The Red State Blues

Dad's Siamese cat, Celi	Ana, Pam (Ana's niece), Leo and Celi

We had a sumptuous meal at a new steakhouse in a new outside mall development near Hwy 152 and I-29. The development is quite nice, and was oriented towards pedestrians (for the most part), which made it seem far more urban than the suburban sprawl around it.

Posted by Steven at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)

Biggest Mickey D's in Oklahoma

On the way to see the Twine Ball in ... oh, different family trip. Well anyway, on the way to Kansas City we stopped at the "biggest McDonald's restaurant". You tell me.

And yeah, we got to KC ok.

Posted by Steven at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2005

Kansas City Bound

We'll be up in Kansas City (well, Weatherby Lake, MO at my father's yacht club regatta) this weekend, driving up tomorrow and returning Sunday. All three cell phones are working, and I'm taking my iBook so we should be around, sproatically, on the Net. I'll post photos as I can.

Posted by Steven at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

Alanna Earns Her Deputy One Belt

Alanna passed the next level of TKD testing and earned her first deputy belt tonite. Woot!

Posted by Steven at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)

Autism Coverup?

Today's cover story on Salon is about how the CDC and the GOP have covered up the connection between thimerosal and autism.

In June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Ga. Convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the meeting was held at this Methodist retreat center, nestled in wooded farmland next to the Chattahoochee River, to ensure complete secrecy. The agency had issued no public announcement of the session -- only private invitations to 52 attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, the top vaccine specialist from the World Health Organization in Geneva, and representatives of every major vaccine manufacturer, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur. All of the scientific data under discussion, CDC officials repeatedly reminded the participants, was strictly "embargoed." There would be no making photocopies of documents, no taking papers with them when they left.

The federal officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss a disturbing new study that raised alarming questions about the safety of a host of common childhood vaccines administered to infants and young children. According to a CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had analyzed the agency's massive database containing the medical records of 100,000 children, a mercury-based preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a host of other neurological disorders among children. "I was actually stunned by what I saw," Verstraeten told those assembled at Simpsonwood, citing the staggering number of earlier studies that indicate a link between thimerosal and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism. Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.

Even for scientists and doctors accustomed to confronting issues of life and death, the findings were frightening. "You can play with this all you want," Dr. Bill Weil, a consultant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the group. The results "are statistically significant." Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado whose grandson had been born early on the morning of the meeting's first day, was even more alarmed. "My gut feeling?" he said. "Forgive this personal comment -- I do not want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better what is going on."

Coverup aside, the most shocking thing was their real focus was on limited financial exposure to the drug companies. Remember, the CDC is supposed to protect American citizens, not corporations.

"We are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits," said Dr. Robert Brent, a pediatrician at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. "This will be a resource to our very busy plaintiff attorneys in this country." Dr. Bob Chen, head of vaccine safety for the CDC, expressed relief that "given the sensitivity of the information, we have been able to keep it out of the hands of, let's say, less responsible hands." Dr. John Clements, vaccines advisor at the World Health Organization, declared flatly that the study "should not have been done at all" and warned that the results "will be taken by others and will be used in ways beyond the control of this group. The research results have to be handled."

In fact, the government has proved to be far more adept at handling the damage than at protecting children's health. The CDC paid the Institute of Medicine to conduct a new study to whitewash the risks of thimerosal, ordering researchers to "rule out" the chemical's link to autism. It withheld Verstraeten's findings, even though they had been slated for immediate publication, and told other scientists that his original data had been "lost" and could not be replicated. And to thwart the Freedom of Information Act, it handed its giant database of vaccine records over to a private company, declaring it off-limits to researchers. By the time Verstraeten finally published his study in 2003, he had gone to work for GlaxoSmithKline and reworked his data to bury the link between thimerosal and autism.

Vaccine manufacturers had already begun to phase thimerosal out of injections given to American infants -- but they continued to sell off their mercury-based supplies of vaccines until last year. The CDC and FDA gave them a hand, buying up the tainted vaccines for export to developing countries and allowing drug companies to continue using the preservative in some American vaccines -- including several pediatric flu shots as well as tetanus boosters routinely given to 11-year-olds.

In some ways this is old news to the Autism community, but the fact remains that the GOP is only interested in protecting Big Business, and the citizens can be damned.

Posted by Steven at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2005

Comment Clampdown

In the last week, I've been hammered with spam comment postings. I mean, hundreds a day, making it almost impossible to keep up. So ... reluctantly, I've enabled the TypeKey authentication on this blog. You have to get a free login to leave comments now. I'm really frustrated about this, but the upkeep is getting out of hand without this.

I hope you will go register and get a login so you can continue to contribute to this blog.

Posted by Steven at 11:04 AM | Comments (1)

Feelin' Ghibli

The SF Gate has an article comparing and contrasting Pixar, Studio Ghibli and Disney, making note of the weird triangle they've formed and how each has gained and lost in the realm of animation cinema.

Given that Ghibli largely abjures computer graphics and blockbuster licensing tie-ins ("Howl's Moving Castle" is an adaptation of a somewhat obscure British children's book by Diane Wynne Jones), what is it that allows its films to compete so effectively with Hollywood's juggernauts?

On one level, it comes down to the studio's sheer mastery of the animated medium. "[Their] stories are exciting and well told," says Michael S.B. Johnson, owner and founder of Nausicaa.net, the Web's most extensive Ghibli resource. "The characters are a perfect fit for each film's setting, yet they're believable human beings without unrealistic innocence or pure malice. The music -- and the silence -- is crafted very carefully to fit the mood, instead of just being spliced in from today's pop-idol album [fodder] and tomorrow's trash. And the locations are all painstakingly detailed and well researched not for the sake of photorealism, but, rather, with a touch of impressionism that crafts the mood of each scene skillfully and in concert with the music, dialogue and action."

On another level, it's because the two men behind Ghibli, Takahata and Miyazaki, are possessed of rare, original and complementary voices: Takahata is unmatched in depicting earthy, even commonplace tales with a kind of transcendent emotional sincerity, while Miyazaki is a world builder without compare whose creations are set in elaborate, immersive realities of his own invention.

Joe Bob sez, "Check it out."

Posted by Steven at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2005

Friday Night at Fujiyama's

I congregated several friends together Friday night at Fujiyama's, a Japanese teppinaki restaurant in the Arboretum in Austin. Along with Alanna, Cynthia Amaya and her daughter Erica Reis joined us. Also there were the Werth's (Chris, Holly and Chloe) and Chloe's friend Sofia (who was with us at A-Kon, too). My LHHS friend Mary Haskett joined us as well. She is travelling to Iraq on business in the coming weeks and wanted to visit before going.

Chris, Holly, Chloe, Sofia, Alanna.	Erica, Cynthia, me, Mary.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and our chef was very entertaining. The photos are of the chef flipping shrimp into Chloe's mouth, and also mine. It's pretty embarrassing sitting there with your mouth open like a flytrap, waiting for this cooked bug to be tossed in. The catch phrase of the night was his, "I'm from San Antokyo."

Posted by Steven at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)

Fairfield, No More

So I'm back in Austin, and I'm back at the Fairfield Inn (Marriott) on MOPAC. And it's one screwup after another.

I arrived around 11:30pm, and my reservation was waiting for me. Alas, the room number on the key didn't work, so I called the front desk. They said to try a different room on a different floor. That didn't work. I called again, and on the third call, I gave up and came back downstairs to get the key reprogrammed. I told the desk clerk that if the key didn't open my door, I was going elsewhere that night.

Room 335 opened with the key.

Things were ok ... for a while. Around 1am (notice the time of this post) I got into bed. After a few seconds, it felt -- damp. Then wetter still. I lept off the bed, and removed the covers and sheets. Fully half the mattress was soaked with some fluid. I couldn't smell it, so I have no idea what it was. I called the front desk (and got the same guy who gave me the wrong key and room numbers) and told him I had a wet bed.

He and I removed the sheets and turned the mattress over. Fortunately, it wasn't soaked on the back side, and he's remaking the bed, sort of. I'll finish the night here but this is it for staying at the Arboretum Fairfield Inn.

I'll post photos tomorrow.

Posted by Steven at 01:26 AM | Comments (0)

June 09, 2005

Fiala's New Home

After work I went by Todd and Leigh Anne Fiala's home-to-be in Cedar Park. It's a 4000+ sq. ft. behomoth in a new development across Anderson Mill Rd. from the Cedar Park HS (fantastically convenient location for schools).

The house does not look as large as it is from the front. One of the reasons the sq. footage is so great is an enormous room constructed out of the attic of the main building.

The backyard and kitchen are also fullsized. My backyard would fit three times over in Todd's!

My overall impression of the place was simply stunned-shock. This house is so much bigger and (frankly) expensive than I am used to thinking about, that it is simply overwhelming. I hope it's a good investment; it certainly seems to be a good product in a great area just outside of Austin. Ironically, it's less than two miles from my company's Austin offices ...

Posted by Steven at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)

June 08, 2005

Female Orgasm Genetically Driven

CNN is running a story about recent discoveries regarding human female orgasm. It appears to be genetically driven, that is, you inherit the ability or inability. Like homosexuality, it doesn't appear to be selected by culture as much as by genes.

Like heart disease, anxiety and depression, scientists discovered in a study of 1,397 pairs of female twins that there is a genetic basis to female orgasm.

"We found that between 34 percent and 45 percent of the variation in ability to orgasm can be explained by underlying genetic variation," said Tim Spector, of the Twin Research Unit at St Thomas' Hospital in London.

"There is a biological underlying influence that can't be attributed purely to upbringing, religion or race."

...

"There is something biological that explains some of this large variation between women," he said, adding that many genes could be involved.

If scientists could discover which genes and how they function, it could potentially pave the way for future therapies to treat women who cannot reach orgasm.

But Spector said orgasm is a very complex process which is poorly understood. Little research has been done because it is still a taboo subject.

Anatomical and biological features and psychological factors may all play a part.

Posted by Steven at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

June 07, 2005

Dvorak Weighs in on the Intel Mac

I'm no fan of John Dvorak, whom I consider a blowhard and a kind of OpEd writer who looks for the shocking thing to say about a company or technlogy, but he offered some interesting insights into the Intel/Apple shift.

The key here is that Apple and its BSD-UNIX kernel running on the Intel platform should outperform Windows by an extreme and I'd guess outperform the PowerPC running the same software too. So Jobs can change his comparison advertising from PowerPC versus Intel to OS-X versus Windows on the exact same chip. The publicity potential here is chart-topping. What Mac user won't enjoy this show once it gets going?

I've never understood why the Mac nuts are in such denial over this platform shift. This change to Intel will not only save the platform but potentially drive it into a position of dominance. What will be lost, of course, is the niche and mystique aspect of the Mac which many of its users seem to relish as part of some misguided superiority complex.

A more interesting scenario to me is examining the possibility that Windows users can switch to the Mac OS on their Intel machines. Is this going to be possible?

I have always believed that Apple could enter the PC arena with an Intel-based computer that could run OS-X or Windows and begin to take market share away from Dell and HP.

Apple's machines can easily be sold as a Lexus compared to the Fords and Chevy's of Dell and HP. This means better margins than Dell and HP and increased sales thanks to a more normal computer architecture. This is the future of Apple if it's going to survive as a computer maker.

There are plenty of people who would pay a premium for a computer that didn't look like an old-fashioned PC. The case-mod movement has been indicating this trend for a decade. A good portion of the buyers today would like to see something around their desk that wasn't a beige box with all the appeal of 1977 Plymouth.

I wonder if my friend Andy would consider buying an Intel Mac after calling the Macintosh "gay" for the five years I've known him. That will be the acid test.

Posted by Steven at 09:02 PM | Comments (2)

June 05, 2005

A-Kon Photos

I'm posting my 138 A-Kon 16 photos here. Enjoy.

Posted by Steven at 08:30 PM | Comments (0)

June 04, 2005

A-Kon Day #2

Leo and I returned home last night, and so we had to drive back down this morning. We were up around 8am, and on the road at 8:50. I was able to drive downtown in twenty-five minutes ... a third of the Friday drive time. What a difference rush hour can make.

We met up with Anne, Alanna and Monse at the Adam's Mark Cafe, and had breakfast brunch. Leo wanted to attend a two-hour NewTek seminar at 11am on their 3D rendering system (a $1500 application for making 3D movies), so Anne agreed to take him to that. I wanted to attend Melanie's panel at 11am titled How to deal with Writer's Block. Alanna and Monse wanted to find everyone else and continue their pursuit of Full Metal Alchemist events.

Melanie's panel was on the same floor as the NewTek seminar, so Anne, Leo and I hung out on the third floor until everything started. I photographed fen dressed as characters from Inuyashi. Melanie's panel was interesting, and it reminded me that I hadn't done a damned thing towards our shared vision of a SciFi short story. She dutifully pointed me out as her "con beotch" to the amusement of the other panelists.

Melanie and her panelists discuss the "perfect man".	Fen dressed as Sango, Kagome, and Kikyou.

After the panel, I caught a fan dressed as Alanna's favorite FMA character, Lt. Col. Maes Hughes.

Lt. Col. Maes Hughes.	Have you seen my photos of Elicia?

When I next saw Anne and Leo, they reported that the panel was fascinating, and that they stayed for the entire two hours. Better yet, Leo was the winner of two complimentary DVDs of animation produced by the DAVE School in Florida (Batman: New Times and Spoonman). He was a buzz over getting a copy of NewTek's software and learning how to animate. Who knows? If he sticks with it ... he might be the next John A. Davis.

Some other fans I bumped into (including Alanna's friend Alicia).

Dapper Copper.	Alicia as Rikku from Final Fantasy.

More fan costumes, including two different Marcos (Porco Rosso).

Tim, the Enchanter.	The second Porco Rosso.

The third Porco Rosso.	"Silent Bob" made an appearance.

The highlight of the day came when Vic Mignogna (of Full Metal Alchemist fame) showed the fans his semi-professional fan movie Full Metal Fantasy. This is a short film that Vic brings to the conventions he attends, to show only to the dedicated fans. It's not supposed to ever be sold, or posted on the Net, and he begged the fans not to film it or redistribute it.

The plot is pretty simple: he, a voice actor, gets a magical replica of a watch the charcter Ed carries, and this turns him into Ed. He then faces off all the enemies from the show (namely, the Seven Deadly Sins, all anthropomorphized), played by the voice actors who work with him at Funimation. It's a surprisingly good production, and the audience loved it. The girls were screaming like they were at a Beatles concert -- it was the highlight of the weekend for them.

Alas, no photos were allowed at the event.

While we were waiting for Holly to arrive, the girls all decided to play "Truth or Dare". One thing led to another, and the dare became "lick Alicia's ankle". So be it!

Playing Spin the Bottle (Truth or Dare).	Licking Alicia's ankle.

Some group photos, including the promised picture of Erica and Matt.

Alicia, Kathleen, Alanna and Monse.	Erica Reis and her boyfriend Matt.

Posted by Steven at 10:09 PM | Comments (3)

June 03, 2005

A-Kon Day #1

No battle plan survives exposure to the battlefield.

This was the first major convention that my entire family attended, and so it exposed everyone to my and Anne's different styles of planning. For the most part, we are in sync, but she's never been to a monster convention like A-Kon, either.

We had discussed and agreed to leave around 9am today, with Holly Werth driving the girls in her minivan and I driving the adults and Leo in Anne's Jetta Wagon. We weren't sure if the Snell's were really going to come, because of mother-daughter conflicts that rage like wildfire, out of our control. We asked Monse's folks to drop her off before 9am, and they agreed to do so. We had packed everything and got an early rest (well, except for me).

Morning broke, and so did the plan. Everything we expected to go wrong did. The Snell's had a big row (between mom and daughter) and for a while it looked like they weren't coming. Monse arrived well ahead of schedule and was no problem, bless her folks. Holly was late getting to McKinney, and Christy took ten minutes to come to the car after we arrived at 9:15am. By this time, I'm in that male state of mind called "full speed ahead" and I'm getting frustrated.

The drive down was a navigational disaster. Holly followed me down, but kept such a large distance between our cars that rush hour drivers constantly cut her off and I had to hang back, waiting for her to catch up. Then I ignored my own advice on avoiding the High Five and we drove right into a thirty minute delay thanks to an accident on the LBJ ramp. We took over an hour to drive downtown when it normally takes me a little over half an hour. To top everything off, I took the wrong exit because I couldn't change lanes at the last second lest I lose Holly, and as a result I led us on a tour of the Ross St. area downtown before finally arriving at the hotel, whereupon we "stood" illegally until I got everyone out of the Jetta and could go down the street to park. At this point, tempers are flaring and I'm fearing a bad day.

Some of the T-shirt Vendors.	Wide shot of the dealer's room.

The first order of business was visiting the Dealer's Room. Anne set a meeting time that forced us to abandon the room half-way, so we went back several times during the day. Alanna found a copy of Full Metal Alchemist Vol. 3 (she also brought Vol. 1 of the DVD series because it had "Ed" on the cover), and had it signed by all of the voice actors attending, including Mike McFarland and Vic Mignogna.

Mike McFarland and Alanna.	Chloe waiting for autographs.

I kept bumping into Erica Reis and her boyfriend Matt. I'll take a photo of them tomorrow for everyone to see. I'm looking forward to Alanna's other two friends (Haley and Kathleen) showing up tomorrow.

Leo had a great time. His costume is well made (by Anne) and he looks great in it. He has a "pose" which he readily assumes when asked for a photo. We found a couple of other people dressed as his character, but he had little competition. During the autograph wait, he was able to wrangle a lightsabre (like the one he wants to buy) from a kid and duel him on camera. He's a real trooper and has got his convention chops down (all the training at Six Flags has paid off).

Leo got to battle with a "real" lightsabre.	Anotehr person in the costume Leo was in (Lloyd).

A lot of zany stuff is going on, and there are some great character costumes to be found. This pair from Full Metal Alchemist was quite good. A chap goes to A-Kon calling attention to "Tentacle Sex", and he asked to take my photo. I asked if I could hold his squid, and the result speaks for itself. I had no idea Leo was posing behind me (no, he's not popping out of anything!).

Two characters from Full Metal Alchemist.	I meet "Mrs. Tentacle Sex" herself.

We had some problems at lunch, unfortunately. We went over to the Plaza of the Americas, and were stopped at the door. Alicia's costume was too risque for us to enter the mall, it turned out. We covered her up and went to J. Pepe's. The food was ok, but the service was slooooooow, and Christy knocked over Leo's sprite drink, which washed over my pant leg. Too much excitement for me.

Anne and I ate dinner together, and alone, at the hotel Cafe, which was nice. She and Christy stayed largely to themselves in our hotel room, or in the main convention room. Our cellphones were barely working in this environment, so we had to run into each other rather than rely on the phones. Our rooms are on the second-to-the-top floor of the North tower, which is a chore to get to.

Alanna's birthday cupcake.	A piece of hotel art Anne would like.

The Snell's gave Alanna a cupcake "cake" before we dispersed for the evening. She's fourteen today!

Posted by Steven at 10:14 PM | Comments (1)

June 02, 2005

A-Kon Day #0

This evening I went downtown to the Adam's Mark Hotel to pick up everyone's A-Kon badges. I drove down to the Plano Fry's, and took DART to the Pearl St. station, across from the hotel.

I had three kinds of badges to pick up. First, my own pre-registered badges for my immediate family. I figured this would be the easiest to get since I had all the paperwork and just had to wait a bit in line. Was I ever wrong. Second, I had to buy two weekend badges for Alanna's Austin friend (Chloe and Sofia). This I figured would take the longest, as it was sure to be a long slow line. Finally, I was meeting Melanie Fletcher so she could give me three complimentary badges for Monse, and the Snells.

This was the pre-registration line. It took over an hour to wind through this to my prepaid badges and swag bags. That's just nuts. Meanwhile, Melanie comes straight down from the 4th floor with the Comp. badges within minutes of arriving, so those were hanging from my neck when I got the other badges. The line for the for-pay badges was almost non-existant by the time I got around to buying, so that was a no brainer.

I took the train back to McKinney, stopping at Fry's and getting myself a decent Japanese sushi meal on the way home. Total time was around five hours, just to get the "stinking badges".

PS. Thanks again to Melanie for offering comp. badges. Monse is most grateful, as are the Snell's.

Posted by Steven at 10:07 PM | Comments (1)