It’s up!

My first article is up on Comicon’s The Pulse! Go check it out!

Now, I have to get about the business of writing the other five articles!

If only.

So, after downloading Apple’s latest update(s) last week and finding everything going blooey right after installing it, I have spent much of the ensuing period trying to get things back to where they were. Finding out later I wasn’t the only person experiencing those problems was little comfort.

You would think I would know better having been down this road before with one of Apple’s security updates. It was around the same time last year, I downloaded a Security Update (it was in March) and wound up with the dreaded kernel panic, a machine that starts up, loads and then just sits there unable to launch into the finder.

Gggggrrrrreeeeeaaaatttttt!

Well, since that time last year I have at least had the intelligence to keep working files (read jobs) on a separate drive so I can still get at things if I need to wipe a drive and reinstall system software. Reinstalling system software isn’t a problem, it’s what happens afterwards that creates a big deal. All the passwords, preferences and the way the computer operates through the main user account are just gone.

Well, I’ve managed to get things mostly back to where they need to be. I’m really, really close. I’m starting to finally learn a helluva lot more about what goes where and what does what in OS X but, I am still nowhere near where I was in terms of knowledge of the prior versions of the Mac operating systems (read as OS 6 through OS 9). So, I imagine there is something good that came out of all of this.

The only thing that is truly bothering me at the moment is that I may have deleted all my email in the process over the last few days! Even after recovering some stuff from the trash (already deleted) I’m still having trouble recovering the actual mail files. I may have to go back in again and try to do another unerase but, at least I can get stuff done like I could before I installed the stupid updates.

In the process though, I have to acknowledge gaining a great deal of really good info from the MacFixIt website. I cannot recommend the site highly enough. As a matter of fact, I was having some problems with Quark today (everything is still a bit buggy after shunting things over to a secondary drive) and through information gleaned on the MacFixIt site was able to quickly and easily identify and correct the problem! I almost feel in control the way I did with OS 9!

Once again.



The Flickr stream generates way more traffic than the blog. Part of that has to do with the latest photo set being mentioned by the Comics Reporter website. However, I am working on several articles about the con which will be posted later today and tomorrow on Comicon’s The Pulse! So, hopefully the writing will start to generate some interest as well. Lots to do over the next 24 to 48 hours and that doesn’t even include the work I have to get done around here, for clients or the snow which needs to be shoveled!

Stand the test of time.

So, today I was bopping around Flickr looking at some of the photos of my contacts and I saw one that reminded of some lyrics from a Talking Heads song. I did a little bit of searching and I came across this short on YouTube and I will be damned if it doesn’t hold up. I think it’s as good if not better than a lot of the stuff out there in the music world today:

A breath of fresh air.

Having finished the design project I have been working on (at least for the moment) and being awake even though I was up until a quarter to six this morning only to be rudely awakened by the incessant nagging of kitty who is on a morning schedule for her wet food (and who wails as if she was being tortured should it not appear on her schedule). I am going to make the attempt to bang out a few entries about things which have caught my attention as I wander about trying to get things done even though I am operating on about three hours of sleep.

On a good note, this is the first round of revisions (or is it the second, I‘ve lost track) and I’ve already addressed client comments on this round so, this puppy might just about be out the door and apparently there is another project stacked up right behind this one. So, I imagine I did a decent enough job on the thing although both I and my contact on the client side like the first draft better.

Just in time as there are big things brewing over the next few days.

The monday morning award for blatant stupidity.

In papers filed in federal court in White Plains, Pacenza said the stress caused him to become “a sex addict, and with the development of the Internet, an Internet addict.” He claimed protection under the American with Disabilities Act.

And here I just thought it was a question of being a perv! Wow, I guess I’m disabled too (LOL), wonder if there’s any kind of government benefits I qualify for?

It’s almost here



If you want to go you better get your tickets soon! As posted on their site today: Friday and Sunday Tickets Still Available for Advance Purchase online here and through NY area retailers (link this). Click here to buy your Friday and Sunday tickets now! Saturday and Weekend Passes Sold Out online. Limited Quantities still available through NY area retailers

If it’s anything like last year’s show it should be a pretty big deal!

A light at the end of the tunnel.

Six down, four to go and freedom beckons just over the horizon. Two decades of worry put in the past at last!

Because everyone could deserve a good laugh:

More from Jim Florentine’s website - this is a clip from his album, Terrorizing Telemarketers 4.



Sit back and take a listen to what is simply titled:

No, No.

Right war? Wrong reasons? Wrong war? Right reasons?

Lots of sturm und drang over the “surge” these days. It makes sense to me in a strange way. I’m not entirely happy about the prospect but, it makes sense. What I do find interesting though is the parameters of the debate about the situation in Iraq currently and how those people in opposition paint the arguments they have against further involvement in what goes on in that country. The reason I find this interesting is because there is an intrinsic flaw in their argument which I seem to notice but, I wonder if they do or if I’ve somehow gotten it wrong.

Lots of talk these days centers on the situation in Iraq devolving into a civil war and it not being our business to have any involvement in the affairs of a civil war in another country.

Okay, that I understand.

But, if that is the case my question to the very same people who are arguing we have no business in Iraq because it’s a civil war my question to those people is what about Darfur? What about what happened in Serbia and Bosnia? What about what happened in Rwanda?

In some instances we sat on our hands (Rwanda), in others we were actively involved (Bosnia) and in one we are wringing our hands while the situation is getting worse (Darfur). Let’s say we left Iraq tomorrow, for arguments’ sake, what happens then? I’m all for getting Americans out of harm’s way, sh*t it makes a lot of sense.

See if Iraq were a stock this would be akin to buying on the way down to hedge your losses, something I learned the hard way and was told never to do, don’t buy a stock on the way down. By sending more troops are we in a sense buying more stock in the Iraqi situation? I understand this argument and it makes sense to me but, when people use the context of saying we have no business getting involved of the civil war of another nation, it’s a moment I am given pause.

What are our responsibilities in the world? What is our role? I think it’s a good question. We have troops on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq and I wonder too what we’re doing in these countries and whether or not we are doing any good. The question is whether or not our presence there is making the situation worse? If we are going to have a discussion about our presence in these countries I think those are the parameters around which we should base the discussion.

If you’ve noticed.

Something strange going on it’s because the powers that be at Blogger are forcing people to upgrade to the new blogger and create Google accounts whether they want to or not. My problem is figuring how I can pull all my archives and find another platform to host the blog because I find this absolutely intrusive.

Update - after writing several frantic emails, not an easy thing to do when you keep automatically being redirected to another page which isn’t one where you can email anyone for help, the problem seems to have corrected itself. I can only hope it will not repeat itself.

I never thought I would say this.


But, given everything that has happened over the last few weeks, I have to say I feel truly sorry for Anna Nicole Smith. If it wasn’t enough her son died just shortly after she gave birth to her daughter and how that tragedy colored what would have otherwise been a very happy moment in her life, the circus surrounding her burial now can only be described as one of the most ghoulish spectacles in recent memory. Mind you, watching her E! show was like watching a train wreck but even so, she wasn’t so bad she deserved this - people fighting over her body and her baby. It’s just a sad, twisted, spectacle to watch and if anything it only makes her more of a tragic figure than she was in life.

Things I like.

I like watching the cat clean herself (except of course for the big spread) and then afterward violently shaking her head to the point she goes sliding across the floor. I like watching her crawl out from underneath the covers still so sleepy she manages to drunkenly stumble in her first few steps as she wakes up.

Appropriate for Valentine’s Day?

Just a great video from Jim Florentine’s site which is hilarious to watch it seemed somehow appropriate for Valentine’s Day:

Could this be titled, “The Nose knows?”

More humor from the Onion:

Alabama Environmentalists Lobbies For Solar-Power Electric Chair.

The angry blogger.

Blogging is fun and all that but, I mainly feel that it’s a means to an end. Specifically, the reason I’ve been doing it is to get in the habit of writing regularly and to prepare myself for writing longer pieces of both fiction and non-fiction. It’s like a lot of things I do in that it may not pay of immediate dividends but, there is a goal at some unseen point somewhere down the road which will be reached because of the efforts put into an area.

I can’t really say that my blog has a distinct focus though, mainly I use it for whatever has caught my attention at a given moment and then use it as a place to try to write about my thoughts on a particular topic.

Thing is, I’ve noticed blogs generally fall into a couple of basic categories:

There’s the self promotional blog which is focuses mainly on promoting the writer(s) of the blog, it’s a way of getting their message out to the world and most of the entries are specifically designed to promote their latest endeavor.

Then, there’s the gripe blog - here a blog is used as an outlet for all the indignities and slights the blogger is subjected to as they make their way through the world. Sometimes these kinds of blogs can go into excruciating detail about personal matters (sometimes to the peril of the author), other times it can just be a matter of griping about a specific area of interest (lots of political blogs are devoted to these efforts). They are usually short on answers but, long on the gripe.

There are also blogs which are devoted to driving traffic to other sites and generating revenue (a lot of porn blogs set up this way - oops that’s right none of us looks at porn, it just those other people.)

I’m sure there are a couple of other categories but, I think you get the drift. I don’t think my blog readily falls into any of these divisions easily but, I wouldn’t think I would be the best judge either.

One thing though that blogs are generally short on, is generating a good laugh for their readers and I think that‘s not a good thing. So, with that in mind, the next few posts are focused on doing just that (making you laugh) enjoy.

First up, if you ever find yourself in a foul mood - may I suggest a brief electronic sojourn over to The Onion website where you can find gems like the one below:

Office Janitor Asks To Work From Home

Got to love this.

Listening to some music this morning and got me wanting to look at this again, always enjoyable and a spectacular example of what a music video can be:

How sad.

Just saw this on a crawl and the first thought I had was how very sad.

She had been unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital Thursday while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and Casino, hotel officials said.

First there is the whole business surrounding the death of her son against the backdrop of the birth of her daughter - then the bizarre marriage between her and the skeevy lawyer. Just really, really sad and tragic.

Was it really that long ago?!?



I came across this shot today - I don’t think I’ve ever lost my distaste for ‘dressing up’ and I can remember how uncomfortable I felt in this suit.

Laurie, who I saw as recently as two weeks back looks as lovely as ever. She now has a son who is slightly older than I was when this picture was taken which is somewhat amazing. Even more amazing is that we still are in touch after all these years.

If you had asked me when the picture was taken if I could have even imagined the path our lives have taken us, I couldn’t have even begun to guess and I have to admit to being fascinated by the route we have both followed.

Making baseball truly an international sport.

“We should not only regard it as a strange game, but who knows,” Morde said. “It could sooner than later become a hard currency earning opportunity for us.”

Interesting story about a recent goodwill trip.