Family Values - Dr. Phil's opportunistic parental-advice franchise.

Dr. Phil has a new prime time show about how to raise children, and Slate helpfully provides a summary of the basic idea:

Dr. Phil has a new book, Family First, tied to the show. He claims families are "systems" in which each member plays an important role, and he lays out a 7-point "toolkit" that includes things like setting up a "discipline" contract between parents and children. But his ideas don't live up to their claims, because he uses it all to create a reality show with underage kids confessing their secrets to parents in front of cameras. Sick.

Sister Johanna came to the Pulokas house this morning to give her blessings to the newlyweds. 

Grandma gave this section of the basement to Grandpa's health food workshop. He grinds his own flaxseed and prepares numerous healthy foods in his high-powered blender every day. 

After we got back to Michigan, Connie showed me her wonderful new apartment.  

We saw this HUGE spider in the back yard. Tony threw a cricket at the web and the spider immediately grabbed it and wrapped it. 

John Kerry cares about fonts!

The New York Times: publishes this in their article about John Kerry's management style:

"His aides say ... in early 2003 .... he spent four weeks mulling the design of his campaign logo, consulting associates about what font it should use and whether it should include an American flag. (It does.)"

Mark and Amy are here with their baby boy, Jonah. Julia was the flower girl. 

I've been able to spend a lot of time with my brother and sister. 

I found a bumblebee in the back yard. 

Katie and Matt 

After breakfast, Connie took the kids to a playground. 

Katelyn and Cameron went swimming in the hotel pool. 

The cornfield behind the Pulokas house is in full bloom. 

The rehearsal dinner was held at a steak house where you cook everything yourself. 

Karla was very disappointed when she found out that Leah wasn't going to be here 

Nathan has been sleeping in Martha's room for a couple weeks now--in his sleeping bag. Last night he decided he'd rather go back to a real bed, so he hopped right in and this is how we found them in the morning. 

Nathan is studying martial arts, and like any endeavor that he enjoys, he takes it very seriously. We like the class because it's very strong on showing honor and respect to parents, teacher, country--all things Nathan needs to learn. 

Leah loves her new school! 

CitySearch Seattle's best pizza

I wonder if that place near Seward Park is on this list of Seattle's best pizza places

Burke Museum Event: Bug Blast

We visited the Burke Museum Bug Blast


Nathan got to touch a live tarantula.


Martha got her face painted.

Leah and I rode our bikes half an hour to the Starbucks on the south side of the island.

Walking tours on the Internet

NYTimes has an article on how to plan walking tours: " using the Internet.
They recommend Frommers.com, Travelandleisure.com, Fodors.com, and Concierge.com" as the best sites.

Nathan and I hiked through the Mercer Slough today. Look carefully and see the ducks in the background. 

Seattle tops Forbes "most overpriced city" list

Apparently job and income growth has not kept pace with the cost of living in Seattle. Look at Forbes' list of most over-priced cities in the U.S. and Seattle tops the list.

Rank	City	Job	Income growth rank	Cost of living	Housing affordability
		growth rank
1	Seattle	122	149	132	122
2	Bergen-Passaic, N.J.	110	102	141	131
3	Miami	79	132	127	137
4	Portland, Ore.	118	133	114	105
5	Middlesex, N.J.	85	131	138	116
6	San Jose, Calif.	150	28	149	142
7	San Francisco	145	27	150	146
8	Chicago	119	98	123	120
9	New York	103	63	146	143
10	Jersey City, N.J.	98	101	119	135

Martha couldn't be happier tonight! She has a new pair of pajamas, with feet! 

We visited the Japanese "Aki Matsuri" at Bellevue Community College on Sunday. The kids seemed to enjoy it a lot. I think it gave Leah even more interest in studying Japanese at school this year. 

Wall Street Journal to publish on Saturdays

WSJ.com - Journal to Start Weekend Edition Next September

Now that's a change at least as big as when the NY Times went to color. It will cost $1.50 at the newsstand, though print subscribers get it at no extra charge.

Sex in high school

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publish a Youth Risk Behavior Survey which polls thousands of high school students to find out about sexually transmitted diseases. The results:

• 62% of high school seniors have had sex


• 45% of 12th graders say they had sex during the past 3 months (compared to 8% of 8th graders)


• only 14% have had sex with four or more people in their lifetime

Again, flipping the numbers around shows that celibacy is hardly "abnormal": almost 40% of high school seniors are virgins.

45% of teenagers never go near drugs

The "normal", mainstream high school kid never touches drugs, according to The National Center On Addiction and Substance Abuse, an organization at Columbia University that publishes studies based on their national surveys of teenagers.

They did a statistically significant sample of U.S. teenagers and identified three categories of 12-17 year olds: high risk (17%), moderate risk (38%) and low risk (45%).

Note that the largest single class ("low risk") at 45% has is marked by these traits:

• None smoke (100 percent did not have a cigarette in past 30 days)


• Few have tried alcohol (six percent, and virtually none drink alcohol
  currently)


• None get drunk in a typical month (100 percent never get drunk)


• Very few have friends who smoke marijuana (one percent)


• Very few know a friend or classmate who uses Ecstasy (four percent)


• Few know user of acid, cocaine, or heroin (9 percent)


• More than half would be unable to buy marijuana (68 percent)


• None have tried marijuana


• A large majority say future drug use “will never happen” (80 percent)
  
   

I want to keep my kids in the low risk category, so this study is encouraging because it shows that, while drug use is still an unfortunate fact of life for many teens, a full 45% of kids never get near the stuff.

How many high school kids do drugs?

The official government survey on Teen Drug Abuse - High School and Youth Trends gives the facts.

Here are the percentage of high school seniors who have tried

• Cigarettes or tobacco: 50%


• Marijuana: 45%


• Alcohol: 75%

Among 8th graders the percentages are far lower--maybe 25% who have done any of the above ever in their life.

Note that only 25% of seniors say they have used marijuana in the past 30 days, which is the best indicator of habitual use. In other words, although half of American 12th graders have at some time in their life been in a situation where they puffed on a joint, the vast majority never tried it again.

Nathan has a new friend from his preschool class: Nicholas loves bugs and dinosaurs so much that the two just had to get together on Saturday morning to play. 

Bush document forgery pro and con

The Washington Post published an excellent summary of case against the authenticity of documents that allegedly show George W. Bush got special treatment while serving in the National Guard. I know a thing or two about fonts and word processors, so I am quite persuaded that the documents are a forgery.



But there is a counterargument. Its defenders claim that, although somewhat unusual and hard to acquire, the technology for producing these documents did exist in the 1970's.

Serial Killer on Mercer Island

The story of George Russell: Singles Bars Psychopath of Mercer Island has also been told in an A&E "City Confidential" series about crimes in places you wouldn't expect.

Here's what the NY Times Movie Review says:

A serial killer terrorizes a peaceful community in City Confidential: Sunny Days, Deadly Nights on Mercer Island. The island suburb of Seattle had hardly ever seen any violence. Populated by upper-class Washington elite, Mercer Island boasted a few bars and a smallish nightlife. But, the singles scene was large enough for one regular to murder three women before being caught. George Russell was finally apprehended after killing and sexually abusing a group of unsuspecting females. Mercer Island was shocked at the revolting and monstrous crimes. A&E explains how it made the Washington citizens doubt their safety for good.

Texas Transportation Institute Urban Mobility Information

Here's the traffic study from the Texas Transportation Institute that tells how Seattle and other cities compare for overall highway usage.

Martha's Sleeping Shoes

Martha is turning into quite a fashion maven, with a fondness for good clothing and a sharp memory for what others wear too.

She was so happy with her new pink shoes yesterday that she insisted on sleeping in them, which she did--all night long.

Today is Leah's 2nd day of 2nd grade! She dresses fashionably for the occasion, wearing a pink concha and brand new shoes. 

How much does college cost?

Ouch! USATODAY.com is reporting that typical in-state tuition at public universities is about $10K.

The average increase since last year was 9%, a rate of growth that is slower than last year's 14%.

The University of Washington tuition is $5972 per semester , or about $11K per year for non-residents. Residents pay just $1762/semester or about $3500 per year.

University of California costs are about $7K/year in-state and $23K/year out-of-state.

How did "Liberal" become a dirty word?

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, and neither is the author of this Sept 2004 article: Tentacles of Rage: The Republican propaganda mill, a brief history LEWIS H LAPHAM / Harpers Magazine v.309, n.1852.

but it is interesting to see how things could change so much from 1964, when Barry Goldwater's "conservatism" was really seen as out of touch from the mainstream, enough that 61% of the popular vote went against him.

That said, note how I am from such a different generation than the people who write these articles. To me, so-called conservative concepts like small efficient government or a strong defense sound like common sense, a biological consequence of Steven Pinker's idea of the "tragic view" of our genes. We are by nature deceitful, power-grabbing, violent animals, and the role of government is to keep that in check. The 1960s "liberals" were wrong about it, in just the way they were wrong about boys and girls being identical except for upbringing. People and ideas should just move on.

Soviets and Arnold Schwarzenegger's childhood

It seems that somebody from Slate is picking on Arnold's speech, after doing a little fact-checking about his claim to have experienced communism first-hand as a child in Austria.

The historians Slate consulted point out that Arnold lived too far from the Soviet border to have seen any Soviets, much less be intimidated by them. But the speech doesn't say this was an everyday occurence. Why isn't it possible that he remembers this from, say, a family trip visiting relatives or something?

Arnold is back

Well I finally read Arnold Schwarzenegger's speech at this week's Republican Convention. I can see why people think it was such a strong performance.

Nathan set up his ant farm this week, and to our glee the ants are digging holes!