phobias

Phobia redux

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Tonight for your reading edification, allow me to present fifteen phobias that begin with the letter K:

Kainophobia- Fear of anything new, novelty.
Kakorrhaphiophobia- Fear of failure or defeat.
Katagelophobia- Fear of ridicule.
Kathisophobia- Fear of sitting down.
Kenophobia- Fear of voids or empty spaces.
Keraunophobia – Fear of thunder and lightning.
Kleptophobia- Fear of stealing.
Koinoniphobia- Fear of rooms.
Kolpophobia- Fear of genitals, particularly female.
Kopophobia- Fear of fatigue.
Koniophobia- Fear of dust.
Kosmikophobia- Fear of cosmic phenomenon.
Kymophobia- Fear of waves.
Kynophobia- Fear of rabies.
Kyphophobia- Fear of stooping.

I guess you could say my kainophobia is the only thing that keeps my kenophobia under control. But my koniophobia coupled with my kathisophobia and koinoniphobia makes my life a living hell. But it might be worse!

So what K-fear drives you? How many of you know someone suffering from lachanophobia? Isn’t it hard to overcome?

fear of pain, mama kat, reading, writer's challenge

Writing in Code and Other Topics

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This weeks topics:

1.) Baby fever is in the air. Describe what you would do differently as a first time mom.

2.) What book captured your heart? Write about why the first book you loved is the first book you loved.

3.) Who is a bird-brain? Think about all the birds you’ve seen–from songbirds to hunters. Compare one or more people you know to different types of birds in a piece of writing.

4.) Why do we need 26? If you could change the alphabet, what would you do? Add? Subtract? Combine? Simplify? Write about it.

5.) Where does that fear come from? Write about something that frightens you that other people might find ridiculous. Write about it in a poem, a story, or whatever.

So off we go into the gloom and doom.

#1 – First Time Mom
I feel left out since I am clearly not the requisite gender to be a mom. Sexism is alive and well on the web!

#2 – Book O’My Heart
This has different answers depending on how you define first and love. (Sounds like a lawyer blithering, doesn’t it?)

The book I loved and read often as a wee tyke is “Digger Dan“, written by Patricia Lynn and illustrated by Si Frenkel.

Who can resist the story of the steam shovel that does so many interesting things? Besides, a book with my name on the cover – priceless. Thanks to my mom, I have this book around the house even now. The Son learned to read with it, but it just didn’t have the same appeal to him as he was growing up as it did to me.

The first book that I read and fell in love with for the content and the way it was handled was also my first experience of the love of science fiction. The book was Robert Heinlein’s “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress“

followed closely by “Podkayne of Mars” by the same author.

Both books appealed to my pre-teen imagination with adventure, science, emotion, and youngsters thinking deeply and doing well in an adult world. I have both books in my library today and still enjoy reading them, despite the fact they are classified as Heinlein “Juveniles”. They led me to other science fiction authors including Heinlein’s opus, “Stranger In A Strange Land“. It was a summer of intense joy and discovery as I read every science fiction book I could get from the library, my mind and horizons literally expanding with each new word. I’d love to go back to that time.

#3 – Bird of a Feather
(The name used here has no relationship to anyone in real life. If you want to get annoyed, remember it is all in *your* mind. {*grin*})

Long ago, I spent several years serving on an adjunct to the district school board known as the District Accountability Committee (DAC). The DAC did a lot of the detail and grunt work that was used by the school board to make decisions on curriculum, student accomplishment, building maintenance, etc. So we had the joy of seeing many members of the community during our meetings, almost invariably with something of great importance to them on their minds to impart to us.

It was during a DAC meeting that I saw Jim resemble a sage grouse to the point I was sure it had to be an act. You remember the sage grouse mating ritual? Where the male puffs up his chest and struts back and forth cooing and prancing to impress the female grouse. Well Jim pranced back and forth, fingers in his suspenders, chest jutting out through the whole of his speech before the committee. The only thing missing was the hen gallery to appreciate the performance.

#4 – Alphabet
I think 26 letters is too restrictive. We should switch to Mayan with close to 800 identified symbols. Of course as it turns out, there are considerably less 800 real letters. It seems the Mayans liked to represent the same sound by 6 or more different symbols. And then they went the extra step by combining several symbols into one common word/sound. But just think of the beautiful calligraphy and lack of repetition such a scheme makes possible. In any case, allow me to introduce a simple 52 letter roman alphabet mapping for your consideration:

Let me know when you have your message written. {*grin*}

#5 – Fear
Most things don’t scare me. But one thing consistently gives me the falling sensation of riding a down elevator. You know, where it feels like your stomach has just crawled up your throat and is heading for the exit? Yeah, that one.

What causes the momentary swell of panic? Stepping close to something solid and not being able to see it. I.e. walking along a path with a cinder block on the edge and not being able to see the block as I pass. Why does this particular act cause that rush of fear and panic? Because after many years as a diabetic, I have lost a lot of sensation in my feet. So if I were to kick or hit the obstruction, the pain warning me to stop comes too late and I have already rammed my foot into the object and probably broken a few toes before the pain can warn me not to do that. It happens often enough that I get that panicky feeling in anticipation of the possible happenstance quite often.

How’s that for a rational but seemingly irrational fear?

authors, kindle, weather

Yet Another Odd Day

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Today began with the sound of rain falling hard enough to wake me up. Then a bit later the rain was gone and the wind started howling. Although the temperature finally got up to the 50s, it still felt cold with the wind. Not only that, but the wind was dry enough to remove most traces of the rain in short order. So now it is drear and overcast and calm. Quite a change form yesterday’s rather pleasant 70s, sunny, and light breeze. Springtime in Colorado continues! (At least no snow – L reported snow yesterday and today in the mountains.) On to bigger and better topics.

This weekend I installed the PC version of the Kindle book reader on the laptop here. It is an amusing experience to read via the Kindle application. On the plus side, they have made it as pain free and simple to use as possible. It is actually tolerable to read for long periods. But there are gotchas. I am one who typically scans both pages of a paperback book in an extended pass as I read. You can’t do that in the Kindle app. That is somewhat ameliorated by the larger font sizing in the app versus the paperback, but I still find that it slows my reading time versus a paperback. Not to mention the continuous tap-tap-tap of the next page button as I read – but I suspect that a good mind reading application is still a ways off. {*grin*} My recommendation? Give it a try and see what you think. And here’s a gem from XKCD about the Kindle:

Speaking of reading, do you ever find yourself beginning a book and within a paragraph feeling that you have read the book before? I have a semi-edetic memory, so I generally remember books I have read recently word for word. It is good enough so that I can refer people to the answer to their question in a manual without consulting the manual. I used to get calls while sound asleep and be able to tell the caller to read, for example, page 56 on the left most column and then promptly resume sleeping. It is amusing the reputation you can build after a few calls like that. {*grin*}

In any case, I began reading the free Kindle download of Kim Harrison’s Dead Witch Walking.  Within a paragraph I was sure I had read the book before. So I ventured out to my library – and while I had a number of Kim Harrison titles, none were Dead Witch Walking. So I read on, becoming even more certain I had read the book before. Maybe it was serialized? Maybe I read it on a website? I certainly didn’t have this cover on the shelf:

It was driving me crazy to *know* that I had read the book before but was completely unable to figure out where. Since Kim Harrison is one of the authors I like, I was certain that if I had read the story in book form, it was in my library. So I pulled down the volumes of Harrison here and began going through them to see if perhaps I had the book under a different title. Sure enough, I opened This Witch For Hire and discovered it was a combined copy of Dead Witch Walking and The Good, the Bad, and the Undead. Mystery solved.

Since it had been more than 5 years since I last read the book, I decided to go ahead and re-read it. I greatly admire the way Harrison combines fairy tale and mythological arcana, witchery, and sarcasm to generate an enthralling read. Where else do you find a wise cracking, hen-pecked, male chauvinist pixie paired with a naive witch and an undead vampire in the grip of living ennui in a private detective business sharing a re-purposed church and cemetery together with werewolves and fairies?

I most admire Kim Harrison’s writing for her handling of satire and sarcasm without going too far. I liken writing satire and sarcasm with running along the edge of a cliff – go a little too far and you are likely to suffer a devastating crash. When I write satire and sarcasm, I seem to be incapable of stopping before I dive off the cliff and crash. Ms. Harrison has the knack of teetering on the edge without falling. It makes reading her works a pleasurable yet toe curling experience. Is she going to go too far in *this* paragraph, how will she recover from this misstep? A bit like reading Terry Pratchett, only edgier.

What author(s) do you admire most for skills you cannot perfect?

P.S. Happy Birthday to the Son. Early this morning he will reach the ripe old age of 20. It sure doesn’t seem that long ago that L and I were anxiously waiting for him to make his appearance. Happy Birthday Son!


Molly, rabies, walk, weather

Multi-topics

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Tonight’s post comes to you as a collection of disjointed ramblings. Welcome to my mind. {*grin*}

Topic 1:
After an enjoyable Easter weekend, L headed back to the mountains this morning. Of course, that meant that Molly was in a sad and inconsolable state. I thought about adding a picture, but decided to be kind to Molly.

(I lied, Molly got pictured anyway.) This evening, I convinced Molly that a walk would be a fun thing. It seems like a lot of people we knew were out and about. In the course of walking 6 miles, Molly and I saw (and walked for a bit) with at least 5 groups of people and dogs we knew. It perked Molly up a bit. I suspect that she will be back to her chipper self by tomorrow.

Topic 2:
I suspect all of us remember the music of the Bangles from the 80’s and 90’s. When they broke up, I didn’t follow any of the members solo careers. I was not even overly enthused by their reunion for the Austin Power’s soundtrack song “Get the Girl“. So I was pleasantly surprised to find this duet by former Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet. Her voice has matured and she now reminds me a bit of a cross between Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin. Enjoy.

They got together to do an album of hits from the 60’s with startlingly good results. I encourage you to dig the tracks up (The album is “Under the Covers, Vol. 1“) and take a listen.

Topic 3:
Easter was a nice day. Good conversation, good food, with mom and L’s mom and friends, and then a nice long walk in springlike weather. And the weather wasn’t quite so nice that I had to work on the yard or get started in the garden. Laziness with no guilt, what more could one ask for?

Topic 4:
Back to writing a monograph (not really, more a series of press releases and radio spots) with the enthusing working title ‘Rabies, Your Pet, and You’. There has been an outbreak of rabies in skunks and muskrats in the area in the last month that has resulted in several attacks on humans and their pets, so it is time to remind people to make sure their pet vaccinations are up to date and to avoid possibly rabid animals. Most dog owners are pretty good about staying up to date on vaccinations, but many cat lovers fail to realize that cases of rabies in cats have become more prevalent than in dogs in recent years and so fail to keep their cats vaccinated. Back to the salt mine.

Things Done Right