Posts with the tag Apple

Oh Give Me This Day....

James — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:02:22 EST

What is it about the Southern Drawl that is so bothersome to those of us who occupy the remainder of this country? I know one woman in Memphis who has a drawl, of sorts, and it is lovely. But then, she has this huge brain, so there is no doubt about her intellect. And she has the drawl with a smile buried deep inside of it. But the rest. Geez. I am listening, tonight, to the comments of some of the passengers aboard the Hudson River flight. Those interviewed with a Southern drawl just drive me up the wall. I hate it. Maybe they are not dumb, but God do they sound so very dumb. This is a regional problem, and it is mine. The speaker may, in fact, have an intellect of some distinction. Why can I not hear it that way? What is it in my own background (and my Dad is from Dallas, where the rest of that side of the family reside) that causes me to get this impatient creepy feeling when I hear that way of speaking? I don't understand it at all. But it sure is there, and I can't ignore it. I have a friend in Texas. He's been there all of his life. He sounds like Sherlock Holmes, and is nearly as smart...well, if Sherlock had been real, anyway. Why does he not sound like one of these strange throwbacks from the Confederacy?

I was at the Apple store today. Now Apple stores are beautiful places. I like the outside graphics. I like the simple elegant layout of the interior. I like the 'genius bar' in the back of the store. But I rarely like the experience of buying stuff there. In the stores I have been in, you have to get approached by some sort of care specialist. They do not allow you to go and just get waited on. Once you have 'registered' in with this care specialist you stand and wait, or browse around, or just plain frump. So I frumped. Finally, a dutiful nerd with identification (a wispy "I am trying, but I'll never be able this thing grow beard) approached. "Do you need help?" he asked, looking around. I wanted to say "Nope, I am here from the Salvation Army to pick up all this trash for our resale store," but I did not. I tried to get along. After five minutes of conversation, it became apparent that I was there for 'business' purposes. So my attendant had to go and get a 'business attendant.' Five more minutes. The only thing keeping the lid on my kettle was the fact that it was seven below zero outside in the shopping center walkway, and the wind was running a good fifteen MPH. A true clone of the first attendant came out, or maybe it was only a really good and ugly android instead. I explained my problem to the clone. Amazingly, the solution to acquiring the piece I needed, was for me to go online and order it from the Apple store. "I'm in the Apple Store!" I nearly shouted at this conclusion. The teenage nerd of an attendant shook his head, not even looking sympathetic. "No, you're in the Apple retail Store...the Apple store is only online or available by phone." His expression then turned to pity. But not for my situation. No, it was pity about the simple fact that I was well past the age of anyone who could possible understand the distinction he had just stated or, for that matter, understand anything to do with modern computers. So I blurted out "are you on Twitter?" He actually took a step back. His expression changed. He looked at me this time as if I was some sort of police detective. "No, not yet," he murmured, properly cowed, his eyes down. "Hhhmph," I smirked, "you better get with it and get a life out there. You can follow me. I'm at FromTheChateau." I walked out of the store in triumph, only to be struck down by the wind. I made it to Nordstrums after about five minutes of pure facial pain. There I rested, confident that Nordstrums personnel would be used to guys who are a bit aged and not too savvy about their products. I would have to tell no one there, I knew in my heart, that I was a Twit with only one follower.

I made it home. Harvey waited to go outside. My bad humor was in full bloom, so I told him that his meow request would be granted. I opened the door and out he went. And stopped. He waited, flicking one paw two or three times, just at the bottom of the steps. Then he turned his head to look back at me. His eyes said it all. "C'mon," I whispered, scooping him up. "No, that was not funny in the least bit." So he lays upon his two favorite newspapers in front of a fire, as his reward for putting up with me. He prefers the New York times, even though he was born in a back alley in downtown Nashville. He is a Southern intellectual. He has no drawl.

from-the-chateau-dif.blogspot.com

Post Computer Trauma...

James — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:31:48 EST

Earlier, I hooked up a new 30" monitor to my Apple Miracle Machine. And it showed me a new miracle. It quit. It would not restart. Just one fading gray screen after another, as I endlessly pushed the start button and waited. I wonder if anyone has ever catalogued the time that can be involved doing such repetitive and mentally exhaustive behaviors. Probably not. It is like the time you can be on the telephone trying to get through the nonsensical voicemail of AT&T. Then, when you get through all that, without having to start over again, you have to give ridiculous language lessons to some really nice, and constantly apologizing, person from Samoa. I do not like the timing meter on my phone. It actually tells me how long I have been on the line. I get mad when it approaches half an hour, especially if I have to go to the bathroom but am afraid to. I worry what the sounds coming from such an act would do to global detente. Then later, after I am off the line, I am sorry I did not do it, just for the recording they are supposedly making of the entire miserable affair. "Here, listen to this...." kind of thinking. But I don't do stuff like that.

I am not bad with computers. In fact, pretty damned good with Apple equipment and software. So what was it that took me out for hours and hours, and had (eventually) the guts of the computer strewn about my office floor? It was the battery. Yes, there is a battery in your computer. I have been told that it has something to do with the constant time your computer must be kept up to, or on, or something. That was the clue that led me to the battery problem. What little I could get on the screen told me that I was back in November of 1969, which would have been bad, as I was in a hospital bed in Japan and not expected to live, just then! I finally found the sucker, got it out, tested it in my Frankenstein equipped basement shop, and raced off to Radio Shack. Without a laptop, which does not like sending or receiving email (and I do not know why that is, being I am so good with computers), I would have been really stuck. I was able to use the internet to investigate the problems (like what do you do once you get your computer's insides out?) and then go back and forth and fix it. Harvey, meanwhile, decided that he was a member of the 'Geek Squad,' without the black and white Volkswagen. He went right into the case and laid down upon the motherboard. It was warm I guess. He stayed in there until I got back from Radio Shack. Now there is fur and stuff on the mother board. But I did not try to clean it. I just put the battery in and threw it all back together. The back of my brain was already feeling the warning signals coming up from my cerebellum. The whole rig was about to go out of the second story window if it did not work. And I like this computer. No, I do not have post traumatic stress! No way!!! But it started, and life is good. How long it will run...I do not know. But it is never ever getting turned off again. Ever.

Back in New Mexico I bought my first real computer in the eighties (I never counted the Commodore 64 as a computer). I put it together and it worked. I found out about the early internet. The University of Michigan was the outfit pushing things back then. Metacrawler was the only search engine in those dinosaur years, that I can remember, anyway. The thing (computer) worked for about three months and then seized up. I called everyone. Hewlit Packard, Norton and such. Nobody could help get the thing unstuck. By the way, my own employees of the time thought I was real cool to have purchased a whole rig on my own and set it up in my home. I was proud of the fact that they thought I was cool. I have never been 'cool.' I have always been the 'no, it's not him,' kinda guy. Mr. Peepers. A light Dom DeLuise. Red Skelton. Not Paul Newman, in any role he ever played. But I digress. When the computer failed, I was younger and PTSD was closer to the surface of my life. I put the entire bunch of parts in my trunk, drove twenty miles out into the desert in my Rover, and dumped it all in a pile. It may still be out there, for all I know. Then I went home, got on the phone and ordered a whole new computer. That one I got going, then left it alone. It was only there for when any of my people might come by. I wanted to be cool that bad. And I allowed that fearsome cerebellum to take over much too quickly.

Today was not a totally bad day, however. The roads got cleared here for the big snow coming tomorrow. Harvey now believes he fixed the problem that was bothering me and is expecting a lot of attention in return. Which he is getting. I met with my friend, the professor, today, as well. He is always great good fun, and also so sharp that I must pay full attention...or he looks skyward and gives God one of those looks that only someone raised in the Catholic Church environment can give. We argued arrogance again. He was gentler today. He had read my blog and probably felt that I was a bit too harsh on myself. Or I believe he felt that way. He does not lie as much as I do. I believe that too. But he does not believe that he lies at all, which I find vastly entertaining.

Lou Penetta is getting ready to be inducted into the CIA. He has no clue. Not one. He thinks he is ready for those aged and weathered, but by no means dull, razor blades over there. Ha. Meanwhile, they are all over at Langley smiling and patting each other on the back. They are thanking Christ that Obama did not appoint someone who would really know what they are doing. It will take Penetta years, which he will not have, to figure that mess out. He must fire all the sub-directors and replace them immediately, and not with their assisstants. It is his only hope. But he won't do that. Nobody ever has. I like him. I like his looks too. He really looks like a nice guy. And we need some nice guys in government these days. Caroline Kennedy is nice too. In her damaged way. So I won't mind seeing her beat out that prig Cuomo. Another of the nepotistically derived creeps.

from-the-chateau-dif.blogspot.com

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

WEBMASTER — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:26:14 EST

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Call 949.645.1701 for information on how Green Wave Energy can help you save the planet.

Alternative Energy
Source: David Apperson

url: http://veterans.barackobama.com/page/community/tag/alternative-energy

Fight The Smears...At Home

defeatism — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:58:58 EDT

Support in my family is mixed, with my mother being an undecided, my stepfather being a McCain man, and I'm bleed for Obama. We've agreed to keep things to a "no politics" in the house rule, since we all know where we stand, and we'd just end up angering everyone. Things came to a point today when my stepfather made a "joke" that he "heard on Fox News" that O[s]ama was the missing 20th hijacker on 9/11. At this point I could no longer take it, and I'm a pretty tolerant person! Mind you I'm in the middle of a chemotherapy cycle so my energy cycle is pretty low, but I ended up breaking an ink pen and making it explode all over books, important papers, my MacBook and BlackBerry...and body. I also threw a glass of iced tea on the tile floor causing it to explode into a thousand shards, and collapsed onto the ground. I just can't take those kind of attacks on my candidate I've supported from the beginning and worked hours for and donated money to that I really didn't have to spend, bought books to read, buttons and shirts to wear, Facebook clubs to join, emails read, phone calls made, blogs written and doors knocked on. As a second time voter (I'm 25) I can't let the party of deceit, lies and waste to govern (or the lack thereof) for another four more years. I'm self-employed (barely) and my health insurance runs out next year - with my pre-existing conditions I flat out won't be covered by any company. And I have a choice between medical bills in the five to six digits or very early, painful death. A wrong vote by the American people decides that. That and the ink-covered MacBook (which I do my work on) all because I fought the smears, with a literal smear. At least I can laugh at the irony through the chemotherapy. This is all too long and boring, but, true. Yes we can, come November 4th!

Obama-Apple Wallpaper for Mac Users

Dan — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:50:38 EDT

Today's post is geared towards Apple Mac OS users. Flickr user aar0n5150 has a really nice looking Obama image which mashes up the Obama and Apple logos released under a Creative Commons license...

I've create some common sized wallpapers from his image and have made them available for download...

Grab them here!

While you're at it check out our growing collection of iPhone wallpapers, signs, posters, wallpapers, etc. at obamamedia.wordpress.com.

Vote different.

Callipygian — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:23:38 EDT

Obama and Apple do have a lot in common, including massive popularity with a cultlike following. They both have the image of being elegant, intelligent, open minded, groundbreaking, innovative, and even a little revolutionary.

I got a good response from the last Vote Different logo I made, so I put together another one.

Obama, the Halo Effect, and What's Changed

Patrick Ruffini — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:36:42 EDT

I am not a Mac user. But I'll freely admit I had one of my monitors refreshing with MacRumorsLive's coverage of the Steve Jobs WWDC keynote, with an audio feed from Moscone West running in the background. When it comes to operating systems, I am a swing voter. Heck, I even identify a little with the poor PC guy in the ads, and think the Mac guy is a smarmy little twerp. Nonetheless, I'm thinking of casting my first "vote" for a Mac in 2008. It's not that I dislike my Windows system. Every other PC I've had has been badly outrun by the combination of bloatware outrunning the memory allocation, but not this one. I have my XP tuned the way I like it, but it's a lame duck. It's the unfortunate fact of an uninspiring new standardbearer, Vista, has me seriously thinking about switching to the Cult of Steve.

But it's not only that. The sheer gravitational pull of the Mac / iPhone / iPod halo is simply too much. It's irrational. I see lots of friends switching to Macs and tapping away on iPhones. It was different back in the early '90s back when Mac was this goofy platform you couldn't extend with a clunky black and white GUI. Or even last year when those suckers stood in line to shell out $600 for a buggy, locked down phone. But for me, this July 11th will be a different story.

Doesn't this remind you a little of the current political climate?

Vote Different

Callipygian — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:06:00 EDT

Watch the YouTube video...

PS: Feel free to copy this image for whatever use you like.

I'm using it for my profile pictures on just about every web 2.0 site I'm on.

My Pro Obama Editorial Cartoons

Geo — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 10:51:27 EDT

I am perhaps not the most eloquent writer, nor do I pretend to be. My gift is drawing. Political cartooning has come along late in my career. I compare it to learning a new language. Where as every line has a meaning, some lines carrying more definition than others, just like words. They combine to form a short story or a novel and with that - it's purpose.

I work for a small daily newspaper. My opportunity came almost forced on me. My job description was redefined to involve more of my talent that my designing skills. This prompted insecurity, which, in turn, propelled me to become a contributor of content to our newspaper.

It's true that news should be unbiased. Editorial cartooning, on-the-other hand, is opinion oriented. There is a certain power one wields producing in this format that can spark debate and generate thought. I make no pretense about who I support for POTUS. It's all Barack Obama.

With that preface, here are the two political cartoons I've done so far related to the race for a democratic nominee.

I'm a PC and I'm a Mac

My complete cult-like addiction to all things Apple, I found a great avenue to compare Barack's opponent as "THE STATUS QUO" and Barack as the "THINK DIFFERENT WAY" of change. Portraying Barack as an innovator of change just like Apple is the leader in innovation of their products. As I was drawing it occurred to me to put in the Secret Service Agent to represent some media identity. Kind of like an announcer, referee or a news anchor relaying information on a fight or contest.

SAMANTHA POWER

There were many emotions going through me as I drew this last cartoon. Many may find it sexist. My rebuttal is: IF SHE CAN USE IT, SO CAN I. During the past couple of weeks, including a week prior the Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont primaries, Barack's opponent opened up a barrage of dirty political tactics against his campaign. I was trying to combine many aspects to formulate the idea she is a MONSTER! After the comment made by Samantha Power, I felt compelled to justify her statement by depicting Hillary as just that. I feel she is unfair using dirty politics of the past and not taking the higher road to change. I despise the way politicians use fear, misrepresentations, Rovian tactics and smears to destroy their opponents. I wanted to show how ugly Hillary is for using that kind of campaigning.

AS A SIDE NOTE: I can't contribute very much to this great campaign. I am not rich. Journalism doesn't pay like some would think it does. I do, however, greatly enjoy what I am doing. I have donated as much as I can. Around $25 every two weeks or so. I am hoping that posting my cartoons may enlighten some people or even make them smile as we continue this journey together. It may not be much, but it's doing something.

I would appreciate your comments or feedback and any ideas for future Barack cartoons!

Think Different

Rob from San Francisco, CA — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:41:48 EST

Video Cabalistic News

Jewish Bohemian — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:04:44 EST

check out the video as the canidates take on metaphor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFvU5VIach4

promoting truth through docu-dramas

Creator of A New Financial System — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:53:20 EDT

If you found this blog then you rightly beleive that docu-dramas can effect the outcome of the next presidential election.

To learn about a mini-convention for people who wish to produce (or help to produce) feature-lenght DocuDramas about political corrption: http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/DocuDramaCampBayArea

This is important because some people believe politicians were corrupt, to the extent that they were too compromised to oppose the decision to go to war against Iraq.

To learn about me go to www.kickthelobbyists.com

and www.kickthelobbyistsdotcom.blogspot.com