Opaque Lucidity

On To '08

As I did last year, I am taking a break from posting here until the new year. I have been lax lately and, hopefully, I will be more active in the new year. Thanks for everything.

Testing

I'm typing this on my new iPhone, which is possibly the neatest gadget I have ever owned. And I have the lovely Kelli to thank for it. More later.

D.B. Cooper Gets Away, November 24, 1971

Listen here

Will There Be Dessert?

I need to stop.

Behind Door Number One...

With the Youtube Republican debate behind us, I am beginning to believe we will not see a serious discussion of the issues before next summer's conventions. As I watched the silliness last week, I couldn't help but realize I have placed some of the candidates into neat boxes. Here's what I mean:

Rudy Giuliani is my father. No, not really---but he reminds me of him in many ways. First, he looks like my dad. Italian, balding and with that nose. Second, he's a scrapper. You can not imagine Rudy sitting idly by and letting a fight or argument go by without him. Finally, I feel comfortable with him. I know that's wishy-washy, but that feeling factors in when people make their voting decisions.

Mike Huckabee is a Baptist minister. That fits him. He's clean-cut, well-spoken and seemingly very conservative. But I can't escape the feeling that something is wrong. How would you feel if you went to a "gentleman's club" and ran into your priest or minister? I feel that way when I listen to Huck.

John McCain is the real deal. Anyone who spends five years in hell in the service of his nation gets to say whatever the hell he wants for the rest of his life. Maybe I stole this from Rush Limbaugh, but I can't help picturing him as Lieutenant Commander Queeg in 'The Caine Mutiny'. Humphrey Bogart played the role in the film, so the physical resemblance isn't there. But picture McCain rolling two steel ball bearings in one of his hands and saying something like "They were all disloyal!"

Mitt Romney is the physical prototype of the man I want to see in the cockpit when I board a plane. He's tall, gray in the right places, smiling and strong. Pilot Mitt has 15,000 hours of flight time under his belt and flew 30 combat missions over North Vietnam. Candidate Mitt doesn't inspire that same confidence for some reason----is it that he has too much "facade"?

Ron Paul is that part of the family no one wants to talk about. His brothers and sisters park him on the porch in a rocking chair and leave him alone. He has a twinkle in his eye that tells you he believes he is Napoleon Bonaparte. Do not give him any sharp objects and take away his shoelaces.

Don't you feel better?

Techs Need Not Apply

Stories like this are becoming more and more common as more Best Buy stores open nationwide. The bottom line is this: don't buy any of the services the Geek Squad sells. Period. Some of you are fortunate in that you have one of us geeky types in your family or your immediate circle of friends. For the rest of you, I have assembled some tips I believe are worth mentioning:

1. Go local. Chances are the the guy who fixes PCs out of a small storefront knows a hell of a lot more about your computer than anyone at CompUSA or Best Buy. Most of his advertising is done via word of mouth, so he cares about your opinion of his service.

2. Back up. There is something on your computer that is irreplaceable: financial data, family photos, blackmail documents, etc. Your hard drive, being an electric-mechanical device with moving parts, will fail. Not MAY, but WILL. If you are not backing up to a CD, DVD or external/internal drive, you are asking for disaster. Even a great tech can not always pull data off a dead drive. Recovery services exist, but they can cost thousands of dollars.

3. Be specific. Tell your tech what you were doing when the problem occurred, how often it happens, etc. You will save money if you can give details. Think of it this way: if you take your car to a mechanic and say, "It's making noise", he has no idea where to start unless he can reproduce the problem, a task that is sometimes impossible.

4. Be up front. If the tech is coming to your house, make sure you tell him everything you need fixed WHEN HE ARRIVES. After he fixes the main problem, please don't a)tell him about some other problem or b)ask for a lesson on some application (that's what manuals are for---open and read!). You may be saying, "I'm paying for his time" and you would be correct. However, the tech is planning his day based on what you have told him. If you extend his day because of your lack of planning, other customers are going to suffer. One day that customer will be you.