Computer woes

Haven't been posting for a bit, as I've been suffering with the mysterious computer woes. Stupid thing just tosses up a black screen and reboots when it feels like it. I'm half suspecting some Firefox extension or theme I might have downloaded, so uninstalled most of them today (Firefox now loads a lot faster! :). Not sure if a bad piece of code could wreck so much havoc - we shall see. After about 10 sudden reboots the other day, my computer didn't like the copies of the registry so started hauling up old ones - now that's fun. Suddenly your desktop background is gone - your fonts look a bit strange - settings are lost in some programs - all quite strange.

Thought I had my stuff safe on an external HD and then when I plugged it back in today, discovered my computer wouldn't recognize, so I rebooted and chkdsk popped up checking the drive - found a bunch of corrupted stuff - fixed it and I'm back to normal (ha! - what's normal?). No idea how stuff got corrupted on there.

And then this afternoon I picked up the mail and standing at the table tilted my neck forward to look at the paper and that damn thing seized - thought I was gonna pass out - boy - talk about some pain. whew. Guess the ol' RA is gonna destroy my neck now. When you're on a roll, you're on a roll!

At least I have my wife's laptop to fall back on which is a good thing :)

No end in sight for Google?

Geez and here I thought $300/share for Google was expensive. Well it has climbed about $44/share today after record setting profits and analysts are even putting price targets of $450 on this baby. Crazy, huh? But he who doubts Google, is usually quickly proven wrong. :)

Let's see - how can we traumatize our child?

Saw this on IslandGirl's blog today: Would have to agree with her.

Yet another stupid baby name
I thought that Nicholas Cage might just win the prize for stupidest baby name ever with Kal-el Cage, but there is just so much competition, its hard to pick a winner. Celebrities are stupid.

Here are a few more:

Moxie Crimefighter, daughter of Penn Jillette
Rumer Glenn, Tallulah Belle and Scout LaRue, daughters of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore
Jett, son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston
Diezel and Denim, sons of Toni Braxton and Keri Lewis
Prince Michael, Prince Michael II (AKA Blanket), and Paris Michael, children of Michael Jackson
Speck Wildhorse and Hud, sons of John Mellencamp and Elaine Irwin
Pilot Inspektor, son of Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf
Tu Morrow, daughter of Rob Morrow and Debbon Ayre (seriously)
Audio Science, son of Shannyn Sossamon and Dallas Clayton
Zowie Bowie, son of David Bowie
Rolan Bolan, son of Marc Bolan
Banjo, son of Rachel Griffiths
Lyric and Zephyr, daughter and son of Robby Benson
Kyd, son of David Duchovny and Tea Leoni
Reignbeau and Freedom, daughter and son of Ving Rhames
Jermajesty, son of Jermaine Jackson

AvantGo RSS Feed

I noticed that AvantGo now has RSS feeds for your Palm Pilot or PocketPC, so if you use AvantGo (and I can't imagine someone having one of those devices and not having AvantGo), look on the right side of this page and click on the RSS AvantGo icon and it will add this blog to your list of downloadable AvantGo topics. Very cool. Once a member of AvantGo, you can add any RSS channels that you'd like to subscribe to. You can also put an AvantGo AutoChannel for RSS button in your browser's link bar which makes it very easy to add feeds to your AvantGo subscription service. I tried all this out on my own blog and it worked like a champ.

I am happy to say I am doing my small part in this endeavor. :)

- As of October 2005, Technorati is now tracking 19.6 Million weblogs
- The total number of weblogs tracked continues to double about
every 5 months
- The blogosphere is now over 30 times as big as it was 3 years ago, with no signs of letup in growth
- About 70,000 new weblogs are created every day
- About a new weblog is created each second
- 2% - 8% of new weblogs per day are fake or spam weblogs
- Between 700,000 and 1.3 Million posts are made each day
- About 33,000 posts are created per hour, or 9.2 posts per second
- An additional 5.8% of posts (or about 50,000 posts/day) seen each day are from spam or fake blogs, on average

Google Blog Search Tool

Here's a nice new tool I just stumbled upon - if you read blogs frequently (no, they're not just personal diaries), then Google Blog Search is a helpful new search tool that searches only blogs. Unlike the regular search engine, this will give you peoples' opinions which is especially helpful if you are searching for gadgets or such to purchase. Also handy for news items, health issues, you name it.

Wireless Audible

Boy, they just keep coming up with more and more ways to make listening to books easy. Now you can wireless download Audible books to your Treo 650. Check out David Pogue's article in the Times (but don't wait long to do it, as these articles are archived and then you have to pay).

He speaks about memory limitations with the Treo, but an Audible listener at ADBL.org makes the following comment

Though the point about the Treo's memory limitations even with a card is wrong. I have a Treo 650 with a 1GB memory card and can thus store about say 12 audio books of 6 hours each. I believe a 2 GB card can also be inserted into the Treo 650.

Wie disqualified - Sox Win!

Michelle Wie was disqualified from her 4th place finish in her first pro tournament on Sunday. Apparently during the 3rd round, she had an unplayable lie and upon dropping the ball, placed it inadvertently 3" (her estimate) to 12" (rules officials' estimates) closer to the hole - a no-no in golf. A Sports Illustrated reporter watching this mentioned it after the tournament to rules officials and upon going back to the hole and having Michelle and her caddy point out where the ball was originally and where she dropped it, the rules officials gave her the heave ho. What a way to start your pro career. Read more about it at the Sports Illustrated site . Needless to say, Michelle was less than happy about this. (The reporter could have reported it during the 3rd round when it happened and before she signed her scorecard and she wouldn't have been disqualifed - sounds like a reporter trying to make a name for himself, if you ask me - bunch of crap). However, you can read another opinion of the sportswriter's actions here

The Sox powered into the World Series behind fabulous pitching last night. First time since 1959 - too bad they couldn't win it on their home field - place would have gone crazy. Maybe they'll get that chance in the World Series. Looking like they will probably play Houston for the World Series.

Canon 20D or Panasonic FZ30?

Here's an interesting review of the differences and decision making when it comes to selecting a digital camera. I stumbled across this while looking at Photography Blog via my RSS newsreader . What's the solution? Buy both and hide the receipts from your wife. :)

Wie struggles, then finishes strong

Michelle Wie came back yesterday from some poorly played beginning holes to finish -1 for the day and -10 through the 3rd day, good enough to be only 5 shots back of Anika and in sole possession of 3rd place. It's possible if she shot a 64 or something tomorrow that she might win, but that would be a minor miracle. Still, not having a bad tournament for a 16 yr old, eh? For a recap, head here

White Sox meantime move to 3-1 in their league playoff vs the Angels. Suspect they will finish off the Angels soon, since they have outstanding pitching and I'll finally get to see my boys appear in the World Series - first time since I was 9 years old. (a few million years ago). Tune in tonite to see if they can make it happen.

A Hot Start for Wie

Michelle Wie fired a 7 under 65 today in the 2nd round of the Samsung World Championship. As most of you know, MIchelle started her Pro career here at the ripe old age of 16. Her 65 netted her a tie for 2nd place, 2 strokes off the lead going into Saturday's round. NBC will have coverage for 1 hour (1-2pm) on Saturday and then will have 3 hours of coverage on Saturday( 1-4pm). (with Michelle around, I suspect TV coverage will begin to improve for women's golf) . Head to the LPGA site for an interview with Michelle and leader Grace Park after their rounds today.

Testing out a blog posting tool in the new photo sharing site called Zoto.  You can get 2 Gigs worth of free photo uploads there for sharing with others. That's quite a bit.

Adobe 7.0 Reader and Firefox

Decided to download Adobe 7.0 Reader yesterday as I have found that 6.0 and Firefox don't behave well together (takes forever to close Adobe and slow to open as well.) Was happy to see that they have fixed those problems now - works like a champ - so, if you haven't upgraded and are using Firefox for your browser, do yourself a favor.

White Sox Moving Closer

I've been waiting since 1959 to see the Sox move into the World Series - since the days of Al Smith, Louis Aparicio, Nellie Fox, Sherman Lollar, Jim Landis, , Early Wynn, Billy Pierce and Ted Kluzewski. Red Sox just tied up the 3rd game in the series with back to back home runs - but I'm counting on the Chisox. :) Of course, if they win the division, they'll probably still have to get by the Yankees, no easy task. My favorite ball player of all time didn't play that year for the Sox, but if he had, perhaps they would have won the World Series - yep, we're talking about the one and only Minnie Minoso (Saturnino Orestes Armas Minoso Arrieta - how's that for a name?). Turn here for a look at Minnie today.

Made it into the Big Apple today. Beginning to get the hang of this after 3 trips here in the past year. Park at Newark airport, catch a shuttle bus into Grand Central station and then either walk or catch a subway to where we stay. Piece of cake. Cost of 1 week subway/bus pass has climbed to $24, but still the best deal going in NYC. Ate lunch and dinner at Grand Central - food is good and prices are reasonable (for NYC).

Spent about 4 days in Philly doing the history thing - the new Constitution exhibit (very nicely done - definitely worth a visit), Independence Hall (they make the visits too short - timed visits - 15 minutes - guess with so many people wanting to visit ......,) also checked out all the other historical homes around Independence Hall. Helps to have studied up on your late 1700's history before coming. Fortunately, I had prepared by reading Michael Shaara's revolutionary war books, the Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis, and Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer.

Also took in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (wonderful museum - where Rocky ran up the steps), ate Philly cheesesteaks and other bad things at the Reading Terminal Market near City Hall (took the elevator ride to the very top of the biggest city hall blgd in the country).

Plan to do some of our Audible.com Soundwalks (walking tours with audio from locals - outstanding series of walks) - this time plan to do Wall Street, Brooklyn, and Little Italy. Hope to take in "Flightplan" at the Ziegfield with Jodie Foster and maybe a Broadway show, if we can find a cheap one we like .

Till then....

Pooped out after 7 hours on the Battlefield! Was worth it though - driving tour and accompanying cassette tape were excellent. Having read the 1st half of the Killer Angels so far, gave us a big leg up on understanding the battle and the characters behind it. I'm telling you, these were some damn tough characters back then - hike 28 miles and then storm Little Round Top - ugh - man, I wouldn't have even made it 28 miles, let alone have the strength to charge a hill or load a weapon. And of course there was the minor little distraction of cannon balls exploding around your head.

Rounded off the day with an all you can eat buffett at Pickett's Buffett - I'm sure General Pickett stopped in here for a hearty meal before charging across that 1 mile expanse. If his boys had eaten as much as we did, I doubt they would have made it more than a few hundred yards. They probably hadn't eaten in some time and thus decided to charge across the field cause they knew Pickett's buffett was just around the corner. :) It was a hot, sticky day today, just like the days these guys fought in - can't imagine wearing those hot uniforms and running barefoot across some of those rocks. Somehow, I suspect them boys had a mite more fortitude than this ol' couch potato.

I'd post a pic of the day, but too pooped for that craziness.

Haven't posted in a bit and am now off on a 2 week vacation to Gettysburg, Philadelphia, and NYC. Will hopefully find some time in the evening to post a few pics and give you a vacation update. Spent most of the day today driving from SW VA up to Gettysburg - about a 6-7 hour drive. Didn't seem like the drive took very long, because Janet and I were listening to the audio version of Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels", arguably one of the best historical novels ever written. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction back in 1973 and much later (in the 90's) was made into a film by Ted Turner, entitled "Gettysburg".

I had read it some 20 years ago and recently saw the film Gettysburg again, plus have read a ton of Civil War stuff, but it is a nice review before touring the battlefield. Excellently narrated.

We'll spend most of Wednesday touring the battlefield.

Time to go back to listening to the audio book!

Medicaid Cuts Postponed

From Reuters comes this bit of news.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, lawmakers in Washington have shelved -- at least temporarily -- plans to reduce spending on the massive Medicaid health program by $10 billion. The cuts were to be part of broader budget deficit-reduction legislation due September 16.

But there is another reason for the delay besides the need to provide immediate relief to hurricane victims -- even some Republican lawmakers say it would be bad public relations to cut Medicaid when so many poor people were disproportionately -- and visibly on national television -- affected by the hurricane. "This is not the time to take on Medicaid or other entitlements for the poor," said Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., a member of the Senate committee charged with making the cuts.

"At a time when millions are displaced and seeking federal and state assistance, we believe it is inappropriate to move forward on that portion of a legislative package that would cut programs like Medicaid, Food Stamps, WIC (a food program for pregnant women and children), housing and education," the letter said.

Other Republicans, however, said that while the federal government may well end up spending more on Medicaid to help the hurricane victims, it is important to proceed with the budget legislation as well. Said House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, "we're not cutting Medicaid. We're reforming government." hmmm..... how so?

Katrina's Silver Lining?
David Brook's makes some sense in his NY Times column . "That's why the second rule of rebuilding should be: Culturally Integrate. Culturally Integrate. Culturally Integrate. The only chance we have to break the cycle of poverty is to integrate people who lack middle-class skills into neighborhoods with people who possess these skills and who insist on certain standards of behavior." (click the link and read the entire article)

For all Things Katrina
Wikipedia has this page that will take you to everything you probably would want to know about Katrina. So, if you want to help, look here.

Katrina

Katrina Photos from a Flickr user.

The President announced he's sending Vice President Dick Cheney -- just returned from vacation in Wyoming -- to the Gulf Coast to look into the red tape tangling response efforts. Gee Dick, nice of you to take a break from your vacation and I'm sure you'll get to the root of the evildoing - LOL

Want the latest uptodate news on Katrina? You need to check out this blogger who is posting live updates with photos.

Do you have a bed or a room you can offer an evacuee? If so, head over to HurricaneHousing.org



From Nicolas D. Kristoff of the NY Times, comes this article - The Larger Shame None of this is to suggest that there are easy solutions for American poverty. As Ronald Reagan once said, "We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won." But we don't need to be that pessimistic - in the late 1990's, we made real headway. A ray of hope is beautifully presented in one of the best books ever written on American poverty, "American Dream," by my Times colleague Jason DeParle.

So the best monument to the catastrophe in New Orleans would be a serious national effort to address the poverty that afflicts the entire country. And in our shock and guilt, that may be politically feasible.

Jason De Parle's book - American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare

Financial
If you're looking for a no-fee credit card that offers 5% back on gas, groceries, and drugstore purchases and 1% back on everything else, you might be interested in this card . If you read the fine print, max you will get back in a year is $300, although the article I found in Newsweek about this said there was no rebate limit. I think Newsweek was wrong, but if someone wants to check out the site and give me your take on the fine print, I'd appreciate it. Still I'll take $300 if someone is going to give it to me - I pay off my credit cards every month, so I don't care about the interest rate. For those of you who don't pay it off each month, my sympathies for your future well-being.

Buy a House - get a Pig! Check it out!

Nature in More Peaceful Times - Photo of the Day

Sometimes we all need a break from Katrina, if just for a few moments. So here's nature when it isn't being disturbed. (although these fellas are cannibals, so I'm not sure that "peaceful" is the appropriate word here. :) These are one of the easier creatures to take macro shots of because they don't mind that the lens is only a few inches from their face. Canon 20D,EF100mm f2.8 USM Macro lens, 1/320th @ f5, ISO 400

Click on the picture to get a truly closeup view.

Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast

If you're looking for a meaningful book on the crisis in New Orleans and what needs to be done before rebuilding that city, then you should pick up a copy of Mike Tidwell's book Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast . I saw him on Meet the Press today and he was impressive. Gets 5 Star reviews at Amazon.

If you missed Meet the Press today , you can read the transcript of the show .

If you want to read an interesting article appearing in the Houston Chronicle about New Orleans written in 2001, then read Keeping Its Head Above Water - New Orleans Faces doomsday scenario

Places to Donate:

Red Cross

Habitat for Humanity

Noah's Wish - Helping the Animals

The Race Card? I don't think so

In all the emotions of the past week, it is understandable that incriminations are being hurled everywhere. One that I have been frequently hearing is that there would have been a quicker Federal response, had it been white people who were in this situation rather than black people. I guess I'm just not cynical enough to buy into that theory. I think it was more of a matter of poor leadership and mismanagement on the Federal level and bureaucracy getting in the way between the States and the Feds. There were poor white communities outside of New Orleans that received help no faster than the folks in New Orleans. I can certainly understand the blacks of New Orleans feeling this way as they look around and only see each other and few whites, but then New Orleans is 70% black as well, so that shouldn't be too big of a surprise. This was the first big test of how Homeland Security would operate now that they had incorporated FEMA under their wing. Obviously, they failed and have to now totally reevaluate how to improve their response. As horrible as New Orleans is, this may serve as a very big and much needed wakeup call.

I hate to say it, but I think much of the blame has to land at GW's doorstep - when you're the man in charge, you have to know the details of your operation - as any good CEO knows, "the devil is in the details". It's not enough to hire people and assume they know what they are doing - you have to be ever vigilant and make sure that those who are working for you have credible plans in place. Unfortunately, I just don't think this President has that mental capability - no slam on him as a person - we weren't all born geniuses. However, someone in charge of a country this large does need to have a great mind, be able to express himself well and be extraordinarily well versed in many areas. Bush is just not the right man at this time for all the crises this country is facing and will be facing in years to come. Who is that perfect person? Who knows, but they need to have the qualities mentioned above and then some.

I heard various commentators suggesting that the Feds would have been in there quicker had the governor of LA asked for it officially. Now that does sound ludicrous, but at the same time hardly surprising when one looks at how huge bureaucracies operate. It will be interesting to find out how much planning went on between the governor, the mayor and the Federal govt in regards to major disaster planning. It seems surprising that a black mayor wouldn't know that most of his constituency didn't have the means to get out of town and even if they could, didn't have the means to afford lodging anywhere. (I suspect he knew this very well). If his State didn't have the resources to go through these neighborhoods and gather up these people on buses and move them out, why didn't he plan with the Federal Govt ahead of time to have National Guard or whomever to get in there and have these buses, trucks, etc picking up these people 1-2 days prior to landfall? I would be most interested to hear that question answered. ( I heard this morning that FEMA just last year went through this very same scenario even to the point of having New Orleans completely flooded and with the understanding that these poor people didn't have the means to get out, but I also heard that they stopped there - they didn't ever go further and figure out exactly how to remove the people and where to put them - mindboggling It will be interesting to sort out the chaff from the wheat in this story in the coming days.

It has also been amazing to watch reporters on this beat - I've never seen such antipathy towards the govt expressed as has been seen here and it's across all the channels, even Fox. Tune in to this snippet on Fox to see what I mean. (It will take a while to download, so if you're on dialup, go eat breakfast or something and come back). It's total disgust for the talking heads in DC and their ineffectiveness - truly history in the making. It will be quite interesting to see how all this plays out in the coming weeks.

We should be embarrassed

From all apparent signs, the govt's response to the tragedy in New Orleans has been a total disaster in itself. Listening to Jack Cafferty on CNN this afternoon, he ripped the government big time (for those who believe the press is too easy on the govt, you haven't listened to Jack). Now people are in desperate condition at a large convention center in the city, with people starting to die in front of one's eyes. Come on now, you can't get food and water dropped in there? Mind you, I don't blame the heroic efforts the people on the ground are performing - they are truly heroes, but the govt is the driving force behind protecting it's citizens and it is just too damn slow here.

One thing about this tragedy that may in the very long haul bring some good - America is getting to see the Poor up front and slammed in their face. This is what our country turns a blind eye to so much of the time - well there's no escaping it now. Are these the conditions that a humanitarian country wants part of the population to live in? It's time for this country to step up and be proud of itself by providing worthwhile and meaningful jobs for these people who fervently wish to be productive citizens, just like you and I. Corporations could do wonderful things in this arena, but it takes guts on the parts of compassionate CEOs. Sometimes that means telling your stockholders that some of those dividend reimbursements may have to be curtailed so that others less fortunate than you and I can have a better life. Don't think the stockholders would accept that? You might be mistaken - Americans can be very compassionate when called upon. We don't like to see poverty, drugs and crime - well, let's do something that will effect it in a meaningful way - let's provide work for these people, even if it it is public works projects to begin with. Do we really want to send half our jobs overseas and exploit poor people in other countries while we sweep our disenfranchised brethren on the home front under the carpet? Is that what we want for our country? Maybe rather than writing one's congressman/woman, one should be writing the CEOs of companies asking them what they have done to help the disenfranchised of their communities?

Your comments are welcomed.

America's Great Divide

From the Bulldog Manifesto today comes these interesting blog remarks.

To put the 'Great American Divide' in context, assume there are 100 people who have $100 to split up amongst them. Although nobody expects the money to be shared evenly at $1.00 per person, everybody expects that some basic fairness may be applied in the process.

But suppose the $100 gets divided as follows:

1 person gets $38.10
4 people get $5.32 each
5 people get $2.30 each
10 people get $1.25 each
20 people get $.60 each
20 people get $.23 each
40 people get 1/2 cent each

That is how the money is divided in America. As the one person who now makes $38.10 begins to take even a greater share as time goes by, the divide gets wider. Eventually, you have a situation where the people become quite upset with the situation, perhaps feeling that the system is skewed a bit unfairly.

Kinda brings the true picture home when you look at it this way, doesn't it? Kinda depressing to realize i'm probably one of those folks who might be lucky enough to get .23. LOL :(

Wondering why everybody didn't just get out ?

"What breaks your heart is the city has so many poor people who live in old, deteriorated, substandard housing and they have so little — and what little they have they've lost," said Michael L. Lomax, president of the United Negro College Fund, who spent seven years in New Orleans as president of Dillard University. "These are people who stayed because they couldn't get out, because they didn't have a car." New Orleans' Tragic Paradox

Health Costs continue to Spiral Upwards

There's a good article in USA Today about spiraling health costs today. We can identify with that. We just got hit with our annual premium increase - 18% higher than last year. We don't have company paid health insurance, so this is just another nail in our coffin. With this latest premium increase, premiums for my wife and I will hit 10K per year. That's just the premiums! That doesn't cover meeting the deductible and the 20% copays after meeting the deductible. I won't say what we make, but let's just say that is a whopping part of our salary. Even if we increase deductibles from $300 to $5000, we're still looking at $6400/year in premiums alone (having diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes does yourself no favors either when it comes to insurance companies deciding where you fall on their risk ladder). Is this crazy or what? These have been our premium increases in recent years:

• 2001 - 10.8%


• 2002 - 16.2%


• 2003 - 22.3%


• 2004 - 16.3%


• 2005 - 19.4%


• 2006 - 18.2%

Now last time I looked, we weren't getting salary increases each year along those lines. Last time I looked inflation wasn't at those levels either. Seems to me I'd better start buying stock in insurance companies.

And when you start looking at alternative plans, it becomes a bewildering maze of figures and becomes very complicated forecasting what the next year might bring. And if you switch to the cheaper plan, then you can get burned by less coverage and there is the real possibility they won't let you switch back to the old plan. A conundrum to say the least. I'm currently investigating HSA plans (Health Savings Accounts) but they aren't all peaches and cream either.

An HSA (in which money contributed is tax-deductible, grows tax-free and can be withdrawn tax-free for medical expenses) certainly can work for you. A worker who salts away $1,000 per year for 40 years in an HSA could accumulate $133,400 to pay for future health-care expenses, EBRI research shows. If the very same worker salts away $2,650 per year, the HSA nest egg could grow to a whopping $474,200.

But those sums, while tidy, are best case and assume a worker would not spend any money in an HSA on current health-care expenses. It assumes they would roll over 100% of their year-end account balances each year.

The more likely case is that a worker would spend some portion of the money in an HSA on current medical expenses. And once you factor the very real possibility that a worker rolls just a portion of their year-end account balances, the health-care nest egg starts to look meager, if not insignificant.

Consider, for instance, the worker who salts away $2,650 per year over 40 years but spends most of it for annual health costs and rolls over just 10% of the year-end account balance for 40 years. That worker would have only $10,000 in the HSA to pay for health care expenses in retirement. And that sum seems hardly enough to buy a box of cotton swabs four decades hence.

Doesn't sound so wonderful does it? Well there are suggestions to make it better and you can read about it in this article entitled Time to overhaul HSAs at Marketwatch.

Some will advise me to just find a doctor to declare myself totally disabled and then I can get on Medicaid. Well, that's fine, except I'm not disabled to that point, nor do I like the thought of not paying my own way and waiting on a government handout. I believe those should be reserved for the the truly needy, whose ranks we'll probably join pretty fast at this rate.

Looks like it's time to wing another letter off to the old congressmen/women in DC - fat lot of good that will do, but if you write a letter and your friend writes a letter, etc, etc - maybe somebody might just wake up. So help us out and sharpen that pencil.

Red Cross Needs your Help

I was hoping to see people clicking on the link to the Red Cross so that they could donate much needed funds. So far I haven't seen any indication of anyone clicking on that link, which is disappointing. I can only hope you've contributed through other sites or via other means. This is the best way to help these unfortunate people at the moment, so do everything you possibly can to loosen up those purse strings.

Note ** - The Red Cross said it had so far raised $21 million, a figure comparable to the response for tsunami victims following the devastation in Asia earlier this year. Nearly $15 million of that has come from individual donations through its Web site, with the rest representing corporate contributions. This is great news - keep it coming folks!

New 10X Olympus

Olympus has announced a new 10x (35mm-380mm) optical 6mp f2.8-3.7 camera using xD cards for a mere $399. That's a hard price to beat. Also will macro focus down to 3cm and has a 2.5" LCD. Only bummer - electronic viewfinder, but at that price you can't complain. Also noticed it doesn't have IS (image stabilization), which is not good when shooting at the 380 end of that zoom. Still the price is low.

Web site of the Day
Windows XP Free Downloads

Help out the Red Cross

The Red Cross Needs your help. Head over to the Red Cross Web Site where you can donate to help out. These folks down in LA, MS, AL are going to need a lot of help, so open up those pocketbooks and put the Lexus on the back burner for the moment.

No Flood Insurance?
This left me rather amazed - noticed this in the online edition of Newsweek . They were interviewing an economist with the Insurance Information Institute, who said,

Is it possible for homeowners in storm-prone places to get flood insurance?
In order to have flood-related coverage you have to have purchased a policy that's underwritten by the federal government through the National Flood Insurance Program. Unfortunately many people do not purchase that even though it's relatively inexpensive and ubiquitously available. It's through the same agent that sells your standard homeowner's policy, but it's the government that [provides] the insurance.

Don't people know about federal flood insurance?
Oh, people know about it. Many people because they're not obliged to do it, they say, “It won't happen to me,” or they hope to get some federal aid afterwards. But in the end they're going to wind up coming short. It's playing Russian roulette with your most valuable asset--your home. I would say that you would have to be insane to not buy flood coverage if you live anywhere along the Southeast coast of the United States.

People can afford to have a house but can't afford to protect it - what's up with that?

Obsolescence

I've been away from blogging a few days, trying to get some printer issues worked out. I had recently bought a Canon i9900 printer which will print borderless 13x19 prints. It's a beauty and a speed demon as well. What was weird, is that I would print something and it would spit it out immediately, just like it should.. But if I then pressed Print again, it would take up to 4 minutes to print. Strange, eh? After many emails back and forth with Canon and prowling many a forum and uninstalling, reinstalling printer drivers, defragging, tuning up the registry, dumping temp files, still nothing worked.

Finally a techie in a printer forum suggested that perhaps my usb 2.0 printer port was underpowered. Since my computer is about 3 years old , it didn't come with 2.0 ports, only 1.1 . I had to purchase a Belkin hi-speed 2.0 PCI card with two usb 2.0 ports on it, in order to get hi-speed usb 2.0 components to work. I've had my external hard drive, my card reader, my scanner and my other Canon printer (an S300) printer plugged into that card and the hub that came with it, without a problem. But the i9900 was obviously presenting new challenges. When I decided to unplug this i9900 and plug it into one of my old 1.1 ports on the computer, it worked correctly. Therefore, perhaps the i9900 has bigger power requirements than my other devices did? I plugged my i9900 into my wife's laptop which has native hi-speed usb 2.0 ports and it worked fine on her machine. So perhaps there is a glitch with the Belkin PCI card. So an email to Belkin and now I await their answer. No doubt it will say that there couldn't be a problem and they will send me a replacement card - we shall see.

But that's where I've been - on an all-consuming effort to figure this out. Incredible how long it can take.

Photo of the Day

Not your ordinary front view, but rather a view from the back of the flower. I liked the color combo in this shot. Taken in the gardens of the Fox Hill Inn . Canon 20D, EF100mm f2.8 Macro USM lens; 1/640th@f4.5 iso200>







Health
Indian Fry Bread debate? Seems like quite a controversy is raging out on the reservation, as Indians struggle with diabetes. Is this favorite staple killing them? Some interesting information here in this Miami Herald article (you may have to register to access article - free registration). Having had some Indian Fry bread myself and being a type 2 diabetic myself, I can understand the debate. I do admit - the stuff is addicting, but then my middle name should have been "pastry". If you want a try at it yourself, here's a recipe .

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - I once saw a forklift lift a crate of forks...it was too damn literal for me...That machine has been misunderstood for years.

Photo of the Day

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - Virginia's State butterfly. The Eastern Tiger swallowtail, Papilio glaucus, is a large (12 cm wingspan) Swallowtail Butterfly. It is found in the Eastern United States, as far north as southern Vermont, and as far West as extreme Eastern Colorado. It flies from spring through fall, and most of the year in the southern portions of its range, where it may produce 2 or 3 broods a year. Canon 20D, EF100mm F2.8 Macro USM ; 1/500th @ f4.5 iso 200 Click the photo to see full sized view.

The Turnaround

Did you catch CNN's TheTurnaround this morning? As I've mentioned before, if business appeals to you and in particular the thought of running your own business, you can't find a much better show for giving you lots of tips on how to make your business work. Today's show concentrated on helping a lady run a catering business out her house and to assist her in making her business profitable. Emma Tate had to be one of the nicest ladies you would ever meet , in fact she was so nice, she was practically giving her business away for free to charitable organizations. One of the biggest lessons she had to learn was the ability to say "NO". While it was hard for her to turn people away, she also learned that being profitable means you can create jobs for people, something she hadn't really thought about. (So for those who scorn business all the time for making profits, remember, that does create opportunities for jobs - it's only when the profits become excessive and end up in the fat cats' pockets, that trouble begins).

One of the other interesting bits of advise given to her by her mentor was to create an advisory board that would look at all aspects of her business, initially on a monthly basis and then quarterly. What a great idea! How many small business owners would think of creating an advisory board of people who could honestly evaluate the business and point out ways to improve? Think about how many small businesses fail today in the early years - far too many. Why? Because most try to go it alone and can't see the forest for the trees. Think if they could have the mentoring that is provided by this TV show - the success rate would definitely soar. It always comes back to education, doesn't it? And this is education done correctly - by applying principles to real situations, not idly theorizing in a classroom somewhere. These are the sorts of things that our teachers in our public schools could learn from.

If I were thinking of starting a new business, I'd tape every one of these shows and follow all of these tips. You're getting advice from people who are the very best in their industry - where can you get that for free?

P.S. Just learned that CNN is cancelling this show . Come on - how dumb can you be? And to top it off you dumped Dolan's Unscripted as well. You trashed it originally when you took it off daily programming and now you cancel it for good. How do you think the common man learns about wise investments and financial planning? And learning how to run a small business? Geez, CNN - don't you think America would like to be educated?

Financial Advice
When was the last time you checked out your credit report? Were you aware that you can now get them free? Yep, once every 12 months you can get your free report from Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. Head for AnnualCreditReport.com . Eastern states have to wait till September 1st before this becomes available but for all the rest of you, you should definitely take advantage of this.

Mortgage Rates - I checked out the recent national averages - 5.8% for a 30 year fixed , 5.4% for a 15 year fixed. If you borrowed a 100K to buy a house, you'd be looking at $586/month payments on the 30 year fixed and $811 on the 15 year fixed. If you could figure out a way to come up with that extra $225/month for the 15 year fixed , you'd save $65,108 on buying that house. Of course you could take the difference ($225) and invest it, but then you have to do better than 5.8% and you have to calculate in taxes on the interest you earn on your investments, so in the end you'd have to be disciplined to invest that difference each month and you'd probably be shooting for at least a 10% return on your investment - something that isn't very easy to do in today's stock market. If it was me, I'd be searching awful hard for a way to come up with those extra bucks.

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - In England, Smokey the Bear is not the forest fire prevention representative. They have Smackey the Frog. It's just like a bear, but it's a frog. I think it's a better system, I think we should adopt it. Because bears can be mean, but frogs are always cool. Never has there been a frog hopping toward me, and I thought 'man, I'd better play dead. Here comes that frog ...' You never say here comes that frog in a nervous manner. It's always optimistic. Hey here comes that frog, all right. Maybe he will settle near me so I can pet him, and stick him in a mayonnaise jar, with a stick and a leaf, to recreate what he's used to. And I'm pretty sure I'd have to punch some holes in the lid, because he's damn sure used to air. Then I can observe him, and he won't be doing much in his 16-ounce world.

Turn of Faith

An interesting article on what it was like to be a Jehovah's Witness. One valuable tip I gleaned from this article - It's strange when Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door now. I know discussion is futile; they have a carefully planned response for any objection. Finally, I say, ''I'm an apostate,'' and their eyes widen at the word: someone who has willfully rejected Jehovah, far worse than a worldly person, who is simply ignorant of the Truth. A threat to the faith of others, an apostate deserves to be shunned, as we were forced to shun our disfellowshipped father. The Witnesses back away from my door. Reckon I know what I'll say the next time they show up. :) (appearing naked at the doorway with a pitchfork also seems to work).

Check your Bandwidth Speed

Want to make sure your speed is what it should be while surfing the Net? Here are a few services that will help you do that - run them all and you'll see they come up with pretty close results - it will show you if you're doing well on your dialup/broadband connection. I'm on dialup and seem to be pretty consistently between 37 and 40KBps (5K/sec transfer rate). However, if I go to my other line (I have 2 lines and 2 line phones), I get only half that speed, yet the phone company tries to blame it on my 2 line phones or my computer modem. Find that hard to fathom.

One thing I do find is that if I check it and the speeds seem to be falling off and I keep rechecking and continue to see slower speeds, a disconnect and reconnect often will bring it back up to the steady good speeds. I'm not sure why this is - perhaps some sort of resistance build up in the line or modem? I'm just guessing - will have to find a modem forum to get a better idea on that. If a techie is reading this, perhaps they might be able to offer an explanation.

P.S. The tests below are quick and easy. Click a button and that's about it. Make sure other things aren't downloading in the background or pages refreshing automatically or your results will confuse you.

What kind of speeds are you finding on your system? Comment below.

• Cnet Bandwidth Meter Speed Test


• Speakeasy Speed Test


• A Beltronica Speed Test

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - I hate turkeys. If you stand in the meat section at the grocery store long enough, you start to get pissed off at turkeys. There's turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami. Someone needs to tell the turkey: man, just be yourself. I already like you, little brother. You do not need to emulate the other animals. I used to draw you. (Stares at hand.) Man, if you were missing a couple of fingers, you drew one fucked-up turkey. You'd be like, "That turkey's been in an accident."

Photo of the Day

I think this photo sums up this summer pretty well. Too damn hot! Willow is probably wondering why someone hasn't delivered her beach umbrella. Canon 20 D, 100mm EF f2.8 USM Macro lens, 1/640th @f4.5 ISO 200 Click the photo for full sized view

Speed and then some

Watched the World Outdoor Track championships from Helsinki, Finland over the past week. Some amazing up and coming talent for the US team, especially in the sprint events. I've always liked track (ran it in H.S - the 440 and Mile Relay).

I think one of the great moments in H.S. track and field comes sitting in the stands of a Gary, Indiana Regional totally surrounded by black folks, who love their track and field, especially the sprints. Man, that place used to rock and roll when it came time for the 100 . You could hear a pin drop waiting for that starter and when some of these young dudes came blasting out of the blocks, the place would go up for grabs with lots of oohing and awing. Some of the nation's top sprinters came out of Gary - I can't recall his name, but I do remember a young freshman phenom who had come close to tieing the National H.S. record in the 100 - he was amazing. (Unfortunately, went to the State meet - tripped over his sweats getting out of them, pulled a hamstring and that was the end of that - by the next year, he was high on drugs and long gone from the track scene - a true waste of a great talent). I also remember going to the old stadium in Indianapolis for the State Meet to see the likes of Bernie Rivers ( 9.6 in the 100 in '62 - from East Chicago Washington), Leroy Spikener from Gary Froebel (1:54 in the 800 in '66-67 and 1:52.7 the next year ( he used to toss his hat aside which was a signal to the crowd that he was going to take charge of the race - I still remember the state meet where that almost backfired - he tossed it early - in the first turn and damn near got beat at the end) , Clyde Peach of Indianapolis Brebauf - 9.5 in the 100 in '65-'66 (how'd a white kid ever learn to run that fast ?), Larry Highbaugh 20.5 in the 200 in '66-67 when it was still being run on the straightaway (Indianapolis Washington), Don Vandrey 4:10.8 in the mile in '65-66 and 4:10.3 the next year to winn again - Valparaiso H.S.), Rudy Chapa (4:05.8 in the mile in '75-76 - Hammond H.S and 8:58.5 in the two mile a year earlier). and Jerry Saffell of Laporte H.S. in the 120 yd, High Hurdles - 14.4 in '61-'62 and 14.1 '62-63 - ah, brings back great memories. I'm sure if you are from Indiana and were a track fan in the mid 60's these names are all quite familiar.

There's just something about 1 on 1 racing that makes it so damn exciting - whether it is track and field, horse racing, biking, indy or nascar racing, but still track and field ranks #1 in this guy's book.

The Radical Middle

Although I listen to what the radical right and radical left have to say, I must admit I tend to drift towards the center. I think both of those elements help bring issues into focus, but little gets done on anything unless you have people in the middle willing to hack out a compromise between these two polarizing elements. I stumbled upon a Radical Middle newsletter the other day which seems to make some sense and tries to steer away from the viewpoint many have of centrists - that they're "mushy, ad-hoc,technocratic -- in a word, unprincipled." His Twelve-Point Plan for caring & creative centrists presents some very interesting viewpoints. Take some time to browse the site - there are a ton of links there. The design of the site is pretty blah, but obviously the author was more interested in the information than a splashy design.

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - I think a rotisserie is like a really morbid ferris wheel for chickens. It's a strange piece of machinery... "We will take the chicken, kill it, impale it, and then rotate it. And I'll be damned if I'm not hungry! Because spinning chicken carcasses make my mouth water! I like dizzy chicken. With a side of potatoes of some sort.

Canon 10D for Sale

If you're interested in digital photography, a friend of mine has a Canon 10D digital SLR for sale. You can read an indepth review of the camera at DPReview and you can write my friend Sarah to ask her any questions. Some examples of her photography are on the Net at this location . If you're looking to move up from the tinier digicams to something that can produce large prints, this might be the ticket for you, and it gives you the added flexibility of using different lenses for your photography.

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - I like swiss cheese. It's the only cheese you can draw with a pencil and identify. You can draw American cheese, but someone will think it's cheddar. Swiss cheese is the only cheese you can bite and miss. "Hey Mitch - does that sandwich have cheese on it?" "Every now and then!" I got some swiss air on that bite.

A Clever Idea

Saw this in David Pogue's column today . I agree with him, it's pretty neat device. It twists and you can plug it directly into a usb port without needing a card reader or having to plug your camera into the computer.

It turns out that SanDisk's SD Plus is a card with a twist--or, rather, a fold. Even though the card itself is smaller than a postage stamp, it's been built with teeny, tiny hinges. And when you fold it back on itself, you reveal a set of metal contacts that you can insert directly into the U.S.B. jack of your Mac or PC.

The card doesn't have an actual U.S.B. connector of the sort you find at the end of your camera's cable; it dispenses with the outer rectangle frame. All that really counts, it turns out, is those metal contacts.

That's it. The computer sees the card as an external drive--a flash drive, just as though you'd inserted the card into a card reader--and you can download the photos just as you always do. Except you've completely eliminated the need for an additional piece of gear that bridges your camera and your computer.

Photo of the Day

Shot this looking directly into sun. Was expecting a lot of flare as I didn't have a lens hood on, but was pleasantly surprised. Canon 20D 100mm EF2.8 USM Macro; 1/2500th @ f4, iso 800.

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. "Goddamn it Otto, you are an alcoholic." "Goddamn it Otto, you have Lupus" ... one of those two doesn't sound right.

Audible

I've recently updated my Audible section in the sidebar, to show my favorite selections over the past few years, as well as to show the book I'm currently reading. If you're a commuter, as I've said many times before, this is something you should check out. Or if you like to work out and tire of just constant music and actually want to learn something, then you need to investigate this. I've read well over 25 books in the last year alone, something I never would have done otherwise.

Fun with MachineTranslation

You will note that under each post now, there is a link to various languages, so if, for example, you wish to read the post in German, you would click on Deutsche. Sometimes the translations aren't bad, sometimes they're pretty funny. (the only one I can speak besides English is German, so your guess is as good as mine about the others. I suspect German is not an easy one for the automatic translation device. Perhaps some of you who speak the other languages can comment on the those. Check the sidebarfor more information about this (under Google Translation Links).

Dana Reeve (44) has Lung Cancer

Man, this is NOT what you deserve after all this poor woman has gone through. You have to wonder how much stress contributed to this. I don't think she smoked, so you have to ponder what caused this. Prognosis is not generally good once you get tagged with this, despite one's positive attitude,etc. Let's hope she can be the exception to the rule. She was a true warrior during his illness. Stress is one of those things you need to get rid of in your life if at all possible, because it is the bringer of only bad things when it comes to health. And if you smoke, well maybe Peter Jenning's death and even hearing of Dana's situation, will prompt you to stop the stupid habit before it is too late. Last I heard, dying of cancer is not a pleasant way to go.

Bidu - boo

Glad I bailed early on BIDU yesterday - down another 10% today at $103 as I post this. I feel sorry for those who bought at $158 yesterday, if they didn't pay attention after they bought. Oil stocks continue to percolate, which is might fine by me, owning 1 of those gems myself. It may not be a good thing overall, but it is handsomely paying off for my otherwise stupid plunges into things like BIDU.

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - This product that was on TV was available for four easy payments of $19.95. I would like a product that was available for three easy payments and one fucking complicated payment. We can't tell you which payment it is, but one of these payments is going to be a bitch. The mailman will get shot to death, the envelope will not seal, and the stamp will be in the wrong denomination. Good luck fucker. The last payment must be made in wampum Sorry about the x-rated language - that's Mitch, not me!

BIDU anyone?

China's new "Google" has taken off like a rocketship, blasting from $27 to a current $142. You do the math - that's a huge increase. I jumped in to the fray as well - too late? Probably, if my track record is any thing. Then on the other hand, perhaps it will head towards $300 and I'll make a tidy profit. Ha!

Baidu has grown impressively since being founded five years ago and is currently the second most popular Web site in China. For the current quarter, the company expects to report a nearly 400% earnings increase to $1.5 million on $8.4 million in revenue....."The speculators are looking at it as another Google and right now the fast money is taking over," Randy Diamond, sales trader at Miller Tabak, said. "Individual investors should stay far away from this stock until it cools off."

Yeh, well Randy that's probably what you said about Google when it was at $100, too. We shall see.

***"Follow up to this - maybe ol' Randy wasn't so stupid after all. Shortly after I bought, stock started to sink. Cratered out at the end of the day at $115.50. Fortunately, I had set a stop/loss and only took a small loss. Of course tomorrow, it will go up 100%. LOL

You'd Better Get Up Early

Discovery is scheduled to glide to the ground as early as 4:46 a.m. Eastern time Monday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The time is dictated by the way the shuttle's orbit brings it in line with the approach to Cape Canaveral; if necessary, a second opportunity will come slightly later in the morning, at 6:21.

TV Shows
Saw a great episode of Six Feet under tonight - outstanding acting - truly one of the better programs on TV today. Was introduced to a "Green Burial ", something I hadn't really heard much about - sort of makes sense in a way. It's a shame that's it's going off the air so soon. Some of the other really great TV I miss still today - Northern Exposure and Once and Again. What are some of the great shows you miss?

Medical Savings Plans

Anybody have any experience with Medical Savings Plans ? I'm going to have to seriously look at these. Health Insurance Premiums for someone on their own are becoming more outrageous every year. Mine have gone up 15-20% every year and that just isn't going to cut it, boys and girls. So if you've gone down the road of Medical Savings Plans, post a comment here and let me know of the possible pitfalls or your experiences.

Photo of the Day

What would a web page be without a picture of one's cat? Wiillow is our "youngster", a 4 yr old female who has to put up with her older brother and arch nemesis "Turbo". She is the most loving and yet hyperactive cat there is, whereas Turbo is misnamed - the older he gets the slower he gets, yet he still has that nice male aggressive streak in him, which only means trouble for Willow. Canon 20D EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 ; 1/200th f5.6 55mm ISO 1600

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - That would be cool if you could eat a good food with a bad food and the good food would cover for the bad food when it got to your stomach. Like, you could eat a carrot with an onion ring and they would travel down to your stomach, then they would get there, and the carrot would say, "It's cool, he's with me."

Problems with IE

In case you're wondering, I haven't posted much lately because I'm trying to figure out why this new blog template doesn't display correctly in IE. There are supposed to be two columns, but the 2nd one doesn't appear.

Strange, as it works fine in Firefox and Opera. I think I'll try a different template just to see what happens, although I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

Interesting - I just changed it to one with a sort of dark teal background and this time both columns show up in IE. Not that I like this color text against this background (think it is a bit hard to read, but it dows give me something to work with). Expect even more changes and possibly new styles as I keep fiddling with this. I do see now that the padding between some of my photos and the text looks good in IE, but is too close in Firefox. Ya gotta love these cross platform problems. Everyone should just switch to Firefox and save me a lot of trouble. :)

Well, found one that I like for its legibility and am now in the process of tweaking it. Test Link

Over There - Whew!

I will say one thing for this show - it will keep you on the edge of your seat - you get a real feel for the tension of a car approaching your checkpoint in the middle of the night with no headlights - shoot? don't shoot and get blown up maybe? Talk about a buildup of plaque in the ol' arteries. I don't know how you can chill out after daily doses of that - no wonder soldiers come home all messed up.

Over There

Over There airs it's 2nd episode tonight at 10 p.m Eastern on the FX channel. You get to live the life of a soldier in Iraq vicariously.

HTML
Incidentally, does anyone know the html for opening a link in a new tab, but in the background, rather than stealing focus? I know" target=_blank" and that's what I use for most of my links but that takes someone away from the page by opening a new tab (or window). Is there a way for that to be written so that the reader can stay on this page and see the tab load in the background?

Testing out a new format

Playing around modifying my blog template some - bear with me while I do my best to screw this up. If you think it stinks, please comment. :)

You Don't Know Jack about Firefox!

If you use Firefox or are thinking about it and want to know more about its features and why everybody raves about this browser, then do yourself a favor and visit You Don't Know Jack About Firefox! I learned quite a few tips myself and I've been using this for some time now.

Was Bush wrong to appoint John Bolton as UN Ambassador?

According to the Lou Dobbs web site , 87% of you said Yes, he was wrong. Shows what Bush thinks of your opinion. With all the bright and good people there are out there, you send a blustery, tactless fool to the UN? Geez, don't we have enough problems already?

Photo of the Day

Oil on Water Sometimes it is the simple subject that works the best. I happened to notice the light coming in behind this oil lamp and since red is my favorite color, I was unable to resist. :) Canon 20D 100mmEF f2.8 Macro USM 1/60th @ f6.3 ISO 800 Click picture for full detail.

Extreme Makeover - Home Edition

You know in this crazy world of ours, one could become a pessimist without breaking a sweat - that's why it's nice to occasionally look over the other side of the fence and see the greener pastures - such as the TV show "Extreme Makeover - Home Edition" . If you can't shed a tear watching this show, then you might as well lie down in the highway right now and wait for the next tractor trailer. This is truly TV at it's best. Not only do you marvel at the incredible creativity of these people and their amazing construction abilities, but you also have to truly appreciate the genuine kindness these folks radiate. If you're ever feeling down and feeling cynical and just downright nasty, take the time to tune in - it will totally change your perspective - guaranteed.

Anthony Bourdain
Oh, before I forget - Anthony Bourdain does Iceland tonite on the Travel Channel - 10 p.m. Eastern. An Interview with Anthony . Most of you know about Anthony from me talking constantly about his engrossing ( a double entendre there) book - "Kitchen Confidential".

Raging Baristas vent! (or is that venti?)

I always like to check in on the Starbucks gossip blog - always interesting and sometimes quite funny - Check out what Baristas think of irritating people who come in to the stores - quite a hoot! An example - "There is a woman who comes into our store every day, orders a tall decaf drip,(Sumatra; you know who you are!!) eats samples with both hands, and takes change out of the tip jar to pay for her coffee...unless I see her first. I move the tip jars when I see her in line. She also complains loudly every time we don't have bran muffins (could use the roughage, from the looks of her) but NEVER buys one when we do.
I wanna be the "Bad Barista" for just one day, so I can toss her wrinkled ass on the street. .

They get even better (and raunchier) - Don't you despise a customer who comes in and asks for grande non-fat cappucino and you get all excited because the store is almost empty and you have the chance to make the perfect cappucino, in a "for here" cup(!), with liquid chrome foam piled high and super sexy delicious. You create, very likely the best cappucino of your life, not too dry and and just at the right temperature. Then that same customer, you know the one, who wears the fake Gucci sunglasses and only comes in the day after welfare cheques are diposited, complains and says, "this is ALL foam, can you fill it up with milk. I didn't pay $3.91 for a cup full of foam." Thats what a fucking cappucino is you ignorant hoochie fool! Some people are just soooo not worthy!

For more of these priceless observations check out the "Bad Barista" story link .

Sports
The one guy who looked like he mght actually be telling the truth before Congress - boy, oh, boy - Rafael Palmeiro, the Baltimore Orioles slugger who at a Congressional hearing in March vehemently denied using steroids, was suspended for 10 days today for violating major league baseball's steroids policy. Read the full article in the Times . Another fine role model for young kids.

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedbert - Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something

Do you have a Google HomePage?

I believe I've mentioned this before, but Google has a neat tool that will create a Home Page with the news you'd like. You can find it at the Google Labs page.

Photo of the Day
sumac or sumach (shu-'ma(k, su-'–) , common name for some members of the Anacardiaceae, a family of trees and shrubs native chiefly to the tropics but ranging into north temperate regions and characterized by resinous, often acrid, sap. The sap of certain of these plants—especially poison ivy and related species of the New World genus Toxicodendron—contains an essential oil that can cause dermatitis.

The fruit form dense clusters of reddish drupes.

The hairy covering of the drupes is harvested and used as a spice in some Middle-Eastern countries. In North America, the smooth sumac, Rhus glabra, and the staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina, are sometimes used to make a beverage, termed "sumac-ade" or "Indian lemonade" or "rhus juice". This drink is made by soaking the drupes in cool water, rubbing the active principle off the drupes, then straining the liquid through a cotton cloth and sweetening it. Click on photo for full sized image.

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - I was walking down the street with my friend and he said "I hear music." As though there's any other way to take it in. You're not special. That's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it, but it did not work.

Over There

Over There premieres tonight at 10 pm Eastern on the FX Channel - Steven Bocho' s take on the war in Iraq.

Software
Konfabulator has been purchased by Yahoo. And it's now free - so check it out and have a few useful Widgets decorating your desktop. Don't know what I'm talking about? Click on the link. You can have the weather, stocks, clocks,search engines floating on your desktop and constantly updated - nice tool - all the rage now, as you can create your own as well. But all is not perfect - there are some negatives . It's up to you (and your memory) as to whether it's worth it.

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - I've had the AIDS test four times. And that shit is scary, doesn't matter what you've been doing. So I don't get the regular AIDS test anymore, I get the roundabout AIDS test. I call up my friend Brian and say "Brian, do you know anyone that has AIDS?" "No." "Cool, cause you know me."

Benefits of the Space Program

I had a friend question me on the benefits of the Space Program, wondering if the expense was worth it when we have starving people here at home. Of course, I knew the space program had provided many technological advances here on earth, but I must admit they weren't flowing off my tongue. That made me curious, so I went in search of the answers. This link provides some of the answers and the web page of the Ethical Atheist provides us with many more. This article on Health from CNN provides us with some of the breakthroughs of medicine gained by utilizing technology from space exploration.

Did you know the following? - Out of a $2.4 trillion budget, less than 0.8% is spent on the entire space program! That's less than 1 penny for every dollar spent. The average American spends more of their budget on their cable bill, eating out or entertainment than this yet the benefits of space flight are remarkable. It has been conservatively estimated by U.S. space experts that for every dollar the U.S. spends on R and D in the space program, it receives $7 back in the form of corporate and personal income taxes from increased jobs and economic growth. Besides the obvious jobs created in the aerospace industry, thousands more are created by many other companies applying NASA technology in nonspace related areas that affect us daily. One cannot even begin to place a dollar value on the lives saved and improved lifestyles of the less fortunate. Space technology benefits everyone and a rising technological tide does raise all boats.

Much of this can be found by doing a Google for "Benefits of the Space Program". Do these advantages make the program worth it? Feel free to comment below. If you've followed the links, hopefully now you have a bit better idea of what some of these benefits are.

Bloody Hell - It's HOT,HOT,HOT!

Why does my AC have to break when it is pushing past 90? And then some bozo repairman sits on it for a week before he admits he's an idiot and doesn't know what to do with it and then suggests that if I could pony up $150, he can work on it. No thanks - hell, a new one only costs $195! Just another case of impeccable service. I should go strap the dude in my recliner and make him sweat.

Links
I'm not seeing many folks click on the links inside the posts - how ya going learn anything if you don't click the links? Man, it must be HOT, cause I'm getting cranky. Figure I'll have a few more moments before my Intel Temp Warning system starts beeping insanely and telling me that the insides of my computer are cooking their brains out. Goes off every day without an AC unit running. And how come my Trillian Messenger tells me the outside humidity is 38% when inside this house it registers 80%? You may comment below on that phenomenon.

Space Mission
Before I got all cranky, I had the chance to watch Discovery blast off - a thing of beauty. Perfect takeoff. Some very neat pictures from the craft that we've never seen before. Miles O'Brien at CNN has a blastoff blog - he's a true space nut, so he's the guy to watch.

Health
You might just want to consider letting your doc know what pills you're taking that he doesn't know about - The big man was slumped over his breakfast tray, face cradled in a bran muffin, silent and blue Geez.

Politics
Darfur? What's that? According to monitoring by the Tyndall Report, ABC News had a total of 18 minutes of the Darfur genocide in its nightly newscasts all last year - and that turns out to be a credit to Peter Jennings. NBC had only 5 minutes of coverage all last year, and CBS only 3 minutes - about a minute of coverage for every 100,000 deaths. In contrast, Martha Stewart received 130 minutes of coverage by the three networks. Well what did we expect from a nation of sitcom watchers? Damn, it's HOT!

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - I went to the store to buy eight apples and the clerk said "Do you want me to put 'em in a bag?" and I said "Oh no, man, I juggle. But I can only juggle eight, if I'm ever here to buy nine apples, fucking bag em up!"

Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel tonight

If you happened to read or listen to the book "Kitchen Confidential" (a great listen, as the author reads the book), then you will know that Anthony is one wild and crazy guy (language would be x-rated in his kitchen). He's got his own series on TV starting tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern on the Travel Channel. That's 277 if you have DirectTV, if not then you will have to look that one up in your cable guide. Just thought I'd pass that along - I'll be tuning in to see if it is as good as his book. Will no doubt be a bit strange. A preview of the show appeared in the NY Times today. You can read it here

Computer Tips

If you need an easy to run and free Anti-Spyware tool, you might try Microsoft's which has had good reviews. I installed it and ran it and it found a few items I didn't realize I had and that were undetected by Search and Destroy. You can download and read about it here - Microsoft Windows Anti-Spyware (beta) It will remain free through the end of the year and then I don't know for sure what their plans are - we shall see. In the meantime, it never hurts to have an additional spyware program onboard.

Updates for Computer programs

It's always hard to keep up with what is the latest version of software you're running. You might want to go to File Hippo and there you will find a page with tons of updates and the links to them. Quite helpful. Tip of the hat to Signpunk who passed that site on to me.

Shuttle Launch
Discovery is set to go off at 10:39 am Eastern, not 10:30 as I reported yesterday. (Hey, where are all my fact checkers !?!?)

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - A waffle is like a pancake with syrup traps

Discovery back on schedule?

NASA managers today cleared the shuttle Discovery for another launch try Tuesday, weather permitting, on a critical flight to service and resupply the international space station. The decision came after senior managers agreed on a strategy that would permit blastoff even if - and only if - the shuttle experiences a fuel sensor problem like the one that grounded the ship July 13 .

Blast off is set for 10:30 a.m. with a 5 minute window. Let's hope this goes off without a hitch. To keep up on the status of the flight, follow along at SpaceFlight Now

Lance says Goodbye

Lance Armstrong cruised to a 7th Tour de France victory today. No matter what you think of the guy personally, his accomplishments, (considering his fight against testicular cancer that spread to the brain), are astounding. And he did it drug free, something other athletes should make note of. If you have satellite or cable TV, you might check to see if you get the OLN (Outdoor Life Network). Most likely, they'll be showing a repeat of the final leg tonight.

Photo of the Day

The flower-flies or hover-flies are a family of flies (Diptera), scientifically termed "Syrphidae".

As one of their names suggests, they are most often seen around flowers; the adults feed mainly on nectar and pollen, while the larvae (maggots) eat a wide range of foods. In some species, the larvae are saprophytes, eating decaying plant and animal matter in the soil or in ponds and streams. In other species, the larvae are insectivores and prey on aphids, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects. Aphids alone cause tens of millions of dollars of damage to crops worldwide every year, and so aphid-feeding hover-flies are being recognised as important natural enemies of pests, and potential agents for use in biological control.

Some syrphids mimic bees or wasps in appearance, in some cases bearing an alarming resemblance, both in shape and coloration. It is thought that this mimicry protects hover-flies against falling prey to birds and other insectivores which avoid eating true wasps because of their sting. Adult syrphid flies are important pollinators. Canon 20D, 100mm EF 2.8 Macro USM, ISO 400, 1/20th@f5.6 - tripod

Some words from Molly

The U.S. is over $7 trillion in debt (no problem); China buys $1 billion worth of U.S. treasury bills a day (thanks for floating us); Americans love the prices at Wal-Mart (made in China, cute!); the Chinese save 50 percent of their domestic product; the average American has $9,000 on his credit cards; our economy is fueled by a fragile housing bubble; the minimum wage is $5.15 per hour ... ; taxpayers who earn over $1 million saved $30K under Bush tax cuts; the war in Iraq costs $9 billion a month; by 2040, our kids will be unable to do more than pay the interest on the national debt ... ; bankruptcy reform makes it impossible to escape your debts; in Darfur [Sudan], people earn $1.25 a day. .....

It is a curious thing that as the disadvantages and, indeed, perils of globalization become clearer and the subject of ever-more worried books by respected economists, the mainstream media keep treating the whole problem as though it were about a bunch of protesters in turtle costumes at the G8 summit. If it were not for Lou Dobbs on CNN, one would never even hear it mentioned on television.

Sounds like a promising future, eh?

Molly Ivins article

Quote of the Day
Mitch Hedberg - "I tried to walk into Target, but I missed. Damn. I think that the entrance to Target should have people splattered all around, then when I finally make it in the guy will say "can I help you sir" and I'll say "Just practicing"

A bit of humor

Noticed this quote on Jeff Kimmel's blog and thought it was too funny. From the late comedian Mitch Hedberg -

When you go to a restaurant on the weekends and it’s busy they start a waiting list. They start calling out names, they say “Dufrane, party of two. Dufrane, party of two.” And if no one answers they’ll say their name again. “Dufrane, party of two, Dufrane, party of two.” But then if no one answers they’ll just go right on to the next name. “Bush, party of three.” Yeah, but what happened to the Dufranes? No one seems to give a shit. Who can eat at a time like this - people are missing. You fuckers are selfish… the Dufranes are in someone’s trunk right now, with duct tape over their mouths. And they’re hungry! That’s a double whammy. We need help. Bush, search party of three! You can eat when you find the Dufranes.

A few other good oneliners from MItch - "Tortillas are sleeping bags for ground beef." -

"You know they call corn on the cob, corn on the cob, but that's how it comes out of the ground, man. They should call that corn, they should call every other version corn off the cob. It's not like if you cut off my arm you would call it Mitch. Then reattach it and call me Mitch-all-together..."

"Once I saw this wino who was eating grapes, and I said, "Dude, you have to wait".

"Mr. Pibb is a replica of Dr. Pepper, but it's a bullshit replica, 'cuz the dude didn't even get his degree. Alright."

"You know that Pepperidge Farm bread, that stuff is fancy. That stuff is wrapped twice. You open it, and it still ain't open. That's why I don't buy it, I don't need another step between me and toast."

"I make instant oatmeal in the morning then I don't do shit for an hour. Makes me wonder why I need the instant oatmeal, I could make the regular oatmeal and feel productive."

"I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've travelled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so that the map will not fall down."

Mitch is my kind of guy. :) I'll send you a few more of his one-liners in the days to come.

Phishing, Podcasting, RSS - huh??

Lee Rainie from the Pew Internet and American Life Project sends word of new survey results that he calls a "sobering reminder that internet users aren't as steeped in new internet phenomena as the people who work in IT-related industries or cover technology news."
According to Pew's data, only 29 percent of American have a good idea what phishing is; the numbers are lower (13 percent) for podcasting , and RSS feeds (nine percent).

Not very surprising - most folks barely know how to browse the Net, let alone send an email. I guess they must have a life, unlike myself and apparently YOU, who are reading this at the moment. LOL

Photo of the Day
I must be into flowers lately. Actually, it is so bloody hot, I have little desire to go further out into nature, other than a stroll in to the Gardens here at the Fox Hill Inn As with all these photos, a click on the picture here leads to the full sized image with greater detail. Canon 20D; 100mm EF2.8 Macro USM lens - 1/60th@f5.6 ISO 200

Picture of the Day

The Hollyhocks are shooting up there this time of year. A good 6-7' tall now. This one's blossom hasn't gotten attacked by bugs yet. And believe me, the bugs love these plants. Click on the picture for larger and more detailed view. Taken with Canon 20D, 100mm EF2.8Macro USM lens.


A tall plant (Alcea rosea) native to the Middle East and widely cultivated for its showy clusters of very large, variously colored flowers. Also called althea.

[Middle English holihocke, marsh mallow : holi, holy; see holy + hoc, mallow (from Old English).]

Ebay Stock Rocks!

On the back of big earnings, Ebay's stock is soaring today some 20%. Whew! Wish I had bought that puppy.

Computers
Firefox updates to 1.06 to fix the things it screwed up with its 1.05 release a few days ago. You can get it here . If you use Roboform, you should go read the instructions for installing the Netscape Adapter for Roboform. (you need to remove the current one you have installed via Control Panel / Add/Remove Software and then follow the instructions to install the Firefox Roboform extension ).

Scrapbook adds a beta to it's already fabulous extension for Firefox. Pick it up at this Scrapbook beta site . It and Answers.com make using the Net a worthwhile endeavor.

Spotlight of the Day
John Scopes was found guilty of teaching Darwinism, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, in a Tennessee high school on this date in 1925. Though Scopes was fined $100, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the verdict on a technicality. The trial, which became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial , was tried by two very famous lawyers, Clarence Darrow for the defense and prosecutor William Jennings Bryan. It was only in 1968 that the US Supreme Court overturned a similar law in Arkansas. Source - Answers.com

Quote of the Day
Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt - Clarence Darrow

Hot and Humid Baby

Boy, when is this humidity gonna break? Took a trip to Winston Salem today - think this was a big mistake. Temps in the mid 90's and I 'd swear the humidity is over 100%. AT 7:40 p.m the temp is 90 with the heat index 96 - welcome to the South - ugh. Reminds me of my days in Atlanta. Nice to drag my laptop along and sit in an air-conditioned Panera Bread store and update all the programs I have that always require big downloads. Takes seconds and with JiWire's Spotlock security system ($5/month), I feel a lot more secure than before with no security.

Photo of the Day
These little fellas are the bane of all gardeners (not that I'm a gardener!). They sure love these shasta daisys. Tried to shoot this critter using my tripod, but too hard to maneuver it around and finally gave up. Bumped up the ISO to 800 so that I could shoot at faster shutter speed (slight breeze blowing) and took the best depth of field I could. Click on the photo for the full sized image

Freedom over money?

It's the freest lifestyle I've ever known. There's not a lot of money in it, but I do all right. It's a tradeoff…freedom or money, freedom or money…I'll take the freedom.

- Dick Grayson, New Orleans street musician

I woke up this morning, turned on the tube, and enjoyed a good hour of street music from LA, New Orleans, and NYC. If you get the Sundance channel, check out the movie Playing for Change . Some of the best music comes from street musicians. I still remember the group from Peru playing on a street corner in Portland, OR - turned me on to the music of the Andes and those incredible pan flutes. If you're in NYC, just traveling the subways introduces you to an incredible variety of acts (those folks you see playing in the subways and performing their art have to audition for those spots!). Worth a look (and a listen).

Tiger Cruises to Another Major win

Tiger made it look easy yesterday. Monty gave him a bit of a run, much to the excitement of the flag waving Scots, but it wasn't one of those William Wallace days (Braveheart) and he faded over the last 9 holes. Tiger must be getting a chuckle out of those doubters over the past few years who thought he had lost his touch. 2 Majors already this year with another coming up. Can he win a 3rd? (PGA Championship Aug 11th-14th) He's already 2 ahead of Jack's record of 18 when Jack was Tiger's age. There aren't many who can match Tiger's intensity and focus - in other sports, Roger Fedderer (Tennis) and Lance Armstrong (bicyling) come to mind. But has Tiger won the hearts of sports fans like Arnold Palmer did? Some don't think so .