Odds and Ends

Bad Customer Service

Well bad customer service might be a little stronger. Maybe tepid customer service is a better way to describe it. I went to Best Buy on Friday. I was looking for a voltage converter to take with me when I go to London. I'm thinking of taking my camcorder and I'd really like to take my iPod with me too. If I do, I'll need to charge them thus the need for the voltage converter.

I wandered around the store for a little while to see if I could find one and also just to see what was new. I also looked at a speaker system for my iPod. I still haven't found anything I really like. Anyway I finally decided to ask someone if they carried them. He looked it up on the computer and then said to me they'll either be where I was working or in automotive (why would they be in the automotive section). That was the end of the help. He was not going to go with me and help me find them. I looked at my watch. I had a couple of other things to do before I met a friend for lunch. I decided wandering around Best Buy was not one of them. I know they have them so I'll get it later. Or better yet go to a luggage or travel store which will probably have a much better selection.

Movie Night

Last night I had an old fashioned movie night. The type of experience you'd have if you went to the movies in the 40's. I watched about ten minutes of Headline News. Then I put on a Warner Brothers cartoon actually I watched three of Tweety and Sylvester. Very funny. Then I watched a movie I'd gotten from Netflix. It was Dragon Wars. One of the reason that I signed up for Netflix was so that I could get such questionable movies as Dragon Wars. After all all you are paying for Netflix is $9 a month as opposed to $7 for just one movie.

Now was Dragon Wars bad. Oh yes it was very very bad. I feel like the Dan Akroyd character on Saturday Night Live: Leonard Pinth-Garnell. And this is a bad Saturday night movie. And it was very very bad. The director ripped off scenes from several recent sci-fi movies: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings. There was almost nothing original in this movie at all. It was done by a Korean director so it had the feel of the original Godzilla with Raymond Burr. It had that spliced together feeling. How bad was the film even Jason Behr's hair was bad. Enough said.

But the Saturday night movie concept was a fun one.

Wrong side of the bed

This is what today has felt like. It started out late Saturday night. After the movie, I played on the computer for awhile and then watched a little TV. I did something I don't usually do and that is I feel asleep on the couch. I woke up around 2 or so. One of the last things I'd needed to do before going to bed was put sheets on the bed. I changed the sheets but hadn't gotten around to putting on the new ones. Well at 2 in the morning I was not going to do that. So I got the comforter and just went to bed.

I didn't have all that good of a night's sleep. I got up and went off to the gym. While there my Bose earbud headphones started acting up. There seems to be a short in the cord. So the sound goes in and out. Actually it is more like a channel goes out.

After the gym I go grocery shopping. Several things I want to get they don't have. And the bananas were as green as could be.

I head back home. Once there I notice that the furnace is not coming on. I can hear the click but it doesn't turn on. I'm not sure what is exactly wrong it could be that it is out of oil. I doubt this but it is possible.

I called the oil company and will be getting a delivery by Tuesday. The price is like $4 a gallon. I asked for the minimum amount but it will still be around $600. I hope once that is done the furnace will be fine. If not it means I have to get them out here to take a look at it.

The only good thing is it is going to be unusually warm for the next few days.

Next, I'm cleaning and rearranging things in the kitchen. My baking pans are in a cabinet above the stove. While trying to move some of them they all fell on to the floor. I decided at that point to call it a day.

I was going to go 0n-line and order my theater tickets for London but thought better of it. I'm sure something would have gone wrong. I'm now officially calling the day over.

I'm going to make dinner and maybe do another post or two, watch a little TV or maybe read a book but nothing else. I figure you can't have much go wrong with any of those but then again . . .

A review or two

Or maybe even three.

Anne Murray Duets — friends and legends

I mentioned the Anne Murray CD in an earlier post specifically about A Little Good News. As I said after listening to the words it is sad that so little has changed. This is especially true in light of the recent events in the Middle East. You can read more about in the Post.

But this is a review about the album itself. It is very impressive. I've been a fan of Anne Murray for a long time. So almost all of the songs are familiar. Yet at the same time they are totally different. The orchestrations have been changed and of course the most obvious difference is that Murray is singing the song with another person. The range of artists Murray sings with is amazing. Olivia Newton-John, k.d. Lang, Indigo Girls, Sarah Brightman, Nelly Furtado to name just a few.

As to my favorite songs here's a quick list Daydream Believer with Nelly Furtado, Time Don't Run Out on Me with Carole King, A Love Song with k.d. Lang, A Little Good News with the Indigo Girls, When I Fall in Love with Celine Dion and probably the best song on the CD You Needed Me with Shania Twain. This is a kick ass album and I highly recommend it.

And through the joys of YouTube here are a couple of the songs.



Here she's with Celine Dion. I have to say I make a great deal of fun of Celine at work because one of my co-workers really like her. I will say I think Murray and Dion's voice really work well on this song.




This is You Needed Me. The best song on the CD.


The Perils of Peace by Thomas Fleming

This is a great book which I got for Christmas. It is about the Revolutionary War from the Battle of Yorktown to the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty. It is an area that is usually covered in a couple of paragraphs in most books. Yorktown took place in October of 1781 the peace treaty was signed in September of 1783. This book traces the ups and downs and political intrigue that took place in England, France and the United States during those two years. The tireless efforts of Washington to keep the county focused on the fact that the war was not over and his attempts to have his army properly provisioned and paid. It is a riveting account. It points out that things could have ended a great deal differently then they did and not to the benefit of the U.S.

Here's a little excerpt from the book. Washington is in Annapolis, Maryland where the Continental Congress is in session. Washington is about to resign his commission as commander in chief of America forces:

This was—is—the most important moment in American history. The man who could have been King George I of America, or President fro Life after dispersing a feckless Congress and obtaining for himself and his officers riches worthy of their courage, was renouncing absolute power to become a private citizen, at the mercy of politicians over whom he had no control. This visible incontrovertible act did more to affirm America's faith in the government of the people than a thousand declarations by legislatures and treatises by philosophers.

If you are interested in the history of the Revolution, this is a must read.

Those We've Lost

The recent news coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan reminded me of the two wars we are involved in. The coverage also reminded me of how little attention we pay to those brave soldiers who've lost their lives in these conflicts. So once again a few faces of Those We've Lost:









Sgt. 1st Class Randy L. Johnson
Lost September 27, 2007











Pfc. Mathew D. Taylor
Lost September 26, 2007












Pfc. Christopher F. Pfeifer
Lost September 25, 2007











Corp. Joshua H. Reeves
Lost September 22, 2007

A Little Good News

This is a title of an Anne Murray song. Recently she re-released it as a duet. The lyrics today are as poignant as ever. Here they are:

I rolled out this morning
Kids had the mornin' news show on
Bryant Gumbel was talkin' 'bout the fighting in Lebanon
Some senator was squawkin' 'bout the bad economy
It's gonna get worse you see, we need a change in policy

There's a local paper rolled up in a rubber band
One more sad story's one more than I can stand
Just once how I'd like to see the headline say
"Not much to print today, can't find nothin' bad to say", because

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town
Nobody OD'ed, nobody burned a single buildin' down
Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain
We sure could use a little good news today

I'll come home this evenin'
I'll bet that the news will be the same
Somebody takes a hostage, somebody steals a plane
How I wanna hear the anchor man talk about a county fair
And how we cleaned up the air, how everybody learned to care
Whoa, tell me

Nobody was assassinated in the whole Third World today
And in the streets of Ireland, all the children had to do was play
And everybody loves everybody in the good old USA
We sure could use a little good news today

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town
Nobody OD'ed, nobody burned a single buildin' down

Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain
We sure could use a little good news today

There are only two changes to update the song. Bryant Gumble has been changed to Diana Sawyer. The other is in the streets of Ireland is now in the hills of Gaza.

This song was originally released nearly 25 years ago. So very little has changed and that is very sad.

Mini-ice storm

There was another ice storm in Springfield about two weeks ago.

Not nearly as bad as the one last year. You can go here to read about it and see pictures.

But it was enough to cause a mess as you can see from these pictures that my dad sent me.
































My dad is hoping the tree guy will come tomorrow and take care of this. He cut some of the limbs off today but left the rest.


















My dad had just upgrade to HD from DirecTV like a day or two before the storm hit. Here's what the two receivers on the top of his house looked like. For a solid day he had no picture on either TV set. Slowly as the ice thawed the picture returned. The last channels to come back were the local ones. He does really enjoy HD now.

How the Republicans will attack Obama?

We got a preview of how some Republicans will be attacking Obama if he should end up being the Democratic nominee. Here's the article from the Post.

I guess the idea is to repeat Obama's middle name which happens to be Hussein and somehow make people think he is a Muslim and a terrorists. I suggest watching the video to get an idea of how rabid this Bill Cunningham, the guy who made the remarks and also introduced McCain at this rally, is. He attacks Clinton with as much gusto.

Here's a little of what he said:

Cunningham then mocked foreign policy statements of "Barack Hussein Obama," calling him the "fraud from Chicago" and saying that if Obama were to be elected president he would meet with the leaders of enemy nations. He continued by saying the "world leaders who want to kill us" will be "singing 'Kumbaya' together around the table with Barack Obama."

It's so good to see that the Karl Rove play book is up and running and it's only February.

I will say to McCain's credit he repudiated the remarks Cunningham made about both Clinton and Obama. It is just sad to me that this is the type of crap we are going to be getting for the next nine months. Hopefully this time around the American public will see for what it really is crap.

Cough, Cough and Cough some more

Yes, I'm doing a great deal of coughing these days and I'm not even having a physical.

I'm still getting over the cold/flu/chest cold/sinus thing I have a few weeks ago. I think what is causing me to cough his post nasal drip. It seems to me to be more like post nasal waterfall. Without going into too much detail everything is clear. I've been taking a half does of cold medication. That helps with the post nasal problem but it really drys out my sinuses almost to the point where it hurts to breath in.

I will say that that small amount of discomfort is better then what I was suffering with the cough. I'd come home from work and my throat would hurt. My chest was very tight and I'd usually have a headache.

I'm going to the doctor on Monday and I hope he can give me some ideas on how to knock this thing out once and for all.

On a much brighter note 4 weeks from today I'll be in New York getting ready to take off for London. I can hardly wait!!!

Nyuk, Nyuk

Anyone recognize the above?

How about: A wiseguy, huh?

These two sayings would of course be from the Three Stooges. I bring this up in part because my brother is a huge fan. But also because of a story that ran in today's Post. There is a Three Stooges Museum called Stoogeum. Here's a link to a story from the local paper in the area.

The Stoogeum is:

the only museum in this galaxy devoted entirely to the history, lore, comedy and worship of a slapstick act that has shown remarkable staying power in a pop culture that has pretty well lost the very notion of a comedy team.

The article goes on to say:

With touch-screen videos, an 85-seat theater playing a loop of dozens of Stooges shorts and throwback artifacts such as a 1980s, Pac-Man-era video game based on the Stooges and the 1960s Stooges lunchboxes that I remember kids toting to school in second grade, the museum traces the comedy team from its 1920s vaudeville roots to TV appearances into the '70s.

So here's to the Three Stooges may the live on forever. Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk!

We're all finished then

I like how people come into my office at work to announce we're all finished with a project. The fact of the matter is the pronoun needs to changes to you're all finished. I still have several hours of work yet to do on it for it to get ready to go out the door.

I especially love when people make this announcement when the project is a week late. Yes, indeed you are done with the project. I still have more to do on it and every minute I spend doing your project is a minute I have to make up on the other work I need to do.

So to lighten the mood a little some Peanuts:

The Rules Apply to Everyone but Me

No, I'm not talking about me in particular. I'm talking about people who think that way. You know these types you can tell by the way they act.

Here's a story about one such person. This happened near my office.

I need to do a little set up first. The district has traffic control officers. Their job is to as you might have guessed it is to direct traffic. The idea is to prevent intersections from getting blocked and producing gridlock. You seem them at rush hour. And you know what they actually do prevent gridlock. Just goes to show that if you follow the rules, it really does make a difference.

Now on to my story. The street near my office is one way. It has three lanes for traffic and a lane for parking on each side of the street. Now the actually lanes of traffic are set up this way. The far left lane is a left turn only lane. The next lane to the right you are allowed to turn left or go straight. The far right lane you can go straight. (You can't make a right hand turn because you'd be turning the wrong way on a one-way street.) One finally thing to add is that there is a left turn arrow and you are only allowed to turn left when you have that arrow.

This is the scene I come upon. There is a women in the far left hand lane. She has started her left hand turn and is into the cross walk. The left turn arrow is red. The traffic control officer has signaled for this women to stop. The left turn arrow turns green but there are people still crossing the street. The women making the left turn decides since she has the light she'll make the turn even if she turns in front of pedestrians. The traffic control officer puts up her hand for the women to stop. The women decides she doesn't need to obey the officer and comes close to hitting a pedestrian. And the reason the women in the car did this was she didn't want to miss out on a parking place.

I have to say this is one of the times I'd like to have had a policeman present so this women would have gotten a ticket.

Oh and kicker when the women got out of her car she bitched at the traffic officer.

I guess we should have all realized that the rules don't apply to her.

One more post about Once

One more little note about Once winning best song. This comes from a story at USA Today:

As best-original-song winners Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova were escorted down the usual route to the press room in the adjacent Renaissance Hotel, they were taken on a detour to an isolated spot in the wings of stage left where host Jon Stewart waits when he's not onstage.

Stewart greeted them with unprecedented news: When the show returned from a commercial, Irglova would get a second chance at the mike. As Stewart explained to her, "They were going to let you say something and (the orchestra) cut you off by mistake." He turned to Hansard, "I wanted to let Marketa say her thanks."

As they waited for the telecast to resume, Hansard leaned over and held his Oscar near Irglova's. "Mar, let's make 'em kiss." She laughed and said, "They are two guys." "But it's Hollywood," Hansard joked.

After Irglova gave a heartfelt speech, Stewart's next joke was a verbatim repetition of the kissing exchange he had just heard.

So Stewart gave her another shot at the stage and Irglova gave him a brand-new joke.

Falling Slowly from Once

Ok, I really like this movie. I'm so glad Once got some recognition which it very much deserves. I strongly recommend that you rent his movie. You won't be disappointed. Here's Falling Slowly from the movie Once:

Great Night at the Oscars

I have to say I didn't watch all that much of it. But it was great to see Falling Slowly performed.




But it was even better when they won for best song:

Waterboarding

Every once in a while you run across something or something comes your way that really sums up how you feel about an issue. This is a piece my brother sent to me that appeared in the local newspaper in Springfield. Follow the link for the whole piece. The piece was in a section called Voice of the Day. I think this puts Waterboarding in its proper perspective:

The point I'm trying to make is that waterboarding is torture, and extreme torture at that. And all that's really necessary in order to convince the doubting Thomases of that inconvertible truth is to simply subject all of them to this torture by water. Since the U.S. government spent thousands of my very own tax dollars teaching me this technique, I will happily return the favor by personally volunteering to vigorously waterboard each and every draft-dodging, right-wing chickenhawk in Washington, D.C. And after I strap them down, blindfold them, wrap their heads in cloth and pour water up their noses and down their throats until they nearly drown and beg for mercy, then — and only then — will they be allowed to vote on whether or not waterboarding is torture.

Yes, I think that sums it up very nicely indeed.

Personal Training Day

If it's Tuesday, besides there being another primary somewhere, it also means another session with my personal trainer. Today we did boxing. I must admit a rather unusual session but one that gave me a very good work out. At the end of of it my arms were very tired, I'd gotten a good aerobic workout and I knew how to box if just a little.

It was fun. Considering how the rest of the day went it was nice to have a bright spot for part of the day.

I think I'm making fairly good progress. I think the trainer is very good. We never do the same set of exercises twice in a row which is very good. It does mean by the end of the day my muscles are sore but that's what I'm paying for. The thing I need to get better at is my aerobic exercise. If I can ever shake this cold/cough I'll be back on the stationary bike and hopefully taking a spinning class very soon.

Slowly on the Mend

Well ever so slowly I'm getting better. The phlegm factor is much less than it once was. Food now tastes like food. Pizza tastes like pizza instead of phlegm with a pizza taste. I could go on but I think you get the drift. I even went and worked out yesterday. That went pretty well. I was going to do some stuff today but I'm just tired today.

I ended staying up late last night because I slept for three hours in the afternoon. Unfortunately I did the exact same thing today. I'm hoping to be able to get to bed at an early time tonight so I'm ready for another week at work.

I want to get into work early because I have another training session at 9am. I have to say I'm very please with the way the sessions are going. I'm learning a great deal. I've picked up a couple of things the trainer suggested which will help me stretch my hamstrings which he says are very tight. I did that on Sunday after I worked out. I ended up going to the Sports Authority at Potomac Yards near national airport.

Tonight I'm hoping to do some work on the trip. My friend Larry sent me a great link about London. Well actually it is about travel in general. You pick out the destination you're going to say London and the number of days you are going to there. It then generates a huge lists of possible attractions. You go through the list and pick out the places you'd like to go. It then generates a day by day list of what you should see. I'm going to take a look at that tonight. I think it is a good first step. This week I'm planning on getting the theater tickets I know I want before I go. One more thing out of the way.

Once's Oscar Nod

I mentioned Once, this great film, in an earlier post.

I didn't realize that one of the songs is up for original song at the Oscar. Also the stars of the movie will be singing it on the show. There was a story about them in the Sunday Post.

From the story:

The couple are camped out in Hollywood, having just hit the Grammys (two nominations, zero wins), with another, more significant awards-season date looming: Next Sunday, they'll perform their nominated song, "Falling Slowly," on the Oscars.

Which is strangely hilarious, Hansard says, because "when we finished shooting that scene" -- the one at the music store, where his nameless character ("a Guy") teaches Irglov¿'s nameless character ("a Girl") the song on the piano -- the director, Carney, said: " 'And Oscar for Best Song goes to "Falling Slowly." ' Which we all laughed about. How absurd!"

Says Irglov¿: "He was just trying to express how great it was. But it's pretty funny now."

Guess there's a reason to watch the awards this year. It would be really great if they won.

It's Not Torture, 'Cause We Say So

This is just an incredible story from the Post on how the Bush Administration does not use torture.

Here's a little from the story:

In testimony before a House subcommittee, Steven G. Bradbury, the acting chief of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, spelled out how the administration regulated the CIA's use of rough tactics and offered new details of how simulated drowning was used to compel disclosures by prisoners suspected of being al-Qaeda members.

The method was not, he said, like the "water torture" used during the Spanish Inquisition and by autocratic governments into the 20th century, but was subject to "strict time limits, safeguards, restrictions." He added, "The only thing in common is, I think, the use of water."

Yeah that's the thing to take away from that. Because we are such a great democratic state that doesn't torture because we simulate drowning people with strict time limits that makes it ok.

I have to say the more that comes out about what was done the more reprehensible it becomes. The lengths that members of this administration go to try and "prove" the U.S. does not torture only makes the government look worse and worse. I wonder how we'll react when someone uses a similar technique against American soldiers. I'd like to see an administration official justify it then.

Rules of the Road

I've been out driving some these past fews days. I noticed all sorts of interesting driving.

I don't exactly understand why people run the stop sign right near my house. Especially when the light the next block down is red. Why bother? I can understand why people would run the stop light if the light at the next block is green. The green light is very short and you have to sit at the red light for a very long time.

I don't exactly understand why on a one way street someone moves their car off to the left. Let me clarify that a little on two occasions recently someone was waiting for a parking place. So they move off to the left but all there really move is the front of the car off to the left. The back of the car is sticking out in the lane. And in fact by moving the front of the car off to the left the back of the car is sticking out even more into the other lane. In once case an SUV barely got around.

I don't exactly understand why people slow down coming almost to a stop and then put on their turn signal. Seems to me you could do that before the slowing down part.

I don't exactly understand why people think it is correct to make a right hand turn from the far left hand land and then be surprised when other drivers get upset at this.

One last thing is directed at pedestrians. If you are going to jaywalk get your behind across the street don't talk with the person next to you or blab on your cell phone. Get across the street. Or if you're not getting across the street don't be startled when you are almost hit by a car.

The disaster that is FEMA

Remember the promise by President Bush that we would never forget the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Yeah I thought not neither did he.

This story from the Post about the trailers used to house people. The trailers are unsafe:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fumes from 519 tested trailers and mobile homes in Louisiana and Mississippi were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes. Formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in construction materials, can lead to breathing problems and is also believed to cause cancer.

FEMA has know about this problem for months. It told its people not to test the trailers. It said for a long time that they were safe. It discounted reports as early as 2006 of : trailer occupants began reporting headaches, nosebleeds and difficulty breathing. The article goes on further to say:

But as recently as last spring, a FEMA spokesman said the agency said no reason to question the safety of its trailers. Just last month, congressional investigators accused FEMA of suppressing and manipulating scientific research to play down the danger _ an accusation the agency denied.

To say this is hard to believe is an understatement The Secretary of Homeland security goes on to blames the people who are in the trailers saying: but it has been difficult to get them to do so because the housing shortage means they might have to move far away, and because they are being allowed to live in the trailers rent-free.

Gee I don't know maybe it is the responsibility of the government to make sure these people are helped out. They were promised by the President that they would not be forgotten and everything possible would be done for them. But then again this promise came from the Bush Administration and we've seen how good their promises are.

As I've said before January 2009 can't come soon enough.