In ordering computer books for the library I was looking forward to the arrival of Chris Seibold’s Big Book of Apple Hacks. I didn’t really find much in there to improve my MacBook – which I already love as is. I usually refer to the lifehacker website once a week for a steady diet of updates and funstuffz on the computer. I had not, however, come across goPod.

In an effort to stave off lawsuits for bleeding ears syndrome due to high volumes of iPods – Apple set the volume to 9. goPod sets it back to 11 – which is good for me when I want to blast it in my car or hook it up to the stereo. So here’s an arbitrary link to the goPod website – where downloading and installation is easy-peasy.

(Amazon affiliate links aren’t very wordpress friendly. Had to redraft this several times to stop it from blowing up the front page – wish there was some php amazon code.)

I think that quite possibly this has been the longest hiatus I’ve been on yet when it comes to the feeding of this blog creature. I must tell you — however – that as with any hungry being – this blog was a whiny little bastard.

I couldn’t sit down to the computer to knock off menial school tasks or question little curiousities of the world without hearing the plaintive wail begging me to drop a few morsels. There it was, sitting there, staring up at me with its blank forms — and I could only pull my lips tight and shrug. The pressure was too much. I was stifling my outburst.

But here it is a couple of weeks later — and I suppose I should finally go ahead and try to get it out of my system so that I can move on and get back into some sort of rhythm.

Two weeks ago — grandma, aunt barb, mom and pops and I piled into the Ford Windstar and drove down to Spring Hill, Tennessee to celebrate my cousin Sean’s earning a doctorate. Muchos personas that belong to the extended family were also present…and while there are several things that I COULD write about — I’m lazy — so I’m only going to concentrate on one aspect of the weekend…and besides — For some reason, I don’t remember much else.

What I want to relate are a few observations picked up while on a tour of the Saturn facility in Spring Hill. I won’t rehash the entire tour — nor will I give an extensive review of it — as someone else, interestingly enough – someone involved in the Special Libraries Association – has already done that. So – some highlights:

1. There is a display in the visitor center with a shopping cart and a Saturn car door. If you push a button – the shopping cart rams into the “dent resistant” door. There is a sign nearby asking that the button only be pushed once. Unfortunately – I never saw the button – but I hear from Aunt Barb that the thrills were magnificent.

2. One warning: Do not for a moment joke about your name! At the start of the tour – a big burly man called us over and began asking, “OK, who’s Patrick,” and ripping off a sticker bearing “Patrick,” moved on to, “OK, who’s Michael?” When he made his way through the list, leaving only me to be called out, “OK, where’s Kevin?” I responded: I guess I can be Kevin today…”

He was not amused. “What’s your name?” He grumbled.
“Uhhhh. Kevin.” I said sheepishly, looking for a pebble to kick.
He didn’t belong in the visitors center.

3. It has now been determined that my seestore can indeed name her son-to-be “Aardvark.” The family had been discussing the possibilities – as her husband’s family has a tradition of the first born son being named with the initials A.J.

Seestore has expressed an interest in wanting to name him after something from nature – and since “Apple” is already taken – the most reasonable moniker she could come up with was “Arbor.” We mocked and we mocked and we suggested, jokingly, Aardvark as an alternative.

Imagine the surprise of the ten or so of us when we arrived at the visitor’s center of the Saturn tour and were told that our tour driver was named “Aartvark.” While the speaking half of our tour guides went on about safety precautions, the Yezbicks all exchanged knowing glances — until my mother interrupted with, “That’s what my grandson is going to be named!”

Aartvark looked like he didn’t know what hit him — or was just plain incredulous. No matter. Seestore — your child has been named. Aartvark would go on to explain that it was a nickname — but I could read it plain as day on his ID card. So I says to him,

“I’m surprised they let you put your nicknames on your ID badges.”
“Why’s that?”
“Cause that guy over there got really upset when I made the suggestion that my name wasn’t really Kevin.”

4. While touring the factory grounds, being towed around by something akin to an airport luggage hauler — the shuttle winds its way past several workers on the line. Passing them by, they often stop their tasks to raise a hand and smile in greeting. There is such a pattern to it all that one begins to lose sight of where the robotics end, and the workers begin – reminiscent of the animatronics of Chuck E. Cheese or Showbiz pizza.

5. In the Q-N-A session afterwards — I was happy to see other Yezbicks peppering the guides with questions. Barb asked perhaps the one question we were all really thinking,

“How do they feel about being forced to wave to all of us?”
“Oh they love the tours!” Cheryl insisted. “There are about 4 tours a day and the workers wave because they want to. No one is forced to wave.”

Which led me to follow up with a question about safety. Having toured the Ford Rouge plant – I knew that Ford explicitly forbid the tourists from drawing attention to themselves by either waving or calling out to the workers. In light of this, I wanted to know,
“How much of a concern is safety?”
“Oh, safety is one of our top concerns at Saturn. Our workers are very important to us…”

To which I followed up with the rather morbid:
“So, when was the last time you guys had an accident on the line?”
“Uhhhh,” Cheryl paused. “I don’t have that information.”

WHAT?!? Hmmm. Oh well.

6. Only later did it occur to me just how much of a threat we truly posed to those workers on that fateful day. While they may be used to 4 tours going through during their shift — they must’ve been thinking during their break:

“Hey, did you notice anything weird about that last group that came through?”
“Yeah. Yeah there was definitely something odd about them.”
“They all looked kinda, uhhh, I don’t know…weird?”
“Yeah…Yeah I did notice that. Weird.”

7. Then – on top of all that…(it has come to my attention, or it has been recalled for me, that not all involved are aware of this occurrence yet, and therefore this piece has been edited) congrats again…

8. There are some movies now sitting in my brother’s yahoo mailbox — waiting to be edited together in some shape or form — that capture some sort of semblance of the weekend…

Peace Out Obligatory Family Post!!! I’m free of your bonds!!!!!!

First – I am definitely suffering from a hipness defiency. Tonight was the first that I had heard about this new flick from David O. Russel, I ♥ Huckabees, an existential comedy. I know I’m a lil late on the scene because there’s nearly 2000 pages that have referenced the film already. This, of course, shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing. Indeed, just the opposite, as there is now a relatively small pile of sites to sort through in the context of the Internet. In relativity terms — this is a good handful of sites, the majority of which, if not for curiousity — I would never have happened upon. Two in particular are more likely to draw me back – 3 legged armadillo and justinsomnia (justin is a student in the Library Information Science program at UNC Chapel Hill).

It’s a path I have taken several times to weed through the undergrowth that lines this digital forest. It’s tough to find the healthy trees and sometimes it can be easy to mistake a weed for a flower. I like this organic internet. You see a pretty stone on the forest floor, pry it from it’s bed and watch as hundreds of tiny creatures flee into the soggy earth below. Then you shrink yourself down and follow after them – at each turn finding a new jigsaw of caverns to travel along. Sometimes it’s tough to find a way out.

Second — it has not helped with the creative process at all. I’m not quite sure what that movie did to me today. The storyline certainly did not proceed as I had expected. It did leave me with a comfortable dryness as I left the theater. I felt unstitched. Removed from everything around me and void of any internal conversation. Apparently it was too much for some of the older patrons, who after having talked loud enough for me to hear them six rows back, were shocked to find a sex scene in an R-rated film. They just up and left, and had no qualms about other people noticing.

I’m gonna wanna see this one again. Not because I was so overwhelmed at its yummy goodness, but rather because I am a little dismayed at how smooth I coasted through it. I’m also surprised that I didn’t walk outta that theater today with a mini-crush on Natalie Portman. Usually with movies of this type I wind up falling for the female lead just a tad. Perhaps I’m still harboring bitterness over Queen Amidala, or perhaps it’s just the fact that her character played a role that had that one character trait capable of disgusting me. That move where someone says something and almost immediately apologizes with, “I’m sorry, I’m so stupid. Why’d I say that? I can’t believe I said that. You must think I’m so weird. I’m sorry.” They then sheepishly hang their head or look into the other direction until they have managed to coax an unwitting compliment out of you when you respond with, “Oh, don’t say that. You’re not stupid. I don’t think you’re stupid,” etc. Then again, it may be that I was so turned off by the preview of Natalie’s next movie, Closer (trailer), which seemed to me to come awfully close to tearing her character straight from Kate Winslett’s in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (script)(Looking back I see that I’ve said similar things about these two movies. Similar – not same. I’ll have to try to think more precisely about my description because these were two similar films that left me with two distinct feelings on leaving them.) Ultimately, I’d like to go back when the theater’s a lil less crowded, and I can merge into the screen.

So here I am, detached. I woke up this morning with the aim of hammering out a personal statement. I managed to churn out a few sentences before I panicked and tried to find a way out. I guess it’s alright. I need something to do tomorrow anyways. I’m just gonna pound these keys with reckless abandon — go at it the old stream of consciousness way and see what comes out pre-edit.

Tried to brighten up my enviro with a little holiday lighting…One strand in front of the house looks really cheapo ghetto – so I am trying to refrain from running out to Big-Lot’s to buy some more…Actually – it’s rather easy to refrain – as lately I just don’t want to leave the house.

I was “given” the night off of work last night…The night before I’d been overworked — we had a sketch $190 order come in and I did a lotta takeout biz — and what with the ingenious cutbacks I had double the amount of the ordinary to deal with…So when I got a call early the next morning asking if I was gonna come in and do the extra work they had piled on me since I didn’t get to it last night — I kinda flipped. But righteously so…

Now I have to go back…Fo real doh. Have to have a talk with the big man too…greaaaatttt…

There are a lotta things to be checked out that should be in the siz-urfed box — but I just haven’t had the time to check them all out…I know there’s a lotta talk about some movie called The Day After TommorrowTomorrow — but I can’t get this computer to watch it…

Frustrations are mounting to a fevered pitch…

Need to start shopping.
Car needs brake job.
Cohesiveness is gone.

I’ve been seriously considering a few things…plasticbag’s advice, and Mark’s advice. Sounds like I shouldn’t be writing anything. Which isn’t too far from the current status of things.

Remember when I was watching Bush at the U.N. and I mentioned his finger rubbing? No…well — here’s the gist of it…m watching Dubya at the UN. Look at his fingers. He keeps rubbing his thumb across his index finger – he looks really nervous. Like he’s rolling dice – not quite as suave as Clinton’s thumbpoint. Well…thanks to a link from Kottke to The Nonverbal Dictionary of Gestures, Signs and Body Languagae Cues: From From Adam’s-Apple-Jump to Zygomatic Smile there is a theory of what that body movement could possibly signal – c. scratching, rubbing, or pinching the skin, increase with anxiety and may signal deception, disagreement, fear, or uncertainty.…

The new plug is out.

There was a Web Zen on music that is worth perusing…zen music.

I’m under the weather and life is really not a joy right now…I know I know – superfantastic — but it really isn’t and just repeating that is like a quick hit of crack that just brings you down harder…a vicious cycle. I woke up this morning breathing through some sort of clogged up strainer — I didn’t take a Claritin before I went to bed last night but my body’s dragging through the day is telling me there’s something more to it than that…The question is how much of it is physical and how much of it is mental/emotional? No matter. I still have to go to work — which has become quite masochistic. Yesterday we held a staff meeting – which was something short of controlled chaos. Everybody was jumping down everybody else’s throats — and the energy continued on into the evening well after the meeting was over – so that the bitching continued deep into the night. I’m also training about 8 different people this week because some genius thinks it’s a great time to open another location – and yet has managed to hire only one worthy employee. I seriously don’t understand what the thought process is behind his hiring some of these folks. Perhaps I should look into Human Resources as a profession — because most of the time – you give me an hour with somebody and I can turn to my intuition for an answer as to whether or not I would want them around me for any more of an extended period of time…

I’m gonna be spending the next few sessions online looking for scientific articles – or just plain articles – that show a direct correlation between the manner in which you treat your employees and the profit your business produces…You know — like – be nice to us and we’ll be a happier bunch and probably won’t want to stab out table 8′s eyes with their own fork that shovels that corned beef hash into the hell of their bowels…I know you’ve heard it — so if you see it – don’t be afraid to comment on its location — cause I’m gonna be real stealth and post these damn things all over the job…

How can one person be so obtuse?