scientific approach to things, are doing the exact opposite. Instead of going from something vague to something clearly defined we are resorting to a simulation of the way our own vague brains work when trying to solve complex problems like speech or image recognition. We take that beautiful, efficient and exact world and use a neural network to simulate the way a human brain would judge things. The beauty of this is that it actually works, and gets much better results in a wide area of expertise than most exact alternatives. Yet somehow that doesn’t quite satisfy.

Are neural networks and genetic programming just a quick fix to solve problems that are too complex for us to think about? A book I’m reading currently by Ray Kurzweil suggests otherwise. Kurzweil suggests that the only problem humans are supposed to solve is that of creating an intelligence smarter than us, and if we cannot understand that intelligence then that’s ok, because we’re not supposed to. It’s the whole my-children-understand-how-to-use-the-tv-remote-and-I-don’t story applied to a grander scale. I rather don’t like it.

Take image recognition for example (or speech recognition if you will). I believe that an algorithm developed and tuned by hand by the smartest scientists in their particular field would perform better than a dumb neural network being trained with a bunch of training data. The problem is time. For a human being to create such an algorithm it may take a lifetime, or it may never happen, depending on the complexity of the task. At some level our human brains just can’t keep up any more, and suddenly it pays off to brute-force the solution with a neural network or a hidden markov model. We’re working on improving our tools, but we’re not working on improving ourselves.

If the human brain could work faster, or could process more information simultaneously, then the range of problems that we could solve would be increased. If we spent more time studying the fuzzy logic of our brains, then in the long term we might be able to create better exact solutions to the problems that are troubling us right now. That topic would lead us in the direction of genetic engineering, but let’s save that for another time.

It takes a fuzzy human brain to understand the art in exact solutions.

• Time: 3:18 pm
• Temperature: +9 Celsius
• Cloudy
• On and off drizzle

Between
Sheets of rain…
…Drizzle

 

Weeping Barb (323/365 11-19-09)

Originally uploaded by CarusoPhoto

I was photographing this barbed wire when I noticed the drop on one of the barbs…and that’s what made the photograph for me.

Rush Hour Drizzle (322/365 11-18-09)

Originally uploaded by CarusoPhoto

A car. On the road. In the rain. As night falls.

That sounds like a photo op to me….

We went to bed last night not really sure what to expect of this morning.  The forecast called for cold, wet, and the overly-ambitious meteorologists/weathercasters were even using the “S” word.  When we got up this morning, however, our backyard thermometer read 40 degrees and the only sign of precipitation we could see was the constant drizzle that has been around since Sunday.  I asked Pam if she wanted to stay inside and run on the treadmill, but she was a trooper and decided we would go outside.  We bundled up and had a decent 3-mile run in spite of the drizzle and cold north wind.

When we go out to run in the cool temperatures, Pam and I are a study in contrasts.  She absolutely detests the cold.  She’ll bundle up, then as soon as she starts warming up, sheds layers like a snake sheds skin.  Once she is warm, her hands and ears get overheated and she ends up taking her gloves and ear-covers off.  I, on the other hand, can stand to start out cool, but my hands and ears will never warm up.  I’m a pansy about cold hands and will never take my gloves off.   

The ride to work afterward was a carbon copy of yesterday, except it was lighter out.  That was probably a good thing because by the time I got to work I noticed that one of my headlights was getting pretty dim.  Note to self….NEED NEW BATTERIES NOW!

Let me tell you about one gentleman I see walking at least a couple of times each week either on Barnes or on Catalpa just east of Barnes.  During the summer, he was kind of bad about wearing his black socks with shorts and tennis shoes.  I always plead with Pam to never let me do that as I age! 

Well, as the weather has gotten cooler, he’s started wearing long pants and I can now look him in the face without smirking.    I always try to be friendly with the folks I encounter while commuting, and this guy is always so enthusiastic in his greeting to me that I kind of look forward to seeing him and miss him when our timing is off and we don’t run into each other.  Today, he was just sauntering along with his umbrella folded shut over his shoulder in the drizzle.  He cheered my morning with his sunny greeting on this dreary day!  I’ve vowed to stop and get his picture the first time I meet him when it’s light enough for the camera to work.

Rumor has it that Sunshine has a bike with my name on it….just waiting to be built and fitted.  Maybe tomorrow or Thursday…. 

God bless….

TW

I pulled out of the driveway this morning at 5:45, headed for the fitness center.  My immediate reaction was “Boy, it’s drizzling harder than I thought”.  By the time I got to the end of our neighborhood, it was hard to tell whether it was actually a hard drizzle or a light rain.  I circled around and started back to the house, but only got a few hundred feet before I decided that I was already wet and on my bike, so why not just go on?  Talk about indecision!

I debated stopping at the intersection of Eastgate and Sunshine to put my rain pants on while I waited for the light, but wouldn’t you know it, a car triggered the light for me just as I approached.  No way was I going to ignore that gift!  As it was, my tights didn’t soak through, so I was fine. 

What’s interesting about mornings like today is that after I actually get going, I enjoy the experience.  Something about the rain mutes the normal sounds you hear.  Traffic is muffled and the bike seems to make no noise at all as it rolls along the wet pavement.  Because of that wet pavement, I tend to ride carefully and take my time.  In all, not an unpleasant way to start your day…..    

The trip home was almost identical, except the temperature was about 5 degrees colder and with a little more traffic.  At the end of the day, however, it wasn’t as fun!

God bless….

TW

Not cold & fairly fine, but a few drops of drizzling rain in the evening. Cleaned out the piece between the rockery & the trellis, made a bed of sorts, planted 20 forget-me-nots in it, made a bed ready for the rambler. There is now nothing to be done in the flower garden except to plant the flowers (phlox etc.) when they are ready, make up path & perhaps cut the grass once again. Made 2 lb. apple jelly yesterday. Found some eggs of either worm or snail, about the size of match-heads, whitish, translucent.

6 eggs.

From Ezra Klein’s Post Chat today,

NY: Hey Ezra, So how do you feel about your name? I recently named my son Ezra…is he in for a life of hardship?

Ezra Klein: I love my name.

Clearly, NY should’ve named their son Drizzle.

First, congratulations to reader Photoqulity for a successful showing of her work Fuzzhead by DP at the Newport News Fall Festival of Folklife.  Her bibs rock!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

True fact: I can recite the original text of Where the Wild Things Are.  From memory.  (And yet I regularly forget my PIN number.  Go figure.)  

Parlor tricks aside, it sounds like Spike Jonze has managed to turn Maurice Sendak’s beloved classic into an appealing children’s movie.  Best of all?  He got to name the monsters! Fritinancy linked to an interview with Jonze and Sendak about christening the five Carol (male), Alexander, Ira, Judith and Douglas.   But we all know that the name to get the biggest boost from this flick is probably the already popular Max – he of the wolf-suit, who could soar in the 2010 rankings.

Speaking of heights, unless you were under a rock, surely you caught the not-flight of Falcon, the boy who ran up a bill with NORAD in a balloon built by his daredevil Dad.   (Except not.  It turned out Falcon was on terra firma the whole time.)  No, you’re not imagining it, either – Daphne du Maurier penned an all-but-forgotten novel titled The Flight of the Falcon back in 1965 – but her main characters were Aldo and Armino.  Falcon has brothers named Bradford and Ryo, and the whole family recently featured on an episode of Wife Swap.

While we’re talking television:

• On FOX’s high school musical Glee, quarterback Finn suggested a baby name to cheerleader Quinn: Drizzle.  Quinn was not impressed;
• On the baby shower episode of 18 Kids and Counting, grandma-elect Michelle fixed Mackynzie’s name on the sheet cake after the bakery biffed the spelling.  The first, I’ll bet of many such incidents.

In real life, non-reality-TV baby  names:

• Bewildertrix wrote about the Boo phenom.  I have yet to spot it in the US, but apparently there’s an epidemic of girls with names like Daisy Boo elsewhere in the English speaking world.  And she spotted a Kherington – as in Fame!  Of course, hers was a middle name – Brooke Kherington;
• In News from the North, parentcentral.ca reports on a new baby named Briese Lively.  The first name is a friend’s surname, pronounced Breeze.  I can’t help think that Briese would’ve benefitted from a more restrained pick in the middle spot;
• From Canada to Russia, with love … Nancy posted about the most popular names in Vladivostok, Russia, where the As have it – Anastasia, Alexandra, Anna, Alexander and Artem share the top spots, along with Vladislav  - can you imagine being Vladislav from Vladivostok;
• Speaking of global names, Laura Wattenberg posted on the Global Hit Name You Haven’t Noticed - Matthew.  And Matteo, Matthias, Mate, Mathieu …

A few other notes:

• Actress Nia Long’s son (he’s eight) is called Massai Zhivago.  Call me crazy, but I love it;
• Real World alum Rachel Campos-Duffy (back from Season Three, San Francisco, when we were all watching) grew up and became an occasional guest host of The View, the political conservative they call on when their regular reality-star-alum/political conservative isn’t available.  I might not agree with her, but I like the names she and husband Sean picked – and they’ve had a lot of practice.  Baby #6 is on the way – the first five are Eva Pilar, Xavier Jack, Lucia-Belen, John-Paul and Paloma Pilar;
• Now that’s how to name twins! Arrested Development actor Jeffrey Tambor and wife Kasia have welcomed Hugo Bernard and Eli Nicholas, little brothers for Eve Julia and Gabriel Kasper.  Then again, dad has plenty of experience.  He’s 65;
• SNL’s Bill Hader and wife welcomed daughter Hannah Kathryn.

But the big starbaby news of the week is the arrival of Lou Sulola.  Check out Nameberry’s Pamela Redmond Satran’s slideshow up at The Daily Beast, listing the many celeb babies given names that range from gender-neutral to gender-bending.

And lastly, I’m headed to New Orleans for a friend’s wedding this weekend.  The Names of the Day posts will continue as planned, but if I do post a Sunday Summary, it will be brief!

One of my co-workers told me that she was so proud of me for coming back to work and staying strong and getting the job done.  She said that I was very strong.

Some days, I feel strong… some days I feel weak.  Sometimes weakness leads to strength.  Occasionally, strength dissolves to weakness.  Grief is a strange beast.

Earlier this week, I noticed that the one jeep tire was low.  John has cool caps for the jeep that are green if the tire is full and turn red if it is low.  The passenger rear was 1/2 red.

The evening got off to a rough start (not including the tire).  I went to take Nathaniel out while I fed.  He enjoys playing with rocks.  When you’re a year old, it’s really cool to pick up rocks & put them on a plate.  Don’t ask me why, but it is.  It has occupied him for days!  As long as he doesn’t eat them, get dust in his eyes, or get too filthy, I’m fine with it.  Happy toddler= happy mom!

Well, it was raining when I headed out… just a drizzle, but a COLD drizzle.  Not weather that a youngster needed to be out in if it could be avoided.  So, I stuffed Nathaniel in the pack & play on the porch and decided to turbo feed.

Nathaniel promptly decided that was not appropriate… he’d rather be in the drizzle plating rocks.  So, he screamed…. and screamed… and screamed…

I fed quickly.

Then debated the pros and cons of filling the tire.  I needed gas in the Subaru and didn’t have time to stop for gas.  I could chance the tire.  But… probably not the smartest move.  Adding air to a tire is complex enough… attempting to change a tire is out of my league for right now.

So, I decided to fill the tire.  John had recently gotten a new air compressor.  He’d gotten it with the idea that it would be easy for me to use.

Well… he over-estimated my abilities.  I’ve tried to use it several times and end up letting more air out of the tires than I’m putting in.  I’ve quit in disgust several times with the John Deere tire.  Threw up my hands and found a man to help.

Well… that evening there was no man… there was no help.

So, I figured that I had to be smarter than the air compressor… it can’t be THAT difficult.

It started poorly… the tire gauge was loosing air.  I was loosing patience.  Nathaniel was screaming…. and screaming… and screaming.

There I was… sitting on the ground in the cold drizzle, with a baby screaming and no help… loosing air.  I thought… this is my life… this is reality.  I was so frustrated.  I wanted to cry, but what good would that do.

Then somehow I got the positioning correct and air went into the tire.  I stopped, re-capped, and took the baby inside.  I even had time for a shower before work.  Everybody lived.  Tire was filled.  Life went on.  I accomplished something.  I don’t feel like I was proficient and learned a new skill.  I think luck and persistence is what got me through that task.

In the end… it’s whatever works.  I know that my new life won’t always be pretty.  It won’t always be easy.  It won’t ever be the same.  I  will have happiness.  I will have deep sadness and loneliness.  But, life continue till the end (how is that for a profound statement).  Life is to short to wallow in despair.  Anger is a wasted emotion (Thanks, Steve, for reminding me).  Hopefully, I have a lot of living left to do.

Most importantly, I never want to be in the position where Nathaniel grows up and tells people about his childhood and says, “My mom gave up.”  “My mom quit.”  “My father’s death left my mother in shambles.”  I want him to grow up and say that he had a great childhood and his mother raised him well.  I want him to know how much his father loved him… loved us… and what a great person he was.  I hope that Nathaniel grows up to be a lot like his father… a good person… moral… ethical… true to himself… honest… hardworking… courageous… with an awesome sense of humor… a thinker… a fighter… confident… faithful… committed… loyal… intelligent… dedicated… and so many other things that John was…

The sun rises, the sun sets, time passes on… how you chose to use your time is up to you.  I don’t want life to pass me by.  Onward & upward.

My wife had an appointment in Chicago’s Greek Town, so I took the opportunity to take a photo walk to pass the time before I picked her up. And since it was raining, I figured it would be another good opportunity to test the weather proof quality of the Pentax K-7. (It passed with marvelously flying colors.)

These are some of the photos that came out of that hour of shooting.

City Drizzle. As I walked down Halsted Street, this gentleman with an umbrella passed me. I made a few photos as he walked ahead. I thought I'd try a few with accentuated motion to really play up the rain and the bustle.

Urban Foliage. I saw these leaves laying on the ground and made a few photos of them. I wasn't happy with the results until I got nice and low. I was so happy with the quality of the light, too, due to the encroaching evening and the rain.

Under Dumpster. Here I found a fantastic red dumpster sitting on some pavement that had these terrific yellow lines. I got down nice and low to accentuate the angle.

Rush Hour Rain. I took a walk up Van Buren and paused on the bridge over the expressway. The rain mixed with rush hour gave me an opportunity to make some nice motion photos.

Athenian Candle Company. The Athenian Candle Company at the south end of Halsted Street looks as if it has been unchanged since it opened...and that is the charm of it. I have tried on several occasions to make a photo there, but have never been happy with the results. This one is getting closer....

Alcove. This is an ornate alcove I found on the side of a building. I'm not sure if it used to be a doorway or if it was just a bench. Nevertheless, I liked it's looks.

October Rainy Day

More rain today. We haven’t had a fully sunny day in quite a while. Forecast for tonight: rain. I need to decide whether or not to get up early and run. I was thinking I would run about 7:00 AM–early, but not nearly as early as I have been running. Then my wife says she wants to leave at 7:00 to go for a hike.  So do I wait until much later in the morning, when I am likely to be less motivated?  Or do I get up way early, even though it will be Saturday? Plus, it will be raining.

I will get in 20 plus miles this week. It still feels like not enough, but slow and steady, eh? I’m thinking maybe a half marathon next month. If I can build up the miles slowly enough I can do that. Or, as has been the case too often the past couple of years, I somehow injure myself. So far so good, but it is tempting to push it. Tomorrow I go seven and a half miles. A good solid run. I almost hope it will be raining, whenever I decide to go. That would be good for settling the mind.

I feel good and I am glad I have been rising early. It isn’t easy. I often don’t get quite enough sleep. But I need to do it. Early morning is the only time I’ve got to run consistently, and once I’ve done it, the day has started well. I am stronger now and, most nights, I sleep better. I have even managed to miss the big downpours in the morning–I’ve lucked out with the timing. Maybe tomorrow I’ll run in the rain. I’m picturing a light rain, a drizzle if you will. Just enough to keep me moving, to keep me cool, to keep my mind in the moment. It would be nice to think about nothing but my breathing, and the water on my cheeks, and where the puddles might be. For an hour or so, I can leave the rest behind.

Walking in the Rain, Friday (282/365 10-09-09)

Originally uploaded by CarusoPhoto

I love cold, rainy days. I know I’m in the minority on this, but I feel so invigorated and happy on days when there’s a damp, autumnal chill in the air. So today was a perfect day for me to head out with my camera to make a few shots (and test the weather resistance of the K-7). This particular scene seemed so narrative of the day that I just had to make it.

———-

To read more about my on-going quest to make a photo-a-day, every day, in 2009–my Project 365–please take a moment to check out my post from December 30, 2008 appropriately titled, “Project 365” as well as my 50 day update, similarly appropriately titled, “50 Days? Already?” my more cryptically titled 100 day update, “Day 100…or The Last-Call, Whiskey-Soaked Plan That Didn’t Die,” and the rather pedestrian-titled half-year update, “And in a Blink, a Half a Year is Gone….”

Ficus benjamina – the weeping fig – has the reputation of being a virtually indestructible houseplant. I beg to differ – I have killed more than one in my time.

The stems of my Ficus have been grafted together as a lattice

I acquired the specimen shown here, with stems grafted as a lattice, in 2008, and sure enough, by the end of the year it was looking very sad, having shed most of its leaves. It’s been outdoors for most of the summer, and it  eventually – eventually – perked up after weeks of standing around in the rain. Inside now, it has been looking sad again, so I took advantage of today’s mild drizzle and stood it outside the back door. It can come back in tomorrow, which is forecast dry.

My life is....

My mutant fan didn’t fall on me nor did it smash into me or lose a blade…it actually went quiet…maybe it was testing me…trying to drive me crazier than I already am. How ludicrous am I to think a fan would turn against me…I mean in a way I could see it happening…yeah I know I’m nuts to think that the world is against me. Poor misunderstand me, always a victim….sheesh…I kid, my life is G.

Groceries have been bought, yay! My oldest is making breakfast, yeah I know it’s afternoon, but who cares, breakfast knows no rules and is always good. Middle child is putting the goods away and the youngest is tending to laundry…and me, well I am delegating and being a sidelining mother.

It was raining earlier, not hard, more like a steady drizzle, seems to have stopped now, but the mention of chicken noodle soup came up, so I will have that on the menu for this evening. Sounds like good old comfort food, tomorrow or the next day I’ll let someone else cooks, I’ll probably just have a salad.

Well I am off to make a couple of calls to family, touch base and then off to my chillaxin’ station.

I once bought some Lace Cookies with dark chocolate from World Market and thought they were amazing.  The large cookies were made into sandwiches held together by the yummy chocolate.  So I went hunting for lace cookie recipes to bring to a Pre-Thanksgiving potluck that I attended last year.  I came across a few versions that included orange zest and hey! I LOVE orange and chocolate together.  And almonds.  So I tweaked a few recipes and came up with the following recipe.

A few notes: I went ahead and invested in a SilPat for this.  I had always wanted one and this seemed like the perfect reason to get one.  After making a few sheets thus far, I’ve gotta tell you . . . SilPat is the coolest thing ever in the world.  These have to be cooked on a greased surface and I HATE greasing the baking sheet between rounds.  This nips that in the bud.  I found a medium-sized one for about $20 at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Also, most recipes called for either all brown sugar or all white sugar.  I hate that.  Since I was using orange, I thought a little brown sugar would complement that really well, but I also didn’t want to overpower the orange with too deep of a flavor behind it.  Which is why I’m using some of each.

On the nuts, yes, chop them by hand.  It’s not that big a deal and it gives you more control over the final texture of your cookie.  I found small packs of slivered almonds and those were a breeze to chop.  I don’t recommend using a food processor here, it will pulverize the nuts into dust and I think having some identifiable nuts is a good thing.

Lastly, I was making these last time and you know what?  I didn’t HAVE 1 1/2 cups of almonds.  After the chopping of 4 ounces of almonds, that gave me about a cup.  What to do?  I didn’t want to go to the store, dammit.  So I found some pecans in my cupboard, chopped those up, and made extra 1/2 cup.  And I really liked them both.  So do what you want!!  This might be good with lots of other kinds of nuts, like walnuts or hazelnuts.  Or with lemon zest.  Or whatever!  Yet again, I encourage mad kitchen experimentation.

Ingredients
1 1/2 sticks of butter (12 tablespoons)
1 1/2 cups chopped almonds
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
zest of two oranges
1 egg, beaten
at least 8 ounces of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

Method
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Melt the butter in a microwave-safe mixing bowl.  Add the nuts, sugars, flour, and zest; mix well.  Pour in the beaten egg (though honestly, I didn’t beat the stupid egg first because that’s an extra bowl to wash) and mix thoroughly.

Place your handy dandy SilPat (or greased parchment paper) over a cookie sheet.  Drop teaspoonfuls of batter about 2-3 inches apart.  The cookies will spread like you won’t believe, and you don’t want them overlapping.  On a standard cookie sheet, I’ve been able to get 4 across and 3 down without any problem or melding.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and slightly bubbly.  Check them at 10 minutes and see if the middles look brown enough.  For the first couple of batches, check them, close the oven, and count to 30.  It just takes a little patience to determine how they want to cook for you.  My oven took 14 minutes.

Remove the sheet from the oven and place it on a cooling rack.  Let the cookies cool for approximately 2 minutes before attempting to remove them.  Using a butter knife (a spatula is too thick to get under these delicate, girly things), pull up one edge of a cookie to test.  If stays together and wants to bring the rest of the cookie with it but still looks really flexible, you’re good to go.  Quickly transfer all the cookies to another cooling rack, preferably one with rods going in both directions (leaving no slats for cookies to slump through).

By the way, at this point the cookies are still flexible enough to shape into things.  Wrap them around the end of a wooden spoon to make little cookie tubes, or shape loosely into cones.  Hell, wrap them around the bottom of a cup if you want and make little fluted bowls out of them.  Now is the time for sculpting!

When the cookies have cooled, melt the chocolate over a double-boiler.  The chocolate kept cooling on me at the table while I was drizzling, so I stuck a heating pad under the bowl and turned it on high. This worked surprisingly well and it may or may not have been something Alton Brown recommended.  I honestly don’t remember.  I drizzled the chocolate with a spoon.  For the few cookies I shaped, those were strategically dipped in chocolate (tubes had the ends, fluted bowls had the edge).

It drizzled this morning, and I missed the bus to the station.

I walked in the rain… not rain, sorry, I meant the ‘drizzle’. My head, as usual, was filled with lazy meaningless morning thoughts… things like ’if it kept drizzling a little longer, I’d have ‘that’ word swimming in the poodle in my head’- then realizing that that word was already swimming in my head!

Gondola Orseolo VI, Venice, originally uploaded by Rita Crane Photography.

Ilshe Guri.

Yea, that’s the word for drizzles in Bengali. I have no idea how this word had incepted- it means ‘tiniest Hilsha’ (Hilsha is the name of a fish that’s exclusive to the part of the world I am from)… and it sounds funny when I translate. This word is swimming merrily in my head now.

Ilshe Guri. Ilshe Guri. Ilshe Guri.

Yup. It’s very much swimming in my head today. It was a walk in ‘ilshe guri’ after ages.

When Words Aren’t Enough

Rain drips down the pane, the slow drizzle
mirrors the perfumed oil caressing
her back, his fingers draw it down her spine
where he plays in puddled fragrance, splashes
as if enjoying a walk in the wet
world out beyond their bedroom window. 

He murmurs passion for the curve of hip,
length of thigh. His whispers tickle the edge
of her ear, mix with the distant rumble
– thunder – and ignite her own desire.
Bodies slick with the scent of ginger and
sweat, love and lust collide, melt together.
 
A flash of lightning reflects in his eyes,
telling everything when words aren’t enough.
 
 
Siobhan
09-24-09