I had a little problem with windows automatic updates. It kept trying to download the same update every time I turned my laptop on or off. So I figured I’d do a system restore, restoring my settings back to before it started happening. That screwed up my mozilla browser and totally hosed my i-tunes. I had to reinstall i-tunes, then uninstall and reinstall quicktime. But before I could do that, I had to reinstall all the windows updates that caused the problem in the first place.

Holy crap. I hope you realize that Microsoft has now managed to send every one of us a download by which they can verify, remotely, that our copy of windows is genuine. Be afraid. What happens when their monkeybrained server decides you’re not cool? Do you go boom or just poof? A bang or a whimper?

Brian Williams just said something hysterical on Letterman. He said it used to be you couldn’t say Sanjaya on TV. You could say private parts or something like that. Bwahahahaha! Then he said the most he’s ever paid for a haircut is $12. Bullshit. I pay $23 at a regular barbershop in SB. I don’t believe he can get a haircut for half that in New York City. But Williams is cool; he’s got a good sense of humor for a news guy. Most of those guys are pretty full of themselves.

I didn't go anywhere for Earth Day. I didn't do anything special. I took a couple of nice long walks under a brooding, rainsome sky, and that was good. But I didn't make it up to the SB Courthouse sunken gardens for the local fete for the ol' blue orb or anything.

Since I didn't go anywhere for Earth Day, on Monday I'm not going anywhere, for Earth Day. I parked Old Blue – my trusty pickup truck – in his garage Sunday evening around 6:00, and he's going to take Monday off. He'll be resting there – incongruously dozing in his indefatigable blueness – until Tuesday morning.

Of course, I'll still need to make my daily visit to my buddy Happy. She'd be disappointed if I didn't go take her out for a sniff, to check her p-mail. From my home office to Happy's house is a round trip of about 4.5 miles. I need to get a bike, don't you think?

Happy day, Earth, you grumpy, overheating old pile of rocks.

If you’ve been wondering what became of Rumsfeld after he resigned, and I know you have, this might be your answer.

Black Holes Exhale Enormous Gas Cloud

I remember when I first met Yahoo. It was about 12 years ago, I think. Y! was only about a year old. My folks got a PC, and my brother hooked it up with AOL, which boasted about 5 million members at the time. I’ve been a Y! fan ever since. I loved it then for its simple, low graphics menus. It loaded faster on dial-up than some other stuff.

I’ve used just about everything that Y! has offered, and paid for premium versions in some cases. I still like Y! Finance and News, and my Web site is through Geocities. I remember Geocities before Y! bought them. It was weird and fun.

Google’s e-mail and calendar have caught up and blown Y!’s doors off. They left Y! mail beta almost finished, and have barely touched it in about a year. On Friday, I canceled my Y! Mail Plus account. It wasn’t even worth $19.95 a year anymore.

I could still love Y!, the way a man can love a pickup truck made before power windows, but I have to take a break. I can’t use the vast portal’s almost infinite content, even for the news, until they get rid of the ad that’s appearing on almost every page. You’ve seen it.

It’s insidious. it’s just a poor little moron acting way too happy. Is she dancing because she can refinance at 5.8% adjustable for a few months, then loose her house when the rate jumps? I don’t care. It’s on too many pages, and it makes no sense and it’s distracting and absurd.

Y! has disabled the Ad Feedback links on its pages, saying that survey is not available. Baloney. This ad is crumbling people’s cookies. And I think it’s time that Y! and I took a breather, tried seeing about people for a while. I’ve fallen out of love.

Time for a break from the pathos of this blog? Yeah. Here’s a video of Missy Jenkins Smith. She’s a courageous and positive young woman, who survived a school shooting 10 years ago, and delivers an uplifting message on respect and kindness. Paralyzed and in a wheel chair, she graduated from college, married and is expecting a baby. I found what she says life-affirming, and I’m glad that she is carrying her message to kids in schools.

The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.

–Arthur C Clarke 

(MONTPELIER, Vt.) — Vermont senators voted Friday to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, saying their actions have raised "serious questions of constitutionality."

…

The resolution says Bush and Cheney's actions in the U.S. and abroad, including in Iraq, "raise serious questions of constitutionality, statutory legality, and abuse of the public trust."

Don’t cry for Sanjaya. He can’t carry a tune in a bucket, so his 15 minutes of fame were just weird for about the last 14:59. But just as weird is the sense of relief I felt on seeing that he was voted off Idol tonight. That must be some systemic love of ambient Justice, because really I couldn’t care less. I never watch the show, and I don’t care if the Great Unwashed vote for a crow cawing on top of an outhouse. But I do feel better. Guys who can’t sing — like Sanjaya, and like me — really ought to be content doing something quietly. And try not to look like a giant mutant cockatoo in the process.

I haven’t said anything about the taking of lives at Virginia Tech. It’s not because I don’t care, or because I’m incapable of crafting a response. It’s because the most eloquent possible answer to madness, sometimes, is to take some time to think.

I have seen the police blamed for a sluggish response. Video shows cops outside the building, and the sound of gunfire. They were not apparently running to anyone’s rescue at that moment. I’m reminded of Columbine. I got an e-mail yesterday that read, in pertinent part, “fucking pussy cops.” Well. I think maybe that’s right, but I’m not sure. I’ll let the survivors decide.

The university can’t be blamed for a maniac’s state of mind. It seems that a lot was done to try to help the killer deal. His writings were a cry for help, and people heard and answered that cry. He didn’t much reach for the hands that were extended. However, if I were the president of a college and two people got murdered, I would cancel classes for the day. Enough said.

There is only one person responsible for what happened. May God have mercy on his soul. What he did was evil, but this was obviously a very sick young man, not a demon. I wish he had left school and gotten some good inpatient care.

There is one unequivocal evil emerging in all of this, and that has pustulated forth after the fact, in the ignorant, reactionary, pro-gun, knuckle dragging howls of the bottom feeders of our failed evolution.

Example: One John Derbyshire of nationalreview.com. He blames the students – the ones struggling and dying in the classrooms, for their own suffering and death:

Where was the spirit of self-defense here? … why didn’t anyone rush the guy? …He had two handguns for goodness’ sake—one of them reportedly a .22.

At the very least, count the shots and jump him reloading or changing hands. Better yet, just jump him. …

… if I thought I was going to die anyway, I’d at least take a run at the guy.

Incredibly ironic. Here’s a man who advocates the possession of guns as instruments of intimidation. He’s criticizing unarmed college kids for being intimidated by guns — while they are being fired on. Can you believe the audacity of this shithead? His First Amendment rights notwithstanding, he needs to be soundly Imused, and that right quick. Before the sane among us – who have long since had the sense to put down our six-guns, remember where we stashed the tar and feathers.

Hey writers, if you were writing a novel about being homeless, begging to survive, would you live it to write it? Me neither. But this guy does . Hmm. As a writer, I like to think I can rely on my imagination for some of my material. But if you see me in the mall, with my laptop case open on the ground, I hope you’ll do what you can.

God bless you.