Cheshire Cats - David is Fine!

Whew - the procedure went very smoothly and David is fine. It's amazing how something like this makes you reevaluate life.

We sat in the recovery room grinning like Cheshire Cats. It's an oddly beautiful thing to say all those things you know you'll regret if you leave them unspoken, and then have the urgency of loss removed so suddenly.

For the most part, I live pretty comfortably with death. I've lost a lot of friends and family, some very suddenly. Though I grieve those losses deeply, I accept them as a part of life.

All that said - I am very glad "we have some more time" as David put it.

Waiting Room - Cedars Sinai

I'm sitting in the cardiac catheter lab waiting area. They are doing an angioplasty on my friend David. Due to the variety of health issues he has, the Docs have termed this "very risky." They transferred him here from another hospital, as they didn't even want to try the procedure there.

It's been a weird few days. I am struck by how extremely differently folks react to medical situations.... Some with acceptance, others with horror or avoidance.

My favorite was when David asked our most death phobic friend to witness his advance directive /do not recusitate order. Such a kidder, that David!

Roxio Software wins the Golden Cheeseball!

Ok, so it's Roxio, they of the pre-installed, resource hogging, system crashing bloatware.

I have never had a piece of software made by these people that actually worked - or even ran without crashing my system. So why does it come pre-installed on nearly every windows computer in the world?

The most recent Roxio sponsored fiasco came using their "image transfer wizard". I had just gotten back from a trip to Mexico using a friend's borrowed digital camera. I plugged the sucker into my laptop and Roxio's "wizard" popped up, offering to transfer the files for me. I thought - "OK, I'll give it a whirl." One of the options was "delete files from source when done moving" Sounds good - since I'm giving the camera back - I'm sure he'd like to get this card back clean.

The "wizard" began it's work and I noticed it was naming all the files - "ImportedPicture0001.jpg" etc. Let's stop this process and change that to something more descriptive like PuertoVallarta0001.jpg I clicked cancel - and it stopped the import, but it STILL DELETED ALL THE PHOTOS - without moving them!

Wizardly indeed! Roxio's Image Transfer wizard succeeded in erasing 900 megs of my vacation photos in a twinkling of an eye. Not moved to the recycle bin, not in the tmp directory - just GONE! Thanks Roxio!

Who designed this piece of crap?

Not a mention of the problem on Roxio's "support" website.

The good news is that I was able to recover them using ZAR (Zero Assumption Recovery) Software.

I think it is interesting that computer magazine editors and reporters routinely rate Roxio products as "excellent" while in nearly every forum related to Roxio software the users consistently rate the products from "poor" - to "mediocre" to "appallingly bad".

Must be taking a lot of reporters out to lunch, huh?

Shameless Republican Race Baiting.

Once again the Republicans stoop to race baiting to try to maintain an electoral edge in the South.

Facing questions on displays of the Confederate flag, Huckabee called it a matter of states' rights. "You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag," the former Arkansas governor said in Myrtle Beach. "In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell them what to do with the pole." - LA Times, Jan 19th 2008

While Huckabee's folksy humor is often disarming - it cannot conceal the rising desperation in the "party of old white guys."

America looks less and less like the Republican party. That simple fact is behind the Illinois laws requiring a driver's license to vote. (Now under consideration by the Supreme Court, whose right wing majority have telegraphed their contempt for overturing the clearly unconstitutional measure.)

After forty years of race baiting with the infamous "southern strategy" it is critical for the Republicans to disenfranchise Black and Latino voters. Besides simple racist yahoo-ism, this is an often overlooked factor in the anti-immigraiton drumbeat coming relentlessly from the right.

"If we let them in - they'll vote Democrat!"

As usual, Huckabee comes in firmly on the slimy side...

My Food Blog & Cookbook store.

Folks have been asking about my cookbook store and food blog -

they are at: http://www.theperfectbite.net/

Happy Eating! - Will

CNN Political - James Dobson lauds Huckabee win

This alone is reason to support anyone other than Huckabee!

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - James Dobson lauds Huckabee win « - Blogs from CNN.com

Album Release - Abstract Image - "Red Chateau"

I'm listening to my youngest brother's first album release as I write this, and I really like it.

His band is called Abstract Image and the album is "Red Chateau"

So far my favorite track is "Turquoise".

I expected to most like the one called "Magickal Island Song", for reasons that will be well known to anyone who knows us.

Check it out!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Ah, Christmas in Hollywood.

I'm used to seeing the Hootchi Mama Elves on Hollywood Blvd. (In shop windows and, ahem, working)

This one was in shop window in a mall in Glendale, CA.

Don't ya love California?

Lars and the Real Girl (withTrailer)

This is easily the warmest, most touching movie I've seen all year. Go see this movie, but be prepared - it's not the yuk yuk laff-fest the premise might lead you to expect. I'd describe it as a Capra-esque mash up of Fargo and Mr Deeds goes to Town.

This movie Lars and the Real Girl
seems to me to be a perfect post-modern take on Capra; it's sentimental, sweet, and wry. gently poking fun at peoples expectations of what "normal" is, this is a great holiday season movie. It is, as they say, "life affirming", but minus the spoon feeding of "the message" that often plagues those films.

I was often ridiculed in film school for my deep fondness for Frank Capra. He was too sentimental, too kindly, not ironic or sardonic enough for the post-modern generation.

If you really need sardonic irony, "Lars and the Real Girl" features a blow up "love" doll in nearly every scene to give it the requisite post-punk edge.

Beautifully directed by Craig Gillespie, I'll be surprised if Ryan Gosling doesn't get a best actor nom for this.

View the Lars and the Real Girl - Trailer

Boston police plan to search youths' homes for guns - The Boston Globe

Have you seen this story?

Boston police plan warrentless searches of youths' homes for guns - The Boston Globe

Police in Boston are beginning a program of warrentless searches of the homes of teenagers suspected of owning illegal guns.

Forget Reaganomics, this is the real "trickle down" theory. When those at the top violate our Constitution with reckless disregard then those further down feel justified in doing so as well.

Are you scared by what is happening in America yet?

BRRRRRRRRRRR!

I'm sitting on a train in Florida while they change the engine, we've been here about an hour.

I'm watching as an elderly man with a yellow dog walks by in the field outside. He's sweating, and he stops every fifteen yards or so to mop his brow and fan himself. It's about 95 degrees outside.

I am shivering, trapped inside, wrapped in a blanket and still freezing!

Have you noticed how often in this country public spaces are refrigerated to an absurd level?

I live in Los Angeles, and too often I have to bring sweatshirts to public places; not because it is cold out, but because it is cold in. The last few times I have checked into a hotel, the room's thermostat was set all the way down, at 60 or in one case 50 degrees.

Could we consider cooling rooms to a comfortable 76 degrees? How much electricity would we save annually if we moderated this wretched excess?

Mellencamp song about 'Jena Six' upsets mayor - CNN.com

Mellencamp song about 'Jena Six' upsets mayor - CNN.com

In response to a new video by John Mellencamp decrying the racist incidents in Jena, the town's mayor Murphy R. McMillin was recently quoted by CNN as saying -

"To put the incident in Jena in the same league as those who were murdered in the 1960s cheapens their sacrifice and insults their memory."

So how does the hanging of nooses on a tree called "The White Tree" to keep black students away not put it in the same league? It is clearly meant to invoke the horrific history of lynching, and is a terrorist act. The kids responsible for hanging the nooses should be prosecuted under federal anti - terrorism statutes.

Perhaps if the mayor spoke out against the teenage thugs who hug the nooses rather than those criticizing it we'd have reason to believe him?

"Land o' Goshen Clarabelle, that shore is a purdy frock..."

On the chain of woman's clothing stores called "Dress Barn" the thought strikes me -

Have you ever seen anything as disastrously branded as 'Dress Barn Woman"?

The brand simultaneously evokes the phrases - "big as a barn", "raised in a pigsty", "she's a hefir" , "what a cow", "Soooooeee!" and so many more...

Maybe they were going for a sensible folksy rusticity, but c'mon!

"Land o' Goshen Clarabelle, that shore is a purdy frock..."

I'm just sayin'...

Bush hints at spending more on children's health bill - CNN.com

Bush hints at spending more on children's health bill - CNN.com

Once again the Bush administration is grossly distorting the truth for political gain. According to CNN -

Bush used his radio address to once again make the case that he believes the spending increase sought primarily by Democrats is a step "toward their goal of government-run health care for every American."

"Government-run health care would deprive Americans of the choice and competition that comes from the private market," he said. "It would cause huge increases in government spending."

Not one of the Democratic frontrunners has proposed a plan that would create anything like "government-run health care." All of the leading candidates have proposed plans that leave health care to private practice, but offer a government administered insurance pool for those who choose to use it or cannot obtain or afford private coverage.

You will be free to keep the private coverage you have now. The quality of care we receive will not change, and can be delivered at less cost because private insurers will not be milking the system for their personal profit.

(They will still be free to milk those who choose to stay with for-profit insurers.)

What is really going on here is the sheer panic in the Republican ranks that the tide is turning, that people in the US are sick and tired (literally) of being forced to patronize for profit insurers. That insurance industry is a huge cash cow for Republicans, donating literally billions to them to maintain the seriously broken status quo.

Apple Issues Warning on Hacked iPhones - Newser

Apple Issues Warning on Hacked iPhones - Newser

Apple announced today that the $600, er $400, IPhones which users have hacked to work on cell networks other than AT&T will be destroyed by an upcoming software update. The update will also flag the phones as being ineligible for warranty service.

Let me just say one thing about cellphones - It's time Americans started demanding the ability to change networks as easily as popping in a new chip. The stranglehold of multi-year contracts that cellular carriers have us all locked into is just plain wrong. Instead of punishing their best customers, Apple should be taken to task for their part in perpetuating this madness. People have a right to choose the device and carrier we want, and to change their minds. (See Stephen Levy's article on this in Newsweek - published two weeks after this post.)

One of my friends (a Mac junkie from way back) recently described Macs as the choice of "a young hip generation." I nearly choked laughing. Those are same unique and free hipsters who all rushed out to cover themselves with tribal tattoos and pierce their tounges in the 90's - "I want to be a unique individual just like everybody else." Don't get me wrong, Macs are incredibly well designed computers, and the IPhone is a very cool gadget. But the idea that you are somehow "free" or more creative because you let Apple package, and therefore control every aspect of your life is ridiculous.

Apple's marketing is undeniably brilliant, but totally at odds with their practices in the marketplace. While Microsoft is controlling in the market, Apple is hugely controlling on its users systems. ITunes won't let you play ITunes downloads anywhere except in their software and on their devices. While they are busy strangling their users, Steve Jobs announces "He's opposed to Digital Right Management." This is classic Orwellian double speak, crafted to bolster their carefully constructed image of freedom and creativity.

I've been in the midst of a month long effort to undo the file system carnage that ITunes has done to my carefully constructed music library. I plan to move to an open source system. Though the Ipod is a really cool gadget, my next media player will not be an Apple one. The software roadblocks Apple puts up to keep you locked into slavery to them are amazing.

When will these Apple crazed robots stop drinking the cool aid?

IPhone, no thanks!

MahJong Causes Epilepsy!

This is weird and wonderful - it appears that playing mahjong can cause epilepsy.

(I'd guess it really triggers a preexisting condition, meaning it's not covered under your policy...)

"Epileptic seizures can be provoked by a wide variety of triggers, but one cause increasingly evident to researchers is the playing - or even watching - of mahjong." - BBC News.

Hairspray!

Go see this movie.

Right now!

Stop reading this and go see Hairspray!

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly 20 years since the original John Waters movie came out.

This one features Alison Janney as Prudence Pingleton, and John Waters has a great cameo as the "flasher who lives next door" in the opening number.

I've had a real soft spot in my heart for Nikki Blonsky (who plays Tracy Turnblad) since I met here last year when she was one of the the grand marshals for LA Gay pride.

She leaned in and whispered to me - totally without guile or ego "doing this makes me feel like I am taking a first step toward my career goal of becoming a gay icon."
Completely startled I responded - "First step honey? it means you've arrived!" She grinned and looked like she was going to burst into tears.

I've loved her madly ever since... Plus - she sings her heart out in this movie!

Guliani offers health care plan - New York Times

Giuliani Offers Health Care Plan - New York Times

"Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday offered a consumer-oriented solution to the nation's health care woes that relies on giving individuals tax credits to purchase private insurance. Critical to Giuliani's plan is a $15,000 tax deduction for families to buy private health insurance, instead of getting insurance through employers...

...The former New York mayor said as more people buy plans, insurers will drop their prices, making insurance affordable to those who lack it now."

I'm curious, on what planet will private insurers drop their prices because they are selling more?

This is the critical flaw of so many of the "health care" plans that are in the offing - they don't address providing health care, but instead want to provide health care "coverage" through private insurers. When was the last time your "coverage" actually covered something without attempting to exclude, co-pay, or otherwise transfer the expense to you, the customer? (Assuming you are "lucky" enough to have coverage at all.)

The insurance industry is full of crooks and thieves*, and the government has virtually abandoned attempts to regulate it on behalf of consumers.

How did we get to the state in this country where people's suffering is a virtually unregulated fountain of profit for big corporations? We got there in large part due to Ronald Reagan, who set about dismantling government oversight in nearly every aspect of American life under the disingenuous rubric of "big government is bad."
______________________________________


*Crooks and thieves can be loosely translated in this context as folks with MBA's. Business schools have virtually destroyed every industry in which their graduates work due to an essentially flawed model. See the excellent article on business sustainability, efficiency and redundancy in this months Mother Jones.

How sweet is this?

While visiting Provincetown I bicycled past this house each day. Doesn't it look like an Edward Hopper painting?

I totally fell in love with this house, which was built in 1870. It is right on the Cape Cod Bay waterfront in the East End of town.

Pity it's on the market for nearly 3 million dollars though...

Yikes!

Center Theatre Group Brings Kids to Live Theatre