3175 Is everything just fodder for a status update?

Saturday, November 27, 2010

“The man who thinks he knows does not yet know what knowing is.”
-- Michel de Montaigne --

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

In the past week I came across two items that struck me as strange, but a sign, I guess, of our changing --- what? Priorities? Communication methods? Some kind of social disconnect? Or a changing way of connecting?

It struck me as weird.

Bill Nye the Science Guy collapsed mid-sentence on stage a few days ago while giving a presentation at the University of Southern California, before hundreds of students. He'd been a bit incoherent before collapsing, and it looked for all the world like a stroke. (He's ok now, he was just overtired.)

This part is what got me. He got up, asked how long he was out, and

... continued with the presentation but began slurring his words and stumbled against his laptop, according to Camacho, who said that when Nye first collapsed, students were “texting and updating their Twitter statuses” instead of going to Nye’s aid. [emphasis mine]

That bounced around in my head for a few days. Did it really occur to no one to go up and help him? Did it occur to no one to call 911? And then I found the next one.

A grandfather and grandson were canoeing on the Hudson River, and capsized in Tivoli Bays, in very cold water. The grandson, 17, texted family and friends from the water to tell them what had happened. Others apparently had enough sense to call for rescue.

Why didn't the kid call 911? Was his first instinct to text friends?

Is there a pattern here?

I don't understand.

(And when did "text" become a verb, anyway? That got past me!)
.

3174 Was the metrosexual born of Sally?

Saturday, November 27, 2010

The less capable we are in a job, the more confident we are that we do it well.
The less capable we are of making a decision, the more confident we are of that decision.

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

Almost every guy I've ever talked with in any depth beyond mere superficial acquaintance level over the past 20 years has asked me if I saw "When Harry Met Sally", and when I say no, has gone on to rave about it and urge me to see it sometime. Jay, especially loved it. Of course everyone has seen the "faking it" clip, but if I ask, the guys say no, that's not the part they mean, they mean the whole story.

Even though I hadn't seen it, it didn't strike me as a guy movie. I thought it was more like a girly movie or date night movie, so I didn't understand what these guys thought was so wonderful about it and why I should see it, and they couldn't explain. "Just rent it or something, ok?"

I never did.

So, tonight it was on TV. It was on one of the weaker stations, so I'd miss a word or three now and then, but I got the gist of the story. And you know what? I still don't understand why all those guys thought it was wonderful, why they'd urge me to see it. Yeah, it was a good movie, but not THAT wonderful.

Maybe they were trying to tell me something? Was he him, or was I her, or were we them? Maybe, where Jay was concerned, but I don't think so with the others. Jay and I circled each other as good friends for seven years before making a connection. These other guys? No.

So what is it about "When Harry Met Sally" that strikes a chord with 40 to 60 year old men? What are they taking so strongly from it?

Don't ask a man who hasn't seen it. Ask a man who has seen it. My questioning so far has not produced an answer. Apparently something got in, something they wanted me to have experienced, too, but they can't get it out in words.
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3173 Annoyance, also so easy.

Friday, November 26, 2010

“Life in itself is neither good nor evil, it is the place of good and evil,
according to what you make it.”
-- Michel de Montaigne --

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

Just as it takes little to make me feel satisfied, it seems it takes little to annoy me.

The lady in the next house to the north is very nice. I'd say she's maybe 10 years younger than I. I haven't met the husband yet, but that's ok. Anyway, they have parties, and they decorate extravagantly for every holiday.

Since closing on the house in mid-October, I have been startled several times by the black-robed ghouls hanging in the trees, moving in the breeze, next to my driveway. This week, the ghouls were been replaced by this:

The view from my front porch -

The view from Daughter's porch across the street (that's Daughter's fence in the foreground) -

Several of those things move. And twinkle.

Ouch!
.

3172 Satisfaction, so easy.

Friday, November 26, 2010

"Facts have a notorious liberal bias."
-- Stephen Colbert --

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

I don't know why, but there's something very satisfying about doing laundry in my new washer and dryer. I've been washing every bit of anything washable coming from the old house, partly because I smoked in the old house, but mainly because the old house was infested with clothes moths imported from the middle east a few years ago in some wool camel bags, and I don't want any moths in this house.

Fabric things that aren't washable, like carpets, get vacuumed topside, backside, topside, backside, over and over until nothing comes out.

Yesterday and today I mostly washed pillows. I have something like 12 bed pillows packed away from when Jay was sick and we needed pillows to tuck around him in bed to prevent pressure. I'm washing them one at a time, on the "heavy duty" setting with hot water, double rinse, and maximum extraction (1.5 hours!), and drying on high heat. I'm very pleased with the way they're coming out. Only two got lumpy, and those two are also the two that don't seem to want to dry completely, even after several passes through the dryer. They'll get taken apart to stuff decorative pillow covers.

Daughter wonders why I need so many pillows now, but on a queen sized bed I'll use four pillows, so with two queens and two twins, that's ten right there.

I have a feeling the water and gas bill will be shocking this month, but it's a one-time thing.

Right now I have a huge old hand-crocheted tablecloth in the washer (it may become curtains, or bedspread), and I've been feeling so virtuous I'm poking around for other things to wash. (Jasper? Here, kitty kitty....)

My new bed for bedroom #2 arrived this morning. I like it.

It's very sturdy for what little I paid for it. I like the simpler head and foot boards. I got the "low profile" box springs, 3 inches thinner than regular, because the regular box, although it made the bed look more luxurious, made the bed so high it was awkward for me to get in and out.

I have some mother-of-pearl inlaid tables from India that will be perfect on either side.

Now I need curtains in that room. Actually, I don't think I can sleep there just yet. The bed is new out of the box and it still smells of stain and varnish. I guess it will need to air for a while.

The quilt spread is made of sari trim. I've had it for a long time, but hadn't used it. You can't actually sleep under it because it has a lot of metallic thread in it so it's super heavy, but it's pretty. The camera just doesn't pick up the shine and richness of the colors.
I think I'll put some tassels on the pillows, and make a contrasting neckroll or two from some different sari fabric. Right now it's too much of the same all over.

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

Current thorns:

• "All intensive purposes" - That should be "all intents and purposes" folks.
• "Doggy dog world" - Aaaaagh! Hasn't everybody heard by now how wrong that is?
  

3171 Snow!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

M R teachers.
M R not.
S A R! C M MT pockets?

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Daughter and Hercules left this morning to visit H's grandmother in south-eastern Pennsylvania. (Yes, I was invited. No, it's not my thing. In case you haven't noticed, I don't "do" holidays.) They called from the road to tell me they were driving through a "winter mix" mess. Two hours later I looked out the door and it was snowing here. Not much, but any, so soon, is unwelcome.

Jasper met the downstairs Roomba this morning, and even though I was holding him in my arms the whole time it was on, he completely freaked. Even after I turned it off, he hid upstairs for more than an hour. Wait 'til he finds out there's a Roomba upstairs, too.

I did some further research on cable TV. Turns out I can get FIOS, which is Verizon. They have a better selection of basic channels, for less than Cablevision/Optimum. I think I'll go with them, since I already have Verizon broadband internet and cell phone, and I'll consider bundling them IF I can retain my grandfathered unlimited access. I saw a bunch of Verizon stores all along the highway, so I think I'll stop in at one of them in the next few days and see what we can do.
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3170 Wrangling the Roomba

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

M R snakes.
M R not.
S A R! C M BD Is?

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

I bought two Roombas, both model 560, one new and the other reconditioned, one for upstairs and the other for down.

The third time the downstairs one climbed into Jasper's tray and ate his food, I caught myself slapping it on the nose and saying, "No! That's not your food!" Especially because just minutes before, it had been batting one of Jasper's belled balls around the room.

It nudges things hard - pushed a tall mid-eastern brass ewer filled with peacock feathers halfway across the room.

It interprets very dark surfaces as edges and won't cross them. I hadn't noticed before that the oriental rug in the living room has a band of dark around the center. I don't know how it managed to get in there, but the Roomba got stuck in the center of the rug.

I'm learning. I doubt that it is.
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3169 Someday I will sleep in style

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

M R mice.
M R not.
S A R! C M ED BD paws?
L I B! M R mice!

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

I went to the old house Sunday afternoon, with a list of things I wanted to bring back. When I got there I was so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of STUFF that instead of picking out things to move, I grabbed a huge black garbage bag, and filled it with things I don't want to move (and that nobody else would want, either). I cleared out a significant amount of space in the kitchen and entry. I didn't want to return to the new house empty-handed, though, so I just threw loose things in Fred-the-van that would eventually end up here anyway. Mostly clothes. Some kitchen things. Drove back to NJ Monday evening.

I also made an early-morning Monday visit to the tire place to get the flat tire, which is now the spare, fixed. It was a valve stem again. The five tires belonging to Fred all have fewer than 1,500 miles on them, but they sat for the almost three years Fred was off the road, and two of the five have blown their stems in the past two months. I think I can expect three more cracked stems before this is over.

What's interesting is that the two stems that cracked were both on the same side of the vehicle - the side that got sun. I wonder if that's what did it. Maybe the shaded ones won't go bad.

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

"My" bed is a 200+ year-old Chinese marriage bed (sort of like this one, but with foo-dogs - I have to wait for The Hunk to help me get it down here and assembled and in the meantime I'm sleeping on a mattress on the floor), and the two small bedrooms will get the Jenny Linds. But I don't have a bed for the second largest bedroom. I have always wanted a sleigh bed, and I figure now's my chance. So today, Tuesday, I went shopping.

I looked at some rather expensive ones with the graceful swan-neck curves on the thick heavy head- and footboards, and yeah, they were nice but somehow didn't grab me. Then I found exactly what I want! The head and footboard are a little higher and flat, but the endcaps on the head and foot have the curves. Somehow it felt "righter" to me, more antique looking. And to top it off, it was about 1/3 the cost of the others. It and the mattress set (firm! with live recoil!) will be delivered Friday.

While I was in the furniture store, the cell rang, and it was the garage door installers. They'll be arriving on the 2nd.

Then I went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and discovered there's a cover you can put on a mattress that will "firm" it. I absolutely cannot get used to the Tempur-Pedic I've been using since I closed on the house (it may be fine if you sleep on your side or back, but for tummy-sleepers it's the pits) so I got one of them, too.

So, I hope to sleep better tonight, and even better on Friday. Things are coming along.
.

3168 TV Freakout

Sunday, November 21, 2010

“Men are so blind that they even take pride in their blindness.”
-- Augustine of Hippo --

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

I checked out cable TV for the new house online this morning. Apparently, there is only one company that services this area, Optimum.

According to their website, they do have a basic service for $17.29 per month plus $1.50 for each additional TV set, which has a whole slew of channels, including ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, FOX, and CNN, which is pretty much all I want. I don't need all those fancy cable-only channels; it's dangerous for me to have too much choice. I'd never get anything done. (And if someone who visits often wants more, like sports and comedy, he's welcome to pay the extra for it.)

The price for basic was right, the selection was adequate, so I tried to order it online. And hit a snag. Basic isn't an option to order. I can order all kinds of fancy packages, but not basic.

So I finally gave up (their website is impossible to navigate, I went around in circles) and called the phone number to order service.

I got an entirely different story from what the website says, and then the conversation with the Optimum rep went even farther off the rails.

Me: "I just tried to order service on your website, and went around in circles."

Brittany: "You don't want to do it on the website anyway. They don't even look at those orders for two weeks. On the telephone, we put it right in."

Me: "Ok. I want to get Basic service." ((I have already lost confidence in this bunch.))

Brittany: "For Basic you get 10 channels for $29 dollars."

Me: "That's not what the website said. It says Basic gets a rather large set of non-premium channels for $17.29."

Brittany: "No. Just ten. $29."

Me: "Do those 10 channels include ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and PBS? If so, that's enough for me."

Brittany: "No. To get those channels you need the IO Family package. That's $44.95 a month."

Me: "That seems like a lot for channels I'm currently pulling in off the air with rabbit ears."

Brittany: "Well, you won't be able to do that much longer. Those channels are going digital pretty soon, so you won't be able to get them with an antenna. Not without a digital box, anyway."

Me: ((Huh? Long pause. What the hell is she talking about?)) "Uh, the channels I'm getting ARE digital, and I've got digital TV sets. I'm watching them in digital. Off the air. With the antenna on the set."

Brittany: "Well, you won't be able to much longer."

Me: ((This woman is nuts. Or she's been in cold storage for more than a year.)) "Are you folks the only cable company serving this area?"

Brittany: "Yes. Very few people in your area have satellite because of the weather."

Me: "So, what do I need to get the channels I want, for how much?"

Brittany: "You'll need the Family package. That's $44.95 per month. How many sets will you have?"

Me: "Three or four." ((One in my bedroom, one in the workroom, one in the kitchen, maybe one in the living room.))

Brittany: "Well for three boxes, that's $65.86, and for four it's $75.75."

Me: "That's almost $10 extra for each box. Your website says less than $2 for each additional." (($10? For WHAT?))

Brittany: ((Silence.))

Me: "This is ridiculous. I'm going to have to speak to some of the neighbors."

Brittany: ((Silence.))

Me: "Bye." ((Click.))

Now, am I nuts or badly informed? Is she nuts? Is this normally what basic cable service, including local broadcast channels, goes for? Especially when it's the only service and therefore there's no competition, and therefore they should be regulated?

None of the numbers she quoted have any relation to the numbers on the website, neither price nor channels available. Can I report them to someone for false advertising, or bait and switch, or something? And to whom?

Something is very wrong here.
.

3167 Flat

Saturday, November 20, 2010

"They do not love that do not show their love."
-- William Shakespeare --

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

I woke up this morning to find a flat tire on Fred. Not just low - it was resting on the rim. Naturally, I have no friendly garages or other contacts here, and my tire-blower-upper-machine is still at the old house.

Because of his lowered floor I can't use his own jack on Fred when the tire is that low. It won't squeeze under. And even if I could get it jacked up, I'd hesitate to change the tire myself anyway because the driveway slopes and I have nothing with which to chock the tires.

I called Daughter to ask if she had a local friendly garage to recommend, one that makes house calls, and she said no, but she has AAA. Unfortunately, she was about to leave for work. So I called #ROAD, an emergency service I have through my cell phone ($3 a month, but they don't service you at your home, only on the road, dead in your driveway is not considered an emergency).

A friendly guy arrived within a half hour, and put the spare on for me. I thought it was #ROAD, but he turned out to be the AAA guy. Daughter had called them anyway. Before the AAA guy left, the #ROAD guy showed up. I hadn't canceled him because I thought the AAA guy was him.

Service sure is a lot faster here than at the old house!

I had looked at AAA a few years ago, but it wasn't very useful in the mid-Hudson valley. The nearest AAA-authorized service folks were in Albany, so it would take at least an hour and a half to get any help if I needed it anywhere near home. I guess it might be worth looking into down here.

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

I'd mentioned that I'd bought a small office refrigerator to use until I could either find a regular bottom-freezer refrigerator on sale or bring my old one down to the new house. Well, it's working just fine with just me to feed, except that I really wish it had more freezer space. There's just a flapped space in the top of the compartment, big enough for four Lean Cuisine dinners and a tiny ice cube tray, but no room for ice cream.

I need ice cream.

Yesterday I was in Home Depot arranging installation of a garage door opener, and lo, they had taller 2 -door mini refrigerators on sale, with a much larger freezer compartment behind a separate freezer compartment door.

I had been surprised at how cheap the first mini was. This one was even cheaper.

So now I have TWO mini refrigerators in the kitchen, side by side in the space meant for a big one. The two together cost less than a quarter of what I'd expect to pay for a standard one, even on sale, and I think it'll work out just fine.

Daughter is going to roll her eyes at me. Piper thinks I'm nuts. I'm perfectly happy. (Except that the smaller one is all black, and the new one is black with stainless steel doors. I wish they matched better.)

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

The Man has been traveling all over the country most of the month. I asked him if he had to go through the new TSA scans yet, and he said that none of the airports he'd used had them yet. He didn't mention having endured the new pat downs. I was curious because if they patted him down, they'd think he was packing artillery.
.

3166 We are living in 1984

Friday, November 19, 2010

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.

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

I've been reading a lot about the new TSA "scan or pat" controversy. Of course it's security theater, not real security at all, having much to do with past failed attempts and doing nothing to thwart future attempts, and a whole lot to do with someone profiting from sale of the machines.

It's also unconstitutional under the fourth amendment. To quote a comment from 'Mela' on an interview of TSA agents here:

"This policy allows TSOs to “pat down” (which is an absurd bastardization of the term in this case) American citizens, assumed under the law to be innocent of any crime, in ways that a police officer is not allowed to touch a suspect in the face of probable cause of evidence of a crime. That is blatantly unconstitutional and every citizen should protest if they believe in the tenets of rights this country was founded upon."

But then, we've been giving up rights over the past ten years. What's one more (shrug).

Many non-Americans have said that they will no longer enter the US, for business or pleasure, because the American "security" measures insult them.

I have flown El Al. Their security measures make sense and are supremely successful, especially considering that they are target #1. Please do read this: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/744199---israelification-high-security-little-bother. They take the problem seriously, and attack it intelligently with training and psychology. No fuss, no feathers flying, nobody profiting, no insulting intrusion or harassment.

Then ask yourself why Americans are generally considered lacking in intelligence (and yeah, that's a sort of a sad pun).
.

3165 Off with their heads!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

"What is life? It's a way of keeping meat fresh."
-- Doctor Who --

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

Let me see if I've got this right. They tried a Guantanamo terrorism suspect in civilian court, and although he was found guilty of conspiracy charges that will keep him in jail for life, he was not found guilty of the most serious murder charges.

So people are saying that this therefore proves trying terrorists in civilian court won't work - they should be tried in military court?

I don't get it. Are they saying that prosecutors should shop around for a court guaranteed to convict? What happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? What happened to "fair trial"? What happened to having a trial at all? It sounds to me that a lot of people want to simply punish whether there's evidence of guilt or not. Mock trial. Off with their heads.

Why not just execute them all and stop hypocritically trying to make it look fair and legal?

Those people scare me. They are terrorists, too. They just pretend to be civilized and take a longer time getting around to killing people they don't like, which is scary because it's coldly crafted, not an act of passion.
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3164 Duh?

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe themselves to be free.”

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

The FDA has banned alcoholic "energy drinks" - those with both caffeine and alcohol.

Everybody talking about it seems to home in on the combination. One of the companies intends to keep selling the stuff, without the caffeine.

I don't think it's the combination that's bad - it's the concentration. One can of that stuff is equal to four beers, one can of Red Bull, and a cup of espresso.

If it's the combination, then what about rum and coke?

Duh.
.

3163 Almost a Honey

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

-- Will Rogers --

True, and all the more reason to elect intelligent people willing to change direction based on new information, rather than robots blinded by ideology.

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

Beautiful day today, except for the wind. It was 60 degrees by 9 am, clear blue sky, warm sun --- but wind! Gusts hitting 50 mph.

One of my bathroom vents thumps when the wind blows. Outside it's just ting ting ting, but inside it sounds like someone pounding on the front door, or hammering on a wall. I went to the door several times before I figured it out.

My front yard is filling with oak leaves. It seems like everyone around here has a leaf blower. The neighborhood has been filled with the sound of them for days. I guess I can expect more tomorrow or whenever the wind stops.

Me, I just run the mulching mower over leaves. It's faster, and the leaves "disappear" into future topsoil. Problem eliminated.

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

Someone recommended this video to me. It's dance sequences from many movies melded into one, to "Footloose". Very enjoyable.


The above video brought Gregory Hines back to mind. I have always adored him, and I do miss him. It's Wednesday, and time for the Honey of the Week, but he doesn't really qualify. My admiration for him didn't have a lustful component; I simply adored him, a talented and thoroughly nice person, as close as one gets these days to a Renaissance man.

Don't give me "I don't watch videos in blogs". Watch this. It will make you smile, and energize your day. (Not at work, though. Tap dancing requires full sound.)

[From the Movie: "Tap". Outstanding tap performances by Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr., and legendary tap dance veterans Harold Nicholas, Jimmy Slyde, Howard 'Sandman' Sims, Bunny Briggs, Steve Condos, Arhur Duncan and Pat Rico.]
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3162 Do Jeeps get hung up?

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other.
Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."
-- Katherine Hepburn --

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

Oh, green Katherine, I so agree!

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

I just watched a commercial for Jeep where they say that putting the wheels very close to the front and rear allows the Jeep to climb over bigger obstacles. Then they show it clambering over some huge rocks.

I noticed that the front wheel went over the big rock, but then it bounced off to the side.

Yuh. Uh huh. Because if you really climb up over a big rock like that and keep going straight on over it, especially if there's a dip after it, you'll get hung up on it in the middle.

If you want to really clamber over big rocks, with wheels spread way apart like that, you'll need a third pair of wheels in the middle. Otherwise you just make a very expensive teeter-totter.
.

3161 Oddities

Monday, November 15, 2010

"A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by
association with smarter people."
-- Will Rogers --

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

I don't agree with Will up there in the green if he meant that those are the only ways to learn. Another way to learn is by doing. But maybe it's a tongue-in-cheek play on one of my biggest peeves - the misplacement of the modifier "only". The "only" here modifies the "learns", not the "two ways" as most people would interpret it. In that case, he's correct. In reading and in associating with smarter people, a man "only learns".

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

A weirdness about the house - just before the heat goes on, before the actual burner fires, not just the fan, there's a section of outside wall between the window and the bathtub in the master bath that ticks. It sounds like water dripping. The wall will start ticking, and within three minutes I'll hear the whoosh of the furnace firing. Weird.

A weirdness about me - I normally go to bed around 11 pm or later. But lately, I'm looking at my watch thinking of bed at 7 or 8 pm. Last night I went to bed at 9. Weird.

A weirdness about outside - I hear more birds, of greater variety, here than I did in the mid-Hudson valley, weird enough in itself, and there are more squirrels close to the houses. So this morning I threw some bits of (whole wheat, slightly mold-spotted) bread out on the back patio, hoping to attract some birds or squirrels for Jasper's viewing pleasure. The bread is still there, untouched, at 10 pm. Weird.

A weirdness about the neighborhood - there are some very small houses, like 15 feet wide, and the smaller the house, the larger the TV set visible through the living room windows. The set across the street has to be at least 6 feet by 8 feet. I've noticed that before in other areas. I think it's weird. (Maybe I'm just more attuned to investment considerations....)
.

3160 Brief Encounter

Monday, November 15, 2010

"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."
-- Abraham Lincoln --

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

Wow. I haven't been here for a while. Busy. Lots of stuff to do. I've been marking posts on other folks' blogs as "unread" because I wanted to comment when I had a moment to think about it, and now there's a big backlog of unexpressed comments and thoughts. Sorry. It's certainly not that I didn't think about you.

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

I had a visitor a few days ago who came in through hidemyass.com. The location said UK (ISP RapidSwitch Ltd, which is a server in UK, probably where hidemyass lives). Whoever it was knew the URL of this blog, and came directly, not through a search. Oddly enough, the timezone of the visitor was the same as mine, not that of England. Interesting. I wonder who was anxious that I not know that he/she/it visited.

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

There's a young woman who drives up and down my (new) street a few times a day, in a minivan. She sits hunched forward, away from the back of her seat, with her chest perhaps four inches from the steering wheel, elbows down and sharply bent, both hands gripping tightly high on the wheel, head thrust up and out, chin raised as if she feels she must see the front of the vehicle (not easy, as the van's nose slopes down). She scares me a little. I'd rather not be on the same road as someone who is so obviously uncomfortable driving.

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

I went to a BNL concert last Friday evening. I don't have much to say about the performance. I do have major complaints about people in the audience who are so self-absorbed, arrogant, and insensitive that they don't realize that standing has a negative effect on people behind them.

That part thoroughly pissed me off. And is a major part of why I have no further comment. I could have saved a hell of a lot of money by just buying another CD.

BTW - Why do they charge different prices for different sections of seating if nobody sits in the seats they paid for? Why is it ok that they go and stand in front of higher priced seats?

My old fogey opinion is that you go to a concert to see and hear. You don't go to a concert to dance. You go to a club or a party to dance. If everyone stays in their seats, everyone can see. Why is that a bad thing? If you want to stand and dance, BUY THE FREAKIN' CD AND DANCE TO IT IN YOUR OWN SPACE!

I'd love to hear some performer say that, on the stage.

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

I forget what I did Saturday, but I must have done something, because I had signed up for a Meetup party and canceled because I was too busy.

Yesterday, Sunday, I shopped for chairs or stools to use with the marble table, with no success. Then in the evening, Daughter rounded up some friends to help get the marble table top out of the van and into the house, and then we had a takeout food party. I think I've found the best ribs ever.

Today I watched last night's The Amazing Race online, I've been catching up on internet stuff, and I plan to finish cleaning the insides of the kitchen cabinets and then tape up the bedroom for painting.
.

3159 The rich get richer and the poor, well, what do they matter?

Friday, November 12, 2010

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
-- Aristotle --

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

Piper and I have some social and political differences. He is Republican to the point of thinking Sarah Palin makes sense. When you get him started he rails against lazy people who don't work, don't save, and who are experts at "working the system". Yeah, I saw a lot of that when I was doing court and family mediation, and I don't like it either. Where we differ is that he wants to eliminate all government social programs. He doesn't seem to realize that there are people who are in honest need of assistance. He seems to think that it is always their own stupidity that puts them in that position, and he shouldn't have to pay for their lack of planning.

Here's where that kind of thinking leads:

The real 'death panels' are coming from the GOP

Read the article. It's frightening, and I believe it to be absolutely true. Giving tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations, and giving tax dollars to the military industry, creates deficits that some people, mainly the beneficiaries of those programs, want to use as an excuse to reduce or cut out social programs.

My tin hat is buzzing so hard it's giving me a headache.
.

3158 Ocular/Ophthalmic Migraine

Thursday, November 11, 2010

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer."

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Just a note, for future reference. I'm having one. An optical/ocular/ophthalmic migraine. The third, I think, since the first one that scared me in 1996ish. A bright flashing circle of jagged lines, slowly expanding. No pain, but a heavy "solid" feeling in my right eye.

Very strange.
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3157 Attention Civil War Buffs!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
-- Thomas Edison --

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The NY Times is doing a series on the civil war, started October 30, 2010, with the news of October 31, 1860. I got the impression from the introduction that there would be a weekly roundup of news articles from the New York Times and other papers from that week 150 years ago, with occasional essays, so I signed up for the RSS feeds through Google Reader - but it seems like some days I'm getting one, two, or three updates per day. Well, they're short, and so far fascinating. I am not a Civil War buff, but I'm enjoying the analysis.

If you are interested, the series starts just before the election, here:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/will-lincoln-prevail/.

To get to the next post in the series, don't go to "Next Post" at the bottom. Instead, you can step through using the "Related Posts" at the center bottom. They are listed sequentially.
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3156 Such a pretty table, but....

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

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Please, World, learn the difference between "peek" and "peak". They are NOT the same word!

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Monday afternoon I headed north, and Monday night and Tuesday morning I loaded the van with more stuff to bring to the new house.

The first thing loaded Monday evening was the marble table. Other than the houses and vehicles, it's probably the heaviest thing I own. The top is somewhere around 42 inches in diameter, and 1.5 inches thick, and solid marble, colored marble inlay over a solid marble slab. It sits (rather frighteningly loosely) on a ceramic base. I want to use it as a breakfast table.
I suspect the base was once a plant stand, and the table once had wrought iron legs or something, and somewhere along the line they got married, as they say in the antiques game, and in the interests of liability reduction I may have to divorce them, but ... anyway ... back to the story, The Hairless Hunk wrestled it from my basement, around the corner of the house, up the hill, and to the van. Amazing.

So far, I've had three men help me move it. The first move was from the auction house to the Suzuki, where the top leaned on edge in the back seat for several weeks because I couldn't get it out of the car myself. The second move was from the car to the basement, through the basement SGD, when the auction house guy delivered a chest after the next auction, and I asked him to help me get it out of the car. It lived in my basement for a year or so. The third move was from the basement to the minivan Monday evening. The Hairless Hunk was working in his yard when I went past on my way to the old house, and I asked him if he would help me.

The flippin' thing must weigh almost 200 lbs. I can support almost 100 lbs if I can rest it on the top of my thighs, so with another person I can help to move it, and in every case I've asked these guys to help me - and in every case they've insisted on doing it themselves. Testosterone overload, I guess.

So, anyway, we laid it flat on the open center floor of the van, and then I packed everything else on top of it, and drove back to the new house last night. This afternoon Daughter helped me unload the van, but the table top is still out there.

I suggested that maybe when Hercules got home from work, the three of us could bring it into the house, but she said no way. Without having heard my experience with men "helping", she, being smarter than I, said that if we involved Hercules, he'd insist on doing it himself, and she's not too happy with that idea. He's strong and healthy, but he's a marathoner-type athlete, not a weightlifter. He sits at a desk when he's not running up and down stairs. But being idiot male, he'll try anyway.

Yeah, that's the way it seems to work.

I need to find several people, all at once, either all females or a group with a minimum of two males. At the moment, I don't have the faintest idea who or how. I think I'm going to be hauling it around in the van for a while.

Sigh.
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