Slightly Off Kilter

Jelled Teams

The excerpt below is from Peopleware, by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister. Peopleware is one of my favorite, must-read, oft-recommended books. (I'm not alone in this recommendation; see Joel Spolsy's Book Reviews.)

I've had the pleasure and satisfaction of working in a Jelled Team. They're special. They're rare. They're endangered...

We tend to use the word team fairly loosely in the business world, calling any group of people assigned to work together a “team”. But many of these groups just don’t seem like teams. They don’t have a common definition of success or any identifiable team spirit. Something is missing. What is missing is a phenomenon we call jell.

...
       Continue reading "Jelled Teams"

Blog Action Day 2007

What would happen if every blog published posts on the same topic, on the same day?
One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.

Today is Blog Action Day

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

blogactionday.com

As of this posting, 19,739 bloggers have registered. Bloggers are asked to participate in three ways:

1. Post on your blog relating to the environment
2. Donate your day’s earnings to an environmental charity
3. Promote Blog Action Day around the web

I can't afford to donate a day's earnings; however, I did make a donation today to the National Wildlife Federation. ...
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Twittering: Who, What, and Why

Shortly after I posted my recent entry on Twitter, I sent notes to various e-list groups I read regularly, asking if any of the members use Twitter. A former co-worker replied thusly to my inquiry:

Haven't used Twitter... I think these services are kinda silly. Who cares what I had for lunch today?

Well, that depends. Was it a particularly good lunch? Perhaps at a new and interesting restaurant you would recommend to friends?

Still, if that's your impression of Twitter, you haven't taken a good look at it lately. There's a lot more going on than just "what I had for lunch". ...
       Continue reading "Twittering: Who, What, and Why"

Do You Twitter?

I've started using Twitter. Twitter is a social networking service. Twitter is microblogging. Twitter is realtime updates for you, your friends, and the people you follow, in 140 characters or less.

...
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Never Settle

Real Life/Work Lessons from Toyota

I would love to work for a company that operated like this.

From Fast Company magazine.

What drives Toyota? The presumption of imperfection — and a distinctly American refusal to accept it.

Excerpts:

Toyota's competitiveness is quiet, internal, self-critical. It is rooted in an institutional obsession with improvement that Toyota manages to instill in each one of its workers, a pervasive lack of complacency with whatever was accomplished yesterday. ...
       Continue reading "Never Settle"

Hello, I'm a Mac...

We don't watch television (we don't even subscribe to cable; gasp!) But we have seen all of the Apple "Get a Mac" ads. We watch them on the web.

Did you know that there are ads targeted for the UKand Japan as well? It's fun to see the differences, especially in the Japanese versions. I especially like "Trust" (aka "Security") in which PC is concerned about Spyware. ...
       Continue reading "Hello, I'm a Mac..."

It's an Inside Joke

I enjoy "sight gags" and inside jokes.. Examples may be subtle and you can miss the joke entirely if you're not paying attention, or don't have the right context. Some excellent examples can be found in in comic strips and books.

The Foxtrot strip includes frequent sight gags (watch closely!) as well as references to cartoons and cartoonist. ...
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Treasures 2006_32

You will find something more in woods than in books.
Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.
— St. Bernard

Treasures are positive things that strike my fancy, that make me feel happy or thankful or interested. Treasures are memories encapsulated in just a few words. These are my Treasures for the past week.

• Saturday! All day at home! Nowhere to go. Nothing pressing to do. And Saturday is more relaxing when I work from home the preceding Friday.

• The 3-storey Apple logos on the sides of Moscone West, in SF, for this week's Developer's conference.

...
       Continue reading "Treasures 2006_32"

Gattofont

Gattofont is a new font for cat lovers from font studio studiocharlie. Studiocharlie also designs objects, furniture, videos, and clothes.

Gattofont consists of 62 different cat silhouettes. It's available in OpenType Format (for Mac or Windows).

Regular price, $16.00; on sale for 40% off at MyFonts.com until April 27.

Virtual Bookstores

For at least a decade, we have been bemoaning the loss of small, independent booksellers. These neighborhood stores have fallen victim to the behemoths: Borders, Barnes & Noble, and, to some extent, Amazon. (For a while, Crown Books was a big player too, but then it vanished from the scene).

I am hopeful, however, that this trend has not affected used bookstores. If anything, I think the rise of the Internet may be bringing them more business than ever before. From services such as Half.com and Alibris, to the Used & Out of Print booksellers networks run by Amazon and Barnes & Noble, I have instant access to hundreds (if not thousands) of used book shops from my desk. ...
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Now Available On Black

I'm a big fan of t-shirts with writing on them, sort of a "bumpersticker on a shirt". These are often printed in white or bright yellow on black or navy. I scan t-shirt sites and catalogues regularly for interesting new choices. But... I'd love to be able to create my own!

There has been a rise in custom-design sites, but most of those produce shirts with black or colored ink on a light-colored (white, yellow...) shirt. I really want dark green, black, or navy for the shirt color. I think the message shows up better (and smudges don't. :-) ...
       Continue reading "Now Available On Black"

Animusic 2

Although perhaps not as entrancing as its predecessor, Animusic 2 (available on DVD) is still worth watching. ...
       Continue reading "Animusic 2"

Chickweed Lane

One of my favorite comic strips is 9 Chickweed Lane, by Brooke McEldowney. I enjoy the characters, especially Solange, a Siamese cat. Solage is featured in a continuing series of strips called "Hallmarks of Felinity" (book collection available).

I also love the way the artist plays with the borders of the comic strip format.

If the strip isn't available in your local paper, you can subscribe to receive this (and other strips) by email.

Mom's Family Wall Calendar

Who does What and goes Where When... (but not Why)

What could possibly be better than twelve months of Sandra Boynton? Our favorite wall calendar now features 16 months of "adorably goofy chickens and cows, hippos and pigs. Four more months of snuggable puppies and cute-as-a-button chicks. And four more important months to help keep the family organized. " We keep ours in the kitchen (and have done so now for uncountable years!) It's nearly January... what are you waiting for?

I Don't Know Art...

I may not know much about "Art"... but I know what I like!

Trompe l'oeil by Eric Grohe

Working in cooperation with architects, designers, art commissions and community representatives, Eric Grohe creates mural art that transforms the environment and communities as well. He believes that his art should involve, challenge and inspire the viewer; not simply adorn, but integrate with its architectural surroundings.

Not only that, they look as if you should be able to walk right into them

. ...
       Continue reading "I Don't Know Art..."

A Correspondence in Correspondence

Both Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein relied on pen, paper, and the postal service to communicate with correspondents around the world. But researchers have now found the pattern of their replies is the same as that of computer users answering email today, with both following the same mathematical formula.

New Scientist magazine, 26 October 2005

This doesn't seem unusual to me. I tend to treat email as just another way to write a letter, a note, a memo.... The primary difference for me is that, when I was writing paper letters, I would write fewer of them, to a smaller set of people, and the letters themselves would be much longer. If I was going to sit down with pen and paper I might as well make the most of the time.

Using email, I write more often to more people, sending shorter messages at more frequent intervals. I keep up with my sister and with college friends - people I used to exchange letters with once or twice a year.

My mother, on the other hand, has moved from multi-page handwritten paper letters to multi-page typed and printed letters to multi-page (if I printed them) email letters. The biggest difference for her is that she now sends the same letter to both my sister and myself. I reply to both of them, including my Dad, keeping everyone "on the same page".

After all, what are letters (paper or electronic) but a way to communicate?

Dilbert Blogs

Scot Adams (creator of Dilbert, Dogbert, and friends) has started a weblog. Not only that, he's using TypePad. Woo Hoo.

The beauty of blogging, as compared to writing a book, is that no editor will be interfering with my random spelling and grammar, my complete disregard for the facts, and my wandering sentences that seem to go on and on and never end so that you feel like you need to take a breath and clear your head before you can even consider making it to the end of the sentence that probably didn't need to be written anyhoo.

Embracing RSS

RSS (aka Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is a family of XML file formats for web syndication used by (amongst other things) news websites and weblogs. I've been hearing about RSS for some time now. I'm finally using it myself.

I have turned on RSS syndication for this weblog. (all together now: oooooooh. aaaaaaaah.)

I have found an RSS client I like. ...
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Teaching Tomorrow's Employees Today

In today's commentary, I discuss IBM's plan to "financially back employees who want to leave the company to become math and science teachers."

Read my commentary

Happy Birthday to my Sister

My sister is celebrating her 35th birthday today. That's not her age; it's a birthday she enjoys celebrating. Neither of us is quite certain how many 35th birthdays she's celebrated (although if we did the math we could come up with an answer :-)

Please join me in wishing my sister a Happy Day.

Day Trippin'

We took a long day trip today (nearly 11 hours all told) to drive up to the North Bay for the Leopards, Etc fund-raiser and Open House.

We were up by 8 and left the house a bit before 9. We headed up 19th Ave and bought toasted bagels with cream cheese & lox (and tomatoes and onions at House of Bagels on Geary. Then we drove up to Fort Point and ate at the view area. No view (too much fog). Tasty though (even though I forgot to bring either paper towels or water!).

Then over the bridge in the fog and through the tunnel. Sausalito was clear (I think Marin County has demons up on the mountain with fans and brooms keeping the fog out! It's amazing to go through the tunnel from socked in grey cotton to blue sky and sun.

We drove up to Petaluma and stopped at Orchard Supply Hardware briefly, then turned on 166, then onto Stony Point Rd. and headed up to Occidental. I drove us up to Petaluma; Rich drove from Petaluma into into Occidental (and I looked at the countryside).

It was a lovely day for a car trip trip. We saw lots of cows in assorted colors, vultures, and rolling hills (golden in July). We past some horses in a pasture and there was quite a little colt with his mama. We also passed one field of cos where there was a baby calf lying in the shade near the fence with his mama (I wanted to go back and pet ;-)

We got to Occidental by 11:30. (We'd been told shuttles would arrive to pick us up starting at 11:50). In the meantime, we walked around a bit and went into a store where I bought some cute Gund stuffies. Then we wandered over to the Union Motel (closed) where we were supposed to congregate.

We congregated. We talked. We found a spot with some wind (it was a very warm day). We found some shade. The shuttles were late. Eventually an SUV appeared along with a woman to "check us in". The SUV took three people up to the compound. A mini van came, then a second. People went. We weren't fast enough.

Rich and I went and sat in the shade again. Eventually a minivan came back and we piled in and it drove up into the hills to the compound.

[... to Be Continued ...]

Carpe diem

Today only...

ThinkGeek offers

Fundue™ - USB Desktop Fondue Set Here at the ThinkGeek offices we are surrounded by those traditional suburbia food traps. The typical crappy deli and the occasional edible pizza. So, we decided we would take desktop food culture into our own hands and created the Fundue™, a USB powered desktop culinary experience that will transform your lunches to a new realm. Get instantly sophisticated now!

SkyTag™ - Green Laser Aircraft Tracker We've always been enamored of the green laser pointer here at ThinkGeek. The way it looks, the way it points, that mesmerizing green beam it projects. But we became tired of pointing such an advanced piece of physics on the white board, or using it to mess with cats and dogs. That's why we created SkyTag™, the world's first GPS green laser pointer mounted in a motorized base that allows you to track and tag aircraft at your own convenience!

while Google recommends you Quench your Thirst for Knowledge with GoogleGulp (Beta). ...
       Continue reading "Carpe diem"

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You!

Coming! This Fall!

Wallace & Gromit Bigger than Life!

The cheese-loving Wallace and his ever faithful dog Gromit star in an all new comedy adventure, marking their first full-length feature film.

Go to the brand new Wallace & Gromit site for pictures and a video look behind the scenes.

Fixed-width fonts

I love fonts. I collect fonts. I especially love "handwritten" fonts.

As a programmer, however, and constant email user, I need to use fixed-width fonts, preferably with easily distinguished characters. So how do I mix and match my love for handwritten fonts with fixed-width programmer's fonts? Take a look at some of the cool fixed-width fonts I've found!

Konfabulous

I have discovered a delightful new desktop toy for my Mac. It's called Konfabulator. Konfabulator is "whatever you want it to be".

Konfabulator is a JavaScript runtime engine for Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to. Widgets can be alarm clocks, calculators, can tell you your AirPort signal strength, will fetch the latest stock quotes for your preferred symbols, and even give your current local weather.

...
       Continue reading "Konfabulous"

(Inter)national Chocolate Day

September 13 is International Chocolate Day. September 18th is National Chocolate Day. Celebrate with the chocolate of your choice... I prefer a nice smooth semi-sweet.

If you like a hint of coffee with your chocolate, try a bit of a Seattle Chocolates Pike Place Espresso Truffle bar - yummmmmmmmmmm.

Cooking for Engineers

I recently discovered a new site (thanks to slashdot, via Rich) called Cooking for Engineers. The site owner, Michael Chu, describes the site thusly:

The recipes that are listed as "Recipe File" are the recipes that I use when I want to make a particular dish. "Recipe Test" are recipes that have been recommended to me or I have come across that I test and don't necessary stand behind. Some of the "Recipe File" recipes are my own recipes or have been passed down to me and "perfected". Others are not, but the source is credited (see Basic Pancakes or Lemon Bars for some examples).

This website was started because I needed a repository for cooking info that I wanted to refer to as well as some of my favorite recipes. I used to keep all this information on my Palm through the Memo Pad application. Unfortunately, I was synchronizing Memo Pad with my laptop (on Outlook) and discovered that after three months our Exchange server deletes old Outlook Notes. So, exactly three months after synchronizing all my recipes, they all got deleted and on the next synch, were consequently removed from my Palm. I've been reinventing some recipes and looking of other since and decided to put them online.

The recipe Rich pointed me to is one for tiramisu. Tiramisu has been called the "Barry Manilow of deserts" but it's one of my favorites. It's a bit different in every incarnation and at every restaurant where I've eaten it, but it's almost always delicious no matter how it's prepared. If you also love tiramisu, be sure to read all of the comments on the recipe posting. ...
       Continue reading "Cooking for Engineers"

The Return of Stuart Katt!

I'm a big fan of Stuart Katt, a large, stripey, lino-block art feline I discovered many years ago. I have several t-shirts, a tote bag, and a set of greeting cards featuring the irrepressible and irresistible tabby. Some of my favorites in the series are "Cat Wants In / Cat Wants Out" (a double-print t-shirt), "Cat and Friends on Stairs" (the "friends" being cat toys) and "Cat Wants People Food" (in this case, that would be the roasted turkey).

Periodically, I'd do a web search, looking for signs of Stuart... Until recently, there was nothing to find. In fact, judging from the comments posted to one of my previous weblog entries which mentioned one of my t-shirts (right), I've been generating the most hits. The comments also show that and Stuart is well-loved and sought-after by his loyal fans.

Well, guess who did a web search and found me?! A couple of days ago, I received an unexpected note from Stuart's artist, Philip Dingman. (Isn't the Web a wonderful place!).

I have excellent news for all Stuart Katt fans — Mr. Dingman will be letting the Katt out of the bag once again! He even promises.. books! Oooooooooh.

I hope you'll join the Stuart "fan club" when the Katt comes back. Keep watch at www.philipdingman.com/stuartkatt.htm. I can hardly wait.

>^..^<

The Official Sandra Boynton Website

I just love the drawings of Sandra Boynton; I've loved her since 1975! I never throw away any calendars or greeting cards she's designed (and I buy Boynton greeting cards just for me, to keep!).

We have two Boynton stuffytoy hippies, George and Martha, on the headboard of our bed. (George and Martha are named after the titular characters in a children's book by another author/illustrator, James Marshall).

I am therefore especially pleased to discover as well as to announce that there is an Official Sandra Boynton Web Site. Books and plushies are available for your own family to adopt! (Decisions, decisions :-)

Be sure to visit the No-Mind Entertainment page which offers "two portals into hitherto unexplored territory. Behind these doors there are for you unfathomable experiences — although, we regret to say, you will find no ladies, tigers, or major appliances."

Spy vs. Spy 3D

I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.
-- Franklin P. Adams

I've always found new words this way, browsing the dictionary, looking up something else. Now, with the WWW I find all sorts of wonderful gems on the way to looking up something else.

Recently, while searching for ways to syntax-color code and turn it into web pages, I found a link to Ned Batchelder's blog and there, I also found this:

I saw a new TV commercial for Mountain Dew a few weeks ago, and was flabbergasted: it was the old Mad magazine "Spy vs. Spy" cartoon, translated into 3D. Bob Congdon found online copies of the ads. I think they've done a stellar job of capturing the feel of the cartoon, both in terms of the elemental plotting and violence, and the stripped-down black and white look of the strip. One of the ads ends "to be continued". I hope there will be more...

Thanks, Ned! ...
       Continue reading "Spy vs. Spy 3D"

bloviate

A new word... and a marvelous quote.

bloviate (BLOH-vee-ayt) v. intr. Slang

Bloviate is from blow + a mock-Latinate suffix -viate. Compare blowhard, "a boaster or braggart." Bloviation is the noun form; a bloviator is one who bloviates.

Trivia: Bloviate is most closely associated with U.S. President Warren G. Harding, who used it frequently and who was known for long, windy speeches. H.L. Mencken said of him, "He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash."

[ bloviate was Word of the Day on June 22, 2001 ] ...
       Continue reading "bloviate"

Happy Fourth!

Click the image above to go to an animated fireworks display.

Animusic

Animusic is for anyone who appreciates rich, beautifully rendered, 3-D computer graphics. Animusic is for anyone who has ever played in a band or orchestra. Animusic is for anyone who appreciates music and who enjoys watching music being played.

If you generally listen to music with your eyes closed, open them for Animusic or you'll miss most of what makes this album special. ...
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Quartet for a Friday morning

I've started playing with poetry again. One of my journaling list groups publishes prompt words every week or two. There's always a "poem" word. Three of the past poem words have been: Blanket, Sleeping, Clean.

For the first two pieces, I played with senryu (senryu has the same structure as haiku but doesn't require a seasonal reference). The fourth entry recasts one of the previous words (Sleeping) as a different part of speech (Sleep). (To be honest, I composed this one because I misremembered the third posted word; inspiration comes in odd forms :-) ...
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Poetry on Paper

May I recommend today's weblog essay by Danny Gregory, Everyday Matters.

Spam in my mailbox?

Spam in my mailbox? I cannot utter enough expletives to describe the depth of my revulsion for spam. Spam on my blog? Sailors, cover your ears.

[ cf. Fighting Blog Spam, March 8, 2004 ]

If I never again see an "enlargement comment" I will be a very happy camper. I am so sick and tired of deleting this garbage/slime/crap/encroaching nastiness that has been infiltrating my otherwise happy little backwater weblog.

And now, thanks to Pariah (for showing me the light), and to Jay Allen for sparking the light, the lamp, the torch in the darkness (i.e. MT-Blacklist) my weblog is gonna be MINE all Mine once again.

Pariah - You have my everlasting and fervent thanks!

Jay - Ditto; ( amazing page :-)

Spammers - see a later [sic] ... or never

Packaging Solutions

In wandering the web today looking for something else, I came across the rather interesting page from Berlin Packaging. Berlin Packaging is "the nation's premier supplier of rigid packaging - including glass, metal, and plastic containers, and closures". The page I discovered is their packaging solutions page, on which they give several examples, with full text description as well as "Before" and "After pictures, of bottles they have redesigned (and why).

For example, the way I found this site was by doing a search for the home page of a product I like, Victorian House Coffee. It turns out that Berlin Packaging redesigned the Victorian House Coffee bottle: ...
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Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

From there to here,
from here to there,
funny things
are everywhere.

March 2 is the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, known to millions of children as Dr. Seuss. Theodor Geisel died in 1991. This March 2, 2004 (tomorrow) would have been his 100th birthday. ...
       Continue reading "Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!"

Make Your Motor Cortex Dance

"Brain areas that are used to perform an action are also needed to comprehend words related to that action," ... "Remarkably, just the reading of feet-related action words such as dance makes [the motor cortex] move its 'feet.'"

[cf "The Brain's Word Act: Reading verbs revs up motor cortex areas", by Bruce Bower, in Science News, week of Feb 7, 2004

...
       Continue reading "Make Your Motor Cortex Dance"

Happy Anniversary, Macintosh!

[ Lest anyone consider this entry to be belated, please consider that some people (such as myself :-) prefer to mark anniversaries by their proximity to other events. Apple aired the "1984" Macintosh introduction ad during halftime on Super Bowl Sunday, January 1984. This year, Super Bowl Sunday is later, on Feb. 1. ]

At halftime on Super Bowl Sunday, January 1984, Apple Computer aired one of the greatest commercials in the 37-year history of the Super Bowl. The ad is among the ten finalists for CBS.com's Super Bowl Greatest Commercials, which airs on Saturday, January 31st, 2004 at 9 pm.

Since 1967, there have been 37 Super Bowls, containing approximately 60 commercials in each, which works out to more than 2,200 Super Bowl commercials in all! We've narrowed the field down to ten.

...
       Continue reading "Happy Anniversary, Macintosh!"

South Beach Updates "Foods to Enjoy"

Spouse and self began our reduced-carbohydrate lifestyle adventure on Sept 1, 2004. As advocates of the South Beach plan, we had nonetheless been wondering about the restrictions it placed on certain foods. For example, all dairy products were considered "Avoid" foods in Phase 1, despite research that shows the value of milk and yogurt in weight-loss plans. Similarly, I had been wondering about the limits placed on tomatoes (1 whole or 10 cherry tomatoes per meal); tomatoes contain lycopene and have a nearly unmeasurable glycemic index. Spouse considers carrots to be "good food"; although the fiber content and vitamins would seem to support his theory, the South Beach Diet did not.

So I was delighted to discover recently that some changes have been made; our beliefs have been given official support. The South Beach Diet has been updated to take advantage of these nutritional studies and information. Updates have been made to the Phase 1 "Foods to Enjoy" and "Foods to Avoid" lists as well as to the Phase 2 "Foods You Can Reintroduce" and "Foods To Avoid Or Eat Rarely" lists. ...
       Continue reading "South Beach Updates "Foods to Enjoy""

BBC Horizons: The Atkins Diet

Primetime BBC Television's Horizon ran a programme on The Atkins Diet last night with the tag line: "Horizon reveals the truth about the world's most controversial diet."

(When discussing the BBC, I figure I should spell like the BBC :-) ...
       Continue reading "BBC Horizons: The Atkins Diet"

Low Carb Granola

I love Granola. Unfortunately, we're presently on a long-term reduced carbohydrate adventure so most granolas are out for the time being. However, one of the women on the low-carb mailing list I'm on recently recommended a low-carb granola called "FlaxOMeal Granola" (Low-Carb Success brand). Several other women chimed in to agree that they think it's quite tasty.

I found some today while shopping at one of our local grocery stores (a small local chain called Mollie Stones, a bit upscale from Safeway :-) Mollie Stones has joined the Low-carb revolution, having recently installed a large endcap display at the front of the store, containing all sorts of varied low-carb products and "We Have Low-Carb" on a big sign. Cool. ...
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A Passion for Paper

I considered titling this "Paper Fetish"

fetish n. 2. An object of unreasonably excessive attention or reverence

but I decided that the other definitions for fetish were just too far out for me. I'd hate for anyone to jump to the wrong conclusions... some people will find the right conclusions to be just a little strange as it is. :-)

Do other people who like to write (whether you keep a regular journal or not, paper version or online) share a similar passion for paper as mine? I can't remember a time when I didn't care about using just the right sort of notebook, just the right type of tablet, for a project or a class. ...
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Quote Collecting

I'm a great fan (and collector) of quotations. I have more than half a dozen books of quotations on my shelves. ...
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Why I Write

I've always liked to write; when I was much younger, I wrote a lot of poems and short stories. For several years in Junior High and High School I did a periodic "newspaper" for my family.

I don't recall keeping any sort of diary or journal during elementary school or High School. I did keep a regular journal through all four years of College. I can't remember what triggered that, but I wrote in it most every day. I still have the first volume of that journal (discovered recently in a box with my HS yearbooks and a couple of photo scrapbooks). If I still have the remaining volumes, they are stored in a place so safe even I don't know where it is. To be honest, I'm not sure I would want to read those journals if I could find them again. Perhaps they're better off in that "safe place".

Continue reading "Why I Write" in my "other" weblog, commentary...

Fat-free (or Carb-free) Still Isn't "Free"

I recall an article I read a few years ago. The author recounted his discovery of some non-fat cookies at the local "Quik Stop Gas & Shop" when he stopped in for a fill-up on his way home from work. The cookies were delicious (and fat-free!) so he began to make a habit of stopping to buy a bag of cookies on his way home every day. It was only after he gained 5-10 ponds that he read the label. While the cookies were fat free they weren't sugar free (and they certainly weren't calorie free!).

I've personally seen "fat free" brownies with a half-inch of chocolate fudge icing slathered on top! They had more icing than the "regular" (with fat) version! They're certainly yummy but they are not a "low calorie food".

Despite some recent surprising study results, a calorie still counts for something. Replacing fat with sugar (or carbohydrates with fats and proteins) may not produce the weight-loss results you're hoping for. ...
       Continue reading "Fat-free (or Carb-free) Still Isn't "Free""

Low-carb pizza?!

Rich and I have a favorite Pizzeria (Pasquale's in San Francisco). We've tried many other pizza places; this one (in our opinion) is by far the best. But... how to fit pizza into a diet in which you are trying to substantially reduce your carbohydrate intake?

Answer: Toppings!

In pizza, we both like the sauce best (more sauce!), followed by the cheese and the toppings (sausage and pepperoni, mushrooms (for Rich's side only), occasionally basil/pesto). We're not big crust fans. The crust is there to keep the sauce from sticking and burning in the oven. :-)

We tried this idea back in October and repeated it last night. I think it's a "keeper".

We each had three slices of pizza. We both ate cheese, sausage, pepperoni and (in Rich's case) mushrooms. We didn't eat the crust. We did remember (this time) to order a side of ravioli sauce (next to the best pizza, Pasquale's makes the best meat sauce we've ever tasted anywhere). So, we could add even more sauce to our crustless low-carb pizza!

We were full and happy (not stuffed) and we had what we went for.

Memes

Blog Ideas. Circle of Words. Spark. Weigh-in Wednesday. The Friday 5. Saturday Slant. Participation Positives.

Have you ever wondered where people get ideas for what to write about? Have you noticed how some people's weblogs (including mine) reference a set of periodic questions and then answer them? One answer is "memes". ...
       Continue reading "Memes"

InsPURRation

I've started a new Yahoo group / mailing list called InsPURRation: CatPURRSons Life Support. The rationale is simple.

We are the ones who have high blood pressure, ulcers, and heart attacks, not cats. -- Roger Caras

We all have bad days. The car won't start, your son has a fender-bender, the water pipes break, work gave you a migraine, you sprain your ankle, lose your checkbook, argue with your spouse.

Some days are much worse. You suffer a fire; a parent has Alzheimers; a good friend dies; the car is totaled; the medical diagnosis is bad.

Yet, sometimes there are rainbows on the darkest day. A friend calls; a loved one sends you flowers; you read an uplifting poem; you try a soothing new tea or find a piece of inspirational music. A rift is healed; the diagnosis is benign; an argument is settled. Pandora's box also held hope.

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       Continue reading "InsPURRation"

Sweet Tooth

I couldn't quite decide if this was commentary or not, so I posted the same article to both of my weblogs; only the teaser paragraph is here; you can read the rest at vlb.typepad.com/commentary.

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Saccharin. Cyclamate. Aspartame. Sucralose. Tagatose. Alitame.
Xylitol. Maltitol. Lactitol. Isomalt. Erythritol. Mannitol. Sorbitol.

If it tastes like sugar, but it's not...

People like sugar; people like sweet foods. Unfortunately, sucrose ("table sugar") is, well, fattening. It also promotes tooth decay, increases your blood glucose levels, and triggers the insulin reaction. For decades, dieters, diabetics, and people concerned about their teeth have sought an alternative to sucrose. Although the perfect solution has not yet been discovered, we do have many choices.

Continue reading "Sweet Tooth"

A Calorie is a Calorie... or is it?

The dietary establishment has long argued it's impossible, but a new study offers intriguing evidence for the idea that people on low-carbohydrate diets can actually eat more than folks on standard lowfat plans and still lose weight.
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[This] strikes at one of the most revered beliefs in nutrition: A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. It does not matter whether they come from bacon or mashed potatoes; they all go on the waistline in just the same way ...

[c.f. Study surprise: Low-carb dieters eat more, lose weight, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (AP), Oct 4, 2003]

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       Continue reading "A Calorie is a Calorie... or is it?"

The South Beach Diet

I have been reading "The South Beach Diet" by Dr. Arthur Agatston. (The hardcover book is currently on sale for softcover prices ($15) at both amazon.com and Barnes & Noble; there are used copies available as well through amazon.com starting at $11.75.

Dr. Agatston is a cardiologist who started investigating diet as a way to help his overweight patients lower their weight, cholesterol, and triglycerides and reduce adult diabetes and pre-diabetes symptoms. The patients shared the diet success with friends and family and it's become very popular.

Rich and I have been looking through various "diet" schemes, reading the books, comparing what they say to what we believe makes sense. So far, The South Beach Diet is the closest to what I think makes the most sense. It's low-carb but not no-carb. It's not "high fat" nor is it "low fat". It's not "all protein" and it's certainly not a starvation diet. It draws a distinction between "good" and "bad" carbs (and between "good" and" bad" fats) . It's not so much a "diet" as a lifestyle change. ...
       Continue reading "The South Beach Diet"

Low carb need not equal faux food

From the San Francisco Chronicle ( Food in the News, www.sfgate.com, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2003)

Low-carb craze grabs consumers
Onslaught of new products tempts dieters

You'd never buy most of them for their taste -- even some people who sell them admit that. They're generally not low in calories. Nutritionists raise their eyebrows at all the protein and processing they pack. And they're expensive, easily two to four times the cost of their full-carb counterparts.

But, inspired by the Atkins/South Beach/Sugar Busters low-carb weight- loss plans, people are scarfing them down, acting like sea otters at an oyster bar.

Low-carb food specialty stores are proliferating, catering to demands for the likes of cinnamon-fried pork rinds. Trend-savvy Trader Joe's is about to unveil a new Joe's Lows label for its growing low-carb line. Low-carb tortillas, chips and beer are multiplying in markets like Whole Foods, Andronico's and Walgreens.

The fear-of-fat days are officially over. Now, it's all about fear of carbs. Even french fry sales are feeling the pain.

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       Continue reading "Low carb need not equal faux food"

Inside skinny on office fat

There was an article in today's SF Chronicle about how the workplace contributes to the obesity problem. Here's an excerpt:

The workplace study, a random sampling of 611 working adults from around the country, found that although 32 percent of workers usually skip breakfast and/or lunch, they aren't exactly doing a Gandhi impression. Eighty-nine percent admit to snacking during the workday, with more than half embracing fat and sugar's greatest hits: chips, candy and doughnuts.

Hunger and the need for energy are the main explanations they give, according to the study, sponsored by the American Association of Working People, the Institute for Health and Productivity Management and the makers of the Ensure nutritional drink. An additional 23 percent of workers blame stress.

And here's my favorite: 27 percent snack because they're bored. Workers under 25 were twice as likely as their older colleagues to use that as their explanation.

[by Dave Murphy, SF Chronicle; read the rest of the original article on the web at sfgate.com.]

I sent a note to the writer with some additional comments. ...
       Continue reading "Inside skinny on office fat"

Storytelling Festival

We drove up to Trinidad California (in Humboldt County, about 25 mi. north of Eureka, on the California North Coast) for a Storytelling festival this weekend. We headed up on Friday and drove back Saturday afternoon.

In between, we heard from half a dozen storytellers, stories ranging from Japanese fables to the life story of Lou Gehrig. Storytelling festivals can be a "mixed bag". You'll love some, you'll like some, some will leave you cold.

We went to this festival specifically because Willy Claflin would be there! Rich was lucky enough to see Willy Claflin perform at a storytelling festival in Sant Ynez about 6 months ago. He then purchased all available CD recordings (:-), brought them home and I became a fan of Willy Claflin. Willy's best friend and co-teller is Maynard Moose who tells "Traditional Moose Tales". On this trip, I got to see Maynard perform in person (and a lively and animated moose he is, too, cheerful and happy with his work :-)

We had a pleasant time, a long drive (over 300 miles each way), lovely scenery, a pretty piney woods (the festival event was in Patrick's Point State Park) and a cute little cabin over night. I'm happy we went; nevertheless, it's always good to get home.

Yogurt tasting

There have been a number of articles recently that indicate that people who include dairy in their diets, when trying to lose weight, have more success than those who give up dairy. Low-fat milk, low-fat cheese, and yogurt are mentioned. (Unfortunately, ice cream's high fat and sugar counteracts the effects of the dairy aspect. sigh).

Unfortunately, while I'm willing to drink milk (the lower-fat the better), I've always found store-bought yogurt to be sour (though I am very fond of Indian raita and Greek tzatziki). The question was, is there any commercial yogurt I'd be willing to eat... or one that Rich would eat... and would there be one we both liked?

So, for fun we did a taste test. ...
       Continue reading "Yogurt tasting"

The Color of My Parachute

Everything about unemployment is wonderful... except for the lack of income.

So, being one of many unemployed in the Tech industry, I've been trying to find a job. I've been trying since January 2002 (when I still had a contract but the miserable economy forced me down to 15 hours/week).I've joined a few mailing lists - if you want a good one, try The Wednesday Group Job (don't ask me why it's called that; I don't know). I've participated in the discussions on other technical lists (not job lists but job-related discussion; we're all searching for work). I'm "using my contacts" (what contacts I have). And I thought, "Why not try one of those infamous books again?". So I got a copy of the 2003 edition of What Color Is Your Parachute. ...
       Continue reading "The Color of My Parachute"

The Sixth of May

I wrote this in 9th grade. It won honorable mention in a local poetry contest.

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The Sixth of May

On a beautiful morning, the sixth of May With the sunshine glowing, a wonderful day, With a breeze through the trees,        And a wind in the bog, Over the hill, with a kite,        Came a frog And his son. The wind was just right on this beautiful day, To carry a box-kite up high and away. The frog had a kite,        A marvelous thing, As fancy and bright,        As a butterfly's wing In the sun.

...
       Continue reading "The Sixth of May"

Old Mother Moose Tales

On Rich's recent trip to Santa Barbara, he attended a story-telling festival. One of the story tellers is Willy Claflin; Willy Claflin is "an award-winning master storyteller, school performer, festival performer, who also has produced five age-appropriate CDs and tapes of Willy Claflin songs and Maynard Moose tales".

Actually, Willy doesn't tell many of the stories himself; his colleagues do. One such colleague is Maynard Moose. Maynard is a moose (puppet) with a voice somewhat reminiscent of Kermit The Frog and a real knack for story telling.

From the descriptions for some of the discs:

I first met Maynard one foggy autumn morning years ago in down-east Maine... his memory of the Old Mother Moose tales is as keen as ever... I would like to thank him for keeping this ancient oral moose tradition alive.

Claflin’s formula for fractured tales: equal parts moose wisdom, people predicaments, and Moothified pronouncifications.

“Mother Moose Tales,” says the storyteller, “Preserve traditional moose values.”

The stories are _funny_. Buy a CD; buy 2 or three :-) Our favorites are Sleeping Beastly, Maynard Moose Tales, and The Uglified Ducky. Here's a sample story from The Uglified Ducky, called The Turtle and the Bunny.

Lebanon Bologna by mail

Are you an expatriot Pennsylvanian? Do you miss the taste of lebanon bologna? Or scrapple? Do you know you can buy these tastes-of-home by mail?? www.lebanononline.org

"Ask someone from outside the Lebanon Valley "what's the first thing they think of when they hear Lebanon?" and they'll probably say -- Lebanon Bologna. Lebanon Bologna is now produced by three premier sausage makers - Kutztown, Seltzer's and Weaver. Two (Weaver and Seltzer's) offer tours of their smokehouses and packing facilities."

"All three have mail order departments and will gladly ship one stick or a case of world famous Lebanon Bologna across the county or around the world"

If you don't know which to choose, I like Seltzer's.

They say they sell scrapple too (but not till fall). I can't wait!

The journal goes public (the blogger has landed)

Time to send out email to people to tell them the Blog is here.

Friends and family can get their own blog. Other folks reading this are encouraged to surf to blogger.com (or install your own copy of greymatter, moveabletype, bloxsom, or... if you have your own server).

Welcome to the Weblog

I've just installed something new, a "web logger" (aka "blogger) called greymatter. I may put one into some other sites here. In any case, I'm still learning what I can do with this thing.