Betcha Thought I'd Forgotten.

No such luck. Still watching the bears.



That baby gets cuter (and fatter) every day. I wish the zoo would post some updates on how much s/he has grown....

Finally!

A concert reviewer who gets it.

For those who don't feel like clicking on the link, or in case the link is broken by the time you read this... it's Dan Aquilante of the New York Post, reviewing last week's sold-out Moody Blues show at Radio City Music Hall. The money quote:

... why hasn't the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Moody Blues? It doesn't make sense given the band's contribution to rock and its continuing performance excellence. On second thought, forget the feeble Hall of Fame; the Moody Blues are still a rock band -- not a museum piece.

Emphasis mine. He is so right.

Wish It Was Time For MY Nap!

And The Hits Just Keep On Coming.

Baby was all alone for a few minutes while Mama left the den on business of her own.



Lots and lots of squirming, but no real crawling yet.

Then Mama came back and scooped up the lil' rascal.

Awwww...

Sure Is Tough Being A Baby Sometimes.

C'mon, mom, you gave me a bath just an hour ago!

And While Mom's Away...

... baby poses adorably for the world-wide-web public.



Shall I roll over now, so you can see my other side?



Oof. Made it. That was hard!



Time to rest now. I'm exhausted.

Mothers Can Multitask

Hold baby, scratch belly with hind foot.

Small Town, Be Careful.

Fortunately, I hadn't dished enough details to identify the guilty, or named any names, on the theory of not gossiping.

Good thing, because I just found out by Googling for another reason entirely that a new acquaintance of mine knows somebody who knows somebody who . . . well. That's all I'm going to stay.

Just remember, when you live in a small town, that six degrees of separation is a vast overstatement. Thus, be very careful what you say.

Words to the wise.

Still Watching Baby

Baby gets a bath from mama's great big tongue:



Baby takes a peek at the outside world:



And escapes custody, but only for a moment. You can see the distinctive panda coloration just starting to come in.



Just look at those great big claws on mama bear:



And nary a scratch on the little one.







What? Bath time again ALREADY??



C'mon, mama! Lemme outa here!



Fine. I'll just suck my thumb.



And now I'll play peek-a-boo.



Whoops! Now I faw down go boom!



Hey, you mean I'm really supposed to eat this stuff when I grow up? Later. My teeth don't work so good yet.



So much more comfy back in mama's embrace, nose to chin....



Hey, mister cameraman, I'm ready for my close-up now.

Best Yet.

If You're Tired Of Bears, Go Someplace Else.

Because I'm not tired of bears yet.

Best Firefox Add-On. Ever.

Even with 3 or 4 popup blockers running, some sites still managed to feed me pop-under ad windows. One of the worst offenders has been Snopes.com, a site I like to check fairly often to see what's new in the world of urban legends. But every time, I would get 2 or 3 very annoying pop-under ad windows which I would then have to manually close. Very annoying.

If this problem plagues you too... try this. But only if you're using Firefox. (And if you're not... why not??)

(No, they did not pay me to advertise their product, and I don't see that they charge for it anyway.)

Best Baby Shot Yet?

You can actually see quite a bit of the baby in this one, head and front paw, and the still-unopened (I presume) eyes....

Brief Break From Bears

Listening to the Vintage Rock channel on Boomer Radio, I am hearing about "a warm San Franciscan night."

Based on the usual temperatures in that geographical area, I can only conclude that anyone experiencing a warm San Franciscan night must have been smoking some pretty wacky tobaccy.

As you were.

Nope, Not Tired Of It Yet.

This is the most I've seen yet of the baby when mama is also in the picture.

Another shot, just a few minutes later:



From the position of the baby's legs, I think it must be lying on its back, with its head pointed towards the top of the picture.

Awwww...

... another picture of mama bear and baby panda bear. See that tiny little paw peeking out, just below mama's great big snout?



I have NO idea how that great big mama bear keeps from squashing that tiny little baby bear... but this is her fifth cub, so apparently she knows what to do.

All Of 3 Days Old

You can blame faithful reader Bum for this one. He directed me to the San Diego zoo's pandacam--where they have a brand-new baby panda, fresh out of the oven.

Their pandacam apparently is not in color, and most of the time you can't see the baby because mama is curled protectively around it--but she just left the nest to do some undisclosed business of her own, and left the baby visible for just a few minutes:



The accompanying information says that the baby was about the size of a stick of butter when it was born.

Today on the Pandacams...

... on camera 1, we have a snacker:



Meanwhile, over on camera 2, we have a snoozer:

Don't watch those pandacams.

If you want to get anything else done, that is.

Just a word of warning, to the wise.

Giant pandas in real time

Check out the national zoo's pandacams.

Camera 1

Camera 2

The best time to see them outdoors is the morning; in the evening, they are indoors, sometimes snoozing, sometimes chowing down on bamboo, or just wandering around. There is a live operator running the cameras, and they follow the pandas around to make sure they are in view as much as possible.

Viewing time is limited to 15 minutes per session.

I could not screen-capture an image of the cam so this is an actual photograph of my computer screen. Sorry about the wiggly lines.

What I did after my summer vacation

I wasn't going to go, because it was right after I got back from my big trip... but the Moody Blues played relatively nearby Thursday evening. I had said (facetiously) that I wasn't going to go unless somebody gave me tickets.

Then Wednesday morning Pam e-mailed and said she had some extras; did I want them? Yeah, I did.

No cameras were allowed in the venue, but we got this shot with Pam's phone, and I am shamelessly stealing it to post here. That's me, Pam, and Cheryl, before the concert.



The concert was fabulous, as always. They dropped 3 songs from last year's setlist and added in 4 new ones, all of which went over very well. Two out of the 3 dropped songs I was happy to do without, but I did miss the former opener, "Lovely to see you." Now they're opening with "The voice," which is a good song too, but it's not nearly as "Lovely," and that's just my not-so-humble opinion.

I knew Henry Louis Gates was a total dork 10 years ago.

Back then, while attending college as part of my second midlife crisis, in the English composition and critical thinking class, we were to read certain essays (including one by Gates) and then answer some questions. Here is what I wrote in February of 1999 for this assignment:

          According to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., multiculturalism is thought to be “a pretty name for ethnic chauvinism” and “the mindless celebration of difference.” He then declares the debate “miscast from the beginning,” stating “I don’t think that is what multiculturalism . . . ought to be.” Substituting a definition of his own, “ . . . truly humane learning, unblinkered by . . . narrow ethnocentrism,” he gives examples to support multiculturalism as he defines it, using “cultural pluralism” synonymously. Writings that oppose his view he dismisses as “jeremiad.” (My dictionary defines this to mean “mournful and lamenting.”)

         Gates would have served his readers better if he had made it clearer throughout that the “multiculturalism” he supports is not what most people, by his admission, think of when they hear that word. In the third paragraph he more or less wishes away the commonly held definition of the term and substitutes his own. He then argues in favor of his version of “multiculturalism,” neglecting to mention that opponents of multiculturalism do not in fact oppose that which he supports. I find such sophistry highly annoying. When commentators can only make their point by knocking down a “straw dog,” I can only conclude that their argument lacks substance. Who but the most rabid Eurocentrist could argue against “multiculturalism” as Gates defines it? Recent news events have clearly shown that attempting to re-define words to suit one’s own wishes brings only ridicule and loss of credibility.

         We could give Gates the benefit of the doubt and applaud his attempt to reclaim the word and assign to it the meaning he thinks it should have. However, for maximum impact, one must speak the language of one’s audience. Gates would be much more credible if he had found a new way to describe his vision of “truly humane learning” without using a word that has come to mean something entirely different in popular usage.

Unfortunately I no longer have the source citation for the essay by Gates that I quoted above.

Trains, Planes, And Shuttle Vans

As I write this, I have been stranded in Phoenix since last night, due to freaky storms. What is it with airline pilots, anyway, that they don't want to land their planes sideways in the thick of the lightning, cross-winds, monsoons and dust devils? Huh? What's up with that?

Hopefully I will get out of here and get home tonight. I actually have confirmed seats--but then again, I had confirmed seats last night too, and a whole lot of good THAT did me. Had to spend last night in a hotel; it was either that or try to sack out in the airport, and last time I did that, I was MUCH younger.... And because it was a weather problem, and thus not the airline's fault, they did not issue free room (or free meal) vouchers. Oh well. I was the bottom of the standby heap this morning, and did not get on that flight, although my suitcase did. So my suitcase will be back in the ol' home town before me. At least I won't have to wait for baggage claim... but I may have to wait for the lone gate agent to appear from wherever they hide between flights to get my suitcase out of the lock-up.

No, I am not sitting in the swanky "club" lounge with the free coffee. I had a free pass for the outbound flight 11 days ago, when I had a 3-hour layover, but this trip, customer service assured me they are not able to issue complementary club passes, and I am not paying 40 bucks for a day pass. 40 bucks does not a free cup of coffee make....

Meanwhile, I have just a couple of photos from the adventure at the National Zoo. No those are not stuffed animals, despite their appearance.

Yeah, Yeah, Still Alive

More or less, anyway.

There will be pictures later, I promise... but as I write this, I am in the Amtrak departure lounge in Washington, D.C., just leaving the national writers' conference behind for another year.

This morning we went to the national zoo and the giant pandas were out for a terrific photo op. Took LOTS of pictures--but the camera and its card are buried deep in my backpack now, and I am not digging them out again, so you'll have to wait for the pictures. Don't be holding your breath either; I won't be home until Monday night, because we're riding the train from D.C. to Chicago, arriving tomorrow morning, then to Milwaukee, and I fly home from Milwaukee tomorrow evening.

Last Tuesday we did all three branches of government in one day; the White House at 7:30 a.m. (we didn't see very much of it, and the East Room is MUCH smaller than I thought), then we switched hotels, then we went to the Capitol (with a brief stop at the Library of Congress while we waited for our Capitol appointment) and lastly, the Supreme Court, where we had lunch in the basement cafeteria. We ate at the Supreme Court. Go figure.

We also managed visits to the Washington Monument, the World War II and Vietnam memorials, the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery (where we were fortunate enough to witness a changing of the guard ceremony), and the Air and Space Museum.

Yes, our feet hurt. Thank you for asking.

Oh, and somewhere in the midst of all that, we attended the annual national writers' conference.

Boomer Radio

If you aren't listening, why not??

For my fellow old farts, I have been compiling a partial list of artists who appear on the Vintage Rock channel. Look interesting? Then for heaven's sakes, TUNE IN!

Al Kooper
Al Stewart
Alice Cooper
Allman Brothers Band
American Dream
Animals
Argent
Arlo Guthrie
Beatles
Big Brother & The Holding Company
Blind Faith
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blue Cheer
Blues Magoos
Blues Project
Boz Scaggs
Brian Auger & The Trinity
Bruce Springsteen
Bubble Puppy
Buddy Miles
Buffalo Springfield
Byrds
Canned Heat
Cat Stevens
Chambers Brothers
Chicago
Circus Maximus
Colin Blunstone
Colosseum
Compost
Country Joe and The Fish
Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
Cream
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Crosby, Stills, Nash
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Cryan Shames
Danny O'Keefe
Dave Mason
David Allan & The Arrows
David Crosby
Deep Purple
Delaney and Bonnie & Friends
Derek & The Dominoes
Donovan
Doors
Dr. John, The Night Tripper
Eagles
Earth Opera
Edgar Winter Group
Edison Electric Band
Electric Flag
Electric Prunes
Elton John
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Eric Clapton
Everything is Everything
Fairport Convention
Fever Tree
Fleetwood Mac
Flying Burrito Brothers
Focus
Frank Zappa
Free
Frijid Pink
George Harrison
Graham Nash
Grand Funk Railroad
Grass Roots
Grateful Dead
Greg Allman
Harry Nilsson
Hollies
Hookfoot
Hot Tuna
Ides Of March
Iron Butterfly
It's A Beautiful Day
Jack Bruce
Jackie Lomax
James Gang
Janis Joplin
Jeff Beck
Jefferson Airplane
Jesse Winchester
Jethro Tull
Jimi Hendrix
Jimmie Spheeris
Jo Jo Gunne
Joan Baez
Joe Cocker
John Lennon
John Mayall
John Renbourn
John Sebastian
Joni Mitchell
Judy Collins
Julie Driscoll And Brian Auger & The Trinity
KAK
King Crimson
Kinks
Laura Nyro
Led Zeppelin
Lee Michaels
Leon Russell
Leonard Cohen
Lighthouse
Lindisfarne
Lou Reed
Love
Lovin' Spoonful
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Mark-Almond
Max Frost & The Troopers
MC5
Melanie
Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper & Stephen Stills
Moby Grape
Moody Blues
Mothers Of Invention
Mott The Hoople
Nazz
Neil Young
New Riders Of The Purple Sage
Norman Greenbaum
Orpheus
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Pentangle
People
Phil Ochs
Pink Floyd
Poco
Procol Harum
Queen
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Redbone
Rhinoceros
Richie Havens
Rolling Stones
Santana
Savoy Brown
Seatrain
Simon & Garfunkel
Sly & The Family Stone
Small Faces
Smith
Spencer Davis Group
Spirit
Spooky Tooth
Status Quo
Stephen Stills
Steppenwolf
Steve Miller Band
Strawbs
T. Rex
Taj Mahal
Teegarden & Van Winkle
Ten Wheel Drive
Ten Years After
The Band
Them
Thunderclap Newman
Tim Hardin
Tom Rush
Traffic
Van Morrison
Vanilla Fudge
Who, The
Yardbirds
Yes
Youngbloods
Zombies
ZZ Top

As If I Needed Yet Another Excuse.

Daily Dose of Caffeine May Cure Alzheimer's, Scientists Find

I am still not sure how they define a "cup," though. Since my favorite coffee mug is about the size of a large bucket, I have always had to make adjustments when I hear about how many "cups" of coffee per day will do this or that.

Excuse me. I have to go pour another dose of anti-brain-rot medicine now.

(Hat tip: Sarahk, via Twitter)

Never Again.

Remember the incident where my credit card number was compromised, and I started receiving all kinds of interesting "products" in the mail?

In spite of the comic relief and blog-fodder achieved through that incident, it's been one big headache, because despite multiple promises and assurances, the credit card issuer, as of yesterday, had STILL not actually closed my account (I was assured it was closed back on November 11, 2008) and even allowed more fraudulent charges to get through after the card had been canceled. Then they charged an annual fee on the dead credit card, and started slapping me with late fees and finance charges. Apparently my closed account even went to collection.

After yet another a lengthy time on the phone yesterday (they should be paying me for my time, methinks) I am assured once again that the account has been closed and all charges have been reversed. I will believe that when I see it. (Hint: I am not holding my breath.)

At the end of the call, I informed the very nice phone representative that while of course I did not hold her personally responsible for the mess, she needed to pass the word upstairs that I would never, EVER do business with their company again. She was sorry to hear it--but said she completely understood where I was coming from.

Oh, you want to hear who messed up so badly? Well, I won't mention their name directly, but their initials are B of A....

The Baby

Not quite the baby she was when I got her, though....

Here's a view you don't see too often. Observe the adorable belly-markings, and the "fingers." Just to the right of the "fingers" you can see a couple of her back toes wrapped around the branch.



She was in predator mode, ready to leap for the front of the cage and eat whatever she saw moving. Unfortunately for her, what she saw moving was just my shadow. No live prey for the baby. She had to make do with gecko-goo. How boring.

(That's Firefly, for those who are keeping score.)

In Celebration Of The Holiday...

... as only the Muppets can do it.



(Hat tip: Samantha.)

Don't Try This At Home.

Do not mix decolorized iodine with hydrogen peroxide. You will be sorry. Guaranteed.

Saw an item in the paper about using white or decolorized iodine on the nails to strengthen them. Actually managed to find the stuff at the local specialty pharmacy, and started using it.

Unfortunately, I had not seen this item before I used hydrogen peroxide on something else today, and now my right thumbnail looks just like I soaked it in Betadine. Yuck.

I wonder how long it'll take to wear off....

Difficult Week.

Especially if one is a celebrity.

But I first want to acknowledge that it's a very difficult week also for a friend and colleague of mine. She lost her husband a week ago after a relatively short illness. Thoughts and prayers to B. and her family.

At the risk of committing sacrilege, I never was a Michael Jackson fan. His voice and style just didn't do it for me, and some of his life choices were problematic, to say the least. But there's no denying he was a huge figure in American pop culture, such that even as serious an outfit as the Fox News Channel went wall-to-wall with their coverage.

Moving right along... I was one of the countless young women with a Farrah hairdo back in the late 70s. I gave it up fairly quickly, because it was far too high-maintenance for my taste, and heaven help me if I got caught in a rainstorm.... On another note, a few years ago I actually met the Hollywood hairdresser who created the Farrah haircut. (No, he did not cut my hair.)

And what can one say about Ed McMahon that hasn't been said already? I have nothing to add, other than to say I was sorry to hear about all the apparent difficulties he had to endure later in life. And now, yet another legend is gone.

Bumper Sticker

Saw one the other day; this isn't exactly the one I saw, but the general idea is the same.



Want one of your own? Go here.

(No, I am not the one selling them, and it's not a friend of mine either.)

That Does It.

I am officially an old fart.

Why? Well, because I just got a long e-mail from my supervisor, wherein she reminded people that it is not acceptable to just not show up for work on any given day.

Back in my day, practicing personal responsibility was called being a grown-up.

It's not the first time I've seen this sort of thing from management, but it still absolutely floors me that people have to be TOLD to keep their commitments. You accepted the job, you show up. Period. And if you are sick or somehow unavoidably detained, you CALL IN.

And here I was feeling guilty because the other night I wasn't feeling well, and I sent my supervisor an e-mail at 4 a.m. telling her I was shutting off the alarm clock because I was not feeling well. As it turned out, I was only about an hour late signing on for my shift. But it never would have occurred to me NOT to let someone know I was going to be late.

Yep. I'm an old fart.

Charming.

And about bloody time. Better late than never? No. Too little, too late. Sheesh.

For No Reason Other Than I Felt Like It

It's well over 4 years since I posted P. J. O'Rourke's magnificent rant from "Holidays in Hell."

And since it is truly NSFW (that's not safe for work, for all you flatlanders), I am putting it below the fold. Enjoy!

Click here to read the rest, if you dare!

R, You There?

No, that's not an obnoxious text-message or Twitter abbreviation. I'm talking about an old school acquaintance whose first name starts with an R, with whom I briefly connected on Facebook the other week. R, if you're reading this (and I hope you are) I intended to answer your last message--but then you vanished. Was it something I said??

I wanted to ask you about the novel you're writing, and other things.... E-mail me. The address is right over there in the sidebar. ---> Or call me. I'm in the book.

Snibbles 'N' Bits

Got a call from the new guy, i.e. the guy taking over from the old guy at the brokerage office I do business with. I have an appointment with him next week for a portfolio review. I told him I hadn't looked at a statement since before the election last year because I really did not want to know how low my portfolio had sunk. (After all, what could I do about it that I hadn't already done, i.e. vote against the people who helped sink the economy? And we all know how much good THAT did me.) He ran some quick numbers and told me that while on average, people had lost nearly half the value of their portfolios, mine had only gone down by about 10 percent. Good news, then.

Completely unrelated to this, in the course of having the TV cable redone last week, I decided that since everything in back had to be unhooked and reconnected anyway, this would be a good time to redo all the various power strips and surge protectors.

So now, only the things that have to stay on all the time (the lizard lights and fountain pumps) are plugged into a power strip that stays turned on.

Everything else--TV, VCRs, DVD players, cable box--is plugged into a strip that gets turned off except when one of the above toys is in use. And since about 99 percent of my TV watching happens in the bedroom, the living room arrangement will stay turned off 99 percent of time time.

I should know within a few months whether those TV commercials that tell you to do this sort of thing to save power are actually onto something.... Has anyone had experience with this? Are you saving any money?

Heeeere, Spammer-Spammer-Spammer!

transccare@yahoo.com


There you go, spam-bots. Harvest away. Send him some "enhancement vitamin" advertisements. He probably needs them.

(This was someone who had the nerve to more or less offer to take away my job by undercutting my employer, on a professional bulletin board. This response was suggested by one of the several others he tried the same scam with.)

Oh Frabjous Joy!

There is some good news happening in this economy.

As we all know... TV has entered the digital age, as of today.

Both of my TVs have digital tuners, so I wasn't too worried. And then I saw the ads for digital cable service plus On-Demand, for only $29.99 a month for the first year. And after that, the monthly price is less than what I've been paying up until now. Go figure.

So a couple of weeks ago I made the appointment online to get converted to digital cable. I was told that if I wanted to use the second TV for anything other than a giant doorstop, I would of course need a second cable box, which was going to cost an extra X number of dollars per month. So I said okay, since the price was still going to be far less than I've been paying.

The installer was running behind, and showed up actually several hours late yesterday; but it was okay because I was home anyway, and didn't have any reason I needed to leave the house. But he had very good news; he would installing the main cable box with the on-demand features on whichever TV I wanted (I chose the living room, since that's the bigger screen), but he had a basic converter box that he would install on the bedroom TV--and this box was NOT going to cost any extra per month.

And then he absolutely made my day. He told me the Sci-Fi Channel is now included in my lineup.

I still don't know my exact channel lineup; the listings they have online are a bit outdated (I expect with the digital conversion going on, they've had better things to do than update their online channel listings). I guess I'll have to sit down and manually scroll through all the channels and write down what comes up. I have more channels than "basic" but fewer than "premium."

But the Sci-Fi Channel!! Yowza! According to what's published online, I'd have to go several levels of service above what I am actually getting to get that channel included in my lineup. As I said... obviously the lineup has changed since they published that information....

UPDATE: Faithful reader Bum e-mailed to give me info on finding my channel lineup at IMDB. Yes, they do have the channel lineup... and it lists every single channel available if you buy every single thing they have available to sell you. The channels I get are tucked in amongst them, somewhere.

So thanks, Bum, appreciate the effort... but I'm going to have to resort to the old-fashioned method of writing down the actual channels that show up on my TV. Oh well.

Dear Neighbor:

I don't think your computer can hear you when you scream, "NO! NO! NO! NO!" at it.

Come to think of it, I don't think the people in Outer Mongolia can hear you either.

Effective Advertising

Ask any marketing maven and they will tell you that any advertisement that sticks with the listener/viewer is an effective one. (Whether it sticks in a positive or negative way is another matter.)

For no reason at all, I just thought of a radio advertisement for the Yellow Pages from, oh, decades ago, give or take a century. Among other vignettes, a woman with an obvious sinus problem was heard to say, "I have a terrible cold." Man's voice: "Use the yellow pages and--" Woman's voice: "Couldn't I just try to find a tissue somewhere?" Cue the jingle singers: "Stick your nose in the book, don't you leap 'till you look, in the Yellow Pages."

See? Effective advertising. Not that I've ever used the yellow pages for a cold, mind you....

Politically Incorrect Reading List

"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." -- Winston Churchill

This quotation can be found, among other places, on the flyleaf of Vince Flynn's latest blockbuster, "Extreme Measures."

The first edition was issued in October of 2008, which of course means it was written well before that... but it is incredibly timely, in that its plot includes bleeding-heart U.S. Senators who want to prosecute and jail some of those rough men Churchill talked about; one of whom, of course, is Flynn's fictional hero.

And speaking of rough men, if you want a real eye-opener, just read anything by ex-Navy Seal Richard Marcinko. But don't read it if you are sensitive to, um, rather salty language, and you can't stand the thought of terrorists and traitors getting their just desserts, heaven help you.

I first read one of his books several months ago and remembered that it was well-written, with a very distinctive voice, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Fast forward to late last week at the public library. I was rummaging around in the M portion of the fiction section, when a library worker with a cart stopped and asked if I needed any help.

"Well, I read this really good book, and I can't remember the name of the book or the author, but it was somewhere around here."

He wished me luck, and went on to the next shelf; but he was still well within earshot when I continued, "It was one of those chasing-terrorists-around-the-world kind of books, and it was actually pretty funny, and it was written by a guy who used to do that sort of thing."

The library worker came back around the corner, pointed to a book by Marcinko, and said, "Might be somebody like that guy." Sure enough, it was exactly that guy.

When in doubt, ask a library staff person. Talk about good service.

Did You Know...

... I'll bet money you didn't, if you are not closely involved in the medical field.

Your confidential information--medical and otherwise--may very well be going overseas without your knowledge or consent.

Many medical providers in the U.S., in a short-sighted effort to save money, offshore their medical transcription work to India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and other places. (They've been doing it for years, and the wages for medical transcription work in the U.S. have dropped pretty drastically in the same time frame. But that's another gripe.)

Often, in the course of having your medical records transcribed overseas, all of your information that will enable identity theft goes right along with it. And it is, of course, impossible to enforce U.S. privacy laws offshore.

Regular readers might remember the fun I had when I received an order of ::ahem:: male enhancement "vitamins" in the mail, courtesy of an identity thief who was too stupid to change the credit card address to his own. (I am assuming it was a he, because who else would order that stuff?)

The connection I did not make at that time was that less than 3 months earlier, I had been to a medical practice that I know for a fact sends its transcription work to India. (I know this because a friend of mine used to have their account, and she lost it when they decided they wanted to save money.)

Coincidence? I really can't say. But if I, without a larcenous bone in my body, could envision how an unscrupulous medical transcription service operator somewhere in the third world might team up with an identity theft ring and sell them private information (names, social security numbers, etc.)... well. You get the picture.

Here is a site that has more information about a bill currently sitting in Congress that would require Americans to be notified before any of their personal information is sent overseas.

Who Writes These Headlines?

Excuse me? Somebody can honestly, with a straight face, suggest that the Republicans are stepping over the line for going after Nancy "what-did-she-know-and-when-did-she-know-it" Pelosi? Have they been blind and deaf for the past 8 years? Do I have to remind anyone about Bush being Hitler, Cheney being Darth Vader and all that?

Good freaking grief.

I Love This Guy.

Real Men aren't afraid to wear pink boxer shorts.

I mean... what else are you gonna do when the alert sounds and you're in your pajamas? Are you gonna take the time to get dressed and possibly endanger your comrades, or are you gonna go out there and do what needs to be done?

Good for him. Way to go, soldier.

Browsing The Web

Just in case you haven't seen these sites...

... check out the FAIL Blog. But be warned--let's just say it is not entirely G-rated.

And then there's the wonderfully-bizarre Are We Lumberjacks?

Enjoy. But don't say I didn't warn ya.

Strange Allergic Reaction

My sister's friend who is now acting as daddy for the little dog Star just came by to drop off some stuff, and Star was with him.

She remembered me; she gave me a nose-kiss, I told her I missed her, and I held her for a few minutes.

And now there's this funny thing going on with watery eyes and running nose.

Must be an allergy. Yeah. That's right.

In The Headlines

"A Call For Understanding," screams the front-page above-the-fold headline in today's newspaper, complete with picture of the president making a speech.

Oh, but we do understand. We understand all too well that you want to take our country to a place it's never been before, and that place is not a good one.

Well, THAT wasn't supposed to happen....

... in light of television history, that is.

First, Joss Whedon's fantastic show Firefly gets canceled after half a season, among other things allegedly being unable to find an audience (which is kind of hard to do with a show that is moved, pre-empted, and the episodes shown out of order).

Then Tim Minear's Drive (starring Captain Tightpants himself, Nathan Fillion) gets canceled after exactly 8 days, again because it couldn't find an audience. Huh?

So what are we to make of the most recent news?

Just announced, Joss's latest show Dollhouse has been . . . wait for it . . . RENEWED for a second season.

And if that weren't enough, the new show Castle, starring Nathan, has been . . . RENEWED.

Plus, rumor has it that Chuck, with the hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne (otherwise known as Adam Baldwin) in a supporting role, is also to be renewed.

I don't know how to act.

You Just Can't Get Good Help Anymore.

And it's even scarier when the good help you can't get is your own employer, not your minions.

It seems nobody bothered to tell me, after a month and a half, that my health insurance enrollment forms (which went in along with all my other employee forms) mysteriously never got there, even though they were in the same batch with all the forms that did arrive safely.

I knew I should have stayed in bed this morning.

Ouch.

Did the 10.6 mile marathon walk again 2 days ago, with very little training, and am suffering the consequences thereof. Somebody please remind me, next year, to do some actual training??

Worthy of comment is that while milling about the parking lot of Rocky Point Restaurant, before the walk began, I saw a familiar face, checked the name tag, and accosted the wearer. He was my first college band director from 35 years ago, and when I told him my name, he professed to remember me, though I couldn't swear to it. I asked how he was doing, and he said, "No better than I deserve!" with a great big cheerful grin. He was doing the walk with his wife and one of his daughters (and the last time I saw the daughter, she was in junior high, I think).

At least two regular readers of this blog will know who I am talking about. He's in his upper 70s now, and must be in pretty good shape if he was going to attempt the walk.

And Furthermore...

... I wonder how many of the same people who are screaming nowadays that gays MUST be allowed to marry, it's their RIGHT, don't you know...

... were the same people screaming 35 and 40 years ago that marriage meant nothing, it was just a piece of paper....

Just curious.

Happy Day

Today, according to my calendar, is Earth Day.

(Somehow I don't believe the earth actually cares.)

One of my calendars also says that today is Administrative Professionals Day.

(I liked it better when it was Secretaries' Day and the boss sent flowers.)

And last but not least... if my memory has not completely abandoned me (and that's not outside the realm of possibility)...

... today is also faithful reader and frequent commenter Bum's birthday. Happy birthday, old friend.

Speaking Of Glowsticks...

... I was, wasn't I?

Here is what it looked like from the 9th row in Reno during the traditional glowstick-waving portion of the show. (It's for the song "The Other Side Of Life" for those of you uninitiated out there.)



Unrelated to glowsticks, here is a shot of flutician/tambourine player/backup singer/harmonica player/rhythm guitar player Norda spanking Graeme as he begins his infamous dance to "Higher and Higher."

THIS Is What Is Wrong With Healthcare In America.

Read it and weep.

I Never Knew.

That cheetahs have rounded pupils, not slits like other cats.



(Image shamelessly hotlinked from Cheetah Days. Go check out this blog if you haven't already.)

I Wasn't Kidding.

During the standing ovation for "Nights in White Satin," right at 7 minutes 14 seconds you can see a whitish object fly briefly into the lower right part of the frame. At 7:30 John kicks it away. Check out his facial expression right about 7:17. (Video courtesy of Melani.) Not caught on video is the part where the owner of the questionably-laundered undergarment hollered at John, "Well, if you don't want it, can I have it back?" He ignored her; and after the concert, she boosted herself up onto the stage and retrieved it.

Not to be outdone, according to the folks who attended the last concert of the brief tour, in Santa Rosa, 4 nights after the Oakland concert, another woman paraded down the aisle to the front, lifted her top, and flashed the band. Then she did a slow pirouette and flashed the entire audience. According to one witness, she had quite substantial, um, headlights. It happened during "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," and according to what I have been told, it took some time for the security guard to come and escort the woman back to her seat. After the song, Justin announced that that sort of thing used to happen all the time back in the 60s and 70s.

An Interesting Thought...

In my copious spare time (the last five minutes or so) I researched the topic of miscegenation. (Yes, that's a ten-dollar word. So sue me. And look it up yourself. Do I look like a dictionary?)

And I got to wondering whether the same people (or rather, the same political party) who agitated most in favor of anti-miscegenation laws in our nation's history could possibly be of the same political party or persuasion that agitates the most in favor of same-sex marriage?

Well... the three or so US legislators mentioned in the above Wikipedia article, who proposed very tough anti-miscegenation laws in generations past, were all. . . .

Wait for it . . .

Democrats.

We report, you decide.

2 Days, 2 Concerts, 700 Miles

Drove to Half Moon Bay Friday afternoon, picked up Denise at her friend's house, and we headed on up to Emeryville and checked into the hotel. Found our way to the downtown restaurant where we met up with Carol and Peter for dinner. Then, over to the newly-restored Fox Theater in downtown Oakland.

Fantastic concert, with a couple of glitches, which is unusual. Gordy started the countdown for "Tuesday Afternoon" before Justin was ready, so the first bar of the mellotron (computerized, of course) tune is minus the guitar. Then, in the second half, about halfway into the first verse of "Nights in White Satin," Justin's amplifier box just died, so he stopped cold, unplugged it, said something into the microphone about how you can do it without a tambourine, but.... Meanwhile a roadie was scrambling around plugging in a new box, which Justin stuffed into his back pocket, stepped back up to the microphone and said, "Might as well do it right," and restarted the song. Also in the second half, one woman started the traditional "stage rush" a little too early--and tossed her bra onstage at John. John got an extremely dubious look on his face, gingerly hooked the bra on his toe, and kicked it away. After the concert the woman climbed up on the stage and retrieved it.

Saturday morning after breakfast, we took off for Reno. Originally Denise had not planned to go, but due to a whole series of complicated events (and the fact that I had an extra ticket to that show because my sister wasn't able to come with me after all) she decided to come with me. We stopped at an overlook near Donner Lake to take pictures. At the summit, there was still some old snow by the side of the road, but the freeway was perfectly clear.

In Reno, we got checked into our hotel and kicked back to relax for a bit. I decided to head on over to the casino for the fan gathering organized by Cheryl, and met up with those folks for a bit. Then Pam and I headed to the food court in search of a bowl of soup, which we were fortunate enough to find. As soon as we sat down, Janet called from Texas just to say hello and wish us a happy concert.

We headed downstairs to the showroom, found our seats, and started passing out glowsticks. Casino shows often run straight through without an intermission, so it's necessary to pass out the glowsticks before the show, instead of at intermission. We had a pretty good showing with the sticks for "The Other Side Of Life." Another fantastic show, except somewhere fairly early on, something apparently went wrong with Justin's red Gibson guitar, and he played the rest of the show with a different one that I hadn't seen before. Good thing he carries a backup....

After the show, Denise put a dollar in a slot machine on the way out. Let's just say she didn't come away from that encounter any richer.

This morning, we headed back down the mountain, and got across the valley and through the bay area without running into any traffic jams at all. After depositing her safely back at her friend's house in Half Moon Bay, I blew the rest of the way down the coast, got home about 4:00, and crashed.

And now I'm going right back to bed.

As you were.

Was There Any Doubt?

Those of you who haven't been hiding under a rock will know that the best band in the world, the Moody Blues, are in the midst of a brief spring tour right now.

I am headed out tomorrow to catch a couple of the shows; back Sunday night, assuming all goes according to plan.



Image compiled by Summerfields, shamelessly borrowed/stolen from the best Moody Blues fan site on the net, but since one of the images in the montage is one of mine, I feel justified. :)

Last Laughs?

In the midst of this paperwork blizzard, not to mention this little thing called "work," as in trying to do it along with everything else... I went back and looked at my job-search records.

Turns out that the very last place I applied to before applying to current-and-soon-to-be-ex employer ("Old Company"), was the very place that is swallowing us up tomorrow ("New Company.") And at that time, they responded to my application with the notification that they were only testing for acute care, thankyouverymuch. According to their website, 5 years of recent acute care experience (5 years! Most places only ask for 2!) is REQUIRED.

Regular readers will recall that acute care is the job description in which I could not even get arrested, until Old Company offered not only to hire me, but to up-train me.

And now New Company has me coming aboard with my --what, less than 3 months of acute care under my belt? Plus they've got my co-worker who was hired the same day I was, right out of school. She too had applied to New Company and was told they did not hire newbies.

There's got to be some kind of irony in this....

At Least I Still Have A Job.

For now, anyway.

Just when I was getting used to my new job, not even 6 months into my employment, my employer is the little fish being swallowed up by a bigger fish. Yep... it's corporate merger time! Effective the day after tomorrow, I will have a new employer.

So having filled out a mess of new-employee paperwork less than 6 months ago... here's another pile to fill out Right Now, Please, and fax in to the main office. And having filled out the health insurance forms less than 3 months ago (and never having actually used that insurance), now here's another batch. Not only that... the new company's benefit enrollment date is July 1--which means they are actively looking at the possibility of other health plans, which means we may change health plans July 1, which would mean yet another stack of paperwork in less than 2 months.

I think I'm getting a headache.

The good news... I still have a job. They have assured us that nothing much is going to change... right away, that is. For now, we will continue to work on our same accounts, on the same software platforms, under our same supervisors, and (whew!) at our previous pay rates.

Not only that... the new company does NOT provide company computers. Thus, this Dell computer that the old company sent me less than 6 months ago (that would be the computer that is faster and less glitchy than my own, thankyouverymuch) is now MINE, unless I leave the company within a fairly short period of time, in which case they would like to have it back to use as a loaner.

And in today's mail there's a $25 VISA gift card and a letter signed by both CEOs, old and new, to help ease the transition. Maybe it'll buy me enough ibuprofen to get through this transition without pulling out what hair I have left.

At least I still have a job.

Boomer Radio

Today's major, earth-shattering question.

What in the bleep does "Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys" mean??

(It's a song by a band called Traffic. Look it up.)

A Day Late, And Ten Dollars Short...

... adjusted for inflation, don't chew know.

Just saw this over at Wizbang. There are no words.

Yet Another List

The folks at Mental Floss (am I the only one just a bit disturbed by the name of that site??) offer for our perusal the top 10 annoying behaviors by co-workers.

I've had most, but not all of them, happen to me over the years. (And I am very, very glad I work entirely at home now.)

1. Eating food that others bring in, but never reciprocating.

2. Shouting over cubicles to have a conversation.

3. Standing around someone’s desk and talking so it’s hard for them to get work done.

4. Not putting cell phones on vibrate or silent.

5. Eating smelly food.

6. Borrowing things from a co-worker’s desk without asking or returning the item.

7. Playing solitaire on a PDA during a meeting.

8. Turning your radio on loud enough for everyone to hear.

9. Leaving water on the counter in the bathroom so when the next person washes their hands and leans up against the sink, they get a line of water across their pants.

10. Leaving the office kitchen a mess.

Which ones did NOT happen to me? Somebody playing solitaire on a PDA during a meeting. None of the people I had to go to meetings with even owned a PDA. And the last place I worked in anything vaguely resembling a cube farm, the office manager was right there in the midst, and NOBODY dared shout within the same zip code as her.

And I will add one that DID happen to me, many times: When somebody else took my lunch out of the microwave BEFORE it was done, and put theirs in. Grrr. Never come between a CrankyBeach and her chow at feeding time.

About That Blogroll Thing...

... the good news is, without my having had to do anything at all, the trick that opens each blogroll link in a new window is now working again.

The not-so-good news is that, at least here in La Casa Cranky, every single item in the blogroll has the ! flag that means the blog in question has had new posts since I last read it.

Um, no.

Apparently Blogrolling is still a work in progress.

Blogroll Updated - At Last!

Blogrolling is FINALLY back up and running. So my blogroll has been updated. The broken and outdated links are gone, and the newer links have been incorporated.

The bad news: Under their new business model, they have gone the way of much of the rest of the internet and incorporated advertising. So now, every time you click on a blog in my blogroll, you will see a narrow advertising bar at the top of the new page.

And somehow, the code which opened each blogroll link in a new window has been overridden by something else.

Oh well. Again, I could sit down and in my ::snort:: copious spare time re-code the whole list manually. Yeah. Right.

And In Other News...

... related to one of the items in the immediately-preceding post, I have just discovered a blog after my own heart: the I Hate Cilantro blog.

Fellow cilantro-haters... we are not alone!

Very Important News Item.

Via the folks at Yahoo! food news, a list of the top 11 foods people either love or hate. And because inquiring minds want to know, I am listing my own preference (or lack thereof) for each item on the list.

What do YOU love or hate?

1. White "Chocolate." Chocolate ain't chocolate unless it's brown, preferably DARK brown.

2. Cilantro. Keep that stuff far, far away from me. Apparently I do not have the cilantro-loving gene.

3. Eggplant. Slimy, stringy, pretty tasteless. What's the point?

4. Coconut. I don't have a problem with it, but I don't generally seek it out.

5. Tomato. Bring it on. Especially if it's home-grown, vine-ripened. Yummy! Where's my salt shaker?

6. Anchovies. Bait. And I am not a fan of fishing. Or fish. Never have been.

7. Black licorice. All the more for me.

8. Stinky cheeses. Ah, the gorgeous gazonga cheese, as Kerry's mother once pronounced it.

9. Mayo. Makes the sandwich slide down easier--but not TOO much.

10. Bell Pepper. Green--mweh. Red--bring 'em on!

11. Beets. When I was assigned garden-watering chores back in adolescence, guess which part of the vegetable patch I always "forgot?"

How The Bleep...

... did THIS get through the Department of Motor Vehicles as a personalized license plate??

No, I did not have the camera handy, so you'll have to trust me on what it said:

HRD AWN

I kid you not. And no, I did not get a look at the person driving the purple pickup truck that wore the plate. But I am reminded of a piece of timeless wisdom, found in a long-ago issue of MAD Magazine, to the effect that those who brag the most about certain things, actually in reality have the least bragging rights, if you know what I mean.