Obama Souvenir

This came in the mail yesterday. The envelope bulged a little bit, so I was hoping for a new Obama-Biden button.

How many houses do you have, McCain?

"The rich are different from you and me." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

RTFM!!

My day started at about 4 AM. I couldn't sleep and couldn't nudge Tinker awake, so I decided to go practice with my new camera. You may have read my blog here, asking for recommendations. I took bigdaddycc's advice and got a Canon. I read the reviews on CNET and decided on a Powershot SD850 IS. It has image stabilization (that's the IS part), and face recognition. And it has a bigger display on a smaller body than my old Sony (plumb wore the old one out). It comes with a bunch of manuals in English and Spanish.

I got out the manual and went into the bonus room to try out the various settings. I knew I was in trouble on the first page:

I should have gotten out the magnifying glass but I trudged on and skipped that page. I started pressing buttons and snapped a few pics, but I wasn't happy with what I saw. The flash was washing out the color, and without the flash it wasn't sharp. I started pressing buttons, and got screens like this:

Then I started going through the manual trying to find what in the world I was doing. It shouldn't be this hard!! (If bigdaddycc can do it...LOL) After an hour of very little progress, I decided to go back to bed. I closed the book and saw that I had the "advanced" manual when I should have been reading the "Basic - Please Read This First"....DUH!!

In case you're wondering about the RTFM...In one of my former lives I was a geek...technical support. RTFM is what we would mumble under our breath after helping a client who didn't "READ THE F'ING MANUAL!" I just read the wrong one.

What a way to start the day. Then I couldn't get my sneakers on because my new Jelling insoles don't let my socked feet slide in.

I've had my walk, now I feel better.

Oscar de la Peña

He's back!! I blogged about him a couple of years ago. I was diagnosed with Osteopenia, not exactly Osteoporosis, but bad enough to get your attention.

I had a two-year follow-up bone scan to see if there were any changes. I have been taking my calciium tablets faithfully every day. The bone scan shows that my spine has improved, but my hips got worse. My doctor recommends treatment. We talked about it, and I told her anything that "Can cause" digestive issues, usually "does cause" problems for me. So she left it to me to decide. The four leading treatments are Fosomax, Actonel, Boniva and Evista. The first 3 are similar in that they have to be taken with a full glass of water 30 mins(or 60 minutes for Boniva) before eating, and patient should not lie down during that waiting period. The big caution is the risk of upper gastrointestinal disorders such as dysphagia, esophagitis, and esophageal or gastric ulcers. If you have chest pain, new or worsening heartburn, or have trouble or pain when you swallow, stop taking the medication. They have different regimens of daily/weekly/monthly.

Those three scare me. I had an incidence of LPRD (Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease) a few years ago. I didn't have chest pain or heartburn, and didn't know I was having reflux unitl I lost my voice every morning.

The fourth treatment option is Evista. The big caution there is immobility while taking Evista can cause deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and retinal vein thrombosis. Don't you just love the advertising for medication that tells you all the bad news. I should tell you that my siblings have a history of cardio-vascular disease including Peripheral Artery Disease.

So, I considered my options, and wondered if I should risk becoming Tinker's twin with the titanium hip somewhere down the road, or try something else.

What would you do?

Author of "Obama Nation" faces the truth about smear campaign

Is Simon & Schuster part of the GOP right-wing smear campaign?

Text Obama

I got a text message from Barack tonight. If you're one of his supporters you may have signed up too.....so you would be one of the first to be notified....when he decides...on his running mate. AIIIIIII!!

This is what the text message said:





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Please reply to this message with your 5 digit ZIP code for periodic local Obama news and updates. Be the first to know when Barack is coming to your area.

I nearly had a heart attack for nothing.

He's agreed to allow Hillary to have her name put into nomination at the convention. I have a bad feeling about this, Luke. Well it will be a bit nostalgic to return to the old days of conventions when they had big demonstrations in the aisles. A gazillion balloons and tons of confetti, so the "Great State of New York" can cast it's votes for the Senator from New York. Get ready for the spectacle.


Anyway, Michelle is gorgeous, isn't she?

Earn Money from Home!!

We all know how that scam works. The patsy sends in her money and in return gets a mailing list with instructions to mail a letter to all the people on the list. And what does the letter say? "Earn Money from Home" and they get a mailing list too.

Well I'm about to participate...well it's not really a scam. It's more tit for tat. I've been doing research on Virtual Book Tours, and found a blog and book about it. The blog has some very helpful tips. I can enter a contest to win a free copy of the book "My Virtual Book Tour Secrets" by Bill Frederick if I follow his instructions.

Post a mention of the ebook on your blog. (Did that)

Include a picture of the ebook on your blog. (Here it is)

Include a link to myvirtualbooktoursecrets.com (You got it)

In your post, mention the virtual book tour with a reference to the blog where you heard about the book. It must be a blog from the Official Book Tour. (Now that I see the dates, I may be too late)

http://allbookmarketing.com/2008/07/30/online-book-promotion/bill-frederick-on-choosing-blogs-to-visit-on-a-virtual-book-tour/

Finally, leave a comment on the blog where you read about the free book offer. In your comment, leave a link to your blog post. (Please include the entire URL.)

(I'll do that after I post this blog...I'll do it on 360 and Blogger for good measure)

Yall got that?

Congratualtions Team USA

The ears have it!!
(I told you it was a good year for ears)

So I didn't show the USA basketball team. Hold on there's a reason.

We know we can play basketball. What we don't know is swimming. If you look at statistics from drowning, you find that non-Hispanic black males die from drowning at a higher rate than anybody else.

We don't swim. It seems to me that we don't swim for the same reason we don't (or used-ta didn't) play golf or tennis. Until the Civil Rights Era, swimming pools along with golf courses and tennis courts were segregated in many parts of these United States or were part of exclusive membership clubs. So for a long time these activities were not part of our culture. It took Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe in tennis, and Tiger Woods to raise the awareness of black children and their parents to say "We can play golf."

We need to learn to swim. The statistics ought to tell us that our lives might depend on it.

The Dark Knight

I had to see it, and I didn't want to go alone. It's been out 2 weeks already, and Tinker wasn't interested in seeing it. But I did my please, please, please, number and he caved in. He didn't like it. I kept waiting for it to get better. Too dark, too much violence, and the constant foreboding that somebody else was going to go over to the dark side.

I was exhausted by the time it was over...Heath Ledger was impressive...truly psycho. I still prefer Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the Joker back in the 1989 Batman movie. He was menacing in the Jack Nicholson way.

At least I got to see Samuel L. Jackson. No, he wasn't in The Dark Knight. They showed the trailer of his next movie, The Spirit. I'll have to resurrect my Samuel L Jackson Hair Chart...lord only knows what he has on his head this time.

Oh yeah, I give The Dark Knight 2 stars.

I've got real estate!!

I'm right there between Minister Farrakhan and Barack Obama. Right up front.

I don't know how important bookstores are anymore. I have to confess I buy most of my books online. Independent bookstores are being swallowed up or run out of business by internet and the big franchises. Even Barnes & Noble has reported declining sales.

Black bookstores are as scarce as hen's teeth. There are a couple of by-appointment-only black bookstores in Raleigh. Wherever they survive they are a vital part of the community. In Durham there is "The Know Bookstore" (and cultural center, fried chicken and fish restaurant, and jazz club). The other stuff keeps the book store in business. When I stopped by this afternoon, the owner Dr. Bruce Bridges was in the kitchen frying up some dinners.

But he took my books on consignment. I'll have to schedule a book signing on a jazz night.