Mercury Interactive (HP) vs. Rational Toolset

To Betty, the "President" of Vivit.com, regarding your recent blog entry.

Why do you say that "metrics...can be labor intensive"? If you are using Quality Center's (QC) metrics generation program[me], then it should be a breeze – shouldn't it? Just tongue-in-cheek kiddin' of course. I don't use QC for any kind of metrics generation.

I use, of course, Microsoft Excel with a stats analysis program added on. If you want top SQA metrics, Defects Management, Requirements Managements, test scheduling, metrics, and etc etc etc , you would be wise to switch to Rational Tools (now owned, of course, by IBM).

Once HP bought Mercury, it should have been expected that ultimately it would be buh-BYE Mercury (sooner rather than later). It's strange how Mercury has switched places with Rational in the marketplace for SQA tools. You can of course furgit 'open-source' or 'cheap' tools, there is no real comparison. Open-source has its place, but not in the commercial world of big bucks and mid-to-large sized companies.

Both Rational and Mercury (HP) provide the same functions (CompuWare, who??, is a very distant third), but IBM has opened Rational Tools to FREE learning via 30 days access after an email registration, and thus, every 30 days, another free 30 days learning, just signup again with a different email address). On the other hand, HP has scr*wed over Merc users by first, firing all the top Merc people (aka 'high salaried employees') and via their infamous 15-day 'key only' trial of their Merc products.

So I say again "buh-BYE" Mercury, sad to see you go. Been with you since XRunner was your only tool and its help files were frequently in Hebrew. But ah! life is short and Rational Certified Expert[ise] pays way more money than QTP or QC work.

C'est la vie!, said the pragmatist. Life is short then you die, money DOES make one's life happier. I learned that in the late 80s when I worked on Johnston Atoll, in the South Pacific (848 nautical miles wsw of the 'Big Island' (Hawai'i), on the chem demil project (JACADS). Every single person on that 648 acre island was making more money than they ever made before. Everyone was happy and filled with joie de vivre (love of life). Moola ain't ever'thang, but it shore kin buy pretty sparkly thangs.

Stuck in Zero Beach again

Did you know that someone somewhere stated that Vero Beach was an 'upscale beach community'? Huh?!? Que pasa? Me no unnerstan'! or in olele hawai'i "auwe!!!!"

Nada da nada as Hemingway were wont ta say. Vero Beach equals Zero Beach. Nuff o dat, but tis true.

So I watched the 6.45 minute youtube video of that lamebrain estranged wife of some broadway playwright (or was SHE the playwright?) I am not sure what made her hire a crew to videotape her tirade against her husband, but it was quite funny, if only because she made not only her husband a laughing stock of the world, but herself as well. Too bad. By her insane Youtube video, she just guaranteed she will never get that "$500,000/year" alimony payment. tsk tsk! What IS the world coming to, when a 'trophy wife' can't get the trophy??

As of Friday, pm, there are SIX companies in a bidding war for my intellectual, experientially acquired skills and God-given talents. Of course! I am a brainy woman, after all, and a great manager ta boot. While it has been fun walking on Zero Beach's beach, tis now time, once more, for more intellectual (and money-making) pursuits (even though I am starting to get a tan again and my calf muscles are starting to 'rip' nicely).

(What??!? No political discourse on this site?? Yup. Kerreck. You are most likely looking for 'instapundit', that 'red diaper doper baby liberal 'professor''s site.) There are no longer any good candidates running for Pres so I have removed any thoughts of politicizing from my frontal lobe (or backal lobe, never can remember which).

Brokeback Mountain, not a good use of your time!

What's 'brave' about homosexual lust?
There's nothing brave about anything regarding narcissistic lust and that's mostly what homosexual behavior is about... that and cowardice. It takes courage and integrity to be honor one's Covenant with God (be fruitful and multiply), it takes cowardice and self-involvement to spurt your seed up another guy's ass. Men on men, nothing but the devil's work. Destroying families, focusing on sex, as though that were the main reason for living. What about 'women on women'? Even though I'm not terribly fond of most men, I would have to say that lesbians are as depraved as homosexuals. And do NOT, EVER, use the word 'gay' around me as a reference to homosexuals. That's a perverted use of a good word!
There's one homosexual tv station on comcast. It's called 'logo' as though that were a fit name for perverted behavior and it is not. What do they focus on? sexual behavior and nothing more.
So the two male actors in this movie think they did something 'brave' by making the movie? They are just actors, self-involved from the get go. So who cares what reason they have for being in a movie of this sort? And why would anyone think ang lee was 'talented'? He is not.
This is a banal, worthless, homosexual movie, nothing more. There's no redeeming qualities about it and it is NOT, repeat, NOT about 'love', forbidden or otherwise. It's about masturbation. Try all they want, homosexuality is not anyone's 'true nature', it is 'perverted nature' and homosexuals are sick individuals. Pity them, but don't enable them to continue their debauched behavior by pretending they are 'normal'.

"Last of Swept-Away Dolphins 'rescued' "

Don't you think it is ridiculous to pretend that the CAPTURE of dolphins that have spent their lives in captivity is 'rescuing' them? Well I do. The dolphins of the Marine Life Oceanarium escaped during Hurricane Katrina and today they were re-captured. The Oceanarium just reclaimed their 'inventory' is what they did. So the dolphins lost 100 lbs each, give or take while enjoying the Gulf waters. Probably they lost the 100 lbs of fat they gained from having nothing to do but swim around a pool.

It's also disgusting that the media is going along with the baloney about the 'rescue' of these animals who instinctively know how to survive in the wild, and were doing quite well, too.

Dear Lord in Heaven, why oh why did you EVER put mankind in charge of your other animals? We do a lousy job of it.

More later, lunchtime at the local Sushi bar will be over in 45 minutes. I love their box lunch specials!

The Port of Last Resort

I'm listening to a documentary about jews who fled Europe in the late 30s, early 40s to Shanghai, China. I missed the first part so I don't know why they felt that Shanghai was the 'last resort'. Why they didn't go to the USA, or to south Brazil. At the turn of the 19th century, early 20th, Brazil's population grew by millions as European and middle Eastern immigrants flooded into the country to seek their fortune in the Brazilian gold rush days. Germans, Arabs, Japanese, Italians, French and Spanish changed the culture of the, til the gold rush, Portuguese colony. Even though Brazil had all kinds of other cultures represented in its founding peoples, today most Brazilians speak Portuguese and move to a common rhythm. Brazilians are of one accord: Brazil is our country.

Like the people I met in Tanzania, Brazilians have a strong sense of their culture. Everyone dances the samba and funk. Most citizens are roman catholics, everyone recycles. Brazil has a very interesting recycling policy: every container of recyclable materials that a Brazilian household brings to the recycling center, once it is emptied, is refilled with fresh fruits and vegetables, for free! Can you imagine a better incentive to recycle? I surely cannot.

Of all Brazilian cities, I love Curitiba the most. It's a culturally diverse yet cohesive city with an unrivalled transportation system. 85-90% of the population use the Curitiba metro, rather than drive cars. And there's a lot of people who could afford cars, but as we say in Honolulu (where 'da bus' reigns), why drive when da bus goes everywhere, dirt cheap and runs every 15 minutes, if not sooner?

Some of the best programmers, engineers, and computer hardware manufacturers are Brazilian. I had the great pleasure to work with a couple of Brazilian techies on a contract in Miami Beach. Fatima was an electrical engineer slash network engineer. Her much younger, extremely handsome husband, was a mathematician slash programmer. Actually her husband was not a male chauvinist, even though they were muslims. He took care of their baby as much of the time as Fatima did. They were good people and I'm glad I knew them.

Well, I strayed off the subject... jews in Shanghai. But it's time for bed now, so to bed I go as tomorrow I head up early to Maryland for a business trip. hie hoe! and a hui hou!

Lance Armstrong -- Failed Father & Husband

So Lance Armstrong won a seventh Tour de France. Who cares? That tour isn't the greatest European race. That title belongs to the Giro d'Italia, as any real cyclist and cycling fan knows. The fact is that the Tour 'allows' (by not looking for 'em) the use of oxygen expanding drugs by competitors and the Giro does not. The Giro is a much harder and longer race too.

Mr. Armstrong didn't win the race without help. He has a great team. They blocked other teams' riders, they set the pace for Armstrong, drafted for him, etc. etc. You can't win a bicycle race unless your team mates go the extra mile, so to speak, for you. So bully for Armstrong, but hurrah for his team! He had a great team.

Does it matter that Armstrong 'survived cancer'? Lots of people survive cancer because the pull of Life is strong. There's nothing heroic in the act of doing what you have to do to go on living. What would have been heroic about Armstrong is if the media could write:
Lance Armstrong, a good father and Husband.

But they can't write that because Lance ignored his wife and children for the acclaim of fame. Now he's shacked up with a two-bit whoring 'rock' star, Sheryl Crowe. If you click on the header to this entry, you'll see a picture of Lance and Sheryl. It's quite interesting how much alike they look. Narcissism at its best. So I guess Lance 'wins' again; he gets to look into eyes that look just like his where he can see his own reflection looking back. Ditto Sheryl.

May they live love and laugh about as long as narcissists usually can in the company of other narcissists.

Not feeling well, all this media fawning over 'stardom' (aka, flash in the pan) is making me ill.

When I was your age... bla bla bla

The media and 'hollywood' really like to phuck with families. They are always going on and on about the role of 'father' in the family unit. About mom needing a 'career'. About how only kids under ten know how to set a vcr or do anything internet/computer-related. And they always have the kids telling the PARENTS how to live.

What a load of crock!!!

Why do we let them get away with that baloney? Frankly, I can't stand it. It just pisses me off no end! Hey folks. Guess what. It's the grown-ups who run this country, not the little monsters... err, children. Children should be seen and not heard. They have the right to be silent and obedient. There isn't a kid who wants to be jailed, but there isn't a kid who doesn't feel safer being on a leash. Rules are set by PARENTS not by kids. Kids don't know what makes the world go round, ADULTS do. I don't know anyone who doesn't know how to setup their vcr (and anyway, I use my dvd players a lot more). I don't know any kids who know how to use BUSINESS software better than their PARENTS. Kids know how to play 'games' on the computer. You know what? WHO CARES!!!! GAMES don't help a kid in the 'real world'. BUSINESS SOFTWARE does.

If anything proves that the media and hollywood are mostly working for the devil (not all of 'em, there are a few good journalists and media writers out there, but only a few) it's how fathers are portrayed. Why all this guilt because fathers don't spend a lot of time playing with their children? Look at any animal (and human beings ARE animals, after all), it's very seldom that the father is the one who plays with the kids. It's the mother. The father's role is to 'stand in the gap'... to be the 'final disciplinarian' (after the mom). The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Father. Remember when mom would say 'wait till your father gets home'? I do! And it's the way it should be. Obey your parents and if you don't, mom'll whack you with a wooden spoon or a stick or a rolling pin (depending on how many kids she has, my mom had a baseball team). And if that ain't enough to keep you in a state of obedience to the people who brought you into this world, then 'wait till your dad gets home'.

Today the focus is on 'everyone gets a turn'. There's another load of crock! T-ball. Yeah right! You know something? I played baseball when I was a kid. Or at least I wanted to, but I only got to bat once, in four years. ONE TIME. Yeah that was disappointing. But I wasn't a good baseball player after all. I was several years younger then the other members of the team so not as mature physically. Not getting a turn at bat. So unfair! WAAAAAAH!

You know what that experience taught me? Life is not fair. Not everyone gets a turn at bat. Not everyone gets to be the Chief, or the Captain of the team. And that's okay. It is as it should be. Not everyone is a leader nor wants to be.

So what do you do? You make sure you do what you love and that what you love is what you are good at (or vice versa). Doing that last step will save you a lot of trouble. I'm good at technical writing, and software engineering, and SDLC processes (oh and managing large teams), so what do I do? Exactly. That.

When I was seven years old, my sister and I had a lot of chores to do, everyday. We had to get up at 3:30 am to milk ten cows, each, by hand. Then when I was ten, we got milking machines, which definitely sped up the milking process and made it a lot less labor intensive on the milkers. Only when we finally got the milking machines, my parents decided our brothers were old enough to do the milking, so we were sent out into the fields to pick stones. Yup. Pick stones. Ever done that? Picked stones that weigh anywhere from two to ten pounds and throw them up onto a wagon? You know they never stop making their way to the surface. Every year there are more stones peeking up from the ground waiting to be grabbed and thrown to the back of a wagon. You ever see stone fencing? Where do you think those stones came from? Trucked in from North Dakota? Nah. Handpicked right there, now they guard the land they used to live under.

Milking cows by hand at seven, picking stones out of the fields at ten. Life is NOT fair'. So what? The thing is that if you have to milk cows at 3:30 am EVERY morning, and 4:30 pm every afternoon, then feed the pigs, muck the stalls, weed the garden, chop vegetables for dinner, pick stones out of the fields, fix the fence railings, etc etc etc... it's not just hard work. It's a Reward.

A BIG reward. What is known as a 'sense of accomplishment'. Something kids whose mommies chauffeur from fencing lesson to T-ball session to dance class never experience, couldn't define. But if you know what a sense of accomplishment is, then even though you know that life is difficult, you also know it is is exhilarating.

Stop playing those stupid computer games. They waste time. If life has taught me anything, it's that the biggest sin of all is wasting time. Games teach you how to focus for only short 'bursts'. That won't cut it when you have to go out into the dog eat dog world called "adulthood" and actually earn a living working 9 to 5. What's that you say? YOU won't be working 9 to 5 because you are gonna.... ? yeah, right. That's what I thought too!

Do you know what 'sin' means in the original Greek? It means "missing the mark". If you spend your childhood indulging in 'immediate gratification' things like game playing or overeating or not exercising, you will find yourself in real trouble once you reach adulthood. You won't know how to be self-disciplined when you need to be. You'll 'miss the mark' and end up leading a life of 'quiet (or not so quiet) desperation', focused on the wrong goals, on narcissistic 'pleasures'. God help you if you live to be old! You'll have no friends, no memories of anything worth remembering, just a backward focus on a life of frustration and angst.

Hey, guess what? Moms don't need a career; they have a career — taking care of their family and home. A career will seldom be soul-satisfying. Of course I can't convince anyone under the age of 35 of the truth of that last sentence, but anyone reading this who is over that age knows, but may not be willing to admit, that truth. Unless you have a 'service to others' career, it's pretty much guaranteed that eventually you'll not be happy in your 'career'. 'Career' satisfaction is usually very fleeting. Oh sure there are 'moments', but they don't sustain one like having loving, lifelong friendships or grown children who are living purposeful, happy lives and who love their parents and are grateful for the times their parents said 'no'.

You know something else? If you 'marry' a corporation, sooner or later you'll discover the awful truth. Corporations are amoral entities who will never, not ever, marry you. They'll toss your ass out the door the minute their bean counters tell em you are past your prime. Think about that!

Well, I sure feel better! Nothing like a little 'venting' before beddie-byes.

ttyl, Tante

Weekend 'Warrior'...

Managed to spend a good solid ten hours working on my book ... not 'my book', actually, but QUE's book. I'm sharing the glory with two other writers, as usual, so I have eight chapters to do this time as well as the index. I wrested control of the index away from their indexer because frankly I do a better job of indexing.

Anyway that was my Saturday.

Cleartype

Then I reset my display effects to 'cleartype' which is a font display choice offered by Microsoft for XP. I'm using XP for my book authoring because I have a full install of Office XP 2003 and for books it's better than the other versions because I can program with it (for Word). If you have Windows XP, you might want to consider using cleartype. Here's how and why:

Microsoft claims Windows XP's ClearType technology improves text readability on laptop, Pocket PC, and other flat-panel screens. The system takes advantage of the screen design, in which each pixel comprises three adjacent vertical bars (subpixels, in Microsoft-speak). In conventional font technology, each three-color pixel is either on (white) or off (black), and diagonal strokes--as in X, for example--may exhibit so-called jaggies because of the stair-step layout of the black pixels making up the letter. ClearType varies the intensity of the subpixels on the outer edges of each letter stroke, resulting in improved perceived sharpness of each letter.

To enable ClearType, right-click your desktop area and select Properties > Appearance > Effects. In the second drop-down menu, select ClearType.

The effect of ClearType is most noticeable at smaller font sizes and with italicized words. To judge ClearType's effectiveness, type a few paragraphs in your word processor and include samples of small, standard, and extralarge font sizes in both Roman and italic fonts. Then turn ClearType on and off and note the difference.

Are you interested in learning more about typography? While I'm not all that fond of Microsoft, they do have an interesting section on this subject. Several of my early careers were in the world of publishing (newspapers, magazines, ads and books) as a journeyman Typographer, a (book and article) content editor, layout designer and finally, as a font designer. I love the history of type and can go on and on about it, which I will, another day (probably when it's raining outside), but not today. So if you want to learn the basic type design terminology, well, I hate to say it, but Microsoft does a pretty good job here.

Anyway it's 7 am Sunday morning, and time for my breakfast at Waffle House.

ttfn.
Tante

Fear...

Did you ever see the movie "Defending your Life"? It's a movie by Albert Brooks. By the way, Albert Brooks real name is Albert Einstein. He changed it for reasons I don't really understand. Of course I changed my name for this website, but the reason is patently obvious.

In the movie, Defending Your Life, the premise is that when you die you go to a terminal zone. Your life is reviewed by a couple of judges. You have a lawyer defending your side of the story, and there is a prosecutor taking the opposing side. The point of the movie is that most people spend their lives half-living, because of Fear. Fear isn't always overwhelming, sometime it just keeps a person from making the right decision at various pivotal points in their life. Albert Brooks is wonderful. This is my favorite movie by Albert Brooks.
Why do I like it?

Because the movie premise hits the nail squarely on its head. Fear is what keeps people leading lives of 'quiet desperation', nothing more nothing less.

Caveat: I'm talking about people living in 'first world' countries, not third-world countries where finding something to eat is a 2-3 day project. People whose karma popped them out into a poor, repressed country have entirely different issues than citizens of the USA, Canada, Australia, etc. By the way, I refuse to call 'third-world' countries 'developing nations' cause that's a liberal spin on reality.

There's a lot of people who think their 'problem' isn't fear but procrastination. But the truth is procrastination is actually just a form of fear, as are arrogance and shyness. They are all different sides of the fear coin. Starting a business without doing proper feasability studies, etc. is also an indication that the 'entrepreneur' is afraid that if she doesn't start the business now, she'll never do it. Fear. The worst emotion you can experience — if it immobilizes you or pushes you to acts of recklessness.

Well, enough of that. I'm going to bed as I like to get up at 4am these days, it's so peaceful in the early morning hours.

Have a good night!

Boredom, Ennui, Fourth of July

What a hot, humid, nothing to do day! The fireworks were two nights ago, in this middle Georgia area. Why they would have fireworks on the 2nd rather than the 4th is beyond my ken. And today I head over to the gym only to discover that it is CLOSED for the holiday! She-eeeee-t! and poopie caa caa. Then I go over to the movie-plex only to discover that none of the good movies are starting until 2pm, and now of course I've missed that deadline too. AAAAAARGH!!!!!

So I worked on my websites and my security studies while 1/4-listening to some stupid angelina 'big fat lips' jolie vehicle, called "Beyond Borders". It's got one of those really asinine 'romances' going on underneath it all which is by 'hollywood-formula'. Angelina ends up with a baby out of weblock, marries a decent english guy who is not the 'baby's daddy' as 'they' say in today's vernacular (or what I call 'using that kind of language will get you a job where you'll spend your time saying 'and would you like fries with that?'). So she hears that her former lover (da baby's daddy) is somewhere in some far off slavic country where the people spend their time raping, pillaging and generally genociding themselves (and I say 'go for it' the more rapacious, stupid murderous types who are dead, the better). So what does she do? She goes off to find this guy, finds him, tells him 'it's you baby, it's always been you, all these years'. So what does that say about her marriage covenant? Hmmm. Well, now I understand! angelina jolie is a slut anyway, and so that's why she's with brad 'vaccuous' blondie boy. He's a slut too! Apparently they belong together after all. Well I don't really feel sorry for Jennifer Aniston, she isn't much better. Doesn't even speak to her mom. What does that say about her?

Yeah, I know. I watch too much tv, but I am a writer and I 'claim' I need the background noise. I don't always have a movie on, sometimes I have one of those radio stations on the tv, err, on. The Jazz station, usually, but sometimes I play a foreign radio station on my computer through shoutcast.com. I favor african stations or late-night Parisien stations.

Well I have a schedule to keep, which means I must go back to studying my hacking books. ttyl, Tante

The Grim Reaper takes a friend...

My friend Jon died in his sleep last night. He wasn't even 30 years old! Jon's wife, Monie, awoke to find that she was a widow with two small children — a 3-year-old daughter, and a 10-month-old son. When I heard the news, I cried for Jon, but after I phoned my mom to tell her about my friend she said "Don't cry for him. God favored him by letting him die in his sleep. That's the best that we can hope for." (My mom wasn't quoting the lyrics of the song "The Gambler". At 84, and a retired nurse, she knows what she's talking about.)

My tears now are for Monie, who won't have time to fully mourn her loss, because she's got those two young children depending on her. They are both too young to remember their father for long. How very said that the kids will grow up not remembering their dad! Jon is most decidedly worth remembering. He was one of those brilliant yet difficult people who are exasperating yet huggable at the same time. The sad thing is that Jon never realized what a good man he was. Like so many people he spent too much time listening to the demon voices in his head that kept repeating "you're a fraud, a fraud". And he was a fraud, in a way, because as human beings we are all frauds, at times. It goes with the territory. And yet, and yet... Jon was one of the most REAL people I've ever met with the biggest, caring heart of anyone.

One night last fall, my home was broken into. I awoke to find a strange man sitting on the end of my bed, watching tv. (Okay, the guy was obviously crazy, but that didn't make it any less scary, for me.) Jon was the first one at my home, after the police arrived. He and his wife were the only people in Jacksonville who went out of their way to ensure I was okay. Jon stopped by frequently to check on me. He'd invite me to dinner and over for holidays too. I truly grew to love Jon and his family. I saw with my own eyes that Jon was a wonderful father. He totally adored both his children, and he loved his wife too, doing everything he could to help her care for the children and see that she had everything she needed. I think he must have been a good husband too.

If you are reading my blog, please ask yourself if there is anyone you need to make amends to or anyone that needs to hear you love them. Don't put off that apology. Don't stop yourself from saying those three words "I love you". You never know how long you or any of your loved ones have on this earth. Life is short. Too short. And all we have is what the song says.... love. Love is all we need.

Goodbye Jon. I'll think about you and miss you for a long time to come. I'll do what I can to help Monie get through this and I'll do what I can to see that your kids never forget you. Love you, Jon. Have fun flying around in heaven. See you later.

Livin' in the land of Unreality

They "recommended" the death penalty for a neanderthal-looking, black-american pedophile who murdered his nine children by shooting each one in an eye. He fathered some of the children with his own daughters. An evil man, evil! But giving him the death penalty isn't good enough punishment. He should be set loose in the main floor of the jail and the prisoners should have their way with him, first. But of course we can't do that, it would make us 'like him'.

How can a guy murder his own children? How can a guy rape his own daughters? Oh the liberal hearts will say "something bad happened to him when he was a child." His not his fault, or perhaps, it's not 'entirely' his fault." You know what? It is his fault! Because something bad happens to everyone, sometime. hmmm not one time but many times in a lifetime. Sometimes some people are spared bad things in their childhood. But always something bad happens. It goes with life. As M. Scott Peck said "life is difficult". Everyone knows that, but Scott got it printed (and therefore, copyrighted) in a book. Imagine! Do you remember the old t-shirt saying from decades ago? "Life is a bitch; then you die."

But life is also something most people fight long and hard to keep. So even though it is difficult, it must seem worthwhile, otherwise, why fight for it? Maybe it's a natural process, something we can't help doing — fighting to keep on keeping on. I don't know. Some days (not many), I feel ennui. "The feeling of being bored by something tedious." That's the dictionary definition of ennui. And that's how I feel, sometimes, not often. I'm sure you know what I mean.

The Long, Long Trailer

Saturday was a 'lost day' because I didn't get home until after 3am and didn't fall asleep until after 4. The plane was stuck on the jetway for over three hours due to a backup hydraulic problem. Sheesh. Normally, I won't give 'real names' or 'poke' at companies, but based on my experience, AirTran is a terrible airline and they won't last long. When the plane arrived in Tampa early afternoon Friday, clear skies no cross currents, yet the pilot bounced the plane on landing! (That's poor landing skills.)

Then on the flight back around 1:45 am, when the pilot landed in Atlanta he not only bounced the plane, he landed too fast and everyone could feel him slamming on the brakes. SHEEEEESH!!! As a private pilot with many years of flying experience, I can tell you I'll never fly with AirTran again.

Also, the seats on their Boeing 737 were cheapo's... you couldn't adjust them! That's correct. The seats were set in the 90-degree position and that was that. My back was sore all day Saturday — although it was kinda funny watching all the tired passengers Friday night simultaneously realizing they were gonna sit up straight all the way to Atlanta. Thank heavens it's only an hour-long flight from Tampa!

Well, I'm busy studying security issues as hopefully I will have a new and very interesting job, very shortly. I will have to stay where I am until I complete some training for my current team members, but I don't think that will create a problem. Besides, it will give me time to carefully pack up my 'stuff', find a new place to live, and learn all about my soon-to-be new employer's product line and methodologies. I have already downloaded a demo of the tool they use for testing as well as a couple of their product lines. And I've put my Mandarin Chinese studies on the shelf temporarily, while I come back up to speed on French. Decades ago I could easily banter in French. Of course now it will take me some time to renew my acquaintance with that marvellous 'language of love'.

Also, since I haven't been a network engineer for several years, everything I knew about Windows is locked up in my memory banks. Interestingly, several months ago at a garage sale I bought a set of MCSE books for Win2k and they are only a couple years old too. That means they won't work as the only reference material for the MCSE certification, but they WILL work for re-learning Windows security stuff, provided I supplement the books with msdn stuff, etc. etc. (which obviously I will).

While I was typing this, someone knocked at my front door. When I opened it there was an earnest-looking, young black man dressed in a hot dark suit and white shirt. He was carefully holding some newspapers. The kid looked a little confused when he saw me (as most of my neighbors are black-americans), then he hesitatingly asked if I would like to give him a dollar for one of the "mumble mumble mumble" newspapers. When I asked him to repeat the name of the paper, he lost his courage and muttered "oh sorry, never mind" and began to leave. But for some reason I stopped him. I handed him a dollar and he handed me what turned out to be a Louis Farakhan newspaper supporting the local american muslim mosque.

Frankly, the last thing I want to do is support a mosque, particularly one that is part of the american muslim organization started by Elijah Muhammed and now run by Farakhan. Cause Farakhan killed Malcolm X (unless the CIA did, I'm not sure exactly which, though I 'lean' towards Farakhan as the murderer).

But I am also trying to be a good Christian so I didn't shut the door on the kid but instead voiced my opinion that the problem with Farakhan is that he 'leaves out' 50% of the population, women, by making his 'mission' about men (referring to the million-man march). It was odd but this young guy and I were on the same wave length, because he immediately said "oh it's not like it was when the million-man march happened (and I had not mentioned my thoughts on that). This next march is gonna be million-man and WOMAN march." (Seems Farakhan (or perhaps just the young man) is trying to pretend he thinks women are important. Well, if it is Farakhan's thought then perhaps he's changed. After all, Farakhan isn't a spring chicken, he's like an old cock only good for the stew pot. Thinking about him reminded me of Eldridge Cleaver. His book "Soul on Ice" was the 'icon' for the Black Panthers back in the 60s-70s. Then a decade or so later Cleaver had not only renounced the Black Panthers, but had converted to Christianity and left the "Peace and Freedom" party to become a stolid Republican. He even wrote a barbeque book! I have that barbeque book somewhere. It's how I know how to make macaroni salad. No, Eldridge didn't have a macaroni salad recipe in the book, but my black-american friend, Cassie, who gave me the barbeque book, brought the macaroni salad to my first cookout using Cleaver's recipes. I make her salad all the time now, but I never did have another Cleaver cookout.

Did I ever mention that I used to live directly across the street from the Black Panther's Headquarters? Or that I shopped a lot at their Muslim bakery? I used to buy black panther veggie burgers there. The staff would make me wait until they'd served at least three black people ahead of me, whether or not I was there first. For some reason I didn't mind, as I thought it was 'turn about fair play' or something like that. While I was waiting to be asked for my order, I'd browse through the cards they had for sale. I can clearly remember one card. There was a photo of a young black girl (about 13-14 years old) on the front. She was holding some kind of automatic weapon. On the inside of the card three words were printed: "What It Is". I never did, and still don't, understand the meaning of those three words, but I didn't care. Those Black Panther veggie burgers were delicious!

That was back in the day when I only dated rich guys (hey, I used to be quite cute, or quite slutty, can't exactly remember which, heh heh, but as they say you never regret the things you did). I liked to have the rich guys take me to places they didn't want to go, like the nude beach at the river over Mt. Tamalpias way, or like Eli's Mile-High Club — one of my favorite small jazz/blues clubs in Oakland. Usually there were about 40-50 black-american attendees... and me. For some reason which I really don't 100% comprehend, in those days I could go anywhere I wanted to and no one bothered me. I wonder why that was? Wish I knew. I remember taking some rich guy with a hyphenated last name and a "III" after it, to Eli's club. The guy drove a bentley and was a corporate attorney. His mom owned several high-rises in San Francisco, and hated the idea of her son dating me. She thought I was a hippie but I was only it for the plentitude of sex that came with headscarves, bellbottoms and patouli oil. She invited me to dinner and I brought a bottle of my favorite white wine. It came in a fish-shaped bottle with a screw cap. It was a sweet wine which is why I liked it. Also, I used the empty bottles to decorate my living room windowsills. I'd fill each bottle with water to which I'd add fabric dye so that when the afternoon sun shone in the windows, rainbow colors would dance across the mirrors I'd strategically hung on the walls opposite the windows. In those days I was easily amused. hmmm. I have the same kinds of bottles lined up in my kitchen window right now, so I suppose I'm still easily amused. I even have the same stupid hair do... scraggy hair with bangs I cut myself, but that's because I'm a cheapskate. heh heh

Now where was I when my old-lady mind meandered down that memory lane? Oh yes!

The kid handed me the newspaper as I handed him the dollar in payment. Then he heard my tv and realized that the Lucille Ball/Desi Arnez movie "The long, long trailer" was playing. His face lit up with a big smile, his body visibly relaxed and he said, with great enthusiasm: "Hey, I LOVE that movie!!! It's Lucy and Ricky in that big trailer!!" We stood there in silence sharing a common love for Lucy. I can't explain it exactly, but it was a wonderfully human moment. I could have kissed him (but I didn't). Then without another word he turned and jogged down the stairs and I went back to work on my blog, while Ricky cautiously drove over the narrow road pulling that long, long trailer.

Lucy can always bring people together. She was an amazing woman, but without Desi to spark her and keep her on track, she would have been just another 'B' movie actress. I'm sure of it. Same thing for Desi. He needed Lucy and she needed him. It's sad that they didn't stay together for a lifetime, but in actuality, they did remain friends until Desi died. That's all one can expect, in this age of broken promises.

Well, there's a Buster Keaton silent movie on now. It's very well filmed for having been released in 1928. A few minutes ago in the movie there was a little girl who looked to be about six years old, which means that if she is still alive, she's my mom's age. Amazing. I must now end this rambling missive to call my mom as it is her birthday. I love my mom. She's an amazing woman who, after my dad died, still managed to raise the six kids who were still living at home then, without once accepting any kind of public assistance. My mom only went to the sixth grade too. But she's remarkably intelligent, and well-read. I must get my intelligence partly from her, but then my dad was an inventor, a consummate salesman and an author too. Yeah, I would have to say that my siblings and I could not have picked better parents. We had a grand time as kids, and several of us were lucky enough to have had both our parents until we were grown and on our own. Sometimes I could weep for my younger siblings who didn't have that luxury... a mom who only worked part-time and was waiting for them when they got home from school — to make sure they did their home chores, of course. heh heh

Well, I must call my mom and wish her happy birthday then get back to my studies.

A hui hou! Tante Waileka

Shana Alexander &Paul Winchell, gone but not forgotten

The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.
— Shana Alexander

Shana Alexander died on Thursday and was inadequately eulogized by the news media on Sunday. That's not surprising of course. The news media, or as they should more accurately be known, "the devil's minions", are never happy to publicize intelligent women who also happen to have integrity as their key word. Of course, the minions are happy to publicize women who are members of their 'upside down society', such as Hi[t]lery Clint[slime]on, because those women are already 'signed sealed delivered'. But women like Ann Coulter, or Barbara Olson, well, the only place you can learn anything useful about them is on newsmax.com and then only if the women are still so newsworthy that their names can 'sell ads'.

Sure, I admit occasionally reading email-blasts from newsmax, (particularly if they put down Hitlery or her fast-food scarfin' pseudo-hubby, Bill "I didn't swallow, err, inhale"), but I don't 'buy it at the news stand'.

The best eulogy for Shana comes from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, from which I quote:

A 1945 graduate of Vassar College, Alexander worked as a freelance writer for Junior Bazaar and Mademoiselle magazines and had a stint as entertainment editor at Flair magazine before going to work at Life as a $65-a-week researcher in 1951.

After becoming Life's first female staff writer, she wrote the magazine's award-winning column "The Feminine Eye" in the 1960s.

In 1969, Alexander became the first female editor of McCall's, where she was known for restyling the magazine to appeal to women's interests beyond domestic issues. She quit the post in 1971 and later described it as a token job in a sexist environment.

"Here was this magazine selling all these products to women, and it had no women in any level of photography or editing," she told the Chicago Tribune in 1990. "I was a figurehead. So I went around trying to bring them into the modern world."

She was a columnist for Newsweek magazine in 1975 when she was teamed with James J. Kilpatrick, the conservative Washington Star columnist, on the "Point/Counterpoint" segment on CBS' "60 Minutes."

Over the next four years, the duo debated the topics of the day and famously traded barbs and phrases such as "Oh, come on, Jack" and "Now see here, Shana."

Alexander once called the "60 Minutes" segment the news magazine's "modern reincarnation of Punch and Judy."

Shana, I learned a lot from you and though I was never particularly of a 'liberal' mindset (except for how I view sex), your magazine articles and your wit as evident on "Point/Counterpoint" always made me think outside the box, and for that I thank you. May you rest in peace, Ms. Alexander, and may you enjoy long leisurely angelic strolls with Jesus and his mom.

Paul Winchell, the voice of Tigger, and so much more...

Paul Winchell, an entirely different sort of person from Shana and yet so alike. Both Paul and Shana lived the lives which they imagined, to paraphrase Emerson. Paul was not only an accomplished ventroloquist, but an inventor par excellence (like my own father, who invented the first zig-zag sewing machine and a number of other inventions, but I'll tell that true story another day).

Paul invented and patented the first artificial heart, the flameless cigarette lighter, battery-lighted key case (a very handy tool as many of us know), a garment to prevent hypothermia, and finally the retractable fountain pen (click, click), plus many more I don't feel like mentioning here, except of course for the disposable razor).

Paul, I'm sure you are enjoying repartee with Shana and maybe Barbara Olson too, but I think maybe you were a male chauvinist, so perhaps you are over in the Fundamentalist section of heaven, as most surely Shana and Barbara are not.

P.S. Barbara Olsen was one of the souls on Flight 77. I've been wanting to get involved in the Flight 77 debate for some time now. But since I cannot substantiate anything, except that I 'have read a lot of conspiracy theories about Flight 77 on the internet', I've finally concluded that I should stay out of the discussion. But, there must always be a but[t], "don't you think it is strange that there weren't any arab folks on Flight 77 and don't you think it is possible that the flight was shot down by our own missiles or one of our fighter jets? Well I think it is possible, and so will you in a couple years when Hollywood makes that movie (you know it's coming.)"

nuff said.

The Evil that Sociopaths do...

I'm not feeling too well today, suffering the ravages of food poisoning. That's not entirely 'bad', because I'll lose a couple of pounds fur shure and like most women I am always happy for that.

Earlier, I was reading the news at CNN and wouldn't you know it, there's a story about a purely evil, murderous woman who is soon to be released from prison, in Canada. Unfortunately, Canada doesn't have the death penalty — bleedin' heart liberal 'wannabee' part of the EU that [most of] Canada is. Well, I was partially raised on a cattle ranch and here's what I know: culling the herd is a good thing. If you have a cow that kills calves, you kill the cow. Then you eat it, which of course you wouldn't want to do with a sociopath human in case you 'caught' its disease. And of course if you actually ate another human being, you'd be a sociopath too, so the cycle would kinda be never-ending. heh heh (Hey, I'm not feeling too well today, weren't you listening??!?)

Anyway, this woman is supposedly going to be 'looking for true love' once she is released from prison. She wants a man who 'loves his mother' and 'likes pets'. hmmm. Interesting! She thinks she's being sly, but basically people who prefer pets over people are kinda like me, not too fond of other people. Something tells me this 'lady' didn't actually get rehabilitated in jail. She is now looking for a guy who is a pantywaist (a momma's boy) so she can manipulate him into helping her continue fulfilling her desire to torture and murder young girls, only now she will feed their body parts to her 'pets' (the family dogs, most likely).

Well, I'll just pray that she accidentally falls down and hits her head on a brick (like murderous women eventually do, in movies anyway).

It's such a quandry, trying to be a good Christian and yet believing that the death penalty is still a necessity.


ttyl, Tante.