Reading other blogs

Well, I've just about used up all of my blogging energy units for the day. And I still have to make my lunch, and take out the garbage. So instead of me rambling on, here are some things going on on the linked blogs:

Michelle had some exciting police action in her neighborhood. Then it stopped. For now.

Anne has two more kids than she did a few days ago.

Ashley moved a shoe store. Its contents, anyway.

Lauren has a cute dog.

Beyond the Needle has a cute quilt on display. And now I've got that song stuck in my head. Where can I get a list of every movie and TV show its appeared in?

Jennifer Wade briefly let me hope that Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke was in the running for the Presidency. Those would be some interesting State of the Union addresses.

Tiffany is all about the politics. Today, at least.

Whim is in a funk.

The Swordswallowers kept a journal of their travels through Georgia and Florida. Read Charon's bits here, here, and here, and Alexander's bit here.

Now, I'd better make my lunch and take out the garbage.

Who needs sleep?

I'm hoping I'll be getting more than four hours of sleep tonight...though at the moment, I can't expect much more than five.

Sunday night I was up due to restlessness, and the Internet. Yesterday I was up and online way too late, too, but then the next-door neighbor (who will be immortalized in a comic strip in just ten days) called because her cat had run away. So there was that going on, too. (She caught him shortly after 11:00.) Both times I was up bright and early at 3:00 in the morning.

I just signed up for the "call-in" list. If an emergency arises during my off-shift due to excessive call-offs and no coverage, I said it's OK for the company to call me to come in. The catch is, they generally call at 6:00 in the morning and tell you to be there as early as possible. On many of my days off, I am still up and (relatively) active until 3:00 or later. Going in to work on three hours of sleep or less is not particularly appealing to me. But I can definitely use the money. So I signed up.

Anyway. I'm gonna cut this short. It's already 9:31, and I still have to make my lunch, empty a dishwasher, and lay out my clothes for tomorrow. Take care! Freedom comes this Friday! At which point I can begin to deal with my broken speedometer...

Title Reference: "Who Needs Sleep?" by Barenaked Ladies.

The world turned upside-down

There are only two constants that I know of when it comes to weather: It always rains for the Bloomsburg Fair, and it always snows for Russian Christmas.

Well, that second one ain't true anymore.

Today was Russian Christmas (or "Christmas for people who follow the Julian calendar," as Jennifer's Assistant News Director prefers it to be phrased) and the weather was downright balmy, somewhere in the 50's. Or so I've heard. I spent the day in a climate-controlled whitespace where we are isolated from the outside environment. (It's highly recommended for those afflicted with Seasonal Affective Disorder. Take it from me.) But it is my understanding that there was not a lick, a hint, a merest shadow of the implication of a suggestion that maybe perhaps it might possibly start to snow sometime today.

This probably isn't the first time it didn't snow on Russian Christmas. But, as with all such things, we remember the hits and ignore the misses. Were I not to be writing this post, perhaps in the future I might still say "It always snows on Russian Christmas."

And what happened? Maybe it's Climate Change. More likely it's the result of something I described a while back:

Apparently we're in a La Niña year - so we can expect cold weather early on, mild weather in mid-Winter, and cold weather again after February 15 or so.

Still, we've had La Niña years before, and I still think it snowed for Russian Christmas every single year. Yes. Definitely. Maybe. Perhaps. I think...

At least it still rains for the Bloomsburg Fair. Every damned year.

Merry Christmas Eve (again!)

Tomorrow is Christmas! At least, it is to those who measure such things by the old Julian Calendar - primarily the Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox and Armenian churches.

By tradition, we leave our Christmas decorations up until "Russian Christmas" has come and gone, and we always light everything up fully for the day itself. Though I'm not sure what I mean by "we" these days. I just drove across Nanticoke and noticed that very few houses actually have decorations up or lights lit. My next door neighbors, who light their house up "like a whorehouse" (to use a Norwegian friend's phrase) every year, also tear down their decorations before New Year's Day.

Some days I feel like I may be the last traditionalist left who isn't over 70. This year my church eliminated almost all of the old Polish Christmas Carols in its Midnight Mass - in a parish where there are still many old Polish speakers left. The changes in the music - the current parish organist doesn't even know the old Polish songs that were weekly standards just a few years ago - aren't the only modernizations I've seen that feel like an effort to shunt the elderly off to a side room where they can sit quietly and wait to die. Last year at Easter at the end the sunrise Mass of Resurrection - arguably the holiest day in the entire Cristian calendar - the priest had the Easter Bunny pop out of the Sacristy and walk out past the altar and down the center aisle as the organist played "Here Comes Peter Cottontail."

I watch society spiral off, more concerned about widescreen TVs and having the latest video game systems than about the things that matter. And sometimes I wonder if anyone really knows what things matter. Do I? It seems doubtful. The evidence so far indicates "no".

But tomorrow, according to an ancient calendar no longer in use in most of the world, is Christmas. And tonight, our lights are on.

Merry Christmas Eve, to those who observe it!

Hooray for doing stuff

As I was getting ready to take a shower today, I noticed that the water kept flowing into the toilet bowl. A quick check under the hood revealed the problem: the float ball arm was cracked, causing the ball to never float high enough to close the valve and stop the flow of water. A few seconds of investigation, and the float ball arm cracked off entirely.

Easy enough, I thought, not for the first time. I would just have to get a new float valve kit and replace the float valve assembly.

The day turned into a Big Day. I took my mom on a whirlwind shopping expedition. First stop was Kranson's Clothes in Wilkes-Barre, where I put down a down payment on a coat I had ordered shortly before Christmas. I also picked up some pepper spray for my mom.

Next stop was Sears. While tallying my gift cards from this Christmas, I noticed a leftover Sears card from last year. Not wanting to let it be forgotten, I decided to use it to buy the tools I would need for the toilet repair, since my tools are currently scattered across two houses. As luck would have it, there was a four-pack containing two of the tools I would need (an adjustable wrench and slip-joint pliers) on sale for $24.99 instead of the usual $39.99. I took it.

Next was Lowe's, to get the toilet tank repair kit. And some Teflon tape, just in case. Paid for with another gift card, one from this year.

Then to Barnes & Noble, for a miniature Stonehenge kit (for me) and a Bonsai-in-a-box kit (for a friend). It will not surprise you to hear that I used a gift card to pay for these purchases.

I took my mom to a late lunch / early dinner next at the Cracker Barrel. We then went shopping in their store. Picked up a bunch of heavily discounted Christmas ornaments. Plus I got a robot Grabber hand for my elderly neighbors - sure, it's a kid's toy, but it effectively gives you another two feet of reach, and it has a precision gripping surface - unlike the suction cups on the "As Seen On TV" grabber. (I also got them one of those.)

Then it was off to Wal-Mart for cat food and Christmas leftovers. I picked up a $200+ Meade telescope for $50 (80% of which was provided by a gift card). It's nothing to rave about, but will be adequate for showing people the planets, the Moon, and maybe the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula. Plus it will let me practice for the day my super-expensive telescope that I received as a gift several Christmases ago sees first light.

After a final stop at Wegman's to see about a Christmas tree that I had had my eye on. They didn't have it, and the only similar one was pre-lit, which I'm morally opposed to. Besides, I didn't have any Wegman's gift cards.

So then it was back home.

To deal with the toilet.

I delayed as long as I could, but after a while I realized I had to deal with it. Finally I got down to business.

And, not without some considerable bitching and complaining and demands for more midget plumbers, I got it done. I replaced the ancient float valve of this toilet with a brand-new one, doing at least one jury-rig along the way. Oh, and the shut-off valve decided to start to leak while I was doing the repair - something I fixed very quickly with a wrench.

(Note to self, and anyone else doing toilet repair: the nut that holds the handle in place is inverse-threaded. You turn it clockwise to loosen it, and counter-clockwise to tighten it. This would be a good thing to mention in step one, where you remove the old handle, and not in step sixteen, where you get the new handle ready to install.)

So there you go. Toilet repair. Doorknob replacement. (Something I haven't mentioned: I got my mom a bunch of lever-style doorknobs for Christmas - easier on the hands - and now I'm gradually replacing our existing doorknobs.) All sorts of other household repairs. How can any woman resist such a manly skill set? (Ladies, get in touch!)

Why does Iowa matter?

One thing I haven't had adequately explained to me: why do the Iowa Caucuses matter?

I understand that Iowans will scream and cry and stamp their feet and throw tantrums if their privileged place as first-in-the-nation is ever revoked, which is why we're seeing the grotesquerie of a January 3rd caucus. And I understand that the national parties are willing to coddle Iowa and New Hampshire for the sake of party unity. But why on earth does any candidate treat Iowa like it means anything? The state is hardly representative of the nation as a whole - no more than Wyoming or Alaska or Hawaii or any other state whose demographic makeup is completely different from the rest of the nation. Meanwhile, a state like Pennsylvania, whose mix of urban, suburban, and rural, business and manufacturing and agricultural regions, ethnic and racial and religious and economic diversity, and nearly even red/blue split makes us far more reflective of the nation - Pennsylvania is given only a token primary, since the candidates have been selected long before they roll through here.

So Iowa likes to pretend that what they say matters. So the parties are willing to humor them. Why are the candidates acting like what they say matters, too?

Where's Adam? WHERE'S ADAM???

I was skipping through my blog links yesterday and when I clicked on the one for Adam Felber's Fanatical Apathy, I discovered two things:

1. The link, http://www.felbers.net/mt/, now redirects to http://fanaticalapathy.com/.

2. http://fanaticalapathy.com/ gives the following message:

Warning: include_once(/home/adameft/felbers-www/wp/wp-content/referrer-karma.php) [function.include-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/adameft/public_html/index.php on line 1

Warning: include_once() [function.include]: Failed opening '/home/adameft/felbers-www/wp/wp-content/referrer-karma.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php')in /home/adameft/public_html/index.php on line 1

Fatal error: Call to undefined function check_referrer()in /home/adameft/public_html/index.php on line 1

Which would probably be even scarier if I knew what the hell it meant.

Naturally I did what any fan of Fanatical Apathy would do: panicked, and immediately assumed that Adam had been carted off to some undisclosed location in a black helicopter. But on further consideration I decided to stop over at Peter Sagal's place. Peter is a friend and associate of Adam, and the last time Adam's site went offline a lot of us FanAp Refugees streamed over the border to his blog.

But this time I appear to be the first one there. So I left this appeal for Peter, which is still tied up in moderation:

Hey, Peter! Happy New Year! And stuff. Yeah, I’ve only stopped by once or twice before…didn’t mean to be a stranger, but, you know, work and family and maintaining a blog of my own and WHERE THE HELL DID ADAM’S BLOG GO? OH GOD IT’S JUST A BEWILDERING ERROR MESSAGE MAKE HIM COME BACK PETER PLEASE PLEASE MAKE HIM COME BACK AAAAAAAH

Ummm, so like I was saying, best wishes for 2008! Mazel tov, Nov shmoz ka pop, and all that!

Adam, where are you? AAAAAAADAAAMMMMMM!!!!!!

Title reference: Twin Peaks, when we discover that Dale Cooper is more than he appears to be after his reflection begins taunting him with "Where's Annie? Where's Annie???" Annie was Dale's girlfriend who had disappeared a few episodes earlier. The suggestion was that the murderous spirit Bob had taken up residence in the body of the main character and had caused him to kill his girlfriend. At least, I think that's what was going on.

The last line is a reference really too rude to explain. Read the signs next time you walk into Wal-Mart, do some research, and you'll figure it out.

Injuries and velocity

One day of work today. Just one, and then I get four off.

It wasn't bad. Actually it was quite nice, especially when compared to Sunday's extravaganza. Though I must point out that I got injured more times today than I think I have in the past fifteen and a half years put together. I sustained a burn to the center of the back of my right hand (roughly a 1/4" circle) from the tip of a plastic injection unit during the first fifteen minutes of production; I cut my second knuckle on my right hand through a latex glove, somehow, without tearing the glove, which began to develop a tiny bloodstain; I smashed my left thumb while trying to lever out a huge gob of polycarbonate purge from the inside of a press, again drawing blood; and I somehow took a neat diagonal gouge out of the side of my right middle finger just before lunch, yet still again drawing even more blood. Nothing major, though the alignment of three injuries on the midline of my right hand seems to be trying to indicate something.

But that wasn't the fun part of the day.

No, the real fun was shortly after I left the house, driving through the merest dusting of fresh snow. I got onto state route 29, a connector road that I stay on for about five miles to get to my major commuting thoroughfare, Interstate 81 North. I had just gotten on 29 when I saw a few cars in front of me. Several of them appeared to be moving at a good clip, but the truck in front of me seemed to be moving slower. How slow?

As I pulled up behind him and prepared to pass, my speedometer read 35 miles per hour.

Slowpoke! I thought as I began to shift into the passing lane of the road, which has a speed limit of 55 mph. Though, now that I think about it, I'm going as fast as he is, and I don't feel like I'm only going 35...

As I accelerated to pass I watched my speed drop to 30 mph.

As I passed, my speedometer told me I was doing 25 mph. Then 20. Then 15.

Uh-oh.

By the time I reached I-81 I was zipping along at a dizzying 5 mph, as far as my speedometer was concerned. Pulling onto the highway and the sparse but present stream of vehicles on the road at 5:00 in the morning, I kept pace with traffic at a steady 0 mph.

- Sir, do you know how fast you were going?
- Actually, officer, I'm gonna have to say "no" to that one.

Nothing else broke on the way to work. My transmission didn't seize, my brakes didn't fail, my alternator continued to recharge my battery. When I pulled up to a STOP sign at the end of the exit that I take for work, I was able to get the car moving again, no problem.

So now I have another unplanned expense to start the New Year. Nothing like some very necessary car repairs to set you back a few hundred bucks! I wonder how soon I can get the car serviced? I really don't like driving around without a speedometer...

The gifts of 2007

Happy New Year, everybody!

And now it can be told: the story of the Gifts of 2007!

Every year lately I've been either creating or assembling highly personal gifts for my friends at work. In 2003 I gave out hand-painted wooden ornaments; in 2004 the gifts were Sea Monkeys; in 2005 I hand-finished wooden boxes (perfect for holding gift cards!); and last year, noting that "money is extra-tight this year", I assembled gift bags containing a variety of small items.

Little did I know what would happen a little over two months later.

Money was extra extra tight this year. Actually, it didn't seem as bad as last year; I think six months of being out of work forced me to develop a better discipline when it came to discretionary spending, or perhaps a more relaxed attitude to having less than five figures in reserve cash sitting around. And my work group was shattered and scattered, and my new group is both not the sort to do gift exchanges and totally variable in personnel from one day to the next.

I meet with some of my friends from work about once a month for dinner, and we had a Christmas dinner scheduled a few weeks ago. We do a gift exchange there, and I decided I would create a personal gift to pass out there. But what? And what could I do that wouldn't break the bank?

And then it struck me: I could give away my paintings.

Well, not give them away, exactly. But I did have high-resolution scans of all of them saved on my computer, scans that had survived (at considerable cost) the collapses and failures and infections that have plagued my computers in the last year. Well...almost all of them. One had never been scanned, and was on display in another location - Fun-Tacked to the wall of my bedroom in my house. (Hey, baby, wanna come upstairs and see my paintings?) I would print the paintings out on cardstock, write up an index, maybe some explanatory text for each one, and package them up somehow.

Easier said than done. I had the cardstock, but I needed to buy new ink cartridges - the ones in my printer were nearly spent. I wrote up the index and an introduction (included below), but couldn't decide on how to package them. I bought some gift boxes that were about the right size, but didn't like the thought of having the prints rattling around loose inside. Finally I found some folders that looked right (Oxford Viewfolio Pocket Portfolios, Burgundy, item #57443, http://www.pendaflex.com/ ). They had a window in the front for a title sheet, so I gave the collection a title based on a peculiarity in my painting habits (explained below): Sometimes in March. (This is also a reference to the title of a movie about the Rwandan genocide that we worked on shortly before our group was dismantled, Sometimes in April.) As a bonus, the folders were individually packaged in resealable little clear plastic pouches, which made for a nice presentation.

As I said, every one of these paintings had been previously scanned except one. And every one of these scanned paintings - eight of them - had previously appeared in this blog, along with explanations and reference photos, where they existed. I scanned the last painting, which required downloading new XP-compatible software for my seven-year-old scanner and running a new USB cable directly into the PC. The painting is my only one done from a still-life model and is called Three Daffodils.

Three Daffodils
March 23, 2004
8"x10"

Keen-eyed students of art or fans of Van Gogh will, of course, recognize the similarity to Van Gogh's Fourteen Sunflowers - particularly in the way we both did lopsided, asymmetrical vases.

Fourteen Sunflowers
Vincent Van Gogh
37" x 28 1/4"
1888

(This is one of several versions of this painting that he did.) There are differences, of course. Van Gogh worked in oils, I worked in acrylics; he did fourteen sunflowers in a brass or ceramic vase, I did three daffodils in a glass vase with green glass marbles; his painting was fairly huge, while mine was quite tiny; and he was a crazy but brilliantly talented artist, while I'm some yutz who got a set of acrylic paints for Christmas a few years ago.

So there you have it: the gifts of 2007!

Here is the introductory text, as well as the index text and links to the blog posts that included the paintings.

SOMETIMES IN MARCH

For whatever reason, I can only paint in March. (One of these paintings was actually created on February 26, but that's close enough.) The working theory is that in March, the toils of the Winter are mostly in the past, while the ground is not yet ready for gardening. The world is in an in-between stage, not frozen solid as in Winter, but not yet showing the first signs of budding of Spring. And I become impatient with nature, and turn to my own acts of creation.

Nine paintings so far. Four in 2004, one in 2005, and four more in 2007 - three of them in a single day. Most of these paintings have appeared on my blog, though Three Daffodils was never even scanned until a week or so ago. (This is my least favorite painting - and the only one that is hanging in my bedroom. Go figure.)

Back when I had an office I had some prints of these paintings hanging on my wall. People would stop by, sometimes, and just stare at the paintings. I think sometimes they were losing themselves in them, escaping from the workday world into the blurred, splotchy world of my paintings. I'm printing these for you so you can do that, too, wherever and whenever you like.

Each painting is reproduced actual size. I've included an index listing the titles I gave the paintings when I painted them, as well as the dates and sizes. All paintings were originally done in acrylics on pre-primed canvas board.

Royal Highness with Hips
March 7, 2004
5"x7"

Rosebush and Evergreen
March 20, 2004
5"x7"

Rock of Cashel, March 2003
March 20, 2004
8"x10"
painting - source photo - story

Three Daffodils
March 23, 2004
8"x10"

Yellow Brick Road, Nanticoke
February 26, 2005
5"x7"

Yellow Brick Road, Past Peak, November 12, 2005
March 15, 2007
8"x10"

Galtees from Anglesboro, Kilmallock (1)
March 15, 2007
8"x10"
(These are actually the Galty Mountains, so this title is technically wrong, as is the next one. I'm not sure what the plural of "Galty" is, or how the name for the mountains as a group is spelled.)

Galtees from Anglesboro, Kilmallock (2)
March 15, 2007
8"x10"

Rosebush, First Day of Spring
March 26, 2007
8"x10"

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

The cookies are baked, the snow is shoveled, the lobster tails are thawing, and soon I will be getting ready to go to church with my mom, thereby satisfying the Catholic Church's requirement for observation of a Holy Day of Obligation (though I've missed enough of those to damn my soul to hellfire eternal, so, what the hell). After that we'll eat our lobster tails (the one time each year we enjoy such a luxury item) and I'll head down to a mostly-kids, alcohol-free party at Bernie's house. (Because he helps out everybody when they need it, and because he can use some extra semi-responsible semi-adults there, and because he asked. That's why.)

Tomorrow will be a day of rest, followed by what will most likely be another day of frantic, relentless work, followed by four scheduled days off.

Be safe, everybody. Tonight is a dangerous night. And I want to have at least as many readers in 2008 as I did in 2007!

Just one day

It was just one day. But it hurts like hell.

I was on some super-fast presses again today. Four of them - the night shift, which is made up of more experienced operators, was only working on three presses apiece. Actually, three systems, not presses; each system is made up of two presses, two metallizers, a bonder, an inspection machine, and an unloading table. Each stage could have about a gajillion things do wrong with it. And today, each stage of each of my four systems did have something wrong with it.

I also had a buttload of stamper changes. I used to be lousy at those, but now they've become routine. Though the one at the end of the day did not go smoothly. I wonder if the night shift guy was ever able to get that stamper to work.

It was a busy, busy day. How busy? Well...

(You may want to skip the bit in invisible text if you don't want to be exposed to details that might be considered "too much information.")

Every morning before I go to work I have the same breakfast: A big bowl of Weis Markets brand Crispy Rice cereal (sorta like Rice Chex) with a sliced banana and milk, an apple, a glass of fruit juice, and three mugs of coffee. I settled on this breakfast after months of experimentation and determined that it gave me adequate energy to keep going for up to fifteen hours (I eat breakfast between 3:30 and 4:00 in the morning, and there's no guarantee I'll get to eat again until I leave at 6:00 at night), and it doesn't make me want to vomit when I get to work, like, say, hard-boiled eggs do. (No idea why that happens.) On the drive in to work I drink a half-liter of water.

Upon my arrival at work and getting my assignment for the day, I take a break to discard some processed fluids. This is around 5:50 AM. Then I need another break at 6:20 (like clockwork), again at 7:00, and then again at 8:00. And...well, that's it. If I don't eat any food or drink any water for the rest of the workday, I don't need to use the facilities again until the end of the day when I go preemptively before leaving the building at around 6:10 PM.

Some days I don't eat any food or drink any water for the rest of the day. Today was one of those days, a relentless kaleidoscope of production, tests, alarms, and stamper changes. Needless to say, I was a little cranky towards the end of the day. And a lot sore.

It was snowing when I left work. The snow turned into rain as I made my way south. I decided to stop at Wal-Mart to pick up some half-price Christmas ornaments and extension cords. That didn't take long, and I was soon on my way the last nine miles to my house.

As I entered Nanticoke, the snow started to come down more heavily. Heavily enough to cause many accidents in the last few hours, according to my mom's police/fire scanner.

That wasn't the only news to come out of the scanner. Shortly after I sat down to dinner, a report came in of a structure fire a few miles to the east - "smoke showing in all windows." It sounded bad, and it was; the building became an inferno, and at least one person died. Four hours later, fire crews are still in the process of wrapping things up.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. I'll be going to a quiet - i.e., alcohol-free - little party down the street, and I want to make more of my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to take there. (Most of the triple-batch I made last week is gone, either eaten or given away.) It also sounds like I'll have quite a bit of shoveling to do in the morning. We'll see how it goes.

Make the most of the last day of 2007!

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho...

They just updated the message for my shift at work. About a dozen people are on layoff for tomorrow, but I'm not one of them. So it's off to bed bright and early tonight, and then back up at 3:00 tomorrow morning to head back to the DVD mines. It's just one day! Then off for two. Then back for one, then off for four...

Big exciting end-of-vacation plans

I'm going over to the house to spend the night tonight. Maybe I'll make some phone calls tonight, and then do the maintenance stuff (dump the furnace, clean the chimney, and water the plants) in the morning. Then I'll run a very late Christmas package down to the post office. Won't begin undecorating for a while yet.

Tomorrow should be the last day of my vacation, but there's a chance that work will be cancelled for Sunday. In which case I will be, once again, eligible for unemployment. Or at least, eligible to open a claim for unemployment.

Got a call from someone who read my Al Scaduto letter in the paper and wants to chat. Maybe he's a fan who wants to know how I got the inside scoop on Mr. Scaduto's death when it was being thoroughly not reported by the mainstream media. Maybe he's some kinda nut. Either way, I've got his number, so I should call him back.

The new links

This may seem trivial on a day when Benazir Bhutto, the woman who was possibly about to become the next leader of Pakistan - one of the world's nuclear powers - was felled by an assassin's bullet. (Or bomb. They did both. Kinda went for overkill there.) (UPDATE, 12/29/07: Or because she whacked her head on the lever that operates the sun roof in her vehicle. That's the official word from the government of Pakistan now.) But if you want news and analysis on that event, there are plenty of other places to get that. CNN spent most of today covering this story to the exclusion of all others. (Which was no great loss, since the only other news stories currently worthy of getting reported on CNN are apparently a tiger attack in the San Francisco Zoo, a 13-year-old girl who was the sole survivor of a Panamanian plane crash, and a week-old story about a girl who needed an emergency airlift from a cruise ship off Baja California.) But today, I will be giving details on some sites I've recently linked.

Over the past few days I've added a few sites that I've been visiting regularly to my sidebar links. I may start a second group of regular "Blog Links" soon, since Blogger automatically puts each new link at the top of the list, and I almost always want new links at the bottom. To move a link you must step through the existing links one at a time. You cannot loop around from the top entry to the bottom entry. You must move the new link from the first position, to the second position, to the third position, and so on, all the way to the bottom. So I am stuck moving through every existing entry - currently, 52 blogs and associated sites, counting the ones I've just added.

Here are brief descriptions of these new links:

Hedera's Corner: Hedera is a fellow Felbernaut, a regular commentor on Adam Felber's Fanatical Apathy. This means she is witty, intelligent, sophisticated, and impeccably well-groomed. Just like me. "Started out as a librarian, followed by systems engineering and later systems design. Secular humanist, interested in trends in science. Often annoyed by politicians." She is based in the San Francisco Bay area.

The Swordswallowers - Alexander Kensington and Charon Henning and Charon Henning's Odd Angel Studios: I first came across Charon Henning, The World's Most Dangerous Beauty, when I was going through a list of Sideshow links in the weeks prior to this November's Sideshow Gathering. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a sucker for a pretty lady, and if that lady can swallow swords and breathe fire - well, all the better. We started a comment correspondence back and forth, and she was so kind as to link me a long, long time ago. I'm finally reciprocating. The Swordswallowers page is updated more often than the Odd Angel Studios page, but both are worthy of many visits. Someday I have to explore her links, too.

Debra Pasquella's Let Me Go On and On!: I first encountered Debra through a comment on this post, and I've been visiting off and on since then. In her own words:

Debra Pasquella is the author of “A Prayer Away From Healing”, a book about the power of prayer and relationships, based upon the background on Debra’s life. Some posts in this blog contain articles describing how promiscuity gets confused with loving relationships between two people of the same gender. Other posts are lighthearted and comical, telling you stories about her dysfunctional life. She wouldn’t have it any other way. Normality is something to be avoided. There are many posts about relationships in general--whether you're male or female, straight or gay. Deb welcomes you into her world and would love to hear what’s on your mind- even if it’s an opposing view. Content may be controversial and opinionated. An opened mind is required. Ask your doctor if this blog’s right for you.

In tone and content, I find Debra's blog interestingly similar to Bill's blog, currently called "Bill's Notes". (Note to self: change the sidebar description from "Industrial Blog".) In reality, the two are approaching some of the same issues from diametrically opposing points of view. It would be interesting to witness a discourse between the two of them. Possibly also very amusing and, without proper cover, somewhat dangerous.

In non-blog links, I have added two things to "Semi-Daily Visits": I Can Has Cheezburger? - LOLcats and funny pictures, because we all need a little laughter in our lives every day, and Fresh Air with Terry Gross, because I got tired of having to look up the damned site every time I wanted to do a reference, or just listen to an archived show!

Faked out on Calendar Day!

I didn't get to give blood today. My hematocrit level came in at 37, and it needs to be at least 38 for a donation. Maybe I've broken something by giving too much blood. Maybe I just need to lay off the bloodletting for a while. Maybe it's something else. I'll go suck a cow's veins dry and try again.

I hit the Wyoming Valley Mall straight after to check for calendar sales. Waldenbooks didn't have anything marked down to 50%, and while they still had two Astronomy calendars, they didn't seem to have the Terence Dickinson one, which they did have a few weeks ago. I only found one calendar kiosk elsewhere in the mall, and they only had a handful marked down by 50%. Barnes & Noble, outside the mall, had all their calendars marked down, but their selection sucked. The only Astronomy calendar they had had a star chart for each month - which would be nice, if I weren't already getting two star charts each month, one in Astronomy and one in Sky & Telescope.

At least the Hickory Farms kiosk in the mall was still open. 40% off processed meat and cheese!

If I'm stuck working tomorrow - and I still don't know for sure, they haven't updated the recording that tells us whether or not we've been cancelled - after work I'll go to the Borders in Dickson City and the kiosks in the Viewmont and Steamtown malls. (Neither of these malls has a bookstore anymore. I remember when the Wyoming Valley Mall used to have two bookstores. Now bookstoreless malls seem to be the norm.)

I'm continuing to update my link lists. I may have to start a second blog list - adding stuff to the bottom of an existing list is one thing this version of Blogger does not do well. I'll do writeups on the sites I'm adding as soon as I get a chance.

Merry Christmas to all

It's been a good day for me. Saw the nephews. Everybody likes "The Dangerous Book for Boys" - I got them two copies, one for their house and one for here, plus a bunch of other stuff.

Some friends have suffered a horrific tragedy - well, it involves one of their parents. I won't give details, but please try to beam some generally positive energy to someone who needs it.

I'm sucking back some wine right now, 'cause I have a blood donation scheduled for tomorrow. Who realized that Boxing Day is exactly eight weeks after Halloween?

Tomorrow isn't just Boxing Day - not that that holiday has any significance for most folks here in the U.S. No, it's also Calendar Day, the day that most stores slash calendar prices by 50%! Prices in most places will be marked down further to $1 for whatever is left in about a week, but by then the calendars will have been pretty much picked over.

The next day, the 27th, I've actually been mandated to work overtime! It won't really be "overtime", since I've only logged 12 actual hours this week - the 24 hours of holiday time for yesterday and today will not count towards putting me over the 40 hour hump beyond which all hours worked count as time-and-a-half. Still, a 48-hour straight paycheck is more than a 36-hour straight paycheck. Most of us who got mandated (there are quite a few) figured that low workloads would cause our overtime to be cancelled, but that was before the power got knocked out for a few hours on Sunday, causing our production schedules to be thrown off.

Somewhere along the way I'm going to try to squeeze in some holiday visiting, too. And I'm adding site links to my sidebar - long-overdue additions.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Merry Christmas Eve!

I may not get to post again later today, or even tomorrow, so let me wish all of you a Merry Christmas now!

A moment of perfect beauty, courtesy of Gort. John Cale (of the Velvet Underground) plays Leonard Cohen.



Hallelujah.

The Moon and Mars

If you are reading this the evening of Sunday, December 23, 2007, stop screwing around on the computer and go out and find the Moon. That's the big bright round thing in the sky. And the little bright reddish-orange thing next to it? Mars! (Not Venus, as some have thought; Venus can never be that far in the sky from the Sun - and, therefore, Venus can never be next to the Full Moon, which is always opposite the Sun's position in the sky!)

It's a beautiful sight, well worth seeing. If you missed it, Phil Plait has some information, links, and appreciations here.

Have you gone out to see it yet? If so, now you may enjoy this classic Staples commercial from 2000, featuring the SnoBot robot. "I love her! Weeping, weeping... "

Late

I should be headed for bed now. Instead I'm just getting started on my post.

I came up with a great gift idea for a friend, something I saw on TV being sold at the same sort of places (mostly drugstores) that carry Chia Pets and other such gifty stuff. Unfortunately, this gift appears to be this year's Tickle Me Elmo, as every drugstore I've stopped at - and I've stopped at quite a few - is completely sold out.

So I decided to get my friend a gift card for the movie theater he goes to every week. How was I to realize that the evening of my first day of work would happen to be one of the busiest times for movie theaters? Is it my fault that this happens to be a Saturday night? No, certainly not! So why did I have to limp halfway across a football-field-sized parking lot to stand in line just to buy a gift card?

One the way home I tried one more drugstore. Well, you can't say I didn't try.

So after a quick dinner I went online and got hit with a cold slap of reality. Something I was expecting for a long time came through today. I still don't want to accept it, and I've constructed a logical argument for not accepting it. But I don't much feel like being logical, so that's where it all kinda falls apart.

Anyway. This morning the Moon was farther to the North than I have ever seen it before. Tomorrow morning, when it is more nearly full, should be even more impressive.

Gotta go. Need to do some cleaning, get my clothes ready for tomorrow, brush my teeth, wash my face, and hit the sack. 3:00 tomorrow morning is coming around soon. After tomorrow I'm off for SIX! WHOLE! DAYS! Then back at work for one, off for two, back for one, and off for four. Confusing, I know.

Take care. If'n I don't see y'all before then, have a Merry Christmas, Bitchin' Boxing Day, and a safe New Year's.

Police Protective Fund: Scam, Fraud, or just bad people?

Michelle from mhryvnak.net/blog/ has done a post about some repeated hang-up calls she's been getting. She finally decided to call back the number that appeared on her caller ID - which took her to a local, though unlisted, number (570-970-4584), where she was told that the person was calling for a group that called itself the "Police Protective Fund."

Now, every few months there's another article in the paper about phone scammers who are calling around claiming to represent police or firefighters' charitable organizations. It sounded like this "Police Protective Fund" might be another one of these. The truth, it turns out, is a little more complicated.

Some internet sleuthing revealed that the Police Protective Fund is a legitimate charitable organization - exempting it from the restrictions of the state and federal "Do Not Call" lists - though it dances on the very edge of the definitions of "legitimate" and "charitable". According to reports on the internet, more than 90% of the donations taken in by this organization are skimmed - er, consumed - by overhead, administrative, and fundraising costs. Most local police forces have never even heard of the group, let alone received any of the donations sent to the Police Protective Fund on their behalf.

But Attorneys General and consumer groups have heard of them. The organization has been sued in various locations for its questionable practices. And many reports abound of aggressive, belligerent, harassing, and abusive behavior by people making calls on behalf of the organization - including, of course, the repeated hang up calls received by Michelle.

I haven't gotten any of these calls yet. When I've gotten similar calls in the past, I've always been brief, blunt, and firm with them, never using words like "please" or "thank you" that can be recorded and presented out of context. If I do get one of these calls, I'm thinking I might say something like "Give me your name and a callback number. I'll check this out with my neighbor, the Chief of Police, to see what he has to say." I don't know how they'll respond. But from what I've read online, I expect to be cursed at, and then keep getting the calls.

mhryvnak.net/blog/ : FYI - Possible NEPA Scammer - BEWARE!
nuvo.net: Who are these guys?
consumeraffairs.com: Police fund-raisers accused of fraud
Dover Post: When giving to charities, beware of fraud
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon: Law enforcement telemarketer sued in Missouri

Notable quote from linked news release:

Nixon says PPF took in more than $5.9 million in nationwide donations last year but only paid $37,000 through the benefits program to the families of police officers killed in 2006. Consumers who are solicited are not told that the benefits paid are limited to the first four officers who die in the line of duty in a calendar year, and that the benefits are capped at a total of $40,000 annually. The organization’s IRS filings show that more than $3.7 million of the $5.9 million PPF raised in 2006 was paid to professional fundraisers. From 2002 through 2006, PPF received more than $24 million in donations nationwide.

In addition, several consumers complained to the Attorney General’s Office that callers representing PPF often employed rude and intimidating tactics in order to obtain donations, and made repeated calls to consumers who asked not to be called.

cvillenews.com: Beware the Police Protective Fund

charitynavigator.com rating: 0 stars