I just got a Windows upgrade and my PC is running like a top. Pages are opening like lightning. I hadn’t realized just how bad it had gotten, this old desktop dinosaur is loved, but it had become an obstacle between me and whatever webpage I tried to visit. I can feel pent up stress melting away. So, I have to write something and what better than what other webpages think about FTB? [Read more…]
Two things, first it’s my birthday. The 51 year-old milestone doesn’t carry quite the heft of age 16, or turning 21, but it’s a big deal to me because I had a massive heart attack a few weeks ago that kills roughly a third of the people who get it. So I’m celebrating by doing some bragging today. On that heart attack, I have a question … I seem to have developed super human powers! [Read more…]
Technology notwithstanding, I’ll be on the air at Daily Kos radio with Kagro in the Morning and guest Dr Greg Dworkin. This show streams live and it can be downloaded for podcast. If you want to listen live, my scheduled time is 9:15 – 10 AM Eastern, and I have a lot to cover. The link below usually works, but I’ll have another page linked if you have issues with other options.
Can’t see the Flash player? Click here to download the stream directly.
I’ve been walking on egg shells ever since the mysterious chest pains two weeks ago described here. The symptoms didn’t match a classic MI, but they didn’t respond quite like an ulcer or a gall bladder deal either, and they seem to get a little worse when my heart rate increased. That last thing scared me shitless. It started when I saw my PCP last week, she suspected some sort of upper GI issues and did a routine EKG as a precaution. A few minutes later she came back in, looking grim, and told me I needed to see a cardiologist immediately. She wouldn’t say what her concern was, I’m not sure if she knew, but the look on her face scared me. So off I went to the cardio and found out I DO have a serious condition … [Read more…]
Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf passed away thursday from complications from pneumonia, he was only 78 years old. Schwarzkopf gained national celebrity status during the Gulf War. He was the primary architect of a strategy that led to what can arguably be called the greatest lopsided defeat in a major war in modern history. But that’s not what I and many others liked about this guy the most. [Read more…]
You know you’re old when you hear once cutting edge raging music softened into nice elevator notes and played in the lobbies of dentist offices. But every Christmas there’s one song that doesn’t get watered down so much, it’s definitely festive and has that sound, but still doesn’t seem to quite fit in. It’s a little too, brash, and yet so appropriate it’s now a Christmas classic. I even caught my 85 year old mother tapping her foot when it came on the local radio station the other day. That punkish rock song and some of its story below. [Read more…]
Back in the day I lived in a podunk rednickish suburb and went to a podunkish redneck school. This was Texas, mid 70s, think Dazed and Confused and you have it dead on. Needless to say there were plenty of gun owners. One day I was riding around with one of them — we were all just starting to get our driver’s licenses so driving anywhere was fun and cool — when my buddy asked me to open his glove compartment. A dark bundle fell out and I heard a snap, it sounded exactly like a bullwhip cracking. There was a gentle spritz of moisture across my legs and some dark droplets hit the kick panel to my right. I looked down baffled, it took a slow count of ten before it hit me, I had just been shot. [Read more…]
If you ever dealt with creationists sooner or later one will cough up Last Wednesdayism to explain the “apparent” age of the universe. Pushed to an extreme there’s no reason why the entire universe couldn’t have been created by divine magic last Wednesday, right down to your loose filling and the half eaten gallon of ice cream in the fridge. The problem is a perfect simulation isn’t testable — by definition it perfectly resembles a real universe — but an imperfect one might be. [Read more…]
Sen. Jon Tester traveled to Hamilton Friday to let 7-year-old Ethan MacPherson know that missing a few fingers doesn’t create an insurmountable challenge in anyone’s life. Ethan’s mother, Amber Mattern, looks on as the senator provides the Washington Elementary student some encouragement Friday morning.
Once a year I hang out my annual bleg pleading for handouts from readers. You can send via Paypal using the email address [email protected], name Steven Andrew, the main site is here or click the logo above, I’ll keep the paypal logo/link up for a week or so. For those who don’t use Paypal, you can email me using the subject line “Bleg,” or leave your email address in comments, I’ll figure something out, contact you, and edit your info out of the comment.
To be clear, I blog because I like doing it. A few bucks here and there to subsidize the work are important, but I’ll do it as long as possible regardless. But the cold hard reality, these days, is the quality and quantity of my efforts will suffer without it. Every dollar will go straight to the sorely needed essential tools of this trade: gizmos, software, etc.
As scary and humiliating as it is to admit, I’ve endured a long painful slide down the economic razor blade over the last few years, starting in the comfy middle class thanks to a lifetime of work, only to land cut and bruised and broken firmly among the hard-working poor. I won’t be bummed if you can’t afford anything this year — believe me I can relate — but I’ll happily and gratefully accept anything you can swing.