21st Century Flash (drives)

O.K. Here's a tip for writers. If you don't have a USB flash drive, get one. I apologize if I sound like I'm coming to this discovery a bit late. I'm not--I just didn't realize how badly I needed one until I got it. These little doodads are about the size of the human thumb, hence their alias, "thumb drives." The upshot is that they are very stable storage mediums for those who need something more permanent than a floppy. They are more convenient than a CD-RW, too, since they can be used in almost any computer that has a vacant USB port.
I had been storing all my writing on floppies. My CD burner on my rather elderly home computer is sloooow, and the one thing my spandy new computer at work lacks is, you guessed it, a burner. Oh, well. The trouble with floppies is that they are sometimes very unstable. Write over them a few times and you get a corrupted file. No such problems with flash drives. I stored everything I had on floppy on a 128 MB flash drive, and ALL of it used up only 3 MB of space. And with over 1 million erase/write cycles, I'm good to go for extended writing. Even my home computer with its venerable Windows 98 O/S, happily uses the flash drive with only installing a driver from the included software. I didn't have to restart my computer, and the drive "hot swaps" to my work computer, without restarting or installing software. Pretty nifty.
A flash drive incorporates everything I love about the old floppy disk into a smaller package that stores more data. It's small, portable, easy to use and is much, much more stable than a floppy. Those who use more than one computer, or have a desktop and a notebook, would be well advised to invest in one of these little miracles. They can even be password-protected.
One of the best things? They're cheap. I got a 128 MB drive for about $13 on the Internet. They're more expensive as the storage capacity goes up, but most people will probably be very happy with a 128 or 256 MB drive, for under $30. Considering how much I've almost lost to floppy disks, I think it a wise investment.
Some technology takes a while to grow on me, but I fell in love with my thumb drive immediately. It has to be one of the most useful peripherals I've ever purchased for my computer.

Echoes of a September morning

I woke up this morning and when I turned on the TV, I saw the news that at least four bombs had exploded in the London Underground, and one on a double-decker bus. Last I heard, some Al-Qaida group had taken responsibility.
I don't know who did it and I don't care. These people are cowards, thugs, murderers, psychopaths. They hit a commuter train, full of ordinary people. Just as the train in Madrid was full of ordinary people, and the World Trade Center was full of ordinary people. These people were not soldiers. They did not carry arms in some jihad.
If it is honorable to die for one's cause, then let the dissenters do it as honorable men: let them take up arms and face the troops or police head-on. If they are killed en masse, one can say they knew the risks. To target the innocent, in hopes of forcing a decision in their favor, is the worst kind of cowardice. It was rank cowardice when the Twin Towers fell, when the IRA targeted phone booths and old folks' parades, and it still stinks and scalds of the same stench now.
The Brits are a tough, scrappy race of people, and we in the U.S. inherit much of their native stubbornness, their refusal to quit. My dad always said the Brits were like an old tomcat (a compliment of the highest order, incidentally). "When a dog gets whipped by another dog, he stays whipped. With an old tomcat, you have to whip him all over again every time you see him. He doesn't stay whipped." The Brits will not allow this to crush them. They've survived much worse on their little island in the past 1200 years or so. Some have said they pity those who take on the U.S. True, but I pity those who pit themselves against the British. That lion is going to come snarling out of its den, with Saint George urging it on.
Great Britain stood by the United States in our hour of need. They played our national anthem during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Let us play "God Save the Queen" for them. Here's for England and Saint George! God bless England. God save the Queen.

Who asked him, anyway?

Who died and left Tom Cruise my guru? Oh yeah--some alien. Forgot. Sorry. And now, no matter what my ailment, exercise and vitamins are sure to help me.
I normally refrain from saying anything about anyone else's belief system, but Tom Cruise and his fellow adherents are simply insufferable. Evangelical Christians get blasted for telling people how to live, for saying others' lifestyles are wrong or sinful. But Tom Cruise can spout his beliefs all he wants, to the point of advising people that exercise and vitamins can cure most mental illnesses and that psychiatry is a crock. He can even render an opinion on the medical treatment options of a woman not a member of his family. Regardless of one's feelings on the veracity of psychiatry as a science, his comments on someone else's treatment options were as inappropriate and unbecoming as they could possibly be.
As a Christian, I believe in God's healing power. I believe in miracles and that prayers for healing are answered. However, I also believe that doctors, nurses, counselors and therapists serve as God's hands to heal. Medication can be beneficial and help the healing process. I also think that vitamins and exercise are good things, as well as herbal supplements, provided they are used with common sense behind them. I'd even send someone for massage or acupuncture, or other alternative therapies, if these were safe and afforded the individual some relief. I believe in a God who works in many ways, and through many avenues.
But Cruise's actions were inexcusable. The New York Times may have called him a passionate, true believer, but I call him arrogant, pompous, self-important and narcissistic. His verbal attack on Matt Lauer, assuming that Lauer had not had any background in the history of psychiatry, was repugnant. My gorge rose as I heard his maniacal rhetoric. But that's the beauty of the First Amendment. He has the right to spout off like an idiot and I have the right to disagree with him.
I'm beginning to come around to the idea that Cruise is in desperate need of the services of the discipline he so roundly despises and denounces. He's starting to sound less like a rational, adult human being and more like someone who is losing his grip on reality. He comes off as a self-obsessed, ego-driven jerk.
He needs a large bottle of "get over yourself" tonic. Unfortunately, that is in critically short supply in his circle of disciples and associates.