6:45 p.m. - 2004-02-25
Learning Curve
Well dear diary,I don't know where the time went yesterday, but it was after 2 a.m. when I realized I hadn't visited you and I was too tired to think by then. Besides that the cats hate when I work late into the night using their sleeping room. I think I got a lot done, although still no signed off papers - the last step in any federal assignment. My youngest finally found a way to print off my maps the way I want them to be. There are three graphics programs loaded on to the darn computer, but it was finally the PowerPoint suite that would allow the coding I wanted. More correspondence and more contacts were made for different processes. I spent some time with one of the other riding's assistants just going over personnel and logistical issues. Some things are a lot easier to do once an office is acquired, but we don't have the luxury of waiting for that to happen first.
A lot of really interesting articles in my e-zines today. I picked up one of our kittens yesterday and found I was covered in cat hair. Checked, and sure enough, all the rest of the felines were shedding heavily too. I postulated that meant that spring was very near - not always so in this part of the world, where we can have blizzards as late as May. What confirmed the idea, in my mind, was this story from British Columbia about the early waking from hibernation of some grizzlies and the effect it had on them. grizzly_bears. Along the same theme this story about animal camouflage and how it can occur, the animal in question also being ursine: polar_bears. "It's Not Easy Being Green" Kermit the Frog.
Next up, several stories that had to do with travel - places I'd love to see. Two photo essays at Australia and Egypt. Next, a story out of Saudi Arabia about the possibility of opening their country up to foreign tourism. That is really quite amazing since it is a country very strongly committed to it's own cultural and spiritual values, some of which aren't easily going to be met,with so many different travellers moving in and out. For example, to this point I would not have been allowed into the country. Single female you see. All females in Saudi must be accompanied by a close male relative of their immediate family. So even though I am muhumdaja (excuse the spelling - mother of many sons, which is considered a very great honour) I can't go there without hauling one of said sons along with me. Yet I would really appreciate going on a trip where segregation of the sexes was mandatory, because it would mean I wouldn't have to worry about dealing with adult males who were strangers to me. tourism The one worry I would have is one that would have never occurred to me years ago. When my ex left, I was approached for dates by a number of people - both male and female. Now to have a dating relationship with a female was something that never had crossed my mind before then. It has absolutely no appeal to me. I like men - a lot - let's face it I've raised six good ones, I'm just afraid of them as a gender. I have a lot of female friends, in the old fashioned sense of the word, but anything else would be repugnant to me. Each to their own of course. What shocked me even more was that some of the females took even greater offense than some of the males did when I turned them down. One of the females was in a very powerful position where it came to family support and care of young females in our community. I ended all contact with her after she started talking about bi-sexual, multi-party menages and how they were the wave of the future - would I be interested. Not for this girl. I would not want to go on a holiday just to find I still had to deal with that type of problem only my own gender. Maybe the Saudis can figure a way around that though. Never know.
Next were the science articles. Another photo essay, this time planets in the night sky Venus_Moon. Then a further note about two comets that will be visible in the Northern hemisphere in May comets. Next up more sunspots blowing off the sun now and lots of celestial activities such as auroras sunspot. And finally a really interesting look at agriculture as it might be carried out on Mars plants_Mars.
Final articles were on things military army_base. Canada has one of it's fully functional army bases in Afghanistan up for sale. A story about the use and possible extension of the US Patriot Act warrants and one story out of England about a book on the war in Iraq Rumsfeld. A lot to learn and think about in a very short of time. Now back to work I think.
�
�
