Day 335 - Symmetry

Thought of the day: This morning I watched a slide show from New York Times about MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity), an environmental disease that has been plaguing an increasingly larger group of people, including the photographer who shot the mesmerizing and poignant photos in the slide show. MCS is typically caused by exposures to synthetic, toxic chemicals which are getting more and more prevalent in the modern world. This condition can be debilitating. The affected people live at the margin of the modern civilization as they need to stay clear of environmental toxins routinely used in pesticides, building materials, cleaning products, cosmetics, etc. They have to navigate the modern world like a soldier navigating a mine field - if they are not careful, they can easily step onto something that will have serious consequences on their health. I know that this condition is very real as a good friend of mine is suffering from it every day. It's painful to watch her go through ordeals unimaginable by an unaffected person. These people are paying a heavy price for our unhealthy dependence on toxic chemicals and our disrespect for the environment and even for our own bodies. Many more of our children and grandchildren will suffer if we don't not pay attention to the root cause of this and other environmental diseases and change the way we live.

Photo of the day:

A lamp in a restaurant where I had lunch.  The shape was intricate, harmonious and beautiful. Perhaps one day we will be able to develop an intricate, harmonious and beautiful relationship with the environment around us. That's our only hope for the future.

Day 329 - Energy Monitor

Thought of the day: I volunteered in the annual vision screening event in Jasmine's school today. All day long, kids lined up grade by grade and had their eyesight tested by volunteers. It was my first time doing this and it had been an eye opening experience for me. I got to observe the remarkable physical and behavioral differences between kids from different grades. It's amazing how much difference a single year of age difference can make at this early stage of life. An idea just popped into my head: I want to make a photo book for Jasmine's 10th birthday so she, and we, can see how she has changed from year to year. Our minds mostly live in the present moment and it's easy for us to forget how we or our loved ones once were. "Old" photos will help us recall memories buried deep inside us and help us see the whole person and how her present self came into being. Just like annual vision charts record the vision history, photos record the life history. It would be a pretty interesting and meaningful project to reconstruct a life using photos.


Photo of the day:

Jasmine's climbing gym employs an 100kW solar system to offset a quarter of the electricity usage in the building.  It has one of David's energy monitoring devices installed and the real-time energy information is prominently displayed on the wall near the entrance. The device has a detailed memory of 30 years so you can reconstruct your energy usage history over a long span of time. Hopefully, your usage will trend down over time as you learn more about energy efficiency, pay more attention to your footprint and take steps to reduce it. So, in a way, the device captures your history of becoming a green citizen.

Day 292 - Sisters

Thought of the day: We spent a couple of hours in Palo Alto's Rinconada Park this morning. The kids had a fun time playing in the shallow outdoor pool. The air was a bit chilly but the water was pretty warm.  The pool facility was sufficient but outdated.  I was surprised that it didn't have solar water heater installed as Palo Alto prides itself on being a green city.  When I walk around the neighborhood, I can see a few green initiatives with my own eyes.  Quite a few neighbors have a "Palo Alto Green" yard sign installed which indicates that they have signed up for using renewable energy for their electricity.  A few major streets, including a segment of Arastradero Road, have been modified into one lane streets to discourage motor traffic and make room for bikers and pedestrians. Unfortunately much of the extra space on Arastradero has been taken over by parked cars which is unfortunate.  Palo Alto has bike paths but they are not well connected yet.  It looks like the city is moving toward the right direction and hopefully we will be able to bike around the city with ease in the near future.

Photo of the day:

Jasmine carrying Lila to the swimming pool.  Lila loves to be carried by her big sister - it's a rare treat for her!

Day 217 - Swimming

Thought of the day: A friend was asking for book recommendations on Facebook the other day.  I followed up with her and ended up exchanging physical books with her today.  The experience demonstrated to me how easy and fun it could be to exchange book recommendations, and maybe even books, in a local community.  So tonight I set up a prototype "book swap club" for the neighborhood using a bunch of Google tools including spreadsheets, forms, and groups.  If this was a serious venture, it should probably have been a dedicated service or a specialized app.  Of course, the idea of book swap is nothing new and there are applications out there that help you do just that and plus some.  College book swap seems to be most popular because a textbook can be ridiculous expensive and its useful lifespan tends to be short.  However, I'm not seeing applications that promote book sharing within a local, non-college community.  To me, sharing with friends locally makes more sense than sharing with strangers globally - it saves the unnecessary overhead and hurdle of shipping, it takes advantage of common tastes and local interests and promotes a better sense of community.  If something is good for the self, the community, and the environment, it's certainly a good thing that is worth doing.

Photo of the day:

Finally a sunny day - Jasmine swam in the outdoor pool in the afternoon.  Jasmine is a book lover.  I am sure she would love to do book swap with her friends too.  A junior books sharing project?

Day 186 - Girls

Thought of the day:  PBS Newshour is broadcasting a 6-part series called Autism Now reported by Robert MacNeil.  Robert came out of retirement to do the series because his grandson had autism so he had seen the ailment and the impact of it on the family first hand.  The story of his grandson was told in part-1 of the series and it was deeply touching. Autism is definitely on the rise.  It's now affecting 1 in every 110 children in America - that's a large number of kids every year - and it has been declared a national health emergency.  One part of the series explored the plausible causes of the rise of autism.  Only a small part of could be explained by a better detection and reporting of this disorder.  The main plausible cause for the rise lied in the toxicity of the environment - the 70,000 commonly used chemicals, some of which used directly on our bodies, could have an accumulative, unexpected effects on our health starting from the moment we were conceived, and in some cases long before that.  The long term effect of Agent Orange on Vietnamese kids is one dramatic example, but there could be many other not-so-obvious interactions between the environment and our body that we're not aware of.  One expert attributed autism to a genetic predisposition triggered by chemicals in our environment that broke down or overwhelmed our immune system.  The same thing could likely explain the rise of allergies, asthma, food sensitivities, multiple chemical sensitivities, infertility, cancer, and other ailments that we hear more and more of every day.  Our individual genetic make-up is playing a Russian roulette with the chemicals we are exposed to every day - it's scary to think about it this way but I don't see any positive way of describing the situation.  We can try our best to protect ourselves and our families and push through environmental regulations.  However, there's a lot that we don't have control of at this point in time, and the consequence is a human cost of development that is just impossible to bear.

Photo of the day:

Girls on the bike on Greenbriar.  Lila was napping on the bike seat.  The concern for our children can turn each one of us into an environmentalist like nothing else can.

Day 184 - Alfafa's

Thought of the day: Alfafa's is back in Boulder!  Alfafa's started in 1983 as the trendsetter for natural food supermarkets at that time.  In 1996, it was acquired by Boulder's Wild Oats which was subsequently acquired by Wholefoods in 2007.  Luckily, FTC required Wholefoods to sell some of its stores for monopoly concerns and Alfafa's former location was on the chopping board.  One of the founders of Alfafa's bought it to bring back the original store.  Today was the Earth Day and Alfafa's official opening day and what an opening day it was!  The store was crowded throughout the day.  We spent an entire morning there with a couple of friends and had lunch in its cafe.  Thankfully, the new, and also the original, owner of Alfafa's seems to really care about healthy food and environment instead of just paying lip service to both and looking at the natural food market as a cash cow.  The store really lives up to his vision.  A lot of the food comes from Colorado, there are no individually wrapped fruits (how silly that is but many stores do it), the salad bar offers all organic vegetables, and 75% of the bulk food section is organic according to the store.  On top of that, the price is pretty reasonable.  I have had gripes about Wholefoods for a long time but still had to cave in once in a while because Wholefoods offered a lot more products than others.  Well, not any more!  I am glad that Boulder finally has a natural food supermarket that's both well-stocked and well-priced, and more importantly, one that seems to genuinely care about healthy food and the environment.  I hope Boulder shoppers are sophisticated enough to recognize that and will allow Alfafa to succeed and become the trendsetter again and put conscience back into the natural grocery market.

Photo of the day:

Life music entertainment in Alfafa's cafe in its opening day.  Izzy danced to the music with her mom.

Day 175 - Books

Thought of the day: It's hard to shake off that caffeine addiction.  I felt dull and sluggish all day until taking in two cups of Chai at dinner time in the Indian restaurant.  The generously caffeinated Chai had the effect of instantly bringing me back to life.  And that's exactly why I want to stay away from caffeine.  I don't like the fact that my energy and mood depend on a substance and take a mandatory roller coaster ride every day, even if the substance is socially acceptable and perhaps even encouraged.  But it's been proven a difficult habit to get rid off, especially during cold and overcast days like this.  I'm missing the sunlight and the exercise, both of which can serve as an energy booster and mood modulator for me when my body is screaming for caffeine.  Perhaps I should get back in the gym in a day like this to set me on the right course again.

Photo of the day:

Our local library branch just put out some books for the upcoming Earth Day.  I grabbed a pile so everybody would have something interesting to read.  Getting books is another harmless way to boost my energy level. We're lucky to have a few libraries and bookstores to get books from, in addition to Amazon, and receive an instant gratification much like receiving an instant shot of espresso, but in a much more healthy way.

Day 169 - CWA

Thought of the day: This morning I took a nice hike in the mountains.  Good conversation, nice weather, and the beautiful view of a misty Flatirons made it a memorable morning.  I was reminded once again of the beauty of the nature all around us and our duty to pass it on, undiminished, to the future generations.

Photo of the day:

Larry Schweiger of National Wildlife Federation in a CWA discussion titled "Climate Change: Past the Point of No Return".  The catchy and alarming title was a play on words and the discussion was not meant to discourage concerned citizens from making a difference.  In fact, quite to the contrary, speakers on the panel encouraged people to do more but do it with more urgency as we are running against time and it's a race that we can not lose.  I didn't learn many new things from this discussion but I was very encouraged by the large crowd it drew - it was standing room only with a line waiting outside the door.

Day 157 - Burning Stones

Thought of the day: We ate dinner at a grill and bar in Copper Mountain Resort tonight.  The interior of the restaurant was a large open area illuminated by lots of different kinds of lights.  And there must be more than a dozen large flat screen TVs running different programs all at the same time.  The sounds and flashing images were so overwhelming that all the kids wanted to do was to run around wild instead of sitting still at the table. I am glad that we don't take our kids to such places often, otherwise there's a risk of having their growing brains permanently mis-wired by all these stimulants, perhaps in the same way that we get our adult brains constantly rewired by smart phones, twitter, facebook, and the like.


Photo of the day:

Skiers spending some quiet time at night next to the fire at Copper Mountain's Burning Stones Plaza.

Day 148 - Copper

Thought of the day: After returning from a good day of skiing, I read and watched news for a short time but it was just long enough to get me depressed: house vote to ban public funding for NPR, situation in Libya, and worst of all: more bad news from Japan - it's hard to believe that the unimaginable human tragedy can get even worse.  So many bad news, tragedies and senseless acts in the past few years from all around the world - why?  Has it always been like that and I just haven't paid attention?  I can't help but wonder how much longer we can be cocooned in our comfortable life.  I can't help but fear when the tide of events will catch us.  I can't help but wonder where we are heading as a race.  Yes, I'm sure a lot of doubts and fears will dissipate by tomorrow morning when the sun rises and I have had a good night of rest, but will anything have changed fundamentally?  Probably not.  Looking at it in a positive light, perhaps all these doubts and fears are what it takes to keep us grounded, no matter where we are, no matter what we do.

Photo of the day:

Ski day at Copper: windy day, icy bumps, slushy runs - they desperately needed snow!  However, my recently adjusted boots were more comfortable and I had great company, so I had another fun winter day in the mountains. (Cell phone photo)