The Cultured Carrot at Wheatsville Co-op

The Cultured Carrot was founded by Palak Sadarangani, a health coach practicing an Ayurvedic lifestyle and Kristin Simpson, a pharmacist with a holistic lifestyle approach. Both busy moms of young kids were blown away by the research and study of the microbiome. Up to 80% of our immune system is found in the gut. Eating fermented foods adds good bacteria to our guts to help maintain the balance we need for a healthy immune system.  -- https://theculturedcarrot.com/pages/about-us

 

https://theculturedcarrot.com

 

We pick only the best organic veggies and preserve them like grandma used to, with salt and time. We transform these little jars of sunshine, mixing with herbs, quality oil and pure love. 

Each is bursting with color from the diversity nature gives us and loaded with a unique biodiversity of nutrition and microbes. Getting your daily dose of prebiotic-probiotic packed nutrition has never been easier. -- https://theculturedcarrot.com/pages/our-process

I bought the Beleafing with cabbage, turnip, and herbs. We generally eat salad for dinner and the leafy foods often benefit from a helpful dressing. I am just not a foodie. I do not remember a moment when I lost interest in it, but like smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol, food just got less and less compelling. 

Right now, my best meal is probably a handful of mixed vitamin pills and five or six tablespoons of yogurt. Well, that, and pizza. I hardly remember a bad slice. I really wish that Whole Foods found some skilled people to work their ovens. I look at the pies and slices and just shake my head and walk away. We have a new vendor here in Kyle promising "313" style, but I have not tried them out yet. (313 is the area code for Detroit and I miss that style of deep dish pizza heavy on the mozzarella and no skimping on the sauce. So, we'll see... And Detroit pizza beats Chicago pizza.)

Be that as it may, I have never commented on the ingredients or processes of any Wheatsville vendor. I understand that there are constraints to commercial food production. That said, my challenge here was to find a blend that did not have water as its second ingredient. $10.99 for a significant fraction of 8 ounces is a lot to pay for water. I have the same problem with mustard. Some years back, I finally bought ground mustard and began mixing it into commercial preparations such as Sir Kensington, Annie's, Woodstock, etc., etc. But you are looking at a guy who tips the scales at 60 kg and never crossed 70 kg. Then, again, there's that 313 pizza waiting for me.

 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

(Just put "Wheatsville" in the Search box for more.)

Bayou City Hemp Company 

Daysmith Coffee 

Coffee at the Co-op Tradition and Novelty

High Brew Cold Coffee

Sunday at the Co-op 

Awesome Austin Foods at the Wheatsville Co-op 

Cultured Carrot Fermented Foods (2021) 

 

Pedernales Falls Public Star Party 12 August 2023

About a dozen of us Austin Astronomical Society club members were there with instruments. The Perseid meteor shower was the main event. Advance publicity across social media promised the best live sky spectacle of the year; judging from the oohs and aahs of the crowd starting at first darkness, the promise came true. I left at 11:15 PM. As a regular backyard enthusiast, I see meteors all the time in my telescope, binocular, and naked eye. And, I own several meteorites. So, my focus was on talking about the stars while standing at my telescope. 

Brian Lippincott explaining eyepieces to guests.
A good fabricator, Brian has been the Equipment Chair.

Brian Lippincott was first on the field when I arrived, all set up with his solar viewing binocular rig and large Dobsonian reflector. He went off to place the entrance signs and I set up my Explore Scientific 102-mm achromatic refractor on a Celestron AVX computerized (“go to”) tripod and mount. At home, I rely on a much simpler and easier Explore Twilight 1 manual altitude-azimuth (“alt-az”) mount but the AVX with automatic tracking and menu selections supports public engagement very well. The only ocular (“eyepiece”) was a 14-mm 82-degree Meade 5000 for 47X. It was sufficient. Soon after Brian returned, other club members trailed in and found their places.

 

I stopped counting visitors at 125, and I estimated 200 overall, which was the headcount that Joyce and Jim Lynch at the greeting table said that they expected. At the Sky Theater mini-megalith Ed Labelle and Jim Lynch welcomed our guests. In the growing darkness, Ed devoted about an hour to explaining our local Stonehenge and highlighted the basics of viewing the sky, measuring distances with your hand,  the general mechanics of celestial motion, and how to dim your cell phone. 

 

Austin Astro Outreach Chair Ed Labelle at the
Obelisk talking to the visitors.

I began a four-star alignment and soon had guests. For most of my audiences for most of the night, I was focused on Messier 22. It is large and bright and I was able to talk from memory about the astronomy and physics of globular clusters without getting lost in the narrative while showing people where to look and how to focus for themselves. Over the course of the night, stargazing from the scopes of other members, many guests got to view the Hercules Cluster, (Messier 13) and they remarked on that view while visiting with me.

 

Overture! Curtain! Lights!
This is it: the night of nights!

But I started with Messier 11, the Wild Duck cluster because I aligned on Arcturus, Antares, Vega, and then Altair; and it was a short drop to Messier 11. For myself, this was a first sighting. I had tried two nights before from my backyard, but the view was unremarkable and I did not log it. This time, I could see the cluster and its red and orange stars. The guests were also happy. “Wild Duck” is a cooler name than “Messier 11.” 

 

Fixin' to Start: Many club members brought
large Dobsonians.

A steady stream of people in small groups and families, came and went and lined up again until about 11:00. We also looked at Beta Scorpii (Graffias) because some had seen Albireo at another instrument. They easily remembered the stunning yellow and blue pair. I explained that this is not as pretty, but these stars are truly gravitationally locked whereas Albireo is an accidental arrangement. I then talked about the 200 years between Galileo and William Herschel when it was assumed that the stars are more or less randomly arranged and are more or less alike with differences in color perhaps relating to their temperatures by analogy with an iron bar heated in furnace. Then, about 1810 William Hershel changed our paradigm. My groups viewed  Messier 7, Messier 80, and Messier 4. After I pointed to Mizar and Alcor naked eye, we viewed the system in the telescope, and I indicated Mu Scorpii, the Eyes of the Lion, another naked-eye double. I suggested that club members with larger instruments could show them that Polaris is also a double star.

 

Then, I went searching for Messier 51 (another first light for myself). My three guests agreed that they could see the small grayer patch in the middle of the field of view. And, again, I recommended that more aperture would be rewarding. Finding myself alone, I packed up.

 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Austin Astro Public Star Party

Kyle Astronomy Club Observe the Moon Night

A Good Entry-Level Telescope

Images from SXSW 2013 

The Universe of 1962

Laurel found a Sears 6307B 60mm F=700 (f/11.67) from 1962 on the street. I brought it home and I bought 0.965 inch eyepieces for it from The Surplus Shed. 

 

On 2 August, I viewed the gibbous Moon to align the finder scope (with crosshairs) and to check the eyepieces. I bought a standard set: 6 mm, 12.5 mm, and 20 mm. The telescope came with those, as do many such even today, though more often, just two, 10mm and 20mm. These were Huygens eyepieces, a two-lens design from the 17^th century. I also bought a 16 mm “wide view” Kellner, a three-lens 19^th century improvement. I was cautioned by a friend online at Cloudy Nights that these replacements being plastic were not as good as the original equipment. That was easy to accept. The original 6mm eyepiece was with the scope and it is made of metal and (apparently) glass. However, it had a problem with corrosion or something that would not come off with Zeiss lens cleaner. 

The next night, I split the double star beta Scorpii (Graffias) with the Kellner at 43X. The view was not wide enough to take in all of Messier 7 the Ptolemy Cluster but I was satisfied. I could not locate Messier 80 or M22 which was disappointing. I believe that the optics would do it, but fussing and fiddling with the over-engineered and under-built mount was frustrating. 

I will nod to the engineering, however. Unlike a modern telescope, you focus this well enough with the eyepiece draw tube and then finely tune the focus with the controls. Similarly, the altiude and azimuth are found roughly close and then, with those bolts tight, you adjust the alt-az settings with knobs on the fine tuning engagement. With more practice, I could learn to do it.

 

The next morning I viewed Jupiter’s bands, its polar band – a pleasant surprise; why we call long focal length refractors “planet killers” – and noted that three of its moons were visible. 

I then turned to Messier 42, the Orion Nebula, found it easily, and (another surprise) the Trapezium was clear and bright and sharp.

 

Happy with the experience, I put the telescope away very carefully. My current instruments are much better, of course, but if I had to live with only this, I could. And just to note, I do have two Celestron Huygens oculars with standard 1-¼ inch barrels. Putting them into a 70mm refractor, I kidded online at CN that I was viewing the universe as it looked in 1650. It looked OK.  Better instrumentation is better, of course, but double stars, open clusters, a bright globular were all truly visible and enjoyable.

 

 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

The Andromeda Galaxy 

Xi Scorpii

An Online Class in Astrophysics

Viewing Mars 

 

ArmadilloCon 45

This year's poster was designed
'by Gonzalo Alvarez who also
created an RPG based on
Aztec mythology. This year,
there was no t-shirt.

Austin’s ArmadilloCon is a science fiction convention for writers, artists, editors, and publishers. At the Capital City Coin Club, where I have been a member and occasionally an officer since 2011, my friend, Kurt Baty[1], kept telling me to go to this. I would nod and thank him and do nothing. Finally, I said, “Kurt, I’ve been to a Trekker con and I met Armin Shimerman and had a good time and all but it’s really not something that I do.” He replied, “This is not like any other science fiction convention. No one will be in StarFleet uniforms. It’s just for writers, artists, editors, and publishers." He was right. This year, I bought a half-page ad in the showguide, congratulating the convention and FACT, the Fandom Association of Central Texas. 

Laurel and I attend because of our shared interests in the craft of writing. She is a murder mystery fan and has edited for Bantam Doubleday. For myself, writing non-fiction, the break-out sessions on plot, structure, and character help me to bring my public into a document which they really do not want to read. I also benefit from learning about marketing, advertising, contracting, and other business issues. And  it is a good time to be surrounded by other creatives, to socialize, listen, and chat. 

Special Guests. Charles Siros was this year's FGoH. 

Returning this year, NASA flight trainer Bill Frank led a panel discussion on the many ways in which space tries to kill you. How do you deal with a fire on a space station? You wake up and find everyone else unconscious: what are your priorities? You are on the Moon, a mile from the station and your air supply valve fails closed: what do you do next?

"Space Tries to Kill You" filling up early. 

“Still Persevering on Mars” was presented by NASA/JPL scientist John K. Gibbons. With my own small journal filled with background for a story I have not written, I took a lot of notes. 

Persevering on Mars

I know Rob Pettingill from the Austin Astronomical Society, but I met him first through a computer guy coffee klatch that Laurel attended. Rob’s engagement in astronomy is through astrophotography and I have two of his works printed on steel and glass displayed on an office wall. Rob’s presentation was about the established techniques and new technologies in astrophotography for amateurs. The main attraction for me was in the mapping of image data to visible colors.

 

David Afrarishad of Baen Books led a panel session with Stina Leicht, Dantzel Cherry, and C. S. "Seth" Humble on religion. It is deep in human culture and except for special cases such as Dune and planet Bajor, we seldom consider it in character building or world building. Science fiction tends to default to the Star Trek assumption that we have evolved past all of that. But that is just not likely for any foreseeable future. Even atheists grow up in families and cultures where religion is at least present and often important. And why is Catholicism the default in stories written by people who grew up in Protestant America? Seth Humble pointed out that religion begins with mystery. Stina Leicht called it “the big, black unknown.” She also said that most people confuse morality and ethics and those two with religion. However, Leicht said, religious people do not confuse morality and ethics. Danzel Cherry said that she grew up LDS (“Mormon”) and that gave her a different perspective. 

 

The History session was disappointing. The showguide asked: “How does a horsedrawn carriage get down a mountain?” But nothing like that came of this. Each panelist complained that their self-identified minority was unfairly presented or under-represented in popular history. There were some takeaways. Scrivener was touted as better than Word because it allows keeping backstory notes in the document. Wikis have pros and cons; some people like them. The writers agreed that research can be a rabbit hole that prevents productive writing.

The Future of Publishing.

The Future of Publishing was a wide-ranging discussion on the business of writing today. Barbara Ann Wright, Alexis Glynn Latner, and Rick Klaw spoke for self-published and small press markets. Stina Leicht is published by Saga Press of Simon and Schuster. Writing is a business and the craft of authoring is the easy part. Leicht recommended getting an agent, advice she gave in other sessions and chatting in the lobby. Your agent will protect your legal interests and be a buffer for any discussions with the publisher. Rick Klaw said to always negotiate the contract. He said that even if a small press cannot offer more money, they can always provide you with more copies of the book. The others all agreed. Early on in the hour, everyone nodded when Klaw said that they have no idea what the future will be like. (In the car on the way home, Laurel said that they said the same thing last year.) Toward the end, Latner said that so much as changed in the last five years (or three)—from Twitter to TikTok and Booktok—that no one knows what is coming next. They did agree, however, that history is cyclic and vampire stories are popular again. 

 

Laurel and I do not buy more “stuff.” We have too much already and need to get rid of it. But we bought stuff anyway. She got a new coffee cup and I came home with seven books. 

• Loki’s Ring by Stina Leicht (Saga Press Simon & Schuster) (autographed)
• Rich Man’s Sky by Wil McCarthy (Baen Books) (autographed)
• The Collapsium by Wil McCarthy (Baen Books) (autographed)
• Fugitive Spark by Matt Levin (Self)
• Guided by Starlight by Matt Levin (Self)
• The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 4 edited and published by Allan Kaster (InfiniVox). (This was an informative discussion. Allan reads sf magazines and contacts the authors he likes for his hard science fiction anthologies. He explained that authors sell first serial rights to the magazines. So, after publication there, they can resell the work. I replied that I knew the phrase “first serial rights” from my own contracts but no one ever asked me to republish so it did not sink in. Now I know.)
• Commune 2000 A.D. by Mack Reynolds (Bantam, 1974). I got this for an interesting look at the present but it is really about the world of 1974. That is always true of all speculative fiction whether horror, scifi, fantasy, or alternate timeline romance. The best immersion in the world of 1810 is found in Jane Austen. As for the future, see above from the experts: We have no idea what will happen three years from now.

 

[1] Kurt Baty has been on the organizing committee often and one year was the FGoH (Fan Guest of Honor). Kurt wrote an article for me about the Antikythera Device for the Historical Astronomy Division of the AAS. I wrote up his discovery of the first coins struck by the Denver Mint. The accepted narrative had been thin; Kurt did some digging. I placed his story in the E-Sylum of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, my blog at the ANA Member pages (abandoned in 2021), and the Michigan State Numismatic Society MichMatist. (The MichMatist paid 10 cents a word up to $100; that made my life easier when I edited the magazine because it set a natural limit on lengths. In the wake of Covid, they stopped paying and I stopped writing for them. Anyway, astronomy took me away from numismatics).

 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Armadillocon 44 Day 3 

Armadillocon 44 Day 1 and Day 2 

ArmadilloCon 41 Day 3 Part 2

ArmadilloCon 40 Part 2 

ArmadilloCon 39 

My ArmadilloCon Presentations