We hadn’t mentioned it because we didn’t want a buzz going on, but Jane had been having trouble with irregular heartbeat, and after 2 bouts with a Holter monitor and visits to a cardiologist, plus an angiogram, we were shunted over to a second cardiologist with a specialty in the electrical (nerve) aspects of the heart, who ran an MRI and declared it was weird, but that an ablation might be in order, but HE sent us over to Seattle to consult with one of the specialists in the Cardiac unit of the University of Washington. Which Jane did. And that doc said indications are it’s over-active cells up in an inconvenient place, that urgently needed to be gotten rid of, and she could do that. So Jane got a surgery date for the UW Hospital, and we went home, then back again this Monday.
The surgery involves catheters passed up into the heart to zap the rascal cells, and this happened Tuesday. Jane overnighted in the hospital, a real nice place where even the hospital food is good—and the procedure was a success. She is now off the med that was controlling the problem. The doc is happy. We’re happy. We’re safely home again.
Thank you for sharing the good news about Jane’s health, C. J. I am so glad to hear she is doing better.
Hard time getting online in Alaska so just seeing this about Jane, good it is taken care of. Best to you both.
Thank you all. She’s doing great, very happy with her outcome, and off the Metropolol, which makes her doubly happy. Energy is returning.
This is good.
That is good to hear!
I’m wishing her a speedy recovery, and you both all the best.
@BCS, on retyping this (I lost my first answer), I think I’ll leave off the side discursion on “borrelnootjes”, i.e. coated peanuts, and their derivation from a shot of gin, via drinks and a cocktail party… “Duyvis, als er een fuif is” (whenever there’s a party)….
I think I’ve been quite sidetracked and sidetracking enough, all over these last few posts, sorry folks!
But like BCS, I really enjoy chatting on here in a relaxed way that happens nowhere else on the Internet, for me.
@HRHspence and other language teachers, @chondrite and @Cathy in PA —
I’m looking for information on the current version of my old Spanish textbook, as well as what Spanish textbooks your students (and grandson for Cathy) use.
I have my old Spanish textbook, En Contacto, in print, and haven’t double-checked the edition or publication date, but this is the old 1980’s edition with a blue and grey cover, Gill Sans and Palatino used throughout. I hope the workbook is still in storage. The textbook is here. (My original was ruined years ago and I bought another.)
However, I’m considering getting the current edition in a month or so, one volume at a time. There are two books, available as eTextbooks for Kindle, and in paperback print editions. Amazon now offers a combo deal where, if you buy both the print and ebook editions, you get a substantial discount on the ebook. These appear to run $60 to $78 for the ebook or print edition alone, $10 more gives you the other format.
The book info says the ebook offers video segments (and possibly other audio?) along with the text.
The books are:
En Contacto: Enhanced Student Text: Gramática en acción (World Languages)
9th Ed. / 2014-01-01 / Publisher: Cengage Learning
Authors: Mary McVey-Gill, Brenda Wegmann, Teresa Mendez-Faith;
ISBN-13: 978-1285461540
ISBN-10: 1285461541
En Contacto: Lecturas intermedias (World Languages)
9th Ed. / 2011-01-01 / Publisher: Engage Learning
Authors: Mary McVey-Gill; Brenda Wegmann; Teresa Mendez-Faith;
ISBN-13: 978-0495908418
ISBN-10: 049590841X
I liked the edition I have, but I’m considering this for the ebook editions, with more media such as the videos and ebook features and convenience, always available and I can resize the text, important to me. — But I wish the Kindle apps were better about that with magnification and layout and the actual, real typography.
Spence, Cathy, and Chondrite, I’d appreciate it if you have any opinions on these two books. I take it the second is advanced or additional material to go with the comprehensive first book. I know this has a grammar-based approach with related vocabulary and grammar concepts taught in units, in the edition I used. There are also, in the old edition, units in each chapter on cultural highlights / significance and compare and contrasts with American Anglo culture.
If, however, your school systems use other textbooks, and these might be available through Amazon or elsewhere online, I would also very much appreciate (and need) opinions on those. — Chondrite, I realize you’re a public librarian and not with the school system there, but if you have contacts who are language teachers, I’d appreciate your input.
I have just gotten: Complete Spanish Step-by-Step by Barbara Bregstein in Kindle ebook edition. I have my great Spanish-English New World Dictionary (chunky paperback) and a Barron’s 501 Spanish verbs book, with my old reference books, I hope and pray, in storage to be retrieved. There should be a larger desk dictionary too, and I hope my old workbook to go with En Contacto, plus a few other reference books.
(A new copy of the Barron’s French 501 verbs book, plus my old Larousse desk dictionary and a pocket dictionary, and my old French Lit survey textbooks are here and safe. Others such as the Savoir et Connaître in its gradient brown-orange cover) and others are, I hope, in storage.)
Back in junior high, the textbook we used was Used y Yo, with a khaki-olive cover with photos. I have not looked for it. It was good as a junior high textbook and a good intro to Spanish.
Any opinions would be welcome and needed. — I’m thinking of getting the first volume for En Contacto in September or October, and the second volume the following month, spread out the budget hit. I am trying to be more conscientious about that.
I want to have really good resources in ebooks as well as in print.
I’m going to sit down with the Dutch books Hanneke and Chondrite sent, and look those over, then study review Spanish tonight. I am very irked at myself because I want to be further along and I think I’ve gotten myself irked enough to be truly serious and jump back into it again. Reading in my old French textbook the other day, plus (hah) thinking of how French and Spanish might develop into the future had me all too aware of things I have forgotten and should know, dang it.
I found myself unsure of basic tense forms in Spanish, whether I still have all the endings right, and irregular verb forms, and, dang it, I was good at this before. It shouldn’t take a lot to get myself back up to former fluency, but I want to restart from the very beginning and work all the way through my old textbook. — I had started on that at times before, but each time, I’d get interrupted and involved with other things and set it aside. I’m _hungry_ for this now. More and more people around me in my daily life, neighbors or contacts when I go anywhere, are American Latinos or immigrants, and more are better at Spanish than English. I need this for maintenance workers, neighbors, and ordinary contacts if I get to go anywhere. And dang it, I miss being fluent. — I want to get good enough to read everyday Spanish and French again. I was pretty good (made A’s in college too) in high school, with Spanish II and French III, and then into college and completing French to go to the French lit survey course, 2 semesters. — I would not be as fluent as immersion-level for daily conversation, but I could get there. So, dang it all, I want to again.
Studying tonight. I’m going to make this a habit at least every other night, likely before bed or when I get up and am rested. I expect it’ll kick back into fluency and current memory at some point, back to my former level.
Dutch, with the little study I’ve done, seems really doable also. I absorbed more last time, and for instance, that snack bag text was almost in reach. I could recognize several things and want to see how close I got to the real meanings. It’s so similar and yet so different, it makes it really tantalizing.
And CJ and Jane, thank you both. Because of checking here and the Shejidan forum, I’ve had the great chance to make friends here and enjoy so many things. I miss the activity of the Terra Firma Farscape forum and The Signal’s Firefly forum, from years ago. This has become my primary fannish contact, and I sure like getting to “talk” vicariously with other fans and yourselves about so many subjects.
I have realized that’s what I’ve been doing, and maybe that’s why I’ve had such meandering, longer replies. I think I’m using this as long-distance conversations, as if I were with you all at a con or in the neighborhood, some gathering, a chance to talk with friends with common interests. I need this contact. So folks, please excuse that. — I’m also considering putting things on my own blog, but past experience says I’d have way more contact and interaction here.
Off to look at new books and study Spanish for an hour or two.
BCS, new textbooks cost a horrendous amount of money… and often the cheaper, online versions are a shortish time-only “rental (I.e. the book self-destructs/disappears from your computer after a certain time). Publishers make their money off of sales of new editions, even when the content changes little. When I teach, I generally encourage my students not only to get a used copy of the textbook but to buy one or two editions prior to what is the latest version. I suggest you look into that. Also, http://www.ABE.com is an excellent and huge consortium of independent, used book sellers that can have very inexpensive books.
@Raesean, thanks so much. Yes, when I buy a book, I want to “buy” it instead of “rent” it and then lose access to that info when it deletes itself, disappears. The rental price is not often any big discount, either, and what serious student wouldn’t want to keep key textbooks for reference and review? After all, that’s why I kept a few of mine. Er, and I _like_ books. Heh. — For now, I’m avoiding getting the new two books. (But I’ve purchased grammar charts for review and a couple of other books, so the textbooks will probably get purchased eventually.)
@HRHspence — na Spence, if you see this, I’d still like your opinion on the two textbooks or alternatives, from colleagues who teach Spanish. Thanks in advance.
I discovered a newer version of the Barron’s 501 Spanish Verbs book, which appears to be better formatted. I’m not sure yet if it is free of bitmapped graphics rather than text tables.
If you haven’t tried Duolingo dot com yet, give it a whirl. Most of what I dislike about deadtree and recorded audio files to learn languages is mitigated in this computer program.
Na Spence, thank you. I’ll check out Duolingo.
My instinct to do verb form review for Spanish was a good idea, and is helping. It’s coming back, but I see I need more review to make it stick.
It looks like my French grammar is still mostly there, just rusty in key places that need review also. I never felt I had that good a handle on the subjunctive or on the literary tenses, for instance, even when I was into my French Lit. classes. — Reading again there was encouraging, but rusty.
My time is still divided, and I am not yet back into a regular study schedule, but it is getting there. — It felt good to be reviewing, though, and getting back into it, toward fluency again. It’s so odd to be reminded of my high school and college self, from this. I’m so different and so much the same. So much water under the bridge; that was 2/3 of my life ago.
Spence, I hope you have some standout students who go on to love languages. I am so glad I had the junior high, high school, and college teachers for Spanish and French that I had. I had a few other outstanding teachers too.
Well, nuts. Apparently, my address didn’t get updated for taxes (from two counties) on a royalty that is taxed by both, because it’s “shared” underground of both. :-/ This means I could have either one or two years’ back taxes due, and will have to work it out somehow. Terribly discouraging. It’s no longer producing much, but it’s something.
Naturally, the message was left sometime Friday and I didn’t know it, and the young lady (at a law office) says it has to be off her desk by the 6th, and of course, it’s about to be Labor Day.
And…I started my dryer and…good thing I was still in there. I turned it off. I want it out of there. — Smelled like it was overheated. I think I may have averted disaster.
I’m going to call friends who are supposed to have a contact to get appliances at a discount (home renovations, house flipping) to see if I can get a _new_ replacement this time, and some pro to install it. I don’t want another used lemon.
It really should be time for me to catch a break. So discouraged. — I am going to watch a video and then study Spanish some more.
@Chondrite and @Hanneke, I’ll also be looking through the books you sent, again. I had the chance last night to look over the two Chondrite sent, now a week or two ago. Neat stuff I will enjoy reading and studying. Hanneke, I think I may have enough to make some progress now on Dutch.
— I looked again for the old “carrot” catnip toy the cats have always liked, and found it. I also looked again for a larger mouse and mole/whatever-it-is and squirrel (Maybe OutrPets, maybe not) that my cats liked. I didn’t find it last time (what arrived were small cat toys with tubes of catnip, instead). So maybe I’ve found these and re-ordered.
Heh, no idea where the catnip mouse ended up, or if the catnip is strewn all over once the new kitty (or Goober) got to it. — I’ll locate it today.
The small wok is still somewhere obscurely out of the way, wherever I put it, which is obviously not where I thought, and not easy to find. :-/ The replacement is due very quick, possibly today or tomorrow.
I’m going to have hamburgers (but I’m out of lettuce) with cherry tomatoes on the side, ’cause I’m out of tomatoes, lol — unless I decide to fix spaghetti instead, for Labor Day.
There are wet clothes in the dryer I’m going to hang in the bathroom, in hopes they can dry. I have an unbelievable backlog of laundry…and ordered more underwear because of it. Dang dryer.
But rent and utilities should have gone through, so except for groceries, two sets of tax payments to go forward, and a new dryer, and a vet bill if I can get them there…well, at least rent and utilities are paid for the month. :-/ I need for my life to get better, please.
I will get past this, but dang, I can’t seem to catch a break. — Have a very good Labor Day weekend, folks. I’m going to try to in spite of this, and hope to get things taken care of after the holiday. I hope the tax bills won’t be as bad as I think. :-/ Just…dang it.
I got home from my adventures at my sister’s place to find a medical bill had arrived and the due date had passed while I was gone. I’ve made a partial payment – after calling them to let them know what had happened – so I think I’m okay for now.
But it’s been a long month….
Called my friend, who was supposed to return my call and didn’t, and whose phone went to voice message later when I called back. Going to call him this afternoon or tomorrow.
Hoping I can at least get the dryer resolved. Yesterday’s clothes are not dry yet, so I won’t be doing another load today, but I’m resolved to air-dry until things are better, because it’s reached critical mass and I just can’t stand having multiple(!) bags of laundry hanging around not done.
The tax thing will have to get resolved when the young lady is back in the office. I hope I can get it paid all in one go, or a few, and meanwhile, will have to get the other one going too. Ugh. — Be it resolved, to contact the county / district taxing authorities, make dang sure my owner info and address are updated, which probably involves them sending me forms via mail. Fine, just…I can’t pay something if I never got the bill, and I’m not aware of having gotten the bill. (Annual.) It skipped my mind that I hadn’t gotten something, which meant that my address hadn’t been changed. So…phooey. I just hope it’s manageable with my current lack of enough income, further eating into savings.
Not too happy with my local friends. At this point, I think I’ll be very lucky if I get them to come by so I don’t miss my (3rd try at a 1st) vet appt. :-/
I am cooking pinto beans, which went into two pots, because I soaked the bagful. Tomato paste, veggies (mirepoix or else peppers-and-onions), and some leftover roast chunks will go into this once it’s cooked down. — The hamburgers are therefore reserved for later, and a grocery delivery needs to happen this week too.
Just very basic stuff. My life feels reduced down so much. — And I don’t have much energy today, just want to rest, so the beans will be activity enough. — Still, I may get into some cleanup. Haven’t lost momentum on that.
Some Spanish and Dutch study will happen today, and another episode of Horatio Hornblower.
I want to reread Alliance Rising. After that is Goblin Mirror, just because I haven’t read that one. I need a Cherryh fix. 😉
Wishing everyone a good holiday.
The new kitty has had a slight cough / congestion twice, but seems overall OK. He’s still pooping plenty and has a loose stool. He’s peeing OK. (I got concerned, then heard him at the box.) So… TMI, probably, but it says he needs that vet checkup, to be sure he’s OK, and deal with anything there might be. (If he has something more serious, I’ll have to deal with that too. I’m committed to the little so-and-so by now.) He and Goober were snoozing, not together, but a few feet apart, last night, not on my bed, but in the room with me. Hah, progress, I think. — He’s still grabby, still doesn’t know to keep his claws in. But heck, he’s a nice cat, and sweet. (Yesterday, he “helped” me with looking for things and cleaning up. This morning, he was on the counter, to eat his food before it was put down on the floor. But he and Goober are getting along fine about food. Then the new kitty, Curry, wanted to get some of what I was having for breakfast, a roasted veggie tamale (Cedar Hill brand, they also make a good sweet corn tamale). Hmm, kitty, you’ve got to learn you can’t nose in on my food. But that you feel safe enough or brae enough to try this now, is a sign you think I’m pretty safe. So good on that.
Goober and Curry, and here, remain bright spots in my life.
Writing may happen today too.
Enjoy the holiday, folks. I’m going to try to enjoy it anyway, despite pending things bothering me.
Barron’s 501 (Language-Name) Verbs — Book Series — Kindle Edition
The Kindle edition _still_ has most of its information, not in EPUB HTML tables of text, but in small, low-resolution, therefore hard-to-read and blurry, bitmapped graphics! Most of their tables have been converted into bitmaps (you know, like photos or line art) in the Kindle ebook edition.
These really need to be text-based tables, which I know EPUB has, just like text-based tables in HTML are readable, selectable, searchable.
Microsoft Word and its other programs used to convert tables and other things into graphics — over 10 years ago. I can’t believe Barron’s, with a book resource that so heavily uses tables, would have their entries in bitmapped graphics. Awful. Dang near unusable. The graphics do not scale with the text in Kindle either.
However, I’ve now done enough review that I should be just about sure of the endings for the basic verb forms except subjunctive and the compound / perfect tenses. No wonder I wasn’t sure of the past imperfect: the AR and the ER/IR endings are so different, it’s almost like having two different tenses. And that makes me wonder what the past imperfect was in Latin, to produce that in Spanish. I think I have the preterite down better, and the present, future, and conditional, just needed a brush-up review. — Once I get the two subjunctive moods and the compound / perfect tenses reviewed, I should be good to go again. I need to brush-up more on the pronouns, but that, I still have mostly in memory. — I’ll still want to go through and review everything start to finish, but I see I’ll get back to fluency faster than I’d hoped. — This needs extended practice to make sure I really have it back again, but I’m more pleased with my progress.
French, I still need to review, especially the “literary” tenses, which aren’t used anymore in spoken French, but still (oddly) are used in written French, though less so nowadays. I’m encouraged here. It looks like I’m still pretty good, just need to shake off the rust. The two languages reinforce each other, because the grammars and endings are so similar, though there are plenty of differences.
— The beans turned out fine though one pot (smaller burner) cooked slower and the larger burner cooked too fast. Hurray, no sticking or scorching! So glad.
Quiet otherwise; I’m taking a break before doing some more reading and watching a video. I don’t want to try to absorb too much at once and lose parts of it.
If I’m not mistaken, today is Someone’s birthday. Happy birthday, dear C. J., And many, many more! Thank you for all the joy you’ve brought, and continue to bring, your readers, and we wish the same to you, tenfold. I hope you and Jane are having a wonderful day.
Happy birthday to my favorite author!
September, maybe no costume and go “skinny” during the end of summer’s warm weather? I can call this “G” rated still, can’t I? All too soon the weather will turn, and I’ll need to wear a costume. Besides, we all know what’s coming next month! Got my costume all ready. 😉
This week I’ll need to get up on the roof and walk the edge with the leaf blower to clean out all the schmutz. Need to do it while it’s all dried out! Even a little sprinkle is not good. Is that the sort of thing a 75 year-old man ought to be doing? I don’t want a “gutter garden”! And the alternative would be to spend some of my SS money to pay someone to do a not so good job. While I can, I do.
I hope that today was felicitous for you!
Just joining in the felicitations and hoping they are fortunate. Cheers.
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday, CJ!
This morning’s kitty adventure was a mix.
First the not-so-good, then the good. I cleaned up poop in a corner; he still is not entirely litterbox trained. (Sigh.) The universe has a sense of dark humor and fair play and karma or kismet, I think. But OK, mea culpa, and Curry, the new kitty, is worth the effort by far.
Now the good stuff: After a fine breakfast, approved by both cats, Curry hopped up on the counter by the fridge, where there are magnetic letters, which I couldn’t resist, for the font allusion. There’s also a cup for a dry-erase board, mostly unused. Curry got interested in these and magnetic chip bag clips there, and reached up to play and investigate the possibilities. Hah, and here I am, thinking, oh, kitty, what if you knew what those letters were, and wanted to reach for them? He was so pleased with everything. A little attention and some good food and water and a good place to sleep, another cat and a human to be with, and he is so very happy and curious. Goober, meanwhile, also wanted some attention. (He’s figured out he doesn’t have to be second to nothing, that he’s still loved too.) They are not quite buddies together yet, but they are getting used to each other and both are beginning to consider the idea. I am not sure yet, but just maybe Goober will have a better, more equal relationship with the new kitty, Curry. Food behavior is fine, no fussing with each other, though I don’t think the new guy is entirely cured of wanting to steal Goober’s food yet, and Goober is still too timid about this.
Seeing them, how little it takes to please them at times like that — If only everyone could have enough to eat, a good home, people who care, this world would be a much better place, and maybe we could figure out how to deal with those who are still so greedy as to always want more and want to take what others have, instead of going out to find their own and improve things for themselves and others. I think that might be the difference. It’s fine to have “itchy feet” and wanderlust, to want more, to want to create and improve things. Those are good traits. A little assertiveness, toughness, is a good thing too. It’s those who want to take from others, who want to destroy instead of create, who are the problem. I wish there were also a way to solve that.
A birthday wish, then. Sure, I’m always going to be prone to be a dreamer, one who tilts at windmills.
A very happy birthday, CJ; may you and Jane have an excellent day and continued good health and happiness.
A day late but heartfelt nonetheless, Happy Birthday CJ! I’m glad your “gifts” included Jane’s recovery. Hugs to you both.
CJ, I sent you an e-card yesterday. It would have been through Jacque Lawson’s website…..no indication you got it, though. Happy Birthday!
I see that the John W. Campbell Award for best new SF writer has been renamed the Astounding Award, after criticism by this year’s winner, Jeannette Ng.
John W. Campbell was certainly racist, even by the standards of his time, and it was probably the right thing to do, despite his huge contribution to SF.
There’s an interesting and balanced article in the Guardian about Campbell, and Enid Blyton, who was rejected for a commemorative coin in the UK, also because of racism.
I’ve lately been re-reading a few years of early ’90’s Analogs that have been floating around in the house. I do notice a libertarian flavor to the editorials and some of the “science fact” articles–interesting in themselves 25 years on. Now, this is during Stanley Schmidt’s stint as editor, yet it was still the magazine Campbell made.
Firstly, in the line of “ex post facto” laws, it seems to me that we have lately become all to eager to judge the past and its people by the mores of the day. That’s a very narrow path to tread. One should go very carefully and with certain trepidation.
Secondly, those of us who believe in Science also tend to believe that the “laws of nature” are inviolate, e.g. F=ma, “Thou shalt not go faster then c, it’s the law.” To be sure, almost nothing in Science IS a law; a theory is about the best most things accomplish. Scientists sometimes forget this and have absolutist ideas, or is it the other way around?
As Lao Tsu is sometimes translated, “Nature is not human-hearted.” A common theme in SciFi is a plot where someone is fated to die because (s)he got into a situation at odds with “how things work”. It shows a distinction between Scientists and Humanitarians. These days Science is not popular.
I am not so sure I agree with this excising of people who were racist in the past. Did they not do things to be remembered? You can love the sinner but hate the sin. Should we destroy all of the Tarzan books? I rather choose to recognize racism in literature and move on. Many times it merely reflects the time the work was written. In many ways I am conflicted.
At any rate, a belated birthday greeting to Ms. Cherryh.
On the one hand, I think it’s risky and extreme to ignore the good that’s done because of someone’s faults, the bad they’ve done.
On the other, well, some things are indeed bad, and need to be stopped, and should not be glorified.
On the third hand (hah) not everyone agrees on what is right or wrong; even the majority can be wrong about some idea, some action, at any given time. There needs to be room so that entire groups are not vilified. The trend so often lately in public speech and writing is too often to demonize the other side to such an extent that there is no possibility of discussion or compromise or cooperation, in matters where, really, people must come together to work out solutions to real problems, and if one solution doesn’t work, to try something else until they find a method that works. But I suppose this is mixing the two, determining that one or the other side is not necessarily wrong, versus how to foster working together for solutions to large problems.
It is scary-worrisome to see cases lately on the news where racist hate groups have been more active, have gained ground, while so many people do not want that and actively work against it, either countering such groups, or in daily life, in how we treat people.. And to have it become at all acceptable again, or excused or ignored, by political and religious figures is a giant step backward, towards racism, prejudice, violence, treating people wrongly, unfairly, for no good reason. (It is also wrong to assume that someone is necessarily guilty of prejudice for being, for example, a white male. It is also wrong to think that minorities can’t be prejudiced, or that the majority are not prejudiced or are not accepting. Either can be true of particular people or groups. And well, none of us are perfect, likely.
Lately, there’s been a flap claiming Gene Roddenberry was sexist or racist. Oh, come on. In a time when women and minorities were almost never shown as equals, in positions of authority or everyday life, Gene R. insisted on a higher level of equal, fair treatment than the majority or the network. He was also not without his personal faults, which have been noted elsewhere. But overall, he wanted a woman as second in command and had minorities on the show from the start, and then as officers and ordinary people, right along with everyone else, throughout the original series. If anything, the network was far more short-sighted and prejudiced on both racism and sexism. And although I was a baby at the time, I’m told those sexy, revealing miniskirts were a statement of women’s liberation at the time, doing away with all those petticoats and nonsense, and saying that a woman could be both smart and competent while also sexy and feminine. Oh, sure, those miniskirts were form-fitting and showed off a woman’s curves and lots of leg. Admittedly, that was for women of a certain age and figure/build, as in, under 30 and slim and in good athletic shape. But well, also, it was a TV show, and the old adage that sex sells is true. Gene R. had also said he wasn’t above the menfolk being sexy. It’s hard for me to understand the criticisms, given that Star Trek had several firsts and notably lasting standards, from women in command (Pike’s Number One) to black women officers (Uhura did get to man the helm/nav station and Spock’s science station in a pinch, and Uhura was right there on the bridge, and could give orders too, mister). Whoopi Goldberg and Dr. Mae Jemison both cited Uhura as a great example, showing them, growing up, that a black woman could be more than just a servant, she could be right there with the white men. And the story of MLK commending Nichelle Nichols for playing Uhura, saying she was needed there, is well-known.
Yet people lately have been revisionist and have forgotten, or never knew to begin with, those strong contributions.
That said, there are people who were not shining examples, who were in fact bad about some things, however good they were in other ways, including well-known figures in science fiction. That is a tough thing to accept and deal with.
And, well, this affects me in a very personal way. I’m handicapped, and that affects me every day of my life. I’m an “invisible minority” because of it. Oh, I’m a member of that white male majority, sure. But I don’t always have the same real chances in everyday life that normally-sighted people do. So I am very sensitive to prejudice, to lack of fair and equal opportunities. And yet, I am not perfect either.
Also, it’s personal because, well, being gay is still a controversial thing. There are people I know, past and present, who are not OK with someone being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or a few others (such as intersex) which are all frustratingly given letters in an alphabet soup acronym which really doesn’t help much. — I have family and friends who either don’t accept, or who are conflicted about, people being not straight. And I grew up with that, internalized, so that I still have trouble dealing with my own feelings. — People still regularsy get discriminated against, bullied, gossiped about, denied opportunities, or physically assaulted, for being other than straight. I see this in my own life at least weekly, minding my own business. — I don’t like that homophobia, like racism, as been gaining ground lately. I don’t like that religious people use beliefs to exclude or hate or fear; and yet I grew up with a subtle, usually unspoken, or unspeakable/unthinkable, kind of barrier at home, in my own family, as well as from friends I loved and trusted, at school, in church, at work, at college.
I am a bit radicalized, I am sure, because life has not always been good to me or people I love, in prejudices like these. (Also ageism, sexism, too thin or too fat. I saw my mom and grandmother have to put up with that when they were old and not well. I’ve seen folks with other handicaps go through that.)
And I have had family and friends who had their faults about these things too. In particular, I I not so privately nicknamed one aunt my “anti-aunt” because she got so bad about things like that, and more so as she got older. — That aunt has more grandkids than my other aunts and uncles, and although I don’t hear from my first-cousins anymore, I feel bad for any of their kids, my anti-aunt’s grandkids, if they are not straight, because that one in particular, that aunt is toxic about. Er, and I don’t know if ay of them are, but I know other cousins are or might be, including one who was years younger than I am and who died before I had come out, when he was still a teenager. I wish I’d known and had been able to help; and I wasn’t in a very good place at that time either.
So I have reasons to want something better. We have to set a standard that we, as a society, don’t put up with things like racism or homophobia or discrimination against handicapped people, or various other things.
We also have to be willing to admit that, again as a society, we were wrong in the past and have had to learn from it. — I don’t think trying to sweep things under the rug, to forget about them, not talk about them, is right. How are we going to avoid the same mistake in the future, if we don’t acknowledge it and teach what happened?
As an example: Some years ago, I was a volunteer forum admin on a website. There were teens as well as adults on the forum, and people of all kinds there. One teen posted something he thought was funny, a picture of a yard decoration on a porch. He was about to go off to college, so he was old enough to understand things. But he had never heard of this in school or at home, in history. So he didn’t know why that would be offensive to some people, black and white, who did know the history of such things, and why that would be at least troubling, and probably offensive.
So by messages, I had to get across to the young guy, carefully, why that was not OK on the forum, why it was too likely to cause trouble, bad feelings, anger, flame-wars on the forum, which would involve him as a target or participant.
He had no idea, and was confused about it, until I explained the history of those bits of the past. (Yes, he was a middle-class to upper-middle-class white teen at that time. He had somehow never heard of or seen anything about that in history or from his friends or family talking.) Once I went through an extensive back-and-forth message exchange –oh,he got it then, and was shocked, and apologetic, and agreed to take that down. — And I, as someone old enough to be his dad, had to shake my head and wonder just how that and much else about the history of racism in America had not been covered in his history classes at school, or somehow learned at home or with friends. Because I knew what those were and why they were not just folk art or a funny commentary on whatever political thing it was he thought was funny at the time. (And he’s now over 30, I think, and long past college, and possibly a teacher. Life goes on.) — But on the plus side, he probably learned more than he had in his history classes in high school, about what that really was in life and history, about why it would bother people, both black and white and in blended relationships, who knew what that image was really about, and not just some folk art pieces on a porch. Sigh. I had to explain the old phrase that was used, also, which really shocked him. — So he learned. But it’s very troubling that he had no idea of the history, so recent, of what that was and why it would be so troubling. (I had had a request by two people involved with the website already, who had seen it. They knew he wasn’t a bad guy, but they also had strong personal opinions, because of friends and family and their own backgrounds. So they’d asked me to talk it over with him and resolve it. I was glad it went OK, but it was a process of extended conversation to do so.)
So… Life gets so complicated. So many people have different was of thinking and doing.
And as I write this, outside my window, a neighbor is having a rapid conversation in Spanish, while another neighbor is talking with a friend in (maybe exaggerated, maybe not) black dialect. Yup, where I live is more and more a minority mix, with white folks just another minority among the rest. But that is the reality of the city where I live. That is, increasingly, our future. And folks who want it to be for whites only, or their particular little group (ethnic, religious, political, sexual preference, ability, whatever) really need to understand: Not all of the world is like they are, and not everyone else wants to be, either. Somehow or other, we all have to learn to get along. … Or as Benjamin Franklin said about the American Colonies during the Revolution, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Oh, he was and wasn’t talking about something else, and no, he also wasn’t perfect.
Sometimes, I need a soapbox, I guess.
The TOS men’s uniforms were also prone to showing all the figure flaws. But the women’s were surprisingly comfortable when done with a two-way stretch knit (like heavier swimsuit fabrics)…though they generally were worn with a leotard and tights, for improved non-viewing.
Programming — I would love recommendations on current resources. I want to review my former, now very rusty and outdated programming skills. — I also want to learn PHP and Python. I’ve purchased a book to begin learning Python, but advice would help.
I’m on a Mac these days, and it will likely be a very long time (months or more) before I can afford to buy a Windows laptop again. (My old one took so long thinking about whether to update itself that I shut it down in disgust. It’s now somehting like 9 or 10 years old.)
I don’t know anymore what’s out there in terms of development environments (the editor and compilers and such) to start again. When I was in college, I had the old Borland Trubo Pascal IDE, mid-to-late 80’s, which ran under MS-DOS. Windows had not yet reached 3.1, haha. Our computer labs used Compaq 386’s and, for the university’s Unix DEC-VAX computers, there were terminals. (I think those were DEC-VAX 360’s; I’m no longer sure.) — I had Pascal, C, and Fortran in my intro c.s. course, and got the Pascal compiler rather than the Turbo C compiler. This was old C, before an update in the 90’s, and I’m not sure C++ had been invented yet. I also had a Data Structures course, which ate my lunch. (I’d gotten A’s in my other CS courses. I got a D in the Data Structures course. But that was at perhaps my lowest point in college. If I hadn’t been dealing with so much personal stuff, I think I could’ve done better.)
I taught myself early JavaScript, which was early enough that mostly, it was slogging through incompatible browser bugs, as much as my own learning efforts and mistakes.
But I didn’t pursue JavaScript, while I kept up with HTML and CSS, self-taught, through HTML5 and CSS3. Again, I don’t know PHP, and so my JavaScript is not current and is rusty. I don’t know SQL or databases online, and haven’t used databases much personally in ages.
My professional life was desktop publishing, typesetting, and graphics, with a lot of proofreading, copyediting, and some whostwriting (mostly ad copy, etc.) for clients who did not know how to advertise their businesses. — I was very good at proofing, better than my mom, who had her B.A. in English. And online, I had volunteered on a couple of sites for editing amateur stories, some of which were very good, and others of which were OK, and some were…one or two just needed to go back to English class and learn the basics of grammar and how to write. The slush pile was very, ah, eclectic. (Laughs.) — I hardly ever used my programming or calculus coursework in my work life.
There followed many years of taking care of my grandmother, in which I volunteer sometimes, but basically was too busy taking care of her to do anything else, work or social.
So I am interested in getting back what programming skills I had, and learning new.
At one point, I’d gotten books on Java, but those are either gone or in storage.
—–
Yesterday, for fun, and because I needed something different and it was on my mind — I looked back at a program I’d written in Pascal in the 90’s, then had transferred into JavaScript in the early 2000’s or so, and had updated slightly around 2014, then set aside.
The program is an “alien word maker,” which creates short words based on syllables. In trying to update it into Javascript and make some changes, I had introduced a bug, so that it no longer avoids repeating the same letter. I need to fix that and make sure it still creates syllables properly when I do. — The program was nicer in Pascal, but of course, I no longer have a way I know of to do that; I’d need a development environment; at least a compiler. I could probably translate it to C, which would test my skills.
I want to get it back to the features I had, and expand it to what I want, with several options for how it knows how to build syllables, to save the output to file again, and so on. (Since that wasn’t working at the time in Javascript, I was saving the web page output to file. Clunky. There must be a way to write to files in JavaScript.)
If this works better as a C or other language program, great. But I want to be able to do this again. I also want and need to be able to add features to web pages / site projects, for my own use and in case I can get back to where I could offer that as a job skill.
I am still working on fonts and writing, and still need to organize and repack my apartment and deal with the storage space. I have to find where the info on my last eye doctor’s assessment went to, so I can move forward with that.
But anyway, I was happy to see I could make progress yesterday and last night, with that old JavaScript program. Nothing too fancy, not object-based or struct-based, and oh, there has to be a way to get values from the user for preferences, and to read and write to files, which I must have forgotten about meanwhile.
There is some good chance the old Pascal program would work, but it’s probably Borland Trubo specific to the late 80’s, haha.
I figure it’s enough of a test project to get me going again, toward being proficient, or at least passable.
Suggestions on C, C++, Pascal, JavaScript, Java, PHP, Python, would be welcome. Advice in general would be welcome. — I use BBEdit on the Mac, and I used to use CoffeeCup Software’s Editor on Windows. Heck, I used to use the Borland Turbo Editor, and later the editor from Allaire that got gobbled up by Macromedia and then Adobe, that went into DreamWeaver.
Sigh, if my life had taken a few different turns….
“Humble Bundle” [ https://www.humblebundle.com ] sometimes has Python and other programming bundles. You might check there. (They’re generally packs of 10 to 15 books, in various formats. You can download any or all.)
Thanks, PJ.
Your Pascal program is very likely to run with little or no alteration under Free Pascal. Pascal is famously backward compatible, and Free Pascal is a solid and slick modern version that has been continuously under development since 1993. It was intended from the beginning to be compatible with Borland Turbo Pascal, and later Borland Delphi.
I assume your program is a DOS / Command line program. At another level is Lazarus, an IDE that uses Free Pascal, and allows you to write large, complex, and sophisticated programs with graphical user interfaces and assorted database systems for Windows, Mac, Linux, and other operating systems. There is any amount of help information and hundreds of free components online for Lazarus / Delphi / Free Pascal programming.
I’ve used it and it installs painlessly and runs smoothly with no problems.
Thank you, thank you, GreenWyvern. I would be quite stunned if source code for Borland Turbo Pascal from the 1990’s could compile and run from another IDE on an iMac from 2016, without some major issues. (Such as not compiling, or not running properly if it did.) 😆 But hey, this will be something good to play around with, to see what I can do and what I can figure out.
I’ve got the old source code. I’ve also got the previous and current JavaScript version, which has, by necessity several changes (and compromises) and some updates. — So I will be occupied with this, translating (hah) the new JavaScript back into Pascal and merging them into one, updating from the old Pascal first, then upgrading.
I will also want to see what else is out there for C/C++, modern JavaScript, Java, PHP, and Python. I am pretty much brand new to Java, and entirely new to PHP and Python, though I have seen some PHP code from forum software, years ago. — Ah, I am not going to dive into all of those all at once. I’d be overloaded. But I want to renew my skills. — I was having fun the night before last with the program, but what feel like limits to me in how JavaScript does things, I want to get past. (It’s probably that I don’t know modern JavaScript, as opposed to 10 or 15 years ago.)
Yes, the old Pascal program ran under MS-DOS, using TP’s libraries to use the text=based MS-DOS console screen and keyboard, change colors, get input, and so on. Among other things, I was trying to imitate and understand menus and dialog boxes, and I was OK with file I/O.
I had trouble understanding pointers and dynamic memory allocation and management, in Pascal and C, used in that Data Structures class, and oh, we must have gone through every tiny nuance of linked lists and binary trees and a few others. (I never understood then why they didn’t teach doubly-linked lists, so you could go forward and backward as easily in a list.) — The textbook had the source code in all-caps Helvetica, and was one of the driest, most minutely differentiated reads I’ve ever seen. Naturally, what worked in the book didn’t always work in the wild on real MS-DOS computers at the time. — But this was when I was going through a very bad personal time. If I’d been doing better with that, I might have done fine in the course.
The little program was from years after that, and instead of lists, uses an array of strings to hold the created “alien words.” I need to sit down with it and see really what the algorithm I came up with is doing, and why/how I’d introduced a bug that hadn’t been there before. Then to update it to what I want now and beyond.
At some point, I want to have a version of this online, on a web page, or as a downloadable program people can use on their own computer, since that feels more convenient.
We had to do one program in data structures that used pointers, written in Fortran. (It was a non-recursive version of Quicksort.) It may help to think of them as indexes into arrays, as you have to set them up that way in that language. (If I knew where my notes were, I’d add the examples. I kept the notes, and most of the source code for those projects.)
Pointers — The class did go over using array indexes as pointers, for languages like Fortran and Basic, which don’t use memory address pointers, like in Pascal, C, and probably some/all of the newer languages. I could probably do the index-based pointers from memory, with a little work. My problem was dealing with dynamic pointers, the memory-address reference kind, and how not to drop or orphan them, fall off the list/tree somewhere, creation/allocation and destruction and management, hoarding what you’d already created for reuse. Heh. But my larger problem with the class was keeping all those different tiny nuances of various structures and operations on them in my brain and distinct. (This was before we had any exposure to object-oriented design, which was, I think, either advanced or else new and theoretical at the time. So in Pascal and C, we worked with records / structures and functions as separate things.
This evening’s adventure was spelunking in a book, Eloquent JavaScript, which GreenWyvrn or another member here may have recommended to me. The book looks good as a tutorial, but as a reference for a quick lookup, it wasn’t as useful. (However I can see reading through it will be worthwhile. The author has such things as the story of Jacques the Were-Squirrel, for one example project, and quotes from various people, including Ursula K. LeGuin. I saw an example project regarding text in foreign writing systems, which looked like it would be interesting too. The book is from a more expert approach, but he’s trying to write to a mixed audience of experienced programmers and beginners, and I think it’s likely to go over the heads of beginners. As someone hunting through for quick reference to what I know I had seen (on how to do structs/records or objects in JavaScript), I was frustrated and didn’t find a concise listing. So I’ll look for one of the animal-lithograph cover O’Reilly publisher titles. (Hmm, the Definitive JavaScript dates from 2011, though. I’d rather have something more current.)
I can see I’m not going to be satisfied enough with what I can do in JavaScript and some idiosyncrasies (strongly untyped, everything is an “everything” and highly mutable) in JavaScript, although it also does some handy, neat things along with that. — I would like to go with something more commonly used today than Pascal, but for now, I’m going to port the thing to Pascal and go back to that, I think.
I haven’t yet installed and tried out Free Pascal, but wow, that goes all the way back to my college days coding in Pascal. Heheh. — And porting that into C or something like Java or PHP or Python will, I hope, not be _too_ painful. (But requires learning those, and reviewing what I used to know of C’s rather arcane library functions.
So, just because I just _had_ to jump back into this, I think I’ll be (slowly) getting back my old programming skills and also slowly, learning Python and PHP, and likely Java.
Whew, this is like wading through murky waters. I used to be familiar with this, but will have to relearn a lot about C’s built-in function libraries and how Pascal did some things. (I think my Pascal knowledge will come back easily enough from looking at my old source code, though.)
I’ve got a bit more to go tonight, since I had to nap earlier, but I want some down time to relax and maybe write some too.
To totally turn the discussion: Now that summer is officially, though not meteorologically, over, how have the piscine members of the household faired? I take it the pond-dwellers escaped the trash pandas. And the corals indoors continue to proliferate?
Indeed! I still remember the motorized clam…
Nothing too new on the kitty front. I’ve moved the extra litter box to a more out-of-the-way spot, but (sigh) in the living room / dining nook. We are not yet down to just the one in the bathroom, which I still hope to do. He is still(!) not reliably using the litterbox, and has had two “pooping in the corner” incidents this week, which, ah, prompted moving the litterbox to one such corner. Ick, kitty, that smells, and I really don’t like having to clean that up. Please learn to use only the litterbox. That’s why I clean it daily. He still has some issue which still needs a vet visit. We missed the 3rd try. I’m not happy with my local friends, but still have to find a way to make this work. Some dang how.
On a more fun note, as I was moving things, I came across where Smokey or Goober had hidden a larger cat toy. But before I could set it aside to wash it…Curry or Goober came along and nabbed it. There is therefore a large grey toy mouse somewhere in the apartment, haha, whereabouts unknown to the human. Ah, and at least two cat toy balls, one with a bell, one without.
Curry still doesn’t quite have the “no grabbing, no wrestling with the hand, keep the claws and mouth out of it” rule down. He wants attention, likes being petted, but he’s got lots of energy, gets excited from the attention, and wants to play and keep getting attention. So far, he doesn’t seem to understand this. Earlier progress has slowed. He’s better about it but not solved.
Curry and Goober still have not become good friends. It’s still, give each other room, be peaceful enough and don’t fuss over most things, but I’ve seen one try where they got too close and neither one was happy: there was a hiss, but I’m not sure from whom. — But they aren’t fighting over food, and Curry eats his before he thinks whether he wants to take Goober’s. He’s getting full enough he doesn’t need/want to do that much now. Goober still is reticent; Curry’s the alpha, I think. But he’s not prone to bully, which is an improvement from Smokey’s tendency to do so.
I don’t think Curry recognizes his name yet. He doesn’t understand that he can come when called. This is unusual; by now, nearly all cats I’ve had would be doing so (if they wanted to). Goober is so used to me, it’s like, aw, I don’t necessarily want to come when you call, it’s just you. Haha. — I think Curry hasn’t figured out what this means, or that he could, or why he’d want to. He’s been very used to being a stray, outdoor kitty, with lots of people, cats, and dogs who might be hostile. Yet he really loves getting attention. So I guess we’re working with what we’ve got.
I’ve seen two instances where Curry had trouble jumping or climbing. I don’t know if he has any problems with his eyesight or muscles, or is just still learning how to navigate and move expertly, gracefully. He seems overall to be healthy, but I’ve also noticed, two or three times, a cough or congestion, which doesn’t seem to be ongoing. So he needs that vet checkup to see what he may have going on, basic health, anything ongoing that we’ll have to deal with. — I don’t see anything that appears like a major problem, so possibly, he’s healthy or mostly asymptomatic. Hope to resolve this with a vet visit, shots, neutering, the whole thing still needed, and a checkup and booster shots for Goober. They’ve been together, Curry has been here, for 15 days now. If Curry has anything, it’d be a wonder if Goober has not somehow gotten it too. Hoping they will both be fine. (I have had an FIV+ cat before; his brother was FIV–, and I’ve had cats since my preteens, so I’m undaunted. It is what it is. But I hope for good health and long lives for them.)
Goober’s 13th anniversary of arrival will be the end of October. He was 6 to 8 weeks old then, so he may already be past his 13th birthday. He is healthy enough he may reach over 13-1/2, which would make him my longest-lived kitty. I am hoping he’ll have another year or two, and if he has more than that, it will be truly amazing and welcome. He’s such a sweet cat.
I still keep catching myself wanting to say Smokey’s name. I am still getting used to calling Curry by his name instead of “new kitty.”
Personal Note: My hair needed a trim on the sides and in back. I tried this, but it wasn’t neat and even, so I shaved my head again, not shiny bald, but sandpaper close. It’ll be a few weeks until it needs a trim again, and will be growing out to crewcut length. I’ve gotten used to this, but I would much rather have a regular haircut instead. If I could master trimming it, I’d like that better. My beard was still short enough but scratchy, so I shaved it too. But I think I’ll grow it back for if/when we have cooler (cold?) weather.
It is still warm to hot here, even at night. By mid-October, it should cool down to our typical fall weather, but that can range from the 70’s to the 40’s or 30’s, depending on how things go. Last fall and winter were very mild, with only a few cold snaps for exceptions, and those, mind you, were only flirting with going below 30. Nothing like what folks go through, even in the middle latitudes of the country, much less farther north.
A hurricane was due to hit Florida, and probably has by now. I hope folks there are alright. It was supposed to be cat-3 or cat-4, which is quite bad. I’ve been through that. Saying it’s quite bad is a vast understatement. So, hoping they’re OK.
Nearly Thursday. How has the week gone by so fast?
My gosh, I just checked the weather. It was probably up to 100°F today, and for Friday and Saturday, we’re expected to reach 100°F. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it that high here in September and I don’t know if that’s a record-breaker for Houston. The low is supposed to be down to around 77/78 each night, maybe cooling off to 75 at night in the next week.
I am very glad I don’t have to do heavy work outside.
Side Note: Since coming back in the one time he got out, Curry has shown zero inclination to go outside and face that. I think he knows a good thing when he sees one. He’s found he gets attention and love, some playing, good food and water always available, a friendly cat and human, nice places to sleep…pretty much ideal from a cat’s point of view. I am still being very careful to make sure he’s in.
Their new collars and ID tags are due any day now. — Curry has not worn a collar before, so this will be a new thing. I wish he were better about grabbing before putting a collar on him. Goober is an old hand at this by now. The last time we got fleas in the place, he and Smokey decided a flea collar or collar was a good thing, and since then, no problems, but he still doesn’t like getting a new one put on. — I’ll feel better once they both have tags and collars on, though. Goober has his, but Curry needs his.