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They don't seem too nervous ... yet.

posted by Patia  2:40 AM 0 Comments

Got Weeds? These Sheep Will Make House Calls (New York Times)

posted by Patia  2:35 AM 1 Comments

I went to Ralph Nader's presidential campaign rally on Wednesday with my friends Jen and Justin (click links for their perspectives on the event). We arrived early enough to get front-row-center seats in the University Center Ballroom, which filled up by the time Nader took the stage.

Nader, who is on the ballot in 45 states including Montana, spoke simply yet passionately about issues including corporate abuse, health care and civic responsibility. He also highlighted the differences between himself and mainstream candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, both of whom, he claims, are entrenched in the militaristic and corporate-influenced political system.



Sitting there, I wished every American could hear Nader. The man makes a world of sense. Why, indeed, is it that every western European country has health care for all while the U.S. lets 18,000 people a year die without it? Why is it that we have given corporations more power than American citizens? Why is it that Americans don't get to hear more than two points of view during the national televised debates?

After Nader's speech and toward the end of the Q&A session, I was moved to stand up and take the microphone. (As an aside, I just discovered I was quoted in the Missoulian article. Ha!) I said: "Ralph, you have my heart, but Obama has my vote. What can I as an individual do to encourage Obama to be more progressive on the issues?"

Nader responded by saying I shouldn't be so quick to let Obama know he's got my vote. He said we progressives should make Democratic candidates earn our votes rather than take them for granted. He suggested I print out this page from VoteNader.org and send it to Obama to let him know what issues are important to me.

I believe Barack Obama is an exceptionally strong candidate and a good, principled man, and I still fully intend to vote for him. But I disagree with some of his views, especially on war and nuclear power, and I am worried, because I know other like-minded people who are more willing than I to vote their conscience than their pragmatism.

Although the latest poll shows Obama pulling ahead of McCain in Montana, it's close enough here and elsewhere that I'm still plenty nervous about the election. However, I remain grateful to Ralph Nader for selflessly dedicating his life to helping Americans, our country and the world.

posted by Patia  9:52 PM 5 Comments

My charming and talented friend Jen has opened up a shop on Etsy called GoJenGo. She's selling handcrafted goodies such as purses, greeting cards and neckroll pillows.

I adore Jen's intricate, Sixties-inspired artwork -- in fact, I really think somebody needs to discover her and put her to work as a commercial illustrator. I can totally see her designs on fabrics and album covers, can't you?



And check out this adorable neckroll pillow. I've already had her make two of them for me, because I'm a bit of a pillow addict. Neckroll pillows are the best.

Go check out her stuff and remember: Christmas is coming!

posted by Patia  1:53 PM 3 Comments

This one made me cry. If you watch only one, make it this one.




Gorgeous visuals, hip-hop narration.




Hope changes everything.




One-hundred thousand people turned out for Obama yesterday in St. Louis, Missouri.





For videos of Barack Obama's visits to Montana, go to the official YouTube Obama channel, scroll down to "Videos," and type "Montana" in the search box. Included there are his very moving speech at Crow Agency and Missoula Mayor John Engen's endorsement before a crowd of 8,000-plus in the Adams Center.

posted by Patia  6:45 PM 3 Comments

My latest camera review for PhotographyREVIEW.com is now online. The Olympus E-420 is the world's smallest digital SLR, packing a lot of pro features into a remarkably small, lightweight body.



I thoroughly enjoyed using this camera and am sorry to have to return my review model. If you check out the review, be sure to click through to see the photographs I took with it on pages 3 and 4.

The current issue of the Montanan magazine has an article I wrote about UM art history professor Rafael Chacon and his new book, "The Original Man: The Life and Work of Montana Architect A.J. Gibson." The issue (fall 2008) isn't online yet, but I'll link to it when it is. Gibson is the man responsible for many of Western Montana's most prominent buildings, including the Missoula County Courthouse, the Marcus Daly Mansion in Hamilton and UM's Main Hall, Jeannette Rankin Hall and Math Building.


Chacon's research uncovered dozens of other Gibson designs in the region -- many of them homes and businesses we still live with today -- as well as an entertaining tale about A.J., his spunky wife, Maud, and a nearly forgotten chunk of Montana history.

Finally, I've updated my Writing page with a number of PDF files, which allow you to download and print the article as it was originally published. Of special interest to anyone who's spent time in the Whitefish area are two articles never before (to my knowledge) available online:

Who Killed Bigfoot? (PDF)
Careless Hunter Does in Sasquatch in Whitefish, Weekly World News Reports
(Whitefish Pilot, June 1995)

This article was great fun for me because I got to call up and interview the publisher of the Weekly World News, which gave me surprising insights into the world of tabloid publishing.

Only in ... Olney (PDF)
Three-part series on Olney, Montana, and its residents
(Whitefish Pilot, January/February 1994)

Olney, a tiny town northwest of Whitefish, was locally famous for its homespun newspaper columnist, Ida Hunnewell, whom I interviewed in depth here. I am especially proud of this series because it earned me a first place for "Best In-Depth Reporting" from the Montana Newspaper Association. This was before I had a college degree or even the title of reporter, and the award -- along with the encouragement of my boss and coworkers at the Pilot -- was the impetus for finally enrolling in college full-time.

The rest is history.

posted by Patia  5:28 PM 4 Comments

posted by Patia  11:39 PM 0 Comments

Mercury Retrograde ended yesterday, so hopefully things in my life will quit breaking. During the past two weeks I've dealt with meltdowns of my computer, external hard drive, Palm Treo, Bloglines feed reader, vacuum cleaner and one of my window blinds. Oh, yeah, and then there's the economy.

Okay, here's the thing: I don't think I really believe in Mercury Retrograde or astrology or even God. But those concepts DO make life a little easier to comprehend, so it's sort of like I pretend to believe. It's comforting.

I'm glad the debates are over and we're in the home stretch of the election. (I got a real giggle tonight when John McCain answered the question about whether his VP pick was qualified to be president by saying she understands special needs children.) I am feeling a lot of anxiety about the election, as I'm sure many are. Honestly, I can't believe there are still average folks out there who want another four years of war, recession, trillion-dollar deficits, skyrocketing gas prices, civil rights violations, corporate malfeasance, the rich getting richer, etc., etc., etc.

So, Ralph Nader will be in town next week. I'll probably go to the rally, but despite my great respect and admiration for Nader -- and the fact that I still want to have his lovechild -- I won't be voting for him. I have mixed feelings about his candidacy in this election. On the one hand, I hope nobody votes for him instead of Barack Obama. On the other hand, I appreciate what Nader is trying to do -- which is to bring attention to issues that Obama and McCain are neglecting, like health care, corporate crime and human rights.

Reading Nader's blog, I was shocked to learn that the national desk of the Associated Press hasn't done even one story about Nader in six months. That is outrageous. Nader's candidacy may be marginal, but he is the third-ranked candidate for President of the United States. It's bad enough he isn't allowed to participate in the debates.

On a lighter note, Neva sent me this today, and I about wet myself.

posted by Patia  10:41 PM 8 Comments

Via Livingston, I Presume.

posted by Patia  12:49 PM 1 Comments

Missoula's boring Brooks Street actually looks rather attractive here, lit by stormy, golden afternoon rays and against the backdrop of Mount Jumbo and Mount Sentinel.

Shortly after I wrote my last post about how great it was to have my computer up and running again, I discovered my iPhoto database and some of my preferences were corrupt. That led to reinstalling my system software and all my applications (again) and rebuilding the iPhoto database. Once I got everything working correctly, I began a tedious process of organizing and archiving the 11,000-plus digital photos I've collected on my hard drive over the past seven years. Yikes! How did that happen?

Well, I had made CD backups of all my photos until I switched to an external hard drive backup a year and a half ago. But I never actually deleted any images from the computer. "Organize iPhoto library" has been on my to-do list for, um, a couple years. It was just a really daunting task. Even more daunting than I realized, now that I'm in the midst of exporting my newly organized albums from iPhoto onto the desktop, then burning them to DVDs, 4 gigabytes at a time.

I've learned that one backup isn't enough and that the perfect backup strategy doesn't exist. Hard drives are so unreliable that your data can just vanish into the ether -- all my Time Machine backups did. CDs and DVDs are unstable media; I'm still unclear on how long they can be expected to last. And of course, it's wise to keep off-site backups in case of fire or other catastrophic damage. But where should you keep those off-site backups? In the car, where they'll melt? In the safe deposit box, where accessing them is a hassle? Web-based backups seem like a great solution for people with super-fast Internet connections. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them.

I'm still trying to figure out the perfect backup system for me. Maybe monthly backups to CD or DVD, ferried to the safe deposit box, plus weekly hard-drive backups -- but you still run the risk of losing a week's worth of data (or more). I was lucky this time. I only lost two days' worth of photos -- and all the Photoshop edits I've made to my photographs over the years. The latter seems to be a side effect of iPhoto 8's "non-destructive editing" feature.

Maybe I'll start doing daily backups to my thumb drive. What a hassle, though. I'd love one of Apple's snazzy wireless Time Capsules -- it backs up without any effort on your part -- but at 300 bucks, it may be a while.

At the same time, I'm also reconsidering my entire photo storage strategy. I've always kept everything except the truly bad images; you never know when you might want a different angle or decide you like those unflattering portraits, after all. But as I grow older, I realize that my time is more precious than stuff. I want to be more ruthless in editing. Why bother organizing and storing photos I will probably never use? Why not focus my time and energy on images that are truly excellent, or at least meaningful?

Come to think of it, that's not a bad metaphor for life in general.

posted by Patia  2:20 AM 13 Comments

Back in black
I hit the sack
Gone so long I'm glad to be back

~ AC/DC

Pardon the riff. It's been almost two weeks since my computer has worked properly. Now it's out of the shop with a new hard drive, and I've been busy reinstalling applications and restoring data. I still have lots to do to get everything set up right. I also want to take the time to organize and archive my iPhoto library, a long overdue task.

Then there's the jillions of blog posts and emails to catch up on. I was, however, able to read RSS feeds and emails on my Palm Treo smartphone, as well as do Twitter updates. It's just hard to do anything more complicated on the Treo -- blogging, leaving comments and answering emails is either a hassle or impossible.

It was almost nice to have the MacBook in the shop. I made it through withdrawals and remembered what it was like to just live life without the constant tug of the computer. I also got a few projects done or started, like sorting through all my old 35mm slides (a lot!) and sending some off for digitizing. I think I may end up tossing most of my slides. I also tossed all my VHS videos and prepared to do the same with audio cassettes -- once I've replaced all the songs I want via iTunes, they're history.

There's something about age (and small living quarters) that makes me less inclined to hang onto the past.

Onward and upward.

posted by Patia  12:30 AM 3 Comments