LizardDreams

I haven't blogged in, like, forever for a number of reasons.

1. Lazy-butt. I haven't really felt like blogging. I've gotten lazy.
2. Employed. New job. Very busy. Brain occupied with trying to wrap itself around a bunch of new stuff.
3. Faffing about. Been spending loads of time on Facebook, doing Facebooky things. When I'm not trying to learn my new job or being too lazy, that is.
4. Netflix. Took advantage of a free month's subscription to Netflix, and watching every episode of Heroes that I can stream.

and, finally:

5. Have not gotten passionate enough about anything to want to write about it. Sick and tired of politics. Peeps around me are all screeching about how evil Obama is, but that really bores me about as much as the peeps who screeched about the evil Bush.

Coupla weeks ago the tech world and main stream media were all wetting themselves and gasping with the buzz about the Baby Shaker app that had, for a time, been available at the iTunes Store. It's old news now, but it helps to underscore something a bit ... inconsistent ... in Apple's vetting process.

People can code up whatever they want to to try to sell or give away on the iTunes store. They can do their best to attempt to cash in on the rather large market ... sell a bazillion copies of your application to eager iPhone and iPod Touch users at $0.99 a pop, and you're a bazillionaire! Sure, you can code whatever you want. You have to, however, submit it to Apple's approval process before it will show up on the store site. Makes sense: Apple doesn't want an app that will do something illegal, use dirty words, nor does it want an app that will break the phone or interfere with other applications. Apple's reputation is on the line. If they let you have access to the application, then it is as though they stand behind the application, after all.

So you hear stories of people submitting applications and waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting for approval. They reportedly don't get much feedback on how the approval is going. That, too, makes sense since there are doubtless thousands of apps pouring in per week, and I'd be surprised if there was a very large team testing and reviewing them.

But here is one startling inconsistency: Apple rejected an application developed for the music group Nine Inch Nails for "objectionable content." As InformationWeek reports, "The app itself does not contain profane content, but it enables users to stream music for the album "The Downward Spiral," whose lyrics contain multiple curse words." [emphasis mine]. Front man Trent Reznor had noted that people could buy "The Downward Spiral" on iTunes.

So Apple's review team would let you virtually kill a crying baby (until someone complains), but won't let a rock band provide an application to enable fans to stream a song. That apparently made sense to the Apple peeps.

The social media world came to the rescue. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, tech bloggers, music bloggers, podcasters all rallied and mocked Apple for this, and rightly.

Apple succumbed. The band gets to market its little application.

I doubt this will happen, but I really hope that these two incidents, the reporting of which went viral, will get Apple to review and maybe overhaul its review process. Maybe, just maybe they should include a few people who have a knack for understanding what really constitutes offensive, hurtful material, and when it's just so much farting in the breeze. (Look for my new "Farting in the Breeze" app, coming to a scent-enabled iPhone near you!)

My toes are happy. Really, really happy. Sure, this looks silly and maybe even painful (it isn't, not for me), but, by golly, it makes sense and, well, makes my toes happy.

Pictured is my right foot stuffed into a gel form called, variably, Healthy Toes™ or Yoga Toes™ or toe stretchers. I did not really do much research aside from reading a snag of the hype on a couple of sites offering these for sale. The expected yadda yadda about ancient Asian secrets although, if I recall my history correctly, a large number of ancient Asians rather preferred cramping up the feets of their women rather than promote foot muscle health.

I have, at times, had issues with my feet -- some due to the weight I used to make them bear, but also because I am a woman who succumbs to the fashion pressures of the day and I've been known to imprison my feet into those inhuman torture devices known as "pumps". Relatively high heels, teensy toe boxes, toes crushed together for hours at a time, sometimes involving lots of standing or walking.

Insane, I agree.

I do believe in giving my toes holidays, though and when at home strive to stay barefoot, or at least wear practical sandals that support my arches and allow my toes to spread, but the gooey thinger pictured here splaying my toes all skitchywammous gives me even more relief.

I like 'em. Every self-respecting sticky-toed reptile should consider using these.

This is one a them Facebook memes that I'm reposting here for the Luddites who don't do Facebook or who haven't figured out yet how to "friend" me. Feel free to meme along yourownselfs.

A - Age: old enuf to be cantankerous and, dare I suggest it, crotchety.

B - Bed size: With three dogs in the house, it's gotta be huge!

C - Chore you hate: Dusting. Wipe it off, it comes back instantly. Like shoveling your drive during a blizzard, nearly.

D - Dog's name: Teegan, a black lab mix, and Murphy, who is a Cão de Fila de São Miguel mix, but we don't mention that because it makes her feel self-conscious.

E - Essential to start your day: Shower. Coffee. Not together, mind.

F - Favorite color: used to be a deep blue, like machine metal blue, but lately I've been favoring those vibrant dark reds that are so popular. What can I say, I'm easily swayed by fashion.

G - Gold or Silver: Gold. Silver has to be polished or it turns black.

H - Height: I don't think "short" is in the database for the units of weights and measures, but it should be. Five foot, three inches, but my daughter tells me I'm only five foot, two-and-a-half inches. She is so competitive.

I - Instruments you play: Voice. Pianner.

J- Job: Not yet, but hoping. Hoping. Oh, how I'm hoping. (software engineering project lead/manager)

K - Kid(s): Two. One of each of the two most popular sexes. Both adults. See "A" above.

L - Living arrangements: Prefer it, obvii. Although, not having tried death I guess I'm not being all that objective.

M - Mom's name: <narrowed, squidgy eyes> Why? So you can steal my identity? Let's just say that my Mom gave me her name to be my middle name. 'course now people don't know what to call her. I resolved that by calling her, well, "Mom."

N - Nicknames: This is a family blog and I fucking refuse to use foul language here, so I'm afraid you'll have to do without an answer to this one. (Notice to boots: that there's a joke, son. Larf)

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: none.

P - Pet Peeve: Sorry, but if I mention a pet peeve then the misc.writing blogstalker boots gets all uppity. Hey! That could be my pet peeve! Cool!

Q - Quote from:
# a movie: Ummmm ...
# a TV show: Uhhh, yeah.
# a book: So. Well. Uhhm.
Oddly, even though I'm a geek, I am not one of those who memorizes movie, tv or book quotes. I mean, I love 'em when I hear 'em or read 'em, but just never managed to retain them.

R - Right or left handed: Right is right, left is ... no, wait, that's for guys wearing an earring.

S - Siblings: It varies. A bruvver and two step sis's.

T - Time you wake up: 3:41 in the ayem. Well, not now, but soon again!

U- Underwear (boxer/briefs): The male readers really really want me to say "commando", but I'm thinking the more proper way to say that, if it were true, would be "commanda", yes?

V - Vegetable you dislike: Okra. That's probably an alien life form and not a vegetable at all, but I really dislike it.

W - Ways you run late: I'm nearly menopausal. I so don't worry about things like that any more.

X - X-rays you've had: Boobs. Oh, and teeth.

Y - Yummy food you make: Last night's dish was Chicken Picatta .. piccata ... the lemon and wine chicken cutlet thingie . Oh, and k00kies.

Z - Zoo favorite: gift shop

My Verizon phone is a Motorola ZN4, aka "KRAVE". It was designed to be a "media" device and Verizon had Motorola design it so that their VCast TV and VZNav and VCast music applications are very accessible. Subscribers pay extra for the data plan if they want that stuff, of course. I have not chosen a data plan, so if I download data, it's even more expensive.

The cool thing about this phone is the touch sensitive clear flip cover. When it is closed, the icons that are touch sensitive on the front are the music, the tv, the navigator and the My Pics applications. You can lock the phone so the front display is not touch sensitive.

If, however, you forget to lock it, it's very very very easy to activate one of those applications. TV and VZNav are especially accessible.

Apparently my butt has been watching either The Simpsons or Futurama, or some other Matt Groening-inspired animated Fox network program.

Iowa's Supreme Court understands what the real stuff is when it comes to gay marriage, and the Court clearly understands the US Constitution. Read the ruling here. One of my Facebook buds -- you will know the Hip Unhip one as Don -- showed me this link. Also, over on the NorthPuffiner's blog, there's a bit of talk about the focus on gay marriage.

Regardless to say, I agree with the Iowa SC's ruling. I disagree with those who make the specious claim that marriage is only about children and the natural bearing of same, or that it has some bearing on "morality." Marriage as a church sacrament was about church approval of contractual bonds between land owning families (read noblemen) in order to ensure that the acknowledged offspring of those unions (whether or not the children actually came from either of the married pair) inherited the properties.

Marriage today is about forming a family unit for a broad array of civil and legal conveniences, entitlements, and rights. It is, by its own nature, a moral thing. It may be between one man and one woman who either can not or refuse to procreate. It may be between one man and one woman each of whom have several children by other means (prior marriages or children born out of wedlock). It may be as it was with my own parents -- a marriage into which children were adopted, and a marriage that broke apart as my father went from one lover to the next.

In some cultures legal and sanctified marriage may be between one man and many women. So it was in Jesus' time and culture, and so it continues to be in many cultures today.

There are cultures today where marriage may be between one woman and many men.

And in sub-cultures today, marriage may be between many people of any of the three sexes.

Sticking your head in the hoary muck of "God Intended One Man & One Woman When It Comes To Marriage Cuz That's How Genesis Defined It" is utter nonsense. Even the people who wrote the Adam & Eve fable believed in multiple wives and concubines, for goodness' sake! God intended men and women to create children. He intended them to be raised in a stable society with stable family resources from which to draw. In the days when the Man was the sole breadwinner, it made sense for there to be a man in that family unit, but today, that's hogwash.

As Iowa's Justice Cady wrote: If gay and lesbian people must submit to different treatment without an exceedingly persuasive justification, they are deprived of the benefits of the principle of equal protection upon which the rule of law is founded.

God Bless Justice Cady, and God Bless America -- here's hoping the rest of the country stops fearing their own rectums, pulls their heads out of it, steps OUT of the nation's bedrooms and moves ahead.

Has anyone else noticed that Weight Watchers© SmartOnes© and Stouffer's LeanCuisine© frozen foodlets are edging away from being low-fat, low calorie? For instance, the SmartOnes© "Three Cheese Ziti Marinara" went from 5 WW Points© to 6 and they proudly announced something along the lines of "Now with more cheese!" apparently because peeps wrote in and said "hey, we want more cheese!"

I'm seeing more and more "new" meals offered that are all 6 or 7 points, and fewer of the ones that are 4 or 5 points. A WeightWatchers© Point© is calculated from the calories, grams of fat and a limited measurement of fiber. It's an easy way to gauge the "cost" of the meal. They seem to be putting more fat into them, too -- usually cheese.

The lunch I just had, SmartOnes© Lemon Herb Chicken Piccata has only 4 points, but they're chock full of carbs. Three little bits of chicken, a fingerful of finely shredded veggies, and three pounds of rice and sauce. Don't get me wrong; I like rice. I like veggies better, though, and they're not only more filling, but more nutritious.

I like these cuz they're convenient. I would prefer that they be more nutritious and better balanced.