Atkins-friendly snack

We're still on Atkins (this week at least) and if you are too, here's a product I like: Dannon Light 'n Fit Carb Control "Cultured Dairy Snack" (warning: annoying music). Okay, it's pseudo-yogurt, but they can't call it that for some reason. It's got fewer calories and fewer carbs than regular low-fat yogurt, but it still tastes good, at least to me. It's a nice, late-afternoon, I need something to snack on treat. I say check it out.

Not dead, working

Dori mentioned that I hadn't posted here in a while, and she's right; my last post was on 8/15. It's just because I'm busy trying to finish up my forthcoming PowerPoint book. It should be done next week, after which the usual amount of blather will resume.

RSS tweaks

I've been messing about with this page's RSS feed. If you have any problems, let me know in the comments, okay?

Big CA lottery

If you're a California resident, consider buying a ticket for this Saturday's SuperLotto Plus drawing. Current value: $95 million, but it's sure to go up between now and then.

And I'll promise you: after we win, if you bought a ticket to help increase the amount of money we get, we'll buy you a lunch.

US History recommendations?

We found out recently that Sean was accepted into AP US History, and I joked with him about how, given that the teacher describes himself as a Marxist-Leninist, the textbook for the class would probably be Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. And if that was the case, he'd be in luck, because we already had a copy, and therefore he wouldn't have to carry the school copy back and forth.

Well, last week's giggle turned out to be this week's reality: not only is it the required text book, but it's even the same (ancient) edition as the one we have. So, here's the question for you all:

Given that we want Sean to get an idea of how the same history can be seen from radically different viewpoints, and given the political bent of both the teacher and his text, what's a good right-slanted US history text to balance things out? Is A History of the American People by Paul Johnson the one we want, or is there a better choice? Suggestions, please!

Uncanny Valley Girls

We were watching duet synchronized swimming last night as part of Tom's goal of introducing Sean to the weirdest Olympic sports. I was trying to figure out why I was so uncomfortable watching those segments, and I finally realized that it was because the competitors had fallen into the uncanny valley.

There's a perfect example of what I mean near the end of this page. I'm getting the creeps again just thinking about it.

Naderwatch #8

As part of my semi-regular NaderWatch series, go check out the Nader '04 Impact Map. It's run by The Unity Campaign, and here's their explanation:

Nader's communications director Kevin Zeese specifically cites a CNN poll in which John Kerry's lead improves by 1% when Nader is included. What Mr. Zeese fails to mention is that the poll he cited is contradicted by 117 other polls—as is documented in the latest Poll Watch 04 study released August 2, 2004.

The Poll Watch 04 study covers every Bush/Kerry—Bush/Kerry/Nader poll conducted, nationally or in battleground states, from Nader's announcement of his candidacy through July 26. It is based on data from the authoritative, non-partisan PollingReport.com, and sponsored by The Unity Campaign.

Of 121 polls in the study, 117 contradict Nader's persistent claim that he'll take more votes from Republicans than from Democrats. Of these, 93 show Nader takes more votes from Kerry, while 24 show no impact. 4 polls show Nader taking more votes from Bush, in each case by a percentage far within each poll's margin of error.

Across all polls in the study, Nader gets an average of 4.3%, with more than 2.5% coming from Senator Kerry, and 0.9% from President Bush. That 1.6% average impact on the Bush/Kerry margin exceeds the winning margin from the 2000 presidential election in six states. Those six states had 59 electoral votes (Florida, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Iowa, Oregon, and New Hampshire).

They say it's updated regularly, so go check it out.

Friday night

Last Friday, we weren't able to touch base early enough with Susan to arrange a dinner together (next time we will), so we took advantage of the Hertz NeverLost system installed in our rental car to figure out what to do for dinner (note: Tom says he wants to do a full writeup here about the system; if you're interested, bug him to do it).

We ended up at Jerry's Famous Deli, one of a few restaurants we miss from our SoCal days. We were just finishing up a lovely meal, when two people that I hadn't seen in years walked by—my old buddy Michael and his wife Helen. Although we'd been friends since 1980, we'd lost touch after Tom and I moved north, and it'd been ages. I yelled, they came over for a nice chat, and between one thing and another, we ended up at their house getting a demo of his latest toy, a Trikke. Very cool.

And because he said he sometimes reads this blog, and because I told him that he needs these items, here's the links I promised: Firefly - The Complete Series and The Best Recipe: Revised and Expanded (a new edition of the old classic, so it might be worth waiting for). Get 'em both; you won't regret it.

D'ja miss us? We're back

We're back home again, and we're tired campers. But I know how you all worry, so here's a picture that should be worth the proverbial thousand words.

If you could see the original, you might (if you had incredibly good eyes) notice something familiar on the table under Tom's right (his right, your left) armpit. Yeah, we gave Alton Brown a copy of Mac OS X Unwired. Hey, he's such a Mac-head, we figure that he might get some use out of it. We're hoping that he gets at least as much use out of it as the picture that the 4 year old girl just before us in line drew of him.