Friday, October 29, 2010

 

Unpopular Science - a REALLY cute art page

Thanks to Dan for sharing this with me!  It's really cute and I encourage you to take a look at it.  Read it here: http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/unpopular-science/. 


For every force, there is an equal and opposite force.



 

Michael Pollan on Why Modern American Food is Killing Us

I've been a follower of Michael Pollan ever since his book called the Botany of Desire. I was even more amazed by his next book, The Omnivore's Delimma.

Now, he's got a new and very small book called Food Rules, which in a way is a completely different way to fix America's health and obesity crisis. One of his quotes struck me as especially prescient "I think we need to recognize that cheap food has a very high cost, in terms of health and the environment. That cost is getting paid by other people, by the public health system. That's part of the problem and the disconnect. I think that's where there's a disconnect, between what you pay for a cheap, fast-food meal, and the ultimate price of eating that way."

"That's the worst sentence I've ever heard said!" Stewart exclaimed "Suddenly the health insurers will have an interest in your health, which right now they don't?!?!" Stewart loves the irony, and so do we.

Watch this clip on the Daily Show for a bit of an interview about the book and some of the ideas it contains:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Michael Pollan
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorHealth Care Crisis


There's a great story at the New York Times that gives several of the rules from his new book here - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/11/magazine/20091011-foodrules.html.

You can also read another interesting interview at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-pollan/food-rules-a-completely-d_b_410173.html in which he describes some of his rules. These rules are, in many ways, absurdly simple and common sense. And yet, few people follow them - much to their dismay.


 

30 Bloggers to Watch?

I found this blog post by Jade Craven to be interesting and insightful.  I also thought a few of her choices were a bit surprising, but still valuable.  Who'd have thought that Dave Navarro would be a good blogger to follow?

Also, you can now follow all these guys from the one twitter list! Check out Blogger To Watch to easily follow all the people in this post.

I'm curious what you think?

-Kev


Thursday, October 28, 2010

 

Beautiful Girls!



Look at this two pretty girls. They don't get much more pretty than that, do they? Ava (on the left) do anything to get into a bathing suit. Any excuse will do, even in cold weather. And just in case you're wondering... The girls really love dress up and high heels. So, while they're sometimes a pill to get out the door to church on a sunny Sunday morning, they usually don't mind putting on a nice dress and shoes. Rachel did a nice little SmileBox photo album on the dress-up morning from the photo above on the right here. And yes, Katie (on the right) has a band-aid on her nose.


This photo (above) is from back in the summer time, but worth posting today in the fall. The weather was gorgeous and the lil girls (Ava and Katie, left and center, respectively) were showing me their newest moves from their gymnastics class, mostly cartwheels across the soft grass of our front yard. Anna (far right), and the neighbor's dog Marley, decide watch the exhibition.


Katie has also been on a hair braiding kick. She's been learning lots of new braids and playing with several new hairstyles. She did the braids above by herself without a mirror. That's pretty cool! It makes me smile when I see Katie and Ava interacting. Ava loves her big sisser so much and enjoys playing with her every chance she gets.

I honestly don't know where Rachel got the patience to help her put in those '50's glam-style soft curls (below), but she looks awesome. :^) Rachel also put together a really cute SmileBox photo album of Katie here.



Kaylee and Ava also spent the summer playing Upwards Soccer. I'm really proud of how much progress they've made and how much better they're getting. Here's an action photo of Ava just prior to her kickin' the snot outta d'soccer ball:



Soccer is just one indication that fall is finally here. In the old days, the start of school also meant the start of fall. But now that school starts just a couple days in to August, you have to look for other indicators. For us, it's been Savannah's football games at night (she plays clarinet in the school band) and Kaylee & Ava's soccer games on Saturday morning. I've really enjoyed taking the family to both. Not ironically, I've gotten my worst sunburns of the year at the Saturday morning soccer games. But it's all good! Rachel put together a great photo album here, also including some memorable trips to the Cedar Creek beach on Old Hickory Lake and Ava's ear piercing event.

Fall is also the time when I have to take a LOT of business trips. Overall, it's a big personal sacrifice in an otherwise awesome job. I'll post about those trips soon.

Cheers,

-Kev

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Friday, October 22, 2010

 
I suspect that rising pressure at both work and at home can be relieved by drilling massive holes in my skull. Where's my auger?

Thursday, October 21, 2010

 
Join me and Allan Hirt for an in-depth demo of SQL Server high availability technologies in just 20 minutes! http://ping.fm/0XYxt

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

 
Join me in a webcast on indexing strategies for better queries, today at 1:00 pm central: http://ping.fm/dnXOy

Monday, October 11, 2010

 
I want to build an FAQ. What's your recommendation? Just a web page? Or is there some good specialized software?

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

 

Beards Are More Than a Lot of Long Whiskers

I had a lot of travel to contend with over the past couple weeks. While travel in and of itself isn't a horrible thing, long trips are very unpleasant. I miss the family to an almost debilitating degree.

A lot of my friends and acquaintances say "Yeah, but you're traveling to really cool places in Europe and all over the world". True indeed. But I'd be equally lonely if I had to drive 2 hours to Chattanooga or fly 9 hours to London. It's loneliness either way, only the accents change.

One of my friends asked why I'd grown out my beard. The picture at left is actually only 1/2 of the beard. I've since grown out a fuller beard.

I'd initially thought that I'd grown out my beard out of either laziness (so I didn't have to shave) or curiosity (to see what it'd look like). But I knew this wasn't completely honest.

But upon deeper reflection, I've grown my beard out to put distance between the Kevin of pre-1994 who was clean shaven, the Kevin of 1994-2005 who wore a goatee and the Kevin of today. Some women change their hair color after a major life transition. She grows up and heads off to college. When she comes home, everyone is surprised to see she's a blond, or a redhead, or whatever.

I can't say that I'll keep it forever. I really don't know. But I'm certain that, after a series of major transitions, the beard is part of my 21st century identity.

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Monday, October 04, 2010

 
Mortified that technical difficulties crashed my webcast this morning. =^(

 
Live in the UK or Europe? Join me this morning in the webcast "Advanced SQL Server Troubleshooting". http://ping.fm/zDvSY

Sunday, October 03, 2010

 
Heading down Baywater Rd to the Royal Lancaster for some of London's best Thai food. =^)

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