Crying in the Rain
Posted on 30. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in international, religion
What were you doing on April 27? I had lunch with a few friends, got some work done, spent lots of time on the phone with Microsoft tech support…a pretty average day for me, I suppose.
Lucky me. I’m here in the United States. This poor little guy on the right spent April 27th escaping from the Burmese Army, which is systematically displacing the Karen people. Note that not only is he wearing a trash bag to protect himself from the rain, but that he’s holding a leaf over his head to keep dry.
Bad stuff is happening all over…
Culture Shock Photography Contest
Posted on 29. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in cool websites, international
I stumbled on this site recently: http://csw.cablesource.net/ It shows the winning photographs from a 2004 National Geographic photography contest with the theme of “Culture Shock.” Photos range from a man hanging from hooks in his bare skin to monks playing volleyball.
At right are some girls from the Himba tribe in northern Namibia. Their hairstyles reflect their family structure: two braids means both parents are together, one braid means one parent, and a shaved head means the parents are divorced.
I can’t find any mention of this contest in 2005. If it did take place, please let me know!
DON’T Download Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2!!
Posted on 27. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in technical
After reading David Pogue’s column in today’s NY times, I downloaded it today, and it wouldn’t load ANY website. “Internet Explorer cannot find this webpage” it said. I spent 1.5 hours on the phone with Microsoft before they finally gave up and had me uninstall it, so now I’m back to IE 6. I would have done that in the first place, but I didn’t know IE 6 was still on my machine. I checked to see if I could download IE 6 from Microsoft, but it appeared I’d have to install Service Pack 2 again, and I definitely don’t want to go through that again.
“Why does everything good have to be bad for you?”
Posted on 27. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in food, parenting
That’s what my son said as we tried in vain to find him a mom-approved snack for this weekend’s church trip. Everything he wanted had either sugar or high fructose corn syrup. I was willing to get granola bars, since at least they pretend to be healthy, but neither kid wanted them. So, we went home empty-handed. Well, we did get sourdough bread…all the other bread had high fructose corn syrup too! Even the wheat bread!
Dave Loves Elizabeth
Posted on 27. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in cool websites
I found the most amazing website in the “Personal Website” category of the Webby Awards: Dave Loves Elizabeth. It’s one man’s tribute to the woman of his dreams. It’s laugh out loud funny, and yet completely endearing. The bar has been raised: modern men should learn by Dave’s example when wooing their gal!
Renew US
Posted on 26. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in environment, politics
Renew US has a great documentary-style video on its website that purports to be filmed in the future and looks back on how the US changed from oil and coal dependency in 2005 to cleaner energy sources. You can see it at http://www.renewus.org/index.html I love the clip of the lady filling her drinking cup from the tailpipe of a Ford. I also loved the McFuel stores, which use old fryer oil for fuel. Very inspirational, as all these changes actually reverse global warming. Imagine that…
Trouve Online
Posted on 25. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in international, shopping
I found a new cool online store today: Trouve Online.
I was looking for an enamel “Salle de Bain” sign, and found it there, though it’s not in stock. They have great French and European decorative items and knicknacks. I liked the sign to the right.
When Not to Keep a Secret
Posted on 25. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in education, parenting
Our culture values keeping secrets, but there are times when it’s good not to. I do the website for the American Psychiatric Association Alliance, and I LOVE their “When Not to Keep a Secret” essay contest. You can see the winning essays at http://www.apaalliance.org/contest_winners.htm. Teens talk about telling adults about child abuse and self-abuse, and that though it’s hard to tell the truth, it’s worth it. It’s an important lesson!
Jim Milley has a blog!
Posted on 20. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in religion
In our Faith Missions marketing meeting yesterday, I promised Jim Milley (pastor at La Canada Presbyterian Church) that I’d teach him how to blog. Instead, he took on the challenge by himself, and has started what I’m sure will be a wonderful blogging career. You can see Jim’s blog at http://jmilley.wordpress.com/
The Glass Castle
Posted on 18. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in books
I read a FANTASTIC book on Sunday: by Jeannette Walls. It’s a memoir of her life since childhood. The book starts as she’s on her way to a fancy party in NYC, and looks out the taxi window to see her mother dumpster diving. The rest of the book chronicles how this could happen, that the mother is homeless and yet the daughter lives in comfort in the same city.
Ms. Wells had a rough childhood by any definition, but she doesn’t whine about it. She appreciates the good things that her parents did, but acknowledges the problems that came about because they never took adequate responsibility for raising their children safely and comfortably.
By the way, this book would be completely appropriate for teens to read, and hopefully in doing so they’d gain an appreciation for the blessings in their own lives and a reminder that if you are determined you can do great things.
Corn for the massive masses
Posted on 14. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in books, food
Wow! I just heard Michael Pollan on NPR talking about his new book, . He said that the average American eats 66 pounds of high fructose corn syrup a year. I found the same statistic on the internet here. Here’s an excerpt:
|
“The consumption of fructose (corn syrup) has risen considerably in the general population within recent years. In 1980 the average person ate 39 pounds of fructose and 84 pounds of sucrose. In 1994 the average person ate 66 pounds of sucrose and 83 pounds of fructose. This 149 pounds is approximately 19% of the average person’s diet. Â
This increase is due to several factors. There was a decreased use of cane and beet sugar (sucrose) in processed foods and a wide spread use of corn syrup due to economics. Corn is much cheaper and twice as sweet as table sugar. It is absorbed only 40% as quickly as glucose and causes only a modest rise in blood sugar.” |
Pollan really slams corn. He says it’s so cheap to make that farms wind up growing it instead of raising animals, and that the animals wind up on big, boring farms like we see driving up the 5. Apparently there’s very little biodiversity left in states like Iowa, since so much of the state is covered with corn and soy farms now.
And how sad! He visited a free range chicken farm, and the chickens only got about two weeks of “vacation.” And most didn’t choose it!
The worst part about this is that the least nutritious food is the cheapest
food because it’s subsidized. That doesn’t make sense!!
Is there corn in Diet Coke? Apparently not, and that’s what makes it less dense. But, it still isn’t nutritious.
Dream Dinner update
Posted on 12. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in food
I went back to Dream Dinners today. Last month’s dinners were such a hit with everyone in the family that we’re hooked. This time I made two each of six different meals. I made all 12 in only 50 minutes. We had the Southwest Steak tonight, and it was fantastic.
Needless to say, I’ve already signed up for next month.
Platial – a way to create your own Google map
Posted on 11. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in cool websites, my life, travel
Platial.com is a cool new website that allows you to pinpoint favorite places with custom descriptions, images and tags, and then to publish them.
I created a map with favorite places I’ve been, go, or would like to go. You can see my map by clicking here.
Please let me know if you can think of more for me to add!!
WARNING! It’s ADDICTIVE!!! Plus, it makes you want to take a vacation and visit all those old haunts…
Canines vs. lagomorphs
Posted on 10. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in my life, religion
I just loved this excerpt from “A Velveteen Apologetic” in Christianity Today:
|
“As my husband and I bunny-proofed our house and joined the ranks of lagomorph aficionados, it was for another reason, too: To us, rabbits embody divine whimsy. When God created the rabbit, it couldn’t have been with a straight face.
So when my soul scampers away from God, invariably, our two mini-rex rabbits lollop up out of nowhere to lick my hands or face. Or the animals hurl themselves through the air in the ultimate show of bunny exuberance: a binky. They leap in the air, shake their heads, kick their legs to the side, spin around, and then land, having completed a 180-degree turn—sometimes several times in a row. Or they nudge my hand, presenting themselves for a massage, and grind their teeth with delight when their request is granted. Or they “faint,” flopping over on their sides with their eyes rolled back in bliss. What holy hilarity propels rabbits to dance, flop, lick, and bliss out like that? How unnecessary! How extravagant! How good.” |
I’m a dog person (terriers, specifically) myself, but I love how this person describes bunnies. Happy Easter! May the imaginary lagomorph bless you with an abundance of chocolate this Sunday morning!!
Two cool websites I discovered today
Posted on 10. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in cool websites
Squidoo (http://www.squidoo.com/) allows “lensmasters” to post blogs about a specific topic. It’s a lot like About.com (http://www.about.com/) but more user-driven. I put up my MySpace Parents Guide there.
That led me to Digg (http://www.digg.com/), a site which ranks news articles and blogs based on user votes.
Both sites have search boxes to help you find the topics you’re looking for.
One thousand white women
Posted on 09. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in books
I spent the last few days reading “” by Jim Fergus. It’s the fictional account of what might have happened if the U.S. government had taken the Cheyennes up on their offer to trade 1,000 white women for 1,000 horses in order to form stronger bonds between the two cultures. No one comes off as a saint in this book – the whites are determined to do anything to get the Cheyenne’s land, and the Cheyenne men are often brutal in their treatment of the Sioux and whites. I’m no expert in Native American history, but this book is so detailed about Indian life that it rings very true. I checked out the Amazon.com reviews, and it does appear that the author really did his homework when writing this book. I highly recommend it, but be prepared for a little bit of bodice-ripping.
By the way, if you’re looking for a FANTASTIC work of historical fiction, read Octavia Butler’s “.”
MySpace guide updated
Posted on 09. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in education, parenting
In preparation for the talk I’m giving to the LCHS 7/8 (junior high) PTA on Tuesday, I’ve updated the MySpace Parent’s Guide. (click on link to the upper right) In particular, I added excerpts from some representative articles I found about MySpace.
Stealth Bomber
Posted on 03. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in my life
Cool moment today: the kids and I were having lunch at Manny’s Pizza in Old Town Pasadena with my father-in-law, who was telling us about how he worked on bomber planes when he was in the army, when S looked up and said, “There’s the Stealth Bomber!” Sure enough, the Stealth Bomber was flying west over Old Town. We have no idea why, but it was pretty neat.
Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
Posted on 02. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in movies, my life
We saw a great movie at the Laemmle Playhouse theatre last night: “Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School.” It’s about a widower who fulfills another man’s dying request and attends a dancing/charm school. In the process, he exorcises some of his own demons and finds his own happiness.
I loved how the poignant story of the dying man and the widowers are balanced by flashbacks to an adolescent cotillion class. As I watched the movie, my kids, who are veterans of the Gollatz Cotillion, kept saying that scenes reminded them of their cotillion experiences. On my other side was my father-in-law, whose wife of 49 years died in January, gently wiping his eyes. So, it rang true for all of us, and we all liked it. I also appreciated the “non-linearity” of the way the story was told, so we never got too caught up in only one aspect of the story.
Marisa Tomei was great as the “love interest” of the widower. Why doesn’t she do more films??? Robert Carlyle did a good job as the lead. He was very reserved, but that’s what the character was supposed to be. I’m not reserved, so I had a hard time relating to him. I kept wanting to make him talk more!
The filmmakers spoke afterwards, and they were incredibly sharp. I can’t wait to see the film they’re working on now, about the son of a Nobel prizewinner.
Recent Comments