2020 Hindsight

On The Mend

After giving thanks for my health, I've been hanging out in very close proximity with a cold all week. I'm finally on the mend... not *there* yet, but the health-ward trend is strong.

When pushin' liquids and fillin' kleenexes, reading non-fiction reading gets oh so old. Thank God for Jane Austen; Pride and Prejudice is always a great companion at times like these. And I was looking for light reading fare on the bookshelves and saw 84, Charing Cross Road, which came to my attention most recently in Craig's Books as Characters thread.

Speaking of Craig, he'd like me to tell you that he *did* eventually crawl out from underneath the table. hic!

Andrea saw a gorgeous sunrise yesterday!

Privacy Blog - ConsentCache is all about Privacy
(I like finding new stuff on the updates page)

Thumbnails No, I'm not talkin' bout that thumbnail moon I saw last night. I just got a Firewire CD burner, Toast Deluxe, which comes with a little utility called PhotoRelay. What with all these digital images I've been taking, all named DSCN0000.JPG (or some other number), I'm hoping that I can develop a nice little catalog of images. As it is now, I end up plopping each set of master images in a folder named for the place or event. But to develop a thumbnail catalog of the images, even before burning an archival seedy, well, that'd be downright lovely.

I maim Miami. Slate: Election Palindrome contest results

Reactor Reactions

George H. W. Bush (Poppy), philosophical in response to reporters while on a fishing tournament today:

"We're not taking about the elections or my son or anything -- not talking about any of that," Bush told reporters. "You guys can try but you're up against a pro, man. I didn't just come in here on a watermelon truck."

---

Reactor Reactions Chicago Tribune: Ice Causes a new shutdown at Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor Plant.

This is creepy in its timing. In my continued explorations of all things nuclear, last night I was reading a book by Rebecca Solnit called Savage Dreams (an exploration of both the Nevada Test Site from a protester's point of view, as well as Yosemite National Park). I was particularly struck by the issue of nuclear waste.

A nuclear reactor changes Uranium into Plutonium, which has a half life of some 26,000 years. Where we gonna dump all that hot stuff? Let's dump it in the desolate places, like Nevada, on Government--er, Shoshone--land. So the story goes. Yow.

The Senatorial tradition (and maybe the Electoral College?) makes sense in cases like these. Give the spasely-populated states some leverage to deal with the hugely populous states, so that when the East wants to dump its trash in the "barren" and "desolate" West, the senators from the sparsely populated areas are well-matched with the ones from the highly populated ones.

It occured to me how difficult it is for a common person to understand what's going on with uranium turning to plutonium and half lives and all that. Sure, I got a cursory education in it when I was in school. (I avoided chemistry and physics and all that 'cause of the math.) Sure, I've heard the terms "plutonium" and "half-life" and all. But it took pages and pages of Richard Rhodes' careful explanation in The Making of The Atomic Bomb to drive the point home: With all those extra neutrons zinging hither and yon in a controlled uranium chain reaction (which is what nuclear reactors tend to be), some of 'em stay inside the uranium atoms, changing them to something new (well, after a couple of quick half-life decays): plutonium (same one as was exploded at the Trinity Site). That's how plutonium was manufactured to create the plutonium bomb. In the case of nuclear power plants, plutonium is the by-product of "tired" uranium. And that stuff is hot! Okay class, got that? Quiz tomorrow.

If it's taken this much study for me to grasp some of the finer details among the periodic table of elements, and I'm a person of above-average intelligence who has no TV, who gets interested in something and then has no problem reading several thick books about it, how does the issue get pressed home to John Q. Public or Jane Q. Public? How much do yawl remember from your Chernobyl meltdown lessons in physics and half lives and radiation? Maybe it will require another CNN-live situation to drive the point home, much like CNN-live counts chads with Florida and gives us all a civics lesson? But how many people will die in a disaster that merits CNN-live coverage?

I'm glad that this time around at Chernobyl, the automatic shut-off systems are working.

Stalked by an Asterisk

The Washington Post has a couple of good articles about the latest un-Presidented turn of events.

Confronting a Semantic Distinction: An analysis of the media coverage of the latest news. How'd different media outlets treat it? Did they follow Bush's line? Or did they hold back? Among the different headlines, here's one of note:

Bush wins election*

*Pending Gore challenges; possible Supreme Court ruling

A Victory in Transition Joel Achenbach takes a humorous look at the situation that Dubyah is in:

Bush has to get ready to be the most powerful man on Earth, but – this is critical – without appearing "presumptuous." His new status as president-elect is conditional, and he's not allowed to know what the conditions are. He is being stalked by a giant asterisk.

. . . .

Remember Spy Magazine's Separated at Birth fotos? Today BlackHoleBrain compares Joe Liberman with my... my..... !!

. . . .

I love it when this happens! I'd recently decided to buy something from a direct mail catalog. A big thing, $300; $45 shipping, 3-4 weeks delivery. Today I've been doing other things; haven't gotten around to calling and placing the order. So I go to get the snail mail, and lo! there's a postcard from that direct merchant announcing a 20% off sale for purchases made during the week of Dec 6-13. Tres cool. If I wait to order, I can basically get the item shipped free. This is what I get after all my whinging about direct mail a little while ago.

Billy-ho!

Billy I broke my non-box-office streak (not going to movies) and saw Billy Elliot today. Excellent! I don't think I was the only person who did a teeny dance down the sidewalk upon leaving the theater, either.

Bearing Thanksgiving Kelly offers a counter-perspective on Thanksgiving: How to Bear Thanksgiving. A very good one, too. (Cool!! Dave W linked to it; I called her up to tell her so. She asks, "how do they know how to find me?" It's been more than one person I've told about the updates page , and even once told someone to take something down cause it wasn't as private as the person prolly thought it was.) By the way, Kelly is one of the friends for whom I give thanks. : )

Are We There Yet? More Editorial Cartoons: Electile Dysfunction and World View of our Election Mess

Weekend Worrier L.A. Times: Weekend Peaks in L.A. Basin's Ozone Mystify Experts

Across the region, average weekend smog levels are now about one-quarter higher than those during the week. Similar, although less dramatic, trends have been seen in the Bay Area, as well as in Chicago, New York City and Detroit.

Carbon Dioxide Changing the Climate Fizzles Breaking down over a disagreement between the U.S. and the E.U. (Western Europe) "Environmentalists from many countries lamented the diplomatic train wreck in The Hague as an act of ecological cowardice. "'This meeting will be remembered as the moment when governments abandoned the promise of global cooperation to protect planet Earth,' the environmental organization Greenpeace said in a statement."
"�Some ecologists said the Europeans may have been shortsighted, because after Jan. 20, they may be negotiating with the White House of George W. Bush. The Republican presidential candidate has branded the commitments entered into in Kyoto, Japan, as unfair, while his Democratic opponent, Vice President Al Gore, involved himself intensely in negotiating them."

Giving Thanks

Aaah, what a nice Thanksgiving Day this has been. Gorgeous weather (I went rollerblading), a fine feast with friends, good conversation and laughter and some time to think about my good fortune and things for which I give thanks.

I give thanks for being alive. I give thanks for my health (tho the respiratory thugs are hanging out in the wings o' my lungs, menacingly slapping their long batons in their hands...still, a little sniffle is in the "healthy" category; 'tain't chronic nor debilitating...there are those like Al who're on the front lines fighting for those who are being washed around in the shoreline that separates death from life.).

I give thanks for my family. I give thanks for my friends. I give thanks that I have use of my senses and my brain amd my heart and that I am able to think, to feel, to speak and to listen and to learn. I give thanks that I have grown and am still growing and that I *can* still grow. (Lots of great thoughts toward that end posted on Lawlady's weblog).

I give thanks for a safe return from my travels and that I've managed to stay out of the path of the Random Disaster. I'm aware of how fragile and tenuous life can be. (I was acquainted with one of the persons who was on the Air Singapore flight that didn't make it from Taipei to L.A. and I know the family of a person who went down in the Air Alaska flight off the Pacific Coast. Two people in the Bryce user community died in August and September, respectively; both way before their times.)

I give thanks that that ol' book is done!

After once again rolling my eyes over the whole un-Presidented thing, and laughing over today's editorial cartoons, I read Dan Gillmor's thoughts on pilgrims and I give thanks that though I (we?) laugh heartily and cluck my tongue at the whole thing, that through due process the transfer of power from one president to the next will be resolved peacefully, a thing which is not taken for granted in other parts of the world.

Now that I have been checking out the weblogs, I give thanks that it was a light day here in weblogland, since that probably means that you've been spending the day in the presence of your family and friends in your kitchens and diningrooms, and not in front of your computers.

Hee! And even though Craig promised BehindTheThanksgiving Curtain fotos, he got as far as the wine and then posted no more! Beautiful! (musta been good wine!)

Heh. I made sure that I had my camera with me for thanksgiving dinner, but managed not to take a single image. All those platters heaped with food will do that to a person!

I give thanks that you, O Reader, came by to see my site and that there seem to be a group of you who find this place worthwhile enough to stop by here on a regular basis.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Astute

That ol' Curmudgeon is sooooo astute today! On the proper measuring implementations, the Palm Beach Pokey (hee!) and thoughts on the Angry Elephant. You go, John!!

Do you agree with Dave? (Tho the FAQ has a Fight Club reference; I've not yet seen the movie, so I'm afraid I don't get it)

Ooooof! I love how one thing leads to another. Invite a friend for dinner and to hear my plans for house rearrangement. That leads to discussion about how the living room could be changed right now, without any new purchases. A push here, a shove there, some vaccuuming here, and things are nicely different!

Home

Congrats to Garret and Sandra on the closing of escrow and your new house! Yippee!

Now that escrow has closed and Title has been recorded, your name and new address get immediately placed on everyone's hit list for new direct mail offerings for anything and everything. See the other day's entry about ways to reduce direct mail. I don't know if you can head them off at the pass, but you can mebbe slow down the deluge not long after it begins....

Un-Presidented Lots o editorial cartoons are on Cagle.com
The Un-presidented and Votergate ones are superb (I especially like this one, and this one and this one and... tho it's a bit passé to talk of undecided voters, this one.)

The Thanksgiving series is a hoot--but no one did a cartoon about wishing on the wishbone... that turkey stuffing occupied much of the political cartoonist collective unconscious.

Smart Shoppers I've been looking for some computer equipment, and found some good links for comparison shopping on the net:

• PricingCentral.com A list of sites that offer comparison shopping, including ratings for the different sites listed.

• Pricewatch.com

• PriceGrabber.com For this, if you enter your zip code, it will comparison shop and compute shipping to come up with a final price quote for you. Tres Cool.

• Google results for comparison price computer

Nighttime Hong Kong: Dan Gillmor's got an excellent picture of it!! Speaking of excellent pictures, Sheila's got a great one of a Seattle marina.

Doo Dah!!!

Yesterday was a fine sunny day, warm and gorgeous, perfect for the 24th annual Pasdadena Doo Dah parade. Unlike that other parade that takes place annually on New Year's Day in Pasadena (but never on a Sunday, oh no!), this one always takes place on a Sunday. The parade entries appear in no particular order, and silliness is the order of the day. Considering all the hooplah about the election, this promised to be a beaut!

[Warning: image heavy page. I've got ascii-chatter in between 'em to keep you occupied while you wait to download 'em all if your connection is slow.]

Breakfast Theatre My friend Lee procured a couple of lawn chairs from a friend of hers that would (barely) fit in the trunk of my little car, and we headed down to Old Pasadena. We found a small patch of unoccupied curb, set up our chairs and then ordered a To Go breakfast from a nearby restaurant. We noshed, visited with other parade-goers and waited for the parade to start.

The Doo Dah red ambulance heralded the actual start of the parade.

A hunka hunka burnin' love! Is that The King playin' the pipes? Oooh eee! skirl it, baby! skirl it!

Snotty Scotty and the Hankies, the band that's been around since way back when and has appeared in damn near every Doo Dah parade.

The Synchronized Briefcase Drill Team.

The Little Old Lady from Pasadena

The Claude Rains Memorial 20-man Invisible Marching Drill Team. (thanks to David Singer for helping me puzzle out that other name on the banner!)

Doesn't the one guy who's all wrapped up do a splendid job leading the others on the drill team? (notice the additional gloved hands along the banner as the other invisible helpers assist carrying the banner.)

By shouting "Show us your beads!!!" to this person, I managed to score a string of green mardi gras beads. Sitting right up front at Doo Dah is totally it!

Hot Dog!!! The Synchronized Grill Team parade entry has two--count 'em two- live, burning Bar-B-Q grills that are pushed along the parade route. The Grills, er, girls in the Grill Team hand 'em out, or, the guys get together and shoot 'em into the crowd.

Men on the Grill Team with their hot dog cannons, prepare to shoot foil-wrapped hot dogs into the enthusiastic crowd of parade watchers.

A Rose By Any Other Name Of course, what Doo Dah Parade would be complete without spoofing that *other* parade?

The Dead Rose Queens

A Dead Rose Queen demonstrates the requisite wave.

The Doo Dah Queen, this year (for a change) the Queen is actually a woman!

The Torment of Roses, which spoofed not the Tournament of Roses, but the other Great Doo Dah Subject: The election!

He's just a twig off the old bush!

Al Gore was getting sprayed with silly string while workin' the crowd

The sign says: "Compassionate Conservative Bitches for No Recount"

Uncle Sam

Bill and the Lame Ducks. . .

. . . those poor ducks hafta use walkers! Awwwwww.

Well, that Bill guy's gonna be a man of leisure soon... there was a Parade entry from the Men of Leisure

Other political causes represented at the Parade:

(This was actually an entry from Amnesty International)

Actually, this wasn't a political cause; it's all about a band called The Nourishment

You already saw Snotty Scotty on the back of a truck. Who else was on the back of a truck?

Tequila Mockingbird and the Doo Dah orchestra.

There was also a rented truck upon which rode a group of people advertising themselves as Lena B's Fabulous Wedding Shower. Hey, if you're going to have a wedding shower in late November, why not make everyone else jealous that they weren't invited?

The Edsel parade entry: Edsel's been given a bad rap.

Another funky cardboard car... this advertising the misinformer comedy web site.

Speaking of a situation with inherent comedy, policemen and women in training (or is that sherriffs in training?) This group tossed out donut holes to the crowd; they had good aim.

Oh, and speaking of tossing, I mentioned the hot dogs; I mentioned mardi gras beads, there were cookies, and donut holes. The Caesar's Palace entry had the best way, though, for distributing marshmallows into a crowd of people: a catapult.

Oh, and there was an entry from someone named "Doctor Dickydo", too:

The Rothenberg Sawasy Architects were there this year, too, with their huddle of houses that would do different things, according to the different signs flashed by the drill team leader: Cul de Sac, Tract Housing, Earthquake, Mudslide, etc.

There were a few marching bands too, including the John Muir High School drum corps (always the final entry). But another repeat visitor to Doo Dah is Humbold State University's own Marching Lumberjack band, whose lineup calls to mind the Monty Python song about lumberjacks:

They gotta lotta attitude. Here's their motto:

Happy Doo Dah day to you, too!!

Piles o Mail

There are piles and piles of mail on the dining table (getting smaller, tho). I'm writing "Refused Please Remove me from your database" on lots of them. Hope it works.

Direct Marketing Association: How to remove your name from mailing lists

Junkbusters: U.S. Laws on Direct Mail

and while we're at it: Junkbusters: U. S. Laws on Telemarketing

Zero Kay

My home improvement tasks continue... Yesterday they were interrupted by a fone call to my dad, where we had to troubleshoot why he was having problems connecting to AOL on his Mac. (I've forgotten which one it was, but it's an older Power PC, with a 601 processor and one generation removed from NuBus slots [PCI slots?]). Old and slow enough that running AOL 3.0 is just fine and dandy, thankyou very much.

Anyway, he describes to me a window that has the AOL application icon in it. "12 items 0K available." Zero kay?!? uh oh. So last night I walked him through how to discover where all the crap is hidden on his (oy!) 500 MB hard disk. Sure enough! It was right where I suspected it to be. ("Susan, you seem to have an encyclopedic knowledge of how this thing works." "Experience, Dad, experience!") And so where was the hoard? System Folder : Preferences : America Online Folder : Browser Cache. That damn browser cache hoarded over 250 MB of data (20,000 items!) and filled up the entire contents of the (albeit small) disk!

I heartily wished that maggots would infest the people that designed the lack of upper limits to the AOL Browser cache. I'll have to go and do some serious disk maintenance on the hard drive pretty soon. Zero K available. Oy.