Chinese shot down a satellite and sipping their tea all the way to the bank

The Chinese shot down their own satellite after three tries with a rocket. We did it 25 years ago but we didn't think anyone else could do it. But they did and now the world knows.
They'll float their bright dragons and colorful streamers when they host the Olympics in 2008 and don't forget, they make just about everything in Walmart.
One of their companies with ties to the PLA is running the steamers through the Panama Canal. They continue to buy oil from the Sudan where George Clooney is documenting to Oprah about janjaweed rebels, backed by the government, killing over a half amillion people and displaced more than two million.
But I'm rambling about the Chinese because they do more than drink Chai Tea and burn incense.
They are considered a developing country but did you know they have more internet users banging away on blogs, chat rooms and email than a US teen with a cell phone.
And they are the nation to follow in Asia. Most of the newspapers are available and read in Chinese.
None of this should surprise anyone considering their history is thousands of years longer than ours.
The great wall is crumbling or excavated for homes but they can shoot down a satellite. Just something to think about.

iPod - it closes generation gaps

So I got an iPod for my birthday.
My grandfather (the one who's always about 2 drinks in & who's birthday is just a few days before mine) wanted to know how I got music, videos, photos, podcasts, etc... on the darn thing. See, we found a computer in his basement after chowing down on cold lima beans and room temperature smoked turkey. My uncle swore it was the worst dinner he'd ever had. But then again, he sells Confederate bullets for a living so I'm not sure he's the best judge.
Either way, we found this computer in the dark room with no windows just off the pool table/bar room he made in the basement. He admitted that the Dell was better than his typewriter. The 21st century is just knocking at his door.
I carefully explained how to put the software on the computer from the disk provided by the iPod company. Then I described stripping music disks into the library and subscribing to podcasts.
After he took out his magnifying glass, inspected every inch of the pod and then circled through every one of my measly 200 entries, I was declared a rocket scientist with a new-fangled device that he thought was no better than a record player.
But I had a bright idea. The Birmingham News -- a newspaper he reads religiously every day -- and the Tuscaloosa News -- another newspaper he reads religiously but only for the football chatter -- both have a little podcast. A great tool for someone who wears bifocals and uses the largest handheld magnifying glass Walmart sells.
Quickly, in my pursuit to prove the iPod is better than a turnstile, I download the podcasts, force the earphones in his head and hold my breath. Sipping his Jameson and water on the rocks, rocking in his rocking chair that faces the TV, a lopsided smile eases on his face.
He's hooked.


Now I've got to buy another one quick before my husband sees I'm missing mine.
Happy Birthday Pops!

Frequent Flying with a Cup of Joe

In my line of work, flying is a fact of life. I live oversees and if I want to see family and friends, I have to fly. Any schools, training, seminars or conferences I go to can only be gotten to by air. Although the Queen Mary is available, I just don't have that much leave time racked up to use it. So I have to fly. Guess what? Taking off scares the hell out of me! The irony is too great to pass up, I know.
My father used to drink a lot before getting on a plane, just to make it sanely to the next terminal. I don't need to do that but there are several economy class arm rests that probably need to be recovered since it looks like Garfield spent hours sharpening his claws on them.
I especially love the announcements by pilots or flight attendants. There was one about not having enough gas. Another about having technical difficulties. Yet another about mechanical failures before takeoff. Loved sitting still for that one.
And my most recent favorite is the overhead announcement about an hour from DC for anyone who spoke Farsi to please notify a flight attendant. In this day and age, an era full of anti-extremism and I don't care what your feelings are on the subject but the fact of the matter is that the US has severe Middle East phobia right now; so when the sweet little voice comes on loudly advertising for anyone who speaks a language prevalent in Iran, the plane seems just a little heavier and a little smaller. Everyone straightens up and no one breathes. Except for the cute little old lady sitting right across from me who can't read her English version of the US Immigration Card. Who gets the last laugh now?
She does and I'm just sipping on my cup of Joe laced with a little Irish.

Thankful for Coffee Timers

The coffee maker was set to go off at 4 am. You know, in enough time to get up for Black Friday shopping. We've made our lists, my aunt drafted a time & address matrix so we know where to get when. I'm on the prowl for a cheap but able-to-run-for-hours portable DVD player. It does exist, in the 300 pages of ads we've been through over the last few hours. I picked out 4 and researched them online. Six places in town open at 5 am for me to be able to beat the rushes and buy it. We're ready. Car is full of gas, wallet is full of credit cards and the coffee is set to wake us up at 4.
And the catch here is that I already own a portable DVD. Code H03 keeps popping up -- thank you Panasonic. A $400 version with a 10-hour battery that is just over a year old. But I'm back in the states for a little trip and an 8-hour flight back home screams for a long-acting battery on a machine that will last long enough for me to ignore the chatty college student beside me and the large woman behind me who can't seem to get up without yanking down the back of my tiny chair every half an hour when she has to rush the bathroom.
So our lists are ready and my uncle (and by the way, my aunt and uncle are roughly 8 years older than me and pros at this Thanksgiving shopathon), has been draggooned to drive tomorrow. But that same uncle is an electronics genius and just researched the panasonic website for the Code problem. What do you know? There is actually a customer on the site who has posted the same technical issue.
My grandfather, two drinks in, comes out of his TV daze and tells me to just slap it with my right hand on the left side. He's a little crazy. But I'm not doing anything else. Smack.
The darn thing whizzes and bangs and creaks to life. How 'bout that.
So now I have no reason at all to scan my matrix and plot my wakeup time. Black Friday will start at 9 for us now. It's my first time (I've been out of the country for a bit) so I'm not crushed. I'll probably miss out on the 7-piece luggage set for $40 and the all-inclusive Spanish software for $5. But I will get to sleep.
And the coffee maker is now set for 8. I'm so thankful for coffee timers!

Drink it Black

So my father just died. Just like that. 58 years old. I'm not sure what I should be feeling. I'm a little pissed that everyone else is living into their 80s these days and my dad goes before he's 60. It sucks for my mom...they've been married since she was 19. I'm not bitter that he's gone. Being the staunchest Catholic I know, there is not doubt he is in his Heaven. I saw the movie "The DaVinci Code" the other day. He totally bought the theory that Jesus was married and probably to Mary Magdalene. The guy was a 32-year-old Jew. Aren't they all married by 20? Or at least back then. So no shocker to me. I thought it was a great movie and my dad would have liked it too. Saw the Alabama-Auburn game too. Won't get to hear him tell his endless Bear Bryant/Alabama football stories. Maybe I watch too much TV. How are you supposed to react when a parent dies? I'm the funny one. My sister is the dramatic one (no one who knows us would believe it...that's usually me). My brother is the serious one...a little too serious for his own good. But I'm the funny one. Life's too damn crappy to take too seriously. I've been given crap about that most of my life. People think I should take everything more seriously, especially at work. Yeah...not feeling that anymore. Having a parent die puts things in perspective I think. Does it really matter that you sit all day long at your desk staring at a computer so some guy above you feels better knowing that you look busy? Nope. How about taking lunch every so often? Not at my office but I'm starting to think that is insane and I won't buy into it anymore. I'm sick of the people I work with, making the minions feel like pieces of shit because they get up to go to the bathroom. My dad worked hard all his life. One of those guys who was raised to be the breadwinner -- a dying breed, no pun intended. These days people don't want you to work hard, they want you to do enough to get by and make them look good. I work for others promotions. Sounding a little like the postal workers, huh? Not really. Just sick of being treated like the gum on someone's shoe and ironically, it's in a job I was promoted to. Please take it back! Just let me keep the stapler and demote please! My dad died. I don't care about making the bosses feel good anymore.