Voluntary Simplicity

A few weeks ago, I participated in an eight (8) week discussion group: "Voluntary Simplicity". This is the one created by the Northwest Earth Institute. While there was certainly too much information to cover in a single blog entry, suffice it to say that it reinforced many of the things I've taken to heart in the past several years: reduction of clutter; efficient time planning; being green; and the Evils of American Society.

Okay, so I made up that last one .. at least, renamed it. That's because the terms used in the reading material sugar-coated the phenomenon: egregious American consumerism, where we're trained to be lifetime gluttons about most everything. So many people fall into the lifetime trap of buying/buying/buying stuff they don't need to impress people they barely know. And guess what - many of us that are the potential impressees come away with the opposite impression: that you're an IDIOT when you live above your means and buy Stuff just to have More Stuff.

I've seen truly amazing (read: disgusting) examples. One friend-of-a-friend lived in a ~5000 square foot house which was not only packed wall-to-wall with Stuff but also floor-to-ceiling. There were precarious paths leading from room to room, and I felt as if I was in an Antique Mall that was designed to pack items so close together that the patrons couldn't avoid breaking something (ca-ching!).

Some families have 5+ children (gag) and need an SUV to transport them, but many don't .. and have large, wasteful vehicles that are used for everything. Those families each need a Smart car, or a Honda Fit, or something equally gas-friendly for 98% of their trips. I've never bought the argument that Big Vehicles Make You Safe, since my theory is that they make you into a Sloppy driver who takes excessive risks because You're The Big Dog and who cares if I crush The Little Dog?

Noteworthy-but-unrelated: as I've driven around the past few weeks, I notice that few drivers are bothering to slow down to conserve fuel. Many of them are either incapable of changing their leadfoot habits, or have the same moronic attitude I saw with snow/ice drivers here - the idea that if you drive faster, you'll get through the ordeal faster. As a rule, the larger the vehicle, the more likely it is to be going 20+ miles over the limit. Dallas remains The Place To Be if you want to speed anytime and never be pulled over - enforcement here is a joke.

To be sure, even I (gasp!) have room to improve, but I'm trying. Example: my CD rack hasn't been touched in a couple years, ever since I dumped everything to the iPod. My book collection's still massive and I'm coming to grips with the concept of giving away books (to a charity such as a local Veterans Administration hospital) rather than let them languish on the shelf, never to be re-read. I no longer buy trinkets of any sort, since those are destined to be dust collectors. Yes, I take lots of photos, but carefully organize them on my home network -- without taking up more physical space (I almost never get prints - aside from samples I printed years ago so my walls wouldn't be blank).

Via the local Freecycle group, I've given away some specific things but surely need to advertise Stuff I'm no longer using. The alternative is a Garage Sale, but I don't need the hassle involved with that, since my goal is merely to get rid of excess Stuff. You know, to Simplify.

shopping online: observations

I read an item on the Usability Sciences site: Shipping Options positively impact Retail Websites which attempts to explain why so few people (7%, in their study) who enter a website make purchases. I'm not sure they got it right.

To be sure, there are many cases where I (virtually) wandered around an online store and didn't buy anything. There are other times where I've bought something and never returned (example: Uneetee's low-quality T-shirts). I suspect one thing online merchants aren't considering is how easy it is to compare vendors while online. This is something that's much harder in the B&M world, absent an army of friends with cellphones shopping for the same item simultaneously.

A friend of mine explained The Secret of Retail to me this way: If you don't have it, get it. If you do have it, sell it (quickly). Unwritten: if you can't sell it, get rid of it and make way for something that will sell. All sounds simple, but it's not -- consumers are fickle.

I've often browsed an online store and found something I like. My next step is to open a new browser tab to compare bottom-line prices (shipping plus sales tax). Some shopping bots make this easier than others (I continue to admire the simplicity of the "Total price" column on shopper.cnet.com); the savings can be significant. Nor do I always buy from the lowest-price vendor: a low rating will send me scurrying away, while a seller in a nearby state may get my business versus one at either coast (shipping times). Frequently, I will wait for The Exact Model to be in stock.

Once I'm convinced the merchant is reputable and the final price is acceptable, I make my purchase and abandon the e-shopping cart in the other browser tab. I'm then nothing more than a Lost Business Statistic, since there's no analysis of why I didn't buy (odds are high that I wouldn't take the time to explain myself - life is too short). The online merchant is left bewildered (often "clueless"), but no more so than most B&Ms (absent the rare occasion where a clerk asks "did you find everything you want?" -- and really meant it).

One of the most egregious examples of this has to be Amazon Marketplace (the "used and new" merchant selector). Example: given a random shopping cart full of ten books I'm left to attempt combining - manually - my orders so as to minimize the default impact of paying ten shipping charges to ten different vendors. What would be Real Sweet (are you listening, Geoff?) is if I could automagically find a bottom-line price for all books in my cart. IMHO, Amazon Marketplace got it backwards - I'm left to choose the vendor first, then the product. Honestly, I seldom care who's selling to me, as long as they meet my reliability specs.

True, some books may be a dollar more here than there, but this is offset by a reduction in total shipping charges, and presumably fewer parcels en route to me. I would much rather get one box than ten, scattered across 5 days. There's a market out there for an aggregator for Amazon Marketplace, to fix this problem.

Bottom line? I suspect what I'm seeking is some sort of [x]Minimize Vendors button which would give me no more than 3 options:

$100 gets 5 books from Vendor A, 3 from vendor B and 2 from vendor C;
$110 gets 8 books from Vendor D and 2 from Vendor B;
$120 gets all 10 books from an aggregator.

Unspoken Fourth Option:

$140 gets 10 books from 10 vendors (the Amazon Marketplace default)

Granted there is a lot of work to be done here, since the quality of those Used Pre-owned Books may vary wildly by vendor, depending on inventory - yes, I understand that. Would (m)any people other than me find this useful? Unknown. For many years, I have used an e-merchant's Wish List to hold books or CDs for which I didn't want immediate gratification. In some cases, I'm waiting for the price to fall (why pay $75 for a new book when I might find a used one for $25 in 2 months' time?) while in other cases I'm simply trying to minimize the total shipping costs.

Anecdotally, I've noticed that shipments to me via FedEx has become erratic in the past few months; their predicted arrival date is often off by two days or more, while UPS has been spot-on. Is this a trend?

can you spell "brrrrrr" ?

It's a three-dog night here, temperatures dropping to the low 20s(F). Gotta git me 2 more dogs, I reckon. I recently installed new weatherstripping around two of my outside doors, where the old stuff had worn thin. Good timing, huh?

Speaking of timing, I have to wonder about Dubya's hair color. Now, 6+ years into His Debacle, He's starting to realize that 93.6% of the world's population Knows. We're onto the fact that He finally figured out that This Presidency Thing isn't just another big joke from His college fraternity days, something to add to His resume. Still, His incessant condescendence and smirking send me over the edge every time I see His face on the telly. His I-Am-Still-The-Decider mantra remains apalling, yet not surprising, given His reaction to the recent Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward - A New Approach. I secretly get a thrill by seeing the pain on His face each time He tries to avoid reality. Fascinating.

I just have to wonder if He has yet realized that the democratization of Iraq can never work*. Democracies (appear to - correct me if I'm wrong) require the "cooperation" of your neighbors. Here in the USA, we're bordered by Canada and Mexico. Iraq, OTOH, is bordered by countries that are not democracies and have no desire to go down that road. What on earth would persuade Iran, Syria and (Saudi) Arabia to endorse a style of government that would mean the demise of their own? I don't get it.

* unless He listens to Belacqua Jones (example: Send the Iraq Study Group home; victory in Iraq is within our grasp.

Entertaining read: Diane McWhorter's Unmentionable lessons of the midterm aftermath.

PS to Raul: yes, I updated Sundry on Thursday. You can now rest easier.

a smoking turd blossom behind every tree?

There was an interesting item over on Texas Kos today: Is MSM Still Spinning For GOP, Against Democrats? which did resonate with me.

For many years (12?) the mainstream media [MSM] have been using the Republicans' code words (see George Lakoff's splendid book "Don't Think of an Elephant") at every opportunity, and now, just a few days after the election, CBS News (which I've been TiVo'ing for awhile) was ready to write off the Democrats - specifically incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - after her pick for House Majority Leader was voted down. Sure, maybe she could've smelled the votes and then backed only the likely winner, but isn't that just catering to Ochlocracy?

I'm not sure if the other MSM outlets (NBC; ABC; CNN) were parroting the same talking points, or if A Sinister Force was behind it all. Am I turning into a Conspiracy Nut who sees Karl Rove behind every corner?

how to boil a frog

Wednesday night, I watched the DVD of a new independent film called [Red State]* that wasn't exactly uplifting. It left me feeling sorry for the classic Red Staters, whose Christian religious faith leaves them with no ability to understand why their political party (the Republicans) lost the mid-term elections.

* not to be confused with Red State Roadtrip (2005)

Certainly they don't understand the subtleties of the right-wing propaganda they're fed everyday by Rush Limbaugh (in rural America, they have no choice but to listen to him, since local stations cater to the whim of the local bullies*). One valuable lesson about propaganda: it is subtle .. like the story of how to boil a frog by gradually raising the temperature of the pot so that the boilee doesn't realize what's happening.

* If yew don't air The Rush Show, I won't advertise my tractor bizness with yew, and yer radeo station'll go bankrupp!!

Why do some people remain in rural areas? I suspect that many start their lives there and see no reason to explore beyond the county line, since the Green Acres lifestyle is all they've ever known. Opportunities are limited in Rural America, and along with that often comes a limited educational system, where the people can be more easily propagandized into radical viewpoints. Others may have Seen The World, but find the slower lifestyle desirable. The fact that there are enough of these folks to have provided a base for the neocons for years is quite remarkable.

Now that they've been raised this way, is there a way to educate them out of this Moral Toilet they've been drawn into? After watching [Red State], the answer is "probably not". It reminds me of a 1986 book by David Shipler [Arab and Jew: wounded spirits in a promised land] that left me depressed with the knowledge that there is no way for those two sides to ever get along.

Dallas: the White Metropolis

I can't say I make a habit of attending AuthorSpeaks. Tonight, I moseyed to the downtown Dallas Public Library to hear Michael Phillips, author of White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001

This event was sponsored by Howard Dean's private club, Democracy For America.

One of Phillips' premises is that, if mankind began with one male and one female, there were no races. He suggests that the concept of "race" was concocted by Europeans in the 1500s, saying that 99% of human genes between Asians, Europeans, Hispanics, Africans are identical.

Phillips clearly has contempt for George F. Will, reading a passage from his 5 June 2006 Newsweek column: White Guilt, Deciphered which freely quotes one of the only black men that Will admires, Shelby Steele (a possible Oreo).

Other discussion ensued:

• Does institutional racism still exist?
• Another author's work -- Jerrold Ladd of the 1970s-era Dallas Morning News -- was mentioned: "Out of the Madness : From the Projects to a Life of Hope"
• the 1865-8 Freedmen's Bureau in Dallas, when the whites sought to permanently enforce a black underclass.
• the correlation between education & prosperity (premise: blue states are liberal, more educated, more prosperous than red/conservative/stupid states).
• Says that, under the Jim Crow education system, textbooks used by blacks couldn't later be use by whites. Says the 1860s era school year sent blacks for 60 days, and whites for 100 days. Most school was oriented as a vocational effort, teaching the blacks to be servants to the white masters, effectively.
• W.E.B. Du Bois' history books.
• Texas textbooks 1890-1970, explicit racism throughout.
• Historically altered descriptions of post Civil War Reconstruction.
• Tarzan's movie lessons (where is this mysterious White Tribe of Africa?).
• Why aren't Egypt and Morocco considered African, instead of Middle Eastern?
• An assessment of FOX "News" target market: over 70, simpletons.
• The fallacy of Atlanta's former slogan: "the city too busy to hate".
• Mentions of TSU (Texas Southern University) - an historically black university near downtown Houston.
• How Dallas white population were "better organized elites" than other cities, hence the huge racial divide present today.
• Houston v Dallas' labor history
• Example of the ILGWU (International Ladies Garment Workers Union)
• Highland/University Park where the organized white elites live today, virtually Hispanic/African Free.
• Prominent black Dallas leaders, historically: A. Maceo Smith; Juanita Craft

Finally, someone mentioned a Dallas Peace Center series on eliminating racism. And then, adjourned. Whew, a lot of ground covered. Maybe I should attend these Author Things more often?

out of print .. permanently

I think it was mid-April when I went to Raytheon's website and ordered a copy of the (free) book "Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management", after it was recommended by someone. A few weeks later, Raytheon CEO William H. Swanson admitted to plagiarism. So, imagine my amusement when this arrived in the snail-mail:

 

how much grief for "10% off" ?

yes, it's true .. I love a good deal. So when I spotted Trish-Bob's mention of buy.com I moseyed over there. I don't own an iPod (yet) but am a big fan of iTunes, so the Bluetooth headphones can wait awhile (I listen to podcasts on my Palm Tungsten T5).

Somehow I found buy.com's "10% off Amazon" promo; I have a long list of "Wish List" books, and decided to put them to the test. They had most of the stuff I wanted, but their website needs serious work if they hope to compete with Bezos and family.

1- their search engine reeks. Often I'd input a book title, and was told the book didn't exist. On a hunch, I input the author's name instead and voila! - there was my book. Hmmm.

2- Several times, I'd click [Buy] and nothing happened; I would then click [Buy] again. Not surprisingly, it incremented the counter, thinking I wanted multiple copies. I learned to wait for the "final screen" and changed all the quantity 2 and 3 back to 1, rather than fight it each time their server stalled.

3- The Cookie Issue: buy.com suggested I enable all cookies for all websites. Uh, no .. that ain't gonna happen (I spend enough time fighting spyware as it is). I allowed cookies for buy.com itself, and all worked okay until checkout time, when it folded its arms and refused to budge. Argh! I fired up a different browser, fed it the URL and crossed my fingers, hoping it would remember the contents of my shopping cart. It worked!

4- After I ordered the books, I noticed a caveat: "There is an order limit of 5 books per order, per customer." It allowed me to go all the way through my Wish List, and never said anything about this limit during the ordering process. I guess they want to enforce as much grief as possible, by making me artificially split my order into 5-book chunks.

Bottom line: buy.com was frustrating, but I did save 10% over Amazon.com .. so it wasn't a wasted effort. In theory, most will be shipped in 1-2 business days (others are backordered). I didn't have to leave the confines of my domicile, wandering the aisles of Half-Price Books. Woo hoo.

political realities, and Murphy

One of the realities of politics is: there are some things you simply cannot admit in public. Certainly, one or more of Murphy's Laws must be at work here.

One of those realities is the real reason why President Quagmire started the latest Iraq War: American's Affluenza Infection. One of the things that makes us Americans is our need to constantly overindulge - in everything. We eat too much, consume too much, and waste too much .. and because of that, thousands of our soldiers are fighting and dying many thousands of miles from here. Gotta protect the American Way of Life, ya know.

I have a personal goal which includes a healthy dose of "Voluntary Simplicity" but I'm still a long way from there. I've grown past the phase where lifetime success is counted in the number of Things I own, and I've made serious attempts to orient myself to having better stuff, but less of it. The Affluenza film (mentioned above) really hit home for me. Americans comprise 10% of the world population yet consume 25% of its resources: eeeek!

Given the number of trade journals I prescribed at, I've made many trips to The Paper Recycler, and need to make many more. Most paper gathers dust if I don't process it (read it, convert the useful items to properly categorized note in my PDA, discard it) with a week or so of its arrival.

I've found the best thing to do is to recycle. Meaning: grind it up, and morf it into Different Stuff - whether that be a new magazine filled with advertisements prompting us to Buy More Stuff, or an egg carton. An egg carton: ah, one of the few things in life whose goal is simple .. to protect a dozen delicate chicken eggs long enough for us to consume them.

of scorpions and ducks

Richard Clark was on The Colbert Report (hyping his latest book - The Scorpion's Gate), and offered some new terms that Donald "Duck" Rumsfeld wants us Red Blooded Americans to use:

old: War On Terra (as pronooncified by President Quagmire)
new: GWOT (Global War On Terror)

old: insurgents
new: ELGI (Enemies of the Legitimate Government of Iraq)

Please begin weaving "ELGIs" and "GWOT" in your everyday speech; America will be safer for it. Thank you.

We now return to your regular programming.

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PM update: HayJax fetched Rambo, after we lunched at The String Bean (specializing in Comfort Food). Beta wandered through the house -- once -- looking for him, but quickly lost interest and settled in for a long winter's nap.

terror amidst the skyscrapers

I attended a meeting that started at 7pm in downtown Dallas. A fast-moving storm was en route from Fort Worth, but I'm guessing not all attendees Got The Memo about the change of weather. So, when the first thunderbolt hit (around 8pm) quite a few people looked around, wondering if we'd just been Struck By Terra-ists. I'm guessing those were the Republicans, who have been conditioned to Find Fear In Everything, All The Time. Several of us who Did Get The Memo sorta sighed and waited for the speakers to continue.

Judy Bob and I ran into one of their ilk last night at a local restaurant; the guy was pseudo-proud that his sole source of information is the Fair & (Mentally Un)Balanced Fox "News" Channel, and he was shocked that we didn't see the ACLU as a 12-headed monster bent on Destroying Us All. After all, Everybody Knows™ that To Be An American Is To Be Afraid, All Night Long.

Bonus Quiz #7: What are the Statistically Improbable Phrases in this blog entry?

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Everybody Knows is a trademark of Fox "News"; Rush Limbaugh Productions; and the Christian Fascist Republican Party.

The Vanished City

I finally finished reading all 186 pages of Michel Mazor's The Vanished City: Everyday Life in the Warsaw Ghetto which I started what .. 3 months ago? Mazor wrote the book circa 1953, and the English translation was printed in 1993.

This was a difficult book to read for several reasons, including the subject matter; the author's style; and (undoubtedly) translation difficulties. That said, it's a very rare subject because I'm unfamiliar with anything like it : a firsthand recollection of what happened to the large number of Jews forced into such a small space by the Nazis, prior to their eventual deaths at the gas chambers.

The fact that this book exists at all is remarkable, given the obstacles. The author had to jump from a train bound for Treblinka, avoid capture until World War II ended, then have the presence of mind to commit everything to paper. Wow.

invaded by Californicans!

I was at a meeting at Dallas City Hall this morning, and decided to swoop into Half Price Books on the way home, looking for a paperback of one of Kinky's Mysteries (found one!). While there, I was amused to overhear a cellphone conversation from a guy saying

"yeah, I'm serious. I'd vote for him. (pause) So his name's Kinky .. so what?"

Very cool. I decided to celebrate and buy a book by Jesse Ventura (another unconventional .. who won the Minnesota governor's race).

Back in the car, I flipped on KXEB (AM 910), and heard about Protest Warrior (some freaks from the Radical Right) making their way to Crawford, Texas .. to show the world how Out Of Touch they are. Californians In Texas .. what's next? Locusts?

Unrelated #-1: different Californians coming to Texas: CNET tour: September 4 at the Frisco CompUSA. Nerd groupies! It might be worth a drive up there (to the Edge of the Universe) just to watch the "crowd".

Unrelated #-2: I finally got around to watching Salam Pax as the [Baghdad Blogger] (thanks, TiVo and LinkTV)

Residential Architecture 101

Saturday morning, I participated in an architectural survey of my neighborhood (part of Preservation Dallas). Most of the homes here were originally built before 1960, but nearly all have been updated since then.

In doing this survey, I learned about gabled and gambled roofs; the elements of a home's façade; and even what a dormer is (I assumed it had something to do with college student housing). Each of us were assigned 30 homes, but I got by with 28 since 2 homes on my assigned street had either been bulldozed or turned into McMansions.

I found a copy of Virginia McAlester's A Field Guide to American Houses at Half-Price Books (Plano location) and will now immerse myself, so as to be fluent in ArkitekcherSpeak.

After getting a few puzzled looks from the homeowners (what would you think if you saw someone standing in front of your home with a clipboard and a set of binocluars?) .. we were each able to complete the survey in about 2 hours. 20% of the homes assigned required the 4 page "long form" with the remainder being a simpler 2-page "short form". All in all, a good time was had by all.

how do YOU spell "Tayshas," Bubba?

Okay, I done did it; I pledged to save myself for Kinky. It'll be a struggle not to vote in a primary in 2006, but I'll do what needs to be done to keep Rick "Pretty Hair" Perry from becoming the King of Texas. And (as Kinky's motto says:) Why the Hell Not?

While I'm waiting for April 2006 so's I can sign that Kinky Petition, I'll see about doin' some summer readin'. I found Tayshas List on the Young Adult Round Table of the Texas Library Association, but it wasn't as easy to find out what defines a Tayshas List. I finally found it cached on Google:

'TAYSHAS' takes its name from the Caddo Indian word meaning "friends or allies." Written texas, texios, tejas, teyas or tayshas, the word was applied to the Caddos by the Spanish in eastern Texas, who regarded them as friends and allies against the Apaches. (Newcomb, W.W., Jr. The Indians from Texas: Prehistoric to Modern Times. University of Texas Press, 1961)

Unrelated #0:Americans filed a record number of bankruptcy petitions in April 2005, as the clock began to tick on new laws to take effect on October 17th.

Unrelated #1: Computex Taipei ends today; it's now the world's second-largest computer fair behind CeBIT (is anyone old enough to remember something called "Comdex"?)

beware the canyons of Big D

It took 25 minutes to reach the downtown Dallas Public Library this morning. I suspect traffic was light because the signal for Air America (KXEB-AM 910) is pretty weak in the canyons downtown, and all the Radical Righters were using their radio direction finders to track down the source of the signal (Frisco, Texas) so they can blow it to Kingdom Come. Having a local Progressive (formerly "Liberal") talk radio signal must be driving the regressives crazy, even though they now outnumber it only 17:1 (okay, that's a guess).

I travelled downtown to listen to Jeff Crilley (of the local FOX-TV affiliate fame) speak ("How to Get Free Publicity for Your Nonprofit") where he gave us good advice, and concluded by hyping his book (appropriately named Free Publicity).

unrelated #0: today's word: currycomb

unrelated #1: telecopy == fax. Apparently I missed another memo.

The Inside Joke (Navajo style)

.. and in an email exchange, I wrote

woo hoo?

and she replied

yee haw!

to which I retorted

Ya'at'eeh!

at which point both of us were ROF,L (Rolling On The Floor, Laughing). I suspect this is the ultimate example of an Inside Joke, which only two of us on the planet "get".

For those of you who are still reading, Ya'at'eeh is a Navajo phrase which means "Howdy" (more or less). It's not the translation of the phrase that's so funny, but the background (a very long story) that makes it amusing. The nearest parallel I can think of -- which is in widespread use -- is "42!" which is from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

It's been many years since I visited the Navajo Nation (spanning northern Arizona, southern Utah and parts of 2 others states - hence the term "Four Corners") but I wouldn't mind a trip back there sometime.

Deep Thoughts: I wonder if ...

1. Dion (our tour guide) still has that scar on his cheek (from a knife fight in the bar);
2. the kids still sell turquoise-and-silver jewelry on hand-made blankets, in Canyon de Chelly;
3. the Burger King (which seemed so out of place in Navajo Country) is still doing a credible business;
4. the Thunderbird Lodge still has fry bread on the menu;
5. it's still 50+ miles between gas stations in that part of the world;
6. AAA still publishes a special map of Indian Territories;
7. Pink Jeep Tours still operates in Sedona;
8. they ever marked the trail better at Sunset Crater Volcano (near Wukoki and Wupatki) so that certain novice hikers won't get lost among the lava?

Ah, that was a relaxing vacation. Even if the motel (the Cliff Dweller's Lodge) didn't have either a TV or a phone. The pork chop and stewed apples (at the restaurant next to the motel) hit the spot, as we watched the sunset over the desert.

Here's a photo I took with one of those old-fashioned film cameras:

This was Tuzigoot way back in May and June 1993, during a vacation to Utah and Arizona (the Grand Canyon's north rim; Monument Valley; Canyon de Chelly; Meteor Crater; Sedona). Ah, peace.

Gene Bob gets a pedometer

A few days ago, I remembered to stop by Oshman's (becoming The Sports Authority) and buy a pedometer. Oddly enough, I didn't find any at the auto parts store, or the grocery, or the movie theatre, or the music store (all places that I frequent). After a brief inspection, I decided to get the Sportline model 353 which has an FM radio. This may be a new model, since it's not yet listed on the Sportline website.

Turns out it also talks at pre-determined intervals if you're not listening to the radio (stuff like "1,000 steps!" .. "10 minutes" .. "50 calories!" etc.) That has the potential to get old fast, and the manual says it can be disabled. In theory, I should be walking 10,000 steps per day, but I suspect it's quite a bit less now; I just don't know how much less.

The package didn't say that 2 AAA batteries were required, and not included. Fortunately, I keep a stash of common batteries in the house, so I didn't have to make another trip, but that could've been annoying.

It asked me to set my stride (22 inches is "average" so says the manual) and weight, and then all I have to do is start walking. It suggests doing my usual routine and then checking it 3 days later to get a baseline, so I'll do that.

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Unrelated #0: The North Texas Irish Festival starts tonight in Fair Park, and ends Sunday.

Unrelated #1: The Texas Scottish Festival (and Highland Games) is the first weekend in June, at the UT-Arlington stadium.

an experiment in Buying Blue

Yesterday, I copied (cut and paste) my Amazon.com wishlist to Barnes and Noble's site, then compared prices. In most cases (13/18 items), Amazon was less expensive, but they had the same price on 5 items, so I bought them from B&N and left the remainder in both wishlists. The B&N site was a bit more tedious to navigate .. it wasn't always obvious when they had a paperback version vs. a hardcover .. and used books aren't as obvious .. but those are things that they can fix with a good User Interface guy. Hmmm .. wonder if they'd hire me?

It's too bad Amazon.com backed the wrong candidates in 2004; I did like them. Maybe they'll see the error of their ways and either stop funding either party, or fund them equally in the future. Anyway, to further The Cause, I dropped an email to B&N saying I'd prefer to buy from them, if they'd match Amazon's price. Now I wait ...

Related to the above, the Dallas Managed News had a front-page story about the websites promoting companies who back Democratic candidates. I can hardly wait for the Opinion Letters to drift in, by those who say they'll use the list in reverse .. as a place to shop for their Red Candidates. More power to `em. When President Quagmire proclaimed his (51-48) mandate, it was like telling half of America: you are irrelevant.

It was interesting to note that 16 of 17 oil companies backed President Quagmire (if that doesn't smell of extreme self-interest, I don't know what does). The only one who tilted blue was Shell. I checked their website and found 4 stations within 2 miles. Since gasoline is gasoline (one brand's little different from another) I'll be happy to make that switch, too.

The DMN article mentioned a competing website: ChooseTheBlue.com. I don't like the URL -- it's not as memorable as BuyBlue.org. I guess they tried blue.com ("Blue" magazine is about what? outdoor sports?!). While attempting to check out ChooseTheBlue (from memory) I tried BlueChoice.com; it turns out that's owned by (the medical provider) Blue Cross-Blue Shield! I wonder if BCBS will notice extra hits on their website and not understand why. Perhaps the similarity will drive business their way.

Deep Thought #48: I wonder if Blue Cross-Blue Shield backed the (blue) Democrats in 2004?

Unrelated: on Constantin's suggestion, I added [The Butterfly Effect] (2004) to my list of DVDs to see. Somehow I missed this one, unless it didn't make it to The Angelika (still my favorite theatre in Dallas).

My upper left arm hurts today, as a result of Saturday night's tetanus shot. Fortunately, I haven't seen any signs of infection on my foot; I'm continuing to clean the wound and apply Neosporin™. Someone from CareNow (the doc-in-the-box) called yesterday to make sure I was doing okay. I was taken aback, since followup is SO rare nowadays.

chaos averted .. and you'll never guess why

I've been a fan of The Straight Dope for many years, going back to the days when I lived in Redondo Beach, California and was told about Cecil Adams' series of books by Bob (who is not a -Bob).

Later came the web, and The Straight Dope's e-newsletter (today's included a pointer to a classic: Who decided red means "stop" and green means "go"?) We've come to accept certain things as global (if not universal) standards, that it's seldom questioned. What if we traveled to another country (France, no doubt) where the signal light standard is:

maroon means go and and teal means stop?

Chaos has been averted (in this case) by the American Railroad Industry. Go figure.

I recall another column where Cecil (not a -Bob) explained why the size of our space-bound rockets can be traced back to the Roman chariots (no lie!). As Tonto once said: "Heap Strange, Kemo-Sabe."

Deep Thought #46: why didn't the Mars Rover find ancient traffic signals? Could that be why life never flourished on The Red Planet?

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Deep Thought #47: boycotts don't work (the vast majority of the time) but here's an interesting alternative to those opposed to the Bush Regime: BuyBlue.org