Book Review: Cobweb Bride, By Vera Nazarian

Cobweb Bride, By Vera Nazarian

This is the first of the Cobweb Bride Trilogy, by Vera Nazarian, published by Norilana Books. The book gets off to a slow start, I found I wasn't absorbed until over 100 pages in. On at least one occasion I found myself thinking I was reading something better suited to the screen than a novel - there wasn't enough meat to characters' thoughts. More depth would have helped.

Once closer to the climax of this story, things took off, and I felt like characters had depth, and individual meaning.

Very interesting concept, uneven execution. I will read the next in the trilogy, definitely - I do want to know what happens next.

'Recalculating'

An interview with Sylvia Boorstein was rebroadcast on NPR this morning for Mother's Day. She tells this story about observing how no matter how many times she misses her turn, her GPS in her car never gets mad at her. It just says, "recalculating", and keeps giving her new directions. Here's a quote from the interview on NPR's On Being with Krista Tippet:

I've never said it in a public audience, but I just thought about it recently. I decided that — I'll find out soon if this is a good analogy — but I was thinking about the GPS in my car. It never gets annoyed at me. If I make a mistake, it says, "Recalculating." And then it tells me to make the soonest left turn and go back. I thought to myself, you know, I should write a book and call it "Recalculating" because I think that that's what we're doing all the time.

And no matter how many times I don't make that turn, it will continue to say, "Recalculating." The tone of voice will stay the same.

This isn't the first time I've heard this anecdote or a variation of it, and it causes me endless amusement that this persistent 'recalculating' can evoke discussion of infinite kindness or deity.

When I was working at Alpine Electronics Research, we had quite a lot of fun brainstorming (but not inserting) additions to those very GPS systems that would lose their temper at you if you made too many wrong terms!

It doesn't invalidate any of the observations or anything - it's just an anecdote that is a bit different for me than for others.

Book Review: Amity & Sorrow, by Peggy Riley

Damn, this is a good book. Hard to read, in some ways, because it's the story of two girls and their mother, who fled the (literally) burning temple of their cult, ran as far as the mother could take them, and washed up somewhere in Oklahoma. Because the story is told from the inside - the education of the girls doesn't include reading, for example, so clearly their lives and backgrounds are dramatically different from that of the average reader - the story of the history of the cult, the polygamous family that it constituted, unfolds from their perspective, slowly. Hard to read, because they believe so hard, and that belief is fundamentally corrupted at its very heart, and you know it reading from the outside.

Anyway, damn.  Good book. Very good book.

Today's Feminist Commentary

Upon reading I Blame the Patriarchy on Steubenville, I offer what should be, but aren't, Frequently Answered Questions:

Q: What makes a man a rapist?
A: The belief it's OK to visit sex upon a woman without taking her desires into account.

Q: What does patriarchy teach men (and, coincidentally, women)?
A: That men's desires to visit sex upon a woman are the only desires that matter.

Cool! "Science for Adults"

Otona no Kagaku (Science for Adults) is a magazine + science project line popular in Japan.  I just think it's so darn cool.

http://www.jbox.com/product/GAK036 - gramaphone project.

http://www.jbox.com/product/GAK035 - steam engine project.

http://www.jbox.com/product/GAK003 - robot project.

Sometimes I really wish I lived in Japan.  Not because I'm dying to do one of these projects (although I think any of them would be way cool fun to do), but because American attitudes toward science, math, and technology are so dismissive and generally hateful.  

I always remember how dismissive someone was in one of my college math class "discussion" sections (as opposed to the actual lecture) when I jumped up to work a problem on the board, because I was excited to do it (I also had the wrong solution!), like it was wrong to be excited about math.  It was my major, asshole!  (Double major, physics w/a concentration in astrophysics and mathematics.  And I shouldn't have been made to feel defensive about it, dammit.)

20 years later and I'm still angered by that moment, whether it was shut-me-up b/c math isn't supposed to be cool, or shut-me-up people aren't supposed to be passionate and engaged, or shut-me-up because I am female.  (Not that America has a lock on the latter, to be sure.  I'd sure hate to be pigeonholed as an "office lady" in a Japanese company.)

Anyways, popular science is a wonderful thing.

There are Days

There are days when I am tempted to become a beauty blogger (in part so I can sing the praises of Besame Cosmetics - love their lipsticks and their crimson cream rouge is wonderful, wonderful stuff), but overall I'm sure it would require me to break my cardinal rule of No Photos Online.

You know, I've been online since what, 1991?  And I've managed to keep the number of photos of me down to about 5, and nearly all are professional in one way or another (whether they are about writer Sidra, or lawyer Sidra, or whatever).

Why have I bothered?  Well, plenty of reasons, but first and foremost, I'm a feminist, and when I say "I don't appreciate being policed or having my appearance made a point of argument," what I really mean is "this world is so stupid that we actually gauge the merits of people's ideas based on their looks".  That's like the "I have an owl, your argument is invalid" memes.  And I object so strongly to that idiocy that I will not enable it.

Dying to decide what kind of person I must be based on my looks?  Well, your loss, if you've never met me in person. Consider reading me instead.  Trying to divine my character or capability based on a headshot is stupid.

Over a Month Since a Post

Chalk it up to the flu.

Link of Note: Revival of nearly extinct Yurok language is a success story

Last fall, Eureka High became the fifth and largest school in Northern California to launch a Yurok-language program, marking the latest victory in a Native American language revitalization program widely lauded as the most successful in the state.
At last count, there were more than 300 basic Yurok speakers, 60 with intermediate skills, 37 who are advanced and 17 who are considered conversationally fluent.

This is damn cool.

Otherwise, I've lost 30 pounds and am mostly keeping it off, had my photo taken for professional purposes and didn't immediately hate it (obvious corollary there), and have really enjoyed several books recently, in addition to sending the first few Clockwork Century books by Cherie Priest to my nephew for his birthday which I think HE will enjoy greatly, and...well, I guess that's about it.

Oh, and there's a couple feet of snow out there, but if you've been paying any attention to newscasters in the United States at all, you'd know that already.

Emily Barker - Wallender theme

So, thanks to Wallender w/Kenneth Branagh, I'm now hooked on Emily Barker, and quite thankful for it.  A small selection of her work is available for download on iTunes, enough to call a self-assembled album if you like.  Good stuff.

Now it Feels Like Christmas

The requisite meltdown by young person - overstimulated chemically and experientially - has occurred.

It's been a pleasant Christmas.  I found time to do a little yoga today, which is particularly good since I won't have acupuncture this week.  I could feel myself calming and becoming more centered during certain poses.  Bonus - worked kinks out from sleeping on foldout couch!

And now, some work.

10 Arguments Gun Advocates Make

Ten Arguments Gun Advocates Make, and Why They're Wrong

As an attorney, the one that catches my attention the most is the following:

6. The Constitution says I have a right to own guns.
Yes it does, but for some reason gun advocates think that the right to bear arms is the only constitutional right that is virtually without limit. You have the right to practice your religion, but not if your religion involves human sacrifice. You have the right to free speech, but you can still be prosecuted for incitement or conspiracy, and you can be sued for libel. Every right is subject to limitation when it begins to threaten others, and the Supreme Court has affirmed that even though there is an individual right to gun ownership, the government can put reasonable restrictions on that right.
And we all know that if this shooter turns out to have a Muslim name, plenty of Americans, including plenty of gun owners, will be more than happy to give up all kinds of rights in the name of fighting terrorism. Have the government read my email? Have my cell phone company turn over my call records? Check which books I'm taking out of the library? Make me take my shoes off before getting on a plane, just because some idiot tried to blow up his sneakers? Sure, do what you've got to do. But don't make it harder to buy thousands of rounds of ammunition, because if we couldn't do that we'd no longer be free.

Aside from the sarcasm towards the end, it's a really valid point.

Snow in D.C.!

It's snowing right now - so, a little White Christmas, which is always nice.

For everyone else travelling as this year draws to a close, here is Frigga's blessing for Odin:  Unharmed go forth, unharmed return, unharmed safe home.

Incredible

My uncle Charlie had a massive stroke recently and received an innovative treatment being pioneered at the hospital in Tennessee to which he was taken, and now he's fine.

Yes, that's what I wrote. Fine.

You can watch him play guitar in his hospital room on this TV clip. WZTV Exclusive: Man Goes From Suffering Stroke to Making Music in One Day.

Word of the day: gobsmacked.

Birthday!

Attention Internet! Today I am the Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.

Odd Realization

I was listening to NPR this morning on the new NFL labor agreement, and I suddenly thought to myself that this is probably the first time I've heard of a labor dispute where the general consensus is that the workers got what they wanted. Hopefully it's just me. Or just recently. But I doubt it.

[ETA: See? Moments later I hear of how disappointed Atlanta Symphony musicians are that they are shouldering the brunt of making up a deficit after making $5M in "concessions" (or maybe the deficit is $5M), losing jobs, and how Management isn't shouldering anything.]

Latest Quantum Muse is out!

The latest issue of Quantum Muse (http://www.quantummuse.com) is out!