No Grasp of Your Reality

misc/catfishYou may recall the story and photo I posted about the record holding catfish that weighed in at 124-pounds. Well, the record has been broken. According to the AP, the record has been broken in Thailand, where fishmen pulled in a 646-pound catfish.

After the WWF verified the catch, the men did what any good fishman would do. They ate it.

Oh Phooey. (Yes, I was looking for a chance to use that word.)

We were spontaneous. We were excited.
We packed coolers, lined up towels. We were “going to the beach today!”

We, meaning the kids and I, the best mother-in-law in the whole world, the best neighbors in the whole world (we have many best neighbors - the whole neighborhood is wonderful - in this case, I mean the best neighbors behind us).

Everything was set to be perfect.
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“War of the Windows: Pic biz frets as B.O. fades & DVD usurp key dates“

JapanJune2005/IMG_0873A long day today… I had plans to go try Fuji, but I discovered that the mountain doesn’t open until July. Then, I thought I would head down to Kyoto, but found out late last night that it would cost me something like $300 round trip just for the train tickets, if I had just planned ahead one day, I could have gotten a round-trip ticket, and a hotel room for ~$190. Extremely disappointing.

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…with Tab-i-tha
up on her step stool.
(Twenty four pounds - yay!)
Kerry Ann kept up the pace
We each filled a whole bin
Though it wasn’t a race.

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Bet you didn’t know that a key can be made from an x-ray.

Today, Aiden’s eardrum burst. Lots of blood all over his ear and neck. At least he’s feeling better afterwards.

Micah’s still wheezing, but threw up a lot of phlegm this afternoon. He seems to be breathing slightly better.

I’m pretty tired, but can make it till bedtime. My friend Wendy is coming over to help with the kid’s nebulizer treatments and with baths. What she doesn’t know yet is that the kids were climbing in poison ivy, and that it’ll be a detergent bath. Hopefully, she won’t run away

I found a website called “BrowseHappy“, an advocate site for alternate web browsers like Firefox and Opera. One of the cool features of the site is that in addition to giving the technical reasons why MS Internet Explorer is unsafe, they also give testimonies from regular people who’ve switched

I think for most of the people in the world, hearing that there is an exploit in Windows XP “SP2 that could allow a malicious Web site to deposit an attack program on a user’s system” doesn’t really carry much weight, but they would be interested to hear the story of “Karen, a 38 yr old housewife with a son of 9 and daughter of 11” and how her everyday problems with Internet Explorer were solved when she switched to Firefox.

So, read some of the articles, and make the switch… you can always go back, but I don’t think you will. If you do have any questions, I’d love to help you. And you have your own stories about web browsers (good or bad), please post them in the comments. I’d like to hear them.

No… not the exposé of Fox News.

Outfoxed is a plugin for Firefox that allows you to share your web experience with others. After you get the plugin running and configured (which is admittedly a bit complicated), an icon appears in your toolbar allowing you to see what your group of friends think about this page, and allows you to post your opinion.

While this concept is not new, what is new is that the system is designed to limit opinions to a trusted group. Since the general opinion of the Internet may not match your own, it’s nice to be able to limit input to people whom you trust.

You can get more information on my Informer Page, and it has links to download the plugin yourself.

And if you’re not using Firefox, what are you waiting for???

I’m hanging in there!

Thomas, Tabitha, Aiden and Micah all have Croup.

We went back to the doctor today because Aiden’s and Micah’s cough worsened, plus wheezing.

Aiden also has a double ear infection, one side is pretty bad.

Antibiotics for Aiden, nebulizer for Aiden and Micah.

When I went to the pharmacy, they were behind by about an hour. So, I dropped off prescriptions, went to the Giant and returned an hour and a half later. They still were behind. Micah was screaming from hunger. Screaming and coughing - the kind of cough that makes people look the other way. I waited and waited, and still the medicine wasn’t ready. Finally, I sat down on the blood-pressure-checking-machine chair, lifted up my shirt and nursed him in front of everyone. It was amazing how apologetic everyone became about the wait time. Seriously.

We also got some Gentian Violet for Micah’s thrush, a recommendation from a Le Leche League mom on the Quiverfull list.

I’m home eating a salad. Micah just fell asleep - phew! And now, it’s time to clean the house like mad before Bible study at 7pm.

misc/truth_about_splenda Someone posted the following links to the Frozen Assets yahoo list. What the heck IS Splenda anyway?

truthaboutsplenda.com (Website by the unbiased Sugar Association)

Sucralose Toxicity Info (Article on the health aspects of consuming chlorinated sucrose derivatives - there are also articles on the dangers of aspartame on this website… see below)

NPR Market Place (A 2/08/05 broadcast from NPR when Splenda took the sugar industry to court, claiming they had been the target of false and misleading reports.)

Take it with a grain of…er… sugar if you must, but I always favor educated decisions.

While you’re being educated, here’s a Snopes article on Aspartame (which is not in Splenda).

At 1:16 this morning, I noticed that the room seemed to be shaking. It was like I was bouncing my legs, but I wasn’t. Weird… I thought maybe I broke my chair (again), but it didn’t want to stop. Then I remembered I was Japan, and what I felt was probably an earthquake.

So, I’m watching MTV Japan over here, and this band, Fire Ball, comes on, and I’m entranced. It’s got an urban reggae sound, but it’s all Japanese. Anyway, I bought the album when I was in Ikebukuro yesterday, and I ripped a few samples for you all to hear.

Track 2 - 999rulaz (953k)
Track 7 - Walea (1.2m)

What a long day… I wanted to try something new in the city, so I tried googling for Tokyo, and found the Tokyo City Guide, which had articles on some sections of town I hadn’t been to yet. I saw they had a page on Ikebukuro, so I thought I’d give it a try.

Like Shibuya and Shinjuku, Ikebukuro is on the outskirts of Tokyo, and is a place where the regional rails meet the Tokyo subways and buslines. Around all these places, a large industry has built up to service the many, many commuters who go through. From restaurants to pachinko parlors, there’s something for everyone, so I made my plans.

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Tabitha-s-Random-Sleeping-Positions/IMG_0756

Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper “I love you”
Birds singin’ in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me

Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me
While I’m alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me

Stars fading but I linger on dear
Still craving your kiss
I’m longing to linger till dawn dear
Just saying this

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me