Paperbackswap.com - so awesome	Monday, August 27, 2007 6:22:15 PM
I had mentioned in a previous post (http://kathichelle.com/musings_detail.asp?MusingID=222) that I was going to try a new book swapping site. I have tried it for just over a month and it is my new addiction. I love it, love it, love it! I've easily gotten rid of books that were taking up space on my bookshelves and have gotten soooo many great books. I can't tell you how impressed I am. Even the quality of the books are fabulous. Mine were all in pristine condition, so I was a little worried about trading my like-new books for ones that look like Mike had read them in the pre-Kathy era. * But, aside from one mass-market paperback book with a bit of a wear mark exactly where you would rest your thumb on the cover, they have all been in exactly the same condition that I would have left them in. It is so exciting and awesome and you should try it too. I can't wait to relax with a couple on the trip out to Australia and back. * Note - Mike caused my book-loving heart to hurt when I saw that he would bend the book in half to read it. *ack* That is never, ever done and took me forever with big heavy dictionaries to try and save their little spines. Here is the cartoon that he sent me that made him think of that time: http://xkcd.com/280/
Such a funny article...and so true	Monday, August 27, 2007 7:05:10 AM
Courtesy of my father-in-law... http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/travel/escapes/24Ritual.html?ex=1188792000&en=1a46c1d2e282d37d&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Study: Obesity is 'socially contagious'	Wednesday, July 25, 2007 1:11:51 PM
from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070725/ap_on_he_me/diet_contagious_fat_2;_ylt=Apsgm_z8noUR5Kep0W5RnmAXIr0F If your friends and family get fat, chances are you will too, researchers report in a startling new study that suggests obesity is "socially contagious" and can spread easily from person to person. ... Obesity experts not involved in the research said the results back up what they have suspected all along ? that people look toward one another for what is an acceptable weight. "If you're just a little bit heavy and everyone around you is quite heavier, you will feel good when you look in a mirror," said Dr. David Katz, director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center. I think this is true in the reverse as well. My best friend was sick and lost a lot of weight, my sisters had stressful events that contributed to them losing a lot of weight, last year's family reunion showed some of my dad's sisters went on a "portion-control" diet kick, my cousins are mostly on the thin side, my sisters-in-law lost weight and got into shape for their weddings. It definitely pressured me to step up my exercise and eating properly so I'm not the overly-fat person at all of the parties. (Or taken to be pregnant.) Maybe if they all got totally fat, I wouldn't feel a need to exercise and watch what I eat. That isn't one of my favorite things to do, so I could see letting it slide. But only if they got fat first. :D
Additional articles of note	Wednesday, July 25, 2007 10:40:02 AM
I like the idea of Theology on Tap: http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070725/METRO/107250048/1004 And on a completely different note, it is nice to see that cities are coming back into the debate. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072002047.html?referrer=email Even if the Senate won't bring up the DC vote.
Bush's Heresy	Wednesday, July 25, 2007 10:22:55 AM
I hate that GW brings up that he is a Christian and that is why we need to go to war. One, it is idealistic, to this extent: It's idealistic to believe people long to be free. And nothing will change my belief. I come at it many different ways. Really not primarily from a political science perspective, frankly; it's more of a theological perspective. I do believe there is an Almighty, and I believe a gift of that Almighty to all is freedom. And I will tell you that is a principle that no one can convince me that doesn't exist. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/julyweb-only/129-42.0.html Yes, God wants us all to be free. But what is free? Would living in a socialist society where the poor have more of a likelihood of eating and opportunities for medical care be considered more free than our society in the US? Can you be free in a dictatorship? If you have your family, work, and a hope for the future, does it matter what sort of government is over you? Maybe GW should read something like Amy Chua's book World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability. It might give him pause to realize that his place in history is doomed as he didn't consider history first.
Walk Score: 35 out of 100	Friday, July 20, 2007 8:58:46 AM
Josh sent me the link to http://www.walkscore.com/. I was very excited because Mike and I walk all of the time in our neighborhood. The library and our favorite pizza place are .75 miles away. Our favorite Thai place and our local WaWa convenience store are 1.5 miles away. Our favorite Chinese/Japanese place is 1 mile away. There are tons of parks all over the place. The local SEPTA stop is steps from our front door. I knew that we wouldn't score as well as our friends in New York City or San Fransisco, but I figured that we would get better than a 35 percent. According to their chart, http://www.walkscore.com/how-it-works.shtml, they rated our house as: 25 - 50 = Not Walkable: Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving is a must. It should have at least been "Some Walkable Locations" or "Very Walkable". Maybe they just can't bring it with what they consider within a "comfortable" distance. ;)
Keith Olbermann - I applaud you	Friday, July 20, 2007 6:22:14 AM
Thanks to John for sending me this link. If you haven't already listened to this, please do. http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Olbermann_slams_Bush_after_Hillary_blamed_0719.html
Horsham, PA? For real?	Tuesday, July 17, 2007 1:12:48 PM
CNN Money has just put out their list of the top small cities. The place that Mike and I both work, Horsham, PA is #15 on that list. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2007/top100/index.html For real? There is nothing to do out here. That is why Mike and I live 30 mins away. But, I guess they have jobs, which is why we work here. :) Other props should go out to Hillsborough, NJ, (#23) where my sisters went to high school and I lived during college breaks.
Swapping - Recycling and cheap!	Monday, July 16, 2007 7:06:33 PM
Have you all heard about these sites? I am VERY intrigued. I think that I will be joining the book one and Mike will be joining the CD one in short order. http://www.paperbackswap.com/ http://www.swapacd.com/ 15 mins later... OK, I've joined the book club. Use my hotmail email as your referrer so I can get a book! :D 30 mins later... hahaha After thinking about if there was any fine print and some sighing about joining and which email to use, Mike has signed up for the CD club. Use his gmail as your referrer so he can get a CD! :D Email us at our "real" emails if you don't know the ones that I am mentioning.
Part-Time Work	Friday, July 13, 2007 8:18:35 AM
From today's Sojourners mail... ------- Part-Time Looks Fine To Working Mothers "In a notable shift during the past decade, working mothers overwhelmingly view fewer work hours as the best option for their busy lives with young children. The proportion of mothers who feel that way jumped 12 percentage points since 1997." Most Working Moms Prefer Part-Time Jobs "A sharply increasing portion of America's working mothers say their ideal situation would include a part-time job, rather than working full time or staying at home, a new national survey finds." ------- I actually believe that a lot of people would prefer part-time jobs and have time for the rest of their lives. Maybe that is a Gen X phenomenon. In my last company, one of the guys took a month off for vacation and he and his wife traveled around the US to find a place where they could both work 20 hours a week as consultants and have a house and a family and live their lives. I thought that was neat. I wonder if the people that are working for benefits alone will suddenly go all out for part time work if this country ever gets on the national health care bandwagon? I also found this comment quite funny in the first article: The study also offered a glimpse into how mothers view their own parenting. Just 28 percent of the mothers surveyed who work full time gave themselves the highest rating as a parent; 41 percent of mothers working part time and 43 percent of stay-at-home mothers gave themselves top marks. In another comparison, mothers with college degrees did not rate themselves as highly as those with some time in college; mothers with a high school education or less gave themselves the highest scores. hahaha I already am overly hard on myself, so what in the world will happen if I have kids? Go on Prozac?
Green Peace and the Iraq War	Tuesday, July 10, 2007 10:23:56 AM
Today at lunch, we were laughing that Green Peace is really the puppetmaster behind the Iraq War. * They sneakily set it up with President Bush to invade Iraq so our oil prices would go up. * Since people won't change their lives until they are forced to, this then pushed people to the breaking point so they started cutting back on energy consumption with taking public transit or car pooling or saving on air conditioning. * Now we have started going down a path that will move us to a more green and conservationist country. Everyone is hopping on the bandwagon about it. * In 20 years, President Bush will turn around and say "See! I told you that it was all going to work out. I just couldn't tell you the REAL reason for invading Iraq until now." Wouldn't that be totally crazy if it were true?
Busy bees	Monday, July 09, 2007 12:11:06 PM
Lots of stuff has been going on, but of course that lots of stuff has been getting in the way of me posting. :) Especially this crazy work project for me. *ugh* Can't wait to get them off of my plate and go back to the somewhat organized type of clients! The big trip to Australia in September is still getting all planned out with our travel agent, but things look like they are almost a go to be finalized. So excited... I haven't been posting about this for a while because until I have the tickets in my little hands, I feel a little superstitious about it. Much like how you can't say your team has won until the last seconds have ticked through on the play clock. Yes, that is the big exciting news. We are going because Mike is turning 33 and he wanted to do that in Australia. hahaha Just kidding, although he will have his birthday while we are there. Nah - we have both always wanted to go to Australia. I even tried moving there right after college, but I couldn't get a working visa and there was no way I had the money to hang out without working. We figured that this is the one time in our life when we will be able to toss over a year's worth of rent payments at a trip. (Haven't adjusted to mortgage payments yet. lol I guess that would be nearly a year's worth.) The only other time in a person's life seems to be after they've retired and, based on our dads' knees, we wouldn't be active enough to walk around Uluru or do the Sydney Bridge Climb or go ziplining through the Daintree Rainforest. CAN'T WAIT!!! I am so desperate for a vacation and this is a once in a lifetime trip. Wasn't I not going to talk about it? hahaha In other news, we have had lots of family visits and family visiting us. At least one very funny story to post about that, but I have to find a picture to put with it. This last weekend, we had "free time" and that meant that I cleaned and did 10 loads of laundry (lots of sheets and towels from the visiting family members plus we had saved it up) while Mike started and nearly finished cleaning out the attic and building the floors. Poor guy. He was totally soaked to the skin with the heat of it since it was like 96 degrees and hot/humid. Great time to spend next to the roof shingles in a box. Life is generally good and I hope that it is with you too.
The Simple Way	Monday, June 25, 2007 6:48:06 AM
There is a group in Philadelphia that I admire a great deal called The Simple Way. They are ordinary radicals who try to live like Jesus did and minister in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. In 1993, I did a service project in Kensington helping clean out a crack house with an urban church to make it livable for a family. Boy, did I have an eye-opening experience. First, with the state of crack houses after they have been trashed - something I had never experienced before. Secondly, on the way out of Kensington, we had this experience: In the time that it took our van to stop at a red light and for that light to turn green again, we witnessed a group of young people descend on a parked car and strip it practically nothing. And no one seemed to blink at that other than me and the other resident assistants that went on the service project with me. Believe me that this is probably one of the poorest and most desperate areas in Philadelphia. I really appreciate the ministry of the people who live in The Simple Way and the leadership of Shane Claiborne. It is not a life that I would feel comfortable living, but I'm very thankful that there are points of light in that neighborhood that doesn't see a lot of hope. It is an insular little world in urban ministry and the people in Messiah College's Philly Campus and Eastern University usually brushed up against each other. I'm sure that Shane was influenced by Tony Campolo of Eastern University and his son Bart Campolo's Mission Year much like we were when we heard them speak at our college. I've been blessed to read some articles that he has written over the years for Sojourners and excerpts from his book The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. He is a person who definitely makes me think and always makes me remember how important it is to make a difference locally and throughout the world. On Friday morning, a 7 alarm fire in an abandoned warehouse that the City of Philadelphia left abandoned for much longer than they ever should have took down the houses and cars of seven families as well as The Simple Way's community center, a micro-business, and all of Shane's possessions. They have a lot of people who admire them and immediately started to raise money, not just for rebuilding their community center, but also to help their neighbors rebuild. I send my prayers and support to this organization. I hope that you are able to rebuild soon and continue the work that God has called you to do.
Design for the other 90%	Thursday, June 21, 2007 11:04:38 AM
This is seriously the neatest article and exhibit. I hopefully didn't burn you out in other posts because this is the one to check out. :) An Article: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/goodnews/story/16830.html The Exhibit: http://other.cooperhewitt.org/ I so want to see this the next time we visit NYC.
Work-Family Life	Thursday, June 21, 2007 10:48:51 AM
I was listening to GMA this morning and heard a very familiar-sounding story. Mike heard it too and agreed that I had blogged about it before it made it to GMA, so maybe they are doing research on my blog. hahaha http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/SpecialSeries/story?id=3301983 Today, Congress will hear about a battle that goes on inside millions of American homes: the struggle to balance work and family while also making ends meet. The hearing of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee is the first step in revisiting U.S. policies on work and family. The subcommittee is considering bills on an expansion of family and medical leave, mandatory sick leave and a measure that would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect a woman's right to breast-feed. In roughly 80 percent of two-parent families in the country, both parents have jobs. But the United States doesn't make it easy to juggle work and home. A recent Harvard-McGill study found that only four of 170 countries surveyed did not require paid leave for new mothers: Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland -- and the United States. The study also found that 145 countries provided paid sick days. The United States requires only unpaid family and medical leave, and not all workers are covered. I don't think that it is going to do anything really, but it is nice to hear the same citations from the ladies of GMA. :)