“No, i don’t eat my soup!”

*.this is based on a real conversation though a few parts are changed to make it funny (hope it worked!)
this morning when i opened my eyes it was hell dark outside as usual, after a long battle with myself deciding whether to get up and go to bathroom or stay another 5 minutes in bed and tolerate the pressure in my full bladder; at last i managed to get outta bed, tiptoed to the bathroom and back to the bed feeling proud of myself that i didn’t wake anyone for the first time,but then i realized i was alone on the bed, not only the bed, the room was empty too. so i opened the door and made a bee line to the kitchen where i heard noises.
moi: hey, whacha hell doing here?
meg (stirring the ingredients of something in her pot): cooking!
the word found its way to my brain through my ear and i spent a while analyzing everything, the fact is that getting meg outta bed before 7.30 is almost unpossible so i shouted :” what’s the time?” cos i was pretty sure it was passed 9 and meg forgot to wake me up for work.
calmly came her reply:” 5.40″
moi:”huh?!”
meg;”5.41 now”
moi:”aha”
i found a chair and sat on it looking round the room. there Alexis was sitting silently on her chair waiting for something boiling in the pot. i wondered: “that must be breakfast”
the next 10 minutes was spent in utter silence.
moi: “why’re yo up so early”
meg:” cos i couldn’t sleep ‘n Alexis was cryin, she looks feverish , so i got up to make her some soup(she pronounced it in a way that the fever was so obvious and there was something very wrong with me that couldn’t see how sick she was *~*)
moi: hhhmmm
meg: she didn’t wake yo up?
moi: eerrrr noooooo
meg:good, ok now feed her soup and don’t let her splash it on the floor, i need a shower.
moi: ok (still sitting on the chair)
meg: Keith, wake up,
moi: i’m up jus can’t keep my eyes open.
i’m having one of those “can’t stay awake” episodes that happens 3-4 times a month so it’s quite unpossible to see me awake before 10 am.( i can sleep with open eyes at work, that’s a guess)
so meg went and me & Alexis were left alone on the stage. like many other parents we talk to our little baby to help her talk asap.
me:” ok my baby girl open your mouth, the plane’s coming” and i shook the spoon full of soup infronna her.
**. i can’t understand why it should be a plane, i tried it with train, bus, car, boat, fly,mosquito …. only the plane works, i’m sure she knows how much i hate flights.
10 minutes later, me still waving the spoon in the air and she insisting on keeping her mouth shut.
so i gave up and went back to my chair, i need a little more sleep.
before taking a step away from her chair i heard splashing sounds, “oh my heavens, no Alex, for God’s sake, your mom gonna hang me with her towel.” i had to act quick so grabbed hold of the plate and put it on the table, 1,2&3……..Alexis started crying and tears ran down her little cheeks in a flash of light made me wonder how she can burst into tears so fast.
then another cry from the other side of the house.
her mom:” Keith, fetch me clothes.”
moi: fuck you, go get it yourself (well this was in my mind); in a minute.
so i left the crying Alexis to help her mom, she was outta bathroom in a few minutes and i had to wipe the stains off the floor before she saw.
as fast as i could, i cleaned Alexis’ mess and then back to where we left the play, i should made her eat 2-3 spoonful of soup before her mom came.
moi (on my knees begging): for heaven’s sake open your mouth.
…… still shut
moi: look at this beautiful plane, it needs to land
nothing happened
moi: com’on baby, open your mouth, the pilot needs to pee.
hhhmmm still shut, she’s as stubborn as her dad.
moi (close to tears) : for the sake of your dad, please open your fucking mouth
Alexis: no
moi: please
Alexis: noooo
moi: jus once, or i’d cry
Alexis (louder): nooooooooooo
meg: whatcha doing?
moi: trying to make her eat her soup, i tried my best, she jus doesn’t want to open her fcukin mouth open.
meg: how many times should i tell you not to use f-words infronna her.
moi: ok *~*
meg: tell her to eat one more time.
moi: OOOKKKK. look baby eat this and that’s it, EAT IT!
Alexis: NOOOOO
meg(shouting): she talked, holly christ, she talked, she said “no”.
me; huh?! she’s been saying that for a while.
in a second meg was performing Yupik dance and i jus couldn’t understand.
So our little baby girl said her first word and we spent the next hour trying to figure out what other words she knows.
this is Alexis’ vocabulary
Ma -m+a(this is not an “a” it’s something between A and E): mom
No: no
Daa (like “a” in arm): it can be anything
da (a in “cat”): this is the answer of “what is” this after pointing at many random things and in the end to the poor dad.
if you ask her “who is he?” she doesn’t reply but the answer to “what is this?” pointing to me is “da”
and it’s a lot different from “Daa”
so we’re busy next days and weeks making her pronounce different things, and surely my name would be the last, but well if she calls me “da” and don’t call other things “Daa” i feel ok.
***. this one was one of the best experiences in my life, the joy was nothing that could be bought with billion bucks, does any one knows how long does it take a baby learn to make sentences.
****. apparently Alexis started talking a few days ago cos my friend told me she can say “no” but i thought he was pulling my leg.
conclusion: days are flying by fast, i better think of Alexis’ university soon.
and yes it feels great to be a dad, i like being myself

Anti-bipolar disorder (or some new discoveries)

So our 2-day run-away that turned into a long unexpected 4-day vacation reached its end and we landed home one more times in one piece reminding me how much i hate planes!
in more than 6 weeks time we can see K300 that is a real “woaaahhhhh, Go King, gooooo”
for those illiterate non-Alaskan living beings :The Kuskokwim 300 sled dog race is all about old faces, new places and, of course, the $20,000 first-place prize.The K-300 will host its annual Camp-out Race on March 5th and 6th. Mushers and campers will start the race on Saturday at 11AM. The starting point will be announced on Thursday afternoon. Mushers will have a non-competitive run 50 miles up to the predetermined camping spot and will race back to Bethel on Sunday Morning. Campers are encouraged to come along. The race will have a $5,0000 purse with no entry fee for mushers. till now 21 mushers signed and surely I’m not among them cos not only i hate dogs to death, I’m afraid of braking ice too
at the moment the temperature is about 21F with scattered snow shower so if this morning you didn’t find time for a quick shower, grab your shampoo & towel then jump outta the window and experience a pretty cold snow shower (don’t worry, it’s all dark outside and beside the wolves and wild dogs no one can see you bare )
since back, i’ve discovered a few yet very important facts that i try to explain in this post and the coming one.
1. i’ve been eating pizza for lunch and breakfast for 6 days, no i’m not complaining i still can eat pizza for the next week but the problem is “can you stop pouring so much pepper on my piece!?!? it makes my body itchy like hell!”
2. Bethel is a very small place compared to all the places i’ve lived till now but gotta confess there are mystical powers here that you can find nowhere else, so i love living here (& nope you’re not welcomed anymore, go get a hotel room for yourself, d’ahhhhh!)
3. this time next week is Meg’s birthday (see Honey, i still remember that day) and i wanna say i had a few romantic surprises that all were canceled for the reasons you know. as a result i haven’t bought anything yet and i doubt anything would be bought in a week time so any one with a free spare room can invite me for the next Thursday or i have to sleep outside in open air bbbrrrrr
on the funny side, Meg’s cousins have decided to join us to celebrate her birthday that means if i wanna sound like a good hubby i really have to get something, hhmm i need a very big wrapping for the sofa, it’s a good surprise and too big that i’m sure it makes those girls extremely green with envy!
4. i have found a new disease, you might not (read can’t) find it in any book cos i haven’t finished writing my article yet, when finished i’ll wait for my noble prize to arrive by post
lemme tell you about the symptoms, it’s very similar to B.D. (bipolar disorder) with all the manic and depressive episodes, but it doesn’t involve heavy drinking, drug abuse, money spree (it’s like shopping spree but you can waste your money on anything)…
no medicine including lithium and his brothers is prescribed so you gotta handle it on your own. the disease has no certain cause except living with a bipolar patient.
and i think Meg has it. whenever i feel 10 feet under the dumps, she enjoys her manic episodes jumping up and down the house, smiling and giving me courage; the episodes last as long as my depressive ones.
then when i try to enjoy my manic sessions, she cries hysterically, look sad, hate doing house work ….
as a result she neutralizes me and we look like an extremely crazy couple.
but seriously i’m hell worried, she’s unusually in very high spirit that i can’t understand though i’m not feeling so much depressed. i dunno whether it is her way to get rid of the memory of her horrible experience or she’s gone crazy.
ok i confess i have no idea how she should feel but as a mother she’s lost her little baby and had an operation so it’s really weird to have a big smile 24 hours, hanging out with friends, and tending to go back to work next week when she can have rest till the end of the month.
tell me she’s fine or i really have to feed her a bottle full of Prozac then tie her hands to bedpost.
errr no i don’t wanna poison her, i jus can’t understand how she can pretend so well as if nothing had happened?!?!?!

post 13:rainbow

  

What is a rainbow?

Author Donald Ahrens in his text Meteorology Today describes a rainbow as “one of the most spectacular light shows observed on earth”. Indeed the traditional rainbow is sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets. The “bow” part of the word describes the fact that the rainbow is a group of nearly circular arcs of color all having a common center.

Where is the sun when you see a rainbow?

This is a good question to start thinking about the physical process that gives rise to a rainbow. Most people have never noticed that the sun is always behind you when you face a rainbow, and that the center of the circular arc of the rainbow is in the direction opposite to that of the sun. The rain, of course, is in the direction of the rainbow.

What makes the bow?

A question like this calls for a proper physical answer. We will discuss the formation of a rainbow by raindrops. It is a problem in optics that was first clearly discussed by Rene Descartes in 1637. An interesting historical account of this is to be found in Carl Boyer’s book, The Rainbow From Myth to Mathematics. Descartes simplified the study of the rainbow by reducing it to a study of one water droplet and how it interacts with light falling upon it.He writes:“Considering that this bow appears not only in the sky, but also in the air near us, whenever there are drops of water illuminated by the sun, as we can see in certain fountains, I readily decided that it arose only from the way in which the rays of light act on these drops and pass from them to our eyes. Further, knowing that the drops are round, as has been formerly proved, and seeing that whether they are larger or smaller, the appearance of the bow is not changed in any way, I had the idea of making a very large one, so that I could examine it better.

Descarte describes how he held up a large sphere in the sunlight and looked at the sunlight reflected in it. He wrote “I found that if the sunlight came, for example, from the part of the sky which is marked AFZ and my eye was at the point E, when I put the globe in position BCD, its part D appeared all red, and much more brilliant than the rest of it; and that whether I approached it or receded from it, or put it on my right or my left, or even turned it round about my head, provided that the line DE always made an angle of about forty-two degrees with the line EM, which we are to think of as drawn from the center of the sun to the eye, the part D appeared always similarly red; but that as soon as I made this angle DEM even a little larger, the red color disappeared; and if I made the angle a little smaller, the color did not disappear all at once, but divided itself first as if into two parts, less brilliant, and in which I could see yellow, blue, and other colors … When I examined more particularly, in the globe BCD, what it was which made the part D appear red, I found that it was the rays of the sun which, coming from A to B, bend on entering the water at the point B, and to pass to C, where they are reflected to D, and bending there again as they pass out of the water, proceed to the point “.

This quotation illustrates how the shape of the rainbow is explained. To simplify the analysis, consider the path of a ray of monochromatic light through a single spherical raindrop. Imagine how light is refracted as it enters the raindrop, then how it is reflected by the internal, curved, mirror-like surface of the raindrop, and finally how it is refracted as it emerges from the drop. If we then apply the results for a single raindrop to a whole collection of raindrops in the sky, we can visualize the shape of the bow.

The traditional diagram to illustrate this is shown here as adapted from Humphreys, Physics of the Air.  It represents the path of one light ray incident on a water droplet from the direction SA. As the light beam enters the surface of the drop at A, it is bent (refracted) a little and strikes the inside wall of the drop at B, where it is reflected back to C. As it emerges from the drop it is refracted (bent) again into the direction CE. The angle D represents a measure of the deviation of the emergent ray from its original direction. Descartes calculated this deviation for a ray of red light to be about 180 – 42 or 138 degrees.

The ray drawn here is significant because it represents the ray that has the smallest angle of deviation of all the rays incident upon the raindrop. It is called the Descarte or rainbow ray and much of the sunlight as it is refracted and reflected through the raindrop is focused along this ray. Thus the reflected light is diffuse and weaker except near the direction of this rainbow ray. It is this concentration of rays near the minimum deviation that gives rise to the arc of rainbow.

The sun is so far away that we can, to a good approximation, assume that sunlight can be represented by a set of parallel rays all falling on the water globule and being refracted, reflected internally, and refracted again on emergence from the droplet in a manner like the figure. Descartes writes

I took my pen and made an accurate calculation of the paths of the rays which fall on the different points of a globe of water to determine at which angles, after two refractions and one or two reflections they will come to the eye, and I then found that after one reflection and two refractions there are many more rays which can be seen at an angle of from forty-one to forty-two degrees than at any smaller angle; and that there are none which can be seen at a larger angle” (the angle he is referring to is 180 – D).