JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

Food for thoughts: Chocolate and acorn bread recipe posts

Marmite is good for my mind, Chris Holmes tells me. Can I be skeptical?

Picture this

Ernie posts an x-ray and reveals why he sets off metal detectors…

It’s fun to read Fred First’s tales of his many Vancouver B.C. adventures including Stanley Park (next time stop by Seattle too!):

I never thought I’d get to see a temperate rain forest–a completely different biome and as much like a visit to another planet as I’ll ever have.

I’m enjoying Susan Mernit’s posts from Korea such as this one and her pictures on flickr.



Body and Soul

Liz lets go and encourages me by her example.

How to Become an Early Riser via chandrasutra (more reflection on this later, perhaps)

Perhaps Ronni can help answer some of Dave’s questions on Lionel Ritchie (?)

Mr. Rogers’ Theology of ‘Neighbor’ via Body and Soul:

He said, once you realize that everybody’s your neighbor, you have a choice. You can either be an advocate or an accuser. An accuser is somebody who only sees what’s awful about themselves so they look through those eyes and look for what’s awful about their neighbor. An advocate is somebody who looks through the eyes of God at their neighbor and sees what’s good about that person because they’re created in God’s likeness. That’s a very simple, basic truth, but to live that out in our daily lives is tremendously difficult.

To Tell the Truth

Scheherazade reveals a list of Legal Lies: We in the legal profession don’t treat our young very well.  We lie to them systematically. 

LAPD wife: Top 10 Things I Don’t Like as an Officer’s Wife

Shawn posts reasons why you don’t need a record label including tips on how to promote yourself and this caution:

If I ran a record company and wanted it to be both profitable for me and healthy for my artists right now I would only sign single people or married people without kids willing to travel together.

Shimon Rura:

Intimacy and the Internet: a blog is obviously an intimacy engine.

Family Names: your last name is a huge branding opportunity (update see related post by bobvis)

Blogging Goodies (related to my upcoming presentations at Gnomedex and Blogher)

Kalilily reports on the Teenage Blogging seminar

They asked me how “public” I am about who I am. I replied, as you might expect, that I didn’t worry about anyone out there wanting to harass a “little old retired grandma raising hell at the keyboard” — and that I am a performer at heart, and these days my blog is my one-woman-show. But they need to be a lot more careful because they are in a much more vulnerable position..

What makes a blog worth reading? via Critical Section also see Ilona’s survey on The Blog We Want and Why We Want Them

Why My Blog is at Live Journal – sounds like Betsy knows!

Evelyn Rodriguez: Why Women Blog

The blogger behind This woman’s work appeared in the Washington Times’ Birth of blogs for parents

Richard links to Min Jung Kim’s excellent life cycle of blogger, both accurate and comical, which leads me to ask what is it about blogging?!…but that would be falling into step #10 of her list yet again….

Lisa Williams points out that Blogging Sucks – But That’s a Feature, Not a Bug



Speaking of bugs, I loved this quote Doc published from Britt Blaser’s A Bug in My Computer:.

A life form sharing the window on my virtual world reminds me that the greatest silicon-based experience is totally trumped by the most trivial carbon-based life form.

And on that note…it’s time to say good night….or rather good morning…

Best penguin trailer ever! declared Ariel – and she was right!

Some people don’t follow my advice when I dispense warnings, but please don’t click on the trailer link unless you are prepared to become addicted to adorable Antarctic adventures and Morgan Freeman’s voiceover. Although we’ve never taken the kids to the movies yet, we are thinking this might be their first film. Only difficulty could come if it has limited showings and engagements in Seattle. We are counting the days until the release on July 1…

Note: this article in the Seattle Weekly says March of the Penguins will be shown during the Seattle International Film Festival at the Harvard Exit, 6:30 p.m. Sat., June 11; and 11:30 a.m. Sun., June 12.

It’s been hot here and I’ve been craving Tofutti!

Another cute way to stay cool is, of course, the sprinkler. I let the girls run around outside in it Friday afternoon, smashing grass underfoot with shouts that were equal parts fear and delight while the wave of water oscillated from side to side.

Last year I bought them an inflatable sprinkler pool – and a pump as well. However, at the first usage, the pool sprung a leak, probably from the gravel where we stored it. So this year we are back to using a hose, an old hose we brought with us from San Jose, one we had replaced (we probably should have taken the new hose when we moved instead) and a simple lawn sprinkler we bought back then too. The old hose now has a crack in it but they are happy as can be playing with the “shower” of water. They’re also playing on a plastic slide someone gave us after much use, the corners cracked open. I thought about putting it in the garden and planting flowers through the openings but it didn’t seem too practical.

After going to special effort and expenditure last year to get them an aquatic toy, I was happy to see how happy they were playing with a leaky hose, a cracked slide and a simple sprinkler. Money seems so important at times. Yet contentment doesn’t cost much. In fact, you can have it for free.

Orange is Ted’s favorite color. When he told me, years ago, I was surprised. Orange?! Orange was for plastic pumpkins and popsicles that stained your face. Orange was warning signs for construction workers and florescent vests for crosswalk guards. It seemed artificial. Unnatural. Excessive.

Perhaps it’s the osmosis that comes with marriage. But I like orange now. In fact I’ve chosen it to be one of the theme colors of our garden. These California poppies surprised me by returning this spring. We planted some seed a year ago and now at least six plants are blooming, spreading through the strip of dirt. Many of my neighbors have grass beside the sidewalk but instead of green we have orange, glowing in the sun. You can notice it at a distance while driving around the neighborhood. Orange marks the spot. But it’s not artificial. It’s wild. Vibrant. Alive. Maybe crazy. I like it.

94.9 KUOW in Seattle will be broadcasting Christopher Lydon’s Open Source Radio programs Monday through Thursday from 9 to 10 pm starting tonight. I plan to try to tune in later to catch the first one. Scheduled guests for tonight, according to the show’s blog, include: David Weinberger and Dave Winer, in studio, and Doc Searls on the phone. I’m a fan of all three, and given what I know about Christopher and the show, as well as the guests already scheduled on pilots, I’m soon to become an Open Source Radio groupie… or maybe just an addict of organic conversation [from the KUOW site]:

Open Source is the first radio program truly fused to the Internet. It reflects the sound and sensibility of the Web — embracing the freedom, speed, democracy, links, global reach, and individual “authenticity” that have become standards of Web discourse. The show is dedicated to sorting, sifting, and decoding the digital universe for an audience of terrestrial radio listeners and bloggers, and sophisticated netizens as well. People who worry about the unedited chaos, the near-infinite babble of the Internet hear, finally, that it can be skillfully threaded — night after night, month after month — into an organic conversation.