vexations before noon

one of the cats sprayed on my wool blanket on our bed. I did bring it out with me for reading in the living room but I brought it back when it was time for bed. We keep the bedroom door closed during the day to prevent spraying/marking of territory.

at 8:40 am we received a robocall from a blocked phone number, for the second time. This time I entreated my spouse to stay on the line and ask for company information so we can send a cease-and-desist letter to them and alert our telecommunication company and the state Attorney General's office. Hard to believe but my husband heard only the company name before the caller hung up. Should I assume this is a typical example of American business integrity?

Deaths or tetradic shifts in Media

Expiry of digital rights administration certificate causes havoc in enterprises as Office 2003 users lose access to their documents.

Two of my favourite radio programs have been axed, one with certainty to a lagging economy: "Let the Twenties Roar" on KSER 90.7 FM, and "Vintage Jazz" on KBCS 91.3 FM (my fingers want me to type 90.3, KEXP). I did become a member of KBCS because I cared about keeping the programming on the air. My money wasn't enough, so the program is gone, and KBCS is asking me to subscribe again. I'm selfish enough and limited enough in funds to pay only for the services I use.

So I might subscribe to Live365.com, once I have listened to all the mp3s I have downloaded (7 days worth) and podcasts (6 hours) to catch 1920s and 1930s vintage swing. I don't think I'm being so much oppositional as I am disappointed by current popular culture programming. I feel enough of my family's dollars are sucked away in the pursuit of nutritious food and keeping up with rising energy costs. If there are six - seven billion people on the planet, then certainly there should be a large enough listening audience to keep some programming on the air. I am inundated with fad celebrities, names of whom I do not recognize, and I wonder what makes them interesting, if they have messages for me on how to improve my life and become better and more deeply engaged in my community, and wonder what the celebrities do for other people. How do celebrity fans switch loyalties, or do they? Are there Eddie Pare or Mark Paul Gosselaar fans waiting for the "Saturn return" for their heartthrobs to receive their second vogue?

I'm not anti-mainstream: the 1920s and 1930s tracks which survive are top hits of their days, Tin Pan Alley standards. I liked the Police when they were hot, even like Beatles songs, still. Somehow my dependence on popular culture faded as I aged, or the popular culture began to appear more banal or insipid. My dialectic with much of the commercialized world goes like this:

Commercialized world == Spend money on our product or service!
Me == can we establish that this is an improvement to my life first, rather than an upgrade for upgrade's sake? Will hours of unreclaimable time be spent patching tech errors?

If people shell out sheqels only for upgrades or improvements, how then does one explain the ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup and Bisphenol A on the shelves of American supermarkets? Or the three-second sound-bite political culture: "You're either for us or against us?" Or even, incomprehensibly, the partisanship of food: "eww you eat dark leafy greens. guess we know what that says about you." "Like what, I have a keen interest in not dying of cancer in a country where I couldn't afford the treatment?"

Top 10 Shows That Were Canceled Too Soon

Ten Television Shows Cancelled Too Soon

I attended a very nice, delicious birthday dinner recently, where two people discussed how they don't have televisions (yet know more about reality shows than I do, and I have a television) because corporate programming/unscrupulous mainstream media/advertising etc. etc. etc.

I watch maybe two hours a year. I don't even think I watched any broadcast programming in 2009 so far. I am fine with having a TV because it provides a screen for the Nintendo Wii and the region-free DVD player. Is it better to be conscious of television programming while not having a television set and to tell everyone you don't have a set, or is it better to talk about other things while you have a TV set and can't/don't keep up with television programming.

I don't like the one-sidedness of television programming: people in suits and glitzy offices in the smog belt determine what shows make it to broadcast television, and when they get off the air. Not since NBC's Thursday Night lineup of Cheers and Night Court back in the 1980s have I had success choosing and staying with successful television shows. Shows I liked often did not last one full season. Instead I watched DVD box sets of past television series: "Strangers with Candy," "Arrested Development," "Trailer Park Boys," "30 Rock" and "Robson Arms."

I don't fault people for staying home and having favourite shows to record and watch. For many people the television is their window on the world. There are far worse things they can do with their time, and I've probably done those worse things.
If television meets your entertainment requirements and expectations, then enjoy television. I like to see sports shows in sports bars, for example, a perfectly sensible use of television.

I bristle at "cancelled too soon." What do television executives see as going wrong in a television series: too low ratings in the first six weeks? too clever? too weird? how many weeks or years should a series last before it gets chopped? What reasons do FOX television executives give for cancelling "Family Guy" and "Arrested Development" anyway?

This is why I like books. I go to a library or bookstore, pick a book according to its author, reputation, literary value or entertainment potential and take it home. I read it at my leisure. When I am done with it, it finds a new home. I can do the same with DVD sets of television shows when I rent from Scarecrow Video. None of this "here's something you might like. We decide when to stop airing it for you. We might not consider things like quality or ratings when we cancel, and we may not even provide a reason for cancellation." Sounds like power is in the wrong hands. I'm aware that the television series needs to be introduced to broadcast television for me to be able to watch it. Of course a book needs to be published for me to read it. But I can write my own stories when books don't satisfy me.

Here's a link to an article listing and describing twenty shows the FOX television network cancelled when they didn't need to.

the challenge of discernment in social media

Maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried. Are we there? Let us know the poor in our own families first. We have old people: they are put in institutions and they are never visited; with less and less time even to smile at each other, with less and less time to be together. Love begins at home, if we can only make our own homes temples of love. -- Mother Teresa

Facebook has changed its privacy policies to allow more granular and specific options for how its millions of users choose to share information. This is good. I have a Facebook account but am taking an unscheduled, unannounced leave of absence. I like that I can connect with people who are important to me, but perhaps am queasy about what other people choose to share online. As a for instance, only when a former head of state passed away did I read lamentations and comments from that ex-leader's citizenry and that's entirely good; with another country's voting bloc it's all vehemence and anger and divisive political/religion discourse. I'm proud to say that my compatriots voice their opinions only on appropriate moments, like our December 2008 Parliamentary crisis and proroguement.

The divisive partisanship reminds me I don't really have a home here.

I had a perfectly lovely dinner with some family last week. Since my mother died I had been feeling cut adrift from relations: my sibling chose to visit people and maybe that was the better approach; I bought a house so I could have some stability and roots. My sibling is still hurting because his attempts to reconnect have been spurned by some who he feels believe he is responsible indirectly for speeding our mom to an early grave. I felt and still feel that people should have the option for redefining our relationships. Most gave up--the most animated relation did teasing things like repeatedly announce they were flying in and wanted to see us, and then not ever calling or e-mailing until after they returned home. For ten years I endured this and thought: "there must be some end to this. I cannot be so bad a person to deserve this for this long." I sheltered a very ill, homeless friend for months, I volunteer, I donate when I can, I have made my diet and consumption habits political choices for the greater good. I didn't dare have expectations of "we've missed you. Here's our address and phone number and e-mail: it would be good to hear from you." Which is good, because only my godmother/aunt and my mom's youngest cousin made any such move. I have leapt and enlisted and plan to host dinners to reciprocate.

When I received a Facebook invite in October 2008 I thought it would be a great tool for reconnection with longlost relations: however, it's only good if I and the other person jointly want to reconnect. I've left birthday greetings, asked for addresses for Christmas cards. My cousins circulate their "all about me" quizzes to every other cousin but me. Ouch. I've let go, months later, of the hope of pursuing healthy loving relationships, conscious that the work and interest are all at my end and stay at my end.

People have said that the act of withholding oneself, and one's gifts (should one be lucky and self-aware enough to have them) is a form of selfishness. But what if you've tried sharing, self-monitoring and self-checking to remove any controversy or misconstruement, and there's no audience among those who should be your nearest and dearest?

"To smile at someone who is sad; to visit, even for a little while, someone who is lonely; to give someone shelter from the rain with our umbrella; to read something for someone who is blind; these and others can be small things, very small things, but they are appropriate to give our love of God concrete expression to the poor." -- Mother Teresa

Possible Reading Challenge for 2010

http://completebooker.blogspot.com/2009/11/complete-booker-2010-challenge.html
I don't think I could read all the booker prize winners, but I'm willing to try for most