I'm sitting here in our house which is in disarray. The construction has started, and right now it looks as if a bomb (well, a somewhat organized bomb) has hit our place. It took 16 30-gallon totes to empty out my office, and that's after signifcant throwing away of crap. Plus I've moved my office to the dining room, along with a chest of drawers and two file drawers. The demo started today and the living room is full of bookcases and totes and random stuff. Plus there is cable everywhere (had to move my network) and so it really looks f*ed up. It's going to drive me crazy, since I like have a harmonious working and living environment. Ah well, the creative destruction will do some good.

I was up until 3am last night, so I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. I wonder if I'll still be up for watching Bruno tonight.

Had a great weekend the last couple of weeks. Last weekend (was July 4th only a week or so ago?) we stayed around here, although we did take a trip up to Annapolis for a beautiful morning spent with Zoe on the dog beach (man, I wish that was closer!) and then we just walked around the town a little bit. We stopped by for a pleasant little cook out and then we came home so we could collect Fiona - an amazingly sweet Boxer who hates men but loved me for some reason. (I'm not sure whether to have been flattered or offended, truth be told.) That week Zoe had a playbuddy in the form of Fiona, although their form of play was Zoe bothering the hell out of Fiona and Fiona doing her gamely best not to be driven crazy.  It almost makes me want to get two dogs.

This weekend we went up to Philly to spend time with Mom and Dad. Unfortunately, we learned that my grandmother took a bad spill in India. She lives alone (at 88!) , fell in the kitchen and couldn't move. After about two hours she had the strength to call a neighbor who broke down her door. They got her to the hospital and it turns out that she broke her hip in three places, and she had to get surgery to get it pinned. But she did amazingly well through the surgery and is in great spirits, even joking afterward. She's an amazingly tough woman, although I'd hazard to say that the days of her living on her own are over.

So...
+ Can Michael Jackson be out of the news now?
+ What the hell is Sarah Palin thinking? My personal opinion is that she's angling for a reality show that's going to replace Jon & Kate + 8. 
+There is no winning against Friday beltway traffic. Just be prepared to be beat into submission.
+ Facebook is just odd, that's all.
+I had more. My  brain doesn't remember.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel on my allegiance to the Palm OS and my venerable Treo. Truth be told, I'd have thrown my Treo against the wall a year or two ago if I had a viable alternative on the Verizon network. After my experience with Sprint and having heard very spotty things about AT&T's service, I've been loath to change and have been waiting for a reasonable alternative.

Looks like the next six months is bringing a few options my way.  Part of my switch is not just the phone, but the underlying system for organizing that I've cobbled together over the years on my Treo. So the type of phone is important. I'm against Windows Mobile for a number of reasons, let's just say that. I'm drawn to Blackberry, but the Storm 2 and it's crazy SurePress interface didn't impress. But the Tour is now coming next month, and it has a keyboard and (presumably) wi-fi, which makes it a strong contender. Plus the Storm 2 is coming out in September, so those are two Blackberry devices I could salivate over. The downside of Blackberry is that the 3rd party development has been slow in coming, as well as their SDK for developers.

The other option will be the Palm Pre. It's a true multi-tasking OS, which I likee, but it's a brand new one. Time will only tell if there are will be strong development for the platform. I don't like buying version 1.0 of anything, though. 

I'd be really happy if Verizon announced an Android phone, and there are rumors that there is one coming. To me, that would be ideal. An open-source OS like Android seems to be bringing in developers, and I have confidence that over time a robust set of applications will develop. Adobe has already announced mobile Flash support for all mobile platforms (including Android) except for the iPhone.

So we'll wait and see what develops, but I'm looking forward to hanging up my stylus and my antiquated OS and my random resets sometime soonish.

Yes, Michael Jackson is dead. If you weren't on Mars at the time, this is not news anymore.

I'm of mixed feelings. On one hand, he *was* an icon. In a way, I think, that might be somewhat lost on a younger generation. Back in the day, before the time where you could easily pick and choose amongst a smorgasboard of musical and entertainment options, you sat back in a somewhat more passive mode of consumption. That is, you couldn't go out and Google an artist or song and get instant gratification when you wanted to hear something. You had to wait until it came on the radio, or buy an entire album (vinyl if you were exacting, cassette if you weren't) and sit through songs you didnt like to listen to the one you did. Very few of us (it seems, at least in our circle) had MTV, so music videos were a treat and a rarity.  In that age, Thriller was *HUGE*. You couldn't escape it. He was everywhere. I still remember shrugging off my dad's "Let's go!" at the local department store, as I had to watch the entire Thriller video on repeat on a small 12" color TV that happened to be next to the Commodore 64 kiosk. My brother had the red leather jacket and a mylar glove that he pretended that was his glove. We went to the Thriller concert - my first - and despite the nosebleed seats and the nonexistant view I remember being quite entertained despite my outward disdain.

The man *was talented. No doubt.

But on the other hand, there was a very high likelihood that he was a child molester. To a certainty he had severe pscyhological issues, with a self-hatred that is only observable by the way he mutilated his body and lied about it (Vitiligo? Please.) I'm sure his childhood was tough, but no tougher than most children and easier than many. In a way, it might be an odd blessing that he passed now instead of later; The magnitude of his debts are only just coming to light, and I doubt his psyche could have handled a Willie Nelson type humbling.

And now we're in the middle of a news cycle that seems to alternatively lionize him and minimizes his "legal troubles" and then focuses on the salaciousness of his death. I'm only imagining the dirt that still has yet to be uncovered. His poor children

Apparently I have "productivity stamina". I like the sound of that...

http://www.healthnews.com/medical-updates/brain-activity-differs-between-early-birds-night-owls-3013.html

Sniffling and coughing. Bah.

It's wet out there. Jay and Jen got us tickets to Cirque Dreams at Wolftrap for our anniversary, but they are lawn seats and that's not going to work tonight. Cold and wet! It's really too bad, since it was a thoughtful gift and we wanted to go.

Have you tried Wolfram Alpha? It's a lot of fun to play with.

I'm reading a fantastic book that's a revelation: "Animals in Translation", by Temple Grandin. She's an autistic lady that has found a voice speaking for animals. Her point of view is fresh, and there is a revelation on almost every page about how (and why) animals think, and the implications for we humans as a whole. And to think I picked up on sale at Powells.

Since I am already posting in my insomniac state, I'll continue.... cut for those who have it waiting on their DVR....

The Lost finale was freakin' awesome. Finally, we have a sense (not much of one, but enough to be tantalizing) of the bigger framework of the story and the happenings. Jacob and his nemesis, whoever he may be. The one thing I love about the series is that there are more and more payoffs, but the questions it continues to raise are not cheap or excessively random. They seem natural extensions of the characters (for the most part) and not as a result of a number of different writers with their own agendas. All shows should be half as good in their storytelling.

After watching it, I was reminded by a relatively obscure Issac Asimov story I once read, long ago. The basic gist of the story was that Two god-like beings interfered with the goings on of man, but it was a contest to see who could do so with the minimum of direct interaction. While I don't think that's directly true with Lost, there is a sense that there is a sense of duality/conflict in almost everything that encompasses Lost. The original survivors vs. "The Others". The front half vs. the back half of the plane. The Others and the Dharma initiative. Widmore and Ben. Jack and Sawyer. And from everything we know about the themes they've already explored, there will be little black and white and a whole lot of grey. Jacob and this other character promises to further explore that.

Do we have to wait until 2010? And can they please kill of Kate? Thank you. The one fear is that this show will jump the shark in its last season as Alias once did. (Hello, big honking red ball of matter of doom? WTF? Wait, wasn't that in Star Trek? Craziness.)

I saw the new Star Trek movie when we were in Seattle - a beautiful pristine theater that I only had to share with a handful of people at the 10am showing. It was amusing and surprisingly touching; Despite the fact that the original franchise is laughably kitschy and managed to generate only one genuinely good movie (and several AWFUL ones), it *is* surprising that I still have some emotional attachment to them.

Of course - and I don't *think* I'm spoiling anything by saying this - J.J. Abrams and crew have HUGE, elephantine bollocks to do what they did. I expected more of a trekkie backlash on the approach, but despite a vocal minority it seems to be almost universally lauded. I walked out of there a bit dazed myself. It's too bad we'll have to wait for the next movie to figure out what they're going to do, but they have a great franchise to build on. And play with.

The bags are packed, Zoe is at Kelly's for the next week, and I've cleared out my inbox and did the last *real* thing that I needed to do for work before I left. Barring any emergencies, this next 10 day period will be without any particular work demands. (Well, okay, I brought some web design stuff with me to work on the plane, but that's more fun than anything else. Where was jQuery a few years ago?)

It's been a bit of a full week. I saw codekitten on Tuesday for a half-way dinner in Frederick. As always, it's good to see her and it's always too long. (I haven't seen my goddaughter in forever.) In my relative isolation at work it's easy to lose sight of the fact that I have such good friends. People that have their heads screwed on straight, are anathema to drama (have anathema toward? What's the right usage there?), and who are *good* folk. Life is way too busy to have time to deal with otherwise. (Although it is fun in a schadenfraude way to hear about them, I must admit.)

Wednesday evenings start a new training class for Zoe, a basic obedience course geared toward agility. I must say I beamed a little when the instructors noticed how smart she was and how good natured she acted. She's much more handleable - especially around other dogs - with the gentle leader that we started to use last week. She doesn't particularly like it, but she doesn't pull with it either. I felt better after the agility instructors mentioned that all of their dogs, at one time or another, used one. Apparently a bit of high-spiritedness isn't a bad thing in a sport dog.

Who knows if we'll actually *do* agility with her? If we can get her to be around other dogs without acting like she just sniffed a bowl full of sugar, I'd be happy. She learns tricks easily, so I guess she gets bored easily. For the next 10 days, at least, she'll be around a bunch of kids and another dog, so she'll get plenty of stimulation.

So Seattle and Portland, here we come. We have to connect in Philly tomorrow, and we'll be on the opposite coast tomorrow evening. We'll be staying with Melanie and her clan, and the prospect of rolling around the carpet with kids, babies and dogs seems like a bit of heaven to me. On Sunday we'll take off to Portland, where we'll play it by ear until we have to be back in Seattle on Wednesday evening. There are a myriad things we can do; What we do depends on the weather and our energy level. Then back to Seattle for a few days for her conference (where I plan on doing some continuing education stuff I've been pushing off, although I'll do it with my laptop while sitting by the pool) and then back again on a redeye the next Monday.

YES, its another vacation. That's only three in the last six months. Got to pack them in while we have vacation time.

Best line: Strikethrough!

This has been around for a couple of months, but it's worth posting here. The "Playing for Peace" initiative. Musicians around the world add their part to the song as it traveled around the globe.



Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

We have four days there, but there seems to be so many options of things to do in and around there. Any of you been out that way with any specific reccies?

My first real complaint about Obama's handling of the fiscal issue. I've been giving him and his administration the benefit of the doubt until now, but I couldn't let this pass without comment:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/19/AR2009041902009.html

It's hard to separate how much of this "news" is media glomming onto a story, or how much the administration is actively pushing the story, but the numbers are staggering. They are talking about a one time $100 million cut  out of 162 BILLION dollar MONTHLY deficit.

To take the analogy home, it amounts to a grande Starbucks cappucino for  a family that earns the median monthly family income.  And that's not even a fair comparsion, because we're not talking total monthly expedentiures - we're talking cutting DEFICIT spending. Honestly, it's a rounding error. It boggles the mind how utterly inconsequential this is, yet I have to conclude that it's a slightly cynical ploy to bridge "the confidence gap" by relying on the American human brain's tendency to downplay the difference between a million and a billion.

It's been an utterly relaxing week, a strange feeling for me, My time off tends to be spent exploring new places, or *doing* things, but this week has been an exercise in chill. In fact, I can't remember the last time I've been so completely okay with doing nothing, except for reading or lying on the beach with an occasional dip in the ocean, fueled by excellent beverages of the OH variety. It's like hitting a reset button for my psyche. I can get used to this.

The villa we are staying in is amazing. The temperate ocean breeze and the unrelenting sound of the surf is what greets us in the morning when we wake up - the windows open all night, of course, since the temperature here hardly wavers from the 70's. The view from our place is also unbelievable ; We look down on Smuggler's Cove here on Tortola, facing north with the island of Jost Van Dyke a comfortable distance away, bracketed by clear blue ocean. It's easy to sit for a while, drinking in the view and watching the passing sail ships.

Speaking of sailing, yesterday we did a private charter daysail around a few of the islands, snorkeling our way through. Coincidentally, I'm reading a few of the Clavell novels, so sailing is in my thoughts. I took a sailing class a couple of years ago with G., but I'm sad to say that much of that knowledge is probably lost. There's something about sailing that appeals to me. It's the marriage of science and art, I imagine - while there are deterministic principles involved,  reading the winds and trimming your sails and getting to where you're going adroitly and efficiently while mastering your ship is part of the experience. So I'm feeling a renewed sense of learning. I'm going to drag J. to a class in Annapolis sometime soon.

Enough laptop time. The lounge chair and my book are beckoning to me.

Oh god, "The Chopping Block" is probably the most awful show in the existence. It happened to be on last night as we were tidying up, and I got sucked into its horribleness. The head guy (whose name I try not to remember, but it's like three first names in a row) basically is Gordon Ramsey devoid of personality, charm, socks, and access to a shower. It really is stupendous in it's awfulness.

We leave tomorrow for 8 days, one night in St. Thomas and 7 nights in the British Virgin Islands (Tortola) with Jyotsna, her brothers and cousins (plus spouses where applicable.) It should be a fun getaway. It's odd for me to look forward to fun in the sun, since my normal vacations are more active. But as I get older the prospect of sitting on a beach, reading a book and drinking a large fruity drink with some novelty drinking accoutrement (preferably of the umbrella variety) has increasing merit.

I've been in love with the Kuranda dog beds ever since I saw them, but the price was considerably more than I was willing to pay. So, instead of working this morning, I took about $10 worth of PVC and $8 worth of duck cloth (which Jen kindly sewed together for me) and put together this:



While it isn't exactly the same, she seems to be loving sunning herself without getting over hot. Win!