Verbosity

Rebirth of the Imagination

2010-04-07T09:18:00.000-04:00

When I was a child, I was the strange child. Chubby, quiet, hated sports. My perfect summer day was to lie in the hammock and read, and to make story pictures out of the clouds.

When other children were running and shouting, I liked to pick up the fallen azalea and rhododendron blossoms and imagine them as fairy dresses. I would create gala balls out of the white and pink and purple flowers.

But as I grew up, the world of my imagination receded into memory - all that was left was a few lines noted in a child's diary, a crayon drawing saved by a loving grandmother.

I didn't mourn my lost imagination - all of a sudden there was too much to do and too much to think about. History and biology and literature. When I once would have created whole worlds for Jane Eyre to explore, I was content to write long exegeses on the proto-feminism of Charlotte Bronte. Spanish and Latin replacing the Elvish tongue I invented, and instead of writing poetry, I struggled with trigonometry, finding no rhyme or meaning in numbers.

It has been decades since I have been able to tell myself stories of the wonders in the clouds. I look up into the evening sky and watch the airplanes - alternatively wishing I was heading out on some fantastic journey, or praying that the won't blow up in mid-air.

The years have been kind and not kind...sandwiched between two separate bouts with cancer, I lost my own best cheerleader to her fight with uncontrolled cellular reproduction. Nearly eight years gone now. But happily, I have found satisfaction in a career that doesn't consume my soul. I have friends who will back me to the final wall, true and loyal.

I sit here, wrapped in a robe without glory, and realize that I have reached a place in my life and my mind where I am better than content - I am happy. In that happiness, I find my imagination has been reborn in the act of creation, whether at my workbench, or in story, or in scholarship .

To Think That Sex with Call Girls is Actually the Lesser Evil

2010-03-14T15:45:00.000-04:00

Almost exactly two years ago, Eliot Spitzer, with his obviously angry wife at his side, resigned as Governor of New York State after it was disclosed that he frequently purchased the services of a high-end prostitute. I found that completely and utterly repugnant, and my admiration for the crusading governor immediately turned to disgust.

Initially, I saw David Paterson - a local Long Island man - as a worthy replacement. Then the fumbling and bumbling started - he could barely exercise any control over the State Legislature, although the Democrats had the majority in the Senate for the first time in a generation. Of course, the fiscal crisis that erupted in September, 2008 didn't help, and a series of high profile scandals within the party made effective governing even more difficult.

But it seems that Paterson not only could not rise above the problems, walk the high road even when times are tough - he's actually as corrupt and degenerate as any politician that comes out of that thing called the Albany Machine.

Spitzer's sins were those of the flesh - and really do lie between him and his family, they do not involve the public trust (let's just say that things would have been much different had Client 9 used state funds to pay for the evening's entertainment). Paterson's sins are worse by many magnitudes - the allegations, if proven, are true political corruption - using the power of the office to commit criminal acts.

Reading the latest set of allegations makes me almost physicially ill - he asked for and received free tickets to the opening game of last years World Series, and when he was confronted with the illegality of accepting such an expensive "gift" he tried to pay for the tickets with a freakin' backdated check.

It's time for you to go, Governor. Now.

There's the door, don't let it hit your ass on the way out.

Unsubscribing from BoingBoing

2010-02-18T10:07:00.000-05:00

In my post last week, I tried to convey the feeling of freedom I got from mistakenly clicking on the "mark all as read" button, which wiped out the 1000+ backlog of unread blog entries. The word I was looking for was serendipity - the happy accident.

Unfortunately, it took less than a week to build back up to the 1000+ mark of unread posts, which made me seriously look at what I subscribe to and what I actually want to read. What I've found is that the blogs that get unread the most are the ones I've categorized as "General" - where the subject matter crosses many lines, or has no other reference point than there are topics that I feel I should keep abreast of.

Out of those, the ones that are most unread are, ironically, the blogs that have the highest volume of posts. And chief amongst these is the venerable Boing Boing - perhaps the king, queen, bishop, knight and rook of all blogs. When I started reading Boing Boing, I was keenly interested and actively participating in the on-line tech community, via TWiT (mostly) and many of the Mac sites (frequently TMO and MacUser) and Ars Technica (occassionally), and Boing Boing was a frequent and relevant reference. My interests have moved on - TWiT has shut down the forums, my skills and knowledge on the MacOS are no longer cutting edge and simply cheerleading is a waste of time - so I rarely comment on the Apple sites or Ars Technica , so being au courant on the latest Boing Boing post is no longer essential.

And frankly, Boing Boing has gotten boring. Regurgitating New York Times articles, tirades against intellectual property laws, fawning over freaky artwork - all wrapped up in 200+ posts a week. Not for me - no more. Stick a fork in me - I'm done. A half-hour ago, I hit the unsubscribe button, and it was like the bell had just rung on the last day of school before summer vacation.

While I'm at it, I'm unsubscribing from Lifehacker and Laughing Squid, too. Not that there's not interesting stuff there - but way too often, it's like a big circle jerk - BoingBoing reports on a NYT article that's repurposed in Laughing Squid, which is then quoted in Lifehacker for some reason.

Not that any of these well advertized blogs care about my eyeballs - I read only through the feeds, so I don't count at all. Good.

Google Reader - Happy Accident

2010-02-09T11:15:00.000-05:00

Lots and lots of feeds in my Google Reader - and for the past month or so, I've been slow in keeping up with them. Humor gets read all the time, and most of the Beading and Apple blogs as well, but I've fallen behind on Law, News and Politics, General and Books and Authors - to the point were a 1000+ count has been the usual header. I rountinely mark as read old stuff in the high-volume blogs like Lifehacker and Boing Boing, but that's not been enough to keep the count down. Since I've returned from vacation, the Reader's been stuffed like this:

But I just went to add a new subscription to the PMC blog, and I accidently hit "Mark All Read." My Reader now looks like this:

Scary, but a bit refreshing.

New Obsession

2010-02-09T10:12:00.000-05:00

It's called White Collar.

It appeared as a recommendation in my Hulu queue last fall, and I've completely and totally fallen in love. Best Show on TV - EVER.

Okay - a little exaggeration, but it's pretty freakin' awesome. It's on USA - so the emphasis is more on character than on plot (which can be a bit thin at times), but the man-candy factor is off the scale - and I'm not just talking about the lovely Matthew Bomer.

Tim DeKay is a god in a bad suit.

A really bad suit

Yum.

Moving Air - A Good Night's Sleep

2010-01-08T21:33:00.000-05:00

Finally got a good night's sleep - first in about 10 days.

My fan died. Which wasn't unexpected. Those little desktop fans aren't really meant for constant operation, and since I kept forgetting to turn it off, it just gave up the ghost on Sunday or Monday.

I tried sleeping without the fan, but the air felt just dead, and opening the windows is not a good idea when the temp's in the single digits. On two nights I broke down and cranked the windows open - and the morning wasn't pleasant. 52 degrees is not a good thing when you need to shower and not crawl back under the covers.

So, I finally broke down and ordered a Vornado floor fan from Amazon, and I must say - I'm really loving it. I want some noise - and I had gotten used to the bid shop fan I had been using for 9+ years, which died on me back in October. The Vornado is decibles quieter, but it moves the air and the whoosing is extremely soothing. I had a Vornado once before, and it didn't last long, was very noisy and extremely ugly. This one isn't much prettier, but it's smaller, lighter and does the job. I only wish it had a remote control.

Oh well, it's better than nothing.

Books

2010-01-03T16:18:00.002-05:00

Courtesy Marnie MacLean - New York Times

My house is long and narrow, and looks as though a river of books has run through it and washed various volumes at random into the bookcases that run along the walls.

Jane Smiley
Books You Can Live Without - Room for Debate,
New York Times, December 27, 2009

At the Closing of the Year*

2009-12-31T19:19:00.002-05:00

If I cannot bring you comfort
Then at least I bring you hope
For nothing is more precious
Than the time we have and so
We all must learn from small misfortune
Count the blessings that are real
Let the bells ring out for friendship
At the closing of the year

Happy New Year to all.

*Credit - Wendy & Lisa

Local Diner WTF?

2009-12-21T14:27:00.000-05:00

The roads are pretty clear, but I didn't want to travel too far for lunch today, so I settled on the usually mediocre but fairly expensive Airport Diner. It's only real virtue is the proximity to my office. I also had a hankering for a Philly cheesesteak, which is pretty standard diner fare.

So, while I'm sitting and waiting for my order, I watch my waiter having a ferocious conversation/argument with the manager. After much pointing - to me, to the dessert case and back at me again, the manager walks over and very tentatively asks -

"Did I really order cheese cake with mushrooms and onions?"

Apparently my waiter (young and American) was both stupid and hard of hearing, because he insisted that I said cheese cake, not cheesesteak. In fact, I said "Philly cheesesteak."

The manager looked quite relieved, but I actually felt a little nauseous. I think I came about this {} close to getting a slice of Junior's best covered in mushrooms and onions.

The Big Snow

2009-12-21T10:32:00.000-05:00

Honestly, I thought the "Blizzard of December 2009" was going to be a whole lot of nothing. We rarely get any significant or even measurable snowfall on Long Island before January, let alone a freakin' blizzard. Even as late as Thursday evening, the meteorologists were calling the predictions for significant accumulation "rogue models" - this storm was just going to skirt the East End, and the most we'd see were flurries.

Some flurries - by the time it ended, we got more than 2 feet of snow. I wish I could give you an exact measurement, but I couldn't get out of the house until the crews came and dug us free. As with any significant snowfall, we end up with drifts against the front door and garage, and try as I might, I couldn't get the storm door opened more than a few inches. The snow was waist and breast high against the front door and the garage door. But that doesn't count, as it's all drift snow.

The best measurement I can give is this:

The bump you can barely see is four inches of snow on top of the mulch mounded on top of the two-foot high planter. This is in an area protected from drifts (there's a berm and trees just to the left), I so I think this measurement is pretty accurate. But once the shovels and plows come through, the poor planter gets completely buried. We probably won't see it until the Spring.

Speaking of the seasons, Winter starts in about two hours.

So Annoying

2009-12-07T13:53:00.002-05:00

Do you ever walk into a room, think about something you MUST DO in the next 10 minutes - but by the time you sit down, you've completely forget what it was?

ARGH!

I See Napoleon

2009-11-30T17:18:00.000-05:00

Some people see Jebus.

Me, I see Napoleon

Odd Dream

2009-11-30T12:43:00.003-05:00

This ever happen to you?

My alarm went off at 5:54 am this morning, and I hit the snooze. It went off again ten minutes later, and I hit the snooze again. The alarm went off of the third time, I got up, showered, got dressed and left for work.

I was very confused when my alarm went off yet again, and I woke up - for real this time.

Generally, my dreams are not this realistic.

Happy Thanksgiving - I'm Still Full

2009-11-30T12:31:00.001-05:00

A bit belated, but Happy Thanksgiving to all.

I have to admit, Thankgiving is really a foodie day for me. It's the one holiday where I like to experiment, and this year was no exception. I planned a very ambitious menu, which needed some serious editing. There was both a soup and a salad on the menu, six different starches, three different vegetable preps and way too many desserts. All for seven diners.

My guests were DS Meladee (sans offspring), DFotF Duke and Anita, and MDF Fran and Geoff.

Before I go any further, I have to give thanks to Dad, without whom I could never, ever have pulled off this meal. Dad peeled 5 lbs of onions, 3 lbs of carrots, plus my poor, doomed squash. He washed pots and bowls and pans, over and over again. There was no task I needed to get done that he didn't help me with. His efforts were a gift of love that I treasure. Thank you, Dad.

The starters: A complete failure. My gorgeous roasted butternut squash soup burned. After spending an hour peeling and another 40 minutes cutting it up, and about 90 minutes in the oven - the squash was perfectly ready for the soup. I put it into the pot with the stock and left the house for a while - needed to get some last minute items. When I came back, it was burned to a disgusting crisp. The pot itself was almost unsalvageable - DS Hali recommended letting it soak overnight with dishwasher powder, and even still, Dad worked on it for over an hour. He played me though - when I came back downstair after my post-getting-the-turkey-in-the-oven nap, he said he did the best he could, but he wasn't sure if the results were satisfactory. When he lifted the lid off the pot - I actually thought he had replaced it with a different one - it was perfectly clean.

The other starter - a tomato salad with a balsamic and raisin reduction never got made. I just ended up washing the tomatos and putting them into a bowl.

The rest of the meal went pretty much as planned.

The Turkey with stuffing cooked inside and outside. I cooked the outside stuffing - DS Meladee's preferred, on Wednesday night. Of course, I made way too much. As for the inside stuffing - everyone (but DS Mel) really prefers the stuffing cooked with the turkey. I do heed the temperature warnings - and I've never had a problem with overcooked white meat. The turkey itself was a Murray's Free Range - No Antibiotic fresh turkey, weighing in at 18.65 lbs. It came with the neck and giblets, but was missing the tip of a wing. How bizarre! The turkey was rubbed with herb butter, and I added beef and chicken stock to the pot, along with celery, onions and carrots as aromatics, but all the moisture was sucked up by the stuffing (made way too much of that too). The gravy was made from the pan drippings and some Kitchen Basics beef stock plus some of the stuffing to thicken it.

The cranberry: Last year's cranberry dish was a disaster - cranberry and pear chutney. It looked good on paper, but tasted vile. I went back to the old standby this year - a relish with sweet and sour fruit and nuts. The recipe was based largely on one given to my by MDF Valerie.

The sides: Some people like the sides better than the turkey and stuffing. My new for this year recipe was sweet potato hash with bacon. Keeping with the "all fat - all the time" theme for this year's feast, I cut up a whole package of Nieman Ranch applewood smoked bacon and cooked it, then cooked the onions and cubed sweet potatos in the rendered bacon fat. In addition, I made my roasted corn and sweet bell pepper salad (served warm) and I roasted carrots, mushrooms and leeks. I was going to make grilled asparagus as well, but I ran out of time - so I served some raw.

The desserts: Two apple pies - why? Because I accidently precooked most of the apples. I left the box of granny smiths on the range, too close to the oven vent, and the steam from the oven cooked almost a dozen apples. It was either use or toss, and since Dad likes apple pie (and who doesn't), it really meant nothing to make two pies. I do have to confess that I used premade pie shells and crust. The pie was served with vanilla ice cream. The bread pudding I made was strange but tasty - more French Toast than bread pudding, but the addition of chocolate sauce only helped. Since I didn't serve a starter, the planned intermezzo was not needed, so I served the Champange and strawberry granita as a dessert. MDF Fran brought a chocolate cake, too. And if that wasn't enough - I realized that DS Mel wouldn't like any of these desserts, so I bought a Bavarian Cream Pie from Torte Fina - which turned out to be the favorite dessert for most of the guests.

The meal took a full two days to prep and cook. I remember when I was growing up, Mom would say that Thanksgiving was the easiest holiday meal. Not for me - cooking for Passover or the HHD is easy - since I really don't want to get creative (and lately, I've been blowing off prepping a big meal anyway). I use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to experiment, and go a bit wild - and I end up overdoing it.

But every one enjoyed themselves, and that made it all worthwhile.

Home for the Holidays - A Screed

2009-11-24T16:09:00.001-05:00

For the record, I hate Christmas music. The false cheer. The hypocritical message of peace and good will peddled by those who believe in anything but that. The sanctimonious imagery of a Norman Rockwell America that never existed. And most of all, the simply bad music and lyrics - bubble gum pop Auto-Tuned to bland sameness.

In other words, "Home for the Holidays." An Anti-Classic. First demortalized by Mr. Bland himself, Perry Como, then punishingly covered by The Carpenters - it's this latter version that will (if anything could) set my mind to murder and mayhem. Uber-perky (and apparently perked up on pills) Karen Carpenter trippingly sings (is that what that's called?) about how "the traffic is terrific!". Words cannot express how much I loathe and despise this recording - which, for some unfathomable reason - is played every hour on every radio station in America (even the All Talk - All The Time ones). This horror is inescapable - it's like a swiftly moving mass of sewage, creeping through even the most tightly sealed portals. Last Saturday, nearly a week BEFORE Thanksgiving, I had about an hour to kill before meeting friends for dinner, and I went into three different stores. Each one was tuned to a different radio station, but for some bizarre reason, five minutes after I walked into the store - "Home for the Holidays" started to play.

My nightmare is this - although I don't own (and certainly never will) any version of this travesty, I fear that it will somehow infect my iPod, and all 26,000+ songs will become "Home for the Holidays." Or that I'll put a CD in to play in my car, and you guessed it - that's the only song on the disc. I'll end up killing myself as I try to jump out of the moving vehicle. Anything but having to listen to Karen and/or Perry sing about the idiot from Tennesee trying to get to Pennsylvania.

As much as I loathe Christmas music, I actually love the old English Christmas carols. My favorite is O Come Emmanuel, which is seems more Jewish than Christian (ignoring, of course, the line "God's Dear Son"). The best rendition is the one by the King's College Choir, Cambridge. The original recording was an album I got from the Musical Heritage Society (probably vinyl) back in the early 1980s (I remember listening to it in college), which has been plundered for a sort of "Best of..." version that now includes some of the minor horrors of the season.

Anyway - I'll be doing my holiday shopping on line, and when I have to venture out into the Danger Zone (i.e., a mall or chain store), I'll have my earbuds tightly screwed in and something a little more pleasant playing, say John Cage's 4'33".

Oh, and Happy Holidays

Music in Place and Time

2009-10-30T16:52:00.003-04:00

For the past few days, I've had an earworm - but not one I've ever had before, and I can't figure out the trigger. The best way to cure an earworm is to actually listen to a performance of the piece from start to finish a few times. This wasn't a problem, since my earworm is an Oysterband song - one of my favorites - "Blood Red Roses", from Shouting End of Life. I loved this CD so much I played it constantly in my car and scratched the disc so badly I needed to repurchase it.

Although I've been on a Baroque kick for the past few months, I didn't mind revisiting this album, not just to cure the earworm, but to enjoy it for it's own sake, and I put it on to play last night on the ride home.

Listening to it this morning, I was struck with an odd sense of deja vu - how many times had I listened to this particular track on this exact stretch of road? Then I started to really think about my experience with the album. When I bought it, what I felt when I listened to it for the first time, and how I would describe the album to friends.

I remember finding this in the Bohemia Borders, back in the day when the store had a huge music section. It came out in October 1995, and I got it in late December that year. A co-worker had given me a Borders gift certificate for Christmas, and I used it then. I remember being blown away the first time I listen to the album - particularly by the lyrics of "Jam Tomorrow". I wasn't sure if they were "Hey hey, the donkeys say" or "Hey hey, the darkies say". I nearly had an accident when I heard the next line in the song - "Jam tomorrow, shit today". No trouble understanding that one.

A few weeks later, at a dinner with Fran and Steve Kuperschmid and his wife - the night before the Blizzard of '96 - I recommended the album to Steve - describing it as (if I recall) soul-stirring, fiercely political, English rock. Or English folk. Steve thought my tastes were very cool.

The next day, the snow started - I remember sitting in my bedroom (still living in Jericho), listening to the album play over and over and over. In my head, I was pulling out the lyrics, and decided that it was "donkeys" not "darkies".

Back to the present day - I can't believe that "Shouting End of Life" has been out for 14 years (and I wonder what has happened in those 14 years of my life). But the music is as fresh and as shocking as it was when I first heard it. People the generation before me talk about the first time they listened to Sgt. Pepper, how earthshattering it was. I think I feel the same way about this album - every time I listen to it, I can go back to a very specific time and place. It may be 14 years, but I don't feel any older.

Dubai - Part IV - Going Home and Final Thoughts

2009-10-30T16:14:00.002-04:00

(I've been home for over a week - I had composed this before I left, but delayed publishing it. I wanted to chronical my trip and post them in order).

My business in Dubai is done and I can come home! I was able to get my flight changed from the red-eye tomorrow night/Friday morning to tomorrow at 11:35 am - which means I'll get back to NY late on Thursday evening local time, be able to sleep through the jet lag and start Saturday all nice and fresh. It's supposed to rain - joy, joy, joy.

Dubai is an interesting place - good and bad. It's extremely expensive - a regular cup of coffee is $6 US, and a bottle of water is not much cheaper. People are very friendly - but as a visitor, it is unlikely that you'll encounter many native Emirites. Almost everybody who works in a store, in a restaurant, or in any sort of service capacity, is a foreigner. My driver was from Pakistan, the hotel staff are mostly Filipino, the lawyers were from India and Egypt and Ireland, and of course the jewelers were Indian and the rug merchants Kashmiri. I think the only Emirites I met were at the leasing office.

Women seem to be treated well - most native (meaning from the Gulf states) women covered their heads and wore some form of full body black garb, from wrists to upper neck - but few were in bourkas. Many were unaccompanied by men, but few were alone. I found it interesting that many women wore a lot of face makeup, the black abayas were very form-fitting, and trimmed with embroidery and lots of crystal. Women depicted in advertising ranged from the aforementioned natives in black with head scarves, to Western women in relatively scanty attire. Western woman are permitted to drive - and it is possible that native women do as well - but I didn't see any (didn't really look either).

I confess to avoiding ethnic food - one look at something called "foul madamas" and that put paid to any adventurous eating. Except for the sweets - tiny little things made with phyllo type dough, butter, honey and almond paste.

For the obvious reasons, I'll be sad to leave - it's been like a stay in lotus-eater land. Room service, turn down service, wake up service, no worries about parking, someone to carry my bags, a hotel suite twice as big as the bedroom at home. Reality is going to hit me in the face when I have to do my laundry! But I miss my family, my friends, the rest of my pillows (although the mattress here is far better than my own), my own bathroom (the less said about the toilet's water pressure, the better), my towels (why is it that even a 5-star hotel can't supply soft towels).

I miss my beads, my Macintosh with the big monitors, my comfy desk chair - access to Google.com, rather than Google.ae (where everything's in Arabic). Did I say I miss my Mac? Chinese food, beverages that come with plenty of ice, the occasional piece of crispy bacon (there is pork here, but it's segregated and the bacon's of the English, streaky variety, which is flappy, fatty and gross). I miss the autumn leaves, the chill in the morning and at the end of the day, the crisp fall air and the deep blue skies of New York in October. I miss the maples in the showy scarlet and gold dresses, the flocks of Canada geese thinking about going home and pooping everywhere. I miss the moon and the stars at night - between the light pollution and the air pollution, I've not seen a single star in the sky. I'm tired of the heat, the haze, the dust and the sand. Dubai is lovely, but it's not home.

Dubai - Part III - Shopping

2009-10-30T15:59:00.001-04:00

(I've been back for over a week, but I wanted to finish out the series.)

Anyone who has ever been to Dubai in the past 5 years will tell you that beyond anything else, it's a shopper's paradise. The largest mall in the world (by overall square footage), the Dubai Mall, is part of the Burj Dubai complex (the Burj Dubai being the tallest building in the world). There are about 10 different mall segments - fashion (including a Galleries Layfayette), couture fashion, a section that replicates London's Regent Street (but without a Liberty's) and the largest indoor jewelry complex (called the "Gold Souk") in the world - with over 200 different jewelry stores.

There are other great malls as well - the Mall of the Emirates, which has a Harvey Nick's and other important London-based retail outfits, also has the world's largest indoor ski slope. There is also a mall reserved just for women (I did not go there, my friend David told me about it), who can shop without their head coverings.

Then there are the old Dubai souks - the "real" shopping experience of Dubai. There is the spice souk, the carpet souk and the jewelry souk (the Dubai Gold Souk) - along the Dubai Creek near the Deira business district. Old markets, with intriguing merchandise.

After all the troubles that Saturday morning, I finally got into my new Executive Floor hotel room, showered and settled it. My driver picked me up around 2 pm, and my shopping day began. I wanted to go to the Dubai Gold Souk, but he told me that a lot of stores would be closed for the midday meal - until around 4 pm. So, he took me to the Mall of the Emirates (see above), where I wandered around for a few hours. As a New Yorker, who practically grew up at Roosevelt Field, mall shopping isn't a terribly exciting experience, and while some the merchandise was interesting (one store had a very extensive collection of Daum glass), there was little that I couldn't buy back at home. What surprised me was how well stocked the Borders bookstore was - and how current the selection, particularly in the SF/F section. Most of the books sported UK edition covers - and if I was still in the habit of buying dead-tree books, I may have over-indulged myself there (and probably regretted it when I realized how many duplicates I actually purchased).

I met my driver at 4 pm, and off to the souks we went. Now, I had been told that there was actually a souk specializing in fabric, but I was told wrong. I didn't really want to go to the Spice Souk - since I'd probably have to surrender everything Customs in JFK (can't bring in seeds and foodstuff). So, it was to be the Dubai Gold Souk - oh, what a hardship!

(photo courtesy of Dubai Construction Update, Credit Imre Solt)

Lots and lots of pretty stuff - I read somewhere that there are over 10 tons of gold in the Souk at any given time. Dubai actually has a long history as a center for the gold trade, and the Souk became a major hub in the 1940s as trade practices were liberalized. Most of the vendors are Indian and Iranian/Persian - and everyone was very eager to sell. It really felt like I was on 47th Street in New York. Substitute the men in white dishdasha and thobes for men in shiny black suits and black fur hats, and you might as well be in the New York Diamond District.

Of course, I bought a piece of jewelry - but not after quite a bit of bargaining. I fell in love with a bracelet - white and yellow 18k gold, a complex affair with chains and links and bars. It was $3000 US., somewhat more than what I wanted to spend. I probably could have gotten the price down to $1200, but that was still too much. The jeweler was really pushing, and I saw something that caught my eye - a white and yellow rollo link bracklet, with an oversized C-clasp. The tag price was $900, and he immediately came down to $750. I pushed, he pulled, I made to leave - he dropped to $675. I got serious and started to walk out - he went to $650 - I said $600. Sold. Of course, he was cheesed that I paid with my Amex!

The real delight for me that day was the rug dealer. I hadn't planned on buying rugs, but I was looking for scarves - and I fell in love with Kashmiri embroidery. Two rugs, two scarves and two pillow cases - and I used a combination of Dirhams and my Visa (more on that later) - for a total of $325 US. The scarves were actually much more expensive than the rugs. The dealer was just lovely - he held my package for a few hours, while I wandered through the souk. Walking up one of the side alleys, I found a silver dealer, with lots of lovely old-world type pieces. I fell in love with a few items - a ruby and zircon pendant, a bracelet and a matching chain. Since my supply of Dirhams was running low (didn't have too many to begin with), I paid with my Visa - or I tried to. Freaking Bank of America locked down my card after the first charge. Grrrrr. There was no way to call them from the souk, and I didn't want to use my debit card - so I had to let those pretties go (still sad). I went back to the Kashmir rug store, where the proprietor was so very nice - he had his tea boy get me a cup of iced mango juice and insisted that I sit and rest for a while. Of course, he tried to sell me another scarf - but there was another rug that caught my eye - and I had to have that too. He walked with me back to the main road and waited until my car and driver showed up. I was exhausted, and slept for most of the drive back to my hotel. Where I spent the better part of the evening trying to use the VOIP to contact BoA and get the lock on my Visa lifted.

Sunday morning was spent in meetings, and I napped for a few hours when I got back. I spent the late afternoon reading on my balcony - the Kindle was a delight. Between the books I read during my flight, and the reading during the day and evening - I probably had the Kindle in use for 15-20 hours, and while the power bar showed that the battery was still more than half-full, I figured that an overnight charge wouldn't be a bad idea. Except that I had forgotten to pack the extra charger I bought. I got on line and tried to order one for delivery to the hotel, but was appalled to find that Amazon would not ship the charger outside of the US (how frigging stupid is that). This was my worst nightmare coming true - stuck in a foreign country and no books to read. Horror of horrors!

I knew, objectively, that I had many, many more hours of reading left on the Kindle - but this type of fear is irrational. Then I remembered the well stocked Borders bookstore in the Mall of the Emirates. I could go back there tomorrow and get something to read! Hurray, I was saved. I could have taken the mall shuttle, but I figured - how often do I have a driver at my disposal? Instead of going back to the Mall of the Emirates, he took me to the Dubai Mall (see above). There was no comparison between the two facilities - the Dubai Mall made the Mall of the Emirates (MotE) seem like the Sunrise Mall (in other words, tacky, nasty and filled with loud, low-class people).

While my goal was to GET BOOKS NOW, since I entered the mall where the Tiffany's was, I just HAD to walk through the Gold Souk (note, difference between Dubai Gold Souk and the Gold Souk). It was interesting - a lot of very over the top, very very over the top jewelry, and almost no people, unlike the rest of the mall. Whereas the MotE was filled with ex pats, many of the patrons were Dubai women in abayas. (And German tourists). I finally got to the "Stallion Court" - named for the huge bronze statue of a rearing stallion (yes, a stallion in all biological aspects), which was the last courtyard in the Gold Souk. A pretty enough place - lots of mosaics, a fountain, subdued lighting. And German tourists. A middle-aged woman, badly dressed and badly sunburned, taking a picture of her middle-aged, badly dressed husband standing in front of the aforementioned bronze stallion. The way the husband was standing, any picture the wife took would have the horse's ummm, junk, appearing right on top of his head. I tried to explain - even gesturing to my own crotch and head. No communication there - none whatsoever.

I finally found a bookstore - Kinokuniya, which is a Very Big Bookstore (68,000 sq. feet). A good selection, but not very current on US titles. I read most of the romance and fantasy selections, and I was going to re-purchase the 2008 Best American Essays volume (which I had at home but still hadn't read), knowing that I could stretch that read out through most of the flight home, and a Karen Mills that I hadn't read (and didn't really want to read), when I found the "horror" section. It seems that much of what would be characterised as "urban fantasy" in the US falls into the straight horror section overseas. I hit a goldmine, so to speak - the store had at least 5 Keri Arthur titles that never made it into mass market circulation in the US - the Spook Squad books, the Circle books. So - I dropped the Best American Essays and the Karen Mills, got all five Keri Arthur and a Patricia Briggs I didn't recognize (it turned out that it was a recent reprint of a book I already have two copies of - grrrr - but definitely worth rereading). I was, thankfully, able to use my Visa.

Did a bit more shopping - bought gifts, and found a few more delicious scarves - another Kashmiri rug dealer. No mango juice this time, but a cup of very hot and very sweet tea. We had fun negotiating prices on some scarves (I almost regret not purchasing the fully embroidered green scarf - but $400 seem a bit too much). He got very excited when I told him I was from New York - he dreams of living in "the City that Never Sleeps".

It was finally time to call it a day - even though I saw less than half the mall. When my driver picked me up, something occurred to me - how was I to pay him? Cash - it seemed. And a fair amount of it - the airport pick up, the meetings, my own adventures, and the drop off back at the airport. No credit cards, but he told me "not to worry." I do worry - especially in a country where you can go to jail for debt. I had about 400 Dirham left, but I'd need a lot more than that (1 Dirham = $.28 US Dollars). When I got back to my hotel, I took a walk along The Walk, and much to my dismay - none of the banks or ATMs would take my card. Things weren't looking good.

I spent all of Tuesday in my room, on my balcony or working at the desk. Didn't want to add to my driver's bill unnecessarily.

Luckily, the people I was meeting with on Wednesday were expatriates, and when I explained my prediciment, they showed me their own ATM cards, which apparently worked in Dubai, New York and Ireland. They took me to a branch of the Emirates Bank, and after a few tense moments, the ATM spat out 3000 Dirhams, more than enough for my outstanding car fare.

I could have shopped some more, but the Duty-Free in Charles de Gaulle was waiting for me (I was hoping to find some Daum, but instead discovered Le Jacquard Francais).

Dubai - Part II(a) - Strange

2009-10-16T22:15:00.004-04:00

Separated at birth?

The Ruler of Dubai, Sheik Muḥammad bin Rāshid al Maktūm:

General Zod:

Dubai - Part II - Camels

2009-10-16T22:03:00.005-04:00

I've had an earworm for days - Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis." That may be because of this:

These two camels are led up and down the Jumeirah beach, for the tourists to get a little taste of "authentic Arabia." I wonder how enjoyable it must be to ride one, wearing a thong bathing suit.

Dubai - Part I(a) - Hospitality

2009-10-14T14:58:00.002-04:00

Last night was definitely interesting. About an hour after I fell asleep (about 3am local time), someone started banging on my door, demanding to be let it. It was a very drunk American, insisting that this was his room. Scared me - really scared me. I called security, but he left by the time they got here. This morning was less interesting and more annoying. At 8:30 am, I was awoken by knocking - a steward wanted to know if I wanted the minibar recharged. I went back to sleep - and was disturbed again at 10 am, when another steward wanted to pick up my room service tray.

Then the fun began, when I used the bathroom and the toilet flooded (it was a second flush - so at least the water was clean. By the time maintenance came to fix it, there was 2 inches of water in the bathroom, and it was spilling into the room. I was packed and dressed- my plan was to get moved to a different room. I found a note from the hotel manager waiting for me. I went down to see him, and to my surprise, he was giving me an upgrade to a suite, in recompense for last night's trouble. A very nice upgrade - when I checked in, I was asked if I wanted to upgrade, but I declined - it was an additional $120 a night.

I'm still pooped, but at least I've been able to shower and get a little more rest. Going to get a bit to eat and think about going to the markets for some shopping. It's 98 degrees out and very very humid.

Dubai - Part I - Arrival

2009-10-14T14:56:00.003-04:00

After 20+ hours in transit, I've made it to Dubai. The Hilton Jumeirah hotel is lovely, and right the beach (as if I actually brought and would wear a swimsuit).

My body clock tells me it's three in the afternoon, but exhausted. There is an 8 hour negative time difference from New York to Dubai. I dozed a bit on the flight from NY to Paris, but I stubbornly refused to get my pillow out of my carry-on until well into the 4th hour, and by then there was really no sleeping. The 3 hour layover in Charles de Gaulle cemented just how much I despise that airport and the people who work there. It didn't really matter that my connecting flight was a 30 minute walk away from my landing gate, and there were no signs directing me to the correct gate. It really didn't matter that I had to go through security AGAIN, and there were 500+ people being funneled through 2 security scanners (I flew business and got in the priority line). The Air France lounge was marginally acceptable, but what really killed me was the absolute and utter lack of information at the boarding gate. At no point were we told that the airplane (a Boing 787) was too big to get to the gate, so we'd need to climb down three flights (with our carry-on), get on overcrowded buses and be driven to our plane, and then climb up another two flights to board the damn thing. The gate agents spoke so quickly and dismissively in English that they may have been chattering in Urdu for all I was able to understand them.

I was able to sleep on the second leg - I got my pillow out as soon as I found my seat, and I think I was out before we left Paris airspace. I woke just as we were entering Iraqi airspace - seeing Basra and Baghdad on the air map was unnerving, to say the least.

It took a while for my luggage to arrive - long enough that I was concerned that it may have not made it onto the flight from Paris. Going through Dubai customs was odd - the immigration agent didn't even ask me the purpose of my visit.

I finally got out of the airport, met my driver and got underway. What surprised me was not the heat, but the humidity. I was not expecting a desert country so be so, well, moist. It took about an hour to get to the hotel - huge traffic problems in this neighborhood, even after midnight.

First thing first - unpacked the computer, signed up for internet service (500 dirham for the week - ouch), and used the VOIP to call Dad. He's fine - and I was glad to be able to talk with him so easily. Now - what to eat? I'm starving. And then time for bed - I'll want to get a good night's sleep - so I can go to the souks tomorrow. Fabric and gold...

My Sherlock Holmes Moment

2009-10-01T10:05:00.000-04:00

I had occassion to be in a post office last night, around 9 pm (yes, there are still a few "major" post offices that keep late hours), and while I was waiting for the very nice clerk to return with an answer to my postal question, at the next station, noticed a woman purchasing an Express Mail envelope, and asking if something would fit, and confirming that if she mailed it tonight, it would get to Geneso by tomorrow.

Ever curious me, I just had to look.

The customer took a box of Theraflu and a package of Hall's cough drops out of a Target bag, and as she was putting it in the Tyvek envelope, I just had to say:

"Your daughter's a freshman at the college, and she's gotten her first bad cold."

The woman laughed, and asked me how I could know that.

After apologising for being so nosy, I told her "I knew that it had to be for your child, because you were so concerned about the package getting to Geneseo tomorrow. I also know that there's pretty much nothing up there near the campus, so it had to be Mom to the rescue." But she was really wondering how I knew her it was daughter, in college and how I knew she was a freshman. I told her that was the easy part - there aren't too many reasons why a downstater would be in Geneseo, NY long enough to need an emergency care package unless s/he was going to SUNY-Geneseo, no self-respecting teenage boy would admit to being sick enough for a care package with just medicine, and given the climate and rough winters, a downstater returning to Geneseo would already have the cold care supplies - and it's too early in the season to have run out.

The funny thing is, I didn't deliberately even think about any of these things when I blurted out my original comment - it was only when I had to explain my deductive reasoning that all of the pieces fell into place. I guess I could have really creeped her out and simply told her I hoped her daughter felt better soon, and that she should try not to skip too many classes.

Fortune

2009-09-16T10:04:00.000-04:00

I think this has to be the world's most obscure fortune cookie fortune:

"What is 'right'? How do you define 'right'? How about 'left'?"

Pass It On

2009-09-04T14:36:00.002-04:00

No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick.

If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.

Two Photos, Two Trips, Four and a Half Years Later

2009-08-18T15:42:00.002-04:00

In March, 2005 I travelled to Seattle to visit my friend David. I had recently been laid off, and had some time on my hands - so it was a rather lengthy trip (9 days, if I recall correctly). Towards the middle of the vacation, David took me to Oregon to meet his friends Mike and Connie, who had moved to Cannon Beach a few years earlier. I think we were there for two nights, and at least one of the days I spent on the beach and the surrounding environs taking photographs.

Fast forward to this past weekend. Sister Hali was a-visiting, and we rolled out of bed early (6 am) to do a bit of photography, old abandoned buildings at Pilgrim State, dahlias and ospreys at Bayard Cutting Arboreteum. Much of the rest of the afternoon was spent recovering from the heat (me) and working on photos in Lightroom (Hali). It was a lot of fun, and very educational to sit behind Hali and watch her work.

So, you are wondering what one thing has to do with another, and what about a weird coincidence? Bear with me, please.

During a prior visit, Hali's use of Lightroom convinced me to finally abandon Aperture, and over the past few months since my trip out west, I've be importing all of my photos into Lightroom and taking a fresh look at them. Not only is it a pleasant way to relive some lovely vacation memories, but it's an opportunity to improve my photo-processing skills.

Last night, after spending hours trying to finish a beading project, and then ripping out 2 hours worth of work, I abandoned the jewelry and started to work in Lightroom. I pretty much started at random, with images from the aforementioned 2005 Oregon trip.

I played with this one:

and this one

And was feeling pretty pleased with myself, since most of the Cannon Beach pics were pretty blech - nice, but not too interesting. I got them up on Flickr, and then the phone rang. It was MDF Valerie. She had gotten back from her own Pacific Northwest vacation, and had finished going through her photos. She was sending me a ZIP file, and wanted my opinion.

I had thought she said that she was not going to Cannon Beach, so I was quite surprised to see this:

Of course Valerie took plenty of pictures of the iconic Haystack Rock, but I had the surprise of my life when I saw this image:

Which is practically identical to the picture I took, four and a half years ago:

The similarity is more pronounced when you look at the two shots side by side - identical, except that Valerie was there in August, and about 5 feet closer to the edge of the cliff.

I probably would never have noticed the similarity of these two pictures had I not been just going through that exact album.

How strange!

Intimidation, Scottish Style

2009-08-14T21:17:00.003-04:00

For those of you who don't follow rugby - a bit of background:

Before each match, the New Zealand Blacks rugby team performs a version of the Maori haka, or war dance. It's intended to intimidate the opposing team.

Now watch and enjoy!

Supreme Court Says Strip Search of Child Illegal - NYTimes.com

2009-06-25T11:22:00.001-04:00

Supreme Court Says Strip Search of Child Illegal - NYTimes.com

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. YES! The decision was 8 - 1 that the 13 year-old girl's rights were violated when she was strip searched for 2 extra-strength Advil. As Justice Stevens wrote:

“...it does not require a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old child is an invasion of constitutional rights of some magnitude.”

And of course, it was Justice Thomas who dissented. As Gruber so aptly put, Thomas is creep of the week.

Post It Awesomeness

2009-06-18T15:02:00.000-04:00

This was the creator's senior project at the Savannah College of Art and Design. A smart guy, he figured us geeks would be interested in getting behind the scenes, so he also made a "Making of ..." video. Totally awesome and totally fascinating.

Now, THIS is funny

2009-06-08T10:29:00.003-04:00

Spotted at Trader Joe's parking lot.

Typical Leo Laporte - Skin a Bit Thin?

2009-06-08T10:22:00.001-04:00

Honestly, I don't know why I'm blogging about this. I shouldn't even waste my time, but it is so typical of Leo Laporte, egomaniac.

You'll need a bit of background. Several months ago, I blogged about the second crash of the TWiT user forums and remarked how Leo Laporte should have taken steps to back things up - knowing that there was a problem. In September, 2008, I called Leo out in the forum for not caring about his contributors enough to spend an hour or so to fix a bunch of on-going problems. Admittedly, my tone was more than a little heated (Leo called it "snide"). I apologized, but in a supposedly private conversation with another forum member, I commented that I was beginning to wonder if my monthly contribution was worth it.

Over the next few days, Leo kept up a string of personal attacks and nasty comments to me, and then revealed that anyone with administrator rights on the forum could see private posts. Frankly, I thought that was completely beyond the pale, and I quit the TWiT forums, cancelled my monthly contribution, and all my podcast subscriptions. Going cold turkey was actually quite easy - I missed the community, but the TWiT products had become so lackluster that I actually did myself a favor by not listening to them anymore.

I must admit, I did pop into the TWiT forums out of curiously a few times earlier this year, and I was a bit startled to find that in early March, Leo announced that he was closing the "contributor" forums, and moving everyone over to Leoville. Why? Because he couldn't stand reading all the nasty criticisms about his shows. (This wasn't the first time he did that - he closed the comments on the show pages when the criticism got too strong, too). I did find it ironic that for three years, there were dozens of threads of varying levels of nastiness about various guests and show regulars (Scott Bourne was a frequent target); however, Leo never stepped in to quell those. Only when the quality of the podcasts themselves were questioned, did Leo feel it necessary to pull the plug.

So, it brings me to this snippet from a TWiT Network live videocast - apparently a discussion of the new Palm Pre (I found this by way of Gruber's Daring Fireball). Michael Arrington called Leo out for not mentioning that he has a review unit. Arrington is certainly a NMDB* and his tone was certainly meant to irritate, but Leo's reaction is really not what a broadcasting professional would do. He's known and worked with Arrington before, and played right into it.

Call Arrington an ass - yes, but walk off the show in a fury - absolutely not.

Check it out:

NMDB - New Media Douche Bag

Recent Dead Things In and About My Office

2009-05-11T16:39:00.000-04:00

Weird thing about springtime - I never see some many dead things at any other time of the year. In the past 10 days, I've seen the following in my office or around the office building itself:

1 - A whole mess of pill bugs on the carpet. I discovered them when I swapped my heater for my fan.

2 - Wasp on the windowsill. This one started out alive, banging and banging and banging itself against the window pane, trying to get out. I did try to effectuate a rescue operation, but by time I found a box with a lid, it was dead.

3 - Dead sparrow on the sidewalk. I would have never noticed it, but for the odd flight behaviour of another sparrow, which tried to hover, flew away, came back and flew away again.

But there is life, too. A big fat bumblebee just indulged in an orgy of pollen from the azaleas in front of my window.

Not my azaleas, these are found in Memphis, TN. Image courtesy of the blogger, Southern Heart.

So! Do! La! Fa! Me! Do! Re!

2009-05-08T08:49:00.001-04:00

I can't figure out if this was staged or spontaneous. But who cares anyway - it's wonderful.

EDIT - I did a little research, at this was, in fact, staged. It was a promotion for a new reality show. But like I said before, who cares?

Movies I've Walked Out Of and Bobby DeNiro

2009-04-17T14:44:00.000-04:00

I don't recall how I got onto the subject, but I was talking with Valerie about movies I've walked out of during the showing in a theater. In all the hundreds of movies I've seen, there have been only four that were so bad that I had to leave before the end. It occured to me, when I was talking with Val, that out of those four, three of them featured Robert DeNiro:

1977 - Damnation Alley - The huge scorpions totally grossed me out;
1980 - Raging Bull - The violence and the work "fuck" in every third sentence disgusted me;
1982 - King of Comedy - I was in the mood to see Sophie's Choice, but the gang wanted to see this;
1994 - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Again, too violent, too gross, and Kenneth Branagh was just not enough temptation to make me stay through the end.

And it just so happens that one of the movies that I should have walked out of, but didn't was Heat, also starring Mr. DeNiro. Heat wasn't gross, and the gun battle in the early part of the movie was a real thriller, but it just collapsed into a long, boring, talky film.

Pity, because DeNiro is one of the great ones.

AmazonFail Update

2009-04-14T15:30:00.000-04:00

Well, it seems that the de-ranking of "adult" material that I discussed yesterday finally caught the attention of Amazon personnel. Instead of fobbing off authors with "we don't rank adult material" they actually paid attention and looked into the problem.  According to the company, the de-ranking was the result of a system glitch accidently implemented by a worker in France, but it was initiated by comments and tagging of titles with certain search terms.  Amazon hasn't provided a full explanation of how this happened, but has "vowed" to correct the problem and minimize the possiblity of it reoccurring.

They did admit that over 57 THOUSAND book titles were de-ranked according to this glitch, and they were restoring the rankings as soon as possible.   I don't really trust the explanation, but it does make more sense than the company being infiltrated by right-wing culture police. Someone, or some group (more likely) outside of Amazon has taken advantage of the ranking/tagging loophole to impose their own set of values.

Me, I believe in two things: freedom of expression and free choice. Say what you like, write what you want. That doesn't mean I have to listen to your or I have to read what you wrote.

Amazon clearly has some holes in its search feature, and I do think they need some form of parental controls (like iTunes, maybe). I've searched for juvenalia and have gotten some pretty NSFW results (including one with pictures of jumbo-sized battery operated marital aids).  But I don't think that any safety net that results in censorship is acceptable.

But that's just me.

Amazon Is Now In The Censorship Business

2009-04-13T10:57:00.000-04:00

It's all over the 'net today - Amazon is now removing all so-called "adult content" from their page-rank systems. Anything that has a reference to sex, sexuality, or GLBT content has been stripped out of the very important Amazon search function. Apparently, it's a so-called glitch that activates if something's been tagged "adult content" and someone or some group has been combing the site and tagging anything deemed "objectionable". This includes scholarly work as well as fiction. Titles that are clearly romantic fiction and urban fantasy* have been removed from the search ranks, as well as books that sit firmly in the "literature section"**. By stripping a title out of the search rankings, it effectively makes the book invisible unless you search by title or author.

As of this morning, if you search for "homosexual," the listing that comes is a "parental guide " on how to prevent/deprogram homosexuality in children. However, Dr. Nathanial Frank's Unfriendly Fire: How the Gan Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America has had its rank stripped.***

It's also worth noting that biographies of several porn stars are still available, as are books on dog-fighting and Mein Kampf.****

This is a travesty of the first and worst order. Amazon has, through innovation and commitment, become both a publishing and purchasing powerhouse - it has filled the void that was created by the closing of so many small and independent booksellers. It defined the "long tail". By shutting out a huge section of books from the searching public, it is flying in the face of its own mission.

I buy a lot of books and other stuff from Amazon. It's my go-to site for just about everything, and I'm having a hard time reconciling my desire to do right and my need to shop. Besides, I don't think my departure is going to make one bit of difference. But I won't be silenced. The Smart Bitches have devised a neat little Google Bomb that just may get Mr. Bezos' attention. And I'm happy to jump in this dog pile.

Amazon Rank
Amazon Rank
Amazon Rank
Amazon Rank

For a somewhat complete list of the delisted titles, check out Meta Writer on Live Journal. The length of the list is really scary.

_____________________________________________
*Fae Sutherland, Maya Banks, Jaci Burton, Patti O'Shea and Larissa Ione have had search rankings stripped from some or all of their titles, regardless of content.
**Maurice by E.M. Forester, and Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
***As noted in the L.A. Times blog, Jacket Copy on April 12, 2009
****This information has been provided by the Ja(y)nes at Dear Author. Thank you very much!

Happy Spring - Something's Screwed Up

2009-03-20T14:08:00.000-04:00

It's the first day of Spring, a wonderous event after the winter we just had. But someone needs to explain to me why it snowed this morning (the temperature was 43 degrees F), and is flurrying again now.

This just SUCKS.

NYT: Abstract New York: I LEGO NY

2009-02-04T10:59:00.022-05:00

Abstract New York: I LEGO NY

Yes, the New York Times understand whimsy and Christopher Niemann's Op-Ed column in today's paper is nothing short of genius. Just a few basic shapes and a keen imagination can sum up daily life in The Big Apple.

I Wonder If There Is A Low-Fat or Kosher Version

2009-01-28T08:22:00.009-05:00

I bring you...

The Bacon Explosion!

via New York Times

Fired Up! Ready to Go!

2009-01-21T09:34:00.000-05:00

That's my new earworm.

I woke up today actually chanting it. Which was both bizarre and nauseating, because I had a really awful case of morning breath.

Not For Primetime, That's For Sure

2009-01-16T14:24:00.001-05:00

Snorf!

A Moment of Evening Light

2009-01-14T16:27:00.000-05:00

Today has been a prelude to the bitter cold coming on Friday, and until 3:45, the sky has been clear. I looked up at 4 pm and was surprised to see how cloudy it became, a harbinger of the snow to come this evening. But, for a very few moments, the sky cleared up and the most gorgeous evening light emerged. Unfortunately, all I had was my iPhone, a parking lot, and a somewhat dirty window. Even still, the light is delicious.

Superstition at the End of the Year

2008-12-30T15:07:00.000-05:00

Calendars go on sale at Borders and Barnes & Nobles right after Christmas, so it makes no sense to even look at them beforehand. I don't want to fall in love with a wall calendar only to find it's been sold out.

After years of preferring Maxfield Parrish and other turn of the century commercial art calendars, I've found myself highly attracted to the better scenic calendars for the past few years. Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society are usually winners, but this year I found a stunning calendar from the landscape photographer Art Wolfe.

The calendar has been safely tucked away under my desk. Despite my impatience to pour through the images, I'm restraining myself. It's very bad luck to open and hang next year's calendar before the old year has ended. When I leave the office tonight, I'll put the calendar on my chair, and it will be the first thing I do come Monday morning.

All My Internet Meme Names. For Your Amusement

2008-12-26T12:50:00.000-05:00

Ellen Kushner's done the hard work, gathering all of the memes into a single post. I'm just glomming on to her inventiveness. But, because I am a bit paranoid, I'm not fully following all the rules - that gives away too much information.

1. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names)
Rosalie Marshall

2. NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)
Emmanuel Harry

3. STAR WARS NAME: (the first 2 letters of your last name, first 4 letters of your first name)
Ch'Lita

4. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Argent Owl

5. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you live)
Joyce Huntington

6. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite alcoholic drink, optionally add "THE" to the beginning)
The Golden Kir

7. FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)
Li'yl

8. GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie):
Heath Bar Crunch Tollhouse

9. ROCK STAR NAME: (current pet's name, current street name)
Lacking Commack

10. PORN NAME: (1st pet, street you grew up on)
Taffy Maytime

Poor Liza

2008-12-26T11:18:00.000-05:00

Somehow, I get the feeling that Anthony Lahr of the New Yorker really doesn't care too much for Liza Minelli:

"[i]n her performance, there is vitality but no joy, technique but no truth. If you stand for that, you’ll stand for anything."

But, you may ask, why am I blogging about this. I am no fan of Ms. Minelli, nor do I care much for musical theater. I simply thought this picture was so completely and totally whacked, that I couldn't help but comment:

Rituals

2008-12-25T15:05:00.000-05:00

It's the end of a lovely Christmas day, and all of the rituals have been observed.

1 - Got up before dawn, checked emails, readusted the umpteen pillows and the covers; pulled the curtains shut and slept until nearly noon.

2 - Went to the movies. Mel and I saw Doubt. Excellent, excellent film.

3 - Mel, Dad and I went for Chinese food. The food at China Garden was surprisingly fine tonight.

4 - Lit the Channukah candles.

Went back to bed.

Dawn is a feeling...

2008-12-23T06:40:00.000-05:00

Today is December 23, and it's 6:40 am. The lower eastern sky is just turning. The moon's still overhead, a small and thin sliver. Today is one of those rare winter mornings when there are no clouds on the horizon, so you can just about feel the sky lightening with each heartbeat.

It's also 14 degrees F outside (-10 degrees C).

The Perfect Pair of Pants

2008-12-18T15:07:00.000-05:00

I'm both extremely delighted and thoroughly ticked off. I finally found the perfect pair of pants.

In my closet.

I bought them about 2 years ago and never wore them. They were a purchase mistake - I picked a few pair of black pants off of the sale rack at a store, thinking they were all the same style. When I got home and and hung them up, I realized that one pair was a different cut.

Tried them on, they were a bit snug, shall we say?

I hung them in the back of the closet, hoping to get into them. Eventually. And that, shall we say, was that.

This morning, I went to get dressed, and realized that I didn't have a pair of pants I wanted to wear. The only clean ones were too big in the waistband and I couldn't walk around all day pulling them up like a little kid. More in desperation than any real expectation that I'd find anything in the back of the closet, I pushed aside a bunch of summer clothes and spyed a pair of black pants. As soon as I took them off the hanger, I remembered that these were way too tight for self-respect or comfort, but since I've lost a few pounds, I had a slight hope that they'd fit.

And they did. Perfectly.

So, why am I pissed? I can't buy another pair of them. These are at least two years old, and on deep clearence when I bought them - the price was $9.97, marked Final Sale/No Returns.

Oh well, sometimes I can't win for losing.

Just a brief interruption...

2008-12-12T11:22:00.000-05:00

Your Colors Say You Are Caring

When you are at peace, you are:
Deeply stable
When you are moved to act, you are:
Giving and warm
When you are inspired, you are:
Spontaneous and adventurous
When your life is perfectly balanced, you are:
Totally in the moment
Your life's purpose is:
To live a passionate life

The Ultimate Color Test

Ten Things I Love About My Sister Hali ... In No Particular Order

2008-12-09T19:25:00.001-05:00

1. It is pretty easy for Hali and I to piss each other off. And just as quickly, forget about the whole thing.

2. Hali may be older than me, but she's not a "big sister". More like that really cool, slightly older friend who you always envied.

3. Hali is amazingly easy to talk to - she doesn't dispense advice, she just listens.

4. Hali's a great teacher. If she knows how to do something, she can show you how to do it.

5. Hali has great hair. Okay - I know that seems shallow, but from someone who's losing it, it's a pretty big thing.

6. When Hali makes a mistake (not that often), she will eventually admit it. Not right away, and not without a little reluctance. But eventually, she'll tell you that she was wrong. Eventually.

7. Hali's a bigger gear head than me. Didn't think it was possible, but she is. Maybe it comes from working with tools all day long.

8. Hali will deal with all the medical issues. I'm too squeamish and short-tempered.

9. Hali once thought that the Moody Blues was an acid rock band.

10. Hali has extraodinary self-discipline. She went without chocolate for a year.

Ten Things I Love About My Sister Meladee ... In No Particular Order

2008-12-04T09:50:00.000-05:00

1. I'm 43, Hali's 45 and Mel's 52, and she has never stopped being the best big sister, ever.

2. Mel always answers the phone saying "Yellow!" Not, "hi," "hello," or "what's up," but "Yellow!" complete with initial cap and exclamation point.

3. When I was 7, Mel saved me from drowning. The swimming instructor at summer camp pushed me into the deep end to make me swim, Meladee saw me flailing and jumped into the pool and rescued me.

4. Nearly all of my musical tastes were strongly influenced by the hours I sat listening to records with Mel and performing nearly Talmudic exegesis on the lyrics.

5. When I was 11, Mel took me and Hali to see Tommy at the Syosset UA 150. I wanted to sit through it again, but Hali didn't. So we went to Ransom Beach in Bayville and swam in Long Island Sound in our dungarees. Oddly enough, Mom wasn't pissed when we got home, soaking wet and covered in sand.

6. No matter how crappy things get, Mel always finds something humorous to say. Not happy-funny, but bitingly-funny. Think Dennis Leary, only more sarcastic.

7. After spending so many years ignoring politics, she's become the real political junkie of the family.

8. Mel is more stubborn than the collective living population of Capra Hircus.

9. Mel attributes her paranoia to Romper Room. No kidding.

10. Mel can be a real bitch, and proud of it. But she's never a bitch to me.

Ten Things I Love About My Mom ... In No Particular Order

2008-12-02T09:22:00.000-05:00

Mom's been gone more than six years, but she's still with me every single day. Some of the items on this list are culled from the eulogy I wrote in 2002 - and they are as true today as they were then.

1. There wasn't a single creative impulse that she didn't foster in me and my sisters.

2. Just because I made something didn't mean it was wonderful. Criticism hurts when you're 15 years old, but when you're older, you realize just how much love has been tempered into that criticism.

3. Mom believed that we could be anything we wanted. There was nothing we couldn't do just because we were girls. Ambition was never undercut by sexism.

4. Mom would have been a fabulous lawyer – she had the two characteristics that every good lawyer needs – the ability to argue and the unshakable belief that she was always right.

5. Mom would start waterfights. In the house.

6. If Mom couldn’t be a lawyer, she should have been an interrogator for the CIA. I have never met anyone who could get someone’s life story (including all the gory details and deep dark secrets) quicker. I think if Mom had ever made it to Stonehenge, she’d have those standing stones talking nonstop.

7. It was nearly impossible to keep the truth from Mom. One way or another, Mom’s radar sensed a lie, a prevarication or a simple omission of fact, and somehow, we’d end up ‘fessing up.

8. Mom loved all three of her daughters beyond measure, yet she was never, ever blind to their faults. And she never shied away from letting us know that!

9. Mom would have voted for Obama. Even though she was a registered Republican. Sarah Palin was just too big an insult.

10. Mom was never an old lady, and no matter how sick she was she never lost her sense of self. Almost to the very end, she was as vibrant and active as if she was perfectly healthy.

Mom, I still miss you.

Ten Things I Love About My Dad ... In No Particular Order

2008-12-01T09:19:00.000-05:00

1. I am the youngest of three girls, and probably the girliest of them all, but my dad never wanted a boy.

2. My dad thinks I am the smartest person in the world (although he probably thinks the same thing about both my sisters too).

3. My dad ends every telephone call with "I love you."

4. My dad has never voted for a Republican, and was extremely proud to vote for Barack Obama.

5. My dad thinks there is nothing I can't do, just because I am a woman. In fact, I think that my dad thinks I am smarter and more capable BECAUSE I am a woman.

6. My dad is 82 years old, and sometimes drives me crazy because he doesn't know how to act his age.

7. My dad is always looking out for me.

8. My dad isn't a grumpy old man, yet.

9. My dad is a good person - honest, compassionate, patient, and open-minded. I'd want to know him even if he wasn't my dad.

10. My dad is, well, my dad. He has helped make me the person that I am.

Ten Things...A Series of Lists

2008-12-01T09:12:00.000-05:00

A preface to the forthcoming posts...

I think lists are a cheap and easy way to fill up space. I also think they are effective when they aren't reguritating the work of others. I've never done lists here on Verbosity, and I don't plan on making it a habit, but the season has gotten to me a little bit and I am feeling the need to put the love out there.

So, without further delay, I bring you Ten Things I Love ...

Ambition Meets Practicality

2008-11-29T15:14:00.000-05:00

My planned menu:

Roasted Butternut and Apple Soup

Roasted Turkey with Gravy and Pear and Cranberry Chutney
Stuffing (Cooked Inside and Outside)
Savory Bread Pudding
Sweet Potato Pie
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Garlic and Figs
Grilled Asparagus in Lemon Butter Sauce
Roasted Carrots and Leeks
Haricots Verts

Apple Pie with Whipped Cream
Cake TBD
Fruit Salad

Wine
Cider
Other Beverages

My executed menu:

Roasted Butternut and Apple Soup

Roasted Turkey with Gravy and Pear and Cranberry Chutney
Stuffing (Cooked Inside and Outside)
Savory Bread Pudding
Sweet Potato Pie
Asparagus dressed with Garlic Butter
Roasted Carrots and Leeks

Apple Pie
Chocolate Cake
Fruit Salad

Wine
Water

Good Advice

2008-11-26T08:05:00.000-05:00

Via NYT, The CEO of Thanksgiving Dinner - Kim Severson, 11/26/2008

Quoting Stuart Friedman, author of “Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life,” a little conflict resolution that a good Thanksgiving C.E.O. might want to pass on to the guests:

"First, there should be no gloating over elections won or lost, and no discussion of personal income or investment loss. Give people around you a chance to shine by asking them questions that allow them to express their accomplishments. But don’t ask questions you don’t know the answer to, such as why isn’t Sanjay going to college or what happened to that nice girl your son brought home last year.

Always arrive with three topics to talk about beside the business at hand. If you are faced with someone you don’t want to talk to, try, for at least 10 minutes, to treat that person like your boss. That means you at least have to pretend you are interested in what they are saying.

Just like at work, don’t take somebody else’s behavior personally or be overly sensitive, especially if people have been drinking.

With all these tools in place, a good Thanksgiving C.E.O. should be able to sit back and enjoy a terrific day.

Just keep in mind what all successful executives know: Thank people publicly and often, and never, ever point a finger.

A good leader shares all the credit and takes all the blame.”

Cruft

2008-11-24T10:53:00.000-05:00

I cleaned out the keyboard for my office computer today. I popped each key out, a row at a time, and with a q-tip and some canned air, I got rid of the cruft that has been collecting for 18 months.

I cannot believe how filthy it was, considering that I rarely eat at my desk. Anyway, it wasn't food that was collecting in between the keys, it was bits of me! The dirt inside seems to be comprised of only skin flakes and small hairs - about a teaspoon's worth of bodily decay. Word to police forensics - don't bother trying to collect DNA samples from hair found on a brush, just swab the spaces between the keys, and you'll get all the DNA you need.

FWIW - I never thought I'd use the "gross" tag again.

David Brooks, Today's NYT Column

2008-11-21T11:55:00.000-05:00

I really believed that the members of the conservative "intelligensia" who endorsed BHO would start disavowing their selection during the transition period. So far, not only am I wrong, one of the few conservatives I regularly read, David Brooks, has actually come out with strong praise for the President-Elect's cabinet in the making in his column today, David Brooks, The Insider’s Crusade - NYTimes.com

"Obama seems to have dispensed with the romantic and failed notion that you need inexperienced “fresh faces” to change things. "

Thank you for putting it so succinctly.

A Good Day

2008-11-19T14:24:00.000-05:00

Oh, it is so deliciously cold out. Bright blue sky with big, puffy sheep-like clouds wisking by. The long-needled fir trees outside of my office window have lost the bright verdant hues of summer and have settled into a dark greenish gold. The parking lot is pleasantly littered with drifts of shed needles and sticky cones. A few birch trees up the block stubbornly refuse to doff the last of their golden-red splendor.

The dry cold makes my hands ache a bit, and the wind makes me glad I'm not fifteen years old, waiting in the dark for the morning school bus.

Today is a good day, and when I go home, I think I'll curl up under the down blanket and velvet comforter and while away the hours until Top Chef with a cup of Russian Caravan and some episodes of The West Wing, Season One.

I Really Want ... This

2008-11-19T10:12:00.000-05:00

And now, for something a little different:

I really, really, really want the complete, printed Oxford English Dictionary. I look at the pictures on Amazon, and I drool (please excuse me while I wipe the corner of my lips). I was the geeky kid who read the dictionary and the encyclopedia while in the bathroom.

I DON'T want the CD ROM version. It's for Windows PCs only, which means that it's got an awful interface (Clarendon Press claims a Mac OS X version will be available in 2009). Windows or OS X aside, something this wonderful can't ever properly translate into mere bits and bytes. It is slow and the mere electronic format makes it antithetical to the browsing one should do with this type of reference. I've had CD-ROM versions of dictionaries and encyclopedias, and they always disappointing. Features that should be a natural for computerization are overlooked, and ease of use is never a consideration. Worst of all is the DRM. In the case of the OED CD-ROM version, if it's transferred to a hard drive, the actual CD has to be inserted every month for verification. That is ridiculous.

The On-Line version isn't much better, simply because of the cost: $295 PER YEAR! That just doesn't seem right, considering the actual cost of the physical books ($800 from Amazon), which means that after three years of subscribing, I'd have more than paid for the set. Plus the Mac OS uses the OED as its internal dictionary, so I really don't need to spend $300 a year just to look up a word.

What about the Compact version, you ask? Well, I have that - and while it's useful, it's not easy to use. The magnifying glass is not just a gimmick - the serif font is probably less than 1 point, and my ageing eyes are having difficulty reading the newspaper these days.

I want to actually read the OED - to be able to pick up a volume late at night, and skim through it. To browse through a volume at random and learn about words and meanings and origins. I want to be able to do this. Okay, well not in one year, but maybe in my own lifetime. A dear friend - a published author and former college professor - paid me one of the finest complements I've ever received - he said I had one of the biggest vocubularies of anyone he ever met.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll treat myself to a Channukah present this year.

Is This Not the Worst Picture of Bill Clinton?

2008-11-17T10:56:00.000-05:00

What's wrong with this?

Photo: AP

From this article on Politico. There is something really, really wrong here - it looks very Photoshopped to me - the shadows around the eyes, darkened teeth, and the whole head elongated.

Seems like someone wants to demonize the former president. Wonder how handy Maureen Dowd is with Adobe?

Who Writes His Material?

2008-11-10T10:13:00.000-05:00

Via Gawker.com, from the 2005 event hosted by Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy, a roast of Rahm Emanuel, chief-of-staff to President-Elect Barack Obama (I don't think I'll get tired of saying that anytime soon).

Free Sheperd Fairey Stickers from MoveOn.Org

2008-11-07T15:22:00.000-05:00

MoveOn.org is giving away stickers with the deservedly famous Shep Fairey Obama portrait, with additional artwork. One sticker's free, $3 gets you 5, and $20 or more gets you $50.

For the record, MoveOn raised over $58 MILLION for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, from individual donations. They raised an additional $3.8 MILLION for various House and Senate races. Remember, the fight's not over - the far-right contingent of the Republican party has met, and Steve Bozell has declared that the moderate wing of the GOP is dead. The only way forward for the Republicans is going to be by the ultra-conservatives, who espouse a scorched earth policy. 2010 is going to be a fight, and while the majority of the nation viewed Caribou Barbie as an idiot and a wackjob, the Republican leadership seems to think she's the saviour of the Grand Old Party.

So go, donate to MoveOn.org - and get some nice stickers while you're at it.

Tears of Joy

2008-11-07T10:13:00.000-05:00

From Judith Warner, who's New York Times blog is a highlight of my week:

At the First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008,

Latrice Barnes, right, is comforted by her daughter Jasmine Redd, 5. (David Goldman for The New York Times)

"This moment of triumph marks the end of such a long period of pain, of indignity and injustice for African-Americans. And for so many others of us, of the trampling and debasing of our most basic ideals, beliefs that we cherished every bit as deeply and passionately as those of the “values voters” around whose sensibilities we’ve had to tiptoe for the past 28 years.

The election brought the return of a country we’d lost for so long that it was almost forgotten under the accumulated scar tissue of accommodation and acceptance.

For me, this will be the enduring memory of election night 2008: One generation released its grief. The next looked up confusedly, eager to please and yet unable to comprehend just what the tears were about."

Change is in the air

2008-11-07T09:52:00.000-05:00

And on the Internet. Change.gov is gone on line - it is a website from the incoming Obama-Biden administration. The site is an ambitious work, covering the transition, the new administration's agenda, a news, blogs, information about the team and a repository for ideas from all Americans.

"It’s Your America: Share Your Ideas

The story of the campaign and this historic moment has been your story. Share your story and your ideas, and be part of bringing positive lasting change to this country."

That Dress! And So It Begins...

2008-11-06T10:39:00.000-05:00

The first thought that entered my mind when Michelle Obama walked onto the stage at Grant Park on Tuesday night was "Mrs. President-Elect, what were you thinking? That has got to be the ugliest dress I've ever seen." And then I wanted to slap myself. Hard. What does it matter? I felt like I was getting sucked into a time warp. Was it really 16 years ago that the newspapers were all agog at Hillary's poor taste in clothes and spinning mad stories about who and what she'd wear at the Inauguration?

Are we really that shallow, particularly in the midst of an economic crises and two terrible wars, that we have to spend even a moment criticizing an apparel choice?

In a word, YES - we are that shallow. The dress WAS ugly, and while it did project a young and hip attitude, the red flameswere very jarring, and it just didn't seem to fit Mrs. Obama's personality (as well as her body). It was also RED. While I get really annoyed with the whole Red State/Blue State color thing, I'd think that on that night, for that appearance, she'd wear her party's colors, or at the very least, not the colors of the other party. Michelle Obama will be the most soignée First Lady that America will have since the Kennedy Administration, but Tuesday night she looked a bit more Hillary circa 1992 than Jackie 1962.

Dead-Tree Editions Sell Out

2008-11-05T14:41:00.000-05:00

Somewhere in my basement is a box containing a bunch of newspapers my grandmother saved, marking momentous world events - the Kennedy Assassination, the Moon Landing, Nixon's Resignation. I've also got, in my personal cache, the Newsday edition for the Mets 1986 World Series Victory.

Before I finally turned off the lights and the TV last night, I gave myself a mental reminder to stop at the card store and get copies of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal before going into work. I'm glad that I did it then, rather than waiting for lunchtime or even this evening. The NY Times reports that all of the major "dead-tree" (read, printed editions) newspapers, have sold out because people are buying them for souvenirs.

It's not as though I'm going to have grandkids who will read these years in the future, but I've got to save them anyway.

Picture courtesy of The New York Times

Yes We Can, and Yes We Did!

2008-11-05T11:28:00.000-05:00

I was initially a Hillary Clinton supporter, but while I would have voted for her had she secured the Democratic Party's nomination, I wouldn’t have respected her. Although her political positions were squarely in line with my own liberal Democratic ideals, her campaign became Republican sleeze. Thus, I lost all respect for her.

It took me a while to warm up to Barack Obama - not because he’s black, but because I worried that a black man could never be elected President. The thought of four more years of Republican chicanery was the stuff of nightmare, so it was only after the Democratic National Convention, when I watch Senator Obama give his acceptance speech did I begin to believe in his candidacy and hope that a better, brighter future was at hand.

Watching the election returns last night was exhilarating and humbling. The pride I felt in myself and my country when listening to President Elect Obama’s speech was immeasurable. This Jewish woman has every confidence in our newly elected president. I am certain that there will be times I don’t agree with his policies, but I now have this unshakable belief that Barack Obama - President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama - will be the best President this country has had since FDR. The dark clouds of greed, fear and hate that have shadowed our nation are breaking up, and the clear blue sky of liberty, justice and freedom are shining through at last.

America, you voted with the angels of your better nature on your shoulder. You've lifted us up from the depths of despair. Today, America, I am proud of you.

Today, I am Proud To Be An American

2008-11-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

Remember when you were a kid, and waking upon the morning of big day that finally arrived? It could have been your birthday, Christmas morning, the first day of summer vacation, or a long-anticipated family trip. I can almost guarantee that it was never Election Day.

Today, waking up, I had that feeling. Hope, fear, anticipation and resignation all rolled into one big knot in my stomach, and that was before I even got out of bed. I didn't know what to expect at my polling site - I was kind of eager to find long lines, but hoping they wouldn't be too long. At 6:38, the site was pretty busy, but not crowded. There were eight voting precincts, and each machine had a line of 3-10 people.

What was cool (at least for me) was that the mechanical voting machines were still being used. The election volunteer commented that these machines were listed as the most accurate in New York State. I don't know if she was referring to the model or the specific voting booths. For me, the sound of democracy is encapsulated in the voting booth - the clank of the lever, the swish of the curtains opening and closing, the plink of the switches and the thunk-clank of the vote being recorded when the lever is pulled again.

Walking out of the polling site, I felt ten feet tall and lighter than air. Can the unthinkable happen and John McCain stage the greatest upset in modern political history? Certainly. But at least I know I did the right thing.

Today, I voted. Today, I am proud to be an American Citizen

WTF?

2008-10-17T13:47:00.000-04:00

Okay, I know this poor guy had been tortured near to death, and that's not something you really ever recover from, but was it so bad that he cannot control his body and face? Because to attribute his utter lack of physical coordination to age and/or infirmity is pretty damn scary when you think of who's a heart beat (or a blood clot) away from the presidency if McCain's elected.

Yum...

2008-10-16T11:33:00.000-04:00

Noodlr.
Try it, and see if you don't get hungry.

TWiT and the TWiT Forums - FAIL

2008-09-22T09:10:00.000-04:00

I've been a big fan of Leo Laporte for many years, first on TechTV and since 2005, on his podcast/netcast - TWiT (This Week in Tech). When I was commuting to New Jersey each week, I would listen to TWiT during the early morning drive - first to keep me awake and then to stimulate my brain. At the time that Leo started TWiT (initially called "Revenge of The Screen Savers" - since it brought together many of the former cast members of that late, great show - until the G4 network threatened to sue), he labeled it a hobby - something he did once a week, between the radio show gig and the trips to Canada to shoot "Call For Help". As the months progressed, and podcasting went mainstream with the inclusion of the medium on iTunes, TWiT spawned several other podcasts - MacBreak Weekly, FLOSS Weekly, Windows Weekly - and somehow the weekly get-together with old friends became a nascent Internet media empire.

In early 2006, Leo created a user forum for his fans, also known as the "TWiT Army." There was a small barrier to entry - a one time donation - even as low as $2.00, which would keep out the spammers, trolls and flamebaiters out, but as Leo had such an intensely loyal following, the stream of donations quickly became a source of income that helped pay for the ever increasing technological needs of the TWiT network.

I signed on to the TWiT user forums on the very first day, and I am very proud that my user number is a mere 35. I've been an active participant in the forums (okay, more properly fora), the third most frequent visitor (or maybe it's poster) and the second most frequent discussion starter. I've got a lot of time invested in these forums. I've made some good friends, and have had some truely excellent conversations and the TWiT forums have been a place to exercise my intellectual muscles.

Earlier this year, around March or April, a hacker broke into the TWiT forum and trashed all of the posts. Since Leo had not recently backed up the database (although he had done so for a forum site for the Munchcast podcast), 15 months worth of posts were wiped out (although I feel that Leo should have restore what was actually backed up). And the forum continued on - the reset actually made things a little better...some of the trollish personalities dropped off and all of the nasty "I hate Guest X" threads were gone (and there were, unfortunately, a lot of them).

Beyond the shared interest in the TWiTcasts, the forums had become a real community, and I was horrified to learn that the entire TWiT site, from the show posting pages, to Leoville, to the TWiT Army microblog, to the Forums themselves, were gone. Totally and irrevocably gone. The RAID 5 controller, which Leo has admitted he knew was bad, died. What's worse is that he hadn't backed up anything recently. I certainly could understand not wanting to pay the exhorbitant rates the hosting company was charging for a backup drive, but to completely fail to implement a regular off-site syncing script is simply criminal.

I am so angry I am considering cancelling my monthly donation. Leo's done the mea culpa on air, but that just isn't cutting it. One time is acceptable - but to know that your data's at risk and to do NOTHING is unconscionable.

Argh!

2008-09-19T15:05:00.000-04:00

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Remember

2008-09-11T09:58:00.000-04:00

Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain was yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and callow fellow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow.

September 11, 2001

A Ray of Sunshine in What Has Been a Lousy Week of News

2008-09-10T12:24:00.000-04:00

Week? How about decade?

I don't know if I'm feeling grim from the steady stream of bad news (although the Mets won and the Phillies lost), the bad dream the other night, or the season. The news; however, out of my favorite cultural institution is apparently very good. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is going to be in good hands.

Per today's New York Times, a successor to Phillippe de Montebello has been named, and he's not a professional fundraiser but a true museum professional. Thomas Campbell has been a curator with the Met for over a dozen years, specializing in medieval and Renaissance tapestries. To quote the Times:

"In selecting Mr. Campbell, the Met seems to have opted for intellectual heft as well as continuity. A graduate of the Courtauld Institute in London, he arrived at the museum in 1995 and made his reputation through much-praised scholarly catalogs and ambitious shows involving complex logistics and diplomacy."

How rare it is to hear that scholarship and technical ability are the prized factors in the selection of an influential position. Since the turn of the century (at least in America), people are appointed to positions of power not for their ability to do the job, but for the ability to raise funds for the people in power ("Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job!")

Recurring Dreams

2008-09-09T16:05:00.000-04:00

So, I have two types of recurring dreams. One has been with me since early adulthood, but the other one is fairly new.

The old one is a pretty typical "naked" dream - I'm somewhere outside and I'm either naked from the waist up or the waist down, but no one seems to notice. I usually have these dreams during times of stress or at the cusp of a major life change. One consistent aspect of this dream is that I've either lost my car, or it's been stolen.

The new one is pretty odd, and usually quite vivid and realistic. It's the lost pocketbook dream. I'm generally in New York city and I lose my pocketbook, or just the contents. What makes this dream disturbing is that I do something to cause the loss. I'll usually just put my bag down someplace, walk away and come back later expecting it to be there. Then, I can't get home. I have no money, no phone, no keys.

Last night's edition was a doozy - and more vivid than usual. I'm in a used bookstore in the city, and for some awful, unknown reason, I'm carrying a pale blue suede monstrosity that's a cross between a Hobo and a Berkin. I put it on a shelf in the crowded store and walk over to the manager and strike up a conversation. I go back, and my bag's there, intact. I leave it and go back to my conversation. When I go back to my bag on the shelf, it's empty. My iPod, iPhone, keys, wallet, hairbrush, pens and card case are gone. I'm left with an empty bag.

At this point in my dream, I'm stressed over two things - I won't be able to get the subsized price for a replacement iPhone, and I don't remember where I've parked my car (which is usually part of a "naked" dream), because the claim ticket was in my wallet. The store manager actually lends me money to get on a bus to get to my car (I think it's in a lot in the upper West Side, but I'm just hoping to recognize the structure). I get on a bus, but the bus is going to Queens, and it's getting dark. The driver doesn't stick to the route, but takes me to the home of a really nice Jewish family. They give me clothes and food, but they seem to be in the auto repair business and extremely observant - which just doesn't seem to go together.

I woke up at this point - and I've felt at a loss all day long. It was so vivid that I've been checking the contents of my handbag and it's location all day long.

Bizarre.

It's just been one of those days, one that calls for the best line in a movie, EVER

2008-09-08T14:49:00.000-04:00

"You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"

The Princess Bride - Vizzini to the Man in Black

Apparently, I'm pretty conflicted

2008-09-02T13:51:00.000-04:00

You Are a Black and White Cookie

You're often conflicted in life, and you feel pulled in two opposite directions.

When you're good, you're sweet as sugar. And when you're bad, you're wicked!

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

BigSexy Has Arrived

2008-08-29T18:32:00.000-04:00

Actually, the new MBP arrived on Wednesday morning, two full days ahead of schedule. So far, so good. It's been a bit crazy, so I haven't really spent a lot of quality time with BigSexy, just got it loaded up with the programs I needed. What is amazing to me is how few programs are actually disc based - only Photoshop CS3 and iWork '08. Everything else was a fresh download. How times have changed.

Apple Customer Service Experience - Part 1

2008-08-25T17:33:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week, Apple made news as achieving exceptionally high customer service ratings, the same day that Michael Arrington bemoaned the lack of quality in some recent Apple products he purchased. Naturally, the tech blogosphere exploded with commentary and comments on both sides of the argument. Gruber elegantly smacked Arrington down, the increasingly irrelevant Scoble chimed in with some nonsense, overly smug Mac owners pointed fingers at their Windows-PC owning brethren and screamed "nyeener-nyeener." One of my sisters, a Dell owner, can't understand why people are so down on Dell customer service, until I explained that unless you pay the extra money for business/gold level support, you're stuck with dealing with minimally trained off-shore CS people who want you to reinstall Windows when you're monitor is malfunctioning.

Me, I couldn't care less about the results of this survey. Since the early-1990s, when Apple expanded tech and warranty support beyond the first 30 days, my experience has been nearly 100% satisfactory. Of course, there have been a few times when I've spoken with CS reps who don't quite seem to know what they are talking about or were unaccountably snarky, but in 15+ years of Apple-provided tech support, the experience has been consistently excellent.

As to Michael Arrington's comments regarding build quality - he seems to be living in a world where Apple had, until recently, an unassailable position in quality and out-of-the-box performance. Unfortunately, that's never been true. There have always been lemons - both of my sisters (the Dell owner and the Mac owner), have both had some serious quality problems with their Macs. The first generation of PowerBooks were awful, the Titanium PowerBooks were only marginally better, the Rev A G4 and G5 towers were problem-prone, the first generation of the flat-panel iMacs had serious rattles and mid-plane issues, the first generation of the 30" Cinema Displays had an alarming tendency to pinkness, the first generation of G4 iBooks had logic board problems, and on and on. And let's not forget the battery life issues for the first and second generation iPods - there was a rather protracted lawsuit on that one.

What has trumped the problems people have had with quality and build issues is how Apple has dealt with the problem. I've been lucky - in 22 years of Mac ownership, I've had only a handful of problems - a burned out power supply on my original 512k Mac, a prematurely drained internal clock battery on my PowerMac 6100, and a MacPro logic board that farted and played dead on iDay last year. A pretty good record, considering the number of Macs I've owned over the years, until I purchased a refurbished 17" MacBook Pro last June. My 15" PowerBook was in perfectly good condition, except that it was very finicky with software that's been built primarily for the Intel Macs. I had to give several heavily animated presentations in July using Keynote at The Convention in Ohio, and the PowerBook didn't have enough horsepower to carry it off. I was going to commit to either a MacBook or a 15" MacBook Pro, when I checked the refurb list on the on-line Apple Store. There, I found my dream model - the 17" with the glossy screen. It was the immediately prior generation - 2.3 GHz, with a 160 GB hard drive, but it was about the same price as the 15" I was thinking of buying. I'd been assured by friends who had bought Apple Store refurbs that 95% of the time, the refurbs are actually new products that had been opened and returned and couldn't be sold as new (rather than products returned for problems and then repaired). Since the refurb was covered under the same warranty as a new unit, buying the 17" seemed to be a no-brainer decision.

I got the MacBook Pro, and it was as good as I hoped. The only trouble I had was when I was playing with the Spore Creature Creator. It seemed to really stress the processors - the back got extremely hot very quickly, and there was one time I left the program running and closed the lid. The MBP wouldn't wake from sleep, and I forced a reboot. After that, I was careful to close SCC before putting the MBP to sleep, and ever experienced the problem again. I was delighted with the laptop, and it performed as expected during my conference and presentation.
Unfortunately, things turned sour as soon as I got home. Literally. After driving 12 hours straight through from Columbus to New York, I unpacked the car and dragged just the essentials back upstairs, which meant just my laptop (the suitcase filled with dirty laundry could wait until the next day). I wanted to check my office email, but much to my dismay and complete bafflement, the MBP just shut it self down. I rebooted, and it happened again. I rebooted, and it wouldn't event start up.

I called AppleCare the next day, and they had me run through the some troubleshooting tasks: resetting the PMU (remove battery and power cord, and hold the power button down for 30 seconds) and resetting the PRAM (hold down the Command, Option and P, R, and M keys and then start the computer until it chimes twice). I was able to get the MBP running long enough to pull off all of the presentation and associated audio files, and it shut itself down about 10 seconds later. The next day (Friday), after work, I went to the Apple Store to drop it off for repairs. I was a little startled to find that there were no appointments for Mac issues until the following TUESDAY (this is why the surging popularity of the Mac platform is not necessarily A Good Thing). I was; however, able to do a Quickdrop, which was actually quite fine, since it was unlikely there was anything a Genius could to fix the MPB. The guy who did the intake on the Quickdrop advised that the earliest anyone would be looking at the MBP would be Monday.

Sunday morning (a day earlier than expected), I was a little startled to get a call from the Apple Store, letting me know that they were shipping the MBP off to the depot in Houston for repairs. I got the standard warning that if they found physical damage or water damage inside the case, it would cost me $1800 (I must have heard wrong), and that it could take up to 10 business days to complete the repair. I wasn't terribly discommoded by the prospect since I still had the 15" PowerBook for the bedroom. I just wanted the MBP fixed. ...

Part 2 follows

Apple Customer Service Experience - Part 2

2008-08-25T17:28:00.000-04:00

To make a long story short (not really), a week later, I got a call that the MBP was fixed and available for pickup. As I had suspected, it was the logic board that needed replacing (not an uncommon problem I found when searching the Apple Discussion forums and Google). That was August 11th. On Wednesday, August 19th, everything went pear shaped again. I was playing a new game (Saqqarah) with pretty intensive graphics (like Spore Creature Creator), and the back of the MBP got super hot, really fast. I got out my new infrared surface thermometer (bought to check out the surface temps of the computer equipment in my home office), and much to my dismay, the back of the MBP was registering at 127 degrees Fahrenheit. That's pretty hot - the AppleTV (a notoriously warm piece of gear) - was only registering 100 degrees F. I quit the game and shut the lid, putting the MBP to sleep. 20 minutes later, I wanted to check my mail, but the machine wouldn't wake from sleep - the latch light just kept glowing full strength. I forced a shut down and restarted - I got the full start-up chime and I could feel the vibration of the hard drive spinning up, but the screen stayed dark and the latch light stayed on.

Oh boy, not good.

I ran through the same troubleshooting techniques that I did with the original problems, but to no avail. Finally, after the fifth PMU reset, the screen came on during start up. I was pretty conservative in using the MBP (just checking email and surfing with Firefox), but I was really curious about what was causing the failure. I ran Photoshop, and once again, the back of the machine got very hot very quickly. I quit, but left the MBP opened for 20 minutes, and it cooled down to 92 degrees. I shut the lid and immediately reopened it, and it didn't wake from sleep. This time, no amount of PMU and PRAM resets would bring it back up. The MBP was, as far as I was concerned, dead, and I had no interest in doing any further troubleshooting or hooking it up to an external monitor to see if it was the display or the logic board. By this time, it was too late to call Apple, so I packed it up and took it to work the next morning (Thursday).

It was a quiet morning at the office, so I was able to call Apple at 9:00 am, when the tech support opens (I don't know why they don't operate 24/7). I spoke with a very nice and sympathetic CS rep (I think his name was Steve). After telling my tale of woe (he didn't even suggest we troubleshoot), he escalated to a Product Specialist - Jeff. I repeated the story, which annoyed me a bit, since I was on hold for about 10 minutes while Steve was supposedly telling this guy everything that I told him. In retrospect, I think he wanted to make sure I was not elaborating on the details, since the easiest way to catch someone in a lie is to make them repeat a story.

I was polite and even tempered and strove to keep my voice as even as possible, but when Jeff gave me my options - ship it back to Apple for a repair or drop it off at the Apple Store, I said no. Frankly, a repair at this point was unacceptable. The logic board was already replaced once, and whether the problem was the display (unlikely) or the logic board again, it didn't seem right that a new machine should have to have two major repairs in a little more than two months of ownership. I told Jeff that I either wanted my money back or a new machine (and by new, I meant another refurbished unit with the same specs). He went quiet for a few seconds and said that he wanted to speak with a Senior Product Specialist about this, and would I mind going back on hold.

I've now been on the phone for 40 minutes, about a third of which has been spent on hold. All I can say at this point is that I'm glad that Apple has such strong ties to the music industry, because the hold music was pretty cool - Bela Fleck, Neil Young and a roots music group I never heard before (some day I'll have to blog about being on hold for my original ISP and having Annie Lennox ruined for me for over a year). After another 15 minutes, Jeff passed me off to Dan, who started to ask/tell me about my MBP that was shutting down at random. I corrected him and repeated the whole sad tale yet one more time, ending with my request for a replacement rather than a repair. Dan said that he knew that (my repetition this time was apparently unnecessary) and that's what he wanted to discuss with me. To try (yet again) to make this interminably long story just a bit shorter), Dan agreed that I should have my MBP replaced. After doing the mailing address intake, he asked if I had the order number for the original purchase available and he was surprised that it was for a refurbished unit. I asked if that would be a problem, and he replied no, of course not, but he'd have to locate a replacement unit for me.

I wasn't put on hold this time, so I could hear the keyboards clacking, and after a few minutes Dan came back on line. It seemed that there wasn't another 17" MBP with the same specs in the pool of available refurbs. Hearing this, I expected the next words from Dan to go something like this:

"Well, given that we can't replace your machine with another refurb right away, you've got a few choices. We can put you on the priority list for the next available refurb'ed 17" 2.3 Ghz with a glossy screen, or you can send your back for repair, or you can drop it off at your local Apple Store for repair."

You know what? I was offered none of these options. Dan's next words were this:

"We'll just have to send you out a new machine. It will be a 2.5 Ghz, 250 gb hard drive, 2 gb RAM and a glossy screen. Will that be okay?"

And I responded...

"Um, yeah, absolutely. That will be perfect."

Dan then ran through the RMA process. I wouldn't have to wait for Apple to receive my malfunctioning laptop back before they would ship out the new one. In about an hour or so, I would get a call from a Customer Relations representative to confirm my shipping address and the instructions for returning the MBP. I'd then get an email with a link to the FedEx RMA label, and once the package hit the FedEx system, my replacement MBP would be queued up for shipment.

You know what, it happened just as Dan said it would. By 11:30, I got a call from Victor, he confirmed my mailing address. A few minutes later, I got an email with the link to FedEx. I packed up the MBP and took it over to the FedEx/Kinkos that opened up a few months ago and had them scan it into the system. By the time I got back to the office, there was already three emails from Apple, an automated message confirming receipt of the package into the system, and another from Victor advising that since my package was in transit, the replacement order was now in process. The third message was from Apple advising that the order my replacement MBP had been completed and would be shipped soon.

I was really, really delighted, but by this time I had convinced myself that when Dan said "new machine" what he really meant was another refurb with better specs. That would be better than fine, too. Actually, when Dan said "new machine," meant brand new, fresh-from-the-factory-in-retail-packaging new machine. Friday morning brought another email from Apple, this time with the sales order number, which contained the part number - Z0F2, which is the product number for a new, not refurbished unit. The part number for a refurbished MBP is FA897LL/A (I put both items into a shopping cart to check this out).

Even if I still had any doubts, they were erased with the email from Apple this morning (Monday), with the FedEx tracking number. My computer's being shipped from Shanghai, China, not from California. The tracking page says "overnight" - so that means I can expect my replacement MBP to arrive sometime on Wednesday.

I couldn't be happier. Apple's taken some hits lately - mostly because it is held to nearly impossible standards. And there's always room for improvement - particularly with product builds, lately. But my experience has been nearly flawless.

I'll supplement this with another post after the replacement arrives.

Memes Are Us

2008-08-25T10:04:00.000-04:00

I've grabbed this from Carrie Lofty's Salome's Corner, who got it from Darla at Nichtszusagen, who got it from Grace at Sandier Pastures, who claims to have stolen it from Mak!Mej!, but I can't find any trace of it there:

1. What is your occupation? Lawyer.

2. What color are your socks right now? Not wearing any, it's still summertime and sandles.

3. What are you listening to right now? Michael O'Suilleabeahn's The Dolphin's Way.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? American cheese omlette with sausage, two cups of coffee.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? No.

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Magenta or Canary

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Dad, to let him know I was almost home.

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? It wasn't sent to me - I snagged it off of G-Reader.

9. Favorite drink? Alcoholic - Bellini. Non-Alcoholic - Arnold Palmer or club soda.

10. What is your favorite sport to watch? Baseball.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes, and highlights too.

12. Pets? None at the moment, though I'm sort of a god mother to a friend's dog.

13. Favorite food? Lobster.

14. Last movie you watched? Ironman.

15. Favorite Day of the year? The day the clocks go forward.

16. What do you do to vent anger? Grind my teeth.

17. What was your favorite toy as a child? A stuffed rabbit named "Gail Nightingale."

18. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Fall.

19. Hugs or kisses? Hugs.

20. What kind of pie? Apple.

21. Living arrangements? Dad's downstairs, I'm upstairs.

22. When was the last time you cried? Four days ago, listening to Bridge Over Troubled Waters.

23. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes, in boxes and out, empty bags from the dry cleaner, handbags.

24. Favorite smell? Anything that brings to mind good memories.

25. What inspires you? An interesting sky - the quality of light.

26. What are you afraid of? Falling.

27. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese, please.

28. Favorite car? To own - my Audi A4 Avant, to dream about - I don't dream about cars.

29. Favorite cat breed? Cats and I don't get along, but I do love talky Siamese.

30. Number of keys on your key ring? Seven.

31. How many years at your current job? 1.5

32. Favorite day of the week? Friday, and does anyone answer otherwise?

33. How many states/provinces have you lived in? Two.

34. How many countries have you been to? Three.

35. How much do you love "Knowing Me, Knowing You" by ABBA? Enough.

Chainsaw Maid

2008-08-21T14:18:00.001-04:00

Via Mark Frauenfelder and Boing Boing, here is the creepiest and most hysterically funny zombie Claymation short you'll ever see:

I don't know which is grosser - the newly zombified mom vomiting up her internal organs, or the zombie getting his arms and legs cut off.

Emotions and Physical Contact

2008-08-21T10:42:00.001-04:00

Why is that when I'm very happy, I want to hug someone, and when I'm sad or upset, I don't want to touch anyone? I'm not a person who generally needs or seeks out physical contact, and I am usually in a good mood. But I've noticed that when I am genuinely happy - something wonderful or unexpectedly good occurs, I find myself wanting to give and receive a hug. Conversely, when I am upset or sad, I tend to close myself off - from both physical contact and general contact.

Does anyone else feel like this, or am I just weird?

Woof - The Dog Days of Summer

2008-08-19T08:07:00.000-04:00

Jeff Scher's lovely animated short in today's New York Times is perfectly evocative of the hot, humid days of this waning summer. Watch it again in the middle of winter, and don't be surprised to feel the back of your neck getting dirty and gritty.

Dog v. Balloons

2008-08-18T08:56:00.000-04:00

Kenn - Thank you for this lovely bit of time sink. 83 seconds of pure and uncomplicated happiness.

Discovered at The Dog Files

The Family Photo Album Dilemma - Maybe It's Solved?

2008-08-14T09:52:00.000-04:00

It looks like David Pogue's ridden to my rescue yet again. A few weeks back, I lamented on the fact that my family photo albums were disintegrating, and that the project to repair them looked nearly insurmountable. I had even discarded the thought of scanning the pictures because of the sheer amount to time involved for getting pretty mediocre results.

However, based on the recommendation in David's most recent NY Times column, I am going to carefully dismantle those decaying photo albums and send the pictures into Scanmyphotos.com. For $50, this company will scan up to 1000 pictures, and send you back a DVD with your images in JPEG format. Of course, there are caveats - everything has to be properly organized and labled, there are extra fees for reorienting images, scanning the backs of photos, etc., but frankly - it seems worth every penny. Consider this - a sheet feed scanner that will actually accept photos (most don't) costs about $400. Not only is it expensive (the equivalent of scanning 8000 photos), it will be primarily a uni-tasker in your office, because the sheetfeed mechanism means that the unit won't work comfortably or well as a flatbed scanner (I know this from experience).

So, I am going to give this a shot. My sisters will be in this weekend to celebrate Dad's 82nd birthday, and even though they don't know it yet, they are going to help with those picture albums, like it or not!

Stay tuned, and I'll report on the results.

Briton Arrested For Sex Attacks on Sheep - NYTimes.com

2008-07-18T10:44:00.000-04:00

New York Times: Briton Arrested For Sex Attacks on Sheep

"A Briton has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out a series of sex attacks on sheep, London police said on Friday."

"Two male joggers said they had observed a man molesting the sheep in a field at Botany Bay Lane, Chislehurst, police said in a statement."

What? WHAT? WHAT!

A Spaghetti Western Even I Love

2008-07-16T14:20:00.000-04:00

Seeing something like this makes the Internet actually meaningful. I had forgotten all about the wonderful and wacky weirdness over at eatPES. Thank you, Jason at Signal vs. Noise for reminding me.

The App Store is Live!

2008-07-10T08:58:00.000-04:00

Early reports via Google Reader advised a certain little birdie that iTunes 7.7 was available for download. Not willing to leave the snuggle-snuggle comfort of her bed before she absolutely had to (terrible night - the teeth were grinding and the stomach was churning and wakey-wakey at least three times before the dawn's early light), the little birdie only had time to run the updates on the MBP and the MacPro via Screen Share before leaving the safe haven and venturing out into the harsh world this morning.

Given the utterly wonky performance of iTunes 7.X on her PoS Dell, the little birdie thought it best to delete the existing software and reinstall 7.7 de novo. Which went flawlessly.

For the first time in months, she was able to launch iTunes with a single click - instead of trying and retrying and using the run command. (Oh noes! Gasp of horror!)

First thing this little AppleSlut did was try to find the new App Store. And to her immediate devastation, it was nowhere to be found. But, Google Reader to the rescue yet again - a brief snippet of an entry about searching for an app would reveal the App Store for the faithful. And lo, the Temple of Steve was revealed!

A search for "Super Monkey Ball" returned a few results, including the requested application. Going to the application revealed a live breadcrumb trail back to the App Store. A second look through the voluminous Apple-related blog entries in Google Reader disclosed a post on the Apple Phone Show Blog by the ever-wonderful and ever-snarky Mr. Scott Bourne, with a direct link to the App Store.

There are 27 pages of iPhone applications - free and paid, and at 21 apps per page, that is 567 applications on Day -1. Wow. There are also 7 pages of free apps - 147 for the math-impaired (and maybe this app can help with that problem).

Looking through the App Store, the AppleSlut came to realize that she may need to buy a new iPhone before 3G is rolled out here in cloud-cuckoo land. 8 gb is not a lot of space anymore, with all this fun stuff waiting for her.

Devilishly Clever Mid-Afternoon Humor

2008-07-09T16:11:00.000-04:00

Via Merlin Mann's great blog, Kung Fu Grippe:

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: E-mail Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone:

MikeUnderscore2004@yahoo.com
MikeAtYahooDotCom@hotmail.com
Mike_WardAllOneWord@yahoo.com
AAAAAThatsSixAs@yahoo.com
One1TheFirstJustTheNumberTheSecondSpelledOut@hotmail.com

If you thought the NYT article in the last post was gross, it has nothing on this one

2008-07-02T11:46:00.000-04:00

New York Times: Late Period Limbaugh

EVIL INCARNATE

No thank you, not for me, please.

2008-07-02T11:40:00.000-04:00

Skin Deep - A Spa for Those Women Concerned About ‘Pelvic Fitness’ - NYTimes.com

A few years ago, I was a bit shocked by those ads in New York magazine offering plastic surgery for the hoo-hoo. This, my dear readers is rather a bit beyond even my fairly flexible sensibilities. It seems that just as I can get my toes done, my back massaged or my eyebrows waxed at the local day spa, I can go to a spa to have my "pelvic fitness" tested. Manually.

Ugh.

What Was I Thinking?

2008-07-01T14:43:00.000-04:00

Had a half hour down time, waiting for a meeting to start and I got this brilliant idea, I'd move my blog to Wordpress. It was really quite easy to import my posts, set up a blog roll and start the ball rolling. The fun part of starting a blog is customizing, and with Wordpress...

All I can say is HUH?

Despite the fact that there are umpteen more themes for Wordpress blogs, none of them seemed to be quite right. The font on one was too small, the other only had one column, a third was too dreary for words. And then there is the matter of fees. If I want to edit the CSS, I've got to pay $15 a year, and if I don't keep paying, all of the custom CSS will just go away.

I also found the Wordpress dashboard clumsy and hard to use.

So, for the now, I am sticking with Blogger. Once the Convention is over, I'll make an effort to learn and edit CSS, so I can tweek some of the settings and features.

Laptops Lost? Or is it Like Cars Stolen from the Queens Plaza Mall?

2008-06-30T17:07:00.001-04:00

Back in the day (yes, I am old enough to use that phrase now), if you wanted to get rid of your junker car and claim a little sumthin' sumthin' from the Good Hands People, you dropped your car off at the Queens Plaza Shopping Mall in the morning and called the cops a few hours later. It seems that the QP parking lot had the highest rate of auto theft in the nation, and the cops wouldn't even bother to go out and check to see if your car was actually gone. You just went to the local precinct and spend a few minutes with the harried guy in the blue uniform, walked out with a report clutched in your hot little hand and that was that. Within a few hours, your car was actually gone - without a trace - probably into one of the illegal ~~chop~~ body shops that operated in the shadow of Shea Stadium.

Or so I've been told.

What brings this bit of urban legend to mind is a newly issued report from the oddly named Ponemon Institute (gotta catch 'em all?), which states that over 637,000(!) laptops are lost and/or stolen from U.S. airports each year. That's over 12,000 laptops a week. I don't know about you, but when I travel for business, the one thing that never leaves my sight (except for going through a scanner) is my laptop. I'm thinking that a lot of people really want a new laptop, and business travel seems to be the equivalent of leaving your car at the Queens Plaza Mall.

This statistic bears some truth to my train of thought:

"Travelers seem to lack confidence that they will recover lost laptops. About 77 percent of people surveyed said they had no hope of recovering a lost laptop at the airport, with 16 percent saying they wouldn’t do anything if they lost their laptop during business travel. About 53 percent said that laptops contain confidential company information, with 65 percent taking no steps to protect the information."

Via MacWorld

The Dog Files: 5/5 Milkbones!

2008-06-30T14:25:00.000-04:00

A few weeks back, a fellow member of the TWiT Forums posted a new thread, asking for opinions about his new podcast, The Dog Files. Although I've been in a sans canine home for too many years, I love dogs and anything about them piques my interest. The Dog Files is probably one of the best video podcasts I've ever seen; from both a production and a content standpoint.

The video is extremely well produced, it hits all of the right technical notes - lighting, audio, storyline, use of CG. More importantly, it scores big on content - the first episode, about a doggie ice cream social was delightfully whimsical, particularly the completely unscripted comments by an elderly lady and her companion who came to play with the dogs because they're "very old now."

The most recent edition, about the rescue efforts of Rawhide Rescue, a shelterless dog rescue operation in New Jersey, is heartwarming without being sappy or sentimental. The video tells the story of a group of volunteers who works with P.E.T.S., another rescue group that brings unwanted puppies and full grown dogs up from the South (where, apparently, spaying and neutering are not accepted practices). Rawhide Rescue takes some of these dogs, and working with a local kennel, gets them ready for adoption.

Rawhide Rescue is a self-funded operation and it can use all the help it can get. Same with The Dog Files - the content is free, but content creation is not. Skip a few lattes this week and donate $5 to each group, please.

Gross Out - Kosher Style

2008-06-30T08:31:00.001-04:00

This has got to be the most unintentionally disgusting thing I've ever seen in a food market. One giant matzoh ball floating in congealed chicken soup.

Something I don't think anyone's bubbie would ever eat.

Family Photos

2008-06-29T16:35:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah, I should be working on my presentation instead of blogging, so stop nagging me. I've got a month to go.

I finally found the family photo albums, and something needs to be done about them. They are all on those awful self-stick and cellophane pages which are rapidly decaying. But this is not a one-person project. I'm going to need some help here. Any recommendations on how to proceed? I am not dedicated enough to start a fancy-smancy scrapbook, complete with cutesy stickers and journaling...after all, I was either the subject of these pictures, some forty years ago, or wasn't even born yet.

And the sad thing is, there is no one after me and my sisters who would even want these pictures.

Diablo III

2008-06-28T13:10:00.000-04:00

I guess all of the rumor sites were right - there will be a Diablo III. Blizzard announced it in Paris yesterday. Good news, it will be released for Mac and Windows PC simultaneously. Bad news, there is no release date. From the looks of the Blizzard job board for Diablo III, I don't think we'll see this anytime soon. They are looking to hire level and 3D designers, which seems (to my eyes, at least), some of the hires one would make in the early to middle stages of game production.

The teaser graphics are pretty hot, though. I loved Diablo I, did not like Diablo II so much - more because the graphics never ran quite up to par on my (wait for it) G4 PowerMac. It's been that long. Hard to believe that Diablo II was the game for which my sister abandoned the Mac platform. I'm taking bets that the earliest we'll see the Gold Master of DIII will be January 2010.