Last Post of 2008

This has been an interesting year. My son spent most of it in Iraq (he was deployed from the end of Sept 07 to Dec 08). Thankfully he's home now.

I continue to wrestle with, and abhor, Excel (here's a bit from The Onion that caught my eye because it's about Excel).

I blogged more on my beading blog than this one this year - beading has become more than a hobby - it's an outlet for my creative impulses, a way to get out and meet new folk and make a bit of money at the same time, and a stress reliever.

August was WorldCon in Denver, politics were on my mind in October and November. That's the year in a nutshell.

Don't know if I'll be any better at updating this blog in '09, thank you readers (all 3 or 4 of you) for checking in on me now and then. I hope your 2009 brings health and happiness, and a little economic recovery wouldn't be amiss, either!

Enjoying My Holidays - Hope You are Too!

It's great having both the children home for Christmas time. Well, in the case of my son, he's in the general geographic area for the holidays, staying at his girfriend's family's home. Since I took over his bedroom for my office/workroom he's got nowhere to sleep here, so I'm very grateful they're putting him up.

I've managed to come down with a miserable cold, though. Not to sleeping too well at night for the past few days, meaning that I've been getting up for the day between 11 and 1 for the past few days. Since it gets dark at 5 PM, I'm missing out on a lot of daylight.

The other night the kids, husband, son's girlfriend and I went to my son's favorite sushi restaurant for dinner and his girlfriend got a great picture of us, which I shall share here.

The only thing I dislike about the shot is that I forgot to push my open purse behind me.

I've got the rest of this week off, so I hope I'm feeling better soon so I can get some stuff done this week that I've put off for way too long. Until I do, I'll continue reading through my Christmas gifts - my husband bought me my entire Amazon wish list and I've read two of them so far, The Sunrise Lands and Scourge of God by S. M. Stirling. He also got me a polishing tumbler and a 19" flatscreen, hi-def, TV/monitor for my office/crafts room that I mentioned wanting in passing some time ago.

My son gave me a very generous gift card for Artbeads, I'm trying to decide if there's anything I really want right away or if I'll save it for later, and my daughter gave me a beautiful Waterford picture frame, an adorable, hand crafted, pocket sized tissue package holder that she stitched and appliqued, and some watch parts for crafting - little gears and hands and springs, great for embellishing and (perhaps this year I'll learn) embedding in resin for charms or pendants.

I have spent a good amount of time working on jewelry - I've constructed several new pieces, which you can see at my beading blog if you'd like a peek. A couple of the books my husband got for me are about jewelry design and have given me lots of ideas for new things to try in the coming year. I've already gone from fairly simple stringing to creating necklaces using wire loops and hand crafted wire components, I've gotten confident enough to begin making things with more expensive sterling and gold filled wire as well. The next step is to try and create my own beads and other personalized embellishments to make my designs unique. One of the mediums I plan to learn to work with next year is polyclay - I've seen so many wonderful beads and pendants other craftspeople have made using polyclay, I can't wait to try it myself.

He Knows if You've Been Bad or Good...

Merry Christmas!

My Son Is Home from Iraq

Need I say more?

A Happy Ending

I have mentioned, in the past, of my great antipathy for Excel spreadsheets. They are right up there with Power Point presentations as the bane of my existence.

Today I worked about 6 hours to finish up a spreadsheet and analyze the data in it for a project stakeholder meeting tomorrow morning. I'd put maybe 4 or 5 hours into yesterday and last week, as well. Having had Excel tragedies in the past, mostly due to lost data from crashes, I saved my work early and often.

Finally, I was done. I opened a new email in Outlook (about #5 on my list of hated applications), wrote a brief of my analysis, attached the spreadsheet and sent the email to the stakeholders.

Then I, for reasons I don't really remember at this time, I opened the spreadsheet from the email - maybe I was having a premonition - and saw that instead of the new and improved data rich and analyzed spreadsheet, there was instead attached a very early version. I began to experience what delicate women once called 'the vapors'. Then I panicked.

I went searching for the newer, updated version that much of my sweat and blood had just gone into. I couldn't find it. I sunk into the depths of depression. I was going to have to work for 6 more hours to re-construct all that work. The question was, could I do it drunk, because all I wanted at that moment was a large tumbler of Midleton Irish Whisky.

I sent off a despondent email to the people waiting for this data that they had received the wrong spreadsheet, I couldn't find the right one, and that I was going to have to re-do the spreadsheet tonight but would have it for them by the morning meeting.

Then I got an idea...there's this folder called OLK38 in my computer's temporary folders where all the attachments I send with emails seem to reside - at least for a while - probably until I shut down my laptop or re-boot (it stays on almost all the time, so the folder gets pretty full). So, brimming with hope, yet filled with trepidation, I checked there.

Hallelujah! The computer guardian angels were smiling on me - it was there!! I guess I'd opened the original worksheet from an email attachment (thus it was in that OLK folder) and had been obsessively saving my work there instead of to the file on my desktop - which was the one I attached to my first email.

So, it's not Excel's fault, really. But I blame Excel anyway.

Google Track the Vote Map Widget

Thought this was cool. Vote percentages and number of electoral votes come up when you hover over a state.

ETA at 5:30 Pacific - Click the link above the map if all the one here is doing is loading over and over.

Another interesting place to watch the election is the Twitter Votereport feed.

He Is? Really? Squeee!

In the "This email speaks for itself" department...

Hi, Dawno .

Stephen Fry (stephenfry) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out Stephen Fry's profile here:

http://twitter.com/stephenfry


Best,
Twitter

If he comments on this blog I will probably faint dead away...

Yes, I know that he is very kindly looking at his follower's list and graciously following them as well. It's not like I'm special. But there are other 'celebs' I follow on Twitter who I've posted on their blog or been a member of their now defunct forum and thus might even have some tiny name recog. with them (doubtful, but in an infinite universe not impossible) and they're not following me on Twitter.

Like I said, 'squeee!!'

"E" mail and an Update on the Internet Radio Legislation

I was recently forwarded an email (a business email at work, by the way) where the writer of the original message referred to emails as "E" mail through out the message. I have this image stuck in my head now, of the person who writes "E" mail...he's somewhat like Dr. Roundbottom, or maybe T. Herman Zweibel, publisher emeritus of The Onion...and definitely could be a character in Wondermark.

In other news, remember the post I wrote about writing your congresscritter about the HR 7084, Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008? Here's what my representative, Anna Eshoo (well, probably one of her staffers) wrote back:

Thank you for writing to me about H.R. 7084, the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008. I voted for and the House passed this bill on September 27, 2008 and it has been sent to the President for his signature.

As you know, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which determines royalty rates for the use of music over Internet radio services, has prevented the growth of this innovative new music platform by assigning a royalty rate that is too high, endangering Internet radio. The Webcaster Settlement Act will allow private parties to agree on a deal to correct the faulty decision of the CRB by clearing a path for private negotiations to continue while Congress is in recess, allowing any and all groups to work out a settlement amongst themselves to replace the astronomically high fees set by the government with fees agreed to by all parties.

You may also be interested to know that I'm a cosponsor of H.R. 2060, the Internet Radio Equality Act. H.R. 2060 would modify royalty fees for webcasting. The Copyright Office Royalty Panel (CARP) recently established high royalty rates for music webcasts.

I'm concerned that the CARP ruling may have the unintended consequence of bankrupting many companies or forcing them to alter their formats to news and talk radio. This, in turn, will reduce the consumer's choice of streaming content, limit the diversity of streaming content on the Internet, and impede the growth of an increasingly popular medium.

On October 7, 2002, an agreement between webcasters and the recording industry was made and the full House passed the bill by voice vote. The change seeks to ensure that artist shares of the royalty payments for streaming digital music over the Internet would not be deducted against recording industry legal and administrative expenses. The agreement between the RIAA and small webcasters permits the small firms to pay a percentage of the revenue instead of the per song rates set by the Library of Congress.

H.R. 2060 has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which I'm a member of, and I will continue to do everything I can to see that this important legislation becomes law.

Please write your congresscritter in support of HR 2060!

Hundreds of Penguins Returned to Ocean

More than a thousand juvenile Patagonian penguins have washed up on the northern shores of Brazil this year for reasons scientists have yet to comprehend fully. Over the weekend, hundreds of the stranded birds were airlifted to the southernmost tip of the country and released into the South Atlantic Ocean, close to their native territory. How exactly do you get that many penguins on a plane?

For the answer to that question read the article in Slate. For a heartwarming video of the penguins' return to the sea watch this:

This is the VP Debate I Wanted to See

Queen Latifa as Ifill - her expressions are priceless. I was laughing so loud my husband came from the other side of the house to see what was so funny...

Madly Waiting for Mad Men Episodes

Why does it take so long for an episode of Mad Men to show up on iTunes? I keep checking back and I swear it's been a month since a new one showed up. Probably not, since iTunes appears to be only two episodes behind the broadcast schedule. I really enjoy the show and do look forward to the new episodes.

I spent the day doing photography of my jewelry for my Etsy store, listening to the KQED live stream on my laptop upstairs, coming downstairs with the memory card from the camera, putting it into my laptop downstairs (which also had the live stream going, but oddly a few minutes delayed from the upstairs one) and editing and uploading my photograps for the new listings. I got through nine today. I have so many more to do, too.

Also had a pleasant time tweeting with several folk...topics were carnival food (fried, mostly), figuring out how to use a phone to do tweets and succeeding and miscellaneous chatter. I have come to appreciate Twitter for those little chats.

Well, back to work on my necklace - if you want to see and read about it, please visit my beading blog.

Must Listen Radio

Today, This American Life (on the radio, not the TV show) is doing a sequel to a show they did this May called "Giant Pool of Money". Show description of "Giant Pool of Money":

"A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money."

I recommend listening to both shows. The archive page at This American Life has a full episode feed you can listen to for free on your computer or download for 95 cents.

Did Palin Hit the Target? Just Read This

Hey There, Joe Six-Pack

Recommended Reading

I believe I've mentioned here how much I enjoyed Jo Walton's books Farthing and Ha'penny. The final installment is now out:

A Gallimaufry of a Post

So, do I buy Paul of Dune from the SFBC just so I'll have a complete collection? I have all the other books by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. Guess I will, but I'm worried that this one might disappoint as it is set in the time between the stories that Frank Herbert actually wrote - and he didn't feel compelled to write about that time or its stories.

I'm going to grit my teeth and watch the VP candidate debate Thursday night. I don't want to, but since I moderate a politics and current events forum, I feel I must. In the back of my mind I keep hoping that Tina Fey will be there impersonating Palin instead of Palin...And Thursday night has both CSI and Smallville - I wonder if they'll get bumped.

Snow on Mars!

A clip of a great gag from the old Candid Camera show - the last bit is best. I've been watching AMC's Mad Men and for some reason I'm starting to wish men would go back to wearing hats. (This would make more sense if you watched the clip. If not, just go with it, but it isn't as much of a non sequitur as it looks.)

I'm not sure why, it's not like men wore hats all the time when I was growing up - they'd pretty much stopped by the time I was old enough to really take notice of fashion. I have seen pictures of my grandfather in a hat, but I don't seem to have a true memory of it. My dad, being in the Air Force, wore a hat a lot of the time, but hat=uniform and so it didn't apply to civilian clothes. However, if getting men back into hats meant women would have to wear them, too, and gloves, and those horrible, full, flouncy slips (crinoline? what are those?), I'll pass.

I've been listening to archived shows from This American Life lately. There was one particular one about music where David Sedaris was featured. In it he sings a number of commercial jingles imitating the voice of Billie Holliday. The whole thing is marvelous, but that part was really funny.

My other favorite episodes were the one where they visited the USS Stennis in 2002, the one about babysitting and the one about The Giant Pool of Money - something I highly recommend you all listen to - it's very enlightening about the roots of the current mortgage crisis.

Just watched this clip of Palin talking to Katie "slow pitch softball" Couric.

First reaction - really, that's Tina Fey, right? No, come on, stop pulling my leg...that's really Palin giving that answer?

Second reaction - Come on, just name one news magazine. It's easy, Newsweek, Time, US News and World Report, heck, even say People for goodness sake. Is she afraid she'll say the name of a magazine and get in trouble with her campaign handlers?? Yes, all the Palin defenders will say I'm being unfair, but really, that was not a tricky question. I'm a middle of the road leaning to conservative voter who has been a registered Republican since the early 80s, so I actually went into this election cycle really hoping that McCain could somehow convince me to stay with the party. His VP choice completely killed that hope. Even if I agreed with every other thing he says (which I don't) I think it's a sure sign of loss of mental acuity that he would pick her.

Aston West has tagged me with a little meme. I like Aston, even if he does drink unusual (as in not familiar to me as a Trekkie, like Klingon Blood Wine or Romulan Ale, or even Tranya) beverages.

Here are the rules, my answers, and the next six people who get to take on the challenge.

The rules:

"If you’ve been tagged with the Meme Game from Twitter, you must post 6 things no one knows about you on your BLOG. Then you have to tag 6 more people. (Don’t forget to let them know they’ve been tagged.) Leave me a comment letting me know you’ve accepted the tag."

My answers (caveat - these are things that most people who haven't grown up or lived with me for any length of time wouldn't know, not "no one knows" ):

1. I broke my nose when I was 5, and it was all the fault of a green crayon.
2. I once crocheted a nose warmer with a tassel on it in my HS colors and wore it to an away game (I was in pep band and we had to play at the game) where the temps were below freezing for all of the game.
3. I have a little bump on my left ear that makes it look vaguely Vulcan (at the right angle under the right light).
4. I can't stand to get cake crumbs in my icecream but I love icecream sandwiches.
5. I have never finished reading anything written by Ernest Hemmingway, no matter how hard I've tried.
6. I hated the Rolling Stones but enjoyed listening to my parents' Andy Williams records...when I was a teenager in the 70s. (of course I wore headphones to make sure nobody knew it)
   

Feel free to feel tagged if you want to and pass it along.

Update on Net Radio Bill

An update regarding yesterday's post about H.R. 7084, the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008. The bill unaninously passed in the House. On to the Senate.

I sent a message to my Representative, Anna Eshoo, so if she was present and voted, I thank her for her support.

Save Internet Radio - A Plea from Pandora

From the Pandora Website:

September 26, 2008

CONGRESSIONAL EMERGENCY!!!

Listeners we need your help... NOW!

After a yearlong negotiation, Pandora, artists and record companies are finally optimistic about reaching an agreement on royalties that would save Pandora and Internet radio. But just as we've gotten close, large traditional broadcast radio companies have launched a covert lobbying campaign to sabotage our progress.

Yesterday, Congressman Jay Inslee, and several co-sponsors, introduced legislation to give us the extra time we need but the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which represents radio broadcasters such as Clear Channel, has begun intensively pressuring lawmakers to kill the bill. We have just a day or two to keep this from collapsing.

This is a blatant attempt by large radio companies to suffocate the webcasting industry that is just beginning to offer an alternative to their monopoly of the airwaves.

Please call your Congressperson right now and ask them to support H.R. 7084, the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008 - and to not capitulate to pressure from the NAB. Congress is currently working extended hours, so even calls this evening and over the weekend should get answered.

The central congressional switchboard number is: (202) 225 3121

Or to look up your representative, visit: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

If the phone is busy, please try again until you get through. These calls really do make a difference.

This is a fork in the road. Only massive grassroots opposition will keep us from another 50 years of top 40 radio. It's time to take a stand and break the stranglehold of broadcast media on radio.

Thanks so much for you ongoing support.

Tim

Founder, Pandora

Another Political Post - "Head of Skate"

Thought this was funny, and clever.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I Want a Uniform Suitable to My Position

There should be a uniform, it needs gold braid, big brass buttons and a whistle on a gold chain that hangs from a fancy loop through the button hole at the collar. A nice hat, gloves, shiny shoes to go with it, too. Needs to be a color that won't show cat hair, though.

Uniform for what, you ask? Cat Doorman. That's what I am. All day they're, yowling or scratching to get in or out of my office/workroom. I'm the doorman for 3 cats who can't decide half the time if they actually want in or out. And, before you ask, no, I can't leave the door open. I won't go into the reasons why, so you or random droppers-by won't feel compelled to lecture me about my reason. We want to stay friendly, right?

Yogurt, the senior statesman of the cats sits about 2 feet from the door and stares up at the knob. If I don't leap up to open it, he comes over to my chair and bats at my arm until I do.

Pudding, the young ne'er do well, who normally just lies around on his back looking like a long-haired cat fur rug, claws the underside of my chair as his signal that "I'm all done in here, you will be letting me out now, right?" and then he goes up to the door so close, that when I do open it, he always has to move out of the way and often in his haste to leave bumps his nose.

Jello, the diva, scratches at the door. She scratches furiously. I'm surprised she hasn't clawed straight through the wood yet.

So, yeah, I want a uniform. And a whistle.

Recommended Reading

If you don't already read Jill Miller Zimon's Writes Like She Talks, please go read this post "Tim Wise's This Is Your Nation on White Privilege"