Whoa, unreason!

A treat for all my yarn-happy friends: Miss Eiderdown's Stocking

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:11:47 GMT

Kate Godfrey's charming and sweet Christmas story "Miss Eiderdown's Stocking" is now available as a two-part radio play. The first part of the play is already live at KnitPick and as a PDF at okaykate.com. It's free, and you don't have to sign up for anything to read or listen.

I've had the good fortune to read the entire thing, and it makes me sniffle. In a good way, though, one that the "medicinal yarn" of the story couldn't cure. It has ghosts, urchins, and knitting...what's not to love?

My only hope is that the Eiderdown/Entwhistle team will eventually discover crochet.

Yet another reason to like David Tennant

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:03:25 GMT

He's apparently the spokesperson for AICR's Don't Let Cancer Have The Last Word project. The project sounds pretty cool.

Oven Research

Thu, 07 May 2009 00:38:04 GMT

Last Friday, we had an oil spill in the oven. Sweety and I cleaned it out, but we saw how much crud was burned on to the oven and decided to run a cleaning cycle for the first time.

What I mean is that this is the first time we'd run the oven's self-cleaning cycle. It is possible that one of the previous owners of this house used it. But I have to wonder if they did, because that oven was really dang dirty.

You lock the oven, set the timer, and it starts. Easy. The cycle is supposed to run two and a half hours.

After forty-five minutes, the smoke and stink were too much. We shut off the cycle and opened the windows. The smoke alarm went off anyway. By the time we went to bed, the oven was still sealed shut.

In the morning, it had cooled but still would not open. I called the manufacturer, who said to try flipping the circuit breaker. If that didn't work, I should call for service. I asked the nice gentleman at the manufacturer what the average lifespan of this model was. It turned out to be a year less than our oven's age.

The circuit breaker didn't do the trick, so we called for service. The service guy got here on Tuesday and said that the oven was mechanically sealed shut, and that it would take three parts to fix it. Only one of them is still being made.

So, we're looking for a new oven. We're not sure how this will work. They don't all seem to be this size any more. Also, it's an integrated oven/microwave, and the microwave still works. I don't want to get rid of a working microwave, but I don't see any other way to bake cookies and roast squash.

One cheering thing in a likely replacement unit:

Sabbath Mode

Overrides the oven's automatic shut-off function, keeping it active for hours of uninterrupted cooking and making it possible to use the oven on the Sabbath without turning it on.

Now that's what I call gaming the system.

Obnoxious casting call

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:34:46 GMT

I haven't posted a press release in a long time. I have no idea how I got on the list for this one. It takes up a lot of room, so I'm snipping it liberally. Yes, it's real: I'm sure they released in on April 2 on purpose. The full Web site is at http://spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com .

---

SPIDER-MAN
TURN OFF THE DARK
ANNOUNCES OPEN CASTING CALLS

DIRECTED BY JULIE TAYMOR,
MUSIC & LYRICS BY BONO & THE EDGE

[snip]

SPIDER-MAN is seeking principals and understudies for the roles of ‘Peter Parker,’ ‘Mary Jane,’ and ‘Female Lead Villian.’ The production is looking for performers with dynamic rock/pop voices including those with experience in bands and as solo performers. Regardless of experience, anyone who thinks they might be qualified is encouraged to audition.

[big skip to obnoxious part]

The production is looking for candidates to fill the following roles (both principals and understudies):

PETER PARKER – Male. 16-20’s. Must have a great rock tenor voice. Can be nerdy with understated sex appeal and a good sense of humor.

MARY JANE – Female. 16-20’s. Beautiful girl next door. Strong pop/rock singing voice required.

LEAD FEMALE VILLAIN – Female. 25‐35 years old. All ethnicities encouraged. Must have an amazing rock voice. Think Sinead O’Connor with a Middle Eastern /Bulgarian/Greek twist. Foreign and/or world music types are great. Foreign accents are great.

----

There are so many things bothering me here, I don't know where to start. I'm going to have to do it in random bullets.

It bothers me to see "ethnicity" substituted for "race." Being African-American is a very different thing from being Afro-Caribbean. Being a WASP is very different from being a fair-skinned Ashkenazi Jew. I somehow doubt that they would tell a younger Eric Bana, "You are not eligible to play a New Yorker because your father is from Zagreb."
It bothers me to see that "all ethnicities [races] encouraged" is something to call out for a specific character, but specific races are not called out when that "encouragement" is lacking. Of course it would be obnoxious for a casting call to say "MARY JANE--White female, other [so-called] ethnicities discouraged," but it's clear that's the case…so it's still obnoxious. (Yes, I understand that Peter Parker and Mary Jane are established characters of established race, but if that's part of their casting they should damn well be honest about it.)
It bothers me that an undetermined "foreign accent" is considered a great thing for a villain. Are foreigners supposed to be better at being evil? Is it supposed to be more fun to hate such characters? Last time I checked, George W. Bush was American, WASPy, evil, and unpopular. If they gave the name of an established villain with an established accent, it wouldn't bother me as much...but since they didn't, I'm guessing that either it's a new villain or they've decided Typhoid Mary would be cooler with a "sexy and exotic" accent.

Someone is probably thinking how great they're being to make roles for actors who aren't white. But if they're all villains, how great is that really?

Thoughts about TV I've seen lately

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:46:11 GMT

Sweety and I are now watching more shows per week than any time since the kids were born. It's almost a relief that one of them is ending. Here are my thoughts on the current seasons of...

Heroes turned into a big meh for me last season. We're still watching it, I think largely because it features two Asian men who are neither hoodlums nor corporate villains, and this makes Sweety happy. This season's plot is better (although it's similar enough to a recentish comics event that I keep expecting Captain America to die), but it still has some problems. The main one is that after spending an entire season trying to save Claire Bennet, they're now trying to make her interesting, and actor Hayden Panettiere is simply not up to the task. This season, she's doing ANGRY, with the occasional fallback to cutesy. The writers aren't doing so hot, either. C'mon, folks. Joss Whedon writes perfectly credible teenage girls and decent romance dialogue. Why can't y'all? Or why can't we just send her to college and concentrate on somebody else?

The more pleasing Monday entry is Castle. Sweety says, "I bet the pitch for this said 'half Murder, She Wrote and half Moonlighting'." Sweety is a very smart man. Instead of Angela Lansbury, we get Nathan Fillion playing Richard Castle, a jerky but funny writer of mystery potboilers. I have never before really liked Nathan Fillion. I first saw him when Whedon did the "sorry about Firefly, how about I horribly miscast you in a weird villain role in one of my other shows?" thing. Until recently, I thought of Fillion as a younger Bill Pullman: forgettably handsome and unforgivably dull. In Castle, though, he's funny. Stana Katic (who coincidentally, had a small, thankless role on early Heroes as Wireless) plays sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued detective Kate Becket, whom I adore. They have fantastic chemistry. I was a little worried from the first episode that it would be a "smart, rule-breaking guy constantly schools smart, rule-abiding woman about how to do her job--and wins her heart!" kind of show. This week's episode made things look less that way. And furthermore, the production values are high; everything from the lighting of the writer's daughter's eyes to the timing of the sound effects is beautifully executed. (The contrast between Molly Quinn, in a small but sweet role as the more-mature-than-dad teenager, and Hayden Panettiere in the far-too-big role as the one-note Claire Bennet is quite marked.) The dialogue--not just between the principals, but between smaller characters as well--is quirky and funny. I'm holding back a little because I'm afraid this show may yet disappoint me, but right now I'm enjoying it a lot. I laugh at this show, which I don't at pretty much anything else we watch. I read a scathing fan review that insists that the main problem is that Nathan Fillion should be playing Captain America right now, which is pretty funny, because he's Canadian. So the laughs just keep coming.

Lost. Oh, gods, what are they doing? Aside from finding new ways to get new people onto the island, of course. Also, I must laugh at the ethnic casting: Indian guy playing an Iraqi named Said, Moroccan/French guy named Said playing a probable Latino named Caesar. I feel that Lost is starting to pick up again, but I really can't say why I have that impression. When I think about Lost, it all dissolves into a farrago of good-looking, bratty people named after philosophers and physicists.

We are watching Dollhouse. I'm not coming away from it with much yet. I really want to like it, and I want to see if Tahmoh Penikett can play more than one character. I'm just not sure about it yet. The last time I gave up on a Whedon show (Angel), I watched it later and really liked it. But I'm starting to get a little tired of the usual Whedon characters. Topher is Andrew, Echo is Faith (this may be Eliza Dushku's fault), and on and on. That said, I adore Harry Lennix and am grateful to get to watch him every week.

I'm a little anxious about the end of Battlestar Galactica. I'm pleased that it's not likely to really, really suck before it ends, but that's about all I can say. I have no idea how they're going to pull this off. If I have to watch webisodes to figure it out, I'll be pretty ticked off.

So, right now I'm enjoying the mystery show the most. I think this means I'm getting old.

In the interest of preventing waste, I warn you off bad (but supposedly ecologically sound) products

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:54:49 GMT

For a while now--probably since I first heard about the clams on Prozac problems--I've been trying to use health/beauty products that are better for the health and beauty of the the planet my children will someday inherit. (Scratch that. Those kids are hardly meek.)

Some easy replacements have been excellent; some have even made me wonder if the original solutions were the problems. For instance, it seems that my lips grow less chapped when I use a beeswax lip balm than a petroleum-based one. Unscented scrubs, creams, and lotions often feel better on my skin, and they let me enjoy the scents that inevitably accompany other products.

But there have been a few things here and there that have been failures. One that springs to mind is the "botanical" facial toner that was mostly alcohol--to preserve the natural ingredients, no doubt--which stung my skin and made me smell like Everclear. That one's easy though; basic reading skills at the store would have saved me that one. Others are less obvious. Rather than let you buy or make these products yourself, I share my own experiences and idiocy with you. If you don't toss out a half-full tube or jar, the world is better off, right? Right.

Tom's of Maine is one of the best-known eco-companies in the U.S. Their stuff is readily available almost everywhere, even in regular grocery stores. I haven't spent a long time going over their accounting practices or anything, but they at least talk a good game. Their ingredient lists look pleasingly harmless. So, although I think the whole aluminum/breast cancer link is bunk, I tried Tom's "Long-Lasting Care" deodorant stick in the Apricot scent.

I was a little nervous about the package's simultaneous claims that it protects all day and that it protects for 12 hours. I don't know about the average Tom's customer, but my day is longer than 12 hours. But I tried it. The scent was pleasant without being overpowering. It did work for most of a day, but it clearly went kaput on schedule. On a good day--by which I mean "a day I have time to shower"--this would have the deodorant wearing off around the time we finish dinner. Chasing two giggling toddlers around a small room and wrestling them into their pajamas is a sweaty task on the best of days. This was not going to work.

But why be a whiner? I tried just reapplying. Unfortunately, I realized that the deodorant's glycerin-like substance, which I believe sealed in the body odor, did not wash off in the shower. It did not wash off with water, did not wash off with body wash, did not wash off with the dreaded bar soap. Fortunately, it did come off with a brutal alcohol-based toner. And so one bad product erased another.

I don't want to harsh on Tom's, though. I'm considering trying their children's toothpaste, since I feel a bit decadent brushing my kids' teeth with toothpaste that's imported from Germany. "Buy local" isn't a mantra everyone can apply to toothpaste, but Maine is a wee bit closer than Germany is.

This is already long, so I'll spare you my next product failure. If anyone finds this remotely amusing, I will humiliate myself further soon--not just for you, but for the good of the planet.

(Edited for clarity's sake.)

Watchmen movie thoughts (only the vaguest of spoilers)

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:31:34 GMT

I think this is one of the best adaptations I've ever seen. Of course they couldn't do every single thing; they couldn't lavish time on the prison psychiatrist's home life and the reading of pirate comics. A few small characters dropped away or were condensed into one. And this being Hollywood, the ending wasn't exactly the same.

But in many ways, the revisions were better. They accomplished an immense amount of backstory during the opening credits, and it didn't become boring. Many of the later changes were merely more concise than the book, but some were actually more clever. Few things became bigger than they were in the book, and I liked that. The only jarring thing to me was that some of the between-the-panels stuff came out, and it became much more explicit. If you absolutely can't handle the idea of hearing bones break, don't go see this movie.

Many lines--particularly Rorschach's--were verbatim from the book. Many of the characters designs were as well; the biggest departure is that of Silk Spectre II. Let's face it, the original skimpsuit was not all that attractive, and it definitely didn't look wearable. (How would it stay on? This in the book in which someone thinks hard about how to attach a mask properly.) They clearly took pains to make the actors look like the characters; at least two actors didn't have their natural hair color.

The performances were overall very impressive. I loved Nite Owl II and Dr. Manhattan. Rorschach's voice wasn't what I expected, but I came to like it and by the end thought Jackie Earle Haley was a hell of an actor. The Comedian was excellent; that's a tough role. Ozymandias was good, although I thought he looked a bit too skinny. It's kind of hard to find a cast of such little-known actors these days (the biggest stars were Billy Crudup and Matt Frewer, if that gives you any idea) and seeing casting this good makes you wonder why anyone bothers with big names. They were superb.

I really recommend it.

Ror-shach! Baby, Ror-shach!

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:51:03 GMT

Sweety and I saw the Rorschach profile on Heroes (complete with a plug that calls Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, Silk Spectre II et al "The Watchmen," like it's a team name). Although we liked most of what we saw of Rorschach, I was disappointed to hear all the characters say "Ror-shack." I've always said "Ror-shock," and given the "raw shark" joke in the book, that seems correct to me.

I mentioned it to Sweety, who said, "Oh, me too. But doesn't it make you want to sing 'Ror-shack! Baby Ror-shack!' to the tune of 'Love Shack'?"

If you see an inky blot on the face of a man, it means
"Watch out, 'cause I'm Rorshach!" Rorschach, yeah!

I'm headin' down to Big Apple today,
Lookin' for a bad alleyway
Heading for a rough alleyway, (tough alleyway)

I got me a car, it's as big as a whale
and we're headin' on down
To see Rorshach
I got me a Chrysler, it seats about 20
So hurry up and bring your honest money

Oh, Rorchach is an ugly li'l runt
Who will break your fingers
Rorschach's cra-a-zy! Rorshach's crazy.
"Hurm," baby, that's where it's at,
Ooh, "hurm" baby, that's where it's at

Face says.. Woo... stay away fools,
'cause pain rules with dude R-o-o-orshach!
Well he's all messed up with a mental kinda thing
Just a sicko Rorschach who gets criminals whacked

Spatters on the mattress
Spatters on old Broadway
Spatters on the front porch
Spatters on the hallway

Oh, Rorshach is a little old nut
Who will break your fing-e-ers!
Rorcshach's cra-a-zy! Rorschach's crazy!
Rorschach, that's where it's at!
Twistin' and a-bendin', snappin' and a-breakin',
When he's got your digits
You'll wish he were mistaken
There goes your pinky!
There goes your pinky when everybody's
Squirming around and around and around and around!
Everybody's wicked, everybody's crooked baby!
Crooks linin' up to get out of this town
Everybody's wicked, everybody's crooked baby
Sick and sad Rorschach! Oh, god, is he whack!

Hop in my Chrysler,
it's as big as a whale
and it's about to set sail!
I got me a car, it seats about twenty
So c'mon and bring your hard-earned money.

That Rorsharch is a creepy li'l guy
Who just hates his dead mother
Rorshach baby! Rorshach bay-bee!
(Rorshach...Rorshach...)
Rorshach. Where's his head at?

Bang bang bang on the door baby!
Knock a little louder sugar!
Bang bang bang on the door baby!
Mom can't hear you
Bang bang on the door baby
Bang bang on the door
Bang bang on the door baby
Bang bang
She's what?... Cheap whore, busted!

Rorshach! Crazy Rorschach!
Rorshach! Crazy Rorschach!
Pain, baby, that's where it's at
Rorshach! Crazy Rorschach!
Blood, baby, that's where it's at

Twistin' and a-bendin'
Snappin' and a breakin' with that Ror. Shach.

I almost went with a version that kept more of the original text and focused on his sexual repression, but this stuff scanned more easily. Someone better at filking could probably work in the dog, too. But hey, at least it's up in time for the advance screening now.

May Alan Moore, David Gibbons, and the B-52s forgive me.

Bad economy strikes close to home

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:33:20 GMT

Today, Sweety and I had lunch together and went to run an errand afterward. "Let's go to Elephant Pharm," I said. "We need diapers."

Elephant Pharm is a locally owned pharmacy chain. It's an extremely cool place; clean and friendly, with organic choices in everything from food to baby lotion to feminine hygiene and beyond. Conveniently, it's right next to Trader Joe's. This is great because Elephant Pharm has all the stuff Trader Joe's lacks. Often, I have to schedule a Trader Joe's trip in tandem with another grocery trip, because they never have diapers or zippered plastic bags or unscented hand lotion.

Make that was and had. When we got there, we found a store that looked like it hadn't opened yet. No lights on, everything still in place on the shelves. A man in sunglasses stopped us, as if blocking the door. "Elephant Pharm is closed," he told us. "Your prescriptions have been moved to Long's." He didn't move, just handed us a flyer and stood there talking. He seemed very East Coast to me somehow, and not in the ways I like. Sweety said later that he thought the man was trying to block us from reading the sign on the door.

Sure enough, the sign said that all Elephant Pharm store closed yesterday, "with a heavy heart" and probably forever. Knowing Long's was recently acquired by CVS, I asked the man what happened to the Long's employees who used to work Long's corporate headquarters in Northern California. "They were given generous severance packages," he said.

I found this entire exchange very troubling. Long's used to be a locally owned chain, before CVS bought them and rendered many locals jobless. Elephant Pharm was local, too. I'm all for global culture, but walking into a CVS just like the one in Sweety's New Jersey hometown holds little appeal.

Until recently I gave most of my business to a national chain pharmacy simply because it was more convenient. It seemed good to save the gas. But a few weeks ago, I decided that I couldn't afford to have more jobs leave our community. I also decided to stop ordering from Diapers.com, even though it would cost a few dimes more per pack to buy them at Elephant Pharm. I wanted to keep the last local pharmacy in business.

It seems my change was too little, too late.

Anybody know exactly how public the info on a domain name is?

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:27:10 GMT

I'm considering starting a site of my own. In fact, I started to fill out the contact info at a domain service. Then I backed out when it started asking for contact info. I don't have an office; I don't even have a P.O. box. If I register my home office, then will my home address be out there for anybody to find?

GoDaddy has some info about "private registration," but I'm not clear as to what's so private about it.

Can anybody clear this up for me or point me to some useful info?

In memoriam: Emru Townsend

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:05:09 GMT

Technology and animation journalist/editor Emru Townsend died last night. Although he was lucky enough to get a bone marrow transplant for his Monosomy 7--and his site HealEmru.com has doubtlessly helped many others to get the marrow they need--his transplant did not cure the disease.

I knew Emru only a little bit, completely through e-mail. From what I saw there--and from everything else I knew of him--he was intelligent, funny, and sweet. He leaves behind a wife and young son.

I wish I had gotten to know him better. I wish he were still alive.

Things I have learned about bone marrow transplants

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:44:39 GMT

1. Registering online at the National Marrow Donor Registry is pretty easy doesn't take very long. I did it last Thursday.

2. Thanks to a new technology called PBSC, sometimes the needed stem cells can be harvested through a procedure not unlike donating blood or platelets. No anesthesia needed. An old friend of mine is eligible for a bone marrow transplant using PBSC.

3. Getting into the database is the longest part of the screening process. My swab kit is already here, but it will take weeks to process it if I send it back the normal way. If I get it to my friend's family, though, they can expedite it through his marrow drive on Saturday.

I'm about to go swab my mouth and cross my fingers right now.

A wedding, and dinner with friends

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:47:46 GMT

This summer, Sweety and I attended a truly marvelous wedding. It was in a tiny space by a pond in a gorgeous wooded hillside. Our considerate friends rented a B&B and hired nannies to watch all the guests' kids. And the ceremony was so moving that even the participants cried. We had to leave before the reception due to the kids' bedtime, but we swore we'd take our newly married friends, A and E, to a nice dinner to catch up and talk about the wedding.

A few weeks ago, A and E came to visit. We spent a little time reacquainting them with the kids, who they hadn't seen in a while. We went out to a nice Italian restaurant. Wine, pasta, main dishes, dessert and coffee. We reminisced about the wedding, which really was one of the most touching and beautiful I've ever attended. We chatted about friends, former co-workers, and current events.

All the topics of conversation were interesting, but one of my favorite chats happened with A on the way to the restaurant. "How is it being married?" I asked.

"Not much different, really," he told me. "We've been together fifteen years."

I still get a little glow from being married, and I told him that. "But the best part is the way you suddenly become legitimate in society," I mused. "The neighbors ask you over. Everybody wants to help you celebrate."

A nodded. "It made a big difference with family, too." He told me that the marriage made their families more comfortable. Then he added, "No on 8!"

A and E are wonderful people. We've known them for years; Sweety used to work with A, and I always looked forward to seeing A at work get-togethers. When the twins were small, A and E bravely visited our chaotic household and brought lunch. They helped to feed and hold the babies. The babies clearly liked them.

A and E are a fantastic couple. They have the kind of deep love you want all your friends to have. Sweety and I were thrilled when their commitment ceremony became a wedding. And yes, they are both men.

Now the state of California is about to vote as to whether A and E, and others who happen to be in romantic and loving same-sex relationships, have the right to be married. I know that a lot of people are considering voting Yes on 8 to make gay marriage illegal, and I think these people don't have the whole story. Perhaps they just don't know a couple like A and E.

If you came to this blog knowing me, you probably knew this would be my take on it. If you didn't, please think about it. The state of California is not going to require that marriage be taught in schools. It's not going to demand that your church perform gay marriages (heck, look at the hoops you have to jump through to get married in a church even now). And if you are married and straight, your marriage will not mean any less because gays can get married, too. After watching A and E get married, and hearing how it helped their families to accept them, it made marriage mean even more to me.

Please encourage all your California friends to vote No on 8. It will hurt no one, and it will help some people who are in love. It will help their families, too.

Health care in the last debate, with my own personal experience added in

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:02:50 GMT

I was pleased with the last American presidential debate. It was an interesting, lively format, and we heard some details we hadn't heard before.

Health care is a big issue for our family. Although we're all healthy right now (knock wood), we've had some big scares, and we know the value of good insurance.

When I was pregnant, I worked full-time and got truly fabulous health insurance. This was excellent stuff, covering things I didn't use, such as acupuncture and fertility treatment. I was especially grateful for it when our spontaneous twins decided to continue their trend of spontaneity by arriving eight weeks early (nine weeks, according to some calculations). The total hospital bill for the kids' first five weeks ran $945,000. That's just the hospital bill; it doesn't include the doctors' fees and radiology and breast pump rental and so forth.

$945,000. And I was getting good nutrition and prenatal care. Sure, I had gestational diabetes--a common complication of twin pregnancy--but it went away shortly after I gave birth. The kids themselves didn't actually develop any major problems. The majority of the time they lay there racking up the bills, it was just because they were too small and undeveloped to swallow, to survive without an incubator, and do those other things that full-term babies are born knowing to do.

We continued our insurance through COBRA as long as we could, and then applied for private insurance. Since we weren't planning to have any more kids, we applied for one with no maternity coverage.

We were denied coverage.

I called our insurance agent and asked why, and the agent told me it was because of the gestational diabetes and the premature births. The fact that we planned to have no more pregnancies didn't matter. The fact that we planned to have no more births didn't matter. The fact that my husband, our twins, and I were all healthy didn't matter. We were denied coverage.

So when the candidates talked about their plans, I was interested.

McCain's plan to give everyone $5,000 sounds nice. Who doesn't like money? But he never mentioned how he'd make sure we did get coverage. I went to McCain's Web site this morning and read it through. I saw nothing there that would help us to get coverage if we were denied private insurance. And call me cynical, but it seems to me that $5,000 more for insurance for every family just sounds like a recipe for letting the insurance companies raise all premiums by $5,000 per family.

Obama said that everyone could keep their insurance if they liked it, but those who wished to do so could buy into a plan like the one he and McCain have as government employees. He specifically said that no one would go uninsured. No one. Not our family, who was denied coverage because of past pregnancy and birth complications. Not a former babysitter of ours, who couldn't get insured because of asthma. Obama's Web site backs this up. Under Obama's plan, no one would go uninsured at all.

Things have worked out for my family. My husband applied for membership in a professional organization that offered health insurance to all members, regardless of medical history. It's very expensive, but at least it's health insurance. We can afford the premiums.

Not everyone is so lucky. Not everyone has access, and not everyone has enough money. Obama's health care plan would protect those people as well as us. McCain's wouldn't.

Vote for health care for everyone. Vote for Obama.

Economy

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:09:32 GMT

Like most American grownups, I've been thinking a lot about the economy lately. And like most American grownups, I've been thinking about our personal finances and how they fit into the economy.

I'm wondering, what are the best ways to keep the economy afloat without wasting our own money? It's pretty obvious that the "consumerism as patriotism" thing didn't work. I've always been of the opinion that buying useless junk helps neither the economy nor our budget, but what about other things?

For instance, the other day I bought some organic cherry tomatoes. The American-grown ones cost 6 dollars a pint. There were Mexican-grown grape tomatoes next to them, which were the same as far as my recipe was concerned. The Mexican tomatoes didn't have a price tag, but I assumed they were about the same or a little bit cheaper. I know that my $6 doesn't make a huge impact alone, but if a few other shoppers make the same decision, that helps the grocery store decide what to stock. What the grocery store stocks pretty much makes the decision for the people who don't care about these issues. So, in terms of the economy, money returned to the community, semi-local ecology, etc., was it more cost-effective to buy the American ones?

Of course, this is further complicated by my guess that the life of the average Mexican farm worker isn't so hot, either.

At the kitchen tables of Sarah Palin and Joe Biden

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:26:54 GMT

In last night's VP debate, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin both set their hypothetical John and Jane Smiths "around the kitchen table" having difficult talks about the woes of the middle class. Having just made a pasta frittatta for dinner, I had food on the brain, and that got me thinking of the debate in food terms. What if, instead of the mini-speeches we got, we were instead dropping by for dinner at their kitchen tables? Not a fancy Sunday dinner, mind you, but a weeknight "since you're in town, why don't you come have dinner with the family?" dinner. So I tried to translate their words and messages into food.

Sarah Palin invites you into a kitchen whose decorations include a moose head and a praying-hands plaque. "Hello there!" she says. "Sit on down! Since I'm a mom and and American, I made an apple pie!"

The box from which the frozen pie emerged is clearly visible, poking from the garbage. While the family says grace ostentatiously, you peek at the ingredients. It's from a faraway bakery run by a food conglomerate known for its wasteful practices. A glance at the ingredients list tells you that it's mostly made up of bleached flour, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial vanilla flavor. You try a bite; the crust is gummy, and the gelatinous filling shows only a mild tolerance for fruit. Still, it's warm, and she put some ice cream on top…and it is pie. You manage to choke down a piece.

"Gosh-darn good pie," you say politely. "And it's really innovative of you to serve it as the first course."

"They wouldn't try that in Washington!" Mrs. Palin laughs at her own joke, then gets serious. "This is all we're having for dinner." "

"Oh." You are hungry, and it looks like you'll stay that way.

Mrs. Palin gives you a steely look. "You're not trying to say you don't like pie, are you?"

Joe Biden leads you down a book-lined hall to a well-used, somewhat messy kitchen. "Have a seat," he says. "We're having frittatta tonight. It's a bit of an experiment." He doesn't sound apologetic.

The frittatta uses a bit of everything: zucchini, cherry tomatoes, eggs, cheese, cooked pasta. "I hope you like it," Mr. Biden says. "Maybe another time I could serve you something fancier, but this is what America has to offer right now."

"It's pretty good," you tell him. Having gone hungry on oversweetened pie the night before, you're happy to have a real meal: protein, carbohydrates, vegetables. It's a little over-browned in places, and it could take a little more salt, but it's filling.

"The trick to making frittata comes from practice," he tells you. "Over time, you learn what works together. Leftover pasta may not be glamorous, but it's a good base. You can make it with potatoes, but we've had those so much lately, nobody can stand them. But what's important is knowing your ingredients, knowing what will work and what won't."

Mr. Biden goes on to tell you the provenance of each of the ingredients, down to the specific farm. It takes a while; sometimes it's complicated. But he really seems to know his stuff. And the more you eat the frittatta, the more you find to like: a subtle flavor throughout, a burst of sharp spices here and there.

"Maybe we'll have something more exciting for you next time," Mr. Biden says as you leave. "When I'm cooking for real."

I am astonished that some people are declaring this so-called debate a draw. Palin came in with a few speeches and a number of buzzwords and used them relentlessly and off-topic. Biden put thought into every answer, and he had an excellent recall of events and a good understanding of cause-and-effect. Palin's homespun language and "shout-out" to third-graders seemed calculated, forced, and cheap; Biden neither talked down to anyone nor downplayed his knowledge, and his memories of being a single parent welled up in a way that appeared spontaneous and sincere.

It's clear to me: If anything happened to the president, I would much prefer to sit down at Biden's kitchen table. And I say this despite a deep and abiding love of pie.

Worrisome signs

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:39:25 GMT

Today I renewed our Natural History subscription for another two years. It's one of Sweety's favorite magazines, and it's associated wth a museum, so I'm all for it. Didn't hurt that you get such a good rate when you re-up early.

But I paused for a minute when I remembered the latest issue ran 48 pages. I've never counted their edit-to-ads ratio, but a thinner mag usually means less content. Subscriptions help, sure, and so does selling mailing lists (although we're no help in that regard), but ad revenue is still where most mags make their money. When ad pages drop, so do edit pages. I'm not saying NH will stop printing or anything; I don't know how their overall finances are, and I think they probably have some core readers who will never give up on the mag.

I've been told that the first thing people let go when their household budget gets constricted is magazine subscriptions. They're not all that expensive over the time you get them, but if you're up for renewal and see a fast way to not spend forty bucks, a lot will depend on how much forty bucks means to you at that moment. I guess I've always seen dropping subscriber numbers--and you can easily track these at a magazine's Web site, because they have to reassess their rate base quarterly--as a bad sign for not just the mag staffers, who lose jobs if this continues, but for the economy in general. Of course there are surer ways of showing how the economy's doing, but it's a segment I find a little sad when things aren't going well.

The case of Natural History is especially worrisome because it's such a good magazine, always very solid and interesting. Sweety loves the science articles, and even I often tear out their book reviews and add to my Amazon or library list. Discover went ridiculously fluffy a few years back, so there aren't a lot of science magaziness that I can both comprehend and stand any more. If NH gets thinner, it is a loss for both of us. And not just for us; it means there are fewer ways for average joes to learn about science, and it might mean the museum is suffering, too. That's a bad sign not just for the current economy, but for the future of our economy.

I am now on Facebook.

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:55:10 GMT

I'm there with my real name and a recent (cruddy photo) and everything. I was expecting to hate Facebook, but I'd accrued three formal invitations and a number of hints, so it seemed like enough of my friends were there for it to be worthwhile. So far, I've found one long-lost friend and reconnected with a number of former co-workers. Might turn out to be worth it after all.

I think I know why one of these stores is on this deathwatch list...

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:52:26 GMT

Forgive the lame link, but this is where I found the story about major chain stores expected to close down many--possibly all--stores.

This is interesting to me because I was just in #1-Least-Likely-to-Succeed, aka Sears, the other day. Having suffered through a few seasons of really cruddy kids' clothes that couldn't stand up to washing, I decided to see if Lands' End could do better for at least a few key items. I buy a lot of Sweety's clothes there because they're classic-looking and they last forever. And the kids' clothes were very nice, but some of them were mismarked. Not wanting to wait another five years for one of the girls to wear a certain cardigan, I readied for returns.

But returning with the included label costs you $6.50. If I understood the woman on the phone correctly, it costs that even if the return is due to their mistake. Returning them at Sears, though, is free. So off to Sears we went.

The return went very smoothly. The items were still tagged; their bags had been opened, but that was it. Everything was pretty close to pristine. And do you know what sticker they put on them? "CLEARANCE--USED." If they're having to do that every time Lands' End screws up an order, then no wonder they're not doing well.

Doctor Who season finale (spoilers)

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:59:04 GMT

I enjoyed the season finale of Doctor Who. They really did pull out all the stops. I particularly liked seeing Elisabeth Sladen in her Doctor Who context again.

One thing I didn't pick up on: Who was pulling Donna and The Doctor together throughout their run? It seems that someone must have had a hand in it, but I couldn't figure it out. Future Rose and/or Future Humanish Doctor, trying to create their own happy ending? Doctor-Donna, knowing it must be done to save the universe? Perhaps this was clearer in the original; it's just the sort of thing Sci-Fi would cut.

I felt terrible for Donna, dialed back to her unexalted self without even a happy memory. At least the Doctor had a sharp word with her mother.

(I swear, Doctor Who has as many mommy issues as Lost has daddy issues. Martha's mom loves her, but she's rather harsh and is a terrible judge of character. Donna's mom is just horrid. Even Maria's mom on Sarah Jane Adventures is awful. At least Jackie Tyler seemed to have softened a bit by the end.)

This makes me a heretic, but I'm not very sorry to see the Daleks go. I didn't watch all their early stuff, so I just don't have the deep-seated feelings about them that many fans do. I find them a bit boring and cheesy.

I am the only person I know who can make turnips stressful.

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:40:26 GMT

About two years ago, when I was pregnant, Sweety bought me a GameCube game called Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life. This is the girled-up second entry in the Harvest Moon line. Basically, it's a farming sim with a tiny bit of plot and a lot of relationships with the neighbors. Oh, and since this is the girl version, you also raise a kid and can buy clothes. Sweety thought I could play it while I was on bedrest, enjoying the progress of root vegetables as our own little harvest gestated.

As it turned out, I couldn't very well play console games lying on my left side with a continual nosebleed. So I just started playing it a few weeks ago. And although I'm enjoying it, it's teaching me some things about how I play games.

I like to do everything right. I also like to figure things out. In games, this usually means that you play them a few million times. However, I take a long time with games, so that means I get to enjoy the fruits of my own incompetence for months at a time before I finally finish and move on to something else.

Take Harvest Moon. I didn't read any walkthroughs, and the in-game instructions aren't great, so my character basically lived on wild herbs for several months while I tried to figure out how to catch fish. I nearly bankrupted myself buying tons of fertilizer. It's the second (of three, I believe) chapters now, and I'm only just starting to make enough money that I may actually be able to invest in some new animals or equipment and get ahead.

But the thing that's killing me is the romance stuff. I always want to play the romance stuff, because it's one of the exciting features whenever it's there. But I never really like my options. I played Baldur's Gate: Shadows of Amn obsessively, but I couldn't stand the smarmy, self-righteous cleric that was the only romance choice for female characters. (Male characters got a choice between the sweet dim thing, the competent older woman, and the hot Drow cleric. Unfair!) Harvest Moon gives you three potential bachelors, none of whom are hugely appealing.

I immediately discounted Rock, a brainless, self-absorbed pretty boy. I sadly tossed aside guitar-playing Gustafa because I didn't want to wed my little character to a hippie dude wearing a Gandalf hat. Despite being named after a sport fish, Marlin looked like a pretty good deal. He's a farmer, so he should be some help, at least. He's a bit of a clod, but so what. He wasn't as annoying as Rock, nor as annoying as Gustafa's hat.

So, I poured a lot of effort into courting Marlin. Despite staking out his farm, I rarely got him alone and got only one of his cut scenes. (I got one of Rock's without even trying.) But I cooked for him, and I spent far more than I could afford on gifts for him. He always thanked me. I got him up to three hearts out of four. I knew that one of your suitors came and proposed to you if you didn't do so yourself, and that you had to accept to win the game. I figured my Marlin would come for me.

Instead, Rock showed up at my house, asking to freeload off me for the rest of his life because his parents were throwing him out. I said no. My game ended. I rebooted, sure that this must be random. I got Rock again.

How could this happen? I had one cutscene with Rock. I never gave him anything. I tried to run over him with my horse. So now my poor little character is saddled with a useless husband and an adorable wandering kid. Whenever my character goes to buy seeds from Marlin, he gives this funny little confused speech that boils down to, "Are you happy?" And my poor little ponytailed character is slinging heavy farming implements around while her lazy hubby wanders aimlessly.

So I sit there and holler, "Worthless Rock! Stupid Marlin! With the money I spent on you, I could have bought a bull! Then at least my cow would be happy!"

Actually, my cow is very happy. Since there's all this fun relationship stuff, I know exactly where I stand. You know who loves virtual me more than my virtual husband does? My dog, my cow, and five of my chickens.

Yeah, farming. What a relaxing life.

Wildfire

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:33:54 GMT

Wildfires are burning all over Northern California. We don't live especially near any of them, and yet the air is hazy and smelly. I tried to take the kids for a wagon ride yesterday, but turned back early because I felt like I was holding cigarettes to their lips. This morning, the smell hit me halfway down the stairs.

Edit: Just check out the fire map. Yikes.

What a scary part of climate change this is! It seems that a lot of people think that if they hide inside and turn up the air conditioners, global warming won't bother them. But the drought--which may be partly due to natural cycles, but is almost certainly worsened by the human-caused heat--is baking the area into kindling. I suspect that homes and lives will be lost. It's a poor swap for an SUV.

Fascinating article on women's careers (or lack thereof) in technology

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:16:31 GMT

Computerworld posted a riveting look into why women leave technology careers. The main reason is not starting families, but getting fed up with being harassed or belittled at work. There are more reasons, too, some of which seem related. Having worked in a tech-related industry, I would say that this looks accurate.

The mentoring idea is interesting, too. I have learned from both men and women on the job, but I am especially grateful to a senior woman who took the time to teach me little things I needed to know. I used to get annoyed at the "we must all band together" idea, but I did find that many of my biggest breaks came when I had someone going to bat for me, saying, "She can handle that." Often, it was another woman who was my champion. (And it seems I didn't disappoint anybody, since those projects often grew in scope or became regular assignments.) It's sad to me that a company should need a little subculture to help valuable workers survive, but if the culture isn't very inclusive to start with, then it becomes a good idea. I think what Cisco's doing is smart.

I'm not trying to create a man-bashing situation here. Maleness is not a bad thing. What I find interesting here isn't that tech environments are man-filled or manly, but that they're macho. That speaks to me of young hires and of a failure to create a truly professional work environment. It gets me thinking, what are companies doing wrong? Are they so anxious to get the talent that they're letting too many people behave like spoiled rock stars? And when women come up with their own networks in a male-dominated department, do we end up with more problems based on that division?

Drought restrictions redux

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:22:45 GMT

After reading whatifoundthere's comment on my last drought post, I re-read the drought restriction notice more carefully. They're not applying drought rate to 90% of what we used, but to 90% of what our allowed baseline usage was. The baseline levels have always been kind of a mystery to me anyway. So it's not so brutal to people who've been careful with their water usage in the past, but Casa Sweetrabbits has some work to do.

One thing that may help: Sweety left for work early the other day and realized that the sprinklers were running more often than we thought. When the landscape designer put in the new watering times for our newly landscaped yard, she didn't delete the old watering program. Sweety deleted the old one, so we will be using a little less water than we've used the past few months, at any rate. No wonder our new plantings looked so lush and green, eh?

Upcoming drought restrictions

Fri, 30 May 2008 19:16:18 GMT

Our water utility has declared that we have a drought, and that we're going to start a new fee structure in August. By this time, we will be expected to use 90% or less water than we have in the same months of previous years or pay a premium.

This isn't going to be prohibitively expensive for us even if we go over the 90%, but I'm trying to think of ways to ratchet down our water use. I try not to waste in general, but I have gotten a little lazy on a few points. There are a few things I won't compromise on--the kids need clean sheets every week, and the new plantings need to establish their root systems if they're going to be xeric later--but I'm making some vows to cut back on our water usage.

What I'm trying first:

Put more items in the dishwasher; hand-wash fewer items.
For plates that need hand-washing, remember to use the spray head instead of the faucet. It uses less water, and it works better anyway.
Wash hair every other day. I do need to wash the rest of me pretty much every day, but hair often benefits from less washing.
Stop using the warm shower as a place to work out muscle stiffness; do a little tai chi every day instead.
Collect water left from heating shower water and use it to water houseplants and garden.
Using bibs, washcloths, and kid clothes of the color due for the next washing. This will keep me from doing extra OxiClean soaks or doing laundry before a load is full.

I found a site that has a lot of clever ideas for conserving water and finding leaks in the home, too. I'll have to try some of their recommendations.

It's kind of nice to have an impetus to cut back on water use. I'm big on conserving in general, but working at home and having kids has really let our use of all utilities balloon. I have found it pretty easy to look at the bills and say, "Well, of course it's high. It's because we have kids." But we may not really need to do a load of laundry every day. We may not need to hand-wash all the kids' dishes. It's time to re-examine our patterns and see if they couldn't be more efficient.