Happy Pi Day!

On March 14th, math geeks around the world celebrate the beauty of Pi by eating pie and toasting the birthday of Albert Einstein. The Exploratorium gave rise to Pi Day some twenty years ago and the holiday continues to grow in popularity with each passing year. You can gaze in Zen-like wonder at Pi calculated to one million digits or marvel over Pi-Ku. Or you could just eat some pie, be it apple, pizza or shepherd's.

What a week's worth of food looks like

I keep revisiting these photos and pondering the various implications within. The trite observations are easy enough: Italians eat a lot of bread, Germans drink many of their daily calories, Americans hardly eat any real food whatsoever and people in Chad don't have enough to eat.

It's inspired me to photo document my groceries for two months. I decided on a month at a time because what I buy during any given week isn't necessarily what I'm eating that week; if canned tomatoes are on sale into the cart and cupboard they go. I also really don't know how much I spend on food. Although Quicken has a category for groceries, I put everything I buy during a food shop under that category, even if it's paper products, medicines or light bulbs. So I'll spend some time pouring over my receipts and figuring out how much money I'm spending on actual food. I'm also curious to know if I'm buying and eating as much fresh produce as I believe. Since we're coming up on a new month, I'm going to photograph my groceries for the month of March and repeat the process during the month of July (which is when the farmer's markets here are in full swing). I'll be posting the pictures on my Flickr account and I'll probably post a month end wrap up here.

I admit this is a way to keep the dining table free of books and sewing projects once in a while. I'll need somewhere to lay out the groceries.

Finally, Neil Gaiman has posted his novel American Gods on the web for your reading pleasure. As I understand it, it will be available for two months free of charge by way of his blog's 7th year birthday gift to his readers. Or something. Anyway, he asked his minions to spread the word and the link far and wide. Of course, I do his bidding. You will find the link in the sidebar to the right.

Future Music Festival

I found out today that the Loveland Castle, Chateau Laoche will be hosting a music festival and farmer's market June 13th through the 15th. They are raising money to put a new roof on the old castle. It's a most worthy cause and I plan on attending provided I'm in town. It's just so freaking cool to have an honest-to-goodness castle nearby.


The people from England can stop pointing and laughing at me now.

Citizen Scientists

One doesn't have to hold a science degree to contribute to the sum of human knowledge. I just learned of a new project today, called Budburst, which is enlisting the help of citizen scientists across the country to record the timing of the leafing and flowering of plants.

People can also help with monitoring amphibian populations through FrogWatch, sponsered by the National Wildlife Federation. The website has helpful identification tools, including sound recordings of the calls and croaks of various frogs and toads.

This very weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count, which is a huge four-day event involving people reporting the number and species of birds found around their homes. Anyone can participate; this is a great introduction to the world of birding for novices. It doesn't involve any special equipment other than eyes and ears (although binoculars really are helpful).

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy New Year!

Today ushers in the Year of the Rat. Since I was born during a Rat year, I'm rather partial to this Chinese astrological sign. Being a Rat doesn't have the negative connotations that Westerners might associate with it. On the contrary, Rat people are thought to be charming, hard-working and intellegent, although they can also be cool, calculating, ambitious and quick to anger when threatened. The Rat happens to be the first sign in the Chinese zodiac. There are a couple of different legends as to how this came to be and they lend some insights into the nature of Rats.

Legend of the Chinese Zodiac

According to Chinese legend, the twelve animals quarreled one day as to who was to head the cycle of years. The gods were asked to decide and they held a contest: whoever was to reach the opposite bank of the river would be first, and the rest of the animals would receive their years according to their finish.

All the twelve animals gathered at the river bank and jumped in. Unknown to the ox, the rat had jumped upon his back. As the ox was about to jump ashore, the rat jumped off the ox's back, and won the race. The pig, who was very lazy, ended up last. That is why the rat is the first year of the animal cycle, the ox second, and the pig last.

From the Chinese Culture Center

In other stories the animals are summoned before either Lord Buddah or the Jade Emperor, yet the intellegent rat stows away aboard the ox and leaps onto the bank to arrive before all the other animals. An entirely different version has the Rat using trickery on his friend the Cat in order to elevate his status amongst animals:

The Rat and the Cat

A long, long time ago, the Cat and the Rat were the best of friends. They accompanied each other everywhere they went and they shared their food. One day, the Cat learnt that the Jade Emperor was going to elect twelve animals to represent the twelve calendar years, and invited all animals to a party. The Cat suggested to the Rat that both of them should make a presence.

When the day finally arrived, the Cat told the Rat, 'I am going to take a nap so that I will be in my top form. Can you please wake me up when it's time to go to the party?' 'No problem.' the Rat replied, 'Just relax and rest. I will wake you up when the time comes.'

After the Cat fell asleep, the Rat thought to himself, 'I am among the smallest of all animals and I don't stand a chance in making one of the twelve if the Cat will go.' So when the time came, the Rat left on his own without waking up the Cat, and was elected as one of the twelve Zodiac Animals.

When the Cat found out what the Rat had done, he was furious. The two became worst enemies. This is the reason why cats are not one of the twelve animals and they love to chase after rats.

From Yutopian Online

New Year's Resolutions!

New Year's Resolutions!

• Learn at least one new thing everyday and blog about it here so I stand some chance of remembering it. Anything goes: a fun fact, a new cooking technique, mastering a new exercise.
• Go hiking once a week, weather permitting.
• Plan one day per month for photography practice and post photos.
• FIND A NEW JOB!!!

That should do for now. I'll add more if I think of anything else.