12.27.08
Posted in Uncategorized, cooking, knitting and crocheting at 8:10 pm by Administrator
Well, Christmas is over. . .
Due to some unexpected circumstances, our Christmas gathering was a tad smaller, thus the smaller cake this year and fewer desserts. We also did something different in that this year we did a potluck-style dinner, instead of one or a couple of us having the brunt of preparing the whole meal. I think it turned out pretty well with lots of food, anyway. Even Aaron, my youngest son got into the potluck thing and made custard puddings for us! Here he is in front of his creations.
He did come up a bit short, so some of us split a serving. The ingredients are coconut milk, eggs, cream, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. At the rate this kid is going, he’s gonna have a lucky wife, heheh. I know I feel blessed that Brian is a good cook! At the very least, I feel I won’t have to worry about Aaron feeding himself out of cans and boxes when he finally goes off on his own. At 14 this kid already knows how to cook and follow recipes. He even whips up his own whipped cream.
I didn’t take pics of all the food as there turned out to be quite a bit! We had BBQ ribs, and beans and bacon, corned bread, cubed squash, raw kale salad; Brian cooked a pork casserole with more beans!, seasoned rice, and even sushi.
I did catch Brian loading up his plate. . .
Aside from lots of eating and yakking, we try to bring things to keep us occupied until midnight. So a group of us can be just yakking away, while another group is watching a movie, or we also play games. Our family has this long-standing tradition that on Christmas eve we meet at my parents’ house and we all spend the night. Basically it turns out to be a big slumber party. But instead of waiting until Christmas morning to open presents, we wait until midnight. When the clock strikes midnight we all drop what we’re doing and rip open all the packages, ha! Then we hit the hay and get up to more feasting in the morning, ha! My kids have gotten used to this, so they look forward to this. They also get into the spirit of preparing things, and this year they wanted to make some small gifts for everyone. About two years ago Matty made hats for everyone using a large corker. This year Matty drew some pictures and laminated them to make book markers. Here’s a pic of some of them in progress.
While most of his designs were of dragons and the like, he did think of me and made a girlie one that is actually part of one of his old stories he called, The Gooseberry Fairy. The Gooseberry Fairy lived in a place with lots of mushrooms. I loved his pictures of them, so he drew a little sampling for my book marker. Here’s what it looks like.
Aaron made book thongs for everyone using beads and Chinese knots. Here are some of what he made.
Andrew wasn’t sure what he would contribute, but he ended up writing a short story sci-fi and recited it to us.
Since we had a laugh last year with Matty’s “face assembling” game. He pulled it back out again this year and added more features. Here’s a sample of some of the goofy faces we came up with.
LOL We managed to get a kick out of it again this year, so maybe we’ll expand it more next year and add prizes, ha ha!
See, even my dad got into it. And yes, he is sitting on a “tiny” chair! That chair has a little history to it. Brian made it for the boys when they were very little. They have long since outgrown those chairs, but my dad took them and still uses them for things like gardening and arranging the wood in the fireplace, etc. So he told Brian this Christmas as he pulled out his trusty kiddie chair that, “These chairs are the best thing you’ve made, Brian.”
I didn’t knit as many Christmas presents this year as I pretty much ran out of time. However, I did finally get my feet wet with multidirectional knitting that I have been wanting to learn. Here’s a pic of my first multidirectional project. It’s a scarf or sash. The pattern is taken (and slightly modified by me because I’m using much smaller yarn) from a book by Iris Schreier called Lacy Little Knits. I think Schreier is another lady who belongs in the genius category of knitters. Once I got started on this project, I really loved it.
In fact I loved it so much that I decided to make a few more for my sisters, my mom, and my aunt. It was just a little something to add to the other gifts we got them. Here’s a pic of the completed scarves. Since the yarn is much thinner than that pattern called for, I added more stitches.
And here are the scarf recipients showing the different ways to wear them, heheh.
As you can see our Christmas this year was quite casual. At about midnight we all looked like we could use some makeup, especially me! Ha ha! My aunt had her sash around her waist, my mom had the pink one around her neck, as does my sister next to her in her scrubs (she just got of work from the hospital), my other sister wearing it as a hair band, and yours truly off on the far right wearing it around me neck. I love the construction of this scarf that I’ve started knitting a blanket for Matty using the same concept. I’ll try to take a pic of that once it’s done and share later.
Well, I could go on with pics, but I think that’s enough for now. Besides, looks like the boys are ready for reading. . ., so best be off for now.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Even though Christmas has passed, there’s still some partying left as New Years approaches! Woo hoo hoo hoo! LOL
Marlakins
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12.24.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:30 pm by Administrator
Christmas eve is when our family starts the Christmas festivities. So shortly we’ll be off to head out to my parents’ place. Still have a few things to wrap up here and food to take along, etc. Every year we spend the night at my parents’ for Christmas so it’s going to be a big slumber party tonight, heheh. Funny how there’s so much preparations needed to spend on two days! But I can’t wait!!!! Eeeeee!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!
Marlakins 
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12.22.08
Posted in Uncategorized, gardening at 11:50 am by Administrator
Yesterday marked the winter solstice for 2008. So, apparently, yesterday was the shortest day of the year, and today starts the increase of daylight until the summer solstice where we will have our longest daylight of the year. The arrival of the winter solstice brought to mind our seeds because now that the days are starting to get longer again, we know that planting season is not far off. It’s raining and quite dreary here this AM in Los Angeles, so there won’t be any planting here today or likely for a few weeks time, yet, but the knowledge that planting season is approaching brings to mind freshness, growth, and healing. So today I look out at the dreary rain and feel happy that the rain is only helping to prepare our soil for it’s new harvest. In that spirit, I took a peek at our seed drawer this morning to make sure they were still there. . .
Brian suggested that we try to focus more on climbing plants this year since we have such little yard space. I definitely want to do the pole beans again as they were very good and very prolific.
I think seeds are fascinating because they’re generally very small, yet grow to amazing sized plants or even animals, for that matter (sperm and egg cells, and marrow can be looked at like seeds). To think about how small and tiny seeds can be it’s a wonder that they have all the genetic material to make up a whole plant, produce and all, which is essential to nourish and keep humans and animals alive. Seeds are truly one of God’s ingenious creations, and I think every child should experience the miracle of planting. Seeds not only grow and retain all that genetic information for all the various plants, but they also go dormant so that they can be stored for years and still grow into viable plants. I’ve read of wheat seeds being found in the tombs of some Egyptian mummies that were still viable. Seeds can be carried in the wind or washed to different shores and still grow. Like the sun and the rain, God lavishes us with seeds to feed and clothe us.
When I think of the gift of seeds that God gave to us, I can’t help but also think with disdain of corporations like Monsanto who seem to work tirelessly at modifying seeds. I think cross breeding seeds are fine, but I am against genetic engineering of seeds such as the controversial “terminator seeds” by Monsanto. Basically, terminator seeds will allow corporations to monopolize seeds, so that farmers would have to go to those corporations to “buy” seeds instead of collecting and saving their own seeds from previous crops. I think that is so wrong. Here’s a short paragraph from a link that explains it a tad:
“The patented technology enables a seed company to genetically alter seed so that the plants that grow from it are sterile; farmers cannot use their seeds. The patent is broad applying to plants and seeds of all species including both transgenic (genetically engineered) and conventionally-bred seeds. The developers of the new technology say that their technique to prevent seed-saving is still in the product development stage, and is now being tested on cotton and tobacco. They hope to have a product on the market sometime after the year 2000.”
I know that there are quite a few stories and articles on the terminator seed which did alarm me when I first read about it around 2000. The news did scare me into thinking that maybe I should be hoarding seeds! I’m happy to say that here we are in 2008, but we still have access to “normal” seeds. Then I think, would it even be possible that they could gain full control of all the world’s seeds? I think it would be a difficult task, but just the thought that there are those trying to do just that does make me uncomfortable. So I will continue to try to save viable seeds and hope many others will do the same.
In light of saving seeds, I was happy to come across an interesting article by Discover dated December 18, 2008. The article is titled, The “Doomsday Vault” Stores Seeds for an Agricultural Reboot. Apparently there is a “vault” on the archipelago in Norway, which store thousand upon thousands of seeds. Yeah, the Norwegians to the rescue! Such a relief to know that there are those out there who value the importance of our seeds. The article is short enough, so I figure I might as well post it here:
“On February 26, 2008, on a rocky seashore hundreds of miles north of the Arctic Circle, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened for business, receiving its inaugural shipment of seeds from around the world. Nicknamed the Doomsday Vault, the structure is built on Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago in Norway, and is designed to preserve hundreds of thousands of seed types from across the globe. Created by the Norwegian government and funded by foundation donors, the vault is built to withstand centuries of climate change, natural disasters, and even a nuclear attack. Now locked in the chamber deep inside a frozen mountain are seeds contributed by more than 100 countries.
“The Svalbard site is a second line of defense, on top of individual nations’ agricultural seed banks. Altogether, these banks house millions of seeds of remarkable diversity—including about 200,000 types of wheat and 30,000 types of corn—and provide backup seeds after crop-destroying events like typhoons and mudslides. Even if a national bank is destroyed, the Svalbard vault assures that the plants will soldier on.”
Now I wonder how many people realize that there are about 200,000 types of wheat and 30,000 types of corn? Oye! I knew there are a lot, but didn’t realize there were that many.
So moving right along about seeds. . . I found this article interesting. “2,700-Hundred-Year-Old Marijuana Stash.” This blog has the complete article. In short, some cannabis was discovered in a burial site in China. Here’s the short of it:
“The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.”
Hmmm, 2,700 year-old pothead? What was it again that Soloman said? “There’s nothing new under the sun.”
Well, time to make myself useful around here. Enjoy your day. . .
Marlakins
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12.13.08
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Historical Trivia, Uncategorized at 3:58 pm by Administrator
I have to return the library book I checked out called, Waltzing With a Dictator, the Marcoses and the Making of American Policy by Raymond Bonner as it has come due. Fortunately, I finally finished reading it about a week ago and will say that I am glad that I read the book. While Bonner’s book helped to give me a better understanding of what the Marcoses did in the Philippines, it also helped me to understand a little more of how the American government works in regards to foreign relations. While I may not completely like how and why the U.S. acts the way it does towards foreign countries, it helps to understand “why” it act as it does.
When I first started to read Bonner’s book, I thought it was going to be mainly about the Marcoses and the U.S involvement with the Philippines. However, as the book progressed it became clearer that Bonner was not only focusing on the Marcoses and what they had done, but also on the U.S. government and how it operates, in general. Bonner explained his purpose for writing the book more clearly in his Author’s Note. He wrote that there was one word that propelled him to write the book, and that word was, “Why?” That is, “Why is it that the United States so often supports dictators?” His following paragraph explains how he embarked on writing Waltzing With a Dictator.
“At one point Jonathan Segal, my editor at Times Books, suggested a book that would look at five dictators who have ruled with America’s support: Batista, Diem, the shah, Somoza, and Marcos. I said, Why not focus on Marcos, as a case study about U.S. relations with dictators? Jon saw the value of such a book immediately, and along the way he was always there.”
The answer to Bonner’s question of “why” does the U.S. often support dictators boiled down to whether the dictator was pro-American or not. Never mind violations of human rights or whether democracy is being undermined in those countries ruled by dictators, so long as those dictators were pro-American and anti-Communist. Communism was the buzz word that rallied the U.S. to send arms and financial support to dictators to fight against Communists, but today it seems the buzz word is now “terrorism.” In addition, if the dictators supported the U.S. economic and political agenda, again, hang human rights or democracy, they would get support. I felt sad to come to that understanding, but it helped to fit some pieces together for me. Bonner obviously does not come from a conspiracy theory angle, but rather approaches from angle of errors of human judgment.
So again, while I realize that we don’t live in a perfect world, it helps to understand it a bit to know where to stand. I find it humbling as well as a reinforcement to be cautious of being “proud” since so often we Americans are encouraged to be “proud to be American.” Are there any really good governments doing what they ought? Reading about governments and how they behave made me think of “what is the purpose of a king (or ruler, in our case)?” Is our government, our rulers doing what it should? As usual, I like to see what the Bible has to say about it. Proverbs 31:9 gives some insight regarding the duty of kings.
“Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”
To give it a bit more background, I’d like to quote a few verses about Proverbs 31:9, starting with Proverbs 31:3-9:
3 do not spend your strength on women,
your vigor on those who ruin kings.
4 “It is not for kings, O Lemuel—
not for kings to drink wine,
not for rulers to crave beer,
5 lest they drink and forget what the law decrees,
and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.
6 Give beer to those who are perishing,
wine to those who are in anguish;
7 let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.
8 “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
9 Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
The gist of those verses, from my understanding is that the duty of the king is to advocate for the poor and needy. When I think of it for a moment, it makes a lot of sense because often times, the poor and the needy are trampled underfoot by the rich and the powerful. Often times the poor can’t even read or write to even know their rights, and through their ignorance are taken advantage of by the rich. An example that comes to mind are the American Indians. They knew nothing about the laws and rights of land ownership, and thus were forced to give up their lands unknowingly. A rich man can take a poor man to court and put him through the wringer because his lawyers and advocates know the law, but who is there to protect the poor, illiterate? Likewise with the Marcoses in the Philippines when the farmers worked for $2 a day, while Imelda spent literally “millions of dollars” in “one” day for useless items such as jewelry and furniture. Innocent people (such as those who have opposed dictators) have often been imprisoned without due process, but due to circumstances such as lack of knowledge of the laws or lack of finances, are unable to defend themselves. According to Proverbs 31, it seems that our rulers should be protecting those who are poor and needy so that they are not taken advantage of by the rich. They should be advocating for the poor. Do our rulers do that? Yes, they send financial aid to foreign countries, but does it end up helping the poor and needy, or just the dictators? History has shown that it has been the dictators who have often benefited from the aid, not the poor.
Bonner wrote that as a result of the oppression of the poor, Communism, the very thing that the U.S. was trying to avert, gained a foothold in the Philippines. While the dictators were busying lavishing themselves and their cronies with the country’s wealth, the Communists actually came in and helped the poor by building roads and schools. So naturally, the poor started turning in favor of the Communists because they were actually seeing their help. Did the poor really know what Communism really was all about? I doubt it. I think what the people wanted was to have enough to live. I remember reading John Kerry’s testimony known as the Winter Soldiers. He said something to the effect that when they got to Vietnam, what they found was that the farmers just wanted to live and till their land. So they helped whoever came because they wanted protection. They may have harbored Communists, but it likely wasn’t because they agreed with their philosophy, but because they wanted protection. Yet whole villages would be wiped out because they were harboring Communists. It was Bonner’s contention that wealth should be spread to avoid discontentment between the social classes. Upon reflecting on the idea of “spreading the wealth,” I find that there needs to be more clarification of what it means to spread the wealth. Bonner explained it this way when discussing the ousting of Marcos and what lay ahead in the future:
“Whether the followers of the Communist-led revolution can be persuaded to lay down their arms or withdraw their sympathies will depend on whether the present government addresses the root causes of problems, provides peasants with land, and redistributes some of the wealth. . . “
How wealth is redistributed is a touchy subject, but I think it should be mentioned that all forms of capitalism redistributes wealth. The difference is “how” is the wealth redistributed. Is all the wealth being distributed from the poor to the wealthy? Or the wealthy to the poor? Or fairly with the tide of the market? The Bible seems to indicate that the poor play a very large part in what is the purpose of a king. Personally, I think I will be looking at how well the poor are cared for when deciding upon whether a government is just or not.
Overall I give Raymond Bonner’s book Waltzing With a Dictator, the Marcoses and the Making of American Policy two thumbs up. As a result, I am encouraged to read his other book called, Weakness and Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador.
Marlakins
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12.11.08
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Movie commentary, Uncategorized at 6:30 pm by Administrator
The other night the boys and I watched Wall-E. My sister had seen it in the theaters and told me that I would like it. While it is a kiddie movie, I did enjoy it. Not only was it cute and funny at times and had an actual plot, but there was also an overall message in the end–we need to take care of our world. I know that all this “green” stuff these days tends to get politically charged and overdone, but really, why can’t we just look at the practical side of it and take care of our environment? I don’t consider myself a tree hugger or anything. I do use my share of plastics and drive a gasoline powered vehicle and all, but I do have concern for our environment. There’s no need to live in our own filth or destroy the world God has made for us.
For those who haven’t seen Wall-E, basically the story goes that the earth is so polluted that the people built all these robots to clean up the earth. In the meantime, the people of earth fly off into outer space while the robots do the cleaning. Originally they plan to stay out in space for about 5 years while the cleanup goes on, but before the 5 years is up, they find that the toxic level on the earth is so great that they can’t go back. Thus the earthlings spend 700 years cruising space, periodically sending probes back to earth looking for signs that life is sustainable again on earth so that they could return.
In the movie there were a couple of toxic storms that would blow through. I’m not sure what those are all about, but I can see how life on earth really has suffered through careless productions and disposals of toxic substances. To give examples of that, there was an article titled, Prozac Ocean: Fish Absorb Our Drugs and Suffer for It by Nai Bai. While I have read of something like this about 3 or 4 years ago, I don’t seem to find a date on this particular article. However, the comments below the article are dated December 2008. Here’s a short clip from the article:
“In the U.S., more than 200 million prescriptions for antidepressants are given out every year. A lot of the contents of those pills eventually end up in our water supply, either from patients’ excretions or from pills flushed down the toilet. Since water treatment plants aren’t designed to remove pharmaceuticals, we’re effectively medicating our streams and rivers.”
Now I find that a bit disturbing particularly since I’ve been working on regaining my health naturally. What I have found that it is an uphill battle because our environment is full of toxins from the air we breathe, the water that we drink and bathe in, to the foods we consume. Many of our foods are highly processed with countless additives that only a century ago were non-existent. The air we breathe is polluted with many other hazards such as fuel emissions, out gassing from building materials, plant chemicals not only on our produce, but on our lawns and neighbors’ lawns, and industrial chemicals. Our government even mandates chemicals to be added into our water supply such as fluoride, which many feel is a hazard to good health. And now we find that we are even unintentionally polluting our own water supply by the drugs we consume. It’s an uphill battle to improve and preserve our health, especially since all around us we are being exposed to toxins each and every day. We’re pretty much wallowing in our own filth. The difficult part about it is that there are so many people who thrive from, and defend tooth and nail, our current system of modern advancements no matter what the consequence to our environment. People who raise concerns for the preservation of the land and seas are seen as “tree huggers” or “nature fanatics.” I guess it’s too much to want fresh air and clean food?
This also brings to mind nuclear waste. I will say that I’m glad Obama (so far) doesn’t seem to champion nuclear power as a first alternative to fossil fuels. But what has disturbed me is the lack of appreciation for the dangers of nuclear waste (as evidenced by McCain’s campaign to build “45″ new nuclear power plants, yikes!) A few years ago I read a book called G.I. Guinea Pigs: How the Pentagon Exposed Our Troops to Dangers More Deadly than War by Micheal Uhl. Uhl not only wrote about the nuclear tests performed that exposed our troops to nuclear radiation, but also how the nuclear tests exposed civilians who lived in areas near the testing grounds. Cancer rates increased in some of those areas, and many died as a result. Yet, nuclear radiation is still downplayed today. And more often than not, our environment is contaminated without our knowledge. An example of this is something I stumbled upon recently of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. According to Wiki, this laboratory was a “once prolific rocket and nuclear reactor test facility located 30 miles (48 km) north of downtown Los Angeles, California“ I’ve lived here most of my life, but I’ve never heard of the place. There are many residential home near that area who potentially are exposed to whatever is being tested there. I bet many of the residents don’t even know or understand the possible dangers to their health. Before we take for granted that they have “safety” procedures and precautions in place, let us not forget Hanford. Wiki shares some of the environmental concerns that cropped up with Hanford.
“By 1957, the eight plutonium production reactors at Hanford dumped a daily average of 50,000 curies of radioactive material into the Columbia.[44] These releases were kept secret by the federal government.[4] Radiation was later measured downstream as far west as the Washington and Oregon coasts.[45]“
These are just a few examples of the health hazards around us. So many of us just want to live in a clean, healthful environment. Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of those large corporations and government mandates that oftentimes ignore our concerns in favor of their own agendas. But I am a firm believer that God hears us, and sees all. Long ago at the writing of the book of Revelation, I believe the elders were also concerned about the earth and the effects to us as they were recorded to say in Rev 11:18:
“And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.“
The bold face was added by me. But I do think that while the Bible tells us in Genesis that we are to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth,” I don’t think that meant that we were to “destroy and pollute” the earth. We are to be good stewards of the earth, and plundering it and polluting it is not being a good steward. As a result of reckless irresponsiblity and lack of respect for the earth, many of us are suffering with poor health. Hopefully Wall-E’s message to take care of the earth resonates well with the younger generation, so that they will learn to value the world that God made for us.
Marlakins
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12.09.08
Posted in Uncategorized, humor at 4:56 pm by Administrator
It seems that I’m still realizing more stuff that I’ve lost on my computer since my hard drive crash a couple months ago. Not only did I lose so many notes, saved emails, email addresses, and photos; I found that I also lost all the music I downloaded from ITunes. . . Then my son sent me a link with computer poems, and I found one that felt appropriate to my situation.
If the Beatles Were Computer Geeks
Sing along…
Yesterday
Yesterday,
All those backups seemed a waste of pay.
Now my database has gone away.
Oh I believe in yesterday.
Suddenly,
There’s not half the files there used to be,
And there’s a milestone hanging over me.
The system crashed so suddenly.
I pushed something wrong
What it was I could not say.
Now all my data’s gone
and I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.
Yesterday,
The need for back-ups seemed so far away.
I knew my data was all here to stay,
Now I believe in yesterday.
I know. . . too lazy to blog, but it amused me, anyway.
Marlakins
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12.06.08
Posted in Book Reviews, Uncategorized at 6:57 pm by Administrator
Knowing me a bit, my son thought I would find this picture amusing.
I’m not sure where this picture originated or who is responsible for this or what, but the above pic came from this link http://pixdaus.com/single.php?id=37974. Apparently different people upload pictures on the link. Some were really quite good, too, ranging from all sorts of stuff like artworks, scenic shots from various parts of the world, to some very touching photographs such as the one below.
I don’t know when these pictures above were taken, but comments were made below the pictures in this link around January of 2008. I found some of the comments interesting, but also sad. I reminds me of a book I recently checked out from the library called, What Every Person Should Know About WAR by Chris Hedges. I had just finished reading Waltzing with a Dictator by Raymond Bonner and decided to see what other books others bought along those same lines. Bonner’s book was very good, BTW, but I will give it my review in another post later. However, Hedges’ book on war caught my eye because of the comments it received on Amazon. The first comment appears to have been by a vet who claimed that he found the book very straight forward and unbiased. He wrote, “This book is about the truth, the truth of warfare. It makes no commentary, but it also pulls no punches.” Yet he felt that there were others who claimed that Hedges’ book is anti-American. Well, as far as I’m concerned the truth is the truth even if it is anti-American, so I had to check out the book myself to see what it said. So far I find the book pretty straight forward and formatted in a question and answer style. While the book is separated in to chapters, it is formatted like this:
Has the world ever been at peace?
Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history.
The chapters are separated into topics dealing with things like enlistment, life in war, weapons and wounds, weapons of mass destruction, etc. I’m actually finding it a very practical book with information that is both interesting and useful for anyone enlisted or contemplating enlistment. Here’s an example from the chapter on Weapons and Wounds:
If I can walk away from an explosion, does it mean I am OK?
No. Even if an explosion does not kill you with heat or shrapnel, the pressure wave itself may damage your body. These are “silent injuries.” You may be free of symptoms for up to 48 hours after the blast. The pressure can enter your lungs and rupture air sacs. It can cause severe respiratory distress that can be fatal. You can be injured due to the “spalling effect” of a pressure wave. This is the same effect that causes rusty flakes on the inside of a pipe to come off when it is struck by a hammer. Your organs may be ruptured even if your skin is not broken. Your eardrum may also be ruptured, causing deafness. Without infection, a ruptured eardrum will heal. A ruptured eardrum may indicate internal injuries.
There are many more questions and answers such as those, which to me are pretty much stating how things are. I think even civilians should read this book because oftentimes there are more civilian casualties in war than soldiers especially since civilians are generally not trained to know what to do during war time and how weapons work. For instance I remember reading once that many civilians get injured because they don’t know to lay on the floor during some bombings. Standing up makes them better targets for all the shrapnel and debris that goes flying around. Or what is safe or not safe during nuclear or chemical warfare, so they expose themselves to unsafe conditions. War isn’t a pretty or fun thing. To call this book anti-American sounds like a person who is anti-knowledge and kinda reminds me of some doctors who don’t want to tell you the side effects of drugs because you might not take the drugs. Anyway, so far I’m finding What Every Person Should Know About War a good read. I hope never to have to experience war, but I think reading this should also help me to understand a tad more of those who have experienced war.
Well, it’s about din din time, so better leave it off here.
Marlakins
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12.03.08
Posted in Uncategorized, knitting and crocheting at 10:23 pm by Administrator
I received my third Warm Woolies yarn supply over a month ago, but being so close to the holidays and the extra commotion that the holidays bring, I haven’t been able to work much on those yarns. They do give us three months to knit it up, so I still have time. I did manage to make one vest, but that’s all so far partly because I’ve been trying to work on some other requests my boys have made. But as I said, I did finish one vest, so I’ll post it up for now since it’ll likely be a while before I get to the rest of the yarn (you know Christmas knitting and all). I wanted to try a different vest pattern than the ones I had been using on the Warm Woolies site. So, I rummaged through my old magazines and found one in an old Simplicity Knitting magazine I had stashed away from fall 1988. . . Here’s the cover of the issue.
Since the pattern called for a different yarn, I had to adjust the pattern a bit. The yarn I used was Debbie Bliss’s Cashmerino Aran color #300201. I used about 7 balls using #8 US needles. Here’s what it looked like in progress along with the magazine openned where a little boy is modeling the vest in red in the picture.
The back was completed on the right, and the front was worked up about half way.
And here’s the finished vest.
My middle son likes it when I knit stuff for him, so he tends to “place orders” with me, ha! This time he wanted more socks, but even though he likes wool, he says that his feet sweat a lot so asked if I could make the sock out of cotton. Well, I happened to have some Sockotta on hand which is 45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, and 15% nylon. I’ve actually had them for over a year now when I bought a bunch of sock yarn for last Christmas. One reason I haven’t used them yet is because the first sock I tried to make with them just didn’t stretch right. The foot part worked up just fine, but when I got past the ankle, I felt like I had to do Hoodini maneuvers to get my big foot in the sock. I wasn’t sure why that was as I was using the same number of stitches I’d used and fit just fine with other wool yarns, so I figured that this Sockotta yarn was just not that stretchy. So what my son and I decided was to try making the foot portion out of the Sockotta and the leg portion out of 100% wool. He picked out a couple colors that looked okay to him, and I picked out some 100% wool in a similar weight that I also had on hand that would “kinda” match for the leg portion. Here’s one of the pairs of socks in progress. I took the wool off the cone to weigh it to make sure that I was splitting it fairly even to have enough for both socks. I had enough to make about 6″ legs. The grey yarn is from Brown Sheep in fingering weight. I used two circular needles sized 2 US working from toe up. The heels are worked using short rows.
And here are the two pairs of socks completed. I know they look like they’re for Big Foot or Sasquach, but they actually do fit him, heheh.
And here’s a pic of the sock I was working on last Christmas for my mom when I discovered how “non-stretchy” this Sockotta yarn was. I got this far, then abandoned them.
My mom and I have the same size feet, so I was able to try them on along the way and noticed how I could barely squeeze my heel past the ankle. Now looking at this in retrospect, that leg sure looks mighty little, but still, I think that’s how little the other wool socks are that I’ve made and fit me just fine.
Here’s what the top of the foot looks like.
I thought the design was actually quite nice from Charlene Schurch’s book, More Sensational Socks. I’m just guessing that I was using the wrong type of yarn for this project and just didn’t have the heart to take it apart at the time. I guess now that I’ve preserved it on film, I feel better about unravelling it now.
Oh and another little project I just finished up are a couple jewelry bags. I have a couple bracelets that I wanted to gift in pouches so that they would have their own little storage pouches. Here’s one using ribbon yarn and a little fun fur.
And since I thought that one came out kinda cute, I decided to try a plain one also using ribbon yarn, but minus the fun fur. Here it is with my little Yeoman from the UK.
I know it’s a bit hard to gauge the size from pictures, so I will say that they are small pouches about 2 3/4″ x 4″. This ribbon yarn was by Crystal Palace Yarns, 50% cotton and 50% rayon.
Well, that’s it for now. Time to start the next item on my “to do” list.
Marlakins
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12.02.08
Posted in Uncategorized, gardening at 3:11 pm by Administrator
The other day I went out to my yard to pick some mandarin oranges and remembered how I told Patti that it was so nice that our mandarin tree and our orange tree are taking turns bearing fruit. We had just about run out of oranges when we noticed about a week afterward that the mandarin oranges were ripening. Then I realized that I forgot to post pics of our tree on my blog. So before the tree runs out of fruit again, here’s a pic of it.
It’s a little miniature tree, but it’s been bearing a decent yield of fruit already for the past month or so. I think my post listing strip on the right is blocking the little lettuce patch I have just to the right of the tree. But it’s still down there. Then off to the right of that is our nectarine tree, and then the miniature orange tree.
Here’s a pic of what the mandarin oranges looks like, which is actually rather nice I think from such a small tree. It’s juicy and sweet, ummm.
And here’s a pic of how our miniature orange tree is doing. There are some green oranges on there, but it looks like it’s still got a ways to go to ripen enough to eat.
In case it’s too hard to make out the green oranges on the tree, here’s a closer up shot.
And that’s about it for our gardening at this time. The weather has been cooling down a lot. We even got a pretty good downfall of rain on Thanksgiving evening and the following day. For now I’m just trying to clean up and keep up the area a bit until springtime when we start to plant more seeds. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way, but there’s something about gardening that’s satisfying. It’s so nice to be able to pick something fresh off the tree or vine or bush. And it also reminds me of the kindness and generosity of God. One plant oftentimes yields so much produce! And then the number of seeds that spring from one plant for the next planting is amazing! They just keep multiplying many fold! We just needed to plant and tend the seeds. Planting and harvesting the seeds again for the next season was an inspiration to me when I was recovering from AA. I remember lamenting about how few stem cells I had in my marrow at the time. But then when I saw how many seeds came from “one” seed, I realized that our marrows are similar. “One” stem cell will divide, and the resultant cells will also continue to divide on and on, until we have enough. It’s the natural way of life that God made. He shows it to us in so many parts of nature. Reaping and sowing helped me to see that beauty and cleverness of God’s work.
Marlakins
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12.01.08
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Uncategorized, gardening at 12:27 pm by Administrator
Last night I was looking through a library book I checked out called, 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans by Jan Eaton. I was really impressed with her presentation of squares and colors. One recommendation Eaton made that I liked is to find color inspiration from nature or works of art. How clever since I do believe that God is the master artist. There is so much creativity and variety in nature. So that reminded me of the pictures we took while in London last May. There was a park we visited that had a lovely garden with ponds and walkways and roses of all kinds. Of course I had to take as many pictures as I could as we were there when all the flowers looked to be in full bloom. How fortunate, I thought! Well, this AM, I decided that in light of the recommendation by Eaton to use nature as inspiration, I wanted to look at all those flowers I took. . . I was hit with a harsh reality this AM that when my computer crashed about a month or so ago, I LOST ALL THOSE FLOWER PICTURES!!! Arrrghh! Fortunately, I still had some pictures on my camera of other places we visited while in the UK, but alas, going through the pictures this AM I found that I had lost quite a bit of pictures, wah. Probably about 100 of them, double wah!!! Fortunately, I took over a 1000 shots during that trip, so I still have lots of pics by which to reminisce, but there were some really nice shots that I wish I had today. Shots of all those lovely flowers! I found that I also lost shots at the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, and the London Bridge. There was no picture taking allowed in the Jewel House or the Martin House, but I did have lots of pics in the Armoury House and of a street play that was going on at the time. I also lost pics of the outside of Westminster Abbey as they did not allow pictures inside the Abbey, but I was able to get some shots in the Cloister, which I now lost, too. Grrrr! Hmmm. Maybe I can bribe Brian to take me back again? Ha! What an excuse. . . I lost my pictures. . .
Okay, now that I’ve lamented long enough over those, at least I still have lots of other shots which I realized I still have some material to continue with my travelogue. Here’s a pic of the front of the British Museum.
Off to the left was a little Asian garden with a small walkway. I’m sitting on the short cement wall looking for I don’t know what now, ha! Must have been drugs as I remember being tired from walking so much that day!
The little Asian garden had some nice plants and stone carvings on display. But in light of my search for “nature inspirations,” I’ll share some pics of a couple plants that I thought were neat especially since they’re not the kinds I see every day, here. This shot is of the base of a Tibetan cherry tree. The color and look of the bark was really amazing.
Here’s the top view of the same tree.
I think that is definitely the first time I’ve ever seen this type of tree before. I’m always in awe with the variety God has created and no wonder there have been so many explorers!
Here’s a shot of a black bamboo plant.
I guess I’m showing my ignorance here, but I didn’t even know there were black bamboo plants until I saw these. I know that the Huntington Library here has a nice bamboo garden, I gee, I don’t remember seeing a black bamboo plant there? I think I’m gonna have to go back a see.
Now I’m gonna deviate from the “nature” topic and move inside of the British Museum. I really loved this museum as it literally had loads and loads of displays! Brian and I went back three times because we just couldn’t see everything in one day. And even then, we still didn’t see the whole museum! Which reminds me. . . I lost a lot of the pics I took inside this museum when my computer crashed, argh! Triple wah! There was so much great stuff in there including tablets that described a great flood, accounts that mentioned famous people like Hezekia. Egyptian mummies of all sorts, not only human mummies, but also of various animals that were buried along with the humans in their tombs. Relief carvings of Israel in exodus, etc. So I’m bummed to have lost all those. I managed to save some pics, tho. Here’s a shot with yours truly inside the British Museum on the center staircase looking upwards where the ceiling can be seen.
At the top of the stairs is a restaurant and a passage to get into the upper level of the museum. I wish I could share all those pics I took, but they really were too many, not to mention I lost most of them. . . Anyway, here is one display I managed to save, which I “think” is only on temporary display? It was a display on pharmaceutical drugs and the extent to which a single person will commonly be exposed to drugs throughout his/her lifetime.
The above is only part of the description, but here’s a shot of the pill table.
The displays on the sides documents a family from birth to older age. Here’s a shot of how a person is first introduced to drugs shortly after birth. The birth cert is shown on the right hand side.
I believe the injections are of Vit K and various vaccines and antibiotics for both baby and mom.
Then throughout life, we continue on taking an assortment of other drugs from aspirins, painkillers, sleeping pills, etc. and on till old age when pills continue to increase. I think one of the family members developed cancer, IIRC, so there were many more drugs involved with that person’s lifetime.
Anyway, so that was one display of the many, many displays in the British Museum. If anyone decides to visit London, I think the British Museum is a must see. To top it off, it’s free! They even have the Rosetta Stone on display there, which I think I lost. . . I really would like to go again some day.
Well, better run for now. Since I lost so much of the nature pics from our trip, I think I will try to find some local nature and maybe share those pics for art inspiration. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can’t find some other pics from other trips.
Marlakins
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