Happy birthday wishes today to J. K. Rowling, who was born on this day in 1965 -- not coincidentally sharing a birthday with her creation, Harry Potter. Thank you Ms. Rowling! It's been a great ride!
I've been going through lots of old files (see previous post) and that includes collections of stuff I thought was funny enough to squirrel away on a floppy. Here is one that always makes me laugh. It's a list of actual English (Engrish) subtitles used in films made in Hong Kong:
It doesn't take long for computer stuff to become fit for a museum, and not much else. Ages ago -- actually it was just 14 years ago -- I was the manager for a small network of Macintoshes in a corporate art department, and generally considered to be the Mac-Person-To-Ask when questions arose anywhere in the facility (at the time, I should stress, I knew stuff. These days that's no longer the case). Having responsibility for all the hardware/software, including all the files (and being a packrat by nature) I ended up with lots of gear and junk. It was mine, they closed the facility down to a skeleton crew and sold us what we wanted. The tower unit I still have, a Mac 9600, is 10 years old! It still runs!! Not very useful, but it's the lone SCSI unit in the house so I've had it hooked up to the old iOmega Zip and Jaz drives all weekend -- trying to get crappy old files (that I will probably never get sorted out) downloaded so they can be burned to CD... then promptly forgotten I'm sure.
Yes, check out the picture above. "Time remaining: About 44 hours." I was beginning to think it was not too far off the mark. The iOmega Jaz and Zips, at least from back then, were notoriously unreliable media. Zip drives were noted for the "clicks of death" that you will often hear, meaning the disk won't mount, the disk is corrupted, or the drive is bad. The Jaz is a chirper, so all weekend we were clicking and chirping along (still not done!!! Gaaaaah!! What a pile!). The old-timer (the 9600 system, which cost ~$9,000 new with all the bells and whistles), also now known as "the boat anchor", has a CD drive but doesn't burn CDs, so we have to do File Sharing over to my Blueberry Baby, my 1999 iBook, which doesn't burn them either but must rely on an external burner, a USB device not compatible with the other box. After this project is through, I am going to get rid of all these drives, cables, big floppies, little floppies, terminators, old mice, dialup modems... and I don't ever want to see them again. I will miss my Blueberry Baby, but it's so slow by modern standards, and of course it's also a dinosaur. My current machine is a Powerbook G4 (17 inch) and it is pretty great but could probably be handed down for a new one soon -- one of those Intel Macs so I can get the latest gizmos. Things just get antiquated so quickly.
Ran across this bit of oddness on a page featuring all kinds of cool stuff found through Google Earth. 10 acres! As if making a maze isn't hard enough without making it look like this.
The Raven
You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.
Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com
"and I ask them - why are liberals like this? What's their motivation? They stutter to a halt and there is a long, puzzled silence. " It's a good question," one of them, Martha, says finally. I have asked them to peer into the minds of cartoons and they are suddenly, reluctantly confronted with the hollowness of their creation. "There have always been intellectuals who want to tell people how to live," Martha adds, to an almost visible sense of relief. That's it - the intellectuals! They are not like us." [FULL STORY, and recommended reading!]
a: the choice part : CREAMFrom wiki: Liberal Elite
b: the best of a class
c: the socially superior part of society
d: a group of persons who by virtue of position or education exercise much power or influence (members of the ruling elite) (the intellectual elites of the country)
Liberal elite and liberal elitist are terms used by some ideological opponents of liberalism to refer pejoratively to affluent liberals, who, their opponents claim, are elitist and disconnected from the rest of society (note also the US term limousine liberal, the Irish term "smoked salmon liberal", or latte liberal as synonyms). The feelings stem from the populist movement of the late 19th century.
I have finished Book 7. The book arrived, as promised by Amazon, on Saturday afternoon, via US Mail. Since then I've been under the Deathly Hallows Invisibility Cloak, and actually finished reading it late Sunday night. It kept me away from all work that I do to pay the bills (so that means I took a day off Sunday)!! This almost never happens. I can't remember the last day that I didn't work (it was probably the last time there was a Happy Potter book released). Yes, Hell is freezing over and politicians are telling the truth! Really though, I only checked email a couple of times, and did a few chores in the house Sunday.
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has what they call "Nature Nights", which are family-oriented evening nature presentations. This one featured Last Chance Forever, a group devoted to rescuing and preserving birds of prey (raptors). It was a pretty good talk and demonstration (especially since the target audience was about 6 years old), and of course it's a good cause. The speaker (presumably the guy running the organization) mixed in more religion in his talk than I'd rather hear, especially being taught to kids. It's kind of like if a doctor is performing some procedure, and gets starts chanting and waving incense around. Whoa Nelly!!! Mentioning a Creator in a science-related talk is borderline (I can easily overlook that), but when you mention that animals think and feel emotion, you can't also suggest to people that birds have a soul and an afterlife. Also, there was a "dominionist" flavor in suggesting that humans were put here to be stewards and caretakers of the earth. If someone out there divinely gave humans this job, it was either a VERY bad choice and a mistake... or... it's time for the Big Guy to fire us and give the task to some other critter because humans could not have done a more piss-poor job caring for this planet than they have done. That's MY opinion, which in this case, is worth as much as his.
But, all snarkiness aside, this group is doing some very good work and has some good messages about cohabitating on this earth as a fellow animal, and this Bald Eagle is part of that. A family built its new house in an undeveloped area where this eagle and its mate lived and hunted. The family moved in and placed their small dog in the backyard, where it was presumably taken by a predator. They got a new little dog, put it in the backyard, and when the man saw this eagle, he shot it as a preventive measure, hitting it in the wing. It lived but will never fly again. When authorities asked him if he had shot it, he denied it, first blaming it on some buddies (...with friends like him... who needs enemies?), then continuing to deny it until his wife and children told him they would not lie for him anymore (not to mention the ballistics evidence that was found). The rescue organization, using this eagle for an example, wanted to make the point that this man built his house in the eagle's habitat. We humans (as fellow animals) need to try to be better neighbors with the other creatures, especially when we take away their habitat to create ours.
Noooo, I am not going to mention the names of the company and people, but I will say that the business owner and his family (including his brother and their family business) were (and still are although the old man is dead now) some of the biggest Bush $upporters in that area.
I picked him up at the Humane Society in 1991. He was only 8 weeks old and was listed as a "stray". He was definitely "working the room" of potential cat-parents, and we were stumbling over each other to adopt him first! (see his baby pictures at the slide show link at the top) He was so sweet and loving there, then as soon as I got him home, he turned into a screen-climbing, ankle-grabbing, cord-chewing, toe-pouncing, stair-acrobatic Hellbeast. He never relaxed, practically never slept (guess who else was not allowed to sleep?) and didn't mind being squirted with water. In fact, he has actually opened his mouth in anticipation of me squirting him, thinking it was a fun way to get a drink. I had to get my husband to rescue me from him (all the time) when he wouldn't let me walk through the apartment without attacking me like I was a Wildebeest just passing through. Those were his kitten years. (I think he remained a kitten for years... not settled down.)
After many years, he did settle down a bit, and became very affectionate with us. He even seemed to pick me as his favorite, and loved to sit in my lap. He'd always ask with a little meow before jumping up. Then he'd just nuzzle, cuddle and gaze at you rather than sleep. He never slept that much anyway. Alex had a personality and a half, and although we are crying over him now, he still brings us a smile under the tears, and he always will.
UPDATED July 15 (see below). Alex has not been well for a few years. He has various problems: inflammatory bowel disease, pancreatitis, and kidneys heading toward failure. We've been very close to losing him several times in the past year and a half, then each time he rallies back a little, staying on the health roller coaster. Click on the Alex label for more details. He's very strong-willed. Lately, even though a lot of his symptoms are under control, he's been on the downward slope. He's lost a pound in the last month, and can't really stand to lose another one. We are trying to do what we can for him to make him comfortable. Sorry for the bummer catblog this week, but my little 16 year old baby has become a serious matter for concern and worry.
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower CenterThe Beautification Act of 1965 was one tangible result of Mrs. Johnson’s campaign for national beautification. Known as “Lady Bird’s Bill” because of her active support, the legislation called for control of outdoor advertising, including removal of certain types of signs along the nation's Interstate system and the existing federal-aid primary system. It also required certain junkyards along Interstate or primary highways to be removed or screened and encouraged scenic enhancement and roadside development.
It is part of that legacy that today the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987 requires that at least 0.25 of 1 percent of funds expended for landscaping projects in the highway system be used to plant native flowers, plants and trees.
The term beautification concerned Mrs. Johnson, who feared it was “cosmetic” and “trivial.” She emphasized that it meant much more—“clean water, clean air, clean roadsides, safe waste disposal and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as great parks and wilderness areas.” Meg Greenwood, writing in the Reporter, noted the “deceptively sweet and simple-sounding name of ‘beautification’.”
And something tells me that the name tag would be unnecessary, that you would need no introduction. [LINK] This is a diet pill, and the manufacturer (GlaxoSmithKline) recommends that you wear dark pants or bring a change of clothes with you until you get used to it.*
Click cartoon to enlarge. View SiCKO trailer below.
We went to see Live Free or Die Hard (a.k.a Die Hard 4) with Bruce Willis, and it is more action-packed and exciting than a whole season of 24. If we are talking about the most recent season of 24, you'd have to throw in 2 seasons. Plus -- it features a terrorist bad guy who is not Islamic, Russian, or Chinese!! {Whaaaa??} Yup. He's a regular old American white guy who happens to be disgruntled and is a lot smarter than Timothy McVeigh. Don't worry, I refuse to post spoilers on something newly released, so I won't, but Bruce Willis is the ultimate badass, is he not? This is a pic I took at the Antone's show put on by director Robert Rodriguez (on the left) during the filming of Sin City, and featured Bruce Willis, Rodriguez and Del Castillo (a.k.a. Chingon). I am always stageside if possible, and when Bruce jumped down into the crowd, everyone was pressed up against each other already so I couldn't resist putting my arm around his waist for about 3 seconds. Well... what else could I do? Somewhere in Rodriguez' home videos is a 3 second clip of Bruce Willis next to yours truly. I love Rodriguez too. He has an amazing knack for coming up with the greatest characters, they can carry the movies all by themselves and sometimes do (his buddy Tarantino has that quality as well).YOUR GOVERNMENT, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.
YOUR GOVERNMENT is openly torturing people, and justifying it.
YOUR GOVERNMENT puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.
YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.
YOUR GOVERNMENT suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.
YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.
YOUR GOVERNMENT enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.
People look at all this and think of Hitler - and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.
Millions and millions are deeply disturbed and outraged by this. They recognize the need for a vehicle to express this outrage, yet they cannot find it; politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of the challenge, and people sense this.
There is not going to be some magical "pendulum swing." People who steal elections and believe they're on a "mission from God" will not go without a fight.
There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into "leaders" who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.
But silence and paralysis are NOT acceptable. That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn - or be forced - to accept. There is no escaping it: the whole disastrous course of this Bush regime must be STOPPED. And we must take the responsibility to do it.
And there is a way. We are talking about something on a scale that can really make a huge change in this country and in the world. We need more than fighting Bush's outrages one at a time, constantly losing ground to the whole onslaught. We must, and can, aim to create a political situation where the Bush regime's program is repudiated, where Bush himself is driven from office, and where the whole direction he has been taking society is reversed. We, in our millions, must and can take responsibility to change the course of history.
Acting in this way, we join with and give support and heart to people all over the globe who so urgently need and want this regime to be stopped.
This will not be easy. If we speak the truth, they will try to silence us. If we act, they will try to stop us. But we speak for the majority, here and around the world, and as we get this going we are going to reach out to the people who have been so badly fooled by Bush and we are NOT going to stop.
The point is this: history is full of examples where people who had right on their side fought against tremendous odds and were victorious. And it is also full of examples of people passively hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond what they ever imagined. The future is unwritten.
