Teleidoscope

Fri, Sep 26, 2008

Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov

Posted at 9:36 pm MDT to Current Events

Charlie Stross has an article about Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, who probably saved civilization 25 years ago today in 1983.

In this time of arrogant slime in high places, it is good to remember that there are people of sense, goodwill and true, quiet heroism in the world.

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White Kitchen

Posted at 7:40 pm MDT to Technology

The new dishwasher is amazingly quiet.

The new range hood is now installed. It has two bright, halogen lights (with two settings) and a stronger fan than the old one. Its filter screens go the full width of the stove, and can be cleaned in the dishwasher.

The kitchen looks very clean with all white appliances replacing the almond range and hood. It will look even nicer when the matching fridge finally arrives.

I have a chicken breast with apricot-cashew-fennel-couscous stuffing in the oven.

The stove rings a chime when it finishes preheating, and seems to cycle frequently when maintaining temperature, so the temperature swings should be shallow.

I don't know whether I am using the convection feature or not. (I think probably not, this time.) I need to reread the owner's manual, which is huge because of all the features. Besides the breadproofing mode and baking and broiling with and without convection, the oven can act as a food dehydrator: I think that is basically a combination of breadproofing temps with the convection fan turned on.

There is a complicated feature called sabbath mode which I will never need. And a section on the oven control panel will calculate the time and temperature changes for convection cooking.

I bought some egg whites at Whole Foods today, so this weekend I will try pancakes or waffles made with eggwhites instead of shole eggs. I think I'll add some vanilla to compensate for the missing richness from the yolks.

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Gyrotonics

Posted at 8:28 am MDT to Exercise

Nanette goes to an exercise program called Gyrotonics on Thursday afternoons. She gave me a coupon for a free session, so I went with her yesterday. We went to a late lunch afterward, and then walked the meditation labyrinth at one of the local churches

Gyrotonics is supposed to be non-strenuous, and aimed at allignment and range of motion. I may have done something wrong: this morning when I got up, my left shoulderblade and hip both had muscle knots and my left kneecap hurt when I stressed it at all.

I did my PT exercises to put my hip back into the right place, and then AM Yoga. When I was doing the chakra work at the beginning of the yoga routine, my left shoulderblade adjusted with an almost audible click, and the kneecap stopped hurting.

I suspect my shoulder blade has just popped back into its normal wrong position, but I'm glad the kneecap has stopped hurting. My left hip and leg still feel a little off, but that may just be the muscles complaining about being in a different configuration than they were in overnight.

I'll need to think about whether to try gyrotonics again. It might be beneficial in the long run, but midday on a work day isn't going to cut it.

I think I might be better off finding new massage therapist (maybe one who does adhesions work). And continuing to work on the yoga. It's possible that what pulled the left shoulderblade out is the right collarbone being pinned by that band of scar tissue, so things were pivoting wrong.

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