Boo to Hasbro!

The one Scrabulous game in which I am finally doing well against my brother (I'm not getting my butt kicked by a 50 point spread! I'm actually ahead!), and Hasbro decides to sue the founders of Scrabulous. Of course, Hasbro's authorized online Scrabble version isn't open to users outside of the U.S. and Canada. Get with the program people! It's the age of the Internet, which crosses borders. The whole point of an Internet game is to be able to play with people that you can't play with in person! Grrrr... How am I going to get my Scrabble on?

Diabetes: Underrated, Insidious and Deadly

The New York Times recently published an article on diabetes. The article mentions:

...diabetes is anything but minor. It wreaks havoc on the entire body, affecting everything from hearing and vision to sexual function, mental health and sleep. It is the leading cause of blindness, amputations and kidney failure, and it can triple the risk for heart attack and stroke.

Last night I went to visit my aunt in the ICU of a hospital far from their home. She and my uncle were on the way to the airport to pick up their son when she collapsed, and she has been unconscious ever since. I'm praying that she gets better; it's really difficult to see her there, and my uncle, who is alone by her side.

My aunt has diabetes. Although she is nominally diagnosed with a lung infection, I have no doubt that her condition is related to her diabetes. Please take care of your health; the gift of human life that is given to not just you, but that is shared with your family and friends as well.

Windows Live+Vista = Mac copy

Nothing new to the technophiles, but as I recently installed Windows Live Messenger on my work computer, the installer asked if I wanted to install other features. I hadn't heard of these, so I looked them up:

Windows Live Mail = Mac Mail.app (which has been around for years, with the same functionality)
Windows Live Photo Gallery = Mac iPhoto app
Windows Live Spaces = The service formerly known as .Mac, and now (I think) MobileMe, also Yahoo 360 (is that still around?)
Tabbed browsing in IE = Firefox...that's so ~4 years ago

So, not so innovative. At least now I know what all the names mean.

essential online reading/current obsessions

Everyday when I get online at home, I read these websites in the following order: The Page by Mark Halperin at TIME (one page summary of what's going on in the election; the Google News page can get too distracting with all the links), McCainBlogette by Meghan McCain (great behind-the-scenes look of life on the campaign trail; while I disagree with McCain's policy views, I respect him and wife Cindy McCain (should she get most of the credit?) for raising such an articulate and gregarious daughter), and finally, Pink Is The New Blog (to feed by celebrity gossip obsession). I used to read Pop Sugar, but I find the one page format of Pink to take less time.

Lately, I've also been following the Sirius' Whatever Radio show blog. Jennifer seems to be really sweet and positive, and Alexis (Martha's daughter) seems to be a baking and household neat freak like her mom. I like that. I can be a neat freak, too. Actually, I aspire to be as organized and aesthetically talented as Alexis, but unfortunately I'm not.

I also like that although she is wealthy, she does her own housework. I find housework therapeutic, too. Neil thinks my housework as therapy is strange - last week when we were watching Prison Break, whenever I thought a scene was getting too intense or suspenseful, I'd run to the kitchen to wash a dish or organize a drawer to calm down. And then, of course, ask him, "what just happened?"

What do Muslims really think?

Interesting article in the CS Monitor on what Muslims really think, from a Gallup poll.

Warren Buffet said it, not me...

At a press conference this past Monday, Warren Buffet said

"I think that the US has followed and is following policies which will cause the US dollar to weaken over a long period of time," he said.

After voicing support for Obama, Buffett nonetheless noted the US economy had managed to do "awfully well" despite a depression, two world wars and many financial crises.

"They say in the stock market ... buy stock in a business that's so good that an idiot can run it because sooner or later one will," he added.

"Well, the United States is a little like that. We can take a little mis-management from time to time," Buffett said.

In other news, when I haven't been obsessively following the U.S. presidential election, I've been obsessively reading foodie blogs and baking cupcakes. Is this recipe better or that one better? What has the blogosphere had to say about one recipe or the other, if at all?

I made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting (almost vegan except for the butter in the frosting) and last night I made yellow cupcakes, which I plan to frost with a tub of Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate frosting which Mike gave to me and I need to use up. Pictures to follow...

NYTimes: Who Will Tell The People?

I read this op-ed in the New York Times and was compelled to share. Click on the title above to read the full article; highlights are below:

Our president’s latest energy initiative was to go to Saudi Arabia and beg King Abdullah to give us a little relief on gasoline prices. I guess there was some justice in that. When you, the president, after 9/11, tell the country to go shopping instead of buckling down to break our addiction to oil, it ends with you, the president, shopping the world for discount gasoline.

We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values: “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”

I'm worried that the youth today—not just in America, but in Taiwan as well (and quite possible the world over)mdash;get the wrong message. Buy the bag, the shoes, live the celebrity lifestyle - but how is that possible with average salaries?

If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.

How could this be? We are a great power. How could we be borrowing money from Singapore? Maybe it’s because Singapore is investing billions of dollars, from its own savings, into infrastructure and scientific research to attract the world’s best talent — including Americans.

Nothing like a little travel to give you an idea of how we're keeping up with the Joneses. Thailand's new airport in Bangkok is great, far nicer than LAX, and it's a developing country.

Harvard’s president, Drew Faust, just told a Senate hearing that...“China, India, Singapore ... have adopted biomedical research and the building of biotechnology clusters as national goals. Suddenly, those who train in America have significant options elsewhere.”

America is still a truly wonderful place to get an advanced education. I believe American universities are at the top of their league. In fact, a lot of America's growth can probably be contributed to those who trained in American and chose to stay. But if they have options elsewhere...?

Much nonsense has been written about how Hillary Clinton is “toughening up” Barack Obama so he’ll be tough enough to withstand Republican attacks. Sorry, we don’t need a president who is tough enough to withstand the lies of his opponents. We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.

Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.

I don’t know if Barack Obama can lead that, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn’t matter is dead wrong.