September 2005 Archives

I got gas tonight, before the state sales tax on gasoline is reinstated tomorrow. My fill up still cost $57.75. God! This is nothing short of legalized theft!

People who have not looked at streaming Quicktime movies using the new H.264 codec are simply stunned at the quality of the image. As a friend of mine recently exclaimed, "I doubled the already-huge movie size and the quality was still as good as watching TV. It's nothing like the streaming video of just a year ago!"

I just visited the Quicktime HD site. Apple is hosting some amazing, gorgeous HD snippets. When will Window's Media Player ever catch up? And what about the really awful Real Player mess?!

Well, my friend is right. The codec is spectacular, even when streaming! I'm confident that Apple will be streaming HD soon...very, very soon! If you haven't checked it out, watch this video stream of the Steve Jobs Keynote announcing the iPod Nano. You will be amazed.

Apple Quicktime

This morning I stopped at a rather well-known Atlanta restaurant for breakfast. In fact, not only has the restaurant been in business for many, many years, it is has been used as a period set in a number of movies over the years. Someone had obviously recently tinkered with their sign at the street. It read:

Voted Best Breast in Atlanta"

Good lord, it appears I have some version of TMJ. I woke up with it a couple of weeks ago. My back teeth suddenly no longer match up and meet. I can't chew. I guess I'm getting old and falling apart.

The doctor gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory. The x-ray machine wasn't working properly–just my luck. After piddling with it with pliers and things, they took a second x-ray. From what he could make out, the jaw doesn't seem to be dislocated. Naturally, he learned this after he tried pushing my jaw back into place, something a little less than a pleasant experience.

So he suspects that the cartilage may be "bunched up" in my TMJ socket forcing my bite askew. (That sounds like surgery!) He is sending me to a TMJ specialist that has a special type of x-ray machine that provides a better look at the TMJ.

In the mean time, eating is a bit problematic! Maybe I'll lose those extra pounds. :o)

I think creation is the highest form of existence--creating beautiful, useful things that never existed before. I have always been this way I guess. In fact, as a child, I remember listening to music and thinking, "But I wish that melody went this way instead." I remember my childhood friend, Stan, laughing at me and saying "Tyson, you're crazy!" when I would criticize the way a piece of music was written. In no time, before I was even a teenager really, I was re-arranging music shortly followed by interjecting newly composed content into the arrangements. Of course, I grew to love composing music.

But I haven't been actively involved in music since I re-retired from the church music scene 6 years ago or so. At that time I came out of my earlier church music retirement to serve as the interim music director for my church--which certainly has one of the best church music programs in all of Atlanta. I wrote and arranged a good bit during that time. But I haven't arranged or composed anything in years now. Of late, I find this very distressing.

I have spent all of my time and energy creating and learning on the instructional technology side of my life: design and creation of digital video for instructional use, graphics, web design, instructionally-related blogging, interactive design, online content management, etc., which is equally as creative I guess. But I feel a need to get back to my roots: music. Hmm, I think I will start by acquiring Logic Pro 7, learning it, and then begin creating with it. GarageBand and Soundtrack Pro, while very functional for a variety of uses, distress me greatly as a musician. For me, assembling loops doth not a satisfactory composition make. Although I must confess to loop assembly for drum tracks and the like. I used Studio Vision Pro years ago. I loved it, but the company died long, long ago.

The governor decided to ask all public schools in the state to voluntarily close yesterday and today. Therefore, I had the last two days off--snow days, without the snow, as it were. I took the opportunity to transition my blog to a new server and upgraded my MovableType installation to 3.2. I had been using the free 2.6x version, which had become such a huge target for spam attacks, I was forced to shut off commenting.

Well, with the implementation of the newer version, I have opened up comments again. However, to prevent spam attack, the commenter has to register for a free TypeKey account. Comments have always been welcomed on my blog, I just refuse to advertise for the pharmaceutical, gambling, and sex toy industry. If you haven't set up a free account at TypeKey, it's really easy. I encourage you to do so by clicking here.

A little tidbit for those of you thinking about moving to MT 3.2 who also use ecto, my favorite blogging GUI: a new, little-documented issue you will have to resolve. I've done the legwork for you. In your MT dashboard, under your author settings, you will need to put in an API password. This password has to match the password you use when you set up your ecto blog in ecto accounts. ecto is an API-based application. If you upgrade and don't set them to be the same, you will suddenly no longer be able to connect to your blog's mt.cgi file through ecto.

The migration to MT 3.2 was only problematic because I also changed servers and my blog's file structure. The propagation of the new dns server information created some issues, but all seems to be fine now. (I never knew that one would be able to get to the new dns at times and not at others until propagation was completed. It makes sense to me now; I just never anticipated it.)

I liked the awstats from the previous server, but it was much too slow, and I never exactly understood how the server account was set up on the server. With the new server, which I have been using on a variety of other sites I manage, I have a greater understanding of the server, more bandwidth, have easy access to Jabber, Mambo, Wiki and a variety of other server-based site features I enjoy. I just don't care for the stats provisions as much.

Technorati Tags: ecto

Today was supposed to be the first day of Fall. This summer, the heat has been unrelenting. Today has been no exception. Highs in the high 80s and low 90s, still?! Even now, tonight, it's 84º. I hate it. I want cool!

I get to work with really cool people. We had one of our students present to all of the Science teachers and me all about Lego MindStorms. I love the fact that our teachers are comfortable enough in their incredible expertise as teachers to also be learners. Our staff is unbelievably professional! I'm just really lucky.

And our students are also really cool people. I could never have done a presentation to all of the science teachers at my school when I was in 7th grade.

I don't put bumper stickers on my car and probably never will. But, in the sea of boring traffic that plagues this city, I find some amusement at the bumper stickers others sport. Take for example this guy who was driving aggressively, carelessly rushing up behind the vehicles in front of him. He had three bumper stickers on his car. Based on what they say and what one observes about his driving, one makes assumptions about the driver:

If people weren't supposed to eat animals
Then why are they made of meat?"

Bush/Cheney"

I only carry $50 in ammo"

What assumptions do you make?

A great picture on 2 levels: It's a news lash!

These pictures floating around cyberspace have been attributed to Katrina. I don't know if they are or not, but they certainly are dramatic. Click to enlarge any picture.

What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

This reminds me of another quotation:

Let them eat cake."

How many Bush Administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?

The Answer is TEN...

1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed.
2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed.
3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb.
4. One to tell the nations of the world that they are either for changing the light bulb or for eternal darkness.
5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton for the new light bulb.
6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a step ladder under the banner "Bulb Accomplished".
7. One administration insider to resign and in detail reveal how Bush was literally "in the dark" the whole time.
8. One to viciously smear #7
9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along.
10. And finally, one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.

So today the president's approval rating has gone down to 38%. Who on earth are these people?!

Are we, the people, so utterly powerless in this democracy?

I heard last week on NPR (now "they" will want to cut their funding even more!) that the oil companies have had a record $80 billion profit in this time when gas prices have doubled! The leader of the pack is Exxon.

My god! I still can not figure out why George W. Bush is in the White House!

If this had been the democrats, I have no doubt whatsoever that we would have multiple independent counsels investigating allegations of horrific collusion with the oil industry.

Why are people not demanding some accountability?! How horrendous will things have to become before he gets fired for sheer, bumbling incompetence?!

OK, I have ranted enough. Regrettably, it does no good at all.

• they were profoundly poor
• they were mostly minorities
• they were primarily democrats
• they lived in an area ofttimes recognized for "loose living"
• of incompetent national leadership
• leadership that is out of touch with the realities of what it means to live in profound poverty
• the Republicans just don't give a damn

Why?

And why are our national leaders trying to cover it up? Why are they keeping the media from showing the world this national disgrace that will probably have resulted in the deaths of nearly 20,000 people?

This space will explore issues in public education policy; and it will advocate for a commitment to and a re-examination of the democratic purposes of schools. If there is some urgency in the message, it is due to the current reform efforts that are based on a radical re-invention of education, now spearheaded by a psychometric blitzkrieg of "metastasized testing" aimed at dismantling a public education system that took almost 200 years to build.

And here as well:
Leave My Child Alone!

This from Alertnet.org

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. government agency leading the rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from the flooded New Orleans area.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims.

An agency spokeswoman said space was needed on the rescue boats and that “the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect.”

“We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media,” the spokeswoman said in an e-mailed response to a Reuters inquiry.

The Bush administration also has prevented the news media from photographing flag-draped caskets of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, which has sparked criticism that the government is trying to block images that put the war in a bad light.

The White House is under fire for its handling of the relief effort, which many officials have charged was slow and bureacratic, contributing to the death and mayhem in New Orleans after the storm struck on Aug. 29. (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles)

It's like Free Speech Zones all over again--censorship to prevent the American people from seeing the White House as the failure it is! Free speech sinks with the city!

I'm thinking about migrating up to Movable Type 3.2. As you can tell, I've been using 2.6x since I began my blog about a year and a half ago. Anyone have any advice? I sort of dread doing it because I didn't set up this initial installation and would set up 3.2 differently than 2.6x is set up.

I want to open comments back up, which have proved too subject to SPAM attacks with MT 2.6x. Shoot me an email if you have any suggestions or resources as to how to best migrate. You can use my first name at (using the ampersand) my actual blog www address.

Maybe! Finally a morning in the 60's--high 60's mind you, but cooler none the less. And the humidity was down too. I enjoyed my walk in the Emory Forest this morning. The bugs were especially boisterous!

I only have one complaint. My AC stopped working yesterday! Hmmm. I don't do well with 77º in the house at bedtime.

I do like animals, really. I do. In fact, growing up we always had pets--lots of them. But times are different now.

I don't know if it's this way everywhere, but here in the metro area when one walks one's dog, one must "pick up" after one's beast. Call me calloused and insensitive, but I don't think I could love any animal enough to do that; hence, rather than live as an outlaw, I am petless.

I even find it utterly yuck! when I hear someone coaxing their dog to "perform," "Come on, come on. You can do it. That's right...goooood dog.", and then see them bend over, plastic bag in hand, plucking "animal droppings" from the earth. And equally as yuck! is seeing them on their pilgrimage to place their new-found, surely still-warm baggy in a trash receptacle. I think psychological studies should be conducted on the manner in which one carries their plastic bag--you know, baggie retentive and all that.

But I was even more grossed out than usual today by this bizarre and yuck! ritual. For the love of god, let's amend the law! The use of clear plastic bags should be criminalized!!

I find it utterly appalling that the under secretary who runs FEMA would say in an interview with CNN that the victims of Katrina are "partially to blame" for the horror they now face. Is this idiot completely out of touch with what it means to live in poverty? These partially-to-blame victims couldn't just hop into their SUVs and book it out of the housing projects! I am yet again outraged at this evil called "compassionate conservatism."

Bush to Sawyer on Good Morning America: "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Actually (as posted below), "In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war...

...A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken."

Why would he lie to us? Yet again! ("Mission accomplished!")

We are witnessing a national disgrace as a result of the hurricane and the Whitehouse's lack of appropriate response.

This is compassionate conservatism?

I am sitting here working at a Starbucks in a little shopping center. I took the day off.

This cute little poodle keeps walking up and down the walkway. He has a tiny little sign hanging from his neck that reads, "Shop at [name of store.]

It was adorable!

In August I had 4,075 unique visitors visit 18,142 times representing nearly 100,000 hits to almost 35,000 pages. Happy visiting.