Monthly Archives: January 2009

SarahPac. No truth yet.

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Sarah Palin: http://sarahpac.com/faq

How will contributions be spent?
Your support of SarahPac will make it possible for Gov. Palin to continue to be a strong voice for energy independence and reform. By supporting SarahPac, you will allow Gov. Palin to help find and create solutions for America’s most pressing problems; priority number one is building a strong and prosperous economy that recognizes hard work, innovation and integrity by rewarding small businesses and hard working American families. SarahPac will support local and national candidates who share Gov. Palin’s ideas and goals for our country.

Actual answer not given.

Who is behind SarahPac?
Gov. Sarah Palin believes all Americans must work together for the future, regardless of their party affiliation. Gov. Palin is the honorary chair of SarahPac, and its supporters are Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and those unaffiliated with any political party.

Actual answer not given.

Why now?
As a new president takes office and begins to lead our country, Gov. Palin believes that every one of us has a duty and responsibility in this time of economic crisis and international challenge. Each one of us must step up to the plate, get involved in the spirit of renaissance and renewal that is critical to America’s success. Make your voice heard by joining SarahPac today!

That’s not the actual answer.

Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee

Candidate of what? No-one is running yet are they?

Car 2.

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P was ill in NY Sunday night, travelled back Monday, got to the house Tuesday. Woke later than I wanted Wed and started work. Eldest left home at around 3pm saying she’d get back to Sunderland somewhere around 6pm and yes she’d text when she got back. Taking the M1 north is straightforward until you get to junction 32. Take the right to the A1(M) and you are on the path to University. Go left and eventually you end up in Liverpool – like she did. She had not charged the satnav, thought she knew the way, it got dark, she got lost, was crying and then the car broke down. At that point she found out how useless her insurance was for an actual breakdown and the repair guy that came along ‘did the right thing’ and helped more than he should have done. He got her to his repair place. We zoomed up to Halifax where she had ended up. Left at around 11pm. Her car was very broken, not worth repairing, left there for scrap. Got her back by something like 3:30am. Out earlier to a local garage to get a new runaround – a T reg Ka. Not great but it’ll do for a second car. The mourning of her first car continues.
So with the time away, the oversleep yesterday, the rescue mission last night, car today and a long hospital appt for J tomorrow I feel so far behind. Oh yes – and I feel ill now too. I always get bugs that P gets – never fails.

All part of being a parent :)

NYC

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NY …
It’s busy, Times Square is not a square, The Empire State Bldg was good, the Statue of Libery looked very very small (and no, it was not because it was a distance away). I have eaten more cheesecake than in any other 4 day period, pastrami sandwiches are excellent, some people did not understand me, lots of people appeared to have no manners. Central Park is bigger than I imagined. This is not the place to learn to drive. There were not as many Starbucks as I thought and in those that I did go in few staff were as good as those in England. The Park Central Hotel is good, their internet access is slow – too many people. I found no free wifi. Took somewhere close to 350 pictures. My daughter has loved it which is good because the trip was for her. Instead of “You’ve never taken me to America” she promises to be more specific – “You’ve never taken me to California”. I’d like a way of knowing for a fact I am connecting through SSH rather than going to whatismyip.com after connecting to the domain. I want to take photos of the airport but I do not want to be asked about it. The glass Apple store looks a lot less impressive in the day. The Empire State DVD they sell is nothing like the audio tour you can get – which is a shame. Managed to get The Executioner’s Song on DVD which was good but being unable to play it on a Mac back home because of Apple’s craven fawning to the film studios is bad. The city appears to be disability hostile for the sidewalks which could explain the laws around cabs and access. Noise noise noise. Would I come back? Yep – with J. She is looking at a deal in May for us both. She really wants to look out from the top of the Empire State. Is there anything I think I should have done, or that I missed? No, it’s been fun.

More Catholic hypocrisy

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A senior Vatican official on Saturday attacked US President Barack Obama for … “the arrogance of someone who believes they are right, in signing a decree which will open the door to abortion and thus to the destruction of human life,”
Catholics never went to war then? If that isn’t destruction of life then what is?

“What is important is to know how to listen… without locking oneself into ideological visions with the arrogance of a person who, having the power, thinks they can decide on life and death,” he added.
What? This is a Catholic telling someone else that they should know how to listen? Do they seriously not see the massive hypocrisy? Doesn’t the pope decide on life and not death already with his views on contraception? So no-one is allowed a dissenting view?

“The majority of the American population does not take the same position as the president and his team,”
And they did with Bush? And every Catholic hangs on every word uttered by the pope? And what survey did they commission for this statistic of theirs? Obama was elected by many more people than the pope ever was or will be. He has the right to wield that power just as the pope and his corrupt cronies do as they wish.

It is garbage like this that makes me despise the Vatican and leaves me wondering how anyone at all can listen to anything that comes from there. Sexually abuse children for years and you are forgiven all your sins. Pass a law which will help countless women and you get called arrogant?

Day 1 NYC

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Central Park (59th St I think) north to somewhere around 109th (a long way). Taxi back to Carnegie Hall. Breakfast at Benash’s on 7th. Their Hot Chocolate is fabulous (if I could make it that way I’d drink it). Then Times Square, the M&M’s Store (P saw a Skittles jacket she wants, not cheap), Hershey Store, Hard Rock Cafe, said No to several hundred guys trying to sell sightseeing tours (daytime), said No to a few less guys trying to sell comedy show tickets (evening). Bought 500ml cans of Red Bull, have been amazed and more at the TV shows – it’s either diets or meds or meds to help you diet or financial insurance for the meds on the ads so far, but lots of white teeth and over-exaggeration is the name of the game. Weird, very weird indeed. Watching X Games was good – show tomorrow the guy is going for the first double backflip on a snow mobile. The several ‘Judge’ programs were strange (I thought there was only Judy?) as were the shopping channels. If you can get that excited over wire baskets you should be locked up. And the woman who was positively orgasmic over a carpet cleaning machine just had to be on something illegal (I mean, if she gives that reception to a machine while on TV how does she top that with her husband in the privacy of her own home? She can’t, that’s how so he must feel really bad…). Anyway, the abc.com store is empty which annoyed P (she wanted some Scrubs stuff), Times Square looked great as night fell and made me wish I’d got a video camera to get all the action. Haven’t found anywhere that does free wifi yet so am paying at the hotel.
Tomorrow I meet up with Barry for a work get-together of sorts. Not seen him since… Arizona last January so that’ll be good. And the place we meet – Apple’s glass cube. Good first day :)

A quiet place

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We walked from the South side of Central Park to almost the top on the West side. We must have done 50 blocks. That is quite a distance. We started by going through the paths in the park and found ourselves at Strawberry Fields. Just around that was a triangular area with a large circular mosaic circle in it. ‘Imagine’ is spelt out in the center and the area is bordered by many benches.

At a quiet place in Central Park, NY

At a quiet place in Central Park, NY

Each bench has a plaque and an inscription. Some are in memoriam, some for friendships, a couple simply saying Thanks for providing this quiet place to sit. This one struck me as something very private in the most public of places and I liked that.

This is the BBC

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At the New Year celebrations by the Thames.

An excellent TV broadcast:

 
 
 

A very good TV broadcast:

There are several thousand here on the banks of the river…
..
Wonderful atmosphere despite the cold ….

The BBC:

HI YES, You join me here with thousand of people watching the fireworks – very prett – ooh look at that red one, and the green! – and we are all really cold but it’s great fun and people have been here for hours to see this, let me talk to one … “HI MUM!!!” – now back to the studio.
And there we have the display and if the camera can just move away from the crowd and look at the fireworks.. the display was designed by a Frenchman who was also responsible for …… and there we have it. All gone for another year. Glad I don’t have to clean that up!”

On the Obama Inauguration:

An excellent TV broadcast:

 
 
 

A very good TV broadcast

 
 
Dick Cheney in a wheelchair
 
 
Bill Clinton chatting to one of the aides there..

The BBC:

And there is Dick Cheney in a wheelchair. This is a surprise as normally he walks. We will find out what may be affecting him and how this might impact the incoming President. Of course you will remember that Dick Cheney is seen as the hawk in George W Bush’s government and had a lot to do with Guantanamo. He was also involved in a strange shooting incident a couple of years ago – not that this will be connected with the wheelchair of course, he has been seen walking after that ha ha ha. And his being in a wheelchair reminds me of the great Franklin D Roosevelt who was also seen as a great president and someone who Obama may well want to emulate. Let’s cross to our US Correspondent who may have more insights into what is affecting my Cheney….

And everyone else seems to be there now and Barack Obama has taken the stand. He has hand on the book and he has started taking the Oath of Office. The crowd is silent as they listen to every word he is now saying the oath which of course is unchanged in years of course and once complete he will formally be President of the USA. And there we go, he has said it. Not sure if you heard that slight faltering in there….

To the BBC: Shut up.

Ill in a tube

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D came home last Friday so she can help Jacq as me and P head to New York later this week. D brought back a bug which she gave her sister and now on the eve of going I’ve got it. I’ll be sitting on the plane infecting everyone with this chesty cold / headaches / general crapness. I will be Patient Zero on that flight..
Apparently it’s due to be -5 in New York this weekend. This will test my love of cold. Good bit will be seeing steam coming out of the manhole covers. Another good bit will be the coffee. Can’t think of a bad bit just yet.
P has the walks all planned. I have only 1 place I want to see – the cafe from the film It Could Happen To You. Lovely film.

Painful fingers

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Back in 2007 my mouse hand became increasingly painful. Even with the most painkillers I could have it was still very painful to use – and at that time I got a wacom bamboo tablet. Lovely piece of kit, totally recommended (except don’t upgrade the drivers. Every time I have it fails to see the usb tablet so I have to reinstall the old one). I have been free of hand pain since then. But my hand pain is returning albeit differently. I think there are 2 distinct causes:
1. First is that I’m not taking enough breaks. This isn’t that I work work work. It’s because if I’m not working I am still moving the tablet pen in the same way while uploading files, reading, followling links etc. So by break I mean get up, walk away from the desk.
2. Is put the pen down. If you are writing and need to type you probably hold the pen through your fingers – you flip it along them. That’s what I do but lots of that plus lots of typing means lots of extra impacts.
So to test and hopefully cure I just need to get up more and put the pen don more. Easy.

The new regime of getting up at 7:30am – I had a lie-in yesterday. Didn’t get up until 8:30am! – means I can build in a couple of deliberate breaks. So that’s looking good too.

Track of the moment

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The sequence in Tap Tap Dance is excellent.

Buy it, use it, break it, fix it,
Trash it, change it, mail – upgrade it,
Charge it, point it, zoom it, press it,
Snap it, work it, quick – erase it,
Write it, cut it, paste it, save it,
Load it, check it, quick – rewrite it,
Plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
Drag and drop it, zip – unzip it,
Lock it, fill it, call it, find it,
View it, code it, jam – unlock it,
Surf it, scroll it, pause it, click it,
Cross it, crack it, switch – update it,
Name it, rate it, tune it, print it,
Scan it, send it, fax – rename it,
Touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it,
Turn it, leave it, start – format it.