Evidence the Daily Takes Itself Too Seriously

Have you guys noticed over this quarter that the Daily has gotten itself an ombudsman??

Guess which paper basically had to get one not so long ago.

Coincidence?

The Daily Northwestern - Letter changes must be done with

And by the way - who cares so much about the inner workings of the Daily when they aren't working there? And I mean the official inner workings, such as "Editor in Chief Elaine Helm approached Abrams-Morley earlier this week after receiving complaints from letter writers and guest columnists about 'substantive changes' to pieces." Such action.

Almost There!

I'm so close to having a whole weekend off! I only need to get through the end of the day without getting a new assignment!

And there's soft pretzels waiting for me at the house!

Placentia split on call to revive eminent domain

The Quickest Way To Raise My Blood Pressure . . .

. . . is to create a browser that QUITS WITHOUT WARNING YOU when you have several tabs open and are in the middle of writing a blog entry and mistype a command. Isn't there any way to disable command-Q in browsers?!? How idiotic is it to have the keyboard shortcut for quit between the ones for "close tab" (W) and "switch programs" (tab). Stupid Safari.

Anyway, I was writing about how my page doesn't appear perfect in Windows IE. Little space between header and side border graphics. Noticed at work. Should download Firefox. Should redesign site.

Would like to redesign some poli sci prof sites. Several appear wrong in Windows IE and can't be put on my resume. Stems from me being stubborn but mostly from me not realizing Mac IE's display often looks more like Mozilla's than Windows IE's. Know better now. Thinking I will make fixing these sites my work project for next year. Along with finding server space other than pubweb for them because that makes updating them way too freaking hard.

If that's not the writing of someone with a too-rapid pulse, I'm not sure what is.

The New 50

Looking at the bill more closely, I have to say the new $50 bill looks much better than the new $20. It's got an abstract American flag stretched across the front of the bill, which is nicely colorful. It looks like more thought went into this one.

Of course, I wonder if the new bill is a sign of disrespect to the flag like flag clothing. Hehe.

OCRegister.com Multimedia: Currency Makeover

It's Getting Hotter

weather.com - Local Weather Page: "100F"

With 10 percent humidity, too.

Hot Hot - Yeow!

weather.com - Local Weather Page: "Current Conditions for Anaheim, CA (92805): 99F"

Update on Gmail

Sheesh, had I only known how much traffic I'd generate by posting the info on Gmail accounts from Blogger . . . well, maybe I wouldn't have posted it since I have no idea why it only works for some people. But rest assured that I am not crazy and that it will work for at least some people right off the bat. But for everyone else - some suggestions, from a comment I just left on the entry itself:

Honestly, it's right on the Blogger home page. You may need to try logging in and out a few times or something, but a blue box with a blue, dashed border should show up right above the box with links to edit your blogs.

One way I've found to get around it not seeming to show up is for someone who does see the box to log into your Blogger account for you. For some reason, this prompts the box to appear on your log-in page, too.

Maybe it's a cookie problem that will resolve itself if you clear the Blogger cookie? I'm not sure. But I can't post a link to the Gmail sign-up page really since signing up involves Blogger transferring your account information (name, e-mail address) to Gmail.

If you know of other ways to make the box appear for people who don't see it, do leave a comment.

The only way I know works for sure is the second suggestion. Scott didn't see the box, either, and naturally thought I was nuts. But when I got him to give me his username and password (I was trying to figure out why his blog design had gone all funky recently) and I logged in as him on my computer, the Gmail box, sure enough, was right there on the page (that is the main Blogger page that shows up after you've logged in but before you've gone to edit a blog post). So I signed him up for an account myself, not sure if he'd be able to see the box himself when he logged in again. But wouldn't you know it, when he next logged in it was there, so I probably didn't need to do him Gmail registration.

I hope that helps. Hopefully everyone knows at least someone for whom the box appears. I doubt anyone wants to trust a random stranger with your Blogger username and password . . . but then I could be wrong.

However, I'm hoping that since the news has hit Slashdot that every person who's an active user (i.e., had an account before the beta test started) is seeing the box now.

New Books

I wish one of those new "books" was a "noteBOOK computer," mais c'est la vie. Cross your fingers it can still be repaired under the Logic Board Repair Extension Program.

Anyway, I just got back from Target with (aside from nuts and body-care products) two new books. One's nonfiction and one's a novel, so I'm hoping one at least will help me transition from Harry Potter-withdrawal.

Seabiscuit: An American Legend: "Much as Sebastian Junger did in The Perfect Storm, Laura Hillenbrand has woven together the many strands of lives that improbably create a phenomenon -- in this case, no raging storm, but legendary racing history. The little horse, Seabiscuit, with his crooked legs and sad tail, was at first thought lazy, but with the help of a trinity of men -- his trainer, his owner, and a jockey -- would make racing history and find a place in the hearts of thousands of fans in Depression-era America."

And yes, I have seen the movie. The movie played a lot like a book, actually.

The Birth of Venus: "A beautifully written historical novel is always a pleasure, but one that also offers subtle and insightful parallels to events in our own century is a treasure. Sarah Dunant's The Birth of Venus belongs in the latter category."

I guess I'm just a sucker for a period piece.

I'll replace my book link to the right once I decide which one I'm reading first. But in case you share my Book-Six lust, here's a link to The Leaky Cauldron.

What with my computer on the fritz, I'm increasingly relying on Scott's mom's computer (i.e., Scott's old clamshell iBook). Her default browser is Camino, which I haven't used much since Safari went 1.0 and Firefox got the Pinstripe theme. It's weird thinking how fabulous this used to seem, when the alternatives were just Internet Explorer and the Mozilla suite. Now, I can't believe there was no tab-closing widget anywhere and that there's no integrated Google search box. Of course, I know both of these will be in Camino 0.8. But had they made it out the door, oh, nine months ago, they might have seemed more impressive and maybe I'd still use Camino.

But then, that's also assuming the tabs got fixed so they didn't look like Panther buttons and that the persistent white-box bug got a miracle cure. That last one is just weird. Plus the Aqua-style widgets, nice as they may be, really screw up this Blogger entry page. But maybe that has something to do with this low-res screen as well.

On the other hand, Camino 0.7 handles the BlogThis! bookmarklet splendidly while Firefox 0.8 messes it up miserably.

Finally - my first daily paper article is here: Six generations going strong with humor.

He = Einstein Squared

Colleen: "Einstein took a liking to the parrot, which he named Bibo, but he decided the bird was depressed. He tried to cheer it up by telling it bad jokes."
Colleen: are you sure you're not related to einstein?
Scott: grrr
Scott: i didn't think it was possible for such an ostensibly flattering comparison to einstein to be a dig, but you've done it my love. bravo.

Stupid Computer

Well, my computer decided last night that it was going to be irritable. The screen started blinking madly and the cursor disappeared. I have no idea what's wrong with it, but it bears the hallmarks of a hardware problem. Again. Loose wiring or faulty logic board? My bet's on the wiring. But it's a glum pick either way: Note that my laptop's warranty expired in December.

I just caught Scott's blog at the top of the Blogger recently updated list. Nifty.

I'm looking for a new book to read. I'm almost through my second read of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I've decided that people weren't crazy in giving that book a good review after all. Funny how knowing what happens makes you appreciate the book more. References and foreshadowing make a lot more sense. You can see how every little detail plays into the story. Also, when there's no anxious need to get to the end and see who dies and what's up with Voldemort, it's not so bothersome that Rowling overuses adverbs.

But finding a new book to read is tough. I'm not so eager to get involved with unfamiliar characters. I could probably get over that one, but what makes the search harder is that I want a rather easy book. I don't want anything depressing, which unfortunately most good literature is. I have enough stress right now without a sad book. I was something like the Harry Potter books - funny, exciting, interesting, not bad, but not terribly complex.

Pop Tops

I never understood why people collected pull tabs/pop tops (whatever). When I first saw my friend's family collecting them in elementary school, I thought they were nuts.

Well, I'm glad to be justified in that opinion now.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Business (Keeping Tabs)

You hear about schools doing this all the time, and it makes no sense. But then, at my schools, we always did penny drives instead. The cleverest penny drive was Villa's -- there, we collected not only pennies but all sorts of currency. But it was a competition between the classes, with pennies being worth one point and everything else being worth its monetary value in negative points. That way, you could fill your class' jar with pennies and cancel out 25 of another class' pennies with one quarter.

Naturally, almost every class ended the contest with a negative total.

The Time Is Now

I was just at the Blogger home page, looking to see if there was an updated BlogThis! bookmarklet that was compatible with Firefox 0.8, and wouldn't you know it, Blogger account holders can sign up for Gmail accounts. If you want a decent Gmail address, go sign up ASAP using the link from Blogger.

From My Former Block

The Daily Northwestern - Blotter: "Laptops, DVD players stolen from Maple Ave. apartment

Two laptop computers worth $2,400 and two DVD players were stolen Thursday from an Evanston apartment occupied by three Northwestern students, police said.

The items were stolen between 10:30 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. from a first floor apartment on the 2000 block of Maple Avenue, said Deputy Chief Michael Perry of the Evanston Police Department.

Someone entered the apartment through an unlocked window and left through the back door of the kitchen, Perry said.

In addition to the computers and DVD players, two pillow cases, 10 DVD movies, a backpack containing books, a Gameboy and a Sony discman were also reported stolen.

One of the victims told police that he left his apartment at about 10:30 p.m. and locked the doors behind him.

When he returned at 11:45 p.m., the victim found the back door open.

He told police that he forgot to close and lock the windows."
The pillow cases were most likely taken to hold the stolen goods, Perry said."

Another Domain!

I bought myself colleenfischer.com yesterday. It's set to forward to this site for now, although my plan is eventually to direct it to my resume. Yeah, it's getting to be that time in my life, unfortunately.

I'm not sure whether I'll make myself any e-mail forwarding addresses with this one, though. Colleen@colleenfischer.com seems redundant.

Gmail

Here's a good article about why people need to stop fussing about Gmail. Myself, I've never been concerned (except about being able to sign up quick enough to get a decent address - well, and whether it was an April Fools joke). Personally, I wouldn't use the address for anything exceedingly personal anyway.

But beyond that, I don't see why privacy advocates were getting so upset. It's not like Google was trying to be deceptive - they said right upfront that machines would scan mail in order to target ads. And what's so bad about that? Google already does it on all our Blogger blogs and all our web searches. No one's cared about that. And no one was raising a fuss about Google's computers scanning every message for keywords in order to perform searches. Heck, that was the killer app.

O'Reilly Network: The Fuss About Gmail and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It's Bogus [Apr. 16, 2004]

What Next - The Clothes Off Their Backs?

I just saw a commercial from "Fair Share California" on TV. As anyone from NU knows, anything called "Fair Share" can't be good.

This one's calling for Native American casinos to give 25 percent of their revenues to the state.

Apparently stealing their land wasn't enough.

Someone Actually Wrote This, Part 2

From today's Register:

The Bushes paid their share of taxes - and mine

President George W. Bush's tax cuts benefited the Bush and Cheney families, according to recent news stories ["Tax cuts benefit Bush, Cheney," Nation & World, April 14]. Wonderful. That's exactly what tax cuts are supposed to do: benefit taxpayers.

The adjusted income for my wife and me in 2002 was a grand total of $26,959. Total federal income tax withheld was $637. Yet, with tax cuts and child credits (we have four children) we received a tax refund of $2,963. That's a refund of 11 percent of our income. President Bush and his wife paid 28 percent of their income, so how did he benefit more than I?

The federal budget is equal to a tax of $8,000 on every man, woman and child in America ($2.4 trillion divided by 300 million people). My wife and I and our four dependent children's share of that budget would be $48,000. The president and his wife's share would be $16,000. But the Bush family is paying $227,490 in taxes, while I get a $2,963 refund. In all fairness, it should be noted that the president paid $211,490 more than his fair share. He's paying for 26 people who can't afford to pay $8,000. In fact, as I choose to look at it, he paid my taxes for me and gave me almost $3,000 cash to boot. Thank you, Mr. President.

[Name removed]

Yorba Linda

Note that the writer also earns about 10 percent of what the Bushes paid in taxes for the year. Ah, percentages - they make people stupid.

Don't We All Love Irony?

Donald Trump’s casino business on the brink of bankruptcy

Stupid Comparisons

The New York Times > National > National Special > U.S. Won't Let Company Test All Its Cattle for Mad Cow: "Gary Weber of the cattlemen's association called 100 percent testing misleading to consumers because it would create a false impression that untested beef was not safe. He compared it to demanding that all cars be crash tested to prove they are safe."

But with beef, you don't have to destroy the product to prove it's safe. Plus crash-testing a car just demonstrates its potential to cause problems. A car crashing is dependent on the stupidity of the operator (or the operator of another car). So if this guy was calling testing every steak for E. coli like crash testing every car, then yeah, this would make sense. But cars don't get mad cow disease.

If 100 percent testing hasn't killed the beef industry in Europe and Japan (home of the most luxiurious beef in the world), it won't kill it in the United States. Face it, American beef industry - the reason people in Europe and Japan want total testing is because beef just isn't always safe, especially the cheapskate way you sell it to us.

And I don't believe this for a second: "Asked if beef producers did not want to be pressured to imitate Creekstone and pay for more tests, Mr. Weber said it was 'absolutely not about the money.'"

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Am I the only one who's watching what's going on in Iraq and thinking "Iran 1979"?

My First Published Stories

Placentia News-Times - Online Edition: Pages 1 and 6

Journal E-mail, Week One

My first week at the Orange County Register has been somewhat uneventful on the whole. Orientation at the paper happens only every other week, and I arrived either one week too early or too late, depending on one's perspective. This Monday I finally will get a badge and a computer password. In the meantime, I have been acting like a visitor every day.

I am working at the Anaheim bureau of the Register. It covers the cities of northern Orange County for the Register's weekly community newspapers as well as covering the education beat.

On Monday, I met the staff and did a little copy editing. The paper participates in the Cappies program in which high school students review high school plays. I cleaned up a couple of reviews, trying not to make it sound as if they had been written by someone professional. I spent the rest of the day researching items for the market report Medill requires us to do.

On Tuesday, I shadowed the editor of the Placentia News-Times and the Yorba Linda Star. I edited a teacher's column and a letter to the editor, and I learned about how they do layout for the community papers. I learned what a "filler" was, and I learned that papers don't all use QuarkXpress. The editor told me that the program the Register uses, CCI, is actually pretty commonplace. It's quite a bit more complex, with all kinds of proprietary formatting settings built in.

On Wednesday, I was assigned to the web editor. It was his deadline day, so he showed me how he updated the community newspaper sites with Dreamweaver. He also explained the structure of the main Register site and how to tell the difference between database-based pages and flat files while browsing the site. I spent the afternoon writing a five-page report on the navigational problems of the community news sites, with suggestions for improvement.

Thursday was my reporter-shadowing day. Eric Carpenter, the reporter covering Brea, La Habra and Fullerton, drove me around north county and introduced me to all the cities covered by my half of the newsroom. It was interesting, and I feel I got a good sense of what I'll be covering. I spent the evening then writing another report, this one on the qualities of a good reporter and story ideas. From that I received a story assignment: a feature on the cultural aspects of living near the active oil wells in Brea. It's kind of vague. I spent the night then going over my web site report of yesterday with the supervisor, Bill Diepenbrock. I think I was the second-to-last person to leave the building.

Friday I had some more copy editing to do: three community columns and a brief. Then one of the reporters, Heather McRea, invited me to go along with her on an interview. She is doing a feature on the Anderson Bat Company, a Placentia company that makes high-performance aluminum softball bats. I took notes on the interview and observed her style of questioning. It seems important to get lots of figures; the Register likes that.

The last event of the week was a meeting in which I was assigned to take on the school board meeting this Tuesday evening. It's a tight deadline - the meeting may last until 10:30 p.m. and the paper goes to bed at midnight. I also need to write another report on the web site for Tuesday or Wednesday. And Monday, of course, is orientation. It should be a busy week.

I Don't Like the Sound of This

Krank Magazine:

The younger, yet notoriously cool sibling of Maxim and Mad magazines, Krank will deliver provocative lifestyle content to 12- to 17-year-old boys.

Content categories include: sex, cars, gear, music, entertainment, extreme sports, video games and fashion.

Someone Actually Wrote This, Part I

From today's Orange County Register "Letters":

Forcing kids to volunteer

John Kerry's recent call for high school students to be coerced into "mandatory service" programs is immoral. We sentence criminals to perform "community service," not innocent children at a time in their lives when they should be focusing on their own self-development.

If adults want to "serve the community" voluntarily they may. But before they can do that they must first become self-sustaining, productive individuals; this, not involuntary servitude, is the purpose of education.

[Name removed]

Santa Ana

Nice Way to Break in the New Board

From the PARC Mail:

Important Housing Information Update

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION!

The Residential College Board informed the Executive Board of PARC late last night that the points system has been rendered null and void due to points irregularities at many other residential colleges. In lieu of using points, Undergraduate Housing informed us that we are required to determine room assignments by virtue of alphabetical order of surnames. In a closed-door emergency session of select members of the PARC Executive Board, we voted to abide by the new rules. We will email the new housing order on an individual basis before the preliminary housing derby, which will be held Sunday night at 10 in the basement. The new list will also be posted on PARC's bulletin boards.

Thank you for helping us implement the new RCB system smoothly.

-- PARC Executive Board

Blast From the Past

Deleting my old e-mail today I noticed that I had two messages from 1969. Ah, the good old days . . .