everybody reads raymond

The "Antic" was this Sunday. And Magnetic Field had claim to the loudest band in Brooklyn. It was wicked cool & very loud!

This is the holiday picture that was inspired by TSS.

This is the little bug, close up. He really likes the camera.

This is my stab at a sepia effect.

This is the two little ones watching their favorite video, �The Cat Sitter�. They absolutely love it. But I think it makes �em sit a little too close to the television.

Thanks go to Hadi Mizban for the picture. Further thanks go to the AP for not spotting the error right away. Now the pic has been erased from the database but used to be here.

US Army soldiers take rest during patrol in Baghdad suburb, Monday Nov. 17, 2003. U.S. forces have reacted to the increasing attacks in which dozens of Americans and their allies have died by mounting a massive show of force in central and northern Iraq. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

More thanks to Steven for pointing it out to me.

With my new Wacom Tablet, now I can really use the brush tools in photoshop. And they act and look like real brush strokes, not mouse scrolls. I know it may be very basic stuff to those p-shop x-perts out there, but I'm quite happy. If you would like to see how I created the brushes, visit Adobe's tutorial section at studio.adobe.com. They've got it all - every "class" you will ever need to learn how to take full advantage of their software. After all, keep us using, keep us buying.

When chatting with friends and business colleagues, I was asked to put a face with the name. Well here you go.

April eighth was a happy day.  I bought the house.  She's a big sucker, much more than I imagined.  The argument is still open on the square footage as the realtor's brief contradicts with the other various descriptions - each of which states a different number.  But, she's mine.  And while I didn't have time to savor a poolside, tropical cocktail as I was moving and closing on two business deals, there was no need for a bazooka.  I'm happy.

Having been here for 3 days + a week, I must reflect on the advice of a dear friend who once told me to never buy the "big house" as its a pain to clean and maintain.  He's right.  For argument's sake, lets call my place X thousand square feet.  Well I'll be damned if it isn't $2 a sq/ft just to maintain.  That's outrageous.  The pool heater alone sucks 80 gallons of propane every ten days, for goodness sake.  And that's just one aspect of the back yard.  We haven't even entered the house yet!  But, I'm happy.  And she's mine.

I really got the wake up call when the decorator spoke in simple figures like, "... replacing the chandelier shouldn't cost more than five (5) ... or ... the fixtures and lighting can be done for two (2) ..."  This means thousands, not hundreds.  She didn't even mention the hundreds.  She only spoke in twos, fives and eights.  Ugh!  But, I'm happy.  And the house is mine.

I reflect further on what another friend of mine said, "That's what you get for buying a gazillion dollar house on the water."  And maybe he's right.  But as I write this, I'm looking across the South Grand Canal - the tributary to the Intercostal waterway - to houses that could swallow me whole and I wonder how they managed the sticker shock.  Poor, rich bastards.  But, I'm happy.  And she's mine.

The cats like it, so it must be cool.

On the 4th of July my Granddaddy passed away.  It was a sweet passing as it was quick and unexpected.  Plus it removed any chance of his continued slide into Alzheimer's.  It is a far better fate than to have all his memories and abilities stripped away over time.  He was after all; a man of passion, feeling and understanding.  He understood the pain in man.  And he understood love - most supremely, he understood love.  Yes, my Granddaddy was a preacher, but being a preacher was only a vocation.  He was a pure man first.  And that was the man I knew - the man I miss - the man that still teaches me from the grave.

At the funeral service, it was read:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

I cried.  I understood.  “Love never fails”.  I laughed at/with my Granddaddy.  I smiled toward heaven and I cried again.  Then I cried a lot.  I got it.  Granddaddy had smacked me upside the head when I needed it the most.  He was like that too.  He was a man of timing - something that only the humorist in me understood.  Thank you Granddaddy.  I will never miss you as you are around me always, even when I have completely given up all hope that you'll show.  I do miss your laugh, though.  And your ice cream sodas.  Sneaky bugger.

While re-writing this, I listened to:  Everlasting Love from the album "B-Sides 1980-1990" by U2.

I miss the BVIs and really want to snorkel the lost road of Bimini.  Work has been hell and the hurricane season has really taken a toll on productivity.  Thankfully, it didn't sink us like the Gulf Coast.  But repairs are repairs.  (We lost 175 tiles from the roof with an additional 125 broken but in place.)  And closing down an office so your employees can take care of personal issues still costs money.  Anyway, it all means that I have to pick up the slack somewhere - working later at night and on the weekends while managing home repairs.  A break would be nice.  And a little sand in the toes goes a long way toward rejuvenation.

While writing this, I played: End It On This from the album "Tragic Kingdom" by No Doubt.

I've been traveling so much lately that I'm looking forward to Christmas not as a time of celebration, but as a time to sleep and relax.  In the last six weeks, I've been overnight in Miami twice, Maryland once, Switzerland once, DC for a quick one day meeting and I'm  heading back to the land of chocolate again next week.  Its been go-go for so long I don't know if the milk in the fridge is old or new.  Come Christmas its old movies and lots of sleep.

While writing this I played: Show #20 Drugs, Sex, and The Last Man Standing from the Podcast "Cush:Things I Say" by Cush.

Oh my!  What a disastrous choice Zurich made by getting rid of the old lights in exchange for the new ones that run along Bahnhofstrasse during the Christmas holidays.  You can see them in the photo here, or at WiFi-Art.com, where there's a great shot of them in the dead of night.  They are the white toothpick looking things lining the center of the street.  Apparently the old lights were too old and too expensive to maintain, so they gathered all the smart minds of the city to devise a fancy, new decoration for Zurich's main shopping district.  In a nod toward Swiss clocks, its supposed to be "The World's Largest Timepiece" - designed Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler.  Well the people of the city hate it; and I can see why.  Its just plain ugly.  And the lights are too white.  It looks industrial, not festive.

There is still a section of Zurich where you can see the old-style lights - on Rennweg.  They look warm and inviting, so I understand why the new lights are the talk of the town.  Zurich is old, small and charming; and Bahnhofstrasse is like New York's Broadway.  But they ruined it with white test tubes.  However, from what I here, the talk is that the smart minds are being asked to reconvene early next year to "fix" the situation.  What I'd like to know is, "Was making a poor choice cheaper than keeping the old ones?"

Click on either of the two photos and tell me what you think.

While considering this, I played: City of Blinding Lights from the album "The Complete U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" by U2.

Since business is going so well (swimmingly in fact) , I thought I'd treat myself to a expensive, fucking watch.  That's right, I put the verb and the adjective in the right places.  Its a !@#$ing watch - and the most expensive I've ever seen, as far as watches of that sort go.  But it wasn't an expensive watch by any means.  It was a fair price for a "nice piece" of art.

I went to the premiere of an exhibition/sale of a local collector's artwork: 1000-objekte.  It was nice, something to do; and a break from the cold weather outside.  The proprietor/collector, Peter Grunbaum, was very cheerful and immediately noticed my interest in his collection of watches - one of which clearly stood out, or rather looked out of place as it was a Franck Muller sitting along side a few designer Swatches and an old pocket watch.  Had I stumbled upon a garage-sale find?  Then again, this is Switzerland and I wouldn't have been surprised if he had said, "That's two-hundred thousand swiss francs."  But he didn't.  When I asked if it was real, he said, "No.  Its a fuck watch."  What was that?  Surly he meant a "fake" watch, but it got lost in translation.

At my confusion, and with much delight, he removed the watch from it's box and opened it to reveal the reverse side.  Ah!  While, indeed this was a perfect replica, the forger had a sense of humor, as did Peter - as did I.  So I bought it.

In the spirit of remakes, I'm playing:  Just Like Heaven from the album "Piece By Piece" by Katie Melua.

Happy New Year!

Still in Zurich.  This is my view today - one of the few clear days in a couple of weeks.  Even last night with the fireworks celebrating the turn of the calendar, the "soup"/fog rolled in about 11:30PM, just in time to completely block my view of the festivities.  And then, in perfect timing, the fog evaporated around 12:45AM, giving me a great view of what was probably the coolest fireworks show I never saw.  But, it sounded great.

While looking at this I played: Fingerprints from the album "Fingerprints" by Larry Carlton.

Going up Mt. Pilatus, Luzern was unreal.  7,000+ FT in total altitude above sea level.  Its a medium sized mountain by Swiss standards, but it was the first time I have been above the clouds and not in an airplane.  The lifts alone took three (3) to get to the summit, each about 15-25 minutes apiece.  Of course, I couldn't see jack on the ride up - most of it was in the "soup" and if that were not the case my breath fogged up the windows.

But at the top, holy crap!  What the heck was I doing at 7,000+ FT?  Getting blinded by the sunlight, is what.  I need sunglasses in FL most of the time as my eyes are used to living behind shades in the bright light.  Now, I know that you need them at altitude too.

Anyway, it was possibly the most beautiful sight I've ever experienced.  The Swiss don't know what they have.  And unless you have experienced the western peaks of the US, you're missing an amazing experience.

I was ABOVE the clouds!  And I didn't want to go down.  Seriously!  That fucking ride up should have caused a heart attack to anyone under the age of 25 - the last leg being at a 50+ degree incline and at several thousand feet.  I had to pay for it, but I wonder if the lift operators get hazard pay.  I have to admit that among the beauty of being ABOVE the clouds I was never truly able to relax as I had to remember that eventually, I had to go back down, or learn to eat snow.  I can't wait to do it again!  What a rush!

In the spirit of Europe, the culture, the experiences and such, while writing and remembering this, I listened to: Dieser Weg (Radio Edit) from the album "Dieser Weg - EP" by Xavier Naidoo.  He's cool to my American ear.  Probably a hack to the Euro crew, but this song talks about "This Way" being a rough road - the one less traveled by, and how it makes all the difference.

Did some skiing in Switzerland in January, took a quick trip over to St. Moritz - a mini-break from the business in London.  What a fun place; although I was sick for half the time I was there.  My legs were like Jello and my head was a brick, but the weather was perfect and the skiing was amazing - mountains that peeked at almost 11K feet.  Corvatsch was the first and the highest, but the best was Corviglia.

The snow wasn't "great" according to the locals - in fact most of it was man-made, but I didn't care.  It had been 10+ years since I had skis strapped on, so I was happy.

Day one was all about skiing.  I was on a mission.  Ski, ski, ski.  Day two was another story:  I figured out that there is more to the Swiss Alps than making runs.  Its a lifestyle.  The skis are as much a transportation device as is the lift.  The mountain is a giant park with all sorts of resting spots where you stop and enjoy the weather, the sun and the friendlies.  Drink some mulled wine, have a bit of fondue and live.  That's what its about.  Next time I won't waste the first day trying to ski every trail.

Strange but true, Dad and Sandy, Tony and Lynn were in Como, Italy last weekend. So Sybille and I hopped in her sister's car and drove down the 3-4 hours for dinner at Bar della Terme, home to chef Maurizo - a crazy Italian that's gotten a few extra 15 minutes by looking a little bit like Clooney. Be sure to visit his website for a laugh: NotClooney.

The two of us were a little ready for a break as we had both been working like crazy - heads buried in books or pounding away at the keyboard, so it was perfect timing, even though it was only for a day.

As you can see in the hill-side picture, the ride down was a bit foggy, but beautiful. As a result of the fog we drove through the Gotthard Tunnel (San Gottardo in Italian) on the way down, but over the mountain on the way back. Holy crap that was scary, amazing, eye-poping and in all other manners of shock and awe. However, the pictures just don't capture it as its too massive and all surrounding to fit on film with justice. You see a picture of me with a hand on a guard rail, the valley below.

What you can't tell from the picture is that the temperature is about 45 degrees because we're about 6,000 feet up, there is a massive plunge about 12 short inches behind me and I have a death grip on the rail. And we hadn't even reached the peek of the overpass yet, which is a total of 6,916 feet. If you look at the picture of the valley and the road, the beginning of the Gotthard overpass begins in the very right hand side, around the lake. Trust me, its a long way down.

Its a 30 minute drive (or was for me) to get up the mountain, through all the switch-backs and jaw-dropping roundabouts. My pulse was a little bit quicker. At the top, it was amazing - snow still clinging to summerless rock. (July, remember.) There were lakes of crystal clear water - freezing Sybille is jumping in front of one as the sun was setting. Little villages and extended camp sites surrounded the lakes. It was massive - a plateau that stretched 2-10 miles in any direction (that you could see). Its probably bigger.

We drove the plateau north and went through other little villages that were the most incredible sights - a castle, a church, a cluster of cottages and a train station carved into the side of a mountain. I lost my mind. It was like the train-set towns I tried to create as a kid, but these were 200 inhabitant neighborhoods stuffed into a small valley and shadowed between two, snow-capped mountain peeks 6,500 feet above the rest of the world. Göschenen and Hospental were two.

On the north side, coming down the mountain, there were cows everywhere - just standing on the side of a massive cliff, munching on hearty mountain grass. Sybille says their "happy" cows - referring to bio-friendly, organic milk. I remarked that they were the potential falling objects that the sign had warned us of on the drive up. St. Gotthard is a wonderful place and I cannot wait to go back. Only next time, I'm renting a Porsche for the drive (or shipping mine over as that's what she's supposed to be driving, not to the grocery store on US1).

As for dinner, it was great - perfect outdoor setting with candle light, warm summer breezes coming off Lake Como and wonderful company. The food wasn't bad, either. But were were there to visit family. Unfortunately, I only got one picture with the family (and Maurizo hamming it up) and it wasn't very flattering for Sybille. So Dad, if you have better ones, please forward them.

PS: While in Como, stay away from the green stuff. You'll be happier.

While writing this, I played: No Doubt - It's My Life from the iTunes radio.

I have been thinking of getting a new (mobile) phone for months. I like the Sony Ericsson UI - always have. But I have been thinking about moving to the Motorola V3i for form over function reasoning, and so that I might make the switch to flip vs. candy-bar. BTW - a great review site lives here: Mobile-Phones-Uk.org

But the problems over which phone to pick only grows from there. For example: I would rather have the SE UI vs. the RAZR version. I would also prefer the functions of the SE (K800i) vs the RAZR, but I don't want to be carrying around a "brick" that occasionally "self opens" the camera lid when in your pocket. Which brings me back to the RAZR,..but I hate the UI and I cannot believe that Motorola still doesn't have a multi-numbered concept per entry. (What's with that? Its 2006/7, already!) I have several hundred contacts in my phone directory - each with 1, 2, 3 or 4 numbers and a couple of extras like email addresses. That adds up. The scroll "nipple" on my old SE is already well worn from scanning down the list. That would multiply by 2-6 times with the RAZR UI.

But,...still: my old SE phone is a bit bothersome due to the candy-bar form and it likes to call people from my pocket (because its bored, I guess) - despite the key-lock being engaged. A colleague of mine named Aaron is continuously the recipient of unwanted (and empty) text messages send by my bored, pocket residing and "supposedly" key-locked phone. A clamshell would solve this. Give me a K800i in a clamshell model and I'd jump, but the problem is that it would measure 3 inches thick.

What I really want to know is: Don't Sony Ericsson and Motorola know this? They assuredly use their own phones and have secret labs where they investigate the competition's, don't they? Doesn't the CEO of Motorola carry a RAZR? If he does, how the fuck does he not notice that it takes 20 minutes to find the right number because it lists them one-at-a-time-in-a-single-file-fashion-that-lists-Aaron's/cell-Aaron's/home-Aaron's/work-Aaron's/fax-Aaron's/email-Aaron's/beachhouse, etc? And how does the CEO of SonyEricsson not notice that his phone is dead because the camera has been filming the inside of his coat pocket for the last 3 hours (with sound) while he was attending a VIP brunch at the "happy ending" Sushi House? Come on guys! As a friend of mine loves to say, "have your people call my people"...but the problem is that they either have dead phones or can't find the number.

The verdict is still out.

While rummaging for the cellphone hiding in my pocket, it played (to its own contented happiness): Bitch Called Jealousy from the album "Sky Daddy" by Alan St. Jon.

I've been back in Switzerland for a little over a week but I thought it would be nice to share the looks of our (Navarco's) temporary offices that doubles (or begins, really) as George's apartment in the Wollishofen section of Zürich - on the left (west) side of the Lake of Zürich. Since my return - my 6th trip to Zürich in a year - the city has started to grow cold again and the leaves are changing in preparation for winter. However, the country hasn't gotten the weather report totally down yet. Today, we had a lunch meeting downtown with a couple of fund managers and I arrived wearing a polo shit, sweater, a suit jacket and an overcoat (rain-style).

After lunch, George and I wondered downtown in search of a Nespresso store so he could buy some coffee. Within 15 minutes I was stripping on the streets - down to the polo, as I was roasting away in all my layers. But the day was beautiful and we were happy - the city was happy - everyone was out, enjoying the day. But we worked (as we have a company to build in a new land).

At 8PM, I headed home. And I was happy to have all my layers, as it was briskly cold. But it was a good day, and I had warm food waiting for me at the other end. Above are the shots from the “office” windows. On the right you can see (if you look closely) the swiss pride at work.

While correcting this entry for use with Categories, Tags and Keywords, I played:Your Blue Room from the album “The Complete U2 - Original Soundtracks 1” by Passengers.

I took a lazy Sunday today.  Woke up mid-morning.  Brushed my teeth and crawled back into a warm bed until noon.  Had some naked time with my lover and later shared an omelet and bacon (the real stuff) while the fall air drifted through the windows.  Afterward, it was time for her to pick up her studies and for me to do some work - research mostly for a new project.  But then I got the latest email message from MacWorld saying that my new issue was ready for download.  I said to Sybille, “You get sports on Sunday in Switzerland?”  I explained that I wanted to skip work and have a lazy, fall Sunday - the kind where you sit on the couch, reading a book (or on-line magazine) with the sun on your shoulders while high priced athletes do acts representing physical activity on the TV...that  you don't watch it but know that its somewhere in view, with the sound turned down to a “background” level.  I also explained that the sun and the warmth of the laptop in your lap combined into a sort of slumber-like elixir that Sundays were meant to be.

At any rate, this is Europe and there isn't baseball.  And there isn't football.  There's racing and there's snooker.  But it did the trick.  So what did I learn while I electronically flipped through my magazine subscriptions?

• That Google isn't really the king of the hill, but they're trying.  Check out David Vise's book.
• That Americans buy more books than anyone, but that we don't read them...that Thailand watches more television, surfs more web and reads more than anyone (do they work?)...that the titles of Harry Potter pirated copycats are funny:  “Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-up-to-Dragon”, from China, wherein Harry becomes a hobbit at Hogwarts and it sprinkles sweet-and-sour rain.
• That in January, Western Union gave up on the telegram service, having gone from 200MM in 1929 to less than 20K in 2005 - and I'm surprised it was that many.  But if you are still keen on them, use: iTelegram.
• That FON is still alive - so signup and start sharing your broadband.
• That non-pc blogs are worth the read...Back Seat Drivers - BSD speaks of stories that'll never make the US main-stream news and Awful Plastic Surgery says it all.
• That they don't give MacWorld UK away, but that its better content than the “lite” version called MacWorld.
• That I don't want a subscription to either AmericanPhoto or PopularPhotography as they are full of fluff, but that the Nikon sponsored MentorSeries of photographic and educational vacations looks like a lot of fun.
• That I would love an new camera and management software - Aperture.
• ...and that there really is an advantage to the Apple: MagSafe Power Adapter as I accidentally pulled it out 3 times while writing this list.  Watch the ad.

Hope you had a good Sunday, too.  Enjoy your week.  I'm off to Frankfurt to see about the future of business.  While reading and writing, I played nothing on iTunes but listened to snooker.

Hey all. Thank you in advance for your help, if you can.

I tried going through the latest 1.1 upload and configurations,...with much pain. Yes, I did the Mac thing at first - but I corrected it, even before reading about it here. In fact I was going to post the "mac" issue, but I was busy trying to correct it. Anyway...

I'm not sure if this counts as a MazzleUI question, as I have currently disabled it and all associated files...and and sort of happy with the outcome, for the moment...the issue I'm having is there is text that used to sit above the trinket section of the UI reflecting FPS, Time, etc,..which now sits in the middle of the screen, stacked on top of each other. How do I get rid of that?

Second, how do I go about moving, adjusting, etc: the two chat boxes on on the bottom right or the action bars above them,..especially as I do not have MazzleUI running?

My goal is to understand what each add-on does, what it called and how to adjust it before trying to go back to a full MazzleUI.

I have attached a picture to show what I'm talking about.