Currently Sailmaker's Apprentice By Emiliano Marino see related

Star Trek whining

Ok, before you tell me how childish and stupid this is, let me assure you that I know.

The wife and I were flipping channels yesterday afternoon, looking for a way to fill in some background noise while we worked on the computers on Sunday afternoon.  On Channel 5, I found Star Trek, so I put the remote down.  With all the different generations of Trek out there now, I haven't seen the original series in a few years, so it was a treat for me.  It wasn't so much of a treat for the wife, who remembers watching the series when it originally aired, but she was amenable so it stayed on.

In less than an hour, we discovered that it wasn't just one episode, but a marathon all day, so we got to play the "who can name the episode first?" game.  This both irritated and amused Geri, and we started watching more than working.  During the opening credits, I realized that something was wrong. 

For all of the exterior shots of space and the Enterprise, the original models had been replaced by CGI shots of the planets and ships.  During "Amok Time", there was a huge computer-generated shot of the marriage set, demonstrating that it was hundreds of miles from anywhere.  It was jarring.  It was disturbing.  I didn't like it.  My wife thought I was wrong.  My daughter didn't know what I was talking about.

To me, anyway, it was glaringly obvious that the 1960's SF feel had been marred by modern computer imagery.  Will I ever be able to see my beloved episodes the way I remember them again?  Will the evil empire of modern youth be editing the strings out of my Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials next?  The cheesy special effects were a part of the charm of these stories.  They meant that the characters had to be so realistic that the audience could ignore the plastic models and "schwooping" doors.  Too much modern SF has a story that is merely a flimsy excuse to show off the latest effects technology (with obvious exceptions, I know), and I hate to see the classics upstaged by some hack on a MacBook trying to "improve" them.

Ok.  I'm done whining now. 

Currently Sailmaker's Apprentice By Emiliano Marino see related

How can they not get it?

I had an interesting conversation this weekend with a vendor at the Orange County Marketplace.  It ranged over some points of history and wages in the 1930's, discussing the purchasing power of the average weekly wage.  He mentioned that when the minimum wage was enacted, "the same fools that fought against it then are fighting against it now."

Fools?  You mean the ones who keep this country from becoming 1970's Russia?

Let's look at the effects of your average increase in the minimum wage.  What happens when employers are forced to raise wages of their employees by a hypothetical 5%?  First, the employer, whose budget for employee wages is set by the amount of money coming in, has to keep his overall wage outlay constant, so he's forced to lay off 1 employee in 20.  Now there's a 5% rise in unemployment, with all of the costs of supporting them passed on to the business owners who pay the majority of the taxes in this country.

Where does the income to pay these extra tax costs come from?  That's easy.  Industries across the board simply raise their prices by, say, 7% to increase their numbers enough to stay afloat.  This may be a bit vague, so let's put these numbers in a more concrete format.

Bill works a full-time job for the minimum wage, bringing home a hypothetical $500 a week.  Rent is $300 a week, food is $90 a week, and utilities, gas, insurance, et cetera cost a further $100 every week.  He has $10 left over for savings or discretionary income.

His 5% raise means that he now brings home $525 a week, so he has $35 a week in 'extra' money, right?  That works for a few months until the economy catches up with its higher costs, and his rent is now $321, food is $96.30, and bills are  $107.00.  So he's now making $525 and needs to spend $524.30 to survive.

Bill has received a generous 5% pay increase, and as a result has $0.70 a week to spend instead of the $10.00 he had before. 

These numbers are a bit exaggerated to illustrate the point, but the effects are real.  Worse, the economy begins to adjust for a minimum wage increase well before the increase actually takes effect.  The merest rumor of an increase sets every business preparing for the extra costs, so Bill's costs go up before the extra cash starts coming in, and once everything settles down Bill's higher paycheck is worth less than it was before.  The liberals will keep on pointing out that he's making $25 more a week, and patting themselves on the back for pulling him out of poverty, all the while they've now put him on the razor's edge of starvation.

How can they not get it?

Currently The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time By Douglas Adams see related

Sailing Vicariously

Last weekend, the wife and I volunteered an afternoon for the Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship helping man their display at the Newport In-Water Boat Show.  We spent most of the day on board Bluefin, the absolutely gorgeous North Wind 58 that was donated to the school by Dr. Laura Schlessinger.  (It's for sale at the bargain price of only $995,000 for a boat easily worth $1.5 million.)  We showed the boat to prospective buyers and told people about the classes offered by the school, especially the powerboat programs.  After all, if you were there at the show looking to buy a motor yacht, we could teach you how not to break it.  That's a good thing.

The bad thing is that we were reminded of just how long it's been since we went sailing.

So, I've been looking at sailing websites, interspersed with a little binge-eating of potato chips and spinach dip.  First, there are the two young men trying to win the youngest solo circumnavigation record.    First is Zac Sunderland, who was 16 when he left Marina Del Rey last June (He turned 17 in the South Indian Ocean).  He's currently in the Atlantic, on the way to Granada, and thence to the Panama Canal.  The other blog that I've been following is Mike Perham.  He's a British youth who already holds the record for youngest solo crossing of the Atlantic.  He's currently in Tasmania, waiting for parts for his high-strung racing boat.

She hasn't left yet, but there will soon be another contender for the record, Jessica Watson.  She is younger than either of the boys, and lives in Australia.

For the most exciting web page on the net right now, though, visit www.volvooceanrace.org.  This round-the-world race will be pulling into Boston Harbor this weekend, and there's a lot of exciting changes in the leaderboard at the updates every 3 hours.  Also, there are hours of video and text material to occupy your on-the-water fix on the net.

Now, I've almost got enough saved for our next class, so Geri and I should get a few Sunday afternoons on the water this summer.  If not, of course, there's always the plan of dying unfulfilled. 

Currently The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 12) By Lemony Snicket see related

Matzo, Matzo Man

For those of you who celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread (and if you read & believe your Bible, then why wouldn't you), we're round about halfway through spending our week without yeast, baking soda, baking powder, or anything else that makes bread products light & yummy.

I know that, for me, this is about when I start to get sick of Matzah.  After all, it's a dry, flavorless cracker designed to remind us of suffering and how glad we are to have been delivered from that suffering.  We've tried making sandwiches out of it, and making eggs with the farfel (crumbly bits of Matzah), and smearing it with tasty goodness like apple butter and jam, but do you have any other favorite ways to prepare your unleavened bread so that it's interesting?

My own favored treat is the Matzah Pizza.  Basically, you just take a Matzah cracker, pour some spaghetti sauce on it (I like the mushroom and Garlic Ragu), sprinkle on some shredded cheese, and pop it in the microwave for a minute.   Mmm Mmm good!

So, what ideas do all of you talented, observant folk use to celebrate the fact that you're not building Egyptian cities or atoning for your own sins?  There's Matzah Ball soup, of course.  I always ask if there are any other parts of the Matzah that are edible.  Half of my audience usually gets this joke.  I've seen Matzah Bread Houses, looked great but tasted lousy.  Matzah Nachos, and more, but I want to hear your greatest creations using this humble and exalted ingredient.

Currently The Slippery Slope (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 10) By Lemony Snicket see related

To what can it be compared?

Imagine that you have a friend, and that friend has a temper  Also, he's a gentle and loving guy, but when you piss him off, he can easily pummel a bodybuilder into vitreous paste.

Now, imagine that the one thing that pisses your friend off more than anything is peanuts.  I dunno, maybe his mom was raped before his eyes in a peanut factory when he was 4 years old.  Reasons aren't important.  The point is that if you give your friend a peanut, he'll destroy you.  You know this, you've discussed it many times, and it's no secret.  He wants you to be well and happy, so he's warned you time and again to never, ever, EVER give him any sort of peanut product.  In fact, he wants you to keep all peanuts out of your house too, and you've agreed to do this.

Now imagine that you have strong feelings for your friend, and respect him immensely, and you want to do something special for him on his special day, maybe a birthday, maybe an anniversary; again, not important.  The point is, you want to show him that you adore and appreciate and respect him, and you always want to make him happy, too.

So, you make him an extra-large, super high-quality batch of peanut brittle.

Sound stupid?

So why would you decide to honor G-d by dedicating pagan rituals and practices to the memory of His resurrection?  Happy Ishtar.