Thanksgiving, early

Reading today’s Cary Tennis advice column (one of my guilty pleasures, btw), “Does less of a paycheck make him less of a man?,” I find myself thankful for how lucky I really am.

When I was between jobs after moving back east, it was extremely difficult. Financially it was OK, though not great; Lisa was chomping at the bit to do some much needed house renovations and we didn’t have any cashflow to permit it, and trying to find a job was challenging. But emotionally it was one of the worst periods of my life. I have since discussed this with my therapist and concluded that there were two major factors at work on top of the standard major-life-change stuff that depresses anyone: having a major part of my identity bound up in what I did for a living, and not wanting to disappoint my wife. The pressure of those two things combined with an uncertain job market and existing depressive tendencies were enough to drive me through the floor into a major depression. A glance at any of my writing between October 2004 and March 2005 won’t bear that out, because I didn’t write much about it, but it was pretty severe.

The one thing that pulled me through was Lisa’s support. Which brings me back to the advice column: I can’t imagine being in this guy’s shoes and having to deal with the lack of support his partner discusses. Talk about kicking someone when they’re down. Ladies: this is not how to help someone who is underemployed and trying to get their self esteem back.

So yes, I am extremely thankful for what I have with Lisa. I’m not sure I would be here today without it.

iPod Users: Universal Music are thieves

The recent announcement that Microsoft would share $1 of revenue for every Zune sold with Universal Music Group—because, according to UMG Chairman and CEO Doug Morris, iPod-like devices are “just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it”—sounds familiar. So I went back and found the precedent for this apparently unprecedented business model: the 2004 CD MAP settlement. This madlibbed version of the Zune revenue-share announcement should clarify the similarities:

In 2004, the music companies, including UMG, agreed to share revenue from CD sales with consumers. Forcing the issue were Attorneys General of 43 states, Commonwealths and Territories. UMG refused to admit to price-fixing but agreed to compensate consumers between $5 and $20 per claimant.

“These companies are just repositories for stolen consumer money, and they all know it,” this consumer says. “So it’s time to get paid for it.”

And after pulling highway robbery via price fixing for six years, these guys call us thieves? As Laurie Anderson would say, “It takes. It takes one. It takes one to. It takes one to know one.”

The unstoppable power of a fully operational kitchen

kitchen layout

It has been a long time since our kitchen has been ready for prime time, but since the weekend’s work we now have a couple of meals under our belt and I have to say, I like the setup. On Sunday we roasted a chicken—about the simplest recipe I know (stuff two lemons into the cavity of the chicken, salt and pepper, close the cavity, cook at 350° breast side down, flip the bird over, and finish at 425°, monitoring breast temperature with a probe), but it went very smoothly.

The redesigned kitchen has some nice work triangles: fridge to sink and prep surfaces, prep to garbage and stove, stove to sink and dishwasher, dishwasher to cabinets and sink). I really appreciated them last night with a more complex meal: gnocchi with mozzarella and meatballs in a tomato and onion sauce. It sounds complex but it’s pretty simple, at least if the gnocci and meatballs are prepared ahead: one can diced tomatoes, an onion peeled and split, some butter and a little salt, simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. Toward the end toss the gnocchi in the boiling pasta water and scoop them out when they float; drop them in the sauce, add meatballs and mozzarella, and park in the oven for 10 minutes. Pretty ambrosial.

The last part of the process: our new SimpleHuman trash can. It felt wrong to have our battered old can in the new kitchen, so we gave the kitchen (and ourselves) a present. The concept of trash can as ceremonial gift isn’t new, of course; check the review of this model which notes it was a gift to the owner’s new condo. Also check out this extensive kitchen hack description, pointed to from the Ikeahacker Blog, that calls the SimpleHuman trash can “lovely…I never thought a really expensive trash can could make me happy.”

Of course, all this trash can talk reminds me of the definitive commentary on trash cans and consumerism in general from Charles Schulz: Charlie Brown buys a new trash can, takes it home and unwraps it, then comments to Shermy that he has to do something with the wrapping paper. Shermy suggests to him that he put it in the trash can, and Charlie Brown says, “Boy! That sure is handy!” — conveniently neglecting to notice that the need that the trash can handily filled was created by it in the first place.

Holy gnostics, Batman: it’s the Rosicrucian-signal!

secret rosicrucian symbol

A good link for everyone who read and enjoyed Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver: a scan of the 18th century work Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer, aus dem 16ten und 17ten Jahrhundert (Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians from the 16th and 17th Centuries). Gorgeous book even if one doesn’t speak German—and isn’t an occult philosopher. Thanks to BoingBoing for the link.

Good translations via Adam McLean at the Alchemy Web Site, including a set of illustrations that probably inspired the producers of the late TV show Millennium. I particularly remember seeing an image like the one on the right on that show a few times.

Don’t worry about the government

David Byrne says he was mysteriously left off the voter rolls last Tuesday. He writes, “As someone who doesn’t trust this government one inch I wouldn’t put it past them.” I guess that settles some questions about the interpretation of some of his earlier songs.

Byrne goes on to write about some things that have challenged me about this country recently, the need for checks and balances and the country’s emergent “bully culture.” I have coworkers who shrug about the administration’s endorsement of torture and its dismissal of habeas corpus. I think he’s right that there is a lot of rebuilding to do in the country as a whole.

Friday Random 10 – Going Fishing

Not really, but wouldn’t that be nice? As Henry Thomas (and apparently Taj Mahal) would say, “Big fish bites if you got good bait.” I don’t know what the hell it means but it sounds profound.

  1. Cat Power, “Wild is the Wind” (The Covers Record)
  2. New Dominions, “Burning Down the House” (Bon Time)
  3. David Byrne, “Dirty Hair” (Lead Us Not Into Temptation)
  4. Hilliard Ensemble, “Sanctus” (The Old Hall Manuscript)
  5. Mark Eitzel, “Steve I Always Knew” (The Invisible Man)
  6. Monty Python, “I’m So Worried” (Contractual Obligation Album)
  7. Henry Thomas, “Fishing Blues” (Anthology of American Folk Music)
  8. The Rolling Stones, “Wild Horses” (Sticky Fingers)
  9. Spoon, “Stay Don’t Go” (Kill the Moonlight)
  10. R.E.M., “Burning Hell” (Dead Letter Office)

Wrap-up, stage 1…

thumbnailCountertop.jpg

We returned late this afternoon from New Jersey (a visit to my inlaws which bracketed the HDI ITIM conference in Vegas) to find… done. The contractors had been here this week—plumbers, electricians, painters—and the following was completed:

  • Sink and garbage disposal reconnected
  • New drinking water filter and tap installed at sink
  • Dishwasher installed
  • Filter installed in line to icemaker; icemaker active for the first time since refrigerator was installed in 2004
  • Under-cabinet light installed at the butler’s station
  • Front door and shutters painted
  • Flaking trim painted inside
  • Bathroom door painted
  • New toilet installed in bathroom
  • Lots of trash removed from the garage

There’s a lot left to do, but the ongoing Flickr set documents some of the more dramatic changes in the kitchen.

Meet the new country…

…same as the old country, with a few important differences.

Yes, the Democrats have taken the House and appear to be within reach of the Senate (assuming Jim Webb’s lead survives the recount). Yes, a Democrat (albeit a former NFL quarterback) took a House seat in western North Carolina (sorry, Uncle Forrest). Yes, anger at the President and the Iraq war have unified the country.

But those issues alone don’t mean that the country has gone progressive. Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin all passed amendments making gay marriages unconstitutional; the Virginia law even curbed the ability of businesses to recognize domestic partnerships.

If this election was a victory for the Democrats, it was a vindication for Howard Dean, whose 50 state strategy put safe races in play and swung enough house seats to shift the balance of power.

But compare the Democratic house victory yesterday to the Republicans in 1994. As bankrupt as the Contract with America ultimately became, it was based on coherent ideology and gave a clear direction for the country. Where is the Democratic direction for the next two years? I’m a supporter, and I don’t hear anyone articulating a vision of the role of government, the rights of humanity, constitutional limits on the power of the executive, America’s role in the world. We need the party to step up and put those stakes in the ground.

The Democrats have to show they can lead. But right now I’ll settle for our regaining a voice—and power—in the process.

Nothing odder

…than watching election returns from a Las Vegas hotel room.

Someone asked me who I was pulling for in the elections today. I said, “I’m pulling for habeas corpus.”

Maybe we’ll be able to welcome back that old friend in coming months. We hoped for the Senate back but we’ll definitely take the House.

Provided, of course, that the Democrats act decisively to curb the excesses of the administration. My one plea to the party: reverse the mistakes of the last twelve months; strip the administration’s power to suspend habeas corpus and to impose martial law; and return to fiscal discipline. I want to see all of those things happen, as much as I hate to say it, before we witch-hunt through the administration for illegal acts. We desperately need to return checks and balances on our constitutional powers before we spend all our political capital going after the evil slimelords in the executive branch.

Waiting for the votes to come in

I hate that I’m on the road this week, so I won’t be able to watch the election coverage from the comfort of my own home. But I have to believe that there will be somewhere I’ll be able to watch here in Las Vegas. Not that I want to place any bets on the outcome. This year’s race for the Senate is a real nailbiter.

Two links for the morning. One is an eloquent post from Zalm about the challenges of looking at this race from a Christian perspective, especially in light of the Ted Haggard implosion. The other is a reminder that the Electoral Vote Predictor site, which takes nationwide polling data to predict election outcomes, has been retooled to predict the composition of the US Senate. It’ll be interesting to see if this year’s polling data is any more accurate than two years ago, when the site was predicting Kerry/Edwards in a win for the presidency.

Closing the door: no more comments on this blog

I’ve touched on the problem of comment spam before, but this weekend I’ve decided to call a halt. Starting right now, I’m disabling access to the comments and discussion features on this site. If you have something to say, write about me in your own blog and I’ll read it in Technorati, or use the contact form to email me.

I hate having to do this; after all, this is supposed to be the two-way web. But I can’t keep up with an army of unpatched zombie PCs sending unsolicited spam comments. I had to delete over 900 spam comments last night, and there were 150 more when I checked this afternoon.

This will be a temporary measure until I can move this blog and its existing content over to a WordPress host, or to some other modern hosting system. But for right now I don’t have any other choice.

I guess this is the future of technology. Once it was only big players like Dave Winer who had enough comment grief that they had to disable comments. Now, thanks to the miracle of modern technology, everyone can experience what Dave was going through four years ago.

Continental and FCC 1, Massport 0

Boston Globe: FCC rules against Logan’s WiFi ban. And about time, too. For a few years Massport has trotted out every lame excuse in the book, including Homeland Security, to keep its tenants and vendors from dipping into its lucrative airport-wide WiFi service monopoly. While some frequent travelers, like me, have taken the plunge and gotten a monthly subscription to Boingo to remove the sting, there are probably still plenty of schmoes paying $8.95 for a “day pass” that will probably only be useful to you for a half hour.

Thanks to BoingBoing for the link, who also point to perennial WiFi pundit Glenn Fleishman’s analysis. I will summarize his summary of the decision:

Restrictions prohibited by the … rules include lease restrictions… Massport misreads … misconstrues … the safety exception is … inapplicable… no arguments that Massport has made give us reason to change our earlier conclusions that the Commission has statutory authority in these circumstances.

Heh.

RIP, William Styron

New York Times: William Styron, Novelist, Dies at 81. While others will remember him for Sophie’s Choice, Lie Down in Darkness, or The Confessions of Nat Turner, I will of necessity remember this writer from my hometown of Newport News for Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness, which he wrote in 1990 about his struggles with depression and which proved (aside from a short story collection) to be his last published work.

When I read Darkness Visible in the early 90s, there were few writers who had addressed the sufferings of depression in a public, accessible, direct way—and virtually no successful ones. Styron’s writing gave me pause as I reflected on its parallels with my own experiences. In retrospect, it has given me hope that depression need not always marginalize the sufferer.

Other encomia to Styron via Technorati.

What makes Massachusetts different?

I love watching the pro/anti discussion on the Massachusetts Question 1 (should stores with grocery licenses—basically any store that sells perishable products—be permitted to sell wine?). But the argument against Question 1 on the Beacon Hill Wine and Spirits blog (a great wine store, a lousy perspective) really made me raise my eyebrows. My response, reprinted from their comments section:

As someone with lengthy residence in both Washington and Virginia, states where wine and beer sales are permitted in groceries, convenience stores, etc, here are the advantages that I see to question 1:

  • Better price on low-end/ commodity wines
  • One-stop shopping (dinner plus wine)
  • More retail outlets means a larger market for the distributors and might lead to a larger variety of products being available to the end customer
  • Better retail hours. In my area, the small independent stores are open only until about 8

I also wonder, with tongue in cheek, why we are worried about kids getting wine. I would think that the wine industry with its rapidly aging demographic would welcome any indication that younger customers were interested in its products, rather than beer and vodka.

Finally, I have to ask what makes Massachusetts teenagers different from teenagers in other states where alcohol is available in grocery stores and other outlets. Are teenagers in MA uniquely susceptible to the pressure to drink? Are the stats on teenage alcohol consumption really tightly linked to restricting the type of outlets that can sell wine? I haven’t seen those numbers, but I would suggest that whatever it is that makes us unique as a state has more to do with the byzantine state and local liquor laws (only three stores in a chain? liquor available in one town but not another?) than any behavior differences on the part of our teenagers.

My only remaining question, as a bona fide beer snob: why can’t the question include beer sales as well? I don’t think the availability of beer in convenience stores and groceries in Washington State has hurt the sales of truly good independent or craft beers; on the contrary, there’s a huge variety of micros that arguably are harder to find here in Massachusetts (where is the championship of Berkshire Brewing Company, to name one example?).

See also the related thread on Universal Hub, where I found the original blog post.