James Amos

2 Person 6 Ball Pass Juggle

Sena and I reached for the sky and tried another two-person juggle pattern with 6 balls. It’s supposedly one of the easier tricks, but we are ordinary jugglers and beg to differ. One YouTube expert juggler says you should be able to stand in one place and juggle 100 cascade throws to do this trick.

Sena finally wore her safety goggles, probably because she got knocked on the head once while we practiced.

The idea is for both partners to do a solid 3 ball cascade pattern and pass one of the balls at regular intervals. Believe it or not, the slowest pace is to count “1, 2, pass” so that you throw the pass after two right hand tosses in your cascade. Both partners pass with the right hand to each other’s left hand.

That was difficult for both of use because we’re used to counting every throw, including the left-hand throws. You have to skip counting the left-hand throw and starting counting with only the right-hand throws. There are faster variations of this trick, including passing every throw!

We drop a lot of balls, needless to say. But we have a lot of fun!

Food for Thought

I’m giving a shout-out to a couple of child psychiatrists, one I know only from a blog, The Good Enough Psychiatrist. The other is an assistant professor in the University of Iowa Child Psychiatry Dept. I’ve never met her.

Since Jenna gives her name in the About Me section of her blog, I’m going to call her that because it’s easier. Jenna writes many thought-provoking posts, but I really admire the one titled “Amae.”

Dr. Ashmita Banerjee, MD wrote an essay titled “The Power of Reflection and Self-Awareness.” It’s published on line in the Mental Health at Iowa section of The University of Iowa web site.

As a relatively recently retired consultation-liaison psychiatrist who is also a writer, I feel a strong connection to them. In addition to being very glad that extremely talented persons are filling the ranks of a specialty which suffers from a serious manpower shortage, I get a big kick out of reading what really smart people write.

Here’s where a geezer retired psychiatrist starts kidding around. Jenna, a fellow blogger, is used to my habit of deploying humor, admittedly often as a defense. Dr. Banerjee doesn’t know me.

What is it about these essays that reminds me of the X-Files episode “Hungry”? It’s a Monster of the Week episode from the monster’s perspective. This monster looks like a human but sucks brains out of people’s skulls. He’s conflicted about it and even sees a therapist. But in the end his dying words were, as Agent Mulder shoots him down, “I can’t be something I’m not.”

If you read Dr. Banerjee’s essay and followed one of the links, you would have caught the clue that I actually read it because I consciously substituted the word “What” for “Why” in the previous paragraph. I could have as easily asked why instead of what—but it’s less helpful in gaining self-awareness.

And I haven’t sucked anybody’s brains out of their skulls in, what, over two weeks now! Upon reflection, I’m very aware of being incorrigible. Food for thought.

Jenna’s description of the Japanese concept of the word “amae” and Dr. Banerjee’s examination of the Japanese word “kintsukuroi” fascinated me. What made both writers consider human emotions using a language which captures the nuances so deftly?

I was a first-generation college student. There was a time in my life that a path to medical school seemed impossible. At times I probably thought I was trying to be something I’m not.

I’m just grateful for the new generation.

University of Iowa Veterans Week 2023 Events

Veterans Day is November 11, 2023. The University of Iowa has the events schedule up for Veterans Day Week.

Chair Leg Cups for Floor Protection–Hah!

Okay, Sena ordered some chair leg cups to protect our wood floors. These are for the new Parsons chairs we got recently.

The cups and how to install them over the chair legs are enough to remind some people of condoms for extraterrestrials. These people have no morals and have not developed the maturity needed to listen to Rossini’s William Tell Overture without yelling at the top of their immature lungs, “Hi Yo, Silver!”

Anyway, we struggled with these condoms, I mean these chair leg prophylactics, I mean Hi Yo, Silver!”

Where was I? Oh, the cups came with no instructions. They are made of tough silicone and one end has a soft covering to enable sliding over carpet or wood floors. The manufacturers give you extra cups because they probably know you’re going to cut them up on your table saw when you figure out it will take approximately 5 hours to install one, just one, on any dining room chair without sustaining serious injury to your fingernails or getting one on just enough only to see it snap off and ricochet off your ceiling into the kitchen garbage disposal where you can gleefully grind it up into tiny condom particles.

Sena tells me the reviews are generally positive. Apparently, people writing these reviews either have no problems installing them on their furniture legs or they are pathological liars.

It really takes two persons to get these on a chair leg, one to hold down the chair, which for reasons known only to chairs, try to run away as soon as you try to put chair leg cups on them. While one person has to press down on specific corners of the cup to press them down, the other has to pull down on the sides.

If by some miracle you get all of the cups installed on the chair legs, you then turn the chair right side up, set it on your carpet or wood floor—and immediately notice that it won’t sit level. You then wonder if the problem was that you removed all the chair leg levelers (those little screw things on the bottom of the legs). Maybe you should not have removed them. Then you try putting the leveler back on, which of course means you have to remove the cup you labored to install, and then reinstall it.

After you do that—voila! The chair still sits cockeyed with one leg shorter than all the rest. Isn’t that clever? Actually, they worked out okay after the first couple and we did have to work as a team.

I think your best bet is to buy a house with dirt floors. You’re welcome.

AARO Wants UFO Info

The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is now accepting information about U.S. government programs or activities related to UFOs from “…current or former U.S. Government employees, service members, or contractor personnel with direct knowledge of U.S. Government programs or activities related to UAP dating back to 1945. These reports will be used to inform AARO’s congressionally directed Historical Record Report.”

You know who you are.

Speaking of Spanish

Every once in a while, I get an urge to try to learn to speak, or at least read Spanish. Recently, Men in Black was on the Telemundo broadcasting network. I tried to watch it but gave up after a few minutes. The dubbing was disappointing because the actors don’t speak Spanish and the dialogue sounds weird.

I enjoyed my basic Spanish courses in my freshman year of college at Huston-Tillotson University (then Huston-Tillotson College). I think I impressed my teachers simply because I could mimic the sound of Spanish. That’s only because our family lived next door to a Spanish-speaking family. As a child, I got so used to hearing it that I must have absorbed the sounds and cadence.

That didn’t help me in actually learning to speak Spanish in college, though. My teacher, Dr. Whitby, gave me a book of jokes and funny stories titled “Risas Y Sonrisas.” I think he gave it to me because I did my homework and, at least on paper, did well on written exams. I found a book with the same name on Amazon that was originally published in the late 1940s. The title can be translated as “Smiles and Laughter.” My teacher translated it more loosely as “Giggles and Grins.” I kept the book for many years, but it got lost in a move. Toward the latter part of the first semester, Dr. Whitby invited a native Spanish-speaker who was a senior to class one day. The idea was for us to use what language skills we had tried to learn to communicate with her. None of us could even bring ourselves to say Como Esta used! I was extremely shy and embarrassed.

When I was working as a consulting psychiatrist, I always used a translator service that health professionals could access by telephone. It was a little awkward, but handy when a Spanish-speaking translator was not available in person.

There are free Spanish lessons on the web and other ways to learn that cost money. I’m leery of both. If I could find a course in Spanish that didn’t cost an arm and a leg, I would consider trying it.

Then I could say some of my favorite Men in Black quotes in Spanish. I found out Tommy Lee Jones (who plays Agent K) actually can speak Spanish. I have to use the Google Translate application:

Men in Black quote:

Edwards: Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.

Agent K: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.

Men in Black quote in Spanish:

Edwards: ¿Por qué el gran secreto? La gente es inteligente. Pueden manejarlo.

Agent K: Una persona es inteligente. Las personas son animales peligrosos, tontos y asustados, y tú lo sabes. Hace mil quinientos años todo el mundo sabía que la Tierra era el centro del universo. Hace quinientos años todo el mundo sabía que la Tierra era plana y hace quince minutos sabíamos que los humanos estábamos solos en este planeta. Imagínate lo que sabrás mañana.

Falling Leaves

The leaves are falling everywhere, including our back yard. Just watching them drop like a snowfall is mesmerizing. It feels like it’s going to snow. Temperatures have been low enough for frost and freeze warnings around here. The mowers were bundled up, wearing stocking caps and gloves yesterday.

Fall is Sena’s favorite season. Temperatures are cooler and the changing colors of the leaves makes us wonder how the trees know when it’s time to drop them.

When I was a kid, I and a lot of neighborhood kids jumped off a small cliff at a park into a huge pile of leaves. It was a big deal to take the leap. We felt like we were flying. The bits of dry, brown leaves got in your hair and down your back under your shirt, making you itch.

I remember raking leaves in an old guy’s yard once. I got blisters on my hands and he didn’t pay me much. I didn’t like that part of fall and still don’t.

That’s why spring is my favorite season.

CDC Educates About Covid-19 Variants

Sometimes I see news about Covid-19 variants. They typically sound alarming. The CDC has posted an update on Covid-19 variants that is reassuring. There will always be variants. Not all will be serious threats. According to the update:

“While new variants like BA.2.86 and JN.1 attract attention, right now, 99 percent of SARS-CoV-2 variants are part of the XBB group of the Omicron variant, which is what this year’s updated vaccines are based on. CDC is continuing to track the spread and impact of BA.2.86 and JN.1, as well as other variants as they come and go.

For as long as we have COVID-19, we’ll have new variants. Nearly all represent relatively small changes compared with previous variants. CDC and other agencies monitor for impacts of new variants on vaccines, tests, and treatments, and will alert the public quickly if anything concerning is detected. Most of the time, new variants make little to no impact.

Regardless of the variant, all SARS-CoV-2 viruses spread the same way. So it’s important to protect yourself and others by staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccines, improving ventilation and staying home when you’re sick.”

Parsons Chairs Our Latest Knockdown Furniture

Our old Parsons chairs are getting pretty lumpy, so we ordered some new ones. We generally buy and put together knockdown furniture to save money, although squatting on my haunches and sitting on the floor while cranking a hex head wrench makes my joints sore.

Sena was having a little anxiety about the chairs. Ordering knockdown furniture can be a daunting experience, especially because I’m one of the least handy persons on the planet.

I looked up Parsons chairs on the internet. It’s named for the Parsons School of Design in Paris, France. They were first created in the 1930s in reaction against very ornamental designs of that era. They’re plain and simple, often used as dining chairs.

When I was a skinny kid, I used to lift our dining chairs for exercise. We couldn’t afford barbells. I think of Parsons chairs as being pretty light weight, so I don’t know if the chair I used for bench pressing were Parsons—although I was definitely a lightweight.

On the other hand, these chairs are definitely heavier than the ones they’re replacing. The tough part was getting the screws lined up when fixing the seat to the chair back. I had to tip the seat slightly either to me or away from me to get the screws in. When I can screw them down easily with my fingers, I’m usually OK. Occasionally, it takes a quick crank with the wrench to get it going.

When I wasn’t interrupting myself taking pictures of my assembly of the chairs, I put one of the chairs together in about 25 minutes. For me, that’s not the record. I assembled a typical knockdown Parsons chair in 15 minutes back in March.

Sena was had high anxiety about the chairs-nervous about possibly having to return them if they were damaged or parts missing and so on. She read some of the reviews by people who got them and had bad experiences. She had high anxiety about me, in case I broke something. But things turned out OK.

Remember Scouting for Food 2023 Pickup Today!

Remember to put your non-perishable food items out for the Scouting for Food 2023 food drive today! Collection site hours 9 AM- Noon. If your bag is not picked up by noon, please deliver to local food pantry.