Dates in the future bring wistfulness

Posted on 30. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in my life, parenting

I just formed a new Facebook group for my college class, and wanted to include our 25th reunion date as an upcoming event. Unfortunately, I can’t, since it’s more than a year away. So I decided to put it on my Google calendar…and that’s when I realized that my daughter will be in college by the time my next reunion rolls around.

It almost makes me cry. I’ll miss her. Maybe I’ll be ready when the time comes. Hope so.

My kids make me laugh when they say things like “Die!” to the uncooperative GPS and it starts directing us to Thai restaurants. They inspire me when they run and bike all the way to the Rose Bowl. And we have great discussions about the most random topics.

At least we’ll have the cellphone…and Facebook. Hopefully they’ll live close enough to me someday that I can still see them frequently.

WALL-E: Great movie, but oh so depressing

Posted on 29. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in education, environment, movies, my life

We loaded the kids into the Prius last night and saw WALL-E at our local theater. As all of the reviews I’ve read agreed, this is a great movie. The animation and story are top-notch, and the music is wonderful.

So why am I still so depressed after seeing it? Perhaps it was the bleak vision of the future, a world so filled with trash that humans escape to outer space, where they lose their individuality and bone structure and suck on protein drinks. Even though the end of the movie could be considered optimistic by some, the realist in me doesn’t think it would play out that way. I hope our great-great-grandchildren don’t blame our generation for all of their woes. We’re trying!!!!

On a happier note, I think that WALL-E could score some good summer employment cleaning up the destruction at my kids’ alma mater, Palm Crest Elementary School. I drove past today and saw that the district decided to go ahead and build a new cafeteria / auditorium (a “cafetorium” as we say) and has commenced destruction. Many of us fought hard to pass the bond to support this, so it’s satisfying to see that all of our efforts weren’t for naught. Hopefully there will be enough kids to keep the school open! (If we were in Europe, I wouldn’t bother.) Although my kids spent Kindergarten through 6th grade at the school, and I was a PTA president there for two years, it seems like a long time ago that we were part of the PCR community. Still, if I walked around campus during the school year, I know I’d see lots of people I know and feel part of it again.

Here’s a picture of the destruction so far. Go for it, WALL-E!

Ask Belief-O-Matic what religion you should be

Posted on 27. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in cool websites, my life, religion

Not sure if your religion matches your beliefs? Take the 20-question Belief-O-Matic quiz to determine how your beliefs match 27 of the world’s major religions. Questions range from “What happens to humans after death?” to “Why is there so much suffering in the world?” After answering each question, you can give it a low, medium or high priority.

My results matched my chosen religion, Presbyterianism. Here are the three religions that had more than an 80% match for me:

1. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%)
2. Orthodox Quaker (82%)
3. Liberal Quakers (80%)

Several years ago when I took the quiz, Orthodox Quaker came in at 100%. I guess my beliefs have changed slightly over time. But they’re still Christian. I was surprised that Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) showed up as more of a match than Roman Catholic. (60% vs. 50%) Still, they’re nowhere near the 100% my chosen religion got.

Note: Belief-O-Matic won’t assume legal liability for your eternal soul!

Every senior’s worst nightmare, solved

Posted on 26. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in education, movies, my life

When I was a senior in high school, I applied to six colleges. That was a lot for 1981, but these days kids are often advised to apply to nine or more. Today I read about a guy who applied to 18 – and got into 17 of them!

My worst nightmare was that I wouldn’t get into any. I remember how relieved I was when I got my first acceptance letter. At least I knew I’d go somewhere, and I could exhale and relax.

But what if you don’t get in anywhere? What do you do? If you’re the main characters in the movie Accepted, you start your own college. I was too tired to work this evening, but had to stay up late to pick up my son, so I watched this on HBO with my teenage daughter. It was actually pretty good (though it completely deserved its PG-13 rating), and brought up some good topics for discussion. (fraternities, following your passion, how long four years is) It’s a silly movie, but it was the sort of brain candy we needed now that school’s out and she’s gearing up for a tough junior year.

The easiest way to alleviate email stress

Posted on 25. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in politics

Silly me! When I blogged about ways to alleviate the stress I feel from the constant barrage of emails, I didn’t even think of this one: DON’T READ THEM!

Haha? If only! According to today’s NY Times article, White House Refused to Open Pollutants E-Mail, that’s exactly what the White House did when the EPA sent them a report about global warming:

The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week.

Excuse me while I go bury my head back in the sand…

We need a block party

Posted on 23. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in local news, my life

When we moved to La Canada Flintridge 12 years ago, my husband refused to look at houses on streets with yellow lines. We were coming from a cul-de-sac in Pasadena where not only did everyone know everyone else, but we organized block parties on holidays. (see picture to right) We got lucky: we moved to another cul-de-sac, organized more block parties, and still stay in touch with those neighbors.

Unfortunately, there were too many rattlesnakes and coyotes in that neighborhood for us, so we moved down the hill to a house on a street with (gasp!) a yellow line. Sure enough, we know some of our neighbors, but we don’t even know the people two houses to the south.

After reading Peter Lovenheim’s NY Times op-ed piece, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, I’m inspired to have a block party in our “new” neighborhood. In the eight years that we’ve been here, there’s only been one communal gathering: a pancake breakfast held one summer at another neighbor’s house. Part of the problem is that we’re on a really long block. There are 24 houses on our side of the street alone. Still, we can invite everyone and see if they come. And now that we have sidewalks, the trip will be easier. Now to convince my husband to have this gathering in our backyard.

Too bad we don’t have a cul-de-sac, though. I’ll miss the parade and the firefighters who let the kids man the hoses.

Keep the Quail as California’s State Bird

Posted on 22. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in animals, local news, politics

Pirates vs. Ninjas? That’s so passé. The real battle is taking place between the Valley Quail and the Parrot. There’s a movement afoot to unseat the Quail as California’s state bird and replace it with the Parrot.

Parrot supporters say that the Quail, which inexplicably bathes in dust and grubs for worms, has done nothing for our state during its 77-year reign. They say that California needs a bird as bold as its image, and that the bird for the job is the Parrot.

I disagree. We had a flock of quail at our old house, and they were wonderful. Besides being unique and attractive, they stuck together, and the parents were never far from the children. They were humble and purposeful, and provided much-needed balance to our many rattlesnakes and coyotes.

Parrots, on the other hand, are loud interlopers. We have a flock of about 50 that occasionally skitters through our neighborhood. You can hear their squawking from a mile away, and they fly like they’re drunk. I concede that they all stay together, but they never look like they know where they’re going. The pro-Parrot group says that Parrots help people make hands-free calls (a requirement as of July 1st), but I would never trust a Parrot behind the wheel of a car. If that’s the way they fly, can you imagine how they drive?

By this point, you’re probably wondering if there’s a subtext to all of this. Indeed, there is: this campaign is organized by a company called Parrot that makes hands-free cell phone devices. You can install one in your car, and use it with your Bluetooth-compatible phone. The devices are actually pretty cool, and . I might check it out for my husband. (My Prius has this covered. :) Much as I like the Quail, I concede that this is a pretty witty campaign.

Even so, I’m sticking with the Quail for State Bird. If the Parrot wins, it would probably make the Peacock the Chief of Staff.

Yakkety yak, I’ll go back

Posted on 21. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in food, local news

This evening I took my daughter out to dinner at a wonderful Himalayan restaurant in Old Town Pasadena: Tibet Nepal House. We’d had our eye on it for awhile, but since my son doesn’t like to explore new cuisines we hadn’t had a chance to go. We were tempted not to eat there since the street concert right outside the restaurant was deafening, but I didn’t think it would be fair to the owners to deprive them of business because of a concert that was out of their control.

My daughter and I are both glad that we persisted. The chef’s special chicken was moist and pungent, and the yak meat was soft and spicy. Both tasted quite healthy: we didn’t feel as if they depended upon a sauce to disguise their taste, like happens in some other cuisines. The native stone ground wheat bread that came with the meal was basic but tasty, and once the band outside stopped we were able to appreciate the calm Tibetan music. We topped our meal off with the Mt. Everest dessert, which included vanilla ice cream wrapped in a crepe drizzled with chocolate. I know: I’m allergic to chocolate. And yes, now I’m itching. But it was worth it to try something new, and to have a special meal with my beloved daughter.

I can’t wait to take more people there! Maybe some day my son will even be willing to check it out. I know he’d like it if he did.

The book you MUST read this summer: “What is the What”

Posted on 20. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in books, inspirational people, international

If you read only one book this summer, read Dave Eggers’ . It chronicles the life of Valentino Achak Deng, who escaped from his village in Southern Sudan to become a “Lost Boy” who saw unspeakable horrors as he walked across the desert to safety. After years as a refugee, he was fortunate enough to come to the U.S. and start a new life. His courage and determination are inspirational.

This incredibly well-written tome weaves current events with Valentino’s recollections of his youth. The book is labeled a novel only because he can’t guarantee that conversations and events are exactly as he remembers them, but the book has so much detail that I bet he’s not far off. I couldn’t put this book down.

Besides learning a lot about this time and place, I gained even more of an appreciation for the current situation in Sudan. It was also a good reminder not to whine about the little setbacks I may suffer in life. In truth, I’m a very, very fortunate gal, and need to be thankful for that and do what I can for those who aren’t as fortunate.

Hopefully I’ll be able to convince my kids to read it.

I’m making a difference as an international lender via Kiva

Posted on 19. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in international, non-profits

A year ago, I lent María Del Roció González of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico $75 to help purchase a bread machine for her bakery. I did it via Kiva.org, which pooled my money with other lenders’ to loan Sra. Gonzalez a total of $1,200. She’s been paying it back on a regular basis, and made her final payment yesterday.

Instead of withdrawing the money, I chose to lend it to someone else. Whenever I lend to someone on Kiva, the first thing I do is search for a Hernandez. I figure they might be a distant relative. I actually found one yesterday, and decided to lend the money to Francisco Javier Saldaña Hernandez of Acuna, Mexico so that he can expand his small house. He still needs $400 to get to the $600 total that he needs, so click here to donate! At first I was hesitant: after all, he’s not using it to expand a business. But then, I figured that I was lucky to be a Hernandez in the United States, where banks are happy to lend far greater sums to me. Also, the agency that referred him to Kiva has a 0% default rate.

Of the 22 Kiva loans I’ve made, 10 have been paid back in full so far. It’s satisfying to know I’m able to make a difference in peoples’ lives.

New site launched: Stuart M. Davis

Posted on 18. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in work

Another busy day…and not just because the kids had a half day on the last day of school! I launched another website:

Stuart M. Davis rescues sick machines that are unsafe, need repairs, or have stopped working. He also trains people in how to correctly use machines.

See http://www.stuartmdavisinc.com

Tips for reducing email inbox clutter

Posted on 17. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in my life, technical, things that bug me, work

One of the biggest barriers between me and serenity is my email inbox. I hate chaos, and if there’s something in my inbox, I regard it as a task undone, a monkey on my back. I often feel that my life is like a tennis game, where I’m constantly hitting balls back to other people.

Apparently I’m not the only one feeling overwhelmed. Saturday’s NYTimes article, Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast, notes how some companies are trying to find ways to help their employees cope with the crush of email. They’re encouraging employees to send less messages, especially group messages, and to cut themselves off from the constant flow of email into their inbox. Some are even encouraging “zero email Fridays,” though that works better in theory than in practice. I recently heard an NPR story where a Microsoft employee with over 2,000 emails in his inbox declared “email bankruptcy” and deleted his whole inbox. How tempting is that?!? Unfortunately, that didn’t go over very well with some of the people who had sent him emails.

My inbox is doing pretty well right now, with only 25 emails. What are those emails about, and why aren’t I getting them all out of my box? Here’s a quick tally: work-related (15), memo to me reminders (3), class notes (3), need to log in finance program (2), friends (1), volunteer work (1). The best part of this exercise was realizing that there were 16 emails sitting in my inbox that I was able to dispense of pretty quickly because they were either no longer relevant or could be filed. Clearly, work’s what holding me back right now, but at least it’s paid work. Then again, that’s because the volunteer work had deadlines and I completed it already.

Here’s what I do to try to reduce my technological stress:

• When it gets really bad, I turn off the volume on my computer, so I don’t hear the click click click of emails pouring in.
• I don’t IM. I tried it many years ago, and found that as soon as I’d wrap my brain around what I was doing before I typed my last message, another would come in. I’d waste a lot of time writing about what could have been a 2-minute conversation.
• I don’t receive my emails or Facebook messages on my cellphone. I’d go crazy if I did.
• If I can’t get to something right away (e.g., make appointment for doctor tomorrow), I set up a Memo to Me reminder to arrive when I can accomplish the task.
• Our family uses a Google calendar with about 6 different calendars. Besides one for each family member, we have one that includes All-Family Events, and one that includes My Events Which Impact the Family. (e.g. when I have to go to the dentist when the kids are out of school.) Each family member has access to what s/he needs.
• I maintain two iGoogle to-do lists: one for work, one for personal stuff. Each is prioritized.
• I subscribe to Freshbooks, a service which provides a timer for me to keep track of how much time I spend on each project. Once I click on the timer, I don’t let anything distract me, since I only want to bill the client for work done for them.
• I delete mass email forwards unless they look truly fascinating and I have time for them.
• If I can respond quickly to an email, I do.
• If I think I might blog about something, I file it in a “Blog about someday perhaps” folder so that it doesn’t sit in my inbox.
• If I’m REALLY crazed, I stop blogging. I guess it’s not that bad right now. :)

Please let me know if you have any more suggestions!

How to make your husband do more around the house

Posted on 16. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in feminism, my life, parenting, startling statistics

Here’s a sad statistic: when both a husband and a wife both have full-paying jobs,

There, the wife does 28 hours of housework and the husband, 16. Just shy of two to one, which makes no sense at all.

It’s no wonder that some couples are setting up chore and errand charts to ensure equity. According to yesterday’s NYTimes Magazine article, When Mom and Dad Share It All, there are even couples that set up schedules on the computer. Many gain their inspiration from a group called the ThirdPath Institute, which encourages shared work within families so that they can create more time for life.

This intrigues the industrial engineer in me, but thankfully I don’t need to set up charts at my house. Although my husband works full-time outside the home, he’s great at chipping in to clean up, and even does his own laundry. Since I work at home, I mix in chores and errands with my work day. We settled into a routine long ago: I track the finances and he mops the kitchen floor. We’re both happy. Now to get the kids to do even more! (Heehee! They’ll have more time now that summer’s almost here!)

The article brought up something that I don’t hear talked about much: that many women choose less stressful or lower prestige positions to accommodate family demands. That’s definitely true in our case. I left my first consulting job because I didn’t want to travel away from my husband, and I left my second job when I saw that the only way to move up in the company was to move to the Midwest. If I’d considered myself to be the primary breadwinner, perhaps I wouldn’t have made those decisions. Although I’m very happy with these decisions, I do wonder what I could be doing professionally now. Then again, if I had stuck with those jobs, I might be wondering what I could be doing for my family or community that I wasn’t.

Pasadena Chalk Festival highlights

Posted on 15. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in art, local news, my life

No Father’s Day is complete without a visit to the annual Pasadena Chalk Festival. I’d thought we were going to miss it, but then my husband chose to go to Paseo Colorado for his Father’s Day dinner. Here are a few highlights:

Of course we liked the drawing of Barack Obama.

No chalk festival is complete without a Diego Rivera. I bet Rivera would have loved this festival.

It’s no wonder people love peacocks so much: they’re beautiful! Too bad they’re so loud and have such prolific excretory tracts. Also, it’s only the peacocks that are so pretty, not the peahens.

I really liked this one. It works well in chalk.

This one reminds me of Penelope Cruz in Volver. We saw it the other night, and loved it. We loved the strange, fantastic storyline, and Penelope Cruz is amazing in her native language. The Spanish in this movie was much faster than it was in Pan’s Labyrinth. Thank goodness for the subtitles. Of course, it would also help if I spoke Spanish instead of French.

After we left dinner at Islands, my daughter said she’d probably be pretty happy and relaxed living in Hawaii. I would too. It’s just too bad it’s so far from my relatives. I wish I lived on a beach like this one. Sometime I’ll need to visit Patti and Sheree!!

My daughter loved this one. If she had blue eyes, she’d kind of look like this. Except, I don’t think she could look so mean without laughing.

Here’s why we rushed out of the chalk festival. My husband was pretty antsy to get home and watch the Laker game. The Lakers just won, so I guess it was worth it.

I predict Obama will choose Kathleen Sebelius for VP

Posted on 13. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in politics

For weeks now, my husband and I have predicted that Barack Obama will choose Kathleen Sebelius as his running mate. Apparently Camille Paglia agrees:

But I’ve come to feel that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is Obama’s best bet. She is a polished public presence who epitomizes that cordial, smoothly reassuring, and blandly generic WASPiness that has persistently defined the American power structure in business and government and that has weirdly resisted wave after wave of immigration since the mid-19th century. An Obama-Sebelius pairing would be visually vibrant and radiant, like a new day dawning.

Four websites I recently designed

Posted on 11. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in work

Here are a few websites I recently designed that are now live. Some have actually been live for several months. There are a few more neat ones I’m working on now, and I can’t wait until I can add them to my portfolio.

	the company that makes traffic safety products from recycled materials Three D Traffic Works view website
	the metal fabricator Z Manufacturing view website
	the jump roping team Palpitating Panthers Jump Rope Team Note: Since this website launched, the team changed reorganized and changed names. New site coming soon!
	the fitness boot camp Urban Army Fitness Bootcamp view website

Down Syndrome speaker becomes Big Man on Campus

Posted on 10. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in disabilities, education, health

For the third year in a row, I arranged for my website clients from the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles to speak to 7th grade science classes today. DSALA’s executive director, Gail Williamson, and her son Blair, who is an actor and has Down Syndrome, told the kids what it means to have Down Syndrome, and shared clips of movies and tv shows Blair has acted in. They stayed the whole day, and spoke to five different classes.

Gail says that 95% of women in Southern California who learn they are pregnant with a Down Syndrome child choose to abort it. It’s no wonder that hardly any of the students who heard today’s presentations know anyone with Down Syndrome. Hopefully they learned that a person with Down Syndrome can lead an enjoyable and rewarding life.

Here’s a picture of Blair with some of the students. Many kids stayed after each class to get Blair’s autograph and have him sign their yearbooks. They even stopped him in the hallway and leaned off the balconies shouting his name.

I think he needs a star on the sidewalk out front.

Why I couldn’t put my Obama magnet on the back of my Prius

Posted on 10. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in politics

Yay!! I finally received my Barack Obama car magnet.

Too bad it doesn’t stick to the back of my car. I’ll assume my Prius is partially constructed of high-tech, durable composite materials.

In any case, I could only add the magnet to the side of my car. Now my car looks like an Obama campaign vehicle.

Hopefully no one will steal it. Many years ago I tried adorning my antenna with a and a Los Gringos Locos guy in a sombrero, but both promptly disappeared.

The heroes of today’s JetBlue Flight 481

Posted on 08. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in disabilities, inspirational people, travel

Kudos to the flight attendants of today’s JetBlue Flight 481 from Boston to Long Beach. They treated Katherine, the young woman with Down Syndrome who sat in our row, with such respect and courtesy that I thanked them on my way off the plane. They were attentive but not overbearing, and JetBlue should be proud.

I’d write a letter to the company, but their sweaters were zipped up so I couldn’t see their nametags. Perhaps that’s what impressed me even more: they weren’t doing it to get any awards, they were just being themselves.

It makes me want to fly JetBlue again.

I wish I’d heard JK Rowling speak at Harvard

Posted on 07. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in books, education, inspirational people, life lessons, quotes

Although I’m glad we arrived late Thursday for my husband’s 25th Harvard reunion, I would have enjoyed hearing Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s commencement speech earlier in the day. Her speech, which can be found on npr.org, focused on two themes: failure and imagination. She said that she always feared failure, but once she failed and realized she survived, she appreciated the lessons she learned from it.

I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.

I totally agree. I haven’t experienced total failure in my life, but I’ve definitely had setbacks. They’re never as bad as I’d feared, and I usually learn something from them. Failure also sometimes gets me off a treadmill and encourages me to try another path that is often better suited for me.

I also liked this quote from her speech:

There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.

That reminds me of someone I know who still blames her parents for all her ills…even though it’s been over 50 years since she was a child. There’s a point where you need to take responsibility for your own life. I’m not sure that the age is 16 (when kids get their driver’s licenses in California), but perhaps it is. Hmmm.
As for imagination,

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

Amen. Hopefully the grads will heed that advice!

Reason #1 I’ve been too busy to blog: Book Expo & Anniversary

Posted on 01. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in books, my life

It’s probably a good sign that I got nothing done in the past few days, and haven’t even blogged. It means I’ve been having fun. Here’s a quick recap of what kept me occupied on Friday:

I treated some of our school district’s librarians to Book Expo America at the LA Convention Center. Our first stop was the Children’s Author Breakfast, which featured Judy Blume, Neil Gaiman, and Sherman Alexie, as introduced by Jon Scieszka and Eoin Colfer. They were all brilliant and witty and amazing beyond all of our expectations, and we were completely inspired. Neil Gaiman showed a short clip about the upcoming stop-motion animation movie Coraline, based upon his . It looks incredible, and I can’t wait to see the finished product. In the meantime, I can’t wait to read the advance copy of his newest novel, The Graveyard Book. He says it’s about a toddler who somehow escapes after the rest of his family is murdered, and is raised by the ghosts in the nearby graveyard. The back cover says it’s for age 10 and up, but I can’t wait to read it! You can read more about the breakfast on the Publisher’s Weekly website.

After the breakfast, we went straight to the nearest exhibit hall, where rows of publishers were displaying and distributing this year’s hottest upcoming books. Thank goodness they gave away free bags for us to hold them all in! I think I brought home about 5 bags of books. I seriously need more hours in the day to read them! Of all the books I got, I’m most looking forward to reading Darin Strauss’ newest novel, . I loved his book about the Siamese twins, , but when he signed this book for me, he looked straight into my eyes and swore this one’s even better. I can’t wait to decide for myself!

Lest you think librarians are a boring bunch, my gals didn’t hesitate for a moment when I asked them to pose for a picture with the Prince of Black Angels. Too funny! By the time we left, it was nearly 5 pm, and we were all exhausted.

Thankfully I was able to summon enough energy to have a lovely 21st anniversary dinner with my wonderful husband at Cafe Beaujolais in Eagle Rock. Then I came home and collapsed. But it was all good.

Librarians Gone Wild, plus the Prince and I: