Working From Home

I've been working from home.  Sure there are lots of benefits:

•  no commute time
• wear whatever you want
• eat at your desk
• take a break whenever you want

But there are drawbacks.  The last benefit mentioned above being one of the biggest drawbacks.  The job I have now pays by the piece.  That means I don't get paid for any paid breaks.  I'm blame the dog and the house, simply because otherwise I have to take the blame myself, or admit some personal flaw.  Zeus likes to go exploring outside, and since I don't know if the go out whine means he has bodily functions that need to be taken care of, or if he just wants to explore, we wind up outside more often than I should during work time.  Then, he goes to sleep.  Do you know how hard it is to work when someone in the house is sleeping? There may have been a nap or two snuck in sometimes. 

Then the house starts calling. There is always something that could be cleaned or washed.  What I have been doing is to start working early, about 7:30 while I am eating breakfast.  Eventually there are breaks, some short, some long.  What this means though is that I'm not done working at a time I would have stopped if I had been in the office.  Sometimes I can get 8 hours in by 6:30, other times not until 8 or 9.  And it feels like I have been working all day, even though I wind up working  hours or less.

I am not whining about this, just stating facts.  I know I can stop some of the breaks, but they are one of the perks of working from home, so it is a matter of finding the right balance.  I really do enjoy working from home though, and do so as much as possible, even though I can go into the office if I wish.

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I have been coughing all month.  It turns out to be a side effect of a medicine I have been taking.  So I switched medications, but unfortunately the cough is lingering.  I would love to stop coughing. And yes, I am whining about that.

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The lilacs started blooming yesterday and smell lovely. It has been raining a lot lately, but the resulting flowers and springtime freshness have been worth it.

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My daughter and I were talking about Pompeii the other day. It's the city in Italy that was destroyed by a volcano a long time ago.  I went there before she was born, and the conversation sparked an interest in me to learn more about it.  I looked up some information online, and while they have excavated a lot more of the city since I went there, they are still not finished. I've reserved many books from the library.  My sister has developed an interest about Nikola Tesla (inventor, mechanical and electrical engineer) and Edgar Cayce (American psychic), and we spend our time telling each other what we have learned about our current topics of interest.

Civil War

It's the anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and it's been on my mind.  I have been watching Ken Burns' documentary on PBS.

I have also been reading Union Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini. Yes, I liked the book, though it is hard to read the book and watch the show at the same exact time! I've also been reading another historical fiction book for a book review.  

Speaking of book reviews, I have decided to start another blog for the book reviews.  Most of the books I review are not ones I love and want my readers to read. They are selected from a list.  I don't want to clutter up this blog with book reviews of random books.  Besides, eventually I want to print my blog posts, and I will have to weed out the ones that are just taking up space, and the book reviews do that. You can visit me at High Road Reader.

Both Footnote.com and Ancestry.com have their Civil War Collections available for free this week, so I have been trying to figure out which of the people on my family tree I need to research now.  It is hard to take the advice to research only one branch at a time when these kinds of collections open up.

In quilting news, I have been collecting fabric.  Both my mother and my sister have gifted me fabric lately for no occasion.  Most of this new fabric isn't cotton, but it is pretty and it will take me a while to figure out what to do with it.  I did pick up my April BOM, and an extra yard of the background fabric for the setting.  I haven't made this month's block yet.  I have been working on sewing down the binding on the Simply Squares quilt. 

Genealogy Wishes

I attended a couple of classes on African American genealogy yesterday.  One of the students was proudly showing his membership into one of the societies. I'm not sure which one, but there are societies for being a descendant of a pioneer family of a particular town, or a Mayflower traveler or someone who served in the Revolutionary or Civil War.  It is helpful to join the society, because you have to prove your lineage, which is helpful in making sure you are properly documenting your work.  Then you share your information with one another, so you wind up getting a lot of information about others related to your ancestor.  You also get connected to people who share your passion not just for genealogy in general, but for the particular ancestor.

Since we were discussing how difficult it is to study slave ancestors, it seems to me that there ought to be a society for people who have figured out the owner of their slave ancestors.  It is a big deal to find the owner - a lot of time and effort and money goes into finding each tidbit.  Plus, the benefits of joining the society as mentioned above are probably even more relevant in this case.  Like a detective, you have to put together clues and come up with theories, and prepare proofs that your theory is right.  You can't be sure that your Henry is the same Henry as the one on that bill of sale, so you have to research several Henry's to say why those Henry's don't work.  Having a peer review your proofs, and maybe provide some insight or other theories, would be helpful.  Plus it would be a big accomplishment, certainly worthy of a certificate and a dinner. And sharing with each other, and combining our tidbits of knowledge and our logic (and our funds for getting more records), we might be able to prepare a more solid case for each slave ancestor.

Another thing that I think would be helpful for the slave ancestors is a better sharing of the information.  On Ancestry, there is a way to make a comment on the index for a person if you think their name is spelled wrong, or if you know the married name.  If, on Ancestry or FamilySearch, we could do the same on the slave schedules, and  list the name that the slave chose after becoming free, then I think that will help us identify everyone.  If I know that someone already has proved one Henry as theirs (and with a different name of course), then maybe I should start researching the other possible Henry's first.  While it is possible that that person making the claim is wrong, it might save me some time following the wrong Henry in the more likely case that the researcher is right.

Ohio Genealogy Society Conference

I attended the 2011 Ohio Genealogy Society Conference this weekend.  It was my first time attending any genealogy conference, generally because I would rather save my money for actual records and fabric.  I was convinced to attend by the many blogs that say how wonderful it is to go to a conference. And I thought it would make me feel more like a "real" genealogist if I actually attended a conference and mingle with the big wigs in genealogy.

The conference was held in a hotel, and since this was their milestone year (40 years?), the attendance was bigger than they anticipated.  They had a lot of classes.  Each session ran for an hour, and there were several sessions to choose from each hour.  I didn't have any difficulty choosing one for each hour.  We got a printed book that gave a syllabus for every class, so even if you missed the class, you could look at the notes.  And most of the classes were recorded, so you could get them on CD.

As you would expect, some of the classes were very basic, while others were more advanced and had a lot of information. All of the speakers were good public speakers who seemed to be knowledgeable on their subject matter.

The classrooms were long so I'm not sure I would recognize the speakers if I saw them up close.  While I did talk to people, we didn't exchange names much, so I'm not sure if I met any of the big wigs.  But it was interesting to find out how different people conducted genealogy differently, mostly due to their comfort level with computers.

There was a vendor mall area.  There were booths by publishers who sold new genealogy books, and a booth that sold older books, postcards, etc.  There were county genealogy societies who sold their publications where they had transcribed cemeteries, etc.  There were a couple of smaller software companies, who sold specialized genealogy software.  You can get software that keeps track of your family in different census years, and a book company where you can publish your information (mostly like photo books). 

There was a place that sold family tree products. Even though I had vowed not to buy anything there, (and I want to make quilts from kits I already have)  I got this fabric panel from Fun Stuff For Genealogists. It also came in kit form.  I think it is a good way to showcase the family or genealogy research. You put the names in the ovals, and you can either put the ovals on the tree, or you can put photos in the border and use the ovals on the picture. There are 21 ovals, so now I have to decide which family members to include. I think this would be a great gift.

Crankiness

In my last post, I asked my readers to read a variety of books in order to get perspective and form your own reasoned opinion.  This book is one I would recommend to get a different perspective .A World Without Islam by Graham Fuller shows the history of the religions, and shows how some of the things that are attributed to Islam may not necessarily be accurate. It shows how the current war against terrorism really should not be a war against Islam. I haven't read very much of this book yet, because I am not a fan of politics or religious debate, and need some time to recover from the last book.  I got it from the library, so I don't need to review it.

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All right, enough religion and politics.  In quilting news, I have sewn on the binding to my simply squares quilt, and need to hand stitch it down.  I have also made a list of the next few Jane blocks I want to make.  When I first started, I worked on a few at a time, assembly style, making sure they all used a different fabric.  By doing them assembly style, each of the steps in the process - the cutting, sewing, pressing, logging onto spreadsheet, scanning - was much more efficient, and it made it easier to do several blocks at a time in one "project" instead of making each block its own project.

I haven't focused a lot on quilting.  Taking care of the dog, dealing with books that need to be reviewed, and doing general cleaning (shedding!) inside and outside is taking up my non-working time.


I bought some lawn furniture online, on sale and with a coupon, and the next day it was substantially cheaper at the same store.  I called the company which purports to have a price guarantee, and a no hassle return guarantee.  They said that since my new coupon is only for this week, they could not simply give me the price difference.  I would have to return the first order and rebuy the product.  I thought they could do that without them actually physically having to ship me a whole new package, but they (the representative and his supervisor) said they could not. They would have to ship me a whole new package.  Shipping is free, so they have to pay for additional shipping, and I have to return a 60 pound box to the store. This is a lose-lose proposition.  I explained to him that I am unwilling to carry 60 pounds, depending on whether it comes in one box or several, so I may have to open the box, and return the parts and pieces separately. He was fine with that.  Since the price difference is substantial, I decided to go ahead and process the order as they recommended.  When the UPS man came, he brought one big box.  I asked him to put it directly in my car, but it doesn't fit.

I was in a cranky mood the next day, and thought I should work from home and stay away from people.  I had two telemarketing people come to the door(one came twice), and one by phone,  and a relative came to inform me that she has involved me in a fight she was having with another relative.  I think I must have some magnet that radiates negative energy towards me. At least that day it was in full force.

I am fine now.  I have assembled the ottomans and the table of the lawn furniture and one of the two chairs, and I am happy with the set. I think I can get someone with a larger vehicle to help me take the other box back to the store.  The weather is getting better, and the house and the yard are slowly looking nicer. 

Radical Islam

The Fight of Our Lives: Knowing the Enemy, Speaking the Truth, and Choosing to Win the War Against Radical Islam by William J. Bennett and Seth Liebsohn talks about the bombings on 9/11 and the Fort Hood attack as examples of the way the United States has been soft and apologetic against the war on Radical Islam.

While I agree with some of the viewpoints, this book scares me, because I don't think the authors really distinguish the difference between the Muslims in general and the few radicals who are committing terrorists acts and justifying them in the name of a religion. There are lots of people of all religions who have committed terrorist acts in the name of a religion, i.e. the Ku Klux Klan.

Personally, I think that by calling this a war against a religion (or even the extremists in the religion), we are diluting what we are trying to set out to do. If a person who says he is a KKK member shoots an important person or a big group of people, we should absolutely go against that person. Also anyone who aided him/her, so maybe let's go after the gang. But if we go after that group, and all KKK groups in the state or the country, then it is going to be harder on our resources to take care of the original problem. I think we should have dealt with the original problem, and then expanded out to other problems.

And then if we go after all people in the town, state or , the U.S. or the entire world, who might have even stepped on the same sidewalk with any KKK member anywhere, then we are infringing on the rights of all those residents. Of course you have to interrogate even the ones who did not know the existence of any of the terrorists, just to be sure. Calling it a war against Radical Christianity will help you justify your cause, but somewhere along the line, it will become very easy to forget that just because they are from the same town or state or religion does not mean they are KKK members or have anything to do with that terrorist group.

I hope that we still remember the lessons we learned about the animosity against the Jews from World War II.  And the way we treated our Japanese residents after the war.

I was telling my SIL about this book, and she was surprised that I was willing to have anything to do with this book.  She thought that if I was opposed to a viewpoint, then I shouldn't be reading the book, and I certainly shouldn't be blogging about it and making others aware of the existence of the book.

One of the reasons this book bothers me, just like the other political books I have shown on this blog, is that it is such an extreme, biased point of view.  I don't think we should be fighting extremism with extremism. Some things the government did not catch before a terrorist act is due to the fact that hindsight makes them appear more serious and more clearly terrorist.  There are lots of facts in the book that I didn't know, and I am glad to know them now.  In fact, a lot of other book reviewers loved the book because of the facts they didn't know. I am wondering how many of the facts were spun out of recognition, and I know for sure that the other point of view was hidden. There were lots of important facts that I knew that weren't mentioned at all.

And speculations that were listed as clear facts. It isn't clear that the attack on Fort Hood was a terrorist attack and not by a lone gunman who had psychological problems. Wikipedia says " A year after the Fort Hood shooting, however, questions still lingered as to whether the incident was caused by mental health issues, and government agencies still had not officially linked Hasan to any radical terrorist groups." But the book uses it as a clear justification of why we can't let up on our war against Radical Islam.

But on the other hand, that is exactly why I do want to read it.  I want to know what people with varying viewpoints think, and hearing if from their own point of view is helpful.  I want to make sure that I know all sides of the story, and that the biased thinking I am hearing is offset by the biased thinking of the other side.  Yes, that leaves me more confused and not having a clear answer, but politics is never as clean as it is presented in these books.

It doesn't bother me that I am reading the book.  It bothers me that others might read the book and solely form their opinion based on it.  I say read the book, but only if you also read other viewpoints too so that eventually you can get a balanced view of what really happened.

I got this book for free from Thomas Nelson so  I could review it.

Did You Miss It?

A4

It was Pi Day, then it was Saint Patrick's Day, then it was National Quilting Day, then it was Super Moon night. I mostly missed them all - remembering at the end of the day, and too lazy to do anything about any of them. But today is the first day of spring, and that certainly calls for a celebration, particularly since I noticed it in the morning.

I finally finished this block from the Jane Stickle quilt. It took me several days, since I did not work on it continuously. I used the leftover fabric from my Block of the Month. The center cross seemed like it would be easy, and it is, except the part about lining up the two triangles so that it actually forms a cross. This is after three tries, and I decided it was close enough. And the part about what color goes where. I made the center with a dark background accidentally. Even though it would be fine as an alternate design choice, I really liked the look of the light background better. So I started over and made another center with a light background.

I am pretty proud of the middle area. Instead of cutting those weird pencil shapes, I sewed rectangles, and trimmed them to size. That turned out to be much easier than I expected.

Unfortunately, since I was using leftover pieces, I did not have enough dark fabric to finish the border of the block. I decided an alternate design choice would be to reverse the colors - the dark was supposed to be the bigger part. Wow, I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to finish it with cornerstones because I was a quarter of an inch short of the dark fabric. See those little pieces do count, even to fractions of inches. Luckily, I found another scrap and was able to complete the block. In fact I have an extra inch of fabric for another cornerstone!

With the lighter border, I think the dark background center would have looked pretty good too. With each of the blocks in this quilt, there are so many beautiful variations of the same block.

This block has 23 pieces, so that makes my new total now 67 blocks and 1432 pieces.