…like my first try at egg nog for instance.  It wasn’t…wonderful.  Oh it isn’t horrible either…but the recipe I used called for Way too much booze in retrospect, and for some reason the ingredients mixed up a tad flavorless.  You could tell it was rich…I used the best milk and eggs and cream I could find at Whole Foods…but it didn’t have much egg noggy flavor.  Or maybe the smell of the booze was just overpowering it.  My nose isn’t all that great at the task of smelling stuff anyway.  So I tossed it and I’ll spend New Year’s Eve at the drafting table with the last of the store bought I have here at Casa del Garrett. 

It’s okay…my first attempts at beer batter fish frying didn’t work out either, but I kept on tweaking and tweaking some more and now it’s a neighborhood and co-worker favorite.

Saving grace is I taught myself how to separate eggs and fold ingredients.  Not that hard really…I’d just never done it before.  I have long narrow fingers so I started out by dumping the contents of an egg into the palm of my hand and letting the white drip between my fingers into a bowl.  The other method is to shuffle the yoke back and forth between the two halves of the shell you’ve just opened, letting the white drip off in the process.  But the egg in the hand trick works for me like a charm.  I’ve never held a yoke in my hand before.  Felt…odd…

If you’re out to party tonight, instead of the usual crap, spend some extra bucks on the really good stuff, and savor it instead of just sloshing it down.  You’ll drink less and enjoy it more and probably end up spending about the same amount of money you would have for the cheap stuff you always buy just to get yourself drunk.  Life is short…live it within your means but live it well.  Don’t settle for crap.

I got a card the other day, ostensibly from Mercedes-Benz USA, telling me that an update to Traveler’s navigation system was available.  If I ordered Right Now, said the card, I could get it at a reduced price.  I say ostensibly because the card actually came from the company that makes the nav software, not Mercedes-Benz USA, and they got my name completely wrong.  There is no Joseph Sciametta living here that I am aware of.  Not even one of the usual misspellings like Garret or Ganet or Garnet, but Sciametta.  And ‘reduced price’ is two-hundred dollars.  Swell.  I hate to think what the list price is.

So I call Mercedes-Benz USA customer support and make sure they have my name right in their system, which they do.  The cards were mailed out with the return address as a post office box somewhere in Orem Utah, but MBA headquarters and customer support center is in Montvale New Jersey, and the navigation software is made by Navteq which is located in Chicago, so I’m guessing the mailout job was farmed out to some third party outfit in Utah whose people were too busy making sure proposition 8 passed to get the mailing list right.  The 800 number on the card went to the sales office of the nav software company, and the web address seems to be registered to an anonymous re-direct service.  If this had come to me via email I’d have assumed it was some sort of phishing scam. 

I had an idea that the nav software update was out there though, because there was plenty of chatter about it on the Mecedes online forums.  One thread, asking if it was worth the price, turned into a DVD swapping party.  Someone got the bright idea to buy the DVD, install the updates and then pass it around.  The users formed a kind of chain letter queue, and as one person got the DVDs they would install the update and then mail them to the next person on the list.  I don’t know if any money was changing hands over this…I only skimmed the thread for information about the update, not how to get it.  Look…if you can buy a car like this it isn’t as though you can’t pay for the upkeep too.  It’s really unattractive for someone who can afford a Mercedes-Benz to be thieving the software for it.  But then, I have to keep reminding myself that not all the guys on the online Mercedes forums actually bought their own cars.  Daddy’s little boy and all that.  The downside to owning anything that’s above and beyond in quality and craftsmanship is you’re in the company of all the shallow louts who own one for its status symbol value and nothing more.

So I went to my dealer and bought the update from them.  The two parts department guys there both know me by sight now and it’s a pure pleasure talking to them.  They are both Mercedes enthusiasts like me and pamper their own cars completely.  I got my DVD set and headed home.  For a moment I thought I might just pop the DVD in and do the update then and there.  Good thing I didn’t.  When I got it home I discovered that it typically takes two and a half hours to update the nav maps.  Oh…and the Gracenote database.

Two and a half hours??!  What am I supposed to do…run the engine for two and a half hours or drain the battery?  The nav system in my C300 is on an internal 20 gig hard drive…not a separate DVD player as it is in some cars.  So it wasn’t just a matter of popping out one DVD and popping in another.  Which is good because a single DVD only holds about four and a half gig on it.  The hard drive system in the Mercedes allows for more detailed maps and you don’t have to swap disks if you take a drive from one coast to the other as you do with some cars.  But updating the software means copying over all that data.  So I went back online and checked the forums for anyone who had done it on battery power alone.  I didn’t want to kill the battery updating the nav software, but at the same time I didn’t want to be ilding the engine for hours at a time either.

After reading a few nav system update threads I got the impression that the battery would be fine.  The day was mild and the weather called for dropping temperatures and rain and snow later in the week.  So I reckoned better now then later.  Because I had to leave the key in the ignition the entire time, and I only have street parking, I took out my steering wheel lock and popped out the valet key from the ignition key/dongle thing.  I’ve said this before I think, but Traveler’s key isn’t a key exactly so much as a computer dongle that talks to the onboard computer whenever I stick it in the dashboard key slot.  But there is a small physical key hidden inside of it that you can pop out, and use to lock/unlock the glove compartment and the driver’s side door.  With that key in hand, I could put the dongle in the ignition, turn on Traveler’s Command system and leave the car while the software updated, locking the driver’s side door behind me.  For extra protection I put the wheel lock on too.

The update came on two DVDs.  You put the first one in the disc 1 position in the cd/dvd changer carousel and it starts the update program.  First it checks to see if it’s on a system that’s compatible with the update.  Then you get a prompt asking you to continue.  You click "OK" using the armrest Command function knob and then a progress bar comes up on the screen and some jazzy music plays in a continuous loop.  I muted the sound to save on battery life some, but I don’t know how effective that was because the sound system is still powered up even with the mute on.  But I thought it might help save on battery life a bit and I was worried that two and a half hours of running the Command system would drain the battery, even though the folks online said it didn’t.  After about fifteen minutes I came back outside to check on it and everything seemed to be going fine.  A half hour later I came back out and saw that the video display had closed back up.

Ack!  The car had shut off power to the Command system to protect the battery.  The DVD instructions had warned me that might happen, and said if it did to just turn on the motor and let the process resume.  I was hoping that wouldn’t happen because I didn’t know whether or not I could trust the update to resume gracefully.  But now I had no choice.  I started the engine and the video display popped back out.  When I saw the boot up screen I thought for sure I’d have to start the whole thing over again.  But the update program started back up, found where it had left off, and resumed.  I breathed a sigh of relief and let the engine idle for a while before coming back out and turning it off again.  For the next two hours I periodically started up the engine, let it run for a bit, and then turned it back off again while the nav software updated.  Eventually a prompt came up asking for the second DVD to be inserted.  Problem was, the first one wouldn’t come out.

The instructions say to just press the disk eject button above the disc slot.  But that button did nothing.  I tried turning off the Command system and then turning it back on.  All that happened was I got the disc 2 prompt again and the eject button still did nothing.  I thought about it for a moment.  The disc 2 prompt didn’t have an "OK" button on it, but I thought it might be waiting for me to respond anyway.  So I clicked the Command function knob as though there was an "OK" button there on the screen even though there wasn’t, and the prompt promptly went away.  The disc changer screen came up asking me to select a disc to eject.  I ejected disc 1 and inserted the second DVD and shortly after that the update finished.  So the map updates and Gracenote database update consisted of slightly more then a DVD’s worth of data.

I started the engine and turned on the nav system, checked the local map and a few functions.  Everything seemed to be working normally.  The folks online say the new maps have a lot more detail in them, with more points of interest indicated.  I’ll take a drive and explore the new maps later in the week.  The nav system is one of those things I never really thought I’d want until I actually had one and now I don’t want to be without it.  Just the other week I was wanting to go to a different Costco from the one I normally go to, because that one was out of something I wanted.  Instead of printing out a bunch of MapQuest maps and directions I just grabbed a street address off of Google and plugged it into the nav system and let it take me there.  Even when I’m driving somewhere I’ve been before, like to visit my friend in Stroudsburg the other day, I use the nav system to warn me a few miles in advance of when my turn offs are coming so I have plenty of time to get into the correct lane.  It’s really helpful.  I can just pay attention to the traffic around me and let the nav system voice tell me what lane I need to be in, and what exit to take.

Gimme that old time religion…

Church wins OK to create helistop

A Federal Way megachurch won approval Monday to add a helicopter takeoff and landing area, called a helistop, on its property.

…Gimme that old time religion…

It will enable Pastors Casey and Wendy Treat of Christian Faith Center to shuttle by air between the 15-month-old Federal Way church and its Everett campus.

…Gimme that old time religion… 

Federal Way hearing examiner Phil Olbrechts granted the helistop with limits: no more than four landings and/or takeoffs a week, no flying over adjacent residences, no takeoffs or landings after 10 p.m., and no night-time flying.

…

Church spokeswoman and board member Debbie Willis said Christian Faith Center has no immediate plans to use the helistop.

“We’re happy that it went through,” Willis said. “We’re glad to have the option if we need to at some point.”

…it’s good enough for me.

I’ll bet they have stadium seating too.

Or Christmas…  Or Thanksgiving…  Or Valentines Day…

Kiss Up in New York City

…

According to the Times Square Alliance, one out of five people don’t have anyone to kiss on New Years Eve, and more people kiss their pets than their friends that night.

Among the many kisses I’ve never had is the Stroke Of New Year’s kiss.  The only boyfriend I ever had never thought to give me one of those when he could have…which should have told me something now that I think of it…

I just took a small overnight to Stroudsburg to visit an old friend from way Way back, and drop off tons of my old computer stuff.  It was good to give that all stuff to someone likely to make use of it.  I hate the thought of all the electronic stuff we generate just getting dumped into landfills because it becomes obsolete every few years.  I managed to wrest a promise from him that he’d come visit Casa del Garrett sometime soon.  It would be good to have some company here, even if it’s only for a day or so.

Traveler is getting crusty with road salt and I need to take him to the wash soon.  Tomorrow weather permitting.  In the meantime I’m back to work on clearing out the house of old stuff that isn’t needed anymore.  The homeowner exempted naturally.  I think I’m still good for a few things.  But yesterday and this morning my friend and I were both complaining about stiffness in various joints and muscles and all I could think was Damn…we’re all getting old, the class of ‘72.  At least he managed to have himself a love life of sorts.

So far this holiday season hasn’t been as dire lonely as I’d feared.  Probably because I’m busy with the house.  You’ve heard of comfort food?  Housekeeping is my comfort work.  Which is not to say it looks like a Martha Stewart showroom here because it doesn’t.  I am busy living in my house and it shows.  But I try to keep it uncluttered and comfy.  Best complement I ever got about the house was from Peterson who told me he and a mutual friend who’d been here both agreed my place was the best geek house they’d ever seen.  Maybe one of these days I’ll post a tour of the house or something.  Maybe a few YouTubes.  I’ve been thinking about posting a YouTube of me drawing one of my cartoons.

I think I’m experiencing the first little touches of arthritis in my hands now.  At least, that’s how it feels.  I haven’t seen a doctor yet about this so it’s not official.  But it feels like that’s what’s happening. 

Luckily, it’s happening first in my left hand (I’m right handed).  The index and middle finger of the left hand are getting stiff.  I notice it more in the morning, but throughout the day if I try to bend those two fingers to my palm they resist.  I can still do it, but they resist.  Unfortunately, I can feel it a little bit in the index finger of the right hand too.

It seems Apple filed a patent application on Christmas Day.  Let’s see if any of you kids out there recognize this…

Apple files ’swipe-gesture’ patent application

While children were nestled all snug in their beds, Apple apparently had visions of improved touch-screens in its innovative head.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office revealed a patent application from Apple, dated Christmas Day, for a swipe-gesture system to be used on touch-screen keyboards. It would allow for a user to "perform certain functions using swipes across the key area rather than tapping particular keys," according to the patent application, authored by Wayne Westerman.

For example, the application explains that leftward, rightward, upward and downward swipes might be assigned to inserting a space, backspacing, shifting, or inserting a carriage return.

Can anyone tell us what this resembles?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Ars Technica’s Infinite Loop, which like MacRumors explains the patent in more detail, likens the technology to a "Palm Graffiti-like interpretation layer to the standard iPhone keyboard."

In other words…Palm already did this.  For those of you who never had a Palm device, they have a Graffiti text entry pad under the display window, where you can enter text using the Graffiti or Graffiti-2 gestures.  Those gestures include swiping up to shift to upper case, swiping from top right to bottom left to enter a carriage return, swiping left to right to enter a space and right to left to backspace.  You could also tap the bottom left corner to bring up a stylus touch keyboard on the display.  You could use your fingers on it, but only if you have narrow fingers with hard nails like mine.  Which is why I never fret about loosing my stylus.

In the comments to the article you find that apparently Microsoft the same thing in its Windows CE pocket PC OS.  Apple’s only claim to uniqueness on this can only be that it’s layered Over the keyboard.  That’s nice, but is that alone patent worthy?  Of course not.  It’s obvious.   The innovation is the system of gestures, and Palm did that ages ago.  And for all I know they may have gotten it from someone else, just like Apple got the Mac user interface from Xerox.

Our patent system is out of control.  Instead of encouraging and rewarding innovation, which is the reason for its existence in the first place, it is stifling it.  Worse, it’s being used as a club by large corporations to drive smaller competitors out of business.  If you invent a new technology, I can make a tiny change to it, file a patent on it, and then not only do I get to use your technology for free, I prevent you from capitalizing on it.

I just finished up the task I set for myself today…basically catching up on a lot of home office filing I hadn’t done in ages, and cycling old files I don’t need to keep in the office into storage containers I’ll put under the basement stairs later.  Paid bills, records and notifications, purchase slips and other miscellaneous paperwork that you need to keep track of in adult life.  My pack rat gene serves me well in this one regard: I keep everything when it comes to all that stuff and I keep it well organized.  Well…mostly.  I had a pile of almost a year of it I hadn’t gotten around to filing.  This holiday break is time I set aside to catch up on all that stuff…and move some things off into storage so I can have room again in the front office.

Anyway…I finished up the task I set for myself today, which was reducing the pile of unfiled paper to nothing and moving some old files off into storage.  So I sat down for a moment and let my mind wander a bit.  I find when I’ve spent hours concentrating intensely on something I just have to do that.  I just sat for a while with the iPod plugged in and flitted around on the web looking at this and that while my mind wandered.  My thoughts drifted back to that recurring dream house I mentioned in the post a few back, and I started pondering it for a bit, and this time the pieces all clicked into place and it finally hit me what the significance of the house is. 

Anyone who knows me personally reading this…think about it for a second.  A little house…a rowhouse…yet an unattached one.  Solid but needs some TLC.  Almost completely empty, except for an unused kitchen a basement full of random parts, a rickety but well used workshop that’s not really part of the house, but sort of tacked on as an afterthought, and a private den off the basement that doesn’t even seem to really be part of the rest of the house, where someone seems to have spent the better part of a life doing nothing except watching TV and snacking.  There’s even a phone next to the comfy chair.  And the rest of the house is empty.  Empty.  Even the floors are bare.  And the second floor makes me apprehensive.  And I’m not even really living in it.  I know I bought it…I know I need to move in at some point…and yet I haven’t.  I just keep checking on it from time to time, wandering though it occasionally, and wondering about the person who left that stuff in the workshop and the den, and avoiding the second floor like death waiting to jump out at me up there.  If you know me…think about it.  It’s all there.

Dreams are amazing things.  If the conscious mind is the waves on the surface, then dreams are the shadows dancing around in the water below.  I’m surprised now that it took me so long to get what that house represents.  I wonder if it’ll stop appearing in my dreams now.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was flitting around the web and came upon some posts about a newly animated version of the tale of Peter and the Wolf.  The YouTube clips absolutely fascinated me, both in their artistic style and the interesting modern take on the story.  I discovered it was available on iTunes for a couple bucks so I bit. 

It’s the first video I’ve ever downloaded from iTunes and it was the best couple bucks I have ever spent on a movie, even a short one (it’s about 32 minutes).  If you enjoy good stop motion animation, and fresh takes on old childhood tales, and beautiful classical music, then you should definitely go grab a copy.  It’s available on DVD at Amazon for about 18 bucks, but as I said, you can get it off iTunes for only two and the video quality is excellent.  I was skeptical as to how good the video from iTunes could be considering it is so compressed, but it displayed on Bagheera’s HD monitor as well as any DVD, and the sound quality was excellent.

The story takes place in a more modern day Russia, in the forest outside a small village Peter lives with his grandfather, in a ramshackle house surrounded by a high wooden fence.  Grandpa is terrified of the dangers of the forest, and the howl of the wolf, and as the film opens we see him doggedly reinforcing his fence and plugging all the openings in so nothing can get in…and it seems, so Peter can’t get out.  Grandpa is very protective…perhaps a bit too much so.  When Peter pries a piece of scrap metal off a small opening in the fence so he can look out, grandpa drags him away, nails it shut again, and sends Peter to town to get some food (presumably the boy doesn’t have to go through the forest to get to town…but never mind…).

Peter and grandpa are a couple of poor folk living in a run down shack in the sticks.  As he walks into town the town’s kids, in their nice new winter clothes, all stare at him like he’s from another planet.  He makes his way to a small shop, accidentally bumping into one of the town bullies.  I’ve never seen the bully type so deftly and surely brought to life as in this film.  They drag Peter into an ally and throw him in a dumpster.

Back home, and in tears, Peter is comforted by his pet duck…his only friend.  Suddenly, a bird with a broken wing crash lands in the yard.  Peter watches fascinated as the bird tries to tie itself to a balloon that Peter brought back with him from town, so it can fly again.

But the bird is too heavy for the balloon to hold it up.  Peter determines to help the bird go free again, and sneaks into grandpa’s bedroom and grabs his keys as he sleeps.  He unlocks the padlocks, pushes hard against the door, and then it gives way and Peter and Duck and Bird all tumble through…

…and the lovely Prokofiev music begins.  Up to that moment, the entire thing has been done with only the background sounds audible.  There is no dialogue throughout the film.  Just the sounds of the forest and town, the howl of the wind, and the random sounds Peter and Grandpa and Duck and Bird and Cat make as they go on about their lives.  When the Prokofiev score suddenly starts up, just as the boy and his friends break free of the confining fence, it is an almost magical effect. 

Peter gazes in wonder at an immense tree and a frozen over pond, just outside the fence door.  He helps bird up onto a limb and watches delightedly as it sails through the air dangling from the balloon.  Duck and Peter take turns sliding around the frozen pond.  They all have fun.  But eventually grandpa sees them and drags Peter back inside.  Then the wolf begins to howl, and Peter realizes his beloved Duck is still outside.

You have to watch this thing, to believe how much new life the artists have given to this old story.  It is breathtaking.  The stop motion animation is first rate and the characters are wonderfully drawn.  The expressiveness given to Peter in particular, a boy trapped in a hard life seemingly alone and apart from the rest of the world, is remarkable.  All the more so when you realize that this is traditionally done stop motion animation.  The art has come a long, long way from the original King Kong.  Duck and Bird and Cat and Grandpa, and even the random townsfolk and the bullies all are distinctly drawn personalities, and the Wolf is satisfyingly feral and menacing…almost as though Prokofiev’s Wolf theme assumed physical form.

It doesn’t end the way Prokofiev ended it though.  I won’t give it away, but you could almost wish Prokofiev had thought of this one instead.  It is perfect.  When you know you can defeat the wolf, the bullies don’t matter anymore. 

Via SLOG. 

They come with instructions…

I have no idea…  Boyhood must be a very different experience in Asia…