3525 Elegant, and not

Saturday, May 5, 2012

The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.

-- Jacob Bronowski --

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Elegant.  Elegant is the word I was looking for in the last post.  Everyone who had ever explored code written by Jay described it as "elegant".

The word elegant, in general, is an adjective meaning of fine quality. Refinement and simplicity are implied, rather than fussiness, or ostentation. An elegant solution, often referred to in relation to problems in disciplines such as mathematics, engineering, and programming, is one in which the maximum desired effect is achieved with the smallest, or simplest effort. Engineers, for example, seek the elegant solution as a means of solving a problem with the least possible waste of materials and effort. The elegant solution is also likely to be accomplished with appropriate methods and materials - according to the Elegant Solution Organization, duct tape is not likely to be part of an elegant solution, unless, of course, the problem involves taping ducts.

(A bit of trivia:  Duct tape is, in fact, not suitable for taping ducts, except perhaps on the outside of insulation around the duct.  Temperature extremes will destroy the glue.)

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I'm going to Rakkasah Spring Caravan today.  I do not plan to buy anything beyond an entrance ticket and food. We'll see how well I can hold to that.
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3524 Good enough is good enough. Usually.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Love is the only game you are sure to lose by declining to play.

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The past two days, Daughter and Nugget have come over while I was on the porch with my post-breakfast cigarette.  Daughter says Nugget sees me from the window, yells "Amma!  Amma! Amma!" (Gramma!), jumps up and down and waves her arms and makes it clear she wants to come over.  If the window's open, I hear her.

Daughter escorts her across the street, and Nugget is all smiles.

But I suspect it's not "Amma" she's so excited about. 

I meet them on the porch in front of the door.  I get a quick hug from the Nugget, and then she reaches toward the door, turning her wrist.  She wants the door opened.

I suspect she's madly in love with my house.

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Another blogger (RockyCat) was recently distressed by a Craigslist ad she'd found, advertising kittens ready for adoption.  The ad was full of typos and misspelled words.  It was pitiful.  Rocky was sickened by it. (Here.)

I didn't comment because I had to think about it a bit, and now my thoughts are too long for a comment.

Yeah, the failure of American schooling?  But maybe English isn't her native language?  On the other hand, if one makes the necessary spelling corrections, the ad was rather well composed with all the necessary information, which these days is something unexpected and to be admired.

My thoughts eventually led to Jay's perfectionism.  He'd blow deadline after deadline making sure that some piece of code was perfect.  He wasn't satisfied unless it was as tight as it could be, as small as it could be, as fast as it could be, as efficient as it could be, and still handle every possibility, even those never considered by the product design.  He'd fiddle and fiddle.  He wouldn't let go until it was absolutely perfect.  And to do this, he'd blow his own deadlines, the deadlines of everyone down the line who depended on his piece, the product announce and delivery dates, and lose the market advantage.  And then (pure Asperger) he didn't understand why everyone was mad at him.  "It's perfect!  I couldn't release something that wasn't perfect!"

I had to watch over him.  I had to be aware of his target dates.  And as they approached, I'd have to hold his hand, look him in the eye, and say, over and over, "Good enough is good enough.  What are the written requirements?  Does it meet requirements?  Yes?  Then it's good enough.  Maybe it's not perfect, but it doesn't need to be.  You can update it later.  Good enough is good enough."

So, back to the Craigslist ad.

I hate to admit this, but it's good enough.  The reader has no great difficulty understanding what it's saying, and it conveyed all the information.  (I had a bit of difficulty with "they are verry qute", reading it first as "quiet" until "cute" dawned on me.)  The reader isn't left with a lot of respect for the educational level of the writer, but that wasn't a requirement for an ad of this type.

In this case, it was good enough.

It hurts to say that. 

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The writings that upset and scare me most the ones I can't read, or can't understand, because they're full of text-speak or acronyms or "urban-defined" words, or when the writer has chosen the wrong word (decimate/devastate)(problematic/a problem)(loan/lend)(lose/loose)(its/it's), or the wrong homonym (to/too)(site/sight), or something like incident/incidents/incidence, or horror of all horrors, incidences, which isn't even a word at all.   The kind of thing that LOOKS like it should be read literally but creates the wrong picture in my mind when read literally, and I have to back up and attempt to figure out what they REALLY meant, which sometimes isn't possible.  I mean, if we could read minds, why write at all?

Those are the errors that have me blowing stream, especially when made by "professional" writers.

(E.G. - I was reading a post about an acquaintance's hiking trip a few days ago, wherein he mentioned "a beautiful site" he'd seen. I stopped and frowned.  I thought I'd missed the part where he'd said he was looking to purchase some real estate in the mountains.  When I realized it was HIS error, I was pissed at him.)
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3523 Jasper says "No room at the inn!"

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

-- Blaise Pascal --

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In my March 26 post, I asked if any rich or famous people had died waiting for a transplant - name one. (See also this post for the explanation as to why rich people rarely wait too long).  A commenter pointed out that Robert Goulet had died waiting for a lung.  I just found out that he died exactly one month after a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.  He very likely wasn't strong enough for transplant within two or three weeks of the diagnosis, and didn't have the time or strength to travel to get on more than one or two lists, so ... I don't think that counts.  My challenge stands.

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Contrary to the advice I give others, I almost adopted another stray cat last week.

Three days in a row a young, probably no more than 5 months old, unaltered male tabby visited my front porch.  He was absolutely beautiful!  A rich reddish gold and cream swirl-type tabby with enormous dark gold eyes that matched his coat perfectly.  Pink nose.  He was very friendly, allowed petting, and he was very very thin.  His little waistline was pinched. Otherwise looked healthy.  No collar.

I offered him some dry food, and he gobbled it up.  Three days in a row he visited briefly in mid-afternoon, ate some kibble, sat with me on the glider while I read, and then went off to explore.  I seriously considered adopting him as a strictly outdoor kitty.  I was planning his vet visit and collar color and tag info and everything.

On the fourth day I saw some young teen girls walking up the road.  One of them was carrying MY cat.  He now had a collar on.  He seemed perfectly happy, rubbing his cheek on her neck.

Saved by the belle.

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My back is still complaining, but not at all like over the weekend.  I can sit, stand, and walk just fine, but I get warnings when I lift things or bend wrong.  It'll be ok.
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3522 Back

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Lying is not a sin.  It’s a business plan.

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I hate when you're watching a movie on TV, and you have to jack up the volume to 50 to be able to hear it, and then a commercial comes on and the blast sets off the car alarm in the garage.

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I went up river this past week.  I put a lot of heavy stuff in the van on Wednesday, small pieces of furniture and boxes of papers and books.  I was a little worried about the effects on my back of wrestling it all out of the old house, but Thursday and Friday my back was fine.  So Friday I made dozens of trips up and down stairs carrying loads of stuff.  Friday evening my back went out.  I am now wearing the brace off and on, and walking all twisted into a corkscrew.

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Daughter and Hercules have set up a measuring board in their kitchen.  Heights of Mommy, Daddy, Gramma, and the Nugget  are now marked on it.

For much of my early adult life I'd been 4' 11".  A decade or two ago I went to 4' 10", and until yesterday that's what I always wrote on forms.  I am now a hair under 4' 9".  Under!

That's downright scary.  I've lost more than two inches since my early 40s, and I've never had that many to spare.  I think I've lost the latest inch just in the past two years, because suddenly things I had hemmed not all that long ago are too long.  Slacks seem to be unaffected, but dresses and caftans are dragging on the ground, which would indicate I've got spinal compression in progress.  (Yes, I do stand straight. I have to, to protect my back.)

This is not cool.

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There's not a single cloud in the sky today.  A most incredible blue.  A half-moon is visible directly opposite the sun.  I wish I could enjoy it.  Mostly I'm standing in a hot shower, the massage setting directed on my lower back, or lying on the floor.

It's weird, but if I consciously tell myself to relax my back, I can move easily and the pain lessens.  As soon as I forget, it clenches up and hurts.  I guess the medical community refers to that as guarding.

Relax, relax, relax.
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3521 Uh....

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”

-- Friedrich Nietzsche --

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When did "convo" become a verb?  A transitive one, at that?  "Convo me if you're interested in my product."

Yes, I understand it includes call, text, and email, but doesn't "contact" work as well?  In fact, "contact" implies that you are to initiate the conversation.  What meaning does "convo" add that "contact" doesn't already have?
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3520 Hair

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Barbara Kingsolver's character Adah in The Poisonwood Bible points out that God created vermin and microbes as well as humans, and "He's not necessarily rooting for just the humans."

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Hair cut:
Week 1 - much too short
Week 2 - too short
Week 3 - too short
Week 4 - a little too short
Week 5 - almost right
Week 6 - PERFECT!
Week 7 - too long, unruly, can't do a thing with it, aaaaggghh!
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3519 My weekend at the shore, Part 2

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

I thought about committing suicide, but in Buffalo, suicide is redundant.

-- A Chorus Line --

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On Saturday morning we awoke to fog. And voices.  And the boom of feet on boards.  When I went out, this is what I saw:

 There were thousands of them, and they kept passing for hours.  They were running from Asbury Park (next town to the north) to a few miles south, then back again, and then turned around and did it several more times.  Some were running a 5K, some were running a half marathon.  Some were running alone, some were running as teams, some were passing a baton to team members at each end (relay?).  Some people were still running at 1 pm.

I wanted to stick a number on the Nugget and take her for a walk on the boardwalk.  That would have been funny.

The fog cleared, and it turned into a nice but windy day.  I stayed at the hotel while Nugget took her midday nap and her parents went window shopping. Nugget woke up before they got back, so she and I snuck out to the beach.  It was Nugget's first sand.

We walked down the stairs from the boardwalk to the sand, and she took three barefoot steps on the sand, was surprised by the texture, plopped down, and checked it out.  She was fascinated by how she couldn't hold a handful.  The way it blew away as it sifted through her fist.  The way it was so easy to dig in it.  The way you could bury your feet by kicking them, and then find them again.

She found a flattish piece of shell and dug with that.  Buried it.  Dug it up again.

The wind was helpful.  I turned her with her back to the wind, and the wind kept the sand out of her face.

We were still sitting there when Daughter and Hercules returned to the hotel, found us gone, and called my cell in a panic.  They came down, we played a little more, Nugget demonstrated the special properties of sand for them, and then they decided to carry her to the water.

The waves are really far from the boardwalk.  I declined to walk that far on soft sand, so they went without me.  They returned pretty quickly, actually, with Nugget half naked wrapped in a jacket, and Daughter looking panicked.

When they got to the wet sand, easier to walk on, they had set the Nugget down.  She hit the ground running and was waist deep in a wave before they caught her.  Cold cold water, wind.

Back at the hotel Hercules and the Nugget found a cabinet in the lobby filled with ancient board games.  Nugget's favorites were the dominoes and the playing cards.

We left Sunday about 11:30 am, and I was home by noon.

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Nugget's friend Sky had visited for the birthday party, and earlier Saturday a little girl named Rain had come into the lobby with her parents.  Sky and Rain?**  I feel like I have to make it clear that "Nugget" is not my granddaughter's name. Her name is a respectable old name.

** That might actually be Skye and Rayne or whatever fancified spelling.  Same thing....
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3518 My weekend at the shore

Monday, April 23, 2012

You don't have to be a thing of beauty to be a joy forever.

-- Flip Wilson, as Geraldine --

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Daughter, Hercules, Nugget and I all spent the weekend at a shore-front B&B in Ocean Grove.  The original plan was for a big family gathering on Saturday to celebrate the Nugget's first birthday (which is actually this coming Thursday), but no other family members accepted the invitation.  Sheesh.  Nugget's little playmate Sky and Sky's parents came, and that was ok.

Daughter didn't get a cake for Nugget - she got a custard & fruit pie - and given the Nugget's speed at grabbing we didn't use candles.  But there were balloons!

 

In the photo above, she already has two big strawberries in her mouth and is reaching for more.

 Nugget actually ate half that pie!  There was a second pie for the adults.  (The t-shirt says "Nobody puts Baby in a corner".)

 Balloons!  Nugget moves so fast these days it's difficult to get a still photo when she's on her feet.

The above is the hotel as seen from the boardwalk in the Saturday morning fog. My room was second floor left.

The above is the view from my room's porch, on Friday evening.  Yeah, it needs editing, but no time right now.

Hmmm.  I just tried to upload a second video (a more interesting one) showing what I woke up to on Saturday morning, but when I click on the "Upload a video" button now, it just sits and stares at me.  I have to leave for dance class in a few minutes (yeah, Gypsy, it's BD, but again I'm not really dancing, just exercising), so I'll have to try again in a later post.

To be continued....
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3517 Filthy floors

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Stories are simple sequences of events, plots are about causes,
motivation ..., what stories mean. ...life is all stories, and fiction is all plots.....
-- Peter Ho Davies --

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Well, I am only a little stiff today. A little bit of pain down the left hip and thigh. I put the brace on anyway, just to make sure. So far, so good.

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My floors are gross. I haven't swept or vacuumed in ages, and there are crushed leaves, dirt, and cat hair everywhere. I passionately hate vacuuming. The weight. The dragging and controlling of the cord. I purposely rejected carpeting in the new house so it would be easier to keep the floors and stairs clean, but, uh, I hate sweeping, too. The bits escaping, the dust flying, the trying to corral it all. The moving of things in the way.

I bought two vacuum cleaners for this house so I wouldn't have to carry any up and down stairs. But the flipping things are heavy to use. I prefer canisters, because the weight stays on the floor and the head is light, but good canisters are next to impossible to find these days. So I got bagless uprights. I hate them. Being short, I hold the handle lower than most people, which puts the entire weight of the mechanism on my arm, and then moving it out and back strains my lower back. Hate, hate, hate!

So I got the Roombas, one for each floor. But there are a lot of table and chair legs the Roomba can't get between, and the floor is cluttered with cat and toddler toys that I have to pick up first, plus the cat's food tray, and curtains that touch the floor, and shoes under the bed with shoelaces that the Roombas like to eat, and, and, and, and it's a LOT of work for not such a great job (Roomba's exhaust tends to blow dirt, especially cat hair, sideways onto tracks it's already cleaned). I haven't turned them loose in months.

Sigh.

I hate it all.

I looked at the floors today and thought, "I've GOT to do something, now!"

So, I bought (online) a rechargeable vacuum stick. It's lightweight, no cord. We used to call them electric brooms. It's a Eureka, so it should be adequate. With its ten inch wide head it should be easy to maneuver around stuff. No bag.

I don't know how long it will take to get here, but nothing will be done with the floors until it arrives.

Temporary reprieve.
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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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