Monday, July 26, 2010

See, See, See

0 comments


My brother is in this strange video on You Tube. I am not sure why, but the soundtrack is intentionally out of sync. Let's see if you can guess which one he is. One clue, he in not wearing red. You won't be able to tell from the credits either. I changed my name 30+ years ago. If you look at my picture in the profile, you should find him easily. 

Side note: Bro has appeared on Ugly Betty, Animal Planet, and is now working in some feature films. 



Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Writ'in the Rails Again

0 comments

It was over a year ago when my editor for the Frommer's Europe by Rail book told me to stay close to my e-mail while on my winter vacation. She had anticipated signing up her authors for the next edition. When my winter break was over followed by my spring break, I finally sent off an e-mail asking "Que pasa?" 

Each book has a different editor, so I get a chance to work with different people making this a rewarding job.


By that time, I didn't need to have a degree in economics to know "it is the economy, stupid." or rather "it is the stupid economy." Which ever perspective, Frommer's and Wiley Publications were holding off on a new edition even if it should have come out for 2010.

Well, my saintly editor received some funds for a rewrite of the book. They thought they would have to do an in-house revision, but they will use authors after all. For me it means I will be doing the rewrite of the Hungary chapter for the 4th edition of the Europe by Rail book. Look for it sometime in 2011 is my guess.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Friday, July 23, 2010

I Had a Dream

0 comments

Seriously, I am not trying to do a bad Martin Luther King impression; last night or early this morning, I had a dream. All that I remember of the dream was that there were three disks, like DVDs twirling in concentric circles while partially overlapping each other. The left disk was a blueberry blue, the middle was the pear green, and the right one was rhubarb red.

When I woke, I knew this dream could only mean one of two things. Either there was some message here relating to the sound card problem with the laptop or my unconscious mind was telling me I needed to add more fruit to my diet.


By way of process of elimination, while drinking the first cup of coffee, I booted up the laptop, had a bowl of blackberries for breakfast, and then proceeded to download the drivers once again. 


The nVidia driver showed a message that said "Damn fool, how many times do we have to tell you that you have the latest driver your butt is going to get? Now stop wasting our time with this nonsense."


However, the Realtek took pity on me, downloaded, but when I went to install it, something new and different happened. It installed. After a reboot, I had sound. I could hear, I could hear! It was a miracle. I could hear.

Pin It Now!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Geek Needed

0 comments

I need some HELP!!!! One of my students was kind enough to go with me to where I bought my school laptop to have more RAM and drive space added. Since I bought it there, the service was free. I  have Windows 7 Professional and wanted to put it on the laptop, which I intended to install myself.


Windows 7 Professional installed without a hitch, but the  immediate problem with the WiFi connection continued. With XP before this, it had stopped recognizing any wireless connections even if it was sitting on a router. After some critical thinking and downloading drivers that would not work, I did a Windows Update by plugging the laptop directly into the Internet cable. Viola! One of the updates was for the WiFi connection. It now works fine.

My second problem now is the sound. There is none at all.
1.) I went through the Windows Updates, nothing there for the sound card.
2.) I checked the troubleshooter, but is states it cannot diagnose the problem.
3.) All speakers are at 100%, not muted.
4.) I tried hooking it up to external speakers, but no sound.
5.) I tried earphones, but nothing.

After Googling, I found that in laptops, the sound card is usually integrated into the motherboard, not separate, so if this is true, I will not be able to change out the sound card.

I did find that the sound card has two associations nVidia MCP51 and Realtek ALC883, so I Googled drivers for these with Windows 7 and tried installing them. The nVidia after each attempt at installing, it said there was a problem installing it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as this laptop often gets hooked up to speakers and the projector for watching movies. 

As some would say if I just had an APPLE, I would not have these problems because the APPLE/MAC just works. Well read this. This Leopard needs to change its spots. As for security, it is now taking a bite from the APPLE as BBC reports.

PCs have tremendously improved my thinking keeping my brain from turning into APPLE sauce.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Heart Heavy Good-bye

0 comments

I am a very sentimental person, but have hardened some over the years from realizing not everyone appreciates a sentimental sensitive guy. Being sentimental makes me a people collector. There is an unnatural need to keep everyone I have ever had contact with longer than ten minutes, in my life forever. Well Kit, what have you been up to since you broke my nose in 5th grade? Any parole violations? Mary, did you ever get help with that digestive problem you had in 3rd grade? It was really difficult sitting behind you all year. 

Really, when I grew up, there were no computers, no Facebook, no My Space other than the one in my shared bedroom with my brother. Staying in touch has not been possible. Yet, I did have a band of friends that stayed pretty tight for a couple of decades until they started dying off. My friend Rick who I have written about before died on Saturday at the age of 84 years old. I knew Rick for 43 years making him my oldest friend in multiple ways. 

I knew Rick and introduced him to my partner at the time Don. Amongst other things, Don taught me to appreciated Dolly Parton. For his birthday one year, I stood in line for hours to get tickets to her concert. It was the best present for both of us. Don was severely beaten on the boardwalk in Asbury Park, years after we ended it. He died of the injuries in the hospital. 

Through Don, Fred and Eleanor joined the band of friends. Fred was a staunch Republican, flamboyantly gay man who worked for Exxon. Fred loved the old time radio shows and had a collection on records. Don and I would spend hours listening to The Shadow, Grand Central Station, and Green Hornet. Fred was one of the only people that I knew who made better critical thinking decisions after getting wiped on pot when he was straight. He was brought up on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. I was not working at the time, so took him to court every day until the trial after he was released on bail. Fred died of liver cancer at the age of 51. He did not drink alcohol.

Eleanor and Fred were friends of Don's, but by coincidence lived in my apartment building. Eleanor was five foot ten inches and 102 pounds with a sense of humor that was boundless. She worked as a secretary for a Realtor who only kept her on out of sympathy. She had a heart problem and had quadruple by-pass surgery in addition to numerous other cardiac procedures. When she finally died from a heart attack, her boss discovered she had embezzled $10,000 from his company. Her daughter found it in the freezer wrapped in plastic and then wrapped with a steak in aluminum foil.

Rick also introduced me to Molly. Molly was a kick. She looked like the last of the Ziegfeld Follies who failed to turn in her old costumes. After meeting her, it took moments to realize it was a woman's face you were looking at and not a topographical map of the moon's craters covered in pancake make-up. To add to her charm, she had a voice like Harvey Fierstein with a severe cold. Molly dragged me into service as a hairdresser for her boss, who she loved. Kim could not keep help. I was an undergraduate at the time, but had my license as a hairdresser in NJ and PA. She pleaded with me to "fill-in" for a month until he could find someone. Two years later, I walked out. Molly died of a heart attack.

For years, this was my group for celebrating birthdays, Christmases, New Years, and any other event we could conjure up to get-together to have a communal feast.

For all of those who have made me laugh and made me cry, I say good-bye dear friends.
"We always thought we'd look back on our tears and laugh, but we never thought we'd look back on our laughter and cry."                Unknown.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

And for Our Next Trick

0 comments


If I had kept a record of things that guests have done, I could have a book by now. 

We have a family here; five stuffed into a room for four by their choice. Part of our orientation, we show everyone where everything is located in case we are not around if they need something: teabags, sugar, milk, but this also included toilet paper. There is nothing worse than feeling like you are held hostage by a lack of necessity items. Our newly installed wall cabinet has a special compartment of that holds six spare rolls.

The first night, we were greeted with an apology. Mom looked behind door number 4, the sliding door that hides the hot water heater, our laundry soap and other non-guest needs and knocked the door off of the track. How she managed this, is beyond me. It took the carpenter a good twenty minutes to put it on; it was a tight fit, but slides smoothly once in place. It took Ron just as long to get it back in place.

Two nights later, the family is out, the two guests in the other room are out, and we are just getting ready to go to bed. A note falls from our bedroom door that went unnoticed until my eyelids were droopy. From the family. "We could not get into the large bathroom. It is locked. Thought someone was in there, but no one answered." What the hell? What the hell? What the hell?

The large bathroom with the only shower has two entrances: one from the large bedroom and one from the hallway. There are two skeleton keys for this bathroom, one for each door. Each key has lived in the lock on the inside of the bathroom for the last 8+ years that we have lived here without ever having an issue. Now the bathroom was locked with the lock locked on both of the doors from the inside and the keys were still in the locks. How the hell did that happen? Better yet, who the hell did it?

Picture this. The window in the bathroom looks out into nothingness. There is a five story drop. About four feet straight across is our pantry window which is only 2 feet by 4 feet high and wide raised up over 6 feet on the wall. Our first thought was to fling one of the kids through the small window into the large bathroom window. The washing machine is right under the window, so if we were  able to get enough momentum in our toss to get them over the great divide, the washer would break their fall. But, darn it all, the little buggers were not home yet, so we had to try other things in the meantime. 

Taking off the door handles only exercised our wrists with screwing and unscrewing. It had not effect on the lock in the least. I was able to get the key out of the lock using a screwdriver, but now that the keys were on the floor, what now? 

Panic rose up in my heart. Nine people in the place and no one will have access to the shower and the fullest can of air freshener was locked in the bathroom. 

We fiddled with the only other skeleton key in our possession, the one from the small bathroom. We tried and tried to conjure it into working, but it would not completely turn around. I had a dog like that once. He would only turn part way, never catching on to the rest of the trick. Our small room guests returned, taking a shot at it. He was finally able to get it to unlock. Thank goodness for guests who are professionals at picking locks.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Hot Under the Collar, the Shirt, the Pants...

0 comments

HOT!! Can you say it is hot? It has been hot for days now, but the last couple it has been 90 degrees or hotter. If you want that is Celsius, use Google to figure it out. I am too hot to be bothered. What is the forecast for tomorrow? More hot, but with an er, so hotter.
If you are reading this while in air conditioning, know right now I dislike you very much. Air conditioning here in Budapest is as ubiquitous as the proverbial teats on a boar. Joints to the mall are worthless, where the temperatures hover about four degrees lower than outside. One store, LUSH, which once had an open kiosk on the mall floor, had to close down when all of their handmade natural soaps melted one summer. 

The only place to find relief is at the movies where you literally need to wear a jacket since the A/C is cranked up like it is on steroids. Alas, there is only one movie theater left were they show movies in English on a regular basis and have air conditioning. We just may have to camp out there if this continues. 

When I was with my one private student today, he was telling me his partner's electric bill has gone up 150,000 Huf since using the air conditioning. That is more than my monthly salary at the university. 

Reading that many Americans are going without too due to economics is...can I say heartWARMing? 

"A study by the Pew Research Center, “Luxury or Necessity? The Public Makes a U-Turn,” Rich Morin and Paul Taylor, (April 23, 2009), showed that the percentage of Americans who considered “air” a necessity, rather than a luxury, peaked to 60% in 2006, and dropped sharply to 45% in 2009. This was attributed to economic decline. In spite of widespread use of air-conditioning, there are numerous families existing without “air” for the first time. Many live their entire lifetimes without “air.” This is evidenced by emergency requests for fans when a heat-wave occurs. The fact that it is okay to live without "air" is supported by overwhelming evidence that air-conditioning is not “green.” Quoted from here.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Wow, I Spaced on These

0 comments

I spoke about the books I had read in the last couple of weeks, but completely spaced on two others. These were not by choice books, rather because one of our BA students wants to do his thesis on Chuck Palahniuk. I told him i would need to read some of his works, so he lent me 
Choke and Lullaby. Palahniuk wrote Fight Club.

Now that I have read both, I am dying to know what this kid thinks he is going to write about. Neither are great literature; they barely reached mind candy status. Okay, I had at least two short, barely audible chuckles while reading each, but the groans were loud enough to turn heads in public.
They made a movie out of Choke, cannot wait to see it and then test this student to see if he read the book or used the movie as a Cliff Notes.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Book to the Rescue

0 comments

In these last two weeks, I had the pleasure of reading four books. One was the book given to me by my student Adam from my Wish List: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. Since finishing it, I found a rebuttal book called Think which is now on my Wish List.

Two of the books were in my opinion, horrifying portraits of families  that have gone amok similar to Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. Read the book, avoid the movie. Two books that no current or former Child Protective Services worker should read are: 
2.) The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls 
The first book was given to me by Elizabeth Nelson, the wife of a former Fulbrighter, Murry Nelson when they returned for a conference. She suggested the second title, so Ron picked it up in the states. Can I honestly say that I cringed, cried, and almost had nightmares over the pitiful youthful experiences of these two women. I think Walls portrayal was much closer to emotional honesty.

The fourth book was a mind candy book brought to me by one of our guests who actually read my wish list. It is called The Last Suppers by Diane Mott Davidson. I have read a few of her other books, really enjoyed them, so now I have to read them all.

On the topic of reading, Ron forwarded a NY Times column to me that is so very apropos. Using a longitudinal study of 3 years, researchers gave 852 students twelve books each at the end of the school year. This was repeated each of the 3 years. They monitored the test scores of these 852 students which showed that they significantly higher reading scores than students who did not receive books. (Significantly was not defined as other data was not in the column).

Alternatively, other researchers who looked at the use of computers over a similar time period and before Facebook and Twitter were in vogue, found that students with Internet access actually had lower test scores. For the full article with links to the research, you can read it here.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Friday, July 09, 2010

I Bagel You, Let Me Have Your Sausage

0 comments

Some of the things that I miss most about the US are Italian sausage and bagels. Being from the NJ share city of Long Branch, where the population when I was growing up was 40% Jewish and 40% Italian, I know the quality of both foods intimately. Ron brought me back a dozen bagels and two pounds of sausage from IOWA. Would you believe it? IOWA? I think he said he had to look for both in the foreign food section.

What he has learned to do is deep freeze the sausage and then pack it well in his checked luggage. About six of the sausage were defrosted: three hot and three sweet. Those I cooked right away and threw the rest into the freezer. I did the same thing last year, but there was a twist last year. His luggage was lost for a day after Ron got home. Still, I ate the defrosted sausage and lived to tell about it. 

 
The bagels were bought the day he left, so they were still fresh. I slice them and freeze them here. The sausage were tasty and close to real Italian sausage, but needed a bit more spice inside. The bagels were surprisingly good; they are much better quality than we can get here.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Dealing with Loss

0 comments

It has been longer than two weeks now that a very long time friend went into the acute care hospital. He still is not out. Thankfully, he had the wherewithal to give the e-mail addresses of friends to his brother, who has been keeping us updated. 


I met Rick when I was fourteen. There are things in life that I especially appreciate because he exposed me to them. My love of architecture stems from his showing me photos of ancient Roman and Greek ruins while explaining the styles. I would never had heard of or learned to love the music of Edith Piaf if it were not for him. Musically, I also fell in love with Ed Ames' crooning those songs of a romantic. Rick taught me the difference between cameos and intaglios, while at the same time introducing me to Florentine needlepoint or bargello as it sometimes called, which years later, contributed to my Associate of Arts degree in Fine Arts. Because of him, I found that the combination of martinis and liver pate make me deathly ill. Most importantly, I learned without his teaching me that if I am honest about who I am with everyone, no one can blackmail me, as he was in his youth. 


When I was still living in NJ, our weekly routine was to pick Rick up and go grocery shopping. It was a ritual, but there were other diversions we shared: gay activist meetings, dinner parties, traveling locally. I provided the transport, he the company. 


When I moved to CA, I would call him on occasion, but then in his elder years, he bought a computer. This literally opened a new world to him as he now has friends in Florida, the west, and South Africa. I am sure there are even more that I am not aware of.


When he was admitted to the hospital this last time, he had just returned from a grocery shopping trip provided by his senior housing apartment. He felt ill and they called 911. The diagnosis this time is lung cancer. Rick has had cancer in the past, has an colostomy, but has not refrained from smoking all of these years. In December last, he turned 84 years old. From this hospitalization, it is looking very unlikely he will return home again. The doctors are saying he will need skilled nursing care. Losing his independence will be the end of him. Without his privacy, what he values more than anything in the world, he will wither away.


I have had the pleasure and the honor to have had Rick in my life for over forty years. Yet, I selfishly want more for him as well as for me. I tried deciding which Ed Ames song would make a fitting tribute. Many have some lyrics that are appropriate, but others that may have been at one time, but no longer are. So, I have chosen this one.

Pin It Now!

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Ron Just Returned Home

0 comments

Ron is back.

Pin It Now!

Say No to Ending No-tels

0 comments

The New York State Senators want to take a big bite out of the Big Apple's affordable accommodations. Voting this week on this tedious bill named A10008, they are putting the kabash on short-term sublets in New York City. With a blanket ban, that does not include other linens or breakfast included, they are putting a stop to any sub-letting that is under one month in duration. 
What this means is that if you were planning on renting a couch, room, or an apartment for your one to three week holiday escape the Big Apple, you will find that the government worms have rocked the apple cart.

It seems for NY'ers only, you can sign a petition here. It has to verify your voting eligibility before it goes through. Personally, I couldn't and wouldn't spend hundreds of dollars a night for a room in NYC. This option makes it much more reasonable and still brings in tourism dollars.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Say Good Night Larry

0 comments

For those of you old enough to remember George Burns and Gracie Allen, at the end of their show, George would turn to Gracie his wife and say "Say good-night Gracie". This has become a long time saying for politely telling someone to shout up. 

Ron loved watching Larry King's show each day here, in Hungary. It is via CNN, one of our two shows in English, the other being BBC. For years, I have been saying "Say good-night Larry" not appreciating what skill his interviews were supposed to have possessed to make him such a legend. Personally, I think people just loved tuning in to see which suspenders he was wearing that day.

Well, he has finally done it in. With CNN only(?) 30 years old, Larry has been around for 25 years of it. They claim he has done 50,000 interviews, but in reality the last 10,000 Larry was just propped up with a little motor on his neck that shook his head at appropriate times. The dear is 76 years old, has had 8 marriages and a slew of children, one who never met until the son turned 30 years old and another who is just 10 years old. If he continued, truth in advertising would have made them changed the name of the show. Currently, it is called Larry King Live.

I hope they do a Larry King tribute consisting of all of his interviews with anyone associated with family values and their advocates. That would be special.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Some Things are Inescapable

0 comments

There are some things that are inescapable. Today, I was heading to the market and passed by one of the larger wine stores, where I spotted this poster. Ernest and Julio Gallo, originated and are still based in Modesto, California where we left in 2001. I thought I had seen the last of these guys. They resurfaced. Sadly, they can get their wines exported here, yet Hungarian wineries have such difficulties getting their wines to the US. The stores I researched for the book will not even ship it due to the complexity and expense.


Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Teaching Position Opening

0 comments

If you or someone you know may be interested, contact me at drryanjames@gmail.com. However, getting a Work Permit and Visa are exercises in patience, which the university offers no assistance.


Dear Ryan,
Our colleague Tamás Magyarics is about to leave us for some time to become the director of the Hungarian Institute for Foreign Affairs. This may last for several years and we are now desperately looking for someone to take over all or half of his classes for at least the coming academic year. His subjects include current US history, diplomatic history, US politics and the US Constitution. Anybody to teach 3 or 5 courses in any or some of these subjects would be welcome, provided he/she has the appropriate academic background to teach at ELTE. Teaching could be done at the BA level. No PhD is required at this point.

Please do let me know if you can think of someone so that I could help Enikő to overcome this troublesome issue.

Thanks for your help and best regards,

Tibor Frank

Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Happy 4th of July

0 comments

If you are celebrating the holiday, have a great time, but stay safe with those BBQ fires and fireworks. I chose not to attend the Democrats Abroad picnic. I did not want to go alone, but I am not much of a mixer with the usual crowd who does attend.


Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Price Increase on US Passports

0 comments

Just around the corner on July 13, 2010 the cost of getting or renewing a US Passport will increase.The fee for an adult passport is stated as $110.00, however, there is an additional $25.00 fee for 'processing'. Why not just say $135.00? A passport for children under 16 years old will be $105.00.


Passport renewals will save you the $25 processing fee if you do not go to a county clerk or post office. Mail in your current passport as proof of identity along with your application. The alternative is to use a private expeditor service, which negates any savings, but if you are in a time crunch it is worth it.

The $25 administrative fee is awarded to the official passport acceptance agents such as the post offices and city governments who provide the legal service of applying for a passport. Due to the hours of hand holding they have had to do with numerous applicants, they have complained that their current fees are not cost effective. With this new fee, the Department of State will review the increase in application fess to determine if there needs to be another increase sometime later the year.

Another "gotchya" is to add extra pages to a valid 28-page passport book will cost an additional $82 starting July 13th.Up until now, it has been free. If you think you could use extra pages, get them now if you still have some years before your passport expires. 

A larger passport of 52 pages as opposed to the usual 28 pages is available at no additional cost when you renew or get a new passport if you ask for it. Extra pages are needed by frequent travelers going to countries that require a visa.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Saturday, July 03, 2010

Ron's Brithday Greeting Count

0 comments

As of yesterday, Ron reported having over 100 e-mail birthday greetings. The birthday octave is not over until the 8th of July, so if you missed your chance to send an anonymous "Happy Birthday" just for the fun of it, please send it to ronschm@gmail.com.
Trivia for the day: Did you know that the song "Happy Birthday to You" is copyright protected? Each time it is song in a movie, theater, or restaurant, a royalty has to be paid. The music was created by two sisters, both teachers, but one moved into music.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!

Looks Can Be Deceiving

0 comments

Today's chuckle is brought to you compliments of Ray Ruiz of LA Dauphine Residence des Artistes.

When the woman asks if she looks stupid, I am not sure whether that was a rhetorical question or if she was doing a reality check. Gosh lady, now that I take a second look...

Pin It Now!

Friday, July 02, 2010

These Rules Are Not Meant to Be Broken

0 comments

The old adage "Rules are meant to be broken" should not apply to major corporations, especially the airlines. They are making aviation history with the nickel and dime charges they seemingly conjure up on the spot when you are standing before them to check in. Before you ever set foot on a plane, you should be armed with information you may need to demand your rights.


US airlines now have some laws to protect you, the consumer. Will they share that information with you? Hardly. Caveat emptor is Latin for "Let the buyer beware." and this is especially true when airlines are falling from the sky due to their antiquated business models not changing with the times, causing operating costs to be rocketing out of control. Christopher Elliott wrote this article in 2008, but he is still referencing it himself, so I am thinking it is still valid. Another source is Independent Traveler.com where they have an article posted on US Passenger Rights.

Any flights going to or from the European Union, EVEN those that start outside of the EU such as those from the US, they are covered by EU law 261. Click here to get a full easy to understand explanation of Q & A of the law. 

If fifteen pages is too comprehensive for you, know that ALL airlines servicing the EU are mandated to have copies of passenger rights at the check-counters. Many times they will claim they don't or are not required to, but they are. I demanded our rights in Prague when we missed a flight. Although I had to stand up to the airline people, we were booked on the next available flight which was not until the next morning, but our hotel, transporation and dinner was paid for by the airline. 

It always surprises me how many of our guests, mostly Americans, have not fought for their rights when they were aware of them ahead of time.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Pin It Now!