vexations before noon

one of the cats sprayed on my wool blanket on our bed. I did bring it out with me for reading in the living room but I brought it back when it was time for bed. We keep the bedroom door closed during the day to prevent spraying/marking of territory.

at 8:40 am we received a robocall from a blocked phone number, for the second time. This time I entreated my spouse to stay on the line and ask for company information so we can send a cease-and-desist letter to them and alert our telecommunication company and the state Attorney General's office. Hard to believe but my husband heard only the company name before the caller hung up. Should I assume this is a typical example of American business integrity?

Deaths or tetradic shifts in Media

Expiry of digital rights administration certificate causes havoc in enterprises as Office 2003 users lose access to their documents.

Two of my favourite radio programs have been axed, one with certainty to a lagging economy: "Let the Twenties Roar" on KSER 90.7 FM, and "Vintage Jazz" on KBCS 91.3 FM (my fingers want me to type 90.3, KEXP). I did become a member of KBCS because I cared about keeping the programming on the air. My money wasn't enough, so the program is gone, and KBCS is asking me to subscribe again. I'm selfish enough and limited enough in funds to pay only for the services I use.

So I might subscribe to Live365.com, once I have listened to all the mp3s I have downloaded (7 days worth) and podcasts (6 hours) to catch 1920s and 1930s vintage swing. I don't think I'm being so much oppositional as I am disappointed by current popular culture programming. I feel enough of my family's dollars are sucked away in the pursuit of nutritious food and keeping up with rising energy costs. If there are six - seven billion people on the planet, then certainly there should be a large enough listening audience to keep some programming on the air. I am inundated with fad celebrities, names of whom I do not recognize, and I wonder what makes them interesting, if they have messages for me on how to improve my life and become better and more deeply engaged in my community, and wonder what the celebrities do for other people. How do celebrity fans switch loyalties, or do they? Are there Eddie Pare or Mark Paul Gosselaar fans waiting for the "Saturn return" for their heartthrobs to receive their second vogue?

I'm not anti-mainstream: the 1920s and 1930s tracks which survive are top hits of their days, Tin Pan Alley standards. I liked the Police when they were hot, even like Beatles songs, still. Somehow my dependence on popular culture faded as I aged, or the popular culture began to appear more banal or insipid. My dialectic with much of the commercialized world goes like this:

Commercialized world == Spend money on our product or service!
Me == can we establish that this is an improvement to my life first, rather than an upgrade for upgrade's sake? Will hours of unreclaimable time be spent patching tech errors?

If people shell out sheqels only for upgrades or improvements, how then does one explain the ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup and Bisphenol A on the shelves of American supermarkets? Or the three-second sound-bite political culture: "You're either for us or against us?" Or even, incomprehensibly, the partisanship of food: "eww you eat dark leafy greens. guess we know what that says about you." "Like what, I have a keen interest in not dying of cancer in a country where I couldn't afford the treatment?"

Top 10 Shows That Were Canceled Too Soon

Ten Television Shows Cancelled Too Soon

I attended a very nice, delicious birthday dinner recently, where two people discussed how they don't have televisions (yet know more about reality shows than I do, and I have a television) because corporate programming/unscrupulous mainstream media/advertising etc. etc. etc.

I watch maybe two hours a year. I don't even think I watched any broadcast programming in 2009 so far. I am fine with having a TV because it provides a screen for the Nintendo Wii and the region-free DVD player. Is it better to be conscious of television programming while not having a television set and to tell everyone you don't have a set, or is it better to talk about other things while you have a TV set and can't/don't keep up with television programming.

I don't like the one-sidedness of television programming: people in suits and glitzy offices in the smog belt determine what shows make it to broadcast television, and when they get off the air. Not since NBC's Thursday Night lineup of Cheers and Night Court back in the 1980s have I had success choosing and staying with successful television shows. Shows I liked often did not last one full season. Instead I watched DVD box sets of past television series: "Strangers with Candy," "Arrested Development," "Trailer Park Boys," "30 Rock" and "Robson Arms."

I don't fault people for staying home and having favourite shows to record and watch. For many people the television is their window on the world. There are far worse things they can do with their time, and I've probably done those worse things.
If television meets your entertainment requirements and expectations, then enjoy television. I like to see sports shows in sports bars, for example, a perfectly sensible use of television.

I bristle at "cancelled too soon." What do television executives see as going wrong in a television series: too low ratings in the first six weeks? too clever? too weird? how many weeks or years should a series last before it gets chopped? What reasons do FOX television executives give for cancelling "Family Guy" and "Arrested Development" anyway?

This is why I like books. I go to a library or bookstore, pick a book according to its author, reputation, literary value or entertainment potential and take it home. I read it at my leisure. When I am done with it, it finds a new home. I can do the same with DVD sets of television shows when I rent from Scarecrow Video. None of this "here's something you might like. We decide when to stop airing it for you. We might not consider things like quality or ratings when we cancel, and we may not even provide a reason for cancellation." Sounds like power is in the wrong hands. I'm aware that the television series needs to be introduced to broadcast television for me to be able to watch it. Of course a book needs to be published for me to read it. But I can write my own stories when books don't satisfy me.

Here's a link to an article listing and describing twenty shows the FOX television network cancelled when they didn't need to.

the challenge of discernment in social media

Maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried. Are we there? Let us know the poor in our own families first. We have old people: they are put in institutions and they are never visited; with less and less time even to smile at each other, with less and less time to be together. Love begins at home, if we can only make our own homes temples of love. -- Mother Teresa

Facebook has changed its privacy policies to allow more granular and specific options for how its millions of users choose to share information. This is good. I have a Facebook account but am taking an unscheduled, unannounced leave of absence. I like that I can connect with people who are important to me, but perhaps am queasy about what other people choose to share online. As a for instance, only when a former head of state passed away did I read lamentations and comments from that ex-leader's citizenry and that's entirely good; with another country's voting bloc it's all vehemence and anger and divisive political/religion discourse. I'm proud to say that my compatriots voice their opinions only on appropriate moments, like our December 2008 Parliamentary crisis and proroguement.

The divisive partisanship reminds me I don't really have a home here.

I had a perfectly lovely dinner with some family last week. Since my mother died I had been feeling cut adrift from relations: my sibling chose to visit people and maybe that was the better approach; I bought a house so I could have some stability and roots. My sibling is still hurting because his attempts to reconnect have been spurned by some who he feels believe he is responsible indirectly for speeding our mom to an early grave. I felt and still feel that people should have the option for redefining our relationships. Most gave up--the most animated relation did teasing things like repeatedly announce they were flying in and wanted to see us, and then not ever calling or e-mailing until after they returned home. For ten years I endured this and thought: "there must be some end to this. I cannot be so bad a person to deserve this for this long." I sheltered a very ill, homeless friend for months, I volunteer, I donate when I can, I have made my diet and consumption habits political choices for the greater good. I didn't dare have expectations of "we've missed you. Here's our address and phone number and e-mail: it would be good to hear from you." Which is good, because only my godmother/aunt and my mom's youngest cousin made any such move. I have leapt and enlisted and plan to host dinners to reciprocate.

When I received a Facebook invite in October 2008 I thought it would be a great tool for reconnection with longlost relations: however, it's only good if I and the other person jointly want to reconnect. I've left birthday greetings, asked for addresses for Christmas cards. My cousins circulate their "all about me" quizzes to every other cousin but me. Ouch. I've let go, months later, of the hope of pursuing healthy loving relationships, conscious that the work and interest are all at my end and stay at my end.

People have said that the act of withholding oneself, and one's gifts (should one be lucky and self-aware enough to have them) is a form of selfishness. But what if you've tried sharing, self-monitoring and self-checking to remove any controversy or misconstruement, and there's no audience among those who should be your nearest and dearest?

"To smile at someone who is sad; to visit, even for a little while, someone who is lonely; to give someone shelter from the rain with our umbrella; to read something for someone who is blind; these and others can be small things, very small things, but they are appropriate to give our love of God concrete expression to the poor." -- Mother Teresa

Possible Reading Challenge for 2010

http://completebooker.blogspot.com/2009/11/complete-booker-2010-challenge.html
I don't think I could read all the booker prize winners, but I'm willing to try for most

True Confessions

I have a mind-crush but nothing else (honest!) on someone who has a significant overlap in reading tastes. I find myself cataloguing reading suggestions and then following up on them in the hope I can be caught at some doctor's office, or on the bus, or at a teahouse reading them and an opening for a friendship can happen. I'd rather not risk a friendship with the actual mind-crush right now -- pretty sure I have nothing to offer, although I *DID* offer him Dawn Powell, of whom he had not heard, and then now HIS bookcrush tells him about Dawn Powell... here it happens: the Bizarre Book Triangle.

Today I am thankful for a hit of energy (tyrosine!) and mindfulness/discernment which elude me far too often.

more booklist for later

I wish my library would expand its readers' book list capacity beyond 100 titles.
Don Robertson - Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
Thomas Perry - Metger's Dog
Kathryn Davis - The Thin Place
Christopher Moore - The Stupidest Angel
Janet Evanovich - One for the MoneyJohn Burdett - Bangkok 8
Don Quixote
Anna Karenina
Julian Barnes - England, England

CCF and double-speak

I've been reading about the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) this morning. It appears to be a front group for food and liquor processors and conglomerates, so it should be no surprise that any pro-consumer or environmental or pro-health group would be marked as "activist."

I wonder why corporate conglomerates that restrict consumer choice by lobbying for legislation to harm or crush small and independent farming never get the "Nanny State" label by the CCF-supported site "ActivistCash" but suburban homesteaders like Joan Gussow do.

I am familiar with and influenced by only a few of the entities below. I'll be reading more about the others to see how they have individuals' and consumers' interests at heart.

If what you do is of benefit to others, deceptive front groups and name-calling are not necessary.

Adbusters
American Corn Growers Association
Center for Food Safety
Center for Media & Democracy
Center for Responsible Lending
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Chefs Collaborative
Dakota Resource Council
Dakota Rural Action
Earth First!
EarthSave International
Environmental Media Services
Environmental Working Group
Farm Animal Reform Movement
Farm Sanctuary
Foundation on Economic Trends
Greenpeace
Humane Society of the United States
Idaho Rural Council
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Institute for Social Ecology
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
Joseph Mercola and the Mercola Optimal Wellness Center
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Mothers for Natural Law
National Center on Addiction & Substance Abuse
Natural Resources Defense Council
Northern Plains Resource Council
Organic Consumers Association
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Powder River Basin Resource Council
Public Health Advocacy Institute
Ruckus Society
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
SeaWeb
SHAC
Sierra Club
Tides Foundation & Tides Center
Turning Point Project
Union of Concerned Scientists
United Poultry Concerns
Waterkeeper Alliance
Western Organization of Resource Councils
Weston A. Price Foundation

How Much _______ Should I take?

**INCOMPLETE**
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/10/10/Vitamin-D-Experts-Reveal-the-Truth.aspx

http://www.grassrootshealth.net

Vitamin D, for pale-skinned people living +/- 2 degrees from the US/Canada border
how much Vitamin D should I take?

Depends on 25-hydroxyvitamin D serum level
Enough to get serum level to 40-60 ng/ml (100-150 nmol/L)
Increase of approximately 7-10 ng/ml with each 1000 IU


400 IU = 28 ng/ml
3400 IU = 58 ng/ml


Cancer Patients take Vitamin D
get to 100-150 nmol/L
test for ionized calcium

test for Vitamin D
establish a baseline
Test until in protective range
then test in March each year (lowest level), then August/September

http://www.healingdaily.com/oral-chelation/chlorella-dosage.htm
Chlorella
5-7 grams per day is quite common and at this level you will notice significant changes in digestion, energy and overall health.

If you have not been eating many fresh raw vegetables in your diet, it is probably a good idea to start out with one 1/16 of a teaspoon with each meal and increase by 1/16 of a teaspoon every 2-3 days.

It is estimated that 25 to 50 percent of any healthcare budget could be saved with adequate vitamin D serum levels.


As long as you are not showing an allergic reaction (such as hives) or throwing up, you can safely continue the chlorella. In a couple of months, the reaction should decrease. And as it decreases, you can increase the dose.

Spirulina: Amounts in tablets vs. powder:
- 6 tablets of Spirulina is the equivalent of 1 teaspoon of powder (3 g). When dealing with tablets, this amount (6 tabs) is usually considered 1 "serving".
(Note: These equivalence formulas do NOT take into account any reduction of actual Spirulina in tablets caused by the use of binders/fillers, because that effect varies greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer.)

- One "serving" of Spirulina powder = 2 teaspoons (6 g). So -- one would have to take TWO "servings" of tablets to equal ONE "serving" of powder.

- There are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon. Therefore, it would take 18 tablets to get the equivalent of 1 tablespoon of Spirulina.

- The equivalent to 2-3 tablespoons of powdered Spirulina -- the amount recommended to comprise a "meal" of sorts (see second paragraph above) -- is 36 to 54 tablets. This is, obviously, a ridiculous number of tablets to take.

Autumnal pleasures

I learned from viewing the Wordplay DVD cover at a local library that five million people do the New York Times crossword each week. Wow, I didn't know it was that popular. Today's crossword was very easy, for a Saturday. I solved it by myself, so it was too easy.

Later this afternoon, on our second visit to the library (to announce the DVD case my son borrowed today was only a DVD case), I started compiling some books for me to read: the King County Library System and the Seattle Public Schools District have carefully compiled lists for children around my son's reading level. I pored through Hallie Ephron (Ph.D.)'s 1001 Books for Every Mood, and aggregated these books for my ever-growing to-read list.

The Thurber Carnival
Barney's Version
The Interpreter of Maladies
The God of Small Things
Christ Stopped at Eboli
An American Childhood
The Wind in the Willows, for the boy
The Art of Eating
The Debt of Pleasure - Lanchester
Tender at the Bone
On Food and Cooking
What Einstein Told His Cook
Midnight's Children
White Teeth
The Sot-Weed Factor
One for the Money (Janet Evanovich Mystery)
How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything: Yes, Anything
When Bad Things Happen to good People
The World According to Mr. Rogers
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods
Stumbling on Happiness
Gravity's Rainbow
Infinite Jest (yeah, right)
Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland
The Moviegoer (I've read this twice, and would read it at least twice more)
Short Guide to a Happy Life
Call it Sleep - Henry Roth
The American Language -- H. L. Mencken
Just So Stories, again for the tot
A Coney Island of the Mnd
On Writing Well
Westward Ha! (Not sure if I've read this, but it's Perelman, so the deja vu would be welcome)
Thank You, Jeeves
Rootabaga Stories
Side Effects - Woody Allen
Heidi - Johanna Spyri, another one for the tot
Alice Adams - Booth Tarkington
David Copperfield
Final Payments - Mary Gordon
Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto
Awaken to Superconsciousness

Discoveries of the day:
Hildegarde of Bingen. The more I learn of her, the more I consider her worth as a potential role model. I will one day immerse myself in some study of Dorothy Day, Simone Weil and St. Hildegarde.

The dog who irritated me to the point where I became intentionally more conscious of animals' sensitivities and sufferings has blessedly been removed to a place where she'd, I imagine, be much happier. Happy dogs don't bark with alarming frequency when left alone for any length of time. Interesting now how when I see a tethered dog yelp and whine waiting for the owner to return I feel for the dog: my irritation is delayed and a distant second. I imagine the dog is probably not used to being without the owner, or is over-stimulated in the presence of strangers and a strange environment as any child left alone might be.

Bean There, Done the Crossword

I must exercise my comedy/writing skills online more.
Firstly, I would do my small part to help people know proper spelling and usage of English words.
Secondly, some people get paid for writing.

Hubby and I visited Bean City Espresso, a very small place with seating for six people for the second consecutive day. Yesterday I started to do a puzzle in a sudoku book, waving my pen across the grid as if to conjure the answers to appear. The affable owner/barista appeared to be impressed. My eyes fell to the New York Times Thursday crossword that he had started: "well, you attempted this so you must like puzzles."

He said: "You can carry on with the crossword if you like. What I'd love to do is leave a crossword out for people to do when they come in and out, we could all solve it together." We agreed this was a good idea and started on the Thursday puzzle, with help from the husband. I can solve the Thursday puzzle with help from a smart person in about twenty minutes.

So we come in today, because he serves great Cafe Viennas, and has organic this and stevia that, and good reading/puzzling material, and he says "oh wait! I don't have the paper yet!" and he runs out of the shop to grab a local newspaper. We are left to chat with a friendly customer reading a JavaScript technical manual. I am super-impressed that he would think to buy the newspaper: I figure he does this on a daily basis, but to consider that we might want to do the crossword is excellent. Get this: there are people who like to watch people solve crosswords. I'm not very good at crosswords myself. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is "I use the Internet to solve the TV Guide puzzles" and 10 is Tyler Hinman or Ellen Ripstein, I am a 5: the one who frequently needs help on Thursday -> Saturday puzzles. Solving a Friday or Saturday puzzle by myself is a triumph.

Friday took us an hour to do, even with some straightforward nine-letter entries: FREETIBET, AIRCANADA, THEGRUDGE, ERIECANAL. The thing with the crosswords is that my best bets are: getting a bunch of shortish pop culture clues, and scoring big with at least one nine-letter to fifteen-letter entry across the grid. I start out slowly, gulp some liquid splendour, and then the synapses fire and the letters get filled in.

We had some misdirection and wrong answers -- shame on me, for we were using a pen, but ultimately we filled in the grid with at least answers that connected and made sense to us.

Tomorrow he's going to get the Saturday puzzle. I hope he's open early enough for me or my husband.

Thoughts on checking The Ultimatest Grocery List

Get your copy at GroceryLists.org

I am experiencing technical difficulties typing this. One of the animals sprayed on the bed, a definite no-no, and because we don't know which one did it, we've limited bedroom access to creatures who can twist a doorknob. In retribution, the cat most vocal in protest has sat on my list.

The grocery list isn't exhaustive. Every subcategory in Foodstuffs and Household has two blank lines for specialty, unusual or local items. I did not see a category for dried beans, peas, legumes and bulk grains. Cereal is in "various groceries." How we shop for foods is more complicated, now that our eyes have been opened to food politics.

The devisers of this Ultimatest Grocery List have a hilarious Household subcategory of Carcinogens: pick up arsenic, asbestos, cigarettes, radionuclides, and vinyl chloride. Radionuclides I wasn't aware of until now. Judging from my family's history, I don't have to work hard to get cancer, don't understand why I should pay for it.

Meat we usually order once a month from a rancher in Walla Walla.
Fish we get either from a longtime company in the Univ District or from the Farmers' Market. Although we have been buying from Trader Joe's.
Dairy and eggs we get at Trader Joe's or nearby supermarket in a hurry.

When we feel we have a big list (20 items or more) we'll go to a regional chain store that offers bulk cereal, grains, and features food offerings from local producers.

But seriously, the more reading one does, the more one comes to understand a lot of processed food just isn't good or healthy.
Costco is where we go for toilet paper, olive oil, detergent, cat litter, toothpaste, tooth brushes, bleach, fruit juice, coffee, soup base, broth, soups, chicken breasts, pens.

Vegetables and fruits we get from a Community Supported Agriculture subscription or from farmers' markets or farms in special cases, like our annual county Harvest Celebration tour.

Now that we've learned to read labels, there's so much we no longer buy from the supermarket. We used to spend about $5000 at the corner supermarket, but management idiocy, irritated check-out personnel ("I know the other store's club card works but I'm not allowed to scan it and neither are you.") and displays that restrict foot and mobility wheel traffic keep us burning fossil fuels elsewhere. Another reason to consider moving, I guess.

Wherefore attitudes about (not) watching television

I used to have cable television. I liked it! It, along with books, the beach, cooking, public market and my friends kept me entertained when I was single, alone, and not yet hooked up with Internet access at home.

Then I moved to the U.S. And I knew I wouldn't be able to get my cable shows. So we didn't get cable. Now all channels are in high definition format, so we use my 20-year-old TV set for the Wii, DVDs and VHS. As far as I know, no one thinks the worse of us for not having cable, and we don't think worse of people who have cable. They have tastes different from us, and most of our friends don't have children, as we do.

Links:
Stuff White People Like: Not Having a TV
Encyclopedia Dramatica: I don't watch TV

I find it interesting that a few people who watch television, upon learning someone doesn't watch [network shows, cable shows, news] infer that there's some holier-than-thou or snobbish attitude. Maybe someone just can't manage the expense of cable? How is that holier? Maybe someone has children to raise and a job to tend to and doesn't have time to merit the expense? How is that smug? Is the second-guessing a defense mechanism because the questioner didn't ask: "do you watch television?" Or is it merited, such as when the respondent starts a militant lecture or weird rant as to why s/he doesn't watch (brainwashing, better things to do, verbal smackdowns of that ilk). The defensive snark's causative factors are usually undefined, perhaps internal.

I'd be lying if I said I don't watch television, because I do rent DVDs and they go into the DVD player, hooked up to the television set. We watch maybe 18 hours a year of recycled television specials and cancelled series. Movies we see probably 40 hours a year, and maybe one-third to one-half of those hours are on the computer.

For watercooler talk, why not ask someone "hey, what websites do you follow?" or "what books do you read?" or "where have your cooking adventures taken you?" or "did you see such-and-such exhibit?" or "did you follow last night's [insert sport of choice] game?" Maybe someone caught the game live or on radio or through streaming media via the Web.

Humour

I'm watching "Bananas" and am surprised I haven't seen this before. So cute the references to City Lights and Battleship Potemkin are. Slapstick, four-star film.

I have a list of very funny novels to read while the fall/winter season approaches. I have tried to get a list of funniest films but the ones easiest to find assume that humour is exclusively American, there were no funny films prior to "Caddyshack", and the final arbiter of what is funny is a white American male between the ages of 15 to 24.

Reader's Digest's list probably has a broader perspective, at least chronologically and there is at least one French film and a few Italian films:
http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/the-top-100-funniest-movies-of-all-time/article13866.html
----------------------------------------------
Links to discussions of what may be funniest novels:
http://www.cracked.com/article_15374_wit-lit-101-five-classic-novels-that-bring-funny.html

http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/whats-the-funniest-novel-ever/

http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/fivebest/?id=110008077&mod=RSS_Opinion_Journal&ojrss=frontpage
(read three of these, saw the movie adaptation of one. Lucky Jim is certainly ranked highly for humour. That must be why I can't ever find a copy in three library systems.)

People who compare other people to Hitler...

don't recognize that they cannot possibly be taken seriously. Show me where the person compared to Hitler authorized the concentration camps, show me their government terror squads smashing windows of storefronts and brutally beating innocent citizens, and I'll consider changing my opinion.

I do not know why irrational and absurdist statements are used to bolster opinion as fact. This gambit is very popular in my adopted country, and probably in other countries where there is at least some free speech. Say something truthful and sensational and backed up by facts. Anything else makes you sound like a loon calling other loons.

A moment of intuition?

I am reading a book: _The Intuitive Edge_, by Philip Goldberg. I am not intuitive, although I am a good predictor of people's behaviour at times.

Here is my intuition anecdote of the day:
There is a woman I have met whose child is in a grade higher than my child's: both our children attend the same school. I'll call her Honora. She wanted someone to look at her computer as it was not working correctly. She asked if my husband would come look at it. I said I would ask.

I did ask. Hubby said okay. We went to the woman's house, and she wasn't there. Fine. The next day Old Man L. says "I...I...I gotta go walkies." And I suggest a nearby chain restaurant known for healthful food, that we've been to twice. So we go, and lo! on our third visit, there is Honora with her friend! And I direct Old Man L. to her.

What possessed me to suggest a place we don't frequent?

breast cancer prevention foods: what's the real story?

source: The Breast Cancer Prevention Plan

Here are what are suggested to reduce one's chances of getting breast cancer
green tea
organic milk and milk products
buy meat from livestock ranchers you can interview directly
eat cruciferous vegetables every day
consume more yogurt (organic)
brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale, cabbage, turnips, collards and cauliflower should be eaten frequently (unless you're pregnant or breast-feeding).
raise your Vitamin B12 and folate levels: eat green leafy vegetables, peas, beans, and enriched cereals -- supplement with methylcobalamin
eat fruits and vegetables that have not been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides
avoid dioxins
reduce or regulate your blood sugar
N-acetylcysteine

never eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food
never eat anything that would not spoil easily
never eat anything wild animals will not eat


touching, hugging and sex all increase melatonin production
make sure you turn down your lights especially after 10 pm. this includes turning off the TV or using the computer after 10 pm

the velveteen rabbit

I read Margery Williams's classic to my kid last night and he leaped across the bed to hug me when I finished reading. This is a parental thrill. He doesn't hug his father after his father reads to him.

The noise filters are doing their job well today

I accompanied my family to "Taste of Chicago" and found the radio commercials much too loud. Maybe I am a geezer. I walked out of the restaurant, the radio volume was that loud. Not only that, the television was going too. We were the only customers in and we didn't request the television nor the radio. I don't want to go to "Taste of Chicago" anymore, although the person on staff did turn down the commercials. Ten minutes of ads! How do people cope

More readings:
Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments by Michael Dirda
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose

Van Gogh's room at Arles : [three novellas] / Stanley Elkin.

Reading in bed : personal essays on the glories of reading / selected and edited by Steven Gilbar.

The best American short stories of the century / John Updike, editor ; Katrina Kenison, coeditor ; with an introduction by John Updike.

Pieces of soap : essays / by Stanley Elkin.
Esquire's big book of fiction / edited by Adrienne Miller.

There are so many readers here in Seattle. I don't meet them because they read. There are umpteen book clubs, but I don't read in book clubs, so I don't meet them. What I'd love is for someone with whom to share reading recommendations and experiences. Maybe making food is a better way of connecting: people in general are happier when their stomachs are full of good food; show me who is satisfied when his or her mind has digested a terrific novel.

The last great novel I read was Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers. Before that it was The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I read Geek Love and although it cried out to be for 17 years, its message wasn't worth waiting that long for.

I'm very sensitive to input these days. When the input is positive, that is good. I went to school today and three people said hello. I met some parents while we waited for the school bus to return our children to us. That was a golden, neighbourly moment. Now I'm going to watch "Heima."

titles for "next time"

Fantomas -- Louis Feuillade's silent films
Reel Baseball - America's national sport depicted in the flickering tintypes 1896-1926
Revolution from Within
Out of Africa
Post Office - Bukowski
How to Have a green thumb
Trust me on this - Donald E. Westlake
What Colour is Your Parachute
Secrets of the Flesh - possibly a Colette biography
Ladder of Years - Anne Tyler
A Shining Thread of Hope
Random Acts of Hope
Simple Abundance
Honey for a child's head

thirty-day social media fast

you'd think this would include blogs. I'm not cutting people out of my life: I am still using e-mail. I read Jack Baty's cached 30-day media fast blog post, and Steve Pavlina's book Personal Development for Smart People, and it seems to me that I could do more decluttering, volunteering, exercising. I'm also in a rut, and think some new experiences would be beneficial.

I am not sure if this would include blogs. Yes, blogs are social media, but they don't take much of my time: there are only four that I read. I'm looking forward to gardening, reading (e-mail, letters, books) and writing (cover letters, e-mails).

Drop me a line, if you're so inclined.

Accepting the new

Playing Happy Songs for Happy People, by Mogwai. Lots of books, CDs and DVDs rented. After all, you're better off with libraries and no money than you are with money and no libraries.

Other Library treats:
upgrade your life edition 2, by Gina Trapani
The book of general ignorance, from John Lloyd, who brought us 'QI'
Heima, the Sigur Ros DVD
Bobby, Noel & Cole 2 DVD-set where Bobby Short sings and plays the music of you-know-who
After the Rain, the soft sounds of Erik Satie
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players DVD
Diamond Settings: Hommage a Satie, by the Seattle Symphony (score! I didn't know they recorded; more aware of the Montreal Symphony)
Mozart: 3 KlavierSonaten by Mitsuko Uchida

books for the boy, card game rules, chess for children, eating fractions, Velveteen Rabbit (love this book)

To borrow SOON: Wallace Wang's Steal This File-Sharing Book. Guided by Voices DVD box set, Robyn Hitchcock DVD box set.

not off to a great start this morning

1. Husband reported cat did not come in. We both went out at separate times to look for it. I did some energy medicine exercises to relieve stress and tension, I affirmed that I was filled with serenity and light. I took two melatonin. I barely slept. I did cry and fantasized leaving my family. I know it's only a cat, but I rarely let the cat out, repeatedly ask my spouse not to let the cats out, and he ignores me just as much. Although, that day I read to him that cats of a certain breed (of which my cat is one) should not be let out because they are much too trusting.
Cat ends up to have been in the house, just cleverly camouflaged. I have to forgive my spouse, but I will not forget this.

2. I burned breakfast because someone called me and I didn't give her boundaries ("now is not a good time to talk, I have breakfast going."). I have only myself to blame for that.

3. School staff survey show a calamitous slide in teacher confidence/approval of principal at my son's school. I must find work: I must afford private school and a replacement car. Math textbook series adoption sucks. The advanced learning opportunities math teacher my son loves is no longer affordable, so she is gone. My son reads at the third grade level but the school focuses, justifiably, on those who are slow or beginning readers. When you're at teacher in my city, it's a non-issue that a kid reads beyond his age. Assumption is the kid likes reading and can keep up.
Am considering unschooling, part-time job, volunteer. Anything to get out.

Seattle Public Library System shut down for a week

Seattle libraries are closed Monday and won't reopen until Sept. 8. Locking the doors and sending the librarians home for eight days will save more than $650,000.

Meanwhile, the city of Seattle expects to save up to $20 million next year by having most city workers take off 10 unpaid furlough days.

A coalition of 14 city employee unions approved the plan last week that covers nearly 6,400 workers. Uniformed police and firefighters are not part of the furlough plan.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_seattle_cuts.html?source=mypi

For some reason I thought I'd get one extra week of reading. No.
I do treasure the fact that our family makes library time a regular part of our schedule. Jazz/funk/ambient/chill CDs, Pokemon/Electric Company DVDs, books on geography, and my 'whichever way the wind blows' tastes, which right now are on exercise and spirituality.

So I have one week with the boy with no library time. I wish he'd chosen some meatier chapter books, but apparently the best way to encourage boys to read is to let them pick out what they want. My kid reads beyond his grade, but he likes Garfield comics. So he takes out Garfield comics. He also likes poetry. Guess we'll clean up the garage. After I finish my novel.

I need a new decision-making matrix

To do:
1. Return books/CDs to Library
2. Get maybe new books while Library is shut down for a week
3. Go to gym or do yoga here
4. Plan meals
5. Clean rooms
6. Initiate project plans for furniture, office, personal space
7. Initiate novena
8. Return chess book

I see where Utah has the right idea of sending texting drivers to prison for fifteen years when they cause fatalities. I wish my state were as strict. Texting drivers scare me.

weird msg from Google: Your Google Account recovery code is: #######. If you did not request this code you can safely ignore this message. Yay. Time to check what Phone # I gave Google. I don't need a recovery code.

Update: apparently someone with an e-mail address very similar to mine lost her password. Somehow Google thought it was mine. No, Google didn't send me her password. That would have been bad.

another book list: recommendation list

1. Care of the Soul : A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life by Thomas Moore
2. The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life by Thomas Moore
3. Soul Mates by Thomas Moore
4. The Soul of Sex: Cultivating Life as an Act of Love by Thomas Moore
5. Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn

6. Shelter for the Spirit: Create Your Own Haven in a Hectic World by Victoria Moran
7. Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life by Frederic Brussat
8. A Blue Fire by James Hillman
9. The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within by Stephen Fry
10. The Invitation by Oriah

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some Facebook drama happening behind the scenes.
Boy just told me I looked like Sarah Palin.
The tragedy of attempted reconnection/reconcilation: rejection

1920s and 1930s music: where to listen online

Community Radio isn't supporting my fringe listening interests.

KSER's "Let the Twenties Roar" left the air in April.
KBCS is canning "Vintage Jazz" and "Jazz of the 20th Century"

What's left: The Art of Jazz on KPLU and The Swing Years and Beyond on KUOW.

What's on the Web:
WWOZ - commercial free Cajun, blues and jazz
Radio Dismuke
Radiola
Jazz 24
Evolution of Jazz

Radio Paradise

http://ask.metafilter.com/128087/Vintage-jazz-radio-streamspodcasts
WAMU Saturday Night Jazz
KJAZ
Jazz After Hours

coz, if you're out there, I've missed reading you. Drop me an update line, please?

My son is learning chess

This suits me fine. It's an intellectually demanding game, but genteel, but best of all it is NOT TRADEMARKED. What this means: game rules don't change, pieces don't adapt or evolve. You can buy a board and a working clock and study positions. I was disillusioned with SCRABBLE® because:

* rules of tournament play changed;
* club and tournament lexicon was restricted for televised play;
* Canadian spellings not altogether permitted in North American play

Chess is simpler that way. I mailed my son's registration for U.S. Chess Federation membership. He attends chess camp and a local man I know, whom I learned yesterday was state champion twice, has lent Chess Life magazines and his first chess book to my seven-year-old sun.

Mental To-Read Dump

I have many messes right now. My external life mirrors my internal and vice versa. Write it down, get it done, set it free.

Don De Lillo - White Noise, Underworld
Carson McCullers - Ballad of the Sad Cafe
Jeffrey Eugenides
Rohinton Mistry - A Fine Balance
Doris Lessing - The Golden Notebook
Philip Roth - The Plot Against America
Christopher Isherwood - The Berlin Stories
Lewis Nordan - Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Fair
Elinor Lipman - The Way Men Act
Carol Shields - The Republic of Love
Elizabeth Hay - Late Nights on Air
Sara Jeanette Duncan
James Morris
Paul Scott
Iris Murdoch - A Severed Head, An Unofficial Rose
Jonathan Lethem - Amnesia Moon
Titles: An Unexpected Light, Travels in Afghanistan
David Goodis
Cornel Woolrich
Terence Blacker - Kill Your Darlings
Haim Ginott - Between Parent and Child
Howard Zinn
Marc Reising - Cadillac Desert

Why should I read poetry?

Yes, yes I took a minor in English, but had to be spoonfed meaning and interpretation in most poems surveyed in the curriculum, except for those lamenting the war dead or imagistically representing a brave, chaotic new world post-armistice.

It may be that my mind is not ruminative or patient enough to peel layers of meaning and intent in poems. Some poems are simple; others are difficult. My mind runs at a great pace, not necessarily in one direction at a time, so when I stop for a poetry break I'm not "ooh, I would like something difficult please." I'm wanting a playful diversion.

I either like how the words smash against each other by sound, or I like a vivid single image. My son's teacher shamelessly professes her love of poetry and loves to share that passion. Me, I read either Dorothy Parker's "Frustration" or Hart Crane's "Chaplinesque".

What brought this on? 8.3% of the US populace has read a poem in the last twelve months. If we agree that "Frustration" or "Chaplinesque" are poems (the latter most certainly qualifies), or include Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" then I'm one of the 8.3%. But seventeen years ago more like 17% of the populace read poems. Whose poems were being read? Whose poems do you read?

When I was reading poetry, back in my twenties, I read:
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Dorothy Parker
Charles Baudelaire
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Anne Sexton
Sylvia Plath
William Butler Yeats
William Carlos Williams

I even wrote poetry. No, I will not share. I have too much respect for my audience. But in this bleak and gloomy period, the only poems I've read are Wislawa Szymborska's and Homer's epic poem "The Iliad." Whom should I read? Is there a place for poetry nowadays among those out of school?

living with music: a weekly feature of NYT's online blogs

I discovered this today, while Googling "Chip Kidd," the Associate Art Director at Alfred A. Knopf, and author of two lively novels: The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners. The Living with Music blog feature lets writers share with the Net-surfing public songs they're currently listening to. Mr. Kidd, who'd released a music video with his band Artbreak ("Asymmetrical Girl") has a list I found accessible and tasteful.

I hope against probability that I'll come across an author's list, find her or his list stunningly agreeable, and devour the writing like so much pavlova. Or that he or she will nurture the same passion I have for an obscure artist and that shared connection will be the key to a wonderful new journey of the mind and spirit.

in case you were interested where I am these days

I was here on Friday and Saturday. More later.

Schoolchild rite of passage committed 8:17 am PST

Son enters kitchen with a clean sheet of paper. "This assignment is due today. Will you help me?"

Also, this morning found 38% of drivers with headlights off travelling through dense fog. As a Canadian who is used to automatic headlights, and who habitually turns on her lights regardless of time of day, I do not understand the "win" behind reducing visibility in inclement weather conditions. Can someone, pardon the pun, enlighten me?

top city

The Top City

I haven't been to Denver, so I can't comment on its placement, but I'm scratching my head to figure out how Seattle can beat out San Francisco for desirability. I was talking with my spouse last night about cities and desirability: mostly asking him how Mrs. such-and-such could manage living in his hometown.

Spouse: "She's spent her whole life there."
Me: "What about your mom?"
Spouse: "She grew up in Indiana. Don't worry, I won't make you move back to my hometown."
Me: "I can't understand how people manage there."
Spouse: "They're not from Vancouver."

I don't hate Seattle. The jobs are easier to get, real estate is cheaper (yes, if you look at Vancouver BC -- it's quite possible to get a house based on INCOME, and not INHERITANCE/NET WORTH here. In fact, house prices have fallen to where one house on our street is valued at $297,000.). I'm not getting the "I need to bring my gun to a mall despite the no-guns-allowed sign" gestalt, nor the "who needs rapid transit? gridlock is fabulous!" mindset of Seattle, but other than those I like where I am. San Francisco, though: excellent restaurants, nifty wharves, history, cable car transit, very walkable. Good city!

Feel a wee bit o' self-loathing today

I must learn to be a better hostess to people who are afraid of animals.
Two of my three cats streak for downstairs when strange sounds/smells/bipeds enter the house, one of them measures the height/entertainment value of the intruder(s) and acts accordingly. He jumped on the PTA president. I need to remember to contain the cat. He's normally a very gentle sort, he just likes his heights.

I was listening to the "Misery Hour" podcast today, hours after I saw the thermometer in the morning read -5.5C, and heard "April 5th" and wept at both the beauty of the song and the ugliness of winter...

evening update: I was able to perform friend duty this evening to someone in need I care about, so perhaps I am not so awful after all...