So we just went through airport security (kudos to the Columbus airport for having 100% free WiFi).
I expected that they would take our water bottles (the exact same thing you can buy 10 feet later for 20% more).
I didn’t, but should have, realized that they would take Ethan’s juice box. That’s right, the US Government is keeping you safe.... from juice.
Days Inn Atlanta Downtown (which is in easy walking distance of the awe-inspiring Georgia Aquarium) cost us $75 a night with no advanced notice for a room with two beds.
The Sheraton Buckhead Atlanta wanted $179 a night for a room with two beds.
Now I can personally attest that the two rooms are very similar, both of the TVs are about the same, and the beds seem equally comfy. The hotels seem equally clean.
So why is it that the Days Inn can provide free high speed wireless internet (150kbps downloads) but the Sheraton wants $10 for 24 hours?
This is not the first case in which a “cheaper” hotel will offer free wireless, while a “higher end” hotel will charge for it.
What kind of sense does that make?
Everyone with a TiVo knows that any hour of broadcast TV is really only 45 minutes long (at most). Late Night TV can be even less.
But for me, I've got The Late Show with David Letterman down to about 15 minutes, even though it is scheduled for 62.
Continue reading "Tivo Owner's Guide: How to watch David Letterman's Late Show" »
You might think I would be thrilled to hear they are coming out with the original, unaltered, Star Wars trilogy on DVD. Especially if you knew that I once watched Episode IV some 20+ times in one month when it was on HBO. Or if you knew that Tracey and I had once watched all three original movies in the theater on the same day.
But I’m really not. In fact I don’t remember the last time I felt this betrayed.
Continue reading "Star Wars Episode 7: How to Squeeze Every Last Dime from Your Biggest Fans" »
OK so just so no one can call me prejudiced or unequal, I figured I should share that UPS.com (which is normally a reliable source of information) failed pretty severely today:
Dell makes really nice LCD monitors.
The church bought two 17-inch UltraSharp 1704FPT monitors and a 17" Dell UltraSharp 1704FPV. I didn’t know the woman’s name until I received the confirmation email: Shubhi Chandana. She was helpful and clear to understand. So they were outsourcing their sales staff, hardly news.
They also have some good folks working their sales department. I got a call from one of them in June. Normally sales people get about 0.8 seconds on the phone with me. This one caught me at a good moment. Actually a really good moment, for both of us. She made a sale, and I came away with a 20.1-inch 2001FP for home. I had really gotten used to having an external monitor at the church, and the deal was just too good.
Both of these monitors use DVI connectors, the same as my 15"/1.5Ghz Powerbook. Nice clear picture. The 2001FP also does Picture-in-Picture so I can watch TV in the corner of the screen (it’s all part of what Tracey’s mom calls my “Man Cave” which I should write more about some day). I also have my Dell desktop running Windows XP hooked to the same monitor via VGA. Press a button, switch computers.
All of this was working fine until yesterday. I plugged in the DVI, and the Powerbook went through its little “Hey you plugged in an external monitor” dance (really slick, it auto-senses... yet another trick Windows could learn).
Except this time, the dance ended and the Powerbook is standing on the dancefloor all by itself. No picture on the external monitor. Unplug, replug. No soap. Turn monitor off and on. Still no. Powerbook down. Powerbook up. No joy in mudville. If I disconnect the monitor, it can tell something has happened, but the Powerbook doesn’t see an external monitor.
Ok, so options are:
Now raise your hand if you really think it’s the cable? (You there in the back with your hand up, lay off the happy pills and rejoin us on Planet Earth.)
Since I have a similar monitor at the church, it was fairly easy to test #1 and 2. Truth be told I was almost wishing for it to be #2 since I have AppleCare and knew Apple would take care of it, but that would mean mailing back my Powerbook which I didn’t really want to do.
Plugged in the monitor at work the next day and it worked fine. So it’s not #2. I brought the cable home and tried it on the other monitor. No good.
So #3 it is. Yay.
I called Dell, one of the 15,823 phone numbers they have out there.
“Are you calling about a desktop or portable computer?” asked the automated voice. Err, neither?
How about their website? Oh look, they pop up a “Chat with a text support” window. Ok, I’ll do that. Current wait time 0 minutes?!?! WOW!
“Please enter your Service Tag or Express Service Code” for those of you unfamiliar with Dell, these are the two codes that Dell uses with their computers to identify them. What’s that, you ask, why in the world do they have two identification codes? I have no clue whatsoever. Seems ridiculous to me too. Either one or the other. Anyway, no code, no chat.
So I found one of the codes (after all we have 5 Dells between home and the church).
“Sorry, chat is not is available for your customers like you” (either home or business).
Back to the phone.
Finally got through and got a live human being.
“Can you give me the Service Tag or the Express Service Code?”
Actually no, I’m calling about a monitor.
“Well is it connected to a desktop or portable?”
Portable.
“Inspiron or Latitude?”
Powerbook. Oops, sorry, did I just blow your mind?
“Oh, you’re using a Powerbook?”
Yes, but (before you start some lame excuse about not supporting Macs) that doesn’t change anything about the fact that the DVI doesn’t work.
“Can you give me the serial number off the monitor?”
Errr... no, I’m at work and the monitor is at home. Doesn’t the order number help?
“No, I’m sorry, it doesn’t.”
Of course not, I mean, why would you do something crazy like maintain a database that would connect something like order numbers and serial numbers. I mean, it’s not like you’re some sort of big computer company which could have some sort of a database. (This is the same company, by the way, which cannot change “PRESPETERIAN” in its customer database. I’ve talked to at least 5 separate people on at least 5 separate occasions. Can’t be done. We also get 5 identical copies of their catalog every month at the church.)
So he gave me the number to call and the 7 digit extension. I went home, found the nineteen character serial number, and call the number. Hardware support. More call routing. Laptop, desktop, printer, handheld, or other. Well, a monitor would have to be “other” right? Except that when I’m on hold, they start talking about wireless networking.
Finally got someone. “Name, phone number, address, email address” which I provide again and again to each person I talk to, and they each person who I talk to, separated by 10-15 minutes on hold. You don’t think you all could share this information, right?
Get someone who is very helpful, but he can’t help. I’ve got the wrong division. “You need to talk to Dimension support” he tells me. But I’m not using this with a Dimension. “What are you using?” A Powerbook. Silence. I’m going for it. “The DVI connector on my LCD isn’t working. I tried a different monitor and it worked, I tried a different cable and that didn’t help. It’s the monitor, I’m sure of it. The VGA works, the s-video works. It’s 6 months old.”
He suggested that I disconnect all the cables and hold the power button for 15 seconds. Nothing. “Sorry, you need to talk to Dimension support.” Ok, I get it. He transfers me to Dimension support. I give the same report, this time I don’t mention the Powerbook at all. I have a Dell Dimension and I am connecting the LCD to a DVI port. No one asks what video card I’m using (since the Dimension didn’t come with a DVI connector). I tell him all of the things I’ve done, and add the new power cycling test an the factory reset which I had found while on hold.
He’s just about to tell me that I need a new monitor and asks for my order number.
And the phone disconnects.
Now you heard me say that I’ve given my phone number at least 6 times, and they have a case number connected to me. Since we were disconnected and I have absolutely no way of finding my way back to him, raise your hand if you expect that he’d call me back. (You again! Lay off Mother’s Little Helper already and put your hand down, you’re embarrassing yourself)
So I call back. More hold. More call routing. More not-having-any-idea-if-I-am-waiting-for-the-right-person.
Finally get someone. He’s not the right one, but he’s anxious to help. He listens to what I did, he takes my information. He determines that I need a new monitor....
But... I’ve called the Small Business Division, and I need the Home Division. “Don’t worry,” he told me, “I’ll wait on hold and explain it to them, he’ll probably need to ask a couple questions, but you’ll be all set.
More holding. 10 minutes, at least. Finally get someone.
He said his name was “Kevin” I guess they think they have to give their tech support people generic names. I was tempted to ask him how many silent Vs and Ys and vowels there were in “Kevin”.... I mean, how sad is it that in 2006 we have to go through this charade where everyone knows that the guy on the other end of the phone isn’t blond hair with blue eyes but I fully expect to get “Biff” one of these days. If you can understand him/her (and it was no harder to understand than someone with a heavy accent from, say, Texas or Florida), do you really care what his name is?
“So what seems to be the issue?” he asked.
Didn’t the other tech explain it to you?
“No, I’m sorry sir, can you tell me what seems to be wrong?”
I resist the urge to scream loud enough to rip a hole in the space-time continuum.
Anyway, I told “Kevin” my story. It’s getting more and more succinct. This is what I did: bing bang boom. “May I place you on hold for 2-3 minutes?” Sure, what am I gonna say? No?
Finally after going through the whole thing for the 4th or 5th time, he determines that yes I do need a new monitor. He keeps asking me questions even as he was processing it, but he tells me it will take 3-4 days. At the end he tells me that his supervisor needs to talk to me.
His supervisor’s name? Bob.
Sure, and you can call me Vishnu.
It did get me to wonder. Do your names get shorter the higher up the tech support chain? Does “Bob” have a supervisor named “Ed”?
Ah well. Maybe someday more Americans will realize there are other people out there besides Kevins and Bobs and Biffs, but until then I'll just wait for my UPS tracking number...
![[screenshot of UPS tracking detail]](/images/ups-where-did-you-go-sm-573x159.png)
So we’re all familiar with my previous troubles with shipping (if not, Google for 'FedEx' on this site).
FedEx has been the previous subject, but there’s a strange entry in a package I’m currently tracking via UPS:
So what I’m wondering, Little Package, is what were you doing all night? Out on the town, where you? Who were you with? What were you doing? Just wait until your father hears about this, it’ll kill him, ya hear me?
(My cousin Bill Houghton was killed in a car accident early morning, Saturday, August 13th. The following are remarks I shared on August 17th during his funeral service. A little over two years ago I wrote something called Nana By Numbers. Bill always loved his grandmother, and his family came up with the numbers and the memories which were the foundation of “Bill By Numbers” which follows. — TjL)
Quoting Lawmakers move to extend daylight-saving time (CNN):
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An agreement was reached Thursday to extend daylight-saving time in an effort to conserve energy, but not to the extent the House approved in April. House and Senate negotiators on an energy bill agreed to begin daylight-saving time three weeks earlier, on the second Sunday in March, and extend it by one week to the first Sunday in November. The House bill would have added a month in the spring and another in the fall.
Ok, now I wish they would have done away with it altogether, but more is better.
According to some senators, farmers complained that a two-month extension could adversely affect livestock
Huh? This I don’t understand. The lifestock can’t tell time, can they? I mean, Daylight Saving Time doesn’t actually change the amount of time we have daylight, it just changes what time we humans consider it to be. Maybe I’m missing something.
and airline officials said it would have complicated scheduling of international flights.
Again, I don’t see what difference it makes if the change happens in October or November or March or April.
"We ought to take a hard look at this before we jump into it," said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who questioned how much oil savings the extension would produce.
Yes, let’s have a 3 year study and spend several million dollars on it.
Reps. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, and Fred Upton, R-Michigan, agreed to scale back their original proposal, and Senate negotiators accepted the new version, along with a call for a study on how much daylight-saving time actually affects oil consumption. “The beauty of daylight-saving time is that it just makes everyone feel sunnier,” said Markey.
Ok, someone take the microphone away from Rep Markey.... “Sunnier”? Is that even a word?
Upton noted that the extension means daylight-saving time will continue through Halloween, adding to safety. "Kids across the nation will soon rejoice," said Upton, because they'll have another hour of daylight trick-or-treating.
On the other hand, the Satanists are mad that they have to wait an extra hour before they can exchange presents after dark on Halloween.
Lawmakers said they hoped to complete the energy legislation next week.
Meaning that it will probably take another month.
I wonder if they realize that almost every computer in the world will have to be updated to deal with this change? Probably not.
Oh well.
Since you’re already wasting time, you might want to read:
Or take a look at yet another cute picture of Ethan
I have previously written about being invited to the Ohio House of Representatives to give the opening invocation.
I went yesterday, and was warmly greeted by everyone I met. They seemed genuinely pleased to have me there (and I was, despite appearances, pleased to have been invited). I offered the prayer (below) which, while being difficult to write (I felt as if I was trying very hard not to say anything), I think was at least worth something.
Continue reading "Ohio House of Representatives Opening Invocation, April 20th, 2005" »
I have been asked to give the opening invocation at the Ohio House of Representatives (OHOR) on Wednesday. I’m pleased at having been asked, although as far as I can tell the selection criteria are that I apparently signed a form somewhere along the line and indicated that I would be willing to do this.
A few weeks ago I was contacted by a very nice young (sounding) woman from the OHOR and we worked out a date.
I received detailed instructions to make sure that I am sufficiently prepared. I suspect that they have had some issues in the past with people they have invited saying inappropriate things. (I know, with such a stringent selection process, how could that happen?)
Paul Thurroot, who runs a website called “WinSuperSite” writes:
Apple Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" is the strongest OS X release yet and a worthy competitor to Windows XP
Gee, how sweet of him, in a condescending manner.
Tiger is in fact a minor upgrade with few major new features, more akin to what we'd call a service pack in the Windows world.
Yeah, a few new features, like global searching that actually will be delivered when the OS ships on time, rather than Microsoft’s promised features which never materialize, or come after several delays.
Continue reading "Author of several Windows books claims Tiger is No Big Deal" »
The strange tales of FedEx continue.
As previously reported I have been waiting on a package from FedEx. Since it was Friday, I knew if I missed them today I would have to wait until Monday to get my package.
This recipe arrived in the mail today from my mother:
| 1½ c rhubarb | 1 egg |
| 7/8 ' sugar | 2 tbls. flour |
Cut stalks of rhubarb in ½" pieces before measuring. Mix sugar, flour & egg: add to rhubarb and bake between crusts or 1 crust with lattice strips.
Also, can be sprinkled with ½c raisins.
40-45 mins @ 350° - 375°
Why am I telling you this? Because I’ve kept silence long enough; now the story must be told.
![[Picture of Tim and Tracey is police uniforms]](/images/beyond30/pirates-300x400.jpg)
This weekend was the triumphant stage debut of ... well, let's not kid ourselves... This weekend Tim and Tracey were on stage together as part of the police chorus in "Pirates of Penzance" at Rio Grande.
It was quite a lot of fun, not just the opportunity to stomp around the stage bellowing out a ridiculous word (Tarantara! Tarantara!) but to hang out with some friends from the church, and some new friends from the college. It was an awful lot of fun, did I mention?
I have some pictures up at the church website. The director has more which will be up at the end of the week.
![[Thumbnail of poster]](images/beyond30/USPS-Suspicious-Mail-Alert-548x726.png)
So I was at the post office today, which is always a good place for interesting observations about life. Or at least, interesting observations about the post office.
Today I actually read the sign on the wall that's been there as long as I can remember. (Checkout the poster, and see if you can see it coming.)
The poster is alerting people about suspicious mail (in case you couldn't tell from the subtle SUSPICIOUS MAIL ALERT in red at the top of the poster). There are various tips for identifying suspicious mail (strange odor, excessive tape or string, rigid or bulky, badly typed or written).
One of the suspicious traits: "Possibly mailed from a foreign country."
Ah yes, of course! Because of course no American would send anything dangerous through the mail. *sigh*
But that wasn't the really interesting part. I was more interested in the list of steps to take if you have suspicious package:
Now those are good tips.... I guess. Well, maybe. I mean, sure, if you think it's a bomb, it's probably a good idea not to shake it. This clue would be necessary in case you've never seen a move.
"Isolate it immediately" would not be a problem either, although I'd probably isolate myself from it.
But what really caught my attention was clue #3. Do not open (duh), smell (ok, but you said that having a strange odor was a sign it might be dangerous, but if I know that I've already smelled it), touch (gee! Don't touch the possible bomb! You don't say?! But wait, didn't you just say I should isolate it? How should I do that without touching it? Ah, we should all leave the building I guess.) Ok, I can live with all of those.... but the last one:
Taste.
Taste.
I actually had to ask the clerk about this one. (We've got a quite enjoyable clerk at our local post office branch. I wouldn't say he's a cracked nut, but, well , others might :-)
Me: "Is this a big problem, people tasting their mail? Because me, personally, I don't even taste my unsuspicious mail."
Him: "Actually, yes. We have trained professionals in the back who lick the suspicious packages. You really shouldn't be trying this at home."
Told ya he was a kindred spirit.
(See also When will it get there?, a user-friendly guide to post office shipping-related terms.)
I really thought this was was a joke.
Couple Sells Candles That Smell Like Jesus (print version)
But you can't make this stuff up... My in-depth analysis...
I write to you from a table about 1 yard (that's about 1 meter for my international readers) in circumference. I am sitting on a hard wooden chair about 20 yards (that's about 20 meters for my international readers) from more comfortable chairs. The chair was designed clearly designed my a Finnish Dutch Calvinist who believed that we ought to repent for our sins through pain in the gluetus maximus.
Actually, I presume the chairs were designed to prevent people from lounging here for longer than absolutely necessary.
I just spent $20 to have my dog’s anal sacs squeezed because he’s been greasing the couch lately. That may seem a bit exorbitant for a little gland squeezing, but it will definitely go down as the best $20 I ever spent: I DON‘T HAVE TO SQUEEZE THEM MYSELF.
No question! For awhile, Jerry needed this done every 3-4 weeks, which meant 30-40 minutes in NJ traffic to get him there and back, plus waiting in the lobby.
Sure, I felt a little silly in the lobby.
"What's your dog in for? Heartworm? Oh, that's terrible.... My dog? Yeah, he's got stinkbutt. Yeah, it's really bad"
How bad was it? Well, apparently there are 2 of these glands. I never really checked myself, but I deduced there were two by listening to the techs. There is apparently a class in vet school where they teach you the proper order of anal gland squeezing. Like mounting a horse from whatever the proper side to mount a horse is. Whichever the proper side to begin is, that side was never particularly bad, because I'd always hear the same thing.
"So you think Jerry needs his glands expressed?" (which is the technical term for the squeezing)
"Yeah, I know it was only a few weeks ago, but they've gotten really bad again."
"Ok, well let's check."
At which point I would turn to face the opposite direction, and usually take Jerry's head and start petting him. Partly I did this so he wouldn't turn around and bite the vet, because for some reason or another Jerry didn't particularly enjoy this experience. But the other reason I did this is because I wanted there to be absolutely ZERO chance that I would see anything that happened down there.
The next part was 100% reproducible:
"Ok, well that one didn't seem too bad" (translation: "You're a lousy dog owner who is over-reacting.")_
"So let's just get the other---OH GAWD." (translation: "Oh that stain is never going to come out... I should have gone into a different line of work. I thought I had seen some nasty stuff before, but that.... UGH... I'm going to have to cancel our dinner plans. In fact, I may never eat again")
Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of techs coming back a second time. I wouldn't be surprised if they had posted a chart in the break room where people added their names after taking care of Jerry's glands so they didn't have to go back. This list was apparently kept a secret from the other techs, because no one ever came in with the proper attire (say, like a hazmat suit from Chernobyl).
Come to think of it, Jerry may have been the equivalent of New Vet Tech Hazing, a rite of passage for the new recruits. Every week the same "Oh, well that doesn't seem to bad" initial diagnosis, followed by the sound of trying not to scream and/or throw up in front of a client.
Afterwards The Actual Vet came in (being smart enough to not appear until after the glands were "expressed") she checked to make sure there wasn't an infection (How could you tell?!? Nevermind, I don't want to know). During the 4th or 5th visit, she said, "You know, if you'd like, we could show you how to do this yourself, and you wouldn't have to bring him in here."
To which I replied, "Thanks, doc, but that's just not a level of familiarity I'm interested in attaining."
What I wanted to say was, "Are you nuts? That thing can gag a vet tech do you think I'm going anywhere near it?"
$20 and an hour in traffic? A bargain at twice the price.
(By the way, we started feeding Jerry a higher-quality of dog food and his glands improved dramatically. We paid a little more for the food, but we saved time, hassle, and more than one innocent and unsuspecting vet tech.)
..why every single monologue on "The Late Show with David Letterman" has to end with a mousical flourish that always always ALWAYS ends with a painfully high squeaky trumpet blast that is nothing but the embodiment of a 17" railroad spike being punched through your skull with a sledgehammer?
Every flipping night.
It has no musical artistry to it.
It has no purpose.
It's simply "Hey, listen to this really painful note that I can play and hold! Isn't that impressive?"
Yeah, if we were trying to knock down the walls of Jericho, you'd be first on my list. Otherwise you're just an idiot who's giving me a headache.
Please stop.
(Summary: Bandwidth still matters. Speed still matters. Size matters. When viewing a well-designed website, Opera makes it easier for me to read what I want to read while avoiding what I want to avoid.)
Note to all websites that want me to read what you are writing:
Give me a printer friendly version, or I'll probably move on.
Why? Here's why:
I stumbled across this glowing recommendation for SonicWall that I gave awhile ago on their website.
Looking back, I still remember that experience. I don't remember how they contacted me, but I got a free box (the first time I ever beta tested hardware).
This was before you could get a Linksys or D-Link or whatever at the local Wal-Mart. This was 1997 and cable modems were rare. SonicWall was ahead of their time, for sure. I haven't had a chance to use their hardware since (they never seemed to have gotten into the likes of Best Buy and Circuit City) but I'd definitely give them another go.
Kinda cool to still be the customer quote ;-)
Hey, there's a really good article on progressive rock in today's Vermont Guardian. I wonder who wrote it?
(or: "The Day the Piano Ate My Cell Phone")
So I was down at the church reviewing for my "Fundamentals of Music" class that I'm taking Monday nights at the local community college. I was sitting at the piano with my workbook and cardboard cutout keyboard "cheat sheet" ploinking out single whole note after single whole note. Atop the piano was my cell phone, as I was awaiting a call from my Dad's doctor and possibly Tracey.
I stood up and went to step away from the piano.
It's not exactly clear what happened next.
Continue reading "Why I don't play any musical instruments" »
So I had purchased an iPod accessory a few months ago from Target, only to find out I didn't need it.
Target is about an hour away, and so it took me awhile to a) go back and b) remember to bring it with me. I've had the receipt and the bag with me for months. You know the way it is, every time you turn around, there it is, "Oh yeah, I need to return that."
Continue reading "Adventures in Customer Service, Episode 7428" »
So, you're an ACT! user on Windows, looking to switch to Mac. You're wondering what you'll do.
I'm here to help.
Simple but necessary steps
Continue reading "How to make hot chocolate in the microwave" »
I told Tracey that Ken Jennings finally lost at Jeopardy!
I told her what the Final Jeopardy! answer was and she got the question right, at which point she threw up her arms and exclaimed "I beat big brain boy!"
Which was pretty funny, but not nearly as funny as when Ethan threw up his arms and said "Mommy bea' big brai boy!"
A recent wind-storm severely damaged one of the trees in our front yard. How bad? Well, the tip of the tree was in the driveway. Even those of you from the city will realize that's not good.
Continue reading "If life gives you $750 worth of tree damage, make firewood." »
I was in the Christian bookstore at the mall today. That was a mistake. Not because I bought more books (which I didn't) but because many of the books made me angry. I know I'm not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but some of them are just irritating.
Like one book in the discount rack with a title something like Surviving the Y2K Crisis. I thought to myself, "I can't believe anyone bought that crap in 1999, but trying to sell it in 2004? How dumb do they think their customers are?"
Actually I've probably missed a few, but this one has always annoyed me...
MacMinute reports VirtualPC7 has been delayed because of Windows XP SP2. What's more, Virtual PC standalone, upgrade, and Windows 2000 are apparently ready now but wil not be released until some months after VirtualPC7 with Windows XP SP2 is available.
How dumb is that?
Continue reading "VirtualPC7 and Microsoft Marketing Genius" »
I have written before about fun with the post office. This time it's FedEx.
James Paul Stanson went on a shooting rampage, but was stopped by a friendly dog.
See Man's best friend saves the day or Suspect 'always loved dogs'
Got any cat-saves-the-day stories?
Ok, so we've been waiting 6 months or more for local channels from DirecTV. We were told "August" [2003] or "definitely by the end of the year" [2003]. Then when DishNet started offering local channels here months ago, I got an email from DirecTV saying "Local channels in April!!"
Of course April came and went. Then they said "June or July" I complained, they apologized, said it wasn't their fault, had problems with the satellite deployment, etc.
So we've been waiting. I've been meaning to call all week and see what the new estimate was.... when all of a sudden we accidentally discover that we have local channels. No idea how long they've been there.
I signed up for the email notification, I complained, and every time we turn on the Tivo, there's a spot for messages. Did they bother to let us know? Nope.
Unreal that they can't even get it right when they have a new service that customers have been asking for. Unreal.
*Yawn* Oh, sorry. Just yet another story about CD prices dropping, and the music industry complaining about downloads. Quit your whining, you money grubbing thieves. You've been robbing your customers for years, not to mention the musicians themselves.
Continue reading "The Music Industry, the Economics of Scale, and the Unexpected Twist" »
BBC is reporting outrage that American TV network CBS showed pictures of Princess Di receiving medical care after her (eventually fatal) car accident.
One keen observer noted that apparently CBS thinks Janet Jackson’s nipple is cause for an official apology, but someone on the verge of death is acceptable.
Personally I think CBS will just do anything to get people to watch their network which, by the way, makes them exactly like 99% of the television networks.
Please note that I would like you to dry up the constant runnyness of my nose due to allergies.
I only mention this because you seem to be confused about the purpose of my injesting you on a regular basis, as thus far you seem to have only succeeded in drying out my tongue.
So if you could reach a just a little higher, that would be great. If I could have my saliva back, even better.
That is all.
Today I went to the post office. I had a package that I needed to send, so the post office seemed a logical choice, because those folks at the library have a terrible performance for delivering packages in a timely fashion.
There’s a joke here somewhere.
CNN is currently running a poll: “Do you think the U.S. job market is improving?”
Current results: 46% (49747 votes) say yes and 54% (57750 votes) say no.
What’s more interesting is that the results page (linked above) offers a “Related” link that says U.S. job growth soars (don’t click that link, read on).
Except that the link is 404.
Hrm.
Is this a belated April Fool’s day joke? Is the job growth soaring or not? Has the White House infiltrated CNN to spread propaganda that the job market is improving?
Nope, thanks to Google I found the story: U.S. job growth soars (printer friendly version). If you examine the URLs it is easy to see what what happened was that someone put the wrong hostname in (www.cnn.com instead of money.cnn.com). Accidents happen.
Well it was fun(ny) while it lasted. At least to me.
Well I have already described the first part of turning 31 so I won’t bore you with those details again.
Turns out, however, that there was more going to happen that day. No, there were no surprise visits from long lost relatives... or newly lost relatives for that matter... In fact I’m not even sure that we have any lost relatives, unless they are so lost that we’ve forgotten them completely, which would make a surprise reunion somewhat awkward.
Well today I am 31, which, despite what anyone might tell you, is nothing like being 15½ twice. Ok, so I don’t really remember what 15½ felt like, but I wouldn’t believe them anyway.
I don’t remember what present I might have been excited about at 15½ but I can tell you that if you had asked me to make a list of 1,000 items I would have liked for my birthday, there would have been no appliances anywhere on the list.
Ok, so Tracey is gone for the night. She is participating in a sleep study (she’s been having trouble sleeping for any length of time). It’s sort of a strange thing, though because they were planning to wake her up between 5 and 6 a.m, which to me isn’t so much a sleep study, as a cruel way to torture someone who hasn’t had a night without listening for her baby’s cry in 21 months.
Nevertheless, we (and by “we” I mean mainly her) got Ethan down to bed around 9 p.m. so she could be there for 9:45, and we’re all just hoping that Ethan sleeps through the night.
![[Scout with his head in the top of a trashcan]](/images/scoutcollar-168x226.jpg)
Ok, so we’ve been home like 3 days, and Scout has already gotten into Dad’s trashcan and nearly had himself sold to Gypsies.
Here’s the deal: he gets into Dad’s bathroom and dragged towels off the rack and rub his face in them; or he will manage to get the door closed and then proceed to howl; or he will get into Dad’s trashcan, usually eating Q-Tips; or he will get into the trashcan and chew up diapers (see photo).
So far we have tried modifying the human behavior, because trying to change the dog behavior is useless. This has resulted in endless conversations about why Tracey puts diapers in the trashcan in the bathroom (I know the answer, because when you change 8,437 diapers, it gets tiresome to keep bringing them out to the trashcan outside every time).
This human behavior modification scenario also requires 4 door cycles for Dad to go to the bathroom:
Oh, and if he wants to go back to the bedroom, it requires the same process in reverse. Failing any step risks either whacking oneself into a door, or leaving a door open for Scout to get into a trashcan either in the bathroom or the bedroom. (There was also that one time when Scout got under the covers of Dad’s bed.)
Have I mentioned Tracey’s “ability” to wake up at the slightest noise? Have I mentioned that Dad generally gets up at least once during the night? Have I mentioned that the doors are not very easy for me to open/close without making a significant amount of noise?
![[baby gate ad]](/images/babygate-250x250.jpg)
So when Tracey came downstairs tonight after getting Ethan to sleep during which Dad bellowed at Scout to get out of his trashcan, I knew it was time for Tim Luoma, Problem Solver Husband to step in. Fate, nah, providence brought a baby gate catalog to our house. We looked at it together and saw a couple of options, but the Sure and Secure Extra Tall Walk-Through Gate seemed like the best bet. The Center Gateway advertizes itself as easy to use with one hand, but the other is taller and automatically locks when you close it. Plus with the added height (7 inches) it should not only be harder to get over, but it should mean less bending over for Dad when he is trying to get through.
If it doesn’t work, we may send it back for the Center Gateway, or we may see when the circus is coming to town and find out if they need an incredibly dense beagle for some act... maybe to be shot out of a cannon.
In case you missed anything
Ok, so we have to leave tomorrow at 6:00 a.m., meaning I have to get up at 5:30 a.m., meaning I have to get to bed at a much earlier hour. So here is a quick synopsis of our last day via pictures. All pictures were taken at the Museum of Flight (Seattle).
After yesterday’s tirade, I decided that today would be much more straightforward, especially with the post title. Descriptive over clever.
Today is Thursday, which means that we have only one more day of our vacation left. Not that we can complain, since we have been gone just over 2 weeks. It has been a really fantastic vacation. I have enjoyed this more than I remember enjoying another vacation in a really long time. The other nice thing is that I’m not overly stressed about getting back into the daily routine. Usually by this point I’m already starting to think about what needs to be done once I get back, but I haven’t done that this time which has been really nice.
Continue reading "Vacation Day 15 Pacific Science Center (Seattle)" »
![[peacock 1]](/images/vacation-2004-03/woodlandzoo.01f.jpg)
. ![[peacock 2]](/images/vacation-2004-03/woodlandzoo.02f.jpg)
. ![[peacock 3]](/images/vacation-2004-03/woodlandzoo.03f.jpg)
Ok I admit that today’s title makes absolutely no sense. I should have written “Today we went to the Seattle Zoo” as the title, but that title is boring, and post titles should be clever, like sermon titles.
Making up post titles is only slightly better than having to make up sermon titles, because sermon titles are not only printed on a piece of paper which is seen/held by 95% of the people who attend worship, but they are also put on the board outside the church building where any passerby can see it.
![[Ethan looking around, Tracey looking at brochure]](/images/vacation-2004-03/seattleaqua.1.jpg)
I had no idea until this vacation how much I would enjoy an aquarium. It never struck me as something that I would really like, not that I had anything against them, but I didn’t give them much thought either.
Ok, well after a minor (in retrospect) setback, we headed out to the Argosy Cruise Seattle Harbor Tour which is part of the CityPass (if you missed me talking about the CityPass yesterday, take a look, as it’s very cool).
We found our way to downtown Seattle without any difficulties, and found Pier 55/56 without any difficulty (and how did we know we needed that pier? It was on the CityPass website!) which was quite a relief after all the excess driving we have done. We even found a decent parking spot with time left on the meter (apparently there was some sort of a cosmic karmic struggle going on where forgetting my wallet in the morning would result in good parking spaces for the rest of the day). I was even able to run into the restaurant and grab a quick burger before the boat left.
Continue reading "Vacation Day 12, take 2, Hold on Seattle, here come the Luomas" »
So after several days and several hundred miles, I was looking forward to getting back on the real vacation path, you know, stuff to see, gift shops to explore, pictures to take, yadda etc.
Continue reading "Vacation Day 12, take 1, I left my wallet in Seattle" »
Well no news is usually good news, but this time it was a case of “if you can’t say anything nice...”
Great fun today! We went to the Exploratorium today. We are getting quite good at the trip in and out of San Francisco.
Today we were robbed at gunpoint. No, no, I’m kidding. (Didn’t get the joke? See yesterday.)
Since we started planning this trip, Tracey has wanted to visit Alcatraz. I must confess I thought this was an odd choice, but she doesn’t ask for much, so I didn’t make an issue about it. (Perhaps it was just a desire to be somewhere that Sean Connery had been?)
Continue reading "Vacation Day 7 (If it's Alcatraz, it must be Tuesday)" »
Not so much mine as Tracey’s and not so much left as had stolen.
![[Ethan sitting in chair with Meg Beagle and Ginger (non beagle)]](/images/vacation-2004-03/20040307-ethan-in-chair.jpg "Ethan with Meg Beagle and Ginger (non beagle)")
The Arooooo! beaglefest was today. Ethan finally got to meet some of his international fan club.
Well today was a bit of a bump in the road. We got started around 11 to head to a local carousel. The road there was also very winding. I keep saying “windy” but I suppose that is technically incorrect. There were no strong breezes, but a lot of twists and turns. To add to the fun there were also a lot of bicyclists. Great mix.
![[Ethan and Tim next to Dennis the Menace statue]](/images/vacation-2004-03/20040305-dennis-the-menace-park-monterey.jpg "Ethan and Tim next to Dennis the Menace statue")
Left Monterey this morning after stopping by Dennis the Menace Park. Drove to the Santa Cruz boardwalk, which is apparently not open until later in the season.
Fun day! Had a swim and a soak this morning. Ethan got into the water with me and was kicking his legs like a pro while holding onto my neck. Very cute.
Well technically day two, but all we did yesterday was arrive after a really long plane ride. Fortunately the plane from Atlanta to Oakland was not full so Ethan had his own seat. Ethan was amazing. He entertained himself for probably 15 minutes by playing with an empty 8oz water bottle by throwing it against the back of his seat. Also met Yvette, Vivek, Kush and Gage who were all as nice as could be. Gage is a total smile-fest.
“Ohio is the Florida of 2004,” said Gerald Austin, who has run many Ohio campaigns and Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential bid. “This state is up for grabs.” (via Salon.com article about labor and other groups gearing up for to defeat President Bush in November.)
Having been in Florida during the 2000 presidential election (and then later witnessing a presidential appointment by the Supreme Court), the phrase “Ohio is the Florida of 2004,” quite literally gave me chills. It was bad enough to be a resident of the state that (through a system of voting fraud and political pressure) sent Bush Jr. to the White House the first time.
Does this mean that Nader will hold a rally here at Ohio University and pull swing votes away from the Democratic candidate (as he did at the University of Florida)? Alachua County (where I and UF resided at the time, and where UF remains to this day, as far as I know) may have cost Gore the 2000 election (you know, the actual election, before the behind-the-scenes politics took over).
Oh me-oh, oh my-oh, oh Cleveland Ohio! (20 bonus points for anyone who knows that reference.)
(Not Opera-related)
I was thinking back on the technology booms of 2003. Yeah, I know everyone else did their reflecting on 2003 a month ago, but I’m doing mine now.
The first (chronologically) was the Treo300, which replaced my aged Palm IIIxe and my no so aged cell phone. I lost said cell phone somewhere between Atlanta and Gainesville airports.
The Treo300 was a fairly decent phone plus PDA. It had a keyboard