Accolades

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Apr 082006
 

Battlestar Galactica recently won a prestigious Peabody award.  While some of the episodes in the second season were of middling quality, the finale had me completely engrossed (even though my TiVo accidentally lopped off the last 60-90 seconds).  If the SciFi Channel keeps getting awards like this, perhaps it will stop churning out those awful cheese-laden Saturday night “original movies” and greenlight more thoughtful content like BG.  I’d love to see the network do a miniseries adaptation of Ender’s Game or Rendezvous with Rama, both of which seem to be stuck in development hell.

Surely This Is A Sign Of The Apocalypse

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Apr 072006
 

Now that Windows XP can run on Macs, I’ve flirted with the idea of making the switch to one of those stylish white boxes.  After some consideration, however, I’ve decided to maintain my allegiance to the Wintel empire.  I like the modularity of PCs and being able to pick and choose the components that will go in my rig.  And I have enough legacy software, especially games, to make me wary of investing in a new system that may or may not run those titles.  One never knows when one will be consumed with the desire to fire up Alpha Centauri at 2 a.m. and nuke those whiny Lord’s Believers back to the Stone Age. 

It’s Hard Out There For A Gimp

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Apr 062006
 

The Man is still keeping us down.  Subway systems are inaccessible, driving schools are refusing to offer ASL interpreters to deaf students, and the unemployment rate of people with disabilities is stuck in the high 60s.  It’s time to accerate my preparations for the revolution.  Let’s see, I need to move the weapons cache to that abandoned barn.  And I need to set up my Internet recruitment efforts?  Anyone out there have a knack for forging documents?  I already have an explosives guy, so I can scratch that off the list. 
 
I am so going to get a visit from Homeland Security because of this post. 

Just What The Doctor Ordered

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Apr 052006
 

Massachusetts has passed a law to mandate health care coverage for nearly all of its residents.  As the New York Times notes, the legislation has elements that should appeal to both sides of the political aisle.  Conservatives will like the emphasis on personal responsibility.  The bill requires every Massachusetts resident to obtain health insurance by July 1, 2007.  Those who can afford health insurance but do not purchase it by the deadline will be subject to a penalty through the state income tax return.  Progressives will cheer the expansion of publicly subsidized health care coverage to children and more affordable coverage for people with low to moderate incomes.  Private insurance companies will receive subsidies to provide most of the coverage to the 500,000+ uninsured individuals in Massachusetts. 
 
It is said that the states are America’s laboratories for testing innovative policies.  If Massachusetts’ experiment is successful, other states could be convinced of the merits of providing something approximating universal health care coverage for their own residents.  And until politicians come to grips with the fact that a single-payer system is the only way to restrain spiraling costs, public-private hybrids like this are probably the next best solution.  Of course, the devil is in the details.  I don’t envy the policymakers who will need to decide what services to cover, what the deductibles and co-pays will be, how to assure parity between physical and mental health benefits, and so forth.  But it’s good to see states tackling universal health care while the federal government remains asleep at the wheel.

Bionic Woman

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Apr 042006
 

A short entry tonight because it’s past nine and I just got home.  Via Digg, here’s a story about a woman, blinded several years ago in a car accident, who has had some vision restored with the assistance of a small eyeglass-mounted camera that is jacked into her brain.  The technology requires her to wear a bulky computer and she can only see flashes of light, but it offers yet another glimpse into a future where neural implants are the next wave of innovation in medicine.  Between genetic manipulation and cybernetic augments like this, our collective definition of “human” might need some serious reworking in the next hundred years. 

Teenage Angst

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Apr 032006
 

I attended a performance of Hamlet at the Guthrie last Friday.  This is the last play to be performed on the Guthrie’s original stage before moving to its new facility in the fall.  This particular interpretation employed a World War II theme in which the men wore suits and tuxedos with tails and the women wore dresses and big hats.  It wasn’t the most original reimagining and the director added a few lines to elicit laughs from the audience, but the lead actor was appropriately manic and brooding.  Now, I feel like picking up an annotated collection of Shakespeare’s plays to go over the phrases whose meanings were more obscure.  I took an entire semester of Shakespearean lit in college and I had this great hardcover anthology, but unfortunately I borrowed it from a friend because I was too cheap to buy it. 

Not Going Anywhere

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Apr 022006
 

You guys didn’t really think I was gone, did you?  The whole bit about Scientology simply screamed “April Fool’s!”
 
However, I promise that I’ll never say anything more about departing the blogosphere unless I absolutely mean it. 
 
Regular programming resumes tomorrow. 

Hanging It Up

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Apr 012006
 

This morning, I woke up and realized I have absolutely nothing left to say.  After all, how many entries can one person write about how incompetent the Bush Administration is?  How many entries can one person write about his assorted geek obsessions, most of which are of interest only to the writer?  And I’m sure you’re as tired of reading about my hapless attempts to find a girlfriend as much as I’m tired of writing about them.  I mean, who am I kidding?  I’m never going to get a book deal from posting any of this crap.  I’ve basically been phoning it in for the past few months, anyway.  It’s time to find a new hobby, one that doesn’t keep me chained to this computer.  In fact, I’m seriously considering donating my computer to an elementary school or something.  When I think of all the hours I’ve wasted at this desk, I’m filled with a profound emptiness that is starting to make Scientology look pretty damn appealing.  There’s a Scientology center just down the street.  Maybe I’ll go in for a personality test later today. 
 
So long, everybody.  It’s been real.

Matters Of Principle

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Mar 312006
 

After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to move my money out of TCF Bank.  The notion that my hard-earned cash is supporting those wingnuts over at Powerline finally became too noxious for me to tolerate in good conscience.  I opened an account this morning at Affinity Plus Credit Union and the difference in service was immediately apparent.  The person who helped me set up the account was quite pleasant and it felt like I was dealing with a real person rather than a corporate cog.  I also like the idea that a non-profit is managing my money.  I’m not thrilled about having to edit all of my automatic withdrawal information, but I can accomplish that on a Sunday afternoon.  I think I’m also going to set up an interest-bearing savings account at one of those on-line banks like ING.  If I’m going to do all that traveling I discuss here, I’d better start replenishing my funds.

Hell Is Other People

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Mar 302006
 

To the woman I rode up with on the elevator today: I’m sure you’re a great person, but it really wasn’t necessary to speak to me like I’m a lobotomized toddler.  It’s people like you that make me think I should, before every social interaction with a stranger, hand him or her a business card that says, “I’m a 32-year-old man with an attorney’s license, a full-time job, and a violent distaste for condescension.”  It’s people like you that can make life so damn exhausting sometimes because 90% percent of the population sees me the same way you do.  It’s people like you that make me want to buy an island somewhere and invite all my gimpy friends to live there with me so I don’t have to prove myself to anyone ever again. 
 
But my nurse thought you were hot, so I guess you have that going for you. 

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