Solidarity?

 I'm supposed to do other things. Insomnia is back so I haven't slept well the last few nights. And with it a recurrent memory that has been nagging and pestering me without rhyme or reason for the last decade.

It was back last night. My subconscious tugging at my conscious mind, demanding attention. I'm not at an age where an old brain remembers the early years and not much in between. So why a preteen memory?

One of the high schools I went to was a very good one. I could not appreciate at the time because I had no other reference point. We were a class composed of students from all sociodemographics. We valued eachothers interest; the student who was into photography and gave those who are interested a copy. The other student whose parents bred greyhounds and whippets. The student who went through a semi punk phase. A few crafters. The ones who could draw. Our teachers didn't do this; we did. Random luck of non cliques. When I watched the old john Hughes movies like breakfast club; it represented our individualities, but I couldn't relate to the stereotypes not interacting with eachother.

One day we had a two hour class, with a fifteen minute break. The teacher announced a surprise test after the break. We were scared and shocked. For the straight A students it meant that we weren't prepared enough. For the failing students it could mean failing the year. During the break we discussed what to do. Diane who was politically active told us it's against the rules. Andrew, the tall guy had already failed two school years and couldn't risk it. The more we discussed it the more outraged we became. We decided on a collective walk out, a protest of sorts. An entire class couldn't get into trouble, we decided.

The student who listened was Katie. Daughter of two physicians. Top student, quiet. She had a muscle tone disability and couldn't run. Anytime we rotated through picking a team in phys ed, some of the kids would pick her last, others picked her second so they weren't mean.

How to convince her? She always followed the rules. Are you in Katie? To our surprise she said yes. We worked out that we were going to do it alphabetically. We were going to walk out one by one. It felt great. It felt right.

The teacher came back in after the break. The test was distributed. No one got up to leave. There was nervous shifting. We looked at eachother. Andrew got up out of alphabetical order. No one followed. We waited. Then wrote the test. After the test we had a short break. Andrew had waited in the hallway. He was angry. Where were you guys?

I remember that we were silent as we walked past him. Looking down. Embarrassed. Feeling like cowards. I have not encountered a surprise quiz since. And I forgot about this event that lay in the past. We were kids, obeying authority.

I have a vague recollection that it was against school policy to count the mark as it can destroy someone's future.

Over the last decade I witnessed this behavior in adults. Outrage at various injustices. Inciting and encouraging others to take the fall, then backing away. Adults that behave like frightened children. Not wanting to get involved. 

The Outrage? Never more than a Netflix popcorn movie, fueled by self-righteous hypocrisy.

About books, writing and a little venting.

 Books have been a part of my whole life. My parents had a library and I could freely read whatever I chose. Whenever I could, I would encourage reading. 

I have published, collaborated, even managed to publish some short stories (more of an ego passion project), and anyone who has done the latter knows that the pay is negligible and it's a lot of work. It's also getting harder; professional fiction writers, not only have to go on tour but are expected to manage advertising, marketing and maintaining websites.

Meanwhile, the industry is changing, there will be no more mass market paperbacks and digital renting is increasing. It's not wishful thinking, when people realize that e books will become problematic, both will continue to run in parallel. I'm going to be right on this one. I grew up at a time where high quality TV programming existed AND everyone read. Lots to choose from. People are starting to read more again, paper books are increasing again and with what's on digital offer declining in quality, people will turn back to books.

In my twenties, where the majority of my course load and life was science, I took it upon myself to read world literature. Every summer I picked an era or country; Russian lit, German lit, Austin, Bronte, Allende, Canadian lit, American lit and so on. It was eye opening. I'm very much a snob about books in general. And today I feel like cathartic venting about the ignorance people have about anything to do with research or writing in any genre.

Here's one of my more bizarre encounters. My thoughts are in brackets.

1. I was buying writing supplies. It's my ritual when I start a new project. The cashier, was a woman in her fifties, who had helped me find a few things in the store. Cashier stops scanning. What do you do?

I write. (Please continue to scan)

Ooooooh. What kind of books?

Non fiction. Research. Very boring.

Oh. I have an idea of a book we could write together.

I don't write those kind of books.

Let me tell you about my idea. It's about all the experiences with crazy customers I've had. You wouldn't BELIEEEEEEVE the stories I have to tell. It's going to be a bestseller.

(Please tell me she's kidding. Scan lady scan.)

I think that's already been done and I don't write those kind of books. (I vaguely recalled a recent bestseller. Indeed there was a 2011 bestseller My life on the tills.)

Yeeeees. There was a bestseller. I can do that too. We're going to be rich. I'll tell you the stories and you write it. Well go 50/50 after that.

(Oh dear lord for the life of monk illuminated palimpsests and parchments; she's not kidding.)

I don't write those kind of stories. You need to write it and see if you can find a publisher. Alternatively, you hire someone to write it for you. That's at least $20,000 for a book.

You want how much?

I don't want anything. I.dont.write.those.type.of.books. (Please scan and ring me out). I need to go.

You'll regret  not saying yes to this. 

What's wrong with people?

Any unusual writing experience or comments about books or writing?

A message from Norway

 From Norways consumer council:

Enjoy

https://youtube.com/watch?v=T4Upf_B9RLQ

Women in STEM

 A very brief note with names not links, because they take time and no one is reading the articles on science it seems.

First of all and I was really surprised, google doodle celebrated with this as its 2026 topic.

There is some criticism which I partially agree with: "girly colors" and the wave length in a cube looks like a mustache. It also doesn't link to any recent scientists.

So here are a few, if interested there's always wiki.

1. Ilaria Capua-preeminent virologist from Italy, who cracked/discovered the H5N1 avian flu in 2006, which later became zoonotic (jumped to humans) as Capua predicted. Her prior work specialized in vaccinating poultry. She wanted the data shared among scientists around the world, was prevented from doing so, went into politics to change legislation to prevent illness and....

was accused of being a [bio]/#ter....ten year battle wrote a book about it and left for Uni Florida and Texas. This doesn't even come close to what she went through.

2. Charpentier and Doudna who codeveloped the Crispr technology and won the Nobel for it.

3. Lisa Randall mostly known for string theory and hyperspace, who despite holding most of the most important positions in physics still spends the majority of her time being asked what it's like being a female physicist (she hates the question) instead of the research she does.

There's one anecdote about Italian perception.  she attended a conference in Italy and could not get in. When she gave them her name repeatedly she was asked when Dr. Lisa (first name Randall) would show up. She was the key note speaker but it was assumed that she was HIS secretary.

4. Roberta Bondar first Canadian female Astronaut at 46, pilot and neurologist and subsequently Head of NASAs medical department. Also published some amazing photography of glaciers.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-magazine-for-january-16-2022-1.6313448/roberta-bondar-flew-into-space-30-years-ago-and-never-saw-earth-the-same-after-that-1.6313449

might add a few more, but for now only 27% of scientists are female

For today: Gaming Grandma

 

I thought of writing about female scientists but realized there is little interest from others, even women. Video games have changed considerably. One of them is Skyrim. An open world game that parallels life in a fantasy medieval setting.

How one plays it is up to the individual, but one can find various objects to eg. buy a house and furnish it. Horses can be bought, stolen or found in the wild. If a player decides to steal items, they lose their reputation and become part of the dark brotherhood.

For teens it's a great way to learn to save for items just like life. Something that players do is walk throughs (on youtube), teaching others how to play or find items.

The gaming community is a kind one. When Curry revealed her age (she started in her 70s), she received nothing but support from everyone. She plays the game her way and became so famous that gaming grandma was featured in a documentary.

She's sharp as a tack and gaming is great for hand eye coordination, decision making and reflexes.

A true inspiration. This is how I want to be when I grow up.

Here's the 20 minute documentary:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pxoXrc8pwx0

Shirley Curry:" What am I going to do? I don't like to knit"

Gastronomy shrinkflation

Sustainable, healthy and
environmentally friendly

 Most people are mislead to believe that restaurants operate one step above bankruptcy. In the case of chains not even close they're under incredible pressure from private equity companies to increase profit margins annually.

Many who were struggling a little because the quality went down prior to, made a lot more during covid. Overhead was down, less staff, basically a kitchen and staff that got the items packed for delivery.

I'm not talking about food court junk fast food or fast food, but mid range restaurants.

Red lobster is one example. I have a special place in my heart for them. In my university town we had a good one. On Tuesdays it was all you can eat. Everything on the menu. It was fresh, the waiter came regularly and I stayed away from anything deep fried or their dessert.

When a film student friend took me the first time it sounded too good to be true. I also felt like a cheapskate. We were about to gorge ourselves in our sweatshirts and jeans. Well. Red lobster treated us like regular customers not students on a tight budget. Not only that, but when the waiter recommended the chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, I declined "I can't move. I'm about to roll out of here". 

He laughed. Then said skip the Minestrone next time. It's a filler. To this day I remember the sizzling garlic shrimp; fresh garlic and herbs. I knew a student that worked there; they were treated really well and everything was spotless.

In the early 2000s private equities started to buy up franchises, department stores and red lobster. They made a deal with one Thai seafood distributor which was too expensive. Then sold it for real estate, convinced the public that they were losing billions on the all you can eat, (they didnt) declared bankruptcy, tried to get a bailout for it and due to public support, red lobster bought back its company and brought back the all you can eat promo. Internet is still wrong about it.

As I discovered myself the first time. There's only so much one can eat in one sitting. At least I never could. I'm giving my student days as an example. Unless it was a birthday restaurants (that we actually liked) were not within our budgets. Red lobster never lost money.

You could not take what you couldn't finish home

You were only brought one item at a time

Instead of not going at all. I basically paid for the main, and received several appetizers and (had I chosen it) dessert for free.

Red Lobster uses good ingredients. They had mass purchasing power, sourced from several big sea food companies to the point that they could dictate the price due to its very high bulk volume. They also buy a variety of lobster species that are good but not the high end expensive ones.

Tuesdays is so slow for the restaurant business that they make money on those days with all you can eat.

Why am I mentioning it now? Because the food prices for big chains haven't gone up that much, but greed and disdain for the customer have. Unless people complain about items removed from menus (management not waiters) or companies replacing ingredients at will, the customer is no longer king but a joke.

Communication, Women and Science Fiction

 I was younger than most when I entered university. Through friends of my parents I ended up in an apartment with a flatmate named Mina. Mina was a few years older, studious like myself. Smart and quiet. She was like a big sister. Kind, encouraging, gentle yet assertive. She had (she still does) a bubbly reverse laughter that made me laugh even when the joke wasn't funny.

We were young idealists; we were going to save the world, people and the environment. Mina had gotten into a competitive program so we rarely saw eachother. Both of us spent time in the library, and we were very considerate of eachothers space. Every weekend she went home to be with her boyfriend, a physician in training.

Startrek was in syndication and was my dinner study break every evening. Mina didn't think much of scifi and couldn't understand why I watched it. One evening our disciplined lifestyles overlapped and she joined me on the couch while we were munching our salads.

 I explained that each species was not a representation of "race", but an extrapolated and stereotypical extreme of human personality and behavior; the Ferengi greedy businessmen, whose intentions could not even be read by an empath, the Klingons; the proud warrior race, the Vulcans who were logical and suppressed emotions, the Borg a totalitarian hivemind and so on. The show explored many ethical and moral themes including Data's struggle to be recognized as a person. Mina was passionate about women's and human rights. 

When i told her that the first Startrek was a product of the 60s, where Kirk "engaged" with animal, mineral or vegetable with some papermache aliens thrown in, and that TNG had changed the famous slogan: "To boldly go where no man has gone before" to "To boldly go where no one has gone before" as early as 1987, in order to be more inclusive, Mina became interested. Mina wasn't hooked per se, but she joined me frequently afterwards to watch and discuss.

Ionescu's play The bald soprano about the failure of communication did not resonate as much as TNGs episode Darmok. (The episode is free on youtube). An alien species whose brains have evolved to only speak in metaphors. AIs LLM feels that way. Our own communication is more anti-social. Even on these blogs I've witnessed adults imitate juvenile behavior and resort to bullying. The othering of anyone who is perceived as other.

Maybe Startrek should be mandatory viewing at an early age.

To this day when I encounter situations that are crazy because people aren't listening and talking at eachother rather than to eachother followed by the insincere "I hear you", there is hopefully a geek nearby who understands my "at Tenagra".

There's been recent talk about aliens again. I don't need a Drake equation to convince me that there's sentient life in the universe other than ourselves. However it has likely evolved so differently. that I doubt we'd have anything in common. We might not be able to perceive eachothers form of communication. (Take that egocentric Fermi paradox). There is probably nothing that we could trade. "We're a Foufna based lifeform and ecosystem, wth are we going to do with your coal, oil, plants or water???" 

Gary Larson

Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra. 

Sokath, his eyes open.

Update: Google AI gives a decent summary of the meaning of these sentences. Basically the first is about cooperation, the second about understanding.