"It is a luxury to be understood."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Things that make you go hmmm...
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
04:56 p.m.

My local cable company, COX has been running some ads that express incredulity at the fact that the local phone company, SBC, is selling DBS dishes.

SBC isn't saying anything (yet), but COX is preparing to offer phone service using VoIP.

Into the lion's den
Saturday, June 19, 2004
04:47 p.m.
Cory Doctorow, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation went to Redmond recently to talk about copyright, technology and DRM. He started his talk like this...

"Greetings fellow pirates! Arrrrr!"

Interested? Read his words by clicking on the title of this post.

Ray Gun
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
12:54 p.m.

   I DO feel sympathy for his family, its tough for anyone to loose a husband and father. The "long goodbye" of alzheimer's has got to be especially painful. The following is not meant to take away from that.

  Someone, on another site said, "He was our greatest President".

  I DON"T THINK SO!

  Hyperbole? Historical myopia? CRS?

   OK, he presided over the downfall of communism but is that "greater" than Washington's defeat of tyranical English rule? Is it "greater" than Lincoln's presiding over Emancipation? Was he "greater" than Jefferson or either of the Roosevelts?

    A) He was, first and foremost an actor. The "Great Communicator" read from scripts very well.

    B) He was no friend to the working, middle class. This former Union man fired public employees - Air Traffic Controllers and the deficits he ran up, had us making huge interest payments for years.

  Do you think he single handedly "beat communism" by reading the scriped words, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall"? It's quite possible Communism would have died on its own but I suppose the proposed Stategic Defense Initiative did strike a killing blow. The Soviets could not afford to counter this last shot of the Cold War. Hell, we could not have afforded to actually build it either. The research alone (along with other "tacked on" military spending) ran the federal deficit into the trillions. We were halfway through the Clinton Administration before we overcame it. Now, of course, another republican is doing it again!

  "Those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it" I remember it! Why must I suffer your doom? Our greatest President, indeed...[walks off shaking head]

Paul Krugman's take.

Cynthia Tucker's take.

I am the Man and the Mule, too!
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
01:01 p.m.

Find of the week,
week of march 2 - 8, 2003:

Nothing good to say...
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
01:33 p.m.
I've been seeing campaign ads which begin with the President saying he approved them. The ads themselves contain not one word about the President but are all about his opponent in next fall's general election. These ads bring two things to mind:
1) The President's campaign is 'on the ropes', forcing him to 'swing wildly' to defend himself and
2) There is nothing good to be said for or about his administration so he is left with trying to 'run down' his opponent. It's a shame, the man has served in a position for three years but apparently has nothing good to say for himself, leaving him with, "Well, at least I'm not as bad as this guy!" to campaign with.

He's a BIG MAN
Monday, March 29, 2004
03:23 p.m.
I have no way of determining the veracity of Richard Clarke's testimony before the Congressional Committee investigating 9/11 last week. But the honesty with which he opened his testimony leads me to believe the rest of what he said. It has been clear to me for quite some time that the Bush Administration failed its basic constitutional obligation to, "provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..." on and before September 11th, 2001. Never before has anyone from this administration been 'big' enough to admit it, to apologize for those failings and to ask for forgiveness.

CLARKE - "I welcome these hearings because of the opportunity that they provide to the American people to better understand why the tragedy of 9/11 happened and what we must do to prevent a reoccurance.

I also welcome the hearings because it is finally a forum where I can apologize to the loved ones of the victims of 9/11.

To them who are here in the room, to those who are watching on television, your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn't matter because we failed.

And for that failure, I would ask -- once all the facts are out -- for your understanding and for your forgiveness."

Bravo, Mr. Clarke, you proved yourself a better person than anyone else in the entire, current administration.

Movin' on up?
Sunday, February 29, 2004
12:28 p.m.
The new owners have decided not to place another rental unit out where my home of 23 years was destroyed by a tree in a severe thunderstorm last spring. I've asked them to consider renting me the spot so I could buy something to live in out there. They are thinking about it, which doesn't sound promising.

The more I think about it, the less I like that idea. It doesn't feel right to be contemplating a purchase of this magnitude at this point. What seems to make the most sense right now is to finish the move I started last spring with the tree crash, which will consolidate all my worldly goods in one place and (I hope) put me in a better position to make a more permanent move when all the other variables settle out.

Advantages include not having to keep up with two places, including water, gas, electric, satellite and internet access bills and an opportunity to slough off excess baggage, abundant storage space has allowed me to accumulate. Disadvantages include loss of the garden space, loss of our nascent music playing space, loss of my satellite system and loss of my personal web pages. Of course, if these sacrifices lead to something better and/or more permanent, then it will easily be worth it.

I think I need to find out if I'm what's holding me back. I think, perhaps, completly breaking away from the old place might free me to move on. It's been a frustrating 'year in limbo' and action on my part may be required to get things moving on other fronts as well.

Time will tell...

Savannah - Beaumont via AMTRAK
Sunday, January 18, 2004
10:13 p.m.

At the beginning of our Christmas-New Year holiday trip I thought I'd have to write a scathing indictment of The National Railroad Transport Corporation (AMTRAK). Fortunately most of our problems were centered around Beaumont and my errors, having little to do with AMTRAK. Other than the all too familiar pain of parting, the trip home was quite a nice experience (until we got to Beaumont).

The train out of Savannah was about an hour late, giving us one more hour to spend with 'the kids'. Unlike the train on Christmas Eve, this train was full. We had checked our overnight bags to Jacksonville and the rest to New Orleans. We were glad not to be burdened with extra bags as we had to walk three cars forward to find seats (one of which had a broken foot rest). Later, when I wanted a cup of coffee, I found the line at the concession/dining car too long for my comfort. There was a little freight traffic along this line and we stopped and/or slowed a few times and were shuttled onto old, rough tracks, but still got into Jacksonville only about an hour late.

In Jacksonville we encountered an oddity for AMTRAK (perhaps hope for its future), an early train. The hour late southbound and the hour early westboud shortened our wait in the station to just three hours. AMTRAK #1, "The Sunset Limited" left Jacksonville on schedule and frequently beat it's schedule throughout our stay on-board! We heard a rumor that we were riding with a veteran crew (something about holiday scheduling) and that they had something to prove.

Our dinner companions were Turkish: a Florida college student and her Grandmother. The Grandmother was a history teacher specializing in the history of the Ottoman Empire and would have been very interesting to talk to (if I could have spoken her language). Sometime after supper we sat in a station alongside a Ringling Bros. circus train (no lions, tigers or bears were in sight, however).

We woke just before dawn as the train passed over the marsh land seperating Lake Borgne and Lake Pontchartrain. The sun rose, painting myriad pastels which were projected onto the brackish, glassy waters of Lake Borgne. Birds flew by, perched and puttered about the lake waters as the train slowly negotiated the bridges and trestles. We were so early into new Orleans, that we just had enough time to eat a wonderful breakfast before the diner was closed for the stop.

We arrived in New Orleans the day after LSU had won the national championship by virtue of its victory in the Sugar Bowl. The passenger terminal is next door to the Louisiana Super Dome (where the Sugar Bowl is played), so the network production and satellite trucks were still parked outside. We were to be there till about noon, I used my time to take pictures.

As we began to approach Beaumont, anxiety about my car rose slightly. I hurried from the platform, down the road and around the corner of the costume shop. I was relieved to see the car was there. As I got closer, I was intrigued by what seemed to be a strange dark outline around a rear door. I discovered the door ajar when I reached it and briefly worried that it had been broken into. Close examination revealed that it had not, it was still locked. Apparently, I had not closed it securely in my haste to get back to the platform before the train arrived on the day we left.

The dome light (and the dashboard warning light, which I should have noticed) had burned until the battery was thoroughly drained. Next door to the costume shop is a juvenile rehabilitation center. The staff inside was very helpful in locating a nearby wrecker service and allowing me the use of a phone to call them. It wasn't long before a wrecker arrived and the driver began to look for his jumper cables - to no avail! He had to call another driver (who fortunately was just minutes away). This guy had one of those little 'batteries in a box' with the 'jaws' you just attach to a drained battery. As soon as he hooked it up, all my lights came on and the car started right up (got to get one of those boxes). We completed the paperwork, paid the first driver and were off about an hour after our scheduled arrival. It was a pleasure to leave Beaumont - I will not be catching any more trains there!

We heard from the 'costume shop guy', that negotiations to build a new passenger station in Beaumont had broken down when the 'city fathers' had refused to come up with their part of the funding. A cursory search of the internet turned up no official reports which could corroberate this but it's clear somebody dropped the ball. On this trip, we saw good to great, large and small AMTRAK stations. It's a shame, Beaumont doesn't see fit to provide the same.

It is also a shame people don't flock to AMTRAK. I consider it a very civilized mode of travel. These days you are hearded through airports and exposed to various indignities in the name of security on the ground. In the air, the seats are cramped, the air is stale and services are being cut. While on AMTRAK, check in and boarding are a breeze, you can stretch out and are free to move about the train, the meals are simply wonderful and the private compartments/sleepers provide a comfortable space in which to relax. Why AMTRAK does not advertise these advantages more widely is a wonder to me.

I've now completed a total of four, very good round trips on AMTRAK. I know folks who have had bad experiences, but my experiences have in the most part been extremly enjoyable. The only consistant problem I've encountered is adhering to schedules. I'm told this has more to do with freight railroads limiting AMTRAK's access to their track - favoring the movement of freight instead. This seems to me to be a job for government regulation. There is so little passenger traffic, I can't imagine giving passenger trains priority on the tracks would add that much cost to freight shipped by rail! I don't expect the rail companies, with their 'eyes on the bottom line' to do this themselves. Maybe in this day, with the government so much 'in the pockets' of business, they won't do it either. Meanwhile, I'm hopeing and looking forward to my next train trip!

Websites dedicated to continuing/growth of passenger rail service in the US of A...
Save Amtrak dot Org
National Association of Rail Passengers
Texas Association of Rail Passengers

I got a kidney stone for Christmas
Monday, January 12, 2004
09:58 p.m.

It sounds worse than coal or switches but it was really not as bad as it could have been. Several days earlier and it could have ruined our school Christmas program; a couple of days earlier and it might have interfered with preparations for my holiday trip; hours earlier and it might have really messed up the trip! The stone waited until the early hours of Christmas morning to begin its journey and finished soon after everyone else got up. My appetite was an hour or so late returning for a hot breakfast but was in good shape for Christmas dinner later that evening.

I really had no further problems, just an occassional twinge of soreness when I sat too long or reclined on the effected kidney. Fortunately, due to the timing, I was able to get plenty of rest after the incident. I think I needed it - I really didn't feel fully like myself for an entire week!

This past week the stress of traveling and getting back into the swing here at home caught up with me. I had a sinus infection which peaked on Wednesday, leaving me on the verge of dizziness all day. That got better on Thurday and Friday but I think the bug found the weakend kidney. Friday night a dull ache started there and continued most of the night. I took vitamin c, echinacea and golden seal along with lots of water and the pain subsided early Saturday. Still, Saturday was a complete washout as I opted for complete rest. Sunday, I returned to normal, today was good, too!

Beaumont - Savannah, via AMTRAK
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
02:31 p.m.

I had the occassion to travel by rail (AMTRAK) over the Christmas-New Year holidays. We traveled from Beaumont TX to Savannah GA via Jacksonville FL. At the beginning of this trip, I thought perhaps this would be a scathing indictment of The National Railroad Transport Corporation (AMTRAK) but soon after getting on board, I began to thoroughly enjoy my 4th AMTRAK experience. About the only problems we encountered during the entire trip had more to do with Beaumont (and my own errors) than with AMTRAK.

My son and I took a train out of Beaumont about a dozen years ago so I was familiar with the station and thought I knew what to expect. My first mistake was not noticing within the fine print of the timetable, that this station was not a 'checked baggage' station. Had I noticed this, I would have wondered "Why not? It was before!"

When we arrived at where I'd remembered the station being, we found nothing but a concrete slab and the passenger platforms. My assumption, then was, "They've built a new station!" Yahoo maps had indicated the station was west of 11th and the location I remembered was east, so we went looking for the 'new station'. Eventually we learned there was no new station, hell, there was now no station at all! The train still stops at the platform and that is where you get on and off. AMTRAK's website still lists this station as having a waiting area, phones, restrooms and parking!

Either way, we would not be able to check bags there, but now there was no secure place to leave the car, nor was there shelter from the weather and we would be disembarking in the dark on our return. No baggage check meant we could only carry on two bags a piece so my companion had to consolidate three into one. I had to find secure parking nearby and no shelter meant the baggage consolidation and waiting had to be done in a cold wind. We were fortunate to find a nice guy in a nearby costume shop to provide information and give parking advice. He told us the station had officially stopped being used, become a refuge for the homeless and eventually been torn down. I ended up parking in front of the costume shop after his assurance that two vehicles perpetually parked there had never been bothered.

The train was scheduled to arrive at 12:40pm and finally came about three hours late. On a positive note, this did give us time to eat lunch, do the luggage redistribution, park the car and walk back to the platform. On the down side, that still left too much time standing in a blustery, southeast Texas, December breeze. Fortunately, things began to change almost as soon as we got on the train.

There was room in the storage compartment for our extra bags and our on-board attendent (we had a sleeper) arranged for us to check them through to Savannah from New Orleans. We had a great meal (I don't think I've ever had a bad meal on AMTRAK) and met two young women from Norway. The train which had been three hours late into Beaumont was four hours late into New Orleans. I had to stay awake to go into the station and check the bags. The scheduled two hour stop was shortened to one and I was asleep before the train got out of the city limits.

We gained time throughout the night and the following day (Christmas Eve), arriving in Jacksonville less than an hour late. I speculate that the lack of freight traffic on the holiday left the tracks open for our passenger train. The Jacksonville station is nice and a comfortable place to spend and afternoon and evening. There was a hot dog vendor on the platform from who we got supper and we passed a lot of the time chatting with other passengers. The most noteable of these (since we left our Norwegian friends in New Orleans) were a couple from Gulfport, Mississippi we had had lunch with on the train earlier in the day. We were also able to check our overnight bags to Savannah from here to unburden ourselves for the rest of the trip. The northbound train was about an hour late, traveled non-stop to Savannah and arrived about an hour late there.