Vox Publica

These are some of my favorite internet products & services, some of which I use daily. Check them out!

Skype

A free internet telephony product that really works. I use it to call my parents in LA, and my colleagues around the world. You can also use it to call phones - rather than computers -, at very low rates. If you want to call me, my username is mlacabe.

Picasa

This is a free image editor by Google. It's great in that it's very small and it takes minutes to download and install, but it lets you do simple photo editing (cropping, red-eye correction, color correction) very quickly and easily. It doesn't have the functionality of photoshop and its folder structure is a complete and total mess, but I like it quite well, in particular when used in conjuction with:

Hello

This is a tool that helps you share your pictures with other Hello users. It's also free and extremely quickly to download and install. Picture transfer is amazingly quick and you can see what your friends are looking at. My username here is margalacabe

Craigslist

I spend way too much time at the discussion groups here, but Craigslist is most useful as a place to buy and sell anything you want, find a job, a nanny or a lead or just kill some time.

Salon

The grandaddy of the internet magazines, it's also my favorite. I love the wide range of topics and viewpoints it presents. It's well worth the $35 annual subscription.

Epicurious and All Recipes.

These two websites offer thousands of recipes with user reviews. Epicurious' recipes come from cooking magazines (Bon Appetite, Gourmet and others) while All Recipes accepts submissions from everybody. I usually have better luck with epicurious recipes, but not always. They're both worth checking out.

btefnet.net

There are many torrent sites out there and they often close as quickly as they open, btefnet has been pretty stable so far. It's for episodes of TV shows only, mostly from network TV.

Amazon

I hate being so dependent on this megahuge ecommerce site, but it's the first place I go when I want to read consumer reviews of specific products. epinions is usually the second. Amazon also has good prices and lately I've been lucky with their shipping.

Yahoo Shopping

It has thousands of small stores so it's a great place where to go for comparison shopping and where to find difficult-to-find items.

Please feel free to comment with your favorites.

Too cute not to share

Sometimes the Wall Street Journal can steer you in the right direction, as it has today by recomending Rollyo, a website that allows you to create your own customized search engine. Basically, you can enter a list of websites where you want Rollyo to search and it will save that list in its own URL so you can use it over and over. You can also add it to your browser search bar.

Usually I wouldn't be so excited about that. In most instances when I search for something, I want to search the whole web. HOWEVER, when I'm doing pages for the disappeared for Project Disappeared, I often want to search a limited number of sites, those I know that have information about the disappeared. Now I can without having to do it one by one. Tres cool.

Here is my disappeared search page:

http://rollyo.com/marga/disappeared/

you can try it out by typing a person's name.

You can also put a search box in your own website (see below to the left). This is useful for those of us who have many different domain names, now you can search on all my domain names at once.

Go to Google, put "asshole" in the search field and then click on "I'm feeling lucky".

It will take you to http://filmstripinternational.com/, and a cool slideshow about some of our most well known assholes.

I'm not a huge fan of the US Post office - and in this internet age who really needs it? - but I have to say that the new "favorite children's book animals stamps" are just the cutest. They feature the very hungry caterpillar, curious george, one of the "wild things" from where the wild things are, wilbur the pig, the fox in socks, Maisy (I HATE Maisy) and, my very favorite, Olivia. I just LOVE Olivia, she is soooooo cute and so much like my 4-yo.

It's a good thing we don't mail very many letters, 'cause I don't think I want to use these up :)

BugMeNot - Bypass Compulsory Registration - is a website that allows you to find pre-registered userids and passwords to popular registration-only websites, including top newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post.

You can go to their website to obtain the userids, put a bookmaklet in your tool bar or even get a plug-in for Firefox.

Note that they only provide userids for free accounts.

School of Americas Watch has a new flash-animation "recruitment ad" that should generate a chuckle or too - despite the very serious subject.

Check it out at http://www.soaw.org/new/flash.html

Don't miss this hilarious (and actually quite good) new song by President Bush:

I'm The Decider

I'm not a David Copperfield fan but this is just cool. Apparently Copperfield and two assistants were robbed at gun point after a performance. His assistants handed off their stuff, but Copperfield used sligh of hands to show the robbers his pockets were empty, while in fact they had his cell phone, wallet and passport.

The robbers were later arrested.

David Copperfield Robbed at Gunpoint : People.com

I have a new hero. Stephen Colbert is a comedian. He has a show called "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central in which he takes the persona of a right-wing Fox-news-like journalist to present fake-real news and interview celebrities and politicians. I don't actually watch his show, but I've seen him before in "The Daily Show", another "fake news" show in which he worked as a correspondant for several years. These shows are comedies, that's why they are in Comedy Central. They cover the irony and ridiculousness of news stories, but their genious is that they do it seriously (or at least pretending to be serious). It's a sad statement on the state of the news media today, that what they cover is often more relevant and their opinions are more respected than that of the general news media.

For some unfanthomable reason, Stephen Colbert was invited to be a speaker at the White House Correspondents Dinner. At the dinner, which is attended by white house and other correspondents, media moguls and people who have made news - in addition the President (yes, Bush), guests "roast" the President. A roast is a strange American tradition in which peole ridicule the guest of honor. I didn't watch the whole show, but apparently most of the speakers did so in a mild and welcoming way.

Stephen Colbert was left to the last, and he was clearly nervous when he started. As well as he should have been, for he proceeded to make what is probably the strongest and most direct indictment of the President's policies and positions that anyone has ever made to Bush's face. He did all of this in character, pretending to be a patriotic, Bush-loving Fox-like politican - and he did so amazingly away. Colbert took Bush to task on global warming, wiretapping, secret detention centers, the war in Iraq, his lack of concern for facts or reality and other matters; he also took on the press - his hosts - for the carte blanche they've given the president. And he did this standing up only a few feet from the President.

That must have taken a lot of courage, the kind of courage most of the press does not have. And it didn't have it that night. Even though the jokes were hillarious most of them only laughed quietly and nervously, if at all. The President and the First Lady looked uncomfortable as did pretty much everyone else - except for White House correspondent Helen Thomas.

You can read more about the show, including some of the jokes at http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002425363

Interestingly, while the news media covered the dinner - it barely mentioned Colbert's speech.

But I take my hat off to him for having the courage to speak the truth to a man everyone else keeps in the dark.

You can watch the show and thank him at http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/

This is Camila when she was first born, note her dark skin and hair

This is Camila now, with blond hair and light (though tanned) skin.

Who knew that babies bleach out?

If you are in the Bay Area, I hope you will come. I'm organizing this.

The San Leandro Community Action Network & Zocalo Coffee House invite you to

A RECEPTION & BOOK SIGNING
in honor of
BRIAN COPELAND
and his new book

Not a Genuine Black Man:
Or, How I Claimed My Piece of Ground in the LilyWhite Suburbs

The reception will take place on
Thursday, August 17th 7 PM at
Zocalo Coffeehouse, 645 Bancroft Ave. San Leandro

Copies available for purchase at the event.

" Based on the longestrunning oneman show in San Francisco history now coming to OffBroadway a hilarious, poignant, and disarming memoir of growing up black in an allwhite suburb

In 1972, when Brian Copeland was eight, his family moved from Oakland to San Leandro, California, hoping for a better life. At the time, San Leandro was 99.4 percent white, known nationwide as a racist enclave. This reputation was confirmed almost immediately: Brian got his first look at the inside of a cop car, for being a black kid walking to the park with a baseball bat.

Brian grew up to be a successful comedian and radio talk show host, but racism reemerged as an issue only in reverse when he received an anonymous letter: “As an African American, I am disgusted every time I hear your voice because YOU are not a genuine Black man!” That letter inspired Copeland to revisit his difficult childhood, resulting in a hit oneman show that has been running for nearly two years which has now inspired a book. In this funny, surprising, and ultimately moving memoir, Copeland shows exactly how our surroundings make us who we are."

Reviews
“A beautiful mix of wry humor and heartbreak, indignation and inspiration, a singular story of extreme isolation that speaks to anyone who’s ever felt out of place.”
San Francisco Chronicle"

UC Berkeley will be hosting a 2-day conference on "the Undead", those spirits and ghouls that haunt our minds, at least during Halloween's. The actual program of the conference doesn't sound nearly as interesting as its concept - which is good, as otherwise I'd want to go and I can't really afford the time (or the babysitting) - but the concept is just too rich not to share.
--

October 19-20, 2006

Conference: The Undead

From age-old whisperings of spirits and ghosts to the contemporary explosion of cultural interest in zombies, the concept of the undead is one that refuses to die. This conference will bring together speakers representing various disciplines, from literature, film, and art to anthropology, politics, and science, who will explore texts, concepts, bodies, and cultures that are at the intersections of life and death.

The conference opens on October 19 with a film screening and discussion in 142 Dwinelle Hall. Graduate Theological Union professor Naomi Seidman will introduce The Dybbuk, a film about spirit possession, and give a related talk from her paper "Ghost of Queer Loves Past." The conference continues with panel discussions October 20 in 370 Dwinelle Hall. Speakers will include: Roy Chan (Comparative Literature), Josh Weiner (English), Alexei Yurchak (Anthropology), Jonathan Cohn (Film Critical Studies, UCLA), Suzanne Daniels (Comparative Literature, NYU), Cathy Hannabach (Cultural Studies, UC Davis), Melanie Micir (University of Pennsylvania), and Sonali Thakkar (English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University). Writer Kelly Link will close the event with a literary reading.

The conference is co-sponsored by the Townsend Center for the Humanities, the departments of Comparative Literature, Spanish and Portuguese, French, Rhetoric, English, Ethnic Studies, Italian Studies, and Jewish Studies, and the Center for Latin American Studies.

For event information email undead.conference@gmail.com or visit http://undeadconference.com.

When Napoleon visited/conquered Egypt back in the 18th century his intentions were not just to plunder, but also to learn. He took with him a team of scientists and scholars to study as much as the country as they could. The result was Description de l'Egypte, a multi-volume work that basically describes Egypt from tip to toe. It's also beautifully, beautifully illustrated.

They have a copy of the work at the American University in Cairo - which they keep under lock and key - but now you can also access it on the web, and for free. The effect is not the same as touching those ancient pages with your fingers, and the website is quite slow, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

You can find it at:

http://descegy.bibalex.org/

Below is the press release I got, God knows why.

The penguins have moved from the Magellan Straight to Punta Tombo, in Argentina, and this weekend only (so today only) you can see them live online.

go to: http://200.58.119.161/pinguinos/pinguinos_en_vivo.html

I just found out that in addition to googling yourself, you can also search for yourself at Amazon. It will bring up references to any excerpt of books in their site which reference you by name. It's a pretty cool way of finding out who's mentioned you :-)

A make your-own incense kit

Mike was listening to this lecture by behavioral economist Dan Ariely on the hidden reasons we think it's OK to cheat or steal. Now, I didn't listen to the lecture, but that answer is pretty apparent: cheating and stealing can give reproductive advantages when done successfully, so a genotype that allows for a moral code that allows you to cheat and steal when you won't get caught is likely to be selected for. That may or may not be what this guy said, but that's what makes sense to me.

More interesting is the little story Ariely tells about bandages and pains. Apparently, he was pretty badly burnt sometime in his pants and had bandages all over his body. When it was time to take them off, the nurse told him the best way to do it was to remove them quickly, so he'd have a lot of pain, but for a short period of time. He agreed to that, but then went on to research what was the best way to deal with the pain of removing bandages. He made a series of experiments (I wonder how he got approval to do those, given the amount of pain he must have inflicted on his willing participants), and found out that that was not the best way to deal with the pain of taking off bandages. The best way is:

-Start with the bandages in the most painful areas, so the pain will decrease over time.

-Remove bandages more slowly, lower pain for more extended periods is actually easier to bear than a lot of pain at once.

-Take a break between removing bandages, so you can rest from the periods of pain.

It all makes sense to me, and next time I have to remove a bandage or a band-aid, I'll try his recommendations.

Really

http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/build-a-squid/interactive

I am unusual among the women I know in that I'm not into shoes. I've never cared much about how they look, and in recent years all I pretty much wear are tevas, not the most attractive of shoes. Most of the shoes my kids wear come from Payless - and there you get whatever you can find that fits - or my mom gets them for them. So no, I'm not a shoe fiend.

Until now. Today (and today only), Amazon.com is offering brand-name children's shoes for $10. My kids are in total need of shoes, so, of course, I had to go look. I ended up buying 5 pairs - and I have to say, some of them were pretty cute. This is what I got:

The first two are for Camila and the other three for Mika.

These are sort of cute, but as I was looking at them, I came up upon Toms, which apparently is a company that donates part of its proceeds to poor children in Argentina. Of course, something I like. My god, their shoes are soooooooo cute, though, of course, way, way, way beyond my shoe budget. I mean, I feel bad about having spent $50 in 5 pairs of shoes - imagine on one? or on half a pair? Still, they are cute. Here are the ones I liked the most:

but they have other adorable ones. *Sigh*

If you look at the column next to this text, scrolling down a couple of screens, you will find a section called "In my other blogs" with links to the latest entries on my Food Blog and my Human Rights Blog. The feed is there thanks to Rss Include. It's the same service I've been using for a while, but now they have a new and improved version which is easier to use and more sleek. Now, they also offer a paid version (~$37 a year) that allows you to 1) combine all your blog postings into one entry and 2) don't have the "RSS integration by RSSrssinclude" disclaimer after each feed (which I found very annoying, as I often have several feeds per page). So I happily paid the money (and did not tell Mike :-)

One of my first challenges was to incorporate the feed for my status on Facebook. I've had it for a while, but I wanted to change it to the new system, so that I could get rid of the "RSS integration by RSSrssinclude" phrase under it. Well, let me tell you, that it did not prove easy to do - and I'm still not satisfied with the hack I used. But, in case you are looking to do the same, here are the three choices I found:

-If you want an rss feed to all your notifications, all you have to do is go to
Inbox -> Notifications , look for Subscribe to Notifications and then copy the link that says "Your Notifications". That's the url of your notifications feed. You then go to a service like RSS Include, and use it to create a script that you can copy and paste to the page where you want to have your Facebook feed.

The problem with this, is that it includes your notifications rather than your status - and why would you want a feed to that?

-Your next option is to go to http://apps.new.facebook.com/newsfeedrss/ and create a feed there. It's fairly easy to make, BUT, it will show on your feed not just what you are doing, but also what your friends are doing. And not only I have no interest in broadcasting what they are doing, but it seems like quite the invasion of privacy.

-The workaround that I found is to have a friend (or another account) create a Friends List that includes only you (go to Friends, chose "make a new list", make it, click on edit and then add your name). Once your friend has done that, have him select the name of the mailing list, then click on "Status Updates" and then copy the link at "Friend's Status Feed". Then you go to rss-include.

The one thing I don't like about this solution is that it includes my whole name - I rather it just include what I type. But until there is a better solution, that's what I'm using.

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?first=Elba&p=moveon&Submit=Submit&last=lacabe&id=16065-4252582-yVk9Max&nid=HT6uwyWREO_5fjSBLWMSZjExMDc3NzYw

Click here to send one to your mom: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51398&id=16065-4252582-yVk9Max&t=5

Giant pyramids? Human Sacrifice? Class struggle, environmental degradation and the ultimate collapse of a great North American civilization? It sounds like the tale of the Maya - but it turns out to be that of Cahokia, a great city which achieved greatness in the Mississippi river valley during the 1200's. Within a span of two centuries, it arose, it flourished and it disappeared.

I'm sad to say that before reading this book review in Salon.com I had never heard of Cahokia or had any hints that any pyramid-building civilization had arisen within what is now US territory. It's a fascinating concept, and I would love to read the book (Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi).

I'm a little perplexed as to why I've never heard about Cahokia, and any similar sites that might exist. According to the book review: "There are several mound complexes in the Deep South that predate the time of Christ, and one in Louisiana has been dated to 3,400 B.C., well before the building of the Egyptian or Maya pyramids." Do "we" know anything about those civilizations? Are children learning about them at school? (I know I wasn't twenty+ years ago).

Anyway, I'll get the book (not available at our public library) and tell you later what I think :-)

Last night I made my first swap at http://www.swaptree.com/, a website that allows you to swap specific books/cds/games that you have for others that you want. At a whim, I entered the collection of books that I want to get rid of, and after a week or so got my first offer of a trade: Crafty Girl: Cool Stuff for the Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm with the Proslogion , a book I got twenty years ago for my Medieval Intellectual History class and that, predictably, I never read. And, let's be honest, a book I would never, if I lived to be a hundred, read.

The one negative thing about this swapping thing is that I have to actually mail the book. Which means I need to find some sort of packaging materials for it. Mailing it is only $2.80 or so but mailing it is a hassle (one that I'm passing on to Mike). If you think about the fact that I can much more easily donate the books I have to the library and then buy the ones I want, probably for about $4 each, including shipping, from an online vendor, perhaps this swapping thing doesn't make that much sense. But... how cool is it to have found someone who wants to trade a book on girls' crafts for one on medieval prayers?

A couple of days ago, I placed an add in the San Leandro Freecycle group looking for craft supplies. Now that the girls and I are crafting so much, supplies are running out quick. For those of you who don't know freecycle, it's basically a mailing list through which you give away the stuff you no longer need/want and get stuff from others who are in the same situation. You pretty much can give away anything through freecycle, I've seen half-empty bottles of shampoo being taken, though that's not been the case for some of my stuff. C'est la vie.

You can also request items in freecycle, and my posting for craft supplies was answered by two great ladies who gave us very cool scrapbooking and general craft items. I want to thank them both very much here - I know the girls and I will have a great time with the material we got.

And hey, if you read this and have extra craft supplies there around, we'd love to get it :-)

Here, for the first time, are the photographs that prove that Mike Katz is not a mild peacenik. In these never-before released pictures, you can see him expertly shooting an AK47 and a tripod-mounted machine gun, while training with some undetermined military group, perhaps in Southeast Asia.

Tonight we finally played Mika's Game, a game we found in the book Crafty Girl: Fun and Games: Things to Make and Do. We made the board and cards a couple of months ago, but we never got around to play it until now. Too bad, because it's the funnest and funniest game we've played in a long time.

To make the game first make a playing board. Get a board-size piece of cardboard and paste same-sized poster paper on top of it. Then cut squares (about 2" x 2") in at least 3 different color paper. Paste the squares onto the cardboard, one after another (with a start and end) in whichever fun shape you can muster. You can decorate the squares with stickers, glitter, etc.
We haven't done that for this game, but I'll try to convince Mika to make a new playing board.

Now, for the cards. Make a set of cards (let's say 50) with funny things to do (continue reading to see the cards I made). Print them on the same color paper as one set of squares. If you want, make another set of cards on the color of another set of squares and print questions in them. The questions will depend on your game-players. My youngest is 4yo, so I made them all about things around the house (see examples below).

And that's it. The silliest you make the actions and questions the most fun the game will be. My kids loved it.

An 88-year-old woman, who walks laps everyday in memory of her husband, with whom she used to hike, has just reached the 10,000 miles mark. She's been doing this for 11 years. If my math is correct that would be about 2.5 miles a day - quite an achievement for someone her age! Indeed, quite an achievement for anyone.

I just got this e-mail from Tim Holmes, the owner of Zocalo Coffeehouse. Zocalo is matching the donations made to the Davis Street Family Resource Center, a San Leandro organization that provides goods and services to the poor.

Here is their press release:

Decorate our Tree for Davis Street

San Leandro, CA - December 14, 2009 - Zocalo Coffeehouse is holding an tree decorating fundraiser for the Davis Street Family Resource Center.

For nearly 40 years the Davis Street Family Resource Center has assisted tens of thousands of families in our community via health clinics, job search, childcare, clothing and food banks, and more.

The number of families in need turning to Davis Street has increased 5X in the past year alone and they are straining to support these needs. More than ever in it’s history Davis Street’s mission is critical to San Leandro.

Come down to Zocalo between now and the end of the year and donate an ornament to our tree and not only will 100% of the money go directly to Davis Street, but Zocalo will match up to $5000, for a combined possible total of $10,000, making your money go twice as far and helping Davis Street to serve even more in need.

Ornaments range from a $5 red heart to the $500 tree topper star! Donate $1000 (and remember, we'll match your donation) and you can choose whatever you like for your tree topper!

A donation to Davis Street is the perfect gift to the community.

Zocalo Coffeehouse is an independent, locally-owned coffeehouse and roastery, located in San Leandro, California. The name, a Mexican-Spanish word meaning "town square" or "town center," was chosen to reflect the goal of community building, focusing not only on the product, but on the place itself. It's not just about coffee or tea, its about the community.

Contact:
Tim Holmes
Zocalo Coffeehouse
645 Bancroft Ave.
San Leandro, CA
www.zocalo.com
tim@zocalo.com
PH: 510-384-1977

It's late in life, no doubt, but I'm happy to have discovered a new Xmas character to make a fuss about: Krampus. Krampus is some type of monster (though he looks like a demon) who travels with St. Nicholas (aka Santa Claus) taking the kids who have been very, very bad. In Europe, St. Nicholas actually makes his rounds on Dec. 5th-6th, so that's when Krampus appears as well. And that's when we are going to feast him next year :-) I'll need to get some Krampus decorations, of course, so if you're still wondering what to get me for Xmas - there you go.

To my delight, I've found several Krampus songs on youtube - which makes me ask, why are they not being taught in school? If it's OK to worship Santa in school (or Christ, according to the San Leandro School District), why not acknowledge Krampus as well? After all, Santa Claus is nothing but a perversion of St. Nicholas anyway.

In Europe, people get dressed as Krampus and go on the streets amusing tourists, or so it seems. Here is one video (but there are tons in youtube):

So now you know, next year, around Dec. 5th, we'll celebrate Krampus day :-)

A while ago I wrote about my kids circus taking classes at Trapeze Arts in Oakland. They've just completed the first 8-week cycle, and they had a blast. We've signed them up for the next cycle and I'm hoping they'll stick with it.

Today they had their "show" and I went to see them for the first time. I loved it! I don't think we could have chosen a better activity for them to do.

What my kids themselves did was not particularly complex, some head rolls mostly, some simple pyramid building and that was about that. Some other kids did very complex routines on the curtains, trapeze and ropes - but I'm sure they've been doing it for much longer. But what I really enjoyed was the sense of fun that accompanied the whole show - in particular the parts for the younger kids. The teachers use their shyness and inexperience for unadulterated comic relief, and the kids love it. Indeed, because it's a circus class, rather than gymnastics, you can celebrate and laugh at mistakes - and really, not necessarily know if they are mistakes or part of the show.

Anyway, if you are looking for an activity for your kids, and you don't want them to get into competitive, life-consuming crap, you should definitely consider this.

In my quest for putting Christian beliefs in perspective, I have been teaching Mika about Ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology - I figure, the most she knows about gods, the more she'll realize that it'd be too arbitrary for any one of them to be real. We've been reading ancient myths, which is always fun, and now we've discovered a new, great resource for solidifying and expanding whatever knowledge we've acquired: the History's Channel's Clash of the Gods series (now available on DVD). The series has hour-long episodes on Hercules, Hades, Medusa, Zeus, the Minotaur, Odysseus, Tolkien's Monsters, Beowulf and Thor. So far we've watched the first three I've listed.

The shows are great. Like typical History Channel productions they are shamelessly dramatic and sensationalistic, with vivid, dramatic and cartoonish recreations and a thundering voice leading the story. A little bit annoyingly - to me - there is a bit of repetition, things being told twice or thrice, but I think that's probably good for children. Most importantly, the content is excellent. The stories are told mostly lineally, with cuts to actual historians and university professors, who (also very animatedly) provide clarification not just on the story but on the symbolism and meaning of the story. These are not very deep analysis, but enough to give you an idea of /why/ the ancient Greeks might have believed on what they believed. And indeed, why /we/ believe what /we/ believe. For example, Mika and I just watched the episode on Hades last night. I was clearly totally ignorant about Hades myself, as I didn't realize that the Christian conception of Heaven and Hell (at least the post-Dante conception, I don't know if the one before Dante was different, yet another hole in my knowledge base) is right out of Greek mythology. It's no wonder, as Christianity is a product of Hellenistic culture - but I'd never made the connection before, even though I'd often wondered where the Christian concepts of heaven and hell came from (as these were not existent in the Old Testament, if I well remember).

While watching this show, I have come to realize that I have not been good about telling Mika about Hebrew and Christian mythology and beliefs - which is a problem, as she then ends up believing the idiocies her school mates tell her. I guess they get in many "theological" discussions, and as the other kids' knowledge of religion(s) is null, they end up confusing themselves and Mika at the same time. For example, Mika seems to have talked to them about Zeus being the king of the gods, and the kids have thus appropriated him saying that he is Jesus' father. I love playing Eris - but then again, you knew that :-)

Anyway, going back to the show. I fully recommend it as great watching for parents and school-age kids together (I think it'd be a bit beyond Camila's understanding, though she did like hearing about Medusas' story when I told it to her, sans the pornographic parts). I'm certainly looking forward to watching the other episodes - and so is Mika.