Trippin' With The Snow Lep
Pre-action report: Verizon is offering a "media manager" which streams iPhoto and iTunes to a FiOS DVR. I have a FiOS DVR. I've downloaded the software and later today I will hold my nose and do a tuckflip into the deep end on this one. If this can stream iTunes radio, I may have a solution for listening to my favorite AM station (Mark Levin - THANK ME!) after the signal punks down at twilight.
Technology. It can do amazing things.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Undeserved Grace
I have recently been in the presence of the troubles of those I love. This pains me more than I can say. Then I remember the undeserved grace I received and wonder, how to I ask for blessings to flow to others when I am still greedy for them myself? If any of half a dozen of my friends won the lottery, their troubles could, in the main, be solved. As the Bard says: 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. So how do I get over the impulse to importune God for such blessings for myself? I don't think it's enough to say, "If I win the lottery, I will share my good fortune with those I love." Yes, I'd love to win it but I am too cognizant of the sin of avarice to be happy with myself for so wishing.
Let me instead pray that I can see the way to wishing the blessings of undeserved grace on others. Surely, good things for them are good things for me.
I have recently been in the presence of the troubles of those I love. This pains me more than I can say. Then I remember the undeserved grace I received and wonder, how to I ask for blessings to flow to others when I am still greedy for them myself? If any of half a dozen of my friends won the lottery, their troubles could, in the main, be solved. As the Bard says: 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. So how do I get over the impulse to importune God for such blessings for myself? I don't think it's enough to say, "If I win the lottery, I will share my good fortune with those I love." Yes, I'd love to win it but I am too cognizant of the sin of avarice to be happy with myself for so wishing.
Let me instead pray that I can see the way to wishing the blessings of undeserved grace on others. Surely, good things for them are good things for me.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Virtual Machine
Things might get interesting. Using VMWare Fusion, I just installed Windows XP on my iMac. The virtualization takes some getting used to - it's not a little strange to have a window running XP sitting on my desktop as all my other Mac-ish programs are running at the same time. But dang me if it's not a whole heap of fun!
Things might get interesting. Using VMWare Fusion, I just installed Windows XP on my iMac. The virtualization takes some getting used to - it's not a little strange to have a window running XP sitting on my desktop as all my other Mac-ish programs are running at the same time. But dang me if it's not a whole heap of fun!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Passing Sentence
And so the condemned man was brought before the King to hear his sentence for it was indeed to be death, swift and sure. Yet the condemned man knew the King, for all his power, all his glory, was a vain and foolish man. So before the sentence could be spoken, he said, "My Lord! Give me a year and I will teach your horse to talk!"
The King, a bit puzzled yet intrigued, granted him that year and, should the condemned man succeed, a pardon to the service of the royal livery.
The jailer, a common man but clever in his days, said to the condemned man as he was being led back to the cells, "You can't teach a horse to talk."
"Ah," replied the condemned man, "But in a year, the King may die. Or I may die. Or the horse may talk."
And so the condemned man was brought before the King to hear his sentence for it was indeed to be death, swift and sure. Yet the condemned man knew the King, for all his power, all his glory, was a vain and foolish man. So before the sentence could be spoken, he said, "My Lord! Give me a year and I will teach your horse to talk!"
The King, a bit puzzled yet intrigued, granted him that year and, should the condemned man succeed, a pardon to the service of the royal livery.
The jailer, a common man but clever in his days, said to the condemned man as he was being led back to the cells, "You can't teach a horse to talk."
"Ah," replied the condemned man, "But in a year, the King may die. Or I may die. Or the horse may talk."
Feetsball Redux
I had the most delicious meal of schadenfreude last night as I watched the Washington Snyders get their asses handed to them by the reasonably competent Philadelphia Eagles. Little Danny Snyder's ego play to own a collection of large men who are probably just like the ones who tormented him on the grade school playground is turning out to be just the fustercluck I expected when he bought the team (and reconsidered when he brought in Steve Spurrier and later Joe Gibbs to coach - I was wrong to reconsider).
There's something kind of epic in a team that opened their play with six straight games wherein their opponent was winless (albeit the first game of the season was against a very good NYG team so it's a bit specious to say that) and managed to 1) "amass" two wins and 2) give two horrible teams (Detroit and KC) what are likely their only wins this year. Epic fail, of course, but still epic.
I'm working on the idea of Li'l Danny's buying of the team as akin to an LBO but I'm not sure I can carry that conceit out. But if I do, you'll be the first to read it here.
I had the most delicious meal of schadenfreude last night as I watched the Washington Snyders get their asses handed to them by the reasonably competent Philadelphia Eagles. Little Danny Snyder's ego play to own a collection of large men who are probably just like the ones who tormented him on the grade school playground is turning out to be just the fustercluck I expected when he bought the team (and reconsidered when he brought in Steve Spurrier and later Joe Gibbs to coach - I was wrong to reconsider).
There's something kind of epic in a team that opened their play with six straight games wherein their opponent was winless (albeit the first game of the season was against a very good NYG team so it's a bit specious to say that) and managed to 1) "amass" two wins and 2) give two horrible teams (Detroit and KC) what are likely their only wins this year. Epic fail, of course, but still epic.
I'm working on the idea of Li'l Danny's buying of the team as akin to an LBO but I'm not sure I can carry that conceit out. But if I do, you'll be the first to read it here.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Professional Feetsball
OK. Watching the Arizona Cardinals play the New York Giants on the night football show. On the graphic at the bottom of the screen, the teams are identified by the following designations: AZ (natch) and NYG.
Are we not tempted to read that last one as a word since it has two consonants and sometimes vowel? Raaaaacist NFL!
OK. Watching the Arizona Cardinals play the New York Giants on the night football show. On the graphic at the bottom of the screen, the teams are identified by the following designations: AZ (natch) and NYG.
Are we not tempted to read that last one as a word since it has two consonants and sometimes vowel? Raaaaacist NFL!
Anodyne
Despite my uplifting, or attempts at uplifting, words below, my heart has been heavy since hearing the news. All this morning I've been listening to John "Five for Fighting" Ondrasik's new disc, "Slice" and it's remarkably good to ease the heaviness. I hope you buy it. You'll understand what I mean.
Despite my uplifting, or attempts at uplifting, words below, my heart has been heavy since hearing the news. All this morning I've been listening to John "Five for Fighting" Ondrasik's new disc, "Slice" and it's remarkably good to ease the heaviness. I hope you buy it. You'll understand what I mean.
Anonymous Condolences
Sometimes the Internet is not really the right place to put personal wishes and in this case, I'm going to violate that personal bond but hold anonymity to those involved and hope that in making the personal public, I might not do actual violence to those bonds.
A very dear friend of mine called me recently to tell me, in a rather round-about way it turned out, that his younger brother was just found dead. Then, in a sort of grotesque echo of that, the brother's son killed himself. My heart breaks for my friend because I have no doubt that he will internalize both of these deaths with the feeling that someway, somehow he played a role in these sad events. In reality, the brother's death was a long time coming and there's nothing that would have stopped it. That snowball has been rolling down the hill for so long I knew the shattering on impact would be dramatic even if I couldn't have imagined that the real drama would be in the loss of another life.
Leaving the nephew aside for a moment, the loss of this brother was, sadly, not a real loss for humanity. He has been an alcoholic, drug-addicted wastrel essentially all his life, a fair amount of which has been spent in custody. Of course in our world this hasn't stopped him from being married a few times and producing a few children that he hasn't been able to support. I wouldn't bother to consider what left him this way apart from the fact that he grew up in a toxic stew of a broken family with a mother who was no mother at all. What matters about this is for my friend to recognize that he grew up in that same stew and he is doing all right - beautiful wife who loves him deeply, a good son and daughter-in-law who brought a beautiful granddaughter into the family not too long ago, a lovely home in the suburbs. His life is not the perfect image he carries in his mind's eye but it is good, better than he will admit, probably.
When we weep for the dead, we cry for what we lose, that our lives have been stripped of being with someone we will never again hold, talk to, laugh with, gain knowledge from, feel the warmth of. In this case, even though there was hurt in his voice, my friend has not lost anything that was not lost long, long ago. In the last several years his brother has done nothing but make demands. Money, a place to live, even (I am not kidding) organ donation. Again, not ask for, demand as in 'you have it and I want it and you're my brother so you should give it to me.' This was a life that had become a black hole for the physical and emotional resources of a family (my friend's mother and sister, not his family per se) that was dysfunctional at best.
Now as for the nephew, I am at a loss there. I believe the young man (23 years old if I remember correctly) was not long out of jail for attempting to murder his father. Why would one feel the need to take his life after the death of someone he earlier tried and failed to kill? Perhaps the hopelessness of existence opened up before him when he faced the actuality of his father's death. Instead of seeing a blight and a burden on his life lifted, he confronted his life and could only see himself as his father's son which made his going on an impossibility. It takes an almost unimaginable depth of hatred for one's father to lead to suicide when seeing nothing but "I am my father's son" in the mirror. But I imagine, I posit, I do not know. I only met the lad once and were I pressed, I would say he suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome.
Not every life illuminates the world. As sorrowful as the family is, and I don't mean to diminish their sadness, the world will not much miss either of these lives. But I desperately want my friend to understand that the lesson is there for him: You and your sister came out of the same dumpster childhood that broke your brother and then his son. You may not have the life your fondest dreams limn but you have a wonderful one nonetheless. Let him go, hold what you've made of yourself and for yourself dear. And may God bless you. May you and your family find undeserved grace in every day.
Sometimes the Internet is not really the right place to put personal wishes and in this case, I'm going to violate that personal bond but hold anonymity to those involved and hope that in making the personal public, I might not do actual violence to those bonds.
A very dear friend of mine called me recently to tell me, in a rather round-about way it turned out, that his younger brother was just found dead. Then, in a sort of grotesque echo of that, the brother's son killed himself. My heart breaks for my friend because I have no doubt that he will internalize both of these deaths with the feeling that someway, somehow he played a role in these sad events. In reality, the brother's death was a long time coming and there's nothing that would have stopped it. That snowball has been rolling down the hill for so long I knew the shattering on impact would be dramatic even if I couldn't have imagined that the real drama would be in the loss of another life.
Leaving the nephew aside for a moment, the loss of this brother was, sadly, not a real loss for humanity. He has been an alcoholic, drug-addicted wastrel essentially all his life, a fair amount of which has been spent in custody. Of course in our world this hasn't stopped him from being married a few times and producing a few children that he hasn't been able to support. I wouldn't bother to consider what left him this way apart from the fact that he grew up in a toxic stew of a broken family with a mother who was no mother at all. What matters about this is for my friend to recognize that he grew up in that same stew and he is doing all right - beautiful wife who loves him deeply, a good son and daughter-in-law who brought a beautiful granddaughter into the family not too long ago, a lovely home in the suburbs. His life is not the perfect image he carries in his mind's eye but it is good, better than he will admit, probably.
When we weep for the dead, we cry for what we lose, that our lives have been stripped of being with someone we will never again hold, talk to, laugh with, gain knowledge from, feel the warmth of. In this case, even though there was hurt in his voice, my friend has not lost anything that was not lost long, long ago. In the last several years his brother has done nothing but make demands. Money, a place to live, even (I am not kidding) organ donation. Again, not ask for, demand as in 'you have it and I want it and you're my brother so you should give it to me.' This was a life that had become a black hole for the physical and emotional resources of a family (my friend's mother and sister, not his family per se) that was dysfunctional at best.
Now as for the nephew, I am at a loss there. I believe the young man (23 years old if I remember correctly) was not long out of jail for attempting to murder his father. Why would one feel the need to take his life after the death of someone he earlier tried and failed to kill? Perhaps the hopelessness of existence opened up before him when he faced the actuality of his father's death. Instead of seeing a blight and a burden on his life lifted, he confronted his life and could only see himself as his father's son which made his going on an impossibility. It takes an almost unimaginable depth of hatred for one's father to lead to suicide when seeing nothing but "I am my father's son" in the mirror. But I imagine, I posit, I do not know. I only met the lad once and were I pressed, I would say he suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome.
Not every life illuminates the world. As sorrowful as the family is, and I don't mean to diminish their sadness, the world will not much miss either of these lives. But I desperately want my friend to understand that the lesson is there for him: You and your sister came out of the same dumpster childhood that broke your brother and then his son. You may not have the life your fondest dreams limn but you have a wonderful one nonetheless. Let him go, hold what you've made of yourself and for yourself dear. And may God bless you. May you and your family find undeserved grace in every day.
Friday, October 23, 2009
More On The Mothership
Talking Apple again folks. Not that there's anything new with that.
Last night I was on the phone with a good friend whose family was a PC family of long-standing. He used to work for the feds and needed a PC for the Citrix VPN software to get him into his government computer system when he worked from home and his wife had started out on PCs which led her to become, essentially, a PC bigot. That, now, is moot. He retired which obviated the necessity of his using a PC so he got a MacBook. That he's a musician only made the choice easier as he explicitly mentioned how great the bundled software, and GarageBand specifically, is.
Now the family has an iMac to the mix and it seems his wife is over her Applephobia. Even his mother in law has migrated from a PC to a Mac. Pretty sure an iMac as well but I can't say that to an absolute certainty.
This is, of course, anecdotal but at the same time, it demonstrates what can happen when Apple has a chance to worm its way (get it- Apple, worm? these are the jokes, folks) into the regular computing expereince of daily users. I'm not opposed to PCs as much as I like my Macs. From what I've heard Windows 7 has done a good job of cleaning up the mess that MS made with Vista. But the experience is still seems to me not as seamless as it is with the Mac platform.
And I've ordered a Magic Mouse from Amazon. I actually save money by ordering from Amazon which has a nominally higher price but doesn't charge me tax. I think it'll be fun to use. I only wish I'd bought Apple stock back in April and doubled my investment through today.
I may have to update this post. I haven't yet been able to really identify the crux of the matter. Anecdotal evidence will do that to you.
Talking Apple again folks. Not that there's anything new with that.
Last night I was on the phone with a good friend whose family was a PC family of long-standing. He used to work for the feds and needed a PC for the Citrix VPN software to get him into his government computer system when he worked from home and his wife had started out on PCs which led her to become, essentially, a PC bigot. That, now, is moot. He retired which obviated the necessity of his using a PC so he got a MacBook. That he's a musician only made the choice easier as he explicitly mentioned how great the bundled software, and GarageBand specifically, is.
Now the family has an iMac to the mix and it seems his wife is over her Applephobia. Even his mother in law has migrated from a PC to a Mac. Pretty sure an iMac as well but I can't say that to an absolute certainty.
This is, of course, anecdotal but at the same time, it demonstrates what can happen when Apple has a chance to worm its way (get it- Apple, worm? these are the jokes, folks) into the regular computing expereince of daily users. I'm not opposed to PCs as much as I like my Macs. From what I've heard Windows 7 has done a good job of cleaning up the mess that MS made with Vista. But the experience is still seems to me not as seamless as it is with the Mac platform.
And I've ordered a Magic Mouse from Amazon. I actually save money by ordering from Amazon which has a nominally higher price but doesn't charge me tax. I think it'll be fun to use. I only wish I'd bought Apple stock back in April and doubled my investment through today.
I may have to update this post. I haven't yet been able to really identify the crux of the matter. Anecdotal evidence will do that to you.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Very Possibly Perfect
If you wish to see how a woman can wear her hair extremely short and look just as sexy as ... analogies fail me. First, Morena Baccarin (whom I first saw as "Companion" Inara Serra in Joss Whedon's superb "Serenity") is just a gorgeous woman - as much an iconic "SciFi babe" as Tricia Helfer in "Battlestar Galactica." Secondly, watch the viddy (an ad for ABC's upcoming re-make of "V"). This is how very short hair on a woman should look. I hope the re-make is as good as Ms. Baccarin looks in the ads.
If you wish to see how a woman can wear her hair extremely short and look just as sexy as ... analogies fail me. First, Morena Baccarin (whom I first saw as "Companion" Inara Serra in Joss Whedon's superb "Serenity") is just a gorgeous woman - as much an iconic "SciFi babe" as Tricia Helfer in "Battlestar Galactica." Secondly, watch the viddy (an ad for ABC's upcoming re-make of "V"). This is how very short hair on a woman should look. I hope the re-make is as good as Ms. Baccarin looks in the ads.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Hole Lee Cow!
New hardware from the Apple Mothership. New iMac (did I buy too soon? of course) and something I just might have to get - a multi-touch capable "Magic Mouse." No more cleaning of a scroll ball ever. Nice. And multi-touch capable! Dang Steve, that rocks.
And a 27 inch iMac with more than 1080p definition? More than HD? Build a TV tuner into that bad boy and ... forget I said that. I didn't say that. You didn't read that.
New hardware from the Apple Mothership. New iMac (did I buy too soon? of course) and something I just might have to get - a multi-touch capable "Magic Mouse." No more cleaning of a scroll ball ever. Nice. And multi-touch capable! Dang Steve, that rocks.
And a 27 inch iMac with more than 1080p definition? More than HD? Build a TV tuner into that bad boy and ... forget I said that. I didn't say that. You didn't read that.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Ripped From The Pages Of Scientific American
"Stem Cells from Fat Used to Grow Teen's Missing Facial Bones."
Oh. My. God. I am a precious natural resource!
I can provide a nation's worth of the raw material for stem cell production.
"Stem Cells from Fat Used to Grow Teen's Missing Facial Bones."
Oh. My. God. I am a precious natural resource!
I can provide a nation's worth of the raw material for stem cell production.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Our Narcissist In Chief
President I Won really does seem to believe that "l'etat, c'est moi." I believe I'll call him Leroy Soleil from now on.
President I Won really does seem to believe that "l'etat, c'est moi." I believe I'll call him Leroy Soleil from now on.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Quick Update On The Moccamaster
Decidedly makes better coffee than the very good Mr. Coffee maker which will soon live with friends. And I had to pre-het the water for the Mr. Coffee to make its product as good as it was. No need for that now. Teh noob has a space issue with my scrap of counter between the range and the refrigerator but I'll figure out how to deal with it elegantly. Or at least deal with it.
I love making the coffee into a thermal carafe. I tend to pull the made onto my morning table and knock back my cuppas as I read the paper. The last cup I sipped was just as toasty as the first.
The only thing that restrains my joy is that I have to do some days of sperimenting (Lucy) to adjust the amount of water and amount of coffee to precisely calibrate it to my taste. Not a bad thing to experiment on - good coffee.
Woot!
UPDATE: Not only is the coffee better, but it brews my morning pot o' in about half the time the Mr. Coffee did. And there's no piercing BEEP BEEP BEEP when it's through brewing. I'd say the only thing I lose in changing makers is a timer to start brewing automatically. But two things make that Moot! First, I never used that feature anyway and second, the Moccamaster makers believe that making coffee from fresh water is perferable to leaving a tank of water overnight to get "stale."
I dunno how stale water gets but I generally agree with that interpretation.
Decidedly makes better coffee than the very good Mr. Coffee maker which will soon live with friends. And I had to pre-het the water for the Mr. Coffee to make its product as good as it was. No need for that now. Teh noob has a space issue with my scrap of counter between the range and the refrigerator but I'll figure out how to deal with it elegantly. Or at least deal with it.
I love making the coffee into a thermal carafe. I tend to pull the made onto my morning table and knock back my cuppas as I read the paper. The last cup I sipped was just as toasty as the first.
The only thing that restrains my joy is that I have to do some days of sperimenting (Lucy) to adjust the amount of water and amount of coffee to precisely calibrate it to my taste. Not a bad thing to experiment on - good coffee.
Woot!
UPDATE: Not only is the coffee better, but it brews my morning pot o' in about half the time the Mr. Coffee did. And there's no piercing BEEP BEEP BEEP when it's through brewing. I'd say the only thing I lose in changing makers is a timer to start brewing automatically. But two things make that Moot! First, I never used that feature anyway and second, the Moccamaster makers believe that making coffee from fresh water is perferable to leaving a tank of water overnight to get "stale."
I dunno how stale water gets but I generally agree with that interpretation.
Friday, October 16, 2009
And Since I'm All Soppy With Nostalgia
I really, really miss Karen Carpenter. I'm not sure that she would have made music for the ages had she not died but I'm willing to bet good money on the idea that her amazing voice would have found material that would be popular and beautiful. I resent being denied the opportunity to know what she would have added to our musical world.
I really, really miss Karen Carpenter. I'm not sure that she would have made music for the ages had she not died but I'm willing to bet good money on the idea that her amazing voice would have found material that would be popular and beautiful. I resent being denied the opportunity to know what she would have added to our musical world.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Let's Remember, Shall We?
Ah, those days of yester, the yoredays of our yute. I remember watching the televsioning machine with it's grainy black and white picture. I remember the Herb Alpert music that was used as the "Teaberry Shuffle" in ads to promote Clark's Teaberry gum.
I just ordered some of the Teaberry gum from Amazon.
I delight in the very idea that all the things that filled the nooks and interstices of our past have not gone away. Videos of ads on uToob, the gum itself. I suppose I could get some of those wax "cola bottles" things, the red wax lips that tasted like ... well, nothing natural to be sure. And what aging child can't forget the dusty snort of flavored sugar drained from a "pixie stick" directly down the throat? I imagine I could get those too. If they weren't just revolting to the taste.
There might be a catalog of disgusting sweeties from the past. And things that are so far beyond the pale that today's children would run crying to their school counselors if they were confronted with them. Candy cigarettes. Gum cigars. Now it's all red vines and dentally hygienic gums. Pfeh!
Ah, those days of yester, the yoredays of our yute. I remember watching the televsioning machine with it's grainy black and white picture. I remember the Herb Alpert music that was used as the "Teaberry Shuffle" in ads to promote Clark's Teaberry gum.
I just ordered some of the Teaberry gum from Amazon.
I delight in the very idea that all the things that filled the nooks and interstices of our past have not gone away. Videos of ads on uToob, the gum itself. I suppose I could get some of those wax "cola bottles" things, the red wax lips that tasted like ... well, nothing natural to be sure. And what aging child can't forget the dusty snort of flavored sugar drained from a "pixie stick" directly down the throat? I imagine I could get those too. If they weren't just revolting to the taste.
There might be a catalog of disgusting sweeties from the past. And things that are so far beyond the pale that today's children would run crying to their school counselors if they were confronted with them. Candy cigarettes. Gum cigars. Now it's all red vines and dentally hygienic gums. Pfeh!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Coffee Masheen, She Has Arrived
And tomorrow morning, I'm going to be having Kenyan AA as bubbled through the Moccamaster. I like that name. Moccamaster. I am Master of my Mocca!
I'd better stop that. It's starting to sound a little too much like Cornholio.
Are you threatening me? I need mocca for my master!
I'll try to take pictures.
And tomorrow morning, I'm going to be having Kenyan AA as bubbled through the Moccamaster. I like that name. Moccamaster. I am Master of my Mocca!
I'd better stop that. It's starting to sound a little too much like Cornholio.
Are you threatening me? I need mocca for my master!
I'll try to take pictures.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
If You Don't Mind Teh Random
Today's Woot is a random five pack of 15 Christmas card boxes. 75 cards for $4.00 plus $5.00 shipping. If you don't mind taking a chance on the cards (and I have no idea who "Marian Heath" is), that'll probably cover your entire card list for not much scratch.
I tend to look over the 50% reduced cards on December 26 to see if any good ones are left. Yes, I amcheap frugal. It's me Scots blood.
Remember - the link is good for today only.
Today's Woot is a random five pack of 15 Christmas card boxes. 75 cards for $4.00 plus $5.00 shipping. If you don't mind taking a chance on the cards (and I have no idea who "Marian Heath" is), that'll probably cover your entire card list for not much scratch.
I tend to look over the 50% reduced cards on December 26 to see if any good ones are left. Yes, I am
Remember - the link is good for today only.
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