2517 Thirty questions meme

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Arthur Schopenhauer: “Talent hits a target no one else can hit;
Genius hits a target no one else can see."

-----------------------------

Today is Daughter and Hercules' third anniversary. Congratulations on finding each other, kids. Have many more.

-------------------------

A meme going around:

30 Things You Wouldn't Think To Ask

1. Have you ever been searched by the cops?
Beyond the general airport thing, and purse peeks at government buildings, no.

2. Do you close your eyes on a roller coaster?
No.

3. When's the last time you've been sledding?
Good Grief! I don't remember, which is sad, because I like it. At least 30 years ago, I guess. I think I got less enthusiastic when I realized that dragging a sled uphill just to go down again makes as much sense as golf - hit the ball into a pasture, walk around searching for it, and when you find it, hit it away again.

4. Would you rather sleep with someone else, or alone?
With a chosen man, of course. Otherwise, alone.

5. Do you believe in ghosts?
Not the usual definition of ghost. I do believe that persistence of cohesive energy, and the influence thereof, is possible.

6. Do you consider yourself creative?
Not in the usual sense (the "arts"). I do find very unusual and efficient ways of doing things.

7. Do you think O.J. killed his wife?
I really do not have enough information to form a belief. Suspicion is not belief.

8. Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie?
Huh? I guess I'd rather talk with Jennifer. She seems more real.

9. Can you honestly say you know ANYTHING about politics?
Enough to form general opinions.

10. Do you know how to play poker?
How, yes. Do I? No.

11. Have you ever been awake for 48 hours straight?
Yes. Often, even occasionally at this age.

12. What's your favorite commercial?
The old Kodak commercials with the "Turn Around" song. Nothing current comes to mind.

13. Who was your first love?
John Wolford, in first grade. Obie Philpot in high school.

14. If you're driving in the middle of the night, and no one is around, do you run a red light?
No.

15. Do you have a secret that no one knows but you?
There are a lot of things I know that no one else knows, but they're not secrets. Just ask, and I'll tell all. (There are a few things I know that are someone else's secrets, that I won't tell, but they don't count.)

16. Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees?
Eck. I don't care.

17. Have you ever been ice skating?
I practically lived on skates until my mid-twenties or so. I still love skating, but I hate rinks, and otherwise it's difficult to find safe available ice. Too many pond owners are afraid of lawsuits.

18. How often do you remember your dreams?
If you mean how often do I have a dream I remember, it's about once or twice a month. I'm sure I dream more than that. I sleep pretty soundly.

19. What's the one thing on your mind?
Snort. I have a thousand things on my mind. But The Man is almost constant. Positive thoughts, negative thoughts, frustration, wondering what the hell I should do about him.

20. Do you always wear your seat belt?
Yes.

21. What talent do you wish you had?
I wish I had more confidence in the few talents I do have.
Later: Came back to this one. I own about ten different musical instruments. I wish I could play any one of them.

22. Do you like Sushi?
Only with The Man. He likes it a lot.

23. What do you wear to bed?
Summer: sleep bra & panties, or nothing. Winter: sleep bra, panties, and T-shirt, or nothing if there's a male bed warmer.

24. Do you truly hate anyone?
I'd like to say no, but I have to say Dick Cheney.

25. If you could sleep with one famous person, who would it be?
No one springs immediately to mind. I like to look at some ( like Taye Diggs, pant pant), but I'm more into mind than appearance, so I don't have the "want" reaction. Well, ok, maybe Sean Connery.

26. Do you know anyone in jail?
Not currently. I know a few that have been.

27. What food do you find disgusting?
Scrapple. Can't even stand the smell of it. Pennsylvania will reject me as native-born.

28. Have you ever made fun of your friends behind their back?
If I make fun of someone, I can't count them as a friend.

29. Have you ever been punched in the face?
No. Slapped hard and backhanded, but not closed fist punched.

30. Do you believe in angels and demons?
Not by the usual religious definitions. But I do believe in dimensions and influences most people are unaware of.

Anybody have a question they'd like to ask in the comments?
Remember, you can comment anonymously.

------------------------------

From the Nutrisystem dessert wrapper last night, in the list of ingredients: "..., evaporated cane juice,...".

Uh, don't we less sophisticated folk call that "raw sugar"?
.

2516 Blah and Bored; Diet Digest

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

A relationship is about give and take. Love is all about giving.

-------------------------------

I am fully switched over to Gmail now, and I LIKE it! It's so much easier to find and keep things, very nice. Because it's easier to see what needs attention, I've been writing notes to people I've owed correspondence for forever. Playing with mail and writing notes has taken up much of the day.

I drove into the village today and measured off some walking routes. I've got about four routes now, so I can vary them. I also walked for an hour.

Diet synopsis for the past week:
Wed 07/15 - 1228 calories (It was a BLT that blew that day)
Thu 07/16 - 960
Fri 07/17 - 935
Sat 07/18 - 930
Sun 07/19 - 865
Mon 07/20 - 715
Tue 07/21 - 910

Weight lost since 6/17, 8 pounds, from 150 to 142. Goal, somewhere between 130 and 120-ish, depending on how well it goes. I don't dare try smaller than that, or my skin will drag on the floor. My "ideal weight" is supposed to be around 109 (4'10" tall), but that doesn't take the big bust and wide hips into consideration.

I decided to try Nutrisystem. I was going a bit crazy trying to find suitable things to eat, and they lay it all out for you. My order arrived Monday afternoon. You get breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert in microwavable packages. You're supposed to add some dairy, fresh veggies, and fruit with the meals and as an afternoon snack, so you eat five times a day.

The portions are tiny. If you've ever been in the hospital - yeah, like that. And yet I'm satisfied. The meatloaf was pretty good, and the macaroni and cheese with beef, but mostly it's pretty blah. Not a big deal, I'm not a gourmet.

I think it can get a bit boring, though. There's an awful lot of pasta in various yucky tomato sauces. Guess what's my least favorite food (although the cheese tortellini was good). I got to choose what I wanted (28 from the breakfast column, 28 from the lunch...), but the choices were mostly heavy on pasta. A little rice or potatoes here and there, which I would have preferred more of.

Folks on the forums say that, within reason, you can have a free day once a week without messing it up. Just choose wisely and watch portion size.

So, heading into Month Two.
.

2515 Cold!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

---------------------

I'm freezing. I looked at the thermostat. It's 72 degrees F in the house. But I'm freezing! Sweater and everything.

I don't understand.
.

2514 Gmail - friend or foe?

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Some people are like a Slinky, not really good for anything,
but you still can't help but smile
when you shove them down the stairs.

-----------------------------

A little while ago I decided to try Gmail. Right now my email addresses are on AOL and Yahoo. I dislike Yahoo, and don't have a lot of confidence that AOL will be around forever, and their programmers seem to be bottom of the barrel. I set up an account, and then used a Gmail facility that allows you to transfer the contents of the AOL inbox to Gmail - leaving a copy of the email in the AOL inbox. Sounded good to me. You can also ask it to transfer AOL email to Gmail as it arrives, again leaving a copy with AOL.

It sorta worked. All the AOL email (I had about 550 items) appeared in the Gmail inbox. However, when I went to AOL, about 20 of the oldest items had disappeared. They weren't in "Deleted" or in "Old Mail". They were simply gone.

The next day when I went to AOL mail, I was shocked to discover I had only four items in the inbox, mail that had arrived overnight. The other 500+ were in the "Old Mail", which is bad, because they are automatically deleted after one day. If I'd been away for the weekend, they'd have disappeared. So I pressed the "Keep as New" button 500+ times to put them back in the inbox.

Once Gmail "grabs" a copy, AOL apparently considers it read, not new, and trashes it 24 hours after it becomes "old". Telling AOL to "Keep as New" should fix it, right?

Next morning, same thing.

I don't understand. Why is AOL ignoring the "Keep as New", on mail Gmail hasn't grabbed again?

So I went to Gmail and changed the option so it would no longer "grab" new mail from AOL. At all. In theory, Gmail doesn't even know about the AOL address any more.

Problem solved, right?

No. AOL is still trashing email that Gmail originally copied, over and over, every day.

Worse, Gmail is still grabbing copies of email from AOL, but not every piece. It seems to be random, and it's NOT leaving a copy with AOL. I wandered over to Gmail this morning, and found several bits of email sent to the AOL address over the past few days that never showed up on AOL.

[Sorry, Sister. I wasn't ignoring your travel confirmation. AOL was. I'm glad you're going, I'm sure you'll both feel a lot better.]
.

2513 Blood, A fire dream

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Mike Meyers: "My theory is that all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare."

--------------------------

Another blood test this morning. I forget what they're checking this time, either sugar or thyroid. Whichever, there's another scheduled in two months for the other.

Last month it hurt so bad. It took three or four attempts in the doctor's office before they gave up and sent me to the hospital lab. I was left with a huge nasty bruise. But last time I'd had an interesting morning with The Man, and then drove a bit over an hour straight to the doctor's office.

This morning I had slept alone, and I drank three 12-oz glasses of water before going in. The nurse was able to get a flow on the first try (but it still hurt a LOT). I think I'm going to have a huge bruise again, because the vein she used, which is usually a fine blue line, now has a blue lump in it, about 1/2 wide and an inch long. I think it's leaking, even though I did press on it for a long time.

-----------------------------

Last night the attic fan was still running at midnight. I walked from the den to the kitchen through the living room, and was struck by a strong odor of wood smoke. I checked outside - many of my neighbors have woodstoves, and often burn brush in their yards - but there was no smoke odor outside. It was definitely in a strip from the living room to the hall.

I checked the basement, but the only place I could smell woodsmoke was that strip. I figured that the attic fan, which was still running, must have pulled air down the chimney and through the fireplace, through the living room into the hall, and up out the attic. But why now? Why haven't I smelled it before? I went to bed nervous.

And then I dreamed all night about a house with fire. Not this house. It was a house with lots of large windows, and lots of Christmas trees. (Christmas trees? Me? I don't do Christmas trees.) A big tree in every room and small tabletop trees scattered all over. The first fire was in the fireplace. It started by itself with no wood, and then spread outside the fireplace, and then died down. Then a large Christmas tree burst into flame, all over, like in a satanic movie. When it died down, another little tree flashed, and so on, one tree after another. The fire department came, and didn't know what to think of it. All these fires, all over, staring with a flash and then "turning off" with no damage. I was rather calm about it all. Annoyed, but not frightened. I remember turning to Daughter and saying, "I always liked this house. Too bad we moved away. I like all the windows." (The house in the dream was not one I'd ever lived in.)

Strange. It might even be reflecting my feelings about The Man right now.

------------------------

When Daughter was younger, I always corrected her pronunciation. It's my theory that if you can't pronounce it, you can't spell it. Like "ath-el-etics", or "li-berry". The same theory works for phrases.

My latest gripe is people who write "one in the same", or "in this day in age".

Snarl.
.

2512 I Hate Ticketmaster!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Alan Cohen (Why Your Life Sucks, Page 70): “While you may be very careful about what you pay for with your money, you are probably less careful about what you pay for with your attention. In the long run, how you spend your attention affects your life far more profoundly than how you spend your money. Attention is energy. Whatever you feed it to will grow.”

------------------------

I signed up for a group activity next month in Bethel (the original Woodstock concert location). Tickets were like $60 for reserved seats, $40 for unreserved seating, and $19.69 for lawn. The organizer said to get lawn tickets.

The only way to get the tickets is through Ticketmaster.

I passionately !HATE! Ticketmaster! They are a complete ripoff. First there's a flat service charge. Then there's a flat convenience charge (in addition to the service charge, mind you - explain the difference, please?). Then there's a delivery charge - I chose "I'll print it off myself" because that was the cheapest. They were nice enough to allow me to use my own time, paper, and ink for only $2.

My $19.69 ticket ended up costing me $31.69. Not including tax.

That's 61% of the base cost of the ticket added on for Ticketmaster charges! And you know they're getting a percentage from the venue, too.

I think they should be charged with scalping. That's pretty much what it is when they're the only source for the tickets. They have them all, and you pay what they ask. Isn't that scalping?
.

2511 Maybe I'm depressed?

Monday, July 20, 2009

Isaac Asimov: " And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A [person] should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning."

-------------------

I don't feel depressed - except for feeling like I want to cry, but I can't think of anything I need to cry about. I just feel like I have no energy. My arms and legs feel heavy. About the best way I can describe it is that I feel "done". There is no more. Done, done, done. All done.

I've lot a long list of things I have to do, and I just don't feel like I have the energy to do any of them.

On the other hand, I've been trying to walk every day that it's not raining, and I have plenty of energy to walk.

I don't know what's wrong.

Today I walked about a mile and a half, bought and mailed an anniversary card for Daughter and Hercules, cleaned a cat litter box, and weeded about half of the front flowerbed weedbed. I also went through all my internet bookmarks, cleared out some, sorted the remainder. I also put away a month's worth of Nutrisystem food that arrived today. I'm getting serious about this dieting stuff. I didn't do anything that really needed to be done, though. All the important is still waiting.

Maybe I just need sex.

-------------------------------

Another blogger wrote about trucks hitting overpasses. That reminded me of a cartoon I saw once, a long time ago. A trucker is approaching an overpass bearing a large sign saying "Clearance: 12' 3". The caption says, "Um, let's see --- twelve feet three inches, and I'm twelve foot five inches, so that gives me two inches of clearunnnnnnnchscreeeeeech!"

Which (somehow, don't ask me how) reminds me of another old favorite (which may have been a "Far Side" cartoon by Gary Larsen). A group of cavemen are sitting against the walls in a cave. They have swollen bellies, obviously connected to the huge pile of gnawed bones in the center of the cave. Some of the cavemen are sleeping, some look quite sated, a few are picking their teeth. One caveman is looking speculatively at the bone pile - and the scavenging rat on top. The caption: "The invention of dessert".
.

2510 Meeting Costs; ICC

Sunday, July 19, 2009

I was depressed last night so I called Lifeline.
Got a call center in Pakistan, and told them I was suicidal.
They got all excited and asked if I could fly a plane.

--------------------------

I wish I had the following link back in the '90s, when politically ambitious people at work called required meetings for the sole purpose of advertising their own wonderful projects. It's a constantly updated counter, displaying how much this meeting has cost the company so far.

http://tobytripp.github.com/meeting-ticker/

--------------------------

PBS is right now airing a program on the International Criminal Court (ICC), on P.O.V., "The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court.

It's available for viewing at http://www.pbs.org/pov/reckoning/. I highly recommend it. To quote the website,

Over 120 countries have united to form the International Criminal Court (ICC) — the first permanent court created to prosecute perpetrators, no matter how powerful, of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. The Reckoning follows dynamic ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and his team for three years across four continents as he issues arrest warrants for Lord's Resistance Army leaders in Uganda, puts Congolese warlords on trial, shakes up the Colombian justice system, and charges Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur. Like a deft thriller, The Reckoning keeps you on the edge of your seat. Will the prosecutor succeed? Will the world ensure that justice prevails? An Official Selection of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Read the full film description »

A small mention was made of the fact that the Bush-2 administration tried to kill it. Gee, I wonder why? I can understand not joining (in Wikipedia terms, "being a party"), but why threaten sanctions on any other country that signs on?

I don't really wonder why. I know why.
.

2509 Medical Coverage

Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Japanese have a term, muda, which refers to
activity that doesn't add value.

------------------------------------

It's about 2 am. I've spent the past several hours reading up on Medicare stuff. I've got to make some decisions in the next week or so. I've got material from The Company, from various medi-gap folks, and guides I printed off from the Medicare website. I have a thousand questions, and I haven't even started comparing options yet.

The material from The Company arrived in Saturday's mail. I glanced through it quickly at the mailbox, and from just a brief look, it appears that between The Company and the government, I'm going to end up paying a LOT more for a LOT less coverage and a LOT more complication.

It figures. Don't know why I'm surprised.
.

2508 Scary dream

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Shelley of thehormonezone.blogspot.com:
“Red flags when you’re dating
don’t disappear after the wedding.”

So true. So very true.
--------------------------

I had a dream last night that was so scary I didn't want to go back to sleep.

I usually do crosswords in bed until fall asleep. I lie on my belly with the pillow under my lower chest, and a puzzle pulled from a newspaper on the bed in front of me. When I get bored enough, my eyes start closing, there are a few short periods of light mental drift away, and then I turn off the light, move the pillow up, and go right to sleep.

Last night I started to drift. Now, when this happens, I am fully aware I'm falling asleep, and if I dream during this time, I am aware I'm dreaming, know what I mean? I'm not fully asleep yet. So I started dreaming, and I knew it was a dream.

I was driving a light-colored car, a convertible with the top down. It was night, and I'd pulled into a parking lot for a low white windowless building. It was like at a camp, or something. The building was unadorned, the parking lot was dirt, and there were cars parked nose in on either side of the center, leaving a narrow space to drive through.

I drove into the lot and down the center of the lot, but couldn't find an open space. There was no room to turn around. When I got close to the building, I discovered that my brakes weren't working very well, and I almost ran into the building, stopping inches from it.

I started to back up, but my backup lights didn't seem to be working either, and I found I was getting a bit too close to the cars parked on my right, so I pulled forward and almost ran into the building again. I tried backing up again, this time trying to stay very close to the cars on my left. At least I could see them a bit better.

I was turned to the left, looking back, and had my left arm on the door sill. As I closely passed a parked black SUV, a side-view mirror on the back of the SUV (being a dream, it didn't have to make sense) hit my elbow pretty hard, so I moved the arm to the steering wheel.

At that instant, I felt a weight pressing on my forearms. I couldn't move them to steer. Then I felt a heavy weight on my thighs, and something preventing my moving my legs. It felt like hands pressing on me, someone or something above me pressing down and holding, but there was nothing there! Then it started pressing on my abdomen, like between me and the steering wheel, and the pressure on my legs was making the car go faster, in reverse. Then pressure on my chest, and I couldn't breathe. There was definitely something invisible there! I couldn't see it, but I could feel the weight, and I had a sense that it was a black cloud.

I woke up in a panting panic, still lying in doing-crosswords position, still holding the pencil, light still on, and I was really scared, even though during the whole dream I was fully aware I was dreaming. What was even scarier is that when I lucid dream, I am usually in control and can direct the dream to some extent. This time I had no control whatsoever. I was afraid to go back to sleep, because I absolutely didn't want to encounter that --- whatever it was --- again, even if it was "just" a dream.

It was about two hours before I relaxed enough to fall asleep.

-----------------------

One eventually thinks of the stories of incubi, but there was nothing even remotely sexual about this event.
.

2507 Correction - Mouse in the house

Saturday, July 18, 2009

"Male circumcision has long been an operation
in search of a disease," wrote members of the group
Doctors Opposing Circumcision in the May 12th edition of The Lancet.

I believe that was the 2007 edition.
------------------------

I was wrong in an earlier post. There is (or was) a mouse in the house.

A few days ago, Jasper was "on point" in the living room near the front door. He would be crouched, and staring, ears up, intent on something unseen, quick head whips to left and right. When I walked past him, he'd get up and follow me for a few steps, then whirl and return to point.

I couldn't figure out what he was so interested in. Sometimes his favorite ball gets under or behind something, and he stalks it until I retrieve it for him, but I didn't see the ball anywhere, and he wasn't close to anything the ball could be behind.

Yesterday I figured it out.

Something near the front door is very dead, and rotting.

I suspect he'd found a mouse and wounded it. It hid, and died.

It hid well. I can't find it either.

It didn't die well.
.

2506 More from Iran

Friday, July 17, 2009

Robert Orben: "Illegal aliens have always been
a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian."

-----------------------------

Iran was at the top of the news after the election, but dropped out of sight for a while. Even if the news has been silent, the Iranian people haven't been.

From The Huffington Post, at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/13/iran-uprising-blogging_n_230402.html

"Former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a powerful cleric in Iran who supports reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi, delivered the Friday sermon in Tehran today for the first time since June's presidential election. The sermon was heavily attended; many thousands of people are now demonstrating in the city, and reports indicate that riot police are out in large numbers, using tear gas and batons."

Frequently updated, including video clips. If you're interested, go read.

This part was good:

"Traditionally, there's this guy at the Friday prayers whom people mockingly call 'vazireh shoaar', or the minister of slogans. His job is to shout slogans through loudspeakers and lead the crowd to chant death to America or Israel or whoever after him. In this clip you hear the crowd going flatly against him as he desperately cycles through the usual slogans (death to America, death to Israel, death to England and so on), and regardless of what he shouts, the crowd keeps repeating one chant: 'marg bar roosiyeh' (Death to Russia) !!

The chants against Russia and China -- whose governments have both recognized Ahmadinejad's election victory -- were widely used today. As noted below by a reader, the strategic benefit here seems to be associating the Iran's government with a foreign power, just as the government is trying to do to tar the reformists."

Good for them.
.

2505 Suckerrrrrrrzz!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Dorothy Nevill: "The real art of conversation
is not only to say the right thing at the right place
but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

-------------------------

I have an antenna on the roof. I got about eight perfectly sufficient analog TV channels from the Albany and Schenectady area. Everything was fine.

Then when we were in the analog-to-digital transition period, I got both analog and digital channels, both clear and dependable, and with a good TV set it was difficult to tell the difference.

As time wore on and the digital-only time drew near, I noticed that the analog channels were getting fuzzier. I thought that was odd. Like maybe they were trying to shut us up by convincing us that digital was better, by fuzzing up the analog. The analog signal really was getting weaker and weaker. That couldn't have been by accident.

So, now we're fully digital, and I'm getting about 15 digital channels on the rooftop antenna.

And the oddest thing is happening [that "odd" is sarcasm, in case you didn't notice]. Even though digital was just fine for the first few months, nice strong signal, it is now getting iffy, gradually getting worse. The picture "locks". Or it breaks up. Or I get a frequent but brief message on a blank screen that the signal is encrypted, or that there's no signal. It's driving me batty.

Am I paranoid? I'm beginning to think that someone is trying to force us all to cable.

2504 Ripoff

Friday, July 17, 2009

If you can’t learn to do something well,
learn to enjoy doing it poorly.

This is so true. You don't have to be good at something to enjoy it, and get your time's worth out of it. Get out there and dance! Beat that drum! Hit that ball!
----------------------

I was out running some errands this morning and returned in time for the end of one of those TV judge shows. Some woman had purchased a list of foreclosed properties from a man, and was now suing him for her money back because the properties were too far away for her to visit, and whatever additional complaints.

The "jury" found for the guy, because the offer and contract said simply that she was buying a list. She got a list, exactly as described. Contract performed.

What blew my mind was that she paid $10,000 for the list.

WOW! Does this mean that with maybe four hour's work I could put together a list that I could then sell multiple copies of for $10,000 each? Holy crap! I'm in the wrong line of work! (Plus I have too much integrity.)

I'm still having trouble with that $10,000. The woman was an idiot. I could see $50, or maybe even $100, but for $10,000 I'd expect to actually get one of the houses on the list as part of the package.
.

2503 Frustration

Thursday, July 16, 2009

A bore is someone who keeps talking
after I have something to say.

----------------------------

This weekend will mark four weeks since I've seen The Man.

I read financial reports, so I know what's going on with the company he's contracted to. It's not good news. I'm aware of some financial obligations he has, and some recent reversals, which has required that he get as many hours as he can. And although he hasn't mentioned it, I know that he's worried that the contract may be axed, and he'll need to build up more savings to tide him over until he can get another - which these days could be a while. So I know why he's working 12 hour days, 6 or 7 days a week.

The stuff he's doing actually needs three people, and he was told he could hire two more, but he wants all the hours for himself.

I know all that, but it doesn't make it any easier. [Whine on] We're only about two hours apart! He has to eat sometime. He has to sleep sometime. Why can't we do it together? [Whine off]

Major developments this week, people are being let go. His employer wanted to hire him as a regular in a management position when his contract was up, but he turned it down, because he earns more as a contractor. He has a rather unique skill set, so he figured he was safe, and as expected his contract was recently renewed for another year. But "bankruptcy" is now threatened, and if a reorganizing group comes in, unique or not, as a contractor he'll be gone.

We were supposed to get together tonight, but he had to cancel earlier this week when things in the office got exciting.

I didn't take it well.

He probably doesn't even realize how long it's been, damn nerd.

I am angry, frustrated, unhappy, and tired of this. I was seriously considering saying to hell with it, and telling him to just go away, he doesn't have room in his life for me, I'm tired of the empty chair next to me.

And then yesterday I was cleaning out the email archives, and I reread some of his notes, and fell in love with him again. It's his MIND! I love the way his mind works.

You know, he doesn't have to work at all. He can come live with me, and do whatever work-at-home contracts he wants, and still be able to contribute to his sons' needs and his parent's needs. But thinking that is frustrating, too. He'd find that emasculating. Simply not the way it's supposed to be. And since I find his strength and power and independence and fierce masculinity incredibly sexy, I probably don't really want that either. Even though he's younger, he's not boy-toy material, and that's part of the attraction.

[Whine on] But we're only two hours apart. Why is this so hard? He promised me 2009 would be better than 2008. Waaaa. [Whine off]

Damn nerd.
.

2502 So, you think your life sucks?

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Fritz Perls: "I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine."

-----------------------------

I've found the funniest website - http://www.fmylife.com/, where "f" stands for a certain verb. Go visit. Waste some time. Feel a little better about your own life.

Some samples:

Today, my drunk boyfriend told me he thought of new positions for us to try in bed because it was getting boring. We haven't had sex yet. FML

Today, I received a parking ticket for $150 from my husband who is a police officer and who apparently can't remember license plate numbers.

Today, my boss came to my cubicle to give me my annual performance bonus. I was asleep at my desk.

Today, I found my long lost diary and curiously read it. What's worse than finding out that your mother read your diary? Finding out that your mother wrote comments in it.

Today, I have to choose between one eyebrow or none because I'm a heavy sleeper and my brother is a moron.

Today, I received 7 notifications on facebook. Girls in my grade were commenting on my photo because they knew the location of it. They then started to have a conversation and they planned a whole social event. On my photo. I wasn't invited.

Today, my boss requested that I re-organize every file in the office, because she wanted the filing cabinets alphabetized right to left, not left to right. To thank me, she came into my office to give me one uncooked ear of corn. I think my boss has mistaken me for some kind of farm animal. FML
.

2501 Diet synopsis

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

“Immature love is wanting the other person to be happy with you.
Mature love is wanting the other person to be happy. Period.”

--------------------------------

Daily calorie totals for the past few days (out of 1153 allowed):
7/08 - 791
7/09 - 220
7/10 - duh? I forgot to write things down.
7/11 - 755
7/12 - 461
7/13 - 990
7/14 - 880

I'm holding at a max of 8 lbs lost since 6/17 (it fluctuates up).

Amazing fact - one tablespoon of horse radish sauce (the smooth stuff you'd put on a ham sandwich) has 60 calories. That seems like a lot! Two slices of bread (12-grain) also seem high at 220.

Ouch. That's 280 calories before you even put anything in the middle of the sandwich.
.

2500 Something is very wrong.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

HL Mencken: "We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."

-------------------------

On the hike last weekend, somehow the subject turned to bats. I mentioned that I'd always had bats swooping all around my property every evening, but this year I hadn't seen any. One of the guys said there's been an outbreak of "white nose syndrome", and the bats are dying.

Later, I was thinking about that.

There's something very wrong around here.

With the bats gone, there should be more insects, but there aren't.

There are no mosquitoes. No little biting black flies.

I'm used to seeing beautiful darning needles, damsel flies, and dragonflies on the deck, but I haven't seen any in two years, at least.

The back yard is usually full of hundreds of tiny white and blue butterflies, and smatterings of more colorful butterflies on migration, especially Monarchs visiting the milkweed in the front. I haven't seen more than an occasional butterfly in two or three years.

The flowering shrub under the den window has been, in the past, so full of fat bumblebees that I can hear the buzz in the den. I haven't seen a bee in ages. Even the paper wasps that built nests on my porch roof and inside the car's gas flap are missing.

Peepers, little tree frogs, thousands of them, used to sing to me at night, along with the bass of the bullfrogs in the pond down the hill. The peepers used to be attracted to the sliding glass doors, because flying insects were attracted by the light, and then I'd hear the crash of an owl against the glass as they plucked off a froggy dinner. I haven't seen or heard a frog or owl in two years, at least, and there are few if any insects at the glass. We used to get huge green luna moths. None now.

The frogs sang me to sleep, and the birds twittered me awake, and there was birdsong all day. Not this year. I don't know when it stopped, but it has stopped. Now I might hear one or two birds in the morning, and none at all all day!

The foxes abandoned the den in the front yard years ago, when we had the rabies outbreak, and the hole was taken over by groundhogs. It was usual to see one or two adults and a few babies in the yard. I know the groundhogs are still around, because they are maintaining the hole entrance, but I've seen no babies or juveniles.

In early summer my yard used to be full of fireflies, from the ground to the tops of the trees. This year and last year there were a few in the wooded section, and they weren't around long. They weren't being eaten by bats or frogs, so where are they?

I haven't had a mouse in the house since spring of last year. It's very unusual to go through a winter without hearing them rioting in the attic. The basement is suspiciously free of droppings.

Something is very wrong.
.

2499 Morocco, I hope

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

HL Mencken: "The argument that capital punishment degrades the state is moonshine, for if that were true then it would degrade the state to send men to war... The state, in truth, is degraded in its very nature: a few butcheries cannot do it any further damage."

---------------------

I keep forgetting to mention - I'm going to Morocco in April with a Meetup.com travel group!



The $2760 package includes:

• Round-trip air to Casablanca out of John F. Kennedy Airport;
  
• Round-trip transfers upon arrival at the airport to the hotel;
  
• Breakfast and Dinner daily, YUM!
  
• A 9 day/8 night Imperial Cities tour;
  
• Comprehensive Sightseeing;
  
• 8-nights of accommodations in 4-star hotels: 1 night in Fez; 3 nights in Marrakesh; 4 nights in Casablanca (and a day in Rabat);
  
• Transportation provided by deluxe air-conditioned motorcoach;
  
• Services of a qualified English-speaking guide;
  
• Travel insurance (Not Optional -- $150 Extra Charge)
  
• Optional additional tours (Extra Charge)

At least, I hope I'm going. There were originally 9 definite yeses (all women) and about 11 maybes. I just noticed that it's dropped to 4 definites. I suspect only four of us paid the nonrefundable deposit on time. I'm starting to get nervous. Most packages like this require a minimum of 10.

When I mentioned Morocco to Piper, he said "Oooo, that's a dangerous place." Actually, it's not. Morocco has been a very US-friendly country for 200 years. He should know I wouldn't commit to that much money without doing the research.

____________________

Later note - I replaced one of the photos (I had snaggled them from the MeetUp site) because I found out that one (with all the colorful tile) was from Barcelona, not Morocco.
.

2498 Medical Bills, Freelance Writing

Monday, July 13, 2009

The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a Courthouse: You cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians! It creates a hostile work environment.

----------------------------

Back in the early '70s, when a customer had a problem with the mainframe operating system, we'd get a printed core dump, so we could examine control blocks and registers. The dumps usually also included the data that applications would have been processing at the time of the error, the text of reports, and so on.

One of the customers I was supporting** handled medical billing. I was shocked to discover from the data and reports in the dumps that what people were charged for identical procedures varied based on what insurance they had.

If a patient had insurance company A, they were charged $100 for procedure 123-4. Another patient with insurance company B was charged $150 for the same procedure. What was most shocking was that patients with Medicare were charged $250, and people with no insurance at all were charged $300!

The insurance companies paid out of premiums and investment proceeds (and still made a profit). Medicare paid out of taxes. Uninsured individuals paid out of pocket.

It all seemed very unfair to me.

So, in the past several months, what with the breast scare and various other tests and lab work, I've racked up some significant medical charges. The form I get from the billing entities shows
a) What the lab, hospital, or doctor charged,
b) The discount on that charge negotiated by my insurance company,
c) The amount actually paid by my insurance company, and
d) My copay.

Let's take the bone density scan for example. The hospital radiology department normally (I guess) bills $441.95 for the procedure. My insurance company has apparently negotiated a $250.01 discount on that procedure, so the insurance company and I are responsible for only $191.94. The insurance paid $153.55, and I had a copay of $38.39.

Someone without insurance is paying almost two and a half times what insurance and I paid.

That bothers me a whole lot.

The uninsured are subsidizing the insurance companies! The more a lab charges the uninsured, the higher the discount insurance companies can get. That feels so wrong.

[By the way, the reason the bill is broken out that way is because there was a class action suit about eight years ago against a very large well-known medical insurance company. Their clients had a 20% copay across the board. But the insurance company figured the copay on the amount before the discount (in fact few patients were aware there was a discount), so that in many cases, the patient paid closer to 40% rather than 20% of the actual final charges. The insurance company lost. The patients each got a few dollars from the multi-million dollar award. The lawyers raked in the rest. So now in bills it's usually very clear who's paying what.]

------------------------------

I came across something called "SEO writing" the other day. It's writing short essays or descriptions for websites using terms and words specifically chosen so that search engines will find that site. I heard it pays $35-$100 per hour. Here's a link to a description.

Anyone know anything about it?

------------------------------

**Later note: The customer doing medical billing that I mentioned above was not someone working out of their den. It was a subsidiary of a huge corporation in the St. Louis area, better known for building airplanes and space shuttles.
.

2497 Disappearing males

Monday, July 13, 2009

HL Mencken: "Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence."

Well, romantic love, yeah. We too often fall in love with a construct rather than a person.

-------------------------

We see so many documentaries that scare us. Most people pass them off as fear-mongering, scare tactics, calculated to make us behave in the way that the producers want us to behave.

Sometimes that's true. Crass manipulation is what's going on. Sometimes the topic is a real concern, but many people, jaded by too many obvious attempts at manipulation, pass off real concerns along with the bogus.

Global warming is an example. I will listen carefully to those who say that we can't be sure about reasons for it, or whether anything we can do will stop or reverse it, or whether the results will be so very dire. I'll listen to people who say maybe it isn't warming so much as a redistribution of heat. However, I have no patience at all with people who flat out deny that polar ice and glaciers are melting. That is fact. It's only the "why" that's in dispute.

People will have a similar reaction to the following documentary from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation?/Company? (CBC-TV). The cause may be in dispute, but the facts are indisputable. Sperm counts and motility are dropping, in humans and other animals. Birth rates for baby boys are dropping. It's seen all over the world. It may be plastics. Then again, it may just be Mother Nature saying "Too many people! Let's adjust those birthrates!"

The video is about 45 minutes long. No commercials. If "The Disappearing Male: Doc Zone" isn't the title on the video panel on the left, look for it in the list of videos on the right.
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/docplayer2.html?maven_playerId=docportal&maven_referralPlaylistId=f21067aaabfdece3076458e7e035e69febe7cfe7&maven_referralObject=4505047

It'll make you think twice next time you reach for the Tupperware.

-----------------------------

I am left with a nagging question. The thrust is what it's doing to males. Females seem to be unaffected? Huh? Females have and use testosterone and other male hormones. Are the effects there but more subtle? Does it matter?
.

2496 Muffled is not the problem

Sunday, July 12, 2009

It is a little-known fact that the job of the Vice-President
is to act so freakin' crazy
that no one wants to assassinate the President.

------------------------

[Note - I know some people who ride motorcycles, and at least two of them do read here, and please understand that the following is not directed toward you guys, because I'm sure you don't do crazy things. You have brains and are interested in self-preservation, so relax. You're ok. I hope.]

I've heard several motorcycle riders say that loud is safer. I saw many signs and stickers at the antique motorcycle show a few weeks ago saying that loud saves lives. Non-riders hate loud motorcycles, just as much as they hate cars with bad mufflers.

The theory is that if automobile drivers can hear you coming, they're aware you're there.

But not hearing them is not the problem! It's not seeing them that's the problem.

In the past few weeks, I've had several close calls with motorcycles, and I'm one of those people who carefully maintains a double distance when I'm following a motorcycle.

Leaving the motorcycle show I was very aware that there were bikers on the road. And yeah, I could hear them, especially because they were traveling in packs. And yet, I almost got ploughed when I started to turn right from route 9 onto 199. They apparently didn't seem to feel that they had to wait in line for the light, and when it turned green, they jumped line and zipped past all the cars waiting for the light on the right! Not even on the road! I did have my turn signal on, but there was a big truck behind me, so maybe they didn't see it. Doesn't matter. They should have been in line with traffic, waiting their turn through the intersection, not passing on the right. I didn't expect them to be there. Being loud didn't change that.

Being loud doesn't help when you play fast and loose with the rules.

Being loud doesn't help when you're traveling at 20 or 30 mph faster than the speed limit.

Being loud doesn't help when you weave in and out of traffic, with little regard for lanes.

Being loud doesn't help when you're going so fast you have to swing wide on right curves.

Being loud doesn't help when you run lights and stop signs.

Being loud doesn't help when you "come out of nowhere like a bat out of Hell".

Being loud won't save you when your actions piss off so many drivers so much that they don't really care if you do "get what you deserve". They might know you're there, but you've taught them not to care. In fact, you've taught them to be downright antagonistic.

When you are traveling much faster than the speed limit, you become invisible. Inside a car even if we can hear you we can't always tell what direction the sound is coming from. We can pull out from a stop sign and run right into you - not because we couldn't hear you, but because when we looked down the side road before pulling out, you weren't there! Nobody sees a vehicle coming around the curve doing 60 in a 35 mph zone. You are invisible.

That's why in so many accidents the automobile driver says you "came out of nowhere". You were somewhere you weren't expected to be, and wouldn't have been if you followed the rules.

Thursday I got very annoyed at a guy on the Thruway weaving in and out of multiple lanes with no regard as to whether drivers would expect him to be there or not. Yesterday morning I got pissed off at a cyclist zooming down the center line at a good 15 mph over the speed limit on a two lane mountain road with heavy slow traffic in both directions. I found myself hoping he'd meet another center-line cyclist at the top of the next hill. I even fantasized what I'd say.

Before stabilizing his neck, I'd ask, "Wassa matter? Didn't you hear him coming?"

------------------------------

I'm not convinced loud is safer. I don't think it makes any difference. I think following the rules and being where drivers expect you to be and doing what they expect you to do is safer. I think the "safer" argument is a cover for your desire for noise. A manifestation of your arrogance - your desire for bigger balls - which is evident in the way you treat the road and the other drivers who share the road.

[Um - this doesn't apply to you folks who ride with courtesy and respect. Yeah, you. The one who thinks she goes too slow.]
.

2495 Hilly Highway, Super Drummer

Sunday, July 12, 2009

American journalism thrives on exploring conflicts, often to the exclusion of ideas.

----------------------------

After the hawk-watching broke up yesterday, I headed for Cornwall-on-Hudson, a village on the river just north of West Point. There was a bellydance show there last night, and I figured since I was in the area....

I found the location easily enough. Given West Point and the proximity to N. New Jersey and The City, I expected the area to be very built up. It wasn't. It was little villages tucked into the mountains, and gas stations were few and far between. I was going to need gas before I headed home, and I was afraid they'd be closed by late evening, so I kept on through the village headed south, to find a gas station.

Ack! The next hour was panic-filled. I found nothing on routes 218 or 9 but government reservation (West Point land), woods, and mountains. No towns, no people, no one to ask.

However, in the midst of my panic, I did find something wonderful. Remember this photo from my river tour last month? That cut in the side of the mountain (click to enlarge) is a road.
I found myself on that road yesterday, entirely by accident. It's route 218. It's windy (as in curvy) and windy (as in getting buffeted around by fast-moving air), so it's closed in the winter. There's only one viewing spot where you can pull the car off the road, and the spot is large enough for only two cars at a time. The following photos are taken from that spot.

Looking south. The West Point campus is just beyond that mount. The straight fill is railroad tracks.
Looking north. The island to the left in the following photo is Bannerman's Island - the one with the castle ruins. In the far distance is (probably) the Newburgh-Beacon bridge. The leaves are blurry because they were whipping in the wind. So was I.
Looking south-east. The village is probably Cold Spring

The road, looking north.
Pretty cool, eh?

I finally found a gas station, and got to the dance show a half-hour after it started. I stayed for about 20 minutes and then left. I would have liked to have stayed a lot longer, but the room was very dim, and the only lights were small bulbs (like Christmas tree lights) strung on the backdrop, behind the performers. Bad bad bad plan. The eyestrain was giving me a headache. I had to leave.

The dancers were good, but the drummer/guitarist was incredible. Mindblowing. I've never seen hands move so fast. He was playing a dumbek with his hands, and then accompanying himself on two deeper drums with his feet.

I'm very sorry that I have forgotten his name, and deleted the email announcement. (If anyone knows for sure, enlighten me in the comments.)
.

2494 Hawks and Harvestmen

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Herbert Spencer: "There is a principle which is a bar against all information,
which is proof against all arguments
and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance —
that principle is contempt prior to investigation."

--------------------------

Yesterday I went to Mount Peter (that sounds naughty) and joined some people to watch hawks from a state-built viewing stand. I did see two hawks. Nobody else did, and they don't seem to believe that I did. Both times I pointed, and the hawks were right there in clear sky swooping around, but no one else saw them before they dipped down behind the trees.

I don't understand.

We were up pretty high. The view was fantastic across the ridges and valleys all the way to New Jersey, but so very hazy I didn't attempt a photo.

This is the group at the hawk stand:
One of the guys heard that there was a geocache nearby. He didn't have a GPS, but he had the hint, "A Sucrets container, under a loose piece of bark, under a cedar tree, within sight of the stand". There were several cedar trees there, so all those guys in shorts were competing to be the one who found the cache, tromping through undergrowth dense with poison ivy (and likely ticks). Nobody found it.

Then we walked a bit on the Appalachian Trail (sign on the tree above us):
This was a scouting trip for a major hike planned for October, when the leaves are changing.

There were lots of mushrooms of every variety, size, and color. I guess they like all the rain we've had lately.

We saw an unusual harvestman. His body was brilliant red, legs shiny black, and he moved so fast you couldn't catch him by the hind legs, like you can with most daddy-long-legs. The guys decided that he must be poisonous because he was red. I said that harvestmen come in white, tan, yellow, brown, black, and red, just like humans, but unlike humans, none of them ever bite. I let him climb on my hand and up my arm (and down my back).

I like harvestmen. They're not at all like spiders.

--------------------

Off topic - Sherry, on The View, is currently working on a challenge - to get into shape to look and feel good in a bathing suit. In preparation, a few weeks ago they measured her on the show. Those of you who know me AND know what Sherry looks like will be amazed to know that she and I have exactly the same measurements! It blew me out of the water! (Of course, she's taller, with longer legs.)

So howcum she looks huge on the top and small and neat on the bottom, and I look exactly the opposite? The math doesn't make sense!

Sigh. Just something else I don't understand.
.

2493 Day 23, what diet? And other stuff.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Sir Winston Churchill: "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind
and won't change the subject."

---------------------------

Yesterday I made no attempt to follow any diet or regimen. I went out for dinner with some folks in southern Orange county, at Harpoon Bay, in Warwick.

I left the house at 4:30 (long drive), and we met at 6:30 pm. At 7:00 we gave up on waiting for two more people who were supposed to arrive but never did, and the seven of us ordered. At 8:35 our food arrived. The place was packed, and the sous-chef had never arrived, so there was only one cook. I'm surprised that no one offered us any nibbles. We'd got a bread basket at 7, but it was gone by 7:30 and never refreshed.

The conversation was good, and when the food finally arrived it was very good. One of the guys wondered if it was the wait that made it so good.

I had chicken strips and various colors of peppers and onions on thin rice noodles with a peanut sauce. My dessert was sauteed bananas on puff pastry with ice cream and a fruity caramel sauce.

I think there might have been a few calories involved. I doggy-bagged half the chicken and noodles.

------------------------

On the way to Warwick I was listening to NPR, and there was a discussion of how teachers' unions are strenuously objecting to the whole idea of merit pay.

I can see that there may be some valid objections to exactly how merit is determined. What criteria is used, who determines a teacher's effectiveness, and how evaluations are done. How can you ensure objectivity? But that doesn't seem to be the objection.

It sounds weird, but from some of the speakers against merit pay I got the impression that tenure is paramount, yearly scaled pay increases rule, and "what does merit have to do with anything anyway?" "What right does anyone have to judge me in MY classroom?"

That's flat out scary.

How can a teacher see no value in rewarding excellence, and penalizing a failure to meet requirements?

As to one way to evaluate, any fifth grade teacher can tell you whether the fourth grade teacher was any good. When I was teaching Algebra II, I had definite opinions on the efficacy of the various Algebra I teachers. Come on - it's pretty easy to see when someone didn't try and didn't care.

-----------------------

For years I've been frustrated by the laughingly called "flower bed" across the front of the house. If I don't keep after it constantly it gets full of weeds. Not just weeds - we're talking WEEDS! Raspberries, blackberries, thistles, poison ivy, sumac trees (those things spread by roots and can grow a foot a week), virginia creeper, wild grape, and other big strong nasty stuff spread by birds, animals, and wind from the surrounding woods and fields, and with persistent roots. Then when it starts to get overgrown, the ground-nesting yellowjackets move in, and I don't want to disturb the ground.

I'll try for a year, and get it looking pretty ok, then the next year we have a wet spring, or my back will be fragile, and it's overrun again before I can get ahead of it. Once I plant flowers, I can't use spray, so it's all hand-work.

I've pretty much given up.

Mulch, barrier cloth, bark, stones, all those things people suggest don't work. They don't stop the kind of stuff that gets in there, and then just make it harder to get it out.

In the past few days I've realized I was looking at it wrong. I want to get the ground weed-free, and plant flowers in the ground, and then keep the ground weed-free. This is impossible!

POTS!

If I dig and rake and spray and get all the roots out of there, or at least kill the roots that keep things coming back, and then lay a nearly-impenetrable layer of poly-something or other, and cover that with stone or bark, I can put some of those huge plastic-but-look-like-clay pots out there (six should do to start), and plant anything I want in the pots. Just like they do outside office buildings. But mine will look nicer because they're on bark instead of on sidewalk.

Whoop! I can hardly wait to get started.

Weeds will probably still get into the pots, but they can't spread underground, the available weed area will be smaller, and I can weed them sitting on a stool, which is much easier on my back.

Why did it take so long to think of that?
.

2492 Diet, Day 22, How to make a Happy Waitress

Thursday, July 9, 2009

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”

That is SO true! The more you think you deserve love, the more you accept. The less you think you deserve, the more you push away. I suspect that the amount available and offered is the same for just about everyone, like air.

------------------------

I ran a bunch of errands yesterday, so I ate out. I had a hunger for a Happy Waitress, which is invariably the best thing to get in a diner. They're very easy to make at home, but I never do because the bacon is the stopper. I never happen to have two slices of cooked bacon lying around.

How to make a Happy Waitress:
Put two slices of toast on an oven-proof plate.
Cover with slices of tomato, not too thinly sliced.
Lay two slices of bacon on top.
Put two slices of plain American cheese over the bacon.
Broil until the cheese is melted, but hasn't yet lost shape.
Serve with creamy cole slaw.
Eat with knife and fork.

When I got home I had to look up all the ingredients. I was shocked to discover that a Happy Waitress totals out to 381 calories!

------------------------

What I ate yesterday:
Sanka, coffeemate vanilla sugar free
Rice Pudding, deli, 1 C
Sanka, coffeemate vanilla sugar free
Happy Waitress, restaurant
Cole slaw, restaurant, 1/2 C
Water & tea
The usual vitamins and minerals, not included in totals below.

Totals for yesterday:
Calories - 791 (out of 1153 allowed)
Carbs - 66 (299g allowed)
Sugar - 10g
Fiber - 1g
Fat - 41 (67g allowed)
Protein - 24 (47g allowed)
Cholesterol - 38 (297mg allowed)
Sodium - 495 (2402mg allowed)

Total weight lost since 6/17:
8.0 pounds
.

2491 Snowflakes

Thursday, July 9, 2009

"Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end."

------------------

Beautiful photos of snowflakes at http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/, plus everything you ever wanted to know about them.

I used to keep a little piece of black velvet on the porch, for the sole purpose of catching and examining snowflakes.
.

2490 Hate

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Andy Rooney: "Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done."

---------------------

Boston.com's Big Picture does it again. I was completely unaware of this one.

When violence comes from religious and/or ethnic hate, there seems to be no solution, no way for it to end. Ever.
.

2489 Those annoying calls

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Roman poet Juvenal: “All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.”

---------------------------

You know those annoying calls, the ones from unrecognized numbers, where they call multiple times a day, and they let it ring only a few times, and never leave a message?

I found out why they never leave a message.

There's some law or regulation that says that if they leave a message, they can't call you again for seven days. If they don't leave a message they can keep calling until you finally give up and answer.

So you may as well answer the first call, and tell them not to call again.
.

2488 MJ & DR

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Roman poet Juvenal: “Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.”

-------------------

MJ assigned guardianship of his children to his mother, and then to D. Ross if his mother was unwilling or unable.

This has kicked off some speculation as to exactly what was the relationship between MJ and DR.

It doesn't matter to me whether they were simply best of friends, or whether M had a mad wild crush on D which was unrequited, or requited.

What matters to me is the reason given by most of those who deny anything remotely romantic or sexual in their relationship - that the difference in their ages is too great.

Um, D is exactly seven months months older than I, and M was twenty-one months older than The Man.

Their difference was more than a year less than ours.

Ahem.
.

2487 Diet, Day 21

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Roman poet Juvenal: “No one ever became extremely wicked suddenly.”

------------------------

What I ate yesterday:
Sanka, coffeemate vanilla sugar free
DiabeticMeal - chol-free scrambled eggs,
...whole wheat mini bagel, cream cheese,
...pineapple spears
Butternut squash
Tomato, small fresh
Sanka, coffeemate vanilla sugar free
Dole spring mix greens, naked, 1/3 bag
Hot dog, naked, Oscar Mayer
Green sweet pickle relish, 1 tbsp
Eskimo Pie, no sugar added
Water & tea
The usual vitamins and minerals, not included in totals below.

Totals for yesterday:
Calories - 737 (out of 1153 allowed)
Carbs - 90 (299g allowed)
Sugar - 31g
Fiber - 11g
Fat - 31 (67g allowed)
Protein - 28 (47g allowed)
Cholesterol - 50 (297mg allowed)
Sodium - 1415 (2402mg allowed)

Total weight lost since 6/17:
8.0 pounds

2486 Diet, Day 20 - and notes

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Roman poet Juvenal: “Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.”

------------------

[Note - my posts are numbered sequentially.  "2486" is the sequence number of this post.  It has nothing to do with any diet by that name.]

The purpose of this exercise is not control of diabetes, even though there are diabetic meals included. I just bought those prepared meals to find out what they looked like, and to serve as a base and example. The real purpose is weight loss, to wean me off sugar and fat, to reset my metabolism - get me off "starvation mode" - and to try to build some new and moderately better habits.

I know that if I do need to control the blood sugar more rigorously, I need to do a better job of balancing carbohydrate, fat, and protein intake, which isn't easy. Restricting something is a lot easier than balancing.

It's relatively easy to lower the cholesterol intake, for example, but according to recent research, that doesn't matter all that much to the blood cholesterol levels anyway (and mine is ok).

One interesting thing, I haven't taken my Prilosec in over a week now, and I've had no acid reflux. The Prilosec was interfering with calcium uptake, which resulted in an "uh-oh" bone density scan, so this is an unplanned benefit.

What I ate yesterday:
Sanka, coffeemate vanilla sugar free
Grits, Quaker original pkg
Margarine, Promise, 1 tsp
Diabetic meal -oatmeal & baked apple
Eskimo Pie, no sugar added (can't give these up!)
Dole spring mix greens, naked, 1/3 bag
Blueberries, 1c
Eggplant parm, Celentano, 1/2 pkg.
Water & tea
The usual vitamins and minerals, not included in totals below.

Totals for yesterday:
Calories - 991 (out of 1153 allowed)
Carbs - 126 (299g allowed)
Sugar - 34g
Fiber - 19g
Fat - 49 (67g allowed)
Protein - 21 (47g allowed)
Cholesterol - 30 (297mg allowed)
Sodium - 975 (2402mg allowed)

Total weight lost since 6/17:
7.0 pounds
.

2485 The Missouri Lots

Monday, July 6, 2009

Roman poet Juvenal: “Censure acquits the raven,
but pursues the dove.”

--------------------

Ex#2 is driving me crazy. Again.

About 35 years ago we went camping at Big Springs, Missouri. On the way home we passed a billboard for a new lake development, Goose Creek. There was no lake yet, just a valley the developers planned to flood, and a bunch of wooded lots they were selling for vacation homes.

We stopped. We got the sales pitch. He decided he wanted to buy, so we did. Two adjoining lots, across the dirt road from the future beach on the future lake.

He liked those lots because even though they were so close to the (future) lake, they were cheap, because a small stream ran through them, leaving little ground for building. But with two lots, he figured we could build across the two above the creek, or sell them as a unit once the lake came in.

There were covenants. Designs for building on the lots had to be submitted for approval. All buildings had to be stick-built. No trailers would be approved or allowed, even temporarily. Within X feet of the lake, septic tanks and septic fields would not be allowed. You'd have to have a holding tank. Creeks and streams were to be left natural. A certain number of mature trees had to be left on a lot. And so on.

We spent many weekends clearing underbrush from the lots. And I noticed a few disturbing things.

Like that the guy on the next lot had installed a beat-up old trailer, which he was living in full time, and was putting in a septic tank, and a drain field that sloped right down to the (future) beach.

At night, large flocks of bats emerged from the banks and bed of the (future) lake. A little research revealed that the area was riddled with caves. Um, how are they planning to keep the water in the lake?

Within weeks, the creek crossing the lots dried up. Exploration revealed that people upstream had dammed it to make pools. Many people. Many dams. I headed upcreek with a crowbar, and the first five dams I ripped out had no water behind them - because of dams further up. I gave up.

I went to the sales office and mentioned the septic field. They said they'd take care of it. They didn't. I asked about the caves, and they said they'd "block the entrances with cement". Duh? And what about the bats? Aren't they protected? No answer.

I rapidly lost interest in Goose Creek. In the divorce, I ceded the lots to Ex#2. I considered them an albatross and wanted nothing to do with them.

Somewhere along the line the dam was built and the lake filled, but it came nowhere near the lots. All those caves, I guess. Or faulty engineering.

Now Ex#2 wants to sell.

It turns out it won't be easy. My name is still on the deed as joint owner, so he wants a quitclaim. And the lots both span two counties (they didn't usta, but the counties redrew the lines, and that's where the new lines fall), but there's only one deed, so there's some confusion as to how to amend the deed. Of course Ex#2 is too cheap to hire a Missouri lawyer.

Now he expects me to help with the mess.

Way back when, the court order would have been enough for him to have had the deed changed, but he didn't do it then. Now, of course, he no longer has a copy of the divorce decree. He wants me to go through my files and find mine, and send him a copy.

Yeah, uh huh.

He wants me to answer all his legal questions.

Yeah, uh huh.

He sends me copies of documents as email attachments. They're in Microsoft Office Word format. I don't have Office. I can't open or read them, and I'm in no mood to try to figure out how to reformat them. I tell him that, and they still arrive in Office Word.

He says everything has to be on legal-sized paper (14 inches?). I said that's ridiculous. Every law office and government office in the country switched to 8.5 x 11 decades ago. "Well, that's what Missouri wants." It turns out that they do accept 8.5 x 11, but they charge a $15 fee for it.

Toldja he was cheap.

I told him if he'd send me the papers by snail mail, I'd sign a quit claim form (or two) and get it notarized and send it back. I figure that's the limit of my responsibility and as involved as I want to get.

And the worst is that when he calls to ask for something, I guess he feels he has to be friendly, so he chats. It's also very obvious that when he wants something from me, he's friendly and chatty. Otherwise, I get short shrift. One word answers.

Bah. Now I'm in a bad mood.

----------------------

Goose Creek:

If you go to this link, you'll find an interactive map. The lots are on the northeast corner of Lakeview and Beach Drives, I think. You can move and enlarge the map for a better look. The lake was supposed to go well up into that "V" formed by those streets, and of course, it didn't. [Update: He says they're in the east corner of the square formed by Parrot Dr., Pawnee Dr., Sunshine Dr., and Sassafras Dr., on the southern point of the lake.]


If anyone is interested, I'm sure he'll sell them cheap. He paid about $5,000 for them, and no more than $150 a year for 35 years in taxes and association fees.

2484 Diet, Day 19

Monday, July 6, 2009

Roman poet Juvenal: “It is not easy for men to rise
whose qualities are thwarted by poverty.”

------------------------

What I ate yesterday:
Coffee, coffeemate vanilla sugar free
2 small slyders w. peanut butter
1/2 small order french fries
Dole spring mix greens, naked, 1/3 bag
Tomato, small fresh
Coffee, coffeemate vanilla sugar free
Edy's fruit ice bar, grape
Water & tea
The usual vitamins and minerals, not included in totals below.

Totals for yesterday:
Calories - 627 (out of 1153 allowed)
Carbs - 67 (299g allowed)
Sugar - 22g
Fiber - 2g
Fat - 31 (67g allowed)
Protein - 9 (47g allowed)
Cholesterol - 40 (297mg allowed)
Sodium - 280 (2402mg allowed)

Total weight lost since 6/17:
7.0 pounds

It's been 7 for a while, but given that it's been less than three weeks, I guess that's ok.
.

2483 Things & Stuff, & Photos

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Laurence J. Peter: “If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind,
what is the significance of a clean desk?"

--------------------

Nice day. Becs reminded us all today that when you have the first beautiful day in two months of rain, you'd best take advantage of it. I took her advice and walked.

I parked in the middle of the village, and walked a mile to a little hamburger joint with super french fries, and then back. Yeah, I rewarded myself with half of a small order of french fries, and two tiny "slyders", which eliminated the calorie-burning aspect of the walk, but left the bone-building advantage, so I figure I still made out on the trade. So hush.

---------------------

I read somewhere that the guy who killed the guard at the Holocaust Museum, James W. von Brunn, was a member of Mensa. I also heard that Theodore Kaczynski (the Unabomber) was a Mensan. I went to the members-only section of the American Mensa website and looked for both of them on the membership list. I didn't find either, but, unfortunately, the lists contain only current members. So who knows.

The person who wrote the article mentioning that both were Mensans expressed surprise that people who were supposed to be so smart could be so stupid. He/she said, "I prefer to think of bigots and extremists as being less intelligent than myself."

I don't know if von Brunn and Kaczynski were Mensa members or not (although I'm certain Kaczynski would easily have qualified, and von Brunn was a talented artist, see an example of his work here), but I see no contradiction if they were.

IQ tests evaluate one's ability to see patterns, solve puzzles, interpret information, synthesize and extrapolate, and draw conclusions. It doesn't test one's social development, sanity, emotional maturity, or the validity of one's belief system.

It has been my experience that with many Mensans, and most of the card-carrying gungho ones, whatever their individual quirks, beliefs, or interests are, including bigotry or extremism, they tend to go overboard in that direction. Think Trekkies or Furries, with wider interests and no costumes (unless you want to consider ugly T-shirts and mixed plaids a costume).

So, yeah, I don't know that it's true, but I could believe it. I see no conflict.

-----------------------

Photos from my walk:

The village main street. I wanted to show all the huge trees. There are some really nice Victorian and Queen Anne houses, too. Lots of flowers. It's a pretty village. That's not just a village street, actually. It's a main north-south US highway system route. The same route goes past Daughter's house in New Jersey.


This sign was in the hamburger place. It's old, I guess, and it amused me that something from an earlier era was so ripe with innuendo. I wouldn't have expected that. [Update - see comments.]

I blanked out the name of this church. Don't want non-residents rushing in to apply for camp. I guess this is what happens when you leave the sign up past its drop-dead date. (Click to enlarge.)
Speaking of dropping dead, I tried to get a picture of the "two for one" sale sign at the granite cemetery memorials shop down the road, but I guess that sale is over. They were recommending them as Mother's Day gifts.
.

2482 Boy or girl, does it matter?

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Bertrand Russell: "The trouble with the world is that
the stupid are cocksure
and the intelligent are full of doubt."

--------------------------

There's a couple in Sweden who won't tell anyone whether their toddler is a boy or a girl. My take on it is, "Who cares if it's a boy or a girl? At that age, does it matter? I don't think so."

My daughter was born almost bald, and for her first three years she had a fluff of blond fuzz, no more than an inch long. She was very active, and skirts are difficult to creep and then crawl in, so I rarely put a dress on her. She very early formed opinions, and by six months she showed a definite preference for red and blue, and an absolute antipathy toward pink, so she mostly wore red, blue, or green pants and tops and overalls. I made most of her clothes, so they didn't have cute bows or kittens on them.

The end result was that when we were out, most people assumed she was a boy.

And I let them.

It didn't matter.

I didn't try to hide her gender - I just let people meet her and treat her as she was, without a label.

I noticed that people treated her differently if they assumed she was a boy, different from how they treated her when they discovered she was a girl (usually they found out when I used her name - a very obviously feminine name). As a boy, they treated her more actively, louder, more exciting, more movement and external direction. When they discovered she was a girl, they suddenly backed off, got quieter, less active, more internally directed.

She vastly preferred the boy treatment. She'd often try to keep the high activity level going, but the adults would back off and try to slow her down. All of which annoyed me, and her. Why couldn't she be treated as herself, the way she is, active and external? Why did people insist that she conform to an outmoded gender-defined model of behavior? Why are active girls stomped down right from birth, and passive boys forced to direct outward? Why can't they be what they are? (Yeah, I know most girls are passive and internal, and most boys are active and external, but not ALL! And I wonder how many of those who do fit the mold would have if they hadn't been pushed into it?)

So in my opinion, the Swedish couple are trying to allow their child to develop her/his own personality and mode of dealing with the world, free of preconceived notions of how he/she "should" act, or be interacted with, based on a gender label. They want it to come from inside the child, not imposed from outside expectations.

The vast majority of people who commented on the article think the parents are somehow damaging the child.

I applaud the parents. I think they are trying to protect their child from being forced into a mold. (...although I think perhaps they didn't need to be so strict about it that they got all this publicity. Article here).

---------------------------

I often read some of the comments on online articles. The people who comment on AOL articles (as the above story was) are some of the most vitriolic, nasty, rigid, racist, sexist, zenophobic, homophobic, uneducated, unthinking, poisonous, inconsiderate, downright stupid people I have ever come across. Note that I didn't say opinionated. Opinions are ok, even when they disagree with mine. I simply require that they be reasoned opinions, and respectfully expressed.

I have to wonder about the demographics of AOL users. They scare me.

---------------------------

In my opinion, people who stick pink bows on the top of bald baby girls' heads are putting a sign on the child: "Treat me a certain way". They are requesting that others conspire to force passivity on a child who might not otherwise have naturally grown that way. And that's my opinion.
.

2481 Diet, Day 18

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Charles Darwin: "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."

-------------------------

What I ate yesterday:
2 Coffee, coffeemate vanilla sugar free
Diabetic Meal- egg white omelet, spinach, mixed berries
Eskimo Pie, no sugar added
Blueberries, 1c
Banana bread, 5 oz
V8 veggie juice, 8 oz
Celentano eggplant parm, 1/2 pkg.
Water & tea
The usual vitamins and minerals, not included in totals below.

Totals for yesterday:
Calories - 1104 (out of 1153 allowed)
Carbs - 116 (299g allowed)
Sugar - 57g
Fiber - 17g
Fat - 58 (67g allowed)
Protein - 36 (47g allowed)
Cholesterol - 95 (297mg allowed)
Sodium - 1288 (2402mg allowed)

Total weight lost since 6/17:
7.0 pounds
.