Steve Fey's Blog (live from Las Vegas)

NO TOADS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS POST

2009-07-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

I live where it doesn't rain all that much, but it does rain a lot when it does rain. (The preceding sentence was deliberately left obtuse.)

What I'm saying is that we had a really great thunderstorm last evening. It thrashed the trees, sent sheets of water blowing down the street, left all sorts of crap in my swimming pool, and, most importantly, gave us a good dose of water for free.

We have toads in the yard. Mostly they hunker down in moist spots and look at me sideways when I notice them. Sometimes I see them hopping around the edges of the house, which is where the bushes are that get watered. With water on the bushes comes a place for a toad.

Toads apparently aren't all that bright. We've had a series of storms this week, although mostly they didn't provide any significant rain. When the storm winds pick up all sorts of trash gets dumped into the swimming pools in the area. Trash from places you've never visited in your life winds up in your skimmer. Then, the past couple of days, so did the toads.

I found my first swimming toad yesterday morning. They swim really well, just like frogs (there's a surprise, huh?) What they can't do, of course, is hop up eight inches out of the water to get out of the pool. Some pools have ramps leading in and out. Ours has steps. Several sets, but every top step is firmly under water. The toads are, sad to say, screwed.

Today I found a toad swimming in the skimmer when I went to clean the debris out. I flipped him into the garden. Then I saw another one along the edge of the pool, so I flipped him out. Then I saw yet another one, this one looking sort of tired. I flipped him out. Then I went and emptied the debris basket at the pump (if you have a pool you know what I mean.) When I returned I noticed a fourth toad valiantly kicking himself along the edge.

Now, really, I don't mind toads. They eat bugs, after all. But I wish they'd stay out of my pool. Like I want to go for a dip at bedtime (which I sometimes do) and end up with a dead amphibian next to me in the water. Or maybe I'll pull a dead toad out of the skimmer basket. I mean, come on, guys, I don't call the exterminator, now do I? Have some courtesy, okay? Sit under the bushes in the dampness and enjoy life. Eat all the bugs you can catch. Just, please Mr. and Ms. Toad, resist that urge to go for a swim. Leave that to the frogs. I mean, humans.

Thank you,

Steve

Weather Bragging

2009-07-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

I just checked the current conditions on the nearest weather station to my house. It's less than two miles away. It is, and I quote, 111.6 degrees, and the humidity is 2 percent. It is cooler, of course, than it is down where I lately lived, so that's nice. But, I just thought I'd brag a bit about the remarkably harsh weather we're having in Vegas.

Maybe I'll go shovel something, for old time's sake. But what? The streets are clear!

Steve

I'm Rich!

2009-07-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

A while back we visited England. Somewhere I listed my email address. I know this because I now get spam like this:

Microsoft Award Team
20 Craven Park, Harlesden
London NW10, United Kingdom.

Attention: Winner,

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND POUND (£500,000.00) for the New Edition 2009 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO LOTTERY INC & WINDOWS LIVE in conjunction with a few other internet providers.

YAHOO & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail we only select five people every Month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected.

you are required to contact our fudiciary agent with the below contact details:

CONTACT PERSON: SIR. Chris McCormick
Email: chris_mccormick@w.cn
Tel :+447045763429

Wowzers, huh? Five-hundred thousand pounds! That's almost a lot, innit? What's interesting is the way that the scammers don't bother to edit their lists. And why should they? For one thing, the domain w.cn is not anywhere in the United Kingdom. The UK uses, well what do you think they'd use? .uk. .cn is from China, but, and this is also interesting, anybody can buy a .cn domain extension because China likes making money off of stuff (for supposed Communists they're pretty money grubbing.) So, it could be anywhere, but one thing for sure, it ain't Microsoft or Yahoo, both of which have domains in the UK ending with .uk.

If you'd like, feel free to call the number above. Let me know who answers if you do. In North America the + represents 011, by the way. I have no idea what other places use as an international code. But do go for it. Say you're me. You can have one hundred percent of the profits from the prize.

Ain't I the generous one?

Steve

Meet Our Latest Addition

2009-07-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

Here she is. She's a 10-year old mostly basset that we got from Basset Rescue. We weren't looking for another dog, but the odds of her being adopted were pretty slim, so we volunteered to look after her. I don't know why she ended up in the shelter, because she's a very sweet old girl. They called her 'Talulah', if that's even how you spell that name. Tami hates it, though, so we're casting about for something we like. She really seems happy to be in a home with a family again. We were told she was pretty vocal, but here she doesn't make a sound. As you can see, she does indulge in an old hound's favorite pastime a great deal. She's also housebroken and kind to cats. Somebody's loss is our gain.

Steve

Public Enemies

2009-07-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

Johnny Depp doesn't make bad movies, in my experience. What more do you need to know?

Steve

Happy Birthday!

2009-07-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

As everyone knows, it's an important birthday today. We have fireworks, picnics, parades, good times all around. And why not? It's not every day my brother Bob celebrates another birthday!

Happy Birthday Bob!

Steve

Blogging to Work is LIve!

2009-07-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

My new site, Blogging to Work, designed to help people market themselves into a job or career, is now live. I just posted the first daily article. More will be forthcoming, well, daily. And no, I'm not abandoning this blog. My usual irregular and erratic schedule still applies. Aren't you glad?

Steve

American Socialism?

2009-06-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

I've been reading that our President has taken America straight into Socialism. Wow. That's bad, huh? Of course, I doubt that anyone saying that has ever read a socialist document, like maybe The Communist Manifesto. I have read the thing. It's long, tedious, and pedantic. Also Utopian. That's all well and good, but no Utopia ever seems to work out, not even Marx's one.

For the record, Communism, per Marx, is when the workers own the means of production. Eventually the State will wither away. There has never, so far as I know, been a Communist country in the world. Ever. The Soviet Union was just State-owned Capitalism. A perfect monopoly, if you will. Companies that offer stock option plans are closer to being Communist than the Soviet Union ever dreamed of being. I wouldn't worry about Communism if I were you because I really don't think it will ever happen. Honest.

Socialism, per Marx, is a transitional stage toward the Utopia of Communism. The workers, in the form of the State, which they have come to control, own increasingly large shares of the means of production. That's "means of production" as in automobile plants and such. So I see where the alarmists are coming from. But, here's the thing. We, the People own less than a tenth of one percent of the means of production in this country, and we're trying to get out of that ownership share as soon as possible. Less than a tenth of one percent is not socialism (although one can argue that it's misguided, but that's another story.)

We have had Socialism in this country, though, and big time. When the railroads needed to build a way to California, the government gave them not only the land for the tracks, but also a lot of other land that they then sold to settlers who would be their customers. That, friends, is government handouts on a grand scale. Then there are the homesteaders who got their forty acres by setting up camp on the land. And let's not forget the miners who got the rights to incredible fortunes for the princely sum of $3.50 per year per claim. And the grazing rights for the ranchers all over the American West, well they're worth billions, and they cost $2.50 a cow/calf. I'm not making this up. It's government handouts all over the place, folks!

Back East it was even simpler. All you had to do is run off the local population, nasty things really, and set up your town. The government didn't even require homesteading. Just be the first one to set up, and you were in! The entire country, from Ohio (State #17) on has been subdivided into township and range just so people could take advantage of government largess. Socialism? It pales beside what Americans have gotten for free from their government over the centuries.

So really, folks, taking over a couple of car companies that have, apparently, been run by Daffy Duck for the last few decades, and providing health care added on, are a drop in the bucket compared to the Socialist paradise America has been from the beginning. I'm really surprised that more people don't see it.

Steve

Update 4U

2009-06-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

So, the complainers are out. Okay, here's an update. But first, allow me to plug my latest effort on Living Las Vegas. And then, Luvit Frozen Custard, on Oakey just east of Main. Yummy!

Now, the update. I've been working what's left of my butt off fixing up the old place. We have a tenant in there who is gathering roommates. Today I'm off to fix a wall that washed out in a bad rainstorm last fall. It's only 90 degrees or so, with a chance of rain, so it's a good day to work outside. (Yes, ninety isn't all that hot. It ain't the heat, it's the humidity that's making you miserable back in the unhinterlands.)

I'm going to be getting a teaching license the old-fashioned way. My dream is to be very successful and then go rub my old boss's nose in it. Wish me luck.

I was completely thrown by news of my brother-in-law having to go to chemo for recurring cancer. That sucks in every language I know (all three of 'em) and probably in every other language as well. Good luck to Tom! I know he deserves it.

Of course, he did get to marry my sister . . .

The new house is starting to look somewhat ready to live in in spots. I will say that a swimming pool is a lot of work, but if we get a cover on the thing life should get easier. Meanwhile, there is still much work to do, and lucky for me it's summer and I have the time.

Better?

Steve

UP!

2009-06-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

So I'm a bit slow, but I saw UP over the weekend. My normal review would be: "It's an excellent movie." That's really all you need to know. But, as it is special, here's a bit more.

First, it isn't a movie aimed at children. Your kids will love it as there are a lot of dumb jokes and talking animals and a child hero, but it is an adult movie. A real adult movie, not simply people having sex. In fact, it's clean enough for Sunday School.

Second, the 3D effects are tremendous. It's not treated as a gimmick like the old 3D was. It is simply a movie in 3D. It's available normal too, but if you can, spring for the 3D. You'll be glad you did.

Steve

Will Work for Money!

2009-06-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

This post is a plea for help. I’ve been teaching in public school for the past two years. Two years ago as a long-term substitute, which I liked so much I got into the Alternative Routes to Licensure program. This year I was under an ARL license. Unfortunately, my supervisor didn’t like me enough to recommend renewal, so that’s over. To say the least, I’m upset about things right now. But, I’m not out to bore people with my feelings. Rather, I’m asking for help in making up about forty grand per year in take-home pay (more would be swell — teaching is a nine-month job after all.) I’m being paid through August, but by Labor Day I’m in deep doo doo if I don’t find some gainful employment.

I’m smart, generally play well with others and I write well. Also I have a PhD. I’ve taught at community college level and at proprietary schools in addition to public high school. I’ve been a trainer and training manager in a corporate setting. I was a career counselor for a few years. I was a systems guy, Microsoft certified, for about a decade. I really can’t do graveyard any more, but any other hours are fine with me. I might student teach, which will mean taking at least one additional course that isn’t offered until fall quarter, so even if I go back to CCSD, which I’d like to do if possible, I’ll still need a job until at least the middle of January, quite possibly for over a year. And if I find something I can succeed at, I’m willing to forgo teaching altogether.

Can you help an old coot to support himself? If you can, please send me an email. There’s a link on this page, I believe. Thank you!

Why I'm not a Christian

2009-06-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

First, this, from "America's Best Christian," which is funny as all get out.

Now, for my story. I can't be a Christian because Jesus said to give everything you own to the poor. Everything I own? What, my Blackberry Storm? My Hundai? This computer? I think not, sir. Then there's that turn the other cheek nonsense. If you smite me on the cheek, brother, you'd better be prepared for some smiting right back. Turn the other cheek? In a pig's eye, is what! In fact, I can't believe anyone even tries to keep up with being Christian, what with all that poverty and helping the poor and sick and imprisoned and all. It just ain't American, the way I see it. Still, if you insist, it's nice to know there's folks like Betty around to keep you on the right track, isn't it?

Steve

Empathy

2009-06-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

I don't always recommend Wikipedia as a source of all knowledge. However, the definition I found there of empathy is as good as any I've seen. (Hey, I was a Sociology minor once.) It is:

Empathy is the capability to share your feelings and understand another's emotion and feelings. It is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes," or in some way experience what the other person is feeling. Empathy does not necessarily imply compassion, sympathy, or empathic concern because this capacity can be present in context of compassionate or cruel behavior.

I read a columnist recently claiming that current conservatives don't have any empathy. Maybe that's so. The thing is, and you could ask Patton if he were still alive and he'd agree, you must have empathy with your enemy in order to defeat him. Without empathy, you are alone, which is just about the worst position for a human being. I honestly don't know about the current conservative voices. Certainly, some of them lack empathy, but tarring all conservatives seems a mite harsh. I have empathy for conservatives, and liberals, and even guys like Hitler, who got better than he deserved. Still, I understand his position.

One thing the current administration has been stressing is empathy. Empathy not just in court, but empathy with the poor suckers who get sucked into being suicide bombers and terrorists working against America. Unless we honestly understand them, we can never defeat them. That's all empathy means, after all. I think maybe some people are confusing empathy with sympathy, which is feeling the same as another person. It ain't that at all, bubba. For the record, those radical muslims don't "hate us for our freedom." They live terribly oppressed lives, usually due to the policies of their own leaders, who manage to convince them to blame us for their problems. It's that oppression we should be going after. Their leaders, maybe, many of whom are our allies one way or another (the sell us petroleum, so how could they be bad?)

Want to hear the advice from a different quarter? Well, Jesus did say to love thine enemy, didn't he?

Steve

Get On Your Feet!

2009-06-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas in Motion is the name of the training group I'm running with this year. It has two locations for weekly training. One, the old reliable I've gone to for years now, is at Stephanie and American Pacific in Henderson Sunday mornings. The other location, on Saturdays, is at Kellogg-Zaher Park (southeast corner of Durango & Washington by the tennis courts.) Really, you should come out and join us. If you're over fifty, you should know that running is a virtual fountain of youth. My gray beard goes dark every time I'm endurance training, for example. It's cool. And, anyone can finish a marathon, if they train properly. Almost nobody, however, trains properly, so almost nobody can run a marathon. You can be one of the few, the elite, the long-distance enabled. I'm a pace leader looking at a 5:15 finish, which is just about five miles per hour, or twelve minutes per mile. If that sounds like your speed, you could join my group.

Go on, you have nothing to lose, and a great experience to gain.

Saturday or Sunday, 7 am at locations listed above.

Steve

Test Posting

2009-05-31T09:08:00.001-07:00

You may ignore this posting. I'm testing my email subscription service.

The Future is Now

2009-05-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

I went to a high school Senior Honors Assembly the other day. The ceremony was touching in many ways, but the thing that struck me the hardest about things was the makeup of the students receiving the awards. No, not how the girls did their eyeliner, which is often bad enough in high school. I mean the ethnic mix of the students.

Not to sound like Chris Rock (too much) but the Asians really did have a lot of representation. But, and this is more important to what I'm writing about, so did the Latinos, the Phillipinos, the African-Americans (who call themselves black, by the way,) and even a few kids that mom and pop might have called "regular." Las Vegas has no majority ethnic group. We're like Southern California that way, and like the entire country is going to be in twenty years. If you find that vexing, well, there isn't much I can say to make you feel better. And, unfortunately for some theorists, nobody is accusing Ms. Wong or Mr. Aquino of being here illegally.

My students are Sophomores and Freshmen, but the mix is similar. Here are descriptions of a few of them. There is the boy from Central America who's Spanish, English and French are all pretty good. There's the girl from Samoa, who hopes to go back home after graduation (it's still in America, by the way.) I have the kid from Cambodia who is not that hot at English, but who is even worse at Spanish, except for the bad words. I have a Mexican boy who warns me never to trust a Mexican. A real joker, that one. I have the tall blond kid who only wants to study guitar but who will probably pass out of the ninth-grade science course anyway. I have quite a few kids of Mexican heritage who insist that I use their Anglicized names. And I have about a hundred and fifty more just like those, boys and girls alike.

So, to get to the point about politics, maybe you think it odd that a vital looking black dude names Obama beat out a stiff old white guy named McCain, but I don't. The mix of the rising generation is just about the same as the mix of my students. Even the white kids (that's what the students call them, so don't write me about it) prefer a guy like Obama to old gray white dudes. And, unlike the current crop of people moving into middle age, young folks like to vote. For the record, people in my cohort, the older Boomers, like to vote, too. For those younger than me but older than Obama's base, your failure to participate is largely responsible for the sorry state of our government. So screw you, okay?

To give another word of advice to the Republicans, they're going to have to come to grips with a new, multi ethnic America. In fact, one of my black students told me that "Obama isn't black." She's right. He calls himself a "mutt." Well, most of us are, and most of the country is going to come out of the "mutt" closet in the near future. If the Grand Old Party will stop arguing amongst it's few remaining stalwarts and take a look at reality, it may yet regain its strength. If not, somebody else will have to do it, because the old, "white" America just isn't around any more. Sorry about that, old cracker!

Steve

One Foot In Front Of The Other (Finally!)

2009-05-30T06:46:00.001-07:00

What with the stress of starting a new teaching position, and the accompanying recurrent illnesses (which I seem to have under control) I haven't trained in five months. All that changes tomorrow morning. This will be my third Las Vegas Marathon. The Marathon is under new management (hooray for that) and I'm looking forward to good times and great music on race day. Until then, unless I break a leg, I think I'll post every so often just to let my friends know how I'm doing. I volunteered to be a pace leader, going for a time of 5:15, or about 12 minutes per mile. That's five miles per hour, or about six leagues per decade. Hey, it's better than carping all the time, isn't it?

Steve

The People Have Spoken

2009-05-25T14:27:00.000-07:00

It's popular amongst the libertarian whiner crowd in Nevada to point to California and mention the fiscal mess that state is in, and to blame said mess on greed head California politicians, who in their entrenched positions of glory and power have decided to buy support by supplying the citizens of California with every possible "nanny state" endowment, and who now wish to pay for all that largess with heavy taxes. Whew.

It's true that California does a lot of things (on paper) that other states do not attempt. There are special programs for the poor displaced moss lost on the South side of a tree in the forest, or so it seems. But, the thing that the critics in Nevada are missing is that these special programs are all mandated, or nearly all at least, by citizen approved initiative-produced laws. That is, the citizens of the great state of California have, in their wisdom, insisted that California provide extra protection for blue-headed boobies on Alcatraz island (there aren't any, I'm making that example up) but have failed utterly to provide for any means of funding the effort. So when the legislature tries to raise taxes to balance the state budget, they are simply trying to comply with the laws enacted by the people of California in an open example of direct democracy called the initiative process.

Nevada has initiative, too. Special interest groups simply hire a bunch of otherwise apparently unemployable people to accost citizens outside of grocery stores and get them to sign a petition for whatever law the special interest group is trying to get passed. Perhaps the legislature, having as they do to come up with money to fund all these things, might decline to enact one or more laws that some group or other (and that's a "special interest" by definition, incidentally) wants to see enacted. Sending those petition gatherers out circumvents the reluctance of the legislature to "make government serve the people" by making laws without bothering the people elected to do just that. It's an example of democracy in action, and a tribute to the people of America.

Or, as I prefer to call it, it's pure bullshit.

California is in the mess it's in directly as a result of the initiative process. The state of Colorado was in a similar mess a few years back for the same reason. There, the people had mandated ever increasing spending on education, hamstrung the property tax collection process, and forbidden the legislature from doing anything about it, which resulted in the state being unable to function at all. The folks in Colorado suspended their mandates for five years to let the state get back on its feet. Better they should have ditched initiative all together.

The initiative process reflects the will of "the people." Groups that have done a lot of talking about the will of the people include the Bolsheviks, who in nineteen-seventeen overthrew an elected government in Russia because "the people" demanded it. Communists have always talked about the will of "the people," and in fact North Korea is known legally as "The People's Democratic Republic of Korea." Not sure what people that name is talking about, but that's the way it is: "The people" is an easily manipulated idiot. That's why the people who wrote the government of the United States made sure we had a republican form of government, not a democracy. Another guy who appealed very broadly to "the people" was Julius Caesar. You know, the guy who brought down the Republic of Rome? Brought down the republic by appealing to and delivering on the will of the people. Caesar knew where to turn to destroy a country. I imagine it would still work today.

Frankly, the only initiative I'm willing to sign would be one to forbid all future initiative efforts. Of course, to pass the law, you'd have to convince "the people" to agree that it's an idiot, which could be a tough sell. But I think we ought to try. We have nothing to lose, and sane government to gain.

There, the person has spoken!

Steve

Phoenix for the Weekend

2009-05-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Well, it's on Living Las Vegas. See above for my latest rant on this blog. As for Phoenix, click here!

RIP -- Republican Irrelevant Party?

2009-05-17T17:16:00.000-07:00

I'm not a Democrat, whatever it may look like if you follow my posts from the past four years. I just knew before W. Bush got elected that he was dumb as a post, and I was so frustrated that I finally gave in to the urge to badmouth the man. Normally I don't badmouth a sitting President, because it's not a job you could give me. I think I'd move to Nepal before I took it, and I'm not kidding. So forgive me if I've seemed to lean Democrat the last few years. The attraction was that they weren't Bush. I swear, almost anyone would have been better than Kerry, but I voted for him because Bush isn't almost anyone, is he?

So anyhow, I'm amused to see that the Democrats, particularly Pelosi, are getting into hot water so deeply. Yee-haw, it goes on. But I'm more concerned about the Republicans, because there is almost nothing left of them. Idiots like Limbaugh talk about ideological purity or some such claptrap (and regular readers know what I think of high ideals.) Idealogical purity? What happened to the "party of the big tent?" You don't want anyone who disagrees with your little world view? That's pretty much what's wrong with idealism, in a nutshell. Unfortunately for the party, but fortunately for the rest of us, the inevitable destruction that rises from a position of pure idealism has been falling entirely on the Republicans. There are, I believe, two moderate Republicans left in Congress. And the core of the party wishes they'd convert like Specter did, or so they say.

Day was that I always split my ticket. Oh, sure, my first election I went Democrat because my parents were hard-core Republican, but that's no way to decide an election. I voted for Nixon, even, in my first Presidential election. I doubt that Nixon passes the purity test of the Ann Coulter wing either, by the way. Any more, though, I vote for Democrats because I can't stomach the holier than thou attitude of the group that took over, and seemingly destroyed, the Republican party beginning in the seventies. No, that's wrong. Those people are leaving as well, leaving the field to the, er, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, scaredy-cat, elbows who used to like to go to Klan meetings for fun. Maybe still do, even. That, I am sure, is not what the Republican party is all about.

Conservativism in America means liberalism applied in a corporate way. That's the way it's always been, from Hamilton and Adams right up to, and I do mean this, W. Bush. The "base" of the Republicans finally turned on W. because he was, well, being too Republican for them. Liberalism in America means liberalism applied to individuals, as in trying for equality and fairness. Those are the poles that America rotates on. To the rest of the world, we're all a bunch of raving liberals. I'm not kidding, we really are. To most people we are arguing over what it means to be liberal. To ourselves, of course, we are simply arguing.

The former cross-burning Dixiecrats who snuck into the party with the evangelicals now have the place to themselves, apparently. They surely don't like American Liberalism, because it has empowered a guy like Obama to be (gasp!) President. But they don't like traditional Conservativism either because business, and the Republicans, are after all the group that won the Civil War. Ouch, huh? That leaves those benighted souls with themselves. I guess they deserve it.

I hope that the Republican party survives, even thrives again. But honestly this time. It's not illegal to be a racist bigot on your own time, but those people are growing very tiresome and not worth the electricity to listen to.

They're worse than Democrats, and that's saying a whole lot.

Steve

The Music Man

2009-05-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

See my blog at Living Las Vegas for more on this topic. This is just my review. Went to see The Music Man as performed by the Nevada Conservatory Theater on Friday. It's college theater, and it's pretty good. I like musicals, and I especially like The Music Man. The crowd came to see their favorite scenes, and nobody looked disappointed. If you've only seen the movie, then maybe, like me, you've wondered about that song "Shifoofie," near the end. It sort of shows something about the Professor and how he's feeling, but it seems all alone out there. That always bothered me because, unlike most musicals, The Music Man never drags in the middle. It's good from beginning to end. The Shifoofie thing never really hurt it, but I always wondered why, in an other wise tight production, it seemed to be loose.

Seeing the play produced, which I have a couple of times now, I see what it's about. Shortly after that song comes a reprise of the Pick a Little song, only this time the ladies are inviting, nay begging, the librarian to join them, and proclaiming their love for her books, even Chaucer, Rabelais, and Balzac. So there it is: Shifoofie and the reprise of Pick a Little show how the two main characters are feeling! Aha!

Anyhow, it's still a great musical. If you get a chance to see it in a theater, by all means do. The only negative is that Robert Preston can't play the professor any more.

Steve

Star Trek

2009-05-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

Saw Star Trek yesterday. If you are even a little bit of a fan, and you haven't seen it yet, then finish reading this sentence, turn off your monitor (no Trek fan ever turns off the whole system,) go to the nearest theater and see it. Warning: They change the canon! Not that everything in the canon didn't happen, but they change it. Watch and learn. Best Star Trek I've seen in a very long time.

I'm Baaaaaaack!

2009-05-06T16:11:00.000-07:00

Didja miss me? In the course of moving to the new house I lost the adapter to plug my PS2 keyboard into my USB port. I did post a review of Wolverine here, but that's all I could stand to type. Sorry for the delay. Assuming the Swine Flu doesn't kill me (ha ha) I'll be back to posting as usual.

Steve

Oh, You SWINE!

2009-04-30T14:25:00.001-07:00

Yeah, this is social commentary, but the information is true, so you'd do well to read and heed. I teach Biology, so I'm not making any of this up. Honest.

The swine flu has not a thing to do with pigs. Flu is what we in the bio biz call a "retrovirus." It's made, that is, out of RNA, not DNA. RNA mutates all the darned time. Flu passes between species all the time. A few weeks, maybe a few months ago, this one moved from pigs to humans. Scientists have been worrying about the "bird flu" doing the same, but so far it's stayed in birds.

If you believe what you see on TV, particularly on Fox, you probably think that the four horsemen of the apocalypse are about to ride into town. Here's the real scoop.

First, it's the flu. You ever had the flu? This is not even a particularly vicious strain of the flu. It's "virulent," which means that it spreads easily, not that it's more deadly than others.

Second, people die from the flu all the time. A very small percentage of those who get it, in fact. If you are elderly, an infant, or have a compromised immune system, it might do you in. For the vast majority that is the rest of us, it will make us sick for a while, then we'll get over it. If you've ever had the flu then you know what I mean. It is nothing like "The Plague" that ravaged Europe. The last time Americans got upset over a flu epidemic, more people were made ill by the hastily concocted vaccine than by the flu. It was 1976, and you can look it up. That was a "swine flu" also, interestingly enough.

Third, if you do what you really ought to be doing all the time anyway, which is washing your hands frequently (that's why you've been told to wash after you use the restroom, by the way, not because you peed on your hands,) only touch your eyes immediately after washing your hands, and in a dry climate maybe use some saline spray to keep your sinuses moist, you most likely won't get the flu from any source in the first place.

The flu doesn't just float through the air and land in you and make you sick. Most likely, when it spreads, it goes from hand to hand, or from hand to desk or book or other surface and then to another hand, which then touches the eye or nose and the virus rides along. If your mucus membranes are moist (see above) then most likely the virus will not find a home even then. Otherwise, you'll know firsthand what swine flu feels like. Lucky you.

Some suspect that the President of Mexico is using this outbreak to consolidate power. Maybe so. Certainly there's a lot of unwarranted hyperbole. The truth is, even if it does go around the world, only a very small percentage of those stricken will receive any permanent damage. And it would do wonders for stock in Kleenex, eh?

Steve

New Orleans In Pictures (Chapter Two)

2009-04-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

So, like I said last week, I really liked New Orleans. I am now in a position to offer some pictures of that fair city. They're all digital, it's just that I've been very busy working and painting and such things. But, without further ado . . .

To begin with, if you've ever seen Streetcar Named Desire you may remember Blanche talking about a transfer at "Elysian Fields. Well, it's true. Here's the proof:

If you know your Greek Mythology, you may wonder why anyone would board a bus to the Elysian Fields, but here it is, if you ever want to.

I said last week that New Orleans reminds me of Vegas. There is an important difference besides the huge ass beers to go (picture to follow.) That is, Las Vegas is in reality a squeaky-clean city that sells sin. New Orleans is the real thing. As evidence, here are some t-shirts for sale, visible from the street, in New Orleans. Don't look at the picture if you're offended by the F-word, okay?

About those beers: not only beer, but any alcoholic beverage can be gotten to go. I don't mean in a package, I mean in a plastic cup with a straw, and a little umbrella if it's that kind of drink. The cops will tolerate tourists on the strip carrying drinks around, but it isn't legal, so don't try it anywhere else in Vegas. In The Big easy it, well, look at it:

So there it is. I don't know how huge the beers are because I don't drink a lot of beer, but as you see, if you like 'em big, Bourbon Street promises to deliver for you.

But New Orleans is not all dissipation. In fact, most of the city is a charming Southern town of lovely architecture and parades. Yes, parades. There are special parade parking restrictions along St. Charles Avenue, for example. We saw two parades while we were there, both for Easter. The first was mostly old ladies in fancy hats handing out little plush bunnies. Like this:

The second parade was a bit longer, and included music. They also handed out beads. Here's a jazz band on a float:

I also mentioned last week that we took a river cruise on the Natchez, a stern wheel paddle boat. Well, here's something we saw on that cruise. Can you tell what the letters on the roof of the building spell out? (Don't ask -- I can't.)

And I mentioned a sugar plantation tour. A good one, at the Laura Plantation. Want to see a real plantation house? It ain't Tara, but here it is:

The plantation owners were Creole, and of French sensibilities. In fact, no English was spoken in the house for a very long time. Each door led to a different room, and they'd invite you in to do business in their bedroom. An odd custom. The place was worth eighteen million dollars in the eighteen-eighties, when a million was still a lot of money.