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Pegasus Librarian Posts

"He Couldn’t Get That Cushion to Start on Fire": or, It’s Amazing These Kids Lived to Grow Up

Published by Iris on Saturday, August 26th, 2006

I haven’t been able to get to the computer much. This is not just because I’ve been too busy doing Absolutely Nothing to squeeze in much time for doing A Little Something, but it’s also because my little brother has taken up about 20 hours of every day playing his WWII game online. But I just got to the computer before he could after brunch, so he’s now sitting around waiting for me to get off. Bwah-ha-ha. Now’s my chance to write The Great American Novel while he twiddles his thumbs.

While he waits, I think it’s important that you know that it’s a miracle I’m here today. My dad’s cousin, cousin’s wife, and cousin’s daughter came over for dinner last night (the daughter goes to the school where my dad teaches and today’s move-in day). They started telling stories from their childhood, and now I live in wonder and awe that either one made it to age 18. Mark (my dad’s cousin) was at one point explaining that most of the things that happened to him weren’t his fault. I’ll let you be the judge.

“Things weren’t really my fault ever,” says Mark, a big Harley-riding son of a South Dakota farmer, in his soft, slow voice, dimples digging deep into each cheek. “They really weren’t. I just always got in trouble for them. Take the time we were sittin’ on the porch. One of the porch chairs had some stuffin’ that was fallin’ out. I don’t remember why that stuffin’ was so interesting. It must’ve been callin’ out to us. Anyway, my friend couldn’t get that cushion to start on fire, but as soon as I tried it went poof. We ended up havin’ to throw it off into the yard to keep the house from catchin’.”

No, that wasn’t his fault at all. And there seems to be a sentence missing from his story: the one that tells us why they thought there was nothing for it but to set that stuffing on fire.

Ok, I can’t take the “music” Jesse’s making (voice, piano, and guitar by this point), so I’m going to let him back at his computer.

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To Blogger Beta or Not To Blogger Beta, That Is The Question

Published by Iris on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006

CW has switched (upgraded?) to Blogger Beta, and the option to do so has appeared on my blog’s “dashboard.” But do I want to? Not being as fearless as CW, I’m a little reluctant to commit my 160 little posts, even though compared to her I have only a baby blog, to a brand new platform.

I’m pretty pleased with some of the new features (like the admittedly somewhat watered down version of categories, built in comment feeds, and the ability to publish posts without republishing the entire blog), but I’m not please that there are still some basics that haven’t made it over to the beta version. Among these is the ability to let people with Daddy Blogger accounts log in and comment on Baby Blogger blogs, or support for browsers other than Firefox and IE.

I guess I’m just not one of those “early adopters,” but I think I’ll hang out in Daddy Blogger for a little while longer. At any moment, though, I may change my mind. Isn’t the suspense killing you?

p.s. Vacation is GREAT. I’ll write more about that when I next get the urge to turn on the computer.

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New Research on Introverts

Published by Iris on Monday, August 21st, 2006

Whenever I mention my introverted nature to people, they tend to react as if I’d just told them that my cat writes sonatinas or that my next door neighbors are visiting scientists from Ceres (one of the new Plutons in our solar system). I’ve gotten responses ranging from bemused smiles to outright laughter.

Ok people. I’ve finally learned that being introverted has nothing to do with being shy. Introverts and extroverts alike can be shy. That has to do with social anxiety rather than temperament. Introversion is a temperament, and people are born that way. It’s in their genes.

I’ve been reading bits here and there by Marti Laney about how the brain chemicals of innies and outies are different. As an innie, I rely more on the neurotransmitter acetylcholine than on dopamine, and on my parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) than on my sympathetic (“fight or flight”) nervous system. Among other things, this means that I may have cold hands and feet because my blood and energy are directed to my inner organs rather than my extremities.

The little article I read about this listed scores of traits innies have, which I would reproduce here except that it would be a lot of typing, and I’d probably violate at least two layers of copyright law. So here are just a few:

  • Reduce eye contact when speaking and increase eye contact when listening
  • Appear glazed or zone out when tired or stressed
  • Be clearer about their perceptions, thoughts, and feelings after sleeping on it
  • May need to regulate body temperature and protein intake since they are almost always metabolizing food
  • Must have breaks in calm environment to restore energy
  • Appear relaxed, calm, but alert
  • May walk, talk, and eat slowly
  • Enjoy social events but feel drained by them

Apparently, my entire family is introverted. Who knew?

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Pluto is a… Pluton

Published by Iris on Thursday, August 17th, 2006

[Update: Pluto’s not a pluton. More here.]

So Pluto’s still a planet, but they’ve now classed it and a few other planet-like things as a separate class of planets called “Plutons.” That’s right, in the process of defining “planet” for the first time in history, we’ve been forced to include even more planets in our system. So now, if this new definition gets passed, we’ll have 12 planets in our solar system (though Pluto and Charon are now called a “double planet” for reasons that I don’t quite understand yet). Now we need a new mnemonic to remember Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto-Charon, and UB313. First we need a better name for “UB313,” if you ask me, though nobody has yet. Talk about a name that’ll get you teased in middle school!

Oh, and the “definition” that they (the IAU) drafted only requires that the mass in question orbit a star and be spherical, which could include a whole bunch of masses. But borderline cases have to be observed and approved (by vote?) before they can be defined as planet.

So, what’ll it be. What’s the mnemonic that’ll make it into grade school text books for the next few decades?

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