notes from behind the coffee counter

Waiting For Godot

2011-11-20T14:47:00.001-05:00

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

2011-01-09T15:29:00.001-05:00

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

2010-11-07T18:01:00.001-05:00

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

2010-10-31T20:27:00.001-04:00

"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

2010-09-05T17:19:00.001-04:00

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

2010-06-12T16:57:00.001-04:00

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.

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

Pilot Chatter: Random Lunacy From The Cockpit

2010-05-26T17:40:00.001-04:00

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

2010-05-17T12:15:00.001-04:00

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....

2010-03-29T16:47:00.001-04:00

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.

Technorati Tags:
Apple, Apps, iPad, SD card readers, Apple video guide

In The Too Strange Not To Post Department

2010-02-11T11:52:00.001-05:00

Meat stylus for the iPhone

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

Suddenly I wish I Lived in Northern California...

2010-02-10T14:36:00.001-05:00

Google to Offer Superfast Net Service - NYTimes.com

"In a post on its corporate blog, the search and advertising giant said it plans to build and test a high-speed fiber optic broadband network capable of allowing people to surf the Web at 1 gigabit per second, or about 100 times the speed of many broadband connections. The trial could be offered in several communities and extend to as many as 500,000 people."

Could be the beginning of the end for some IPS that don't play fair. One can hope, anyway.

Technorati Tags:
Google , NY Times, High Speed Net, Fiber Optic Broadband

Found an An App For That...

2010-02-09T14:32:00.001-05:00

Awhile back I wrote how I needed (or wanted, really) an app to attach either a SD card reader or a way of hooking up a DSLR to my iPhone. When the iPad came out it was announced that it would be able to connect to DSLRs and SD cards (see bottom of page here.) Way cool. I'm not sure if this device will work with the iPhone but when it comes out I'm sure some people will try it. In the meantime a company called ZoomMediaPlus has come out with the very thing I asked for. Its essentially a SD card reader that has the Apple 30 pin plug instead of the usual USB plug. This device along with a free iPhone app, called ZoomIt [iTunes link], give you the ability transfer pictures from the card to the iPhone's camera roll. But thats not all. It Increases storage for music and video files. That comes in handy if you have a lot of music or want a selection of movies on say your vacation. It also has the ability to store other files including PDF, Word and Excel. Also very useful. The only thing I "requested" was a way to GEO tag the uploaded photos. No biggie though, there are bunch of Apps that do just that.

I do have a couple of questions on this device, like will the iPhone App work with a regular SD card reader? (Obviously, I would have to use different cables to hook it up.) Or does the free app only work with ZoomMediaPlus's reader? And will this device, along with the app, work on the iPad?

Right now they are accepting pre-orders with a $10 discount of the regular price of $59.95. The first 250 orders got a free Kingston SD card, but that promotion is over.

Think I'll be checking this out.

Technorati Tags:
Apple, DSLR, iPhone, iPad, ZoomMediaPlus, SD card readers, Apps, photo apps for iphone

My Choices For The First Decade of This Century

2009-12-12T20:37:00.001-05:00

So I was asked the other day, "hey your a film guy what was the best film of this past decade?" Fuck. I knew that was coming. Began seeing it around the web and just recently in Entertainment Weekly. Didn't take much thinking though and rolled right of my tongue: The Lord of The Ring Trilogy. Hands down. Especially if you count the extended DVD versions. But hey, you say, that's three movies. No, not really. They were all shot at the same time and are meant to viewed as one. In fact its the closest a film has come to what TV has been doing this decade in what has become known as "mega-movies." (Personally I would rather call them mega-shows as they have more in common with television shows in their structure than film.) Anyway, that's my pick for the film(s) of the decade. I really can't think of any other movie that sparked such geek speak among people I know. In fact I bet that if they were to be released again there would be lines around the theatre to see it again, I don't care how big your plasma TV is.

Speaking of TV if had to pick a show it would be HBO's "The Wire." Without a doubt it was the best show on television. Ever. (AMC's "Mad Men" comes in a very close second, by the way. I would have picked HBO's "Carnivale" but it never was completed so maybe it should be awarded Best Incomplete Show.) Some of the characters in this show I miss like real people. Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters), Bunk Moreland (Wendell Pierce), Bubbles (Andre Royo), Omar Little (Michael K. Williams) and Dennis "Cutty" Wise (Chad Coleman) just to name a few. I've never experienced such fleshed out characters on TV before. Not mention the plot, which is really about the crumbling of a city. Nothing works right anymore in Baltimore, even the bad guys. If you never had the opportunity to see "The Wire" navigate over to Netfix and add it to you're queue. Better yet, buy it.

But I'm going to make an exception here based on the idea that I never felt that the Emmys and the Golden Globes are fair comparing a cable show, that has no restrictions on its writing, to a network show that is heavily restricted. So my pick for a network show is, and I'm prepared to take shit for this, is ABC's "Lost." And its not why you think, although I do dig the show a lot. As Steven King said it, "At its best Lost has never been about a fantasy island floating unmoored in time; its been about the people." Entertainment Weekly put it the best: " Name another network drama that can wondrously turn a ? into a !" Couldn't of said better myself. My reasons is that it changed the way network television looks at its shows, and finally began to understand what the writers do. It also sparked a few "copy cat" programs, some good some bad, but the idea was about telling an intricate story, usually sci-fi or fantasy, over a set period of time that is designed to come to an end (just like Japanese Anime has been.) For me this is and the advent of the so called mega-movie structured shows has made TV enjoyable again. I really believe we are in a golden age of TV right now, but it won't last.

As far as books go, well I'm at a disadvantage here. I spent most of this decade working on an English degree. Ask any English major how many books they read that they wanted to, especially if its contemporary. Actually I read one novel for a class. It was a Lit Crit class and just for shits and giggles we randomly chose a NY Times Best Seller, "Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett, and the class applied different literary critical theory on just to see if theory can apply to any novel. (If you're wondering it worked.) So my point is I only really read a handful of fiction but a shitload of non fiction on my own time. This was a tough decision for me but I've boiled it down to Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Kavalier and Clay." Chabon created a mythical look at the beginnings of the comic book industry in 1930's New York that is incredibly engrossing and a blast. You can actually hear the sounds and smell the fumes of the old city. You know you read a good book when you get to the finale and you're depressed because it has ended. It was one of those books I couldn't wait to get home and dive into it. OK, honorary mention: J. K. Rowlings's Harry Potter series. (Like I said this was a hard decision to make.) What was supposed to be a children's book turned out to a revolution in young adult literature. I knew more adults reading this than kids. But then again I really don't hang around any kids. As an English major I really appreciated not only Harry's growth as a character over the series but Rowling's growth as a writer as the series progressed. Can't think of any time in literature where the audience grew up along with the character as the writer grew into her craft. Bravo. Fifty years from now they'll have Harry Potter classes in English departments in Universities. Oh yeah last note on books read this decade, the best book I read, period, was Orwell's "1984" but that was written in 1948 so it doesn't count. However, it was a thrill to read during the Bush administration.

All right on to music. The music scene for me sucked. End of story. I started out the decade listening to "classic rock'' and metal. But eventually Jen got me into the Industrial scene. Love this stuff but lets face it, its mostly ear candy that you can dance to. Not complaining though, thats why I've been listing to it, as an escape mechanism. Besides the club scene that comes with it is way cool. With that said though I can't walk away from this without talking about 300 pound gorilla in the room, iTunes and the iPod. When Apple first came out with iTunes in the nineties for me it was kind of useless, unless I was using it rip mixed CDs (or "borrowing music.") Hard Drives weren't big enough for the collection I could have had (presently I have over a 100 GB of music, mostly from my CD collection.) But when the iPod came out I saw huge potential with it. Most people saw a device that just played music and couldn't figure it out. What no PDA or email? I saw the ability to carry my music collection with me. All the time. The stereo in my car already had an AUX jack which was originally designed so you can hook up a tape version of a Walkman (remember those?) as the stereo had just a CD player. When I got my first iPod, which I still have and it works still, they only worked on a Mac. So when I roamed around campus there were very few of the white earphone cords around. I remember in one of my classes when I sat down and pulled the buds out of my ears I had a crowd around me. "What the hell is that?" "Is that one of those Pod things?" It wasn't too long that Apple opened the party to PC users. Using iTunes playlist and shuffle settings completely changed the way I listen to music. I began to rediscover my old collections. I listened to albums I haven't listened to in years. When the iTunes Music Store opened I began buying a lot of those old singles that you can't get anymore, without purchasing an entire album. Plus I had the bonus of being able to songs I would have never brought up to the register in a record store (don't lie we all have done it on iTunes.) So what does this all have to do with the the price of tea in China. Nothing really. I'm just pointing out that this decade the music industry took a hit and the way we consume music and use it changed forever. It doesn't matter whether you listen to Pop, Hip Hop, Rock, Metal or Indy Rock (whatever the fuck that genre is) legal digital downloads became a reality and having over a thousand songs in your pocket, car or even on your phone is no longer a thing of science fiction. How fucking cool is that?

Well thats my list. Feel free to comment and agree or disagree.

Technorati Tags:
Books, Harry Potter, iPod, iTunes, Lord of The Rings Trilogy, Lost, Movies, Music, Television, The Amazing Kavalier and Clay, The Wire, Best of The Deacade

An Open Letter to My US Senators

2009-11-14T19:17:00.001-05:00

I just emailed both my Senators on the Healthcare bill. Just thought I'd share it.

I'm sending you this message because I've become very disillusioned on this bill. I have several concerns.

First if there is a mandate for all citizens to carry health insurance then employers to be mandated to provide health care. Otherwise its a license for the insurance companies to just print money. OK, to be fair there should be a line drawn as to who needs to provide and who doesn't. That should be determined by a companies (small businesses included) profit. A employee limit would just leave companies to lay people off in order to stay under the limit. Not good. How much money a company makes levels the playing field, fairly.

Which brings me to my second concern, the public option. Yes I'm going there. If employers are not mandated then the only other option is a public one. Otherwise those that have to go out and purchase a policy are at the mercy of the insurance industry. Don't give me any of that free market jargon. It won't work. I just seen what the "free market" did to the banking industry and I'm also a victim of the airline deregulation act, which turned out to a bad thing for those of us employed in that industry (I used to work for Pan Am and we didn't get a "bail out.")

My next issue. Do not tax my health care provided by employer. I worked hard to earn that, including going on strike for three weeks, and I shouldn't be penalized for it. Nor should my employer, UPS. I only make something like 22 thousand a year but the plan they have for us is worth about 10 grand. I'll never be able to afford the taxes on that. It would bankrupt me. How is that fair? I mean you do want me participating in the economy, right? Buying things is good, saving for taxes is bad. Even a liberal minded person like myself can figure that out.
However, if its inevitable that its going to get taxed then I should have the option to opt out of my employers plan (I can't right now as its part of a union contract and I don't have a weekly deduction for it either making essentially free.) If there is a law that allows this, good but I don't know of any. If not add one to the bill. This way I can either buy my own insurance (which is what the Republican want) or use the public option. At 22 thousand a year I should be at least entitled to that.

Lastly, this whole abortion thing. Abortion is a legal and constitutionally protected procedure here in the United States. I'm sure you know that. Not allowing coverage of this is no different than saying smokers can't get treated for lung cancer because smoking is legal. Period. I mean after all why should my tax dollars pay for someone's personal decision to do (insert what ever you feel is immoral here)? What's next on the chopping block, birth control, vasectomies, tubal ligation? This bill is about health care, not taking away women's rights. How many times does the Supreme Court have to rule on this. Thats where this will head if that remains in the bill.

Sorry for the long email but this is a very important issue here an it needs to be gotten right. Now. Not five years from now when we realize we passed a really bad bill.

Thanks you for your time.

Doing windows

2009-11-04T16:46:00.001-05:00

So we finally bit the bullet and had new windows put in the house. After a few years of looking and window shopping (pun intended) we finally settled on Unique Windows. Kinda of funny really, I was blind to their commercials then one day I was like, "why don't we check theses guys out?" Didn't help that they were having their own cash for clunkers deal. Something like $150 on each window. Jen called them and they came buy two days later. I'm not going to get into the whole sale approach of this company but if you decide to use them be warned: it takes like three hours to get through. Anyways our minds were pretty much made up at this point and we signed on the dotted line. The price was about what we expected to pay on the high end. The windows were ready in about a week. And we had them here like three business days after they told us that.

Things didn't start out so good. Two of the windows were cut too large., which turns out were the two that needed replacement the most, our single hung pieces of shit that we can't even open anymore. I fact they've been covered in plastic for years now. So they had to be reordered. Then they forgot the kitchen window up in Indy (about an hour and change from here.) With that said, they did an outstanding job. Of all the windows our biggest worry was the bay window. The original was built in the early seventies, like 1971. It's frame was made of aluminum and was a single pane. The flanking lights were single hung (which were broken when we bought the house.) It had those ugly cross bars on the windows. How were these ever popular? But it had a huge projection. Its a 25-50-25 style making it really roomy and large. After years of trying to get a replacement one we finally arrived at the idea of just rebuilding this one. Why you ask? Well lets just say every window shop and lumber yard we went to told us that the measurements we had (which by the way they took) created a mathematically impossible window. Not a single maker could reproduce what was obviously hanging in my wall. I guess sometime computers shouldn't be used. Anyways, long story short a contractor gave us the idea of just rebuilding it. He told us a lot of people do this to keep the look and feel of older windows when restoring an old house. Cool, it can be done. But who??

Well the Unique Window guy tells us "yeah, no problem that can be rebuilt." They replaced the original parts with three picture windows. Lost some glass but its not even noticeable, especially since we ditched the crossbars. As for the workmanship of the windows themselves they're like the Macs of the window word. Expensive but worth it. Triple paned, vinyl with welded corners, foam packed everywhere, and UV coated. Basically heat reflects off them. In the summer it stays out and in the winter it stays in. I already can feel the difference in our bedroom, which is the only room to get both windows. The kitchen is still waiting and the two double hungs in the front of the house are on order. Our little bedroom has just one window which wasn't replaced yet and there is a definite difference in temperatures from our bedroom and that room.

If this sounds like a ringing endorsement of these windows its because it is. I pretty sure we have increased the value of the house big time. Which is always good. Especially in this housing market.

Here is some shots of the work.

Those Are People That Died

2009-09-15T16:52:00.001-04:00

Jim Carroll, Poet and Punk Rocker Who Wrote ‘The Basketball Diaries’, Dies at 60

I remember seeing him in New York when I was a kid. Wasn't a big fan of punk then but really appreciated his work, especially his music. (And yes I did read his book, "Basket ball Diaries.") Catholic Boy [iTunes Link] was one of the first albums I bought on the iTunes Store. His song "People Who Died" was my first real introduction to the New York punk scene. Like I said I wasn't actually into that scene (I was a metalhead but we didn't call it metal in those days, it was just rock) but because of him and catching his live performance I learned to appreciate other genres of Rock (including New Wave at the time.) He was probably one the all time great punk rockers from New York.

We'll miss you, Jim.

I'm Mad As Hell

2009-09-13T13:29:00.001-04:00

“I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

"I'm as mad as hell,
and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"
– Howard Beale as played by Peter Finch in Network (1976, Sidney Lumet)

Just thought this needed to be said. I’m mad as hell because I can no longer stand all this bullshit rhetoric about how Obama is a socialist, a Nazi, a Muslim (like thats bad) et al.

I guess both sides of the current political issues can take on this speech as their own, but I’ve realized that the whole issue about Obama and the Right boils down to one thing: he’s black and they can’t handle it. Maureen Dowd at the Times nails it here. Come folks just say it, “But hey, he’s black (or insert racially derogatory term.)” There now do you feel better?

UPDATE:

I just read on line that Glen Beck has compared himself to Howard Beale. Here’s an article disposing Beck’s assertion.
Yeah, right. The guy works for the very organizations Beale was ranting against.

Stupid Fuck.

Best Use Of Twitter. Ever.

2009-09-05T18:47:00.001-04:00

Shit My Dad Says

My brother linked this to me the other day. I almost pissed my pants. Its got to be the funniest Twitter site I've come across. Basically this guy Justin lives with his 73 year old dad and he posts things his dad says. Too funny.

Goodbye , Teddy Kennedy

2009-08-27T16:10:00.001-04:00

Last night I sat and watched the news with all the tributes to Senator Edward Kennedy and I realized that he was the last of his kind. The Liberal Lion of Senate is gone and there is no one left to fight for people like me anymore. I’ve come to the conclusion that people like me, the liberal left wing of the Democrat Party, are either dying off or no longer being listened to. This summer I got to spend an evening with friends in Eugene, Oregon (which like Bloomington, Indiana has become a place of exile for liberal minded people) and had that odd feeling. What we stand for, and what we feel America needs to do as a nation is not only longer relevant but reviled. Sad but true. I’ve kind of lost hope in the system and unfortunately no longer have the will to soldier on. Senator Kennedy will be sadly missed.

I feel so alone now.

So much for buying that new Fiesta I was hoping for...

2009-08-25T14:17:00.001-04:00

I've been getting e mail and snail mail lately from Ford on their new Fiesta. Awhile back I wrote that I was very interested in this car. Well turns out we're not getting the 3 door hatch here in America, just the four door hatch and a four door sedan (thats dog ugly if you ask me.) What the fuck?! So I googled Ford Fiesta Two door Hatch and came across this article from Motor Trend from June '08. Here its not even certain if any of the hatchbacks are coming here, although Ford's website pretty much confirms a four door hatch. But what I noticed was in the comments. A lot of people want the 3 door hatch. I noticed in the Autoblog Green review, too. A lot of people want the three door hatch. As of right now the only companies making a three door hatch is VW with the Rabbit (and the Golf GTI) and Toyota with the Yaris.
With that all said it has been getting good reviews. Over here they have spy photos of the sedan version. Judging from the reactions in comments its not a hit, but the hatch seems to be liked.

So Please Ford, bring the three door here!

Now Its Time To Say Goodbye...

2009-08-08T15:10:00.001-04:00

Well another vacation is over for us. Kind of cliched to say so but time does fly. We didn’t get out to the clubs as much as we wanted to (I got sick Thursday night, not to mention I fucked my back up hiking Mt. Hood.) We did do a lot of walking, though with my mom. She came out to spend one week with Jen and I. This was her first real vacation in over thirty years. She had a real good time. Last night we went for a walk and wouldn’t you know it we came across a really cool neighborhood on SE Belmont. Really nice home and a shit load of coffee shops and bars. We had coffee, Illy at that, at a place called the Pied Cow. Kind of reminded me of The Spoon in Bloomington, only this place was opened real late and served booze (seems to be normal in Portland) and dessert. We could use a late night dessert place in Bloomington. I took more pictures than I want to think about. Must say I didn’t use the wide angle lens as much as I thought I would. A few times at Crater Lake and Mt. Hood it came in handy but otherwise I think I wasted my money. In fact there were a few times I wish I had a long lens, but packing that would have been a nightmare (my carry on is way too heavy now.) However the normal lens, a Nikon 24- 70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S I rented was sweet. Love to get one but its a two grand lens. Thats what rental sites are for. Well stay tuned for my post when I get through sorting and editing through all my images. Looks like its getting near boarding time.

Faeries Wear Boots and You Got To Believe Me

2009-08-01T02:16:00.001-04:00

Jen and I went to The Faery World Festival in Eugene today. This was the event we planned our vacation around. The last two times we came out here we missed it (last year one of our favorite authors, Holly Black, attended.) It was originally scheduled at a winery but it was sold and the festival moved to a different location. Unfortunately, it was still blazing hot out. But nonetheless we still had a good time. We also spent a shit load of money. I’m such a sucker for alternative clothes its sickening. In fact whenever I come out here, especially in Portland, I drop a lot of cash on clothes for Jenni. I'm one of those boyfriends/husbands that likes to buy his girlfriend/wife clothes. Cool clothes. And she always looks awesome in them. Its a good thing we didn’t bring a lot cash to the festival because we would have spent it all (there was this top hat I wanted but she wouldn’t take a credit card.) Jenni did treat me, actually she said it was an early birthday present, to a kilt. I’ve been wanting a black one, for awhile now and I finally found it. Jenni wanted me to have one longer than I wanted one, by the way. Its cool as shit.

One of my favorite photographers, J. Corsentino , was there showing off his Time Of The Faeries collection. I love the imagination of his work, not mention his creative use of the models. This along the lines of something I’d like to do. It was great to meet him, too. If I had the money (and thank the gods I didn’t) I probably would have bought a lot more of his prints. Awesome work, really. There were bands playing all day and through the evening. Today was good faery day, tomorrow is bad faery day. We haven’t decided whether we’re going tomorrow. We could go back tonight (we had our hands stamped) but we’d have to pay an entrance fee again for tomorrow. But its going to hot again so I’d rather go in the evening but we already have plans. Oh well.

Anyways, yesterday we went out to to Crater Lake. Its a giant lake that’s a volcano that collapsed about 7700 years ago. Its one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen. Really. It took us about two maybe three hours to get out there. Incredible. I’ve never seen water so blue in my life. We did a lot of walking. And I took a lot of pictures, close to 500. I haven’t even begun to sort through them and tag them so it’ll be a while before I post them, probably when I get home. I really don’t feel like doing that on the road, after all I am on vacation.

When a Sport Utility is not a Sport Utility

2009-08-01T01:43:00.001-04:00

So this year I rented a Ford Edge. I requested a Sport Utility, specifically a Jeep Grand Cherokee*, because I knew we were going to go hiking and it would be handy. But it seems the people at Budget–Rent–A–Car classify an Edge as an SUV. Its a crossover (can’t the auto industry come up with a better term for this class of vehicle?) Ford classifies it as as a crossover. The car press classifies it as a crossover. The EPA classifies it as a crossover. If you don’t know what a crossover is, sometimes referred to as a CUV, its basically an SUV on a car chassis. In the case of the Edge its on a Mazda 6 platform. They have the room of an SUV, but not quite as big as a traditional station wagon, and the ride height. Also they’re usually front wheel drive with an all wheel drive option, which is not the same as four wheel drive. The benefits, clearly a subjective view point here, is better gas milage and a better ride. True, but its not a truck. The trade offs are lower towing capacity and its not something I'd blaze down a bumpy dirt trail. And all wheel drive doesn't work the same as four wheel drive. (See here for a good explanation.) As far as the gas milage is concerned its better than an Explorer but not by much. Too be fair though, I'm not terribly disappointed. I’ve had my eye on this vehicle since it came out. Its sharp looking, for sure. Now that I’ve lived with it for three days I can say I’m pretty impressed. It has a really nice ride and handles far more like a car than a truck. It has plenty of room. The back seat has a huge amount of leg room. It has some cool options, too. Like when you’re backing up the car it’ll beep when you get too close to something behind it. Oh yeah THE most important option: I can hook up my iPod to the stereo. Priorities, man. Priorities. Right now my only complaint is the braking. This is one heavy vehicle. It seems to take a lot to stop it. I mean I have no way of testing it but I bet the braking distance in this thing is huge. Oh yeah, its very powerful. Its got a V6 but if you’re not looking at the speedometer you’ll be doing 90 in no time. I usually don’t like to used cruise control but here it was a good idea. The one really cool option is the Panoramic Vista sunroof which is a giant sunroof that covers the front and back seat. Unfortunately this one didn't have it. That would have been cool to have on the highway and around Crater Lake where the scenery was just gorgeous. More on that trip on my next post.

*I know Budget specifies that a particular vehicle is not guaranteed. They specifically state "or similar vehicle." That's my point. They're not similar.

The Crotch of The City

2009-07-29T01:30:00.001-04:00

So it was bound to happen. I had my first real bad experience in Portland, Actually its kind of good, now I know its a normal city just like anywhere else in America, just weirder. We we over by VooDoo Donuts. Jenni didn’t have her Sunday donuts so she wanted to go there before we headed down to Eugene. We heard a lot about this place so we looked forward to going there. The first time we went it was on Saturday afternoon when we arrived here. The line was out the door and half way down the block (it actually jutted out into the street before turning back onto the sidewalk.) So Jen decided that she would rather go on Monday before we took the train south. After we checked out of The Jupiter we headed over to Amtrak to get rid of our bags. Then it was over to VooDoo. Smaller line than Saturday and we joined the queue. I wasn’t going to have any (no offense against VooDoo but I’m trying to eliminate that type of food from my diet.) so I sat on a bench outside the shop.

Before I go on I need to explain for those who have never been to Portland. There are a lot of homeless people here and many of them are not mentally sound. The state has no public facilities for the mentally ill. The state is broke. This area we were in is a habitat for them. What makes this even stranger is this part of town is littered with strip clubs and porno theaters. And a bunch of soup kitchens and shelters for the homeless. Its bizarre to walk past tittie bar and then Catholic Charities next door, but hey its Portland. Someone told me (or maybe I read it somewhere) that there are more strip clubs in Portland than any where else in America. Supposedly, its protected in the state constitution (I really need to check that out.) OK, you now can see what kind of place this area of the city is. Think Times Square in the 70s but not as dangerous, although just short of a war zone I don’t know any place as dangerous as New York in the 70s.
Back to Monday morning. So, we’re all on line waiting and we begin to hear this guy screaming. Across the street is this bald guy, I’d say late 20s maybe early 30s, topless carrying his shirt and what appeared to be his coat(?) running up and down the street. He’s screaming and cursing almost like he’s fighting with someone. He runs up the street then shows up next to us by a porno theatre, which by the way specializes in Japanese Anime Porn. He’s screaming and banging on garbage cans. Every now and then he squats down and pounds on his head. He looks to me like he’s crashing off of something, like meth. He’s obviously in a lot of pain. I feel really bad for him but at the same time this is a really scary moment here. He’s probably capable of anything violent. He walks through the line and back again. People are beginning to look frightened. He runs across the street (which by the way is a very wide street) a continues is screaming. I begin to notice that NO ONE makes an effort to pick up their phones and call the police. In fact the police are no where to be seen. Now he runs back toward the store. Right at me. I’m sitting on a bench with my back to the wall. I have my camera bag around my shoulder resting on the bench, Jennifer’s back is at my feet and I have my camera in my hands resting on my lap. I begin to panic thinking, great I’m going to spend the rest of my vacation in a hospital with a broken face or at the very least in jail for smashing his head in with my camera (this is also where I began to think, oh why did I rent a $2000 lens?) He stops about three feet in front of me and does his squat thing, still screaming. About that time the owner, or an employee, of VooDoo comes out and begins to guard us. As Screaming Bald Man comes closer he walks out toward him, warding him off. He has a cell phone in his hand. Obviously he’s protecting his interests: his business and customers. Screaming Bald Man runs off and around the corner. VooDoo Guy walks back toward the door and says: “There is a reason why they call this the crotch of Portland.” Of course he comes back screaming and cursing again and VooDoo Guy protects his turf once again (yeah, this is beginning to sound like a National Geographic Story.) Finally, Jenni comes out with a bag of donuts and walks up to me realizing that I’m upset. She was inside during the charging incedent. So I explain that I just had a really unsettling experience that had left me confused and some what frightened. By the time we get the corner a cop shows up and VooDoo Guy flags him down. I think he might have called him because the cop drove around several times looking intently out of his car. We managed to get out of there, walking about two blocks out of the way to avoid the screaming guy.

I think what disturbed me is no one seemed to lift a finger, myself included, to get help. It was as if we all just hoped he would just go away. Go have your meltdown somewhere else but not here, we’re trying to buy donuts. The owner (or employee) was concerned about the safety of his customers and rightfully so. Which is my point. How did, or does a city, get to the stage where this is an everyday occurrence? A norm that results in one’s business being located in “the crotch” of the city. It was a scary moment for me as I wasn’t prepared for that kind of behavior, even though we’ve seen homeless all over Portland all weekend (they’re not like the bums in New York that harass you at every moment. You might get a few asking for change but generally they leave you alone.) I know we’re in a really bad recession right now, The Great Recession, but there is no excuse for a city or a state to allow people to live on the streets. They, especially the mentally ill, need to taken care of. Thats what you pay taxes for, the ones that fall into the deep cracks of our economy. At the same time when a city is trying to remake itself into a better, more productive and efficient place to work and live this is a recipe for a social disaster. My biggest fear for Portland is that one election cycle they will elect a “Giuliani” that will clean up the city with devastating consequences for those that are really just victims of our economy.
Well thats just my fucking two cents, take it for what its worth. Please, feel free to comment.

Day One: Portland Again. Cool.

2009-07-26T00:22:00.001-04:00

Well we finally got here. Its been a long fucking day, though. The two of us never went to bed last night. As we live a ridiculous distance from Indy airport we have to leave really early in the morning because our flight was at 7:00 am. By the time we got to Salt Lake City (there are no no stops out of Indy) we both were exhausted. We had about a three hour lay over so we managed to ingest some Starbucks and threw some food down our throats. God forbid Delta should feed anyone. Well they did but it was snacks and a few bucks a pop at that (they charged us $15 a bag to check in.) They also charged two bucks for headphones too. Fortunately, most people have iPods and such so they don’t need them. Anyways, the connecting flight out of Salt Lake was delayed for what I don’t know (and he’s on third.) So we left about 25 minutes late. I slept the entire flight only to wake up with a headache. When we arrived we got our bags and took the MAX to downtown. One bus transfer got us three blocks from our hotel. We’re staying at this place called The Jupiter. Cool place but definably ranks high on the weird scale. Its like out of a John Waters film. Really. Our original reason for staying here was because our favorite industrial club, Dementia was at a nearby club. But by the time we got here (actually a few months ago) they switched to another place, which is about 20 blocks east of here. To make matters worse they only run it the first and third Saturday now. So no Dementia this year (we will be doing Hive, Shadowplay and Embers. Portland is a hotbed for the Goth/Industrial scene. One of the reasons we like it.)

So today we just roamed around, ate then went shopping. Hit the Apple store for new headphones for my iPhone. Let me say that this device is the most handy thing to have when you’re in an unfamiliar city. The GPS, compass, and always on internet is a godsend. I found an App that tells you the bus schedule, so you know how long you gotta wait. I even used the camera today, exclusively. Actually I was way too tired to carry my Nikon around. I rented two lenses, a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S and a Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G AF-S ED for my D60. The wide angle is really cool and I can’t wait to use it I fucked around with at home with the kitties. Fun stuff. The normal lens is one of the best lenses I’ve ever used. It’s extremely useful in low light with its wide aperture. Anyways, I was way to tired to lug the camera around today. Tomorrow will be different. I got a new bag to play with a Temba Messenger Bag. Its about the size of a Timbuk2 laptop messenger but its designed to carry camera equipment. It has a sleeve for a laptop (my 15” PowerBook fits fine) plus a billion pockets. One really cool feature is a zipper on top that accesses the camera, you don’t have open the flap. Stay tuned for more in the coming days.

Oh, this is for Holly. Doc Martin sandals. Really.

For more on these images click on Tony's Eyeview on the left.

Yard Work

2009-07-20T14:35:00.001-04:00

When Jenni and I first bought our house we were excited about having an actual yard. Behind the house we had a somewhat large wooded area. It was real nice as many bunnies, squirrels and birds lived there. It also acted as a buffer from our neighbors behind us. Unfortunately, the woods were loaded with poison ivy which Jenni happens to very allergic to. So we made the decision to get rid of half the woods leaving the other half as a bunny preserve. Actually that half is thicker with trees and is nestled nicely in the corner between our yard and two other yards behind us. The big problem wasn’t getting rid of the trees but the fuckn’ vines on the ground. We have no idea what the hell kind of vines these are but they might as well be friggin cables. No way puling them out by hand is going to the job. After trying to peel the vines at the edge of the woods back, like a carpet, Jen got blasted with poison ivy. It was all over but covered by the other vines (hence the term ground cover for all you city folks.) This had to be the worst case of poison ivy I’ve ever seen. I’m not going to get into the details of it but lets just say she was miserable for couple of weeks (at one point we really thought she was going to permanently scarred.) So long story short we hired someone to tear out that half of the woods. Many thanks to Casey Schrock, my landscaper (I’m way to lazy to mow my lawn, besides I’m contributing to the local economy) for taking on the job. We’re very satisfied with the job. Oh yeah, does anyone need any wood?? Just help yourself.

The Image on top is from June of '08. Note how lush it is. The area off to the left where the really tall weeds are where we tried to clear out but gave up. Below is what it looks like now after three days of real work. There's more pictures here at my photo gallery or you can click on the Tony's Eye View link on the left.

The Early Bird Caught The Worm

2009-05-26T21:26:00.001-04:00

Some Thoughts On A Long Lens.....

I’ve been living with this lens (see previous post) for five days now and have taken a lot of photos. So some thoughts on the lens. First, its incredibly heavy. My usual lens is so light compared to this guy. I really can’t image taking this on a vacation and doing the tourist thing. No way (not to mention no bag to carry it in, at least not safely. More on that below.) This lens is designed for photojournalists. It would be great at a sporting event, even in the shitty seats. Good luck getting in though with out a press pass. For a photojournalists in a war zone this could get you a great shot and not get yourself killed in the process. I’ve been using it to photograph birds. This the first time I ever attempted to capture such quick animals. My cats like being photographed. No, really. Bubbles actually poses for me. Birds are a different story though. They know when you’re there. So I have to sit outside for awhile to I become part of the landscape. Then they show themselves. The only real problem I’ve been having is finding the bird in the viewfinder once I spot him with my eyes. Human vision has a huge field of view of about 140 degrees. My camera lens is anywhere from 8 to 22 degrees. I spend a lot of time searching around. (Mostly I look for angles of branches and such, but it would be really hard to explain it here.) I am getting better at it, though. Too bad the lens goes back Thursday night. Camera shake is not as big as a problem as I thought it would be because I’ve have been shooting mostly at an f/2.8 as I just want the bird. On a bright day that gives me a pretty fast shutter speed. Gods, how I love a fast lens. Here's a dandelion shot a f/2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/1000.

OK, enough of the bad stuff. How well does this lens work? I’m in love with it. I’ve been getting beautiful images. Of course a lot has to do with the camera itself, but the lens is great. It pulls it right in there. Some cool things on it. It has two focus settings: manual and an auto/ manual. This means you can use manual focus while in auto. Comes in handy when the camera just doesn’t want to focus, you don’t have to switch to manual on both the camera (which would be in the settings menu) and the lens. The VR (vibration reduction) mode also has two settings normal, for shakes, and an active mode. The active is for when you are shooting out of a moving vehicle. Think I’m going to try that tomorrow. When I read it in the lens manual I pictured a photographer hanging out a Land Rover on the African Serengeti chasing a herd of zebra. Another switch on the lens limits the range of the autofocus if the subject is less than 8.2 feet away. As I understand it this speeds up the focus on subjects further than 8.2 feet. I really haven’t played with this setting. Oh, yeah it also has a focus lock on the lens too. Before I go on about the good things of this lens let me say that this thing retails for about $1800 bucks. Here’s some images on my Mobile Me site.

Final verdict, well worth the rental. Hey, if your kid is playing on a hockey or football team its worth the rental. You’ll be glad you did. I think about all the times I wish I had a high powered zoom (or a good 200 mm or 300 mm prime lens) for those certain shots. From now on if I need a high powered lens I’ll rent. However, if you’re off to Disney World stick to a regular zoom, this lens is way too bulky to carry around. (It make a great weapon, though. Have fun getting it on a plane.) You'll definitely need a big bag. I've been using a bag that normally I carry my D60 with its lens attached and a FG with its 50 mm lens attached and the battery charger and a slew of lens filters and a bunch of other shit I've accumulated over the years. This week only the D60 with the 70 - 200 mm attached is in the bag. It's not the best set up but it'll do. On a separate note been thinking about this bag for my next trip. I like the idea of it being able to switch from backpack to my sided for easy access.

Finally I've been thinking a lot about lenses lately and as a graduate of film school, the idea of DSLRs having the capability of capturing moving images in HD is extremely intriguing. With the availability of a lens like this, that puts that HD capability on the list for my next camera (along with a full frame sensor.) Being able to change a lens on the fly is what makes SLRs and by extension DSLRs so useful. Now with being able to capture moving images and have a plethora of available lenses (whether I rent, borrow or buy) makes video cameras almost a dead format to me.

New Lens For Vacation. Yes I'm Back.

2009-05-23T01:33:00.001-04:00

I’m back. I’ve neglected this spot for awhile. It’s not that I’ve been terribly busy just lazy. I’m one of these guys that gets online and I’m finished for the day. Its amazing I even finished college. Anyways, I’m housesitting for a friend (actually dog and multiple kitty sitting) who has an awesome yard with a garden. While sitting here one night I came up with the idea to take some pictures of birds. This time of year all the real pretty ones, like cardinals and bluejays, are all over the place. Problem is my Nikon D60’s lens ¹ doesn’t get very close, its max zoom is 55 mm which translates to about 70mm on this DSLR, not to mention its not a really fast lens (f/5.6 at 55 mm.) If I’m going to photograph birds I can’t just walk up to them. So I needed a better lens, preferably a zoom. Ever price Nikon lenses? Yeah, no shit. Then I remembered some sites I bookmarked that actually rent lenses. I settled on Lens Pro To Go. To be totally honest here my choice had nothing to do with price or service. It was about availability of the lens. Period. I wanted a fast high powers telephoto zoom. I have no need for a normal or wide lens for this. I settled on a Nikon AF 70- 200 mm f/2.8 VR. Read up on some reviews and made my decision. They’re charging me $110 for the week and that includes insurance and shipping. Well it arrived this afternoon on Fed Ex. First, its packed in a Pelican case. A nice one.

I always wanted one for my cameras (wonder if they make one for laptops, oh well more time to spend on the net.) Next, this lens is huge and heavy. The package weighs in at 9 pounds and the case barely weighs anything. Its 9 1/2 inches long.

It came with a tripod mount ² Took some pictures this afternoon basically testing it. I'll post some on my Flckr account. But here's a sample.

That cardinal is about 30 feet up above me. I did some comparison shots between lenses. It’ll take me a couple of days before I really know if I like it. So far so good. Stay tuned.

the D60 comes in a kit or set which includes an 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens. I love the camera but I really wish I had a better lens. Someday I'll write about my transition from film to digital. Lets just say I went into the digital photography age kicking and screaming. ↑
a lens this big gets mounted on the tripod, not the camera body. Not to mention the lens mount itself swivels. I tried it on a tripod but when shooting birds (yeah, bad choice of words) I have to be holding the camera.] ↑

Why Worry?

2009-02-27T16:42:00.001-05:00

Some co-workers and I were talking the other day about the state of the economy. I mean, really what else are people talking about these days. Anyways, I began to notice a sense of panic among them. This kind of thing can become very contagious. I can remember back when I worked for Pan Am just how contagious that line of thought had gotten. ¹ Although one should never say never, I’m not worried at the moment. Even though our volume has seemed to drop, its not such a dramatical drop where we should start running for the caves. But I can tell that some people have never been in this situation before. I have some advice folks. And as some one who has been through this shit before I know what I’m talking about. So my advice to my coworkers, and anyone else reading this blog for that matter, is simple.²

Don’t worry about it. Let me repeat that, OK? Don’t worry about it. There is nothing you can do or change, by yourself that will change economic conditions (unless you’re a billionaire that can buy everything in sight to stimulate the economy.) So why lose hair over it. By the time Pan Am shut down I was grey and balding and not yet thirty. Until they hand you that pink slip (which BTW in my case was a white form letter) no need to freak out about it. Fuck, you still have a job. Live like you do. I spent months upon months of worrying whether I should pay off a credit card or buy things I wanted. To make matters worse my debt to income ratio was completely out of whack (my fault, I'm not blaming anybody for that.) So I went into a tizzy of worry. I traded in my beloved custom van for an Isuzu Imark in a moment of panic. I’ll never be able to make those payments I thought. I also took a beating at the dealership, but thats another story. Want a new car? Go buy it. Why not? You’re employed and can afford it. “What if I get laid off”, you might ask. Well then you’re not going to be able to buy that car now, are you? In fact with that attitude you'll never get it.

Listen folks, don’t whine about how the economy sucks if you’re not doing anything about it, like spending some of your money. If you haven't heard three quarters of our system is driven by consumer spending. The other third is businesses keeping up with our spending. Granted its not exactly the most perfect system but hey its what we got. Want to know what I’m doing? My tax refund (along with some saved money is going to be used for a new MacBook Pro and an NAS with about terabyte and a half of storage. We just bought a brand new stove. New windows are going in the house this spring. So, got a few extra bucks in your pocket and want that venti latte from Starbucks? Fuck it, go for it. PC took a shit? Go buy that Mac you've been wishing for.

The one thing that sticks in my mind more than anything from my experience at losing a job, and a good one at that, is what my crew chief Darryl said to me. About a month before Pan Am shut down he went and bought a brand new Dodge minivan. I was like, Dude what you crazy? We’re all about to go down with the Titanic here. I filed his response away in my memory knowing that some day it would make some sense.

“Why worry? There’s no debtors prison.” Absolutely fuckin', right.

Pan Am was obviously in worse shape than my present employer, UPS. In fact Pan Am was in the red for what seemed decades. So it was no surprise to almost all of us when she finally folded. However if I had a dollar for every time someone told me we're shutting down before the end of the month or week I could have retired at thirty.↑

The other big difference is that the airline industry tends to be a lot shakier than most industries. Jesus, if some one farts in Iran, airlines in America lose money. Not to mention Pan Am was a lighting rod for terrorist, even before they were flying them into buildings. ↑

On the Passing of John Updike

2009-01-28T15:27:00.001-05:00

John Updike, a Lyrical Writer of the Middle-Class Man, Dies at 76 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

Sad day, big loss. I consider John Updike as one of America's greatest writers. I was taking a creative writing class when I was first introduced to his work. It was the short story "A&P." Sammy, the protagonist, has always been one of my all time favorite characters in literature, right up there with Holden Caufield. Yeah, I'm one of those. In that creative writing class (which by the way is where I fell in love with my wife, Jennifer) we all had to write a research paper. I can't remember what the parameters had to be but I chose to write about how Sammy was a catalyst to the counter culture that would eventually follow in the later years of the sixties. I later expanded the paper to include Holden Caulfied for another English class at a different school. (I got an A on both papers, BTW.) Updike's writing has always fascinated me because he made it look easy. As if. The News Hour on PBS has a great interview with John Updike from 2003. In it he talks about Sammy. Actually he's asked about that short story. Probably because it's become a staple in English departments nation wide. When he talks about Sammy its as if, for just a moment, he became real person for me. And Updike's explanation of Sammy feelings in the end helped me recognize I was on the right track in my paper of long ago. So, thanks John for all your works and especially thank you for introducing me to not only Sammy but writing in general.

In Other Things Heard and Seen...

2009-01-17T17:00:00.001-05:00

Best ad of the week: Say Goodbye To Mr. Bush

Most expensive lay: Natalie Dylan, a 22-year-old student from San Diego, Calif, auctions off her virginity. Offers are as high as 3.7 million. Hope there's a money back guarantee.

And something else to sink my heart. Coffee to jump prices 26%. Say it ain't so, Joe.

Be Careful For What You Wish For.....

2009-01-16T16:27:00.001-05:00

Paul Krugman - Forgive and Forget? - NYTimes.com

On one hand I totally agree. We can't let abuses of power go unpunished. Otherwise we have no right to complain when the next guy (or gal) does it. There is so much to answer for here I really don't know where to begin. The Iraq fiasco would be a good place to start.

On the other hand Gerald Ford's reasoning for his pardon of Nixon makes sense to me. Do we really want to spend the next 4 years bickering over Bush's mistakes when we could be doing something constructive? Yeah, me too.

Lets not forget what Ford said in his inaugural address:

My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.

I know Obama won't say it but it sure feels that way now.

Best Wishes Steve

2009-01-15T15:04:00.001-05:00

Apple’s Chief Is Taking Medical Leave - NYTimes.com

Anyone who knows me knows I'm all about Apple products, especially the Mac. I'm not going to go through the whole mess on whether Steve Jobs has the responsibility to disclose his health condition publicly. Personally I feel its none of my business. I feel that Apple is in a good place with Tim Cook, Philip Schiller and Jonathan Ive. Dan Moren over at MacWorld has a good take on this. I would say this though, as person who worked for Pan Am I am very well aware of a CEO that is synonymous with his company. Some say Juan T. Trippe kept Pan Am in his head. I hope this isn't the case at Apple, but I really don't think so. There is an insightful quote in the Times article:

By all accounts, Mr. Cook does not have the long-term vision or showmanship of Mr. Jobs, who appears capable of peering around corners into the future of technology, and can whip crowds into a frenzy merely by taking something new out of his pocket.

That kind of personality can't be replaced. Now is the wake up call for all of us, for a day we all know will someday day come.

In the meantime get well Steve. Best wishes.

New Lighting for Living Room

2009-01-04T18:07:00.001-05:00

Well we just spent a shit load of cash (actually not) on redecorating our living room. For the longest time we had a set of Christmas lights that we strung across the ceiling. It was cool because it gave a soft light in the room and made TV watching bearable without the glare. Problem was they were old and when one bulb went out it took a whole string with it. Good luck finding replacement bulbs (I think the set is about ten years old.) We decided to go with candles. Soft light, cheap, and most importantly is you don't have to rewire anything. It actually turned out real well. Here's a look see.

Oh yeah, Jen decided to get her hands done in henna. Although I'm not a big fan of such things I do admit it looks real well. Check it out here

Well we finally finished Mad Men and I must say its awesome. All fan of Don Draper should check this site out. Jen is going to usesome of the episodes from the first season for her Persuasion class this spring. We had to come up with a creative way for her students to watch it. I mean you can't expect them to buy a complete DVD set. Solution: iTunes. Three episodes at 2 bucks each. Hell they spend more than that on texting for shits sake. And who doesn't have iTunes these days, especially in college.

Just started (finally) to watch Band Of Brothers this week. Wow. Let you know How I feel about it later.

Another Year Is Over

2008-12-31T18:36:00.001-05:00

Well another year is come and gone and now is the obligatory time to reflect on one's past. Fortunately, my birthday falls between Christmas and New Years so my self reflection seems more timely (then again I really don't know any other way.) 2008 was a good year for Jen and I. The both of us have decided that Portland, OR is going top be our next home. This is after spending two weeks in that state.

I must say that the two of us have become more home bodies than anything else. We go out less and spend more quality time together now than we ever had, even when we were dating. With our four crazy cats life is really settled for us. Jesus, we rarely go to the movies any more, and I have a degree in film studies. It must a function of the net and Netflix. When we do go out its to spend time with friends and sometimes family. But mostly friends. Looking back at this year our relationship with a couple across town has become closer (you know who you are). They are our best friends because we share the same values in life. Jen and I are thankful for them. OK, enough of the wishy washy stuff.

Speaking of home, we've done some work to the house that we are sure will help its value when the time comes, if it comes. In fact the idea of parting with this place doesn't really please me so it might end up being a rental. Living in a college town has its advantages.

Jen is busy working on her PHd, while I've been busy working on, well just working and playing. But that doesn't mean I've haven't come closer to things I want to pursue once Jen graduates. I rediscovered photography again finally moving into the digital age (kicking and screaming I might add.) I'm hoping that a MFA in photography is my future, but nothing is in my planned outlook.

What a crazy year its been here. The election simply galvanized this town and became a major part of my life all fall. I can't remember where the month of October went. I think I literally spent from Labor day to election day online. It was fucking insane. I actually got into email discussions that lasted all day like chat rooms. I think I can say that this was the first election in internet time. Really. I'm looking forward to the next administration, and I wish him (and by extension the rest of the country) good luck. We're gonna need it. But I feel for the first time in my life I voted for the right guy. I know he's gonna fuck up here and there but I trust him. That's all that matters.

The other big story for America has been the economy. Well needless to say its the same here. But I must say this: I still have a job and I'm thankful for that. And I must add that I'm probably one of a very few Americans who doesn't have anxiety about getting laid off. By sheer luck or what, I've been at UPS now 13 years. Even as a part time employee (my only job I might add) I'm doing fine. Bills are paid one time and we're not starving. UPS, as of right now anyway, seems to be chugging along fine as the economy implodes around us. There are probably plenty of reasons for this but who knows why anything works anyway. Peak (the official UPS term for "The Christmas Season") was as busy as it has been since I transfered here. If it wasn't on the news I would have never known that the Christmas sale season was off this year. Looks like I picked the right company thirteen and a half years ago. It helps that Jen and I refuse to live beyond our means. With the exception of my love for a certain computer company's toys I never really over spend my money.

So what's on the list for next year? Well another two week trip to Portland. More time with our friends, especially when the next season of Mad Men starts. Definitely, new windows for the house in the spring and some landscaping work (maybe redoing the living room, too.) Jen will be done with all her course work and heading into her quals. Oh yeah, one of those unibody MacBook Pros and maybe a home server to boot. I can dream can't I?

Wish I Thought Of This

2008-12-25T18:18:00.001-05:00

Very funny light set up in the form of The Flying Spaghetti Monste on Flickr.

Oh Yeah, About That Failure of The iPod

2008-12-25T16:34:00.001-05:00

According to The Huffington Post this morning the top three Google searches for Christmas morning had to do with iTunes. Out of the top 25 searches, 12 had to do with Apple, all having to do with iTunes, the iPod or the iPod Touch.

So, I say to Sir Alan Sugar: Yeah, right.

A legal wrangle for the day:

2008-12-25T14:23:00.001-05:00

Pardon Lasts One Day for Man in Fraud Case - NYTimes.com

Can a sitting President revoke a pardon he had already issued (in this case in less than 24 hours)?

If so, could Obama revoke any of Bush's pardons? If the answer is yes Obama can, then try out this scenario: say Bush pardons Cheney. Could Obama then revoke it? If so, how could Bush argue that he can't revoke a pardon, if he has already set the precedent?

Or does only the pardoning president have the power to revoke a pardon he issued? (My guess at the right answer here.)

Quiz tomorrow.

UPDATE:

Interesting legal argument here. It seems that the pardon might not have been finalized, as in sealed. Interesting quote here:

"The president has the power to lift criminal consequences from someone, but not to unilaterally impose them, which a pardon revocation does."

So, I would think that a President can't revoke a past president's pardons except in cases like Marbury v. Madison (see Michael Froomkin's, a Professor at The University of Miami School of Law, blog here.) Interesting read here on pardons.

Froomkin updates his blog here and now sees it as a non issue, based on the fact that "nothing had been signed or sealed."

I like the commenter's theory, though.

(Thanks to The Daily Kos)

God, I love this legal shit. Should have gone to law school.

Bristol Palin's Future Mother-In-Law Arrested On Drug Charges

2008-12-19T14:36:00.001-05:00

Bristol Palin's Future Mother-In-Law Arrested On Drug Charges

The new season of The Wassibillies premieres. Can't wait.

Things Overheard and Found

2008-12-13T15:23:00.001-05:00

iPod touch ad puts a new slant on things - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) Apple's iPod Touch ad on Yahoo Games site was really cool. Unfortunately its down but TUAW still has this video posted for it. Very Cool. Even cooler is this YouTube Video for the Wii

Have you ever wondered what Rahm Emanuel’s inbox looked like? I love Axelrod's message.

I love these, especially the one by Digital Corp's, Ken Olsen in 1977: "there is no reason for any individual to have a computer at his home"

And finally in the usual year end list making thing, this one is good for a laugh, now that the election all over.

And my new line for the week, from Mad Men first episode where the CEO of a cigarette company says: "We're selling America here. The Indians gave it to us, for shits sake!" I'm still laughing.

What Would Cincinnatus Do?

2008-12-13T13:26:00.001-05:00

Rod Blagojevich misconduct has got me thinking on political scandals, you know the kind where we attach -gate to the end of it. So what do we call this one, Senate seat salegate, Illinois governorgate, or most likely Blago-gate? (It be interesting to see how many young people really know what that -gate means.) The Attorney General of the state, Lisa Madigan, has decided to ask the State Supreme Court to remove him from office. According to the New York Times,

Ms. Madigan argued in court papers that “the pervasive nature and severity” of a federal corruption case against Mr. Blagojevich had rendered him “incapable of legitimately exercising his ability as governor.”

I don't how this would work. He hasn't been convicted of anything yet. Can he be removed just for being accused of something? (I'm playing devil's advocate here.) She also asked for a restraining order if the high court decides not to remove him. Essentially that just stops him from doing any unreversable harm while the legislature sorts this out. Basically the court gets to stay out of this as it is a political mess. Impeaching would take forever. Fuck, he could resign and ask Pat Quinn, the lieutenant governor to pardon him (like that'll happen.) The Republicans suddenly want an election to fill Obama's vacated seat while the Democrats will be happy if Quinn just appoint someone. See the predicament this jackass has created?
So my solution? (Come on you knew it was getting to this.) I think we need to do like the Romans did. You hand the jackass a knife and tell him "there's the tent and don't come out. If you do I have Titus Pullo here to take care of you." Very simple, no impeachment trials, no Supreme Court hearings just a man who eliminates himself from the problem. Its the honorable thing to do. And to prevent life loving jackasses from being political dickheads in the future the law should be simple, you corrupt the office, its life in prison, no parole (and real prison, not the federal–work –on – my– backhand–country club.) Period.
"And remember, Carthage must be destroyed" – Cato.

Yes, right answer

2008-12-06T17:57:00.001-05:00

Obama Pledges Public Works on a Vast Scale - NYTimes.com:

About fucking time. I knew this was coming. This is why I voted for this man. WE, the tax payers, gave the banks billions of dollars and they still aren't lending money. Job losses are falling of the charts. If one of the Big Three goes we'll all be selling apples on the corner two for a nickle. Over a half a million jobs gone last month alone! Wait until the Silly Season is over, when retail lets them out of the doors.

If private industry doesn't want to lend money or hire people, then the government should be free to do it. It worked in FDR's administration with his Public Works Project. Granted, the Second Word War was probably the largest public works project ever and led this country to the become economic world leader. Gotta love the conservatives:

Conservative economists have also long derided public works spending as a poor response to tough economic times, saying it has not been a reliable catalyst for short-term growth and instead is more about politicians gaining points with constituents.

Got a better idea? Didn't think so. Of course its going to cost an insane amount of money, but what's better, a depression? Of course the Bush and other Republicans have argued against spending this much money because "will leave a huge bill for the next generation." This coming from a an administration that ran through money like fucking water. Its bad unless of course its for their rich buddies. Can't wait to see him board that helicopter out there.

End of An Era

2008-12-03T14:06:00.001-05:00

The Last Word: Odetta - The New York Times: ""

Major loss. Not just a beautiful voice, but one of the defining soundtrack of the civil rights era. Whenever I listen to her I always have black and white images of those years scroll through my mind. A few years ago I found a bunch of her stuff on CD. Needless to say she resides in my iTunes library. She will be sorely missed. Sad thing is she wanted to sing at Obama's inauguration, according to the New York Times.
(I didn't know the Times had a feature like this, great way to post a documentary obit on someone.)

Thank God For You Tube

2008-12-01T16:43:00.001-05:00

Had to post this. The only thing I like about the Silly Season.

Ah, that felt good. No really.

Mad Tooth Bar Chin Up

2008-11-29T20:41:00.001-05:00

So, this afternoon I completely wasted over four hours watching WKRP on my DVR that I never got around to watching. Hey, isn't that what long weekends are for? Anyways, for ages I've been trying to figure out what song that is at the end of the show during the credits. Jen suggested that I Google the lyrics and see what comes up. So we listened to it and she says its nothing but gibberish. Well, guess what? It is nothing but gibberish.

So while searching the net for all things KRP, I found this You Tube Video that almost made me pee my pants.

Just a note folks. After using Apple's new keyboard (the bluetooth version) with my PowerBook for a few months now (and occasionally using Jen's new MacBook) I've come to the conclusion that the new chiclet keys rock. I can type faster with less mistakes. When I first got my PowerBook I loved the scissor keys, but now they seem too close together and spongy. Fuck, that new MacBook Pro is getting better looking everyday....

My Next Car

2008-11-28T18:54:00.001-05:00

In spite of this mess in Detroit I have been thinking about replacing the Escort. Its almost 15 years old but still runs well. Thats scary to me because the day is going to come where it just dies for no apparent reason (probably in the middle of the fucking winter.) My problem is that none of the car companies have anything I really like. Well, totally not true, I do like the Dodge Challenger or the new Camaro. But really, I'm almost fifty, do I really want another muscle car. No (Ok, If say I won one, then maybe. Allright you got me but I'll save that for story for another day.) I want something thats not hard on the environment. Which means no trucks. What I want seems to be out of style. Until recently. Toyota has the Yaris, VW has brought back the Rabbit, and of course Honda has the Fit. BMW's Mini Cooper is a real cool car but I'm not happy with the MPG on it. (They've recently announced an experimental electric version but its lease only, and we all know what happened the last time an electric car was lease only.)

None of them appeal to me. What I want is a three door hatchback like my Escort. Big enough to carry shit from Lowes or the local hardware store, but small enough to parallel park it anywhere. So, the little Yaris (3 door) is too small but I'll give it another look. Then Ford announced the Festiva (above) which I think was originally going to called the Verve or something remotely edgy. They posted a mini web page for at Ford's website. You can even sign up for updates, which is a fancy way of saying we'll spam you to death until you buy my car. Its based on the European Mazda 2. In fact the picture above is that car with a Ford badge on it. I think if Ford is still around in 2010 I just might look into this car. Its style is enough to catch my eye and maybe my wallet.
I don't know why I'm attracted to this car so much. I'm not really a fan of Mazda. Its styling is really cool. I just hope they don't turn it into a boremobile.

Then again my next car just might be The City Of Portland's Transit System. Or New York's...

In other thing that have come across the counter:

David Letterman's Top Ten Sara Palin Excuses For Turkey Slaughter

Daily Show's Best Sara Palin Moments
An absolutely hilarious remix of our favorite Alaskan

And from the "Recession, what recession?" department A Wal-Mart Employee is trampled to death on Black Friday. Black Friday indeed.

Choices

2008-11-23T22:46:00.001-05:00

Wow, and I thought I had hard choices to make.
Myron Rolle wins Rhodes Scholarship

Starting Over

2008-11-23T15:23:00.001-05:00

OK, people when was the last time we had a President look this cool. He’s almost Bond like. Obama, Barack Obama. 007, license to be cool.
Anyways. I decided today that my hate relationship with all things Palin is now over. I signed an online petition called Dear Sarah Palin, Shut Up Already. I decided I no longer want to hear about her. The first week after she was introduced to most of the lower 49 stressed me out enough. That’s not to say I wont shut my eyes and ears to anything stupid that comes out of her mouth, which should be sometime before the end of the day.....