The Fam

I’ve added a new link under “Pages” so that I can post some of the small movies we’ve been taking with our digital camera. Quality’s not great, but I’m sure most of you won’t mind if you can see and hear Zayne.

We’re going to try to teach the little guy some sign language. We’ve picked up some books put out by Sign2Me, which look to be very informative. For some reason, a lot of the other techniques on the market will teach your kids signs, but they aren’t based on American Sign Language. Sign2Me is based on ASL, so given how well any of us retain it, it might be a good introduction into learning full blown ASL.

There seem to be many benefits to signing, chief of which is the fact that the little guy will be able to communicate some of his needs before he can verbalize them. Anything we can do to reduce frustration on his part or our own is certainly worth looking into.

Okay, here’s a scary story from DaddyTypes:

“Thimerosal, ever heard of it? A preservative containing mercury compounds that was used in vaccines in the US until 2003, including some of the most commonly administered immunizations given to infants and children: Hep B, Haemophilus Influenza B, and diptheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP)? Has an alarmingly high correllation to rises in learning disabilities and autism? Has been covered up by the FDA and CDC and all the vaccine-producing pharma companies since a secret emergency conference at Simpsonwood, Norcross, GA in 2000? Has Senate Majority Leader/HMO exec/major Pharma campaign contribution recipient Bill Frist making multiple stealth attempts to shield drug companies from liability for the injuries caused by their neurotoxin-laden vaccines? Ring a bell?

If any of this doesn’t sound familiar–and since it’s largely based on very recently fulfilled FOIA requests, it probably doesn’t–go ahead and read Robert Kennedy Jr’s long, damning article on the Thimerosal cover-up in Salon today.”

The article from Salon can be found here.

The CDC has some information about Thimerosal here.

I just wanted to remind everybody that this is intended to be an interactive website. Every post has a place for readers to leave comments. Simply click on the link at the bottom of the entry that says “No Comments” (or “1 Comment”, etc.). This will take you to a page where you can leave feedback. You don’t have to sign up - just enter your name and email (which will remain private).

I don’t know what you like or dislike about the site if you don’t tell me!

I’ve had a couple of comments about the pictures on the site. Some people would like to have access to them for printing, emailing, etc. Others would like to be able to view the pictures outside of the site. This is all very doable.

The pictures themselves are hosted on a website called Flickr. Flickr is a place where you can upload pictures, organize them into sets, tag them with unique keywords, and share them with other users. It’s really neat to be able to be able to view other people’s photos, or be able to view all photos with a certain tag (baby, for example).

You can access our photos directly at Flickr at this address. While you’re there, check out some of the services people have built that work with Flickr. You’ll see there’s even a screen saver in the list!

This is a bit off-subject, since it’s not directly about the boy, but I figured it’s a good forum. The Mom and I have been trying lately to make more conscious decisions about what we buy - especially what we eat. We have been doing our best to buy organic when we can, and are avoiding companies that own or operate factory farms.

There are some really good resources available to get more information about these topics. These are some of my favorites:

• Store Wars - A look into organic foods, and the dangers that are increasingly appearing in store bought products.
• The Meatrix - Talks about factory farms, and their impact on our environment and economy.
• Farm Aid - The original. More “serious” than the previous two links, and a great wealth of information. I wear my “Stop Factory Farms” shirt with pride.
• Bad Corporation - Want to know who owns a company? Want to know all of the products a company makes? Want to know all of the things a company does that will make you not want to patronize them anymore? This is the place. Take a look at the dirt on an innocent-sounding company like Sara Lee.

Okay. Off my soapbox. Back to the regular programming.