nasty

Here's a real mess and I don't care.

I'm not listening!

All my life I've listened to my parents, my teachers, husbands, children, managers and clients. I'm not gonna take it anymore! Today is a listening-free zone. I'm not even listening to myself. I'm just gonna get out there or stay in here or whatever. No more listening!

I'm starting a new MeetUp group called "Moaners, Whiners and Complainers" and we'll get together just to bitch. Sounds great, doesn't it? Yep. That's the new me. Gone is the kind, listening, attentive, problem-solving helper. In its place is a self-centered, complaining, free-wheeling, independent free-thinker. uh huh

I have a boat-load of things to do today and I know that part of what will make me feel so much better is getting some of those thing finished today. Will I do them? Stay tuned. I might let you know.

Blue Screen of Death - Coming to an Apple Near You

The Apple I used to know and love was a friendly, happy company – the lovable big guy on the block who would take on all comers and put flowers in their gun barrels. The guy to whom you could go to with all your problems and who would say, "No problem! I've got that covered." He was a welcoming dude with a living room as large as however many people wanted to jump into it. Those days are over.

I understand, somewhat, that an iPhone software upgrade broke the hacks that opened the phone (well, transportable mini-super computer, actually) to extreme litigation by the people we used to call Ma Bell. Hacking and breaking are, after all, illegal and hobbies akin to stealing. I'm all for paying people for the work they do.

I understand also that if you want to make really cool software that runs happily on Mac OS you need to make a fianacial contribution and join the club. If I had put a lot of time and effort into making a really efficient system with features that border on AI, I'd want anyone who wanted to mess with it to show some commitment, too.

iPhone users got their warning. iMac users didn't. Or if they did it was only in media that doesn't get to me.

Last night I watched a DVD on my brand new iMac running Jaguar. When I was finished I shut down the system and went to bed. This morning I started it up and launched Safari. Or tried to. Safari wouldn't launch. I launched Firefox. Okay. I have Firefox up and running. So, what's up with Safari?

I ran the Update Software utility. Three updates were waiting for me. I installed them. The updates required restart. I restarted. Voila! Blue screen of death (although it's a much nicer blue than the dozy one) followed by the Welcome Screen. Like, where has all my personal information gone? No problem. I enter it all again, click continue and I'm back at the Welcome Screen. After about five retries (yes, I am persistent) I give up and call Apple. It's too early for California – they're all still in bed (ty 1-800-MYAPPLE).

Fortunately, I still have my old (non-Intel) G4 and can look up solutions on the Apple website. I try the least destructive solution: removing ApplicationEnhancer.bundle and it doesn't work. The next solution jumps way back to 1995 with what we used to call a "Clean Install" of the system. That's what I'm doing right now and have been doing for over an hour.

Dear Mr. Jobs, please send a warning next time you want to boot out my system enhancers (of which I have none – is this an Apple vs. Adobe thing? Do you have a bee in your bonnet about Tasty Aps?) and rob me of 2 hours of production time. I'm happy to remove substandard items from my machine or at least to set aside needed time to fix something. I'm not happy with this new bully on the street. Put him away, please.

Normally I would not be writing this sort of thing but I've watered the plants, fed the dog, swept the floors and there is still time left over to be angry about having to reinstall my system. Fortunately, I've been using Time Machine. The most I will lose is one day. Yes, I did consider restoring the system with Time Machine, but that option removes everything on the hard drive. Theoretically I would get it all back in the restore but, no, thank you. I've been there and done that. There's always some little nit that I dearly loved which turns out to be irreparably damaged or gone AWOL.

Argggh!! Well, now I have time to take a shower and get dressed. And take the dog for a walk ... and watch the sun rise over the neighborhood ... and ...

Unlock Books!

Free the books! Freedom for readers! Why don't they just chain us in underground cells and read the books to us then they can make absolutely certain no one is making copies!!!

I recently purchased an electronic book in PDF format from Fictionwise. Before I could actually download the book, I had to click through three screens warning me that I was buying an Acrobat PDF and Fictionwise wasn't responsible if I was unable to read it. Very dire warnings indeed. What was all the insanity about? I've bought PDF books before and read them without problem, even the "locked" PDFs. I make PDFs all the time whether at work or not. So, I bought the PDF with intent to make a copy for my Palm Zire PDA so I could read it in comfort. What book did I buy? Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man. Yes, I 'm a big fan. Although I didn't start off reading his 50 books in order, I am now.

Okay. I download the book but it's not a PDF. It's this weird .etd format. I double click on it, Acrobat Professional opens and I get an error. Can't open the book. I go to the Adobe site and spend about 30 minutes in an endless loop between two pages on the Digital Editions web: the download page and the help page. Back and forth. Back and forth.

I paid over a thousand dollars for Adobe CS 3 Suite (of which Acrobat Professional is a part). I figure that if I call them they will help me out here. No such luck. I need to talk to the Digital Editions people. (Or person. I think it's just one guy who fiddles around on his lunch break.) Anyway, I call them and they transfer me to the Acrobat people who tell me I need to talk to the Digital Editions people. Another endless loop. In desperation I send an email the the Digital Editions people thinking it will be days before I hear anything.

Meanwhile Reaper Man languishes unread and starts to burn a hole in my brain because I picked up the next book in the series as a paperback while out one day, knowing how fast I get through Terry Pratchett books and wanting to have another waiting for me when I finish Reaper Man.

Surprise me! About 24 hours later, I get an email from a very nice guy at Adobe Digital Editions (back from lunch, I suppose) who takes about three emails figuring out my problem and telling me the solution. My Apple computer is too new. They don't make Digital Editions for it yet. Would I like to know when it's available. Yes, please, I tell him.

Meanwhile, back on my old G4 I get the hint and download Digital Editions easily although launching it requires returning to the Digital Editions web site. Quirky or what? The book opens and, hooray!!! I can now read my book but only on that G4 and only when it's connected to the internet. OMG!!

No wonder Amazon has come out with the Kindle and Fictionwise sells their own formats as do the Palm people, not to mention the MSN Reader (snappy title, eh?). Adobe has alienated the customers they created by making it nearly impossible to use the PDFs that are purchased.

Sad really. Adobe originated digital documents and now they're going to lose them. Next time I buy an e-book it won't be an Adobe PDF.

Current Fads
Listening. Night of the Furies - The Rosebuds and recent purchases (unpublished); heavy rain
Watching. Blade Runner (year)
Activity. learning yoga; back exercises
Gadget. cell phone
News Source. the news feeds in Safari
Reading. Nerd Girl Rocks Paradise City - Anne Soffee; Poltergeist - Kat Richardson; First Impressions: What you don't know about how others see you - Anne Demarais and Valerie White; The Marshall Plan for Getting Your Novel Published - Evan Marshall; Mensa Bulletin; Popular Science (Yes, I really am reading them all right now—I'm a reading addict. What can I say?)

Mistake: Pan's Labyrinth

Never see this movie. Never! Never! Never! Someone told me (I can't rember who now, but if I did I would call him up and yell at him) that this was a good movie for me to see. Obviously someone who wasn't my friend and knows absolutely nothing about me. It's a brutal and disgusting show. There was a part where I had to close my eyes. Yuk! Who wants to see blood, guts and an extremely sick man doing unwatchable things? On top of it all there's a child who gets shot. Good to know so that you won't be hurt like I was. Idiot! This has to be the suckiest movie ever made. And it's all in subtitles!! Well, I've learned never to take what's-his-names suggestions ... if I can just remember who it was.

Run For Your Lives

What we didn't know — until many years had passed — was that the viruses were taking over. We had thought they died, and some did, but they also irreparably changed us. Each time a person recovered, the virus left a change — a small subtle change. Which was the whole point. Viruses didn't want to just make us sick — they wanted to change us. And slowly, one illness at a time, they did. Small, miniscule changes that couldn't be seen for generations; not until a couple hundred years had passed. Doctors studying historical records assumed a lack of education or sophistication. But we were being changed by the viruses one cell at a time.

Back then no one would even remotely entertain the notion that viruses had intelligence or sentience. We all thought they were single-celled spores floating like seeds to catalyze disease in our tissues. Which they did. But they also changed us slowly over thousands of years to make us what we are today — their slaves — nothing more than a feeding ground to keep them alive.

It was a delicate balance. They had to keep us healthy so they could live. They needed nourishment, too. And like any species they had to reproduce. It was a very delicate task, keeping us alive while eating us.

They erred, of course. Millions of people and animals died in assorted plagues before they figured out how to keep us alive long enough for them to feed without destroying us. Some species of virus gave their lives and were wiped out entirely in the interest of furnishing knowledge and advancing the species.

We know all this now, but it's too late to do anything. We aren't strong enough to eradicate them and no group of humans, so far, has been willing to give their lives in the cause of science and specie preservation. We figure eventually the viruses will go too far and overrun the earth in greediness and audacity. We will have no defense. Visitors from outer space will find nothing here but a few plants or maybe even just a floating clod of dirt.

I'm not sure why I'm writing this. Who will read it, for starters? And of those who do — who will believe it? Aren't these just the rantings of a crazed, sick woman? But you doubt me at your peril. If you were to read my handwritten copy you would have already come close enough to be infected. Your only option then would be suicide to protect your family, friends and entire species. Then you must hope that they burn your body without coming in contact with it. Otherwise, your sacrifice will have been in vain.

You've been warned. I've done my best. There really is no hope so don't read on thinking that I will mention an outside chance of destroying the viruses or maybe point to some obscure scientist working on a cure. It's not going to happen.

I'm transcribing this as a post from my handwritten copy that, hopefully, can be transmitted in some way the viruses can't follow or track. I hope that, upon reading this, some planet somewhere will succeed in evading them. It would be nice if those others could eradicate the viruses but I have no hope of that now. Nothing, save lack of a suitable environment and sustenance can kill them. Destroying them just makes them stronger. They evolve viciously fast. I think if you even think about destroying them they know it and make the necessary metabolic changes. It's just our bad luck to have evolved on a planet hospitable enough to support both us and them.

Knowing that I could not prevent the future, I have travelled here into the past. I know I carry a virulent strain of virus in me but I have taken precautions. I managed to break into this web log — really laughable security compared to what we have now (or will have, would be more accurate). But then maybe paranoia is a side effect of virus control. It certainly keeps us from unifying against them. In any case, I've broken in here into the past when it is still possible to transmit messages the virus can't piggy back on.

I've not much time left and I suppose I have put you all in jeopardy by even coming here. Who knows? Perhaps the viruses have foreseen this and prepared for it — maybe even engineered it. But don't let that stop you. Unite now! Combine your knowledge and fight them. There may still a chance at discovering a weakness, a way to annihilate them completely. I've isolated myself on a remote island so that my impact on the past is minimal and my chances of passing the virus to you are small. But I can't not warn you. Good luck and may you all survive.
—Elaine Greywalker

clothing or entertainment?

Looking for truly original gifts? Need a diversion? Try this. I love the peel on bra, the XXX-rated thongs and the death metal hoodies. Oh, and the tattoo sleeves. Definitely must haves. And to the "My other ride has t**s" shirt I say "My other ride has a d**k." gawd. It's just too early in the morning to be sensible.