Mr. Toy's Mental Notes

I had to buy a new computer monitor. My three and a half year old ViewSonic flat screen CRT died suddenly,  deciding to display only a three inch high section of the screen. I had warranty work done a year ago for another problem, so it didn't seem worth the trouble to pay to have it fixed now that it is out of warranty. My first monitor lasted six years. I'm bummed that the ViewSonic didn't make four. Shopping for a new one was a frustrating experience. It seems standard Cathode Ray Tubes are no longer in vogue. They lack the "cool factor" of the new flat screen LCDs, even though the newer technology costs three times as much. Besides costing more, LCDs are overrated in many ways. They are still a youthful technology, while the good old CRT has been finely perfected over the course of 60 some years. LCDs don't display as many colors as a CRT, which is important for photo editing. Moreover, LCDs still look like you're viewing through a fine mesh screen ...

We've all seen the horrible news showing the Indian Ocean tsunami damage. I made my contribution to the Red Cross , and I hope you have too. Now, I have a question about this that's been bugging me for two weeks now. They say the Indian Ocean, unlike the Pacific Ocean, does not have a formal tsunami warning system, and that's why nobody was prepared. That sounds like a cop out to me. It is common knowledge among scientists that a large earthquake in the ocean will almost certainly create a tsunami. Warning system or not, the earthquake was detected by scientists in the region, and its offshore location determined fairly quickly. Did none of these scientists consider that a tsunami might follow? Did they try to contact the authorities? They didn't need a formal tsunami warning system to get the word out. All they needed to do was contact radio and TV stations, and direct local police to warn people away from the beaches. Back in the mid '60s, long before the Paci...

I think that I shall never see A blog as int'resting as a tree.... When you enter Monterey on Del Monte Boulevard there is a sign saying "Tree City USA" an honor given only to those cities which have nurtured and respected their urban forestry. There should be a corresponding sign going the opposite direction into Seaside: "Welcome to treeless city USA." Look across the bay from Cannery Row and you can pretty much identify the Seaside city limits by the timberline. Monterey has trees, Fort Ord has trees. Seaside has concrete. That's not to say that Seaside doesn't have any trees, but it is safe to say that Seaside doesn't have many trees. Here and there are a few grand oak and cypress, but most of the city's arboreal collection consists of pathetic, manicured shrubs on sticks, barely able to overshadow a Volkswagen Beetle. So the Toys been doing our part to plant more trees in Seaside. We planted one Saturday. It is the sixth tree we've pl...

"I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it." Those words came back to haunt John Kerry at every step of the campaign. They were provided the foundation for accusations, and acted as confirmation, that Kerry was an untrustworthy flip-flopper. Why, oh, why didn't he mention that there were two different bills? One was better than the other. He voted for the good one, and against the bad one. Now, was that so hard to explain?

Shortly after the election some poll or another indicated that voters in the so-called "red" states voted for George Bush because of his position on moral issues. Evidently, they perceived he had solid moral values which his opponent did not posess. No doubt they got this impression from Bush's attack ads more than from anything Kerry said or did himself. But let's look at this a little more closely. The Republican party tends to limit its discussion of moral values to issues related to sex. Things like sex education, gay marriage, abortion, and Janet Jackson (who has lovely breasts). However, the foundation of morality is in loving your neighbor as yourself, and the Golden Rule - do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Sex is the least of it. The Golden Rule is as important in international relations as it is with interpersonal ones. Here the GOP falls pathetically short. Bush has unilaterally broken treaties, cut funding for family planning assistance ...

The day after the election President Bush said "America has spoken, and I'm humbled by the trust and confidence of my fellow citizens." Humbled? That remains to be seen. "I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better I will need your support, and I will work to earn it." With these words, the newspaper reported, Bush was reaching out to the other side. His reaching out to the opposition lasted all of one day. On Friday he said "I'll reach out to everyone who shares our goals." Since I don't share many of his goals, I guess I, and the other 49% of Americans, can forget about Bush reaching out to us. Mr. Bush, if you want to earn my respect, if you want to earn my trust, if you want to be the President of all Americans, not just "red" Americans, you need to stop telling us what to think, and start listening to what we think.

In the next few days I plan to share my thoughts on the outcome of the election. But before I get into that, I want to express my displeasure with the setup at our polling place. We vote at the Oldemeyer Center in Seaside. We arrived there at 3:45pm to avoid the after work rush hour. It was widely reported before the election that a large turnout was expected, yet our polling place was completely unprepared for anything more than the miniscule turnout normally seen during an off-year ho-hum election. To make matters worse, two precincts, 77 and 78, were combined and crammed into a small room barely large enough to handle one in a normal election. This small room had only one 36" wide door to handle both incoming and outgoing traffic, which was constant. There were signs posted in the hallway, with 77 on the left wall and 78 on the right, leading to confusion in the line as to where people were supposed to go. A rope had been set up, supposedly to separate the two precincts, but ...