scientific, common, natural, higher

These three words - scientific, common, natural, higher - are interchangeable prefixes of a type of law. Scientific Law, Common Law, Natural Law, Higher Law. These are all basically the same thing, and according to Richard Maybury, that thing is the exact opposite of our current legal system, Political Law.

I'm going to make this post short because I don't want to relay to you everything Maybury points out in Whatever Happened to Justice? - as if I could in one post, or possibly at all! - I simply want to reiterate some valuable points that I learned.

First and foremost, I want to state the two fundamental laws of civilization, two laws that no one in their right mind will disagree with, whatever their religious or cultural backgrounds. Richard Maybury has simplified the wording of these two laws down to 17 words:

1) Do all you have agreed to do, and
2) Do not encroach on other persons or their property.

There is some very interesting history on Common Law (or Scientific, or Natural, or Higher Law) that I can't wait to learn more about. For now, here are a few things that I didn't know about law. The first thing is that courts came before laws. Thinking on it, it makes sense. Maybury points out that law popped up during feudal eras when there was no government, only rich men oppressing poor men with serfdom. When the serfs had fights or brawls that they couldn't settle on their own, they went to clergymen, who were the most respected men at the time. The clergymen then used religious principles to decide the outcome of the quarrel.

This was the beginning of common law - first their were courts. The clergymen evolved into judges. The judges still used religious principles to decide verdicts. As time went on, they collected precedents to the judge similar cases with and eventually, through trial and error, they realized that there were two laws that all sane adults people agreed upon. Those laws were the law of contract and the law of torts - in other words, 1) Do all you have agreed to do, and 2) Do not encroach on other persons or their property. 

So simple! So simple. The tangled web of needless legislation (why is illegal to whistle under water in Vermont?) has become insane. I highly, highly, highly suggest reading this book, it introduces what the American legal system was based on and how far away from these principles our government has run.

This wasn't as short as I originally thought it was going to be. >.< Oh well. Okay, off to make dinner and reserve one of the seventy-something to-read books on economy, law, history, military, government or psychology that are waiting for me to read. :o

So, go and do what you agreed to do and don't encroach!
Much love,
- caroline

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!

happy anniversary!

Happy Anniversary, Logan & Erin! 

What has it been? 6 years married... 9 years altogether? Regardless, I am 100% confident that you will be... together foreverrrrrr. (I can't see me lovin' nobody but you, for all my liiiiife.) Well, now that I've gotten a song stuck your head, I hope you have a good day today!

Lots of love,

- caroline

P.S. After digging through a whole box of photos from the early 00's, I realized that the photo I was looking for was taped to my wall. :) 

happy birthday (to me)

Yesterday was my birthday. I am now officially 19 years old, though as usual, I have been thinking of myself as being 19 for months. I've always done that. I think it will come in handy in the future, when I will dislike getting older a lot more than I do now. Large Number birthdays won't be quite so horrible when I've been thinking I'm already that Large Number for months.

Quinn gave me the earrings above. In all honesty, I picked them out. :) I don't own any stud earrings that aren't pearls (which I love, but are so fancy). Excited to wear those big jewel ones with somethin' fancy sometime.

Mom very sweetly got up early to make a quiche for breakfast. It was SO GOOD. Mmmm.

Henry will be 3 years old on Sunday! He seems very grown up in comparison to Micah and Lucy. He has been incessantly asking me why I can't go outside to play for very long. Allergies, I tell him. He knows about allergies, his dad has them just as bad as I do. The other day he thought up an ingenious idea: we should go into the inclosed back deck to play. We would be outside, he said, but the wind wouldn't get me. How cute is that?

Blackberries are on their way!

We went to Mint Hair Boutique to get our hair cut by Andrea. :) I LOVE my cut. It's fantastic. She thinned it out like crazy, so now I doesn't feel like I'm wearing a bushy wig. Now I feel like I have normal hair! Thanks, Andrea!

After a small fiasco involving car keys hitching a ride in a different car, we went to Last Resort for lunch. It was soooo good.

Logan and Erin and I had the pasta special. It was penne with spinach and red peppers and salmon(!) in a lime and parmesan pan sauce? Something like that. It reminded me a lot of Pad Thai, but more Italian. It was really yummy.

Hehe, cutie.

We went to Yoforia for dessert. Yoforia is the best frozen yogurt in town - it's such a great idea to do self-serve yogurt that is priced by weight. I assure you, I didn't eat all of that. Mom, Quinn and I all shared this tub. And there is frozen yogurt under all of that fruit. ;)

Griffin and Jamie got me a Moleskine journal and something Unknown that is "on its way." Very curious!!

Logan and Erin got me this book from Anthropologie... It is amazing. 100 years of fashion illustrations! There are SO many illustrations in this book, so much fashion. Wonderfulness. 

I picked up some quirky new shoes at Anthro as well. At first I was unsure of the purple velvet laces, but now I'm diggin' them. Aren't they cute?

We got home from all of that to find a box of donuts on the counter. Dad always gets me donuts for my birthday. :) They are almost gone! :D 

Then I went to a hoopdance workshop at Canopy Studios, which was really, really fun. You learn how to hula hoop on your waist, hips, hands and feet. Well, no one managed to master the foot thing, but I plan to practice that one.

By the time I was out, Mom had found out that the new Jane Eyre movie was playing at Ciné. The movie was pretty good! I was impressed. You know how people who saw the Colin Firth Pride & Prejudice first didn't like the Keira Knightly Pride & Prejudice? It's much like that here. We LOVE the Masterpiece Jane Eyre, so we really can't love this movie. However, for people who haven't seen the Masterpiece version already, or who didn't like the Masterpiece version, this was really cinematic and well-acted.

This is the state of my room right now. Holy mess, Batman.

Time to clean.

- caroline

sneeze.

photo by quinn.

Today I ventured outside. I haven't properly been outside in a few days, because every organ in my head hates pollen. My eyes itch, my nose itches, I sneeze, my nose runs, my eyes run, my throat itches! And then my brain tells me to run inside. :( But Zyrtec has helped a little... So today I tried it out. Still itchy, but I lasted longer than usual.

The day before yesterday I made a Lemon Chess Pie. As the recipe informed us, origin of the name is unknown! However, the pie was delicious...

Privet has bloomed. Did I mention that? Ugh. Allergies make me ashamed to be part of the human race which lives indoors for most of their lives. Surely we would have these reactions if we lived outdoors? We would be incapacitated for months! I should look it up and see what the facts are...

photo by quinn.

Next post I'm working on: Old family photos. I've been having so much fun scanning them in! I'm on 1986 right now... We were really cute kids. Of course, it'll be a few more days (weeks?) before I get to my baby pics. Anyway, I'm going to make a blog post of my favs. :) Then you'll know where our family got the photography genes from. Our parents took some really beautiful photos of us. 

Aja aja fighting!

- caroline

Note on what the heck I just said: I've noticed that in Korean dramas, people say "fighting" as a cheer, a replacement for "go [insert sport or name here]!"  "Aja aja fighting" is unique to the drama I just watched. :) Koreans are cool.

focus

I finally faced up to the SAT today. Well, not the real thing. College Board has a really nice SAT website with practice tests and the like. So after practice questions in each subject, I took the real practice test. I hesitated to share my result, but then thought, what the heck. It's not like I've bragged to be a genius or anything.

My first practice test score is 1820, as seen on the calculator in the pic. Or at least, that is the sum of the three test subjects? 660 in Reading, 690 in Writing, 470 in Math. Yes, 470. I know that is not good, however little I may know about the other scores. 

So... time for brushin' up on my sums. (So maybe Lark Rise to Candleford is rubbing off on me....) It was on my list of goals anyway. I shouldn't be so depressed about it - I was confident that I had absorbed very little applicable math skills in my algebra cramming sessions. I mean, I did remember some, thanks largely in part to Erin. I did get some questions right, and whatnot, but it just doesn't flow easily. So I'm going to practice more, but without the pressure of graduation being at stake.

How nice would it be to just easily solve mathematical problems? I love it when my brain works cohesively, when I can look at an algebra problem and go: hey, I know what to do with this. 

So that is what I did today, and it made me unreasonably mopey. But seeing as my cure-all is TV, Drop Dead Diva made me feel better. Hehe. I know, it's a silly show, but I can't help but like its supremely happy actors and general light-heartedness.

If you have any advice for me on taking the SAT or comments on my score and how high it should actually be, let me know. I'm pretty clueless. :P

Nighty night,

- caroline

goodnight, again.

My fluffy hair wanted to wish you a goodnight, as well. So, goodnight. <3

bokeh-mania

On Flickr, a fellow photographer (alyssakai) used a bokeh mask to make pretty heart bokeh in a few of her shots. I thought that was just so cool. I know this technique has been around for awhile, but I had never played around with it. Inspired, I set out to make my own masks.

Quinn and I decided on three shapes. Hearts, plus-signs and stars. Basically, you cut a small shape out of the center of a black piece of paper... You know what, I did a terrible job at following the directions, so check it out yourself here: DIY Create Your Own Bokeh

Since my bokeh masks were very lame, and held on by my own hand, there are usually some deep vignettes on the images. :P Kind of made me feel like I was using that fish-eye attachment on Griffin's old kit lens, which gave everything black corners. Bleh. But this was much cooler.

Sometimes the bokeh shapes aren't apparent. The next few pictures were taken without a mask - just regular pics, but all shot on 1.4/f. So pretty. :) I hardly ever shoot that low, but since you have to shoot on the lowest aperture with the bokeh masks, I thought I'd play around with it. 

Those big heart shaped leaves are violet leaves! There are tons of violet plants under the brush.

These white hearts are out-of-focus flowers. :)

Blue light leak up there in the corner. Hehe, fun!

Reflection in a hubcap. A VERY shiny hubcap.

Here are my silly bokeh masks. :P I literally just hugged them around the lens with my hand. It was all very make-shift! Anyway, there are my experimental pics. Enjoy!

Nighty-night.

- caroline