so my kid goes back to school soon and like every summer, i'm feeling guilty about not doing enough shit with her or spending quality time with her. but unlike every year, she's transitioning into middle school. she will be with older kids, more will be expected of her academically and socially and she's nervous about it and a little clingy.

i decide to get her all decked out for school this year so she feels good about it, as much as possible. hence, the bento boxes. if i can get her jazzed about lunch, even if middle school is torture, she can look forward to lunch.

i splurge on a backpack online for her. sight unseen, i pay $50 for a backpack she really likes the design of. of course with the understanding that it will be her middle school backpack, and she will not be getting more until high school or later.

holy fucking shit on a monkey. this thing arrives today, and i'm trying to guess what it would retail for, but frankly, i've only seen backpacks up to $70 at sports stores. this is well beyond that. its got an insulated lunch compartment built in. it's got a plush lined eyeglass case, built in. it's her favorite colors with a floral print. the polyester is that type that never rips, even if you want it to. this thing is... it's beyond our means. i should make her carry a sign saying really no, we can't afford shit this nice, this is a fluke. don't judge me by my backpack. i'm poor, really.

yesterday i take her kickboxing. today, galleries and cupcakes in NY. tomorrow, a new desk. meaning a desk from craigslist. see above.

it was 95 degrees in manhattan today and the stone and metal buildings trap the heat like an oven. we walked and talked and looked at art and took pictures of goofy looking people with our phones. sushi, cupcakes, and i found a copy of dodgem logic, which by itself makes sweating in a gross dirty place worthwhile.

and my puppy was beside himself with joy when i got home.

Italy health minister apologizes for botched birth

Race to the Top, created under the obama admin, is a competition between states for federal funding. there are several applications, in which states prove to the federal government that they are in compliance with "new" regulations, er, standards.

some states opted out. my state, having made it to the Last Round (kinda like "who wants to be a millionaire?"), made a mistake on one of answer on the 1000 page application for the final round. we lost 500 million in funding, because on that question someone entered a number from the wrong year.

so, if that 1000 page application were one of the standardized tests by one of the corporations that our obama has such a boner for, what would be the grade on that test??

assholes. public education is such a fucking sham. and obama's a smarmy shit.

so my kid decided she wanted to do bento as her lunchbox this year, and make her own bento shit. it's pricey, but i'm hoping it can be a way for her to eat better and have more control over what she puts into her. her eating habits have become pitiful. for this reason, if she loses interest, i'm willing to step in and make stuff for her, even though she's in sixth grade.

since her very favoritest way to learn something is from youtube tutorials, she's been watching bento videos for about three weeks now, and shopping for the cutest bento boxes ever.

so far we have a box, and a lunchbox, sushi grass, little decorative cupcake cup thingies, and a thermos. tonight we play with seasoned sticky rice. she's got an idea how to make a bunny, with an anus. she wants to perfect it before the school year to impress her friends.

anyhoo... a really cool youtube channel is "cooking with dog," which covers a lot of japanese cooking, not just bento:

any other leads on this would be appreciated.

thank you jesus for H1N1 vaccine that we all bought and therefore saved the world. how lucky we are that no widespread illness and death occurred?

oh wait a second... can this be???

i'm having some health problems and need to clear out my digestive tract. i've heard sauerkraut can be great for this, and i've seen the basic recipe online. thing is, the only time i ever tried sauerkraut, i HATED it. granted, i was a child and children do tend to hate brassica vegetables. i'm going to try it again. i'm hoping, however, that there are different varieties of raw kraut that i can experiment with to get the health benefits without the (what i remember as) horrid, horrid taste.

so, anyone who knows about this, please chime in. i'm walking to the russian specialty mart in hopes they have real uncooked sauerkraut to make me poo.

girl quits job using 20 photo message to the entire office.

my daughter asked for a tattoo. she has a really cool idea for one, i told her it would be so awesome, if only her parents were willing to sign consent. which we're not.

Ominous reports are leaking past the BP Gulf salvage operation news blackout that the disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico may be about to reach biblical proportions.

251 million years ago a mammoth undersea methane bubble caused massive explosions, poisoned the atmosphere and destroyed more than 96 percent of all life on Earth. [1] Experts agree that what is known as the Permian extinction event was the greatest mass extinction event in the history of the world. [2]

55 million years later another methane bubble ruptured causing more mass extinctions during the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum (LPTM).

The LPTM lasted 100,000 years. [3]

Those subterranean seas of methane virtually reshaped the planet when they explosively blew from deep beneath the waters of what is today called the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, worried scientists are increasingly concerned the same series of catastrophic events that led to worldwide death back then may be happening again-and no known technology can stop it.

The bottom line: BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling operation may have triggered an irreversible, cascading geological Apocalypse that will culminate with the first mass extinction of life on Earth in many millions of years.

The oil giant drilled down miles into a geologically unstable region and may have set the stage for the eventual premature release of a methane mega-bubble.

Ryskin’s methane extinction theory

Northwestern University's Gregory Ryskin, a bio-chemical engineer, has a theory: The oceans periodically produce massive eruptions of explosive methane gas. He has documented the scientific evidence that such an event was directly responsible for the mass extinctions that occurred 55 million years ago. [4]

Many geologists concur: "The consequences of a methane-driven oceanic eruption for marine and terrestrial life are likely to be catastrophic. Figuratively speaking, the erupting region "boils over," ejecting a large amount of methane and other gases (e.g., CO2, H2S) into the atmosphere, and flooding large areas of land. Whereas pure methane is lighter than air, methane loaded with water droplets is much heavier, and thus spreads over the land, mixing with air in the process (and losing water as rain). The air-methane mixture is explosive at methane concentrations between 5% and 15%; as such mixtures form in different locations near the ground and are ignited by lightning, explosions and conflagrations destroy most of the terrestrial life, and also produce great amounts of smoke and of carbon dioxide..." [5]

The warning signs of an impending planetary catastrophe—of such great magnitude that the human mind has difficulty grasping it-would be the appearance of large fissures or rifts splitting open the ocean floor, a rise in the elevation of the seabed, and the massive venting of methane and other gases into the surrounding water.

Such occurrences can lead to the rupture of the methane bubble containment—it can then permit the methane to breach the subterranean depths and undergo an explosive decompression as it catapults into the Gulf waters. [6]

All three warning signs are documented to be occurring in the Gulf.

...

the article goes on:
holy crapola ladies.