Waiting For Godot

Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late!

- Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Like every one else in my world, I've been following the Occupy movement since the start. My girlfriend and I actually went to Zuccotti Park in late September when we were visiting New York. At that time it was pretty peaceful. And yes, the park was clean. There was a huge police presence there, overkill really but the cops weren't bothering anyone. I should point out to anyone who has never been down there its literally a block from ground zero. So there is a huge police presence there anyway, especially as you get closer to the memorial. When were there Cornel West showed up. Yeah, just strolled in like he was passing by and wondered what the commotion was all about. At first no one paid him any mind (I told Jenni that he was right behind her and she almost wet herself, hero worship thing) but after awhile people began to notice him and he graciously gave his time to listen to some people. In no time he had a crowd around him but he never behaved like he was someone of importance, it was all about the Occupiers and their message. When asked about Obama and the his chance for re election West pointed out that the Presidents administration might be the problem, especially Timothy Geithner who according to West is part of the problem as he is from Wall Street. What was interesting to me was the attention this little crowd around West was getting from the media. Or should I say lack of press. With the exception of some internet news sights and a Democracy Now reporter the main stream (notably CNN) didn't pay any attention to what Mr. West was saying. Zero. Its like they (meaning the staff that was actually there at the park) had no idea who he was. My point here is at that time the press had no idea how to cover this "event".

Ok now we're at a different place. The movement itself has gotten huge, spreading all over the country and the world. And its gotten ugly. As in daily reports of evictions from public parks and in some cases, police beatings. At one point mayors across the country decided they had enough and began throw them out of the parks with force. Obviously, this leads to resistance. And well, you get the picture. Now, I'm not getting into the whole legal issue of who's allowed to protest where and when and with whatever permit is needed. Thats for the lawyers and the courts to sort out. I'm more concerned about people behaving badly. This goes for both sides. Actually, I'm pretty sure the Occupy movement has decided to be a peaceful protest but assholes will show looking to be well, assholes. And these people (and I'm not saying they were planted there by anyone one group that is opposed to OWS) will do what it takes to move things down the wrong path. The police on the other hand need to show some serious restraint. Its like they put on their riot gear and their behavior changes for the worse. Hey, if I gotta wear this armor I might as well use it. They're supposed to be protecting people, not beating people up. Say what you want about whether these are legit concerns that these people have but spraying pepper spray into a bunch of kids face at point plank range like its an insecticide and you're just getting rid of some ants is insane. Is UC Davis going to pay for the hospital bills, especially if these are UC students?

More to the point of my rant here. This is minutes away from becoming a Kent State (yeah I did that, turned an incident from 1970 to a noun. So what, everyone one adds gate as a suffix for almost every scandal imaginable). In the meantime, what's our President doing. I understand he's a busy guy but not a peep on this escalating situation. Some advice to our leader. These are people that will be voting next year. They need to know you are on their side. Probably a lot of them voted for you in 2008. We're beginning to feel a bit abandoned here. Say something, acknowledge what's happening at these protests. Here's a great idea, go to one. Pick one, there's plenty to choose from. Show you understand where they're coming from. Don't worry about who will be upset with it. Just do it.

Now comes the hard part, you need to tell the mayors of these cities that they need to calm their police forces down. We're both the same age, so we know how bad these things can and will get. Do really want a shooting or out of hand police riot with casualties on your watch? So what if they are "occupying" a public park. OK, I'll go along with the NY Court State Supreme Court's ruling that you can't physically occupy the parks like some shanty town. But this puts thing in OWS park now. They can show up hang around all day and go home. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. (Note to the occupiers: read Leymah Gbowee's book. She won a Nobel Peace Prize, so she might know a thing or two about how to stage a successful protest.)

Meantime, those of us that are scraping by will be waiting for some end to this madness. Just waiting for someone to come along and listen.

Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss

The End of an Era of Intolerance, or Just the Beginning - NYTimes.comThe End of an Era of Intolerance, or Just the Beginning

"The problem here doesn’t lie with the activists like most of those who populate the Tea Parties, ordinary citizens who are doing what citizens are supposed to do — engaging in a conversation about the direction of the country. Rather, the problem would seem to rest with the political leaders who pander to the margins of the margins, employing whatever words seem likely to win them contributions or TV time, with little regard for the consequences."

Out of hand rhetoric. Cross hairs on political posters, talking about the second amendment like its some kind of violent solution, political ads saying "gather your armies". What the fuck people? Did you really think that something like this wouldn't happen? You do know that there are some nut cases out there. That take this shit seriously.

My brother posted on FaceBook today in response to my girlfriend's post of RFK's speech about Martin Luther King's assignation. He said:

"40+ years and still dealing with the same stuff...and my kids ask why we "have to" study history. my response: "let me know when we get it right, and then I'll gladly stop teaching it..."

Seems we haven't learned our lesson yet, have we America. Two years ago when Barack Obama began his run for President people my age had a sick feeling in the back of our minds. A friend of mine at work, who is black, said no way this country can handle him getting shot. Thats the mentality of my generation. Not how great, a black man is running for president (and won.) No, more like how long does he have before some racist shots him. So what's this have to do with Saturday's tragedy? I'm one of those that firmly believes that there are people out there that have had a complete mental meltdown since he was elected. What a Black man in the White House? Say it so! By the time he took office anything he pushed for would be declared anti-American. Really, people, healthcare reform is bad? Since when are the insurance companies are friends??? So now lets just shot anyone who we disagree with. And the rhetoric just keeps flowing off the TV and the Internet. Maybe we need a law to have a license to use the net, just like cars. Hows that fit the automotive analogies people like to use?

Arizona has become ground zero for batshit crazy. Can't teach ethnic studies in schools. People can be stopped because they look like an immigrant. To be on the ballot for President you have to prove you're a citizen (a law John McCain might have a problem with.) Oh yeah, lets not forget that Arizona seems to have its own Death Panels. Yeah this is place I want to move to.

The last election was like 1968 all over again. Hell, we got a war that doesn't seem like its gonna end, civil right issues running through the courts (homosexual is the new black as far as civil rights goes) and now an attempted political assignation. can we get anymore like 60's?

This Barry McGuire song has been running through my mind today. Not sure why. Yeah, I know it was a different time and a different place but I thought I'd share anyway.

Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
You may leave here for 4 days in space
But when you return, it's the same old place
The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace
Hate your next-door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace
And… tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend
You don't believe
We're on the eve
Of destruction
Mm, no no, you don't believe
We're on the eve
of destruction.

Adventures in Homeownership Part 2

Previously on Adventures In Homeownership.....

Well they finally finished hammering, shoveling and pumping. The foundation is stable (at least on that side of the house.) Mentally Jen and I feel better now about this whole process. Especially now that five days of banging is finally over. Biggest problem now is to shore up the hill on that side of the house. Its pretty bad now. Mostly rock and cement pieces. I think we're gonna do the retaining wall ourselves. After this expensive ordeal a little of our own elbow grease might be in order. Turns out, as I heard through the grapevine, at one point they were going to fill holes back up and give up on the job. They took a big loss on this job. I kind of feel bad, but how was I supposed to know? If I got anything out of this mess, its when we buy our next house I'm hiring a foundation expert(s) to check out the bottom of the house completely. On the other hand the owner of the company told me personally that he too will do things differently. No more bidding on a job without a clause for unforeseen extra work. He was great guy actually, and assured me that he would keep his word and finish the job. Hey we live and learn, right?

By the way, when those piers hit bedrock its a big boom. The first one Jen and I were like, what the hell was that? No house shaking just a big THUD. Nine times over two days. Once the shoring up was done I had to get the blocks repaired. We had a guy come in repair the shitty blocks. I got a really good deal. One thing about this recession (and I do kind of feel guilty about it) is a lot of these guys are working really cheap. Its that bad here. He tucked the blocks back in fixed every crack along the entire house and filled all the gaps in the sill with foam. Essentially, the crawl space is sealed.

Biggest problem, although turns out its not, was the concrete had adhered itself to the footers (probably intentionally done.) Well that prevented the footers from being "jacked up" to level. So looking at the blocks on the south wall you'll see they kinda slant downward at the corner. But its not a problem because the house itself never fell or sagged. The floors in here are still level. I'm kind of glad because I feared that jacking up the house to a perceived level sitting was going to crack drywall and maybe damage the windows. Not to mention that the SE corner is where our office is, with three custom built shelves across both walls. Filled with a ton of books and two computers and hard drives. Could have been a disastrous situation.

Before. Very bad. That block is about to fall out.

Now. Tucked nice and neat. The entire corner blocks are all flush and flat. Still leans thats because they couldn't raise the foundation due to the concrete situation.

Now we just got to install a perimeter drain with a sump pump in the crawl space. Way too much concrete outside to do it effectively. Yeah, more money. However we're going to do the retaining wall next to fix that hill. We're thinking a two level terrace. And bury the drain pipes properly. Shrubs or something of that nature on the bottom and grass on the other. A flat lawn would be good, tired of mowing on hills. Come to think of it, tired of mowing period. How's a rock garden sound? Or cactus? The front yard is going to be a bitch. Seriously thinking of ditching the flower beds and putting a small deck or just let the lawn spread to the house. Would love to make that whole side of the yard just ground cover.

Problem with homeownership is the house always looks like it needs work. Hey, lets change this or we need to fix that. Your never done. In actuality, I still haven't finished the kitchen which I started like five years ago. I'm already ready to redo the bathroom as I hate the floor we put in there. Craziness. And the best part is, with the exception of energy saving upgrades, none of this is tax deductable. No wonder this country is broke.

So here's three galleries of photos.

Adventures in Homeownership. Part1

"The thing about homes in Indiana is that they're built in Indiana"

Now that we're heading into day three of The Shoring Of Our Foundation, I'd thought I'd share. During the summer Jen and I noticed that the foundation at the SE corner of our house was beginning to sink. We had no rain since like May here in Southern Indiana so the soil below the house is completely dry. Well we decided to put up a retaining wall and called a bunch of landscapers in to look at the situation. (On a side note you'd think in a middle of the worse recession since the Great Depression more landscapers would have returned our calls. Hell, they could just come our and tell me fuck you, at least that would be a response. Guess all the landscapers here are independently wealthy and don't need the work. Too bad I was going to throw money at them.) Long story short it was decided that the tree next to the house needed to come down and the foundation fixed before a retaining wall could be put up. It was a good call too as you'll see.

SE corner. The worst spot. That block by the spout is loosened up enough to remove. Not good.

Well finding a tree remover was a pain in the ass because of where the tree is (or was, now.) Next to the house and in between power lines. Not to mention it was sixty feet tall. Well we got a company to take it down at a reasonable price (first guy who quoted us I think was shopping for a new truck and I swear his pupils turned to dollar signs.) They sent the hillbilly version of Larry, Moe and Curly over to remove our tree. I swear if I ever hire these guys again (for the record, they didn't destroy anything and the tree is gone) I'm setting up a video camera. The trunk of the tree about four or five feet up was infested, if thats the right word, with the roots of the vines that have been living on the tree since we bought the house seven years ago. It was only a matter of time before that tree was going to fall and either take out our house or knock out the power (and probably start a fire.) Maybe both.

The trunk about four or five foot up. That dirt looking stuff in there are roots from the vines that have been attached to the tree for years. They were suffocating the tree. It was definatly on its way out.

Now the foundation needs to dealt with. We got a company in here that had a very good solution. Here's the plan: brackets are mounted to the footers under the house which is the actually foundation that sits on the soil. Then piers, essentially really long steel poles about four inches in diameter, are attached to brackets. Hydraulic pressure is applied to these poles, there will be nine total, until they hit bedrock way down below. Then the poles are tightened to the brackets and the pressure will bring the foundation back up and level. In our case the house itself hasn't started to sag. So now the foundation will be resting on the bedrock and not shitty Indiana clay/soil. Sounds easy, no? Sure enough, as nothing ever goes right in any big job, Mr. Murphy would be proud of this mess.

A two day job has now become, so far, maybe five. As they were digging the trenches along the foundation they hit cement. Yes, cement. And we're on top of a hill. At first the foreman had no idea why there was cement about two feet down. He thought that maybe the house was built on a slab. But that didn't make any sense as the concrete was higher than the footers. WTF? After a day of jackhammering they realized this was a huge amount of concrete. On day three it was jackhammering all day for eight hours. Two brackets got mounted. Out of nine. (only one hole had no cement, so the mounting of that bracket wasn't a big deal.) The owner of the company came by and was dumbfounded as to what we had here. The theory right now is the previous owners, or even before them, had a sinking problem too. Its common here. But instead of doing it right, which would entail having the foundation set so it doesn't rest on the unstable soil, they dug out all the soil and literally filled it with cement. Probably an entire truck load. Which might explain the huge truck tracks in the front of the yard when we bought the house. Whatever that was it had to be huge and heavy. We're still wondering what they did with all the dirt. I don't want to know.

It looks like an excavation in Egypt. I'm waiting for them to pull up bones.

So, they kept at it until quitting time. Come Monday morning its back to hammering. Hopefully, by Tuesday we'll have the brackets mounted and the piers driven into the ground. Then Wednesday they can wrap it up.

Then its on to the retaining wall. Maybe someday we'll get the backyard done. I know one thing though, I'm not getting rid of the cement patio in the back. I've had my fill of jackhammering for awhile now.

I've posted a bunch of pictures on my gallery here, here and here

Hint: double click the images for a larger view and more information.

More Cockpit Lunacy

Been looking for this one for a while now. Then my Dad emailed it to me. This one has been going around for years, under different airline names. But its still good. Enjoy.

Remember it takes a college degree to fly a plane, but only a high school diploma to fix one; a reassurance to those who fly routinely in their jobs.

After every flight, UPS pilots fill out a form, called a 'gripe sheet,' which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics corrects the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight.

Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.
By the way, UPS is the only major airline that has never, ever, had an accident.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200-feet-per-minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what friction locks are for.

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF is always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny. (I love this one!)
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from the midget.

In Memory

Well the day has finally come. After seven years of good use, Lucy, my 15" PowerBook, has finally moved on. Seems her logic board fried. Went to wake her on Friday morning and she awoke with a kernel panic. Rebooted and it showed no Airport Card installed. So I rebooted again and still no Airport Card showing, not even in The System Profiler. My next step was to boot off my clone (I do a cloned back up once a week) and still the problem persists. Jumped on Jen's iMac and went to Apple's Discussion Boards to see if there was any clues to what the hell went wrong. The fact that my clone was pretty much a week older than my boot drive was telling me it was a hardware problem, not something I installed., not to mention that most of the time a kernel panic is a sign of a hardware problem. Not looking good. Booted back into the internal drive and then shut it down and proceeded to reset the PRAM. It never came back on. Bricked. After a brief moment of panic I realized not all is lost. All my music, video and photos live on external drives. So I didn't loose any of that. Only thing on Lucy's internal drive was recent software updated (like Safari 5) and all my registration codes for my software. Took her over the my local Mac Specialist (no Apple Store near here) and he replaced the RAM but still won't boot. He told me he'll hold on to it and call me Monday with the verdict but he was pretty sure it was a bad logic board. So I asked the dumb question: "How much ?" His reply was "A new computer," which is what I thought. But all is not bad. Yeah I lost my trusty companion but I'm not offline. The internal drive is fine and can be removed so my main drive data is intact. In fact, I'll probably remove my Superdrive and put that in a case too.

I took my boot clone and hooked up to Jen's G5 iMac and was able to boot into "my laptop." In fact thats what I'm writing this on now. Somethings were a bit buggy, iTunes was in Spanish for some reason so I turned off all the languages and its fine now (except TV Shows says TV Progammes, go figure.) Had to update my music files as I added music between cloning sessions. Seems iTunes doesn't notice what's in the music library, it goes by the XML file. I'm back to Safari 4 again but I'm not going to upgrade until I get my old drive back. Not saying Safari 5 caused it but I'm a bit paranoid right now.

Now the good news. My images look WAY better on the iMac than my PowerBook. The bigger screen is so much better. This just reinforced my plans of getting the new 27" iMac instead of a MacBook Pro. Just now I won't have a portable. Guess I'll be getting that iPad a bit sooner than I thought (my original plan was to use Lucy as a portable until it became apparent I needed I replacement. Just didn't think it was going to happen this quickly.) Something I have noticed about this iMac. The menubar is gray not transparent. In fact there is no option to turn that on. Didn't realize that my G4 had a better GPU than the iMac. Oh, well. Its really strange when I open a program that was last opened on Lucy and the window, which I had taking up the full screen, is really small on this machine. The resolution is better on the iMac also. Jen's gonna have to beat me with a stick to get back her desktop, fortunately she has a new MacBook she uses all the time anyway.

Lessons learned. First even Macs break sooner or later, although I'd love to know how I managed to fry a logic board. I had noticed that she was beginning to slow down. A lot. Download music on iTunes while updating WebKit and importing photos from my camera and she would bog down to a crawl with the SBOD. Wondering if I just taxed her to point of overheating it. I'll find out Monday. Second lesson learned: backing up. Can't stress enough on this. I have a clone of my internal drive created once a week. I have not one but two back ups of all my photos, music and videos. So I lost none of that, even if they were on my internal drive I'd still have at least one other copy. Third lesson learned: you can boot into your clone drive on other Mac, provided its the same processor (I went from a G4 to a G5. I wouldn't be able to boot onto her MacBook because that's an Intel.) My iPhone has all my contacts, email accounts and Safari bookmarks synced. And all this information along with my Keychain is synced to MobileMe. So in reality al I lost was my laptop, no data. Having gone through this I wouldn't wish this on anyone but honestly I feel I have been prepared for something like this. Even if Lucy's hard drive went I'd still be able to boot up and continue, although that situation would have ended up in a loss of recent data. Gonna start cloning more than once week now. Thanks to all the Mac websites and blogs that I follow as this is where I learned all of this. For all you Mac users (and PC, too) out there who don't have a clue about your machine, you really need to do back ups (I mean Leopard has TimeMachine no excuses here) and make friends with a tech guy or girl. Really.

Thank You Lucy for the last seven years. You weren't my first Mac but you were my favorite.

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Apple, PowerBook, IMac, Backing up and cloning hard drives, OS X kernel panics

Pilot Chatter: Random Lunacy From The Cockpit

My Dad emailed me this today. Way too funny not to share. Its just a bunch of transcribes of cockpit communications between the pilots and ground controls. As someone who worked for an airline I find this sort of thing real humorous. Feel free to either email me other ones or add them to the comments.

Tower: "Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o'clock, 6 miles!"
Delta 351: "Give us another hint! We have digital watches!"



Tower: "TWA 2341, for noise abatement, turn right 45 degrees."
TWA 2341: "Center, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up here?"
Tower: "Sir, have you heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?"



From an unknown aircraft waiting in a very long takeoff queue: "I'm bored!"
Ground Traffic Control: "Last aircraft transmitting, identify yourself immediately!"
Unknown aircraft: "I said I was bored, not stupid!"



O'Hare Approach Control to a 747: "United 329, your traffic is a Fokker, one o'clock, three miles... eastbound."
United 329: "Approach, I've always wanted to say this. I've got the little Fokker in sight."



A student became lost during a solo cross-country flight. While attempting to locate the aircraft on radar, ATC asked,
"What was your last known position?"
Student: "When I was number one for takeoff."



A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long rollout after touching down.
San Jose Tower: "American 751, make a hard right turn at the end of the runway, if you are able. If you are not able, take the Guadalupe exit off Highway 101, make a right at the lights and return to the airport."



Pan Am 727 flight, waiting for start clearance in Munich, overheard the following conversation:
Lufthansa (in German): "Ground, what is our start clearance time?"
Ground (in English): "If you want an answer, you must speak in English."
Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane in Germany. Why must I speak English?"
An unknown voice from another plane (in a British accent): "Because you lost the bloody war!"



Tower: "Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff, contact departure on frequency 124.7."
Eastern 702: "Tower, Eastern 702 switching to departure. By the way, after we lifted off, we saw some kind of dead animal on the far end of the runway."
Tower: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff behind Eastern 702, contact departure on frequency 124.7. Did you copy that report from Eastern 702?"
Continental 635: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff, roger. And yes, we copied Eastern. We've already notified our caterers."



One day the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around and taxied back past the Cherokee. Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said, "What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?"
The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult slide, came back with a real zinger: "I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like yours and I'll have enough parts for another one."



The air controllers at the Frankfurt Airport in Germany are renowned as a short-tempered group. They not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign 'Speedbird 206.'
Speedbird 206: "Frankfurt, Speedbird 206! Clear of active runway."
Ground: "Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven."
The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.
Ground: "Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"
Speedbird 206: "Stand by, ground, I'm looking up our gate location now."
Ground (with impatience): "Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?"
Speedbird 206 (cooly): "Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark. And I didn't land!"



While taxiing at London 's Gatwick Airport, the crew of a US Air flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727.
An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming: "US Air 2771, where the hell are you going? I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there! I know it's difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!"
Continuing her rant to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: "God! Now you've screwed everything up! It will take forever to sort this out! Stay right there and don't move until I tell you to! You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour, and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you and how I tell you! You got that, US Air 2771?"
"Yes, ma'am," the humbled US Air pilot responded.
Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every cockpit around Gatwick was definitely running high. Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, saying:
"Wasn't I married to you once?"

Ronnie James Dio, Black Sabbath Vocalist, Dies at 67 - Biography - NYTimes.com

Ronnie James Dio, Black Sabbath Vocalist, Dies at 67 - Biography - NYTimes.com

The world is full of Kings and Queens


Who'll blind your eyes and steal your dreams


Its Heaven and Hell.


And they'll tell you black is really white


The moon is just the sun at night


And when you walk in golden halls


The guillotine for those it falls



I got to see him three times, twice with Sabbath (Heaven and Hell with Blue Oyster Cult opening and The Mob Rules Tour) and once with his solo band, Dio. Awesome show at the Palladium in NY. We sat in like the fourth or fifth row. He was the Man On The Silver Mountain.

\m/

Maybe they should have called the iLaptop....

Apple posted the guided tours for the iPad. The photo app is pretty awesome, kind of like a touch version of iPhoto. The ability to hook up a camera, either with USB or a SD card reader, is a major plus. This basically means the laptop can stay home. Better yet, goodbye PowerBook (I was going to replace it anyway with the advent of Snow Leopard) and hello 27" iMac.

The iPod app is really cool, again more like iTunes than the iPod. Safari has tabs and a bookmark toolbar. I think the iBooks App is going to be great, but I would like to see this ported to the Mac and the iPhone. (Been wondering, too, if the ibooks are in my iTunes then will I be able to open them on my Mac?) The real killer here, in my opinion, is the iWorks Apps. For 30 bucks, $10 for each, these are a steal. I can see myself using the Pages App, as I long ditched Word on my PB years ago.

What struck me is how the video shows it being used and held in the lap like a laptop. (Apple no longer refers to its portables as laptops. There're notebooks now due to the increasing heat they give off.)

Personally I'm waiting on the 3G version. I think the access deal with AT&T is a good deal. Especially since it comes with free wifi at AT&T hotspots. Everyone who have been bitching about it being just an iPod Touch with a bigger screen just don't seem to get it. Yeah, sure a true tablet version of Mac OS X would have been cool, but I think it would have been way too overwhelming. This is like when the Mac first came out and everyone thought it was just a toy. My bet is we're gonna be flooded with imitations. Including one from Redmond.

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Apple, Apps, iPad, SD card readers, Apple video guide

In The Too Strange Not To Post Department

Meat stylus for the iPhone

Meat stylus for the iPhone. Just about the craziest thing I ever read. Vegetarians and Vegans need not apply.