wistful she cannot
I cannot help her problem
why is she alone


she squeals as he pumps
she begs him please do not stop
she cries more more more

I watch and listen
o why can't I be with them
it's never for me

orange veggies yum
dark rich chocolate hurts me
eat them together

dark rich chocolate
shoulder aches as I eat it
and yet I eat more

might as well face it
you are addicted to it
Oh, it hurts so good

carrots on the shelf
I like them they are tasty
no the taste gets old

I may have said this before but I think it's really odd that bloggers dictionary doesn't include the word blog... or bloggers

embarrassing things

OK I just read Colleen Stone's blog this particular entry talked about embarrassing things she's done. It brought back a memory from college.

I was walking through the student union and I noticed a friend of mine sitting talking to some other friends of mine. Because I do this sometimes, I walked over and kissed her on the back of the neck, then on the back of the head, then on the crown of her head, and then I leaned over and gently kissed her on the nose.

Then I said to her, "you're not the person I thought you were." I'd never seen her before in my life.

Turns out I wasn't the person she thought I was either.

After they stopped laughing my friends introduced us. We both enjoyed playing spades, had similar tastes in friends and thought the incident was rather amusing. So it worked out.

I've been working for MESDA lately. It's a good gig. I don't get to put my card in the fish bowl for prizes at the NETpm's but other than that things are copasetic.

I just put the MESDA library online at LibraryThing.com. You can see the books on hand for members at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/MESDA The LibraryThing is worth checking out so go do it.

sit still blocks move past
type now slowly then faster
sit still blocks move past

the screen glows blue now
no not that blue I'm past that
it is xp blue


chocolate calls me
a luscious brown siren song
resist it resist


tie her to my mast
it longs to be touched again
it needs attention

you'd think she'd want it
maybe she does just not mine
wtf

fffff
that is what I have to say
fffff

oh she's to busy
she has no time for that now
byte me byte me hard

maybe i should ask
oh yeah that will help... Not
not now I'm busy

two swans that are twins
they glide gently past my eyes
oh come back come back


hidden under green
and yet I can still see them
they are close and far


imagine softness
they are not to be touched
by me anyway


could it be i can
probably not they would run
they would not be here


oh come back come back
they glide gently past my eyes
two swans that are twins

falling down I sleep
I sleep and now I struggle
when will I wake up


I am awake now
and yet I still want to sleep
I should get to bed


the keyboard sounds off
thud thud thwack thud thud thwack thud
it does not help me


think therefore I am
when I thinks I falls asleep
not right now I don't


I want to sleep now
I should get to bed sooner
I should be awake


people are here now
people should not see me sleep
that would not be good

inside I am warm
the world rains cold outside
I sit in my seat

haircuts down the hall
she stands curvy, sweet and blond
glass seperates us

Christmas came and went
our gifts were few and many
inside I am warm

stern, powerful man
responsible for monday
or was it tom hanks


that is the haiku for today. Letterman did a monologue on Cheney and torture it was a bit of a running gag. Maybe it has been for a while. I've not seen it in a while. The really interesting bit is that the commentary before it at least in Maine was advocating torture. I got to wondering how many issues come up because at some point two people had something to prove to each other. And I thought that torture might be just such and issue. I don't know... I was blown away by the contrast. I wondered if there might be some intelligent design behind it.

it is late sunrise
He shouts against all comers
who can be right now

Sadness not to play
seven and 1 half written
rules are important

seven and 1 half
we do not understand it
be careful drinking

disconnect, he shouts
you only have table stakes
he would disagree

mystic dies

mystic died last night
a beautiful black cat
our friend will be missed

Regrets

Regret that not done
no once then again later
what was I thinking

life changing choices
relics flow over me still
time is relative

autumn's copper leaves
bright reminders shine for me
It's not over yet

it is, no it's not
I move on but relics stay
they are nice to view

They don't change for me
I grow, I move forward still
still it's nice to know

I like fall contrasts
bright leaves against foggy air
hope before winter

What is a haiku

Seventeen syllables does not a haiku make. But it's a good start.

fog haiku

computer hums near
fog horn moans low far away
the day begins now

A day of Deep Sea Fishing

My friend Fred Andrews at Investment Properties Real Estate took a bunch of us deep sea fishing aboard the Maine Lady III. It was a rough trip out but Capt Rob was amazing. It was obvious he'd done it before. The man is a complete professional. He made the ride out an amazing roller coaster instead of fear for your life kind of trip at least for me. I'm sure the seas weren't as bad as they seemed. One of us said "Those seemed like bigger than 2-4 foot seas."

"They always do." said Captain Rob.

We got out to sea a bit and the sun came out. Ok so we didn't catch much, a bunch of mackerel and pollock that we used for bait, but I had a really good time

Radio better in the dark

OK so I was listening to the shuttle landing on the MPBN the other day when my son came down and I thought it would be cool to show my son what a shuttle landing looked like. I turned on the TV and you know what, it was night in California. Turns out that television relies a lot on visuals to tell the story and once that's gone they don't have much to say. The radio had chatter between the crew and the ground. A commentator that had a clue as to how to tell a story. Should've stuck with the radio. Maybe it's time to take the radio out of the corner and put it back into the center of the room.

I'm watching "the man who shot liberty valence." Talk about hitting the river, I've been playing poker online, the man went out against very high odds, I guess the pot odds just were right for him. The interesting thing is that I've never seen more than the last hour of this movie.

Did they make this movie to look like it was on stage or was that the way movies were made at the time? Other John Wayne movies aren't so obviously on a sound stage or were they.

Anyway, I'm really liking this movie and I might even being willing to sit though it with the commentary feature turned on. It might be really interesting to hear an old interview with Jimmy Stewart or John Wayne.

It has one of my favorite lines. "This is the west sir..."

roller skating haikus

Yesterday Skating
Not my most favorite thing
I did the dad thing.

There was a party
which daughter was invited
I did the Dad thing.

Thought I might like it
had not done in thirty years
I remember why.

Wrote some Haiku there
Seemed like the thing to do
Did not hurt as much:


Wheels turn round and round
Air flows warm past my ankles
They need to be strong

My feet hurt alot
My feet are now red and hot
Blisters are forming

Forehead beading sweat
Drops hit the ground moist and wet
Puddle, skate with care

Water fountain, ah
No! The water is tepid
I am still thirsty

We cut out early
and got ice cream good and cool.
Felt better for it.

Summer begins in Maine

They say about maine, that if you can't take the winters you don't deserve the summers. Well the winter wasn't really hideous or maybe I've just repressed the horror. I do seem to recall alot of snow. The last few weeks have been just deadly. Rain, rain, and more rain. But not today. The sun is out. It's warm. the birds are singing. WooHoo. And I'm in here loading win2000 onto an old computer. Oh well.

I walked the kids to school and it was beautiful.

June NETpm rocks

Ok so maybe rocks is to strong a word as there wasn't any music. But man the food and beer did not even come close to running out. It was amazing.

Oxford Networks and Know Technology put it on. They have a cool office in downtown Portland, ME. It has among other things a glassed in data center that looks really neat, and the fattest data pipes in Maine.

I had a good time. Tech people showed up. People looking for tech people showed up. The NETpm is really becoming a business event. Look for a stylin new office in Westbrook for Mesda coming very soon.

The rating: 4.5 almost as good as it can get.

Brian O'Connor Plays the Spoons

I would like to thank Scott Haron who is selling real estate for InvestmentPropertiesRealEstate.com for telling me to update my blog every time he sees me.

But that's not why I write today. Brian O'Connor, among other things, plays the spoons and sent this video out to his fans today. It's 4 megs so be patient. It is worth the time to download. Be sure to check out the use of the entire body from head to knee. He is available for personal and television appearences.

savetoby.com or not

OK so I came on bobparson's blog today. It seems that some guy has decided to put the fate of a rabbit in the hands of the internet. 50 grand before the end of June or the rabbit gets it and I eat it. I don't really care one way or another except that PayPal took down his donate here account presumably because of pressure from animal rights groups.

First how does that save the rabbit?
Second unless he is doing something illegal that is censorship. While I'm not really concerned about the fate of an animal which is used as food around the world, I am concerned about some basic freedoms which seem to be taking something of a beating these days.

It's important that we are able to express ourselves even though it may be offensive to others. I'm not a big fan of a lot of extreme groups on both sides of the political spectrum but it is important that they are heard or at least allowed to be heard. Personally I just don't listen to most of them.

PayPal can do what it wants but I for one would prefer to know that it will not close down my account just because I'm doing something that someone else doesn't agree with.

There are some really heinous groups out there some of which could well ask for money to do something that is illegal. But killing a rabbit for food is not illegal.

On another note, when I went to the site it took a long time to load. It may well just crash under it's own weight, as more and more people go to see it. So if you are curious go see it. If you are against it go see it, too, cause it turns out that on the internet there is sometimes to much of a good thing

President's Challenge

So I earned a bronze award at the President's Challenge the other day. It's part of the Presidents Council on Physical Fitness . I earned an award for skiing when I was in high school. It's kinda neat to have something to show for my exercise and martial arts practice at Fournier's. I mean besides the better body, better mind, better health in general bit. OK maybe I don't need something else still it's nice to track my work.

I lost 75 pounds over the last two and a half years. I don't notice any difference... except when I'm carrying around a heavy load. Then I'm like wow I used to have to carry this much weight around all the time. That must have been no fun at all.

Well alright one of the movies I acted in is on the net. It's called Sidesitters and it's worth a look.

turn your life around?

so I'm listening to Morning edition on NPR this morning and they're talking about a pastor who was once a crook and who is now leading his church and breaking fraud rings. The procecutor that put him away even wrote a blurb for the cover of his book.

He admits that it must be hard to trust him but there it is.

As I was listening I was wondering if he ran into someone in his position asking for trust if he would trust them.

Hunter Thompson killed himself yesterday. What's up with that?

Was he hallucinating? Did he think death was an untried drug to experience? Was he sad? Bored? WTF?

I'm not a big fan of suicides. Maybe I just don't want to try to relate to how horrible a person must feel to just give up that much.

We're a Neilson Family! Not really a barrel of fun. For a measly five bucks, we get to fill out a diary by hand about what we watch. Talk about low tech. But I really am an influencer now. A blog and I am representing some of the Portland, ME veiwing area. Course, I blew off television thursday and friday for martial arts classes at Fournier's. But that's the way it goes. On the other hand I did get home for the last fifteen minutes of Survivor. So the cost of ad's for that time slot may go up slightly because of that. Or maybe just not go down slightly. The ads for the first 10 minutes were pretty prominate.

been away for a while. Nothing like stating the obvious, hey?

Anyway, the Mesda NetPM/ABC art show annual event at Troubh Heisler went well. I had a couple of painting in it. Got some nice comments but didn't sell anything. You know that is a really interesting time. Artists, business people, and techies. Talk about an event not to be missed, the networking opportunities alone make it worth the time.

This year though, there was beer! Not just the wine. Which was really good by the way. Miranda's Vineyard from the Portland Public Market supplied it. I am finally convinced that Australian wines might be worth another look.

OK so I joined freecycle.org last year, well really my local group, Portland. It's a pretty cool idea about giving away unwanted stuff to people that might want it. Today this link came through that I thought was pretty cool. It pretty much says it all.

OK night before christmas. Did the church pagent thing with the family at our church Trinity Episcopal. The kids were great my daughter was Gabrielle and my son was a sheep. At the end the congregation was supposed to sing joy to the world as the processional hymn but the organist didn't pick up his cue or he was waiting for a different one. Even after Father Larry said we will now sing the processional hymn we didn't start. So I did! I was even close to the tune.

Sometimes you just gotta go with it. I got a pat on the shoulder and some thanks for getting us started when the service was over. Joy to the world was always one of my favorite tunes in all its incarnations. Good thing I didn't go with Jerimiah was a bullfrog.

OK so my favorite watch is made by Aquatech. It's cheap, 6 or 7 bucks at Walmart, and lasts a fair amount of time I usually get a new one when my son has hit it with a hammer, he likes to do that sort of thing. My first one cost me 2 dollars at a convenience store in Oregon and lasted nearly ten years.

The thing is that I always lose the little slip of paper that they call the instruction sheet so that when I want to change something I have to fiddle with it or find one on the net which isn't easy. Well to make it easier I've put another one up on the web at http://www.skartdesigns.net/aquatechwatchmanual.pdf. I will add it to Google with my favorite free add tool submit express and if you could find it in your heart to add it to your links I'd appreciate it.

just got back from a stylin Thanksgiving vaca. One thing that was kinda neat was that on the way back some of the scouts in Conneticut were giving away coffee and donuts and sometimes hotdogs at various rest stops.

Did a couple of events today. First the Resource Hub annual awards meeting which was nice. No beer but the food was good. The people were mostly local business folk and pols. That's understandable since the Resource Hub is a resource for growing local businesses.

After a short time schmoozing there, I made my way over to the Shipyard Brewery for the Metro launch party. Talk about a breath of fresh air. It was a tantalizing mix of models intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and artists of all kinds. The beer was good, too.

If the magazine holds up to it's potential Franklin McMahon and Josh Shea will have done an outstanding job of showing Portland that cool and hip can be the same thing.

Been doing a betatest for Lightscribe. It's a cool piece of equipment that burns the label right onto a laser sensitive coating on the disk. Burn the data flip the disk and burn the label it's pretty neat.

been listening to the first few disks of the grateful dead beyond description on Windows Media Player They are really tasty. The extras alone are worth the cost of the set, 12 cds for 150 or so, which of course is the point. If you are a deadhead you probably already own the albums in one form or another. So of course you wouldn't buy them unless they had something on them you didn't already have like a lack of scratches and hiss.

Well go forth and purchase them if you got the scratch. The jams on Blues for Allah reminded me why I liked the dead so much in the first place. They will bring tears to your eyes.

Just did a spell check on that last entry and the word blog wasn't recognized!

OK so I went to Church this morning and they read the story of the loaves and fishes from Matthew. Well when I heard this story the first time they loaves and fishes came from a kid and in Matthew they come from the disciples or at least the kid isn't mentioned. Well there have been a lot of changes to the service and a revision of the bible since I went to church on a regular basis but I thought that this was a bit to much. I had always thought that the kid was something special. He had the faith to give up his lunch to Christ and poof the multitudes are fed. Well there were some logistics involved so that the 5000 could be fed but they were fed.

It turns out that the kid is in John. The apostles were human after all and humans tend to see things from an individual view point. One leaves in the kid, others don't.

I do feel a little better and maybe I should pay a little closer attention to the books. Course if I really wanted to have some say over all this I could go to seminary and try and build a flock. But I think I'll just stick to my blog for now.

Maine has been redistricted. A lovely and painful process to be sure. I just spent way to much time trying to find out who is running for what to represent me. I found out I was right about my senator, Ethan Strimling, but wrong about my rep, Glenn Cummings. As a web designer it really annoys me when politicians don't have web sites or don't do basic search engine optimization, but that's mostly me looking for work. Still it's not like it's hard to put one up and have a few people link to it.

Anyway here is a page to find out which candidates are running for what office in Maine.

Just a reminder that there has been some redistricting in Portland, Maine. I have set up a list of polling places in Portland, ME, at http://vote.skartdesigns.com. There is also a link to confirm your district and precinct.

just got my blood donor card today. wish they had noted when I'd last given blood on the back. Oh well I guess I can call em up and ask.

This is just an email to see what mailbots are phishing my blog and see how long it takes them to send me stuff. So if you send blogemail@skartdesigns.net an email, I probably won't respond. I probably won't respond if you email me at this address either. Probably won't see an answer from blognot@skartdesigns.net either.

October NetPM at Lightship Telecom

Well after a short absence I was back at a Mesda NetPM last night. This one was at Lightship Telecom's data center. I really love the smell of a server farm. It's sort of like new car smell for me. It says power, it says information; and knowledge is power. Is raw information really knowledge? yeah but it's not wisdom. I guess the power comes from the use of the use of the information. And knowledge isn't wisdom, and certainly power isn't wisdom. Wisdom isn't power ... but I digress.

Saw some fun folk there. Mark Ford showed up. He is doing some neat stuff at UNE with patient simulators. That is machines that pretend to be human patients not machines that pretend to have patience. I left early and still people were coming in.

The food was good and plentiful. Finger sandwiches, and brownies. Corn Chips and salsa. assorted sweets. other tasty stuff. give it a 3.9. I like more along the lines of chicken fingers and deviled eggs still it was quite tasty.

Beer didn't run out. It was shipyard. Give it a 4.1. Could have been a bit more varied I'm drinking Sam Adams these days.

I had a good time and they did a good job. It's always nice when one of their execs greats you as you come in with a smile and a cool light up pen. Overall give it a 4.1.

Well it finally happened, I put some gas in my tank and went in to pay for it. When I came out they had raised the price 2 cents. I guess timing is everything.

Church on Wednesday

So I went to the Holy Eucharist service at my church, Trinity Episcopal, in Portland today. It's not well attended in the middle of the week so they hold it in the chapel off the sanctuary.

It's really nice. Kinda tight but it's a whole service with three readings and a sermon. The sermon is interactive. I don't know if it's supposed to be but with that few people in that intimate a room it becomes a discussion rather than a lecture.

Course I'm always hurting for cash. So I'm always praying for more for me or least enough. I get home and there is a letter saying that one of my debts has been waived. It's not exactly a check but I'll take it.

I went to talk to the Preacher, Larry Weeks, about some stuff the other day. I mentioned that my daughter was going to start the violin and asked if he had any thoughts about someone who had an instrument we could borrow. He said he would look into it. Couple days later another friend of ours comes up with a viola for her. OK it's not a violin but we're pretty pleased and the school has someone to play viola.

One of the readings today talked about faith and that with faith the size of a mustard seed one could command a tree to fly into the ocean and it would obey. Course you want to be careful about asking for things like that cause sometimes that means that the tree isn't the only thing that flys into the sea, see recent conditions in Florida, but I digress. Point is have a little faith and things will turn out alright.

OK so heard a really powerful show from American Radio Works today. It was about the 9/11/2001 attacks and the hearings this past spring. Listen to it on the net well there is a link to it there. Turns out that Public Radio really is worth listening to and supporting.

just added comments let's see if it worked

OK so XP sp2 downloaded the other day. No problems here. It recognized my current firewall, ZoneAlarm, and disabled the windows firewall. It did do some funky stuff with Norton but that was just to say that my av program wasn't working when it clearly is.

I absolutely love the popup blocker in IE that came with it.

I run a pretty stock system with no real twist and turns so your results may differ but SP 2 is working for me.

Of course the pop up blocker just blocked the spell check on this post which made me jump through a few hoops to turn that off. I a tad disappointed in that because I thought that it would work with popups caused by clicking on stuff. Hmm perhaps I spoke to soon.

Still it's not giving me loads of trouble and I know where the switch is to turn the pop up blocker on and off, tools>Popup blocker>Turn on/off, so that's not so bad.

I was just listening to MarketPlace on Maine Public Radio and they were talking about Super Chefs. It seems that when Wolfgang Puck sold his pizza to another company, the quality suffered somewhat. That happens sometimes.

When I was working for LL Bean, there was a legend that Eddie Bauer had written to LL Bean after he had sold out to Spiegel. He warned Bean that if he sold to another company that his vision would be trashed. Seems he was probably right Spiegel filed for bankruptcy in the last few years and Bean is still expanding. That expansion in itself may not be in line with LL's original vision but that's another story.

Anyway I guess the point is that there is a reason people say selling out is a bad thing. On the other hand if someone wanted to use some of my art for some hyper commercial purpose and pay some obscenely large price, I'd totally be down with that.

OK so you need to check out the Paper Napkin Blog.

Paper Napkin is an email service that will send an auto rejection to anyone who sends an email to anyaddress@papernapkin.net. See the website rather than sending an email cause the rejection note is there.

Went to Bob's Discount Furniture the other day. 

It's a pretty neat place.  Besides having lots of comfy furniture, they have a large coy pond at the entrance and what they call the on the house cafe in the back.  Free cookies, coffee, ice cream, pop corn, etc.  They have a video game room and a hd television running movies all day.  Not sure if they'd let me stay and watch the movie while eating their food but I watched the Wizard of OZ for a while.  If I find myself with lot's of time I may just go there and watch a whole movie. 

I mentioned this to a friend and he asked me if the furniture actually was inexpensive and I said I didn't know as I hadn't priced furniture for a long time.  They have 18 locations from Conneticut to Maine so they have some buying power.  Me, I went for the free eats.

Picked up a couple of hitchhikers today.   A young couple somewhere between 16 and 25 years old.   I almost didn't pick em up cause I was just going into town but that turned out to be where they were going too.

I asked them what they did and they said that they road the rails.  All the people that I've talked to that did that stopped as soon as they could because they just didn't like getting beat up.  I mentioned this to them and they said they hadn't had any problems.  I hope they remain lucky.

Anyway I was able to take them where they wanted to go, the South Portland Memorial Branch Library.  They were really grateful and it just made my day. 

Did you know that the South Portland Municipal Golf Course has its own library branch or rather South Portland Memorial Branch Library has its own golf course.  I think that's really neat.

OK so this is kinda cool. 
 
There is an owl, horned?, living on a roof at the corner of state street and cumberland across from the Y and Gateway in Portland, ME

MIFF

That's the Maine International Film Festival.  Went to the Celebration of Maine Film Makers and met some neat people.  Sidesitters was shown.  This time it was in with some stylin flicks.   Bob Barancik showed one of his movies, Blues for Kafka.  It was a nice piece of short film. 
 
There was also chair porn, no people just chairs.  It runs until Sunday and is worth the drive to Waterville.

Happy fourth of july. American indepence day. Woo Hoo!!!



See the fireworks!

Best kept secret in Maine.
Saving money on the turnpike and traveling up the coast.

The Turnpike and 295 have changed. see a pdf from the Maine DOT and an article at the Portland guide at About.com.

The turnpike used to be 95 to 495 to Augusta then back to 95. Well it turns out that it’s now 95 all the way through. With just a little inside knowledge you can save yourself a little cash and continue to travel up the coast on an interstate, rather than head inland some. It’s even a straighter shot to the capital.

You can leave 95 onto 295 into Portland at Exit 45 old Exit 7 for free. From there you can avoid any tolls up to Augusta. You also get closer to the coast.

Did a promo gig for Big Orange Productions at Walmart the other day. I was handing out Cott soda. A good time was had by all. Always good to give away stuff.

Did you know that Walmart has an emergency list of things to do. It's color coded. Both riots and media crisis are coded yellow.

Speaking of giving away free stuff. I just joined Freecycle.org kinda neat place to find a new home for stuff.

First Friday in Portland
at Running with Sizzors

Ah art openings, free food free booze people with a clue. Odd how I seem to like that combination. Running with Sizzors at 34 Portland ST did not disapoint. I came and left early but the beer looked like it would go on all night and the food was more than just cheese and crackers. Hot wings and oranges and apples all sorts of good stuff.

Oh yeah there was art, too. My friend, Daniel Minter, invited me. He is one of the resident artists there and his work amazing. Earthy authentic done with feeling. I like it.

The owners work was interesting she said that she had never painted dancers and yet dance that is an extradinary graceful motion could be seen in all her work. Sorry don't remember her name. But the art, all the art is worth seeing.

Show up, it's worth the time.

June NETpm and summer begins in Portland

So once again Mesda has done it. Along with The Stafford Group they provided a outstanding tech friendly networking opportunity and a chance to eat and drink some fine fare.

The beer and food didn't run out. It wasn't just the standard finger sandwiches. It was spanakopita, nuts and other tasty tidbits.

Charlie Summers showed up as special guest. He's a republican running for congress in Maine's first district against a long time incumbent in a democratic district in a year that had one of the biggest turnouts at a democratic convention. A tough gig no doubt but one that he apparently has done successfully before on a smaller scale.

All in all a rating of 4.2. A diverse selection of food and beer. A group of people with a clue. And some good ideas. What's not to like.

Afterwards, Lee and I went to the Clown. We were a bit late but they let us in. Wasn't that lucky. I was lucky enough to some very nice work and meet the artist June August. Be sure to hit the site and check out the samples of her work in the June show.

The first Thursday of the month is usually a good time.

I just scored 756 in spades

April Fools NetPM

The Mesda folk did again. The NetPM at the Portland Business Center was pretty darn pleasant. The beer didn't run out and the people didn't disappoint. The food was a bit skimpy but what the heck. They got a really neat idea going there and space seems to be running out so check em out fast.

Rating

Overall 4.0 I mean the beer didn't run out and that's gotta be worth something but golly something more than cheese and crackers would be nice.

golly time does fly. Check out efficiencymaine.com a site from the folks at the Maine PUC wanting to help everybody save money and energy. Check out the calculator to see how much you can save by using compact florescent lights. You have to change the values to get it to work which is a bit of a pain but what the heck.

Spring is on it's way in Maine. The other day walking back from Big Sky Bread, no web site yet but I'm working on them when you go in ask if they have a web site, I heard a pigeon and a fly buzzed by my head. I'm taking those as good signs that Winter is almost done.

Course, it's probably just a tease and we're gonna get hit with a massive snow storm in a couple of weeks.

Just read the updated terms of service that come with AIM. Did you know that by using AIM

By posting or submitting content to this site, you:

grant America Online and its affiliates and licensees the right to use, reproduce, display, perform, adapt, modify, distribute, have distributed, and promote the content in any form, anywhere and for any purpose;

that may not be that unusual in free collaborative software but does that mean that anything I use AIM to say to transmit, something like check out this new jpg of the my art, may now be used by AOL?

And they also claim not to be responsible for any of the content on the links they provide. So if the screen saver they are promoting from freeze actually hijacks your start page to freeze.com, see below. It's not their fault that somebody from whom they are accepting money is actually spyware scum.

I guess they gotta make their money somehow. Optimizing graphics so they load faster but look horrible doesn't seem to be working well enough for them.

Eliot Porter at the PMA

Went to the Eliot Porter exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art tonight. Boy talk about something to get your creative juices flowing. It reminded me of why I went into photography in the first place. Go and see it. It is truly amazing.

Went to the ash wedsnesday noon service today at my church, Trinity Episicopal, on Forest Ave. That was kinda cool. Gonna do better for lent this year. Last year pretty much just phoned it in except for the last week. I really like communion. bread, wine, presence of the lord what's not to like.

Now I have a big black cross on my forhead.

I did a stupid thing today. I downloaded a screensaver from freeze.com. Note the lack of link. It immediately hijacked my homepage to freeze.com. I downloaded it from an advertisement on AIM. Man you just can't trust anybody these days. Thank goodness for spybot s&d. Course I did have the don't allow homepage hijacking checked and it happened anyway. So I had to go in an uncheck it to change the homepage back to where I wanted it.

February NetPM

It took place at Troubh, Heisler & Piampiano, P.A., a local law firm. It was a new experience for all. No Beer! Art! The food was pretty good and the mix of folk was superior. OK so the people with a tech clue are good to hang out with, I wouldn't trade em for anything, but there were artist's and business people and people who recognized me because I'm an actor not just a web designer not that there's anything wrong with that.

It was a combination art show and NetPM. The offices are big good looking just what you'd expect for an up and coming law firm. There was talk of them doing it again in an even bigger setting. Look for it. The art was good. The people were interesting.

The Ratings

Food 3.6 OK so it was essentially cheese and crackers and little deserts. Very tasty but something that starts at 5 and ends at 8 really should have something more substantial. And c'mon if you put out a cheese ball put out a knife to cut it with. Maybe some meatballs or chicken strips would make good protein that isn't too messy.

Drinks 4.0 No Beer, But really good wine. Pretty good.

People 5 Lot's of interesting folk. Really pleased that I went.

Venue 4.7 Ample room. Robust art. A professional yet comfortable place.

Overall 4.2 I had a really good time. Missed the beer and protein though.

OK so this is kinda funny. I just dropped my keyboard and it hit the mouse and the you cannot drop an item onto the task bar message came up. Sometimes you just gotta love a good coincidence.

Monster Gaming

By Ben Sawyer

OK so I'm not really a gamer. I live for spades and backgammon on the net, and I still play the three sample holes I got with an msn disk a few years back, I broke my joystick on a training copy of Fighter Ace but that's about it. But one night, a few weeks back Digital Mill in Portland hosted the November NetPM and I walked away with a copy of Ben Sawyer's "Monster Gaming."

He had talked about how gaming can be very useful for training people for real life situations, much in the same way a simulator can. I had hoped Monster Gaming would be a book along those lines. It's not.

And yet it is. Monster Gaming is an extraordinary primer on Gaming with robust tidbits on everything from the gaming hacks to how to build or buy a really tasty computer to how to host a stylin event. When it doesn't explain, it gives ample references really good websites.

It turns out that to be a really good gamer you have to have a clue about how to use your computer. Monster Gaming will give even a novice computer user a clue on how to better use their box. And if a person is already well on the way to Monster Gamer status then this book is an outstanding resource.

My only regret is that this book is not published on the web or at least came with an electronic copy on CD with links included in the text. With it's plethora of urls and other resources it would seem ready made for it.

The ratings

I rate the book a 4.3. It's very readable. Mr. Sawyer has a writing style that brings the reader into his office for a good chat about gaming. He obviously knows and loves his subject. And as I said it's a marvelous resource. Every time I opened the book I found out something that I wanted to know.

went down to the old port this evening hit brian boru. there was a band there the bump or some such thing. If you get the chance go see them while they are still playing bars.

OK so I'm listening to the jam bands section on Netscape radio. I love the sub title, leftover dead tuna phish and moe panic.

Ya just gotta love it.

Finally ready to write the review for monster gaming. Look for it in the next couple of days. Short answer is I liked it.

December's netpm was tonight. Always good to see people there. Blue Tarp hosted it. Good try tasty salsa but golly folks that's my dinner and chips and dip doesn't do it. Still it's tough to beat food beverage and people with a clue. Give it a 3.9.

Trying to figure out who I like in the democratic race. Like Dean, but I keep thinking about what Gary Hart said when endorsing Kerry about subscribing to the quaint notion that the nominee should be qualified for the job. Course people said Clinton was just a small governor from a small state and with a few bumps he did OK. The state convention is in Portland and the National is in Boston. I'd like to play.

Friday night in Portland

Friday night in Portland

Life is a little strange. I go to the Roxy for their piano bar cabaret happy hour and I meet a carpenter. I go to Casey's at Yankee Lanes for some Karaoke and I meet someone in marketing for the New Yorker and a really cool architectural trade magazine. You tell me where the cool people hang out.

The Roxy did have better food. Some stylin vegetable dips and a really tasty salmon moose. Casey's had popcorn which really was none to fresh, at least I didn't see them popping any.

It turns out that a pitcher of beer and a couple of shots of tequila is not a good preparation for singing a song for the first time. Fortunately I have friends and they said I didn't suck to much some even said I was good. As I said they were friends. There was a range of talent tonight but golly it is different to sing along with a CD than it is to sing in front of people.

TCAHF

sky

Customer appreciation night at Northern Sky Toys

Customer Appreciation Night at Northern Sky Toys

So check it out. There was a sign on the door at Northern Sky Toys, a kite shop in Portland, Maine, tonight. Closed at 6 for a private party. Get On that list! We got our invite cause we've been known to shop there and partake of their many events.

They had outstanding food provided by absolute catering and beverages for all ages that did not run out. And that wasn't even the best part. The best part is that this is just an amazing toy store. There are a few gadgets that use batteries or at least a plug but for the most part it is just cool toys that use what we already have on hand. My son got a yo-yo and my daughter a nifty doll.

The Ratings

Food 4.1 not a huge variety but what was there was really good. teriyaki beef pot stickers to an assortment of cookies and chocolate that was to die for.

Beverages 4.3 Geary's and Guinness plus ginger ale, water and diet coke. It ran freely and it didn't run out.

The Venue 3.9 OK so it was really cool and after everyone started to clear out it was OK. As a toy store it rocks but as a party place it was a tad crowded. Did like the hover disks though. Would this place be the same in another part of Portland. No way. Space is at a premium in the Old Port so I'm not sure what they are going to do when they decide to expand. Wait patiently I expect. Gritty's and Mexicali Blues have done it, Northern Sky Toys will too.

Overall 4.4 I had a really good time. My kids had a really good time. If you get a chance to get down there do it, you'll have a really good time, too. And next year you'll get an invite, too.

November's Mesda NetPM at Digital Mill

November's Mesda NetPM at Digital Mill

Alright, a righteous time at Digital Mill tonight. The monthly Mesda NETpm was a good time. Digital Mill is working on serious gaming. I picked up a copy of their newest book Monster Gaming, look for a review here in a couple of weeks.

Ben Sawyer, has a lot of interesting things to say about the use of gaming in non-traditional places for gaming. He compared the gaming industry to the movie industry of the forties as a communications and teaching tool.

The food was good and plentiful, beer didn't run out. Dan Corwin has a new dictionary app he's working on it's worth a glance at his site. Chris Russell has a nifty web app he is working on.

I found out the short I did with Infusion Studios is up on their web site. It was done for the annual Geeks In Black awards dinner from Mesda.

I told two people about this event. They both had some tech issues. I told them that there was a good chance that they could be solved by talking to the folk here. Neither showed which means that I have to track them down. I had them solved before I even got to the beer.

These and all of the Mesda events are worth going to.

The ratings

The food 4.2 standard stuff but there were cashews and Brie and Smartfood some of my favorite snacks. Big yum!

The venue 3.9 2 Custom House Wharf is a neat place for an office. And as it turned out the office was just the right size for the crowd. But a few people mentioned that the only reason they found it was because they saw my hat through the window.

The Beer 4.5 Didn't run out. Geary's then Heineken. Other stuff didn't drink it but a good variety.

Overall 4.5 Good food Good Beer People with a clue what else do you want. Ben Sawyer had interesting things to say and signed the books and software. I had a really good time met some new folk in a nifty place.

Hey just added a setting to notify weblogs.com of new posts.

some more words on the casino from the Portland Press Herald at http://www.pressherald.com/news/state/031019casino.shtml. Worth reading.

I got an email from a reader today

"what about maines harness racing scratch tickets and megabucks who are their customers? is your view one sided?"

this is what I wrote back

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. And thank you very much for taking the time to respond. It means a lot to me.

I love gambling. I play megabucks when it's more than four times the cash lotto and cash lotto when it's not. I've played blackjack in the Caribbean, roulette at sea, and poker with my friends.

My one trip through Reno I found it to be a little dead though. By that I do not mean not a happening town, I mean soulless. The people I met there were unhappy for the most part and completely focused on gambling and nothing else.

I don't think that the casino will give the state a big enough piece of the pie. There will be other costs, roads and other services to support the area around the casino, that will need to be covered with the 100 mil before it can go to lower taxes and aid education. It may be enough or it may not.

I can't really talk about the jobs because I was given no information about them. The time and place of the job fairs was not published on the think about it website and while I did fill out their form I was not contacted as to where they were. I was called and asked if I supported the Casino when I said I was undecided the person hung up. I don't know if that was Think about it, but I suspect it was. They only wanted casino supporters at their job fair. I realize that if I was really interested I probably could have gone to Sanford and found out more about it. I also realize that if they were truly interested in informing Maine about the choices they would have made the information more accessible. I build websites it's not hard to add information to them.

If a group is not giving us the information we need to make good decisions, that group doesn't want us to make good decisions.

My point is that it comes down to who do you trust. I don't trust the casino developers.

You may be interested in reading what else I wrote on the casino issue at http://skartdo.blogspot.com/2003_04_01_skartdo_archive.html

Anyway thank you again for your email and be sure to think of me when you need a website.

tcahf


Schuyler Meyers

OK so, I just got a phone call asking if I favored slot machines at race tracks if the money went to help starving widows, orphans and old folk. Or something like that I wasn't really listening. Just so you know that's called a push poll and it's the sign of a campaign that's run out of ideas.

What's the deal here folks. You know why people are against a casino cause 100 million ain't a big enough piece of the action.

The proposed casino in Sanford, Maine is holding a job fair in Sanford today. Not sure where. Apparently neither are they. There is no directions to the job fair, no address on their site. There is a form to fill out if you are interested in it. I filled it out a couple of weeks ago. I expected to get an email with further instructions or a call. I did get a call asking if I was in favor of the casino. When I said I was undecided they hung up.

I realize that the form is mostly a way to collect names and addresses of people that are probably for the casino but to shut out those people who aren't completely for it so that they can do a media stunt is nasty and mean spirited.

If the casino doesn't pass it will be because the people who want to build it are just too arrogant. Yes waving a bunch of money and jobs at people who desperately need them should work. But it turns out that there is more to life than that. The people who are funding this drive only recently put up their web site, sorry no link, go to the useless form above and navigate from there.

The casino construction company that will be building the casino has no site. The only mention on the web that I could find about them was what other people had written about them. The pro-casino forces have no interest in letting the state of Maine know what they are about. Talk about a shadow government.

Why do they feel that it is not necessary to inform the people of Maine about themselves? I've been asking people where they stand on the issue of a Casino in Maine and generally those that are decided split like this. Those with jobs or with low paying jobs are for the casino, and those that don't need jobs or money are against it. You want to know why the pro casino forces don't see the need to have an intelligent discussion? It's because they don't think that the people who will vote for it can have an intelligent discussion. I think that will be their down fall.

There are lot's of pros and cons to the Maine Casino Question. It might bring in jobs and money for Maine. But it also brings in problems that the money is going to be used to help alleviate. Things like roads and such that the state is going to have to pay for to support the casino. It's possible that there could be some left over for tax relief and education.

There are some moral issues involved, too. But rather than look at those look at why they are issues. Is gambling wrong in itself, I bet it's not. But it causes problems because of the collateral damage it causes. It's tough to pay the heating bill if you've spent your pay check at the slots.

A friend of mine used to drive down to New Hampshire when the power ball got over 150 million he'd finance his trip by asking other people if they wanted tickets too and could they give him some spare change to help with tolls and gas. He'd come back with some tickets for himself, a bunch of other folk and about twenty dollars in spare change, not bad for a two hour trip that he was gonna make anyway. The thing is that he wouldn't get more than 5 dollars worth of tickets for anyone person. And some people would get really mad at him for not getting them 20 or 50 dollars worth of tickets.

"The odds are more than 80 million to one against, it's a sucker bet" he'd say.

Needless to say he didn't get spare change from them. The point is that for most it's recreation but for some it's a life destroyer.

The soldiers guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier in DC were given permission to abandon their posts and take shelter from hurricane Isabel this week. They declined. The US government shut down to take shelter and they stood their ground.

talk about martial art.

OK just finished the IllNatural video shoot. That is the last uncatered shoot I do. Comon folks if you're going to make people sit around and listen to the same song over and over and over the least you could do is feed em and give them something to drink. Organization is a good thing too. The next time I show up on time and there is no one in charge to meet me I'm outta there. The band and film crew didn't show up until 30 minutes after I did. Not sure why I hung out. Fortunately the tune is pretty nice an R&B/Rap fusion that works very nicely.

Afterwards the Meniscus Show was upstairs. I don't know why I bother to go to scm's parties. They are always poorly planned and I still couldn't get a beer. The art was quite nice. But once again the highlight of the night was when I left. NPR was doing a show on Pat Methany.

I realized today that my problem is not with authority but with poorly executed authority. Sadly most, but certainly not all, authority that I come across is poorly executed.

Friday in Portland, ME

Hung out with Tom and Jen last night. Met some friends from work at the Top of the East. Great view, very comfy chairs, lousy service and expensive drinks that were not full enough. Then went to the Free Street Taverna for some eats and were totally dissed by the nonexistant wait staff. Don't know what the deal is with them but it is rare that I enjoy my time there. It has happened but it is rare. Which is too bad because I really like the location.

The highlight of the night was the Fairfield Porter exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art and a quick gyro at the kitchen.

The PMA is free on Friday evenings something which I really appreciate. We went because Tom is an Amherst graduate and Porter was the artist in residence there for a while. It was time well spent. The paintings were colorful and pleasing. Porter has a very painterly style which still manages to convey a feeling of lightness. He is summer vacation. The Porter exhibit is up for another couple of weeks so get there soon.

After being totally ignored by the waitstaff at fst, we left free street and crossed congress to the Kitchen. Look for their site, thekitch.com coming soon. We got there just as they were closing. I asked if they were still serving and even though they had shut everything down the owner looked up and said "we'll serve you."

Talk about customer service! Tom and I had a Gyro. Jen had the Jamaican Jerk Chicken wrap. She and Tom ended up switching. I had the dregs of the wrap and while quite spicy, duh, it was most tasty. The gyro was good but next time I will order the JJC wrap.

We ended the night at Three Dollar Deweys. Another disapointing wait for the waitress but at least she showed up. A sign of the autumn to come, Sam Adams Octoberfest was on tap.

Overall it was a night of extremes in customer service. But we had fun and that's what counts.

PMA Film Festival

Friday night at Congress Square there was proof that film making is alive and well in Maine. After a good time in the Eastland hotel lobby bar meeting the various film folk and sitting out the rain, the movies started. This was my first time at the festival so I don't know how previous years went but the SRO crowd braved the threat of rain and wet seats to view 90 minutes of some quality short films.

The PMAFF is put on by Humongous Productions and Portland Media Artists. It was sponsored this year by Coffee by Design. Although in the past the city has chipped in some cash for a summer full of events at Congress Square, this summer's events have been done totally with private funds.

See Pictures at http://franklinmcmahon.com/

The Ratings

the films are listed in the order they were shown.

Male Tale It turns out that women have adventures, too. A light film about the sexual adventures of three barmaids. It was a good start to fine evening. Filmmaker-Lew-Ann Leen. I give it a 2.7 out of 5.


Sidesitters Do you uh y'know sidesit?

Ok in the interests of full disclosure, I had a part in this flick, but my views were backed up by other folk. That said, this was the best film of the evening. Some of the others came close but this film really showed that with a talented, dedicated cast and crew quality filmmaking can be done without even a small budget.

Everybody has some faults. How you react to them is up to you. Started the crowd laughing. Filmmaker-Chris Watkins I give it a 4.2 of 5

Cowboys and Indians Indians are born not made or not. A telling tale about how a casino makes money for no one but the casino. Filmmaker-Luigi Scarcelli. I give it a 3.9 of 5

Beneath the Frost line Sometimes old secrets are best left untold. OK I kinda saw where this wanted to go but I'm not sure it got there. Still, it had some good make up. Filmmaker-Andy Davis. I give it a 2.6 of 5

Zev on Humans Zev explains what he knows about humans. And A pig auditions for the circus in the Circus Audition. Outstanding animation with a fast pleasent punch. Filmmaker-Dave Poole. I give it 4.1 of 5

Split Second Humans really are frail creatures. And they need attention. Filmmaker- Kevin DiBacco I give it 3.5 of 5.

Overall I give it 4.2. It was an outstanding evening. The people I met were very nice and they had cheese at the party. The venue was great. The folk were interesting. It was obvious that alot of work had gone on behind the scenes. The rain even stopped for the show.

Don't go nil with four spades

Ok so I play a fair amount of spades on the net. It comes with XP I like it as it's always available for a couple of quick hands. There are people speaking all sorts of languages playing it. It's a fine example of Microsoft's ability at localization. But the people playing expert level aren't always the best.

What's the point of going nil with 4 spades. There are only 13 of them in a deck and if things balance out then on average if you have four spades even four lousy spades you're gonna take a trick. I mean sure it's been done and it's not like someone's life depends on it... as far as you know. But if someone's gonna play expert level they could at least play as though they understood the odds.

Or maybe they just lost focus.

When playing backgammon if you're way behind and someone doubles take the chance to resign rather than playing on and losing twice what you would have lost if you didn't accept the double.

California Recall Dreaming

So over one hundred people filed to run for governor of the state of California. $3500 or 10,000 signatures and you're in the race. WooHoo. In order to win all that is needed is to get a majority of the votes. Some actor could win with 15% of the vote. That's the way to choose a cheif executive.

Gray Davis can't be on the ballot of people to win the recall. He has to win by a full 50% of the vote in order to keep his job.

It turns out though that if a person votes no do not recall, that she can still vote for someone to replace Davis should he lose. So all you Californians out there don't forget to fill out your ballots completely in October.

Found this pdf from Mercury News They paid someone to put their recall guide link at the top of my search engine. SEO rules.

went to Hannaford today and the Got milk-shake it up folk were there. There musta been 10 or 20 of em. Loitering about with no one to give milk to. I went up thinking I like milk and I like to have my picture taken. They also had this big ol Rolling Stone cover to stand in front of. So they said grab some milk. They had chocolate, strawberry, and a few other colors. No milk flavored milk though. I mentioned this and one very nice lady said well the vanilla is almost like milk only with a vanilla flavor.


OK... thanks I'll pass.

I did notice that the folk on their van only had white milk mustaches. Maybe they were all vanilla.

Created a new voice over demo last night. That was kinda fun but next time I think I'll use more than one track for background and voice.

Working on being an actor in Portland and Southern Maine. The public premier of Sidesitters is July 11. That should be fun and at 5 bux a ticket what a bargain.

Do blogs require insightful thought. Probably not. Do they require that you sit down and type for a few minutes each day? Well yes. Prove that you're alive. Blog.

Every time I go to Philip Greenspun's site I come away better. I should probably go there more often.

I was listening to something about influencers the other day. OK maybe months. It seems that there are only like 10 percent of people providing content as simple as this and therefore providing some influence. That's a little scary what's really scary is that not all of it is benign. But then that's why it's called influence.

TCAHF

What is Art

I was listening to NPR the other day and they were doing a piece on the Matthew Barney Installation, The Cremaster Cycle, at the Guggenheim in New York. They got comments from the people looking at the show. One lady said something like, "I like it just don't make me call it art. It's just a conglomeration of popular culture."

Excuse me? What is art if not a reflection of the artist's culture?

Artists don't appear out of a vacuum. They get their ideas from their lives. That they warp it a bit is what makes it interesting. Art is art because the artist says it is art.

The consumer's job is to decide what the art does or does not do for her. If she wants she can even pass judgement on it and call it good or bad art. Or better yet buy it! or not.

June Mesda NETpm

Went to the June NETpm at the Old Port Technology Center last night. A good time. Really got to thank Mesda and The Inferface Group for putting these things on. Find out about more events, user groups and an upcoming Central NETpm in Bangor at the Mesda events page.

Anyway, it was kinda misty and rainy so the outside porch at OPTC wasn't immediately utilized and the Interface offices were a tad crowded. As it turns out, both nature and a crowded room abhore a vaccuum. People soon drifted out onto the porch and equilibrium was achieved. Mark Ford showed up. He's not quite ready to annouce his summer plans but coolness will come from him very soon. Chatted with Dan Corwin. He's my goto java guy. I was talking with him about the palm-handspring merger. Chris Russell was there. I'm looking forward to his new software demo at the Mesda Maine Webmasters User Group on June 16. Zoe made an appearance. Always nice to see her. I'm working with her on her website. Be sure to preview her blog.

The Ratings

The Food 4.0 Pretty tasty. While it was limited to quesadilles, chicken fingers and some sort of open faced melt, the food did not run out and was quite yummy.

The Drinks 4.5 What can you say about a party right next door to a Brew Pub. Sebago Brewing Company supplied the beer, OPTC ale, which also did not run out. These guys do know how to do it right.

The Venue 4.1 OK so here's the thing, I really like the parties OPTC throws. I like the porch, I like the people, I like the food and drink. But I have to compare it to their annual Celebration of Business and Technology when they close off the street and have a little trade show along with the celebration and tons of people show up. So a 4.1 a good time highly recomended.

Afters at the Clown

The NETpm finished up at 7 and The Clown picked up from there with an outstanding art opening and wine tasting. This place is a triple threat, art gallery, wine celler and amazing antiques.

I must say my tastes tend to run to beer and abstract expressionism, plug for my art page here. So when I wandered into the gallery and saw some very nice cityscapes it was OK but I was a little disapointed. Further exploration presented me with some truly pleasent pieces by Philip Carlos Paratore. The juxtaposition of sharp angles around flowing colorscapes around a single horizontal line was stunning. Around the corner were some pieces that did with paint what I have been doing with cracks..

The wine was a tad dry for my taste but the last red was robust, a little fruity with a hint of smoke that was quite pleasing.

Worth the trouble of finding parking in Portland. Check it out when you're intown.

Caveat Emptor
So a friend of mine sends me a notice she got on a teacher's mailing list. It was a notices from someplace called ePC or Electronic Parts Company. It was for half price computers of the latest 2003 technology. Then it went onto describe a really lame 1.3 gig chip computer for 400 bux. That's just evil. Fortunately she asked me first and I was able to point her to the sunday flyer from Best Buyand their $500 after rebate system from eMachines.

I mean sure they probably would have been very happy with the machine from ePC but come on why do that to people when it's almost as easy to treat them right.

So epc my first ever 0 cause they're just bad.

May NetPM

Held at Old Port Billiards and sponsored by Systems Engineering, Interface Tech News and Mesda. Once again an amazing spread. They had hot wings! But as is sometimes the case when held at a bar the beer was dolled out with drink coupons. Still good but not quite to my liking.

My monitor had blown the night before and I was kinda bummed but I left with not one but two offers for monitors. Dan Corwin offered me one but I am now using the 17" one. Thank you Alex Bennert once again you came through for me. Mark Ford showed up always good to see them both. Look for some cool stuff coming from Mark this summer.

The Ratings

The food 4.5 Very good. I've come to expect great things from Mesda and they rarely let me down. Standard finger sandwichs and cheese plate. Wings and chicken fingers, Stuffed Mushrooms, yummy beef terriaki. I am sometimes hesitant to eat chicken wings at a funcution but the table was in the middle of the room so I was able to stand on one side and eat while the room circulated around me.

The Drinks 4.0 Good beer the first two were complimentary. Not quite the open bar I prefer but still quite pleasent.

The Venue 3.8 Hadn't been to the Old Port Billiards before but not bad. Reeked of smoke but had a not bad bar and lot's of pool tables. Was what I'd call handicapped accessible but tasty none the less.

Overall 4.1 Good food, good beer, people with a clue. Walked away with a new monitor from a friend. The doorprizes included a Zire and the new Mesda Chipper club it replaces the Putter as well as the usual fine software. I like the NetPM's if you want more info get on their mailing list.

Casinos In Maine

So casinos in Maine. What I came away with from my little exploration into my opinion about the subject is that I really don't know.

I think that casinos are not generally a good idea. But golly they bring in a lot of cash. The way I described it was that it is like shooting yourself in the foot. It's going to hurt. It's going to be messy. It's going to ruin your shoes. But you'll heal. You can clean up the mess. With the money you get you can buy yourself a new pair of shoes and a new suit. But you're going to limp for the rest of your life.

It's going to bring in lot's of money. But there are people who should have the best interest of Maine at heart who say it's not enough. People who look at up to an extra 100 million a year and say it's a bad idea. The people who are backing this financially are not mainers they are mostly Vegas folk. The Tribes certainly are backing it but if they had the cash to make this happen on their own I suspect they would already be using it for something else.

Then one has to ask oneself who would benefit if there weren't casinos in Maine. There is some suggestion that some of the people that work for Casinos No also work for the Scocia Prince, a boat that hosts Gambling out of Portland. LL Bean opposes it. I feel sure that they aren't happy about what it would do to Maine's image which is part of their brand. But it would be tough for them to have a big stopping point in Sanford. Did you know that in order to get to the public restrooms at LL Bean you have to go through the whole store. LL Bean understands the importance geography plays. I wonder how they'd feel if the Casino was North of them rather than South. On the other hand if a casino won't bring more people to LL Bean, second only to Acadia in number of visitors each year, it sure won't bring more people to anywhere else in Maine.

A casino in southern Maine would overnight become the state’s biggest cash business. I think it's interesting though that both sides are using this as a reason why Casinos are good/bad. CasinosNo says that it would corrupt government. The Pro Casino people say it would bring in needed money and jobs.

Couldn't quickly find a pro casino website. That's a tad annoying and doesn't speak well to the importance that the pro casino forces put on Hi tech

Would it be a shot in the arm? A shot in the foot? or bullet to the femoral artery causing a hideous messy death? Beats me.

Wednesday in the Old Port

So I'm on my way to the absolute launch at the Pavilion, I walk by the alehouse on Market St. I heard some Grateful Dead coming from from inside. I thought "Isn't that nice that someone is playing them on the jukebox." Then I realized that it was Wednesday and that A Band Beyond Description played here on Wednesday. My friend Todd plays the bass for them.

I have missed live music. And these guys rock. Mostly Grateful Dead covers artfully played. It would be nice to hear some original tunes but I could listen to them play all night.

The Ratings

The Venue 3.2 It's a dive on Market St where Erik's used to be. They've put up a fence on the stairs so it's a little safer to walk down but you wonder what else it's there for. But they are smart enough to realize that a house band can be essential on a wedsnesday night and they picked a good one. 3 dollar cover not psyched about that but I suspect that that is what the band gets. It's worth the cash though.

food and drinks NA I had just come from a focus group for the Casino Question and they fed me so I wasn't hungry and I gave up alcohol for Holy Week. Yeah I know that giving up things for Lent is more normal but I'm not big into sacrifice.

People 3.5 Saw Todd and someone I recognise as someone I like but even though we've known each other for more than a decade I don't think either of us knows the other's name. They both played very well and it was good to say hi. I did find myself explaining to some lovely lady why it was that I was not drinking which I really do not like to do. One because it doesn't matter why I'm not drinking and because I really don't like trying to yell over a band to make myself heard. Course she could have just been trying to talk to me and couldn't think of anything else to say.

The music 4.3 Some glitches. They understood what it was that they were doing. They obviously enjoyed what they were doing and they did it very well. Tight so that hours of rehersal paid off. Flexible enough to allow an unplanned glitch to turn into an outstanding solo.

Overall 3.9 Great tunes. Worth the three bucks.

April Mesda NetPM

Why is it that it takes me so long to write about the NetPM's. They're great. Always good food and drink and people with a clue. This last one was terrific. It was at the American Cafe in Scarbourough. They can cook! The beer flowed freely, the crab cakes were delish, even the meatloaf was tasty. I was hoping for wings like the last event I went to there. but you can't have everything, I like wings. Probably for the best though watching me eat wings is not always pleasent.

Alex showed up. It's always nice to see her. She does a neat web advent calender for the Christmas season. Mark Ford made an appearence.

Things in IT are right on the edge of something big but not quite there. There is talent. There are ideas. There is money, less than there was, but it's still there. Things are close to coming together. .

Taurus

Try not to get too down on yourself. It isn't you, it's everyone else! As the Stars change their position, you seem to be surrounded by unpleasant people and acts of meaningless antagonism. Stop and think about this -- maybe a shift in your attitude could make all the difference. In either case, don't let what you can't control stop you from going about your day. Getting some alone time to rest and rejuvenate is your best bet this evening.

That was my horoscope today. didn't notice alot of antagonism just not alot of oomph. I went to another Status party tonight. They've done better. Good to see dru and heidi. Ran into steve and jane that was cool. caron reminded me that these are networking things, so i passed out some cards and split. Amanda the paleontologist-model showed up with a boyfriend, she looked good. Met Barney a local actor whose work I like. Can't remember his last name though.

Note the lack of new links. C'mon folks you have something to say put it on the web and let me know about it.