3516 A Monday in April

Monday, April 16, 2012

Alan Greenspan, to Congress: I know you believe you understand
what you think I said,
but I am not sure you realize that what you heard
is not what I meant.

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It got into the low 80s F today. I don't know what to think of that.

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The following is lifted from Field (http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2012/04/mole.html). He always has interesting observations, and tidbits I find nowhere else. He's worth a visit (but, as per my previous post, don't read past the first one or two comments. He gets some insane trolls, which is unfortunate, because buried in the dross are some real insights. I wish he'd monitor comments, but, I guess he has a life....)

Finally, I have to have a last word about Flipper and this mommygate controversy.

“I wanted to increase the work requirement,” Romney said. “I said, for instance, that even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that's heartless,' and I said ‘No, no, I'm willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It'll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.’” [Source]

So, in essence, what he is saying is that there is no "dignity" in being a stay at home mother.

Well, actually Romney was talking about welfare mothers, and I think he's implying that there is more dignity in supporting your children yourself than in allowing the government to do it. But the statement was ripe for the same misinterpretation as last week's "never worked a day", but it didn't happen. Nobody from the opposition said anything about his implication that there's no dignity in raising children.

Why?

I don't understand.

By the way, he's accused of "flipping". Why is that bad? I actually prefer people who are willing to change their position based on changing circumstances and new information. I wouldn't want someone in power who is so bullheaded and so convinced that he's right, and so afraid of looking wishy-washy, that he refuses to listen to arguments, won't change his mind.

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I make my oatmeal with water. I don't use any milk with it because mostly I don't have milk in the house because I don't use it up fast enough. But I like milk with oatmeal.

This morning I was eying the instant Irish oatmeal and the low-fat plain yogurt, wondering which to have for breakfast, and I had this great idea!

Yup.

Don't.

The taste and smell is indescribable, having nothing of either oatmeal nor yogurt. Gag-worthy.

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The Nugget is now walking (well, running). No more crawling. Talking is a bit slower. She occasionally says something quite clearly, but one is never quite sure, because she's talking to herself.

She has had a relationship with music since birth. She has lots of toys that play music, and she always dances when she hears music. As an infant, dancing was kicking and waving arms in rhythm. Then it was rocking on her hands and knees, or bouncing while sitting. Now she bounces standing. It's amazing. Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" is a favorite, and when her toy cell phone played it today, when it was over, she very clearly said "Eee-iii-eee-iii-ooo".

She'll be a year old next week.

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I went to the first session of a dance class this evening. I have no flexibility left anywhere! Nothing was working except my wrists. I'm afraid I may have exceeded my capacity - won't know until tomorrow. I took aspirin as soon as I got home to head off swelling around my lower back. We'll see.

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3515 Furthering goals

Sunday, April 15, 2012

"You may throw away what is in the hand, but you cannot throw away what is in the heart."
-- Ovimbuntu proverb --

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How come anyone can be ruthless, but only some people are Ruth?

Actually, the biblical Ruth is considered the model of loving kindness, who acts in a way to promote the well-being of others, so to be ruthless is to have nothing of Ruth. I think it's interesting that there is no Ruth-rooted word for being "ruthful". Seems like it would be a useful word.

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I spend a lot of time thrashing. I read a lot of stuff on the internet, I follow links, then more links. I figure that reading only one version of a story isn't the whole story, so I'll search out other versions of a news item. And then the story takes over my mind. I'm not getting other more important stuff done.

When I read an interesting article somewhere, I then read the comments. I've learned that there are some sites where one should not read the comments. The degree of misinformation, stupidity, meanness, poor writing, poor grammar, sheer nastiness etc. is discouraging, will overwhelm me and will destroy the rest of the day. Don't read the comments on Yahoo news items. Don't read comments on YouTube videos, even quite serious and newsworthy videos. Don't read comments on popular news blogs. Don't read comments on the Huffington site. And if you value your intellect, never read comments on any of the Cheezburger sites.

It is safe to read comments on blogs and articles that attract only a smaller and more aware and educated subset of the public, like Lifehacker, the Wall Street Journal, the WSJ law blog, political news sites outside the US, and some others.

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I commented on one of the smaller opinion blogs recently, that I couldn't understand why Zimmerman was charged with 2nd degree murder, since that requires a much higher standard of proof than manslaughter, and that I suspected that it was a political move.

I got a response from an anonymous commenter from Texas, who 'sounded' like an attorney, who said I was very perceptive. He/she also suspected that it was a political move. Charging him with murder 2 got the press and mobs off the backs of the state, prosecutor's office, and the police. No matter what happens now, the pressure is on the courts and, if it gets that far, on the jury, and there's virtually nothing the courts or jury can do that will satisfy everyone.

The "very perceptive" felt nice.

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I came across something the other day that is one of those things we know deep inside, instinctively, but need to see in words before it comes to the forefront of our minds. It was in an article on how to succeed in whatever you are doing, and really, the whole secret nets out to one very simple directive (found at the very end of the article, of course):

Don't do anything that doesn't further your goals.

Wow. I hadn't noticed I'd been trapped in a pattern of reading and following trails of ideas, which, although interesting, had nothing to do with my current goals of getting out of the upriver house and settled in this house. I had forgotten my goals. (Note that this is related to but not the same as setting priorities.)

In general, it means that if you have a goal, and you find yourself spending time trapped in activities that do not further that goal, fix it. Examples range from busywork in the office or work that does not move you along your career path, to practicing scales and unchallenging pieces on the piano for hours when your goal is to succeed at challenging pieces.

So, new pattern of activity.
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3514 Probable Cause

April 12, 2012

There are two kinds of people: those who can extrapolate from incomplete data,

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The probable cause document filed charging George Zimmerman has been released, at http://www.scribd.com/doc/89120165/Zimmerman-Probable-Cause-Document-2.

A profile of the judge who drew the case is at http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/04/12/meet-the-judge-who-drew-george-zimmermans-case/?mod=WSJBlog.
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3513 Oh come on!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Help someone who is in trouble, and they will remember you
when they are in trouble again.

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(Hmmmm. Is that green quote a repeat?) ((Yeah, multiple posts today, and I'm supposed to be loading the van.))

Some political strategist is in hot water today for denigrating Mrs. Romney's opinions on the concerns of women, saying that Mrs. Romney "hasn't worked a day in her life".

Much uproar, mostly of the "Stay-at-home mothering and housewivery IS work, hard work! How dare she!" variety.

Very annoying. Again, people are missing the point and flying off the handle based on a few buzzwords.

Give me a break!

Yeah, the woman said "hasn't worked a day in her life" so what can she know about women's concerns. She had a point, but she said it wrong! What she MEANT was that Mrs. Romney has never HAD TO, has never been FORCED TO, work OUTSIDE THE HOME TO SUPPORT A FAMILY, in her life. A hell of a lot of women don't have that choice. So what could Mrs. Romney know of the hardships faced by those women? That's what was meant. (My own thought - Mrs. Romney doesn't have to worry about losing her job if she gets pregnant or can't find reliable childcare, for example.)

That's a far far cry from Santorum calling the president "that nig... uh person", or Limbaugh calling a woman testifying before a congressional committee a slut. There was no mistaking what they meant.

Stupid emotional people, please THINK! For once! It's really not that hard!

My desk has a forehead-shaped dent in it.
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3512 A generation under house arrest.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Stuff I wondered about this morning:
Why is "deer" both singular and plural, but "series" is singular?
Does "descent" imply that people on mountaintops have an odor?
If something is more distant than far, it’s farther. Why not farrer? Where did the “th” come from?
And if you push my patience too far, then you went further. “Fur”? Where did the “u” come from?
-- Silk --

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I read "FreeRangeKids.wordpress.com". It's a movement to let kids be kids, to play, wander, and learn on their own. Somehow we've got the idea that kids are in danger everywhere, all the time. All over the US, kids aren't allowed to walk to or from school or the bus stop on their own. They can't play with friends in a park without an adult present. Let your 12-year-old walk to the local deli, and you could be charged with child endangerment and lose your kids. Something has gone very wrong.

Now, read this.

A 17-year-old can't walk down the street to a neighbor's house in full daylight without a parental escort? What?

The way things are going, I could see this becoming the rule everywhere. (And it has nothing to do with Travon. Read the article.)
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3511 Don't read this

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Help someone who is in trouble, and they will remember you
when they are in trouble again.

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I'm serious - don't bother.

This is a sample of comments I found on an article about how lazy thinking leads to conservative views. I want to save them. In the blog is the easiest way. Draw no conclusions about my views from my saving these comments - it has more to do with an ongoing discussion in another forum. Most of the people who wrote the comments did so anonymously, so I feel no need to attribute them, and I don't and won't claim them as my own.

I advise hitting "Back" now.

If you decide to go further, understand that most of the commenters misunderstood what the conclusion of the (poorly done) study was, as the first commenter below notes. The study said that lazy/shallow/low-level thinking leads to conservative responses. It did NOT say that conservatives are lazy thinkers.

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Keep in mind, Dr. Eidelman said the correlation was between low-level thought and the expression of conservative positions. It was not that conservatives use low-level thought. To have any validity, the study would need to include a random sampling of people with differing political opinions, including liberals, independents, and conservatives. If this is true, the study reveals that when people, including liberals, are asked for prompt response, they default to conservative viewpoints. So, to the liberals in this virtual room who are reading this story with glee, your fellow liberals defaulted to conservative viewpoints when asked for a prompt response. So, another title for this article could be "Study Shows Liberals Under Stress Switch to Conservative Viewpoints."

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It's also funny how conservatives are continuously bashing liberals for welfare policies, when the conservative red states are nearly all on net "welfare" from the federal gov't - that is they receive far more in federal spending than they contribute to the federal budget. So they're being carried by the blue state, godless, pot-smoking, same sex couples that they despise. Isn't that cute?

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I see conservatives parroting whatever the media tells them far more often than progressives. This agrees with what the study says. Progressives have a vision for what they would like the future to be; that takes alot of thought to envision a good future.
What have the conservatives contributed to this country other than blocking any and all bills, holding up progress and polluting the environment?

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Conservatives tend to think of themselves, the individual, first and foremost, which is pretty easy to do. We are, by nature, selfish and greedy creatures. Liberals tend to think of the community and its components first and foremost, which is a more complicated task. It requires the thoughtful consideration of a multitude of people, including those whose cultural, ethnic, racial, financial, and religious backgrounds do not match up with one's own. It's not at all shocking nor is it necessarily insulting to find conservative beliefs require low-effort thought.

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of course wingnuts will rail against this 'study' but then again wingnuts don't believe anything that is a result of study--climate change, evolution....but if these conclusions had come, say, in the form of a message whispered to someone like pat robertson from god, well then that would make it believable...

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"Conservative thinking is just common sense."
So you think that taking away fundamental rights for women is "common sense". Glad I don't have your kind of common sense. Now, can you explain all the hate that conservatives spew?

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Conservative common sense positions:
1) Ban gay marriage
2) Ban abortion under all circumstances
3) Discourage use of contraception
4) Pass anti-voting fraud laws when evidence suggests voting fraud is not occurring
5) Intelligent design (no more needs to be said)
6) Bombing other countries makes them love us
7) Other countries hate us for our freedom (refer to point #6)
8) Trickle down economics
9) Public healthcare is a communist, socialist, new-world order plot to introduce death panels!
10) Conservative principles make sense

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Before I even read this, I was thinking today that if Obama were to take offensive military action against Iran's nukular facilities (a hypothetical), I promise you that the GOP will cry "He's doing it because of the election". Meanwhile, they've been bashing him for being weak on Iran. It really doesn't take much thinking on the part of conservatives to oppose everything Obama does even if it's what they called for. Remember Libya. He shouldn't go in. He didn't go in soon enough.

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This could be the function of ubiquitous right wing propaganda that saturates the landscape. People parrot what they hear all the time when they don't think about it.

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I think we do need studies such as these. The fact that we research and back up our claims is what differentiates us as critical thinkers. Cons regularly seem go from the gut and cannot be bothered to think things out....or research matters to help their case.
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3510 Taxes

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects.

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On Monday, The Angel sent me drafts of my federal and state tax 1040s for approval. Yesterday I spent some time in Piper's office going over some questions I had, including a 45-minute phone call to The Angel, who was not at his office in Fishkill at the time, but in Manhattan. I was amazed that even though he didn't have access to my files there, The Angel was still able to remember actual numbers from my 1040s.

There is news that is either very good or is going to get me audited, and some bad news.

The bad news is that my total income for 2010 was $20,000 less than it was for 2009 and for every year of the decade before.

The "eh" news is that I paid about $14,000 in real estate taxes in 2010 for the two houses, and it's all deductible. Bad in one way, good in another.

The good news is that for the first time since I retired and started paying quarterly estimated tax, I'll be getting a refund. Over the past year, I paid the same estimated tax as the year before, but with the lower income (all those lost dividends from the stock I sold to buy the house and car) and the higher deductions, my taxable income is TINY! I mean below the poverty line. So low my bracket is like 5-6%. My tax due is about 1/5 what it had been in prior years. So I grossly overpaid estimated tax, and I'm getting a huge refund from both the federal and state.

If the IRS compares the previous years to 2011, That might be a red flag. I've checked all the numbers and the math, and it's all correct, but a drop like that is logically unbelievable, not to mention emotionally upsetting.

Another bit of good news is that NJ doesn't tax social security income, so I end up paying LESS income tax for the year than for a normal weekly grocery store trip. Another relatively large refund.

Then The Angel did something I don't understand. 2012's income and deductions are likely to be pretty much the same as 2011's (I can guarantee that the old house won't be sold this year), so my total tax for this year is likely to be the same. He applied part of my refund toward 2012's tax, a prepayment, so I won't have to pay quarterly estimated tax this year, which is nice, because that's always a budgeting nightmare and a scramble (although I'd rather invest that money instead of letting the government sit on it and lose the interest, but it's not a huge amount, so eh.)

These aren't the real numbers, but let's say I paid $6K over the year in estimated taxes, and my tax due for 2011 was a hair over $1K, giving me a refund of almost $5K (whoop!). The tax due for 2012 is likely to also be about $1K.

So why on earth did he put almost $4K toward my 2012 federal tax, leaving me a cash refund of 1K? And a similar proportion to the state? He's sending them each enough for two year's worth of taxes. Duh?

Uh uh. Squash that right now. Don't give them more up front than the absolute least.

When the money arrives, I get to pay the credit cards down, and pay the Hairless Hunk for his winter's caretaker work. Whoop whoop.

But it's not enough to afford landscaping or painting at the new house yet.
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3509 Gingrich's money management skills

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson --

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Oh good grief! The random (honest - they're set up weeks ahead!) green quote sort of fits again.

Anyhow, Newt Gingrich wants us to believe he can oversee our budget.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports Gingrich's $500 check to pay the filing fee to get on the Utah primary ballot has bounced. [Link]

His campaign is about $4.5 million in debt. [Link]

His health-care think tank has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to federal court filings, shuttering the most profitable of his former enterprises and potentially putting a big piece of his net worth in jeopardy. [Link]

Duh?
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3508 Zimmerman Charged!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

It is better to be wanted by the police than not wanted at all.

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Just watched the announcement on TV. Second degree murder! Wow! I was expecting an accidental manslaughter determination. The prosecutor didn't mention secondary charges, which means if a jury won't go for 2nd degree, he'll get off. Hmmmm.

(Again, the completely random green quote at the top looks non-random.)
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3507 Are they forgetting me?

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

We can never predict the outcome of our actions, which is why every action must be acceptable in itself,
and not as part of a stratagem.

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Just announced, Santorum dropping out, leaving field open for Romney, whose campaign "can now do what they've wanted to do all along, instead of concentrating on other candidates they can concentrate on Obama."

I frowned hearing that. I never wanted them to concentrate on each other. I don't want anyone to concentrate on the other folks running.

I want them to concentrate on ME!

Instead of making the other folks look bad, try making me feel good.
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3506 HOTW - Mike Woods

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Anyone can be smart, just as anyone can be stupid. It just depends on
what you are doing at the time.

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Haven't done a Honey of the Week in ages. Haven't seen anyone new who stunned me - until this morning. The local Fox station was on in the background, and I glanced up and saw a guy in bathing trunks standing next to a pool, and my jaw dropped. Yowza!

Mike Woods is the weekend meteorologist and “Good Day New York” feature reporter for the NYC Fox channel. This is one of the very few HOTWs that I have elected based on appearance alone. All the previous guys I had watched in various roles, got to superficially "know", liked the way they moved, liked their voice, blah blah. This HOTW has the posture I like, the easy smile, the open eyes, the big arms, the narrow hips and tight high round behind I like - this HOTW is totally appearance. He sure is easy to look at.
I don't want to know any more. It might spoil it.

I may have to start watching Fox.
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3505 Amuse, Annoy

Monday, April 9, 2012

To know and not to do is not to know.
-- Wang Yang Ming --

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Wow. Ten days since my last post. I'm really slowing down here. No reason, just lazy, I think.

Things that have amused me:

An envelope arrived in the mail today with "SECURED DOCUMENT", "OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE", and "PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL" in bold emblazoned across the front, above and below the address printed inside the gray block designed to prevent peeking through the envelope, between the tear strips designed to prevent opening and resealing the envelope. Super important looking. Addressed to [my name] or current resident.

I figure it's actually for the house, not me, so I won't open it.

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Remember the "Nova" automobile, and how it generated laughs because in Spanish, it means "No Go"? Well, there's a line of haircare products named "Wen". I guess whoever named it doesn't know what a wen is.

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Today I overhead someone telling another person to calm down and shut up. She said, "Turn your off button on."

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I found this chart showing the relative depth of lakes and ocean trenches, and how deep various animals and submersibles can go: http://xkcd.com/1040/. Click on the chart to enlarge it so you can read the labels. I am amazed that sperm whales and turtles need to breathe air, so how can they go so deep? They must come up fast!

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If you ever get tired of watching tv or movies, check out Sylvester the talking cat, and his housemates Gibson the kitten and Shelby the lab. It's a series of videos made by Steve Cash. I don't know how he does it, but it works. There is a storyline, so you have to watch them in order. Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjZrUn03kXI&list=PLF72C3E0A45E3093C&feature=plcp&context=C4a675a8FDvjVQa1PpcFOUgM8mImL-ITjxBDHZRFQyhuzGn_csuKo= will get you the playlist. Just let it go and they'll play in order.

At one point, Steve asks Sylvester to teach the kitten to talk. Sylvester teaches Gibson only two words: "Help!" and "Todd". Steve wonders who Todd is, it's driving him crazy, but Sylvester won't tell him. Warning - Sylvester swears a lot, to the point where Shelby the lab starts to think "Bitch" is her (Shelby's) name.

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I read this headline, "Giant, feathered dinosaur remains discovered in China", and for many moments I thought, "Well of course. When you discover something, it does tend to remain discovered."

Told ya I tend to read literally.

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This video is for The Queen. My sister sent the link to me.


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I took statistics courses three, maybe four, times, and I still don't understand it. Makes no sense to me. I always thought the course should have been titled "How To Make Any Set of Numbers Mean Anything You Want Them To". However, I still know the difference between correlation and causation. So statements in "news" articles like "Another reason to floss every day: New York University researchers found that people who floss infrequently are three times more likely to develop stomach cancer" make my head hurt.

And I bet people who wear baggy shorts are three times more likely to get the ball through the hoop than are people who wear argyle socks.

The latest perversion was today, when I heard that the autism rate is rising, and the number of women who are overweight when they are pregnant is rising, therefore obesity during pregnancy causes autism.

Duh? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. That is an extremely loose correlation, not evidence of causation. "Helicopter parenting" is on the rise too, so is that also a cause?

It might make more sense if they tracked the children of women of various weights, and then they'd have to look at other factors common to women in various weight groups. I hate when sloppy "scientists" make things sound so simple.

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Like Girl Scout cookies? Check out this: http://lifehacker.com/5898791/get-your-girl-scout-cookie-fix-all-year-round-with-these-grocery-store-equivalents.

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Explore! Go to http://maps.google.com/, and search for "Ulan Bator, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia", and then click on the satellite view. Fascinating, eh? The main drag is Ghengis Khan Avenue, N-S. Note that many of the homes are walled, and have some kind of round structure in the yard. I'm wondering if they are yurts, or water tanks.

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I signed up for the local township government newsletter email. Stuff like board meeting minutes, activities, news, police blotters, and so on. The top part has either a link to a topic or a short announcement, followed by boilerplate.

Received last month:
Top part - NOTICE TO ALL RESIDENTS - [xxxx] Township Water Department will discontinue service for unpaid utility bills as of March 5th, 2012.

Boilerplate - We hope you enjoy this Township e-Bulletin for residents.

I laughed.

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I'm literal, remember? You really don't want to know the mental image I get when someone (using the wrong word!) describes something as "heart rendering".
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3504 This kind of crap really jerks my chain

Friday, March 30, 2012

Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for good reason.

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From http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/30/the-am-roundup-roberts-crucible-doctoring-supreme-court-audio-more/?mod=WSJBlog


Evidence tampering: A Republican Party advertisement on the president’s health-care law uses doctored audio from the arguments earlier this week to make Solicitor General Donald Verrilli look bad, according to Bloomberg.

A spot circulated yesterday excerpts the opening seconds of the March 27 argument in which Verrilli is heard struggling for words and twice stopping to drink water. “Obamacare,” the ad concludes. “It’s a tough sell.”

According to Bloomberg,

A review of a transcript and recordings of those moments shows that Verrilli took a sip of water just once, paused for a much briefer period, and completed his thought, rather than stuttering and trailing off as heard in the doctored version.

What kind of idiots .... ?
... and some people continue to believe ...
Sigh. I give up.
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3503 Martin/Zimmerman - my take

Friday, March 30, 2012

Bumper stickers are a yapping dog.

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Everyone not under a rock knows about the Travon Martin/George Zimmerman controversy.

Both "sides" have their own theories, and in the spirit of today's political examples are trying to paint the other person as scum.

I have my own theories, based on the simple facts.

Facts aren't easy to come by. Zimmerman has been described as the neighborhood watch captain. Other sources describe him as a vigilante who appointed himself to the supposed position. The photo that's on every website shows him as pudgy. The police video of his arrival at the police station shows him as trim and muscular. It has been reported that the police report says that he had a cut on the back of his head that would have required stitches, and a broken nose. The police video shows him uninjured and with no blood on his clothing, and he did not go to the hospital. The photo everywhere of Martin shows him looking small, and sweet. Actually, that photo is several years old, and now he was much taller and filled out more.

Several things we do know for sure. Zimmerman had a gun. He called 911 and was advised not to follow the kid. Zimmerman was white, Martin was black, and it was a mostly white neighborhood. If racism entered the picture anywhere (and friends of Zimmerman claim he was not racist) it was significant that Martin didn't know if Zimmerman was racist or not. That's key. Anyone looking at this has to understand that. A white person might be able to understand how nervous they'd feel walking in, say, South Philadelphia after dark. Well, a lot of black people feel the same way about threatening-looking whites, and that's everywhere, all the time. You never know when some racist thug is going to pick a fight, just because they don't want you in their area. Having the wrong skin color is like wearing the wrong color in a gang area.

We also know that Zimmerman continued to follow Martin in his car. Slowly. It's dark. That would scare anyone. We believed it scared Martin because he called his girlfriend, and she said she told him to run.

Fact - Zimmerman got out of his car and confronted Martin. We don't know why.

We don't know what was said, or who did what. Martin can't give his side of the story. Zimmerman said that Martin attacked him, knocked him to the ground, bashed his head against the concrete, and tried to take his gun, and so he shot him in self defense, which is legal under Florida's "stand your ground law" (which I'm sure Zimmerman knew all about). Then the story changed, and now Zimmerman claims he didn't pull the trigger, that Martin pulled the trigger while they were struggling for the gun, so forget self defense or manslaughter, he didn't even kill him. Ta-rah.

(Consider how difficult it is to pull a trigger with the gun pointed at your own chest. Yeah, it happens on soap operas all the time, but that's fiction.)

Other people said they heard someone yelling "Help", then the shot. Some people think it was Martin yelling for help. Zimmerman says it was he himself. Who knows.

There are a few things I do know.

If Zimmerman hadn't followed Martin after being advised not to, thereby scaring the kid, it wouldn't have happened. Period.

If Zimmerman hadn't gotten out of the car and confronted the kid, it wouldn't have happened. Period. And I would not be surprised if Zimmerman's lawyer hadn't pointed out that his having been the aggressor sorta negates the "stand your ground" argument, since if anyone had the right to stand his ground, it was Martin. Zimmerman had complained in the 911 call that "They always get away". So I can't help but wonder why he got out of the car. To keep the kid from getting away? And how did he intend to accomplish that?

If Zimmerman hadn't gotten so close to the kid that he could be pushed to the ground, he wouldn't have been pushed to the ground, assuming he was, and it wouldn't have happened. Is it possible that Zimmerman displayed the gun, thinking that made him all-powerful? How else did Martin know there was a gun, to try to take it away from him? As to Martin, if you were wearing the wrong colors in a gang neighborhood, and were confronted by a guy with a gun, running or surrendering could get you shot in the back. He didn't know for sure what Zimmerman's intent was. If you're scared witless, the first thing you'd think of is to knock the guy down and get the gun - THEN run.

It doesn't matter at all whose finger was on the trigger when the gun went off. If Zimmerman had not displayed the weapon, it wouldn't have happened. Period.

If the gun had gone off during a struggle for the gun, then the two would have been close together. Zimmerman (now, since the story changed) claims he was on the ground with Martin over him, struggling for the gun. Got the picture? So why wasn't any of Martin's blood on Zimmerman?

The above is all fact, even given that facts in this case are hard to get.

In my opinion, Zimmerman set it all up playing cowboy. It was entirely his fault. I suspect that HE shot the kid in a moment of panic, and then later realized how wrong he was. Or that the kid pulled on the gun and Zimmerman, whose finger was on the trigger, reflexively tightened his grip, firing the bullet.

Whatever. He is entirely at fault, he killed the kid. Period. If it was accidental, then it's manslaughter, at least. But only the actual pulling of the trigger was accidental. He set it up for the trigger to be pulled. "Stand your ground", as stupid as that law is, doesn't apply here. Zimmerman was the aggressor. Under "stand your ground", Martin had a right to kill Zimmerman, not the other way around.

None of this would have happened if Zimmerman hadn't acted like a macho asshole and invaded Martin's space.

Everything else is misdirection and blather.
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3502 Blogger Comment Errors

Friday, March 30, 2012

Nature is never wrong.

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

Blogger is throwing "bX-cy0oum" errors when people try to leave comments on Blogspot blogs. They know about it and I assume they're working on it. I'd hate to lose comments because of errors. I do want to "hear" what you have to say. So if you try to comment and can't, please come back later and try again.

Becs, I've been trying to leave a comment on your "not a vegan" post. Here it is:

You know you're not allowed to have a preference that others don't agree with. They'll give you an argument. You have to be forced into choices by something you can't control.

Lie. Tell people that meat causes severe digestion problems, like and painful acid reflux, or nasty flatulence. Act embarrassed by the whole thing. They can't argue with that. In fact, you'll get pity.

3501 Habits

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

One of the saddest things to happen was the optioning of morality by religion.

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

This is SO useful! (From www.xkcd.com - go there. They're fun.)

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

I've mentioned before that I don't form habits easily. I don't have a set sequence in the morning, for example, not even when I was working. Without habits and routines, we can easily forget important things. Like, sometimes before I leave the house, I have to feel my toothbrush to know whether I'd brushed my teeth yet. I have to keep careful notes as to whether bills have been paid, since I don't have a set time or routine for paying them.

Jay was very bound by habit. He'd actually get anxious if a set habitual routine was disrupted.

I do have a few habits:

• I always always turn off the stove burner before lifting a pot off the burner. It's such an ingrained habit that I don't even think about it when I do it.
• I often fall asleep with a pencil in my hand. When I wake up in the morning, the pencil will be tightly gripped in my fist. When I fell asleep, the pencil would have been in writing position, so at some point I had to have shifted it to a fist grip.
• I never lock any door - house, car, hotel room - with an empty hand. If I don't have something in that hand, I literally can't lock the door. What's supposed to be in the hand is of course the key, so I can't lock myself out, but occasionally it happens to be the WRONG key, or not even a key. Oops. I don't seem to have added "check that's it's a key, and the right key" to the habit.
• Because I don't seem to have routines, I depend on To Do lists. An unfortunate habit is that if there's something on that list of very high priority that I don't feel like doing, nothing else on the list gets done, either! I wish I could train me to do something else. I think I'm untrainable. Wild feral me.

Do you live by habits? Do you have any odd ones?
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3500 Transplants - my take

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

A man's perception is his reality. The easiest way to change your reality is to change your perception.

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

This is my understanding:

There are designated transplant facilities, some specializing in particular organs. Every state has at least one, some better than others, many associated with universities, or there's one just over the state line. (No, your local community hospital is unlikely to be a transplant center.)

Lists of people who need transplants are kept by the transplant centers. They examine and test you for suitability and if you are approved by their board, you are put on the list for that center and that state, and it expands outward by distance, so you are also on the national list.

Organs are are doled out within the state of origin (where the donor died) first, going to the nearest transplant center, then to other centers in the state, then within the region, then it spreads out nationally. So if you are on the list in Pennsylvania, you'll get first dibs on organs in Pennsylvania. You'd get one from Virginia only if there was no match in Virginia.

In other words, one major factor in your priority on the lists is location.

Some states tend to have more patients on wait lists than organ donors. Other states have more donors than patients on the waiting lists. Since each center wants to do their own testing and records review, the more money you have, the more centers' lists you can go on. It's to your advantage to find the states where donors outnumber patients, and get approved by a center in that state, and to get on as many centers' lists as possible. Obviously, it is best to be on lists at centers all over the US.

In order to actually GET the organ, you have to be able to get to the center within X hours of notification. That's why people who need an organ will actually move to the city with the transplant center to wait. When a match is found, the best and neediest match who is on the center's list AND shows up at the door soonest gets it. Having access to a private jet to get to centers in far-flung states makes that a lot more feasible.

And that's why rich people get organs before poor people. They have been approved by more centers, are on more centers' lists, and they can get to the centers quickest.

(Um, also, they can positively or negatively affect the center's fundraising, but, um, we won't mention that.)

When a very wealthy person doesn't get an organ in time, it's frequently because either they didn't make the effort, or they have a rare genetic makeup.

Re the age cutoff being based on overall health - Cheney has a VERY bad health record. It's a miracle that he's made it this far. Perhaps the age of the heart he was given (60?) was a factor. You don't put a brand new motor in a 15-year-old junker, nor a 200K-mile motor in a 2-year-old car.
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3499 The Road - my take

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
-- Ghandi --

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

This is copied from my blog post of 01/08/10:

In other movie news, my Meetup group saw "The Road" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_%28film%29) Wednesday evening. One of the attendees (R.) was a fan of Cormac McCarthy, the author of the novel, had read the novel, and was able to explain some of the symbolism and meaning that otherwise might have escaped us. Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry on the movie skims over the meaning, too.

I did notice that even though the father keeps saying that they are "the good guys", he is descending into immorality himself, and that the son was of an age when he would not only learn from the actions of his father, but would strive to take those teachings to a greater level to impress the father - and yet the kid remains good and pulls the father back from depravity. I noticed that, but I didn't know why, and R. explained it.

Odd that I didn't write the explanation then. I did later read the book, and it's also odd that I didn't comment further then.

The major character in the book and the main symbol is neither the father nor the son, but the road. The journey. It is neither from nor to, but simply a journey. A context. Although it is lifeless, it is life, and it is what we have made of it.

The son is the second messiah. "The fire".

I found a New York Times review of the book just this morning, and it explains it all much better than I could (but not half as well as R. did). If you are familiar with the book I urge you to read this review. It won't hurt and might help you to deal with leftover emotions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/books/review/Kennedy.t.html?pagewanted=all

The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006. (Not that that means a whole lot. Most Pulitzer Prize-winning novels are unreadable.)
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3498 Pronunciation

Monday, March 26, 2012

When the elephants dance, the mice get trampled.

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

Ever wonder how to pronounce a particular word? Especially if it's a different language?

Try http://www.forvo.com/languages/, or for just English, try http://www.howjsay.com/.

I understand Google, Google Chrome, and Wikipedia all have spoken pronunciation guides, too, but I don't know how to get to them. Comment if you know.

If it's one of those esoteric fictional words, or a proper name, you might be able to find it on YouTube.com.
- go to YouTube.com
- at the top, search for (for example) "ahmadinejad, cc", where the ", cc" says you want closed captions
- this will get you a list of all captioned videos whose titles or descriptions contain that word
- select one to view. If it's short, you can just listen to it
- if it's long, you can go directly to the word:
-- under the video you will see what looks like a page with a highlighted line
-- click on that icon
-- this gives you a printed transcript
-- look for the word you want, click on that line, and the video will go directly to that line.

Captioning on YouTube videos can sometimes be unintentionally hilarious, especially if it was machine generated. In the example above, in the CC transcript for the first video I tried for "ahmadinejad", it was transcribed as "on the teenager". So sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes the speaker is full of crap and pronounces it incorrectly. It's a crap shoot.

3497 Shock

Monday, March 26, 2012

Denis Johnson, "The Small Boy's Unit", Harper's, Oct. 2000, on the meaning of "everything is arranged" in Africa: Everything is arranged doesn't mean you should expect to get anywhere or accomplish anything. In fact for sanity's sake these two ideas have to be banished. Everything is arranged means that all is complete, the great plan of the universe is unfolding before our eyes.
So eat, drink, sleep. Everything is arranged.

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

I have widgets on my laptop desktop that show the outside temperature at both houses, and although all winter it's been 8-15 degrees warmer at the new NJ house, for the past two weeks it's been 5-10 degrees warmer at the old NY house, 140 miles north. In fact, Thursday of last week it was in the 70s. Weird.

I'm now at the old house upriver.

When I left NJ this afternoon to drive up, I was wearing a pink sweatshirt-like hoody over a silk/cotton turtleneck, and I forgot to grab a jacket to take along for just in case. I remembered it when I was on the road, but shrugged and figured I wouldn't need it.

Yeah, sure.

They are predicting 22 degrees F here overnight tonight, and it won't be much warmer tomorrow. Luckily there are a few ratty old coats and jackets in the hall closet. If they're not too full of moths and mice, I guess I'll have to find one for tomorrow.
.

3496 Yeah, sure.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible.
-- Javier Pascual Salcedo --

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

Dick Cheney got a heart transplant, at age 71, after only 20 months on the wait list. Authorities insist that there was no favoritism.

You know, the rest of us simply don't believe that. We might be more inclined to believe that rich and famous people don't get organs faster, don't jump the line, if once, just once, somebody rich or famous died while waiting for an organ.

There are thousands of ordinary people every year who die waiting for livers, kidneys, lungs, hearts. If it's really fair, at least one of them had to be rich or famous.

Anybody know of any?

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

If you're here for info on how transplant lists work, see the comments, especially my second (long) one.   When I originally wrote this, I assumed everyone knew how the lists work and why rich people don't wait, but it became obvious from the other comments that they didn't.  So I explained it.  Read the comments.
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3495 Firefighting

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Jean-Pierre Deriaud, on French laws: It is forbidden, but possible.

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

I've been watching videos on YouTube of fire departments in action. Many are from helmet cameras, and several include entering the burning structure. Pretty interesting. (Search for "fire cam helmet" in YouTube.)

I had volunteered with the completely volunteer fire company in the little village upriver. I was an EMT on the rescue squad. The company got some money from the village and the township, but most of the budget came from donations and fundraisers. Watching these "professional" company videos, I am amazed at the equipment and procedures we had. We were pretty damn impressive!

In the video clips, when they need an ambulance, they have to call for one. Our ambulance and EMTs went to fires. We were immediately ready for injuries. Even the EMTs were in full turnout gear for fires (and for motor vehicles accidents) - you know, the helmets, liners, shields, overalls and jackets, gloves, and boots. EMTs weren't allowed close to the actual fire, weren't trained for it, but we had other duties.

In most of the videos, the firefighters seem to be in charge of their own SCBA (the air tanks). In our company, the EMTs checked the pressures before they were distributed, filled them, handed them out, and checked the masks.

Each of our firefighters had a number shield on the helmet, and a corresponding tag clipped to the jacket. They were not allowed to go into a burning building without permission of the EMTs, and they had to give us the jacket tag, which got hung on a board on hooks. When they came out, the tags were moved from the board and clipped back on the jacket, and the firefighters had to be medically checked and approved by the EMTs and have the tank checked or refilled before they were allowed to go back - after surrendering their tag again.

That way, we knew instantly who was in the building, and since the tags were hung in order, we knew approximately how long they'd been in there. Nobody went missing, and nobody could disappear. If someone had been in too long, we knew exactly who, and could radio or send someone to fetch him or her out.

On these videos, firefighters seem to be running around with nobody paying attention to who went where. If a ceiling fell in, I wonder how long it would take them to realize that Joe is missing.

On the equipment, we had a high power ladder (even though there wasn't a single building in the township over three stories), and a bucket, and powerful stadium-type lights that turned the entire area into daylight. In the videos, these guys are pulling ladders off the truck and leaning them against the eaves, and if it's a night fire it's so dark, the only exterior lights seem to be from the truck headlights and flashing sidelights, and from the fire itself - which makes everything in silhouette and strobing confusion.

Yeah, your equipment is a reflection of your budget. But we were a tiny department in a tiny village. It's not like we were rolling in money. The training is NOT a reflection of the budget, and our guys were well trained with tight procedures in place and enforced. The Chief gets all the credit for that.

I've been reading the critical comments on the videos from other firefighters, and I'm proud that our little group would have passed their inspection.
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3494 Taxes

Sunday, March 25, 2012

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

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

Well, I've finally pulled my tax documents together. It took about six times as long as I thought it would.

I was missing two 1099-DIVs, but I was able to recreate the dividends paid from online info at Google financial. I never got the promised statement of total real estate taxes paid for the NJ house, and I couldn't figure it out because my checks included their screw-ups from 2010, so I had to go to the township tax office and get a statement.

It's shocking. Fully 26% of my disposable income went to real estate taxes on the two houses. Add in what I'd paid in estimated income taxes, and it's over a third that I'd paid on one tax or another. That doesn't include sales taxes, or what I still might owe on income tax (I usually owe more, never get a refund).

Sheesh.
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3493 Early bird

Thursday, March 22, 2012

If you want to be seen, stand up.
If you want to be heard, speak up.
If you want to be appreciated, shut up.

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

Prior to moving here, for the past nine years or so I had gone to bed after the evening news, somewhere between 11:30 pm and midnight, read or worked some puzzles or watched TV in bed, and fell asleep an hour or two later. I'd wake after 9 am, sometimes 10 if it had been a good book.

Here, I'm dragging by 9 pm, asleep by 11, and wide awake usually around 6:30 am. I don't use an alarm clock, but it's pretty much the same time every day. It's still dark out.

I didn't understand why. I am not a morning person, so it makes no sense.

Today I woke at 5:30 am to get some aspirin because I had a headache, and now I think I know why the early waking.

At the old house my neighbors were at some distance. Here they're right on top of me.

The guy across the street has a remote car starter. He starts the car at 5:40, and then it sits there running for 15 minutes, with the tail lights flashing red on my bedroom windows. And either it's just a deep-throated car, or he's got a muffler problem. He leaves a hair before 6.

Then at 6:15, the short school bus arrives to pick up my neighbor, who rides that bus to care for the kids who need assistance. The bus turns around in the driveway across the street, and it BEEP BEEP BEEPs when it backs up.

The birds are in full throat by then. There are a lot more birds here than at the old house. The old house was on a ridge above farmland to the west, where they grow corn, wheat, and several kinds of berries, and it's all woods around the house to the south, east, and north. The majority of the birds are in the woods or in the fields, away from the house.

Here, Daughter has two huge white pines in her front yard, with about 12 bird houses (some are bird apartments), there's a small lake behind my house, and at the end of the block there's the bay. Screaming seagulls, honking geese, chirping songbirds. Those damn things are LOUD!

So the idling car pulls me out of deep sleep, the beeping bus pulls me to awareness, and the birds don't let me fall back. By 6:30 I'm fully awake.

I figure the being so tired by 9 or 10 pm is due to early awakening, pollution, and boredom.

I liked my old schedule better.
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3492 Poisoning babies

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.

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

I was just out on the porch and saw a couple walk by with an infant in a carriage. There's a fine mist in the air, so they had the hood on the carriage completely closed over the baby. I wondered why they were taking the baby out at all, with it so enclosed. There's no sun and the baby can't see anything.

Daughter walks the Nugget a lot, saying she wants Nugget to "get fresh air".

Duh! This is New Jersey! There is no fresh air!

I can see taking the kids out for some sun, or to look at interesting things, but for fresh air? Bleck.
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3491 Thimk

Chris Hedges at Wikipedia

3490 Spring

Monday, March 19, 2012

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
-- L. P. Hartley --

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3489 Snarl.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

People do not do things for logical reasons; people find logical reasons
to do things they want, and the more intelligent the people,
the better the reasons they come up with.
-- Harold Nickel, Mensa Bulletin, May 2000 --

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

That guy who murdered all those Afghan people? If a citizen of Afghanistan had gone berzerk in Omaha and done the same thing, would we be satisfied if his other countrymen scooped him up, hid him away, wouldn't allow our police access to him, and took him back to Afghanistan, assuring us that he'd get "a fair trial"?

Hell no. Nobody with dark hair and eyes and an accent, no matter where he's from, would be safe anywhere in the US.

I really think the only way to handle it is to turn him over. I don't understand why our government doesn't understand that.

Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting. Too many Americans think they're better than anyone else, so that would be political suicide.

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

I've reread this sentence a dozen times since I found it in a (professionally written) news article about Ron Paul:

Ron Paul has about as many votes in this year’s GOP primaries as he has Facebook fans – is his fierce online following that much less relevant than it appears?

Huh? I have no idea what that bunch of words says. The "that much less relevant than it appears" makes no sense at all in the context of "about as many votes".

Another article, about the Iditerod musher Janssen who gave his dog, Marshall, CPR when the dog collapsed on the trail:

Marshall snapped back with a sharp breath. He then rode in the sled with Janssen to the next checkpoint, and despite a sled runner that broke along the way, got him to the event veterinarians.

It doesn't parse. Who got who to the vet? According to the reporter, Marshall the dog got Janssen the human to the vet.

And then there was this, on climate change:

There's no such thing as a free lunch, even when it comes to the weather. So while people around the world are celebrating the light winter, which has seen temperatures drop in nearly every state in the U.S., the animal world isn't quite as happy.

The "temperatures drop" was a link to this:

This January and February have been among the warmest on record for many states, which means numerous species of insects that are typically decimated by frigid temperatures will survive to the spring with unusually large populations.

Obviously many professional writers aren't very professional, and there is no such thing as proofreading any more. The reporter wrote exactly the opposite of what he meant to say, and there are many people who would not bother to go to the link for the mental reset. Note also the use of "decimate" in the above. Because so many speakers and writers misuse that word, I no longer know! whether they mean that typically 10% of the insects die, or most of them die. Once upon a time, that word conveyed information. Now it requires interpretation.

It's getting to the point where one has to interpret everything. Nothing necessarily means what the words say. That means that instead of gaining new understanding from the writing, we bring our own prior understanding to it, and the words of others no longer have power to convey ideas.

Pretty soon the educated won't understand anyone any more, and the youth and uneducated will think they understand others, but they don't.

What the hell. Use any word you want to mean anything you want (wasn't that in "Alice in Wonderland"? Was it the Mad Hatter, maybe?) Don't pay any attention to what the subject of a sentence is - then you can deny you said what people heard you say when it becomes inconvenient to have said it. Then every problem is not a matter of what you wrote or said, but a matter of others interpreting it wrongly.

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

Disclaimer - this blog does not have a budget for a proofreader.
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3488 Catching up on medical

Friday, March 16, 2012

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.

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

I was trying to remember when I had the last urine culture, and realized that this journal is where I go to quickly find out when I did what, and I haven't been putting stuff in here.

So, to catch up. In the past month I've had a urine culture (but the doctor doesn't seem to have received the results, and that's why I was trying to remember the date), a blood panel which showed good kidney function and within-limits blood glucose, an abdominal x-ray that shows the same stone in the same position and it hasn't grown, ultrasound of the kidneys which looked good except that it showed mild hydronephrosis on the right and moderate hydronephosis on the left.

Hydronephrosis is kind of like an enlargement or swelling caused by urine having been retained in the kidneys. It's not a very serious thing in itself, but may indicate another problem.

So last Tuesday I had a spiral CT scan of the abdomen, NO contrast, thank you. My next urologist appointment is April 7.

3487 Bucha Bits

Thursday, March 15, 2012

In the history of the arts, “Anonymous” was a woman.

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

We've all seen those tattoos gone wrong. The husband of a friend of mine is a tattoo artist. The only examples of his work I had seen were on his wife. Beautiful stuff, but naturally that may or may not be a true representation of his everyday work, since he had time and incentive.

Yesterday I saw some photos on his Facebook page. I am impressed! I knew he was a true artist in several media - he does wonderful work in metal, for example, and in designing and making incredibly detailed medieval and Japanese warrior armor. I now find he is an artist of the highest caliber in ink, even when the canvas is not his wife.

If you are ever in the Kingston/Woodstock NY area, and you'd been thinking about getting a tattoo, I recommend him highly. He's not only talented, he's a gentleman in every sense of the word. Check him out: http://www.facebook.com/eddempseytattoos - click on "photos" on the left, then on "album II". I am most impressed by photo 119, near the bottom, the shoulder armor. It LOOKS like metal!

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

The TSA says that people 75 and over will no longer have to take off their shoes or endure pat-downs. They figure old folks are a low risk.

Hmmmm. Not any more.....

Say we've got a 27-year-old passionate radical bent on revenge who wants to carry a bomb. Say he's got a 76-year-old grandfather whose wife died three years ago, and who has just been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Hmmmm. We now have incentive to talk to Grampa about a little mission he could spare his grandson from.

Don't get on any planes with old codgers!

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

Check out KhanAcademy.org. Scroll down for a list of topics they have lessons on. They're amazing! Wikipedia has an informative entry on Khan Academy.

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

You've heard of iPhone 4's Siri, the lady who answers your questions. She has a sense of humor. There are many video clips on YouTube wherein people (usually males) ask her questions (the most common being "How much wood can a woodchuck..." etc., for which Siri has several amusing answers). In this clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_SRhnis6f8&feature=fvwrel, Siri learns that Steve Jobs has died. Yeah, it's a faked Siri, but of all the clips I'd seen, this is the funniest.

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

Some guy is suing some theater chain (Google it. I'll wait) because they don't allow you to bring in food or drink, and the prices at the concession stand are like 40 times what you'd pay in a grocery store.

I understand why theaters want to restrict what people bring in. Some folks are ridiculous slobs. They'd bring messy or stinky stuff, three course dinners, get pizza deliveries, throw chicken bones on the floor, spill scalding coffee on the people in front of them, and so on. At least if they control it, the theaters know what to expect.

As to what they charge, it doesn't bother me because I don't buy any of it! I'm not forced to pay their prices. It is not necessary to eat during a movie. Sheesh. The high concession prices keep the ticket price down, and if the folks who think they have to eat want to subsidize the price of my ticket, that's fine with me.

I guess I've been conditioned by my past. All those young folks out there don't remember pay toilets (mostly phased out beginning in the mid-70s). They were everywhere, including stores, restaurants, and bars, and if you had to go you were forced to pay. You had to put coins into the door to get into a stall, and if you were out of change, too bad. Now THAT's a ripoff! (And no, the urinals in the men's room did not require payment. Women bore the brunt of that one.)

Note - I would love to sue theaters for what they sell - not over the prices, though. I'd like to force them to sell only things in packaging that doesn't rattle or crinkle! It's not fair to charge me for a movie I can't hear over fifty guys shaking Junior Mints out of a box.

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

Voters at my old house vote down the school budget year after year. Year after year the school board redoes it, and keeps it to a 7% increase. Voters seem to be happy with 7%. Last week I checked my records. The school tax for the old house is now 150% what it was in 2005. Note that my income has increased by maybe 8% since 2005.
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3486 New York on eBay

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Life is not like a box of chocolates. It’s more like a jar of jalapenos.
What you do today might burn your ass tomorrow.

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

The state of New York has opened a store on eBay to sell surplus stuff, in huge lots. Last week they had a lot consisting of hundreds of ancient desks of various sizes and shapes, another lot of a gazillion mismatched tables, and a couple lots consisting of multiple heavy trucks in each lot, most of which were, uh, "well used" to be polite. There are few photos and scanty descriptions. If you win the bid, you have to go to the fairgrounds in Albany to pay for and and pick the stuff up, and you must take the entire lot.

I don't know who is buying this stuff. I'd love to know what they're doing with it.

There's a lot out there now that they're calling "maintenance items", consisting of
33 - Magazine/Media Racks
1 - 48" x 84" Glass Door and Frame
2 - 36" x 80" Wood Door
1 - 4 Drawer Metal Filing Cabinet
2 - 2 Drawer Metal Filing Cabinets
1 - Prezel Warming Machine (typo? pretzel?)
53 - 16" Street Brooms
20 - Dust Pans
1 - Pallet Ground Glass for Road Repairs
1 - GE Glass Refrigerator Shelf, Model# WR32X1510
28 - Boxes Copy Paper 8 1/2" x 14" - 5000 Sheets Per Box

"Maintenance items?" Huh? Sounds like they started out with the brooms and dustpans, and then just started throwing more junk on the pile. Eight bids on that lot, currently over $200.

Who puts these lots together? The same people who want the doors might also want the cabinets, the rack, and maybe even the warmer. But what on earth would they do with the huge pallet of ground glass? Why would anyone want the refrigerator shelf? And nobody uses legal sized paper any more.

And yet people are bidding on it.

They also have "metal canopy arches" that look interesting. It's a set of two half-circle frames that you'd stretch canvas over. They are photographed in front of some railroad cars, and look large enough to park boxcars under. But in the description, they are described as 30'' Wide x 10'' Deep x 14'' Tall. There are 37 bids on them as of now, with the high bid slightly over $2,000.

I sent them a message asking if they meant FEET, not INCHES. I haven't got a reply yet. I'm tempted to place a nuclear bid of, oh, say, $10,000 to ensure I win them, and then when I arrive to pay and pick them up, refuse to pay on the grounds that they won't fit in the back seat of my car like they said they would. Snork.
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3485 Looking back at Mother

Sunday, March 11, 2012

The rich buy assets. The poor have only expenses.
The middle class buys liabilities they think are assets.
--Robert Kiyosaki --

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

Everybody, when they have a baby, is determined to not make the same mistakes their mother or father made with them. They vow that "I will never" blah blah, whatever they remember from their own childhood as a crime against them.

They are unaware that even as they avoid the old mistakes, they will make new ones of their own.

Especially with the first child, when they are unsure, they begin to realize that they've already made mistakes before the kid is even walking, they begin to realize that it's not as easy as they thought. They realize that parents are human, and there are other parts of life to deal with, other pressures, and they can't always make the right decisions and do the right thing all the time. Other crap interferes. Parents aren't so god-like that they know everything about everything, everything that's going on. The best you can do is try to make the right decisions and actions righter than the wrong ones are wrong.

And then they look back at their own parents, and think "gee, maybe they weren't so bad after all, they did the best they could at the time", and they finally brush off all those little scars to their psyche they'd been carrying around for so long.

I just wish it hadn't taken my daughter 36 years to have her first baby.
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3484 Spoilsport

Sunday, March 11, 2012

It's not enough to come up with a good idea; you have to come up with
the good idea at the right time. Many people with a good idea present it too soon,
before anyone is ready to accept it, and then drop the idea when they meet resistance.
When the world is ready, someone else puts forth the same idea
and gets all the credit.
-- Silk --

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I was the spoilsport at work.

There was a couple, co-workers, who were dating. This was before cell phones, before home computers. We had an intra-company internet, but there was no connection to "*the* internet". We had terminals connected to a mainframe, and company mainframes all over the world were connected to each other, and each person was assigned personal space on huge disk drives in the computer center (a.k.a. virtual disks).

Anyway, these two who were dating had been sending emails to each other, specifying in graphic x-rated detail what they were going to do to each other that evening. They were storing the emails on their virtual disk space on the system disks. I guess neither of them were smart enough to remember that they worked in a community of 250 system programmers, who had written the system they were using.

Someone changed the permissions for their virtual space. Anybody could read their emails. The "how to" was passed from person to person throughout the product area. The contents of the emails was the #1 whispered topic in the cafeteria and behind office doors.

When it finally got around to me, I was horrified. I think that was an absolutely rotten thing to do.

The day I found out, I saw the female of the pair walking past my office, so I called her in and told her something has been going on that she should know about, that it had been going on for some time throughout the product area, and no, I didn't know who started it. Then I linked to her virtual disk and his, and opened hers. I didn't say anything else, just walked out of the office and left her to it.

It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Maybe if I had thought about it longer I'd have been less direct, like hinted to one or both of them that it was easy to grant access to other people's disks, easy to read others' email. But I'm not sure they'd have picked up on the implications.

She was very ashamed. They were married less than two months later. I guess that redeemed her.

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

Another incident cost me a friend.

Mark (not his real name) was one of about seven of us who were hired together (for me it was a re-hire) and we hung out together, bar after work once a week, hikes on the weekends, and so on. They were mostly just out of college, so I was 16 or 17 years older than they, but I still fit in. I was a bit more emotionally intimate with most of them because sometimes they saw me as a mother-figure, and came to me for advice. Mark, Linda, and I were especially close.

Linda (not her real name, either) had a crush on Mark, but none of her flirtation was returned.

Mark shared a house with two other guys. Eventually, one of the housemates, Dan, was transferred to a distant plant.

Mark and Dan kept in touch by email.

Thereafter, every time you saw Mark, he had another Dan story to share. Dan said this, Dan thinks that. He thought everything Dan said or did was enormously funny and interesting. He tacked photos of Dan to the bulletin board over his desk, cut out snippets of Dan's emails and tacked them up, decorated it all with ticket stubs and ski lift tickets.

When you went to his office, he'd direct your attention to the latest addition, and tell you the story that went with it.

People started to snicker.

I walked into his office one day, was immediately directed to the latest Dan photo, and suddenly impulsively had enough. That was 25 years or so ago, but I still remember exactly what I said.

"Mark, you have to stop doing this. This (waving at the bulletin board) looks like a shrine to Dan. It looks like something a twelve-year-old girl would do when she has a crush on a rock star. You've got to stop talking about him. People are starting to wonder exactly what the relationship is. I personally don't care, but it's hurting you out there (waving to the hall)."

His face turned dark, he ushered me out of his office, and he never spoke a single word to me ever again!

When he saw me in the hall, he turned his face away from me. He stopped coming to the group social activities if I was there. We worked together, but all communication was through an intermediary. When I transferred to the litigation lab, he was manager of a product area I was heavily involved in, but he never came to a single meeting. He always sent a member of his department to represent him. In later years I'd occasionally see him in the halls when I visited his area for meetings, and I'd always say "Hi, Mark", and he'd always look straight through me, as if I wasn't there.

He was still friendly with the other members of our group, although a bit cool, so I always knew what was going on with him. Once he took the shrine down and stopped talking about Dan, there were no more rumors, no more giggling. As far as any of us know, he never dated anyone local, male or female. I heard Dan had married and had some kids.

I suspect Mark and Dan's relationship was just friendship on Dan's side, and something more intense on Mark's side.

I haven't seen him or heard anything about him since they closed the plant twelve years ago and all our coworkers scattered to the four winds. I often wonder if Mark ever came out of the closet, even to himself.

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

Oh, that last sentence reminds me. Mark bought a house, and like all new homeowners he was excited and gushed about it at lunch. (A lunch spent ignoring me.) Someone asked him, "How many closets does it have?" and he counted up, asked if a pantry counted, answered seriously, and everyone at the table cracked up. I believe he honestly didn't know why they were laughing.
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3483 Plowing

Saturday, March 10, 2012

The meek will inherit the earth when the bold finish destroying it.
(...nothing to do with this post!)
----------------------------------------------------

The Hudson Valley Draft Horse Association will be having their spring plowing event April 28th. I used to go every second or third year. In 2010 I was in Morocco, and last year I had the kidney thing, so it's been four years since I've gone, and I've missed it. Four years ago it was very disappointing. There weren't as many teams, and they didn't seem to have as many events. I'm fussing over whether it's worth a six-hour round trip.

I love hairy-legged draft horses, especially Friesians. I love to see them work; they seem so eager and intelligent. And powerful but gentle.

I love the way there'll be proud young men with perfectly matched prancing teams decorated in gorgeous shined silver and brass, and old men with a team consisting of a old horse and a mule in cracked leather harness, and in the plowing and the pulling contests, the old men and their ragtag teams just lean into it with no fuss and DO IT, blowing everyone else away. I love the way the horses seem to know what to do without guidance. I love the way that when you look at a draft horse, he looks back, and studies you, and seems to form an opinion.

The plowing events are graded on the straightness and evenness of the furrow, and speed will break a tie. The man has both hands on the plow. It's his job to keep it in the ground. The horses/mules know all the rest.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri0f3aIIC34]

This is a Friesian, sex on the hoof!

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBWlOzwfN7k&feature=related]
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3482 My Gay Confusion

Saturday, March 10, 2012

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
-- Henry Kissinger --

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

I sort of understand men who prefer men. I suspect there are a lot of different causes, from gender misassignment at birth, through genetic brain and hormonal cross-wiring, to early emotional trauma or conditioning. Lots of different causes.

"Acting female" is mostly social conditioning. Yes, most little girls are less aggressive, more empathetic, and a bit quieter than most little boys (with a wide range and lots of overlap). There are differences due to wiring. But those differences don't include floppy wrists and whining. Most of the superficial differences between men and women are due to social conditioning and expectations.

Here's the part I don't understand: Why do some gays act in a way that even women find silly? I don't understand gay guys who out-fem women. You know, the floppy wrists and high voice and rolling eyes and frilly clothes. And the bitchiness and shallowness of the worst female cliches. It's an insult to all women that those guys think that's what defines a woman, and an insult to all men if they think that's what men find attractive.

I don't get it at all. It doesn't make any sense to me.

If I were a gay male and wasn't interested in sex change surgery, then it seems like I would want another gay male. But another gay male is likely to be attracted to a male, not a female. So why would I want to act like a female, and an ultra-female cliche' at that? Why would I act like a ten-year-old girl playing movie star, or like a Vegas stripper? And why would another guy who prefers men want a fake woman, and a bad fake at that?

I don't understand. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Maybe I'm projecting my own preference. I like men. And I like my man to be bigger, smarter, faster, and more aggressive than I (and that's not easy). So maybe I think anyone who wants a man would want that, too, at least to some degree.

I know a few gay male couples (and several singles), and of all the couples I know, and all of those I've seen in the grocery store (there were a LOT in the mid-Hudson valley), none of them were floppy-wrist types, and none were likely to parade in feathers and spike heels. They seemed quite happy to be male. They just happened to be attracted to other males. (Note that in the couples, one is usually "softer" than the other, but not so much so that women didn't find him attractive.)

Sigh. Ok, writing about something makes me think, and I've thought about it for the duration of a post, and I still don't get it.
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3481 They are MAD!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Re healthcare: Stupidity is a pre-existing condition.
-- Bill Maher --

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

I just saw a commercial for J.C. Penny that says you can return anything, any time, for any reason, with no receipt!

Holy crap! That means you need buy one season of new clothing, then never buy clothing again! Just return the winter stuff in the spring, and the summer stuff in the fall, repeat, repeat. You'll always have new clothes, always in style, always the right size if you happen to lose or gain weight, for no more than the usual year-to-year increase in price.

JCP is crazy!

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

It reminded me of my one short stint as a suburban housewife in St. Louis in the '70s. I knew a lot of women who considered it normal to go buy new throw pillows, rugs, vases, china, whatever, when they were having a party, and then return it all after the party. I knew one woman who changed her very expensive living room curtains every year, simply by returning them and picking out new. She figured if it was allowed, then she'd be foolish not to do it.

I don't understand.

I still think JCP is nuts, and rather than courting my patronage, they have discouraged it. I figure they're not throwing returned stuff away, that would be prohibitively expensive, it probably goes back on the sales floor, so anything I buy there is USED! ...and I don't know by whom, for what, and whether or not they had lice or roaches or bedbugs.

JCP has gone mad!
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3480 It's so difficult to remain calm.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

He’s got a lot of depth on the surface, but deep down he’s shallow as hell.

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

Man, I'm beginning to wonder about this "random" thing. The green quotes are getting eerie.

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

I have a house phone, came with the cable/internet service, but I never use it (use only the cell phone), have never given out the house phone number. The ringer is turned off, and the recorded message says I don't use this phone, ringer is off, I never answer it, and I rarely check the messages, so there's no point in leaving one. The only people who call that phone are wrong numbers, spammers, and politicians.

Two posts ago I raged at Ex#2. He had emailed me wanting me to call him or send him my phone number so he could call me, and my response was "I hate the phone, use email". (Aside - most minimally aware people would understand that I don't want to give him my number.)

A week ago I changed the outgoing message to shorten it, but it still says "I don't use this phone." Well, today I checked for house phone messages, for the first time in about three months. There were only two messages, both from Ex#2, after I had asked him to use email. He must have found the number online or something. (Daughter doesn't even have this number - no point, since I never answer it!) He obviously heard the recorded message, that I don't answer this phone and rarely check the messages. And yet, he left TWO messages a day apart asking me to call him ASAP.

(If you'd like to hear the message, call area code 732, exchange 566, number 6532. And then tell me what would lead anyone to not only leave an urgent message, but to leave two!)

The idiot hears only what he wants to hear. Any wonder why I don't want to deal with him?
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3479 Soft spots in the concrete

Sunday, March 4, 2012

What doesn't kill us makes us bitter.
-- Chuck Lorre --

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

I'm not too happy about the above green quote turning up on this particular post, but I guess that's what "random" means.

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

Sometimes (ok, often) I wonder if I'm hard. I don't feel sadness about things like people, strangers, killed or injured in fires or tsunamis or tornados or whatever. I do contribute money or material to disaster relief when it will make a difference, to prevent further suffering, but I don't get all weepy about what's done.

However, the baby girl found in a field in Indiana, that hit me. Hard. I don't know why this particular story upset me so much, but it did. I want to DO something, but I don't know what. Like fly to Indiana immediately, and hold her, and adopt her.

Very young children orphaned in disasters do get to me. I would be less upset if they had died.

That boy in Newburgh, NY, who managed to get out of the car when his mother drove off a boat ramp into the Hudson River, killing herself and the boy's siblings, he's not that young, but no child should have to deal with that, so I wanted to swoop in and love him. But I'm not so sad about the rest of his family.

I guess I don't find death as upsetting as life with pain.
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