I dug this post up from my previous blog because Mark and I have recently been re-inspired to tell the stories of our adventures together. Mark has especially been bitten by the storytelling bug of late. He recounted a particularly painful crush he had in high school at The Monti StorySlam in Durham earlier this month. You can see it on his blog. Now he is planning to podcast some of his brand of story (this is quite appropriate since his father was a radio DJ starting in the 50′s and 60′s and was able to spin quite a few yarns of his own on the air).
Last week one of our friends at grad school was surprised to find that an old high school picture had found its way onto the cover of the weekly student news bulletin. In an effort to console him, I brought some of our old wedding photos in to show him that our “old pictures” were more embarrassing than his.
As a result of showing the photos, Mark started to tell some of the stories about our wedding (e.g. day-glo blue icing on the wedding cake). As I listened, it occurred to me that some of the stories were probably not even known by our daughters. How unfortunate! So, to remedy that situation, and to encourage others to “tell the stories” to those around them, here’s one snippet…
When we were engaged, we were living in the inner-city of St. Louis, working with a group that often took homeless people in for emergency housing. Each person working at the organization had a bedroom with a room-mate from the organization team and also some extra beds. Those extra beds were used for the “housing guests.” You never knew who you might have sleeping in the room with you. For a period of time Mark was host to an Native American guy whom we all really enjoyed getting to know. One day he up and left… leaving no note, address, or sign of himself except his boots. We were disappointed that he had left so suddenly, but Mark was glad to inherit his boots. They were a really nice pair of boots, and, hey! we were dirt poor! So they became his trademark shoes. In fact, he wore them at our wedding.
But, the really interesting part of the story is that not long after our friend left, the FBI showed up asking about his whereabouts. Turns out that he was wanted by the FBI for being involved in the 1973 Wounded Knee uprising. Yikes! Nevertheless, undaunted by the shady (and potentially criminal) past of their previous owner, Mark continued to proudly wear those boots. We even had to have them re-soled a few times. Unfortunately, somewhere along the adventure of our life we have lost track of those boots (probably in a garage sale some time ago). But we got to keep the story!
So, in honor of those boots, we share some of our wedding photos with you (for those of you trying to guess… 1977).
I took these photos on May 19, 2010, after a few days of very heavy rain. I was stunned by the intricate design and beauty. The spectacular mass of glistening, glutinous tendrils contrasted sharply in color with the cedar green on that damp morning. But I had no idea what I was looking at. So, I just tried to get some good shots to identify later.
Greg Dodge, the ranger at the NC Museum of Life and Science answered my email query quite quickly (wow, that’s pretty good alliteration for the letter q). He recognized my photo instantly as a Cedar-Apple Rust gall–a fungal disease. He confirmed my hunch that the recent deluge had coaxed the spectacular tendrils out of the gall that had been quietly developing in the branches of the cedar tree for the past year. Cornell University’s Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic has the best description of the life cycle of Cedar-Apple Rust, but I think I captured some fantastic photos of the telial horns.
A few days later I went back and looked for the Cedar-Apple Rust galls again. By now, the orange telial horns had mostly disappeared (dropping to the ground), and the gall which had been developing during the previous year in anticipation of its final spectacular spring show was clearly visible.
You might get the impression from my Tweets and blog posts that I only pay attention to the bears at the NC Museum of Life and Science. While it’s true that the bears hold a special place in my heart, we are non-discriminatory when it comes to giving attention to all the critters at the museum. To prove this, I present two pieces of supporting evidence for my claim.
First, not all the excitement is with the animals that move around a lot. This little frog was sitting quietly on the path and was hoping we would ignore it. I only wish I had a macro lens with me to try and get a better shot of his eye. Such interesting patterns!
Second, as we were leaving today, we walked past the barnyard and saw Lightning (the donkey) kicking up quite a storm. Check out these ball handling skillz!!
Yesterday we arrived at the NC Museum of Life and Science in Durham just in time to watch one of the animal keepers (Erin) providing the bears with some enrichment activity. She filled some balls with syrup and then tossed them into the exhibit for Yona, Gus, and Mimi to retrieve, play with, and snack on. Ursula and Virginia (the other two bears in the exhibit) must have been taking a nap somewhere.
We’ve lived in Durham, NC, for a full year. While we were somewhat prepared to endure the hot and humid summers, we had no idea what we were in for with pollen. But we have learned quickly. We are fortunate because we don’t have allergies to deal with. But we still had to learn to keep our windows closed (even when tempted by the delightful warm temperatures and soft blowing breezes) to shut out the fine particles that infiltrate the smallest cracks and tolerate the ubiquitous yellow powder that coats everything outdoors. Still, without pollen, we would be in a dreadful state. Each grain so full of potential. So necessary for the cycle of life to continue. But, so many complaints are lodged during this time of the year against pollen, that I felt I should stick up for the minuscule yellow guys (just a little).
In honor of pollen, a haiku:
Promiscuous plants
Propelling plumes of pollen
Promised potential
That last line was suggested via by new friend on Twitter, @amfulay… thx! Other suggestions were “Perturbed Proboscis” from @stalwartEd and “Pale Powdery Paint” by @binghypo. Leave your own suggestions in the comments.
I know, I know, some of our friends elsewhere in the world are saying that they have allergies and pollen too, surely our NC event can’t be that bad. Ha! Here are some pictures to show a typical day during pollen season.
The wetlands of the NC Museum of Life and Science had a thick coating of pollen floating on the surface. With a little help from the wind and the ducks, beautiful swirls of pale yellow began to appear on the watery canvas.
Not snow, nor volcanic ash, but pollen deep enough to reveal the paths of those who visited the lemurs.
A neighborhood car with its daily (!) coating of powdery pollen.
I was inspired today when I viewed this blog: Where I Write: Fantasy & Science Fiction Authors in their creative spaces. I started to wonder what the things you keep around your office say about you, your work, your inspiration. Then I decided to get brave. I took some photos of my own office space… without any tidying up first. This is a major breakthrough for me! As I looked at the images, I saw many things that I didn’t realize were in the room and other things that brought back a flood of memories. Mostly I wanted to share with you images of the “little things” that I love so much. All of the bits and pieces from all over the world that have come home in my pockets, my collecting bags, etc. I realized that each piece of ephemera has a special tale to tell. I have resolved to photograph some of these and tell their stories. But for now, I’ll just let you take a peek into the place where I spend more time than not (and please do not judge me for the mess!).
After you take a look, tell me about your own office space. What makes it “yours”?
I’m loving my new Panasonic GF1. Hoping to sell a bunch of books and get a macro lens. This shot was taken with the 20mm f1.7 micro four thirds “pancake” lens. Still learning the camera, but having lots of fun. It was worth it to sell my electric violin to purchase this camera.
A movie inspired on numbers, geometry and nature, by Cristóbal Vila. Go to www.etereaestudios.com for more info: theory behind, stills, screenshots, tutorials and workshops.
If you care about something, you want other people to know about it. This means that the way you present your information is important because it can mean the difference between true communication occurring and boredom or confusion. Unfortunately, many presentations (especially at conferences) fail miserably at this task. If you think your content is important, you need to pay attention not only to what you talk about but how you do it.
Many people think that Powerpoint (or Keynote) presentations assist in communicating ideas and facts. It’s true that visual information that accompanies oral presentations can help — but it has to be done well!
Here’s a youtube video of how NOT to use Powerpoint.
And here’s a slide show that shows how creative visuals can supplement (not compete) with the speaker’s words. Ideas and information will be better retained when this kind of dual presentation is employed.
Many thanks to Jim Eisenbraun (and Gina Hannah) for sending me a copy of Eisenbruans‘ A Manual of Ugaritic (by Pierre Bordreuil and Dennis Pardee) to review.
Anyone who teaches or studies Ugaritic will want to take a serious look at adding this book to his or her collection of resources. I had high hopes for this book and I was not disappointed.
The manual was first published as Manuel d’Ougaritique in 2004 (by Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner S. A.). This 2009 edition not only provides an English translation, but also incorporates corrections, modifications (of some grammatical presentations and also some text interpretations), and updates to the bibliography. The authors note in the preface that the “most important of the modifications is in the presentation of the verbal system particular to poetry.” Read More…
In this book, Brueggemann takes a brief (the text of the book is only 65 pages) look at an “exceedingly difficult text” (p. 11) in the Hebrew Bible: Joshua 11.
Introduction
In the introduction, Brueggemann discusses how the conviction that Scripture is revelatory (by communities of Jews and Christians) is necessarily appropriated differently because of differences of contexts and cultural settings. He believes that the current state of hermeneutics convinces many (including himself) that there is “no single, sure meaning for any text.” Thus, the “revelatory power of the text is discerned and given precisely through the action of interpretation which is always concrete, never universal, always contextualized, never ‘above the fray,’ always filtered through vested interest, never in disinterested purity” (p. ix). If this is true of the interpretation process, then, according to Brueggemann, it should also be true of the process that forms, shapes and presents the text. Brueggemann suggests that because of this, revelation is never “simply a final disclosure, but is an ongoing act of disclosing that will never let the disclosure be closed.” Read More…
What have I been doing lately? Reading, reading, reading (or at least trying to). So I can post reviews, reviews, reviews. Thanks for your patience! But that’s not the really important stuff that has been going on.
Here’s what we’ve been up to while I’m trying to do all that reading. Spending time at the awesome Duke Cancer Center. Mark just finished 168 pills of chemo (his “weapons of ass destruction”) and 28 days of almost daily radiation. Some folks are curious about how all this works. So here are some links to help you understand what has been going on in Mark’s body, and what “radiation” is all about. It’s really pretty cool.
So, the chemotherapy that Mark is using is an oral drug called Xeloda. The 3-step activation process of XELODA preferentially generates 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) through thymidine phosphorylase (TP) at the tumor site. Did you get that? Well, for you visual learners, here’s an animation of how the drug capecitabine works. Cool, huh?
click the image to see the video (not able to embed in my blog)
If you are really curious (and I know a few scientists in my family who are), you can download the 43-page PDF with all the details, including the detailed mechanism of action, a diagram of the molecular structure and the metabolic pathway of capecitabine to 5-FU (and the requisite mind-numbing list of potential side-effects). Come on, you know you want to read it. Download it here.
In addition to the chemo, Mark has had radiation treatment. Here’s an animation of how the Clinac linear accelerator works. If you are really interested in the physics, read here, here, and here or you can email me. But I think it is pretty cool that there is a linear accelerator in there! This first animation shows the target area as the head region. But it still gives you an idea of how the machine turns. You can’t actually see the rays, this animation just demonstrates how it works.
Here is an actual video of a machine (without a patient). The machine turns so easily, even though it is very large.
Here’s Mark, waiting for positioning.
Here’s the “command central” for the technicians:
The software is programmed to open the multileaf collimater fingers in a pattern that allows the beam to leave the machine in a specific shape that the oncologist has programmed for Mark’s body and tumor. On the left you see the photo of the shape the machine is opening to (the gold sections are the collimator fingers that slide in and out, the white area is the open section which shapes the beam). On the right you see the shape of the beam superimposed on Mark’s radio-images (from the on-board imaging apparatus).
Note the cute little figure that reminds the technicians which way the image is facing. See the red nose? So, this setup is for the radiation to enter from the patient’s right side.
The technicians line up the image of Mark on the bed of the machine, with a CT scan (with contrast) taken at the beginning of the treatment, and which was used to set up the software. When everything is lined up, they give him the ol’ zap. Well, actually, he gets the radiation three times… once from each side, and once from above. The positioning actually takes longer than the dose of radiation.
Our machine was the “Green Machine” (there is are four machines, all different colors). The machines aren’t actually painted different colors, it’s just a way to keep everything organized and easy to identify. The Green Team of Eddie and Jen was awesome. Here we are with them on “graduation” day.
Duke’s Rad Onc department is really and truly RAD!!!!
Now, Mark gets 4 weeks off until a new round of CT/PET scans and consultation with the Medical Oncologist, Radiation Oncologist, and most importantly, the Surgical Oncologist. At this point they will decide when he will have his surgery to remove the cancer. After that surgery, he’ll have some more chemo. The type and duration will depend on how things go with the surgery. At least, that’s the plan for now! Stay tuned for updates.
I am very grateful to Allan Emery at Hendrickson Publishers for the opportunity to review Jo Ann Hackett’s soon-to-be released textbook, A Basic Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (with CD). He sent me PDF copies of the galleys so that I could write this review. I am also indebted to Prof. Hackett for her gracious answers to my emails that will add clarity to my review.
I am delighted that Hendrickson granted permission for me to post PDFs of both the Table of Contents and the author’s very helpful introduction, “How To Use This Book.” While I will quote some of this material below, I recommend reading both files because they give both the structure of the book and an explanation for how the book is intended to be used and the thought behind some of the novel pedagogy. The Table of Contents is very detailed and provides an excellent overview of the course plan.
PDF Files to view/download
All Front Pages to A Basic Introduction to Biblical Hebrew by Jo Ann Hackett
Many thanks (again) to the folks at Eisenbrauns for sending me a review copy of War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century edited by Richard S. Hess and Elmer A. Martens (Bulletin for Biblical Research Supplement 2). You can read the first part and second part of my review of this book here and here. In this third (and final) post, the chapters we will look at cover diverse ground. One defends Christian pacifism, another looks at the distinction between Just Wars and Crusades. The three final essays take up the issues as they relate specifically to terrorism. Read More…
