What About Windows Media Center?

I was reading this story today in USA Today about Replay-TV. The article talks about the software allowing people to use PCs as a DVR. What I don't understand is how in this article Windows Media Center was never mentioned. It's been on the market now for at least a year and it will let your TV act as a DVR and it cost nothing per month, unlike Replay-TV or any of the other services out there. The trick is no one seems to know that Media Center even exists. I know someone who has it uses it and it works great. In fact they bought the computer with Media Center for less than one would pay for a Tivo. What I don't understand is why Microsoft and the companies that have bought into selling Media Center computers, like HP, haven't promoted this product more.

It's similar to things like Yahoo Music Engine. With a compatible player and $9.99 a month you can have unlimited downloads to your player and unlimited streaming on multiple computers of millions of songs. It is the greatest thing in music to come along for years. But who knows about it. Who knows about the players and what it can do. The trick is that the players are cheaper than IPods and they have more features, yet know one knows about them. Maybe it's just me, but it just seems that way.

Anyway if you are interested you should check out Windows Media Center and definitely should check out Yahoo Music Engine and compatible players. Oh by the way some of these players will also let you download and watch the videos that you record with Media Center.

Margaritaville must be doing well

Every day I check the headlines at USA Today and the other day I saw this headline:
Buffet gives billions to Gates! All I could think of, was, wow, I guess Jimmy Buffet is doing really well..and that song Margaritaville, I mean we all knew it was popular but...

So then I clicked on the headline to read more information about the article and I saw a picture of Buffet. I said to Matthew, "...well glad he made so much money, but he's really aged....maybe one too many margaritas."

Just kidding, I know that the Buffet isn't Jimmy but Warren Buffet. I think the Gates Foundation is terrific and really admire all that they do. Here's a project they are working on in Louisiana.

The foundation has given a three-year grant to support the re-establishment of lost public library services and the rebuilding of public libraries along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Mississippi. You can find out more about the Gates Foundation here.

I think it's terrific that they are getting more funds to work on projects from Buffet. Hope they all celebrate with some margaritas.

Superman and Green Lantern

Superman and Green Lantern, ain't got, nothin on me.

Was there ever a better song lyric than that?

Any song that combines Superman and Green Lantern is a winner in my book. The song, Sunshine Superman, by Donovan has got a real nice beat. Check it out, and although it may seem dated, its beat really draws you in.

I guess I'm just a fool for superheroes, I mean I did marry Matthew and he is a superhero... here are some other songs with some seriously good lines about superheroes that are worth listening to:

Same Thing - Bare Naked Ladies
Superman – REM
Superhero – Ani Difranco
Ode to a Superhero- Weird Al Yankovich
Spiderman – The Ramones
Wonder Twins Power Activate! – Fivecrown

You can read about the songs here by going to this website

Never give this to your dog

Okay, I'm all about doing something special for Puppy Dog. Like this past weekend, Matthew and I took PD to Country Park in Greensboro and we all had a blast hiking the 2 mile trail in the rain. And the weekend before, we all went to Eno River State Park and did a very muddy 4 mile hike and had another great time.

But you have to draw the line somewhere. Today, I went to Phydeaux, a pet store, for only the fanciest of pets and bought dog food and a salmon stick. I've been painting a lot more with the summer here and to get back into the groove I thought of just doing some fun portraits of Puppy Dog.

Puppy Dog, let's just say, isn't a natural model and at one point during my painting session where he should have looked all cute and cuddly, he absolutely turned around and positioned himself so his backside was the only thing I could see.

So I decided to bribe him with a salmon stick. I never liked fish even before I was a vegetarian so needless to say, I was a little queasy at even opening the salmon stick thing, but I thought Puppy Dog would enjoy it and it would keep him busy while I tried to paint him.

Never give a salmon stick to your dog unless you
a) love the smell of fish
b) want to keep your dog busy and really love the smell of fish
c)really really love the smell of fish

d) if you have checked either a,b,c you can go here and get yourself some salmon sticks

How was I going to get that smelly salmon stick away from PD without him knowing it? I just hope this experience doesn't go down as one of those traumatic ones that little kids and little puppies have and remember as they get older. I did the old let me give you another nice smelling treat- a pepperoni stick instead...it worked but not without PD licking his paws until he got that last bit of fish smell off of him.

I'd give PD a salmon stick under these conditions
a) if we were going to be outside for a long time and then it was his day to get a bath
b) if it is his bath day
So I guess I'm glad I bought another salmon stick because his bath day is on Saturday.

Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left (Top 500 Countdown Update)

I have to say I didn't care for this album as much as Pink Moon. It is missing that always important pop grab for me. It has one or two songs that stand out, but the album as a whole really drags. As I said about Drake before I think a lot of his appeal is lost to me because of my age. This doesn't mean that I don't find the music, his voice, and the lyrics pretty to listen to, but there is nothing there that really draws me into listen to it.

Stevie Wonder - Music of My Mind (Top 500 Countdown Update)

I never realized that Stevie Wonder was so prolific. Between 1962-1976 he put out 23 albums. This does not count compilations but unique albums. He didn't really hit his groove until the early 70's. Music of My Mind is the 2nd of six albums he put out between 1971-1976 that are highly touted. I first heard of this album years ago when living in Philadelphia. A guy I worked with suggested I give it a listen saying that he felt it was Wonder's best. I trusted his opinion and went out and bought it.

At the time I was really into Innervisions the 4th of those six albums and I was surprised to hear how different the two albums sounded. The music, the beats, the lyrics, there is very little alike on these two albums. I was disappointed in Music of My Mind at the time and really haven't listened to it since.

Hearing it now it's like hearing it for the first time. It's very experimental with just a sense of the wonderful funky beats to come on Innervisions. It's still not one of my favorites and a bit slow and offbeat for me.

The Grateful Dead - Anthem of the Sun (Top 500 Countdown Update)

Having never really listened to The Grateful Dead this album was a bit of a surprise to me. I never expected it to be so experimental. This of course is not necessarily a good thing in my mind and so the album didn't really strike a cord with me. It has some nice sounds, but any album that contains a 15 minute song is getting a bit overboard for me. The album certainly didn't make me want to que up a bunch more Dead albums.

Top Four Westerns of All Time #1

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

What got this whole process started was me flipping the channels and catching the ending of this movie the other day. This is another Sergio Leone classic and another movie littered with great performances. Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood, and Lee Van Cleef dominate every scene of the movie. This movie also stands out because of its fantastic score by Ennio Morricone.

Like the other movies on this list, the movie is paced and the story complex. We learn to know the characters so well especially the main character, if there is one, Tuco played by Eli Wallach. I'll be honest this movie is my number one Western and one of my favorite movies of all time because of the performance given by Eli Wallach. It is utterly fantastic. The movie is worth watching just to see him on screen.

It's a very twisted tale where these three men are brought together searching for some stolen gold in the middle of the Civil War. That's about all I can say for the story. These characters will travel down many roads to get to the finale, the best of any Western ever made. I can still remember seeing it for the first time when I was a kid.

In Leone's West there seem to be no good men, they are all bad. The only distinction is whether they are part of the evil and corrupt society or whether they are not. Those that are not seem to die, seem to be dying inside even if they are still alive. Leone's West is not a pretty place, it never is, but his characters are rich and wonderful and brilliantly brought to life. This movie is a wonderful piece of motion picture making and should not be missed despite the violence and the fact that it's a Western.

New Blog Started

Well I started a new blog today. Margaret and I have talked about this for a while. It is called What I've Learned in Politics This Week.

Top Four Westerns of All Time #2

Once Upon a Time in the West

Possibly the best opening scene of any movie Once Upon a Time in the West stands out for its directing and acting. This is a movie about a changing West and about greed. The story is very complex and layered but it fits together and ties together with fantastic performances by Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda, and Claudia Cardinale.

Here is a brief idea of the plot. The rail lines are moving west, but along the way there are problems to be solved. Often they involve landowners who want their share of the wealth the railway is bringing. Frank, played by Henry Fonda, has the job of taking care of those problems. But Frank has been at a rough business his entire life, long before he met up with the railwayman who's paying him now, and out of that evil past comes Harmonica, played by Charles Bronson. We know right from the beginning he has come for Frank, though we aren't sure until the end exactly why it is that he wants Frank so badly. Harmonica hears about the murder of the McBain family that he understands to be Frank's handy work and he cooks up a plot along with Jill McBain the surviving widow, played by Claudia Cardinale, and Cheyenne the man framed for the murders, played by Jason Robards, to take Frank down.

Like High Noon and Shane this movie makes you think about life and its complexities. Like those movies it is also very paced with the story building slowly in front of us. As I've said the acting in this movie is superb and Henry Fonda is especially brilliant as a bad guy. Director Sergio Leone purposefully picked Fonda for the reaction he would get from the audiences playing a bad guy. One thing I've always found interesting about Fonda in this movie is how he looks. Usually Fonda is the everyday man with average looks. In this movie he is beautiful with amazingly powerful eyes. It certainly makes him much more sinister.

I have to say something in this review about Cheyene the character played billiantly by Jason Robards. He is one of my favorite characters in all of movies with some fantastic moments on screen and definitely some of the best lines of any character in the movies. One of my favorite lines is when he says, "You know, Jill, you remind me of my mother. She was the biggest whore in Alameda and the finest woman that ever lived. Whoever my father was, for an hour or for a month - he must have been a happy man."

Top Four Westerns of All Time #3

High Noon

A year before Shane came High Noon number three on the countdown.

It is one critical day in the life of Marshal Wil Kane played by Gary Cooper. He has just gotten married to Amy Fowler played by Grace Kelly, when word comes that Frank Miller has been released from prison and will be coming in on the noon train. Everyone knows that Miller will be coming for the Marshal and so they encourage him to take off with his bride and get away. This is where the story starts and this is where the depth of this story starts to take shape.

The story is too complex to spend time trying to explain, it is better seen. Every performance in this movie is fantastic with Gary Cooper, Katy Jurado, and Lloyd Bridges giving especially strong performances.

This movie, like most good Westerns, is much more about the individuals involved in the story and much less about action, but this movie with its look, theme song, and finale is in many ways the quintessential Western.

Even if you don't like Westerns this movie is a must see as it is really more of a social play than a Western.

Eating With the Dunns

I'm still reading on Danny Dunn Invisible Boy and I've come across another recipe. Mrs. Dunn refers to it as lemon whipped-cream pudding. I searched for a while on the net and found what I thought was a pretty good idea of a recipe to try.

Blueberry Maple Bread Pudding W/Lemon Whipped Cream

Ingredients

3/4 c. heavy cream; divided
1/4 tsp. grated lemon peel
2 tbsp. powdered sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice; or
-to taste
3/4 c. half-and-half
1/4 c. pure maple syrup
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 lg eggs
4 c. French bread cubes
1 c. blueberries; fresh or
-frozen

Instructions

To make Lemon Whipped Cream:
In a medium bowl at medium speed, beat 1/2 cup heavy cream. As cream begins to thicken, add grated lemon peel and powdered sugar. Drizzle in the lemon juice and whip until stiff. Refrigerate.

To make bread pudding:
In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining 1/4 cup cream, half-and-half, maple syrup, vanilla and eggs. In a large bowl, pour cream mixture over bread cubes; mix well. Fold in blueberries. Pour into a 2-quart baking dish. Refrigerate 15 to 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake uncovered, until set, about 30 to 40 minutes. Serve warm with Lemon Whipped Cream on top.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Apple Computers

I get so angry at their ads I don't really know what to say. All I can say is this.

I have been doing computer support work for the past 11 years. I have always had a hand on both Macs and PCs. I am currently the Mac support person for my current job where we have about 50 Macs and an Apple server that I setup and maintain. I have setup a mac video editing lab, audio editing lab, staff machines, scanning stations, etc. I have also done the same on PC: video editing, audio editing, scanning, etc. There are two points I would like to make.

1. PCs can do all of these things just as well if not better than Macs for less money.
2. PCs can do so much that Macs can't do.

Top Four Westerns of All Time #4

Shane

I know that my mother and brother would not go along with this being in a top movie list of any type, but that aside it is number four on my top four Westerns list.

I had planned on making this a top five or top ten list, but truly I could only think of four Westerns that really stand out. This movie stars Alan Ladd as a drifting gun slinger who is looking to get away from the fast life of the gun and the evils that it represents and settle down to a different existence. He stumbles into a war between farmers and cattlemen, the little guy vs big business in a world where there is no government to protect one side from the other. He also stumbles into a household where the wife Marian Starrett played by Jean Arthur, is conflicting with her husband Joe Starrett played by Van Heflin about what role they as a family should play in this war. Marian wants to give up and leave, move on to an easier life somewhere else. Joe wants to fight it out for everything he believes he deserves because this is where he has been told he can settle and if people like him don't stand up who will. There are really multiple stories going on here and they all run mingled together to form a story that is real and complex like life. No one in the story is fully good or fully evil and Shane finds himself choosing to stand with one side over the other mainly because of his own self loathing.

There are great performances in this movie by Alan Ladd, Van Heflin, Jean Arthur, Emile Meyer, John Dierkes, and Jack Palance. But perhaps the best thing about this movie is the job of directing done by George Stevens. It is a beautiful to look at movie that is very paced giving time for the story, characters, and scenes to develop. The movie got seven Oscar nominations and won one for Best Cinematography, Color.

Call Matthew

The other day when Alberto came through North Carolina, we had a big fright. This is what happened. I was driving to Raleigh for the last day of my grant writing workshop and I should have known . . . driving to Raleigh in the pouring rain, in morning rush hour traffic was a challenge, so I found out something that day: I hate driving in the rain.

You know, I don't really hate anything in life, sure, I dislike some presidents, and I dislike cantalope but I don't really hate anything- except- driving in the rain. I left the workshop early because I had a feeling that Alberto was going to make even more trouble than he had started. I was right.

I couldn't get onto the highway because the entrance way was flooded. To make matters worse, my cell phone battery was dying and I was worried because my sense of direction stinks . . . So I called Matthew. By the way, if you are ever on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and you need someone to help you find the answer in 10 seconds, call Matthew. Here's how our conversation went:
Me- "Matthew the entrance to the highway is flooded and it's raining -hard and I have no clue how to get home and my cell phone is going to die in 10 seconds . . ."
Matthew- "Ok, I'll get on maps.google.com and find out where you are, ok, I'm on, take a left onto Western Blvd, take exit onto innerbeltline and then connect where it says Durham/Chapel Hill."
Me."10-4, you rock!"
Yes, Matthew does rock and I feel really lucky to be married to him, but I still hate driving in the rain.

Talking Heads - Talking Heads 77 (Top 500 Countdown Update)

I'm not a huge Talking Heads fan, but this is a good album. The first art rock album I've heard that really stands out as a solid album with a good songs and good sounds. It makes me think of the song Take Five which plays with doing a jazz song in 5/4 time something that is basically never done. This album is full of a pop sound that has a certain odd edge to it with Byrne's singing and quirky beats behind him.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to me is that this album was made in 1977 but sounds as though it could have been made anytime from the 60's to the 00's. This goes back to what I've repeatedly talked about that good music, good pop music has a timeless and universal appeal and this is good pop music.

Did you hear about this one?

This week I'm attending a 3 day grant writing workshop presented by The Institute for Communication Improvement and I have tons of resources about grants. I have received grants before for projects in the past but I wanted to create an after school program for English as a Second Language learners at my school, so my school graciously paid for the cost of this 3 day workshop. I want to steer away from the $1000 grants and head toward grants that exceed this amount. So here are some good websites about grants:
http://www.grants.gov/
http://www.usd259.com/grants/index.html
Not specifically a grant resource but definitely check out:
http://www.idealist.org/
It is really exciting to be a part of change: sitting in a room full of people who want to make things happen feels good. I have had the best conversations with different people in different fields- from transportation, urban planning, academia, social work and the medical field.

Bob Dylan - The Basement Tapes (Top 500 Countdown Update)

Well it's been a while since I've had a chance to listen to any music on the list. This album doesn't get me all fired up I have to say. I'm not a big Dylan fan so it probably comes as no surprise then that this album doesn't do a lot for me. I do like the sound for the most part, but there are way too many throw away songs. Why he didn't make this a single instead of a double album would be my question.

Eating With the Dunns

Danny Dunn Invisible Boy is by far my favorite of the books. And in the first chapter we have the Dunns eating Lemon-Almond Cookies. I found a simple recipe that seems like something I could see Mrs. Dunn making.

Old-Fashioned Lemon Almond Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter;
-softened (3/4 cup)
1 c plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 lg egg
1 1/2 tb freshly grated lemon zest
6 tb finely ground almonds
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

Instructions

In a bowl with an electric mixer cream together the butter and 1 cup of the sugar and beat in the egg, the zest, and the almonds. Beat in the flour, a little at a time, beat the dough until it is combined well, and chill it, covered for 2 hours. Form the dough into walnut-size balls and arrange them 2 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Dip the bottom of a glass, moistened, in the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and
with it press down on the cookies, flattening them to about 2 inches in diameter. Bake the cookies in the middle of a preheated 350°F. oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are golden around the edges, transfer them to racks, and let them cool.

Makes about 36 cookies.

Afghanistan's Cultural Gap Grows Wider

I heard this great piece on NPR this morning. It discusses the cycle of revolution this cultural gap has caused in the Afghan's past.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5475489

Corporate America and I Don't Think Alike

I'm not so sure that's a bad thing for me, but I do think it's a bad thing for corporate America.

The latest example of this came to me this week when I rented a car to drive down to see my parents. As you know if you read this blog we are in the process of shopping for a new car and so we saw this as an opportunity to try out one of the cars we've got on our list. I made the reservation to get an economy car and looked forward to driving it.

My first disappointment came when I heard what type of car it was a Chevy Aveo. This is the one car we had already eliminated from our list. But I though who knows maybe after driving it I'll really like the car.

Now this is where me and corporate America don't think alike. Now if I'm General Motors and I'm selling cars to Enterprise then I want those cars to meet a certain level of luxury because I know that every person that gets behind the wheel to drive it is a potential future customer. To me that minimal level means: automatic transmission, anti-lock brakes, air conditioning, cruise control, power locks, and CD player. This Aveo I got into had air conditioning and automatic transmission but none of the others. Now I understand that anti-lock breaks might be a stretch, but I feel that if you keep someone from crashing their rental car they will remember and be impressed with the product. If they jam on the break and slide right into a wreck they will remember and not be impressed. If they are driving a long distance and they like to use cruise and their is none, they will remember. If they are traveling with their family and their is no power locks they will remember.

Needless to say the Aveo is still of the list, but who know if General Motors had viewed this as a marketing option instead of just a quick and dirty sell things may have been different.

Cape Cod Evening

There is so much to like about the paintings by Edward Hopper. Probably one of his more famous works is Nighthawks, a painting of a diner scene with 4 characters, each with their own story. Apparently that scene was inspired by a restaurant in Greenwich Village. There's something about that painting that is familiar, the mood, the setting and the people in there.


Look at Nighthawks. You can see the painting and hear NPR's Scott Simon report on Nighthawks and its painter. As part of Present at the Creation, NPR's ongoing series on the origins of American icons, "...Simon looks at how an image that most people take for granted in their daily lives has become one of America's most famous pieces of art."


There is a painting by Hopper called, Rooms By the Sea and at first glance, it looks just like a door opening up to the sea. Click here to see it- Rooms by the Sea. Look at the back wall- the greyish whitish one- how can put two completely different colors together like that and make it look as though they are on one plane? Look at floor, see that greenish yellowish color, isn't it something how you completely believe that it is the sunlight, even though the colors are completely different? In an interview with Hopper, he said, "...'I guess I'm not very human. All I really want to do is paint light on the side of a house.'"

Hopper is so brillant with light and angles and I love the way he expresses American life- its isolation and its landscapes. One of my favorite paintings is called Cape Cod Evening. One summer I found myself constantly looking at that painting and alot of Hopper's work, so I wanted to learn his process. I think you can learn an incredible amount by looking and really studying a painting but even more if you try and paint it yourself. I painted a version of Hopper's Cape Cod Evening and although it isn't anything as grand as the original I learned so much about it, like how much white he uses within his work. Like those trees in the background and the wheat in the foreground. I went through two big tubes of white while painting this one. You can see the original here. We went to see the original Cape Cod Evening at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. and I was struck at how different the original was from the prints in books, like the trees look so blue in prints but in the original, the trees are greener. Over this summer, I am going to take some of the photographs from our trip across the Unied States and work on painting some of the scenes. I like how Hopper found the beauty in American life.

New Work

I read this book last summer but I still think about its impact on our life. It was because of this book that Matthew and I got involved in our local government....here's how the story goes.


I found this book while browsing in the animal section in the library. The title of the book is The New Work of Dogs: tending to life, love, and family by Jon Katz. You can read a section of it by clicking on the link excerpt here. I like nonfiction books and Katz connects different people, their lives and their dogs. The book is really good. Even if you're not a dog fan, you'll like this book.


After I read the story, I was so moved to do more for our community. I contacted our city's Park and Recreation Department and talked about creating a dog park in our community. I also emailed the author of the book, Jon Katz, and told him how moved I was about the different stories in the book and how it helped me get organized to create a dog park. So you should definitely read this book, because Katz emailed me back and said how he enjoyed writing the book and that he was happy to hear about the dog park. I thought that was very cool.

Matthew and I created a proposal for a dog park, took pictures and created a video of different dog parks in the area to present to the Parks and Recreation Department. They were excited about the idea and wanted to know if others wanted a dog park in our city. We got out petitions and gathered 1000 signatures!

We're part of a small group to do research for the dog park and it looks like it will happen. I was so impressed with our local government on how they handled everything. They took what the citizens wanted and acted on it. Both Matthew and I have volunteered for different Boards after this initial experience with our local government. Two things, get a pet and get active.

The Link Between Cholesterol and Saturated Fat

My mother just had double bypass surgery due to a blockage in one of her arteries and so I have been learning a lot this week. One item that I found particularly interesting dealt with the link between saturated fats and cholesterol.

It's funny but there is so much talk about cholesterol and saturated fats it wasn't until this that I realized I really had no clue what the connection if any there was between the two.

We have to start by first looking at how cholesterol is created and used in the body.

Our livers produce cholesterol and it is something we never need to bring into our bodies from an outside source. Our livers will produce all the cholesterol we need. Now that doesn't mean that any cholesterol we consume is overkill, but it does mean that we don't need to bring any cholesterol in from an outside source. Luckily our livers are smart enough to know how much it needs to produce based on how much our body is bringing in. Where we run into trouble with what we bring in to our bodies is that we may bring in much more cholesterol than is needed for use by our body. Where our livers are smart enough to reduce their production of cholesterol it is very easy for us to overdue the amount of cholesterol our body needs. The rule of thumb then is to avoid bringing any cholesterol in to our bodies and let the liver handle the production.

Now how does cholesterol build up in the blood stream. Well cholesterol is transported via the blood stream through the body for cells to use as needed. When we consume too much cholesterol, we get more in the blood stream than the body can use and so we get a build up of cholesterol in the blood stream.

Now that we understand this we can better understand why saturated fats are bad. Saturated fats trigger the liver to overproduce cholesterol. So even if you aren't eating any foods that contain cholesterol, if you are eating foods that contain a lot of saturated fat then you will get an overproduction of cholesterol and as we've learned that is a bad thing.

I'll follow up later with an entry about foods to avoid.