But Oprah, how do you spell L-U-C-K-Y?
Posted on May 28, 2004
Filed Under Misc. | 6 Comments
Front page article in today’s paper about Oprah Winfrey delivering the “commencement address”:http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-ga5may28,0,2511060.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines at Greenwich Academy.
bq. “You make me proud to spell my name W-O-M-A-N,” she told the group, which included her goddaughter…
“Greenwich Academy”:http://www.greenwichacademy.org/ is a private all-girls prep school in Greenwich, CT. I don’t know how much the tuition is, but I imagine it’s substantial. The picture on the front page of today’s paper looked like Oprah Winfrey was standing in a debutante’s ball.
We are in an affluent county near New York City so it’s not uncommon to see celebrities doing this or that. But when schools are involved, it’s usually the private ones. It drives me nuts when they speak to the upper crust about how wonderful they are without emphasizing the fact that these young ladies are lucky to have the world at their feet. It’s not about money. It’s about opportunity, and these girls that Oprah spoke to have every choice in the world. Wait until they have to make their own way in the world. Will they describe their “community” to include those that don’t have the opportunities they do, or will “community” be limited to their country club?
The high school students who make me proud are the ones who get high grades even though they have to work an afterschool job for their spending money. The ones whose parents can’t afford to send them to private schools, private tutoring or expensive activities. The girls who go to a school where peer pressure is telling them that “getting by” is “good enough” but they put in the extra effort anyway because their motivation to suceed comes from a place deep inside.
Maybe those girls Oprah spoke to make her proud because they know what is expected of them and they rise to it. But let’s see what happens when they have to set their own bar. If they ever do.
What is a Mom?
Posted on May 26, 2004
Filed Under Life | Leave a Comment
A friend just sent me this in email, and I read it just as I really needed to have a good laugh. Given my domain, I thought it appropriate to share here. I’ve seen variations of this but I don’t know where the credit should be.
I may have to ask Emily and Laini the same questions and see what they say. Then again, maybe I don’t want to know. 
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Shrek 2
Posted on May 23, 2004
Filed Under Entertainment | 1 Comment
We took the kids to see _Shrek 2_ yesterday. I still haven’t seen the first movie in its entirety. Eric took the girls without me when the first one came out. We have the DVD, but at home it’s rare that we get to watch a movie with the kids all the way through.
But I heard such good things about the sequel that I wanted to go, too. Eric was smart and purchased the tickets for Saturday’s matinee on Wednesday, as soon as they became available online. When we got to the theatre at 2:30 pm for the 3:15 pm show a sign said that all shows were sold out until 6 pm, and the movie was playing on 3 screens.
It was a lot of fun. Truthfully, I think Eric and I enjoyed it more than Laini and Emily did. They both liked it, but they missed so much. They couldn’t understand why Eric and I were laughing at certain points because they didn’t know what the movie was making fun of. This is one that I definitely want to see on DVD as I’m sure there were a ton of pop-culture in-jokes that we missed as they flew by.
A new Movable Type 3.0D tag
Posted on May 23, 2004
Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
I just installed Movable Type 3.0D on my testing domain. I have a new client blog that I’m setting up (legally, of course, with a personal license whenever the pricing is finally settled) so it was time to learn what’s new. The upgrade went smoothly. Nothing immediately appears broken.
While 3.0 is a work in progress, installing 2.6 on a new server seems like a step backwards. The client and I discussed it and we both agree that this is the right move.
I skimmed over the default templates, trying to get a handle on what is different so I can see if there any changes I should make in my templates that I completely rolled by hand. This isn’t a feature release, so I wasn’t expecting much outside of the comment/TypeKey area. But there *is* a new tag! <MTIFNonEmpty> used this way according to the help file:
bq. <MTIfNonEmpty tag=”MTEntryAuthorURL”>
The author’s homepage URL is </MTIfNonEmpty>
I currently use a few plug-ins to handle this functionality depending on what part of the template it’s used that it looks like I can get rid of.
But what’s interesting is that the default template uses a different tag name than what is in the “help file:”:http://www.movabletype.org/docs/mtmanual_tags.html#miscellaneous%20tags
bq. <MTIfNonZero tag=”MTEntryTrackbackCount”>
<p>Listed below are links to weblogs that reference
<a href=”<$MTEntryPermalink$>”><$MTEntryTitle$></a>:</p>
<MTIfNonZero> is not mentioned in the help file that I can tell, but from the default template appears to be what you use when you expect a numerical result.
The diet “culture”
Posted on May 20, 2004
Filed Under Life | Leave a Comment
“Dean”:http://www.deanesmay.com commented on my “Atkins”:http://www.momathome.com/viewfromhome/life/atkins_study.php entry:
bq. I ran a mailing list for people who used the Atkins diet. Many of them had lost 50 pounds or more and kept it off for years. One lady had taken off 165 pounds and kept it off for over 5 years. Now, here’s the thing: Weight Watchers refuses to release any statistics on how many people who use their programs are a success story. Why would you diss people who are finding something that works for them, is what I’d have to ask.
I was going to add a comment, but I think what I have to say is better as its own entry.
I’m not dissing anyone. I’m dissing the diet industry that puts all the emphasis on seeing the scale move down and not enough on what happens after that.
I often compare my weight loss journey to having children. When I got pregnant I knew it would take a certain amount of time, give or take a week or two, to have a baby. The point of getting pregnant was to have and raise a child. I knew I was making a lifelong commitment (God willing) and that the pregnancy itself was just a means to an end. I started acting like a parent when I was pregnant. I put the baby’s needs before my own. I slept more, ate better, made financial sacrifices, etc. When you’re pregnant, especially with a first child, you can sometimes get very focused on the pregnancy and all the biological changes going on that you don’t even think of what it’s going to be like to actually have a child. It seems like the pregnancy is lasting forever. It was certainly the longest 7-8 months of my life (starting from when I knew I was pregnant). But now my daughter is 8.5 years old and that period of pregnancy seems like a tiny dot in the big picture. Everything that I’ve done since is far more important.
Weight loss is the same thing. What method you choose to lose the weight is not as important as what you do when you lose it. I don’t care if it takes 3 months or 3 years to lose 10 lbs. or if you’re cutting out pasta or fat or whatever. What matters is that it’s something that you can just do. If you can live without bagels and potatoes and fruit for the next 20 years, more power to you. But at some point the food industry is going to get bored of Atkins as they do everything else and they’re going to latch on to the next fad. You won’t be seeing low-carb this and low-carb that everywhere.
Weight Watchers has 40 years of history. The program has changed, but the philosophy of “eat less, move more” while eating a balanced diet from all food groups hasn’t changed. While Weight Watchers may or may not release their data, it’s a lot easier to find 50 people who have had long term success on Weight Watchers than it is to find long term success on Atkins. We just don’t know enough yet, and these slanted “studies” combined with things like a low-carb menu at Burger King bother me.
I’m not dissing anyone who is happy with Atkins. Lots of folks are losing weight quickly on it, and that’s great. But to me it’s like someone who is in their 8th month of their first pregnancy talking about the joys of parenting. Having a baby is easy. Really, it is. It’s just physical pain and it goes away. Raising a child is the challenge. Any diet is a fad until you can incorporate it into the way you live your life and it’s flexible enough that you can adapt it to any situation. I’m sorry, but I don’t think Atkins has that flexibility to make it long term. Only time will prove me wrong.
