msb-0076 Empathy & Sympathy

msb-0076 Empathy & Sympathy

Feedback comes first so...

You guys are in for a treat. I managed to get MDMH von PA to write something about all the bloggers he's been encountering on his travels across the web. I still can't get him to read it so I'm trying something else.

(I now know his real name and he now knows mine. I'm worse off by one hyphenation so, while while I respect his wish for mystery, I don't thing he's that badly off. :-)

Here not, without further ado, is MDMH von PA:

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A weekly MS Gossip Roundup of all the ups and downs of our fellow MS Cadre in the Blogosphere. Now I know there are a lot of other folks out there with lots going on in their lives so I'm just going down a list and picking up some of the most recent/vocal/prolific blabber-mouths. And yes, I know every time I point a finger there are four pointing right back at me.

First off, let's drop in on PB at The Multiple Sclerosis Companion. She just married off her daughter in a wedding where nothing, absolutely NOTHING went ... wrong. Well, throw me in a skirt and call me Sally. If the big things can go as planned, there is yet hope for all of us.

Dave, at ms not just a diary is doing his best to fend off neighbors of dubious intent and reasserting his desire to be a hermit. That aside, I've never seen someone with so much to say. The blog-mister runs a handful of active literary outlets all while managing to entertain and keep his romantic interests queued up. In spite if what his kin may say, I really do not think he is gay. A bit jolly perhaps ... but the verdict is not out yet.

Pam out of the hinterlands re-emerges with a cautionary tale of woe regarding the 'flu time of the year'. If you are susceptible to UR infections, do not play tough-guy. Myself and Miss Chris can attest that the tougher you are, the harder you fall. And Ohhh boy, what a fall it can be. Need I show you my bruised ankle? But enough of the foot fetish nonsense, I left a link in the comment section at Pam's joint that you really should follow! Also, a linkless community site I've been visiting has some interesting questions regarding this topic. Travis posts 3 times a week and usually has something meaty to chew on. Did I mention he used to be a chef?

A good friend and lovingly maternal mother, Patricia, is contending with a bit of grief right now. Seems to be going around. She put up a wonderful eulogy for her departed friend. Go on over and get the whole gestalt of her post. Leave a comment, support helps.

In the mean-time, a few of the 'AWOL' blogger have popped back up. One of my secret ninja posters is Sister Jane. She shoots from the hip and takes no sass. That said, she is moving on over to the East Cost soon to show us flat-landers just what it means to be from the Fly-Over states. Maryland will never be the same. And unfortunately for Montana, neither will the West. If you are near Gaithersburg, keep an eye out for her and give her a hearty welcome.

Speaking of hearty ... wait ... did I mean 'farty?' Anyways, Linda is back from swabbing the decks with her male counterparts. She is just as cheesy as ever and is soliciting other ms/support folk for some crafty material. She just put up a pretty lengthy post on Halloween History for all you who care to look beyond the commercial factor. Me? More snicker's bars please ... hold the sweet-tarts.

Hmmm, what else ... oh, yes. Some good news and bad news. Friday's Child is professing her love by announcing her 9th anniversary of wedded bliss to Mr Man. No illness, no loss, no hurricane nor dusty ceiling fan can break that bond. They are about to move back into their place down there in New Orleans so if you feel the urge, give her some verbal house-warming gifts. The bad news ... JodyV is closing up shop. Sorry to see you go Mam, you were one of my first links. Wish her well in her future endeavors or beg her to stay.

What? You still here? You want more of this? Huh? Well then, Shoester is railing against the HMO/pharmacy machine. Doug, that name ... as a lawyer, it seems a bit suspicious! As one curmudgeon to another, I hope you get what you need for the pain management. Nothing like a grouchy MS sufferer not getting enough sleep. I think the only thing worse is probably a wife of a grouchy MS sufferer also not getting enough sleep. I am now patiently waiting for the transcendental whack from the Mrs ... OW!

MC-Jamie is ripping it up and going out on the RF to sell that CD. She is one motivated lady. Just goes to show you that there are every-day heroes (heroines?) out there. You don't need to drive a race-car, run a marathon or climb mountains to be an inspiration.

Technorati Tags:Multiple Sclerosis | Heros

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Thank you MDMH von PA.

I still can't seem to get Mr. Scott Sigler to record a promo for his podcast novels.

Well screw you "Mr. Big Shot, I haven't got time for you and you and your little podcast".

I can tell you myself that his novels (Earthcore, Ancestor, Infection, and The Rookie,) are tightly written, edge-of-your-seat, when's the next episode coming out already, quality writing and well worth the download. (Huh , dude, like its free. Yeah and well worth it. I even paid for Earthcore from podiobooks.com and it was still well worth it.)

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I'm listening to a podcast of Science and the City, ( http://www.nyas.org/snc/podcasts.asp?PartnerCD=iTunes&TrackCD=pcast ) How Human Brains Are Wired to Connect.

It was actually fascinating to hear about mirror neurons, which fire when we contemplate the motion of others, and which I must have had a plenty since most of my musical training consisted of aping the hands of other musicians and then coming up with my own "dance of the fingers."

Well I was mainly a visual learner apart from learning theory with the pantonal system, (to read about the PanTonal system, go to http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0002706 and to read about Edward Siegner, my music teacher at Dawson College in Montréal, Québec, Canada, who passed away recently, go to http://dc37.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/news/images/stories/docs/discoverapril06.pdf .)

Now I'm not so sure. I watch videos, like the flailing arms of the dancers in the "Vogue" video by Madonna, and I can't do the gestures anymore, not even in my head. [sigh]

Anyway, it gives us some physiological basis for empathy. It seems that we are able to mirror now only the motions that we observe but also the motivations for those motions.

Actually, that explains the behavior of mobs of people, all feeding off of each other in gestures and in motivation, leading to mob violence or even just prejudicial feedback.

Its rarely good, like in bigotry and hatred, which gets into the evening news, but it can be, like in group nurturing, poly-amory or other expressions of altruism.

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I'm still plugging Erik Kjelland's album "Everybody Falls" which is extremely inexpensive and supports the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (the MSAA who can be found at http://www.msaa.com )


Its a good album, well worth listening to and buying. (And because its so lame to just talk about music, I'm trying to secure some rights to play a track off of his album or to get him to put a track on the PMN [Podsafe Music Network.] Done. He replied quickly to my email.)

Here now is the podcast premiere of "Brighter" by Erik Kjelland.

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I'm still plugging "Who's in Control of Your Multiple Sclerosis" by William E. Code.

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Carlo Magno will not be completing his trek across the USA because of insurance hassles, plus its snowing sideways (He got out of the snow on the 13th of October and turned around. Smart man... :-). (See his blog at http://www.thespiritofhope.org/blog/ )

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This week, the show notes are filled with links and that's what we want.

No more suffering in silence, one person at a time; divided and conquered; cast off like lint picked from the cloak of humanity.

I'd like nothing better than to have all 300,000 MSers in my address book, ready to answer a call or reply to an email from any of them.

Okay, its not pure altruism. I figure Dr King was right and that none of us is free while any of us is in fetters.

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Don't forget: Restrictions on mobility, bad. Our vote, good. No go out there and bug your representatives.

msb-0075 Care to share

msb-0075 Care to share

Feedback comes first so...

Dave, okay you don't like country and you didn't like "Lars needs Women."

Well what do you like?

Seriously. Its your show too.

Give me a genre and I'll look for it on the Podsafe Music Network.

They've growing their collection so they're growing the pool I can swim in.

You don't like country music. I do. I like anything thats well played.

You didn't like "Lars needs Women I did. It thought was funny. Like I sad, I like anything thats well played. (Even "ThrashMetal" but its never well sung. On purpose. :-)

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Here again is my advice on podcasting, on iTunes (or some other podcatcher) and the iPod.

"You don't need an iPod. (which is also the title of a song by "Uncle Seth" which you encountered on msb-0068 Memes, Words, Phrases and Sentences.)

That's only good if you want to carry the show around.

You don't even need iTunes (though you can get it for free at http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ )

Its not the only podcatcher out there. (There's also iPodder at http://www.ipodder.org/directory/4/ipodderSoftware )

Its just that its extremely convenient to use iTunes.

If you had it, you could just open a web page on my podcast (at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=120932170
) and say yes to all the questions until you see my late, great cat Wiki and then simply subscribe.

Its the easiest way really."

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There were a couple of good articles in the music section of the Sunday New York Times. You might want to check it out...

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We are the proud slaves of a fifteen pound, female "Maine Coon" cat.

We let the cat scratch out her name to us: "Aixe la Chapelle!" (Okay, she only scratched out an "X" in the sand of her litter box. Give her a break, eh...)

Lord help us....

We have a cat who wants to bring a balanced equilibrium to ruling.

She's not dealing with the issues of this millenium.

"Le traité d'Aixe la Chapelle" was designed to ... oh shit ... it dealt with the place of Turkey in Europe in 1818. Now they're in; only 200 years late...

Maybe our "Euro Kitty" knows more than she's letting on. :-)

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Kee'rist. I've been going over my posts and some of the comments I've been leaving on my blog ( http://multiplesclerosisblog.blogspot.com/ ) and on other people's blogs (all linked to from my blog,) and I'm such a blow hard; they read well but I sound/read like some kind of freak :-)

I really must thank mdmhvonpa for providing the initial list of bloggers.

I'd love to be doing this show with him.

He seems to have a presence and provides quick, pithy aphorisms to everybody. (Hey! Want to try it? Drop me an email: charles [at] MSBPodcast.com. We could do something that would relieve my poor listeners out there. )

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Erik Kjelland recorded an album called "Everybody Falls" for the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America that "deserves" your support. ( http:/www.everybodyfalls.com or http://www.brightercd.com/purchasethecd.html )

You should "buy" it, and I'm not saying that just because I did.

Since its for the MS Society, I don't think they'll mind if I play a snippet.

You are more likely to tell your friends about it and get them to "buy" it.

They can even come and play the snippet off of this show, for free, and get the ordering into off of the show notes of directly from the show links.

Actually, it sounds pretty darn good.

Its well produced.

Its got nice, straight-forward vocals.

But I do take some exception to labeling the tunes as Rock.

They are simply too melodic for that and the guitar is definitely not "heavy." (Not a bad thing. :-)

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PBS just ran a fascinating special called "Remaking American Medicine." ( http://www.pbs.org/remakingamericanmedicine/care.html )

It states that, like all human endeavours, our health care suffers from the same basic systemantic flaw, and that flaw is that systems oppose their own function.

(To read more about systemantics head to http://www.generalsystemantics.com/Systemantics.htm or buy the book
Systemantics™. 2d ed. 319 pages. 1986. ISBN 0-9618251-0-3 [Softcover])

Just like Social Security would perhaps be better labeled as Social inSecurity, our health care would perhaps be better labeled as Health don't Care.

Its run, by the state or for profit, by healthy people, and consists of as many hoops as they can think of to place in the way. They're just doing their job, its nothing personal...

It also consists of a myriad of systemic obstacles, and therefore systemantic constructs, to the actual delivery of healthcare.

First and foremost of these is that doctors are not paid to take care of you when you're healthy. They are paid only for treating you for something, (and honestly, you're not guaranteed of anything as they're only practicing medicine.)

(Go for an annual check up twice a year and see how much of that will be covered by your insurance.)

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Next comes with the duplication of record keeping.

If and when you move, none of your records are available unless you specifically request their transfer, in writing.

(Good luck in getting transfered without an expensive power of attorney if you can't write for any reason. If you can't pay, roll up your arm and bend over.)

In my travels across America (both through Canada and through the United States) and in Europe, I have seen dozens of doctors, dentists, clinicians, pharmacists, therapists and specialists none of which know about any of the rest.

I have seen the inside of far more clinics to confirm what I already knew than my legs can now manage in a single trip.

And none of the records acquired in one place are available in the next place.

I have had to fill out the same damn forms over and over and over.

(I have given gallons of blood unnecessarily, just because none of the doctors had access to another's doctors results. [And I hate getting stuck and bled. It increaces my chance for an infection and potentially for an exacerbation every single time.])

Curiosity killed the cat, and I'm not taking any bets on the longevity of this reluctant patient.

Basically, we have to start keeping and transporting our own medical records in a USB dongle because if Doctor A doesn't know about what Doctor B's doing, he's likely to reorder a test uselessly, or to do something counter-indicated (read stupid) and possibly kill us.

We can put multiple megabytes of information on there and the doctor can add his new info, or save us all a lot of pain and waste of both time and money re-ordering tests.

If you hear any guff about patient confidentiality from any wise-ass, just tell them you're the patient and you demand that you be provided with a machine readable copy of your records.

There's CPT and IDC-9 data on you, prescription and medication interaction information and you're not leaving without a machine readable copy of your information.

And the next time you're handed one of these stupids forms to fill out, just hand them the dongle and tell them that they can copy all of the info there. (I figure if enough of us treat them like they were poor, stupid and ignorant, they'll eventually get the message.)

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Now that we've got our end of this handled; (we want our records damn it and we're going to make their lives easier if it kills them,) how do we get the poor (*cough* *cough*) doctors to stop having to fight with the public and private plans out there.

Shared care implies shared funding.

That implies a single payment point. Given the reticence of the Federal gummint to do anything not involving shifting rubble in foreign parts, I wouldn't count on them for a thing.

Next best thing, implies 50 payment points, State by State medical plans, with coordination on expenses by CPT and ICD-9 code.

The health care providers have got to be stopped from playing their stupid friggin' games; calling the same part or procedure by different names and/or numbers and having different price structures depending on what they can get away with charging by using the old divide and conquer technique. (The term ripping off the unsuspecting comes unbidden into my mind.)

Just look at three different hospital's records from just three different parts of the country. (I have,) and check out the myriad of inventory part numbers for the same part and the myriad of prices for the same part too.

Each hospital has its own price list from each manufacturer. Each manufacturer has its own price lists for each hospital.

Enough of that shit.

If its a procedure or part, I want it to be called the same thing and to cost the same.

I don't want a price based on whether I buy it in one state or the next.

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Then we'd only have one worry left; getting ripped off by less that scrupulous health care administrators.

That's what regulators are for, with stiff prison terms if they fail to regulate.

Honestly, we have got to start making these companies play fair, on a level playing field.

The problem with Adam Smith's "invisible hand of the market forces" is that its attached to an arm that is getting twisted into a pretzel.

Companies never play fair.

They're always trying to get an advantage not based on the quality of their products or their services.

They never want to compete.

Fine.

They already have a patent system to take care of that.

But that doesn't seem to be enough, does it?

Lets set the prices and take competition right out of it, or at least to another level entirely.

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Medicare mobility devices cutbacks on the 15th, bad, our votes on the 7th, good.

Go and bug your representatives.

msb-0074 Dangling over a precipice

msb-0074 Dangling over a precipice

Feedback come first so...

I've been in touch with the people over at "Faces of MS."

I have given permission to use my, uh, smiling contenance, (sounds better than my ugly mug,) on their annual report.

It seems they wanted to run local New Jersey faces rather than using faces from all over the nation.

Hey, whatever... I'm just glad to do my bit.

Maybe they'll ask me to run an ad, which means that I'd run a show called "Faces of MS" and you'll get a show featuring the organizers.

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To 'Miss Chris' we're all pulling for your husband. (But not on him. Since we all live in different directions, that could get messy. :-)

I got some feed back from Jaime from Alaska.

She finally caught MSB-0072 and she loved the song "Reinstalling Windows". :-)

That's a vindication as far as I'm concerned.

I hope their both enjoying her and her daughter's trip to San Fran.

Now if I could just talk the rest of you people into using iTunes and subscribing to the RSS feed of the podcast... Instead of going to the page over and over again.

(My stats are showing "up". And half of those are coming via subscription. But that could be a transient ... Still ...

Wow! My words are having some effect. [I can't tell you how I've often felt like I was the world's biggest wanker for doing this podcast {and yet I'm "sure" that it is one of the best ways for disseminating talk and tunes to everybody with MS.}])

I'll soon have pictures of my new cat to put in my images to sell on items on my store.

She's a Maine Coon cat and big. You'll probably hear more about her as she's a rescue cat and I firmly believe in rescuing animals.

She's got a divine purr and we already get along great.

I let her sleep and she lets me type.

The link to the store is on the webpage at MSBPodcast.com.

Maybe you could use a "hoodie?" (I know that its getting cold out there 'cause its getting cold in my s.o.h.o., [and I wish they'd turn the heat on already. {I'm an "owner" of this friggin' condo and Lee sits on on the board, so you think that I'd be informed. But, no...}] :-)

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For Suzy and Friday's Child, I'm going to quote myself here.

"You don't need an iPod. (which is also the title of a song by "Uncle Seth" which you encountered on msb-0068 Memes, Words, Phrases and Sentences.)

That's only good if you want to carry the show around.

You don't even need iTunes (though you can get it for free at http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ )

Its not the only podcatcher out there. (There's also iPodder at http://www.ipodder.org/directory/4/ipodderSoftware )

Its just that its extremely convenient to use iTunes.

If you had it, you could just open a web page on my podcast (at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=120932170
) and say yes to all the questions until you see my late, great cat Wiki and then simply subscribe.

Its the easiest way really."

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I know I'm now committed to blogging and podcasting once a week but I gotta tell you, I miss doing it twice a week. Okay, it shouldn't seem like so much but I miss it.

Podcasting, even with this shaky voice and lousy reading ability, just feels so great.

I enjoy digging up tunes for you on the PMN (Podsafe Music Network) and unashamedly venting whatever things were bugging me, (and from the email feedback I was getting it must have been bugging some of you too, [I still wonder how that lady got my podcast or my email address {The Luddites are all over the place.} I'm surprised she didn't write me by a quill pen plucked straight from a duck's arse.])

Well, I'm commited that its once a week.

I do wish some of you would record messages on the Odeo voicemail.

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It seems we dangle over a lot of precipices.

We're all dangling over the same precipice, insecurity, but MS adds to the height we must fall.

Its not just job insecurity, and some of us are a bit beyond that, but its about our health and our health care.

There is something specially worry-some about the future.

Its very vexing to goto bed at night and not be sure that we're going to wake up with the same capabilities in the morning.

The reason that we're not sure compounds the worry.

With MS, stress is definitely a factor.

I think that my last attack was due to a prolonged period of stress. (Now, I no longer give a shit and everything seems to be stable with my nervous system... [Would that I had learned to stop worrying earlier, {but hindsight is always 20/20.}])

We stress about our level of disability, which can lead to an exacerbation and an exacerbation can lead to an unpredictable level of disability, which caused stress in the first place. (Sort of a "No Win" "death spiral" kind of situation.)

That's why I recommend "Tai Chi" or some form of exercise requiring concentration to every MSer.

It gets you to focus on something other than the stressful uncertainty and gets us to try things that can acually help us.

The very attemp is bound to ease our stress and any success is bound to help our attitudes.

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Kim Jong Il; someome else who's dangling over a precipice.

Boy is he sorry he ever held the nuclear tests. He let the cat out of the friggin' bag. Now he wants to get back to the negotiating table.

Some diplomats from China went over there and probably explained to him what I said was his problem now, in much more diplomatic terms, but in a very real way. He can't use it and now he doesn't dare sell it.

Until he gets off the self-serving, paranoid "imperialist war mongering Americans" ranting, gets his head out of his ass, and gets North Korea's economy aligned with the rest of the planet's, he is now at a very real risk of getting his ass atomized if anything nuclear happens to anyone, anywhere.

And he's not Muslim...

There's 80 times as many Muslims as there are North Koreans.

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The information on which we all rely, the health-care providers, doctors and health researchers that we use directly and indirectly, is dangling over a real precipice.

PBS had something about "Net neutrality" (yesterday as I write this,) and I whole-hearedly recommend that you go there (at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/index.html ) and check it out.

It made it abundantly clear what the phone companies and the cable companies, who have been charging you for fibre to the home and have been getting huge tax subsidies to bring you fibre to the home besides, for the past twenty or so years, have "not" been doing for the past twenty or so years; bringing you fibre to the home.

The development of RSS may be great for simplifying syndication, meaning that you can pick up new episodes of things automagically and downloading them in the background at the system's convenience, but the power of the iTunes music store and the real power of podcasting is that it is able to thrive in a bandwidth deprived region (and if you're in the United States, you are in a bandwidth deprived region of the world.)

The telcos and the cablecos have had it illegally sweet for over 20 years and they are now pulling a fast one in Washington by re-defining their roles as common carriers into several levels of private carriers.

They want to charge their customers are both ends of a connection.

By 'promissing' the customers different things at either end they will be able to choke off any packets from a specific source, just like China is censoring the web and the internet.

What is at stake is your right to get information on anything and everything. By effectively being able to choke off the on ramps from servers, they will be able to bring you some packets at dial-up speed while bringing you some other packets at broadband speed.

Since the information economy belongs to the swift, they will be able to effectively kill off, say Yahoo, at the expense, literally, of say MSN or Google. The swift will be those who are able to
pay the most.

What this means is that start-ups will have to have very deep pockets indeed and when you're starting up anything the last thing you have is deep pockets. There will be no more Googles.

The true power of the combination of RSS and podcasting is that we are relatively immune to this attempt to choke off the information flow at our consuming end.

Though the lower over all bandwidth ultimately means a real cap of the amount of information we can take in.

86,400 seconds per day is an obsolute. At 56kbps that maxes out at 604,800 bytes.

So much for downloading multi-gigabyte movies over the phone lines. Even at broadband speed, its a lenghty stretch.

That leaves the producer or server end. Imagine that the internet cloud is now able to choke off how much information it is willing to take. You can't scale up for increaces of popularity by just getting another line into it, you're also going to have to buy service at the speed you need.

That's going to cost a lot more and that cost is going to get passed on to you.

I find it amusing, in a wry, disgusting way kind of amusing, that my rant on Osama last week, about his ending up king of an mole hill instead, of letting people climb the same mountain, applies to the telcos and the cablecos as well.

I just might head back to Canada because of the ramifications of net neutrality.

msb-0073 Grath

msb-0073 Grath

Feedback come first so ...

I've been giving a lot of it and now I'm getting a lot more of it.

I'm discovering what a nice, kind and friendly bunch of MSers there are out there, in the blogosphere.

The comments are all rather intelligent, witty and/or helpful.

My regular audienceship has nearly doubled.

This is great and extremely encouraging.

I've discovered that half of you seem to do an upload of my podcast once a week instead of more often.

Stats for my episodes when I was doing them twice a week were going up and down like a saw blade while the weekly episodes are pretty darn steady and trending upwards.

Now if only I could get you to use iTunes or iPodder or any other RSS triggered downloader.

(Yay! You like me. You really like me. :-)

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If you go to www.MSBPodcast.com you may notice that I have added and reordered some things on the Linkage section, down on the the left hand side.

One of the things that got added is a link to a store at Cafe Press.

It has some clothes and tote bags and stuff.

Right now they all feature pictures of my gorgeous late, great cat Wiki .

I will be adding to those with pictures of my new cat.

She's not here yet. She's going to get here tomorrow. We're waiting for here to get here and suggest a name for herself.

She will feature prominantly on all my promotional material.

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I have also added a PayPal donation button, so that I can defer my costs until I can get some advertisers.

The subscribe with iTunes button is back, big, bold and prominent.

I am trying to convert all of you web browsers to iTunes subscribers because and for the same reason that magazine do.

Subscribers represent something, like an audience of interested people, while web grazers just don't seem to be worth as much.

I would appreciate getting feedback too. The link is right below that. :-)

And to some of you have been showing up time and again to the web page, wouldn't you rather just let iTunes go there and download something something when there is something new, without you having to bother.

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Tonight (Monday, October 9th,2006) I've been watching "Eyes on the Prize" on PBS.

As a foreigner, (I am a landed immigrant from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs glow, [apologies to "Led Zeppelin" :-]) I find it fascinating to watch United States history as it unfolded and as it unfolds now.

I'm convinced that Americans before desegration were deeply and fundamentally wasteful.

Its so stupid to sit on people, on the dreams of people, on the hopes of people.

Trying to squash them all so as to be 'atop a molehill,' rather than letting them rise to their own potential, even though they might rise much higher than you.

Its much better, much more efficient, to use all that restlessness.

You can harness all that energy and build with it.

[clims on soapbox]

Look at what North Korea has accomplished.

So they built some things that can go boom. Big shit. I can only die once.

If you want to impress me you gotta have more than that.

A nine year ol' punk with a Kalashnikov can stop my breathing, permanently.

Pol Pot proved that a million times over by wiping out a fifth of Cambodia with his agrarian reforms. (Either you tilled the fields or you fertilized them!)

But that doesn't means the nine year ol' can actually make the bullets.

He is totally dependent on those who can.

North Korea is now just as stuck.

They have a technology and a weapon that they can't use and don't dare sell.

A kiloton or a megaton of explosive force leaves a trace. (Actually, it leaves a big crater and an even bigger radioactive cloud.)

The fallout, both political and physical is too horrendous to contemplate.

Wind doesn't care what its carrying or which way it is blowing.

Every nuclear explosion from the 'sixties onwards has been monitored to the n-th degree.

The size of the current stock piles are known to the n-th degree.

Therefore, any and every nuclear explosion that comes from outside the known will be laid at North Koreas' feet.

It will be known and retribution would be horrific.

Pyongyang would become as "the land of the glowing craters."

They have a ~1,000,000 man army, ([out of a population of only ~25,000,000], compared to the a total world population of >6,600,000,000, or 264 times the size) and a land mass of 120,540 square miles (compared to 510,072,000 world's total square miles, or >4,231 times the size.)

North Korea can be essentially wiped out in a single nuclear exchange.

Now, if any nuclear exchange happens, they will be blown to atoms from every direction, from the north by China, from the west by Russia and from the east by the United States.

And with 25 million people versus 6.6 billion people, or 0.37% of the population, they are in barely more of a position to argue than we MSers with our 0.08% of the population.

[drifts off the topic]

The problem with numbers is that somethimes they make you discover some inconvenient facts.

Viz: Cetere paribus, the total number of people who could get MS, using the one out or twelve hundred figure used by the US National MS Society, is a mere 5,497,800.

But of course that ignores the fact that MS is prevalent in mainly the upper lattitudes.

Dengue fever is prevalent in the equatorial regions and it is much worse with twice the epidimiological rate, with ~11,000,000 people affected.

[gets back to the topic]

Now look at what South Korea has done in the same time.

They have a thriving economy.

Their people are much better off on every scale from food production, to personal freedom, to access to information, to internet use.

And look at why.

Non-violence has been effective since Mahata Ghandi proved it in South Africa (apartheid no longer exists) and India (the Raj no longer exists.)

Hear that Osama?

Your path leads to wrack and ruination.

It is ultimately self defeating.

The Taliban and you end up rulers over a pile of smoking rubble; weak and at the mercy of everything that you can't control, like every virus or bacterium.

What utter foolishness.

[climbs down from soap box]

Back to "Eyes on the Prize".

Bull Connor was a friggin' troglogyte.

He had all the moral rectitude of Osama ben Laden.

He also had the same tactics. They blew up in his face.

Laury Pritchett was far more effective. He used Dr. King's tactics against him. He would have been far scarier to be up against; a racist neanderthal with cunning.

But he was only in Albany and wasn't consulted in Birmingham.

I'm definitely going to watch the rest of the series again. (It was almost not to be either. There was some hassle a while back with copyright holders of some of the footage. Like you can hold history hostage.)

----

Today I have a special treat.

I was wandering over my old hard drives, old emails and old paper fragments of crap I use to write. (I'd lo, uh, misplaced, yeah, mis-placed something, okay, it wasn't a senior moment. :-)

I found a scrap of something which jogged my memory (the only part of me that jogs these days.)

It was a piece of something I wrote either for F&SF Mag. (Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine,) or Azimov's SciFi magazine many many years ago.

I like to think it was for Isaac Asimov.

The piece is titled "The Rapes of Grath"

Here now is the resurected "Rapes of Grath."
Pulsing Logo Accent 2
"Encyclopedia Galactica

Entry: Grath

In the beginning of the 27th century DGA, the population of Grath consisted of females of stunning beauty and weak, ineffectual, foppish males who were kept in the lap of luxury.

They were invaded by the rightly feared space-faring "Tloc Pshah" a race of semi-nomadic barbarians who preyed on the entire quadrant for their foods, slaves, high-technology, weapons and assorted nick-knacks.

The "Tloc Pshah" killed most of the males and raped almost all of the women on Grath, before resuming their semi-nomadic space-warrior ways. Leaving their wreckage beind them.

Eventually, after a 25 years or so, they were hunted down and wiped from the galactic map by their own descendants from Grath.

Their vengance knew no bounds and the slaughter was intense and intensely personal.

They enjoyed the carnage they wrough. They fought with utter abandon, throwing themselves into their task as well as innumerable bombs.

They found the "Tloc Pshah" homeworld and utterly destroyed it; leaving the planet glowing a sickly green and the moon cobalt blue, as this was the favorite color of the Grath Queen.

Then, with their vengence exacted, they lost their focus, stopped, returned to Grath to eventually become ineffectual, weak and foppish again.

This only goes to show that "The rapes of Grath bear fitter brutes."

I want to think that I wrote this for Azinov. He liked Steinbeck and he loved puns.

----

Go bug your represetatives about the Medicare cutbacks. (Billions more for the military, to blow things up and to kill & injure, and less money for mobility devices. I don't think so.)

msb-0072 "Feeling allright. Unh Yeah. Not feeling too good myself"

msb-0072 "Feeling allright. Unh Yeah. Not feeling too good myself"

Nothin' like an old Joe Cocker song to send me tripping down memory lane.

He originally got the song from Paul Weller.

"Seems I've got to have a change of scene
'Cause every night I have the strangest dream
Imprisoned by the way things used to be
Left here on my own or so it seems
I've got to get out before I start to scream
'Cause someone's locked the door and took the key
You feeling alright?
I'm not feeling too good myself

Well boy, you sure took me for one big ride
And even now I sit and wonder why
An' then I think of you and I start to cry
But I just can't waste my time and must keep dry

Gotta stop believing in all your lies
'Cause there's too much to do before I die
Don't get too lost in all I say
Though at the time I really felt that way
But that was then and now it's today

Oh - can't get out feeling, so I'm here to stay
Til someone comes along to take my place
With a different name, just a different face
You feeling alright?
I'm not feeling too good myself"

Don't worry, I've got the lyrics in the blog (at http://multiplesclerosisblog.blogspot.com/ ) but I'm not going to sing along.

I've never had a singing voice.

It's not false modesty either.

I just don't have a singing voice.

Maybe that's why I became a good instrumentalist.

I couldn't fake it by humming along.

---- Tin Hearts

Anyway, feedback should come first, so...

I promised "Have myelin?" from Colorado, that I would do something on an iPod for her, despite her deafness, which you must admit pretty much defeats the purpose having an iPod.

(Well, it would if it wasn't for her cochlear implants. She has the "potential" for much better hearing than us "mere mortals".)

But it was an interesting gedanken experiment.

Firstly, it has to be a G5 or better iPod, otherwise an iPod is less useful to the hearing impared than the equivalent volume of chewing gum.

Secondly, the usage is completely wrong.

She will have to stop whatever she is doing in order to focus on the iPod instead of partitioning and multi-tasking and lettting the audio fall to the background while her eyes help her to navigate.

Thirdly, it would require the development of software (and the installation of said software) for her iPod.which would:

1. enable the opening of a PDF file,
2. viewing a PDF file, (with a slider, cursor mechanism,) with an 'auto advance' mechanism (sort of a karaoke machine but over an entire screen,)
   
3. closing so as to terminate the PDF file viewer.
   

I suppose I could do it that way but there's something kind of "yeech" about it.

Then again, there is something kind of "yeech" about it regardless of how I attempt to compensate over a medium that's the wrong bandwidth.

Eyes take in so much more information than ears but they require so much more attention.

I was thinking of mis-using the m4a file format to accomplish this (complete with chapters) and having an accompanying audio track, which she would not hear, (well, that she wouldn't hear properly.)

Basically, I would have to abuse the format in the exact sensory obverse from Violet Blue's Open Source Sex. (Yes, there are those kinds of podcasts too.)

Instead, I've written to Apple with all the hints they need to do it so we' d be able to tie in a 'chapter' to a dictionary of text files (one per langage,) and get them to add subtitling (or closed captioning,) properly.

Eventually, the "frozen music" image will be the text and illustrations on "Ludwig Mies van der Rohe" from "The Oral History of Modern Architecture" ISBN: 0-8109-3669-0, while the audio will be my usual tomfoolery.

---- Clockwork Family

I've been blogging a lot more. The list of other bloggers on my site has been growing and I owe a by thank you to mdmhvonpa for providing an extentive list to start with. I am starting a whole series of wiki pages, one per MSer I encounter.

I heard some sad news today, Friday October 6th, 2006.

Mdmhvonpa sent word through his website http://www.mdmhvonpa.blogspot.com/ that a fellow MSer, mouse at http://insimpleterms.blogspot.com/ , has lost a spouse.

Its kind of a double tragedy when an MSer loses not only the love of their life but someone she could always depend on to help.

Leave her a message of condoleance and encouragement at:

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=14194805&postID=115990211702568320

---- Twisted Family Ties

Medicare restrictions on mobility devices are scheduled to take effect November 15, 2006.

Yes, your elected officials just don't get it. That because it not representative. There are no handicapped people, no sick people, no disabled people in any part of our legislative bodies... This sucks...

Beginning Monday, October 2 through November 8, members of Congress will be in their home districts for the electoral recess. While your legislators are back at the fount, call or visit their local offices!

We've got to stop the Medicare policy that restricts device coverage and restricts mobility.

People with multiple sclerosis and other disabilities will lose mobility under a new Medicare power mobility device policy.

Coverage will be restricted to certain devices, limiting people with MS to lower-quality, poorly-performing mobility devices. And against their physicians' recommendations.

People with MS need mobility devices that meet their level of function and allow them the greatest possible quality of life. This is not be what you might be entitled to.

Basically, if you don't speak up, you're going to get shafted.

---- A Question of Family

I'm going to end this podast with the song "Reinstalling Windows" by Graham Holland. This is going out specially for Michelle, a cute biking MSer from Alaska who blog I've just read. (It http://icensnow.blogspot.com/ , is on the show notes folks.)

One of her earlier posts got me thinking about the stages of grief:

1. DENIAL --- What's the first thing you do? You try to start it again! And again. You may check to make sure the radio, heater, lights, etc. are off and then..., try again.
   
2. ANGER --- "%$@^##& car!", "I should have junked you years ago." Did you slam your hand on the steering wheel? I have. "I should just leave you out in the rain and let you rust."
   
3. BARGAINING --- (realizing that you're going to be late for work)..., "Oh please car, if you will just start one more time I promise I'll buy you a brand new battery, get a tune up, new tires, belts and hoses, and keep you in perfect working condition.
   
4. DEPRESSION --- "Oh God, what am I going to do. I'm going to be late for work. I give up. My job is at risk and I don't really care any more. What's the use".
   
5. ACCEPTANCE --- "Ok. It's dead. Guess I had better call the Auto Club or find another way to work. Time to get on with my day; I'll deal with this later."

(from http://www.counselingforloss.com/article8.htm )

I guess I was on a fast track to acceptance since I went directly from denial to acceptance (Yeah, I walk with a cane now, shit!) but there is a big difference between acceptance and accomodation.

While I accept that I now have some limitations, I'm not laying down and weeping. I refuse to go gently into that long goodnight.

I will have to continually learn to work around my limitations to find some way of accomplishing my goals.

If way one doesn't work, I've got to come up with another, better way.

Economically, its simple supply and demand: because I've got a smaller supply of me I've got to be far more efficient in my use of me in order to accomplish my goals (Do I sound like a recent college graduate in business. That's because I am. :-)

In effect, I have to become a better much better capitalist than the average person because getting this disease has raised my ambitions while simultanously lowering my physical capital.

---- Reinstalling Windows

msb-0071 Sucks to be me? Nah. Well, maybe a little.

msb-0071 Sucks to be me? Nah. Well, maybe a little.

I'm feeling in a classical mood today so you're going to be subjected to a heavy dose of it.

The usual five pieces of music but l-o-n-g-e-r.

I'm changing for format, the frequency and the duration of the show.

Sit back, have your breakfast, lunch, dinner or a late night snack (I have no idea when you're listening to this,) drink a glass of whatever's handy, OJ or brandy, and lets get on with the show.

Feedback come first so...

Carlo Magno is almost ready to get back on the road.

And what a road it is. Across the northern portion of the United States, raising money for MS.

Hope to see you for an interview before you get home.

----

I'm still enjoying blogging and reading/writing on other's people's blogs.

One Crazy Chick, aka Miss Chris, has been leaving some nice comments on my blog.

Yes mdmhvonpa, of the "White Lightning Axiom: Redux", I had indeed looked up Pennsyltucky.

Like I said, I loved the description I'd found about it.

Mullet wearing husbands of their own sisters leads to a family tree which does not fork.

You don't write like that is your problem.

MS yes, inbreeding, nope.

I got more feed back which is going to influence this show, or at least the production I apply to this show. (Isn't nice to be able to infuence people and make a difference? More and more of you are coming at this show the web and not using iTunes.)

----

I guess this next bit is "feed bag" instead of "feed back."

I went to the Chefs For MS (they are no longer on the links because this year's event is over.)

It was a great big event (definitely well attended,) on a great big ship (the "Cornucopia,") on a great big river (well two actually, the Hudson and the East rivers,) for a great big city (the 'Big Apple",) and the food was delicious.

The chefs had stations all around the perimeter of the boat, on two of the three levels) and people went all over the place gathering and grazing. (Which I must admit was a bit of a challenge of me as I only had one hand free while the other of course was being used for my cane.)

It was a beautiful night out and the air was crisp with the chill that announces fall.

As for the wine < sigh > I only had one glass of red. I didn't stray from the straight and narrow.

They had divvied up the dozen bottles and made up baskets with donatted items. I didn't bid on any of the items but MBPodcast.com was mentionned on a placard and I was able to place some cards and handouts on a table.

The cruise ended off with a passage in front of the Status of Liberty. It looks very inspirational when its all lit up.

Next year, I hope to attend again, but, failing that, MSBPodcast.com will definitely be a sponsor and donor.

But it was an evening of grazing on "Amuse Geules" rather than actually chowing down on something substantial.

For that I waited until Wednesday when "She Who Must Be Obeyed" proceeded to make me the most fan-ta-bulous lamb chops I had ever eaten.

They were perfect.

She made them with a rosemary and a touch of lime marinade and then broiled them until the meat was just past pink.

They were accompanied with broccoli cauliflower, carrots and delicious bread and washed down with a bottle of Boggle Merlot red wine.

Damn, I've got it good.

----

I bought a nice black T-Shirt from Brad Sucks.

He is somebody who's songs I really like, specially "Making me Nervous," and he's from Ottawa, a town that I called home for almost ten years. (Point your browsers at http://www.bradsucks.net and support him.)

I've been in touch "Ultravox" ( http://www.ultravox.org.uk/ ) I love Midge Ure's voice. They're still around and I'm trying to turn them onto the PMN (Podsafe Music Network.)

I still need for some you to drop me a line. I know you're out there. My download stats haven't cratered yet. In fact, I've picked a few people since I started posting on other people's blogs.

But I got some good feedback this week.

As a result, I'd going back to a weekly format.

It'll be hard for me because this show provides me with a means of expression and I really like that.

I'm hoping to take the time and make the effort to improve the production on this show.

I think I'm going to go to a radio school (http://www.radioconnection.com/) and check out what I can take.

I simply have to slow down and enunciate.

Getting a metronome with a blinking light to pace myself is one technique. Its also helping me with my breath control.

As my friend Eugene pointed out to me over a beer, (or three, :-) my show has almost no actual MS content.

I don't feature the latest and greatest from the labs or have interviews with great and learned doctors.

Well, I'm actually of two minds about giving you that kind of show.

Yes, I could record all kinds of stuff and track down various doctors and other kinds of health care providers.

But as someone from the care givers confab pointed out, they already know all about MS.

They don't want to hear about it any more.

They don't wan't to hear more suff which possibly scares them even more, depresses them even more or gives them news that might, and I say might, maybe, give them some hope ... in ten years.

And frankly that's not what I had in mind when I started doing this show.

I was bitching about how you never hear a peep in the media about what you can do for yourself today, and how you never see or hear about products you can use today.

Not some worst case scenario. (The aproach used by most fundraisers.)

Not at some nebulous point in the future. (The approach used by most researchers.)

But something that you can use right now to help you over life's little bumps right now.

And legally, I am severely ham-strung.

I am not a doctor (and I don't even want to play one on TV. :-)

I'm not a nurse.

I am not a therapist.

I am not a medical technician.

Face it, I'm not much of anything else that would be useful in any kind of emergency.

What I am though is an MSer.

I know what you're going through, and, at a meta level, I can make sense of it all. (With my looks, I 'd better be bright. Otherwise I'd have nothing going for me. :-)

I've figured how we can keep advertising out of out faces unless we need to see something at some point in time.

Then I can help the advertisers by cutting the cost of delivering their message down to a fraction of any other medium.

Now, just like a pusher, 'the first one's always free.' After that they gotta pay.

I'm going to be putting these shows up for anybody with anything related to MS. One show per ad and one ad per show.

That way we don't have to download them except when we need them. (Of course the show notes will become filled with references to these ads/shows and I'll be organizing them and reciting them at the end of the shows.)

Give me some feed back about that. How do you feel about advertising this way?

----

I'm still a bit pissed off at my mom for getting rid of all my old LPs. Some of that stuff was really choice. Really "get your ass out of that chair and shake your bootie" fine music.

But mom's birthday came up so I did the obligatory bunch of flowers type thing. (I live over a day's drive away, so don't give me crap about not being a good son and never visiting, okay?)

I had all kinds of music by Jimy Hendrix, Johnny Winter, early Alice Cooper, (though I still think "Flush The Fashion," which came out in 1980, was one of the most grossly under-rated and media ignored albums.)

Now I'm not blaming my mother for all of my losses since I was already married to my first wife and living my a bungalow with an attached granny flat on 40th avenue in Lachine, Quebec Canada, Canada by that time. (I hate the burbs, but its because I've done my time there.)

The entire granny-flat type extension was dedicated to my collection by then.

And I had an enormous stereo system to go along with it. A honkin' big Elextrovox Circa series. It could pump out 180 watts RMS per channel through two enormous wooofer cabinets and a pair of sattelite tweeters.

Man, I loved that thing.

When I played "Sky Pilot" by, uh, I'm having a senior moment here, (Eric Burdon & The Aminals maybe?) a Scotsman who lived across the backyard came to tell me he "liked the bagpipes, but could ye turn it down a wee bit."

And then I started making a list of all of the stuff I'd lost whenever I'd moved from place to place. Gawd... What a little tragedy.

Did you know that, in insurace terms, three moves equals a fire? Between one thing and another, breakage, outright losses, abandoning stuff before you leave, not bothering to unpack boxes when you finally get to your new house, you can lose everything you originally owned and get all new stuff in three moves.

I've lived a peripatetic lifestyle, must have moved from one end of the continent and back again at least twice, with stops along the way, and I must be a friggin' turtle because I still have alot of my stuff. But some of course was lost.

Still, I've managed to hang onto about 800+ CDs and 400+ albums.

And I've managed to hand onto a lot of my old books too. :-)

----

Having MS and having it take over my life sucks.

Sucks to be me? Nah. Well,maybe a little.

Right now Lee is in my office. She should know better but she's going away for the week-end and wants it tidy.

Damn. I've got Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science" running as a background.

Specially the passage:
"I -I don't believe it!
There she goes again!
She's tidied up, and I can't find anything!
All my tubes and wires.
And careful notes.
And antiquated notions."

Like my notion that a man's office is sacrosanct.

Hey I've noticed that this show is less about "moi" and its becoming about the people I run into. This is "Grr-rr-eat!"

'Til next week then.

msb-0070 Wine whine.

msb-0070 Wine whine.

Feedback come first so...

I've actually got some.

First to the people who have spammed me about paedophiles on LibSyn.com.

Its not that I don't care. I do care.

But I rather have one source out there which can catch them all and round 'em all up for, uh, "re-reducation."

Unlike Bush's approach to "The War On Terror" which cause Al-Queda to metastasize out of Afghanistan, to Pakistan, to Malaysia, to Iraq, to Spain, to France, to England, and beyond.

He had a chance to let them fail all at once in Afghanistan [they were demanding food and it was falling on deaf ears,] and instead he attacked them and make martyrs out of ben Laden and the rest of them.

What an ignorant simp. A real semi-simian. His knowledge of how to handle international relations would fit on a 3x5 card and it would include exactly the wrong advice.

Oh happy me. Being somebody's tech-support. :-)

[climbs down from soabox]

I'm helping (well trying to help) some of you to get iTunes and to download the episodes.

No Michelle, you don't need an iPod.

Its so much easier to use RSS and downloading with iTunes, or another podcatcher, than trying to listen to these live.

Specially if you don't have a good broad band connection.

----

"Veni, vidi, vinci" blogs.

I'm finally getting into blogging and reading other people's blogs ... Social networking ... What a concept ...

I'm really getting into this; I started with reading Ms. Chris's site, and it has pointed me to other blogs by or about MSers.

One of these was from someone who goes by the handle mdmhvonpa.

He's from Pennsyltucky.

I love the definition I found in the Urban Dictionary: (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Pennsyltucky)

"A state in which it is considered 'gauche' to marry outside your immediate family.

You are required to own at least two off-road vehicles and if you have a firm grasp of the English language you are considered a homosexual.

Non-whites are severely frowned upon as are people with their own identity, thoughts and more than three books in their home...unless those books include Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a redneck if..." or "Guns and Ammo" or any book pertaining to incestuous relationship with your daughter.

This state is known for it's infamously archaic infrastructure, most notably it's highways and byways.

It's chief exports include 'Yeungleung' beer, coal and tarts with floppy breasts and flabby white legs who dance in G0-Go bars in NY and NJ and who compete visciously with the Russian and Brazilian girls for that 'almighty dollar'.

One final note on 'Pennsyltucky': it might be said that the mullet is alive and well in this godforsaken state.

'I went to Pennsyltucky this weekend to play a little golf and nearly got run off the road by some mullet wearing neanderthal and his sister/wife.' "

Now, you just know I'd going to do a show on Appalachian music soon.

If only I could find some effin' music and some jug band music, it would be perfect. Gotta seach the PMN with a fine tooth comb. (An appliance about as likely to be found in them there parts as a to-oo-oth brush.)

I've read every book he's got on his list of favorite books. (But I'm such a print-o-holic that I could say that about almost everybody.)

I've seen every movie on his list too. He's a media soul mate. :-)

----

I've also been communicating with a few other people.

This blogging is great.

Its all asynchronous so you have time to compose an intelligent reply instead of blathering piffle and waffle.

(Hmm ... Sounds like my show... Well it can be entertaining piffle and waffle. :-)

Drop me an email at charles at MSBPodcats.com and tell me where your blog is.

----

But today, in keeping with the theme of libations, its about whine, uh wine.

Wine came before beer by at least 2,500 years.

Beer didn't come into its own until the development of agriculture and the cultivation and processing of grains, about 6,000 years ago.

Wine may even have led to the development of agriculture!

Since fruits and berries were part of every diet since earlest hunter/gatherer stages of human development (not evolution but development :-), it stands to reason that it came first.

Heck, you don't even have to be human to enjoy a tipple.

I've heard of bears getting absolutely sloshed on berries at the absolute tail end of the growing season. (The thought of facing a bear with a hang-over is something I don't want to even contemplate. Though it would exlain why they run off if you make loud clanging noises at them. :-)

Wine is basically crushed grapes and its all white.

There are lots of varieties of grapes, lots of colors of grapes, but if they are peeled they all make white whine, uh, wine.

Wine becomes red when its combined with red grape peel and left to ferment.

A wine's color is called its robe. After several bottles you begin to disrobe.

All wines have a nose. Well, actually its your nose; and you shove it into the glass twice. Once when the wine has just been poured and once again when its been swirled around in your glass.

Then wines have a body. (Its usually hiding under its robe.)

Wines have a start, which you taste at the front of your mouth. It usually sounds like you're slurping your supper off the dining room table and you can't do it too loud 'cause is would upset the other people in the psych ward. And you definitely don't want to get the staff to notice you either. They've got hipodermics and wooden clubs and they know how to use them.

Wines have a palate, which you taste in the middle of your mouth. It usually sounds like you've just been told that you're eating rat's ass-hole but that's okay because it really spicy and really really hot.

Wines have a finish, which you taste at the back of your mouth. It usually sounds like you've managed to get rid of most of the rat and you're looking up at the ceiling, gargling to wash the taste uut of your mouth while trying to keep it shut, so the spiders you've just noticed crawling on the ceiling, don't fall in.

Then you've got the age old decision to make.

Do you spit, and risk hurting his feelings or do you swallow, and make a new friend for life.

Although there's no way to be genteel about spitting, if you've been swallowing the vinters' guff all evening, you may find yourself either sitting there slack-jawed and just letting it drool out, or laughing like an idiot and then it gushes out your nose.

Wine tasting is not for amateurs.

There's all kinds of tricks with the ripeness of the grapes.

Sauterne wine is made from grapes that have over ripened and have a much higher sugar content that the same grape when picked at its normal gathering ripeness. (I'm thinking of the bears again; drunk off their asses on what amounts to Sauterne. :-)

----

Oh Joy, Hosana du plus haut des cieux, Angels are weeping with joy. Halleluyah and hoo-fuckin'-ray!

I have managed to finally track down, find and buy a copy of "Eefin-Nanny Down Home" by Billy Hutch his harmonica and orchestra.

This is possibly the most influential album you've *never* heard. At its heart is the quintessential, definitive root sound underlying ALL of American music. Its reverberation can be felt even to this day.

I had a copy of this album, along with all kinds of gems of delta blues (Mississippi Fred Macdowell, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson,) early proto-punk music, (Albums like "Moonquake." Music from bands like "Rhinoceros," "Big Brother and the Holding Company," "Echo and the Bunnymen") and about a hundred more. All of it primo choice.

Unfortunately my mother not realizing their inestimable value to music history (or perhaps in an attempt to rid of her son of his obsession with music in all of its forms,) just threw them away when in one fell swoop.

Haaa! I was dumb struck and heart broken when I discovered. I came home from school one day and my crates were gone. Just ... gone.

I've never quite forgiven her for that shock. It was like Maxwell's demon had taken all the air from my bedroom and my lungs were sucking in sulphurous fumes instead.

< sigh >

To inject a little levity (instead of Rebif or Copaxone or whatever your poison might be,) I got in touch with Alex Whitmore and he got back to me PDQ (Pretty Damn Quick) giving me permission to play the following song.

----

msb-0069 Bier, bier, Ich liebe mein bier

msb-0069 Bier, bier, Ich liebe mein bier.

Feedback come first so...

My download stats are showing me a couple of things.

First is that I've got over 3,000 thousand downloads.

Not bad for a 'cast I'm only getting around to promoting.

I started this thing nine months ago.

I fumbled around trying to see what it could do and how it could do it.

Apart from the nacent business model, there has been the therapeutic, almost cathartic, effect of just not shuting up about having this disease and, keeping a stiff upper lip, soldiering bravely on.

(Screw that. There are some days I just want to hiss at the facing throng, like Marullus in Julius Caesar: You blocks. You stones. You worse than senseless things!)

Now I think I've found a stable enough format that would allow me to continue for an indefinite amount of time while giving advertisers the space and time they need.

They almost stay out of my content and I stay out of their ads.

That's the kind of sponsorship I can tolerate.

And if the advertising budget can be reduced by the cost of the old content delivery, from over four dollars a patient down to 5 cents a patient, maybe the cost of the treatments could go down too. (Who am I kidding? ... Never happen!)

Second is that more of you are coming at my show from the web than from iTunes and that that portion is growing slightly faster.

So be it.

So then, who the heck are you?

I thought my audience was going primarily composed of one segment of the iTunes+iPod listening public but I'm being sort of proved wrong; not that that's necessarily a bad thing.

The audience pool is much larger that I'd originally estimated ... maybe.

Over 60 million iPods have been sold.

I figured that half of those are "repeats', people who own more than one. Say 30 million of 'em.

I also calculated that with the reliability of Apple products, over half of the replacements are due to new styles or capacities and not due to devices crapping out. Say 15 million of 'em.

I also figured that half of the kids would buy the new ones and and give the older working ones for their 'rents to find. Say 7.5 million of 'em.

Statistically, if one person in twelve hundred, or 0.0833% of the population gets MS, (a figure I'm using that's given out by the National MS Society,) the odds were that 6,250 of you would have MS.

Given the multiplier effect that people with MS have care-takers and relatives, that might double the potential audience and make for a final audience of about 12,000.

But about half of you now aren't listening with an iPod or even downloading through iTunes; you're picking the shows up directly from the web.

So my assumptions were wrong, but in a good way. (We all know that when you assume anything, you make an ass out of u and me.)

So who the heck are you?

Drop me an email to charles at MSBPodcast.com and just tell me how you're picking up the show.

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Like Simple Simon, I went to the fair, the church art fair.

I stumbled and shambled about, met people, handed out my card, ate the food, drank the seltzer (when I'm on, I eschew all forms of alcohol,) and checked out the art.

It was interesting; some of the pieces were choice; several of them were arrestingly beautiful; it was not at all run of the mill, (the black and gleaming chrome Harley Davidson with the saber toothed tiger skull headlight was definitly not what one expects to encounter in a church apse.)

A few of the pieces were quite interesting, as were a few of the people who were more decked out for Carnaval that for church.

Hats off for the pastor.

But the building was still a church and churches give me hives.

Like all churches built in that era (the thirties,) the building was ramshakle and remarkably unfriendly to people with disabilities.

There were a few people with canes. We confined ourselves after one trip through the art to scattering ourselves about the ample available seating, not confortable but ample.

The stairs between the nave above and the hall below were definitely not ADA.

Heck, with the pipes that passed for handrails, it wasn't even safe for healthy people.

Women in heels slowed to teetering precariously while we disabled were slowed to less than that.

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I'm still reading the book "Who's in Control of your Multiple Sclerosis?" by the Codes.

Man there's a lot in there. (And he's got plans to podcast it too.)

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I'm still communicating with One Crazy Chick.

The beauty of RSS is that you can set a podcatcher, such as iTunes, loose and it can download all day long or all night long and it can tell you what new episodes are ready for you to play when they're finally all caught.

You don't have to sit there and wait, which what you have to do if you don't have a rock steady reliable broadband connection.

Podcatchers are great at taking the need for synchrony out of communicating.

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I posted a comment on a what turned out to be an almost brand new blog, "Hello life, now lets get cracking." (hatchedeggs.blogspot.com), by Justin Eggar, which seems to have been up and runnning since September 4th, 2006.

I discovered that yet another techy from North Carolina, has another relative (his aunt) with MS.

Like me he's into project management. Unlike me, he's much younger and less dissolusioned by the whole process.

Following links around I managed to discover that were both subscribed to "The Project Management Podcast". (iTMS podcasts http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=79900698 ) Kewl.

Project management is the art of both leading a parade with a baton, in front of a circus elephant, and following behind it with a shovel...

Actually, that's why you need proofs-of-concept trials, object and behavior models, prototypes, standards and checklists and, most importantly, PIRs (Post Implementation Reviews).

Its tough to convince upper management that, just like doctors and architects, we don't really know what we're doing when ever were confronted with something new.

Unlike doctors, who can always bury their mistakes and achitects who can sometimes advise their clients to plant vines, if you're doing software project management, you have to fight a short history of blood-minded denial.

Its not like trying out a new surgical procedure which will cure or kill (cemetaries are filled with those,) or erecting a building which will let gravity inform you of your success of failure by standing or falling down. (Many a cathedral did exactly that.)

Because software project aren't dealing with reality, we often get stupid and ignore the glaring errors and omissions in our projects by "shrinking the project box," and jettisoning everything that sticks out over the edge of "the project box".

That's why things don't ever seem to change. The interesting parts of the project, the parts that should have been worked on first, the APIs (Application Progam Interfaces) to the other things we will have to co-exist with, have all been jettisoned when the schedule got tight.

(Why is Microsoft once again stuck with yet another kludge to its file system instead of starting clean? Why else? Because instead of having an operating system capable of supporting several file systems, they think monolithically and that part of the OS keeps getting jettisoned.)

Project management, no matter how good it is, no matter how good the techniques and tools are, won't change a corporate culture which inevatibly leads to project stagnation.

Sorry to have gone off on a bit of a rant here but this is something I actually care deeply about.

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I know I'm supposed to be loooking forward to Chefs for MS and all the wine I'd bought, but, lets face it, I'm staying sober that evening; walking the straight and narrow (always an iffy proposition with MS,) and putting my best foot forward. (An expression which never made much sense to me. I mean: "best foot." I only got two! And they don't exactly do what I want or go where I thought I was sending them all the time.)

In fact, I'm a beer lover.

I've had beers from every continent except Antartica, 'cause there's no brewries there, and from almost every country around the globe.

Some of which tasted bloody awful, like the beer from the Horse People in Outest Mongolia, who lived on horseback, ate horse flesh, wore horse hides, fashioned twine, or gutta percha from horse sinews and drank a weak, thin beer, who'se origins don't bear thinking about. (Apologies and thanks to Terry Pratchett, Rincewind the wizzard [that's what it said on his hat,] and the entire Disk World series. :-)

Some of which, like Belgian Abbey beer, tasted like the am-freakin'-brosia.

My favorite is Chimay. On those occasions when I can find it, I like to sit back with a liter of it and just savor it.

Beer has quite a history.

Its a legacy from the Sumerians.

About 6,000 years ago life was tough.

Specially if you're somebody's slave.

It could be that a piece of bread or grain became wet and a short time later, began to ferment; and a inebriating pulp resulted.

Nobody but a slave would ever have known that it was alcohol laden because nobody but a slave would be so hungry and so desperate not to throw it out but to actually eat it, mold and all.

Anybody else would have tossed it to the dogs.

This feat of ingesting a familiar substance, an improperly stored grain, it having strange side effects, getting whacked out and stoned, and surviving to tell the tale, was not to be repeated in recorded history until 1692 when the a couple of kids in Salem Mass. ate grain that was infected with ergot. (This halucinogen made for all the fun at the witch trials in that town. [Better living through chemistry. {At least when people were dropping acid in the sixties, they knew what to expect.})]

Luckily alcohol is a much more, uh, benign substance; and beer, while an acquired taste, is definitely an acquirable taste.

Like wine, which is the bi-product of rotten, moldy grapes, beer is the bi-product of rotten, moldy grains. (Actually, you can make an intoxicant from almost plant product. Not fungus and not flesh, but plant.)

But beer holds a special place near my heart (my stomach.)

msb-0068 Memes, Words, Phrases and Sentences

msb-0068 Memes, Words, Phrases and Sentences

Feedback comes first so...

Carlo Magno has been in touch. He's scheduled to get back on the road at the end of this month. Lets hope everything goes according to plans. I'm hoping to get my banner on his three wheeler, Blue.

I'm still looking forward to Chefs For MS. I'm printing up about a hundred handouts and business cards as I write this. (Its fun being a techy with lots of hardware. :-)

I'm still in touch with one CrazyChick on her blog.

She'd written something about a colleague who perished on 9/11/01 and I was quite moved by it. I don't know which I liked better, the piece on the blog or the fact that it was written so well and so lovingly

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As I mentionned in msb-0067, the last episode, I went to the MS function and found out what promise stem cells hold for you (I think I'm a little too advanced to qualify at this stage of the research. I'm also too chicken. They have to make swiss cheese of your hip-bone to extract enough marrow. Youch! :-)

The treatment seems to be geared at completely obliterating the disease by completely obliterating the immune system, (that what the chemo therapy does,) and then replacing it, either with screened portions of your own system saved before the chemo, which gets around all kinds of immune system rejection problems, or with using an uncompromised immune system as a transplant source, which brings those immuno-rejection problems back into focus.

I'll stick to my cane and keep on with Rebif. (Though I'm still up with for testing an oral or inhalable form of treatment instead of injectables.)

I gotta ask, why are so many of you downloading, or at least catching the episodes, off of the web?

You're proving that a plan never survives contact with reality.

There are more of you who aren't subscribing via RSS. You seem to be going to the MSBPodcast.com site instead of through iTunes.

I hope that you are able to get the chapter headings and the links to the bands' websites which I have just discovered how to do in GarageBand for the iPod and iTunes. (Thanks to Screen Casts Online.)

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So what is a meme?

Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (ISBN: 0-19-286092-5) defined it as "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation." That means that a meme is some form of non verbal idea or other copy-writable object. (Not patentable but copy-writable.)

What is a word?

We'll ignore the computer science definition of a number of bits in a regularlized chunk of data, and stick to the human definition of a unit of language that native speakers can identify; "words are the blocks from which sentences are made."

What is a phrase?

We'll ignore the musical definition of a repeated pattern of notes and stick to the human definition of an expression consisting of one or more words forming a grammatical constituent of a sentence. However, phrases tend to be our verbal equivalent of memes. Thus we tend to 'grok' memes or complete phrases.

What is a sentence?

We'll ignore the legal definition of a period of incarceration or other restrictions on a person, and stick to the human definition of an expression consisting of a string of words satisfying the grammatical rules of a language.

Given that there are hundreds, nay thousands of languages, with special sentence structures SOV, SVO and other rules to express memes, we're obviously going too far.

So lets go back to the definition of phrase, and skip back before we have to apply a grammar.

Human beings tend to think of things in memes and express those memes in phrases.

Objectively, in the computer science sense of the word, objects are insufficient. To properly express things we have to construct memes and express these memes in phases.

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Now lets take on a definition of a language.

Its got an alphabet of some form, a vocubulary, a grammar and a grammar.

Lets take a very simple alphabet, 0&1 which lets us express things as binary streams, or ACTG which lets us express things as quaternary. (ACTG sound familiar. It should you're composed almost entirely of and by it. All of life is defined by sequences of ACTG.)

Want to step up? Lets take Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti. (I don't need to restate Do which is just a point on the octave helix.)

Lets take a more complex alphabet, say Roman, (its easier for me to type :-) which lets us express things in a host of languages.

We're expressing ourselves, our memes, in the English language.

This implies certain word selection, certain word order and places some other restrictions on the form of what we can express but not on the memes we can express.

• I love alphabets.
• I love words.
• I love phrases.
• I love sentences.
• I love grammar.
• I love syntax.
• I love language.

But mostly I love playing with the objects expressed in the seven previous sentences to express memes.