Miscellany

Oh, Microsoft, why is our relationship so strained? After I praise your XP SP2 update, yesterday you let me down with a muffed security fix. Optimistically, I had turned on the “automatic updates” feature, and noted that some large files were being downloaded via our slow dial-up connection. When I tried to shut down my computer, I was met with an “updates will be installed upon shutdown” notice that I had never seen before. Still optimistic, I went ahead and clicked “shut down,” after which I gazed upon an endlessly recurring loop of installation messages, as described by my fellow…

Like everyone else (except maybe some heartless Louisiana State fans), I’ve got a lot of empathy for the OSU placekicker, Alexis Serna, whose three missed extra points kept Oregon State from a stupendous college football upset yesterday over third ranked LSU. Oh, man, 22-21 in overtime. It was a great game that merits use of the overused cliche, “Neither team deserved to lose.” Alexis, I’ve been there with you, along with an awful lot of other guys and gals. When you threw down your helmet after the final missed kick and screamed in frustration, I screamed inside my head along…

Bicycling around Camp Sherman today, it hit me: my inner child wants to return to the days when people bought gas at the town store from pumps with a shell/Shell on top, and when going to the post office meant you’d catch up on the town gossip and get a chance to sit a spell on the bench outside. This was the sort of town I grew up in, Three Rivers, California. Just a few hundred people back in the mid-1950s to mid-1960s. A tourist/ranching town with, yes, three forks of the Kaweah River. My mother and I lived within…

Oh, Google, why hath thou forsaken me? I worship daily at your throne, www.google.com, and praise you far and wide. Soon after I set up this new home for HinesSight I entered your good graces, and you indexed me (Google be praised) at http://hinessight.blogs.com. Now I have fallen from your favor, and my heart is sorely troubled. What must I do to please you, oh Great Google? Well, I think I’ve already answered my own question through a visit to the Google web site. Apparently Google doesn’t like “mirror” sites in which several URLs point to the same content. Since…

It’s always a pleasure to get a fresh email message from Mil’s Mailing List (written by Mil Millington, the creator of Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, a wildly creative and funny website that I’ve recommended before). Here’s Mil’s take on Angry Bed Positions. I think he has made a real contribution toward advancing mankind’s understanding of this little-studied, but hugely important, sphere of non-verbal human interaction.

We interrupt this weblog for some commercial messages. Well, quasi-commercial, since HinesSight is not supported by any dependable source of income, in the traditional writer’s spirit. I’ve just built up a small stack of items that are calling out to be publicized, and want to shut up those annoying little voices from the pieces of paper on the rug beside my desk. Plus, I want to stop rolling over them every time I push my chair away to get another snack, or take a nap, after laboring at my literary projects for the usual half hour or so at a…

With all the serious insanity flying around the front page of the newspaper and CNN nowadays, it is great to be put in touch with someone who can laugh at it all. One of the (two or three) HinesSight readers, Randy Smith, told me about Neal Pollack's weblog, and I became an instant fan. Sucked into Pollack's web by his shameless self-promotion, I even bought both of his books via Amazon, where I learned that his first book was the inaugural title of McSweeney's Book, Dave Egger's (author of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius") publishing arm. And that's all…

If you aren't getting enough ads for penis enlargement and home business opportunities in your email inbox, Mark Morford has put together a marvelous compendium in his SFGate.com column. At least, I assume these are genuine excerpts from email ads. I've seen some of them, but Mark must get a lot more spam than I do. I also like his earlier piece, "Are Hummer Owners Idiots? More delightful proof positive that most SUVs are, in fact, morally repugnant. Go, America!" Apparently there is solid research to show that large SUV owners are more ego-driven and insecure than drivers of other…