Nobody Knows Anything

You know, I keep hearing that I’m supposed to respect other people’s beliefs, but goshdarnit they make too hard sometimes:

NEWNAN, Ga. - Across the Bible Belt this Halloween, some little ghosts and goblins might get shooed away by the neighbors — and some youngsters will not be allowed to go trick-or-treating — because the day falls on a Sunday this year.

“It’s a day for the good Lord, not for the devil,” said Barbara Braswell, who plans to send her 4-year-old granddaughter, Maliyah, out trick-or-treating in a princess costume Saturday instead.

Some towns around the country are decreeing that Halloween be celebrated Saturday to avoid complaints from those who might be offended by the sight of demons and witches ringing their doorbell on the Sabbath.

“Moving it, that’s like celebrating Christmas a week early,” countered Veronica Wright, who bought a Power Rangers costume for her son. “It’s just a kid thing. It’s not for real.”

It is an especially sensitive issue for authorities in the Bible Belt across the South.

“You just don’t do it on Sunday,” said Sandra Hulsey of Greenville, Ga. “That’s Christ’s day. You go to church on Sunday, you don’t go out and celebrate the devil.”

In Newnan, a suburb south of Atlanta, the City Council decided to go ahead with trick-or-treating Sunday. In 1999, the last time Oct. 31 fell on a Sunday, the city moved up trick-or-treating to Saturday, which brought howls of protest.

In Vestavia Hills, Ala., a suburb of Birmingham, a furor erupts every time Halloween falls on Sunday.

I don’t feel at all bad keeping my kids away from religion. Not a bit.

We finally got around to filing our taxes (YES, WE FILED EXTENSIONS, DON’T BE A GIT) and got refunds. Of course, we got far less money back than Darin was expecting (so much for our percentage of the great tax reduction pie), but it was still a nice chunk of change to show up on our doorstep. And I noticed two curious things on the checks:

• On the California state check, the “fund name” is the “Tax Relief and Refund Account.” Isn’t “tax relief” a Republican talking point? Why did California name its fund that?
• The US Treasury check was issued in Austin, Texas. Just in case I was wondering where the money had gone.

Now it can be told: Why the cookie crumbles:

Scientists in Britain have discovered why biscuits seem to break so easily.

Using sophisticated laser techniques, physicists at the University of Loughborough, in the north of England, found that a biscuit develops “fault lines” a few hours after it comes out of the oven.

As it cools down, it picks up moisture around the rim, causing it to expand — while at the same time, moisture at the centre makes it contract.

The result is a build-up of strain forces which pulls the biscuit apart, making them vulnerable when handled, moved or packaged.

Sophia put herself down for a nap this afternoon. Demanded to nap, in fact. What you may not know is that not only has this never happened before, but I did such poor sleep scheduling with her that I became dependent on using the car to make her nap. But when she’s tired, she can put herself down for a nap.

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Go check out This Woman’s Work. Mom, writer, comments on Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka—it’s one stop shopping in a blog.

And re: Depp as Wonka: What a great choice! Diane sez: Depp as Wonka—”Eccentric” Cage as Wonka—”Seriously, deeply creepy”

But what about the Oompa-Loompas?

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Want confirmation that models are not, in fact, born at a higher level of beauty than the rest of us? Check out Greg’s Digital Archive, which has a seriously cool after-and-before slideshow of a model.

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I include this link primarily for Ceej and other Snape-fanatics out there: What kind of Snapeist are you? I still haven’t read the fourth book, let alone the fifth book, and I am falling desperately, hopelessly behind in my Potterology. Oh well: c’est la vie.

That’s okay: evidently there are plenty of people with enough time on their hands to take up the slack. Scary, scary people. (From Bookslut.)

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I took the kids to the new main branch of the San Jose library last week. I thought it was pretty cool: the intersection of a city’s main branch and a college’s library. I hope this is the wave of the future; I hope the experiment works and neither side has cause to regret it. It was seriously wonderful to be able to wander through a few of the stacks, picking up whatever book caught my eye. Well, until Sophia or Simon got impatient, which happened about every thirtieth of a second.

Lots of carrels for studying. Complete with power plugs and Internet connections. Of course, we visited during August, so school is still out; I’m sure the place has a much different feel when it’s full of San Jose State students elbowing one another to get that last Cat-5 connection.

Our parking tab for the lot across the street came to $4.50, for not that long of a visit, so clearly I have to scope out the downtown San Jose parking situation a little harder. Not that we’re going to go there very often, because it’s a little bit of a drive and the only section of a library I get to spend much time in these days is the kids’ section. But it’s worth checking out.

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Speaking of libraries: okay, the Los Angeles library system is not the greatest in the world, but I didn’t quite realize how great I had it. ‘Round these parts, I have my local town library (for residents only, peasant), the San Jose library system, and the Santa Clara County library system. I have three library cards. If I want to find a book, I have to check three websites. I have to keep track of which book goes to which library. And that’s if one of the libraries has the book, and half the time none of them do. (A few times I’ve gone to check the LA library and it always has the book I’m looking for.)

I know, life is tough. And there’s always Amazon. But I’ve been doing so well at keeping my bookbuying sprees under control!

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I probably shouldn’t mention this: I managed to get to the Y (avec les enfants) five times this past week! I feel like I am getting into a groove, exercise-wise. (Of course, I have probably just jinxed myself for the coming week, but oh well.)

My muscles feel a little sore but not so much that I’m in pain. Just like, “Oh yes, I’ve been moving my body.” I’ve even been having a very strange sensation when I’m the passenger in the car and I look out the window: as I watch the scenery pass by, I have the strongest impulse that I want to be out there, running. I can feel my body tensing up, like I’m getting ready to do a few miles. I don’t know if this is what people mean when they refer to the endorphin rush. I do know it’s one of the lures of running for me: to feel my body in motion, to feel it working.

And in the short time since I joined the Y I’ve gone from barely being able to do 4.2 miles/hour on the treadmill to doing a few stretches at 5.0. My immediate goal is to work my way back to 6.0, which is what I used to do on the treadmills at Apple. My long-term goal is to get to 7.5 miles per hour, or an 8 minute mile, if for no better reason than I wanna.

Mail.app (the mail application that comes with OS X) does a faboo job of filtering out spam and storing it in the Junk folder. Problem is, I’m still getting 300-400 spam messages a day (and rising). Sure, they’re mostly going into the Junk folder, but still.

So: any nominations for spam filtering software we can put on our OS X server?

Update: Oops! Darin says I totally have it wrong. What we need is help configuring our WebStar mail server so that it refuses most of the spam!

And no, we don’t want to switch software.

Okay, here’s the deal, friends:

If you don’t currently have a Mac that can support Jaguar (OS X 10.2), go out and get one. They’re cheap. Buy two.

While you’re at the Apple Store (why would you buy your Mac anywhere else), pick up an iSight camera. If the last iSight is in the delicate grasp of a defenseless, weeping child, rip it out of their hands. Just do it. You can thank me later for the encouragement.

Go home, put computer on table, attach iSight camera to computer.

Probably iChat AV is not on the computer. Download it from the Apple website. Install.

Fire up iChat AV, log in, and say, “Hi Diane!” And you can see me wave back.

iChat AV is way better than sliced bread. (For one thing, no carbs.) Darin has been chatting with friends down in LA, face-to-face. Is the conversation quality as good as a telephone? No, or as I like to say: not yet. But you get to see the people you’re talking to—remember the cool videophone in 2001? Here it is, folks.

The grandparents can see the grandkids any time they want. And they did, last night. Currently Sophia is more interested in seeing herself on the screen than seeing Grandma, but she and Simon also live in a world where stuff like “chatting with Grandma and Grandpa and seeing their faces despite a distance of a couple thousand miles” is perfectly normal.

I want everyone I know to rush out and get this setup so that we can talk, face-to-face. I’ll wait right here.

Okay, I have been extremely baffled by the continuous popularity of this entry’s comment thread.

What the hell is Blue Moon ice cream? I had never heard of it before this thread.

Who makes said ice cream, and where—for the love of pete—do you get it?

My new schedule is this: on days when there is no preschool, try to get up at around 6 and go for a short run. On days with preschool, drop Sophia off at 8, come back home, strap Simon into the jogging stroller, go for a longer run.

This seems to be working out pretty well.

Of course, I’ve only done it one day.

Yesterday morning Sophia said, “It’s time for school! It’s time for school!” and since it was only 7am, Darin and I were more underwhelmed by her enthusiasm than we might otherwise have been. I got her to school and had to ask her for a hug and a kiss before she raced off to try out all the cool toys in the classroom.

C’mon, would a little separation anxiety kill you?

I realized that I would have lots of morning time, and since Simon is still too little to say, “No, not the jogging stroller!” I decided I could use some of the morning to run. Which we did today and I think this plan is going to work out fine. It will work better if I get into shape (puff, puff), but one thing at a time.

Something funny I’ve noticed about Simon when we’re in the kitchen is that he likes to run laps around the kitchen island. Thud thud thud thud thud thud THUD THUD thud thud… I suspect he runs there because I’m standing at the island using my computer. (Soon my office will be cleaned out and usable. Soon. If I believe hard enough, it will be so.) But he just goes ’round and ’round. It’s hilarious.

Maybe one day we’ll go running together.

Okay, possibly this is the stupidest question ever posed, but…

Imagine the land between San Francisco is completely flat. No hills, no Grapevine, nothing. Both SF and LA are at sea level. Now imagine you’re going to ride your bike from SF to LA and back again.

Here’s my question:

1. The ride from SF to LA is harder.
2. The ride from LA to SF is harder.
3. The two legs of the ride are equally difficult.

My mental model is that the ride from LA to SF is harder. Darin says I’m wrong, that maps of the world are purely by convention.

As I drove yesterday I thought about why I imagine going from LA to SF is harder. Was I somehow applying the law of gravity to a north-south axis? Then I realized I had a mental model that rivers like the Mississippi go north to south (though that’s probably because they get such a good headstart coming off the Canadian mountains). Except, of course, the Nile, which goes south to north…and in my mental model of the world, the Nile is below the Equator. (I know this is wrong. I knew the second I vocalized it. But I had never thought about it explicitly before.)

More data: it takes about a tank of gas to go from our house to LA. I filled up right before leaving both times and the gas light came on toward the end of both trips. But I had to stop to refuel on the way home yesterday because the indicator dipped below the E mark—but on the way to LA it didn’t get that low. Did I use more gas coming home because I was coming north or because I drove, um, speedier?

Can anyone help me out here?

This entry #100 of the new NKA. I don’t have much to say in it though—not in the mood. There’s stuff going on around here I’ll be talking about soon and that’s where my head is right now. Darin’s come back from a whirlwind business trip—yay.

We’re getting ready for Sophia’s birthday party—an undertaking scary and overwhelming enough to send Darin on another business trip. Sophia likes to punctuate a lot of conversations these days with, “It’s time for my birthday party!” I keep trying to explain to her that she has to wait for her party. Sophia thinks I’m trippin’ and can we get the party on already?

I’m just glad that rain is no longer scheduled for party day. Would have really harshed the buzz on the petting zoo, let me tell you.