Proud

Seattle Pride was this weekend. I went to the parade with a couple of friends. It’s mostly businesses in the parade, along with gay clubs and sports teams and other gay groups, plus churches and some other local organizations.

I get all choked up when the PFLAG (parents & friends of lesbians & gays) groups go by. Not because my family gave me a hard time at all – they were great. However, I know that some people are disowned & cut off when they come out. I tend to mouth “thank you” to them when they walk by.

I also really appreciate the churches who show up to show that they are fine with gay people, unlike some other, more vocal churches that show up along the route telling us how we’re going to hell.

For all of my pix from the parade, go here.

Whata week

Wrapping up my second week post-Gus (and post-Tardy Girl – that’s over now too). I had a couple of really rough missing Gus days this week. I went and looked at a rescue dog I was thinking about adopting and she was pretty cute & came when I called her (even though she had a bad name: Sierra. Also, Gus never really came when you called him unless he felt like it). Took her for a walk down the road and was very amused by her “playing” with a horse. She would go up to the fence and be really curious and then get scared and back up and then get curious again…

I filled out all the paperwork they wanted (including pictures of my backyard) and sent it in. But I was never really totally into it. I wasn’t sure if it was the right dog. Or the right time. I finally decided I just wasn’t ready for a new dog yet and let them know.

So now I’m not looking at dogs and I’m just sorta living my life. Alone…sigh (everyone feeling bad for me yet)? Don’t worry – I am actually doing okay the last couple of days.

I don’t want to get into detail on the whole Tardy Girl thing, but basically, let’s just say her ways of dealing with her life/health/money situation are really bad and I can’t be around it/deal with it any more. It’s not a bad breakup and we’ve been in contact and it makes me sad, but I know it’s the right thing in the long run. However, in the short run, I miss having her (someone?) around who loves me and hugs me a lot.

Work has been super stressful as well. I started a new job recently and it’s dealing with technology that I have not worked with at all. So I’m learning, but it turns out that (some?) of the powers that be think I’m not ramping up fast enough – hey, it’s been two weeks!?! Anyways, I had a good chat with my mentor this morning and I’m working on it. There’s not a lot I can do other than focus and do the best I can (and maybe try to educate them about where I’m coming from so that they have a correct perspective/expectations). It kinda sucks though cause I’m not used to letting people down. I’m trying not to be focused on that though because it is using up valuable brainpower that I need to dedicate to learning more and doing a good job.

Naturally, the best way for me to deal with all of this is to go to Kona. My friend Seujan suggested it the other day (cause it’s my Happy Place) and I realized it was a great suggestion. I was supposed to spend some extra time in Puerto Rico & go to Anguilla for some R&R a few weeks ago, but I cancelled all of that because Gus the dog was sick. I need to relax and get my head straightened out and get some perspective. My people on the Big Island are great for that. I’m so lucky to have such good friends.

So I’m taking off next Wednesday through Saturday, July 10 to go hang out there. I’m going to be crashing with friends to save some dough (and not be all alone). I’ll be diving, reading books, hanging out with all of their animals (including a baby miniature horse?!?!) and napping. That’s my plan. I’ll do my best to post from there with my new netbook I’m bringing with me.

In case you weren’t sure

Courtney Love is batshit crazy.

BP has ruined Carter's life

via buzzfeed.com

along with tons of sea creatures and birds. But who's counting? Drill baby kill.

Posted via email from amygeek's posterous

The Vuvuzela Explained

via graphjam.com

Posted via email from amygeek's posterous

Oil Wave (makes me sick)

via buzzfeed.com

Drill baby kill.

Posted via email from amygeek's posterous

Why are there tires in this stripper commercial?

(probably NSFW)

Google Voice now open to the American public

From Engadget

Tired of waiting for the invite that'll never arrive? Not so eager to snap up an Android phone just to automatically get ushered into the party? Good news: Google Voice is now open to the US public at large (sorry, everyone else!), enabling everyone who wishes to get a single number to ring all of their phones, have voicemail that acts more like email and send / receive free calls and texts within the US and Canada. Currently, Google has over a million active Voice users, and we suspect that figure will skyrocket after today. If you've been ignoring this hoopla until the invite barrier was crushed, feel free to hop on past the break for a video demonstration of what's on offer. Then hit that source link to sign up. Happy calling... callers.

Continue reading Google Voice now open to the American public

This is how I got my AMY-0AMY phone number. You get to pick your own number (but you may end up with an odd area code as a result). I forward my cell phone calls to this for voicemail and it sends me an email with a transcript, which is somewhat accurate/helpful.

Aurora Australis as seen from space

via holykaw.alltop.com

Now that's cool.

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

This made me smile today

One week

It’s been a week since Gus the dog died. I lost my grandparents and found it especially difficult when my mom’s mother died because she had been a part of my life for so long. Also, cause I liked her so much.

And I’ve lost way too many friends, most recently, Jim, who was such a special man and such a great friend. One of the first things I thought about after Gus died was that if there’s a heaven, Jim would be there greeting Gus-Gus (as he called him) and giving him a huge hug. That makes me happy. And sad. Cause I roll that way these days.

But I’ve never lost someone who was a daily part of my life for almost ten years. Sure, he was a dog and we never actually had a conversation. But we communicated. And now I’m alone in this house. And he’s not in pain, which is good. But I am.

I woke up this morning at 6:30am; the same time last Saturday when he started yelping and crying. I fell back asleep and woke up a little bit after 7 – the time when I decided to take him to the emergency vet. And fell asleep again and woke up again at 7:50 – the time we put him down.

I was supposed to hang out tonight with my friend Seujan, but I haven’t actually gotten around to showering or getting out of my pajamas. I have cleaned the house and taken a 3 hour nap, so I suppose it wasn’t a totally lost day (I did finally finish a book I’ve been reading, which is progress, I guess).

While cleaning the house, I realized that Gus’ raincoat was still hanging in its regular place. I had moved all his stuff into the garage when I got back from the emergency vet last week in a feeble attempt to remove Gus reminders. I immediately started crying and smelled it to see if it smelled like him. It didn’t, but it was so hard to see it again. I was like those nutty ladies in the movies who are hugging some piece of a lover’s clothing.

Mostly, I’m doing okay. I show up for work and I’m generally focused. When people give me their condolences, I tear up. A friend printed out and organized my Gus the dog facts into a little book so that I could put Gus pictures into it. It was so thoughtful. I spent some time Friday picking out pictures and cutting them to fit in there.

But today is not a good day. I am home by myself (I asked the Tardy Girl to move out last week a few days before I put Gus down). I’m lonely. I’m sad. I’m in mourning and this is different from anything that I’ve ever experienced.

I know it’s a process and that it will ease up. I spent some time with a therapist type friend and she said that there are four things we need to say as a part of the mourning process:

• Thank you
• I’m sorry
• I love you

and

• Goodbye

I’m working on it.

I'm a Joe Biden fan today

via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

Nicely stated.

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

Samba baby

via holykaw.alltop.com

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

Female Genital Mutilation at Cornell University

While the whole world was debating the American Academy of Pediatrics' position on "female genital cutting"—the AAP was against it before they were for it, and now, after an outcry, they're against it again—Alice Dreger and Ellen Feder have been raising the alarm about "medical research" currently being conducted at Cornell University. A pediatric urologist at Cornell—Dix Poppas—has been operating on little girls with what he judges to be oversized clitorises, cutting away important clitoral tissues, and then stitching the glans to what remains of the shaft. Poppas claims that, unlike past clitoral-reduction procedures, his procedure is "nerve sparing."

First big problem: "nerve-sparing" surgeries don't always work. And the chunks of these girls' clitorises that the doctor is cutting away—large pieces of their clitoral shafts—may be just as important as the clitoral glans. Dreger:

To shorten these clitorises, Poppas is saving the glans (tip) but cutting out parts of the shaft. Bo Laurent has pointed out that Masters and Johnsons showed that many women masturbate by rubbing the shafts of their clitorises. (Think about it: the clit is the homologue of the penis. How do men masturbate?) Many women seem to find their clitoral glans almost too sensitive. Poppas's patients are loosing the option of touching parts of their shafts, because he's throwing them out (after the cut-away parts have been sent to pathology to see if he accidentally took out a nerve).

There's lots to be outraged about here: there's nothing wrong with these girls and their healthy, functional-if-larger-than-average clitorises; there's no need to operate on these girls; and surgically altering a girl's clitoris because it's "too big" has been found to do lasting physical and psychological harm. But what's most outrageous is how Poppas is "proving" that his surgery "spares nerves." Dreger and Feder:

But we are not writing today to again bring attention to the surgeries themselves. Rather, we are writing to express our shock and concern over the follow-up examination techniques described in the 2007 article by Yang, Felsen, and Poppas. Indeed, when a colleague first alerted us to these follow-up exams—which involve Poppas stimulating the girls’ clitorises with vibrators while the girls, aged six and older, are conscious—we were so stunned that we did not believe it until we looked up his publications ourselves.

Here more specifically is, apparently, what is happening: At annual visits after the surgery, while a parent watches, Poppas touches the daughter’s surgically shortened clitoris with a cotton-tip applicator and/or with a “vibratory device,” and the girl is asked to report to Poppas how strongly she feels him touching her clitoris. Using the vibrator, he also touches her on her inner thigh, her labia minora, and the introitus of her vagina, asking her to report, on a scale of 0 (no sensation) to 5 (maximum), how strongly she feels the touch.... Poppas has indicated in this article and elsewhere that ideally he seeks to conduct annual exams with these girls....

Although we have tried, we have been unable to locate any other pediatric urologist who uses these techniques. Indeed, we doubt many would, because we think most would—as we do—find this technique to be impossible to justify as being in these girls’ best interests. We understand that these tests might produce generalized knowledge that shows whether Poppas’s techniques are better than some other surgeons’, but it isn’t clear to us how this kind of genital touching post-operatively is in individual patients’ best interests. If the testing shows a girl has lost sensation through the surgery, her lost clitoral tissue cannot be put back. However, the tests would seem to expose the girls to significant risk of psychological harm.

In the course of our inquiries, made in preparation for this publication, nearly all clinicians to whom we described Poppas’s “clitoral sensory testing and vibratory sensory testing” practices thought them so outrageous that they told us we must have the facts wrong. When we showed them the 2007 article, their disbelief ceased, but they then seemed to become as agitated as we were. At an international conference two weeks ago, when Dreger told Ken Zucker, a psychologist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and member of the clinical establishment, about this, Zucker said that we could quote him as saying this: “Applying a vibrator to a six-year-old girl’s surgically feminized clitoris is developmentally inappropriate.” We couldn’t find a clinician who disagreed with Zucker.

Yang, Felsen, and Poppas describe the girls “sensory tested” as being older than five. They are, therefore, old enough to remember being asked to lie back, be touched with the vibrator, and report on whether they can still feel sensation. They may also be able to remember their emotions and the physical sensations they experienced. Their parents’ participation may also figure in these memories. We think therefore that most reasonable people will agree with Zucker that Poppas’s techniques are “developmentally inappropriate.”

The 2007 article documenting Poppas's research is here.

Now more from Dreger's post at Psychology Today:

So why the heck do Poppas and other surgeons do these surgeries? They believe it is necessary to ensure "normal" sexual development.... Many of us happen to think "normal" sexual development is actually likely to be thwarted by having parts of your genitals taken away without your consent, and thwarted by follow-up exams like the ones we are describing. Ellen and I have gotten to know hundreds of adults born with sex anomalies who went through these medical scenes growing up. Many have told us that the genital displays involved in the follow-up exams were more traumatic than any other part of the experience. Indeed, when I once asked a group of women with androgen insensitivity syndrome what they wanted me to work on primarily in my advocacy work, they said stopping the exams, particularly those in which med students, residents, and fellows parade through to check out the surgeon's handiwork.

There's so much to be angry about I hardly know where to start. Applying a vibrator a girl's clitoris after it's been surgically shortened may demonstrate that she still has "sensation" in what's been left behind—that she still has a few nerve endings that function—but that's not proof that she hasn't been physically or emotionally harmed by the surgery and those traumatic follow-up "procedures." These post-op visits with the doctor and his vibrator do the girls no good—what can the doctor do if a girl reports no sensation? reassemble her clit?—and retaining sensation isn't proof that these girls will grow up to be healthy, sexually functional adults. All of the tissues that make up the clitoris—the glans, the stem, the erectile tissues—are important to sexual response, orgasm, and fulfillment, not just the part of the clitoris that's "normally" exposed.

There's another disturbing reason this surgery is being performed: girls with large clitorises are more likely to identify as lesbians when they grow up. Needless to say (or maybe not-so-needless): carving up a girl's clitoris does nothing to change the underlying hormonal and genetic factors that contribute to lesbian orientation and identity. Big clits don't make lesbians—lesbians sometimes make big clits. These surgeries are partly motivated by out-and-out homophobia, by the belief that "fixing" a large clit somehow prevents lesbianism. (Larger penises correlate positively with gayness in males but no one is out there shortening boys' penises.)

Please go and read Dreger and Feder's piece—"Bad Vibrations"—at the Bioethics Forum. And read Dreger's post at her own blog.

And if you're reading this and you're a student at Cornell: female genital mutilation is being practiced on your campus. What are you going to do about it?

via slog.thestranger.com

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

Measurement of Code Quality - this is it.

via dep.posterous.com

Seems about right.

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

How is the AmyGeek?

Someone posted this on my wall on Facebook:

Grief is probably the most confusing, frustrating and emotional thing that a person can experience. It is even more so for pet owners. Psychologists have long recognized that the grief suffered by pet owners after their pet dies is the same as that experienced after the death of a person. The death of a pet means the... loss of a non-judgmental love source. There is no longer anything for the pet owner to nurture and care for. These feelings can be particularly intense for the elderly, single people and childless couples,( for whom the pet also is a child substitute).

My mom arrived here on Saturday afternoon. I put Gus down on Saturday morning. I had originally been hoping that he could hang in there until I could talk to the neurologist on Monday. Then I was hoping he could hold on until my mom arrived. Then I realized I couldn’t make him suffer any more because of someone else’s schedule. This all occurred in the ten minute drive to the emergency vet.

When I got there, the folks were really nice and helpful. Gus’ head was just sort of lolling around on my shoulder. He didn’t have control over his neck or his legs any more. If I put him on the ground, he just slumped there however I laid him down. He was making little crying sounds and yelping more and more frequently, so it was obvious that he was in terrible pain.

I told them that I needed to put him down and they put me in a room and took him in the back to put in the IV. They asked if I needed some time with him. Of course, I needed more time with him – but I couldn’t drag this out and make him suffer longer because of what I needed, so I said no. I leaned over him and said “thank you” to him.

I positioned a chair so that I could sit and gaze into his eyes and keep a hand on him so that we were connected. The vet told me about what to expect and some potentially upsetting things that can happen. She injected saline into the IV to make sure it was clear and then immediately put the medication into the IV. I was surprised how quickly it happened. Gus & I were staring into each others eyes – he wasn’t crying any more. And then he stopped breathing.

And that was it.

The vet expressed her condolences and left the room and I was left with what used to be Gus.

I think it was appropriate that at the end it was just me & Gus, without anyone else. I know that there were a couple of people who would have wanted to be there, but for his entire life, it’s always just been the two of us. There have been other people who have come into our lives and some of them are still in our lives, but we had a special relationship that truly involved unconditional love on both our parts.

My mom went home early this morning & I’ve been working at home this am. The house is so quiet. I occasionally think I see or hear him. I randomly get all teared up. I know that it will get easier and for most of the day, I’m ok.

He was a great companion and the lessons he taught me will also be a part of who I am.

For more Gus pix, click here.

O'Reilly Pwns Palin

« Mercede Backs Levi On Palin's Calling Trig "Retarded" | Main | The Deepwater Horizon Speech Reax, Ctd »

O'Reilly Pwns Palin

16 Jun 2010 12:50 pm

A moment of truth on the Factor:

First, [O'Reilly] challenged Palin by saying, “49% of Americans still want BP to run the show and only 45% want the government to run the show.”

If you stop the video at about the 3:00 point, you can see the look of dismay on Palin’s face, followed by nervousness, moments after he said that, as she must have realized this was not going to be the kind of cakewalk she has probably come to expect on Fox News.

O’Reilly went on to ask, “What is your solution, here, Governor? What would you do tonight – tell the nation tonight, what you would have said, the main point in that speech. Go.”

Palin obviously had no idea. “Stopping the gusher,” she said. “That’s the number one priority of the nation.”

“But nobody knows how to do it,” O’Reilly countered.

“Well, we haven’t had the assurance by the president that that has been his top priority.” Her voice rose with more condescension, as she continued to evade the question and, instead, went on to accuse the president of making “cap and tax” his greater priority and “using this crisis… to increase the cost of energy.”

“Are you telling me that you don’t think the president’s top priority is stopping that leak? Is that what you’re telling me?” O’Reilly asked, not bothering to hide his incredulity.

He clearly realizes what a total farce she is - and he slowly dismantles her mindless partisanship by the end of the segment. Good for O'Reilly. Particularly good for exposing just how little this phony knows about energy policy, her alleged expertise.

Permalink :: Trackback (0) :: Sphere It! :: Share This

TrackBack URL for this entry:

http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451c45669e20133f1490448970b

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference 'O'Reilly Pwns Palin'

via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

Okay, I'm liking O'Reilly a little bit today...

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

This picture just cracks me up

Makes me smile.

The Cowardly Bullfighter

via buzzfeed.com

Hey, I don't blame the guy, but you'd think that once you got all dressed up in the bullfighter suit & walked into the ring, you'd go through with it.

Apparently not.

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

Tan lines from typical summer activities

via img265.imageshack.us

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

Surface of the Earth

Surface of the Earth

Graph by: alexandre_santoro via Graph Jam Builder

Incorrect source or offensive?

News, earth, water, pie chart, oil, bp, land, surface, ocean

You May Like:

This song chart meme or funny graph was posted on Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 12:00 pm.

via feedproxy.google.com

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

Gus the dog facts

Things you may not have known about him:

1. He only flew coach once (he flew a lot).

2. He would shake your hand if you said “que pasa”.

3. Or “gay pasta”.

4. His favorite friends were always girl dogs that were a LOT bigger than him.

5. He could catch treats when you threw them in the air. If he felt like it.

6. When he was a puppy, he pooped on the moving walkway at JFK airport. I didn’t realize it until I saw the poo spinning at the end of the walkway.

7. His favorite way to be carried (from the day I picked him up) was to be on your shoulder like a baby.

8. He made everyone who came over feel loved. He insisted on sitting on all guests laps as a sort of initiation into our family.

9. His favorite vegetable was carrots, which made for fun colored poo.

10. If I cracked a hard boiled egg, no matter where he was in the house, he came running cause he loved them.

11. He loved to eat my leftover scrambled eggs & Tabasco.

12. His full name was Esophagus Jesus Blumenfield III (He was registered at AKC as Esophagus J. Blumenfield III – I didn’t come up with the Jesus – said with a Mexican accent – for a couple of years).

13. I’m going to miss him so much.

Gus the dog

(aka Esophagus Jesus Blumenfield III)

Dead.

This so amuses me

via buzzfeed.com

I doubt (hope?) it's not real.

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

Consequences of gay marriage

via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

Office Web Apps Now Live

Office Web Apps — Microsoft’s free online version of its Office suite — is now available to users in the U.S., the UK, Canada, and Ireland via Windows Skydrive. To try it out, just head to office.live.com (you’ll need a free Windows Live account)
Office Web Apps is pretty impressive, incorporating browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that look and feel very much like the desktop apps. They work in all modern browsers, and you don’t need to install Silverlight to use them, although some features work better with it installed. While the web apps don’t offer as much power and functionality as their desktop cousins, they’re at least on par with Google Docs, and if you have Office 2010 (which is being released to non-business customers next week) you’ll get seamless round-trip editing between the desktop and the cloud. (If you’re interested in learning more about cloud computing and how it enables web apps like this, check out our Structure conference in San Francisco later this month).

Let us know what you think of the Office Web Apps below.

(via Windows Team Blog)

BP is evil

08 Jun 2010 09:44 am

Flowing Data has made a few eye-opening info-graphics:

BP processes about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day, across six refineries in the United States. In total, 150 refineries in the United States process just under 18 million barrels per day, so BP processes about 8.5 percent of it. However, as reported by the Center for Public Integrity, 97 percent of the most dangerous violations found by OSHA were on BP properties.

via andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

This isn't a random "accident". This is the way that they do business.

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

Quick Gus (and Amygeek) status update

He’s doing better. Walking a bit more and yesterday he attempted (and conquered) a few steps. We were walking up to Shoshanna & Gary’s house & he heard her voice & he ran to her. Then when I was picking him up from there later, he ran to me. This is all Very Good.

I realized last night that I’ve been giving him a full painkiller every 8 hours instead of 1/2 painkiller. That explains the confused look on his face. He’s been off the painkillers for about 18 hours now and so far, so good. He also looks much more like himself & not nearly as dopey.

I’m doing pretty well. I appreciate that everyone has been checking up on me as well as Gus. The initial night when I heard that he had a brain tumor was horrible – I thought he was going to die right away and it was all so sudden and I kinda lost it.

Having him home has helped and seeing improvement has also helped. It also is giving me some time to process what is going on and come to terms with the fact that we won’t have a lot more time together. I know that when the time comes, it’s going to be extremely difficult and painful, but at least I have some prep time now – I had just sorta assumed that I wouldn’t be dealing with these issues for another five years or so.

That’s it for now. Gus & I are heading to a friends for brunch.

Coolest diaper ad ever

Okay, not that there’s a run on cool diaper ads, but still…

A Gulf oil spill picture I will never forget.

 

via twitpic.com

This is heartbreaking. I can't stand it.

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

You know the rules

GIF Credit: RomanCortes Submitted by: stevether via Gift a Gif

Gus update

Gus is home! They have him on a bazillion medications and it is helping. He is still whining a little bit, so he still appears to be in some pain, but nothing like what it was before. He is able to walk, but when I took him out last night, he couldn’t make it up the step to go through his doggy door (sigh). He’s super sleepy from the medication, but that’s probably good. It’s keeping him mellow.

The main idea is to treat the symptoms of the tumor for now. This will buy us some time to do some more research. We’re trying to reduce the amount of spinal fluid being produced by the tumor and thus reduce the pressure of the fluid on his spinal cord. He’s able to stand and walk and move his neck, which is a huge improvement from earlier in the week.

He is on so many meds that I had to go out and buy two of those pill boxes that old people use. It makes it a lot easier to keep track of what he’s supposed to get when. The Tardy Girl, who is more of a night person than me is in charge of his 2am meds and sure enough, she woke him (and thus me) up at 2:02am last night. He’s being very good about the medication and the peanut butter probably doesn’t hurt.

He didn’t want to eat his food last night, but once I scrambled him an egg & mixed it into his food, he was interested in it. I’m a little suspicious that he’s scamming me there, but I’m willing to go with it.

It’s so good to have him home, but so sad to see him so disabled. The vet said that within two weeks we’d see the effect of these meds at this dose. He also gave me the name of an oncologist in Seattle. Some friends have sent info about other doggy oncologists & feedback – feel free to continue to send any info you may have.

I’m going to research radiology as it is used to target the tumor and not the healthy part of his brain. The big drawback of this is that it’s only offered in one place in the state and it’s far away. He’d have to stay there for three weeks. If we’re going to do that, I want to make sure he’s got a decent shot of getting better as a result. There’s also chemotherapy (a pill he would take) but the documentation on that is sketchy. Apparently this is a fairly rare tumor, so there’s not a lot of research & info available.

I’m leaving surgery as a last resort as there’s only a 50% survival rate. I’d do that before putting him down. At least, that’s my thought now.

Thanks for all the feedback and love. It’s greatly appreciated.

Rue McClanahan

Dead.

There’s a lot of sad gay men out there today.

9 People Hearing For The First Time <- this is some inspirational stuff

via buzzfeed.com

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

10 Best Cities for the Next Decade - Kiplinger

We live in challenging times. Unemployment remains high, and the U.S. lead in technology and science is slipping as many foreign countries gain ground. But some U.S. cities, though slowed by the Great Recession, still thrive by lifting good old American innovation to new levels. And that will help put more Americans back to work and keep our international edge.

In Kiplinger's latest search for top cities, we focused on places that specialize in out-of-the-box thinking. "New ideas generate new businesses," says Kevin Stolarick, our numbers guru, who this year evaluated U.S. cities for growth and growth potential. Stolarick is research director at the Martin Prosperity Institute, a think tank that studies economic prosperity. "In the places where innovation works, it really works," he says.

After researching and visiting our 2010 Best Cities, it became clear that the innovation factor has three elements. Mark Emmert, president of the University of Washington in Seattle, put his finger on two of them: smart people and great ideas. But we'd argue that it's the third element -- collaboration -- that really supercharges a city's economic engine. When governments, universities and business communities work together, the economic vitality is impressive.

And it's no coincidence that economic vitality and livability go hand in hand. Creativity in music, arts and culture, plus neighborhoods and recreational facilities that rank high for "coolness," attract like-minded professionals who go on to cultivate a region's business scene. All of which make our 2010 Best Cities not just great places to live but also great places to start a business or find a job.

1. Austin, Tex.
Austin is arguably the the country's best crucible for small business, offering a dozen community programs that form a neural network of business brainpower to help entrepreneurs. Now overlay that net with a dozen venture-capital funds and 20 or so business associations, plus incubators, educational opportunities and networking events. Mix all these elements in what many call a classless society, where hippie communalism coexists with no-nonsense capitalism, and you’ve got a breeding ground for start-ups.

Don’t discount the fun factor: In the self-proclaimed live-music capital of the world, music and business creativity riff off one another. The city’s famous South by Southwest festival, where concerts, independent film screenings and emerging technology overlap, is a prime example.

* Read more about Austin
* VIDEO: Take a guided tour of Austin
* Vote for Austin as Your Favorite City Via Our Facebook Page

2. Seattle, Wash.
Rain City? We'd say Brain City. Home to a well-educated workforce, a world-class research university, über innovators Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing, and a host of risk-taking, garage-tinkering entrepreneurs, Seattle crackles with creative energy. "We only have two products here: smart people and great ideas," says Mark Emmert, president of the University of Washington.

* Read more about Seattle
* VIDEO: Take a guided tour of Seattle
* Vote for Seattle as Your Favorite City Via Our Facebook Page

3. Washington, D.C.
Every tourist knows postcard D.C., the city that is home to the White House, the Capitol and all those free Smithsonian museums. But those who live in D.C. know better. The region is chock-full of job prospects, entertainment venues and great neighborhoods, and it is booming. Eleven of the 25 richest counties in the U.S. are located in the region, which also boasts a low unemployment rate.

* Read more about Washington, D.C.
* VIDEO: Take a guided tour of Washington, D.C.
* Vote for Washington, D.C. as Your Favorite City Via Our Facebook Page

4. Boulder, Colo.
Boulder is a wealthy, intellectual hot spot where environmental and scientific ideas blossom into businesses. Three economic drivers power Boulder: the University of Colorado, federal research laboratories and more than 6,600 small businesses and corporations, all woven into an entrepreneurial fabric. The city is also a mecca for those seeking healthy, active lifestyles.

* Read more about Boulder
* VIDEO: Take a guided tour of Boulder
* Vote for Boulder as Your Favorite City Via Our Facebook Page

5. Salt Lake City, Utah
You can’t beat the cost of living and doing business in Salt Lake City. Utah has relatively low wages, taxes and operating costs. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that “our offices are 15 minutes away from four ski resorts,” says one local employer.

* Read more about Salt Lake City
* VIDEO: Take a guided tour of Salt Lake City
* Vote for Salt Lake City as Your Favorite City Via Our Facebook Page

6. Rochester, Minn.
Rochester is built on the world-renowned Mayo Clinic’s rock-solid foundation, and, in return, the community serves as great hosts and hostesses to 2.7 million visitors each year (many of them Mayo patients). Synergy among the city’s resources has been well cultivated and is paying dividends. Rochester opened the Minnesota BioBusiness Center in spring 2009 -- providing room to grow in the form of 150,000 feet of office space. The center, located a block from both the Mayo Clinic and the university, represents the city’s aspiration to build an even stronger bioscience and medical-research community. “If there’s a theme to what we’re doing here, it’s collaboration. . ."

* Read more about Rochester
* VIDEO: Take a guided tour of Rochester
* Vote for Rochester as Your Favorite City Via Our Facebook Page

7. Des Moines, Iowa
There’s more to Des Moines than agricultural jobs. A likely worker shortage sparked by retiring baby-boomers has lit a fire under Des Moines’s civic leaders. The city is working to lure back young Iowans and attracting global talent by developing its downtown and promoting the jobs available in the many industries that flourish there. Other big draws: low-cost housing, plus the city’s long-touted reputation for family-friendliness and a “19-minute commute.”

* Read more about Des Moines
* VIDEO: Take a guided tour of Des Moines
* Vote for Des Moines as Your Favorite City Via Our Facebook Page

8. Burlington, Vt.
Burlington's local-food movement perhaps best tells the story of how environmentalism drives much of the city's economic growth. Many shops and restaurants along Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace, the famous pedestrian mall, serve up local goodies. A couple blocks over, the City Market/Onion River Co-Op, a community-owned grocery store, offers more than 1,000 Vermont products. (And atop the supermarket, generating 3% of the Co-Op’s energy needs -- enough electricity to power six Burlington homes -- are 136 solar panels from groSolar, another Vermont-based company.) And the crown jewel for locavores: The Intervale Center is a nonprofit organization that has managed 350 acres of family-owned farmland in Burlington since 1988 and provides 10% of the town’s food. "We’re 30 years ahead of the country with the local-food movement. . ."

* Read more about Burlington
* VIDEO: Take a guided tour of Burlington
* Vote for Burlington as Your Favorite City Via Our Facebook Page

9. West Hartford, Conn.
Community is key in West Hartford, a place where you actually know your neighbors. But this once-sleepy suburb of Connecticut’s capital is not content to be merely an idyllic place to live and raise a family (it is, by the way). West Hartford made our list because it is transforming itself from a suburb into a destination -- in this case, a regional destination for shopping and dining. Small business is the new game in town, and everyone is playing.

* Read more about West Hartford
* VIDEO: Take a guided tour of West Hartford
* Vote for West Hartford as Your Favorite City Via Our Facebook Page

10. Topeka, Kan.
In its reserved, midwestern way, Topeka has engineered a prosperity that most cities of similar size would envy. As the capital city of Kansas, nearly 25% of Topeka’s workforce is employed by the government, providing a stable job market where unemployment has stayed around 7%. The city boasts quality schools, friendly people, good hospitals, a university and -- one of its biggest selling points -- low housing costs.

Smart people & great ideas works for me. Also, more dogs than children (or so I've been told.)

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

Devastated

I got home from Beijing on Friday night and oddly enough, Gus the dog didn’t come running to greet me. I thought he was out somewhere with Shoshanna or Always Tardy Girl so I was just putting my stuff down or whatever and he came slowly walking out of the den towards me. He looked weird – not guilty, which is how he looks when he’s been bad, but not good. I picked him up and he licked my face like crazy.

He then got onto my bed & didn’t move all night, which was strange since he generally comes and hangs out in whatever room I’m in. The doorbell rang and he didn’t bark or anything. That’s super-strange for him.

Saturday he seemed like himself. Sunday he seemed kinda lethargic. Monday morning I woke up and he was snuggled up to me and his back legs were shaking like crazy. I thought he had had a stroke during the night or something. I got ATG and we took him to an emergency vet. We were both freaking out and crying.

They originally thought that there was something wrong with his liver because one of his liver enzymes was very high (although it always is) and they told me to take him for an ultrasound & a biopsy on Tuesday morning.

When I picked him up from the emergency vet on Tuesday, he was very drugged up and he cried a lot when I picked him up. We ended up at this fancy schmancy animal hospital that has all kinds of specialists. He started with an internist, but got transferred to a neurologist when they realized something was wrong neurologically. This place is like a people hospital – they have an ER and an ambulance and it’s just got that people hospital vibe. It’s very impressive.

It turns out he has a brain tumor called Choroid Plexus Papilloma (I call it fucking evil). It’s a slow growing tumor and it’s probably benign. The problem is that it’s generating excess spinal fluid that’s being pushed into his spinal cord & causing him terrible pain. It’s probably been causing him problems & pain for a long time – we thought he had arthritis and that he was being cranky by pooping & peeing in the house lately. I thought he was stressed out about having to share me with ATG cause she’s been staying at the house for the past few months.

I went and spent time with him tonight (I was halfway in his crate with him) and we cuddled. He seemed better than when I saw him earlier today – he’s super drugged, but at least this time he responded to me. I stayed for a few hours cuddling with him. They were really nice there and even gave me a pillow to lie on.

Options: treat with medicine, which is the conservative approach. It will (hopefully) reduce the pressure but will take several weeks to help, if it does/can. Second option is surgery, which is dangerous as they have to cut through his brain. There’s a 50% chance it will make this worse or kill him. The third option is radiology, where I’d leave him at a hospital in Eastern Washington for three weeks.

I got a copy of his medical records & I’m going to talk to some other doggy oncologists. I’m interested in knowing what the likely outcome would be from the radiology – if it’s not likely to make him feel a lot better & extend his life somewhat significantly, I’m not sure that it’s worth it to put him through all that.

If he’s going to continue to be in terrible pain, I can’t let him suffer like that. I need to make the choice that’s best for Gus, even if it means less time with him for me. If it comes down to putting him down, I think I may opt for the surgery rather than just putting him down as then there’s a 50% chance he might get better.

I met Gus when he was four weeks old and still with his mom & littermates. He picked me – I wanted a boy & there were only two of them. The other ran off and wasn’t interested in me at all. Gus came right to me. The day I picked him up to take him home (when he was ten weeks old), he climbed up on my shoulder like a baby. It’s still his favorite way to be held.

For the past five years, my friend Shoshanna has taken him with her when she goes to work at nursing homes. She says that he’s a natural therapy dog. He lets people cuddle with him and pet him and he just loves it. I think he just digs having the chance to cuddle with more people but apparently he’s very loved at these hospitals.

He’s been with me for nine and a half years now. He’s taught me a lot about how to love and be loved. He was also one of the few things I used to think about when I struggled so much with depression. When I want to think about unconditional love, I just visualize his face. I thought we had a bunch more time together, but now it looks like that’s not going to be the case. I’m so sad.

Gus the dog goes kookoo

via youtube.com

He's always been a little nutty, but that's why we work so well together.

Posted via web from amygeek's posterous

More evidence that Sarah Palin is a moron

Free music from Trent Reznor: How To Destroy Angels

Trent Reznor, Mariqueen Maandig, Atticus Ross (Photo: Non-Entity Corp.)

We've released our debut 6-track EP as a FREE download, delivered as high-quality DRM-free MP3s. Sign up below for immediate access. For $2, you can upgrade to the HD package, which adds options for lossless audio (24-bit 44.1kHz WAV and 16-bit FLAC and Apple Lossless) and the music video for 'The Space in Between' in 1080p and 480p. An immediate download of the HD package is included FREE with any merchandise purchase.

Download here. And remember, 10minutemail.com is your friend.

Holy Crap!

This is real:

... a massive, spontaneous sinkhole ("hundimiento") that appeared today in
Zone 2 of Guatemala City, after overwhelming saturation of rains from
tropical storm Agatha. Not Photoshop, sadly: these happen from time to
time during major storms in part because of unstable geology (and bad
urban engineering—read more about it in the comments). There are rumors
of similar sinkholes now forming nearby.

Closer look here. The Guatemalan government has a gallery on Flickr.