Apt. 11D

Beer Here?

I want to drink a beer here.

Architecture/Travel Quiz - Where is this? 

UPDATE: Christiana wins. It's Düsseldorf, Germany. This is one of Frank Gehry's office buildings. From the article in this Sunday's NYT Travel Magazine. 

Bigger Soap Box

I'm going to guest blog at a larger venue for a couple of weeks. What topics should I cover? Anybody have research/books that deserves a bump? 

Ads on the New York Times Website

Please check out Erin's excellent posts on the NSFK (not safe for kids) ads on the New York Times website. 

Gardening Plans

Steve and I have been spending buckets of time rearranging the yard. Some jobs are better handled by pros, so we paid some Tree Dudes to cut back branches and slay the suburban shrubbery. Sadly, there's not much good Show and Tell yet. We need to kill stuff, in order to plant stuff. 

We did install a little raised bed with some tomatoes and peppers.  Steve watched "Shortie," the baby bunny who lives by the stream, inspect the fencing. Let's see if we can out smart Shortie and the ground hogs this year. 

On Parenting Politics

It turns out the Mayim Bialik is an anti-vaccinater. Credibility lost.

Honestly, I am bored with the never ending parenting books and mother wars. Nobody ever says anything new. I suppose I should check out these two new books. 

Compassion For Killers

In The Nation, Lilliana Segura writes about a slow 14-year old girl with mental health issues who killed two boys in a fire that she set. That was in 1976. She is still in prison. Should she still be there? 

Of course, I devoured the New York Times's Magazine story about the 9-year old pyschopath. 

Are we reaching a new understanding of mental illnesses? Will this have an impact on law?

Spreadin' Love 490

And now it is a good day. The tree guys just came and hacked off some over grown suburban shrubbery and some oak branches that hung periously over our home. Chain saws and heights. I could never do that job. Sunlight is streaming into my office and I'm happy.

Here are some quick links before I leave the house to take care of some chores:

The worst job interview evah.

Eduardo Saverin is likely to barred from reentering the US. Hurrah! 

What's going on at TED? 

Andrew Rotherham questions whether there really is a student loan debt crisis. 

Donna Summer just died. 

 

What should you do when a newspaper steals your blog post.

Spreadin' Love 489

In my photography class today, we watched a video about Jay Maisel. Check out his house - the largest, single residence in Manhattan. If you take his $5,000 workshop, you'll not only be a better photographer. You'll also be a better human being! Or you could watch this video. 

Lots of people are talking about this proposal for a 4 year PhD in humanities program. 

Thomas Friedman's MOOC op-ed is the most e-mailed today. 

Mario Batali takes the Food Stamp Challenge. 

 

A Bad Day

I have had a horrific week. My six month old iMac wouldn't shut down properly. After two trips to the Apple Genius Geeks, they gave me a new hard drive. I spent a day trying to pull seven years of pictures off some server in Bangladesh. I'm using SugarSync. I had trouble with that. Some tech geek on the other side of planet couldn't help me. And then the computer still wouldn't shut down. So, I lugged the computer back to the Apple Store tonight and they gave me a new computer. I still have to deal with the data transfer tomorrow. 

Through all this drama, I had Ian home with me, because he had another half day. He is perfectly content to play video games all day, but that isn't a good thing. So, we went out for pancakes for lunch and then to the Y for swimming. 

When we were at the Y, I got a hysterical phone call from Jonah. He's in DC on a three day school trip. He realized that he left his dress shirt and pants at home on his bed and he had to go to a dinner/dance cruise in five minutes. Being that he's in seventh grade and looking the same as all the other kids is extremely important, this was a full scale meltdown. And, of course, it was my fault. 

And with all this rain and humidity, my hair looks like this. 

Fleur #3