Our dog Jasper has been acting rather strangely of late. I’m not sure whether her actions are merely a cry for attention, or whether they indicate some latent creative talent she is trying desperately to communicate. Several times over the past few weeks she has uncharacteristically peed on the rug, and each of these “accidents” has been uniquely artistic. Her last urination perfectly replicated the head of a schnauzer and the accident before that clearly depicted a map of Italy. If there is another “mistake” and it turns out to be in the shape of say, Rodin’s “The Thinker” or some other such famous work of art, then I will know we have a genius for a pet. Perhaps her carpets will hang in the Louvre some day. I can dream, can’t I? If in fact this behavior is a cry for more attention, well, nice try girlie, but three walks per day and fifteen minutes of play time is all you’re going to get. Deal with it.
This week’s report is late for a reason; my laptop hard drive crashed and we scrambled madly to recover the data quickly, as all our house building information is on this computer. Thankfully, Zura, our computer wizard, was able to recover both the data and the hard drive. It was a sickening feeling I felt as I turned my computer on the other day, to a blue screen displaying a bunch of technical gobbledygook about hives and memory dumping. This, I have discovered, was not a good thing, and basically indicated that my hard drive was lunchmeat. I do back up most of my data files, but I was two weeks behind when this happened, and much has transpired over the past two weeks. It is apparently a bit more difficult to back up the actual emails and internet information we have amassed over the past year. All the hardware settings, etc. can be saved, but someone with more expertise than I have is required to plug them all back in properly. There is probably some simple program that will dump a mirror of everything onto another drive, but I’m not sure how to use it. As I have said many times before, I have absolutely no interest in fiddling with computers; I merely want to use them, without the myriad of problems I seem to face on a regular basis.
How ‘bout them primaries? Defying the predictions of the all- knowing media, Hillary has clawed her way back, kicking and fighting all the way. The Democratic nominee could very likely be determined by super delegates. Will it be that Al Gore becomes the tie breaker in the Obama/Clinton standoff? Yikes … how ironical! Hey, don’t laugh at MY English … last night I heard political correspondent Candy Crowley utter these words: “It’s not that big OF a deal.” My Canadian wife has been asking me questions about our American electoral system, and I feel like an ignoramus. Why, for instance, do some states caucus and others use primary elections … why do states like Texas employ both? Why do Democrats use super delegates but the GOP’s do not? I can’t explain any of this to her, or why the electoral college is fairer method of determining a winner than is the popular vote. I understand how it is supposed to work, but I doubt the founding fathers expected presidential elections to be determined by the Supreme Court, as happened when Gore lost to Bush. There is something strange about losing an election when one wins the popular vote. This Democratic primary race is beginning to look as if it will dredge up the same ugly questions. Perhaps we should draw straws … you know, give Ralph Nader a better chance. I’m going out to the pet store now to see if I can find an apple core hat for my dog the artist.
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This week’s report is late for a reason; my laptop hard drive crashed and we scrambled madly to recover the data quickly, as all our house building information is on this computer. Thankfully, Zura, our computer wizard, was able to recover both the data and the hard drive. It was a sickening feeling I felt as I turned my computer on the other day, to a blue screen displaying a bunch of technical gobbledygook about hives and memory dumping. This, I have discovered, was not a good thing, and basically indicated that my hard drive was lunchmeat. I do back up most of my data files, but I was two weeks behind when this happened, and much has transpired over the past two weeks. It is apparently a bit more difficult to back up the actual emails and internet information we have amassed over the past year. All the hardware settings, etc. can be saved, but someone with more expertise than I have is required to plug them all back in properly. There is probably some simple program that will dump a mirror of everything onto another drive, but I’m not sure how to use it. As I have said many times before, I have absolutely no interest in fiddling with computers; I merely want to use them, without the myriad of problems I seem to face on a regular basis.
How ‘bout them primaries? Defying the predictions of the all- knowing media, Hillary has clawed her way back, kicking and fighting all the way. The Democratic nominee could very likely be determined by super delegates. Will it be that Al Gore becomes the tie breaker in the Obama/Clinton standoff? Yikes … how ironical! Hey, don’t laugh at MY English … last night I heard political correspondent Candy Crowley utter these words: “It’s not that big OF a deal.” My Canadian wife has been asking me questions about our American electoral system, and I feel like an ignoramus. Why, for instance, do some states caucus and others use primary elections … why do states like Texas employ both? Why do Democrats use super delegates but the GOP’s do not? I can’t explain any of this to her, or why the electoral college is fairer method of determining a winner than is the popular vote. I understand how it is supposed to work, but I doubt the founding fathers expected presidential elections to be determined by the Supreme Court, as happened when Gore lost to Bush. There is something strange about losing an election when one wins the popular vote. This Democratic primary race is beginning to look as if it will dredge up the same ugly questions. Perhaps we should draw straws … you know, give Ralph Nader a better chance. I’m going out to the pet store now to see if I can find an apple core hat for my dog the artist.
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No comments:
Post a Comment