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The state of the economy
The NYT (which I read every morning, BTW) has an excellent article on the current state of the economy, how bad things are, and how bad they are likely to get:

Uncomfortable Answers to Questions on the Economy

Most popular writing on economic topics is trash, whereas this article rattles off all the things that "those in the know" (at least, subjectively, by my judgement of who to read and believe) talk about: historical price:rent ratios, Case-Shiller index (rather than the less accurate OFHEO price index), the effect of Mortgage Equity Withdrawal, the overhang in home inventory, etc.

( Here are some key excerpts )

The graphic is also worth looking at

My Mood Monitor
Having observed this behavior with

beth_leonard and her son, Patri and I have made a habit of naming Tovar's emotions when they're obvious: "Tovar is sad," "Tovar is frustrated," "Tovar is happy."

Tovar, now, has gotten into the habit of naming my emotions: "Mama is sad," "Mama is happy."

Now, he'll occasionally say out of the blue "Mama is happy," which is really interesting, because usually I'm unaware of my mood at the time when he says it. I'd say he's right more often than not, although usually its subtle.

Its been great for appreciation and awareness for me, to have these unexpected check ins.

Current Music: Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake

Last Couple Months (Part 1)
Oh, yeah, I have a blog. Here is a quick summary of what's been going on with Dodi and I over the last couple months.

Back to Work for Daddy
I went back to work the second week in May, when Celerity was 3 weeks old. We set up a cot in Celerity's room so Dodi could take care of late night feedings with CJ without waking me up. We worked out a plan where Dodi would head to bed somewhat earlier than normal, I would take the evening shift, and Dodi would take the the late night feeding. This ultimately didn't work out that well, since Dodi tended to not be able to get back to sleep after Celerity's feeding. It didn't help that Celerity was still in her "Late night party" stage. We were so busy that the image to the right is the last one was have in May.

A lack of sleep and the overall stress of going from part time care of CJ to all day care of CJ was turning out to be too much for Dodi. She managed well for a couple weeks, but eventually started to break down. I started to work from home to help take some of the pressure off her. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. At the end of May Dodi had to go out of town*.

Effectively a Single Parent
I was largely unprepared for single parenting. We had not considered what might happen if Dodi had to go out of town. We did not have a Daycare provider, had not even considered looking for a Daycare provider. I was kinda in a daze. I knew Dodi was going to be ok, but I had to work, if only to retain my sanity. I started calling friends and family and managed to get a patchwork fo folks to watch kiddo for the next week. Our friend Julie gave a recommendation for a local gal who does Daycare. She turned out to be just a couple blocks away, very affordable, and had a slot open for an infant. I was super lucky to get Celerity in and thus was set for daycare.

The next couple weeks were largely uneventful. Celerity began to sleep through the night . . or at least most of it. There were off and on 3am feedings, but by and large I was putting her down at Midnight and she was waking me up at 6 or 7 the next morning. This meant that I was largely conscious while at work. We settled into a (somewhat bleary eyed) regular schedule. I fed and entertained Celerity at night while watching TV or trying to type (babies don't go well with typing). Every morning I'd drop her off with Daycare, then pick her up after work. Rinse. Repeat.

* If you don't know what I mean, feel free to contact me privately.

Pushing the "reset" button on public opinion
Al Gore made a bold speech this Thursday.

Is the public listening?

If you're listening, you can increment the counter.

cardiac copulation
the pressure of yours beating up against mine, swelling inside me
an organ fighting for its release
in my chest you come to rest

07.17.08: this is why we can't have nice things

http://www.explodingdog.com/title/thisiswhywecanthavenicethings.html

Links For Your Clicking Pleasure

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/links-for-your-clicking-pleasure/

The Art of Romance will be a book – thank heavens! My coffee table has a burp rag, some clickers, a graham cracker, and a copy of Bar Mitzvah Disco, but does it have a paperback collection of the visual history of Mills & Boon romance covers? No! It is lacking! Oh, the sorrow! The woe!

You can order your own copy of the book, which is due out October 2008. It traces the development of the genre and provides a visual history of one of our favorite elements, the cover art. Thanks to BB for the link.

And if cover art wasn’t enough joy for your eyeballs, here is an EXTREMELY NSFW OMGHOLYCRAP link (that I saved for Saturday for that very reason) provided with thoughtful care by Sarah (not me, another Sarah). Two words that express limitless pleasure: Naked rugby. Members of New Zealand’s national team, All Blacks, participated in a nude rugby match for charity. Yeah, yeah charity. I wanna know what the Haka looked like performed by full monty rugby players.

And if nude bottoms are not on your work agenda today, try this, courtesy of Debunot: “What did you do today?” “Oh, I rescued a family of baby ducks who were jumping off an awning.” So cute my teeth hurt. *le sigh*

Speaking of teeth hurting, if this cake were mine I’d never eat it. No matter how much I wanted cake. (Thanks to Miri for the link).

Too much sweet and Selleck? Then I’ll smack you silly with a slightly late link to the Purple Prose winner for worst sex scene, from Rebecca Miller’s The Private Lives of Pippa Lee:

a pleasure ballooned from her sex, swelled to fill her body until it burst, the sensation running down her legs, and she cried out, her head falling lifeless on the mattress, her body lank as the neck of a dead swan.

That’s just comedy freaking gold right there. Wow. Dead swans and sex balloons. It’s like Lisa Frank mixed with hardcore porn.

Italian Update
...e qui.

quotwitian

09:43 The chinese bakery i used to go to every friday just got shut down by the health department. Oops. #
10:25 @giapet I want grilled cheese sandwich! Come make me one! #

วกิიხదాვاוაنعక్რ미ტაนินีLoudTwitterالნკير현דனிרისגوןเกาะமு경தషీరలు。

The "Better Bible Through Regular Expressions" Project


my $isaiah_ch5_v11 = "Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may pursue strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!"

$isaiah_ch5_v11 =~ /^([^,]+)/;

echo $1;

Current Music: just the sound of the compressor in my refrigerator

Things vs. OmniFocus
I think I'm going to switch OS X GTD apps soon, as well as revising my GTD process based on what has and hasn't been working for me. I've been using iGTD, and it's just too cluttered and powerful for me. I want less features and more ease of use. There are some great things about it - it's free, and the developer is very productive, so it has advanced rapidly. But it doesn't give me a "Mind Like Water"

I first checked to see if LifeBalance, my old favorite, had gotten a facelift or an iPhone version. I used it for years, and what I love about LB is that it actually prioritizes for you. Basically, at every level of the project hierarchy (from goals down to projects) you can set importance, and then LB sorts tasks based on those, and on what you've done lately, in order to try to keep your total accomplishments balanced by area. I love having it tell me what to do, and being able to yank up & down priorities on projects based on changing importance. I've never found this in another task manager, yet it's really simple & intuitive.

Anyway, LB improves very slowly, and still doesn't have an iphone version, so forget it.

The two apps that sounded really good from reviews are Things and OmniFocus. Both have available, robust iPhone versions. Any comments from those who have tried them?

Cute wedding pics

Work productivity
I am fascinated by how productive I have been in my last days at Google. I get my stuff done quickly enough that much of the time, I'm waiting for other people. Yet I'm also spending way more time reading and sitting in the sun then usual. I take more frequent breaks, and have been spending less time in the office.

The key to the apparent paradox, as far as I can tell, is that I'm much more focused and wasting a lot less time. I have no need to appear or feel productive, so when I notice that I'm reading pointless work email, or news about Google, or any of the other things I do to look & feel like I'm doing Important Company Work...I stop. I either do actual work, or I go take a break (more often the latter). As a result, I have more energy, so when I am working, I can more easily force myself to work on what needs to be done, rather than what will be easy.

An interesting lesson. Reminds me of the Results-Only Work Environment, and Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time, and the 80-20 rule.

I'm going to go to the tea shop on Alberta, get a table outside, and start counting bicyclists that go by. Maybe I'll count the next 100 bicyclists, maybe I'll stop when I get bored.

Poll #1225900 Helmet usage
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What percentage of bicyclists will be wearing helmets?

View Answers

I'll give some kind of prize to whoever gets closest.

A brief guide to world domination
Or "How to live a remarkable life in a conventional world".

I just read this great PDF (google it, I'm posting on my phone). It really isn't about controlling the world, but about being a purpose-driven, unconventional, successful person. I liked it a lot. There's something really fun about reading stuff like this as I prepare to quit my job to do crazy things. Maybe it's a case of finding a source that will tell me what I want to hear, but there's a lot of "yay, I'm doing the right thing!"

Google has two Walkstations!
One is thanks to

zudini. Cool. Here's the product page. I had a sort of similar setup at home: a recumbent exercise bike w/ a special laptop stand, but didn't end up using it much. The stand wasn't great, and biking is somewhat distracting.

Somehow, while I am not a fan of long, repetitive cardio (like jogging), I am a fan of long, repetitive cardio (like walking while working, AKA "Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis"). Maybe there's some cognitive dissonance, or maybe they are really different. I don't feel like thinking about it :).

Phantom of the Opera!
Hey all, many of you will have no interest in this, the rest, listen up! I've never seen Phantom performed, and it will be in Portland from 8/13 through 8/29. Who wants to go, I'm organizing. :) Yee Haw!!

Current Mood: bouncy

ninety-sixopus

Current Music: The Oohlas -- Octopus

FictionDB: Slurping Up All My Free Time

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/fictiondb-slurping-up-all-my-free-time/

Attention! The following link will suck up an hour of your day. If you don’t have an hour to spend, maybe this isn’t the link you ought to be clicking on.

From Bitchery reader Robin comes the Time Suck of the Week: FictionDB.com. Robin was in the process of restocking her library with Nora Roberts books. The FictionDB “has become invaluable in this task because it takes a book like “Courting Catherine” which is long out of print, and lists ever ISBN associated with it (including audio) and where it can now be found.”

Robin likes to use it for research, especially when hunting down the backlist of a favorite author, for work or for her own beleaguered bookshelves. Well, I don’t know for sure that Robin’s shelves are beleaguered or just a little weary, but I presume her shelves are like mine.

You can subscribe to the DB for about $3 a month and access all the free features plus a few extras: you can keep track of wishlists, TBRs, ratings, and notes, and sell your books through the site.

But even the free version is a book nerd’s paradise, especially the romance section. Enjoy.

Just remember. You’re not going to get that hour back.

"George W. Bush Sewage Plant" makes the ballot

Satire at the ballot box to 'honor' Bush

They want to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant come January, when the next president is sworn in. During the inauguration, the group also wants supporters to participate in a "synchronized flush" -- a way to send a gift to the renamed plant, which supporters say, would be a "fitting monument to this president's work."
It sounds like a harmless joke, or maybe a college civics lesson gone awry. But they have already collected 8,500 signatures in support of the plan - 1,300 more than the minimum needed to put the question to city voters in November.
The biggest opposition in this Democratic stronghold, McConnell said, is people who oppose naming anything after the 43rd president.
Officials at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns the plant, say they get the humorous intent. But they note that the plant is an award-winning facility that keeps the city's streets and the ocean clean.
"If you are looking for a place to make a negative statement about the Bush administration's impact on the environment, this would be the last place to do it," agency spokesman Tony Winnicker said.

Current Music: Placebo -- Brick Shithouse

politics remix: Sean Tevis for state representative.
Madness? No: THIS IS THE INTERNET!

http://seantevis.com/kansas/3000/running-for-office-xkcd-style/

All he's asking for: $8.34.

What he's offering: sensible policies to save Kansas. He wants to fix science education. He wants to fix education in general. He understands the internets and why censorship is a bad idea. (oh, and he's actually worked in government before -- apparently he's been with the city for a while)

\m/

Donations ahoy!

Client to graduate from program in 60 days. He will be a productive member of society, and doing things on his own. :D
Yay, him!

Organizing a meeting between 3 organizations for one cause is annoying, but will hopefully be worked out soon.

More pretty ink after work today :) Forgot my camera, so I'll have to figure something out other than Sean taking a picture when he's finished with the session. So, the pic won't be up in it's usual Flash Gordon time frame. :p

OMG WTF Moment:
15 year old charged with animal cruelty against neighbor's kitten-
"veterinarians treated her [the kitten] for a collapsed lung and a broken rib—wounds reportedly sustained from being thrown down a flight of stairs by the teen."

So far it's still cyclists vs motorized traffic in PDX. Windows are cracking, breaking, bikes are wielded as weapons, and cyclists are hood surfing. Latest involves a cyclist cracking a tri-met bus window with his fist. What's next?

Planning next camping trip, destination is Oxbow park. Anyone else want to go? I have a really large tent that can hold at least 4 people (which is great to use if it's not raining, not so fun when it is).

smoking ban: level up!

HELL YES:

San Francisco smokers are already banned from lighting up inside restaurants, bars and public buildings. Now Supervisor Chris Daly is proposing tougher restrictions, including no smoking in taxicabs, at outdoor cafes, in lines at the ATM, at farmer's markets and within 20 feet of the entrance to businesses.
The city's Department of Public Health says there's no safe level of second-hand smoke. "There's been research that shows the exposure in outdoor areas. The levels can be as toxic as indoor levels," said Alyonik Hrushow from the San Francisco Health Department.
Smokers may feel like pariahs in this city, but according to the American Lung Association, San Francisco is behind other cities including Belmont, Berkeley and Ross when it comes to trying to limit second-hand smoke.

This will be a slight hassle for us at the club, since we'll have to make people move farther down the block to smoke, but that's fine with me, because I find it absolutely disgusting to have to walk through that gauntlet of stench on the sidewalk in front of the exit door.

You're welcome to smoke, and to play with your own poop. Just keep your smoke, and your poop, off of me.

Current Music: Alien Sex Fiend -- Smells Like...