Well, here we are at the end of another 30 days. I don’t know if it’s because I have so much other stuff going on, or I’m just running out of things to write about, but this was the hardest year so far. For those of you following along, I hope it wasn’t too painful — I tried to keep it interesting.

Like last year, I have a few ideas that didn’t make it into the rotation, so you can probably expect to see those pop up in the weeks ahead. But I won’t bother resolving to write more often, since I know that never works out for me. So we now return to our regular sporadic update schedule. Until next year, see ya around the ‘net. Maybe next year I can convince Dixie to join me with her shiny new blog.

The Supreme Court handed those who believe in the right to self-defense another victory yesterday with their McDonald v Chicago decision. Sadly, as with their Heller decision two years ago, it was only 5-4, but residents of the People’s Republic of Illinois (as my dad likes to call it) can now sleep a little easier knowing that they can once again exercise their individual right to defend themselves. There is still a long way to go in educating the American people that their own security is a personal responsibility, but declaring bans on guns as unConstitutional is certainly a step in the right direction.

I’ve already heard the victim disarmament crowd whining on the news about how this decision will cause more crime in low income neighborhoods and more violence in the streets. This is simply nonsense. Those who would commit crimes have always had guns, and always will, regardless of the machinations of the legal system. By definition, they operate outside the legal system, so how can one expect the outcome of a court case to have any effect whatsoever on their behavior? On the other hand, the victims of these criminals now have one more option available to them, and the criminals now have one more variable to consider before committing that crime.

I think it is important to keep gun-related crime in perspective. There are over 300 million people in America, and the Department of Justice estimates that there are 275 million firearms. That’s almost one gun per person! And yet, the gun homicide rate is on the order of 10,000 per year. Somehow, hundreds of millions of people manage to own and safely operate their guns without killing anyone else. And that doesn’t even take into account the number of crimes that are prevented by guns, which could be as high as hundreds of thousands (depending on which study you read). So what is all the screaming about?

Let’s take this opportunity to celebrate. Millions of people around the world are denied their right to self defense. Today, we as Americans declared that we will not be among them.

The Lenovo N5901 wireless keyboard is a small handheld remote with a full QWERTY keyboard and built-in trackball. It seems well suited for home theater (HTPC) applications, however, it has a number of drawbacks.

The first, and most noticeable, is that in the home theater environment, there is a desire to control light levels, so it is typically pretty dark. The keyboard on this remote is not backlit, so it is impossible to type on it in the dark. Touch typing is not an option either, as the remote is too small and must be held in your hands.

Other annoyances include the fact that the keyboard has a power switch rather than being smart enough to power itself off when idle. So this means if you forget to power it off, it will sit all night with the trackball LED illuminated until the batteries go dead. I’ve also had some issues with the purported 30 foot range on this remote, which is surprising, since I plugged the USB receiver into the front of my HTPC and I am sitting less than 5 feet from it. But I still find it necessary to hold the remote up in the air slightly for the signal to transmit.

Overall, I am not pleased with this offering (glad I only paid half price for it), and will continue looking for better alternatives, as I await the release of the Boxee Remote around Christmas time.

What do you get when you cross a child’s door with a refrigerator? A door that any kid can use to show off his best work. This is a simple project you can do with your child (it takes less than an hour), and then eliminate the need for tape or stick-tack for hanging those masterpieces.

You will need an old tape measure and some magnets. You can probably find these at a dollar store. You will also need a pair of tin snips, a screwdriver, and a drill. Start by disassembling the tape measure and cutting the metal tape into lengths that fit the door. Remember to leave enough extra to wrap around the outside edges of the door — this way your screw holes will not show if you ever decide to take the strips down. You might want to round off the ends with the tin snips so there are no sharp edges. Then drill a hole in each end of the strip, and attach them to the door. You will probably want to countersink the screw holes so that they fit flush and won’t interfere with the closing of the door. Also be careful not to crease the tape measure too much around the corner of the door, as the metal is brittle and might break.

Once your strips are in place, grab your magnets and put up your favorite artwork or photos!

Dixie took the kids to visit her grandparents in Orlando last week. They went to New Smyrna Beach, and they even went to visit Gatorland. Even Josie seemed to enjoy the gators — the girl has no fear. Photos from the trip are up in my album.

The three most important people in my life came home from their trip to Florida, and I am so happy to see them. It was getting pretty lonely around here. Trips to the beach, trips to Gatorland — it sounds like they had a great time. I’ll share some photos soon. But for now I’m just happy to have my little family back under one roof again.

It’s a good time to be an anarchist. It is encouraging to hear that eighty-six percent of people think the government is broken, even if they are misguided about exactly how and why. You see, saying our system of government is broken is like saying the internal combustion engine is broken. Sure it produces all sorts of deleterious effects on its environment, but it does exactly what it was designed to do, and at the time it was created there just wasn’t anything better. So you can waste a lot of time and energy trying to make the engine more efficient, less polluting, or try to make it run on used vegetable oil, but in the end, you will find you are much better off simply scrapping the whole thing and starting over.

And starting over doesn’t mean merely changing the party affiliation of the occupant of the White House. Or voting out incumbents in Congress. I think we’ve tried that. Repeatedly. It doesn’t work. But the joyful news recently is that it seems the American people are finally starting to develop some long-term memory where these things are concerned. A poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC reveals “sixty-two percent of adults … feel the country is on the wrong track, the highest level since before the 2008 election.” Well, that didn’t take long — President Obama isn’t even half way through his term yet. But the most telling part of the data is here. Specifically, look at the party identification tab. I’m curious what the difference is between Independent and Other — they are the same thing to me — but if you combine those two categories, you find that at the beginning of this year, a full thirty percent of those polled identified themselves as neither a Democrat nor a Republican. We haven’t seen numbers like that since Ross Perot’s campaign, and this isn’t even a Presidential election year. Imagine how much farther those numbers could swing in the next two years.

So, to that thirty percent out there I say stay focused. Don’t let the shiny objects of the two-party system distract you. Whatever it was that caused you to feel disenfranchised, trust me, it’s not going away. You want change? Don’t delude yourself into thinking you can fix it by working within the system. It can’t be fixed by a simple tune-up or an alternative fuel blend. It’s time to take this old engine to the junkyard and start designing a new one.

I don’t think I’ve ever written a restaurant review before, but since I’m waiting for Dobbs to change the oil in my car, and this was the first place I found within walking distance with a free wi-fi connection, here we go.

This is the first and only location of Sammy Scott’s, at Olive & Mason in Creve Coeur. They aspire to be a chain, however, if the employee conversations I overheard are any indication. You have to admire their entrepreneurial spirit — they opened a sandwich shop six doors down from an established Jimmy John’s. Risky, but hey, maybe they have what it takes. The proof is in the pudding, er, sandwich.

I ordered the Cuban, which was very good, although a little small for the price: $5.50. It’s about half the size of a $5 Subway footlong. For $2 more, you get to choose from a fairly long list of sides, and a drink. I went with potato salad and lemonade. Plus a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, that was delicious and almost as big as the sandwich. Total damage: $10. They are proud to tell you that they bake their own bread and roast their own meats in the store. They also serve breakfast before 10am.

Overall, a good meal. If you’re in the Creve Coeur area, you should check them out.

I just watched Sci-Fi Channel’s miniseries The Lost Room for the second time, and I have to say that it is really very good. It originally aired in 2006, but I didn’t watch it the first time until 2007. At the time, I was in between seasons of LOST, and found the two shows to be similar in a lot of ways. The mythology of both shows is dense, sprawling, and very intriguing. But I was ultimately frustrated with how The Lost Room ended, believing that they could have done a better job answering the questions raised.

Having watched it again, knowing that those questions are not answered, I can say that I appreciated the intricacies of the plot, and the character development a lot more, and I enjoyed the show much more the second time. It is my hope that one day I’ll be able to revisit LOST again, and find a new appreciation for it as well. Although, I’ll probably have to wait until I retire before I have 120 hours to waste watching TV. But the point of this post is to let people know about The Lost Room and encourage you to watch it. It is only six hours, and I will save you the frustration by telling you up front that they never reunite the objects. Go ahead and watch it, immerse yourself in the world that the writers created, and enjoy the ride!

Today’s the first day of summer, and it felt like it too. Hotter’n Hades. I spent the day (and most of yesterday) doing yardwork — what was I thinking? This was a fairly productive weekend, but I didn’t get everything done that I wanted (as usual). I can’t believe the year is almost half over. The weeks and months just fly by.
It must be the kids’ fault — they are growing way too fast. I can’t believe Noah will be five in a few months, and our little diva is already a teenager in her mind.

Well, thanks for indulging me. As Ferris Bueller said, life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Consider me stopped.