How would the news media cover humanity's first trip to the moon if it were to happen today:
Seems about right: completely ignore the actual event and instead use it as a vehicle to direct attention to MEEEE. LOOK AT MEEEE.
Does anyone actually watch the news anymore? My news comes filtered through the web sites you see over on the right side of the blog, which I find to be far superior, more varied in their viewpoints, and certainly more intelligent than anything on cable.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Now What?
After nearly a month, I finally waded through the 600 page PHP programming book I've been working on. But now I'm looking around and just realized that I don't have anything to read, and we were just at the library today. Crap. Ah well. I have a bunch of software to install and configure, then go back through the last three books I've read and physically do all the exercises and projects in them. I haven't typed in a mass of code in a good three years, so this ought to be fun. In a totally geek-fun sort of way. I just love messing with programming languages.
One thing that is really fun is sorting out a language's "family tree" based on all the little odd quirks that made sense when they were first implemented, but are now carried forward "just because." Reading these books, I was amused by some of the tortured explanations the authors came up with. Even better were the non-explanations; "It's that way because programming languages have always done it that way." Sorry, no they haven't. It's that way because of choices made by the developers of the language that is the parent (or grandparent, great-grandparent, etc.) of the one under discussion. Other language families follow completely different conventions.
Well. enough geek stuff. Off to bed.
One thing that is really fun is sorting out a language's "family tree" based on all the little odd quirks that made sense when they were first implemented, but are now carried forward "just because." Reading these books, I was amused by some of the tortured explanations the authors came up with. Even better were the non-explanations; "It's that way because programming languages have always done it that way." Sorry, no they haven't. It's that way because of choices made by the developers of the language that is the parent (or grandparent, great-grandparent, etc.) of the one under discussion. Other language families follow completely different conventions.
Well. enough geek stuff. Off to bed.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
A Quick Post
Just a quick post, then I'm going to do some reading. Really. For sure this time.
One thing that has kept me from the physical book I'm trying to work through has been an e-book I've been reading on and off for the last couple days titled Sustainable Energy - without the hot air. It isn't completely without hot air, of course. Rather than chose a logical reason for moving us off fossil fuel, like the fact that no matter how much of it there is, it will become scarce at some point, or that oil is far too valuable as a feedstock for industry (plastics, for example) to set the stuff on fire. These reasons get a passing mention, but the horrors of anthropogenic global warming get a couple chapters. Inevitable, I suppose. In any case, this is, as far as possible, a facts-based look at just what it means to run the world on renewable energy. The .pdf download is free, so go grab this thing and take a look. I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say that PV and wind don't come off looking quite as green as some would lead us to believe.
I had a bit of a scare today when several of the web sites I regularly visit were unreachable. My first thought was, "Here we go again." Then I realized that it was, once again, only sites hosted on Typepad that were having trouble. For being a paid service, it certainly seems to be down a great deal. Blogger is far from perfect, but at least it works.
We remain in the holding pattern we have been in for a while now. It will likely continue for another week or so. If nothing has broken loose by then, we will be heading back to Michigan for my niece's wedding and making arrangements for our alternative accommodations where we will try to hold out until the current economic storm blows over.
Off to read a book. For sure this time. Honest.
One thing that has kept me from the physical book I'm trying to work through has been an e-book I've been reading on and off for the last couple days titled Sustainable Energy - without the hot air. It isn't completely without hot air, of course. Rather than chose a logical reason for moving us off fossil fuel, like the fact that no matter how much of it there is, it will become scarce at some point, or that oil is far too valuable as a feedstock for industry (plastics, for example) to set the stuff on fire. These reasons get a passing mention, but the horrors of anthropogenic global warming get a couple chapters. Inevitable, I suppose. In any case, this is, as far as possible, a facts-based look at just what it means to run the world on renewable energy. The .pdf download is free, so go grab this thing and take a look. I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say that PV and wind don't come off looking quite as green as some would lead us to believe.
I had a bit of a scare today when several of the web sites I regularly visit were unreachable. My first thought was, "Here we go again." Then I realized that it was, once again, only sites hosted on Typepad that were having trouble. For being a paid service, it certainly seems to be down a great deal. Blogger is far from perfect, but at least it works.
We remain in the holding pattern we have been in for a while now. It will likely continue for another week or so. If nothing has broken loose by then, we will be heading back to Michigan for my niece's wedding and making arrangements for our alternative accommodations where we will try to hold out until the current economic storm blows over.
Off to read a book. For sure this time. Honest.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
And Just Like That...
... our internet problems seem to be over. Everything seems to be working once again, page loads are back to the speed one would expect with a 3Mbps connection, and I'm pulling out of my withdrawal shakes.
We braved the matinee crowds once again today to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The theater was closer to full today than when I poked my head in yesterday, but still not bad. We didn't get there early enough for the "cool" seats, but we were in the row right behind them, so it still wasn't bad. Lots of younger kids in the theater, but only one had to be carried out by Daddy when things got scary and there wasn't the normal "ambient noise level" that one would expect at a a matinee showing of a PG film. The only real annoyance was the adult in the row behind us that had to have gotten up and left then came back in a half-dozen times during the movie and managed to kick the back of our seats on every trip.
The movie itself was pretty much what it has been hyped up to be. The secondary story was all about pairing off and "snogging" as the Brits say, which pretty much followed the book and is basically the primary concern of all sixteen-year-old's, even those fighting to save the world from evil. The special effects were spectacular and were the dominant feature of the movie, really. Like the book, this is a bridge piece setting up the big final battle (which annoyingly-but-understandably will be cut in two), complete with cliffhanger ending. If you're into Harry Potter, this is a must see and it is worth seeing on the big screen.
Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Between sleeping away half the day and fighting connectivity issues, I didn't get a chance to say anything, so here it is late for the party and all.
I was four at the time of the landing and don't remember much other than I was allowed to stay up way past bedtime to see some blurry, burned-out pictures on the TV which seemed to be showing a whole lot of nothing going on. Hey; I was four. It's not like I appreciated the whole "eyes of history" thing at the time. The first missions I clearly remember were the later rover missions (Apollo 15, 16 and 17), but by then everyone else had written the whole thing off. I guess for me, given the sorry state of the US space program, all the anniversary celebrating is bittersweet; I can't get myself worked up about it the way some people are. Yes, when Neil Armstrong stepped off the foot pad onto the lunar surface, that marked a defining moment in our history; the first human step somewhere other than earth. But then we turned into a nation of cowards who can barely get a few people to low earth orbit twice a year (and in a matter of months, we won't even be able to do that). Sorry if I'm being the killjoy of the party, but I just can't be happy about the fact that 40 years after men walked on the moon, we are incapable of doing it again, and too cowardly to try in any case.
OK; I'm done.
We braved the matinee crowds once again today to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The theater was closer to full today than when I poked my head in yesterday, but still not bad. We didn't get there early enough for the "cool" seats, but we were in the row right behind them, so it still wasn't bad. Lots of younger kids in the theater, but only one had to be carried out by Daddy when things got scary and there wasn't the normal "ambient noise level" that one would expect at a a matinee showing of a PG film. The only real annoyance was the adult in the row behind us that had to have gotten up and left then came back in a half-dozen times during the movie and managed to kick the back of our seats on every trip.
The movie itself was pretty much what it has been hyped up to be. The secondary story was all about pairing off and "snogging" as the Brits say, which pretty much followed the book and is basically the primary concern of all sixteen-year-old's, even those fighting to save the world from evil. The special effects were spectacular and were the dominant feature of the movie, really. Like the book, this is a bridge piece setting up the big final battle (which annoyingly-but-understandably will be cut in two), complete with cliffhanger ending. If you're into Harry Potter, this is a must see and it is worth seeing on the big screen.
Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Between sleeping away half the day and fighting connectivity issues, I didn't get a chance to say anything, so here it is late for the party and all.
I was four at the time of the landing and don't remember much other than I was allowed to stay up way past bedtime to see some blurry, burned-out pictures on the TV which seemed to be showing a whole lot of nothing going on. Hey; I was four. It's not like I appreciated the whole "eyes of history" thing at the time. The first missions I clearly remember were the later rover missions (Apollo 15, 16 and 17), but by then everyone else had written the whole thing off. I guess for me, given the sorry state of the US space program, all the anniversary celebrating is bittersweet; I can't get myself worked up about it the way some people are. Yes, when Neil Armstrong stepped off the foot pad onto the lunar surface, that marked a defining moment in our history; the first human step somewhere other than earth. But then we turned into a nation of cowards who can barely get a few people to low earth orbit twice a year (and in a matter of months, we won't even be able to do that). Sorry if I'm being the killjoy of the party, but I just can't be happy about the fact that 40 years after men walked on the moon, we are incapable of doing it again, and too cowardly to try in any case.
OK; I'm done.
What's Happening?
The internet appears to be broken. Blogger seems to work OK at the moment, and Yahoo seems to be working, but not much else. Twitter, Facebook, anti-virus updates; all non-functional at the moment. I may actually have to read a book or something. Oh the horror.
Not much in the way of news; job leads continue to trickle in, but nothing much in the way of actual job offers. As in none. Given that there is, on average, something like 100 people for every job opening, I guess that isn't surprising. Living in someone's basement looks more likely by the day. Ah well. Unless something breaks in the next week or so, we will be back in Michigan for a couple weeks starting around the end of July to do some work at Debbie's mom's place and for my niece's wedding. After that, who knows.
Fun, fun, fun.
Not much in the way of news; job leads continue to trickle in, but nothing much in the way of actual job offers. As in none. Given that there is, on average, something like 100 people for every job opening, I guess that isn't surprising. Living in someone's basement looks more likely by the day. Ah well. Unless something breaks in the next week or so, we will be back in Michigan for a couple weeks starting around the end of July to do some work at Debbie's mom's place and for my niece's wedding. After that, who knows.
Fun, fun, fun.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Data Security
A very scary story about how Twitter was hacked. This was a major breach that gave someone outside the company access to financial projections, meeting minutes, personal financial data of employees, even the Twitter domain itself. I've been in IT in one form or another for over 2 decades, and I don't know that I have an answer. Some things are obvious: passwords should not be any form of personal information (your name, your dog's name, the pet name for your spouse, etc.) no matter how obscure. They should be reasonably long, contain characters, numbers and special characters. But from there is gets more difficult. Technically, every site you log into should have a different password. But given the proliferation of sites that people log into, it would be nearly impossible for the average person to remember that many passwords without writing them down, which solves one problem by creating another. That is especially true if you change all those passwords every month. The bottom line, mentioned in the article, is that there is no defense against a really determined person, whether we are talking about locking down online access your bank account or physically securing your home. The best you can hope for is to put enough obstacles in the way that trouble-makers will move on to an easier target. (Dirty little secret of home alarm systems: they don't secure your house as much as they give burglars incentive to rob your neighbor instead of you.)
All I can say is, "Let's be careful out there."
(Bonus points if you can relate this topic to my oft-repeated phrase, "Get fast; get small.")
All I can say is, "Let's be careful out there."
(Bonus points if you can relate this topic to my oft-repeated phrase, "Get fast; get small.")
Cosmic Crash
It looks like Jupiter may have gotten smacked by something. There is a large black spot that may have been caused by something falling into its gas cloud ala Shoemaker-Levy back in 1994. The cool part is that it is largely hobbyists that find these things as the big guns are all booked up looking at really tiny patches of sky, not staring at Jupiter waiting to see something interesting happen.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Arcosanti Revisited
A very interesting article popped up in my Google Alerts this morning about the good, the bad and the ugly of Paolo Solari's arcology concept in general and Arcosanti in particular. This won't be a particularly well-organized response to that article; more of my usual disjointed thought, made worse by the effect of the current heat on my brain.
First, to pick a minor nit:
There is housing for more than just "a couple permanent residences," but still not enough (a few dozen or so) to consider the current built environment to be anything you could call a city or even a village without doing violence to the English language. And you can live there, but only if you give up your "outside" job, attend a workshop, and submit your housing needs to the local dictator... er.... site manager.
Which brings us to another point in the article:
This is exactly correct. Whether we are talking about Paolo's Arcosanti or Niven/Pournelle's Todos Santos, the concept cannot work without a more-heavy-handed administration (whether governmental or corporate) than the average person from a modern democracy is likely to submit to. Of course I would have never believed the country I was raised in would tolerate the last several administrations, so I guess anything is possible.
Paolo hates being called a visionary for this very reason. Arcosanti was supposed to get his ideas out of the books and into reality. Unfortunately, it is a poor implementation of his arcology concepts in nearly every detail, leaving the question of just how this is supposed to work unanswered.
Well, you can, but unless you can compel people by force to do business there (for example, Washington DC), you are building a ghost town.
Which is why the Linear City concept is attractive to me: it is something that could actually be built in the real world in a step-wise fashion. Sure, it isn't as pretty when drawn on paper, but it is realistic. Think of it in terms of automobiles; when I worked at Volkswagen, I would get free passes to the Detroit Auto Show. The place was jammed with prototype vehicles that would never see a dealership showroom for such practical considerations as a normal person couldn't fit in it, it couldn't be mass-produced, it couldn't pass crash-testing, etc. The cars in the showroom would eventually incorporate some less-radical hint of certain aspects seen in the concept cars, but they could never be described as anything other than pedestrian and utilitarian in comparison. It is the same when the Linear City is compared with Paolo's other concepts; it isn't nearly as awe-inspiring, but for that very reason, is far more likely to see actual construction. One of the students at Arcosanti while we were there, redesigned the site to use Linear City in place of the current Arcosanti 5000 model. As far as I know, it was quickly buried in the archives somewhere.
This is an example of where Arcosanti falls horribly sort. What has been built is disjointed and small with cramped living quarters, some of which are too small to be legal. There is no sense in the current construction what standing in front of, say, the vaults would be like with Arcosanti complete.
Well, I could go on for pages, but just go read the article. It's pretty self-explanatory without my commentary.
First, to pick a minor nit:
I’ve often wanted to live in Arcosanti myself, only you can’t. After 40 years of slow construction, primarily by students, this supposed prototype of the city of the future still has no more than a couple permanent residences. It’s a nice place to visit, but they won’t let you live there…
There is housing for more than just "a couple permanent residences," but still not enough (a few dozen or so) to consider the current built environment to be anything you could call a city or even a village without doing violence to the English language. And you can live there, but only if you give up your "outside" job, attend a workshop, and submit your housing needs to the local dictator... er.... site manager.
Which brings us to another point in the article:
This is why a common response to the arcology concept is that its impossible without a totalitarian regime to implement it.
This is exactly correct. Whether we are talking about Paolo's Arcosanti or Niven/Pournelle's Todos Santos, the concept cannot work without a more-heavy-handed administration (whether governmental or corporate) than the average person from a modern democracy is likely to submit to. Of course I would have never believed the country I was raised in would tolerate the last several administrations, so I guess anything is possible.
...the question of implementation is someone else’s problem. If people ‘get it’, they’ll figure it out. It never seems to occur to many such visionaries that the inability to figure this implementation out on their own is largely why people never ‘get it’. If the originators of these visions can’t, how could anyone else?
Paolo hates being called a visionary for this very reason. Arcosanti was supposed to get his ideas out of the books and into reality. Unfortunately, it is a poor implementation of his arcology concepts in nearly every detail, leaving the question of just how this is supposed to work unanswered.
Soleri and his students persist on designing arcologies -an oxymoron because you can’t actually design cities.
Well, you can, but unless you can compel people by force to do business there (for example, Washington DC), you are building a ghost town.
Consider the Linear City. This is actually the single-most important and practical arcology form in the concept.
Which is why the Linear City concept is attractive to me: it is something that could actually be built in the real world in a step-wise fashion. Sure, it isn't as pretty when drawn on paper, but it is realistic. Think of it in terms of automobiles; when I worked at Volkswagen, I would get free passes to the Detroit Auto Show. The place was jammed with prototype vehicles that would never see a dealership showroom for such practical considerations as a normal person couldn't fit in it, it couldn't be mass-produced, it couldn't pass crash-testing, etc. The cars in the showroom would eventually incorporate some less-radical hint of certain aspects seen in the concept cars, but they could never be described as anything other than pedestrian and utilitarian in comparison. It is the same when the Linear City is compared with Paolo's other concepts; it isn't nearly as awe-inspiring, but for that very reason, is far more likely to see actual construction. One of the students at Arcosanti while we were there, redesigned the site to use Linear City in place of the current Arcosanti 5000 model. As far as I know, it was quickly buried in the archives somewhere.
A similarly curious omission in Soleri’s presentation of the arcology concept concerns perceptions of scale and the seeming aversion of Soleri and his students to illustrating arcologies from a truly human point of view. His arcology renderings are exquisite but they are also like looking at pictures of classic 1970s space colonies -seemingly sprung fully formed from the void with interiors only seen in bird’s-eye-view as vast arching landscapes. You simply have no perception of the scale and no impression what it’s like to actually be in them.
This is an example of where Arcosanti falls horribly sort. What has been built is disjointed and small with cramped living quarters, some of which are too small to be legal. There is no sense in the current construction what standing in front of, say, the vaults would be like with Arcosanti complete.
Well, I could go on for pages, but just go read the article. It's pretty self-explanatory without my commentary.
Major Fail
I'm so glad we got our passports before the feds starting chipping them:
The RFID passport mess is everything that is wrong with the federal government all rolled into one neat little package.
*Given their mournful fait accompli on the ground, they probably lack any rational alternative, except to INSIST that everybody go buy some tinfoil hat for their passport, in which case the Global War on Terror situation looks even more aggressively crazy than it was before...."
*Also, according to the original genius plan, you were supposed to be using these safe-and-secure arphid beacons to merrily zip through airports, en-masse, subway-style, like with Oyster cards. Seen any of that jolly high-tech activity anywhere lately? Me neither. Instead we’ve created a huge, botched superpower effort that is paranoid, semi-secret, global in scale, leaky in security and at best semi-functional. “Gothic High-Tech.”
The RFID passport mess is everything that is wrong with the federal government all rolled into one neat little package.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
57 and Counting
The feds seized more banks on Friday, bring the total for 2009 to 57. Total seizures in 2008 was 25 and only 3 in 2007. Worse, the number of banks on the watch list increased from 252 to 305. Remember when it was horrifying that the number of banks on the watch list topped 100? Ah, the good ol' days.
"Look!! Green shoots!! Oh, wait. Just more gremlins emerging from the ground. Never mind. Now, move along!! Nothing to see here."
"Look!! Green shoots!! Oh, wait. Just more gremlins emerging from the ground. Never mind. Now, move along!! Nothing to see here."
Irony
In a move that could become the very definition of irony, Amazon has automatically removed certain books from everyone's Kindle and credited the users' accounts for the price of the book. It seems the publisher had a change of heart about releasing a certain author's works in digital format.
Oh; the books in question? 1984 and Animal Farm. How, um, Orwellian.
Oh; the books in question? 1984 and Animal Farm. How, um, Orwellian.
Sleepless in Prescott
Neither of us can sleep. There is something here that we are both allergic to which means that neither of us can breath laying down. I don't know if it's something in the apartment or something that grows here. We didn't have this problem at Arcosanti. Whatever the reason, we've both been up since around 4:30am. Grrrrr.
Debbie asked a good question when I wandered out of the bedroom: why are we still here? There may be a big push to get ourselves out of the apartment by the end of the month. That would be fine with me at this point.
Debbie asked a good question when I wandered out of the bedroom: why are we still here? There may be a big push to get ourselves out of the apartment by the end of the month. That would be fine with me at this point.
Friday, July 17, 2009
In Local News
First off, this is being typed with my new Logitech diNovo Edge Keyboard
. The tracking information said it would be here tomorrow, but it showed up today. This is one of the reasons I don't bother paying for second-day from Amazon. The free shipping gets my stuff to me by the second day about half the time, and always by the third. There must be an Amazon warehouse somewhere near Phoenix. Anyway, it is so good to have a keyboard that actually registers all my keystrokes no matter how fast I get going. The keys are full-sized and have a nice feel. All the function keys are in their "normal" places. I even like the mush pad. Normally I hate the things, but this one works more like a trackball and doesn't seem to suffer from the hyper-sensitivity of other mush pads. All of them I've used have turned even the slightest touch (or in the case of our Dell laptop, being within 1/2" of the mush pad) into a mouse click.
We ventured out today for some stuff Debbie needed for the card party she is going to tomorrow. When we drove by my last job, the place was locked up tight with a big For Sale sign in the window. I guess running a restaurant proved to require a little more than the "common sense" the owners claimed was all they needed to make a go of the place when they fired the manager and run off, fired or laid off every experienced person working there. Ah well.
The official Prescott thermometer shows 99 degrees (37C) for the high today. At least the humidity is below 20% today. This is supposed to continue through the weekend. We'll probably try to stay in the cave as much as possible or limit our venturing out to early morning or late evening. Besides, I have to mess with the new toy and I can't do that if I'm out and about.
Well, that's about all I have to say for now.
. The tracking information said it would be here tomorrow, but it showed up today. This is one of the reasons I don't bother paying for second-day from Amazon. The free shipping gets my stuff to me by the second day about half the time, and always by the third. There must be an Amazon warehouse somewhere near Phoenix. Anyway, it is so good to have a keyboard that actually registers all my keystrokes no matter how fast I get going. The keys are full-sized and have a nice feel. All the function keys are in their "normal" places. I even like the mush pad. Normally I hate the things, but this one works more like a trackball and doesn't seem to suffer from the hyper-sensitivity of other mush pads. All of them I've used have turned even the slightest touch (or in the case of our Dell laptop, being within 1/2" of the mush pad) into a mouse click.We ventured out today for some stuff Debbie needed for the card party she is going to tomorrow. When we drove by my last job, the place was locked up tight with a big For Sale sign in the window. I guess running a restaurant proved to require a little more than the "common sense" the owners claimed was all they needed to make a go of the place when they fired the manager and run off, fired or laid off every experienced person working there. Ah well.
The official Prescott thermometer shows 99 degrees (37C) for the high today. At least the humidity is below 20% today. This is supposed to continue through the weekend. We'll probably try to stay in the cave as much as possible or limit our venturing out to early morning or late evening. Besides, I have to mess with the new toy and I can't do that if I'm out and about.
Well, that's about all I have to say for now.
Making Music Labels (Even More) Irrelevant
Anyone can now release their music for Rock Band. Anyone can now put music directly in the face of people provably geeked about music. The modern equivalent of a garage band getting a gig at the local bar.
The All New Pee-Mobile
A new catalytic device liberates hydrogen from urine, meaning you can now fill the tank on your car in a way that is illegal in most states unless the garage door is closed.
So many jokes to make, so little time....
So many jokes to make, so little time....
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Our New Overlords
Giant squid have invaded San Diego and are mugging divers for their video equipment.
And here all this time I was worried about the Chinese.
And here all this time I was worried about the Chinese.
If Anyone is Looking for Me...
...I'll be attending physics lectures by Richard Feynman, arguably the most perfect combination of theoretical physicist and lecturer the world has ever seen. His basic premise was that if his theories were ever so complicated he couldn't explain them to Freshman, he was doing something wrong.
If these videos can get 10% of the hits that the Keyboard Cat gets, we may yet have a chance.
If these videos can get 10% of the hits that the Keyboard Cat gets, we may yet have a chance.
Un-News
In a hardly-surprising development, all climate models have a serious flaw in the base assumptions. Probably explains why not a single one of them can take 1900 as the starting condition and "predict" the current climate. Probably also explains why every single one of them has completely failed to predict the current cooling trend.
Uncle Al? Like to comment? No? How about you, Hansen? No? Go figure.
Uncle Al? Like to comment? No? How about you, Hansen? No? Go figure.
Why?
Speaking of things I don't get: Why is everyone so determined to sell really expensive boxes that deliver internet video in a way that is less convenient than just accessing it with your PC? I can't understand what is being sold here. My PC "monitor" is a 42" TV on which I can watch DVD's, YouTube, Hulu, or anything else directly from the web at full screen and up-converted by the video card to 1080p. Why would I spend money for a device with less functionality and add to the box clutter under my TV?
Again, please use short words. I appear to be getting stupid.
Again, please use short words. I appear to be getting stupid.
More Panic from WHO
I know I'm not all that smart, but I just can't figure out this whole flu pandemic thing. How is it that the seasonal flu, which infects 10's of millions and kills up to a half-million people every year is just the normal seasonal flu, but a flu strain that has infected a couple hundred thousand and killed fewer than 500 is cause for a full-blown panic?
Anyone trying to explain this to me, please use small words.
Anyone trying to explain this to me, please use small words.
Just a "What's Up"
And the answer is, "Not much." I did get most of the things done yesterday that I wanted to get done. The big task was catching up on all the financial stuff after being gone for over a month. That took many, many hours of data entry, account reconciliations, funds balancing, etc. Usually, I do a little bit every day, but with me in one state and our data files in another state, it just piled up. Ugh.
The other task accomplished was to finally get all our photos off the camera and on Flickr:
A random prickly pear cactus in bloom.
Debbie's niece's graduation open house.
Our time in northern Michigan.
The job search road trip.
I don't have descriptions on anything yet, but I will work on those this afternoon. Or evening. Or tomorrow. Or...
I still need to burn a DVD for Debbie's mom with the latest versions of Firefox and IE along with our last batch of pictures. With a dial-up connection, it is virtually impossible for her to get to these things. on her own. When we were staying there, I tried to just get some Windows security patches and it was nearly impossible. I didn't dare try to download an entire software package, so we'll do it snail mail. Whatever works.
As part of catching up on things, I finally got over to Yahoo Finance's Tech Ticker. I don't seem to have missed anything. All the same people having all the same arguments while all the market indexes wobble around in a narrow range waiting for consumers to load up on 56" TV's and designer clothing. Meanwhile, consumers are refusing to play the part of a patsy like they have the last twenty years and are instead paying off debt and saving 7% of their take-home pay (18 months ago, the savings rate was -4%). Silly people. How dare they act as if the money they earn actually belongs to them. Everyone knows the world works best if everyone transfers their entire wealth plus their children's future wealth to .05% of the world population!
Meanwhile, as we continue to look for work, I find this little picker-upper:
Huh. That's cheery.
After spending the last two days on the computer, I need to spend some serious face time with a book. Of course, it's a book about computer stuff....
The other task accomplished was to finally get all our photos off the camera and on Flickr:
A random prickly pear cactus in bloom.
Debbie's niece's graduation open house.
Our time in northern Michigan.
The job search road trip.
I don't have descriptions on anything yet, but I will work on those this afternoon. Or evening. Or tomorrow. Or...
I still need to burn a DVD for Debbie's mom with the latest versions of Firefox and IE along with our last batch of pictures. With a dial-up connection, it is virtually impossible for her to get to these things. on her own. When we were staying there, I tried to just get some Windows security patches and it was nearly impossible. I didn't dare try to download an entire software package, so we'll do it snail mail. Whatever works.
As part of catching up on things, I finally got over to Yahoo Finance's Tech Ticker. I don't seem to have missed anything. All the same people having all the same arguments while all the market indexes wobble around in a narrow range waiting for consumers to load up on 56" TV's and designer clothing. Meanwhile, consumers are refusing to play the part of a patsy like they have the last twenty years and are instead paying off debt and saving 7% of their take-home pay (18 months ago, the savings rate was -4%). Silly people. How dare they act as if the money they earn actually belongs to them. Everyone knows the world works best if everyone transfers their entire wealth plus their children's future wealth to .05% of the world population!
Meanwhile, as we continue to look for work, I find this little picker-upper:
Here are 10 reasons we are in even more trouble than the 9.5% unemployment rate indicates:
- June's [unemployment] total assumed 185,000 people at work who probably were not....
- More companies are asking employees to take unpaid leave....
- No fewer than 1.4 million people wanted or were available for work in the last 12 months but were not counted....
- The number of workers taking part-time jobs due to the slack economy, a kind of stealth underemployment, has doubled in this recession to about nine million, or 5.8% of the work force....
- The average work week for rank-and-file employees in the private sector, roughly 80% of the work force, slipped to 33 hours....
- The average length of official unemployment increased to 24.5 weeks, the longest since government began tracking this data in 1948....
- The goods producing sector is losing the most jobs -- 223,000 in the last report alone....
- The prospects for job creation are equally distressing. The likelihood is that when economic activity picks up, employers will first choose to increase hours for existing workers and bring part-time workers back to full time....
Huh. That's cheery.
After spending the last two days on the computer, I need to spend some serious face time with a book. Of course, it's a book about computer stuff....
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sittin' and Waitin'
I'll apologize now for any typo's. I know this is the internet where typo's are considered high art, but I was raised in a different culture that viewed such things as a sign of low intelligence. The problem is my keyboard; some of the keys only work after you hit them a few times, which sucks dead bunnies when you're a touch typist. The solution is in the mail; a Logitech diNovo Edge keyboard to replace the no-name junker I'm using now. It was a lot more money than I should have spent right now on something as silly as a keyboard, but I've yet to have a problem with any Logitech device I ever bought going back to the original "wedge of cheese" mouse that made Logitech famous. I also looked at the diNovo mini "thumb" keyboard, but I'm just not ready to go there. My thumbs do exactly two things: hit the space bar and roll the trackball. They don't have the talent for much else, and the rest of my fingers would get bored and jealous.
The day yesterday was spent cleaning out the Hulu queue. I basically didn't move off the couch for twelve hours straight. Today, I need to get all the photos off the camera, get some other stuff off the internet for Debbie's mom, and decide what to do with all the debris sitting around the apartment. Some of the things we had on Craiglist that didn't sell we'll just keep; some we will try to sell again, some will just get given away to people we know, some may just get dumpstered. As Debbie posted yesterday, we'll probably hang on to the apartment for another month just to give everything time to shake out, but we will definitely be out of here by the end of August. Unless we're not, in which case, we'll still be here. Everything has to be somewhere.
Once again, I'm messing with the site layout, so if something looks more ugly than usual, just wait for a few minutes and hit refresh. I'm having some problems with making changes to the Blogger template; my changes are removed when I hit the "Save" button. Not sure what that's all about. And many of the tips I'm picking up for doing various things just don't seem to work on Firefox/Vista 64. They don't seem to break anything; they just don't have any effect. For example, I was looking through some of text effects on the Dynamic Drive site; the demo text for most of these is either just plain text or nothing. Granted, a lot of these are for IE only (and why anyone would do that is beyond me), but even the ones that are supposed to work in Firefox just don't. I was also trying to modify one of the Blogger widgets to be a scrolling list; I found dozens of places on the web describing several ways to do that, but not only did none of these work on this site, they weren't working on the site the tip was on, meaning it wasn't just my ignorance at work.
Anyway, I've rambled enough and I need to get busy. Being unemployed is hard work.
The day yesterday was spent cleaning out the Hulu queue. I basically didn't move off the couch for twelve hours straight. Today, I need to get all the photos off the camera, get some other stuff off the internet for Debbie's mom, and decide what to do with all the debris sitting around the apartment. Some of the things we had on Craiglist that didn't sell we'll just keep; some we will try to sell again, some will just get given away to people we know, some may just get dumpstered. As Debbie posted yesterday, we'll probably hang on to the apartment for another month just to give everything time to shake out, but we will definitely be out of here by the end of August. Unless we're not, in which case, we'll still be here. Everything has to be somewhere.
Once again, I'm messing with the site layout, so if something looks more ugly than usual, just wait for a few minutes and hit refresh. I'm having some problems with making changes to the Blogger template; my changes are removed when I hit the "Save" button. Not sure what that's all about. And many of the tips I'm picking up for doing various things just don't seem to work on Firefox/Vista 64. They don't seem to break anything; they just don't have any effect. For example, I was looking through some of text effects on the Dynamic Drive site; the demo text for most of these is either just plain text or nothing. Granted, a lot of these are for IE only (and why anyone would do that is beyond me), but even the ones that are supposed to work in Firefox just don't. I was also trying to modify one of the Blogger widgets to be a scrolling list; I found dozens of places on the web describing several ways to do that, but not only did none of these work on this site, they weren't working on the site the tip was on, meaning it wasn't just my ignorance at work.
Anyway, I've rambled enough and I need to get busy. Being unemployed is hard work.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Nothing yet
I had no luck in Mobile Alabama with finding a job. I still can't believe the guy from Springdale Travel wanted me to come in when they had laid off people already and were NOT hiring at all. They had a sign in their door window that they were accepting applications from experienced travel agents. I'm not sure why they are advertising like that. I know they are waiting on Mobile to get some big contract (or at least split it with Boeing), but get real ... how long will it take to get things off the ground and businesses start picking back up.
Tampa wasn't too bad. I was able to interview with a travel manager and the district manager at one of the Tampa area AAA offices. The travel manager is in charge of two of the branches in the area. They have a person that is going (or went) out on disability. Technically they have to keep the job open for 12 weeks for this person. Worst case scenario the new person would start on September 14th. They are trying to get approval from higher ups to get the position filled sooner than that.
Arizona AAA is back in the picture with some new postings. I have applied for 3 positions, but not sure what will happen. I still don't understand why they didn't call/notify all the laid off people first to offer a chance at one of the jobs. Two of them means we would move from Prescott down south, the third is here in Prescott but only part time and at a lower position than I had.
I guess it is back to wait and see. Ric called our landlord on Monday to see about staying another month here after giving our notice for being moved out by July 31st. It was no problem. Or as Ric said "must have been a bad day for landlords --- ours said we could stay for 5 years!" The only problem we gave our landlord was when we locked ourselves out of our apartment on a holiday!
Tampa wasn't too bad. I was able to interview with a travel manager and the district manager at one of the Tampa area AAA offices. The travel manager is in charge of two of the branches in the area. They have a person that is going (or went) out on disability. Technically they have to keep the job open for 12 weeks for this person. Worst case scenario the new person would start on September 14th. They are trying to get approval from higher ups to get the position filled sooner than that.
Arizona AAA is back in the picture with some new postings. I have applied for 3 positions, but not sure what will happen. I still don't understand why they didn't call/notify all the laid off people first to offer a chance at one of the jobs. Two of them means we would move from Prescott down south, the third is here in Prescott but only part time and at a lower position than I had.
I guess it is back to wait and see. Ric called our landlord on Monday to see about staying another month here after giving our notice for being moved out by July 31st. It was no problem. Or as Ric said "must have been a bad day for landlords --- ours said we could stay for 5 years!" The only problem we gave our landlord was when we locked ourselves out of our apartment on a holiday!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Home-ish
Again, it's hard to think of the apartment as home when everything is packed and ready to move. But in any case, we are back at home base after driving 4,695 miles and still in the same position we were in when we left: jobless and without any real prospects other than a hint of a maybe. Well, that's not entirely true. We are also many thousands of dollars poorer than when we left after paying for gas, hotels and restaurants.
Enough of this. I have several hundred hours of TV watching piled up in my Hulu queue.
Enough of this. I have several hundred hours of TV watching piled up in my Hulu queue.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Back in Lordsburg NM
It's hard to imagine that a place so small that it only covers (barely) two freeway exits can have a "good" part of town and a "bad" part of town, but Lordsburg does. On the way out, we got off at the first exit and got the impression of a fairly nice town. This time, we got off at the more-easterly exit and have the impression of a town only two steps from a ghost town. But our hotel room is nice, and being in the "bad" part of town means it's about $20 cheaper. The drive today was uneventful; no crazy people doing 360's in front of us at 90 mph. We didn't go very far; it was either knock off early and get to Prescott tomorrow or drive until very late only to get to an apartment with no food and all the stores closed. We chose the former, which means I was able to catch up on about a months worth of internet reading.
Next stop: Prescott. Not that we have any idea what is happening after that.
Next stop: Prescott. Not that we have any idea what is happening after that.
Sonora TX
We made it more than halfway through Texas on Saturday -- YEAH!
Near the end of the day we came upon a crazy or drunk or very sleepy driver. He was going from one side of the road to the other -- the rumble strips alerted him he was going off onto the shoulder. He almost hit an embankment, but caught it in time and whipped back the other way. One time he didn't catch himself in time and spun out on the left side of the road. Luckily no embankment or cliff wall -- only dirt/grass. We were keeping far enough back that we stopped in time and could stay to one side watching for his truck in all the dust. We thought he would stop and we could go by ... no such luck. He gunned it and lit out again doing about 90mph. He ended up passing a few other vehicles (dangerously) and one of them kept on his tail for a bit. They must have decided to get close to get the license plate and call it in. We got off at exit 400 (Sonora TX) and so had he and a cop came from the other direction, across the median and after him. Thankfully!
Near the end of the day we came upon a crazy or drunk or very sleepy driver. He was going from one side of the road to the other -- the rumble strips alerted him he was going off onto the shoulder. He almost hit an embankment, but caught it in time and whipped back the other way. One time he didn't catch himself in time and spun out on the left side of the road. Luckily no embankment or cliff wall -- only dirt/grass. We were keeping far enough back that we stopped in time and could stay to one side watching for his truck in all the dust. We thought he would stop and we could go by ... no such luck. He gunned it and lit out again doing about 90mph. He ended up passing a few other vehicles (dangerously) and one of them kept on his tail for a bit. They must have decided to get close to get the license plate and call it in. We got off at exit 400 (Sonora TX) and so had he and a cop came from the other direction, across the median and after him. Thankfully!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Quick Post
Sort of a trash-can post. We used a different route to leave Florida than the one we used to get there and made much better time: I'm typing this from a hotel in Louisiana. We had originally planned to stop in Mobile and say "Bye" to the fam, but it was way too early in the day to stop when we blew threw Alabama. Tampa turned out to be about an actual job from an actual company that was actually planning to hire an actual person. How refreshing. Communication with a company in Texas is following the same insane pattern we've been seeing: move to town, then contact the company; otherwise, we have nothing to talk about. I don't get it. Either you have an opening at your company or you don't. It's that simple. Us packing everything we own and moving has no impact whatsoever on whether or not you are hiring. No wonder the economy is in the toilet with inconsiderate morons running everything.
I've been saying for years that the medical industry has become obsessed with numbers to the point of killing people. The new A1C target for diabetics is going to result in thousands of needless deaths. And yet another study shows that current weight targets are already resulting in unnecessary deaths. But like most problems, this one won't be solved as long as millions of dollars are being made by people milking the public's fears and phobias.
These two stories are related: Sears is starting its Christmas promotions in July. Food riots may be coming: "The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions - all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012."
Well, we need to hit the road.
I've been saying for years that the medical industry has become obsessed with numbers to the point of killing people. The new A1C target for diabetics is going to result in thousands of needless deaths. And yet another study shows that current weight targets are already resulting in unnecessary deaths. But like most problems, this one won't be solved as long as millions of dollars are being made by people milking the public's fears and phobias.
These two stories are related: Sears is starting its Christmas promotions in July. Food riots may be coming: "The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions - all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012."
Well, we need to hit the road.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Corporate Strategy
Your product sucks, your customers are fleeing in droves, your distribution network has collapsed, and your new CEO is moonlighting as the President of the United States. So what's the brilliant corporate strategy for reinventing yourself?
Change the background color of your corporate logo from blue to green!
Just brilliant.
Change the background color of your corporate logo from blue to green!
Just brilliant.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Racism
A white person makes a factual observation, like blacks are far more likely to commit serious crimes than whites, and they are automatically labeled a racist and forced to grovel for forgiveness. But 50 black teenagers attack a white family in their own front yard yelling "This is a black world!" and the mental defectives in the Akron police department "aren't ready to call it a hate crime." I'm sure police attempts to sweep this incident under the rug will go a long way towards eliminating white-black tensions in Akron and elsewhere.
Liar, Liar
Politicians and their lackeys never lie, right? Especially when the truth makes you look like you're completely incompetent.
What makes people in government assume that the rest of us are as stupid as they are? Oh yeah; the fact the we not just tolerate moral and mental defectives in our government, we consistently vote them into office.
What makes people in government assume that the rest of us are as stupid as they are? Oh yeah; the fact the we not just tolerate moral and mental defectives in our government, we consistently vote them into office.
Obamessiah Loses His Shine
Obama's approval rating has gone negative. Too bad people didn't figure out what this clown was about before they made him the most powerful man on the planet. But I'm sure people won't make the mistake of voting for the packaging instead of the substance again. This time for sure.
Anyone interested in some ocean-front property in North Dakota?
Anyone interested in some ocean-front property in North Dakota?
June Stats
A little late, but I finally got around to looking at the site stats for June.
The total visitors for the month was 233 (166 repeat visitors and 73 new visitors), virtually identical to last month.
The Firefox vs. MSIE numbers are slightly more in favor of Firefox this month, but only because Chrome (6%) seems to be eating into IE (52.5%) rather than Firefox (36.9%) gaining any share. On the OS front, Win XP (76%) actually gained on Win Vista (15.5%). The rest were virtually unchanged. And I still have my one NT/Firefox 2.0 virus-lover.
That's it; I won't bore everyone with a bunch of numbers.
The total visitors for the month was 233 (166 repeat visitors and 73 new visitors), virtually identical to last month.
The Firefox vs. MSIE numbers are slightly more in favor of Firefox this month, but only because Chrome (6%) seems to be eating into IE (52.5%) rather than Firefox (36.9%) gaining any share. On the OS front, Win XP (76%) actually gained on Win Vista (15.5%). The rest were virtually unchanged. And I still have my one NT/Firefox 2.0 virus-lover.
That's it; I won't bore everyone with a bunch of numbers.
Hot Breakfast
Mmmmm....we are finally staying at a hotel that has a free breakfast bar with hot food! We both had a belgian waffle (should have split one) and sausage patties. I had a few spoonfuls of strawberry yogurt too and Ric had a small bagel. Yummy for the tummy :-)
Of course, after eating out late last night (yes, we crossed another time line) at Outback, we really didn't NEED breakfast this morning; but, free is free and we have to take advantage of it.
No news yet on the job front. The office I am trying to reach somebody at does not open until 10a (late day today) and I left a voice mail for the manager to call me since we are in town. Keep those fingers crossed that this spot or the Phoenix one pans out really soon.
Of course, after eating out late last night (yes, we crossed another time line) at Outback, we really didn't NEED breakfast this morning; but, free is free and we have to take advantage of it.
No news yet on the job front. The office I am trying to reach somebody at does not open until 10a (late day today) and I left a voice mail for the manager to call me since we are in town. Keep those fingers crossed that this spot or the Phoenix one pans out really soon.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
On the Move Again
Debbie got a phone call from Tampa last night, so this morning we packed up and headed out from Mobile to Tampa, Florida. We arrived here around 7pm, grabbed some food, and are now enjoying our upgraded, manager special "suite." It's really not a suite, just a double-sized room with separate areas for the bed and sitting area. Still; a long way from shabby. We expect to be here for a couple days, maybe longer, depending on what happens tomorrow. Weather is very unstable right now; it's been gloomy and raining since we rolled into Florida this morning, and it doesn't look like it will be changing anytime soon, so it's a good thing we have an internet connection and cable in our room.
While we were in Mobile, we discovered something rather interesting: we have more and better options for high-speed internet connectivity in little Prescott, Arizona than we did in Mobile, Alabama. We thought we would have wifi where we were staying, but it turns out that it was just some people running open connections that they secured when they figured out other people were swiping their bandwidth. McDonald's advertised wifi, but it seemed to be non-functional when we tried it. The public library didn't have it and the PC's in the library were so locked down that we couldn't even get to this site. We ended up not being able to do anything other than check e-mail once the entire time we were there.
Observation: If you are driving in the most remote place on earth (say, west Texas) and there are only three cars in a fifty-mile radius, one will be you, one will be in front of you driving 10 mph under the speed limit, and the third will will be parked in your blind spot and you won't be able to shake him without performing some sort of Jason-Bourne-style driving maneuver.
Well, it's been a long day of driving, so we're going to bed.
While we were in Mobile, we discovered something rather interesting: we have more and better options for high-speed internet connectivity in little Prescott, Arizona than we did in Mobile, Alabama. We thought we would have wifi where we were staying, but it turns out that it was just some people running open connections that they secured when they figured out other people were swiping their bandwidth. McDonald's advertised wifi, but it seemed to be non-functional when we tried it. The public library didn't have it and the PC's in the library were so locked down that we couldn't even get to this site. We ended up not being able to do anything other than check e-mail once the entire time we were there.
Observation: If you are driving in the most remote place on earth (say, west Texas) and there are only three cars in a fifty-mile radius, one will be you, one will be in front of you driving 10 mph under the speed limit, and the third will will be parked in your blind spot and you won't be able to shake him without performing some sort of Jason-Bourne-style driving maneuver.
Well, it's been a long day of driving, so we're going to bed.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Hammond, Louisiana
We over-slept, so we didn't make it all the way to Mobile, but we are close. One bit of local color; there is a drive-thru daiquiri place in front of our hotel. Better yet, it opens at 11am, so you can get an early start. Only in Louisiana.
Otherwise, the day was relatively uneventful. Our highlight of the day was finally getting across the nearly 900 miles of Texas.
That's about it. We'll be in Mobile tomorrow for sure.
Otherwise, the day was relatively uneventful. Our highlight of the day was finally getting across the nearly 900 miles of Texas.
That's about it. We'll be in Mobile tomorrow for sure.
Seguin, Texas
We made some good progress today with a good chance that we will get where we are going some time tomorrow evening. We even scored a free dessert for not freaking out about the giant Texas tree roach that was running around the restaurant. In all, not a bad day.
We haven't taken many photos so far. We've seen a lot of things that we want to stop and take pictures of, but this trip is about getting where we are going. We may take more time on the way back to load up the camera.
Not much else to say. There just isn't anything interesting about sitting in a car for 11 hours.
We haven't taken many photos so far. We've seen a lot of things that we want to stop and take pictures of, but this trip is about getting where we are going. We may take more time on the way back to load up the camera.
Not much else to say. There just isn't anything interesting about sitting in a car for 11 hours.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Lordsburg NM
We finally got going around 230p from Prescott Valley. We decided to try to get all the way through Arizona and into New Mexico before we stopped for the night. We ended up about 30 miles from the border and staying at a Days Inn in Lordsburg NM. (At least I believe that is the name of this town)
Tomorrow we are trying to plan on our long driving day. Hopefully we will be up and out of here at a decent time. Of course, once we crossed the border, we gained an hour. Arizona does not "do" daylight savings time, so once we left Arizona we jumped to daylight savings time.
I did finally hear back from AAA Arizona. I have to reapply for the position posted. It is at the call center in Phoenix. I emailed my resume tonight -- maybe I'll here back from them.
Tomorrow we are trying to plan on our long driving day. Hopefully we will be up and out of here at a decent time. Of course, once we crossed the border, we gained an hour. Arizona does not "do" daylight savings time, so once we left Arizona we jumped to daylight savings time.
I did finally hear back from AAA Arizona. I have to reapply for the position posted. It is at the call center in Phoenix. I emailed my resume tonight -- maybe I'll here back from them.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
On the Road Again
We're starting to haul stuff down to the car and hope to be out of here in the next hour or so. We'll have the laptop with us this time, but we don't know what we'll find in terms of connectivity. Expect the usual sporadicness that has been the hallmark of this blog lately.
No word from AAA, so we are operating on the assumption that it's the normal, morally defective, screw-with-people deal we've come to expect out here in the territories.
No word from AAA, so we are operating on the assumption that it's the normal, morally defective, screw-with-people deal we've come to expect out here in the territories.
Monkey in the Wrench
We haven't even unzipped the suitcases and there's a glitch. One of the AAA offices in the Phoenix area has a job posting for a travel agent. Debbie will be calling tomorrow to get the details, then depending on how the conversation goes, we would have to find a place to live that is relatively cheap but not ridiculously far from the office (and has some sort of job potential for yours truly). The conversation tomorrow will determine whether or not the planned road trip will happen.
To (mis-)quote the A-Team: I love it when a plan falls apart.
To (mis-)quote the A-Team: I love it when a plan falls apart.
If You're Not Depressed Enough...
... I just found a report of unemployment by major urban area. No real surprises other than that we are moving from a place of 8.5% unemployment because we can't find jobs to a place with 9.6% unemployment because we think we have better odds. I think we need a statistics refresher.
Format Changes
As a result of some recent reading, I will be playing with the layout again. But I don't have much time to play with it just now, so there are some things you will notice that will actually make the site a bit uglier, but that will lead to better things in the future. The biggest change is that I would like to experiment with a three-column layout instead of the current two-column one. That would let me bring some of the stuff in the right column that languishes far below the bottom of the last post on the page closer to the top. I'm also thinking of keeping a year's worth of reading in the "Recently Read" section (which you probably don't even realize exists because it is about a foot south of the last post). But I need to change the code that's wrapped around it to only display the most recent ten items with some sort of "more" option. The current widget I'm using doesn't support that, meaning I need to find a different widget, or hand-code the logic myself. I don't have time for either right now, so for a while, the list will simply grow longer and will extend even further past the bottom of the actual content than it currently does. I would also like the books in the "Currently Reading" list to be the full ad with the cover art instead of just the text link, but when I just tried it, something in Blogger borked the ad up. Again, I'm sure there is a widget that would make it easier to do what I want, but I don't have time to look. And if I do get it working, it will also result in things being shoved even further into obscurity than they are now.
Enough geek talk. Bottom line, if you come here and things look ugly or unreadable, just wait a bit and it should get less ugly. I hope.
Enough geek talk. Bottom line, if you come here and things look ugly or unreadable, just wait a bit and it should get less ugly. I hope.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
"Home"
We're back in Prescott after two flight delays and a van ride that defies all belief. If anything would make you believe in demonic possession, our "driver" would. and I'm not sure you can call a mostly-empty apartment home; its more like a place we plan to spend a night or two at, then drive off again. Dinner tonight is a couple frozen pizzas we picked up after we escaped the clutches of our hell-demon van driver, because there isn't much food in the house (for obvious reasons) and we don't want to make anything that will result in left-overs.
But at least we are warm and dry. Last word from northern Michigan was 53 degrees F (12 degrees C) and raining. Phoenix was 108 (42C) when we landed. We stood outside and basked in the heat.
Not sure of the plan for tomorrow or when we are really leaving for Mobile, Alabama. If we don't leave until Thursday morning, we're going to have to make some serious tracks, but I don't know if we can be ready to hit the road in less than 24 hours. Nothing like having a plan.
Well, I'm going to go bury myself in the joys of a high-speed connection for at least a few hours.
But at least we are warm and dry. Last word from northern Michigan was 53 degrees F (12 degrees C) and raining. Phoenix was 108 (42C) when we landed. We stood outside and basked in the heat.
Not sure of the plan for tomorrow or when we are really leaving for Mobile, Alabama. If we don't leave until Thursday morning, we're going to have to make some serious tracks, but I don't know if we can be ready to hit the road in less than 24 hours. Nothing like having a plan.
Well, I'm going to go bury myself in the joys of a high-speed connection for at least a few hours.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Hot and humid
Well....a couple weeks ago it wasn't too bad here in Michigan. We decided to make an extended trip here for my niece's graduation open house and it decided to turn to true summer. Today we headed up north to Kalkaska/Rapid City/Alden to visit with some friends and Ric's family. It hit 100 up here. I'm sure with the humidity it is about 110 at least. I can say I don't miss the humidity that much when we are in Arizona. :-)
We are staying with a nephew and niece in Rapid City and they will be having the family over and some friends on Saturday so we can visit with them all. I found out today that one of my best friends is away at a conference until Sat night. I hope I can catch up with her before we head back down state to catch our flight back to Arizona.
Hot, humid and no AC .... makes me wish we were still at my Mom's. Lovely AC!
We are staying with a nephew and niece in Rapid City and they will be having the family over and some friends on Saturday so we can visit with them all. I found out today that one of my best friends is away at a conference until Sat night. I hope I can catch up with her before we head back down state to catch our flight back to Arizona.
Hot, humid and no AC .... makes me wish we were still at my Mom's. Lovely AC!
Green
The color green is one thing I miss when we are in Arizona. I can just drink in the color around me while we are here in Michigan. The grass, the trees, even the weeds. I miss the smell of freshly cut grass. (Yes, I am lucky it doesn't bother me allergy-wise)
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Relocating
The open house for Debbie's niece on Saturday was a big success. We managed to get the house all ready and the food all prep'ed without major incident. We finally got everything cleaned up and the house back in order yesterday. The whole thing turned out to be a lot more work than we ever expected, and of course, we have enough food left over to feed a small city.
Today, we ran down to Flint. This is the first time I've been anywhere inside the city limits since we left in 1999. What a mess. The house I grew up in is abandoned, as are about a third of the houses on the street. Most of the businesses are closed and there are large, empty fields where there used to be factories. The only businesses that seem to be thriving are pawn shops and strip clubs. Kind of depressing, but not really unexpected. And it will only get worse over the next few years.
Well, this is just another quick update. We need to go find something to eat other than "open house food." Then tomorrow we pack the car and head on up to see family in the northern part of the state. We will have a "real" internet connection while we are there, so I may be more consistent with the updates. Or not. We'll see.
Later.
Today, we ran down to Flint. This is the first time I've been anywhere inside the city limits since we left in 1999. What a mess. The house I grew up in is abandoned, as are about a third of the houses on the street. Most of the businesses are closed and there are large, empty fields where there used to be factories. The only businesses that seem to be thriving are pawn shops and strip clubs. Kind of depressing, but not really unexpected. And it will only get worse over the next few years.
Well, this is just another quick update. We need to go find something to eat other than "open house food." Then tomorrow we pack the car and head on up to see family in the northern part of the state. We will have a "real" internet connection while we are there, so I may be more consistent with the updates. Or not. We'll see.
Later.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
In Michigan
We made it to Michigan very early Monday morning. There was a delay in Milwaukee, so we didn't get to Flint until almost 1AM and didn't get to bed until after 3AM. I slept until almost 2PM and never really got motivated. We got some work done for Debbie's niece's open house, but not very much. Today it's raining and is supposed to keep this up until nearly the end of the week. Yay Michigan weather.
Not much else going at this point. I may jump into Twitter and Facebook, but I doubt that will be a pleasant experience at 56K.
Not much else going at this point. I may jump into Twitter and Facebook, but I doubt that will be a pleasant experience at 56K.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Gays and Evangelicals
What do gays and evangelicals have in common? They both act like abused women with their undying loyalty to their respective parties. They just keep believing that this time for sure, the morally defective politicians will do what they promise at election time, in spite of decades of factual evidence that gays and evangelicals are nothing more than a voting block to be pandered to every election cycle.
First, the fact that his dog gets more attention than you do should tell you something, Mr. Pietrangelo. But you and I both know that come the mid-term elections, you'll be your usual johnny-on-the-spot self, pulling the lever for the Democrats. Second, most blacks are "second-class citizens" who, just like you, keep right on voting their abusers back into office.
"Please, sir. May I have another?"
Pietrangelo said Obama had spent more time choosing and playing with his dog Bo than working for gay rights since taking office. "If there were millions of black people as second-class citizens, or millions of Jews or Irish, he would have acted immediately."
First, the fact that his dog gets more attention than you do should tell you something, Mr. Pietrangelo. But you and I both know that come the mid-term elections, you'll be your usual johnny-on-the-spot self, pulling the lever for the Democrats. Second, most blacks are "second-class citizens" who, just like you, keep right on voting their abusers back into office.
"Please, sir. May I have another?"
Then Do it Already
I love when rich people complain that they aren't paying enough in taxes. There is nothing stopping Warren Buffet from writing a check to the IRS for 50% of his income if he feels that is his fair share. Other problems with the article:
That's probably because most people making less than $30,000 a year pay more in Social Security than they do in federal income tax and, unlike the writers at the New York Times, are smart enough to recognize that a tax is a tax is a tax even if the government chooses to call it an "investment" in their "retirement."
The funniest bit:
Even, it seems, at the mighty New York Times:
Um, no. Dividends are taxed as ordinary income. On the 2008 tax form, line 9a Ordinary Dividends are added directly into line 22 Total Income. Capital gains are taxed at a lower rate because there is supposed to be some sort of social benefit to long-term investing instead of day-trading, which is yet-another example of the tax system being used to encourage or discourage private behavior rather than just funding the government. If the New York Times is so concerned that "tax system in this country is pretty complicated," why not advocate dropping all the social engineering built into the tax code and going back to a flat tax on all income over $X? While you're at it, drop the facade that Social Security is some sort of investment and just roll it into that same flat tax. The big advantage would be that Ms. Folbre would be less likely to embarrass herself by misreporting on tax issues.
By the way; how much did you make last year, Ms. Folbre? What was the average share of your income paid in taxes? Did you voluntarily pay any extra? No? Huh. Imagine that.
The progressive group Citizens for Tax Justice observes that the percentage of households with income under $30,000 complaining that federal income taxes are too high exceeds the percentage even paying federal income taxes.
That's probably because most people making less than $30,000 a year pay more in Social Security than they do in federal income tax and, unlike the writers at the New York Times, are smart enough to recognize that a tax is a tax is a tax even if the government chooses to call it an "investment" in their "retirement."
The funniest bit:
Misreporting of tax issues is widespread.
Even, it seems, at the mighty New York Times:
...income from capital in the form of dividends and capital gains is taxed at a lower rate than income from labor in the form of earnings.
Um, no. Dividends are taxed as ordinary income. On the 2008 tax form, line 9a Ordinary Dividends are added directly into line 22 Total Income. Capital gains are taxed at a lower rate because there is supposed to be some sort of social benefit to long-term investing instead of day-trading, which is yet-another example of the tax system being used to encourage or discourage private behavior rather than just funding the government. If the New York Times is so concerned that "tax system in this country is pretty complicated," why not advocate dropping all the social engineering built into the tax code and going back to a flat tax on all income over $X? While you're at it, drop the facade that Social Security is some sort of investment and just roll it into that same flat tax. The big advantage would be that Ms. Folbre would be less likely to embarrass herself by misreporting on tax issues.
By the way; how much did you make last year, Ms. Folbre? What was the average share of your income paid in taxes? Did you voluntarily pay any extra? No? Huh. Imagine that.
Close to Being Gone
In about 12 hours, we will be loading luggage into the car and beginning the trek to Michigan for about two weeks. We've pretty much got everything done here that we can do until closer to actually making the final move. There is still some small stuff that can be taken care of, but we are done with the majority of the packing up. Availability of the internet may be inconsistent, so don't be surprised if things sort of languish here for a while.
We did take a break and went to see Up. We enjoyed it, although there is one part of the back story that younger kids will probably miss, and it gets a little heavy in a couple places. I wouldn't put it in the same league as Shrek or Ice Age, but there isn't much that would do well against those. I guess the main thing is that there is a lot more subtlety than some other Pixar films. Based on all the whispered questions from the eight-and-under set at the Sunday matinee, expect to have a lot of 'splainin' to do during the movie if your young 'uns fall into that age bracket.
Well, I'm going to do a little reading, then head off to bed.
We did take a break and went to see Up. We enjoyed it, although there is one part of the back story that younger kids will probably miss, and it gets a little heavy in a couple places. I wouldn't put it in the same league as Shrek or Ice Age, but there isn't much that would do well against those. I guess the main thing is that there is a lot more subtlety than some other Pixar films. Based on all the whispered questions from the eight-and-under set at the Sunday matinee, expect to have a lot of 'splainin' to do during the movie if your young 'uns fall into that age bracket.
Well, I'm going to do a little reading, then head off to bed.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
A Better Day
After two days of basically getting nothing done, I would have needed to really work at making this day any worse. But in fact we got a lot of small, fiddly stuff packed and I finished up packaging all the shelves from the various bookcases and curios, as well as getting all the artwork squared away. Pretty much all that is left that can be "pre-packed" is some of the pantry stuff. We've sworn off buying food and plan to eat up as much as we can in the next 45 days, but there is no way we will get rid of all of it. We tend to go nuts when something is on sale; if the apocalypse comes, we're set on mac and cheese for several years. There is also a lot of cleaning supplies that we've stocked up on that can get packed up.
Monday, we fly off into the wild blue yonder to go visit family and friends in Michigan. I'm not sure how much blogging we will be able to do, so don't be concerned if you don't see much activity here.
Well, off to bed.
Monday, we fly off into the wild blue yonder to go visit family and friends in Michigan. I'm not sure how much blogging we will be able to do, so don't be concerned if you don't see much activity here.
Well, off to bed.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Whew! Safe!
And just a follow-up: I see we made it through the transition to digital TV without having to call out the national guard or anything.
Glad that's over.
Glad that's over.
Still Going
Spirit and Opportunity are still chugging away, although it looks like Spirit is well and truly stuck in soft sand. (Not "mud" as some have been reporting; if Spirit were stuck in the mud, everyone at NASA would be dancing in the streets instead of sweating bullets trying to get her out.) If the rover guys can't get her free, it would be a rather anticlimactic end to the most amazing piece of hardware to come out of JPL in a long time.
Same Ol' Same Ol'
I see that after not stepping foot in Flint for a decade that nothing has really changed:
Now that the last few GM jobs will be leaving Flint, how long before this bulldozing process reaches its logical end?
The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.
Now that the last few GM jobs will be leaving Flint, how long before this bulldozing process reaches its logical end?
Cry Baby Europe
I have to wonder where they find the cry-babies that run the EU. First they were all like, "Waaaaa! Waaaaa! Big meanie Microsoft includes a browser in the OS!" So now Microsoft has an OEM version without IE so PC makers can install whatever browser they want. So now they are all like, "Waaaaa! Waaaaa! Big meanie Microsoft doesn't include a browser in the OS!" Holy crap! Somebody needs a nap!
Jury Duty
Yesterday I had jury duty and ended up being sat for a jury trial. Luckily it was only suppose to last 1-2 days since I am flying to Michigan on Monday. It was a criminal case --- DUI/resisting arrest/aggravated assault.
This was the first time I've ever been part of a jury trial. It has some interesting points and some boring points. My biggest surprise was to learn after the lawyers asked their questions of the witness, the jury could write their questions and they were given to the judge. He ended up allowing almost all of the questions we gave them. I was kinda pleased with one of my last questions of the defendant. He maintained that he was okay to drive after how much he had drunk. (testimonies ranged from "a couple beers, a beer and some wine, to couple glasses of wine and some beer) My question to him was: How much do you think YOU can drink before becoming legally intoxicated and not being able to drive? The judge told him to use a regular can of beer as a measurement. The defendant first said he didn't know, then came up with "according to my height and weight and such ... I would say 10 beers.) All the jurors made some type of "unbelievable noise or chuckle" and I think the defendant's lawyer dropped and shook his head.
Anyways ... we found him guilty of the highest DUI he was charged with (over .20 -- legal limit is under .05 here); guilty of resisting arrest and finally not guilty of aggravated assault. We were split on the aggravated assault. Me and one other person said not guilty right away -- basing it on the what the LAW said. One other person was indecisive. After discussing it for a few minutes, we got everyone to say not guilty. What I felt bad about was .... one gentleman said he still thought he was guilty for that offense, but he didn't want to stay much longer or come back the next day. I wonder how many people this happens to? I was ready to write a note to the judge to ask what happens if we can't get an unanimous vote.
Oh well....my duty is done to Arizona. I doubt I will get another summons before we move out of here. Now back to getting things ready around here for our Michigan trip and moving to who knows where at the end of July.
This was the first time I've ever been part of a jury trial. It has some interesting points and some boring points. My biggest surprise was to learn after the lawyers asked their questions of the witness, the jury could write their questions and they were given to the judge. He ended up allowing almost all of the questions we gave them. I was kinda pleased with one of my last questions of the defendant. He maintained that he was okay to drive after how much he had drunk. (testimonies ranged from "a couple beers, a beer and some wine, to couple glasses of wine and some beer) My question to him was: How much do you think YOU can drink before becoming legally intoxicated and not being able to drive? The judge told him to use a regular can of beer as a measurement. The defendant first said he didn't know, then came up with "according to my height and weight and such ... I would say 10 beers.) All the jurors made some type of "unbelievable noise or chuckle" and I think the defendant's lawyer dropped and shook his head.
Anyways ... we found him guilty of the highest DUI he was charged with (over .20 -- legal limit is under .05 here); guilty of resisting arrest and finally not guilty of aggravated assault. We were split on the aggravated assault. Me and one other person said not guilty right away -- basing it on the what the LAW said. One other person was indecisive. After discussing it for a few minutes, we got everyone to say not guilty. What I felt bad about was .... one gentleman said he still thought he was guilty for that offense, but he didn't want to stay much longer or come back the next day. I wonder how many people this happens to? I was ready to write a note to the judge to ask what happens if we can't get an unanimous vote.
Oh well....my duty is done to Arizona. I doubt I will get another summons before we move out of here. Now back to getting things ready around here for our Michigan trip and moving to who knows where at the end of July.
OK; Everybody PANIC
The WHO (not to be confused with The Who) has declared the first pandemic of the 21st century. Given that the so-called swine flu is mostly mild and rarely causes death outside of the third world (as opposed to the normal seasonal flu that kills hundreds of thousands every year), I'm unsure why it has been given the status of pandemic. Unless the WHO is after more money, more power, or is intentionally trying to create panic which it can then exploit for more money and/or more power.
Time to dust off the ol' tinfoil hat.
Time to dust off the ol' tinfoil hat.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Digital TV Tries Again
It looks like we will try to implement digital-only TV once again at 12:01am tomorrow. According to that article, there are 2.8 million households that will not have TV in the morning, which sounds like an impressive number until you realize that it's about 2.5% of households. I doubt someone knocked on every door, meaning this number is an extrapolation from a very small sample of households who were contacted on the phone. Those types of surveys usually have error bars in the 2-3% range. I'm also willing to bet that many of the households who say they are not ready for digital-only TV are like my parents and don't realize that they have been watching digital TV exclusively for years through their dish. But assuming the figure does represent actual households, it just shows that some people are incapable of planning even a few hours ahead.
And then they voted.
And then they voted.
Barney Frank (D-Asshatville)
It's great that a member of congress and a committee chairman acts like a six-year-old on national TV. And kudos to CNBC for telling the Stalin-wannabe to go piss up a rope. I realize that I have criticized CNBC and other news networks for sounding more like the aforementioned six-year-old's debating which superhero could kick some other superhero's ass instead of sounding like adults discussing very important issues, but in this case, CNBC had all the class.
Meltdown
State revenues are crashing, people are fleeing, the economy is in free-fall, so what do you do? If you're California, you borrow against future revenues, of course. What is unthinkable is actually returning to the level of spending from a decade ago; that would be catastrophic.
The primary function of government is to hire and pay government workers. All else is secondary.
The primary function of government is to hire and pay government workers. All else is secondary.
Every time I see a video of Daniela Mercury performing, I'm amazed all over again. This video is from the end of one of her typical, hours-long, non-stop performances:
And no, you're not seeing things; About five minutes in, likely overcome by exhaustion and the audience chanting her name, she starts crying. The rough translation (not by me) of her speech after she collects herself:
Gotta learn me some Portuguese.
And no, you're not seeing things; About five minutes in, likely overcome by exhaustion and the audience chanting her name, she starts crying. The rough translation (not by me) of her speech after she collects herself:
You have no idea how crazy and thrilling it feels to be on this stage, trying to do something new in a city that has such a strong and wonderful music. And it's because of this amazing traditional music that I try to reinvent my life and work as an artist. I truly believe we should always focus on the future, moving forward. Brazil has everything it takes to make it work and become a great country, and I believe in that and fight for Brazilian music everywhere I go!
Samba is my root
My national anthem
My way of praying
My carnival
Thank you, Salvador, for respecting my madness and freedom of living!
Gotta learn me some Portuguese.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Movin' On Up
Apologies to The Jefferson's. (I was going to link to one of the twenty or so Youtube videos of the intro to the show, but the studio in its infinite wisdom has forced Youtube to disable the soundtrack, because everyone knows that all hell will break loose if anyone hears the theme song from a 30-year-old TV series. I mean, whole generations not even born when The Jefferson's was first aired may actually become interested in it as the result of free advertising on Youtube and by God that just cannot be allowed to happen because the studio wasn't the one to think of it.)
This post isn't about copyright. It's about oil and how the price has more than doubled since it bottomed at $32.70. The Ay-rabs said they wouldn't be happy unless oil was above $70.
Everybody remembers last summer, right?
This post isn't about copyright. It's about oil and how the price has more than doubled since it bottomed at $32.70. The Ay-rabs said they wouldn't be happy unless oil was above $70.
Everybody remembers last summer, right?
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
More Packing
We managed to get rid of a couple things today that we really didn't look forward to moving. So now the apartment is slightly emptier and our cash reserves slightly better thanks to Craigslist. Why anyone runs a classified in the paper anymore is beyond me. Even if you ignore the cost, we decided what we were selling, took pictures, set up the ad on Craiglist, were contacted by buyers, negotiated the final price, and got the stuff out of the house and cash in our hand in less than 24 hours. Try that with a conventional classified ad.
We're getting pretty close to having the bulk of everything packed that we can do without for the next 7 weeks. The storage room is getting fuller and the apartment is getting emptier. Woohoo!
We're getting pretty close to having the bulk of everything packed that we can do without for the next 7 weeks. The storage room is getting fuller and the apartment is getting emptier. Woohoo!
Happy Negative Christmas
Scott Adams has a good idea for a new national holiday: Negative Christmas. Instead of buying stuff for other people, everybody gets rid of stuff. I'd take it a step further; instead of Christmas and Negative Christmas, I vote we replace Christmas with Negative Christmas.
One of the largest sources of credit card debt is Christmas. Enough already.
One of the largest sources of credit card debt is Christmas. Enough already.
Reason 54,763 Why We Don't Pay for Cable TV
Article on what's wrong with cable financial shows. The top of the list should be taken to heart not just by financial shows, but by every news show, talk show, etc.
None of the networks will pay the least bit of attention to this or any of the other sixteen points, which they have every right to do. Just like I have every right to take my dollars elsewhere.
1. Stop Yelling. Stop interrupting. Stop Talking Over Each Other: This is not Jerry Springer, its serious business. People’s retirement and investments are at stake. Please treat it that way.
None of the networks will pay the least bit of attention to this or any of the other sixteen points, which they have every right to do. Just like I have every right to take my dollars elsewhere.
The Year Without Summer
According to the NOAA Climate Prediction Center, parts of the United States will find out that cold is a bigger problem than warm. I doubt it will be as bad as the last Year Without Summer if for no other reason than we have better food preservation and distribution. But it will be interesting to see what the public response will be to the evangelists of anthropogenic global warming when their kids are still wearing winter coats on the 4th of July.
And yes, I'm swinging back to a larger number of smaller, single-topic posts rather than large, multi-topic ramblings. For now. This likely won't be the last time I switch.
And yes, I'm swinging back to a larger number of smaller, single-topic posts rather than large, multi-topic ramblings. For now. This likely won't be the last time I switch.
The Cominig Collapse
A series of short articles that tries to put our debt level in perspective (part 1; part 2; part 3;). It's simple, really; if you have too much of X, more X is unlikely to solve the problem. As a diabetic, if my blood sugar is at 300 mg/dL (normal is 70 mg/dL), I'm unlikely to lower it by eating a pound of animal crackers dipped in chocolate frosting (mmmmm; making myself hungry). Likewise, the Obama "stimulus" is unlikely to accomplish much because it depends mostly on people who are already drowning in debt running out and borrowing more money.
Have a nice day.
Have a nice day.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Sift and Sort
Spent the day hauling stuff out of all the nooks and crannies we had stuffed it into and then packing it into bins. We seem to have done slightly better than usual in the accumulation-of-useless-junk category. We are going to Craigslist several large items that have outlived their usefulness or are just too heavy to bother moving. If they don't sell, I'm not sure what then; maybe donation or maybe we take them with us after all. Tomorrow, I will make a pile of small stuff that won't be making the trip. I probably won't bother to sell it; it will just get donated to one of the second-hand shops around here. We should have a lot of stuff ready for the moving van by the time we go back to Michigan in a week. If we don't we could have some difficulting in getting moved out of here by the end of July, so we are really going to be pushing over the next few days.
Well, I'm not tired, but I need to go to bed. I should watch a movie or something.
Well, I'm not tired, but I need to go to bed. I should watch a movie or something.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Tim Hawkins
Never heard of this guy until this morning:
Can't think of a better way to start the day.
Can't think of a better way to start the day.
Starting to pack
Tonight we got all my Precious Moments things packed up. We ran out of packing peanuts on the 5th big bin, so we can't say they are all "officially" done yet.
In the morning or later in the evening, we probably will work on the other knick knacks -- especially the stacking dolls.
( matrouska sp?-- little help Steve?)
Tomorrow afternoon I am going over to an ex-coworker's house for a card making get together. There will be 2 of us that got laid off and 2 that are still at AAA. It should be a fun day, I"m looking forward to it.
In the morning or later in the evening, we probably will work on the other knick knacks -- especially the stacking dolls.
( matrouska sp?-- little help Steve?)
Tomorrow afternoon I am going over to an ex-coworker's house for a card making get together. There will be 2 of us that got laid off and 2 that are still at AAA. It should be a fun day, I"m looking forward to it.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Decisions
We're waiting to hear back from a couple jobs that Debbie applied for. If those don't pan out, then we will be leaving Arizona. To where isn't real clear at this point, but most likely someplace between here and Florida. We will be spending the next couple weeks starting the packing process and the weeding out process. Today we donated a bunch of books to one of the local libraries. We'll start putting some of the big stuff on Craigslist in order to cut back on what we have to move. Most of what we have is just cast-offs and second hand junk, so there isn't much that we're real attached to anyway. Besides, purging the junk is good for the soul, or some such. It's definitely good for the back, as in not having to move so much crap.
So we're off on the next adventure.
So we're off on the next adventure.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Finally
Our Maui pictures are finally up on Flickr. I was a little disappointed; we only managed to take 637 photos and one video in the week we were there. I still have some cleanup and comments, but for the most part, the collection is good to go.
The job was made far more frustrating that it should have been due to our upload speed being cut to as low at 16KB/s and bugs in the Flickr Uploadr creating a real mess in our Flickr account. But it's done, so enjoy!
The job was made far more frustrating that it should have been due to our upload speed being cut to as low at 16KB/s and bugs in the Flickr Uploadr creating a real mess in our Flickr account. But it's done, so enjoy!
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Cap'n Crunch - 1 Nutjobs - 0
Some poor mental defect had her case against the good Cap'n dismissed:
And just to make sure the message got across, when addressing the possibility of re-filing the lawsuit, the judge said:
Why isn't this guy being nominated for the Supreme Court? Or, for that matter, why isn't he running our banks or our car companies? I guess I should just be thankful we have at least one District Judge with his brain in his head instead of being stored in a jar in some dark room somewhere.
And just to make sure everyone gets the picture, this isn't some bored, rich, slightly unbalanced person who bought a box of Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries thinking it contained fruit, got the box home, realized it didn't, and over-reacted. This barely-humanoid nutjob had been crunching through Crunchberries for four years before she figured it out.
I just hope California is one of those states that charge people like this the full cost of their stupidity.
In this case . . . while the challenged packaging contains the word "berries" it does so only in conjunction with the descriptive term "crunch." This Court is not aware of, nor has Plaintiff alleged the existence of, any actual fruit referred to as a "crunchberry." Furthermore, the "Crunchberries" depicted on the [box] are round, crunchy, brightly-colored cereal balls, and the [box] clearly states both that the Product contains "sweetened corn & oat cereal" and that the cereal is "enlarged to show texture." Thus, a reasonable consumer would not be deceived into believing that the Product in the instant case contained a fruit that does not exist. . . . So far as this Court has been made aware, there is no such fruit growing in the wild or occurring naturally in any part of the world.
And just to make sure the message got across, when addressing the possibility of re-filing the lawsuit, the judge said:
In this case, . . . it is simply impossible for Plaintiff to file an amended complaint stating a claim based upon these facts. The survival of the instant claim would require this Court to ignore all concepts of personal responsibility and common sense. The Court has no intention of allowing that to happen.
Why isn't this guy being nominated for the Supreme Court? Or, for that matter, why isn't he running our banks or our car companies? I guess I should just be thankful we have at least one District Judge with his brain in his head instead of being stored in a jar in some dark room somewhere.
And just to make sure everyone gets the picture, this isn't some bored, rich, slightly unbalanced person who bought a box of Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries thinking it contained fruit, got the box home, realized it didn't, and over-reacted. This barely-humanoid nutjob had been crunching through Crunchberries for four years before she figured it out.
I just hope California is one of those states that charge people like this the full cost of their stupidity.
May Stats
Now that I finally convinced web-stats to not count our own visits, we have more-meaningful statistics for the site. So naturally, I'm going to annoy all of you with that information. You're welcome.
Total site visits for May was 223 Of those, 151 are suckers that keep coming back for more. The other 72 were just poor fools who landed here by accident and quickly left. But the most-interesting part is the break-down by operating system and browser. We'll start with OS:
XP - 69.5%
Vista - 19.7%
Linux - 4.5%
Mac - 3.6%
Other - 1.8%
NT - .9%
Vista is shaping up to be the biggest Microsoft flop since Windows ME. XP was five years old when Vista was released on January 2007, and is now well over seven years old, and is still more-popular by a 3-to-1 margin. Worse, many PC manufacturers are still offering XP as an option on new PC's, the equivalent of buying a 1962 VW Beetle with rusted out floorboards that burns a quart of oil for every gallon of gas, when you can get a Prius for $100 more. Two years and a service pack after Vista's initial release, drivers are still a problem (we can only print from our old XP laptop) and a lot of software doesn't run or runs with issues (at least in the 64-bit version; I've never used 32-bit Vista). I'm going to be very interested in what happens when Win7 is officially released later this year. Will people just leap-frog Vista or will everyone cling to XP until Microsoft forces the issue and stops issuing security updates?
Maybe it's just the type of people this blog attracts, but I was surprised to see Linux top Mac. I had high hopes for Mac when Jobs was pushing innovation and mostly keeping prices in line with comparable PC's. But now that he's out of the picture, Mac is going back to its rape-the-faithful philosophy, emphasizing immediate profit over market share. The last "refresh" was a complete joke, replacing completely outdated, overpriced hardware with slightly less outdated, overpriced hardware.
NT? Really? Running a 16-year-old unsupported OS on the web? Why not run MS-DOS? I have a shrink-wrapped copy if you have a system with a 3.5" floppy drive. Seriously.
Browsers:
Firefox 3.0 - 36.8%
MSIE 7.0 - 36.3%
MSIE 8.0 - 10.8%
MSIE 6.0 - 7.6%
Netscape 6 - 4.5%
Other - 1.3%
Safari 3 - .9%
Chrome 1.0 - .4%
Firefox 3.5 - .4%
Firefox 2.0 - .4%
(Let me guess; whoever is running NT is also the person running Firefox 2.0. You just really really like having a virus-laden zombie PC.)
Firefox is (barely) in the lead, but only because IE is fragmented across three versions. Combine those, and IE is well out in front with 54.7%. But that still puts Firefox closer to IE than the usual figure of just over 20% for Firefox compared to IE's 70%. Given the low number of visitors we have, it's likely a skew is being introduced by one or two routine visitors that have Firefox. It's also interesting that people don't seem to be anxious to be a guinea pig for Firefox 3.5. Given all the problems they've had getting that puppy out the door, I can't say I blame them.
This year should be interesting in the PC/internet world: Win7, Firefox 3.5, Chrome (which I haven't tried but may yet give a spin), HTML 5, Wave, plus the continuation of Moore's Law which gives every household a wretched excess of computing power for the price of a single month's rent. The crappy economy is holding things back; when we get past this in a year or two, things get really interesting. I'm not predicting The Singularity, but in 18-24 months, there will be a significant shift in how we use these little boxes.
Lunch time!
Total site visits for May was 223 Of those, 151 are suckers that keep coming back for more. The other 72 were just poor fools who landed here by accident and quickly left. But the most-interesting part is the break-down by operating system and browser. We'll start with OS:
XP - 69.5%
Vista - 19.7%
Linux - 4.5%
Mac - 3.6%
Other - 1.8%
NT - .9%
Vista is shaping up to be the biggest Microsoft flop since Windows ME. XP was five years old when Vista was released on January 2007, and is now well over seven years old, and is still more-popular by a 3-to-1 margin. Worse, many PC manufacturers are still offering XP as an option on new PC's, the equivalent of buying a 1962 VW Beetle with rusted out floorboards that burns a quart of oil for every gallon of gas, when you can get a Prius for $100 more. Two years and a service pack after Vista's initial release, drivers are still a problem (we can only print from our old XP laptop) and a lot of software doesn't run or runs with issues (at least in the 64-bit version; I've never used 32-bit Vista). I'm going to be very interested in what happens when Win7 is officially released later this year. Will people just leap-frog Vista or will everyone cling to XP until Microsoft forces the issue and stops issuing security updates?
Maybe it's just the type of people this blog attracts, but I was surprised to see Linux top Mac. I had high hopes for Mac when Jobs was pushing innovation and mostly keeping prices in line with comparable PC's. But now that he's out of the picture, Mac is going back to its rape-the-faithful philosophy, emphasizing immediate profit over market share. The last "refresh" was a complete joke, replacing completely outdated, overpriced hardware with slightly less outdated, overpriced hardware.
NT? Really? Running a 16-year-old unsupported OS on the web? Why not run MS-DOS? I have a shrink-wrapped copy if you have a system with a 3.5" floppy drive. Seriously.
Browsers:
Firefox 3.0 - 36.8%
MSIE 7.0 - 36.3%
MSIE 8.0 - 10.8%
MSIE 6.0 - 7.6%
Netscape 6 - 4.5%
Other - 1.3%
Safari 3 - .9%
Chrome 1.0 - .4%
Firefox 3.5 - .4%
Firefox 2.0 - .4%
(Let me guess; whoever is running NT is also the person running Firefox 2.0. You just really really like having a virus-laden zombie PC.)
Firefox is (barely) in the lead, but only because IE is fragmented across three versions. Combine those, and IE is well out in front with 54.7%. But that still puts Firefox closer to IE than the usual figure of just over 20% for Firefox compared to IE's 70%. Given the low number of visitors we have, it's likely a skew is being introduced by one or two routine visitors that have Firefox. It's also interesting that people don't seem to be anxious to be a guinea pig for Firefox 3.5. Given all the problems they've had getting that puppy out the door, I can't say I blame them.
This year should be interesting in the PC/internet world: Win7, Firefox 3.5, Chrome (which I haven't tried but may yet give a spin), HTML 5, Wave, plus the continuation of Moore's Law which gives every household a wretched excess of computing power for the price of a single month's rent. The crappy economy is holding things back; when we get past this in a year or two, things get really interesting. I'm not predicting The Singularity, but in 18-24 months, there will be a significant shift in how we use these little boxes.
Lunch time!
Long Time, No Blog
Not sure what I've been so busy doing since Friday that I haven't found the time to blog, but it hasn't made me money or gotten me a job, so it couldn't have been too important. Today we walked downtown so I could check up on a couple job leads. I've noticed something that seems to be common practice that I wish companies would stop doing: claiming to have job openings on their web page when in fact there are no job openings. Filling out an on-line application is very time-consuming, especially for companies that use the totally crap-tastic Kronos software on their web sites (which is most of them) and ask stupid questions like, "Does it make you angry when criminals get off on a technicality?" What that has to do with working a cash register at Lowes is completely beyond me. Then to find out that I've just wasted my time really pisses me off.
And no, the job hunting thing isn't going well.
Anyway.
GM is gone. Michael Moore has some thoughts about it. I agree with some of what he says, but retooling a car factory to make tanks is a very different proposition than retooling a car factory to make solar panels. Not to mention that there isn't enough silicon to appreciably increase panel production anyway. But at least he makes more sense than the granola crunchers cruising around in their Prius Smugmobiles. I haven't seen Flint since the day I quit Hurley and nothing Moore has to say makes me ever want to. The city I grew up in is dead and buried; best to just leave it.
When someone that is really smart points out flaws in your security product, you can either fix the flaws, or you can try to shut them up. You won't need to read the entire article to guess which approach the manufacturer of what are supposed to be the best locks in the world is taking. But read it anyway; it will remind you of every encounter you've ever had with a corporate bureaucracy. If I was running R&D at Medeco, I'd have this guy on my staff instead of trying to piss him off or shut him up.
When governments started paying private companies to hang red-light cameras at intersections, those of us who said these would be used to monitor every car on the road were accused of being tin-foil hat wearers. Well, guess what?
To end on a more up-beat note that normal, what happens when you hook a video camera on the back of a hawk? Video that is as awesome as it is nauseating. Watch full-screen to get the full effect.
Well, I think today's batch of photos are finally done uploading after 12+ hours. I really hate asymetric internet. When the job situation is straightened out, I'm looking into different options. This is just nuts.
And no, the job hunting thing isn't going well.
Anyway.
GM is gone. Michael Moore has some thoughts about it. I agree with some of what he says, but retooling a car factory to make tanks is a very different proposition than retooling a car factory to make solar panels. Not to mention that there isn't enough silicon to appreciably increase panel production anyway. But at least he makes more sense than the granola crunchers cruising around in their Prius Smugmobiles. I haven't seen Flint since the day I quit Hurley and nothing Moore has to say makes me ever want to. The city I grew up in is dead and buried; best to just leave it.
When someone that is really smart points out flaws in your security product, you can either fix the flaws, or you can try to shut them up. You won't need to read the entire article to guess which approach the manufacturer of what are supposed to be the best locks in the world is taking. But read it anyway; it will remind you of every encounter you've ever had with a corporate bureaucracy. If I was running R&D at Medeco, I'd have this guy on my staff instead of trying to piss him off or shut him up.
When governments started paying private companies to hang red-light cameras at intersections, those of us who said these would be used to monitor every car on the road were accused of being tin-foil hat wearers. Well, guess what?
To end on a more up-beat note that normal, what happens when you hook a video camera on the back of a hawk? Video that is as awesome as it is nauseating. Watch full-screen to get the full effect.
Well, I think today's batch of photos are finally done uploading after 12+ hours. I really hate asymetric internet. When the job situation is straightened out, I'm looking into different options. This is just nuts.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Hawaii, Etc.
The brain has been out on a vacation of its own since we came back from Maui, which is why there hasn't been much posted here. I've been trying for two days to come up with two paragraphs of text to summarize my teaching experience and style and have basically nothing to show for the effort. So maybe doing a real blog post will shake something loose.
Part of the problem is the strange weather we've been having here in Prescott, AZ. Usually, things are getting hot, sunny and dry this time of year, but instead there has been thunderstorms rolling around pretty much all week. That's kept us inside when I really want to go out and walk around. Things are supposed to clear out this afternoon, so maybe we'll spend a few hours tomorrow out walking and getting some sun and fresh air. In the meantime, we've both been kind of lethargic.
But enough of that; Hawaii was in the title and so I should probably talk about our trip a little bit. We stayed on the island of Maui the entire time. At first, we thought that we would run out of things to do with a full week in such a small place, but that turned out to not be a problem. In fact, there was one whole section of the island we didn't even get to. Part of the problem is that the topography of the island makes getting places difficult. On a map, the straight-line distance from Point A to Point B may only be 20 miles, but the road distance may be three or four times that as the road zig-zags back and forth, either because it goes up the side of a near-vertical cliff or is following the contour of the coastline. Add in that the speed limit in many places is 15 or 20 MPH (and that's often optimistic), and you have what looks like it should be a couple hour drive turning into an all-day road trip. The other problem is that we have a very different take on what is or isn't interesting. Something that is supposed to only take a couple hours will keep us occupied for an entire day, and something that people tell us to plan a whole day for will only hold our interest for about five minutes. Now that we know what's what, we could probably go back for another week and do things right.
Speaking of roads and driving in Hawaii, the locals seem to do their best to make getting around as interesting as possible. First, signage sucks. Most streets don't even have road signs and the ones that do are often overgrown with vegetation of some sort. And there is no such thing as a good map of Maui. We had three or four different maps and none of them were what I would call "good" as in having correct names, sufficient detail, etc. And I'm not sure why, but the speed limit on any given road changes about every 20 feet for no apparent reason: 35MPH, 45MPH and 55MPH signs are posted completely at random along one stretch of 4-lane divided highway that was probably the only flat, level piece of road on Maui. Not that any of it matters, as everyone just ignores them and drives 80MPH.
Which brings me to the local drivers. Everyone expects fudgies to be bad drivers; sudden inexplicable stops, turns and lane changes just go with the territory when you have large numbers of drivers who don't know where they are going trying to follow instructions being shouted at them from the passenger seat by someone who is directionally challenged. But the locals really take the cake: Hawaiians seem to have an intense interest in everything except where they are going. They are either half out of the side window waving and conversing with someone behind them, looking around in the back seat, looking around on the floor; in short, their eyes are everywhere except on the road in front of them. So it came as no surprise to us when the local paper had a front-page article declaring Hawaiian drivers the third-worst in the nation. Our only surprise was that there were places where people were even worse drivers than Hawaii. Combine this with the narrow, twisting roads with few or no guardrails running along the edge of 1,000-foot cliffs, and that the local cars are only capable of two speeds (0MPH and 80MPH), its a miracle there are any Hawaiians left. No wonder they have to keep importing people from the mainland.
Anyway, we have lots of pictures; I've made the first pass through them and will probably make another pass through some time this afternoon. It will probably take the better part of a day to upload them (about 650 images in total) given that our upload speed is less than 1 Mbps. I'll post something here when they are all uploaded.
And another thunderstorm just rolled through. Blue sky and sun, loud clap of thunder, completely black sky, rain, hail, then blue sky and sun; all in about three minutes. This has to be one of the strangest places on the planet.
Whenever this guy gets tired of being an Olympic gymnast, he can be the next James Bond:
Holy Crap.
HCHSBTSPODTUTBGTUTHADHOI: cold is a much bigger problem than a couple degrees of warming, which is why we have no plans of moving out of the most southern states. I remember the 1970's.
If you combine household debt with the federal debt, the number is $668,621 per American household ($546,668 per household in federal debt plus $121,953 per household in personal debt). At a mere 3% interest, it would take $2,818.93 a month for 30 years to pay that off, assuming we also triple federal taxes in order to eliminate the yearly deficits. "Houston, we have a problem."
Government bond holders are flexing their muscle. Let's see Obama throw these guys under the bus like he tried to do to the bond holders for GM and Chrysler.
Well, enough happy thoughts for one day. I need to stare at the computer some more and try to crank out those couple paragraphs. Don't want the entire day to be a write-off.
Part of the problem is the strange weather we've been having here in Prescott, AZ. Usually, things are getting hot, sunny and dry this time of year, but instead there has been thunderstorms rolling around pretty much all week. That's kept us inside when I really want to go out and walk around. Things are supposed to clear out this afternoon, so maybe we'll spend a few hours tomorrow out walking and getting some sun and fresh air. In the meantime, we've both been kind of lethargic.
But enough of that; Hawaii was in the title and so I should probably talk about our trip a little bit. We stayed on the island of Maui the entire time. At first, we thought that we would run out of things to do with a full week in such a small place, but that turned out to not be a problem. In fact, there was one whole section of the island we didn't even get to. Part of the problem is that the topography of the island makes getting places difficult. On a map, the straight-line distance from Point A to Point B may only be 20 miles, but the road distance may be three or four times that as the road zig-zags back and forth, either because it goes up the side of a near-vertical cliff or is following the contour of the coastline. Add in that the speed limit in many places is 15 or 20 MPH (and that's often optimistic), and you have what looks like it should be a couple hour drive turning into an all-day road trip. The other problem is that we have a very different take on what is or isn't interesting. Something that is supposed to only take a couple hours will keep us occupied for an entire day, and something that people tell us to plan a whole day for will only hold our interest for about five minutes. Now that we know what's what, we could probably go back for another week and do things right.
Speaking of roads and driving in Hawaii, the locals seem to do their best to make getting around as interesting as possible. First, signage sucks. Most streets don't even have road signs and the ones that do are often overgrown with vegetation of some sort. And there is no such thing as a good map of Maui. We had three or four different maps and none of them were what I would call "good" as in having correct names, sufficient detail, etc. And I'm not sure why, but the speed limit on any given road changes about every 20 feet for no apparent reason: 35MPH, 45MPH and 55MPH signs are posted completely at random along one stretch of 4-lane divided highway that was probably the only flat, level piece of road on Maui. Not that any of it matters, as everyone just ignores them and drives 80MPH.
Which brings me to the local drivers. Everyone expects fudgies to be bad drivers; sudden inexplicable stops, turns and lane changes just go with the territory when you have large numbers of drivers who don't know where they are going trying to follow instructions being shouted at them from the passenger seat by someone who is directionally challenged. But the locals really take the cake: Hawaiians seem to have an intense interest in everything except where they are going. They are either half out of the side window waving and conversing with someone behind them, looking around in the back seat, looking around on the floor; in short, their eyes are everywhere except on the road in front of them. So it came as no surprise to us when the local paper had a front-page article declaring Hawaiian drivers the third-worst in the nation. Our only surprise was that there were places where people were even worse drivers than Hawaii. Combine this with the narrow, twisting roads with few or no guardrails running along the edge of 1,000-foot cliffs, and that the local cars are only capable of two speeds (0MPH and 80MPH), its a miracle there are any Hawaiians left. No wonder they have to keep importing people from the mainland.
Anyway, we have lots of pictures; I've made the first pass through them and will probably make another pass through some time this afternoon. It will probably take the better part of a day to upload them (about 650 images in total) given that our upload speed is less than 1 Mbps. I'll post something here when they are all uploaded.
And another thunderstorm just rolled through. Blue sky and sun, loud clap of thunder, completely black sky, rain, hail, then blue sky and sun; all in about three minutes. This has to be one of the strangest places on the planet.
Whenever this guy gets tired of being an Olympic gymnast, he can be the next James Bond:
Holy Crap.
HCHSBTSPODTUTBGTUTHADHOI: cold is a much bigger problem than a couple degrees of warming, which is why we have no plans of moving out of the most southern states. I remember the 1970's.
If you combine household debt with the federal debt, the number is $668,621 per American household ($546,668 per household in federal debt plus $121,953 per household in personal debt). At a mere 3% interest, it would take $2,818.93 a month for 30 years to pay that off, assuming we also triple federal taxes in order to eliminate the yearly deficits. "Houston, we have a problem."
Government bond holders are flexing their muscle. Let's see Obama throw these guys under the bus like he tried to do to the bond holders for GM and Chrysler.
Well, enough happy thoughts for one day. I need to stare at the computer some more and try to crank out those couple paragraphs. Don't want the entire day to be a write-off.
Not Much to Report
We just hung around the apartment applying for jobs and otherwise fiddling for most of the day. We headed out around 4pm for a movie (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) and some DQ. That's pretty much it. Exciting life, I know. Try not to get too jealous.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Same-o Same-o
Run away to paradise for a week, and nobody fixed anything while we were gone.
Probably the best place to start is here: "If you're not petrified, you're not paying attention." Commercial real estate is the next shoe that will drop unless the Obamessiah continues his attempt to re-write, by holy writ, a century of financial law so he can destroy the pension funds that hold GM and Chrysler bonds (and whatever other companies he decides to elect himself CEO of), in which case the colapse of private and public pensions will beat out commercial real estate:
Meanwhile, banks continue to fold even though we've been told the banking crisis has been solved. And of course, that puts the FDIC about one major bank failure from a big government bailout.
And speaking of bailouts and pensions, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is starting to drown in red ink from having to take over the pensions of all the failing companies out there. They are currently $33 billion-plus underwater without GM or Chrysler's pensions. I'm pretty sure if Fiat agrees to buy Chrysler, they won't be taking on the pension obligations, and any restructuring of GM that doesn't include the elimination of its pension obligations will simply be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. (GM has two retirees drawing a pension for every current employee; the average GM unionized 30-and-out pensioner will draw a pension for many more years than they worked). Which puts the PBGC in line for a big government bailout soon.
And just in case there is anyone that still thinks the current disaster was anyone's fault other than our own, read the story of someone who should have known better.
One reason I love the internet is that I have access to British papers. This is from a review of the Honda Insight in the Sunday Times:
Take the time to go read the whole thing; it will make your day. Then ask yourself the last time you saw anything like that in any of the lap-dogs-of-the-auto-makers American automobile press.
And for the obligatory HCHSBTSPODTUTBGTUTHADHOI part of the post: Renewable Energy - Our Downfall? is a well-written summary of where all the renewable technologies are and where they are likely to be in the near term. The short version: the only renewable with any hope of providing baseline power is nuclear. That's not to say that there aren't places where wind or tide or solar electric or solar hot water or cow poop can't provide a supplement to that base power; they can certainly do that. Some of those are also good choices for remote areas where the grid is too far away. So, yea; continue to develop those technologies, by all means. But for baseline grid power, we have two choices: coal and nuclear. Aside from the global-warming non-issue, coal has serious issues inherent in its use, which leaves nuclear. But the tree-humpers have ruled both of those out by regulating nuclear off the table and now taxing coal to the breaking point with Gore's Cap And Trade And Make Me Richer Than God scam. Hope everyone enjoys crapping in a hole in the ground and spending every waking minute trying not to starve to death. Everyone that is, except Al Gore and Friends.
Ah, it's great to be back.
Probably the best place to start is here: "If you're not petrified, you're not paying attention." Commercial real estate is the next shoe that will drop unless the Obamessiah continues his attempt to re-write, by holy writ, a century of financial law so he can destroy the pension funds that hold GM and Chrysler bonds (and whatever other companies he decides to elect himself CEO of), in which case the colapse of private and public pensions will beat out commercial real estate:
Meanwhile, banks continue to fold even though we've been told the banking crisis has been solved. And of course, that puts the FDIC about one major bank failure from a big government bailout.
And speaking of bailouts and pensions, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is starting to drown in red ink from having to take over the pensions of all the failing companies out there. They are currently $33 billion-plus underwater without GM or Chrysler's pensions. I'm pretty sure if Fiat agrees to buy Chrysler, they won't be taking on the pension obligations, and any restructuring of GM that doesn't include the elimination of its pension obligations will simply be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. (GM has two retirees drawing a pension for every current employee; the average GM unionized 30-and-out pensioner will draw a pension for many more years than they worked). Which puts the PBGC in line for a big government bailout soon.
And just in case there is anyone that still thinks the current disaster was anyone's fault other than our own, read the story of someone who should have known better.
One reason I love the internet is that I have access to British papers. This is from a review of the Honda Insight in the Sunday Times:
...It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.
...The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.
So you’re sitting there with the engine screaming its head off, and your ears bleeding, and you’re doing only 23mph because that’s about the top speed, and you’re thinking things can’t get any worse, and then they do because you run over a small piece of grit.
Because the Honda has two motors, one that runs on petrol and one that runs on batteries, it is more expensive to make than a car that has one. But since the whole point of this car is that it could be sold for less than Toyota’s Smugmobile, the engineers have plainly peeled the suspension components to the bone. The result is a ride that beggars belief.
Take the time to go read the whole thing; it will make your day. Then ask yourself the last time you saw anything like that in any of the lap-dogs-of-the-auto-makers American automobile press.
And for the obligatory HCHSBTSPODTUTBGTUTHADHOI part of the post: Renewable Energy - Our Downfall? is a well-written summary of where all the renewable technologies are and where they are likely to be in the near term. The short version: the only renewable with any hope of providing baseline power is nuclear. That's not to say that there aren't places where wind or tide or solar electric or solar hot water or cow poop can't provide a supplement to that base power; they can certainly do that. Some of those are also good choices for remote areas where the grid is too far away. So, yea; continue to develop those technologies, by all means. But for baseline grid power, we have two choices: coal and nuclear. Aside from the global-warming non-issue, coal has serious issues inherent in its use, which leaves nuclear. But the tree-humpers have ruled both of those out by regulating nuclear off the table and now taxing coal to the breaking point with Gore's Cap And Trade And Make Me Richer Than God scam. Hope everyone enjoys crapping in a hole in the ground and spending every waking minute trying not to starve to death. Everyone that is, except Al Gore and Friends.
Ah, it's great to be back.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Good feeling
Everything is now washed, dried, and put away from our trip. I believe this is the fastest that has ever happened. It feels nice to have it all done and finished.
All unpacked
As Ric said -- we are home from Maui. I took a 4 hr nap after going through my emails and just got done unpacking all the suitcases and sorting the dirty clothes.
No good news in my email. I did have one response from another bank posting here in Prescott. Hopefully I "won't be too late" when I call them on Tuesday (the email was from Monday 5/18) -- I also got a phone call while in Hawaii and I left them a message the next day with no response back. This is for a bank that is being built by the new SAMS club in Prescott/Prescott Valley. I know there is not a structure yet, and not sure if they even broke ground yet. We will see what they have to say.
Tomorrow morning we have to go to the post office to pick up all our mail -- since with this apartment the "box" is tiny -- they will not deliver held mail at all -- no way they could fit more than 2-3 days worth in these small mail boxes. Maybe I'll have a letter from Wells Fargo, or maybe a call tomorrow since they knew when I would be out of the state.
Other than that -- we may play the wait and see for a couple days about local job opportunities and then go on a road trip to check out some other places in the USA. Anybody know of companies hiring right now????
No good news in my email. I did have one response from another bank posting here in Prescott. Hopefully I "won't be too late" when I call them on Tuesday (the email was from Monday 5/18) -- I also got a phone call while in Hawaii and I left them a message the next day with no response back. This is for a bank that is being built by the new SAMS club in Prescott/Prescott Valley. I know there is not a structure yet, and not sure if they even broke ground yet. We will see what they have to say.
Tomorrow morning we have to go to the post office to pick up all our mail -- since with this apartment the "box" is tiny -- they will not deliver held mail at all -- no way they could fit more than 2-3 days worth in these small mail boxes. Maybe I'll have a letter from Wells Fargo, or maybe a call tomorrow since they knew when I would be out of the state.
Other than that -- we may play the wait and see for a couple days about local job opportunities and then go on a road trip to check out some other places in the USA. Anybody know of companies hiring right now????
Home
We're back from Maui, so I guess it's back to sucky reality. Because of flying the red-eye in an easterly direction, we've essentially lost a night's sleep. We are fighting valiantly to stay awake until some reasonable time this evening, but we may not make it. We are not even thinking about unpacking at this point; everything is sitting in the living room. Maybe tomorrow....
Hundreds of e-mail's and every other form of electronic communication to wade through, then I need to get started sorting through photos and getting those posted.
Maui was great; huge variety in a very small space. Eight days wasn't nearly enough so I suspect a return visit may be in our future.
Gotta get back to slogging through everything.
Hundreds of e-mail's and every other form of electronic communication to wade through, then I need to get started sorting through photos and getting those posted.
Maui was great; huge variety in a very small space. Eight days wasn't nearly enough so I suspect a return visit may be in our future.
Gotta get back to slogging through everything.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
This Place is Going to the Dogs!
Prescott people love their dogs and take them everywhere, including into stores and restaurants. There are at least four events downtown that center on dogs and/or pets. Today was one of them, so we walked downtown and hung around the courthouse petting dogs and taking pictures. I realized that it had been a long time since I cleaned off the camera, so there are photos from today along with a bunch of others all up on Flickr. The first four in the set are old photos that have been up there for a while, but the rest are all new (and taken with the snazzy new camera).
That's pretty much it until Memorial Day, unless we can find a way that won't bankrupt us to get on the internet in Hawaii. Now I have to go and "load balance" the suitcases and see if I can get them both under 50 pounds.
That's pretty much it until Memorial Day, unless we can find a way that won't bankrupt us to get on the internet in Hawaii. Now I have to go and "load balance" the suitcases and see if I can get them both under 50 pounds.
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