Friday, 29 May, 2009. 03:50:08 PM
My AT&T Call Vantage service is being discontinued for my second home line, so I signed up for
Vonage service instead. No problems, it works pretty well.
/n
Tuesday, 26 May, 2009. 01:05:43 PM
The California court upheld Proposition 8, a very sad day in our
history. The precedent is now set in California that a simple majority+1
vote is sufficient to remove a civil right.
This means that if just 50%+1 of Californians decide that if Black
people shouldn't marry White people, then that's enough to outlaw
mixed marriages.
Our Constitution is supposed to protect ALL of us equally. It
should never be possible for civil rights to be voted away by
a bigoted majority.
/n
Monday, 25 May, 2009. 10:00:46 PM
I built a bench for our deck out of cedar today. It's 2' x 5' and is meant to hold my tomatoes. Total cost of materials was less than $60, a savings over the flimsy benches at Target. Mine is solid and heavy.
/n
Wednesday, 20 May, 2009. 02:37:32 PM
Just watched two fawns born in my backyard.
/n
Thursday, 07 May, 2009. 11:44:40 PM
Just wrote a comment on Kos which is as close to a review of Star Trek as I'm going to get:
I really liked the movie, but the most glaring thing about it is its irrelevance. If there is anything that Star Trek always was, it was relevant to the world that we live in, while looking forward to a world that we can build.
No spoilers here, but the movie was full of action without relevance. Save the universe - again. And instead of looking forward, we got to look backwards. The original Star Trek was conceived in a time when people were preparing to go to the MOON.
There's something really wrong here. We're not going to the moon any longer. Our grand challenges aren't ones that capture the imagination. Gene sequencing? It's been compared to the Apollo Project, but it's not the stuff of idealistic dreams.
I was entertained and amazed by the new Trek film. I was thrilled to hear the familiar lines from legendary characters. "I'm giving you all she's got, Captain!" It was a pure delight to watch the Enterprise on the screen again. But ultimately I was left cold.
Maybe I was not quite right about the relevance of this Trek film. Perhaps it's relevant to us in an important but unflattering way.
As I left the theater, I thought that it reminded me of Detroit's latest cars. You know the ones. The Mustang. The Camaro. The Charger. The Challenger. Detroit is mining the glory days of 40 years ago looking for anything that will sell, rather than keeping the focus on the future. When we were going to the Moon, the car that Detroit was making 40 years previous was the Model T.
Detroit doesn't exist in a vacuum. They are just responding to their read of the winds of our culture. Detroit is rehashing 40 year old designs because that's what Americans see as the best of times. Everybody is looking back to the good old days which never were instead of forward to the good new days which are to come. Hollywood is doing the same thing to us, mining every last comic book character they can find. Maybe we'll hit bottom on this trend when something like "Mork and Mindy" gets "reimagined." Or should we be treated to some more of the Fonz? I hope not. Leave the Fonz alone!
So for the first time watching Star Trek I wasn't seeing an optimistic vision of the future. The Star Trek of the future was always supposed to be a reflection of our aspirations, and a challenge to build a better world of the future. Now Star Trek is telling us the old dreams were all we needed.
/n
Thursday, 07 May, 2009. 10:36:16 PM
I saw the new Star Trek film on the IMAX screen, and it was quite good. But I am conflicted about what I really think about it.
/n
Tuesday, 05 May, 2009. 02:42:43 PM
I only say good things about businesses when they have
superior customer service. American Eagle Appliance in Austin
http://www.americaneagleappliance.com/ 512-341-9111 is a local business
that I've used several times. A few years ago on Thanksgiving the fridge
broke right after the leftovers had gone in. The technician repaired the
refridgerator at 11:30 at night on Thanksgiving, saving all that food.
They don't even charge extra for emergency calls. The cost of the repair
was just the same as if it were a regular day.
/n
Friday, 01 May, 2009. 11:47:57 PM
Just bought my ticket to the new Star Trek movie. I'm going to see it at the IMAX theater on opening night.
/n
Friday, 01 May, 2009. 10:29:55 PM
Bought a dress for Kristiana from Target. The silk screening on the dress has a strong chemical odor, so I wrote the following review on the website:
We bought this dress for our daughter and noticed that it had a strong chemical smell very much like gasoline coming from the silk screening inks used to make the pattern on the dress.
We're taking the dress back because we have no idea what kind of health hazard these volatile compounds might pose to a child.
/n
Friday, 01 May, 2009. 09:52:19 AM
The logo of the new GOP:
