The Rule of Seven

My mom must have told me about the rule of seven, from a conversation she had with my brother Rich.  He had been climbing some frozen peak and his face and hands were raw and sore from the cold and climb.  She asked him, "Why would you do this?  How could that be fun?"

Rich explained that some things you appreciate or enjoy after seven seconds, or seven minutes, or seven days, seven weeks, and some experiences take even longer to distill - seven years or more. This has been rattling around in my brain since I got back from visiting Bryan/College Station.  I have thought about it repeatedly while I was running, especially during my last seven mile run on Sunday.

1. Seven years.
Bryan, TX I missed, College Station, not so much.  I stopped by our old house, which looked identical except for the huge tree and rose bushes.  You're welcome, new owners, for the new roof, siding, window shades, tile, paint, and landscaping. Seven years ago that tree was puny.   I never thought it would grow.

I visited our friend Erin and family on Saturday and it was great to see old friends.  We had such good friends in Texas, and Indiana.  Something about the age and being in school together as we were making decisions and raising our kids made it easy to make life-long friends.  It was surprising during my department visit to see how little it and the people had changed, but campus had grown so much. The Beasley Lab, the Cotton Lab, and the Heep Center still felt like home, but I realized the rest of the campus was foreign to me.  I didn't recognize it and I didn't miss it.  

I spent an evening collecting petrified wood out of our cotton fields and Saturday morning at the cemetery.  I thought ten years would feel like a long time, that old wounds would be healed.  I was wrong. 

2. Seven days.

One of the engineers I work with collects instruments from around the world.  I begged him to invite us over so I could play the erhu.  I made a very squeaky, scratchy squawk, but after seven days I am beginning to think I need one of my own.  

 Joe has this great townhouse in downtown Des Moines with a rooftop patio.  He also smoked pork and chicken that was better than at the state fair, which is a high compliment for pork roast.

3. Seven minutes.

On Saturday, Colleen, Kate, and I went to Chichaqua Bottoms Park to go canoeing after we finished planting the garden.  A member of our ward runs the park and promised me free use of his canoe.  I thought this would be a great reward for working hard in the garden.  

Colleen and Kate look happy in this photo, but it is a lie.  Colleen just sat up from her kneeling prayer asking that God would keep her from dying in the canoe.  Kate is repeating to herself, "If I fall out, Dad will rescue me.  If I fall out, Dad will rescue me."  Colleen assured us that the Holy Ghost told her she wasn't going to die this day, but that didn't keep them from crying out for divine intervention to get them out of the canoe and onto dry land the ENTIRE time.  Kate even cried out for Mom to save her!

Then a few minutes after getting out they were both thrilled to be in the water.  Colleen told me how grown up she felt riding in the front of canoe and helping to paddle.  No mention of the hour of terror in the boat.  

4. Seven Seconds. 

On Monday, we had a full evening schedule - 4:50 - piano recital for Emily and Aleah, 6:00 - Graduation party for a friend in the ward, 7:30 - Emily's Choir concert.  Sunday night we all slept downstairs because of tornadoes near Huxley, so the kids were a little on edge, as were parents.  As we were driving to Ankeny, Kate was whining about something.  "What is the matter?" I asked her.  

She said that she wanted to be more like her Dad when she grew up.  I asked her to tell me how she wanted to be like me.  She said that, "I want to eat spicy food.  I want to like peppers and tomatoes.  I want to be able to tickle babies.  I want to take hot baths with really hot water.  I want to be able to snore like you.  I want to read lots of books and go to work.  When I am a Mom, I want to be a Dad." That made my day.  That may carry me through a lot of days actually. 

I was cheery even as we drove through a developing tornado.  

 It didn't touch down, but there was a tornado watch because of this storm.  We spent the first hour of Emily's concert in the locker rooms waiting for the watch to expire.  

Some other things that have went on this last few weeks:

Here is Kate and Emily trying out beards.  Very fashionable.

Emily's band concert.  They have the last concert in the gym with 5-8 grade bands.  There are too many kids and parents to fit any where else.  I love that band is cool at Ballard.  

Leila calls this putting your hatchet where your mouth is.  I met a family at the track meets with turkeys they were willing to give me, if I butchered them.  Big, very tasty birds.  I also sliced my finger with my newly sharpened knives. 

For the freezer

For roasting.  Very flavorful turkey.  

May 3rd we had significant snowfall, then it jumped into the 90s, then dropped down again, and then tornadoes and storms.  I still don't have all my corn planted.  Crazy Midwest weather. 

Lots more to talk about, but this is getting long.  

Update from Riverbend

I received a surprise in my email yesterday.  I had two emails and comments on this post about Riverbend:  She posted an update on her blog for the 10th anniversary of the Iraq war.

It is not a happy anniversary.  When the war began, it was sold as "nation building."  We were told that we had to go to war to topple a dictator that threatened the world with weapons of mass destruction.  After 9-11 this seemed a very real possibility.  We were the good guys that were going to win a quick war with "shock and awe" to liberate Iraq.  But, we weren't.  Iraq quickly fell into chaos and internal civil war.  We did change the government, but we didn't build a nation, we occupied it for a time, and then we left.  

We had 4,481 U.S. military casualties.  Estimates range from 100,000 to almost 600,000 Iraqi deaths.

Estimate of civilian deaths from government and news reports.  From website: Iraqi body count

The social landscape of Iraq was radically altered by the war and the subsequent civil war.  The UN Human Rights Commission estimates 1.4-1.6 million refugees in Iraq - out of a total population of 30.7 million. Most are classified as internally displaced, but if you are forced out of your home you are still a refugee.  The infrastructure was destroyed and still has not been replaced. As reported in the Washington post, by Leila Fadel in 2010, the country still does not have enough electricity and clean water.  She reports that president Maliki tried to defend the situation in 2010 by saying:

"Do not expect the electricity problem to be solved before the power stations being built by . . . the Americans' GE, Germany's Siemens and other companies are completed, which will take two years at least. . . Iraq now is a workshop. The electricity stations are working. The oil companies are working. Water stations are working. Everything is working in Iraq -- but it needs time."  

But they aren't working. Everything isn't working.  Iraq is still broken.  I know that in Iowa summers, when it is 95 degrees outside, it is important to my wife that I get the AC working.  I can't imagine the strife in my household if we lived in Iraq where temperatures rise to 120 degrees in the summer if we did not have electricity or water.  Most people in 2010 had four hours of power a day.  Clean water is not any better.  In 2012, as reported in Al jazeera, Baghdad produces 2.5 million liters of clean water a day, but they need 3.5 million.  That is 1 million liters of drinking water short.  In 2011, the UN reported that 20 percent of households have unsafe drinking water, 43% in rural areas, and that irrigation water was inadequate and unsafe. 

What do we do about it? I don't know know, but it breaks my heart. As Riverbend wrote:

"Finally, after all is said and done, we shouldn't forget what this was about - making America safer... And are you safer Americans? If you are, why is it that we hear more and more about attacks on your embassies and diplomats? Why is it that you are constantly warned to not go to this country or that one? Is it better now, ten years down the line?" 

I am not sure the story will be any better with Afghanistan.  I believe that this was not what we wanted.  So how do we change this?  If you are in Iraq, or have been to Iraq, what can we do?  

Uncle Chris

Leila's brother came to visit us this month.  We don't get that many visitors because no one goes on vacation to Iowa, especially in the winter.  Winters are cold and windy, but also unpredictable.  Sometimes it will warm up and melt all the snow, then the next day it will drop to below zero.  In spite of that, Chris and Andy spent almost a week hanging out at our place, which was great.  Unfortunately we didn't take a lot of pictures.  This is the best, and Leila took this one after Church.

 Here is Chris and Andy at four in the morning before going to the airport.

You know your sister loves you when she gets up at four to say goodbye.

Wooden rings

My first ring was a white gold band Leila bought for me when we were married in 1999.  In Texas I was trying to replace leaky sinks before we sold the house.  I couldn't clamp down on the wrench hard enough with my ring on so I took it off and it put it on the counter.  At some point it must have rolled off - either in the sink or onto the floor, but it was never found again.

In Indiana, Leila found a "silver" band for seven dollars at a bead store.  It looked very similar to the more expensive gold band, especially after it was scratched up.  It didn't rust or tarnish so I am not sure what alloy it was.  I wore it off and on until August.  I was rowing with a very active boat and my ring was wearing a blister into my hand.  I took it off and put it in my shoe.  When we got out of the boat I couldn't find it.  It must have rolled out and is either lodged inside the scull or is in the river.

So since then I have not worn my ring.  I was talking about it at some of our breeding meetings during a break and they had some interesting ideas for inexpensive and interesting materials for a new ring.  One of my coworker's husband has a titanium ring, someone else has a stainless steel ring.  Someone said they had seen a wooden ring.  I was curious about how a wooden ring would be made.  The grain would be weak in one direction, unless you made a laminate around the ring.

I found a couple of sites where they showed how to drill a ring out of a piece of wood, or turn one on a lathe, or layer veneers.  I decided I would try the veneer option, since I don't have a lathe.  I bought 7 dollars worth of ebony veneer, it was the cheapest package, and cut 0.25 inch strips from the veneer sheet. Ebony is a very hard wood and is not very flexible so I boiled the strips in our wok.  When they were flexible, I wound them around a 3/4" dowel, putting super glue between the layers.  The superglue reacts very quickly to the damp wood and fingers so a little goes a long way.  It also dried slightly white, which wasn't great.  Then I rounded the edges and cut it smooth with my pocket knife and sanded while we watched TV.

It turned out a little big.  My ring finger is smaller than a 3/4" dowel, but otherwise I am pleased.  The ebony veneers make a very tough ring.  It does not flex at all and is hard enough to seem scratch resistant.  The ebony veneer I picked had interesting grain pattern, but the ring is small enough that it doesn't show.  A bird's eye maple would potentially be prettier because the grain would show better.  I need to try sanding the dowel down and making some smaller rings or different direction for the grain; I have enough veneer left for another 500 rings.  Not bad though.  Anyone want an ebony ring?

A little more snow than expected

 The weather service was predicting 1/2 to 1 inch of snow for us over the next few days.  Instead we have ten inches or so piled up and potentially more on the way.  Somehow it is very satisfying when the weather prediction is wrong, because deep inside we always doubted that they could predict it anyway.

Here is our snow-woman we made.  Emily says she is a little creepy, but I think she is regal.  The girls wanted to make her into a princess and previous versions had a crown, but their heads fell off.  I reinforced this one with a stick inside, but forgot a crown.

Our house in the snow.  We have three sidewalks leading to the house, plus the sidewalks around the block to shovel, which is the job awaiting me now.  

Even Kate came and played outside with us.  

Emily and her friend made a great snow fort in the Church parking lot that included tunnels and a protective wall.  

Annual Christmas Bowling

Bonnie and John gave us a gift certificate for bowling again this Christmas.  Either I am getting better, or luckier.  Kate rocked the roller bowler.

The only one that didn't bowl was Becca, but since she was happy to cheer us on.

 Colleen's technique is a hard drop and then a meander down to the pins that can be a strike or a split. 

 There is plenty of time for silliness while waiting your turn.

 Kate is getting better at taking pictures, which is great because now there are more pictures of Leila.  Usually she has the camera and so there are pictures of the kids and I, but not of her.  Man, she is cute.

Emily bought this coat with money she earned from babysitting the other kids.  She has always had her own sense of style.  She has grown up so much the last year. 

From the Elder's quorum lesson: We have a work to do.

Because of the ice storm, church was cancelled this week.  I can't say I am too disappointed, because Becca has a cold and didn't sleep well last night, and so neither did Leila or I.  We haven't gotten her on a great schedule still.  She doesn't sleep well anywhere but her car seat and late at night I cave every time. But with this much cuteness it is hard to be too bitter, even at 2 AM.

 So anyway,  with Church cancelled I don't have to teach the lesson this week after all.  I was actually looking forward to it.  The lesson was based on Todd Christofferson's October 2012 conference talk: Brethren, We Have Work to Do.  He begins by citing statistics and examples where men seem to be slacking,

“Girls outperform boys now at every level, from elementary school through graduate school. By eighth grade, for instance, only 20 percent of boys are proficient in writing and 24 percent proficient in reading. Young men’s SAT scores, meanwhile, in 2011 were the worst they’ve been in 40 years. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), boys are 30 percent more likely than girls to drop out of both high school and college. … It is predicted that women will earn 60 percent of bachelor’s, 63 percent of master’s and 54 percent of doctorate degrees by 2016. Two-thirds of students in special education remedial programs are guys.”³

I believe it may be more complicated than that.  Although there are more women in graduate school than men, many fields, including my own, have very few women.  I definitely agree that
 "In too many Hollywood films, TV and cable shows, and even commercials, men are portrayed as incompetent, immature, or self-absorbed."  

I loved "The Simpsons" when I was younger; my Mom hated it, and it was funny.  Bart and Lisa are great examples of this trend.

 

Bart and Homer are lovable buffoons with little drive or ambition.  Lisa on the other hand works hard, studies hard, and has big plans for herself.  As the father of 5 daughters, we need more women in media like Lisa, instead of the princess and beauty obsessiveness that is so common, but that is another topic for another day.

Just look at what magazines and entertainment are marketed to men.  What do you think of as a Men's magazine?  Maxim, maybe.  Sports Illustrated is focused on sports and a yearly swimsuit edition and is probably one of the better choices and that isn't saying a lot.  Elder Christoffersen calls for a rebellion from this shallow sex and fun obsessed view of masculinity:

"The Church and the world and women are crying for men, men who are developing their capacity and talents, who are willing to work and make sacrifices, who will help others achieve happiness and salvation. They are crying, “Rise up, O men of God!”¹⁰ God help us to do it. "

How do we do that?  My plan for the lesson was to discuss this as a class and use the suggestions from the talk when they matched comments or when the discussion waned.  Elder Christoffersen cites a short video he saw about a hard-working young man in India named Amar. An inspiring hard working kid.



I was also going to suggest searching out better media.

One of my recent internet guilty pleasures is the Art of Manliness website. It reminds me of the Boy's Life magazines that I read as a boy - but with even more retro view of style and art.  Check out the ode to the handkerchief  or this graphic on types of mustaches.  I loved their stocking stuffer list.  Each Sunday, they have a "Manvotional" - usually reprints of old essays or poems. Today's fit this lesson perfectly. From James Freeman Clarke,

"But, you may say, we cannot all be inspired apostles or great philosophers. No; but the motive, the principle which made their lives rich, we can have in ours. This principle is, to be interested in something good; to have an object, an aim, a purpose outside of ourselves.

In the great storms which have lately swept over the north Atlantic, a steamer from our shores discovered another, dismasted and rudderless, drifting before the gale, its decks swept by terrible seas. The sailors volunteered to man a boat, and go to save those on the wreck. The labor was appalling, the dangers frightful; but they succeeded, and saved the lives of their fellow-men. Which has made the noblest use of life, the self-indulgent epicurean, who amuses himself with a little art, a little literature, a little criticism and a little vapid social pleasure, or these rugged, brave hearts, who bade defiance to storm and sea, and brought salvation to those in despair? To forget yourself is the secret of life; to forget yourself in some worthy purpose outside of yourself.

The poor steamer foundered because it drifted; because its steering apparatus was lost. The man who has no aim higher than himself also drifts; he has nothing by which to steer, nothing toward which to direct his life. Do not drift, but steer; that is the second rule."

  The four rules of Clarke:

1. Forget yourself in some interest outside of yourself.
2. Do not drift, but steer.
3. Do with your might what your hands finds to do.
4. Trust in God, and your own soul.  

Wise words, I love the bit of Wadsworth he quotes also:

“The primal duties shine aloft like stars;
The charities which soothe and bless and save,
Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers.”

This is the type of manhood that builds a better world.

Getting the most out of business travel

I was listening today to NPR's Travel with Rick Steve and I realized what was missing from their discussion about travel. All travel they discussed was for vacation, not business. Over the years I have been to Nicaragua, Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Hawaii, France, and all over the US, but almost always for work. All of our vacation travel is to visit family, which is nice, but it isn't the same as being a tourist, and even that is more and more difficult as our family grows. Seven plane tickets aren't cheap and I dread days in the car driving west and back.

There are positives and negatives of business travel. The great thing is that someone else pays for it. The bad is that I usually travel alone, without my family. Leila is left home and it just isn't as fun without her and the kids. Early in our marriage, Leila and Emily travelled with me to conferences sometimes and to Mexico and Bolivia. The Karmina Palace in Manzanillo, Mexico is such a fond memory for Leila and I to this day. We spent three weeks there at a very stressful time. It was awesome. They had a calm cove for playing in the waves, a quiet beach, a turtle nesting area, a kids club for Emily during the day, and we would go out to eat each night after pollinating. It was so fun to come home from pollinating, snorkel at the beach and then take Leila and Emily to dinner with Osman and Darryl Bowman. We never could have afforded to stay there on our graduate student stipend.

Here is how I think you can get the most out of business travel:

1. Get the work done. Work is paying for it and they deserve a return on that investment. I had a professor who focused his research on sea grasses in Samoa so he had an excuse to spend as much time as possible in Samoa. He quickly built a reputation for that. I can't see how it can be good for your career to get a reputation for milking the company travel budget.

2. Have a good time. Go out to eat with other employees and customers. It is work, but it is ok to enjoy it and the personal contact and friendships are important for getting things done.

3. Go running, walking, or rent a bicycle. It is amazing what you notice running or walking in a new place that would not be noticeable from a car window.

4. Don't eat at McDonald's or chain fast food. I was in Argentina once, it was late and we had been in the field in Sampacho all day. Or Argentine colleague suggested going for a hamburger at McDonald's instead of eating out. We resisted and asked at the hotel restaurant instead what they could bring us quickly. They brought lasagna with fresh pasta and cups of sorbet for dessert. And cost only a few dollars more. If it is safe, there are often great street food available or local fast food options available. In Mexico my favorite are the small taco joints. It is usually a peso or two per small taco made from lomo, lengua, or al pastor. So good with salsa and picadillo. In Argentina we found that we could get steak sandwiches from most of the gas stations. Or empanadas. Or choripan. In Nicaragua you can get quesadillas made from fresh mozzarella like cheese with caramelized onions

5. It is ok to eat alone and to go plays, movies, museums by yourself. When I worked for Ag Alumni my colleagues would go drinking after meetings. I joined them at the bar for a few minutes, but since I don't drink once the evening turns from socializing to getting drunk I am out of there. In Chicago I went to see Wicked and got cheap tickets on the balcony. Sometimes I will go to the movies in the evening. In Kihei they have an open air roller skating rink in the park with 5 dollar inline skate rental till ten. In Memphis I escaped to listen to bluegrass bands.

6. Transportation. I often have a rental car, which is a lonely way to travel by yourself, but it is a great way to see the countryside between meetings. In France I was able to drive to The Basque Country with my Basque colleagues.

Snow days

Wednesday night winter came to Iowa.  We had been in the 40's or 50's throughout November, abnormally warm and dry.  It was still in the high 30's when it started to snow and drizzle, but dropped quickly.  The ground was still warm enough that the snow melted as fast as it came down.  This was the first snowstorm I have seen with lightning and thunder.  When the lightning struck the whole night sky lit up, reflecting off of the falling snow.  By morning, we had almost 13 inches of heavy snow.  My back is sore from shoveling all of our walks.

The kids wanted to go sledding, but just as we started walking the wind picked up.  Each gust of wind would pick up the sleds like sails and blow them off their feet, so by the time we made it to the bit of a sled hill by the trail everyone was weeping and wailing.  

When we got back home Aleah and Colleen decided to play "Angry Birds".  They made structures with different colored blocks for pigs and birds and then took turns knocking them down.  So much more fun than blizzard sledding.  

Even Kate tried. This game kept them busy for hours.  

Christmas is approaching fast and I am so not ready.  Oh, and the world didn't really end so now I need to do some Christmas shopping.  

IPAD review

My work bought me an iPAD so that I can test it out for new mobile applications. I cannot believe how computers have evolved. I was a bit of a Luddite in high school. I didn't have a computer at home and Mrs. Olic-Hamilton loaned me a typewriter so that I could type my reports and essays. I was a horrible typist and used to handwrite everything and then stay up late at night typing it out one finger at a time.

The first laptop that Leila had when we were married was as big as a briefcase. It had a keyboard that lifted out and a small black and white screen. In 2000 I got a Compaq laptop from the BYU equipment sale that had Windows 97 and Word. I typed my dissertation on it and was amazed by its 128 Megabytes of storage. It had a floppy drive and I don't think that it connected to the Internet. I still have it in a drawer at work.  I loved the rollerball mouse along side the screen.

My current work laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad and it is a workhorse, buts it has a lot of computing power. At home we have an HP desktop that is used mostly for streaming videos, reading blogs, storing and manipulating photos, and Facebook. We don't use our TV much since we can stream Netflix without any commercials on the computer.

The iPAD is slick and easy to use. It has no keyboard, a simple interface and an almost endless supply of cheap or free applications that can be downloaded wirelessly. It certainly makes my early computers look clunky, but it is an entertainment device first and computer second. The touchscreen is better suited to Angry Birds than typing. The onscreen keyboard is functional, I am using it now, but I wouldn't want to type a dissertation with it. Formatting complicated documents is almost impossible and the autocorrect which is nice for quick emails is obnoxious for programming code or technical jargon. Even here it changed my mispelled "it has" to "itch" in the previous paragraph.

Do you have one of the new tablet computers? Are they more than genius toys? What programs do you use?

Poor Pathetic Kate

 Kate has been hit with double whammy - stomach flu and bronchitis.  Either she has been asleep on the floor, or the couch, or a the kitchen chair since Friday. 

We are trying to get her to drink a lot of fluids, but a few sips at a time is all Kate can manage.  Here she fell asleep at the table after two sips of apple juice mixed with pedialyte. 

Over 300 posts and a give-away!

I started this blog over Christmas vacation in 2004. I was frustrated with trying to analyze data and was hunting for a distraction online.  I guess if  it were now I would have skimmed facebook for a while, but in 2004, I didn't even know what that was.  I had heard about weblogs and it sounded like a good way to start writing about science and communicate with my family back home. I didn't know anyone else with a blog and wandered through some clicking on the "Next Blog" links from the blogger header.

 I have no idea how many blogs there are total on the web, one site I found says it is close to 173 million.  Some have made the authors money - cook books, memoirs, or movies, but most are for friends or family to share stories and pictures.  Social media sites have dominated this internet market in recent years, and I am as addicted as the rest of the us to facebook, but I still prefer the wordy format of a blog. Google+ seems cool, but only 1 person I know uses it regularly.   I haven't had as much to say here in recent months, but after eight years, I am still writing here.  I don't have a lot of readers, my grandparents, my sister, my Mom.  A few old friends that are like family now.  I have thought about ending this blog, but I am not going to.  I hope you keep reading.  I still have something to say.

Leila's quilt blogs have prize drawings to increase reader participation.  I am not drumming up business, but if you are a reader and want a prize, leave a comment.  I have jars of sizzling salsa that I will mail out this week.  If that doesn't suit your fancy, I will happily send signed copies of my scientific articles - just kidding, no one wants to read those.  More than anything, I am grateful for the friendships I have been able to maintain through the chain of blogs and social media sites.  I am horrible at writing letters, but like to stay in touch with old friends and family.

(Some pictures of the kids so my sister won't nag me:)

 Becca is a happy kid

 Kate took this great picture of Leila. 

 Aleah got baptized this month.  She lives up to her middle name - Felice. 

 The rest of the girls at the baptism

 Finally getting around to painting the kid furniture.  I had helpers, which was aggravating, but endearing.

The finished kid furniture.

Couch Potato Baby

 This kid spent the whole last month sitting on the couch!

Where did October go?

 When I wasn't working too many hours, I was at home too tired to be rational.  I am hamming it up as Emily and I made dinner.

 Much to many of my friends chagrin, I did vote for Obama. I even went to his last rally in Des Moines.  Three blocks and 20,000 people from me is the President.

 Kate got bronchitis and needed to use the nebulizer (How do you spell that?) to help open her lungs.  She is strangely chipper when she is sick.

 Unless you turn off the TV.  Then she is a terror!

Colleen decided to get her hair cut, a lot.