Read (or see) The Golden Compass: A review of the book trilogy (Dec. 6, 2007)

Current mood: impressed

Book review: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman (series name: His Dark Materials).

Here is a message for those people who object to this trilogy, or the movie based on it, because someone in your church, or through the religious media, told you it was evil. I will politely but strongly suggest that you actually read it before you solidify an opinion.

I have read the books. More accurately, I have listened to the entire series in book-on-tape format. The full-cast productions of the complete, unabridged text require 10 or more hours apiece listening time for each of the three books. Even so, the stories are so compelling, I might listen to or at least read them again.

While they categorize as children's literature, the target audience is the older child, probably 10 or older, as the main character, Lyra, is a girl in the neighborhood of 11. As the trilogy progresses, she ages to about 13, as do Roger and Will, the boys who accompany her.

Here is why these books make such wonderful reads and are so highly recommended:

• It is a story about pluck and courage, of stick-to-it-iveness.
• It is a story about honor, and why that is so important.
• It is a story about trust – and what can happen when someone breaks that trust.
• It is a story about believing in the rightness of a cause, of using that vision to light your way in the deepest, darkest moments, of fighting to the death when necessary to defend that cause.
• It is a story about learning when to speak up, when to hold your tongue, how to develop strategy, and when to act decisively.
• It is a story about building alliances that will help you overcome the toughest adversary.
• And finally, it is a story which tramples self-serving authoritarianism, and replaces it with a rugged individualism armed with the courage, honor, trust, vision, wisdom, planning, and alliances, that will conquer any barrier, defeat any foe.

Do we not want our young people to grow up with these attributes? What would we have them grow up to be, if not that?

Perhaps it is the last item that causes the most concern among those who take issue with the book. Faith is a wonderful thing, but so often it is handed to us from on high, with strict orders to believe this or else, replete with innumerable verses from Scripture to remind us. Perhaps it is the idea that there might be something better that scares off the holy minded.

But don't stop there! Get beyond all that and look at any of the three books, and the series, for what they really are: Love stories. Lustful love is almost absent (where it does appear, bad things occur), but in its place there are hundreds of cases of brotherly love and admiration, of self-respect, of respect towards others. Towards the end of the trilogy, we learn how to use this to build the foundations for choosing a life's mate, and knowing how to walk away from a doomed relationship before it's too late. Again, what would we have our kids learn, if not that?

Still not convinced? Let's tackle the "killing God" bit, which does not happen in the first book, nor even the second book, The Subtle Knife, but well into the third book, The Amber Spyglass. It is not God that Will and Lyra conquer, but death itself, on their way to creating a new world, free of the corrupt and all-powerful religious authority she fights from the first pages of Book One. How they pull this off is what makes this a story for the ages.

What makes the story so compelling for me are the multiple parallel universes, which the second and third books explore in depth, and the idea of a daemon which accompanies every person through life. Those two concepts alone make the trilogy a "must read" for the youngster learning how the current world really works.

Really, though. Read one book, at least. You will never see the world quite the same way ever again – unless, of course, some authority tells you you are not allowed.

It’s winter, so I gotta insulate. You should, too. (Dec. 5, 2007)

Current mood: chipper

Being green at heart, I try to conserve in any and every way possible. I walk or bus or bike instead of drive, I recycle or compost everything, I replaced as many lights as feasible with compact fluorescents, and long ago put a lot of insulation in my attic. I also drilled several dozen holes on the interior side of my outer walls a few years ago to install blown-in insulation. This house is tight.

The hardest thing to do, though, is prepare all the windows for wintertime. Not long after I bought the house in 1991, I replaced many of the windows, which had wavy, wasteful, single-pane glass that dated to the 1950s or earlier. Unfortunately, I bought on price, and got what I paid for. Even when shut, the "new" windows, most of which date to about 1993 or 1996, let pass nearly as much cold as the old ones.

What I have to do is two things. Three, actually, though the third is simply a good cleaning, which I try to do on those last nice days in October. But here I am, sneezing along with the freezy breezes, and the other two tasks are not done yet.

Task 1: Clay rope. This stuff, easily located at any hardware store, can just be jammed in every crack and space around every window. It comes in brown and grey. The point is to prevent the freezy breezes from getting in in the first place. For those window spaces equipped with storm windows, I find it helps to clay them first. Then I close the inside window and clay that, too. Per window, it doesn't take too long to do this, maybe 10 minutes. Then that window will not be opened until springtime.

Task 2: Clear plastic sheet. I was able to order rolls of this straight from the manufacturer a couple of years ago, but mainly you can buy boxes at a hardware store. Along with double-sided tape, this step fully insulates the window by preventing all outside air from getting in. I apply the tape around the window frame, then measure out enough plastic sheet to cover that space, and chop away. With the inner side of the tape showing, I apply the plastic to the tape, lightly at first, until I have it flat and mainly wrinkle free, then I tamp it down good. Follow this with a hairdryer to eliminate all the rest of the wrinkles. This step takes a while, maybe 20 to 30 minutes a window.

The doors, too, need some attention, mainly clay and maybe other products that are amazingly inexpensive. The plastic costs $10 to $20 a box, the clay about $5, the tape $5 to $10. You will run out of tape first, so get a couple of rolls. I recommend Scotch (red label) because of several factors. It's the most expensive, and worth it.

Once all this is done, though, the difference is remarkable. With the drafts gone, the floors are much warmer. The $30 you spend on the project will be recouped in a matter of weeks, but the comfort level will rise immediately.

So, there you go, a little can go a long way towards making for a warm home when it's ccccccold out!

It’s December, so it’s winter (Dec. 2, 2007)

Current mood: cold

Back on the first of September, I blogged about it now being autumn. Now that it's December, by my reckoning, it's now winter. And it is, to look outside.

Last night, we had sleet and freezing rain, and although it has warmed up a bit, the steps and walks are still a bit icy. About 3/4 of where you put your feet are just wet, but if your weight happens to land on the remaining 1/4, you'll slide an inch or five. Healthy adults and kids won't have too much trouble dealing with this, but if you have any other sort of disablement, including being inattentive, overweight or carrying a package, you're very much in danger.

We haven't had a big snowstorm yet, just a couple of nice dustings that turned the yard white. Temperatures have hit the teens (°F) a time or two, overnight temps go to freezing or lower regularly, and most days barely get out of the 40s. That's winter already.

Cleaning up the rest of the driveway of fallen leaves, the words of the Mamas and Papas song "California Dreaming" come to mind: "All the leaves are gone / And the sky is grey". Yup, that's about right.

Pennsylvania dreaming on such a winter's day.

Rights, Freedoms and Privileges (Nov. 29, 2007)

Not long after I posted my blog post on breastfeeding, I had a telephone conversation with one of my readers, inquiring as to why I categorized breastfeeding as a right and not a freedom. That point, you will recall, was changed in the final wording of the Pennsylvania law.

So what is a right, anyway? What is a freedom? What's the difference? While we're at it, do either differ from a privilege in any substantive way?

Think of a right as an ability to act, an ability that already exists which is worth going to war to defend. As Americans we have rights to vote, to speak freely, and to worship as we choose, among many others. We go to war to defend these basic rights of citizenship, rights denied to citizens of other countries.

With privileges, you start at zero. These are earned in the eyes of some authority, and thus granted as well as revoked. Driving is a good example. You have to prove yourself worthy to be able to drive, and then adhere to agreed upon rules in order to continue the privilege. A lesser example is having a library card which allows you to borrow books and other materials. If you break the rules, e.g., you don't return what you borrowed, or damage them, the library revokes your borrowing privilege. The key here is that some formal process is administered by some authority. In general, you need to be a citizen to exercise either rights or privileges, though they may also be extended to legal resident non-citizens. (I am staying out of the illegal immigrant topic in this blog post.)

Freedoms lie somewhere in the middle. Just by being here, you get to exercise them, but some constraints might be imposed from time to time. Freedom to travel, for instance. You can pretty much go anywhere you want, but police may need to cordone off some area because of an emergency situation. On a personal basis, if you have run afoul of the law, perhaps you have had your freedom to travel restricted by means of court order, and issued an ankle bracelet that tracks your movements.

Back to breastfeeding. I described this as a human right, which falls into a category even more fundamental than a right to vote. Nothing and nobody should interfere with a mother feeding her child, for any reason, anywhere she and the baby are otherwise legally entitled to be.

Contrast that with the topfree movement. Proponents world-wide take issue with requirements that women's breasts always be covered. The argument goes like this: Anyplace a man can go shirtless, women can, too, and if some locale requires that a woman be covered, then so must men. This has nothing to do with breastfeeding -- nothing, that is, except exposed breasts. Constraints are imposed on a general basis; e.g., "no shirt, no service". But to deny women the ability to take off their shirts, if the situation allows men to, is making a distinction based solely or primarily on gender, which is never OK. (This topic needs a separate blog post. [July 2011 note: This one is still on MySpace.])

Whatever its merits, this is a freedom, not a right. There is no civil guarantee that either men or women have any legal right to remove their clothing. Nor is there any license to go topfree, whether male or female; hence neither is it a privilege.

To sum up, I will list a few of these in a simple table, and add to it as I think of others or as suggested by my readers. These are not in any order.

Human rights	Citizenship rights	Freedoms	Privileges
Breastfeeding	Universal voting	Domestic travel	Driving
Emergency health care	Free speech	Live anywhere that you can afford to.	Professional license (nurse, engineer, etc.)
Compulsory education of children	Place and type of worship	Topfree women if men allowed to.	Public library usage
Fire and police protection	Other specific rights listed in the U.S. Constitution or its Amendments	Attend schools of choice.	Preferred banking rates on loans and other products

In making comments, I prefer to limit discussion to the distinctions at hand, not go into the relative merits of the examples given. Say what you want, though, as I'll incorporate any ideas into a future blog post. Thank you for reading this, and thanks in advance for sharing your ideas!

changing MySpace blog colors (Nov. 27, 2007)

Current mood: creative

I got tired of the default MySpace-issued "uniform" so made my first foray into changing the "look and feel" of my layout.

First to change was the font size, from "medium" to "large". Even I had trouble reading it.

Next, for the green background, I lifted an RGB value from the website for a product I used to use a lot, but hardly touch anymore. I always liked its color, though. You're welcome to guess which product, which might be easy if you knew me in 1979.

The gold-ish colors of the link fonts came from the same website. I figure if the combo works for the professionals, then I can use it, too. All they are are RGB values.

The pink-ish font is a work in progress. I started with the bit-for-bit opposite of the green, but that looked too pink, so backed off the R value some. (I'm assuming you all know how RGB values work.) It still looks a bit too pink for my tastes, but there are a bunch more things I haven't fiddled with yet.

One thing I'm not doing is adding a pre-packaged layout. Most of them are impossible to read. They also take far too long to load, both in sheer amount of data, and in the amount of code each user's CPU has to crunch. I figure that everyone's still using a 400 MHz Win98 machine over a dial-up line, and if you happen to have more power than that, well, consider yourself lucky.

Breastfeeding in public (Nov. 23, 2007)

Current mood: moody

Let me start by stating that there is no more fundamental women's right -- no, start over.

There is no more fundamental human right than for a woman to feed her child.

Engrave that in marble for the world to see and affix it to a large steel beam anchored in concrete! Perhaps, however, we also need a smaller, more portable version of it to beat people over the head with when they try to deny women that right.

Such is the case with breastfeeding. Far too often, a woman trying to feed her child is told she cannot, or is in some way restricted, or simply removed altogether from that location.

In a few jurisdictions, women not only are guaranteed to be able to feed their children in any way they deem fit, but are also given legal recourse against anyone who does try to deny them. This means three things:

1. A woman may display any amount of skin for any amount of time, anywhere she is legally allowed to be;


2. Any form of obstruction is off limits, including but not limited to leering by teenage boys, objections by other customers, and any request by anyone in authority to the woman to alter her behavior, covering, location or position;


3. Should anyone give the woman a hard time, she has legal grounds to sue.

Pennsylvania has finally adopted some protective legislation, with the passage of Act 28 of 2007, signed into law by Governor Ed Rendell on July 8. It is not without its drawbacks, among which are:

• It is considered a freedom, not a right.


• Localities may still act to prohibit the practice.


• Neither promotional nor tolerance incentives for employers have yet been agreed upon.


• No legal recourse wording was in the final document.

No restrictions and full recourse are as it should be, but even that is not enough. Should anyone have a problem with the woman's behavior, covering, location or position, it should be theirs to do something, not the woman's, and that something should be to change their mind on the issue. People need to be educated on this, and specifically learn tolerance and support.

The reasoning behind this is simple. A lactating woman who feels she is being intruded upon will find it difficult to initiate or maintain the "letdown" reflex which allows milk to flow. It's instinct. Policies must do more than merely allow breastfeeding; they must support and defend it. Changing the laws to protect this basic human right must be a priority, without any regard to politics, religion, or anyone's idea of modesty.

On this sole issue, American society today continues to live in some medieval Dark Age. At once we tolerate if not celebrate female skin displays and covered breast movements, while simultaneously going ballistic at the slightest appearance of an areola or nipple at rest. At once we turn a blind eye to the woman disciplining her kid to within a hair's breadth of involving CYF, but pounce on the silent, nearly motionless woman in the corner feeding her child. At once we become indignant over anything that smarts of female immodesty, but rarely have a cross word against shirtless, overweight men whose breasts often exceed the size of many women's.

It's wrong. It needs to change. Pennsylvania has a nice start, at long last, but it still has a long way to go.

I was the first to cross the 31st St Bridge! (Nov 21, 2007)

Current mood:accomplished

For the last couple of years (since February 2006, to be precise), PennDOT has been rebuilding the 31st Street Bridge, which connects PA 28 with Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh's Strip District. It had been in deplorable condition, with pavement bad enough you could see into the river in a few places, and noplace to walk or bike.

This morning was the ribbon cutting, officially opening it to traffic. I've been to ribbon cuttings before (Mon Incline, November 1994), but I had never been first in line to use the new whatever-it-was. When I heard about this morning's festivities, I decided I had to be part of the action.

As late as 9 a.m. I was still taking care of household chores, but then hopped on the bike and headed for Millvale, and by 9:45 had made it to the 40th Street Bridge. I guessed that the throng of dignitaries would be on the south end of the bridge, but decided not to join them. Instead, I continued down PA 28 to the north end of the bridge, where there is almost zero space to queue for such an event -- just perfect for a bicycle.

[July 2011 update] Historical note: PA 28 between the 40th and 31st Street Bridges used to be pure hell. The sidewalks were somewhere between useless and dangerous, and in some places the washed gravel and the weeds stretched right out over the sidewalk into moving traffic. It was absolutely unsafe. As of mid-2011, this area is being entirely reconstructed so this old sidewalk no longer exists. Fortunately, the river trail is a viable alternative.

By 10 sharp I was at the orange barrels, but between them and the crew that was blocking both lanes, still fixing the traffic lights, I wasn't getting across any sooner than they were going to let me. This ended up being a full hour.

A while before they rolled the barrels out of the way and moved one truck to let the flow of northbound dignitaries through, a group of cyclists thought to join me for my trek. They opted to try to make it across the 40th in hopes of joining the throng, so I ended up being all by myself. Sounds like they made it, too, judging from the info coming across the construction truck radios.

I was waved on through, and true to form, there wasn't a single car behind me. The trucks still had the lane blocked, at least for a few more minutes. I zipped past a KDKA-TV camera crew, but they didn't notice me. About mid-bridge I encountered Pat Hassett from Pittsburgh City Planning with a still camera, and paused briefly to chat. He congratulated me on being the first vehicle, wished me well, and I continued on my way.

If you've never been on a brand-new roadway, it feels different, like there's a bit of fine sand underneath. The pavement actually shined (shone?) in places.

At the south end, I encountered WTAE's TV news crew, looking like they were getting ready to pack up and go home, so went over to talk with them. They were only too happy to put me on camera and have a two-minute interview, complete with the obligatory ride-the-bike-up-the-street scene. I related that I was the first vehicle -- a bicycle was the first vehicle -- to cross the bridge from north to south, and that this was great news for bicyclists since the north end of the bridge is right next to the river trail.

If I'd been paying better attention, I would have noticed that the bridge is, in fact, quite a bit wider, and there is actually space to ride a bike in either direction without getting run over. I finally noticed this when I rode back across.

Upon reaching the River Road / 30th Street light, I dropped down to the river trail and rode to the Millvale Industrial Park, where I hopped on Evergreen and rode the rest of the way home. I did have a 1D Mount Royal bus schedule, but it was such a nice day I thought I'd ride the whole way home. And that I did! Babcock Boulevard is a very nice bike route, indeed!