Author: Brian

If you see this, nevermind

General

If you can see this, nevermind the rest of the post.

If you can’t see this, then what I’d like you to know is that my main web server, Eggers appears to be down (so that link I just took the time to put in this post? It won’t work), and that I’m working on it as best as I can, and that I have temporarily switched over to my backup web server, and soon everything will be groovy once again.

But of course, if you can’t see this, then I won’t be able to let you know all that. So you might be worried. Don’t be worried, though, because I’m doing what I can to fix things.

I’ll let you know when it’s working again. Which will be, of course, after the point when it will matter. So I understand your confusion.

Random Questionnaire, First in a series

General

  1. If you were a tree, how hard would you photosynthesize?
  2. There are two trains leaving Chicago; one is traveling at an average speed of 65 MPH, the other is traveling at an average speed of 45 MPH.
    1. On one of these trains is a young child who is taking his first trip out of the city, going to a rural farm to spend the summer with his cousins. He will adopt a small puppy, and beg to bring it back with him to the city, but his parents will refuse. He will eventually forgive them, but he will remember that puppy for the rest of his days. Name the puppy.
    2. On the other, is a beautiful woman in a red dress, her long brunette hair falling gently over her face and covering one eye. She adjusts the hem of her dress to demurely cover her knees, then glances pensively out the window at the passing scenery. A short man in a dark double-breasted suit will watch her from behind a newspaper for the entire trip. What is the headline on the newspaper? Bonus question: How does the man know the woman?

  3. Considering the lyrics: “She packed my bags last night pre-flight. Zero hour nine a.m. And i’m gonna be high as a kite by then. I miss the earth so much i miss my wife. It’s lonely out in space. On such a timeless flight.” – What did he have for lunch that day?
  4. Finally, for extra credit: In 25 words or less, practice war no more.

The Twenty-first Century

General

How’s this for living in the future:

At home, using the built-in camera on my portable dual-core computer1 to scan and look up every CD I own from an online database of product information.

Oh, I downloaded the program I’m using2 to scan the CDs and purchased it without ever having to touch any physical product.

Once I figured out that the program could help me list and sell those CDs to any buyer around the world3, I sent a thank-you to its creator, and got a nearly-instantaneous response, despite us not knowing anything about each other prior to that, using a free communications service4 and a free program5 that makes use of the communication services’ public Application Programming Interface (API).

While scanning CDs, I’m picking songs to listen to via my cell phone6. I can see every song in the library, with artist and album information, and album cover art. I can queue up songs for later, or have the songs played immediately. I can search the library for artist, album or song title, which is handy because there’s almost 5000 songs in there. The songs are played from another computer the size of a stack of 5-6 CD jewel cases7, which is plugged in to my stereo and displays artist, song, album information, along with a graphic display of the album cover and some nifty visual effects8, on my TV. And I don’t even have to have line of sight to the computer or the stereo to do this; it makes use of my wireless network, so I can do it from the other room.

1 A MacBook Pro 15″ dual-core with iSight (and many more features).
2 Delicious Library 2, a wonderfully-designed program that seems to exemplify the Apple approach to doing one thing, beautifully.
3 Amazon Marketplace.
4 Obviously, I’m talking about Twitter, the public short message site.
5 The still-in-beta Nambu.
6 Duh, if you haven’t been paying attention, I’m talking about my iPhone.
7 An Intel-chipped Apple Mac mini.
8 Another Apple product – iTunes.

Needles

General

“This is my boyfriend, Brian,” Lindsey said, introducing me to the blonde nurse whose name I have forgotten1 and Phyllis, the older nurse who has been caring for Lindsey since she was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis three years ago.

Lindsey was at the clinic for an infusion of Tysabri, a monthly treatment that helps prevent recurrence of symptoms of MS sufferers. I was there to help entertain her and as moral support.

And, also, I was there because I care about her. But I believe today was the first time she has referred to me as her boyfriend.

It’s a new relationship. She and I are still noticing many “firsts”. I very much like it.

As the blonde nurse helped Lindsey get settled in to her reclining chair, got her some pillows and a blanket, I stood out of the way. The infusion would take about an hour or so, and then she had to wait an hour or so after to ensure that she did not have a reaction to the drug. Today was her 13th infusion. I mugged for her and smiled and blew kisses at her.

I thought about the last time I was in this hospital, last summer, when my sister was having a gall bladder attack and had to have emergency surgery to remove it. It was serious, and her life had been in danger, and our immediate family had rallied around her while she recovered. She had been here for almost a week, and eventually recovered, but that episode had reminded me that hospitals are places that will always be associated with loss, both potential and realized.

Lindsey’s monthly infusion helps her deal with her disease. But it is not a cure. I am aware of that, today, in this room, more than ever. I feel Lindsey’s bravery and strength and I hope that I am that strong, too, because now that I have met her, I would very much like to get to know her even better. Ours is the kind of relationship I haven’t had in a long time; one that makes it easier for me to think of future things.

The nurse whose name I have forgotten prepped Lindsey’s arm for the needle. Lindsey has learned that her right arm is better able to take the needle; trying to get a vein in the left arm hurts and is rarely successful. She’s learned that the hard way. So today she is clear and direct about which arm is to be used. The nurse cleans the arm, locates the vein she will use, and pulls out the sterile needle and tube and blue connector to which, later, the tube that leads to the clear baggie of Tysabri will be screwed into. The IV. Intravenous.

Lindsey turns her face away, and closes her eyes.

I think of all the times I have given blood, and how I can’t watch as it enters my own arm. The quick sting and the sudden warmth, and how the warmth of the blood flowing out of my body and through the clear plastic tube laying along the skin of my forearm feels so strange.

I watch Lindsey’s face, eyes closed, and I have to turn away. “I can’t watch,” I say, trying to put a joking tone into my voice.

“Neither can I,” Lindsey says. “You know they do this every month, right?”

“I know. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to watch.” I reply.

“He’s got that empathy thing goin’ on,” the nurse whose name I have forgotten says, and Lindsey opens her eyes and looks at me. I smile. I like that. And it’s true.

I love her.

1 Lindsey informed me, after reading a draft of this post, that her name was Julianne

New Comment Policy

meta

As a way of getting more conversation going here, I’ve been thinking about a new comment policy. Here are my thoughts:

  • As before, I reserve the right to delete or mock any anonymous comments. An anonymous comment is one that doesn’t have a profile associated with it, whether that’s a pseudonym or actual real-world identity. Note that a pseudonym is not the same as an anonymous comment – I’m known on the internet as Lunar Obverse, and have been for a long time, and tracing that pseudonym back to my real-world identity is fairly easy, so it’s as good as my real name.
  • Likewise, if the comment appears to me to be spam (selling something, or just linking to a site that is not connected to the post or my blog at all), I will delete it. I reserve the right to mock it, but I’m more likely to just make it gone.
  • I will make every effort to respond to any non-anonymous comment left on my blog. Every single one. I’ll try to reply within 24 hours.
  • I’ll use this post to mention that you can track the conversation here: you can get an RSS feed of the all the comments posted here by opening the “All Comments” feed in your RSS reader thingamajig.
  • If you have a Google account and use it to identify yourself when you comment, you get an option to have follow-up comments on a specific post you’ve commented on emailed to you.
  • When I figure out what tag I need to add to my template that enables it, you’ll have the ability to follow comments on a specific post via RSS feeder without having to comment. But of course I encourage you to comment, anyway. ‘Cause I want more discussion ’round here.
  • Feel free to use my contact form to email me about stuff you don’t want posted publicly, but again, posting a comment that everyone can see can help inform many more people. Just sayin’. And I reserve the right to post any email I get from that form if I think it will be entertaining, informative, or it would give me a warm glow of satisfaction.

Finally, let me throw this open to my readers. If you’ve never commented before, introduce yourself and give me some feedback. What do you like? What don’t you like? What would you want to see more of? Less of? How did you find this blog? Do you have a blog of your own – feel free to pimp it out in this thread!

Timing

General

Having not heard from Ken yet that morning, I decided to give him a call.

He picked up immediately but I heard gravel in his voice.

“Did I wake you up?” I asked.

“Did you not see my email?” he asked in return.

My inbox had been empty all morning. I brought Outlook to the front, and, sure enough, there was an email from Ken saying he was calling in sick.

The timestamp on the email was 7:22 AM.

According to my system clock, it was currently 7:21 AM.

I resisted the urge to say, “You mean the email you’re going to send in a minute?” and just apologized for waking him and got off the phone to let him rest.

Behind but still here

General

I haven’t watched any TV this week. Of course, it’s only Wednesday. And I haven’t blogged, either. I am so behind on the internets; I feel out of touch.

Are pictures of cats with captions in little-kid-speak still funny?

Are Hollywood starlets still showing off their panties and boobies while climbing in and out of cars?

Are people still downloading all the free illegal music that’s out there? Are there still middlemen who have managed to insert themselves between the artists and the fans still complaining and using the legal system to extort both ends of the creative chain, too?

Are people still arguing about politics? Religion? Star Trek vs. Star Wars? Good, good. Good to hear.

Are people still booking their own flights to far away destinations like Hawaii, London, Bakersfield?

Are the poor saps who have legitimately figured out how to enlarge penises and boobies still completely unable to get their message out via HTML-based poorly-formatted email? Man, those guys have it rough. They’re right up there with the folk who want us all to love (their) God or country or armed forces and have only the email system and every email address in their contact list to do it with.

In fact, I’m so out of it, I can’t even think up any more internet memes right now. I think I’ll go tweet that.

Back

General

I’m back from my mini-vacation. Just sayin’.

I’ll be back to posting at least once a day Monday through Friday, with optional posts on the weekends, I promise, at least until I stop doing that.

Even though my surfing levels were greatly depreciated over my vacation, I did still notice some bits of this and that on the internets. Here’s a few to help kick-start this sunny, warm, spring Portland morning1.

  • I’ve had, in draft form, a five-part series on “what constitutes evidence of God?” for months now. I may dust it off and finish writing it someday, but in the meantime, Deacon Duncan is starting a series on the similar topic of examining the positive evidence against God. Should be fascinating.
  • Via Kottke comes an article from The New Scientist that examines 13 scientific anomalies, which are fascinating. Please note, though, that none of the 13 things on this list are evidence of the supernatural – mainly because, when we find out what’s going on in each case, we will be using rational thinking, logic, and the scientific process to find out, and almost certainly each answer will be natural, not supernatural.
  • I’m continuing to use twitter (as “lunarobverse”, and, at least for the past day, Nambu, while still in beta, is performing really well and not being crash-y and giving me the ability to collect my follows into smaller groups. Kinda awesome.
  • I love Penelope Trunk and the fact that she says stuff that people think but rarely say in person, like how she thinks of dating as a way to improve her online brand and how that’s not different from what some women have done throughout history.
  • Political activists The Yes Men are saving the world again.
  • President Obama addresses the grave dangers of Wild Things, and Where They Are:

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuAaj8DotqU&hl=en&fs=1]

1 Your morning may vary.

My email to President Obama (a series)

lettertoObama

Is it OK for an ordinary citizen to escape a trial for a felony (e.g., murder, armed robbery, rape) in Federal court using the same rationale that the Obama Administration, like the Bush Administration before it, is using to avoid its positive obligation to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed by the United States government; to wit, that we must look forward and not backward, and that any investigation into such crimes and attempt to uphold the law of the land is simply angry revenge-seeking?

How far do you think an ordinary citizen would get with that defense in Federal court? Why does the Obama Administration feel that that is an adequate defense for obvious war crimes like torture, indefinite imprisonment of non-combatants, and pre-emptive war? Why is such a defense allowed only for a few in our free society? Surely a citizen accused of a most hateful crime would be willing to affirm that the crimes that had taken place shall not occur again, if they could be relieved of the obligation to face the consequences of their actions? Surely anyone can justify a past action to be in their own best interest, or the best interests of society as a whole? Of course anyone could view the judgment of a jury and court of law as “a force to divide us” or simply an action taken in “strong views and emotions”, instead of, you know, the price of disobeying the law.

In fact, even having to make that argument in court, before a Federal judge, means that the ordinary citizen has a greater burden than the civil servants, appointed officials, and elected political leaders, that have designed, justified, implemented, and carried out detention and interrogation schemes that violate international treaty and our own laws. Detention and interrogation schemes that were in fact denounced by military leaders and civilian intelligence agents, in addition to being denounced by Senator Barack Obama, candidate for the United States Presidency, campaigning on a platform of hope and change.

As a side note, by what legal rationale are non-military civilian employees of the CIA allowed to adopt the defense that they were “only following orders” when it comes to acts that, if pursued by any other world government, would be considered torture and a violation of our international treaties and our own country’s laws? I’m just curious.

Island time

General

As of 4:00 PM last night, I am officially on vacation from work. I plan to do almost nothing but spend some time with Lindsey and not think about work.

I am, in fact, not thinking about work and spending time with Lindsey even as I type this. We’re sitting on a comfortable couch, each with our laptops (she an HP and me on my new sexy thing), drinking coffee and sharing funny things we find.

She just brought me coffee. ‘Cause she’s awesome like that.

At any rate, I may not be posting much ’round here until vacation is over. No promises.

I will probably be Tweeting, so feel free to catch up with me over there.