Odds and Ends to catch up.
1) My car is getting fixed on Monday, his insurance IS paying, and I get a rental car till its done.
2) Liza's birthday is Sunday. Email her at liza@nycap.rr.com even if you have never met her.
3) I've been out selling the last three weeks, so I don't spend much time online at work anymore. Though I do miss being online I LOVE being out selling.
4) I've been .. get this.. READING.. Instead of being online at night at home. Imagine this. Instead of staring at a chat screen or playing a game or burning something I actually sit in a nice chair and engage my mind in learning and good escapist fantasy. I'm reading all at the same time: Sometime Never (the new 8th Dr. Book) The I hate Republicans Reader. The Economist, the Atlantic Monthly, The Sunday New York Times, Lost Tales Vol 1, and Censored 2004.
5) The accident threw my back out. So I went home early on Wednesday. Felt so much better on Friday night that I shovele
Posts
Looong Weekend......
In no particular order of happening or importance.
Went bowling with Alex.
Didn't go to NH, but promised that we would go the weekend of 2/7.
Did a bunch of fun stuff out of the WeBeLo's handbook so Alex will qualify for his "artist" pin.
Had a blow up with Liza, one of the bigger in our marriage. Made up the next day no worries.
Cleaned the Upstairs bathroom, not pretty trust me, its the "boy's" bathroom.
Read a TON of information: Economist, Atlantic Monthly, Couple of current events books.
(As a side note I'll be digesting and summarizing this week - my little gift to you readers)
In the you know when your team sucks dept: Read an interesting article in the Sunday New York Times of all places on Da' Raida's and how things fell apart last year.
Watched the Talking Heads shows on Sunday - Go Kerry! Go Edwards!
Didn't watch ANY Sports, a preview of the "dead zone" in my Spor
Beating a Dead horse I know...
But I just finished reading a ghastly account by an American Ex-Pat journalist that works for the Guardian regarding the erasure of thousands of voting rights in Florida. Now the piece I'm reading is published in a book that has a serious Right Wing bashing agenda. But the story is horrifying none the less. Whether or not Fla Sec of State Harris had an agenda (she was working for the GWB campaign, and working for GWB's brother) or not is probably immaterial. What is scary and very telling is that the only journalistic efforts to uncover this erasure of voting rights was done by Salon.com and the Guardian, an internet journal and a British Journal. American Journalists stayed away from the story.
The charge this author makes is that due to mistakes in the "purge" files of the Voting Registers in FLA 57,000 Americans were denied their voting rights. Some were denied this right legally as the list was SUPPOSED to contain 100% f
And now for something completely different
I have no comment regarding the State of the Union.
I cannot listen to him for more than one sound bite at time, his voice and delivery really grates on my nerves.
So I will read the speech at some point maybe.
-=Foul language warning=-
To me its all full of shite politics anyway. I am so used to this guy saying one thing and then doing another that I really don't see the point of even paying attention to what he says. He is just going to do something entirely different anyway.
OUT!
Visit from the 'rents
Gosh is that an "I love the 80's strikes back" word or what? The 'rents....
Anyway we had a lovely visit from D&K last night, they drove over from their new place in NH ostensibly to get their Kitchen table that they had so nicely lent us while they were overseas.
We also got to go out to dinner, which on a "boys night in" was a boon for me, not having to cook dinner. We all pigged out big time at Fresno's in Troy. We all had two appetizers, their chicken nachos and buffalo wings. THEN we had our dinners! K and Alex had burgers, big burgers, D had the catch of the day and I had their Santa Fe Chicken, which was very good.
Other than the terminally perky and loud wait person named "dani" I'd say it was a pretty good experience. This chain type restaurant set itself up in the vacated premises of a much loved Troy restaurant called Castaways. They used to serve the best Sunday Brunch Buffet! Fr
Odds and ends throughout the day
Sunday Bush Talking Heads
I always wonder if we all are living in the EXACT same dimension and reality. Is it possible that Washington DC is actually shifted slightly off the prime reality (Earth One we can call it)? According to the latest Bush mouthpiece on Stephanopolis' Sunday AM show yesterday the Job situation is improving!
Here are the facts from Earth One, Mr. Mouthpiece.
In December the economy created barely 1,000 new jobs, though something nearer 150,000 had been expected by experts.
In all, over the past five months, America has generated only 278,000 jobs in non-farm businesses, a typical figure for a single month during the glorious boom.
George Bush presides over 2.3m fewer jobs than when he came to office.
Most of the fall from 5.9% in November to a 14-month low of 5.7% was accounted for by people leaving the labor force.
The reality is colder though for the Dem's
The sad fact is that the Amer
Completely around the bend
Hey guys!
What the hell is going on in the White House?
Every day we get a new new agenda to spend more money to buy votes.
lets see...
The immigration bill
The Nasa agenda
and now.....
Federal funding to make marriages better.
You know with a "Tax and Spend" Democrat at least the books balanced.
With this "Tax cut and Spend" Republican I guess the answer to the deficit is like Doritos......
We'll just print more!!!!!!!!!
Taking a Mental Vacation from Winter
Pulled my entire Beach Boys CD Collection down off the shelf and hauled it into work today, I am celebrating California Summers, Surfing, Cars, Bikini Clad babes and generally anything that has NOTHING to do with North East Winters.
Bet you had no idea how prolific the Beach Boys have been. I have the ones in bold on CD or Vinyl
SURFIN' SAFARI (1962)
SURFIN' USA (1963)
SURFER GIRL (1963)
LITTLE DEUCE COUPE (1963)
SHUT DOWN VOL. 2 (1964)
ALL SUMMER LONG (1964)
CONCERT (1964)
CHRISTMAS ALBUM (1964)
TODAY (1965)
SUMMER DAYS (AND SUMMER NIGHTS) (1965)
PARTY (1965)
PET SOUNDS (1966)
SMILEY SMILE (1967)
WILD HONEY (1967)
FRIENDS (1968)
STACK-O-TRACKS (1968)
20/20 (1969)
LIVE IN LONDON (1968)
THE FLAME - THE FLAME (1970)
SUNFLOWER (1970)
SURF'S UP (1971)
CARL AND THE PASSIONS - SO TOUGH (1972)
SPRING - S/T (1973)
HOLLAND (1973)
IN CONCERT (1973)
15 BIG ONES (1976)
LOVE YOU (1977)
DENNIS WILSON - PACIFIC
Ick!
High pressure Sinus. Raveged throat. Headaches. Eyes watering. Chapped lips and nose.
Sounds like fun eh?
Take that and 1) Get up early to take son to important test (air temp below zero) and 2) Attempt to play Mr. Plumber when you don't know JACK about fixing toilets.
Equals Mr. Sick and Grumpy. Grrr.
Public Kudo's to Ed for coming over in below zero temps to look over our amature attempts to play Mr. Plumber. He got us pushed in the right direction.
Send Shrub to the Moon.
You may think this a weird opinion for a Sci Fi head like me.
But I cannot think of a bigger political circus than trying to go to the Moon again, or even Mars with a manned mission.
Foolish waste of money.
Who would have thought 10 yrs ago, when "tax and spend" democrat was a popular slur, that "tax cut and spend Republican" would become even stronger.
Its a strange strange world.
Another Astute Rovian Move?
First of all let me say that any proposal that sends the Conservative (read Xenophobic) Caucus into a tizzy gets my nod of approval any day. Of course I am referring to the President's new initiative on Immigration Reform. Click to read his speech, if you have a high tolerance for platitudes. The meat of the proposal, such as it is, starts 3/4 down the page.
If this proposal comes to pass then it will be a boon for the undocumented workers of America for whom there are few civil rights, no health care, or other benefits that some other Americans do enjoy.
However the cynic in me says that this is a HUGE political move on the part of the President. If he had a Democratic held House or Senate I would certainly think differently, but with the Republicans controlling the Congress, and the Conservative Wing of the Party controlling the Republicans, I see little chance of success as proposed.
So is this a great proposal with little chance of p
Cool Webcast
No heavy blog today. Talked to Brother Greg via the cell tonight as he was arriving for a Web Cast only concert by a jam band called Plum Crazy. He is very good friends with the Bass Player and was doing the still shoot (not the web cast shoot).
Their web site is Plum Crazy Music . The concert was hosted by Immersion Theater . I did notice that there were tons of archives at the site so perhaps this concert will be archived as well. However there is an archive of Widespread Panic , another great Jam Band
Great music in the vein of String Cheese Incident .
Free Speech Zones
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech , or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble , and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Yet it seems in 2003 - 2003 that the Executive and other public institutions like Universities can.
Ok Mantra Time: If you are not completely appalled you are NOT paying attention. Maybe a better one is: I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.
This President, never one for free speech (as Gov of Texas he cordoned off the front of the Capital which has been an historic place for people to congregate and express their free speech), has decided, along with that notorious champion of civil rights Atty Gen Ashcroft, that when he visits the country at large, areas will be cordoned off as "free speech zones".
This is fascist speak for &quo
Back to my Muttering.
(Ok if you haven't figured it out yet, I muse on my life and mutter about the world.)
There has been little muttering here because of the Christmas season, Congress is out of session, the President is off doing who knows what, and basically the world takes a back burner to real life. But with the first full work week of the New Year this boy's attention turns to the world again.
Here is a scary fact. The US dollar has slid nearly 31% against the Euro and the Yen during this present administration's so called recovery.
But heck you say, the stock market is bullish again, breaking 10,000. America's GDP grew at an annual rate of 8.2% in the third quarter. So why is this important, and why are you bothering me while I am still digesting my Christmas Turkey and New Years Champagne.
Because the value of the Dollar against other 1st World Economy currency's is not a strutting machismo indicator like the Dow. It shows the glo
Do I know how to have fun or WHAT?
I have held off blogging since New Years Day for a few reasons. First and foremost to keep the Year in Review at the top so people will see it first. That is just below this blog so just scroll down for that.
Second because I've been busy with a project. Yes boys and girls its that time of the year where we completely erase our Hard Drives and reinstall our OS. I usually do this annually, but I have put it off for 6 mo.
Why do it at all?
1) It speeds up the computer dramatically.
2) It gets rid of tons of programs you don't use or may have forgotten you even have.
3) Eliminates library files and TSR's that sit around Chunking up your RAM or HD.
Why I don't like doing this:
It is remarkably scary. There is always the real possibility that some conflict will arise and you won't be able to put your computer back together. This time around the scare was that the second drive was not recognized. I had to re