It's me, Pete... from the podcast.

Another New Phone

I’m about a once-a-quarter cellphone upgrader. I used a little Nokia for a long time, nearly a year, I think, then went for the Sony-Ericsson T68i (crap), Motorola T720i (flip-phone crap), and finally, the Nokia 6200 (fantastic, but limited for what I was looking for).

A few days ago, I picked up the new Sony-Ericsson T616, and I finally think I’ve found the phone I’ve been looking for all my life. I gush about technology, I know that. I’m a complete sucker for the latest thing with buttons, but this thing is incredible. It has a big screen, excellent connectivity, a built-in camera, and Bluetooth to sync with iSync.

I’d read some pretty scathing reviews on the thing before I picked it up – that connectivity was poor, the screen was impossible to read in bright light, and the interface was confusing. Well, the RF reception is astounding, like the folks at SE finally woke up and realized users did not, in fact, use there phones with taught strings and tin cans attached. This thing connects in places around Portland where my Nokia couldn’t dream of connecting. The screen is as crisp as I’ve seen on a cell, though the passive matrix display does suffer from slight ghosting – it’s certainly nothing that gets in the way of standard use in bright daylight.

Finally, the interface is confusing only inasmuch as I’m so accustomed to the Nokia GUI. Still, in just a few hours of exploring every aspect of the thing, I had it down pat. That I didn’t have to manually enter contacts certainly helped. I don’t care how great T9 texting may be, I just don’t have the thumbs of a 15-year-old Japanese schoolgirl.

The one thing I wish they could do is to figure out how to associate the number type with the number in the Copy-To-SIM function so that you wouldn’t have to manually reassign them within contacts when you copy them all from the SIM to a new phone. That’s just one of those things that some enterprising young know-it-all should be able to get right.

Museworld on Politics

Hunting the Muse: Politics Matters

First, he tries to tell us that he doesn’t consider himself a political person. So, he starts out fibbing. Then, he goes on to write some suspiciously clear-headed rant on political participation, thus disproving point one.

I like this piece because I’m not terribly proficient at describing my own views on politics, and when I read something like this, it begs me to the bandwagon.

Highlights:

I guess it’s because I believe in ripples. I don’t believe that every person can change the world. I don’t believe that I can change everything in the world. But, I do believe in the power of ripples. I do believe that my little ripples combined with everyone else’s ripples can result in a change. And, I even believe that in some cases, if my ripple weren’t there, the resulting change from all rest of the ripples might be a little different than if my little ripple had been there.

…

…even huge massive systems and realities have a balance point, where it can rapidly tip to one side or the other, and I believe we’re on a balance point now. A little nudge one way or another, even by a very small group of people, can create huge change.

Believe in whatever you want. Buy in to whatever manifesto lights you up. In any case, the challenge is not the system, the contest, the issue at hand. No, the real challenge is not losing hope that your ripple, your power, will eventually affect someone somewhere. Politics doesn’t live in the papers or on the net or TV; it flourishes in meta-space: if no one cared, if no one believed that their view would be listened to, the system would vanish completely.

To the Theme of Spy vs. Spy…

Slashdot | VeriSign Sued Over SiteFinder Service

Seriously, this could be the best cheer-for-the-lesser-of-two-bad-guys story since that Mel Gibson movie that nobody saw. Speaking of psycho, hasn’t he gone completely blotto?

Arnold outshoots the masses in publicity

So, according to CBS MarketWatch, the amount of free publicity Arnold has received to date is something along the lines of $40 million. I gotta tell you, I still don’t really know what the guy stands for. From some, he’s a closet right-winger who’s more dangerous on his best days to abortion and gay rights than any of his Republican counterparts. Then, I hear his “friends” like Martin Sheen call him a closet Democrat who’s playing a Republican because that’s what the party needs him to do to get him into office. So, I’m reading and reading, and all I hear is nonsense spewing from his mouth about taxes and how he hates getting taxed in CA for his lunch and his car and that reigning in taxes should really do something special for the CA economy. But, and I’m being serious here, isn’t the real root of the problem in CA that they have no money to begin with? How, pray tell, will cutting taxes help in that situation?

Welcome to Oregon, my friend, the land of the two-legged tax stool.

Japan Ready to Market Robot Suit

I’m in the middle of reading “Natural-Born Cyborg” by Andy Clark. It’s a fantastic look at how we’re already cybernetic organisms whether we like it or not, but he takes on the topic not from the perspective of a technologist, but rather a philosopher. I’m sure he’s going to talk about robotic assisted propulsion and I just haven’t gotten there yet. After reading this article, I think I’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t.

University of Colorado at Boulder No. 1 Party School

CNN.com – Univ. of Colorado parties to top of list – Aug. 19, 2003

Wow. A lot has changed since I graduated from CU. It’s nice to see the place is still made up of people who don’t settle for number 4 or 5 — they fight for number 1.

New Computers

Ordered a new iBook today. Kira’s selling her Dell Inspiron and making the switch to the Mac by taking over my 700Mhz iBook with the 20 gig drive. I know, sounds crappy to give her the hand-me-down to start school with next month, but since I do all the music and photography on my computer and I was running out of space in a big way, we decided that it would be better for me to have the new guy with the 60 gig drive in it. I thought that was just about the only difference. Turns out, the new machine is also a 900Mhz with 32 mb of video ram. That’s not bad at all. So, let’s all raise a glass to slow and easy upgrades.

Piano

The piano has arrived. 

For months, we’ve been saying we wanted to have it here. My folks had been talking about getting it out here, selling their house and moving to Oklahoma for just about ever, but now, they’ve finally done it. At least, they sold the house. And that meant getting the piano to Peter. 

So, I get this call from mother on Tuesday morning. She told me that they couldn’t find a mover that could get the piano out of their house in time for closing and that I could see what I could find on the receiving end. I call around a few places and get on the horn with Dan from Mark & Dan piano movers. He only does local moves, he says, but hang on a second. He puts me on hold. 

When he comes back, I hear the static of a cell phone en route. 

“I’ve got Chuck on the line here, Pete.” 

“Hi, Chuck.” 

“Yeah, hey there. I’m in a big old 75-foot mover, and I’m pulling out of Chicago. I have room for just about the one piano, so if you’ve got nothing else to get out to Portland, I think I could swing by Colorado Springs by about 12:30 tomorrow.” 

Short story long, he had the piano in the truck on Wednesday and delivered it to my house today.

Chuck was pretty amazing. He got the thing out of his truck, up the driveway, into the house, and reconstructed it all by himself. A 6 foot plus grand piano, and I didn’t lift a finger. Not a bad day’s work. 

Thanks, Chuck. Your kids are fantastic, piano sounds great. Have a great three weeks off the road.

From Lasagnafarm: “INTERVIEW WITH TWO YOUNG MANHATTANITES WHO MENTION, MORE TIMES THAN I CARE TO REMEMBER, THAT THEY Are GOING TO MOVE TO SEATTLE SOON”

Latent Irony

Q: The movie My Own Private Idaho portrays the northwest as a world of narcoleptics and people who speak in 18th century verse. Can you do either of these impressive feats?

A1: Meesmeeth ein shant approach such a boast unto thine snaggery! Does that mean anything?

A2: I’m a glorified version of a pellet gun

Cuphand

Kira and I were rolling on the floor with this. I got a little of it on tape.

Apple Rears its Ugly Head

Amazing. I got back from vacation to this in my inbox:

Damon Wright –

I was busy being horrified by a creation “science” site when I discovered this libelous material about you:
http://objective.jesussave.us/propaganda.html#A6

Whether or not you are a creationist, I doubt you would like what they say. They should not be free to damage the reputation of an individual.

FYI.

Full Text:

ADDENDUM VI (8/29/2002): I feel it is necessary to report here — especially since this page continues to be referenced by those concerned about anti-Christian propaganda — that Apple Computers’ desire to convert people to the religion of Evolutionism has become more overt in recent months with their “Switch” campaign. This advertising blitz uses what they insist are “normal” people (although I wouldn’t call a beatnik writer or a drugged-out teen normal people, but I guess this is Apple’s hippy roots resurfacing,) to try and convince people to Switch from being decent Christians to crypto-Evolutionists in some sort of bizarre perversion of Christian Witnessing. (I personally have not seen any of these ads on the TV, but perhaps that is because the good folks at the PAX Network have made the wise decision to not air this cultural filth. The ads can, however, be viewed in all their propagandistic glory on the Apple website for you students of cultic mind-control.) Although called “Switch”, this campaign is actually “Bait and Switch”, luring the average, unsuspecting person with the false promise of “compatibility” (both with normal computers and Christianity) only to later foist acceptance of Evolutionism and anti-Christian values on them via the techniques discussed above.

Update 2024-01-20.

In going through these old posts to resurrect the blog, I wanted to point to the latest work of the “Drugged-out teen,” Ellen Feiss, or should I say, Dr. Ellen Feiss, Assistant Professor, Art History at Prividence College. The “beatnik writer” has come around, too, turns out.

Chautauqua Day 8: Going Home

Colleen Rowley is a cool lady. I sat next to her husband during the entire talk yesterday — the most down-to-earth guy whose family has just been thrust into the spotlight with not the most flattering of hues. He loves watching her speak and brought the kids along with them to Chautauqua for a road trip speaking tour at colleges around the East Coast.

She’s a far better speaker in the small, intimate atmosphere of the Hall of Philosophy. She’s calm and cool, takes questions well, and really reflects her home-grown integrity through the passion of her speech. I caught up with her after the session and gave her my card — she’d said that she was interested in promoting her whistle-blowing cause but didn’t have any sort of web community set up to do so. I told her that Curt and I could take care of that no sweat. Maybe she’ll call… maybe she won’t. Good connection, anyhow. All of this took place standing around with her husband, the couple who sponsored her talk, and the President of Chautauqua. The spark of online community ignited a pretty cool conversation between all of us, which I left in the middle of because they torpedoed the entire concept by attaching it to her potential publisher’s promotional endeavors.

We’re packed and heading for the airport, Meg, Ted, and Emma in tow. The girls are still feeling awful; we’re all sleep deprived, and, as much as we love them all, it’s time for some time apart.

Chautauqua Day 7

I’ve skipped everything so far today to get caught up on this journal and relax a bit. I’ve finished my second book of the trip, “Deception Point,” great read, and moved into “Along Came A Spider.” Spooky.

Emma’s finally feeling better, and Sophie is at least sounding better, but she still isn’t sleeping well. We were up again at 3:00 with the Motrin, trying to bring that fever down. Good stuff, Motrin.

Our housemates have a son who’s about to come out of his skin. He’s had the TV or his Gameboy on since he got here and appears to detest the outdoors. I unplugged the cable from the TV to deceptively try to guide him to other activities. He FREAKED OUT. Started slamming doors and stomping all over the place until his grandpa tracked me down to fix it. This outburst is second only to the time his Gameboy batteries crapped out in the middle of a game. I’m sure he’s ready to get home.

It’s back to the Hall of Philosophy this afternoon for the Colleen Rowley follow-up talk. Today, I believe she’ll be talking about what she blew the whistle on: her letter to the director of the FBI announcing data in support of a massive terrorist attack on the US, which went ignored and turned out to be 9/11. Tonight, it’s Finding Nemo after a somewhat frustrating attempt to understand Kira’s extended family at a picnic. It’s not so much that the family is frustrating, just that, in talking to them, they all think they’re cousins to one another, even when they are in completely different families. They think there’s a familial hierarchy, but there’s not. It’s all in their heads. Their family tree is perfectly flat.

Chautuaqua Day 6

Sophie has the croupe. Damned docs don’t know squat: not contagious my ass. I spent much of last night, from midnight to about 4:00AM, trying to get ahold of the advice nurse in Portland (taking advantage of the time difference). The problem is, that I have no cell service. Kira had told me that I could find the number of the house where we’re staying on a slip of paper on the end table in the living room. I’m sure she was right, but there were about six numbers on slips of paper on the end table in the living room. I started by calling them to see if I got a busy signal, hanging up if not. Apparently, one of them was Bob and Bev’s place down the street. It rang; I didn’t wait for an answer and hung up. 10 minutes later, Bob shows up at the door in the pouring rain, thinking something terrible was happening. He didn’t have our number either, so he just came over at about 3:00 in the morning. Kristin is a night owl; she was up, and so was Richard (husband of Meg’s half-sister). So there we are, staring at the phone, waiting for a callback.

The doc was great when we finally talked to her. They gave us some ideas on how to take care of this. We’re doing steambaths and Motrin to break up the congestion and help the fever, but mostly, we just have to wait it out. I think it’s far worse for Kira and me than it is for Sophie. She sounds like a tractor.

Chautauqua Day 5

It stopped raining for the symphony last night. What a refreshing breather that was. Now? Raining again. Emma was up all night, feeling terrible. This morning, she’s doing a bit better, though I’m sure she’d be feeling better if she wasn’t cooped up in this dark, damp house all day long, praying for sun.

The music last night was great. Jackson is young and spastic at the cello, but her sound is strong in a complicated piece. The bats are still here, hundreds came out of the roof vent just as predicted and flew off into the night sky on the hunt.

Today is by far the busiest day of the week for me. This morning, John Barrett took the stage for the morning lecture at the amphitheater. This is the same fellow who spoke after “Judgement at Nuremburg” on Sunday, the world’s leading specialist on Justice Robert H. Jackson, the presiding judge in Nuremburg during the trials. Apparently, Jackson is from this area, has spoken several times at Chautauqua (sharing the stage with FDR), and writing some of the most powerful legal opinion in the history of the bench. The talk itself was fascinating, particularly in how Barrett addresses Jackson’s democratic, civil rights-based legal work with incidences of more hardlined authoritarian practices during his work as Attorney General. Jackson was part and patial to the alien registration act, among other acts which revoke the civil liberties of citizens. How is he so different from General Rumsfeld today? He’s a constitionalist first, policeman second. Today, we’ve got it backward.

I attended a session at noon today with the honorable ambassador John Dolibois, Ambassador to Luxembourg, retired. He’s written a book on his work as chief inquisitor of the 119 Nazi military leaders, judges, and politicians post WWII. He worked for Justice Jackson with a team of five other investigators determining who should go to trial and who could wait. He’s the last of the five alive today, and it was quite an honor to hear him speak.

This afternoon, I walked out of a lecture by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf entitled “What’s right with Islam?” I have to admit, I was really looking forward to this one. But, seriously, after a morning on civil liberties, a mid-day of Nazi war crimes, there had to be something pretty damned engaging to keep me awake. This guys voice, well, it might as well have been Barry White singing lullabies to us. Had I not left, I would have been asleep long before the end. That, and by half way through the session, we still had no idea what, exactly, was right with Islam. I know there are some things that are right with it, but I think this guy would have needed more time to lay it all out than I could give.

Tonight: Goldfinger. Another in the Chautauqua film series. There’s a lecture by David Zinman before, screening, then Q&A after. I’m really looking forward to seeing this on the big screen with a full house audience. “No, Mr. Bond. I want you to DIE!”