Does not compute

Haven't been able to get online as of late...we crashed and burned. In hopes of never losing all of our photos, music and other works, we bought a computer that has a mirror hard drive that automatically made a backup of all we did. Last week we had some problems with the computer and had to have a guy come out to look at it. Thankfully, it was still under warrenty (barely). The guy replace the power source and tweaked some other stuff but told us that the backup drive was bad and they would send a replacement out the next day... he told me that it was easy to replace and I could do it myself or call for assistance.

The drive came and I decided to be safe and call for technical assistance. Keep in mind that the computer was still running fine without the backup drive. I knew things weren't going to be that simple, when I told him I had the tower open and I needed to know which drive was the backup. His reply, Let's try the one on the right. After a couple of hours, it became apparent that the computer was not going to work with the assistance I received. The guy had to come out the next day and redo the job. After an attempt to get the backup drive intitialized and what have you, he came out and told us that the main drive was now dead.

We now have new drives and power source and none of our files. We have paid the local company that provides our internet service to attempt a salvage operation the bad drives to see if anything can recovered. Only Child is heartbroken that all of her files are gone... hopefully they aren't. I am now looking into buying an external drive to lessen any further losses... Of course, that is what the backup drive was supposed to do.

AAAAAAARRRRRGH!

Back from our weekend in Ft.Wayne

Came back from our trip to Ft. Wayne to find that our computer had died while we were gone. It is back up to the point of allowing us access to the web but not yet fixed. Thankfully, it is still under warranty and all repairs are free.

Only Child had a wonderful time at the con and is hoping to attend many more. I wish I had a chance to attend more comic/SF conventions when I was her age. Such gatherings and the internet would have given me a much stronger feeling of fellowship with the rest of fandom.

The good news for O.C. is the inaugural gathering at the Anime Crossroads con this November. This might be one of those cons that she attends annually for the rest of her life... if it becomes successful. If you know anyone interested, let them know. I'm hoping it will have an impressive first year.

Recently got good news regarding our finances that will make life a little easier. More on that later.

Don't You... Forget About Him

John Hughes, dead at 59. Wow. That really knocks the wind out of me. The man and his movies (either written or directed or both) helped make the 80's what they were. My love for the 80's is a great one. The music and the movies of that era are some of my favorites, and I owe a great thanks to John Hughes for a lot of that entertainment.

Mr. Mom, Vacation, 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, The Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck, Career Opportunities and Dutch are some of my favorite movies from this unbelievably talented man. Oh, yeah, he made quite a few crappy movies too; but with the number of arguably classic ones included in the above list, those can be overlooked. No one gets it right every time.

If he had only done Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, that would been more than enough to make him a film legend.

No one gets it right every time.

He certainly got right enough times. Thank you, Mr. Hughes.

My sincerest condolences to his family, friends and many, many fans.

Ego Trips

Former President Bill Clinton visited North Korea and managed to facilitate the release of the 2 journalist sentenced to 12 years in prison for alleged crimes against the country. Having Kim Jong Il's childish ego stroked by having a political rock-star, such as Clinton, personally come to negotiate their release was a savvy play by whoever set up the mission.

Conservative critics are already suggesting that Clinton's visit amounts to negotiating with terrorists. This is such a load of bullshit. Of course, the journalists were treated unfairly/harshly by the North Korean leader and his government. The problem was and is that, in spite of the complete infantile lunacy of Kim Jong Il, North Korea is a sovereign nation and the reporters were in the country illegally... by their laws. Is North Korea a terrorist nation? Is their behavior as a global citizen abhorrent? The answer to those questions are arguably yes. Still, they haven't actually attacked their neighbors nor did they kidnap the journalist from foreign soil and hold them hostage.

The U.S. wants North Korea to behave and put aside childish things (like nuclear weapons) and become a responsible adult. Unfortunately, North Korea, being an unruly child, thinks that if nuclear weapons are good enough for the U.S. then they are good enough for them. I'm not a diplomat (be very, very thankful) so I don't have to make the tough decision regarding how to handle the North Korea situation. I'm just an opinionated blogger who thinks that the Clinton visit was a perfect way to get the journalists released and a first step towards talks with the North Koreans.

We can all agree that Kim Jong Il is a childish twit. We just can't say it if we work for the White House. The problem is that he is a buffoon in charge of a sovereign nation and with nuclear capabilities. Getting the journalists released was a diplomatic coup for us and shouldn't have had anything to do with any other problems we are currently trying to work out with them.

Of course, I too am a buffoon, so I could be completely wrong.

Mini-Adventure

Starting on Thursday, I will be taking another mini-vacation from work. I will be driving Only Child to Ft. Wayne for Ikasucon. She had plans to go for all 3 days with some friends, but as time grew short it looked like it would be too expensive for the stay. Since she had already bought a 3-day pass, I told her I would drive her up on Friday so she could get some use out of her pass; then thought that, if I could scrape up some cash for a hotel for one night, she could get in 2 days of the con. Found the cheapest hotel (I'm not holding out much hope for quality)and booked one night. That will give me someplace to hole up while she's at the con and I want to check out the new Half-Price Books that recently opened.

We are going to do this on the very, very cheap; I plan on taking the makings of PB&J's and some drinks in a cooler and spending nothing more than hotel and gas expenses. O.C. has some spending money for the con and I will take some books/comics and my MP3 Player for entertainment. It isn't luxury but it isn't work either.
Let's hope my car is up to the task. Everyone cross their fingers.

Birther Defects

Wow. 58% of republicans polled either believe that President Obama was not born in the U.S. or aren't sure.

If this poll is accurate, it certainly explains their love of Sarah Palin... It's sort of like Desiderius Erasmus observed, In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

To these witless fools, a half-wit is a genius.

I know I didn't have to spell that out for most readers, but I did so in case a birther stopped by to try to read the post.

Looking to the Futurama!

As the wise man known as Evanier predicted, it looks like the return of Futurama will not go on without the original voice cast.

Thanks to Tony for the heads up!














No, it isn't true that Fox execs and the cast settled it all over a cold can of Slurm with the president, or that the president was born on another planet.