Time to Answer the Call?

I feel pretty bad about Apple's' profits being down from 8.2 billion to 7.5 billion this quarter from the same period last year.  Billion? Did you say profit of 7.5 billion? Do you mind!

I guess I haven't been doing my bit. I mean I was not one of the 9 million (and no this is not just me exaggerating- cause 9 million is like "my" number. If I happen to exaggerate to make a point (hardly ever) I say something like- this is going to cost me 9 million dollars, or I tried this 9 million times and it still doesn't work) people to have purchased one of the new iphone 5C or the deluxe 5S during the first weekend they were available. Well that may change. But darn it all, I missed this:

From the New York Times- Apple employees greeting customers in California. Look they are getting high-fived!

I actually don't have a cell phone- not at all, nothing.  Sometimes clients will ask me to text them when their deal is closed and when I say sorry, I don't text on account of I don't have a cell phone they are, (as maybe you are) AGHAST! How can you, a super cool, modern woman and awesome lawyer, (I'm pretty sure that's how they see me), not have a cell phone?

I have thought about it from time to time but have thought- I'm at the office or at home 90% of the time and those other times, well Mr. Lovely has a  mobile phone so if one of our kids needs us he can be reached- so why bother. Mr. L is a tekkie guy- he is always up on the latest release of whatever- that's how I got my iPad- Mr. L's reject when he upgraded to the iPAd5. (It's only a matter of time before he upgrades to the iPad Air and I get the 5- just saying). So he is encouraging me to definitely get the iPhone 5S and he forwarded me David Pogue's (when he was still with the Times, boo hoo we will miss you)review and assessment. One of the reasons Pogue liked the 5S is the outstanding camera in it. I'm now always borrowing Mr. L's iphone when I need a picture (say for my blog or something). He's good about it but I'm sure he wants me off that borrowing gig.

While I am enticed by the colourful 5C (did you see the lime, lemon, turquoise and the pink- so compelling cause they look so fun & hip), the bronze version of the 5S (in the flesh- I mean not on the screen but in real life) looks darn sexy.  I didn't make a specific trip, but happened to be in a mall where they had an apple store so checked it out- just to see, you know. It  also "felt" sexy.


So I'm thinking it may be time to ditch the land line and just go cellular. Really, we pay about $60/month and the only regular caller is my Mom - (we skype with the chillun) and the rest are mostly telemarketers. What do you think- time to get in the 21st century?

Aim Higher

One of the glam news bites that I read this week was:
"Klum Can't Top 73 Year Old".
The clip is about Heidi Klum wearing a animal print dress and how she can't hold a candle to the 73 year old Raquel Welch, who is wearing the same dress.  The people in the glam world love to make these comparisons -here it is:

Do you mind! Numero uno,  Heidi looks amazing, (o wait she is a super model), and numero duo, sure, Raquel may be 73 years old chronologically but doesn't the fact (ok, I'm just guessing) that she has had "work" (on, I'm also guessing, every part of her body and face that can possibly be intervened with), count for anything? Yes, she looks fabuloso and about 50. It's insane. How is an ordinary healthy 73 year old woman supposed to feel? Or an ordinary 55 year old? Or an ordinary 45 year old.. you get my drift.

There was another article in the Huffington Post last week entitled " Gorgeous Celebrities Prove That Looks Don't Necessarily Peak at  age 20. First off, what is with saying "looks" peak at age 20? Do 21 year olds now need to worry that they are over the hill?  And when you scroll through the list of celebrities, I'm guessing that 99% per cent of them have had work and /or are photoshopped. Of course they look great but  guess what? They are MOs (modified organisms). As the nihilist in the Big Lebowski lamented "It's not Fair!" (I love that bit).  That's like comparing a regular tomato to a GMO one- which one will look better do you think?
But just as for the tomato, my (tom)motto for this is - often repeated in our home- "It is not what is on the outside - it is what is on the inside that counts". The Dove people have it right. How bout we strive to be healthy, active, engaged, curious and compassionate.

Let's stop this outrageous focus on outer beauty and youth and AIM HIGHER!

911

When I check my email remotely, courtesy of Rogers Yahoo, I also get a dose of what is happening in the world today-  most often in the world of glam or sports and but also in the world of real estate, nutrition, health or general human interest. It is indicative of the times that these news "bites" are the way many people (NOT ME, of course) get their news - one paragraph articles always with catchy pictures and often gossipy type news.  About once a week there is an article with the heading "5 Foods that will make you ( insert new word(s) each week from list below):
Fat, Skinny, Smarter, Sexier, Rich, Famous, Into an Alien, etc.  I always read those cause you never know, right?

Here is a sampling of the "news" in the last few days: "Kate Middleton plays volleyball wearing wedges for charity" (first off, isn't that a dangling something or other but playing volleyball in heels- that's an unfair advantage-makes her taller); "Mexican gun lord gunned down by clowns" (not even funny); "Home Inspired by Fortress of Solitude", (if only superman came with it); "Celeb Baby Name Trends" (apparently Blue and Apple are now out- who knew?); and two of my favourites -  "Arnold Loves Pasta":

looks like eating "the pasta" is turning Arnie into an alien

This article is about a clearly carbbed out Arnold Schwarzenegger and how much he much with he loves pasta and opens with the cutesy line " I'll be back...... for more pasta!" Hilarious!

and

"Man calls 911 to investigate stolen jello". "An employee at the Wakefern Food Corp warehouse called police to investigate the theft of his Jello from the break room according to CBS news." Yes this is a news item. Apparently the 39 year old was mad because his food had been stolen once before. Oh well then, that makes sense.

On the related theme it was reported that there was a flood of 911 calls in Connecticut in August when a cable outage interrupted the drama Breaking Bad (ya and???  I can so get behind this one)! Apparently police had to post on its Facebook page for residents to stop calling its emergency lines with cable complaints. Do you mind- this was emergency!

And finally there are these newsy tidbits-  Which of these two women is more insane? 1. Police in New Hampshire arrested woman this summer after she called 911 to ask for a pen"...(apparently she had been calling many times before - to ask for a pencil, perchance?) or 2. "Police arrested a New Hampshire woman after she reported a medical emergency- then asked for help ordering Chinese food when firefighters arrived". How tough I can it be to order Chinese food, even in New Hampshire?

Octoberfests (Sans sausage and beer).

I love October.  Not only because of Thanksgiving and Halloween (as though those aren't reason enough),but because it's autumn, the leaves and sky are gorgeous, the sunlight is poignant, the air is fresh and the apples are crisp and delicious. Also because it's my birthday month, as well as the birthday month of two of my children so there is always a lot to celebrate- hence Octoberfests.  Although M's actual bday is 27 years, 363 days after mine and she is therefore almost exactly 28 years younger than me and we do celebrate together- it is with my son that I mark the decades. He is just about 30 years younger than me and so we have celebrated our 0/30 (ok, only I did this one- he was just a couple of weeks old), 10/40 and 20/50 birthdays together. We are also planning (in the "far away" future) for our 30/60 birthdays cause we are going to have a BIG BASH and invite all of our friends! It's gonna be CRAAA-ZEEE!

This year Al's birthday fell on Thanksgiving

the birthday boy waiting for his banana pancake (aint he a beaute!)

and that was pretty great because everybody (except my hard working son-in-law, whose absence made it less than perfect) was home. I really missed Phil and wanted to tell him that we missed and loved him so I tried to face time  (ya I'm technically savvy dontcha know) with him (no pick up) and then called him on his cell- he picked up- but he was in the middle of work in the hospital-("oops sorry guy that I'm trying to resuscitate, I need to take this call from my M-i-l"- not really but that was the joke in our house) so not actually the best time to talk.

For Al's birthday I got him, among other things, a pair of shoes. The gift was based on Al's dissertation that everybody needs just 5 pairs of shoes and that he was down by two- Shoes required are: 1. dress shoes for  weddings and funerals,(got em -bought by yours truly), 2.winter boots, (got em- bought by Mr. L), 3. crappy casual shoes or as I like to call them shoes for walking in the mud (and also til now his every day shoes and date shoes- seriously, Al do you mind!)

couldn't you at least use the two purple shoelaces I gave you?

4. good casual shoes and 5. good running shoes for sports. I figured theses sweet treads would help with #4 and hopefully replace #3 entirely (except for walking in the mud).

ah- keens!

Al is a practical guy and a frugal one. (He's in the 3rd year of his doctorate program in Economics at Queens studying stuff like this:

whatever!

Need I say more? He's an Economist. He would never spring $150 for a pair of shoes so I had to help him step up! He once said to me that if I wasn't shopping at Value Village I was paying too much for clothes. What are you going to do with that?

We also went for a family hike, (which activity was approved by the birthday boy) to a spectacular place on the Bruce Trail that the kids have been going to since birth, about 40 minutes from our house but so worth the drive.



see Al in protective colouration at the end of the bridge

Because it was a beautiful day and a holiday, everybody and his brother was out in "our" spot but can you blame them?

on a side trail escaping the hordes

Still we were able to have a wonderful 2 1/2 hour romp in the woods (and part on a side trail ) and come home for eggplant curry for the vegetarians and  turkey sandwiches made on whole wheat wonder (Al does not eat white bread) with mayo, dressing and cranberry sauce right in em. Yum yum. I love October!

"Right" Brain Up!

A good friend of mine is a wonderful painter and also a retired art teacher. She had been giving private group art lessons for a year or so now and asked if I would be interested in joining.  I politely declined. "Ah, no way, man! I can't draw my way out of a paper bag and am pretty sure I could never progress much past the stick person".   But because Pat gave me the shpiel about using your right brain and how doing art would be good for that, and because I was at the cottage and so in a more right brain frame of mind, and because I figured I was using my left brain too much and should try to be more creative, I thought- what the hay- no harm in trying, right (brain)?

So my first three hour session was coming up and I gotta tell you, I was not looking forward to it.  For one thing, on the extracurricular front, Mr. Lovely, E and I were into "Breaking Bad Binging" and this right brain exercising would be interfering with that. (Isn't being able to appreciate Walt getting out of his shell by cooking meth and Jesse "yo"-ing and calling everybody "bitch", right braining enough)? But I had blown $34(big investment!) at my local art store for supplies so I was sort of committed.  Pat had mentioned that there would be tea and coffee, so I knew I had to get my several GOWs in before I went. Since the art class was called for 6:30 and I had only come home from work at 5:55, I had time for only 2 quick shots of Kim Crawford, (for fortification) and half a slice of pizza before I had to leave. So how was I?

Pretty awful- I have to say. Pat is a really good teacher but I'm sure I was the worstest student everrrr. I twitched, grumbled, moaned and swore under my breath- and that was all within the first 10 minutes. She gave us a good drawing of Irises to draw- and told us all the useful techniques, (but no tracing- why not? do you mind?) to get us to "see" what was on the page- turn it upside down, quadrants, don't look at the page you are working on etc. but I would not, could not draw what was on the page. I think I could "see" it- but I could not reproduce it. It was making me sweaty, anxious and crabby to be quite honest.  Pat could see my anxiety and tried to give me a simpler project, (involving lines instead of curves), which I managed to screw up as well. The best part was the colouring in or shading as we in the art world say.  I had a bit of trouble but you really couldn't tell that much.

Value added Iris drawn and colored in by yours truly

If you have to squint to see the picture it's ok because apparently sqinting is a part of doing art. That part is fun. Also wearing the beret- that part is good too.

Here's the thing- it was hard- there was math-like I had to make equidistant squares on a paper, I had to use a ruler to judge which part of the drawing was higher than the other- I had to be precise about where to start and stop, I had to be careful, -this is all left brain stuff - not right brain at all. Was art really a left brain activity masquerading as a right brain one? WHOA! This is big and requires further investigation.

But first- this was our last assignment- can you guess who this is?

WHERE TO START?

Honestly there are so many "do you mind" moments in this story, I don't even know where to begin.
I am speaking about the Globe and Mail article entitled "Dying 'Angola Three' inmate freed after 41 years in solitary confinement."

Ok, let's take it slow.  This guy, Herman Wallace is 71 and has liver cancer and has only weeks to live. Sad right out of the gate.
Angola Three- is the "name" given to Wallace and 2 other black panther inmates of the Angola prison, namely, Albert Woodfox and Robert King, in 1997, when it was discovered that they had spent over 20 years in solitary confinement (which means a 6 by 9 foot cell for 23 hours a day). As names go- it is not the most evocative- shouldn't it be 'Sad Solitary Three' or ' Very Unfortunate Three' or even "You Poor Poor Bastards Three' but no major matter, it's the solitary confinement I'm do you minding about here.

Isn't that outlawed yet? Isn't that torture? I thought the US didn't do stuff like water boarding or solitary confinement any more.
Angola is said to be the bloodiest prison in the south (Whoa- that's saying a lot - this is the States remember) - the US's largest maximum security  prison" farm" - which ironically is on a former slave plantation and largely populated by black inmates. Hmmmm.

Don't see no cows or chickens liking it here.

So this Wallace dude has spent 41 years- yes count 'em four-decades and one year in solitary confinement for a murder he says he didn't commit and FINALLY gets his conviction overturned and let out because federal Judge Jackson ruled he didn't get a fair trial in 1974. Sheesh and DYM? That's right, both! It took you this long to figure that out? Wallace, behind bars for armed robbery, was sentenced to life  after being convicted along with another guy of stabbing a white prison guard to death in 1972. Apparently none of the fingerprints taken from the scene matched his, and witnesses said he was working in another part of the prison at the time of the stabbing. Gotta wonder how he was convicted in the first place.  Surprisingly it wasn't for lack of physical evidence-  that he got sprung-no, the verdict was overturned and he was let out because women were excluded from the grandjury and that is agin the 14th Amendment.  Go figure.

And it took from 2009 when the habeas corpus motion was filed, (4 years) and a personal letter from ole Herman himself, to get this ruling.
The wheels of justice right?

But get this!  The state prosecutors appealed the ruling? Say what? And when the appeal was denied they filed a motion to stay the appeal and send Wallace back to prison. Mother of G-d why? Why on earth would you do this? DYM!!! In Canada, (and I'm thinking this has to be somewhat similar in Amurca but who knows cause this is some whacked out sh*t) the three main principles of sentencing are deterrence- I think he has been deterred don't you? quarantine- I would venture to say he's certainly had enough of that and rehabilitation- penal or medical, not happening because oh yes, he has only weeks to live.  He was returned by ambulance to a hospice in New Orleans.

He's in a hospice. The guy is dying.  He has been confined in a 6 by 9 foot cell for 41 years for a crime he may very well not have committed. What do you want?  Give the guy a break. Give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Don't waste taxpayers money by filing motions. It is enough, no? Do you mind?
Here's the link if you can stomach it.

http://fw.to/Sjx7Sjc