Friday Fish Wrap: October 1, 2010

October is my favorite month, and not just because of my birthday. Uh, there is a wishlist if you’re interested. Really, autumn is awesome for biking and just being. There isn’t a prettier time of year to just enjoy everything nature puts out there.

I love when the Rabbitbrush is in bloom. This was along one of my two standard morning bike rides, and it provided a great view of both wild Nevada and downtown Reno in the distance. The sky is really just that bluebird blue out here. That’s just one reason I wouldn’t live at sea level anymore.

A little further along the ride, there’s a few sheep in a small pasture. I laid the bike down and leaned against the fence to appreciate a border collie as she raced circles around the sheep, nipping hocks, and herding to her hearts delight. Occasionally, she’d stop and bound over to me for a bit of tail wagging, panting approval.

We were both having a grand morning.

Bernard Schwartz didn’t have such a good morning, and neither did any of his legions of fans, which included me. ‘Bernie’ - aka Tony Curtis - passed away at age 85.

I really am starting to feel old in that so many of the iconic film stars of my youth are now gone - Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn and so many more. We who knew them were greater for it.

You’ll notice over the course of this month that I’m offering up more breast cancer information. This is, after all, Breast Cancer Awareness month. As I do every year, I’ll be posting a wide variety of related information, from prevention to diagnosis, from treatment to survivorship issues- including what I think of Sharron Angle, Nevada’s TeaNut candidate for U.S. Senate. Sharron - who doesn’t support ‘mandates’ to ensure that all women have the option to get a mammogram, regardless of what their insurance company would offer, or not.

Those of you out there who are in one of those stages are encouraged to contribute your ideas and opinions. Feel free to voice your concerns.

One of my concerns: I think we’ll be seeing an upswing in younger new breast cancer cases. I say this in regard to the latest information that has come out about when women should start getting a regular mammogram.

The last media jolt on this subject was about a year ago, when it seemed that researchers had backtracked to a position of age 50 and over. It got a lot of attention - especially from women like me that were diagnosed in their forties. I was 49 at time of diagnosis, and my docs said the cancer had been there for at least two years.

Now, due to a recent Swedish study, they are reversing course to include women under age 50. The thinking goes that although the statistical odds are slimmer below fifty, what do you tell that woman who finds it at age forty-something. Gee, you’re a statistical anomaly, too bad?

But here’s why I think there could be a shift toward a younger population in the years to come: diet and lifestyle.

Woman of my generation (Baby Boomer) and older didn’t have access to the amounts of hidden hormones and other additives in the food supply. We also didn’t spend as many years carrying so much more body fat. Body fat promotes estrogen production. Our food supply (dairy and meat) is laced with it as well. Take a look at the young women out there - and adolescent girls as well. They’re really heavy - with ‘muffin top’ waistlines and enlarged breasts that we would have died for at the same age, back in another generation.

This speaks to too many calories and too much estrogenic activity. It’s a set-up for more and earlier breast cancer.

Stay tuned - as in vigilant.

Talking about Sharron Angle, I’m so weary of those Crossroads GPS ads about how Harry Reid having done everything short of asking every illegal alien in America to come to dinner at his house - and stay in the guest room for a few years while mowing the lawn. Karl Rove has been working overtime on this stuff - which goes far beyond any conceivable definition of ‘spin’. It’s outright lies.

And that’s not just me talking. FactCheck.org has an enlightening article called ‘Crossroads Jam Up’ which covers the reprehensible media blitzes Rove and Crossroads GPS have been levelling at several candidates in close races around the country - including Reid.

A Nevada ad exploits a gaffe by Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said last March that “only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good.” As he later explained, Reid meant to say that the previous month’s job loss was much less than expected. From FactCheck.org ‘Crossroads Jam Up’

The bottom line here is what damage the Citizens United Supreme Court decision will have been done to our electoral process by allowing unlimited money to funnel through third party Super PACs - of which Crossroads GPS is one - without any oversight or reporting. That’s right. Crossroads GPS is structured so that they do not have to disclose who gave them money or how much was donated. The evil doers can remain anonymous.

Isn’t that a grand thing for a democracy?

I’ve been drying more fruit and the declining tomato crop, and it’s been a real discovery. This dried stuff is the best damn snack/candy since beer in cans. I even took a mixed baggie of dried pears, apples and tomatoes with me to the movie and wow, that was awesome! It’s so fresh and just lightly sweet tasting. Plus it’s far more satisfying than sugary candy and stuff like that - I would guess that the fiber (especially when combined with drinking water) fills you up. Mr. Maven remarked that the dried tomatoes were ‘more’ … rather like a sweet treat than a vegetable taste. He loves them.

Give it a try.

We still get a lot of Natacha’s mail here. Forwarding takes time. But we both have noticed the incredible number of credit card offers that arrive here. None for us. They’re all for Natacha …

Let’s see - we pay off all of our bills every month. Hardly ever get a late charge, or a hold over to another month. Have sterling credit. But it’s very apparent that we are not the customer that the big banks want.

Natacha, on the other hand, isn’t a citizen and has practically no credit history, and they want her bad.

Uh, huh. That’s the free market, invisible hand, at it’s best, isn’t it?

I had a better than usual experience with telephone technical support this afternoon. I’d been having some really novel problems with Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 lately - the photo organizer thumbnails would open in really, REALLY intense colors. I did the usual - uninstall/reinstall the program. No help. And the problem was totally intermittant.

Here’s a screenshot ( TIP: always do a ‘snip’ screenshot and save it for when tech support calls back and the problem isn’t happening):

The screenshot above was worth a thousand words with tech support today.

Last Friday I got Adobe support on the line and the Indian guy over in Delhi or Mumbai really seemed to fix it. It’s something about the RGB settings. But it happened again today. Back to Adobe support.

Over the last year plus, I’ve had the enjoyable experience of working with a team of Indian software people and it’s actually helped my interactions with the telephone tech types over there. Today I was able to jolly along with Puneet P. Pahuja (now there’s a monogram!) as he wandered through my computer remotely - regaling him with funny stories about the challenges of developing completely novel software as service apps across two continents, eleven hours difference in time zones and cultural/language differences.

I’ve got to say, he really worked the problem - taking several breaks to research further. He finally really did fix it and left the color management/settings on my computer better than before. We parted with some laughs.

So the next time you get one of them on the line - you might want to remember that they are eleven hours different, which means they are often in the middle of their night. Also, just like your co-workers at the office - they are bored, consumed with the last little family crisis, hungry and cranky, tired, and most of all feeling really anxious over their inability - perceived or otherwise - to speak idiomatically correct American English.

I was teasing Puneet about this, but finally ended up congratulating him on a really exceptionally command of American English despite the ‘English’ English accent. I really could visualize his face lighting up - much like Jateen or Aneesh, a couple of my former co-workers might have.

In this way the internet has made the world smaller and better.

I’m looking forward to a quiet weekend - no out of town company. The weather is finally going to cool down to seasonal norms and that’s good - I have a couple of new sweaters I’m looking forward to wearing.

Sit. I’ll let myself out.

Cheers.

-maven