Yesterday I spent most of my day on the phone or on the computer.

Little T's PT quit last week and I'm scrambling to try to find a replacement. I also realised sadly he'll need PT for some time. So on Thursday I have to convince the doctor of this government org CCS to give him PT for the next 20 years.

I talked to Little T's GI doctor and we've put him on Prilosec to see if that helps with the bad reflux.

I'm considering sending Little T to preschool in September if his immune system can handle it and I can find something suitable. Socially I think he's ready. I'm not sure if he'll be able to walk, or talk much, but he'll be able to communicate with the teachers. He'll be motivated to walk and to talk to keep up with the other kids. I'm looking for a preschool that has mixed special needs and typical kids. There's one in Palo Alto. I'm hoping there's one closer to home, but we'll see.

So I called Little T's pediatrician's office to find out about shots. Someone there needs sensitivity training. I gave Little's T chart number and said "[Little T] can probably start receiving his shots in September if all goes well. How long it would take him to catch on his shots?" The receptionist said "He's never received any shots?" with a disdain and shock in her voice "No." I replied. I really didn't see why it was any of her business. Abruptly the phone was disconnected. I called back and someone else answered the phone. "Hello, this is Liz" I said "I got mysteriously disconnected." Liz said "Oh, that message got taken." with a certain arch quality in her voice. I said "It's important to add that September's the earliest, because he last received chemo in March." "Okay." she said with a pause. I think she was looking over at the other receptionist. It made me feel better. I like Liz. She's always friendly and cheerful when we go in to see her. I should tell her sometime. Later my ped's nurse called back and said it would take a year to catch up and that Little T could get a medical exemption if we wanted him to go to preschool.

I think it's really ironic, because I'm very pro vaccination. My little sister almost died from meningitis. When I was a teenager, I did home care for a man crippled by polio. I have no doubt that some children are poisoned by mercury. And some children are a lot more sensitive to mercury than others. Mercury may even be a casual agent in autism and other neurological disorders. I also want mercury removed as a preservative in vaccines. The trouble is that the vaccine needs to preserved somehow and I worry the new preservative may be worse. It's possible there may be something specific about thiemersol that causes damage, but the amount of mercury in vaccines is incredibly small compared to the amount of mercury exposure in everything else. If you want to avoid mercury, don't eat fish, eat organic everything, because there's a ton of mercury in pesticides and fertilizers. Get mercury removed from our water. Life is always about weighing risks and benefits. IMO there's a huge benefit to getting a vaccine - being protected against life threatening and crippling disesases v.s the small risk that it increases the overall mercury load on a child's body. The sad fact is that mercury is a pollutant that pervades our environment. You can check out this handy dandy diagram from the EPA. This seems to be lost in the debate about vaccinations.

I can certainly understand spacing vaccinations and delaying certain vaccinations. Like I see nothing wrong with delaying the Hepatitis B vaccine if the child is not in a population at risk for the disease. They give it to newborns, because the most at risk population is there at birth. But I would gladly give Little T the HIB (meningitis) vaccine today if I could. I worry that he will catch menigitis. And sadly I avoid certain gatherings where I feel the other kids aren't vaccinated lest he catch certain life threatening diseases.

Some links taken from frumiousb

• A frightening article in the Chicago Sun Times about a key gap in data privacy laws Your phone records are for sale. - Since according to this article, potentially law enforcement records could be accessed, I'm sure this hole will be plugged soon. Big Brother is very much at work in this country.
  
  
• Susan Crawford's post on public ownership of the Internet as commons - I think it's an interesting blog, but she completely misunderstands the basic point of what a commons is. A commons is something where you can't assess or pay for the entire value of the resource, and the cost of polluting or destroying said resource has far wider repercussions which are difficult to control at the source and nearly impossible to control once the resource has dispersed. You can't pay for the entire value of air or water, because for the most part, it's freely available and polluting the atmosphere above one country leads to acid rain in another. In contrast most people directly pay for Internet access, free library access, not withstanding. I guess you can argue the cost of spam harms others and cost money. However unlike polluting air, pollution of the Internet, spam can be regulated at the other side at some cost by installing antispam software, as well as regulating it at the source. You can't do that with air. So the Internet isn't actually a commons in the strict sense of the word.
  
  
• Local vs. global in The Baker who beat McDonalds. - To me this illustrates why capitalism still works better than any other system. Nobody forces anyone to eat at McDonalds. Unfortunately many people choose to do so, but in a small town in Italy, they chose a bakery instead.
  
  and C
  
• 
  Kayaking in the Galapagos - A new form of travel in the Galapagos. Someday C and I will take our honeymoon here, but I'm not sure if we'll kayak
  
  
• DNA Offers New Insight Concerning Cat Evolution - because I love science and like cats.

According to the Washington Post, smaller cars are flying off the lots, though it doesn't separate hybrid from non-hybrid cars. All I know is everywhere I look around here I see Priuses. The Economist calls the Prius ugly, but I find it strangely beautiful. I blogged about my Prius envy.

Honda came out with a Honda Hybrid Accord
so Toyota's fighting back with a Toyota Hybrid Camry next year. Unfortunately it's not being produced in Fremont. But where's the Toyota hybrid mini-van supposedly coming in 2007 according to Hybrid cars.com . No-where in sight. It will probably depend on how the Prius and Camry sell. I guess the universe is telling me we don't need actually need one.

Sometimes I think I should move back to England when I read headlines like: Junk food to be banned in schools Of course I suppose the kids could sneak off campus and buy food outside, but it's a lot harder and takes exercise and ingenuity.

And last but not least, the Washington Post reports the first images of a giant squid. It seems they were pretty cruel to the poor creature to capture the image and in the end the creature lost one of its limbs. CNN has a video. At the end of the video, the scientist blithely says the squid is in no danger of dying from losing its tentacle and yet at the beginning of the video, they said they know very little about the giant squid. Typical arrogance of scientists. I hope the big squid is okay and can still capture its prey.

To me, potty training is when the child goes to the bathroom completely on their own. Special K's starting to do this. She went on her own several times yesterday and today. She even washes her hands. We're very proud.

Our use of soap and tp have both gone up dramatically -- a small price to pay. Our use of diapers have gone down dramatically. So all in all, a win for the planet.

A Slate article on European mail vs. American mail I don't agree with the article. Though I agree that Europeans are much more likely to start an emai with "Dear".

Natural Gas Vehicle - It seems like a better solution than hydrogen fuel cells, because you still have to make the hydrogen from dirty fuel sources.

kynn blogs thathe got this image from the LJ image feed
that literally pulls images from Live Journal.


Tempest brews over quotes on Starbucks cups.

I've never been a big fan of Starbucks, but it makes me want to go buy Starbucks right now. I left a commment at the Starbucks website. I encourage you to do the same.

Here's what I wrote

Thanks for your The Way I See It #43 quote from Armistead Maupin. I really enjoyed reading it. I support the free expression of ideas. I don't like the religious right's attempts to suppress ideas and try to get you to pull the cups. I put your cup on my blog and I told my friends about it. Free advertising for you. If you bow to pressure and pull the cups, I'll also blog about that and boycott Starbucks.

It seems like everyone around us is buying a Prius! One of the mothers in my book group has the original one. But this round of Prius envy all started when my friend Andrea drove me in hers and showed it off to me. I had no idea the new Prius was a hatchback! I love riding hatchback. I've developed a serious case of Prius envy. Then my friend Jed blogged about his shiny new Prius complete with pictures. Our next door neighbours are buying one. Another friend talked to me about buying one.

If the new Prius had been out in 2002 when it was time for us to buy a 4 door sedan, we'd have probably bought a Prius. But the old one was a little too small in girth for two car seats. We're waiting for the Toyota Sienna hybrid minivan "expected in 2007" according to Hybrid Cars.com

But of course on the Internet, you can always find folks more obssessed than you. A google search of "Prius envy" revealed a Prius fan site complete with videos, photos and a log book with over 200 pages, which asked the question. "Do Hybrids save money?" and as part of the answer, another question "Why must you be rewarded (save money) by using less resources and polluting less?". My answer is because we live in a capitalist society where things are valued according to money. The real question is: Why are gas and clean air so undervalued that owning a Prius is more expensive than owning a regular car? I believe gas and clean air and a lot of other enviromental "goods" are undervalued due to government subsidies to industries, and regulations that in reality require industries to pay only a fraction of the true cost of cleaning up their pollution.

But we'll drive our Passat for many more days, because VW fixed the trunk latch under warranty. No more dinging!

I had a dirty little secret in my garage closet -- a Barbie doll that a 4 year old girl gave me years ago as a housewarming gift. The 4 year loved Barbies and thought it was the perfect gift. "Barbie!" Special K exclaimed when she saw the box or rather the Barbie logo. She couldn't see what was in it. She identified it solely by the Barbie logo. "It's for me?" she asked joyfully. Well, who else was I keeping it for? She immediately wanted to play with Barbie. "I love Barbie!" she declared. How the hell had she learned to love Barbie? Then she asked "Is Barbie married?" I said "No, but Barbie has a boyfriend named Ken." She frowned. "Barbie is married. She has children." And sure enough the package insert displayed a picture of Barbie dressed as a bride and another of Barbie holding a baby doll.

Me: I don't like Barbie.
SK: I like Barbie. You like Barbie.
Me: No, I don't like Barbie. She has funny feet to wear high heels.
SK: I like high heels.

She looked over the package insert carefully.
SK: What are these Barbies called?
Me: They don't have names. They just have numbers.
SK: Ohhhh, these are all the other Barbies. I'm taking Barbie on a picnic.

Was that another idea from Mattel? I tried not to think about that one too much. She went to our backyard with Barbie and some yogurt. My job was to sweep the spiderwebs off her playhouse and chairs. Then I figured out that she could sweep them off herself. She swept off the remaining cobwebs then sat outside eating her yogurt with Barbie. After a few minutes, she walked back inside, saying "Barbie and me had a great time."

Just as I was being to think she might be doomed to a life as a pawn of the patriarchal corporation, she asked me "Can I recycle this?" she asked pointing to her yogurt container. "Yes if you wash it." I replied. She carefully washed it in the sink, then asked me to help her put in the recycle bin. Funny how she can scare and stun me, sometimes at the same time.