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| 9.28.2005 |
1:20 PM the greatest thing since sliced bread in a bag  Did you ever get something - a purse, an album, a new car - and was kinda ambivalent about it at first? And then grew to love it and would chew off the arm of someone who tried to take it away from you? This is how I feel about my new remote control that works *everything* in the ever-so-lovely-but-time-wasting black hole that is my living room entertainment system.The Harmony 880, my new toy. backstory Blame it on denial about the amount of tv I watch. Blame it on just going with what I know, the familiar, juggling two then three remote controls on a regular basis, more when the occasion arose. Blame it on perhaps feeling silly about spending money to get another gadget that doesn't actually do anything, like make noise, display pictures, record something. But something hit me Saturday morning. I'd had enough. Just plain had it. Too many remotes, too many! yes, i'm a gadget monkey First I Google'd up "universal programmable remotes" and found Remote Central. Lots of folks out there spending oohgobs of cash on clickers to control their myriad components. At that time, I figured $500 was a lot for a remote - wrong, oh so wrong. There are $2000 remotes out there. With a $2000 remote, I'd better have a huge ass tv, *built-in* surround sound, raised insulated floor, and special tv-watching chairs. One thing this did was to make me define what I wanted more specifically than "make everything work." A graphical screen would be nice, color even. But it did need to have some "hard" buttons on the body - not all touchscreen. I kept reading about "macros": Like in Office, the ability to press one button and make a bunch of stuff happen. Turn on the TV, the receiver, the cable box, switch to my favorite channel, and set the volume... yup. And let me program it from the PC, 'cause I don't want to have to set up everything from the remote (that's like only allowing you to enter addresses into your PDA via the stylus; stupid and a waste of time.) one vs. another With criteria in mind, I kept finding two companys' remotes as a match, Sony and Harmony (now owned by Logitech). Sony's were slightly larger than a DVD case; Logitech's were standard remote-sized. Sony's graphics were monochrome; Logitech just came out with a color model. Sony's, well, Sony, entertainment/electronic behemouth with which I've had a rather spotty relationship, including their portable equipment that I believe are built with "expiration dates", and their "purchasing" my former employer and a few of my coworkers while letting the rest of them go. Logitech's never failed me, every single mouse I have is one of theirs, I'd even tried their first wireless mouse/pointer offerings (anyone remember the SurfMan? Loved that thing... gotta find out what I did with mine...) Decision made. bordering on hostility I know, I sound like a commercial. But didn't I start out saying I was ambivalent? I was more than ambivalent. I was much not happy. I thought I'd be configuring from a PC app, but instead, it uses a website. Yuck. First thing it asked was model numbers for all my gear. That was a good enough start. Then it made assumptions about the "activities" I'd be performing based on what it assumed the gear could do. Watch a DVD. Watch cable TV. Listen to the radio. Watch a video tape. Then it asked that I confirm each activity, the settings for each component, and test each out. Sounds good so far, huh? Except there was always one component that didn't want to "listen". And the seemingly neverending iterations of "change setting, wait for website confirmation, search for and finally find correct web page to set a particular setting, wait for website confirmation, download to remote, test... no, not quite right" was working my nerves. And the longer I used it, the slower the website response. After spending Saturday evening with this thing, Sunday morning I'd convinced myself I'd get the Sony, see if it were simpler to work, then return the Harmony. On the way to the store I called Uncle Herman, bitching and moaning; after seeing the crowds, I figured the Sony could wait till Monday or so, and I went back home. eureka. I sat down on the dormeuse, frowning at the Harmony. I picked it up, still frowning. I pressed the "Watch TV" activity... And heard "click" (tv), "click, click" (cable box), "click" (receiver). The receiver turned to the cable input, and the volume set itself to 12 (my favorite starting setting). Wow. Now I could do this with one remote before, but it took 8 button presses. One button. Eight. And one button to turn everything off. Same thing with the DVD. One button turns on the tv, turns off the cable box, turns on the VCR/DVD recorder and switches it to DVD input and video mode, turns on the receiver and sets it to DVD input. This was two remotes before, and I'm not gonna count the button presses... When did $250 ever make me so happy? Well, maybe my first pair of Joan & David's. Oh, and then there's my Palm Tungsten last year. The combo VCR/DVD recording component which I got for a deep, smoking, "pay and run outta the store before they come to their senses" discount, that was good. My vacuum cleaner; a leather jacket I'm fond of, also on deep discount; a few trinkets from Tiffany... I digress. (smile) Happy. Yes, happy. Still happy. If it does nothing more than it does right now, and I never go to the website again to make it do anything else, can't see any way it could make me unhappy. I feel like Homer, drooling over donuts, "Harrrrmony..." |
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| 9.25.2005 |
1:56 PM the halt and the lame Donovan with a hernia (had that - ouch, ouch, ouch!) David "Green" Akers with a lousy right hammy (ouch, ouch! had that, too!) And we still won! Whoooo!! (ala Rick Flair) Meanwhile, look who's undefeated right this minute. Indy and KC aren't surprising, but... Bucs, Bengals, Giants, Redskins. Mmmmph. |
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| 9.11.2005 |
7:40 PM other ways to help For all the Red Cross does and has done admirably, I just fear it isn't enough. After the inital outpouring of generousity, there will still be great need for a long time. Here are links to other organizations who may well be able to affect change for the long run. AlterNet: 10 Great Ways You Can Help Yesterday, friends and I went to Cache Creek casino. Craps is a beautiful game. (smile) Early on I netted $150 at a table, and with a $5 start, another $50 on a machine. Yes, I ended up giving $100 of it back - one always does (laughs) - but I came home with my initial investment plus some in my pocket. Free money, now off to help someone else. Even so, cash just doesn't seem to cut it. Lately I've been pondering how I can directly help those affected by Katrina. I've got to do something. |
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| 9.06.2005 |
10:44 PM frustrated electorate manifest antagonism fema Foolish Excuses Mindlessly Articulated. Flawed Evacuations Motivate Animosity. Feeble Empty-headed Moronic Assholes. This is Uncle Herman's territory (smile). who's in charge of evacuation? Snarky humor; I likey. Daily Kos: Meanwhile, back at the Howdy Doody Command Center... Three Stooges renditions, anyone? oh, and... These. I particularly appreciate the subtlety of the "FLBSTR" sticker. According to the site, benefits go to The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation. |
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5:48 PM sound bites Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, on CBS' "Early Show" discussing the federal government's "sluggish response": "Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot." Lt. Gen. Russell Honore (in charge of military deployment in N.O.), when asked if search-and-rescue has been hampered by "random gunfire and lawlessness": "Go on the streets of New Orleans — it's secure. Have you been to New Orleans? Did anybody accost you?" Bites, indeed. |
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| 9.04.2005 |
2:55 AM the horror doesn't stop. My god. The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city. Found on the blog Daily Kos. The whole thing, from the horse's mouth: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans? If it disappears, I'll link to the pdf I created. Moreover, the Salvation Army aren't in there, either, for the same reason. Do the math: People trapped, not able to leave; no transpo, remember? Major agencies - including those to which we're being begged to give money - not delivering aid where the people who are in the most imminent need are, waiting for them to leave. This is the sickest Catch-22 ever. |
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| 9.03.2005 |
9:11 PM heartfelt prayers  This past week has been hectic for me with work, so many deadlines, not enough sleep. But I'm good. Throughout my life I've been blessed, with love and comfort, family and friends, a great education, and opportunities. And because of all that, I've got a job, a good one; cash money in the bank; wheels; three healthy and although sometimes disguntled, at least happy with me, well-fed and contented fuzzy muffins; a roof over my head; too many clothes and shoes; and all the lovely crap I've managed to gather over my adult life. I'm so very, very grateful. I have *no* problems.  pain, sorrow, angerOver one million people homeless. From 50 to 100,000 people left in the city, an astounding number of them poor, black, elderly, disabled. And the Superdome, the Convention Center: My God. Words cannot express. Our government showing the world one more time that there is no love in this country for the poor and disadvantaged. Having been overlooked at best and villainized at worst when times were good, they were stranded and left to die or fend for themselves for up to five days without water, electricity, food, sanitation. Maureen Dowd, NY Times op-ed columnist: Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center. Was he sacked instantly? No, our tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." (Not until Thursday? Guess he doesn't watch tv.) Some know-it-alls (cough, cough, BIGOTS, cough) snidely remark "They deserved what they got, not evacuating when told to." Or some say, for living there in the first place. Think about it, though. Imagine having little or no money, poor or no transportation, all your life you've lived in one place, it's all you know. How do you leave? Where do you go? How easy to blame the victims for their misery and tragedy, when the finger points back to Dub and his frat brothers. (Good looking out, Uncle Herman.) I see that there's now aid, water, food, clothing, most importantly egress for them. But for too many, it's too late. love  Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore New Orleans and its sweet, lazy energy. One of the places I love most in the world. Of course Philadelphia is home, having shaped my life with capital letter Family, Tastycakes, Quakerism, and the Eagles. Now that I think of it, a good life comes down to that for me: Loving and being loved. Eating sumptuous, tasty things. Nurturing the still, small voice inside. And football. (smile) Lovely, shining San Francisco, colorful inside and out. So fresh and optimistic, and infinitely accepting. Why I live out here now, with my liberal-pinko-commie-heathen self, and why I'm loathe to leave.  Baltimore shares so much with New Orleans: A rough and raunchy history. Sadly, a wide divide between rich and poor. Comfy, homey, accessible. Ragged and eccentric, it's now trying to rise to match the growth surrounding it. May the new gloss not obscure its wonderful, fuzzy edges.And there are others. Finland and Singapore are on the list. And I'm sure other favorites, those I haven't gotten around to visiting yet, are to come. But no matter what, before all of them, New Orleans. Everyone I know who's been there either loves or hates it. From Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume:  The minute you land in New Orleans, something wet and dark leaps on you and starts humping you like a swamp dog in heat, and the only way to get that aspect of New Orleans off you is to eat it off. That means beignets and crawfish bisque and jambalaya, it means shrimp remoulade, pecan pie, and red beans 'n rice, it means elegant pompano en papillote, funky filé z'herbes, and raw oysters by the dozen, it means grillades for breakfast, a po-boy with chow-chow at bedtime, and tubs of gumbo in between. It is not unusual for a visitor to the city to gain fifteen pounds in a week - yet the alternative is a whole lot worse. If you don't eat day and night, if you don't constantly funnel the indigenous flavors into your bloodstream, then the mystery beast will keep on humping you, and you will feel its sordid presence rubbing against you long after you have left town. In fact, like any sex offender, it can leave permanent psychological scars.(chuckles)  hopeI was singing this song to myself last night, so this - What It Means to Miss New Orleans - from the NY Times made me smile. From it, my favorite reason why we need New Orleans: Piety Street is one block over from Desire. Not a long walk at all. Indeed. (smile) oh, and Please, God. Please. Bless America. The idiot prince now gets to fill two seats on the Supreme Court. |
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