Obama v. Putin
This was too damn funny to not post here.

When I saw this picture of President Obama today I was LMAO. "Dork" was my first thought. Hmmm, helmet, girl's bike and he is too big for it.


Meanwhile Russian President Putin tranquilized tigers, flew aircraft to assist firefighting, and went whale hunting last week.

Gender Bias

Last week I encountered a woman I previously knew; a very attractive successful vice president of a national company. Ironically, her reputation is one of being a “total b—ch”. This prompted me to wonder why people feel intimidated by successful women whereas I have always been attracted to and admired successful intelligent women. Personally, my wife LeeAnn is beautiful, has worked as a financial controller for a Ross Perot company with numerous people reporting to her, and is now attaining her CPA. Similarly, my girlfriend prior to LeeAnn turned heads and is vice president of a national healthcare company. But yet, both are denigrated by people who do not know them. Having two daughters I feel hypersensitive to this issue as I encourage and push them to achieve more, challenging them academically. However, their friends, and even some family, fail to support and push them.

Sadly, it appears many Americans regard successful, attractive women as enemies; often denigrated with the “b” or “c” words. A woman relegated to part-time work or a stereotypical female job finds herself held in higher regard, but it seems these women are the first to insult those who have found success. Among males, the opposite is true. A tough, good looking guy rising to a top-management position, becoming a politician or powerful lawyer is admired.

Examples of tough women at leadership levels abound from Pelosi and Palin, Secretary of State Clinton, Germany’s Merkel, England’s former Thatcher, and even our own local Suzanne Kosmas and Dorothy Hukill. These are the women I use as role models for my daughters, the ladies who have proven with hard work and determination, regardless of gender, they can rise and chase dreams. Unfortunately, more Americans uphold Lohan, Spears, and Snooki. It appears there is more regard for pop stars void of opinion and intellect, lacking morals, values, and ethics, but high on scandal, promiscuity, and even criminal activity. Successful women find themselves mocked and maligned, like Sarah Palin. What woman serves as a better role model than Palin, who spoke out locally, rose through the ranks and became governor, and the second female vice presidential candidate in American history? It’s easy to disparage people we don’t know, calling them trailer trash, a b—ch, or reference lipstick on a pig. If dislike is driven by disagreement over issues, then debate, but don’t make it personal

RSS Feeds

Last week I wrote about how I was learning to exploit more value from my iPod. Today is an unintended part II to that article.

Everyday I read about 15-20 web sites, a lot of blogs and news. There are some authors like James Howard Kunstler that I don't visit that often. Thus, I miss his weekly blog. Additionally, a friend of mine just started a new column and instead of waiting for an email I wanted to get the updates immediately. Lastly, I want to read this on my iPod Touch (or iPhone or iPad as appropriate). Even this blog has RSS feeds, but I had no idea how to use them.

With a little work this morning I have once again overwhelmed myself with information and news, but I can manage it much better. Far far easier than visiting web sites everyday.

Here is what you need to do:
1) Select a reader. Quite honestly, Google Reader is intuitive and easy. If you already have a blogspot account, gmail, or another google service you can log in with your existing password and username.

2) Subscribe to fees. The easiest way to do this is go to the web site you desire and look for the "RSS" button. One of two things will happen:
a) You will see a list of possible readers. Pick the Google button and the web site will take you back to your google reader account. Accept the subscription.
b) Alternatively, you will find yourself on a page that most likely is the web address and has /feed/ in the title. Copy this address from the index bar (highlight the web address and press ctrl+c). Return to the google reader account window. Push the "Add subscription" button and paste the link.

Now you have a reader and feeds. Depending on how you use your PC will impact how often you read and see the updated news. No more visiting various web sites!

3) iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad - I have an iPod Touch and read news every day. I found a great application called "Reeder". Visit the Apple iTunes store and download this program. It costs $2.99 and is easy to use. There are other iPhone apps, but I downloaded this and it linked to my google reader account effortlessly. I see each feed as a folder heading and can read through the news.

Carbon Copy America

My wife and I came down off the mountain this weekend and visited “civilization” to engage in the most popular sport in America: leisure shopping. Visiting the Mall of Georgia is like visiting Altamonte Mall. The similarities start with traffic lights, waiting to make turns, localized strip malls with a variety of specialty stores, car dealers using balloons to lure naïve consumers, and franchised eateries overfeeding overweight patrons. My first inclination is to shop locally, like I did in New Smyrna at Coronado Hardware or eating at the Dolphin View, but lacking choices I was forced to head to the Mall.

My intent here is not to complain about the Mall, but to comment on willfulness to trade perceived success for lost identity. I have previously written about the “good old days”, circa 2006 during the boom, and also commented on the loss of small towns in my column, “Taking Back Roads.” At the end of our shopping expedition on Saturday my wife, LeeAnn, said, “we could be anywhere in America. Looking around the stores and architecture are no different here or in Altamonte Springs, Ft. Worth, or Minneapolis.” Her observation was spot on; we chose the economic path that brought our destruction and it started in the early 1990’s. Thinking back to the 1970s and 1980s, appliance and electronics stores were locally owned; Home Depot, Lowes, and Best Buy did not exist except in their original markets. Wal-Mart was a regional Arkansas chain, not a megastore found in every town in America. Even the Mall’s department stores appeared quirky to the out-of-state traveler as they represented decades old local businesses like Burdines, Daytons, Wanamakers, and Gimbels. And of course, the out parcels of Linens and Things, Old Navy, and Michaels did not exist.

In the 1990’s with easy access to money, a rapidly rising stock market, low barriers to brokerage services and do-it-yourself investment attitudes the economic boom erased our identity. Local architecture and business acquiesced to national franchises and bland buildings void of character delivering mass-produced Chinese merchandise meant to symbolize success to anonymous strangers. On a local level builders nationalized and did the same, trading character for mass production of McMansions with bathrooms larger than the prior generation’s living rooms. New Smyrna Beach and Cleveland, Georgia lag behind, but yet both claim progress by advancing box stores and abandoning local business heritage. Just push “Copy”, America has lost her character.

iPod Touch -- Making it better

I have had an iPod for well over a year and felt there were many more things I could do with it. Below I explain a few:

1) USB Drive
Apple failed and did not add native functionality for the iPod Touch for use as an external hard disk. After some work I found two applications that do this. On a good note, my 20GB of free space can now be used for storage. On the down side, there is no synchronization tool. Only manually copying. I will point out I chose a utility that uses the USB cable to copy. I wanted to drag and drop on the desktop.

iPhone Explorer

2) An eReader - PDF File Reader
About a year ago I got a book, 300 pages, in PDF format. Sure, I can read this using Adobe, but I wanted to take in on my iPod Touch. This took a little learning but it can be done.

First, you need iBooks from Apple. Go to the Apple Store and search for this FREE application. It is slick, looks like a bookshelf and will read PDF files.

Second, depending on the file size you MIGHT need to doctor the file. My PDF was too large so I had to download Calibre, a FREE utility that will convert PDF files to the epub format.

Not I can flip through this 300 page book, have book marks, and read it on my iPod Touch.


3) Home movies
This summer I bought a Kodak Playsport video camera. This thing is great, I can take it underwater, take pictures, or take movies. For me, it is easier to pull the card and plug into my computer to copy movies.

I tried dropping the videos (.mov) into my photos folder and also tried to add them in iTunes. To no avail. A little reading brought me to the root of the problem - I needed to convert the videos to the itunes format, m4v. This application is free, it worked, but until registered it leaves a watermark on the screen. AVS Video Converter

King and Queen

Much ado was made last week regarding the Obama’s and their lavish travels. Our presidents have historically found themselves in a conflictingly awkward position, servants to the taxpayers, but yet head of state. With the press covering trips to Spain and Chicago in the same week, there was discussion regarding the cost to taxpayers by the major news networks. The criticism was not only domestic, but extended to Western newspapers overseas. Ms. Obama’s trip to Spain required a $140,000 in aircraft costs and nearly another $100,000 in security costs.

By comparison, many Americans found their life and opportunity worsening last week. Unemployment showed stagnant growth conditions, coming in twice as bad as predicted and including a downward revision for June. The USDA reported a record 40.8 million Americans received food stamps in June. My research showed in 2008 the number averaged 24.8 million, and a record 35 million were reported in September 2009. Three years have passed since the Great Recession started and trillions have been spent, but fundamentally America’s economy has remained on the brink of failure. Remember the fat-finger stock trade? Have you tried to get a loan or re-finance? Look at the number of homes for sale all around and try finding a buyer. Among other recent reports was Social Security is now operating in the red, approximately 28% of mortgages are underwater, Fannie Mae had losses and is seeking bailouts, and consumers continue to withdraw from spending.

Conservative news outlets have jumped on the bandwagon of criticizing Ms. Obama for her trip, especially while many Americans are suffering. But, before jumping to conclusions, the first question is whether the Obama’s travels are excessive compared to the last half dozen presidents. The Obama’s are taking care of us, according to them; maybe these two people are deserving of grand vacations, at taxpayer expense. The people of the Gulf of Mexico would have benefitted from the publicity and international focus Spain is enjoying, just as Ms. Obama touted in June. If I were advising the Obama’s I would suggest they learn humility, stop golfing and entertaining, quit campaigning, roll up their sleeves, and get to know America. The Obama’s need to come to my neighborhood and meet real, hardworking, hurting Americans; parents working overtime unable to afford $20 for a meal out. However, royalty never visits peasants.

Economic concerns remain around us. The American Dream appears destroyed:
No Dream

The View

It is amazing how two people can look at the same consideration and see two distinct things. Even a single feature can look different depending on the direction from which it is approached. I live next to a 3,200 foot mountain peak, Mt. Yonah, and admire its beauty every time I drive home. If I approach Mt. Yonah from the Northwest I see a gently rising tree covered mountain, rising majestically to the sky. However, approaching from the Southeast, to go home, the same mountain rises ominously with nearly vertical granite faces, stripped of any foliage and impossible to climb. Although this same peak is visible from miles around, the view and approach would change your perspective about climbing to the summit.

Politics, societal problems, and even relationships anecdotally reflect my mountain. Depending on the point of view taken to attack issues, problems can appear gradually solvable or insurmountable. For example, the oil spill in the Gulf can be viewed as an environmental tragedy or an engineering challenge. Chelsea Clinton’s wedding last weekend was hyped as the wedding of the century, but to the residents of Rhinebeck, New York it was a media frenzy and security nightmare. What has been lost in American debate today is the understanding that debate accommodates differing views; one is not necessarily right or wrong. I learned several years ago feelings cannot be argued, only facts. However, if you watch the news closely, and monitor political debate, arguments center on emotions, feelings, and perceptions, not facts.

Last week a federal judge issued an injunction against Arizona’s controversial immigration bill. This is a hot-button issue with differing views on how to solve a problem. I would argue what is missing is the discussion of the issue at hand. For example, Obama promised immigration reform, but after 19 months in office nothing has transpired leaving Arizona to deal with the issue and thus pushing a bill designed to move the issue to the spotlight. Armed with what I know, I could not possibly consider living in a border state due to the violence, costs, and breakdown in social order. However, I believe we should embrace people risking their lives to come to our country. What matters now is how we view the problem and work together to solve it; effective debate starts with understanding the view.