My Views, History, and Future

Parenting, roots and wings

2012-01-29T15:36:00.000-08:00

I was talking to a cousin my age, we're in our 50s, about the bittersweet situation of having a high school senior who will be gone next year. I'm proud of her and I think she is ready to move out and on. But boy, will I miss her.

He replies,"Roots and wings. You know, roots and wings. That's what us parents have to care about." I had no idea what he was talking about so he told me that I should keep up on my poetry. Here it is, and I keep saying it to myself, "Roots and wings baby. That's what I care about."

I reproduce it here hopefully protected by fair use. It's quoted from this site.

Roots and Wings Poem

A Child's Bedtime Song

If I had two wishes, I know what they would be

I'd wish for Roots to cling to, and Wings to set me free;

Roots of inner values, like rings within a tree,

and Wings of independence to seek my destiny.

Roots to hold forever to keep me safe and strong,

To let me know you love me, when I've done something wrong;

To show me by example, and helps me learn to choose,

To take those actions every day to win instead of lose.

Just be there when I need you, to tell me it's all right,

To face my fear of falling when I test my wings in flight;

Don't make my life too easy, it's better if I try,

And fail and get back up myself, so I can learn to fly.

If I had two wishes, and two were all I had,

And they could just be granted, by my Mom and Dad;

I wouldn't ask for money or any store-bought things.

The greatest gifts I'd ask for are simply Roots and Wings.

By Denis Waitley

2011 Reading List

2011-04-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

Enders Game - Orson Scott Card
Enders Shadow
How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground- Kevin Poulson
Fall of Giants - Ken Follett
So Much Reform, So Little Change- Charles Payne
April 1865: The Month That Saved America Jay Winik
Magician's Wife:

2009-2010
(looking back from memory)

Randy Couture - Becoming the Natural
Million Dollar Baby, F X Toole
A Fighters Heart Sam Sheridan
Joyce Carol Oates, On Boxing
What's My Name Fool
KIng of the World - David Remick
Playing for Pizza, JOhn Grisham

Terrible news on Mothers Day

2010-05-09T08:16:00.000-07:00

I stop for coffee at Brew whenever I can. Most often, this is a Sunday morning while David is a shul. I like the urban atmosphere, I life the coffee, I like the crowd and some of the staff. I heard terrible news this morning. A staff member that I've chatted with a few times over the last two years was cycling and was hit by a car. She's in the hospital. Yick. The whole thing is too sad to contemplate on this Mother's Day.

I contributed via Paypal to her fund.
http://prollyisnotprobably.com/2010/05/relief_effort_for_crystal_ruiz.php
http://urbanvelo.org/crystal-ruiz-mills-relief-fund/

Crystal Ruiz Mills Relief Fund

From South Florida Fixed:
Crystal Ruiz-Mills, was struck by a motorist at this past weekends Broward County Critical Mass. She is in the hospital with broken vertebrates and has already had surgery to replace the shattered L1 bone in her back. She is suffering through a lot of pain and discomfort. On top of all that. Crystal has a family. Two sons and a really cool husband, Andy. I have set up a donation through the PayPal link below. We can help them through these tough times. Like most of us, Crystal is not covered under any insurance plan. So anything will help.
Crystal has most likely brewed your espresso shots, or poured your morning coffee once or twice if you live in the Fort Lauderdale area. She works at Brew Urban Cafe in Victoria Park. She and her family ride their bikes everywhere because they don’t have a car. She is local artist and photographer. She is an unselfish, caring woman with a giant heart. Anything helps. Thank you.
Visit www.southfloridafixed.com for more info.

Admiral Bob Baylis

2010-04-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

Bob was a close friend of my Mom. He has passed last year. I heard at this funeral, they read this poem by John Masefield.

Sea Fever

I MUST go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky.
And all I ask is a tall ship and a start to steer her by.
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking.
And a gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying.
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the seagulls crying.

I must do down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover.
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

Cats Cradle

2009-08-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

There are two sorts of people in this world: Those that appreciate the literary reference and not just the pun of two people with their soles touching and those that don't.

I loved reading Kurt Vonnegut when I was in high school. I read his final work, A Man Without a Country, when it came out and again, I totally connected to him. I'm sorry he didn't live to see the election of Barack Obama.

My daughter's reading list this year includes Slaughterhouse Five which bothers me in that I have long thought that Cats Cradle was far and away, Vonnegut's best. I'm reading it yet again. Here's a Bokonist ditty (by memory). For me, it encapsules the whole rationale behind this religion thing....

Tigers got to hunt,

Birds got to fly,

Man has to ask why why why.

Tigers got to sleep.

Birds got to land.

Man has to say that he understand.

The Babysitter

2009-08-01T05:24:00.000-07:00

The Babysitter

Ms. McTwitter, the baby sitter.
I think she’s
a little bit crazy.
She thinks that the babysitter
is suppose to sit
on
the baby.

– Shell Silverstein

It doesn't get better or simpler than that.

The Soloist versus the Champ

2009-05-30T17:39:00.000-07:00

By coincidence, I recently watched the DVD of Resurrecting the Champ by Rod Lurie followed by reading Steve Lopez's The Soloist. Both are stories of journalists who get involved with a startling talent who is homeless on skid row. In both cases, the journalists' and homeless men's stories intertwine. Both are apparently based on real stories.

I'm moved by both of them. Steve Lopez's book is frank in his treatment of how difficult and tenuous any progress by Nathaniel Ayers could be.

I also just watched Homeless to Harvard, the Liz Murray Story which is also apparently real. I'm involved with a local feeding program and I contribute to a homeless shelter in NC partially because of the incredible blog kept by the director.

I'm writing since I have a question of Steve Lopez. I'm looking for his guidance on where and how to pursue helping in this arena. The back of the book mentions three websites for more information. Nathaniel's sisters group for the artistically gifted mentally ill and www.lampcommunityhealth.org and www.nami.org.

And, although strictly speaking, it's not really my business, is there a financial arrangement with proceeds going to directly help Nathaniel and/or the Lamp? It's an indiscrete question and I'm particularly aware of it since at one point in the book, Steve Lopze is very upset by being publicly badgered by someone who accuses him of exploiting Nathaniel Ayers' for his own enrichment.

The Soloist movie website promotes three ways to get involved in areas raised in the book: Your Los Angeles story, the role of music in your life (VH1), and TakePart in helping homelessness.

Who chose these? The movie studio or Steve Lopez?

Heh, I found Steve Lopez online, I wonder if he tracks trackbacks?

The Irony of General Motors & HR Benefits

2009-04-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

I wish I had time to properly research this article and write. There's a huge irony about GM and benefits which the press seems to have missed.

Essentially, GM is going bankrupt for a few reasons: High among them is the cost of paying for their retiree and health care benefits. It's easy to think of GM as a victim. Except that they're not: it's just a big case of what goes around, comes around.

Long ago, there were no retirees benefits. There were no pensions. There was no health care coverage. If my memory of history serves me correctly, in the 20s, a hot public policy and corporate question was how to handle these possibilities.

GM showed leadership. They felt that they good build worker loyalty (and dependence) if their workers' retirement benefits and health care was provided by the company and that long-term service was required to earn a retirement. It was a deliberate corporate strategy to lock-in their works and limit their ability to move around. It built long-term relationships and sweet benefits into the package. This was not foisted on GM; GM pioneered it and like it and even endorsed the tax issues that allowed corporate health care benefits to be tax deductible. They wanted the responsibility.

The irony today is that this strategy of GM's, which worked for almost a century, is now a root cause of their impending bankruptcy. (I'd love comments from anyone who has the details on this).

Bankers whine about conditions on bailout funds....good!

2009-03-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

The New York Times reported today that many bankers, unhappy with the conditions that come with the bailout funds, want to return the money.

I think this is great. Lets keep the conditions for bailout funds very unpleasant. Private for-profit companies should take care of themselves, not use tax payer money.

If they do take tax payer bailout money, then it should have lots of conditions that help build the society and country, not that please the short-term narrow profit focus of the banks.

And I quote....

As public outrage swells over the rapidly growing cost of bailing out financial institutions, the Obama administration and lawmakers are attaching more and more strings to rescue funds.

The conditions are necessary to prevent Wall Street executives from paying lavish bonuses and buying corporate jets, some experts say, but others say the conditions go beyond protecting taxpayers and border on social engineering.

Editors note: What a bunch of whining wankers. They shouldn't ask for help and then complain that it comes with conditions. They should have run their companies better and not be crawling to the government asking for help and then, whining about the conditions.

Some bankers say the conditions have become so onerous that they want to return the bailout money. The list includes small banks like the TCF Financial Corporation of Wayzata, Minn., and Iberia Bank of Lafayette, La., as well as giants like Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.
They say they plan to return the money as quickly as possible or as soon as regulators set up a process to accept the refunds. On Tuesday, Signature Bank of New York announced that because of new executive pay restrictions in the economic stimulus package, it notified the Treasury that it intended to return the $120 million it had received from the government only three months ago.

I so wish that I could write....

2008-12-08T05:32:00.000-08:00

The Under the Overpasses blog is beautifully written. If you have the stomach for beautiful writing, check it out:

. ...I have hope that whatever is around the corner will give birth to new and surprising grace. I doubt that really qualifies me to be called an optimist because I do wait in darkness after all. Things are not magically okay and more real people are hurting than I have ever witnessed in my line of work...

It's written anonymously since he reveals the brutal realities of his clients painful lives.

I have several reactions to his writing. I'm awed and moved by the subject matter. I'm jealous of how well he writes. As I commented:

I've thought many thoughts and tried in thousands of words and efforts over decades to express myself...I've always fallen short of this sort of writing.

I thank him for his work and sharing his gift.

Dear New York Times

2008-12-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

Dear NY Times,

I have read your paper, unfaithfully but regularly, for thirty-five years now. A few times, you mentioned me in articles, albeit never above the fold on the front page. More importantly, you have faithfully provided me with the news and reading that I wanted.

I'm not writing to thank you. I've done that by being a subscriber. Again, I've had subscriptions off and on for more than three decades depending on my finances and living arrangements. These days, I read you online most days and subscribe to the paper edition on your three day weekend deal. Oh, congratulations on the TV advertising campaign for this program: it got me back after several years of only reading it online. Did I mention that I use to pay to read you online and when you make it free, you refunded my money? That was really something.

I'm writing to express my fear that our relationship is taking a turn for the worse due to your uninspired progress into the online world. This morning, you really annoyed me by faulting way short of my expectations. You appear downright clumbsy. This morning, I read an article (in the paper version) by Gretchen about the rating agencies: Debt Watchdogs: Tamed or Caught Napping. I have strong feelings about the article and topic so I fired up my PC to add my comments onto the article. I found the article and tried to find where to put up a comment.

There is no comment here link at the beginning or end of the article! I'm flabbergasted. I'm confused. I'm now searching the NYT website for how one participates in the discussions. After some efforts, I discover that there are forums for discussion but, as I write this, they're not functioning.

Service Unavailable
The forums are temporarily unavailable. You have probably received this message due to high traffic to our forums database. We regret the inconvenience. Please wait a few minutes and try again.

And now, it's ninety minutes later and the forums are still down. How is this possible? Here are a few specific policy suggestions for you. If you implement these ideas, our relationship could be lifelong. If you don't, then some start-up or Google will beat you to the punch of becoming the defacto standard going forward. And I'll going from just being periodically unfaithful by getting involved with other news services to a more fundamental attaching myself to someone else as my main squeeze. I'm rooting for you but to be frank, we're not married. It's not for better or worse, you need to keep winning me.

1. Your forum or discussion pool should never be down for more than a few minutes. I run a tiny online company and we keep our forum running 24/7 despite all the attacks and stuff. You should be able to to.
2. Major articles should link right into the discussion thread on that topic. The link should be from the top and from the bottom.
3. The future of you as a news service and a business has a lot to do with how rapidly and effectively you execute in this area (plus customized news services online such as customized subscriptions such as DailyMe or GoogleNews)

4. Skip debating what this should work like. Read the old Ender's Game SciFi book and use that as a blueprint for much of what the new network should work like.

Michael Lewis is right

2008-11-23T16:18:00.000-08:00

Michael Lewis, of Liars Poker fame, is a great writer. Period. NO, more than that. He has perspective, vision, judgement and intellectual integrity. He's one of the few who kept his perspective when everyone else had lost theirs. I'll quote a little....

When I sat down to write my account of the experience in 1989—Liar’s Poker, it was called—it was in the spirit of a young man who thought he was getting out while the getting was good.

I was merely scribbling down a message on my way out and stuffing it into a bottle for those who would pass through these parts in the far distant future. Unless some insider got all of this down on paper, I figured, no future human would believe that it happened.

I thought I was writing a period piece about the 1980s in America.

Not for a moment did I suspect that the financial 1980s would last two full decades longer or that the difference in degree between Wall Street and ordinary life would swell into a difference in kind. I expected readers of the future to be outraged that back in 1986, the C.E.O. of Salomon Brothers, John Gutfreund, was paid $3.1 million; I expected them to gape in horror when I reported that one of our traders, Howie Rubin, had moved to Merrill Lynch, where he lost $250 million; I assumed they’d be shocked to learn that a Wall Street C.E.O. had only the vaguest idea of the risks his traders were running. What I didn’t expect was that any future reader would look on my experience and say, “How quaint.”

Michael Lewis, of Liars Poker fame, is great.

Martial Arts - Reading & Films

2008-11-20T00:31:00.000-08:00

Over the last few years, I've developed an interest in the martial arts. I train four nights a week. I love it. Books (including sports books in general):

Fever Pitch - Best treatment of sports enthusiasm nuttiness that I've ever read.
On Boxing - Joyce Carol Oates - to read
How Soccer Explains the World - Franklin Foer - a brutal interesting read.
What's my name, fool - Dave Zirin - Highly political, not a polished book. I read all 250 pages since I wanted to hear the politics.
Rope Burns - F X Toole. A collection of heart-breaking short stories. One made into a film: Million Dollar Baby. The book was republished under this name.
A Fighter's Heart - Sam Sheridan. He's quite a guy. A personal odyssey by a bright thinking guy deep into modern MMA.
King of the World - David Remnick - to read
The Natural - to read

Films:

Karate Kid - Old time classic.
- what was the one of the highschool kids fighting. essentially a remake:
Red Belt - by Mamet
When we were kings - Great film about Mohammed Ali Vs Frazier. Reminds us of a bygone era.
Ultimate Fighting - I watch. I don't understand the reality show part.
Million Dollar Baby.

By the way, I have a blog on the martial arts where, when I finish this article, I'll post it.

Moose Hunting for Votes

2008-10-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

"All this talk about moose hunting! It is as though, because of the animal's enormous size and imposing antlers, bringing one down is a heroic feat of marksmanship. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As Henry David Thoreau wrote in "The Maine Woods," killing these big, gentle, myopic creatures is more "like going out by night to some woodside pasture and shooting your neighbor's horses." There is hunting for sport, and hunting for the pot, and of course hunting for votes. ...

This mother of five is now celebrated as a moose hunter and, more than that, moose skinner, moose eater and perhaps hanger of moose-head trophies. As Palin was delivering her acceptance speech, an immense photograph of Alaska was projected behind her on the giant screen where, in the foreground, a moose could be seen, placidly staring at its reflection in water. ....

Moose hunting is now seen as a possible Republican vote-getter, especially as the moose hunter in question is a slightly built and bespectacled mother of five. This casting against type presumably has the same effect on the public imagination as the revelation that defensive tackle Roosevelt Grier found relaxation in needlepoint"

Author Paul Theroux served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi in the 1960's. Read more .

Our mad attempts to find an underlying truth....

2008-06-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
- Umberto Eco

Two books about Jesus

2008-05-11T04:44:00.000-07:00

I read two books about Jesus in the past year.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal is by Christopher Moore. It's great, a hysterically funny and thought provoking work. This fiction deals with the mysterious lost years in Jesus life. While we know about his birth and his great works and end, we don't. know much about his childhood or teenage years. Or young adult hood. It turns out, he was aware of his destiny in a sort of juvenile way. For instance, he would spend time entertaining the other kids in the desert. They would smash these little ten inch lizard's heads. Jesus would then put the lizard head is his mouth and breath it back to life. A silly little miracle but he had to practice somewhere, didn't he? The book also deals with Mary and girls in general. Yes, Jesus did know he should stay pure (and he did). But, boy, was he curious. His friend Biff didn't have to stay clear of girls and Jesus wanted to know every detail. You get the drift. I've read other stuff by Moore including Fluke and You Suck: A Love Story. I've bought several more and they are on the toread pile. I was introduced by my brother.

Velvet Elvis is by Robert Bell and it's at the opposite end of the spectrum. He's a true believer and born again and is a minister by profession. He's of the "lets get past the sunday school nonsense" variety and takes a fresh look at faith and what Christians should really understand about Jesus. It's well written and a worthwhile read. He goes back to what Jesus actually said and meant. He's pretty critical of the existing infrastructure of churches and organizations which tell a warped corrupted version of New Testament and use it for their current organizational and political reasons. At the end, he is a person of deep faith which I never really understood where it came from. It's not the sort of book that I would have read on my own but a friend of mine know Rob Bell, swears by him, and wanted me to get a sense of his faith and spiritual mentors (I think).

Intelligent Green Thinking!

2008-04-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

There is a disappointing amount of intelligent green thinking. Most of it is painfully utopian or symbolic. Here's a good article and a solid point. Bravo. David. It's from the Circuits part of the NYT.

Reducing the Amount of Juice Electronic Gadgets Consume

By DAVID POGUE
"Vampire power" has been bugging me ever since I first heard of it.
It's the juice consumed by electronic gadgets even when they're turned off (also called phantom loads, standby power or leaking electricity). They just sit there, plugged in, sucking electricity, at a cost to you and to the environment. According to the Energy Department, vampire gadgets account for about 25 percent of total residential electricity consumption in the U.S.....continued

Higher Ed in this country is so messed up

2008-04-08T18:52:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned a few times how messed up our higher education system is and how amazing it is to me that this is not on the national agenda. (although I can't seem to locate the posts right now). Where are the politicians howling about this ridiculously counterproductive and expensive system? Diane Flynn Keith of Homefires just published a great piece written by Marty Nemko which I think is exactly on target....Here's Diane's excerpt from America's Most Overrated Product:Higher Education

Colleges trumpet the statistic that, over their lifetimes, college graduates earn more than non-graduates, but that's terribly misleading because you could lock the college-bound in a closet for four years and they'd earn more than the pool of non-college-bound--they're brighter, more motivated, and have better family connections.
.....
Colleges are quick to argue that a college education is more about enlightenment than employment. That may be the biggest deception of all.....

continued on America's Most Overrated Product:Higher Education

Novels on Immigration

2008-04-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

I've read four books recently which share a common theme...modern American immigration. (following up on the other immigration books)

Sold. By Patricia McCormick. This novel documents how a girl ends up as a sex slave in Calcutta. She, like the boy soldier slave in A Long Way Gone, is rescued by American aid works.

House of Sand & Fog by Andre Dubus III. This was an Oprah's Book Club selection. An Iranian family struggling to establish itself in the States becomes involved with a confused young American woman and a friendly cop who crosses the line to befriend her.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a boy from Kabulwho is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father's servant. The story is set against modern Afghani history from the fall of the monarchy, through the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the refugee flow out of Afghanistan, and the Taliban.

A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. By Ishmael Beah. This book, heavily promoted by Starbucks, tells the story of child in Rwanda who when the civil war hits, becomes a refugee and then, is forced to be a soldier. Given drugs, he fights and kills for years before being rescued by the UN and ending up in the US. Not a pretty story but very real.

Making Science Make Sense

2008-04-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

And I quote from DailyMe,

Bayer USA Foundation Awards $135,000 Grant to Regional Science Education Program

This latest grant marks Bayers ongoing commitment to a program that ratchets up the quality of elementary science education by providing inquiry-centered, hands-on science instruction to 40 school districts, charter and private schools, in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and directly impacting more than 1,800 teachers and 125,000 students annually, helping them to achieve in the subject.

Here's my thoughts:

Inquiry-based science is right-on.
Hands-on is not what I'm looking at, at least not in the traditional sense. Two reasons. One, I'm in the online education business so my contribution, if I'm going to make one, is to harness the power of my media, not just to use the computer as a delivery mechanism to tell them to get off the computer and get hands-on. More importantly, I think in this era, hands-on means interactive experiments which are increasingly done in online simulations, not just with beakers and chemicals and microscopes.

I do my best work in the early morning

2008-02-17T02:08:00.000-08:00

When I say early morning, I mean between 3 and 7:30. My best writing (please don't take this as an example although it's 5:12 am right now) never comes during the work day or evening. Although, I can edit well during the day.

Why am I up at these hours? Usually, it's because I went to sleep early, say 9pm. In these cases, I'm done sleeping by 5am. Also, I like the solitude and quiet of the early morning.

I like going back to sleep after working for a few hours. The second sleep of the night is surprisingly sweet and deep. Which reminds of a great profound question that Meleah just asked:

Why does the best sleep happen AFTER you hit snooze?

Orson Scott Card - He blogs too

2008-02-15T13:32:00.001-08:00

Did I mention that Orson is one of my all time favorite authors? I've devoured and ruminated on the Enders Game series. I thought Enders Shadow was a tour de force (and I usually wouldn't use such a phrase but it really did show enormous writing capability).

Some of his other science fiction and biblical biographies have not worked for me. I did like his Lost Boys book (particularly because I've worked in the video game and tech industries).

I just found his blog and it's killing me. His posts are long and addictive. Just killing me. Here, for example, is a small excerpt of one of his posts. Note that you'll never ever forget reading it. It's about : Dirty Glasses

I travel a lot, and stay in a lot of hotels, and I have always taken it for granted that between guests, the glasses in hotel rooms are taken to the dishwashing machine in the hotel restaurant and washed in sterilizingly hot water.

Then along comes a video from the news department of the Fox station in Atlanta, showing what their hidden camera reveals about the "washing" of hotel glasses.

How do you feel about drinking from a glass sprayed with glass cleaning fluid labeled "Do Not Drink!" and then rinsed out?

How about just rinsed?

How about rinsed by a maid wearing the same rubber gloves she wore when she "cleaned" the toilet?

Suddenly I think far more highly of hotels that put out individually wrapped plastic cups. They are now my friends. Because I will never, never drink from a hotel glass again.

Here's what just kills me about this: I have been so stupid! How many times have I passed maids' carts in the corridors? Hundreds, I assure you. I've even looked at them, looked at what they were carrying; I even noticed that they didn't have clean glasses being carried to the rooms or dirty ones being carried away!

I just assumed that someone else came around later and did the swapping of glasses.

But I've also been in my room working while it was being cleaned. I've been there all day. There was no guy who swapped glasses. The maid didn't take away any glasses. She didn't bring any glasses. What did I think was happening?

I was just ... trusting. In America, the land where any chemical that once killed a rat is banned, hotels wouldn't actually allow maids to simply rinse out glasses between guests! Would they?
Management has to know -- somebody has to have realized that glasses weren't being picked up from rooms and washed.

And it wasn't just cheap hotels -- it was some of the top-ranked ones as well.

Here are the two websites showing the complete videos. The second one is a followup to the first, so it repeats some material -- but goes on to make you sick.

http://www.bestviral.com/video/6629/dont_ever_drink_from_hotel_glasses
http://www.bestviral.com/video/7380/dirty_hotel_secrets_follow_up

Witness to Nuremburg by Richard Sonnefeldt

2008-02-06T00:57:00.000-08:00

Witness to Nuremburg by Richard Sonnefeldt.

What a book, what a life, what a world Oh vey!

First, I have a family connection to the Sonnfeldts. My Dad played tennis with Helmut (richard's brother) every Sunday for about 30 years. Once or twice, I joined them. My mom goes back even further with Helmut's wife. Our families vacationed together etc etc.

I particularly like that he includes in his memoir not just his insights into the nature of the Holocaust, his discussions and reactions to the Nazi leaders, and his amazing escape and wanderings around the world and then back into Europe. But he also describes every girl that he had crush on or necked with or "more" (as he puts it) for the first 25 years of his life. What a memory! And speaking of keeping it real....Will my retirement include writing a tell-all which reveals so much?

In googling Sonnefeldt (a name that looks like a typo), I ran across the facts that:

1. He doesn't seem to have his own website or blog. Surely, he has a grandson who would like to do that for him. The world has questions and the web is there to give us direct access. Doesn't some relative or intern want to put it togehter?

2. The incredible 92nd Street Y is sharing their programs using old fashioned satellite technology (sorry Dad). Wouldn't a webcast be a little more useful in this century? Of course, if they want to keep it a little exclusive or to help facilitate memberships, the satellite link to all the JCCs and Synagogues accomplishes that. Maybe I'll join one to hear it. OK, i've done more research. Here are the terms for receiving the broadcast. Still, I think I'll contact them to suggest a webcast of some sort (podcast? youtube? etc)

Reading List - Jan 08

2008-02-06T00:41:00.000-08:00

Dark Matter - Reread the Golden Compass and the Subtle Knife in the last months.

Nick Hornby's new book: Slam. I've read all his books. Each one was a treat. The back cover taught me that Nick masters the male confessional. OK, now I know what it was about. I've also discovered Nick Hornby's blog (real detective work. I had to google him to figure out the name and found his blog first). BTW, note that I couldn't remember the title of the book that I read yesterday. Yikes! And since I'm following my new year's resolution of giving all my favorite books to friends and the others to charity, I've not got it around. My honey seems to feel competitive with my book collection. She doesn't mind me reading, it's the walls of books that get on her nerves. We all win if I keep it from accumulating. Nick says read MT Anderson’s ‘Feed’. I will.

Free Rice - For good and wihtout profits - Questions....

2007-12-18T05:45:00.000-08:00

I just read on the World Food Program website about a very clever tie-in. It's a vocabulary game in which while you play, you are generating contributions to the World Food Program. It's called Free Rice.

BUT, I'm not sure that I understand enough about the implementation to say that it is clean. However, it's endorsements and partners and concept are phenomenal.

Here is what I would like to know....

1. Is FreeRice an audited not-for-profit subject to appropriate rules? The FAQ says that they make no profit. In a 501c, there are rules about paying individuals or businesses "appropriately" so that profit is not disguised as income to a related organization or a staff person. Or is it a for-profit but still, appropriately managed with adequate transparency?

2. What are the amounts of money involved? The site talks exclusively in terms of grains of rice. Very hard to understand if we're talking about peanuts (metaphorically) or millions.

3. Who are the advertisers? The FAQ says that the site sponsors provide the cash to donate but I see no advertisers. ARe there none? If not, maybe I'll volunteer. I already contribute to (and I quote from the Time4Learning website):

Giving Back. Time4Learning strives to be a great employer and member of our community. Time4Learning is a member of the Better Business Bureau and the Better Business Bureau Online. Time4Learning proudly contributed (in 2007) to the following worthwhile organizations that have overlapping interests with Time4Learning and its staff:

The Cooperative Feeding Program of Broward County which provides a LifeNet for Families and Individuals against hunger in our community.

Net Family News: A high quality newsletter and forum providing indepth up-to-date information for parents and educators about technology and children.

Safer Child: Working to help keep children safe & healthy.

Lap Top Giving -"The mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child."

PS - we give on average about $1K to each of these organizations except the LapTop where I gave the minimum (around $450) while I see if this organization has it's act together. In every case, I ask for recognition on their site and I intend for this to be a long term relationship.

Read three novels on modern immigration

2007-08-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

I read three novels, all troubling and interesting, about recent immigration stories....

House of Sand & Fog by Andre Dubus III. This was an Oprah's Book Club selection. An Iranian family struggling to establish itself in the States becomes involved with a confused young American woman and a friendly cop who crosses the line to befriend her.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a boy from Kabulwho is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father's servant. The story is set against modern Afghani history from the fall of the monarchy, through the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the refugee flow out of Afghanistan, and the Taliban

A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. By Ishmael Beah. This book, heavily promoted by Starbucks, tells the story of child in Rwanda who when the civil war hits, becomes a refugee and then, is forced to be a soldier. Given drugs, he fights and kills for years before being rescued by the UN and ending up in the US. Not a pretty story but very real.

there was another book that I had read a review of, similar to the A Long Way Gone, but about a young girl who was sold in the sex trade who eventually escaped to the States. I'm looking for it.

My media consumption

2007-08-04T06:41:00.001-07:00

My favorite blogs & media....

I read the New Yorker this morning (8-5-07) and there was a great article on SPAM by Michael Specter. While I found his site, I can't find the article online. He actually tracked down the first piece of spam ever (fortunately, he did not track down my cleverly disguised spam when I resold a convex supercomputer on alt.supercomputer from the early 90s but that's another story). His article reminds me of another great New Yorker article from years ago, which he might have written, that I'd like to chase down about the world's most popular lonely guy. I couldn't find the original but found a poor substitute article.

I just stumbled upon a blog that greatly interests me by the ceo of a major hospital who gets it. While nobody able to solve the frustration with our health system, here is an insider willing to share his frustrations and efforts. BTW - Being fresh back from Europe, I think there's something to be said about using pharmacists more broadly for health care. For instance, when my eyes turned red, I stopped by a British pharmacist, answered some questions, and got some eye antibiotics. Cost: $10 and 15 minutes. In the US, this would take a doctor, alot of money and time, and would provide the exact same treatment. My reaction to the rhetoric about our health system being the world's best is that it's an inane point since: 1) It's probably not true, 2) Health care costs are devastating our major companies, small businesses, and eventually our economy, 3) It's blatantly inefficient and dumb at most levels, 4) Everyone is frustrated except for some corporations and many politicians that are laughing all the way to the bank.

I do a fair about of online marketing and seo work for my learning software business. I got clever last month and spent some time on a forum that after 50 posts, allows your signature to carry two live links. Since the posts also link back to your most recent blog post, I created 150 live links when I did my 50th post. In all my enthusiasm for getting this (probably worthless links), I spent alot of time reading a relatively trashy forum when I should have been reading the good stuff:
Google's Evangelist - Mr Cutts.
Search Engine Guide
Google's webmaster forums
Online Marketing thru Moms - An interesting perspective which shows how much more advanced my approach to Mom marketing is.

My resolution is to improve my media consumption spending more time on higher quality sites.

Favorite Authors

2007-04-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

I thought I would try to remember my favorite authors, in chronological order (ie the order that they were my favorites):'

Enid Blyton - huge
Kurt Vonnegut -
Leon Uris
Chaim Potok
Doestoeveky
John Irving
Larry McMurtry - huge
Orson Scott Card
Carl Hiasen
JK Rowling
Douglass Copeland
Nick Hornby

The House With Nobody in It

2006-11-20T05:14:00.000-08:00

by Joyce Kilmer

This was one of the poems that Dad read to me growing up and which we read at his funeral. I never aksed him why he liked it. Part of it is surely the great construction and the lyrical sixth verse. I wonder if there was a sense of loss that it spoke to. Or was it just one of the poems that he liked because he knew it?

Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track.
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.
I suppose I’ve passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute.
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.

I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn’t haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn’t be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.

This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass,
And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied;
But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside.

If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid
I’d put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.
I’d buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be
And I’d find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free.

Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door,
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
But there’s nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone
For the lack of something within it that it has never known.

But a house that has done what a house should do, a house that has sheltered life,
That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,
A house that has echoed a baby’s laugh and held up his stumbling feet,
Is the saddest sight, when it’s left alone, that ever your eyes could meet.

So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track
I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,
Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,
For I can’t help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart.

New Computer - What a hassle!!!

2006-09-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

I just spent $700 on a nice new dell desktop. What a pain it is to get started.

1. First, the hardward is perfect. It arrives and installs in amazing time.

2. Software. I started by trying to look at some of my pictures. It has a "corel virus", a preinstalled program that precludes me from looking at my photos or downloading my photos with the Windows software (remember, of my $700 spent, $100 went to Microsoft for this system software). The Corel is free for some number of days and I'm sure, if I start using it, my pcitures will get formatted or arranged in some manner that I'll have to pay Corel to get to see them. It's a virus in that I can't seem to find out how to get it from launching and taking over my computer every time I get near an image (sure this is a setting that I can adjust...but where?) So, I am uninstalling it and am hoping that the Windows stuff will become the default image tool again.

3. Drivers for my existing printers and wireless keyboards and mice. No, I cannot find the discs for these drivers but I did find them across the net. Another hour of work. And can anyone explain to me why the HP OfficeJet 6110 is a 166MB download (I kid you not. For those of you even less technical than me, a driver is the code that connects to things like printers. It's usually thought of as small, perhaps half a MB. So what else is hidden in the 166MB download. Which is a compressed file. Geez)

Pigs, by Charles Ghigna

2006-09-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Pigs are playful
Pigs are pink
Pigs are smarter
than you think

Pigs are slippery
Pigs are stout
Pigs have noses
Called a snout

Pigs are pudgy
Pigs are plump
Pigs can run.
But never jump.

Pigs are loyal
Pigs are true
Pigs don't care for
Barbecue