August 31, 2007 - Driver License picture

Well, nearly a week and half after the required trip to DMV to renew my license, I slowly opened the envelope and peered at the newly crafted document. I have to say, the picture is worse than I expected. I showed it to my co-workers, one of whom exclaimed, "Is that your mother??" (Mom is 75 thank you)

I said 'No, my mother looks better than that'.

It looks like I have brown hair on top and black on the bottom, when in reality its all a sort of dark blond and some gray. And the angle the picture was taken at makes me look like I have the mumps or something- a swollen neck.. An then of course the clerk said OK look here please and when i did 'snap' and then i got the deer in the headlights stare thing going..I am tempted to ask for another, but then again I have enough other ID with a decent picture that I don't think I will worry about it. Besides, my sweetie says I still look OK in person, even if my picture stinks...I guess thats a compliment?

August 30, 2007- Geography of A Woman

My daughter sent this to me, and I think it probably is true, from my experiences.

To the men that might read this, sorry...but this is how we tend to think of you

Mom , read the whole thing...
THE GEOGRAPHY OF A WOMAN,
Between 18 and 22, a woman is like Africa, half discovered, half wild, fertile and naturally beautiful!

Between 23 and 30, a woman is like Europe, well developed and open to trade, especially for someone with cash.

Between 31 and 35, a woman is like Spain, very hot, relaxed and convinced of her own beauty.

Between 36 and 40, a woman is like Greece, gently aging but still a warm and desirable place to visit.

Between 41 and 50, a woman is like Great Britain, with a glorious and all conquering past.

Between 51 and 60, a woman is like Israel, has been through war and doesn't make the same mistakes twice; takes care of business.

Between 61 and 70, a woman is like Canada, self-preserving but open to meeting new people.

After 70, she becomes Tibet, wildly beautiful, with a mysterious past and the wisdom of the ages; only those, with an adventurous spirit and a thirst for spiritual knowledge, visit there.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF A MAN

Between 1 and 70, a man is like Iran, ruled by a prick

August 28, 2007- For real, forever

One of those quirky bands I came across a few years ago is Mazzy Star, although they are also called Mazzy Star. I went on Amazon and bought three cd's, mostly because the music just seemed so perfect for hanging out and doing nothing, and Hope Sandoval sings like she is really tired or loaded on some good drugs, or both. I often thought this was music inspired by the heyday of drug culture music, the way some of the more psuedo country bands of the late 60's and early 70's played... here is a link to a youtube video of them doing one of their songs: Mazzy Star "Fade Into You" I looked up Hope Sandoval online, along with info about the band, and was surprise to find this bit of info Mazzy Star was part of a music genre known as Paisley Underground-"Paisley Underground bands incorporated psychedelia, rich vocal harmonies and guitar interplay in a folk rock style that owed a particular debt to The Byrds, but more generally referenced the whole range of 1960s West Coast pop and garage rock, from the Seeds to the Beach Boys.

OK, so I wasn't just imagining thinks these people were trying to recreate a sound I grew up with.
The student assistant at work who is just 21, asks me about "back in the day", and smiles when I tell him what it was like, seeing The Grateful Dead or Chambers Brothers , Elvin Bishop, Yes, Jethro Tull, Big Brother and the Holding Company, or years later Santana, Cream, etc play live.

August 27, 2007- What I day!

Our work place has a large cafeteria, and when you enter, there is a long half circle counter top that runs about 50 feet, with stations for grill, pizza, sandwich's, salads, the lunch special, and Mexican food. Standing in line in the salad area, and talking to a coworker about some work things, he stopped me from talking, and turned to speak to another woman walking up behind us. As I turned to see who it was, I noticed this man stare at us from across the way in the grill area. he noticed me looking back at him and nervously quit, and we went on to order lunch-ahh, fresh made shrimp Cesar salad...OK, so now we each head out tot the cashiers station, which are these checkout stations with a counter to slide your tray on each side. Again, mister stare is there, across from us in line. I did what I usually do when I don't know what else to do, and slightly smile...what a dope! The guy follows me to the silver wear and condiments island, and says ( I am not exaggerating) "Have we worked together before?" As I turn to say "I doubt it", I realize his stare is at my chest. ..So I say "Hi, my face is up here, OK?" I said it loud enough that people coming up to the island started laughing... this would have been enough, but there is more, read on...

My friends and I went out to the patio to eat, and were about half way through, when I hear this electronic chirping, joined by another then another , until finally there were several..and it dawned on us that this was the fire alarm! We ate like crazy, gazing at the sliding doors that separate the dining room from the patio, until a aamane know from our floor came out and yelled, "I think you might want to leave now", as he left the patio through the emergency gate. As we made our way to the gate, the sliding glass doors opened I could here " This is not a drill- for your safety, please follow the emergency exit signs and leave the building" Enough of this, we made our way to the rally point ( which i have no idea where it is, so my coworkers take me there). We were looking around wondering what was going on, and i said " I hear sirens" and here comes (from two directions) several fire trucks, followed by a couple of police cars. What got me kinda worried was when this big firetruck that stopped across the street from us and parked in the middle of the street... like this one

Fortunately, after about 20 minutes they walked around the area with loudspeakers saying it was OK, go back in.

How could all this happen before noon...I should bbblog this...

What a day...

August 26 2007- Writing a good blog is work-right?

Spending a good deal of time online, I frequently read blogs and forums regarding all sorts of stuff, including those in Yahoo 360. Frequently I feel totally inadequate as a writer, which some people have pointed out to me in some of the forums I add to occasionally. Although my work related writing seems to be pretty good, personal writing at the level reflected in a blog like this one sometimes seems to be difficult. Why I don't know.

I confess - ever since college, I have thought of being a writer; I was even a communications major. I have tried to writing in third person, first person, casual observer, lecturer-nothing seems to feel right. Maybe its because I just write about what's in my head, which can be and usually is not a linear orderly place, but a cascade of ideas, thoughts, memories and events, much like my life.

Case in point, while writing that last sentence, I visualized Mr. Spock telling Kirk how his brain could continue to work on computational problems subconsciously... and therein is my problem, my writers block. I work at writing, and work while writing. Yet the things that endear people to me in person how I communicate in person. I remember writing something that got a lot of comments from readers..honest comments, either LOL, LMFAO, or the like.

I had ordered some Christmas gifts online, and requested that the delivery be signed for, not just left at the door. I was at home, enjoying a day off by eating a leisurely breakfast and then taking a nice shower. Drying off, the bathroom window open, I could hear the hefty rumble of a truck suddenly stop and the rattling of a delivery truck door opening, followed a few seconds later by the ring of my door bell. I quickly threw on my robe, and wrapped my hair in a towel, running from the rear of the house to the front door; I flung open the door, and yelled WAIT as the delivery guy was walking down the walk back to his truck. He spun around, and smiled, walking back towards me he extended his arm and asked me to sign the electronic tablet, which I did. He then held out a large box, and as i reached for it, my robe tie sash  came loose, allowing my robe to slowly open at a rate commensurate with my arms coming up to grasp the package. Realizing I was about to expose myself to this stranger, I also realized if I dropped the box and closed my robe, i might damage the contents of the box, but instinctively boob coverage was more important, so I went to pull the robe closed, as he reached to help stop the box from dropping...BINGO...he copped a good feel, albeit through my robe. I instantly turned red, and he did too, although as he walked away he was smiling. Once in the house, I looked through the window, and could see him laughing in his truck as he drove away...hey pal, hope you had fun, Merry Christmas...and then I started laughing...

Entry for August 25, 2007 -Geek stuff

Like it or not, because of years of training and experience, I am considered a "highly skilled generalist in information security" . I belong to a number of professional organizations, and when possible attend what I consider relevant training, either information system audit classes, or info-sec training. (And yes, in my professional life I have an alphabet soup behind my name.) So when family or friends ask what are some good things to do, I usually rattle off the essentials, anti-virus, personal firewall, spy-ware detection- and maintaining your computer by doing or scheduling the maintenance tasks it needs to perform well. If you have a wireless router/access point at home, for goodness sakes enable encryption, and use the WPA2 settings-WEP is an old standard and can be pretty easily cracked; change the default network name, and the administrator password. One of the first things I do on some assignments is sit in the parking lot of the place that hired me, and use some freely available tools to scan for wireless connections. Netstumbler will tell me if the network is encrypted or not, and by the name of the network, I usually can tell if it was just plugged in and turned on or if the owner did some of the things I suggest above- i mean when I see an unsecured network names Linksys, odds are i can get in. Recently a large store hired me, and in doing this I found their electronics department had set up a wireless network to demo wireless equipment, only they connected it to the intranet of the store chain, which allowed me access to their corporate network-OOPS!

So this morning I went to see what was new at some sites I use for their tools, so i googled audit my PC, and at the site found a new java based speed test from broadband. This is critical for me to work from home, to be able to quickly download materials from/for work.

Back story- I fought with my phone company for years to get dsl- in the rural suburban area I am in they have a state sanctioned monopoly on phone service that dates back to the olden days when the state had to force companies to provide service to rural areas and guaranteed no competition to mitigate the cost to the company. Which was OK when where i live was farm country-but since I moved here 14 years ago, has grown from 12,000 to 138,000 people due to the housing boom!

So back to where we were- I did the newest speed test; from 2 years ago to now my connectivity speeds are about 3 times faster, the current speeds about 2,890 kbps for download and 784 kbps upload. (kbps means kilobytes per second); I also used the IP address discovery tool, and find that the ip address they say is my PC is(thankfully) the server for my internet provider not my actual pc ip address.

Entry for August 24, 2007- Oregon

Having travelled all over the country in the last 5 or 6 years, I have thought about what's important to me and how that should be reflected in my life. I love the redwoods and ocean, but Eureka is basically kind of isolated. I spend most of my time in the city, where fortunately I own a small house.

Now comes the opportunity to sell that house, and I have been in contact with a realtor in a coastal town in Oregon, and I managaed buy a house up there, where I am planning to relocate to permanently. I am moving all my junk up there at the end of next month, and then maybe visiting some relatives in Portland. My main worry has been that once I start living there 24/7, the rainy weather will bug me too much, so I started looking at other web sites like Sperling's Best Places. Its not too shocking that most people on the website think where they live is 1) really OK or 2) Sucks . Here is an excerpt : "This is a beautiful coastal piece of heaven. It is often raining and grey throughout the winter months. Best time to visit for the best weather is in August and September."

Ok, so I read that and think where would it not be raining and grey in winter? I mean I have spent the winter months in New Jersey, North Carolina(worse blizzard in 30 years), Georgia(where it snowed 3 inches!), Nevada, California...all have spells of rain, snow and grey...well except for southern California. It gets a small fraction of the weather northern California gets.

Entry for August 21, 2007- why blog?

I sometimes wonder why blog at all? Is it ego (duh)...yes, it is, and it can be also a way to share ideas with others, a form of self publication...it can also serve as a means to offer out a glipse of ones life for whatever educational or entertainment value that holds for others, again back to self publication. Imagine a world of budding Hemingways, with no obstructive editors sheilding the unwary reader from the good undiscovered authors; yet by the same token, some pretty awful writing is also out there, waiting to be seen...not unlike this blog as a fact!

OK, now for todays adventures of being me....I had to go in to renew my driver license, which was pretty easy, verify some information, read the eye chart, and pay the money, then got to the picture window. Standing in line, I noticed there was a mirror for people before they got to the camera, on the back of the background thingy. As I stood there, someone opened the door to the driveway behind us, and a gust of wind blew in, messing my hair...I mean BAD. Then the girl says"NEXT!" and is glaring at me, so I lean over the rope to sort of see myself in the mirror, and finger comb my hair...and giving some goofy teenager a chance to look down my shirt, then I went and stood behind the line and FLASH, she says here is your receipt. I asked"So now I am stuck with that picture for the next 5 years?" and she smiles and says "Next!"

Entry for August 20, 2007- Bored?

I wonder how many people in the US and Canada settled down each evening to be entertained by a movie, or a well written, acted and directed TV program to find an absolute lack thereof.

Get ready, pack your bags, we're taking a trip on the bitch trail....and I am the bitch trail boss...

It used to be that maybe Friday night was boring TV; then it was Saturday also...Now add Monday, maybe Tuesday...and when did the TV season go from basically coinciding with the school year( September to June) to January to May or shorter? I get satellite TV, well over 500 channels available; by the time I winnow that down to something I can manage, its 146. Mind you, growing up we got 3 channels; in the 70's UHF got popular, and we got a couple more. Then cable exploded, and we got channels from the next town over, then across the country, then Ted Turner morphed WTBS into Turner Broadcasting System, and HBO got bigger, as did Showtime, yada yada yada...

So why with all this choice, I am sitting here typing on my laptop while XM radio plays all 60's music on one of a bazillion channels?? Sometimes I think about this stuff and wonder where we are going as a society. So many gizmo's and choices, and in the background the concerns we had in the 60's about air and water pollution turn out to be even worse than we thought, and are causing the planet to slowly heat up...too depressing, so lets watch re-runs of ???

Then there are those that are so fed up, they ONLY watch and listen to talk, which to me is extremely boring and uninformative. 9 times out of 10, after I try to find out whats the background on a sensational story, it turns out to be misrepresentation or lies...how can we as a society may reasoned decisions when we have delegated discussion to others?

Scared of where we are? Not as much as I read scary stuff in our future. I don't want to live forever by installing my brain or thoughts into a machine; I don't want to open doors with my palm because some chip as been embedded; I don't believe in making clones, mostly because fundamentally I believe that Mother Nature, God, the supreme universe, the force,whatever you call it, took millions of years to develop life and here we are these overgrown apes playing around in areas we barely understand...now the scariest thing I have seen(since I was freaked out by the divide in the IT world over artificial intelligence and nano technology- one side demanding that there be built in controls, like nanotechnology can not self reproduce, while the other side saying that might stifle development!) which I pasted here:

"Across the globe, some of the top scientists are attempting to create life from nothing, and so far there has been no success but now experts are saying wet artificial life will be possible in just 3 to 10 years.

ProtoLife is one organisation trying to develop wet artificial life and their COO, Mark Bedau, said:

“It’s going to be a big deal and everybody’s going to know about it. We’re talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways — in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict.”

http://www.product-reviews.net/2007/08/20/wet-artificial-life-possible-in-3-y...

OK, I return you to what you were doing.....

Entry for August 18, 2007- Nothing exciting

Last night I watched a rental movie, and this evening watched another. Between these events, I spent Saturday driving around in a big circle to shop for clothes, go to the Beverage store(beer, wines and brandy). After a quick trip home to drop it all off, and eat lunch, we went to the local BIG BOX hardware to look for a new stove. Actually, they call them a range.

Off course I fell in love with this stainless steel and black enamel, cast iron burner one which is a mere $2000. Yeah, as if!

Entry for August 13, 2007 - Work sucks, so what's new?

Like a lot of people, I pretty much wish I lived in a welfare state, where I get all the money I need and earn it by doing whatever the heck I want. I know, and if wishes could come true....

Last Friday I made a presentation at my job to the Executive Committee, and it was less than well received. So I was not in a good mood, mostly because I really think I am doing a good job, but with a negative response by the executives, I'm not so sure. I heard from other people at work who could empathize, having had the ire of the executive thrown their way as well.

This morning I went in, and settled into routine of reviewing a contract bid proposal, and after about 7 hours of that, I went to my office, where I was greeted by my boss settling into my office to chat. She wanted to know what my project plan looks like for what I am doing, so i showed her, and then she says "well, that looks good to me, lets go talk to Jerry [Counsel to Exec Committee] and see if we can get them off your back. I don't want you to be unhappy and maybe start thinking of leaving..." which is pretty much what I was thinking about. I went, and the counsel at the end of the meeting says if I need more time, I got it.

Ok, so maybe my job only sucks sometimes

Entry for August 07, 2007-Politics

Politics

Lets look at recent history of the presidency:

JFK- Senator; LBJ -Vice President; Nixon(former) Vice President ; Carter-Governor;Reagan-Governor;Bush-Vice President;Clinton-Governor;Bush II- Governor.

Of these 8 Presidents, four were Governors, and 3 were Vice Presidents. Since Cheney isn't running(thankfully), former Vice President Gore, Gov Romney or Gov Richardson are likely to be in. I like Richardson, because he understands the issues that affect the western USA. That said, I really don't think he can win, and I don't think Al is running, so I guess we'll get our first mormon President..

Entry for August 06, 2007-Climate Change?

Last week inland from me in Redding Ca the temperature high hit a pretty typical temp for August of 101F, while today was 81.

In Sacramento it was 104 last Friday, and yesterday was 76...the forecasters say its because of a cooler air mass dipping further south than usual due to change in jet stream...

As people do, this sparked some conversation at work, and a man I work with said that he went to Europe several years ago, and flew for hours over frozen territory, and last summer it was only about an hour and half...if you figure a airliner in flight at say 530 mph covers about 2120 miles (ground speed conversion at tailwind+/- 0) and in 1 1/2 hours that would be about 795 miles, the difference of 1325 miles. This means that a journey of 5300 miles from San Francisco to London that once was 40% over frozen landscapes is now only 15% over ice.

Wow, I better think about land further up the hill, high tide is going to get higher...