I found this cute “how-to” for making a pencil bag via Craftzine. I think it could easily be used as a cosmetic bag or any sort of little carrying case (to keep a digital camera or caseless iPod scratch-free) and it might be a fun starter project since I’ve been thinking of taking up sewing (on a machine - branching out beyond my button securing, hole-darning and hemming skills).

The publishing company I work for is putting out some new craft books and one of them is going to be a fairly hip sewing title, so this might be a good skill to have under my belt. Also, I’ve got these super cute sample fabrics from textile designer Anna Maria Horner (click image to visit her shop):

They’re pretty nice. My favorite is on top.

While pulling that photo off of my digital camera, I found this photo of the full moon from a few nights ago. Sadly, I don’t have a kick-ass digital SLR camera - or a stronger zoom - so it’s not as impressive as it could be (particularly since it was shot through a skylight window). But you can still see how bright the moon was.

And here’s a fun song to get your toes tapping/hands clapping/bring out your inner cheerleader. It’s by no means serious music, but sometimes an ear-candy song is what you need. I give you, “That’s Not My Name” by The Ting Tings (British pop fun).

This is pretty awesome.

An MIT initiative called “OpenCourseWare” makes virtually all the school’s courses available online for free - lecture notes, readings, tests and often video lectures… MIT’s initiative is the largest, but the trend is spreading. More than 100 universities worldwide, including Johns Hopkins, Tufts and Notre Dame, have joined MIT in a consortium of schools promoting their own open courseware. You no longer need a Princeton ID to hear the prominent guests who speak regularly on campus, just an Internet connection. This month, Yale announced it would make material from seven popular courses available online, with 30 more to follow.

I’ve downloaded a few free lectures from iTunes U in the past (including the one on existentialism from UC Berkeley), but this is just more good stuff. Every time my brain starts feeling slow or rice-pudding-like due to a lack of academia in my life, I can turn to one of these. I love my books and I have many of them, but having something to listen to or watch triggers a different type of attention and thought-process.

And I hope I’ll be able to afford to return to graduate school in the near future (and it might be after the leave of absence runs out), but there are more pressing life expenses before that even becomes a possibility. My thoughts on it right now are that it’s essentially a very expensive hobby — especially because it wasn’t a degree I was pursuing for career advancement; just for fun.

I can still enjoy my Nancy Pearl librarian action figure, though. And now there’s a Seth Godin action figure.

OK. Now I have to get started on my Sunday. There’s champagne to buy so I don’t show up at my friends’ place empty-handed tomorrow night, and recipes to search for so I can bring food (or ideas for what we can make).

Hint: it’s #5.

Thank you, CNN.com, for giving me a reason to dislike society just a little bit more today.

Virgin Mobile rocks the advertising.

This morning’s New York Times contained a piece about the lack of dental care in Kentucky (and some surrounding states). While we may be aware of the statistics about the lack of health care in the US, I think we often sort of subsume that awareness while we’re worrying about our own co-pays, premiums and plans. Some of the anecdotes and statistics in this article are a bit jarring:

About 1 in 10 state residents are missing all their teeth, according to 2004 federal data.

At his private practice, Dr. Smith said that at least once a month he sees a patient who has used Krazy Glue to reattach a broken tooth to the root or to an adjacent tooth… patients who have tried to avoid the cost of a dentist by swishing with rubbing alcohol to deal with a tooth infection or by rubbing crushed aspirin pills on gums to numb pain. Both tactics worsen the situation by burning the gums and creating ulcers, he said.

[...] His teeth crooked and blackened, Justin Baker is the face of another reason for Kentucky’s oral hygiene problems: methamphetamine use. “They just rotted,” Mr. Baker, 16, said about the damage done in less than a year of drug use.

Yes, meth use and lack of knowledge are separate problems, but they’re only perpetuated by the health care system. Medicaid reimbursement to dentists in the state is so low that less than a quarter of them accept it, and the only option available to someone with a severely infected tooth is to have it pulled. Medicaid doesn’t pay for a root canal or dentures. Medicare doesn’t cover dental at all. Why would you go see a dentist if you know he won’t be able to help you because you don’t have the money or insurance, or if your only option even with insurance will be to get your teeth pulled?

“Try finding work when you’re in your 30s or 40s and you’re missing front teeth,” said Jane Stephenson, founder of the New Opportunity School in Berea, Ky., which provides job training to low-income Appalachian women.

I once had a co-worker who was missing several of her front teeth (don’t know how/why). She was going to night classes, etc. trying to improve her skills and get beyond answering phones for the company we worked for. She was quite aware that her appearance was holding her back and wanted to have her teeth fixed. The company had insurance (however crappy, it was better than nothing), but the fear of seeing a dentist after so many years of not caring for her teeth - and the fear that she would not have money to cover her portion of the procedures - was paralyzing. Lots of people have fear of the dentist, but this was something different - there was shame for having ignored that aspect of her own health.

I’d like to think we all do what we can for people who might need our help - whether it’s holding the door open for someone struggling with a stroller or carrying many bags, cooking dinner for a busy friend, donating blood (because it’s always needed), participating in food or clothing drives, simply sending money to an organization that needs it, babysitting for friends/family when they need a night off, or volunteering your time (if that’s what you’ve got more of than money) to help other people in some way.

But what do you do when something like this is the problem? How do we help when the government systems that are supposed to help people who aren’t in the right area to get cushy jobs with full benefits, or who are self-employed and can’t afford the high cost of insurance, are a huge part of the problem? Or when we’re looking at generations of people who have been going about it their own way, however detrimental that is to their health - a legacy of ignorance? Yes, you can provide more money for people working to fix it - like Dr. Smith in the article - but that’s a Band-Aid, isn’t it?

Yup. I love xkcd.

Almost two years ago now (it may be closer to a year and a half, but I’m not keeping track), I deleted my accounts at all the social networking sites I belonged to. At that time, Facebook was still only open to college students and corporations (that changed all the way back in Sept. 2006). Friendster was beginning to die its slow painful death, and MySpace was teh hawtness (if I may use a two-year old -or more- slang phrase).

Yesterday on NPR’s All Things Considered, one of their contributors talked about abandoning Facebook altogether and how she feels like a Luddite. You can listen to the piece here (it’s only 2 min. long). Granted, she’s 23, so the six-year gap between us probably makes enough of a difference that it’s a much bigger deal for her to be absent from Facebook than it is/was for me. She probably is considered a Luddite by some of her friends (though I daresay they might not be familiar with the word).

Most of my friends continue to plug away at Facebook (and there are a few MySpace hangers on) and communicating with friends that way: e.g. “I’ll just Facebook [name] and see if she is going to be around,” or “I left a message for [name] on Facebook asking him to pick that up for me.”

I don’t operate that way. It seems like a terribly inefficient way to communicate with friends. For quick things like that - send a text message. Your friends always have their cell phones with them. For longer things, send an email (or actually call, if it’s urgent). Leaving a message on Facebook requires your friend to be sitting at their computer/laptop somewhere, logged in (and chances are they’re probably on there all the time, so I have to allow for this difference between myself and 58 million other people) and deal with anything else that might’ve popped up: someone’s annoying post about how drunk they were this weekend or much they love their boyfriend, embedded YouTube video of the newest annoying viral phenomenon, perhaps some invitations to get together at a bar with only 40 or 50 of a person’s other closest friends - and “pokes” (We are how old? Oh, wait, this was created with a slightly younger set in mind).

There’s all this periphery and noise - the ads, the streams of irrelevant info being generated by people you feel compelled to befriend but really don’t need/want to know about beyond their pre-established role in your life… a veritable buffet of empty and useless distraction parading around under the guise of social networking.

“Social” = friendly (and who wants to be seen as unfriendly?) “Networking” = is supposed to provide both the technological element and some aspect of legitimacy? Every high school and college student hears about how important networking is to his/her future. Look! We’ve made it fun (or at least made the buzzwords)! “Social networking.”

While Facebook hasn’t become a complete and utter visual vomitorium like MySpace (which is one nice thing), the framework is the same. Users will want more and more control and the powers that be will slowly grant it - little things, but enough to make people feel like they have some control and prevent them from deserting the site which I feel would happen if they had too much/little control. See also: MySpace. It’s the country club effect, I suppose. Some restrictions give it a sense of exclusivity - “Well, if we can’t limit membership, then at least the standards of dress are being upheld!”

But look at the little fish flakes of freedom - removing the verb from your status update so you’re free to write WHATEVER YOU WANT! This actually made national news under the headline “Facebook users given grammatical freedom.”

I was just getting fed up with all of it (and apparently continue to be) and had a sort of “Burn it all down! Make it clean! PURGE!” moment. It’s just too much clutter - too much info I don’t need, too much involvement with people encroaching upon my personal time, too much time wasted (since it does become a major time suck - I see this in my younger target-age siblings… hours and hours) that could be spent pursuing something that makes you a better, happier, smarter, healthier person. Or sleeping. Sleep is a good use of time, too.

Full disclosure: I should mention I belong to one real social network - LinkedIn, which I sardonically refer to as “networking for networking’s sake”, repeating something a friend wrote when he sent me an invitation. But no one’s posting invitations to parties on that site… yet. I also belong to Last.fm, but do not participate in community features. I only wanted this fun music widget on the right.

I love the technology. What are you reading? Yeah. I stay abreast of social networking for work and general awareness, but I guess I’m just not the target audience for the medium of social networking. I don’t want more involvement with people. I’m a quiet person (believe it or not) who values time alone. I don’t want shallow connections with lots of people. I prefer deeper real connections with fewer people. I vastly prefer a small dinner party with three people and good conversation over a large gathering where the conversation is limited to surface discussions of TV shows, celebrity gossip and who is playing beer pong - and where everything else gets lost in the noise.

And having spent all this time sitting in front of the computer, I’m going to balance it out with an hour of running - which has been doing an OK job of making me a better, happier and healthier person.

I’m up early. Much earlier than I like to be on a weekend. But I have a 10:15 appointment with the eye doctor to see how my eyes are doing with the new contact lenses; they have to have been in my eyes for a minimum of three hours. However, had I not been up this early, I might not have seen these fun things until later:

• On his blog, author Neil Gaiman has posted a link to a few seconds of footage from the movie adaptation of his book “Coraline.” It’s really only a few seconds, and the movie is a) a year away and b) going to be in 3D so we don’t get the “full effect,” but I’m excited. I love that book. Creepy creepy kids’ book.

• In the metro NYC area (and in Manhattan proper, esp.) it’s a fact that things are more expensive*. When people visit from “out of town” they marvel at the cost of boxed cereal and Starbucks’ coffee. But if you’re tenacious, you can get yourself the most expensive coffee at Starbucks : A 13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel.

It would have cost the (brilliant? ridiculous?) guy who took on this challenge $13.76 were it not for the fact he had a “Free drink” coupon for Starbucks which he unveiled after ordering the drink. And yay for the barista who helped him figure out how to make the most expensive drink possible. I don’t drink coffee, but this sounds like fun and I wish my coffee-drinking friends and I had thought of it.

• And I took this “How Much of a Sci-Fi Geek Are You?” quiz (via Neatorama). I suppose I should be embarrassed to post the results (it said something like, “You’re an extreme geek. You’re probably wearing your own homemade Tron helmet right now!” While I’ve never actually watched “Tron,” I am familiar with the visuals), but I posted about Jane Austen not too long ago. My interests are simply well-rounded. And I do not attend conventions, so I’m still in the “socially functional” category.

	I received 85 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Guess the Sci-Fi Movie Sounds here

*Though in NJ, the fact that we have the lowest gasoline tax in the nation keeps gas prices low and people marvel at that, too. The state of NJ hasn’t increased its gas tax in 19 years. I guess it’s some small compensation for the fact that NY and NJ have the highest property taxes in the United States - easily 2 or 2.5 times as much as other areas within throwing/inconvenient driving distance, like Connecticut and Pennsylvania. (Oh, and that’s part of your answer right there.)

Edit: Here’s the Coraline video:

These cookies were part of the assortment of cookies I shared with co-workers. I’m going to make more this weekend because they’re way yummy and buttery and lemony. Also, they’re good with Earl Grey tea. I found the recipe on Epicurious.com.

You need:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
21/2 cups all purpose flour

6 tablespoons (more or less) jam or jelly Use preserves. Please.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 2 baking sheets.

Using electric mixer, beat 1 cup butter and sugar in large bowl until well blended. Beat in egg yolks, lemon peel, lemon juice and salt. Add flour in 2 additions and beat just until moist clumps form. Gather dough together in bowl to bind dough. Form dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls on prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Using finger, make deep indentation in center of each ball. Fill indentation in each cookie with scant 1/2 teaspoon jam or jelly preserve.

Research note from eva: I found that spooning the preserve into a bowl first and stirring it until it was a bit smoother and room temperature (since mine had been refrigerated) was most helpful. And I used strawberry, but I think apricot or raspberry would be great, too. Or strawberry-rhubarb, plum-cherry, and other exotic combos if you can find them. Boysenberry and lingonberry too. But not marmalade, for the love of all things good and beautiful.

Bake cookies until firm to touch and golden on bottom, about 22 minutes. Remove from oven. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

Can be made 2 days ahead. Store between sheets of waxed paper in airtight container at room temperature. Cookies will soften slightly.

I still need to check something.