May I suggest a new email program?

I have been using a new email program at work called Thunderbird, made by the same folks that make the awesome Firefox browser. It has many advantages over Outlook. It has an adaptive spam filter that really does a good job. It has security features that protect from some of the things that plague Outlook users. It is available free for Windows, Mac and Linux. Installation is Windows is a breeze, and it can import your settings from Outlook. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Washington Legislature Passes Gay Rights Bill

The Washington state legislature today quickly passed a gay rights bill. The vote was primarily along party lines (Democrats have the majority in both bodies of the legislature, and Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire vowed last week that if the bill passed, she would sign it).

An amendment to the bill required that House agreement says the legislation does not endorse homosexuality. The bill bans discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing, jobs and insurance. Still pending in the state Supreme Court is a decision on whether gay marriage is constitutional.

What the gay rights vote means

• Gays and lesbians are added to state anti-discrimination laws, covering housing, employment and insurance. State anti-discimination laws currently cover, primarily, ethnic groups. The state Human Rights Commission will enforce.
• Foes may launch initiative to overturn new law. It would take 225-thousand voter signatures to reach November ballot.
• The bill does not address gay marriage. State Supreme Court to rule soon on state ban on same-sex marriage.

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No opinion, just facts

• Senator Brad Benson (R - Spokane) spoke in opposition to the bill. His comments on the Senate floor were later quoted in a press release this afternoon.
• Democrats who spoke in favor of the bill often referred to the bill as a way to give gays and lesbians the same protected status as ethnic minorities, equating homosexuals with ethnic minorities in terms of "targets of discrimination".
• Despite a handful of lawmakers voting with the "other party", Democrats and Republicans voted along party lines. With Democrats supporting the bill, and being the majority party in both bodies of the legislature, the bill was expected to pass handily, and did.
• Shortly after passage of the bill in the Senate, one Republican Senator (Luke Esser - 48th District) made a motion to move to the 9th order of business, for the purpose of relieveing the Senate Judiciary Committee of SJR 8210, a proposed consititional amendment that would preserve the state's Defense of Marraige Act (which defines marraige, as a legal matter, as between a man and a woman). The vote on the resolution was defeated along the same (mostly party-line) vote that approved the gay rights bill.
• A couple of years ago, voters in Washington were presented with an initiative (I-677), authored by Democrats, that was - in essence - the same as the bill that was passed today. That initiative was voted down by a 60% vote. Currently, Democrats hold a 55% majority in the House and a 53% majority in the Senate - less than the 60+% of the voting public that voted down I-677. By simple-majority, that same 53-55% majority in the legislature voted in favor of what over 60% of the voters in the state said "no" to just a couple of years ago. Using percentages, the Legisalture did not accurately represent the will of the voting public.
  

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If you have an opinion on this subject, please comment.

Too cute: hand puppets

Whilst revisting some of the old web links I've had, I came across a site in Europe that features, of all things, movie files from a hand puppet troupe. VERY child-friendly, but appealing to this adult for its simple creativity, I recommend it to anyone. Give it a look-see. The link is here.

Great Recipe: String Pie

This one's a great alternative to a plain spaghetti dinner - String Pie! I stumbled upon this recipe whilst perusing some cookbooks family members have given me over the years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces spaghetti noodles, cooked
• 1 pound grounf beef
• 1/4 cup green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
  
• 1 jar (about 14 ounces) spaghetti sauce
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons butter, melted
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation/cooking

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cook beef, onion and green pepper in a large skillet over medium-high heat until beef is browned. Stir in spaghetti sauce.
• Combine spaghetti, parmesan cheese, eggs and butter in a large bowl. Mix well. Place in the bottom of a 13x9-inch baking dish.
• Spread cottage cheese over top.
• Pour beef/sauce mixture over cottage cheese.
• Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over top.
• Bake 20 minutes or until hot and cheese is melted.

Serves 6 to 8.

Congrats Seattle Seahawks - NFC Champions

For the first time in the team's history, the Seattle Seahawks are Superbowl bound. After the NFC Championship game, Wifey and I called from dear friends of ours in Yakima who are among the most devout Seahawks fans we know. They said we should put our coats on, because hell had just frove over... heheh...

AFC/NFC Championship Games

Unless you have been living in a cave for the past couple of weeks, the AFC and NFC Championship games are this Sunday. I've got a unit on each game with the esteemed sports director at my radio station. I've picked Denver and Seattle to win. We'll see what happens...

Local School Levy

Once again, it's election time - this time, Radioguy gets to vote on a local school levy. I'll say, upfront, that I'll be voting against it, and I've got a lot of reasons why...

In Washington State, more state taxpayer money is spent on education than anything else (I think about 52 cents for every state tax dollar). Historically - that is, over the past 20 years or so - the mindset in Olympia has been "if you throw more and more money to education, education problems will get fixed"... Those problems have included teacher pay, smaller class sizes, higher test scores, and greater education system accountability.

The state's blanket, fix-all solution has not worked the way it was intended - test scores are at an all time low, classes have not become smaller (thanks to an influx of folks moving to the state from other states, coupled by new laws providing education benefits to children of illegal immigrants), and accountability has not improved. The teacher pay situation, which has been a hot-button issue in Washington State for many years,has not improved in a manner that keeps up with increased state education regulations/requirements and the afore-mentioned programs to provide state-run education to the masses. The Washington State legislature has, time and again, passed laws to increase accountability for school districts and teachers, but the increased responsibility for districts and teachers has come with a financial burden that affects districts and teachers at a local level. Nice intentions by the legislature, but poor results. The bottom line is that, no matter how much the legislature throws money at education, as long as they keep putting new programs in place, the money doesn't get used in the way they say it should be used.

To use an example a little more close to home... Assume, for the moment, that you run a clothing store. The clothes you sell are very popular among folks across the state. However, your employees are strapped to provide the level of service and amout of product that would make your store profitable. The state steps in, mandating that you provide a higher level of service and provide a greater variety of products than you have available, saying that the people of the state have a right to said increased levels. Meanwhile, you have no financial means to comply with the state's edicts. The state taxes the people to enact new programs to make sure you give the increased services/products, but you don't see those tax dollars going directly to help your store. Meanwhile, your employees are getting restless. You have two choices: raise the price of your goods or complain to the state to ease their edicts to continue doing business.

That's what's going on in Washington State...

Back to my vote on the local school levy - I'm choosing to vote "no" on the levy because of a couple of reasons... First, I'm not a homeowner -I want to own a home in the city I call home, but the tax base is already so high, the best I can do is rent. Second, I'm not a parent - I'm sure that if I were, I'd be tickled at the prospect of someone else shouldering the tax burden for educating my kid right along with me. Third, the school districts in this state are weak... weak!!! It's already been proven that greater financial investment in education comes with eaqually increased administration - money changes hands, but nothing gets done to improve the education system. The state's school districts seem to merely cowtow to state goverment and the Washington Education Association (the state's teachers union), instead of standing up and saying "let's address our current probles without adding new ones". When my school district gets itself a backbone, I'll vote yes for their levy, but not before.

Voice Work... I hope...

Thanks to repeated encouragement from my friend Ron, I have auditioned for my (hopefully) first gig doing professional voice work - reading audio vignettes for Business Week magazine. I should know if I got the gig or not sometime next week...

WSRP takes Gov. Gregoire to task over her State of the State Address

The Washington State Republican party is taking Governor Christine Gregoire to task over her state of the State Address last week. The link to the WSRP article is here.

Fun with Herbal Remedies

I am coming down with a headcold. When this happens, I usually have trouble sleeping for the first few days. I decided yesterday to try and do something about it. One of my brother-in-laws is a big fan of Valerian root, an herbal sedative, so I thought I would research it. I am very skeptical of “herbal” remedies in general, but there have been some respectable western trials with plenty of data listing possible drawbacks, so I read them and concluded that at worst it was unlikely to do me serious harm. Comes with the standard sedative warnings: No other sedatives, no drinking or driving, don't give to children or take while pregnant. Check. So at 9:30 last night I took a 450mg capsule, which is a bit less than the trial dosage of 600mg. By 12:30 I felt as if I had had two bedtime cups of coffee. I think I fell asleep at 3. There is a minority of people who react as if they have taken a stimulant, and sadly I am one of these. O well. Sleepytime tea for me.

Do beware of “herbal” remedies in general. There are many that have no western data, just relying on anecdotal eastern data. The husband of the gal that cuts my hair is selling a coffee with Ganoderma Lucidum extract in it. Eastern medicine loves this mushroom derivative, but western medicine hasn't really tested it yet so I'm going to pass.

When Apps become annoying...

Several applications came bundled with my new computer, and as I am finding out, the most annoying of those is the software package by MacAfee...

This package is from the good folks that have brought us MacAfee Anti-Virus, one of the most trusted anti-virus software apps on record.

A long-time Norton anti-virus user, I opted to use the free 15-week anti-virus coverage offered by MacAfee, with the intention of switching to Norton as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the good folks at MacAfee and their bundled apps are giving me intrusive, pop-up alerts that would make a spyware programmer envious. About every ten minutes or so, regardless of what I'm doing, or if I'm running a program that is supposed to ignore "system alerts" (i.e., a pop-up message), here comes MacAfee... A couple of examples:

After a full weekend of transferring Neverwinter Nights files from my old system to the new one, I settle down for a night of NWN fun. Ten minutes into my first dungeon foray, my screen gets all funny and the game crashes...
(ding dong!)
"An update to your MacAfee Anti Virus software MAY be available, do you want to check for updates now?" Hell no, thank you very little, I was in the middle of something.


After copying too many megabytes of data from my old computer to the new one, I started to go through the process of weeding out the wheat from the chaff. About every few minutes or so, I'd get another friendly message from MacAfee...

(ding dong!)
"A ciritcal update to MacAfee's Spam Killer (Pop-Up Killer or Anti-Virus) software MAY be available. Do you want to check for updates now?" Again, hell no. I'd check for updates when I want to, but MacAfee doesn't give me the option to do so. Meanwhile, I get pop-up messages at the worst possible times asking me if I want to do something that may not be necessary to the safety of my computer..!

Droyne had good advice when he said MadAfee should be uninstalled ASAP when getting a new Dell computer... Keeping it is a pain in the tuckus...

Eggs and Green Ham

BBC Article
Should've done this to the chickens to get it right.

Interesting interview with Russell Tice

The NSA whistleblower. Draw your own conclusions...
ABC News Article

SystemWorks rootkit warning

For all of you Norton SystemWorks folks, there is an exploitable security flaw in the software. At this point Norton has released an update that fixes it, but make sure you get it as soon as possible.
Article
Safe computing!

Need an Office style program?

May I suggest OpenOffice? Instead of dusting off your old copy of MS Office '97 (something that I have done), you can get a full suite including a very solid and full featured wordprocessor that can read and write Office format docs and create PDF files, a spreadsheet that rivals Excel, and other neat tools. All for free. Give it a try. Do let me know what you think if you do. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

New Blog Poll

I've posted a new poll for the blog (sorry it took so long for me get off my rear-end to get a new poll posted). The new poll asks if you pay too much at the gas pump. The 2005 Washington State Legislature passed gas taxes that bring the state tax you pay at the pump to an all-time high, so I was wondering if those that read this blog think they are paying too much or not. Of course, there are many from outside of Washington State who read the blog, and I want to hear from you, too!

Spock's brain in a new body

Well, it took the entire weekend, but I've been able to copy 90% of the files I needed from the old computer to the new monster. Sill have a couple of Adobe apps left to install, but so far, so good.

I'm still fat-fingering the tiny keys on the keyboard that came with this computer, and the two-button mouse will soon play havac with my bad wrists, so I hope to purchase new ergonomic items when I can afford to do so. I'd grab the old keyboard and mouse from the old system, but I don't have the proper driver software for them anymore, and they clash badly with the sleek, gray and black motif of this monster.

I'm most impressed with how much nicer it is to surf the web or play the one or two games I have - it's amazing how a beefed-up graphics card and a 20-inch hi-def, wide-screen, flat-screen monitor can improve things here and there.

Dude! I Bought a Dell!

This post is the first created from my new computer. I'm still working around the super-tiny keyboard that was shipped with it, though. I also have had tremendous difficulty getting the computer to recognize software that I was able to install on the old system. I'll update you as often as I can....

Lawmakers do not understand tech issues

Cut n' paste:
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=261925&Category=15&fromSearch=yes

The H.S. senior encouraged other classmates to refresh the school's computer to slow it down. He is being charged with a *felony*. Argh. Am I the only one that thinks that this is an extreme punishment? I'm not defending the guy, but in an age where Sony can install a rootkit on your computer without your permission (you click "no"), just by you placing a Sony CD into your computer to play it, allowing hackers to gain control over your computer - earns Sony a slap on the wrist.

Lawmakers do the "Media Tour"

In Washington State, the 2006 legislative session begins on January 9th.

I'm a media person with a fetish for what local lawmakers do while in session - I'll take feeds from the media services offices from each of the caucuses, but I know that those feeds are from a political party perspective. So, for the past 8+years, I've been interviewing local lawmakers "one-on-one" to see what they're up to while they're in Olympia, representing the little guy. Those interviews are valuable local news material, plus (on occasion) these lawmakers go against their party's platform, which makes it all the more interesting.

Anyway, the 2006 session is set to start next Monday, and two local lawmakers (Republican Representatives from Island County) visited the radio station today for a pre-session pow-wow with your friendly, neighborhood Radioguy. The interview lasted just over 20 minutes, and provided a good deal of useful information on the platform for Republicans in the House and Senate this session. Here's some of what I gleaned from the interview:

For the first time in many a year, Republicans in the House and Senate have released a unified platform, focusing on hot-button issues, like passage of tougher sex-offender laws, and paying state debts with the $1.45 billion tax "surplus" (as opposed to using the money for new state spending programs). The two lawmakers I interviewed today agreed that state spending is out of control, bills should be paid (rather than spend money on new programs that will cost the state more in the future), and much needs to be done to bring state government into financial responsibility.

The items included in the Republican Party platform, however, stand little chance of seeing daylight during the 2006 session. I say this because the Republican Party, good intentions and all, are the minority party in both the House and Senate. During the 2005 legislative session, the Democratic majority passed a bill that effectively killed a voter-approved initiative that limited state spending. In light of heavy state debt, coupled by ever increasing unfunded mandates passed along to counties and cities, Republicans during the 2005 session called for spending and taxation restraint. The 601-killing bill, which (BTW) was heralded as a "victory for the state" by majority Democrats and Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire, included an emergency clause that cancelled a portion of the initiative that required a 2/3rds vote of the legislature to approve any new statewide tax increases. After that bill was passed, the legislature (that is, the Democrats in the legislature) re-enacted an estate tax previously ruled unconstitutional, enacted yet another gas tax at a time of record high gas prices, and introduced a long list of new state programs, which are resulting in increased state spending.

Now, although it may seem so, I'm not railing against the Democrats in teh legislature. Many of the programs the Democrats have proposed have merit. Where those lawmakers and I differ is fiscal responsibility, especially in light of the $1.45 billion the state now has in its coffers. The "extra" money the state now finds itself in posession of is a direct result of over-taxing the general population (thanks to policies, regulations, etc., established in the past couple of years). Instead of "paying the bills", Democrats in the legislature are once again talking about new spending that money on new programs.

Sorry if I was long-winded in my post...

The New Computer is Almost Here!

My new Dell computer, which was ordered last week and was shipped on Monday, is almost within my grasp. Apparently, UPS stopped by my home to deliver the computer, but they did it at a time that most people (including myself) are at work. Go figure. A phone call later by Wifey, and the computer will be delivered to me at my office Thursday WHILE I'm there. It'll probably show up while I'm interviewing a couple of state representatives who will arrive in the early afternoon.

I hate to be unprepared, but I've been putting-off backing-up data from the now "old" computer for a number of reasons, primarily a lack of available CD-RWs or DVD-RWs to stuff data onto. After I learned that the computer was almost within my grasp, my back-up efforts kicked into high-gear - I've been scrounging my piles of data discs for CD-RWs and DVD-RWs and I've put together a checklist of programs to install on the new computer.

Anal-retentive-me, I've color-coded the program install list in order of necessity, so as to get the most essential items installed to work with the web, and to continue chatting online with Wifey. When I told Wifey about my list, she just shook her head in a manner reminiscent of a cruise line executive who learns that the emergency evacuation of one of the line's ships was delayed by a concerted effort to safely transport passengers from the ship, based upon hair color.

We'll see how this turns out...

Another Recipe: Baked Beef Brisket & Vegetables

A two-part recipe for your enjoyment, involving two of my favorite foodstuffs - brisket and veggies.

Part One - The Brisket
(store-bought brisket, water, lemon juice and brown sugar)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Place brisket (fat side up) on a rack in a deep baking dish/pan.
• Pour 1 inch of water in bottom of the baking dish/pan.
• Cover with lid or foil and bake for 50 minutes per pound of brisket.
• Once done baking, uncover the brisket and turn it over.
• Squirt enough lemon juice on the brisket to get a light coating of the juice on the top of the meat.
• Loosely pack brown sugar on the top and sides of the brisket.
• Broil the brisket, uncovered, for 3-4 minutes. Remove from oven when done, and slice thinly.

Part Two - the Veggies
(mixed veggies, Italian dressing, butter, and seasonings)

• While the brisket is broiling, heat a pot of water to boiling and cook 1 bag of mixed veggies (stew veggies work very well). Boil the veggies until sufficiently cooked (follow instructions on bag).
  
• Drain water once the veggies are sufficiently cooked (remove from heat, of course).
  
• Place the veggies back in the pot (or transfer to a large bowl).
• Add about 1/4 cup of Italian salad dressing, 2 tbls. melted butter, a dash of dried basil, and a dash of garlic powder.
• Toss the mixture and serve with the brisket.

Aside from the cooking time for the brisket, this recipe is pretty quick, and it's really easy if you're in a pinch for dinner and have the ingredients handy.

Enjoy!

Anime Review: Cromartie High School

In our small burg, we have a Blockbuster Video store. That store has a somewhat limited Anime selection. As an avid anime fan who doesn not have access to the Anime Channel via my satellite TV service, I've made my way through everything the local video store had to offer. One of the most recent discoveries in their anime aisle was Sakigake!! Cromartie High School. This 24-episode series (each episode is about 10 minutes long), is funny beyond funny.

You’d probably have to look a long time before finding someone who speaks really highly of their high school. But there are crummy high schools, and then there’s Cromartie High. It’s a real slap in the face to the well-behaved, straight-A student Takashi Kamiyama when he finds himself, through a cruel twist of fate, enrolled at Cromartie. At the next desk over is a surly brute who eats the contents of Takashi’s pencil case. Partly to freak Takashi out, of course—but mostly because pencils are his favourite snack! But that menace is among the more normal of Takashi’s classmates, if the word "normal" even applies at Cromartie. Sneering thugs with mohawks are everywhere, but they’re nothing compared to the likes of Mechazawa, an overgrown coffee tin of a robot who’s as rude and obnoxious and any flesh and blood student. Then there’s Gorilla—they don’t call him that because he’s big, dumb and smells bad, though he is and does. No, he actually is a gorilla. That’s Cromartie High School for you—like a zoo crossed with a nuthouse, minus the cleanliness and sanity!


Each episode of Cromartie High School is chock-full of imagry so absurd as to make you laugh out loud and to quickly scan the TV screen each time the scene changes to see what new strange elements have been added. The storyline is straightforward at first - as is described above. The overwhelming theme of the series revolves around the heirarchy of the tough kids at the school. One tough, Takeshi Hokudo, a rich kid with aspirations of world domination, transfers to Cromartie to control the toughs there, thinking his father is chairman of the school's board of directors. He finds out too late that Cromartie is a public school, there is no board of directors, and he isn't even wearing the proper school uniform... You get the idea.

Field trips gone awry, continuous talk of fights with other high schools (that never come to fruition), alien abductions, general slackery, plus a character who bears a too-close resemblance to Freddie Mercury from the rock band Queen and an all-too infectious theme song - Cromartie High School is not for most folks, but it's found a deep spot in my funny bone.