Crossing the Red Sea--a logistical nightmare

Last night we watched The Prince of Egypt. For whatever reason I'd never seen it all the way through the before. It's really good. I enjoyed it. It struck me though when they were crossing the Red Sea just how miraculous that is. One of the guys we were watching with made the comment that it had only recently hit him that the Israelites crossed on dry ground, not on muddy ground, or slightly damp ground, but dry ground. That's pretty amazing. That made me think for a minute. Sure I've always known it was dry ground, but I guess I'd never thought of it as actually being dry, I guess I'd always assumed that there were still puddles and stuff around. This kind of got me thinking and then it struck me how big the Red Sea is.

I've always read the story and kind of assumed that they crossed the sea and it took them just a few minutes or hours or something, but the Red Sea is huge. At its widest point its over 200 miles wide and at its narrowest its around 16 miles (I can't remember where I found that fact, but somewhere on the internet). Now I feel like it's pretty safe to assume that they didn't cross at the widest part, but they probably didn't cross at the narrowest part either.

Just as a comparison. According the National Oregon Trail Center a good day traveling for the pioneers was 18-20 miles. And I don't remember for sure, but I imagine that pioneer companies were probably 600 or so people, maybe more, but I don't think much more than a thousand (I found this chart, which seems to support my assumption pretty well).

Back to the Israelites. According to Exodus 12:37 the Israelites numbered 600,000 men on foot, (besides women, children, the elderly, etc.). So if you figure that all the men on foot were your adult aged men then they probably all had wives, and probably a couple kids. And then you include some elderly people and the Israelite nation could very easily be around 2 million people. That is so many people. That's like the population of Houston.

So, lets say the Israelites cross at a narrow-ish part of the Red Sea where it's about 50 miles across. Now if the pioneers were doing that it would probably take them a little less than 3 days (at the rate of 18 miles a day). But that's only 600 ish people. One Wikipedia estimate said that 2 million people marching 10 abreast would make a line 150 miles long (not including sheep and animals, etc). Suddenly this is sounding an awful lot like one of those horrid story problems from elementary school math.

I tried to figure out how long it would take, but I wouldn't be surprised  I'm pretty sure I didn't do it quite right, because really who is good story problems? But I think the first person who crossed the Red Sea would have been about 9 days ahead of the last person to cross (a line 150 miles long divided by 18 miles per day equals a little more than 8 days--so I rounded up). And then you account for the 3 days it took him to cross and we're looking at the better part of 2 weeks to cross the Red Sea. When it was parted. On dry land.

The whole thing kind of blows my mind. You read the account or listen to the story and you kind of think, ok that took like 20 minutes, or maybe the whole night (which is what The Prince of Egypt implies). But no, it seems very possible to me that they were camping in the Red Sea, for several weeks. It was a good reminder for me of the awesome power of Heavenly Father. He can do anything, even keep the Red Sea parted for two weeks.

February Goals re-cap

According to the calendar the dreaded month of February is finally over (it still amazes me how that month drags on while being so short). And with the advent of March it is time for me to report on my goals for February. I had three main goals that I started in February:

1. Being Facebook-free for all of Lent.
2. Finding homes for the homeless items in my room.
3. Taking care of the stack of magazines by my bed.

So far I have been good at staying off Facebook. It is funny to me that I really don't miss it. ever. And it is also interesting to me to note that every time I find myself with an urge to check Facebook is always when I'm bored and avoiding doing something more important. If nothing else, this is a good learning experience for me. I'm learning about my own habits. It's quite enlightening. As for my other two goals, I've failed pretty miserably at them. But, this just means that I can recycle them for my new March goals.  I am excited for March.

The shortest month

I've been catching up on my Google Reader today and was impressed (or maybe anti-impressed) with the number of blog posts from the last three or four days that feature as the subject how awful February is. For the fact that February has the fewest number of hours in it of all the months it sure does seem to go on forever. I'm not sure what it is about February that makes people want to tear their hair out (though I am certainly about ready to tear my own out). I guess after having survived one month of winter it just seems too hard to be asked to survive another (snowier) one. And while I heartily agree that February is a cruel month (though perhaps not the cruelest, I reserve that for April) it did have some nice redeeming qualities.

• We had a nice snowstorm that while shutting down the city for two and a half days did leave the lawn nicely blanketed in snowy whiteness. 
• I watched a pretty awesome movie today (more about that another time). 
• I got to train at another desk in the library.
• I got to work at one of the branches. That was fun.
• I spent some quality time (and meals) with good friends. 

I'm sure there were more good things that came out of February, but those five I think will suffice for now. Who wants to count things on more than one hand anyway...

Passions or stability?

A couple days ago my good friend posted a blog post about following your dreams. It is a thought-provoking post. I think many of us are torn in the desire to "pursue our passion" (perhaps not-lucrative ones) and the desire to lead a stable life, with a steady income. I feel like society sends us a lot of mixed messages. Like "Pursue your passion!!!", but at the same time, societal norms dictate that the American Dream includes a mortgage (and recently it seems that it demands a mortgage on a house that is really too big). With so many mixed messages being sent it's hard to know what to think.

I have found it a challenge to reconcile my passions and the desire to live a lifestyle where I can afford the things I need, and live within my means, all while not living in a box under a bridge. At the same time I also struggle with the idea of finding a "passion" that I can pursue as a career, that I'm both passionate enough about to do 40 hours a week, and yet not so passionate about that I'd hate spending 40 hours a week doing it. I'll admit that I also never really imagined myself as having a career. I'm not sure what I imagined, because I've known for sometime that I will most likely need to work the majority of my adult life, but I've just never envisioned a career. That's kind of a big scary word. Career. It sounds so final, and so irreversible. Even though I know that's not true. I remember hearing a statistic once when I was a freshman in college that for people my age they were likely to have approximately 8-10 major career changes in their life. That news stunned me. I had never imagined changing careers every 4 of 5 years. I still have a hard time imagining that. I mean, after you look at the nearly 20 years I've put in to educating myself for this one career, I really hope it sticks. But at the same time it seems a little ludicrous to ask a bunch of twenty year olds to know themselves enough for them to pick a career they're going to be happy in for 35 or 40 years. Things change. When I was 18, I wanted to be a high school band director. Then I wanted to be a museum curator (actually I still think that'd be cool). And then I moved on to other things... Even in the one year that I've been in library school (which has a fairly obvious career destination--librarian) I've changed what I want to be several times (did you know that there are about a million different kinds of librarians?). I'm still not sure what I'll end up as when I rejoin the world of gainfully-employed people.

I think pursuing your passion perhaps has more to do with creating a lifestyle that allows you to have all your priorities in balance and that gives you opportunities to be your best self, than about choosing between a single passion and some kind of stability.

I've been thinking a lot about lifestyles lately as I'm getting to a point where I think that the light I see ahead is actually the end of the tunnel, not just an oncoming train. Before I started grad school I worked professionally for a year, and the lifestyle I led then would never have been sustainable in the long term.  And so I'm trying now to develop a lifestyle that is sustainable--and it's hard. But I think that when you hit the right balance of work/life/hobbies/etc, then you can find fulfillment and both be following your passion and leading a life with the stability you want.

The New York Times

This semester one of my roommates has a class that requires that she read the New York Times everyday. So she dutifully took out a subscription last week. I'm not sure how much enjoyment she has derived from it, but I definitely am benefiting. this morning I sat down and at breakfast over my morning paper. It was delightful. I already feel more informed about world affairs and I've only read the paper two days out of the last four. It made me feel good that when one of my patrons mentioned how the fire in Brazil a few days ago reminded him about another fire some years back that I actually knew what he was talking about.

It feels good to be even a little bit more informed. I recommend reading a paper for everyone--in print or online, whichever you prefer.

I may be a bit crazy.

Today I spent part of my afternoon volunteering at the library in Charlestown. It's a bit of a hike from my house, but it was nice to do a little service. I helped them set up for a children's event they were having this evening, that involved children getting to pick out two free books of their very own. It sounded pretty cool. I was expecting to be there for a couple hours and had planned my day accordingly, but there were several volunteers so it went quickly. Long story short, I ended up with the better part of 3 extra hours before I had to be at work.

I'm a little bit crazy. Before I left Charlestown I had decided that I was thirsty, but the library there doesn't have a drinking fountain, so I decided I'd walk over to the O'Connell branch of the Cambridge library and use their drinking fountain. It wasn't exactly on my way, but I didn't have any set plans. (Yes, I am aware that there were probably many other drinking fountains on my way--like at the mall I passed--but somehow that didn't occur to me at the time.) So I set off walking. In case any one is wondering, today the high was something like 20 F. And it definitely hadn't hit that high when I was out. And it is windy out--which means that the wind chill factor couldn't have been much above 0 F. Part of my walk took me across a nice long overpass. Yeah. Overpasses are especially windy. And therefore especially cold.

By the time I got to the library I thought my ears would fall off. Turns out that branch doesn't have a drinking fountain either. Luckily one of the librarians took pity on me and got me a cup so I could get water from the sink. yay. Then I traipsed back out in wind (after the other librarian questioned me on the warmth of my pea-coat--which by the way is plenty warm when it's not windy). This time I caught the bus figuring I'd just head down to work and find a book to read there till my shift.

But half way there I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to visit the quilting (/yarn) store I've been meaning to visit since I finished my first crochet project "in the round" (a story for another day). So, like the masochist I am I got off the bus a few stops early and walked to the quilt store a few blocks away. I did find some nice yarn. The ladies at the store were more than helpful and they both thought the hat pattern that I picked was a great one. Eventually I made it to the library. When I walked in, there just happened to be an express copy of the book I put on hold yesterday just waiting for me to check it out. yay. Now I don't have to wait the three or four days for the hold to come in. hehehe.  

Despite the cold, I do think it was a good adventure. Though somehow walking around in the cold and wind really takes it out of you. I think I'll sleep well tonight.

An epidemic of mumbling

While I was home over Christmas I found this article that was cut out of the newspaper and floating around the kitchen counter. I stopped to read it one day, because it sounded interesting. It's about how to teach teens (and people in general) to speak clearly so that they can be understood and so that they don't mumble. I feel like this is a huge problem that is plaguing our society. In the old days people learned to speak in school and now days they don't. But being able to speak well is still a very important part in our society. How many times do you speak to people in the course of one day? And if you're like me how many times do you have to repeat yourself to make yourself understood? (albeit, part of that problem is probably a lack of listening too, but that's a problem for another day). Card suggests that if we simply slowed down we would speak more clearly. It isn't a race. And yet, how many of us feel the need to race through things that we are saying at the cost of clarity? Read the article, it's really very interesting.

On haircuts or the absence of them

Near the beginning of October I got a haircut. It wasn't anything big, just a trim to more or less maintain the short hair I got in the summer (because let's face it, short hair is cooler in the summer, and always uses less shampoo...) I figured I'd go back for another trim either at the end of December, or early January. At the time I got my hair cut in October, my stylist (it makes me feel cool to say that I have a stylist) commented on how well my hair had grown out and that it had more or less just grown into a new style. I thought that was kind of cool.

So somewhere around mid-December, several people (like 3 or 4 maybe) commented on my new haircut; they all liked it. The first time it happened it was weird, but when several people said the same thing I was a little confused. Then I went home for Christmas and everyone there liked my haircut (which didn't surprise me since I hadn't been home in a year, and then I had long hair). And then I came back, and I've gotten 3 or 4 more comments on my recent haircut. Apparently, my hair grew out nicely into a very attractive new hairstyle. In December I was getting a little tired of my hair and was just trying to put off getting it cut so there would be a little more to trim off. But now I'm not sure what I'd even tell my stylist to do. I kind of like the new style (though admittedly I can't really tell how it's different than what it was before). I still don't quite know what to say though when people ask if I just got my haircut. Oh well, one of these days I will get it cut and then it won't be a problem anymore.

Also, for another mildly amusing anecdote. While I was home I had two women from my church compliment me on my haircut. The first told me what a "grown up" cut it was (which is flattering considering my grad-school status). About an hour later a second woman complimented me on how my new haircut made me look "twenty years younger" (do I look like an elementary schooler now? or did I look middle-aged before?) I find the totally different reactions to be quite amusing.

Compliments

I was just thinking about how I haven't written any interesting posts lately--because the last few weeks have been pretty run of the mill. And then I remembered the great compliment I got today while out shopping. My roommate and I had gone to Target to pick up some things we needed and we were checking out when the cashier leaned towards me kind of conspiratorially and asked me if "she" was my daughter.

Yeah. I didn't really know how to respond to that, other than to super awkwardly say no. No, my roommate (who by the way is older than me) is not my daughter. I wish I could make an excuse for the cashier like that his age would make it more likely that two we looked like a mother-daughter pair but he was about the same age as us too.  Yeah, I still don't know what to do with that information.

It all changes so fast

I think we are all agreed that the world is changing fast. Very fast. But, do  you ever think that maybe it's changing too fast? There are so many days where I feel like I just can't keep up. And the truth is, I don't want to. Why do we spend so much time and energy and money  fixing things that aren't broken and making things better that are good enough already? (and really, just making them worse than they were before, but covering it up with the fact that they look cooler). I spent a good chunk of the morning working on an assignment for my technology class. It's one I've been putting off all semester because when I did the first part of it earlier in the semester it made me want to take all my technological advances and throw them out the window. Which is a little how I feel today. Technology is great, mostly. But it just changes too quickly, and I don't want to keep up.

On being an adult

I've decided that being an adult is a hassle. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that we hadn't gotten any mail in a long time. But because I'm not always the one to check the mail I couldn't be sure. And my memory isn't great for things like that (I mean, why should I remember when the last time the mail came?). So I started paying more attention. And luckily I was expecting a letter. By mid-week last week I got concerned. We didn't even get grocery ads before Thanksgiving. So over the weekend I called up the post office. After some research they managed to establish that our letter carrier refused to deliver our mail after they slipped on the leaves on our sidewalk and fell. I told the post office that the walk would be cleared by Monday and that our mail needed to be delivered. Well, Monday came and the landscape people did a great job cleaning up the front walk and still no mail. So I called again. And this morning I went down to the post office (where they gave me the go-around and were utterly unhelpful) and ultimately I ended up spending more than an hour sitting on my porch waiting for the letter carrier to walk by so I could ask them personally to deliver my mail (in case you're wondering, it snowed all day--I only went inside because my fingers were so cold I couldn't type anymore).

When our mail was finally delivered this afternoon (about a 2.5 inch thick pile of it) some of it had postmarks back nearly 3 weeks ago (good thing there was only a handful of time-sensitive things in it). I understand the letter carrier's concern over delivering mail to a place where they had slipped and fallen, but what I don't understand is why the United States Postal Service can stop delivery without informing their customers. I can't think of any company where the service provider can quit providing that service without notifying anyone. I would have been more than happy to have swept the front walk 3 weeks ago if I had known it was problem (no one in the entire building uses the front door), but if no one tells me it's a problem then how can I fix it?

What it comes down to now is that I'm going to spend the entire snowy winter wondering if my walk is clean enough for them to deliver my mail (what am I supposed to do, quit my job so that I can be continuously shoveling?). I'm losing faith in USPS, and if I had another option for mailing letters I'd use it.

When to call a place home

The question always is at what point in living somewhere does it become "home"? I think one thing that makes a place "home" is the ability to navigate it mostly successfully, most of the time (not perfect, but good enough).

Yesterday I went on an adventure to buy books for a book drive my library is hosting this month and so I went to Porter Square Books in (you guessed it) Porter Square. Even though I've lived in Boston for nearly a year I've not really spent much time in Somerville, and so don't really know my way around it too well. I looked up directions to get to the bookstore and then to get to work afterward. They seemed simple enough and so I headed off on my bike.

Getting to the bookstore went as planned and I had fun picking out some books for a book drive the library was having. After getting my books I headed to the library. I'd been riding along for a while watching for the street I needed to turn on and eventually I decided that I'd missed it. Luckily the next intersection had a long line of cars coming from the direction that I needed to go and so I turned to "follow" them, figuring that they were all people commuting out of the city. Not too long passed before I found myself on a familiar street and much closer to the library than I had thought.

This was one of those moments where I felt at home. I managed to successfully navigate a city that I'm not at all familiar with because this is my home, and ones knows their way around their home.

Greatest accomplishment of 2012

Janssen and her sisters shared their greatest accomplishments for 2012 today. Reading about their wonderful accomplishments has gotten me thinking about what my greatest accomplishment was this past year. Of course this year isn't over yet, but it's close enough that I doubt anything truly earth-shattering will happen. It's been something of a struggle to think of what my greatest accomplishment has been this year, I've done a lot. But one thing that I'm really proud of this year was the bookbinding class that I took this summer. I learned to work in leather which is a lot of hard work, but is really quite fun. And I even got to dip my feet in the waters of gold tooling. I learned so much in that course, and I hope that bookbinding can be a continuing part of my life.

I even took this picture myself.
Sometimes my camera turns out reasonable pictures.

One of those days

Today has been one of those days where you get everything all ready to go and then have to make about 6 more trips back up the stairs for things you forgot.

It was also one of those days where you have the brilliant idea to stop at your neighborhood branch library on the way home from school so that you don't have to go to work early to work on homework. Sounds like a good idea right? I thought so, and since the branch library was only about  a block out of my way it was perfect. It took me a few minutes to get my bike chained up outside because the bike rack, peculiarly, is mostly inside a bush. But I got it chained up and I walked up to the door and it was locked. Yeah. That branch is closed on Wednesdays. And I knew that, which made me feel that much more foolish. Oh well, I just went in to work early and got the home work done there instead.

I win!

This morning when I got up it was sunny and blue skies, if cold. So when I was choosing footwear I did it consciously. I knew that I could wear my least waterproof shoes because it was sunny, hadn't rained in a couple days and there was only a 20% chance of rain today (the same as yesterday...)

We had an all day staff development day at work. It was really good, I'm glad I went (besides, free breakfast and lunch). The last speaker of the day talks about how she makes random little (achievable) goals for herself just so that when she meets them she can say "I WIN!" I sat there thinking that my random goal for the day would be that I dressed appropriately so my feet would stay dry all day. I was super excited that I'd get to say "I WIN!" I mean, who doesn't like winning?

After work, I get all my stuff packed up and walk upstairs and its raining.

Yes, raining. Which means that I don't win. I wore my shoes that get my feet wet if I so much as walk across a damp sidewalk (not a puddle mind you, damp). Yeah. I definitely didn't win. But my feet made nice squishing sounds all the way home. That's kind of cool...

Today's sage advice

Don't buy anything you wouldn't pay full price for.


Good advice. Just because it's on sale doesn't mean you need it or should buy it.

Oh Google...

I opened up Google Docs today and was greeted by this message:


I'm not exactly sure what a "modern browser" is and how Chrome embodies a modern browser, but Firefox doesn't. Sometimes Google makes me chuckle.

Another goal

Apparently I'm in a goal-oriented mood this week. I find that with every passing day I grow more and more disenchanted with Facebook. I just don't really like it anymore. I do like the possibility of keeping up with people I don't see often, and it is a good tool for planning get togethers and such, but I don't like the way that I turn to it in boredom and fritter away my time. And I don't like the way it changes frequently. And I don't like the compulsion I feel to check it, when I know for certain that nothing will have changed since I checked 15 minutes ago. Because of these things I created the rule for myself that I could only check Facebook on my own laptop. Which has been great, since I'm not home that often to use my own laptop I don't check Facebook as often. But I still feel trapped by it. I want to be free of Facebook, but at the same time I'm afraid that I can't actually live without it. I'm afraid of quitting Facebook and then having to come crawling back later. So I've planned another baby-step in the right direction. I'm going to try to be Facebook-free for one month. Hopefully all of you readers who find that I've updated my blog through Facebook won't abandon me as I won't be posting the links there for hopefully the whole month of August.

Wish me luck.

And tune in tomorrow. I have an exciting video for you.

A wrench in my week

I'm pretty sure I had something fun planned for a post today about how I used actual wood carving tools to very successfully carve my boards today, but all I can think about now is how my bike getting a flat on my way to work this afternoon has thrown a wrench into the rest of my week. Now in addition to the myriad of errands I already needed to run, I have to find time to fix my bike. Or rather, to get someone else to fix it, because someone else can do it a lot faster than I can and therefore that saves me time. But I did manage to perfectly time my arrival at the train station (sad bike in tow) with the arrival of the bus I needed to take to get to work. That worked out kind of nice. And I even arrived nearly on time to work. 

Sneaky, sneaky

Today I opened blogger to find the following message at the top of the screen "Your browser is no longer supported by Blogger...try Google Chrome." Well played Google, well played. Way to promote your own browser by not supporting your wildly popular products on other major internet browsers.

I will admit that in my personal life I use Chrome and love every moment of it. I don't even have Firefox on my computer. That doesn't change the fact that on every other computer I ever use I pretty much always use Firefox. And while I love Chrome, I'm not sure that I love Google's world domination plans.