I’m just kind of done with Austen for the time being. Engagements and secret affairs and dances and going to London during the season. Families full of daughters. Country estates.

All good. All well-written. All in all an easy and quick read. The good guy generally wins. The good girl always does. The good girl then serves to deliver slightly heavy-handed moral allegory. Not that the morals are in any way not those that we should strive for–it’s just a bit of a pretty picture.

Highlights include the adolescent pleasure that the emotional middle daughter Marianne takes in the intensity of her deepest heartbreak, coming down with the inevitable serious fever after distraught, long, solo walks in wet long grass, moping in an estate’s chintzy, teen-pathos-eliciting, faux-Grecian ‘temple.’ Sir John Middleton with his sherry-fueled grins and hunting dogs makes a gorgeous caricature of the jolly English landed gentry.

Unlike in Pride and Prejudice, however, Austen’s jibes at the banal conceit of certain characters lack the subtlety that her later novels have. Funny, yes, biting, still, but so obvious as to be somewhat dulled in their impact. But, in its defense, the book’s characters, at least some of them, are flawed in some appealing ways: Elinor’s holier than thou moralizing, their mother’s mawkish mothery-ness, and Willoughby’s–well, I’ll leave it to you to find out about Willoughby.

Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen

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Humira on the other hand can be injected at home, once we’re trained. I say “we” because my saintly David has offered to do the actual stabbing. I like the idea and hope it does not cause him too much trauma. If anything, maybe he can release some aggression! We are due at the GI clinic in an hour to be introduced to proper stabbing form.

Regarding cost, Humira, at about $800 per dose, will cost about $1600 a month in total cost to the health care system. Remicade properly taken (every eight weeks for me), costs about $2500 a month when averaged out. Our out-of-pocket costs are about $350 for each Remicade dose. The Humira package, which contains about three months’ ($4800) worth of doses, costs us considerably less. Due to a combination of good pharmacy coverage and Humira’s own co-pay subsidy program, it cost us five dollars total. Even the trip to the doctor today to learn how to use it won’t incur a charge.

This makes me a bit suspicious as to the possibly nefarious ways of Humira. I have a hunch that they are offsetting the cost of the training, and the co-pay reduction program is obviously in their best interest to keep folks using the drug. But, I should not look proverbial gift horse too deeply in its mouth.

I find it humorous that the package says “Crohn’s Disease Starter Kit” on it, as if it were some sort of yeast or fermented substance with which to make beer or cheese. Plus, I don’t want to start any more Crohn’s Disease.

Wish me luck.

Some previous posts about my experiences with Remicade:

• Remicade: So Far so Good
• Plugged In
• Mouse Serum Sickness? Really?
• Life: Reducing my burden on society by stabbing myself in the thigh
• Shedding

Humira

The great hurdle with distilling your own essential oils is obtaining knowledge. This is something you can’t really google. First, even owning a still is illegal in many states. Second, distilling anything but plant matter without license/permit/legislation is pretty much entirely illegal, and, though I give it to you on my Word that I’ve never made booze with my still, I’d wager to guess that an awful lot of people probably do, such that the group of everyday folks who own alembic pot stills who legitimately want to generate, merely, things that smell good is likely a narrow demographic indeed.

This is unfortunate, because mistakes are not always benign in this craft and I could sure use a strong guiding hand. Distilling the wrong kind of cedar can make your lungs bleed. Being a doofus about your condenser setup can get you exploded. The one time I was exposed to the master distiller (or whatever his title might be) at The Essential Oil Company (which, miracle of miracles, is here in town), I spewed out dozens of questions in rapid-fire demand, both annoying the hell out of him and also eliciting a couple of compliments as to the relative advance of my knowledge. Again, relative. Because not much of this is written down.

Here’s a good and typical story about how I might end up killing myself accidentally. I have a passionate love for Ponderosa pine, which has bark and sap that smells like butterscotch. I like to smell the trees. And they are great to look at, with that plated red bark. My idea was that maybe distilling the sap would give me some sort of wonderful ambrosia. Unfortunately, research led me to what it is you get when you distill Ponderosa pine sap. Turpentine. That is super not what I’m into.

As an entertaining side note, there is a species of pine, Jeffrey pine, that looks nearly identical to Ponderosa and often grows in the same groves (stands? Whatever.). If you try to distill the sap of Jeffrey pine, zut alors.

Occasionally the backwoods turpentine makers in the 1800s in California would mix up the two, “with explosive and sometimes tragic consequences.” Jeffrey pine sap contains heptane, a flammable hydrocarbon so potent that it was a basis for the octane scale in gasolines.

Even the dog looks dubious sometimes.

All I can say is, fire it up! It’s almost distilling season!

Sources

• “Pinus Jeffreyi (Jeffrey Pine) Description.” The Gymnosperm Database: Home Page. Web. 09 Mar. 2010. .
• “Turpentine from Ponderosa Pine – Industrial & Engineering Chemistry (ACS Publications).” Turpentine from Ponderosa Pine. ACS Publications. Web. 09 Mar. 2010. .

Everyone knows that there is weird scummy stuff on the beach. Sometimes it gets opalescent and piles up in a way that looks like it might make a good desktop background for one’s computer.

I want to explore a few things about aroma. Though I am chemistry-ignorant, I want to wrap my head around the various -enes that make things redolent. I want to think about pine resin and the anti-microbial tendencies of certain distilled substances. And I want to figure out what plant matter to stuff in our still this coming summer.

Keep your eyes out for fragrance-related posts, soon.

The provenance of this volume (can you call a paperback book a volume? I’d like to) was my aunt Catherine, on one of her remarkably frequent visits (she travels between Ireland and the west coast of the US more frequently than I make it to Seattle). She wanted me specifically to read The Library of Babel, which describes a universe comprised of an infinite library, hexagonal chamber after hexagonal chamber of books.

These are the literary equivalents of M.C. Escher drawings. There is an emphasis on impossible figures, impossible logic, impossible sequence. Cause and effect are reversed, dream and reality switched. There are time loops and secret societies.

Much of the content was composed in the 1940s, and aches with the barbarities of the Second World War. Borges’ Europe is one of pogroms, his Argentina a surreal magic kingdom (not always benign) full of tall, dark strangers and wizards.

When you understand the twists of Borges’ stories, it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up in a thrill reminiscent of “I see dead people.” “Death and the Compass”, “The End”, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” are creepy and fun.

If I understood Borges’ ideas consistently, I would love the entire collection. But sometimes I just feel stupid.

Some of the stories are so deeply erudite as to be in effect hermetically sealed against casual readers. “Three Versions of Judas”, though only a few pages long, is a tortuous marathon of theology, rambling footnotes in French (untranslated), and Scandinavian/Protestant 20th century political-religious satire. The majority of the stories require careful attention and an eye for the subtleties of Borges’ humor. As his reader, you are assumed to be well-read, to the point of making you feel distinctly under-read.

Borges thrives in describing off-kilter dream states. He explores sacred geometries—labyrinths, rhombuses—through which his characters move toward heroic or anti-heroic transformation. Weird stuff. Captivating, strange, difficult.

Ficciones (English Translation) by Jorge Luis Borges

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The jacket was inordinately bright for someone like me. My closet, such as it is, is the color of a mild, torpid depression. I eschew especially the warm colors, figuring they’re better reserved for the flamboyant, the self-confident, the Floridian. Until I discovered this color. Or, more accurately, family of colors.

For several months I described this color as “hot red” or “rabid salmon.” But even the term “salmon” gives you the wrong idea. It doesn’t have that coppery, sunset glow of other things you might call salmon. It is, I realize, its own color. Here it is:

The color of 2010

The photo above is of a T-shirt, which I found at a local thrift store three or four months ago. Since then, I’ve come to realize that I irrationally love this color. It is counter to my tendencies in several vectors. It’s brave and cheerful and vibrant. It bespeaks tolerable weather and social interaction. And I don’t even know what to call it.

Fashion designers have decided it’s coral. Or maybe the color that has become popular this spring is coral and is slightly different than what I’m getting at. Perhaps that’s it: variants of bright colors that have just a bit of creamy sherbet mixed in to the palette. Every time I see another designer trotting out a coral-tinged collection this spring, I feel glad and prescient. I’m going to call this my color for 2010.

OPI Cajun Shrimp Nll64 by

Yes, it has officially gone too far. Here’s what I’ve been painting my toenails with.

What would you call this color? Aileen called it tomato, but doesn’t look like any tomato I’ve ever eaten (at least, before said tomato was simmered, spiced and mixed with cream).

Goddaughter and Kes

My goddaughter, Kea and daddy Kes at the beach (well, indoors) last weekend. Kea is old enough to be extraordinarily into the beach. “BEEECH? BEEEEEACH, P’LEASE?!” She grew gravely concerned when it grew dark. Where was the beach? It was sleeping.

Please vote on which recent science release I should read next! You’ll notice a cosmology-physics bent to these titles—that’s because the fields intrigue me, a lot.

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (Vintage) by Leonard Mlodinow

In The Drunkard’s Walk Leonard Mlodinow provides readers with a wonderfully readable guide to how the mathematical laws of randomness affect our lives. With insight he shows how the hallmarks of chance are apparent in the course of events all around us. The understanding of randomness has brought about profound changes in the way we view our surroundings, and our universe. I am pleased that Leonard has skillfully explained this important branch of mathematics. –Stephen Hawking

Or, how about…

The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Anil Ananthaswamy

A lucid but not oversimplified popular account of 21st-century cosmology. In the late 20th century, work by Einstein and quantum physicists seemed on the verge of explaining everything when confusion descended. Astronomers discovered that galaxies were moving too fast. Their stars and dust produced far too little gravity to accomplish this, so most matter in the universe is not only “dark,” but it can’t be the particles, atoms and molecules familiar to us because even invisible normal matter is fairly easy to detect. No one knows the makeup of dark matter. If this weren’t frustrating enough, in 1998 scientists discovered that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. This requires immense energy; in fact “dark energy” makes up nearly three-quarters of matter-energy in the universe. New Scientist consulting editor Ananthaswamy traveled the world interviewing theorists attempting to understand this avalanche of distressing new information; all yearn for more details about the largest objects in the universes-galaxies and galaxy clusters. Turning to efforts at gathering these details, the author describes dazzling high-tech telescopes now operating or under construction from Chile to Hawaii to outer space. Because theorists also need to know about the universe’s smallest objects, ghostlike neutrinos and muons, Ananthaswamy devotes chapters to machines that produce them-the titanic new particle accelerator in Switzerland-or detect them from deep under Siberian lakes or Antarctic icecaps. A meticulous, accessible update of the latest ideas and instruments that contribute to the clarification of an increasingly puzzling universe. –(Agent: Peter Tallack/The Science Factory) (Kirkus Reviews )

Or, how about…

From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time by Sean Carroll

“Unifying cosmology, thermodynamics, and information science into a refreshingly accessible whole, From Eternity to Here will make you wish time’s arrow could fly in reverse, if only so you could once again read the book for the first time.”
-Seed Magazine

“Carroll…takes his readers on a fascinating and refreshing trek through every known back alley and cul de sac of quantum mechanics, relativity, cosmology and theoretical physics. The best way to grasp the rich mysteries of our universe is by constantly rereading the best and clearest explanations. Mr. Carroll’s From Eternity to Here is certainly one of them.”
-Wall Street Journal

Or, how about…

A User's Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty by Dave Goldberg

Answers to science’s most enduring questions from “Can I build a transporter, like on Star Trek?” and “Is there life on other planets?” to “What is empty space made of?”

In A User’s Guide to the Universe, physicists Dave Goldberg and Jeff Blomquist make good on two promises: you’ll get answers and you won’t have to decipher any equations to understand them. (Well, maybe just one very short and very familiar equation.)
This plain-English, plain-hilarious handbook ushers you through all of the major discoveries of modern physics, from relativity to the Large Hadron Collider, without furrowing your brow even once. Put your mind at ease and jump into modern physics in a way you never imagined possible—comfortably. Now is your chance to impress people at cocktail parties with your insights into the world of quantum weirdness, time and space, the expanding universe, and much, much more.

From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time by Sean Carroll

The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Anil Ananthaswamy

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (Vintage) by Leonard Mlodinow

A User's Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty by Dave Goldberg

Buy the books mentioned in this post from Amazon.com now and help me maintain my rock 'n roll lifestyle.