Loosely Speaking

By Ciel - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Everything Else

Monday, January 31, 2022

A Festival of Haiku

Wrote these years ago-- Found them today in old files, Seeking something else. Fire of Autumn burns away the last of Summer. A snowflake dances... Sleep your life away Dreaming is as good as life... Like you, cat, I lie. Days cycle quickly weeks to months, seasons to years Much remains undone. This Haiku, you see, Brings literature and math together again. Morning comes despite all plans for over-sleeping. Gritty eyes, strong tea. O, Super hero! Warrior of the Ages...! Seldom lifts the sword.... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Now here's a thing...

Used to be, gender was assumed to be determined by whatever equippage one was born with. All this 'gender-bending' was, by some, sneered at as psychological kink and twist, nothing but attention-seeking. (It has been suggested that when one first thinks 'attention-seeking' to give it another thought, and see how it looks to change it to 'connection-seeking.' I find that often this is a more honest assessment, though it is sometimes a stretch to see it.) Well, here is an article that curiosity... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, January 28, 2022

Smarts, Intelligence, Ignorance, and just plain Stupid

From 6 yrs ago on Facebook I've been looking at some articles about other animals besides human beings who routinely use tools to get what they want from the world around them. Some not only use sticks and stones to open nuts, for instance, or fish termites out of their homes, some actually alter the stick or rock to better do the job they want it to do, and that is tool-making. Used to be the commonly accepted truth, about a century ago, that tool use and tool making was one of those wondrous... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Knowing stuff

I woke up this morning thinking about kids sitting in classrooms, sullen and resentful and wanting to be anywhere else. I imagined being there and telling them, "Knowing things is what gives you power over your own life. Knowing stuff means other people can't fool you on purpose because they want something from you, or by accident just because they have wrong information and don't actually know what they think they know." I would tell them, "Besides all that, knowing stuff is fun! like walking... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Why blood type O might make a difference

This is the only article I have read that offers some actual reason for why O might make a difference, rather than just statistics. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-01-covid-transmission-blood.html Charlie points out that the actual results of research need to be backed up by the numbers of a statistically significant sampling to convince him that this is more than just hypothetical. I think seeing things happen through a microscope and actual experimentation that yields results that can be... Sign in to see full entry.

Worth a quick read...

Here is an interesting idea about why Charlie, living with two covid-positive housemates, and I, also exposed through his household next door, and at the recent convention we both went to, where someone exposed everyone, have tested negative: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/1/25/why-you-may-not-get-covid-19-even-when-those-around-you-have-it?fbclid=IwAR0-MB1UGRvzm5se9uElPYUg-syTA7Jg16lpwsZSMSj9emoD0mepfj5ce5w&sf158996694=1&sf158996646=1 Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion

The hotel where we went for the COSine convention last weekend has changed ownership. We could not unload at the front door because workers were moving out a monolith of The Ten Commandments that the previous owners had placed there. Then I read of a case the Supreme Court is considering regarding whether or not the City of Boston could decline to fly a Christian flag alongside the US flag and the Massachusetts flag in front of the Boston city hall. The thing is, if a public display of religious... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Covid again

A good friend of mine here in the Springs has had it this past week, and her two teen girls have it, though lesser symptoms. She and they were vaccinated, so likely it will be miserably inconvenient, but not deadly. Another member of the local theater community died of it last week. He was not vaccinated. My feelings are mixed, seeing so many people I respect mourning his passing, and yet, I also am seeing it as a kind of suicide, to go about in the world full of risks, without taking the... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, December 13, 2021

Borrowed from a writers group chat

"What qualifies a story as a novella vs short story vs novel and other things?" Someone by the name of Jayson Charlesford responded: "I'm gonna risk saying it has little to do with word count. A novel is a story with a theme, a main plotline, and subplots that support both of those things. A novella is like a novel but has no subplots. A short story is, to my mind, the hardest to define, but has a tendency towards being a flash in time, the tightest possible focus around the resolution of an... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, December 10, 2021

Consequences.

I went to a show that required masks and vaccination or a recent covid test. A middle-aged person in line ahead of me sounded indignant and a little defensive when confronted with the query, maybe proud of being neither vaccinated nor tested. This put the box office folk in a very uncomfortable situation. Happily, there were tests on hand and the theater didn't have to deny her seating. If that had not been an option, no one would have been happy, everyone would have been uncomfortable with the... Sign in to see full entry.

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