Recently in Day to Day Category

We have had 4 days of heavy, solid rain here in the Los Angeles area—totally out of the ordinary for paradise. What's interesting is this is like snow in Atlanta. The city starts to fall apart. They can't cope with rain since it never happens.

Of the 6 elevators in the building I was in today, only 2 were working! The reason? The rain. Who ever knew rain could knock out 4 elevators?!

The traffic all over town was a disaster. Roads flooding. The planes at LAX even taking off in the opposite direction they always take off.

But the worst? The house is under siege. The super highway of ants that speed along the sidewalk and across the driveway heading into the neighbor's yard was flooded out.

After the ants put up road detour barricades, the ant traffic was rerouted through the house!

I had to nuke them with ant poison and call the exterminator. I didn't mind them doing their ant thing outside, but no, no, no—not in the house!

Related articles

• LA Deluged in 7 Inches of Rain (abcnews.go.com)
• Rain to keep pummeling SoCal, sparking flood fears (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Southern California braces for more rain, flash floods (thestar.com)

Tip of the ole fedora to Jon Spivey, who shared this on his Facebook Wall.  I laughed out loud.  It's short.  It's both tragic and hysterical.

One can only assume that the poor organist quietly slipped out the back and left town.

The Sistoid Unit, my sister, called me today.  (That isn't what horrified me.)  She asked about some footwear you wear over your shoes so you can walk easily on snow and ice.  I had mentioned them to her when I traveled in the Canadian Rockies back in April of 2009.  In Banff I had to purchase them at the hotel to be able to walk at all!  Record snow falls and ice made walking treacherous, for a southern boy. The problem when the Sistoid Unit called:  I couldn't remember the name.  I could only recall "crampons."  These were not exactly crampons.

Since I couldn't remember the name, I did a quick search on my blog.  I was horrified to realize that I didn't blog about that trip!  Only one post, some time later, which features a pano made up of 16 photos (4 gigapixels) I shot of a beautiful scene?!  Fortunately, I at least published a couple hundred pictures from the trip, which was gorgeous, in an album here at tt.us.

I knew I had shot a picture of the Yaktrax, their name, when I was hiking in Johnston Canyon.  (The top picture is what the lower waterfall looks like when it's not frozen, as it was when I visited.) Those who hadn't worn any special footwear found walking in the canyon so precarious that they were sliding along, holding on to the rails.  When no raise were present, which was most of the time, they would slide along the ice on their rear ends.  Quite the sight!!

So, for my future state of deeper senility, here is a link to the Yaktrax, pictured below, at REI.  I loved them, and they were reasonably priced.

I love time lapse photography!  This time lapse by twin brothers Dan and David Newcomb has some spectacular shots in it featuring HDR as well as some awesome dolly and pan shots!  (They design and build their own rigs.) The undulating fog is spectacular! When you watch it, be sure to click on the full screen mode in the player window.

YouTube link (time lapse above where you can select full 1080i HD) Dan and David's YouTube Channel Their website link YouTube link (time lapse below where you can select full 1080i HD)

This time lapse below, of the frenetic energy of the Vancouver Olympics, is also stunning and uses crane and dolly shots.  When viewed at 1080i in full screen, will tax the dickens out of your internet service or Google's servers, or both.  (The size included below should play fine.)

Link to other posts @ tt.us featuring and about time lapse photography.

I try to walk along the Pacific as much as possible since I live less than a mile from it. (If it weren't such an elevation change, I would walk to the ocean, but the walk back up would be brutal for an "old man.") I love the Pacific because it's always in a different mood.

This afternoon's walk was hotter than any of the times I spent sitting by the ocean this summer (all wrapped up in a blanket, might I add!). It hit 83º here in December! But, on the flip side, the air was completely clear. I could see great detail in Santa Monica and Palos Verdes. Even the tip end of the north bay past Malibu and Catalina to the south were clearly visible!

The sun is now starting to set and wash everything in the warm light of magic hour.

Lovely.

I've blogged about my recent encounters with @Verizon when upgrading the TiVo with the Fios service here at the house.  In addition to the Twitter replies to me from Verizon following up, today I got a followup phone call from Ralph, the technician who installed the M-CableCard and got everything working wonderfully.  He wanted to be sure everything was satisfactory.

Since I groused about my really, really bad customer service experience, I feel equally compelled to rave about my current really, really good customer service follow up experiences.   OK, so Verizon and I have kissed and made up.  This was really pretty easy for me to do because I do so love their Fios* service and my MiFi card that I use all over the country.

Also of note:  loving the new high capacity TiVo Premiere XL in HD!

*According to an independent report that has nothing to do with Verizon, here in Manhattan Beach we're in the top 1% of household internet access speeds.  It just rocks my world since I do so much work on the internet!!  And I'm reading that Verizon just announced a whopping 150 megabit up and 35 megabit down upgrade from our supposedly current 15 up and 10 down!  (Our actual speed just clocked in at 30.54 Mb/s up and 22.51 Mb/s down.) My God, that's fast!  This makes cloud computing a bit more realistic.  Their goal:  10 gigabits per household in a few years!  That's just insane.

Related articles

• Verizon FiOS Readies Super Fast 10GB Per House Connection (beet.tv)
• @Verizon Customer Service Is Horrendously Wretched! (timtyson.us)
• Corporate Offloading (timtyson.us)

Mother will hate this post.

Note:  The code on this page is a vastly improved reading experience at this link.

Last year, for the first time, I created a Season's Greetings banner that popped up (using MediaboxAdv) when you first hit my blog.  This year, when I went to operationalize that same code, things were not very straight forward.  This post is to remind me next year how to do this—sort of a note to me in the future.

WordPress Site
Under the wordpress —> wp-content —> themes folder on the server, select the current theme and modify the header.php file within that folder.  Immediately after the HTML header tag closes, this code should appear:

<!-- Mandate that the #mb-announcement mediabox open when this page is first hit or refreshed by the user -->
<!-- <body onload="Mediabox.open('URL_GOES_HERE', 'TITLE_GOES_HERE', 'WIDTH HEIGHT')"> -->
<!-- When NOT mandating the #mb-announcement, comment out the next line of code. -->
<body onload="Mediabox.open('http://blog.timtyson.us/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/HolidayGreeting.jpg', 'Happy Holidays', '480 520')">
<!-- When NOT mandating the #mb-announcement, uncomment out the next line of code. -->
<!-- <body> -->

Normally, without the forced load of the mediabox announcement, the code would read like this:

<!-- Mandate that the #mb-announcement mediabox open when this page is first hit or refreshed by the user -->
<!-- <body onload="Mediabox.open('URL_GOES_HERE', 'TITLE_GOES_HERE', 'WIDTH HEIGHT')"> -->
<!-- When mandating the #mb-announcement, uncomment out the next line of code. -->
<!-- body onload="Mediabox.open('http://blog.timtyson.us/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/HolidayGreeting.jpg', 'Happy Holidays', '480 520')">
< !-- When mandating the #mb-announcement, comment out the next line of code. -->
<body>

This single change in code will impact the loading of both the main index page as well as individual page archives.

MovableType Site
To accomplish the same thing, MovableType requires two file alterations: one for the index page and one for individual page archives.

For the main index page:
Under the template-link-files —> my-template-link-files on the server, modify the Index.html file within that folder.  Immediately after the HTML header tag closes, this code should appear:

<!-- Mandate that the #mb-announcement mediabox open when this page is first hit or refreshed by the user -->
<!-- <body id="mt-blog" class="mt-main-index layout-wm" onload="Mediabox.open('URL_GOES_HERE', 'TITLE_GOES_HERE', 'WIDTH HEIGHT')"> -->
< !-- the body id above is the result of using the <$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$> variable for the boy id as shown below. When NOT mandating the #mb-announcement, comment out the next line of code. -->
<body id="<$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$>" class="mt-entry-archive <$mt:Var name="page_layout"$>" onload="Mediabox.open('http://blog.timtyson.us/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/HolidayGreeting.jpg', 'Happy Holidays', '480 520')">
<!-- When NOT mandating the #mb-announcement, uncomment out the next line of code. -->
<!-- <body id="<$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$>" class="mt-entry-archive < $mt:Var name="page_layout"$>"> -->

All of the index files would then have to be rebuilt for the change to take place.

Normally, without the forced load of the mediabox announcement, the code would read like this:

<!-- Mandate that the #mb-announcement mediabox open when this page is first hit or refreshed by the user -->
<!--  <body id="mt-blog" class="mt-main-index layout-wm" onload="Mediabox.open('URL_GOES_HERE', 'TITLE_GOES_HERE', 'WIDTH HEIGHT')"> -->
<!--  the body id above is the result of using the <$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$> variable  for the boy id as shown below. When NOT mandating the #mb-announcement, comment out the next line of code.  -->
<!-- body id="<$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$>" class="mt-entry-archive < $mt:Var name="page_layout"$>" onload="Mediabox.open('http://blog.timtyson.us/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/HolidayGreeting.jpg', 'Happy Holidays', '480 520')">
< !  When NOT mandating the #mb-announcement, uncomment out the next line of code. -->
<body id="<$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$>" class="mt-entry-archive <$mt:Var name="page_layout"$>">

For the individual page archives:
Under the template-link-files —> my-template-link-files on the server, modify the Entry.html file within that folder.  Immediately after the HTML header tag closes, this code should appear:

<!-- Mandate that the #mb-announcement mediabox open when this page is first hit or refreshed by the user -->
<!--  <body id="mt-blog" class="mt-main-index layout-wm" onload="Mediabox.open('URL_GOES_HERE', 'TITLE_GOES_HERE', 'WIDTH HEIGHT')"> -->
<!--  the body id above is the result of using the <$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$> variable  for the boy id as shown below. When NOT mandating the #mb-announcement, comment out the next line of code.  -->
<body id="<$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$>" class="mt-entry-archive <$mt:Var name="page_layout"$>" onload="Mediabox.open('http://blog.timtyson.us/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/HolidayGreeting.jpg', 'Happy Holidays', '480 520')">
<!-- When NOT mandating the #mb-announcement, uncomment out the next line of code. -->
<!-- <body id="<$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$>" class="mt-entry-archive < $mt:Var name="page_layout"$>"> -->

Get it right the first time, because "Only Entry Archives" files then have to be rebuilt for the change to take place—that's over 2,500 files and takes forever!

Normally, without the forced load of the mediabox announcement, the code would read like this:

<!-- Mandate that the #mb-announcement mediabox open when this page is first hit or refreshed by the user -->
<!--  <body id="mt-blog" class="mt-main-index layout-wm" onload="Mediabox.open('URL_GOES_HERE', 'TITLE_GOES_HERE', 'WIDTH HEIGHT')"> -->
<!--  the body id above is the result of using the <$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$> variable  for the boy id as shown below. When NOT mandating the #mb-announcement, comment out the next line of code.  -->
<!-- body id="<$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$>" class="mt-entry-archive < $mt:Var name="page_layout"$>" onload="Mediabox.open('http://blog.timtyson.us/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/HolidayGreeting.jpg', 'Happy Holidays', '480 520')">
< !  When NOT mandating the #mb-announcement, uncomment out the next line of code. -->
<body id="<$mt:BlogTemplateSetID$>" class="mt-entry-archive <$mt:Var name="page_layout"$>">

My browser of choice continues to be Safari. However, a few months ago Apple pushed an update out the door that is making Safari do weird things when building a page with Flash embeds. This, at times, significantly impacts page display and, I suspect, is a result of Apple pushing HTML5 implementation. I don't get those issues in Firefox. Hopefully Apple will correct this problem in the near future. I don't know what IE does with any of this code. I gave up on that browser a long time ago. (My apologies to all of those who still use it.)

[Another note to self:  the directions for using the awesome but non-intuitive SyntaxhHighlighter used on the WordPress version of this page are located at this link.

And that's about it.

 

I've been frustrated for several weeks (months?) over a neutral density lens filter on one of my Canon lenses. It was stuck, and I really mean stuck! I haven't a clue how it got welded to the lens, but I simply didn't have the strength to twist it off to clean a spot on the inside.

I hit the internet.  I wanted a free solution.  Some good ideas at this link.

I pulled out an old mouse pad, flipped it over so the really rubber side was face up.  Placed my lens flat on top of it with even pressure—that's the key, and twisted while pressing down.  Keeping the mouse pad from bunching up occupied my other hand.

Tah Dah!  It came off!

It's the simple things in life.

I railed against @Verizon last week (link) because of my inexcusably horrid customer service experience.  Well, I'm happy to report that the Verizon installer, who I think was an independent contractor, arrived this morning, on time, properly de-installed my two single-stream cards (called S-cards) and installed a new multi-stream card (M-card) in my TiVo.  He was pleasant and knew what he was doing.

The process was a little more involved than I thought it would be.  The technician had to connect and log in to my router and run a special program to do his voodoo to make it all work.  He then downloaded a desktop program to my computer which I am expected to use before calling Verizon Technical Support if I have a problem with picture quality. He did a good job, and everything is working great.

I have to say though, that I rather resent this corporate strategy:  off-load as much of your workforce onto your customers to increase profit margins by reducing personnel and operational costs.  Corporations do this more and more.  What I find so offensive is not that corporations expect me to use my unpaid time to do their work (though I do resent this), but that it reduces jobs for wo/men on the street that need them!  (And I don't even want to hear the bull about keeping prices down.  I don't think it does at all.  It keeps profit margins and CEOs bonuses going up while the powerless little people lose their jobs.  That's what it really does.)

The only thing that makes me even more disgusted is when corporations turn offloading their work onto their customers into an even greater profit center through advertising. Classic example:  @Delta has reduced ticketing personnel so drastically (increase profit margins) that any savvy traveler is forced to print out the boarding pass at home.  Delta has offloaded their workload onto their generally unsuspecting (even grateful!) customers.  Since you use your own paper and toner/ink Delta saves even more money.  Clever!  Sneaky!

But the real insult is that Delta sells advertising space on the boarding pass you have to print out.  You use your paper and your toner to print an advertisement most of us don't want at all but are forced to see.  You can scroll down to the bottom of the boarding pass to print it without the advertisement, but, based on casual observation from all of my traveling, almost everyone prints the stupid advertisements but me!

Related articles

• @Verizon Customer Service Is Horrendously Wretched! (timtyson.us)
• FiOS TV coming to Mac, iOS in 2011 (tuaw.com)
• Verizon bringing 150/35Mbps internet to FiOS customers, enraging customers of all other ISPs (engadget.com)
• Verizon Adding FiOS TV Support For Mac and iOS Next Year (macstories.net)
• Verizon FiOS gets 150/35 Mbps plan (slashgear.com)
• Verizon Speeds Up FiOS To 150Mbps (tech.slashdot.org)

When I was a child, journalism was ruthless.  Investigative reporting was in its prime, shining the light of day on corruption, indolence, criminal activity, under the table deal making and the like.  The government hated the media because they showed the American people in very real terms the horrible truth some powerful people wanted hidden:  the civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam, the extreme police action at Kent State, to name just a few.  60 Minutes did ground-breaking work that defined the standard for journalism.

Today, Clay Shirky and other insightful thinkers state that the expensive and extraordinary work of investigative journalism was funded by the ample profit margins gleaned from media advertising, both television and print.  Now, with the advent of cable media and the internet, advertising to the masses, according to many, has reached its true value.  As a result, profit margins have radically dropped.  As a result, print news media is dying.  The LA Times, for example, is probably 80% advertising and 20% news.  And, some notable sources say the result has been the death of investigative journalism.

During the George W. Bush administration, the Republicans pushed for and got changes to FCC regulations that effectively and significantly reduced the number of news outlets even further, allowing fewer people to have greater ownership and control of media outlets.  From my vantage point, the confluence of these two things (lack of investigative journalism and reducing the number of media outlets) appears to have compromised one of democracies most vitally needed pillars, an informed citizenry.  Have you noticed that an increasing percentage of the news articles across all media outlets have the exact same titles, even the same content?  I seriously wonder who is paying for me to read and hear these "stories?"

I have lamented CNN becoming "the Crime News Network" as they focus so much attention on sensationalizing missing persons and individual murder cases.  (I'm sure this is inexpensive for them.)  And the whole of cable news seems to create an artificial sense of crisis around lack-luster "reporting" to sell their media, creating a 24 cable hour news cycle that amounts to little more than an overdramatized feeding frenzy.  As local papers have died, corruption is going undetected creating an unprecedented environment of bold fraud and theft of tax payer dollars like the Bell, California, city officials who actually thought they could get away with salaries of $8,000,000.

We need a populist movement that will hold government accountable for protecting "We the people..." by providing significant incentives to create a variety of non-partisan media outlets, rather than the current incentives to reduce their ownership to a few wealthy people.  We need to de-centralize news media.  We need to stop attempting to kill funding for public broadcasting.  News media outlets must never be the puppet of a few stunningly wealthy people or any political party.  People need to turn off and unsubscribe to media that is doing a poor job of honest, non-partisan investigative journalism.  Demand unbiased, fact-checked, relevant news!

To allow our current system to continue is to perpetuate a meaningless national conversation focused on polarity, not problem-solving and threatens the very survival of democracy.  [I also suspect that to attack Wikileaks is to attack free speech, but that's a whole different "can of worms."]

Related Posts at tt.us

• We Need a Populist Movement-Part 1: Healthcare
• We Need a Populist Movement-Part 2: Governance
• We Need a Populist Movement-Part 3: Civil Rights
• We Need a Populist Movement-Part 4: Journalism (this post)
• We Need a Populist Movement-Part 5: Faith Practice

Related articles

• The future of news? (maureenholland.wordpress.com)
• US investigative journalism merger (guardian.co.uk)
• Clay Shirky's Nuanced Position on WikiLeaks (boingboing.net)
• Investigative Journalism, RIP (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Defend WikiLeaks or lose free speech - Dan Gillmor - Salon.com (marccooper.com)
• Required Reading: Clay Shirky on WikiLeaks (slog.thestranger.com)

AT&T promises that they have 97.7% of people in the US "covered."  In their commercials they paint the whole country with Cingular's adopted orange color.  (They bought out Cingular and chose to keep Cingular's marketing colors as the tired AT&T blue color had become a potent reminder of how horrid AT&T is.  You know, keep the same crap service; change the color to make people feel better.)

They fail to tell us that Verizon's network only uses 3G technology and is vastly superior to the AT&T network, which is probably mostly the considerably slower Edge network.  So while AT&T has us all covered in orange, it's much slower service.  Don't believe me?  Try looking at your email on your iPhone at the remote and seldom visited LAX airport.  I have frequently wailed about AT&T's horrid service all over this country.  (Here's a link to everything I've written here at tt.us about AT&T.)

Now, I wouldn't mind all of this nearly as much if my AT&T bill reflected the true value of the service they provide.  Maybe...  $20 a month.  But I pay these people a whopping $100.00+ not including any additional costs I would have if I exceeded my plan's allotments.

Now Consumer Reports is adding to the chorus.  They rate AT&T as the worst.  Period.

When AT&T loses their exclusive contract with Apple's iPhone near the beginning of 2011, I wonder how many users will ditch their service.

Source:  CNNMoney

Now, before you think I'm just in a bad mood (though @Verizon certainly has put me in one!), I think Verizon's cell service and Fios service are completely awesome.  But their customer service is the worst of the worst.  In my opinion, the senior level executive in charge of customer service and retail should be fired immediately!

Today I completely wasted about 4 hours dealing with Verizon.  I had a simple objective:  replace the two cable cards in my old Series 3 TiVo with one multi-stream card in my new TiVo Premier XL.  The new TiVo will only accept one cable card, and it must be multi-stream.  Easy.

WRONG!!!!!

I thought all I needed to do was go to the nearest Verizon store and swap the old two for the new one.  When I arrived at the store near my house, I learned that most of the wireless stores have nothing to do with the cable stuff.  I needed to call an 800 number, and they would tell me where the nearest store is that could solve my problem.  How is one supposed to know which stores are which?!

I sort of remembered the location of the Verizon store where I picked up the first cable box when I moved here.  So off I headed in that direction while calling the number.  I waited on hold, to get to an agent, for about 10 - 15 minutes (after wading through their insufferable phone menus—every time I called).  She then asked in what city the store was where I had gone before.  I told her:  Venice Beach.  She said she would "get them on the line."  The ringing began.  After another 15 minutes or so of ringing, AT&T, in its inimitable way, dropped the call.  I called Verizon back and was dropped, after waiting about 10 minutes, before I even got an agent.  At this point I passed the place where the Verizon store had been.

It was gone!  The security guard didn't know where they went.  I called Verizon again.  (Menus, Wait, Wait, Wait...) We talked forever.  The agent told me the nearest store that would have the cable card I needed was in San Fernando.  What?!  I would have to go there to exchange the wrong cards for the correct card.  Good grief!  Well, ok, off I went.

When I arrived at the San Fernando Verizon store, you have no idea where to go once inside the store.  It looks worse than security at Southwest Airlines in LAX, literally!  Ropes and barricades everywhere.  But, unlike LAX, not many people.  You have no idea at all where to go in this maze!  Finally, I just walked around the maze of barricades and up to a person that appeared to fain being busy but had no one standing near her.

When I told her what the Verizon guy on the phone had said, she was flabbergasted.  She looked up my record.  Why would they send you here?  We don't have any cards at all of any kind!

What????!!!  You're kidding me!  I drove an hour for nothing?!!!!  She gave me a different 800 number to call saying they would order the card for me.

I went home.  Called.  (Menus, Wait, Wait, Wait...) Was sent to support.  (Wait, Wait, Wait...)  Support only replaces what you have, if it is broken, with what you have.  Support sent me back to customer service.  (Wait, Wait, Wait...)  Customer service then said they didn't understand what I wanted and HUNG UP ON ME!

I called back.  To this point I had been patient, but I was now furious.  This person told me immediately that they didn't have multi-stream cards.  They don't use them.  Their service is incompatible with them.  Instead, I could get one of their DVRs.  I told her that TiVo said, before I ordered the new TiVo, that Verizon Fios did have them.  She said she had had this issue before, had researched it, and that Verizon did not have nor support multi-stream cards.  She didn't know if they ever would.  Verizon only had the old cards that I already have that will not work in the new TiVos.  I asked her why any of the other people I had talked to today at Verizon had not told me this to begin with!

I then called @TiVo support to see if there was a work-around or if I was going to have to return the TiVo.

TiVo customer support rocks my world!!!  They are awesome!

The TiVo dude said Verizon absolutely does have them.  They are required by the FCC to have them.  He said we would have a three-way phone call with Verizon and resolve this.  Suddenly this new Verizon agent couldn't begin to understand why anyone at Verizon would have told me they do not have the multi-stream card.  She set up a day/time when they would come out to the house and take care of it for me.  The TiVo dude documented the Verizon case number and agent's arrangements.

What crap!  Verizon probably wanted me to rent one of their boxes.  This reminds me of back in the day when the cell phone companies would suddenly switch your service without you knowing until you got a bill from another company.  If I knew how to contact the head of Verizon's customer service and the head of their retail stores, I would tell them what a horrible job they are doing.

Related articles

• TiVo Unveils Its Own DVR-Controlling iPad App (gigaom.com)
• TiVo outs iPad remote app for Premiere DVRs (electronista.com)

It's the season.  Busy, busy, busy!

The last few weeks have been crazy:  the Haunted House extravaganza for Halloween (we do it up big here in the hood), a three day business trip to the east coast, a two week vacation to Budapest and Prague, returning home to put away the Halloween Haunted House and set up the Christmas decorations, create the holiday cards, the 2011 gift calendars, the newsletter, fold/stuff/stamp/seal/mail the cards and newsletters (huge task), jump online for the gift-giving rituals, then the Thanksgiving meal...

Today, the cleaning crew is finally back. Thank goodness!! (They missed last month because of vacation plans.)  The house is one giant dust bunny and fur ball all rolled into one.  My allergies have been insane.  I'm almost finished with the laundry now.  The last load of clothes is in the drier.

To finish the holiday gift shopping I had to run to the Apple Store to get the Sistoid Unit's gift.  (No worries.  She already knows what she's getting from me—an iPod Touch, so she can Facetime me and mother.)  The Apple Stores are always much too close to where I live!  This one is at Manhattan Village Mall.

No one in their right mind wants to go to a mall on Black Friday:  the crowds, the rudeness, the snatch and grab, the ill humor, the parking fiascos.  Manhattan Village Mall isn't a large mall at all, but the parking is always hell on earth!  I was so not looking forward to this quick one-stop shopping trip.  I got there and found a parking space with no difficulty!!  But then...

Oh!  For Pete's Sake!

Who in their right mind?!

What a wretched, horrid, bad, bad, bad idea!!!!!!!!!

On this, the worst day on earth to shop at a mall, the Manhattan Village Mall decided to have a full blown parade IN THEIR PARKING LOT?!  The high school marching band, the police cars, the fire trucks (yes, there were two of them in the parade), the little security Segway, the little three-wheeled security vehicles, throwing candy...

I couldn't even back out of my parking space.  The whole parking lot was grid locked.  People, blocked in the one way parking lane, were trying to turn around, which was so obviously impossible--three cars.  Now they were stuck!  Duh!  Nobody could move because of this stupid parade blocking the main artery of the parking lot!

Go ahead, call me Scrooge.  This was THE most hair brain idea of the year!  Who ever planned this on the busiest shopping day of the year had to be high on cocaine!

Insanity!

Time to fold the laundry.  :)

Well, we had a little earthquake last night: magnitude 2.4. I find them to have personalities. This one shook the house in what felt like a north/south direction and actually originated just a few miles south of the house, out in the bay itself.  (Click to enlarge.)

Related articles @ tt.us

• My Malaga Cove Time Lapse 1
• My Malaga Cove Time Lapse 2
• Sunset in Rancho Palos Verdes

I know I've sworn for decades (ok, at least in internet years) that I would never have a Facebook account.  I blogged about it.  I've given good reason for why I would never do it.  But, well...

Damn!

I'm using it as a tool to keep in touch with people I would otherwise never have the opportunity to keep up with in this busy world.  And, hopefully, with a new WP plugin, (thanks to Dan for the idea) every time I publish to my blog, the plugin will also cross publish to my Facebook wall.  It will take me some time to work out the kinks and learn the flow of Facebook.  We'll just see how it goes...

On Saturday, October 23, 2010, I walked nearly 18,000 steps!!  Yes.  Yes, indeed!  I walked all over Atlanta!

Tragically, since I didn't travel with my computer, just my iPad, my Fitbit didn't report this on Twitter!

I was traumatized by the fact that this enormous record (for me anyway) went unknown, uncelebrated, without the ceremonial distinctions it truly deserved!!!

But now the world knows!

A week or two ago I received a recorded call that went something like this,

You have currently reached your plan's limits for certain types of calls including collect calls.  To modify your plan..."

By that time, I hung up in a state of anger.  How did some jerk telemarketer get my cell phone number?  I never give it out.

Those who know me know that two things send my blood pressure through the roof:  1) technology that doesn't work, 2) spam email or solicitation calls.  I also hate junk mail of any kind, but the aforementioned all but send me into seizures.  It's about wasting people's time.

I have been dealing with a vast amount of spam email lately, as I've blogged about before.  About a dozen solicitation phone calls come in at the house every day, even though this number is registered on the Do Not Call List.  I literally never answer the land line and have seriously thought about taking it out.  But when the marketeers get my cell phone number, I'm ready to go off the grid, or at least disconnect it!

Today I got a second recorded call from the same telemarketer.  I was insane with anger.  I called AT&T.  Nothing much they can do.  The representative suggested putting my number on the Do Not Call List (888.382.1222 or donotcall.gov).  No way.  Then you get calls from all of the charitable organizations that are exempt from not using the numbers on the list and now have your number because it is now on the list.

So, while I was currently enraged, I decided to call the 318 number and give them a piece of my mind.

Apparently, I called a prison in Louisiana.  I had received a collect call from an inmate at some prison in Louisiana.

Good Grief!

Do I know anyone who is in prison?  (Yes, a former employee.)  Do I know anyone who is in prison in Louisiana?  (Not that I know of...)

I asked why prisoners were being allowed to make telemarketing calls from inside the prison.  They aren't.  The inmate is calling me collect.  The call is not a telemarketing call.  It's a collect call from an inmate.

So, the operator took my number, created a username and password for me, and blocked my number from being reachable from anyone in the prison.  The username and password keeps my number from being re-authorized by anyone other than myself.

Some days, life is just weird.

Related articles

• How to Sue Telemarketers and Win (pcworld.com)

You know, official declarations are often a bit slippery.  I'm about to issue one such declaration now:  I'm declaring the computer hard drives officially recovered, restructured, and now in the process of backing up both on and off site.  I say it's a bit of a slippery declaration because I will probably find small things yet undone even weeks from now—things you rarely use or think about.  We'll see.

The desktop computer now has two new 2TB drives in it.  One of those drives is the freshly cleaned and thinned system drive.  The 4TB Drobo is now working again (It was a catastrophic mess!) as an onsite Tim Capsule backup system for the desktop computer.  The faulty iTunes library disk has been replaced with a 1T external hard drive, and all of the files have been carefully (and tediously too, might I add) copied over through iTunes itself, thus recreating the entire iTunes library from scratch--to minimize future issues.

I'm guessing about one more full week before everything is completely backed up on and off site.  The desktop computer had over 2,000,000 files on it!  (My god.  I need to simplify my life!)  In the meantime, the 20+ MB internet connection feels like molasses.

It has been a horrid week.  But the treachery is now declared officially over!

Related articles

• Oh Horrid Tragedy (timtyson.us)
• iTunes bankruptcy, step one: The Great Purge (tuaw.com)

Aside from the dreadful bondage of my being chained to my computers as I rebuild hard drives, the weather here in Manhattan Beach has been a delightful change:  heavy overcast, cool, and a steady drizzle!  I love it!!

I've really been fortunate to live in and around very beautiful areas.  The South Bay area is quite lovely.  Last weekend was so typical:  gorgeous sunny weather on the coast.  Saturday featured a day trip to Palos Verdes and Rancho Palos Verdes, just south of Manhattan Beach.  Sunday featured a day trip north to Malibu.

So here are some photos (shot by the HU) and a brief video (shot by the iPhone 4 in HD!).  Clicking on any of the photos will open slightly larger versions of them. (Many monitors may be too small to seethe video in HD. Just scroll to the right. Mouse over the video and click on the "Play Full Screen Button," which looks like a tiny square on the extreme right above the word "Close." The button does not appear until you mouse over the video.)  Holding the iPhone steady in the wind is a huge challenge!

Enjoy!

My main computer has had its 1T startup disk fail.  After nearly 24 hours of working on it, I at least have it running again.  I've had to take another 1T internal drive and make it the new start up drive with OS 10.6.x.  So far, I've had success getting all of my document files, my upgrades and installs files, and numerous supplemental system files off of the bad drive and onto the new startup drive.

I have now successfully copied the movie files folder, the music and pictures folders over to the newly purposed drive.  These contain literally hundreds of thousands of files representing hundreds of gigabytes.  Fingers crossed:  I don't think any of the files I copied over were corrupted.

The final step is reinstalling all of my applications.  I've reinstalled all of the smaller, simpler applications.  Now I've tackled the enormous applications that take hours and hours each:  Logic, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop Extended, etc.  This entire process will take at least a week!  Then I can have Apple replace the bad hard drive.

What a mess!  But again, I am soooo thankful for Backblaze, which is my off site backup service.  I know that even if I can't get all of my files off of the bad drive, I can get them from Backblaze.  I also have to extol the virtues of my password and serial number management system, 1Password.  I would be considerably more frustrated with the reinstallation of all of my software if I had to go digging around for my over 500 serial numbers.

And, as if fate has it in for me, my iTunes 500 GB music library drive, which had given me problems earlier and lost all of its data (and had to be restored from Backblaze!), is having issues again.  I just replaced it with a 1T drive, as it was almost full, which may have contributed to its issues.  So, while I've been reinstalling software on my Mac Pro, I've been painstakingly making certain that all of my iTunes data is recovered and properly installed through iTunes so it plays correctly.

Even with excellent backup strategies and serial number management, this has been a week in technology hell!  The silver lining:  my system folder has accrued a massive amount of needless, useless clutter through about 10 years of migration from older machines and upgrading the operating system and software.  Now it will be vastly less junked up with useless files.

Related articles

• Backblaze vs. CrashPlan: Mac Backup Smackdown, Round 2 (nytimes.com)
• Backup service Backblaze almost acquired by ... someone (venturebeat.com)
• Petabytes on a budget: How to build cheap cloud storage (backblaze.com)

Working in the yard this morning, trimming back the bougainvilla, a neighbor walked by and said her children couldn't wait to return to the haunted house at our house again this Halloween.

Little do the tiny preci know:  this year's Haunted House will even be more terrifying than last year's!

Throughout my career I had the unfortunate responsibility of dealing with people who "crossed the line.".

I'm specifically thinking of female employees who had former boyfriends with whom they broke up that then began to obsess over them in unacceptable ways that impacted the employee's work environment—hence, my involvement. Some of these women never returned the affections of the men that were obsessed with them—men who could not accept that and responded very bizarrely and inappropriately.

I was watching Anderson Cooper this past week as I traveled. He was reporting on Michigan assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell who has launched a personal crusade against Chris Armstrong, the University of Michigan student body president who is gay. Shirvell seems to have a very dangerous and unhealthy obsession with Armstrong. The University of Michigan certainly thinks so, banning Shirvell, who has even stalked Armstrong with a video camera at Armstrong's parent's home, from being on the university campus.

Astoundingly, the Michigan attorney general didn't see Shirvell's conduct as grotesquely inappropriate for someone in the attorney general's office! Former Michigan district attorneys argue that the current district attorney has tremendous latitude in dealing with this inappropriate conduct. Is he skirting the issue for other reasons completely unacceptable and unbecoming of the office of district attorney?

Shirvell claims he is engaging in a non-personal, political attack against Armstrong, calling him slanderous names, drawing a swastika on his picture, and vilifying him, even though the student election has long since been over, and Shirvell isn't even a student at the university. Among other things, he has created a blog completely dedicated to attacking this young man.

Shirvell claims some religious exemption to the boundaries of decency as he attacks what he claims is Armstrong's homosexual agenda. Thank goodness Armstrong is strong enough to stand up to this attack, unlike so many other young men and women who have taken their lives recently under this kind of unconscionable attack.

This is just bizarre! Shirvell has crossed the line. He's gone way too far. He reminds me of the men who never had their affections returned from the women over whom they obsessed. He should be fired. He should get psychological help. Is he going to be the George Rekers with a Rent-a-boy, the next Larry Craig with a "wide stance?". This is just all too weird!

Believe what you want to believe. Practice your faith. But never, never force your beliefs on anyone else! We already live in enough of a theocracy! And when one breaches the teachings of the very faith s/he uses to excuse the inexcusable, they fundamentally have become no different than the Taliban—using religion as an excuse to oppress and hate. This isn't a principled life of godliness but a heart consumed with evil!

Related articles

• Chris Armstrong On CNN (VIDEO): Andrew Shirvell's Blog 'Hurtful' (huffingtonpost.com)

Today was the hottest day (EVER) on record in LA:  113º!

It even reach 100º here in Manhattan Beach.  I had to turn on the air conditioning! Thank god we don't have humidity, or I certainly would be a puddle now.

A dislocation of what we see around us and what we hear; inviting into our lives the voices of people who are not physically present with us.

Even if you don't suffer from it, your children probably do:  encased in the audio world of their earbuds and headphones.

Two types of hearing:

1. Active Listening
2. Passive Hearing

Two types of listening:

1. Reductive Listening:  Listening "for," reduces everything down to what is relevant and discards everything else.  Guys listen reductively
2. Expansive Listening:  Listening "with" not listening "for," no destination in mind.  Women listen expansively

For your health, seek out silence.  Move away from silence with intention.  Seek out the sound of wind, water, and birds. Design soundscapes around you with a foreground, a background—all in balanced proportion.

1. Listen consciously
2. Protect your ears
3. Befriend silence
4. Train your voice
5. Make music
6. Design the soundscapes around you
7. Speak up for quality sound environments around you

Source:  Julian Treasure's TEDGloabl 2010 presentation on Sound Health

My personal favorite earbuds have been the Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10vi Noise-Isolating Headset from Ultimate Ears.  They are not inexpensive, but they produce a beautiful sound quality and isolate noise effectively.  (I simply tune the screaming brat(s) right out of my field of hearing on the plane as I fly.  They were actually purchased as a reaction to the unforgivable Owen incident.)  I therefore find myself listening at reasonable volumes even in very loud environments, like an airplane.

Additionally, this small headset produces a very nice quality bass response and includes a microphone in the wire.  I love them and have blogged about (reviewed) them before here.  Perhaps the next time I purchase earphones, I will spring for the rather expensive and completely personalized Ultimate Ears Custom In-ear Monitors which sell for almost $1,400 and contain 6 proprietary speakers per monitor.  You go to an audiologist who creates an ear mold which Ultimate Ears uses to create the body of the Monitors so they fit you perfectly.

Of curious note:  Ultimate Ears has an iPhone App that measures the SPL (sound pressure level) around you and promotes their products and the bands that use them.

As a trained musician, I've always been very attentive to my hearing and find that to have paid off significantly.  I am frequently told I hear things other my age no longer can hear at all, including the annoying ticking of the HU's watch.  I have routinely avoided listening at high levels all of my life or even being in loud environments.  In fact, I've even attended concerts with my fingers in my ears as the sound was unquestionably unhealthily loud.  Call me a fanatic:  I greatly enjoy my sense of hearing.

Related articles:

• Sound health in 8 steps: Julian Treasure on TED.com (ted.com)
• Listen up: Protect hearing; turn down sound (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Ultimate Ears SuperFi 4 Noise Isolating Earphones [Daily Deal] (blippitt.com)
• Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitors Now Available (mashable.com)

For years now, I have been a huge fan of Vlad Gerasimov's work at Vladstudio, @vladstudio, where this Russian digital artist shares desktop designs, e-cards, apps and games, and much more that are brilliantly creative and beautiful.  He provides each of his nearly 700 desktops in virtually every imaginable size one would ever need (over 60!!), for single monitors, double monitors, even triple!  They are also available for mobile devices: phones, ipads, etc.  A design perfectionist, everything about his site is beautifully and organically presented.

But I am always stricken with the beauty and the creativity of his work.  I invite you to click on his image below, The Birth of the Night Fury, suitable for the upcoming Halloween season, to go to his site.  Awesomeness!

Another absolutely perfect Fall day!

The Friday laundry cycle has begun.

In a few minutes I'll be off to the Tonsorial Parlor for another amazing haircut.  My hair is so long now, I'm not sure if it improves or interferes with the neighbors satellite TV reception.

Then, it's off to the cleaners to drop off and pick up.

Next is the grocery shopping.  (I know.  Unbelievable.)

And after catching up on emails, I'll wrap up the day with the writing project.

Full day.

Today is my annual post proclaiming my love for the Fall season!  I know I should have posted this yesterday, but I have a good reason for waiting until today.

This summer, the marine layer which blankets the south bay area and is frequently referred to as the May Gray or the June Gloom, has visited more days than it has not here along the ocean.  To be honest, it's been quite depressing and cold—very, very cold!  Oddly, just a few miles north or east, and the marine layer routinely gave way to brilliant sunshine.  Yesterday, the first day of Fall, was yet again, another day of the gloomy, foggy, heavy, thick marine layer.

But last night we had a gorgeous Harvest Moon and today:  no marine layer.  I can actually see that the angle of the sun has dramatically changed and speaks of Fall.  The days are certainly shorter, the maple tree across the street is turning, and my favorite season begins.

Delight!

[Image source (top right):   raymaclean @ flickr; click to enlarge Ray's photo]
[Image source (bottom two):  me:  Maine,  October, 2008]

Related articles:

• Where's the Sun this Summer? (laist.com)
• Unusually cold July in L.A. brings more drizzle, less sizzle (latimesblogs.latimes.com)

Caption:  "It's your anniversary – break out the bubbly."

Yesterday was my first visit to The Tonsorial Parlor -- a barbershop/hair salon in Manhattan Beach.

I have been searching for the past 2.5+ years for a good place to get my haircut. I found a guy that did a great job. The salon where he worked was just ridiculously expensive. While he always cut my hair waaaaaaay too short, it was an even, non-lumpy haircut. Then one day, he was gone. The other places I have tried give horrid haircuts.

Yelp sent out an email focused on barbershops and hair salons in my area. As much as I use Yelp, I'm surprised I hadn't thought about using it find a barbershop. The name of this one caught my eye: The Tonsorial Parlor. The reviews were extremely complimentary. One customer writes:

Tonsorial Parlor is a real gem, a cozy, funky, one-of-a-kind fusion of hair salon and barber shop. It looks like something straight out of a Clint Eastwood western, boasts a highly competent staff who charge very fair prices and sits just blocks from the beach. 

Dale, who has cut my hair here for decades, epitomizes the place. He's also a stage and screen actor, a talented musician, a martial arts master, drives a motorcycle to work and serves as a cowboy on cattle drives. He probably could do anything for a living. He CHOOSES to do this. And I choose to drive 30 miles to just to get my haircut here. Now you know why..."

The photos of the shop on the web site were out there cool. It was reasonably priced. I had to visit.

I sent the owner a text message to set up my appointment. Not only did he live up to the rave reviews of his customers, his shop is way cool. He has been in business there for nearly 40 years I think.

This is absolutely one of, if not THE, best haircuts I've ever had. Need a reasonably priced barbershop in the south bay area? You have got to go see Dale!