Morons with Signs

I haven't blogged about the Tea Bag party, mostly because it is too easy to mock them. The name alone makes me giggle. Tea Baggers. Particularly since they seem to be conservative Republican who, I believe, would find tea bagging abhorrent. Yeah, I know you've heard all the jokes before, which is why I've avoided them.

But now I understand how these people could have taken such a ridiculous name. From Morons with Signs I found this woman. I guess she doesn't like her medicare. Maybe she thinks that if they cut off medicare, there will be fewer people at the Senior Center on bingo night.

No "Pubic" Option? Oh, I have to object to that one. I like the pubic option.

Here is another one who doesn't like the pubic option. I think the pubic option leads to children.

But would someone please explain to the Granny in the picture below what tea bagging means, and that most Christians would consider the act described on her sign to be blasphemous. Besides that, it looks like she is soliciting. I know that it is hard to talk to your grandmother about sex, but we've got to stop these women from walking the streets like this!

Ereaders and technology

I like books.

I like how books feel. I like how they smell. I like how they look on my shelf.

I don't like ereaders. I've seen most of them, even the Kindle, in person. I just don't see the point.

• Yes, they are portable, but so is a book and I don't have to worry about battery life in my books.
• Yes, you can take hundreds of books with you, but I've never wanted to do that.
• Yes, you can go on vacation and not carry books in your suitcase, but I've never been anywhere that I couldn't go and buy a new book.
• Yes, you can get your email on it, but I really don't want or need my email in my book. I have a laptop, thank you.
• Yes, you can order your books from the device, but I like going to the bookstore. I like grabbing a bunch of books and sitting down to see which one I will purchase.
• Yes, Amazon allows you to preview the book. But what are you previewing? What sections? Do they really give you a fair preview? Or is it like a movie trailer, where you are shown the only good scenes of the movie?
• And if I lose a book, I've only lost the cost of one book, not the gadget and all the books on it.

I don't like how the words look on the screen. I don't like how it feels in my hand. The extras that come with it are unnecessary. Books work fine.

I've seen a new technology push out old ones. Vinyl to CD to digital files for music. VCRs to DVD. But in both of those cases, the new product was vastly improved. I buy music files online, but I still miss the liner notes from the vinyl albums. And I didn't by a DVD player until The Lord of the Rings came out. That was the first movie that I really wanted to see in the quality of DVD and I wanted the extras.

And there is the cost. Why should I pay for a device to read books when I have eyes and hands. That's all I need.

Before you write me off as a technophobe, please remember that I work in Information Technology, and have for about 20 years. I do not fear technology, I'm the person who has to make it work, and I find that stimulating and exciting.

Perhaps that is part of the problem. A large part of my job is integration of technology. When I look at a new gadget or device, my first thought is not: Look how cool this is! No, I think: How will this help? What problem will it solve? What problems will it create? Do we need this or do our users just think it it "cool"?

The Kindle is priced at $259. Now that isn't a fortune, but since it doesn't solve any problems, have any great features that I want, and I have a kid in college, I don't see the advantage. Plus, there is no guarantee that the device will be backwards compatible. Will the file formats change with technology changes? Will I be forced to replace all of my content because I need a new device? Will I need to buy a new device to get new content?

Perhaps the next generation of ereaders will provide enough benefits to sway me. When cell phones first came out they were expensive to buy and use. The companies used the marketing plan of free phones. They provided the phone at no cost and made up their money on service. I still use a free phone today. Will the ereader go this way? That could make the difference in it being a niche item or not.

I do see a market for ereaders: College text books. Cheap text books that don't break your arms carrying them around. I would go for that market, if I were in the ereader business.

Lil' Cthulhu

With thanks to Et in acaedia blog. where I found this.

So cute, yet so wrong!

Holidaze Pledge

It has started. Actually it started before Halloween. It? Christmas decorations in the stores.

Now I have no trouble with Christmas (although I prefer Yule, but that's a different post). I have trouble when Christmas trumps Thanksgiving. Now Christmas has encroach upon Halloween, I must protest.

Christmas decorating should start on Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving. This allows Thanksgiving to be celebrated in full.

But how will I accomplish this? I'm asking all of you (which is probably about 5 if I'm lucky) to help. Take the pledge:

I WILL NOT BUY ANY CHRISTMAS THEMED ITEMS UNTIL AFTER THANKSGIVING

Please keep in mind, I'm not talking about Christmas presents. So what if a store has sweaters on display. I'm referring to the obvious Christmassy items. Ideally, we should stop shopping at stores that put up the early displays, but since they all do it, we will wait until next year for that.

This is not going to happen overnight. It may take many Christmas seasons for the retailers to realize that we are serious. If you want to expedite the process, you could make a second pledge:

WHEN I ENCOUNTER A CHRISTMAS DISPLAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING, I WILL ASK A SALES PERSON WHERE THE THANKSGIVING THEMED ITEMS ARE, THEN COMPLAIN THAT THEY HAVE A POOR SELECTION, COMPARED TO CHRISTMAS STUFF.

If you would like to join me in this, please leave a comment.

I'm back!

I've decided to reopen my blog. I'm not sure why I stopped, but I did miss it.

So what have I been doing?

First, I haven't been well. I've been averaging a surgery a year. Two years ago they removed my girly-parts, and last year I had knee surgery. Now it looks like they want my tonsils. The surgery I really want is the lap-band bariatric surgery, but I only get enough sick time from work for one surgery a year. I've done all the preliminaries for the lap-band, but I keep having to delay it.

As for work, I'm still employed in an inner city school district IT department. I've been there almost 9 years. It's not a bad job and my boss is terrific.

As for my family, well darling daughter has graduated from high school, and is attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania.


And my family has grown. First, we added a Pomeranian, named Pina Colada.



And most importantly, I have a new daughter who I will call Little Darling. No pictures, because, technically, she isn't mine until the adoption is final. She is legally still a foster child, and according to the law in PA, we are not allowed to publicize any foster kid's picture or name (because we might embarrass the birth family--yeah--I'm not getting into my opinion of that law--the adoption is pending).

She is 10 and just wonderful! It looks like the adoption will be scheduled for either this or the next month!

Anyway, I'm blogging again.

You Know You are Getting Old When.....

No this isn't one of those list-jokes.

Well, yesterday I sat down to lunch and plopped my purse on the table. A co-worker looked into my purse and said, "Hey, is that hand cream?" and reached for something deep inside my shoulder bag. What she had spotted was, in fact, my reading glasses' case.

But still, I looked with fear at what else she might pull out.

Back in my twenties, I would have worried that the item she pulled out would be some sort of birth control.

But, I'm in my 40's. It wasn't condoms I was worried about this time. I was worried it would be my hemorrhoid cream.

I'm officially old.

Too Much Unhappy Insanity

Today we see a world full of unhappy insanity. Between the Virginia Tech Massacre and the soliders killed daily in Iraq, everything seems insane. To make it even worse, the conservative bloggers and commentators have tried to turn the Virginia Tech Massacre into some sort of "pro-gun" thing.

I so wanted to photoshop a pic of the killer with the NRA logo. But I didn't (yet). The part of me that respects the privacy of the victims and survivors prevents me from doing this. However, everyday I read more and more incredibly inaccurate and disturbing things from the right. Have these people no shame? No soul? I'm feeling the urge to do something equally as stupid. But I'm fighting it.

So I have some happy insanity to share with you. Prom time for my daughter. Here is her dress. Isn't she beautiful?

We Grieve with You

In memory of the Virginia Tech shooting victims.