more heat than light

Howdy

2019-04-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I've written here. I wasn't sure who I wanted to be online. I don't have a lot of characters, but I have been on the internet since I've been out of my parent's house. I had a Friendster account and a Myspace account before I had a Facebook account and those experiences taught me to be cautious about putting all my eggs in one basket. Friendster is gone. Myspace persisted for awhile, but I lost the email account I used to open it, so I had no way to retrieve the records when they finally offered that as a service.

I am very nervous about this thing we have built. The internet once seemed robust and wild and I feel like in my lifetime it has been massively pared down. The broad network we once had is now narrow and just a few spaces are deemed truly important places to leave and market your content. It was pared down like synapses are rewritten in the brain. The expansive network contracts around what is valued enough to be maintained.

I don't know what that means. But I am nervous about losing these pieces of myself. So I am spreading them, like a squirrel hides nuts in many places.

I'm bringing some stuff over here for safekeeping. Just in case. It's old stuff, but I will probably catch up fast. I'm not trying to relitigate stuff from 2016... it's just.

I'm worried about what happens when chunks of these memories disappear.

And maybe we should think of ways to make that harder to do.

#ForAntonio

2015-10-16T15:23:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I heard the story of how an artist in Oakland was murdered. Antonio Ramos was working on a mural, part of a series of murals planned around the city.

This affected me more than I would have guessed. Especially reading and hearing interviews with his friends about the projects they'd planned and the fact that, as a young artist, he was just starting to get some recognition. It reminded me so much of the way I'd felt when I'd been invited to participate in the projects, working for free, but excited for exposure and the community that comes from meeting other artists.

His death was not a major news story. He was painting when someone came up and started touching his equipment. He asked them to stop. He was shot. He died at the hospital. There was a vigil held that night where he was killed. And then ten people were killed at a community college in Oregon. And the media moves on.

I had a moment of inspiration. I hadn't done any painting in so long, but I was moved by the words of his friends. By the thought of all the ideas and work we'll never see. And I decided that I shouldn't waste the piece he'd inspired in someone else. This is #forantonio. Thank you, Antonio.

He was working on a series called The Oakland Superhero Mural Project. It was created by the Attitudinal Healing Center in Oakland. They collaborated with local students to create the artwork, based on stories the students wrote. You can learn more about the project here: http://oaklandmuralproject.com

The West Street Mural will be dedicated to him. They still need help completing this project.

The New York Times covered the vigil that took place on October 3.

KQED asks "What Role Can Community Art Play In Resisting Violence?" AHC executive director Amana Harris is quoted:

“We will be dedicating this wall to Antonio Ramos. And we will not stop. We will not be intimidated to bring light and love and hope into our communities.”

I will not pretend that I am doing anything as important or brave as Antonio did. I am painting a mural on my driveway. I live in an affluent area of San Jose, not a depressed part of Oakland. But I found his experience so powerful, that I wanted to mark it. I wanted people here to know who he was and what he was doing. It is just across the bay, but the neighborhoods and cities of the Peninsula feel segregated and compressed. There is so much money in one zipcode alongside others with none.

I want to visit his work and see what he was doing.

As people pass, I was surprised by how kind and interested they have been in what I was doing. The first day, I was so nervous. I wasn't sure if people would be angry. I started painting and my kids joined me.

We left to go to the park and when we returned, there was a herd of preteens on my driveway. They were taking selfies.

The next day, more people stopped to talk to me and see what I was doing. A guy from Willow Glen Charm stopped and took our picture, to share on a Facebook page about the neighborhood run by realtors.

Every time I spoke about Antonio and told them who he was, they paused. "He looks really young," they would say sadly.

On Facebook, someone said, of artists working in Oakland, "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." But his talent was not wasted on his home.

On October 7, the community was invited to come and help finish the mural:

“My family lives here. I love Oakland; it’s my favorite place,” Jose Stewart, a young student lending a helping hand with the mural, told Artnet News.

A mother who brought her children to contribute to the efforts, Jaquita Covin, told Artnet News that she thinks it’s important to come out and help with the effort following the shooting. “I believe that, you know, showing them it’s ok, come down here, you can still come and help your community.”

Today someone thought I was painting Obama, and another person tried to guess his race.

I also met a boy who lives down the street. He was on a skateboard. He shook my hand and my daughter danced for him.

I am so happy to be meeting my neighbors this way. They are kind and they are interested. People are taking their own pictures and sometimes I find them. But it also reveals just how big the distance is between here and there. Between San Jose and Oakland.

Everyone seems sad to learn that the painting is only temporary. It's water based tempera, and it's already flaking in spots. I am trying hard to finish, before the rains come and wash it away. But that seems right, for a memory. Soon it will only exist in the photos we've taken.

But there will still be people. To give to Antonio Ramos' family to help with their funeral costs, click here.

To give to The Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project, click here.

And his mural will be there.

You can follow my progress on Twitter and see more pictures, as well as works by other artists celebrating Antonio's life. I mapped the sites I've found so far and will continue to add them when I find them. You can see the photos others have taken if they've chosen to add the hashtag, #AntonioRamos.

Hard to shoot this from up on a ladder #antonioramos pic.twitter.com/1nJWtcwge6
— bright strangely (@brightstrangely) October 16, 2015

And, more than anything, I hope this inspires more people to use the space they have. I had a driveway. We all make noises about property rights and speech, but how often do we really use those things for something beautiful? Something public? Something free? Before you have permission or a publicist?

This blog is taking part in Blog Action Day. #Raiseyourvoice

http://www.blogactionday.org

Donations for Hurricane Sandy

2012-11-09T18:07:00.000-08:00

I was looking for places to make donations for hurricane Sandy's victims today, so I thought I'd share what I found. I tried to organize these resources by area, so that if you are local, you can find a place to donate money/materials/time and if you're not, you can find a national effort to join.

For "Locals" (pretty much anywhere on the North East coast):
Albany:
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Many-ways-to-assist-Sandy-victims-4017081.php

Staten Island:
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/supplies_in_demand_as_clean_up.html

North Jersey:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/How_to_donate_your_time_money_supplies_for_Sandy_relief.html

Somerset County:
http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2012/11/somerset_county_resident_come.html

Wayne, PA:
http://radnor.patch.com/articles/how-you-can-help-sandy-victims-today-in-wayne

Yorktown:
http://yorktown-somers.patch.com/articles/local-efforts-to-help-sandy-victims-how-you-can-help-5c3ba47e

Massachusetts:
http://framingham.patch.com/articles/mother-of-twins-organization-collecting-donations-for-sandy-victims

National Efforts:
Sew for Sandy
"...we are continuing our Sew For Sandy initiative to collect as many handmade warm items from our crafty readers to donate to those in need."
Links for Monetary Donations to Red Cross, United Way and more Here.
Diapers for Devastation
"Diapers for Devastation is a new relief program developed by two moms and best friends wanting to help other moms in need that have been affected by a devastation."
Donate to the North Shore Animal League to help support rescued pets

And just because I like to be thorough, here's a story about some of the scams exploiting Sandy, already up and running. Always be careful to check where you are sending donations!

Big Bird, Big Spender?

2012-10-04T23:31:00.001-07:00

So, I will be up front and say I haven't watched the debates yet. We taped 'em, so I promise to beat myself up about not having watched them while we're catching up on True Blood and Game of Thrones. But I have been reading the coverage and I was especially interested to see this whole flap about cutting PBS to balance the budget. If there's one thing I watch a lot of these days, it's Sesame Street. And I know that people have been posting numbers and graphics for a while now to demonstrate how tiny a chunk PBS actually commands out of our budget, but I think I found a new way to look at it, so bear with me.

"Cutting PBS support (0.012% of the budget) to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room on your 500Gig hard drive"
~ Neil deGrasse Tyson

This is the best analogy I've seen. When I tried to graph out some numbers, this is what I got:

Please note that the above numbers are in millions of dollars. I opted for graphing the number for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting instead of just PBS because it was bigger, but it still doesn't even show up on the chart. Here, you can see PBS's actual needs, shown as a percentage of the CPB's budget:

So Mitt was talking about 26.65 million dollars out of over 3.5 trillion. Let's look at the other number up there, the one for the Department of Defense: 964.8 billion dollars. Before anyone says I'm being a typical liberal in going after the Pentagon, I want to say I have nothing against the Department of Defense. I know we need an army and I know it costs a lot and I know there are a ton of people who depend on our armed forces for their jobs. Instead, I want to point out a very weird illustration of our national priorities. This video is a montage of sponsors for the 2011 Winter X Games:

And at 1:57, you see the Navy. This, is the advertising budget for all arms of the United States armed forces: 667 million

Here, we can see how that's divvied up between the branches:

What does it say about our country, when a billionaire with small children can run for President and get cheered for saying we can't afford to teach kids to read? But obviously we can hand piles of money to the Navy, so they can give it to ESPN?

sources:
"The CPB’s two-year, $445 million government grant makes up less than 1/100^th of a percent of a Federal Budget worth upwards of $3.5 trillion."
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2012/1004/Big-Bird-fired-Cut-wouldn-t-end-PBS-or-balance-budget.-video

"$26.65M for PBS support;"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_for_Public_Broadcasting

"The military's budget for advertising -- on TV, radio, print, web, mail campaigns, pamphlets, and movie theaters-- was projected to be $667 million dollars this year, according to the Operation and Maintenance Overview prepared by the Office of the Defense Comptroller in February 2011."
"the U.S. Navy was one of four major sponsors of the event (the X Games), filling ad intermissions (you can see one of the spots running pre-roll on ESPN) and sponsoring events like the half pipe snowboarders"
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/war-and-peace-in-30-seconds-how-much-does-the-military-spend-on-ads/252222/

this blog may be cursed

2012-06-15T15:23:00.000-07:00

I want you to scroll down real quick and note that the last post before just a few months ago, was about the death of one of our chickens. And now I must unhappily report that just a few weeks after I started writing again, another died. I didn't have it in me to write about it at the time, but I wanted to today, since she was my favorite. D'brickashaw was the queen of the coop. She was a very big, beautiful bird. When we had problems with Jessica Simpson eating eggs laid in the coop, D'Brickles started laying on the porch, so every morning, just about, we'd see her just outside the back door rearranging the nest she'd made out of shavings and feathers. She used to sit on the window sill and eat spider webs while I nursed my son in the glider on the other side of the glass. She was the one who always purred when she got treats. And she was the one who used to climb up on the washing machine to demand treats too. She passed away on Mother's Day, peacefully, we think. I would have been so heartbroken if I'd found her one day when I was alone, so it was really quite considerate of her. Mr. Strangely buried her next to the wild currant she loved to hide in, and we planted yerba buena there.

That left us with one, lonely, little chicken. But do not worry, she wasn't lonely for long. That story will be for another post though...

What Do Pro-Lifers Want From Women?

2012-04-06T15:11:00.000-07:00

As a woman of childbearing age, I have a vested interest in the birth control flap going on right now. It's an issue I've followed for years, and one that only persists, I think, because the two sides never actually speak to each other. They get by too often on vagueness and rhetoric that has barely changed since I was born, 2 years after roe v wade. It's time for that to end. So, here, I would like to challenge some of the arguments I hear most often from those who identify as "Pro-Life", concerning the rights of the unborn. And I hope those of you who are Pro-Life will present the arguments you do find compelling in the comments, or help me with nuances I might not be describing correctly. I will do my best to update this post and address them, because this needs to be a conversation. The marketing just fails all of us.

1: Life begins at conception.
I agree. There is no doubt that the cells dividing after sperm meets egg are alive. But... What does that mean for the rest of us? This argument is presented as though that should be the only consideration the law need make. But let's examine that. For starters, this life resides inside someone else. And it is invisible. And the person who carries it might not even know it is there. So, what duty does someone owe any microscopic, invisible stranger? I'm seriously asking, because it's not obvious to me and I want someone who actually believes this to explain how this should all work.

2: This life is human life.
So it's a human life. OK, what does that mean? What is this new human entitled to? The threshold pro-life advocates are claiming is, in fact, stupendously low. It is, "don't murder it." And that is not like the duty we owe any other human being. Even touching another person without their consent qualifies as "assault" under the law. So other things like a forceps birth or a c-section are flat out illegal if that thing inside the pregnant lady is a person. And I don't mean to be harsh about that. I actually have a 1 year old son. And he was not on board with our birth plan, so he had to be dragged out by a team of professionals. He consented to none of that. Now, as a happy mom to be, I was thrilled to do whatever I could to make sure he was as healthy as possible. I gave up not just alcohol, but sushi and cold cuts too, because listeria can be fatal to unborn babies. I even started flossing because dental diseases can cause miscarriage. Now, my point here is not to run for mother of the year (unless that's actually a thing, in which case I'm totally in), but to ask, what do Pro-lifers want out of unhappy pregnant ladies? What they are asking for would be unique in our laws, because normally, you don't owe another person any rights to your body. If your brother will die without a kidney, and you don't want to donate yours, that is your right.* And how will they know which women are pregnant, since you only show for about 1/2 of the 9 months, unless you are exceptionally lucky like I was, and give birth to a toddler? Are very young fetuses not entitled to protection? Will every woman of childbearing age have to submit to pregnancy tests so you can tell where these vulnerable children are? Can they still smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol? Lest you think these are crazy things to wonder about, consider two stories from the past years...

A woman was arrested in Iowa, because she was pregnant and fell down the stairs. When she went to the emergency room, she told the nurses about all the troubles she was having at home (she was unemployed and her marriage wasn't doing well and she was pregnant with a third child... who would skip an opportunity for free therapy?). And because she told the nurse that she had considered abortion and adoption before finally electing to keep her child, she went to jail, on the suspicion that she threw herself down the stairs in an attempt to abort the pregnancy. Two days later, they let her out because Iowa's law against feticide is only applicable in the third trimester. There was no evidence she ever intended to harm her child.
http://www.thefrisky.com/2011-03-15/pregnant-woman-jailed-in-iowa-for-thinking-about-an-abortion/

A pregnant woman in Florida was held against her will by her doctor. The mother of two toddlers had gone in because she was worried she was in premature labor at 25 weeks. She wasn't, but the doctor she saw recommended up to 15 weeks of bedrest. When she asked for another option, since obviously you have a hard time supporting your family and caring for two small children when you're not supposed to um, move... the hospital had her confined and got a court order from the county to keep her at the hospital, for the sake of her fetus. She wasn't allowed to even seek a second opinion. She was held for 3 days before an emergency c-section delivered a dead child. Let's be clear about this again... she went to the hospital, was forced to follow her doctor's advice against her will, and the baby died anyway. The incredible things to me are that 1) people commenting on the article still think that somehow, it's still the mother's fault and 2) Dr. Bures-Forsthoefel is still employed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-m-appel/medical-kidnapping-rogue_b_434497.html

The lesson here is that, even if you are doing everything right, pregnant women don't deserve to be trusted. This is just one of the abhorrent comments I found about the above story:
"my daughter just miscarried her first baby.. and this ho.. won't follow doctor's orders to protect another human life? I hope they did a hysterectomy on this person.. so she never has to worry about this or waste our tax dollars again on another court hearing.."

That's right... if your Dr. orders to on bedrest and you ask for another option, you deserve to have your uterus taken away after you're held against your will in a hospital, away from your already born kids as you miscarry.

3. Abortion is murder.
If that's true, what are miscarriages? What about embryos who don't survive as part of fertility treatments? I'm really asking. If Pro-Lifers want fetuses to be protected and have rights, they cannot pick and choose which fetuses the law can ignore. Is that how it works for babies? The answer is no. You don't get to have 3 kids, then only 1 with no questions asked. Nor should you. But who will be charged with murder in cases where embryos die? The doctor? The mother? These are legitimate questions that the Pro-Life contingent has not addressed. And I understand that it is much more exciting to go to clinics and try to "save" the babies you believe are in jeopardy, but someone has to sort through these details if the law is going to take the unborn into account. When a born child disappears, the police investigate. When a fetus disappears, what happens? Does the law then presume the mother is guilty? Why or why not? And what is the threshold for her to be at fault? How many cigarettes can she have? How many glasses of wine? How many cans of tuna? Didn't you know? Mercury can cause miscarriage or birth defects too. How about bologna sandwiches? Like I said, cold cuts can spread listeria just like sushi. Will these things be evidence in a murder trial? This is far bigger than any simple sign with a blown up photo of a dead fetus.

I wish there was more I could discuss from the Pro-Life side, but so far, that's the bulk of what I've heard. For many, their only concern is for the babies, and the woman becomes invisible. I'm not trying to be harsh about that; how else can you read comments like this?

"Despite all the nonsense words and creatures he made up just so that his stories would rhyme, a lot of Dr. Seuss' books are good metaphors for world issues. "Horton Hears a Who", for example, I think is about abortion because the whos on the dandelion fluff are like unborn babies: they can't be seen but we know that they exist and that they're living beings. So Horton represents a pro-life advocate and he is being persecuted by people who don't believe that the fluff contains living creatures and want to destroy the fluff. "The Lorax" is obviously an environmental story. " Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" and "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish", however, are just plain stupid and pointless."

I'm a ball of lint. I'm not even alive anymore, I'm just a piece of real estate with precious cargo. Or I'm a potential murderer. Neither does justice to the very real problem of pregnancy and the law.

So fitting he's an elephant too...

And don't get me wrong, I want people to be concerned about children and their welfare. That's a great impulse in civilized society. But every child lucky enough to grow up will someday consider how they want to construct their own families. I am pro-gay marriage because I think people should have the right to legally join their life to their chosen partner. I oppose China's One Child policy as vociferously as I oppose banning abortion, because you should be able to have as many children as you feel you need to complete your family. I don't agree with what the Duggars, for example, have done, but I will defend their right to do it with everything I have if anyone ever tried to tell them they could not have another baby. That's why I identify as Pro-Choice. But more recently, I am identifying as Pro-Bodily Sovereignty, because that's what the abortion issue is really about. We must be careful and clear about what we want in this debate, and what I want is the certainty that I will not be cut open against my will. I want the certainty that my doctors will listen to me, as a patient, instead of treating me as an object. I want my rights to remain intact, even if I am loaning my body to someone else for a brief time. Those are rights that seem to be taken for granted by the Pro-Life individuals I've spoken to. But it's clear that they can and do evaporate when a woman becomes pregnant. 20 years ago, Angela Carder was a pregnant cancer patient, who was forced to undergo a c-section by court order, sought by a hospital that never even consulted the doctor treating her cancer. They took her into surgery as she said over and over, "I do not want this." She and her baby both died. That is the real result of this terrible argument that pits doctors against their patients. The Pro-Life side must acknowledge these concerns with the same seriousness they seem to have for baby-saving, instead of pretending that every pregnant woman, even the unhappy ones, are just vessels filled with the miracle of life.
http://www.aclu.org/reproductive-freedom/coercive-and-punitive-governmental-responses-womens-conduct-during-pregnancy

*Yes, that's actually been argued in court. A few times:
http://books.google.com/books?id=9eJZ0f51eigC&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=brother+kidney+donate+supreme+court&source=bl&ots=Ljf_-rNfCg&sig=qPf4NrOTZQVZYdf3mou78ayONos&hl=en&sa=X&ei=g21-T6_aAqe3iwL5wrCqAw&ved=0CEkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=brother%20kidney%20donate%20supreme%20court&f=false

It Lives!

2012-04-03T17:22:00.002-07:00

Howdy people! I know that it's been years since I posted anything here, but I swear I have an excellent excuse. He's napping right now. And I actually have been writing... but it's on my mom blog, maintained out of consideration for my family that doesn't get to see our munchkin in the flesh much. And I am so happy to be having GROWN UP thoughts for a change! They don't really belong on the blog reserved for baby pictures and videos... so I'm dusting this sucker off. And I hope I won't offend anyone who was reading for the pictures of flowers and chickens, because I'm launching straight into posts about abortion rights and dead teens in Florida. But on the other hand, becoming a mom has really reinforced a lot of my beliefs. And I think it's important to share them, because there are precious few authentic moms writing about politics in the media. We get written about much more, and not surprisingly because this shit is TIRING. (See? I'm already cursing! It's so liberating not to be writing things my grandparents might read... if they get their iPad working again.) So, let me just say, I missed you guys! Let's talk more often! And yes, there will still be pictures of chickens and flowers, because, well, because they make me smile. Even when they're molting:

Or maybe especially when they're molting...

The Reality of Farming

2010-06-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

He came in the night
masked, like a thief
and his grasping black hands
pulled her out of her sister's warm embrace
We heard her cry, once
and with flashlights we came to find her door wide open
and I caught him in the light, by the cellar door
frozen for one moment, before he disappeared
and then I saw her
in a heap of crumpled feathers
still gasping, but not moving
and I had to finish her myself
with the hedge clippers

and this morning, we heard her sister call to her, over and over
and masses of rust and black feathers swirled over the dead grass and under the trees

and today, I will bury her
under the apple tree
and it would probably make real farmers laugh
to know that I've been crying over a chicken

About Labor and Delivery... Kind of

2010-03-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

So, I realize I have neglected posting about the chickens. We added a third to the flock. We started off with D'Brickashaw and Tony Romo. They did not get along with the new girl, and Romo was especially mean, so eventually we named her Jessica Simpson. And for a while, all was well in the back yard. My regular computer's fan has died, so there will be no pictures of the following, I'll try to do what I can.

At first, I just thought they couldn't share the nest box. Jessica was clucking around the porch, looking in little spaces, so I figured she needed a place to lay. I noticed her foot was bleeding, and it's because she kept trying to get in the nest with Tony Romo, who was making crazy noises and pecking her every time she tried it.

The next day, I saw her happily snuggling with Romo in the box, and thought, "Oh, how nice, they're getting along!" When Romo was through laying, he popped out and Jessica started cooing and stretched herself out over the eggs. I went inside to have some breakfast. And when I came out, I busted her in the nest box with egg on her face and everything. What I thought were maternal noises was actually a nom nom song. I had to clean out the whole coop so it won't smell like rotten egg.

So today I've been reading a lot about what you can do when this happens, and a lot of people seem to think it's incurable. They say it's time for a chicken dinner, but I can't do that with something I've given first aid to. When the other chickens pecked the crap out of her feet, I caught her and washed them and sprayed her toes with Neosporin.

Anyway, what you can do is get golf balls and put them in the nest, so when the offender tries to peck them, she gets nothing. We tried that this morning, and D'Brickashaw wouldn't go in the nest... just kept making this noise that sounded like the aliens from Sesame Street (nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope).

So I captured Simpson and stuck her back in the run and pulled the golf balls back out, and then Romo would lay, but D'Brickashaw just kept trying to make a nest on the bag of pine shavings we keep on the porch. And I'm thinking I really didn't want to clean up a broken egg on the porch, so I just dumped the shavings out for her. She was wailing and making all this noise, but she calmed down right away once she had a nest. I wound up with two eggs, put the golf balls back in the nest and let Jessica back out, who went directly into the nest box for snacks. And she pecked all the golf balls (yes, they are really that dumb). The moral of the story is, Tony Romo was right.

In closing, I feel fortunate that this is one thing I don't have to worry about. I'm pretty sure no one is going to sneak into labor and delivery to try to eat my baby. But I might bring a doll just in case.

A Pregnant Pause

2010-02-12T15:55:00.000-08:00

Hello blog. It's been a while, hasn't it? But this time I have a really good excuse. Mr. Strangely and I are expecting a little Strangelet this fall. It's our first. And this experience has already been exciting and wonderful and totally weird. I had kind of planned on writing an expose or something, but, for one thing, I already read an awesome post about "What Pregnant Women Won't Tell You", and I really don't think I can top it. And for another thing, I'm really not far enough along yet to have anything really exciting to share. I was fortunate not to get very much morning sickness (please don't hit me if you did!)... and really I just feel like I'm fighting off the flu all the time.

So, hopefully I'll be more productive in the second trimester. That's apparently when you become manic. I can't wait.

What I can say so far, is that I don't think there is any other time in your life when everything you do is so wrong. I don't mean objectively wrong, I mean met with criticism. There are lists of foods I'm not supposed to eat or drink, and there are a hundred women online who are waiting to treat you like an idiot for believing those guidelines. There are a wealth of medical treatments that we can enjoy in the 21st century and a thousand more women who will make you feel like a weakling for not giving birth the natural way. Mr. Strangely's mom gave us a book about pregnancy, and it says that DHA supplements are "ZOMG THE MOST IMPORTANT THING A MOTHER CAN DO FOR HER BABY!!!1!" and my ob told me to quit taking the ones I'd bought because of mercury concerns. She didn't tell me to get another brand or DHA from another source, she just told me to quit taking them and asked me if I was getting enough calcium. One can only come to the conclusion that we just still don't know all that much about prenatal health. We don't know what causes morning sickness or what purpose it serves. Looking over the last century you can see that women who smoked and drank gave birth to totally healthy children. So, I'll try my darnedest not to be judgmental about anybody else's choices during their pregnancy. Especially not while my junk is all swollen and I'm being kicked in the cervix.

It's Been a Tough Couple of Weeks

2009-12-10T18:07:00.000-08:00

We've got an ill relative. A seriously ill one. Keep us in your thoughts and in the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy this new toy I found. I've used photobucket for years for random things when I first needed an image hoster. I wandered back and found they'd added some bells and whistles. It's just what I needed to cheer myself up a little bit and I thought I'd share some highlights...

Black... Saturday and Sunday Brunch!

2009-11-29T14:03:00.001-08:00

Surely you didn't think I was out of leftovers?

Sunny Side Up Crabwiches for Two

Slice one purple onion and toss it into a frying pan with melted butter. Let them caramelize a little bit, then add about a cup of crab meat to the pan. Saute a minute longer, then remove from pan and reserve. Take 2 pull apart rolls and slice them lengthwise. Turn on broiler. Wipe out frying pan and fry eggs sunny side up. Toast the roll halves under the broiler. To assemble, place two roll halves on plate, mound a quarter of the onion/crab mixture on each and top with fried egg. I liked this with salsa, and Mr. Strangely thoroughly liked his before I even got the salsa out of the refrigerator.

Sweet Potato Bread Pudding with Sauce

Take that extra package of rolls you had laying around, and pull them all apart into pieces. Lay these pieces in a buttered casserole (I had enough for a pie pan) and leave them out overnight. In the morning, take the last little bits of your leftover sweet potatoes, which by now are all soft from being reheated so much and the maple syrup and brown sugar crust have evolved into toffee... and tuck them all around inside this pile of bread. Press down on top so the potatoes and bread get all smashed together. It should look a little something like this:

Now, beat three eggs (if you're using jumbo eggs from the store, you'll probably only need 2) and combine them with a cup and a half of milk. Add a capful of vanilla and about a half cup of brown sugar. There are many recipes for sweet potato bread pudding, the ones that call for naked sweet potatoes use about a cup of sugar. Be sure to adjust for the sweetness of the leftovers you are using. Take this mixture and pour it slowly and carefully into your dish of bread and sweet potatoes. Let it soak in a bit as you pour so you get the whole thing nice and saturated. When you've poured all your liquid in, press again gently on the bread to help the custard penetrate. If you can't see the custard creeping up the edges of the pan, add a little milk. Let this sit for about 30 minutes while you preheat your oven and enjoy a nice cup of coffee. When you're both ready, plop it in the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes, turning once so it gets evenly browned.

Meanwhile, start your brown butter. Take about 6 tablespoons of butter and let it melt in a saucepan at medium low heat. Watch it carefully, stirring every now and then. Over time, it should get nice and dark, the color of an old penny.

Now carefully add up to a half cup of brown sugar, she guessed. I am still working out this sauce, and I used a quarter cup with a lot of butter leftover at the end. Let us know if you wind up using more and how it works out! Turn the heat up a little bit and stir the brown sugar until it melts/dissolves. Be careful not to burn the butter at this point... smell it from time to time and make sure it never goes from "nutty" to "ugh". It will still be all clumpy and nasty looking as it mixes with the butter solids. Now, turn off the heat. Pour in about 3 tablespoons of milk. Beat it quickly though it's hissing at you. Something magic happened at this point... the weird chunky sugar mixture at the bottom of the pan became a beautiful brown sauce with melted butter floating on top.

I poured this into the stock separator we got as a wedding gift. This let me pour the sauce out from under the butter and drizzle it artfully over my beautiful bread pudding...

Yum.

Black Friday Brunch

2009-11-27T16:09:00.000-08:00

If you're like I am, you watch all the ads for Black Friday sales and wonder what is wrong with the people they're aimed at. And after you've thoroughly stuffed yourself on Thursday, you go to bed and blissfully sleep through all those alarms you were supposed to set, and you're not even camped out in front of Macy's or Best Buy. You arise at the stroke of 11:30 and liberate your chickens. And when food finally sounds good again, you conduct experiments on your spouse with leftovers.

Thanksgiving will probably always be a little poignant for me. I grew up in the house that hosted everyone, and so I remember having leftovers and abandoned side-dishes and desserts for about a week afterward. And now, we leave a dish of sweet potatoes for Mr. Strangely's grandmother and take the rest, and nothing else. No turkey or mashed potatoes, no stuffing. Not even any rolls. So this year, I made a pre-emptive strike. I haven't got a turkey yet, but I've got plenty of sweet potatoes, two packages of rolls I accidentally bought because last year we were supposed to, and something much more lavish and brunchy than turkey: fresh crab.

My husband's family traditionally has crab on Thanksgiving Eve and Christmas Eve, so it really is a holiday food, I promise. Crab season starts after Halloween. And the store I ran in to on Wednesday to stock up had set them out on sale, already cracked and waiting. Who could resist that?

Baked Eggs Over Crab

Stellaa was the one who turned me on to baked eggs (thanks, Stellaa!!), so I feel like this barely counts as a recipe for me at all. And I could twitter it, it's so easy. "Ramekins butter crab egg cream water bath 350 30 minutes" (only 56 characters!). Serve with leftover rolls to adhere to criteria for Salon's recipe contest~

Sweet Potato Breakfast Blinis

I got my sweet potato recipe from my mother. Then it somehow mutated under my care. Now I make a combination recipe... it starts off like my mother's, boiling the sweet potatoes until soft, and slipping them out of their skins to rest in a buttered casserole. Then it incorporates shades of this recipe, though I've never used the nuts. The result is a lovely sweet but not too sweet dish of potatoes, with a crispy, buttery topping. And this is what I started with to make my blinis. You could probably use most any sweet potato recipe to do this, adding flour or milk to achieve the right kind of consistency. Take a few of these leftover potatoes, and mash them in a bowl with one egg. The dough should be like a squishy cookie dough.

Drop tablespoons of this into a sea of melted butter in a skillet over medium/low heat. Then smash with the back of your spoon into a pancake shape.

Allow this to cook for a few minutes, and watch it carefully, turning the heat down if it seems to be burning. You want these to cook slowly. They're a little fragile in the beginning. You want to flip them when they start to firm up a bit. Then press again with the spatula. It doesn't hurt to turn these a few times, pressing to get a nice dense cake. Remove these from the pan and drain on paper towels. Dress them in pretty proscuitto slices... tiny mozzarella cheeses you bought for appetizers and forgot and crispy little apple slices... Imagine the poor suckers going shopping in the nasty rain... Enjoy by computer, to obtain perfect stream of conscious dialogue...

Duck Season!

2009-11-17T13:58:00.000-08:00

I saw this story on Digg today:

"A mother whose daughter was murdered is suing American Life Assurance of Columbus (AFLAC) because it has refused to pay the death benefit on life insurance the daughter applied for shortly before her death."
http://digg.com/d31AEoR

I don't know how often AFLAC refuses to pay claims for unsolved murders. The longer I am involved in the health care battle, the less I trust these large entities. There are no requirements for them to file reports on how they maintain their profits, no surveys on how long it takes to pay claims... it can make a person profoundly depressed about their chances to be treated fairly.

But, today at least, there is a fun way to try to fight back. There aren't any bills to reform the life insurance industry in Congress, so put down those picket signs. Instead, purchase one of these little guys:

http://aflacholidayduck.com/purchase.html

Then murder him spectacularly, and upload the video to Youtube or Google video or whatever your preferred host is. Be sure to disguise your identity. Remember, 100% of the money goes to children's hospitals, even if they cannot solve the case! Here's some inspiring footage to get you started...

The Second Best Breakfast Spot In California

2009-11-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

Is at my house. It's the one with the lovely, lovely fresh laid eggs. People are always saying how great fresh eggs are, so Mr. Strangely and I tried to conduct an experiment.

As you can see, the eggs we get are varied in size. Most are not as large as a "large" egg you'd get at the grocery store... the grocery store egg is the white one in the carton dwarfing the others. We have gotten one or two eggs that are bigger than store ones, but they're rare. When we make scrambled eggs, we're using 7 eggs for the two of us rather than 5.

When we ate the fried eggs, the difference was obvious but hard to describe. The white was more tender and not as chewy. You can see that it held together more, instead of spreading across the pan like the store egg. The yolk was very different... the store egg wasn't bad, but it was decidedly pasty in contrast to the creamy fresh yolk. Scrambled eggs were a revelation. The flavor is totally different. When I was young, my dad would sometimes comment about how different food tasted to him as a child. And as a child, I thought he was crazy, but I wonder now. What else am I missing out on? Why are they different? Is it just the freshness or is there something else? I've read that farmers can feed marigolds to hens to get the yolk color deeper. Personally, we don't feel like we're doing anything special. It's almost like magic. Our chicken magicians make em out of weeds and our kitchen scraps.

Ta-dah!

The Best Breakfast Spot In California

2009-11-08T19:55:00.001-08:00

It's not anywhere you'd expect. For the last two years though, we've made a pilgrimage to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, for the annual donor breakfast. They open the aquarium two hours early and you get all the docents and tanks to yourselves, to enjoy with coffee, fruit and a surprisingly good variety of scones and pastries. It's one of my favorite things, and I took some video this morning, so I can enjoy it again and again. Hope you enjoy it too...

My Election Rejection

2009-11-03T15:18:00.000-08:00

Last year I witnessed the birth of a wonderful use for the creative force of the internet. During the presidential election, a page called Design for Obama emerged. You could participate as a designer or a user. Designers uploaded poster after poster for the Obama campaign, then, they and the users voted on them and downloaded them for use at campaign events and house parties. It had nothing to do with the DNC or Obama's campaign or staff, it was just a mass of people feeding off each other's inspiration. It was such a neat experience. I uploaded a couple posters, got involved in the election locally, and promptly forgot. Until April, when I got an email. It said that a big publisher was going to be releasing a collection of works from the website, in honor of the election, on the anniversary. And it said one of my posters had been selected. It had some instructions for how to transmit my file and a release, and when I went searching for information I found others who had gotten the same email. We congratulated each other and I was thrilled to be participating. I was also relieved that there was no further culling process, according to both the bloggers I found and my own queries to the publisher representative. We could start bragging immediately to our friends.

I submitted my file on time, as directed. We only had a few days to get our paperwork together before their deadline, but for an opportunity like that, I really would have done anything they asked. That's why, a week later, when they told me there were problems opening my file, I leaped into action. Even though I was on vacation with my parents in New York. My dad helped me out a lot. A few files flew back and forth, and eventually, they had a file they could use. I double-checked to make sure.

That is why I was so surprised to get this email a couple of months later:

"Thank you very much for contributing your poster design to Design For Obama, the book from *. Unfortunately, I must inform you that, due to insufficient print quality, your poster was one of several not able to be included in the book."

I wouldn't have been nearly as angry if I hadn't emailed over and over, "Are you sure this will work? Please let me know so I can supply a file you can use!" I've tried to remember who I told about this, so I can let them know it fell through, but I'm sure I'll still get a note or two wondering and that will still be painful.

Now, the reason I bring this up is to highlight a particular quirk in our copyright system. I had wanted to use the design in question for food drives with my MoveOn council, but they had balked, fearing copyright claims from... I don't know, but at any rate, they wouldn't touch this piece. So, you can imagine how tickled I was when a major publisher had decided to include it in a book that would actually be for sale. If anyone would check the legality or illegality of this work, it would be someone like that, right? Corporations don't just adopt works without checking for license snafus, right? Well, maybe they do, but they said my piece was rejected for quality reasons. And it's a shame that they never asked for a higher quality work. I still don't know what was wrong with it. One fundamental truth of working with volunteers is that they take exclusion extra hard, because the reward is serving the cause. It's not like they also got paid for their time and labor. At least a little feedback would have been nice.

At any rate, I am still proud of the piece, and obviously someone, somewhere wanted it in this book, right? So, here it is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43103096@N00/3003609570/

Feel free to download it and staple it into your copy, should you elect to seek one out. No hard feelings, but this is why I give my work away before anyone toys with my emotions like this. I would rather just see it out there, and that means I can't wait for large entities to show interest. It was a nice compliment, but it also confirmed that we've set up a very bad system for artists to inhabit. I would also like to point out the comment I got on one of the other designs I submitted:

"Just wanted you to be aware of someone trying to profit from your art. Did you give this person permission to sell your image? http://www.zazzle.com/weoffermore/gifts?cg=196918861616767696&pg=9"

If you ever see someone wearing this shirt or bag or whatever, PLEASE send me a picture. And for your enjoyment (one of these appearing for the first time ever (because I found DFO a little squirrelly)) here are a few more pieces of election art I did last year. And if you add any of these to any books you happen to buy... or anywhere else... I'd be thrilled to know. Permission is nice, but for the work, there is really no greater compliment than imitation and proliferation.

This Is What It Sounds Like

2009-10-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

When chickens purr.

It's hard to hear, but she's just purring her little head off.

It's a partly beautiful day today. Mostly sunny with some light rain. And the chickens are sitting on the back porch purring.

Enter the Chickens

2009-10-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time, garden blog, hasn't it? It's my fault, really. It was just kind of painful to think about gardening, without thinking of all that I had lost. My giant pine cross section and the neat old tractor couldn't come with when we moved, so they were left behind, along with the bench and the catpost (buried for everyone's protection). I needed some time not to think about it all, and if nothing else, the heat of the summer gave me a good excuse not to do any gardening. We moved a few survivors into the new ground, and for a few months, there wasn't too much to write about.

But fall has finally come to California. The wind comes tearing through the yard and we've even had a storm or two. And it's time to start a really great garden. I've got a ton of notes and ideas to sort through, but I'm most excited about the fact that we're chicken farmers. More to follow soon, but in the meantime, enjoy the pictures ~

What To Do With Leftovers...

2009-09-15T23:04:00.000-07:00

Leftover Rice:
Glo's Sausage Fried Rice

Leftover Reality Tv:

Leftover Tomato Cages:

Comfort Food

2009-09-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend with my sister. We went to all those spots you need an excuse to see when you live here on the bay peninsula. We went to an art fair in San Jose and to Golden Gate Park. We had tea in the garden there and saw geese and gophers and hummingbirds. We had dinner at my three favorite restaurants. And this morning, before we drove to the airport, I invented a recipe for her.

Almond Butter Breakfast Cupcakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup almond butter
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chocolate covered almonds + 1/4 cup
3 tablespoons butter

Combine flour, the baking powder, baking soda and a pinch of salt and set aside. Cream together the brown sugar, the almond butter, and the butter. Add the vegetable oil and beat in the egg and the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the yogurt, beating well after each addition, and stir in 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips. Wrap the almonds in a kitchen towel and crush with a pan or kitchen mallet. Add 1/2 cup to batter. Divide the batter among 12 paper-lined 1/2-cup muffin tins and bake the cupcakes in the middle of a preheated 350°F. oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Turn the cupcakes out onto a rack and let them cool completely.

In another bowl combine the remaining 3/4 cup chocolate chips and the butter and microwave for 20 second intervals, stirring until melted and smooth. Wrap the 1/4 cup of almonds in a kitchen towel and crush with a pan or kitchen mallet. When cupcakes are cool, dip tops in melted chocolate and roll in crushed almonds.

Share them with someone you love.

Caught By the Copyright Fuzz

2009-08-31T11:44:00.000-07:00

Today, as I was nonchalantly wandering the interwebs, I happened to click on a link to a Youtube video. And instead of going to the video, I was confronted with a weird, red page.

If you're having a hard time making that out, it says:

We have received copyright complaint(s) regarding material you posted, as follows:

from Sony Music Entertainment about Bill O'Reilly and the Fetal Position: Subtitled Version - craftyactivist
Video ID: Tq9PSHf_XK0

Please Note: Accounts determined to be repeat infringers will be terminated. Please delete any videos for which you do not own the necessary rights, and refrain from uploading infringing videos.

The odd thing here is, that I have two copies of that video uploaded. The one removed was the subtitled version. I don't know if that was a choice or an accident, but so far, they have not disabled the non-subtitled version. If you look at the blog where I first posted these videos, you'll see that only one is still playable. The videos are identical except for the addition of subtitles and a subtitle key.

And now I'm at a loss. Both videos were initially flagged, but only one has been removed. Am I supposed to just delete the other one? When I was first aware that Sony had made a claim on my videos, I disputed both claims, and now I can't figure out what additional steps to take to figure out how to follow YouTube's Terms of Service.

The thing that concerns me most, is that I don't have any idea what steps to take to prevent this from happening in the future. To date, I've made and uploaded about 10 videos. This is not the first time the content matching system has picked up on my work: I posted a video just about a year ago that featured content from National Geographic's special, The Human Footprint. I was delighted when they decided they would advertise on that channel. The music that accompanies it is originally by Nine Inch Nails, but I used a remix that was created by a remixer in Germany, TweakerRay.

He commented on my video and actually keeps a collection of videos featuring his work on his channel. We could be creating a community that rewards artists for trading and re-contextualizing content. I wasn't secretive about the song I chose to accompany the video. I specifically chose Alice In Chains and the song Rotten Apple as a metaphor, highlighting the way some pregnant women have been forced to give up their bodily sovereignty. Some people commenting on the videos have asked what album it was on, presumably so they can purchase it. I highly doubt anyone wants to listen to the song with O'Reilly screaming over it.

Unfortunately, that is not the direction that music companies have decided to go in. Earlier this year, the EFF was soliciting test cases to fight Warner Brothers as they used automatic content matching software to disable videos. That seems to be what happened in my case, though I can't be certain. I do know that the one they chose to remove was the one that appeared in the responses to the YoungTurk's video analyzing the same Bill O'Reilly show. So was I punished for trying to participate in the larger conversation?

Or for being nice enough to type out the lyrics for deaf viewers?

For those of you who haven't seen it, you can still watch the video in question. I would love to talk to anyone who has successfully fought one of these takedown notices. I also would like to get people's opinions on whether or not my work qualifies as fair use:

And for the curious, here's TweakerRay's playlist, "Cool Videos with my Nine Inch Nails ReMixes". Give that man a hand for being so talented and so nice about sharing his work, would you?

Conspicuous Absence

2009-08-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, the Board of Supervisors in Santa Clara County met, and national health care reform was on the agenda. Loins were girded. Songs were composed. We even brought notes that said "Talk, don't Shout", so we could confront any angry people who might have attended gracefully.

And there were none.

And that is why there was no mention of that
meeting in the news whatsoever.

We must start thinking about the reality of this debate. If you are willing to scream and threaten people, you are rewarded with national and local news coverage. Even if you say stuff that makes no sense, you will have the ear of the nation.

If you wait your turn and speak in a civilized manner... you are easy to ignore.

I wish I could make some other conclusions. But in the meantime, I think that fact explains much about our national discourse.

But! I have some encouraging news to report. I went to a book signing yesterday afternoon for Barbara Boxer, because I had heard that there would be another Tea Party. I'd also gotten an invitation from MoveOn, who were (for some reason that escapes me) encouraging support of green jobs and clean energy. And sure enough, when I pulled into the parking lot at Barnes and Noble, the sidewalk was already lined with a sea of grey hair and Gadsden flags. And unlike the last time we crossed paths, everybody was pretty civil. Someone must have given the tpers a stern talkin' to, because absolutely no one threatened to shoot me this time.

And I have to say, I love these things. I really dig most any protest, but the Tea Partiers have really started to indulge their artistic sides. They're like arts and crafts extravaganzas. With a smattering of uh... Hitler.

Unfortunately, I still wasn't able to get many of them to talk to me. A few did, and I would like to sincerely thank all of the people who are willing to share their views with their fellow citizens. Just holding up a sign has never been enough to enact change. You have to be willing to generate support for your ideas and explain them as many times as it takes. You have to rally the majority to your side. That stuff is boring and far less satisfying than wielding a colorful sign and screaming into traffic with some friends.

At least, that's my hope. If our country actually reacts to the whims of tiny, yet vocal and scary minorities, then we're really not much of a democracy. I was struck on Thursday by the fearfulness I saw in the board of supervisors. You could sense their relief when they realized no one was there to yell at them. But, there were few there in the hall with us that day, to hear the various reasons and statistics that were presented in favor of health care reform. At Boxer's book signing, many people complained about feeling ignored by the Senator. One woman told me despairingly about how she was frustrated by being unable to meet the Senator, face to face, to tell her how she felt. When I pointed out that I bought a book, only so Barnes and Noble would let me in to meet her in the store, she seemed offended by the suggestion. Shoot, I'd buy Ann Coulter's book just for the sheer joy of telling her what a destructive bitch I think she is. Then I'd relish shredding it page by page. You can't be choosy about these opportunities if you truly want to be heard.

That's why I keep going to these things. I try to keep abreast of all the facts and "facts" that might come up at these things, but that is a very tall order. At this particular event, I met a man who volunteered at the Ted Talks, but still worried that the country was screwed. He was worried that the government was being too intrusive and controlling with health care reform... but was basically comfortable with the notion that we could hold people with no charges and torture them for years. One guy just kept calling me stupid, and a very chivalrous teenage boy tried to rescue me. Another man was really intent on discussing evolution and "the myth of peak oil". He wrote some resources on the back of my sign for my education, and it will be interesting to see if we can continue the conversation.

But I have to confess, my favorite moment from yesterday, was when I waited at a crosswalk with a man who had plenty of tea bags dangling off a cowboy hat. We commented together on how comparatively few people were willing to come out and try to make themselves heard on a hot Saturday afternoon in the baking sun. And he hung some teabags on my Woodstock. And for just a few hours yesterday, it was kind of nice to be among people who while not exactly like-minded, were at least likable.

Veni Vidi Lebowski

2009-07-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

Our first Lebowskifest was a blast. I had a hard time trying to come up with a costume, and so I popped the movie in on Friday to try to find some last minute inspiration.

And I did.

beaver picture courtesy of krrrista

I wasn't brave enough to wear Maude's outfit, but this awesome girl was! Here she is posing with her trophy as "Best Maude" with the Best Dude and Best Jesus.

I'm not much of a golfer, so I was happy to give up my turns as I wandered around asking people if they wanted to be in my beaver picture.

Bunny said she'd have to check with her agent before she could be in my beaver picture.

Liam not only agreed to be in my beaver picture... he turned around to show off to his friends! (This is where I regret not painting the other side of the bags...)

It was awesome. It was silly and surreal and at times, oddly reverent. If it lasts a hundred years, will it become a bona fide holiday?

I Got Me A New Cameraaa!

2009-07-13T23:02:00.000-07:00