The other evening my daughter was sitting on the couch reading a book and being curious as to what it was, I asked her what was the name of the book. And I was quite surprised to hear that it was Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Initially, I was a bit surprised that a 7^th grader would be reading something as 'heavy' as this even though I haven't read it myself and didn't really know what the depth or complexity of this book were really like.

She was a little way into the book and I asked her how she liked it. She replied "I like it alot!" I was satisfied with her answer and went about my business.

A few minutes later my wife called her into the kitchen to help with something involving dinner so she marked her place in the book, put it down, and went to help my wife.

Being curious as to what Animal Farm was like, I picked it up and started to read the introduction to the book. I soon found myself totally engrossed in the book and soon passed where my daughter had left off. Over the last few nights, I've been reading it a little here, a little there and I have to say that it's a totally interesting book.

I'll have to finish it without interfering with my daughter's assignment to read it for her English class.

While I'm still reading it I have to say that it isn't the hard-core mentally draining thinking novel that I thought it was. But then again....I might be missing some of the finer points in the book without realizing it.

Who knows.....maybe I'll read 1984 and see what that's like.

The wife and I saw this announced on the evening news last night:

Microsoft debuts Vista in global marketing blitz

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp rolled out Windows Vista at retailers in 70 countries on Tuesday, delivering a new computer operating system that aims to better manage the explosion of digital media and protect users from the dangers of the Internet.

The world's biggest software maker marked the launch of its first all-new Windows operating system in five years with a marketing blitz, including commercials featuring basketball star Lebron James and appearances by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on morning and late-night chat shows.

Windows runs on more than 95 percent of the world's computers, and the long-delayed new version is the first major release of a new Microsoft operating system since it introduced Windows XP in 2001.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft called Vista the most important release of its dominant operating system since Windows 95 more than a decade ago, when shoppers waited for hours to be among the first to run the new software.

Consumer fanfare of that magnitude seems unlikely since Vista is not the dramatic leap in technology of past releases, but the new Windows could ultimately be just as successful.

I'm thinking that it might be a minor improvement upon the Windows XP system that I'm running currently, but what the main cause of trouble for most people will be this: in order to get the full potential out of Windows Vista, you'll have to have a newer computer system that's capable of running Vista.

And that's just what everyone will want - a new operating system that requires a $2000-plus investment in a new PC.....

Ever have a song from the past that you cannot get out of your head?

Here's mine for today.

I never - ever - thought I'd say this, but head over to The Huffington Post and check out Greg Gutfeld (whoever he might be) and the newest phrase to hit the 'blogsphere': patriotic terrorists.

Of course, "dissent is patriotic," and the left is only critical of America because it simply loves our country much more than I do.

That's why calling them terrorists would be intolerant and pretty shameful.

But what about "patriotic terrorists?"

That's kinda neat.

(Hat tip to Charles at LGF for pointing me towards this gem)

Hyp-O-crites

Senate's wage bill still exempts Samoa

The Democrat-controlled Senate took up a bill yesterday that would raise the minimum wage across the United States and its territories but exempt American Samoa, where tuna canneries pay workers $3.26 an hour.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters less than two weeks ago that she would close the loophole after coming under criticism from Republicans for what they termed a "fishy favor" to StarKist Tuna. StarKist has lobbied for years against raising the minimum wage in American Samoa, and its parent, Del Monte Corp., is based in Mrs. Pelosi's San Francisco district.

"I have asked the education and labor committee as they go forward with the legislation to make sure that all of the territories have to comply with U.S. law on the minimum wage," Mrs. Pelosi said earlier this month.

The House, however, passed the minimum-wage bill with the American Samoa exemption. And yesterday, Senate Democrats were moving ahead with the original legislation, which for the first time would enforce the minimum wage on the Northern Mariana Islands, another territory in the Pacific with a similarly low minimum wage.

That bill is co-sponsored by several dozen Democrats, including Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California.

In addition to San Francisco-based StarKist, San Diego-based Chicken of the Sea also has a cannery in American Samoa. Together, the California companies employ about 75 percent of the Samoan work force.

When I told my wife about this a few days ago (as it was being reported on the CBS Evening News), I was actually surprised when she didn't even blink; and my wife doesn't follow political garbage like this as I do. Even though my wife is more liberal than I am, she's not surprised - not one-little-bit - at the sheer hypocrisy of the Democrats and their vaunted First 100 Hours in Power.

Let's wait and see what else becomes of the First 100 Hypocritical Hours in power....

(Hat tip to Right Wing News)

Your California legislature hard at work:

No-spank bill on way

SACRAMENTO - The state Legislature is about to weigh in on a question that stirs impassioned debate among moms and dads: Should parents spank their children?

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, wants to outlaw spanking children up to 3 years old. If she succeeds, California would become the first state in the nation to explicitly ban parents from smacking their kids.

Making a swat on the behind a misdemeanor might seem a bit much for some -- and the chances of the idea becoming law appear slim, at best -- but Lieber begs to differ.

"I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child 3 years old or younger," Lieber said. "Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?"

The bill, which is still being drafted, will be written broadly, she added, prohibiting "any striking of a child, any corporal punishment, smacking, hitting, punching, any of that." Lieber said it would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail or a fine up to $1,000, although a legal expert advising her on the proposal said first-time offenders would probably only have to attend parenting classes.

The idea is encountering skepticism even before it's been formally introduced. Beyond the debate among child psychologists -- many of whom believe limited spanking can be effective -- the bill is sure to face questions over how practical it is to enforce and opposition from some legislators who generally oppose what they consider "nanny government."

"Where do you stop?" asked Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, who said he personally agrees children under 3 shouldn't be spanked but has no desire to make it the law. "At what point are we going to say we should pass a bill that every parent has to read a minimum of 30 minutes every night to their child? This is right along those same lines."

I know - smacking your kid isn't comparable to feeding cats nummy 'wet food', but this is just beyond stupid.

And NO - I'm not advocating beating your children; sometimes a smack on the fanny gets your kid's attention when they're supposed to be doing something and they're not.

If this becomes a law, the next step will be for parents to provide a legal representative for children when discussing possible punishments for any infraction the child might have perpetrated.

It's kind of hard to believe, but almost one year ago this weekend my life took a turn I had never expected....

In the time following my stroke and coming out of a medically-induced coma, life had been rough not only for myself, but my family's too.

My wife had been dreading this weekend coming for the last few weeks....mainly because the weekend that I had my stroke was the same weekend that my daughter was doing a Girl Scout camping trip much like the one that she departed for today.

As I said in my previous post about not having New Year's Resolutions per-se as opposed to having New Year's Goals, I refuse to allow this type of stuff to happen again nor do I intend to allow anthing close to it to impede my life or the lives of my family. Death tried once to take me down - never again. At least....not for a long time.

I won't let my medical crappiness get me down or otherwise 'plague' my life.

No way. No how.

Life tends to suck on occasion - I will not let an 'occasion' become the long-drawn-out-soap-opera that 2006 was.

UPDATE: If you're reading this, then I obviously did not have a re-run from last year.

Needless to say, my wife & daughter keep asking me How are you feeling? and then asking me to Please take my blood pressure.....just to make them happy.

And the one way I deal with this.....loving paranoia is to remark that I must be one-heck-of-a-guy to deserve all this attention. And both wife and daughter reply You got that right!!

It's nice to know that I'm well-appreciated.

Still here - just been busy adapting to my new schedule for school/life.

The sunshine of my life - my daughter - is off to a Girl Scout camping event this weekend (leaving now as I type this) and that leaves me and the Mrs. at homek alone.

Alone? you say? Well, the typical assumption that goes through most people's minds is promptly gone out the window in our case.

Why?

Well, I've got my first Neural Networks homework assignment to tackle this weekend and my wife has to study for a "series 6 & 63 securities" exam that will enable her to sell securities here in California. So while we're both agonizing over studying, we'll be fondly looking at each other from across the dining room table....

For the moment, I'm up here at school to take care of a few errands - mostly downloading the data files for my first NN homework assignment since I have no Internet at the house.

More later if there's anything 'exciting'.....

The Winter 2007 quarter starts on Monday here at UCSD and I'm getting my stuff ready for it.

This quarter, I'm taking at least two courses - possibly three.

The two I'm definitely taking are ECE 173 Neural Networks & Fuzzy Logic and Physics 161 Black Holes & the Milky Way Galaxy. These are the same two courses I had just started last year when I had the stroke. Obviously, I had to disenroll from them since I was in a medically-induced coma.

The third possible course is HIUS 100 Colonial Period to 1763. I call this one possible as I am enrolled in the class but will have to wait and see if I can indeed pull off taking a full-time classload considering all that I've had to deal with.

The ECE and Physics courses are part of my required classes to obtain my BSEE while the History class is geared towards a possible minor in United States History.

Can Mad Mikey pull this off without incurring another stroke?

We'll have to wait and see.....

Okay, this is late.....being without Internet access at home just plain blows.

New Year's Eve was spent at a friend's house with my family. I actually had two Mike's Hard Lemonades and after that the Percocet kicked in and I worked at staying awake for the rest of the evening.

Yeah, yeah - I know: booze and narcotics don't mix!!

For this year, I didn't make any specific "New Year's Resolutions" as they never pan out. I did, however, make some goals for myself that I'll try to attain this year:

• Get more out of life.

  Over the last year, I've caught myself being hampered by my illness - mostly my thinking I can't do this or that because I'm going to be in pain....

  Probably the one thing that I want to do more is ride my bike......the $200-plus mountain/street bike that I bought just before I started doing dialysis. Even better is riding my bike to school to save a little on gas.

• Complain less.

  This is kind of goes hand-in-hand with the first goal - I find that I complain a lot more about aches-n-pains and I find it irritating. People ask "How are you doing?" and I find myself responding with a 'shopping list' of medical crap.

  Normally, I really don't want to hear this from anyone else and I certainly don't want to hear myself doing it either.

• Try to continue seeing the bright side of things.

  Ever since all of my medical crap starting figuring into my daily life, I've always strived to see the silver lining in the clouds and there have been times where I've stumbled with it.

  To be honest, there has been too much crap happening in the last year to keep smiling all the time, but one thing I've always realized is that despite all the crap that happens to you in life, there will always be more crap just around the corner and you might as well try to smile since crap is a universal constant....like death and taxes.

A friend of mine from San Diego Protest Warrior has jumped into the Blogsphere with a blog of his own.

Go check him out.

The other evening my daughter was sitting on the couch reading a book and being curious as to what it was, I asked her what was the name of the book. And I was quite surprised to hear that it was Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Initially, I was a bit surprised that a 7^th grader would be reading something as 'heavy' as this even though I haven't read it myself and didn't really know what the depth or complexity of this book were really like.

She was a little way into the book and I asked her how she liked it. She replied "I like it alot!" I was satisfied with her answer and went about my business.

A few minutes later my wife called her into the kitchen to help with something involving dinner so she marked her place in the book, put it down, and went to help my wife.

Being curious as to what Animal Farm was like, I picked it up and started to read the introduction to the book. I soon found myself totally engrossed in the book and soon passed where my daughter had left off. Over the last few nights, I've been reading it a little here, a little there and I have to say that it's a totally interesting book.

I'll have to finish it without interfering with my daughter's assignment to read it for her English class.

While I'm still reading it I have to say that it isn't the hard-core mentally draining thinking novel that I thought it was. But then again....I might be missing some of the finer points in the book without realizing it.

Who knows.....maybe I'll read 1984 and see what that's like.

The wife and I saw this announced on the evening news last night:

Microsoft debuts Vista in global marketing blitz

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp rolled out Windows Vista at retailers in 70 countries on Tuesday, delivering a new computer operating system that aims to better manage the explosion of digital media and protect users from the dangers of the Internet.

The world's biggest software maker marked the launch of its first all-new Windows operating system in five years with a marketing blitz, including commercials featuring basketball star Lebron James and appearances by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on morning and late-night chat shows.

Windows runs on more than 95 percent of the world's computers, and the long-delayed new version is the first major release of a new Microsoft operating system since it introduced Windows XP in 2001.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft called Vista the most important release of its dominant operating system since Windows 95 more than a decade ago, when shoppers waited for hours to be among the first to run the new software.

Consumer fanfare of that magnitude seems unlikely since Vista is not the dramatic leap in technology of past releases, but the new Windows could ultimately be just as successful.

I'm thinking that it might be a minor improvement upon the Windows XP system that I'm running currently, but what the main cause of trouble for most people will be this: in order to get the full potential out of Windows Vista, you'll have to have a newer computer system that's capable of running Vista.

And that's just what everyone will want - a new operating system that requires a $2000-plus investment in a new PC.....

Ever have a song from the past that you cannot get out of your head?

Here's mine for today.

I never - ever - thought I'd say this, but head over to The Huffington Post and check out Greg Gutfeld (whoever he might be) and the newest phrase to hit the 'blogsphere': patriotic terrorists.

Of course, "dissent is patriotic," and the left is only critical of America because it simply loves our country much more than I do.

That's why calling them terrorists would be intolerant and pretty shameful.

But what about "patriotic terrorists?"

That's kinda neat.

(Hat tip to Charles at LGF for pointing me towards this gem)

Hyp-O-crites

Senate's wage bill still exempts Samoa

The Democrat-controlled Senate took up a bill yesterday that would raise the minimum wage across the United States and its territories but exempt American Samoa, where tuna canneries pay workers $3.26 an hour.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters less than two weeks ago that she would close the loophole after coming under criticism from Republicans for what they termed a "fishy favor" to StarKist Tuna. StarKist has lobbied for years against raising the minimum wage in American Samoa, and its parent, Del Monte Corp., is based in Mrs. Pelosi's San Francisco district.

"I have asked the education and labor committee as they go forward with the legislation to make sure that all of the territories have to comply with U.S. law on the minimum wage," Mrs. Pelosi said earlier this month.

The House, however, passed the minimum-wage bill with the American Samoa exemption. And yesterday, Senate Democrats were moving ahead with the original legislation, which for the first time would enforce the minimum wage on the Northern Mariana Islands, another territory in the Pacific with a similarly low minimum wage.

That bill is co-sponsored by several dozen Democrats, including Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California.

In addition to San Francisco-based StarKist, San Diego-based Chicken of the Sea also has a cannery in American Samoa. Together, the California companies employ about 75 percent of the Samoan work force.

When I told my wife about this a few days ago (as it was being reported on the CBS Evening News), I was actually surprised when she didn't even blink; and my wife doesn't follow political garbage like this as I do. Even though my wife is more liberal than I am, she's not surprised - not one-little-bit - at the sheer hypocrisy of the Democrats and their vaunted First 100 Hours in Power.

Let's wait and see what else becomes of the First 100 Hypocritical Hours in power....

(Hat tip to Right Wing News)

Your California legislature hard at work:

No-spank bill on way

SACRAMENTO - The state Legislature is about to weigh in on a question that stirs impassioned debate among moms and dads: Should parents spank their children?

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, wants to outlaw spanking children up to 3 years old. If she succeeds, California would become the first state in the nation to explicitly ban parents from smacking their kids.

Making a swat on the behind a misdemeanor might seem a bit much for some -- and the chances of the idea becoming law appear slim, at best -- but Lieber begs to differ.

"I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child 3 years old or younger," Lieber said. "Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?"

The bill, which is still being drafted, will be written broadly, she added, prohibiting "any striking of a child, any corporal punishment, smacking, hitting, punching, any of that." Lieber said it would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail or a fine up to $1,000, although a legal expert advising her on the proposal said first-time offenders would probably only have to attend parenting classes.

The idea is encountering skepticism even before it's been formally introduced. Beyond the debate among child psychologists -- many of whom believe limited spanking can be effective -- the bill is sure to face questions over how practical it is to enforce and opposition from some legislators who generally oppose what they consider "nanny government."

"Where do you stop?" asked Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, who said he personally agrees children under 3 shouldn't be spanked but has no desire to make it the law. "At what point are we going to say we should pass a bill that every parent has to read a minimum of 30 minutes every night to their child? This is right along those same lines."

I know - smacking your kid isn't comparable to feeding cats nummy 'wet food', but this is just beyond stupid.

And NO - I'm not advocating beating your children; sometimes a smack on the fanny gets your kid's attention when they're supposed to be doing something and they're not.

If this becomes a law, the next step will be for parents to provide a legal representative for children when discussing possible punishments for any infraction the child might have perpetrated.

It's kind of hard to believe, but almost one year ago this weekend my life took a turn I had never expected....

In the time following my stroke and coming out of a medically-induced coma, life had been rough not only for myself, but my family's too.

My wife had been dreading this weekend coming for the last few weeks....mainly because the weekend that I had my stroke was the same weekend that my daughter was doing a Girl Scout camping trip much like the one that she departed for today.

As I said in my previous post about not having New Year's Resolutions per-se as opposed to having New Year's Goals, I refuse to allow this type of stuff to happen again nor do I intend to allow anthing close to it to impede my life or the lives of my family. Death tried once to take me down - never again. At least....not for a long time.

I won't let my medical crappiness get me down or otherwise 'plague' my life.

No way. No how.

Life tends to suck on occasion - I will not let an 'occasion' become the long-drawn-out-soap-opera that 2006 was.

UPDATE: If you're reading this, then I obviously did not have a re-run from last year.

Needless to say, my wife & daughter keep asking me How are you feeling? and then asking me to Please take my blood pressure.....just to make them happy.

And the one way I deal with this.....loving paranoia is to remark that I must be one-heck-of-a-guy to deserve all this attention. And both wife and daughter reply You got that right!!

It's nice to know that I'm well-appreciated.

Still here - just been busy adapting to my new schedule for school/life.

The sunshine of my life - my daughter - is off to a Girl Scout camping event this weekend (leaving now as I type this) and that leaves me and the Mrs. at homek alone.

Alone? you say? Well, the typical assumption that goes through most people's minds is promptly gone out the window in our case.

Why?

Well, I've got my first Neural Networks homework assignment to tackle this weekend and my wife has to study for a "series 6 & 63 securities" exam that will enable her to sell securities here in California. So while we're both agonizing over studying, we'll be fondly looking at each other from across the dining room table....

For the moment, I'm up here at school to take care of a few errands - mostly downloading the data files for my first NN homework assignment since I have no Internet at the house.

More later if there's anything 'exciting'.....

The Winter 2007 quarter starts on Monday here at UCSD and I'm getting my stuff ready for it.

This quarter, I'm taking at least two courses - possibly three.

The two I'm definitely taking are ECE 173 Neural Networks & Fuzzy Logic and Physics 161 Black Holes & the Milky Way Galaxy. These are the same two courses I had just started last year when I had the stroke. Obviously, I had to disenroll from them since I was in a medically-induced coma.

The third possible course is HIUS 100 Colonial Period to 1763. I call this one possible as I am enrolled in the class but will have to wait and see if I can indeed pull off taking a full-time classload considering all that I've had to deal with.

The ECE and Physics courses are part of my required classes to obtain my BSEE while the History class is geared towards a possible minor in United States History.

Can Mad Mikey pull this off without incurring another stroke?

We'll have to wait and see.....

Okay, this is late.....being without Internet access at home just plain blows.

New Year's Eve was spent at a friend's house with my family. I actually had two Mike's Hard Lemonades and after that the Percocet kicked in and I worked at staying awake for the rest of the evening.

Yeah, yeah - I know: booze and narcotics don't mix!!

For this year, I didn't make any specific "New Year's Resolutions" as they never pan out. I did, however, make some goals for myself that I'll try to attain this year:

• Get more out of life.

  Over the last year, I've caught myself being hampered by my illness - mostly my thinking I can't do this or that because I'm going to be in pain....

  Probably the one thing that I want to do more is ride my bike......the $200-plus mountain/street bike that I bought just before I started doing dialysis. Even better is riding my bike to school to save a little on gas.

• Complain less.

  This is kind of goes hand-in-hand with the first goal - I find that I complain a lot more about aches-n-pains and I find it irritating. People ask "How are you doing?" and I find myself responding with a 'shopping list' of medical crap.

  Normally, I really don't want to hear this from anyone else and I certainly don't want to hear myself doing it either.

• Try to continue seeing the bright side of things.

  Ever since all of my medical crap starting figuring into my daily life, I've always strived to see the silver lining in the clouds and there have been times where I've stumbled with it.

  To be honest, there has been too much crap happening in the last year to keep smiling all the time, but one thing I've always realized is that despite all the crap that happens to you in life, there will always be more crap just around the corner and you might as well try to smile since crap is a universal constant....like death and taxes.

A friend of mine from San Diego Protest Warrior has jumped into the Blogsphere with a blog of his own.

Go check him out.