The Mouse that came in from the Cold

It's that time of year in the northern hemisphere when critters start looking for a nice cozy retreat in buildings and houses. Spiders, insects, mice etc start slipping inside to get away from the cold and catch the new program lineup on tv. One such mouse found its way into our laundry room this week and started going on midnight rampages in search of food. It sounded like a pack of raccoons beating on trash cans but it turns out it was just one little fellow. I went right down to the store and bought a Havahart mouse trap because there's no way I was going to kill the critter if I could help it. It took just three hours before my mouse friend and I were on the way to an undisclosed location for a humane release. I let him go in a park but pointed him towards a taco fast food place in case he was hungry. I'd avoid taco places on 31st Street for awhile.

To Buy or To Buy?

Don't you just hate it when companies use the "opt out" tactic for automatic subscription or membership renewal? In other words, they automatically charge you for another term of service unless you preemptively tell them in writing to stop? A close cousin to that tactic is one some software companies use to make it hard not to sign up for their software after you evaluate their demo version. Here's an example. I evaluated a demo version of MacScan on my computer recently and once the trial period was up their popup started popping up to remind me the trial period is up. The only option their popup gives me is to buy - there is no option to decline or to even close the popup. And the "close" button is disabled. To get rid of it I have to restart the computer.

What will Dog do?

Have you ever had that experience of being asleep but aware of something going on in the environment that is bothering you but you are too sleepy to wake up and do anything about it? Sometimes it's the light you left on, or music or a cat scratching to get out. It's as if you are helpless to end the torture or annoyance = strapped into a deep slumber as you are. I had that experience today. After class I took a nap but fell asleep with the news on and eventually woke up enough to realize that Entertainment Tonight was on the tv. If you haven't seen ET then you wouldn't know that it is an excruciatingly inane rehash of the daily dramas of Hollywood's stars. Today ET went on and on about Dog the Bounty Hunter's daughters wedding and how their dinner was interrupted by an urgent call about a bounty emergency. Of course the gaudy jewel-encrusted family rushed off with cameramen in tow to take care of the repo before returning to the wedding. This was the worst kind of torture for me but I was helpless to get up and turn off the $^@! tv!

Shanghai from the Financial Center