kyleandkelly.com

Ever heard the saying, “better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt?”

The Republican National Committee launched a web site today called America Speaking Out to collect ideas from across the nation. America opened it’s mouth and this came out:

We should get rid of all the govt agencies that are just letters and not words.

Straight up. Like NASA.

Real Amereicans should get a tax cut for every life birth they have. The baby has to come out alive. This way we will take our country back in terms of populaton.

Um, sure. As anyone who’s actually had children could tell you, we already get tax deductions for those wee ones.

Oceans no longer protect us. The U.S. should adopt a CCTV program to monitor all streets in the cities and suburbs nationwide. If England can do it, so can we for the love of jebus. Also, some of the footage is bound to end up on youtube and be hilarious.

Let me send you a copy of 1984.

Even though it is un-Constitutional, I think there should be a religious test to become President. If you have a religion I think you should have to renounce it upon being elected. We cannot have our President playing favorites! Goes for the SCOTUS, too! Matter of fact, let’s put all government officials to the test!

Yes, clearly, because that would be freedom of religion.

Order IMMEDIATE professional psychiatric help for Glenn Beck.

Creating a new line of hot dog marketing where they create packages of buns equal in amount to the number of hot dogs in the package. This imbalance in American Culture has been destroying us at the heart for decades now.

OK, so those last two were actually really good ideas.

In all honesty, I actually like the idea. Unfortunately the implementation is going to take some time to work the kinks out. The site seems rough around the edges, frequently displaying an error page or nothing at all. Furthermore, folks are currently using the site to embarrass the Republicans rather than make thoughtful proposals. It’ll be interesting to see if the kinks can be worked out; I’d love to see this become a genuinely useful tool for surfacing good ideas to our congressional representatives.

written by Kyle \\ tags: gov2.0, politics, republicans, social

So I’ve been on a bit of a mission lately about shopping locally. This all started with a shopping trip on etsy where my original mission to support local artists was an ultimate failure. I became curious when my purchase took longer than expected to arrive, and to make a long story short, my “local” shopping trip came from Istanbul.   Certainly not who I intended to be supporting.

So, I did better the next time, you can actually search by area on etsy to truly support these local artists.

But yet again, I did not feel fulfilled in doing my local economy justice.  Choosing to buy one thing here and there locally is not enough.  So I looked around more.  I found a group on facebook that supports local Muskegon shops.  Now keep in mind this group is totally unorganized, but at least it helped.

Today while Macy was refusing a nap, I tossed aside all hopes of getting a little housework or homework done and went out with a couple local shops in mind.  One place I stopped All Things Girly was okay, but didn’t really have much that I was looking for.  If you like designer handbags then you would love it, but since my bags haul around snotty tissues, diapers, and random bits of food in addition to my own belongings, I do not prioritize my money on bags.

The second place I stopped, Weecycle was exactly what I was looking for!  It has some gently used consignment pieces and some new stuff too.  I picked up some sunhats for Macy for $1.50 each!!!  There were also plenty of cute clothes, toys, maternity clothes, and baby gear like baby slings, books, and some furniture and bedding.  I am so excited to go back.  The website for weecycle also talks about the 3/50 project which is exactly how I feel about spending locally.  Check it out if you get time!

written by Kelly \\ tags: baby, Family, shopping

Budget Planner – Mint.com

I would also add that the Monoprice.com rocks for getting A/V components at rock bottom prices. I got 35 feet of HDMI cable for $32.

written by Kyle \\ tags: budget, hdmi, technology, video

Check out the most recent video of Macy. She is sitting up, playing, and laughing contagiously.

written by Kyle \\ tags: Family

As the winter is really getting snowy and chilly, I felt like warming up with a New Orleans style seafood gumbo.  Not knowing any local locations for getting this delicious dish, I was compelled to learn how to make it.  I spent some time looking online for a good recipie and settled with this one.  Even this, however, was a tricky endeavor in Michigan.

My first problem was that some of the ingredients were foreign to me.  I had absolutely no idea what to look for when searching for okra, other than the produce section.  I actually had a dream the night before hitting the market that it resembled a white potato that was shaped like a large radish.  Strange.  Imagine my surprise when I found such an adorable and appealing green vegetable.  Furthermore the idea of a roux and fish stock were not well known to my Michigander cooking skills.  I had planned on actually making a fish stock from another recipe; however, my mom said she wouldn’t have any thing to do with my culinary delight if there was any fish heads in the cooking.

Consequently no fish stock was used in the making of this gumbo (I am still a bit sad about this).  My one complaint for this recipe was the instructions on creating a roux, I didn’t know how to do this and searched around for instructions which led me astray.  According to the instructions, I should have worked on this process for an hour, which created a nasty black substance that I had no idea was wrong until my dad laughed at it.  Apparently this should only take 10-20 minutes and it should be a tan to mahogany color, not black. I should have stopped when it looked like this:

Back to the okra, it’s beautiful!  In the instructions it says to cook it 10 minutes, but what you are looking for is for it to stop stringing.  I had no idea what this meant, but a magical thing happened while I was cooking.  At first the okra was sort of slimy and sticking together while I stirred, when it was done, it stopped misbehaving and each piece embraced its cut apart being (no more stringing).

The most time intensive part of my gumbo journey was in the meticulous crab cracking.  I needed to pull the crab meat out of king crab legs to get real crab meat.  There were zero options for whole crabs or any form of crab meat that was already taken from its shells.  I actually like this buisness, but it was particularly difficult not to eat the crab meat during the process.

So the gumbo tasted delicious despite the Michigan handicap.  I can’t wait to make it again and this time I’ll know how to shop for the ingredients and how to make a roux!

written by Kelly \\ tags: cooking, Family

Lord of the Rings, Avatar… movies that greatly blurred the line between real and computer-generated. But nothing so thoroughly blew me away like this 12 minute video on architecture as art, “The Third & The Seventh“. Exquisite work.

written by Kyle \\ tags: architecture, Art, cgi, design, video

At first I was upset with the way you nearly side swiped my car going 90 mph. As we were stuck in traffic for a while I noticed something though. I noticed children in the back of your car. I am perplexed as to why you would drive so recklessly with innocent lives in your control.

I know that raising children can harbor challenges, however it if crucial to remember how much these kids mean. They are so vulnerable both directly from your actions of nearly killing them as well as mentally. They pick up so much from you. When you drive like a menace you are only teaching them to be self centered just like you. So please for the safety of the entire country, slow down and teach your children well.

written by Kelly \\ tags: Driving Family

David Pogue, technology columnist for the New York Times, has an excellent series on the shady business practices of cellphone companies:

• “‘Take Back the Beep’ Campaign”
• “Verizon: How Much Do You Charge Now?”

The short version: your cellphone carrier is probably tacking on several dollars worth of unnecessary fees to your bill each month. Do that for millions of customers and watch the money roll in. They have no incentive to stop these practices unless they begin to feel the heat from their customers. Here’s how:

For those who don’t have/use a data plan (i.e., no web browsing, app downloading, etc.)

1. Call their customer service line and setup a data block. Be persistent and stick to your guns should they suggest alternatives.
2. Examine your bills for extraneous data charges. After you get that data block, ask about a refund for those charges. Once again, be persistent (but polite).

Anyone with a cellphone can participate in David’s “Take Back the Beep” campaign:

1. Read through some of David’s “Take Back the Beep” blog posts (just so you know what you’re talking about).
2. Submit a polite complaint with your carrier via the channels listed below.

Here’s where to send your complaint (Sprint already lets you remove the message):

• Verizon: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/FJncH.
• AT&T: Send e-mail to: customerissues@attnews.us.
• T-Mobile: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/2rKy0u.

written by Kyle \\ tags: badservice, cellphone, consumer

11/10/09

I feel that a lot of internet blogging or networking has a negative vibe. For this month, I would like to take time to express gratitude for a list of things. I’ll add to this and to a list on facebook daily. So to start off….
I am thankful for:
the possibilities in life.
the opportunity to fail and learn from these failures.
the presence of God and the salvation received from his son the big JC.
My own family, thier eccentricities included.

11/11/09

I am thankful for:

Freedom – as Americans, we easily forget that not everyone has the opportunity to worship in public, or to speak as they please.  Persecution is worldwide.  I realize that we are not perfectly free, but we are far beyond our brothers and sisters in many different countries.

11/12/09

I am thankful for:

Meaningful friendships.  Friends have brought me so much: There has been plenty of laughter, tears, memories and so much more with my friends.  Each of them has left a lasting impression.

11/13/09

I am thankful for:

The miracle of birth!  It is awe inspiring how a baby can be formed and grow so perfectly and then be born into this world.  Today not only am I thankful for the birth of my own children, but a good friend of mine has welcomed two of her own into the world.  Congratulations Jackie and Eric!

11/14/09

I am thankful for:

Family.  It is so nice to have family that not only lives close but is also willing to help with childcare needs as well as those odd things that happen like a flat tire.  Kyle was out with Owen today and had a flat.  I was home with Macy who was asleep, so both my mom and my dad rushed out to Kyle to help so that Macy could continue to dream.  There have been many other instances such as this that make me glad to be close to my family.  For my family that is not so close, I am very grateful that they are so diligent at keeping up with us and working so hard to schedule visits.  I don’t know what I would do without all of my families love and support.

11/13/09

I am thankful:

Just to be me.  Isn’t it nice to have no other obligation than to be yourself?  All other stress is self induced.  I can be silly and professional all in the same stride and know that that is me!

written by Kelly \\ tags: Family, thoughts

A headline on the front page of yesterday’s USA Today caught my eye: “Climate plan calls for forest expansion”. I thought, “didn’t Canada already go down this road?”

Turns out Canada already has plenty of forest, so they weren’t attempting forest expansion but rather examining the assumption that lots of forest helps suck carbon dioxide out of the air. What they found, at least for the Canadian forests, was a bag of mixed results in the past and a high probability (based on computer modeling) of those forests emitting more carbon than they take in for the immediate future.

“The forecast analysis prepared for the government… indicates there is a probability that forests would constitute a net source of greenhouse gas emissions,” a Canadian Environment Ministry spokesman told the Montreal Gazette. From the Canadian Forest Service’s own web page on the issue:

Each year, the managed forest becomes a sink or source depending mainly on the extent of the area affected by fire and insects. Projections therefore required assumptions about the area that could be affected by fire and insects based on scientific and historical information, as well as the current conditions of the forest. But because the extent of future fires or insect infestations cannot be predicted with certainty, the model was run hundreds of times using different scenarios of the future to estimate the likelihood of the managed forest being a sink or a source.

…the analysis showed that there was a greater than nine in ten chance of it being a source in 2008–2012.

I’m hoping that, at the very least, the monitoring provisions in the bill are worded properly to make sure we avoid paying for forests that are actually carbon sources.

written by Kyle \\ tags: canada, carbon, environmental, forest, legislation