Unwordy

I've been all unwordy lately. Since at least Monday.

I'll work on it. Sorry. • 6:50 PM 1 comments

The simplest advice is the best

Many people today struggle with food and eating and dieting.

Many people today struggle with money and finances and debt and saving.

I've long noted that the simple tools that help people overcome problems with one of these problems, can help solve the other, as well.

I'm not the only one who has noted this: Ramit Sethi blogged about this, too.

To lose weight, you can try a bunch of radical fad ideas. Or you could just eat less, and exercise more. Your body needs fuel, a certain amount every day, more when you're working hard, less when you don't. Eat this much and no more.

To save money, you could try a bunch of "get rich quick" schemes, or wait until you win the lottery. Or you could just spend less than you earn. Your income is a resource - save as much as you can. Reduce expenses whenever and wherever you can.

The basic tool that helps us do these things is something that I feel is lost these days: pay attention. Pay attention to what you spend. Pay attention to what goes in your mouth. Document, track, observe.

The barriers to doing these simple actions are all around us; there are billion-dollar industries that have developed in order to convince you that these simple things are beyond you. They're there to confuse you, and when they succeed you find yourself out of balance in one way or another.

Your friends and close family may also be an unbalancing factor. They may also be listening to the voices of the billion-dollar industries. Don't blame your friends, don't hate them, don't pity them. Just learn to listen to your body and your checkbook. You only have this much money. You only burn this many calories in a day. • 7:06 PM 0 comments

Last night I dreamed

Last night I dreamed... I was in a house in Austin, Texas, in a dorm situation with three other guys, one of whom I did not know.

We had a shared toilet, shared washer and dryer (in separate rooms) and a shared dishwasher. But each had our own kitchen.

The house had huge windows that looked out on the street. I could see the beach from my bedroom. And the moutains to the east.

I was starting a new job and remember digging through my luggage looking for a pair of black slacks and a black t-shirt to wear. They weren't in there. Did someone steal them from me? • 6:46 AM 1 comments

Four-fifths

As of last night, I've seen four out of the five movies nominated for a Best Picture Oscar: "Little Miss Sunshine", "The Departed", "The Queen", and last night's movie, "Letters From Iwo Jima", directed by Clint Eastwood.

"Letters From Iwo Jima" is an compassionate, moving story, told almost entirely from the perspective of a young Japanese solidier, Saigo, who is helping to defend the island against an imminent American attack. Wait - Saigo doesn't think of himself as a soldier. He's just a baker, whose wife is raising the daughter he has not yet met. In a flashback, Saigo makes a promise to his then-unborn daughter that he will come back for her, despite his wife's conviction that none of the soldiers that the Emperor has dispatched has ever returned.

Kazunari Ninomiya is amazing to watch. The wry humor that he sees in the situation in which he's found himself comes through, as does his determination to survive in spite of the feared American advance, as well as the fatalistic sense of honor that drives his superior officers, often to suicide.

But the general that is in command of the island, Kuribayashi, played by Ken Watanabe, realizes that a dead soldier does not defend very well, and struggles with his officers to set up a novel defense and to get them to see that he intends to win.

I very much enjoyed this movie. It's not a surprise to me that Eastwood has pulled it off; so many of his movies have this same sense of humanity in the face of violence or death.

However, now having seen almost all of the Oscar-nominated films, I think that the one I most enjoyed was "The Queen", with "The Departed" being a close second. I don't think I'm dismissing "Little Miss Sunshine", though, and it would be great if a comedy could win for Best Picture - that hasn't happened since 1977's "Annie Hall", I believe.

Oh, and "Babel"? I've heard such mixed reviews, and there's so many other movies to go see, that I probably won't see it before Oscar night. Which means it's probably going to win. • 8:22 AM 2 comments

Who do you think you are?

My apologies to Kevin for the title of this post; he's seen the joke before.

He and I got together tonight for a movie and dinner. He chose "The Queen", which has been nominated for an Academy Award, as well as Hellen Mirren for her performance as, well, the Queen of England.

All I knew was that it had racked up some awards, and was about the Royal Family's reaction to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

I have to admit, going in, that I wasn't sure about this movie. I thought it would be dry, and talk-y, and boring. But less than a half-hour into the film, I realized that i was absolutely riveted by the tension, and drama, on the screen. No explosions, no gun fights, no car chases (OK, well, one, but it was handled very tastefully and with dignity).

Absolutely stunning performances by Michael Sheen and, of course, Hellen Mirren. In fact, my preconceived notions of who these people are may have made the story that much better. Who would have thunk that Bush's Poodle could be made a sympathetic character full of depth and compassion? Who would have thought that the Queen of England could show such courage and expression?

Amazing. I've seen three of the five Oscar-nominated films this year: The Queen, The Departed, and Little Miss Sunshine, and as much as I loved the other two, "The Queen" might be my favorite. • 10:34 PM 1 comments

Re-financed

In my last post I talked about getting a fat refund from Uncle Sam this year, and spending it on a nifty new HDTV.

I have an unpublished draft post that talks about my goals and resolutions for 2008. Several of the items on that unfinished list are about... owning something of value, something that will increase in value. Of increasing my net worth, rather than decreasing it.

Today, I used the best time machine available (namely, a spreadsheet filled with my incomes and outgoes for the coming year) and took a look at what I wanted to achieve.

My first goal is to set aside some money as an emergency fund. On J.D's advice, I'm going to start with just $1000.00, locked away somewhat, earning a good but modest interest, for my rainy-day money.

My second goal... is to own something real. Like a house, or (more likely for me, being single and a first-time buyer), a condo.

And when I put those two goals into my spreadsheet, and tried to reconcile those, with my other goals of paying off my credit cards (which I need to do before buying a house), along with plunking down over a grand on a second TV... I just couldn't make the numbers come out right. It pushed my potential mortgage off into the future, not an impossible task, just farther than I would like or was entirely comfortable with. I'd rather it be sooner, than later.

So the dream of having a giant TV to watch the 3-4 hours of TV or movies I watch at home seemed... silly. Frivolous, even.

So I set that one aside.

I'm not going on about it like it was the end of the world. It wasn't a particularly difficult decision. Once I saw how all my goals interacted, it was actually easy. I could do it, and still pay for a nice Christmas vacation next year, and have a small down payment for the house, and still be able to afford a car down the road, and not have to collect more unsecured debt than I already have.

Now I have a new dream: putting a nice home theater system, that is paid for, into a space that is truly, legally, mine.

And sooner, rather than later. And safely... with a cushion to fall back on. • 8:54 PM 1 comments

Movies

On Saturday, I got my W-2 form in the mail. Did my taxes. What? No, it really was that simple - I don't own a house, only own one stock (a single share of AAPL I bought a few years ago), and have no dependents, so my taxes are easy-peasy, puddin' pie.

Turns out I'm getting a substantial refund this year; it's about the equivalent of one month's net pay, actually. Nice!

I'm going to use most of it to buy a nice, big, widescreen HDTV. I'm thinking about this one, the Samsung HL4266W, a DLP rear-projection model. Yes, true, the DLP sets need a bulb replacement every couple of years, but I'm OK with that - for the same money I would be hard-pressed to find a quality LCD or plasma set that large.

I don't watch a lot of TV, but I love movies, which is why I want a home theater setup. I know I've talked about this before...

But I don't have the Big Screen just yet. What I have now is a decent small screen.

Saturday night, I felt a bit anti-social so I wandered down to the corner non-corporate video store in search of "Idiocracy", a movie starring Luke Wilson and directed and written by Mike Judge, the genius behind "Office Space" and "Beavis and Butthead" and "King of the Hill". I'd read reviews of the movie last year, but Fox was playing games with its release and to the best of my knowledge, it never played in a theater in Portland, so I was resigned to wait for the DVD release.

I got that, and while I was there, I picked up "Bottle Rocket", too, which gave me a mini-Luke-Wilson-fest, along with a dose of his brother, he-of-the-weird-nose, Owen Wilson.

Both movies were perfect for the smaller screen. "Idiocracy", while technically a comedy, was a little too pointed a satire for me. The basic idea is that stupid people are having more babies, and over time, that will lead to people in general getting dumber and dumber. Luke Wilson is suspended in animation and, through a mistake, wakes up 500 years from now, where he discovers he's the smartest person on the planet. All entertainment is aimed at the lowest common denominator; movies consist of nothing but a picture of an ass, which occasionally farts - for two hours; Starbucks offers hand jobs; and the hit TV show is called "Ow, My Balls" and features a guy who gets kicked, hit, or injured in the groin, over and over and over again. There's no food because a sports-drink company convinced everyone that their drink is better than water - for everything, including irrigation of plants.

Ow. Watching that movie was painful. Afterward, I spent at least an hour coming up with reasons why that couldn't happen, and then I read a book on cognitive science and philosophy for a while. That made me feel better. And yet, I'm not passing along whatever genetic traits might lead to a higher intelligence... aahrgh.

"Bottle Rocket" was a much more watchable movie, and made better use of Luke's low-key-ness and his brother's easy con-artist personality. In fact, I don't think that either of their screen presences have evolved much since this movie. Although this is the only film I've ever seen Luke Wilson genuinely smile... and for a great reason. Just see the damn movie already.

At any rate, I'd planned on seeing "Pan's Labyrinth" (El Laberinto del Fauno in the director's native tongue) at the Cinema 21 on Sunday... The movie had been playing in New York when I was there over the holidays, and seeing it had been on my B list of things to do ("See a movie that isn't playing in Portland") but I didn't get to. So I had been waiting weeks to see this movie, and this was it's opening weekend in Portland.

But even though I was there for an early showing (2 PM) and was a half-hour early, I discovered a huge line snaking around the corner. It wasn't moving very fast and so I bailed on it. I'll try to see it this week, or the next weekend - it'll be at the C21 for two weeks.

Movies, movies, movies... • 6:55 AM 1 comments

Portland's Future Charter

Here, first I'll quote The One True b!x's introduction and statement of purpose:

It's not completely unwarranted to view the potential revision of the City Charter to replace its current commission government with a strong mayor form as a kind of re-founding of the City of Portland. That makes Charter review one of the single most important decisions the City's residents can face. With the work of the Charter Review Commission complete, this is the real deal. Whatever your views, the time to speak up is now.

...from the new group site, Portland's Future Charter.

...and to note that I will be a contributor to the site, along with the b!x; Amanda Fritz, registered nurse and former City Council candidate; Mark Oliver, an Indonesian and Javanese-language translator; and Chris Smith, a citizen member of Metro and publisher of Portland Transport.

I agree with b!x - this seems important, at least on a local scale. Going into it, I don't have any pre-formed notions about what Portland's charter should or should not be. Although if I'm being honest, I do mislike and generally mistrust authority unless they demonstrate themselves to be trustworthy and honest. • 9:52 AM 0 comments

Neil deGrasse Tyson

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I was regretting my own ignorance when it came to men and women of color who served as examples of the ideals I hold dear; rational thought, outspoken in defense of honesty, humility in the face of their mistakes.

Fellow blogger Ken, of Emerging Worshiper, suggested that I take a look at Neil deGrasse Tyson, a noted astrophysicist.

And so I did. I have to say that my life was the poorer for not having known about Dr. Tyson prior to this week. Tip of the hat to Ken!

Let's look at what I've found in just an hour or so of research. First, apparently another intellectual hero of mine, Carl Sagan, attempted to recruit Tyson to Cornell, but Tyson chose Harvard, instead.

Dr. Tyson is currently the Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the best science museum in the world, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in New York City.

And apparently Dr. Tyson is critical of "string theory", which he views as not having any predictive ability, and so, not being true, falsifiable science, a stance that I find personally satisfying if only because it shows healthy skepticism and a conservative view of the philosophy of science.

I have to be honest, when Ken, an outspoken Christian, brought my attention to Dr. Tyson and his work, I wondered if Dr. Tyson would be someone who abbrogated his rational and scientific views in favor of more religious views. I am pleased to find two essays by Dr. Tyson in wihch he discusses his views on spirtuality, "The Perimeter of Ignorance" and "Holy Wars". In them, and especially the latter, he follows Stephen Jay Gould's concept of Science and Religion having separate purposes for humans, which is a view I can argue against but still respect.

Tyson, however, gives me, at least, the impression that he does not necessarily see those spheres of influence as being exactly equal:

"My personal views are entirely pragmatic, and partly resonate with those of Galileo who, during his trial, is credited with saying, "The Bible tells you how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go." Galileo further noted, in a 1615 letter to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, "In my mind God wrote two books. The first book is the Bible, where humans can find the answers to their questions on values and morals. The second book of God is the book of nature, which allows humans to use observation and experiment to answer our own questions about the universe."

I simply go with what works. And what works is the healthy skepticism embodied in scientific method. Believe me, if the Bible had ever been shown to be a rich source of scientific answers and understanding, we would be mining it daily for cosmic discovery. Yet my vocabulary of scientific inspiration strongly overlaps with that of religious enthusiasts. I, like Ptolemy, am humbled in the presence of our clockwork universe. When I am on the cosmic frontier, and I touch the laws of physics with my pen, or when I look upon the endless sky from a observatory on a mountaintop, I well up with an admiration for its splendor. But I do so knowing and accepting that if I propose a God beyond that horizon, one who graces our valley of collective ignorance, the day will come when our sphere of knowledge will have grown so large that I will have no need of that hypothesis."

Finally, one thing that I like to look for in people I call "heroes" appears to be lacking - the quality of humilty, of being able to admit mistakes. Dr. Tyson comes close to that in his above quote, in that he admits that he does not and may not know everything... and he hints at that quality as being important in the pursuit of science, as when he discusses the tendency of scientists at the very edge of knowledge to either invoke God, or to press on and push back the boundaries.

I fully admit, though, that I have only read a few essays and done less than an hours worth of surfing to introduce myself to the man, so the lack is my own lack of knowledge. Certainly Neil deGrasse Tyson is a scientist and educator who bears further reading and research. • 9:59 PM 0 comments

Issues

I have a playlist on my sexy iPod that is nothing but "Happy" music. It's all either up-beat or just puts a smile on my face. I was listening to it this morning on my way in to work.

Some of the songs, though...

Why is:

"Seems I'm not alone in bein' alone..."

...a "happy" thought, to me? • 7:07 AM 1 comments

No one expects a flame war

Thanks to Rusty for reminding me why I need to take Portland Metroblog off my list of "must read" sites.

He didn't expect a flame war after insulting people. That's... um... fascinating.

Shorter Rusty: "People who do things I don't like are bad! Generalizations are good (when I agree with them)!"

o...k • 4:55 PM 0 comments

Whoo-hoo!

Yay! Snow! • 6:40 AM 2 comments

Dream time

Sometime about seven years ago, during a discussion of Tiger Woods, the pro golfer, I made the off-hand, but angry, comment, "That's just what the world needs; another Black sports hero."

Tracy, who at that time was a co-worker and not yet my close friend, made note of that comment, and it disturbed her. After a day or two had passed, she came to me and mentioned my statement, and asked me what, exactly, I had meant by it. She saw my words as being a condemnation of all Black heroes, sports or otherwise.

I had not meant it that way at all, but I can see why it seemed so at the time. I had meant that it seemed to me that almost all Black public figures fell into one of two categories - sports figure or religious figure - and that helped to stereotype minorities as being only worth what their physical labor would earn them, or what their passion for imaginary beliefs urge them to do.

Today, as I was listening to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" and "Why I am opposed to the Vietnam War" speeches, in commemoration of his birthday, I thought back to that off-hand comment of mine. And I realized several things.

First, that I do respect Dr. King's work on behalf of civil rights, and his speaking out about the Vietnam War, but that I do so in spite of his religious beliefs, and not because of them. In his case, alone, I am willing to overlook his ties to a dogma that has become a method for authority to control and hoodwink the population. Dr. King understood very well that Jesus of Nazareth's words, as nearly as we can understand them, were about helping the least among us, and not about building million-dollar churches and funnelling money to political movements whose goals are oppression, torture, and war. And Dr. King saw that poverty in America had dark skin far more often than not.

Second, and following directly from that personal epiphany, for the most part my personal heroes are not men or women of religious beliefs. They are people who either have a wonderful and expressive relationship to words and language, and who use that facility in the service of creating truthful models of the world and the universe in which we live. I've talked briefly about some of them in the past: Stephen Jay Gould, Carl Sagan, James Randi, for example. Sad to say, my heroes are largely white men. I can't sit here and blame society or the culture in which I was brought up for this obvious lack on my part.

If asked right now, I can name exactly one person whom I respect for the twin virtues of love of language and willingness to speak it truthfully, who is also not a white man: Representative John Conyers of Michigan. In commemoration of Dr. King's dream that men and women be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin, I resolve to keep in mind my blind spot in regards to my list of heroes.

And, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I salute Rep. John Conyers as one of my intellectual heroes. Let me give you a brief introduction to this great American politician.

Although Rep. Conyers has served in Congress since 1965, which is nearly my entire life, I first encountered him in Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11". Conyers' ironic tone as he lectured Moore about how most of our representatives don't read the bills they vote on, stoked my curiousity and led me to dig a little deeper into who this honest Congressman was.

Rep. Conyers is the second-longest-serving member of Congress. Four days after Dr. King's assassination in 1968, it was Rep. Conyers who introduced the bill to make Dr. King's birthday a national holiday. That bill was not signed into law until 2 November 1983, an astonishing fifteen years later, and then only after Congress passed the bill with a veto-proof majority, forcing President Reagan's hand.

Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks, served as a member of Conyers' staff from 1965 to 1988, when she retired. Ms. Parks, of course, became the mother of the American Civil Rights movement when she refused to move from her seat in the front of the city bus in Montgomery, Alabama so that a white person could sit down.

Conyers is the founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, which he started in 1969.

Conyers has also authored several studies during the Bush-Cheney years about the abuses of the Federal Government that our current president has presided over, notably the "The Constitution In Crisis", a study of the colusion between the White House and the UK's #10 Downing Street in the lead-up to the Iraq War/Occuption; and "What Went Wrong In Ohio", which covers the 2004 Presidential election and documents all of the various ways in which minorities and the poor, typically Democratic voters, were disenfranchised and systematically prevented from participating in the most basic of (small-"d") democratic acts.

Now, with the Democratic Party taking control of Congress, Conyers has been appointed to the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, the arm of Congress that provides oversight of the administration of the Federal courts and law enforcement, specifically the Justice Department. This standing committee is also the one most involved with the few times in our country's history that articles of impeachment have been brought against the Executive Branch... Which surely has George W. Bush and Richard Cheney worried...

So that I may highlight another aspect of intellectual honesty, one of the other virtues that I respect, may I point out that Rep. Conyers cooperated and admitted to mistakes in violating House ethics rules. Two former aides of Conyers accused him of using them to chaffeur and baby-sit his children, and of having them work on state and local political campaigns. Rep. Conyers worked with the Ethics Committee and because of his admission of wrong-doing and his cooperation, the Ethics Committee considered the matter closed. My heroes admit their mistakes, in public. • 12:16 PM 3 comments

Cold snap

It's at times like these, when the weather is sofreakin'cold, that I wish my phone had less metal on it. • 8:32 PM 1 comments

CulturePulp returns!

CulturePulp is a local (Portland, OR) blog by Mike Russell, an artist and writer and geek (I mean that in a good way). I found him a while back when I discovered the comic-slash-fan fiction Jaxxon's 11, a Star Wars-flavored Ocean's 11 parody.

Wow, that's a lot of explanation... I've blogged about CulturePulp before, and linked to the site.

The actual CulturePulp comics kinda stopped coming this summer. Russell kept posting his movie reviews and other items of note but the titular comics weren't there.

Turns out the artist has been working on another project, one that predated CulturePulp, which he explains and links to in a post tonight. I'd hoped it was J11, which has been languishing in mid-story, but no. However, any minor disappointment I might feel at that is soothed by the fact that Mike held a mini-contest when he teased the return of CulturePulp.

And I won! I must have just checked his site at the right time.

At any rate, thanks Mike! I'm looking forward to "Sacred to the Memory"! • 8:30 PM 1 comments

What's the worry?

What's all the worry over whether or not Apple is going to allow people to install their own apps on the iPhone (drool...). Both TUAW's Dan Lurie and the folks at Gizmodo are reporting on Apple's intentions to keep the iPhone a closed system. And via TUAW I see that Wolf Rentzsch is encouraging developers to file bug reports on the topic.

Right. It's a bug that Apple won't allow third party developers to develop applications for the product the company is betting their future on.

First, maybe Apple is able to make the iPhone "just work" because they're tightly controlling the software and the hardware? Steve Jobs' quoted Alan Kay, a computer scientist, Apple Fellow, and head of Apple's Advanced Technology Group in the '80s, yesterday:

""People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware."

While this is an obvious dig at Microsoft (they didn't start making their own hardware until the XBox and now the Zune), in the context of the iPhone, it's obvious to me that, with the exclusive partnership with one phone carrier, and the amazing integration Apple's done with it, that they're going to want to keep the user's experience as smooth and easy as possible.

And, even so, that brings me to my second, and main, point. Assuming that Apple's not using weasel words about having "a full browser" on the iPhone - what's stopping the user from making use of one of the many web-based applications out there? Or developing new web-based versions of the apps they'd like to see on the iPhone?

Word processing? Spreadsheet? Why not just use Docs, Google's web-based word processor and spreadsheet, for example?

Say... isn't Google a partner with Apple on the iPhone? Gee, do you think that's a freakin' coincidence?

I know, I know... there are some apps that people just can't live without. But even if Apple doesn't let developers explicitly program for the platform, and take advantage of the overall user interface (John Gruber thinks that Apple is making a distinction between Mac OS X and the "OS X" that runs on the iPhone), there are still ways to get the apps on an iPhone. And as a side benefit, allow lots more people to get to the apps, too.

Wait... developers might not see that as a benefit, huh? I guess I'm an optimist. • 7:00 AM 1 comments

The Day After

The only thing better than Stevemas, when Steve Jobs unveils the new sexy...



...is the day after, when every tube on the internets is filled with trucks bearing delicious commentary on the new sexy.

• Brent's reaction could almost be my own...
  
• Gabe's inconsistency, however, is not mine, but that part about having credit card in hand sounds familiar to me.
  
• Jason Kotke, who was unable to attend the keynote in person, mocked up an iPhone using cardboard, just to get an idea of how big it is.
  
• John Gruber takes a stab at Palm CEO Ed Colligan after yesterday's announcement: "Guess what? They're just walking in."
  
• Even Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, as passionate about Apple as he is about politics, appended a quick note about the iPhone to the bottom of a list of political news yesterday, shortly after the keynote.

My first MP3 player was, perhaps contrary to expectations, not an iPod. I had a Diamond Rio MP500 back in the days of our ancestors, before there were iPods, strange as it may seem now. And even then, when I would stuff my laptop, my Palm PDA, my cell phone, and my MP3 player into various pockets and bags, in preparation for a visit into the light of the Daystar outside of my cave, I would think to myself, "self, what I need is something that is this [pointing to my cell phone] form factor, but does all of this. Surely there will come a day when I can get one device that will do this for me." And after I made the required joke about calling myself Shirley, I would pause a moment and genuflect towards Cupertino in the hopes of hastening that day.

Bottom line for me: there's a zero percent chance that I won't get one. However, I'm on contract to T*Mobile until November, and the iPhone is Cingular-only. So I'll have to figure something out between now and then.

But, c'mon. So. Damned. Sexy. • 6:53 AM 2 comments

Quick introductions

Anyone who liked (or at least read with interest, even if they disagreed) my posts (and here and here) about my views on religion and God*, may be interested in a couple of other blogs on the topic.

First is Church of the Churchless. Brian (no relation) and Laurel write about faith and spirituality in a way that I find fascinating and un-controversial. There's much to think about in their posts. I don't want to summarize their beliefs at all, since I've only been reading them for a short while, but I like their style and approach. They suggest a new reader start with their introductory post.

From Church of the Churchless I found another blogger, writing at patzivota.com. The author wrote a mathematically-logical post about the non-existence of God that is splendid in its rigor.

I'm adding these two to my blogroll.

* And since my traffic doubled on those days, it seems a lot of you did. • 7:07 AM 0 comments

Technology is cool

Right before Christmas, I broke down and purchased a new TV. My old one, which was built during the Carter Administration (I believe) and was a hand-me-down many times over, had finally died. Sort of. Well, it had died enough to let me rationalize buying a new one, anyway.

This week, now that Christmas is behind me, and basically paid-for, I decided to upgrade my cable service. Earlier in the week I called Comcast, found out that they've priced digital cable with Digital Video Recorder capabilities at slightly less than the analog package. So I took the leap.

When I told my sister about it, she assured me that having TiVo-like abilities would forever change my relationship to the teevee. I wasn't sure; I didn't really watch that much teevee, but it would be nice to have the ability to time-shift the few shows I do watch; The Simpsons, American Dad, Family Guy (I'm a sucker for Fox's Sunday night lineup), Mythbusters (the best science show ever; and Kari Byron is a totally hot geek girl), The Office... Just those. Mostly.

Honestly, the internets tubes are filled with an almost infinite amount of entertainment. Why vege out in front of the teevee when I can surf forever and ever?

I scheduled the cable guy to come out and "un-cap" my digital signal today, and picked up the DVR (a Motorola box with intriguging outputs on the back: SATA, USB, Firewire, along with HDMI, component video, and S/PDIF audio) on Friday.

After a mis-communication about the home visit (which I confirmed with a phone call to Comcast was the fault of Comcast, not mine, and which was quickly straightened out in my favor (thanks, Kyle!) without me having to get upset at all), this afternoon I found myself with digital cable.

Blah, blah, surfing the channels. I saw that "Wayne's World" was on HBO, and even though I hadn't ordered HBO, I tried that channel. And a quick message about it being a subscription channel popped up, went away, and I found myself watching Wayne and Cassandra (the amazing Tia Carerre, rowr).

Then, while still playing with the remote, I hit the "up arrow" - and the picture paused! At first, I thought I'd done something wrong. I started hitting the other buttons, to un-stick it, and when I hit the "left arrow" - the movie started rewinding!

Oh. Your. God.

I can pause and rewind teevee?! That's almost better than sex. Seriously. I searched my brain trying to remember if Tia Carerre had any nude or topless scenes in this movie...

I texted Tracy to share this wonderful news, and she agreed that it was The. Best. Thing. Ever. She said that once you've got this, you never want to be without it.

I replied that I've only had it for less than a half-hour and I already don't want to be without it.

And, yes, Lisa - this will almost assuredly change the way I watch teevee.

When my tax refund comes back I'm definitely buying an HDTV... • 6:12 PM 1 comments

Proud

Picture stolen shamelessly from Digby's post on Hullabaloo.


Picture stolen shamelessly from KagroX's post on dKos.

I'm proud to be a liberal, progressive, Democrat today. • 11:11 AM 0 comments

Finances

This was the first vacation in a long time where I my debts did not increase significantly.

In fact, my total debt only increased by $38.00 because of my vacation.

The rest of the money I spent was all cash I'd saved for the trip. Or, like the plane tickets I "purchased" with frequent flyer miles, wasn't even out-of-pocket money at all.

Through it all my bills and other expenses all continued to be paid on time and in full.

And I have money for my day-to-day expenses until my next paycheck.

Is this all a sign of financial health? At the least it means, to me, that I'm well on my way to finally getting the whole "money problem" solved. 42 isn't too late to learn this stuff, is it? • 3:59 PM 0 comments

Consistency

One of the guiding principles of my life is consistency. Rules, laws, ethics and morals, in my eyes, should apply to the largest group possible. If the sauce is good for the goose, then the gander should find it just fine, too. No exceptions. Or, realistically, few exceptions, and then only for practical or material reasons.

I have no problem admitting I'm wrong on matters of fact. Ask my friends. I do it all the time, and I hold in very high esteem those who can do the same (which is one criteria I use for choosing my friends, as well as my intellectual heroes).

But I hate admitting an error on matters of principle.

Doesn't that seem like a contradiction?

Facts are not open to debate. That's what makes them facts. Facts are directly observable, empirically documented, events about which there is no question. They're measurable, precise. Maybe I'm not challenging myself by sticking to the facts? I mean, that's kind of easy, right? Fact: diamonds are hard. Water is wet. Horses have four legs. Duh. Easy-peasy.

Principles... are personal, more often than not. Even when groups of people all agree to abide by certain principles, there can be honest disagreement about the principles involved, and their priority, and how they're interpreted and applied to actual people, places and events. Even in the most extreme cases, principles are... messy. Complicated. They're not black-and-white - they have shades of gray. Charcoal gray.

Like - murder. Murder is wrong, almost everyone can agree with that statement. But there are times when murder is... less wrong. There are many who believe that killing someone can actually be a righteous event. There's disagreement on when killing someone is actually to be called "murder" in the first place. I'm just touching on many of the complex issues surrounding the whole idea of murder, but hopefully you can see my point. A simple, binary declaration of "murder is wrong" may be nice in theory but it's a map that doesn't even begin to cover the actual landscape. In fact, it's nearly useless as a map except in the broadest sense: I'm going to try to avoid killing other people today.

But what if I'm driving and hit a pedestrian? Regardless of the legal definitions and outcomes, I believe I would feel immense guilt, due to my principles. Guilt that may not be assuaged by the legal process, or the assurances of my friends and family that it was all a terrible accident.

I would find it difficult not to go from thinking "murder is wrong" to "I killed someone" to "I am wrong for killing someone".

And, again, that's the simplest case, one of the few clear-cut examples of morality that human life can offer. What about other, lesser moral values? Lying? Cheating on a relationship? Theft?

So much to think about. What do I value and what are the boundaries on those values?

Is consistency the best approach to matters of principle? When does consistency become a demerit, rather than a gain?

Can I, this late in life, begin to achieve some... flexibility? • 1:19 PM 3 comments

Renewal

Just a quick note - I renewed the domain registrations for bamoon.com, brian-moon.com, and lunarobverse.com today, via a French firm called GANDI (I think it's all in capitals because it stands for something in French; not sure), for another year.

So my site is safe for another year of blobbing. I should do something with the other two domains, though. Someday. • 4:40 PM 0 comments

Brief moment of comedy

This morning, at 6:30 AM Eastern Time, I was sitting on the hotel shuttle bus, waiting to be taken to the airport.

With me on the bus were 10 members of a high school football team from Anchorage, along with 3 team coaches, along with all of our respective luggage.

The driver asked us where we were going, to determine which terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport to deliver us.

Thirteen boys and men answered geographically: "Alaska."

One man answered airliner-ly: "Alaska."

There was a brief moment of comedy while that all got sorted out, in the vein of Abbot and Costello. • 2:49 PM 0 comments