Ice on Mars? Well, well well - won't have to bring our own ice to the first 4th of July on Mars colony I - good news, folks !! (oh, please let it be ice!)
Computer glitches on the other hand - oh, great ! and not one geek within a million miles.

A real, honest-to-goodness, paper letter. My hand ached, but some of the pain faded during the 2 hours or so it took to write it. My muscles just didn't feel right at the beginning, but I have a friend who still believes in paper mail (otherwise called snail mail.) and she just about begs for a letter every so often, and having only a few friends, I figured I'd better communicate in the traditional manner for the sake of our 30 year-old friendship, if for no other reason,  anyway, guilt was finally overcoming my prodigious ability to procrastinate. I have been my usual lazy, somewhat quiet self since the early 90's - letters used to be second nature, now they are a rarity. Email is all anyone ever gets if they let me get away with what comes naturally... and My friends either fail to hear from me for years or they get letters the size of small books... there is little middle ground, so she is going to read my 9-page letter in about 5 days.

 It made me realize how dependent and linked (attached, connected, related to..) to the computer I really am at this stage of my life. I grew up in a far different world, which seems somehow more primitive to me, as I look back on my youth. We had paper and pen. We learned to write, to compose and studied penmanship with endless repeated lessons to teach our hands the natural forming of letters. The work was repetitious but somehow enjoyable for me... AAAA BBB CCC aaa bbb ccc ---- and, I still do these lessons, sometimes just to keep myself limber and practiced, but, sadly, I am noticing that I am losing my skills to form the letters properly as I grow older. The letters looked malformed and somehow poorly designed last night, it saddened me to see how poor my penmanship really had become over the last few years. Its lets obvious when I am writing a check or a list.  I felt like tearing the letter up but did not, and I realized how often I had started letters only to tear them up. I need to find an envelope and send it, today. It is a strange that something so natural has now become something extra-ordinary. (note :It was actually yesterday, love modern technology. Saved this as a draft, last night, when I ran out of time !)
This trend is even becoming more pronounced in the young and there are many articles about the trend.
E-Mail is, of course a wonderful addition to the world's inter-connectivity & ability to communicate quickly as is Blogging and Podcasts. This is doubly true in commercial settings and I recently had a good experience solving a problem with a malfunctioning Sansa MP3 player via email (try doing that with snail mail, it would have taken months! ). Our ability to communicate with one another over immense spaces, quickly and easily is bound to effect our world in ways we hardly imagine at this time and I sometimes think this will mean a new birth of freedom (of expression), other times, I wonder if it just means more words, poorly expressed with less content in what we write - there is little struggle to compose and there is always the delete key. But the fact that you are reading this post and that you live in (lets say) Europe or Boston, or even the Far East, means something about the world has changed that has never been true, before, you are reading the words of someone who lives many miles away the same day she wrote it - that wasn't possible until now. (She may have actually composed its beginning one day, finished it the next and proof read it and changed it further hours after she originally finished it ..that means something to the future of communications that I suspect will be significant.

The only time I worry about this new medium is when I read some of the bitter feuding I see on the net-- I think that some people may be releasing a lot of hostility that should not exist over matters that should and could be resolved rationally. My husband, always wise when it comes to human nature suggests this is because it is safe to say things on the net that would get you killed if you were standing in front of the person... lets face it, what are we going to do, come through the screen and strangle each other? Zap each other with lasers from afar? It is too easy to be rude on the Internet.

 Remember, please, that this ability to speak to the world, even though I am a humble housewife, is very, very NEW  -----very new. Blogging, particularly, seems to me to be a letter to the world - I don't really know who reads my blog - or if anyone reads it - (at least, when I write a letter to a friend, I know they may try get through the thing!) but whether anyone reads what I write or doesn't, does not matter as much as the discipline of composition and the effort I make to communicate to others. As I said earlier - I have worked on this composition several times today.

That this is an amazing, very new medium does not mean it should destroy the traditional means of communications that have survived the centuries - writing a real letter takes patience and an effort at rational composition, the ability to plan a sentence quickly and the ability to pick out the things in your life that are most worth sharing. It is a challenge to do it well. It is an art that many of our best writers savored and cherished.  It is often a note to the future.  (whether it is a historian or a just a descendant.) It is an art form as well as a challenge to your mind - and in my case, my hand.
Just to prove my point here is a short list of letters well worth the reading :
1.One of my favorites : the Adams letters covering the early revolution and John's experiences at Congress and Abigail's experiences as an isolated woman managing a farm.

2.Jane Austen was a wonderful, clever writer &  a personal favorite. She wrote fine letters, here is just one site that quotes some of them.

3.While reading a biography of George Washington, lately, I was impressed with his skill at letter writing. He is a hard man to get to know, but his letters reveal the real man.

4.The importance of letters to the understanding of the common man/woman living every day under unique and extraordinary times gives us a history that isn't found in our text books. Here is a website about the love letters written by soldiers during the civil war.

5. Another short letter written about an extraordinary event by a common woman - the sinking of the Titanic by Mary Sloan.

6. Another letter from the Titanic, it was chilly on board.

A final thought :
My husband, dear man he always is, has impressed on me from day one of my computing experience, to always back-up, save and re-save, save to disk etc. ... because, as he said, from the very beginning, anything you type on the computer is literally written in sand, silicon, to be exact... it is magnetic and can be lost either by accident or deletion or simple aging. It is like writing your novel or fine letter at the edge of vast sea which can flood any moment and all your hard work can be lost if your hard-disk crashes. While making copies is profoundly easy - too easy, sometimes, all those copies can be lost. All that it would take is some mischief, either purposely performed or accidentally performed, to cause the Internet to crash around us. A computer is just a big plastic paperweight if we don't have electricity flowing through it. (I always go through something like computer withdrawal when we have a power outage.)  Historians had  finally come to the conclusion, recently, that history isn't  just about the kings and rulers and how many wars they fight... its about the common people, also - people like you and I who live our lives and observe our times, sometimes only through the news,  but now, we, the common people are giving up on the art of writing letters and it isn't good for the future of history; what we think is on on our computers and in our email box but that box can be corrupted beyond salvation or just plain lost at any moment - I know, because it has happened several times to me. Our prose could last generations - easily searched for over the net when we are long in our graves - or it could be lost, tomorrow, forever. Which ever is true, when our words are lost, our History will be lost, forever.

are vastly exaggerated. I am busy though ... I've started learning Python ( a computer language) because I want to understand more about computer languages, generally and Python is a good place to start... that my husband knows the language, already, is, of course, important.  and I am still working to organize my computer and the files on my Ubuntu Operating system, particularly. I have little time to do much else - even play games. On the needlework front I am making a new purse.. and experimenting with patterns. I am also doing the usual house-wifely things, also, and struggling to lose the pounds between 170 and 160 - which seem particularly stubborn, though it may be the weather... as in its been so miserable that walking anywhere is a wee bit unpleasant. Today was windy, rainy and cold - not quite a wind storm but not exactly a breeze, either.  Leon's hours are a bit weird, also ... try getting up at 2 AM and tell me it isn't just a little --- weird !
Well, must go. take care, everyone !

I shouldn't complain about the weather but we are in the rainy season and well, what the <blank> Use your imagination what word I imply.

Its raining, It is always raining, it rains for months. No real storms, no  thunder to make you jump, no lightening to keep you anxious, no wind to make you paranoid about the electricity, -no - the time for the big storms will pass by the end of January, just rain, endless, dark, cold, wet RAIN  for months, sometimes well into what everyone else calls summer.

Anyone who says Seattle is a livable city or that the Northwest is a natural heaven on Earth ought to spend a fall/winter/spring sequence, here, AND, OH,  a note about lightening and thunder... when I see a Thunderstorm in Seattle in a movie I always laugh .  They don't happen or are so rare as to be noted in big letters in the news. If we get thunder or lightening its usually just a few rolls and flashes, sometimes Just ONE at the very beginning of a downpour... There is never the contrast/conflict of hot and cold air that cause the great storms of the Middle of the country.

 My knees hurt, my shoulder hurts, heck, I am getting those winter blues moods  from the lack of sunlight that I work so hard to escape. Usually by ignoring the skies and the rain. Its gray, its always gray and its not even the end of Christmastide.. you want rain, come here. You want decent weather,  I suggest you try the Northeast or even the South. A little snow would be a change, at least ! I like snow. Cold and clear afterwards and the stars like are cold diamonds above your head as you walk home,they make you sigh for the beauty of it all. What cold beauty there is in the skies of winter, a beauty you can remember 50 years, later!  Here? I can't tell you how many astronomical events I have missed because the endless clouds cover all. Stars? Comets? meteor showers? what are those?

Now for some other news. We are still working on the Linux/UBuntu operating system on both computers to make it work and act the way we want. My CD & DVD are acting weirdly and I think it has to do with all the work we did loading the OS. Its over my head so Leon has to look into it.

I am going to make it my chief operating system and use Windows XP for the programs I can't transform or find replacements for in the near future. Linux is like taking a huge step back to 1999 in someways but I like it. I like the idea of a free program created by people who just love computers and computing. 

We have been using Open Office for some time, now and have never been disappointed in it. I suggest trying it.  I also use Firefox and Thunderbird, both excellent programs, Firefox being a Browser and Thunderbird being the Email program and both absolutely FREE. This is important.  I want to learn a lot more about Linux - it challenges me and makes me think. Nothing is elaborate, it makes me want to learn how to do things myself. I found a child oriented website that teaches programming. They are promising a Linux lesson set - which I think I will use to teach myself some programming. I also have a desire to learn to make my own Multiply themes - I liked the one I used for Christmas but I tend to like things a bit more subdued & I wouldn't have had the intense colors everywhere... also, I would have had more contrast, more green and even gold - I don't want to distract for the words which is the point of the Blog. As I have aged I have learned that over the top isn't always aesthetically pleasing.  My plan is to make this is a year of study and organizing.

I would like to clean up and use some of my own Christmas pictures on my blog so I need to learn more than the basics of Gimp, another free program we have used for several years. As you see my house isn't a very roomy place. It's always a mess to some degree as any house must be when there is little storage and two rather creative people. It makes my Christmas pictures look like the tree is resting next to a messy table, which it actually is but I would like to edit out some of the mess.
 
Well enough complaining and planning. I Must wash dishes.

And, yes, I am back on my diet, never really got off of it. I will weigh myself in a day or two and see what damage I have done - and will continue to go down the long road towards a reasonable weight.

I've been setting up my Linux operating system all day. It's not that unlike Microsoft in a few ways while being very different in others... a little more bare,  somewhat more spartan, in many respects, but, incredibly user friendly, also, which is something I did not expect. Our plan is to keep XP as a secondary operating system, chiefly for games and use Ubuntu for everything else. I am not sure will all this will lead us as Microsoft pushes for the passing of EX by refusing to update it any further... of course, one way out of that dilemma is to no longer access the Net from EX or only very rarely.. as for game updates.Neither of us is sure this is what we really want to do. It isn't about money. We have the money. Its about Microsoft, which is getting more and more pushy - more and more dogmatic and bossy as the years pass. It is now more or less claiming that we don't really ever BUY one of their operating systems (Windows); the 200 + dollars is more like a rent charge and  we must ask permission to use Windows on our system, even to the point where we can not use it on both family machines but must buy two copies. This is heavy handed, indeed. When I buy something I buy it... if I have 20 computers at home I should be able to put it on all 20 machines. Microsoft doesn't own me or the copy of Windows I bought from them.
I do.

We've been talking philosophy all day...  the differences between the Microsoft model and the Unbuntu (Linux) model - I see it terms of what I know - the role of the Catholic Church in religion, for instance - or any organized religion, for the matter. Some People stay safely in one religion for a whole lifetime.  They go to church, obey the laws, do their best never to question authority etc. If the church says don't eat meat on Friday, they don't, if the church says God considers not going to church a certain day a mortal sin they always go to church on that day - in short, they paint within the lines made by Pope. I lost that  ability or inclination at 17 and it wasn't just teen-age rebellion ---- I went wandering.. searching for God, truth, beauty, wisdom ... I explored many religions and philosophies, made it (my religion or life philosophy ) up as I went along - made some mistakes, went down a lot of dead ends - but searched for the Divine ONE in my life, always - I meditated, read, studied, prayed, allowed my belief system to change and evolve as I, myself, did. I was all and all a lover of God, of the Divine. What I did I did for the shear joy of the adventure of seeking God.

Now, what does this have to do with Microsoft and computers?
Microsoft is the Pope. (I would say Bill Gates but he isn't quite Mr. Microsoft, any more.)  It tells you what to do, usually to get excited every time it presents a new operating system-- buy, buy buy - walk to the counter with 500-1000 dollars worth of new programs, you are being a worthy adherent of the great Microsoft lord.. buy Vista, buy the new word processor (Office), buy other Vista related and Vista compatible programs, including new security software because your old '98 and XP compatibles are just so old and dusty and certainly useless with Vista.. sometimes, even buy a new computer simply because you need the more memory. You obey Microsoft. You send them money and they promise to help you if you get into a jam. They keep you and your machine safe.
You are safe within the boundaries of mother Microsoft. Dinner is served and it always works - well, sort of ... doesn't it?

Now - there is another way - (and this applies to all of life, not only computers.). Ubuntu is made by developers and is free - not only free in the monetary sense of the word but freely open source code. If I was a developer and wanted a new recipe program I could write one for Unbuntu and give it away freely - others could get my program and fix what ever bugs they noticed. They didn't have to ask my permission, either. I don't get paid and I do what I do for the shear joy of creation. I am exploring, learning, making it up as I go along. Computers as a craft - or an obsession, perhaps.

There are some problems with the Ubuntu model of life - most people, myself, included are not developers - we just want things to work. Updating this post, this morning, I can report I can't find a recipe application worthy of the name and  I've only written one or two very simple programs in my entire life so writing a new one, myself isn't very likely. Also, there is a sort of low level communism to it all ... Microsoft is capitalism written large - unbuntu nearly the opposite. I don't disapprove of capitalism as some do. I approve of it until someone gets hurt or the capitalists start mistaking themselves for gods.

But it is also a heresy; going off the beaten, safe road and exploring computers as an lone individual. I would suggest it is a love-affair.

Leon and I have been involved with computers since the stone ax days of the early 1970's. He says its the difference between the two great old magazines of the early computer revolution... Byte and Creative Computing... the divide between the two ways started even then. Byte was a very formal magazine. Just looking at it you could see it took itself very seriously. Leon reminded me of it and said those people went on to work at Microsoft.  Creative Computing was fun, even I could see that and I was pretty ignorant back then. I have an old book of republished creative computing articles. One article was a picture of Mr. Spock done in numbers, dots and dashes. I saw that and I immediately jumped upon the idea that you could embroider the picture if you assigned the proper colors to the symbols. Of course that was done in published cross stitch programs, many years later. There was a lot of play and fun in the early days of computer age. We saw the birth of new age for mankind. That doesn't happen in many lifetimes and I feel privileged to have seen the beginning of the home computer revolution/age.
 I saw a lot of that same kind of  fun and self amusement in unbuntu as I familiarized myself with the operation of the system that past two days. I do not know if we will stick with it but it wouldn't surprise me at all. Leon is a good self starter student. He may very well master Ubuntu if given time.

This is going to be just a note, really - My honey, that lovely man I've been married to for some 32 years has gone wacky & wild and has installed Linux Ubuntu, which I immediately called 'bunny',  on his machine on the CD drive that we bought today. I am somewhere between awe, skepticism, curiosity and complete terror.. I am a very easy going woman...  Want to put a motorcycle motor in my living room while you are cleaning it? (and yes, he actually did that when we lived in the trailer !) no problem. Accidentally tear into the floor in the living room when you are using the saw? Hey, that is what rugs are for...  Live in a house the size of some postage stamps ... no problem. Make tallow here at home (Did I tell you about my tallow making experience a couple of weeks ago?) It was a great experience. Stunk to highest heaven, but I am going to use some of it to make soap, so it was worthwhile to me to get on board with the black powder pistol adventure.

  But stray from the Mother Microsoft? From the safety of her large skirts...
ARE YOU MAD?
 but I am, also, very curious.

 It is an unclassified, new  territory ... you all have noted I don't always do what everyone else does; my favorite movies are not the blockbusters, my favorite books rarely are best sellers, I don't go to church because I can not bear anyone telling me what to think, my religion is Gnostic - and this list is actually the short list... I disobey authority, naturally, in my mind and often in my heart .. only obeying when I must. Love is the only way to tame me and the only authority I do obey with any consistency are the political/legal laws of the USA because I love the constitution & the bill of rights and strive to be a good citizen. ... I am like one of my cats, walking my own path in my own way : a loner who happens to be married. Leon knows me ... insult my intelligence, claim I can't possibly understand something and you have a war on your hands ... (ME, little old housewife ... me ? ohhhhh, I couldn't possibly understand a NEW operating system !  (eye lashes batting in a feminine way, a  slight smile... using a soft, gentle, almost childlike   voice... ) I am very good at mocking the arrogant. I have had to do it many, many times.
If I get cute, I have a suggestion: Be afraid, be very afraid.
I can think of several reasons I would like to get from under the thumb of the Microsoft  monster.. she has gotten too big and forgotten her roots. She seems to think she can impose her will on us, who buy her products, she is getting too big for her panties, her products have more holes than a piece of tatted lace, they are a bunch of liberals who cause our local taxes to go up because they have no compassion for their middle class neighbors.
So... next year, we stray from the havens of operating-system bliss and explore Linux and its environs. Should be interesting... Leon claims this has NOTHING what so ever to do with rebellion or any other less polite term or phrase that might occur to me (something to the effect of 'doing it to the man..' )  this is chiefly born of curiosity and a need to learn something new, a new hobby for him..NOW how can I possibly refuse him, anything, even my beloved computer's hard disk space? With that kind of appeal to the angels of my better nature or to the better angels of my nature... or.... ??? well you get the point. I must yield. Been like this since day one when I was 23 and he was 21.
Next year : Linux Ubuntu.
(That is, if we can figure Linux out! )
I think there must be some small print on our marriage license I never read....

Some very good news; my husband ordered all the parts of his new computer and I will inherit this computer in a week- certainly in two weeks. I will be staying home waiting for the deliveries for the next few days. I really miss my friendly, cozy computer with its cute cat motifs and the picture of Cammy that I use for my desktop, and, so long to get back to having my own shiny silicon friend. My old computer is so very cold and dead ! deceased, even. Maybe its in hardware heaven with my first radio and my first color T.V.?
I really miss all my links and bookmarks!
I always feel so very obvious when I use the smile faces, if you can't tell I am joking I am not doing a very good job of writing, am I? Or perhaps It is a GREATER art to make a person shake his or her head and wonder whether that was a joke or not ? Not sure, there.
I am involved in all the reprogramming that will be done in the new machines and in awe of all the program shuffling I will be doing. Reloading the entire machine always is both a tedious and quizzical event. Now which of these drivers are the right ones ? What about our scanner- the company seemed to forget it ever built the thing - where do I find a good driver for it? And yes, I do all the reloading for my computer and I often help Leon with his machine, if only to help him find the programs.
I am a "Firefly" fan - a browncoat, if you like - Don't join, or make it obvious or the like but I truly believe it is the best science fiction on TV in the last 10+ years - or at least since the last episode of Babylon 5. It was better than any Star Trek series ever was, even the first series with the characters of Kirk and Spock, which I was crazy for in the mid 1960's.. Firefly had mature plots, interesting, imperfect characters who couldn't solve every problem by fixing the engines and as Mal often said, were just trying to live and keep flying.
It also was an obvious rebellion against the law and order of Star Trek's universe, the 'everything can be solved in an hour' of those one dimensional characters - I found that I did not like the liberal, New Age mindset of 'Next Generation' and most of the spin-offs of the original Star Trek ( the only one I did like was "Deep Space Nine" but not enough to buy the DVDs !) --

I liked the first series which was messy, clever for its time, explored new planets and didn't act like ambassadors in space with painful consistency .. but the evolution of Star Trek universe disappointed me, it struck me as being a hollow vision of the future, it was anti God, anti human, often, with almost constant denial that mankind's temperament will not change no matter how far we go into the void and most often deceitful, denying basic human nature. - the Firefly universe is more gritty and real and appeals to the adult I am today and I would suggest it to anyone who is truly an adult and wants to watch science fiction at its best. One of its basic premises is that mankind will not change a great deal or quickly no matter how far we go out into the universe.

Recently, in a moment of boredom I happen to search for new sites and found this one - This is a site that explores a possible second season for firefly!
If you loved the show as much as I did please answer the questions on their survey- they are trying to prove that we fans do exist and that we have MONEY - the one thing that Hollywood really cares about. I would love to see Serenity continue flying and it is unthinkable that there are not more stories to tell!
Dear Joss Whedon did such a incredible job on the first season and movie and it is real loss to realize that the story and the lives of his incredible characters are frozen in time if he does not give them further life in a new series.
So the possibility of a second season - SHINY !