Greg In The Desert

A 5 month old kitten adopted a coworker of mine. She showed up on his door step one day and made her self at home. He tried to keep her for about a week, he even took her to the vet and had her checked out, but for various reasons couldn’t and his next option was to send her to the pound.

Now the kitten, which I have named Saturn, lives with me. She has a grey and black tabby coat. She is a polydactyl cat with 6 toes on both of her front feet. She looks like she is walking around on baseball mits. She still needs shots, spayed and to be declawed.

OK I admit it: she’s adorable and I never imaged I would own a cat or even a kitten for that matter. It’s been a little over a week since she first came into my house and it’s been an interesting experience. I’m happy to report that she hasn’t caused any trouble with urinating on anything and has used the litter box for all her waste needs.

She seems to have four modes. Spaz mode is one of the most common. Yesterday she was in super spaz mode where she went nuts nocking everything off the coffee table, jumping on and chewing on things. That ended when she jumped off the couch, slid onto the coffee table and into a box. Both her and the box crashed into the TV. She then ran into the bedroom for about 20 minutes. When she came out she was much calmer.

Her other modes include patrol mode, where she walk around the perimeter of the house. Love me mode is where she wants to sit in my lap no matter where I am or what I’m doing. Keep your distance mode is where she wants to keep me in site and observe but not come near me.

Due to the coyotes that live near in the area, Saturn will be an indoor cat. I posted a HD video of Saturn’s first look at the aquarium on YouTube.

• Federal Trade Commission’s plan to change rules on ad endorsements, testimonials worries marketers — chicagotribune.com – Updated guidelines on ad endorsements and testimonials under final review by the Federal Trade Commission—and widely expected to be adopted—would end marketers' ability to talk up the extreme benefits of products while carrying disclaimers like "results not typical" or "individual results may vary."
• News : Small store hanging in there with big boys – Rio Rancho Observer – Owner George Meyerson was asked the secret to staying in business for 20 years, especially in light of the large home-improvement stores moving into the area, not to mention a Kmart and several Wal-Marts?

  Observer '�” Gary Herron photos The silver hammer sign at True Value Hardward, at 2108 Southern Blvd SE, has been a steadying presence in Rio Rancho. The business is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a 20 percent off sale today and tomorrow.

  “The right products, reasonable prices and good service,” is his answer.

• An old engine learns new solar-power tricks – Mar. 24, 2009 – J.D. Sitton's mission was to find a new market for a 193-year-old engine that nobody wanted. His innovative answer: turn it into a solar power collector, then persuade top auto-parts suppliers – currently eager for work – to build it.
• Green By Design » Barefoot Dreams in the Dead of Winter – Perhaps the most appealing aspect of the radiant floor heating is that it creates not just a warm room, but an entire warm floor. The heat still rises, but it’s rising uniformly from ground zero instead of from a single fixture or a couple of vents. The result is often that rare anomaly, barefoot comfort in the dead of winter. Such systems are particularly good for homes with high ceilings, where forced-air heat often ends up where it is least needed unless the homeowner is endowed with the agility of a bat.
• Rear Engine Front Driver – Not all of Gregory’s front wheel drive experiments were racy. This particular 1947 Gregory sedan features front wheel drive and a rear mounted engine.
• Direct Stock Purchase Plans: A Better Way to Invest – Hundreds of companies that trade on the major stock exchanges allow you to buy shares directly from their transfer agents for very little or no money.
• Mexico’s health insurance success offers lessons for US reforms, Lancet study suggests | Science Blog – As America considers major healthcare reforms, it may have lessons to learn from Seguro Popular, Mexico's ambitious plan to improve healthcare for its estimated 50 million uninsured citizens, suggests Ryan Moore, co-author of a study published April 8 in The Lancet, a leading international medical journal.
• Why We Need the New York Times – When the Jayson Blair story erupted, I realized that if the Times couldn't even properly and effectively assess their own, how could they be relied upon to assess public officials and figures? It was then that I stopped buying the paper. A lot of people did. In Manhattan, copies of the New York Times often pile up everywhere.

  But lately, the alternatives seem wanting. In the Times recently was good reporting about the poor documentation of the deaths of deportation detainees by various state and federal agencies. Another article recently captured the abyss of disputed workmen's compensation cases and the endless troubles that greet those who fall into it. I don't see that on MSNBC. Frankly, I don't see that on TV at all.

• Road Tested: Voltaic Systems Generator laptop bag – I had a chance to road test one of these incredibly cool bags for a month and was very impressed. What makes it so special? Well, it could be the big photovoltaic panel on one side of the Generator that provides 15 watts of power to feed your electronic devices. Voltaic points out that the Generator is the "first solar bag powerful enough to recharge a laptop." That panel charges an internal 58Wh Lithium Ion battery pack that can run most laptops.
• The Road to Area 51 – Los Angeles Times – As for the guys who picked him up, they were tracked down and told to sign national security nondisclosures. As part of Collins' own debriefing, the CIA asked the decorated pilot to take truth serum. "They wanted to see if there was anything I'd for-gotten about the events leading up to the crash." The Sodium Pento-thal experience went without a hitch—except for the reaction of his wife, Jane.

  "Late Sunday, three CIA agents brought me home. One drove my car; the other two carried me inside and laid me down on the couch. I was loopy from the drugs. They handed Jane the car keys and left without saying a word." The only conclusion she could draw was that her husband had gone out and gotten drunk. "Boy, was she mad," says Collins with a chuckle.

I’m sleeping on the couch tonight because I have a bunch of crap on the bed. I get settled in and start to doze off when I get a loud nock at the door. That freaks me out. I don’t have unannounced visitors at the house at this time of night. I look through the crack in the blinds and I see a Rio Rancho Police patch.

Yikes! I search around for my pants. I open the door and there are two Rio Rancho cops with flashlights out. They ask my name then ask me if I know a few other people. Never heard the names. Then they ask how long I lived here, if anyone else lives here, etc. Eventually, they realize I’m not the droids they’re looking for.

Another lady comes out of the darkness with paperwork and they start discussing it. Not sure what was going on but I suspect they were trying to serve warrants. They ask me a few more questions then they decide to leave. I’m sure they also ran my plates since they asked if that was my truck.

I’ll give them this, they sure are stealthy. I heard several cars drive off but I didn’t hear a single thing when they came to the house, except for nock on the door.

Now I have to try to get back to sleep.

I haven’t written anything about the AppleTV since getting it. Mainly because others got theirs before me and pretty much everything that can be said have been said. I do think this is the future of TV and video podcasts will change everything.

There’s a lot of content out there now, but for me only a few float to the top.

• DiveFilm High Definition – Incredible underwater video in high definition.
• “Tiki Bar TV – “Cool drinks in a swank pad”. Well edited and entertaining. You would think these guys are professionals.
• Wallstrip – A financial news type program, but more interesting than CNBC.
• ABC World News – I looked at many news programs and liked ABC news the best. Besides the fact they don’t have a lot of commercials for themselves, they bookmark the podcast. THis makes it easy to skip the individual news stories you don’t care about.
• Diggnation – A couple of guys on a couch, reading the tops stories from Digg.com. Not sure why I like it but I do.
• MacBreak – A mac specific podcast with Leo Laporte.

You don’t need a AppleTV to check these out. You can download and watch them in iTunes for free. So far, I don’t know of any podcast that costs money.

This week’s Photo Friday is “Complexity“. When leaving Cochiti Lake, we missed the turn off and ended up going thorough the pueblo. From the looks of it, this is the highest level of Complexity you get in this town. By the way, the old guy on the couch isn’t flipping me off.