Cotton-Pickin' Days 1.0

Come visit me at:

Cottontimer.com
~and~
EyeOnDNA.com

Dear friends,

It has been a wonderful two years with you here at LiveJournal. But as of today, my new online home is at



A number of events coincided to make this the right time for my move.

• My two-year blogging anniversary.


• b5media, one of two blog networks I belong to, gave all its bloggers hosting space for their personal blogs. This was an offer that was too good to refuse - a savings of at least $15/month.


• The need for a more polished online presence with my foray into problogging. Ruth pointed out to me long ago that owning my own domain and hosting my own blog seems more professional. It's also an opportunity for me to gain some much needed technical knowledge.


• LiveJournal troubles with this past weekend's data migration.

Even though I will no longer be posting at LiveJournal, I will continue to visit and leave comments (whether you like it or not! ha). And I hope that you will come visit me even if it's a little more less convenient than before.

I've already set out the welcome mat. Please come by and say hello!

Love and thank you,
Hsien aka Cottontimer

P.S. You can add Cotton-Pickin' Days 2.0 to your friends list here. (Any comments left in the syndicated feed posts aren't e-mailed to me so I will most likely miss them. Please leave your comments directly at http://cottontimer.com! Thanks.) And the RSS feed is: http://www.cottontimer.com/feed/.

Thanks to all who shared what you know about London. Everything you said was extremely helpful and I got a giggle out of it as well!

Without further ado, here are the three randomly selected winners of the lottery celebrating my second blogging anniversary:



I'll contact you directly to get your mailing address. Or if you see this first, e-mail me at cottontimer@gmail.com

Thank you for playing, everyone!

Aplogies to readers who are having trouble viewing photos or experiencing other problems. LiveJournal moved their data center to San Francisco this weekend and there are still some kinks to be ironed out.

More info at lj_maintenance.

Despite all the news about Google Book Search formerly known as Google Print, I hadn't bothered to check it out until river2sea72 mentioned it. Out of curiosity, I keyed in some thoughts that had been running around in my head these last few days (and my own name, but that turned up nothing). Based on these results, I think Google Book Search could be a success because I found a couple of books I'd be interested in buying.

"impatience is a virtue"

For me, impatience is a virtue, and patience a vice, since patience is so often an excuse for inactivity.
~Paragraphs on Translation by Peter Newmark

Impatience is a virtue and I get a little more angelic every day I live this shit.
~Displicit by Bob Janis

overreacting mothers

It's possible we devote most of our lives to fulfilling the craving for a positive self image. How often do we find ourselves: overreacting at even the hint of criticism?
~Buddhism for Mothers by Sarah Napthali

Overreacting when your child does something bad can be a natural part of parenting. Often this stems from fatigue, stress, and the belief that you should be able to keep your child from doing bad things; and that if she does bad things, it's because you're a bad parent. It is helpful to remember that one person can't really control the actions of another.
~Stepping Stones 10 Steps to Seizing Passion and Purpose by Timothy L Sams

"moving to London"

The two main reasons given for moving to London were to take up a job and to enter higher education; a few women moved either with a man or to join a man in London and then looked for a job after they arrived.
~Changing Britain: Families and Households in the 1900s

At lunchtime we Japanese staff sometimes went to a Chinese restaurant in the East End, where we would be less conspicuous - we weren't really supposed to go to cheap low-grade places like that. I was told before moving to London that Senior Clerks like me should make sure we ate at restaurants with proper tablecloths.
~The History of Mitsubishi Corporation in London: 1915 to Present Day by Pernille Rudlin

Second in the continuing series of photos from Stephen's 1.3 megapixel camera.

In today's world, few things are more prized than financial success. Stay-at-home moms (SAHM) know this well. People pay lip service to the tremendous contributions of SAHMs: we're doing the most important job in the world, we're shaping the future, yada yada yada. But I don't believe they're being sincere.

Every single person I meet brushes aside my mothering job and asks me what I do or "used to do." And I feel like I have no good answer. If I tell them I'm a writer, I don't think I'm being completely truthful because I'm really a blogger (with some forays into writing for print publications).

But if I say I'm a blogger, then they think it's just a hobby if they even know what blogging is. Just today, my fellow b5media blogging friend Krissy warned me about becoming addicted to the Internet. She noticed how much I was posting and how (emotionally) invested I am in my blogs.

Where's the line between being addicted and doing my job?

If I had a "real" job, no one would question spending ten hours a day in the office then bringing work home to do late at night or on the weekends. After all, I'd be getting paid big bucks (I'd hope!) so it's expected.

When it comes to blogging, even Marv was surprised to hear that I'm trying to make a career out of it. It's not as if I'm receiving a salary and what little money I make from ads is barely enough for a cup of coffee a day.

The early stages of professional blogging remind me of what Jennifer Niesslein and Stephanie Wilkson, editors of Brain, Child, faced when they first started their magazine.

From an interview in Literary Mama:

Stacey Greenberg, Interviewer: How do you balance work and motherhood? What does a typical workweek look like for you?

( Read about Niesslein and Wilkson's juggling act.... )

Is problogging any less legitimate than starting my own magazine or any other venture that doesn't reap immediate financial rewards?

I may never make a six-figure income from blogging. Yet, I will continue to do my best. I work hard and hope my efforts will be recognized. My passion and commitment depend on more than just financial reward. Because if it were otherwise, I would never have become a mother (or a blogger).

ETA: If I gave the impression that Krissy wasn't being supportive, I'm sorry. She was just looking out for my sanity during one of my snowball sessions.

When I read your blogs, I feel as if we've talked in person. And it's doubly nice to IM or e-mail regularly with a number of you. So, when I tell Marv about my day, I often find myself saying, "I was talking with my online friend today...." or "My online friend said...." Why do I differentiate between online friends and offline friends?

There are so many different ways to categorize friends:

• Online or Offline


• Married or Single


• Parent or Child-Free


• Classmate or Random


• Meat-Eating or Vegetarian


• Glasses-Wearing, Contacts-Wearing, or Free-From-Wearing


• Type A or B


• Dyed or Au Naturel Hair


• And the classifications can go on and on and on....

In the end, you're all my friends. It doesn't matter if I've never met you face-to-face or if we've had completely different life experiences. Each of you contribute something to my life that no one else can. You are a friend indeed.

Two years ago this week, I started blogging here at LiveJournal. In real people years, two years isn't much time, but in blogging years, two years might as well be an eternity.

Over a million blogs are up for only one day before being abandoned and the average blog lasts only 126 days. Not only that, active blogs are updated only every 14 days on average while I update daily - an average of 7 to 10 posts a day over four blogs.

I'd like to ask you to help me celebrate my blogging anniversary. Since we're moving to London in January, I want to know more about my future home.

Please leave a comment telling me
something you know about London.

It can be something you read, heard, or saw. It doesn't have to be a first-person account. It doesn't even have to be true.

Just tell me something about London, and I'll enter you in a lottery. One week from today, I'll randomly choose three winners from all the comments and send you a handmade souvenir from Vietnam.

Thanks for all your support and encouragement. I'll be counting on you in the years to come.

UPDATE: The contest is now closed.

During our first week in Vietnam, we were invited out to dinner at one of the fancier restaurants in town. Besides us, the dinner party consisted of the two managers of our apartment building, one of their spouses, and another couple. Oh, and I almost forgot, Stephen was with us too.

We had no idea the other couple wasn't bringing their two young girls. Not that it would have mattered because we were new in town and didn't have a babysitter. If we had known, I might have stayed home with Stephen. But everything turned out fine because Stephen slept on my lap through the entire dinner.

Stephen is usually with us whenever we go out. We know he enjoys it and also think it's part of learning appropriate social behavior. Most often, he's as well-behaved as a three-year-old can possibly be. Occasionally, he throws a tantrum because he's overly tired, but a break outside gives him the breather he needs to get everything under control.

The most important consideration when eating out is choosing a restaurant that welcomes or at least doesn't frown upon children. Last week, the New York Times had an article about restaurant and cafe owners who think they're promoting good manners by putting up signs that say:

...children of all ages have to behave and use their indoor voices when coming to A Taste of Heaven.

So what's their standard of good behavior? Some people, like my dad, enjoy kids and think they should be free to "express" themselves. I keep a close eye on Stephen when we're in public because we are considerate of other people's privacy and personal space. But, I don't think the solution is to shut kids up and sit them down. In fact, there are plenty of ADULT customers I wish would do that.

And so simmers another skirmish between the childless and the child-centered, a culture clash increasingly common in restaurants and other public spaces as a new generation of busy, older, well-off parents ferry little ones with them.

The Supreme Court Justice John Roberts had the nerve to bring his son and daughter to a White House press conference at which the four-year-old boy did the lambada right in front of President Bush making his announcement. When Justice Roberts keeps his children at home, I may consider it too.

Pointer from New West Bozeman.

My mom used to compare the price of everything to the number of pizzas it could buy. A CD? One pizza. A pair of Guess? jeans? Four pizzas. A Sony Walkman? Ten pizzas. You get the idea.

Mother Jones magazine did a similar calculation for the war in Iraq:

• Amount needed for basic security upgrades for subway and commuter trains in large cities: $6 BILLION
  (Iraq spending equivalent: 20 days)


• Bush budget allocation for train security: $100 MILLION
  (Iraq equivalent: 8 hours)


• Amount needed to equip all U.S. airports with machines that screen baggage for explosives: $3 BILLION
  (Iraq equivalent: 10 days)


• Bush budget allocation for baggage-screening machines: $400 MILLION
  (Iraq equivalent: 32 hours)


• Amount needed to buy radiation portals for U.S. ports to detect dirty bombs in cargo: $290 MILLION
  (Iraq equivalent: 23 hours)


• Amount needed to help local firefighters preparefor terrorist attacks: $36.8 BILLION
  (Iraq equivalent: 122 days)


• Amount needed to get local emergency medical crews ready for terrorist atttacks: $1.4 BILLION
  (Iraq equivalent: 5 days)


• Bush budget allocation for emergency medical training grants prior to eliminating program altogether: $50 MILLION
  (Iraq equivalent: 4 hours)

You can buy a lot of pizza for this amount of money.

Hmmm, maybe I should change my layout again.

Your Blog Should Be Green

Your blog is smart and thoughtful - not a lot of fluff. You enjoy a good discussion, especially if it involves picking apart ideas. However, you tend to get easily annoyed by any thoughtless comments in your blog.

From missus_teh

Iris Murdoch, winner of the Booker Prize in 1978, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease two years after the publication of her 26th novel. She'd complained of writer's block while working on Jackson's Dilemma, which apparently was a symptom of the early stages of Alzheimer's during which sufferers struggle to express their thoughts.

In an analysis of Murdoch's writing, Peter Garrard, a neuroscientist at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London, found that her writing became "more pedestrian and her vocabulary shrank."

See how much her writing changed from her first novel, Under The Net, 1954:

So you may imagine how unhappy it makes me to have to cool my heels at Newhaven, waiting for the trains to run again, and with the smell of France still fresh in my nostrils. On this occasion, too, the bottles of cognac, which I always smuggle, had been taken from me by the Customs, so that when closing time came I was utterly abandoned to the torments of a morbid self-scrutiny.

To her last novel, Jackson's Dilemma, 1995:

His beautiful mother had died of cancer when he was 10. He had seen her die. When he heard his father's sobs he knew. When he was 18, his younger brother was drowned. He had no other siblings. He loved his mother and his brother passionately. He had not got on with his father. His father, who was rich and played at being an architect, wanted Edward to be an architect too. Edward did not want to be an architect.

I wonder how other diseases of the mind and body affect creativity.

Psychology Today, September/October 2005

Psychology Today may have the answer to why affluent parents in the San Francisco South Bay are having so many children.

Kids are driving the status engines for families to such an extent that just having them is becoming a status symbol, the human equivalent of a limited edition Hermes satchel. In a consumer culture where raising a child is a very costly enterprise, kids are the ultimate acquisition. One new mini-trend identifies the wealthy (with incomes of about $250,000) as having more children (2.3) than the middle class (1.8) -- slightly more, even, than lower-class families. And the very wealthiest have the most children by far, averaging 2.9 kids.

And insight into the truth of parenting from child psychologist David Anderegg:

Parenting is not an engineering task, it's an endurance task. It requires a high tolerance for boredom. Engineering is based on the idea that if you do something right the first time, you don't have to do it again.

Parenting is a problem to be solved daily. It's a repetitive, quotidian task. That's what maximizes parent-child interaction and persuades kids they are loved.

Seeing kids as well-designed products is a disease of really smart people. They feel they have to make child-rearing a task worthy of their time.

Maybe I'm not cut out to be a parent....

Stephen started school again this week after a long hiatus. Fortunately, the transition this time has been a lot easier and less painful than when he first started in early September.

On Monday and Tuesday, he cried pitifully when I left him. But the teacher told me within minutes of my leaving, he put down his handkerchief and started joining in the fun. Today, when we arrived at school, he scampered into the classroom way ahead of me and got right into things.

Their teacher was making lollipops out of pipe cleaners and he sat down next to her in his little wooden chair with the yellow seat and his name on the back. Watching her intently, he asked for a lollipop too and without even glancing my way, he waved cheerily and said, "Bye bye, Mama! See you later!"

I thought this day would never come.


Homemade pipe cleaner lollipops.
This is why I'm not creative enough
to be a nursery school teacher.

NB: Next thing to work on - no whining and fussing about school in the mornings just before we leave home.

On Saturday, October 29, 2005, a boy selling lottery tickets claimed he saw a tear on the face of the Virgin Mary which stands in front of Ho Chi Minh City's Catholic church.

( Was the Virgin Mary crying? )

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that my life would be undergoing some major changes. The biggest one, of course, is our impending move to London.

The other big change is a professional one. Via a merger between About Weblogs Network and b5media, my precious Genetics and Public Health Blog will be joining one of the most promising blogging networks online today.

This news probably doesn't mean much to most of you, but it's a huge one to those of us involved. We're moving to our own domains and are looking forward to building up our blogs even faster. In particular, I hope the Genetics and Public Health Blog will reach a wider audience and help spread the news about the genomic revolution.*

Special thanks to Shai Coggins for being a terrific network owner, boss, and friend.

~~~~~
*As an aside, I was excited to see that the Genetics and Public Health Blog made it on to the blogroll of Free Association - the new blog of Nature Genetics, one of the most prestigious science journals in the world.

NB: The Children's Books, Toys and Things Blog is also part of the About Weblogs Network and will be joining b5media as well.

And, since Shai has already spilled the beans, I'll be starting two new blogs in 2006 (bringing the number of blogs I write to six): The Stitching Blog and The Cardiovascular Disease Blog. Hope these will appeal to some of you too!

ETA: The merger's official press release.

Learning something new every day....

Treat premature newborns with antiseptic baby wipes or sunflower oil.
$0.30 per treated baby wipe; Sunflower oil: $0.20 per treatment

Preterm babies with a low birthweight are often born with skin that isn't well formed, making them subject to potentially fatal infections, a major cause of neonatal mortality in developing countries. Special kinds of emollients can enhance the function of the skin barrier and reduce the incidence of life-threatening infections. Sunflower oil applied to babies' skin a couple of times a day for a few weeks resulted in a 40 to 55 percent reduction in sepsis, according to research in Egypt and Bangladesh, says neonatal health specialist Gary Darmstadt. And epidemiologist James Tielsch has found that using baby wipes (treated with a quarter percent of diluted antiseptic solution) a few hours after delivery reduced neonatal mortality 28 percent for low-birthweight babies.

From the Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine.

Stephen's inventiveness grows day-by-day and to show it off, I've started a series featuring a toy creation every week at the Children's Books, Toys and Things Blog (take a look at #1 and #2).

Have you, your kids, or someone you know created something that you'd like to show off? E-mail me at cottontimer@livejournal.com or leave a comment. I'd love to feature your toy creation too!

xposted ljmummies

Most of my friends, including the thin ones, know what it's like when someone mistakens them for being pregnant. Sometimes it's a high-waisted dress that prompts the comment (said dress soon to end up in the back of the closet) or pudginess from recent extravagant eating. Even Sandra Bullock is not immune:

Everyone seems to think I'm pregnant now. It's called weight gain.

When I post pictures that I didn't take or artwork that doesn't belong to me, I feel guilty. For the most part, I refrain from posting anything that isn't mine, but sometimes a picture helps illustrate a point better than a hundred poorly strung-together words. I try to lessen my copyright infringements by acknowledging and linking to the source, but that probably still doesn't give me the right to take it.

Recently, I wanted to share Wunderkammer - Gene Tailoring; the artwork incorporates genetics, embroidery, sewing, and craft. Many bloggers might have gone ahead and posted a picture of the piece without a second thought, but I decided to do the right thing and wrote to the artist for permission.

I haven't heard from her yet. It's disappointing because I'd like to start a DNA art series at the Genetics and Public Health Blog, but I'm not willing to spend the time obtaining permission for every single piece I want to feature. (I suppose my laziness means that I don't deserve the permission either.)

According to Shai's set of copyright tips for bloggers,

Don't be overly scared by copyright. Most people do not experience copyright infringement allegations or problems, unless they are putting lots and lots of movies or MP3s on their website. Basic common sense will mostly be sufficient to avoid problems: Don't copy too much and only copy where it is 'fair' - where you're not competing with the owner's market.

This is what I've decided to do whenever I'm tempted to post something that isn't mine: I'll ask myself how I'd feel if I were the owner.

• If I were a large corporation or commercial entity, I wouldn't feel too angry especially if people were promoting me and/or my products. (And, of course, if I were of this caliber, I'd have the resources to sue people's pants off so that may be a deterrent to copyright infringers).


• If someone took my pictures of Vietnam or other scenic-type pictures, I think I'd be ok with it as long as they attributed the shot to me.


• If someone copied all my pictures all the time, that would definitely bother me.


• Most importantly, if someone copied and posted pictures of Stephen without my permission, I'd definitely be upset. (Maybe I shouldn't post any more pictures of him).

It's a basic question if we put any part of ourselves online. How much do we own and how much belongs to others to do with as they please? Because, realistically, we're able to control very little of what we produce once it's out there. Sort of reminds me of kids...but that's another post.

Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissue

Warning on the package:

It is a violation of Federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling. Use only as a facial tissue.

Pointer from MedPundit

xposted public_health

Asia has been good to my ego. Living in the region for the past seven years, I've received many compliments; some that seem frivolous and others that are deeply meaningful. No matter what, praise makes me feel special.

People in Asia have admired:

• My height (but not my weight)


• My fair skin (but not my freckles)


• My nationality


• My American English


• My educational background


• My alma maters


• My son (especially those that still prefer boys over girls)


• My husband


• My home (not the decor per se, but where we live)


• My lifestyle (as a stay-at-home mom)

Once we move to London, few of these things will impress anyone. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some actually invite scorn.

As my friend WHLK said, we'll finally have a "normal" life again.

Marv has had a Dilbert daily calendar in his office for over five years now. Occasionally, I'll take a peek and it always makes me chuckle. Now Scott Adams has a Dilbert Blog that will probably be just as entertaining. The guy is prolific!

When I see news stories about people all over the world who are experiencing hardships, I worry about them, and I rack my brain wondering how I can make a difference. So I decided to start my own blog. That way I won't have time to think about other people.
*****
The blogger's philosophy goes something like this:

Everything that I think about is more fascinating than
the crap in your head.

~The Dilbert Newsletter, October 25, 2005

Via The Health Care Blog

Round-up of the Genetics and Public Health Blog.
October 24 to November 1, 2005

* Dr. Keith Grimaldi of Sciona Speaks Out on Nutrigenomics (11/01/05)
* Grand Rounds 2.06: The Best of This Week's Medical Blogging (10/31/05)
* Downtime at the Genetics and Public Health Blog (10/31/05)
* James Watson in the Film "The Broken Code" (10/30/05)
* Fetus's Genes Influence Pregnant Mother's Cholesterol Levels (10/30/05)

( More from the Genetics and Public Health Blog.... )

Round-up of healthcare.wurk.net.
October 25 to November 1, 2005

*Telecommuting in the Healthcare Industry (Part 3)
*Telecommuting in the Healthcare Industry (Part 2)
*Telecommuting in the Healthcare Industry (Part 1)
*Healthcare Job Profile of the Week: Pharmacist
*Healthcare Workers Make House Calls

( More from healthcare.wurk.net.... )

Round-up of my posts at the Children's Books, Toys and Things Blog.
October 24 to November 1, 2005

* Teaching Children Gifting Etiquette (11/01/05)
* Target Book Club Free Starter Kit (10/30/05)
* Children's Toy Creation of the Week (10/30/05)
* Children's Toys NOT To Get (10/29/05)
* Safety While Shopping For Children's Things (10/27/05)

( More from the Children's Books, Toys and Things Blog.... )

Rosamond Purcell's full-size re-creation of
17th century naturalist Olaus Worm's "Wunderkammer".

The wunderkammer idea came about in a world before museums. Before there were cameras to capture the quirks, strangeness, and charm of the world, people would collect and display natural and manmade oddities in their homes, sometimes devoting entire rooms to their collections. Imagine shells, eggs, taxidermied birds and animals, travel souvenirs, and anything strangely shaped (a vegetable with a face? Yes, please!) arranged in tableaux to underscore their extraordinariness.

~Vogue, October 2005

Not being much of a collector and not having much space to display anything, I've never had a wunderkammer aka "room of wonders" or "cabinet of curiosities". lizardek keeps a small shadowbox that could double as a miniature wunderkammer. And my dad loves to collect curios that dangle from ceiling beams and lounge on every flat surface.

...initially, these universes in miniature were private pleasures, invitations to escape, to dream, to reflect on nature and our place in it.

When we finally settle down in our Singapore home, I may start one or two wunderkammers of my own. Perhaps with a window, book, or genetics theme.

"To build a wunderkammer, you need ingenuity, innocence, and eyes that go 360 degrees," says Kean Etro. ...You don't have to go out and actually scour the globe for reason-challenging bits and pieces.

What kind of wunderkammer would you create?