Stormy's Corner

Reading Milestone #2

Yesterday Caleb went and got one of his books, handed it to me and then went and got another book and came down and sat next to me.  We read for all of sixty seconds but it was very cute!

Sam's Club

I bought my own membership to Sam's Club today and spent $391 in less than an hour.  Not a thing more will fit in our fridge or in either of our freezers.  Frank says I'm not allowed to go there alone again.  (And this is after I bought diapers, toilet paper, paper towels, detergent, etc from Amazon's Subscribe & Save!)

A Reading Milestone!

We reached a reading milestone today!  I was sitting on the kitchen floor reading (that's what I do to feel less guilty about Frank cooking) and Caleb (15 months old) went and got a book and sat down next to me to read it.  He read The Nose Book, Toys, and several others in the time it took me to read a couple of pages.

One good reason. How to make decisions.

The author of Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious (as quoted in Newsweek) argues that we make the best decisions by using one good reason instead of weighing all the pros and cons:

In every case, one good reason has proven superior to data-greedy mathematical equations in making the best choices.

The example he gave was a parent whose child wakes up wheezing in the middle of the night.  One doctor they know can come to the house in 20 minutes but he's not a good listener or they can drive 60 minutes to an unknown doctor who's known to be a good listener.  Although there are four pieces of information, most parents make their decision based on one piece of information: whether or not the doctor is a good listener.  The author argues that the gut feel decision based one piece of information is better than the decision that could have been made by weighing all four.

Too many good books in the world ...

The New York Times just came out with their 100 Notable Books of 2007.  (Online a week before it will show up in print!)  Since I haven't read any of them and I've read a lot of good books this year, I will conclude that there are a lot, I mean really a lot, of good books out there!

Book Review: Good Calories, Bad Calories

If you have ever tried to lose weight or just eat healthy, you must read this book, Good Calories, Bad Calories.  This book changed my thinking about food, health, nutrition and exercise.  I didn't realize how much of what doctors said that I just believed.  I didn't realize that what they recommend is based on little proven evidence.  Or how much contradictory evidence is just ignored. 

This isn't a diet book.  It's a book about the history of nutritional advice.  Our understanding of food and obesity, how it's come about and how it's changed over the past century.  I'll be writing more in future posts but here's what I've definitely taken away:

1. A calorie is not a calorie.  A lot of other factors matter like what kind of calorie, what kind of person, metabolism, exercise, external environmental factors, ...
2. Calories in does not always equal calories out.  Or we are not measuring all the calories in and out correctly.
3. Dietary fat does not make you fat.  Fat is not necessarily better or worse than protein or carbs.  It's not necessarily equal either!
4. Many of our current doctors are 100% convinced of what they know and not really willing to consider radical shifts in thinking.   Like they continue to recommend  eating less calories and exercising to lose weight when it's obviously not working for many people.  (Do you really lack the will power?)

More to come, but I definitely recommend Good Calories, Bad Calories.  You can read a good excerpt written by the author, Gary Taubes, on ABC News.

Sailing around the world

Here's a couple who took the same sailing class as I did (not at the same time) and then decided to buy a boat and take their two kids sailing around the world.  They were both lieutenant-detectives in Montreal.  You can read the school's newsletter article about them or their website.  Their website is not html based. 

Congratulations to them for pursuing their dream!  I wish they had a blog and/or an RSS feed so I could follow them in their journey!

Here's my story of my week of live aboard sailing school.

Electronic books

Electronic books, books that you can read on your computer, phone or other electronic device, have been around for a while but they haven't really taken off.  (I read quite a few when I had a PocketPC.)  Amazon's new device, the Kindle, is trying to change that.  They spent a lot of effort making sure their reader resembles a paperback book in size and weight plus they added features that other electronic readers don't have.  On the Kindle, you'll have wireless access to the entire library of Amazon books.  You'll be able to search for books and download them on the fly.  You'll also be able to read blogs and use Google to some extent.

I can't wait to see one!  Although at $399, I might not buy one right away ...

Update: The Kindle just came out!

Some women are still punished for being raped

Rape victim gets 200 lashes. Actually, I think the punishment was for being alone with an unrelated man.  This makes me:

• sad that some women live without the rights I take for granted,
• angry that the people around her have accepted and perpetuate this as normal,
• grateful that I have so much freedom and so many rights,
• frustrated that I have no idea how to fix something I think is wrong,
• scared to ever travel to a Muslim country.

A romantic evening out

Caleb, at 14 months, is at a really fun age and so eating out is quite the adventure.  (Monday night he kept trying to go into the restaurant kitchen and he screamed bloody murder all the way to the car because he liked the restaurant.)

So it was a really nice treat when Granny and Papaw watched Caleb last night so that Frank and I could go out to dinner and a movie.  We've had breaks and baby sitters before (mostly thanks to Granny and Papaw!) but we'd never just gotten someone to watch him so we could go out on a date.

We went to a new restaurant called the Bonefish Grill complete with white table clothes, candlelight and wine.  I had a yummy dish - a fish from Argentina that I'd never heard of and can't remember the name of - and Frank had a mahi-mahi with goat cheese dish that was even better.  Then we snuck our leftover wine into the movie theater and saw American Gangster.  A good movie (how could it go wrong with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe?) and an amazing true story.  I'd heard parts of that story but never the whole extent of the drug smuggling operation.

Thanks Granny and Papaw!

A whole new you with Photoshop

Ever wondered how much a picture could be changed by Photoshop?  Well, enough to lose 100 pounds ...

Lose Weight In Photoshop (makeover) - video powered by Metacafe

Learning Calligraphy

Last week I decided to learn calligraphy.  Why?

• It looks cool.
• I like doing things with my hands.
• I like paper and notebooks.
• I wanted to revisit what it's like to learn how to write as our seven year old is working on his writing.
• I love learning new things even if I don't take them up as life long hobbies or careers.
• I was in the middle of reading The Privilege of the Sword and it seemed appropriate.

So here's how I did it:

• I went to the library and checked out four books on calligraphy.
• I read the first couple of pages of each one to see what I needed.  Complete Idiot's Guide to Calligraphy had a really good list with descriptions.
• I went to SuperWalmart and bought a 2mm calligraphy marker.  (They only had one calligraphy marker to choose from, it was 2mm on one end and 5mm on the other.  Luckily all the books said to use a 2mm one.)
• I bought some cool paper just because it was cool and writing beautiful letters on gorgeous paper sounded like fun.
• I taped a folder to a lap desk I had to create my writing surface.  (You are supposed to prop a writing board up on your lap and a table.  My lap desk was a bit too small of a surface and I soon migrated to my customary spot on the sofa instead.)
• I started practicing.  The book I liked best suggested 30 minutes a day will get you there.  It's been about four days and I can write all the small (minuscule letters) ok but my capital letters need a lot of work.

So it's been fun.  If you are interested in learning calligraphy, I recommend starting with a calligraphy marker and a book, Calligraphy (First Step Series) or Complete Idiot's Guide to Calligraphy. Have fun!

You don't want money. Really.

You don't want money.  You want the things money can bring.  Most likely you want happiness or joy.  You want money so that you can do more of the things that bring you happiness or joy.

What would the world look like if we concentrated on what brought us joy instead of what brought us money?

And you don't really need money to do what brings you joy.  If I wanted to go spend a month or a year sailing around the Caribbean , I could make that happen.  (Um, once I convinced Frank that is.)  If I wanted to be a professional student, I could do that too.  (Wait, I already am a lifelong student.)

Pursue what brings you joy, not what brings you money.  So if you don't want money, what do you really want?

Thanks to Steve Pavlina's podcast for expressing this idea this way.

Separate health insurance from employment status

Health insurance should not depend on your employment status.  What kind of health insurance you can get should not depend on who you work for.  (I have a friend who can't even insure his young son unless he works for a company that offers health insurance!)  This New York Times article argues that separating health insurance from employers would enable more people to work more flexible hours and in flexible locations:

But if workers’ benefits weren’t tied to employers, then they could transition into independent status without fear of losing their health care or pensions, and more employers would gladly oblige, since they could move costly benefits packages off their books.

Many jobs, especially those that are computer based, don't require people to be in an office or even to work fixed hours.  It would be easier to work on an "as needed" basis if those people didn't depend on one fixed employer for health insurance.

We need a mommy/kid hangout

I would like a place to hang out with my friends that our kids are happy at.  Preferably some place that even those without kids would enjoy coming to hang out with us. 

McDonald's has got this down except, well, it's McDonalds.  The seats aren't comfortable and the food isn't great.  Unless you want to sit there all morning drinking a diet coke - I've done that.  I've also noticed many other moms hanging out there for hours, either together or alone with their book.

Chucky Cheese has the right idea but the food is just terrible.  And it's also got that plastic feel - the place, not the food.  If they redecorated and improved the food, I might go and might even invite people to go with me.

Dave'n'Buster's is close, really close, but it's targeted at older kids.

I want a place that has an atmosphere and food that matches my interests (think brew pub style) with a playground for kids - little kids through medium size kids.  How hard can that be?  Do they exist and not just near my house?  If so, what are they?  Maybe I can talk one of my friends into opening one ...

What does a skeleton costume mean to you?

He's worn his costume every day since Halloween.  He brings it to me and then tries to put his arms in it.  Once it's on, he bawls!  But he doesn't want it off.  Any ideas what he wants?

Other things are clear.  The tray to the high chair means he's hungry.  His coat means he wants to go outside.  But the skeleton costume??  He hasn't had any candy and he went outside on Halloween but not trick-or-treating.

Building a huge koi pond

We were going to help move a 600 pound koi pond.  I thought we'd pick up some little pool and put it in a hole in the ground.  Turns out the rubber sheet alone was 600 pounds!  It was 40' by 50'!

Netflix or Amazon.com

Yesterday I wrote that Blockbuster has lost to Netflix.  Today I think the new battle to watch will be Amazon.com Unbox versus Netflix.  They both have downloadable movies and tv shows that you can watch on your computer.  Right now Amazon has the better solution because it has a much better selection of movies.  Amazon lets you "rent" movies or TV shows for $.99-$1.99 and you can watch them for 30 days.   You can also buy them so that you can watch them whenever you want.  Netflix program is similar but the movie selection isn't nearly as good - mostly old titles.  The main advantage to the Netflix program is that if you are already a Netflix customer, you don't need to pay anything for the service.

Watch any movie, anytime you want where ever you are.  (As long as you have a computer - which for people like me is all the time.)

Blockbuster loses to Netflix

It looks like Blockbuster is finally losing to Netflix. Based on my personal experience I would have predicted this a long time ago - I've been a happy Netflix customer for 5 years now and I haven't been to Blockbuster in at least 5 years.  Three reasons I think Netflix rules over Blockbuster:

• No late fees.  It wasn't convenient for me to return my movies to Blockbuster as it was out of my regular way so I always paid a day or two of late fees.
• Convenience.  Movies just show up in my mailbox with Netflix and they come with a return envelope with postage already attached.  I just drop it in the mailbox the morning after I watch it.  I always have a good movie or two at home to watch.
• Ratings.  I can shop for movies on Netflix and see the ratings so I know if they are good or not.  At the Blockbuster store I have to guess if the movie is good or not.  (I have the same problem with bookstores now - I have to look up every book on Amazon.com on my phone to make sure it's good before I buy it.  And the I see that it's cheaper on Amazon ...)

And just to make the problem worse ... movies aren't like books - I don't need to see them and hold them and read the back to know if I'll really like them or not.  (Although even with books, I find that I'm more and more comfortable with Amazon.com.)

Things 7 year olds say to little brothers

Jacob (7 years old) talking to his very tired and unhappy little brother (14 months):

• It's tough being a kid, isn't it?
• Look on the bright side ...
• Let's take a nap together.
• I've got a good idea! How about we play the quiet game!

Too bad his little brother didn't find it as funny as I did. 

Are you one of the working dead?

I just read an interesting article about the Working Dead - people who get paid to do nothing.  (Or who are getting paid and do nothing, mostly by choice.)  I think the working dead are caused by two things:

• People haven't found their passion.  (If you are willing to take a nap for two hours during the work day, either you really don't get enough sleep or you aren't too excited about what you are doing.)
• Corporations aren't managing them effectively.  (I know somebody who doesn't always have stuff do do and yet he's not allowed to do anything but sit there when he doesn't have work.)

For a while in college I had a job where I would occasionally spend a couple of hours babysitting the copy machine.   (I got so good that I could tell where it was jammed just by the sound it made.)  I got a lot of homework and reading done and I've often wondered if I would enjoy a job where I could work on something else (programming, reading, etc) while I occupied space at work.  I don't think I'd turn it down if it paid enough but I don't think it would be very satisfying.

It's a sad world when we suspect kids

In the midst of all the trick-or-treaters last night, a teenage boy knocked on the door and asked if he could use our bathroom.  I said of course and pointed to the bathroom.  After he left, we all realized we'd been suspicious.  We talked about how sad it was that we were all mentally wondering what he could steal from the bathroom.  (Nothing, basically.)   

How sad is that?  A world where we automatically suspect the worst of our kids!