Category: December 2019

I’ve been getting frustrated and discouraged with the news, which is biased in both directions (depending on the source) and getting increasingly contentious.

I like to learn things and find out things, but I want information that is more than just “fact checked” because fact checking does not remove bias, it just removes outright lies. I want information that includes various angles being carefully analyzed without an agenda (to the extent possible).

Laura recently recommended this site, https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs

These are podcasts that look at a variety of topics and what scientific research has to say about the topics.

I listened to my first podcast today, which happened to be this one, https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/kwh2g9/police-shootings-the-data-and-the-damage

It was far more interesting than I expected. It was half an hour long, and included detail about the research studies that were cited, without being boring at all. The results were very interesting.

I’m reluctant to try and paraphrase the podcast, because the podcast was much better than I could summarize. But I will briefly mention their conclusions.

They concluded that police do treat black people differently (and less respectfully) than white people, even when the studies controlled for other possible factors, such as neighborhood, time of day, etc. They are fairly sure that the reason for this difference isn’t outright racism, but implicit bias.

Implicit bias is when we have expectations and assumptions based on past experiences. If we’ve seen a lot of movies or news reports where black men are depicted as dangerous, we’re going to tense up more around a strange black man than a strange white man, even though we don’t consider ourselves racist. And we will behave differently in our tone and manner even if we don’t realize we’re doing it or mean to do it.

Because of the recent recognition of the importance of implicit bias, a lot of police departments are now doing implicit bias training. Unfortunately it’s not helping much. That’s probably because these biases aren’t intentional, they are automatic. They don’t magically go away just because we know they exist.

Also, unfortunately, body cams don’t seem to be helping much either. Again, that’s probably because the police really do believe they are doing the right thing in that moment of time. Most police are not deliberately targeting blacks, even though later when people look at the footage, it’s hard to believe the police thought they were doing the right thing at the time.

What appears to be happening is when there’s too much adrenaline, such as after a foot chase, or in a very dangerous situation, the police are not able to think straight and are simply reacting – and that’s when their biases show up. So a camera isn’t going to change their behavior since they are already acting in good faith.

The solution? What appears to be helping is de escalation rules and policies that limit which situations police are allowed to use certain kinds of force. These rules and policies add structure and processes into the situations, to help the police know automatically what to do, even when their judgment may be clouded with fear and adrenaline.

Happy Birthday yesterday, Dad. Here’s your card, that I forgot to get into the mail in time. I figure I’ll keep it until next year. By then we’ll both have forgotten that I ever posted it. Two years out of one card. I know you’ll approve of my thrift.

Hehehehehe, good one, hu?

When we realized that neither of the kids were going to come out to New Mexico for Thanksgiving, I turned to John and asked him what we should do instead. Immediately, without any contemplation, he said, “Utah!”

We (and John in particular) enjoy hiking in southern Utah. With our camper van, it’s not impossible to camp in southern Utah during the winter season. If you catch the weather right, that is. Unfortunately, as Thanksgiving approached, the weather forecast made it clear that we would need to come up with an alternative idea.

Since all our favorite activities involve being outside, and the entire western half of the US was predicted for rain or snow, we decided we were best equipped to deal with the inclement weather at home. So we made up a list of fun stuff to do right here in Albuquerque (as well as a few chores, I admit).

First off – Christmas tree! I know Thanksgiving is early to get a tree, but John and I are booked solid until Christmas and I didn’t know when else we’d have time to get it. We just bought one from a lot. When I lived in Washington we’d go cut our tree in the woods. John and I have tried that a few times in New Mexico, but the trees seem sparse here. It’s, you know, the desert and all.

We usually get a noble fir, but this year we got a Nordmann fir. It looks great so far – we’ll see how it holds up. Here it is, before we decorated it:

We put it in the office where the dogs can’t get to it. Kai likes to tear open presents, lol. Also we’ve had them knock over the Christmas tree before. In the office it’s out of the way but still visible from both the entryway and the dining room.

I had a migraine building that whole day, so by early evening I was down and out. The pain peaked at around midnight that night. I was one very unhappy person for a few hours.

Thanksgiving morning we woke up to snow.

John got excited and shoved our entry walkway, the front sidewalk, our driveway, our back patio, both neighbor’s sidewalks and one of the neighbor’s entry walkway, and here he appears to be shoveling the street. Go figure.

I still had the remainder of the migraine, so we didn’t do much for Thanksgiving. Luckily we didn’t have any obligations or plans that would have been hard to cancel. It was just the two of us.

I got the lights up on the tree:

And here it is with decorations:

I also worked on my puzzle. I haven’t, historically, been a puzzle worker. I’ve never had the time. But my niece got a puzzle out when I was visiting in San Diego, and I enjoyed it. I found it nice to have something to occupy myself out in the main living area where everyone else was busy with their homework and chores.

After I got home, I was unpacking our games (eh, yes, I’m still unpacking), and I came across a puzzle. I decided to give it a try. My progress is slow.

For Thanksgiving, John cooked little cornish hens. I think he made three so we’d have leftovers. (I’m sure Kai was hoping the third one was for him, lol.)

I made molasses crinkles, which are like ginger snaps.

They came out crispy instead of chewy, so John was happy about that (he’s a crispy cookie guy, and I’m a chewy cookie girl).

Tip: If your recipe makes chewy and you want crispy, increase the butter and sugar relative to the flour, and cook slightly longer. If your recipe comes out crispy and you want chewy, increase the flour relative to the butter and sugar, and cook slightly less long.

On Friday we went up to Santa Fe to see friends of ours. They had really good food – we sampled three different kinds of pie – pecan, apple, and pumpkin. They were all excellent. Also I have a suspicion that one of my friends may be pregnant, but I haven’t heard any announcement and I didn’t ask. I don’t know her very well and didn’t want to be guessing wrong about that! Time will tell 😉

On Saturday we went to a big arts and crafts show, but didn’t buy anything. However, we did find a fun little traditional church at the Jackalope store to add to our Christmas decor.

On Sunday I had a meeting that lasted well into the afternoon, and John went over to one of the rentals. Our tenant has mice, and John went to try to figure out how the mice are getting in. He couldn’t figure it out, so we had to hire a pest company, and they can’t figure it out either. In New Mexico the mice will come in during the winter to get out of the cold, and it doesn’t matter how clean you keep your house. It’s important to figure out how they’re getting in, or more will just keep coming and you can trap them forever but never be done with it.

Here’s one of my super boring videos. YouTube is going to ban me for insipid and pointless content. But I can’t figure out how to post videos directly on my blog without putting them first to YouTube. Dogs playing tug-o-war on Thanksgiving: https://youtu.be/fbRjLDroQOg You can see that Kai is getting along fine, even though that tooth of his is still sticking out funny.

All in all, we had a very quiet several days, with very little planned. This was unusual for us, but it was pretty nice, I think, right?

Awhile back I bought a sourdough bread starter kit. Then we got busy and it sat on a shelf for a long time, until this weekend John decided to give it a try. It takes a few days to grow enough starter to make a loaf of sourdough bread. Finally, by the end of the weekend, he had enough to make a loaf.

We had a fleeting fall and now it’s mid-winter, so John was justifiably concerned that the ambient air temperature wouldn’t be high enough for a good rise. He read a tip online suggesting that rising dough be put in a cold oven with the oven light on – the oven shielding the rising dough from drafts, and the oven light adding warmth to the ambient air.

So he set it to rise in the oven overnight, turning on the oven light (but not the oven itself). Then he baked it this morning before work. It barely rose, did not brown well, and, discouraged, John declared it a failure and inedible.

Admittedly, it is like a brick, with a very tough exterior. But it has an excellent strong and authentic sourdough flavor. Plus, I know what went wrong, because I’ve made the same mistake myself.

Years ago I used to bake bread, and living in a cool, damp environment I learned that keeping the dough warm enough through the rising process is critical. In the winter I would raise the dough in the oven, with the oven turned on as low as it went, with the door open to keep it from getting too hot – my goal was anything over 80 degrees without actually starting to prematurely cook the dough, lol!

The temperature in the house last night was in the fifties. Here’s the kitchen temperature at 9:10 AM, after we had run the oven in the kitchen to bake the bread.

I’m not sure how cold it actually got in the wee hours, but I’m guessing mid-50’s for most of the night. I can’t imagine that one little light bulb would have kept the oven warm enough to raise the dough. It needed to be 30 degrees warmer than the ambient house temperature was last night, and a light bulb would not have done it. We needed to have actually turned the oven on low.

Turns out the surprisingly strong and rich sourdough flavor is probably due to the cold rising temperature. Here’s an explanation from the internet:

“In this stage the yeast metabolizes sugars in the dough, producing carbon dioxide, alcohol, and various flavor compounds. The speed and metabolic efficiency of the yeast depend almost entirely on temperature, with the optimal speed of fermentation occurring between 80–90°F (27–32°C).

That temperature is optimal, but you can get a faster rise with warmer temperatures (to a point) or a slower rise with cooler temps. But there is a trade-off. When yeasts are warm and happy, they metabolize efficiently, meaning they convert the sugars well, without many byproducts. But the byproducts of inefficient metabolism taste great. For richer flavor, it can be useful to slow down, or retard, the fermentation. This is often done by putting your dough in the refrigerator for the bulk fermentation, or even later on, during the proofing.” (credit: https://blog.thermoworks.com/bread/sourdough-bread-times-and-temperatures/)

And, having made this mistake myself in years past, I know what to do with our hard, flat loaf. No need to toss it out. This loaf is going to make some excellent turkey stuffing.

Stay tuned for Experiment #2 coming soon!

I arrived late one evening in November to visit my brother & his family in San Diego. The minute I stepped out of the Uber car and onto their driveway I was overwhelmed by how good the neighborhood smelled. The sea air is moist, and smells like trees and flowers and herbs. It smells like paradise.

The first morning I went for a run on an excellent trail they have near their house.

My niece and nephew’s Chinese grandparents made excellent meals every day.

The day after I arrived, my nephew had a piano competition at Point Loma Nazarene University. It was just up the bluff from the ocean, so we brought him a change of clothes (he was in a tux) and we walked to the beach after the competition.

On Sunday the kids went to Chinese lessons and we took advantage of the time to walk around Miramar Lake.

On my last afternoon there I took an Uber car to the beach by myself, because everyone else was too busy to go. I knew where there was a beach good for walking because we had been there on previous trips. It was very beautiful.

The retreating waves made diamond-shaped patterns in the bicolored sand.