Another Slow Day at the Blog

Another Slow Day at the Blog
Today was another slow day at the blog. Days like this happen and one has to roll with the flow of events.

I had my regular quarterly faculty evaluation today. The Associate Dean was the reviewer. The dean did like my style of teaching and how I brought personal experience into the otherwise dull lecture. He thought that was a good technique.

Overall, I did very well on the evaluation. The school uses a rating system of 1 to 5 with 1 being Excellent and 2 being Very Good. I ended up with a final score of 1.78. I would have done much better except for a crummy grade for attendance. I had three of my eight students absent so I earned a score of 5 in that category. I think it would have been somewhere around 1.35 or so if my students showed up in class.

My department chair called me this afternoon. He wanted to know if I could substitute for a Saturday afternoon class on this coming Saturday and the next Saturday. The class is an easy one to teach and I can pick up some extra money that Doug will encourage me to use to purchase a digital video recorder. I may buy some more DVDs instead.

Oh well, there is very little that I can do about the grade since it is largely beyond my control.

I checked the Woman of the Moment Encore results for the last few days. Nothing much has changed with the three leaders. I expect to announce the top three Women of the Moment with the Weekend Update on Sunday.

I have my second infusion tomorrow. I think it should be good for me. I will have the Friday sudoku puzzle work on and Volume 2 of Journey to the West to read. I think I have around 400 pages to read to finish the volume. The Friday sudoku is rated as “diabolical.” Some days, I try to solve the puzzle and end up erasing my numbers and starting over three or four times.

I generally give up after four unsuccessful tries with the puzzle.

I went to El Gringo for my dinner tonight. This is normal for me; I like to go to El Gringo. It is a casual, low-key, neighborhood Mexican restaurant.

I had a Number 2 Combination; two soft chicken tacos, refried beans, and rice; I washed it down with an Arnold Palmer.

Perfectomundo.

Merit the Server was working tonight and greeted me with a loud, “Charles!”

“Merit, it’s so good to see you tonight.”

Just like in the television show Cheers, where everyone knows your name, except I think Merit is more attractive. I did remember to take my camera tonight so I was able to take a photo of Merit. Unfortunately, the camera batteries were almost dead after the photo. I am recharging them now and will post a photo of Merit on Sunday.

Merit introduced me to Courtney. Courtney is a server trainee; maybe I will go to El Gringo more than once a week if Courtney works at the El Gringo that is close to the flat.

I will be posting a lot of images of attractive young women on Sunday. That should help viewer traffic on a normally slow day of the week.

I was tempted to coast bye Coldstone Creamery after dinner at El Gringo. I decided that would be too much ice cream in one week.

That was my slow day.


Be well and stay happy.

Phone Calls

Phone Calls
Today has been a day for phone calls for me. This happens to me every once in a while. The Princess called me last night after I had posted the blog entry. Since the blog was posted, I am treating the call as a holdover call for the purposes of the blog.

The Princess was calling to tell me that she knew what she wanted for her birthday. This was the earliest that I can remember that she told me what she wanted.

The Princess would like to have satellite radio in her car. I think she is motivated by the prospect of driving from Atlanta to Seattle next month. I can certainly understand her desires. I have driven long distances when I was younger and sometimes went hours without being able to pick up a decent radio station.

This revelation solves the “what to get the Princess for her birthday” question.

Now, all that remains is for me to find some truly unique and so Princess-like birthday cards and then fly to Seattle for her birthday dinner.

Excellent.

My friend Sharon called me this morning. She was on her way to work. She was driving into a very bright, rising sun. I felt sorry for her.

Sharon had a question about a compliance disclosure question for me. She had to explain how her bank calculates and determines interest on savings accounts. The bank uses a method that none of the other major banks, savings and loans, and credit union use.

I suppose this approach or methodology allows the bank to stand out, in a sort of odd or negative way, from its competitors. In following this business plan, the bank creates extra work for Sharon without gaining any real benefit.

This makes no common business sense to me.

Sometimes, I am glad that I do consulting work and teach and not work for a financial institution.

Doug
Doug came up to my flat today. He had some things to do up in the South Bay area where I live.

Doug and I went to Gelatopia in South Redondo Beach this afternoon. I had the gelato and Doug had conversation with me. I had some chocolate and coffee gelato. It was very tasty and it went down very well.

After some consideration, I think I like the Glacier Gelato better than Gelatopia. Glacier’s product was more like the gelato that I remember from my trip to Italy when I was younger.

Recovery – Part 11B
I went in for my regular blood test this morning. I get a blood test before every infusion; the next infusion is Friday for me. The blood test went along very smoothly and without much trouble or delay.

I got an email from a friend of mine who lives in Washington State. He wrote to tell me about a great ice cream company, Olympic Creamery, that makes some really yummy ice cream. You can bet that I will be looking for one of their stores when I visit the Princess for her birthday.

As you know, eating ice cream is good for me now while I go through chemotherapy; that’s what Dr. Varela told Doug and me. I definitely want to follow the very good doctor’s orders.

Life is good for me.


Be well and stay happy.

I was only following doctor's orders.

I was only following doctor’s orders
I went to Coldstone Creamery this afternoon for some ice cream based calorie loading. Dr. Varela, the oncologist, said that ice cream was good for me while I am undergoing chemotherapy. She said ice cream is a very good source of calories. I had about eight ounces – quarter kilogram of yummy chocolate and coffee ice cream. The same as I had last week only a smaller portion today. I exercised some restraint today.

I was only following the doctor’s orders. I want to get healthy.

Doug is coming over on Wednesday and will stay through Friday or maybe longer. I think we will try a gelato place in Redondo Beach. It is closer to my flat and gelato is, after all, gelato so why not give it a try then. I think it is called Gelatoupia or something close to that. It is hard to remember names when you are driving bye the location in traffic.

Missing Blog Post
I got caught up in my Tuesday class preparation on Monday so that I missed out on the usual blog posting. I had three chapters to read and then prepare a lecture on them for class today. The preparation work usually is less than an hour a chapter. These three chapters took over an hour each and I was fairly beat afterwards.

Other Low Level Drama in My Life Today
I made an appointment to go see Amber the Stylist on February 13th to get a very soothing shampoo and hair cut. The earliest appointment that I could get was for 12:30 PM and that was the first appointment of the day for Amber on the 13th.

It must be nice to be Amber.

I sent my friend Vivian an email today to remind her to send me a copy of the photo of Lisa and me that she took on Sunday.

Ummmm, I guess that was all of the drama in my life today.

Dull, aren’t I.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - January 27th

Weekend Update
I had planned to write about my lunch with my friends Vivian and Lisa from the old bank where I used to work. We had a great lunch but I left my camera home so I have no photos to include. Vivian did take a photo of Lisa and me. Lisa and I agreed that it was a good photo of two people having fun at lunch.

I sent Vivian an email asking her to send the photo to me. I also asked her to send me a new photo of herself since the one I have is on the old side. I will write more about our lunch when I have the photos.

The Princess
I phoned the Princess on Saturday. She had called me when I had my cell phone off. I didn’t understand all of her message.

My inquiring mind wanted to know she was talking about.

The Princess was not in the best of all possible moods; her dogs are early morning animals and she had contemplated a long morning in bed. I can certainly understand her desires. I would have preferred to stay in bed and not go to school to teach my class.

The Princess was excited because she and the Golfer were able to sell her almost sixteen year old Honda Accord coupe for USD$2,500.00 I was amazed that the car was worth that much. I think the Honda cost about USD$18,000 and some change when I bought it for her new for her sixteenth birthday.

Yes, I am an indulgent parent. But, on the other hand and as the Irish say, shrouds have no pockets. That is their way of saying you can’t take it [money or wealth] with you when you pass on your final reward.

The Golfer, hear husband, was out in Seattle, looking for a house for them to rent. I hope he was successful and found something that the Princess will like and the dogs and cats accept.

I also told the Princess how I was doing with my chemotherapy and that I felt good and was happy. I told that all of the most recent tests were positive for me.

Visitors
This was a big week for foreign visitors to the blog. We had visitors from Germany [10], Brazil, Singapore [5], Iran, Canada [23], Romania, Ukraine, Texas [5], Belgium [2], Poland [3], Malaysia [6], Japan [10], New Zealand, United Kingdom [3], Saudi Arabia [2], Indonesia [3], Russia, Mexico, Spain [2], Netherlands [2], Egypt, Macau, Sweden, Ireland [3], Switzerland, Korea [2], Venezuela [2], United Arab Emirates [2], South Africa [2], Australia [3], Slovenia, India [2], Philippines, Argentina, Thailand, Spain, Bulgaria, Chile, Taiwan, Lithuania, Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, and Hungary.

We also had some visitors who found reasons to come to the blog and stick around for a while. We had one visitor who stopped and stayed for 44 minutes, other visitors stayed 29 minutes, 19 minutes, 16 minutes, 12 minutes, and 10 minutes.

I do appreciate the time you spent here, for whatever reasons. If you enjoyed your stay here, be sure to tell your friends about the blog.

Rain
Most of Saturday was rain free. Thursday and Friday made up for the lack of rain on Saturday. I think we had about two and a quarter inches – about six and a quarter centimeters of rain.

We had more rain on Sunday so the total for the series of rain storms will be higher. I think the storm’s rainfall total will be more than all of last year’s rainfall.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Doug talked me into seeing this film. He said it was well worth my time. He was correct.

This was the third time for him to see the film; that speaks volumes of how much he liked the film. I really liked the film. I was very satisfied with the ending and all other aspects of the film.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is a very violent and bloody film; it is a film that is not for everyone. If you are bothered by violence and buckets of fake blood, then, perhaps you should consider another film like JUNO or MEET THE SPARTANS instead.

We both can highly recommend this film. I would write more but I don’t want to write too much and therefore spoil it for some of you.


That was my weekend. I hope you had a great weekend.

Be well and stay happy.

The Next Milestone

The Next Milestone
I think the next milestone for the blog will be my 1,000th blog posting. I am 750 posts so far. It looks like it will be next year before I reach the 1,000 mark.

As I think about it, I probably am very close to the 1,000 mark. I had to restart Sitemeter in 2006 so I lost the data from the first have of 2006 and part of 2005. This is really not that important so why worry about it.

Life is, after all, way too short for warm beer and cheap cigars and worrying about blog postings.

Woman of the Moment Encore
This is a brief update. There has been no change with the top three women; they seem to shift their order from day to day. The big movement is for fourth and fifth place with Sharon Tay and KT So in the contest most of the time.

Since this is my blog and I am the sole judge of the Encore Contest, I can change the rules anytime I want. I do plan to feature my personal favorite Woman of the Moment, Faline Song, during the Encore presentations.

I suppose that you could not visit the blog when I am posting images that you do not care for.

Weather
It actually rained rather strongly on my way to school this morning. It was a large storm cell and that was very dark and cold looking. It also helped obscure the sun so I did not need my sunglasses this morning.

This afternoon the wind has picked up considerably. The taller eucalyptus trees in the park next to my building are swaying widely or maybe wildly in the wind. In any event, it is highly likely that my balcony will be covered with more leaves by morning.

In two days of the rain storm, Redondo Beach has received about half an inch – one and a quarter centimeters of rain. This is an approximation because there is no official rain reporting station in the town. I came up with the number by averaging the readings on the town to the east of Redondo Beach and Los Angeles International Airport. I am fairly certain that I am close enough for the rain volume.

El Gringo
I went to El Gringo for my dinner tonight. I had hoped that Merit the Server would be there tonight.

That was not to be. There was another server who was more interested in a cell phone conversation.

Life happens; I’m over it now.


Be well and stay happy.

More Scattered Sunshine and Some Rain

More Scattered Sunshine and Some Rain
Well, the rain finally arrived at the beach this afternoon, a day or so late by my count. This morning I had scattered sunshine with light to moderate wind. That was nice I guess.

Of course, the local weather news readers were practically peeing in their pants about the rain that will be with us, in some form or another through the weekend. They were all over the radar images of the storm like white on rice.

It is not the end of the world or rainfall of Biblical proportions guys. Chill out and give it a rest.

I saw a news crawl message this evening that said there was a thunderstorm warning for parts of Los Angeles County. Fortunately for me, I am not in the warning area. I usually sleep through the few nighttime thunderstorms that we have. This is a result of my misspent youth when I served in the United States Navy. My quarters were directly below the forward gun mount. We used to fire those guns during the evening so I learned to sleep through very loud noises.

Visitors
We had our 10,000th visitor to the blog on Monday afternoon. I had no idea that the blog would reach this level of readership so soon.

I do appreciate all of you who visit the blog, for whatever reasons.

Glacier Gelato Store
Doug and I went to the Glacier Gelato Store in Manhattan Beach this afternoon in the cold and the rain. Not surprisingly, we were the only customers in the store. I had a cup with a scoop of home made cappuccino chocolate chip ice cream and a scoop of chocolate gelato in a waffle cup.

It was everything that I expected it to be. Yummy and perfectomundo.

I thought Doug was only taken a photo of the gelato and ice cream. He didn’t tell me to smile. I would have smiled broadly had I been aware my face was in the image.

Back Scratching
My good friend Lisa gave me a couple of back scratchers when I left the old company. I used to scratch my back by rubbing it against the door frame of the offices. Lisa thought I was undignified when I did that.

Maybe I was; but, my back sure felt good afterwards.

I was scratching my back the other day when Doug was here. He was ragging on me for getting so excited and happy about using the back scratcher.

Doug obviously doesn’t know the joys that can flow from a really good back scratcher.


Be well and stay happy.

Scattered Sunshine

Scattered Sunshine
We are having scattered sunshine today in Southern California. The local weather news readers have been going overboard at the thought of a big rain storm coming to the area. We get excited about rain; it comes from living on the edge of a desert.

There was some rain last night but it came after I was sound asleep and it had stopped by the time I drove to school this morning. I picked some mist and a few drops on my way to school. So far, there has been no rain where I am. It has rained everywhere else today.

I find the weather news readers are more like clowns but without the humor and big red noses. I do miss the seltzer water bottles.

Star Trek – The Tour
Star Trek – The Tour opened in Long Beach over the weekend. It is a collection of all things Star Trek, covering all of the television shows and the films, including the one that will open later this year. I think it will be in town until February 18th.

Maybe I should have gone to the Star Trek exhibition instead of seeing CLOVERFIELD on Sunday. I am almost certain that I would have had a better time.

Doug
Doug called me this morning as I was driving home from school.

Doug is planning to stop bye the flat for a couple days beginning on Wednesday afternoon. We plan to visit the gelato and home made ice cream store in Manhattan Beach. It will probably rain tomorrow with my luck.


I know this is a short posting but it was a dull day.

Be well and stay happy.

Recovery Part 11 - Weekend Update January 21st

Recovery Part 11
Doug went with me to see the oncologist on Friday. As usual, I saw a new resident oncologist, Dr. Donna Varella, MD. We liked her best of all of the oncology residents we have seen. Unlike her two predecessors, Dr. Varella wore surgery scrubs, those baggy green or blue uniforms that never fit properly, for the session. Doug thought the scrubs made her appear more relaxed and casual, much less formal than the two other women. Dr. Varella was definitely more at ease with me than the others

I think it was just logical to wear scrubs. Patients expect to see doctors in surgery scrubs; we have been conditioned from watching all of those television medical programs from Young Dr. Kildare to ER to Grey’s Anatomy. Besides being very logical, it certainly must be very easy to dress for work since you aren’t matching anything.

As I think about it, I should have asked Doug to take her photo so we could include in the blog posting.

In addition to seeing Dr. Varella, I had to take a CT scan. Taking the scan itself was not too much of any trouble. The real trouble came from the three glasses of dye or coloring agent that I had to drink before the scan. They did not taste well at all. Doug thought it smelled like glue or paste. I suppose the liquid is an acquired taste; much like my love for single malt Scotch whiskey, not everyone likes single malt Scotch whiskey.

Dr. Varella went over the most recent series of tests; all of the results were where they should be. She was pleased with my limited progress with the chemotherapy treatment, especially since I had no adverse effects from the medicine. It seems many patients do get rather ill from the drug. I guess I am very lucky.

Being overly sensitive to cold is certainly no fun for me.

I am going back to the clinic in a couple of weeks, after my second chemotherapy drug infusion, for another review of the medication and the CT scan results. I hope I get to see Dr. Varella but it is more likely that I will see someone else.

Doug won the bet on how long it would take Dr. Varella to ask to see my scar from the October 15th surgery. Our side discussion was confusing to her so Doug explained what we were betting on. As far as I can tell, it is completely healed; the surgeon, Dr. Takahashi, said so. Dr. Varella said she wanted to check for any infection since the therapy reduces my ability to fight off disease.

Uh huh; that sounded nice but I think I would have noticed if something was amiss. I do look at the scar every day; actually, I look at it several times a day.

Coldstone Creamery – Open Season on Ice Cream
Doug and I went to the Coldstone Creamery on Saturday. It was Open Season and I was late. In spite of being late, I still bagged my quota of yummy rich coffee and chocolate ice cream.


Coldstone Creamery has a unique way of serving ice cream. They let you pick your flavor choices, of course, and then you can add topping to the ice cream. I chose chocolate and caramel sauces and chocolate chips. They then mix everything together on a cold marble slab, spoon the mixture into a cup, and then you consume and enjoy your ice cream.




Time to taste how good the ice cream is.





Yummy!

Perfectomundo!


It's all gone.

Weekend Update
Doug and I went to see CLOVERFIELD on Sunday. This was the second time for Doug. I had sent Amber the Stylist an email, inviting her to go see the film with me on Monday. Since I hadn’t heard from her by mid-day on Sunday, we went to the local multiplex.

I won’t bore you with a lengthy review since I hated the film. Perhaps hated is too strong a term; that will not change the fact that I did not like the film. I ended up rooting for the monster; just like the film critic from the New York Times.

The film is a good “B” movie, Saturday afternoon thriller. That is all that it is in my mind. Doug thought it was an “ok” film. He went with me because I paid for the tickets and because he was not interested in the American professional football on the television.

I felt the characters were all pretentious, incredibly annoying, New York yuppies. They seemed to be so self concerned with themselves. Most of the male actors seemed to be styled as one of many metrosexuals.

Where was this film’s version of Dr. Miyazawa?

The dialogue sounded as if it had been written by a second year film studies major. I was particularly offended by the excessive use an overly trite and clichéd dialogue. I had just ranted about not using this type of vocabulary in my Saturday morning writing class.

I guess the one thing that really bothered me was the male actors were all going around with pathetic beard stubble on their faces. Does this make them look more masculine? Of course not, it makes them only look pathetic masculine wannabes.

Men who have served with the Forces that defend our great nation do not need to go around, unshaven, to prove their masculinity. All you need to do is look at the next United States Marine Corps television advertisement, preferably with the Corps’ Silent Drill Team in it. Those are real men.

Doug went home behind the Orange Curtain after the film and I went back to my flat.

I went to the South Redondo Beach California Pizza Kitchen for a small pizza and large salad to go for dinner. I had a USD$3.00 off coupon that expired on Sunday. I didn’t want to lose the coupon benefit.

After dinner on Sunday, I watched my Korean historical drama. It was Episode 132. I think this was the end of the second act; it was a long second act. I think the program ought to end around Episode 150 or so since the third act will be the wrap up and historical conclusion.

I also thought it would end around Episode 100 so I can be very wrong about when the final fade to black will occur.

I was out running some errands this morning. I do that on Mondays. This is not unusual.

I did notice that a Pinkberry store will open in Hermosa Beach in the next month or so. I have never been to a Pinkberry store and I do no plan to visit the one in Hermosa Beach or any other store. Pinkberry sells a form of iced yogurt or something like that.

Why would I choose iced yogurt when I can have Coldstone Creamery rich ice cream instead?

I did notice a gelato and hand made ice cream store in Manhattan Beach. I know this store has been open for a while. The location has taken a number of fast food images over the years. I think I may have gone to the location, when I lived in Manhattan Beach, for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Wednesday is looking like an excellent day for me to visit the gelato and hand made ice cream store and bag my daily limit for rich ice cream. I am doing this because Dr. Varella does not want to lose much more weight.

Visitors
We had another good week for visitors from outside of the United States of America. We had visitors from Australia [3], Vietnam, Bulgaria [4], Armenia, Finland [2], Ecuador [2], Canada [10], Costa Rica, Japan [8], Norway, Poland [2], Brazil, Venezuela [2], Texas [4], Germany [4], Portugal, Switzerland, Italy [2], Russia, Mexico [2], Hungary, United Kingdom [3], Israel, France [7], United Arab Emirates, Chile, Malaysia, Ireland, Korea [2], Belgium, Singapore [2], Indonesia, Taiwan, New Zealand, Guatemala, Iran, Netherlands [2], and Colombia.

We also had a few visitors come and stay for a while; probably to read some great writing on my part or maybe no. We had one visitor stay for 27 minutes, one for 16, one for 15, one for 13, and two for 10 minutes.

I do appreciate all of you who took time from your otherwise busy days to visit the blog, even if was only for your favorite set of the Woman of the Moment photos.

Women of the Moment Encore
The Women of the Moment Encore determination will be made at the end of the month as I had previously written. So far, the contest has been one for fourth place between Sharon Tay and KT So. The front runners, Eiko Koike, Sunisa Kim and Aiko Tanaka, have remained constant with only daily changes of position within the top three.

I suppose that this Encore may not please everyone; that is one reason why we have contests like this, to determine popularity. Those of you that send me nasty and unfriendly emails will receive a Yellow Card.

I reserve the right to award Red Cards for flagrant bad grammar and spelling in your emails. I do teach a class in Composition after all this term.


That was my holiday weekend; I hope you had a great weekend.

Be well and stay happy.

A Topic Title, My Blog for a Topic Title

A Topic Title, My Blog for a Topic Title
The line or one very close to it worked well for William Shakespeare in Richard III. Fortunately for me, I am no the King of England nor do I have a hunchback.

I was busy and running around yesterday.

I got my hair cut by Amber the Stylist. I think I look good today. I did enjoy her shampoo and neck massage. That was a great way to start out in the late morning. I also enjoyed her hugs. I don’t which I enjoyed more, the shampoo or the hugs.

Doug was with me and met Amber. He thought she was nice but on the short side. Amber is only 61 inches – 155 centimeters tall. Doug is 73 inches – 185 centimeters tall. You can see that there is a considerable height gap here.

We ended up having lunch at Hof’s Hut in Long Beach [Pacific Coast Highway and 2nd Street]. Doug had never been to Hof’s Hut but had heard about it. I had been to this restaurant before but that was maybe thirty years ago. I asked Amber if she would like to join us for lunch. She couldn’t because her lunch break was not until 2:30 PM and I don’t think Doug or I could have waited that long to eat.

I had a traditional turkey club sandwich with French fries while Doug had a bar-be-cued chicken club sandwich with ginormous onion rings. I had dessert because I was looking to suck down some calories. I had what they call a Chocolate Sinful Cake and it was. Doug opted for an Oreo cookie cheesecake. I know he enjoyed his dessert because he had nothing to say until he finished the cheesecake.


Then, we ran some errands.

Doug took his card to the car wash because it was way past due a good cleaning. After that, we went to Target so I could purchase an electric razor. The oncologist wants me to give up my old blade razor while I am undergoing the chemotherapy. The treatment reduces my body’s ability to resist infection. A shaving nick or cut could trigger a bad infection. That made sense to me. I still didn’t like the result. I have been shaving with a blade since I was 17. Yes, I have nicked and cut myself over the years so I guess there is some logic to the electric shaver.

I read the owner’s manual for the electric shaver. I said it might take up to two or three weeks for my face and skin to get used to the new shaver. Crud. That is no good for me. I am used to having a smooth, stubble free face. This is going to take some doing to keep me from reaching for the blade to touch up the spots the electric razor missed.

My class at school went well today. It was an easy lesson plan and I think the students learned something in spite of themselves. Two of the female faculty members thought I looked very handsome today.

Sweet.

After class, I went to the oncology clinic to have my PICC line dressing changed. This something that I could not have done at home if only because I did not have the ability or the required supplies or the knowledge to complete the task. The nurses thought I looked handsome too.

Jennifer, one of the Baby Blues, did not recognize me at first. She said I was all dressed up and asked why. I said that I thought “I should look nice in case I saw her today.” Jennifer giggled. I did take a photo of Jennifer; now, all I need to do is to take one of Glenda and then the story will be complete. Actually, I took five shots until Jennifer accepted this one. She is a difficult woman to please I guess.


Doug hadn’t seen me until I got home. I left early in the morning for school and he had been out late last night. Doug said that “I was dressing like George Clooney in MICHAEL CLAYTON.” I suppose that I did have a passing resemblance to the Michael Clayton character. He took a photo of me and said he was going to put it in his Flicker page.


Doug went out to dinner with a friend so I went to El Gringo by myself. I saw Merit the Server as I pulled into the parking lot. This was going to be a good dinner. I walked in and Merit saw me.

“Chuck!”

“Merit! You’re back.” It was nice to see Merit again.

I ended up with a grilled mahi mahi burrito with an Arnold Palmer to drink. I only had four or five taco chips. I wasn’t able to finish the burrito; it was more than a full meal for me.


Be well and stay happy.

Open Season on Ice Cream Was Postponed

Open Season on Ice Cream Was Postponed
The Ice Cream Open Season was postponed for a day because I still have the tinglies when I was drinking some ice water today after I got home from school. Tomorrow will be a good day to go to Coldstone Creamery for a couple of scoops of either coffee or chocolate ice cream.

Coldstone Creamery mixes the scoops of ice cream together on a very cold slab of marble. You can add additional things like chocolate sprinkles or M&Ms or Oreo cookie crumbs. Then, the clerk puts the mixture into a nice waffle cone.

Perfectomundo.

Other Drama in My Life
I got an email from Amber the Stylist today.

Amber was sad that I didn’t go to the Molly Moon Salon open house gala on Saturday. But, with my extreme cold sensitivity, going to the open house and asking “for a warm beer” made no sense to me.

LA Food Show
Doug and I went to the LA Food Show for our dinner tonight. The Show is one of our favorite fast casual dining restaurants. We go to the one in Manhattan Beach; it is the original LA Food Show. There is a second one in Beverly Hills.

We had our usual Avocado Chicken Bacon Eggrolls for an appetizer. They are so yummy. We always have these to start our meal off.

Doug had a bar-be-cued chicken sandwich with shoestring onion rings. He must have enjoyed it because he was silent during the meal. Doug had a slice of warm banana bread pudding with whipped cream for dessert.

I had a Swiss cheese burger with sliced avocado, tomatos, and onions. I didn’t have any dessert because I filled myself and because I thought I would still have a slight touch of the chills or, as Doug and I call them, the tinglies.


That was a short posting tonight. Some nights are like that.

Be well and stay happy.

Recovery Part 10

Recovery Part 10
I started my chemotherapy on Thursday and Friday. When I saw the oncologists for the first time, they indicated that I would be given a drug called Avastin. I guess they changed their minds and now I am taking Oxaliplatin. I also get a couple of other pills when I get an infusion. I also take some Decadron and Zofran.

Decadron is a cancer drug for colon cancer. Nice. Zofran is an anti-nausea drug to counteract some of the possible side effects of the other drugs. So far, I have had no noticeable side effects from the chemotherapy.

Doug came to the clinic on Thursday and Friday to keep me company and just to be around to encourage me. Doug stepped out of the room during some of the procedures. He does not do well when the nurses were working on me.

The chemotherapy infusion went well on Friday. I was in and out in about three hours. That was a good time for me since the actual infusion took two hours and change. Doug and I stopped at El Burrito Junior on the way home from the chemotherapy for lunch. I had a chicken burrito. It went down very well.

Digging for Dirt
Inserting a PICC line [peripherally inserted central catheter] is a complicated process. First of all, the nurses [see Baby Blues below] have to find a vein that is large enough for the PICC line. That seems straight forward until they went hunting for a good vein.

Over the years, I have given about ten gallons – 38 liters of blood. That is a lot of my blood. The nurses at the American Red Cross always had the easiest time taking the blood from my left arm. Naturally, I figured the Baby Blues would have similar success.

The Baby Blues tried for an hour to work the PICC line into my left arm. No success. Then, they tried the right arm and were successful after about a half hour of additional work.

Getting the PICC line into your arm is only half of the process. The end of the line has to be properly placed. My line is 21 inches – 53 centimeters long. After the line was inserted, the nurses took an x-ray to determine if it was the end was in the proper place. Actually, an x-ray technician took the x-ray and developed the image. Then, the radiologist or the oncologist had to make the determination.

This takes an awful lot of time. There is a great deal of waiting. Fortunately for me, I had some new books to read while I waited and I had experienced the hurry up and wait syndrome from my time in the Navy.

The Baby Blues had to make an adjustment to the line. It was too far into my body by about half an inch – one centimeter. The adjustment was followed by another x-ray and review.

The adjustment was fine. Doug and I left the clinic around 4:30 PM; we arrived at 7:00 AM. That was a long time at the clinic. On the plus side, I was able to finish one of the new books.

Baby Blues
Glenda and Jennifer are the Baby Blues. I had thought about calling them the Blue Angels. I discarded that idea because some of you who know I served in the United States Navy might confuse the Baby Angeles [nurses] with the Blue Angels, the Navy flight demonstration team. I will give Doug credit for suggesting the name of Baby Blues. He said that was what Russ Limbaugh called his oxycontin medicine. I like Baby Blues since they wore light blue gowns and masks and gloves.

Glenda spent most of her time digging in the dirt, trying to get the line in me. Jennifer helped her. Jennifer massaged my chest to get me to relax so Glenda could get the line inserted.

I said the massage “was better than having a girl friend.” The Baby Blues giggled at that observation. The massage did feel very good for me.

Jennifer said that the line was going to be with me forever or as long as the chemotherapy lasts. She said it was going to be my new best friend forever.

I said it sounded like “the line was like a wife only there was no alimony when it came out.” The Baby Blues giggled some more.

The Baby Blues were there when I came back on Friday for the infusion [injection of the drug]. Glenda asked why I was there. I said I had so much fun with them on Thursday that I thought I should kick off my weekend with them. Glenda laughed when I said this.

I think I may have been the most positive and upbeat patient that had seen in a while.

The Tinglies
One of the consequences of the Oxaliplatin is that my nerves became highly sensitive to cold. This is a neurotropic side effect of the drug. It is not too bad because it goes away after a couple of days. By Monday, the impact of the drug was fairly minimal on me. I get infusion once every three weeks. The impact is felt like when your hand goes to sleep and then the blood goes back in.

On Friday, this was a little painful because it was on the cool side when we left the clinic. I was over the sensation quickly and it was not a burden for me. I should also point out that the Pathfinder has an excellent heater that helped take away most of the chill.

Open Season on Ice Cream
I was reading some literature on chemotherapy and my medication on Friday after Doug and I got home from the clinic. Lean meat is very good; Morton’s is on the list of places to go for food.

I also discovered that ice cream was approved since ice cream provides a lot of calories. I do love ice cream, particularly chocolate and coffee and coffee with chunks of chocolate. These are all on the rich side so there will be a lot of calories.

Doug said “this sounds like open season on ice cream Dad.”

Yes it is. The season is open and there is no limit.

I am planning to go out and hunt up some ice cream on Wednesday. I will also break in a new coffee mug with the ice cream as well.

Weekend Update
If you happen to be a reader of the SkeetOnMischa Empire, now located at http://skeetonmischa.tumblr.com, you will know that it is warm in Southern California right now. The snow on the local mountains is melting away.

Snow melts and life goes on.

I did do a lot of reading. I read four books between Thursday and Sunday. The books were all novels and were ones where I was familiar with the characters and the general plot lines.

Doug
Doug came over to the flat on last Wednesday. He is planning on going home on this Friday or Saturday. On Friday, I have another session with the oncologists and a CT scan; a full day at the clinic again.

Last Wednesday, we went to Kincaid’s Fish & Steak Grill at the Redondo Beach harbor. It is best known for seafood, obviously. As it turned out, we both ordered the same meal; grilled mahi mahi stuffed with crab leg meat and grilled baby asparagus. We each had a salad; I had a bowl of clam chowder also. Not surprisingly, I had ice cream for my dessert.

I think I have been eating more with Doug out here. We go out for food more frequently than I do when I am here by myself.

Yesterday, Doug and I went to see THERE WILL BE BLOOD. This was the first time for me and the third time for Doug. Obviously, he had enjoyed the film. He calls it a masterpiece and one of the best films of 2007. I would agree with him that it is one of the best films of 2007. I liked it since it was based, in part, on the California oil fields in the early twentieth century.

We both recommend the film. There is some violence but not very much. The language is mostly PG-13.

Doug’s iPod died on Wednesday. It was three years old. I got him a new iPod for his birthday, with a capacity of about 8,000 CD albums. That is a lot of music. It was an early birthday so now all I have to do is pick up a card for him. Doug has spent the last few days transferring song from his laptop to the new iPod.

Giuliano’s and Semi-sweet, No Nuts Chocolate Chip Cookies
Giuliano’s is my favorite local Italian delicatessen. I have been going to the deli since 1980 or so. I usually go for a sandwich; sometimes a prepared salad. I introduced Doug to Giuliano’s a couple of years ago. He has adopted it as one of his favorite places to go for food.

They make their own cookies.

We have fallen in love with their semi-sweet, no nuts chocolate chip cookies. We usually pick up two or three when we go there.

I told Doug that the cookies have calories and are therefore a good food to eat during my chemotherapy. Doug thought I was reaching for a point too far.

Visitors
We had another good crow of visitors from around the world this week. We had visitors from Sweden [4], Bulgaria, Japan [11], France [4], Iran [6], United Kingdom [4], Malaysia [2], Germany [9], Texas [3], Canada [19], Philippines [2], Venezuela, Italy [2], Kuwait, Poland [2], Saudi Arabia [2], Ecuador, Australia [2], Indonesia, Slovakia, Singapore, Finland, Peru, Czech Republic, Turkey [2], Ireland, Panama, Guatemala, Korea, Netherlands, Colombia, and India.

I wonder what the visitors from Iran are finding so interesting with the blog. Maybe it is my witty banter and sense of dry humor. Or, it could just be the Women of the Moment.

This last week was not a good one for me to check on visitors. I may have missed some visitors; life happens.

We did not have as many visitors who stopped by for an extended visit as we did last week. Maybe these visitors are more efficient. We had one visitor for 17 minutes, one for 15 minutes, two for 13 minutes, and one for 11 minutes.

Amber the Stylist
I got a cryptic text message from Amber the Stylist on Thursday.

At least, I think it was a cryptic message. But, then again, I don’t get all that many text messages. I think Doug gets more text messages in a day than I have ever received.

Amber is happy that she will cut my hair on Wednesday. That is particularly good for me because, since I can’t get my dressing wet, I can’t take a shower and wash my hair. Amber does such a nifty job when she shampoos my hair. I especially like it when she massages my neck.

In her text message, Amber said she was getting ready to make a career change.

That was not something that I was thrilled to read. I really like the way she cuts my hair. It looks good and it stays in place. I can go longer than my normal four weeks between cuttings and still have it look good.

If Amber gives up on hair styling, I will have to find a new person to cut my hair. This will be such a pain for me.

Maybe I will follow the Princess’ suggestion that I shave my head. I can purchase a really good electric razor for about the cost of one or two visits to see Amber and I know it should last a lot longer than two months.

I’ll just have to wait and see what happens next with my hair and with Amber.

Woman of the Moment Encore
The Women of the Moment Encore selection process is proceeding along its predictable path. The top three most viewed Women of the Moment; in alphabetical order so far, are Aiko Tanaka, Eiko Koike, and Sunisa Kim. The fourth place seems to be developing into a horse race of sorts. Some days it is Sharon Tay and other days it is KT So.

I don’t think any of the regular visitors to the blog will be seriously disappointed with the outcome of the selection process.

My Friend Sharon
My friend Sharon called me on Friday. We hadn’t talked since before Christmas. Our call lasted about 55 minutes; 45 minutes were about Sharon and the drama in her life. The other ten minutes covered me, the Princess, and Doug.

Who says men can’t listen to women. I did for a long time.


That was my extended weekend.

I am highly confident that your weekend was generally better than mine.

Be well and stay happy.

Global Warming

Global Warming
Today, New York City was warmer than Los Angeles.

This just not supposed to happen; ever in the Winter. Los Angeles is always warmer. I think it is written somewhere, in some very important book that Los Angeles must be kept warmer.

I think this is another example of global warming. Al Gore ought to be responsible. After all, he invented global warming.

No wait; that was the Internet that he invented.

Sharon Tay
Sharon Tay was out hosting – being a lead news reader for a local Los Angeles television station [KCBS] on their weekend news reports this weekend. It looks like she will end up with the position on a permanent basis since she has been holding down the fort for almost a month now.

Sharon’s web site is still in the under construction mood or look. It will been under construction a year come this May.

Maybe the network is not too keen on having their on-air personalities having their won web sites. It is plausibly deniable.

Other conspiracy theorists could argue that CBS doesn’t want Sharon Tay to show up their Number One Asian American Female Julie Chen. The conspiracy theorists would also point out that Julie Chen is married to the head of CBS.

Any thinking person knows that Sharon is so much hotter that it is no contest.

Since Sharon is now in fourth place for the Women of the Moment Encore, I felt I should include a photo of her so you could refresh your minds.


Teaching
I was pleasantly surprised when all of my students showed up for class today.

Of course, not everyone showed up on time. That would be too much for me to expect. I did have a good class where I think the students actually learned something that they could take back to their part time jobs.

That made me feel good.

Amber the Stylist
I got an email from Amber the Stylist the other day. She wanted to know how I was doing and how my recovery was going. That was nice of her.

Amber also asked if she was going to see me anytime soon.

I guess she was worried about losing a client because of chemotherapy induced hair lost. I replied and said that I planned to see her next week for a haircut.

I made my appointment with Natalie the Receptionist this afternoon for next Wednesday morning. I may ask Doug if he wants to go with me for the appointment. He will be here at my flat. If we do go to the Molly Moon Salon for my haircut, we could cruise down the 405 Freeway to Westminster to snag a lunch at the Original Tommy’s Hamburgers.


Be well and stay happy.

I Spoke Too Soon

I Spoke Too Soon
I spoke too soon yesterday about the rain.

I got caught in rain as I drove to the local California Pizza Kitchen to pick up a bar-be-cued chicken pizza and a chopped chicken salad for my dinner. I phoned Doug to let him know I was in rain as I waited for my pizza to cook.

The pizza was perfect when I got home. I didn’t have to reheat it while I ate the four sections. I had half of the salad at and I saved the other half of the salad for dinner tonight. Tonight’s dinner was a micro waved meal of spaghetti and meat sauce with vegetables. It was filling and satisfying but not as good as a fresh cooked meal.

I think it rained for most of the night. It was raining when I went to bed at 9:00 PM last night. One of the nice things about in Southern California is clear skies on the day after. I took these photos from my building parking garage. I forgot to check how much rain the area got from the storm. Hopefully, the newspaper will have a full storm rain report tomorrow.


These are the San Gabriel Mountains. They are about fifty to six miles away from my flat.


This is a view of Downtown Los Angeles; it is only twenty five miles away.


This is Saddleback Mountain. Doug lives near here. I think it is close to sixty or sixty five miles away. I took the photos with a Sony DSC-S90 digital camera using automatic settings.

My cousin from Connecticut called me tonight and we talked for almost an hour. It was a catching up with the what has happened to the extended family. Mostly, it was good news and that was nice. Although at my age, there is the likelihood of a death in the family. There was one, another cousin that I was not close to. I had only met her once in my life.

Palm Z22
I finished entering the addresses in the Z22. My cousin gave me a couple of addresses that I had lost. My cousins moved and did not let me know the new addresses. It was good to finish this task.

I am still learning how to use the Z22. It goes beyond what the old Visor was capable of doing for me. Some of the features seems like overkill to me. For example, I don’t need the ability to color code events in a day. I know what they are. I went along with the program and have now color coded my daily events.

I might as well use the color features.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
I was reading in the financial news feed that Krispy Kreme Doughnuts had fired their CEO who was hired to turn the company around. As you might suspect, the turnaround went nowhere and the stock price dropped faster than a doughnut falling off of a table.

I wonder if my healthy eating program had any adverse affect on Krispy Kreme.

Not my worry.


Be well and stay happy.

Second Thoughts

Second Thoughts
I thought I should refresh your memories since there is a contest going on for the Woman of the Moment Encore presentation. These are the top four vote getters, so far. Those of us who live in American know that being an early leader does not guarantee a victory when the votes are counted; just ask Hilary Clinton and Mitt Rommey.

Be well and stay happy and stay dry.

Staying Dry and Weekend Update - Jaunary 6th

Staying Dry
We had a nice [for Southern California] rainfall on Friday night – Saturday morning. We were supposed to have some rain on Saturday but I either slept through it or it got delayed somewhere along the way. I think the rainfall for the storm, so far through yesterday, has been about 1.60 inches – 4.06 centimeters.

It looks like we may get some rain today. It is cloudy but clouds do not always result in rain. The weather forecast is calling for showers today that may continue into Monday.

Weekend Update
I did my periodic hard drive clean up and back up on Saturday. I think I was able to remove close to a gigabit of data. The data was mostly the Princess’ Wedding photos and Woman of the Moment photos.

Visitors
We had another good week for visitors. I think the blog has developed a following for those who want to see nice photos of Asian models and actresses. I suppose it could be worse for the blog.

We had visitors from Korea [4], Thailand [4], Canada [26], Brazil [4], Turkey, Texas [10], Malaysia [6], Poland [4], Germany [10], United Kingdom [7], Singapore [3], Taiwan, Spain [2], Norway, Russia, Australia [3], Switzerland [2], Finland, Mexico, Iran [2], Venezuela, Kuwait, Sweden [2], Hungary, Netherlands, Austria, Philippines, Bolivia, Japan [3], India [3], Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pakistan, Ireland, Lithuania, Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, United Arab Emirates, Palestine Territory – Occupied, Vietnam, France, Hong Kong, Italy [4], and Indonesia.

We had two, first time visitors this week from the Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic and Palestine Territory – Occupied. I’m guessing the Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic is what I learned to call Laos when I was in school.

We also had some visitors who stopped by for an extended visit to the blog. They stopped by for 76 minutes, 26 minutes, 21 minutes, two for 16 minutes, 15 minutes, 13 minutes, two for 12 minutes, and 10 minutes.

One of these visitors concentrated on viewing 29 pages of Eiko Koike.

That was an excellent decision on that reader’s part.

Palm Z22
I have been manually entering my addresses and telephone numbers from the old Handspring Visor PDA into the Z22. I have about 100 entries in the Visor. In this manual process, I have also eliminated a number of addresses as no longer necessary for me. I should finish the task by Monday or Tuesday; I only have about twenty or so entries left to make a decision on who to include or not.

I discovered the display screen on the Z22 is smaller than my old Visor’s display. This is the reverse of what has happened with cell phone displays.

The Princess
I had a phone call from the Princess on Friday. She called to thank me for sending her four copies of the wedding photos. The Princess said she might need a couple more copies of the photos.

We got to talking about her upcoming move to Seattle. Since we were expecting a big [for Southern California] rain storm this weekend, I asked her about the rain in Seattle. The Princess surprised me when she said that she had looked at rainfall and Seattle actually has a lower rainfall level than Atlanta.

“Daddy, it’s like the rain in Seattle is a lot of mist and low clouds and stuff that don’t add up to much rainfall in the measuring gauge. Atlanta gets mostly solid rain. Well, mostly solid rain except for this year.”

I was unaware of that.

“Besides Daddy, I can so not do with the 100F – 38C Summers we have in Atlanta.”

Woman of the Moment Encore
So far, the top three Women of the Moment are, in first name alphabetic order, Aiko Tanaka, Eiko Koike, and Sunisa Kim. The only other contender is KT So in a distant fourth place.

Aiko Tanaka













Eiko Koike


















Sunisa Kim


















KT So


















Odds and Ends
Doug and I were talking about when he was planning to come up to my place next week. He said he was planning on getting here in the middle of Wednesday afternoon. I thought that was excellent and suggested we go out for dinner to Kincaid’s Fish & Steak.

Kincaid’s is a favorite of my Brother. I told him that we have gone there a couple of times and had excellent meals. I pointed out that he could have a good fish dinner there since he was not eating red meat right now.

I’m not certain the suggestion of having fish for dinner was really that well received by Doug.

We will snag a meal at El Burrito Jr so that will balance things for Doug.


That was my weekend. I hope your weekend was good for you.

Be well and stay happy.

Important Programming Note

Important Programming Note
I have been reviewing the readers exit page history for the last few days. It seems that most of the readers come here for the Woman of the Moment features.

Why does this not surprise me?

I know I said that I was taking the Woman of the Moment feature down last year. There were several good reasons for my decision. I still think that was the correct decision. But, I want to provide what the readers come here for.

I plan to bring back my two or maybe three personal favorite Women of the Moment. I also will bring back the top three reader determined Women of the Moment. I think I can start this project in February since my favorites are already known. My personal two favorites are Cora Linn, the first Woman of the Moment, and Faline Song.

I am going to check the top three exit pages each day from now through the end of the month. The readers’ top three Women of the Moment will be selected based on their exit page rankings. This is simple and fair and, most importantly, easy for me to administer.

Three of the current, popular, past Women of the Moments are, in no particular order, Aiko Tanaka, Eiko Koike, and Sunisa Kim. They all have web sites that you can visit at your leisure. Aiko Tanaka’s is the best of the three. It is current, up to date, with an intriguing blog written by Aiko. Those of you who have come here from the Empire [SkeetonMischa] will recognize the spelling and grammar style.

Eiko Koike’s web site has the most downloadable images in the wallpaper section. She also has placed a large number of Flash images on the site that, regrettably, can not be downloaded. There are some interesting video clips that are well worth the time to wait for the downloads to happen. It is out of date with some of the last entries being for late 2004 or early 2005. This is very understandable since she is a Japanese actress.

Both Aiko and Eiko’s web sites feature a fast download.

Sunisa Kim’s web site takes forever and longer to load and I have a high speed broadband connection. I gave up on waiting at the five minute mark of the opening page download. The site also has an annoying music background that does not engender one to wait for the download to finish. This site is the newest of the three.

Visitors – Part II
I forgot to mention the total blog visitor count for 2007 on Sunday. We had 6,361 visitors to the blog during 2007. This is a nice improvement over what happened in 2006.

Thank you all for stopping bye.

Lunch and Dinner
Today was a day for eating, although at a lower level, which was a nice change of pace from my breakfast today of Rice Krispies with no fresh fruit and low fat milk.

I had lunch with an old co-worker. We talked about the direction our old credit union is currently taking. Many of the decisions the new CEO has made seem to be odd and questionable. Neither one of us understood many of them. We tried to fathom what the final intent is; we didn’t make much progress here.

My lunch was a roast beef sandwich with some French fries. The beef was sliced very thin and served on a roll with some barbeque sauce. It was excellent. I indulged myself with a dish of chocolate ice cream for my dessert.

Dinner, on Thursday, is usually at El Gringo. Tonight was no exception. I had hoped to see Merit the Server; she was not working tonight. The server was new and we had little interaction. I guess Merit is either gone from my El Gringo or still on vacation. I still had a nice dinner.

Oh well, life happens and if Merit is gone, then I am over it.


Be well and stay happy.

The Palm Z22

Palm Z22
Today, I feel like playing gadget critic. I feel so disappointed and let down with the Palm Z22 personal digital assistant.


The major problem is where to start with the review.

I suppose that I’ll start with the operating system. My laptop is a Windows Vista Business model and we get along fairly well. We all know that Windows Vista Business was released to the world in the Fall of 2006. Most all software vendors had been given developmental copies of the new operating system so they could write upgrade patches. Most were released in late 2006 or early 2007.

I purchased the Z22 in very late December 2007. Let’s call it a full, fat year after the laptop’s operating systems was released. You agree with me on the time, right?

You would think that a PDA product, sold in very late December 2007, would be compatible with Windows Vista wouldn’t you. Z22 wasn’t compatible as it came out of the box.

I had to download a software upgrade to make the Z22 work with Windows Vista. This was a Beta version of Palm’s operating system. It was released in late July 2007.

A Beta version?

Hello people? That means that you, Palm, are at least nine months late on your development. It isn’t like Microsoft as hiding the development of Vista or that the Vista launch caught you all by surprise.

“What were you thinking?” [In my best Dr. Phil voice].

My old Handspring Visor is much heavier than the Z22, no doubt about that. By the same token, the Visor feels more solid in my hand. The Z22 feel kind of flimsy and cheaply made. [Full and Fair Disclosure: The Visor was assembled in Singapore or Malaysia and the Z22 was made in China.]

My old Visor came with a nice aluminum stylus. It fit my hand well. The Z22 came with a smaller plastic stylus. I will keep the old stylus since it fits my hand better. I will need it because I will have to enter all of my contact information by hand because there is no way to connect the two devices and swap information.

The Visor has a monochrome display while the Z22 has a color display. Minor plus for the Z22. I only need it to keep my schedule; monochrome was fine.

The old Visor came with a solid, durable plastic cover that went over the display screen when it was not is use. I’m dead solid certain the plastic cover helped keep the display screen looking nice as it bounced around in my brief case; either while it was in the trunk of my car or in the overhead storage bin on the airplane.

The Z22 came with a cut out plastic film cover for the display screen that you have to cut out yourself, hopefully following the correct line and pattern for your machine. The film that came with the device has directions to trim to fit multiple Palm models. I can purchase more plastic film display screen covers.

One of the reasons why I liked the Visor was the display screen plastic cover inside was a perfect place to tape the Graffiti alphabet. It was always with the Visor and easy to use when I wanted to write something, the cover was off before I could write on the screen.

The Z22 came with some plastic film stickers with the Graffiti alphabet on them that can only go on the back of the case, a near perfect place for them to be rubbed off, scratched, torn, or otherwise damaged to say nothing of being terribly inconvenient to use.

Buying the Z22 online from Best Buy cost me USD$89. I think the Visor was in that price range.

I guess the only good thing about the Z22, in my mind, is its low price. That isn’t very much to say in favor of it.

When I think further about the Z22, I just hope it lasts as long as my Visor did. If Palm has not released a final version of upgrade to Windows Vista by now, will it ever release a final version? Will Palm be around that much longer as a company with a product to sell?

If the Z22 lasts ten years, I will be retired and a big wall calendar will work fine for me.

My cell phone can be upgraded and I don’t have to reenter the phone numbers. Microsoft Outlook can be upgraded from time to time. My current version is Outlook 2007 so I am safe for several years before I have to consider an upgrade. I know and hope Microsoft will have finally figured out how to do a smooth and simple upgrade by then.

My Life Today
I indulged myself by sleeping in until 6:30 AM and I finally rolled out of bed by 7:30 AM. That was sweet.

I went out to school today to pick up a paycheck and get some information for a report that I have to turn in next week. I also checked my Saturday class and found that three more students have dropped the course. I have gone from 29 students to 15 students in three weeks, I never saw the three students who dropped once in class.

More non-calorie sweetness for me.

I came home and a simple lunch. I followed lunch with another walk.

Life is good for me today.


Be well and stay happy.

The Palm Z22

Palm Z22
Today, I feel like playing gadget critic. I feel so disappointed and let down with the Palm Z22 personal digital assistant.

The major problem is where to start with the review.

I suppose that I’ll start with the operating system. My laptop is a Windows Vista Business model and we get along fairly well. We all know that Windows Vista Business was released to the world in the Fall of 2006. Most all software vendors had been given developmental copies of the new operating system so they could write upgrade patches. Most were released in late 2006 or early 2007.

I purchased the Z22 in very late December 2007. Let’s call it a full, fat year after the laptop’s operating systems was released. You agree with me on the time, right?

You would think that a PDA product, sold in very late December 2007, would be compatible with Windows Vista wouldn’t you. Z22 wasn’t compatible as it came out of the box.

I had to download a software upgrade to make the Z22 work with Windows Vista. This was a Beta version of Palm’s operating system. It was released in late July 2007.

A Beta version?

Hello people? That means that you, Palm, are at least nine months late on your development. It isn’t like Microsoft as hiding the development of Vista or that the Vista launch caught you all by surprise.

“What were you thinking?” [In my best Dr. Phil voice].

My old Handspring Visor is much heavier than the Z22, no doubt about that. By the same token, the Visor feels more solid in my hand. The Z22 feel kind of flimsy and cheaply made. [Full and Fair Disclosure: The Visor was assembled in Singapore or Malaysia and the Z22 was made in China.]

My old Visor came with a nice aluminum stylus. It fit my hand well. The Z22 came with a smaller plastic stylus. I will keep the old stylus since it fits my hand better. I will need it because I will have to enter all of my contact information by hand because there is no way to connect the two devices and swap information.

The Visor has a monochrome display while the Z22 has a color display. Minor plus for the Z22. I only need it to keep my schedule; monochrome was fine.

The old Visor came with a solid, durable plastic cover that went over the display screen when it was not is use. I’m dead solid certain the plastic cover helped keep the display screen looking nice as it bounced around in my brief case; either while it was in the trunk of my car or in the overhead storage bin on the airplane.

The Z22 came with a cut out plastic film cover for the display screen that you have to cut out yourself, hopefully following the correct line and pattern for your machine. The film that came with the device has directions to trim to fit multiple Palm models. I can purchase more plastic film display screen covers.

One of the reasons why I liked the Visor was the display screen plastic cover inside was a perfect place to tape the Graffiti alphabet. It was always with the Visor and easy to use when I wanted to write something, the cover was off before I could write on the screen.

The Z22 came with some plastic film stickers with the Graffiti alphabet on them that can only go on the back of the case, a near perfect place for them to be rubbed off, scratched, torn, or otherwise damaged to say nothing of being terribly inconvenient to use.

Buying the Z22 online from Best Buy cost me USD$89. I think the Visor was in that price range.

I guess the only good thing about the Z22, in my mind, is its low price. That isn’t very much to say in favor of it.

When I think further about the Z22, I just hope it lasts as long as my Visor did. If Palm has not released a final version of upgrade to Windows Vista by now, will it ever release a final version? Will Palm be around that much longer as a company with a product to sell?

If the Z22 lasts ten years, I will be retired and a big wall calendar will work fine for me.

My cell phone can be upgraded and I don’t have to reenter the phone numbers. Microsoft Outlook can be upgraded from time to time. My current version is Outlook 2007 so I am safe for several years before I have to consider an upgrade. I know and hope Microsoft will have finally figured out how to do a smooth and simple upgrade by then.

My Life Today
I indulged myself by sleeping in until 6:30 AM and I finally rolled out of bed by 7:30 AM. That was sweet.

I went out to school today to pick up a paycheck and get some information for a report that I have to turn in next week. I also checked my Saturday class and found that three more students have dropped the course. I have gone from 29 students to 15 students in three weeks, I never saw the three students who dropped once in class.

More non-calorie sweetness for me.

I came home and a simple lunch. I followed lunch with another walk.

Life is good for me today.


Be well and stay happy.

I Stayed Awake 'til Midnight

I Stayed Awake ’til Midnight
OK, I stayed awake until midnight last night. Now, what do I do with that?

I almost missed celebrating at midnight. I was deeply engrossed in a book my ex-wife gave me at Christmas. Had I not looked up at the clock on the table at 11:56 PM, I would not have seen the Big Ball drop in New York City’s Times Square.

Fireworks are illegal in Redondo Beach anytime of the year. Some of the braver locals set off some fireworks in my general area. I think I may heard a dozen or so minor explosions and no police sirens.

tI guess the police were checking out the midnight madness donut sale at Winchell’s.

Doug posted his traditional 10 Best Movies of the Year. It is an intriguing list but not an unexpected one from a film studies graduate. It can be found at http://skeetonmischa.tumblr.com if you are interested in viewing the list and reading the commentary that goes onto explain some of his choices. I think it is a very good list

I used to post my Ten Best Films list. I had thought about doing that again this year. Then, I remembered that I didn’t see ten films worth mentioning.

I’m glad I took my walk on the esplanade in my shorts yesterday. Today is on the cooler and overcast side; in preparation, I guess, for the weekend rainstorms.

Visitors
We had 1,005 visitors to the blog in December. This breaks the previous record set in 2005 when a horde of Germans crashed the site over a week long adventure.

A thousand visitors, that is so cool for me. Yes, I know that most of you came here for the images of the Women of the Moments.

Still, I do appreciate your visits.


Be well and stay happy.