Face Blindness

Also known as prosopagnosia (from the Greek prosopon meaning "word", "a" not, and "gnosia" knowledge) = I have trouble recognizing faces.
Here is an explanation I found on one of the sites that might give you an understanding f what that means: "People who are "tone deaf" are not deaf to tones. They can hear tones, they just can't tell them apart. People who are "color blind" can see things that are in color. They just can't tell colors apart. Similarly, I can see faces. I just can't tell them apart."
Now anybody who has hung around me long enough has a story to tell about the time when I didn't recognize somebody I had just spent the afternoon with or about me confusing co-workers that absolutely don't look alike. It seems this disorder actually is a neurological problem that is not too widespread - as far as I am concerned, it would be problematic for the survival of the species if it were.
Foe or friend? Let me think. Are we related?
There are some heart-wrenching stories of people who are severely affected.
Tests are available on the Web to see if you suffer from the condition. I think normal people will find them entertaining as you are asked to recognize celebrities in one case, pair strangers in another. They actually provoked mild anxiety in me... I took them and my results were poor.

Nonetheless, I was relieved and excited about all the info I found. Here is a link for more studies.

French sources use the word "prosopagnosie".

Happy New Year

Today is the beginning of the Pig Year. We were invited for a New Year's Eve party yesterday and it really felt like we were getting off to a good start. Our best friends were reunited and we "pigged out" on glorious dishes. The mood was serene and we had good music. It was a lovely way to usher in the New Year.

I wish you all the best in this New Year: Health and Good Fortune!

By Popular Demand (reviewed AND translated)

Rum and Orange Cake

Note: For best results, let the cake soak in the juice for a day or two

Batter
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 large oranges (juice and zest)
1 lemon (juice and zest)
2 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk (I put regular milk)
1 cup walnuts (dates are good too)


Preheat stove to 350 F. Butter a tube pan.

Prepare the zest and fruit juices.
Cream butter and gradually add sugar, zest (orange and lemon) and eggs.

Sift together remaining dry ingredients. Alternate small quantities of flour mix and buttermilk to liquid batter (butter-sugar-zest-egg mix). Beat until smooth, then add walnuts (and dates, if you wish).

Pour into tube pan. Bake in oven for 60 to 70 minutes until an inserted wooden pick comes out clean. DO NOT remove from mold as you will be pouring the juice below onto it while the cake is still warm...

Juice to pour over cake
Juice from oranges and lemon
1 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of rum

Bring the juices and sugar to a boil. Add rum. Pour over warm cake.
The cake is at its best after a day or two. Enjoy!

Technical Writing

I was trying out a new cake recipe today.
It was given to me by someone who, perhaps, took notes from someone on their deathbed. It definitely didn't come from a book because it was very muddled and I doubt it had been tested. I ended up putting too much sugar, in the confusion. I read the recipe a number of times but it was not written in any order I could figure.
To make matters worse, there were numbered steps to make you think there was some kind of logic behind the whole thing. as though everything was carefully laid out.

There were several traps, all carefully crafted to make you waste perfectly good batter. I did not realize my mistake until the cake was in the oven and I was cleaning up.
When the cake is baked and still warm, you pour a mix of fruit juice, sugar and a bit of rhum. I had measured my ingredients but could not find the sugar... That is when I realized I had mistakenly added the sugar to the dry ingredients (mix all dry ingredients, it said). The trick was to notice the contradictions and make sense of them.

Ingredients
2 cups sugar (1 for cake, 1 for juice)
Whip butter, add sugar, eggs, zest

Later: beat together dry ingredients into batter. Later still: mix together sugar (what sugar!?), fruit juice and rhum (at that point, I was ready to drink the rhum and forget the whole thing - but I digress).

Oh, btw, for those who were wondering, the cake turned out fine.
After I was done, I rewrote the instructions following MY logic.

Who knew you were supposed to test the instructions... Maybe I should look for that job? Recipe tester sounds like just my line of work... : )

Stars and Strollers

While lurking on a friend's blog, I read that she went to the movies with her baby. It seems the cinemas have awoken to the novel ideas that parents are people too, and made accomodations for their new status. They have put aside screenings of brand new movies especially for parents. The sound is lower, the lights are dimmed and there is a stroller park (I am not sure if it is inside the movie theater or outside?-jk). You get to enjoy the latest movies while your child sleeps, nurses or whatever, with noone taking offense at your children quietly talking to themselves. No need for a babysitter! I think it is a great idea. To see if there is such a program at a theatre near you, go to: Stars and Strollers

I wonder how you deal with PG 13 with young kids... ; ) S-l-e-e-p

Current desktop backdrop

It's been awhile since I posted any pix. I figured this one was as good as any. This is what I see when I boot up every morning. This is precious because we hardly see ever catch him unawares. He was busy sniffing out the summer breeze. We usually never see a hint of teeth... I swear I can see his nostrils flaring.
You can see a hint of gray on his beard and a few petals on his blue-black coat.

Testing, 1, 2, 3

Suite française

The novel Suite Francaise is available in English. It talks of the period of WWII when the German troops defeated France and invaded the country. It was written by an incredible writer, as the events were unfolding. The French novel is so well written! I just hope the translation is up to the task.

Je lis ces jours-ci "Suite française" d'Irène Némirovski. Ça se passe aux premiers jours de la capitulation de la France aux mains des Allemands et aux sentiments qu'éveillent de part et d'autre l'avènement de ce nouveau ménage. On voit la fuite de Paris, la coexistence pacifique des Français avec les conquérants et les sentiments confus et contradictoires qui les habitent. L'écriture est délicate et nuancée. On s'y croirait. D'ailleurs, les deux romans (parus ensemble sous une même couverture) ont été écrits à l'époque et publiés tout récemment par les filles âgées de cette écrivaine qui a péri à Auschwitz en août 1942. Le manuscrit était écrit très serré, à la mine, pour ^pargner le papier qui était si rare et ses filles avaient crû y trouver des notes personnelles, un journal peut-être. L'une d'elle s'est enfin résolue à les lire, car elle remettait les manuscrits à un musée et voulait vérifier le contenu de ces pages.

J'aurais voulu citer des extraits. Malheureusement, je n'ai pas pris de notes pendant ma lecture, de ce qui était particulièrement émouvant ou enlevant. Je ne voulais pas me priver du plaisir de la lecture et briser le rythme. Et je croyais qu'en feuilletant au hasard, je retrouverais bien assez vite ces passages. Alors je feuillette, et me sens de nouveau transporté dans cet univers. Mais jene peux me décider à choisir un passage plutôt qu'un autre. Je trouve qu'ils forment un tout...

Bonne lecture!

Strees Relief Update

We bought a new box of Melba toast - in Ottawa, this time. They were all intact. Yay to Dare Foods Customer Service for their help! I emailed the girl to tell her the good news and she was politely happy for me.

All is well that ends well. : )

It's a Dog-Bite-Dog World

We rescued a dog that had wandered onto our property. He was desperately trying to get inside the fenced yard. We checked his collar and called the owner who was beside herself with joy. We fed him a bit while we he waited, but he was not very hungry. She had lost her chocolate lab in the morning (it was noonish). She was afraid he would be cold (it was a -20 kinda day). We took him in - she had promised to come shortly - and Minuit and him were running around the house.

The owner came and we chatted. She got her dog into the back of her car and Paul noticed there was blood on his hand. Minuit was missing a sliver of his ear. There had been a skirmish in the stairs after the guest tried to hump Minuit (not a good idea) but nothing unusual.

Anyway, we headed off to the vet who shaved the affected area, put a blood clotting agent on the ear, gave him a shot of painkiller and sent us off home with antibiotics and reassurances. Oh, and a bill the owner of the guest promptly agreed to pay.

Minuit's was groggy from the painkiller but otherwise fine. We are somewhat sad at his crooked ear but ok too.

Stress relief

Today was a bloody busy day as I was scheduled to deliver a small contract.
I ended up nibbling on some crumbly Melba toast and that was just too much for me. It's not the first time that these wonderful crackers come broken to my table. Other times, I have suffered in silence. Not this time. My cup overfloweth! I seized the box and punched in the offending URL, found the offending product and wrote an offending email (no no, I wouldn't do that. I was very polite, very... Canadian?). Anyway, I stated my problem and waited. Very soon, a nice lady answered back with concern for my welfare, expressing regret and asking for more details, which I gladly provided.
More exchanges followed in which she explained that though they create a superior product, the delivery guys that take it from the warehouse might just be brutes. Actually, that was a good answer. I will try a different grocery store if the supplier is the issue.
That was a nice stress reliever.
The people handling complaints are bound to be compassionate, nice, polite people. I think I will keep a list of grudges handy so that when I am in a foul mood, I will get somebody nice to talk to me and put me back in a good mood. Yeah - instant friend! Forget yoga or deep breathing for quick stress relief...

More thoughts on global warming

The preceeding blog on global warming has generated the most comments ever. Thank you for your reading suggestions (which I will take on).
I am watching the weather with dread these days as it only confirms what was said in the DVD. I can't rejoice on the warm weather - I see flooding everywhere... I guess it's good for people biking to work - the season is longer.
I didn't realize that I should be unplugging the appliances I am not using - I guess I need to turn off my computer when I stop using it. I usually leave it on all day as a way of keeping in touch with friends through IM or emails (a bad habit from the days at the office). I am sure I would be a little more efficient if I were able to severe that link. For example, I got up at 7:00 am to work today and haven't started yet...
I liked the minimal packaging on Gore's DVD, as well as his very plain, no-nonsense approach.
I wonder what habits could be changed in the workplace, where it affects tons of people? Any suggestions?

...and a Happy New Year!

We watched An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's crusade about improving awareness of global warming. It is truly sobering because of the fact that we are rapidly approaching the point of no-return. We know what must be done to leave a lighter footprint on the planet (though here are more pointers, from his site), now we need to Just Do It.
So I have only one New Year's resolution for 2007,
Save The Planet

That should keep me busy for a while...

Best wishes for a Happy New Year 2007.

The Beauty of Technology

Year end is coming fast. I am actually rewinding the reels of time (I made that up - nice image, huh?) as I go through boxes of slides my mom took over the years. I saw moments that were never printed. I saw my grandmother in mourning dress after my grandfather had passed away; I saw her with jet black hair and my aunts and uncles younger than I am now, holding my brothers and I as babies. I saw the results of a hurricane that brushed past our house (we were away on vacation so there was only material damage), and corrected a few over- or underexposed shots. I discovered some gems and polished them. I recaptured lost moments, shreds of life. Oh - and those are only 6 boxes... There are plenty more.

Thank you Santa for this wonderful scanner!

The day after

I hope everybody had a good time. We were up watching Pirates f the Carribbean II last night - a XMas present, of course. I had already seen it, so halfway through I started reading my new How-to book on writing songs. Good stuff, man. I can't wait to put it in practice. I haven't gotten to the exercise parts yet, still in the intro chapters, but it is an entertaining read and there's a lot to learn + actual songwriters are interviewed which is way cool. Evidently, everybody has their preferred work method so they contradict each other but as I (we) have been doing it for over a year now, I can use what applies to my style and not feel overwhelmed by choices.
I fell asleep in the living room and had bits of lyrics floating through my mind. Since I didn't have a notebook (Rule 1) to jot them down, they are lost to posterity. Not to worry. There is more where that came from.

Joyeux Noël - Merry Christmas!

Christmas Marathon

The race is on! We have hit the second marker (family party and gift exchange), the first one being putting up the Christmas tree (we ran swiftly by that one last week). We are carburating on Chrsitmas cookies. We still have cards to mail and a few gifts to buy but the finish line is in sight. Still hoping Santa will bring me a new job for Christmas (I've been decent this year maybe I deserve that).
We're in it for the long run. The season isn't over until the last party, the last eggnog and the never-achieved New Year's resolutions.
We have left a few competitors behind - clearly ill-prepared. They look tired, are in a shopping frenzy and their house is a mess. We're just tired with a messy house. Two out of three is good at this stage. I have an edge because I don't need to go to any office party - nothing beats working from home!

Of Other Addictions

Forget smoking - what about blogging, emailing or surfing? I can't seem to get enough.I get up, start my computer and check for email. Go about my routine in the outside world, then back to my routine in the computer world. There's always lots to do: click on the Hunger site and affiliates; turn on my launchcast radio or a friend's; chat; email; blog; check friend's blogs; oh - uh - work; that's only morning. I get reminders popping up for tasks not in front of the computer - dr's appointment and stuff - but mostly, I can while away the day without noticing. I go out and get fodder for my flickr site. I seem to always be thinking of ways to entertain you : ) ... except in the evenings, where I do take a break.
I've been logging on regularly to the Atomic Tumour site, where I can live a guy's life by proxy. How healthy is that? I haven't started on YouTube - somehow, the written word appeals to me more than moving pictures. I read a great article on Evites in yesterday's Time. It described this growing compulsion to make public private matters and try and entertain at the same time.

Maybe smoking is healthier after all...

P.S. I am writing this in Notepad as I have lost my Internet connection... Life is hard.

Gnikoms

I was just musing about the disappearance of cigarettes in my sphere of consciousness. As laws have been enacted and more people have been made aware of its deleterious effects, cigarette smoking has lost its ubiquity.
Smoking is no longer permitted: on planes, buses, taxis, classrooms, restaurants (depending where you live, maybe?), bars, bingos (they lost their appeal), offices and most indoor public places.

Can you imagine taking a bus from Ottawa to Toronto with people smoking? Or boarding a plane to Florida where the back rows were reserved for somkers? Hello - don't you think we'll all be smoking (even unwillingly) after being subjected to 3 hours of that?
Or going to class/work and having colleagues lighting one beside you? The nausea!

So - this post is to rejoice at the suppression of ads, characters in comic strips (remember Lucky Luke), sexy smoking actors, all huffing and puffing seductively trying to suck you in.

In high school (I think), I did an ad on cigarettes as part of a class assignment. I thought nothing of it because it was still so pervasive. A product that we all knew so well and could talk about. I shudder to think of it.

Is there a point to this post? Not really. I guess I was just happy to realize we've come a long way in my lifetime and I am enjoying my smoke-free environment.

Funny - banning smoking was not mentioned in the Clean Air Act. I won't hold my breath....

Every picture tells a story, don't it?

Well, maybe not. I tend to take close-up of plants and stuff. I am not sure I could make a story out of that. What I really want to try but I am having trouble with is taking abstract pictures from concrete objects. I have been going so close that you don't know what the picture is about but that is reltively easy (if your camera can do it and if you can keep your hands still).

My model is to make a picture from parts of disparate objects so that together they make an esthetically-pleasing tableau yet remain oddly foreign. It is this strangeness which appeals to me. Things are not what theu appear to be. There is something whimsical about those pictures sometimes. My problem is, my brain is not attuned that way and I don't see objects that way so I can't take pictures of them. I tend to think man-made objects would lend themselves to that more readily... but I live in the woods. So life is tough. I am thinking I could try something with the mailbox maybe. The garbage can? My choices are limited. I will add a flickr link here if I manage to take a few decent pictures to show you what I mean.

Till then, don't forget that beauty is in the eye of the beholder!