Thursday, July 23, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
US teen gains solo sailing record
An American teenager has become the youngest person to sail around the world alone.
Zac Sunderland, 17, completed the 45,000km (28,000-mile) voyage in 13 months, facing storms, equipment breakdown and suspected pirates.
Hundreds of people cheered as he sailed his 11m (36ft) yacht, the Intrepid, into Marina Del Rey, California.
Zac Sunderland, 17, completed the 45,000km (28,000-mile) voyage in 13 months, facing storms, equipment breakdown and suspected pirates.
Hundreds of people cheered as he sailed his 11m (36ft) yacht, the Intrepid, into Marina Del Rey, California.
US teen gains solo sailing record
An American teenager has become the youngest person to sail around the world alone.
Zac Sunderland, 17, completed the 45,000km (28,000-mile) voyage in 13 months, facing storms, equipment breakdown and suspected pirates.
Hundreds of people cheered as he sailed his 11m (36ft) yacht, the Intrepid, into Marina Del Rey, California.
Zac Sunderland, 17, completed the 45,000km (28,000-mile) voyage in 13 months, facing storms, equipment breakdown and suspected pirates.
Hundreds of people cheered as he sailed his 11m (36ft) yacht, the Intrepid, into Marina Del Rey, California.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday 26th January 2009
Initially, Andrew and I found it hard to forgive Tasmania for not being the
South Island of New Zealand. We also found it hard to forgive our wee Hyundai
for not being the Earwig (my name for the Daihatsu we drove around NZ). We got
over one of these things only: while we didn't get to wear out our ooo, I
wonder what's around this corner? Let me guess: ah-ha, I knew it, snow-capped
mountains and an alpine lake sequence in Tasmania it's also beautiful, and
only in a slightly more tame way. The Hyundai Getz remained a problem. We took
the Earwig through the mountains and above the snowline. I wouldn't do that
with the Getz, in fact, I'd avoid taking one up a hill again if I could help
it.
We stayed in Hobart on the night of Tuesday 13, notable mostly because after
walking back from dinner the moon was nearly full and rose spectacularly over
the Derwent. We went inside to grab the camera, Andrew decided to check the
cricket scores and thus deprived me of a photograph as the moon rose into a
cloud bank. We had a humorous interlude the next day involving parking for too
long in the CBD while we tried to find swimming gear. Did you know plus sizes
16 and 18 is different from sizes 16 and 18? Neither did I, but you don't want
the shops to sell out of standard sizes if you wear them, plus sizes are
actually larger at the waist. Then we drove down to Franklin (on the Huon
River, not the Franklin) and remembered that we weren't staying in the B&B
with the spa, but in the cottage nearby.
I was keen to do a fairly serious day walk while we were down there, I would
have liked to have done the South Cape walk (the one that takes about 5 hours,
not the one that takes two weeks). But our rental car insurance was invalid off
sealed roads, and I wasn't terribly interested in having to buy someone else a
new car if I had an accident on dirt. We had to compromise by driving on short
dirt roads: it's impossible to go anywhere interesting south of Hobart on
sealed roads.
We worked up to whatever we were going to do by starting with the Tahune
Airwalk on Thursday 15. This is a metal construction about twenty metres, give
or take, above ground level, and at one point you can walk out along a
cantilever above the Huon, which bounces up and down, much to the thrill of the
toddler who was smooshing her face against the glass and squealing delightedly
at a thirty metre clear drop into a river. I tend to forget about my fear of
heights when doing things like looking at tourist brochures that promise a walk
amid the treetops. On the balance it's a good thing to go through life
believing I'm not afraid of things, but it does occasionally leave me stranded
in a refuge amid the treetops explaining to Andrew that I don't want to go on
the cantilever and, actually, all things considered, I'd probably like not to
be on the Airwalk at all. After I had a minute, I did end up on the cantilever
with the fearless toddler (and, I think, a couple of people who were
deliberately bouncing it up and down too, I hate people who deliberately
trigger phobias, and not just when they do it to me, thanks). Andrew got to
take all the pictures off the end though: fear of heights is for me (and
apparently not a few others), actually a fear of deliberately jumping, and for
me it's also associated with a fear of dropping things (in case I decide to
jump off after them).
We got off the Airwalk in the normal fashion and headed into the forest. One
of the reasons I like to do immense amounts of research into these kinds of
things and always regret not doing so is that I miss important things. For
example, the Huon Pine (lagarostrobos franklinii), which can live to
be 2000 years old (there's a stand of genetically identical trees which was
founded by a tree 10000 years ago too), lives in this area, but the oldest
specimens are over in the west. If I'd know there was a tree that old in
Tasmania I would have gone to see it. We had to content ourselves with a
specimen that was 450 years old.
Since this was a day I'd planned, we weren't doing only one thing that day,
we were also racing down to Hastings Cave. Andrew had never actually been well
inside a cave before and therefore hadn't seen masses of stalactites and so on.
I managed to stamp on his excitement accidentally I think by being more along the
lines of yeah, caves are often like this. We should go down to Jenolan
with James and Yasuko before James moves. We then got our use out of our swim
purchases by going to the hot springs pool.
The next day it rained and I sulked a bit, in between marvelling at how
quickly the weather changes in south Tasmania, which was a theme of the entire
visit. Melbourne should hang its head, and Sydney can go jump, leaving aside
one spectacular storm about two years back at Chatswood in which it went from
clear sky to soaking me to the skin in under 5 minutes. We went off seeking
indoor places to have a good time but unfortunately lost the Cydery. We
stumbled across Peppermint Bay entirely by accident though, where we had a
delightful late lunch platter — good preparation for the linux.conf.au
speakers' dinner there, as it meant I knew to eat lots of the paté — and then
went to a sheep cheesery (variously referred to as the cheese sheepery and the
sheese cheapery and so on). I now own a bottle of whey liqueur and need to
learn how to make tiramisu in order to explain that $20-odd to the great
accounting ledger of life.
The weather luckily cleared up for our dinner at the Home Hill Winery.
Andrew nominated himself to heroically drink three quarters of a bottle of
pinot noir in order not to let it go to waste what with me driving and all. I
remember that the food was good and we drank an allegedly famous pinot, but
it's all lost in the memories of the view through their floor to ceiling glass
out over a vineyard set against a dark hill. My favourite type of weather
varies depending on when you ask me, but at least one of my favourite kinds of
weather is when there are dark clouds above and the sun is low in the sky. I
will never take a picture that is as good as that light.
We finally got to our walk on Saturday after looking and looking for a walk
that was not notoriously hard (eg, the Hartz Mountain climb), not off an
extended unsealed road (South Cape) and not short (everything else). We ended
up on the Pelverata Falls walk, which goes through some beautiful wet forest
before dumping walkers on a path made of loose rocks along the edge of a steep
hill. I had a deep cut in my arm that took about a week to heal after sliding
down along a bit of that path. We hoped for a beautiful clearing at the end and
instead ended up on a wooden platform, albeit with a good view of the falls. We
did wish though that we knew how to get into the spot at the top of the falls:
it's clearly possible because people were waving to us from the top.
It's not clear how many holidays we'll have this year: the conference the
following week has, as usual, made me want to both switch careers (probably
three times in a year) and travel everywhere, all at once. At some point in my
life I do need to do this.
South Island of New Zealand. We also found it hard to forgive our wee Hyundai
for not being the Earwig (my name for the Daihatsu we drove around NZ). We got
over one of these things only: while we didn't get to wear out our ooo, I
wonder what's around this corner? Let me guess: ah-ha, I knew it, snow-capped
mountains and an alpine lake sequence in Tasmania it's also beautiful, and
only in a slightly more tame way. The Hyundai Getz remained a problem. We took
the Earwig through the mountains and above the snowline. I wouldn't do that
with the Getz, in fact, I'd avoid taking one up a hill again if I could help
it.
We stayed in Hobart on the night of Tuesday 13, notable mostly because after
walking back from dinner the moon was nearly full and rose spectacularly over
the Derwent. We went inside to grab the camera, Andrew decided to check the
cricket scores and thus deprived me of a photograph as the moon rose into a
cloud bank. We had a humorous interlude the next day involving parking for too
long in the CBD while we tried to find swimming gear. Did you know plus sizes
16 and 18 is different from sizes 16 and 18? Neither did I, but you don't want
the shops to sell out of standard sizes if you wear them, plus sizes are
actually larger at the waist. Then we drove down to Franklin (on the Huon
River, not the Franklin) and remembered that we weren't staying in the B&B
with the spa, but in the cottage nearby.
I was keen to do a fairly serious day walk while we were down there, I would
have liked to have done the South Cape walk (the one that takes about 5 hours,
not the one that takes two weeks). But our rental car insurance was invalid off
sealed roads, and I wasn't terribly interested in having to buy someone else a
new car if I had an accident on dirt. We had to compromise by driving on short
dirt roads: it's impossible to go anywhere interesting south of Hobart on
sealed roads.
We worked up to whatever we were going to do by starting with the Tahune
Airwalk on Thursday 15. This is a metal construction about twenty metres, give
or take, above ground level, and at one point you can walk out along a
cantilever above the Huon, which bounces up and down, much to the thrill of the
toddler who was smooshing her face against the glass and squealing delightedly
at a thirty metre clear drop into a river. I tend to forget about my fear of
heights when doing things like looking at tourist brochures that promise a walk
amid the treetops. On the balance it's a good thing to go through life
believing I'm not afraid of things, but it does occasionally leave me stranded
in a refuge amid the treetops explaining to Andrew that I don't want to go on
the cantilever and, actually, all things considered, I'd probably like not to
be on the Airwalk at all. After I had a minute, I did end up on the cantilever
with the fearless toddler (and, I think, a couple of people who were
deliberately bouncing it up and down too, I hate people who deliberately
trigger phobias, and not just when they do it to me, thanks). Andrew got to
take all the pictures off the end though: fear of heights is for me (and
apparently not a few others), actually a fear of deliberately jumping, and for
me it's also associated with a fear of dropping things (in case I decide to
jump off after them).
We got off the Airwalk in the normal fashion and headed into the forest. One
of the reasons I like to do immense amounts of research into these kinds of
things and always regret not doing so is that I miss important things. For
example, the Huon Pine (lagarostrobos franklinii), which can live to
be 2000 years old (there's a stand of genetically identical trees which was
founded by a tree 10000 years ago too), lives in this area, but the oldest
specimens are over in the west. If I'd know there was a tree that old in
Tasmania I would have gone to see it. We had to content ourselves with a
specimen that was 450 years old.
Since this was a day I'd planned, we weren't doing only one thing that day,
we were also racing down to Hastings Cave. Andrew had never actually been well
inside a cave before and therefore hadn't seen masses of stalactites and so on.
I managed to stamp on his excitement accidentally I think by being more along the
lines of yeah, caves are often like this. We should go down to Jenolan
with James and Yasuko before James moves. We then got our use out of our swim
purchases by going to the hot springs pool.
The next day it rained and I sulked a bit, in between marvelling at how
quickly the weather changes in south Tasmania, which was a theme of the entire
visit. Melbourne should hang its head, and Sydney can go jump, leaving aside
one spectacular storm about two years back at Chatswood in which it went from
clear sky to soaking me to the skin in under 5 minutes. We went off seeking
indoor places to have a good time but unfortunately lost the Cydery. We
stumbled across Peppermint Bay entirely by accident though, where we had a
delightful late lunch platter — good preparation for the linux.conf.au
speakers' dinner there, as it meant I knew to eat lots of the paté — and then
went to a sheep cheesery (variously referred to as the cheese sheepery and the
sheese cheapery and so on). I now own a bottle of whey liqueur and need to
learn how to make tiramisu in order to explain that $20-odd to the great
accounting ledger of life.
The weather luckily cleared up for our dinner at the Home Hill Winery.
Andrew nominated himself to heroically drink three quarters of a bottle of
pinot noir in order not to let it go to waste what with me driving and all. I
remember that the food was good and we drank an allegedly famous pinot, but
it's all lost in the memories of the view through their floor to ceiling glass
out over a vineyard set against a dark hill. My favourite type of weather
varies depending on when you ask me, but at least one of my favourite kinds of
weather is when there are dark clouds above and the sun is low in the sky. I
will never take a picture that is as good as that light.
We finally got to our walk on Saturday after looking and looking for a walk
that was not notoriously hard (eg, the Hartz Mountain climb), not off an
extended unsealed road (South Cape) and not short (everything else). We ended
up on the Pelverata Falls walk, which goes through some beautiful wet forest
before dumping walkers on a path made of loose rocks along the edge of a steep
hill. I had a deep cut in my arm that took about a week to heal after sliding
down along a bit of that path. We hoped for a beautiful clearing at the end and
instead ended up on a wooden platform, albeit with a good view of the falls. We
did wish though that we knew how to get into the spot at the top of the falls:
it's clearly possible because people were waving to us from the top.
It's not clear how many holidays we'll have this year: the conference the
following week has, as usual, made me want to both switch careers (probably
three times in a year) and travel everywhere, all at once. At some point in my
life I do need to do this.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Coming Face to Face With My Own Personal Predjudices…
I like to think Im a pretty fair person. I wont judge you by your religion, color of your skin, apparent size of your bank account etc. But I had an experience last week that made me rethink my own personal prejudices.
I was driving down a main road in our city and saw a small girl with a handful of toys and no jacket (and it was chilly) walking on the sidewalk by herself. The road she was walking on was 40 mph with a lot of cars. I passed her and watched in the rear view mirror and saw her step off the sidewalk and into the gutter. I immediately did a u-turn and pulled up to two men (who had each been in their own cars) were trying to get her to the sidewalk without touching her. I hopped out and as three strangers we tried to decide on a course of action. I talked to the little girl and found out she was 3 and her name was Amalie or Emery, or Emily (it was hard to decipher) and when I asked her where she lived she kept pointing across the large, busy street.
I had my four girls plus a niece in the car with me so I stuck close by and knocked on the immediate doors. One man went farther down the street and the other went around the corner to the street where he lived to ask a neighbor who we was fairly certain would know who the child belonged too if she was from close by (she was in charge of the childrens organization at church).
Most the houses on that immediate street were vacant and the one woman I did talk to didnt recognize the girl. By the the man whod gone further down the street came back empty handed and it had been about 20 minutes since we stopped. Not knowing if the other man was coming back at this point I put in a call to 911. I was on the phone with the 911 operator when the second man came back saying hed found the grandmother of the little girl who was frantically searching the next street over. He offered to take the little girl over there in his car.
I couldnt let him. I couldnt send this little girl with a man that I didnt know to find her grandmother. I knew that I was safe. I also appeared safe since I had 5 kids in the car and certainly didnt need another one and he was a man that I didnt know and instinctively didnt trust with a little girl that wasnt his. I felt responsible for her welfare and safety and my gut reaction was to not send her with a man. One whod just spent almost a half hour trying to help her.
I did get her to grandma (I didnt keep her) who was quite frantic and distraught that shed lost her granddaughter while babysitting. The little girl didnt seem scared or upset in the least.
I tell my kids if they ever get lost to look for a mom or a grandma to help the find me again. Realistically the chances of a random man being a predator are pretty slim, but Ive obviously subconsciously decided otherwise.
Is this a good thing? A bad thing? A product of the society we live in?
Back to day 1
I was driving down a main road in our city and saw a small girl with a handful of toys and no jacket (and it was chilly) walking on the sidewalk by herself. The road she was walking on was 40 mph with a lot of cars. I passed her and watched in the rear view mirror and saw her step off the sidewalk and into the gutter. I immediately did a u-turn and pulled up to two men (who had each been in their own cars) were trying to get her to the sidewalk without touching her. I hopped out and as three strangers we tried to decide on a course of action. I talked to the little girl and found out she was 3 and her name was Amalie or Emery, or Emily (it was hard to decipher) and when I asked her where she lived she kept pointing across the large, busy street.
I had my four girls plus a niece in the car with me so I stuck close by and knocked on the immediate doors. One man went farther down the street and the other went around the corner to the street where he lived to ask a neighbor who we was fairly certain would know who the child belonged too if she was from close by (she was in charge of the childrens organization at church).
Most the houses on that immediate street were vacant and the one woman I did talk to didnt recognize the girl. By the the man whod gone further down the street came back empty handed and it had been about 20 minutes since we stopped. Not knowing if the other man was coming back at this point I put in a call to 911. I was on the phone with the 911 operator when the second man came back saying hed found the grandmother of the little girl who was frantically searching the next street over. He offered to take the little girl over there in his car.
I couldnt let him. I couldnt send this little girl with a man that I didnt know to find her grandmother. I knew that I was safe. I also appeared safe since I had 5 kids in the car and certainly didnt need another one and he was a man that I didnt know and instinctively didnt trust with a little girl that wasnt his. I felt responsible for her welfare and safety and my gut reaction was to not send her with a man. One whod just spent almost a half hour trying to help her.
I did get her to grandma (I didnt keep her) who was quite frantic and distraught that shed lost her granddaughter while babysitting. The little girl didnt seem scared or upset in the least.
I tell my kids if they ever get lost to look for a mom or a grandma to help the find me again. Realistically the chances of a random man being a predator are pretty slim, but Ive obviously subconsciously decided otherwise.
Is this a good thing? A bad thing? A product of the society we live in?
Back to day 1
Thursday, July 2, 2009
lille
Next up on the European itinerary, Lille, France! I had never been anywhere in France other than Paris (read my post about my last trip to Paris here), so when on-line buddy Aelle offered to let me stay with her in Lille, I could not resist!I was also lucky to find a travel partner. Pandacookie was able to come to England in November, so together we jumped the Chunnel and crossed over to France. (In this photo, she is posing with Obama at the Lille train station. This was less than a week after the U.S. election, so there was Obama-fever everywhere!)Here is Aelle, and her partner Wally. They were the coolest hosts. The first night, Aelle had made reservations for us at Le Toucouleur, an Afro-Caribbean restaurant. She had, awesomely, previously made arrangements with the Chef for us to get a two-course vegan dinner! In the above photo, you see our cocktails. All the cocktails at the restaurant are named after African capitals- mine (on the left) was the Yaoundé, a tequilla cocktail sweetened with agave nectar and pineapple juice. I had to get it, just because it taught me how to say agave nectar in French! (nectar de goyave)Our dinner was amazing. We got the first course, this delicious and spicy vegetable stew with rice, and ate it all up, forgetting that we had another course coming!So by the time we got this amazing veggie curry (withs sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes, onions, and more) we were all stuffed! That didn't stop us from indulging anyway. The experience at the restaurant was so nice- without a host who knew the city so well, what would we have had for dinner? On Sunday, we headed to Lille's large market. It was super bustling, crowded, and filled with beautiful foods and sights. Above, you see some of the brightly-colored spices at a Moroccan spice shop.And here are some giant squash. Everywhere we went, people gave us samples of clementines, grapes, olives, etc. The market was a very multi-sensual experience.Here's one of my favorite photos from Lille- a family of musician playing on the street during market day.After picking up some fresh bread (bien sûr!) we headed home, where Wally and Aelle cooked us a magnificent... Japanese feast. (You see, both of them had been living in Japan until recently). This fragrant dish, full of mushrooms, peppers, and noodles was so satisfying on a cool day, and we inhaled it all.Lille Cathedral.Our lovely hosts at a café, where I got to indulge in my love for French espresso:Here is one of my funnest discoveries in Lille! Kwak beer (being in Northern France, near Belgium, beer is a huge deal in Lille, and people drink it more than they do in other regions.) Kwak beer is called so because it's served in the special glass that you see- and when the drink gets down to a certain point, the sound of air bubbles as you tip the glass make a "quack quack" sound- it's hilarious! And the stuff is very potent, so giggles are sure to accompany a Kwak order!Of course, you can't go to France without gorging yourself on fresh-made baguettes. Pandacookie and I must have gone through at least 10 loaves of this stuff...Both of us were also happy to get to check out Le Furet du Nord, formerly Europe's biggest bookstore! (Now the 2nd biggest)... It was so fun to browse through floor after floor of books, magazines, stationery, and art supplies, including a whole section of books in English (and other languages as well).Here are Pandacookie, me, Aelle, (and of course, baguette), as Aelle dropped us off at the train station on our way to Belgium. Our visit to Lille was so extremely fun, mostly because of the coolness of Wally, Aelle, and her family who were nice enough to take two internet strangers into their house! It was nice to get an insider vegan view of the city, and I can't wait to go back. Merci, Aelle!To see all my photos from Lille, click here.Coming up next, join Pandacookie and Bazu in Ghent...
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Movylo: Create Your Own Mobile Site
Movylo is a cool online mobile cms platform that allows you to create your own mobile site and manage it online. The application is multifunctional and provides a variety of tools using which you can create mobile-friendly web pages with content (text, images, videos and tones), aggregate and publish feeds, write blog posts, create service promotions and video brochures, create and make surveys, create and manage e-mail and sms newsletters and much more.
Created mobile sites will automatically adapt the content style to the screen size of the users phone, be it a Smartphone, iPhone, Blackberry or some regular mobile phone.
Check out the demo videos below to see Movylo in action:
Features:
Create your mobile site, personal or business and publish it online.
Created site automatically adapts to any mobile.
Load and manage multimedia content i.e. video, wallpapers, games etc.
Build and maintain your own blog.
Send your newsletters both via email and SMS.
Make questionnaires and polls to gather votes and research market in real time.
Run competitions in real time.
Create your own mobile shop.
Analyze the stats in real time and see how your users navigate your site.
Free account is limited to 10MB of storage and shows Movylo logo.
Similar websites: Ubik, Mowser, Mofuse and Google Mobilizer.
Check out Movylo @ www.movylo.com
New on MakeUseOf ...
Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Recommended!
MakeUseOf 'Geeky Fun' - Hillarious Geeky Pics and Videos from different parts of web.
Movylo: Create Your Own Mobile Site
Categorized under: Mobile Browsing, website mobilizer
Related posts
WireNode : Create your Own Mobile Startpages
Wapipedia : Browse Wikipedia from Mobile Phone
Ubik: Create a Mobile-Friendly Website
PriceCheck: Check Product Prices from Mobile (UK only)
OperaMini: The Mobile Browser Everyone should Know About. Free.
Created mobile sites will automatically adapt the content style to the screen size of the users phone, be it a Smartphone, iPhone, Blackberry or some regular mobile phone.
Check out the demo videos below to see Movylo in action:
Features:
Create your mobile site, personal or business and publish it online.
Created site automatically adapts to any mobile.
Load and manage multimedia content i.e. video, wallpapers, games etc.
Build and maintain your own blog.
Send your newsletters both via email and SMS.
Make questionnaires and polls to gather votes and research market in real time.
Run competitions in real time.
Create your own mobile shop.
Analyze the stats in real time and see how your users navigate your site.
Free account is limited to 10MB of storage and shows Movylo logo.
Similar websites: Ubik, Mowser, Mofuse and Google Mobilizer.
Check out Movylo @ www.movylo.com
New on MakeUseOf ...
Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Recommended!
MakeUseOf 'Geeky Fun' - Hillarious Geeky Pics and Videos from different parts of web.
Movylo: Create Your Own Mobile Site
Categorized under: Mobile Browsing, website mobilizer
Related posts
WireNode : Create your Own Mobile Startpages
Wapipedia : Browse Wikipedia from Mobile Phone
Ubik: Create a Mobile-Friendly Website
PriceCheck: Check Product Prices from Mobile (UK only)
OperaMini: The Mobile Browser Everyone should Know About. Free.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Bryant Terry: Vegan Soul Kitchen
Last year, I attended a "Food and Justice" symposium at Syracuse University. There, I got to hear scholars, writers, food activists, and people from all kinds of backgrounds discuss the intersections of food and justice. There was so much to think about- the availability of fresh produce. Fair prices for small farmers. The cost of organic foods. The best way to get food into the hands of those who need it. Preserving heirloom seeds and varieties. Food education. Nutrition. Politics. In short, it was a bit overwhelming! Bryant Terry is a chef and activist who is deeply involved in all these same issues. As he says in his book, the best way to engage with people on some of the deepest ethical and philosophical issues is through grub. Good, delicious, simple GRUB. The way to our hearts and minds is through our stomachs after all! I think most of us who blog understand this on a deep level- every time we talk about a delicious organic strawberry or some local asparagus or a vegan dessert, we are appealing to the appetite, but also appealing to a shared sense that there is a better way to eat. I received a review copy of Terry's second book, Vegan Soul Kitchen, which gives us plenty of ways to eat better- better for our bodies, for the animals, for the earth, and for the producers of sustainable food. In this book, he gives traditional African-American and soul food recipes that are not only vegan, but also based on a whole foods philosophy. You won't find processed or packaged foods here, but you will find plenty of deliciousness. Case in point, his recipe for Roasted Plantains with Roasted Garlic Lime Dipping Sauce. While this dish is meant as an appetizer, it fed the two of us (along with some tofu and couscous) as dinner tonight. The plantains came out crispy and savory, while the dipping sauce was brimming with fresh and tart flavors, a perfect counterpart. I can't wait to cook more with this book, especially as summer's abundant local produce comes in. Bryant Terry is a man after my own heart- there is a whole section of the book dedicated to watermelon! Get this book if you want to give fresh, local, and seasonal food a twist- who knows, you might change a few hearts and minds along the way.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Get Uncomfortable, Finally
The situation: Complacency. Complacency on even the lowest level: A feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc. Homeostasis. The human body and the human mind resist change as hard as they can. Unhappy Enough You may be unhappy. You might be miserable. But are you unhappy enough, miserable enough to get you moving, finally? As long as it isn't that bad, there is no real reason for a change. After all, the change is endangering the status quo. The resolution: Get uncomfortable with the status quo. Escalate the status quo to the point where it gets really uncomfortable and you are ultimately required to get up and finally move. Your Mind is Playing Tricks on You Please note that you are already unhappy with your situation. Do you really think that an eventual change will make things worse? Could it be remotely possible that your mind is playing tricks on you, tricks to prevent change? Any change? Even the change to something better? Something better. That's what is almost guaranteed. What do you think is going to happen after a long stretch of discomfort? The mere change, change itself, will make you feel better, once you overcome the inertia that your mind builds up to save itself. Make it Worse How? Do something stupid. Something stupid that will turn out to be ultimately intelligent. Break that situation by doing something against your values that will literally make you want to run away. Of course, stay somewhat sensible but -- you have to break that situation by going just far enough for yourself. You don't want to destruct other people's life and lives when all you need to do is to break your own mindset. The usual disclaimer applies here. Drive that car into the ground, quit that job, and leave that relationship. Do you really think that anything will be worse that it is now? Make it worse now and expect nothing but the best in return. Again, the plan is not to blow up the situation in a negative way. I do not suggest to provoke getting fired for bad performance; instead, get fired for excellent work; get too big for your current situation. The decision is made. Right? That's the part where thinking can pause and step back for doing. Think up the plan to quit, to change the situation and then do without further thinking. Let go. Avoid rationalizations like the plague. Avoid Rationalizations I can't stress this enough: Fight rationalizations. Dismiss them once the decision is made. The beauty is that you don't know yet what is to come. The trick is to move on anyway. How? It doesn't matter. One thing is for sure, though: It will be better, especially since you don't know what it is. Don't you love surprises? I know that you don't, by the way, but you will love this one. Enjoy and embrace your discomfort and move now, finally. Set a Deadline Set up a deadline, a really outrageously tight, deadline. One that is so tight, it isn't possible to linearly achieve. Set a goal of quitting in 4 weeks, whatever it is. That said, what about tomorrow? Today? The Process To sum it up, the steps are roughly as follows -- You are comfortable and complacent. You set a ridicoulously tight deadline to end complacency. You get really uncomfortable with the little you have. You realize that it will be better. You fight rationalizations. Your mind is playing dirty tricks on you. You have your mind in check and your actions are pursuing the deadline. Quantum leaps happen. Are you uncomfortable enough? Related Items Don't Ask Why: It's Overrated Leap Forward and Benefit from Nonlinear Growth Deliberate Change: Whatever it Takes Enhance your Predictions Free ebook Peer pressure, vanity and behavior, motivation tricks and hacks, success and pain, and how to excel, Celebrate Your Beauty.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Recent Pics
Hello. Here are a couple of recent pictures.Lisa speaking at FBC Lansing, Il. (I had just finished my part, and someone had to take pictures.)A yummy lunch with members of FBC Lansing.At FBC Lansing, Il.Jerry L & I.Our friends the Maugel family from Ft. Wayne.Thanks for stopping by today. Please continue to pray for us as we travel and speak. This weekend I'll be teaching youth at South Church in Lansing, Michigan. Next weekend we'll be at Mayflower Congregational church, also in Lansing, Michigan.Please pray for our support needed. We are $1200 a month short still. But God is good. He is able to provide.Thanks again, Tom & Lisa
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Lawyer Disbarred for Sex-For-Fees
Area lawyer disbarred for sex-for-feesThe News Herald Writer by DAVID ANGIER May 2, 2009TALLAHASSEE, FL — The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday disbarred James Harvey Tipler for multiple bar infractions, law violations and unethical conduct, including trading sex for attorney fees. Tipler, 58, who was based in Fort Walton Beach but practiced in Panama City and Alabama, was charged in September 1999 with racketeering and four misdemeanor counts of prostitution. He traded legal services for sex with four women between Nov. 1, 1998, and Sept. 17, 1999. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of soliciting prostitution in 2001, which resolved his case without jail time. "He satisfied his own sexual appetite with a client as a sex-for-fees arrangement," Chief Justice Peggy Quince wrote in the unanimous decision. "He altered evidence and caused a witness to unknowingly give false testimony. He has charged his clients excessive fees and stolen their money. He has failed to maintain a trust account. He has broken public confidence in the profession of the practice of law by neglecting his clients and failing to prosecute their cases. He has prejudiced the administration of justice by misrepresenting facts to multiple courts. And, through the disciplinary process in these cases, he has been dilatory, deceitful and evasive." Tipler represented an 18-year-old Bay County woman who was charged with aggravated assault and entered into an agreement with her where he'd knock $200 off her $2,300 fee "each time she engaged in sex" with him and $400 if "she arranged for other females to have sex with him," according to the Supreme Court opinion.After his case was resolved, Tipler began a lengthy process of resolving a disciplinary action in Alabama arising out of the same incident. The Alabama Bar also found that Tipler had edited a videotape in a medical malpractice suit to remove scenes that would have been harmful to his case. He was found to be in criminal contempt of court and suspended for 120 days. The Supreme Court found that Tipler had taken on clients, charged them but did not work on their cases, and misused more than $57,000 in funds. "Tipler secured fees based on intentional misrepresentation and fraud," Quince wrote. "In most of the cases, Tipler charged excessive fee, failed to comply with the Bar rules governing trust accounts and failed to protect his clients' interests." She wrote that while the court questions "whether Tipler is truly amenable to rehabilitation," the justices took into account the mitigating factors in his case, including emotional problems and a mental impairment, and chose not to disbar him permanently. He can reapply after a period of time. The opinion was sent to Tipler in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Dreams tell death
I've dreamed three dreams which told death .
1.On the just my uncle's dying day,I and my another uncle both dreamed he's strolling in the hospital yard.
2.I dreamed I was blooding,then the abrotation.
3.About my pet.I left my pet in my mum's house,and one day dreamed my mum teased it,and I told her not to .At last ,I got to know it's dead.
1.On the just my uncle's dying day,I and my another uncle both dreamed he's strolling in the hospital yard.
2.I dreamed I was blooding,then the abrotation.
3.About my pet.I left my pet in my mum's house,and one day dreamed my mum teased it,and I told her not to .At last ,I got to know it's dead.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Camera that Changed the Universe: Part 1 [Starts With A Bang]
As I write this, the Space Shuttle Atlantis has just blasted-off a few hours ago, headed for the Hubble Space Telescope. It's hard to believe that Hubble's been up there for more than 19 years now, and has helped revolutionize our understanding of the Universe, from measuring the Hubble constant to discovering Dark Energy. It continues to dazzle us even today. While you can read about the servicing mission that's going on here, I'm going to focus on saying goodbye to one special instrument this week: WFPC2. (If you want to sound like an astronomer, it's pronounced WHIFF-pic-too.) This camera, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, installed in 1993, has been taking some of the greatest pictures the Hubble Space Telescope (or any telescope) has ever seen. Today will be its last day on the telescope, and this week I will be doing a five-part special on the five greatest images this camera has taken over its 16-year history. Let's cut right to it. Part One Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster. And if you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. --F. Nietzsche When you look up into the night sky, in some places there are stars, and in other places is just a black, empty abyss. You can see more stars with binoculars than your naked eye, and more with a telescope than with binoculars. But, at some point, you will have seen it all. Well, in 1995, they decided to do an interesting experiment with the Hubble Space Telescope. Let's take a blank patch of sky, one with practically no stars in it, one with no known galaxies, clusters, or -- pretty much -- anything of interest in it. And let's point our telescope at it, for days, and let's see what shows up. This image is only one degree on each side, or only 0.005% of the night sky. So you can appreciate just how miniscule this area is: the night sky is about 20,000 square degrees, while that little area is less than 0.002 square degrees! There are five faint stars in this field, and -- before Hubble -- they were the only things we knew of in this area. It looked like this: Over the span of 10 days, WFPC2 took 342 images of this abyss, staring at this tiny, black patch of sky where nothing seemed to be, counting one photon here, one photon there, and often not seeing a single thing for minutes on end. At the end of 10 days, they stitched it all together, and here's what they found: (And click here for the full-size version.) Do you know how remarkable this is? Every point of light in this image that wasn't one of the five stars identified up top is its own galaxy! We had no idea how deep, how dense, and how full of stuff the Universe is until we took this picture. Do you have any idea how many galaxies are in this image? Any idea -- in less than 0.002 square degrees -- how many galaxies there are? Well, let's just take 3% of this image, blown-up, of course, so you can count. And remember, every single blob, blur, or distant luminous dot is a galaxy! There's about 130, according to my estimates, more or less. If we do the math and extrapolate this to the entire night sky in both hemispheres (about 40,000 square degrees), we get that there are 10^11 galaxies in the Universe, or 100,000,000,000 galaxies! Keep something else in mind here: 100 years ago, we thought we were the only one. I don't know how I'm going to find 4 other images from WFPC2 to compete with this one, but this is my favorite, and just creating it totally changed our view of the Universe, and how vast and full of stuff it actually is! Add to: Del.icio.us Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Facebook Read the comments on this post...
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Grow, grow ... faster!
It's Monday, which means Garden Update. I am sure it is scintillating, what with everything being two weeks in the ground and me photographing their every new leaf. But look... the pumpkin LOVES the miniature raised bed garden! It's now twice the size it was last week! The brilliant blue jay-like bird which I call a Blue Jay and 37 readers emailed to let me know it is a Western Scrub Jay stopped by to say hey. He loves hanging out with his friends in the yard and harassing the squirrel. I have decided to clear up the naming confusion and call him Gomez. He just looks like a Gomez. Except there are many many Gomez birds in my yard now that they have trained me to fetch them peanuts and birdseed. I have a fleet of Gomez birds. Now for the Topsy-Turvy update. Ya'll, it is WEIRD. See, in the pictures on the Topsy-Turvy box the plants grow lush and happy in a downward cascade of leaves and fruit. But in my yard, the little tomato seedlings are struggling to grow upward, like they are really not loving being upside down and their genetic memory is reaching for the world of normalcy where tomatoes grow upright and roots are at the bottom. I don't know, it seems wrong somehow! Cherry tomato: Roma tomato: You can see in that picture how some of the leaves that get the most direct sunlight crisped right up last week. It's the valley. It was 100 degrees a few days in a row. Which also means I had my first garden fatality: It was just too damn hot for the cucumber in the Back 40. I'll replant that spot with a crookneck squash or something that likes heat. What's most fascinating in my garden of eatin' this year is that the only cucumber that seems even remotely happy is the one hanging upside down! This is the best result I've had with a cucumber plant maybe ever, so I am sticking with it. It's all for science! The "Heatwave" variety of tomato seeding is still living out in the raised bed garden and it hasn't been even close to hot weather here yet (two measly 100-degree days is just a little foreshadowing) so only time will tell if he can withstand the infernal valley summers. One plant that has shocked me is the little chili pepper plant in my kitchen garden. This is one of the heirloom chili peppers my dad brought me and planted from a seedling. I've had it for two years or so now and this winter I cut it all the way back to the roots. It started leafing out a month or two ago, but once I added some richer material to the soil and mulched it went CRAZY: It's taking over the herbs. Funny! Speaking of herbs ... last night my mom and I were on the phone talking about happy little things. She was telling me about this pretty ceramic planter she and my dad had found a few days ago and how she'd filled it with a gorgeous red geranium and every time she looked at it she felt happy. Just a little happy thing. So I told her my little happy thing: Yesterday I was making my own salad dressing -- squeeze and zest a few lemons, add olive oil, salt and pepper and stir -- and usually I would add some spices from my cabinet. But I remembered I have this awesome fresh herb garden outside and I went out to the patio with my kitchen scissors and snipped a little French tarragon, a sprig of marjoram and several stems of fragrant thyme. It made me ridiculously happy to chop them up and add them to my vinaigrette. It's the little things!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Never tell a peson who's experiencing deep sorrow, i know how you feel..
i receive a txt today and it said never tell a person who's experiencing deep sorrow, i kow how you feel because you don't. Its true, maybe you went through that same situations but you have different emotions. Nobody knows anyone's emotions but themselves alone, whether your a friend or family or really close to that person but you really dont know whats going inside. what is your reactions to this? what do usually do when your comforting other people who is really in deep pain?
How Many Arrows are Left in Nokia’s Services Quill?
mage via Wikipedia One of the phrases I heard when I worked at Nokia right before they announced the divestiture of the Security Appliance Business (where I worked) was more wood behind fewer arrows. In other words, Nokia was wanting to focus more of their resources behind fewer initiatives, products, services, whatever. Seems reasonable. It should, therefore, be no surprise given Nokias huge fall in profits and the general state of the economy that Nokia is, once again, putting more wood behind fewer arrows by, according to the press release, [focusing] investments on fewer initiatives and [increasing] the use of common enablers across certain services. The press release gives scant details, as press releases often do. However, they do mention a couple of interesting tidbits: A variety of third-party partners will be added to the image capture and sharing features on devices. Presumably, only newer devices. Those of us with Nokia devices today likely wont benefit. And seriously, how long did it take for Nokia to realize theres a thriving ecosystem of services that they simply dont participate in? When Nokia says employees will be impacted by a strategy change, as this press release says, it means only one thing: layoffs. 450 of them, or at least 450 people will have to substantially change their job. At least Nokia gives decent severance packages, but I still feels sorry for those impacted. Given how long it seems to take for Nokia to make any serious changes, based on having worked for them for 10 years, I have to wonder if these changes can be implemented in time to reverse the downward slide of market share and mind share. Based on what I saw in Redwood City when I was at the Check Point office last week, Id say the fight is over and Nokia lost. Many former Nokia employees are now proudly carrying iPhones along with many long-time Check Point employees. Me? Id love to get an iPhone now, but I cant justify spending money on a new phone when Ive got a drawer full of them. Maybe after Apple releases the next generation iPhone Related articles by Zemanta Nokia Asking For Volunteers To Trim The Fat (phoneboy.com) Nokia cuts a further 1,700 jobs worldwide as demand falls! (ceoworld.biz) Too many brands - variety stymies smartphone viruses: study (cbc.ca) Nokia to extend S60 usage, new smartphone defintion (allaboutsymbian.com) Nokia Targets the U.S. Market (businessweek.com) Comments30 April 2009, Kellman writes: PhoneBoy using an iPhone? Isn't that one of the seven signs of the apocalypse? Let's see, had earthquakes, floods, nasty flu brewing. . . . if I see you walking around with an iPhone, I'm moving further north and hiding ;)1 May 2009, PhoneBoy writes: Don't you already live pretty far north? :)Related PostsNokia N75 in April? And the N95 in North America?Nokias Latest AdSense BuyTesting Think Outside Keyboard With Nokia N95Pownce and GrandCentral InvitesCreebies: Nokias Version of Tamagotchi This work originally came from The PhoneBoy Blog and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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