Happy Samhain - October 31, 2008

Samhain marks one of the two great doorways of the Celtic year, for the Celts divided the year into two seasons: the light and the dark, at Beltane on May 1st and Samhain on November 1st. Some believe that Samhain was the more important festival, marking the beginning of a whole new cycle, just as the Celtic day began at night. For it was understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed below the ground. Whereas Beltane welcomes in the summer with joyous celebrations at dawn, the most magically potent time of this festival is November Eve, the night of October 31st, known today of course, as Halloween.

Samhain (Scots Gaelic: Samhuinn) literally means “summer's end.” In Scotland and Ireland, Halloween is known as Oíche Shamhna, while in Wales it is Nos Calan Gaeaf, the eve of the winter's calend, or first. With the rise of Christianity, Samhain was changed to Hallowmas, or All Saints' Day, to commemorate the souls of the blessed dead who had been canonized that year, so the night before became popularly known as Halloween, All Hallows Eve, or Hollantide. November 2^nd became All Souls Day, when prayers were to be offered to the souls of all who the departed and those who were waiting in Purgatory for entry into Heaven. Throughout the centuries, pagan and Christian beliefs intertwine in a gallimaufry of celebrations from Oct 31st through November 5^th, all of which appear both to challenge the ascendancy of the dark and to revel in its mystery.

Entry for October 30, 2008

"Internet addiction" is about to make us a nation of derelicts. Men drooling over online pornography, women abandoning their husbands for chat-room lovers ...." I don't know about that, but an online existence can be socially connecting and isolating at the same time, which is pretty much a conundrum.

I find it interesting the number of people prowling the web for victims, whatever their game...sometimes just head games, other times more sinister. Actually interesting isn't the right word, more like revolting, angering. Why?

Because what started as a tool for the Pentagon*, has met the future. On the one side planet wide access to advanced medical care, instant communication of written and spoken words, ideas, images...and on the other hand, crime, psycho cyber junkies using advanced skills to steal information.

And then there is identity.

Who is who, and where are they on the globe? Is that woman I chatted with an hour ago really in Miami, or Paris, Moscow, or Hong Kong? Or was she a kid pretending out of her bedroom in Dayton?

Or maybe some sleazo in a rundown tenement on a old PC using dialup and a webcam to see some titties? Oh!

Its enough to make you want to sell you PC and go back to the old...nawww, we'll just have to deal with it.

(the Internet -the first two nodes of what would become the ARPANET were interconnected between UCLA and SRI International in Menlo Park, California, on October 29, 1969. )

Entry for October 29, 2008

Sometimes I have to think awhile about what to write, then again sometimes it just falls in your lap....

By now EVERYONE on 360 knows Yahoo abandon ship, and we are for the most part on a ship bound for nowhere...no support, no problem resolution and no upgrades, only the promise that something wonderful is coming, when is unknown.

Now Yahoo has abandon another promising application, Yahoo Messenger for Vista. I noticed when i tried to start the app it was stuck at sign on, and so i tried to find some information, and found this (see graphic with this blog)

Yahoo! Messenger for Vista BETA

Help us develop our latest product designed exclusively for Vista

Thank you for your interest in Yahoo! Messenger for Vista.
This product is no longer available for download.

We have discontinued stand-alone releases of the Yahoo! Messenger for Vista application in order to focus on delivering one Windows experience that is optimized for all Windows users.

I think the telltale here is the word Beta, which so far is the death knell for Yahoo applications... and like the comments from 360 users wh felt betrayed, some of the comments from Vista Messenger users:

• you guys never fail to amaze me, why couldnt you let us know a little in advance so we could download and save the vista messenger? BEFORE YOU DROPPED IT?

• THANK YOU FOR TURNING YOUR BACK ON THE USER COMMUNITY.

  Now please excuse as I uninstall and go back to the Windows Live messenger Beta.

Well said, I think i too will go back to Windows Live messenger...

Entry for October 28, 2008

OK, here it is, the gripe bag is open....

President Bush, elected to a second term on the grounds that we had nothing to fear ...oh wait, that was Roosevelt, and he said we had nothing to fear but fear itself...which for those too dense to get it meant America shouldn't fear the action they would need to take and become mired in what is today analysis paralysis.
In 1941 America was attacked, and out of our fear and anger, we went to war, and emerged the global power we are today. But politicians have used our fear to lead us down a path that was the wrong way. (My opinion anyway). So instead of whining about it, let just deal with it.
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
We have all heard it for the last oh 22 months or so.
Now within a week we will likely elect the first African American President, which in his case is not just some PC term since his father was a Kenyan student, and his mother an American. Or maybe we will elect the oldest man elected President. Both tickets have their pros and cons.
Neither will live up to the hype.
Should that turn out to be true, Obama will have a lack luster term and then recede into private life, or will be one of the most beloved leaders out country ever had...time will tell. Same can be said for McCain.
As I told some coworkers today (that listen to me because I am older than they are ergo I might know something, Or because i am higher up in the organization than they are) America has survived bad Presidents, and we will again if we have to...although I sure wish some better people were out there running for office.
I didn't support Hillary, backed someone else, and feel the nomination was pretty much taken away from her by some weird dealings in the party, like the discounting of two states and then the "super-delegates"...that really smack of favoritism and undemocratic actions.
What I really hope happens is WHOEVER is elected tries to make this country like it ought to be, where being a democrat or republican is secondary to being a citizen of this country.

I rue the day the credo Duty Honor Country is replaced with Duty Honor Party...geez, that sounds like...Soviet communism?

October 21, 2008..a continuation of Oct 15 Blog

I was reviewing my page and realized I left a lot out of the blog where i said "I majored in Political Science when seeking my Masters degree at Univ California. My education included a stint as an intern with a state assemblyman..."

Ah yes, when you start to reflect, all the little neurons in your brain start to do what they do, and memories from 30 years ago sometimes pop to the consciousness, like little baby fart bubbles in the tub (what an image)...

Let me tell you about Assemblyman Lee...well, I'll just say Lee. He had a billowy head of blue white hair , his hair line starting about the middle of his head, and then his thick wiry mane flowed back to his collar. It looked like cotton candy. he wore those glasses that were plastic on top and metal on the bottom, a kind of 1950's look.

When we showed up to work at his office , the secretary introduced us, myself and another girl and a boy neither of us knew, from a junior college nearby. The first words out of his mouth after looking us up and down was

" Women in this office wear a skirt or dress, makeup, and nylons." Nothing was said to the boy, who was wearing tan cords and a sweater.

He looked at me and said "You're pretty tall...you can stay in the office." The other girl was told to work in campaign headquarters, "because nothing attracts votes like a pretty girl" She objected, saying her and I were both supposed to work in the campaign office, to learn more about how a campaign worked. I dont remember what he said, but after we left his office, the secretary said we could both go to the campaign office and work. And work we did, stapling campaign literature together after the boy, I think his name was Steven, ran them off on a mimeograph (for those that dont know what that is, think pre computer back in the olden days..A mimeograph machine is a mechanical duplicator that produces copies by pressing ink onto paper through openings cut in a stencil)

We wore these stupid straw hats with Vote for Lee on them, and would wonder around the shopping plaze handing out literature while smiling and saying "Vote for Lee" People usually took the literaure, and sometimes said something, either how great Lee was or what a giant a__hole he was.

What people didnt know is that he really was an effective legislator, and a very mean man. His aid, who years later became a judge, would routinely get yelled at, and have things throw at him by Lee. It was rumored Lee was also a womanizer, a term I was vaguely familiar with. Once at the local pizza place, he bought us some beer and food, and then proceeded to engage in conversation with each of us. When he got to my friend and I, he said the usual pleasantries, and sat down at our table . The conversation was pretty blah, and then out of no where he asked which one us wanted to < you know>, and took a drink from his beer. I remember that part because i can picture his Adam apple moving up and down as he gulped the beer, the little purplish and red veins in his cheek highlighted against his barely tan skin. My friend stepped on my toes under the table, and spoke us both, declining the invite.

He then moved on to another table. We left.

On the way home in my cold VW Karmen Ghia, the word EEEEEWWWW was spoken more times than any other expression, and by the time we got home we were laughing about it...that old fart though one (or both?) of these young women were so in awe of his status in government that we would let him <you know>? Thats when I gained my sense of politicians being full of <you know>

Entry for October 18, 2008

Couple of recent things-
Honey got a Freedom Team Certificate of Appreciation, a letter from the Secretary of the Army and a lapel pin that has Veteran US Army on it. How and why this came we have no idea, so i looked online, and someone must have nominated him for it. Who we don't know. He had a tear in his eye, and a trembling voice when he read aloud the part about "...the United States Army and a grateful Nation thank you."


He looked at me and said he should have gotten this 35 years ago...better late than never.
Why it takes our country so long to do things like this I don't know, except that when honey was a soldier, it wasn't cool to be in the Army. It was OK to loathe soldiers... make them feel like their service was a mistake .

My cousin says he is getting promoted to Major in the Army. He is a 4 time now combat veteran, and is 46 years old. He says in Afghanistan, the helicopters he rides on like to have something from home, and one of them has this song lyrics on a piece of paper stuck inside the troop area:
Won't Back Down by Tom Petty

Well I wont back down, no I wont back down
You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I wont back down

Gonna stand my ground, wont be turned around
And Ill keep this world from draggin me down
Gonna stand my ground and I wont back down

Hey baby, there aint no easy way out
Hey I will stand my ground
And I wont back down.

Well I know whats right, I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin me around
But Ill stand my ground and I wont back down

Hey baby there aint no easy way out
Hey I will stand my ground
And I wont back down
No, I wont back down

Youtube video was here and wont display

Entry for October 15, 2008

Bah Humbug!

Thats what the election process means to me...smooth talking ads that either trash the opposition or promise things well out of reach, and OH, subject to change.

I majored in Political Science when seeking my Masters degree at Univ California. My education included a stint as an intern with a state assemblyman. I quickly realized that the reason there are so many lawyers run for office is (besides the need for power and money ) the huge ego boost that comes from running for office, and in the case of lawyers, the ability to talk in a way that seems credible on any topic, even when so full of it normally blue eyes turn brown...aka full of sh$t...

After seeing the dismal reality of elected office while working on several campaigns , the deals, the smoozing, I said phooey and went into work in the real world.

I wish "None of the above " was a choice offered on the ballot...

Entry for October 11, 2008

Happy Birthday...your account with XYZ Retirement Fund means a lot to us.

OK, so explain what the heck this means when compared to my portfolio, as it is...

GENERAL MOTORS CORP (GM)

-82.65%

Hello!!!

This is one of the worst stocks I own...I have a IRA, I send in some money every month, and they take that money and buy specific dollar amounts of stock in each companyI say. Since the company I work for prohibits me from owning stock in tech companies, i sold all the stock I had in Cisco, Lucent, Dell, Gateway, Microsoft, ATT and dear Yahoo. Most of these are on NASDAQ, not the Dow Jones. Most of these ended this week slightly up. Most of my stock, in consumer goods and industrials, went down, some like GM way down. This story replayed itself in my 457 and 401K, which are other retirement accounts. In the last 10 days I have lost about a $1000 per day or more. I am small potatos...I have a friend that is 41, and she has seen her retirement fund shrink by half, well over a hundred thousand doallrs, money she has been saving since she was 21. She was almost crying when she said at least she has another 21 years before retirement to rebuild...

Whichever lame jerk gets in the white house, there better be some serious look into the politics behind this crap, regardless of party.
Only good I see is this positively points out the sheer folly in thinking investing Social Security money into stocks is a good idea, something I have ranted about ever since W said he wanted to do that. My work retirement has the option to add more money to a 401K, with the intent of getting more in retirement. Hahahaha

At least I pulled honey's money out of that IRA well ahead of this mess.

Oh, and for fun today I slammed the patio door shut on my fingers, which has made my middle finger sore...I am sure there is some sort of cosmic justice in that, given the number of times I have extended that finger towards my TV during the last week while exploring new avenues in creative language making while cursing the talking heads and their damn gleefullness at telling us our financial world is crumbling...

October 09, 2008

What is going on in the world?

In USA, the sale of guns and ammo has skyrocketed, which actually happens every 4 years when people worry about what the next administration might do, but news sources say this year the economy mess is adding to those uncertainties.

Iceland has nationalized three of their banks, and is teetering on the brink of national bankruptcy...Russia, Sweden and britain are loaning them money..Russia???

North Korea has made a deal with the US to continue dismantling their nuclear program in exchange for us not calling them the axis of evil anymore...seems like a good deal for us.

But the big news has to be how the American dream has pretty much been derailed...but the same Mtha Fers that were suppose to be a) managing the store and b) overseeing the management. So instead of dealing with fixing the blame, why dont they work on fixing the problem? Well, they said they were trying, and created a BIGGER f ing mess...EVERYONE is going to suffer in one way or another for the mistakes these nitwits made. My opinion is whoever gets elected is screwed, like the rest of us.

(Sorry for the excessive negativity, but when you have been investing for years into a stock plan for your future, and then it goes poof, a little anger needs to be vented ...Washington mutual was trading for 10cents a share the other day...I only lost 20 dollars a share....lucky me

#$^%&^*(%*&&&*)&&_(*)+!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Video Future October 6, 2008

Cisco has unveiled and demonstrated their new On-Stage TelePresence Holographic Video Conferencing. In layman’s terms, it means that now you can actually do that thing they do in Star Wars when they talk to a Princess Leia hologram, and it looks quite convincing. Here is the Cisco presentation :

Then today I read that holgraphic tv (something i had imagined since high school) is probably feasible and marketable within the next 12 years. Tung H. Jeong, a retired physics professor at Lake Forest College outside Chicago who had studied holography since the 1960s told NJ.com; "When we start talking about erasable and rewritable holograms, we are moving toward the possibility of holographic TV ... It has now been shown that physically, it's possible." And what might these holographic televisions look like? According to researchers, they could be constructed as a screen on the wall (like flat panel displays) that shows 3-D images, with all the image writing lasers behind the wall; or it could be like a horizontal panel on a table with holographic writing apparatus underneath. So, if this project is realized, you really could have a football match on your coffee table, or horror-movie villains jumping out of your wall. The Japanese Government is pushing huge financial and technical weight into the development of three-dimensional, virtual-reality television, and the country's Communications Ministry is aiming at having such technology available by 2020. Obstacles in the past has been the re-writing and data storage issues..With the right type of media (probably polymers ), this would result in about 1 giagbit per second writing speed. Read speeds can surpass this and experts believe 1-terabit per second readout is possible. While many holographic data storage models have used "page-based" storage, where each recorded hologram holds a large amount of data, more recent research into using submicrometre-sized "microholograms" has resulted in several potential 3D optical data storage solutions. While this approach to data storage can not attain the high data rates of page-based storage, the tolerances, technological hurdles, and cost of producing a commercial product are significantly lower. All I know is maybe someday soon the re-released version of Star Wars is going to be awesome, to experience.

Entry for October 06, 2008

Cisco has unveiled and demonstrated their new On-Stage TelePresence Holographic Video Conferencing. In layman’s terms, it means that now you can actually do that thing they do in Star Wars when they talk to a Princess Leia hologram, and it looks quite convincing.

Here is the Cisco presentation :

Then today I read that holgraphic tv (something i had imagined since high school) is probably feasible and marketable within the next 12 years.

Tung H. Jeong, a retired physics professor at Lake Forest College outside Chicago who had studied holography since the 1960s told NJ.com; "When we start talking about erasable and rewritable holograms, we are moving toward the possibility of holographic TV ... It has now been shown that physically, it's possible."

And what might these holographic televisions look like?

According to researchers, they could be constructed as a screen on the wall (like flat panel displays) that shows 3-D images, with all the image writing lasers behind the wall; or it could be like a horizontal panel on a table with holographic writing apparatus underneath.

So, if this project is realized, you really could have a football match on your coffee table, or horror-movie villains jumping out of your wall.

The Japanese Government is pushing huge financial and technical weight into the development of three-dimensional, virtual-reality television, and the country's Communications Ministry is aiming at having such technology available by 2020.

Obstacles in the past has been the re-writing and data storage issues..With the right type of media (probably polymers ), this would result in about 1 giagbit per second writing speed. Read speeds can surpass this and experts believe 1-terabit per second readout is possible.

While many holographic data storage models have used "page-based" storage, where each recorded hologram holds a large amount of data, more recent research into using submicrometre-sized "microholograms" has resulted in several potential 3D optical data storage solutions. While this approach to data storage can not attain the high data rates of page-based storage, the tolerances, technological hurdles, and cost of producing a commercial product are significantly lower.

All I know is maybe someday soon the re-released version of Star Wars is going to be awesome, to experience.