I see that Saddam Hussein was finally executed. I feel that is good thing and needed to be done. As long as he was alive, then there was the possibility that he might be restored to power. Too many people have died and too much as been sacrificed to date. His execution closes that option. It will force those who want to return to the days of his dictatorship to instead look ahead towards other options.
There are many who feel that his execution was wrong. I don't. I feel it came 15 years, and thousands of deaths too late. Many claim that removing Saddam created more problems that it solved. The claim that because more people have died since he was toppled that when he was the one doing the killing, keeping him in power would have been better.
That opinion is wrong on so many levels. It assumes that things in Iraq and M.E. would have remained static. Who is to say that is true? Why are body counts the only metric? With that logic, then all people should live under oppressive dictatorships in the name of public safety.
Most of the people killed in Iraq since Saddam fell have been murdered at the hands of fellow Iraqis. Not American troops. Not British troops. The government of Iraq, that was elected by the Iraqis themselves has failed to provide any security. That is their fault, not Bush's.
Now that Saddam is gone, there is one more Iraqi that must be brought to justice and executed. That is Sadar, the "cleric" in charge of the Shi'ites of Baghdad. He is a Saddam in the making. He has blood on his hands. He runs his own militia. The Iraqi government needs to take him on and remove him, now. And he needs to be executed. He has no sons to continue his sick monarchy.
But, I don't think they have the guts to do what needs to be done. So the killing will continue until they get tired of it. Pathetic.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
The Mac OSX Experience - Day 3
Well. I've run into what I consider some serious problems. I don't feel confident enough to migrate any data over to the new laptop until these are resolved. I've found that files are disappearing and being corrupted.
I copied over a folder containing about 600 pieces of artwork that I wanted to use as my wallpaper. When I checked them today, about 50 of them, all GIF's, were corrupted and could no longer be opened. I have not figured out what happened. I suspect that it might have to do with some subtle differences between how a Mac and a PC process GIF files. I'm not sure, so I will have to do some research into this later, when I get some more time.
Another odd thing is dissapearing files. Some have vanished, and I have no idea where or why. For example, my system Janice had left a video she made on the desktop before she mailed me my machine. That video is gone. I didn't delete it, move it, or anything. I can't find it anywhere. Thankfully, I had backup it up to an external HDD, so I still have a copy.
Usually in Windows, and in MacOSX, you can drag a file into an application to have that application open that file. I found that when I drag an image file into Apple's preview, it (1) corrupts the image that is currently previewed, and (2) deletes the original file. And to make matters worse, there is no "undo" command. I can't reverse the process. So the file I dragged is gone and no where to be found. It is not in the application to be saved. Instead it is imbedded somewhere in the original file, and seems to not be able to undo. What a pain in the neck.
I've decided to not spend any more time on the MacOSX side for now. In order to migrate to this new laptop, I need to establish a replica of the environment I have on my old laptop. So in that regard, I have spent the last day installing applications under WindowsXP on the Mac. So far, not too bad. Since I do a lot of development work, I have some pretty massive applications to install. These massive apps also have massive amounts of patches and updates that I need to download too.
I've installed OfficeXP Pro, my Macromedia/Adobe Studio 8, Cold Fusion Server, SQL Server 2000, Java Netbeans IDE, IIS, and a million smaller apps that I use. Since I'm running servers for development, there is a lot of configuring and security issues to iron out. It just very tedious.
For fun, I also installed a couple of demanding PC games that I own.. Doom3 and Counter Strike Condition Zero. These are both very demanding FPS (First Person Shooter) games that my old laptop could not handle. The video demands were simply too much and I would constantly end up dead simply because I could not react to threats quick enough. By the time the graphics engine would catch up with the action, I would have been shot or ripped to shreds by a monster. So I had ended up removing these games and setting them aside.
I tried them out last night. I cranked the video setting to max, the most punishing on the graphics card. The results were impressive. The game play was smooth, even will full texture rendering, shadows, high FPS rate, and large resolution. I could tell the Macbook was working hard because I heard and felt a fan kick in that I have no heard before.
I discovered something else that irritates me, but it is not deadly critical. I found that MaxOSX can't seem to figure out what time it is. Even though I have it configured to get the time against a time server, AND it knows what time zone I am in, it seems to always be off by 5 to 6 hours. I can only correct it by switching to a manual time setting. Windows doesn't seem to have a problem. It always comes up with the correct time. Logically, this means that Apple's time server is off. That would make every Mac on the planet off too. So it must be something is wrong with the time zone database on my machine. Weird.
Another thing that bugs me. I found that if I hibernate WinXP, when I wake it, the touchpad no longer works. So that means I have to reboot WinXP, or plug in a mouse. Like the time issue, what a pain. I prefer hibernate since I run server services. It just makes Windows come up so much quicker for me.
Next week, once Adobe's tech support opens, I can call them and straighten out some licensing issues with moving my Macromedia and Adobe products over to the new machine. So far I'm running on trial versions.
Well.... I'm gonna lock up the computer for a couple of days and celebrate the New Years.
I copied over a folder containing about 600 pieces of artwork that I wanted to use as my wallpaper. When I checked them today, about 50 of them, all GIF's, were corrupted and could no longer be opened. I have not figured out what happened. I suspect that it might have to do with some subtle differences between how a Mac and a PC process GIF files. I'm not sure, so I will have to do some research into this later, when I get some more time.
Another odd thing is dissapearing files. Some have vanished, and I have no idea where or why. For example, my system Janice had left a video she made on the desktop before she mailed me my machine. That video is gone. I didn't delete it, move it, or anything. I can't find it anywhere. Thankfully, I had backup it up to an external HDD, so I still have a copy.
Usually in Windows, and in MacOSX, you can drag a file into an application to have that application open that file. I found that when I drag an image file into Apple's preview, it (1) corrupts the image that is currently previewed, and (2) deletes the original file. And to make matters worse, there is no "undo" command. I can't reverse the process. So the file I dragged is gone and no where to be found. It is not in the application to be saved. Instead it is imbedded somewhere in the original file, and seems to not be able to undo. What a pain in the neck.
I've decided to not spend any more time on the MacOSX side for now. In order to migrate to this new laptop, I need to establish a replica of the environment I have on my old laptop. So in that regard, I have spent the last day installing applications under WindowsXP on the Mac. So far, not too bad. Since I do a lot of development work, I have some pretty massive applications to install. These massive apps also have massive amounts of patches and updates that I need to download too.
I've installed OfficeXP Pro, my Macromedia/Adobe Studio 8, Cold Fusion Server, SQL Server 2000, Java Netbeans IDE, IIS, and a million smaller apps that I use. Since I'm running servers for development, there is a lot of configuring and security issues to iron out. It just very tedious.
For fun, I also installed a couple of demanding PC games that I own.. Doom3 and Counter Strike Condition Zero. These are both very demanding FPS (First Person Shooter) games that my old laptop could not handle. The video demands were simply too much and I would constantly end up dead simply because I could not react to threats quick enough. By the time the graphics engine would catch up with the action, I would have been shot or ripped to shreds by a monster. So I had ended up removing these games and setting them aside.
I tried them out last night. I cranked the video setting to max, the most punishing on the graphics card. The results were impressive. The game play was smooth, even will full texture rendering, shadows, high FPS rate, and large resolution. I could tell the Macbook was working hard because I heard and felt a fan kick in that I have no heard before.
I discovered something else that irritates me, but it is not deadly critical. I found that MaxOSX can't seem to figure out what time it is. Even though I have it configured to get the time against a time server, AND it knows what time zone I am in, it seems to always be off by 5 to 6 hours. I can only correct it by switching to a manual time setting. Windows doesn't seem to have a problem. It always comes up with the correct time. Logically, this means that Apple's time server is off. That would make every Mac on the planet off too. So it must be something is wrong with the time zone database on my machine. Weird.
Another thing that bugs me. I found that if I hibernate WinXP, when I wake it, the touchpad no longer works. So that means I have to reboot WinXP, or plug in a mouse. Like the time issue, what a pain. I prefer hibernate since I run server services. It just makes Windows come up so much quicker for me.
Next week, once Adobe's tech support opens, I can call them and straighten out some licensing issues with moving my Macromedia and Adobe products over to the new machine. So far I'm running on trial versions.
Well.... I'm gonna lock up the computer for a couple of days and celebrate the New Years.
Friday, December 29, 2006
The Mac OSX Experience - Day 2
I installed WindowsXP on my Macbook Pro today using Bootcamp. Sweet! It runs smooth and fast. Now I just have a shit load of work to do to install all the security and applications that I need. So that will pretty much waste my New Years Weekend.
The Mac OSX Experience - Day 1
Since I've opened up the new MacBook Pro and started getting it working right. I have a lot of work to do on it.
Now I want to state for the record that I hate Mac bigots. These are the Mac people who are always slamming Windows, telling everyone how perfect Macs are, and looking down at us non-Mac people with distain. I've been working on computers for almost 30 years now. I know that non are perfect. I feel sorry for these Mac bigots. They remind me of cult members who simply can't open their minds up enough to see the real world.
So it has been a day of working on the Mac. For those who claims that Mac's work perfectly out of the box, well they are lying. I've run into a lot of problems. It appears that I am really going to have to roll up my sleeves and dig deep into the OSX to figure out how to do what I need.
USB Thumb Drive Lock Up: My Macbook Pro locked up tighter than a drum when I plugged in one of my USB keys. I had to reboot. No error messages or anything. It just froze and stopped working. I took the key over to my WinXP laptop and reformatted it as FAT. Now the Mac will read it and not lock up.
No TrueCrypt: Damn! This is very disappointing. I love TrueCrypt. It use it to secure my USB keys incase I loose them. It turns out that there is no version of TrueCrypt that runs on a Mac. That means I can't use my TrueCrypt secured USB keys on the Mac.
I prefer TrueCrypt because it is open source public project with the best security and encryption methods. It is the only one that I ultimately trust. What is going on?
No Western Australia Daylight Savings Time Support: Hello Apple! What the hell is going on? Microsoft got right on the new DST for Western Australia. I noticed that Apple doesn't have it. Their advice? Tell your Mac that you are in Japan, or manually change your machine twice a year. Nice. How hard is it to update your clock files to support DST here?
No SpinRite: Another Damn! SpinRite is a critical program for the prevention of hard drive failures. It actually runs under FreeDOS. You have to boot a diskette, CD-ROM, or Thumbdrive with FreeDOS and SpinRite to get it started. I am seriously worried now. Running SpinRite on my drives allows me to sleep better knowing that the best program in the world has been watching them for problems.
No Java IDE: Hells Bells. It turns out that Sun doesn't make a Java compiler that runs under Mac OSX. They have them for most other OS's. Just not Mac. Why? Java is supposed to be a Write-Once, Run-Anywhere language. I use Sun's NetBeans IDE for Java development on my WinXP machine. But I can't use it on the Mac. I now have to learn a new IDE, Apples.
I blame this one on Sun, not Apple.
Firefox Profile Manager: Boy, Apple doesn't make it easy to customize the way programs start. I don't feel like learning a new browser. So I installed Firefox on the Mac. However, in order to start the Firefox Profile Manager, I have to drop into to Unix shell under MacOSX and manually enter the start line.
That is not that big of a deal. But what I can't do is then create a quick start icon under OSX that will fire off the Profile Manager for me. I can do this easily in Windows by editing the properties of a shortcut. No such animal on OSX that I can see. It tooks like I will need to spend a lot of time figuring out how I can tweak that command line parms that OSX passes to the underlying Unix system.
So in the meantime, I have to go through the profile manager everytime I start Firefox. I prefer to have it set up like I have on my WinXP box, when I go into the profile manager only when I need to.
Bootcamp: I downloaded and installed BootCamp from Apple in order to prepare my Macbook for dual boot. But after I run the install program, Bootcamp just goes away. It doesn't issue any messages that it is done. I finally figured out what it had done when I ran into Bootcamp hidden in the Utilities folder under the Applications folder.
Jeeze... you would like that the install program would at least tell you that it finished and to go find the app in that folder. Instead, it just disappears.
Quicktime Can't Play AVI files: This made me laugh. Mac bigots often speak of how Mac's run perfectly out of the box. Well, Apple's Quicktime video player can't play my AVI files. I had to go install the 3rd party player, VLC, which plays them fine. What is the computer idiot who bough a Mac cause they don't know computers supposed to do with stuff like this?
Adobe Bridge Tryout: Thanks Adobe! I downloaded and installed the Mac version of Photoshop CS2 Tryout version. It comes with Bridge, their image browsing product. But it won't run because of licensing restrictions. How in the hell am I supposed to "tryout" your product when your trial version won't let me?
This is stupid Adobe's fault, not Apple's.
Adobe Photoshop Tryout: Thanks again Adobe! The CS2 version of photoshop can't read Canon RAW files from my 30D. According to your website, CS2 has the Canon RAW support built in. But no..... it won't work. Nor can I find the RAW plug in to download and install after the fact. I want Photoshop CS2 software for RAW processing. That is what it is supposed to be able to do.
Grrrrr.
Font Problems: Oh man. This one sucks. I noticed that when I browse web sites with a lot of text (such as news sites), the top of some sentences get shaved off here and there. This is not good. I am going to have to do some testing and call Apple to solve this problem.
Now I want to state for the record that I hate Mac bigots. These are the Mac people who are always slamming Windows, telling everyone how perfect Macs are, and looking down at us non-Mac people with distain. I've been working on computers for almost 30 years now. I know that non are perfect. I feel sorry for these Mac bigots. They remind me of cult members who simply can't open their minds up enough to see the real world.
So it has been a day of working on the Mac. For those who claims that Mac's work perfectly out of the box, well they are lying. I've run into a lot of problems. It appears that I am really going to have to roll up my sleeves and dig deep into the OSX to figure out how to do what I need.
USB Thumb Drive Lock Up: My Macbook Pro locked up tighter than a drum when I plugged in one of my USB keys. I had to reboot. No error messages or anything. It just froze and stopped working. I took the key over to my WinXP laptop and reformatted it as FAT. Now the Mac will read it and not lock up.
No TrueCrypt: Damn! This is very disappointing. I love TrueCrypt. It use it to secure my USB keys incase I loose them. It turns out that there is no version of TrueCrypt that runs on a Mac. That means I can't use my TrueCrypt secured USB keys on the Mac.
I prefer TrueCrypt because it is open source public project with the best security and encryption methods. It is the only one that I ultimately trust. What is going on?
No Western Australia Daylight Savings Time Support: Hello Apple! What the hell is going on? Microsoft got right on the new DST for Western Australia. I noticed that Apple doesn't have it. Their advice? Tell your Mac that you are in Japan, or manually change your machine twice a year. Nice. How hard is it to update your clock files to support DST here?
No SpinRite: Another Damn! SpinRite is a critical program for the prevention of hard drive failures. It actually runs under FreeDOS. You have to boot a diskette, CD-ROM, or Thumbdrive with FreeDOS and SpinRite to get it started. I am seriously worried now. Running SpinRite on my drives allows me to sleep better knowing that the best program in the world has been watching them for problems.
No Java IDE: Hells Bells. It turns out that Sun doesn't make a Java compiler that runs under Mac OSX. They have them for most other OS's. Just not Mac. Why? Java is supposed to be a Write-Once, Run-Anywhere language. I use Sun's NetBeans IDE for Java development on my WinXP machine. But I can't use it on the Mac. I now have to learn a new IDE, Apples.
I blame this one on Sun, not Apple.
Firefox Profile Manager: Boy, Apple doesn't make it easy to customize the way programs start. I don't feel like learning a new browser. So I installed Firefox on the Mac. However, in order to start the Firefox Profile Manager, I have to drop into to Unix shell under MacOSX and manually enter the start line.
That is not that big of a deal. But what I can't do is then create a quick start icon under OSX that will fire off the Profile Manager for me. I can do this easily in Windows by editing the properties of a shortcut. No such animal on OSX that I can see. It tooks like I will need to spend a lot of time figuring out how I can tweak that command line parms that OSX passes to the underlying Unix system.
So in the meantime, I have to go through the profile manager everytime I start Firefox. I prefer to have it set up like I have on my WinXP box, when I go into the profile manager only when I need to.
Bootcamp: I downloaded and installed BootCamp from Apple in order to prepare my Macbook for dual boot. But after I run the install program, Bootcamp just goes away. It doesn't issue any messages that it is done. I finally figured out what it had done when I ran into Bootcamp hidden in the Utilities folder under the Applications folder.
Jeeze... you would like that the install program would at least tell you that it finished and to go find the app in that folder. Instead, it just disappears.
Quicktime Can't Play AVI files: This made me laugh. Mac bigots often speak of how Mac's run perfectly out of the box. Well, Apple's Quicktime video player can't play my AVI files. I had to go install the 3rd party player, VLC, which plays them fine. What is the computer idiot who bough a Mac cause they don't know computers supposed to do with stuff like this?
Adobe Bridge Tryout: Thanks Adobe! I downloaded and installed the Mac version of Photoshop CS2 Tryout version. It comes with Bridge, their image browsing product. But it won't run because of licensing restrictions. How in the hell am I supposed to "tryout" your product when your trial version won't let me?
This is stupid Adobe's fault, not Apple's.
Adobe Photoshop Tryout: Thanks again Adobe! The CS2 version of photoshop can't read Canon RAW files from my 30D. According to your website, CS2 has the Canon RAW support built in. But no..... it won't work. Nor can I find the RAW plug in to download and install after the fact. I want Photoshop CS2 software for RAW processing. That is what it is supposed to be able to do.
Grrrrr.
Font Problems: Oh man. This one sucks. I noticed that when I browse web sites with a lot of text (such as news sites), the top of some sentences get shaved off here and there. This is not good. I am going to have to do some testing and call Apple to solve this problem.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Greetings Friends and Family. I have been neglecting my blog lately. Just been too distracted by other things since I got back from Vanuatu.
I meant to post this yesterday. But the earthquake that hit Taiwan yesterday did a number on the trans-Pacific Internet traffic. In case you did not year, a major quake damaged some of the fiberoptic cables that carry most of the Internet traffic across the Pacific to places like Australia, where I am. So I have had a hard time getting to Google and Blogger.
An update on my health. All good news. I was given a clean bill of health by the doctor when I got back. No cancer. He suspected some kidney damage. But an MRI scan showed them to be in good shape. And I feel good. So all is well.
The main reason I have neglected my blog is because of a new mistress in my life.... my digital SLR camera. I've been spending a lot of time teaching myself how to use it. And how to use Photoshop for post-processing. There is a lot to learn. I've been enjoying it tremendously.
So for Christmas, I bought myself two things. First, I bought a good lens for my camera. I found a company in Hong Kong that can sell me the lens I want for about half of what it goes for here in Australia. I got myself the Canon 18-35mm f/2.8L lens. That won't mean much to those of you who don't know much about cameras. But in English, it is a lens with Canon's best optics, and it is very fast and accurate.
It turns out there are a handful of photography nuts at work who have been working for years in their hobby. They have managed to acquire a lot of good equipment over the years. And they have been nice enough to let me borrow some too. A friend had the lens that I just bought. I was so impressed with that it could do that I decided it was worth it for myself.
I've been checking out the pawn shops too, looking for gear that people are dumping cheap. So far, no luck. Almost all of the gear is for older film cameras. However, I did score one day and found a top-quality Manfrotto tripod for about a third of the normal price. So I grabbed it. It works very, very well.
On the post-processing side, I've been teaching myself Photoshop CS2. But it turns out that my old laptop just can't keep up with the new demands I've placed on it. I was planning to upgrade this year anyways, so I just went ahead and did that.
But rather than get another true and trusted Dell Latitude, I decided to take the plunge and go with an Apple Mac. I bought a MacBook Pro laptop with the new Intel Core 2 DUO processor. What convinced me to switch was the fact that I can boot WindowsXP on the Mac now that they went to Intel in late 2006. So all of my software and expertise will not go to waste.
I plan to use the Apple OS-X for photo-processing and use the WindowsXP for my professional work, such as application development. Plus, I have a steep learning curve for me since I've never touched a Mac before.
I've decided that I will write up a log of my experience as a Windows guru learning my Mac. I've had it for 24 hours now. To be honest, I've found it to be frustrating to get things done that I consider to be simple (on Windows). I won't bore you with the technical details on this post. But I've decided to plow ahead and learn how to get around this obstacles.
IBM has renewed my contract for 2007. So no big changes to report. All is well. I'm just trying to perfect my new hobby. Man, I am such a geek.
I've cut back on reading news. I find it all just so depressing. All of the news from the Middle East is bad, and getting worse. The people there seem to hellbent on dragging themselves into a 15th century dark ages of ignorance, intolerance, and violence. I'm sick of them all. Any sympathy and compassion I had for their suffering has gone. They can all go around killing each other for all I care anymore. So until they actually do something postive for mankind, then screw them. I ain't giving them any more of my precious time.
I hope you all have a great New Years! I will!
Love
Ron
I meant to post this yesterday. But the earthquake that hit Taiwan yesterday did a number on the trans-Pacific Internet traffic. In case you did not year, a major quake damaged some of the fiberoptic cables that carry most of the Internet traffic across the Pacific to places like Australia, where I am. So I have had a hard time getting to Google and Blogger.
An update on my health. All good news. I was given a clean bill of health by the doctor when I got back. No cancer. He suspected some kidney damage. But an MRI scan showed them to be in good shape. And I feel good. So all is well.
The main reason I have neglected my blog is because of a new mistress in my life.... my digital SLR camera. I've been spending a lot of time teaching myself how to use it. And how to use Photoshop for post-processing. There is a lot to learn. I've been enjoying it tremendously.
So for Christmas, I bought myself two things. First, I bought a good lens for my camera. I found a company in Hong Kong that can sell me the lens I want for about half of what it goes for here in Australia. I got myself the Canon 18-35mm f/2.8L lens. That won't mean much to those of you who don't know much about cameras. But in English, it is a lens with Canon's best optics, and it is very fast and accurate.
It turns out there are a handful of photography nuts at work who have been working for years in their hobby. They have managed to acquire a lot of good equipment over the years. And they have been nice enough to let me borrow some too. A friend had the lens that I just bought. I was so impressed with that it could do that I decided it was worth it for myself.
I've been checking out the pawn shops too, looking for gear that people are dumping cheap. So far, no luck. Almost all of the gear is for older film cameras. However, I did score one day and found a top-quality Manfrotto tripod for about a third of the normal price. So I grabbed it. It works very, very well.
On the post-processing side, I've been teaching myself Photoshop CS2. But it turns out that my old laptop just can't keep up with the new demands I've placed on it. I was planning to upgrade this year anyways, so I just went ahead and did that.
But rather than get another true and trusted Dell Latitude, I decided to take the plunge and go with an Apple Mac. I bought a MacBook Pro laptop with the new Intel Core 2 DUO processor. What convinced me to switch was the fact that I can boot WindowsXP on the Mac now that they went to Intel in late 2006. So all of my software and expertise will not go to waste.
I plan to use the Apple OS-X for photo-processing and use the WindowsXP for my professional work, such as application development. Plus, I have a steep learning curve for me since I've never touched a Mac before.
I've decided that I will write up a log of my experience as a Windows guru learning my Mac. I've had it for 24 hours now. To be honest, I've found it to be frustrating to get things done that I consider to be simple (on Windows). I won't bore you with the technical details on this post. But I've decided to plow ahead and learn how to get around this obstacles.
IBM has renewed my contract for 2007. So no big changes to report. All is well. I'm just trying to perfect my new hobby. Man, I am such a geek.
I've cut back on reading news. I find it all just so depressing. All of the news from the Middle East is bad, and getting worse. The people there seem to hellbent on dragging themselves into a 15th century dark ages of ignorance, intolerance, and violence. I'm sick of them all. Any sympathy and compassion I had for their suffering has gone. They can all go around killing each other for all I care anymore. So until they actually do something postive for mankind, then screw them. I ain't giving them any more of my precious time.
I hope you all have a great New Years! I will!
Love
Ron
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Port-to-Port Rally on the Sandpiper
Greetings all. I am back in Perth. I got home late last week and have been trying to catch up on work and personal issues every since.
I have to say that I really enjoyed crewing on the Sandpiper on the Port-to-Port Rally across the Coral Sea. It brought back a lot of memories of living on the Halcyon as a kid. Except, the Sandpiper is sooo much more luxurious than the Halcyon was. The crossing was fantastic. It took 9 days, most of which were perfect sailing conditions. The trade winds pushed us along from the east at a comfortable 6 knots. There was no rain, and a steady swell.
I must thank Tom, and especially Amy, for putting up with me for 3 weeks on board. The Sandpiper is only 38 feet long. And I am a big guy. So I am sure there were moments when poor Amy wished that her and Tom had the boat all to themselves again. I tried to pull my weight on board.
It was certainly nice to get away from phones, emails, news, and work for a while. I feel very refreshed. I should crew more often to clear my head.
I've posted 3 photo galleries of pictures I took on board. Go to my online photos here. I've put captions and descriptions on most photos. Enjoy!
I have to say that I really enjoyed crewing on the Sandpiper on the Port-to-Port Rally across the Coral Sea. It brought back a lot of memories of living on the Halcyon as a kid. Except, the Sandpiper is sooo much more luxurious than the Halcyon was. The crossing was fantastic. It took 9 days, most of which were perfect sailing conditions. The trade winds pushed us along from the east at a comfortable 6 knots. There was no rain, and a steady swell.
I must thank Tom, and especially Amy, for putting up with me for 3 weeks on board. The Sandpiper is only 38 feet long. And I am a big guy. So I am sure there were moments when poor Amy wished that her and Tom had the boat all to themselves again. I tried to pull my weight on board.
It was certainly nice to get away from phones, emails, news, and work for a while. I feel very refreshed. I should crew more often to clear my head.
I've posted 3 photo galleries of pictures I took on board. Go to my online photos here. I've put captions and descriptions on most photos. Enjoy!
Friday, October 27, 2006
Tomorrow?
Well it looks like things are improving and that we will leave tomorrow, Saturday morning, for Australia. We are seeing the sky through the rain clouds once in a while. But it is still pretty much raining non-stop.
Yesteray was a bust. The World Series games was cancelled due to rain in St. Louis. All the boaters here are getting itchy and wanting to leave. I spend most of the day working on Tom's computers getting the last bugs ironed out. He and Amy are totally stoked now. Their iPod now works and is full of new music. The computers now boot almost instantly and run much faster and smoother. I got their preferred chart system working... so Tom is thrilled to death.
Tom and Amy want to pimp me out to the other boats here. They keep asking me questions on how to get things working. Naw... I'm not here to work.
We have to go grocery shopping today to replace all the food stock we ate this week. Plus we need to do laundry, top off the tanks, scrub the dingy, and prepare the Sandpiper for sea. I probably won't be able to post again until Australia in a couple of weeks. But I will be posting daily noon reports to the Sandpiper's blog using the sideband shortwave email system. So please jump over there to keep up.
Yesteray was a bust. The World Series games was cancelled due to rain in St. Louis. All the boaters here are getting itchy and wanting to leave. I spend most of the day working on Tom's computers getting the last bugs ironed out. He and Amy are totally stoked now. Their iPod now works and is full of new music. The computers now boot almost instantly and run much faster and smoother. I got their preferred chart system working... so Tom is thrilled to death.
Tom and Amy want to pimp me out to the other boats here. They keep asking me questions on how to get things working. Naw... I'm not here to work.
We have to go grocery shopping today to replace all the food stock we ate this week. Plus we need to do laundry, top off the tanks, scrub the dingy, and prepare the Sandpiper for sea. I probably won't be able to post again until Australia in a couple of weeks. But I will be posting daily noon reports to the Sandpiper's blog using the sideband shortwave email system. So please jump over there to keep up.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Groundhog Day.... Vanuatu Style
Today is a repeat of yesterday, which is a repeat of the day before, and what tomorrow will be. Wake up at 6. Wander into town around 8 and take a cold shower at the yatch club guest showers. Then go down to Jill's for a breakfast buritto and a coffee. Wander back over to the Sandpiper and do some chores. Then back to town around noon and head to the bar for baseball and beer. Wander home drunk around dark and sleep off the buzz.
The cyclone has missed us. But the weather still sucks. So it looks like are might jump off on Saturday when the seas have calmed down a bit. We will see. There is another low developing that looks like it too will become a cyclone.
Not much to report. Just lots of rain, and lots of waiting, and lots of beer.
Last night we ended up at another pub that has a beautiful black cat with white paws named "Boots". Boots hangs out at the bar and jumps up on the bar top and rings a brass bell there. It is amazing to watch. Boots has no fear. The bar is named after him... "Boots Bar", and they even brew their own beer "Boots Brew" which features the cat on the label.
I will post again tomorrow. I'm off to the other other pub for World Series Games 4. The Poms here are giving us Yanks shit about the "World" series that only has one team from outside the US. We invited some Frenchies from another yatch to join us yesterday. But we heard that they didn't want to bother to learn anything about baseball in order to watch one game.
The cyclone has missed us. But the weather still sucks. So it looks like are might jump off on Saturday when the seas have calmed down a bit. We will see. There is another low developing that looks like it too will become a cyclone.
Not much to report. Just lots of rain, and lots of waiting, and lots of beer.
Last night we ended up at another pub that has a beautiful black cat with white paws named "Boots". Boots hangs out at the bar and jumps up on the bar top and rings a brass bell there. It is amazing to watch. Boots has no fear. The bar is named after him... "Boots Bar", and they even brew their own beer "Boots Brew" which features the cat on the label.
I will post again tomorrow. I'm off to the other other pub for World Series Games 4. The Poms here are giving us Yanks shit about the "World" series that only has one team from outside the US. We invited some Frenchies from another yatch to join us yesterday. But we heard that they didn't want to bother to learn anything about baseball in order to watch one game.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Stuck in Vanuatu in a hurricane
Greetings all. It is Wednesday morning and I am sitting in a little Internet Cafe in Port Vila, Vanuatu, waiting for tropical cyclone Xavier to hit. Worse case senario, it is going to hit right here on Friday with 100mph winds. So we will see later today what the forcasts say.
It has been raining the last 24 hours, getting stronger and more steady. The winds have been fine. Some gusts. Nothing too bad. We are in a good anchorage. The only problem is that it is crowded. The locals have beached all the inter-island cargo ships on the beach behind us. They do this by running them straight into the island at high speed, and they go skidding up the beach and into a cliff. Then they tie them off to trees.
I really like Vanuatu. The people here are awesome. So friendly and nice. Sunday night I hooked up with some locals who took me to the real kava bars out in the jungles. I drank 3 large shells (cups) worth. I didn't loose sensation in my mouth, but I was really drunk. It works like a strong vodka, but taste like muddy water.
The kava bars are nothing but little grass shacks out in the jungle. There is a colored lamp out off the dirt road that lets you know where it is. Each bar has a designated color. We started at the green lamp kava bar, then went bar hopping to a bunch of other colors. The bar is nothinh but a plank of wood with a large garbage can of kava water behind it. They dip plastic bowls into the kava and serve it. The customers then take their bowl of kava and go off into he dark and sip it. There is no noise except the sound of men spitting, gurgleing, and clearing their throats. They wash the kava down with a swig of water that they spit out.
Nearby is a little food bar run by the local women. There they serve the local delicaies cheap and served on banana leaves. I had dinner there for about 40 US cents. The hygine leaves something to be desired... reminded me of the some of the local food servers in Haiti. Amy is too afraid to try them. The kava bars remind me of a backs woods moonshine distillery.
We were gonna leave here on Sunday AM. Now it looks like we may not be able to leave until this weekend. I don't know if that will allow me to go with Tom and Amy. I will have to call my boss back in Perth and see if I can get another week off.
One boat did leave port, one day early. The Sandpiper UK is now about half way to Australia. They are getting pretty beat up by the waves generated by Xavier. But they are out of harms way because they are putting more and more distance between them and the cyclone.
Tom and Amy are thinking about renting a hotel room if the cycle hit here. There really is not much you can do in the middle of a hurricane. So there is no point to staying on board and risk getting killed. All you can do it battan down everything as much a possible and cross your fingers. I still want to stay on board to run any pumps should we get a leak. But I think Capt. Tom is going to order me off.
So in the meantime we wait for the weather to clear by going to the bar and getting drunk while watching the World Series and Monday Night Football on satellite TV. That was a treat. Today we are heading for a noon drinking feast for game 3 of the world series. I talked to Jill, of Jill's American Cafe here in Port Vila. She is going to deliver us a big box of nachos for the game. Cool!
BTW... Jill's makes good mexican food. I've had her breakfast burittos everyday since I got here. Yum!
Nothing else exciting to report. I've been working on the Sandpiper's computers, getting them all up to snuff. I've brought a shit-load of new music and podcasts and other media with me. So all the other yatchies are coming over with their computers to get a copy. Most of the have been stuck with the same small music collection for months now. So they are realy craving some new stuff.
We bought Nacho Libre on DVD yesterday and watched it on board. I love that movie. It is very funny in it's own subtle way. Life is good... yes indeed.
More later.. check the Sandpiper's blog for more updates.
It has been raining the last 24 hours, getting stronger and more steady. The winds have been fine. Some gusts. Nothing too bad. We are in a good anchorage. The only problem is that it is crowded. The locals have beached all the inter-island cargo ships on the beach behind us. They do this by running them straight into the island at high speed, and they go skidding up the beach and into a cliff. Then they tie them off to trees.
I really like Vanuatu. The people here are awesome. So friendly and nice. Sunday night I hooked up with some locals who took me to the real kava bars out in the jungles. I drank 3 large shells (cups) worth. I didn't loose sensation in my mouth, but I was really drunk. It works like a strong vodka, but taste like muddy water.
The kava bars are nothing but little grass shacks out in the jungle. There is a colored lamp out off the dirt road that lets you know where it is. Each bar has a designated color. We started at the green lamp kava bar, then went bar hopping to a bunch of other colors. The bar is nothinh but a plank of wood with a large garbage can of kava water behind it. They dip plastic bowls into the kava and serve it. The customers then take their bowl of kava and go off into he dark and sip it. There is no noise except the sound of men spitting, gurgleing, and clearing their throats. They wash the kava down with a swig of water that they spit out.
Nearby is a little food bar run by the local women. There they serve the local delicaies cheap and served on banana leaves. I had dinner there for about 40 US cents. The hygine leaves something to be desired... reminded me of the some of the local food servers in Haiti. Amy is too afraid to try them. The kava bars remind me of a backs woods moonshine distillery.
We were gonna leave here on Sunday AM. Now it looks like we may not be able to leave until this weekend. I don't know if that will allow me to go with Tom and Amy. I will have to call my boss back in Perth and see if I can get another week off.
One boat did leave port, one day early. The Sandpiper UK is now about half way to Australia. They are getting pretty beat up by the waves generated by Xavier. But they are out of harms way because they are putting more and more distance between them and the cyclone.
Tom and Amy are thinking about renting a hotel room if the cycle hit here. There really is not much you can do in the middle of a hurricane. So there is no point to staying on board and risk getting killed. All you can do it battan down everything as much a possible and cross your fingers. I still want to stay on board to run any pumps should we get a leak. But I think Capt. Tom is going to order me off.
So in the meantime we wait for the weather to clear by going to the bar and getting drunk while watching the World Series and Monday Night Football on satellite TV. That was a treat. Today we are heading for a noon drinking feast for game 3 of the world series. I talked to Jill, of Jill's American Cafe here in Port Vila. She is going to deliver us a big box of nachos for the game. Cool!
BTW... Jill's makes good mexican food. I've had her breakfast burittos everyday since I got here. Yum!
Nothing else exciting to report. I've been working on the Sandpiper's computers, getting them all up to snuff. I've brought a shit-load of new music and podcasts and other media with me. So all the other yatchies are coming over with their computers to get a copy. Most of the have been stuck with the same small music collection for months now. So they are realy craving some new stuff.
We bought Nacho Libre on DVD yesterday and watched it on board. I love that movie. It is very funny in it's own subtle way. Life is good... yes indeed.
More later.. check the Sandpiper's blog for more updates.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Women - Know your limits!
Hey.. I'm gotta run off to catch my flight to Vanuatu. I'll be posting updates on the Sandpiper's Blog. In the meantime, I think you will really enjoy this public service film called "Women - Know Your Limits!".
And oh yea... for Chris. I feel fine. I'm super confident all will be fine. I will know for sure in later November when I go back in for follow up tests. Ya'll have a happy Holloween.
Ron
And oh yea... for Chris. I feel fine. I'm super confident all will be fine. I will know for sure in later November when I go back in for follow up tests. Ya'll have a happy Holloween.
Ron
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Mid October Update
Greetings...
Sorry for the long absense. I haven't updated since mid August, for multiple reasons. And, I won't be able to post again until the middle of November.
Since mid August, I've been away on a couple of trips. I went home to Santa Barbara to help out on the Santa Barbara Triathlons. I also took a road trip out the Kalgoorlie in the Western Australia Gold Fields for the Kalgoorlie Cup, a horse race out there.
Right now I am getting ready to leave to join my brother on his sailboat, the S/V Sandpiper, in Vanuatu in the South Pacific. I am going to crew with him and his wife on a voyage across the Coral Sea to Queensland Australia. So, I won't be around any Internet access for a few weeks.
Before I left for California, I broke down and bought myself something that I've wanted for years and year. A good camera. I've never taken a lot of photos in the past because I do not like the images produces with your average point-n-shoot camera. I've been lusting over the new generation of Digital SLR's from Canon and Nikon since they first hit the market in the late 1990's.
So I bought myself a Canon 30D... a semi-professional 8MP Digital SLR. What a sweet camera. It takes amazing pictures. So I have been spending a lot of my free time learning how to use it. I created an online photo gallery at Fotki. Click here to go to my new photo gallery. I'm really happy with this purchase. I know that it will last me for years and allow me to take good photos for the rest of my life.
I also had a cancer scare. I was very sick in September and was diagnosed with a strong possiblity of prostate cancer. I've been getting treatment for the last few weeks with some powerful meds, which have left me very tired. So I have not had a lot of energy at the end of the day. The good news that the it looks like it won't be cancer, but instead a serious infection of the urinary tract system. Same symptoms. I will know for sure when I get back after the boat trip and get some more tests done. But after three weeks of treatments I feel a lot better, stopped bleeding, and the pain has dropped significantly.
I've also been super busy getting ready for this sailing trip, trying to get some work projects put to bed. I've been collecting, organizing, and burning hundreds of gigabytyes digital media for Tom and Amy to enjoy while on the boat. That has taken more time than I anticipated. It should keep them entertained for a good six months at sea!
So until I get back from my voyage, please check out my photo gallaries. I posted photos from the trip to Santa Barbara, the trip out to Kalgoorlie, my trip out to Uluru earlier this year, and some other misc. albums.
Sorry for the long absense. I haven't updated since mid August, for multiple reasons. And, I won't be able to post again until the middle of November.
Since mid August, I've been away on a couple of trips. I went home to Santa Barbara to help out on the Santa Barbara Triathlons. I also took a road trip out the Kalgoorlie in the Western Australia Gold Fields for the Kalgoorlie Cup, a horse race out there.
Right now I am getting ready to leave to join my brother on his sailboat, the S/V Sandpiper, in Vanuatu in the South Pacific. I am going to crew with him and his wife on a voyage across the Coral Sea to Queensland Australia. So, I won't be around any Internet access for a few weeks.
Before I left for California, I broke down and bought myself something that I've wanted for years and year. A good camera. I've never taken a lot of photos in the past because I do not like the images produces with your average point-n-shoot camera. I've been lusting over the new generation of Digital SLR's from Canon and Nikon since they first hit the market in the late 1990's.
So I bought myself a Canon 30D... a semi-professional 8MP Digital SLR. What a sweet camera. It takes amazing pictures. So I have been spending a lot of my free time learning how to use it. I created an online photo gallery at Fotki. Click here to go to my new photo gallery. I'm really happy with this purchase. I know that it will last me for years and allow me to take good photos for the rest of my life.
I also had a cancer scare. I was very sick in September and was diagnosed with a strong possiblity of prostate cancer. I've been getting treatment for the last few weeks with some powerful meds, which have left me very tired. So I have not had a lot of energy at the end of the day. The good news that the it looks like it won't be cancer, but instead a serious infection of the urinary tract system. Same symptoms. I will know for sure when I get back after the boat trip and get some more tests done. But after three weeks of treatments I feel a lot better, stopped bleeding, and the pain has dropped significantly.
I've also been super busy getting ready for this sailing trip, trying to get some work projects put to bed. I've been collecting, organizing, and burning hundreds of gigabytyes digital media for Tom and Amy to enjoy while on the boat. That has taken more time than I anticipated. It should keep them entertained for a good six months at sea!
So until I get back from my voyage, please check out my photo gallaries. I posted photos from the trip to Santa Barbara, the trip out to Kalgoorlie, my trip out to Uluru earlier this year, and some other misc. albums.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Major update to Recommend Software List
I've made a lot of changes to my Recommened Software for Windows List. I've added some new tools and utilities that have come to my attention in the last year.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Things can change for the better!
Despite all the bad crap happening in the Middle East, don't forget that people can change for the better over time.
For example... look at how much the US has changed over the last 50 years. Nowadays when 100 white men chase one black man, it's no longer called a Klu Klux Klan lynching. It's PGA tour.
For example... look at how much the US has changed over the last 50 years. Nowadays when 100 white men chase one black man, it's no longer called a Klu Klux Klan lynching. It's PGA tour.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Coming soon! The New & Improved Arab "Solution"
Following up on yesterday's post about how the dictators of the Arab states have lost control of their "solution" to the Israeli "problem". In brief, the Persian (Iran) Shiites have produced an improved "solution" to the "problem" that that Arab kleptocracies use to justify their power. Hezbollah has proven to be more effective at getting rid of those pesky Jews than the Arab Unity solution of old.
Now, I am afraid, that yesterday's cease fire is only a lull before the storm. The Arab dictators are not going to sit by and allow Hezbollah to steal their customers without a fight. It won't be long before we see the new and improved "Arab Unity" (tm) product come out.
The new product will strive to show the Arab street that they, not Hezbollah, have the balls to do even more damage to Israel. If Hezbollah can lob 3000 missles into Israel, then just wait to see what the new product can do!
I'm deadly serious here. I know I am coming across as being smart ass about this. But I've been following the blogs of a lot of people who are in the Middle East, and it is starting to happen.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is doing everything they can do tie themselve to Hezbollah in the minds of the Egyptian public. They have been plastering posters all over congratulating Hezbollah on their brilliant victory over Israel.
In Syria today, dictator for life baby Assad proclaimed that he is going to take back the Golan Heights from Israel. He threathened Israel with "great harm" if they attack Syria. Since Syria claims that the Golan Heights is theirs, it won't take much to consider anything Israel does there as an attack on Syria.
In Iraq, where the Sunni's and Shites are in a de-facto civil war, the Iran backed Shites are emboldend by the victory of Hezbollah. Don't expect any compromises there. Just more killing.
The Sunni ruled Gulf States such as Saudi Arabia have forced their Muslim leaders to issue proclamations reminding their citizens not to look to Hezbollah as heros because they are Shites. Just to remind you, the state religion of Saudi Arabia, Wahhabbism, hates Shites. No doubt that the kings and princes who rule the Gulf States are shaking in their boots right now.
Thanks to Iran, the dictators of the Arab states find themselves in a jam. They don't want to go to war with Israel. They want things to go back to how they were. A never-ending conflict using the Palastinians as cannon-fodder for a morbib theater of mass-distraction. The Roman empire did the same thing by putting on gladiator games to the death to distract the Roman citizens while the empire was looted.
Large numbers of their citizens sense that Israel is on the ropes, ready to fall. They demand that their government finish them off by striking now as hard as they can. They demand that the dictators do what they always claimed they would do if given a chance.
So what are they going to do? Their options are getting pretty limited.
They could try to undo all the lies and propaganda they have produced. Too late for that! The did such as good job of telling everyone that Israel is the reason for all their problems that if they tried to say anything to the contrary now, they would appear to be part of the problem.
They could declare war on Israel and attack. Not a good idea. They tried this three times before and ended up having their asses handed to them on a platter each time.
They could do nothing. Then they would loose credibility in the eyes of their citizens, who will then flock to the opposition parties who are trying to do a "Me Too" with Hezbollah.
They could get medival with their own citizens and brutally remind them who has the weapons and power in their country. But that might envoke a coup, because the military might not back the dictators on this one.
My prediction? I think there will be a lot of saber ratteling in the next few weeks. Egypt's Mubarak will find himself with no option but to rip up the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement that has been in place since 1976. Saudi Arabia will find themselves having to declare a state of war with Israel, but not attacking.
The states will then beg for time while they "prepare" for battle. You will see lots of moving around of troops, lots of smoke, but actually very little fire.
If they are really smart, and really evil, they will put their political opposition in the firing line. Perhaps they will allow these nuts to go ahead and attack Israel, just like Lebanon alloed Hezbollah to do. Then they will sit back and watch as Israel slaughters them. Let Israel do the dirty work for them.
So, it ain't over yet.
Now, I am afraid, that yesterday's cease fire is only a lull before the storm. The Arab dictators are not going to sit by and allow Hezbollah to steal their customers without a fight. It won't be long before we see the new and improved "Arab Unity" (tm) product come out.
The new product will strive to show the Arab street that they, not Hezbollah, have the balls to do even more damage to Israel. If Hezbollah can lob 3000 missles into Israel, then just wait to see what the new product can do!
I'm deadly serious here. I know I am coming across as being smart ass about this. But I've been following the blogs of a lot of people who are in the Middle East, and it is starting to happen.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is doing everything they can do tie themselve to Hezbollah in the minds of the Egyptian public. They have been plastering posters all over congratulating Hezbollah on their brilliant victory over Israel.
In Syria today, dictator for life baby Assad proclaimed that he is going to take back the Golan Heights from Israel. He threathened Israel with "great harm" if they attack Syria. Since Syria claims that the Golan Heights is theirs, it won't take much to consider anything Israel does there as an attack on Syria.
In Iraq, where the Sunni's and Shites are in a de-facto civil war, the Iran backed Shites are emboldend by the victory of Hezbollah. Don't expect any compromises there. Just more killing.
The Sunni ruled Gulf States such as Saudi Arabia have forced their Muslim leaders to issue proclamations reminding their citizens not to look to Hezbollah as heros because they are Shites. Just to remind you, the state religion of Saudi Arabia, Wahhabbism, hates Shites. No doubt that the kings and princes who rule the Gulf States are shaking in their boots right now.
Thanks to Iran, the dictators of the Arab states find themselves in a jam. They don't want to go to war with Israel. They want things to go back to how they were. A never-ending conflict using the Palastinians as cannon-fodder for a morbib theater of mass-distraction. The Roman empire did the same thing by putting on gladiator games to the death to distract the Roman citizens while the empire was looted.
Large numbers of their citizens sense that Israel is on the ropes, ready to fall. They demand that their government finish them off by striking now as hard as they can. They demand that the dictators do what they always claimed they would do if given a chance.
So what are they going to do? Their options are getting pretty limited.
They could try to undo all the lies and propaganda they have produced. Too late for that! The did such as good job of telling everyone that Israel is the reason for all their problems that if they tried to say anything to the contrary now, they would appear to be part of the problem.
They could declare war on Israel and attack. Not a good idea. They tried this three times before and ended up having their asses handed to them on a platter each time.
They could do nothing. Then they would loose credibility in the eyes of their citizens, who will then flock to the opposition parties who are trying to do a "Me Too" with Hezbollah.
They could get medival with their own citizens and brutally remind them who has the weapons and power in their country. But that might envoke a coup, because the military might not back the dictators on this one.
My prediction? I think there will be a lot of saber ratteling in the next few weeks. Egypt's Mubarak will find himself with no option but to rip up the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement that has been in place since 1976. Saudi Arabia will find themselves having to declare a state of war with Israel, but not attacking.
The states will then beg for time while they "prepare" for battle. You will see lots of moving around of troops, lots of smoke, but actually very little fire.
If they are really smart, and really evil, they will put their political opposition in the firing line. Perhaps they will allow these nuts to go ahead and attack Israel, just like Lebanon alloed Hezbollah to do. Then they will sit back and watch as Israel slaughters them. Let Israel do the dirty work for them.
So, it ain't over yet.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Airline Security
Thanks to all the Islamic fuckwads that want to go to heaven by killing hundreds of infidels, we now have turned the experience of airline travel into something akin to a prison intake process. If cocaine and herion smugglers can slip massive amounts of drugs into countries on airplanes. Then what makes the stupid security people think that they can stop explosives? How hard is it going to be for a terrorist to jam a roll of plastic explosives up his asshole? If drug mules can cram condoms full of coke inside their body cavities. Then why can't these jerks do the same.
So are we going to have full body cavity searches soon?
I have to fly to Los Angeles next week. Thanks assholes. Now I can't bring a bottle of water. I can't brush my teeth with toothpaste. I can't put anti-perspirant. I can't use saline nasal spray to keep my nose from clogging up. I can't use chap-stick to keep my lips from peeling in the dry air. Thanks a fucking hell of a lot.
You know what we should do? We should give each passenger a hand gun. Each seat can be equiped with a pistol in the arm rest. If some stupid terrorist tried to hijack or terrorize a plane, then all the other passengers are free to shoot him (or them) in the head.
That will make anyone think twice about fucking around on flight.
So are we going to have full body cavity searches soon?
I have to fly to Los Angeles next week. Thanks assholes. Now I can't bring a bottle of water. I can't brush my teeth with toothpaste. I can't put anti-perspirant. I can't use saline nasal spray to keep my nose from clogging up. I can't use chap-stick to keep my lips from peeling in the dry air. Thanks a fucking hell of a lot.
You know what we should do? We should give each passenger a hand gun. Each seat can be equiped with a pistol in the arm rest. If some stupid terrorist tried to hijack or terrorize a plane, then all the other passengers are free to shoot him (or them) in the head.
That will make anyone think twice about fucking around on flight.
Shitty job no sane person wants
Wow. I can't believe that there are people on the planet stupid enough to think that they can stick their solders in southern Lebanon to act as a buffer between Hezbollah and Israel. They might as well issue them with vests with bulls eyes painted on them.
Who is the hell is going to be stupid enough to sit there and wait to be killed? So they are going to let Hozbollah run around, fully armed, doing what ever the hell they want. And they have to just sit there and wait to be attacked.
And the stupid peace-nicks can't understand why no country is jumping up and down to volunteer for this duty. Hello..... 1983 calling. Remember when the world tried to do the right thing and did this job? What did we get for it? Nothing but hundreds of dead US Marines. A bunch of dead French military too. Hezbollah simply sent suicide bombers in trucks to attack barracks.
I swear. The UN has their head so far up their ass that they think this is a solution. That is bullshit. If you are going to put servicemen and women in harms way, then give them everything they need to control the situation. Give them the resources and permission to do whatever it is they need to do their job. Including bombing the shit out of Hezbollah before they attack.
I think all Shehan and all those looser Hollywood leftist should go there and make a human shield. Let's see how long they live before Hezbollah kills them.
Who is the hell is going to be stupid enough to sit there and wait to be killed? So they are going to let Hozbollah run around, fully armed, doing what ever the hell they want. And they have to just sit there and wait to be attacked.
And the stupid peace-nicks can't understand why no country is jumping up and down to volunteer for this duty. Hello..... 1983 calling. Remember when the world tried to do the right thing and did this job? What did we get for it? Nothing but hundreds of dead US Marines. A bunch of dead French military too. Hezbollah simply sent suicide bombers in trucks to attack barracks.
I swear. The UN has their head so far up their ass that they think this is a solution. That is bullshit. If you are going to put servicemen and women in harms way, then give them everything they need to control the situation. Give them the resources and permission to do whatever it is they need to do their job. Including bombing the shit out of Hezbollah before they attack.
I think all Shehan and all those looser Hollywood leftist should go there and make a human shield. Let's see how long they live before Hezbollah kills them.
Arab dictators lost control of their "solution"
Sorry I have not written anything in a long time. I've been extremely busy with work, which has just left me too tired to sit on a computer to work on personal things.
There was a tetonic shift in the politics of the Middle East today. Enough to get me to mention this development. Today Israel and Hezbollah have entered into a cease fire. Hezbollah has, in the eyes of the Arab world, beat Israel.
In the world of advertising, the most basic method used to sell something is to (a), create a problem, then (b) sell the solution. You see this all the time in everything from cars, shampoo, medicine, electronics, and even politics. For example, ads tell you that you might have dandruff, and will be embarrassed by your friends (the problem). The solve this problem, you can buy their sponsor's downdraft shampoo (the solution).
As I've mentioned before in this blog, the ruling dictators of the Arab world have used this same principal over the last 70 years to sell themselves to their own citizens. It is why the Palestinian problem still goes on and on for 4 generations now.
In this case, the dictators of Arab middle east create a problem. The problem is the oppression of the Palestinians by the evil Jews of Israel (and their American sponsors). This problem is perfect for them. They use it as an excuse to justify their rule, to suppress political opposition, to ignore human rights, to ignore abuse of authority, and so on.
They sell themselves as the solution to this problem. They claim that they are holding up the dignity or fellow Arabs, or Muslims. They claim that they can't address the grievances of their own citizens while their poor Palestinian "brothers" continue to be repressed.
And to their credit, they have been extremely successful with this. They have managed to stay in power and make themselves and the friends rich. They have managed to keep this "problem" from being solved. It is a perpetual problem, and they are the perpetual solution.
But, their "problem" has gotten away from them, and now it may be their cause of their undoing.
September 11 demonstrated that their problem has turned vicious and had spread internationally. The hatred they fostered at home against Israel (and America) in order to distract their people from revolting muted into something they never imagined. They lost control of it. They had created a monster, and it was now loose in the world.
At first, they pretended it didn't exist. Only when this monster attacked Saudi Arabia and Egypt did they finally wake up and realize what they did. But it was too late. They are trying to get their monster back, but they can't.
Now, they have a more serious problem. They have competition. A new "solution" to their problem has appeared. It's name is Hezbollah. And the recent war with Israel has shown that Hezbollah not only talks the talk, but walks the walk. The Arab citizens are starting to notice, and it scares the shit out of the Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
For so long they have pounded the message that Israel is the problem and the cause of their misery that their citizens now accept it without question. It is as fundamental as the sky is blue and water is wet. They can't undo it.
So now Hezbollah shows up with a better solution. The citizens of Egypt, Kuwaiti, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab dictatorships are now looking at their governments and asking "How was Hezbollah able to do in one month what you could not do in 40 years?"
Naturally, the next question is going to be, "How can I replace you with Hozbollah?" That is why so many Sunni Arabs, especially opposition groups like The Muslim Brotherhood, are trying to align themselves with Hezbollah. This attraction is powerful enough to even overcome the inter-religion difference of Sunni Arabs and Persian Shiites.
It is funny that these same Arab dictators never imagined that a better "solution", other than themselves, could ever come along when they decided to make their perfect problem.
There was a tetonic shift in the politics of the Middle East today. Enough to get me to mention this development. Today Israel and Hezbollah have entered into a cease fire. Hezbollah has, in the eyes of the Arab world, beat Israel.
In the world of advertising, the most basic method used to sell something is to (a), create a problem, then (b) sell the solution. You see this all the time in everything from cars, shampoo, medicine, electronics, and even politics. For example, ads tell you that you might have dandruff, and will be embarrassed by your friends (the problem). The solve this problem, you can buy their sponsor's downdraft shampoo (the solution).
As I've mentioned before in this blog, the ruling dictators of the Arab world have used this same principal over the last 70 years to sell themselves to their own citizens. It is why the Palestinian problem still goes on and on for 4 generations now.
In this case, the dictators of Arab middle east create a problem. The problem is the oppression of the Palestinians by the evil Jews of Israel (and their American sponsors). This problem is perfect for them. They use it as an excuse to justify their rule, to suppress political opposition, to ignore human rights, to ignore abuse of authority, and so on.
They sell themselves as the solution to this problem. They claim that they are holding up the dignity or fellow Arabs, or Muslims. They claim that they can't address the grievances of their own citizens while their poor Palestinian "brothers" continue to be repressed.
And to their credit, they have been extremely successful with this. They have managed to stay in power and make themselves and the friends rich. They have managed to keep this "problem" from being solved. It is a perpetual problem, and they are the perpetual solution.
But, their "problem" has gotten away from them, and now it may be their cause of their undoing.
September 11 demonstrated that their problem has turned vicious and had spread internationally. The hatred they fostered at home against Israel (and America) in order to distract their people from revolting muted into something they never imagined. They lost control of it. They had created a monster, and it was now loose in the world.
At first, they pretended it didn't exist. Only when this monster attacked Saudi Arabia and Egypt did they finally wake up and realize what they did. But it was too late. They are trying to get their monster back, but they can't.
Now, they have a more serious problem. They have competition. A new "solution" to their problem has appeared. It's name is Hezbollah. And the recent war with Israel has shown that Hezbollah not only talks the talk, but walks the walk. The Arab citizens are starting to notice, and it scares the shit out of the Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
For so long they have pounded the message that Israel is the problem and the cause of their misery that their citizens now accept it without question. It is as fundamental as the sky is blue and water is wet. They can't undo it.
So now Hezbollah shows up with a better solution. The citizens of Egypt, Kuwaiti, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab dictatorships are now looking at their governments and asking "How was Hezbollah able to do in one month what you could not do in 40 years?"
Naturally, the next question is going to be, "How can I replace you with Hozbollah?" That is why so many Sunni Arabs, especially opposition groups like The Muslim Brotherhood, are trying to align themselves with Hezbollah. This attraction is powerful enough to even overcome the inter-religion difference of Sunni Arabs and Persian Shiites.
It is funny that these same Arab dictators never imagined that a better "solution", other than themselves, could ever come along when they decided to make their perfect problem.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Sorry about the absence
Sorry that I've been so quiet. I have been literally working way too many hours and have had no time to even read blogs or news in the last few weeks. Man I need a break.
There are a lot of things going on that I want to comment on. But since I only have a few minutes to spare right now, I am going to stay on a light note and mention some of the more humorous things that I have stumbled across.
The Worst Act... EVER.
One of my favorite films is Mel Brooks' "The Producers" which he made in 1968. I know that there is a new version... which I have not seen. I can't image how they could hope to top the original.
The premise of the story is a sleazy Broadway theatrical producer figures out that he can make more money by producing a flop than a success. So he goes about attempting to put together the worst possible musical production in history. He buys a script from a crazy ex-German Nazi called "Springtime For Hitler". He hires an egotistic beatnik hippie to direct. And he hires the worst actors that have every tried their hand at the art. He reckons that he has a sure-fire flop of magnificent proportions.
Of course things don't go as planned. The play is so bad that is becomes a critical, and unfortunately for him, a financial success.
Well I found out today, through an obscure link in a comment regarding a blog in Maine, that the story behind the film does has roots in reality. Ever heard of the "The Cherry Sisters"? The seem to have the distinction of producing and starring in the worst vaudeville act in history. Their show was SO bad that local grocers could not stock enough rotten vegetables to sell to the audience.
In 1886, New York City impresario Oscar Hammerstein contracted them for his new Olympia Music Hall in "uptown" Broadway and 44th Street. He was going bankrupt, and needed to figure out at way to save himself. So he decided to book the worst possible act he could find. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. In 6 weeks he had paid off all his debts... and the Manhattan tomato sellers made a fortune.
I can't do justice to what is written about these women. Besides being famous for being the worst act ever. They also played a part in the legal history of the United States because a lawsuit they brought against a theater critic for the cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette for his savage review of their show. The courts eventually ruled that the reporters and writers were entitled to write what they felt without fear of defamation and libel. But that was after one judge had ordered this critic to marry one of the Cherry Sisters as punishment.
Here are the links to better coverage of this act, and the amount of fury they unleashed when they took their show on their road throughout the US and Canada.
Robot Chicken's "Golden Girls meet Sex In The City".
I don't have cable or satellite television. So I don't get to watch Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. But I am very aware of some of the brilliant animation work that is being made and broadcast on that program.
One show in particular that has really caught my eye is Robot Chicken. I've been lucky enough to see samples and out-takes of this stop-action animated show, thanks to sites like YouTube. If you have 3 minutes to watch one sample of this briliant show, then watch this one.
Man... I was on the floor laughing so hard. Another excellent parody is this Star Wars spoof where Emperor Palpatine has to take a collect phone call from Darth Vader after the Death Star is blown up.
There are a lot of things going on that I want to comment on. But since I only have a few minutes to spare right now, I am going to stay on a light note and mention some of the more humorous things that I have stumbled across.
The Worst Act... EVER.
One of my favorite films is Mel Brooks' "The Producers" which he made in 1968. I know that there is a new version... which I have not seen. I can't image how they could hope to top the original.
The premise of the story is a sleazy Broadway theatrical producer figures out that he can make more money by producing a flop than a success. So he goes about attempting to put together the worst possible musical production in history. He buys a script from a crazy ex-German Nazi called "Springtime For Hitler". He hires an egotistic beatnik hippie to direct. And he hires the worst actors that have every tried their hand at the art. He reckons that he has a sure-fire flop of magnificent proportions.
Of course things don't go as planned. The play is so bad that is becomes a critical, and unfortunately for him, a financial success.
 |
| The Cherry Sisters |
In 1886, New York City impresario Oscar Hammerstein contracted them for his new Olympia Music Hall in "uptown" Broadway and 44th Street. He was going bankrupt, and needed to figure out at way to save himself. So he decided to book the worst possible act he could find. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. In 6 weeks he had paid off all his debts... and the Manhattan tomato sellers made a fortune.
I can't do justice to what is written about these women. Besides being famous for being the worst act ever. They also played a part in the legal history of the United States because a lawsuit they brought against a theater critic for the cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette for his savage review of their show. The courts eventually ruled that the reporters and writers were entitled to write what they felt without fear of defamation and libel. But that was after one judge had ordered this critic to marry one of the Cherry Sisters as punishment.
Here are the links to better coverage of this act, and the amount of fury they unleashed when they took their show on their road throughout the US and Canada.
- Wikipedia Summary
- Radio station WFMU's Lowest Common Denominator magazine has an excellent article.
- The Palimpsest, an Iowa history magazine, has a good article about them.
Robot Chicken's "Golden Girls meet Sex In The City".
 |
One show in particular that has really caught my eye is Robot Chicken. I've been lucky enough to see samples and out-takes of this stop-action animated show, thanks to sites like YouTube. If you have 3 minutes to watch one sample of this briliant show, then watch this one.
Man... I was on the floor laughing so hard. Another excellent parody is this Star Wars spoof where Emperor Palpatine has to take a collect phone call from Darth Vader after the Death Star is blown up.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Pamela of "Atlas Shrugs" kicks ass
I tend to agree with a lot of what she feels. I'm not as far right as her. But I enjoy reading her work. Now seeing her video rants I can see that she is not only intelligent and opinionated. She is also good looking. Brains and beauty.... worth watching and listening to.
I crack up whenever I watch her videos. She doesn't intend to be funny. She is just being herself. She has a very strong personality, and a thick New York accent. She sounds a bit like Fran Dresser from the TV show "The Nanny". Except in Pamela's case, what comes out of her mouth is worth listening to. It is her mannerisms that make me laugh. She is so expressive!
In particular, watch this vblog. In this one she asks what I think is either her daughter or her niece, about George Clooney's politics. This part happens within the first minute, so you don't have to watch the whole thing if you don't want to.
Pamela: "Margo. What do you think about George Clooney talking about Darfur?"
Margo: "I think....."
Pamela: "Yea."
Pamela interrupts Margo and looks at the camera: "Let me tell you what she thinks. OK? This is what she thinks. She thinks he is an idiot. Alright?..."
Pamela continues her rant about Clooney. The look on poor Margo's face when Pamela takes over is priceless. You can almost see her thinking "Oh well... There she goes again. I'm not getting a word in edgewise today."
I watched this entry today and pissed myself laughing. She did something that I am certain she didn't even know she had done. Within the first few seconds she looks at the camera and says "Anyways. Listen...". Then her right hand instinctively flashes across the screen as she snaps her fingers to catch your attention. I don't know why I find that funny. It just does. She is so in-your-face. I like that.
Well I hope doesn't take offence at anything I said. I don't think she will. If I ever go to New York, I would love to have the opportunity to debate international politics with her over a drink. I would consider it honor if I could stand toe-to-toe with her.
Assimilation of immigrants - Europe versus US
I've been following a lot of articles and blogs discussing the failure of western European nations to assimilate their Arab immigrant populations. These articles and discussions often compare the immigrate experience of the US as compare to Europe. The consensus is that in the US, the children of immigrants are totally assimilated into the US by the time they reach adulthood. They note that African and Arab immigrants to Europe seem to be stuck as second class citizens, crammed in to ghettos, and denied opportunities to grow.
I'm not saying the the US is better or worse. Nor is either side of the Atlantic perfect. But observers note that in the US, Arab immigrants tend to universally be totally plugged and integrated into the US culture.
These articles then tend to go on to speculate as to why this is. These is where they tend to go off the rails with racist crap, US bashing, Europe bashing, Arab bashing, etc. I think the reason for this is very simple. It is simply a statistical quirk caused by some very real "environmental" conditions. I put the word "environmental" in quotes because I mean the environment that an immigrate lives and works.
I've broken down the reasons for these differences below.
(1) Proximity to the Middle East.
The Turks and other ME immigrants can literally drive to German in one or two long days. It allows immigrates to visit home quicker. The visits home reinforce their old culture. It also allows more of their kinfolk to join them in Europe. Which reduces the need to assimilate.
Conversely, moving to the US from the Middle East takes a lot more effort. It costs more money. It takes more time. So once a poor immigrant is in the US, they tend to stay put.
(2) Legal versus Illegal
Because of the proximity to the middle east, Europe tends to get more illegal immigrants from near by Middle East and North Africa. In the US, most of our illegal immigrants come from nearby Mexico and Central America. Hence, Europe's illegals are statistically going to be Arab or African. And the US's illegals are statistically going to be Latin American.
Being an illegal is tough. They have to stay below the radar, and tend to stick together for. It is no different here or in Europe.
(3) Size of US versus Europe.
The scale of size and the homogeneously of the US makes it much easier to move around within the US. When an immigrant arrives in the US, they have an enormous choice of places to settle. In Europe, the nations there are the size of small to medium US states.
(4) US car culture.
Even when one particular immigrant group tends to congregate in one city, such as Armenians and Iranians in Los Angeles, the size of the US cities forces them to diversify. The US car culture is what allows this to happen.
People tend to scatter throughout the city depending on housing prices, job locations, and commuting. Hence, they end up interacting with other Americans. The car allows people more choices on where to live. Thusly, other factors such housing prices, school districts, proximity to work are much larger factor in deciding where to sink one's roots.
Compare that to Europe were some neighborhoods are very segmented by ethnic and culture classes. In large European cities, one can pretty much stick to their neighborhood and get everything they need. It most US cities, it is hard to survive in one spot without a car.
In the US, the children of immigrates tend to grow up and move the other states, cities, and neighborhoods. They do not want to live next door to mom and dad.
(5) The Social Care Net.
I think the fact that the US does not have universal health care and relatively harsh welfare benefits tends to discourage those who wish to migrate simple to be taken care of. You don't move the US to get health care for your family unless you plan to work to pay for it.
I think we tend to get the more enterprising immigrants. We get those who want to improve their lot in life by working hard and having the opportunity to be rewarded for risks. I think the US tends to get the cream of the crop, so to speak.
(6) Business opportunities
I can't answer to if it easer to start a business in Europe or the US. But I think it is safe to say that it is probably easer in the US. More important is the fact that a business owner will be able to keep more of their profits in the US.
It might be true that some European nations have made it easier for small business to get started. But after the business grows, they are subjected to the full weight of supporting the welfare-nanny state.
In the US, it seems that the larger the business, and the wealthier one is, the less one has to pay in taxes. So if you have big plans, then the US is the place to be. If you want to stay small and safe, then go to Europe.
(7) The US Higher Education System.
There is to parts to this. (A) is opportunity, and (B) is location.
Opportunity: In Europe, teenagers tend to be forced in to one of two "life tracks". They are either put on the labor track and given industrial training. Or they are put on the university track and to get a degree and become a professional. These decisions are made, or made for them, when they are around 14 years old. Once put on the labor track, it tends to reinforce itself.
In the US, every teenager is encouraged to attend college and get a degree. It does not matter what their plans are for a career. In the US I think that people know that teenagers really don't know what they want to do when they grow up. You can stay in school in the US until 21 and still not decide to be a doctor or a plumber.
This system allows more teenagers to mature and to experience higher education. This will give them a chance to realize that they can do more with their lives.
Location: In the US, when a teenager decided to attend college, they usually leave home, often to another city within their state. They get immersed into a college town culture. This opens up a huge world to them of new people and ideas. It breaks them out of the little world their parents sheltered them in. When they go back home, they see their family and neighborhood with new eyes and new ideas. Their world is now bigger than anything their immigrant parents could even envision.
In Europe, college students tend to live a home with mom and dad. Within the school, then tend to stick within clicks of their own type. They don't tend to break out of their cultural shell as much.
So between the greater opportunities to even attend a university, and the total immersion that occurs when one does go, it greatly increases the odds that the children of immigrates will assimilate.
(8) Nationalism
The US is a nation of immigrants. Europe is a collection of nations, each with their own language, history, and culture. In the US, citizens tend to think of themselves as Americans first, then their state second. This is the opposite of Europe, where one's loyalty is to their nation before Europe.
Hence. It is harder to assimilate in Europe. It takes a long, long time to become a citizen who is indistinquishable from the locals. Immigrants, and he children of immigrants, find it harder to be totally accepted. I'm sure it can be veyr frustrating to someone who was born and raised in Europe to be treated like they just got off the boat that morning.
I'm not saying the the US is better or worse. Nor is either side of the Atlantic perfect. But observers note that in the US, Arab immigrants tend to universally be totally plugged and integrated into the US culture.
These articles then tend to go on to speculate as to why this is. These is where they tend to go off the rails with racist crap, US bashing, Europe bashing, Arab bashing, etc. I think the reason for this is very simple. It is simply a statistical quirk caused by some very real "environmental" conditions. I put the word "environmental" in quotes because I mean the environment that an immigrate lives and works.
I've broken down the reasons for these differences below.
(1) Proximity to the Middle East.
The Turks and other ME immigrants can literally drive to German in one or two long days. It allows immigrates to visit home quicker. The visits home reinforce their old culture. It also allows more of their kinfolk to join them in Europe. Which reduces the need to assimilate.
Conversely, moving to the US from the Middle East takes a lot more effort. It costs more money. It takes more time. So once a poor immigrant is in the US, they tend to stay put.
(2) Legal versus Illegal
Because of the proximity to the middle east, Europe tends to get more illegal immigrants from near by Middle East and North Africa. In the US, most of our illegal immigrants come from nearby Mexico and Central America. Hence, Europe's illegals are statistically going to be Arab or African. And the US's illegals are statistically going to be Latin American.
Being an illegal is tough. They have to stay below the radar, and tend to stick together for. It is no different here or in Europe.
(3) Size of US versus Europe.
The scale of size and the homogeneously of the US makes it much easier to move around within the US. When an immigrant arrives in the US, they have an enormous choice of places to settle. In Europe, the nations there are the size of small to medium US states.
(4) US car culture.
Even when one particular immigrant group tends to congregate in one city, such as Armenians and Iranians in Los Angeles, the size of the US cities forces them to diversify. The US car culture is what allows this to happen.
People tend to scatter throughout the city depending on housing prices, job locations, and commuting. Hence, they end up interacting with other Americans. The car allows people more choices on where to live. Thusly, other factors such housing prices, school districts, proximity to work are much larger factor in deciding where to sink one's roots.
Compare that to Europe were some neighborhoods are very segmented by ethnic and culture classes. In large European cities, one can pretty much stick to their neighborhood and get everything they need. It most US cities, it is hard to survive in one spot without a car.
In the US, the children of immigrates tend to grow up and move the other states, cities, and neighborhoods. They do not want to live next door to mom and dad.
(5) The Social Care Net.
I think the fact that the US does not have universal health care and relatively harsh welfare benefits tends to discourage those who wish to migrate simple to be taken care of. You don't move the US to get health care for your family unless you plan to work to pay for it.
I think we tend to get the more enterprising immigrants. We get those who want to improve their lot in life by working hard and having the opportunity to be rewarded for risks. I think the US tends to get the cream of the crop, so to speak.
(6) Business opportunities
I can't answer to if it easer to start a business in Europe or the US. But I think it is safe to say that it is probably easer in the US. More important is the fact that a business owner will be able to keep more of their profits in the US.
It might be true that some European nations have made it easier for small business to get started. But after the business grows, they are subjected to the full weight of supporting the welfare-nanny state.
In the US, it seems that the larger the business, and the wealthier one is, the less one has to pay in taxes. So if you have big plans, then the US is the place to be. If you want to stay small and safe, then go to Europe.
(7) The US Higher Education System.
There is to parts to this. (A) is opportunity, and (B) is location.
Opportunity: In Europe, teenagers tend to be forced in to one of two "life tracks". They are either put on the labor track and given industrial training. Or they are put on the university track and to get a degree and become a professional. These decisions are made, or made for them, when they are around 14 years old. Once put on the labor track, it tends to reinforce itself.
In the US, every teenager is encouraged to attend college and get a degree. It does not matter what their plans are for a career. In the US I think that people know that teenagers really don't know what they want to do when they grow up. You can stay in school in the US until 21 and still not decide to be a doctor or a plumber.
This system allows more teenagers to mature and to experience higher education. This will give them a chance to realize that they can do more with their lives.
Location: In the US, when a teenager decided to attend college, they usually leave home, often to another city within their state. They get immersed into a college town culture. This opens up a huge world to them of new people and ideas. It breaks them out of the little world their parents sheltered them in. When they go back home, they see their family and neighborhood with new eyes and new ideas. Their world is now bigger than anything their immigrant parents could even envision.
In Europe, college students tend to live a home with mom and dad. Within the school, then tend to stick within clicks of their own type. They don't tend to break out of their cultural shell as much.
So between the greater opportunities to even attend a university, and the total immersion that occurs when one does go, it greatly increases the odds that the children of immigrates will assimilate.
(8) Nationalism
The US is a nation of immigrants. Europe is a collection of nations, each with their own language, history, and culture. In the US, citizens tend to think of themselves as Americans first, then their state second. This is the opposite of Europe, where one's loyalty is to their nation before Europe.
Hence. It is harder to assimilate in Europe. It takes a long, long time to become a citizen who is indistinquishable from the locals. Immigrants, and he children of immigrants, find it harder to be totally accepted. I'm sure it can be veyr frustrating to someone who was born and raised in Europe to be treated like they just got off the boat that morning.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Another day at the welfare office
Sorry I have not posted anything. Been very busy. There is a lot that I want to write about.
A guy walks into the local welfare office, marches straight up to the counter and says, "Hi... You know, I just HATE drawing welfare. I'd really rather have a job."
The social worker behind the counter says, "Your timing is excellent. We just got a job opening from a very wealthy old man who wants a chauffeur and bodyguard for his beautiful nymphomaniac daughter. You'll have to drive around in his Mercedes, and he'll supply all of your clothes. Because of the long hours, meals will be provided. You'll be exected to escort her on her overseas holiday trips. You will have to satisfy her sexual urges. You'll be provided a two-bedroom apartment above the garage. The starting salary is $200,000 a year."
The guy, wide-eyed, says, "You're bullshittin' me!"
The social worker says, "Yeah, well... you started it."
A guy walks into the local welfare office, marches straight up to the counter and says, "Hi... You know, I just HATE drawing welfare. I'd really rather have a job."
The social worker behind the counter says, "Your timing is excellent. We just got a job opening from a very wealthy old man who wants a chauffeur and bodyguard for his beautiful nymphomaniac daughter. You'll have to drive around in his Mercedes, and he'll supply all of your clothes. Because of the long hours, meals will be provided. You'll be exected to escort her on her overseas holiday trips. You will have to satisfy her sexual urges. You'll be provided a two-bedroom apartment above the garage. The starting salary is $200,000 a year."
The guy, wide-eyed, says, "You're bullshittin' me!"
The social worker says, "Yeah, well... you started it."
Hat Tip: Robin
Saturday, April 29, 2006
The Great Beaver Rescue Effort
Our storyteller shares the tale of an animal rescue -- or an attempt at an animal rescue -- involving a beaver, a box, great compassion and perhaps a bit too much beer.Enjoy!
It is is Window's Media Player format.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Some terrible laws headed our way in the US
I've become aware of some really terrible laws that being put together that look like they have a good chance of becoming implemented. These are laws related to information technology, specifically the Internet and copyright protection. The problem with these laws is that they have been bought and paid for by a handful of large companies of the telephone, movie, and music industries. The congressmen and senators who are voting on these bills are absolutely clueless about what the a horrible mess they are going to unleash.
If allowed to happen, we in the US will loose our edge in information technology. These bills will kill innovation. They will kill the very thing the US invented, the Internet. The average US citizen will have a fraction of the information service that the rest of the world has, or will have.
And all of this is because the traditional telephone and entertainment companies can't figure out how to change and compete. Rather than do that, they have decided to kill the Internet so they can continue their old business models.
Network Nutrality
The first major one is what is called "Network Nutrality". Congress wants to take this core prinipal of the Inetnet away from Americans. They are going to hand the Internet over to AT&T and and handful of other providors, who will then get to decide exactly what you get to use the internet for.
We are not talking about charging more for more data. We are talking about preventing you from using Skype (Voice over IP) to make free telephone calls on the Internet connection you already have and pay for. Why would these companies want to kill VoIP? Because it competes with their traditional long-distance service. These laws will allow them to look at exactly what you are using the internet for, and then either blocking, or charging extra, depending on what it is.
The problem is that on the Internet, everything is just packets. The Internet doesn't care if that packet contains an email, web page, part of a VoIP telephone call, or what. The internet's only function is to deliver packets of data as quickly and reliably as it can. How would you like it if you find one day that you can not use Skype because your ISP has decided to slow it down to where it is unusable. And then wants to charge your $10-$20 more a month to get it back?
See this web site for more information about this.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The DCMA is back, and it is worse than ever. This was a set of laws passed by Congress around 2001 and killed by the courts for being unconstitutional. This is the one that Hollywood wants. In a nutshell, you can go to prison for decades for even thinking about bypassing any copy or use protection system that Hollywood implements.
The problems are multiple. Hollywood wants to dictact how you use the content that you purchase. They tried to kill VCR's when they first came out. But the courts ruled that people have the right to time-shift TV shows and watch them when they want. Not when the TV station dictates. It is called "Fair Use". When you by a CD, why can't you play that music you bought in your car, home, and portable player? Now Hollywood wants to control when, where, and how you are to enjoy the content that YOU paid for.
Another serious problem is that the technical solutions that Hollywood has introduced are terrible and intrusive. They spy on you. They break your computers. They can do anything they want. And if you attempt to discover exactly what they are doing (even beyond their role of protecting the content from misuse), or attempt to prevent it from doing things that you feel are not right, then you are a felon and go to prison.
Let's say you buy a CD or DVD. They company that sells that can install any thing they want on it. They don't have to tell you what they are doing. They can install software on your compter that tells them everything about you. They can see what web sites you visit. They can capture your passwords. And legally, according to the DMCA, you are not allowed to even ask any questions. All these extra things they do all fall under the protection of the DMCA. It puts corporate America inside your computers, spying on you, and telling you what you can and can not do.
Read more here.
The Future
To be honest, the future of the home computer, entertainment, and the Internet in the US looks very bad right now. The telephone companies want to control where you can go on the net and what functions you use. Hollywood wants to control what goes on inside your computer.
Please write a letter to your Congressman and your two state Senators telling them to keep their paws of your Internt and computer.
If allowed to happen, we in the US will loose our edge in information technology. These bills will kill innovation. They will kill the very thing the US invented, the Internet. The average US citizen will have a fraction of the information service that the rest of the world has, or will have.
And all of this is because the traditional telephone and entertainment companies can't figure out how to change and compete. Rather than do that, they have decided to kill the Internet so they can continue their old business models.
Network Nutrality
The first major one is what is called "Network Nutrality". Congress wants to take this core prinipal of the Inetnet away from Americans. They are going to hand the Internet over to AT&T and and handful of other providors, who will then get to decide exactly what you get to use the internet for.
We are not talking about charging more for more data. We are talking about preventing you from using Skype (Voice over IP) to make free telephone calls on the Internet connection you already have and pay for. Why would these companies want to kill VoIP? Because it competes with their traditional long-distance service. These laws will allow them to look at exactly what you are using the internet for, and then either blocking, or charging extra, depending on what it is.
The problem is that on the Internet, everything is just packets. The Internet doesn't care if that packet contains an email, web page, part of a VoIP telephone call, or what. The internet's only function is to deliver packets of data as quickly and reliably as it can. How would you like it if you find one day that you can not use Skype because your ISP has decided to slow it down to where it is unusable. And then wants to charge your $10-$20 more a month to get it back?
See this web site for more information about this.
Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The DCMA is back, and it is worse than ever. This was a set of laws passed by Congress around 2001 and killed by the courts for being unconstitutional. This is the one that Hollywood wants. In a nutshell, you can go to prison for decades for even thinking about bypassing any copy or use protection system that Hollywood implements.
The problems are multiple. Hollywood wants to dictact how you use the content that you purchase. They tried to kill VCR's when they first came out. But the courts ruled that people have the right to time-shift TV shows and watch them when they want. Not when the TV station dictates. It is called "Fair Use". When you by a CD, why can't you play that music you bought in your car, home, and portable player? Now Hollywood wants to control when, where, and how you are to enjoy the content that YOU paid for.
Another serious problem is that the technical solutions that Hollywood has introduced are terrible and intrusive. They spy on you. They break your computers. They can do anything they want. And if you attempt to discover exactly what they are doing (even beyond their role of protecting the content from misuse), or attempt to prevent it from doing things that you feel are not right, then you are a felon and go to prison.
Let's say you buy a CD or DVD. They company that sells that can install any thing they want on it. They don't have to tell you what they are doing. They can install software on your compter that tells them everything about you. They can see what web sites you visit. They can capture your passwords. And legally, according to the DMCA, you are not allowed to even ask any questions. All these extra things they do all fall under the protection of the DMCA. It puts corporate America inside your computers, spying on you, and telling you what you can and can not do.
Read more here.
The Future
To be honest, the future of the home computer, entertainment, and the Internet in the US looks very bad right now. The telephone companies want to control where you can go on the net and what functions you use. Hollywood wants to control what goes on inside your computer.
Please write a letter to your Congressman and your two state Senators telling them to keep their paws of your Internt and computer.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
A sane voice in Egypt
Yesterday, one of the resorts on Egypt's Red Sea coast was the latest victim of Islamic fanatics. Suicide bombers attacked a hotel there and killed from 20 to 100 people. The news still is being sorted out.
Some of my favorite bloggers are Egyptian. They are even muslim. But they hate the insanity that seems to be gripping their country, driving people to murder in the name of God.
One of the blogger's I follow is MindBleed. He has a post that I think is worth reading that he wrote after the guy went on a stabbing rampage at some Alexandria Christian churches a couple of weeks ago. In particular, this paragraph I think sums up his point better than anything I could hope to write.
Some of my favorite bloggers are Egyptian. They are even muslim. But they hate the insanity that seems to be gripping their country, driving people to murder in the name of God.
One of the blogger's I follow is MindBleed. He has a post that I think is worth reading that he wrote after the guy went on a stabbing rampage at some Alexandria Christian churches a couple of weeks ago. In particular, this paragraph I think sums up his point better than anything I could hope to write.
Violent Muslims, loonies, terrorists, fundies, whatever you want to call them, are the most selfish creatures ever created on God’s earth. They are willing to inflict pain and suffering on fellow man and beast only to get some cheap gate pass to Heaven. Instead of toiling at ‘life’ like the rest of us sorry fucks, these idiots think they can hop onto the superhighway to heaven by chopping other people’s heads off and pointing to God and saying ‘gimme gimme.’Read the rest of the post here.
Monday, April 24, 2006
The 50th anniversary of the simple metal box that changed the world
The ship and containers belonged to Malcom McLean of North Carolina. What he did that day revolutionized the shipping industry world wide. It was his creation that created the mass-consumer market of today... the Wal-Marts, Ikeas, and Targets. It is what allowed the Asian counties to become the economic tigers of today.
His idea now allows products to moved almost anywhere on the planet cheaply and quickly. What used take a week and 200 men now takes less than 10 hours and 20 men. It reduced the shipping expense of the average product from 15% to 1%. It has almost eliminated theft and breakage in shipping, which used to be serious problems. It allows fresh produce to be grown in one part of the planet, and shipped and consumed in another part of the planet.
It may not seem like much. But the containerization and intermodal ability of freight transport has had an enormous impact on the world and our lives over the last 50 years. I think it ranks up there with the telephone, computers, airplanes, the Interstate Highway System, the Internet, and Global Positioning Satellites. These are things that make the modern world work, and difficult to imagine life without them.
Malcom McLean died in 2001. He certainly deserves a toast. At the age of 42, he sold his successful trucking company that took him 20 years to build. He took a gamble on his idea. The world shrank that day, and made us all a part of a global economy.
Here are a couple of good articles about the revolution that was launched that day.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
The Aussie Ute - Ford & GM's Salvation?
It baffles me as to why Ford and General Motors continue to loose market share in the US while they make and sell some pretty awesome vehicles overseas. It think that it just demonstrates how US-centric the executives in charge are.
So here we are in early 2006. Fuel prices are at record highs. The market for Ford and GM's SUV's and trucks is drying up as customers realize they can no longer afford to fill the fuel tank and frequently as needed. The Japanese, Koreans, and Germans are killing the Americans in the smaller car market. The luxury brands from overseas
are taking the best SUV and luxury car customers. What is a poor American car company to do?
Duh! How about looking at their own company for ideas? And guess what? Both GM and Ford have an answer right here in Australia. They have been making and selling something here for a long, long time that the Japanese and Europeans don't even have. It is called the "Ute".
A Ute is the Australian pick-up truck. It is actually a breed of car based pickup trucks. Ute is short for "Utility", because it is used for work. Unlike the classic American style pickup truck in the US, such as Ford's F-150 and the Chevy Colorado, the Ute is lower, sleeker, and slightly smaller. The front end, from the cab forward, is a 2-seater, sporty, coupe style, muscle car. The rear bed is often a shallow aluminum tray, but is actually a proper bed on the city models.
I think they are beautiful vehicles. They get much better mileage than the American pickups. They have powerful motors, are fast, and they look mean and sexy.
GM owns the only Australian car company, Holden. Holden makes a line of Utes. So does Ford Australia. They compete with each other for the loyalty of the Australian ute buyer, which is usually a male in his 20's or 30's.
But... there is a problem that Ford and GM need to overcome. In US, the legacy of their previous car/truck models, the Chevy El Camino and the Ford Ranchero is not good. Neither model is made any more, having been killed around 1980 by fuel and quality problems. The biggest problem is going to be getting past the image of these class of vehicle preferred by ignorant trailer-park trash.
You can thank Congress for that. They put these vehicles in the car group, while pickup trucks like the Chevy S10 where in the truck class. The truck class is exempt from safety and fuel economy requirements of the car class. So Ford and GM focused on Pickups and SUV's and let the car/truck die.
Now that we have come full circle and the market for the truck class vehicles has dried up, it is time to take a good look at the modern Aussie Ute. Both GM and Ford and going to have to give up on trying to use the old El Camino and Ranchero names. There is too much baggage with them. Just call them what they call them here in Australia. It could be the Chevy SS Ute and the Ford XR6.
I think they will sell well, if they don't f**k it over like GM did last year with the Australian Monaro.
Ah... the Monaro. In 2005 GM took a great Aussie muscle car, the Holden Monaro, and imported it to the US. But they couldn't leave well enough alone. I guess some GM executives had to justify their jobs by making changes rather then just selling them, as-is, off the boat from Australia. They changed the name, calling it the Pontiac GTO. They changed the body and drive train, which introduced quality problems. They softened the look and made it look like it had it balls cut off. Then they over-priced it and tried to sell it to middle age men family men. GM ended up killing it after one year. I wrote about that fiasco here.
You know, the US car companies were able to make the working-class pickup truck the preferred choice of soccer mom's and suburbia America by turning it into the SUV. They should be able to overcome the history of the El Camino/Ranchero and turn the Ute into a very successful and profitable vehicle. If you are top executive with Ford or GM in Detroit, please pull you head out of you ass and look down-under. What do you have to loose at this point?
But I'm not holding my breath.
So here we are in early 2006. Fuel prices are at record highs. The market for Ford and GM's SUV's and trucks is drying up as customers realize they can no longer afford to fill the fuel tank and frequently as needed. The Japanese, Koreans, and Germans are killing the Americans in the smaller car market. The luxury brands from overseas
are taking the best SUV and luxury car customers. What is a poor American car company to do?
Duh! How about looking at their own company for ideas? And guess what? Both GM and Ford have an answer right here in Australia. They have been making and selling something here for a long, long time that the Japanese and Europeans don't even have. It is called the "Ute".
A Ute is the Australian pick-up truck. It is actually a breed of car based pickup trucks. Ute is short for "Utility", because it is used for work. Unlike the classic American style pickup truck in the US, such as Ford's F-150 and the Chevy Colorado, the Ute is lower, sleeker, and slightly smaller. The front end, from the cab forward, is a 2-seater, sporty, coupe style, muscle car. The rear bed is often a shallow aluminum tray, but is actually a proper bed on the city models.
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| Holden Ute |
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| Ford Ute |
I think they are beautiful vehicles. They get much better mileage than the American pickups. They have powerful motors, are fast, and they look mean and sexy.
GM owns the only Australian car company, Holden. Holden makes a line of Utes. So does Ford Australia. They compete with each other for the loyalty of the Australian ute buyer, which is usually a male in his 20's or 30's.
But... there is a problem that Ford and GM need to overcome. In US, the legacy of their previous car/truck models, the Chevy El Camino and the Ford Ranchero is not good. Neither model is made any more, having been killed around 1980 by fuel and quality problems. The biggest problem is going to be getting past the image of these class of vehicle preferred by ignorant trailer-park trash.
You can thank Congress for that. They put these vehicles in the car group, while pickup trucks like the Chevy S10 where in the truck class. The truck class is exempt from safety and fuel economy requirements of the car class. So Ford and GM focused on Pickups and SUV's and let the car/truck die.
Now that we have come full circle and the market for the truck class vehicles has dried up, it is time to take a good look at the modern Aussie Ute. Both GM and Ford and going to have to give up on trying to use the old El Camino and Ranchero names. There is too much baggage with them. Just call them what they call them here in Australia. It could be the Chevy SS Ute and the Ford XR6.
I think they will sell well, if they don't f**k it over like GM did last year with the Australian Monaro.
Ah... the Monaro. In 2005 GM took a great Aussie muscle car, the Holden Monaro, and imported it to the US. But they couldn't leave well enough alone. I guess some GM executives had to justify their jobs by making changes rather then just selling them, as-is, off the boat from Australia. They changed the name, calling it the Pontiac GTO. They changed the body and drive train, which introduced quality problems. They softened the look and made it look like it had it balls cut off. Then they over-priced it and tried to sell it to middle age men family men. GM ended up killing it after one year. I wrote about that fiasco here.
You know, the US car companies were able to make the working-class pickup truck the preferred choice of soccer mom's and suburbia America by turning it into the SUV. They should be able to overcome the history of the El Camino/Ranchero and turn the Ute into a very successful and profitable vehicle. If you are top executive with Ford or GM in Detroit, please pull you head out of you ass and look down-under. What do you have to loose at this point?
But I'm not holding my breath.
"Big Brother 6" on Aussie TV
I went upstairs for a minute. Robin and her boyfriend are up there in the lounge watching the first episode of the Australian "Big Brother 6" (as in the 6th season) on TV.
I've never watched that show, here, or in the US. If I wanted to sit around and watch a dumbass sitting there scratching his ass, then I will just put a web-cam on myself. I don't get it. Do people actually watch this program? Why?
Of course my imagination goes wild when I think about what I would do if I where in charge of producing Big Brother! I would take my inspiration from the classic Agatha Christie's mystery thriller "And Then There Were None". I would introduce an physco serial killer into the house, and then lock them all in. Only one gets out alive.
I've never watched that show, here, or in the US. If I wanted to sit around and watch a dumbass sitting there scratching his ass, then I will just put a web-cam on myself. I don't get it. Do people actually watch this program? Why?
Of course my imagination goes wild when I think about what I would do if I where in charge of producing Big Brother! I would take my inspiration from the classic Agatha Christie's mystery thriller "And Then There Were None". I would introduce an physco serial killer into the house, and then lock them all in. Only one gets out alive.
General Motors... RIP
In the 1990's, when fuel was cheap, they bet the company on SUV's. It paid off handsomely. They had something that the Japanese and Europeans car companies were not offering the American market. But they failed to take that money and plan for a day when the SUV market would cool off, or when their compeitiors would start to take their customers in the SUV market.
The day of reckoning is finally here. GM looks like it is going to end up in bankruptcy. Despite the fact they claim they don't want to, it is going to happen. They don't have a choice. If GM does file, they could emerge as a company without the burdens of debt, dead products lines (such as Oldmobile & Buick), pension obligations, and most important, union contracts. No company (that I can think of) is really going to want to buy their assets of factories and unsold stock.
Ford is not that far behind them. But I don't see Ford going bankrupt... willingly. The problem is that if GM does come out of BK without liabilites and most of their manufactoring assets, they could pose a serious competitive threat to Ford. GM will have the leeway to make cars and sell them for less than Ford. That will shave Ford's profit margins, and they will feel the need to similarlay shed their debts the same way in order to level the playing field.
The exact same things is happening in the airline industry. United went bankrupt. Delta is not far behind. The other large US carriers have already done it, or will, in order to compete against debt free competitors.
There is a wild card here. China. China is starting to build cars. They want to become a major car exporter like Japan and Korea. They can make their own brands and slug it out in the US market, taking years and years to build a customer base. Or, they could simply buy GM's factories, stock, and possibly even their name, in a bankruptcy sale. Wouldn't that be a surprise? If they come in with a decent offer, the bankruptcy judge would be obligated to sell. And the shareholders of GM would more than likely be glad to get something out of their holdings.
Perhaps if GM was to go "into play" with China making offers, then there are a couple of other options that could play out. First, Ford would be dumb not to buy GM. They could buy it simply to kill it and keep it from becoming a competitor. The problem is that Ford doesn't have the war chest to do this and win. Ford would have to borrow the money to do this. If they could convince investors that they kill GM and become the only major American car company, and compete sucessfully at home against Japan and Germany, then it might be a good bet.
Another option is Toyota might buy GM. Toyota is 10X the size the GM when measured by capitalization. Toyota could, if pressed, afford to eat GM, keep any good scraps, and throw away the rest. If Ford makes a serious play to buy and kill GM, then Toyota may have to do this.
The Chinese are going to find it hard to outbid Toyota for GM. Toyota wants to sell cars to China. They don't want to compete with the Chinese for the American car market. If China can make and sell cars in America to Americans, then they will eventually become stronger and stronger, just like the Japanese were in the 1970's, and Korea was in the 1990's.
So I'm betting that Toyota will end up buying and killing GM in the next 5 years after GM sheds its liabilites through bankruptcy.
Back from Uluru
Loretta had some frequent flyer miles that were going to expire at the end of January. She had enough miles to get her and I two tickets from Perth to Uluru. So we were able to fly for free. The hotels there are very expensive, so I opted to camp, which was very reasonable.
Impressions
My initial impression of the Uluru area? Lush! Seriously... It is so green. The photos you see of Uluru have what look like desert shrubs around the base. Those are not shrubs. They are trees. And, they are mostly PINE TREES. Who would have thunk? It feels like Arizona, but with pine trees instead of saguaro cacti.
Actually, they are not pine trees. They are technically an oak tree called The Desert Oak (Allocasuarina decaisneana). And their pine cones are technically fruit. They grow straight, have needles, and cones. They look like Christmas trees. Could have fooled me.Another thing about the are that surprised me was how hilly it was. I was expecting it to be flat, like the famous Nullabor Plain to the south. It was hilly with mountains ringing the horizon.
The campground was great! It is part of the resort there. They have a free shuttle from the airport. The campground features nice soft green grass and shade trees trees. Hot showers, a pool, laundry, fridges, store, gas cooking grills, communal kitchen. All for $13 a night. It sure beat paying $300+ a night for a room across the road!
It rained two of the days were were there. The locals said that was very rare. But it was no big deal. It didn't rain that hard. And it didn't stop us from enjoying the place.
Uluru (Ayres Rock)
You can climb Uluru, weather permitting. They discourage it. The aboriginal tribe who own the area claim it is sacred, the center of the world, and don't like it trampled on. So it is strongly suggested to be politically incorrect and cultural insensitive to climb it.
I've never been politically correct, or sensitive. So I climbed it. When I got back to work, my more "enlightened" co-workers asked me, with a condescending tone in their voice, if I had climbed it. I answer "Yes I did. But I didn't enjoy it." That usually shuts them up.
Because of the rain the first day, the climbing was closed. That was fine. Instead we did the base hike which circumvents the rock. Wow! You must do this hike. It is not technical since it is flat. But it does take a few hours. It is so remarkable because the rock has a million faces. Every few minutes you should stop and take a look. The view is totally different, just a breathtaking, and an amazing natural wonder.
The second day was bright and clear. So we were able to climb to the summit. This is not a climb for people who are afraid of heights! The first part is very steep, about 45 degrees in some spots. It is so steep that there is a chain bolted into the face to hang on to.
About half way up, the path levels out a little more, and the chain ends. From there to the summit you have to climb up and down through the deep cuts in the rock. It is more technical here. Not for people out of shape of scared of heights.
The view from the summit is magnificent. You can see the horizon for 360 degrees, for what seems like 100 miles around.
The Olgas
Nearby is another large rock outcropping called Kata Tjuta (aka "The Olgas"). You can't climb them. There are a couple of hiking trails there. Kata Tjuta is beautiful, far more than Uluru. It features the most amazing canyons. If you come to Uluru, then you must take half a day at least and hike Kata Tjuta.
Aboriginals
Didn't see very many Aborginals around there. They have a cultural center near Uluru that is worth seeing. In the center they have photos of many of the tribe leaders and important people. But when the person dies, they have to remove the photo from the center because Aborginals do not believe that it is OK to see an image of person who is dead. So as you walk through the center, they have blacked out photos here and there as the person in the photo has since died.
Wildlife
We did catch some wildlife. There are feral camels roaming around. We saw some wild Dingos, and you can hear them yelping at night like coyotes in America. We saw some Thorny Devils
on the road, Honey Ants, Crested Pigeons, and a lot of lizards.
Suggestion For Vistors
Because I didn't have a car there, I was not able to get over to King's Canyon, which is about a 3 hour drive away. The next trip to Northern Territory, I will go there.
If you plan to go there, I recommend that you fly into Alice Springs, and then hire a station wagon from Alice Camp 'n' Drive. It is a company run by a couple of guys in Alice Springs who came up with a good idea. They rent full size Ford station wagons loaded with camping gear (tent, air mattress, cooler, lamps, stove, etc.). I saw a few of their wagons at the campsite and I talked to the campers who had rented them. They had nothing but praise for the outfit. They liked them because they didn't have a 7 day minimum like the camper van companies do. They are cheaper (I was quoted $120 a day), and get much better mileage than an RV. Plus you can opt to skip the tent and sleep in the back of the wagon.
Food is expensive at the Ayres Rock Resort! There is a small, overpriced grocery store there. However, if you rent a wagon in Alice Springs, and stock up at a grocery store there before you go, then you can save a lot of money.
What else? If you like your booze, then stock up in Alice Springs before driving over. There is only one place you can buy beer and wine, and they limit how much you can have. Not a problem for me since I am a one-beer-a-day guy. But since you are in the desert, and they have a limit a 6 beers a day, I can see where that would be a serious problem for some people I know.
Flying Glitches
I had a couple of traveling glitches. After camping and hiking for 3 days, I looked like a bit of a wild man with my unshaven face and dark tan. So when I went through security at the airport for the flight home, I was pulled aside for special attention and a screening of my clothes and luggage for explosives. Loretta asked them why they picked me, and they gave her the stock answer "It is random." Bull shit. We finally got the lady to admit that she selected me because I fit the profile of a hijacker. You know, male, dark, hair on face, scary looking. It happens to me often when I travel, especially when I am tired, or tanner than normal.
On the way to the airport, and at the airport, Loretta and I kept detecting the faint whiff of something smelly, like poo. But we could not figure out what it was. Every once in a while it would hit us. We checked everything. No luck. So we got on the plane and flew to Perth. On the flight we kept smelling it again? Was it us? Was it one of the fellow passengers who left with us that day?
That night when I got home and undressed, I found the source of the smell. There was some dog shit smeared on the side of my tennis shoes that I was wearing. Even though I had checked the bottom of my shoes at the airport, I had failed to notice the poop because it was the extact some color as the red dirt all over my shoes. I was so mortified and embarrassed. I had made my fellow bus and place passengers suffer because I couldn't see dog poop through the dirt.
So if you read on a blog somewhere on the net that some poor traveler flying out of Ayres Rock had a passenger from hell on board, a scary terrorist looking Yank who stank like poop, then it was me. I am so, so, sorry. *sigh*
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Russia to its pensioners... "Screw You"
I'm sure that is very comforting to the thousands of Russian pensioners and workers who are not getting paid at all. So instead of getting the money promised to buy a loaf of bread or oil to heat their flat this month. That money is going to help the Hamas terrorist buy new guns.
I'm not stupid enough to think that Russia is doing this out the goodness of their hearts. They are trying to buy political favors in the Middle East by trying to look like the good guy to short-sited Arabs.
So to the pensioners of Russia. Move to Palestine. It is warmer, and you will get your tax dollars to put food in your stomach.
Happy Easter... Off to Uluru!
Talk to you all when I get back later next week!
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
How to fold a T-Shirt
Stumbled across this short little video that shows you how to fold a t-shirt, perfectly, on what looks like one smooth move. It is in Japanese, but you can see what she does. I have viewed it like 10 times so far and still don't get the last move when it call comes together.
The comments on the other blogs and boards about this video all claim that it works like magic and is worth learning. So I guess I wil try it. It looks about as hard as learning how to knot a tie.
The comments on the other blogs and boards about this video all claim that it works like magic and is worth learning. So I guess I wil try it. It looks about as hard as learning how to knot a tie.
How smart are ya, huh!?
One-Question IQ Test
Here's a one-question IQ Test to help you decide how you should spend the rest of your day......
There is a mute who wants to buy a toothbrush. By imitating the action of brushing one's teeth, he successfully expresses himself to the shopkeeper and the purchase is done.
Now, if there is a blind man who wishes to buy a pair of sunglasses, how should he express himself?
Think about it first before scrolling down for the answer...
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He opens his mouth and says. "I would like to buy a pair of sunglasses"
If you got this wrong - please turn off your computer and call it a day. I've got mine shutting down right now.
Here's a one-question IQ Test to help you decide how you should spend the rest of your day......
There is a mute who wants to buy a toothbrush. By imitating the action of brushing one's teeth, he successfully expresses himself to the shopkeeper and the purchase is done.
Now, if there is a blind man who wishes to buy a pair of sunglasses, how should he express himself?
Think about it first before scrolling down for the answer...
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He opens his mouth and says. "I would like to buy a pair of sunglasses"
If you got this wrong - please turn off your computer and call it a day. I've got mine shutting down right now.
Arrest Made in Malibu Ferrari Accident
Well, Well, Well. It took long enough. Police have finally arrested the felon Swedish game executive that smashed up a $1 million Ferrari in Malibu in Februrary when they discovered that he didn't own any of the $3.5 worth of exotic million cars at this LA mansion.
Story here and here.
His wife was stopped driving their $600k Mercedes in Beverly Hills a few weeks ago. The police confiscated the Mercedes when the found it too was reported stolen by Scotland Yard. And his wife didn't have a drivers license (and never had one). They let her go home.
This is all part of the amazing story I've been tracking here.
Story here and here.
His wife was stopped driving their $600k Mercedes in Beverly Hills a few weeks ago. The police confiscated the Mercedes when the found it too was reported stolen by Scotland Yard. And his wife didn't have a drivers license (and never had one). They let her go home.
This is all part of the amazing story I've been tracking here.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Princess - From Southpark Guys
I do love "South Park". And loved "Team America". Well, Trey and Matt have created a new cartoon named "Princess". It is NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!!, nor for kids. It is very raunchy, but I fell on the floor laughing. Oh Jesus... I'll be laughing all day now thinking of this one.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Condi... do the right thing.
The mayor of London, Ken Livingston, is angry with the US ambassador because the US embassy staff have racked up over $250k worth of driving fees in central London and have refused to pay it. The mayor has decided to pick on the US, even though 55 other consulates and embassies, including that of Germany, also refuse to pay.
The reason that the US and other nations refuse to pay is because they consider the fee to be a tax, which they are exempt from.
Article 34 of The 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations says, "a diplomatic agent shall be exempt from all dues and taxes, personal or real, national, regional or municipal." It includes exceptions, such as "charges levied for specific services rendered" and "registration, court or record fees, mortgage dues and stamp duty, with respect to immovable property,”
In 2003, London implemented a congestion charge for cars that enter central London. It was designed to reduce the traffic in that part of London. It apparently has worked very well, better than expected.
Personally, I think it is really chickenshit that we refuse the pay the fee simply because we don't HAVE to. This fee is not targeted for diplomates or us. It is applied to all cars in the area. We in the United States get upset because diplomates, especially UN diplomates driving in Manhattan, routinely rack up enormous parking fees, refuse to pay them, are exempt from prosecution for ignoring them.
The Golden Rule applies here. Do on to others as you wish others to do on to you. So please, Condi Rice. As our Secretary of State, please do the right thing and pay our fair share of the use of the roads of London.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Should I blog anonymously?
I've received from feedback from friends and family that I consider blogging anonymously because of perceived danger to myself or others. In particular, they are concerned that my posts about the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority might drive come people to violence. Considering that the story involves convicted felons who are reported to be members of a Swedish Mafia, and terrorist, and anti-terrorist, and money.
My mom is one of the people. She told me that I like to get in people's faces. So, she is worried.
I don't feel that that I ask any questions that any other normal person would ask. I am always curious on how things work. How things got the way they are. Or why people make the decisions they do. Personally, I do not feel any danger. In the above case, I thought it was rather civil.
I expect people to be able to defend and explain their own decsions and actions. So I don't think that it is right that I should act like a coward and hide behind mask to ask the questions I want answered.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
My mom is one of the people. She told me that I like to get in people's faces. So, she is worried.
I don't feel that that I ask any questions that any other normal person would ask. I am always curious on how things work. How things got the way they are. Or why people make the decisions they do. Personally, I do not feel any danger. In the above case, I thought it was rather civil.
I expect people to be able to defend and explain their own decsions and actions. So I don't think that it is right that I should act like a coward and hide behind mask to ask the questions I want answered.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Job Situation Update
March 31 is here. The last day of my work contract. They came through with an extention until the end of 2006. So that means I have a job until the end of the year. That is a relief. I was expecting to have to move back to the US in 4 weeks, with no place to live.
It feels like Autumn has arrivied here in Perth. The last few nights have been cool and days feel like Indian Summer. I noticed the leaves on the maple trees outside of work have started to turn red. The middle part of the state is getting slammed by a giant cyclone (hurricane) right now, which might explain why it is so cloudy down here today.
So, I am sleeping good tonight.
Cheers!
It feels like Autumn has arrivied here in Perth. The last few nights have been cool and days feel like Indian Summer. I noticed the leaves on the maple trees outside of work have started to turn red. The middle part of the state is getting slammed by a giant cyclone (hurricane) right now, which might explain why it is so cloudy down here today.
So, I am sleeping good tonight.
Cheers!
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Really drunk Aussie driver
Saw this on the news today.
CANBERRA (Reuters) - A drunk driver just 100 yards from Australia's iconic giant monolith once known as Ayers Rock stopped police to ask the way to the 1,100-foot-high rock.What makes it even funnier is that Uluru is the only thing out there. All around it is nothing bit flat, flat, flat destert. And, there are no lakes. What is the boat for?
The headlights of the man's car were actually shining on Uluru, which has a 5.8-mile circumference, Northern Territory police said.
The 44-year-old man, whose car was also towing an aluminum boat, has been charged with drunk driving and unlicensed driving.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
40 Things You'd love to Say out Loud at Work
Ever have one of those days at work when you just want to stand up and scream? Here is some ammo. Thanks SAS Andrew for the material.
- I can see your point, but I still think you're full of crap.
- I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce.
- How about never? Is never good for you?
- I see you've set aside this special time to publicly humiliate yourself.
- I'm really easy to get along with once you people learn to see it my way.
- Who lit the fuse on your tampon?
- I'm out of my mind at the moment, but feel free to leave a message.
- I don't work here - I'm a consultant.
- It sounds like English, but I don't understand a damn word you're saying.
- Ahhh. I see the stuff-up fairy has visited us again.
- I like you. You remind me of myself when I was young and stupid.
- You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers.
- I have plenty of talent and vision - I just don't give a damn.
- I'm already visualising the duct tape over your mouth.
- I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you.
- Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.
- The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
- Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
- What am I? Flypaper for freaks?
- I'm not being rude. You're just insignificant.
- It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of karma to burn off.
- Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
- And your cry-baby whiny assed opinion would be?
- Do I look like a f-ing people person to you?
- This isn't an office. It's Hell with fluorescent lighting.
- I started out with nothing and I still have most of it left.
- Sarcasm is just one more service we offer.
- If I throw a stick, will you leave?
- Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.
- Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed.
- Oh, I get it. Like humour. Only different.
- A cubicle is just a padded cell without the door.
- Can I trade this job for what's behind door number 1?
- Too many freaks, not enough circuses.
- Nice perfume, but must you marinate in it?
- Chaos, panic and disorder - my work here is finally done.
- How do I set a laser printer to stun.
- I thought I wanted a career; turns out I just wanted a salary.
- I'll try being nicer if you try being smarter.
- Wait a minute - I'm just trying to imagine you with a personality.
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