Seven stars

Seven stars shine brightly tonight,
far way worlds, shining bright,
Singing out with soft starlight,
and we are here to see them.

Why are we so far away, little stars,
why are we so far away?
Through space we glide, alone, little stars,
why is our world alone?

Alone with rich voice,
like a mother in space,
our planet moves richly alone

And what is inside you?
And how do we find you?
And how shall we ever go?

Seven stars shine brightly tonight,
far away worlds shining bright
Singing out with soft starlight
Why must we be so alone?

I didn’t earn the sunset

I didn’t earn the sunset,
that shone across the sky
I didn’t make the sunshine
first smash then bend then fly

I didn’t make the ocean
that stretches off for miles
I didn’t get the waves to crash
and spray upon the sand

I didn’t make the gulls
whose cries mix with water and wind
I didn’t make the sand
that I squish between my toes

All I did was come here
to this place already made
I just had to come here
and all these gifts just came.

How to recognize a good Indian food cookbook

1. It doesn’t try to leave out all the fat and oil,
2. It gives detailed instructions on when to add each seasoning and what to do with it,
3. It has rave recommendations on Amazon.

We found such a book and for the first time Gina has been turning out restaurant quality chicken biryani from home.

Thoughts on cooking

I could talk for a long time about this but it’s late so I’ll focus on one thing.  Here it is:

A recipe isn’t yours until you have made it several times and have tweaked it.  My friend Denis told me that there is a Russian saying that, translated, is “the first pancake is always messed up.”   Amen.

And it seems only fair to expect that the first time you make a new recipe it won’t be perfect.  So what do you do?  You make several guesses at how it might be improved and then you try again soon enough that you can compare the results.  And you iterate again.

Feedback is more powerful than planning ever was.

It’s true in physics too.  People have been trying for years to make the perfect quantum states to allow Heisenberg-limited interferometry.  It’s possible to plan these states in advance and sometimes it is possible to create them but they turn out to be extremely fragile.  The newer approach is to rely on quantum feedback control.  This year two separate groups have achieved what was impossible through quantum state preparation by using quantum feedback control. By doing this each group replaced a fragile perfectly planned solution by a robust one relying on adapting to feedback.

Bambi

• Lily’s favorite part of Bambi is eating in peace while the kids have their attention taken,
• Elsie claims that her favorite part is the fire,
• Timmy says that his favorite part is where Bambi fights with the dogs,
• Abigail hates Bambi because she wanted to watch Beauty and the Beast,
• Kate’s favorite part is when Bambi, Thumper and Flower get twitterpated,
• Gina’s favorite part is the song “Drip Drip Drop Little April Shower,”
• My favorite parts are the births of Bambi and then of his twins.

9 girls and 3 boys

And the three boys include me and Spencer so that makes Timmy the only boy surrounded by 7 vivacious girls.  Good luck, Timmy.

Roseola

The fever broke but the rash is here.  Roseola it is.  Here’s a description from Wikipedia:

“Typically the disease affects a child between six months and three years of age, and begins with a sudden high fever of 102-104 degrees Fahrenheit (39-40 degrees Celsius). This can cause, in some cases, febrile convulsions (also known as febrile seizures or “fever fits”) due to the sudden rise in body temperature, but in many cases the child appears and acts normal. After a few days the fever subsides, and just as the child appears to be recovering, a red rash appears. This usually begins on the trunk, spreading to the limbs but usually not affecting the face.”

Apparently the virus behind it is amazingly successful, getting pretty much everyone.  Not everyone breaks out in a rash, but it is the cause of the first fevers in many children.  Because everyone has trace counts of the virus, children usually catch it from healthy carriers.  Kate broke out.  Timmy, Abby, and Elsie didn’t.  Lily did.  Gina’s mom said that about half of her kids got it.  So there you go.

Lily’s back.

Lily’s finally back.  She’s had a fever off and on for the last few days and she and her mother have been doing without some sleep.  When she hit 103.7 Gina called the doctor and they had her bring Lily in.  It was a virus and they found antibodies similar to those for mono but they don’t think its mono.  It’s so good to have her back and I’m so glad that it didn’t hit anyone else.

A book on pride and humility

Bart recommended a book that helped him play tennis better when the time came.

I had seen articles about it before and had read condensed guides to a couple of Dweck’s studies so I put it up high on the priority list and got the book.  It seems like one of the most interesting looks at pride and humility that I have seen.  She calls pride the “fixed mindset” and associates it with the belief/fear that your abilities, talents, personality traits are fixed.  The flip side is the belief that growth comes through effort in pretty much every endeavor, which she calls the “growth mindset.”  The meat comes as you go through story after story of the fixed mindset crippling people in terms of growth and performance and also crippling their characters while the growth mindset leads to a steady stream of remarkable stories.  I’m only half way through, but it’s been a neat read.  Mindset, the New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck.

How many things can you be truly excited about at once?

Excitement brings progress.  It brings floods of new ideas.  It brings happiness.

For those reasons I would love to be excited about every aspect of my life.

For some reason, though, I generally have room for only one thing that I can be truly excited about at once.  I wonder if I can change that.