Mister T where are you?
A few nights ago while taking out the trash and picking up the mail, I was accosted by a young male cat who proceeded to relentlessly flirt with me and followed me upstairs. Soon as I opened the door he darted in and we began a battle of wits as he ran around the place with me scooping him up and attempting to put him outside. The little bugger was quick and always got back in before I could shut the door.
After slurping down a small bowl of milk he explored everything, climbing onto table tops, counters and keyboards demanding my attention. So, I made him a couple of scrambled eggs and he wolfed that down too. Satiated, we laid down on the couch and he serenaded me with his purring. We both got a bath, he licked every inch of my face and himself, and we played chase the string and fetch the paper wad. Felt my heart melting so quickly scooped him up for yet another attempt at eviction. This time it was successful.
Every couple of hours I opened up the door a crack to see if he was still there, only to find Mister T on the door jam awaiting entrance. He did his best to worm his way into my heart, to the point that I was considering buying a liter box so he could spend the nights inside. It didn't look like he belonged to anyone. He was very lean, but muscular and some idiot had wrapped a pipe cleaner around his neck as a collar. After removing the wire from around his neck, I kicked him out for the last time and went to bed.
It's been 3 days now with no sign of him anywhere. He briefly filled a void in my heart. It's been a long time since I had a cat that loved being snuggled and returned as much affection as he was given. I guess it is a good thing that he didn't come back. I was falling in love with Mister T, T for Trouble.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Sunday, August 15, 2004
So far, it's a quiet, peaceful night here in Citrus Heights. We even had a beautiful sunset and balmy weather to celebrate the peace.
Sunset in the Valley as seen from my apartment front porch.
This is in sharp contrast to the night we had last night. For about two months now, we've suffered a new tenant 2 buildings and a street away from me. On a nearly nightly basis they have boisterously loud gatherings and music out on their patio that faces toward my living room. They usually start around 9pm and finish anywhere between 1am and 5 am. Neighbors have yelled out ignored complaints for them to lower the volume, take it inside, etc.
Last night it was especially bad. They must have had 20 people there for a party with strobe lights and what looked like an outdoor large screen TV on the patio showing music videos at full volume. It died down to a dull roar around 11pm and I thought we'd have an early night. Then the midnight hour came around and they all decided to hike up the music and sing happy birthday to someone. The next hour was filled with blood curdling screams as the birthday girl was chased and captured for a series of birthday spankings mixed with giddy, drunken cheers each time she opened gifts.
Finally fed up, I brought out a tape recorder and set it inside my kitchen window to record evidence of the ruckus for a complaint to the managers. Surprisingly, just as the tape ran out a whole lot of yelling, and swearing broke out for several minutes followed by a dozen cars fleeing the parking lot. Guess one of the neighbors called the police and the tenants/partiers were giving quite a bit of resistance. Drawn by the sounds of fighting, I got out to my balcony in time to see that the cops had called for backup and soon we had 6 police cars screeching up the entrance and storming over/ripping down the fence of the tenant's patio. Being that this response was being staged right outside my balcony, I stood out there and loudly applauded and thanked the police as they ran by to provide backup.
One of the tenants was carried out handcuffed while refusing to stand and cussing out the cops the whole way, and stuffed into the back of a police car. Not suprisingly, it was the same obnoxious voice I always hear above the rest when they have their nightly gatherings. Apparently one of the party people called for EMTs due to the roughing up the arrested tenant got for his resisting arrest and refusing to cooperate with the police. By this time, a second party goer was brought out in handcuffs and stuffed into a second squad car. The fire department drove up in a large hook and ladder engine in response to the EMT call and also parked in the roadway under my balcony, followed by a county ambulance vehicle.
I got to watch the EMTs do a check of the two arrestees while spotlighted by flashlights. The first guy's face was pretty bloody. Looked like he may have had a broken nose. I could hear cops repeatedly yelling for someone to get down on the ground followed by lots of f-yous, so this is probably a result of that battle. The guy was examined and slightly cleaned up by the EMTs before they all took off without him in their fire truck and ambulance. I tried to feel sorry for the guy, but he really brought it all on himself by breaking the noise rules of the apartment complex, ignoring neighbor complaints and refusing to cooperate with the police.
By the time all the interviews, searches, paperwork, and Miranda rights were all complete it was about 3:30 am before all the police cars drove off with their two arrestees.
All that drama kind of makes my piddly tape recording seem like a spit in the ocean so I'm deciding whether or not to go ahead with my complaint. If the managers don't do something about the neighbors after last night, it's time to give some serious consideration to moving since my lease is up for renewal this month. Hmm, maybe I'll bring that tape to my lease signing and see if they want to make some deals.
I'm just kicking myself that I didn't think about dragging out my video camera and filming the whole thing. Would have made great TV for Fox.
Sunset in the Valley as seen from my apartment front porch.
This is in sharp contrast to the night we had last night. For about two months now, we've suffered a new tenant 2 buildings and a street away from me. On a nearly nightly basis they have boisterously loud gatherings and music out on their patio that faces toward my living room. They usually start around 9pm and finish anywhere between 1am and 5 am. Neighbors have yelled out ignored complaints for them to lower the volume, take it inside, etc.
Last night it was especially bad. They must have had 20 people there for a party with strobe lights and what looked like an outdoor large screen TV on the patio showing music videos at full volume. It died down to a dull roar around 11pm and I thought we'd have an early night. Then the midnight hour came around and they all decided to hike up the music and sing happy birthday to someone. The next hour was filled with blood curdling screams as the birthday girl was chased and captured for a series of birthday spankings mixed with giddy, drunken cheers each time she opened gifts.
Finally fed up, I brought out a tape recorder and set it inside my kitchen window to record evidence of the ruckus for a complaint to the managers. Surprisingly, just as the tape ran out a whole lot of yelling, and swearing broke out for several minutes followed by a dozen cars fleeing the parking lot. Guess one of the neighbors called the police and the tenants/partiers were giving quite a bit of resistance. Drawn by the sounds of fighting, I got out to my balcony in time to see that the cops had called for backup and soon we had 6 police cars screeching up the entrance and storming over/ripping down the fence of the tenant's patio. Being that this response was being staged right outside my balcony, I stood out there and loudly applauded and thanked the police as they ran by to provide backup.
One of the tenants was carried out handcuffed while refusing to stand and cussing out the cops the whole way, and stuffed into the back of a police car. Not suprisingly, it was the same obnoxious voice I always hear above the rest when they have their nightly gatherings. Apparently one of the party people called for EMTs due to the roughing up the arrested tenant got for his resisting arrest and refusing to cooperate with the police. By this time, a second party goer was brought out in handcuffs and stuffed into a second squad car. The fire department drove up in a large hook and ladder engine in response to the EMT call and also parked in the roadway under my balcony, followed by a county ambulance vehicle.
I got to watch the EMTs do a check of the two arrestees while spotlighted by flashlights. The first guy's face was pretty bloody. Looked like he may have had a broken nose. I could hear cops repeatedly yelling for someone to get down on the ground followed by lots of f-yous, so this is probably a result of that battle. The guy was examined and slightly cleaned up by the EMTs before they all took off without him in their fire truck and ambulance. I tried to feel sorry for the guy, but he really brought it all on himself by breaking the noise rules of the apartment complex, ignoring neighbor complaints and refusing to cooperate with the police.
By the time all the interviews, searches, paperwork, and Miranda rights were all complete it was about 3:30 am before all the police cars drove off with their two arrestees.
All that drama kind of makes my piddly tape recording seem like a spit in the ocean so I'm deciding whether or not to go ahead with my complaint. If the managers don't do something about the neighbors after last night, it's time to give some serious consideration to moving since my lease is up for renewal this month. Hmm, maybe I'll bring that tape to my lease signing and see if they want to make some deals.
I'm just kicking myself that I didn't think about dragging out my video camera and filming the whole thing. Would have made great TV for Fox.
Friday, August 13, 2004
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Now Reuters is getting into the act. Here's a 3-page article about the language of choice controversy on Orkut and an explanation for the overwhelming attractiveness of Orkut to Brazillians.
Brazil Internet Craze Angers English Speakers
Sat Jul 17, 2004 08:03 AM ET
Brazil Internet Craze Angers English Speakers
Sat Jul 17, 2004 08:03 AM ET
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Weather Report
By the way, in case you're wondering why I've been awake all night (waves to mom), it has been 84 degrees inside my apartment most the evening even though the weather people say it is currently 64 degrees outside. (That's baloney. I'm sitting around in shorts and a tank top and it's gotta be at least 70 or higher outside.) The air outside is absolutely dead; no breeze in sight and I've had all the windows and sliding door open all night with fans in the living room exhausting hot air to the outside and sucking in the cooler air in the bedroom. So far it's only cooled down to 79 degrees after a high of 95 inside at 6pm last night.
Usually the fan trick does it to cool off the place, but it just ain't kicking butt for some reason today and it's just too hot to sleep.
By the way, in case you're wondering why I've been awake all night (waves to mom), it has been 84 degrees inside my apartment most the evening even though the weather people say it is currently 64 degrees outside. (That's baloney. I'm sitting around in shorts and a tank top and it's gotta be at least 70 or higher outside.) The air outside is absolutely dead; no breeze in sight and I've had all the windows and sliding door open all night with fans in the living room exhausting hot air to the outside and sucking in the cooler air in the bedroom. So far it's only cooled down to 79 degrees after a high of 95 inside at 6pm last night.
Usually the fan trick does it to cool off the place, but it just ain't kicking butt for some reason today and it's just too hot to sleep.
ROFLMAO!!! Matt Drudge, eat your heart out! You are no longer king of the false internet rumor mill!.
Web hoax fools news services
S.F. man fakes beheading, proves need for verification
Julian Guthrie, Bill Wallace, Chronicle Staff Writers
The faked beheading story broadcast on two Arab language television stations and sent out on international news services early Saturday was based on a grainy video that was made by three Bay Area residents as an experiment to find out how quickly erroneous information could be spread by the Internet.
The experiment had a delayed reaction, but when it came, it did so more dramatically than the people who made the video ever dreamed.
For almost an hour Saturday morning, the Associated Press reported that a 22-year-old San Francisco man, Benjamin Vanderford, had been beheaded in Iraq. The report of Vanderford's death was based on a 55-second video clip that Vanderford and two friends had faked and distributed via the Internet. The story also was picked up by the Reuters news service, and the grainy video was broadcast by two Middle Eastern television stations.
In an interview with The Chronicle hours later, two of the three filmmakers responsible for the clip said they had never expected it to be disseminated so widely, and they blamed the mass media for publicizing the stunt without making sure that the video was genuine.
The video, which is intercut with grisly photographs of war victims taken from a Middle Eastern Web site and features a recording of someone reading the Quran on its soundtrack, was originally made in May and posted to two file- sharing sites, Soulseek and Kazaa. It all but disappeared until its appearance this weekend on www.islamic-minbar.com, a Web site in Arabic that has posted communiqués from Islamic radical groups and videos of victims who were beheaded by militants.
Soon after it appeared on the Islamic-Minbar site, the video was picked up by the Associated Press in Cairo, Reuters News Service and two Middle Eastern television broadcasters. From there, it quickly spread through the media by being picked up by newspapers, radio stations and television news operations.
"We made the film in my garage in Pleasanton," said Martin, who described himself as an experimental musician. "We made the fake blood with corn syrup and red food coloring -- a recipe that we got on the Internet. We used a low- level cheap digital video camera. And if you look closely at the video, you see the supposed beheading is done with a dull vegetable knife and we used the wrong side. ... We did the whole thing in a couple of hours."
Kirchner said the concept behind the hoax was to show how easy it is to make something fake look real. She and her two fellow filmmakers, she said, wanted to challenge others to question the validity of material that is presented as fact.
"What is amazing,'' she said, "is the power of the Internet. One person gets the file, they share it with someone else. It eventually ends up on some Arab TV station and is believed as the real thing."
Web hoax fools news services
S.F. man fakes beheading, proves need for verification
Julian Guthrie, Bill Wallace, Chronicle Staff Writers
The faked beheading story broadcast on two Arab language television stations and sent out on international news services early Saturday was based on a grainy video that was made by three Bay Area residents as an experiment to find out how quickly erroneous information could be spread by the Internet.
The experiment had a delayed reaction, but when it came, it did so more dramatically than the people who made the video ever dreamed.
For almost an hour Saturday morning, the Associated Press reported that a 22-year-old San Francisco man, Benjamin Vanderford, had been beheaded in Iraq. The report of Vanderford's death was based on a 55-second video clip that Vanderford and two friends had faked and distributed via the Internet. The story also was picked up by the Reuters news service, and the grainy video was broadcast by two Middle Eastern television stations.
In an interview with The Chronicle hours later, two of the three filmmakers responsible for the clip said they had never expected it to be disseminated so widely, and they blamed the mass media for publicizing the stunt without making sure that the video was genuine.
The video, which is intercut with grisly photographs of war victims taken from a Middle Eastern Web site and features a recording of someone reading the Quran on its soundtrack, was originally made in May and posted to two file- sharing sites, Soulseek and Kazaa. It all but disappeared until its appearance this weekend on www.islamic-minbar.com, a Web site in Arabic that has posted communiqués from Islamic radical groups and videos of victims who were beheaded by militants.
Soon after it appeared on the Islamic-Minbar site, the video was picked up by the Associated Press in Cairo, Reuters News Service and two Middle Eastern television broadcasters. From there, it quickly spread through the media by being picked up by newspapers, radio stations and television news operations.
"We made the film in my garage in Pleasanton," said Martin, who described himself as an experimental musician. "We made the fake blood with corn syrup and red food coloring -- a recipe that we got on the Internet. We used a low- level cheap digital video camera. And if you look closely at the video, you see the supposed beheading is done with a dull vegetable knife and we used the wrong side. ... We did the whole thing in a couple of hours."
Kirchner said the concept behind the hoax was to show how easy it is to make something fake look real. She and her two fellow filmmakers, she said, wanted to challenge others to question the validity of material that is presented as fact.
"What is amazing,'' she said, "is the power of the Internet. One person gets the file, they share it with someone else. It eventually ends up on some Arab TV station and is believed as the real thing."
Human Complexity and Orkut
The Orkut community is a great example of what you are talking about regarding human complexity, Melissa. I was going to write something about my observations in my own blog today but wasn't really in the mood to get analytical about it until now (it is 3:00 am if that explains anything).
Orkut was started in California a few months ago and has grown to nearly 1.2 million members. 50% of those members are from Brazil while the remaining 50% is made up of much smaller percentages with the United States being the largest at 18%.
Orkut demographics as of today:
There's a big power play and argument going on in some of the Orkut communities. Complaints range from "rude weirdos posting in a foreign language I don't understand, make them speak English!" to "we're the majority and we'll speak in our native tongue if and when we want to."
In all the multi-lingual Orkut communities I participate in, I seem to be the only one making an effort to both understand and respond to anything written in Portuguese. I've been campaigning for both sides to knock it off and just enjoy the interactions with each other. I've rolemodeled my own efforts to do so by posting in both English and Portuguese and posting links to on-line translators that both the English and Portuguese speaking folks could use to talk with each other.
Some of the Brazilians say they choose to post in Portuguese because they are embarrassed by their poor English skills. I've suggested that the Brazilians write their posts in Portuguese and in English and verify their English by using one of the on-line translators to reassure themselves. I've also made the same suggestion of using on-line translators to the English-speaking posters. You don't need to speak the language to be able to use an on-line translator. It's not perfect, but it's better then what's going on now.
So far, neither side is making the attempt. They'd rather not speak at all to each other then make the tiny extra effort of copy and pasting something into/from a translator to ease the communication problem. They're all more interested in the fight about who was here first and whose rules will be followed and if you don't like it, start your own Orkut.
I don't get it. It deeply saddens me that our societies are becoming so closed off from each other in the midst of the global communication revolution. It is happening on both a national and individual basis, even between those that speak the same language. I'd much rather extend a handshake then a cold shoulder. Is it just me and the flower-child era I grew up in?
What is going on with humanity that makes us seek out only the company of our own like-thinking kind? It can't be brushed off as just human nature. According to historians, Early man went to great extents to seek out peoples outside their own familial communities to exchange ideas and DNA. Why are we now turning our backs on each other both as neighborhoods and nations? Is this the beginning of the end the scientists warned about in the 60's due to overpopulation and dwindling natural resources?
The Orkut community is a great example of what you are talking about regarding human complexity, Melissa. I was going to write something about my observations in my own blog today but wasn't really in the mood to get analytical about it until now (it is 3:00 am if that explains anything).
Orkut was started in California a few months ago and has grown to nearly 1.2 million members. 50% of those members are from Brazil while the remaining 50% is made up of much smaller percentages with the United States being the largest at 18%.
Orkut demographics as of today:
There's a big power play and argument going on in some of the Orkut communities. Complaints range from "rude weirdos posting in a foreign language I don't understand, make them speak English!" to "we're the majority and we'll speak in our native tongue if and when we want to."
In all the multi-lingual Orkut communities I participate in, I seem to be the only one making an effort to both understand and respond to anything written in Portuguese. I've been campaigning for both sides to knock it off and just enjoy the interactions with each other. I've rolemodeled my own efforts to do so by posting in both English and Portuguese and posting links to on-line translators that both the English and Portuguese speaking folks could use to talk with each other.
Some of the Brazilians say they choose to post in Portuguese because they are embarrassed by their poor English skills. I've suggested that the Brazilians write their posts in Portuguese and in English and verify their English by using one of the on-line translators to reassure themselves. I've also made the same suggestion of using on-line translators to the English-speaking posters. You don't need to speak the language to be able to use an on-line translator. It's not perfect, but it's better then what's going on now.
So far, neither side is making the attempt. They'd rather not speak at all to each other then make the tiny extra effort of copy and pasting something into/from a translator to ease the communication problem. They're all more interested in the fight about who was here first and whose rules will be followed and if you don't like it, start your own Orkut.
I don't get it. It deeply saddens me that our societies are becoming so closed off from each other in the midst of the global communication revolution. It is happening on both a national and individual basis, even between those that speak the same language. I'd much rather extend a handshake then a cold shoulder. Is it just me and the flower-child era I grew up in?
What is going on with humanity that makes us seek out only the company of our own like-thinking kind? It can't be brushed off as just human nature. According to historians, Early man went to great extents to seek out peoples outside their own familial communities to exchange ideas and DNA. Why are we now turning our backs on each other both as neighborhoods and nations? Is this the beginning of the end the scientists warned about in the 60's due to overpopulation and dwindling natural resources?
