Life is a State of Mind

Erci was experimenting with Delicious Library on her MacBook laptop. Previously I felt that the built-in camera on MacBooks and iMacs was a silly and frivolous toy useful for very little. I have to revise that opinion now, because it turns out you can hold DVD, Book, and CD UPC bar-codes in front of the camera and Delicious Library reads the bar-code, pulls information from various resources on the internet and fills in all your text fields for your library inventory for you!

How freaking cool is that!?

Guess we don’t need a bar-code scanner after all. This is splendid.

The Virginia Political Blogosphere is all abuzz about the Democratic Party of Virginia and concerned citizens recording our legislature in session to record the votes and the shifty/sly political maneuvering of the Republicans in power right now. It would all be very funny except that this is our elected government trying to hide it’s business, no our business, from us, the voters. We tried to get them to record the votes of the committees, they refused. So now people and the minority party are recording the same votes themselves to be good watchdogs on our government. The Virginia Republican Party is an embarrassment to citizen politics and should be run out of town as fast as possible.

Many thanks to Waldo and Craig for saying this far better than I could on their websites and blogs:

http://waldo.jaquith.org/blog/2007/01/republicans-dpva-video/
http://www.vitter.com/craigsmusings/Entry.aspx?entry=597

This (2007) is an election year for every Delegate in the Virginia House, and many of the State Senators. Make your interest in a transparent government, open to interested citizen voters known by registering and voting against the tyrants and mob-bosses in power right now.

I gakked this meme from chargirlgenius (Thanks Char!) and like it, and for once it fits.

I have had a crushing couple of days at work. Came back to oncall duty during two sub-system meltdowns, a protracted scheduled maintenance, and project installs galore. My poor phone battery keeps getting worn out with all the pages and my eyes hurt from lack of sleep, and I am overjoyed and thankful.

Sound a little odd?

Let me ‘xplain…

I am hugely thankful that in this crisis the team I am working with is pulling together. The unfortunate lad who owns the two sub-systems that are melting down is being covered for by all of us and by his management (after all it’s not his fault the code was delivered bad and the back-out option was wiped out by lease returns and corporate over commitment). The serious Tandem expert has hit it off with the new generic UNIX guy and they are teaching each other their tricks. I am only oncall this week because my hero and team-mate switched weeks with me last week to cover for me when I was in surgery, and he has been hovering and swooping in to help fix things all this week as well. Two members of other teams in the department saw the problems inherent in the project launches and jumped in to help us out. My boss is exceptionally graceful, focused on what is really important, supportive of all her people, and calm through this storm. The developer for the newest launching project is amazingly helpful and thoroughly documented their new code. But the most impressive thing of all is that last night, in the middle of system melt-downs, the specific other team who has reliably let us down on 24×7 monitoring in the past stepped up to the plate and began being genuinely helpful and interested in one of the melting projects and figured out what I was doing every time they paged, and started actually doing that rather than paging me.

Still tired, but completely and fully happy. Blissfully hopeful that through teamwork we will not only prevail, but improve some process while we do it. Very thankful.

Also thankful that I am breathing through my nose so easily. Woohoo!

Yikes! I nearly missed this one despite the best efforts of friends like Bruce and James (thanks guys).

If you live in Prince William County, Occoquan District and are registered to vote, you are eligible to vote in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Corey Stewart (who is now a Chairman) as Supervisor from Occoquan district on Prince William’s Board of County Supervisors. The special election is on Tuesday, January 30th from 6am through 7pm at your usual polling place.

According to the State Board of Elections this election will be between Jeff Dion and Mike May, running against each other to fill open seat.

Voter turnout is usually light in a winter election for a local office when it is out of cycle (”Special”) and only one office is up for grabs… so your votes will count far more on Tuesday than they normally would (there may be as few as 1000 people voting).

If you are eligible, please consider voting for Jeff Dion. He’s a good friend and a great guy and he’ll make you proud of your district at the county level. If you are not in Occoquan district, but do live in Prince William county, you will be impacted by this election, so consider getting involved.

Today was my first full day back at work, and it was grueling. My heros are co-workers Peter and Uwe who brilliantly covered the most critical projects while I was out and even managed to make progress on them. I was really tired after a day of work and another follow-up with the doctor. Turns out I already have little post-surgical polyps growing back in (surprised the doctor a little). She pulled a few out, OUCH! I see her again next week where she’ll pull them out for real. I hope this is not the beginning of a new trend.

Ready for sleep now.

I am a gadget freak. I love technology, gadgets, audio and video toys. I am typically the first guy on the block with a new device. I’ve had PVRs since before there were Tivos. I had LaserVision and and flying-rease head VCRs when people were just getting VHS decks. I still have one of the only linear-tracking tone-arm turntables on the market, and that is coupled with a tiny moving coil cartridge instead of a brute force magnetic media cartridge.

I must confess though, that I do not have High Definition Television (HDTV) and I still have no interest in getting HDTV. You see, along with my gadget-freak status I also inherited a keen sense for being scammed. Frankly the whole HDTV marketing push is a scam, shrewedly designed to separate consumers from their money for no additional services.

The key question anyone considering an HDTV purchase should answer is: Where is the High Definition content and is that content something I am interested in seeing?

For me, there is basically still nothing available that I am interested in seeing. Blue Planet on HD Discovery stands out as a notable exception - and that would be amazing… but is it amazing enough to justify thousands of dollars in new gear?

A few sports games are reliably high definition now. Beer commercials are all high definition (hell - the beer companies have figured out how to sneak what looks like HDTV into my old standard definition equipment!). One channel of HBO or Showtime or The Movie Channel is often high definition at least some of the time. PBS is reliably high definition, unless it is one of the really popular shows PBS viewers insist on seeing regardless of source, so it is usually standard definition then.

The fight between HD DVD and Blue Ray is a joke, because no consumers are interested in either format. We are perfectly happy with standard DVDs, and still sorting out the difference between animorphic widescreen and letterboxed or pan and scanned. Most consumers don’t even know the difference between those last three terms. So most DVD sales are now, and will continue to be for some time, standard definition DVDs.

There is a possibility that content off the internet via Democracy and/or iTunes Music Store will change this dramatically, but I consider that remote. Fans like me will pay to bring Terra: The Nature of Our World to high definition screens (still computer for me, at least until my Apple TV gets here); but that is still very little content.

So for now, and for some time to come, I am firmly happy with my standard definition television.
Which means, no need for upconversion, down conversion; no need for HDTV tuners, no need for special expensive and confusingly labeled devices. No need to be scammed.

People have been pinging me about 2008 Presidential Contenders, and while I still think it is too early (we have a 2007 election here in Virginia to get through first), I have already spent a little time on this topic. Everything I said about Wesley Clark in October is still true today. I firmly believe that he is uniquely qualified to lead the United States of America out of the quagmire that is Iraq. Furthermore as a man of integrity rather than ego, he has been waiting until the congressional elections of 2006 are completely resolved before committing to a presidential race in 2008, I completely agree with that set of priorities and heartily applaud him for holding off.

I see that Hillary Clinton is in the running now, and I am not at all surprised, nor interested in the slightest. Hillary’s participation in the race will make it vastly more expensive for all players and she neither has a chance of winning, nor should she. She is far too conservative for the American people. She is pro-war, pro-corporate power, anti-populist. She’ll make it expensive, and cause great divisions between Americans who what she represents and who hate what she represents; and she does not have the diplomatic skills to heal that breach. America will be even more divided as a result of her ultimately unsuccessful bid for the oval office. The only question is, can she get the Democratic party nomination, and thus lock in a Republican victory. We should all pray not, but she has proven a fierce competitor in the past and she certainly has a lot of backing. She will make it much more expensive at the very least. I wish she would take her ego, and her money and sit this one out. She is doing some good as a U.S. Senator from New York, she should finish her implied obligation to the people of New York State before trying for another office, and she certainly should not give up a firm seat in the Senate for a white house run. Congress is more hosed than the administration right now, and is in greater need of repair.

I am surprised and very disappointed that Barack Obama has entered this race. He, like Hillary, owes the voters of his state (in his case Illinois) a full six year term before chasing other goals. Likewise, he is an excellent U.S. Senator, doing good things in the senate, having him become President or Vice President is a waste of skills we know he has now. Furthurmore, it is not entirely clear that his seat, if vacated, would stay in the Democratic column. He needs to stay where he is and not let his shining star get carried away from him too soon. He does not have the international experience to be president, and though inexperienced presidents have succeeded in the past, they did not inherit the crapload of trouble the incoming U.S. President (whomever it is) will inherit in 2009. Obama is a promising candidate for future bids for the office (2020?) but not now, not yet, and certainly not when the Senate balance is this damned delicate.

I am as excited about the prospects of Bill Richardson as anyone else, in many ways he is the perfect candidate for the office. My main reasons for supporting Wes Clark first, and Bill Richardson second are that Wes clearly has the experience needed to get us out of the mess we are in now regarding both Iraq and Afghanistan. Let the man with experience get us out, then step down after only one turn (yes, Clark has the integrity to do just that) and then let the healer and diplomat take over in 2012 and beyond.

I have enormous respect for Kucinich, never want him to be president, but always enjoy his bids for the office. He makes pertinent political points when he does so and brings new and interesting ideas to the race every time. I like the populist that John Edwards has become, but still think he is doing more as a non-president than he will as a president. Al Gore and John Kerry have had their chance to run and they both flubbed it. I still like both men, I like the job Gore is doing as a private citizen, and I like Kerry as a member of the Senate. I want neither man in the oval office now.

The only thing more discouraging than Hillary Clinton leading the Democratic pack of contenders right now is that the Republicans have basically no one acceptable at all. Where is the leadership in this country?

We got our first snow of the season yesterday, about 2.5″ of wet, white stuff fell near our house throughout the day on Sunday. Bailey the cat decided that this year he does not like the wet stuff, and he complained bitterly that it interrupted his normal afternoon prowl. It’s cold but at least there is no wind.

I am beginning to feel a little bit house-bound and stir-crazy. Surgery was last Wednesday, it went well. The good doctor removed a record volume of polyps from my sinuses and then removed the surgical packing the next day in a followup (that really hurt). Since then I can breathe through my nose effortlessly and both in and out. It is amazing. I’d forgotten what that felt like. I am so happy I want to celebrate… so I go to jump for joy or party hard, and discover that I am still recovering from surgery. Ouch. Sudden motion and/or tilting my head causes mild nose bleeds, headaches, and dizziness. Damn. I so want to celebrate. It will have to wait.

Percoset definitely kills the headaches, but it makes me even more loopy. Saturday Erci took me to Karen’s baby shower, where I got to see lots of fabulous people, but they all had fun at my expense as I was pretty woozy the whole time (and utterly defenseless to the witty repartee they all participated in). Sunday I just slept a lot. Keep feeling frustrated that there was so much to do, but unable to get up the energy to go do any of it… the house is still a mess, I need to pay some bills, I should catchup on email for work… I got nothing done except for a reviewing of all the Firefly episodes sporadically throughout the weekend.

This morning I woke up and felt like trying to shovel the snow a little, going very slowly and not lifting at all, just pushing… just the little bit by the garages and the hill was enough to cause a nose bleed and really make Erci mad at me though, so I came back inside to work a little from home and rest.

Sorry for the tedious details, but some people seem to want to know.

I am way behind in posts and will be updating out of chronological order, but in order of importance for a few days.

The big news is that yesterday (Wednesday, January 17th) I had minor surgery done to my sinuses by the amazing Doctor Hermansen. The surgery was to remove sinus polyps that were making it difficult to breathe (more details about that history here), and I am excited about the prospect of freely breathing through my nose again instead of just my mouth. Many thanks to Dr. Hermansen for her expertise and steady hands. Many thanks to Bob and Saniah for recommending the Doctor and the advice about what it would be like. Many thanks to my beloved partner, Erci, for patiently and lovingly taking care of me through surgery and after.

I slept most of yesterday away, not in any pain (1-2 on a scale of 1-10), but woozy, light-headed, tired, and slowly bleeding from nose. I look a little silly with a Spaz-like bandage taped over my nostrils, but it catches the sporadic bleeding. Every now and then I hear/feel what I can only describe as pop-rocks going off in my nose or throat; we think that is the surgical packing expanding. The drugs they gave me to keep my unconscious, stop pain, and prevent infection really knocked me out. No sudden standing for me for a day or two…

Update: Went back to the Doctor today and she removed the packing and I can breathe again. Packing removal was painful, but a big relief. I can breathe in and out through my nose now, hurray! Erci is still my hero (drove me around and nursed me all day).

Monday night I opened a bottle of 2000 Elyse Petite Syrah that someone bought at Dean and Deluca (fancy grocer in DC and NY) for $38 a few years ago. This was an amazing bottle of wine. Rich, sense of black berries, very savory, positively yummy.

It has been a lucky year for us opening bottles we’ve had racked for a long time. The highlights in no particular order:

1997 Ridge Geyserville
2000 Elyse Petite Syrah, Rutherford Napa Valley
2005 Three Foxes Piemontese Nebbiolo

Also, I’d like to apologize for not being very communicative since the new year began. I’ve been buried under a major project at work that has pretty much taken almost every bit of my waking time, and I am looking forward to launching this albatross soon so I can relax and catch-up a little.