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Archive for the ‘van Fraassen B.’ Category

Emersonian Reading and Academic Reading

2013/07/10 5 comments

There is one sentence in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “The American Scholar” that American scholarship, and academic scholarship more generally, abhors above all others. Emerson writes therein: “One must be an inventor to read well.” Reading, as Emerson conceives it, is or ought to be a fundamentally creative act. For Emerson, there is this form of creative reading (what I will call Emersonian reading), and then there is a second, more scholastic form of reading, which I will call academic reading. This post constitutes my attempts to come to grip with these two distinct ways of reading from the perspective of someone who intends to enter the academy, and who can expect to do a great deal of academic reading over the remaining course of his life.

Emerson expands on his conception of reading as follows:

There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. Every sentence is doubly significant, and the sense of our author is as broad as the world. We then see, what is always true, that, as the seer’s hour of vision is short and rare among heavy days and months, so is its record, perchance, the least part of his volume. The discerning will read, in his Plato or Shakespeare, only that least part,—only the authentic utterances of the oracle;—all the rest he rejects, were it never so many times Plato’s and Shakespeare’s. (Library of America volume of Emerson’s Essays and Lectures, p. 59)

In my post from earlier today, I discussed at some length the tension between conformity and creativity as Emerson handles it. Creativity for Emerson is grasping the divine nature of the world, which a person can do only singularly: there is no way methodically repeat the actions necessary to grasp it. Certainly I cannot imitate anyone else and hope to succeed—that is conformity. But even self-imitation is impossible. Say I manage one creative act. If I try to repeat it, I am simply copying myself, and that is no better than copying another. A creative, liberating act, when repeated, becomes stifling and imprisoning, no matter from whom it originated.

Emerson in the passage above is suggesting that in reading, say Plato or Shakespeare, we can be creative, can grasp the spiritual laws behind the material world. But he also says that we cannot work our to creativity from a basis of imitation. Creative reading cannot, then, be a reproduction in our minds of thoughts formulated in the mind of another. If, in reading Plato, I am to grasp the divine, then, as I read Plato’s words, I must have a thought that is in some sense my own and not Plato’s. Alternatively, they may be seen as the same thought, but grasped differently. Either way, the reading requires my own input: I am not passively receiving wisdom from the author.

My prior posts on Emerson have in part been explorations of the way that Emerson exemplifies his own ideal of creative reading. I have focused on the ways that Emerson takes the words of other authors—including himself!—and positions himself as agreeing with them while nevertheless using their words in distinctly Emersonian ways.

These same posts, which explore Emersonian reading in this sense, can also be seen as embodying the opposite trend of academic reading. In academic reading, one tries to get at the heart of what another says, to ascertain its true (if not necessarily univocal and unambiguous) meaning, and to assess its truth-value (where applicable). In my posts, whether or not I succeed, I have tried to stick closely to Emerson, to elucidate what he thinks and to uncover the subtle rhetorical tools he utilizes to make his points vivid. I am, in short, producing academic readings of examples of Emersonian readings. The fact that I am producing such readings should suffice to indicate that I do not doubt the value of academic reading. While I hope in this post to elevate Emersonian reading (even as I fret about its place in the world and in the academy), I do not thereby mean to devalue academic reading.

I also suspect that Deleuze’s work in the history of philosophy is an instance of Emersonian reading. In his “Letter to a Harsh Critic”, Deleuze states that in his readings he produces “monsters” (he describes the process in loving and smutty detail). He makes the thinkers with whom he engages come out as strange hybrids: Deleuze-Spinoza, Deleuze-Kant, etc. And yet, he insists, the process is not arbitrary: they must say everything he makes them say. While I have not directly engaged with Deleuze’s early historical works, his self-description of his works is a description of a sort of Emersonian reading. Deleuze dives into an author and finds Deleuze, but not through clear misreading. (Some might disagree on this last point; I am not competent to judge, obviously.)

As someone who is both fascinated by the prospects of Emersonian reading and who plans to enter the academy, I find myself frequently wondering what place there is in the academic world for Emersonian reading. As a general rule, I think it takes a fairly negative attitude toward this form of creative reading. This is seen in a variety of ways. One is the treatment of Emerson by academic philosophers, which doesn’t even rise to the level of hostility, but merely neglect. With Deleuze it is different: sometimes he is dismissed or ignored, but not systemically. But there is a striking incident that brings home the academic distrust of Emersonian reading. Deleuze changed his terminology from work to work, in part, I suspect, to stymy that form of reading. In an interview with John Protevi and another scholar (whose name escapes me), Deleuze scholar and philosopher of science Manuel Delanda comments on this tendency of Deleuze’s, saying that, as an analytic philosopher, he cannot tolerate such conceptual mayhem. In his (high quality) work on Deleuze, he imposes order by building a basic set of concepts that can span the whole of Deleuze’s work. In this way, he produces academic readings of Deleuze that are incredibly helpful in understanding how Deleuze treats science, but which can nonetheless feel like a form of betrayal. (Lest this seem like strong condemnation, I note that the Deleuze scholarship I’ve read that does not attempt such management of his conceptual apparatus is mostly dreadful.) I can add to the list the example of Nietzsche, who of course left the academy early in his career and was no doubt better for it. The case of Nietzsche is further interesting due to the ways he is sanitized when discussed in academic circles—even by those who protest his sanitization!

It makes sense that the academy would distrust Emersonian reading. It is bad enough to have to sort out Kant, Strawson’s Kant, Wood’s Kant, and Korsgaard’s Kant, let alone throwing into the mix Deleuze’s Deleuze-Kant and Emerson’s Emerson-Kant. Where boundaries between thinkers blur, where, say, Deleuze and Spinoza enter a zone of indiscernibility (to use Deleuze’s phrase), academic progress can seem to stall. Clear boundaries streamline the finding of solutions to problems, or at least contribute to a general clarification of the terrain. Emersonian reading seems to go against these academic virtues, and can even seem like a threatening encroachment of relativism (a charge that has been leveled at Emerson, Nietzsche, and Deleuze alike). (Of course, relativism itself, in its various forms, is not inherently threatening—what is dangerous is relativism without the highest of standards. Of course all three of these thinkers insisted on such high standards, regardless of whether the label ‘relativist’ fits them well.)

There is one way that such reading makes its way into academic philosophy, though it is a somewhat tepid one. In his classic chapter on explanation (in The Scientific Image), Bas van Fraassen includes a section titled, “A Biased History,” in which he tells a self-consciously biased version of the history of the philosophy of scientific explanation. His goal in this is, as he puts it, to make his views on explanation seem like an inevitable result toward which previous scholarship has been progressing. This sort of progressivist tale (which forms an interesting counterpart to the postlapsarian tales I discussed this morning) is not at all believable as an academic history, but instead functions as a means for van Fraassen to carve out a space for his own creative addition to the debate. Van Fraassen is self-conscious about this, but the practice is hardly unique to him. As he says, all philosophers’ histories of philosophy are like this, by and large. But this is rather safe, all things considered, for the real interest lies not in the history but in what it makes space for. In a full-blooded Emersonian reading, however, there is no distinction between the “biased” reading and the space that this reading creates.

It is a serious question, in light of this, whether there is any real place in academic philosophy for this non-tepid form of philosophizing that takes creative reading as its wellspring. Perhaps it has a place at the margins, requiring the sanitizing work of scholars such as Delanda to be integrated into the natural order. It is certainly dangerous: when it prompts imitations by people without the talent or the original vision of an Emerson, the results are, as I said, horrid. (It exemplifies the dangers of anything goes relativism, that bogeyman in which no one believes, but which some nevertheless practice.)

[This post was prompted by a stimulating discussion I had with a friend who is well-versed in philosophy, but does not wish to be an academic philosopher, who expressed well-motivated skepticism about Emersonian reading and philosophizing and who got me fretting about the issue once again. Many thanks are due to him for the provocation.]

Constructive Empiricism and Interpretation

2013/02/12 1 comment

For thirty-some years now, the philosophy Bas van Fraassen has been defending a position in the philosophy of science known as constructive empiricism. It is a nuanced view, but it is characterized by a central theme: making empiricism plausible. Empiricism for van Fraassen is a “stance”—an attitude with no content itself (empirical or metaphysical), but which determines how one responds to particular bits of content. Contrasting with empiricism is the stance van Fraassen calls materialism. Van Fraassen characterizes the two stances as follows (The Empirical Stance, 62-63):

Characteristic of materialism is a certain deference to the content of science. This deference takes two forms: the belief that the scientific description of the world is true, in its entirety or near enough, at least a strong inclination toward completeness claims for the content of certain sciences. …

Empiricism may also be approached through reflection on its positive attitude toward science. But this admiring attitude is not directed so much to the content of the sciences as to their forms and practices of inquiry. Science is a paradigm of rational inquiry. To take it as such is precisely to take up one of the most central attitudes in the empiricist stance. But one may take it so while showing little deference to the content of any science per se. …

For the materialist, science is what teaches us what to believe. For the empiricist, science is more nearly what teaches us how to give up our beliefs. All our factual beliefs are to be given over as hostages to fortune, to the fortunes of future empirical evidence, and given up when they fail, without succumbing to despair, cynicism, or debilitating relativism.

Importantly, van Fraassen does not think that one stance is more rational than the other (though he thinks many actual materialists go astray and endorse what he considers “inflationary metaphysics”—e.g. modal realism). The constructive empiricist believes that successful scientific theories are empirically adequate (which means that they save all of the observable phenomena), but not that they are strictly true, which would require that they be true about the unobservable phenomena as well. For the constructive empiricist, all that is required for scientific inquiry is that, when one accepts a scientific theory, the only belief to which one is committed is that the theory is empirically adequate. Van Fraassen adds that one is also committed to further testing of the theory, and to giving it up if it should prove not to be empirically adequate. Importantly, however, van Fraassen does not believe that it is irrational to believe that the best scientific theories are true; he simply believes it is not rationally compelled. Neither the empiricist nor the materialist can accuse the other of irrationality.

It is important to recognize that constructive empiricism does not involve any ontological claims about the unobservable. What is observable, for the constructive empiricist, is what is observable-for-humans, as our best current theories of perception delimit what we can observe. But it would be quite strange to believe that nothing that exists escapes detection by our perceptual systems. The constructive empiricist only abjures accepting any claims about what it is that so escapes our perceptual faculties.

How might one recognize an empiricist or a materialist? The materialist is more likely, for one thing, to think that ethical and aesthetic judgments amount to nothing more than opinion, for there is no hope of deriving e.g. an ethical philosophy from the content of scientific theories. The empiricist is more likely to think that ethics, interpretation, aesthetics, etc., are matters of serious rational inquiry. Note that in the quote above, van Fraassen describes the empiricist as believing that science is a paradigm of rational inquiry, but certainly not the paradigm.

The dichotomy between these two stances is not exhaustive. Also possible are stances that do not think science is a paradigm of rational inquiry at all (though this is much more difficult to maintain sensibly these days), and, more pertinently to my case, stances in between materialism and empiricism. I am sympathetic to aspects of both views. The empiricist restriction of belief to beliefs about observable phenomena is not something I find particularly plausible. Nevertheless, I am sympathetic to van Fraassen’s modal nominalism, and I certainly side with the empiricist in thinking that rational inquiry extends well beyond the rather rigid confines of scientific inquiry. Take what David Foster Wallace once said in an interview:

In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it.

I think what David Foster Wallace is doing is setting out a task for a type of inquiry carried out by artists. This inquiry requires several steps: the artist must first locate what is “human and magical” in the world, and then she must apply CPR to these elements. The CPR metaphor is apt: the artist not only illuminates “the possibilities for being alive and human” at a particular time, the artist brings these possibilities back to life. The artist does this through some marriage of form and content. One need not think that there are determinate answers to the question “what are the possibilities for being alive and human in today’s world” in the way there is a determinate answer to the question, “what is the charge of an electron?” in order to think that this is a domain of inquiry that requires exacting rigor and the ability to give reasons that have more than a mere subjective validity. Does art discover these possibilities or create them? The question is really immaterial. Good art shows, on a rigorous and I would contend rational basis, what possibilities there are. (I should add that I do not intend to imply that this is the only task of art. But it is I think indubitably a task.)

But my topic here is neither science nor the creation of art, for I am neither a scientist nor an artist. What I engage in with this blog is a mixture of philosophy and interpretation, and in this case, philosophy of interpretation. However one feels about constructive empiricism as a philosophy of science, I think it is particularly useful in thinking about interpretation. I will try to elucidate this thought at an abstract level, providing examples where I can. Before I begin, let me be clear that I don’t know if I agree with the view I will sketch out. This is primarily an attempt to sketch out a position, with the hopes that being forced to formulate it explicitly will help me to evaluate it going forward. So my acceptance of what I say below is provisional. With that, onward.

Van Fraassen’s claim that acceptance of a scientific theory does not require acceptance of its claims about unobservable entities is notorious, but an analog of this claim in the case of interpretation seems to me like it at least ought to be uncontentious. Here goes: an interpretation of a work of art must be consistent with everything contained within the work (i.e. it must save the “observable phenomena” regarding the content of the work), but its claims about what is not part of the content of the text need not be literally true (of the work).

What does this mean? In a film, certain events are shown on the screen, but only rarely is a film so purely self-contained that everything that matters occurs onscreen. There are time gaps between scenes. There are times when characters wander in and out of frame in the middle of a scene. Interpretation of the film is probably nigh on impossible if the interpreter cannot give some account of what is going on in instances like these. What is observable in a film, however, is nothing more or less than what is seen and heard while the film is playing. Any interpretation must be consistent with what is seen or heard.

At this point there is a disanalogy between the constructive empiricist approach to interpretation and the constructive empiricist approach to science. Regarding, say, physics, the constructive empiricist is perfectly happy to admit that there might be electrons—she simply does not feel compelled to believe there are. But in the case of a film, the literally true answer to what happens off-screen is: nothing. It is perfectly appropriate to think of the film as creating a world that encompasses more than just what is seen and heard in watching the film, but it is a mistake to reify this world. What exists is nothing more or less than what is contained in the work of art. It is a strange ontology that limits what exists in our “physical” world to what we can perceive, but in a work of art this ontological restriction is exactly right. What exists is what is shown (film, painting), heard (film, music), or described (literature).

Nevertheless, in interpretation, it may be absolutely crucial to make claims about what happens that are not specified in the work itself. In order to “save the phenomena” of a work, it may be necessary to have an account that goes beyond these phenomena. And this will involve a sort of talking as if those events are every bit as real as what is contained within the work. There is a substantial gap in time between where Infinite Jest ends and where it begins, and any interpretation of the work must say something about what occurs to bridge this gap, but there can be no literally true answer. One cannot save the phenomena of Infinite Jest while remaining silent about this gap.

There is another important analogy between scientific and interpretive constructive empiricism at this point. In constructive empiricism about science, to save the phenomena is to be consistent with them in a logical sense. Any consistent theory will suffice as empirically adequate. Nevertheless, we want scientific theories to do more than be empirically adequate; in particular, we want them to explain. Van Fraassen devotes a chapter of The Scientific Image (his first book-length defense of constructive empiricism) to arguing that explanation is a pragmatic virtue of theories, and does not provide any indication to think that they are true. It is a valid reason for acceptance in the constructive empiricist sense, but explanatory power does not compel a realist attitude. This demand for explanatory power is at least one reason why science cannot consist of just an exhaustive list of patterns among the phenomena. Likewise, an interpretation of a work of art cannot just be a description of what occurs in the work: it must make these occurrences sensible. And just as this may require the positing of unobservable entities like electrons in the case of physical theory, so may interpretation of a work of art require positing “unobservable” events.

One final point. Nelson Goodman in Ways of Worldmaking suggests that ‘true’ and ‘false’ (conceived, I think, along the lines of van Fraassen’s “literally true” and “literally false”) are not exhaustive of the ways we may be right or wrong. To these limited notions Goodman would add notions of metaphorical truth and falsity, as well as a general purpose sense of rightness and wrongness that can be expanded to include anything appropriate—no doubt Goodman himself favors inclusiveness in fleshing out just how things may be right or wrong. A description of what happens in a text may be literally true or false, but interpretation goes well beyond description, and so is better evaluated as right or wrong. And so, even though claims about what happens off-screen or outside the text or beyond the picture frame may be literally false (because what is beyond the work of art literally does not exist), they are nonetheless subject to standards of right and wrong. If I posit that, during the time between the events that end Infinite Jest and those that begin it, Descartes’ evil demon freezes time, moves everybody five inches to their right, and then unfreezes time, I am wrong, despite my claim being no less literally false than any other that describes that time. And while interpretation may not generally be as clear-cut as that (indeed, no interesting interpretive claim will be), it is still subject to the need for rigorous reasoning.


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Lavender – The Oil for EVERYTHING

13 Easy Uses for Lavender Essential Oil - Earthy Crunchy Mama
If you only use one essential oil, this is it!
Lavender (lavandula angustifolia) is one of the most versatile of all essential oils. Most commonly known for its relaxing effects on the body, therapeutic-grade (ONLY Young Living Brand) lavender has been highly regarded for the skin. It may be used to cleanse cuts, bruises and skin irritations. The fragrance is calming, relaxing and balancing – physically and emotionally. Carrying a bottle of lavender around with you is like having your own personal first aid kit, perfume and pick-me-up.
Here are 13 easy ways you can incorporate lavender in to your daily life:
1. Calming
Rub 2-3 drops of lavender oil in your cupped palms, then use the inhalation method to draw the scent all the way into your amygdala gland (the emotional warehouse) in your brain to calm the mind. Then, rub on the feet, temples, wrists (or anywhere) for an immediate calming effect on the body. Great for use in crowded areas like planes or subways to carve out your own personal oasis.
2. Sleep aid
Again, use the cupping and inhalation method. Then, rub a drop of Lavender oil on your palms and smooth on your pillow to help you sleep.
3. Bee sting / Insect bite
Put a drop of Lavender oil on a bee sting or insect bite to stop itching reduce swelling.
4. Minor burn
Put 2-3 drops Lavender oil on a minor burn to decrease pain. I recently did this after I spilled scorching hot tea on my hand at Starbucks and luckily had my lavender with me. Result: NO redness, swelling or pain. NO sign of any burn. Lavender works wonders!
5. Cuts
Drop Lavender oil on cut to stop bleeding, clean wound, and kill bacteria.
6. Eczema / Dermatitis
Mix several drops of Lavender oil with a nut or vegetable mixing oil (coconut, sesame, etc) and use topically on eczema and dermatitis. I have a dear friend who suffers from severe eczema and swears by this.
7. Nausea or motion sickness
To alleviate the symptoms of motion sickness, place a drop of Lavender oil on end of tongue, behind the ears or around the navel.
8. Nosebleed
To stop a nosebleed, put a drop of lavender oil on a tissue and wrap it around a small chip of ice. Push the tissue covered ice chip up under the middle of the top lip to the base of the nose and hold as long as comfortable or until the bleeding stops (do not freeze the lip or gum).
9. Dry or chapped skin
Rub lavender oil on dry or chapped skin.
10. Chapped or sunburned lips
Rub a drop of lavender oil on chapped or sunburned lips.
11. Hay fever.
Rub a drop of lavender oil between your palms and inhale deeply to help alleviate the symptoms of hay fever.
12. Dandruff.
Rub several drops of lavender oil into the scalp to help eliminate dandruff.
13. Cold sores.
Put a drop of lavender oil on a cold sore.
***BONUS: Flavor booster!
Add a few drops of lavender to any recipe you want to enhance. Favorites: add to your water or tea (especially sparkling!), brownies, bars, cookies, dessert recipes, raw chocolate or salad dressings. Enjoy!

Essential Oils and Cats

Essential Oils for Cats - Earthy Crunchy Mama

Using Essential Oils on cats is a highly controversial topic but it really is an argument that boils down to the quality of the oils. Please note that the oils suggested in this article are Young Living Essential Oils brand ONLY. I do not recommend any other brand and would never use a different brand on my own pets.

Much of this information is taken from Dr. Melissa Shelton’s book. She is a holistic veterinarian and has used Young Living Oils for over 3 years in her practice safely and effectively. Her book documents the uses of oils for animals. So, please purchase it and read it if you have concerns and would like more information.

How do I use Essential Oils for Cats?

Essential oils for cats should be highly diluted with a high grade pure vegetable oil. Dilute essential oils for cats (and all other smaller animals) at least 50:1 (fifty drops of dilution oil to one drop of essential oil). Dr. Mary Hess, DVM, recommends that Peace & Calming be diluted at 80-90% for felines.

Place a drop of the diluted oil on the inside of the paw or location of the cut or injury. Place some in your hands and pet your cat gently ears to tail.

Diffusing oils is a great way to use essential oils for cats. Lastly, you could place a few drops in a sprayer with some water, shake it up and gently mist–but most cats usually don’t like this method of application.

Here is a list of oils that can be safely used on cats:

For Fleas: Make a dilution of Cedarwood and Lavender oil and brush it into the cat. You can also make a spray mist with water and gently spray the cat to deter fleas.

For Emotional Needs: Use Valor for courage and Peace & Calming blend for anxiety and fear

For Skin Irritation and Minor Wounds: Use Lavender

For Mange: Use Lavender and Roman Chamomile

For Natural Cleaning: Use Thieves to clean out cat’s crate safely and effectively

The most effective and easiest way to keep your pet’s coat in tip-top condition is by using Animal Scents™ Shampoo. Imbued with the power of citronella, lavandin, lemongeranium, and spikenard essential oils, Young Living’s pet shampoo gently cleanses, protects, and conditions without harmful ingredients.

What about YOU? Do you use essential oils on your pets?

Ready to Order?

Fever Reducer

all natural fever reducer - earthy crunchy mama

When it comes to choosing medicine for baby, this mama can’t be too careful! We’ve only had two fevers so far, and have given baby instant relief from both withYoung Living’s Peppermint Essential Oil. One drop peppermint mixed with raw, organic coconut oil along the spine works like a charm. I know many mamas who swear by Tylenol, and I’m glad it works for them, but do they really know what they’re putting in baby’s body? The dyes and high fructose corn syrup are enough for me to stay far away!

Here are the Side Effects of just the first three ingredients in Children’s Tylenol:

Sound like something you want to pump in baby’s body every four hours? Yeah, me neither! This family will stick with good ol natural Peppermint!

What about YOU? What’s your fever reducer go-to?

Ready to Order?

Valor – Snoring Eliminator and Confidence Booster

Valor is my new favorite oil! Seriously, I am loving it. My first experience with valor was waking my hubs up from a deep SNORING sleep at 1:00am and making him put a few drops on his big toe. He stopped snoring and we both went back to sleep. I thought, there is NO WAY that just happened!! Obviously it was a fluke. So I tested my theory several times that week until finally the poor hubby got tired of me waking him up for “testing purposes” and started putting in on before bed. He hasn’t snored once since he started using valor. Recently, I’ve been taking valor to work with me to combat anxiety. The Christmas tree / flower aroma instantly calms my mind and brings me to a place of balance.  I love that valor is such a versatile oil, and that it helps physical ailments as well as emotional. I even cured a pregnant coworker’s aching lower back with valor today! It’s definitely a must have in this house! VALOR v1.1 What about YOU? What’s your favorite way to use valor? Ready to Order?

Peppermint Essential Oil

Well I’m pretty sure little man is teething! Who knew we would hit this stage so quickly?! 3.5 months seems way too early to me, but I know it’s happening because the poor baby has been fussy and clingy for several days now. Along with our normal bath/peace and calming routine, we’ve been diffusing lavender, and last night, had to add peppermint into the mix. Little man was burning up with a teething fever. After his bath, we heavily diluted peppermint essential oil and applied it along his spine. Within a few minutes he was cooled down and comfortable enough to sleep. We are so thankful for our essential oils!

photjko-2PEPPERMINT v1.2

Ready to Order?

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Food Reads

My near month-long absence has mainly been due to the fact that I got too carried away with reading. But I think it’s been one of my more healthier “addictions”, of sorts. Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential (the Insider’s Edition, no less), Gordon Ramsay’s Roasting in Hell’s Kitchen (alternatively titled Humble Pie if you’re from the UK) and other food memoirs have been keeping me company (apart from great food, of course).

I do feel bad that I have somewhat neglected the blog, but I do hope that the above-mentioned memoirs will serve as a catalyst for more entries in the very near future. But like I said, I find that reading is indeed a healthy addiction (to which I feel many would agree). A load of other food-related books have been marked “to-read” though, so I think you can guess where this is going…

Will be back soon!

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A Very Merry Christmas

lunch and beaver lake 029You never know how a day is going to end, and last Thursday ended with a midnight visit to an emergency vet in East Vancouver.

My dog, Nicky, began vomiting late at night and about 8 episodes later ended up vomiting blood. When I noticed the blood, every fiber of my being freaked out and I was convinced that he had been poisoned by something or someone. I tearfully scooped him up into my arms, darted through the rain to a cab and made the driver race to the hospital.

We arrived at our destination with me fighting off uncontrollable tears and an impending panic attack. Nick was quickly taken to an examination room in the back of the clinic and I desperately tried to follow. When I was gently told that I had to stay out front, I quickly scanned the waiting room. There was a Caucasian couple in one corner and an Asian couple in the other. I really didn’t want to make small talk with anyone and I really, really didn’t want to have to smile and pretend to be brave. I was feeling the opposite of brave and wanted to sit in a corner, close my eyes and visualize my little Terrier healthy and happy again. I picked the Asian couple’s corner. Maybe they can’t speak English I thought hopefully as I approached them.

Almost as soon as I sat down the man smiled at me and said that my dog was going to be okay. I smiled back weakly and thanked him. He asked why my dog and I were there and I told him, then thought that it would be polite of me to ask them the same question.

I found out that they were there because the woman accidentally stepped on their hamster. She was cooking in the kitchen and the hamster snuck up behind her and, well, you can imagine the rest.. The couple were very distraught but also incredibly proud of their hamster and showed me a number of photos and videos of her. I asked what her name was and the woman said “Lala”, followed by the man saying “I call her Baby”. I smiled. Those are both wonderful names I told them.

A few minutes later the vet came out to say that Lola will be ok but that Lola is a boy. The shocked look on the couples faces was priceless. Both of their mouths fell open at almost the same time. The vet then explained that Lola has balls. The woman looked confused for a second but then responded that she had always thought they were breasts.

I couldn’t have asked for a better or cuter distraction than this sweet, quirky couple and I was also very happy that Lola (not Lala) was going to be just fine.

Nicky, after a couple of days on IV at the animal hospital, is also on the mend from an attack of acute pancreatitis. After a lot of tears and fears, I couldn’t be more grateful.

So, the moral of this story? Sometimes we take the good, smooth times in life for granted and this night reminded me to never do that again. It reminded me to be grateful for every day I have on this beautiful/painful/amazing adventure called life. It also reminded me to never take for granted my little fur baby, and all of the wonderful people I have in my life, making every day so much better than it would be without them.

So this holiday will be frugal, after my $1,800 vet bill, but it will also be filled with amazing friends and lots of love. And that’s the most important thing.

And, on that note, I’m wishing everyone a happy, relaxing and beautiful holiday filled with the real spirit of Christmas. Make sure you give the ones you love a big, bear hug tonight and let them know how much they mean to you. That’s a sure-fire way to guarantee that your Christmas will be amazing.

santa dog

Homemade bourbon cream liqueur

The holidays are a perfect time to be a little self-indulgent and some of my fondest winter memories involve lazy mornings spent in bed, sipping a dark, delicious coffee laced with boozy Irish cream. Or having friends over to celebrate the holidays with a chilled glass of Bailey’s over ice.

Baileys is incredibly tasty but did you know that it has a ton of artificial colours, flavours and preservatives in the ingredient list to allow it to stay on the shelf for months at a time?

Luckily I have a delicious alternative. This recipe is pure, natural and preservative free. Because of this, it won’t last forever, so be sure to share this goodness with your favourite friends and family.

Holiday Bourbon Cream Liqueur

  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 1/4 cups bourbon
  • 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
  • 2 T raw cacao
  • 2 T maple syrup
  • 1 T vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients together. Pour in mason jars and store in refrigerator. Shake before serving.

bourbon cream liqueur
Ps. Instead of getting into a stressed out shopping mall frenzy, why not forgo the big gifts and spend time having a meal, drink or hot chocolate with people you care about over the holidays instead. But, if you absolutely feel you have to give something tangible, a little mason jar of bourbon cream makes a perfect offering; especially when it’s made with love. Top with a bow and this little mason jar becomes a delicious hostess gift, stocking stuffer or ‘anytime’ gift.

Merry Christmas everyone xo

Snowshoeing Adventures

Squamish, BC is less than an hour from Vancouver but, in many ways, it’s a world away. At first glance you’ll see a typical Canadian small town with strip malls, fast food joints and a bustling Tim Horton’s. But then you look up and see the stunning mountain range right beside the town and Squamish no longer seems anything close to typical. This hiker, rock climber, and snowshoer’s paradise is one of my favourite mini getaways. The mountain range is called “The Chief” and now has a gondola that takes you part way up the mountain to tree lined hiking trails with breathtaking vistas.

If you love the outdoors and are planning a trip to BC, definitely put this winter wonderland destination on your list.

L and D excellent adventure 075

L and D excellent adventure 082

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l and d excellent adventure 81

The Chief


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Worth Your Time (1/30/15)

I miss blogging. So I’m getting back in the game. Along with that comes the desire for some degree of consistency… so each Friday I plan on compiling a few of the best articles/blogs I’ve come across each week in order to pass them along to you. Here’s the first installment.

A Teenager’s View on Social Media Andrew Watts (social media, technology, teen life)
“Facebook is something we all got in middle school because it was cool but now is seen as an awkward family dinner party we can’t really leave. It’s weird and can even be annoying to have Facebook at times. That being said, if you don’t have Facebook, that’s even more weird and annoying.”

Do You Believe God Will Save Your Kids Tim Challies (parenting, family discipleship, entrusting your kids to God)
“I do what is right before my children as God opens my eyes to see the right: I teach them the Bible, I help them construct a Christian worldview, I tell them all about Jesus, and I involve them in a Christian community. Mostly I just plain love them in a way that reflects God’s love for me. I don’t do all this in order to accrue favor, but because these are the means God uses to save his people, to expose them as sinners and to reveal the Savior.”

The Only Question in Youth Ministry That Matters Tim Downey (youth ministry, lasting faith, salvation)
“I believe there is only one question that needs to be answered when it comes to youth ministry. Sounds simplistic, doesn’t it? It is a very simple question, yet the answer has profound implications for youth workers, parents, and students alike. The question is this: How will we move students towards ownership of and perseverance in their faith?”

13 Ways You Waste Your Money Tim Challies (money, stewardship, saving $$)
“I especially look for places we are spending money we don’t need to spend—bills that are too high, subscriptions we no longer need, and all of those little money-wasters that eventually add up. And over the years, I’ve collected quite a list of ways that we, and perhaps you, waste money.”

Baptizing “Masculinity”: The Real Reason Men are Leaving the Church Luke T. Harrington (men, ministry, philosophy, theology)
“Most men, in my experience, prefer to access their emotions through ideas, while most women prefer to access their ideas through emotions. This is not a claim that one approach is “superior” to the other — obviously, both feelings and ideas are indispensable to our humanity — but just that they are different, and, for whatever reason, evangelicalism tends to favor the “female” approach.”

Mummy Mask May Reveal Oldest Fragment of the Gospel of Mark Joe Carter (Bible, archaeology, reliability of Scripture)
“A text found on papyrus used on a mummy mask may be the oldest copy of a gospel known to exist—a fragment of the Gospel of Mark that was written during the first century, before the year AD 90. Until now, the oldest surviving copies of the gospel texts date to the second century (the years AD 101 to 200).”

Thinking About Evolution & Creation

Evolution & Creation are issues that people tend to have such strong opinions about, they don’t often listen to each other. Instead of lobbing grenades, we need to listen to each other. Let’s not be afraid to disagree, but let’s be respectful in how we consider such an important topic.

Last week we had a public school teacher who is a member of our church share with the youth about the Massachusetts curriculum on evolution. She walked us through a number of slides and proofs for evolution along with some of the rebuttals she is simply not allowed to share with her classes. She encouraged our students to think hard, to dig deep, and to be courageous enough to respectfully ask their teachers hard questions.

Question 1: Where are the fossils of species mid-evolution?
If evolution is process by which a species adapts in order to survive, and if it takes a long long time, why aren’t there fossils that show those animals who died mid-evolution? There should be plenty of fossils of people evolving and other species too.

Question 2: If order came from chaos, why doesn’t my bedroom clean itself?
We don’t see things go from chaos into order. But we see things go from order into chaos all the time. Creation didn’t come about on its own out of the disorder. There must have been an “order-er,” Somone who acted over creation to ensure that everything took place just right in order for creation and life to begin and continue.

Question 3: Can’t Homologous Structures simply point to a design that works so well it’s worth being used multiple ways?
Homologous Structures are patterns of biology that show a common ancestor. The image here demonstrates that since the human, dog, bird, and whale share a common ancestor because they similar bone structure. But why couldn’t God have created a design that was so good He decided to use it in multiple ways?

Question 4: Why are textbooks using bad sketches of embryos instead of actual ultrasounds of embryos?

Top: Ultrasound pictures Bottom: Haeckel’s drawings

Yes, there are similarities, but the drawings are a far cry from accurate.It is fairly well known that Haeckel’s drawings of embryos are not reliable or accurate. They were, in fact, intentionally altered to minimize differences and exaggerate similarities. But the drawings continue to be printed in today’s textbooks and presented as if they are accurate and reliable.

Question 5: Is evolution completely bogus?
That’s a big question that has a ton of books written about it. Our short answer is no. There is much evidence that species change and adapt over time, we have no problem with that. Giraffe’s have long necks because the ones with short necks couldn’t survive and reproduce. But we stand convinced that God is the creator and that species do not evolve from one species into another. We boldly proclaim that God is our creator and that Genesis is a reliable account of human history.

Question 5: Should we be afraid of science?
No! God made everything, and science helps us understand what He made. We need Christians to make significant contributions in the fields of science, as they have throughout history (many of the greatest scientists throughout history have been devout Christians). Unfortunately, Christians are often silenced from offering their interpretations of scientific research, which gives the impression that there is only one way to interpret things. Be encouraged! There are intelligent Christians who are looking at the same research and drawing the conclusion that God is our maker and sustainer and savior. It may take more work and effort on your part to discover what these scientists have to say, but it is well worth the effort!

You are NOT an accident!
You may have been a surprise to your parents, but you are not an accident! God made you, and he did it on purpose. You are not a mere biological mutation or a “miracle” of nature. God gives life, and he want you to find your fullness in Him through Jesus Christ. Whatever you’re going through and however you’re feeling about yourself, you can be assured of this: God knows you, and he wants you to know him!

Here’s a great video on Haeckel’s embryo’s. It’s very very good.

Creation Ministries International and Answers in Genesis both have some very good articles throughout their sites. Check out the links above for their articles related to evolution.

Cheer on the Pats with us!

In case you live under a rock, the Patriots are almost in the Super Bowl! The AFC Championship between the Patriots and the Colts is this Sunday (1/18) at 6:30pm. Come cheer them on with us, and even if you don’t like football there will be plenty of other table games, board games, and friends to hang out with… and lots of food! We will supply the pizza and drinks, you bring a snack to share.

YG AFC Championship

In case you think we’re “selling out”… remember that Sunday night Youth Group is primarily intended for nonbelievers and new believers while Sunday School and nine23 are meant for the meatier discipleship. So bring your friends to watch the game with us, and then invite them to youth group next Sunday night too.

How To Know God’s Will

This lesson is part of our “You Asked for it!” series, where students shared some tough questions they want answers to. This week, we’re looking at the question, “How do I know what God wants me to do?” There are three basic steps we walked through.

God's Plan a Mystery

Clarification: What do we mean by “God’s Will?”
Think about a Will that someone leaves behind when they die. It reveals to others what they want to be done with their stuff. Technically, “will” and “desire” have the same roots… So “God’s will” is the same as “God’s desire.” Asking “What is God’s will?” is the same as asking “What does God want?” (it’s just a more Christianese and “religious” way of saying it).

Step 1: Let the Bible Make You Wise
God isn’t hiding, and his will isn’t meant to be a mystery. God has given us the Bible in order to reveal his will and his desires. The Bible is way more than a book of wisdom, so don’t think of it as a list of do’s and don’ts… but there are definitely commands to be followed. If you want to know what kind of person God wants you to be, that is clearly available for you in Scripture. Read through the Gospels and see how Jesus lived, how he treated people, and what he taught. Read through the Old Testament and see the examples of people who walked with God (they had their flaws, and sometimes they made stupidly terrible decisions).

Step 2: Make the Wisest Choice You Can
You won’t find the answer to “What college should I attend?” or “Should I ask that girl on a date?” But if you have followed step one and if you are consistently seeking God’s wisdom, then that should steer you towards making wise choices (and away from making stupid and foolish ones). There are many things God simply leaves up for us to decide: what to wear, what to eat, etc. If we stressed over ruining God’s grand plan by messing up one of the hundreds of decisions we make every day, then we’d be overwhelmed and paralyzed. We’d never do anything out of fear of messing up God’s will.

Step 3: Trust God With Every Step
Trust that God is big enough and powerful enough to use your good choices and your bad ones too. He is honored and pleased by your wise choices, and he uses the bad ones for his glory too. Just look at how many times in the Bible people made really really bad choices but God’s will was totally fulfilled anyway (Here’s looking at you Joseph).

Big Idea: The Bible make you wise, make the wisest decision you can, and learn to trust God with every step.

How Do You Use Tech & Social Media?

Tech is constantly changing and it’s always an uphill climb to keep up to date on how people communicate and like to be communicated with. I also think it’s interesting to see the differences between teenagers and their parents in tech/media use. This blog post here got me thinking, “I wonder if the students at EBC would agree and say the same thing?”

As a pastor, I really want to do my best to communicate with you the best way possible, so would you please take just a few minutes to fill out the short survey below. Please only answer the questions that are for you.

(FYI: I’m not planning on stalking places like Snapchat and whatever based off this survey, I’m just curious about what’s being used and how many people use it.)

2015 Missions Team: Pawley’s Island, SC

leadertreks-logoThis year’s missions team will be traveling to Pawley’s Island, SC to serve with LeaderTreks. Here’s all the basic info you need, please contact Pastor Mike if you have any other questions! Start praying about whether or not God would have you serve on this missions team and get your deposit/forms submitted by Feb. 1st.

FullSizeRenderWhere: Pawley’s Island, SC
When: August 1-9, 2015
What: Physical service (home repair, building, etc.) & children’s ministry (most likely a VBS program)
Goals: Spiritual Growth & Leadership Development
Cost: $900 total ($150 student deposit, $750 will be fundraised)
Travel: Two days of driving each way (likely staying in Richmond, VA)
How to Sign Up: Submit $150, Application, and Release Form by February 1st. (download by clicking links above)

Why You Should Go:
1. Spiritual Growth. If you want to grow in your faith, this trip is for you. If you want to “get away” for a week and start building habits that get you reading your Bible and praying and doing acts of service/ministry, then this trip is for you. Simply put, if you want to discover more about your faith in Jesus and grow as a Christian, this is a great opportunity for you!

2. Leadership Development. If you want to come on a trip that’s basically a vacation, this trip is NOT for you. If you want to be challenged and work hard, this IS for you. You will be given opportunities to lead, make decisions, and do meaningful work. When problems come up, the adults aren’t going to fix them all for you… you students will be supported while you discover the solutions together. We want you to be equipped, so that whatever your personality and whatever your gifts are, you discover what your style of leadership looks like.

Obviously every team’s experience is different, but here’s a video from another church’s time serving with LeaderTreks at Pawley’s Island… maybe you will have the opportunity to meet some of the kids you’ll see in this video!


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“It Makes Us Feel Good”

Have you read ‘s take on the recent episode of the meaningless signing translator at Mandela’s memorial ceremony?

In part, it reads:

Jantjie’s performance was not meaningless – precisely because it delivered no particular meaning (the gestures were meaningless), it directly rendered meaning as such – the pretence of meaning. Those of us who hear well and do not understand sign language assumed that his gestures had meaning, although we were not able to understand them. And this brings us to the crux of the matter: are sign language translators for the deaf really meant for those who cannot hear the spoken word? Are they not much more intended for us – it makes us (who can hear) feel good to see the interpreter, giving us a satisfaction that we are doing the right thing, taking care of the underprivileged and hindered.

I remember how, in the first “free” elections in Slovenia in 1990, in a TV broadcast by one of the leftist parties, the politician delivering the message was accompanied by a sign language interpreter (a gentle young woman). We all knew that the true addressees of her translation were not the deaf but we, the ordinary voters: the true message was that the party stood for the marginalised and handicapped.

Read the entire article here.

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Michelle takes her bare arms and white pants to a clean beach and invites us to get oily, thus covering for BP

things are JUST BEACHY

Here she is in a Florida paper

Ya think she ever seen this

Dauphin Island, Alabama

or  this

Good news in oil-kill land: the cap is fit

And as they and in LA they wonder  but will it work?

and as they bitch and moan about in Texas, a new ban is also there

NYT breaks the blockade with a story about BP (is it because Shell is about to raid them?)

Also in NY, the debate over the Ground Zero mosque

and what Gibson said beyond the “N” word finally gets out

In the same vein, child rapist Roman Polanski is set free

and i,


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Silly Bandz make some kidz do silly things

Clooney began collecting Silly Bandz this summer. I cannot say when these things first put their rubbery feet through our door, but it built and built until he amassed a gallon-sized Ziploc bag full of them. I don’t buy them; he gets them at parties or at camp, and he’s been known to spend his allowance on them, at least until the Series 2 LEGO mini-figures were released a few weeks ago. But his eyes still get all glassy when he sees them in a store. The combinations of shapes, colors and other features (i.e. glow in the dark, tie-dyed, or sparkly) continue to mesmerize him whenever we pass a rack of them. And they are EVERYWHERE.

I have allowed it without encouraging it, because he’s into it, and because ultimately they are no more harmful than collecting baseball cards (though not as intellectually appealing), but I was a little disturbed yesterday when he came home and showed me two new ones on his wrist.

“Guess where I got these,” he began proudly. “Lucy and Gina dropped their Silly Bandz on the floor at lunch, and a bunch of people picked them up and I got these two!”

“What do you mean??” I asked, highly concerned.

It happened, just as I had thought. Six kids swooped in and stole the girls’ Silly Bandz off the floor. You always imagine that your child will be Superman, or the hero, the one who steps in and tells the others that what they are doing, if what they are doing, is not the right thing. So, I was more than a little shocked when not only didn’t my son do that, but he was also an eager participant in the crime.  He and I had a long talk about what it meant, and how I saw the situation, and I hoped that he understood that what he had done was wrong and why. I tried to make him feel empathy for Lucy and Gina, and he promised to return the bracelets, but I wonder what he really learned. Did he learn that it’s wrong to do what he did, or did he just learn that it’s wrong to share stuff like that with Mom?

It’s a fine line. How do you teach kindness and morality, right and wrong, without choking the open line of communication between parent and child? Obviously, he’s never seen Manfrengensen or me take something that doesn’t belong to us, so it’s not a learn-by-example situation. I can only imagine that it will get tougher as he gets older and the pressure to really fit in plays a factor.

Have you had any experience with this kind of thing? Please share below if you have. Thanks.


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Weekend Away

March 14, 2011 § Leave a comment

Mr. E and I took a short getaway to visit our friends M+S in New Haven. The weekend included amazing food, fresh air and exercise, some grocery shopping (including finding Finnish food in unexpected places!) for making amazing food, theater, and even more amazing food.

S taught Mr. E how to make hand-pulled noodles. Here is Mr. E in action:

Making Hand-Pulled Ramen

And the resulting meal was de-li-ci-ous!

Hand-Pulled Ramen Meal

M knit me this adorable gift:

Bunny plush toy

The amazing thing about the plush is that it’s made out of a single knit square, plus the two ears.

Here’s for friends and weekend getaways! Skål!

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Grace in Small Things No. 528

  1. Onion may be complaining about it in that photo up there, but just look at that sun!
  2. Life cereal was on sale at the drug store, which means I get to indulge in my cereal love this week.
  3. My windows are open, and I don't care if it's a bit cold. The fresh air is a fine drug.
  4. Watching a "My Name Is Earl" marathon on Netflix is this week's meditation.
  5. I discovered Coeur de pirate, and my ears have been happy ever since.

Wage a battle against embitterment and take part in Grace in Small Things.


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[Audio] Kate Boy’s ‘Higher’

Kate BOy

The best (in our opinion) live act around right now and Scandinavia’s top ElectroPop act at the moment, Kate Boy, have just released a new EP collecting all the track from their single’s to date.  Northern Lights, The Way We Are, Open Fire and Self Control are present and correct in all their epic SynthPop glory; alongside which we are treated to a new track. A long-time live favourite, this is the anthemic Higher.

Higher is always the nexus point of Kate Boy’s live set, part anthem, part manifesto; it’s the pivotal point the show revolves around. The perfect balance of melancholic music and euphoric, optimistic vocals; Kate Boy’s trademark juggernaut drums and powerful, rhythmic synths drive the track along, but this one is all about the vocals. Anyone who has seen them live will get chills, anyone who hasn’t will be looking forward to when they will be able to.

♫ Kate Boy – Higher

Kate Boy’s Kate Boy EP is out now.

Buy Kate Boy’s music from:

One comment on “[Audio] Kate Boy’s ‘Higher’

  1. Pingback: [Video] Kate Boy’s ‘Higher’ | electronic rumors

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DIY and crafts

Picking up Old Projects – the Crochet Bunny

Ok, that’s one unusually ugly photo of a crochet animal.

If you’re new to the blog, then please allow me to explain: I make crochet animals. I started the rabbit above around Easter, when a series of adorable crochet bunnies caught my eye on Pinterest. And then the inevitable happened.

I couldn’t find just the right pattern, so I decided to freestyle. This resulted in a rather enormous bunny head and a bulging body.  I added blue safety eyes and then… I couldn’t get the legs right. Or the ears. So I tossed the project into a bag and tried to forget about the frustration.

Recently a friend of mine started to crochet, which got me thinking about the adorable project I had given up. I hate to give up on projects, especially when the supplies have already been purchased, so I decided to scour the interwebs. And guess what – I came across this tutorial for rabbit ears. I’m going to take a shot at these and see if they do the trick!

I really hope this is the missing piece to my puzzle. Who would have thought that I could just google ‘crochet bunny ears’ and find the solution to such a seemingly uncommon problem? Isn’t the internet a wonderful thing?

One thought on “Picking up Old Projects – the Crochet Bunny

  1. The bunny isn’t ugly- it’s super cute! I used to make crochet animals too, but have stopped in recent years due to lack of time. Your post has inspired me to try it out again, though!

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< Back

Texturing sculpties in Blender part #1 - Texture painting

I'm rather a noob in Blender, thats why I want to make this tutorial that explain some of the basics to get started..

First I want to make my sculpty used for this tutorial, I start with sculptypaint.

A start with a default sphere, and in the Stone-Tool I force my sphere to 8x8. I press it several times. (to fix the top and bottom pole)

Next in the PointTool, I start to translate and scale these different point-blocks. Working with a low-resolution model, enables me to modify and create a basic shape much faster.

In the Morph-Tool, I lock my poles and start smoothing the rest of the model now.

Next in the StoneTool, I force my model to 33xSmooth, I get now a sculpty that almost is the same as SecondLife. And save my sculpty as a 64x64 png.

Next in photoshop or like the Gimp I load this sculptimage, and save it as 64x64 .TGA this needed for the next fase! Blender

Blender Download Check list:

#01- Download and install Python
Python is needed for a lot of the plugins and scripts in blender so its best to install Python first on your computer.

#02- Download and install Blender

#03- Get Domino Marama's sculpty plugins for blender
Copy the .py files to your Blender scripts directory as listed below. (In the correct folder where you installed blender)
Linux: ~/.blender/scripts
Mac: /Applications/blender/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/.blender/scripts/
Windows: c:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\.blender\scripts
More information about this plugin can be found on the SecondLife forums; Blender Sculptie Import & Export Scripts

When I start blender I get the message python is installed! Good.

Blender.. started

Well Blender can be really confusing and frustrating when you start, since you can get lost real easy, with all these options and buttons. Somehow its really easy to change all kinds of functions really fast, like pressing a shortcut-key by accident, or select/deselect a certain object by accident.
Second all those tools are strangly connected in 'wierd'?! ways, like if I go to from the object-tool to the texture-paint tool, I get different results then going from the object-tool, to the edit-tool, then the texture-paint tool. Real scary first, but dont fear.

Let start with some basics first..

When you start with blender, or do File->'New' you start with a default cube in the middle.
Use the Red(X) Green(Y) or Blue(Z) arrow to move the cube. Around.

Pressing Alt and the leftmouse button (windows), I can rotate and look around this cube. And with my mousewheel, I can zoom in and out.

In the View I can set the view to Perspective.. Something I prefer.

A lot of the options in blender are connected to your keyboard, lets start with the basic ones.

Scale: 's'-Key
If you press the s-Key you can scale the model; press escape to exit. control-z to undo the last move. Left-click to acknoledge the last change.
But! If you just want to scale in X; Press the 's' key and next the 'x' key next. This will just scale the model on the X-axe
's' then 'x' key -> Scale on X (red)
's' then 'y' key -> Scale on Y (green)
's' then 'z' key -> Scale on Z (blue)

Try scaling the model on the X, Y and Z-axe.

Rotate: 'r'-Key
If you press the 'r'-Key you can rotate the model.
'r' then 'x' key -> Rotate on X (red)
'r' then 'y' key -> Rotate on Y (green)
'r' then 'z' key -> Rotate on Z (blue)

Try Rotating the model on the X, Y and Z-axe.

Next I delete my cube with the 'Delete' button.

And if everything is proper installed, I can load my sculpty using the sculpty import plugin from Domino Marama.

I select my sculpty vase I created before! And press ok

My sculpties when saved in sculptypaint.. well always are rotated a bit wrong; you can rotate it on the red X-axe pressing 'r' then 'x'

I can scale it a bit on the Z as well pressing 's' then 'z'

Next I'm going to split the viewing area.. into different screens. I right-click on the black-line to split the screen.

When I manage to split my screen, I select 'UV/Image' Editor in my right Window.

Make sure your 3D model (the vase here) is selected. Rightclick an object to select it in blender.

Next I select the Edit Mode.

When I press the 'a' button, I select all my points... They light-up to yellow, (pressing the 'a' key can select or deselect all the points of this model) Make sure they are selected.

Next In the UV/Image Editor I create a new image.

For me a 512x512 image is fine..

After I created the image, I switch to texturepaint.

I can directly draw onto the 3D model now on the left.
When I enable Texture Painting in the UV/Image I can draw on my texture on the right as well.
In the paint tab; I can change my brush/color and the different drawing options. Change the brush opacity, soften/smear etc.

Setting the Drawtype view to Textured shows my model better.

I Play around a bit, with the drawing, and save my texture I created.

Texturing sculpties in Blender part #2 - Texture baking

I start with a new file again, File -> New. Erase all.
Next I scale the cube you start with a bit on the Z-axe. (press 's' then 'z' to scale it on the Z-axe.)

Import my sculpty File -> Import -> SecondLife Sculpty (TGA)

And rotate my sculpty on the x-axe ('r' then 'x' to rotate on the X-axe)
After that I want to select the light.. Thats the round icon on the right.

When the light is selected.. I can press the shading icon

Setting the view to 'shaded' shows the colors.. in the bottom Panel I can change the lightning all kinds of ways.

Next I add 2 more spot lights. I rotate the lights incase, using the 'r' button for rotate, then press 'x' 'y' or 'z' next to rotate the spot on that axe.

In the shading panel, I can change the light in all kinds of ways, the hotspot, type falloff the colors of the light and can choose between Ray-traced shadows (better?!) or like the Buffered shadows.

Next I select my sculpty, and split the screens. On the right part of the screen I select the UV/Image editor.

In this Scene Panel is this Bake button I want to use!

But if I press the bake button, I just get this error. 'No Image found to bake to.

The only way I can bake at the moment is it seems;
#01 Go to the Edit Mode
#02 Select the Editing Panel next
#03 In Multires, I change my model from Level: 3 into Level: 1

Next I go back to the Scene panel, make sure you got an new (black) image selected at the UV screen, incase no image there, Select Image new, and create a new (like 512x512) black image.. then try pressing the bake button.

In the Editing panel, I can put back my Multires back to Level:3
I split my screen one more time, and show there my 3D model textured, while my model on the left shows as 'shaded'. Nice for reference.

When Add one or 2 more levels in Multilevel, my 3D model gets higher detailed. But when I bake again it will take more time to render. Remember to select the model (the sculpty vase) again, before you want to rebake the texture.

I can add a material for my vase.

In the shader part I can do all kinds of wierd material stuff, like the light reflection of the model. Actually here the random playing really starts.

Add textures

Use your own textures, or play around with the procedural ones. Change the ligths again, select the 3D model again and rebake the texture.

Here some first test in SecondLife; on the beta-grid. A default sculpty on the left, and some with the baked textures created with blender. And you can mix/finetune the baked textures a bit in photoshop or the gimp as well.

the baked shadows on the walls are created in blender.

< Back


text:
Take a number

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that EWIs (those who enter the country without inspection) are an insult to legal immigrants and that if they want to come into the country, they need to wait in line with everyone else. But I can tell you how many times I’ve heard an immigrant or non-citizen tell me how insulting it was that people jumped the border. That would be zero.

That idea is insulting to me. First, it lumps all non-citizens into one category who must think a certain way. Second, it demonstrates a gross misunderstanding of immigration.

The take away that I want to highlight is that it’s not a line so much as a system based on class. The United States is not first come, first served. If you have a citizen family member and money, then welcome. If you are educated or skilled, then welcome. If you are not, go home. Maybe this is cold-hearted of me, but some of that makes sense. We want people who will contribute to our society. But it seems to me that we don’t value the contributions of unskilled labor, which I think is classist and disgusting. We’ve heard over and over again the myth that those who enter without inspection take the jobs of hard working Americans. Yet didn’t Colbert prove that just isn’t true?

Our county, our economy, rely heavily on the work of immigrant and unauthorized workers.

Without the cheap labor provided by those who enter without inspection, we would pay much more for our produce. For this reason,  there is a huge economic incentive to prevent any sort of immigration reform, especially a path to citizenship. So, in my cynical view, it becomes politicians complaining about immigration to appease a xenophobic base but not providing solutions to appease business interests.

So when someone says to you that those who enter without inspection are an insult to hard working non-Americans, ask they how many immigrants and non-citizens they spoke to. Ask them how big their sample size is. Ask them if they think all immigrants can be lumped together as thinking and believing one thing. I suspect this consideration of the feelings of those fortunate enough to be educated or have American family members is really a way to hide racism or business interests.

On the other hand, if you are an immigrant or non-citizen who thinks that entry without inspection is insulting, please tell me why. And if you feel like sharing, I’d love to know about your experience coming to the country.

About emmawolf

I'm a freelance writer living in Baltimore with my husband, son, and two cats. I'm working on editing my first novel. I love reading, traveling, and the cello.
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7 Responses to Take a number

  1. Muriel says:

    I’m not a U.S.citizen, but not an immigrant, so I speak without authority, but of course I agree. Mostly.

    • emmawolf says:

      I feel like I have a million questions about immigration in Germany. What are the policies there like? I’m curious about how it works in relation to the EU but not sure I even know how to phrase my question. In the US, it’s a big deal that immigration is a federal only thing. States can’t make or enforce immigration laws. And since this is what is familiar to me, it makes sense to me. So I’m wondering how it all works in the EU given that the member countries may have different immigration laws. (Does that make sense or is my ignorance really showing?)

      • Muriel says:

        I have to be honest here, I don’t know a lot about our immigration law. I’ve studied business law, and this wasn’t part of our curriculum, so there. From what I gather, the Union has passed Directives for the Member States because of the free movement policy, but still, immigration is mainly under the Member States’ jurisdiction.
        It’s similar to many other areas: The Union is trying to find a reasonable common position and harmonize the laws, but it’s failing because the Member States don’t want to adapt (and immigration is, of course, an emotional topic), so they pass some Directives and recommendations but don’t dare to really touch the core issues.
        It seems to me that Germany has a more lenient stance towards refugees than the U.S. but a much more stupid policy towards qualified professionals (to wit, we usually don’t accept immigrants because they could contribute to our economy because they might steal our jobs).
        So, you see, no need to worry about your ignorance. Mine seems comparable, and I live here.
        Still, if you have more specific questions, I’ll be happy to learn about the topic and pass that on to you. I’m curious as well.

        • emmawolf says:

          What the stance toward refugees?

          • Muriel says:

            Until 1993, we used to have a (theoretically) unlimited right of political asylum, meaning anyone who needed it hat the right to asylum. In this year, our constitution was changed and some limitations adopted. There is still an absolute right to political asylum, but there are three exceptions:
            -Foreigners entering by way of another safe country cannot claim asylum.
            -Certain countries of origin are assumed safe, so no asylum is granted to people from those.
            -An application for asylum can be denied on the grounds that another EU country has jurisdiction by way of the EU’s internal rules.
            This seems to have had a significant effect since the number of applications has declined from 400,000 in 1990 to 60,000 in 2012. I haven’t found numbers on acceptance quota before 2000, but if you’re interested, in 2001 (high), 5% of applications were accepted, and in 2006 (low), it was .8%.
            What’s it like in the U.S.?

            • emmawolf says:

              In the US, you can get asylum if you are persecuted because of your race, nationality, religion, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group (which is undefined) and the government of the country of origin is either doing the persecuting or unwilling or unable to stop it.

              Since the term “social group” is not defined, it leads to a lot of uncertainty. The country is divided into 11 jurisdictions that will handle the appeals of asylum denials (but all can appeal to the Supreme Court after that). Some of the jurisdictions are stricter than others, so if you’re claiming a social group, your success may depend more on where you enter the country than your claim (but I’m cynical).

              I just looked up statistics, and apparently the US is around 43%! Wow! http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/imm_asy_see_acc_rat-seekers-acceptance-rates-1990-99

              That was close to 15 years ago, and my guess is things have changed a bit since then. Still, I’m surprised.

  2. Muriel says:

    Who’da thunk it?
    I guess in asylum policies, the details are much more important than the general rule. As I said, our German constitution basically just states “Anyone has the right to political asylum”, but if you then go on to define that you need to have been at least falsely imprisoned and lashed to apply for it, and that Russia, China and Iran will be considered safe states with spotless legal systems and thus any punishment meted out by them will be assumed just and right…
    Of course, this is not German policy. I was just looking for obvious examples.

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text:
Losing Vote Bonus? :/

Discussion in 'Empire Help & Support' started by Y0urWaifuisTrash, Dec 28, 2014.

  1. I'm going to be away from a computer from Jan 5 to Jan 9. The problem is, I also have a large vote streak. I don't really want to lose my votes, so I was wondering if I was either able to get a temporary vote streak loss immunity, or if I was allowed to hire someone (for rupees) to vote for me.

  2. You can definitely get someone to vote for you and pay them, I bet someone will volunteer if you offer a reward.
  3. we dont offer immunity, but paying people to vote is a very common thing.
    canuckshockey likes this.
  4. Alright, thanks. :)
  5. how about voting from phone? I sometimes vote from my android XP if it helps!
  6. Voting from mobile is the same as voting from a PC :)
  7. let me correct myself, no internet connection*
  8. ooo I see >< I hoped you can use your phone. I thought computer meant PC.
    I hope you can find someone who can vote for you if you cannot find anyone I can help if you don't mind I only do 1 vote/ day


text:
KARACHI – Residents of Landhi’s Baber market on Sunday burnt a person alive after his alleged involvement in a robbery, a spokesman for Sindh Police stated.

The residents surrounded the robber and tortured him, after which they set him on fire, the spokesman said.

Separately, a firing incident in Karachi’s Korangi Industrial Area claimed a man’s life and injured two, including a woman.

According to the Sindh Police spokesman, weapons were recovered from the injured woman and her companion. The incident appeared to be a result of personal enmity, he added.


text:
Graphic Design

Wales, U.K.

30 years old

Creative score:

Not in the leaderboard

Accepted entry: 1

Contest joined: 1

  • Participated (1)
  • Confidential Brand

I have a passion for Graphic Design and Typography. I Love the inspiration process from concept to design and how an idea can begin from the smallest of things and the strangest of places. This process can become such a creative and exciting exploration of imagination and experimentation, leading to many design possibilities and varieties. I love to learn new skills whilst also continuing to keep the more traditional techniques of art and design active. Having recently graduated with a 1st class BA Hons degree in Graphic design, the experience gained from my course has provided me with a determined and dedicated approach to my work.

Member since 2009