Must Read. Must Must Read.

Thom Hartmann takes us back to basics to demonstrate how our nation regresses. Read "The Robber Baron's Party: Let's Bring Tea".

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Laptops and Networks and Hard Drives, Oh My!

I properly installed our home network over the holiday break, which was a long-overdue chore. I replaced our router with a wired/wireless router, which happens to be a bit faster than the old one. Then I set up the wireless network for my laptop, which was ridiculously easy. Now I can surf the web and watch Cartoon Network with Jackson at the same time.

So, we have the new pc, the old pc (which some family members aren't willing to give up quite yet,) the iMac and the laptop. Beauty, eh? Almost. The iMac suddenly refused to let me logon. Disk Warrior couldn't save the hard drive, but it allowed me to rescue documents, like so many passengers from the Titanic. Ok, more like the S.S. Minnow. All I need is a used 6 GB-or-better drive to get it up and running again.

Then, the old pc's CD-RW drive failed, making it difficult to load printer drivers and networking stuff. I should get around to re-installing the original CD-ROM tonight.

In a shockingly synchronistic event, my work pc's hard drive failed, too. Before you blame the common denominator in all these failures, remember that each computer is four years old, and the iMac is five years old. That's like 70 in human years, you know, so you kind of expect to replace a few parts at this age. Perhaps, some day, I can look forward to a hard drive replacement, too.

Midlife Crisis Update (#1 in a series)

Today I toured the Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts, where they train you in audio and video for careers in radio and tv. They're well regarded and they placed 90% of their graduates last year.

Radio was the first love of my life (okay, second to Elsa Aguilera) at age 11. I came close to being a radio professional when I signed up as an advanced electronics field radioman in the navy. Gullible as I am, however, I joined as a nuke when my recruiter realized that my high school grades warranted something more taxing. "Come here, Gullible Recruit Touchberry," he said, "and take this test for me. Muhuwahahahaha." I did, I scored well, and he talked me into nukedom. He didn't mention that by enlisting me in a "high value field" that he got bonus points and moved up in rank.

But I'm not bitter, really. My life would have been completely different (and without Julie) if I hadn't become a nuke. I wouldn't even be living in Michigan. Still, I wonder.

Ten years ago I toured Specs Howard. I had completed my BA and I was cruising rather than achieving at Phoenix. I think I was afraid of letting go of the university teat at that moment but, whatever the reason, I didn't enroll.

Now, with my gig at Phoenix (possibly at U-M altogether) ending on January 31, I have new opportunities.

Ideally, I will continue at U-M while enrolling in a master's program or at Specs'. I'll talk about the less-than-ideal solutions some other time. Meanwhile, I'm dreaming about the ideal, which includes a favorable decision by the lottery tonight.