pans, painting & parallel parking

So firstly, I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Sara bought me a cast-iron skillet for my birthday. I was very excited about it! My sibs always make the yummiest stuff in their cast-iron skillets. So I've been using mine at every opportunity. It really browns things so much better than non-stick, plus its not as horribly toxic as Teflon. 

We made quesadillas in the skillet tonight - small quesadillas, with cheese, seasoned chicken, red peppers and onions. Very good.

Tomorrow I'm taking my real driving test. Yay! I will be able to drive by myself! So I had to practice parallel parking today. A lot. I found the dimensions of the driving test parking space and made one in the yard with buckets for traffic cones and a four by four for the curb. After numerous tries, I finally figured out the formula for a good park! Whoohoo! 

This little fern is like me. It wants to escaaaape the indoors. Also like me, it could if I let it. However, unlike me, it doesn't have violent allergies. >:(

So, instead of going outside - except to practice parking, which brought on numerous sneezes - I painted most of today. I finished The Last Dragon (remember, that book I was talking about). I was so struck by some of the description and imagery that I felt I needed to paint something from it. One scene that especially stuck with me was the one I painted.

Yorsh, the protagonist, lives in the last library in the world, sorting books. There, butterflies live with him and keep him warm while he sleeps. There is a scene where he wakes up, sending blue and gold butterflies into a flutter.

I used gold acrylic paint for the gold butterflies. :) It's shiny. Anyway, I'm not super pleased with it, but I like it enough. I don't feel like I'm creating art... instead it looks like amateur doodlings. I want to create another clean-cut painting like this one!

Off to watch Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Some how I managed to not see that when it was out, so now I'm finally getting around to it. 

- caroline

economics 101: inflation

I recently finished "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy" by Richard J. Maybury. It's the second book in his Uncle Eric series. This installment is all about inflation. Of course, for the last decade, that's all anyone has been hearing about. Deficit and inflation, yada yada. I never really understood what it meant. After listening to a good portion of lectures by Murray Rothschild on economics, I finally understood what inflation really was. However, the history of inflation was not explained in the lectures I listened to. In "Penny Candy," everything makes sense.

These books are so cleverly written! They are never boring at any point, and always understandable. I suggest you read them, but I'm going to point out some interesting things I learned...

First, for anyone who isn't sure, inflation is the rise in the amount of money that is in circulation. The amount of money in circulation can rise by cause of two different things: counterfeiters, and most frequently, the government. As Maybury points out, inflation and rising prices are NOT the same thing. Rising prices are a result of inflation. Prices don't rise by themselves, however: when the dollar has been inflated, its value falls. And when the value of the dollar falls, it takes more dollars to pay for something.

I think I mentioned this in another blog post, but did you know that the dollar was exchangeable for one ounce of silver before 1965? Now our money is fiat money. Fiat money is money which is not backed with gold or silver, it is simply paper which is only made valuable by the legal tender law. The legal tender law states that money printed by the government is "legal tender for all debts, public or private." That's why people in Germany during runaway inflations would use their paper money to start fires - that's how worthless it was.

There is some very interesting history in this book about the Romans and their methods of inflation prevention. There is also a great analogy for imagining our government debt. Sometime in 2003, the federal debt was $6.783 trillion. How much is that? Maybury says that only astronomers can understand how much that truly is. So he puts it into an analogy:

"Visualize $1 million in $100 bills laid end-to-end. You would need 20 minutes to walk the length of this line of cash; it's about one mile. Walk a line of $100 bills in the length of federal debt and it would take you 228 years. This line of $100 bills would circle the earth 240 times." Wow. Imagine how long it would take now? Our federal debt is somewhere around $14.329 trillion. That's more than double it was seven years ago.

Anyway, for a full explanation of everything politicians are rattling on about concerning economics, read these books. I've just started "Whatever Happened to Justice," and it's so good. Maybury proposes that all economic failure is a direct result of a bad legal system. And of course, anyone who's ever seen a courtroom drama knows that the legal system is ridiculous. Truly ridiculous. Indeed, whatever did happen to justice? I'm gonna find out.

Until next time,
- caroline

reading

When I was growing up, I read so many books. I could read more than two a day sometimes, I drank them up like water. Fantasy was generally my favorite genre, but I also enjoyed sci-fi, medieval, some historical fiction, and well, mostly fantasy. Harry Potter was my jump start into the world of young adult fantasy/magic fiction. After I was old enough to read those on my own, I moved on to authors like Diana Wynne Jones (my all-time favorite), Patricia C. Wrede, and Tamora Pierce. 

I don't know when, but I stopped reading a few years ago. If I thought hard enough, I could probably pinpoint a time and a cause, but my memory is really bad. I've only read about five books in the last few years - recently I've listened to more books than I've read, including Deathly Hallows, which I have yet to read in paper form. :)

Now that school is out of the way for a few months, I'm trying my darndest to get back in the reading groove. I made a deal with Quinn - he reads one book that I want him to read, I read one book that he wants me to read. We have a stubborn streak when it comes to reading books recommended by each other. You know how it is: I finish reading a book, start gushing about it - oh my god, this was SO good. And then he goes, meh. We both do it. So we made a deal. My first assignment was to read The Last Dragon, by Silvana de Mari. It's translated from Italian! How cool is that?

Anyway, I'm a little less than halfway through and it is simply splendid. It's dreamy like a fairytale, odd like a Diana Wynne Jones book, and so original and cute.

www.goodreads.com/carolinelarousse

Yesterday was Henry's birthday. I have lots of pics and video to put together, but due to a CF card swappage, I don't have the pics in my possession. A proper post soon!