Posted inHome life

Here’s our disastrous 2009 Christmas letter

It's December 25. A perfect time to share our 2009 Christmas letter, the theme of which this year is disasters.Download 2009 Christmas Letter (its a PDF file)Actually, I always title our letter "Holiday Greetings." Laurel and I are, after all, politically correct Prius-driving latte-sipping progressive-voting vegetarian denizens of considerably godless Oregon, so the Christ part of Christmas is irrelevant to us.I do, though, worship the Great God Google. As noted on the blog post where my collected Christmas letters are located, I suffered a cyberspace shock five years ago when my "Christmas letter" Google search ranking dropped markedly after I…
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Posted inSalem

Marion County to vote on enlarging county commission

Today's Salem Statesman Journal reported that voters in my county, Marion, will have a chance to vastly improve our Board of Commissioners setup. Download County Commissioners articleMarion County voters in May will be asked if they want to increase the number of county commissioners to five from the current three and make the seats geographically based.The Marion County Clerk's office confirmed that the group "Have A Voice Everyone" collected enough valid signatures — 5,828 — to get the initiative, Measure 24-292, on the May 18 ballot.This is a great idea. Marion is the only county of its size in Oregon…
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Posted inEntertainment

Russell didn’t win Survivor Samoa. Unfair?

After the first episode of Survivor Samoa I hated Russell Hantz, this season's evil genius. Watching last night's finale, I almost (but not quite) hoped he'd win. At the end of this post you'll find a comment interchange between me, Brian, and Tucson -- a regular commenter on my blogs and a fellow Survivor fan. Since this interchange occurred on a post unrelated to the show, I wanted to copy it to this post-finale pondering about Russell's unexpected second place finish.Tucson and I ended up in basic agreement with a thoughtful NPR blog analysis by Linda Holmes: Russell blew it,…
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Posted inFamily

My sister died today

"In memory of my sister." "An unexpected death." How do I title a blog post that is so painfully unexpected, but which I have to write --- because that's what I do when I hurt, and when I don't hurt: write.You say it like it is. My sister died today. I got the call from my brother-in-law, Bob, a few hours ago. He said that Carol Ann, who was 71, went into a room to look something up on her computer that they had been talking about. When she didn't come back after a while, Bob went to look for…
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Posted inHome life

Christmas letters — a comforting reminder of simpler times

Political junkie that I am, sometimes I feel like my head is going to explode from WTF craziness."I can't support the health care bill because it doesn't reduce costs enough," says one Senator -- who vigorously opposed the public option that would have saved Americans lots of money. Thankfully, Christmas letters are helping me preserve my sanity. They're a connection to the good old days (OK, maybe they didn't seem so good at the time, but now they do) when life seemed slower, simpler, less filled with aggravations.I hardly ever get actual letters in the mail anymore. Nor do I…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

How depressed should a progressive be about health care reform?

It's looking like the Senate health care reform bill won't have either a public option or Medicare buy-in for people under 65. That's disturbing. It sure isn't what I and other progressives expected when Obama was elected president and the Democrats won solid majorities in both houses of Congress.I was looking forward to change I could believe in. Not change that I have to try to talk myself into feeling somewhat good about through the therapy of this blog post.This morning I clicked in succession on two of my favorite political web sites. Over on FiveThirtyEight Nate Silver opined that…
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Posted inHome life Web/Tech

Dell customer service: horrible, frustrating, outrageously bad

Canceling an order for a laser printer cartridge should be easy. With Amazon and other competent online retailers it is. But with Dell, it's insanely difficult. This morning I spent well over an hour trying to do something that should have taken me a minute. There's no excuse for this, Dell. Either you're trying to make it extremely hard for customers to cancel an order, or you are a mismanaged company.I don't use my Dell 3000cn color laser printer very much any more. I've flown the PC coop and use a Mac now. Dell doesn't offer a Macintosh driver for…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Climate scientist emails show no fraud

Yes, I was right! Three weeks ago I said that the climate research email hack shows global warming is real, because the furor over the stolen messages was a big ado about nothing.Now AP reporters have read every email repeatedly. They discussed what the emails mean with experts in climate science and scientific methodology.The AP found that the emails show pettiness, not fraud. Scientists are human, just like the rest of us. They get irked at global warming deniers who try to play fast and loose with facts. Otherwise, the emails show that climate change science is solid. No big…
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Posted inHome life

XM Skydock — another reason I love my iPhone

I've been using "love" and "happiness" a lot in conjunction with "iPhone." (see here, here, and here)Just did it again in this post. I'm loving XM satellite radio's Skydock for the iPhone. It makes me so happy to no longer have to listen to a handful of Portland stations in my car.Aside from Oregon Public Broadcasting, they're all filled with commercials. And most feature right-wing talk radio at the times I'm usually driving around. Plus, they don't come in very well here in the south Salem hills, especially after nightfall. My wife and I had been thinking we should get satellite…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Global warming: Sarah Palin wrong, scientists right

Gosh, what a choice. Should I believe Sarah Palin, who says that global warming is a fiction, or the world's top scientists and scientific organizations, who say that it is a fact?I'll go with science, since Palin has lousy credentials when it comes to facts. She doesn't believe in evolution either, which makes her take on global warming even less credible.Yesterday my daughter asked me what book she should get me for Christmas. I told her, "Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity" by James Hansen, a NASA scientist…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Global warming deniers show craziness of conservatives

Conservatism used to be intellectually respectable. As a teenager in the early 1960s I regularly read serious stuff by William F. Buckley and other deep thinkers in National Review. My mother was a die hard Republican. I shared her commitment to conservatism until I went to college. Back then, there wasn't any conflict between "conservation" and "conservatism." But now, right-wingers have a well-deserved reputation for being anti-scientific, dedicated not to reasoned arguments and facts, but to shrill sound bites with no substance.Today the Copenhagen summit on climate change kicked off, encouraged by the EPA's conclusion that greenhouse gases threaten public…
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Posted inScootering

Scootering at 40 degrees. Loving it. Must be addicted.

Let's consider the evidence for a man (let's call him Brian, for lack of a less realistic name) being addicted to riding his oh-so-beloved Suzuki Burgman scooter.It's December 5 in western Oregon. The temperature is forty degrees, and falling. He's sitting in a south Salem coffee house, enjoying a nonfat vanilla latte after riding eight rather frigid miles so he can use the French Press wi fi to blog about scootering in forty degree weather.Makes perfect sense to me. (Of course, I'm he.) I can't think of a better way to spend a sunny afternoon than riding my scooter. Cold,…
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Posted inHome life

A real fan doesn’t bet with an Oregon-OSU point spread

At first I had the title of this post begin with "A real man..." But I don't want to insult a friend (who would go nameless, if I didn't reveal that it is Hans) who demanded that our $10 bet on the giant University of Oregon - Oregon State football game tonight include a point spread.I'm betting on the Ducks. Hans, on the Beavers. Last Sunday, when we got together at the Beanery coffeehouse to negotiate the deal, I argued eloquently that a real fan has so much confidence in his team, he doesn't need the crutch of a point…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Anti-tax zealots show disdain for Oregonians

Talk about un-compassionate conservatism. A front-page story in today's Salem Statesman Journal reports that the group opposing modest increases in taxes on Oregon corporations and high-income individuals is blissfully unconcerned about...Prisoners being released, teachers being fired, in-home care for seniors being slashed, newly hired state troopers being laid off, and other cuts in essential services that will hurt people in this state."If these measures do not pass, the world as we know it will not come to an end," said Pat McDonald of Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes.No, Pat, your world of big business lobbyists won't be affected. You'll get a…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

Apple’s tech support is delicious (and not in India)

Yes, my wife and I paid more for our Apple computers (MacBook Pro and an iMac) than a PC would have cost.But when something goes wrong with our machines, we're in capable hands with AppleCare tech support. It's by far the best in the business, according to Consumer Reports.Dream on, PC users, about what I experienced this morning when I made a call to figure out a couple of problems with my wife's new iMac.Within a few rings the 800 number was answered. OK, not by a real person. However, the automated voice recognition system was snazzy, crisp, and clear.…
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Posted inHome life Web/Tech

More Apple love: an iMac enters our life

 Ah, there she is, so lovely. Sleek. Slender. Well-designed. Responsive to the touch. Fun to play with.It's no wonder both my wife and I have fallen in love with her -- though this Apple iMac resides on Laurel's desk and mainly is her techno-toy.Observe the lack. Of cords, because the keyboard and Magic Mouse are wireless. Or of a desktop tower, because Apple crammed a 500 GB drive and the rest of the computer innards into the slim 21.5 inch LED display.We'd change our dog's name to "Apple," but she already responds nicely to "Serena." Otherwise, we're steadily embracing all…
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Posted inTango/Dance

Ballroom dancing restores yin-yang balance

Guys, if you need a reason to take ballroom dance lessons, here it is: the woman has to do what you want. You lead. The woman follows. End of story.Until you get off the dance floor. Then your relationship goes back to normal. But as our instructor likes to say, "On the hardwood, the man holds the remote control; once a couple leaves the studio and steps on the rug, anything goes."Well, over 99% of the time I hold the remote control at home also. And I do the car driving about that percentage as well. It just seems natural…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Climate research email hack shows global warming is real

It looks like the stolen emails from a climate research center at the University of East Anglia are a classic example of "the dog didn't bark." That is, the big news from this peek into the private professional correspondence of climate scientists is that there is no big news. Yawn: the appropriate reaction to finding out that scientists get irritated at global warming deniers who refuse to face facts, and talk about the best ways to get across the message that global climate change is for real.One of the first and best reactions to the email server hack came from…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Portland police can’t handle a 12 year old girl

You'd think that members of the Portland (Oregon) police force would be embarrassed that several of their brethren weren't able to handle a combative 12 year old girl. An officer shot her at close-range with a beanbag gun, even though several men had her down on the ground and were trying to wrestle her into submission.But no, per usual the police union is all upset that Officer Christopher Humphries, who shot the girl, has been suspended pending an investigation. Humphries also has been disciplined for his role in the death of an unarmed mentally man. Watching a security camera video…
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