Sftware Addiction

Yesterday, I shopped for a new office chair at our local Office Depot. You might think that it would be the worst day for anyone should be going anywhere near a store that sells computer software. Microsoft (MS) released their first full overhaul of Windows Operating software (OS), Vista. I didn't see any crowds. I didn't see any express counters with signs saying, "Vista Customers Express Checkout" No, it seems that the reaction at this store was measured.

But there was that big display. It was sitting there like a girl with a low cut blouse on a summers day by the lakefront with her hair and her skirt blowing in a warm breeze. The attraction is unavoidable, but like the girl I can and do avoid such temptations. It's just that niggling feeling that if I don't upgrade I'll be missing something.

My addiction to new software makes me want to avoid the reality that the software I have on our computer is already overkill for our needs. I want to ignore the threat that one of these days Microsoft is going to quit supporting my version of XP. Vista's immediate relative, the way they did with WIN 98 and the others. I don't want to face the truth of the statement that mine ain't broke so why would I want to fix it.

Upgrading is probably going to mean tacking on a lot of files to the system I have. The only way to start fresh would be to erase my hard drive and reload everything. I visualize my computer Operating system as a messy basement with all kinds of things I don't need taking up room for things I do need. I see my information having to detour around piles of cardboard boxes in order to find the right box with the answer. If it was the basement I could clean it, but not my operating system. Be sure, if I were to delete anything from my operating system I would find out the next day that it was absolutely essential.

One of the perceived problems with Vista is the memory demand. Why worry, I'm told. It's only memory and memory is cheap. Yeah, I've heard that ever since I've bought my first PC, back in one AD. (After DOS era), when were just getting a graphical inner face software I was told I had enough memory on my laptop to last a lifetime. I would never need more memory. The capacity of that hard drive was smaller than my ROM cache is today.

So the question remains. One voice asks me, Why do you want to spend a couple of hundred bucks to install a new Operating system and go through the learning curve and readjustment period that could take weeks. The other voice asks why don't I take a pass until MS dumps me on the doorstep of obsolecense and forces me to change my OS. I want to say no. I want to say, It's probably great, but I'm going to let someone else work out the bugs. That way my eventual buy will include the traditional Service Pack with all the fixes for the the post release bugs that will take a hour to download if I buy now. But than the other voice whispers, "You might be missing something."

Sftware Addiction

Yesterday, I shopped for a new office chair at our local Office Depot. You might think that it would be the worst day for anyone should be going anywhere near a store that sells computer software. Microsoft (MS) released their first full overhaul of Windows Operating software (OS), l Vista. I didn't see any crowds. I didn't see any express counters with signs saying, "Vista Customers Express Checkout" No, it seems that the reaction at this store was measured.

But there was that big display. It was sitting there like a girl with a low cut blouse on a summers day by the lakefront with her hair and her skirt blowing in a warm breeze. The attraction is unavoidable, but like the girl I can and do avoid such temptations. It's just that niggling feeling that if I don't upgrade I'll be missing something.

My addiction to new software makes me want to avoid the reality that the software I have on our computer is already overkill for our needs. I want to ignore the threat that one of these days Microsoft is going to quit supporting my version of XP. Vista's immediate relative, the way they did with WIN 98 and the others. I don't want to face the truth of the statement that mine ain't broke so why would I want to fix it.

Upgrading is probably going to mean tacking on a lot of files to the system I have. The only way to start fresh would be to erase my hard drive and reload everything. I visualize my computer Operating system as a messy basement with all kinds of things I don't need taking up room for things I do need. I see my information having to detour around piles of cardboard boxes in order to find the right box with the answer. If it was the basement I could clean it, but not my operating system. Be sure, if I were to delete anything from my operating system I would find out the next day that it was absolutely essential.

One of the perceived problems with Vista is the memory demand. Why worry, I'm told. It's only memory and memory is cheap. Yeah, I've heard that ever since I've bought my first PC, back in one AD. (After DOS era), when were just getting a graphical inner face software I was told I had enough memory on my laptop to last a lifetime. I would never need more memory. The capacity of that hard drive was smaller than my ROM cache is today.

So the question remains. One voice asks me, Why do you want to spend a couple of hundred bucks to install a new Operating system and go through the learning curve and readjustment period that could take weeks. The other voice asks why don't I take a pass until MS dumps me on the doorstep of obsolecense and forces me to change my OS. I want to say no. I want to say, It's probably great, but I'm going to let someone else work out the bugs. That way my eventual buy will include the traditional Service Pack with all the fixes for the the post release bugs that will take a hour to download if I buy now. But than the other voice whispers, "You might be missing something."

We're in The Newspaper

We had our home reviewed in the local newspaper this last weekend. My wife, Maria, is the Executive Director of Historic Milwaukee Inc. (HMI), a non-profit group that recruits motivated volunteers to conduct tours of Milwaukee. Maria wanted to promote the "Immersion Series" a course on architecture and history of Milwaukee that can lead to the student becoming a guide for HMI.

Her contact at the Milwaukee Journal - Sentinel agreed to help if she could do an article on our East Side Condo. I've seen my wife nervous because of the impending arrival of company, but imagine the company being as large a group as this visit could promise. The article was great and certainly accomplished Maria's original goal. The photographer was so good that if I didn't recognize our personal processions I may not have known it was our Condo apartment.

But than another thought came to me. When we moved here I took some record photographs of the place before we moved in and some additional shots after we got somewhat settled. I pulled them up on my computer and did some comparing. When you live with something day after day, you are not quite as cognisant of the changes that occur, even if you institute the changes. I was able to see how my wife's vision for the place was coming together. I have no talent for imagining what a room will look like if I paint it a certain color or moved the furniture. One look at the before and after photo's of our condo would convince you that some people, like my wife, are especially blessed with that talent.

Environment does count. I tease my wife about her addiction to decorating magazines and remodel TV shows, but the truth is I benefit greatly from her genius. The colors that surround me, the accessories and furniture, she has incorporated into our living space provide and atmosphere of tranquility and yet stimulate the senses in a good and seemingly effortless way that provides me with a sense of pride and satisfaction in that, this is my home.

We don't live in the photo's that were published in the paper. Spaces that are used in magazines and newspapers are staged. They are perfectly clean, painted and prepped for perfection. After the photographer left, the family photo's come out on the tables and he magazines began building their teetering pile next our chairs and on the ottoman. However, the bones of that structure that was in the photographs the paper published is our space our home and that is what counts.

Cell Phones: Love Them or Hate them, We Do Use Them

In a recent piece Joel McNally wrote for The Shepherd Express entitled, Cell Phone Conspiracy, McNally takes on the on a recent decision by the Milwaukee Superintendent of Schools to ban cell phones from schools.

I take exception to some of Joel’s arguments that the ban is ridiculous and another example of the problem with Milwaukee Schools is the administration not the students, because the problems with the Milwaukee Schools system are too numerous and varied to get into in any format less than book length expose.

But what his article did point out to me is how long the cell phone has taken to acquire a set of social protocols’. In other words, what is appropriate cell phone use and when does it become rude and unseemly to use one?

One of the problems with technology is that it challenges the way we have done things in the past. As a result we don’t have rules about the use of new technology and ambiguity results. Trust me, you don’t want to be in theater during a live performance and have your cell phone ring, particularly if you customize your ring tone with something like the opening bars of “Stairway to Heaven” or Beethoven’s, “9^th Symphony”. The sacrifice of your dignity is the least you’ll surrender.

For as long as cell phones have been in common use, the controversy still rages about public cell phone use, cell phone use while driving or answering your cell phone during meetings. We simply haven’t agreed on generally acceptable rules.

We are shocked to learn that people use the camera and record functions at times that seem to violate people’s privacy, but rejoice when a cell phone photo exposes wrongdoing or criminal activity, all the while recognizing that the line between these things is non-existent.

The other problem is less obvious. I call it techno-envy. Some people feel that things like cell phones have certain cachet or class distinction. If everybody can have cell phones, when ownership becomes so common that it has no social or economic status, than some people feel free to rewrite the rules.

I recognize that part of the problem with the use of cell phones in schools is a feeling amongst many adults that kids shouldn't own cell phones much less when we discuss poor inner-city kids owning cell phones. As McNally mentioned in his column, if an inner-city kid owns a cell phone the assumption is that he must be in the drug business. When it turns out he is just blabbing with his friends like a soccer mom cruising the grocery aisle with her ear phone or her shoulder cocked holding her flip phone in place, than the inevitable question comes up. How can he afford that?

The other problem with some technology is that it grows and changes so quickly. We quickly established that it’s not a good idea for people to have active cell phones in a theater and than the manufacturer’s put cameras in them. Now the questions becomes is cell phone use inappropriate, but camera use permissible in some cases. When we realize that a cell phone Camera is just that, and if the occasion permits the use of a camera than the fact that it resides in a cell phone makes no difference.

We will sort this out. After awhile, it becomes a matter of what makes sense. In the end, this means that people with no common sense will always offend people who think before they act.

Addiction

My friend Johnny B and I were having a conversation about our mutual problem. As John and I might have said back-in-the-day, we both drank a bit. A bit too much was the problem. I still think Robin Williams pegged it when he talked about addiction. First it’s fun, than it’s fun with problems and than it’s just problems. Some of us are able to deal with it in ways that stop the problems and for most of us that means total abstinence. As I have told anyone that was interested, I am a man of addictions. I have become very good at dealing with my demons, because I’ve had a lot of practice.

One thing that John and I discussed is the feeling of lost time. It goes through your mind, as you get older, how much you could have done if you weren’t dealing with your hangover’s, figuring out where your next drink was coming from and wasting all of that money.

In a way, it’s the opposite of future anxiety. I’ve written elsewhere that one thing I notice people do and one of the reasons they acquire so many material things that end up in the garage or on e-bay is they somehow think their life will be better if they just bought… (you fill in the blank). It can be the same in reverse. My life would have been better if I hadn’t spent all the time energy and treasury on booz. That may be right but it can also be an excuse for not doing something you might not have been capable of doing in any case.

What John and I shared is the feeling of having to get something done before we can’t do anything. John is doing some creative and useful woodworking. I strive to become a writer. What we agreeded was that the common element in our efforts is the feeling of not just striving, but the need to make up for lost time. Hum, could we be turning a goal into a compulsion? Could that compulsion become and addiction? So predictable!

More on Unity 08

I went, as I hope you will, to the website for Unity 08. ( www.unity08.com ) There is a link to the article in The Atlantic that I mentioned in my other blog and tons more information on the organization and what they stand for and hope to accomplish.

One of the pages on their site is called The Shoutbox. On this page there are a number of strings of conversation relating to issues that people are concerned about and want debated in the upcoming campaign. What was interesting to me is the largest concern, based on the number of participants was a debate on what people wanted from their politicians. It was interesting to me, because on this the day of President Bush’s State of the Union Address in 2007, the press would have us think that the only issue that is worth talking about is the War in Iraq.

Now anyone has to agree that the situation in Iraq is bad and we need to have a long overdue debate and some plan to end our involvement, but what is apparent to me is that again the national press ay be entirely misreading the reason for discontent in the American public. Maybe it’s Iraq, maybe it’s healthcare, maybe it’s the economy and maybe, just maybe, it’s business as usual in the beltway. My bet is on the last reason.

Like a Broadway show that has run to long the American people are not only looking for something new fresh and positive I think they are fed up with the old one.

One of the contributors to this section of the Shoutbox, makes mention of having a candidate tell the voters what he or she will do about an issue, not what the opponent didn’t do. He wants his candidate to tell the truth about their position on all of the issues instead of riding the wave of public sentiment and issue-of-the-week mania. This in spite of the fact that the stance my be controversial and might be out of favor. Why should a candidate do this even though it might cost him votes? Because, it is an honest appeal for support. The theory is that while we may not agree with the candidate on all of the issues, (there is no candidate that we agree with on all of the issues in any case), we will reward the honest candidate with our vote vs. the candidate the dodges the issues in an attempt to avoid discovery and controversy. If both candidates are forth coming than the one that wins will be the one that is representing the majority of the public will. Is this politics as we wish it was and have no basis in reality? I submit that the reason John McCain and Barak Obama command such attention is that they are this type of candidate.

The other thing you will notice is that on the issues being debated in the Shoutbox that gay marriage, flag burning, prayer in schools and abortion are nowhere to be found in the top of the list of things people are concerned about.

Could it be that people are concerned about these issues, but have come to realize that there is no need for a legislative remedy for a solution to these problems? Is it possible that people finally realize that while the majority of attention is being paid to these issues in many campaigns that it is like the magician slight of hand? We are subjected to a diversion so we do not pay attention to what we really should be concerned about.

Unity 08, The New Third Way

How many times have you heard it said, the Democratic Party is too far to the left and the Republican’s are too far to the right. Why isn’t there a party for the guy in the middle? Well believe it or not there will be a party that represents itself as the third party that represents the middle. It’s going to call itself Unity 08.

In the January / February Issue of The Atlantic, Joshua Green writes about three political consultants, who admittedly caused the problem with political campaigns today, feeling enough remorse to do something about the situation.(Surprise Party Page 114) Their solution is to create a third party that will challenge the candidates to campaign and recognize the middle. Jerry Rofshoon, Doug Baily and Rodger Craver have come up with a modern and innovative way of creating the next great political party.

(I’m going to simplify this to much, so go to the back issue and read the story in its entirety.) In essence what they are going to do is create an online entity, Unity 08 that will organize, co ordinate, nominate and campaign for a viable third party candidate selected by its registered members.

They all worked with internet campaigns in one form or another and, as a group, have come to the conclusion that the internet has gained the status as the technical development that will impact the political selection process as much as television did in the sixties. Television took the process out of the smoky back rooms of the conventions and brought it out into the primary battle of the so-called impact states. No longer did candidates o into the convention marshalling strength to gain a nomination they have it in hand.

What Unity 08 proposes is not necessarily fielding candidates that they expect will win, but a genuine place for people to get the issues of the great center of the political mainstream a home and force the candidates in the other two parties to debate them.

Mathematics’ tell you this is a great idea. The past election is an example. The great middle had skewed toward the Republicans in 2000, 2002 and 2004. (About 30% of the population consider themselves Democrat and about the same number proclaim themselves Republican.) The middle 40% skewed back toward the Democrats in 2006 and changed the majorities in both the House of Representatives and The Senate. Note I said skewed. By this I mean both parties may hold or have held commanding positions, but neither of them, regardless of the rhetoric, held mandates.

I believe the problem is that when neither of the candidates represents the main concerns of a large proportion of the voting public, disaffected citizens vote with their feet and abstain.

If this population had a candidate to rally behind, it could activate them, in much the same way as Howard Dean and Barak Obama have brought new and here-to-fore uninvolved voters into the fray. If these guys can do as well as moveon .com they will undoubtedly become a factor in the 2008 election. Who knows they might surprise even themselves and back a winner?

Planting My Potato on the Couch

Television is getting to be something thing I do when I’m too tired to do anything else. My wife thinks my lack of interest is because we see so many movies that the weakness in content is magnified. I think there’s another reason. I think I’ve seen every character and script scenario that can be written so many times that I automatically think I’ve seen the program I’m watching.

Two and a Half Men seemed so familiar until I realized it ‘s a rehash of The Odd Couple. Every sitcom that involves couples is a regurgitation of The Honeymooners. Grey’s Anatomy looks like Friends without the jokes. I have no idea how many cop shows, Medical dramas and lawyer scenario’s we need to see until we exhaust the entire case files of the various professions. Although it seems people seem capable of finding new ways of violating the law in strange and humorous ways.

I feel that the reason the new TV shows fail or succeed is the characters that people like and identify with. I did not love Raymond, but it’s obvious that a lot of people did. One of the methods used successfully is to have and ensemble cast. If the viewer doesn’t attach to the major character, maybe they will be attracted to one of the others. Where would Cheers be without Norm? Try and watch Will & Grace minus Jack or Karen.

There is a new trend that is interesting and irritating. We are introduced to characters and the settings via a widely promoted opening show. They tease us with the shadows of the characters, put them in a challenging setting, play out the base premise of why they are all in this setting and than kill off one of the characters. Than they dare us not to watch next week and all of the following weeks to see what happens. But people are getting sick of Survivor.

ABC tried something similar with a show called The Nine. In The Nine we witness a botched bank holdup where a number of people are held hostage for 48 hours before they are freed. In the following episodes the audience is given more and more back ground on what actually went on in the bank during the forty eight hours they were kept hostage. In true and good dramatic form things are not always as we are lead to believe. I found this program compelling and I wish I knew what happened but evidently not enough people agreed with me because, we haven’t seen the series since before Thanksgiving. That is a long hiatus. Me thinks that the series met with the same fate as out holiday turkey.

(A check at ABC’s Website tells you that , “The next episode has not been scheduled”).

If you don’t see the Soprano’s, Lost, or 24 from the first week and each week thereafter can you stay in the story? Most people tell me no. I’m advised to wait until the entire season comes out on DVD and rent it. Maybe that’s the way to watch TV drama today. It might be better than TIVO.

The History of the Mystery, The Lost Painting

I’ve read a number of good books already this year. One of my all time favorite writers Carl Hiassen treated us this year to his latest serving of hi-jinks by his zany characters and barely probable circumstances in his home state of Florida titled Nature Girl.

Isabel Allende wove another romantic historical novel of her native Chile with her novel, Ines of My Soul.

But the book that has knocked me out is a book I have been looking at for well over a year, but didn’t buy. I received Jonathan Harr’s, The Lost Painting as a gift from my family for Christmas.

Harr is one of a small number of authors who has the talent to put a story that would normally be of narrow interest into a compelling narrative. As he defines his characters and places them in their settings, in this case Italy, London and Dublin as he begins to define the journey.

In the midst of a growing appreciation for the artist Caravaggio, two young Italian art history students begin the search for a painting that may or may not still be in existence. I guess it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that eventually the painting would be found, because it wouldn’t make for a very good story if it didn’t, but in this case while the destination is glamorous the trip is fabulous.

Not unlike the painter, Harr’s descriptions of the landscape and events are vivid, deep and compelling. As he describes events, I often felt like I was having coffee in a sidewalk café watching the young girl walking from her school to the library on a spring day in Rome. And while he charms me with these characters, he simultaneously begins to build the improbability of their success.

They are young. They are charming. They are persistent. But their task is formidable as they are going over ground covered by experts for years. They need a break. They get a break and it’s all because they are young, charming and persistent.

Harr moves the story to Dublin where he introduces us to an Italian expatriate art restoration expert, who is dreaming to do something memorable and significant in the world of art.

After frequent stops in London, the whole thing is tied together like one of those Robert Altman films where seemingly separate worlds blend together to give clarity to the issue at hand.

Harr’s narrative is compelling because he builds characters you care about and places them on a journey that is exciting, romantic and worthwhile. I only wish I could find another book like this, but unfortunately they are few and sadly far between.

Guns or Butter?

It is the odd situation in history and in circumstance that would allow a country to prosper economically if it were simultaneous waging a major conflict far from home. . All you have to do is consider the treasury going into the waging of the battle.

Take the same amount of money and invest it in the production of consumer products that enhance people’s lives or invest it in infrastructure that benefits generations of people and you'd have a tough time making the positive economic argument for the war time economy.

Even more distressing is the so-called guns or butter issue. Given that a government has limited income and resources, one would expect that a country at war would be expecting its people to make sacrifices, giving up some things in order to finance the war. This was certainly true during WW II. My mother was rationed for meat, sugar and many other things we don't even think twice about consuming. My dad had to be concerned about the tires for the car and gasoline. With the conflict we are involved in today, we are not asked to sacrifice aything if we don’t have a family member involved in the combat.

Technically, we are not at War today, (Congress did not authorize a declaration of war) although I'm sure our service men and women in the Middle East don't know the difference. What we are involved in is a contest with terrorists. This contest is for the hearts and minds of not only the people in the Middle East, but every citizen of the world.

It’s a given we have the strongest military on the planet. We have a successful economy and our form of government is a model for freedom in the world. But what everyone is wondering is can we lead as well as we can produce. Can we walk the walk or do we just talk?

My observation is that we are letting the world down. Our leaders state that if another nation is not with us they are against us. We feel we have the right to wage preemptive war any place we choose, because we can always seem to make the case that it is in our security interests.

John Kennedy always said in dealing with the Russians that "...what was theirs was theirs and what was ours was always negotiable." And so it seems, we’ve turned the tables there is no place in the world that we can't claim as being vital to our security interest and nobody who can define that interest, except us.

The conflict in Iraq we are fighting is costing us millions of dollars a day, while our infrastructure is slowly rotting underneath us. We do not have the resources to deal with that rot because it is being spent on this ill conceived venture. However the American People are being shielded from the sacrifice because we are not paying for the war out of pocket. We are charging it and the bill is climbing at an amazing rate.

It seems that if we are willing to continue to put this conflict on our national credit card, we can continue to pretend that we can afford the guns and the butter. Who is going to pay the credit card bill? I don’t know but given the current state of political will, I’d say the kids that are just starting grade school.

My Plan for Iraq and The Future of the Middle East

Mr. President, I have a plan. You challenged your opponents, who didn’t like your plan for future activity in Iraq, to come up with an alternative solution, I have it.

I have stated in this blog, my assessment of the situation in the Middle East. (See A Vote of No Confidence) Let us remember that you sir, started this war in Iraq. Many cautioned you not to do it and most of our allies refused to support you.

You started the Iraq conflict by convincing the American People and, embarrassingly enough, our congress to authorize you the use of unlimited power and resources to fight the “terrorists”. Your request to use that power to wage war in Iraq was couched in what I will kindly refer to as misleading information. When you got the authorization you wanted, you enormously misused and squander the power and resources of my country. If we look into the waste and corruption fostered in the so-called reconstruction of Iraq, it will show your lack of leadership and oversight. The military has struggled from day one after the fall of Baghdad to run a country. But on the other hand, I don’t think nation building is in their line of work.

You have continued to mislead and lie to the American people about our involvement in Iraq. You have propped up a leader who obviously can’t control his own people without the might of the American military backing him up. You have angered our allies and caused us to lose any leverage in any solution in the Middle East.

The reason people have trouble coming up with an alternative to “staying the course” or Cut and run” is that you’ve precluded any other solution. While diplomacy is an option that might work, as the Baker Hamilton Report suggested, we have no one to negotiate our side, because you sir have no credibility. No one believes you’re going to do what you say you are going to do because you have either lied or ignored the promises you’ve made to the American people and our allies, such that no one can or should believe you.

Starting with the unfunded mandates for federal programs, such as “no child left behind” and continuing through the on going disaster in New Orleans, with stops at the cuts in veterans benefits, we have seen a pattern of telling people what they want to hear and than doing what you intended in the first place, which for all practical purposes is nothing.

Why would I in the face of military experts telling me I’m right to be skeptical, believe that sending more good troops in harms way will solve this problem. No sir, we do not need more troops. We need to get the men and women we have in Iraq out of there.

Once we leave, watching the factions in Iraq come to agreement on a government may be messy and we may not like the way it ends, but if we stayed in Iraq for twenty years it’s not going to change one major problem. They don’t want us there and they’ve made that abundantly clear.

My solution therefore is to give our government credibility. President Bush have the courage to resign, take Cheney with you when you leave and let Nancy Pelosi take over a new government

A Vote of No Confidence

I guess the first words that come to my mind are, “I told you so”, but that is not constructive in the effort to find bi-partisan agreement on our situation in Iraq. What I should be thinking is that this wrong response to the wrong problem. Here are the things we know. We have ourselves in a seemingly unsolvable mess in the Middle East. We have made a huge error in judgment, in the wake of our fear after the twin tower attack on September 11^th. We have an ideologically motivated leader whose world view is incompatible with main stream America.

Our situation in the Middle East is not, no matter what the press in this country would have you believe is not just in Iraq. Going country by country throughout the Middle East, you will find that we have a different set of problems with each one of them. If those problems do not reside in the hearts and minds of the leadership of that country, they certainly are foremost in the people of that country. Do not let anyone tell you it is a religious war and do not let anybody tell you it’s a cultural war. It is, as it always seems to be in these cases, about the needs of people, as expressed as in the need for food, shelter, clothing and security. Our presence in the Middle East threatens all of those concerns for everyone from PM Maliki of Iraq to the cab drivers in Cairo.

We are seen as either physically destroying their country, as we are in Iraq, threatening to physically invade their country as we are in Iran and Syria or propping up a suppressive leadership as we are in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel. All of our actions, no matter how well intentioned are interpreted as being hostile and controlling. Are all of these people correct in their interpretations of our intentions and actions? I think not but our leadership has done little to show them otherwise. In fact by being suckered into the reactions we have expressed, we have reinforced their suspicions

We should not have and should never give, as we did post September 11^th, give a president unlimited ability to wage war in our name. In hind sight, it was just crazy to allow anyone the power to wreak havoc with our standing in the world community, by simply wrapping themselves in a flag (and in this case holding bible in one hand) and destroying whole countries without oversight. Yes, I know that bus has passed, but will we never learn?

And lastly, why do we think this latest plan is going succeed? I don’t think we do. What I am afraid will happen is that the old boys in Washington are going to give the President one last chance to hang himself in the history books by screwing us further into the floor boards of a sinking ship. And why you may rightfully ask yourself would they do that? No one, the new democrat majority included, wants to see the government limp along for the next two years. The press could call a vote to not fund Bush’s latest effort to save the day, a vote of no confidence and indeed it would be, but than we have to wait for November 2008 for a vote of confidence wouldn’t we?

Denby's Big Pictures

If you don’t subscribe to the The New Yorker magazine and if you love movies, you must beg, borrow or steal the January 8, 2007 issue. Turn to page 54 (pausing only at the numerous hysterical cartoons The New Yorker is famous for) and read, Big Pictures by David Denby.

Denby is the film critic for the magazine. For years, I have had this love hate relationship with him. I enjoyed his tale of returning to college, reading the cannon of required books and his reactions to that experience in his biographical, Great Books. My reaction may have been highly influenced by the fact that I had returned to the classroom to finish my degree at the age of fifty one, but in any case I found it well worth reading even though I disagreed with his opinion of some of the books on the list.

In the early nineties, I was freshly divorced, and it happens that Denby was heading down the same path. In another sign of the times for guys our age, we invested a lot of money in what was to become a bubble market. He wrote a humorous story about his experience in a book called American Sucker. In my case only my broker and the tax man knows for sure.

The area where Denby and I often disagree is his opinion of current film. I find I more often than not like a film he doesn’t review well and dislike many that he thinks are worthy. I do look forward to his columns because even if I disagree with him I learn something and if it isn’t about the film, it’s about writing, because there is no doubt in my mind this guy can write. He is learned in his opinions and direct in his commentary, and he writes in an accessible and concise manner that is a joy to read.

As far as the Big Picture is concerned, I couldn’t agree more with him. His observations on the future of the big screen presentations in the digital age are right on. His observations of the cold and calculating movie production business is eye opening to teary eyed sentimentalist’s like me, but they do answer the question about the quality of movies that are being made and why there aren’t more films that I like being made.

Moreover his analysis of the technical revolution in the near future is interesting. I know I and my peers have always questioned who the hell would watch a film on their ipod or their phone. The answer is not surprising, it’s young people, but the reasons are interesting and logical

What Denby, the critic, the guy that sees more movies than I do, has to say about the experience of seeing a film in a theater and how it will never be replaced by the best home theater system is worth reading the article all by itself. Yes, the theaters are aging, lacking in style or grace, and they have such thin walls that often you are watching one film and experiencing the special effects of the movie next store. Yes, people talk and cell phones ring during the performance. The floors are sticky and the popcorn is outrageously expensive. The commercials, cross promotions and coming attractions are challenging are limits of tolerance for the time they take (twenty minutes at the last film I attended). But after the gab quiets down, the idiot turns off his phone and the film begins, you can lost in a world of make believe that sometimes challenges your mind and instructs you in ways that very few things can. It’s the shared experience that makes it unique. As Denby says, people will go to movies alone, but they really don’t want to be alone.

Having Trouble Cutting the Cord

My wife, Maria, was packing for an extended visit with our kids in Appleton. She commented that she was packing more cords for her electronic toys than she was clothing. As much as both of us have tried to simplify our lives by getting rid of things that we thought wanted, but turn out to be baggage rather than benefits in our lives, it seems that we continue to experiment.

Not that all things are failures. I can remember when digital cameras began to become main stream. I had a couple of spirited discussions with my son Todd, who like me, was dedicated “wet film” photographer. In the early days, the quality was not in the finished product. It was good enough for record photo’s (family memory records), but totally inadequate for travel, and wall art work. My bag, I still have it, was about ten to fifteen pounds of bodies, lenses and other accessories. Now I carry a 5 meg Samsung digital and when I learn to use all of its capabilities, I will be able to do more with it than I could with my old bag full of tricks. This is due in no small part to the ability to manipulate the end product with Photoshop, but the down side is the USB cord that I need to download the product to the computer.

Maria and I both carry notebooks. No, to be clear Maria carried a Day-Timer, a sensible loose leaf bound notebook that fit her needs. I’m addicted to notebooks. I juggle placing my thoughts and observations in two sizes of Moleskins, an 8 ½ by 11 loose leaf spiral and two note programs on the computer. I also have three hardbound blank page books that I take on trips that chronicle in no particular order notes I take on trips. But like I say I have a problem walking past notebooks on the shelf of any store.

We now both carry PDA’s. Maria got hers first and convinced me that it would work for me. The decision has worked out well for both of us. We don’t worry about missing appointments. I can find phone numbers and addresses. But there is a recharge cord and the inevitable USB cord so that we can sync the PDA with our calendar and address books on our computer.

There are the cords for the MP3 player and the mobile phones. I have an AlphaSmart word processor that thankfully runs on AAA batteries so I only need the “fire wire” to download the product into MS Word. All in all, I think our life is simpler that it was a few years ago. Some may argue rightfully that all of this is part of the new complexity of the digital age. I have no nostalgia for the past, but than I like playing with these things too. It might be clouding my judgment as to their value.

Every Party has a Pooper

I hate to be a wet blanket, a spoiler or a stick in the mud, but spending a million dollars on a party to celebrate anything is ridiculous. To spend a million on a mate that has survived cancer is egregious.

I was watching a piece on CBS Sunday Morning. Over the last couple of years, I have noticed a slide in the quality of articles. More and more they’re letting the, what I call, Vanity Fair article sneak in. This is the kind of article that is celebrity based or informs us about the rich and famous. Now I know that there is a certain amount of the audience that likes these stories, but I don’t and that is why I watch CBS Sunday Morning and skip The Today show and all of the other’s that represent that branch of journalism. I’m just not interested in the news of the romances, breakups and fashion decisions of the American form of royalty.

The article on that Sunday morning, New Years Eve 2006, was about parties. They interviewed the “in party planners” and covered the gamut in bizarre presentation, food and venues that people will buy in order to top their neighbors. These included extremes in size of guest list, top name performers to entertain and exotic locations. The excess was unbelievable to me. I still swallow hard when my dinner check comes to over one hundred dollars.

But one of the featured parties really kicked my middle class values hard in the ass. One of the parties was organized and paid for by this rather pleasant woman from North or South Carolina to celebrate her husband survival from a bout of cancer. She admitted that you have to spend in the area of seven figures to get what they did. Included was some kind of a rare sports car that her husband always wanted. I was shocked and incredulous.

Let’s celebrate yes, but over a million dollars for a guy who owes his life to doctors and medical practitioners who have spent their lives learning how to help people afflicted with these terrible diseases. He owes much to all of the patients who died in experimental programs that eventually led to the successful methods we now use.

And what about the future? Tell me I am wrong, but spending a million dollars plus on a party to celebrate a guy surviving cancer is saying “I am rich. Let me show you how rich I am and I dare you to try and out do me.” As opposed someone who will give the money to cancer research and quietly, without puffing out their chest say thank you and take this to help someone else, but than maybe I’m just a party pooper.

Times they are a changing

During a recent conversation, a female friend of mine stated that she wasn’t excited about being fifty. She felt that all she was doing was giving up things. Her children were growing away from her and becoming more independent. Her mental skills weren’t as sharp. She admits that she worries that one or both of her parents may soon pass on. Some friends are becoming more distant.

She could have added that as we become older our generation ceases to be the innovators that they once might have been. We are leaving a legacy, not creating a history the way we once did. As a rule, the older generation is not writing the new novels, creating the new styles or innovating the latest have to have commercial product.

Oh it’s true the baby-boomers still sway a lot of commercial decisions. Bob Dylan had the number one selling CD in the country not to long ago. The problem with that is that the only people that still buy CD’s are older people. The young buyers purchase their music on-line and download, so the Dylan album claim to number one status is questionable.

There is more research in any number of medical conditions that are going to impact the boomers. But even here, the pragmatism is being driven by the need rather than by their innovation. The dearth of advertising to boomers for everything from investment products to get well cures is being created by younger people profiting from a huge market.

On the up side, passing the fifty mark gives you the freedom to carry on with those dreams and desires that were set aside when you took on the responsibilities of parenthood and family building. Women in particular, it seems to me, can use this time in their life to blossom and grow. The loss of mental acuity is largely proven to be a myth. Physical abilities may limit Olympic ambition, but satisfactory accomplishments that are less that world class level can be attained by those who have patience and a decent work ethic.

I propose that the one thing that you get more control of as you grow older is time. Family, job and community demands are, or can be if you choose, less. Where and what you do with your life becomes more and more a matter of choice. Trying to relive the past or rework your parenting skills by inserting yourself into your grandchildren’s life or spending more hours on the job are two options, but so is taking up that hobby or career change that always beckoned, but for many reasons the pursuit of which was not practical.

I Believe

I believe that people do what works for them. I recognize, however, that grasping necessary change can be painful. I believe that while people are loathe to change something that seems to work, if they see a better way, eventually they will come around. We are often belief-bound, content and proud of our choices because we are operating based on a cultural understanding of what a person should and can do and what works in that pursuit.

The variety of human experience explains the diversity in the way humans pursue their lives and why traditions and thinking can change so slowly. People fight change in ways that, when you look back on them, seem ridiculous. When it first became available, my father maintained he didn’t need air conditioning in his car because it was, in his mind, useful for only a couple of hot days a year, and operating the air conditioner used too much gas. Today you only have to attempt to buy a car without air-conditioning to realize how the technology and our priorities have changed. As the personal computer became a part of the business scene, many of my peers didn’t bother learning how to use one. It is no mystery why they were the first to go when the downsizing began in the eighties and those skills became critical.

Senator Barak Obama recently said that the last two presidential campaigns were about issues that were raised in the sixties. He is right, and it shows how reluctant we can be to move on. While racism and questions about a woman’s rights rage in the hearts of some, a younger generation has not only accepted integration and equality, they have embraced them.

Part of this reluctance to change is based in the reluctance to admit we’ve been wrong. Another aspect is fear of anything new. Why give up the time-proven way for something that might not last, hold up to pressure, or be as good?

While it’s true that there are tradeoffs in almost any decision we make, evolution rather than revolution usually prevails. The projected payoffs in productivity that the computer promised didn’t happen until the vast majority of the production workers began to use them. The Internet didn’t have the value it has today until the average person had access, the right equipment, and the knowledge of how to use it. Change can be slow, and in fact it can be downright frustrating for those who see the value in something early on, but ultimately the thing that changes people’s minds is seeing something work for others.

Changing the paradigm or the belief system can take years. Often we go through very painful times when we let our emotions rather than common sense rule our actions. But I believe that given the time and the information, people ultimately do that thing that works best.