In college, and my 2nd [sic] job out of college, I was a news reporter. That followed a few years working as the Sports Editor (and Photographer) of my high school paper (The Eastern Eagle) where I also learned to use a 35mm camera. Maybe that's why photography and writing are such second nature to me. Pity I never learned to type correctly.
During the work week, I commonly wake at 5am or so. I've had an insomnia problem for the past several years. Not sure if a doctor could help.
My Morning Ritual involves walking outside to fetch the Dallas Morning News™ - DMN off the lawn (it's there waiting for me, most mornings). There are times when I've gone outside at 4am and it wasn't there yet, so I watched through a window until I spotted a slow-moving car (with emergency flashers blinking) and heard the telltale [plop] as the paper hit the lawn. Now this is excitement in The Big City. Even more excitement when I go outside to find the sprinklers on, but that's another story.
While I have a sidewalk that goes from the house to the street, the DMN carrier rarely hits it. Today, the paper was 9 paces frm the sidewalk. Yeah, I count them. His end-of-year tip depends on how many days he hits the sidewalk in 365 days. For Calendar Year - CY 2003, he's 1 for 190.
BTW, the DMN is known locally as the Dallas Managed News (I'll explain that later)
Another step in My Morning Ritual involves giving my dog (Beta) a pill for healthy skin and a shiny coat. I like Derm-Renu™, made by a company in Fort Worth (30 miles away). However, I can no longer find their product in the local stores (it was available at Petco™ but they dropped it). So, now I order it from a company 1500 miles away, in California, because I found it on their web site (thanks, Google™). Go figure. Will have to call Virbac AH (817-831-5044) to inquire if there's someone closer, Real Soon Now.
I'm boycotting PetSmart ever since they put (former Dallas mayor) Ron Kirk on their board of directors.
I was -amazed- that Wikipedia had Metroplex in the search engine, but not as a term. So, I just added it: Wiki: Metroplex
There's lots of stuff in the DMN each day, and here are a couple things that caught my eye today (some for later web browsing, some just to discern how I think - a scary thought). They're in no particular order.
- YoungGayAmerica.com (caveat: I'm straight but have many friends, some of whom are gay (some still in the closet)). This article says that gay teens are really not discriminated against, and do not commit suicide. I'm leery.
- article: Visions of summer: Find joy in the season's hidden beauty (photography article with way cool photos, requires free registration on the DMN web site)
- Singles Groups are listed in Texas Living section (1st Saturday?) .. gotta see if any of these interest me (I scanned the list and downloaded it to my Palm a few months ago .. it hasn't changed since then). There are 23 groups listed.
- movie candidate: Owning Mahowny, playing @ the Inwood
- A study by Nucleus Research shows email spam reduces productivity by 1.4%, costs the average company $874/employee/year. I downloaded the 3 page PDF and was amused to see "The average employee receives 13.3 spam messages per day" and spends 6.5 minutes dealing with it .. I guess I'm not average, since I get much more than that. The vast majority of my spam lands in my Inbox at work; I use a company-wide filter which traps a lot, but not enough. SBC+Yahoo does a credible job of keeping it out of my Inbox at home; even so, I check my inbox using their Web Mail app first, before I download anything.
- Richard Alm article: Sports still a hot ticket here
- 93 people sworn in as US citizens yesterday at Old City Park including an Iraqi (Ahmad Aljaberi). I'm adding Old City Park to my list (Palm) of Culture To See In Dallas.
- TheSmokingGun.com
- savedallaswater.com campaign: today's item - soaker hoses
- fireworks explosion Friday in Kilgore TX (115 miles east of here) kills 3, severe damage to 6 homes
- redesigned BMW 5-series debuts in Europe, will be in the USA by autumn (I drive a 330Ci, aka E46)
- Takeru Kobayashi won his (6th-in-7 years) hot dog eating contest on Coney Island (44.5 Nathan's Famous hot dogs in 12 minutes)
- Iran's Shahab-3 missile can reach Israel (Haaretz paper)
- Letters (to the editor). After reading this, I have to keep asking myself if all Texans are idiots, or just the ones who write?
- Leonard Pitts (Miami Herald columnist) opines re www.donotcall.gov (I emailed him about The Magic Words:)
Hi, Leonard.
I spotted your column about the donotcall.gov web site in today's
Dallas Morning News.
For several years, I've been using The Magic Words to deal with
telemarketers: PLEASE REMOVE ME FROM YOUR LIST.
It's amazing how well that works, and is a near-permanent solution (I
have yet to get another call from a telemarketer after using those 6
words). Yes, I too signed up for the national list, via the web site.
But I get so few calls anymore that I'm not expecting to notice any
changes.
Some people say "I'm not interested" TWICE (at which point the
telemarketer will go away) but that's only good for THAT CALL. The
Magic Words work for that, and all subsequent calls. Try it!
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