30 December 2005
Why Ticketmaster Stinks:
I used Ticketmaster about a year ago to get tickets to some event,..
because it was my only option. They stink because their service is
expensive; but hey, if you want the tickets, you pay the price. The
reason they really stink is: When I created the ticketmaster account, I
foolishly opted for weekly email alerts and newsletter. After months
and months of receiving alerts and newsletters, none of which I read, I
tried to go to their website and change my alert preferences (5 times).
Every time I did, their system told me it had timed out and I had to
sign back in - I tried unchecking the two alert boxes as fast as I
could, but still I timed out in 10 seconds. So I finally resorted to
sending them an email to try and unsubscribe. We'll see if they refer
me to their FAQ page on unsubscribing, or send me a condescending
email,...
27 December 2005
I've
read a couple of articles in the last few days regarding the Chinese
selling missile goods and chemical-arms materials to Iran. The big
headline was that sanctions were forthcoming against the six Chinese
companies, the two Indi
I just wanted to put
up a quick note on the whole spy thing I commented on 4 days ago.
There's a New York Time article that came out today detailing the great
extent to which digital communication is being monitored by the NSA;
it's much greater than the level of monitoring admitted (maybe even
realized by) by GW Bush. I hope the New York Times doesn't mind me
posting their article here, for
your reading enjoyment.
20 December 2005
When
I first heard that GW Bush had allowed the NSA to monitor the email and
phone conversations of people that are leads on terrorism, I was
disappointed in the continual erosion of personal privacy (what's left
of it). After a few minutes of reflection, I realized it really doesn't
matter. I'm convinced that the FBI, CIA, NSA, or any other of the
alphabet-soup agencies we know very little about, continually monitor
thousands of American citizens. I believe if they want to go after
somebody (YOU for example - just for reading this upstart drivel),
freeze their assets, seize their property, they can do it. Now I don't
believe in any grand conspiracy to monitor and control everyone, but I
do believe there are powerful coteries within these agengies that do
whatever they want, whenever they want. The FBI monitors web sites,
mosques, fringe environmental groups, anti-war Catholic groups,... do
these groups represent a terrorism threat, or do they fall into the
category of legitimate civil disobedience? The decision to monitor US
citizens is often made at the field office level, where agent-zealot
behavior goes unchecked. All it takes is membership in a questionable
group or a case of mistaken identity. We're becoming a tranparent
society where there are no secrets.
So
I guess my point is that if GW Bush is allowing the NSA to monitor
terrorism leads, it's such a small sin compared to what these agencies
already do, and what the heck, maybe it will help catch the bad guy. It
just seems really wrong to spy on Americans because of their ideas.
Bush isn't the first or most aggregious arbiter of citizen's privacy
rights. Check out a copy of the Drudge Report's newsflash
on the executive orders issued by Presidents Carter and Clinton with
links to the text of those orders. Or skip Drudge's page and view a
copy of the executive orders archived in the official Federal Register.
Executive Order 12139 by Jimmy Carter
Executive Order 12949 by Bill Clinton
I
used to console myself that there weren't eough people to do the
"listening" of phonecalls and "reading" of emails, but computers have
changed all that. I'm not sure how far along "auto-interpretation of
digital stream" technology has evolved, but it's only a matter of time
before computers can understand concepts in prose as it passes through
the government black-box attached to all ISP and telecommunications
servers. And if you question their motive,... you must have something
to hide.
12 December 2005
I thought I would put together a politically correct Christmas Holiday song. It's the "Twelve days of Christmas Holiday". It's a hack job, but you may find it funny. Click here to listen. The ACLU would be proud.
8 December 2005
I
just arrived home yesterday from my last trip to Bogota Colombia; a day
flying down, a day presenting final results to the customer, and a day
flying back. While I was flying back from Bogota on Avianca Airlines, a
federal marshall shot and killed a US passenger coming from Bogota on
an American Airlines flight. It all happened on the tarmack in Miami.
A
few days ago we went to the movies and saw, "Good Night and Good Luck".
This is the kind of movie that should be seen by many but won't. It's
all about CBS, and Edward R. Murrow in particular, challenging Joe
McCarthy, the junior Senator from Wisconsin. McCarthy held
anti-communist hearings in a Senate committee setting and destroyed
many people's reputations and careers without due process. David
Strathairn delivers the performance of a lifetime. I give it a highly
recommended.
Here's a 1 minute, 44 second sound clip of the real Edward R. Murrow
delivering a radio broadcast from London, where he was based throughout
World War II. He's reporting that Britain and Germany just went to war, on September 3, 1939.
24 November 2005
We went to the moving pictures today to see "Walk The Line", The Johnny
Cash - June Carter story. It was really good. I usually don't enjoy
going to the movies; either there's not much worth seeing, or I'm hard
to please. The last movie I saw that I liked a lot was similar, it was
the Bobby Darin story, "Beyond The Sea". Joaquin Phoenix plays Cash in
"Walk The Line", and I just found out he played the guitar and sang all
the songs himself, just like Kevin Spacey did in "Beyond The Sea". 
No wonder these actors get paid so much. Reese Witherspoon was stunning
as June Carter. Anyway, highly recommended. I've caught some airplay of
Cash's last album, called "American IV: The Man Comes Around". There
are 15 songs on the CD (I don't have it yet). It's a surprising mix of
songs. The songs I've heard on the radio are, "Hurt" and "The Man Comes
Around". Maybe I'll ask for it for Christmas.
23 November 2005
It's
the day before Thanksgiving; it's advised to avoid stores even more
than usual. I noticed in the Meijer advertisement that they're starting
the season a day early this year. Meijer is open at 6AM on Thanksgiving
day!?! It's a shame; lots of unfortunate retail folks have to show up
in the middle of the night to get ready for the onslaught of customers
and miss the day at home. The frenzied masses feeding at the altar
called Christmas shopping.
I stumbled upon a website for the town of Chicken, Alaska .
It's the 2nd incorporated town of Alaska. Apparently it was a boom town
during the gold-mining days past. No electricity, no phones, no
plumbing, but they do have a website (hosted in a different town). It's
worth a visit, both on the web and in person. On their "Not so
frequently asked questions" page, the following questions were posed:
Question: "Do you have hook-ups for RVs nearby?"
Answer: "Yes, we call it Fairbanks." [270 miles away].
Question: "When I stopped in Chicken there was a line at the town outhouse, are there plans to add a 2nd one?"
Answer: "No."
5 November 2005
I'm
surprised by the riots in Paris, France that have been occurring over
the past 10 days. I knew it would happen eventually, but I thought it
would be many years before the great 'European Divide' would boil over
into cultural chaos. The divide I refer to is the staunch European
secularism (and they scoff at American religiosity?) that is headed for
a collision with Islam. Reproductive habits predict that in 30 years,
the Muslim population in France will be such a vibrant and powerful
force, that France's secular tradition will flip-flop to a state
religion called Islam; today Muslims make up more than 8% of France's
population. What a twist of fate for a country that has officially been
an ardent secular state since 1905. It also means that France will not
be an ally of America; that's because any theater in which we'll be
trying to change things in the world will likely be a Muslim country.
What will happen is that the "Average Frenchman" will find that
Jean-Marie Le Pen makes a lot of sense. Folks will lower their
tolerance level of immigrants and religious zealots, and the zealots
will react and riot, but it's too late. The assimilation never
happened. Most immigrants, when asked, do not say, "I am French", they
say they are from somewhere else. The French tried to address the
changing culture by banning the burka, the female head-covering
mandated by modern Islam. They enacted the law, "Application of the
Principle of Secularity (called laicite in French)" in 2004, but it's
too late. The law also bans beards in high school; how long until that
changes?
Anyway,
we have the beginning of the violent conversion of Europe from an aging
Christian-secular culture, to a young Muslim culture. It's something I
don't want to see happen, at least there's an ocean between and "us and
them", and our demographic turmoil here in America is with a "Latin
Culture", one that embraces the "American Dream".
This is an excerpt from an article in the Guardian newspaper yesterday (November 5, 2005):
"A 56-year-old physically disabled woman was being treated in the burns
unit of a Paris hospital yesterday after the bus she was travelling in
was set alight by youths in the northern suburb of Sevran".
Listen to an audio News Clip from MSNBC; 2 minutes, 23 seconds.
22 October 2005
I
don't get around to updating this site often enough. I've been on the
road a bit and I am taking a computer science course, so I'm kinda
busy. I'll be in Chicago next week at the World-Wide Food Expo. So food
processors and all the companies that sell stuff to them will be there.
I have to work in my company's booth.
So
what's topical? I guess the most aggravating thing going on is the
Harriet Miers nomination for Supreme Court Justice. In general, I think
GW Bush is a decent guy, despite being a politician coming from a
political-family-dynasty. I always felt he was genuine and actually
believed in what he said. Most politicians "adjust" their beliefs
according to party-line or to polls. So when he nominated his buddy
Harriet Miers from Texas, I was disappointed. I prefer the 'original
intent', 'non-activist' approach for judges. A Supreme Court nomination
is so important, it's not the kind of appointment that should go to a
"buddy", no matter how trusted. There are many excellent appelate court
candidates to choose from. Of course it's Bush's choice, not mine.
Laura gets into the mix regarding the need to fill the "O'Connor" seat
with a woman. There's nothing wrong with a female judge, you just can't
set aside certain seats to certain groups. Get the best person for the
job into the court. I think he's lost direction. Well, I could go on
about what's right and what's wrong about GW Bush, but that would take
more words than I'm willing to type right now.
25 September 2005
I've
just come back from 2 weeks in Bogota Colombia. I worked at a customer
plant about 10 hours a day, so I didn't get to see much of the area.
That's probably just as well,.. there's a US State Department warning
regarding travel to Colombia. The hotel was only 5 minutes from work,
so I really didn't see much. The elevation in Bogota is 8,350 feet; I
could feel it once and awhile because the work is physical and I lost
my breath a few times. On the weekend, a colleague and I were on our
own, we stayed pretty close to the hotel. We did hire a taxi to take us
to a "tienda artesanal", which is Spanish for "art shop", so my
work-mate could buy a couple of t-shirts. Well, I picked up a gift for
my wife, and that's the high point of my weekend in Bogota.
I've
known a couple of Colombians and they're a little sensitive to people's
perception of their country as the cocaine capital of the world. The do
export many other crops. I've heard the argument that America is
funding both sides of the drug war. The people that buy cocaine in the
US dump billions of dollars into the 'underground' Colombian economy;
this funds the guerilla war and inflates property values along the
narcotraficante corridor between Colombia and the USA. On the other
hand, the US government pours billions of dollars into the war on coca
cultivation. I knew a Guatemalan fellow that complained he couldn't
afford a decent house in Guatemala City because drug money floods the
Guatemalan real estate market. Colombia exports coffee, bananas and
sugar in large quantities. All the folks I met and worked with are
free-market, friendly, and hard-working people.
I have to go back for another week in the beginning of October, and then again in late October for a couple of days.
11 September 2005
Goodbye Little Buddy - the Passing of Bob Denver
"Little
Buddy" was the affectionate name the Skipper of the Minnow gave to
Gilligan. Gilligan's Island was a silly program, but it was a reliable
television staple growing up. It was produced for only three years
(1964-1966), but you would swear that new episodes came out for longer
than that, judging by the decades of reruns that were shown. A debate
that continues on today amongst guys is, "Mary Ann or Ginger"? Mary Ann
being the wholesome southern girl-next-door, while Ginger was the
glamorous long-legged actress.
What many people do not realize, is that Bob Denver acted in a series
called, "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", for the five years from
1959-1963. Top billing went to the Dobie Gillis character, played by
Dwayne Hickman. Bob Denver's character was "Maynard G. Krebs", a
loveable beatnik. The theme was always centered around girls. The
character, Thalia Menninger (played by Tuesday Weld) secretly pined for
Maynard G. Krebs, while the Dobie Gillis was always competing for the
attentions of Zelda Gilroy (played by Sheila James Kuehl). Another fact
many don't realize is that Warren Beatty played a lesser part in the
series, as Milton Armitage, a competitor of Dobie's in romancing Zelda.
I saw a lot of Gilligan's Island, but never did see an episode of Dobie
Gillis until reruns appeared on cable's Nickelodeon channel in the
1980s. Since my name is Maynard, as I was growing up, I was mercilessly
teased by being called "G Krebs", and I didn't even know who this
character was. I seriously think my parents kept me from seeing the
program.
I have an affection for Bob Denver because of the obvious connection of
his character's name in Dobie Gillis to mine. I also liked his
character's demeanor. He was a really good person off-screen. I posted
the picture you see in this frame on my website a couple of weeks
before he died, which I find a bit of a coincidence. Cheers to Bob
Denver.
Check out some pics of Bob Denver, and,...
Some good links:
Official Bob Denver Fansite
Wikipedia Entry
21 August 2005
We
did the big ride. The five of us were: Chuck, Russ, Jim, Jim and
Maynard. I scooted up to Milwaukee from Cincinnati, then the five of us
made the 900 mile trek out to Sturgis over a 2-day period. We ran into
G. Gordon Liddy at a gas station on I-80 on the way out there (and had
my picture taken with him). He rode from Washington DC out to Sturgis
and back (not bad for a 74 year old guy).
Picture at left taken by me overlooking a parking lot in Deadwood,
South Dakota. Click on pic to get a bigger version. We slept on the
ground at a camp in Spearfish, and did lots of riding while we were
there. Then I made the grueling 3-day run back to Cincinnati. It was a
blast being out there. We had a pickup truck along in case we had any
mechanical problems, not to mention a place to put all our camping
gear. Having the pickup meant one of the bikes had to ride in the bed
of the truck. My Triumph was one of the lightest bikes, so it spent a
good amount of time in back of the truck; which meant I got to ride a
couple of the other's bikes when they took a turn driving the truck. I
had a fair amount of time on an H-D "Fat Boy", and, on a Beull
Lightning. We had a short burst of rain on one of our rides, a little
rain late one night,.. so the weather cooperated. It's the first time
I've seen that part of the country, what a beauty. We took some really
scenic rides such as the Devil's Tower in Wyoming, Mt. Rushmore,
Needles Highway, the Badlands, Custer State Park, and Spearfish Canyon.
We rode through and stopped in the towns of: Hulett WY, Deadwood,
Keystone, Lead, Wall. We also spent the most of one day in Sturgis
itself and had a beer at the famous, "One-eyed Jack's" Saloon. We saw
Buffalo, Prairie Dogs, and an amazing number of women riding their own
motorcycles.
My
wife would like to go out there with me next time, maybe we'll throw
the Triumph in the back of her pickup truck and drive out next summer
(and stay in a hotel). It would be a great vacation destination. Chuck
and one of the Jims took a lot of pictures; I snapped a few myself, so
I'll be posting a selection of those in the near future.
After
arriving home from Sturgis at 6 PM Friday, I had to travel to Grand
Falls New Brunswick, Canada to work for a week. My flight was out of
Cincinnati into Bangor Maine at 10 AM Sunday morning (not much time at
home!). Despite having to work, I have to say that Maine and New
Brunswick are a beautiful part of the world; just a little off the
beaten path. I could really get used to the weather there.
3 July 2005
It's
the 4th of July eve and I still have two more days off. For some
reason, fireworks are really popular around these parts. It's always
therapeutic having extra time off. I didn't even get in a car today.
Did some yard work and now I'm ending the day by listening to music,
updating this page, and recording some vinyl as mp3.
Anyway,
it's 5 weeks until the ride out to Sturgis SD. Last year there were an
estimated 515,000 visitors. I'll hook up with 3 or 4 guys either in
Wisconsin or Minnesota and then ride the rest of the way with them.
This will probably be the only time in my life I'll be crazy enough to
attempt this grueling ride.
I
saw a great bumper sticker the other day,... guess what it said? "One
nation,...". I read that a test is underway to monitor a car's speed
using satellite. The study starts in a few weeks in London, England and
involves 20 vehicles. I find it really laughable that the folks that
promote this kind of stuff always estimate the number of lives it will
save. Why do the 'powers that be' waste so much resource on this crap?
Eventually, as soon as we leave our home, we'll be monitored: in cars,
in stores, using our cell phones, etc. Another article I read had to do
with the onboard computers in cars recording acceleration, braking,
speed while turning, and so on. So when you go in for service, the data
can be downloaded,.. then what will they do with the data?
11 June 2005
Well
I finally parted with my Virago 1100. I sold it to my sister-in-law,
Sue. She lives in Colorado, so the question was how to get it out
there. I offered to drive it halfway, to Kansas City, MO. So my wife
followed me in a car and I drove it out in two days. We took US
highways instead of the interstate, so the ride would be more
enjoyable. We drove 380 miles the first day and 290 miles the second
day. That's a lot of miles on a bike.
Then
we decided to hang out in southern Indiana for 4 more days just to take
it easy. We stayed in Bloomington, a college town (University of
Indiana). Nearby is a cheesey tourist town called Nashville; it's
situated in Brown County,
known as, "The Art Colony of the Midwest." They do have an excellent
professional theater there that has been in continuous operation for 57
years (summers only). We caught the opening day performance of "Forever
Plaid", it was a very entertaining performance. The average age in the
audience was at least 60 years old; it made me feel young!
One
of the few benefits of travelling a lot for work is some of the hotel
chains have frequent traveller programs. I participate in the Marriott
award program since they have hotels all over the place and many
different styles. So we were able to get all six hotel nights for free.
We drove around a bit, the countryside is quite nice. There's a
campground in the Yellowwood State Forest; it's primitive but it's also
beautiful. The only bad thing about the park is that it is overrun by
Canadian Geese. There must have been about 40 of them squawking around
us when we visited. They crap so much that you can't walk through the
area without constantly watching your step.
14 May 2005
When
I think about social security, I get just a little upset. It started
out to be a program to make sure people had "old-age benefits",
"unemployment benefits", and "aid to dependent children". The 1930s
were a difficult time in America because of the depression, and
President Roosevelt had to do something. His response to the many
options presented at the time, including communism, was the social
security act of 1935. The tax started out at 1% of your salary and
jumped to 3% in 1948. The tax was levied on both the employee, and on
the employer, which equated to a combined starting level of 2%, jumping
to a combined level of 6% in 1948.
In the intervening years, the level of contribution has jumped to
nearly 15%, combined. All of this would be wonderful, if it were truly
an untouchable fund. What has happened is that Congress has found a way
to "borrow" the money paid as social security taxes using as
collateral, non-tradable bonds (bonds that investors wouldn't consider
safe). You see, the taxes paid so far are in excess of the benefits
paid. Think about it, 15% of America's paycheck goes into a slush fund
that Congress dips into as fast as it's collected. That's a lot of
money in the cookie jar.
If you think that's bad, add this to the "big rip-off" from our
lawmakers,.. Congress doesn't pay social security!?!, ... even though
they've given themselves the power to spend it. Congress has their own
separate retirement program. They, the priveleged class, have a better
tax-paid retirement plan than ours, while they're squandering our
retirement plan. When I think Congress, I think parasite.
23 April 2005
We
have a new Pope, and he's from Germany of all places. So what do the
irreverent English newspapers call him? "God's Rottweiler" and the
"Panzer Cardinal", are two of his nicknames. All the negative comments
refer to him as an intellectually rigid and authoritarian. He does rant
against "relativism", one of the things that pits American Catholics
against the old guard in Rome. What do people expect? Pope John Paul II
was the same way. Of the 117 cardinals that voted, 115 were appointed
by the Pope. The successor is most likely to carry on in that
tradition. I was a little surprised; I thought that the new Pope would
come from Africa or more probably from Latin America. These continents
have no problem with "old-fashioned" Catholisism. The problems that the
Catholic Church has in the America are related to the liberisation of
the liturgy in the 1960s and by allowing the priesthood to be an
attractive nuisance for gay men. I personally think priests should be
allowed to marry, and while we're at it, why not let women be priests
too? I'll never see it happen.
Check out "The Bob Dylan Show" and "Jane Fonda" links at the left.
27 March 2005
So
what's in the news? Of course Terri Schiavo will be dying any day now.
The pope may not be far behind. Then there's the Columbine-like
massacre at an Indian reservation in Minnesota. I guess the murderer
was a bright kid; how an Indian can admire Nazism is a mystery to me.
It takes all kinds I suppose.
Today
is Easter and for the first time ever, we're going to a restaurant for
Easter dinner. No mess to clean up or people to entertain! Smokey Bones
does a pretty good job on ribs.
Celebrity
antics always amaze me. Madonna and her husband(?) Guy Ritchie were
photographed at a party the other day dressed as a nun and the Pope.
Let's see, she was born a Catholic, and then she converts to the
Kabbalah sect of Judaism. The Kabbalah, of which she claims to be a
faithful adherent, views homosexual acts as a sin, yet she has no
problem kissing women on stage to try and resurrect (no pun intended)
her career. Boy George even slams her for the hypocrisy of pandering to
the gay community and then being a member of an anti-gay religious
sect.
20 Mar 2005
I
had the Triumph out on Friday and went for a nice hour-long ride. I
plan on going out to Sturgis South Dakota this coming August (that's
for the annual Harley-Davidson bike rally - you know 10s of thousands
of bikes). I'll be going out there with a couple of guys I work with;
they're based out of the Milwaukee area. That means I have to ride from
Cincinnati to Milwaukee before we go to South Dakota. We're punking out
because we're going to trailer the bikes out to Sturgis. There's no way
I'm going to ride the 900 miles one-way and then turn around a few days
later and drive back. I would be too sore to do any riding once I was
out there.
I
guess the big news story is the fate of Terri Schiavo. From what I
hear, there might be good reason to intervene on Schiavo's behalf
because she is not brain-dead and her husband may just be trying to get
rid of her. So what does every politician do? They get on the bandwagon
and take turns grandstanding for political gain. Even Bush cut short
his time off to sign into law anything the Congress might enact to save
Terri Schiavo's life. They're stumbling over each other to see who can
get in front of the camera and microphone the most. It's a touchy
situation because it violates Florida's state's rights. Legally, Mr.
Schiavo is completely within his rights to starve his wife!
11 Mar 2005
When
I was a kid, I would listen to the Detroit Tigers on my 9-volt
transistor radio. I followed the standings in the newspaper and had
favorite players like Al Kaline and Willie Horton. That was an era
where it was a big deal to get a player from another team. Players
started at a team and stayed with them for life. Over the years the
game changed (free-agency didn't help) and the players gained mobility.
My question is: "Why should we be loyal to a team when the players
aren't loyal to that team". Kurt Gibson went to my high school (I
didn't know him) and he was a team hopper (Detroit, LA Dodgers, Kansas
City, Pittsburg, and back to Detroit), how could anyone like, or even
identify with the likes of him? Over the years I quit caring about pro
sports, I would rather sit on a hard bench at a high school football
game on a brisk autumn evening.
Now
we're finding many of our baseball heroes these days are getting
juiced. Batters with an oak tree for a forearm. For 29 years now
pitchers have been able to get an operation called the "Tommy John"
(ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction) surgery. One in nine active
pitchers today have the telltale 4-inch scar at the elbow that allows
them to pitch a fastball in the mid 90s. Is this what sport is supposed
to be? Am I supposed to be a fan of this? At this rate we'll have
bionic athletes in 50 years; customized genetically and mechanically.
Even
funnier than the steroid scandal is that Congress is serving subpoenas
to athletes forcing them to testify. Since when is it Congress' duty to
police baseball? I guess they don't have the intestinal fortitude to
tackle the real issues. They won't touch the social security issue, it
could jeopardize their re-election effort - spineless weenies. On the
other hand though, if these jokers in Washington are busy investigating
this sort of garbage, maybe they're wasting less of OUR money?
27 Feb 2005
I'm
off to Texas tomorrow to a place called Amarillo. It's up in the
panhandle in cattle country. I'm guessing I'll like the area, but I
would still rather not go. I watched a movie last night called
"American Splendor", and I really enjoyed it. The main actor in it is
"Paul Giamatti" (also in the movie Sideways); he's a good actor. It's
the story of a comic book writer,.. well, he's actually a file clerk
who writes comics in his spare time. There's a new link over there on
the left called "radio rant". I'll probably add more to it eventually.
There's a lot of fuss about the Thompson Hunter suicide. I read his
book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" back in the 70s. It was a bit too
much. He was a colorful character. It was a little strange that his
family kind of accepted his way of bowing out. I don't want to come
home to a family member with a self-inflicted bullet hole in their
head!!!
13 Feb 2005
Another
week on the road behind me. This trip was to the middle of Missouri,
120 miles east of Kansas City. I stayed in a place called "Hotel
Bothwell" in downtown Sedalia. It's a restored 1920s era hotel and they
did a pretty good job. The lobby is beautiful, with melodic piano music
playing in the background 24 hours a day. The Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation
is connected to the hotel; CDs, t-shirts, the usual stuff. Sedalia is a
town of about 20,000 people and everything around seems to be related
to agriculture. I did get some good barbecue there,...
There's
been so much noise about the "artsy" movie, "Sideways", I finally went
to see it. It was just OK, I thought before it had gotten so much
attention that I wouldn't like it based on the advertised description,
then there was so much hype about it, I broke down and went. The
character "Miles" in the movie tells us to drink "Pinot Noir". I
understand that sales of this varietal has increased over 20% as a
result of the movie. That's America! The character "Jack" is a little
over the top with respect to a last fling before getting married;
unbelievable escapades.
Recently,
every time I go to the movies there seems to be an increasing number of
advertisements and previews. I counted 5 advertisements and at least as
many previews. I sat in the theater for 20 minutes before the movie
started. They're not very smart, they're going to lose my business and
probably other folks as well.
5 Feb 2005
George Bush is hitting the road to push his desired overhaul of the Social(ist) (In)Security
system; something long overdue. This initiative is a winning situation
for him. He's seen as attacking a problem that most of us are aware of
and that most politicians have avoided like the plague because they're
spineless. Americans under 45 years old are the ones to benefit most
from an overhaul, while Americans over 55 don't want things to change.
And those of us between 45 and 55 will probably get the shaft either
way. Actually, I don't expect he'll get much done, maybe some
superficial changes that really don't fix the real problems. Even
though I support partial private accounts, doing this will NOT address
the real problem.
The
real problems are: (1) The Congress can dip into the Social Security
surplus and spend it on other things, which, I think, should be a
crime, (2) Benefits expand without regard as how to pay for them. We
currently pay about 7% of our paycheck into social security, and our
employer pays nearly the same amount into it in our name for a total of
14-15% !! That's a lot of money. You would think that if that were
managed correctly, we would have a solvent system. How about some
facts? In the last five years, Congress and the administration have
bled off $94.5 billion in fiscal 2000, a high of $98.7 billion in 2001,
$89 billion in 2002, $81.8 billion in 2003 and $71 billion last year,
2004, in a troubled economy. These are the figures dutifully reported
year-by-year by the U.S. Treasury Dept.
It's
easy for Bush to be bold, he knows he's done in 4 years, it's not so
easy for our representatives in Washington to be bold, they want to be
elected again and again and again. There's a reason Bush didn't push
this in his first term. If I ran my personal finances the way
Washington runs this nation's finances, my credit rating would be in
toilet and the bank would repossess my house.
30 Jan 2005
Back home after another week in Atlanta. We left just in time to miss
some snow and freezing rain. There are 300,000 people still without
power, which is a bit unusual for Georgia. I think I'll actually be
home for a week before heading out again. I'll most likely be going to
the middle of Missouri the week after next for another customer visit.
The
big news right now is the election in Iraq. Reports are in that voting
will be higher than expected. John Kerry is cautioning: "It is hard to
say that something is legitimate when whole portions of the country
can't vote and doesn't vote." In any event the turnout will likely be
higher than it is here in the US.
I
think I'll play some snooker today with my son. We play pool once in
awhile, and last week we decided to try snooker. I learned how to play
way back in the Navy, and I haven't played snooker since then; he has
never played. We play a variation called "wild 6-ball" which allows you
to sink the 6-ball without sinking a red ball first. It gets spotted
and allows a person that is behind in the score to catch up. It
certainly makes for a more intersting game.
22 Jan 2005
It's
Saturday evening and it's good to be home. Another week working in
Atlanta behind me. I wish it weren't soooo dreary (the work, not
Atlanta). The high point of the trip was visiting my brother Pat in
Augusta for a couple of hours Friday night. His kids, Dan & Amanda,
are growing up fast and he and his wife Tressa are carrying on with the
family-working-living thing; they have a nice place. Georgia is such a
beautiful state once you're out of the city, too bad it gets so hot in
the summer and being a Yankee doesn't help.
I
know there's been some controversy over the state flag of Georgia, and
I don't pretend to know the history or the sensitivities involved, but
I do find it interesting that Georgia has had 3 different flags in just
a few years. So here is a graphic of the the three latest flags of
Georgia:
Georgia
has actually had many more than just three flags because of it's early
participation in the formation of the US of A and it's independent
spirit. More info on state flags at a Georgia State Government link Georgia Flags.
So
we've hit the halfway point in the Bush presidency. I truly hope he can
get some fiscally responsible initiatives going. He needs to quit
spending so much money and of course I support his reforming the socialist security system.
Condoleeza was approved by the committee that grilled her,... I have a
prediction for 2008. Rice vs. Clinton. There will be a whole cast of
characters, but I predict these two formidable women will be in the
mix.
16 Jan 2005
It's
Sunday night - there's somethin' about that Sunday afternoon
feeling,... (at least for us folks that work Monday to Friday). This is
an especially bluesy kind of Sunday evening because I have to spend the
entire week out of town in Atlanta.
We
went to a movie yesterday, "The Fockers". I thought it was just OK. The
acting was good but it was a little too silly in a bathroom humor sort
of way. I think it's the first movie for Barbara Streisand since Yentl
was released in 1983 (except for a couple of concert videos). She did a
good job even though I'm not a big fan of hers. Dustin Hoffman and
Robert DeNiro are acting icons. Anyway, I've had enough of the movies
for awhile. My son went to see "White Noise" and thought it was awful,
and he likes just about any movie.
I'm
already thinking about a summer vacation and can't decide where to go.
We're thinking about an upper mid-west vacation such as Wisconsin and
Minnesota. If anyone reading this has any suggestions for things to do
or see in WI or MN, let me know. Last summer we went to Guatemala and a
repressive Caribbean country I can't mention, so we're in the mood for
something a little more domestic this year.
There's
a link over there on the left called "interesting links". A webmaster
from one of the links found out I referred their site and wrote me a
really nice letter. I haven't been able to update anything here in the
last few days, maybe I'll have some time in the evenings while I'm in
Atlanta,... I'm trying to learn enough javascript to make the content
on this site a little "richer".
9 Jan 2005
It's
Sunday evening and I've been to work one day during the last 3-1/2
weeks. Time to put in a full week starting tomorrow morning. As of this
moment no trips are planned.
I
went for a motorcycle ride today (on January 9th!!). It was probably 55
degrees out and sunny; there were a lot of other riders out on the
road. Funny, just 2 weeks ago we had a foot of snow and -10 degrees!
It's a bit surprising to see Clinton and the Bush's hanging out 
together these days; GW asked dad and Bill to assist in raising money
for the tsunami victims. I read a little news story on it called "Bubba
and Dubya" - pretty clever. Bubba and Dubya seem to be hitting it off
pretty well. It makes you wonder whether it's all staged or not; two
adversaries getting along because they both get something out of it? Or
is it just Dubya's graciousness and Bubba's eagerness to help and stay
in the public arena? Newt Gingrich in an interview mentioned he would
be open to a presidential bid in 2008. If you want my opinion, he
doesn't have a chance. For the Dems, everybody is talking about
Hillary. I think she has more of a chance than Newt, but not much. Oh
well, it's a long way off, thankfully.
Well,
the money keeps pouring in for the tsunami relief fund. An interesting
tidbit on the tsunami is that some of the people there are reporting
that many of the animals avoided death because of a "6th sense". Most
scientists are sceptical (and so am I). The most I'll concede is that
perhaps burrowing animals (e.g. snakes) can detect earthquakes ahead of
time; this has been studied in China. The tsunami tarveled at 600 mph.
Sound travels through the sea at about 1,100 mph and through the earth
at about 1,450 mph, so,... it's possible that a few animals heard or
felt the rumble of of the tsunami in the ground before it arrived and
alerted other animals through a communicated fear. Who knows?
4 Jan 2005
The
party is almost over, I'm back to work in a few days. We went to see
the movie, "Beyond the Sea", starring Kevin Spacey and co-starring John
Goodman. 
It was the Bobby Darin story, he was a heart-throb from the 60s. The
film was a "mission" for Spacey (he can sure sing those songs); he must
have sung 15 Bobby Darin songs. He's known for songs like "Mack the
Knife", "Beyond the Sea", "Splish-Splash", "Dream Lover", "Things",
and, dozens more. Remember Sandra Dee in the "Gidget" and "Tammy"
movies of the 60s? She was featured prominently in the movie (played by
Kate Bosworth). It's only showing at 2 theaters all around Cincinnati.
Another good flick. Follow this link for Bobby Darin's official Fansite.
It
seems like we're in competition with the world to see how much cash we
can raise for tsunami relief. Even George Bush Sr. and Clinton are
involved. Is it because somebody who's opinion doesn't matter called us
stingy? Do folks really think that generosity will buy us respect or
goodwill? I think that no matter what we do the world will still hate
us,... and so what!
There's
something about this time of year that puts me into a funk. Maybe it
has something to do with the short days and the rush of the holidays
and the sudden great amount of free-time that I'm not used to. I
wouldn't call it an anti-Christmas reaction that I'm having, it's more
like as the winter solstice approaches, we descend into a funk, and
then a couple of weeks later it seems like we ascend back out of the
funk.
31 Dec 2004
It's
New Year's Eve! I've been reading a book by Bob Dylan called
"Chronicles 1". It's an autobiography and it's pretty readable and
interesting. Nothing like the book he wrote in the 60's called
"Tarantula". That was a stream-of-conscienceness book if there ever was
one. Here's an excerpt from Tarantula:
'"... the hospital grave being advertised & given away in whims
& journals the housewife sits on. finding herself financed,
ruptured but never censored in & also never flushing herself / she
denies her corpse the courage to crawl - close his own door, the
ability to die of bank robbery & now catches the heels of old stars
making scary movies on,..."' 
That's a very young Dylan in the picture.
Well,
I'm converted to Linux now, at least on one laptop. It's SuSE 8.2
Professional. I had to re-install Windows on our Toshiba laptop and
couldn't find the original back-up disks. Well,... Microsoft won't
allow an install from the recovery disks from other than the original
disks. I was so enraged I went out and bought Linux. It takes some
getting used to, but it comes with ALL the applications you would ever
want. I can double-click on any Word or Excel file and it opens up in
an "OpenSource" application. It's not as fuzzy around the edges as
"Windows", but that's OK, I feel like I have a computing machine, not a
poodle for a computer.
It's
all over the news, the tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean nations. As of
this writing there are 124,000 deaths. When it happened some 5 days
ago, the count was 20,000 or so. It's a shame it's become so
politicized. We're about the least stingy nation around. I'm not even
going to comment on that part of it,... except to say that the UN is a
lame and corrupt institution.
28 Dec 2004
We ended up going to see the movie called "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events"
at the multiplex; it's a Jim Carey & Meryl Streep movie. It was
really a kid's movie, but that's OK with me. With the new television
set "the family" received for Christmas, we watched a DVD recommended
by my son Vince. It was called "Pi", and to find out about it you can
visit their website Pi, the Movie.
In short it was a high contrast black & white film about a tortured
and paranoid mathematician trying to discover the secret numbers
defining god. Some Wall Street types and a Hassidic Sect are after him
for his findings. I recommend it.
Broken
down automobiles have really been a trial in this family. On Sunday,
the day after Christmas, we decided to recover "son number one's" Dodge
Neon (45 miles away). Because of the snowfall, there were no tow-trucks
available, so we decided to rent a tow-dolly. Well, the closest place
that had one we could rent was 25 miles in the opposite direction from
the car we were trying to rescue. My Ford Explorer has a hitch, so we
went to rent the dolly. When we arrived we were informed that the
Explorer cannot use a tow-dolly (lawsuits, high center-of-gravity,
etc.). Well, we found out we could have a hitch put on my wife's
Silverado for $250. So we went out to drive back home and the Explorer
wouldn't start. So we called a taxicab ($40) to go and get the truck.
We got the hitch, rented the tow-dolly, towed the Explorer to a repair
shop, went to get the Neon, our original quest. Guess what, it started!
We towed it anyway and ended up back home after a 13 hour day. The Neon
needs a fuel pump ($500), the Explorer had a tripped "fuel switch",
which is supposed to trip in an accident to prevent a conflagration.
We
had planned on spending 3 nights in Chicago to check out the University
of Illinois Campus and the University of Wisconsin Campus. Oh well, we
cancelled so we could deal with the car situation.
23 Dec 2004
We
made it past the winter solstice with a great rally in the stock
market. Two days until Christmas,... always so anti-climatic. We
managed to get lights on the Christmas tree a couple of days ago, so it
actually looks like Christmas around here. I think we'll have a fire in
the fireplace tomorrow on Christmas eve.
I've
had so much spare time on my hands over the past few days I'm thinking
about going to the movies again. The offering this season doesn't seem
worthwhile; maybe "The Fokkers", or possibly "Oceans Twelve".
We
really got "dumped on" with respect to snow. I would guess we've had
about 12-15 inches of in a day's time. Over the past 24 hours, I've
spent about 4 hours shoveling the stuff. We've had our 'website' up for
about 10 days now and I'm finally starting to get the hang of the
basics. It takes a lot of time, but it is a lot of fun adding content
to the website.
We
had "son number one" and his family over last night to open gifts early
since they were supposed to have gone to Michigan over Christmas. Well,
they made it about 50 miles before their car broke down. Between the
unusualy heavy snowfall and a lot of travel around this time of the
year, it was a real ordeal rescuing them.
19 Dec 2004
It's the holiday season (am I allowed to say Christmas?) 2004. It's
great that I have 3 weeks off before going back to the drudgery of work. I
signed up as a seller on ebay today. It looks like too much work; not so much
the set-up and the tracking of sales - it's the shipping, correspondence and the
financial part that I think will get to be time-consuming. I'm just looking for
something to do during my break NOT related to work,... so I'm selling a Yamaha
RD 400 Service Manual, what an arduous schedule!!
Well,... today I really found something interesting to do! My son
Vince and I just bought a domain name and we're splitting the space (even though
the space and bandwidth is unlimited in the plan we've adopted), as a matter of
fact, you're in our web space right now. I bet we get -zero- traffic for awhile.
My wife's cousin's husband died last week. It's a big loss. Even
though I don't profess to know him well, he was an exceptionally good person,
husband and father. Sandy is now left raising their two children to adulthood
alone. Fortunately she has a supportive family. He worked in a printing shop
(great employer) and played lead guitar in a metal band. To top it off he was a
fairly conservative guy. I always enjoyed his company. The killer was Lou
Gehrig's disease. I hope she can come and bring the kids to visit us next
summer.
I saw a movie today, which is a somewhat rare event. It was called
"What the bleep do we know?" Lorrie, Vince and I went. We all liked it - highly
recommended.
