A cry for help...

Gosh, I can't think of what to say.

Literally.

I've had weeks when I felt better, but then, that's not altogether unprecedented. Day after tomorrow (Monday) I've got more heart surgery, but again that's hardly novel either (note the use of the term "more" surgery). Even ranting about Little George doesn't excite me much right now.

*Sighs.*

Oh, and I don't "do" April Fools Day. It's always struck me as an excuse for wanton cruelty. Yes, some things are at least relatively harmless ("Do you have Prince Albert in a can?), but most are designed to find humor in building up a persons expectations and then dashing them. Oh joy. What fun.

BTW, the image is copyright and TM Studio Ghibli, from the excellent film "My Neighbor Totoro". It's now out on DVD -- Buy it. It's well worth it.

I guess I could ask for a bit of help. There's a piece of music I've been looking to identify for years. I don't have a clip of it to post here. If I did, I guess I'd know what it is and not have to ask. It's used (or was when last I visited) in the film in the French pavillion at Epcot. It's used in the film "Beauty and the Beast" in the opening under the narration. And in the Woody Allen / Peter Sellers version of Casino Royale, it's played onscreen by David Niven (at the piano). I've long suspected it's by DeBussy, and it's identified as such in Casino Royale. I've looked and listened for years, and never been able to identify it. Sad, really, since it's obviously something famous, and my cultural education seems to be lacking. Anyone able to help?

Piper's been hard at work on the new server. We fimnally (!!!) recieved the final missing parts yesterday, and today she got the furschlugginer thing built. Next we (read: Piper) get to install the OS, software, and test the heck out of it. Then we migrate the Site and bring it up. I figger at the current rate we'll have everything in place by roughly, oh, 2055.

While I'm writing this, we've been watching SVU on the DVR. Would that sentence make a lick of sense to anyone from, say, 1995? Even 2000? For that matter, try explaining "blog" to someone from "2000". I'd be happy to try -- anyone got a spare time machine available?

What the heck did we all do before we had computers at home? (This question doesn't apply to anyone born after, oh, 1975.) How'd we fill the time? I was never a particularly heavy TV viewer, but I did one heck of a lot of reading. Books. On paper. I still read things on paper. The New York Daily News. Magazines. A few books that aren't available in any other form. The rest is either on the computer or, more likely, on my PDA. It's just so convienent carrying a whole stack of books in something the size of a slim paperback.

Power grab...

I grew up in the era of LBJ and Tricky Dick. If either one of them had tried to arrogate this much power, well, there'd be holy hell to pay. I hope there will be now. I don't care if it's Little George or President Hillary or anyone in between, NO president should have that much power. They talk about the "slippery slope? I fear we're well down it and teetering at the falling-off point.

Click This!

Just a few things I've run across that you might find of interest...

If you like all things Disney but are a bit lost with all the changes they're going through, these links might give you a bit of perspective.

It's not that I've lost my interest in politics. Here's one site I check out every day. WARNING: It's a liberal Democratic site, so persons who aren't might risk seeing something that doesn't conform to their worldview. Okay, okay. But keep in mind I'm a conservative Republican. So think just how disgusted I've gotta be with whats going on to faithfully follow TPM.

BTW, ya see the Donald over there? It's copyright and TM 2006 by Disney. Just giving them their props. Speaking of ducks (we were, weren't we?) who do you consider the best "duck" artist? The acknowledged master is, of course, Carl Barks, the "good duck man". Some prefer Keno Don Rosa, the spiritual successor of Carl Barks. Others prefer other artists (well, duuh!). There's too many to list here. Who's your favorite?

G'night, all!

Nothing Much...

I'm still generally feeling better than I was before the defibrillater/pacemaker was installed. There's been good days and bad days, of course, but all-in-all the good days have been more common this month.

This isn't to say I'm feeling anything like I did before the heart attack. I get up to do stuff at 10 in the morning, and by 2 PM I'm just about ready to nap for the rest of the day. *sighs* Oh, well. I do what I can.

One sad thing is that I used to be a neat freak. Well, that's gone now, given my inbility to do more than the minimal amount of stuff around the house. (Can you say sty?) Piper and Pickles do their best to help, of course, but the bottom line is that there's lots of things I used to be able to do that I can't do any more. At one point the two of them decided to give my place a good housecleaning. I tried to help, just a bit, and within less than ten minutes I'd collapsed and wound up in the emergency room that evening (and inpatient for several days, too!).

In cooking, well, lets just say that the microwave has been my friend. And no, modern pacemakers don't freak at microwave ovens. Much. (err...) I have to worry more about things like, of all possibilities, security arches. I've been told by the doctors that, reassurances in the literature to the contrary, it would be a Bad Thing for me to dawdle in a store's security arch, and, oh yeah, don't even think about going through a metal detector. *shrugs* I'm told that I show them my "implanted device" ID card and the TSA folks will take me around the arch and do a 'pat down' search. Oh, that sounds like fun.

Enough of the 'pity party'. I'm alive and vertical, which is a whole heck of a lot better than the alternative. Piper and Pickles have been better friends than I deserve, and it's largely through their efforts I'm doing as well as I am.

Been a while...

Dang! Has it REALLY been a year-and-a-half since I've left a posting? Umm, yeah.

There's reasons. There are always reasons. It's the GOOD ones that are harder to come by.

Yeah, the '04 election was more than a bit demoralizing. It'd be even more demoralizing if I thought it was an honest result. Uh, wait, maybe the other way around. Um, let me think on this a bit.

Actually, the biggest contributor to my long silence has been my declining health. Given my heart condition, and then pneumonia, that pretty well knocked the props out from under me for quite a while. In terms of strength, I went from working on the treadmill and doing some weight training three times a week to doing them... um... never. Literally no strength available. I've had all sorts of surgical procedures (lungs scrubbed, anyone?), diagnostic procedures (if you turn out the lights I might just glow a soft green), all of which only helped modestly if at all, and as I went through this all, leaving me with no enthuseasm to do anything.

So, the past few years have had no stories, no blog posts, and darn little of anything else.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa.

About ten days ago I had another round of surgery, this one to implant a defibrillator/pacemaker into my chest. It seems to have gone well. Everything, (I keep being told) is healing nicely. Best of all, though I had been warned to not expect this, I've got a lot more energy to do things, and the motivation to make use of said energy. I s'pose it could be psychosomatic, but if it is I'll take it. It's really nice having the taste to do things again.

Beyond this post, I'm working on a petty-much-total redesign of my web site. There'll be a few new features, if anyone cares. Instead of being primarily for my readers and fasns, this version will be primarily for me. There'll still be my stories and etc, my blog will be linked in, there will be a guestbook (this time for sure!), and the links are ones I use on a quite frequent basis. The reader will be welcome to use them too, but that's not their main reason. (Hey! Look how erudite I am! Lookit alla da classy links!) They'll be there to make it easier for me to organize and use my favorites.

The 'journal' is gone forever. I'll be blogging as the whim takes me, and it'll be about whatever I'm in the mood to vent upon. I'd suspect politics are going to be a part of this, as will selected events in my life, the occasional rant, and whatever few observations I may have worth sharing.

I really don't need to worry about censoring the comments. I'm living off social security disability, and as I understand it that's not likely to change. So no boss to be looking over my shoulder for me to be telling tales out of school. Of course, there are my partners in PP&F NetWorks (Bill and Piper) who aren't necessarily happy with this philosophy, but I don't report to them, just as they don't report to me, and besides I've never actually made a nickel off the company. It's doing well, well enough to be self-sustaining, but not so well that it's providing me with the lap (or any other body parts) of luxury.

Just for the record, what I blog here is my personal opinion, and doesn't represent the views of my partners nor of PP&F NetWorks, LLC. They do represent my personal opinions, though, and despite the fact that I have no desire nor intent to defame nor libel anyone, my comments might be a bit harsh. (Darn! I miss having a moustache to twirl.)

Just remember to apply the administrations mantra. If you like what I'm doing, I dood it all myself and the credit and glory goes all to me. Iff'n you hate it, well there were many hands contributing, mistakes were made, and IT'S NOT MY FAULT!

What, again?

Yeah, it has occurred to me that so far my posts are overwhelmingly about politics. Ah, well, the election season ends next week (although it might be superseded by a judicial season) and then I can get to other topics.

I've been doing a fair amount of reading this week:

How much failure will it take for this country for realize that George W. Bush is a security risk? How many weapons and explosives must slip into the hands of murderers? How many terrorist leaders must slip out of our grasp? How long will Osama Bin Laden sit laughing at Bush for his incompetence? I like to think I understand this country. But this one is beyond me. How can anyone take Bush seriously as Commander in Chief? The man is a coward, personally and professionally. He has done more to undermine the armed forces of this country than any president in American history. We are vulnerable as never before. And for some reason, Bush still gets credit for "leadership." - Siva Vaidhyanathan from today's Altercation.

Haven't you seen enough political ads YET?

The latest video tape of al Qaqaa unearthed by a local ABC affiliate and now picked up nationally seems like pretty much game, set, match.

Then there's the annoying trait of the Bush folks to take whatever his opponent says and twist it into some strange Orwellian version of "spin".

And, of course, here's what George thinks of You:

'Nuff said!

- Kim