There’s an Insurance Executive standing between me and my doctor

red raspberries : strawberries = clams : mussels

Netflix

• The Lives of Others
• After the Wedding
• The Battle of Algiers I misunderstood the subject because of the title. It’s not your typical war movie.
• 25th Hour
• Au Revoir Les Enfants
• The Wrestler
• The Transporter
• The Chumscrubber
• Cloverfield

Netflix Instant

• District B13 Fantastic action flick with great sound. The chase scenes look like mogul skiing down the sides of buildings — without the skis
• We Own the Night Watch it soon, it’s only available until July 15.
• 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
• Central Station
• The Life of Mammals Amazing what you can do with an unlimited budget. Every scene is amazing.
• This Girl’s Life
• Kinamand
• Cocaine Cowboys
• Water Lilies
• Arranged

Some useful web scripts

I have been working for the last two years on a program called CoScripter, which automates activities on the web. You create a script by turning on a recorder while you perform an activity, and you save the script to a public wiki where anyone can use it.

Scripts can be used both for activities that you repeat frequently, and for showing other people how to perform an activity.

Here are some of my favorite scripts for activities that I perform frequently:

• Re-Order ink for Canon MP530 printer
• Send email to my representatives in Congress
• Pay AmEx bill
• Download AmEx into Quicken
• Redeem AmEx Blue Sky points

Here are some of my favorite scripts for  others:

• Opt Out of Credit Card Spam
• Get Southwest Airlines Boarding Pass
• Check Southwest Airlines Flight Status
• Buy Netflix Roku Player
• Schedule DMV appointment

CoScripter is a free, open-source Firefox extension from IBM.

maintaining perspective

I’m old enough now, and have had enough “experiences”, that I can overcome anxiety over the economy and layoffs by reminding myself how wonderful it is that I don’t have cancer.

An even simpler reminder comes at the end of “American Beauty”:

It’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world… It flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.

Review of audible book ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ by James Joyce

This is the finest audible book I have listened to so far. Joyce excels at evoking characters through their conversation, and at expressing philosophical ideas. His storytelling is engaging, humorous and clever. I did weary of his extended descriptions of Catholic beliefs, just as I wearied of the extended descriptions of cetology in Moby Dick.

This is also the finest narration I have listened to in an audible book. Some narrators imagine themselves as performers and contrive distinct voices for each character. Yet none of these “performers” is in fact a great actor, and it is often painful to listen to them — particularly to their attempts at imitating female voices.

In contrast, Jim Killavey uses three or four slight alterations of voice to distinguish characters in a way that is both unambiguous and unobtrusive. It is a true pleasure to listen to his narration. His pronunciation is clear and precise, as is appropriate for reading a work of literature. I was taken aback on a few occasions by his pronunciation of certain words (e.g. in-’die-sees for indices, fair-’rool for ferrule, and ‘poig-nant for poignant), but this is a minor issue on the whole.

(This review is posted at Download A Portrait of the Artist)

How to Import the Mac Address Book into Thunderbird

Step 1. Export your Address Book.  To do this, use the Address Book Exporter application. You can download it for free from
http://gwenhiver.net/address-book-exporter.html
When you run this application, choose Export using template: Yahoo

Step 2. Import the saved file into Thunderbird.  In Thunderbird,
Select the Tools>Import… menu item:

• Choose Address Books and click Next
• Choose Text file and click Next
• Select the file you exported and click Open
• Check the First record contains field names box

At this point, you encounter the bizarre tool for matching Address Book terminology with Thunderbird terminology.  I think — though I’m not sure — that the trick is to start with the last “Address Book field” that you care about and move it into position, then move the next-to-last field, and so on.

In any event, you want to match up the following terms (and place check marks next to them):

• First Name: First
• Last Name: Last
• Nickname: Nickname
• Primary Email: Email
• Secondary Email: Alternate Email 1

Click OK and you will have succeeded in importing your Mac Address Book.

Step 3. The final step is to set your View options so that you can properly see what you have imported.

• Select the Window>Address Book menu item.
• In the Address Books column on the left side of the window, click the name of the Address Book that you just imported.
• Select the View>Show Name As>Last, First menu item (What’s really important here is that you DON’T USE the View>Show Name As>Display Name option)
• From the View>Sort By> menu, choose Name and Ascending

• Finally, notice that there is a small icon at the top of the scroll bar on the right side of the window. It is used to choose which columns you want to display.  Click the icon and choose Name, Nickname, Email, Additional Email

my mistake

It’s tortuous, not torturous.  I thought torture was involved.

It’s protuberance, not protruberance. I thought protruding was involved.

Ant mind

I have been battling ant incursions for a month now, yet I still believe that I can win.

There is the obvious approach of placing poisoned bait. If you choose this path, I recommend Terro liquid baits.

But I have chosen to caulk all of their entry points, in our 20 year old house. As a result, I am now fascinated (and perhaps obsessed, like Bill Murray in Caddyshack) with the ant mind.

Their favorite destination was the pantry, every seam of which is now sealed. So they now appear — periodically and persistently — in our bathroom. Here’s my current approach: when they first appear and the entry point isn’t obvious, kill them all (wet paper towels work well). Wait an hour or so, see where two or three are found, and observe that area patiently for several minutes until you see one disappear, or a new one appear, in an amazingly minute opening. For us, it’s a crack in the shower grout.  Apply a dollop of silicone seal, and you’re done. Well, you’re done for several hours or even a day.

I have repeated this process for over a week in our bathroom, and I’m still fascinated to observe how they pick up an old, abandoned trail; sense the distant smell of something sugary like cough drops; occasionally stop upon meeting for a lengthy discussion; head off across an open expanse of wall; dart panic-stricken when my finger plunges in from above.

When I finally grow weary of their tenacity, I’ll caulk the entire perimeter of the shower tiles.

Two weeks later: I didn’t have a chance to grow weary. After a dozen dollops, they departed and we’ve been ant-free for two weeks.