Working the site redesign
Now Playing: Natasha St Pier-On Peut Tout Essayer
Another day where the moments are spent working on the redesign. A bit of CSS stylesheets, a bit more javascript, tables, background images, tweaking the pictures and on top of all of that there is the little matter of the content to be rewritten and made presentable. Whew, what a task. My site has been up since 1998 and it's gone a bit far afield and the result for me is that doing a redesign is a lot of work. Like cleaning out a garage there's the cleanup before even thinking about the remodel. It's a bit like that at the moment. At any rate I am hoping to get this thing restarted before too long. It's my own work so I can take my time.

glassy eyed dhtml boy
Now Playing: xtc - dear god
ohhh, my eyes are blurry with the effort of looking at very tiny things that make little sense. time for a break from code and table frustrations. other than that I am encouraged in my site renovation efforts. I'm putting down the foundation, making things easier in the long run to make it something that I can keep updated easily and keep looking sharp. Fortunately I am not under any deadline. It's a good thing too since the ability to make any deadline in this effort would be quite difficult. I can't see, I've got a cold that is moving down into my chest again, my arms are so carpel tunnelly that I can't open a previously opened jar of pepperoncini let alone hold it. Other than all of that I'm feeling perfectly fine. peachy keen.

one of my favorite movies of all time, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" is on TCM right now. and a few days ago another of my all time favorite films, "Holiday Inn" was on the same channel. Amazing. I look for these films for years and all of a sudden they start making multiple showings. so much for my theory that I wasn't seeing them on tv any longer because of the minstrel numbers in both shows. fred astaire, bing crosby, gary cooper, henry fonda, tyrone powers, ah now those were movie stars.

the terminator running for governor of cali. i'm not even amazed by things any longer. i'm glad it's happening because i love politics and the more the pot gets stirred the more interesting it is. interesting that the fellow with the recall plan, congressman issa, tearfully decided to not run for governor. he spent more than a million of his own dollars to get the recall against governor davis. see, issa had a plan, he would bankroll the recall of davis and a grateful cali would hoist him on their shoulders and declare him the next governor. a good plan indeed. of course, he didn't count on my old friend, 'unintended consequences' to show up. unintended consequences, humm. i bet issa didn't expect the running man to be the man running for governor thereby crashing the careful plans of a would be leader of the richest state in the union. still and all, the crying at the news conference was uncalled for. someone who cold bloodedly goes after another human being like he went after the governor davis should stand up like a man when he gets slammed down and his ambitions momentarily thwarted. unseemly and embarrassing.

A little kindness
Now Playing: Simple Plan-I'm Addicted to You
Was in a parking lot the other day, running errands here and there and was walking to my car. An old man, thin and scabby, short gray hair, pedaled through the parked cars on an ancient bicycle. A small white bag tied to the handle bars with nothing much in it swung weakly as he weaved his bike and then seemed to suddenly see me as I opened my car door. He aimed his bike a few spaces from my car and then hesitantly turned the front wheel toward me. In a quiet voice I heard him say "excuse me, but could you possibly spare a few dollars." He motioned to his stomach and said he was hungry. I was half way into my car when these words interrupted my reverie. I had already seen him and as we all do, I took his measure in an instant. Thin, poor, not looking like he was suffering from the ravages of excessive drink. I'm an expert in what that looks like, both parents having been lifelong alcoholics before their addiction to alcohol took both of them a number of years back. He looked like my dad in a way. I wasn't frightened or on guard. Despite his look I didn't feel any dislike toward him. He had asked me if I could spare a few dollars. I thought to myself that as a matter of fact I could spare a few dollars and I reached into my pocket. I reached over, handing him a number of bills. He looked at the money in his hand and seemed to be shocked. "That's very generous," he said in a soft grateful voice, the money disappearing in his pocket quickly. I looked at him and said, "You're welcomed, please take care."

I drove away thinking about the encounter. Analyzing myself, wondering if that was compassion on my part. I don't think I acted out of pity, or out of fear or out of any sense of reward-good karma for myself. To my mind, any self congratulatory feeling about doing some good deed lessens the deed. You do good, you show compassion as you breath, naturally and without thought. You are not rewarded for breathing, nor is it any special act. Funny how things work out. I was not done running my errands and drove directly to a Wal-Mart. I parked and was walking toward the entrance when I saw another old man. This one in a motorized wheelchair with a basket on the front of it. He had two big boxes there and was trailed by a frail looking Wal-Mart employee. The man saw me and as I was passing him I heard him ask me if I could help him. I stopped and smiled. "Certainly I can help sir," I said. "What is it that you need?"
I looked over at the boxes and had some idea that he wanted me to load his boxes in his car. A nice big new car. He worked the little electronic door opener and I heard the click of the doors being unlocked. He smiled as I opened up the back door and examined if the two boxes would fit inside. I looked at the boxes and they had pictures of a cot. Two heavy green cots. I picked one up and began placing it his back seat. The man told me that his grandchildren were coming down to visit him. He hadn't seen them in five years and sounded happy and proud. "They all need to have some place to sleep." He said. I smiled and said that was wonderful and that he must be very excited to see his family after so long. I loaded the second boxed cot in the back of the car and closed the door. "There you go sir. Good luck to you and drive carefully on the way home." He smiled and patted my arm and thanked me. The Wal Mart cashier patted me on the other shoulder and she thanked me as well saying that she didn't know how she was going to lift those boxes without my help. I smiled again and said I was glad to help and it was no problem at all.

Going into the store I thought about how funny things are sometimes. I tugged on my yin yang earring as I always do and continued my quest for a slightly bigger pot for my growing draco plant. The reason for my wanderings on that day.

DHTML and the shards of sanity
Now Playing: Um- Some trance stuff
Hello again. I've been busy with various programming languages of late. It's a slow process for me, I've got very few active braincells which are able to comprehend complex ideas especially ones connected with symbolic logic terms and codes that mean exactly what they say they mean unless of course you are wishing them to work in netscape and explorer. Oh the pain. But such is life for the turtle like Bower Bird that I am.
I watched the Tour de France all the way to the end and I am glad to see Lance Armstrong win his fifth title. Many of the people I admire are those you can identify as people you'd like to emulate by reason of their courage and ability to overcome adversity. It's easier sometimes to identify sports figures who fit that image. Lance Armstrong is one of those fellows. He overcame many things in his life including cancer which has spread to his testicles and brain. He fought back from that painful brink, a blow that could have and would have destroyed many people. He came back and endured more pain to train and more pain both mental and physical to compete and even win five Tour de France's. That put's the stamp of a warrior to be admired on him as far as I am concerned. Tyler Hamilton as well, he fell in one of the first days of the three week race and broke his collarbone. Despite the pain of that he got back up and finished for that day and for every other day of the race. The pain he was in must have been intense and yet he got up and competed and was the fourth best bike race of the whole tour. A skinny, short little buck toothed bike racer with the heart of a champion. And even the big german Hans Ullrich, a strong fellow who powered his way to second place had overcome events in his life that had him out of the race last year and contemplating retirement. He one the Tour in 1997 and finished second every other time he has raced. He finished second again this year but not from lack of trying and not from lack of effort. In fact on the last day in the rain he went out and with second place securely in hand proceeded to try to win over Armstrong. As a result he wiped out on a turn which ended his effort to overcome the lead of the yellow jersey. He had waited for Armstrong on two occasions during the days of the race when he had once fell and once swerved off the road to avoid a crash and as a result had to off road bike a bit to rejoin the group. Such chivalry, such honor among competitors seems almost unheard of these days. I appreciated and respected the honor of the racers. A wonderful event all around.
And this weekend the first preseason football game starts! Woo hoo. Football season reminds me of other folks who overcame and won in the end. John Elway, a man of immense football talent overcame a team that was rarely the best and through never giving up and always competing, was able to win the day and two Super Bowls along the way. All the while while still being a good guy who never whined about not winning every year. But that is another story for another day.

Fred Astaire on TCM-off day for the Tour de France
Now Playing: Night and Day- Carol Welsman
Some days end with a perfect balance. I don't watch much TV but I will watch Fred Astaire movies and I have been following the Tour de France on OLN. Today happened to be a day where the bike racers were resting and as luck would have it, there were a couple of Fred Astaire movies on Turner Classic Movie Channel. Things don't get much better than that in my book.

The Tour de France has Lance Armstrong and he has won the three week race the last four years in a row. This man besides being the best bike racer on the planet is also a cancer survivor. He is everything I admire in a person, someone who has overcome dreadful adversity in his life and has still gone forth and done his best to be a good human being and a champion in his chosen goals in life. It's an amazing thing to watch men pedal up mountains for hours at a time and then seeing who has the energy and the drive to push themselves again and again when you know their bodies are screaming in pain at them, when there is no more energy and no more drive left in their bodies to push up one more hill. You see men literally break in front of your eyes, you can see it when it happens. You can see the man who has gone out ahead of the field and spent hours in the lead, pedaling as hard as he can. You can see the others behind him slowly catching up to him and then you can see him slump and slow down as he is caught. You know that the effort is long and painful and you know for some of these riders the chance to win for one day is their entire goal and all of their effort goes to the one race. The next day the same person is a half hour behind the leaders. It's a three week race after all and the energy they use today can only come back so far for the next day's race. So you see Lance Armstrong letting some riders go ahead of him and not letting others out of his sight. It's more than a display of effort and pain and the drive to survive and succeed. It's also a chess match with multiple players each with their own goals and agendas. Very fascinating and very riveting, at least for me.

Now a Fred Astaire movie is always fun. The dancing, the romances, the clever banter between the characters. Nothing is so serious or painful that Fred Astaire can't dance through it and come out smiling. He tries to win the hand of his lovely costar, he is rebuffed, he winces, he dances, he gets back up and wins the dancing costar and in the end they dance the big number together through the big finish. The end, happily ever after. Well not even that. It's not even that big of a deal, happily for the moment because Fred Astaire lives in the moment. You'll Never Get Rich and You Were Never Lovelier were on tonight. Great stuff.

888-888-8888

Kobe Bryant- The Art of Uniformed Opinions
Now Playing: Bing Crosby - Cheek to Cheek
One of my favorite hobbies having to do with watching the news is to follow the reaction that the news herd has to some sensational news story. By sensational I don't mean a 'good' story. After all, there is no news of interest in a good or a happy story. You never read about the people living their lives happily and quietly, only about 50 wedding anniversaries on the page in the back of the Sunday paper where those people have to pay for the announcement. But I digress. The news of interest of the day, the news that will fill our screens for the coming months has to do with the one count of felony sexual assault filed against Mr. Kobe Bryant.
Now, Mr. Bryant is a sports superstar, a public figure who has up til now had a clean image. Unlike another basketball star or two like Allen Iverson who has had the image of a street thug, Kobe Bryant has had the clean cut image that is so very necessary to sell all manner of product. Yes indeed, Kobe Bryant has been a product goldmine and it's to the detriment of the companies that have used him to sell sneakers, sports drinks and clothing that this whole mess has blown up. There is already speculation that whether or not Kobe Bryant has actually committed the crime that he is accused of, that his image will have been damaged beyond repair. There is much gnashing of teeth over that very important item and you can certainly find all manner of opinions bemoaning this fact.
The alleged victim? Ah, did you want that to be of any interest. Humm, well let's see how much dirt they can possibly come up with on a 19 year old girl. You know as sure as the sun rises that there is an army of Kobe lawyers, an army of tabloid 'journalists' and an army of willing Judas friends of this girl to fill the newspapers up with real and made up information which will make this young girl out to be a mentally unstable, gold digging, ambitious, drug using, sexually promiscuous, slut, whore, fan obsessed person who consensually had sex with Kobe Bryant and who later decided that she for one of the reasons to be inferred from one of her many faults (as listed above) that she would now cry 'rape.' If you don't believe me then feel free to print this out, tape it to the frig and check off every alleged character flaw that I have listed here as you hear them reported on or speculated on. In fact, make your own list of character flaws, indiscretions, mistakes, problems that any young girl can have and list them. You'll find all of them attached to this girl in the coming months and perhaps for the rest of her life.
See, it doesn't even matter if the allegations are true or not. What matters is how many newspapers can be sold, how many eyeballs can be attached to this news channel or that one. Never mind that you're destroying a young woman or not. As Eric Snow on Fox will say, 'truth is what we report,' and other self serving drivel designed to excuse the pack of hyena like behavior you'll see. If you hear that the young woman went to audition for Star Search or one of those other talent shows you'll see commentators nod knowingly, as if that is a significant indication of her character. Everyone knows that people who want to be entertainers or stars will lie and cheat their way up. Perhaps the young woman had an 'emotional breakdown' in the past. Of course an emotional breakdown, for purposes of the media will be evidenced if one of her Judas friends mentions one time that they've seen the girl cry or one time she was distraught over a boyfriend or a sick puppy. Yup, there you go, evidence of her unstable nature, obviously she's a liar. See, whether this young woman was raped by Kobe Bryant or not doesn't matter. What does matter is whatever evidence, innuendo or whisper the news can find that proves conclusively that this young woman isn't a saint.
Now if the young girl doesn't appear to be moving toward a book deal, a quiet payoff from Kobe Bryant, a playboy nude pictorial, a movie of the week or somehow using this notoriety to launch herself as an entertainer well then the focus might actually go to Kobe Bryant. Of course, if this girl tries to do anything with her life other than entering a nunnery it will held up as proof that she lied and was only using the 'encounter' to further herself. Actually, the focus will go to Kobe Bryant eventually. But gingerly and with all due care and caution. After all, you will hear some commentators, even Jesse Jackson if he gets paid, say that this is 'Just another high tech lynching of a uppity black man,' or words to that effect. You will hear the 'white man don't like seeing no brother get ahead' defense. Ugly racism, yes indeed it must be true since Kobe Bryant has never been in any kind of trouble and the woman is 'obviously' a gold digger. You'll hear the rants about injustice and false witness being brought against Kobe Bryant at the same time you'll hear them slander and bear false witness against the girl. Watch and see. It's quite fascinating and obvious.
In fact you will see a parade of uniformed opinions by people who know none of the facts. Nevertheless they will be passionate, indignant, spittle flying spewed opinions as the know nothings climb their perches and screech their ignorance forth. People will be destroyed, lives will be ruined but of course that's entertainment isn't it?

A good friend lost
Now Playing: Caroline Neron - Dans Nos Yeux

As happens once in a while, a friend from a few years back contacts me to catch up, touch base, say hello. My website and my listing in the alumni page at the University of Dayton School of Law leave a trail there for anyone who might care to find me and speak with me. Careful planning makes it so, unfortunately and for a number of reasons I don't often try to find old friends and old classmates. A Nexus search, a run through Google or a look through the alumni directory would be sufficient for me to find anyone I would desire to find but I don't do it. There is always time. Time sometime later to make that small effort. So as a result I don't look up people. There is always time right? Yah. Well a friend of mine, Marc did take the time to look me up and it was good to hear from him. In our emails back and forth he mentions a fellow classmate, Andy Johnson or as was the running joke for us "Andy's Johnson."
Andy was a tall, gangly fellow with the disposition of a puppy. We'd constantly make our "Andy's Johnson," clever remarks and he'd smile and never took offense and we never meant any. He was a fellow who seemed not to have a hostile bone in his body and it seemed to me that it would never occur to him to say a bad word about anyone. When he would talk it seemed like he was always laughing even when he wasn't. A smile on his face and he'd always be genuinely glad to see you. When he would tell a joke it was like he was a little kid saying something he knew that grownups would disapprove of so his jokes or something funny were told only after he looked around to make sure that someone who might take offense would be out of earshot.
At the end of a long hard week in class he'd come down to the local watering hole that some of us had taken as our own. BW3's on Friday after class was where we would grab some hot wings, some happy hour beer and we'd pull some tables together, enough to accommodate however many of us would show up. Andy would laugh with us and we'd talk about what funny things happened in class. Sometimes he'd get a bit excited, a beer or two down the evening and when he wanted to say something and his words were tripping around on his tongue his eyes would sparkle and the smile on his face would broaden as if to acknowledge that he thought he was being a bit foolish or silly. But we would slap him on his back, laugh at his jokes and generally do the things that friends would do with each other as we recognize everyone who would want to be in the conversation and who would likewise have a patience and joy with us.
I can't begin to tell you how wonderful a person Andy was or how everyone instantly liked him. It's like you can instantly sense who is a good hearted person and who you would like to think of you as a good hearted and good person. I know I thought very well of him and he was the kind of person you hoped thought well of you. He was also the kind of person whose friendship you didn't have to buy. This speaks to a character flaw of mine, I took it for granted that he would be there with a smile and a happy hug for me whenever I did get around to seeing him or contacting him. I know he was the kind of man who would be there for me if I was the kind of person who asked anyone for help or support. A good man with a good soul and a huge heart. My friend Marc told me that he had finally gotten a nice job in Ohio and was on his way to work one morning when he got in a head on accident. Andy died that morning. Marc tells me that he thinks about Andy often. I haven't stopped thinking about Andy.

There is no question in my mind that life is not fair. Evil people live and prosper, good people who struggle and fight to get ahead in life die in head on car accidents. Life is short and brutish and it's a sack full of misery, pain, horror and suffering. A person like Andy makes you almost believe that isn't true, his warm smile and good heart carved a bit of hope and kindness into the world and he will be missed.

Macy Gray's Hideous New Album-
Now Playing: 06 ?C??O?Iu?C by S.H.E.


Once in a while I hear something that is so terribly hideous that I am stunned to the core of my very being. Such is my reaction the first, second and every single time that I have been unfortunate enough to hear even a moment of a Macy Gray song. The scratchy, chalk board like voice, the bizarre mannerisms, did I mention the sound of older wizened cats being slowly tortured of a voice she has?

Yah, normally I wouldn't even think a moment about any artist that bothers me this much but I do make exceptions when the forces of marketing make the attempt to force feed something revolting and otherwise off putting into my eyes and my ears. Such is the case of Macy Gray. I can put up with the lies spouted by folks you wouldn't normally believe in regards to whether or not some singer or band is "the greatest thing since the Beatles" after all, I can remember hearing that specific label being put on groups going back to The Knack and The Bay City Rollers. I didn't believe them then and I don't believe them now. So MTV can put whoever they want in the rotation of three songs they play during any given day, frankly they lost their right to tell me who they think is cool musically right about when the first Real World showed up. I'm not impressed, I'm not listening, I don't care.

However, it's the arrogance and belief that we are stupid and able to be manipulated easily that earns this artist and her handlers my eternal dislike. You know what I'm talking about too. Remember watching the Spiderman movie and suddenly she shows up singing some hideous song during the balloon parade? WTF? WTF? I'm sitting there trying to enjoy a movie and they put her right there, a product placement if ever I saw one. That's when my dislike became everlasting. It certainly didn't make me want to go and buy her scratchy voiced album. Ohh, it just yanks my chain every time I think about it. In any event, it happens to be news on the CNN website that she has her third album coming out. Thanks for the warning CNN.


888-888-8888

(woo hoo- no bad spelling)

Horrific TNN
Now Playing: S.H.E. - You wouldn't know if I told you.
I don't know about anybody else but I for one am constantly amazed and occasionally horrified by the things I see on TV. Case in point being a ad being run on TNN-formerly the Nashville Network and soon to me Spike TV a network for 'men.' The ad starts by saying that TNN is the place for "Cold women" and then the scene cuts away to a bluish nude woman who is being displayed in a pull out coroner's drawer. A few rapid fire cuts to other dead women and then it goes on to mention a particular show which happens to feature this sort of entertainment. I really hope that "men" aren't finding thrills and entertainment by visuals of nude dead women. It's disgusting, irresponsible and base. It appeals to a level of humanity and a level of mental development which borders on criminal.

The ad in question isn't misleading. If looking at cold blue dead women who are naked is what you want to see then you know to watch a certain variety of shows on TV. The crime drama shows have gone to this level and also tend to make things as graphic and horrific as possible. Gone are the days of murder mysteries where you are invited to play along as Mrs. Fletcher or Quincy puzzle through the mystery and come up with the answer at the end of the episode. No indeed, now you are treated to the thrill of participating in the actual murder through the eyes of the killer, you are treated to the thrill of all the terror and all the visuals that network television can get away with. Congratulations, do you think this makes you a better person or does it instead reveal something dark and evil inside your soul?

I don't watch much network TV anymore, this being one of the reasons. You shouldn't either.

Open Source Programs Will Rule the World
Now Playing: Manic Street Preachers-Valley Boy
By the way, the Manic Street Preachers sounds a bit like Robbie Williams. Pretty good stuff. British group so you never heard of them.

I came across some ogg files the other day and my winamp wouldn't play them so with the able assistance of Google I went out on the net in search of the all useful music player that would play ogg, mp3 and whatever else I would want to throw at it. Naturally I hate all things Microsoft (otherwise known as Skynet, the Borg, Satan etc) and eventually found myself back to soundforge.net. Soundforge.net is a place you should bookmark since it's the number one repository of open source projects. Now open source projects are computer programs that perform various functions such as playing music files, p2p file sharing programs, instant messaging programs, chat programs, web forums, dvd players, video file players, well I could go on and on and I still wouldn't get to everything you can find there. The point being is that these programs are open source which to the budding developer means that the programs offered are open and you are able to help improve said programs. Now if you are like me and your eyes glaze over when you view html code let alone any other computer language you will be not be able to help make the programs better except by suggesting features you'd like to see or to report bugs with the programs. What's in it for me you might ask? Well, humm, how do you like FREE, spyware free, bloatware free, advertising free, crap free programs? EH? Sounds good doesn't it? I thought so. Instead of the big fat bloated ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, AIM messengers you can have Miranda IM which lets you connect to all of those and it doesn't have the complete load of crap that those other programs have. Kind of like the way ICQ used to be before the poisoned hand of AOL got ahold of it. Like to play your music files? Don't want to be subjected to ads, the steady stream of information being sucked up off of your computer by the winamp, windows media or real player programs that try to take over your computer? Well, how's about you try the media player ZINF? You can find it on Soundforge.net and it plays ogg files. It's a very small program with many features, it finds and organizes your music files, a clean large interface and it works darn well, it's free and it's wonderful.

There are a lot more such programs, CDex is a free music ripping program to change your CD's to mp3's and back again. EMule, BitTorrent, DC+++ are great file sharing programs. phpBB is a great free bulletin board program (if your server is set up to use it) There are games and probably just what you are looking for there as well. Cool beans.

Cakelike Oatmeal Cookies and Nuclear War Possibilities
Now Playing: Buggles-Video Killed the Radio Star
Aha, the return of cake like oatmeal cookies. For me it's one of those things that I successfully created once upon a time and the other day I for some reason had a persistent desire to recreate those glorious cookies of bygone days. Of course, when in doubt about the information needed I asked the computer god- Goggle for the answer. In no time it had given me a list of possible places where the answer could be found. Soon I found myself reading in depth about the use of various ingredients and their effect on the cookies. Baking powder for cake like and baking soda providing the opposite effect, vegetable shorting as opposed to butter or oil, egg whites instead of whole eggs, milk over water, all of the possibilities were opened up to me. But you know, there was no recipe that incorporated all of the ingredients in the variety and portions I thought would be necessary. Soooooo, a bit of this recipe and a bit of that recipe were needed. For cake like, fluffy not flat oatmeal cookies with crunchy edges and soft interiors this is the recipe. :-)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups oats, -quaker oats 1 minute or old
fashioned
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup vegetable shortening -Crisco
4 egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup of milk
3 tablespoons water -(as needed)

Optional -- Any darn thing you want. (nuts, raisins, dried fruits chopped up, chocolate chips, coconut shredded, applesauce)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare your cookie sheets by rubbing shortening in them and set them aside.

Mix your dry ingredients together on one large bowl, I mean a seriously large bowl. Were are talking about the flour, oatmeal, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda. The sugars go in the wet bowl. Every recipe I've seen says to put salt in it, usually about 1 teaspoon but ever since I had some oatmeal in New York which was made with salt in it I hesitate to put in salt in things I know are going to end up sweet. I mean that oatmeal was nasty, all salty - yuk.

Okay, now you need another large bowl for the wet ingredients. In goes the brown sugar and the granulated sugar along with the shortening, and vanilla. You will want to use a good blender for this unless you are really into stirring and have the wrists for it. I whip the sugars and the shortening together, put the vanilla in then the egg whites. Lastly I put the milk in, you could use water but you know we are blessed and privileged to usually have milk about the house so you might as well use it. It's also one of those 'best ingredients available' rules I have. Okay, this mixture might need to have the edges folded back into the mass under control of the whirling mixer, be sure to turn the mixer off for this event, you never know when you might catch a spoon in the mixer blades.

Now you'll want to fold this wet mixture into the dry mixture, using a sturdy spoon of large and impressive size. This should be very stiff and hard to do, use your judgment about whether the mix needs a small bit of water to ease the mixing. When your ingredients are good and as wet and mixed as possible then it is cookie time. Use a large spoon to scoop out cookie dough. You can oil your hands up and roll the balls out or just use your thumb to place them on a cookie sheet that has been rubbed with shortening. My cookie sheets are 10 inches by 15 inches and I get four cookies across and three down. Which, if I do my math correctly means 12 cookies per sheet. Cookies are to be cooked 8 to 10 minutes or so. You know, you really probably do what I do, which is to peek inside the oven and disregard the time clock and pull them cookies out just when you feel like they are done. So times are just suggestions. No pressure dudes or dudettes. You're the boss.

If you are totally lost as to what to do now then let's see, you have hopefully two cookie sheets so that you have prepared the other one while the one is in the oven. Take you baked cookies over to the counter and set them down, then place the uncooked cookies in the oven and close the door. Take note of the time since you know, it might help to know when to take this other batch out. Use a spatula to gently see if the cooling cookies feel like being move just yet. No pressure, they will let you know when they are ready to be moved over to the cooling rack, or the plate. When the cookies are off the cookie sheet then run a paper towel with a bit of shortening over it again and drop or roll your cookies out and have that sheet ready to go when the other batch is done. Soon you will be up to your neck in cookies. Now these cookies are tasty and not overly sweet as well as being cake like. Just the way I like my oatmeal cookies. Now I've completed my self imposed task which is to give myself an actual recipe so that I may recreate these cookies when the mood hits me once again. Voile' Or words to that effect.

In the words of Monty Python, "And now for something completely different"

I've been watching the news as is my wont. Nothing different or unusual in that and my spider senses are telling me that the possibilities of serious conflict are rising in Asia. This concerns everyone since it'll likely have nuclear weaponry, invasions and general mayhem and crisis for everyone involved.

Now, you'll note that North Korea, following the law of unintended consequences, continues to move toward having nuclear weapons. (this would be the unintended consequence of the United States stating it's 'preemptive attack policy against threatening nations' )You'll also note interestingly enough that there is actual evidence this time of the fact. Testing near the areas is showing traces of certain isotopes and such that are given off when nuclear fuel rods are being reprocessed. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the knowledge to make nuclear weapons has been available since the 1940's, it's a 1940's technology and it can be done by many countries or by many individuals with the means and desire. These are known facts. What's different in North Korea is that they have their own medium range missiles capable of delivering payloads all the way to Japan and they have a demonstrated paranoid irrational leadership in place. What is not different in North Korea and what would not be different is that they already have the ability to devastate South Korea, they have over 100 thousand artillery pieces within range of the capitol of South Korea, (Seoul) and they have I think the fifth largest military in the world.

Now North Korea will get nuclear weapons, if they don't Aleda have them, because they rightly perceive that the United States is a direct threat to the existence of that regime. To the North Koreans the invasion of Iraq is more than enough proof for them that the US is willing to attack it's enemies and perceived enemies of which North Korea knows it is up high on that list. So, for the North Koreans they don't believe that they have anything to lose by provoking a response from the US in this matter. In fact, if they test a nuclear weapon and announce that they have an arsenal of such weapons that's the ball game. It's over, no attacks on North Korea ever. If you are North Korean why wouldn't you take that chance? You could be up there with the big boys and your needs and desires would have greater weight and a better response. Game over.

Now this is just one ingredient in the soup. You have to see the drama being played out in Hong Kong, China , Taiwan and Japan. Hong Kong is in the throes of a crisis. A new set of completely expected 'laws' that have been pushed by the mainland red Chinese overlords which would put the squeeze on a number of freedoms in Hong Kong is being protested and has effectively been stopped for the moment. In Taiwan, the people seeing this nightmare are being pushed to seek a more definitive expression of their desire to remain independent from the mainland. This of course could and would provoke a military response from the mainland if their is a chance that they could get away with it in terms of being able to weather the international storm of protests and probably ten years of isolation that would result providing they could quickly neutralize the US response and accomplish the task of invasion and conquering of Taiwan in a short period of time. A task incidental that the Chinese military is preparing itself for.

One of the other players in this drama is Japan. Already Japan is seeing how the wind is blowing in it's region of the world and they are making serious moves toward throwing off the yoke of the pacifist constitution imposed on them by the US after World War II. Rightly perceiving a threat that the US cannot completely control the Japanese are perfectly capable of becoming an overnight regional superpower complete with nuclear weaponry and the necessary technological ability to whack the bejeezus out of the Chinese or the North Koreans. The instant that the Chinese believe that this is going to happen, a re militarized Japan beginning to emerge will change the calculations in Beijing and tip the balance to the side that believes that it's now or never and that they need to take Taiwan and provide themselves with the ability to hunker down with their meal and digest it while everyone else yammers on.

Right now the response of the Mainland Chinese to the crisis in Hong Kong will be indicative of which side is really in control in Beijing and the relative danger faced by Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the US. The events are intensely being watched in Taiwan and their response will be a factor in the next round of events and responses. The puppets of Beijing in Hong Kong are in a bad spot right now, they thought they could get the draconian 'anti subversion' laws rammed through their legislature and make their masters happy. Now they have a population in a cycle of protest who have successfully shown some 'people power' and an ability to affect the outcome at least for the moment. Will those in Beijing go slowly and attempt to massage the desired changes or will they panic and bring forth a furthering of the crisis? It's a dangerous road that is being traveled right now and it's not something that is easily examined. Again, there are a huge number of factors to consider and that are being considered by the parties involved.

It's all connected together. I mean, it's not likely that the North Koreans will lob a nuke at a concentration of US troops and decimate Seoul as they successfully invade South Korea but if they do then it's on and the United States troops will be in North Korea in short order. The last time United States troops entered North Korea a million Chinese came over from China and the first US-Chinese war ground on into a stalemate. This time, at the time that the US is blowing up North Korea the people in Hong Kong could be trying to rise up and being viciously shot down like they were in Tianamen Square. The Taiwanese could see all of this and say forget this load of crap and declare their independence from China. (you know Taiwan has nukes) The Japanese would be mobilizing and their own nuclear weaponry program kicks up -is announced or leaked and it would surprise me if it wasn't already far far advanced. The Chinese reacting to the US in North Korea, reacting to the Taiwanese, The Japanese, the US. Somebody tell me what good things would be happening now? I would think that the moderates in Beijing would be lined up and shot by then, the Chinese would blow into North Korea and they would attempt to invade Taiwan while crushing Hong Kong. Boom.

GI Killed while buying a pirated DVD
Now Playing: Eric Carmen-All By Myself
Saw this in the news today, that an American GI was killed in Bagdad while out shopping for DVD's. I am assuming that the DVD's would be pirated copies what with the embargo being on for so long and everything. I wonder how long it will be before the RIAA and the MPAA will comment on this being the just deserts for a movie "pirate" and that doing something as horribly illegal as buying a DVD that is a pirated, badly camcordered copy of a now playing movie is viciously and morally unacceptable. I hate those guys.

Soon, if their own self generated press is to believed, there will be thousands of kids dragged out of their parents basements as evil movie and music pirates and those kids will have their lives ruined by this group of myopic thuggish idiots in an effort to enforce an unenforceable "law" which they bought and paid for by their lobbying efforts. Well, I don't think they have enough lawyers to drag everyone into court. Of course, the object is not to drag anyone into court. What they want to do is to file charges on some folks who they expect will fold up like a deck of cards and settle for some thousands of dollars. This result will provide them with "examples" and their theory is that there will be a lessening of file trading as a result. Humm. Nope, I don't thing so. What will happen is that some folks will actually fight back, most folks will get angry. The artists who support this effort will be boycotted and it will be nasty all around. But, like any other interest catching event, it will be fascinating to watch.

WTF- What the F%#k?
Now Playing: The Cowsills- Hair
It occurred to me that a proper name to this comment part of my site would be appropiate and there isn't anything more appropriate than one of my favorite expressions which can be used in mixed aged company. "WTF? WTF?" is something that I've been known to utter in a fit of incredulous indignation or rightious anger. Those who are not literate in the shorthand of the internet or whose tolerance for acronyms is short will of course be instantly stunned by the verbage. Those others who do know the meaning of this shorthand will still take a while to inhale my otherwise rightious indigation. At other times I will happily use this term to comment about the driving of some loony with a car. In any event it is entirely appropriate.

Another Day after D-Day
Mood:  lucky
Now Playing: Taproot- Poem
Another day and the sky still hasn't fallen. This is good. I don't like dodging falling sky. Trying to listen to Netscape Radio which is really a form of realplayer I believe. It stops after one song as some odd program tries to get to a off limits port on my computer here. Man, why does everyone want to finger and probe me. I'm tired of it.

Virus Attack continued
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: Red, White and Blue-Lynard Skynard
Well, to continue. It was very irritating to have those odd things starting to happen as it dawned on me that I was being jammed. Processes wouldn't stop when I tried to turn the computer off, things started to not work. I started looking about and found a whole folder of things that I know for sure that I had nothing to do with. I found that there was a folder in the 'vicinity' of the incomplete info I had about what wouldn't close down. I looked inside it and found things I knew I hadn't put there or that anything else I loaded on my computer put on there. Things that said were 'cracks' for games I didn't have or ever loaded. I started deleting the individual files then realized there was nothing of mine in it and so deleted the whole file. All this time I'm frantically taking files and such off the computer and saving those files. Then some 'windows money' program that came with the computer which I never installed, kept trying to install itself. Okay, things are completely out of comtrol by this time and so I say screw it and wipe the drive. Then the next day all my free time is working on reloading and carefully doing things so I don't blow the computer up. Oh man, they should put virus writers in jail for a very very long time when they catch them.