Dave Strom's blog

Sara Palin burning for prez run?

2011-05-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

She told Fox Snooze that she has "fire in the belly."

Too bad the pilot light in her head blew out long ago.

Dave Strom November 2010 Votes

2010-10-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

Here I am again. Big ballot this time. Takes longer, but more fun.
Click here to go to my web page.

Here is the link to my analysis of the propositions. Click the link or scroll down to read it.

Prop 19: Legalize pot. YES.

Prop 20: Some parties are more equal. NO, they are not!

Prop 21: Car money for parks. YES.

Prop 22: Uh, huh, what? Money from this pile no longer goes to this other pile, and, uh, why all the little knots in the rules, NO.

Prop 23: Die gasping, Earthly scum! NO NO NO NO NO NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Prop 24: You mere middle class insects can't get rid of our neat little 1.7 billion dollar tax loophole! Oh, YES, we can!

Prop 25: Opponents say, don't pass nothin', but fix everything! I say, YES to 1/2 instead of 2/3 to pass the budget.

Prop 26: Us poor little oil, tobacco, and alcohol guys need even more tax breaks! Uh, NO you don't!

Prop 27: At last, at last, I get to kill Prop 11! YES MASTER YES I WILL THROW THE DEATH SWITCH HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Here's my guide to the people running on the California ballot. Two of who I HATE. (The word HATE is deep voice, cartoon monster growl.) Click the link or scroll down to read it.

California Governor: Jerry Brown

California Lieutenant Governor: James Castillo

Secretary of State: Debra Bowen

Controller: John Chiang

Treasurer: Bill Lockyer

Attorney General: Kamala Harris?

Insurance Commissioner: Dave Jones

State Board of Equalization, District 1: Betty Yee

U.S. Senator: Barbara Boxer

Here is the link to my vote on San Mateo people and issues. Click the link or scroll down to read it.

U.S. Representative, 12th District: Jackie Speier

State Senator, 8th Senate District: ME! Dave Strom!

Member of State Assembly, 19th District: Jerry Hill

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tom Torlakson

Member, Board of Supervisors, 3rd District: April Vargas

Treasurer-Tax Collector: Dave Mandelkern

San Mateo County Harbor District, Members, Board of Commissions: James J. Tucker, Sabrina Brennan

San Mateo Judgie-Wudgies! Carlos Moreno: YES. Ming Chin: YES. Tani Cantil-Sakauye: YES. Kathleen Banke: NO. Robert Dondero: NO. James Lambden: YES. Martin Jenkins: NO. Peter Siggins: YES. Timothy Reardon: NO. Henry Needham, Jr.: NO. Terence Bruiniers: NO. And wait till you read my reasoning on this I used a propaganda mill's own crap against it HA HA!

San Mateo Union High School District, Measure O: YES.

City/County Association of Governments, Measure M: YES.

County of San Mateo, Measure U: YES.

To make up my mind, I read my voter guides. I also looked up the San Francisco Bay Guardian endorsements. And I used smartvoter.com.

Dave Strom June 2010 Votes

2010-06-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

And... I should have done this sooner cuz nearly every one I know votes absentee and has voted already, whilst I like walking into the voting booth.
Click here to go to my June 2010 voting web page.

And... a moment ago (Nov 27, 2010) I accidentally wiped out this post, so I am replacing it with a near duplicate.

Here is the link to my analysis of the Green candidates. Click the link or scroll down to read it. But there will not be much to read, who else out there is Green other than me?

Here is the link to my analysis of the propositions. Click the link or scroll down to read it.

Prop 13: Do Not Raise Tax On Buildings That Do Not Faw Down. YES.

Prop 14: You Get Only Two Guys That We Like And You Do Not Get To Know Them First. NO!

Prop 15: California Fair Elections Act, as fair as it can get for now. YES!

Prop 16: Mr. Burns Owns ALL Your Electricity And You Will Pay More And More and MORE, Now and FOREVER!!!! NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!

Prop 17: Insurance Companies Put Your Balls In A Vise And Squeeze And Squeeze And Squeeze And Squeeze And AAAAAAAAA!!!!! Uh, NO!

Here is the link to my vote on California Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tom Torlakson. Click the link or scroll down to read it.

Here is the link to my vote on San Mateo issues. Click the link or scroll down to read it.

County Superintendent of Schools: Anne Campbell

Member, Board of Supervisors, 2nd District: Carol Groom

Member, Board of Supervisors, 3rd District: April Vargas

Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder: Mark Church

Controller: Tom Huening

Coroner: Stacie Nevares

District Attorney: Stephen Wagstaffe.

Sheriff: Greg Munks

Treasurer-Tax Collector: Dave Mandelkern

San Mateo County Community College District Measure G. YES.

To make up my mind, I read my voter guide (I had to look up the propositions (this link might go out of date for the June 2010 election) on line, since I did not get that in my voters guide). I also looked up the San Francisco Bay Guardian endorsements. And I used smartvoter.com.

My November 2009 votes.

2009-10-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

San Mateo Union High School District Board Members: Linda Lees Dwyer, Peter H. Hanley, Robert H. Griffen.

City of San Mateo City Council Members: Frederick Arn Hansson, Brant Grotte, Bertha Hall Sanchez.

Measure L and M. Yes and Yes.

Click here to go to my web page, it has more discussion.

I finally made the jump from homepage.mac to iWeb.

2009-07-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

It just means that I moved my web pages to my iWeb pages. Although I have a section where I put up my regular HTML pages (which I created myself without iWeb). To create my web pages, I can use either iWeb, or any web editor I want. The best of both worlds.

You still enter my website through www.davestrom.com, but a lot of the links on my older blog postings will not work anymore. If you need to see those links, go to www.davestrom.com and then navigate to find them.

How I will (YAWN!) vote on Props 1A-1F.

2009-05-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

No. On all of them.

What, you want some background? OK, you can go to my web page. I am not even going to bother with putting some of that stuff in this blog posting.

Click here to go to my prop write-up. Budget propositions are hard to get mad about. Gee, not a lot of fun this time. But I can get back to writing my nnnnnnnn-novel! (Say it like Stewie of Family Guy says to Brian the dog, who is writing a novel, a rather rotten one.)

Book book book.

2009-05-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

I will head to the Pruneyard's Barnes and Nobel in Campbell this eve at 7:30. I will see if I can do a reading. I have done enough readings by now that it is getting easier.

I keep getting ideas in bed, and writing them down so's I don't forget. Several of those ideas help. Like what a third object of power should be in my book, and how it will fit with a couple characters standing in for Frodo (depressed Swedish assassin) Gollum (a perv of a comic book artist), and Sam (a Hooters girl). Well, I think that is how I want to write that chapter. The idea seems good. You know, maybe this book will go somewhere. I hope to finish it in the next, oh, 6 months or so. In time for the holiday season? Doing a satire is fum; there is so much to poke fun at (or pay an homage to, if I actually like the source material).

Have to start finding ways to get this book noticed. Maybe I have a use for Twitter or Facebook now. I have to look into that. How do you market a book nowadays? Beter start soon, if I want to build some buzz. Already, I seem to be getting a little notice at Red Rock Coffee. One guy working there said he wanted to hear more, and what was going to happen next (I ended on a cliffhanger last time). I had to tell him I am not writing in sequential order, so it will be a while before I resolve that. I suppose I could have said, "HUMPH! GREAT ART CANNOT BE RUSHED!" Well, it does have to be written.

Also have to look for my next tech writing gig. I do not forget about that! I see some stuff out there; it was getting getting dry for a couple of weeks, but I an seeing a little more opportunity again. I am seeing a little more in the area of animation; I have to play with that! I have learned that a good way to get a gig is to play with a company's software and send that with your resume or writing samples.

OK, time to fold laundry.

A little FF and DD, and other super stuff.

2009-03-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

I am watching the Fantastic Four movie for background noise as I clean my apartment. I have reviewed this movie on my website.

A few thoughts occur to me. First, Jessica Alba ain't so bad, regardless of cranky fanboys. And I am a little less annoyed by Mr. Fantastic in this flick. Although I still don't see nearly enough of the great Reed Richards intellect.

And the guy who played Doctor Doom is an excellent actor. BUT HE WAS HANDED A ROTTEN PART. Why? I figured out why it really bugs me, especially in these economic times.

In the comics, Doctor Doom is a self-made villain. He started from poverty and worked up to being a world power. In the movie, he starts from riches and goes to everything being taken away.

It's just another example of the viewpoint of the rich being shoved down our throats (oh weep, oh cry, the rich Doctor Doom lost a bunch of cash, oh, cry me a river) and the viewpoint of the poor (the comic book Doctor Doom is a self made man, he knows his roots and protects his countrymen, at least those he has not tossed in the dungeon). The comic book Doom has earned every last scrap of power and money he has, and he knows it. No silver spoon, hundred billion bailouts for him. The movie Doom is just upset about the silver spoon being yanked out, and us working stiffs are supposed to identify with that? UGH! It's a conspiracy, I tell you! A Hollywood executive conspiracy!!!

Oh, and why is the movie Doctor Doom firing a shoulder-launched missile from inside a building, WITHOUT OPENING THE WINDOW FIRST?!?!? Really, that is stupid, what if the impact with the window sets it off prematurely?

Oh, and although I have not seen FF 2, why in the heck wasn't Alicia the one to talk to the Silver Surfer, instead of Sue Storm? Especially this Alicia, who was a great character in the first FF flick. Sue Storm should be fighting alongside the other FF4 members. Did Hollywood think about Sue, "Oh, she's just a GIRL"?!?!?! OK, I hafta see FF2 sometime, I have done enough guessing. Except that turning Galactus into a cloud sucks. We can take a rubber guy, a rock guy, and a fire guy, but we can't handle a 50-foot-tall guy?

As for my book. I did a reading at Red Rock Coffee last night. I might be getting the beginnings of fans. I got a couple of compliments. One guy told me he had heard some of my other performances. And one of the coffee guys told me that he really liked my reading and that maybe I am getting superpowers.

On Sunday, I went to Script Frenzy, where people try to write a 100 page screenplay in one month. I am thinking of joining that, and writing my book as a screenplay. Although I know that it would be a lot easier to sell my story as a book than a screenplay. Heck, it would be hard enough to sell as a graphic novel (considering that I do not draw). Still, it would be an interesting exercise. I might try this.

OK, enough blogging. Time to go back to cleaning.

Another reading at Red Rock Coffee.

2009-02-23T20:48:00.000-08:00

Another lesson. The reading went OK, but I have to shorten the scenery description at the start. After all, isn't that one thing I am poking fun at from Duh DaVinci Code? And that would leave more room for the colorful characters there. Like the guy who had his face reconstructed to look like a cat face (well, I never saw that, but Steve Notley of Bob the Angry Flower did).

I do love open mic night. The performers vary widely and wildly. OK, some are better than others. But I love seeing the little guy trying his stuff out. When you are on stage, the best thing to do is to always always always FORGE AHEAD!!!

I am about to see if I can write some simple iPhone and Android apps. This would be good for me. Start small. (Hello, World!)

I have been checking out cinemasports.com lately. The website shows blank, except for cinemasports' phone number, and that the website is having technical difficulties. If cinemasports is going outta business, I am really gonna miss it. The Iron Chef of filmmaking. Making a 3 minute film in one day. Totally from scratch. Hmm, maybe I ought to look up these 48 hour short film makers. I could do that. Ah, the RUSH of filmmaking!!! I... NEED... IT!!! I will check this out. Hmm, I wonder if I can stand 48 hours to adrenalin.

Here I am. The writer.

2009-02-07T22:17:00.000-08:00

I am at Red Rock Coffee. Listening to local bands. Writing another chapter of my book. Not quite as far as I would have liked into the chapter, but OK, I have a good shot at having it ready to read at Red Rock's Monday night Open Mic.

I am beginning to wonder if I should post some of the chapters. Or maybe that should go into a separate blog, aimed only for the book.

And my nose is getting, uh, a little runny. I ain't gonna last much longer tonight.

The music here is good. Several little bands. The voice of the little guy! And a few cute girls. They all sound pretty good!

I am at a table with two chairs. I sit in one, the other is empty. I was asked 4 times if sir, is this chair free? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, it is, yes, go ahead, yes yes YES. (It was a little noisy that fourth time.)

Well, time to pack up. I also deleted some rotten marketing posting off my blog. C'mon, you jerks, very few people look at my blog! You wanna get your filthy rotten stinking spam read? Aim higher!

Dave Strom's Nov 2008 Votes (ya know ya luv it!)

2008-10-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to my usual election rantings on my website. Most of the links below will also go there.

Here is the link to my vote on the prez: Barack Obama! Click the link to read it.

Here is the link to my analysis of the propositions. Click the link to read it.

Prop 7: Kill small solar and wind power. NO.

Here is the link to my vote on California State District Stuff. Click the link to read it.

Here is the link to my vote on San Mateo issues. Click the link to read it.

To make up my mind, I read my voter guide. I also looked up the San Francisco Bay Guardian endorsements. And I used smartvoter.com.

Dave's picks for the June 2008 election

2008-06-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to my usual election rantings on my website. Most of the links below will also go there.

Here are my picks for the California 12th congressional district. Click the links below to read them in more detail.

Green pick: Barry Hermanson. He is the only choice I have, since I am Green. He is a good guy.
Democrat pick: Jackie Speier. I think I am falling in love. She is serving out the remainder of Tom Lantos's term. And the first Congressional speech she made--blasting Bush over the Iraq war--had some repubs first boo her and then walk out. Fine, now, could you dirtbags please STAY OUT???
Republican pick: Mike Moloney. Yeah, I have already talked about him. The repub surprise. The link leads to my previous post about him.

Here is the link to my analysis of the propositions: I HATE 98! 99, YES YES YES! 98 is another piece of crap convincing you that if you don't destroy all rent control in California and gut water pollution laws also, that a bulldozer will flatten your house. HOW DUMB DO THEY THINK WE ARE?!?!?! YES on 99!!! (99 had to be put on the ballot so 98 would not do damage. These Jarvis guys have annoyed me enough that I made up a new term for them. You can click the link to read it.)

Here is the link to my vote on San Mateo issues. Click the link or scroll down to read it.

Judge of the Superior Court: Don Franchi.
Member of the Board of Supervisors, 1st District: Mark Church.
Member of the Board of Supervisors, 4th District: Rose Jacobs Gibson.
Member of the Board of Supervisors, 5th District: Adrienne J. Tisser.
County of San Mateo Sales Tax: Measure 0. Yes. This measly 1/8 of one percent sales tax still has the Libertarians howling. I got mad enough to kick them some. And kick Ayn Rand once. Guess I am not too mad at her. Yet.

To make up my mind, I read my voter guide. I also looked up the San Francisco Bay Guardian endorsements.

Dave's pick for the 12th Congressional District Special Election

2008-04-04T00:05:00.000-07:00

Tom Lantos passed away recently. We in the 12th Congressional District in California have to vote in a replacement. April 8 is that special election.

To make up my mind, I tried reading my voter guide (online and printed), but it had diddly-squat info. I looked up smartvoter.org for this election. Barry Hermanson, the Green candidate, killed a few trees and mailed me a fairly good flier about himself. And I shoulda went to the debate a week ago! Nuts! I searched on 12th congressional district on the San Mateo County Times website, and found a few articles. And I found each candidate's website for this election.

Here are links to my ranting on my website about the candidates for the 12th district. Click the links to read the longer rants on my website, or read the tiny bullet list rants below the links.

So why did I pick the Green guy? Other than I am also Green.

Barry Hermanson says it: the Iraq war was wrong then and now. And his other issues (single payer health care, spend money on the people and rebuilding our infrastructure, and other neat stuff) are nice and Green and agree with me. Yay. He got my vote. Take a look at www.BarryHermanson.org.

Greg Conlon, the radical-right incapable-of-learning-from-Vietnam kick-the-poor-inna-nuts bonehead, hasn't a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Not even his own party leaders support him. (Not because he is a nut, but because they figure that he has no chance to win.) So on the pragmatic side, there is no reason to vote for a democrat. Not that I vote pragmatically anyhow, pragmatism is what neutered the demos and what makes Hillary extra nauseating. Here is his website for this election, www.gregconlonforcongress.com.

Mike Moloney is a real surprise: a Republican I have some respect for, a repub who is opposed to the war for some of the right reasons. He says loudly that we were lied into it. His website is fun to read on its issues page, although the rest sounds like he is screaming into your ear, and I wish there was more info on more issues. But a repub who wants Bush and Cheney impeached? I think I'm in love. But to vote for him, I would have to be in lust also. Look this guy up on www.mikemoloney4congress.com.

Jackie Speier is the fave to win, Tom Lantos's pick to follow him. She is fairly good on the issues, although she (of course) cannot admit that the Iraq war was immoral and illegal from the start, she only mouths that wimpy "badly executed" propaganda. C'mon, Jackie, you have taken bullets, you should have the courage to face and say the truth. Here is her website for this election, www.jackieforcongress.com.

Michelle T. McMurray is way cuter than the other candidates. (Hey, I gotta say something sexist at least once.) She is a superdelegate who supports Obama (Jackie Speier supports Hillary). But she is soft on stopping the Iraq war and on universal health care. Her intellectual mind and her cute face do not sway me. But they do make me sigh a little. Her website, www.mcmurry2008.com, is skimpy on the issues.

Dave's picks for the Feb 2008 election.

2008-02-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

OK, so I am late. Had stuff come up, like taking care of my brother's place and cats, and a visit to Linden Labs, and starting an AJAX class. Anyhow. Here goes.

Click here to go to my webpage for this election.

Here is the link to my picks for the presidential candidates. Click the links to read them.

Demo pick: Barack Obama.

Repub pick: Ron Paul.

Green pick: Ralph Nader.

Here is the link to my analysis of the propositions. Or click my picks below.

Prop 91: NO. Why Is This Prop Even Here?

Prop 92: YES. Cheap College. In a Good Way.

Prop 93: YES. Loosen Up That Dumb Term Limits Crap.

Prop 94-97: NO. Even if Duh Guvernator Sez Bote For My Gamblink Bills!

Here is the link to my vote on San Mateo Measure L: YES. Stop Water From Dripping On Sixth Graders. Click the link to read it.

To make up my mind, I read my voter guide. I also looked up the San Francisco Bay Guardian endorsements.

YouTube embedding in blogger: slight problem

2008-01-12T12:19:00.001-08:00

I find that if I leave my blogger page open for a while, I get the message "we're sorry, but this video is no longer available" when I try to play an embedded YouTube video. Refreshing the blogger page fixes this problem. (But I'd rather not have to refresh the page! I will post a fix if I find it.)

OK, now to try a YouTube link.

2008-01-11T21:42:00.001-08:00

I posted the video I made for my barber. I am referring to the YouTube site I made for him rather than my own, just in case someone in San Mateo wants a really really good haircut at a place with character.

another test for a photo

2008-01-11T21:30:00.001-08:00

Here is a photo of me on a rock. I managed to get this to work by using my flickr account; I am guessing that I must fork over cash to MarsEdit if I am to post photos directly from my Mac. Seems to work OK; in a pinch, all I will need to do from MacWorld Expo is to post my pix to Flickr and then import them into MarsEdit.

Next, maybe I ought to try posting a YouTube link. Been meaning to do that anyhow.

This is a little test of MarsEdit software, preparing for my blogging from MacWorld.

2008-01-11T21:21:00.001-08:00

Test, test, test. OK, I hope this works.

I am having trouble adding a photo to this blog post. I will try just the text first.

Dave Strom's Nov 2007 voter guide

2007-10-24T23:15:00.000-07:00

(Edited on Nov 4; changed one vote for the San Mateo School Board)

Skimpy ballot this year. Just local people running for stuff. Local people are also the most challenging to investigate. I do love a challenge. I googled one of the candidates and opened a site. I read, and read, and read, but could not get a lot of info on the candidates. Then I read whose site it was: "San Mateo County Republican Party." Why am I not surprised? I did find newspaper sources (I have links to them) and to smartvoter.org. But you know what? I need to go to the San Mateo debates (city council and the like). If I go to this much trouble to investigate these guys, I should see them in real life once in a while.

Here is the link to my analysis of the candidates for School Board Member; San Mateo Union High School. My picks: Donald S. Havis (I love this guy, in a non-gay way) and Dave Pine.

Here is the link to my analysis of the candidates (pick 2) for School Board Member; San Mateo-Foster City School. My picks: Colleen Sullivan and Mark D. Hudak (incumbent).

Here is the link to my analysis of the candidates (pick 2) for City Council Member; City of San Mateo. My picks: Jack Matthews (incumbent) and John Lee (incumbent).

To make up my mind, I read my voter guide. Then I read smartvoter.org (the San Mateo page) to find more information on local candidates and issues. I found one article about the city council that helped. Go to the San Mateo County Times, search for John Lee, and then find the article about "Incumbents grilled on growth."

And then, I read the San Mateo County Times Nov 4 picks for the San Mateo School Board and the Oct 26 picks for the City Council.

iPhone SDK: YEAH! Now, how about a Mac Shuttle?

2007-10-18T23:06:00.000-07:00

The iPhone finally opens to 3rd party native applications in Feb 2008. It's about time. The iPhone could not have survived the same idiocy that nearly killed the Mac.

Years ago, when the Mac first came out, it was running on floppy disks. Where I was working, the most prized Mac had 3 floppy drives: one for the OS, one for your application, and one for your data. Then IBM desktop computers started having this thing in them called a "hard drive". And some third party started selling them that you could hack them into your Mac. What was Apple's (maybe Jobs's) response? Something like, "They can't do that, we designed the Mac to not be able to do that!" Idiocy!

Apple was (and sometimes still is) way too fond of closed systems. Making the iPhone a closed system would have killed its growth and made it a tiny niche player. Just like the Macintosh was for a long long long time, and only recently is the Mac getting back its much deserved market share.

And as long as I am at it, there is a tendency for Steve/Apple to close Mac hardware. Except for the Mac Pro, it is nearly impossible to upgrade the hard drive or DVD burner in a Mac. (OK, the MacBook has an easily-replaced hard drive, and why can't the MacBook Pros work that way? Laptop hard drives can DIE!!!!)

When Steve introduced the new iMacs, he talked about how they are all in one unit: monitor, motherboard/CPU/GPU, hard drive, DVD burner. OK, that is fine, iMacs are great computers, but what about people who want to be able to upgrade without replacing EVERY LITTLE BIT OF HARDWARE IN THE WHOLE DARNED COMPUTER?!?!?! As for the other Mac desktops, the Mac Mini is too closed (upgrade its RAM? HAH!), and the Mac Pro is too expensive ($2500? GASP! says the average wallet).

I would like to see a Mac Shuttle. A blend of the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro. Go to http://us.shuttle.com/ to get the idea. Shuttles are compact computer cases where the motherboard (USB and Firewire ports in front and back of the case), and power supply are built-in. You, a Windows desktop builder, add the rest (CPU, hard drive, monitor, etc.).

In my hopes and dreams, a Mac Shuttle would come fully built, like the Mac Pro. (As with the Shuttle case and the Mac Pro, you buy the monitor and speakers separately.) But you, the user, could easily replace the hard drive (they do wear out, and you always want a bigger one). You can replace that old DVD burner with Blu-Ray. You could even add a card or two, if you want to add video inputs or Firewire 1600 (someday). Maybe you can even upgrade the CPU and GPU. Cost: somewhere on the level of the iMac.

I would go for a Mac Shuttle so fast, it would make Jobs's head swim. An economical, very user-upgradeable Macintosh. But this is not even in the rumor mills. Sigh.

But I can dream, can't I? Or at least whine some.

Star Trek, Remastered. YEAH!!!!

2007-10-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

You do know that the original Star Trek Episodes are being remastered, right?

Remastered as in redoing the old special effects? As in making the Enterprise orbiting a planet look like a real starship orbiting a real planet (not in a rather good-looking-but-still-plastic model orbiting a fuzzy orange ball in a really tight orbit cuz it was hard to get the proportions right in the 60s)? As in making the Doomsday Machine look really KILLER?!?!?!

I saw The Galileo 7 when I watched it late one night (TV volume very low, of course). I was thinking, "Hey, how come the planet from orbit looks so real? How come the shuttlecraft looks like it is really moving, instead of hanging from fishing lines? And there is no wax-paper-like ellipse around the shuttlecraft? HOW COME THIS LOOKS SO GOOD?"

I have always been a Trekkie. Even liked Voyager. (Loved the Doctor, LOVED when Seven-of-Nine walked down corridors, front AND back.) But the special effects on the original often looked cheesy. Like the Galileo 7 inching along in orbit, or the Constellation starship wobbling its plastic way down the Doomsday Machine's gullet.

The new effects replace the 60s starship models with 2007 computer models, and they look great. Check it out. (TVLand does not seem to show the remastered episodes; check out a more local station.) However, stuff like the Gorn from Arena (still a great episode, even with the cheap silver-sparkle Gorn eyes) still looks the same.

Look up the episode list. And check out The Doomsday Machine! (remastered)

Anyhow, about time I posted again. One more thing: these episodes are available on iTunes. I am likely to buy a few.

Star Trek still RULEZ!!!

Grado SR80 headphones: A review by Dave "Lovesick" Strom

2007-05-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

My old Sony headphones at home were falling apart. I wanted new ones. Ones that would cover my ears to block some external noise, and stay on my head better.

First, I though noise-canceling headphones would be neat. After trying them, I found they do the job, but only on low rumbly frequencies, not on whiny kids in coffee shops. So they would be great for an airplane (don't fly as much now), train (rare), or car (don't use headphones there). I will change my mind if I fly or train more in the future.

So I looked for the headphones that would sound the best. And whadda ya know, I found great ratings at Consumer Reports online. Some brand called Grado was rated highly; the Grado SR80 headphones for $95 were second only to the Bose $300 noise-canceling headphones. I looked on Amazon; everyone loves Grado SR80.

I need to try before I buy, but these are hard to find in a local store. I found an audiophile store in Berkeley that sells them. (Music Lovers Audio & Video,1995 El Dorado Ave, Berkeley, CA. Complete with audiophile hardware and a very pettable store kitty.) They are not Frys; if you buy, you keep. I listened. They sounded good. I bought ($95, even on Amazon), trusting the reviews.

Today I REALLY listened, whilst eating Pho and reading my Sunday paper. I am not an audiophile, so I will not talk about different frequencies, warmness of tone, crispness of blah, blah, blah. OK, I noticed that bass sounded bassier, and trebles sounded, uh, treblier? I noticed that with many songs, I heard stuff that I had not heard before. Hey, I had not heard that tambourine! Or that beat! These headphones sound GREAT!

Then I turned on "Mystery Achievement" by The Pretenders. (* I love that song.) The beginning drums sounded clear as a bell. And 13 seconds into the song, I heard... IT.

Chrissie Hynde drew breath. "Huh..."

I had never heard THAT before!!!! Was I imagining it?!?!? Was I getting even MORE Chrissie??!? With trembling, fumbling fingers, I set my iPod to the beginning of the song again. 13 anxiously awaited seconds later...

"Huh..."

Oh, Chrissie. Oh, Chrissie! OH, CHRISSIE!!!! Move over, Tyra Banks! I'm in love with my old crush again!

If you want to hear more of your music that you have ever heard before, if you want more high/mid/low range sound, if you wanna hear every little delight hidden away in your music (like Chrissie's smooth sexy little inhale 13 seconds into Mystery Achievement), get the Grado SR80 headphones. You can't find better headphones for less than $100 (before taxes).

The only debits: After an hour, before you get used to the headphones, you might adjust the fit some. Or maybe it is just that you won't wanna take them off. But I find these headphones are feeling better and better. Also, they will not block out external sound, with their foam earcups, quite as well as the top-of-the-line Bose, with their deep plastic earcups. But the SR80s sound so good, you won't notice the external noise (much). I know I am gonna get spoiled.

* Many years ago, I saw The Pretenders live. When Chrissie Hynde sang, I cried out in a lovesick plea, "Chrissie!!!", every 1 minute and 22 seconds, give or take 10 seconds and my testosterone levels at the time.

Anti-global-warming scientists = Exxon cash

2007-03-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

Mallard Fillmore cites Thomas Sowell global hot air articles backed by "respected climate scientists" "open-minded" about global-warming.

A 1995 article in Harper's Magazine, Ross Gelbspan said that Richard S. Lindzen "charges oil and coal interests $2,500 a day for his consulting services."

From www.exxonsecrets.org:
Patrick J. Michaels' admits that 20 percent of his funding comes from fossil fuel sources.

From www.sourcewatch.com:
In a September 24, 1993, sworn affidavit, Dr. Singer admitted to doing climate change research on behalf of oil companies, such as Exxon, Texaco, Arco, Shell and the American Gas Association. Dennis Avery works at the Hudson Institute, which received $9.3 million in 1993 from such companies as General Electric, Monsanto, DuPont, and Exxon Mobil.

Open-minded? More like open-handed for oil money.

P.S. I just sent this to the Smirkury news. Let's see if they print it. Or if they's rather listen to a duck (brain the size of a marble).

David Strom
626 Mariners Island Blvd, #207
San Mateo, CA 94404
650-574-8398

Mallard Fatso thinks Dean is crazy? Try Bill.

2007-02-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

Mallard Fillmore thinks Howard Dean is crazy. Literally. Over a years-old cheerleader scream. A lot of football fans can be tossed into straightjackets using that illogic.

You want crazy? Obsessive-compulsive: CNN's playing Dean's scream over 600 times for two days. Denial of reality: The radical-right's screaming that the press is ultra-left liberal, when that same press blacklisted Gray Webb and drove him to suicide over his CIA-Contra-Cocaine story. Paranoia: Bill O'Reilly's ordering Fox security to threaten a caller to his radio show (phoning the caller at home), for saying, "I think Keith Olbermann's show –" (Bill cut the caller off here). Insanity: Prez Dubya feeding the Iraqi meat grinder more American troops again and again to try to clog it. Benjamin Franklin said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Different that another 3000 American troops dead, perhaps.

P.S. Don't believe me about Ballistic Bill? Read Bill's transcript, and the caller's story.

P.P.S. I sent this to the San Jose Mercury News, after cutting out the Gary Webb line. I figured that since the Mercury News was the leader in the blacklist, my pointing out the sticky gooey nasty BLOOD on their hands would not sit well with the letters editor. So I am sneaking that into this blog. Wonder if the Mercury News might gimme a phone call?

P.P.P.S. Oh yeah, the Merc only want letters of 125 words or less. The incredible shrinking letter. The soundbite police. Like hell, Smirkury News! I got a blog!

Molly Ivins and Texans And Lennie Briscoe

2007-02-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

Molly Ivins passed away. Only 62 years old. Her jolly liberal (and Texan) wit will be missed.

Molly pointed out qualities about George Dubya Bush that many Texans share, and many Americans find appealing: religiousity, anti-intellectualism, and machismo.

As for those last two qualities, I think Molly would have been amused at what Law & Order's Lennie Briscoe had to say to a young male perp: "Look, kid, stupid and arrogant is a really bad combination!"

Colbert & O'Reilly: guess who will bomb?

2007-01-18T23:04:00.000-08:00

Steve Colbert and Bill O'Reilly are switching host jobs for one show. That's right, for one night, Steve will be on Fox and O'Reilly will be on Comedy Central.

I bet Steve does fine and Bill bombs. Why? Steve is a satirist, Bill is a bully.

When Star Trek's Captain Kirk and his away team returned from an evil alternate universe (having accidently switched places with their evil counterparts, dang those cranky transporters), Kirk asked Mr. Spock how Spock found out the evil counterparts so quickly, while the good Kirk and friends were able to fool the evil universe people.

Mr. Spock's reply: "It was easier for you, as civilized men, to act like barbarians, then it was for them, as barbarians, to act like civilized men."

Dave Strom's Nov 2006 vote endorsements (Say you love it! Say it!)

2006-10-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

Vote. And use paper, lest your electronic vote be changed to Republicans only (blech).

Here is the main page for my November 2006 Election Endorsements. For more direct links, see below.

Here are links to my picks for the California Propositions. Or you can just scroll down to read them sequentially.

NO. Proposition 1A: Spend the gas tax on things that have a use for gas

NO. Proposition 1B: Roads, roads, roads!

YES. Proposition 1C: Housing and Emergency Shelter (or when you got a gorilla at home, you need to have a place to move to!)

YES. Proposition 1D: Improve School Buildings, Like More Labs and Keep Earthquakes From Squishing Kindergarteners

YES. Proposition 1E: Keep California From Turning Into Katrina New Orleans

NO!!!! Proposition 83: Jessica's Let's-Forget-About-Mark-Foley Law

YES. Proposition 84: Protect Water. Again.

NONONONONONO!!!!! Proposition 85: The Dead Teenager Act?!?!??! AGAIN?!?!?!?!

YES. Proposition 86: Tax Cancer Sticks Some More

YES. Proposition 87: Charge Oil-Drilling Fees, Like They Do Everywhere Else

YES. Proposition 88: Pay 14 Cents A Day, A Measly 50 Dollars A Year, For Teaching Supplies

YES YES YES YES YES YES!!!! Proposition 89: Public Financing Of Political Campaigns

NO NO NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Proposition 90: Rich land fatcats make us pay made-up Enron prices for their land

Here are links to my picks for the California Politicos. This time, I have a lot to choose from.

GUBERNATOR: Undecided

LIEUTENANT GUBERNATOR: DONNA J. WARREN, Green

SECRETARY OF STATE: DEBRA BOWEN, Democrat

CONTROLLER: JOHN CHIANG. Democrat

TREASURER: MEHUL M. THAKKER, Green

ATTORNEY GENERAL: GOVERNOR MOONBEAM (Jerry Brown), Democrat

INSURANCE COMMISIONER: LARRY CAFIERO, Green

STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION, DISTRICT 1: BETTY T. YEE, Democrat

U.S. SENATOR: TODD CHRETIEN, Green

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE, 12TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: If no Green, then Spongebob Squarepants

STATE SENATOR 8TH DISTRICT: LELAND Y. YEE, Democrat

MEMBER OF THE STATE ASSEMBLY 19TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT: GENE MULLIN, Democrat

POMBO SUCKS!!!

Here are links to my picks for the San Mateo politicos. Or you can just scroll past the California Propositions to read the San Mateo stuff sequentially.

SAN MATEO COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION: OFFICE OF THE GOVERNING BOARD, TRUSTEE AREA 3: RHONDA CECCATO. Incumbent

SAN MATEO COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION: OFFICE OF THE GOVERNING BOARD, TRUSTEE AREA 4: ANTHONY FEL AMISTAD

ASSOCIATE JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT: Yes to incumbents

PRESIDING JUSTICES OF COURT OF APPEAL, DISTRICT 1: Yes to incumbents

To make up my mind, I read my voter guide. I read smartvoter.org (the San Mateo page) to find more information on local candidates and issues. I also used the San Francisco Bay Guardian for more information about the state propositions and the California politicos. As usual for the local non-partisan candidates, I also googled some local newspaper articles and included the links.

The War at Home: Blow-by-blow account of TV that blows

2006-09-24T23:58:00.000-07:00

I am watching "The War at Home." I want to see how bad TV can get.

The show starts with the father saying, "What?" And the audience laughs. Dumb audience laughs at what? I am guessing that the experimental CIA mind control gas is in beta-testing there.

The son has his father take him to a comic book convention. Wow, lotsa easy laughs coming right up!

Then the two kids in the hotel room stretch their voices into nerd. That joke is really tired. And they are wearing costumes? It might have worked if the costumes were more elaborate: these look like stuff from the bargain bin at Wal-Mart.

Whadda ya mean, kid, "ya can't go if you don't wear a costume?" MOST PEOPLE DON'T DRESS UP! Sure, some do. I go to comic cons, and most of the costumes look like the nerds put some work into them. Some guys actually fill out the Superman or Batman or Spider-Man costumes well. In fact, some chicks look pretty hot in their Power Girl / Supergirl / Wonder Woman costumes. And comic con costumers love having their picture taken. Woulda been a good gag. But the ignorant writers put NO CAMERAS in this show. The writers could have gotten a good gag with, for example, fans whose costumes do not fit the character; I will never forget the comic con where I saw a 350 pound Captain America running across a street. But these writers do not research. I bet this show is too cheap to show real comic book stuff cuz they would have to pay a few cents for the rights. The Simpsons would not cheap out! But these cheapo writers use "Zoltar." ("Fairly Odd Parents" made up The Crimson Chin, hired Jay Leno for the voice, and they mined gold with it!) I bet these writers got "Zoltar" off a shampoo bottle.

Look, trying to have the two kids act like geeks is not working. The writers have never been to a comic con. As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said about horse races, their ignorance screams to the heavens. They can't write geek. In fact, they can't write, PERIOD!

Why is the mother saying about her daughter: "I want her to like me"? She should be a mom, not a teen. Not funny, not smart, just lazy writing.

The dad took a toy out of its box. I have never seen a more boring take on the NRFB * gag than this. Take a tip from the Joker: if you have to explain the joke, you don’t do it!

OH GOD, THIS SHOW IS ONLY HALF OVER!

The kids missed Zoltar cuz daddy watched the football game (how original). Hey, the dad actually said "Captain America?" You mean they put in a real comic book reference, but not a real costume? Note: I have never been to a San Diego Comic Con without seeing Star Wars Storm Troopers and Klingons. How hard would that have been? And the set looks like it cost $1.95!

The kid sez, "you are a worse father than Darth Vader!" Sorry, The Simpsons coulda made that funny. Not these losers.

I am actually grateful for the commercial break.

Oh no, the show is about to start. Shoot me now.

You know, if the mom could bend over more in front of the camera, I could at least see her cleavage. I'd be entertained by SOMETHING.

OK, let me guess. The father is seeing Zoltar in the bathroom (at the urinal, ho ho!), and I am right, Zoltar is a jerk. Boy, I am so surprised. Now I bet the son will stand up for daddy when fans attack him. Yep, I am right again. Oh man, the kids says, "Haven't you ever been at a baseball game and yelled touchdown?" NOBODY IS THAT DUMB! NOBODY!!!! I am not a sports guy, I don't even like the concept of competitive sports (why does someone ALWAYS have to lose for ANYONE to win?!?!?!). I am a nerd. And I was never that dumb. But the writers of this show think I am. I notice that line did not get a laugh. I guess the CIA mind control gas ran out by then.

They bleeped out the father using the F word. Twice. The audience giggled. Not a sophisticated crowd here. Look, "Repo Man" knew how to use the F word, and you guys don't! Stop trying until you know what to do with it!

I have no idea why The War At Home was renewed. Maybe Rupert Murdoch likes the mother's cleavage.

* OK, I'll tell you. NRFB means Never Removed From Box. These writers are NRFH: Never Removed From Hollywood. Hack writing at its hackiest. Thank god "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" came on later. It is a rerun, but it is mending my brain nicely.

Hmm, was it a real audience, or only a laugh box? Either way, they needed more CIA mind control gas.

About the writer for the Fantastic Four Movies

2006-09-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

I think that they are hiring the same writer (which is what counts the most for movie quality) for Fantastic Four 2 as for the first movie. Zak Penn. (That sounds like a name the studio made up to hide a stable of hack writers!)

Here is Zak Penn's track record on IMDB.com and my opinion of it.

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006): Only fair. Enjoyable due to the performances and the special effects, but the story did not feel as good as X-Men 1 and 2.

Fantastic Four (2005): Sucks and blows, he dissed Doctor Doom for no good reason whatsoever (making him an American yuppie was not an improvement), and what's with the 20-foot-high Jiffy-Pop lid?

Elektra (2005): Sucks, sucks, and a cute little girl to rescue does not add heart if the story sucks. Read the damn comic book, and take out the dumb CGI ninjas (bleh)! Electra is the world's most feared assassin who would make Hitler, Stalin, and bin Ladin wet their pants if they knew she was on their trail; she's not a CGI slicer. Saw it on Cousin Ben's TiVo, so I did not pay any $$$, and I still feel ripped off.

X2 (2003): X-Men 2. Pretty decent story. But he had help with this script. Maybe he only added a little suck.

Inspector Gadget (1999): Crummy. Dumbed down for little kids, with about 20 seconds of almost PG-13, half-assed, cutesy adult jokes, but no adult brains. Watched most of it on the Disney Channel. I said that considering the source cartoon, they had nowhere to go but up. Looks like they are afraid of heights.

Last Action Hero (1993): I liked it better than the critics. But without Arnold, it would have been lots worse.

Suspect Zero, Incident at Loch Ness, Behind Enemy Lines, PCU: did not see them. I am not rushing to Blockbuster.

My verdict is that FF 2, if this guy heads the script, will BLACK HOLE SUCK.

The Anti-American Duck

2006-07-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

As a fifty-year-old comic book reader, I am telling Mallard Fillmore (July 8 comics) that gay comic book characters (like the new Batwoman) are nothing new. Just ask Northstar, Pied Piper, the couple Shrinking Violet and Lightning Lass, the Rawhide Kid, or Rainmaker (lipstick lesbian, yow!). I'll believe you are an "actual conservative journalist" when you do some research.

And you are not a conservative either. Your dress code is Cartoon-first, America-a-distant-second: No pants! Think of the children! Batwoman wears a tight outfit, but she has the decency to cover up!

Mallard, stop sitting on the couch with your feet pointed towards me. Yuk!

And DC Comics, hire a good writer. Batwoman locking lips with Catwoman could be hot, but it won't sustain a story.

(Sent this to the Mercury News also. And I put it here so it won't go to waste.)

Liberals are hogs too.

2006-07-05T23:31:00.000-07:00

The July 5 Mallard Fillmore comic says that "(liberals) are calling for federal legislation requiring that liberal books be more popular" because Ann Coulter is "hogging" the New York Times best-seller list.

Unlike that duck, I googled for a few minutes and found liberal books that hogged said list:

Mark R. Levin's "Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America"
Glenn Greenwald's "How Would a Patriot Act?"
Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"
Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men"
Jim Hightower's "Thieves in High Places"
Joe Conason's "Big Lies"
Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose's "Bushwhacked"

Seems that a duck, having a brain the size of a marble, won't do research.

P.S. I just sent this to the San Jose Mercury News. Maybe they won't print it, but I will.

Blade the TV Series, summer colds, and bye bye iMovie

2006-06-29T23:48:00.000-07:00

I watched the pilot of the Blade TV series. OK, but not enough to make me want to burn it to a DVD. The problem? Wesley Snipes left really big boots to fill. So I can't really fault the TV actor much for his perfomance. Maybe he needs to work a little harder to fill those big boots. However, I can fault him for using the name "Sticky Fingaz." Am I supposed to be impressed by that? Do your friends call you "Sticky?" On a hot day, do they call you "Gooey?" Or "Runny?" How about "Gummy" when the air gets dry?

Speaking of dry, I hate summer colds. They turn into dry throats that take forever to go away. Kaff, kaff. Dry throats feel worse on hot nights. Ugh.

P.S. On my iBook G4 (800Mhz, 1 gig RAM, 60 gig HD, DVD burner installed), iMovie 06 won't play my latest video project, but Final Cut Express does. Pretty ironic, huh? iMovie 06 has a playback problem (really bad stuttering) when you have a large number of audio clips. Or maybe a lot of extracted audio. Anyhow, it made editing nearly impossible. Good thing I wanted to make the switch to Final Cut Express anyhow.

New desktop PC is on the way.

2006-06-12T00:48:00.000-07:00

2 gig RAM. Pentium D 930 (dual core, 3 GHz). 500 Gig Sata II hard drive. ATI All-in-Wonder graphics. Asus motherboard and a firewire card. Plextor DVD burner. And a floppy disk (whoopee). Dual-boot: Windows XP or Ubuntu Linux.

My friend Frank Lemmon helped me do this. I had put together all the hardware. But being of a a slightly wimpy state of mine, I went to Frank's for help and hand-holding. Plus he and his family fed me a delicious hamburger and corn. Mmm.

Here is how it went.

Overheating: solved.
When we first powered up the PC, it would only stay on for about 10 to 20 seconds. Frank (and I, I guess) determined that the CPU was likely overheating. Frank called a friend who suggested (among other things) that I check how well the CPU was seated. I took the fan off the CPU, and took the motherboard out of the case (grumbling a bit, but Frank thought it was needed). And the crazy push-pin things that Pentium uses to seat the fan on the CPU? Took a while to finally get them seated right, and I could not have done this if I had not removed the motherboard. I was pretty worried about the little square of thermal stuff between the CPU and the fan, but it help up. The PC then powered up and stayed powered up.

DVD drive IDE cable: solved.
First, I plugged it into the Secondary EIDE channel. Windows only partly installed, and then said there were fatal errors. I can't remember how we decided that we needed to change the DVD cables. Well, Frank asked for some reason, and I told him. You can't have a secondary on IDE without a primary. So we tried Primary EIDE. No go. Frank checked the motherboard manual: EIDE is for hard drives, not a DVD burner. Plugged it into Primary IDE. After we messed a little with the DVD jumpers (I think we changed it to Master), it worked. Windows began to install.
Note: Since the hard drive is SATA II, it was plugged into a SATA port, not IDE or EIDE.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 fussiness: solved.
Windows XP installed. I think at the start of the install, it asked how we would partition the hard drive. We decided to split it up into 4 partitions, but we only made the first one now: 100 Gig for Windows XP and any programs I install. Windows installed, but we had to reboot and reinsert the Windows XP CD a bit to get Service Pack 2 to install OK. Probably this was because we tried another Service Pack 2 CD the first time, when we should stuck with the original (since Windows and Service Pack 2 were on the same disk, although it was hard to read that off the shiny silver holographic CD labeling. Well, Windows finished the install just fine.

Ethernet under Windows XP did not work: solved.
Frank just messed around with this stuff until it worked. Shoulda watched what he did a bit more closely; motherboard Ethernet under Windows is always fussy. But the Ethernet, including the gigabit Ethernet, started working.

Firewire card: worked fine, no tweaking!
We checked the Firewire setting: Win XP control panel says it works fine. I will try to read a firewire drive soon to make sure. The firewire is from an Adaptec card, since the motherboard did not have any.

Ubuntu partition and install: worked well, but took figuring out.
It took a few tries to figure out how to make the partition for Ubuntu: a main partition (a bit less than 100 Gig) and a swap partition (4 Gig, in case I ever jack up my RAM to 4 Gig). We partitioned OK, but it took a few tries (hitting the back button a lot) to get Ubuntu install to get those partitions to show up for the Ubuntu install (no, Ubuntu, do not ask to install over the Windows partition, see the NEW partitions, c'mon, see them already!). And Ubuntu installed, but then...

Ubuntu video with lotsa fussiness and scariness: finally worked.
At first, Ubuntu said it would not work with the video. Frank and I thought that my video card--PCI-Express ATI All-In-Wonder--was not going to work with Ubuntu. But we did something. Maybe telling it to run in safe mode? But after a reboot or two, the video started working fine. At least, it looked fine. Certainly the resolution is better than 640x480.

Startup: Run Windows by default.
Frank used vi to edit the menu.lst file to make the Windows partition the default for startup. Which is what I requested.

To do over the next week or so to finish up:
Install all my drivers. Video card, maybe USB drivers for my Adapted card, any drivers I will need for Ubuntu, a firmware upgrade for my DVD burner, etc.
Update the drives and Windows.
Finish my disk partitions: one 200 Gig NTFS for data and video, and one 100 Gig FAT32 for Windows and Linux to share. I know that Ubuntu can read the NTFS partitions, but it can't write to them. We tried.
Install all my Windows software. Including OpenOffice. Since I have Microsoft Office on my Mac, I decided not to buy it for the PC. I might buy it later if I truly need it.
Make sure I get everything running on Linux. The Ethernet ran OK with no tweaking, which surprised me.

This PC seems very fast. And it is a cool black case (Antec Sonata II). I am looking forward to finally having a decent desktop for Win XP AND Linux. My next computer purchase will be replacing my iBook with a MacBook. But not for some time.

OK, I just wanted to write this tonight, since my throat was scratchy and I wanted time to fix and drink some soothing pomegranate tea. Up late again. Oh well.

Dave Aye's June 2006 Election Picks!

2006-06-05T16:59:00.000-07:00

My June 2006 election endorsements.
Read them. Use them. Reply on my blog, or email me and I will post your reply on the blog. Knowledge is power. If I disagree with your reply, I might post something about that. But time is short cuz I am down to the wire again. I did a little video for a friend; I needed to finish that first. (And the formatting is a little screwed up on this post; too much space between lines! I will fix that later, and apologize now for the irritating appearance.)

Here are links to my picks for the California Propositions.

Proposition 81: Yes on A Pure Good: Libraries!

Proposition 82: YES (sorta) for The Educate Rugrats Bill

I have no endorsements for the partisan offices, like governor, attorney general, and other great stuff. Who do I have to choose from? Green Party people. I won't waste my time telling you how I am voting here, since no one I know would find that info useful. When, oh when, will I register as "Decline to state" to allow me to vote in any primary I want? I like that the two demo governator wanna-bes are sniping at each other. Maybe I coulda voted against a jerk, and smiled nastily when doing so. But NOOOOO, I hafta choose from clean moral boring Greens! I am gonna take care of this. I'll stay Green, but I won't tell the state.

Here are links to my picks for the San Mateo issues.

Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 11: Maguire

Member of the Board of Supervisors, 3rd District: Richard Gordon

Coroner: Robert J. Foucrault

Sherriff: Gregory Munks

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Jack O'Connell

District Attorney: James P. Fox

Treasurer-Tax Collector: Lee Buffington

County Superintendent of Schools: Jean Holbrook

Member, Board of Supervisors 2nd Supervisorial District: Jerry Hill

Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder: Warren Slocum

TIme to update the blog. Desktop, Colbert, Comics

2006-05-09T16:32:00.000-07:00

Do I really have anything worth saying right now? Well, maybe if I start typing...

To my friends and relatives: I am rebuilding my PC desktop. I put it off long enough. I do wonder how long it will take to get this thing up and running.

To the Washington Press Corp: Your reaction to Stephen Colbert's speech showed you to be (surprise, surprise) a bunch of pussies. Long may The Colbert wave!

Do you know when people are making hotel reservations for the July San Diego Comic Con? 6 months early. SIX. MONTHS. EARLY. I guess the comic book world is still doing well. Better make my reservations by Halloween.

I admit, I will buy the Civil War storyline from Marvel. DC and Marvel have to do these crossovers to keep sales up. Lately, Marvel had been smart enough to work with relevant and interesting story topics. House of M: what if the oppressed mutant minority was at the top of the social scale? Civil War: all mutants and superheroes in the USA have to register with the gubmint and git a gubmint job, and git their masks yanked off in front of cranky congressmen, and git stuffed into a database that the gubmint says will not be abused, we PROMISE, really really. A certain segment of the population being treated like potential crooks because of an accident of DNA? Sounds awfully familiar.

And what is DC's latest crossover? Infinite Earths Get Reshuffled Again, But This Time In An Even Grittier Way Cuz A Spare Superboy Goes Nutzoid! Can you say retread?

That is enough for one post. Later.

Doves creep me out.

2006-03-19T22:45:00.000-08:00

I recently got a phone call from The Dove Foundation. The first words out of his mouth were about trying to get my help in cleaning up today's movies. Gives me a good idea of Dove's real motives. I decided to google Dove Foundation.

They don't write reviews. Instead, they write how each movie fits the "Dove Worldview." As in Kicking & Screaming: "It is Dove’s policy to not award any film with the Dove Seal if it contains a curse such as "go to hell" or "damn you" because those statements are cursing a person to hell. A movie can have a "what the hell" or "damn" and still be approved because those statements are not curses but are obscenities. "

So I say to Dove: thanks for the distinction. Now go to hell and damn you for calling me at home and blocking your phone number from my caller ID. That is breaking into my home and screaming in it. And you kept talking over me with your creepily moralistic voice when I tried to answer you. Not only are you an uninvited guest, you are a rude uninvited guest.

I admit that a lot of the stuff in the violence ratings is accurate. When a guy's, uh, organ gets ripped off, as in Brokeback Mountain, that is not kid-friendly. But is "Girl pushes girl off a pier" in Aquamarine really worth a rating?

Here are a few more Dove ratings on certain categories. Enjoy. Or squirm in fear. (My comments are in parenthesis.)

SEX

The Shaggy Dog. Kissing between husband and wife. (Really. Do you tell your kids about the stork?)
The Family Stone. Homosexual male couple adopt baby. (They should have stuck this one under a "homophobia" category, which they don't have yet but should.)
March of the Penguins: While the actual act is not shown, it is obvious by the music playing in the background that two penguins are going to consummate their relationship. (They gave this porno a Dove Seal anyway.)

OCCULT
(I am not kidding, that is something Dove thinks needs to be rated.)

Aquamarine. Girls jokingly pray to the gods of love and later to the god of hurricanes.
The Shaggy Dog. The Buddhist meditation in the beginning. (Kooky AND bigoted! Congrats!)
Miracle at Sage Creek. Indian singing over boy for healing. Nothing major. (This is not as scary as a Buddhist?)
Bloodrayne. Vampires vs. Humans with no mention of God or Satan. (I guess vampires can't be atheists. Or Buddhists.)
Wolf Creek. Talk of UFO's. (Wrong category. That belongs under "stupid".)
Hoodwinked. Goat has been cast with a spell so that he must sing everything he says. (Demonic karaoke! Hide the kids!)
Bewitched. Throughout the film spells are cast; witch makes things appear and disappear; witch runs time backwards; woman puts a "hex" on a man. (Is it in Deuteronomy where the reader is told to whack witches? As in Tony Soprano whack.)
King Kong. Ancient tribe dances and seem (sic) to be in voodoo-like trance. (Give them a break, it was not even hip-hop.)
Fantastic Four: References by villian (sic) of being a god. (Read
my review on my writing page. The comic book Doom is the one who can take on the devil, not this yuppie movie Doom.)
Monster-in-Law. There was use of Horescopes (sic again, would you please use a spelling and grammar checker?) and tarot cards towards the beginning of the movie.

(Dove missed a big occult rating for Because Of Winn-Dixie. The only way a dog can smile that massively creepy smile is through demonic possession.)

OTHER
(the category where they stick whatever they don't stick elsewhere)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The film mocks religion through a zanny (sic, sic, sic!!!) "church service". There is talk about God and his mistakes. (OK, you explain malaria. I can't.)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Two effeminate men walk dogs; Loompas worship cocoa beans. (I told you they needed a "homophobia" category! Add the first one to that, and the second one to "occult". Dove, I offer my services as a tech writer to help you out, if you can meet my hourly rates.)

DAVE STROM'S RATING OF THE DOVE FOUNDATION

I will stick with Dove soap instead, since that will actually clean when used as directed.

I have nothing against rating a movie on kid-friendliness. That is a good idea. But Dove bases their ratings on their version of Christianity. Non-Christians have families also. Buddhists are not grown in test tubes.

P.S. I have seen a cleaned up version of the movie Repo Man, and replacing "fuck" with "flip" sucked 90 percent of the humor out of it. Mark Twain said it best: "Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."

P.P.S. For those of you who say that Repo Man and its swearing-stuffed script is not steak, I quote Yukon Cornelius from Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer: "You eat what you like and I'll eat what I like!"

Cinequest is over.

2006-03-12T20:45:00.000-08:00

Saw lots more movies.

God and Gays: Bridging the Gap. I liked this. It is an interview type movie, without the obligatory interview with homophobes. This is good for my blood pressure, although my imagination does not get a workout when I can dream of ways to skin homophobes alive and then pour salt on them, and laugh hysterically as they scream and dissolve. Anyhow. The most interesting, and most sympathetic character, is an older woman whose lesbian daughter had died, and the older woman had not reconciled before the death. The older woman is now heading a group to help gay Christians. She has lost a lot; most of her former friends will not speak to her now that she lost her homophobia. (Where's the salt?) My only nitpick: it needs titles to show the subject matter of the interviews. I suggested that to one of the filmmakers.

Sound Man. Great! Any movie with clips of Les Paul is going to be good. And the history of sound recording, with lots of interviews with musicians? Wonderful.

The Ape. Very good. One of the writers has written for Spongebob Squarepants, and I could see some of that humor here. But this is adult, and the ending is not happy. A great study of a would-be writer.

Hard Scrambled. A wonderful surprise, about a guy working at a diner who used to break legs for a living. Starring Kurtwood Smith (remember him from Robocop?), and he was excellent. His phone conversation at the start to a guy who wants to intimidate someone is perfect. An unexpected twist at the end. Great characters. And I just happened to see it because I happened to be around. Life is nice sometimes.

Little Athens. Interesting study of several loser kids. But an unhappy ending that is not necessary at all. Random bullets are almost always gratuitous.

Shorts Program 4: Animated Worlds.
Mysterious Geographical. Excellent. Fantastic imagery done with black cutout-type figures, and a very compelling story, and a grand sacrifice at the end.
The Flooded Playground. Bored me. If I want to see a baby's view of the world, I can watch Teletubbies, and that is a more interesting program anyhow.
The Boy Who Feeds Cats. Depressing. Don't need that. And I don't need to see someone die from mouse turds either. That's just gross.
Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot. EXCELLENT!!!! A great story of taking a weakness and turning it into a strength. The creator of this said he based it on a friend who seems to actually have a bad luck foot.
Maestro. A little tedious, and I guessed the ending easily, but still got a laugh from the audience and a smile from me.
John and Michael. Ok I guess, but dead brother stories are way common, and need to be exceptional, and this was not.
Message from the Boss. Pretty good. Really classy animation. But the song went on a bit long.
Legend of the Scarecrow. This story hooked me, and I did not think it would when it started. A fable about crows and scarecrows. Great story.

Shorts Program 6: Seens.
Wood Diary. Bored me a LOT, and I HATE closeups of drool. That is not something that needs to be blown up 20 feet high.
A Lineman's Cabin. Wonderful photography of green plains. I did not think I would go for longer silent scenes, but they worked perfectly here. And a twist at the end.
Life Ride. A Twilight Zone type story with a nastily great sense of humor.
Transaction. Did not care much for it when I saw it, but the memory improves as time passes. I bet I might like it better if I saw it again. A simple transaction between a prostitute and an older man, based on interviews with an actual prostitute.
The King Hunt. Got just a little irksome for a short time, but it had a great ending of a guy picking himself up and not letting a fall hurt him.
Hiro. Great characters, great story, great laughs, great ending, great visuals. What more could one ask?

Shorts Program 5: Cineverses.
Up on the Rope. Got in late, did not see it. Might try to find it online.
Against Nature. Ugh. Some vomit, and a snotty main character who gives writers a bad name. I wanted to set him on fire.
Phantom Limb. Phantom script. Another dead brother story. Makes babies look icky. Closed my eyes during the amputation and birth scenes. Not that I can't take that, but why in the hell should I? I don't have to clean my plate anymore, especially if the food turns rancid.
Uso Justo. Funny! Best satire of pretentious experimental film ever! I hope the creator gets the rights to the footage he used for this.
Five Minutes, Mr. Welles. Went on a little bit long. But a marvelous ending! And the actor playing Orson Welles was perfect.

I also liked the forums. Picked up some business cards (sure, I have an ulterior motive, maybe I can get a tech writing gig out of this). I really hope short videos take off online. I will be exploring that, both for my tech writing career and my video hobby. Very inspiring. Although it will be some time before I can afford an HD video camera. Since I can't process that on my Mac anyhow, it does not make a lot of difference now. Eventually, I will move up to HD. I am also inspired by the discussion of distribution of independent videos/movies (hobby and career inspired). This is gonna be great stuff.

OK, I will see about trying the video downloads on Cinequest.org, although I think I can't watch them on my Mac (lousy Windows protected media). I will find out. There is stuff out there I have not seen.

Cinequest post #1

2006-03-04T03:45:00.000-08:00

I have just started going to Cinequest (the San Jose film festival). I went to the following:

Shorts Program 1: Hit the Ground Laughing
My faves:

K-7: the ultimate tense job interview.
The Racist Brick: short , funny, to the point.

The Awesome Robots vs. Transformo: I do like a wacky comic book satire.

Zombie-American does a neat take on those personal documentaries.

Heck, I liked all of them.

Shorts Program: After Hours Mindbenders (and my mind did get kinda bent; this was from midnight to after 2am)
I liked:

Chingaso the Clown, a bad-ass homage to clown vigilantes.

Lucky, another short-and-to-the-point short, perfect length, perfect setup, perfect ending.

Phone Sex Grandma: who would think that a grandma swearing a blue streak over the phone would be so funny?

Home Delivery: pretty good, a tad long, good animation.

I did not like:

A through M (there is a scene where a guy knows he is going to bite the big one, and he has a big rack of nasty surgical instruments within easy reach, and then the mope lets guards stomp up to him and beat him up as a prelude to killing him. Sabu from The Thief of Bagdad once said "If I am going to die, then I would dare anything!" Take a lesson, dude! You are SLOW.

The Second Death: Night Gallery did this better, and did not use teddy bears as monsters, and did not put a guy in a dress for NO REASON AT ALL.

Keep It Real, Dawg: Coulda been good if it was about 1/3 the length.

The Marionette. I despise when the bad guys win. To slightly paraphrase Marvin the Paranoid Android (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy): "There is enough misery in the universe already. Why make up more of it?"

And I don't remember the other mindbending shorts so well that I will document them, cuz it is after 4 in the morning now (arrived home after 3am, and had to blog).

The movies:
Chalk is a great take on teachers. I hope new teacher Nephew Eric sees this. Shown with Super Power Blues. With great power...

Looking forward to more of this. This stuff inspires me. I actually sent in a short I did, but it seems I am not up to their level yet. I will get there. (Helps my skill set also; I am learning video software, a booming market).

The problem with iPod Hi-Fi

2006-02-28T22:39:00.000-08:00

No video out. And I thought Apple was getting into video with the video iPods.

I just got back from the Stanford Newton User Group. One of our wiser and very tech-savvy members pointed out that a lot of people have crappy speakers in their TVs. The iPod Hi-Fi will give great sound for iPod songs. This member said that one cheap vieo out jack it would have provided great video for iPod videos. And the iPod Hi-Fi already costs $350. What would a video out jack have cost? A couple of bucks?

This member also pointed out that since the iPod Hi-Fi can run on batteries, it might have been nice to be able to carry it without the iPod falling out of the dock on the top.

My comment? When people get enough videos on their iPods, they will want to see them on something other than the tiny iPod display. One lousy video jack woulda done that now.

Networking Mac OS 8.6 to OS 10.4.4...

2006-02-28T00:33:00.000-08:00

...was a bit harder than it sounds. I was doing this for a friend of my barber, who needed his business moved to a G5 iMac (OS 10.4.4) from a beige PowerMacintosh G3 (OS 8.6). (The Intel iMacs do not run Classic applications; good thing he bought the G5.) I failed the first time, although I got everything else done, like fixing his DVD player and Sony Playstation setup, and installing Classic on his iMac G5. I found that the OS 8.6 Mac had no Firewire or USB; I needed an Ethernet crossover cable.

Also, I found a very helpful document referenced on the Apple discussion board on how to connect OS 9 to OS 10.3 with Ethernet. Minor changes to this for 8.6 and 10.4.4.

Also, on the OS 8.6 Mac, I had to make Ethernet show up in the TCP/IP and Appletalk Control Panels by turning on Apple Enet in Extensions Manager.

Also, OS 10.4.4 cannot see OS 8.6, but OS 8.6 can see OS 10.4.4. I made the connection from OS 8.6. (I turned on File Sharing in Extension Manager, and then turned on File Sharing, but since I was on OS 8.6 looking at 10.4.4, I bet that I did not need 8.6 File Sharing turned on.)

Also, the password on the iMac had to be 8 characters or less, since OS 8.6 did not understand a longer password. We had to shorten that.

Also, well, then I made the connection. It felt pretty good, considering that this is a connection few people make. It was not trivial.

I installed the Classic apps he wanted and moved all his data (I believe I got all his old email data moved; he now gets email on the iMac). He had a customized version of FileMaker; it ran fine under Classic. His Quicken files run OK under the Quicken supplied with OS 10.4. I must say that Apple did a good job on the PowerPC OS X Macs to get Classic apps to run.

One chunk of data remains: his Palm desktop. His Palm III has no USB. Looks like a job for special cables; I did this with a Palm III clone. I better hurry; the power button on his Palm III is badly cracked.

Another also: He had me reduce his iMac screen resolution to 800x600 (ugh), since he likes his old apps to look big. But I showed him how to increase his resolution again.

ALSO, he will now say nice stuff about me. That's always nice.

P.S. Now he does not have to have the SCSI hard drive on his OS 8.6 Mac yanked out. Yes, that is how some places transfer old apps and data.

Changes to my videos

2006-02-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

I just hosted my Movie Trailer video using Flash 8. I like it. Flash video buffers well, I can control the size of the video, and the audience sees a little more information about the state of the video download.

My Quicktime videos have a problem. Firefox is not showing Quicktime video. I am checking into that. The problem seems to be on Firefox's end.

I saved my barber's Mac.

2006-02-19T22:26:00.000-08:00

I am helping people more and more with their computers. Like when I got a phone call last Saturday from my barber, Lash.

"Dave, I was trying to throw some Google Earth in the trash and then empty it." OK, press Control and then click the Trash icon. "Yeah, I did that." Now click on Empty Trash. "Dave, I get a message that says I can't empty the trash because Safari is in use." Wait, how can that be? Unless Safari is in the trash... LASH, DON'T DO ANYTHING, I AM COMING OVER!!!

Turns out he had accidentally moved his Applications folder in the trash. I untrashed it. I still don't know how that happened. That was scary.

Moral lesson: Be careful when you empty the trash on your Mac. I guess.

P.S. I will see if I learn any lessons when I move info and apps from a Power Macintosh G3 to a G5 iMac over Ethernet (there is no Firewire or USB on the Power Macintosh). Will 8.6 apps run on a 10.4 iMac under Classic? Will the Ethernet connection work? Will Dave escape being slowly lowered into the pit of giant slavering razor-toothed slugs? I will find out Tuesday, when I try to help Lash's friend move his business to his shiny new iMac. (I don't think he has a slug pit in his basement, but I have not checked.)

Correction for my Christmas letter

2006-01-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

I had mentioned that Cousin Ben was unable to build a new house due to regulations. Actually, it was due to the cost and time it was taking to do a custom modular house.

Something for me to keep in mind, if I ever try to get a modular house built for me. I should likely avoid custom.

The last of Sledge at St. Cecilia

2005-12-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

I am in Slam Diego for a few days. The St. Cecilia building, where I have enjoyed Sledgehammer Theatre for years and years, is being torn down. I came for Sledge's last performances there. As part of the performance, they tore up the stage with jackhammers and sledgehammers.

Tomorrow I go to Disneyland for the first time since high school. Looking forward to that.

Went for a hike and took some video. The 50-year-old hiker.

Dave Strom's Nov 2005 vote endorsement (you know you want it!)

2005-11-05T19:14:00.000-08:00

You have waited for this an entire year: my choices for the Nov. 2005 election! Read them. Use them. Reply to them. If I disagree with your reply, I might post something about that. But unlike Bill O'LIE-ly, I will be polite about it.

Here are links to my picks for the California Propositions.

Here are links to my picks for the San Mateo issues.

Ok, now my blog shows the correct number of comments.

2005-10-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

Guess it took a day or so to update. But I will leave my previous posting in place to show that I do not believe in hiding my mistakes (even if this was not much of a mistake). Maybe I can find ways to speed that process...

I am writing my endorsements. Propositions are fairly easy. The hard parts are local ballot measures, and local candidates. Time to hit the web.

P.S. Finished deciding on my votes (unless I change my mind), and wrote my first draft. So I will post soon. Found a new local nutcase on the ballot.

A little bug with Blogger.

2005-10-23T17:12:00.000-07:00

I nuked another comment off my blog, since it was a comment that had nothing to do with what I said in my blog, and everything to do with trying to get people to look at some site about golf supplies. (Years ago, I kept getting spammed by a guy trying to sell me golf balls in bulk. A change from the usual porn or get-rich-quick spam, but still spam.)

My Sept. 14 post shows that it has one comment. But if you click on it, you'll see that I nuked the comment. As I was going up the stairs, I met a man who was not there. He was not there again today. I wish, I wish, he'd stay away!

How did my blog come to this? First, I deleted the comment, without clicking the "Remove comment forever?" checkbox. Then the post still said I had a comment. Then I went back and clicked that checkbox; comment count still 1. First there is a mountain. Then there is no mountain. Then there is.

I will be paying more attention to who is posting this blog spam in my blog. (I should look up the proper term for blog spam. And I need to set a time limit for when people can post comments.) I expect I will get some real comments when I post my picks for the election.

Nuked first comment, cooler lap, election endorsements soon

2005-10-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

Just removed the first comment from my blog because it had a "hey, lookit my porn/gambling/piece-of-garbage link in it. This happened to my old blog also (deleted it from there also). Hey, you jerks trying to climb higher in Google searches. Stay off of my lawn!

I bought a new toy: a Laptop Desk and MouzPad. Bought it online from Staples (along with a USB 2.0 cable to get free shipping). Takes the heat off my lap. Now if I just line it with tinfoil, it will also ensure I can still have babies. (I receive no money from this post. Hmph, I can't give it away forever.)
link to the laptop desk

I wil post my endorsements for the 2005 election soon. Stay tuned: same Dave-Aye blog, same Dave-Aye channel! (Boy, does that ever date me.)

Random TV notes

2005-10-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

I absolutely cannot believe that Ashley Simpson was on Saturday Night Live last night. I TiVoed it; it also had the star/creator of Napoleon Dynamite as the host. And Ashley? Maybe SNL's logic was that I might want to watch a train wreck. Saw most of Ashley's first set; a whiny song about her previous SNL appearance. And what's with the blonde hair (unless that's the original color, and if so, make up yer ditsy mind!)? Ashley, jump back in the oven, you ain't done yet. (The host was funny. He stumbled slightly on a line once, but he recovered immediately. He knew what "live" meant; Ashley doesn't.)

Richard Roeper gave a thumbs down to the new Wallace and Gromit flick. On rottentomatoes.com, 95% of movie critics give it a thumbs up. Cousin Ben never liked this guy. I am beginning to understand why. Siskel and Ebert knew/know that good critics don't hold themselves above the audience.

Dave Aye at the San Diego Film Festival

2005-09-24T23:39:00.000-07:00

Brian and I have been going to the San Diego Film Festival this weekend. Best film so far: the short film "West Bank Story," a spoof of West Side Story showing a conflict between a Jewish fast food joint and an Arab one. Lots of dancing, lots of singing, lots of laughs. http://www.westbankstory.com/

Worst one, in my opinion: one with a rape scene where the guy knocks the girl down, gets on top of her, holds her hands down, does it to her, and says he loves her. Yeah, right. I have seen that type of scene a thousand times before, and it gets suckier every time. If you are gonna do a rape scene, bring something new to the table. (I am not bothering to find a URL for this one.)

Same thing if you have long silences in your film. Few directors could do that. Hitchcock was one (and he always was building to something with them). Can you think of any other such director right now? I can't. In this film fest, the best films were from directors who knew that you have only so much time in your film, so they delivered as much content as they could in the precious time they had. Unless you are a Hitchcock, silence is lazy. (Think about it: does a script with "Character stares into space for 3 minutes" sound interesting?)

Another wonderful comedy short: Day of the Grackle (http://www.gracklefilm.com/). A live action cartoon. Check it out. Well, check out the trailer.

I am gonna find out what it takes to enter a film short into such a film fest. I love film fests. I love comedy film shorts. I saw lots of good ones. And I am making my own. Check my video page for my Movie Trailer short (and more to come).

Saw a good film at the fest this evening: Trudell, about a Native American political activist/musician/poet/writer. http://www.trudellthemovie.com/ (Watch out; this web site likes to expand and take over your screen space.) Very good, except for the Q&A session. Some guy started talking about "sacred feminine." Since I have had to study The DaVinci Code for the book I am working on, I have read that phrase way too many times. If I see or hear it one more time, I am gonna puke.

My attempt to boogie-board on Thursday was a bust. Waves were too low. But the ocean is still beautiful.

OK, don't feel like writing anything else. So here it goes to posting.

Now my barber's Mac is the master.

2005-09-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

It is now Darth Vader to my iBook's Obi-Wan Kenobi.

He had a wimpy G4 Powermac tower; 450 Mhz G4 CPU, 20 gig HD, 350 MB ram, DVD reader. He wanted to be able to burn DVDs.

We decided between upgrading this Mac or buying a new one. The decision: we took it to We Fix Macs, and did a BIG FAT UPGRADE.

Now my barber's Mac is Darth Vader to my iBook's Obi-Wan Kenobi.

He now has a Muscle Mac: 1.5 GHz G4 CPU, 120 gig HD, 850MB, Superdrive. (Well, a muscle mac compared to most other G4s.) And he took his 17 inch flat panel display from his home and plugged it into this one. Oh yeah, he also has OS 10.4 (Tiger) and iLife 05. This Mac is fast, fast, fast. I cannot believe how FAST it starts up. I know I will help him burn a few DVDs; bet it will be FAST about that also.

That beats my iBook: 800Mhz G4 CPU, 60 gig HD, 1.2 Gig MB ram, Superdrive. Good enough for me now, and for a year or more beyond. But not good enough to keep a twinge of envy out of my head when I see my barber's Mac. The master.

Maybe in a year or more, when I have to replace my iBook with a MacIntel laptop, I might want a Powerbook instead of an iBook. Maybe. I have a year or more to decide.

(My first rather autobiographical blog post. Whee.)

Ann Coulter really is a dumb blonde, after all.

2005-08-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

And I have never known one. Really, how dumb do you have to be to put a line like this in your column:

"(T)he savages have declared war, and it's far preferable to fight them in the streets of Baghdad than in the streets of New York -- where the residents would immediately surrender."

What was she trying to say? "I upside-down-heart NY?"

Coulter canned

However, in the Arizona Daily Star, she is being replaced by Tony Snow. To quote from the TV show "I, Claudius," it is still the Lady Messalina (at that paper). Worse, it's the Lady Messalina with brains!

My new blog.

2005-08-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

That's right, I decided to restart my blog. Nothing special to post right now. I just want a blog that is on a BIG FAT commercial type server, where it won't be attacked by little hacking weenies like the other server my Cousin Ben was running. (Sorry, Ben.) So let's see how this one works.