Famille Du Pentium

Evel Knievel died today, according to his website.  Although he was much more active in the 70's with all kinds of high-flying stunts, no kid who grew up then can forget the hype around his infamous Snake River jump. 

These were the days when we built ramps out of pieces of plywood, propped them up on bricks, and took our bikes waaaay back and started peddling like mad toward the ramp.  More times than not, it ended badly, but we all survived - and so did Evel.  That was the magic of it, facing down danger and whether you got beat up or not, ultimately living to try again tomorrow. 

Sail On, Evel. 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 06:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Note: This is not a review or product endorsement.  I'm actually making fun of this product.

So it's come to this.  As if WebTV wasn't enough, and those stories you hear about Internet-shy executives who have their secretaries print out their email for them, now you have  a service that does this for you.

Billed as "Email without a computer for your parents or grandparents", BUY.COM is selling the HP Printing Mailbox for $30.  I'm sure there's a monthly service charge too.  Basically, you set up a service (called "Presto") which this device calls into, and any email sent to your Presto mailbox is printed out by the device, pictures and all.

I see some value for this, they point out that it can be used to get extended families more involved in elderly care by keeping them connected on the go.  You could, for instance, use your iPhone to send a reminder to Grandma to take her pills.  Then, Grandma gets a nice little printout on her HP printer.

Despite that, I can't help but laugh about this.  I won't endorse this product, so you're going to have to go to BUY.COM yourself and search for "HP Printing Mailbox" if you want one.  I'll be here at home, laughing.  :)

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 08:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So for those of you who don't know, "Black Friday" is the day after Thanksgiving; it's so named because it's the first official shopping day of the holiday season, and it's the first day of the year that retailers generally make a profit (hence "black", as in "in the black", vs. "in the red", get it?)

Stores open as early as 1:00 AM and for some sales, people start lining up the night before to be sure they get one of the half-dozen available hottest deals.  

But not so hot this year.  I went looking for a Plasma or LCD HDTV for our family room.  Well, by "went looking" I mean I looked in the Black Friday ads in Thursday's newspaper.  The TV I wanted - the Panasonic 42" Plasma - was about $1000 at Best Buy.  So on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner at Marla's folks, and we drive by Best Buy.  At 8:00 PM last night, there were about two dozen people already waiting outside.  At least four were in tents.  

NO WAY.

So I decide, it's not worth sitting in the cold all night to get $700 off a Plasma T.V.  I go home, go to bed, and get up at 9:00 AM - a rarity for me since the kids usually get me up at 6:30 on weekends and I get up at 5:00 AM on workdays.  How nice.

Then, this afternoon, after taking the kids to the Kohl Children's Museum and having lunch with some out of town family at I-Hop, I go online to Amazon.com and lo-and-behold, there is a similar quality 42" Plasma HDTV for $1100 - about a hundred bucks more, and no frostbite and exhaustion required.

So I basically skipped Black Friday this year, for the first time in many years.  I say "sort-of" because I did order the Plasma at Amazon during their online Black Friday special, which means technically I bought something at a Black Friday sale.  But it was from my basement.  

Which will soon have a 42" Plasma T.V. on the wall. 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 08:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is an example of the U.S. making friends with the wrong people, for the wrong reasons.  We're mired in an inconsistent, disconnected middle east policy that leaves a lot of Americans often scratching their heads.

Saudia Arabia is currently in the news a lot because a young woman was abducted and raped, and subsequently sentenced to jail time and lashes.  Then, when she spoke out about the sentence, her sentence was increased.

Americans simply are aghast that this is happening, and Saudi diplomatic spin-doctors are trying to control the damage.  But when you hear the Saudi diplomatic mission speaking publicly about this case, what you hear is that the case is following their "rule of law", that nothing is being done against the law, that no one is abusing the system for their own gain.  it's as if invoking the "it's the rule of law" doctrine makes it all O.K.  

What most Americans can't comprehend, and the Saudi's completely miss, is how these laws can possibly be on the books in the first place; and furthermore, how can our government  - one that refuses to do business, against  international pressure to change our stance, with another government that has similar "rules of law" that flat out deny basic human rights - Cuba, continue to not only do business with Saudi Arabia, but even have diplomatic ties with them and consider them an ally?

The Saudi's will continue to spin this in the wrong direction, because their history and culture is different than ours and they don't understand why we're outraged.  The question is, how will the U.S. Government respond?  Is it OK for our allies to deny basic human rights, as long as they are partners in the war on terror? 

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So here's what politicians with too much time on their hands do.

Some time ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that the U.S. Congress had important work to do, and that "Impeachment... [was] off the table."  

Apparently, not all of Pelosi's Democratic minions agreed; Ohio Congressman and Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich apparently is bored with the business of writing decent laws (like an AMT patch, or - heaven forbid -  a repeal of that horrible tax law altogether) so he initiated impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney himself. 

Here's where things get dicey.  Without Pelosi's support, the impeachment proceedings are useless... they'll never get to the floor of Congress for a vote.  So Democratic spin doctors decided the best thing to do was to take a procedural vote to table the vote on impeachment.  But those mischievous Republicans saw an opportunity, and took it.  They voted down the motion to table.  

This leaves the Democrats in a somewhat embarrassing predicament.  So, are they too busy making important laws to discuss impeachment, or are they not?  Or maybe, the tax reform and Iraq-funding-with-reduction-requirements bill they promised us is less important, maybe?  

Heh heh heh.

Welcome to Leadership, Democrats.  Sure, it's easy to be armchair quarterbacks when you're the minority, but now that you write the agenda, it's not so easy, is it?

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 03:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Michael Humphries-Dolnick at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)