Okay, I’m still in the ooh and aah stage with the iPhone. And I’m playing with texting as alternative to email and voice calls. My brother and his family are back home in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, and it turns out we can text back and forth.
Yeah, I know I’ll probably get some huge-ass bill at the end of the month but if this is part of my 200 text messages, it’s pretty cool. A great way to stay closer.
Just finished reading a very long piece on the Bush administration in Vanity Fair. Almost 40 pages printed from their website. It reads like a very depressing, but gripping, novel. Painful but hard to put down. I’m posting here because I don’t consider this politics. If you don’t want to wait for The Golden Bush Years chapter in the 2080 history books, read this Vanity Fair account. Sort of a high colonic to start the year off clean. A few nuggets from the final page:
“Lawrence Wilkerson, top aide and later chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell: As my boss [Colin Powell] once said, Bush had a lot of .45-caliber instincts, cowboy instincts. Cheney knew exactly how to polish him and rub him. He knew exactly when to give him a memo or when to do this or when to do that and exactly the word choice to use to get him really excited.
Bob Graham, Democratic senator from Florida and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee: One of our difficulties now is getting the rest of the world to accept our assessment of the seriousness of an issue, because they say, You screwed it up so badly with Iraq, why would we believe that you’re any better today? And it’s a damn hard question to answer.
Meanwhile, the Taliban and al-Qaeda have relocated, have strengthened, have become a more nimble and a much more international organization. The threat is greater today than it was on September the 11th.
David Kuo, deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives: It’s kind of like the Tower of Babel. At a certain point in time, God smites hubris. You knew that right around the time people started saying there’s going to be a permanent Republican majority—that God kinda goes, No, I really don’t think so.”
“In the 1980 film “The Formula,” George C. Scott plays a detective who uncovers a plot to kill anybody with knowledge of a secret Nazi formula for a synthetic fuel. The bad guy in the film is Adam Steiffel, the Chairman of Titan Oil, played by Marlon Brando. The two meet on Steiffel’s patio, where the oil mogul is enjoying breakfast, and the scene produces a couple of memorable lines in a case of art imitating life.
“You’re not in the oil business; you’re in the oil shortage business,” Scott says to Brando. An aide to Brando’s character races to the table with news of price activity by the Arab states, to which Brando’s character responds, “You idiot, we ARE the Arabs!”
— Terry Heaton
Lost Remote’s Cory Bergman calls Dianne Mermigas “one of the smartest, most pragmatic media columnists I’ve ever read. She never resorts to hyperbole.” He then points us to her predictions for 2009. A few of my favorites:
“Major advertisers such as automotives, financial services, retail and real estate will not return any time soon; they will be diminished and different when they rebound a year from now. That is a disaster for local media, which could easily see more than half their ad revenue base wiped out in 2009. For instance, automotives generally have comprised 40% of local TV income.
“Local is the new social. Some local TV broadcasters and newspapers will begin to monetize enough to stay in business. Some Internet players will begin to dabble more in this huge void. Relevant local information, social sharing, retail coupons, school and community data, sports scores, car pools, etc. remain a big missed opportunity.It will be delivered to Internet-connected mobile devices, including smartphones. A new player will emerge and do for local content and services online what Craigslist did for regionalized classified advertising.”
“Mobile connectivity will become the core platform. The road to universal WiFi and WiMax may be bumpy, but anywhere, anything interactivity on smartphones, video-friendly PDAs and other wireless mobile devices will be the global screen of choice. Primary drivers will include interactive communications, location-based services and e-transactions.”
I have no idea what 2009 will bring but I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more.
Kudos to the folks behind IowaScanStream.com (“Streaming the Iowa Public Safety Bands to the World”). They didn’t stop with streaming audio (on USTREAM) of radio call traffic from the Des Moines police and fire departments. That’s just the old broadcast model, taken to the web.
They added a Twitter feed, manned by someone with a sense of humor (as much as good taste allows). Here are the tweets from the last couple of hours. I flagged a couple of my favorites.
“Police cautiously en route.”
No idea what the business model is, or if there is one. Or how many people they have manning the scanners. Most of us don’t have time to listen but we can follow the madcap murder and mayhem thanks to IowaScanStream.com.
Did I mention that Barb and I will be attending the inauguration in a couple of weeks? I use the word “attending” loosely.
Bridges and major roadways closed to all but bus traffic; the D.C. subway system expecting ‘crush-level’ crowds; escalators closed. The Congressional Inaugural Committee issued an “Inaugural Advisory” that basically said: stay home.
From CBS News: “While the actual swearing-in will take place shortly before noon, the formal program begins at 11:30 AM and the musical prelude and seating will begin much earlier. Security checkpoints will open for ticketed guests at 8:00 AM, and the committee advises arriving no later than 9:00 AM to ensure that you are through the checkpoints by the time the program begins. Screening will end when the program begins at 11:30 AM and late arrivals will not be able to enter the grounds.”
And if it’s raining like pouring piss out of a boot?
“Regardless of the weather conditions, umbrellas will not be permitted in the ticketed areas.”
Same goes for “strollers, Laser pointers, Signs, Posters, Animals (other than service animals), Alcoholic beverages, (and) Other items that may pose a threat to the security of the event as determined by and at the discretion of the security screeners.”
But I’ll get some good pix that I can put online, right?
“Be aware that it may be difficult to talk or send pictures from your cell phone, according to wireless companies. Please use text messaging to send critical messages.”
What the hell. I waited in for five hours to hear a Steve Jobs keynote address at MacWorld (which, as it turns out, was his final one)… I can wait a few hours to watch history being made. I’ll be the one dressed like Frances McDormand.
“As to salvation and all that… The greatest teachers, the true healers, I would say, have always insisted that they can only point the way. The Buddha went so far as to say: “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
The great ones do not set up offices, charge fees, give lectures, or write books. Wisdom is silent, and the most effective propaganda for truth is the force of personal example. The great ones attract disciples, lesser figures whose mission it is to preach and teach. These are the gospelers who, unequal to the highest task, spend their lives converting others. The great ones are indifferent, in the profoundest sense. They don’t ask you to believe: they electrify you by their behavior. They are the awakeners. What you do with your life is only of concern to you, they seem to say. In short, their only purpose here on earth is to inspire. And what more can one ask of a human being than that?”
— Henry Miller (Sexus)
Emphasis mine
Barb and I love our home. It fits the way we live perfectly. We seldom entertain so the place usually has what I think of as a “warm clutter.” You’re likely to find more than one pair of shoes on the floor and the stairs always has some of my pocket junk on it (keys, checkbook, etc)
And books. Lots of books. Barb and I both love to read and there are books scattered from one room to the next. The walls of my office (upstairs) are lined with bookshelves and a couple of times a year I try to get organized. But, like the dogs, the books are part of our lives and I don’t mind having them close at hand.
I like audio books well enough but prefer the real thing. The weight, the feel, the smell. I think I sleep more soundly with a good book on my chest.
Learfield (where I work) CEO and Chief Blogger Clyde Lear points us to a really good article about our new president. The piece (for Time’s Man of the Year issue) was written by Craig Robinson, the head basketball coach at Oregon State. His sister, Michelle, will soon be the First Lady. Robinson knows basketball and what the game can tell about a man. My favorite graph from the article:
“What does Barack’s game say about the man, about the way he’s going to lead this country through these very trying times? Well, he’s competitive yet inclusive. He’s unselfish, which, where I come from, is the greatest compliment you can give both a player and a leader. And he’s consistent. You’ve got a guy at the top who ran a campaign — and who is going to run a government — in a classy, efficient and considerate manner. That’s the same guy I got to know playing hoops when he was dating my sister.”
Basketball was my game. I rode the bench in high school but loved playground pick-up ball. The person you are on court is the real you. Ask anyone who ever played.