Pondering Minstrel

Adobe Creative Suite 3 (CS3) Launch

2007-03-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

If you're an ASMP member, you should have received a notice in your inbox a short while ago. If not, check your spam filter.
On March 27, 2007, at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, Adobe Systems will host a webcast of the official launch of Adobe® Creative Suite® 3, live from New York City.
with CEO Bruce Chizen and COO Shantanu Narayen.

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/launchevent/

Are Gold DVDs/CDs Really Better?

2006-08-13T23:48:00.000-07:00

There was recently a discussion on Flickr regarding reliability of DVDs as archival media. I stated that I had heard that media that has a gold reflective layer (which is what I use) were supposedly more stable, but I wasn't sure if it was hype or truth, so I looked it up. Below is a compilation of the interesting articles, albeit short, I found online. Not all are related to the reliability of gold reflective layers, but they're interesting, nonetheless.

Some of the assumptions I had made were somewhat verified.

Answers to your questions about CD/DVD archival capacity and testing
From the story...

Well-known brand names are usually not an indication that a disc is archival grade. Many of these companies buy media from several sources and often buy budget media when a manufacturer has an oversupply, and then put their brand name on it. For example, you will often see the HP name on media, but HP does not own or operate any media manufacturing facilities.

Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology - Stability Comparison of Recordable Optical Discs—A Study of Error Rates in Harsh Conditions PDF

"DVD Rot"

Anecdotal Disc Rot

Disc Rot in Pictures, PDO commercial pressing incident

CDs and DVDs not so immortal after all

Eeewww... Mouse Diet

2006-07-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

A woman found the severed head of a mouse in her Lean Cuisine frozen dinner. How disgusting is that?!

MSNBC Video

Movies About or Set In the San Francisco Bay Area

2006-04-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

This is just something I've wanted to do for a while now. I'll keep adding more as I have time. I welcome comments regarding movies to add, opinions on existing movies and anything else relevant! :)

I Remember Mama - 1948 with Irene Dunne. Oscar nominations for Actress in a Supporting Role, Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Cinematography (Black-and-White). If you like classic movies, like Life With Father, you'll probably like this old black and white. Irene Dunne plays a Norwegian immigrant family in 1910 San Francisco. They're supposedly struggling, financially, so much so that they take in a border, one that has trouble paying rent, into their 5(?) bedroom home. Sheesh. Good movie though.

48 Hours - 1982 with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte. This was hilarious the first time I saw it, but I rewatched it later, and it wasn't so funny anymore.

Another 48 Hours - 1990 sequel to 48 hours, as you may have guessed. Don't bother with this one.

The Rock - 1996. Has it been 10 years already? There's a hostage/terrorist situation on Alcatraz when ex-military commando terrorists take over The Rock and turn it into their base of operations. Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery must break into Alcatraz and stop them. Pretty good action flick.

The Maltese Falcon - 1941 with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor and directed by John Huston. Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Screenplay and Best Picture. Apparently, the movie was originally titled The Gent From Frisco, according to Tim Dirks. Based on the novel from Dashiell Hammett. I read the book but have never seen the film. The book was excellent.

Birdman of Alcatraz - 1961 with Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden (Who later starred in The Streets of San Francisco) and directed by John Frankenheimer. Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Best Actor in a Supporting Role. I've never seen this one either.

Escape From Alcatraz - 1979 with Clint Eastwood. According to the trivia, it was the film debut of Danny Glover as well. Never seen it myself.

Mrs. Doubtfire

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

San Francisco - 1936 with Clark Gable. Oscars for Best Sound Recording. Oscar nominations for Best Actor, Assistant Director, Directing, Oustanding Production (Best Picture) and Writing (Original Story). A love story set during the 1906 earthquake. I have never seen it.

Romeo Must Die

The Presidio

When a Man Loves a Woman

Some Kind of Monster - Film documents the strained relationships, disintegration and rebirth of Metallica. Decent documentary with a lot of crying from Lars, in your face anger from James and frustration all the way around.

Pirates of Silicon Valley - 1999 film about the emergence of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Microsoft. Probably Anthony Michael Hall's best performance since Sixteen Candles. :)

Vertigo - 1958 with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak, directed by Alfred Hitchock. Need I say more?

Dirty Harry - 1971 I have never seen this film.

Joy Luck Club

Citizen Kane

Pacific Heights

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner - 1967 with Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier. Oscars for Best Actress and Writing. Oscar nominations for Best Actor, Actor in a Supporting Role, Actress in a Supporting Role, Art Direction, Direction, Directing, Film Editing, Music and Best Picture.

The Hulk

ADDITIONS
From voxipsa
The Conversation - 1974 Francis Ford Coppola film with Gene Hackman. Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Sound and Original Screenplay. She says it's "a fabulous early Coppola movie". I haven't seen it, but it sounds intriguing.

From Kevin Bjorke who also happens to run PhotoPermit.Org
Bullitt - 1968 with Steve McQueen and Jacqueline Bisset. That's a sexy combo! Oscar nomination for Sound and won an Oscar for Film Editing.

From homernoh
Sweet November - Klunker
40 Days & 40 Nights - Klunker
The Sweetest Thing - Klunker
Haiku Tunnel - San Francisco stuff that people will recognize.
Colma: The Musical - homer has not seen this, but he hears it's funny.
Mistress of Spices - Unreleased, but set in Oakland.

From kevin
Harold and Maude - 1971 I'd heard of this movie, but I've never seen it. It looks to be a romantic comedy, and it's gotten pretty good reviews on Amazon. It seems worth checking out. kevin also provided a good link to the local shooting locations for Harold And Maude.

From JulioGarcia, who says he "could talk movies all day".
True Crime- 1999 with Clint Eastwood and Isaiah Washington, directed by Eastwood. Eastwood plays an Oakland Tribune journalist that gets assigned an execution story. As he's investigating, he discovers that Frank Beachum, the inmate, may not be guilty afterall. I think I saw this, but don't quite remember. If it's what I think it is, it was a decent enough movie.
So I Married An Axe Murderer- 1993 with Mike Myers and Nancy Travis. Mike Myers meets his dream woman who he suspects may also be an axe murderer. JulioGarcia says, "Whoa-man." I don't know what that means, and I'm surprised to see that reviewers on Amazon gave it nearly five stars. I didn't really think it was funny. It felt forced. I did like the human blanket part. :)
Metro- 1997 with Eddie Murphy. Have not seen it, but it says Murphy plays an SFPD hostage negotiator. Ummm... okay.
Doctor Doolittle- 2001 with Eddie Murphy. I didn't see this, but I caught bits and pieces of it here and there. I believe he plays a vet that can talk to animals but doesn't like to acknowledge his ability because he thinks it's crazy. Saw the original, which I loved. Don't know about this one.
Basic Instinct - 1992 with Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas. Famous crossing legs scene with no underwear. I think people imagined seeing her privates. I didn't see anything. Good thriller. Not as good as Fatal Attraction, but good.
EdTV- 1999 with Jenna Elfman and Matthew McConaughey. This was a pretty bad attempt at depicting reality tv mania amongst the average joe. I can't believe this was directed by Ron Howard.
A View to a Kill- 1985 with Roger Moore and Christopher Walken. Tanya Roberts won a Razzie for worst actress. LOL. I've never seen a James Bond movie, but I'll have to watch this one just because it's got Walken!
The Fan- 1996 with Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes. "...now you know you're in trouble... when you try to get a refund..." LOL. I've never seen it.
Final Analysis- 1992 with Richard Gere and Kim Basinger. I vaguely remember this. It was one of those shows that you watch when you're just vegging for the day. Don't remember if I liked it or not. I guess that should tell you something.
Sneakers- 1992 with Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnel and Sidney Poitier. "One of River Phoenix's last films." I love Redford and Kingsley, and I really liked this movie, but a lot of people hated it. If you're a tech geek, or into the history of the tech industry, the trivia makes the movie that much more interesting.
The Net- 1995 with Sandra Bullock. At the time this movie came out, the idea of worldwide connectivity was just starting to emerge into mainstream understanding, so when the villains use the net to destroy Bullock's life, it was thrilling to watch. It's a well-paced action movie.
High Crimes- 2002 Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. Never seen it.

RIGHT TO PHOTOGRAPH?

2005-07-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

As part of a publishing proposal that I'm working on, I wanted to get photographs of Jack London Square, which is owned and operated by the Port of Oakland. This is a tourist spot with a ferry stop, port cranes for commercial shipping traffic in addition to restaurants, floating museums and other retail outlets.

While I was taking pictures of the ferry dropoff, I made eye contact with a security guard that smiled as he walked by, but a short time later, I was stopped by another security guard that asked me what I was doing. I told him I was taking a picture of the "Ferry" sign, which was glowing in the sunset. He then said that he was going to have to ask me to stop. I asked him why I had to stop because I was on public property. He told me that I was on private property because the property is owned by the Port. Which evokes some questions.

Before I go on, I should tell you that I spoke with someone at the port and received confirmation that I did not need a permit and that it was perfectly legal for me to take pictures in the public access area.

So here is where the issue lies. At the time I was stopped, I was perplexed because I thought the Port was a division of the city. I have now come to find out that it is not a division of the city, but it is still a quasi-governmental entity, though I still have some phone calls out on that one. Now, in talking very, very briefly with someone at the port, some areas out in public space, specifically in Jack London Square, are managed by private companies. However, other areas of the square are considered common public areas that are managed by the Port, such as the common walkways, which is where I was standing.

The people I spoke to at the Port, so far, have been surprised that I was stopped from taking pictures and were unaware of any restrictions to photographing in the area. However, they left a message for the real estate security liason to find out if there are any restrictions that I need to know about. This time, I'm getting everything in writing on letterhead.

But I think you can start to see my confusion. When I'm in a strip mall, I know I'm on private property because the landlord is a private entity. However, at the time, I believed the port to be a division of the city government, or at least some form of government entity, that "owns" many miles of property. They still may be a government entity, but I don't know their status at the time of this writing.

I was reasoning that the mere fact that they are a division of the city government makes all their property that is in open space public, like the sidewalks, and only buildings that are being leased by private entities are still private. However, upon thinking about that some more, I'm not so sure that's correct.

The city and city divisions have the ability to set rules and restrict access to certain areas as they see fit. Parks have hours of operation and not all city buildings are open to the public. So how do we actually know when and where we're permitted to take photographs? If the city can stop you from accessing a park at night, can they stop you from taking pictures in another of their open space properties if they so desire? What is the procedure for restricting use, activities and access of government owned/managed properties? Can they arbitrarily decide that they are not going to permit xyz today and then permit it the next day? Is there a process or do they have to legislate these kind of changes? Where does city property end and public property begin? Is there a difference? Isn't the sidewalk technically "owned" by the city, too?

In order to find out more, I phoned the city attorney's office. I spoke with Michelle Abney. She is an extremely nice woman. I asked her these same questions. She was the one that informed me that the Port is not part of the city. They have their own board of directors, funds etc. Which led me to ask if they are a government entity or if they are then a private company/developer like Coldwell Banker. She said that she thinks of them as a quasi-government entity, but stated that I would have to talk to the Port to get a real determination of their status.

I then posed the question about restrictions on activities, like photography, since the city can restrict access to certain city properties, etc. She listed off some of the restrictions the city has with parks and buildings, such as vagrancy, alcohol consumption and posession in the parks, etc.

I then asked, "But aren't those city laws?"

She said that there were municipal codes in place for those things, so she speculated that maybe the photography was Patriot Act related because she's seen people that take photographs of the Federal Buildings being asked to stop by guards but she didn't know for certain. I told her that there wasn't a provision in the Patriot Act to prevent someone from taking photographs from public property of buildings, etc. that can be plainly seen from a public access space. I continued on that I was actually more curious about the restrictions the city can place on public properties and the process, if any, required to restrict access and use. Is the city within their legal rights to arbitrarily restrict activities on any city property? (I'm guessing the answer to that is yes, but it seems strange since governments are supposed to be held accountable and have procedures in place for that reason.)

I'm abbreviating our conversation, obviously. She really did try to help me as much as possible. In the end, she thought these were questions I should ask the Chief City Attorney, Barbara Parker. I left Ms. Parker a message, and I left a message for the ACLU to get their perspective on this issue as well. I'll keep you posted.

7/29/05 6PM UPDATE: I received a call back from the Port of Oakland. My contact said that she had spoken with the Real Estate Office's liason with security and confirmed that there is no reason I cannot lawfully take photographs in public spaces where anyone can visit. The only places where security may be of concern are the areas that are considered sensitive, such as the ferry ramp behind the gate when there is no ferry there or expected. I told her that I was actually photographing the pathway leading up to the Ferry dock and standing near the USS Potomac entrance. She said that she cannot understand why they would have stopped me from photographing. She also said to simply tell them that the Communications department of the Port has given me the okay. I requested something in writing, to which she said that the real estate office was very reluctant to do anything like that, and besides, it would have to go through legal, which would take forever. I asked for a permit, and she said that she would have the liason contact me directly.

I have been very grateful that the Port has been so willing to work with me on this, and I'm also relieved that they are likewise shocked that I would have been prevented from taking pictures in a public place, but it's clear that the process is broken and there needs to be a better understanding of the law for these minimum wage security guards that are given more and more authority because of heightened terror alerts.

I'm still waiting to hear from the City Attorney and the ACLU, but I have been told unofficially from an attorney that local municipalities cannot arbitrarily restrict access and activities.

WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE PRICE OF TEA IN CHINA?

2005-06-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

Soon, the price of tea in China may be something we're all watching. The Chinese have drawn battle lines in their bid to take over the world, economically.

The end of 2004 saw the sale of IBM's PC division and "Think" trademarks to Lenovo, a Chinese PC giant, for $1.2 Billion USD. This acquisition made Lenovo the third largest PC manufacturer in the world.

Last week, Haier, a Chinese appliance manufacturer was reportedly considering making a bid for struggling US appliance manufacturer, Maytag. Today, there are reports that Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), one of China's largest state-controlled companies, made a takeover bid of $18.5 billion for Unocal. CNOOC's stock price is up today on those reports.

Maybe we'll all be learning Chinese in the near future.

CAREFUL HOW YOU GOOGLE

2005-05-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

Remember the days when typosquatters only put out porn at places like whitehouse.com when you really wanted whitehouse.gov? Well, the days of carefree web surfing are gone. Typosquatters turn vicious, according to this eWeek article.

From the article:

"The malicious site, googkle.com, is infested with Trojan droppers, downloaders, backdoors and spyware, and an unsuspecting user only has to visit the page to be at risk of computer hijack attacks... When googkle.com is opened in a browser... files are downloaded using exploits and they contain exploits themselves to run embedded executable files... One batch of exploits loads a malware package that includes two backdoors, two Trojan droppers, a proxy Trojan, a spying Trojan and a Trojan downloader."

This website primarily seems to attack MSIE users, so if you're using Firefox, you're probably safe. If you're using IE, follow the steps below to restrict the site. It won't completely block the site, but if you accidentally end up there, it will give you the highest level of security in IE to prevent unwanted downloads and such.

From the menus, go to Tools ->Internet Options
Click the "Security" tab
Click the "Restricted Sites" icon. It's a big, red, round circle with a white line through it.
Click the "Sites" button
Add www.googkle.com and googkle.com to the list

DAILY SHOW READING LIST

2005-04-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: My husband suggested that I include all the books in the past that I can remember. If you remember a book showcased on the show that's not on the list, let us all know what it is. Thanks!

I love Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. I've loved Jon Stewart since he had The Jon Stewart Show on MTV, way back when his hair was black, and I've been watching The Daily Show since Craig Kilborn hosted it.

Ever wonder what author or book was showcased on The Daily Show? I have, so I'm starting a Daily Show reading list. Oftentimes, I want to read a book from an author on the show, and I can't remember the title, so I am keeping track of it starting... NOW.

I'll update the list regularly and keep a permanent link to the post in my "About Me" section in the right sidebar.







,/td>












This guy was a total prick to Jon, but Jon remained inflappably cordial and respectful.

Drive-By Blogging

2005-03-24T10:27:00.000-08:00

No time today, so here goes.

Finger Food
Human Finger Found In Fast Food Chili

American Idol
Theme: 1980s
Result:

Nameless blond country chick wore hair straight up
Sideshow Bob had a mohawk
Nikko looked like Bobby Brown, as usual
Flock of Seagulls and Robert Smith hairdos were MIA.

And I ran, I ran so far away.
I just ran, I ran all night and day.
I couldn’t get away.

BECAUSE I SAID SO

2005-03-17T12:07:00.000-08:00

The MLB steroid hearings are going on as we speak. Want your fill of stupidity and bias? Watch the hearing. I tuned in to CNN, for just a little bit, to see what was going on and heard them stating that Jose Canseco has lost credibility because Mark McGwire came out, almost in tears, and said that he truly cherished his role model status for young kids, implying that he never used steroids. Like I said, I only caught a small bit of it, and I'll probably get a more thorough report when the transcript comes out, but is this really what's going on? Canseco doesn't have any credibility because the other players are denying steroid use in an emotional manner? Gee, I wonder what McGwire was going to say, seeing that he's got some MLB records on the line.

CNN seriously seemed more upset that Canseco "ratted" people out. You're a whistle blower if you blow the lid off an "evil" corporation, but if you tarnish the reputation of a baseball hero, you've ratted them out? Oh, and by the way, in case you don't remember, McGuire was accused of using performance-enhancing drugs around the time he was breaking records, and if you've ever seen him in person, he is inhumanly large. My husband is large (6'6" and 340lbs.) but when McGuire was playing ball, one of his arms was about 3/4 the size of one of hubby's legs.

The players are also adding that it's not a just an MLB problem. I haven't heard any of the players saying this, but on another news program, someone said that they would be watching other sports like... soccer! Someone please shoot me now! Has anyone stopped to consider that maybe, oh I don't know, the NFL is a good place to look? A relative of mine worked closely with some major NFL players in the midwest. Some of these players are definite shoe-ins for the Hall of Fame. They told him that you can pretty much bet your kids life that everyone in the NFL, aside from the kicker, is using steroids, and if they're not currently on a steroid regimen, then they're just taking a breather.

Watch the live feed from the AP.

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS OUT...

2005-03-11T12:13:00.000-08:00

There's a lot of important news out there. 72 years ago, the Nazis opened up the first concentration camp in Dachau, a little more than five weeks after Hitler became chancellor. A guy on trial for rape, grabbed the sheriff deputy's gun and shot the judge. That was a brilliant move, because if they weren't sure about the rape charge, they're definitely sure about the murder charge. As Marley would say, "I shot the sheriff, but I did not shot the deputy." Wrong!

But, like a drone/lemming, whichever, I've been watching American Idol... again. I never want to watch it, but invariably, I turn the channel to Fox and then I'm drawn in again. At least this year, they don't have any overtly tone-deaf singers. They all have the potential, except Mikhala, to someday be a great singer. I fear that Mikhala will be this year's Niki McKibbon or the blond pseudo-country chick from years past. Many of these guys have idols they look up to, but I noticed an especially striking similarity between one of the singers and one of my favorite folks on TV.


Sideshow Bob The Simpsons	Nadia Turner American Idol

Am I right, or am I right? She is a good singer and performer though. And she was apparently also on Star Search in 2003, but lost. I think she has a chance of making it into the final four, but I think the final four may be all men. Anyway, got to waste time working and earning a living.

MEN:MARS, WOMEN:VENUS and other news

2005-03-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry this has been so late in coming, but since our "little" fight last week, we decided to spend some time apart. Okay, not really. (You can e-hit me later.) :D Thanks to everyone for your comments. It's great to get a man's point of view on this kind of thing. That perspective was definitely required in this situation, and Alisa, thank god we have blogs!

As you might have guessed, it was as you all said it would be. The next morning, it was all hugs and kisses and snuggling. This was all before I had a chance to read any of your comments. I appreciated the gesture and its sentiment, but I still felt like there was a huge weight. We talked, and we both agreed that there was a miscommunication about the not talking part, but more importantly, we discussed our growing apart in the last few years. We both agreed that we want that to stop, and we decided to try to communicate more with eachother.

Part of it was stress too. I was trying to get some photos for a jeweler done, and I was really frustrated with my creative process. She wanted a specific look for all her photos, and at times, it felt like trying to get a square peg into a round hole, but in the end, I gave her a CD with about 80 medium-res images. She was extremely happy with the results. That's also why I haven't blogged in so long.

Aside from being busy with the job, I've decided to expend a great deal of energy trying to make a living as a photographer. I'm going to focus on jewelry photography and some stock magazine photography to start. To that end, I've been spending a lot of time putting together promotional mailers, prospect lists, getting a domain name, etc. I'll probably need a web designer in the near future, so if you know anyone good, (preferrably someone that can work in Flash), comment with their URL. Conversely, if you know someone that needs photography work, I'm available!

Here are a few of the images from this last job.

MARRIAGE

2005-01-28T04:00:00.000-08:00

Communication, committment, love and trust. These are a few of the foundations of a good marriage, but what if one of those elements is crumbling? Is any one of them less important than another?

The past few years, communication has been an issue. We've been together for 10 years, and I'm beginning to wonder if he's had enough. Sure, the other elements are still in tact, so at this point in time, we'd never get divorced, but we don't talk. Not really. I don't feel like I can talk to him, and he doesn't feel like he can talk to me. He's told me so.

He did and said some things to me today that really hurt me. I tried to talk to him about it, and he wouldn't let me complete a sentence before he started defending himself and told me that I had hurt him, and then he walked away. I can't tell you how much that hurt. That hurt more than the original offense. I can understand that it's difficult to hear that your spouse is having difficulty with you, but walking away doesn't really solve anything either.

He went into the other room to learn a game that the kids want to play with him. It's a video game that takes him out of his comfort zone, so I tried to be supportive. After he was done, I attempted to talk to him about what was bothering me. I started off by apologizing for having hurt him. I told him that it was unintentional. He accepted the apology, but as soon as I started talking about what was troubling me, he complained/scolded me about bringing it up again.

Why was I bringing it up again? We were laughing and having a good time, and now I'm talking about this again.

"It's over and done with for me. It's in the past. I don't even remember what it was about. Do you?"

I just looked at him dumbfounded. I couldn't believe this was the reaction I was getting, and I was unable to answer.

"I don't need to talk about it anymore," is what he told me.

It may have been a whole 30 minutes in the past, but we hadn't talked about it. He clearly didn't want to talk about it ever, so I dropped it. I know when I'm not wanted. How I act on that knowledge is a different story, but I decided to respect his desires and kept quiet.

I guess what bothers me most about this is that he didn't care to hear how I felt. He may have instinctively known what I was feeling, but he just didn't want to hear it from me. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was just tired, or it was too soon to talk about it again. Maybe he's still too hurt to talk about it. I don't know.

I didn't want to go to bed feeling upset, so I thought I'd try to at least talk to him about how he brushed me off and made me feel incosequential. When I held his hand and looked at him, I could tell he wouldn't want to hear it. He didn't look mad or annoyed, but I could tell that if I started to talk about it, he would get upset and we'd end up in a fight. Which brings us to why I'm writing at 3:39AM PST.

I've been trying to sleep, but I can't stop thinking. I also can't get rid of the feeling that he doesn't care to know me anymore, and believe me, I've tried to rationalize it because I know he loves me, which is why I can't understand it, but it still doesn't make me feel any better. Should love be all that's necessary? Should we push everything else aside if we know that we love eachother?

And I can't stop wondering... isn't this how marriages of 20 years, etc. end up in divorce? Little things chip away at it for years and years until there's nothing left worth saving. It doesn't seem like a huge event, like an affair, really leads to divorce as much as the ever-ambiguous, "we just grew apart". Don't people, statistically the husbands, usually say they never saw it coming?

I know he doesn't talk to me as much as he used to, and with incidents like I just described becoming more frequent, I talk to him less and less as well. Hell, one of the reasons I started blogging is because I didn't feel like I could talk to him, or more like I felt like I was talking but nobody was listening. At least with blogging, I don't care if anybody is listening. If you care, it really sucks, and it makes you feel lonely. I'd much rather feel lonely because I'm actually alone than feel lonely in a marriage. You're not supposed to be lonely when you're married. You're supposed to have someone that you can talk to about anything and everything. How much do you suck if you can't even get someone that loves you to listen to what you have to say?

I really can't imagine being in love with anyone else, but will we be able to continue to live with eachother as time goes on?

TSUNAMI DEATH TOLL RISES TO 57,000

2004-12-29T01:54:00.000-08:00

As more bodies washed ashore from the tragic tsunami in Southeast Asia, the death toll rose to 57,000, but tens of thousands are still missing. The New York Times states that an estimated one third of all casualties are children. If you would like to help, you can make a donation here.

Indonesian television has shown images of bulldozers scooing bodies into makeshift watery graves. Workers passed out from the stench. They have also shown the images of children laying dead.

A US photoblogger living in Indonesia writes

I'm truly sorry if this image offends you, however, I do feel strongly that the major media networks have a way of "toning down" the truth in tragedies like this. THIS is what we truly see living here in Indonesia. These are the photographs that flash before our eyes and haunt our dreams.

Rest in peace little ones.

That image is posted on Flickr by javajive. I don't feel the need to post it here, but as he is so close to the tragedy, I understand how he must feel and why he feels it necessary to document the horrors of this disaster.

Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless and without clean drinking water. An estimated 18-20,000 tourists are attempting to leave Sri Lanka. At least they have a place to go that they call home.

For more information, you can check your news provider, but there's also a new blog dedicated solely to the tsunami disaster at http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/

MCDONALD'S DIET TO REPLACE PLASTIC SURGERY

2004-12-22T17:28:00.000-08:00

I recently watched Super Size Me, and unless you've been living in a cave, you know the movie follows Morgan Spurlock in his own personal experiment to see what would happen to him if he ate nothing but McDonald's for 3 meals a day for 30 days. If he was asked to Super Size, he would have to SuperSize his meal.

Well, I think we can all see where this is going. I thought I could anyway. I had the same attitude as Spurlock's doctors. I thought he would gain weight, have higher cholesterol and higher blood pressure by the time it was through. I was shocked at the amount of weight he had gained and the degree of physical pain and stress he was feeling. Really though, eating fast food of any kind is like childbirth, it makes you feel like crap, but you forget how bad it hurt and do it again.

At the end of the 30 days, he'd gained (if I recall correctly) about 5 pounds a week and consumed 30 pounds of sugar. Spurlock said that the only food item at McDonald's that doesn't contain sugar is the french fries.

This is a particularly interesting factoid because in the movie, Spurlock interviews a man, Dan Gorske I believe (Man Eats His 18,000th Big Mac), that eats a Big Mac every day. He's thin as a rail and doesn't have high cholesterol, but at the end of the movie, Spurlock notes that Gorske rarely eats the fries.

In the special features on the DVD, Spurlock also runs an experiment to see what would happen to the food if it was left to rot. He took several McDonald's sandwiches and an order of fries and placed them in glass jars. He also purchased a standard home-made type hamburger and placed that in a jar as well. Well, the standard hamburger was the first to develop mold and "aroma". That was followed by the chicken sandwich. Eventually, everything began to decompose except for the french fries. I forget how long he ran the experiment, but in the end, the french fries never decomposed.

I unintentionally ran this experiment myself. We moved to a new house in July. During that move, we ordered a lot of fast food. Some of the french fries, from Jack-In-The-Box fell in the back of the car. This is a picture of them taken yesterday.

This illustrates 2 points.

I am a slob.
These things will be around with the cockroaches, and I hate cockroaches.

Spurlock in no way claims that this is a true scientific experiment, nor does he blame everything on McDonald's. He states in his movie that personal responsibility plays a part in your weight gain, and he points to other fast food chains, in addition to Baskin Robins. He even states that most people know that eating frequently at McDonald's is not healthy, yet I'm surprised at how much the movie has enraged people. They claim that eating McDonald's is not unhealthy and Spurlock is unfairly singling out McDonald's. People have even gone out of their way to try to lose weight on a McDonald's diet, but they end up eating nothing but the salads, without dressing.

Critics have also complained that Spurlock ate like a pig when ordering his 3 squares from the Golden Arches. I think the point was to eat McDonald's in the same quantities people normally eat at McDonald's. Really. Who goes to McDonald's to eat salads?!

When our boys go to McDonald's they order the Double QPC (or Big Mac) meal, SuperSized and cookies or pies for dessert, which is why we don't eat there very often, but that was pretty much how Spurlock ate, a hefty meal and dessert, or something sweet.

So, who eats McDonald's, or fast food, 3 times a day. I don't know anyone that eats fast food 3 times a day, but I know people that eat fast food twice a day, since they skip breakfast, most days of the week. One person, in particular, is suffering from adult on-set diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma and a slew of respiratory problems. I don't doubt that others are probably in the same situation.

IT'S OFFICIAL WIZARDS!

2004-12-21T09:39:00.000-08:00

J.K. Rowling has completed the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series, titled Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Gee, I wonder who the Half Blood Prince might be. One fact of the new book is that someone will die, but some of the rumors are much more interesting.

Voldemort is Harry's real father/grandfather/close relative of some kind
The LeStranges were sent after Neville to kill him.
Lily Potter is still alive.

JKR responds to all these rumors in an entertaining fashion at her website www.jkrowling.com

Thanks to Angie for the heads up about the book. Of course, Amazon.com has started the pre-ordering season. You know I've already got mine pre-ordered!

RIGHT AFTER THESE MESSAGES

2004-12-20T10:27:00.000-08:00

I've been inconspicuously absent from the blogosphere. Sorry for the lack of posts, but I had been dealing with strange fits of dizziness and nausea. Oddly, they were not accompanied by a fever or any other symptoms. Thankfully, those have passed, but then I got the common cold, bane of all that work and like to do stuff. In addition, I had Christmas stuff to do. Mostly shop, decorate, send out cards, etc. Since I'm sick, it doesn't look like I'll be baking for my neighbors this year. I love making baked goods gift baskets. There's still a chance. Here's to hoping that crossing fingers works.

Anyway, I'll be posting and commenting again shortly. Have a great holiday season everyone!

POLL RESULTS - THE BIBLE & FELONS

2004-12-08T02:19:00.000-08:00

SHOULD FELONS BE ALLOWED TO VOTE?
Yes 11.43%
No 28.57%
Yes, if they've served their time 54.29%
Depends 0%
I don't know 5.71%

Total votes : 35

READ THE BIBLE?
Entirely at least once 19.44%
Entirely and everyday 8.33%
Everyday but not entirely 0%
Bits every now and then 20.83%
Only at church 2.78%
Never 9.72%
I go to church 8.33%
I don't go to church 30.56%

Total votes : 72

THE GIFT OF GIVING - MR. BOB

2004-12-08T01:32:00.000-08:00

The Gift Of Giving started out as an idea from Nassira, but I've decided to write a post, once a week for my current subscribers.

The very first post goes to the very first blog I started following, Mr. Bob's Just A Middle-Aged Guy blog at blog-city. I accidentally stumbled on his blog and never looked back.

A retired cop, injured in the line of duty, Mr. Bob creatively ties his horrific, gratifying, tortured and sometimes amusing experiences from work and home to the world around us... or sometimes not. :) Somtimes he just goes on and on about eBay. Only kidding, Bob.

His easy and accessible writing style welcomes all to agree and disagree, equally, and in doing so, he's developed quite a loyal following. Some recent posts have been:

Mauling Over Legal Questions
Where's My Garbage Truck???
Not Again?

Go check him out, and let him know I sent you. He might give me a doughnut. ;)

WHO'S PROTECTING US NOW?

2004-12-07T16:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the US Coast Guard sent off its second cutter from San Francisco to the Persian Gulf to "protect "high value targets" such as Navy ships, oil tankers and military command vessels." Link

So, who's protecting the homeland?

San Francisco, specifically Oakland, has one of the largest international commercial ports in the US. The Coast Guard was doing a check of every cargo vessel prior to passing under the Golden Gate Bridge. They were undermanned, and that task was too large to begin with, but now we're sending the Coast Guard, in addition to the Reserves, to Iraq?

Most recently, Coast Guard cutters participated in national defense contingency operations in the Vietnam War, in Grenada from 1983-84 and in Haiti in 1994. In Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Coast Guard tactical law enforcement teams were used to help enforce U.N. trade sanctions on Iraq.

This was prior to 9/11, when our world changed. Which also begs the question, why is local law enforcement still underfunded and undermanned, and in some cases, undertrained? (No such word, I know.)

Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog... blog, blog, blog, blog, blog, blog

2004-12-06T14:58:00.000-08:00

I always feel like there is so much to blog about but so little time. I've got a million and one thoughts racing through my tiny head, and I have to get them out before they start eating me alive. I used to unload on friends and family, but with so much inner turmoil and contemplation, I didn't want to impose any longer, which is why I started a blog.

Is the remedy worse than the disease? Now that I've started, I can't stop. Blogging has not only created a writing addiction, but I'm obsessed with reading and I can't stop thinking. I'm constantly reading blogs, books, websites, etc. Sometimes, I feel like I'm going to explode. My friend said I'm on information overload, and I need to step away from the computer, but I said, what about the bookstore? Do I move away from bookstores and newspaper racks? Huh? Answer me?! What then?

Then there are responsibilities. They're imaginary responsibilities, but responsibilities nonetheless. I have to visit all my friend blogs and comment. If I don't do that, I feel I've left them out in the cold without my love for a day. How can they possibly go on? And what about the people that read my blog for 30 seconds? What are they going to think if I have the same post up for more than 24 hours? "What a lazy sack of shit this blogger is," is what they'll think, that's what.

Aaaahhh! *ping* (That was the sound of my brain exploding.)

HALF NAKED BOYS FOR SALE

2004-12-05T15:18:00.000-08:00

Half Naked Boys For Sale
Originally uploaded by Rene.

I went on a quick shopping trip yesterday to get my mom a birthday present. While at the mall, I glanced over and saw these two half-naked guys hanging out in front of Abercrombie.

Of course, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. My husband didn't. He was more like the blurred guy on the right, trying to get out of sightline as fast as he could.

I said, "I'm going to take pictures."
Husband: "What? No..."
Me: "Yeah. It'll be neat."
Husband: "I'll meet you at the car."

My brother tells me they do this every Christmas. His girlfriend told me that last year, they were only wearing boxers.

DON KNOTTS IS DUBYA

2004-12-03T15:52:00.000-08:00

Found this movie courtesy of educational whisper.

CHURCH BOUNCERS

2004-12-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

Nate posted a link to this ad from the United Church of Christ that NBC and CBS are refusing to air, citing their policy against airing commercials that "deal with issues of public controversy."

Wurtzel, who is in charge of broadcast standards at the network, said such issues should be handled by the news department and not in advertising.

"The problem is not that it depicted gays, but that it suggested clearly that there are churches that don't permit a variety of individuals to participate," Wurtzel said. ''If they would make it just a positive message -- 'we're all-inclusive' -- we'd have no problem with that spot."

Decide for yourself.

VINTAGE WRISTWATCH SPOTLIGHT

2004-12-03T09:25:00.000-08:00

Men's Vacheron / LeCoultre 37-Diamond Mystery Dial

I photographed this gorgeous, very rare late 1950's Vacheron & Constantin / Jaeger LeCoultre "Galaxy" model Mystery Dial.

As some of you may know, Vacheron & Constantin and Jaeger LeCoultre are separate companies, but during the fifties, they were under the same corporate umbrella. The 37 diamond Galaxy Mystery Dials from this period are the only LeCoultre wristwatches signed by both factories: "Vacheron & Constantin - LeCoultre Watches, Inc.".

I love shooting products that are in mint condition, but shooting these vintage watches is not like shooting a modern watch. The factory has just put out thousands of modern watches, but some of these watches cannot be replaced. This one, in particular has the original dial, crown, strap, buckle, box and papers are included, so I had to be very, very, very careful.

THEME THURSDAY PHOTO MEME - ANIMAL

2004-12-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

Theme Thursday - "Animal" Submissions

Click Read More to see the photos. Clicking the image will bring up a larger image.

Angry Squirrel
Originally uploaded by Rene.

The squirrel is angry because of this guy.

Diesel on Fence
Originally uploaded by Rene.

THE GIFT OF GIVING

2004-12-01T13:10:00.000-08:00

I've got a few faithful email subscribers to my blog now, but in honor of Chrismahannakwanza, I thought it would be interesting to give every 10th person to subscribe to my blog a full post about their blog. You can subscribe with the form at the right.

I got this idea from Nassira, though this is a variation.

Oh, and PS, for friends and family visiting, the link to my Amazon Wishlist is in the righthand bar. I've already hinted to my brother that I need a new blender, so get me something else! Hee hee.

E-COMMERCE SNAFU IMPERILS GLOBAL FRUITCAKE SUPPLY

2004-12-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

From Jim Louderback at Ziff Davis

I can't believe the major networks aren't all over this. We've got the exclusive details on how a poorly worded systems spec threatens timely delivery of the world's best fruitcake. This story has it all--an obscure order of monks, gross application development negligence and a generous dollop of everyone's favorite holiday treat. Will it end happily? Will those fruitcakes ever make it off of the island of misfit sweets? Read our story for the sad yet oddly cloying details.

From the story

The monks at this abbey are known around the world for making the best fruitcake on the planet. They sell the fruitcakes, along with a few other products, to support the abbey and their charitable activities.

SCIENCE ON TRIAL... AGAIN

2004-12-01T11:54:00.000-08:00

The Dover, PA. school board has ordered biology teachers to teach the theory of "intelligent design" and make students aware of problems and gaps in Darwin's theory of evolution. Being a Christian and an evolutionist, I do not feel the two are mutually exclusive. It is like going to the doctor when you're sick, but praying that you get well. I thank God for giving us scientists.

However, I have a problem with the way scientific theories are taught in schools, primarily in high schools. Darwin's theory of evolution, is a theory, just like the theory of relativity, what we know about stars, planets and black holes, etc. These theories change over time, as Stephen Hawking will admit, but it is taught as if it is a scientific law in high schools. When you get to college, the professors are more thorough in their teaching.

One of the reasons it is still a theory is because credible atheists in the scientific community recognize that there are problems in the theory. However, evolution is taught without examining the gaps and problems that keep it a theory. In order to become law, one of the criteria is that the theory must demonstrate universality, meaning that the theory is not conditional on circumstances or environment. As yet, there are still many questions in the scientific community regarding the universality of Darwin's theory. However, it is a theory because there is a substantial amount of evidence to support Darwin's hypothesis.

That does not mean that this idea of "intelligent design" or creationism should be taught as an alternative in biology class. Creationism is not a science and therefore should not be taught in a science class. Creationism and different religions should be taught in schools because they are an integral part of our culture, but teach it either in a religious studies class or a liberal arts class, like history or literature. Nearly all western college students majoring in English Literature are required to read the Bible as part of their studies.

The science of intelligent design is, simply put, junk science

The theory of intelligent design (ID) holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause rather than an undirected process such as natural selection.

Clearly, this is not objective. They have stated in black and white that they are specifically looking for evidence to support intelligent design. The scientific method is supposed to be objective. They are not supposed to be spurred on by logical, religious or social necessity.

In college, I heard physics professors state that through their study of science, they have come to believe that the universe is too complex to have been created by chance. The universe is in such perfect balance that if anything were off by even a trillionth of a fraction, then the entire universe would cease to exist. These were not Christian physicists, however. They were decidedly agnostic. They also would not subscribe to the ID folks' ideas of science, since their revelations came from an objective study of science, not caring whether or not it proved or disproved any religious, social or cultural belief.

PAYPAL ALTERNATIVE

2004-12-01T02:15:00.000-08:00

It is very unfortunate that the customer service and customer policies at PayPal aren't better because it is a truly valuable and convenient service idea. However, if you're with them long enough, you'll eventually run into a major snag. Most of my friends were tried and true PayPal believers, and then it happens, but I think one of the things that bothers me most is that, through (now) illegally misleading wording in their user agreement, the general public is lulled into thinking that PayPal is just like a credit card or merchant account, so they don't read the fine print.

Back to alternatives. Yisroel (Izzy) Goodman, who is a semi-professional skeptic that writes occassionally for AuctionBytes, wrote an article on his website reviewing the different payment services available.

Izzy claims that

1) I am not an employee of, consultant of or have any connection to any payment service except as a customer or former customer.

2) I personally have never had any charge backs from any payment service and my account has never been restricted. My personal experiences with payment services, (including the ones I don't recommend such as Paypal, Paydirect and Billpoint) have been good.

He states that buyers and sellers should use PayPal with "extreme caution", but he does recommend ValidCash.com, which is a service owned by Checkfree.com, the bill pay service.

I think the CheckFree system is as safe as it can be. Since they have the name, address, bank account, driver's license and social security number of the seller, I would think this would minimize buyer risk and prevent scamming sellers from using the service.

However, keep in mind that he himself has not personally used it. I have a friend signing up for it in order to avoid PayPal, so I'll let you know how it goes.

PayPal - The "Pal" You Pay

PAYPAL CAUGHT ON TAPE!

2004-12-01T01:03:00.000-08:00

It isn't a PR nightmare for PayPal just yet, but I'm hoping it will be. Marc Perkel recorded a conversation he had with PayPal. The link is below. He had his account frozen by PayPal, with $300 still in it, so he called PayPal to wonder what the hell happened. First of all, for those of you unfamiliar with PayPal, it is not a credit card, it is more like a debit card attached to either a bank account or a credit card for funds. Any money you have on your PayPal card is your actual money.

Marc apparently withdrew about $300 from his PayPal account one day, and the next day, PayPal reversed the transaction and closed his account, leaving him unable to access the $300. PayPal states that they closed his account because he was selling mature material, which violates their user agreement. Marc disagrees.

He said that he has over 30 websites with the PayPal logo, and none of them are pornographic. One is an adult dating site, and specifically, the website that PP states was objectionable, had nothing adult on it, according to Mark, but that's neither here nor there. The issue is that their list of what is a violation of their agreement is so long, it's laughable. Some of the items are "items deemed fraudulent", which PP decides, even though they do not have every single, or probably even one, collectibles/jewelry/antique expert on staff, lists, signed items (autographs), alcohol and adult material, and PP decides what is "adult" material.

Sites have had their accounts closed because they have pictures of women in nurses uniforms posing provocatively but with absolutely no nudity. Marc has PayPal on tape stating that they can close anyone's account for any reason, whatsoever.

As a company, I can see that they reserve the right not to be associated with certain products or services, even if they don't give customers clear guidelines to follow, but Mark's real issue is not that PP closed his account. His beef is that PP is now holding his money for 180 days, or 6 months.

This is NOT an isolated incident.

And if you think that it's not so bad because PP is linked to your credit card, keep in mind that you're paying interest on that credit card charge, PP DOES NOT pay you interest for the 6 months they hold your money and you are limited to $1000 for the life of your PayPal account when linked to a credit card and not a bank account.

Friend #1 - Had their PP account closed, with an undisclosed amount of money still in the account, because a relative of theirs owed PayPal money. PayPal will not release the funds, even after 180 days, until said relative or Friend #1 pays PP. When friend complained that no bank would ever hold someone's money because of another peron's debt, PP stated that they are not a bank and therefore not regulated by or subject to banking laws.

Friend #2 - Had their PP account closed with $800 in the account because someone else was "linked" to their PP account. When trying to discover who this mysterious other person was, PP would not release their name, but stated that Friend #2's funds would not be released until either Friend #2 or mysterious other person cleared up $X with PP.

Sounds like extortion to me.

Here are some tidbits from the conversation.

PP: You can request a refund of those transactions. you'd have to do that through a secure webform...

MP: The people who sent me the money, can get the money back, is that right?

PP: Yes, they'd have to submit a buyer complaint... Or you can submit a secure webform through your PayPal account and request that we refund the buyers that paid you...

MP: Oh, so I can refund the money to them in my limited status, is that what you're saying?

PP: You'd actually have to submit an email to us in order to have that done.... Which is it? The buyer has to submit a complaint or the seller has to submit an email or both?

MP: Ok, so well, why don't you initiate that for the last 2 transactions.

PP: You'd have to submit that through a secure webform.

MP: Ok, and you're telling me that if I submit that, or if the customer who sent me the money, asked for a refund, that you will refund the money?

PP: They would actually have to submit a buyer complaint because we don't actually refund anything, unless you request that through our secure website. Hmm... circular logic.

MP: I see. I don't. But if I submit that, you will give them their money back?

PP: Yes. Uh huh... Bullshit. Talk to anyone that has submitted one of these buyer complaints when the seller's account has been closed, and they'll tell you that they've tried over 10 and 20 times via numerous vehicles and gotten nowhere, for 6 months or longer.

MP: I don't understand this 180 day thing. You can arbitrarily close an account because you don't like what I have to say in my website and keep my money for 180 days. Is that what you're saying you can do?

PP: Yes sir.

MP: What gives you the right to do that?

PP: The user agreement that you agreed to.

MP: So you're saying that, according to your user agreement, the people who sign up with PayPal agree to, that they agree to, that for any reason at all, that you want to close somebody's account, that without any type of due process or anything, you can just grab their money and keep it for 180 days. Is that what you're saying that PP (crosstalk)

PP: PayPal can hold your funds for 180 days, if your account becomes limited. And for any reason, your account becomes limited to a state where there are no appeals, they can hold your funds for 180 days. That is correct sir. She tries to imply that there is some sort of appeals process, but there isn't.

You have to listen to the entire recording. PP states that they hold the money for 180 days to protect themselves from any chargebacks, but he corners them on that issue, too.

In short, I will never ever do business with PP, and I strongly suggest you follow suit, until they are regulated, either like credit card companies or like a bank. They can't have their cake and eat it too. Furthermore, if you have had an experience with PP that smells illegal, I would urge you to talk to an attorney to see if anyting can be done to right the wrong.

LINKS
More PayPal horror stories
Marc Perkel's Taped Phone Conversation with PayPal - You can save this file on your hard drive or your web server for posterity by right-clicking it and doing a "Save Target As".
Original Discussion Thread

ZERO TOLERANCE MANIA

2004-11-29T13:09:00.001-08:00

The US was stripped of its 1600 relay gold from the 2003 World Championships. Calvin Harrison was found guilty of his second doping violation. His first doping violation was 10 years ago, during the 1993 US junior indoor championships. He tested positive for pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in over-the-counter medicines like Sudafed.

The authors of a book on performance-enhancing drugs stated that

Another important issue... is how athletes may also inadvertently use a drug that is banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Those drugs are usually central nervous system stimulants, pseudoephedrine hydrochloride (found in Robitussin-PE) and phenylpropanolamine hydrochloride (found in Triaminic Cold Tablets and weight control suppressants).

"Athletes often use these over-the-counter drugs for health reasons, unaware of the potential threat to their competitive status," said co-author Dr. John DiGregorio, professor of Pharmacology and Medicine, Allegheny.

Caffeine used by competitive athletes is considered illegal if the amount measured in the urine is greater then 12 micrograms/ML (about six to eight cups of coffee). "It is banned," Dr. DiGregorio noted, "because it can increase muscle contraction, improve performance, and increase the time to fatigue or exhaustion during prolonged moderate or intense exercise."

So, in addition to not being able to use an inhaler for asthma, you cannot take anything for your allergies or cold or flu or drink too much coffee if you want to be an athlete, because they could be "performance-enhancing" drugs. Alright, the coffee part I can uderstand, and I understand that psuedoephedrine can be abused, just like any drug, but most of the time, psuedoephedrine "abusers" are making meth, which would be anything but performance-enhancing. Not to mention, he was just a kid when he had his first "doping" violation. He probably just got sick and his mom gave him some OTC medicine.

This time, they found modafinil, a mild stimulant, in Harrison's system. Harrison contended that modafinil is not specifically mentioned as a banned substance, but he did not appeal the ruling before the deadline, so now there are new relay champions. Modifinil is not an anabolic steroid like you think of when you think of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Lyle Alzado. Most experts do not believe that modifinil has any performance-enhancing capabilities, unlike the better known steroids. It would be like buying one of those protein shakes and hoping that it will promote faster muscle growth, but there's no proof that it will actually help.

I fully expect multi-vitamins to either make the list, or be grounds for medal stripping in the near future because they're also performance-enhancing drugs.

Since we're talking about zero-tolerance policies, I'll tell you about my personal experience. One of the two boys in this picture, was getting beaten up at school by a bully. We have always taught him to never start a fight, but if he is in physical danger, he should defend himself. Well, he fought back, and he was suspended.

The guidance counselor stated that the boy that was beating him up was a bully and had a history of beating up other kids. He also said that it was clear that our boy didn't start the fight and that he was only defending himself, but the zero-tolerance policy mandates that both boys be suspended.

Granted, the bully was suspended for a week and our boy was only suspended for a day, but he should not have been suspended AT ALL. Why should he bear a punishment for doing something that any sane individual would have done? If he were an adult, would he have been convicted of self-defense and jailed, even for one day, or would the city consider fining him for defending himself? This is beyond ridiculous, which explains why zero-tolerance criticisms are strongly bi-partisan.

MORE ZERO-TOLERANCE = ZERO-INTELLIGENCE
Civil Rights Groups Fight Eviction of Battered Women Under "Zero Tolerance" Housing Policy

A Colorado Springs, Colo., school district says it did the right thing when it suspended 6-year-old Seamus Morris under the school's zero-tolerance drug policy. The drug? Lemon drops, and boys suspended for playing with water guns.

ACLU Sues Michigan School for Suspending Honor Student Who Privately Criticized Tardiness Policy. Student was suspended for ten days for committing a "verbal assault" because he allegedly assaulted "the dignity of a person."

11-year old boy's "Home Alone" drawings causes call from school to police, then prosecuting attorney who filed a family services petition.

2004-11-26T22:19:00.000-08:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING - FROM THE COLONIES

2004-11-26T17:12:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. For those from the land that resents Thanksgiving, have some turkey and celebrate anyway! Your currency is kicking our ass.

My husband and I have been recuperating from yesterday, pretty much all day. This is what my "holiday" looked like.

Thanksgiving Day

Get up at 9 AM.
Send hubby to store.
Yard work and clean house until about 4 PM.
Start cooking (even though did some cooking previous evening)
Cook until 8 PM
Menu
Turkey
Ham
Stuffing (Stove Top)
Homemade cranberry jelly (made with fresh cranberries)
Real mashed potatoes (ie not out of a box)
Green bean casserole with homemade cream of mushroom soup (none of that canned crap, green beans or soup)
Rice
Homemade cornbread (with cornmeal with germ, not out of a box)
Bealieau Vineyard Cabernet
and... kimchee (not my choice).
My brother's girlfriend also made a delicious pumpkin cheesecake. Ahhh... it was so creamy and smooth. I have to get the recipe.

It turns out my brother had been playing online (no money betting) Texas Holdem Poker all day while his girlfriend Karaoke'd on their PS2 Eye Toy. He says he's in first place and wants to try to get into the World Series of Poker. I wish him the best, but I hope he doesn't lose his shirt. His girlfriend thinks it's just a phase. We'll see.

I woke up this morning oh so late. It was almost not morning. I had a sore back and feet and a mess in the kitchen. We've been working "around" the mess. I watched a little TV, played a little Age of Empires and tried calling a friend of mine to see how she's doing, but I had to leave a message. I also tried taking some photos for a project, but they all turned out looking like doggy doo. If I were shooting doggy doo, that wouldn't be a problem.

I'm actually a little concerned about my friend. She was supposed to be getting married tomorrow, but her fiancee was killed in a car crash on Labor Day weekend. She seems to be doing much better now, but I want to make sure she's okay. I hope she calls back.

OOPS! IE DID IT AGAIN

2004-11-23T18:23:00.000-08:00

A variant of the MyDoom virus has hit a web browser near you. The virus writers hacked into the servers of a German ad serving and email marketing company, enabling them to infect computers via web banner ads.

During a 12-hour window over the weekend, hackers broke into a load balancing server that handles ad deliveries for Germany's Falk eSolutions and successfully loaded exploit code on banner advertising served on hundreds of Web sites.

The exploit (Bofra/IFrame) takes advantage of an IE vulnerability reported to MS earlier this month. The article goes on to say that

The flaw, which does not affect IE users running Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), has not yet been patched.

Well, now that puts the consumer in quite a bind, doesn't it? I posted my problems with SP2 earlier.

Falk said that under 2 percent of users were affected by the virus.

LENSDAY - "FUNNY"

2004-11-23T14:48:00.000-08:00

Funny Music
Originally uploaded by Rene.

Lensday - "Funny" submission

From the music to a Chopin Etude. The entire text reads, "Revised and fingered by Arthur Friedheim".

WANNA GET LUCKY? HEAD TO THE AIRPORT

2004-11-23T11:05:00.000-08:00

Since mid-September, the TSA has increased pat-downs and body searches of female passengers. The increased security is in response to two Russian planes that were destroyed by a terrorist attack. Russian officials believe that the act was carried out by two women with non-metallic explosives, but they do not know how the explosives got on the plane.

Female passengers have complained that the searches are humiliating. Women have been patted down, and then asked to remove their shirts, in plain view of the other passengers waiting to pass the security checkpoint. Airport security will then run their hands under the bra, pat down the groin area, etc.

Patti LuPone, the singer and actress, recalled, she was instructed to remove articles of clothing. "I took off my belt; I took off my clogs; I took off my leather jacket," she said. "But when the screener said, 'Now take off your shirt,' I hesitated. I said, 'But I'll be exposed.' " When she persisted in her complaints, she said, she was barred from her flight.

One woman referred to it as a public breast exam.

Women in the airline industry state that the numbers of complaints reported to the TSA reflect severe underreporting of the problem.

"Routinely, my breasts are being cupped, my behind is being felt," Ms. Chekowsky said. "And I feel I can't fight it. If I were to say anything, I picture myself being shipped off to Guantánamo."...

Most of the women interviewed said they did not make formal complaints, most saying that they assumed it would be futile to do so. Ms. Maurer said she and some other women she had spoken to are wary of complaining in writing, both because of the presumed futility and from fear of being singled out when they travel in the future.

"There is this thing about putting your name out there," she said. "Am I going to end up on some kind of list?"

I believe in equality for women in all aspects of life, but haven't these people heard of getting a room? If they asked a hot guy to take off his pants at the security checkpoint, yes, I may want to look, but I could understand if they got a room or a privacy screen and I had to wait. Now I have to lose weight before I hit the airport so people aren't subjected to my jelly roll.

If you want to report a problem, you can contact the TSA online, via email (TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov) or toll-free at (866) 289-9673.

COLLEGE BALLS

2004-11-21T16:17:00.000-08:00

Cal crushed Stanford in the Big Game yesterday, 41-6. Woohoo! Cal gets to keep The Axe for the third consecutive year. Ahhh... college. It was the best time of my life. I think most people have fond memories of college.

When my husband attended university in Kansas, one of the colleges they competed against in the area was a Christian college,Friends University of Central Kansas.

Being the smart ass that he is, he and his friends would chant, "Go F.U.C.K! Go F.U.C.K!" The alternate chants were "F.U.! F.U.!" and "I'm going to F.U.!"

They've now modified their name to just Friends University. Not nearly as interesting.

For
Unlawful
Carnal
Knowledge
in case you didn't know or don't like Van Halen.

DID YOU KNOW...

2004-11-18T23:42:00.000-08:00

Dr. Robert Atkins, guru of the protein-rich Atkins diet, was technically obese when he died. According to his death certificate, he was 6 feet tall and 258 pounds at the time of his death. Dr. Atkins fell into a coma and died after he suffered a head injury from a fall outside his New York clinic.

His widow and other proponents of the Atkins diet claim that he weighed 195 pounds upon entering the hospital, but due to fluid retention during his coma, he gained the additional weight while in the hospital. They supported their claim with hospital records that they turned over to USA Today, indicating that Atkins did indeed weigh 195 pounds upon admission.

In April 2002, Dr. Atkins suffered a heart attack. Atkins claimed that the cardiac arrest was due to a heart infection he had suffered from for a few years and that it was unrelated to his diet.

What Does Research Show?

A recent study found that an Atkins diet improved cholesterol and triglycerides and was better at achieving weight loss at six months than a conventional low-fat diet. The study went on to show, however, that at one year, the benefits of the Atkins diet had dissipated, and the diet was no more effective than a conventional low-fat diet for weight loss. Also, this study did not address some important health risks associated with the diet.

Keep in mind that the healthiest weight-loss goals are for the long term (generally defined as one year or longer). While just about any calorie-restrictive diet can work to quickly get you into a smaller size, long-term weight loss is rarely achieved this way. And there still hasn’t been a study demonstrating that low carbohydrate/high protein diets are more effective than a low-calorie diet for long-term weight loss.

There has not been a definitive long-term study on the health effects of the Atkins diet. I've had friends drop weight dramatically, but some of them have had their bad cholesterol go up, even though their overall cholesterol came down. Others have complained about fatigue.

Read more about Atkins' death.
Urban Legends:Death of a Diet Doctor (Snopes)
Detroit News Health

THEME THURSDAY - "EVERYDAY THINGS"

2004-11-18T23:12:00.000-08:00

Colored Pencils
Originally uploaded by Rene.

Theme Thursday - "Everyday Things" Submission

I ran across this box of colored pencils when trying to find something to photograph for today's photo meme.

EMAIL, WISHLIST & OTHER NEWS

2004-11-17T11:38:00.000-08:00

A blogger I visit regularly just got a nice gift from a reader, so being that my husband just broke our blender and we need some other kitchen appliances, I've put a link to my Amazon Wishlist in the right column. What the hell. I might get lucky.

On the email front, I got my first email subscriber the other day! Sorry to single you out, but you're kind of... singular at the moment. I made him confirm twice, just to be sure.

I write my blog for me, primarily, but it's nice to know that other people find it interesting. For those that don't want to visit everyday but still want to read my blog, you can sign up, at right, to receive my posts in your email inbox, or click this link.

In other news, I just found out that my Uncle Sam (yes, he's really my uncle and his name is Sam) has been battling stomach cancer for the past year and half. He has had 70% of his stomach removed, and he expects to be in treatment for another 3 and a half years. Initially, they didn't give him a very good chance for survival. After his first operations, he was taken to the ICU instead of recovery.

His treatments make him tired, and he also can't eat much, but he said that eating a lot was never good for him anyway. He says he feels fine, and he sounds good. I think he expects to make a full recovery.

When I found out he had cancer, I phoned my father and cousin, only to discover that I was the only one that didn't know. Somehow, I've become a "connected" Robinson Crusoe. I've got email. I've got a phone. Why wasn't I told?

The only other person I can think of that probably doesn't know is my Uncle Tom because he doesn't have email and whatnot. That's right. I have an Uncle Sam and an Uncle Tom. I've got the makings for my own comic strip, but who am I kidding? He probably knew.

PHOTO FRIDAY

2004-11-17T02:27:00.000-08:00

Photo Friday - "Family" Submission

Brothers
Originally uploaded by Rene.

Click on the image to view a larger image.

Sorry. This keeps getting re-posted because I'm never sure how much to write about my photos, and I'm trying out Flickr. The resolution I was getting with Blogger was just bad.

Almost all of these photo memes require me to take new photos because I just don't have very many, and I certainly don't have many photos of family. Since these guys are the most photogenic in our family, I had to get them to hurry up and finish their homework before dinner so I could get the shot.

These are my little cousins. They're normally very sweet albeit rambunctious. They always fool around when they're having their picture taken, but kneeling on the floor was apparently pretty uncomfortable, so they complained and were a little more cooperative, in order to get it over with.

LETTER OF CONGRATULATIONS FROM BOB JONES TO BUSH

2004-11-15T18:51:00.000-08:00

They've pulled this letter off the website, but Google has it cached. In case you were wondering, they say that Bush has not responded to the letter.

November 3, 2004

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:
The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular votes of any president in America's history. Congratulations!
In your re-election, God has graciously granted America—though she doesn't deserve it—a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.

Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you.

Had your opponent won, I would have still given thanks, because the Bible says I must (I Thessalonians 5:18). It would have been hard, but because the Lord lifts up whom He will and pulls down whom He will, I would have done it. It is easy to rejoice today, because Christ has allowed you to be His servant in this nation for another presidential term. Undoubtedly, you will have opportunity to appoint many conservative judges and exercise forceful leadership with the Congress in passing legislation that is defined by biblical norm regarding the family, sexuality, sanctity of life, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and limited government. You have four years—a brief time only—to leave an imprint for righteousness upon this nation that brings with it the blessings of Almighty God.

Christ said, “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my father honour” (John 12:26).

The student body, faculty, and staff at Bob Jones University commit ourselves to pray for you—that you would do right and honor the Savior. Pull out all the stops and make a difference. If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them. Conservative Americans would love to see one president who doesn't care whether he is liked, but cares infinitely that he does right.

Best wishes.

Sincerely your friend,

Bob Jones IIIPresident
BJIII:lw

PS: A few moments ago I read this letter to the students in Chapel. They applauded loudly their approval.
When I told them that Tom Daschle was no longer the minority leader of the Senate, they cheered again.
On occasion, Christians have not agreed with things you said during your first term. Nonetheless, we could not be more thankful that God has given you four more years to serve Him in the White House, never taking off your Christian faith and laying it aside as a man takes off a jacket, but living, speaking, and making decisions as one who knows the Bible to be eternally true.

A note on Bob Jones University. When I was younger, I had a pastor from BJU. He was a white southern male. Really, one of the nicest and most generous men I knew. He gave up much of his own financial comfort in order to give back to our non-white church. I wouldn't go so far as to say that he lived in poverty, but by any standard, he was poor. One thing about him really bothered me, though. He taught, and he said that Bob Jones University taught, that interracial marriage was a sin against God. As a sin against God, it would not be recognized as a true marriage by God.

He pointed to numerous excerpts in the Bible when God commanded the Israelites not to marry people of other nationalities, God's commands to smite certain peoples, etc. Interracial marriage as sin, along with women not being permitted to speak in church, pray out loud in church, Christians listening to non-classical radio or hymnals (even modern Christian hymnals) and dancing were all taught to be sinful.

Were these the authorized teachings of BJU? He claimed they were. He was very proud to have graduated from BJU. I don't know if they still teach that or if they, like the Mormons, just don't believe that anymore.

ONE OF THE MANY REASONS I DON'T GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE

2004-11-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

This Week on ABC
Aired November 7, 2004

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Dr. Dobson, you also have a problem with the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy. I want to show something that was reported in "The Daily Oklahoman" during the campaign. In the "Daily Oklahoman," it quoted you saying, "Patrick Leahy is a God's people hater. I don't know if he hates God, but he hates God's people." Now, Dr. Dobson, that doesn't sound like a particularly Christian thing to say. Do you think you owe Senator Leahy an apology?

DR JAMES DOBSON: George, you think you ought to lecture me on what a Christian is all about? You know, I think -I think I'll stand by the things I have said. Patrick Leahy has been in opposition to most of the things that I believe. He is the one that took the reference to God out of the oath.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But Dr. Dobson, excuse me for a second. You use the word hate. You said that he's a "God's people hater." How do you back that up?

DR JAMES DOBSON: Well, there's been an awful lot of hate expressed in this election. And most of it has been aimed at those who hold to conservative Christian views. He is certainly not the only one to take a position like that. But I think that that is -that's where he's coming from. He has certainly opposed most of the things that conservative Christians stand for.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apology?

DR JAMES DOBSON: No apology.

I don't like church in my government or politics in my church. I used to have tremendous respect for James Dobson, but Dobson puts a LOT of politics in his sermons, and I find it unbearable. In fact, he's become the poster boy for the political Religious Right, and the perception in Washington is "that no one helped Bush win more than Dr. James Dobson." Bush even phoned Dobson personally to thank him for his support.

The Bloke in the Outer wrote a great post on the difference between Civil Religion and the Christian Church. He writes that "There is a real danger of the Church confusing the building of the nation with the building of the kingdom."

Maybe Stephanopolous doesn't know as much about Christ's teachings as Dobson, which would mean that Dobson should not have reacted to Stephanopolous' attack on his godliness (for lack of a better word) with condescension and self-righteousness. Perhaps Dobson does need a lecture.

Dobson's only human, and we all make mistakes, but for the record, Stephanopoulos' father serves as a Greek Orthodox priest, and Stephanopoulos received his Masters in Theology at Balliol College, Oxford University, England, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

"Christ would not vote for Barack Obama, because Barack Obama has voted to behave in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved."

"It's about time we all faced up to the truth. If we accept the radical homosexual agenda, be it in the military or in marriage or in other areas of our lives, we are utterly destroying the concept of family."

Both quotes are from Alan Keyes during his Senate race against Barack Obama, another proclaimed Christian.

SCOTT PETERSON - GUILTY

2004-11-12T22:58:00.000-08:00

After 6 hours of deliberation, Scott Peterson was found guilty of first degree murder for Laci Peterson and second degree murder for their son, Connor.

The difference between Scott Peterson and OJ? I think it was the teeth. Fix the gap, beat the rap.

Read the story

AMAZONIAN MOVIES

2004-11-12T17:03:00.000-08:00

I love Amazon the way I love Wal-Mart and Costco. Even with your Barnes & Noble discount card and free shipping, you can't beat the deals at Amazon.

There are some books I've been wanting to get, so I cruise over to Amazon to see what's for sale. On the home page, there is a link to a movie, starring Minnie Driver, called Portrait. Curious, I click it. I watch it. I am amazed at how bad it is.

In this comic Hollywood fable, an ugly duckling turns out to be as pretty as a picture. Minnie Driver stars as a narcissistic corporate honcho who learns a lesson--the hard way, of course--about the importance of what lies beneath.

This Madison & Vine concoction is silly, but not in a good way. (See DodgeBall) In what appears to be an attempt to emulate the cult status BMW Films, Amazon tries to hawk $200 purses and skirts with an artless re-make of a fairy tale.

Sell me stuff on the show. We're all used to it by now, but make me want it. Most of all, I have to like the show. Women want shoes after watching Sex and the City. Want, like, want, like. They go hand-in-hand. You can sell more products when viewers don't feel the need to gouge out their own eyes after an episode.

VOTER FRAUD UNSUBSTANTIATED - NYTIMES

2004-11-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

The New York Times wrote an article stating that the theories of voter fraud were unsubstantiated. Most of the evidentiary anomalies are just anomalies. Some heavily Democratic precincts in Florida have been voting Republican for years, according to the NYTimes.

Most of the registered party v. actual voting pattern evidence is circumstantial, even if the precinct hadn't been voting Republican for years. Voters could have changed their mind and decided they wanted Bush instead.

Something concerning however, is that there was a precinct in Ohio

where an electronic voting machine malfunctioned in one precinct and allotted some 4,000 votes to President Bush, kicking off its own flurry of Web speculation. That particular problem was unusual and remains unexplained, but it was caught and corrected, Mr. Damschroder said.
New York Times

Reaction from the Kerry campaign?

"I'd give my right arm for Internet rumors of a stolen election to be true," said David Wade, a spokesman for the Kerry campaign, "but blogging it doesn't make it so. We can change the future; we can't rewrite the past."
New York Times

But, where there's smoke there's fire, right? Or is a cigar just a cigar? Mainstream media just bashing bloggers? Why are the voting systems Windows (*cough* hacker-central!) based? Why are we so anxious to get the results the day of the election? The President-Elect doesn't take office until January. Instant gratification.

KEEPING UP WITH THE PHONESES

2004-11-10T17:57:00.000-08:00

Is it just me, or are cell phones getting ridiculously complicated? PCMag is running an article, New From Nokia, highlighting some of Nokia's new phones exhibited at a show for potential investors in New York.

They were hawking phones so big, they "could double as a paving stone or a house brick," and they had a batch of kiddie phones that let kids play force-feedback games and beam lighted messages across the room. Yes, let's innundate our children with more video games. What ever happened to reading a good book?

This takes the cake.

The Achilles heel of Nokia's 6620 and 7610 smartphones is their lack of a keyboard. Nokia aims to solve that problem with a folding Bluetooth keyboard, similar to the ones you can buy for PDAs.

Hmmm... a keyboard for my phone. Okay. Whatever.

It slices, it dices and wipes your ass all at the same time!

ANGRY BLUE-STATER

2004-11-09T16:32:00.000-08:00

If profanity offends you or you don't want to read an angry but hilarious rant, don't click this link. Jumperless had the link in her blog, along with some others that are pretty good, too.

I was trying to remain optimistic. A president's second term is unpredictable. Bush won with 51% of the vote. Since 48% of Americans didn't vote for Bush, and he stated that he wanted the divisiveness to end, I hoped he might be a more moderate president this time around. Maybe he's really not such a bad guy.

Then Rove announces that President Bush will pursue a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage. (When did campaign managers start making policy announcements?) Well, pursuing an amendment to restrict the rights of US citizens, along with supporting Clarence Thomas for the Chief Justice seat told me that he's probably going to be more conservative than ever.

How does a country come together when some people believe that abortion is murder and gay marriage marks the continued deterioration of societal values, and the other side sees an unnecessary war as murder for profit and the banning of gay marriage as a violation of basic civil liberties?

Needless to say, I'm unhappy, but I'm not ready to pack up for America Jr. and probate over America's greatness to the "moral" majority. Assuming that there wasn't any tampering with the electronic voting machines, I'll accept that George W. Bush was elected for a second term. I'll even accept that he won the popular vote, but he does not represent my beliefs or convictions.

THEME THURSDAY - "WINDOW"

2004-11-09T14:04:00.000-08:00

Theme Thursday - "Window" Submission

Since the eyes are the windows to the soul, I figured this would work.

CHRISTIANS, CHRISTIANITY AND THE BIBLE

2004-11-06T17:28:00.000-08:00

There have been A LOT of blogs about the "mandate" that Bush received in his re-election and how we define morality in the US now. It got me thinking about Christians and Christianity in the US. I grew up a Calvinist Fundamentalist Evangelical. Basically, pre-destination, taking the Bible literally and a lot of singing. My grandfather was a minister, my uncle's a minister and my father was an elder in the church, so as you might imagine, I spent A LOT of time in church, but to be fair, when I was younger, it was because I wanted to be there.

The Bible, by all Christian sects, is considered the Word of God (which I am personally having some doubts about, but more on that later), and is therefore the absolute written guide to understanding God and His Will. This does not include Mormonism. Mormons are not considered Christians by Baptists, Presbyterians, etc., and I believe that Mormons do not believe that the others will reach heaven either, but I don't know for certain.

Yet, I wonder how many people that claim to be Christians read the Bible. I don't expect them to be experts on the Bible, but how many parishioners have cracked it open outside of church to understand the basis of their religious beliefs.

Would their attitudes toward homosexuals, God in politics or anything else change if they read the Bible, assuming that they haven't? Would they become harsher? I don't know, but I'm curious because I know a lot of people that don't go to church that know the Bible better than people that do go to church, so like any good blogger, I started a poll to the right.

P.S. I ended the Bin Laden video poll because there was little interest after the election. The results are:

What's your opinion on the Bin Laden tape?
We will be attacked before the election
0%
Video helps Bush
33.33%
Video helps Kerry
0%
I don't know
66.67%
Total votes : 6

PHOTO FRIDAY

2004-11-06T01:08:00.000-08:00

Photo Friday - Radiant Submission

The candles on my fireplace mantle.

HILLARY

2004-11-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

I ran across Princess Girly Girl's Hillary Clinton blog on Blog Explosion and wanted to comment, but in a very Kerry-like moment, I ran out of space, so I've posted it here.

If you visit her blog from my blog, please be polite, even if you disagree!

I don't normally respond to blogs I don't agree with because it seems that dissident commenters either flagrantly, or unwillingly, end up in a pissing match. Being two women, I think there's a higher probability that we can have a rational discussion. :) No offense guys, but there's something about that Y chromosome that makes you a little nutty at times. No pun intended.

There are a lot of strong women on both sides of the "Should Hillary have left Bill" question. Neither is right or wrong, in my opinion. Personally, I would have probably left after the first 2, but I don't know what situation they were in with their child. For all BC's familial faults, he clearly loves Chelsea, so I'm going to put that aside for now.

As far as Hillary riding Bill's coattails, I think they each rode the other's "coattails" from time to time. Nearly all professional couples do it, our current president has done a lot of it, and everyone in business does it. If they're successful, they do it well because it really boils down to someone's ability to network.

In addition, everyone that makes it into the White House is dirty in some way. EVERYONE. It takes a lot of money to get to the White House, and there are a lot of compromises you have to make along the way. Equally, it's unfortunate that it's up to the American public to decipher truth from sensationalism, and then the public has to decipher the response. How much is spin, how much is truth, is there truth in the spin but they need to spin the truth so the media will run the story longer?

Not to mention, every politician is just a person. Complicated, tortured and egotistical. If everyone were put under a microscope in the same way, I think most people would run for cover. Politicians make mistakes and they do bad things. You just have to weigh the individual team's pros and cons, and even Nixon, for all his faults, was admirable to an extent (see below).

So what's worse. "No, I did not get a hummer in the Oval Office," or "Hussein is responsible for 9/11 or he has WMDs or it's for Iraqui freedom."

General Clarke stated that on 9/12, he visited the Pentagon and a group of generals told him to come inside their office because they wanted to tell him a joke.
Clarke: We don't have time to be telling jokes.
Generals: You'll want to hear this one because it's a good one.
They go inside an office and close the door.

Generals: If Sadaam Hussein didn't attack us, he's going to wish he had. The word has come down that we're going to get him for it.

Clarke: That's not very funny.
They agreed.

PET PEEVES

2004-11-04T22:12:00.000-08:00

Mine...

bad grammar
poor spelling
not turning off the lights when you leave a room
squeezing the toothpaste tube in the middle

What are yours?

English was born in the UK, nurtured in India, and killed in the US.

I'm guilty!

PIAGET - 101 MOVEMENT

2004-11-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

Mr. Bob posted something about his dad's collection of clocks, which inspired me to start posting some of the watches in my husband's collection. Starting today, about once a week, I'll be posting photos of watches that we have, or have had, in our possession that are particularly unique or beautiful.

This is a lady's circa 1950s Piaget with an 18K solid white gold band and case, Caliber 101 movement (the smallest mechanical watch movement in the world, made by Jaeger LeCoultre) and 16 diamonds around the dial case. Queen Elizabeth wore a Cal 101 movement during her coronation ceremony in 1952.

Piaget-stamped Cal 101 movement, made by Jaeger LeCoultre. This is the smallest mechanical watch movement in the world, measuring 4.85×14mm with a height of just 3.44mm. It is comprised of over 90 individual parts and 17 jewels.

THEME THURSDAY - "SHOWCASE 2004"

2004-11-03T23:16:00.001-08:00

Theme Thursday - "Showcase 2004"
A photo taken in the last year that is special to you.

This is a snapshot of my friend's 3 month-old and my husband. She is just adorable, and she thought he was the neatest thing. Her mom said that she never takes to anyone that quickly, but she was constantly trying to sit on his lap and look at him.

This one is special because I had to get up at 5 AM to get over there and, hopefully, capture the mist and fog. My husband, without hesitation, volunteered to come along because he was worried about me hanging out with all my camera gear in the middle of a street in the wee hours of the morning.

And yes, those are Redwood trees in the middle of the street. The residents didn't want to destroy these old beauties, so they decided to build their homes and the street around the trees. Their conservation effort vastly increased the value of their property.

PRESIDENTS

2004-11-03T10:20:00.000-08:00

Bush has won a second term in office. This time, he won it fair and square. Though I fear for this country, now more than ever, because of Bush's re-election, I cannot dispute the fact that the majority of Americans want him in power. It leaves me wondering what has happened to this country. A country whose political values and principles are supposed to be outlined and enforced in the Constitution.

Even though the race was very tight, it still surprises me that so many people seem to have ignored the fact that one man's singled-minded vengeance lead us into Iraq and away from Bin Laden. Bush's father outlined why he didn't depose Saddaam Hussein. If W. Bush has a logical reason for not going after Bin Laden, then tell us for God's sake.

The way it stands now, it looks like Bin Laden is pulling off a Ronald Reagan. Let them spend until they can spend no more. Bin Laden stated after 9/11 that his real goal is to adversely affect the US economy more than anything else. Can't do anything without money and resources.

Anyway, I wasn't going to rant about the election results. No matter how much you disagree with a president, I think for most people, they can agree that almost every president has done something positive. Because I'm a Democrat, I'm going to focus on Republicans and conservatives, with one exception.

Richard Nixon
Good
Nixon is the quintessential American political villain. He holds a more prominent position of infamy in most American's minds than Benedict Arnold, but aside from lifting himself out of utter poverty, during the Great Depression, to become President of the United States, during his presidency, he accomplished something, something utterly amazing and brilliant, that positively affects American and global economies and policies to this day.

China.

Through diplomatic channels, he and Kissinger opened up the human-rights violating, despotic, steroid-gymnastics-weight lifting-loving, oppressive regime of Mao's China to America and the world, without military force. Where would Wal-Mart be without China?

America's desire to keep China open, as a responsibility to the US and the world, has not changed in the past 30 or so years. However, 30 years of diplomacy and American obfuscation experienced a major setback when Bush told Charlie Gibson on national TV that he would, without question, defend Taiwan militarily if it was attacked by China. He said, "The Chinese must understand that." Hours later, he re-obfuscated.

China has the largest, and arguably the strongest and best trained, military force in the world, and it is a technologically advanced society. That's not to say that the US would lose a military battle against the Chinese or that the Chinese wouldn't be on the wrong side of the global fence if they attacked Taiwan, but military success would come at an enormous human and financial price. We're the only thing keeping China from destroying Taiwan, and we can't appear to take sides just yet.

Gerald Ford
Good
Believed in the Founding Father's principles of a free America. He believed in an America where everyone, including his wife, has a right to their opinion and a right to peacably protest. Betty Ford led a protest outside the White House during his presidency. She was a vocal opponent to some of her husband's policies. When asked what President Ford thought about Betty's actions, he told reporters that she is a citizen of the US just like anyone else and she has every right to her own political views.

Ford and Nixon both loved their wives enormously. I saw parts of Pat Nixon's funeral. President Nixon was so overcome with grief that I thought he wanted to jump into the grave.

Bill Clinton
Good
I do not believe that a president can "create" a good or bad economy, but I do believe that a president can take steps to either encourage growth or hasten a downward spiral. Clinton is the former. He greatly reduced the size of the federal government and created an unprecedented federal surplus. Unlike Reagan, Clinton didn't accomplish this feat by drastically cutting vital social programs that, ultimately, effect the economies of the lower middle class. He cut wasteful beaurocracy and eliminated duplicate positions and unnecessary overhead (managerial and otherwise) in the federal government. Most importantly, he let Greenspan do what he does best, without much interference, VERY unlike George W. Bush. By the way, I think Clinton and Reagan are a prime example of politicians that agree on principle, about some things, but disagree abouth methods.

George H.W. Bush
Good
Recognizing when he's made a mistake. Everyone in the White House thought Richard Clarke was ridiculous for suggesting that Iraq would attack Kuwait, but as soon as Clarke's prediction came to pass, Bush brought Clarke into the fold.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION PLAY BY PLAY

2004-11-02T22:29:00.000-08:00

CNN's electoral vote play-by-play is driving me crazy. I can't take it! Mathematically, Ohio is too close to call, but according to CNN, an unnamed news station is calling Ohio for President Bush. Let me think... I wonder who (FoxNews) that could be. Even the conservative reporters on CNN are saying that mathematically, it is too close to call. Michigan could also go to Bush, even though Kerry is winning ever so narrowly right now, so that's too close to call as well.

When all is said and done, if the American people legitimately vote for Bush, then so be it. He'll be our president again, but I'll wait until all the votes are counted.

VOTING FIRST

2004-11-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

Mu husband and I just got back from dropping off our absentee ballots. We took the day off to vote. I've voted in two other presidential elections, my husband has voted in 4. What's amazing to me is his presidential voting record, as of today.

HUSBAND
Ronald Reagn - 1980
Ronald Reagan - 1984
George H.W. Bush - 1988
George H.W. Bush - 1992
Didn't vote - 1996
Didn't vote (with great regret) - 2000
John Kerry - 2004

Once considered a died-in-the-wool Republican by most people (I don't ever recall hearing him criticize Reagan, with only minor criticism of H.W. Bush) is so mad at Bush Jr. and the Republican party that he... wait for it... SWITCHED parties! I told him that Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy advisor to Ronald Reagan and treasury official for George H.W. Bush, told the NY Times that if George W. Bush is re-elected, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party come November 3.

To be fair, I should mention that he is not a big fan of John Kerry. However, he believes Kerry's logic and approach to running the country is less flawed, less dangerous and less corrupt than that of W. Bush, in addition to believing that Bush is destroying what makes this country a beacon for the "huddled masses" seeking freedom and equality, our civil liberties.

He may read this and tell me that I've misrepresented him to some extent ( I don't think he will), but that's the message I get in our conversations together.

My polling place in California wasn't packed during the lunch hour, but they had a steady stream of voters.

FIRST HALLOWEEN

2004-11-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

This was the first Halloween my husband and I had together in a house, so it was the first time we had trick-or-treaters. Every time the doorbell rang, we ran up to answer the door with a bowl full of candy.

Being novice treaters, we doled out a handful of candy to every kid that rang. Predictably, we nearly ran out of candy shortly thereafter and had to make another candy run. Now we have enough candy to choke a horse!

Our only decoration, besides a skull, because we shopped too late. :(

Hubby put on a demon mask with the hope of scaring some kids, but nobody was scared. At 6'6" and 340 pounds, he was a pretty scary sight. But most kids just laughed, except one little sheep-costumed girl. She was about 5 or 6. Her father had to bring her up the stairs to get candy. She was so cute.

HALLOWEEN GOODY TWO-SHOES

2004-10-31T11:41:00.000-08:00

Only 59%? Must be the Bin Laden transcript.

How evil are you???

Goody Two-Shoes Origin

Bin Laden Video Transcript

2004-10-30T03:45:00.000-07:00

The following are excerpts from the Osama bin Laden video addressing the American people in a videotape, parts of which were aired by the al-Jazeera television network. Since Al Jazeera and Reuters had slightly different excerpts published, I tried to put them together as best as I could. The green text is translated by Reuters and the blue text is from Al Jazeera.

O American people, I am speaking to tell you about the ideal way to avoid another Manhattan, about war and its causes and results.

Security is an important foundation of human life, and free people do not squander their security, contrary to Bush's claims that we hate freedom. Let him tell us why we did not attack Sweden, for example.

It is known that those who hate freedom do not possess proud souls like those of the 19, may God rest their souls. We fight you because we are free and because we want freedom for our nation. When you squander our security, we squander yours.

I am surprised by you. Despite entering the fourth year after September 11, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you, and therefore the reasons are still there for a repeat of what happened.

It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would leave 50,000 of his citizens in the two towers to face these horrors alone," he said, referring to the number of people who worked at the World Trade Center.

It appeared to him (Bush) that a little girl's talk about her goat and its butting was more important than the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers. That gave us three times the required time to carry out the operations, thank God," he said.

God knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers. But after the situation became unbearable and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, I thought about it. And the events that affected me directly were that of 1982 and the events that followed -- when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the U.S. 6th Fleet.

As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me to punish the unjust the same way ... to destroy towers in America so that it can taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women," said bin Laden.

In those difficult moments, many emotions came over me that are hard to describe, but that produced an overwhelming feeling to reject injustice and a strong determination to punish the unjust.

As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me to punish the unjust the same way [and] to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and stop killing our children and women.

We had no difficulty in dealing with Bush and his administration because they resemble the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half by the sons of kings. . . . They have a lot of pride, arrogance, greed and thievery.

He [Bush] adopted despotism and the crushing of freedoms from Arab rulers and called it the Patriot Act under the guise of combating terrorism. . . .

We had agreed with the [the Sept. 11] overall commander Mohamed Atta, may God rest his soul, to carry out all operations in 20 minutes -- before Bush and his administration could take notice.

It never occurred to us that the commander in chief of the American forces would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to face those horrors alone at a time when they most needed him because he thought listening to a child discussing her goat and its ramming was more important than the planes and their ramming of the skyscrapers. This gave us three times the time needed to carry out the operations, thanks be to God. . . .

Your security is not in the hands of [Democratic presidential candidate John F.] Kerry or Bush or al Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands, and each state that does not harm our security will remain safe.

GEORGE W. BUSH - MESSENGER OF GOD

2004-10-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

I love that sticker. The Sojourners, led by Pastor Jim Wallis created it. They're trying to run an ad in many local newspapers to send a message that the Religious Right doesn't speak for all Christians. [Link to the PDF ad.] Abortion and gay marriage (and there is division on these subjects as well) are not the only issues that affect Christians. Larger issues, like eradicating war and poverty and protecting the environment, are Christian imperatives, and to that end, he, and most every major Christian body in the world, views the war in Iraq as a "war of choice", unnecessary and unjust.

Religion has been such a hot issue this election year, primarily because George W. Bush's campaign, and supporters, have stated that Bush was appointed by God and is a messenger of God, and as such, can do no wrong and should not be questioned. Ron Suskind reported that Christine Todd Whitman, former EPA administrator, told him that

In meetings, I'd ask [Bush] if there were any
facts to support our case. And for that, I was accused of
disloyalty!

Likewise, in Suskind's book, The Price of Loyalty, he quotes Paul O'Neill, former Bush Treasury Secretary, describing Bush as "a blind man in a room full of deaf people."

Suskind goes on to say that after that statement, politicos from both parties started calling him with similar impressions and stories.

Some were willing to talk because they said they thought George W. Bush might lose; others, out of fear of what might transpire if he wins.

More frightening is where Bush's unquestioning, thoughtless, almost cult-like faith is leading him in command decisions as President. Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy advisor to Ronald Reagan and treasury official for George H.W. Bush, told Suskind that

Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy [because] he believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded, that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them... Just in the past few months, I think a light has gone off for people who've spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct he's always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do.

That would explain the split-screen of Bush and Jesus in his DVD, Faith in the White House. The idea that wiping out a whole group of people because you think God told you to do it, let alone believing that you're a divine messenger of God is both heresy and insanity! His followers have even described him as being like John the Baptist, so I guess he's paving the way for Christ's Second Coming?!

"I think you have to wonder when people are so sure they know what God wants them to do," a White House aide recently told a Sojourner reporter. "I just want to ask them, 'Really? God told you that? That's amazing.' Because God seems like a pretty busy guy to me."

You would think that these statements should be abhorrent to any right-minded person, but surprisingly, they're not! I spoke with a man, who by all accounts is intelligent and fairly liberal on social issues (voted for Clinton both times), that does not believe that Islam can be reformed because violence is the nature of Islamic theology and therefore, should either be wiped out or very closely watched, with federal agents in every mosque in the US.

Bush's brand of faith elevates his statements that if you're not with us, you're not just against us, you're against God.

Politics:Religion as Oil:Water, or should be anyway.

ILLUSIONS

2004-10-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

Dudu's Dad reminded me how much I like optical illusions.

COUNT THE BLACK DOTS

SAY THE COLOR NOT THE WORD

You can find more illusions at Cheshire Entertainment Guide

RED SOX WIN WORLD SERIES!!!

2004-10-28T01:18:00.000-07:00

The Sox won! The Sox won! The Sox won! The Sox won! The Sox won! The Sox won!

Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo!

Come on Cubbies!

WELCOME BLOGEXPLOSION READERS!

2004-10-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Mr. Bob made BlogExplosion sound so interesting, I just had to join. If you're visiting from BlogExplosion, welcome and thanks for stopping by! Feel free to leave a comment.

BlogExplosion is actually an interesting concept. They have the usual directory of blogs, but they also have a feature that lets you surf blogs randomly. It exposes you to a variety of blogs from business and technology to religion, politics and family life without having to sift through the categories.

Thanks Mr. Bob!

SCARY THINGS

2004-10-27T03:45:00.000-07:00

I took a walk with my husband the other day, and he mentioned getting a large grandfather clock. If you don't already know, we just moved into a turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts home.

I looked at him sideways and asked him if he'd lost his mind. When I think of grandfather clocks, I think of Salem's Lot or Amityville Horror. I certainly didn't want to have one in my house! I'd have to run everytime I passed it. I suggested we also get a bunch of smiling clown dolls and place them strategically around the house. Maybe I could get a good workout.

He thought he could find a clock that might suit our house and not scare the bejesus out of me or have an eery gong at the top of the hour. Now I just need to find something that scares him. Having grown up on a farm, there isn't much that scares him: rats, raccoons, squirrels, dogs, creeking noises, basements, red rooms in basements, ghostly bartenders, nothing. Nothing that I can put in the house. What scares a man like that?

So far, the only thing that seems to scare him is the donor sticker on my driver's license. For some reason, it freaks him out, so he's made sure I haven't been able to put it on my new DL. Eh.

WINDOWS XP SP2 aka PIT OF DESPAIR

2004-10-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

Well, Microsoft did it again. Another "cure" that's worse than the disease. My new HP Pavilion arrived on Friday, and being a good Netizen, I decide it's probably prudent to get all the new security patches from Microsoft since MS is hacker heaven. Without thinking, I download XP Home Edition SP2.

Being out of the upgrade/patch loop for some time, I was caught unawares, not realizing that SP2 is a very recent SP. Immediately, my CD recording software that came with the computer is no longer available. Then my burner had trouble performing other actions, like reading previously burned CDs.

I had to tell myself to stay calm. It's not difficult for me to resolve any problems I run into on my PC, but I hate having to perform major fixes. It especially pissed me off that Microsoft still hasn't fixed their problem of putting out CRAP PATCHES! AND SP2 isn't very secure, to boot, or re-boot as the case may be. Really people!

Since at least as far back as Windows 95, MS patches and service packs had to be tested before they were deployed. Microsoft, if you haven't figured it out yet, consumers shouldn't have to test patches before they apply them so their computers won't fry. Many people, and companies, haven't tested any patches or packs in the recent past because the security vulnerabilities were so severe, they dare not hesitate applying fixes. Arg!

Anyway, I tried going back in time with a System Restore, but that didn't get rid of the patch. I decided it would be just as easy to do a complete System Recovery as it would be to attempt to uninstall SP2, and probably less messy too.

Some are so annoyed by SP2 and Microsoft, they're switching to Linux, which isn't a half-bad idea, except that a lot of programs I use aren't available on the Linux platform, and switching to a Mac would be like worshipping the devil, or Microsoft... I guess I'm there already.

Despite its problems, (a reviewer stated one of the cons as having "the potential to break some applications."), SP2 did have some interesting features, like the firewall and pop-up blocker. For the short time I had it on my machine, they were sort of neat.

If you want to take the plunge, check your PC and software manufacturers' websites for driver updates that need to be installed BEFORE you load SP2. Then pray. Pray like a man buried up to his neck in the hot desert sun trying to dig himself out with one chopstick.

BUSH & GOP SITES OUTAGE. DDOS ATTACKS?

2004-10-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

eWeek online reported that Bush campaign and GOP sites experienced problems for several hours on Wednesday, October 20. It wasn't clear if the sites were experiencing system problems or if they were under a hack attack. Campaign and committee officials would only say they were investigating.

Because the sites were all GOP/Bush campaign related sites, people have speculated that it was a calculated Denial of Service attack, where the sites are overwhelmed with bogus traffic, making the sites inaccessible. However, analysts with Alertsite.com and Keynote Systems, which were monitoring the sites, said that their evidence suggests other problems. Many errors were Domain Name Service (DNS)-related problems, the translation of a site's name, such as www.google.com, to their actual numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address, google.

John Kerry's website and Democratic National Committee sites did not experience any problems.

Must be symptomatic.

THEME THURSDAY - COLORFUL

2004-10-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

Theme Thursday - "Colorful" Submission

Work and rain has kept me indoors during the day, even on weekends, so I decided to photograph a colorful Mardi Gras mask. Never been. Just have the mask.

NO-FLY FLIERS

2004-10-20T18:28:00.000-07:00

In the past few months, there have been at least a dozen incidents of passengers on the "no-fly" list permitted to fly, according to Time magazine's October 18, 2004 issue. Last week, a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight was allowed to take off from Amman even though they had a passenger on the terror watch list.

The list has become unmanageable. It now contains 20,000 names, including dead people, people in prison and at least 1000 duplicates. 300 more names are added daily, and the list is so large, it has caused airline computer systems to crash.

The seemingly indiscriminate list, which included the names of Senator Kennedy and Cat Stevens, has also stretched law enforcement personnel. Law enforcement personnel have to scramble to respond to each incident.

Secure Flight, a new TSA passenger-prescreening program, begins next month, and the agency hopes it will reduce some of the current "no-fly" list problems.

We'll see what happens to Senator Kennedy first.

GETTING OLD

2004-10-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

Getting old means sagging breasts, sagging scrotums, big pores and wrinkled skin, rough feet and rough elbows. Getting old means sore knees, brief sex, yawning and sneezing injuries and white hair. And it doesn't happen gradually.

I went to bed without any white hair in the front of my head. This morning, I have three! Where did they come from? Does the white hair fairy visit you and decide, "I think I'll really screw with her mind tonight."

What used to be a smooth forehead now has tiny lines and huge pores. My forehead looks like college ruled binder paper with brail punctures.

I once hurt my back for a solid day because I burped wrong. I burped wrong! How does that happen? Okay. I know how that happens, but when was the last time you burped so wrong that you threw out your back for an entire day?

Aging is a universal issue, but I have to ask, "Why me? Why me? Oh lordy, lordy, why me???"

Now I know why Greta VanSustern got plastic surgery.

STUPIDITY

2004-10-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

GINGERBREAD HOUSE

To call the Vienna art group, Austrian Guggenheim, eccentric, is an understatement. In an attempt to give locals a cheerful feast for the eyes, they built a full size gingerbread house. "Bricks" were made of gingerbread, and the artists used bread to tile and frame the house.

As you might imagine, rats, birds and other vermin were attracted to this architectural feast, creating a health hazzard. Citizens complained, and inspectors deemed the house a health hazzard.

MAN FEEDS DOG PENIS

Constantin Mocanu, 67, from Galati county in Romania suffered a sleepness night because of a noisy chicken... or so he told doctors. Determined to silence the chicken once and for all, he grabbed its neck and chopped it off.

Only, instead of chopping off the chicken's neck, he chopped off his penis. Startled by his gross error, he threw his penis to his dog, which promptly ate the severed organ.

Mocanu told National newspaper, "It was after midnight when the bloody cock was making such a trouble outside. I got very angry and went out to kill it. I don't know how I got my penis instead. I was so irritated I threw it to the dog... What could I do with a piece of penis."

Surgeons could not rebuild Mocanu's penis, and not surprisingly, Mocanu's surgeons were not convinced by his story either.

Surgeon Nicolae Bacalbasa said, "It's like the Bible says. If your right hand gives you trouble then cut it off. The man is 67 and he may have had reasons to punish his organ. I am personally more tolerant with these matters."

ON THE FLIP SIDE - WANTED: CAT ARMY

2004-10-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

"A Mexican town is advertising for an army of cats to kill off a plague of rats." (Ananova)

Atascaderos authorities have put ads in a Mexican paper asking people to donate their cats. Their goal is to give 700 cats to local families to kill 500,000 rats. The mayor's office claims they have tried poison, but they only succeeded in decimating the local cat population.

Emilia de Leon, of Mexico's Animal Protection Society, told Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper that she is concerned about building a cat army, citing feline population concerns.

"Remeber to spay and neuter your pet."
Bob Barker

"SUPER PIG" - THE OTHER WHITE MEAT

2004-10-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

Cuy, more commonly known in the United States as a Guinea Pig, is a delicacy that has been eaten in the Andes since the time of the Incas. Cuy is such an important part of the Peruvian diet, the Peruvian "Last Supper" image depicts Christ and his disciples dining on roasted cuy.

But until now, cuy has been small and bony, with little fleshy meat, but researchers in Peru say they have discovered how to create a "Super Guinea Pig" that is low in cholestoral, high in protein, weighs more than 2 pounds (3 kilos) and most importantly, tastes like rabbit. Traditionally only served on special occassions, now one cuy can feed a family of four.

For those of you tempted to think that cuy is only eaten in Peru or other parts of South America, think again. Cuy is sold in restaurants and butcher shops in New York City. Some people have even reported seeing NYC street vendors carrying the little rodents. They can be stewed, fried, boiled, barbecued or roasted.

Sound mouthwatering? Here's a recipe for the roasted variety. Many cuy afficionados prefer roasted cuy because, aside from its superior taste to other cooking methods, the cuy is served whole and is more aesthetically pleasing. To avoid a faux pas, always eat cuy with your hands so the sweet smell lingers on your fingers.

(Ananova Photo)

THEME THURSDAY - GATE

2004-10-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

Theme Thursday "Gate" submission

Garage Doors

St. Barnabas Catholic Church

HONDA CRV SUV'S CATCH FIRE - NOT IN THE GOOD WAY

2004-10-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

2003 and 2004 model year Honda CRV SUV's are catching fire... literally. The National Highway Transportaion Safety Administration (NHTSA) has reopened their investigation into the fires. In July, the NHTSA concluded that 2003 CRVs were igniting after a faulty oil change, and for most of the victims in the news reports, it appears to have been their first oil change at under 10,000 miles.

Honda and the NHTSA concluded that technicians did not correctly install the oil filter, creating an improper seal that allows oil to leak out onto the hot exhaust system. They did not find any evidence of a manufacturer's defect, so they did not issue a recall. Honda, which enjoys a reputation for safety and reliability, would not issue a voluntary recall. Instead, Honda notified its dealers and independent retailers to follow proper oil changing guidelines, but the fires continued.

The problem appears to be confined to the 2003-2004 model years, which perplexes Honda. Honda claims they have not fundamentally changed the design of the vechicle or the oil filters from the 2002 models. The last major design changed occurred in 2001.

If oil changes are the cause, other vehicles should be experiencing similar problems. But Consumer Reports reviewed the problem and cannot reach a firm conclusion as to the cause of the fires either. They speculate that Honda could have changed the paint or coating that is used on the engine block, causing the oil filter gasket to stick.

The NHTSA's new investigation, an engineering analysis, is the administration's most exhaustive safety inquiry.

Ready the marshmallows!

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

2004-10-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

That's a question that ALWAYS comes up in our house. When I had a job that didn't consume so much of my time, I would have dinner plans for the entire week. I love cooking, so it was fun making the plans, grocery lists, etc. But that was then. Now, I rarely have time to cook a meal the way I want, and often, neither my spouse or I have time to cook at all, so we have to eat out.

I don't like eating out very often, so we thought we'd try some prepared foods. We tried everything from burritos to chicken teriyaki. We love to eat pasta, so we ended up trying those packaged fresh raviolis and tortellinis. We tried Monterey Pasta Compan, Contadina and anything else that we might find that looked as if it might be halfway decent. We didn't like anything.

Just the other week, we ran across a grilled chicken, mozzarella ravioli, made by Pasta Prima, at Costco. The package stated that it was all natural and had no preservatives, so we decided to try it, and to our surprise, it was actually good. It doesn't taste as good as homemade, but it was really good for prepared food.

We tried it with some spaghetti sauce. The strong tomato flavor of a thick sauce overwhelmed the ravioli. The back of the package includes recipes that might be worth trying next time, but I found some success with quickly cooked fresh garlic, chopped fresh tomatoes, freshly chopped basil, oregano and parsley and of course, a little Kosher salt (available at your local supermarket). Then I top it with just a little more fesh basil and a splash of some really good olive oil, like Colavita.

SENATOR KENNEDY ON "NO-FLY" LIST

2004-10-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

This is a relatively old story, but I just ran across it, so it's new to me. During the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation into 9/11, Senator Edward Kennedy, more commonly known as Senator Ted Kennedy, relayed his own story (Washington Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Canada Free Press) of being refused boarding passes on US Airways flights because his name appeared on the government's secret "no-fly"/terror watch list. (They stop Ted Kennedy from boarding but they let Cat Stevens, aka Yusef Islam, board. Geesh. Airlines.)

Apparently, the list didn't specify that Senator Kennedy be stopped. It noted that "T. Kennedy" is an alias by someone on the list of terror suspects, so Senator Kennedy was refused passage until he got a supervisor at the airport to verify his identity and give him approval to board. The Senator's ordeal didn't end there. It took 3 personal calls to Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and 3 weeks for the Senator to be able to fly without being stopped.

I just hope there isn't a "J. Smith" or a "J. Kim" on that list.

BUSH WIRED FOR ANSWERS?

2004-10-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post reported on Internet rumors of a boxy bulge in the back of President Bush's suit jacket at the first debate, leading to speculation among netizens that he was wired to get help with answers. A Bush official joked it off saying something about "little green men and the grassy knoll."

Bush's tailor even got into the act by stating that the bulge is just a "pucker along the jacket's back seam", according to the Seattle Times. If you've seen the pictures, it's definitely not a pucker in the jacket, and a Salon.com reporter reminds us of the long pauses in the debate. But honestly, could he really have been "fed" those answers? If I had been the guy whispering answers in the President's ear, I wouldn't admit it either.

Apparently it's created quite a buzz on the net. Hell, I'm writing about it. Someone's even started a website, isbushwired.com, dedicated to this controversy. They even have an article investigating a report that staffers on the Bush-Cheney campaign know for a fact that Bush is wired during the debates. Fact or fiction?

THE DISTORTION OF RELIGION THROUGH POLITICS AND VICE VERSA

2004-10-12T02:00:00.000-07:00

Apparently, Grizzly Adams Productions released a DVD entitled George W. Bush: Faith in the White House. It was produced to illustrate Bush's faith through testimonials from associates and re-enactments. Though I have issues with any politician (Bush as well as Lieberman) using their faith to gain votes, I believe that it is possible for people of faith to serve their constituents in elected government offices. I've read the reviews of the DVD from the New York Times and from Christianity Today, but I'll try to keep an open mind when I see it for myself.

THE DANTE CLUB - Eh.

2004-10-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

Having completed The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl, I can confidently say, "Eh." The novel opens with a grizzly incident that might be murder or might be something else entirely, we're not quite sure. But shortly after this incident, Pearl begins the long, somewhat dry but necessary backstory of 1865 Boston and the characters involved in the novel. This backstory consumes approximately one-third of the novel. It should have been more condensed and better intertwined with the primary plot of the story. The fact that the main characters consist of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, J.T. Fields and James Russell Lowell, and of course, Dante kept me reading, but the workings of the Dante Club are insteresting, not spellbinding.

To my relief, I found myself hooked in the last two-thirds of the novel as the characters begin to engage themselves in the main plot. This book is not for someone looking to read a mystery novel that continues to unwind itself like a puzzle box throughout the book, but it's not bad if you have some time.

LOSS OF TODDLERHOOD

2004-10-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

It's funny how your mind wanders to random places in your memory. It's like your memory is stored away in a card catalog, and every once in a while, a card will jump out of the stack for no particular reason at all. I was thinking about my cousins when they were little. And by little, I mean 2-5 years old because they're only 11 and 12 now.

I was in college when they were born, so I had a lot more free time. I spent part of everyday with them during those first several years, and when I started working I still saw them frequently. Even now, my husband and I take care of them 3 days a week.

I guess that's why I feel like they're mine in a way. I remembered when the oldest would half crawl, half walk into my lap to watch TV. He'd sit there, all warm and baby smelling, fidgeting with my clothes. I would put my arms around his little body and kiss his head. He always liked that. He liked to be held and carried. I guess it made him feel safe.

He used to make these sounds that were part word and part grunt while pointing at something and looking at me inquisitively. His smooth pudgy hand would grasp all but his index finger, which had pillowy pouch segments, topped with a small square nail. It's unbelievable how small he used to be. But he had these huge puppy dog eyes. When they welled up with tears, he'd look at you as if you were the only person in the world that could help him feel better. It never failed to make me cry, which made it that much harder for me to tell him he couldn't play with his toys and his brother's toys too.

Remembering left me with a deep sense of loss. It was almost as if he had passed away. It surprised me to feel that way because, as I mentioned earlier, they are still a large part of my life. I supposed it's simply because I long to go back and experience his infancy again, when the world was new, everything was fascinating and all he wanted to do was sit in my lap and snuggle.

THE IMMINENT FALL OF EBAY? (aka eBay Sucks)

2004-10-11T16:24:00.000-07:00

eBay is accurately described as the electronic Main Street, and as such, eBay has experienced massive success. However, customer service at eBay has lagged. Complaints regarding eBay's service and policies, from both buyers and sellers, appears to be growing exponentially. When you type in "eBay sucks" at Google, it returns about 177,000 results.

I personally love buying and selling on eBay. It's the next best thing to Wal-Mart and Costco, sometimes better! However, I'm hearing more and more horror stories of bad eBay/PayPal experiences, and I've run into some problems of my own that, in days past, used to be a no-brainer for eBay because of clear violations of their policy.

Along with my own problems, it seems that there is a growing chorus of complaints that have gone past simple customer service issues. People aren't ready to leave eBay because there isn't a viable alternative, but more and more people are talking about it with fervor. I don't think they're "screaming" for an alternative just yet, but eBay is starting to take on the persona of the local phone company (before they opened up competition), where there is no recourse for the consumer or merchant if eBay enforces their policies, written and unwritten, inequitably or unjustly. This becomes a national issue if you consider the number of individuals and companies relying on eBay for their livelihood, but of course, if enough people become frustrated with dealing with eBay, it will open up the door for a competitor, like Amazon.com.

Some of these serious issues are:

Accounts are closed for no apparent reason at all, or for an unjustified reason.

People have recounted their experiences of selling and/or buying items on eBay, without incident, only to have their account closed without warning and for no apparent reason at all. After digging and jumping through hoops to find out what happened, they're told that their account was suspended because an "associated" account is delinquent in their payments to eBay.

I have heard that this has happened with PayPal (an eBay owned credit card company) as well, and I'm sure there are numerous testimonies of this at Paypalsucks.com I have never heard of another company that will kill your account because someone that they think that someone you know owes them money. When did it become your legal responsibility to resolve your mother, brother, sister, father, roommate, neighbor's delinquent bills?

If this has happend with a PayPal account, it should violate some consumer protection law because they will freeze the monies in your account, indefinitely. Unfortunately, in the cases when people have tried to fight PayPal on this issue, they are told that PayPal is not a bank or credit card and therefore not bound by federal regulations.

You report a violation of eBay policy by an auctioner, but nothing is done if they're a huge seller.

Most sellers, at some point in their eBay life, have had either received a phone call from eBay or had their auctions dropped, without warning, for violating eBay's search engine spamming policy. The policy is a good policy, and that is not in question. Users take exception to eBay's practice of enforcing their policies.

Basically, sellers aren't allowed to fill their auction text with words that will come up in multiple searches that have absolutely nothing to do with their auction just to get eyeballs on their auction. This policy maintains the integrity of a shopper's search, since there are probably hundreds of thousands of items being sold on eBay at any one time. However, huge sellers are guilty of keyword spamming, and not only has eBay not curbed the behavior, the sellers continue to flagrantly keyword spam without penalty, which creates an uneven competitive playing field for anyone wanting to sell similar products on eBay.

eBay's VeRO Program

In eBay's attempt to curb fraud and copyright infringement, they created the VeRO group, which, in a nutshell allows manufacturer's, like Rolex, Cartier, etc. "police" auctions on eBay for fakes and frauds represented as their products. It would be impossible for eBay to have an expert on every product that is sold on their site, so this protects consumers by allowing the experts to monitor auctions and report problems to eBay.

The problem arises when legitimate sellers have their auctions closed by the VERO group, but the VeRO group cannot tell you how why. The VeRO group takes the word of the manufacturer that the auction in some way infringes on their copyright and eBay immediately pulls the auction, according to the VeRO group, without even finding out why! This protects eBay, but there is no recourse for those that have been wrongly accused of some vague copyright violation. Not only that, but it is near impossible to contact the accuser, the person at the company that made the initial accusation to verify or dispute the complaint. What if they had simply transposed two numbers in the item ID and you were not the intended target?

In addition, if you did unwittingly committ a copyright violation (maybe you improperly used a term that you thought had passed into the common vernacular, like Kleenex), there's no way for you to correct it in the future so that eBay does not close your account or stop any other auctions.

In many ways, eBay is damned if they do and damned if they don't. As stated earlier, they cannot possibly police all their auctions, but they need to at least keep a record of the accusation and have a method for sellers to contact the originator of the complaint, and not through a bulk email address.

A Seller doesn't want to ship my item because they want more money for the item and have relisted.

This has happened to A LOT of people. A bidder will bid on an item, get a great deal on it, fully intending to purchase the product, only to have the seller backout and relist the item. eBay used to deal with this judiciously and immediately, but most people do not receive a response from eBay when they report this behavior.

Some of the more solvable complaints stem from either buyers or sellers that have not educated themselves on how eBay works and how to avoid getting scammed on the world's largest online auction marketplace. eBay has actively attempted to address some of the more common complaints that can be easily remedied through education, and they do make an effort to educate buyers and registered users on how to avoid scams, especially phishing scams. Some common complaints are:

I got outbid in the last several minutes of my auction and lost the item by x¢.

There are a number of "sniping" services (proxy bidding services), available for free or a fee, online that will allow ANY bidder to bid up to the very last seconds of any auction on eBay. Experienced bidders know that sniping is one of the best ways to ensure you win your auctions, provided that you placed a high enough bid in your snipe. Most bidders also don't seem to understand that, even if you use eBay's bidding system, you should put in the amount that you are willing to pay for an item, instead of bidding it up dollar by dollar. eBay's system won't make the auction the final bid amount (unless there is a reserve that is higher than your final amount) until another bidder challenges your bid. At that point, the auction will be bid up to the lowest amount bid, until the next challenging bidder arrives, etc.

The highest amount of bid activity on most auctions at eBay are done within the last 30-60 minutes, and sometimes in the last 30 seconds! If you choose to bid up an auction a dollar at a time, that's your choice, but you will be beaten, and there's nobody to blame but yourself for being outbid. It's not cheating because everyone has the ability to bid up to the very last seconds of the auction.

You can't trust sellers on eBay, regardless of good, high feedback, because it might not really be them.

This is also known as "hijacking" a user's identity, and it happens when thieves have phished for a seller's username and password, then they take over the account and change the password. When the worst of this was going on at eBay, eBay and PayPal both sent out numerous emails warning users about clicking on any link sent in an email that leads them to another site that requires them to enter their username and password. Since then, I believe that most power sellers are aware of the danger, so I feel I can trust most of the sellers with a lot of good, recent feedback, but if you're still worried, pay with a credit card. Your credit card company will protect you from fraud just as they would in a store.

I got screwed by a "0" feedback bidder!

I think it's always unfortunate for the eBay community when either a buyer or seller doesn't follow through on their contractual obligation, but unless you want to sue them for the money, you'll have to relist your item and report the bidder as a non-paying bidder so you won't be responsible for the eBay final value fees.

However, in the future, if you want to either approve all your bidders before they're allowed to bid on any of your auctions or forbid "0" feedback bidders from bidding, you can set that up in selling manager.

eBay charges outrageous fees above and beyond the listing fees!

Yes, eBay charges final value fees in addition to their listing fees, and if you accept PayPal, be ready to have PayPal take a little over 2% of the final sale price, immediately. Neither company hides any of their fee schedules. Just be sure to read all the information regarding fees for any service you use, and if you think it's too high, don't sell on eBay.

There are many other common complaints, but if you don't find the answers you're looking for on eBay's Help pages, then try their community discussion boards. Most people are pretty friendly to newcomers.

PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE - MISSOURI

2004-10-09T01:30:00.000-07:00

The second presidential debate in Missouri didn't appear to shed any more light on the differences between the candidates for many undecided voters. I was personally disappointed that much of the debate consisted of the stump speeches from the respective campaigns. I wanted to hear real policies. Occasionally we got glimpses of policies from Kerry, but Bush's answer to reducing the deficit was, "Well, look at the budget... Make sure Congress doesn't overspend" Come on. That doesn't answer the question at all. How many voters are actually going to look at the budget? But Kerry didn't answer that question either. He just attacked the President's record. In fact, except with a very few exceptions, most of the night, each candidate just traded barbs instead of really talking about the issues.

With that said, I was impressed with Kerry's response to the partial-birth abortion question. It came across as sincere and earnest, and more importantly, he directly and pointedly addressed two primary issues with the bill. It doesn't allow doctors to perform partial-birth abortions when the mother's life is endangered, and it requires minors to inform their parents of an abortion, without any judicial wiggle room in situations where the minor may be impregnated by her own father, or other extenuating circumstances.

On the other side of the fence, there was one question regarding Iraq that Bush started off answering very well. He spoke of how Iraqis want freedom. That was the first time I ever heard him speak that sounded sincere, but it quickly degraded to more of his usual blind insistence that he's doing the right thing and wouldn't change a thing, regardless of the evidence. The way the President continued to jump off his stool and talk over Charlie Gibson in order to respond to Kerry made me embarrassed for him. He lacked decorum and grace under pressure. If I were undecided, it would certainly make me question his decision-making process and his ability to accept criticism and, more importantly, different points of view. I recently watched Fog of War, a documentary that interviews Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense during Vietnam, and the similarities in the war and the similarities between Bush and LBJ are astounding.

The debate issue over pharmaceuticals from Canada was extremely interesting to me because it was something that I really hadn't thought about. I agree with Bush (you'll hardly every hear me say that) regarding releasing patents earlier in order to get generics on the market, but I still don't see why we cannot purchase prescription drugs from Canada. His argument that he wants to protect us from unregulated drugs that could potentially harm consumers doesn't hold water because we're not talking about getting prescription drugs from Guatemala! Canada is, arguably, one of the most regulated countries in the world. I don't hear about Canadians dropping dead because of "bad" script drugs.

However, I do recognize that there is another, trickier issue here as well. Pharmaceutical companies, like all companies, are in business to make money. They have every right to charge a premium for a drug that took them 15-20 years to develop. In order to get the best minds on a project, you need to pay them well and get the best testing and research equipment, etc. Even though it only costs them a few dollars to actually manufacture the drugs, it cost them millions in R&D to get to that point. If the pharmaceuticals become unprofitable, there will be fewer that venture into that industry. Everyone wants to feel that they have some job security, so why go into an industry that's going down the tubes. However, how can you put a price on someone's well-being? There needs to be some sort of balance.

Back to the debate. Even with Bush's over-zealousness to defend his positions, he still did much better than the first debate. I don't think he really could have done much worse, unless he completely lost it, like Perot's running mate.

Go to the Commission on Presidential Debates to view the transcript of the second debate.

THE DANTE CLUB - CANTICLE ONE

2004-10-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

I was turned onto The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl, because it was on the New York Times Bestseller list, and Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code, praised the book. However, completing Canticle One was something of an effort. Pearl's prose is elegant and beautiful, which is something I cannot say of Brown, but so far, his story is not as engrossing as The DaVinci Code.

The Dante Club reads more like literature than a murder mystery which was something I enjoyed, but I had anticipated reading a murder mystery. Very little regarding the murders, or solving the murders, is actually presented in Canticle One, which is roughly one third of the book. Because Pearl's writing is so good, I continued on, but I was not drawn in by the way Pearl chose to weave the story of the murders and the development of the main characters, until the last 15-20 pages of the Canticle. At that point, I found myself eager to discover what happens next.

Off to Canticle Two!

GEORGE W. BUSH'S CONVERSION

2004-10-08T01:10:00.000-07:00

I just started reading a blog called Get Religion. I don't have an opinion on it yet, but some of their members have run across some interesting articles. MSNBC recently wrote an article related to Bush's conversion story. I personally do not think there is any way for us to know if Bush is a born-again Christian, but I do find it interesting that I have never heard him refer to himself as being born-again.

Initially, it was refreshing that he did not spew canned phrases regarding his salvation, but is it really benign or is political strategy involved? Setting aside the exact verbage of "born-again", I don't recall a time (and I am not watching/reading news constantly) when he referred to himself specifically as a saved Christian. There have been moments when he said that he has a higher responsibility and he would hold up a bible or point upward, but nothing more explicit.

Most of these moments were in the presence of leaders of many faiths. However, as President, he can still be inclusive of other religions while proclaiming his own salvation. The fact that he has not been that explicit, combined with the high probability, according to PBS, that a candidate can win the US Presidency with only the Evangelical Christian vote, makes it appear like he's pandering to the public but does not really believe.

NIP/TUCK

2004-10-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

The season finale of Nip/Tuck featured a guest appearance from Joan Rivers. For those of you that have watched Joan Rivers on E!, you're probably not at all surprised by her current appearnce, but for those of us that haven't seen her since the eighties, the effects of her cumulative facial "enhancements" was nothing short of startling.

She certainly doesn't look older than maybe 40/45, but she doesn't look right either. Her cheek bones encroach on her nose, the nose itself looks too narrow and it appears that she's lost the use of the muscles in her upper lip area. I'm sure she had some of the most talented plastic surgeons around working on her face, but with as far as plastic surgery seems to have advanced, you'd think they'd be able to make her look more natural.

Maybe she's just had too much work done? Who knows, but it seems that, aside from your first rhinoplasty, face work still doesn't look very natural, unless you're taking a picture that requires you to have a frozen look of surprise.

Virgin Blogger (No relation to Virgin Mary)

2004-10-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog... ever. I was consuming my friends' time and (I believe) patience with all the thoughts, sometimes random, crowding my tiny brain. I'd never even kept a diary before, so we'll see how this goes.

I will not exclusively discuss one subject. In fact, I like discussing many different subjects. (ADD? I prefer not to think so.) However, much of my free time, lately, has been spent reading political and religious books. I often contemplate my spirituality, my religious beliefs and my value system, and in so doing, it leads me to research some of the origins of my beliefs, both within and without, in an attempt to understand myself and learn more about the institutions that have, it seems inextricably, become part of my life. I know there are probably those that will think my ceaseless questioning is fruitless, but I do not think that anything is lost in educating yourself. More is lost in shuttering your mind and soul.

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