The Diary of A Simple Man

WGBH sucks

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:10:35 GMT

Thanks, WGBH. By transferring all your classical programming to WCRB's pathetically weak signal, you've successfully deprived southeastern Massachusetts and northern Rhode Island of our only source for classical radio. Your suggestion that listening online or buying an internet radio is just as good is just the sort of clueless elitism I'd expect.

And by killing off all jazz programming on 89.7, you've managed to take jazz radio away from us, to boot. My little boy is extremely disappointed; he wanted to know why there would never be jazz on his bedside radio ever again, and I had no explanation to give him.

For the record, this sort of stupid, arrogant programming decision is exactly why I will never donate to public radio or television again.

Christmas campout

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 04:21:44 GMT

We put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving (it's artificial, so what the hell; Sebastian really wanted to). On Friday night Sebastian and I camped out in the living room, sleeping on the sofas. We left the lights on the tree on all night, of course. It wasn't the most comfortable night for me (he woke up several times, and woke me up), but he really enjoyed it.

Placeholder post

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:09:37 GMT

Just a note to remind readers that the vast majority of posts here from now on will be friends-only. If you're not a nut or a stalker and want to be added to my flist, drop me a line or comment here.

Sebastian

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:29:49 GMT

Sebastian's been sick for the past few days. He's had a sore throat, an intermittant temperature just under 101, and complains of nausea sometimes. His doctor doesn't think it's swine flu (although nearly half of his school has swine flu now), more likely a cold; but he's had to stay home the past couple of days.

Tonight he asked me to go upstairs early. He'd found Pitter-Pat, the stuffed toy ant that I'd bought for him a while ago; he'd been lost under the bed. He set up Pitter-Pat's bed in a little box, with an old Spider-man mask for a blanket.

Once we got upstairs, he wanted to lie down and rest in his bed. This was EXTREMELY unusual, because it was nearly three hours before his bedtime! We lay down, and after a few minutes I found myself thinking that some music would be nice. I didn't say a word, but he got up. I asked what he was doing, and he said he was going to go turn on the TV in our bedroom and turn it to the New Age channel. I was amazed, because that was just what I'd been thinking of doing!

So we went to the bedroom and turned on the music. We chatted a little; he said how nice it was to relax. And then we both fell asleep.

Fortunately it wasn't hard at all to wake up up just enough to get him back into his own bed a few hours later, when Teri came upstairs. And he fell asleep again almost instantly. What a good boy!

Oklahoma Smith!

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:12:12 GMT

Sebastian was the first to sign my cast, of course. It says "DADDY I LOVE YOU" signed "sebastian".

He was asking for scary stories recently, so this weekend I dug out Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery - ghost stories for young teens. Read him the introduction (which bored him), and then read Dunsany's "In a Dim Room", which I'd told him a few times before but never actually read to him. He loved it.

He wanted another story, so I read "Obstinate Uncle Otis" by Robert Arthur. In it, a character gets a bump on the head and gets amnesia; he believes that he's a furniture salesman from Cleveland. Sebastian went berserk. He decided that he had amnesia, and started saying in a silly voice "I'm Oklahoma Smith!". It's become a regular catchphrase of his in the last few days.

Cox Confusion

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:16:13 GMT

We got a new bill from Cox on Friday. It's about $65 less than the last one. No one has called us or explained this to us. We're really confused. Is someone at Cox just making up our bill every month?

"This month, let's charge them $200. Then next month $135. After that, in order, $179, $209, and then $196.93 to really confuse them. They'll never question their bill again!"

By coincidence (I presume) we also got a mailing the same day from Verizon. They're offering FIOS service in our area - we think. But it's a bit confusing, because their TV is apparently via DirecTV. They didn't quite spell out if it was FIOS or not (that's the implication I get, though), and there are various tiers of service which don't include a price. I don't like it when an offer isn't clear, and I don't care for low introductory prices that are followed by unspecified increases after the introductory period ends.

Halloween

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:38:02 GMT

...went well. Sebastian dressed up as Darth Vader. Once again he didn't go to that many houses; maybe nine or ten, which is a new (high) record for him. He's just not that crazy about getting candy. Maybe if he had other kids to go with he'd be into it more.

He did a great job at saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you". But he kept yanking his mask off as soon as he turned away from the doors. Apparently it was really hard to see through the eye-holes.

The weather was beautiful - just the right temperature, windy, with clouds scudding across the night sky more swiftly than I've ever seen before. There were a few tiny drops of rain now and again, but nothing to worry about. Sebastian got to give out candy to trick-or-treating kids, too; he really liked doing that, although one small child was scared of him even though he wasn't wearing his mask.

Update

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:30:29 GMT

From this point forward, most of my entries will be friends-only. So if you're not a pyscho or a stalker, and would like to be added to my friends list, drop me a line.

Status

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:27:15 GMT

Lots to tell about.

My hand still hurts, so I'm taking a regular dose of ibuprofen twice a day. The bruising has faded somewhat.

I still can't put pressure on it in the direction I fell; it hurts too much. I called the urgentcare clinic where I had it x-rayed, and they confirmed that it's not broken. I may call my doctor if it doesn't feel a lot better soon.

Incidentally, here's how it happened: I was out with Teri, walking on a sidewalk. I had had to tell her not to spend money on something, I don't remember what. Then she suggested that we upgrade our phones. We can't really afford to do that right now, but there's another good reason not to: our carrier is AT&T, and they're having serious network problems. The iphone is appealing, but the network problems make it questionable to upgrade.

I'd rather switch to a Google Android phone anyway. AT&T will be upgrading their network next year, and probably losing a LOT of iphone subscribers (they're losing exclusivity for the iphone), which should also improve their network performance. So I'm hoping for a network improvement AND that AT&T will start offering Android phones, which they've apparently said they will do.

I'm probably going to stay with AT&T because I get a 19% employee discount.

Anyway, I was trying to explain all that to Teri; she was a little angry that I'd stopped her from spending money (although we're broke), so I was working extra hard to mollify and distract her. She angled towards the car, I angled with her but was concentrating on her rather than where I was putting my feet. I stepped half-on the edge of the curb and fell forward hard, onto my hands and knees. My left hand took the worst of it - it was like a huge flash of light and pain. I think the top of my head hit the pavement last, but fortunately my hands and knees had soaked up nearly all the impact, and my head was fine.

But the pain was really bad. I sat on the ground for a while. A security guard came over, took some information, and called some others. One gave me an ice pack for my hand. I was in a great deal of pain.

After a while we went to the car. I called my doctor's office; they said to go to the emergency room. I really hated that idea, although I was sure that my hand was broken. It always takes hours and hours, and we had to pick up Sebastian fairly soon. So I asked if I could go to the urgentcare facility nearby. They were a bit dubious, but said I could - but I should check with my insurer to see if it would be covered.

I called and confirmed that (although of course they were, since they saw Sebastian for his broken growth plate last month). They looked at my hand and x-rayed it; there were no obvious breaks, which surprised me. They splinted me and told me to stay in the splint for at least a week. A radiologist would examine the x-rays and call me if there was a break.

So I guess it's not broken, but it still hurts quite a lot sometimes. Certain movements are too painful to do. My elbow (the one that I broke last year) makes cracking noises and hurts a lot once in a while. My knees still hurt, too.

But I'm alive and getting better.

So to tack back to the telecommunications thread: Cox Communications, our cable/net/phone provider, just increased our monthly bill by $40 without explanation. FIOS should be available in our area within two or three months (they're putting up the new wiring on our street right now), and they're promising a locked-in rate that will be considerably less, so I'm going to switch. We're paying WAY too much right now! I was a loyal Cox customer, but they've been screwing us lately.

Watched The Sting with Teri recently; she'd never seen it. I'd forgotten how much I loved the music! When I was a boy, must have been nine or ten years old, I got the soundtrack for my birthday. I remember we played it over and over, and me and my friends danced to it. I thought I had the soundtrack on CD, but I can't find it; I have to get a new copy!

World of Warcraft: Linkomac

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:06:28 GMT

I've been home more than usual for various reasons, and so got to play a little more than usual. I'm handicapped by having to play with only one hand; the pain is decreasing and I can use a finger or two on my left hand to hit the shift key, but I'm not playing anywhere near as well as usual.

Still, I've made progress. The primary beneficiary is Linkomac, the Draenei hunter. He's up to level 19, and now I'm in the process of trying to scrape up enough money to get him a mount and training at level 20. His skinning/leatherworking is going pretty well, but it's hard to make much money selling leather at this level.

I got him to Ironforge a while back to pick up Gun skill, but his crossbow still does more damage. He has a pet; a Nightstalker (?), a panther who is quite useful. Between him and his pet, they can finish off enemies quite quickly, even ones a couple of levels higher than he is.

I have to say that hunters seem to be an extremely effective class! Linkomac has been levelling far more quickly than any of my other characters. I've heard that the Draenei and Blood Elf starting areas are better-designed for levelling than the starting areas for the original races, so maybe that's a contributing factor.

His biggest problem is lack of inventory space. All of his bags are 8-slot, which really sucks. Unfortunately Domac can't make anything better, and none of my characters can afford anything better.

Haven't played the other characters much. Domac's enchanting skill is over 50, and she made some minor wizard's oil for Omacmage; I hadn't realized that it was five doses per batch. I need to level her up more, so she can make bigger bags and better enchantments.

I got Omacmage across the sea to the elf-country again, and did some fishing on the shore. Got some oily blackmouth and some sealed trunks. As I was fishing, a huge Horde expedition raced across the sea in front of me, somehow solidifying the water momentarily as they passed. They must have seen me, but luckily they ignored me. They wiped out everyone on the docks, I believe, but by the time I got there they were gone.

Fire and the moon

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:49:27 GMT

I grilled burgers for dinner last night. That's not easy to do with only one hand, believe me! So Teri and Sebastian helped a lot.

Sebastian spent quite a bit of time out in the back yard with me. It was dark; it's been getting dark early, of course. The moon was just over half-full, hanging over our house near the chimney. I looked at it, and thought of Sebastian's telescope. My father gave it to him a year or two ago, but we hadn't been able to look at anything much with it so far. I wear glasses, you see, which makes it really hard for me to focus the damn thing. It's also really hard to aim it right.

But Sebastian took a look at the moon, and suddenly ran in the house and came out with his telescope. It took some work, but I was able to get it focused on the moon. The view was breathtaking. Sebastian loved it.

The burgers came out great, too.

No call

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:44:27 GMT

No call from the radiologist. But my hand is black and hurts a lot.

Separation of Powers

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:42:19 GMT

This is an absolutely delightful (political) video:

WoW update: ow

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:46:52 GMT

It's really hard to play WoW with only one hand.

I'm sticking to safe areas and mostly harvesting. No parties. I've still managed to level some of my lower-level characters, though.

Askville: politics

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:15:20 GMT

"Is Government the Solution, or Is It the Problem? Or What?"

I'm reduced to typing one-handed for now. Political discussion isn't worth the hassle and time, particularly as I'm quite sure that nobody's mind is open on this subject.

Maybe when I'm out of this sling...but even so, I'm starting to believe that life is too short to waste any of it on pointless argument.

Most "political" argument is really religious argument. To right-wingers, government is the Devil - period. It's the root of all evil. This is the core of their faith. As such, it is not open to question.

What's the point in arguing with fanatics? What could it possibly accomplish, other than frustration?

Break or sprain

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:07:13 GMT

I was home today, and took a bad fall while out walking with Teri. I've either broken or sprained my left wrist and/or thumb. On first look the doctor didn't see a break, but the radiologist will look at it tomorrow. He'll call if it's a break.

From the pain, I believe it's a break. For now, it's immobilized, iced, and I'm waiting for Teri to bring back some ibuprofen.

Askville: Assassination

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:59:36 GMT

This topic bothers me, but I have a hard time not replying to this sort of question.

"Do you approve of our government using predator aircraft to strike at terrorist targets?"

Oh hell, I assume that this is political.

I think that if it's wrong when some other country does it, it's wrong when we do it.

But I am, apparently, alone in that opinion.

[A few people spoke up to agree with me. But then the torture-supporters swarmed the board, and they sure do love torture and assassination. One idiot (Rock, inevitably) brought up the old "So we just sit back and let terrorists shelter themselves behind the innocent?"]

Advocates of torture and assassination love to set up extreme hypotheticals, and then use them as license to commit every imaginable atrocity.

"A terrorist might strap babies all over his body as living armor and go on a killing spree, so our people need the right to torture babies to death whenever they want!".

They present us with a false dichotomy: either we become as evil as everything we claim to oppose, or else we lie back helpless and wait for our enemies to kill us. Anyone with half a brain knows that there are other options, and that often those options are MORE effective than violating our basic moral codes.

Askville: Spelling & Grammar

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:54:41 GMT

This question was obviously inspired by the "lovee" question I wrote about a minute ago.

"Is anyone else concerned with how today's youth can't spell and don't know grammar or simple capitalization/punctuation?"

The problem is our educational system and our culture. Television bears a large share of the blame, for sure. So do parents...and, I suspect, the popularity of divorce (although I think that's probably a reflection of the decay of our culture as a whole).

America has been a bastion of anti-intellectualism for many decades now. That's ironic, when you consider that we were founded by intellectuals - brilliant men, all of them.

As far as eduction goes, I suspect that a key element of the problem is school funding. It's profoundly unfair for school funding to be based on local property taxes, as it so often is. It virtually guarantees that the children of the poor will receive inferior educations, and that goes against the whole idea of fairness in America. True, an exceptional teacher or administrator can sometimes provide a great education to students even with very few resources - but that's the exception, not the rule.

Level funding for all schools should be mandatory, and it should NOT be based on the wealth of the specific community. Every American should receive the best education possible.

I have to admit that on World of Warcraft, it bugs me when almost everyone uses textspeak. Even things like saying "grats" instead of "Congratulations!" annoy me. So I make a particular effort to use proper English.

Of course, that sometimes means that I stand there and let my companions get killed while I'm typing...no, I'm kidding, I wait for the right moment and I type pretty fast.

Askville: "why doesz lovee huuurt?"

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:51:34 GMT

Someone asked "why doesz lovee huuurt?". Oh, hell, I'm going to post their entire question because the spelling is so insane:

ii been with my boyfriend for almost 7 monthsz & iitsz liike EVERYTHING iii do isz wronq . && ii cant understand what im doinq , iitsz like im in LOVE alonee - & alll ii want to be isz PERFECT forr hiim . ii feel as if . hesz qivinq up on our lovee . buut afraid too tellll mee . what shuud ii do?

Was this a troll? I honestly don't know. But on the off chance that it wasn't, I replied:

This seems as if it has to be a parody question. The spelling goes beyond believability into the realm of the ridiculous.

But that said, and assuming that I've interpreted your virtually incomprehensible babble, I'd say this: if he's constantly making you feel as if everything you do is wrong, then it seems that you're in love with an abusive personality type. Under those circumstances, the smart thing to do would be to get out. Because NOTHING you do will ever be right.

In other words, it's not you. It's him.

I don't expect you to take this advice, however (assuming that you're not a troll). This is a classic example of a question in which the asker will ignore any answer which is actually helpful. No, you "lovee" him, so you'll stay with him until he gets completely sick of you and dumps you for another girl.

It's a train wreck waiting to happen, and even though you're asking for advice you aren't going to listen to us when we tell you to stop and get off that track. Pretty frustrating!

Here's another piece of advice that you won't take: learn to write like a human being! Knock it off with boyfriends and start paying attention to your studies. Ignorant, exploitable, and functionally illiterate is no way to go through life!

[I'll admit that that last line was inspired or ripped off from Dean Wormer's comment to Flounder in Animal House. Originally, I was going to say "Ignorant, sexually exploitable, and functionally illiterate is no way to go through life!" (emphasis added), but that seemed a bit too harsh. ]

Askville: Re-reading

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:46:19 GMT

Someone asked "What is the last book you RE-read?"

I re-read all the time. I'm currently reading The Fellowship of the Ring out loud to my son. It's around the 40th time I've read it, but it's the first time I've read it aloud.

I re-read The Lord of the Rings more than any other book, perhaps twice a year. Every time I get something new out of it. I consider myself very lucky in that I can re-read my favorites and enjoy them just as much as the first time, if not more!

Others that I re-read often include Kim by Rudyard Kipling, Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, I, Claudius by Robert Graves, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, and Shogun by James Clavell. Among many, many others. I re-read them every six to twelve months. I generally save Shogun for long trips, because it's so huge.

The most recent non-favorites I've re-read were The Still Small Voice of Trumpets by Lloyd Biggle, Jr., and The Escape Orbit by James White. It's been at least three years since I'd read either. I liked The Still Small Voice of Trumpets very much; Biggle brought art and culture to science fiction, and that's very refreshing. The Escape Orbit strikes me as one of White's lesser (and probably earlier) works, but it's still enjoyable, entertaining, and thought-provoking.

GoodReads Review: The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:28:34 GMT

The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets by Lloyd Biggle Jr.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lloyd Biggle Jr. is best known for bringing the arts to science fiction (just as Mack Reynolds brought sociology and economics to SF). He had a gentle, thoughtful style that made his books a pleasure to read; in that, his work resembles that of James White.

The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets is classic Biggle. The premise may perhaps seem a bit naive in these harsh days of realpolitik; a Galactic Federation which cannot expand unless a planet at its borders becomes a planetary democracy, without overt interference by Galactic agents. The natives of the planet, Gurnil, have a relatively low level of technology; they are not aware that aliens walk among them. If they discover that, the planet will be considered "blown", and the Galactic agents will have to withdraw in failure.

Those agents are also hampered by a web of regulations, rules, and maxims.

When Forzon, an officer of the Cultural Survey, is mysteriously reassigned to Gurnil he must not only find out why he was reassigned, but how to apply his speciality, the arts, to turning a brutal monarchy into a peaceful democracy. The natives have a magnificent appreciation of beauty and art, but seem to have virtually no political awareness. Forzon is allowed to introduce one technological innovation to the planet, but how can a single change literally revolutionize an entire world?

Biggle's answer is memorable and believable.

It must be noted that the book was first published in 1968, and that Biggle was not one of the "New Wave" authors who were in ascendence at that time. To some, his style may seem a little old-fashioned, though it's eminently readable. The romantic relationship between Forzon and Ann Curry, one of his agents, may also seem rather a bit dated - although accusations of sexism are not credible, since Forzon never treats Ann with less than respect, and her mistakes are not the stereotypical "stupid helpless female" behavior that was a staple of the poorer sort of science fiction a generation earlier.

The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets is a short, elegant, and thoughtful example of a type of science fiction which is still all too rare. It's well worth reading, and re-reading. Although it's quite a short book, Biggle wrote other memorable books on the same general theme, and most of them are back in print.

View all my reviews >>

WoW: levelling

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:47:46 GMT

Another solo night.

Got Lukemac to 24, but can't afford all my training (and I owe someone a chunk of gold, so I'm not going to pool money from my other characters).

Zeldava's up to level 8. I picked her first profession, inscription, and discovered that herbalism was practically required - so I took that as well. Soon I'll make my first scrolls. Do scrolls and potions which accomplish the same effects stack, I wonder?

Linkomac the hunter is up to level 8 as well. Soon I'll go to the Exodar, I imagine. No specialization picked yet; as a hunter, skinner/leatherworker makes most sense, but Omacblade already has that covered.

Pumpkins!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:34:37 GMT

Almost forgot: on Saturday after his birthday party Sebastian was being pretty terrible. There was a lot of screaming going on. We sent him to his room, with some difficulty.

After he got out, Teri really wanted to go see the Pumpkin Trail at Roger Williams Zoo. It's an annual event; they have lots of jack-o-lanterns. We'd tried to see it about five years ago, but the wait was about three hours in line, and we weren't allowed to bring strollers in. So we left.

I was dubious about letting Sebastian have a treat when he'd been so bad (and I was tired as hell), but I finally gave in (to Teri, not Sebastian). The night was warmer than that night five years ago, and the line was much shorter.

The Pumpkin Trail was...pretty damn strange. I'll have video or pictures up soon.

WoW update: Pumpkinhead

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:28:46 GMT

A headless horseman is haunting WoW, and Sebastian is absolutely delighted. If you don't play WoW, I won't bore you with the details. Basically, buildings are burning, PCs are trying to extinguish the flames, there are jack-o-lanterns everywhere, as well as candy and apples to bob for. What fun!

Zeldava has done fairly well. I've equipped her with a lot of useful stuff, and she's finished off her early quests without too much difficulty. She's in Goldshire now, and is (I think) at level 7. I may make her an inscriber, but I'm not sure what her second skill would be.

Haven't done much with the mage since I made a big run through the Deadmines with unquietsoul5 (with a level-43 fighter, so I was definitely not the lead in that run) and got him up to level 28. I think that was Friday night.

Domac is up to level 13, progressing nicely. I switched her from a one-handed maul to a two-handed sword without much difficulty.

I took Linkomac, the Dranaei hunter, up to seventh level. My other characters outfitted him nicely, too. I'm trying to decide what skills he should have. Skinner seems obvious - I really regret that I made Omacblade the skinner/leatherworker - but I also need a jeweler. Actually, I need a list of skills so I can make sure that I have Alliance PCs to cover all of them.

Lukemac hasn't made it to level 24 yet, but I had some fun with him. I'd been searching for the Delfias messenger in Westfall as part of a quest. I'd seen him frequently in earlier weeks, but now that I actually had the quest to FIND him, he wasn't there. As I was looking, I ran into a level-19 fighter who was also looking for him. We teamed up, and started searching.

Eventually I spotted the messenger, but he was already in combat with another party. The other fighter and I went to Moonbrook and commiserated. As we were talking, who should appear next to us but the messenger! We killed him, of course. My companion also levelled up to 20, and went to get his mount.

He's a miner/blacksmith too, but his skills aren't quite as high as mine. I offered to make some stuff for him; he was was interested in an Ironforge breastplate. I whipped one up (it didn't take much), but he insisted on knowing what it had cost me to make. He refused to take the breastplate otherwise. I found that rather admirable.

It had only been some copper and some tiger-eye gems, as I recall. The gems were the only thing that were relatively hard to find. He gave me a couple in exchange for the breastplate.

I couldn't stay online to go through the Deadmines with him, but right before I logged off he said "Add me!". "I already have.", I answered. It's nice to make new friends online!

The Lord of the Rings: The Old Forest

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:06:43 GMT

We're going along nicely with The Lord of the Rings. Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry are in the Old Forest, slowly being drawn into the clutches of Old Man Willow. Sebastian is mesmerized, and also quite curious as to what the Black Riders are. At first when there was only one he suspected that it was Gollum in disguise. His latest guess is that they're some sort of pig-dog creatures. I have no idea where he got that idea!