Ann Richards, R.I.P.

Ann Richards has died.

Everything I loved about her can be summed up in that final quote:

Asked once what she might have done differently had she known she was going to be a one-term governor, Richards grinned.

"Oh, I would probably have raised more hell."

Freebies at iTunes: Lost, Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and toons

1. ABC is offering the season finales of Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy for free for the first million downloads.

2. Disney Channel is offering the pilot of The Replacements (which is pretty decent) for free.

A good thing

The last week has been more than a little bit stressful. Having shadesong in the hospital, even for non-surgical issues, simply wasn't fun. Not knowing what they'd find (or if any of the seizures she was supposed to have would make things worse) kept us frustrated. Hell, we didn't even know when they thought they'd figure anything out. Toss out the fact that it's never easy for an eleven-year-old to not have her mom for a week (and Elayna has been an absolute trooper during this time, I've got to say), and a hectic time at work, and I think it's safe to say that my normally near-perfect blood pressure probably rose a bit last week.

That said, it was worth it. We don't have all the answers yet, but one direct result of the week was that her doctor has finally pulled her off Trileptal, which is possibly the worst drug ever. In the list of side-effects, the manufacturers of Trileptal need to insert a line that reads, "Trileptal may effectively shut down shadesong's brain. It wasn't that bad, but at times, it was close.

'song's been off the drug for a week now, and it's simply amazing how different she is. She's faster on the uptake; she gets less distracted; and she doesn't lose words nearly as often.

The analogy I used when talking to her this morning is that her brain used to be like a very fragmented hard drive, with pauses before accessing data. Now, it's like a brand new, blazingly-fast optical drive with near-instantaneous access.

Of course, this is also what she was like before the Trileptal.

In other words, I have my wife back.

And for that alone, I'm damned glad we went through the last week's trials and tribulations.

Xena becomes Eris

The "dwarf planet" formerly known as Xena has been renamed Eris.

Yes, that means that the Goddess of Discord found a place the Solar System before Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite.

Tolerance in action in Tennessee

Ken Cherry, a man clearly dedicated to reinvigorating the "hick" stereotype, hates illegal immigrants with the such a passion that he's pretty much willing to let it spread to all Hispanics. Or, to call things as they really are, he's a racist little fuck.

This town alderman in Springfield, TN wants all illegal immigrants banned from using the parks. Of course, it's not exactly easy to tell who's illegal amongst the many Latino folks who frequent the park, but our enlightened buddy's got a good idea: "If they are speaking Spanish, I tend to think they are illegal."

Last I checked, even the most adamant advocates of English as our national language aren't trying to make speaking in foreign tongues an actual crime. Let's hear it for this genius, taking intolerance to the next level.

ETA: Alderman Cherry also refers to the town's "growing Hispanic problem." Lovely.

Zuma on the Pod

So, since I had some credit at the iTunes store, I downloaded Zuma for the iPod.

It's just as addictive on a Pod as it is on, well, every other operating system. And it looks amazing.

Gameplay is pretty solid -- since the scroll wheel turns the frog, the iPod controller is a natural for it. There are occasionally times when the controller is a little slow to respond, but for the most part, it worked perfectly. And hitting Menu offers an option to save it exactly in the state it was in before quitting, so it's perfect to play in short bursts.

Which is what I'd recommend, as this is a game that could lead to major index finger injuries if played for a serious period of time.

Overall, damned fun. That said, I'll still probably stick to playing the game on my computer when I'm not on the road.

Agh!

Okay, it's bad enough that today's Jeopardy had a clue for the Mac that was something along the lines of, "This computer, which shipped in 1984, came bundled with MacWrite and MacDraw."*

But the final Jeopardy featured a clue so easy that I guessed it from the fucking category (and the clue itself** confirmed it): 1950s Poem.

But wait. It gets worse.

Only one of the three players got it. The other two didn't fucking guess. At all. I mean, if, by some chance, you haven't read Howl (and why would you be on Jeopardy if you haven't?), you've surely heard of it, right? And given that category, why not guess? But two out of the three players apparently knew no 1950s poetry, or even any poems from roughly that era. Or possibly the entire 20th Century.

Gah. I know. There's a lot of pressure, etc. But still, I most definitely wasn't watching the best minds of my generation this afternoon.

*And worse, they accepted "Apple" as an answer.

** "starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the . . . streets at dawn looking for an angry fix" -- yes, they omitted a word there