Awake

The latest from NEED magazine

The February NEED Newsletter is here. Check it out.

Link: www.needmagazine.com/NEED_Feb07_Newsletter.pdf [PDF]

For A Limited Time Only: Amber at the Student Massage Clinic

Barring another surprise snow storm, this Wednesday will be my first night at the East West College Student Massage Clinic. "What's that?" you say. I'm so glad you asked.

This term I am taking Business and Clinical Practices. One day a week (Monday evenings, generally), I have business class and on Wednesday evenings, I give massages in the college's student clinic.

For a limited time only, you can make an appointment through the school and request me as your student massage therapist. You will receive a 50 minute Swedish relaxation massage for $25. "What a deal," you declare. "Indeed," I reply. You should know that we have access to the hydrocollator packs which is worth the price of admission alone. What are hydrocollator packs? Oh, well, they are simply hot little bundles of heaven that'll turn your back into jelly. Divine.

Sounds good? Well there are a limited number of appointments and this deal ends March 19, 2007. If Wednesdays don't work for you, there will be two Monday night clinics which should be February 19 and March 19. (We just decided on the February 19 makeup clinc last night, so the receptionists might not be aware of it yet.)

"How do I make an appointment?" you cleverly ask. You simply call the school and request "Amber Himes" for a Wednesday evening massage at the student clinic. The time slots will either be 6:40 pm or 8:00 pm. The number to call is 503-233-6500.

The Fine Print. Since this is a student clinic, there are some extra liability concerns and precautions that manifest in the policies. So, if you are pregnant; currently have a serious injury, disease, or have had surgery within the past 5 years; currently have any kind of infectious disease (including skin disease) you will need to have your doctor's clearance before you can receive a massage at the student clinic. The doctor should also indicate any limitations I should observe. This clearance must be in writing. You can either bring the written note with you or have the doctor fax it to 503-232-4392. Ok? Taking care of this ahead of time will save you from being turned away after you arrive for your appointment. And that would be no fun at all!

Links:

• Directions and map to East West College [PDF]. (Note: The clinic is on the 3rd floor of the main (only) campus. The Belmont clinic is closed!) Evening clients may park in the north parking lot adjacent to the East West College building.
• East West College website
• Massage: A relaxing method to relieve stress and pain [Article on the benefits, risks, and expectations of a relaxation massage from MayoClinic.com]

Thank you for your support!

Happy Monday! (Oh wait. It's Thursday.)

I love a good snow day. Two snow days: whoa. On a week with a holiday? Even better.

This week, I had MLK, Jr. day off and spent it up north with the fam. I headed up to Oly on Saturday night after teaching the 4s about John baptizing Jesus and trying to 4-year-old-ize answers to questions they were asking about the nature of the trinitarian God. (Yes, they're 4. Yes, they really did ask me about that.) Originally, Seth and April (and the girls) were going to Seattle to Deliver The Wii to Brant and Jackie. Of course, I wanted a piece of that action and since I had a holiday on Monday, I told them I'd be tagging along. Well then Brant reminded us that Jackie's birthday was on Tuesday and would we want to celebrate her birthday while we were all up there? But of course! Plus it made perfect sense.

Meanwhile, The Dadoo was in Mississippi replacing rotten siding, installing plumbing and doing other tasks that enabled a few flood-affected families in Moss Point to return home. He was to return home on Saturday, but due to a storm, the flight was diverted and he wouldn't be arriving in Portland until around 11pm Saturday night. So we weren't really expecting Mom and Dad to join us, but alas, they could not deny their dual parental and grandparental natures and like a moth drawn to a flame ("it's so beau-ti-ful") they decided to drive up to Oly on Saturday night, stay overnight in a hotel to rest up, and join us late-morning at Seth and April's to hang out with their granddaughters.

So on Sunday afternoon after Seth got home from work and we all had lunch, we drove up to Seattle to celebrate Jackie's birthday and Deliver The Wii. It was a delightful afternoon, albeit short-lived. April and I made Pink Lady smoothies for everyone as well as dinner and for dessert we broke out The Great Chocolate Fountain. The boys played with the Wii—I've never seen The Dadoo so relaxed! It was fabulous. (I may have to find a way to integrate the Wii into my practice. "For homework, I recommend 30 minutes of Wii Golf. Don't forget to stretch before and after." ;)

On Sunday evening, we headed South—Mom and Dad to Portland and myself to Oly to stay another night at Seth and April's. I finally got a chance to play with the Wii—it is so fun. Fun for all ages, actually. The Wii takes a SD memory card from a digital camera. My camera's card is an SD card so we plugged it in and sure enough, it loaded all my pictures and videos—even ones I had deleted years ago! (Side note: the Wii may be an effective tool in recovering deleted photos off an SD card. Just plug in the SD card into the Wii, select the photos you want to recover, and email them to yourself!) There are a few fun programs where you can "draw" on the photos and there's a few effects as well, like turning a photo black and white. If you're connected to the Internet, you can email these photos to anyone. Likewise, you can receive photos from others on the Wii as well! I'm going to give my niece Adalie one of my spare 32 MB SD cards to use in her Fisher Price digital camera so that she can take pictures, load them onto the Wii, have fun with them and then send them off to her extended family. How fun is that?

So then, the snow. On Tuesday, I didn't even realize it had snowed until I opened my back door to leave for work. What a delightful surprise that was! I called into work and sure enough, the office was closed for the day and it turned out, Wednesday as well. My classes were cancelled both Tuesday and Wednesday. So no first day of Clinic for me. I guess in a small way, I experienced the reality of how inclement weather impacts a business.

So now it's finally "Monday" but it's already Thursday. Bliss.

Happy Slush Day.

Bonus video: This was the video of the week. Bumper cars slippin' and slidin' and crashin' down SW Salmon Street (up the hill from where I work).

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Got their self-titled album on iTunes [link] last week and I love it. Amazing talent. Here they are on Letterman last month:

In The Event Of A Week That Almost Went Wrong

She can only post lyrics to the song that's been on "repeat" in her ipod.

"We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are"
by Rich Mullins

Well, it took the hand of God Almighty
To part the waters of the sea
But it only took one little lie
To separate you and me
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

And they say that one day Joshua
Made the sun stand still in the sky
But I can't even keep these thoughts
Of you from passing by
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

CHORUS
We are frail
We are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are

And the Master said their faith was
Gonna make them mountains move
But me, I tremble like a hill on a fault line
Just at the thought of how I lost you
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

CHORUS

And if you make me laugh well I know
I could make you like me
Cause when I laugh I can be a lot of fun
But we can't do that I know that it is frightening
What I don't know is why we can't hold on
We can't hold on

CHORUS

When you love you walk on the water
Just don't stumble on the waves
We all want to go there somethin' awful
But to stand there it takes some grace
'Cause oh, we are not as strong
As we think we are

The Victorious Journey to Utter Let-Down

The rumor was turning true: a shipment of Wii consoles were to arrive at Fred Meyer that night.

O, would we never had heard that rumor.

Yes, it was Christmas vacation. Family gathered. Presents opened. Table games played and played again. But despite our best efforts to attain contentment, over us loomed, The Wii Rain Check.

We had only to locate a console. Impossible? Indeed. Unattainable? Of course. Should we have waited a month? Duh. But calls were made. Morning trips to local retailers taken. For what?

For NOTHING.

But then. The RUMOR.

7:45 pm. I had stopped by the Beaverton Fred Meyer on my way back from volunteering at the dispute resolution center at City Hall. It was right across the street. I would just pop in and ask.

"Yes." The retail clerk at the electronics department nearly beamed as he explained, "Yes, a shipment may be arriving this evening. Call at 6:30 am tomorrow to confirm whether or not the shipment arrived."

Oh sweet gem of information! I resisted calling The Homeplace where my two brothers, aka The Recipients, where likely quite content playing Mario Kart on the '64.' No, I wanted to see their faces when I told them the news: "Wii consoles were arriving at a local Fred Meyer tonight."

I felt like a hero. The news was received triumphantly. Groans followed, at the prospect of waking up at 6:30 am just to get, what was in the grand scheme of things, just a stupid toy. The evening progressed with a buzz of anticipation.

10:40 pm. Anxiousness declared victory. People of action, un-content with malcontent, the phone book was retrieved. One Fred Meyer was called in Hillsboro. "No shipments today."

10:43 pm. The Beaverton Fred Meyer was called, the site of the rumored shipment.

"Yes! We just received them!" declared the representative on the other end of the line. What! We all stood up. Unbelievable!

"So they're available?!" my sister-in-law quickly confirmed.

"Yes!" the clerk replied.

"So we can buy one right now?"

"Yes," the clerk replied.

"And you're open until 11pm?"

"Ye--".

We were out the door, inadvertantly leaving the sister-in-law who was on the phone behind.

10:47 pm. We departed from an area in Washington County near 185th and West Union. We were headed to Beaverton. Under normal circumstances, the trip would take 20-30 minutes, depending on traffic on 26 and 217. This time of night, it would probably take 12-15 minutes.

My car only nearly choked twice. I really should have already taken it in for the 100k maintenance. But gifts trump car mainteance — at least in December. Evenso, we were making good time. The Little Engine That Could, a '98 Saturn SL, fed off our combined adrenaline and brought us to the door of the Beaverton Fred Meyer at

10:58 pm.

Eleven minutes later and two minutes before closing, doors slammed and we ran to the entrance. Composing ourselves, we walked nonchalantly to the Electronics counter. Hastily, we looked for an employee. Were we in time?

We found a clerk in Electronics. Our hero. Oh the sweet anticipation.

"Do you have any Wiis?" we inquired.

"Yes," he declared importantly. "They're locked in my office."

"Can we purchase one?" we wondered, as politely as we could muster.

"No," the man in the white shirt and black tie replied. He started to back away.

"But it's 10:58." I offered. Maybe he didn't know that the store was still open.

"I know it's 10:58." Apparently, he did know. But his reply now decidedly included a noticieable tone of "snark."

"We just talked to someone in this department who said we could buy one before closing. That's why we're here." Now were were really confused. But "confusion" was not to be our fate tonight. No, tonight, we were to be served a Thanksgiving-sized platter of "Utter Let-Down." That was our fate this evening. He replied:

"I'm in charge here." He was beginning to look very short in his little Fred Meyer manager's outfit. Maybe it was the change in perspective as he not-so-slowly-anymore backed away. Maybe it was the change in our attitude. "I don't know who you talked to" (it was you, you little short man) "...but they're not for sale until the morning. Come back at 7. Everyone gets a fair chance." Jaws dropped. Eyebrows furled in disbelief. But he was most definitely walking away now. We were finished.

We were defeated.

We were incredulous. We walked silently back to the car. The woman in the car we parked next to must have thought were were crazy teenagers out looking for trouble. She would have been half-right. We were too old for this and should have known better. But oh the thrill! Oh the adventure! Oh the utter and complete let-down.

The car doors shut and we exploded in disbelief, conspiracy theories, and finally laughter. The sister-in-law who was left behind called, "Did you get it?!"

"No," I replied. "The manager with a short man's complex said 'He's in charge here' and wouldn't sell us an item that he declared to be in-stock."

"What?!" she replied. She would tell us more when we arrived home.

She explained that she had called again to confirm that, yes, they were in-stock, yes, they were available right now to buy, and yes, they were open until 11 pm and if we got there in time, they could be ours.

But it all turned out to be a bunch of incredible lies. Were we lied to unwittingly or was it intentional? We will never know. Defeated and deflated, disenchanted and disgusted, we vowed never to buy a Wii from that Fred Meyer.

The End.

EPILOGUE

January 8, 2007. 11:00 am. Seth and April found the Wiis at Target in Olympia! Hooray! Me thinks a road trip to Olympia is in my future...

Kim Family Benefit Auction is Live Through January 7, 2007

Just spreading the word about the art and craft auction to benefit the Kim family.

An auction of fine art + craft to benefit the family of James Kim organized by sisters Lisa Congdon and Stephanie Barnes and their mother Gerrie Congdon. 100% of the auction proceeds will go to the The James Kim Memorial Fund. Auction items from the artists listed below will be available for bid starting January 3, 2007on eBay. There will be a link to the eBay listing for each item from this site starting the morning of January 3. Bidding ends January 7th.

Link: the kim family benefit art + craft auction

How I Defeated a Corrupt FileVault and Saved Thousands of Innocent Files

So how did you spend your Christmas vacation? I spent part of it saving my Powerbook from the clutches of "Vile Vault."

FileVault (aka "Vile Vault") is a "security feature" on OS X that encrypts a user's data into a single encrypted disk image file called "username.sparseimage." The feature is off by default and I decided to turn it on just in case my laptop ever got stolen. (I was about to go on a trip to India at the time.)

I've used it for about a year now with no trouble. That is, until Christmas Eve "Eve." My applications stopped opening, so I decided to restart. Apparently that was a mistake. When I tried to log back in, I got a message stating that I couldn't be logged in at this time. I tried resetting the password. No dice.

Irony of ironies, I discovered that this message is actually a "feature" of 10.4.6. Unbelievable. I was prevented from logging into my supposedly corrupted FileVault (user account) because I have the latest version of OS X installed. Again I say: "Unbelievable."

My conclusion? Revert to a previous version. I couldn't locate my Tiger disks, but I did find my Powerbook Software Restore disks that had Panther (10.3.5) on it. So after fixing permissions, repairing the disk, running every program on Disk Warrior (no dice!) and playing a lot of Scrabble, I did an "Archive and Install" and voila! Access granted.

Granted, the old bird was crippled for certain. I hobbled around, nearly hypmotized by the Everlasting Rainbow Spinning Beachball of Please Wait Land, salvaging all my photos, music, web sites, documents, copying them onto an external FireWire drive (or two). There were a few files that I was unable to copy for reasons beyond my understanding, but I had them backed up in other places. (I am so grateful I got an iPod Nano for my birthday and had already saved my music!) Once I was satisfied that I had backed everything I wanted to keep, I installed OS 10.3 again, this time performing an "Erase and Install." The computer was just like new. Literally.

So now, I'll find my Tiger discs and do another clean install and restore all my apps, photos, and music. And I'll never ever ever turn on FileVault again.

Why did FileVault go to the Dark Side in the end? My theory is video editing. 95% of the time, whenever I edit videos in Final Cut, I use an external drive as my scratch disk. A time or two (recently) I got lazy and edited them on the Powerbook's hard drive. With FileVault turned on, hard drive space gets rapidly sucked away when editing videos, but "luckily" when I would restart, it would recover the lost disc space. I think the practice of saving video content on my FileVault eventually corrupted it. I can't prove this; it's just a theory.

Lessons learned:

1. Schedule regular backups
2. Don't turn on FileVault
3. Be smart about locations of Final Cut Pro scratch disks (don't use a hard drive with an OS installed on it)

Happy New Year.