Recently in USA Category

On occasion you see something so breath-taking you don't have adequate words to describe it.  It's jaw dropping.  Stunning.  I had that experience when I first saw the HD series, Earth, on Blu-ray. The photography was beyond anything I had imagined before.

Well, I suspect that Tom Lowe's (@timescapes) time lapse project, which he has been working on for some time, is going to be another of those stunning visual experiences.  Below is a teaser he posted on Vimeo.  There's time lapse, there's astro time lapse, and there's Tom Lowe's time lapse.  I can't wait to see this finished work.

Also of note, Tyler Ginter (@TylerGinter) who spent some time with Tom helping with a shoot in the fall and learning more about time lapse, has posted a really excellent piece about the art and science of time lapse.  He includes a growing checklist, links to Tom Guilmette's (@TomGuilmette) tutorial on setting up the Kessler Cineslider, Philip Bloom's (@PhilipBloom) tutorial on post, and a behind the scene shot of setting up Tom's Natural Bridge time lapse sequence.  It's really a great post.  The checklist is awesome.

When you watch the time lapse below, which is a teaser for his upcoming film, be sure to go into full screen mode.

In her latest exhibit, The City, artist and fine-art photographer Lori Nix designed a miniature, detailed, deserted world being reclaimed by nature.  I've never seen anything quite like this before.  Each miniature 3D diorama took between 2 to 15 months to create in all of its painstaking detail.  Each was created to be photographed or filmed in such a way as to make them look virtually life sized.

The collection, for some reason, reminded me of my visit to Pompeii—peering into a far off world that once was but is no more. It's a bit eerie and unsettling to consider what our world today would look like as ancient ruins. Her exhibit brings us to that place.

View photos of her exhibit at the link above; or, click on the image below to watch a video of  her diorama, The Map Room.

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)

What is the central theme of all of Judeo-Christian faith according to the writings protestant and Catholic believers alike call their holy scriptures--the greatest commandment from God, the central tenet, the core, the essence and centerpiece of all of Christianity? I'm assuming my conservative, religious friends know the answer to this. It came directly from the mouth of Jesus Christ when he was asked what the greatest commandment is. The scriptures state it explicitly: Love the lord your God with all of your heart.

Jesus Christ goes on to state that the second greatest commandment is much like the first one above: Love your neighbor, your fellow people, like you love yourself.

This is easy. If we boil all of faith practice down to the most important two things, according to the "head guy," it would be to love God with all your heart, and love other people just as you love yourself. That sums it all up. We are to think no more of ourselves than others and both within a context of loving God.

How far organized Christian faith practice has moved from these, the greatest, most important commandments.

When I think of Christianity today, sadly, I think of religious hucksters trying to dominate the media landscape*. I think of the merging of church and capitalism and politics. I think of "it's all about me," theocracy, lies and deceit, hate and anger, subjugation, mega-churches with unprecedented entertainment-focused services and extraordinary lifestyle centers. I think of a Machiavellian adherence to a political and social agenda that will vastly enrich and empower a few while spiritually bankrupting a nation. But above all, I think about money. Big money. Massive amounts of money, money, money.

Before his death, Jerry Falwell had an annual revenue of $8.9 million. James Dobson has an annual revenue of $138 million. Pat Robertson has an annual revenue of an astounding $459 million. What?!

But, at the same time, I think of good people, decent people who sincerely want to do what is right, want to love God, who believe they need to help others but are being misled.

Forty million Americans are currently worried about feeding themselves. Many are children. Why isn't the Christian church leadership spending vast resources placing this issue before believers as a cause for substantive action? Millions of Americans have lost their homes because of broken government and economic greed. Why isn't the Christian church leadership spending a vast amount of its resources placing this issue before believers as a cause for action?

Perhaps the Christian church today is a bit over extended with huge debt of its own? Perhaps the Christian church today is pre-occupied with divisive issues as it tries to win their so-called "culture wars" in America. Perhaps the Christian church today finds it easier to continue a well practiced pattern of dismissive condemnation of real people rather than following the more demanding commandments of Jesus Christ himself.

I fear that the Christian church today is reaping what it has sown for the past three decades--failed leadership . Its emphasis on mega-facilities and the contentious and political have rendered it irrelevant and have made it impossible for the church to address Jesus Christ's second greatest commandment: treat everybody else as well as you treat yourself. People are in the streets with no food or shelter or medical attention while churches argue over what lattes and ciders to sell in the mega-vestibule while the carolers sing among the 30 live Christmas trees. We pretentiously dismiss the needy as reaping the results of their own sin rather than doing the hard work of that second commandment from Jesus.  Is 50% of the church's income meeting the very real and pressing needs of people in the community outside the congregation?  Would that be in the spirit of the second commandment?

When our nation desperately needs the due diligence of sincere and meaningful faith practice to address the real needs of real people with enormous problems, the church is over-extended, out of focus, and incapable of stepping up to the call of Christ.  Christianity only represents one third of the people on this planet, and it is failing that one third!

Perhaps the church is more healthy than I think it is. Perhaps the religious, fundamentalist, ultra-conservative, "it's all about me" shill that dominates the media landscape is only a tiny fraction of the Christian church made to appear larger and more mainstream by its volume, its persistence, and its annoying divisiveness. I certainly hope so.

So I'm advocating for a populist movement. I'm advocating for good people everywhere to turn it off, stop giving it money, stop walking in the doors of those self-serving churches that are not focused on doing Jesus' commandment. I'm advocating for good people everywhere to start helping others one on one if need be, to do the work of the first and second greatest commandments. Return to the central theme, the core, the essence of faith practice.

"They will know we are Christians    b y    o u r    l o v e."

*I'll spare everyone the examples of each of the items in this list. Most people could think of their own from the media.

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
• We Need a Populist Movement-Part 5: Faith Practice (this post)

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)

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

It's pretty simple, really.

I can not imagine a United States in which women were not allowed to vote, in which they were considered more as a man's property, his birthright, his just reward for manhood.  I can't imagine a United States in which black people were considered property, slaves, people owned and bred for the profit of white men.  I simply can not imagine a United States in which entire nations of people, the American Indians, were exterminated because white men wanted what was theirs.

And to do these things in the name of a god, a deity, a faith practice that holds to some ancient tenets most of 21st century civilization finds barbaric and so out of touch with present reality as to be rendered irrelevant superstitions is appalling, oppressive, and the very definition of evil.

Now don't misunderstand, I think people should be allowed to practice their chosen faith but within constraints that will be the content of the upcoming post on faith practice.  Denying the civil right of marriage to inter-racial couples is the stuff of antiquity.  To deny same sex couples the right to marriage is also the product of a similar hate-filled thinking process.  To deny gay men and women from serving in the military is just as ignorant, intolerant, and, like the aforementioned marriage issues, the product of forcing a narrowly defined faith practice on people who do not hold to the teachings of that ancient religious belief system.

Additionally, the whole marriage concern poses another interesting issue.  The church claims that they must "defend the traditional definition of marriage." That tradition is, of course, born in the very religious intolerance of which I've already written.  In other words, marriage is a curious legal and religious institution in which church and state are not separate. The founding fathers built as a major and fundamental tenet of this nation the separation of church from the state.  They, after all, had fled the religious tyranny of the protestant British Empire, though Sarah Palin might think it was the North Koreans.

I strongly, adamantly advocate for the separation of church and state.  Obviously, in the context of marriage, we need, as a nation, to explore this intermingling of the two.  The two must be separated!

As I have written before, if a church does not want to "endorse" or participate in a same sex couple's marriage because that marriage is inconsistent with the ancient teachings of their church, teachings to which they choose to adhere [are any of them out there still doing blood sacrifices?], then they should not be required to.  But for any religious body to try to inflict their faith practice on others is unacceptable and completely out of touch with the fundamental and founding tenets of this nation.

I frankly am glad that the religious front organization, the bogusly named Family "Research" Council, was labeled a "hate group" the day before yesterday by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Indeed, they are a hate group.  They are trying to force their hate-filled beliefs about a minority group on the nation as a whole.

Their activist agenda is immoral. Their activist agenda perpetuates a culture of hate and intolerance that continues to encourage and even endorse violent words, verbal assaults, bullying, taunting, physical assaults, murders, suicides, verbal abuse, distrust, and hatred. This can not be tolerated by those who value the separation of church and state, who value tolerance, understanding, civility, and who aspire to live by the golden rule. Their activist position is the antithesis of American values, is the antithesis of who I believe God to be and what God wants of people.  And while this post will not be popular with some of my very conservative friends, I believe in my soul that my position is the moral and just one that will stand the test of time.

People can oppose marriage and military service equality and not be a hate group.  I can respect that.  And for those who find the notion of same sex marriage and inter-racial marriage something loathsome, then I invite them to live by the simple words Whoopie Goldberg recently said, just "Don't get one.". It's pretty simple really; isn't it.  In the land of the free and the home of the brave, no one will force them to.  They simply must stop trying to force their chosen, narrowly defined, religious beliefs on those who do not accept them as the teachings of a loving, relevant God.

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 (this post)
• We Need a Populist Movement-Part 4: Journalism
• We Need a Populist Movement-Part 5: Faith Practice

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.  :)

Follow the money.

I personally think that our nation's government has never been so broken or dysfunctional in my lifetime. And I completely agree with Larry Lessig on the cause: Congress is beholden to corporate interests above all else because their expensive elections are funded by corporate donations. This is the root cause; therefore, fixing how elections are funded is step one--priority one.

To say I was flabbergasted and horrified by the Supreme Court's decision to allow corporations to make unfettered and undisclosed contributions to our elected officials would be an understatement!

I truly am naïve enough to believe deeply in "We the people..."  We are a noisy bunch, filled with conflicted interests and ideas, but basically I think people believe in taking care of people.  Corporate interests believe in increasing profits, and all too often their focus is just on this quarter.  The future be damned.

And, regrettably, those who run the increasing number of "too big to fail" transglobal companies in this nation (another huge mistake) are raking in disproportionate levels of income.  I'm sorry, but in the world according to Tim, unless one cures cancer or AIDS or provides humankind with a clean way to live fossil fuel-free or some other noble gift to our species, no one is worth an annual income of $10 million or more--no one: not me, not you, not anyone else.

So how to address this mess in which we find ourselves:  government caring more about monied interests than the average person on the street?  I'm advocating for a populist movement:  support the Fair Elections Now Act.  You can learn more about it at Fix Congress First.  Fix Congress First has no political agenda, no party affiliation.  It's only focus is correcting how we fund our elections.

Until we return government back to "We the people..." we will continue to see our elected officials serve as the puppets of monied interests and not the people of this nation.

In the next day or two I'll publish another in this series.

Related Posts at tt.us

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

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

Healthcare
I saw Keith Olbermann's show (see the clip at this link) where he hosted Michael Moore, producer of Sicko, and Wendell Potter, former Vice President of corporate communications at CIGNA, one of the United States' largest health insurance companies, and author of Deadly Spin. Potter apologized to Moore for his massive, industry-funded, carefully-crafted efforts to discredit him and his movie. Potter goes on to say that Sicko is indeed factually correct, and the insurance industry feared that the movie would create a populist uprising against the detestable insurance industry whose practices actually kill tens of thousands of decent, hard working Americans every year.

The fact that the insurance industry has been so successful in keeping Americans from embracing substantive, deep healthcare reform in this country astounds me beyond belief.  It's not even healthcare.  It's a gravy train for insurance investors.

This fabricated bogus label, "Obama-care," is such a farce!  Obama's successful healthcare initiative didn't go far enough!  Currently "Super Wealthy (and they're republicans as Deadly Spin reveals) Capitalist Assholes Getting Even Richer While You Die-care" is what we actually have until the healthcare reform kicks in.  The industry maximizes profits when they deny your claims.  And the loud-mouthed Tea Party wants to give these fat cats what they want?!  Another well-funded farce front group for monied interests.

What of the deficit? Fix it on the back of those making the most money.  Oh, but wait!  They will start squealing about losing jobs?!  What a hoax!  Always calling it anything but what it really is.

America needs a massive, populist movement that demands we balance the budget, not by hurting the average guy on the street, but by reeling in the defense department's out of control spending, among other "security" budgets, farm corn subsidies (which are wrecking the health of this nation!), etc..  Interestingly, this is exactly what a huge percentage of people on Twitter actually think according to this non-scientific survey by the New York Times on what Americans think we should do to balance the budget  (source:  link).  Click to enlarge.

Real people all over this country are sick of capitalism running out of control and hurting the good, common people of this country.

Update:  Michael Moore published this (in part) to his blog on Thanksgiving day.  I don't know Michael, but I think he would be a fascinating person with whom to chat.

All that money spent smearing me because they thought you would get up from your theater seat and start a revolution.

It's a great compliment to you. They fear the power you have. But that's 'cause they're good at math. They know there will always be more of us than there are of them. And unless they can repeal "one person, one vote," they know they are doomed. In the meantime they will try to maintain the power they have by buying off politicians, dumbing us down, distracting us with Dancing/Ice Skating/Drinking with the Stars and getting us so scared we'll acquiesce to having naked pictures taken of us at airports this Thanksgiving weekend. Over the river and through the body scan, to grandmother's house we go...

So let us give thanks tomorrow that the richest 1% begrudgingly know that we are still, on paper at least, in charge. It is, I believe, a glimmer of hope of what we could possibly accomplish in the coming new year.

Source:  Last Thoughts Before the Turkey Comes Calling

In the next day or two I'll publish another "We the People...".

Related Posts at tt.us

• We Need a Populist Movement-Part 1: Healthcare (this post)
• 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
• We Need a Populist Movement-Part 5: Faith Practice

Related articles

• Countdown Introduces Michael Moore to the Health Care Voldemort Who Came in From the Cold (mediaite.com)
• Wendell Potter Apologizes to Michael Moore For His Part to Discredit "Sicko" (crooksandliars.com)
• Michael Moore: They Said They Would Push Me "Off a Cliff" (huffingtonpost.com)
• Wendell Potter: My Apologies to Michael Moore and the Health Insurance Industry (huffingtonpost.com)

Now, I've actually written a lot more than 2,500 posts here at tt.us over the past 6 years, but a good number of them never got published for one reason or another:  they became old news before I finished the post, I was venting and then reconsidered, I waxed insane and recanted...  The list goes on.

So what is Post #2,500 to herald? (I have no idea why I feel it deserves some level of distinction!)

After careful thought and consideration (not!) it turns out this post will be about current events:  The TSA.  I bring you this cartoon from The New Yorker with a concluding thought.

The thought:  Security is an illusion.  It simply doesn't exist.  And with the tawdry junk talk, the man who dropped his trousers and stood there in his underwear, the  poor man whose medical device was yanked from his body leaking urine all over him in front of everyone while he tried to get the TSA to stop before the incident happened, the other cancer survivor made to remove her prosthetic breast for inspection, the pilots union's worries of extended and excessive exposure to harmful levels of radiation from the imaging systems, the list could go on and on...   we have the security scanning option pictured above (source: The New Yorker).

How long will it take before some man or woman boards a plane with something explosive located in a body cavity?  What then, I ask?!

The absurdity needs to stop. Risk is everywhere. Get accustomed to it.

Mike Davidson (of Mike Industries) created a blog documenting his "first-hand chronology of the design, planning, and construction of a modern home in Seattle."  He leaves no stone unturned as he presents the cost of every aspect of the project, frequent posts throughout the project from planning to tear down to completion, complete with a time lapse of the entire event.

This isn't just a blog.  It's a journey! It's massive — lots of great pictures (fixtures, wiring...), lots of granular detail.

I've followed his journey on and off over the course of the year.  Now he has a gorgeous home in Seattle, with stunning views, and he let the world follow along.  Thinking about building?  You'll want to explore his blog, "A House by the Park."

Awesome!

Nostalgia.  The good old days.  The old ways.  Back in the day.

We tend to remember the past all packaged up as warm and glowing.  This morning, for no discernible reason at all, I had a flash back memory from my childhood.  I was a young child visiting my great Aunt Hester—my mother's mother's sister.  My great Aunt Hester had very poor eyesight and had also had cataract surgery.  In those days, the result was very thick glasses that made your eyes look like saucers!  My Aunt Hester, as was so frequently the case, was sitting on the sofa (with the omnipresent National Inquirer at one end) in her den with a flaming wall heater, leaning forward, offering us something good from the kitchen.

While my mother, sister, and I were visiting my great aunt during the day, it was dark outside.  I then recalled that we frequently visited Aunt Hester and Uncle Shelley when it was storming outside.  My mother has had a lifelong fear, no phobia, of lightening.  Most of the visits to Aunt Hester were during thunderstorms.  My mother can't stand to be alone in a thunderstorm.

My great Aunt Easter, the other of my mother's mother's sisters lived too far away to go visit her during a thunderstorm.  My mother wouldn't drive that far—keep in mind it was probably less than 5 miles.  We frequently visited my Aunt Easter and Uncle Frank (pictured to the right), but my father had to drive us that far.

Then I recalled that we would also visit my cousins during thunderstorms, until they moved from up the street to Gulf Breeze.  Naturally, Gulf Breeze was too far to drive, and you had to drive over the 3 mile bridge, which, of course, my mother considered an utter impossibility in those days.  When my cousins lived up the street, several times a summer we would all pile into the car and drive over to the beach.  But Aunt Helen had to do the driving.  It was even further than Gulf Breeze and required traversing two bridges!

How quaint:  not driving too far.

Then I recalled a trip we took with my grandparents.  We had to drive through Atlanta.  Talk about traumatic:  four lanes of cars on I-285 in those days.  Every time a car passed us, naturally my grandfather drove slower than the flow of traffic, my grandmother, sitting in the back seat, would brace herself for a wreck while running her hand down my mother's leg with a sharp inhaling sound.  My mother's leg was raw by the time we got to the hotel in Atlanta.  No, our final destination wasn't Atlanta.  We were heading to South Carolina to visit my great, great Aunt Sophia (pictured to the left wearing a sweater with my grandmother), but the trip from Mobile to Atlanta was a huge journey to us back in those days.

My final morning recollection of the good old days was the fact that my grandmother, who lived to be 92, my great Aunt Easter, who lived to be 77, and my great Aunt Hester, who lived to be 99 (may all of their completely beautiful souls rest in peace) never drove a car, not even once, in their entire lifetimes.  So I guess it shouldn't be considered too odd that my mother never really drove very far.  She was adventurous because she actually would drive!

How quickly times change.

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!

I was just in Atlanta.  On the long flight I read Arianna Huffington's new book, Third World America.  Now, before my conservative friends go off the deep end, this is not a book about left or right, about Democrat or Republican.  This is a book about the assault on the middle class from both parties.

This is a must read for conservatives, for liberals, for members of the Tea Party, for libertarians, well, for every American.  (If you're in the top 1% and are making millions of dollars, you might want to skip this one.)

I admit that at times the numerous examples in the book become a bit tedious, but they do move the story forward by illustrating her points.

Rarely do I read a book in which I think the author just hit the larger issues spot on.  Arianna hits issues spot on.  What she writes resonates with what I have mentioned several times on my blog about my own experiences with the death of the American Dream. The last chapter in her book offers some ideas about how to keep America beholden to "We the people...".

My only point of contention with her book:  She takes an amazingly optimistic view about our capacity as a nation to undo the horrific damage that has been done to the middle class.  I honestly have come to think that, if our nation can be repaired at all, it will not happen in my lifetime.  I do hope I'm wrong.

Here is your link to purchase the book at Amazon.

Related articles

• Arianna Huffington Sees A 'Third World America' (npr.org)
• Arianna Huffington Talks 'Third World America': We Have A 'Surplus Of Talent' That's Not Being Used (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)

All hands on deck!  We're having a real live thunderstorm here in Manhattan Beach.

This is glorious!

Wind.  Rain.  Thunder.  (Haven't seen the lightning, though.)

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!

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!

From Bert P. Krages II's web site:

As the flyer states, there are not very many legal restrictions on what can be photographed when in public view. Most attempts at restricting photography are done by lower-level security and law enforcement officials acting way beyond their authority. Note that neither the Patriot Act nor the Homeland Security Act have any provisions that restrict photography. Similarly, some businesses have a history of abusing the rights of photographers under the guise of protecting their trade secrets. These claims are almost always meritless because entities are required to keep trade secrets from public view if they want to protect them.

He provides a downloadable PDF entitled The Photographer's Right at this link.

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)

This time lapse of Baja, California, by Mike Flores is pretty cool work. I especially appreciate the attention to the music cue and the sunrise about two-thrids of the way through.

On his Vimeo site, Mike says:

This is a little compilation of timelapses I've shot down in Baja California this year. There's a mix of DSLRs and lenses used to shoot this; 5D, 5D2, 7D - 14mm, 16-35mm, 24mm mostly. Motion control via Mumford tables, or my 'servo city' dolly.

Music is by (stolen from) Clint Mansell, "Welcome to Lunar Industries" from the soundtrack to Moon. If you haven't seen Moon, you need to - it's a fantastic film.

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.

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)