FINALLY!!!!

Finally, a Congressman possessing courage!

Denis Kucinich may look as goofy as they come, but the fact that he's not a Robert Redford lookalike should not matter. This motion ought to be strongly supported by anybody that cares at all for the USA.

While I don't expect anything, I fervently hope this action receives the mainstream media coverage it deserves.

1.20.09, but who's counting?

Yet more about the 2004 "Election" (or theft, to use the more accurate term)

Tragically, it seems our country doesn't really care that the current cabal that has hijacked and horribly damaged the country didn't really win the 2004 election either. I've seen many, many articles detailing all of the evidence showing GWB couldn't have possibly won in 2004 (or 2000, for that matter), yet none ever seem to get mainstream press coverage. Hell, Rolling Stone had a few cover stories about this, and it still seems under the radar. I don't get it, but I'll do whatever I can to spread the word.

PLEASE, read this article:
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2553

To stay informed, you should also visit http://www.blackboxvoting.org occasionally.

THINK, it's good for you.

Things I've Learned Over the Past 24 Hrs., Vol. 2

1) LogMeIn-ITReach is an amazing product. I'm very, very tempted to purchase it and use it to support many of my freelance clients. Mom - if you're reading this, I'll probably try to use this to help with your printer problem.

2) I just solved a maddening problem involving Outlook Express 6. On this particular system, when trying to print a message from within OE6, the message would print out the HTML code that comprised the message, rather than the properly formatted message.

I found countless pages online telling me to disassociate .tmp from Notepad. These were all very old pages, and this solution was inapplicable to the involved system. I also came across many pages explaining how to solve the problem wherein OE6 doesn't print the headers to an email. Well, the headers were printing perfectly fine, thankyouverymuch.

I finally found a suggestion to reset Internet Explorer to the default web browser. I did that, and all of a sudden email messages printed with the proper formatting, and no longer included all of the HTML code in the printout. Unfortunately, the problem of the missing headers is now present. Fortunately, that problem is much more widely discussed online, there are a few workarounds, MS is aware of the problem, and has a hotfix available by request. I've requested it, and hopefully the new problem will be fixed once I receive the file from Microsoft.

Good night.

So, I just heard Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys....

And got to thinking about the old pop song 'Bomb Iran', that was such a big Flash In The Pan almost 30 years ago.

When the song was popular in the late-70's, I liked it a lot, and was all for bombing Iran. Of course, I was only 10 or 11 years old, so I'm curious how more mature, intelligent folks felt about things.

Before the current embarrassing mess with Iraq began a few years ago, I was against starting a war with Iraq, but not entirely sure about that. I'm now very much against starting an additional war against Iran.

I see 2 likely reasons for my different feelings on the matter then, and now.

Back then, I was very young, uninformed, and easily swayed by jingoistic hype. There is a second, valid explanation, as well. Iran had actually done something directly aggressive to the United States, something that was provocative and deserving of retaliation. In contrast, Iraq hadn't provoked the US in 2003, and Iran hasn't attacked us yet in current times.

I wasn't intelligently aware of world affairs in the late-1970s, however, so I'm still wondering how mature and wise adults felt about things then. I suspect they would have been against military action. If anybody reading this was a "grown-up" then, care to share your memories?

Man exits the proverbial cave, discovers the charm of Zelda

Long, long ago (mid-1980's), in a galaxy far, far away (friend's apartments, Baton Rouge, LA), I played the original 'The Legend Of Zelda' videogame on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This game was enormously popular, and within the videogame playing universe the conventional wisdom held that Zelda was an excellent game. Ground-breaking, wonderful, entertaining, etc... Pick a superlative, and it's likely the word was applied to Zelda by somebody somewhere.

Well, I played the game, and whatever the appeal was, I missed it. I truly didn't "get" the game. It seemed to me that the game was nothing more than wandering around, and occasionally running into some minor on-screen opponent that you'd have to engage in combat, and the combat was far too easy.

According to the Zelda webpage linked to above, the game was released in 1987. I began playing videogames when Pong arrived, in the early-1970's. So for about 15 years I'd been playing videogames before encountering Zelda. In fairness, Zelda was substantially different in a lot of ways from most of the games that preceeded it. Well, I *liked* the games I'd been playing for over half my life, and I didn't really like Zelda.

The games I liked were fast-paced, hand-eye coordination challenges. I liked games like Spy Hunter, Xevious, Star Castle, Berzerk, Marble Madness, and Defender. All of the games I liked were adrenaline-pumping and heart-racing - Zelda was a leisurely stroll through various screens. I found it BORING.

I was mature enough to recognize that the game must surely have merit, but I just didn't understand or appreciate it myself. Curiously, I liked the Atari VCS game Adventure a lot, and the fundamentals of Zelda are similar to Adventure. (BTW, if you liked Adventure also, and if you have an Atari 5200, Adventure II is on the verge of release. Check it out here.)

Since that time, there have been many other Zelda games. (According to the Zelda website I referred to, there have been 14 additional Zelda games.) I never bothered to try any of them, and many have been highly praised and quite popular.

---

When the latest Zelda game arrived in December 2006 I read a lot of praise online about the game. I'd been thinking about picking it up to try it out, and debating whether I should get the Gamecube version, or wait and get the Wii version once I get a Wii.

Then, on March 30, I stopped at my friend Joe's store, Digital Press, for the latest NAVA meeting. While there, I purchased a copy of Zelda, The Wind Waker for my Gamecube. For the last couple of weeks Nate and I have been having a blast playing this game.

Sunday evening Nate got in trouble and the game was banned for this week, but until then we were plowing through the game and having a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to resuming play this Sunday.

I may be late to the party, but I'm enjoying it thoroughly.

Things I've learned over the last 24 hours, Vol.1

1) If Windows XP is installed to a PC running Windows Vista, and you are careful to install XP to a seperate, unused partition, so as to not damage Vista, then, upon completion, you can no longer boot Vista. ** Vista No Longer Uses The Boot.ini File. ** The CORRECT way to do this is to install XP FIRST, then Vista.

SOLUTION to the problem, if you've already done the damage:
a) Run a Vista repair install.
b) In Vista, download and install a program called EasyBCD (currently v1.52)
c) Use EasyBCD to add a boot entry for Windows XP, allowing you to repair the XP boot option that was removed when Vista was repaired.

2) Lexmark Optra S1250, or other Optra S-series printer giving error 241 paper jams?
           The problem is most likely caused by worn pick-up rollers on the bottom of the printer, positioned over the paper tray. When the rollers get worn, they no longer are able to pick the paper up from the tray. Rather than trying to find and order replacement rollers, and then wait for the rollers to arrive, you can fix the problem yourself in about 2 minutes:
a) remove the paper tray and toner cartridge, then turn the printer on it's side so you can easily see the bottom.
b) visually locate the rollers - there are 2, and they look like off-white rubber cylinders, about 1.5 inches long.
c) Pull the rollers off the metal spindle they are on.
d) Turn the rollers inside-out.
e) Replace them on the spindles, place the printer back right-side-up, replace the toner and paper-tray, and congratulate yourself on saving the printer service fee.

I Don't Like Change. I Don't Like Change. I DON'T LIKE CHANGE.

In mid-'98 I moved from Metairie, LA to New Jersey and took a job with what would probably be called a dot-com company. Things with the company are rocky right now, and I'm considering leaving. I used to love working with this company, but things changed.

In mid-'98, all things considered, I enjoyed life, I was proud to be an American, and I think we had it pretty good in America. Diebold happened in 2000 & 2004, and things changed.

In mid-'99 I bought a house, and simultaneously signed up for Speakeasy DSL Internet service, which I've had continuously since then. My SE service is slower and more expensive than Comcast cable or Verizon DSL service, but the service/support and liberal Terms of Service are so refreshing and outstanding that I've done nothing but rave about Speakeasy for the 8 years I've been a customer. Last spring I cancelled my Verizon phone service and moved my home phone service over to the Speakeasy DSL line as well. Then, this morning I received an email from Speakeasy informing me that Best Buy has bought SE. According to the email, nothing will change. I don't believe it. I'm willing to give the new, Best Buy-owned Speakeasy a chance, if for no other reason than changing will be a major pain, but I expect things to change for the worse over the next 6 months to a year.

I Don't Like Change. In fact, I'm thinking I ought to make that the name of this blog.

There is a potential upside to this, though. My neighbor recently got Verizon FIOS. For $99/month, he's getting digital TV to 2 different TVs in his home, VOIP, and unprecedently fast Internet service. For a while I've wondered if maybe I should cancel SE and get cable or Verizon, in order to spend less and get faster service, but I always stuck with SE for the less mainstream benefits - liberal TOS, 2 static IPs, competent and friendly tech support, news servers, free national dial-up, etc.... If SE begins to suck and eliminates all of those benefits, I'll simply grab FIOS and save money while surfing at much higher speeds. Things could be worse.

Saved from watching yet another TV show.

A few minutes ago my lovely wife Jessica called me while on her way home, to ask me to record a television show for her. Specifically, CSI:Miami.

Now, I don't really care for police dramas, and it seems that lately there is ALWAYS at least one episode of Law & Order or CSI running on some channel or another. However, I grudgingly moved my lazy butt to the den and recorded the show for her. There was no time to program the VCR, so I turned the TV on to CBS and waited the 2 minutes for the show to begin, so I could use Instant Record and tape the full hour automatically.

The result is that I was watching as the show began, and saw the bit before the opening credits roll. Now, as I said above, I don't usually like police shows, and CSI is no exception. I have minimal interest in watching these shows, and never seek them out.

The beginning of this episode began to hook me, however. The scene was interesting, and I started thinking about carrying the laptop and AC Adapter into the den so I could watch the show as I worked and browsed the web. Then, just before the credits rolled and the commercials aired, the star of the show, that guy from NYPD Blue, opened his mouth and said a few typically 'smug'n'smarmy' lines, and I remembered why I never want to watch this particular show.

Thank you Mr. Caruso, for sparing me the desire to waste an additional hour of my life in front of the boob tube.*


*For those of us that really do want to see boobs, why can't the boob tube return to the old-fashioned glory days of Jiggle-TV, like Three's Company and Charlie's Angels? 8-) The only boobs that frequent TV nowadays seem to be on CSpan or Fox 'News'.

Take it down to a bite-size chunk.

Climate Change.

Major Pet Peeve: The proper term for the environmental changes occurring right now is CLIMATE CHANGE, **NOT** Global Warming.

When the process is called Global Warming, it frames the situation such that it can easily be disputed by unseasonably cold or snowy weather, when, in fact, extreme climate swings in both directions are occurring.

Now, aside from pedantry, what's the point of this post? I had an idea this morning. As a child, I recall there were frequent occasions in Sunday School Hebrew School, or other synagogue-related events where donations were solicited to plant trees in Israel. I could easily be mistaken, but I believe that this organized program soliciting American Jewry to donate funds to Israel, specifically for large-scale planting and production of TREES in Israel, played a large part in transforming Israel to a vibrant oasis capable of self-sustenance.

Now, I read something this morning about the USA refusing to sign some treaty, having something to do with trees having an effect in combatting climate change. (Aside: I was unsure of the proper spelling for combatting - one t or two? Turns out, www.dictionary.com lists both spellings. Some authority.) I depressingly filed that article under 'more of the same' and didn't pursue it. But it sparked an idea related to the idea of planting trees in Israel 30 years ago.

The whole climate change crisis seems awfully daunting and overwhelming to me, and probably most other folks. Practically speaking, I've got pretty much all I can handle just keeping my day-to-day life together and my mortgage paid. I don't have the resources to erect solar panels on my roof, as much as I'd love to lower my monthly utility payments. I'm not prepared to trade in my V6 Station Wagon (indulgent, I know, but I love the car) on a $25k Prius, and can't lose the functionality of my wife's minivan.

BUT, I can probably plant an additional tree in my backyard.

I doubt it would solve the problem on it's own, and would undoubtedly just be a small part of a larger solution, but maybe if large numbers of people, all over the world, made a committment to simply plant one tree somewhere, maybe that could help.

And if some capable group organized a legitimate effort to solicit tree-planting world-wide, so much the better.

As for me, I'll just try to plant the tree near the edge of my yard, so the leaves land closer to the curb, minimizing the additional raking I need to do every fall.

Sign Of The Times

What some call Bush-bashing, others call THINKING.

Nigerian Dwarf Goats For Sale

A lot of ground's been crossed since my last entry, so this will likely end up being a pretty lengthy post.

Our plan to leave NJ on Wednesday evening was tweaked to have us leave NJ Thursday morning. As things worked out, we finally hit the road sometime around 1:00PM Thursday afternoon. Feeling good about finally hitting the road, we confidently began our route as plotted by those helpful computers over at Expedia. The first substantial leg of our journey had us cross most of Pennsylvania on Interstate 78.

Soon after we started our trip we began seeing signs on the side of the highway stating that I78 was closed at PA Rt. 100. No reason was offered. When we entered PA, we stopped at the Welcome Center to ask about the closure. The Welcome Center employee at the desk was not entirely welcoming, and wouldn't tell us why the road was closed, or offer an suggested alternative routes. He could barely be bothered to help us find the maps stacked on the counter somewhere amidst scores of marketing brochures. Eventually I found the maps, took one, and we left.

I tried to devise an alternative route using the PA Highway map. Normally I'm pretty good at this. For whatever reason, I was having a lot of trouble finding a satisfactory east-west route across Pennsylvania last week, using the map I had.

We proceeded very slowly across PA, using very slow-moving two-lane roads. Crossing many rural areas of Pennsylvania on these non-Interstate roads, I was exposed to several entertaining signs. The first I saw was painted on the back of an eighteen-wheeler. I am by no means mockingn the message. In fact, I respect and admire it a little bit: "Life is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God." The messages grew weirder from there. The other messages I saw were:

• Are you living slightly left to living right? -- this was Jess' favorite.


• Ye who lives after the flesh shall die. - As opposed to those that don't? This was my favorite, and the most 'mock-worthy' sign we saw.

Finally, a non-religious sign that took the cake for weirdness: Nigerian Dwarf Goats for sale.

After a few hours slogging through the state highways of PA, we returned to I78, where we almost immediately saw a sign stating that the exit to I-81 was closed. I-81 was our next leg, so we exited I-78 and returned to the map, again looking for alternatives. Within about 15 minutes I noticed on the map that weren't close to I-81 yet, and decided we would return to 78 and stay there until we got near 81, and would then worry about how to get to 81 from 78 at the closed exit.

Turns out, the exit wasn't closed when we reached it, and from there the trip proceeded smoothly. More later.

Liftoff delayed.

Sadly, as it turns out we aren't leaving NJ tonight. In a few minutes I'm going to pack the van, and then go to bed.

The new plan is for us to hit the road first thing tomorrow morning.

Still excited to get to N.O., though.

Important reading...

$110B for Katrina recovery? Oh really?

http://www.first-draft.com/2007/02/when_a_110_bill.html

T-Minus about 24 hours.

Tomorrow evening, about this time, we ought to be pulling out of our driveway and heading for relative warmth, friendly crowds, and mobs of people chanting 'Throw Me Something, Mister!". For the first time since migrating to the hostile Northeast in '98, I'm returning to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

My suitcase is packed. The laptop bag & camcorder are packed and by the front door. Our digital camera batteries are charged.

For the first time since I was a little kid, and truthfully the first time I can even remember, I plan on dressing up for Mardi Gras. A week from today, I will be Anthony, the hungry Wiggle.

Words can't describe how much I want this vacation. I am extremely eager to pack the car and hit the road. My workday tomorrow will seem to progress so slowly it's possible time will flow backwards. But boy, once I hit my hometown, things should be excellent.

There simply isn't enough time for me to do all the things I want to, which really means to eat at all the places I want to eat. There's a CBD grill I discovered last July (don't recall the name) when I went down for my high school reunion. Danny & Clyde's for a good Po' Boy, followed up next door at Casey's for the best snowballs. (Pay no attention to the uptown snobs that swear by Hansen's - Casey's is tops.) Bud's Broiler, for a #4 with Hickory Smoke Sauce and onions. Camellia Grill's Chef Special omellette. Anything from Cafe Paniche. Harbor Seafood. Deanie's. Whatever Al Copeland is doing now. Cooter Brown's Cheese Fries. Daiquiries.

Oh, and then there's King Cakes, almost forgot about them!

I can't wait for Nate and Maren to witness Endymion, or to bring them to daytime parades on Veteran's Ave.

Swingin' at Mid City Rock N' Bowl.

I just can't wait for this trip.

Naturally, I'll have to spend tomorrow morning clearing snow from our sidewalks, driveway, and cars. That's Nature/Fate/God's way of reminding me what the great Northeast is like, lest I forget it while enjoying the mid-50's evenings in New Orleans.

To quote the Animals, "We gotta get outta this place...."

Clever little blog-game.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 161.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

[ "Hey Deanie," another Carmen song, hit #7 in 1978, but followups sank. ]

The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll - ISBN# 0-684-81044-1

Found at http://scavgraphics.livejournal.com

Either the mainstream's nuts, or I'm dense.

Truly, I think I'm just dense in this case.

For what seems like at least two weeks now, the US political news has discussed a resolution being debated in Congress that, if I understand it correctly, would state for the record that Congress is opposed to the Bush administrattion's Iraq Troop Surge, and that Congress is critical of the handling of the Iraq 'war'.

Many news reports are discussing this issue. Many House and Senate members are spending a lot of time and effort on the issue.

I Don't Get It. This is a NON-BINDING resolution. IT DOESN'T DO ANYTHING. This would be like me telling somebody about to vote for a Republican "I think you're wrong." They aren't likely to change their vote. No penalties or ramifications occur.

I really don't see the point of a non-binding resolution, especially one that concerns important matters like this. It's not as though Congress is declaring they don't like the shade of green that Utica, Mississippi chose to paint a gazebo in a park.

What possible benefit can there be to something so meaningless, and why would allegedly intelligent Congress-critters spend so much time on this?

Over the last several years I've become more and more convinced that education is a curse, and being clueless and uninterested about world affairs is probably key to being happy. (And, apparently, key to becoming President as well.)

bits and flotsam....

Current mood = dreary.

Job still stinks. No calls back from the previous interviews yet.

Worked at my favorite client site today - 9 hours, still haven't solved the problem I was called in to fix yet.

Bought groceries, came home, had leftover chinese and an Abita Purple Haze.

Watched the last 30 minutes of Star Trek Voyager. I haven't watched Voyager in years. When it was current, I watched the first few seasons, and decided it was without a doubt the worst Star Trek series made. Tonight I gave it another chance. It's as bad as I remembered.

Now, I've just started watching Scrubs, a show I only recently discovered via syndication. Scrubs is an excellent show. However, in keeping with the theme, I've seen this Scrubs episode already, and I've only been watching the show for a few weeks.

Kids just came home. Gotta run.

Nate's 6th Birthday

Yesterday, January 13, 2007, Nathan turned 6 years old. I woke up around 6:45AM, and puttered on the computer for a little while, while the rest of the house slept. At around 7:15, Nate came down and greeted me. In honor of his birthday, I showed him a Mickey Mouse Gamecube game I'd bought last week (Disney's Magical Mirror). It was pretty bad, as is usually the case with licensed games, but we gave it a shot.

I thought that maybe Nate would like the game, as he's younger and therefore might be a less discriminating gamer, but soon after we began, Nate also decided the game was pretty bad, and we took the disc out and put it away.


We then put in Chibi Robo. Chibi Robo is a cute little game where your character is a 4-inch tall robot, whose mission in life is to make the Sanderson family happy. You do this but giving the daughter flowers, cleaning the house, etc...
It's actually a fun game, and Nate took a liking to it as soon as all of the introductory clips ended and he was able to actually do things.

After an hour-and-a-half or so of playing videogames, we went for breakfast. Nate wanted it to be a guys-only event, so we let Maren and Mom sleep in, and the two of us drove to Friendly's. It being Nate's birthday, he had a large pancake with M&M's mixed in the batter, and a hot chocolate with whipped cream. The Friendly's folks gave Nate a Happy Birthday balloon, and then we went home.

We collected Maren and Jessica and drove to Jessica's parent's new apartment, where we collected the two of them and Jessica's sister, Elissa. The seven of us proceeded to drive about 45 minutes North, to visit Jessica's Poppie Jim. We visited Poppie for a little while, watched the beginning of the Colts/Ravens game, and then left to go home. On the way back home we picked up some Chinese food for dinner, and ate it at Jess' parent's place, while Nate and Maren ran around and we watched the beginning of the Saints/Eagles game. After dinner, Jessica, Maren, Nate and I drove home. As the second quarter of the Saints game ended, we pulled in to the driveway.

Jess put Nate to bed, I put Maren to bed, and watched the end of the game. As Nate's birthday came to an end, I began updating this blog (see the multiple posts below), and went to bed.

Nate's Birthday. - will recap tomorrow.

So much to say, so little time. It's almost 2am, and I'm wiped out. I wanted to post about Nate's birthday today, but the last two posts took longer than I anticipated, so I'll catch you all up tomorrow.

GO SAINTS!!!!

For those of you not partying on Bourbon Street right now, Good Night. Pleasant Dreams.

Hanging with Nathan.

I've been pretty busy lately, and have neglected the blog. This post can serve as a sort of recap, as well as a photo show of sorts.

I mentioned earlier this month that I took 12 days off from work at the end of the year. During that time, on December 28, I went with Nate into NYC for a daytrip. We took the train, because Nate loves taking the train into New York. We had a hot dog & a Knish from a street vendor. We did a lot of walking around, in addition to riding the subway. We walked through Grand Central Station. All of those activities were fun, and a part of the package, but our main objective on this visit was to see a model train exhibit in the Citigroup Center.

The model train exhibit was definitely worth the trip, and very, very impressive. Imagine an elaborate model train set-up you've seen. This one most likely blew it away. In one section of the 'town' there was a Drive-In Movie Theatre, with a packed lot of customers, watching a real movie! That is to say, there was an actual moving picture on the screen (something black and white, as the setting was the 50's, I believe).

There were 4 sides to the exhibit, each gracefully flowing into the other, and each representing a distinct season. There was also a day/night cycle, with appropriate lighting changes, and neat neon lights, signs, and billboards that lit up the night. There were even animated neon signs like you would see on a Main Street, or in Times Square.

I took several pictures and videos, but unfortunately most didn't come out very well.

Pics from our NYC Adventure, December, 2006:

Nate on platform as our train approaches
the Montclair State University station:



Nate & I playing with our camera's
'self-portrait' setting while on the train:



Outside Macy's:




The Holiday Light Show in Grand Central Station:



Nate on the Grand Central Station Subway platform:




The Model Train Exhibit:

       



   




In front of the subway map,
on our way home: