cascading ...

Last Friday, Trish-Bob sent me to Benbrook to deliver Rambo to a foster family (long story, don't ask). Naturally, I couldn't leave until 4pm because Justin-Bob -- Tim-Bob's son -- had to go back to Lowe's for more stain (he was supposed to be there 10 days earlier but it turns out solid-core 1-3/8" doors are a special order item).

If I haven't lost you yet, I will ...

While I was waiting for Justin-Bob, I noticed the pop-up message on my PDA saying that it was Daniel-Bob's 50th birthday. Hmmm. I phoned Judy-Bob to inform her of the fact and she suggested we all meet at Ed's Deli on Sunday for a Breakfast Birthday Event [BBE]. Since I'd never been to a BBE before, I agreed (5 of us would eventually be there, including Mark and Joe-Bob).

The nicely-wrapped gift of Faux Spam wasn't the highlight; that honor goes to the plain-white-cover on the Sexaholics Anonymous book (lest I digress)

As I was leaving (did I mention it was Cold & Rainy?) I spotted a pour soul with an EVENT jacket standing in the intersection at Preston/LBJ-635 with a "sandwich sign" saying that Petco was having a G.O.O.B. sale -- not to be confused with a GOOB(er). "Whaaat?" (I shouted to myself as I clamped on the brakes). "Petco's going out of business?" (turns out it's limited to the location at Preston Royal, where the Mean Old Landlord has raised the rent to the point it was unprofitable to remain open .. now Tom Thumb -- owned by Safeway -- will expand into their space starting in January).

I can no longer pass up a CLEARANCE sale (thank you, Judy-Bob), so JACK (Just Another Car) ferried me there post haste. I was checking out the "ALL SALES ARE FINAL" merchandise (did I mention this is where Jill Wazabob found Marvin?) -- I've learned that while the (currently 20%) discounts certainly will increase, the only thing left at The End of the Going Out Of Business sale will be those poor orphan items that Only A Mother Could Love -- I ran into an Australian with dreadlocks, shopping (with his Dallas-originated girlfriend) for one of those multi-level cat houses. I noticed his Aussie accent and asked if he was from Melbourne. "No," he said, "The Great Barrier Reef". Since I didn't know that any humans actually lived in The Reef (I strongly suspect he lived nearby) I asked him if a news report I'd read about the coral being bleached due to Global Warming was true. He said "yes, it's true .. it's still not widespread but the early effects are obvious and it may all be gone in our lifetime - the next 50 years or so".

So there you have it. If Trish-Bob hadn't done The Intervention (again, don't ask) I wouldn't have confirmation from an Aussie-with-dreadlocks that our American excesses WRT power are bleaching/killing the coral halfway across the globe. I silently wondered if Jill - who dived there years ago and met Paul The Divemaster - knew about that Catastrophe In The Making, and the cascade effect it will have.

Now can I go back to reading the prose on my breakfast cereal box?

Wazabob

In checking this morning's email, I spotted one from Jill, who says she arrived home in Hoosierville at precisely 12:20am Wednesday (after leaving Dallas around noon Tuesday). I guess she didn't stop in Arkansas for boiled green peanuts, as I recommended.

The last night here, we split a pizza (delivered by a member of the Russian mob) and watched Infamous (2006) which came out one year after Capote (2005) and 39 years after In Cold Blood (1967). Hmm .. I wonder why the sudden refascination with Truman Capote (who died just short of his 60th birthday)?

Meanwhile #1: I found out that the local business where I bought my lawnmower makes house calls (sorta). Since the boot (trunk) of my own car is too small to accommodate a lawnmower, I asked them to pick it up for service yesterday. When the gent arrived and I explained the problem, he said he could probably fix it on the spot, and did so in about 30 minutes. The last time I used it (Saturday) it sounded as if the engine was on its last legs, but that wasn't the case .. it just needed someone to give it a swift kick in the bum.

Meanwhile #2: Samantha (my 14-year old black cat) spent the night at the vet, for observation. She's been under the weather the past 3 weeks or so, having "trouble" with the litterbox and generally acting lethargic. The vet suspects some dehydration, although I watch her saunter to the water bowl many times throughout the day. I'll call them when they open, later this morning, to see what they found.

another winning speech by Bill Moyers

I finally got around to watching the (2 hour, including analysis) speech that Bill Moyers gave to the National Conference on Media Reform in Memphis in January 2007. This link gives you access to the transcript as well as the audio (MP3) and video (stream) .. well worth watching, if you have the cycles.

Tonight, I waddled down to the Granada theatre (south of Mockingbird) to watch PetFlix 2007 (the SPCA's 3rd annual) .. one of the workers told me that 500+ people attended, which ain't half bad. Most of the films (related to cats and dogs, natch) were entertaining, although a few missed the mark. I never was much of a film critic, so I'll wait for the inevitable "official review" in one of the newspapers (probably the Dallas Observer) later this week.

Earlier in the day (1pm?) Judy Bob came by with another can for my Award Winning Spam Collection (actually - canned meat collection would be a better descriptor, since only about 10 cans are made by Hormel - the other are .. uh .. Spam Wannabees). I simply must start documenting these .. perhaps they need a Blog Of Their Own? After making the delivery, we moseyed up to Richardson to sample the Burger Street Café, which is an upscale (?) version of the Burger Street drive-thru, which is sorta-kinda like the In-N-Out Burger chain out west (minus both the Perky Worker Bees and - thankfully - the religious overtones).

hide the children!

I found a rabbit gnawing on one of my Cat6 cables today. Turns out it wasn't a problem. It was just (drum roll please) ...

... The Ether Bunny.

a fitting proposition

It appears there is collusion in the bird seed industry.

Yesterday, while Slow Dancing the aisles at an Everthing Must Go sale at Albertsons (1341 W Campbell @ Coit), I spotted a "Snack Basket" by Morning Song (Francesville, Indiana) that was marked 40% off. Being a sucker for both wild birds and EMG sales, I added it to my shopping cart, mentally noting that I'd have to add one of those pressed seedcakes at a future time (there's often Slim Pickings at an EMG sale - where ALL SALES ARE FINAL is the mantra).

That Future Time arrived within an hour or so after I left Albertsons, when I found myself a half mile away at the local SuperTarget. Sure enough, they had a seedcake, but it was made by Kaytee (Chilton, Wisconsin). What are the odds those two companies meet at the annual Wild Bird Seed Standards Committee, to hash out the details of interoperability? After all, these two companies are only 417.3 km (259.3 miles) apart. I eyeballed the seedcake and guessed that it would fit .. if not, I'd have to dig out a butcherknife and hack it down to size.

It would've been Way Handy to use SizEasy to Fire Up A Browser and compare the Snack Basket to the cake, but that would've required that I know the dimensions of the Snack Basket, now sitting in my car's trunk .. what are the odds that data would be online?.

Hmm: I smell an opportunity for a future entrepreneur .. who would sell this Dimension Matching Service to both parties.

Once I got both parts home, I unwrapped and "assembled" them - yes, they fit. I'm hoping that my local woodpeckers (and nuthatches and chickadees) are appreciative. For those of you who are interested, here is the detailed size comparison.

meme-o to Geoff

A few weeks (!) ago, Geoff invited me to Play Along with the Yes, it’s the “Five Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Me, But Were Afraid To Ask” meme. So, I added it my drafts and skillfully shuffled it from one draft folder to another, figuring I'd finish it during one of my nights battling insomnia. That time has now arrived: huzzah.

---

1. the shortest job I ever had was at Northup in Torrance, California - I lasted all of six weeks. I found myself in a tightly-knit group who hadn't had a new member in many years. It was obvious that I would forever be considered The Outsider .. so (after two weeks) I phoned the headhunter recruiter and advised him to Keep Looking. A few days later, I scored an interview with a better fit, so after the workday was over, I went to see my boss to say goodbye. He had left early; I left him a note atop his desk, offering my resignation. Apparently he Never Got The Memo as I received an official letter from the company a month later, saying that I'd been terminated for failing to come to work. Indeed.


2. I was sacked as a disc jockey at a country music station in 1978. While working the evening shift one night, I accidentally left the microphone open while I took a phone call. When the second line began ringing, I ignored it .. turns out it was my boss who happened to be listening to what I thought was a private conversation (not that it wasn't tame .. it just wasn't meant for broadcast). Alas, I didn't enjoy the job anyway, and it led to a better gig a few miles away (being a news reporter for a radio station just off a major US military base, where the young soldiers frequently got into trouble with the civilians and made for entertaining local news).


3. I was a late-in-life child, my mother giving birth at age 43. Always assuming I was an only child, I was a bit stunned years later, whilst doing some genealogy, to discover that I would have had a brother, had he not been stillborn (full term). He's buried somewhere in my hometown - I have no idea what cemetary.


4. I have some mini-collections of obscure things. One is a Spam collection which began with a 7 ounce container sporting an "Intel Inside" sticker .. up to an 11.5 ounce container of what I call "Hindu spam" (several friends have located obscure cans of "Spam-like potted meat" to add to my collection). Another collection is a set of Betty Boop figurines.


5. My father liked to name our family dogs "Butch". Although we never had more than one dog at a time, we had at least three different dogs, each a different breed (beagle, cocker spaniel, mutt) named Butch. Each of them ran away, until we got a miniature English brindel bull terrier (pre-)named Willie, which broke the Butch cycle. My father also built a fence around the backyard, which Willie eventually learned to climb. At those locations where he'd learned to escape, my father installed fence extensions which canted inward. I suspect it was a challenge between the two of them. Eventually, the dog outlived my father, who died at age 68.

Okay, my job is now done. In theory, I am now to "tag" others to Play Along, but I can't even imagine Who Will Be Next (the bulk of my blogging friends fall into two categories - tell all, or tell none), so I've leave that casting call open.

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.

vacancy

Today was a good day not to travel. For once, I found myself being The Local Guy while everyone else was sweating the Joy which is Travel during a Texas Weather Event.

By 10am today, everything looked normal outside, but the weather radar painted a bleak picture .. freezing rain turning to snow. Several of them were watching the various airline websites, and watching their flights switch from [ON TIME] to [DELAYED] to [CANCELED]. It's no fun spending the night at an airport, so I advised anyone who couldn't get out of town to call me, and I'd supply lodging for the evening. By the time the evening arrived, there were no calls so the Gene Bob Motel went unused. Too bad - Beta was looking forward to someone to play with.

It could've been worse .. looks like this storm's gonna dump a load on Chicago, Detroit, and places northeast. At least they'll get it in the form of snow, and not our local delicacy: ice.

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Speaking of delicacies, I discovered Cracker Nuts at a local Asian grocery, and fear I may be hooked. Nagaraya makes several flavors of this "crispy peanut" treat; I've already sampled the garlic and plan to fetch a pack of butter flavored next. Yumm.

They also have a flavor called "Adobo" but I'm not sure what that is - probably different than its mud-inspired namesake "Adobe".

bring back the draft!

I have to wonder if this is a stunt: Congressman Rangel Will Seek to Reinstate Draft. I've read about this gent, and it seems as if this is the third time (?) he's proposed returning to compulsory military service (unless your daddy has enough money to sneak you into the Alabama National Guard, like some POTUS we know). Then again, it could be that Rangel (a Democrat) is using this tactic to force a debate on whether we should recall the troops in Iraq (and presumably send them to Afghanistan to fight the resurgent Taliban, or to Tehran to put an end to Iran's Nuke Bomb Program, or to Pyongyang to say hello to Kim Jung Il). With all these Wars On Terror that we'll be fighting for the next hundred years or so, it just makes sense to mandate military service again, although I'd be strongly in favor of only sending Republicans (see Operation Yellow Elephant).

I recently watched a 2-hour PBS show about the 1960's, and it brought back memories of the Vietnam-era draft, along with the anti-war (actually anti-draft) protests, the rise and fall of LBJ and Richard Nixon, and so forth. I was still a bit young to appreciate those days (I entered the 6th grade in 1969 as the decade closed), and was more interested in tricking out my bicycle than what was happening in Hanoi.

Deep thought: Although the Brooklyn Dodgers became Los Angeles Dodgers, it's odd that Draft Dodgers never became Dodger Dogs.

It's only a vague memory, but I recall the periodic "lotto ball" where draft numbers were called by the Selective Service System. I seemed to recall a large drum with 366 balls, one for each day of the year. If your number was called, you had a certain amount of time in which to either report to the local recruting office, or plan your extended vacation to Canada.

Quality Control

Looks like quality control at the M&M factory isn't what it used to be.

Unrelated: Miles and his mom went home yesterday, after arriving on Labor Day. Beta is deeply depressed, since she thought her old friend had come back permanently. She really enjoyed running and playing and running and playing and running and playing ...

what a zoo!

menagerie \muh-NAJ-uh-ree; -NAZH-\, noun:
1. A collection of wild or unusual animals, especially for exhibition.
2. An enclosure where wild or unusual animals are kept or exhibited.
3. A diverse or varied group.

Normally, it's just me, Beta (the wonder dog) and a paracats. Then (Monday night) that expanded by two when Miles and his mom arrived for a visit.

I was off to work when one of the sales critters asked if I would feed with them and a customer. Sure, fine .. we ended up at Blue Fish (18149 Dallas Pkwy) for sushi. Back at the office (1:30?), I spotted an email from HayJax that she'd be dropping Rambo off at 2pm. Eek! Fortunately she was late, but the current tally is now:

3 dogs
2 cats
2 humans

The cats - now outnumbered for the first time in their (9) lives - have gone into hiding For The Duration.

I stopped at The Pet Store to get some supplies (diapers for Rambo - who whizzes on everything; treats for Beta; and a new toy (!) for me: a FURminator deShedding Tool ("it is not a brush" says the marketing propaganda). I wonder if it's time to bring out Larry The Laser Pointer to keep them all occupied?

SATIRE : South American Tire?

I moseyed down to the Inwood to see Thank You for Smoking. There were only 5 of us in the theatre for this Sunday screening, and the parking lot was still mostly empty when I left, 2 hours later.

Why such a light crowd? I have four theories:

1. The movie's been out for quite awhile, and will probably be released on DVD Real Soon Now. The site where I normally go to buy movies - dvduniverse.com - simply says "Theatrical Release, Not Yet Available".
2. It's Father's Day. Not that I have anything to celebrate there. My own father's been buried - about 900 miles from here - since 1976. Nor am I a father myself. Well, except to Beta the Wonder Dog, who still calls me "daddy" in her dreams.
3. School's out for summer. Everyone's at the beach.
4. There's a reason this is not showing at one of the major theatres: it's a satiric movie, which is lost on 98.3% of the population.

My rating: A-. In order to get an A, I would've had to laugh out loud more than once. There were lots of great lines, but with so few people in the room, I politely waited for them to be amused first.

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Unrelated #0: it rained about 2/3 inch yesterday. This was the first measurable rain in 38 days. I wonder if it'll be another 38 days until the next one?

Unrelated #1: last night, Beta and I watched Napoleon Dynamite. It is, without question, the Finest Motion Picture of All Time.

Travel Is Glamorous, Part 3

It's amazing how easy it is to fall back into a routine.

Doing something like flying 250 miles to another city, working for a few hours, then coming back the same day in time for dinner with Beta the Wonder Dog .. it's just so .. routine. I popped down to Houston yesterday; it was mostly uneventful.

The alarm went off at 5:30am, but I was already awake. Insomnia comes and goes with me, lately it just means that I'm operating on less sleep than usual. Not that I'm up for a few hours, sleep for a few. No, I've had those in the past. Now, if I can get 5 or 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I've done good.

I let Beta outside to play (or whatever dogs do in the backyard), fetched the paper, and proceeded to Take The Pills then Feed My Face. I'd already stuffed my rucksack (the night before) with the toys I needed, so it was off to the shower, dress and go. I reached Love Field in about 15 minutes, parked Jack in The Parking Spot, and was on the shuttle. I noticed a TV news crew filming a stand-up shot (is today The Day that they'll settle The Love Field Controversy?).

I used Southwest's self-checkin machine (there are a lot more of them than the last time I flew from here, maybe 5 years ago) and was handed two boarding passes. Then, it was Off With The Shoes and the obligatory cursory TSA check. Onto gate #3, and since I was early I hopped on the 7am flight, which would land at Houston Hobby at 8am. Flights to Houston are every 30 minutes, so this shaved 30 minutes off my day.

I sat in a window seat near the back; the plane appeared about 2/3 full. I remembered to power down my cellphone. Only a few stragglers had to suffer The Middle Seat. I was offered coffee or juice, read one of my fellow travelers' USA Today ..

Deep Thought: why are passengers on Southwest friendlier than American's passengers? I suspect it's due to the formality of American's assigned seating, which is a joke since I don't get to choose my seatmates either way.

.. and then re-read some of the technical stuff I'd need at the customer, in downtown Houston.

Upon landing, I headed directly to Budget's van and found myself in their Fastbreak Shelter a few minutes later. The sales rep in Dallas had called me while I was on the shuttle, just checking in. Budget's "rapid rental" allows you to select your car from a few others (probably within a class) and then I just showed my license to the Nice Man At The Gate and was on my way.

Mostly ignoring Yahoo Maps' directions,

"Travel on First Street for 0.2 miles. Proceed onto First Street for 1.2 miles. Proceed onto First Street for 0.4 miles."

I moseyed over to I-45 and proceeded north to downtown. Exit at the Theatre District, locate the visitor parking area, go find the customer, get down to work.

At lunchtime, I was escorted downstairs to The Food Court, composed of a dozen-or-more mostly familiar names. I chose The Philly Connection, all the way at the end .. there was no line at 1pm. Several World Cup fans were there watching a game on the plasma TVs. For me, watching soccer football is like watching baseball: you know that there's an end a few hours away. The goal, as a spectator, is to simply stay awake until it's over.

As the ball was kicked from one end of the stadium to another, I couldn't help but be reminded of leisurely flicking a beachball from one person to another. My theory about Soccer and the lack of enthusiasm in the USA is because soccer lacks the thing Americans crave in their sports: the possibility that somebody's gonna die, or be maimed for life. Think Fiery Crash at NASCAR, or a man's knee going The Opposite Direction in American Football. When's the last time a soccer player was killed during a game (except by one of his own crazed fans)? Soccer's a lot like watching golf. Zzzzz.

Anyway, back upstairs to work a few more hours, then .. back in the car (they want $25 for parking??) and a return to the airport. If I drive less than 75 miles, there's a $9.50 refueling charge, so I stopped at a gas station and spent 60 seconds pouring $3.51 worth into the tank before locating Car Return. Then back on the shuttle, back to the terminal, Off With The Shoes, onto the gate, onto the plane (nearly full for the return leg) and back to Love Field. We landed at gate 5.

Onto the shuttle, back in my car, pay my $7.50 and receive a complimentary half-liter of water (Nestle's Pure Life), and aim for home. Since I was able to see (from the plane) that The Dallas North Tollway was stacked up, I took surface streets instead. Home again, let Beta outside to Do What Dogs Do in the backyard, and sit back to watch last night's TiVo offerings.

I wonder if I'll have to do this again tomorrow?

coming soon: Microsoft Chutzpah

English Microsoft
patch : update
bug   : (word does not exist in Microsoft)

Microsoft apparently likes the term "Security Tuesday" rather than "Patch Tuesday" since Everybody Knows™ that there are no BUGS IN MICROSOFT SOFTWARE.

Word is that this month's patches (usually issued after 5pm, on the 2nd Tuesday) will include 9 or more Critical ones. I think "Critical" translates to "install this, or every hacker in the country will personally target your machine for the flaw". Fun reading: Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification (their lessons in doublespeak have paid off handsomely).

I've also read about the way they're abusing Microsoft Genuine Advantage to spy on us daily (not just when we need a patch .. er .. update). A fun article about this is eWeek's Big Microsoft Brother which shows that this tiger hasn't changed it's stripes at all. Not only do they offer an anti-spyware product (now in Beta) but they cheerfully install their own spyware on millions of PCs. How's that for chutzpah?

what's Gene Bob watching?

Here's what's on my TiVo Season Pass™ (DirecTV) today:

stuff in italics airs infrequently - at least the first runs

1-10 The Amazing Race; The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; NBC5 News at 10pm; The Colbert Report; Star Trek: Enterprise; Scrubs; ABC World News Tonight; CBS News Sunday Morning; Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; Law & Order: Criminal Intent

11-20 Law & Order; 60 Minutes; POV; NOW; The Office (US); America's Most Wanted; Stand Up Nation with Greg Giraldo; Dallas SWAT; Cops; Saturday Night Live

21-30 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno; All-American Festivals; South Park; Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; Taste of America with Mark Decarlo; Monk; Family Guy; King of the Hill; Rescue Me; The Simpsons

31-42 The Closer; Positively TEXAS!; Texas Country Reporter; My Name Is Earl; American Dad; Texas SWAT; Mind of Mencia; Alaska Magazine TV; Last Comic Standing; Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zacharia; Yearbook; Nightline

deletions since January: The Biggest Loser; Street Smarts; Airline; Late Show with David Letterman; MXC; Airline UK; Insights

Disclaimers:
0- I didn't routinely watch Star Trek:Enterprise when it first aired in 2001, so I'm catching up on selected episodes;
1- many of the shows are in summer reruns now, but will restart in the fall;
2- they're not necessarily in order, as new stuff gets added to the bottom of the list and it often takes me weeks to move it up in the heirarchy*;

* which is important when more than two shows are on at the same time. in that case, the top dog in the heirarchy wins

3- only a few of these are local to Dallas: NBC5 news and Positively TEXAS;
4- I've enabled "First Run Only" for most;
5- TiVo's FastForward button and I are very good friends. I seldom watch more than 12 minutes of The Tonight Show, for example;
6- My choice of local news is predicated on which has the most reliable schedule as far as TiVo is concerned. Some local news is repeated overnight and then conflicts with other shows being recorded In The Wee Hours. Channel 5 (an NBC affiliate) seems to be the most predictable, so they get my nod.

Watts Up?

Karl was in town for The Derby, and we rendezvoused at Poor Richard's Cafe in Plano. I've heard about this Fine Dining Establishment for several years; Eric (the Redneck) was the first one to Clue Me In. They only seat 260 (so says the sign) so I was amused that there was no waiting for our party of six. And we even scored a jumbo-booth: woo hoo.

After feeding on Ranch Eggs (Huevos Rancheros), I moseyed over to Fry's. And I do mean Mosey in the real connotation. That's often dangerous for me, as I often Shop Like A Guy: go straight for The Thing and then aim straight for The Register. So, I suppose I got off light .. $156 later I strolled out with a 3-pack of air, a replacement spotlight (for locating Beta the Wonder Dog at 3am) and a power meter called a watts up? PRO.

Naturally, once I got the power meter home, I discovered it used an oh-so-quaint DB9 connector, instead of USB. So, it was back to the store for a converter. You'd think by now my Closet Of Horrors would have every adapter known to man, but .. no.

I'm sure I'll blog on this in gory detail Real Soon Now, but playing with the watts up? has already taught me:

1- my reading light uses more watts (100) than my TV (65) and TiVo (11) combined;

2- the old Pentium laptop uses 3 watts while charging; 23 when in use; and 35 when the CPU is maxed out (UD Agent). If I disable the Wireless-G adapter it saves a mere 1.3 watts.

More fascinating observations as I continue playing ...

signal avoidance

Last August, I blogged about an otherwise routine trip to my ophthalmologist where he suspected I have glaucoma. Turns out that's mitigated by the thickness of our corneas .. if it's thick, the pressure on the eye can be discounted. So, when this was rechecked last week, the extra measurements led him to put me in the "monitor" category, rather than the "Seeing Eye® dog" category. The nurse took the readings, and called out "602" for my left eye and "603" for my right. I don't know if that's a measure of hectares/fortnight or liters/estrangement. Heck, it could even be an areacode for Arizona.

It's a good thing I'm not totally blind yet; it would've been hard to determine if I could drive the 4 miles to work without encountering any traffic signals. Other than those red/yellow/green things, my only obstacle to work are the three (3) School Zones en route. I could get to The Old Office without any traffic signals, by taking an indirect route, and crossing one 6-lane highway (after looking both ways and then flooring it). After consulting a map, and given my knowledge of the streets, I tested my theory on a journey from home to The New Office .. and failed:

	miles	traffic signals
avoid signals	7	1
don't avoid	4	7

Try as I might, there's one traffic light (into a gated community) that I couldn't avoid, but my guess is I'd be stopped by it only when someone leaving that area trips the light.

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Unrelated #-0, but worth a laugh: The Straight Dope: Is astrology for real?

Unrelated #P: It seems the Dallas Convention Bureau is coming out against the TABC's latest tactic (arresting anyone who's drunk in a bar). It seems several major conventions have threatened to cancel .. which would cost Dallas BILLIONS in lost revenue. Anyone want to guess which side's gonna win this fight? (Heck, I didn't even know that the Dick Cheney Fan Club was coming to town ...)

schlepping and shopping in da rain

Yesterday, I found a location* where I could sign the petition to put Kinky on the ballot, and added my name to the (hopefully 44,999+) others who'd like to see Governor PrettyHair sent back to the farm, where he can't do any more damage.

* Dirty Dawgz - they have four locations in the area .. one is less than 3 miles from my home. They provide a nice place to wash your dogs (I'll have to ask if anyone ever brings their cat in for a bath) and I'll have to take Beta the Wonder Dog there sometime.

Today was a good day for running errands -- (shopping) mostly -- because the rain (and the NCAA basketball games) kept most Texans indoors. Judy-Bob and I fed at the usual breakfast dive, but since it was after noon, I opted for the Philly CheeSteak on an onion roll, which was Da Bomb.

Then, I moseyed over to MicroCenter in search of a spare battery for my PowerBook (found it) as well as a laptop cable lock (didn't find it, and got a really puzzled look from the sales guy when I asked if they carried them). After about a 5-second pause, he admitted he had no idea what I was talking about. I strolled around the store anyway, and didn't find one. Heap strange. You'd think people would do more to secure their laptops, but I guess not.

I decided to try the nearest office supply place, and I found the Targus Defcon CL (PA410U) which will work nicely. I hope the TSA is used to seeing this lock-and-cable combo on the X-ray machine.

While at Office Depot, I moseyed around and found a laser pointer which will come in handy when I give presentations, and also found some index dividers for the 12 months (Avery 11127). They had many, many packs of dividers from which to choose and it took a couple passes before I spotted the ones I wanted. It's odd that their website page doesn't say anything to indicate the tabs in the 11127 pack are labeled JAN/FEB/MAR etc.

Finally - one thing I did not find was a place that buys/sells PC memory. There was such a place in Addison on Beltline, but it's apparently gone. Due to some upgrades, I'm the proud owner of 6 strips of Orphan RAM and would like to negotiate a trade (!) for two strips of 128 MB DIMMs to max out my Win98SE laptop (Fujitsu E6530). There was a place on Preston (north of LBJ) called Computer Renaissance but they're also out of business. I guess the Used PC Component Business ain't what it used to be.

143 years ago today

Today's the last day of Kwanzaa and the last day of Hanukkah (this year, anyway). I guess it's time to prep for the next holiday, about two weeks away: Martin Luther King Jr's birthday.

Whenever I drive to downtown Dallas on 75-Central Expressway, I pass the Dallas Freedmen's Cemetery, although I haven't stopped for a visit - yet. I vaguely recall stories about this in the local newspaper, after I moved to Dallas (1993). Freedmen is a generic term used after The Rebellion (Civil War, etc.) to describe freed slaves. New to me: the Confiscation Act of 1862 preceeded Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (143 years ago today).

While seeking information on Dallas Freedmen's Cemetery, I found a reference to the Texas Black Codes, which were enacted after The Rebellion and before the Jim Crow era (the Radical Republicans of the 1860s are extremely different than the Radical Republicans of the Bush regime). About 16 months ago, I mentioned the item in my own Deed Restrictions (dated June 1961, before JFK's assasination):

All of said property shall be occupied and used for residence purposes only and by white persons only, not excluding bona fide servants of any race in the employ of the owners or occupants of the tracts respectively owned or occupied by them ...

It appears that Black Codes were common in 1865-1866, although I'm surprised at the term itself, since Negro (or even "colored person") was the common term in those days.

Now, 140 years later, the modern Radical Republicans look back at those days with a tear in their eyes. Most (including Bill Frist, Tom DeLay, Rick Santorum and others of their ilk) have fond memories of the days when their families owned large number of non-voting Coloreds, who danced merrily around the campfire at night and didn't concern themselves with things like Equal Rights.

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Completely unrelated: yesterday, Beta and I sat down and watched Death to Smoochy (2002) mainly because the cast includes Jon Stewart (of The Daily Show fame). My review: what a fine, fine motion picture. Like so many others, this makes Gone With The Wind (1939) pale in comparison.

Restricted Sites == Less Spyware

running several PCs gives me the chance to try things in parallel to see which approach works best. with that in mind, I've noticed that one PC almost never gets infected with spyware, while another is hit frequently. yet, i access the same sites from both computers.

it dawned on me (!) that I'd once added a long list of Restricted Web sites to one PC; I should probably do that on the others. Sadly, the Firefox browser lacks that feature (although it's available as a Plug-In) - their Adblock Extension tries to do the same thing, but it's cumbersome to add a list of sites.



Next, I ran SpyBot and it found The Usual Suspects (ignored by Microsoft AntiSpyware), which I've blogged about before. I deleted the spyware, and will run SpyBot again in a week or so to see if the Restricted Sites change made the expected impact. Worth noting: I populated it automagically using IE-SpyAd.

Aside #9/7: It appears that Microsoft has decided their AntiSpyware product isn't ready to exit Beta test yet (it was due to expire today). Now, I see:
Session.TimeBombDaysRemaining: 213
Session.TimeBombExpirationDate: 7/31/2006