Cry Havoc! and let slip the dogs of war

I was listening to Credence Clear Water Revival song, Run Through the Jungle, and remember cousin Mike had told me how he would play music like this through the intercom on his helicopter in Vietnam...which in turn led me to think about war, and how our country, the USA has a streak going....WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm(aka Gulf War I) and now Iraq (Gulf War II) . I left out Afghanistan...I guess that falls under Global War on Terror (I never liked that term. ...why not Americas Revenge on al Qaeda?)

Makes me wonder if we as a country are envied by everybody on the planet, so they want to fight us, or if out of 2 world wars we decided to continue this giant military, and then since it was available we used it? I know thats a monsterous oversimplificiation of global political theory on use of military strength, but maybe? These words were from President Eisenhower in 1961, speaking about preserving freedom,

"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. ...In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades. In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present "

"Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield. "

So where are the people that can speak with this authority now in our society? Where are the people who have seen the immense sacrifice of war, and know that freedom isnt preserve at the muzzle end of a weapon?? Sure aint in Washington now...Way I see it, over the last 40 years the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned of has come to power.

One of my friends on 360 sacastically says Hump day will now be known as Wiretap Wednesday (good one EEM).

But really, if you ever read what it is our government does "to protect" us, I think many would be shocked, and outraged.

I listened intently the other day to testimony on why we need the ability to conduct surveillance . I understand the technology they were speaking about. Because a target may use a online service based in the US to communicate( ie, network communication via a server in the United States) from one foreign site to another, we need the law changed to allow capture of the data to determine...wait a minute!!! You want to do what - Lawful Interception? oh-oh

I need some music

Coming to Grip with Aging

Today, like most days, i spent an inordinate amount of time getting ready for work.

This has become routine, and as I brush my teeth, I gaze at this person I have become accustom to seeing everyday. Its me, sans makeup. Some days I pile it on, while other days I don't. Today was in between in terms of facial augmentation

I drive to the coffee place on the way to work that has a drive thru, and get my coffee from a usually cheerful 20 something, with that sweet singsong voice my memory says was mine once. As I reach out to get the cup of steaming hot java, her wistful(and damnably young) smile coos the dreaded, "Thanks for stopping at ####, Ma'am" I am a Ma'am. I don't recall the first time I got called that, its been so long ago.

I got to work, and was thinking about this...and realized that most everyone at the plant where I am managing a project is younger than me. The plant superintendent- the system administrators (except one, and he's only a few months older than I). When I talk to people in the Technology Department, its like the wise old lady is talking.

Then there are the people on staff at my agency with me. One guy is probably my daughters age, has been a network manager in private sector, lets call him Jim; another is same age range, but not much experience; our new project oversight analyst is a few years younger than I.

I was in a meeting with some staff, and Jim is telling us about what he has in mind, and keeps mentioning that he has to go to a meeting with the Chief Information Officer (CIO)- who cares? I have had meetings with a agency secretary, the State CIO, even worked for the Governor's office once, and bumped into the governor while doing something. Point is, his whole attitute is weird...I really get riled at the fact that I mention when asked that I had a master degree in Political Science, and he quipped something about that seemed real practical in our field. His masters is in computer something or another...Maybe its me..Maybe I am becoming too sensitive to my age. But I doubt it. I know Jim is pissed i have this giant office at work. I also know that he has no desire to tackle the project I am on, or the new ones I will get soon(one is now in procurement, waiting for a contract) because my customers are pretty nice, but technology not too savvy.

So this is the kind of weird stuff i think about somedays...and then while driving home, through the canyons of steel and concrete that pass for a city, I see the young women walking to catch a train or bus, and realize, i used to be like that...pretty, I mean.

Honest, I remember walking to the bus stop when i was about 22, before i graduated college, and the cold wind blowing...I was walking down the street to catch the bus, and the wind was blowing, so I had pulled up the fake fur collar of my coat. I remember I was wearing a wool pleated skirt that looked sort of like a kilt(so I probably was wearing a sweater, my ususal combo ever today), and had these awful platform shoes that at the time i thought were wonderful. So I clunking along, and I twisted my ankle on a piece of broken sidewalk, where a tree root had caused it to buckle, and so I was standing there thinking how it hurt, and I heard this whistling, and looked across the street, and there were these workmen on a roof, and one yells, "Hey Baby, you want me to come kiss you and make it better" I think I flipped him the finger, I know they all laughed at him.. or were they?

I remember going with friends to a bar or club and people buying me drinks, and wanting to dance, and wanting more...gawd, I can remember some of the lines, "Oh, you must be an Aries aren't you?" "Has anyone told you what beautiful blue eyes you have?"

Thats all memories now...it just doesn't seem fair..but at least my mom was right, everyone gets older. I just want to know why we have to look that way? Couldn't we just look 30 forever? Then i saw Joan Rivers on TV- never mind....

Nader Daze

VOICE OF AMERICA

Ralph Nader, Launching 3rd White House Bid, Says U.S. Democracy Needs Wake-up Call

In 2000, he entered presidential politics as the candidate of the Green Party, a left-of-center political organization that shunned the policies of both the Democrat and Republican parties. Nader won nearly 3 percent of the popular vote. His campaign angered many Democrats, who blamed Nader for Vice President Al Gore's narrow loss to Republican George W. Bush. Undeterred, he announced his bid for the White House again in 2004 as an independent, saying that his focus would be on the necessities of the American people. He said the two political parties were broken. "They need a wake-up call. They need somebody to hold their feet to the fire inside the electoral arena."

Speaking to a crowd of Democratic Party supporters in 2004, former President Jimmy Carter told Nader to "go back to examining the rear end of automobiles" -- a reference to his legendary auto-safety campaigns. "Don't risk costing the Democrats the White House this year, as you did four years ago," Carter said.

President George W. Bush won re-election in 2004.

Nader is uncompromising on this issue. He puts the responsibility for the Democrats' losses in 2000 and 2004 on the candidates the party nominated, the judgment of American voters and on wealthy corporate donors, which, he says, have a stranglehold on the American political system.

Thanks Ralph, you ego centric putz...because you took 3% of the vote, states like Florida were narrowly shuttled over to the Republican side(not counting any other funny business)

Crying out loud, Ralphy's slogan 4 years ago is the same thing he said Sunday when announcing he was running, again...Ralph, YOU need a wake up call...

Entry for February 25, 2008

Old song by older version of ELO:

My favorite- Evil Woman

Best thing Jeff Lynn did post ELO

History of Travelling Wilburys Initially starting at a meal between Roy Orbison, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne, they got together at Bob Dylan's studio at Santa Monica, California to record; Tom Petty was involved when Harrison stopped by to retrieve a guitar he had left at Petty's home; Harrison suggested "The Trembling Wilburys" as the group's name, but Lynne suggested using "Traveling" instead. Everyone agreed. Jim Keltner, the session drummer and percussionist, was not listed as a Wilbury in Volume 1 or 3; however he is in some of the music videos.

Heidelberg Germany 1978

I was looking through some pictures I had scanned about 4 years ago, that recently were transfered from my dying storage drive to a new drive. I was looking at this picture, and it occurred to me that even though I didnt say so on the file, it was with a bunch of other pictures including one with the date, June 3, 1978.

It was a Saturday, and it was slightly muggy but a nice day by German standards. My friends and i had decided to bicycle around old town, and maybe go to the top of Heidelberg Mountain Railway, and enoy the sights, and do our usual weekend binge drinking of German beer and stuff ourselves with BierGarten food...any way, this picture was taken as we started out.

I also had not really thought about it, but I think i have worn my hair the same for the last 35 plus years...geez, I am a life long hippie I guess...

Entry for February 22, 2008

Last night there was another demcratic candidate on TV, and it has been in snips on TV all day today- crimmy, it was on at lunch at work, and most people asked the cashier in the cafeteria to change it...so tonight I am living my Yahoo blast, and turning off the rhetoric and TURNING UP the music...

When I was a kid, this amazing band came over from England, and I watched them play on TV..and was immediately in love

of course it wasn't long until I found a band my parents objected to EVEN more, and this was a song I used to drive them crazy with, "CANICE!!! Turn that CRAP down, NOW!!! "

Well I am a grown up now, so here it is, TURN it up

Saturn and the bright star Regulus will line up to form a perfect triangle with the moon

My wretched camera, using maximum zoom, and manual settings, could not do justice to this shot from last night....oh, where is my digital slr camera when I need it...oh, thats right, some a**hole stole it last year....

Quiet please she said, i want to be alone...

We spent the day today looking for a ranchette further away from town, and stopped to eat a sandwich along the way. Honey says "what do you hear?" and there was no noise at all, absolute silence, except for the occasional bird and the rustling of the trees in the wind.

Thats the way it was when we moved here to where we live nearly 11 years ago..and in that time there has been steady buildup of homes, then stores, shopping centers, our two lane farm road has become a divided 4 lane, the police patrol overhead in helicopters day and night, and because of the increased traffic, now it takes a good hour to get to work everyday (it used to be 15 minutes)

We have decided we need to work several more years to save enough money to retire, and that being the case, no need to do that AND have to put up with the hassle of increasingly urbanized life. Besides, it might be good to live a little further out, because when this used to be farm country, we knew our neighbors...and we looked out for each other

You are a Hippie

You are a total hippie. While you may not wear birks or smell of incense, you have the soul of a hippie. You don't trust authority, and you do as you please. You're willing to take a stand, even when what you believe isn't popular. You like to experiment with ideas, lifestyles, and different subcultures. You always gravitate toward what's radical and subversive. Normal, mainstream culture doesn't really resonate with you.

Your Attitude is Better than 65% of the Population

You have a good attitude. While a realist, you do see the positive side of most things. People love to be around you.

How's Your Attitude?

Political winds - February 17, 2008

A colleague who I once worked with, who is a evangelical religious person and (in my view) a extremely conservative Republican told me " so you really don't stand for anything do you?" What that was in response to was his inquiry as to what I believed politically. And I said I believe in making political decisions based upon the needs in the present, looking to the future without holding fast to any particular dogma, except that the freedoms we enjoy need constant protection , less the government or some group subvert them.

I make no bones about the fact that I tend to be moderate, middle of the road. Its my nature. I am an analyst, which means I have considerable training, education and experience at examining situations, and weighing the pros and cons of the potential solutions.

Intractability is not a theme ascribed to me usually, except maybe in contract negotiations with a vendor. So it is

Now one of my friends here on 360 has challenged my blast, saying there is no way the south would vote for him. I don't buy that. My experience with people across this country is that there are views in many parts of the country you would not expect...my colleague above being one. He lives in a smaller town, and works with people from every kind of demographic you care to cite, race, religion, ethnicity...and he is a bigot. He hates Democrats, people of color, and non Christians...let me correct that, he doesn't believe you are a Christian unless you are evangelical-an emphasis on the authority of the Bible, and a relationship with Jesus Christ. He would never vote for Obama...for lot of reasons, political and otherwise.

I have coworkers that are religious, nonreligious and nonbelievers; Democrats, Republicans, Independents,Libertarians and Greens.

Now to the central issue:

Most pundits believe that McCain will be the republican nominee...his VP will either be Huckabee or Guiliani, I think. The smarter move would be Huckabee, to woo those people like my friend, who will vote for that ticket on a multitute of rationale.

Hillary on the otherhand, while approved by 50% of Democrats so far, would fare poorly in a general election...and thats not my thoughts alone, but satistical data from several months of polling, which shows she loses to McCain nationally by a 1-3% spread. And given that electronic voting is more popular than ever, the opportunity for a Republican landslide is only a few keystrokes out of grasp. (Disclaimer: I am not claiming that there is or ever has been proven a case of vote tampering by voting machines, however that was suggested in an HBO documentary, 'Hacking Democracy' clue-Gore lost in Florida with a minus vote count in Volusa County)

Obama on the otherhand, draws from a larger approval group, including independents and even some liberal Repubs...only time will tell

Dark couds gather, as the fools struggle to escape ( February 15, 2008)

I said it in a vague way, that what Microsoft wants, they get. I didn't mean that any specific way other than to state my opinion, that the Redmond WA software behemoth juggernaut would slither its way along like a glacier, slowly eroding the opponent. Yaho would not be the first, merely the latest to be sucked into the vortex . (Sorry, got a little overly creative there)

Now word is filtering around the software and financial worlds that Msoft is using the divide and conquer on the Yahoo Board of Directors.

Microsoft stated “The Yahoo response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.”

It is believed that Microsoft may raise their bid for the takeover of Yahoo. It is expected that they would have to increase their $31 per share bid to $35 or $40 in order to get closer to a final deal.

More to follow, like you cared. But you will...meanwhile, i recommend either finding a new place to have a page, or get used to Windows Spaces (yewwwwww)

Entry for February 14, 2008

Yahoo - what if (or woulda shoulda)

With its days as an independent company seemingly numbered, Yahoo must be wanting a few do-overs on the M&A front these days. Last year’s purchases of online ad firms Right Media and BlueLithium seem astute, though perhaps too little, too late. And let’s not forget successful photo-sharing site Flickr. Still, here is a look at some of Yahoo’s M&A missteps over the years.

Google. Probably, the do-over Yahoo most fantasizes about. Yahoo had an opportunity to buy Google in 2001. Over dinner, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel discussed a deal. Alas, Brin and Page wanted $3 billion to sell and Yahoo walked away, a $162 billion mulligan by today's prices.

By 2002, Google had gone from Yahoo partner to Yahoo rival. In response to Google’s encroachment, Yahoo snapped up these two businesses to fight back. Search engine Inktomi replaced Google for Yahoo’s search technology. Overture placed ads on Web pages. The problem was that Inktomi and Overture did not produce results as good as Google’s.

Yahoo paid almost $3 billion in 1999 for GeoCities, a pioneer of social-networking on the World Wide Web, only to have the social-networking site whither away under its control. As one person close to the situation told Deal Journal’s Dennis K. Berman in this recent column: “Had they done things right with GeoCities, there would be no Facebook, YouTube or MySpace.”

Source:Wall Street Journal

Microsoft Corp said on Monday that Yahoo Inc's rejection of its initial offer to buy the company was "unfortunate," but it does not change its belief in the merits of its proposal.

"As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo's shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal," Microsoft said in a statement without specifying what its next course of action would be.

In response to Microsoft's statement, a Yahoo spokesman said it stood by its earlier letter on Monday from the Sunnyvale, California company's board that the Microsoft proposal undervalues Yahoo.

Source: Reuters

In the history of internet business, Yahoo may have come to the point of no return. Now that the Microsoft deal is on hold ( because what Microsoft wants, microsoft gets, takes, or appropriates)dont count them out. Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch is hinting of a deal after Yahoo spurned Microsoft's $44 billion dollar bid. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is now reportedly holding talks with the website pioneer. According to the Wall Street Journal, News Corp is considering merging all of its web interests with Yahoo, including the popular social networking site MySpace.

Under the supposed deal, Yahoo would have to give News Corp 20 percent of its shares while allowing it to remain independent.

Earlier, Yahoo executives rejected Microsoft's offer saying the takeover bid grossly undervalued its brand, audience, investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential.

My opinion: If this News Corp deal goes, 360 is doomed. it would make no sense to continue a money loser like 360 when they could reap the rewards of migration of 360 users to MySpace...

Another Entry for February 12, 2008

BERKELEY, Calif. — Two weeks after the Berkeley City Council called U.S. Marine Corps recruiters "uninvited and unwelcome intruders," the council is expected to reconsider its anti-Marine stance Tuesday night.

Large crowds from the left and right are mobilizing for the meeting. The anti-war feminist group Code Pink began a 24-hour "peace-in" Monday night, and the pro-war group Move America Forward planned a day-long demonstration outside City Hall.

The Rev. Fred Phelps, the anti-gay activist and founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, will be there as well, demonstrating against both the Marines and Code Pink. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church routinely picket at the funerals of American soldiers killed in action.

Code Pink activist Zanne Joi said her group is "supporting the troops by being against war and against recruiting."

HUH? How do you support someone by being against ...I mean I can sort of follow this flimsy thinking...maybe. But its just wrong. And Rev Phelps and his band of miscreants can go take a flying F>>>, although I think there is something weird about showing up to protest both sides of the dispute...

Entry for February 12, 2008

Lincoln's Birthday

A day to reflect on what trials and turmoil this country has endured and survived...together.

Entry for February 11, 2008

I feel a sense of loss, not a deep painful loss, but somehow a disconnectivity from some of my friends here on Yahoo. I know many people are stopping by to see what kind of nonsense i have put to page, whether its IT news, music, stories of my past, or just life in general.

But no comments.

Used to be that people stopping to look the page over would just say hi, how are ya...not its click, scan, outta here, go somewhere new, see someone elses page, don't try to maintain the most fragile of communications, the disembodied voices put to electronic page to share these thoughts...and i am left where I started when i put this page on the Public mode several months ago, mostly writing for myself, capturing my thoughts for as long as the server is operating that houses these words, in bits and bytes.

I try to share, and yet I also feel the loneliness of others in these moments, the fear that bubbles through the commentary. Trying to earn a living doing something you love doing but suffering through humiliating near poverty to pursue that dream; the emotional toll of dealing with others in the world; the pain of rejected love, unanticipated seperation, loss of affection, all play themsleves out on these pages.

Maybe its the fact that by reading the same pages everyday, we become immune to the addictive quality of our words to others, who thirst for communication about others lives without the burdens of really caring, just in it for the voyeurism of it. Like looking through a window while passing by, and seeing the family at the table, perhaps eating a roasted turkey, and wondering if its a special meal, and why. There is no real care in the thought, only the idle curiousity of it.

We are all different in some way, and yet there is something in common, having chosen to play out whatever drama or comedy we call life on these pages; choices to share and bare all, or conceit and conceal, to be whimsical or practical.

On a less philospohical note- leave something behind after stopping by, comments are welcome

Late Entry for February 10, 2008

Yahoo to Reject Microsoft Offer, May Find Few Options (Update2)

``A lot of this is gamesmanship on the part of Yahoo,'' said Scott Kessler, an equity analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York who recommends holding Yahoo and buying Microsoft. ``Microsoft is well aware that Yahoo doesn't have any other options. What this is about is how much Microsoft wants Yahoo and how much time they're willing to wait to get this deal done.''

Microsoft, could pay $40 for No. 2 Internet search company Yahoo. It is more likely the companies reach a deal for less. UBS AG's Heather Bellini, the top-ranked software analyst by Institutional Investor, said last week Microsoft may have to bid $34 to $37.

Since Yahoo seems to be going down, maybe an infusion of cash from Redmond would be good...?

Entry for February 10, 2008

On weekends when i actually take the time to ponder things, I come up with some pretty obvious yet often ignored ideas.

An idea that hit me yesterday was the incredible coincidence that people meet others so like themselves online. One of the people is my friend Eric. While we grew up in different places and have never met , the sheer coincidence of our "meeting" here on 360 is amazing to me. He was in the military in Europe; I taught school at a military base in Germany in the late 1970's. In our online dialog, i find that he and I used to own the same type of car, had the same kind of love for British sports cars, enjoy writing for fun but loath doing it for work, and have a passion for photography. I really get caught up in the whole six degrees of separation thing.

Speaking of which, if you look at it in a convoluted way, I have a contract to work for a government agency. If I do the six degrees me>client>clients Boss>Agency Secretary>Governor...wow, Governor is five steps away...of course anyone above client does know i even exist, so its all fantasy.

Another thing is the place where you live, and things we take for granted. I live in California on the periphery of the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta, actually in the Cosumnes River drainage, which is farm land just south of the every expanding Sacramento urban sprawl. On a trip to nearby Lodi, we often take the farm roads over using the freeway, since being old (over40) we dont think driving 80 in a 60 mph zone is a good idea, which earns the ire ( and finger salute) of those who opt to drive that way...In traveling this route, we pass through the Cosumnes River Preserve , which on weekends is populated by as many photographers as birds. While slowly driving past the extravagantly equipped photo hobbyists, I noted there was nothing really to get excited about, the usual mallards, coots, etc.

Then about a 1/4 mile down the road I saw them, and stopped the car...in a field flooded with water, a group of sandhill cranes eating in the early morning sun! Being the camera nut I am, I fetched the FujiFilm digital from my enormous handbag and took a couple of pictures, unaware I had not reinserted the memory card..

In looking up information about them, found this tidbit:

The Nature Conservancy started buying land here in 1984, purchasing 85 acres of rare riparian valley oak forest. By 1987, with help from Ducks Unlimited, the preserve had added more farmland and wetlands. Within a few years, other agencies and organizations jumped aboard, including the federal Bureau of Land Management, state agencies, the County of Sacramento, and private landowners. Now, the protected area has grown to 45,000 acres, including 1,200 acres of wetland and more than 1,500 acres of riparian forest.

It is in this protected area that has many as 4,000 Sandhill cranes winter from Alaska, Canada and Siberia.. Picture by Rick Lewis

Entry for February 09, 2008

Name that tune? Some oldies from my music collection, although it was easier to just download them from youtube than try to copy from my ipod

from Hollywood a go-go in 1966

Supposedly this 1968 video has barbie benton in it, who was one Hefners girls. I met her once when our high school basketball team was playing hers..she was a song leader or cheer leader, and we were sitting on our side of the court and she and anothe girl tripped and she fell on me and another girl from our school. She seemed nice enough, apologized for falling on us and then when on her way..

February 06, 2008

Today I had an important meeting with my client and their primary vendor on my project. The Senior VP, Operations and the Vice Chairman of the Board of the company were coming to see how their equipment had been deployed, and tour our facility. None of my clients senior staff was available, and we had tried to reschedule, but being as this was last minute (being scheduled last friday) I volunteered to be there with the system adminstrator, a very nice woman who really has become familiar with the vendors lack of cooperation. For example, in reviewing what has been done before I got on the project, the vendor had indicated that because their solution runs on proprietary software, they would manage the Operating system upgrades(patches) and the anti-virus, which our network people agreed to; yet I can find no evidence of the vendor having done anything. But I digress.

So they show up, take a tour with the engineer, and then we meet them at the end of the tour, and go to the conference room. So there are these gentlemen, the local area representaive, the two big shots and the local service manager, who we deal with all the time during the project to ensure the equipment is installed to spec before we test and certify for acceptance. Its a nice meeting, and we exchange a lot of information, and my colleague taps my foot with hers under the table, and I glance at her, she indicates I should face the man across form me. He smiles broadly and is very pleasant, and it dawns on me that while I am talking to him, he is fixated at a point about foot lower than my eyes...namely my chest(see above)

I was wearing a purple sweater, and logan green wool slacks, and matching jacket. I didn't think it was inappropriate, and so after the meeting I talked to Jane and asked her what that was all about, and she smiled and said " thats why I wore a turtleneck today- that guy is a real creep!"

I guess, but its a little atypical of how I am treated at most business meetings.

The News....Would A Takeover Of Yahoo Matter?

(CBS) My reactions have been bouncing back and forth ever since I heard the news early Friday morning that Microsoft wants to devour Yahoo.

Part of me thought that Microsoft was up to its monopolistic tricks again, trying to buy its way into dominating in an area in which it hadn’t succeeded, despite years and billions of dollars of effort through MSN and Windows Live offerings.

Yahoo’s social networking effort, Yahoo 360, hasn’t done well, and so far Google’s Orkut is popular in Brazil and India but not in the U.S. or Europe. Microsoft does own Blogger.com, which is a nice tool for self-anointed pundits, but not a social networking site. [Microsoft’s offerings in the social networking arena are almost anemic.]

Then I read it, and realized it was official-

Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44,6bn

(Yeah, 44 BILLION dollars)

Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for around $44,6bn in cash and shares, to better compete with Google in the market for online services.

CEO Steve Ballmer made the offer in a letter to Yahoo’s board of directors last Thursday (Jan 31), telling the board that he would release the letter Friday morning. "By combining the assets of Microsoft and Yahoo we can offer a more competitive choice for consumers, advertisers and publishers," he says.

Microsoft-Yahoo

Bummer...

Entry for February 03, 2008

Seeing as I am a native Californian (with dad from Colorado ) , and my honey is a Californian via Minnesota , the teams we support are out west- the Sacramento Kings(basketball), San Francisco Giants(baseball), a little more diverse in football.

We got burned out on the 49ers back after 1984 SuperBowl, and when Montana left, so did we. Minnesota Vikings, and I tend to like (go ahead, snicker) teams with colors I like- Denver, Minnesota, San Diego Chargers.

A lot of people locally are BIG Raiders fans, and have stuff like Raider Nation(what does than mean anyway?) on their cars.

So as the weekend approached, one night at dinner:

(me) who's in the super bowl again??

(honey)Patriots and Giants, I think

(me)You wanta watch the game?

Not really

(me)What we gonna do, watch a movie?

Nah

How about we watch the Puppy bowl?

The what???

and that is how we went out for Sunday lunch and then came home to a warm fireplace and settled in for the sports action of the Puppy Bowl!

Come February 5th, maybe this group will get smaller

The Great Race...no, lets not get race in here...The Presidential Selection Process...nope, sounds sort of bias....Election 2008...(more like selection if you ask me)

Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, who is campaigning (for) Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, (has) made a suggestion that raised the specter of Barack Obama’s past drug use.

Obama has written in his book about it, a fact alluded to "The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight ... and one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is his drug use," said Shaheen, the husband of former N.H. governor Jeanne Shaheen, who is planning to run for the Senate next year."

What the heck, I smoked weed in highschool and college, and now I manage multi million dollar contracts...I guess they should sack me because of what I did over 30 years ago???

Come February 5th, maybe this group will get smaller