Last night was the first of a three part series on CNN by Cristiane Amanpour about modern warrior traditions in the 3 major Abrahamic faiths of our day. What does she think she knows? (You may ask):

"My experience has been steeped in all the faiths," says Amanpour. "My mother's a Catholic -- I've been to Catholic schools where we said prayers all the time. My father's a Muslim, I grew up in Iran -- I suppose my pivotal turning point in my adult life was the Iranian revolution. And my husband's Jewish.

[ Miami Herald ]

They've split up the 6 hours into three 2 hour shows, one for each faith: first Jewish, then Muslim, then Christian. I have to say that so far I guess it seems fair, there is little praise or condemnation in the piece, it's mostly just the facts portrayed, and by the people involved when possible. No suprises for me in the first 2 hours, it was all information I already was aware of. I don't expect to learn much on tonight's show either, but tomorrow when we get to Christians I hope to learn a bit more about non-Catholic traditions that I'm none-too-familliar with. 

CNN chose their language for the first piece quite well, and left it up to the viewer to reflect on how they feel about the revelations within it. If this continues through the next two nights then perhaps this series will educate and expand the conversation about how all peoples can turn their back on hate and violence and share this little rock we live on.

You may think me the freak, but today the weather was just perfect:

So I should probably figure out where this type of weather is a regular thing, say 2/3rds of the year, and move there...

Of course it also needs to have all the benefits of where I live now:

• Great restaurants
• Top schools
• Lots of diversity
• Large Muslim community
• Plentiful Internet

My Aunt mentioned this today during our visit, and it looks like a blast:

The Western Maryland Scenic Railroad round trip excursion is an exciting mix of mountain scenery and rich transportation history. It’s an entertaining and educational experience riders of all ages and interests with interpretive history and lively Main Street Districts at both ends of the trip!

[ Western Maryland Scenic Railroad ]

The three and a half hour round trip includes 90 minutes in historic Frost burg and for $48 bucks you get a meal too. There is no menu page, it looks like menu might change, so I picked a day at random and this is what they're serving:

The following menu is available on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. If you purchase train tickets that include a meal, you will be asked to select your preference of one of the meals below:

• Roast Beef and Gravy on Texas Toast served with Mashed Potatoes and Summer Blend Vegetables.
• Turkey Club with Chips served with sides of Carrot and Celery Sticks and Macaroni Salad.
• Macaroni and Cheese served with a cup of fruit.
• Vegetable Lasagna served with a Salad
• Hot Dog on a bun served with chips and a cup of fruit.
• Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich served with applesauce and a cup of fruit.

Not exactly gourmet, but most likely tasty. After returning to Cumberland at 3pm, there is certainly a ton of history to see, and a good number of attractions and a few places to eat.

Now I just have to set a date, and get my tickets!

How to build a Mosquito trap.

Materials Needed:

2000ml (2 liter) bottle
50 gram (brown?) sugar
1 gram yeast
Thermometer
Measure cup
Knife
Black paper

[ DIY:happy Quick and Dirty Mosquito Trap ]

That looks pretty darn easy. And would last much much longer than the crappy repellents I've tried so far. Plus, unlike a repellent, this gets rid of the buggers.

New onesie: Poopsmith, originally uploaded by Yaty Yasir Kearns.

That's my daughter sporting a Poopsmith Onesie.

Larry Wilmore is one funny cat. Did a piece on the Daily Show about Obama and his blackitude, and ended the piece with a bit of Parliment's Chocolate City. I think it's genius and Obama should use it as his campaign music from this point out.

Tell 'em to make sure they got their James Brown pass
And don't be surprised if Obama is in the White House

[ Lyrics for Parliament's Chocolate City ]

Frequent lunch companions of mine will know that I've been sour on Cosi for quite a while now. My big complaints?

• Only one kind of bread
• Only about a dozen sandwich choices
• The coffee isn't so good

What's changed?

Two kinds of bread! They've added a kind of whole wheat bread that I found quite yummy today.

Much bigger menu! More sandwiches, some are "melts", pizza and individual casseroles in the evenings, and for a limited time? The "Cosi Lobster Roll", mmmm yummy.

And still the same coffee. But 2 out of 3 ain't bad, eh?

Tomb Raider Anniversary Sony PSP Eidos Teen B

I have been on the verge of giving up on my PSP ever since starting Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. To say that the controls suck is a bit of an understatement. Kooshmoose, who is a total R&C fanboy, says it took about two thirds of the game for him to get used to it. In my book that equates to between sucks and unplayable.

Apparently, however, it is not my fault or the fault of my PSP. Otherwise how can you explain how the controls on Tomb Raider Anniversary took me about two thirds of a second to get used to. I didn't even play the mansion level, I just launched into the game, and it just works.

The game is, of course, a re-hash of the original, but since I never finished the original it will be "new to me". They've added some cinematics and a bit more level to make it a better playing experience, and bumped up the quality (though not too much on the PSP, since it is a PSP). I'm looking forward to playing more than the first few minutes, and may actually finish this one (unlike the aforementioned R&C:SM that I just couldn't take anymore).

Here's a great place to start:

With moderating your consumption. You can dramatically reduce the size of your footstep on the planet just by making smarter choices in the things you buy and the amount your household uses. It's not something you have to do all at once: just commit to steady, incremental change. Small steps become big journeys over time.

[ Lighter Footstep - The Dirty Dozen: 12 Products You Should Avoid ]

Over the past couple of years Yaty and I have shifted much of our purchasing in the direction highlighted in this article, and none of it has been difficult.

Plastic-wise this article should have pointed out that you need to see what plastic is recycled in your area, for example #5 isn't shown to leech BPA's and isn't Styrofoam (#6 PS) but in our area #5 isn't recycled so we avoid it. Odd that #1 isn't on their list when it seems to be the most easily recycled and hasn't shown any BPA leeching, as far as my research has indicated...

It occurred to me recently to check what the dryer sheets were made of, now I know and it's something else to no longer consume. I think I prefer the Mrs Meyer's liquid fabric softener anyway, much "yummier" flavors...

Plastic Utensils, oddly enough, are tough to avoid. There don't seem to be any other options when it comes to disposable utensils except for chop sticks, and non-Asian restaurants don't tend to have chop sticks. I've tried to figure out how to get take out without utensils, napkins, sauces I won't use, etc. but they tend to be in a groove where each bag gets the same thing, and they'll just throw it in there without thinking.

Cleaning-wise I just switched to vinegar (props to Liam and Holli) with a touch of oil so it's not so vinegar-stinky, and in some cases that even works better than the chemical cleaners.

Maybe it all seems a bit extreme, but it all comes down to sustainability (unless you don't care about your grandchildren or grand-nieces and grand-nephews...)

how i'm skinned

Clockwork Orange w/Vista Substyle by vStyler

Stardock is pleased to officially announce that the beta of WindowBlinds 6 is now available for users of Object Desktop. WindowBlinds 6 represents a whole new generation of Windows skinning with advanced new features such as animation overlays, blur glass effects on both Windows Vista and Windows XP, user created sub-styles, full font control, explorer backgrounds, complete Windows Vista skinning, faster performance, and much more!

[ Stardock News: WindowBlinds 6 Beta Released ]

I haven't used WindowBlinds since I upgraded to Vista, WB5.5 just didn't work well enough for me and I actually was a bit down on the WindowBlinds due to it's poor handling of Vista. Well Stardock, please forgive me, 'cause you guys are back!

WindowBlinds 6 beta works tremendously better than WB5.5 did on my Vista Laptop, and I'm back to messing with the general look and feel of my OS on a regular basis. I'm hoping that soon it will be clear which skins have made sure that they work well on Vista, with all the pretty trimmings I've been used to on Aero, but for now I'm just happy to be able to "paint the walls" whenever I want.

Update: I should mention that it wouldn't install happy-happy at first, and I had to follow the guidelines here and then reboot twice before it would work. But that's what "beta" means, right?

Is Barak Obama "black enough"?

She disputed the notion that Obama's upbringing in Hawaii was much different than hers in Chicago's predominantly black South Side.

"We are not that far apart," she told the Sun-Times. "He was raised in his grandmother's home, and his grandmother is from Kansas, eating tuna with pickles in it. The same conversations that we had around my kitchen table, we have at her house on Christmas. We are not that far apart. It's just that it feels like people have benefitted from us feeling and believing that we are far apart."

[ Forum Puts Obama's Heritage in Focus | The Trail | washingtonpost.com ]

Ah, so you can tell if the childhood tuna has pickles in it. But doesn't everyone put pickels in their tuna fish salad? Or am I "black enough"?