Geek Speak

Does anyone who knows anything about them "come-pewters" tell us whether we should get this brick?

http://www.lacie.com/asia/products/product.htm?pid=10693

And if so, what is a good price to pay for it?

Insofar as computing prowess is concerned, I am guided roughly by my aesthethic sense - if it looks nice, get it... But if course I would love to know if I am getting a lemon for my money as well...

From all over the world

The class is small - about 35 students, but they come from 17 countries in the world. I really enjoy hanging out with them, and I do enjoy my job.

This is our informal class photo from this year. I don't look very big because I found out what all pregnant women know - Black is slimming!!

heh

Last Days of Work

Last official day of work was yesterday.

Took a picture of my pass before I need to return it. Class and collegues bought a nice big bunch of flowers for me, and we had a bit of a surprise party during the lunch break.

Will upload the photos on Flickr because not enough space here.

Later!

Pictures from Sook's visit

Couple of weeks back Sooks came to visit. Check out couple of photos.

Am rushing towards a deadline, so will just leave you with pictures which tell the story better than I can.

pejorative only if you think so

I have been working on this thing for Sohni at ASEF. It is about various legal restrictions on free speech in different countries, for instance blasphemy legislation in many European countries, or te offence of "insulting the Buddhist religion" in Myanmar! I will be glad to finish it this week and not look at it again, simply because it is so depressing to see how many laws are observed by their abuse.

Anyway, maybe because I've been reading so many laws designed to combat anti-semitism, I have taken to calling our kid (AFFECTIONATELY) the "half-caste" or our little "half-breed mongrel"...

Of course I am only kidding. Most comments are pejorative only if you don't realise the context. In this one, it is just because my general stand on hate speech is broadly similar to Noam Chomsky's. By the way, he has been accused of being anti-semetic, but only by people who don't understand him...

"Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favor of free speech, then you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you're not in favor of free speech." Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992).

Pets and Children

I spent a pleasant hour talking to Massimo whilst playing with Olga today. We agreed that having a dog was like having a child. Except that a dog is dependent on you till its dying day. So many things about his methods and philosophy in raising Olga are applicable to children, or at least how I want to raise my child.

For example the idea of balancing love with discipline. The fact that you have to be consistent in the ground rules, because it is deeply confusing to a dog (and a child!) if one day it is okay to do something, and the next day you change the boundary lines. About having so much responsibility but so much fun and so much love.

By the by, speaking of passing pets - I spent a moment of silence in memory of Pyscho the hamster who died today. Her obituary is on Sohni's blog (see right hand links column)

"Auntie" Liyi comes to visit

Liyi came to visit in the week before Easter. It was lovely weather when we took a walk in the park near my home. I am sooo round - check out that photo! Liyi is going to be "Auntie" 2 times over... First because her sister is also expecting, and second because she's fairy godmother to our little TR Thibault.

I have to get back to work now. More later...

Baby Preparations!

We are scrolling through the stuff we want to get Thibault JR.

Questions include:

Baby Bjorn or Sarong sling? we already bought the sarong sling but Fabien thinks it is not ergonomic so now he wants to get the Baby Bjorn Air... I think it's a waste of money, and we should have just bought one and stuck with it!

We bought the car seat, but do we want to fulfil Dad's Maclaren driving fantasies for a push chair as well? One of those funky 3- wheelers, a complete 3 in 1 system or an easily collapsible model for easy travelling? Should we wait till we get to Beijing to look at the road and living conditions there before deciding?

Just because you decided on something does not mean that it ends there. We decided that we wanted to use a combination of disposable diapers and washable nappies. BUT do we get them from imse vimse/eco-baby or green mountain?

So many choices. I have become an avid internet surfer of product reviews - I think I now know enough about baby gear to go become a product liability lawyer - there is muchos mulah to be made there! Babies and children are the perfect plaintiffs to tug at the heartstrings in the court of public opinion inasmuch as the jury's decision room.

wedding website

In the context of weddings, someone asked me about our wedding website.

Alas, it is no more because we paid weddingwindow 90 USD for hosting for 16 months which has since expired. if you are interested, just go to www.weddingwindow.com

Also there are some photos of our french wedding here:

France Wedding

have a good week ahead

toodling along

YAY! Finally Sooks - my busy london lawyer friend has taken time out from her schedule to come to Milan and make a quick pit-stop in Turin.

Of course, she couldn't have picked a busier time for me, because I am now full time working at the ILO center. One year ago, I could have sneaked her inside for lunch, but now the new policy has gone nuts for security - the UN cluster can only be entered with a pass at the security checkpoint - EVERYONE has to show their pass, and they have even locked the drains - I am not kidding! . They must have recieved some kind of wierd death threat or something.

Oh well. The only great news is that i now have free access to Lexis in the library. The non-lawyers will wonder why this is a big deal. Only the lawyers who use it will understand why I love it so much (and use it all the time)...