Rare Photo!

For all who appreciate the outdoors . . . the rarely photographed South Florida Squirrel.

Happy Thanksgiving

from Arlo too!

Amelia Loves Halloween

Mrs. Baird’s Bread – Delivered in style!

Sunrise in Texas

Judith Reagan: Why I Did It

Ok, so you’ve probably heard of the big brouhaha about the publishing of O.J. Simpson’s book “If I Did It“. Now assuming for a minute, and that’s about my limit for this assumption, that Mr. Simpson didn’t murder Ms. Brown and Mr. Goldman why would I believe for a second that he would have any expertise or insight into how it was done, or should have been done? Seriously, who gives a rip how Simpson thinks his wife should have been murdered?

In my opinion what this is all about is a guy trying to cash in on his celebrity and pocket some bucks. Lots of celebrities do this but most manage to do it without rehashing a horror that many Brown and Goldman family members have been trying to put behind them.

So, as far as I’m concerned, we know why O.J. is writing this book but who in the world would he possibly get to publish it? Judith Reagan of ReaganBooks to the rescue. We don’t have to wonder why Ms. Reagan is publishing this book, she’s making the media rounds to insure that everyone knows. It seems when the person Reagan refers to as “The Killer” approached her about writing a book, Reagan’s first thought was that she could get O.J. to confess in public. She was so sure of this that she put up $3.5 million so that we, the general public, and the Brown/Goldman families could finally have some closure on this subject.

Reagan’s stated reasons for publishing this book:

1. The book would be titled “Why I Did It“.
2. O.J. would confess to the crimes.
3. The money would go to O.J.’s children.

Oh Judith, you are such a noble person, helping humanity like this without any consideration for yourself. Unfortunately for us, and Judith, here’s what is actually happening:

1. The book is titled “If I Did It“.
2. O.J. does not confess to the crimes but blames them on someone he calls Charlie.
3. The money went directly to O.J. who will spend it as he sees fit. Maybe on his children.

It seems that Judith Reagan is suffering a little from the Ken Lay syndrome. Either she can be an opportunistic money grubber profiting from the suffering of others or she is a noble but naive publisher who got schnookered by that slippery devil O. J. “The Killer” Simpson.

I’ve already jumped to a conclusion, you can jump to your own. When you land, watch out for my toes.

My First Personal C Compiler

I was rooting around in a stack of old stuff this morning and I stumbled across my very first personal C compiler. I had worked with C compilers at work but this is the first one I ever purchased myself. I can remember how excited I was when this arrived – I mean, I can sit at home and write C programs! Amazing.

Do you love the hand written label?

iPod Nano Software Downgrade 1.3

Let me start at the beginning. First the earth cooled and then not much happened until Apple invented the iPod. The iPod revolutionized the portable music industry but, even more important, made portable audio books a reality.

OK, sure, I’d been listening to audio books before I had an iPod but my 1st generation 10GB iPod changed everything. I had a means to carry audio books with me and listen to them anywhere.

The only problem with my original iPod was that it had a tendency to forget the current position in an audio book. On a 3 minute song this isn’t that big of a deal but on an 8 hour audio book it tends to piss people off.

As the years went by I learned to live with this iPod disability. Each time I’d listen to songs or sync the iPod I’d carefully note the current position of my audio book so I could manually reset it after the iPod forgot it. This got to be second nature.

About a year ago I bought an iPod Nano and discovered that in the intervening 5 years Apple hadn’t made any progress with this problem. The Nano was just as st00pid in remembering audiobook position as my original 10GB.

Then – a miracle – iPod updater 1.2 was released for the Nano and fixed the position memory problem. No kidding it actually worked. Of course, 1.2 had a bug that would freeze the menu system for a few seconds when resuming playback of an audiobook but at least it maintained my position. I happily lived with the periodic freezes never knowing if they were related to the position miracle or not.

It got to the point that I no longer even took notice of my book position. After all, iPod’s got my back!

Then, just when you thought it was safe to trust Apple again, I received iPod Nano updater 1.3. 1.3 fixes the menu freeze problem – Yay! Unfortunately it does this by returning to the forgetful nature of iPods past. Yep, updater 1.3 reverts the software to once again forget your audio book position. Of course 1.3 offers a whole slew of features for the Nike iPod, whatever the hell that is, but, for me it is just a huge downgrade.

How can an innovative company like Apple not have solved this problem after 5+ years?

Desperate Sunday

Betsy Devine reports that groups of desperate Republicans are making hail-Mary like attempts to scare Americans into keeping them in power.

If you want to be scared take a moment to think about the $8.6 trillion national debt the Republicans have run up in the past 6 years. Talk about weakening a country! When Clinton left office the US had a budget surplus for the first time in decades. Mr. Bush and his crew promptly gave that away in the form of tax refunds and then started their war on terror.

Before you go to the polls on Tuesday (and PLEASE go vote) think about how much money $8.6 trillion is and the kind of country you want to leave for your children.

Cowsill Saturday

So, I was sitting here honing my considerable skills of doing nothing and a thought occurred to me – What ever happened to The Cowsills?

Ok, I know I could do an Internet search but I’m way too lazy for that. So, I’ll just make up some shit. Ha ha – just kidding – an Internet search is well within my limited skill set and then I can clue you in on shit other people made up.

For those of you who have no idea who The Cowsills are/were (and you’re still reading, why?) they were a pop group composed of members of – wait for it – the Cowsill family. Kind of like the real life Partridge Family minus the red haired kid who grew up to become Danny Bonaduce.

The group was composed of Barbara Cowsill, the mom, and her kids Susan, Billy, Bob, John, and Barry. Their crowning achievement, and probably what they are best known for, is the music for the 60’s rock musical Hair.

While conducting armchair research on this subject I discovered that there is currently a movement to have The Cowsills nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is awesome and I encourage you to lend your support to this effort.

Another fun fact I discovered is that The Cowsills lived on a farm which apparently still makes jelly. How much land do you suppose it takes for a jar of jelly to graze?

Finally, and with much sadness, I learned that some of The Cowsills have passed on to the big rock show in the sky. Barry Cowsill died last year in New Orleans during or shortly after Hurricane Katrina. He was only 51. There was a time in my life when 51 seemed pretty old but, these days, it’s well within the only 51 category.

I don’t know if we’ll see a big revival of Cowsill’s music but I’d like to see them in the Hall of Fame – maybe Shirley Jones and her TV kids could host the event. What is Susan Dey up to anyway – ah, I’m way to busy to think about that today.

So, support the Hall of Fame effort, buy some Cowsill CD’s, and order some jelly.

Don’t sit there staring – get to it!