Category: Personal

I was jumping around the web this morning and Jason Shellen pointed to a whacky collection of scanned album covers. I was just goofing and looked at this saucy cover for Acapulco ’22 by Laurindo Almeida. And I realized that these four lovely bikini-clad young women have nothing to do with Almeida or his Bossa Nova guitar music. Just another attempt by marketing meeps to use sex to move product.

Cause, you know, I always choose my beer/auto/music by which uses the sexiest women. Or not.

But I was also more than a little shaken by the song selection on this album: Hava Nagila, a Jewish folk tune; Miserlou, and American country folk tune, some songs I don’t recognize and then a bunch of syrupy romantic ballads, More, Satin Doll, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, and What Kind of Fool Am I. I checked on Google but couldn’t find any of these online. Wouldn’t you want to hear a Bossa Nova version of Hava Nagila?

A quality win, though a bit high scoring, as Liverpool makes it to semis in the League Cup by beating Aston Villa 4-3 at Aston Villa when Danny Murphy hit the net in injury time. The Reds will face Sheffield United, a team popping it’s head up from the First Division, in the semi-finals while top-rank teams Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers meet in the other match. Seems like the boys may have a decent chance for at least one title this season. Sad as it is to say, I find it hard to imagine they’ll be able to make up the gap with Arsenal in the Premiership.

It would be much easier to blog, and do most anything other than lie flat on the couch, if I hadn’t thrown my back out this morning. Maybe a nice hot shower will help a little.

James Snell wrote, in response to the current discussion over Trent Lott and the accusation of general Republican racism, specifically over opposition to affirmative action:

“You know, I must’ve missed the part in Martin Luther King’s speech that said, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character [except when trying to get a job, bidding on a government contract, or applying to college].‘ Somehow, I don’t think that’s what Dr. King had in mind.”

Respectfully, James, I think your opinion might be a little easier to verify if a white racist hadn’t murdered Dr. King. If King had lived long enough to participate in the discussions and negotiations which took place in the ’70s, after the movement achieved critical mass, we could have seen how his idealism translated into pragmatism. I’d love to see you post a specific quote/reference from King that actually supports your supposition. Affirmative action, especially when it was first used, certainly did have the support of nearly all the major civil rights leaders.

Further, if you think that right now today blacks and whites are treated equally and no measures are necessary to correct past inequalities, then you’ve obviously never been black. Perhaps affirmative action is not the best way means of correction but simply stating that color cannot be taken into account (in either direction) is surely worse. I’m not a Republican, to be sure, but I’m not a member of any other political party either either, FYI, but I do think that in this supposedly enlightened day and age the way people are treated based on trivial differences is a tragic farce.

Sun is closing the DotCom Builder website.

John Dvorak brings us an Obituary for OS/2.

Many of you have seen Mel Gibson’s movie Payback, which I thought was very good in a nasty, revenge sort of way. Especially the scenes with the dominatrix. That movie was based on Thomas Kelly’s first novel; The Rackets is his second.

This story lifts much from Kelly’s own life. Our hero, Jimmy Dolan, starts out the novel as a high-level assistant to a New York City mayor. He’s Irish, grew up in Inwood, the northernmost section of Manhattan, the son of a union rebel, and paid his way through school working construction. All also true of the author. So I think we can accept the emotions as authentic, which is good because this book is all about emotions.

Dolan begins his new journey when he fails to keep his emotions in check and instead decks a Teamster local president during a reception at Gracie Mansion, in front of the mayor. The union leader, Keefe, who is of course dirtier than a pig after a rainstorm, is also a major campaign contributor. Not to mention the man who keeps beating Dolan’s father in fixed union elections. So, like that, our boy is out on his keister. He’s been living with a high society female, who we never really meet, and she decides his unemployed ass no longer suits her apartment. So he’s really out.

Jimmy turns to his father, who’s in the midst of a third attempt to dethrone Keefe, and his childhood home. But Keefe isn’t just politically connected, he’s also connected by marriage to Tommy Magic, a Mafia don, and this don is tired of ‘doing things the right way’. The Magic Man decides he’s not willing to lose his main cash cow and pulls the trigger on Dolan’s old man. The law enforcement side of the government, natch, is mixed up in all of this too and makes for further complications. Jimmy has to find his way safely through this landmine, honor his father, and find time to fall back in love with his childhood girlfriend (a tall, blonde, gorgeous cop).

Once the father is killed, Kelly really picks up the story’s pace. Events careen around corners, figuratively and literally, connections are made only to twist apart, family saves and family kills. While the major aspect of the ending is not really surprising, the way we get there and a lot of the details are done quite well. If there are only seven true basic plots, this book brings in most of them.

And although the hero is already 29 years old, he still hasn’t really grown up. But by the end of the story he has, forced to confront the contradiction between where he comes from and where he wants to go. As one (much more thorough) review says, perhaps this novel also helped the author resolve this contradiction as well.

Oddly, ABC hopes to adapt this novel into a television series starring Billy Baldwin as Dolan, to be directed by Sidney Pollack. Hard to tell until they actually put something on the tube, if they actually put something on the tube, but seems like this will put Dolan back into his job with the Mayor, as if the events of this novel never happened. Except he’ll hopefully get the cop for a girlfriend and not the stuck up bitch.

Recommended

Keeping up a 23 year tradition, I saw the tenth Star Trek movie (“A generation’s final journey”) on Friday night. Since we were on vacation in New York, I was fortunate that Vivian’s best friend, who we were meeting for dinner that night, suggested the movie since her husband is as big into Trek as me. We had a totally non-Atkins, totally delicious all you can eat Sushi dinner beforehand.

Star Trek Nemesis is a very strong movie, probably the series’ best since Generations though my favorite is still number six, The Undiscovered Country. Getting John Logan to follow up such major films as Gladiator and On Any Sunday with a Trek flick was a great choice and possibly a good omen for the future as people like Logan (and myself) who grew up on the Federation stories become adults. Logan’s next scripts are for Tom Cruise and then Martin Scorsese, so for him to say he wants to write Trek XI is yet another coup. After seeing Nemesis, I’m sure every Trekkie, Trekker, and Trekonista out there would love to have him back.

Director Stuart Baird, while not as well known as Logan, was another solid choice. Baird has done more work as an editor than director, specializing in action films, not science fiction, and that shows up on screen in scenes such as the Jeffries tube fight between Riker and Ron Perlman’s Reman Viceroy and the initial face to face confrontation between Picard and Shinzon. TrekWeb has a nice interview with the director.

These two selections, bringing in new creative forces to the Trek franchise, were very important. The men weren’t steeped in ‘how Star Trek is done’ or wrapped in personal relationships with the actors and crew (other than Logan’s frienship with Brent Spiner which got him involved in the first place); I’d actually be very interested, in a good way, to learn how Stuart Baird got the gig. But their situations allowed them to push for the best story and film rather than worry so much about feelings. Worf, Crusher, and even Riker are barely factors in the film but since the story doesn’t particuarly need them this is a good thing.

The story itself revolves around two opposing pairs: Picard and Shinzon, Data and B-4, and the confrontations between them. Patrick Stewart is a masterful, Shakespearean actor who coolly handles the news that the Romulans created Shinzon, a clone of himself, then cast the clone adrift as politics changed the prevailing winds. Tom Hardy is surprisingly strong in his major acting job, easily creating the image of a young Picard, a Picard that might have been given similar circumstances. Meanwhile Spiner plays both androids (B-4 is a not before known prototype from Data’s creater Dr. Soong), with a similar contrast: B-4 does not have the same level of internal complexity as his ‘younger brother’ and therefore cannot quite comprehend Data’s quest to be human, to be more than he is. He does have the same yellow eyes, though. Spiner does well, not needing the sort of goofiness he is made to use in other roles (Master of Disguise, Independence Day); the audience is familiar enough with the Next Generation’s main supporting character that he can add subtle depths even to B-4.

The ending includes several surprises and while you might read these spoilers elsewhere, you won’t here. I think they are reasonable and open possibilities for future films. Should they be made. I thought going in that a good opening weekend (which generally predicts the final box office) would be anything over $14-15 million, and that this would assure another film in less than the four years since Insurrection. So at first I was happy with the nearly $19 million that was taken in. Until I checked the franchise history over at Box Office Mojo and saw that this was the lowest opening weekend since Undiscovered Country. Only time will tell but I would be interested to see another Logan/Baird collaboration, to see how they would push the series forward after all the changes that occur by the end of the film.

Absolutely recommended

This particular Reunion is a 2001 Pip and Flinx novel from Alan Dean Foster. Pretty good telling of part of the coming of age period of life of this complex, much travelled character. Flinx–Philip Lynx–is the product of far future (illegal) genetic engineering and he still doesn’t know all that much about himself or his capabilities; this book has him running hard and fast after some of this information. An enjoyable read, Foster has been writing tasty SF candy for over 30 years now.

Next two books in this series, already written and turned into the publisher, and due out in 2003, are titled Star Brake and Sliding Scales; these will be the 21st and 22nd books in Foster’s Commonwealth series.

We were catching up on some–to be honest, many–shows Tivoed during the vacation and the episode of Friends resonated with some recent events. Chandler, for the three of you who don’t watch this sitcom, has been running his firm’s Tulsa office all season and commuting home for the weekends. (This pattern is more common in real life than one might expect.) This time around Chandler is forced to stay in Tulsa over Christmas to meet an important deadline so during an Xmas Eve staff meeting he finally explodes with the absurdity of working to meet some artificial deadline set by people unaffected by it, and the absurdity of his whole work existence, so he sends the whole staff home early to be with their families. Chandler quits the job and flies home to be with Monica and the gang.

On the other hand, in real life, three times in the last couple of days I had people who were a pleasure to deal with. First, despite the financial chaos and personal difficulties emanating from it, the United Airlines staff on my nasty flight (and the flight East a few days earlier) were terrific. For a welcome change, the pilot kept us well-informed regarding all the turbulence, what he was doing to get around or above it, and what we might expect, and the flight attendents did not get pissy and ill-tempered at all in dealing with a full plane that included many small children. This from a team of people facing the loss of their equity stake in the airline (one near-certainty of UAL’s bankruptcy will be the complete wipe out of the employee’s collective 55% share ownership) and possible layoffs or salary cuts.

Second, was the woman from the title company who helped me with the closing paperwork on refinancing the mortgage on Casa Lazar; I’m taking advantage of the lower rates to lower my monthly payments. California law and banking bureaucrats mean there are scores, if not a couple of hundred, pages to read, sign, and initial to complete a mortgage and I am surely just a little bit compulsive about reading through what I sign. But this woman was cheerful, patient, and had the answers to my questions as we went through all of it. Which is in contrast to the people from the mortgage office who generated the paperwork, making several key (and annoying) errors in the process.

Third, I stopped by my bank to make a deposit. Things seemed a little odd as I pulled into the branch’s parking lot: unexpected darkness, people standing by the door, paper signs over the ATM machines. I walked up and all became, well, clear: for some reason the building had no power for the day and so the ATMs were off and the branch was more or less closed. The people standing by the door were employees patiently explaining the situation to customers and letting them in if their tasks could still be done. Inside the workers were all in place in the semi-darkness, taking care of us, promising to post the deposits (the main business of the day) tomorrow. Even though their (less than thoughtful) managers hadn’t been creative enough to go out and get some battery powered lights.

All of which contrasts with the doofus at the local post office. Before leaving I’d dropped off a delivery stop form, with delivery to resume when I came down and picked up the mail. Neither the form itself or the man at the counter (at the time I dropped it off) let me know that I needed to call a day in advance to have the held mail sent up from the sorting station a few blocks away. At the pickup counter today I spoke with the same guy who of course insisted he would never accept a stop form without providing the information and phone number! Denial aside, he was the person I left the form with. Too bad he broke my streak.

Three out of five ain’t bad though, not in this day and age.

From CBS MarketWatch: FDA gives VaxGen ‘fast-track’ status, stock surges. Stock surges over $3/share, although the current $16.20 price is still way off the $23.25 high at the beginning of this month. Still, the Phase III results are due in the first quarter and will hopefully be positive enough to drive the stock price into the $30s or higher.

Flying home yesterday was one of those flights you really just don’t want to be on. Full plane–why did United use a B757 on such a popular cross-country flight instead of, say, a 767? Of course 30 minutes was not enough time to board and seat every passenger, meaning we were late pulling away from the gate, missed our takeoff slot and therefore had to sit and wait 20 minutes for an opening. Get up in the air and less than an hour later the plane runs into some turbulence and the seatbelt signs go on. Just for a few minutes, no big deal.

A little while later, more turbulence, seatbelts on again, also for not too long. The oh so tasty meal is served and cleared. What next? More turbulence, of course! This time we’re locked into our seats for nearly two hours as the pilot moves up and down searching in vain for some smooth air. Amazingly, the Sweet One is able to nap through a long stretch of this. My stomach is not at all happy and my choice to take two Xanax before the flight turned out to be very wise. Finally the pilot is able to turn off the signs and half the plane runs for the toilets; fortunately I get to them before most of the others but TSO is not so lucky and has to stand in line for twenty minutes. Not finished with us yet, the seatbelt signs go on yet again and we are locked in for the last hour plus before touchdown, as well as 15 minutes more on the plane for an extra-long taxi to the terminal.

Still, we finally get to our car, have an uneventful ride home and sleep in our own beds!

Some changes in the executive ranks at Cygnus have resulted in a promotion for my sister Joanne. She gets a bump up to Publishing Director and the added responsibility of a second magazine. Congratulations Jo!

Just a quick trip report, details to follow.

The flight was okay, no problems with security or checking in, and the plane pulled away from the gate a couple of minutes early. Lilo and Stich was the movie, which I would have watched except for the nasty whine over the headphones. Dad was at EWR smiling!

Wednesday was a slow day, the only significant event was a trip to Costco to buy a new eMachines PC to replace Dad’s aged, no longer really functioning CompUSA special. Mom made a yummy lamb chops and steak dinner, with sauteed onions and mushrooms plus string beans. She also made a batch of Atkins blueberry muffins so we wouldn’t have to schlep from CA–thanks Mom!

Thursday was a NJ Transit train ride into Manhattan. Started out with a mixup on Amtrack ($38/person) versus NJ Transit ($9.80/person) but only cost us about 25 minutes. I hate train and bus rides! We made our way to my sister Joanne’s apartment on the Upper East Side, went for a little stroll around the neighborhood waiting for her to get home from work, and then we broke our adherence to Atkins for the evening and treated The Sweet One to her first real New York pizza (plus some yummy fried calamari).

Earlier today we took the bus down to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and ice rink (TSO’s big request) and then a looooon walk back to 1st Ave. to get the bus back up here. After I finish this we are off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (my big request) and then dinner and Nemesis with TSO’s best friend and her husband, who’re driving down from western Massachusetts. Tomorrow back to NJ for a big finale dinner with the whole family and then, sadly, vacation is over.

Pictures are being taken, will be posted soon as well.

Visiting family is a good thing! We will do this tomorrow and return Sunday night.

A recent conversation on Blogger User Support, the peer support community on Yahoo! Groups, led me to devise a set of instructions for people who want to periodically backup their blogs. Here’s what I wrote:

One thing that not a lot of people using Blogger do, though it would help with these concerns, is to output a backup file. Making a backup is actually quite simple and can be done at some reasonable frequency, such as weekly or monthly; you do back up your own data files, right? Here’s one way to do it, which I’m cribbing from the way MovableType instructs users who want to import Blogger posts:

0) Make (or after the first time, use) a standard backup directory. If you have your own website, this directory could be on that site. All the following instructions assume you’ll use this directory.

1) Open your main template. Copy the template and save it to a local file. For completeness sake you might want to take a copy of your archive template as well. I recommend a naming scheme for these files such as main_template_MM_DD_YY.txt and archive_template_MM_DD_YY.txt where MM is month, DD day, and YY year. I include the dates since over time you’ll accumulate several. Conversely you could leave off the date and only have the most recent.

2) (optional, this is to save only the posts and not extra formatting) Replace your main template with the following, with non-Pro users leaving off the title and URL fields since they won’t be present and Pro users including them only if used:

(Delete the dashes before each of the keywords, Blogger choked if I tried to publish this without something to differentiate from the real tags)

<-Blogger>

AUTHOR:

DATE:

TITLE:

URL:

—–

BODY:

——–

<-/Blogger>

This step may be skipped if you prefer, which would simply make your backup file bigger and also have it include whatever other matter you generally publish. I still recommend saving off a copy your template since Blogger does often have transient issues with template.

3) Open the Settings page, Publishing tab. Change the Blog file name setting to _MM_DD_YY.txt where is, well, your blog name; this will let you easily go back to a specific time and prevent you from overwriting your normal blog file. If you have your own website, and want to put these backup files in a directory other than the one you normally publish to, also change the Server Path setting to match. Adjust the Blog URL to account for these changes. Note: you probably want to make a note of the original settings for any of these changed fields so afterwards you can change things back.

4) Click to the Formatting tab. Change the Show on Main page settings to 999 and days’ posts, which is the highest number allowed, to ensure all (or as much as possible) of your posts are included. Conversely, you could change the settings to only capture the last week or month or other time period (depending on your backup schedule) in each backup file. I prefer to have everything in one file at least until my blog grows older than Blogger will allow me to put out in one shot.

4a) Change the Timestamp format to the first choice (mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss am/pm), which is necessary since we don’t use any date headers in the output file.

5) If you use BlogSend, turn it off before publishing (or use it to email a copy of the output file to some useful place).

6) Save your changes and click Publish. Blog*Spot users will need to open the result in a browser and use the browser’s File | Save As function to grab a copy for storage. If you’re storing these three files (blog output plus two templates), I recommend moving (creating) a Zip file with them for each backup (named _bu_MM_DD_YY.zip).

7) Finally, go back to Blogger and restore your normal publishing settings and template. Click publish to put back your normal file (which actually should not have had any changes) and test that you restored everything properly.

Less than 10 minutes a month (or week) for a hunk of peace of mind.

Update: Rumor has it that blog backups in RSS will be coming soon as a standard feature to Blogger but no idea if this will be for all users or Pro only. So all this yummy goodness will be of little value very soon. I hope.

Well, in keeping with how far from reality my weekend sports dream was, the Niners are blowing chunks early. Completely unable to take advantage of a huge Jimmy Williams punt return or a midfield interception, the Cowboys lead 6-0 on two field goals early in the second quarter. Not a single touch at all for Terrell Owens!

Meanwhile, yesterday Liverpool FC made some serious lineup changes, Kirkland for Dudek most prominent, yet still lost 2-0 to lowly Charlton and lost Emile Heskey in the 37th minute to a leg injury. The Reds slip to fourth in the Premiership following their eight straight League match without a victory.

No better result on the college football front either. Miami slipped by Virginia Tech to retain their number one ranking and spot opposite Ohio State in the fiesta Bowl for the national title, Georgia wiped the field with Arkansas, and Jason Gesser ignored his sprained ankle to lead Washington State to the automatic PAC-10 Rose Bowl berth. USC should keep fourth place in the BCS ranks, and an automatic major bowl bid, but their opponent and destination (Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl?) will not be known for another 90 minutes.

We can only hope the 49ers get something going while the defense holds tight on the Cowboys to get the potentially division-clinching win.

Update, 1:40 PST: With a last second touchdown grab by (who else?) Terrell Owens, the 49ers came back and won 31-27. Combined with the Rams’ disaster in Kansas City, San Francisco clinched the NFC West. Next up: Green Bay comes to visit and a win in this game means we probably don’t have to go to their house if the teams meet in the playoffs. But the defense has to be a lot–a lot!–stronger than they were today. Kevan Barlow or Garrison Hearst or both need to be healthy by Sunday. And Owens needs to get the ball earlier and much more often.

Update, 2:32 PST: The non-championship matchup that I’d hoped for is now set. It’s in the Orange Bowl instead of the Rose Bowl, but you can bet I’ll be watching USC take on Iowa on January 2. A facet of the selection rules gives the bowl with a higher payout first choice of available teams, giving the Orange two selections before the Sugar, which wanted USC, had any. One loss Georgia can bite my ass, the winner of the Orange Bowl will end the year ranked higher. And let’s have a big woohoo for the BCS selectors for leaving Notre Dame on the outside looking in.

Attended a very interesting, informative lecture today at Fry’s Electonics Sunnyvale store given by Bruce Dale. He mostly focused on tips and tricks. In these two photos, taken at the end of the session, I tried to use a little of what he said though there are certain limitations imposed by my four year old, one megapixel camera; Bruce is wearing the grey-ish sweater and has the gray hair and beard:

Dale, as far as credentials, has published over 2000 photos in National Geographic. He has a how-to book on digital photography coming out next year, which I hope to beta read since when I asked him about it, I seem to be the perfect target and am (*cough*) pretty good about giving concrete, useful feedback.

Some of his tips:

Close one eye and squint. This makes up for the monovision and lower resolution of cameras compared to the human eye. Frame the picture with your hands (you know, just how you see the directors do it on film) to see the way the shot will be captured. Along the same lines, try to compose in the camera and don’t shoot with the expectation that you’ll crop the photo in software.

Don’t be tricked by your camera’s Auto Color Balance setting! Try the manual settings, especially cloudy (4200 degrees K), to get warmer colors rather than ‘perfect’ ones.

Make sure to focus on your subject’s eyes when shooting humans, not their ears. When taking pictures of buildings or lights at night, include a little sky in the shot and wait until it’s darker than you think is necessary to get good contrast. And remember that sometimes a detail of your subject, such as a really interesting pait of hands or jewelry, speaks more powerfully than the whole.

Use a tripod whenever possible for maximum sharpness but compose your shot first and do not let the tripod dictate positioning. Since Dale had a TiBook driving his presentation, one audience member asked why he chose Mac over PC. “I have both,” he said. “I hate them both equally.” Another question: JPEG, TIFF, or Raw format in the camera? Surprising to me, Bruce said JPEG for convenience and because, although there is some information loss, there isn’t enough to be really noticable. He just finished an assignment in Hawaii that will show up next year in A Day in the Life of the Military and did all his work in JPEG.

The lecture was sponsored by Panasonic and Dale was recommending the new 4MP Panasonic LUMIX camera, “the first digital camera line to combine world-renowned Leica DC optics with Panasonic digital technology, including the SD Memory Card.” A little pricy at $699 (not sure if that’s list or retail) but he went over the feature set and I have to say I was impressed–not that I know a heck of a lot about digital cameras. Lots of features that my current Kodak DC doesn’t have.

Of course garret may disagree with all of this, he does know a lot about this.

All the headlines today are trying to convince us that the resignations of Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and White House Economic Advisory Lawrence Lindsay were big shocks. But if that’s true, how come I saw Larry Kudlow on CNBC this morning claiming that the White House was canvassing for potential replacements over a month ago? Second, the post-election timing seems just a bit too convenient as Rove et al try to line up their ducks before Congress convenes and a huge new tax cut package is proposed.

Well, not really. A press release came out this morning announcing that Julia Stiles has made a deal to star in a romantic comedy called The Prince and the Freshman. She’ll play the rebellious farmgirl frosh at college in Indiana where a British prince is studying and spending a year out of the limelight. They fall in love, the news gets out, and the Queen must clean up the mess. I’ll give you one, and only one, guess as to the ending of this film.

No word on who’s playing the prince just yet; maybe they’ll get Naomi Watts’ boyfriend Heath Ledger. I thought Stiles was trying to step up in class with her small role in The Bourne Identity and co-starring in the upcoming Julia Roberts film Mona Lisa Smile but apparently money talks. Can’t really blame her for that.