No, Mr Naughton. Rupert won.

In The Guardian, John Naughton wrote about the new BBC and the new BBC website. Apparently, under considerable government pressure, the BBC has laid off lots of people, closed down language services and redone its website.

Mr Naughton puts the changes into a contest, sorry context, of past and future. He concludes: "And the past has won."

The past won, Mr Naughton, because it suits Rupert Murdoch. David Cameron doesn't care if the BBC is relevant in 20 years - all he wants is to be relevant in the next 6 months. Which might not happen if the BBC continued innovating and providing what the public (mostly) wanted.

Carolyn Ann

Dr Carolyn's verdict, er, diagnosis... :-)

So I've come to the conclusion that Glenn Beck is afflicted by cephalomalacia¹. It has given rise to craniomegaly² and a distinct issue with dyspoliticophasia³; he clearly inflicts anyone who listens to him with auralgesia.

And Michele Bachmann must have had an encephaloectomy⁴ done at some point. There's simply no other explanation for her.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is beyond any diagnosis. Except, perhaps, one of megalomania?

Carolyn Ann

_{1: Soft in the head
2: Big headed
3: Dysfunctional political opinion, rendered audibly
4: Brain removal :-)}

"... we believe is an atheist"

I came across a cartoonist, Hadi Farahani, this afternoon. His work is very, very funny. I giggled a lot over some of medical cartoons, and also the last one in this little series. It's about Praying Mantis'.

:-)

Carolyn Ann

The critical bit of information...

Egypt's army has said it will not fire upon the protestors. I can't tell you how relieved I am - they were the one uncertainty that could really check the protests. As it is, the regional despots will now be making sure their armies will shoot protestors.

That's it then. Mr Mubarak might as well pack a suitcase and hot foot it out of town.

Carolyn Ann

CodeWeavers

I mentioned these guys the other day - they had a booth at Macworld, and a couple of them were in drag. Well, here's the video they made:



Ya gotta admire their chutzpah! :-)

Carolyn Ann

PS Apparently I totally missed an SNL skit:


Stupid humor, really. As a bit of satire, it's not too bad. As something worth protesting? Not really. You might as well try to legislate the jokes 5 year old lads tell each other.

Defense Policies?

Dick Cheney's infamous defense "policy" was largely the product of Tom Clancy. Now, it seems, China's defense policy is the product of Tom Cruise.

The similarity between the two is uncanny: they both live in fantasy worlds where everyone is either out to get them. The difference is that Dick thinks Superman exists and China would jail him.

Carolyn Ann

Overstaying your welcome

Hosni Mubarak still hasn't gone.

There's outstaying your welcome at a party or a pub, and then there's outstaying your welcome as the despised leader of a nation. One gets you run out, the other is likely to get you carried out, feet first in a nice pine box.

At this point I'm wondering which one is Mr Mubarak's fate.

Carolyn Ann

Aw. Those poor billionaires.

Can a bunch of billionaires plead they are victims? Apparently so. The Koch Brothers, Libertarians in the service of their own wealth (and big Glenn Beck fans), are hosting a small get-to-together with a few other right wing billionaires. Some people, who aren't billionaires, are protesting the cabal. So the Koch Brothers "defended the gathering as an exercise in democratic assembly and service to the country."

And their Spokeslackey, one Nancy Pfotenhauer, said:

"This conference brings together some of our nation's most successful business leaders, job creators and those who make it a priority to support their communities and our country in significant ways," 

She completed her whinging with:

"We respect all Americans' rights to free speech and to peaceably assemble. It is disappointing that some members of the group protesting today made the choice to not be respectful of the community or of our right to meet."

Oh, those poor, beleaguered billionaires.

Let me see... People have a right to congregate and they have a right to voice their opinions. The fact that the protestors have a different opinion of what's best for America is, well, unfortunate if you're a billionaire who needs to feel The Love. (Perhaps they can write to Hosni Mubarak and ask for pointers?)    The people protesting? My, whatever next? Disagreement with the Benevolent Billionaire's Bowling Club?

The Billionaire's Playgroup needs to understand only one thing: ordinary people have a voice, too. The people at the protest don't like the Magnanimous Billionaire's gathering; the Bounteous Buffoons don't like the people protesting. Guess who gets arrested.

Carolyn Ann

Mohamed ElBaradia for President! :-)

The Egyptian people are really brave. They'll need some of that bravery in the forthcoming days I think - the secret police are still out and about. They will crack down, and hard, if they perceive their own survival is threatened.

Hosni Mubarak has definitely overstayed his welcome. Apparently his wife and son are now in London (lucky London...), and quite a lot of the Egyptian rich and powerful have fled. Mr Mubarak shouldn't push it, he should plan a peaceful transition to a proper democracy, with free elections and institutions that respect the basic rights of people.

The one man who can lead Egypt, I think, is Mohamed ElBaradia. He's accomplished, he understands democracy, he would strengthen the peace with Israel and he would be more active in Israeli/Palestinian affairs. Very importantly, he understands peace.

Mr Mubarak needs to go - and he should do it peacefully. Whether he's man enough to do so is quite another story. One I fear doesn't have a happy ending.

Carolyn Ann

Can you tell?..

Can you tell I despise Glenn Beck and the Know-Nothing ignoramuses of the misnamed, astroturfed Tea Party?

I especially revile their quiet racism and their not as quiet anti-Semitism, their John Bircher conspiracy-oriented hypocrisy and their fractured, self-serving and desperate rewriting of histories. They idolize emotional reactionary fantasists who's command of whatever subject they screech about is best described as minimal, and more can be accurately labelled as facetious, cherry-picked and altered.

These goons of rationality prefer shriek indignantly about the granting of basic rights to others; I wager that if the topic were the eradication of slavery, they'd be just as volatile about denying the black man his humanity. Today, they sob about state interference as they practice their pietism, exhorting the tyranny of their expediently counted majority. These people think rights are a zero-sum game, that the acknowledgement of a right takes something away from them.

The Tea Party is not the best of America. They aren't what America can do, what a people can do, they are about fearful mockery and angst-ridden plaints.

And they do love their false monarchs.

Carolyn Ann

America is optimism; Glenn Beck fans aren't

It might seem a tad presumptuous, but I have absolutely no compunction demanding an American such a Anne explain why she is fearful of this nation's future.

America is optimism. Anne is pessimism.

America is can do. Anne isn't.

Anne can "define whom is a woman", you can't. Anne is "I know", you don't.

Anne is alarm over "the left". I don't care which aisle the idiocy comes from.

I am "I don't know". But I'm willing to explore the issue. Anne isn't.

I love America. I love the entire of issue of gender. Do I have the answers? No. Do you? Probably not. Is a answer possible? I have no idea, but won't it be fun to find out?

Apparently we need not take the journey because Anne has all the answers. And a good reservoir of fearful inaccurately accounted anecdotes to chase the sweet camp fire dreams away.

I wonder if Anne loves America, is frightened that it might be compassionate toward the less fortunate, or perhaps it desires to pay for that which renders? Either way, Anne fears it.

Carolyn Ann

A challenge to Anne

As my regular readers might know, I LOVE America. I love its people, the land and the sea to shining sea bit. I've ridden a motorcycle across it - twice. I've ridden a small scooter half way across it, too. I've lived here for 21 wonderful years. Okay, there were a couple of years that weren't so hot, but my love of this nation has never diminished.

I LOVE AMERICA. What can I say?

Criticize it, and I'll set you straight. Is it perfect? Not a chance. Does it strive for perfection? I'd hate if it did. (Define perfect, and I'll argue against you simply to prove you wrong.) America is America. A Land of the Free. A nation where I can chat with one of the most racist individuals I've ever known, a nation where I can also chat and work with some of the brightest the world will ever see (jeez, you ever want to feel dumb, go work for a Wall St IT department!)

America is the land of hope. Mr Obama, in his 2008 campaign was right: if you're American, you're about Hope.

Glenn Beck, Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch, etcetera, etcetera are about what America can't do. They are not what America can do. Land a man on the Moon? Are you mad? Do you know how much that will cost? A tax cut would be better. Greatness? Are you an idiot? Do you know how much greatness costs? Let me pull out a simplistic, misleading, chart to tell you. Socialism is Fascism, and we demand freedom from you turning up at work in a dress. Even as we tout our love of freedom (didn't you know it was freedom from (the likes of you)?)

Anne, of Elle Es Asi fame, talks about America. She talks about gender, too. Not with much empathy or consideration. She recently wrote about the American economy, a topic upon which she frequently gets basic facts wrong.

This time I was irritated enough I called her on it. Her nationalism isn't Bill O'Reilly excusing himself because he was late for work - Anne's nationalism is demagoguery. I challenge Anne to explain her love of America.

Here is my comment to her:

Oh, you are a fearful so-and-so.

You're more concerned about the cost of being great than the potential of greatness.

Your numbers, in this post, are unprovable. The last time I commented I recall your numbers were inaccurate. Wildly so. Why should anyone believe your numbers?

Cite your references, if you can.

I'm an immigrant to these shores. I love this nation. You know what I see in America? I see greatness. Continued greatness. I see a nation that can put a man on the Moon, that can do amazing things. I see a nation than allows the son of an ordinary man to be the President. You see faults. Is America perfect? No. Only a fool would say it is. No nation built of men and women can be that (ask Aristotle!). But America strives to be better, as a nation it it doesn't just strive - it does. It examines and acts upon its problems. It doesn't hide behind some arcane rhetoric, although many of pundits and politicians attempt to do so. America is a positive nation.

What you see is doom, gloom and "leftist thought". There's little room in your world for what makes America great, is there? There's no room for the immigrant, the artiste, the one who does not "fit". You prefer outrage to thought, denigration and doubt to attempt and you certainly prefer blame to actual consideration.

You are not why I love America; you are not what I love about America. I love this nation - make no damn mistake about that - I love this nation because of what it and its people can do. I love America in a way you cannot even comprehend with your simplistic, fear-filled muttering. I love America because it is not as fearful, as resolute in its ignorance, as your idol, Glenn Beck, is. I adhere to no toy, to no Frightened Barbie of the airwaves. I've ridden a motorcycle or two well over nigh on one hundred thousand miles of America's roads. I've lived in this nation for 21 years. I've chatted to people along the way; they don't sit in their living rooms, tuned to Glenn Beck, growing ever more fearful. They ride those roads, they take their campers to see the Rockies, the deserts, the forests. Ive ridden my motorcycle from sea to shining sea. I've crested a mountain and seen the sun setting on Pacific. And I see an America that wants to succeed. That wants fairness. I see an America that is not fearful of some trumped up machination of "socialism". (I've always wanted to ask: if socialism is so bad, how come Sweden and Denmark are doing so well?) I see an America that continues to be great, and I see an America that fights for what is right. Not with fear, but with a sense of personal responsibility and a dry acknowledgement that perhaps things could have been better.

I see America, and Americans at their best. You perceive them at their worst.

I love America.

Here's a challenge for you: you know why I love America. Why do you?

Carolyn Ann

Mr Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens is someone I respect. He's an amazing thinker - spotting connections between ideas and ideologies no one else knows exists, his classical education providing him with the ammunition we all dearly desire. He's a thinker the pious love to hate; the political bigot needs to loath, and the remaining few value. He contains William F. Buckley's love of words and language with a resolute, and perhaps rebellious, love of ideas. He will never be as constructed as Tony Blair; a clever man in his own right, but one who can distill complex ideas in a unique way. Mr Hitchens doesn't simplify as Tony Blair does. The likes of Mr Blair are desperately needed; they are nowhere to be seen on the American stage, for instance. (They are rare enough in Britain, and none attend David Cameron's administration; in their stead, Mr Cameron has settled on the lackadaisical, the whimsical and the purely delusional. All, I fear, are reflections of the man.)

So when Mr Hitchens says that the Tea Party is nonsense, you simply have to listen. Not for what he directly says - it's what his words imply that have the menace of a truly gifted thinker explaining their disdain.

Of course, the people who should hear him are too busy listening to Glenn Beck and denigrating all that is great about this nation.

They are a fearful bunch.

Carolyn Ann

Clutter

I hate clutter.

I despise it. 

Which is probably why every desk I've had has been subsumed under the damn stuff.

The wife and me were chatting about the clutter in our lives this evening. For over a decade of marriage we basically felt the need to accumulate; some of it is actually quite nice. ... Most of it isn't.

Like so many on those hay-making years, we bought stuff we liked. I have a nice collection of antique math books I'll never look through, for instance. Just as a side note, one of those things the lesser abled thinker might term a "derailment", I well remember one item I wish I had bought and didn't: a bowl made of a wrapped steel wire. It was beautiful, but expensive for me; I didn't buy it. Considering that I bought a skirt for the about the same amount just down the street - 7th Ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn - (I tried it on, too! That would have been in 1992 or 3; I still have the skirt; indeed, it's still one of my favorites: big, full and a striking red, it's a wonderful, quite timeless item of clothing), I have no idea why I didn't buy the bowl. Perhaps because it was such an adventurous piece, and buying it would be a statement of self I wasn't ready to make? 

Right now I'm looking at my desk. It's in the corner of my wife's office - my office is the current store room, which says more than I'd like to admit. Especially as the basement is a storeroom, too. 

The desk is littered with the detritus of a paper-based life. I have bits of paper with notes I need to note; I rarely look at them, and yet compulsively go through web design magazines noting the URL's of interesting sites. (The magazines are rarely as interesting.) I get home, toss the piece of paper onto my desk and forget why I wrote those URL's down in the first place. There's a key fob for US129; it's "The Tail of the Dragon", a road I know quite well, love and respect. Some of my most thrilling motorcycle rides have been on that road. I also have an authoritative and commandingly red volume entitled "The Chicago Manual of Style". I consult it often enough, and ignore its sage advice more frequently; the dictionaries are elsewhere. (What? You thought I only used one? I have 7  -count 'em! -  dictionaries within easy reach! One, two, three, four, ... Okay, four. And one is easy to reach. Another I can't count because it's virtual. The others I have move the books on top of them to get them out.  :-) ) ... Where's my Roget's? Ah, there. Phew.

What was I talking about?

Oh, yeah. I hate clutter. A wise man would stop about now, hoisted on his own petard. No one has ever accused me of being wise. :-)

The thing about clutter is that it is pervasive. Once it's gotten a grip, it doesn't let go. Make a claim, and you're stuck explaining the connotations and consequences. "God exists", for instance, invites endless observations about the nature of a deity. "God doesn't exist" invites refutations that delve into the complexity of a deity not existing. (No, I have admit it doesn't make much sense, either. It is, however, a fact.) "I am a woman" is an interesting one. If you are a woman, you're making an obvious claim. If you're not... Well, how can anyone refute your claim? Not easily, but the usual "refutation" doesn't quite work. I can easily say I'm a man, but there are a few blokes out there who would dispute that. After all, does a "real" man walk into a store, forgetting he's wearing eye shadow and mascara? Even if they do match his eyes. :-)

(Or nail polish? As I did, once. How do you forget your nails are bright pink? I have no idea.)

Clutter pervades arguments. It especially pervades philosophical argument; if it's not contrived sentences and words that would make Mr Buckley blush, it's ideas that hold water only as long as the container held thusly! Politics is the art of the obfuscation; interestingly, the Tea Party Bimbos whom managed election are just realizing that. (What does the newly elected Senator really want? A second term. What does every Senator see in the mirror? The Next President Of The United States.) Philosophy is the art of the obvious. Interior design needs to be the art of uncluttering.

I know I break every durned rule in the Blogging Handbook. I don't count readers, I don't strive to grow this blog. I don't concentrate on any one subject. Well, I do. As my friend Karen once observed, the topic of this blog is me. :-) (It has not escaped my notice that "Carols [sic] Lines" has disappeared.) So, really, it is a one-subject blog. I'm just not a one subject person.

Which is probably why I find it so hard to write about clutter. :-)

One of the things our recent period of unwanted but enforced austerity gave me was an insight into how I view money. And, subsequently, the things we purchase with the aforementioned filthy lucre. I value hard work, I love it, in fact. I've been accused of putting the job before all else more than once. When you're a part of something that you think is changing the world, you tend to do that. I still believe Wall St is an ultimate power for good, it just needs some adult supervision at times. Okay, often. I've been bitten by Wall St, and I've been rewarded by it. When push comes to shove, I think that the slightly fettered market is a force for good. If you have to allow financial criticism, you also have to allow political criticism. When you allow that, you have to allow freedom of expression in all things, otherwise you'll restrict what people can say about the value of your economy. Believe me, the economy is neither the be-all nor the end-all of it all. (Did I say that right?) What it is, what it really is, is the instigator of it all. If you are worried about your fiscal well-being, you're not worried about the well-being of national art. Which is one of those things that makes your nation valued among those who value the education in the material sciences, such as economics, manufacturing and so on. 

Look, I'm a simple chap. I don't pretend to be what I'm not. I'm not especially clever, I'm certainly not educated. I barely passed the course my apprenticeship required I take. (The interesting fact that I figured out, as many have done before and after me, how to appear on the attendance roles and yet get some much needed snoring in is a quandary I will not address. :-D)

When I see clutter in an argument, and I think it important (enough), I'm likely to question it. I have two educators in that, well, three. When you're on a cliff face, you can't ask too many questions about consequences - you make the leap of faith, or you don't. When you're on a motorcycle, approaching a corner, you have to make some very simple decisions. I like motorcycling riding because it is simple: you succeed, or you don't. (Emotionally? I guess it's like chasing buffalo across a plain.) When I work wood, I either listen to what the wood tells me, or I end up with mediocre results. If that's too spiritual for you, sod ya. I'm about as unspiritual as you can get, and yet when I apply chisel to wood, I feel what the wood wants. I feel what the road and motorcycle are telling me, too. The road, the bike, either or both, is telling me it's too cold? I listen. Oblivion isn't a fancy name for heaven. 

When it comes to gender, I really am a simple chap. I know I'd like to be a lass. Just the other day, we were in the dress department of Macy's (the wife needs an interview outfit, and somewhat astonishingly, we can afford to get her one), and I longed, longed I tell you!, to be a part of that experience beyond the mobile clothes rack husbands are required to be. Even if I went through the entire enchilada, I'd never be a lass. My body shape is wrong, my size all weird for a lass. I'm given something I have to simply deal with. Like I said, I'm a simple man. 

When people tell me "I am woman", I have to wonder. Especially if they react in a prototypically masculine manner. (One can only generalize when it comes to people.) For instance, if you try to redefine the penis as feminine, I have to object. Not just on historical grounds, but on philosophical ones, too. If you assert that the penis is feminine if you, the penis owner, say it is, didn't you just redefine gender to be meaningless? And if gender is meaningless, why is it so important to define your penis as feminine? (Yeah, I know. 14 year olds come up with better arguments. My excuse it that I left 14 years old a long, long time ago.) 

Simple to you isn't simple to me. 

Cut down a tree. What do you need? An ax, and adze or a chain saw? I use an adze and an ax. I can use a chainsaw, but I prefer the manual tools. I have as much control over each; but the physical exertion of the adze and ax, the triumph of self over nature? I've never found a chainsaw gives me that sense of satisfaction. I guess that's why I like my Ducati so much - she doesn't stand in the way of mistakes. Screw up a corner, and she might let you recover. Simple. Direct.

Once upon a time I was explaining how telephone cables are numbered; the numbering is pretty simple. 1, 2, 3, and so on. When it comes to terminating the cable in a block, sometimes the designer of that particular moment might decide to start on connection 51 of the block. This makes the end of the cable and the end of the blocks match. So you start counting "1, 2, 3..." and "51", 52, 53..." Simple, right? All you need to know is that this happens. Why it happens? Not really a concern. You see a blue and white pair of wires on connection 51 of a connection block, you know you need to start counting from there. 

Oh. We have a 20 pair (40 wire) connection block... Well, the same principle applies. It really is simple.

(Start counting at 11. 11 is the new 1.)

When I climb mountains, I really don't care why something is holding me up. All I want to know is: will it continue to hold me up? When I did some spelunking, I got over my fear of not knowing what was at the bottom of the rope. Either something was there, or nothing was. (I don't recall that ever happening more than once.) Nothing? Plan B. Don't have a plan B? You're not simple - you're stupid. Was that water deep? Did I want to find out? With sloping sides and no way of finding out? Not really. Eventually we reached dry land, and I didn't have to know if there was a bottom to what I'd just crossed. Or where it was. ... (Turned out, it was less than 30 inches down. A lass in the group discovered that. She wasn't braver than I, she merely slipped. But she braver, I think, in her reaction.)

Ah, what the hell. I may hate clutter, but when I've had a few, my conversation is full of it. Good night and the next round is yours.

Ordinarily, I hate clutter.

Carolyn Ann

Clutter(ing up my own conversation)

Clutter. I hate it.

When I, at the ripe old age of 19 or 20 (I forget, and don't care to remember), bought my first house, the first thing I did was apply white paint to everything I could. And then I started. The house was a two up, two down affair (two rooms downstairs, two room upstairs...). A bathroom had been added on sometimes during the 1970's (I bought it in the mid '80's); that was a cold room even at the height of summer!

The stair led to a small hallway; in older days, it was the back wall of the house; now, it was the very cold wall to the bathroom. I put magazine cutouts on it; anything that caught my attention was pasted to that wall. The bathroom was a small 6 by 6 affair; when I did my first actually successful papering job, I didn't tell the wife that bathroom had taken 4 rolls of paper and about 18 months to finish. (I still laugh at the memory of Mom looking into the bathroom and asking "When are you going to clean your bathroom?" "Clean?" I replied, peering in and finding absolutely nothing wrong with the place... Meanwhile, if I ran out of coffee mugs, I'd go buy some. I told people I collected them. Well, I did!) :-)

Growing up I was exposed to that English chintz; I hated it then, I hate it now. In all the houses I've been in - plenty, as a telephone installer and repairer, I was in 3 to 7 houses a day, inc. Saturdays and the occasional Sundays, for years! - I've only ever seen chintz done well once. A fancy house on a road I won't mention; it's actually quite near where my parents now live! I still remember a small 2-up, 2-down in a nice area of Sheffield; the chap was a steelworker (he told me), and he'd done this whole "Elizabethan Gothic" thing through the house. Ceilings were covered in dark oaken beams, windows were framed in heavy black wood. The carpets were cheap and the TV blared a game show or soap opera. The whole affect was one I'll never forget and wish I'd never had the misfortune to experience... :-\ It made me the man I am... :-) (Well, not quite... :-D)

Then there was the hookers' flat; I answered the phone because I thought it was my "control" calling back. I'd called him to call me back and test the bell; the automated system either didn't exist in that exchange (central office) or I'd forgotten the number, I forget which). Anyway, a punter was on the end. He didn't believe me when I told him I was the telephone man and she'd gone out. He all but insisted that I book his appointment. It's probably good for him that I'm superb with names, otherwise I might remember his. :-)

Where was I?

Oh, yeah clutter. Perhaps I should start this again?

Carolyn Ann

Print a PDF to your Web Receipts folder...

One of the things I truly love about the Mac is how easy it makes printing. The dialog boxes are simple, the choices generally obvious. You generally don't see messy print dialogs as you do in Windows (I don't know, is Windows 7 any different?) or some of the Linux distributions. Being pretty simple, I like simple. Simple is good. :-)

A print dialog:

I'll grant that it's a bit too complex, really. The example is from Safari. The layout is generally clear: you see a preview of the print out, and where it says "Safari", you can choose more advanced options and also get information about ink levels and the like. The PDF button in the bottom left is my favorite...

It has a "Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder" option:

I have no idea if Windows has something similar. I *love* it! When you pay a bill online, or buy something from Amazon or elsewhere, instead of clogging your life up with pieces of paper - you simply print them to a specific location in your Documents folder (eg /Users/carolyn/Documents/Web Receipts). 

The thing that actually does the "printing" is an "Applescript workflow"; basically, a small script like the old .BAT files in MS-DOS. And the "Edit Menu" option allows you add some other commands. So, for instance, you could save a PDF of something to another folder; you can share it via the Mail PDF command. Can you imagine if Facebook was integrated? Wow! :-) Save PDF to Facebook? That could be pretty powerful. Coupled with a small script that zips the folder up and places it in DropBox, I have a great workflow going! :-)

Anyway, there's no point to this post. I just wanted to mention that I love the "Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder" command. If I could figure out how, I'd put it as a button on the Print dialog. :-)

Carolyn Ann

Tea Party History - It's whatever they want it to be...

As you know, the Tea Party is fond of redefining history. Modern American conservatives, in general, seem to be quite intent on rewriting history, up to and including ignoring the bits of the Constitution that are a bit embarrassing in an official reading of the thing in Congress.

So I wasn't especially surprised when it was announced that Michelle Bachmann's ill-informed, and visually disconcerting, response to President Obama's State of the Union speech had been adjusted. So it looks like she is looking into the network camera, and not the TeaPartyHD one.

What happened, didn't. And please ignore the fact that two versions of the same incident now exist.

Fast and loose with facts is one of the defining facets of the Tea Party and modern conservative "thought".

Carolyn Ann

Helpful as ever...

I see Standard & Poor's and Fitch are being as helpful as ever.

As people in Egypt riot to demand fairer government, they tell those governments that overspending could imperil their rating. Gee, what's an iron-fisted dictator to do? Allow the people their wish, or oppose it on the grounds that credit might get a tad more expensive. Let me see, fair government... Hmm. It has a certain appeal. Or a poorer rating. Oh my goodness, stop the world! What a disaster for all.

There are idiots and then there are credit rating organizations.

Carolyn Ann

I registered on MacUser...

The other day, I registered myself on the MacUser website. It occasionally has some interesting articles; the headlines, for some reason, tend to the sensational and their emails to the sophomoric. Their latest one, for instance ends with:

"Have a good week, and if you're in San Francisco, give us a shout and we'll buy you a drink. Wait, we're journalists. We'll drink you under the table, then remember an urgent deadline just as the bill arrives. Cheers!"

One thing I've definitely noticed since I registered is a sharp increase in spam. Most of it just firms trying to sell me stuff, but sheesh! If I'd known that my spam filter would be in danger of a meltdown from the sheer quantity of these emails, I'd never have registered.

So word to the wise: DO NOT REGISTER WITH MACUSER.

Carolyn Ann

Oh, I...

...did regret last night.

I had a bit of a hangover. Which is kind of like alleging that New York City is a bit large.

It took me all day to recover; I'm still not quite there! Tomorrow, perhaps?

Carolyn Ann

Oy vey...

Codeweavers, a company that makes virtualization software for the Mac has a crossdressing thing going on at the Macworld Expo... Including a bearded chap in a black dress.

Here's the review.

I can't find any pictures, but I'm sure there are some out there. (I'm guessing something might crop up here.)

Carolyn Ann

I will regret...

I will regret this evening.

I'm hopeful I've not written anything too awful.

On the other hand, no one told me I had to celebrate the fact that for the first time in a long time we (the wife and me) are in charge of our own destiny! To be honest, that's kind of hot. :-)

I feel the need to... Wear red tights with a black suede miniskirt? (Did something go wrong somewhere, is it just me?) :-D

Carolyn Ann

Oh...

Wife: Get in bed!
Me: I'm writing!
Wife: You're sneezing!
Me: Achoo!
Me: Achoo!
Me: Achoo!
Me: I'm fine!
Wife: It's late!
Me: Achoo!
Me: Achoo!
Me: I ... Achoo!
Wife: Whatever.
Me: I'm writing!
Wife: G'nght dear.
Me:

...
...
Me: Oh... ACHOO!

Carolyn Ann

Meaningless meaning (and woolly slipper socks)

Does it mean something when I can barely stand up, but I can remember Mac editing commands, and make only three (rapidly corrected) mistakes in this entire sentence?

And have a sneezing fit in the middle?

Carolyn Ann (that, on the other hand, took five goes.)

(I like my woolly slipper socks. They look cute and are warm. And they end my sneezing fits. Because they warm my toes. :-) )

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time you had to have hard experience when it came to people.

I well remember the fraught moments when someone you thought of as a friend turned out to be someone you really didn't want to know.

I have absolutely no idea who wrote this, but I can well understand it.

The advantage of age? You can look at Kinsey's responses and know she's either astonishingly obtuse or so full of it, it really doesn't matter.

And to think - I took her arguments seriously. Sometimes the more you know about someone, the less you want to know about them.

'tis truly a different world. And oh so similar to the one it replaced.

As an Irishman (well, he was born in Newfoundland) once told me: it's not what changes that you should you worry about, it's what doesn't!

Carolyn Ann

Time is on your side

It's not on mine. :-)

(It never was.)

Mr Jagger's twittering notwithstanding, time is not on my side. We are, the various deities of consequential and inconsequential usurpations and other supernatural critters being accorded their due respect, we are solvent once again. :-)

The trains have receded and that tunnel proved to be a figment of their smoke, fear and hysteria.

I felt a weight was lifted, quite literally. My shoulders tensed up from the efforts of coping with not a lot to cope with. A single facetious phone call, from a collector who is not quite in charge of his own thinking (are collectors e'er in charge of their own souls?) was the only impediment of the afternoon. He wants his money, and he shall get it.

In keeping with his sordid and sad trade, he was keen to know how he would receive his tarnished silver. As we don't quite know, he expressed his concerns, having dug his own legal grave in earlier conversations. Why do we not know? It hasn't been stated. The one hundred and sixty five pages of documents we signed and initialed didn't express that particular fact; what they did express was that the minion of satan would be reimbursed for our over-confidence.

A painful process, a needlessly hirsute process. An endless process, complicated by quotas and the end of a year. Not to mention an organizational capability, on the part of the organizing personage, that makes the feeding frenzy of this house's dinner time look like a Royal Parade.

Hirsute? I think the adjective quite apt. :-)

What, if you'll excuse the French and my language, what a fuck up!

(I've never quite figured out why one should plead forgiveness for the French considering the distinctly English cursing. ... Oh. Forgive my French... Now I get it! :-) )

Whatever. Fuck or no, we are now in charge of our future. :-)

What a friggin' relief.

'scuse the French. :-D

Carolyn Ann

My day just got a lot better...

A critical very important meeting will go ahead this afternoon, despite the weather. And the exam I was supposed to be ready (but definitely aren't) for was postponed because of the weather.

On top of all that, we had some excess cash*, so the Mrs got the DVD of Red - it was on a special offer at Target - and I got myself some Boddington's Ale. The only pity is that it really would not be a good idea for me to wear my favorite business skirt and top to the meeting.

Ah well, we take what we can. (<- Was that anguished/melodramatic/angst-ridden/tortured/whatever enough?)

:-D

Carolyn Ann

*We're trying to figure out who we forgot to pay...

Now that was interesting...

Paul Ryan gave the Republican response to the State of the Union.

You'd think the other conservative response, the Tea Party one, given by Michelle Bachmann, Contrarianaire Superbe of Michigan Minnesota, would be covered by the people who helped create the party of nonsense, Fox News.

You'd think so. But CNN was the only one to carry her little missive live. Them and some Tea Party website.

Personally I thought her delivery was lively, informative without actually informing and she kept looking in strange directions. Made her look like she had some sort of eye affliction. Mr Ryan's delivery could be best described as "lackluster if it got any livelier". He was clearly up well past his bedtime. She channeled Ross Perot (remember him? No, no one else does either...) and is clearly convinced by her own, carefully constructed and cherry-picked "facts". He is clearly convinced he's a rising star and that appeals to be a better nation are, well, for the other guys. We're convinced he shouldn't drink his bedtime cocoa until he actually plans on getting into bed.

Neither Republican said anything new. They want to introduce "Austrian" austerity (I see that model is doing astoundingly well in Britain, where the application of something astonishingly similar very quickly led to an economic contraction), toss more police, teachers and other government workers onto a scrap heap and generally enforce an economic malaise the likes of which no one has seen since the Great Depression. (By the way, the British government is blaming the contraction not on their policies but on the weather. Go figure. The economy falters because of their policies and the weather gets blamed.) The two of them blamed Mr Obama for the financial collapse, conveniently neglecting to mention that Mr Bush was President when it all happened. Ms Bachmann blamed the President for stagnant home prices, and then suggested that the best thing to do was pursue fiscal policies that would destroy the housing market. Populism has never been noted for its intellectual consistency; Ms Bachmann continued that tradition with alacrity.

Of the two, I'd say that Ms Bachmann is the rising star. She clearly understands the populist anger, and caters to it. I think she's studied Ross Perot and his populism of the 1990's; she seems to be determined not to make the same mistakes as he did. She's willing to buck her party leadership; indeed, it seems she's eager to embarrass them! Mr Ryan is taking it carefully - he's got a top spot, and he's not going to upset the leadership if he can avoid it. They both said the same things, but her delivery was so much more enthusiastic. He's starting to learn that the simple answer to a complex problem is usually the wrong one; she adheres (like her Tea Party cohorts) to the idea that the problems are simple. The basic problem is that he's trying, like John Boehner, to bridge the gap between the young upstarts and the established. No one in history has successfully kept the establishment happy and the revolutionaries in check. It's impossible to satisfy the revolutionaries and the powers that are. The revolutionaries will become the entrenched, but until they do, you either water down the revolution or radicalize the establishment. Which is also impossible. Watering down the revolution won't work - Michelle Bachmann is proving that all on her own.

Fissures in the Republican Party? They're starting to look like canyons. I think the Republicans are heading for a serious meltdown.

Carolyn Ann

An Oops: I know Ms Bachmann is the Representative for Minnesota! That's why I wrote "Michigan"... One of those "target fixation" things: I concentrated on not getting her state wrong, thinking "remember it's Minnesota, not Michigan". Which is why I wrote Michigan. Sorry clem, and Michiganders everywhere! :-)

Thanks, clem!

Oops. That didn't happen...

I was standing in the kitchen, surveying a bunch of sleeping and dozing cats in the breakfast room. As I waited for my toast to boil (I can't figure out why my toast never comes out correctly... :-) ), LC, who was fast asleep on the cafe table in the breakfast room, rolled over. Straight off the table.

Recovering as much dignity as she could, she glared around "No one saw that, right? Right?", growled a bit and stormed off. A few minutes later, she was back in her favorite spot. But in the middle of the table. Obviously nothing happened... (I promised not to tell anyone she knew.)

Carolyn Ann

Oops. That could be a problem...

Rahm Emanuel isn't eligible to run for mayor of Chicago.

That could be a problem for everyone!

He's outspending and out-raising and out-polling everyone else. Not by a little, but a lot. He's the hot favorite. He's also been the Mr Obama's Chief of Staff. He gave up one ambition - to be the first Jewish Speaker of the House. Now a court is saying he can't be Chicago's mayor? Yeah, he's going to accept that.

Those who contest his candidacy might just well have won one of the more interesting Pyrrhic victories. :-)

Carolyn Ann

The head appeared... And then went back to sleep

This morning I was lying there, my mind awhirl, concentrating on all that could go wrong between now and whenever, and all that has gone wrong between birth and now - as the sleepless mind does during those wee hours in moments of intense stress.

A grey and white head gently rose above the pillow. It looked at me and then The Paw was extended. I petted The Paw. It withdrew. The head squinted and then slid back below the pillow. Her gentle, wheezy, snore resumed (the poor lass has some sinus troubles).

Carolyn Ann

Before you read the next post

Before you can read the next post, especially if you're from, representing or whatever, a site called "Fictionmania", you need to guarantee that:

1. You can read
2. You understand calendars
1. You understand it's 2011 and not 1999
3. You can spell your name
4. The community you live in lets you read just about whatever you want in the privacy of your own home

Further, you guarantee that you aren't offended when you're the point of the ridicule. If you are offended you're the target of the ridicule, you must go elsewhere - you can't read the next post that ridicules you. Or this one. Well, I try to ridicule you; personally, and strictly between you and me, I was desperate: it's so hard to properly mock something that is so mockable! It's like trying to mock Congress or Parliament: there's real difficulty in knowing where to start!

Also, you agree that my right to mock and ridicule you trumps your right to try and silence me. Especially if that "right" hinges on an unenforceable and really stupid list of idiotically stated conditions. :-)

If you don't agree that you can read, understand calendars, know it's 2011, or can't spell your own name, you can't proceed any further than this, or with this, little piece of mockery. If you don't live in a society that allows you to read whatever you want in the privacy of your own home, you're probably unable to read this and likely as not, none of it matters to you: you've got bigger problems than reading someone's mockery of an antiquated, pornographic, website.

If you're reading this, you pledge that you won't link to anything in particular, but will be quite particular in what you link to. If you can't agree to that, I can only suggest that you link to nothing in particular.

I think about covers all the unenforceable conditions any readers from Fictionmania might need to understand. Its "legal" agreement is up there with "Derailing for dummies" - simultaneously desperate and unfortunate. What's really cry-worthy is that some think they're needed.

Carolyn Ann

The Unenforceables...

There's a website, Fictionmania, that's devoted to pornographic crossdressing tales. (There's a website for everything, right?) The site is anonymous; it's sponsored by some store called "The GlamourBoutique", but that's about all anyone knows. Oh, and it proudly iterates that it won a "Best Specialty TG Website" award. In 1999.

The design hasn't changed since then. Nor has the content, apparently.

I just took a peek at the code on the front page. It's coded like it's 1999... (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Anyway, I'm not going to complain about their collection of pornography; whatever rocks your boat and all that. What I found intriguing is this:

Access Agreement

By accepting this agreement, I certify the following:

1. I do not find fictional stories about adults engaged in sexual acts, bondage, domination, body piercing or other sexual material to be offensive or objectionable.
2. I do not find images of nude adults, adults engaged in sexual acts, or other sexual material to be offensive or objectionable.
3. I am of legal of age as defined by the laws of the city, town, township, community, county, state, providence or country I live in or am operting my computer from and have the legal right to possess adult material.
4. I understand the standards and laws of the city, town, township, community, county, state, providence or country, site, computer and internet service provider to which I am transporting this material, and am solely responsible for my actions.
5. I will not attempt to by-pass any security and/or access feature at this site.
6. If I use these services in violation of the above agreement, I understand I may be in violation of local and/or federal laws and am solely responsible for my actions.
7. By logging on, I will have released and discharged the providers, owners and creators of this site from any and all liability which might arise.
8. Bookmarking to a page on this server/site whereby this warning page is by-passed shall constitute an implicit acceptance of the foregoing terms herein set forth.

If you AGREE WITH ALL of the aforementioned agreement, you may press ENTER below.

Fictionmania certainly keeps up with the 1990's. :-)

What a load of rubbish. I could go through it line by line and tell you what's wrong, but the overriding thing is: it's an unenforceable agreement. It's not even an agreement; you warrant that you aren't offended by sexual depictions? Quite a blanket statement - I find some depictions acceptable, but not all depictions. Some are quite offensive, others are objectionable because of certain aspects of the content. Am to guarantee that I find all of it unable to offend me?

Apparently I can't bypass this agreement. So I can't link to, oh, the FAQ page. It's a violation of an agreement I don't have with them. If I agree to the terms and conditions, I may press "Enter". What if I don't? What if I want to press "Enter" merely to find stuff to parody, or ridicule them with? Does an agreement that is basically unenforceable prevent me from doing that? They say I can't bypass their "security". They don't have any security!

(By the way, their agreement doesn't mean a thing if I'm ridiculing them; or if someone wants to satirize their content.)

Here's what they have: a web design from the 1990's and no awareness of who is looking at it. They don't use Google Analytics or any other tracking service. They have a visitor counter: it seems to be stuck at 57,174,806. That's the tracking system. Basically anyone can look at the site. Does anyone, in 2011, think that an unenforceable "legal" agreement is enough to indemnify the site owners?

If the owners of the site wanted to impose security, they could do so. The simple fact is, they don't. They had an idea, hosting user-generated content (they were a little ahead of their time, in 1998!), and that was that. That the site is still around, and from what I understand it's still quite popular, but hasn't changed one iota in that time isn't particularly amazing. What's amazing is that the owners haven't developed any awareness of their product, or how stupid their "legal agreement" is. Let me put it this way: you have to take active steps to see Playboy's content (I just checked). You have to join the site; you have to provide some proof of age and so on. You don't to read Fictionmania's. Sure, it's no doubt easy to circumvent Playboy's access controls; but at least they have something!

(Ah, I see that there are some owners of Fictionmania. You have to delve into the FAQ's to find them.)

If you want to give the transgendered a bad reputation, look no further than Fictionmania. If you want to foster the idea that the transgendered are all sex mad pedophiles, you can't really do much worse than source your opinions from Fictionmania. Basically, if you're looking for proof that the transgendered are an evil and base influence, intent on converting your sons to girls and intent on promoting homosexual "lifestyles", Fictionmania could be a valuable site.

Especially as their content is so freely available.

Carolyn Ann

No sh*t, Sherlock...

Macworld's astonishing teaser:

Wow. Who knew? Google could be taking a risk with Mr Page. Goodness me. Whatever next? A headline saying Apple is a successful company and that Steve Jobs going on sick leave might be risky for the company? 

Oh. The story.

Carolyn Ann

"Ah. That needs fixing!" I said

The Mrs asked me about a funny noise the washing machine was making. It sort of churned and whined and then stopped. Then it would churn and whine some more, and stop again. "Hmm. That's not good", I surmised, as quick on the uptake as ever. Popping behind the wall, I "tested" the pipes. Basically I felt them and moved them about a little. Last I checked, water doesn't move with a crunching sound. "Ah, that needs fixing!" I said to myself.

But how?

I glanced at my watch - 5:10PM. Ulp. Lowes and the Home Depot both close at six, on a Sunday. It's about 45 minutes to the nearest one; 35 if I hurry up. We hurried up.

By 7:30 we were $40 poorer (which means more juggling later in the month), and I'd wrapped the pipes in foil, heating tape and insulation. As I pondered what to do, it occurred to me that PEX - the pipe in question is that plastic plumbing wonder, PEX - could do with a foil wrap. It would smooth out the heating, and prevent the heating tape from touching the plastic directly. I know heating tapes, these days, work at a lower temperature than the ones available even a couple of years ago, but still? The foil would help. Getting home I grabbed the kitchen foil, wrapped it around the pipes and then taped (with electricians tape) the heating tape onto them.

So far so good. :-)

My bad leg was done in by the entire operation - I ended the evening having to use walking stick to get around, but at least the pipes are protected. And I can do the laundry tomorrow. Oh joy.

Carolyn  Ann

New regulations protect people

Bringing you the latest news - ten years later. That's me. :-)

Anyway, it seems that Mr Obama and his administration are hell-bent on ensuring that people are treated fairly. Goodness gracious me! Whatever next? Deciding that the government has no right to dictate whom you can marry? :-)

It seems that Mr Obama is forcing the issue of housing fairness; he's removing the barrier gays, lesbians and the transgendered face when going for government-backed mortgages. Of course this is controversial with the homophobic. Anything that smacks of decency, equality and fairness is controversial with those bigots.

Progress... It does happen.

Carolyn Ann

Somehow I don't think this is going to be a commercial success...

A critical and fashion success, sure. But a commercial success? Somehow I just don't see guys rushing to Macy's and hairdresser for Jean Paul Gaultier's latest styles... Me*, on the other hand? :-)

* Assuming I had the funds, of course. :-(

Carolyn Ann

PS I love picture 10! :-D

A common anti-Semite

Glenn Beck is a strange type of idiot. He's gotten very wealthy peddling his fear-mongering lunacy; he uses hyperbole and inference in entirely unoriginal, but strikingly effective, ways. What's really interesting is how stupid his audience seems to be. They don't see through the man. They hang on to his every word and believe his half-baked ideas. They seem to think that agreeing with the man's hysterical innuendo is the same as thinking intelligently. What Mr Beck does is pick an idea and weave it into either the greatest bit of idiocy you've ever come across, or a massive conspiracy theory. He does this by linking the people behind his version of their idea to implausible factors. By presenting his carefully constructed balderdash in a manner that's alarmist, vapid and rapid, he provokes emotional outbursts; these are mistaken for "reasonable" debate. (Has it ever occurred to his fans that no one actually debates them? They seem to live in an insular stew of their own making.) Mr Beck's popularity hinges on him being a little unhinged!

His latest target, Frances Fox Piven, a CUNY lecturer, once wrote a piece that proved to be quite influential in the development of the social safety net. More recently she pondered mass demonstrations by the unemployed. According to Mr Beck, because she expressed her opinions, she's some sort of evil incarnate. His loyal subjects apparently displayed their usual grasp on what constitutes reasonable debate and issued death threats. It wasn't that long ago that Mr Beck picked on a small, quite obscure, charity in San Francisco. One member of his audience didn't think Mr Beck went far enough; he packed some guns and went hunting. For the employees of the charity. He ended up in a wild west shootout with the police. So it's not impossible to link the threats with actual violence against an individual.

Mr Beck loves his grand conspiracies; he thrives on them. As a modern day Father Coughlin, he needs tenuously derived conspiracies; his audience demands them. Not for them the irrational workings of the world - they need a scapegoat. The essential difference between Glenn Beck and the rabidly anti-Semitic Father Coughlin is social networking. If Father Coughlin had had access to Facebook and Twitter, his minions would have organized themselves into repressive factions. Mr Beck's audience can - and does. (The only other notable difference between the two is that Mr Beck isn't often described as "rabid" in his anti-Semitism.)

Now, no one is going to stop Mr Beck from delivering his hysterical fear-mongering. The Constitution, that document he and his audience facetiously worships, guarantees his right to be an idiot. If he suddenly became reasonable, his audience would go away and so would his show. His audience would shift its allegiance to the next hysterical fear-monger. He'd be replaced as easily as Ann Coulter was; right wing idols are as replaceable as they are contrived. It's like pornography or drug addiction: the addicted need ever more stimulus just to get the same high. The angry right needs both their idols and their hysteria; conspiracy theories about the end of America (as they wish America was) is a sexual fetish for them. Mr Beck, their dealer, their dominatrix, is nothing more than a common anti-Semite.

Carolyn Ann

Added: Wow. :-) I wrote this post in response to the NY Times article about Ms Piven and Glenn Beck's odious attack on her. However, it's nice to see I'm not the only who regards Mr Beck as Rupert Murdoch's "useful idiot" or sees him as the bigot he truly is.

Muttering

Now here's an interesting question (to which I've already figured out the answer): should I go develop Yet Another Web Framework (commonly referred to as "oh, fuck, another bimbo of the command line unleashes a novel..!"), or should I go with PHP?

Let me see... Drupal is good. Drupal is written in PHP. Me like Drupal. Me ambiguous about PHP. Me like Drupal. Me like Python. Me like Django. Me confused.

(Oh, sorry. Did I insult Tarzan or some extinct Neanderthals? Oops. Silly me. My apologies to a fictional Lord and any surviving members of an extinct species.)

I could "Drupalize Django". Django could do with some help, and Drupal is perfectly positioned to provide it. I've figured out the data mappings; they're a bit convoluted and need some code to keep them coherent, but in general, it's not a bad match.

Or I could go with...

I'm still leaning toward Drupal. Wordpress finds Twitter a challenge, Joomla isn't actually good and anything akin to Django is the art of free form jazz according to corporate rules. Can't do this, can't do that, do it that way, hold the paintbrush so... Someone should sue them for false promises! Programming in Django is like being with a hooker: quick, simple and not exactly satisfying.

I feel like I'm caught in some 1950's interior decorating melodrama: will she go with the red dress, or that really nice ensemble of matching capri pants and scanty top? :-D I'm glad Joan Rivers isn't my critic... :-\

(I just know I'm going to regret that Django comment... :-) )

Speaking of the 1950's - I wonder what happened to that genuine nine-teen-fiiifties poodle skirt I gave to Zoe? A wonderful garment. And I have no idea how it relates to Drupal. Except that it would be fun to do a 1950's fashion site in Drupal. :-D

Carolyn Ann

Not to pick fault, but... :-)

I wondered what my old "friends" at QT had been up to. I wandered over to their website. They have a post about a disgruntled lass who assumes her wishes are others' commands. And a post about economics that is mostly a quote. Surprised? No, neither was I. Like I said awhile back: at QT, original thinking isn't especially appreciated.

Apparently the left is not in ascendance. Or presence. I'm not sure which.

This musing is provided to us by Google. What is their market evaluation again? :-)

According to Erik Loomis, the left wing blogosphere is lacking. It's not communist. If you're not communist, you're not a left winger. Reading his words, I'd have to say that if you don't agree with Mr Loomis, you're a fan of Rush Limbaugh and don't think Fox News is right wing enough.

I know I've written more than my fair share of nonsensical nonsense, but if you can decipher this, I feel sorry for you:

"Reactions have been mixed across the board. Yglesias says that there can't be any meaningful blogosphere to left of him because he agrees with the principle of redistribution of income. This is patently absurd but not surprising from the next David Broder."

Tell me the essential difference between that and corporate speak... :-) (Damn! I can't find the Dilbert sketch that illustrates this so well!)

Preaching to choir is one thing, but accusing them of being in cohorts with the tenor? That's like accusing Glenn Beck of being an idiot. It's astonishingly accurate as you consider how much the man is worth.

I like this:

It is my strongly held belief that the current neoliberal economic system is both a short and long-term failure. It is environmentally unsustainable. We are flat running out of rare earths that are desperately needed for modern technology. Climate change is already causing problems in some localities and nations. The nation's commitment to letting corporations rule the country has only increased since 2007, despite the fact that their actions are what drove us into financial collapse. It's almost impossible to put people back to work in the face of a long-term economic depression (not necessarily this one) because we have destroyed our industrial infrastructure and allowed capital to become fully mobile. I could go on.

Oh, please do...n't.

Let me see: the preference for big-business friendly policy is mistaken for, what, exactly? 2007? Big business has ruled the roost since, oh, The Shrub stole the election.

In his trite anguish, Mr Loomis makes one critical mistake: "...even if progressives agree with [...] this, they still like the idea that they can go buy a Kindle."

No, Mr Loomis. They want to iPads. Conservatives like Kindles. The hip and cool buy iPads. Which is about all you're concerned with, Mr Loomis.

Mr Loomis, I'd ask that you let me know when reality catches up with you, but you're as inconsequential as I am. Don't bother letting me know when humanity catches you; it's going to painful and I don't like watching pain.

Carolyn Ann

Motorciccle show - I'm not there...

The NOO YAWK motorciccle show is on. And I can't go. :-(

We can't afford it.

So I'm going to miss seeing that hideous Ducati and the BMW scooter.

Hmm. Perhaps our blessing are disguised? Exceptionally well disguised.

Carolyn Ann

She had a good day

Today my wife had a good day. The forces of misfortune, indifference or whatever ails, spites or catches the whim of the gods, forgot to align. With the exception of one piece of (expected) mail, she had a good day.

She's my guiding light.

Carolyn Ann

Same old, same old...

It increasingly looks like the House Republicans will force a stand-off over the health care reform. According to Nate Silver, one of the most eminent interpreters of polling numbers that can be found, 2011 looks like 1995.

You know: when the Newt Gingrich, he of much bombast and no thought, led his sycophants and minions into a government shutdown. And Bill's wonderful second term.

Why do I think John Boehner has the political half life of an amoeba?

Carolyn Ann :-)

Coat hangers are BEST!

So it seems that the resurgence of "conservative", erm, thinking has it that coat hangers and back alleys are the best birth control methods. Despite overwhelming evidence (often called "real life"), these fanciful practitioners of hyperbole and facetious wisdom deem that a woman's right to choose whether she is pregnant or not is their business.

The common good, the good of women everywhere, is that they get to choose whether they resemble the feral cat - pregnant with every penetration, or not. When these lawmakers abide by a stricture that bans abortion, they adhere to an ideal that hasn't existed within the entire history of humankind. These charlatans of morality despise government interference, except when a womb is involved. These despicable ethicists decry, in the same breathe, the social interference with parenthood and an unwanted pregnancy. They live in a fantasy of all children being loved and nurtured; they live in that "Leave to Beaver" world that didn't exist when the TV was on the air!

Which is the better trade - the life that exists or the life that is ruined by a pregnancy? The girl who made a mistake? Was it God's wish that a girl who was persuaded should ruin her life? Is it that evil god's wish that an abused girl be granted the clemency of an unwanted pregnancy by a boy who regards each child as a conquest? To be marked on his arm with tattooed notch? Is the worth of that child that inked slash?

Listening to the anti-abortionists, yes. That misogynistic conquistador has more rights than the woman he impregnated. He can scurry off, safe in the knowledge that his only penalty is financial (if he even bothers with that). She has a lifetime of an unwanted child to look forward to. The forthcoming child has a lifetime of rejection to welcome.

Abortions happen. It's not a statistical anomaly. It's an historical fact. Whether they are induced by the pregnant woman or a doctor, or a back street quack with a coat hanger and a mafia connection, they happen.

Isn't the responsibility of society to acknowledge that? Isn't the responsibility of society to safeguard those who actually have life? Isn't the responsibility of society to not interfere with a woman's decision about her own life?

I'm not a fan of abortion. But I support a woman's right to choose whether she is pregnant or not. I support the rights of the living. I support the fact that we are all in control of our own bodies. I support the idea that women are equal to men. Call me a goddammed feminist if you like, but I support - with every fiber of my being - the right of a woman to choose whether she is pregnant or not. These vituperative letharios concentrate on the one thing they can: the male dominance of the woman.

Oh, I could have phrased that a thousand different ways; the essential element remains the same: they want control over a woman. No man ever needed an abortion.

Think about that.

Carolyn Ann

The House GOP plans to repeal global warming

There's a common thread in the more idiotic strains of political rhetoric: if you wish something so, it's real. Conspiracy theorists know this all too well: if they think something is possible, then of course it not only is, it's also happening right in front of your eyes. The Tea Party, with other conservatives, have decided that global warming isn't a fact. They figure that because the world hasn't come to an end, it won't. Or that taking prudent steps to ease the harm we're inflicting on the planet isn't needed.

So, hot of their inconsequential and vainglorious success with the unwanted repeal of health care, they have now set their beady little eyes on global warming and climate change. They want to legislate it out of existence. Not by alleviating the pollution or countering the affects of it, but merely by insisting those affects be ignored and the observers be thought Cassandra's.

I wonder if any of those Congressional dimwits has read of King Canute? They play the courtier to their favored king so well.

Carolyn Ann

Was I right, or was I right? :-)

I predicted that the British phone hacking scandal would lead to  Andy Coulson's ouster- it wasn't a matter of "if", it was definitely a matter of "when". I was right! :-)

Andy Coulson, either the most corrupt editor the News of the World ever had, or the most incompetent, has been forced into resigning. As he said, "when the spokesman needs a spokesman" something is seriously wrong. He wasn't forced into quitting because of the untold pressure on him (a taste of what he gave to others?) - he was forced to quit because he's caught up in, and is more than likely one of the leading players, in a scandal about a newspaper invading private lives. If he didn't, as he claims, know what his reporters were doing then he should have been canned simply for being so incompetent. The top editor of a newspaper, unaware of what is happening on the newsroom floor? Pull the other one, Andy.

I'm not sure which was the better argument: the one where he tries to convince us he's astonishingly gullible and incompetent, or the one where he claims he didn't know what was happening. He might as well admit that he's either a blithering idiot or so incompetent you'd be a fool to trust him with a toilet brush and bowl. The other option, being a conspirator in what seems to be a string of similar criminal acts, could land him in jail. No doubt a place he deserves to visit for awhile.

Carolyn Ann

"Useful feedback"

Facebook is telling us that it got some "useful feedback" on its plans to share its members' home addresses and phone numbers. Yeah, I'd say articles like the one in The Guardian could be "useful feedback".

What's amazing about it all is that Facebook keeps aiming a shotgun at its feet. They pull the trigger when they least expect it, and rarely miss. They end up with sore feet and the rest of us are deafened by the bang. This is a case in point: it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that such a "feature" could break European privacy laws. You'd also think that someone would be aware of the various data protection laws in America; although they're almost meaningless in what they cover and their policing ability, they do exist. After all the fuss about private data and how people want to control their own data, you'd think Facebook would realize they need to check with lawyers and customers before deciding something like this. Reassurances that all will be well aren't really the point.

So Facebook ended up stepping down from a controversial decision. Again.

To me, it always like a case of really bright people assuming that because something can be done, that it should be done! In other words, really bright people make some really dumb decisions. You begin to wonder just how bright they are, and when will they stop being so dumb.

Still, they do seem to be adept at asking forgiveness; it's the asking permission bit they really need to work on.

Carolyn Ann

I'm not writing much at the moment...

I've got an exam in a few days, so guess what I'm doing... :-)

That's right: procrastinating... Actually, I'm trying to figure out topic of the exam (it's the linguistics bit of the course). It's part reasoning and part rote; the reasoning bit isn't straightforward - English is many things (consistency isn't one of them), and trying to memorize "if it's that, then that is that, but if it's this, then that is something else entirely", is something else entirely... (Sorry, I couldn't resist! :-D ) The memorizing bit is a challenge, too. Currently I don't have the context for the words, never mind the concepts, so it's proving difficult to remember certain things.

On the other hand, we've had the first bit of financial good news we've had in a long time. The light at the end of the tunnel got a little brighter; but those proverbial trains are still looking awful close.

Ah well. The sun is shining... Oh, hang on. It was this morning. It's cloudy right now.

Carolyn Ann

The weather forecast

It's going to be cold. There's no cloud right now, so it's going to get really cold. And then some clouds are going to roll in. And it'll rain a bit. And then it'll turn to freezing rain for an hour or two. After that it'll warm up a bit. And then it'll be rain and snow. Just in time for you to drive to work. And as the sun come sup, it'll warm up and it'll rain. A lot. Did you wash your car this weekend? Oh dear. And then it might rain some more. And then the rain will stop. And the clouds will go away. And the night sky will be pretty. And then it might snow.

That about covers this week.

Carolyn Ann

Changed the title - I just noticed a missing "e"! Took some finding; it was hiding behind the couch. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! If I can remember it, that is...) :-)

Oh, er, perhaps not today?

Google places "relevant" ads on the screen that tells your post was published. Considering the post was about a review of unusual, if violent, clarity, I was amused to see these ads: 

:-)

Carolyn Ann

A decisive book review?

Apparently Fitzhugh Coyle Goldsborough wasn't a fan of David Graham Phillip's novel "The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig". His review consisted of shooting Mr Phillips six times.

Ouch.

Carolyn Ann

A quick lesson about drugs & drug companies...

Remember that dust up about offshore drugs? The one where I said that they were dubious and potentially dangerous, and no one in their right mind would recommend them? But Lisa Harney did?

Well, if Johnson and Johnson can screw up so badly that the FDA is permanently encamped in their offices, how can you think some offshore, cut-price, unlicensed "pharmacy" that's located on some obscure Pacific Island, allegedly run by a guy from Panama but no one knows for sure, is safe?

I'd really like to know the answer to that one.

Carolyn Ann

Firefox on Fedora 14...

Wow! That was easy - I pointed Parallels (v6 trial; for some reason my v5 was freaking out a bit) at the Fedora disk image and... It was installed! In contrast to the Ubuntu installation I did last night - that one took a couple of life-times and I ended up going to bed because I didn't want to sit through another lifetime of watching a 1980's era screen do nothing. While the machine did mysterious, unknown, things in the background.

Overall, I can't say either one is exceptional. They both seem desperate to be Windows 98/ Windows Me wannabes.

I think I'll stick to OS X. It, at least, has some style. :-)

Oh, yeah: Firefox. On the Mac, it's not too bad. On Fedora, it seems to have taken on the roll of the nagging fixture. "Are you sure you want to visit that site? I don't know about it..." The site was Google...

Overall, I'd say the Firefox browser is a bit paranoid on Fedora. I'll let you know how it goes on Ubuntu.

Carolyn Ann

Republicare

So what would the average American's health care be like under Republican proposals? Notwithstanding the fact that the Republicans and their Tea Party leaders haven't actually said, I figured I'd give it a go...

First things first: the bill to repeal health care reform is being thrust upon us; exempt from Republican-imposed House rules, there will be no debate, no effort at stating which bit of the Constitution is applicable to its repeal and any effort to pay for it is being disregarded and ridiculed (along with the person or people doing the cost estimating).

Anyway, here are the main features of Republicare:

• Your policy can be cancelled at any time. Especially if you get sick.
• Your kids can be denied coverage, mostly because kids get sick a lot and that eats into insurance company profits
• What is covered can't be regulated
• Your insurance company can deny you life saving care because it costs too much (the Supremes affirmed this idea awhile ago) 
• Cross-state policies will ensure that the lowest prices for the thriftiest coverage
• Cross-state policies mean that your state regulator is meaningless
• You have to pay for all preventive and early-detection care 
• Insurance rates are the state's business
• Except when you're using a cross-state policy, in which case no one is in charge (except the insurance company)
• Claims can be denied for any reason (and probably will be)
• If you have a pre-existing condition, good luck getting a policy
• If you get sick, it means you have a predisposition to getting sick, and your policy can be cancelled because you failed to disclose that you're likely to get sick
• That dose of acne you had in adolescence? You didn't disclose it so your life-saving cancer treatment will be denied
• If you do something dangerous, like walk to work, ride a motorcycle, get on a plane, get in a car, walk down the stairs and so on, any accidents will not be covered
• The insurance company is the arbiter of all claims; there is no appeal

Oh - if you're on Medicare and vote Republican, your care is safe. Except if it costs too much, in which case, Vote Republican! 

All you have to do is get to retirement age. Intact.

Good luck with that.

Carolyn Ann

That leadership-y thing? Sarah didn't stand.

I see the Republicans have had enough of that lesbian bondage club loving leader, Michael Steele. Apparently he dripped, er sorry, dropped out of the competition for his position. Instead of Mr Steele, they've elected a ... Cheese?

One Reince Priebus is now the leader of the Republican Party. He's available in D.C. grocery stores at $20,000 a GOP Congressperson. You can get a small taster for $500. Check the... Alright! I know it's enough, already! It's too tempting! One little morsel, please? No? Spoil sport.

Anyway. Mr Preibus, the man Toyota named a car after and the French named a particularly recalcitrant cheese after.

Apparently... Apparently he's promised to "heal" the various factions that currently make up the Republican Party. I think that's a shorthand for the "Tea Party way or the highway, buddy!" Mr Steele was generous about losing his job, but no one noticed so it doesn't matter. I hope Mr Preibus is like some of those finer cheeses: wax covered. Mr Steele was more like that dust mop you see advertised on the telly; everything stuck to him.

The House Republicans and their Orange Weeping Willow of a leader aside, does anyone actually notice the Republican leadership? Or care? Mr Priebus has taken one of the most obscure jobs in the nation. I can only assume he's up to its obscurity. Challenge. I meant challenge. No I didn't... :-)

Carolyn Ann

Wikileaks. Consequences.

Apparently the Tunisian revolution was sparked by two events: a chap set himself alight (surely one of the most hideous deaths imaginable) in a protest, and Wikileaks revealed how corrupt the ruling family actually was.

President Obama lent his support to... The protestors. Which will tell the various Arab leaders that while their support is nice, freedom is nicer. (I think Hillary said as much this past week. Mind you, the Arab leadership has to create some 80 million jobs in the next decade; only a fool would think that possible in a closed, patriarchal, society.) Interestingly, I've been reading more about how local conditions promote terrorism; it's a complex subject, and I'm not going to comment on it. Suffice to say that "America" is not always the one at fault; often, it's not, it just gets blamed. But leaders all over the Arab world will be looking at Tunisia and thinking about Mr Obama's words. (I wonder if any Republicans, or their sensation-seeking fear-mongering pundit-leadership will notice that Mr Obama isn't quite as supportive of dictatorships as they paint him to be). Mrs Clinton will have her work cut out for her in the forthcoming weeks, that's for certain!

Mr Assange now, officially, has blood on his hands. I'm not defending the status-quo, but he does have moral responsibility for his actions. People are dead because of him; people would die, but different individual perhaps, if he hadn't released those memos. Which is better? Neither? One or the other? Is a corrupt leadership worth trading your life to remove? I can't say, I'm lucky that I don't have to make such an absolute choice. Wikileaks helped foster a revolution; is that to be applauded, or feared? Interesting questions, and so many of them; only the shallow idiot will assume to know the answer.

Somehow I doubt Mr Assange is wise enough to think about, really understand, the consequences of Wikileaks. We will, no doubt, see more strife before that attention-seeking neophyte is through.

Carolyn Ann

Why on Earth did he do that?

Apparently the unrest in Tunisia is quite serious. The Prime Minister, a man I can't remember as being especially noteworthy or intelligent, declared that he was in charge. It was brought to his, and the crowd's, attention that this was probably unconstitutional.

Let me see: the Tunisian people got rid of the last chap who said he was their leader. That man's close ally, seeing an opportunity, declares himself the Tunisian leader. The people disagree. I have a few questions for Mr Ghannouchi (the amateur usurper): what in the world possessed you to be so stupid? Okay, it was only one question. Your pal is forced from office; he leaves you behind, so you decide to fill his shoes. Reading about the crisis, I think the people would rather you fill his noose!

There's idiocy, and then there's idiocy. Oh well. I can only suggest that Mr Ghannouchi stay as far away from lamp posts as he can. Which might not be very far.

I wonder what the Iranian people and Mr Ahmadinejad are thinking, right now? :-) I wonder the Ayatollahs, especially the one currently in charge of the Janitorial Duties, is thinking, right now... :-\

Carolyn Ann

Tunisia's leader flees

Tunisia's leader fled this evening. After 23 years of draconian, dictatorial rule, the people finally got fed up and he, seeing the writing on the wall, fled. To Saudi Arabia.

He should feel perfectly at home, don't you think? :-)

Another cup of tea, Mr Dictator?

Carolyn Ann

(I wonder what Colonel Gaddafi is thinking, right now?)

I'm sorry, what did you say?

Perusing the online edition of the NY Times, as I do, I noticed a story: "Tunisian leader flees, to be beatified in the spring". Say what? Oh... He did flee, and the last Pope is going to be declared a saint.

I see Belarus's leadership is still paranoid. Earth to Mr Lukshenko (sp?): the only person out to get you is the man in your mirror. 

Carolyn Ann

Now that's cool!

I spotted this on The Huffington Post:


As the article said, 10 seconds of sheer cool. :-)

Carolyn Ann

Cleaning up online conversation

Clay Shirky, one of the most prominent people of Internet fame, had some interesting things to say about online conversation in the latest Harvard Business Review. He said it needed "cleaning up"; he also said 'internet' and not the proper noun Internet. A thought for another day; I digress.

One of the things I've noted, and have even, perhaps, written about (what? you expect me to remember what I've written? That's what Google is for!) is how the anonymous commenter is more than likely going to be obnoxious. (DM notwithstanding; he's a mere idiot.) Mr Shirky thinks the "dismal online conversation [isn't] a part of the state of nature; everything online takes place in a constructed environment". I have to disagree with him, and agree with him. He notes, as do most Internet anthropologists, that anonymity allows people to escape the consequences of their words. That's perfectly true; if no one knows who you actually are, why should you care about your words and the sentiment you express? (Following that line of reasoning, I should appreciate the honesty of my local fascists?)

People behave themselves when the consequences of not doing so are detrimental. If, like that foolish "Butchwoman", or some others (FalconFiresomenumberorother, sickly green candle, etc) you use your anonymity to criticize others in a vehement fashion, your words become meaningless. You become one of those Internet trolls, resplendent in your desire to be an idiot. You can walk away from a conversation, and no one need know you were the twit irritating everyone else. You get to act out your own insecurities; never mind that the person on the other end of your verbal assault has their own issues - your's are the only ones that count. Immature is one way of describing such fools.

The lesser-witted might accuse me of "derailing" my own "conversation", but have you ever noticed that many of those who accuse others of being trolls do so under the banner of a 'handle'?

Mr Shirky briefly (it was a short piece) explores why Amazon (and another site that immediately escapes my memory; I didn't write it down when I saw it in Mr Shirky's article, sorry) has good conversation and CNN doesn't: basically, reputation systems. Messrs. F. Randall Farmer and B. Glass wrote the best, indeed only, book on the topic. Such systems don't always work: Slashdot has a reputation system in place and it makes not a blind bit of difference to the various Neanderthalian basement-dwellers who exhort their various idiocies (it often seems that misogyny is least of their prejudices). A good reputation system allows others to vote on the comments of their fellow debaters; be consistently idiotic and your contributions quickly become decoration placed well below the fold. Well below the bottom edge of the paper, to be more specific. As always, such systems can be "gamed".

It's why I like the Facebook model: if you say something, your name is attached to your words. They have robust systems to detect if someone isn't real; "Butchwoman" isn't going to get too far in the Facebook world. Is it a suppression of free expression? In a way, yes, and we should all be concerned about that. So far Apple, Google and Facebook are the new mentors of language, attitudes and the suppressors of vile thought. Last year it was the mall, this year it's the new Triad. But free expression hasn't had a challenge like the one the internet (.?.) poses. In the 18th century there were plenty of anonymously-written pamphlets; they helped the American people get rid of their government. But the scale of the Internet, its instant nature, the ease with which an online identity can be assumed? I guess that's a challenge.

Online conversation is decent when the participants are considerate of each other. There's no other reason, really. If you're using a handle to hide*, you're not considerate. Simple, right?

Carolyn Ann

*This is a fraught area, and I'm still learning to stay away from it... :-)

That over-adorned body looks like... What?..

Alastair Clements, writing in the January 2011 edition of Classic and Sports Car (a fantastic British car magazine), in his article "Stamp snort, CHARGE!" noted that the splendor (ahem) of the Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary's "over -adorned body looks daft on modern roads, like a drag queen wearing full costume to do the weekly shop."

Well, yeah. I can see his point. The car has more doodads and "bling" than a tacky reality show princess.

I still want one, though. :-)

And I've been tempted to do the whole drag queen thing. In the supermarket. :-D Never had quite enough courage to actually do it. A goal for this year?

Carolyn Ann

Hoooraah...

Payday. Finally. I was beginning to think it was never going to arrive - the proverbial pot of water, you know. :-) Now we can afford luxuries like milk, cat food, gasoline. Well, we have the illusion of being able to afford them, which is good enough for now.

Carolyn Ann

"Money For Nothing" - controversial?

Who knew? :-) the Mark Knopfler and Sting classic exposition of opinion has attracted the attention of Canada's Official Nannies, aka the "Broadcasting Standards" people. Money For Nothing contains the word "faggot" in its chorus and has been banned because of that.

Anyway, Jillian Page asked about this; it's the first I'd heard of it, so I was quite intrigued. Satire, banned? It struck me as exactly equivalent to that dullard in Alabama rewriting Huck Finn; because Mark Twain prolifically uses "nigger", and some are uncomfortable with that - context be damned - he "sanitized" it. And reduced to meaningless drivel. Editing "Money For Nothing" so "faggot" isn't heard isn't quite as dire, desperate or stupid, but it's still ridiculous.

Art often contains things that annoy or upset; it's usually the artist's intention to do so. Whether the art is good or not is (almost) immaterial; what is important to the easily offended is that the artist self-censor - to avoid giving offense to whomever. Words are especially powerful; look at the furor when atheists advertise on the side of busses. (I wonder what would happen if the transgender community bought some bus-borne ads that implored they were human, too? Such a thought makes me smile - a lot. :-D )

Jillian specifically asked "does this song really offend transgender people?" and "What if the song used the word "tranny" instead of "faggot"? Would you be offended by that?" However, the website Jillian uses is slow (to put it mildly) and connectivity to it is uncertain (that's a polite description). So I've put my response here:
===

Think of it as the modern equivalent of the n-word. As in: context matters.

Mark Knopfler uses "faggot" in a satyrical context; it was always a derogatory insult. "Fag" has two, very common, meanings in Britain: a cigarette (colloquially: "give us a fag?") and a deprecatory term for a gay person. (It's interesting how, and how quickly, "gay" has assumed its current meaning!). So it's impossible to argue that he didn't know the meaning of the word; using it in the way he did was actually very similar to the way Mark Twain used the n-word; it,for instance, wasn't considered anything but denigratory even in Mr Twain's day! (It's only recently, I believe, that it has assumed some complimentary meaning, and then only in certain, quite specific, contexts.) Mr Knopfler isn't commenting on anything but the casual prejudice of the conversation; he's also drawing some other inferences along similar lines, but as this is a comment in a blog post, I don't think it's necessary to explore those right now. :-)

"Tranny", on the other hand, is a little more interesting. It has assumed an unfavorable meaning - all be it one that's not universally accepted, or even acknowledged - only within the last couple of years. It hasn't always had a negative connotation, unlike "faggot"; indeed, there was a period where it was reasonably acceptable, colloquial even. If memory serves, it's only been a couple or so years since it became disparaging; it acquired its current meaning because of the transgender pornography business and the repetitiveness of the transgender community's detractors and "critics". For someone such as myself, it was quite disheartening to acknowledge that a colloquialism had become such a linguistic pariah.

Unlike one commonly used (within the transgender community) prefix, there is at least some consistency with noting that "tranny" is derogatory. Should Mr Knopfler's song be banned on the basis of his using one word? Not at all; to impose such an arbitrary standard is exactly the same as banning Robert Mapplethorpe's work because some find it too "homosexual". Some find Greyson Perry's work to be offensive, for instance; should his pottery be banned, because it has incisive and, in many instances, insulting observations about society and commonly held attitudes? Ban art because it's offensive and you end up banning the ability to criticize society. There's no difference between the complaints of those who object to "Money For Nothing" and the two facile dullards who recently "sanitized" Huckleberry Finn. Reducing a powerful statement is never a good idea; the statement has power because of its words, not because of the expressed sentiment. Sanitize "Money For Nothing" and you don't sanitize the airwaves, you reduce the song to mediocrity.

You might be interested to know that I listened to the song while (whilst?) I wrote this. :-) It really is a classic.

Carolyn Ann

Added: The Daily Mail has an interesting take on the song (the Daily Mail? You sure? Yeah. I checked), as well as a few words from Mr Knopfler hisself.

Another addition: I didn't know Sting cowrote it; or, more likely, I'd forgotten. I've corrected my post to reflect reality. Or at least what passes for it around here... :-)