In 2006, I took about 3,000 photos. Of those, I posted 271 to Flickr and some others to various websites. The following link will take you to the first of 10 pages featuring those 271 in reverse order (newest first).
Flickr: Archive of mjhinton’s photos posted to Flickr in 2006
From that page, one can jump by page or month; larger thumbnails plus descriptions can be seen using the View: Detail link. Thumbnails are automatically cropped and sometimes differently from the photo.
I would be delighted if you’d look at some of those photos and further delighted if you were to comment there or here. mjh
Year Start
My dear Merri Rudd was sworn-in as Bernalillo County Probate Judge the morning of New Year’s Day along with 4 other county officers. Fewer people attended than four years ago, but each officer had some family and friends in attendance for the brief ceremony.
A fan said Mer represents the argument against term limits. However, Mer herself favors term limits and feels 10 years in office will be long enough. Ask her again when our health insurance expires.
At home, there were chants of “Four More Years!” My second glass of Gruet champagne was the better libation for celebrating bookends and term limits. mjh
Year End
I finished proofing PDFs for my Vista book at 5:47pm on New Year’s Eve. In one of the final chapters, a figure had been dropped and I hadn’t noticed until someone put it back with this caption, “Add caption and location.” I spent 20 minutes figuring out where the original citation was, the caption and whether I really wanted the figure back. It was not an important figure, but leaving it out would have required renumbering all the rest.
In the last chapter, a table had been “corrupted” (jargon for screwed up); hopefully, we’ll get that squared away. The whole book is off to the printer this week.
At the New Year’s Eve party, our hostess expressed surprise that I was content with a beer to celebrate the end of the task. It’s still sinking in and I won’t really celebrate until I have the book in my hands.
I’ll leave you with the last samples of my encounter with the most diligent proofreader. I don’t think he is wrong in all of these but may have exceeded his assignment with some. mjh
I wrote:
The blue text under the major headings in Figure 7-1 ….
Proofer wrote:
will text be printed blue in book?
[mjh: How about: “The text under the major headings in Figure 7-1, which will be blue on your screen though black on this page…”?]
I wrote:
The problem will be separating the wheat from the chaff.
Proofer wrote:
to separate
I titled a chapter:
Setup Programs
Proofer wrote:
title OK? sounds like it deals with programs named Setup … “Setting Up Programs” better?
[mjh: maybe so. Of course, setting up programs — setting programs up? — often involves a program named Setup. Moreover, the DE, TE, PE and CE didn’t suggest changing the title — or, as far as the proofer knows, each one of them did and that was rejected 4 times already.]
I wrote:
RSS support may bring millions of new users to that method of digesting Web content.
Proofer wrote:
correct word? “consuming” better?
[mjh: see Reader’s Consumption for more fun with words.]
I wrote:
Many of the Security settings offer a choice among Enable (less safe?), Disable (more strict) and Prompt.
Proofer wrote:
between
I wrote:
Click the red circular button.
Proofer wrote:
better: circular red
[mjh: what, no comma?]
I wrote:
The Now Playing screen can be used to display the album cover for the current tune, or various visualizations (this is your CPU on acid.).
Proofer wrote:
drug ref OK?
I wrote:
presently … prior
Proofer wrote:
currently … previous
The next morning, Mer awoke to say the proofer’s choice of “circular red” was more poetic. Maybe so, but is that really the reason for that suggestion — poetry?
We had an interesting time researching the subtleties of between/among. Even though between may actually have application with more than two, I think among is the right choice in this context.
Mind you, I had no quarrel with the majority of the proofer’s suggested changes, though he is an obsessive comma-inserter. I would work with this proofer again — he was relentless. As for the copy editor, her name is no longer in the credits; perhaps she washed her hands of me. mjh
NRA Sounds Alarm of Not-So-Imminent Threat
Jeffrey H. Birnbaum – NRA Sounds Alarm of Not-So-Imminent Threat By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
In lobbying, a threat is good for business, whether it’s genuine or not.
This might help to explain the dire warnings being issued by the National Rifle Association as the Democrats prepare to take control of Congress this week.
“The new leadership could be one of the most unfriendly to the National Rifle Association,” declared Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the NRA. “If there’s an effort to pursue gun control, we will mount an active defense.”
The famously combative lobby, with 4 million members, is displeased with the voting histories of Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other top Democrats in the House and is putting them on notice that it won’t tolerate passage of anti-gun measures.
The only problem: No one expects gun legislation this year. …
The NRA is on high alert, and its latest weapon is a pamphlet designed to send its members into fits of paranoid rage and to inspire them to open their wallets.
A draft of the 27-page document, which was provided to The Washington Post by a source outside the NRA, lashes out at such icons of the left as investor George Soros, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Pelosi. They are depicted as part of “a marching axis of adversaries far darker and more dangerous than gun owners have ever known.”
Few places are less likely to be burgled than the Fairfax County headquarters of the NRA. But Arulanandam alleged that someone recently stole a “working draft” of the pamphlet, called “Freedom in Peril.”
The document is filled with sinister-looking caricatures of supposed anti-gun figures such as filmmaker Michael Moore, comedian Rosie O’Donnell, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) and CBS News anchor Katie Couric. One chapter attacks Democratic lawmakers such as Sens. John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and derides them as a “Gang of Opportunists.” Other NRA enemies are “One-World Extremists,” “Animal Rights Terrorists” (such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and “Illegal Alien Gangs.” …
“It’s inevitable that terrorists will infest America for generations to come. It’s also inevitable that an anti-gun president will occupy the White House, and anti-gun forces will control the U.S. House and Senate,” they write. “Unless we are well-financed to face that moment, the final disarmament of law-abiding Americans will occur beneath the shroud of anti-terrorism legislation.”
Edwards, Now Seasoned, Elbows His Way Into the Field
Edwards, Now Seasoned, Elbows His Way Into the Field By Dan Balz, Washington Post Staff Writer
John Edwards will be able to run to the left of Clinton in a party whose base has shifted leftward during the Bush presidency. And this time, questions about lack of experience will go first to Obama. …
But he had a ready answer this week to the question of national security experience: Bush had the most experienced team in history, and still the United States ended up in a mess in Iraq. Experience, he said, is not a guarantee of good judgment. …
Edwards has settled comfortably into the left-of-center position in the Democratic field, pairing positions that excite the party’s liberal base with an upbeat message of hope and optimism. He has worked to deepen his relationships with organized labor, especially in Nevada, which is holding an early 2008 caucus, and he will challenge Clinton and Obama for the endorsements of key unions.
Edwards supports universal health care, which he said means health care for every American, not just most. “As you remember from 2004, there were a bunch of people waltzing around saying they had a universal health care plan that didn’t cover everybody,” he said. “Politicians tend to do that.”
He said he is examining two ideas and weighing whether to support a more ambitious and costly plan or one that may be more politically achievable. But he said both would meet his test of universality. …
Mass. Governor’s Rightward Shift Raises Questions
Mass. Governor’s Rightward Shift Raises Questions By Dan Balz and Shailagh Murray, Washington Post Staff Writers
As he prepares for a 2008 presidential campaign, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) has championed the conservative principles that guided President Ronald Reagan, become an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage and supported overturning the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
It was not always so. Twelve years ago, Romney boasted that he would be more effective in fighting discrimination against gay men and lesbians than Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), distanced himself from some conservative policies of the Reagan administration, and proudly recalled his family’s record in support of abortion rights.
The apparent gulf between the candidate who ran for the Senate in 1994 and the one getting ready to run for president has raised questions as to who is the real Mitt Romney. Is he the self-described moderate who unsuccessfully challenged Kennedy in the year of the Republican landslide, the self-described conservative now ready to bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, or merely an ambitious and adaptable politician? The answer could be crucial to Romney’s presidential ambitions.
Atheist Chic
Atheist Chic – Los Angeles Times by Dan Neil
The revenge of the godless nerds is well underway at your local Barnes & Noble. … [It is what] Wired magazine last month called the “new atheism”—I prefer to think of it as “atheist chic” ….
Despite the recent gains among free thinkers, atheism is still hugely unpopular. … There are few publicly confessed atheists—the illusionists/debunkers Penn and Teller come to mind. Comedian Bill Maher, though not strictly an atheist, is, let’s say, without benefit of clergy. The cadre of the damned —Sagan, Susskind, Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, et al.—won’t sell a fraction of the books culture warrior Bill O’Reilly will sell this Christmas, which kind of makes sense. Merry Christmas! Your God is a fraud!
I am a white Anglo-Saxon male born in late-20th century America—in other words, one of the most privileged beings to walk the earth. And yet insofar as my godlessness is concerned, I am a member of a despised minority. It’s like being gay.
I do appreciate the company, and the ammunition in these books, and the occasional exchanged glance of solidarity in the bookstore. But I’m just slightly alarmed. The new atheism is pretty hard-core, militantly insisting we challenge religiosity wherever we meet it, or else enable its darker extremist tendencies. In other words, the new atheism is on a quest for conversion. Having insisted on tolerance of our non-faith, Dawkins and Harris’ take-no-prisoners orthodoxy would have us be intolerant of others’ faith. Oh boy, just when I was beginning to enjoy being an atheist.
I can’t bring myself to confront others on the truth-data of their religious beliefs, even if they do involve some strange convoluted myth of Old Testament prophesy and Hellenistic blood cults. I was brought up better than that. Believe what you like, insofar as it does not interfere with my lack of belief. Believe in Thor’s mighty hammer, for all I care. Tell me Merry Christmas when I’m coming out of Wal-Mart. And happy holidays right back at ya.