dum, duhdum, dum, daaaaaaaahhhh....

i went in to my Nexus appointment the other day. getting a nexus card is a lot like getting a passport -- you fill out paperwork, they check you out, you talk to them at the appointment and give them your fingerprints, they give you advice, you get your card in the mail.

i like the idea of having a nexus card because there's a special nexus lane at the border which is usually quite a bit faster than the regular lanes.

BUT.

when you have a nexus card, EVERYONE in the car must have the card. i knew that when i went to the appointment. what i didn't know was that you must have nothing in the car which is not yours or your traveling companion's!

now that scared me. if i run up to canada and get something from costco, then come back in the nexus lane and they see the husband's boots in the car which are obviously not mine, they can take away my card. and man, that's a permanent condition. you NEVER get your nexus card back. they are so hard-nosed about that it's not funny.

well. when they explained all that to me i got so nervous. i mean, cripes. am i going to remember to search my car before i run up to canada? shit. i'm going to have to. honestly -- well-intentioned, decent people aren't used to not getting a second chance.

damn those terrorists!

crime pays until you're caught

this is good if you want to read about some of the crime in 2008. i don't really get the thumbs up/down thing -- maybe they're rating the cleverness of the crime.

i thought the fbi heist was the best .... way to go, government! as for the rest, one was clever but i wouldn't applaud his getting away with it (which he finally didn't), and the rest are just bad people who need to be taken out. and that last guy -- take him out and lose him somewhere. gees .....

i spy

counterintelligence is alive and well. check this out (edit below):

The U.S. Commerce Department's security office warns that "a cellular telephone can be turned into a microphone and transmitter for the purpose of listening to conversations in the vicinity of the phone." An article in the Financial Times last year said mobile providers can "remotely install a piece of software on to any handset, without the owner's knowledge, which will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call."

Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone."

honestly, i'm all for whatever it takes to get the bad guys, but ... what the hell?! civil liberties!

movin' on out, er... in, er... right

i had an interesting heads-up just now. My Younger Son, who lives in rochester ny, sent me an article about the traffic cops in and around seattle. it seems they are pulling people over for being in the left lane and going the speed limit!!! the left lane is passing only and many people (mwah included) use it as a regular lane. i do that mainly 'cause i don't like people passing me -- juvenile, i know. at any rate, supposedly they are trying to keep road rage down and one way is to get people out of the way of other people wanting to move on down the road.

i'm going to give up the left lane 'cause i don't want to have to pay a $124 traffic ticket!

thank you My Younger Son -- you have once again been a blessing!

gentle reassurance

imagine this: you're a parent. a responsible person with a responsible job and you're trying to be a good parent but there's no instruction manual. things aren't perfect and at some point you and your wife divorce with the twins (a boy and a girl) going to live with the ex-. you get re-married and things go well with your job, but the boy can't stay out of trouble. over the years the boy is in-and-out of juvie. the girl is killed in a bad car accident. you continue to do well at work and are well-liked. one day you show up at work and your son's picture is on the bulletin board as being wanted by the police for murder. there are witnesses to the confrontation, the fight, the stabbing.

this happened to a friend of mine last week. he hasn't been back to work for a week and the kid is on the lam. everyone feels for this guy but what do we say when he comes back to work? i don't want to pretend things aren't the way they are -- the elephant in the living room thing. i hate preaching, moralizing, platitudes, but i'm just not quite sure what to say.

go, team, go!

they caught a bad guy at work today. it's not that unusual, really -- they seem to find drugs or pests (agriculture) or something which isn't allowable on a regular basis. i just usually never hear about it.

but today i knew about it as it was unfolding. not that i was in the middle of it, but one of the top guys left the office for a bit and then there was a lot of activity outside and i could see it from my top-floor window.

sooooooo cool!! down with the bad guys and up with us!!!

movie watching

for awhile we were absolutely riveted by the poirot dvds done by the bbc. we not only watched all the series plus the longer movies (all starring david suchet) but we watched them twice!

now we have a couple of new dvd interests: Foley's War and Midsomer Murders.

Foley's war stars Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, and a couple other regulars. The cast is totally excellent and the stories are intriguing.

Midsomer Murders is interesting, but for whatever reason i don't care for John Nettles. His sidekick is cute (Daniel Casey) and the stories are okay, but it generally isn't quite as good as poirot or foley's.

still, the costumes, cars, locales, etc. are excellent in all three series and definitely worth watching. have fun!

doubles

saw two interesting things when hubby and i went out for a walk today. it was sunny, but only about 15* with an occasional bit of breeze.

1) i was scanning the harbor when i noticed a bird perfectly holding its position, flapping its wings in mid-air for at least 6 seconds, then diving down toward the water. i don't recall ever seeing a bird hold still like that, except for a hummingbird.

2) without warning we all of a sudden saw a single-engine cessna fly right along the houses on the shore-line at about 100 feet above the ground. that is unusual since it's supposed to be quite a bit higher when it's over populated areas, and it didn't make a turn for a base leg to the airport. a helicopter followed about 10 seconds behind it and they both continued north into canada. we decided it must have been an illegal thing of some sort -- probably a drug runner being followed by u.s. agents.

oh, the excitement ...

stand back

i was looking for any video showing traffic cops being cool and doing their thing, when i ran across this. i can't imagine this was staged so ... wow!!! how unreal!