Things are busy.

Morgan is great.

I still want/need a vacation.

Emily is still busy with projects.

We still like to eat food.  A lot.

Toby is still crazy.

Twinkie is still ruling the roost.

They are both Morgan’s favorites.

Lot’s going on.

Extreme obesity is affecting more children in the United States than ever before, according to a new study.

More than [...]]]> Is this article really any surprise to anybody living in America right now?  There is an audio interview on the page as well…

Study: Extreme obesity affecting more children in US than ever before

Extreme obesity is affecting more children in the United States than ever before, according to a new study.

More than 700,000 children aged 2-19 in southern California were included in the study by healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente.

According to the study, more than 7% of boys and 5% of girls were extremely obese and one in twenty are a full 50% above what doctors consider healthy.

The organisation says obese children face a shorter life span and health problems in their twenties, unless they change their lifestyles.

The World Today’s Ed Butler talked to overweight teenager D’Vonte Pullen and obesity expert Tami Foy.

In a congested part of Patna, capital of India’s Bihar state, stands a striking yellow building – a 100-year-old mansion that has clearly seen better days.

Inside it, in a small dark room, a young bearded cleric [...]]]> Another uplifting article I read about educating the underprivileged in India…

Indian school helping the brightest Muslims

In a congested part of Patna, capital of India’s Bihar state, stands a striking yellow building – a 100-year-old mansion that has clearly seen better days.

Inside it, in a small dark room, a young bearded cleric is reading out sermons from the Muslim holy scriptures to a group of boys seated cross-legged on the floor.

They are in their late teens, some are wearing skull caps and they all listen to him with rapt attention.

At first glance, this could be any of the region’s hundreds of Islamic seminaries or madrassas, where young Muslims receive religious instruction.

But this is no ordinary seminary.

After prayers, the boys head out to a classroom, pen and notebook in hand, where they listen with equal attention to a lecture on advanced mathematics.

This is the unusual setting for Rahmani 30 – a training institute which prepares talented but underprivileged young Muslims for entry into India’s best engineering colleges – the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT).

Only the top 2% make it through the stiff entrance exam.

Getting ahead

India’s large Muslim minority is consistently placed at the bottom of social and economic rankings.

Part of this has to do with education – most Muslims end up studying in madrassas, which means they have little chance of being employed in the private sector or government.

So the significance of Rahmani’s initiative is not lost on anyone.

It is the brainchild of a senior Bihar police officer, Abhyanand, who takes time off from his day job to teach the boys physics.

Rahmani was inspired by a similar school – the Super 30, where Abhyanand used to work and which is also aimed at poor children but not Muslims exclusively.

“In our country, any difficult examination is very fearful because a huge number of students take part but only a few get in,” Abhyanand says.

The advantage at Rahmani, he says, is the kind of students they get – mostly from poor backgrounds and determined to get ahead in life.

“They come from a rural background and that is their strength. They become competitive because, for them, it is a win or lose situation.

“If they don’t make it they don’t stand anywhere [socially and economically].”

Great chance

Irfan Alam, 15, the son of a barber who is preparing for the IIT exam due to be held in 2011, says it is a great opportunity.

“I wanted to make something of my life, become someone,” he says smiling shyly.

“It’s the perfect platform. The teachers are amazing and the best part is that it’s completely free.”

It is a chance that few others where Irfan comes from will ever get.

His village is a good four hours drive north of Patna, with lush green wheat-fields, narrow dirt tracks and few proper buildings.

Most people here work as farm labour and a large number of the men are barbers by trade.

I meet Irfan’s father, Mohammad Shafiq, outside his modest, two-room hut made of mud and straw.

Now recuperating after an eye operation, he tells me how his son displayed flashes of brilliance as a child and soon outgrew his village school.

So he decided to send him away.

“Nobody studies here. Most of the teenagers waste their time or start drinking heavily.

“I can’t read and write myself and it was always my dream that my son should be educated and not become a barber like his father and grandfather.”

Back at Rahmani the classes are done but the studying continues late into the night.

Irfan sits with three of his friends inside his little dorm room, poring over textbooks and brainstorming.

In another room, one of the teachers uses a webcam to conduct a tutorial with students in another part of Bihar.

Cultural debate

It’s a fascinating mix of the traditional and the modern.

“The basic philosophy of a madrassa is that the boys live, eat and study together. There is no distinction between rich and poor – everybody is equal,” says Maulana Wali Rahmani, an influential cleric who heads this institute.

“There’s also a culture of open debate. It’s something I experienced myself while growing up in a madrassa. So we thought, why not channel these strengths in a whole new direction and see what we can achieve.”

To find out how spectacularly they have succeeded, you need to travel 1,000km (625 miles), to the national capital, Delhi.

It is a completely different world in the tree-lined, sprawling IIT campus.

Young men and women stroll into their classrooms, dressed in jeans and T-shirts, back-packs slung over their shoulders.

These are India’s brightest brains, many of whom will go on to work in the country’s top software companies or head to Silicon Valley.

Among them is a shy, earnest young man – Shadman Anwar, part of Rahmani’s inaugural batch of students last year, all 10 of whom made it through to the IITs.

“It’s been a dream come true, being here with all the other students. And I don’t feel as if I’m any different,” he says.

His is the kind of confidence that has helped raise expectations at Rahmani, whose administrators now want to establish 10 similar schools over the next couple of years.

India’s Muslim community is often said to have under-achieved, plagued by poverty, low education standards and a conservative outlook.

Now in one of India’s poorest states, a small initiative is trying to break the mould.

Pockets of hope…always nice to see…

India has one of the largest deaf populations in the world, but social stigmas have eliminated many job opportunities for the roughly 6 percent of the population that is affected. Aiming to empower this isolated group economically, Mirakle Couriers is a service provider that [...]]]> How cool is this?

Indian courier service hires only deaf workers

India has one of the largest deaf populations in the world, but social stigmas have eliminated many job opportunities for the roughly 6 percent of the population that is affected. Aiming to empower this isolated group economically, Mirakle Couriers is a service provider that hires only deaf workers.

Mirakle Couriers offers a pickup and delivery service in Mumbai. The company puts a heavy emphasis on the training of employees—right down to the finer points of professional grooming—and has grown dramatically since its late 2008 launch. Its client list now includes Johnson Controls, Bain Capital and the Indian Hotels Company, among many others.

Founded by former investment banker Dhruv Lakra, Mirakle Couriers stresses that it is “not a charity but a social business, where the social element is embedded in the commercial operations”. The firm plans to expand beyond Mumbai to other cities and countries around the world. Social entrepreneurs hither and yon: time to get in touch…?

Talk about doing some good and making a difference.  This has to be one of the coolest things I’ve heard about since Kiva.  We should all have ideas this purposeful.

It’s the question behind manslaughter. Somebody was killed. But the intent to kill them was not there. [...]]]> I heard a guy on ESPN Radio of all places speaking about intent. Do you view somebody based upon what they did, or the intent with which they did said action? It’s a tricky thing.

It’s the question behind manslaughter. Somebody was killed. But the intent to kill them was not there. So maybe you still go to jail, but you don’t go for too long. So there, obviously, you primarily judge based on intent, but secondarily on the act.

What I heard this morning was trying to completely and entirely separate the two. I do not, personally, believe you can make this distinction. They are intertwined. By ignoring one, you are making the other much too important and perhaps irrelevant at the same time.

But which should be the primary and which the secondary in the way that you view things? Should it be like the court system where intent is primary and action secondary? That is for everybody to decide on their own. To me, if you are careless, you had to make the decision (or lack there of – aka. carelessness) to perform or allow said action to occur. By working on the intent (cause), you can eliminate future occurrences of the action (effect), or at least lessen them to some degree. Conversely, if you try not to perform the action, your carelessness may still exist, and if you slip up (inadvertently) the action will yet again be performed.

Let’s use the manslaughter example. Vehicular. Person A is driving and talking on their cell phone and runs a red, hitting and killing Person B who was crossing the street. What happened? They were careless. Consequence? Somebody was killed. Now let’s try to eliminate both the intent and the action from this scenario. Option 1: Person A does not talk on the cell phone, thereby paying more attention to the road and stops at the red light, Person B safely crosses the street. Option 2: Person A is talking on the cell phone, still runs the red light, but now the action – either Person A or Person B notices before it is to late, there is some swerving going on, death is averted.

What do you think Person A would do afterwards in Option 2? Would they think “I need to avoid people in the road when I drive” or would they think “I should have stopped at the red light?” To me, that’s how I look at things. You either fix the problem (Option 1), or you fix the consequence (Option 2).

Glenn Beck to Jesus: Drop Dead

Glenn Beck said last week on his eponymous show that Christians should leave churches that preach “social justice.” Mr. Beck equated the desire for a just society with–wait for it–Nazism and Communism.

I’m [...]]]> Here’s this article I found today.  I think the title alone shows that it’s a little skewed…

Glenn Beck to Jesus: Drop Dead

Glenn Beck said last week on his eponymous show that Christians should leave churches that preach “social justice.” Mr. Beck equated the desire for a just society with–wait for it–Nazism and Communism.

I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. I beg you, look for the words ’social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes.

This means that you would have to leave the Catholic Church, which has long championed that aspect of the Gospel. The term “social justice” originated way back in the 1800s (and probably predates even that), and has been underlined by the Magisterium and popes since Leo XIII, who began the modern tradition of Catholic social teaching with his encyclical on capital and labor, Rerum Novarum in 1891. Subsequent popes have built on Leo’s work, continuing the church’s meditation on a variety of issues of social justice in such landmark documents as Pope Pius XI’s encyclical on “the reconstruction of the social order,”Quadregismo Anno (1931), Paul VI’s encyclical “on the development of peoples,” Populorum Progressio (1967) and John Paul II’s encyclical “on the social concerns of the church”Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987).

The Compendium of the Social Teaching of the Church, published by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, says this:

The Church’s social Magisterium constantly calls for the most classical forms of justice to be respected: commutative, distributive and legal justice. Ever greater importance has been given to social justice., which represents a real development in general justice, the justice that regulates social relationships according to the criterion of observance of the law. Social justice, a requirement related to the social question which today is worldwide in scope, concerns the social, political and economic aspects and, above all, the structural dimension of problems and their respective solutions….

Social justice is not just some silly foreign idea. American Catholics know that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have an Office of Justice, Peace and Human Development. On that website the U.S. bishops say: “At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict.”

Get it? Social justice is an essential part of Catholic teaching. It’s part of being a Catholic. So Glenn Beck is, in essence, saying “Leave the Catholic church.”

But Glenn Beck is saying something else: “Leave Christianity.” Again and again in the Gospels, Jesus mentions our responsibility to care for the poor, to work on their behalf, to stand with them. In fact, when asked how his followers would be judged he doesn’t say that it will be based on where you worship, or how you pray, or how often you go to church, or even what political party you believe in. He says something quite different: It depends on how you treat the poor.

In the Gospel of Matthew (25) he tells his surprised disciples, that when you are meeting the poor, you are meeting him. They protest. “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

But our responsibility to care for “the least of these” does not end with simple charity. Giving someone a handout is an important part of the Christian message. But so is advocating for them. It is not enough simply to help the poor, one must address the structures that keep them that way. Standing up for the rights of the poor is not being a Nazi, it’s being Christian. And Communist, as Mr. Beck suggests? It’s hard not to think of the retort of the great apostle of social justice, Dom Helder Camara, archbishop of Recife, “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”

The attack on social justice is the tack of those who wish to ignore the concerns the poor and ignore the social structures that foster poverty. It’s not hard to see why people are tempted to do so. How much easier it would be if we didn’t have to worry about the poor!

But ignoring the poor, and ignoring what keeps them poor, is, quite simply, unchristian. For the poor are the church in many ways. When St. Lawrence, in the fourth century, was ordered by the prefect of Rome to turn over the wealth of the church, he presented to him the poor.

Glenn Beck’s desire to detach social justice from the Gospel is a move to detach care for the poor from the Gospel. But a church without the poor, and a church without a desire for a just social world for all, is not the church.

At least not the church of Jesus Christ. Who was, by the way, poor.

Um…okay?  Let’s totally forget that this may be taken out of context.  But am I the only one who thinks that “social justice” sounds a lot like “the law of consecration?”  (if you are not familiar with what either up, just do a quick search on Wikipedia for them)  Don’t ALL churches/groups/pacts/whatever-y0u-want-t0-call-it that promote some sort of “higher law” believe in social justice to a degree?

(Reuters) – Vitamin D is vital in activating human defences and low levels suffered by around half the world’s population may mean their immune systems’ killer T cells are poor at fighting [...]]]> For anybody looking for additional reasoning as to “why in the world would you leave Microsoft and the Redmond-area” here is an answer…

(Reuters) – Vitamin D is vital in activating human defences and low levels suffered by around half the world’s population may mean their immune systems’ killer T cells are poor at fighting infection, scientists said on Sunday.

The findings by Danish researchers could help the fight against infectious diseases and global epidemics, they said, and could be particularly useful in the search for new vaccines.

The researchers found that immune systems’ killer cells, known as T cells, rely on vitamin D to become active and remain dormant and unaware of the possibility of threat from an infection or pathogen if vitamin D is lacking in the blood.

“When a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signaling device or ‘antenna’ known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D,” said Carsten Geisler of Copenhagen University’s department of international health, immunology and microbiology, who led the study.

“This means the T cell must have vitamin D or activation of the cell will cease. If the T cells cannot find enough vitamin D in the blood, they won’t even begin to mobilize.”

Scientists have known for a long time that vitamin D is important for calcium absorption, and that there is a link between levels of the vitamin and diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis.

“What we didn’t realize is how crucial vitamin D is for actually activating the immune system — which we know now,” Geisler wrote in the study in the journal Nature Immunology.

Most Vitamin D is made by the body as a natural by-product of the skin’s exposure to sunlight. It can also be found in fish liver oil, eggs and fatty fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel, or taken as a supplement.

Almost half of the world’s population has lower than optimal levels of vitamin D and scientists say the problem is getting worse as people spend more time indoors.

Geisler and his research team said the findings offered much needed information about the immune system and would be of particular use when developing new vaccines.

“This is important not only in fighting disease but also in dealing with anti-immune reactions of the body and the rejection of transplanted organs,” they wrote.

Active T cells multiply at an explosive rate and as well as fighting infection, can also mistakenly attack the body itself.

After and an organ transplant, for example, T cells can attack the new organ as a “foreign invader,” and in autoimmune disease, hypersensitive T cells mistake parts of the body’s own cells as threats, prompting the body to attack itself.

Geisler said there were no definitive studies on the optimal daily vitamin D dose but experts recommend 25 to 50 micrograms.

Not that we were overtly sick or anything, but you definitely feel the difference.  Synthesized vitamins will only do so much, you need actual sun.  And from October to May, you don’t actually get any Vitamin D from the amount (or lack thereof) of sunlight up there.  Nothing like the real thing, which we’ll get plenty of down here.

If Microsoft had something larger a little more southernly, we’d be having a different conversation right now.  :)  Of course we’ve had rainstorms down here the past few days, and it’s interesting to see how much more difficult it has been to get out of bed and feel energized.

I can eat whatever I want (see, I told you it would be upsetting). I have always been able to. I can’t gain weight (more upsetting). I’m glad I [...]]]> No pictures in this post, sorry picture liking people. This will be just words, and probably boring words, maybe upsetting to many people.

I can eat whatever I want (see, I told you it would be upsetting). I have always been able to. I can’t gain weight (more upsetting). I’m glad I can’t. I used to want to weigh more when I was little, but now I’m fine with it. I am happy with the skinny lot I was granted.

However, I should probably eat better. It’s not that we don’t eat well, we do. We eat organic mostly, red meat sparingly, some meals entirely veggie. But when I eat, I EAT. And if I’m done eating and I will be hungry again in 3 hours, I will eat again. I do this all the time. By all the time I mean practically on a daily basis. I find myself going out at 9pm to grab more food.

And therein is where the problem lies. Going out to eat. There aren’t a ton of healthy options when you want to grab something quick, even less later in the evening. It’s not that I get junk (to me, junk is McDonalds or an equivalent), but still, it’s not as good as it could be. I could still go out to get my 2nd dinner but get something a little healthier. Or maybe not as much. I don’t seem to have a very timely “I’m full” mechanism. Then I’ll eat and eat and eat and at the end feel like I want to puke. It happened once. By happened I mean puke. It was for a birthday dinner (mine) and I ate 2 appetizers, a main course and 2 pieces of cheesecake (courtesy of my friends and The Cheesecake Factory). The cheesecake made a return engagement before we left the restaurant.

But then I was fine and we proceeded to watch a forgettable movie.

So I guess what I’m saying is I should be wiser. I could do many things. I’ll choose to do a few for now. I could only eat my 1 dinner and not a 2nd. I’ll choose to continue eating when I’m hungry. I could eat only at home for my 2nd dinner. I’ll choose to try and find quicker things to make at home, frozen perhaps, from Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, but I’ll also choose to continue to get my 2nd dinner food out as well. I’ll also choose to try and cut out the unhealthier options I may choose (choose pun) for my 2nd dinner.

You can choose to hate me because I am choosing to do this rather than having to, but maybe if I don’t choose to do this now, I’ll have to when I get a heart attack.

Lest you have forgotten, please see this post from July 2007 or this one from April 2008 to know [...]]]> Well, today was the day…the first day of the 2009 Major League Baseball season! And for all of you rabid fans, you now have come to know what that means…the return of our friend the StatTracker!

Lest you have forgotten, please see this post from July 2007 or this one from April 2008 to know of my fondness for Fantasy Baseball.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of real baseball too, but Fantasy Baseball keeps me more occupied and stimulates my mind. It’s partly why I drive a stick shift instead of an automatic. Driving an automatic bores me to sleep, while a stick shift gives me something to think about and do. Plus it’s fun. And the same goes for my Fantasy Baseball. This is the 5th year of this same league, with some friends from Orlando and their friends, and my 7th year overall. You can check out my sweet “player card” on Yahoo and look at how well (or not so well) I have done in my various Fantasy Sports.

Last year was a down year for me, the previous 2 seasons I finished 2nd to the same player. And then 2nd time, if Trevor Hoffman didn’t blow the game for me (thereby forcing the Padres into a 1-game playoff) I would’ve won the league. Side note: I have never had Trevor Hoffman on my team since. This year, we decided to mix things up a little bit and make it a “keeper league.” What that means is you get to keep a certain number of players each year, instead of having to pick them all from scratch again. I worked out the details of how we should implement it (since I like figuring out that kind of stuff), so we’ll see how it goes.

And if you read Emily’s post about baseball season approaching, you also know that Emily has decided to take the plunge and fill out our league as the 14th manager. It will be fun, for me at least, to get to talk to her about yet another thing that interests me and have her involved in it somewhat. Before when I’d talk about it, she’d try her hardest to understand, but didn’t really follow it the way that I did. Now she’ll keep up to date a little more managing her team, and of course I will be helping her. It’s just another thing we can do together.

So will 2009 be my year to finally win it? Well, hopefully. I like my team, Albert Pujols practically fell into my lap with the 3rd pick (thank you Danny and some Yankee lemming who auto-drafted A-Rod with pick #2), and I have a fairly strong team with some very promising rookies. Really now it’s all about seeing how things unfold the first few weeks of the season and filling in any gaps. I almost “retired” after last season since we knew that Emily was pregnant, I didn’t think I’d have the time. But Emily convinced me I should play again (I think she knew it would make me happy since I do enjoy it so much) AND she’s now playing too, so it makes it that much better.

Here’s to a good season. What team do I want to win? Well…Mark Grace played for the Cubs (he’s my favorite player ever), but then won his World Series with the Diamondbacks. And we lived near and went to plenty of Angels games, but I have been big fans of the Rays for a few years since I always love the underdog. And I have Cubs, Angels and Rays hats. And Cubs and Angels jerseys. So I’ll go with the Rays, they are young and throw caution to the wind. They don’t let the establishment tell them it can’t be done, and I like that. Plus, it means they did better than the Red Sox AND Yankees who are both in their division, and that’s never a bad thing. Never.

So if you ever come across me, and I’m at a computer, and there’s a baseball game on…my StatTracker will probably be up and running. And now, so will Emily’s. Since we’re in this together. I gotta help her do well and beat all these other boys (and one other girl). Except for me. She can finish in 2nd.

Okay, so if you are reading this post, you have noticed that the blog has changed dramatically.  For those of you that subscribe to our feed, you will have to resubscribe using the links at the upper right of the blog.  You now have 2 options for [...]]]> I totally came up with that one myself.  

Okay, so if you are reading this post, you have noticed that the blog has changed dramatically.  For those of you that subscribe to our feed, you will have to resubscribe using the links at the upper right of the blog.  You now have 2 options for subscription: 1) you can subscribe to the posts like usual or 2) you can subscribe to the comments feed.  #1 will be nothing different for most of you.  #2 are for those of you who would like to know when people are commenting.  There seem to be some performance issues with the site and the web hosting right now, so if you notice anything that is probably why.  Shortcuts to the feed are 1) http://TheUntitledTitlePage.com/feed/ and 2) http://TheUntitledTitlePage.com/comments/feed/.

One good thing about these new feeds is that they publish the ENTIRE blog and comments, not just the past 25 like most blogging engines.

I could go on for hours about the changes to the blog, so maybe I will, maybe I won’t, we’ll just have to see how much I put into this post.  It’s a work in progress, but I have been working on it for a good month or two now, I just wanted something a little fancier for Emily, and I wanted to have more control over things.  I did not go the route of actually having my own server host it ala the St. Clairs, but with the performance issues I’m seeing from our web host, don’t think I am not thinking about it.  :)

Okay, so we’ve gone over the feeds, let’s go to the top left of the page.  There we have some new pages and categories.  If there is a post or more in a category, it’ll appear up top.  So if you want to see everything under Morgan, you can just go to Family -> Morgan and get your fix.

You will notice that I was able to import everything over from our old Blogger blog.  This was, of course, a little bit of an ordeal, but I’ll give a shout out to a little application I was able to track down to convert a Blogger export file to a Wordpress file for importing.  It is called Blogger 2 Wordpress and it does exactly as named.  For those of you that use Blogger, under the Settings -> Basic page, there is a link to export blog.  What that does is create a Blogger specific XML file of all of your posts and comments.  They just recently rolled this out to users.  Part of us moving to a new blog and getting more control over things means that I needed a blogging solution that I could host myself.  What that means, is that not only are our files and photos on our server (and not Bloggers) but so is the actual blog engine itself.  There are a few solutions out there, but after a while investigating, the best seemed to be self-hosted Wordpress.  It is an open-source platform, which means you are free to change what you want and how you want it, plus a ton of people are out there making themes and plugins for it.  It always seemed a little difficult to find a good amount of themes and plugins to use on our Blogger blog, especially plugins that would work outside of being hosted on Blogger.  Okay, so Wordpress can import Blogger blogs, but of course, for some unknown reason, ours wouldn’t import.  In come the Blogger 2 Wordpress application.  I was able to take that Blogger export XML file, throw it into that little web-hosted application, and voila, a Wordpress XML file all ready for importing.  OF COURSE since we have over 200 posts, it would only import 90 or so at a time, so I would have to run import a few times, but other than that it was pretty easy.  We are slowly going through and adding our old posts to categories and properly tagging them, so that will take a while.

As you can see as you scroll down the left, you will see a Search Box..  Then we have a snapshot of our 5 most recent posts.  Pretty straigh forward.  Below that are recent photos we have uploaded to our Flickr stream.  We will be publishing all of our photos to Flickr now.  Why?  Well, they have a better unlimited usage plan that Picasa, and it’s always good to have an online backup of what you have on your computer in case of an earthquake or who knows what.  We’ll slowly be uploaded pictures to that, and of course all of the photos we put into our posts will be hosted there as well.

Next we have the Tag Cloud.  As I mentioned, we will be going through all of our old posts and tagging and categorizing them.  As we find new categories, the links on the top of the blog will grow.  Ans our a keyword is tagged, it will appear in the Tag Cloud.  The bigger the link, the more it has been tagged.  So you can see what we blog about the most, or the least.

Now come the polls.  The first one will be what people think about the new blog.  It’ll change every now and then, if Emily doesn’t like it, we’ll remove it.  So it’s there for now, but who knows, maybe we’ll have new polls sometimes, maybe we won’t for a while.  It’s dynamic like that.

Of course we had to continue to include translation for our friends and family overseas.  It defaults to Italian, that should be a surprise to nobody.  :)

Finally on the left, we have another link to Archives but broken out by month.  It also shows you the number of posts in that month, so that’s cool.  There is also the option to show you a calendar with what days you posted highlighted, but what if you post every day?  Then you just have a highlighted calendar, and I thought that didn’t make any sense.

Okay, on to the right side.  We have a bunch of link categories.  Actually, they are Google Reader folders that we set up for a bunch of feeds we are interested in.  If you are not on there but would like to be, it’s because I missed putting you in.  Drop us a line on the Contact Us page and we can do a little “you add us we’ll add you” peace agreement action.  As we add/remove feeds, you’ll see the changes magically reflected before your eyes.  These are a work in progress because they appear to slow down the loading of the blog in general, so give us some feedback whether you like them or not.  Maybe you’ll sway us in one direction, maybe you won’t.  ;)

Well, I guess that’s really it for the right side.  The Site Administration section is for us to login and post and do stuff like that.  It also has a handy dandy extra set of links for the feeds.

As you view the posts, you’ll notice that we now have ratings, 1-5 stars.  Maybe you people only care about when we blog about Morgan and when Emily talks about crafts.  This will help us know, and may give you a better sense of what others find interesting or just plain boring.

Comments can now be threaded.  What that means is that not only can you comment on a post, but you can comment on a comment.  So you can start little conversations in there too if you want.

There are also a bunch of handy little icons at the bottom of each post to help you bookmark and share if you want.  Avid blog readers seem to find that useful, so I thought hey, might as well.  It looks cool anyway.

Each post will also show you what category(ies) it lies within as well as what we have tagged it as.  Again, just makes it easier for you to find related content and for us to sort of “bucket” everything, rather than just having a blog of “stuff.”

So, we hope you like what we’ve added.  If you don’t, we can always make changes.  So let us know what you think, and if you see any problems, drop me a line and we’ll work on them.  We have new “hosted” email addresses specifically for blog communication too.  Thanks to our friends over at Google, you can now reach us at Emily@TheUntitledTitlePage.com and Adrian@TheUntitledTitlePage.com.

Oh yeah, so we have a new domain name too.  We still have AdrianAndEmily.com but now it will redirect to TheUntitledTitlePage.com.  So please, update your feed readers and your bookmarks.  You will be forwarded here if you navigate to AdrianAndEmily.com but your feed probably won’t work anymore.  :)

I think that’s about all I can remember for now.  Sweet.

Navid: Do you have snow? Adrian: Are you asking if it is currently snowing? I am unsure what you are asking. Navid: Is there snow outside? Adrian: Ah. Let me go take a picture for you.

Navid: HAHAHAHA! Adrian:

So yes, not [...]]]> I had a conversation with my good friend Navid today. It went something like this:

Navid: Do you have snow?
Adrian: Are you asking if it is currently snowing? I am unsure what you are asking.
Navid: Is there snow outside?
Adrian: Ah. Let me go take a picture for you.

Navid: HAHAHAHA!
Adrian:

So yes, not only was it currently snowing, but I’ll also be able to drive my car again in April…hopefully.

So [...]]]> Okay, so I work for Microsoft. But I like the stuff that Google has to offer…Google Earth/Maps, Gmail, Blogger, etc. Why? Cool features and ease of use. Would I use the Microsoft version if they had it? Probably, ’cause I’m a nerd, but I’d still be using Google as well.

So it’s time for another update to the blog, and this is in hopes that our family over in Italy will be able to more easily keep up to date on what’s going on in our lives. Thanks to our kind friends over at Google, we have added Google Translate to our blog as well. So whether you don’t speak English (which means nothing I am writing makes any sense to you anyway) or you want to learn a new language, at least now we are helping you out in your search for knowledge. It’s just below the Google Custom Search I blogged about adding a few weeks ago, which is just below our profile info, all within the right hand sidebar.

Oh, and you wanna see something cool? Translate a page and hover over a sentence with your mouse. The original text pops up, and it gives you the option of suggesting a better alternative of the translation.

Sweet.

Early this morning (and when I say early, I mean leaving the house at 6:45am early), my sweet little (well, really pregnant, so [...]]]> The medulla oblongata is the lower-most portion of the brain stem that controls many autonomic functions. You know, respiration, circulation, important stuff. Unfortunately, this post has nothing to do with that.

Early this morning (and when I say early, I mean leaving the house at 6:45am early), my sweet little (well, really pregnant, so not as little in that sense) wife Emily, went off to her first day of school!

School? Um, Adrian…didn’t she already graduate from college with a degree in International Politics? Uh huh. And um, Adrian…didn’t she also go to Law School? Uh huh. So…first day of school?

Why yes. One of the benefits of being up here is that it is the mecca for birthing options. Among those are excellent programs to train midwives and doulas alike. Today, Emily went to her first day of Birth Doula Training at the Seattle Midwifery School.

If you (I’m speaking to all the ladies here) have read about birthing, you’ve probably come across the name of Penny Simkin. She’s a fairly well-known childbirth educator. Funny thing is, the name of the school within the Seattle Midwifery School Emily is attending is The Simkin School for Allied Birth Vocations.

Apparently, a LOT of people (we even heard this from the assistant Midwives at the Puget Sounds Midwives & Birth Center we will be having the little squirt at) fly in from across the country (and Canada) during class time to attend here. Luckily enough we’re fortunate to be close by and not yet super busy with a baby on our hands. Emily has always been really interested in birth options and loves to read, so the more we have been up here and the more she has been reading in preparation for the baby, the more she has become interested in doing something like this. Our thought was hey, it’s great information to have, now is the time to do it, and if she can help even 1 person/friend/relative/whomever down the road with their birth, that makes it even more worthwhile.

Congrats sweetie!

I was able to [...]]]> So I like finding deals. Of all kinds really. Clothes, games, electronics, but especially travel. For our trip back home during Thanksgiving, we decided to rent a car since we were going to be in town for a week and needed some transportation other than trying to bum rides.

I was able to find a pretty good deal from Budget (we were flying in to LAX) and was pretty comfortable with it. But right before we left, I had a picture in my mind of Captain Kirk, yes, William Shatner, and those Priceline.com commercials. The one where the guy is booking a room and he calls him out since he won’t bid a lower price. I’ve done Priceline before, most recently our hotel in London during our honeymoon (it was still expensive, but saved me 50%…so just imagine the pre-Priceline price). I took the price that I got from Budget and went 40% lower, no dice. Usually, when you are unsuccessful, they make you change the length or class or something on the reservation, not just the price. However, this time, I was able to just change the price, I am assuming because I was pretty close. So I raised it a tad, so that we were still able to save over 30% and tada, it worked.

Sweet I thought, now we’re saving money! So I find out that the rental car agency that we’ll be using is Alamo. At least during the process, while they don’t tell you which agency you’ll be using, they do give you a list of the ones it will be from, and they were all large and reputable (Alamo, Hertz, Budget, etc.).

On to the point of the story, so we arrive and Alamo/National (I think they are the same company now…they shared the lot/bus/desk) are set up so that you can go out and pick your own car from your reserved category. We had reserved a Midsize car because when I was going through Budget it was only a dollar or two more a day. Luckily for me, when I go out to peruse the cars, I see this little dandy sitting there.

It was a mistake, they wouldn’t have a Hybrid in with the other Midsize cars. I mean, a Pontiac G6, Chevy Cobalt, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Dodge Caliber AND a Toyota Prius? What’s wrong with that picture? I look through more of the cars, and I spot two more. So now I get my pick of colors too! Blue it is!

You know me and gadgets, and the Prius has this cool touchscreen display that shows you which motor (gas vs. electric) is being utilized and how the battery is performing and your recent mileage/charging. Neato mosquito!

Now of course, this car has about a third to a fourth of the horsepower of my CTS-V. And it’s not a stick shift, and I get bored driving. But surprisingly, that dumb little display kept me entertained, and I even found myself intentionally trying to up my gas mileage (I do this in my CTS-V too, but when you get 14.2 mpg due to all of the city driving up here, no real point to it anymore).

So after a whole week, we drove 437 miles and used…drum roll please…10 gallons even. Yes, we filled up for under $20 and averaged almost 44 mpg. FORTY FOUR. Talk about ecologically friendly. It’s the 3 baby!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShC0RqSANr4

The first in a series of many updates is a Google Custom Search Engine for our blog. You will find the search box on the right sidebar of the screen, above the Previous [...]]]> In a slowly building effort to update the look, feel and functionality of our blog, you will start to see some changes.

The first in a series of many updates is a Google Custom Search Engine for our blog. You will find the search box on the right sidebar of the screen, above the Previous Posts section. Now, if you want to find something that you may have read previously but can’t remember exactly which post it was, just type the search string in the box and let it fly.

Hopefully this will make it easier to find the content you are looking for.

Sunday morning. It was [...]]]> So I had never felt a baby moving in utero before. Big surprise being an only child, huh? A while back I did however, get to see some crazy movement over at Clay and Sunny’s when she was mighty ripe (8+ months) with Zach. Talk about shape shifting.

Sunday morning. It was pretty neat. I could totally feel it. Not really strong, just a little tap, but it was enough.

Just wanted to share that.

With a bang! Okay, probably just a snap, or a boom, but still, you’re wait is almost over.

For those who have need of an Adrian and Emily fix, well, go read our old blog [...]]]> Moving recently + no internet at home (no TV too…how do we live???) + family stuff = we’ll blog again shortly.

With a bang! Okay, probably just a snap, or a boom, but still, you’re wait is almost over.

For those who have need of an Adrian and Emily fix, well, go read our old blog posts then. I’m sure there’s something in there you don’t know.

So as many of you know, we went to Europe for our honeymoon last year. While we were there, Emily kept on talking about the Eurovision Song [...]]]> Okay, so I just have to let the rest of the world in on this little secret Emily and I have been keeping for over a year now.

So as many of you know, we went to Europe for our honeymoon last year. While we were there, Emily kept on talking about the Eurovision Song Contest. So what’s that you ask? Well, basically, the nations of Europe holding American Idol. Each country has competitions…and only the BEST act they have to offer makes it to the ESC (abbreviations are for those in the know).

We knew it was going to be while we were in Europe, but didn’t look exactly what date. Lo and behold, our first night in the great nation of Malta (where we hope to return one day), we’re sitting outside at dinner and on the TV’s inside…we hear singing.

Now mind you, it was not good singing…or really what we over on this side of the pond would call “tolerable” singing…but Emily clued in right away. EUROVISION!

We ate up and headed back to the room…only to catch something that has been haunting us ever since. Have you heard of DJ Bobo? Would you guess he’s from Switzerland? Would you ever imagine that Vampires Are Alive?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxFW8kJ5IhA

Well…yeah…sorry for killing 3 minutes and 11 seconds of your life. But this has stuck with us ever since that fateful evening of May 10, 2007. Just wanted to let everybody in on our inside joke. For a while there, I would tell Emily she had to help me get this song out of my head. It truly haunts my dreams. Alast, I have given up the fight, and have come to the understanding that I will forever be a changed man.

- Eat 83 pieces of sushi (I ate my birth year of 77, now it’s time for Emily’s!)

- Make somebody urinate from laughter (watch out Emily)

- Have an American Express Centurion (Black) card (NOT gonna happen)

- Starwood Platinum status…

Ladies and gentlemen, [...]]]> There are some things in life every crazy person such as myself strives to achieve…

- Eat 83 pieces of sushi (I ate my birth year of 77, now it’s time for Emily’s!)

- Make somebody urinate from laughter (watch out Emily)

- Have an American Express Centurion (Black) card (NOT gonna happen)

- Starwood Platinum status…

Ladies and gentlemen, as of last weekend, one of those has been ACCOMPLISHED!

BEHOLD…

The Platinum status has been achieved. Not only will we have Platinum for the rest of 2008…but all of 2009…until the last day in February 2010. AND, even if I don’t acrue any more qualifying stays, the lowest they can drop me to for the 2010 year is Gold again!

And with all of the points I have acrued, we’ll have to go someplace really nice and exotic…and be GUARANTEED to get upgraded to the best available room (suites included) while we’re at it!

Do you sing along to wicked sweet 70’s and 80’s rock…NOT to the lyrics, but the guitar shredding?

Do you like GOLD? WHITE GOLD?

Then enjoy rocks most perfect beings…

WHITE GOLD AND THE CALCIUM TWINS!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj1-ZZRajDU

And [...]]]> Have you ever dreamed of witnessing the greatest rock band in the history of mankind? (No, I am not talking about Tenacious D)

Do you sing along to wicked sweet 70’s and 80’s rock…NOT to the lyrics, but the guitar shredding?

Do you like GOLD? WHITE GOLD?

Then enjoy rocks most perfect beings…

WHITE GOLD AND THE CALCIUM TWINS!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj1-ZZRajDU

And for all you social networking junkies, here is their Facebook and MySpace pages. Their home page (linked in the blog title above, or here for you lazies) has a TON of stuff to explore. You can even download their songs!

So one of my dad’s best friend’s owns a hotel in Italy in a little town called Malcesine on a lake called Lago di Garda. I have stayed there, I think 4 times in my life, the last being with Emily on [...]]]>
While this is not necessarily happy news I thought I would report it nonetheless.

So one of my dad’s best friend’s owns a hotel in Italy in a little town called Malcesine on a lake called Lago di Garda. I have stayed there, I think 4 times in my life, the last being with Emily on our honeymoon for 4 nights last year. You can find the TripAdvisor listing for it here.

So I came across this article about an accident on the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, which I am anxiously waiting for, and read that they are filming some chase scenes at Lago di Garda, in a city on the other side of the lake.

Just seemed cool, since we drove those roads last year and I like the area a lot.

So the 4th book it is, titled “SQL Server 2005 for developers”. BUT WAIT! Page 123 [...]]]> To follow-up on Emily’s post, the 3 closest books to me do not have proper page numbering. Each section starts at 1, so I was not about to count 123 pages to find what it would be.

So the 4th book it is, titled “SQL Server 2005 for developers”. BUT WAIT! Page 123 actually has no proper sentences, just code examples and 2 bullet points. SO…book 5…”Visual Basic 6 from the Ground Up”. It’s a VERY old book. I bought it when I first started at Autobytel, I think. Maybe even before that. We had old VB code to support.

Anyway, it actually has a page 123, and that page actually has sentences…the 5th one is as follows:

“Both of these can be set independantly of the surrounding container”

Something code-related, didn’t look into exactly what. I don’t know 5 people who read this blog, other than the people Emily would’ve tagged already. So I’ll forego that part, ’cause that’s how I roll…by my own rules.

It points out Kiva.org, which I mentioned in a previous post, but also one called MicroPlace, which is owned by eBay. So give them a shot, make a difference.

10 Years Ago…It was 1998. I was 20 and a half. We were living in Redondo Beach and I was working as a Host at Il Fornaio Santa Monica. I had [...]]]> No, not IT…IT! Information Technology. Okay, so I guess Emily wants me to answer these question thingies…so here it goes…

10 Years Ago…
It was 1998. I was 20 and a half. We were living in Redondo Beach and I was working as a Host at Il Fornaio Santa Monica. I had gotten into USC (was going to transfer there from UNLV, where I transfered from Georgia Tech) but they lost my application both semesters and processed me too slowly to start classes on time. By the time I could get things rolling, most classes were full and I wasn’t about to spend that kind of money on weak GE’s. I had just bought my first car 2 months earlier. A white 1995 Trans Am 6-speed. It was SWEET. I didn’t know how to drive stick when I bought it, but I practiced up and down the driveway until I was able to learn. We lived in a townhome in Redondo. Not my type of area. Nice homes on one side, OLD homes on the other. The traffic was horrible too. Would take upwards of an hour to go 14 miles to work. I used to drive down to see Navid, Kamal, Nimo and Manuel on Sundays.

5 Things On My To Do List Today…
1) Eat Lunch – I will be getting a burrito OR a burrito bowl from the deli today. Thursdays are Chicken Burrito day, and they’re pretty good too.
2) Go Get Allergy Shots – It’s about that time, so I’ll be doing that and then doing it again in 3 weeks…or maybe a tad after with our anniversary trip in 3 weeks.
3) Finish the scooter – It’s always on my todo list. And it will happen one day. Just not today, or anytime soon.
4) Return my wallet(s) – Emily bought me two wallets for Christmas, but I have since decided that a) I want to carry less credit cards around and b) I don’t need two new wallets when I already have one that is fine AND a money clip. So I have some deciding to to there.
5) I don’t think I have a 5th…how about paying bills – I have some bills over the past few days that I’d like to clear out. So I’ll go ahead and do that tonight too.

5 Snacks I Enjoy…
1) Strawberry Nerds – I eat them ONE BY ONE (no joke).
2) Banana Chips – They are yummy.
3) Dried Mango – Also yummy, but I have had some weird packages from Trader Joe’s sometimes where the color is a little darker. If you can get the huge bag from Costco, that’s the way to go. All quality in there.
4) Peanut Butter – REAL style, I’m talking Jiffy, Skip, Peter Pan. MUST be creamy, none of that chunky junky. And no MIXING the oil out! That’s just wrong man!
5) Honey – Bishop and Sister Beckstead gave me a bottle of honey last Christmas and I eat it with a spoon. Only a spoon at a time though, it’s strong!

5 Places I’ve Lived…
1) Orange County Florida (Orlando)
2) Orange County California (Laguna Niguel, Rancho Santa Margarita)
3) Atlanta, Georgia
4) Las Vegas, Nevada
5) Redondo Beach, California

5 Jobs I’ve Had…
1) Bread Boy – Il Fornaio Irvine – Same place we had our wedding reception, only about 16 years prior
2) Host – Gladstones
3) Bartender – Il Fornaio New York New York (Las Vegas)
4) Software Engineer – go2 Systems – We’re all still waiting for our toilet paper (inside joke…)
5) Supervisor, Software Development – Autobytel, Inc

5 Things People Don’t Know About Me…
1) I am surprisingly strong for my weight. I would have to look at my workout records, but I think I used to leg press about 400 pounds, 7-11 reps, 2 sets. Same with calf raises, I would max out the machine somewhere near 500 pounds.
2) I wanted to go to Princeton when I was a little kid.
3) Most of the clothes I wore up through Middle School were hand-me-downs (thanks Josh) or from Goodwill.
4) I can sing a wicked falsetto.
5) I am an Italian citizen (and in 2 years, Emily will be too) as well as US.

I think that no matter who I pass this on to, it will DIE, so I’ll pass it on to Joe (guess you and T need to have a blog now), Brisco and Tiershizzle.

Okay, so at about 11:00 pm on Sunday, September 23, 2007 we get a ring at the door…we’re like okay, it’s late. It rings again…Emily looks through the peep hole, can’t tell who it is.

We ask…”Sheriff’s Department”…um OKAY???We open the door…”Are you Adrian?”“Yes”“Your car has been hit”

He offered me a ride [...]]]> MY POOR AWESOME CAR!!!

Okay, so at about 11:00 pm on Sunday, September 23, 2007 we get a ring at the door…we’re like okay, it’s late. It rings again…Emily looks through the peep hole, can’t tell who it is.

We ask…”Sheriff’s Department”…um OKAY???
We open the door…”Are you Adrian?”
“Yes”
“Your car has been hit”

He offered me a ride over to where I parked it, but I walked (very quickly mind you) and to my surprise…the following pictures describe exactly what I found…

My front tire was tired, so it took a nap on the curb.

MAN do you see the cracked tail light? That’s a fixit ticket right there! Oh yeah, and my wheel is pointed the WRONG WAY.

Interesting parking job to say the least.

You enjoy how the wheel seems to have melted like butter when it met my frame? That’s called BROKEN.

It’s not everyday that you see a car sitting on its side…unless you are me, and you are talking about Sunday September 23, 2007.

The wheel doesn’t normally sit like that on the axle.

Somebody turned my rear view mirrror…totally NOT cool!

Hey…why is my front wheel on the curb…and what is that big undercarriage of a car looking object next to it?

That’s my crumpled rear end and wheel dug into the frame. Pretty neat, huh? No, not neat.

Just in case you didn’t understand that her car was flipped on its side and my car got creamed…here ya go again.

Onto the flat bed…bye bye Awesome-O.

So here’s the story…16-year old driver of 4 months was driving home, SNEEZED (yes, this is not a typo), lost control of her car, ran into the rear of my car, pushed it forward about a good 10-12 feet, her car rotated, flipped, and landed at a rest on the passenger side.

The cops joked with me, asking why I was parking a nice car like this on the street (the answer to that is because over the past week the scooter disassembly project has spread out in the garage and the car won’t fit, so I have been parking on the street and letting Emily use the Guest Pass). Apparently, the crash was so loud that it woke up the neighbors who came out and called 911.

So what do we learn from this?

1) Do not work on your scooter EVER.
2) Do not park on the street EVER.
3) Never EVER sneeze near my car, you will total it.

Luckily, the girl escaped uninjured at all, which is good. Unfortunately, there goes the enjoyment of no car payments.