Why I don't watch the news

I broke a rule today and watched Barack Obama's speech in Berlin. Quite good, I thought. But afterwards, as he was walking through the crowd, MSNBC reporter Andrea Mitchell interrupted the NBC Political Reporter Chuck Todd . . . who was making a somewhat valid point about the stagecraft . . . to breathlessly inform the audience that NBC anchorman Brian Williams was now walking alongside Obama. Well, as they used to say in pre-television days, "Stop the presses!" A little later, Mitchell felt it necessary to point out that Williams was now interviewing Obama.

What I'd like to know is who pays her salary: the news department or the promotion department!

The Myth of Threes

A week or so ago, a new neighbor to our left came over and asked SWMBO if she would come over to witness her signature on some kind of paper. It turned out to be permission for a hospice to offer care to the lady's father. Dad was in a recliner of sorts hooked up to oxygen and not looking well.

A day or so later, I was picking up my mail and saw the lady sitting outside and went over to say hello. As I neared her I saw that she was sobbing, with tears running down her face. She told me her father had just died.

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This morning, I noticed a large group of people and cars at a house on the other side of our house. Later, when the crowd had thinned but a young woman was outside, I walked over and asked her if something bad had happened. She told me her father had died in his sleep only a few hours ago.

I had just spoken to him last night as I was checking the sky for clouds and a nice sunset. He was sitting outside his home and waved and seemed fine. He was a nice man and we'll miss him.

- - - - - -

But, as SWMBO said: maybe we should get out of town for awhile. And a friend who I told the story this afternoon said that might not be a bad idea and raised the myth of threes. Well, I know that happens with celebrities and people in the news. If two die, a third one follows shortly. But I'm not superstitious or worried.

However.

If you don't hear from me for awhile . . . .

What's new?

Well, I've been trying to think of something to blog about today.

All day.

Y'know what?

I can't think of a damned thing.

Maybe tomorrow.

Big Screen Action

O.K. I finally got my sound back. Know what the problem was? A loose jumper on the audio board. The computer wizard . . . Tom Leufkens . . . found it. Thanks, Tom.

So, I finally have my new computer monitor fully operational. It's a huge picture, which is very good for these old eyes. The screen is 21.6 inches wide. I make that out to be a 22 inch screen, don't you? And it's a flat screen so I finally have some writing room on my desk.

Your Catalyst is a happy camper.

God-like Catalyst

I have a new t-shirt.

SWMBO took a picture of the front of it.

Boys and their toys

I have a new computer monitor - 21.6 inches wide. It is one big mothuh. Of course, when I first hooked it up, the picture didn't fill the screen, leaving about an inch and a half of black on either side. A trip to my computer wizard fixed that. I needed a new video card but he assured me DVD movies would run fine now without the herky-jerky pattern of before.

But . . . there's another problem. Now I don't have any audio. My little icon is still on the task bar but none of the computer's sounds and no audio from the internet or DVD's or CD's is coming out of the speakers. The speakers are o.k. because I plugged them into a transistor radio and they worked fine. I've been through and through the sound and device sites and can't find anything muted or turned down. My next step is to look inside the tower and see if the sound jack somehow became disconnected.

It is very frustrating.

I also bought a cheap tripod for my digital camera yesterday to use for macro work but the new monitor and attendant problems have kept me away from it so far.

The SWMBO says this reminds her of when I was a ham radio operator and each purchase of new equipment would require more expense to buy something that would make it work correctly. She may be right.

Picture fun

Here's a photo I snapped at a Buddhist shrine on my last trip to the deepest jungle of Thailand.

No, wait a minute. That face looks familiar. Let me turn the flash on it.

Oh, I remember him. That's actually a small statue in our front garden.

This is a photo of our half-cat Smoke. (You remember, I call him that because he only spends about half of his time with us). He's pretending to ignore me.

Have you ever noticed . . . whenever you want to get a nice tight close-up of your pet's face, he won't settle down. First he walks past your camera one way.

Then he turns and goes the other way . . . always just out of range.

Oh, well, I got one good one of him sometime back. It's at the top of this page.

More Macro

Here are a couple of more images from my macro experimentation. I need to buy a tripod or a unipod.

Rainy Day

Another rainy day in Arizona.

Close-ups: solved

Oh, my!

Reading the manual does help.

Look out, macrophiles, here I come!

Experimenting

I've been trying to figure out the close-up facet of my camera. Here are a couple that I think made it, though I forgot to turn off the flash on St. Frank and he would have been better with natural light.

I think the secret is not to look through the viewfinder but to turn on the screen and use it to frame up the photo.

To be continued.

Monsoon

Kind of a pretty day, heading into Prescott around noon.

Those clouds do look a little threatening but they're still pretty.

Oops! About an hour and a half later, heading home.

See those mountains? You don't? Oh, I guess it's because of the rain.

A little further to the south . . . you can see the edge of the storm.

And here's what it looks like to be in the middle of it.

The monsoon has finally arrived, bringing with it much-needed rain. But, as usual, it produces some flooded streets and other problems. SWMBO said we got some hail here before I got home. Wonder how the BRD's little red Mercedes weathered the storm sitting in her driveway.

The cooler temperatures (around 65 now) sure feel nice.

Burger Madness

Warning. Warning. Warning.

These pictures are fuzzily out of focus.

I don't know why.

Could be the amount of alcohol in the photographer.

Could be a cheap camera.

But . . . here it is.

First of all . . . a half moon.

Then . . . the grill. Hamburgers. Onions.
A closer picture of the onions.

Buns . . . toasting on the upper grill.

O.K. The final picture wasn't taken. Your photographer with his face full of grilled hamburger and onions and cheese on a toasted bun.

Eat your heart out.

I did.

A lazy weekend

I did hang the flag out for Friday and Saturday to celebrate the 4th of July.

SWMBO did grill a chicken stuffed with lemons, and some thick slices of sweet potato for dinner the other night. Delicious. (The sweet potatoes weren't inside the chicken, they were alongside it.)

Other than that, our marking of our national holiday was quiet.

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The BRD went to a luau costume party Friday evening. And the (World's Oldest) rodeo in Prescott Saturday night. (She says she didn't want to go and told her man that next year he could go with his buddies.)

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And they went to Phoenix today to watch Randy Johnson finally win his 289th career baseball game in a 3 to 2 squeaker. Randy gave up a home run on his second pitch of the game but after that he was spectacular. Once again the bullpen nearly gave it away but they managed to hang on.

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I've been doing a lot of reading lately. Finished Jeffrey Deaver's exciting "Stone Monkey" yesterday. I've now started on "Audition" by Barbara Walters. A couple more libary books are in the house but SWMBO is reading them simultaneously: "Mission Accomplished: How We Won the War in Iraq" by Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky, and "Late Nights On Air" by Elizabeth Hay.

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I went to my cardiologist the other day for an echocardiogram as they continue to watch my heart. There was a new woman doing the test and we were talking about my atrial fibrillation. I told her I had never had any symptoms or felt anything. She said, repeatedly, that she would have thought I would have felt a fluttering in my chest. After the third time she said that, I replied "No, the only fluttering I've felt there was when I looked into your eyes." She laughed and told me I had made her day.

I'm finding I can get away with remarks like that more and more as I get older. Guess they just don't take me seriously any more.

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I have done something I never thought I would do: I have set up a MySpace page. But wait! It was prompted by a conversation I had with my grandson, the Army man, last weekend. I asked him to give me an e-mail address that I would actually get a response from. He's on his fourth tour in Iraq now and I'd like to stay in touch. He said that was probably the best one since he gets about 500 spam e-mails a day on his other ones.

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This sounds like a letter home from college. About the only thing I haven't said is "Please Send Money!"

So.

Please Send Money!

Happy Birthday, America

Rush-ing toward mediocrity

Comes the news that conservative blowhard Rush Limbaugh has signed a new 8-year contract for 400 million dollars to continue his talk radio bloviating. TALKERS magazine estimates Limbaugh's audience at roughly 14 million people. But the population of the United States is currently estimated at more than 304 million people. That means that Limbaugh's screeds are heard by only about 4 and a half percent of the country's population.

It is further noted that Limbaugh vehemently opposed John McCain during the primary season as not conservative enough. McCain won the Republican presidential nomination fairly early and easily.

So much for Limbaugh's influence.

But as Tom Taylor, said to be news editor of something called Radio-Info.com said, speaking of Limbaugh and his syndicator, "both sides have made a lot of money for each other."

What a country!

Family reunion

SWMBO, the BRD and I made a very quick (48 hours) trip to southwest Colorado this past weekend for a visit with several generations of our family. Of course, as we were on the way home, I thought "Damn, I didn't get a picture of the four generations together." Later, after we were home, SWMBO brought it up and said "My family has always been conscious of those types of photos and we forgot to get it."

Well, with one grandson headed back to Iraq with the Army for the fifth time, his twin sister getting ready to join the Navy, daughter living now in Oregon, the other granddaughter in Colorado . . . it may be a long time, if not the last time, that we'll all be together.

We had a good time though we were exhausted when we got home (7-1/2 hours of driving each way) and a great fun but tiring day Sunday. I played croquet for the first time in many decades. I didn't win.

Best of all, we avoided all the 4th of July traffic.

And then there's more . . .

Yes, another friend has weighed in.

These come from the Rajah.

Murphy's Lesser Known Laws

1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

2. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

3. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.

4. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

5. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

6. If you lined up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would be stupid enough to try to pass them, five or six at a time, on a hill, in the fog.

7. The things that come to those who wait will be the scraggly junk left by those who got there first.

8. The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in a dark room.

9. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

10. When you go into court, you are putting yourself into the hands of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Laws

An old colleague (Boomer) sent me these and they caused me to think about their inevitability. Which made me tired so I think now I'll take a nap. Be careful. Don't read these while driving.

THE LAWS OF ULTIMATE REALITY

Law of Mechanical Repair

After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee.

Law of Gravity

Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

Law of Probability

The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

Law of Random Numbers

If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.

Law of the Alibi

If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the very next morning you will have a flat tire.

Variation Law

If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).

Law of the Bath

When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.

Law of Close Encounters

The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

Law of the Result

When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.

Law of Biomechanics

The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

Law of the Theater

At any event, the people whose seats are farthest from the aisle arrive last.

The Starbucks Law

As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Murphy's Law of Lockers

If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

Law of Physical Surfaces

The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor covering are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet/rug.

Law of Logical Argument

Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.

Brown's Law of Physical Appearance

If the shoe fits, it's ugly.

Oliver's Law of Public Speaking

A closed mouth gathers no feet.

Wilson's Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy

As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.

Doctors' Law

If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you'll feel better. Don't make an appointment and you'll stay sick.

Blog for your mental health!

Wow! After nearly a week of silence, two posts in one day!

I read an interesting column in Newsweek today about the mental health benefits of blogging. You can read it here. But watch out for the last two sentences.