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.

From techne23 and luvmoose

FOUR JOBS YOU'VE HAD IN YOUR LIFE
-Enginering Manager
-Editor of Technical manuals
-Receptionist
-Salad maker at a fast food restaurant

FOUR MOVIES YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER
-Labryinth
-Casablanca
-Sense and Sensibility
-Any documentary produced by David Attenborough

FOUR CITIES YOU'VE LIVED IN:
-Bangkok
-London
-Philadelphia
-Oakland

FOUR TV SHOWS YOU LOVE TO WATCH:
-The Daily Show
-The Sopranos
-Family Plots

FOUR PLACES YOU'VE BEEN ON VACATION:
-Burma(Myanmar)
-Turkey
-Peru
-Italy because doesn't everyone want to go?


FOUR WEBSITES YOU VISIT DAILY: (this is via RSS)
-blogspot.com
-livejournal.com
-neilgaiman.com
-bbc.co.uk

FOUR OF YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE RESTAURANTS: (revised after Sariuh reminded me about Chez Panisse and I realised the closing down curse tends to be from my parents)
Chez Panisse
this Japanese place in SF whose name I forget. Argh.
Le Trianon (closed down but my parents also liked it)
Paul K (maybe not all time favourite, but at least a favourite restauraunt I go to now)

FOUR OF YOUR FAVOURITE FOODS:
-tea
-chocolate
-cheese
-sushi

FOUR SCHOOLS YOU'VE ATTENDED
-Davis Senior High
-Saint Paul Girl's School
-Bryn Mawr College
-Haas Business School, UC Berkeley

FOUR PLACES I'D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
-with two healthy kids
-on my first book tour
-seeing Renee Fleming at the opera
-Rome

I was also disappointed in Trader Joe's peppermint bark. I think I bought it before, and forgot it was disappointing. Now it's here in my blog, so I can read it again and save my money. Perhaps you can save yours. I paid $9.99 for 6 3x3" squares. Those are expensive squares. It comes in a big tin, so I guess that's part of where your money goes.

The white fudge tastes creamy and milky, but lacks any other particular flavour. That's okay. We're here for the chocolate. The dark fudge tastes rich velvety chocolate, made from decent chocolate liqueor. It's a good combination with the peppermint candy, which has a strong minty flavour. However for some reason the candy maker skimps on the peppermint candy, so it's quite unsatisfying as peppermint bark. It's actually just white-dark chocolate at a high price. I guess I could go and buy some peppermint candy, crush it and make it good, but at that price, it seems rather ridiculous.

I tried Ghiradelli peppermint bark at a party. The peppermint tasted strong and minty, but paled against the bland chocolate.

I know I bought peppermint bark somewhere and I loved it. It was expensive though, so I think I blocked it out of my mind. Where can I buy good peppermint bark? Why is it expensive?

C says I should blog about Trader Joe's food since I buy so much of it. Problem is that it changes all the time. But I do find that Trader Joe's food is very hit or miss. Some of their food is wonderful. And well, then there's the peppermint bark. Want to read more Trader Joe's food reviews? Tell me.

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.

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.

On Saturday I gave in my Haldol prescription, but as often happens when I build myself up to do something, the universe had a little laugh at my expense. The neurologist wrote a dosage that "doesn't exist" according to the pharmacist. He wrote it for .25mg and the smallest dosage is .5mg. I'm not sure whether to worry about the pharmacist or the neurologist since this is my first time going to either. In hindsight perhaps this was a bad idea, though Longs Drugs is a big chain.

Afterwards we drove to C's company picnic, which featured delicious ribs. For some reason, lately, I can't get enough of ribs. Dunno why. C suggested I might have an iron defiency, which I can believe after supplying Little T my little vampire baby in utero. He's 10.5 months now, but I haven't exactly had time to eat that well. Guess I'll have to take a multi-vitamin.

Little T did his best to look hale and hearty. He's a chubby baby. Force feeding via tube will do that to you, I guess. At his GI apt, his weight gain was almost a hockey stick with his height growth not too far behind. He really wants to get on that 3rd percentile. He's still below the growth charts for now.

Special K ran around and had such a great time she didn't want to go home.

Later we drove to SF to visit some college friends of C. We had mai-tais and saw photos of their Hawaii trip. Today we went to visit one of my college friends and see her new puppy. Our social life is starting to approach something more normal, though we still can't go anywhere more than a two hour drive. That brings me to my next post.

I went to a surgeon today for a lump in my right forearm and he said it was a lipoma, a benign fatty tumour. It's grown in the last 3 months since I first noticed it. It was smaller than a dime and beneath the skin. I only noticed it because Special K was rubbing my arm. Now it's the size of a quarter and bulges out ever so slightly in my arm. It's probably not noticeable to anyone but me.

Jenny told me that "dogs get them a lot...old dogs." I said "Thanks a lot Jenny. I'm officially an old dog." I didn't ask the surgeon if losing weight would help, but I think it's a good motivator to lose weight. It hurts a little more when it's touched now that it's bigger. Plus I don't want it to get big enough to be noticeable to anyone. Little T should have the corner on tumours in the arm in this family!

First thing I'm doing is to stop buying any more desserts and candy. Problem is our nanny gave us chocolate this morning. Then I have to decide if I want to go on a diet and if so, which one? I dieted once several years ago BC (before children). I went on Atkins for 3 months. I lost 15lb, which is about what I want to lose now. Atkins prevented me from eating ice cream and chocolate, which are my downfalls. However I'm not sure if I can survive my current rather stressful life with no chocolate. And I don't do sugarfree stuff.

So I'm considering Weight Watchers, not the meetings, prepared food etc, just the point counting. Jenny just started Weight Watchers point counting and has this spreadsheet. That seems kind of a pain. C says I should exercise more and eat less. That seems sensible. To be honest, I'm not sure if I can even diet. For me to a certain extent, food and sleep are fungible. If I eat more, I can sleep less. I think I read somewhere about a study that proved this point. Anyway I'm still not getting enough sleep. Guess that means I should go to bed now. But before I go, if wouldn't mind sharing what diet and exercise works/ed for you? Goodnight!

Little T showed off his rolling at his OT apt. His OT said he's making good progress. He pushes down now with both feet. He exerts a little pressure with his left wrist. He sits up better.

His OT suggested putting solid food into his cheek pouch. It takes more effort to spit it out. And it does help get more solids in him.

Little T's hand doctor said he was doing so well that he didn't need to see Little T for 3 months.

I bought more baby vitamin drops and small jars of baby food. I feel more hopeful today, because I can see tangible results from tube feeding.