keeping note

Just a follow up to our previous post. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

So, I’m frustrated! I love Mac and will always love Mac, but right now I want to put my Apple through the juicer!

I saw that I needed to upgrade my iTunes and Leopard (nothing unusual there) so I take all the proper steps and wait for it to restart. When it restarts, a flashing folder with a question mark pops up and refuses to boot up properly! And to top it all off, the Genius Bar appointments are all booked up until tomorrow and I have to make my way to a mall that it farther away than I would like.

As I will soon post (pictures that is), I had a mini freak out and am know without a computer in my apartment. (I’m currently in the computer room of my apartment complex and stationed at the only working one!)

Damn you my lovely Apple computer!

Summer is usually quite the drag for us TV watchers. Having been robbed of a full season this past year, I am even more anxious for the fall. Summer isn’t all cheesy reality and boring reruns, though. Two networks have shows worthy of our attention.

USA’s Burn Notice is one of the wittiest and cleverest spy shows since the original Get Smart. A sharp and cynical spy, Michael, has been “burned,” abandoned and left for dead, in Miami with an ex-girlfriend and plenty of trouble to stir up. The second season kicks off on Thurs, July 10th at 10pm.

TBS’s My Boys is another great summer show that seems to fly under the radar. PJ is a sports writer in Chicago, with just the right amount of tom-boy and real girl to keep the show interesting. Last season left us with a wicked cliff hanger– after a string of boyfriends and almost boyfriends, she ran off on vacation with one of her many male interests. Who could it be? We’ll find out with the second season airing Thursdays at 9:30pm (or catch this one online).

Tune in for both and tell us what you think.

The other day during one of our Keeping Note think-tank sessions, we were talking about how the generation of people who lived through World War II are almost all gone. It struck us as extremely sad that the people of that generation, along with their stories and realities, were disappearing. They lived through something unlike anything the world has and will possibly ever see and the generations from here on out will become more and more detached from the history of WWII.

Blind Spot is a documentary interview with Hitler’s personal secretary. Traudl Junge lived in Hitler’s bunker and ate meals with him during the last three years of the war, leading up to Hitler’s suicide. While isolated from the war completely, she learned to love and respect Hitler as a father-figure and her upstanding boss, never really knowing what it was he was doing. She took the final dictation of his will and testament and was with him in the bunker when he died.

While the movie is simply an hour and a half of this woman, Traudl Junge, talking to the camera her life and experiences as Hitler’s personal secretary, the stories she has to tell and the way she describes the most dangerous and evil man in history are amazing.

I’m happy that her narrative and her experiences didn’t die with her. Her story is one that we can keep for future generations to not lose touch with the horrors and reality of WWII.

Today I volunteered for the San Diego County Blood Bank by helping with one of their blood-mobiles. A local salon was giving free shampoo and styles to everyone who showed up to give blood.

In between checking in the donors, I was reading Brendan Halpin’s It Takes a Worried Man. This is an amazing book about a man who’s wife is dying of cancer that you have to find and read, but right now I don’t want to distract from my point. In the book, he explains how the treatments for many diseases cause the body to stop producing blood. His wife required a steady supply of blood for the last few months of her life and he got to see first hand how giving blood paid off. “I feel, karmically speaking, that adding blood to the supply is a good and noble way to honor her fight against the disease.”

Maybe giving blood is so common that people easily forget how impacting and important it really is. Come on guys! Set up to the plate, put away your excuses, and donate blood! You don’t need to contribute money and it only takes half an hour. They give you a cool t-shirt, juice, food, and tons of free stuff. The stuff shouldn’t be the incentive, though. It’s amazing to think that anyone out there can be an integral part of saving or even just sustaining a life.

JDM Salon is having another blood drive in a few months where again, the brave and generous donors will get a free shampoo and hair style. Come to this or start your own event. Set up a tent, spread the word, get someone to donate coffee, baked goods, a live band, anything. It can be really fun. All day donors can share their blood-giving stories and blue arm bands.

Brave that one little needle poke so that the people who are suffering much more than a silly needle can be helped. As my free t-shirt proclaims, “Do it for the donut.”

Look for information on more San Diego Blood Bank events in your area, or create your own event.

Moving is such a hassle.

If the posts look a bit past due it’s because Keeping note is making the move from Typepad to WordPress, because…well…we just like it better.

We have to move all our blogs here just to “keep note” on WordPress.

Here’s to finally settling in!

More on everything later,

Cy!