Quit smoking 11 months ago!

It's now 11 months since I quit smoking. Wow am I glad. Now I have to get my daughter to quit. My ex- has been smoking since is was, like, 15. I worry that he's going to get lung cancer or emphysema and die, and then what happens to Camille's college education AND my alimony payments? He has several relatives who smoked, and they are all dead as a result of their smoking. He doesn't get the message. My friends have heard my litany about his smoking and my alimony several times. I think they must get tired of it! But I am happy I quit, and have gone so long without a cigarette.

I quit smoking 7 months ago!

Well this is an update after three months of not writing in this blog. I thought I would start with the Big News about Not Smoking! There it is: I have made it seven months. At the Moonight Ramble last night, there were people smoking around me at the rest stop, and I didn't even care. In fact, I didn't like the smell! In addition, I can do such things as ride my bike 7 miles around Forest Park or participate in the Moonlight Ramble! And feel good doing it! Good for me!

I quit smoking almost 4 months ago!

It has been nearly four months since I quit smoking! I am so proud of myself. I have also cut back on caffeine and go for days without any. I have felt really good lately -- no anxiety, no cravings, not even much weight gain.  It's not so bad this time.  I can still fit into some of my clothes. In the past I have gained even more weight when I quit.  I think the weight gain has stabilized and I can now take some of it off.  I don't plan to start smoking again.

Boaz Shuval's Origami Butterfly

Here is the diagram for Boaz Shuval's simple butterfly. It can be made flat, so it would work for the Holocaust Museum Houston's "The Butterfly Project," described in an earlier blog (just scroll down this page a little). It is so simple that it can be made by children to contribute to The Butterfly Project. 

John Andrisan has modified this model so it is the same color on both wings. What he does is make the piece of paper 1 x 2 (tear a square in half) and fold it (back into a square) so there is colored paper on both sides. John says the extra thickness makes no difference. Alternatively, paper the same color on both sides could be used, e.g. colored bond paper cut into a square.

Regarding flatness, apparently Boaz bends the butterfly a little so it looks a bit three-dimensional. John's version, on the other hand, is flat. So the butterfly can be made either flat or three-dimensional.

Additional note: Kim's Crane has a wide range of square origami paper with both sides the same color.  The way to find ordinary two-sided same-color paper is: go to http://origamipapersandbooks.com/ then type into the "quick find" box the following code: ac11y.  She also has washi the same on both sides. It is difficult to find at the website, so write to me and I will send you the links. 

Another note: Apparently the museum is happy to have origami butterflies, three dimensional or not! 

My Flickr Address

Here is my webpage on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthromom/

My favorite summer

The longest, most favorite summer of my adult life was two years ago when I worked nearly every day on an urban farm with homeless people. It was hot and wet and hard work and rewarding. The sun was out and I got brown although I wore a hat, and I got skinny from all that work, and I enjoyed it immensely. I am wondering where I can find a farm to work at this year. I would love to work at a farm again, doing that work, volunteering, being in the sun, letting the summer drag on and on.

1.5 Million Butterflies for Holocaust Children

The Holocaust Museum Houston is hosting The Butterfly Project, collecting 1.5 million hand-made butterflies by Spring, 2012, when they go on exhibit. I heard about The Butterfly Project through the Origami list operating out of MIT. The idea was to make a lot of origami butterflies and send them to the museum by June 30, 2011. I immediately thought of my favorite origami butterfly, the one by Italian David Derudas.

Derudas has a website at OriDavid. His diagrams for the butterfly are at: http://digilander.libero.it/oridavid/tecnicafarf.htm. By the way, the butterfly on his website is called "Farfalla." I guess that is Italian for butterfly! 

Here is a picture of David and Tomoko Fuse. It's great seeing two of my favorite folders together!  I have loved Derudas's butterfly since the first time I folded it.  I was turned on to this butterfly by my friend Deiby in Brasil.  (He is really into folding insects!)

The other thing I thought of doing, when I saw the

 The Butterfly Project advertised, was to crochet butterflies.  There are a zillion crochet butterflies on the internet, and even a web page listing many crochet butterfly pattern links at Crochet Pattern Central. Here is one example of a crochet butterfly. They are generally made with steel hooks and crochet thread, but some are made with bigger hooks and heavier yarn, even up to worsted weight yarn. I like the thinner yarns better and view this as an opportunity to try out thread and steel hooks.

Embroidered Cross-Stitch Fairy Tale Fortune Teller/Cootie Catcher

I was perusing 1-2-3 Stitch which is one of my favorite online cross-stitch sources, when I discovered a cross-stitch origami cootie catcher/fortune teller! I am not sure how the designer got the shape to stay, but she probably used a fabric stiffener and an iron to set the shape, since cross-stitch fabric is quite soft and doesn't fold well. (Although, when you buy the fabric, it's sometimes sold folded and it's like heck to get those folds out -- so once the shape is set, it will probably stay that way.)

This embroidered origami fortune teller is pretty cute and would make a nice gift for a child. If you want to buy the design, go to 1-2-3 Stitch's fairy tale fortune teller page and enjoy!

P.S. Turns out that Lynne Nicoletti has other fortune teller designs besides the fairy tale one. 1-2-3 Stitch also has dog, cat and flower fortune tellers by Lynne. FYI Lynne has a website at lynnenicoletti.com. Click here for Lynne's page describing the creative process of "growing a fortune teller."

Swine Flew? H1N1 pig by Joseph Wu????

Joseph Wu created an origami model about 20 years ago called "When Pigs Grow Wings and Fly." It's a wonderful model. I'm including a pic here. This one was folded by Yureiko.

You can see Mr. Wu's post-"swine" flu model here.

UPDATE: Joseph Wu has now transformed "Swine Flew" into "Ground Pork." Check it out: Ground Pork. It is only a matter of time before there is "Road Hog"!

Dragon Dreams

I love the Dragon Dreams designs (especially the ones she does with Theresa Wentzler). I was just perusing Dragon Dreams patterns at 1-2-3 Stitch -- Joanne really does have a nice selection of Dragon Dreams charts -- and I fell in love with one called "Guard This Keep." I can't buy it right now because I need to eat and survive until the 15th (small matter, isn't it?) but maybe I'll order it later. It would be great on my door!

Stopped smoking three months ago! (Gained weight.)

I can't believe it. It has been three months since I quit smoking! I did gain a little weight, even with the Chantix (if you smoke, try this!), but working on losing it again. I don't fit into my favorite shorts, so I have a month or so before I'm going to want to wear them. But my doctors say it's better to gain weight than to smoke. In the past, I've quit and then started again because of the weight, but this time I'm going to try a different tactic. I do have a dietitian, but I don't seem to be able to follow the diet. It's hard to do that, especially when it means preparing my own meals, which I'm not good at. I did buy this pedometer a while ago (it's an OMRON and I like it a lot) and haven't used it much, but I really should go walking with Ace more. We live next to Forest Park and in nearly two years I've never taken Ace there. I'm sure he would love it!

The OMRON website really doesn't show the pedometer in its full glory. Try the REI Pedometer Comparison page -- I have the pocket pedometer which, of course, is the one with five starts.

UPDATE: May 16, 2009. I am still a quitter!!!!

Howie Woo Extreme Crochet -- check it out!

Check out Extreme Crocheting at Jeremy Barker's website! He is featuring the wild and crazy crochet work of Howie Woo. Woo has crocheted such things as TNT bomb complete with timer, cigarettes inside cigarette packs, and ray guns right out of a sci fi movie. Very inspiring stuff!

If you want to go directly to the source, see Woo Toons Cartoons and his website showing his crochet in progress and in action, WooWork.com. There are pics and links to pics of Howie Woo at both websites.

1918-1919 Flu Resources

Hey, if you're interested in the H1N1 ("swine flu") virus, take a look at this book by Gina Kolata about the 1918 flu epidemic. I learned an incredible amount about how a pandemic flu spreads. Did you know, for example, that a milder version of the flu appeared in the spring of that year, to return in the fall with a vengeance? This could be the pattern of the H1N1 virus. In fact, the preparations for a flu vaccine for the fall indicate that scientists believe the flu may come back as a more virulent strain this fall. Take a look at this book. It will enlighten you.

Also, check out this great website:The Great Pandemic. Very interesting is a discussion of life in 1918-1919. My dad was six years old in 1918. Everything you might want to know about the 1918 flu epidemic, including moving personal family stories of how the epidemic affected them. This is a great website!

Video of Che!

This is Che! Camille named him NietzsChe Guevara, of all things. At least his name shows how intelligent Camille is! I do like his nickname Che, and my Latin American cleaning ladies think it's amazing that we named a cat after a Latino revolutionary hero! Well, enjoy the video.

Craftside's Pop Art Roll of Toilet Paper Cozy Cover!!!

If you crochet (or even if you don't) you're going to love Craftside's Pop Art Croched Roll of Toilet Paper Cozy Cover!!! I'm posting a pic here (her pic, FYI) so you can see what a glorious work of creativity this thing is, and if you crochet you'll find the instructions at the above link.

My "Guilt Post" at SherryArt from 1996!!!!

Here is my guilt post from from SherryArt from 1996, can you believe that?

"June 29, 1996
From:
Subject: Hi Sherry!

"Guilt? Guilt is my middle name. I feel guilty for not being more than I am, for letting opportunities pass me by, for not having enough energy to do everything, for not being perfect, for spending so much time on the web!

"I feel guilty for not being best at everything, because merely being good at some things is not good enough. I feel guilty for being emotional and spacey and focused and eccentric rather than calm and cool and organized.

"I feel guilty for having a bit of an edge on my personality even though I do like my personality, but I still feel guilty about relating to The Evil Queen and Cruella DeVille instead of Beauty and Snow White.

"I feel guilty about having a daughter who refuses to wear dresses or pink pony tail holders, though I think she's wonderful, and she loves The Evil Queen too.

"I feel guilty about producing boys who aren't great at sports, who are thin and wiry and freckled and spectacled. But, they are feminists, hurrah. I feel guilty about aluminum cans and eating meat and using cleaning chemicals and having three children and driving a car -- ecoguilt. But not guilty enough to change my bad habits.

"I feel guilty for liking myself even though I'm convinced I've failed completely at being perfect.

"And now I feel guilty about writing so much!

"Candice"

Ah Candice: You get the 1st Year Guilt Prize from SherryArt. You're definitely the most guilty one so far. Love, Sherry

Twitter is Cool!

Hey, I'm coming rather late to this discovery, but I am enjoying tweeting about the h1n1 virus on Twitter. I have thought previously about looking at Twitter, mainly because the guys from The Paracast are on there. At least, Gene Steinberg is on Twitter (haven't located David Biedny yet). I've been to The Paracast forum, but I think Twitter is actually more fun.

The only thing I don't like about Twitter is people repeating the same thing over and over again. I don't know how many times folks noted that h1n1 is the new name for "swine flu." It gets rather b-o-r-i-n-g. But one guy from South Carolina noted that a Mexican restaurant was empty in his town. That is an interesting piece of information.

Anyway, if you're reading this, I've added Twitter to my blog, so go ahead and follow me!

Twitter added to blog

Hey, I've added a Twitter feed here to my blog, and I'm TRYING to figure out how to get my blog address into my Twitter posts. I did sign up for Twitterfeed but so far, it hasn't worked. Don't know what's going on. I'll keep working at it.

It took me a while to figure out that "What are you doing?" on Twitter was the way to post about anything at all. I thought it was a question, like "What are you ACTUALLY doing?" not the way to, like, discuss H1N1 (so-called swine flu). Technically, that's not really what I'm DOING, but what the hey.

No Banjo Today & You-Tube

Well, banjo instructor Dave Landreth called and said he was canceling class for tonight. He also said it's a good thing I got a camcorder! I'm really looking forward to doing some recording next week. In addition to recording Dave playing the tune of the week (so I can learn it) I also want to record each of the students playing a tune. Maybe they'll let me put it up on You-Tube. That would be fun.

I am really getting addicted to You-Tube. I keep watching videos of border collies doing one thing or another. I sent Carol, my fellow Lawrence anthropologist, a link to a video of 3-week-old puppies. She enjoyed it, but then I found one of 4-week-old puppies herding ducks! So I sent her that link.

So now I'm going to go look for clawhammer banjo on You-Tube.

Today is my birthday!

Today is my birthday. Last night my friend Charlie came over. He brought Slumdog Millionaire and Subway Sandwiches, and I had beer for him (as usual). That was fun. Charlie is always fun. Camille was supposed to come over today, but I'm glad she didn't, because I didn't feel like paying $30 to go out to lunch with her for my birthday. She says she has a couple presents for me, but that one hasn't arrived yet. She is coming over tomorrow. We will probably go to the gym. Mark called. His birthday was last week, and I asked him if he wanted a Flip Video for his birthday. He didn't have to think long about that one! I told him I was going to get him the 30 minute one like I have. I am sure 30 minutes will be enough for him. It's enough for me. Okay, so it only comes in white. Who cares?!!!?! Tonight I have banjo class. I don't know the tune for this week because I was unable to meet with anyone in between to get it down. I wrote the banjo teacher a note telling him. I told him I would record him from now on. I hope he doesn't kick me out of the class! That would be a fun birthday present!