Dogs and Quilts

Being pregnant has lead to some odder-than-usual observations; for instance, it makes me understand my dogs better.  They're beagles and they're known for a number of traits: their enthusiastic greetings, their loud beagling (beagle literally means "to trumpet"), their insanely sensitive noses, their insatiable appetites, and their willingness to nap on the couch at any time.

I can't compete with the noise they make (or their joy at meeting someone!), but in the first trimester, my hyper sensitive nose revealed all sorts of smells of which I was previously unaware.  For instance, I now know why my dogs run over every time I open the fridge or pull the kitchen garbage bag out.  Even though they never get anything out of either event, it smells like food... all the time.

Now that I'm past that stage, my sense of hunger has returned.  I'm actually supposed to eat every couple of hours because of sugar problems, so I'm also never allowed to over indulge.  This leaves me in a perpetual fix-food/eat-food/hungry-for-food cycle.  I often joke that my dogs will eat anything that will stay still, or occasionally just move slowly (Dog #2 and grasshoppers are great entertainment!).  In any case, I'm beginning to seriously sympathize with their continual drive to eat!

As I write this, both dogs are lounging on the couch "watching" the Yankees game with us.  Even with the increased energy of the second trimester (relatively speaking) I'm spending more time resting these days and can tire myself out in a hurry.  And when I need to sit and rest, it is nice to have two warm dogs to lay next to me on the couch.  :-)

In the mean time, I'm (ambitiously) starting my first quilt this weekend!  Well, let's be honest... my second quilt.  I started one way back when I was... 8?  9?  Anyway, it's a patchwork quilt that never got past the piecing stage (I'm seriously considering seam ripping the squares and using them for other projects).  I've meant to learn some quilting techniques for several months now and, as so often happens, it looks like I'm largely going to teach myself.  Pictures of the pattern and fabrics I've chosen are coming soon!

Internet Brain Food

If the internet has one overwhelmingly awesome feature, it's definitely the ability to bring me other people's thoughts and research with such ease.  I use Google Reader for this and it continually surprises me with what it reveals.

Take this for instance: a two-part post on Get Rich Slowly about how money does buy happiness.  It sums up a study that discovered that if money isn't buying you happiness, you're spending the wrong way.  Read the posts for tips on better ways to spend; my favorites are "buy experiences not stuff" and "delay consumption" and I was most surprised by "beware comparison shopping".  This falls very neatly in with my personal theory that money is a tool like any other.  The good or bad it does is related to how it's used, not any innate qualities.  (A favorite quote of mine: "Whoever said money can't buy happiness forgot about puppies!")

Does information like that change how you approach your finances?  Over the last year, DH and I have been trying to concentrate more on experiences than Stuff and it has definitely been good for us!  In digging through the last couple of weeks of posts at Get Rich Slowly, I also found a link to an interesting article that lists things we really could do without.  Some I agree strongly with (GPS, tanning beds) and others (microwaves, debit cards) I think provide a greater benefit than cost, especially in regards to time.

In addition to personal finance, I also get blogs and articles about a variety of science topics.  Yesterday, the Freakonomics blog posted about education versus expertise.  While I could use this to rail against the education system, instead it made me wonder about something psychological.  What the blog and the study it references seems to say (to me at least) is that people who spend time introverting a problem progress better than people who extravert it.  Now, there is definitely some personal bias coming through that interpretation, but the study supports the idea that mentally handling a problem (i.e. thinking about it) produces better comprehension than physically handling it (i.e. repeating a procedure over and over).  Coupled with Myers-Briggs typology (especially the I/E and N/S spectrums), there are all sorts of fun implications for that, but I think the salient point is that education should focus more on teaching people how to approach a problem, how to consider, rather than how to do.

What does the internet bring you?

Book Reading Update

In September of last year, I wrote a post about slimming down my reading list.  Looking back, I'm pretty sure I never followed up on this on the blog, which is a shame since it was one of my most-commented entries.

Here are some stats (numbers = happy me!):

• Read in 2010: 17,347 pages (35 books)
• Left unread in 2010: 23,882 pages (48 books)
• Eliminated: 5,449 pages (14 books)
• Added in 2011: 10,152 pages (22 books) 
• Read so far in 2011: 5,785 pages (12 books) + 1,245 pages (2 books) re-read = 7,030 pages
• Left to read in 2011: 22,800 pages (44 books)

I ended up completely eliminating about 20% of my reading list, although I've certainly added back pages.  The titles that I added fall in four categories: books I owned but hadn't recorded, titles for book club, books I received for Christmas, or books published in 2011 by favorite authors. I have another 2,644 pages that are potentially going away; they're in a box that hasn't been opened since last October, probably for a reason.  I'm also thinking about taking the complete works of Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Hans Christian Anderson, and the Brothers Grimm off my list, which would eliminate another 4,000 pages.  I'd never sit down and read those works cover to cover, but I tackle one or two offerings from time to time.

At this rate, I would almost finish this group of books by the end of the year, assuming I don't go overboard buying new publications.  What do you think... do I go ahead and eliminate those 6,600 pages?  Should a few more books go?  How are your reading lists coming?

Bonus Update:  Books I've read since my last book review post, with hyperlinks going to my reviews:
Persuasion (4 stars)
Stone of Tears (2 stars)
The Forgotten Garden (3 stars)
The Wise Man's Fear (5 stars)

Women Hurt Women

It has been a long running theory of mine that since our great-grandmothers fought for our right to vote and wear jeans and our grandmothers fought for our right to earn a living outside the home and go to college and our mothers fought for our right to earn equal pay for equal work, that our generation is working for our right to have an equal voice.  I also think that our biggest opponents in this fight are ourselves.  Women seem to have a natural self-effacing quality that shirks praise or the limelight.  We also have an innate, evolutionary need to camouflage ourselves in public; most women hate to be dissenters in appearance or opinion, at least when others can see.  Doing otherwise is very much a learned behavior.

So it makes me particularly happy to read the recent backlash against a New York Times' review of HBO's newest series, The Game of Thrones.  The series is based on a set of books by fantasy writer George R. R. Martin which have received rave reviews for their creativity, gritty realism, and intricate, genre-defying plots.  The NYT review of the show, however, seems to think this:

The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.

As one of those women (apparently statistical anomalies) who "read books like Mr. Martin's", this rubs me the wrong way.  (I'm not even going to pretend to know who Lorrie Moore is.)  But what's really horrid about this review?  It was written by a woman.  Thus, I was going to write a little blog entry about why it's particularly awful that a woman was unable or unwilling to seek out diversity in her own gender.  But happily, I find that it's already been done and done well!  Any number of blogs that I follow, with both male and female writers, are up in arms about such a sexist, uninformed viewpoint.  Here are some of the best:

• Geekfemme: about how "woman" and "geek" are not mutually exclusive terms.
• Almost Diamonds: A quick personal story about why some people read fantasy.  Amazingly, for the strong female characters who get themselves out of tough spots.
• Bleeding Cool: A longer but very thorough piece on why it's particularly heinous that a woman wrote this review.  She says it in a more controlled and precise way than how I would have rambled from point to point.
• MSNBC: A regular article from the day before the NYT piece about how women are increasingly driving geek trends.  Guess we're not so anomalous after all. (Plus, the point that the article makes about women's shirts at the end is a pet peeve of mine.  I am not a small man.  If you want me to buy your merchandise (and why wouldn't you?), make it in my size!)
• io9: My favorite of all the responses; this piece asks why men would want to watch a show so obviously geared toward women?  The snark is great because she makes a relevant, valid point: it's all about perspective and individual taste... and it should be.

This comes off sounding like a rant about empowering geek women and maybe it is a bit.  But whatever your favorite literary flavor, here's why you should care: Anti-Bullying Starts in First Grade.  It's a very personal article about a little girl who was teased at school for having a Star Wars lunch box & thermos.  That sounds like a typical scenario (and kids will do this kind of thing in spite of what they're told), but what is important is the response.  The little girl wanted to change her thermos; essentially hiding her individuality, although at 6 years old she's just trying to avoid teasing.  I think her mom's response is spot on and it's why I'm pleased that so many writers responded to the NYT review's defaming and wrong characterization of women who read and watch fantasy.

As I think more and more about what I want my child to know, it comes down to this: the point isn't that teasing and bullying and narrow-minded people are facts of life.  Knowing that it's important to stand up for yourself every day is the lesson.  You can't appreciate the wonderful diversity of life if you don't promote it in yourself.  I hope my children grow up knowing that individuality should be approached with interest and wonder, both in themselves and others.

Tea and Penguins

After my last huge post, here's some fun:

• Penguin Tickling!  Yes, you read that right.  This 22 second video is much more hilarious than it should be.  Mild warning: this made my dog sit up and look for the noise, so if your animal(s) is irritated by weird noises, well, be prepared.
• English Tea History.  I found this in my quest to decide on a Jane Austen menu for book club.  It's a great site for all things Jane Austen or Regency, but that particular page gives a great, accurate history of tea drinking.  I was surprised to find some particulars on the how tea was served during the Regency/Georgian era versus Victorian and Edwardian eras.
• American & English tea history.  This website is harder to read, but worthwhile if you're interested in the differences between early tea service, tea as a separate event, and tea in America.

After all this talk about tea and penguins, I sort of want to pull out a copy of Mr. Popper's Penguins to read.

And best of all, my dad is now a published author!  His book, Spann's Guide to Gibson: 1902 to 1941, is available for pre-order through Amazon and other major distributors.  My father is a historian, genealogist, and musician, so the information in this book is a showcase of both his talents and his interests.  How cool is that!?