ElementalMom

• RT @SeaShepherd: Three Cheers for Captain Peter Bethune – http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-100215-1.html #
• Watch Louie Psihoyos' interview on The Tavis Smiley Show: http://is.gd/8ry4C Even Spielberg can be wrong about some films. #
• Oh, make up your minds already! It's a problem, it's not, it is, it's not… http://bit.ly/cR8mdg #
• Yesterday, massive declutter and organization of the salon. Today, the kids are home. We call it "destructive field testing." #unclutter #
• RT @surfing_news: NOAA SF Buoy Back Online (Station 46026) http://bit.ly/bojKvw #
• Some mornings, the tea water can't boil fast enough. #
• New blog post: What Price, the Bay? http://theexcellentadventure.com/ea/2010/02/17/what-price-the-bay/ #
• Wondering how many days I can put off doing the laundry… #
• Waiting by the phone, *again*. Some days, relaxed and groovy is an effort of will and thus a contradiction in terms. #
• @MissAdventuring I am always up for company, and often up for an impromptu sail! Let's play! in reply to MissAdventuring #
• So cool. Help help, I'm being repressed! http://bit.ly/bKw1ev #
• New blog post: Writing Contest at Stand and Deliver http://bit.ly/9qWWE7 #
• The to-do list of doom had me out of bed at 5 AM. Today, will be progress. #
• Pounding on the Italian citizenship documents. Thank goodness I'm a details-based girl. But still, freaking out. Less than 2 weeks to go! #
• Skipped the morning paddle; fog so thick it's giving me Cosco Busan flashbacks. #oilspill #kayak #
• Just needed to install the Italian dictionaries to OpenOffice. Viva la bella lingua! #bellalingua #Italian #
• Can't find Rowan's passport, and can't remember if we ever got it back when we renewed it last. #
• I gave in. The laundry is done. #
• RT @350: Trying to persuade a #Climate skeptic? There's an app for that. http://ow.ly/18lg4/ #
• New blog post: I'm Not Gonna! http://theexcellentadventure.com/elementalmom/2010/02/18/im-not-gonna/ #
• New blog post: Because It Does http://theexcellentadventure.com/elementalmom/2010/02/19/because-it-does/ #
• @SeaShepherd: Japan Cites Sea Shepherd as Reason for Killing Whales – http://bit.ly/a48I2w Really? Japan can't possibly be serious! in reply to SeaShepherd #
• New blog post: http://theexcellentadventure.com/ea/2010/02/20/498/ #
• New blog post: Science for Profit II — The Letter Campaign http://bit.ly/bwl022 #
• New blog post: Love from Minnesota http://theexcellentadventure.com/ea/2010/02/20/love-from-minnesota/ #
• New blog post: Inching Upwards http://theexcellentadventure.com/ea/2010/02/20/inching-upwards/ #
• @OmarTodd Right here, Omar. =) in reply to OmarTodd #
• It's raining on my birthday! WAHOOO!!!! #
• RT @OceanChampions: Australia threatens Japan w legal action over whaling: http://bit.ly/cppTeh Yet another reason to love Australia! #
• Appeals equally to opera geeks and geeky geeks: Brilliant! Don Giovanni "Catalogue Aria" – Berkeley Opera 2010 http://youtu.be/g6saKjs_12M #
• RT @sufficiency: I know in my guts that Thomas Friedman is right. Here come the lean years. A charge to call 911. http://j.mp/bwS0sI #
• There is something so gorgeous about sunshine when you know it's transitory and you're gonna get deluged the rest of the week. #
• RT @Unnecesarean The fact is that the CS rate for 1st time mothers for docs fresh out of residency is often > 75%. #
• New blog post: What Does Two Meters Really Mean? http://theexcellentadventure.com/ea/2010/02/22/what-does-two-meters-really-mean/ #
• Holding Mom in the light… #
• @mslaura Oh, babe. Have you never done the 36 folder system? It's sooooo nice. in reply to mslaura #
• RT @TheCoveMovie: Fisher Stevens, http://bit.ly/bzAwo4, Its About More Than Just Dolphins. He's right. If we can't fix this… #
• Paperwork besides the translations is complete, and assembled. I can fall over now. Except, y'know, for the twitching. #becomingitalian #
• Big, big, really big day today. One of a series. This is me, whipping out the Big Positive Attitude. #
• RT @SailingUpdates: California's Coastal Marina Permit: public information session scheduled: http://bit.ly/9hxq43 Could be bad… #
• STOKE! Mission (for today) accomplished, and I am giddy with relief. Now, to tackle the Next Big Thing… #
• Please, tell Congress to extend unemployment insurance benefits until the end of 2010! http://bit.ly/9PE3PH #
• Our Italian translator, Flavia Ida, has done half the docs we sent her. Now that is service! And very much a relief. #becomingitalian #
• Today's gone from triumphant to devastating. I hate it when the emotional drop and the atmospheric pressure coincide. #
• RT @joe_roy: RT @socialmediamind: Bizarre Ruling in Italy Threatens Social Media http://bit.ly/aOCCv3 #
• Staying relaxed and groovy, channeling the universal source, and in all other ways, making sure I don't spontaneously combust. #justbreathe #
• RT @ldraxx: Health Care Reform NOW WellPoint Raising Premium Rates By Double Digits In At Least 11 States http://tinyurl.com/ykrz739 #
• Hey my S. F. Peeps! Big show with Big Jay McNeely! Jazz legend, in his last show! http://bit.ly/9bTXar #
• Falling down with relief, giddy with reprieve, and blown away by the goodness and possibilities of the world. #
• RT @ebertchicago: The Party's Over. My new blog entry. http://j.mp/b7F38j More on the "charging for 911 calls" thing. Los Angeles, you too! #
• @Preparing4Birth prepping Italian citizenship docs, discovered that all but the last two generations of J's family were homebirthed. Cool! in reply to Preparing4Birth #
• New blog post: A Few Thoughts on Tilikum http://theexcellentadventure.com/ea/2010/02/25/a-few-thoughts-on-tilikum/ #
• RT @TheCoveMovie: Missed Louie Psihoyos on NPR's Talk of the Nation yesterday? Listen here: http://is.gd/9am1r #thecove #dolphinslaughter #
• RT @cephalopodcast: "Have We Reached Peak Tuna?" http://bit.ly/dyPQqm #fisheries #
• Digging for deals, and wondering why the heck flying from Oakland to LA is soooooooo much more expensive than flying from SFO to LAX. #
• Just joined http://www.collectiveshout.org #
• Read Across America: http://www.nea.org/readacross Celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday with reading aloud; these things are fun, and fun is good. #
• RT @quennessa: Read this. Right now. http://bit.ly/bgBPpX ::thinking of the Bear, and choking up:: #
• Our documents for the Consulate are done. Every i dotted, every t crossed, everything translated and in order. ::whew:: #becomingitalian #
• New blog post: New Thoughts on CPR http://theexcellentadventure.com/ea/2010/02/26/new-thoughts-on-cpr/ #
• I'm going to be interviewed on BBC World Have Your Say about my blog on Tilikum! 1800 GMT http://bit.ly/avRruS #activism #
• RT @ldraxx: Republican Senators block extension of unemployment benefits http://tinyurl.com/yc5km6b Drop Dead Unemployed People of the US. #
• @NewsBaron No worries, James. I was stoked to have my blog found in the first place! Great show, albeit a lot of things to rant about. =) in reply to NewsBaron #
• RT @adriana872: How Ning made me a chump and how you can avoid it http://bit.ly/dCGqsG #
• Coincidence, or serendipity? World Birth Conference in Italy, a few miles from Jason's family's ancestral village. http://bit.ly/cIkqbg #
• New blog post: Active Captain X http://theexcellentadventure.com/ea/2010/02/28/active-captain-x/ #
• Working on a full-on SEO analysis for Hunt Press. Fun stuff, when it's a labor of love. #small press #micropress #huntpress #
• @jonaiello Amen. Gorgeous, isn't it? YAY SUNSHINE! in reply to jonaiello #
• RT @TheCoveMovie: Poll: Should Tilikum, the orca that killed his trainer Wednesday, remain at SeaWorld Orlando? http://bit.ly/aoCl0E #

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I’m blogging this, after having tweeted it and facebooked it. Please watch it. Please think about it. Please do it.

And please, let those people do the right thing. God bless you Keith Olbermann, for using your position and visibility to speak for those who can’t. I hope someone who can do something is listening.

My friend Pilar sent me a link to this blog, and I found myself nodding, grinning, and really just identifying with, oh I dunno, pretty much everything in the whole blog. On the one hand, it’s paperwork everywhere I look. On the other hand… bring on the crows.

The day before my birthday, I immersed myself in the possibilities of Piedmont.

My pal Jennie’s dad does stage lighting and set design for the Berkeley Opera, so she found herself in possession of a few tickets. Having chatted about opera for ages, she knew I was a fan, and invited me out for an evening performance of Don Giovanni. Naturally, since it was the night before my birthday, we decided to make it a girls’ night out, and have dinner as well.

Friends, a mama of three little ones rarely, and I mean rarely, gets to do the whole night out thing in quite such style. I am gonna ride on the vibe of this one for a while.

Dinner was at Trattoria Corso. We decided to sit at the bar, and order a simple meal. I scanned the menu, and realized that although it’s advertised as Florentine, a lot of the food was from the Piedmont region of Italy, which just so happens to be the ancestral home of Jason’s family. I’d been researching the food and wine of the region, because as I’ve written here and here, I think that part of understanding a people is understanding their food. So dinner ended up being a luscious, comforting, creamy slab of baked polenta, a plate of exquisite grilled beets, some lightly sauteed spinach, and a chicken breast that I’m pretty sure was the best I’ve eaten, ever, anywhere. We washed it down with half a bottle of a Piedmontese white wine, appley at the front and buttery at the finish. Ahhhhh.

Then, off to the opera. I am not a traditional opera snob; I love the idea of opera, and the folk art aspect of it, and grew up seeing everything from full productions at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, through dinner arias sung at the Knights of Columbus hall in seedy neighborhoods. I know good opera, and I can enjoy more local, earthy opera too. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot, so I was absolutely knocked off my feet by this production.

The lead, Eugene Brancoveanu, was breathtaking. It wasn’t until intermission that I got to sneak a look at the program and saw that he had a list of impressive credits that took up an entire column. Baritone Igor Vieira, as Leporello, handled himself fantastically, with a grasp of physical humor nearly as good as his voice. And the rest of the cast did amazing things at varying times. Soprano Kaileen Miller, as Donna Anna, gave us the willies, so convincing was her portrayal of a girl bereaved to madness. She spent the entire opera carrying around a sheet covered with the dried blood of her slain father like a blankie, and at one point, laid on a corner of the stage completely covered in it. Ubercreepy.

A highlight of the production, for me, was the set. Berkeley Opera uses “minimalist” sets; they have a projection screen, and minimal props. You’d think that’d be cheesy or disappointing, but Projection Designer Jeremy Knight, Jennie’s dad, made it be so incredibly much more than a built set could ever be. His interpretation of the “Catalogue Aria” has had me giggling for days. The video below is what was happening on the stage, behind Leporello, who is brandishing his iPhone to Donna Elvira, explaining to her what a cad Giovanni really is.

Is that just unbelievably cool? The “little black book” taken to new heights.

Seeing as how I am normally on babies’ nighttime schedule, staying alert to the end of the performance was a challenge, and I was yawning embarassingly by the end, not from lack of enthusiasm, but by it being about two hours past my normal bedtime. Jennie dropped me off at home, and I fell into bed, floating on a cloud of aria, supported by a belly full of Italian food.

Considering the insane amount of work that this Italian citizenship thing has been, it was so, so nice to spend an evening just reveling in the culture, the possibilities that it represents. All work and no play has got to end sometime, and this was about the best finish I could imagine.

(Part 1 of this series of posts is here.)

Jason’s cousin Chris is the one who did the lion’s share of the original legwork to establish that Grandpa Bernardo never renounced his Italian citizenship, making this entire “Becoming Italian” adventure possible. Early on in the process, I contacted him on email for pointers on how to do this. And over the months, he’s been help and more help, mostly in figuring out what documents I really need and which I can probably skip, but also just in being soothing. When you’re dealing with four generations of births, marriages, deaths, and paperwork from counties and comunes both, it gets nutty, and it’s really easy to feel like you don’t have a handle on it. Add to that the fact that it’s not even my family; I’m getting quite the education on a towering history of family drama and romance.

Yesterday, Chris came by to sort through my accumulated paperwork, check it over, and see if he thought I was prepared (seeing as how he’s already completed the process and has citizenship). Within moments, we had each divided our nearly inch-thick stacks of paper into several stacks, and three checklists. Jason’s really not been part of this process; he has gone and signed papers when I needed him to, in the places where vital records are only given to a living descendant, but otherwise, he’s pretty much just having me do it. So when he saw the fruits of a few years of paperchasing spread across the table, his eyes got wide. And when Chris and I started trading notes on obscure facts about their family and arcanery about getting documents out of bureaucracies, they just got wider. It’s a bigger job than it seems like it might be, until you see it all spread out like that.

And it’s not a linear, checklisty kind of process. For instance, there are three different agencies that record renunciation of citizenship and acquisition of American citizenship. Chris was only able to get the records from one of them, Chris’s mother was only able to get one other one, and I was only able to get the third one. So much depends on what kind of day the person at the desk is having when you arrive, and whether they like you or not. It’s totally random. Between the three of us, we have complete records and total proof. There’s nothing inherent to any one of us that would make us unable to get a given record, and of course, we’re all asking about the same person’s record. It’s just a matter of the stars aligning.

I have made one tactical error: I got the apostilles before I photocopied the documents. Apostilles in California are stapled directly to the documents, a little bit offset, and then stamped off the edge of the apostille and onto the original document. Once you’ve acquired the apostille, you absolutely, positively cannot ever remove it, or it nullifies the apostille. So making my photocopies is going to be a PITA. Oh well, live and learn.

I also have waited way too long to get my translations done. Honestly, I thought I had time, and the days just snuck up on me. So as of Monday, I start the panicked, prayerful phonecalls in the hopes that some one of the Consulate’s approved professional translators will help me out in time.

But having said that, in the major ways that seriously count, I have done due diligence and then some. I’ve covered bases, even ones that I might not necessarily need to cover. I figure it’s always better to overprepare than underprepare. I’m also hoping that it’ll reduce the chance that the Consulate will punt our application for some undotted i or uncrossed t.

I keep saying “our application.” That’s not really the case. It’s only an application for Jason and the children, since this is jure sanguinis, “of the blood”, and I am most definitely of the marriage. So once we finish this and the application is accepted, then the fun begins, and another flurry of paperwork assembly, including fun stuff like an FBI background check for me, gets underway.

Beyond the mere facts of proving that you’re descended from Italian nationals, though, there’s a fuzzier, more human dimension to this process. I’ve bought dress clothes for the children; white button-down shirts and navy slacks for the boys, a pale pink dress with salmon and white chrysanthemums and a chocolate brown sweater for Aurora. I’m hoping to pick up little vests for the boys, still, but they’re harder to find than it seems they should be. Jason has polished his dress shoes, and I’ve got a dress picked out. I have heard of people showing up at their appointments wearing jeans and t-shirts, and I’ve also heard that those people’s applications take longer, sometimes years, to be approved.

There’s also a creative writing component. The first translator I contacted recommended that “since we Italians are passionate people” that our application would be viewed more favorably if we wrote a 1-page “love letter” explaining the heart of why we wanted citizenship. It’s harder than it sounds, to convey your reasons for doing such a thing, in one scant page. I have written, edited, and rewritten the thing over the course of months, and there are multiple drafts. I think I’ve finally nailed it, but I need to wait at least overnight to make sure. Once the thing holds still, I’ll post it here. Which means you’ll see it by 3 March, at least.

So I wrote a blog a few days ago about how upsetting it is that the Lancet has formally retracted the Wakefield MMR study, but hasn’t retracted the Hannah TBT, even though I’m pretty sure Hannah does more harm to women and babies every single day than Wakefield ever did.

A commenter and friend, who works in the biomedical industry, suggested that if I was serious, I should write Lancet and tell them so (it’s in the comments, you can read it yourself).

And I thought… hm. What a lovely idea! Yes, we should indeed write some letters. Because what amazing good would it do for the cause of vaginal breech, if Lancet retracted Hannah with as much publicity and
fanfare as they’ve now retracted Wakefield?

So here you go:

Editorial Departments

General editorial enquiries: editorial@lancet.com
Web enquiries: webeditor@lancet.com

The Lancet
Editor: Richard Horton
richard.horton@lancet.com

Deputy Editor: Astrid James
astrid.james@lancet.com

North American Senior Editor: Maja Zecevic
m.zecevic@lancet.com

Let’s see if we can spread a little love. If you do in fact write a letter, please post it on your blogs, and let us all know, so we can crosslink, tweet, and facebook like mad things and maybe drive some attention to this.

…every single day. Tough to remember, some days. Here, since I can’t be right where you are, and sit and drink tea with you and laugh (and cry) about the transitional disasters and joys, watch this, right where you are.

What can I say? I dig it.

Writing Contest at Stand and Deliver
Topic: Becoming a Parent, Becoming Transformed
Genre: Your choice (first-person narrative, short story, informational article, etc.)
Length: 500-1,000 words
Deadline: entries must be received by March 1, 2010
Submission instructions: email your essay and contact information to stand.deliver at gmail.com. One entry per person, please. Entry must be your own original, unpublished material.
Prize: winning entry receives a $50 gift certificate to Second Womb Slings. The entry will also be published at Stand and Deliver.
Instructions: The contest topic is open-ended. Please reflect on one specific aspect of becoming a parent that has transformed you in some way. It could be about anything from struggling with infertility to giving birth to raising an exceptionally spirited child.

• Brilliant! 69 Signs You Live On a Boat http://bit.ly/7hRQlz @sailtotrail #
• RT @SeaShepherd: Watson to whalers: We will never surrender | The Japan Times Online: http://bit.ly/cqmYyt #seashepherd #
• SFO air traffic routed over Bay due to easterly winds, which made it like paddling on the runway instead of water, and super-bumpy. #kayak #
• Explain to me why paying online nets you a $2 "service fee" but mailing in a paper check that must be touched by more people, is free? #
• Studying for the interview I've got tomorrow morning. Talk about out of the blue. #
• And now, "I Wear No Pants" is stuck in my head. Over. And over. And over. Damn you, Poxy Boggards! http://bit.ly/6xJvH6 #
• …and even better, when your 7 and 4-year-old sons start trying to work out the harmonies. "I weeeeeeeear no pants!". #
• RT @SeaShepherd: Hey Japanese Whaler Dudes, Stop Your Pathetic Whining – http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/editorial-100210-1.html #
• Beautiful morning for a paddle. Too bad I have an interview. And natch, it's gonna rain tomorrow. #notkayaking #
• Interview went, I think, pretty well. Always fun to find out you'd be working with folks you #
• …encountered before, and really liked #
• Rowan: "Aquaman is King of Atlantis, and protects the world's oceans. Does that mean that Paul Watson is Aquaman?" #seashepherd #
• Almost wimped out on the morning paddle, cause it's raining. So glad I didn't; it's beautiful out on the Bay today. #kayak #
• @OmarTodd thanks for the follow! I'm honored! #
• Unbelievably cool!!! Go Syzygy! http://bit.ly/9hOGjL #
• Nothing like helping an old friend move to instill in one a sense of virtue. Especially when it involves rousting toddlers before dawn. #

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Pardon me in advance if this is incoherent and raging. It’s mostly because, well, I’m incoherent and raging currently.

So here’s the deal. The Lancet is going to retract Andrew Wakefield’s study about MMR and autism.

Just think about that for a moment.

I don’t give a wet slap about whether or not you think vaccines have anything to do with autism. Just throw that out of your heads for a minute. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Wakefield’s paper was the worst piece of garbage science you’ve ever seen. I don’t happen to believe that, personally, but go ahead and run with it, for the point of the argument.

The Wakefield study is 12 years old. T-w-e-l-v-e. Do you really, genuinely think, that the Lancet has only published one bullshit paper in twelve years?

OK, how about this? The Hannah Term Breech Trial. This one paper, published in 2000, is the reason that a breech baby is considered an automatic cesarean section. And it’s complete crap. Dr. Marek Glazerman ripped it apart (also in the Lancet), and Hannah herself also published a retraction of sorts which showed that her data was not spot on, but they should go ahead and cut women open anyway.

This particular piece of peer-reviewed dogmeat continues to be cited over, and over, and over again. And gee, you don’t see the Lancet retracting it, do you?

Vaccinations are more profitable than non-vaccinations (and I won’t even go into the profit involved in vaccine damage, because we’re playing along with the Wakefield-is-a-loony side for the purpose of argument).  Cesareans are more profitable than non-cesareans, and I’m not going to go into the profits of cesarean damage here either, I’ve done it elsewhere.

Maybe it’s just that my cynicism is showing, but I’m pretty sure that what we’re seeing here is not any sort of scientific method that Al-Biruni or Roger Bacon would recognize. Oh, that’s right. That’s because they were scientists, and what we’re seeing now is more the purview of economics.

UPDATE: Fraud in medical research publishing? Say it ain’t so.

• Just had to boot up my old HP laptop to retrieve some FTP paths. Wish there was a way to resurrect it. #
• Still sick, but it hasn't stopped me from glancing at the phone every 15 minutes. Come ON Uberjob! You know you want me!!!! #
• The cool thing about editing for Hunt Press is that I get to read the coolness first. Zenschooling rocks! http://bit.ly/abLEHV #
• The Cove nominated for an Oscar! Go sign the petition to end the slaughter, here: http://bit.ly/4kim7 #Cove #
• RT @SeaShepherd: Aiding whaling could soon be a crime – http://bit.ly/cr3bGf YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #
• UberJob has decided I'm not their girl. Moping in my near future. Time to start hitting the grapevine: Hey folks, I'm looking for work! #
• Wow. Wind just *really* picked up. Boat's bouncing, and there are whitecaps in the marina with a southerly. Wheee! #
• Gorgeous morning of a dayful of possibility. #
• Checking out MacENC Marine Navigation Software. HT Syzygy. http://bit.ly/diWPIE #navigation #
• RT @ScottBourne: Story in the Times showing what happens when folks expect creatives to give it up for free – http://bit.ly/cCLCIg #

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Yes, you.

Look, all the great families of the Middle Ages and Renaissance were patrons of the arts. They recognized that life without art was nothing, and so they sponsored some of the greatest talents and finest minds of their time, with the end result that we’re still looking back on the heights that art attained during that supported period of time.

Today, not so much. I don’t know a single artist who isn’t having to be their own marketing department too, who isn’t taking time away from creation to hustle for the groceries. And frankly, that diminishes us all; every moment that great artists are holding down a desk or flipping a burger is a moment they aren’t spending creating works that inspire, that motivate, that energize and delight.

To that end, if you’re not familiar with it, I’d like to tell you about Kickstarter. In their own words, Kickstarter is:

… a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors.

We believe that…

• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.

Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.

My brilliant, talented, gorgeous pal Angela has a Kickstarter project going that fully deserves to be funded and then some. Please go check it out, and become a patron of the arts. Especially now, when times are hard and the world is wooly, sometimes art is the best expression of what we’re capable of as a culture. If we want history to remember us for something other than Wall Street, we have to leave behind art that will speak for us. So step up to the plate, please, and consider patronage.