Nearly a decade ago I read The Transparent Society, David Brin’s take on how to handle encroachments on our privacy. At one point in the book, he mentioned off-hand that the UK was blanketed with CCTV cameras. Goodness, I thought. That’s a lot of TV cameras watching citizens. Then I forgot that little factoid.

That helps explain my surprise to find out that there are 32 cameras within 200 yards of George Orwell’s home.

But having one camera for every 14 people in the country isn’t enough. More progress is needed. In fact, what’s needed is CCTV cameras that talk back. Now police can scold litterers, warn people who are getting into fights, and more.

Home Secretary John Reid told BBC News there would be some people, “in the minority who will be more concerned about what they claim are civil liberties intrusions”.

How silly of people to be concerned. After all, what could go wrong?

Marie Brewster, 26, a young mother, appeared on TV news reports after a camera operator mistakenly thought she had dropped litter and boomed out a reprimand from the control centre in Middlesbrough.

In some ways, I prefer the talking cameras. They make their presence felt in ways quiet, unobtrusive cameras don’t. They remind people that they are being watched. And if the monitors are going to make mistakes, better they make them publically than quietly.

The UK implemented the Data Protection Act to deal with privacy concerns, and has many CCTV cameras registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. The US has no such provisions. Ignoring this issue isn’t going to make it better. I spent part of this week looking at the latest in automatic license plate technology (verdict: easily usable in real time) and facial recognition (verdict: not yet, and probably not for several more years, but getting frighteningly better every year). I’d much prefer we have an expanded Freedom of Information Act and others to handle these technologies, since it will take a while for the inevitable ACLU cases to produce applicable case law.

Chemical Brothers: Star Guitar (2002)

Michael Gondry’s video for Daft Punk’s Around the World, in hindsight, looks like a warm-up for this video. It’ll take you a moment to figure out what’s going on. I’d be curious to know at what point you twig to what is the most clever use of this particular music video cliché I’ve seen.

Radiohead: Street Spirit (Fade Out) (1996)

There’s something deeply disturbing about how director Jonathan Glazer fiddles with the speed of events. Some of the video is silly, but the overall effect is one of melancholia. Brr.

I went to the doctor yesterday and all is well. My BP was good. The baby’s heartbeat was good. I’ve not gained any more weight, which she seemed pleased by. My regular OB comes back week after next and I am really looking forward to seeing her. It seems strange to miss your doctor but when you see someone as often as you see your OB in the last part of pregnancy, it starts to matter.

I’m having more and more trouble getting comfortable enough to sleep, so I’m not sleeping as well as I’d like to. I would really like to make it past the first weekend in May because I want to go see the new Spiderman movie, but my desire to be more comfortable may start to outweigh that pretty soon.

The doctor said I was good to go to Nashville this weekend so I can have a last hoorah with my three best girlfriends. (We get so crazy! We stay up late and talk about our seven kids and sometimes, our college days.) So I won’t be typing here much but I might just have some photos when I get back.

I started this project on January 4 and finished this evening. I’m very glad to have it done before the baby gets here. Now to get it framed.

Also, here’s a photo of what the pattern looks like once I’ve finished with it.

See why I make copies?

This year before Easter we decided to have a Christian Passover Seder. We had a table full of friends and explored the meanings of all the symbols, ate dinner, and drank kosher wine (grape juice for the preggers girls at the table). It was really interesting to read the material and watch how all our non-Jewish friends dealt with the structure of the traditions and with one another (we had an assortment of friends from several different circles). I’m glad we did it and would like to do it again next year so that we might shed the feeling of playing dress-up and actually start feeling as if we were practicing something meaningful. It was a really good evening.

But that’s not what this post is about.

I roasted four chickens for the dinner. Which was about two chickens too many. I still have a massive container of chicken. So I implore you, please help me think of something to make whereby I can finish off the meal that keeps on giving.

So far I have made:

• chicken quesadillas
• chicken salad
• chicken pesto pasta
• plain chicken (too many times to count)
• white pizza (with chicken! no red sauce)

I have a thing about bags. Some of you know this already. I try to keep it under control but it’s hard really. They call to me and ask me to take them home. I have a dollar limit that I don’t like to exceed at any given purchase and I try to only buy something about once a quarter. But a new baby means a new diaper bag and I found the exact one that I wanted today on SALE! The best part, it’s a sling so it’s totally rocker-dad friendly. Stephen won’t be embarrassed to have it on. Here’s a photo:

The other very cool thing that I bought today was a hotsling. My sister-in-law turned me on to them. I was very interested in them as they are fit to you, as opposed to a system of pulleys and ratchets that annoy you into pitching it across the room. I had one of those with Eli and never used it because by the time I got him in and adjusted correctly, I needed to take him out for whatever reason.

I was going to buy one and then got sidetracked and then they put the one I wanted on sale and then I got sidetracked. So I thought I’d go to the local store that carries them to check them out and of course, they didn’t have my size. (That didn’t stop the saleslady from trying to sell me one two sizes too small though.)

So when I got home I did some internet browsing and SCORE! I got the one I wanted at another online baby retailer for the sale price AND free shipping. Here’s a picture of it:

Can’t wait to try and sport the sling, the baby, and the sling backpack at the same time. I ought to look like a Sherpa when I have all that going on…

So today was not nearly as fun as the past two days. I don’t know if it’s because I knew that Stephen would be back today or if it was because I did manage to take a nap this afternoon that made me feel like crap and give me a headache all at the same time.

Eli went to the dentist this morning and did great. They wouldn’t let me come back with him and when they did come to get me, three hygienists said that he did great. The dentist was with him when I got back there and he was miraculously using a Dremel tool to file down the chip in Eli’s tooth. It was miraculous because Eli was actually allowing him to do it and mostly sitting still.

After that, we met one of his friends at Chick-fil-a for the boys to play in the smelly, smelly play yard since it was raining like crazy and we couldn’t go to the park. Eli refused to climb the stairs to go down the slide so play time didn’t last long.

At home we watched some TV, read and then took our naps and then unfortunately, I was the cranky one after nap. So when Dad rolled in at about 6:30, there was rejoicing and much boy wrestling on the bed.

I think the later bedtime is working, he didn’t get up until 6:30 this morning and we just put him to be at 8:15. Maybe now we’ll get a few more weeks of sleeping till seven-zero-zero before the next one comes. It’s only one month away…

Well the day started later so that was a step in the right direction. Eli came in at 6:15 and he was totally ready to chat about everything.

We got ready for school and as we were riding in the car, Eli announced, “We needa go see Kat and Sean!”

I reminded him that they live in AZ and we had to go there by plane. Then he started reminiscing about our recent trip to visit them. The playgrounds, the exercise ball and rolling it up and down the stairs, the playgrounds. So I asked if he wanted to call Kat.

“Sure!” he shouted from the backseat.

I figured if we were lucky, we’d catch her in the car on her way to work. She answered the phone and I could tell she didn’t know what to think. I said hay and told her that someone wanted to talk to her. What followed was a conversation that I’m sure on her end was mostly incomprehensible ramblings about coming to visit them, the exercise ball, the playground, the ducks we saw there (Who knew that ducks only lived in AZ?), going to school, and my personal favorite new conversational tidbit, going past cars quickly so they won’t crash into us. Meanwhile, I can hear her laughing through pretty much the whole thing. It entertained me. And that’s mostly why I encourage him to do these kinds of things, entertainment value.

I dropped him at school without incident and came back home to do some real work. (A paying job! See how now I am procrastinating!) At a bit past noon, the school called and said he had diarrhea and could I please come get him. I zipped off to church to pick him up. The office ladies admitted that he was probably fine as he asked approximately 8,000 questions and the follow-up “Why?” about every single thing in the office, as well as tried to open the safe and rearrange the bulletin board for them.

After nap (and zero stinky diapers) we took a little trip to our branch library which is very tiny but very convenient to our house. We got several new books and played on the playground that is on the adjacent ball field. Note to self: I think we will not be picking baseball as our activity when Eli gets older as the gear and uniforms look very expensive.

After several readings of Llama Llama Red Pajama and a visit from ¡Tim!, Eli rolled into bed at 8:15. I’ll keep you posted as to wake up time tomorrow.

When I do cross-stitch projects with beads there is always a moment when I am looking at the pattern and I say to myself, “Do you really want to do those beads?” I ask this question not because bead work is hard, it’s actually a nice change of pace to the actual cross-stitch work, but because I always, always, always and forever manage to drop a container of beads at least once a project.

A company named Mill Hill makes all these beads. If you go to this link, the second set down is the color I’m working with. That would be the cream color that is the exact freaking match as the color of our living room rug.

Last night, well, you can guess what happened last night, y’all are a pretty bright bunch of folks.

An hour later, Rachel having learned that yes, indeed I know several different varieties of swear words, we finished scraping all the beads off of me, the rug and from between the couch cushions. (Man, you think your house is clean until you are scooping 2mm beads out of the couch and there are bread and cookie crumbs bigger than your beads.) We went back to watching the show we had started when I broke my needle threader. I made up a new swear word and quit working on cross-stitch for the night.

Stephen left last night for a conference in Orlando. I always dread these trips because I am sole caretaker of the octopus arms and this is doubly tiring when I am as pregnant as I am. Eli had a slight cold over the weekend so we’ve also been a bit house bound as every time his face hits the wind for more than two seconds his nose runs for two hours afterward.

Eli nearly had a breakdown when Stephen started the hugging goodbye ritual. I thought I was going to have to use a crowbar to get him to turn Stephen loose. But as soon as I suggested he could get in the bathtub early, all was right with the world.

I have discovered the secret to the universe and it is called early bath.

He climbed into the tub yesterday around 6 pm and I actually made it to 7:30 without dropping. Today we got into the bath before 5 and we’ve already had dinner. Now he’s playing quietly in his room with a feather duster that because most of the time is off limits is the best toy in the whole entire world. I am sitting at the computer working on this post. This time of the day is usually fraught with many tantrums for a snack, dad, going to church, dad, going home, watching a show, a snack, playing on the computer, a snack, dad. But apparently early bath and early dinner make life a near paradise. Who knew?

The only down side to the past 24 hours is this morning’s wake up call. Eli got up at 5:15. I had to go in and tell him to go back to bed because it wasn’t yet daylight. He insisted that he had a stinky diaper, which he didn’t. I made him get back under the covers with the light out and told him that he needed to go back to sleep.

At 6:15 he was back in my room saying he had a stinky diaper and indeed there was a prodigious amount of stink. I changed his diaper and instructed him that he needed to play quietly in his room and that he could come and wake me up at 7.

At 6:45 he was back in my room saying it was 7. I told him, no it wasn’t quite 7 but that if he could be quiet and still he could go get his blankie and get into bed with me. He managed to do that for the 15 remaining minutes before 7, at which time he announced it was time to get up because it was daytime.

Now the good news to this early rising is that he is back to taking two hour naps. He crashed out at noon today and I heard nary a peep from him until about 2. But man, the four alarms before 7 is a killer. I guess this is God’s way of preparing me for the days of the new baby, you know, in case I forgot what no sleep was like.