Update on the Leg: For those who are Interested

I'm posting this here instead of directly to my Facebook notes so that it will upddate both via FB and via TwitterFeed to my Twitter followers. To the general public, this will likely not be of much interest. :-)

Quick Background: For new followers and friends...On June 6, I broke my Tibia, just above the ankle. On June 9, I injured it further when coming out of the shower. On June 17, I had an operation to put a titanium plate and some screws in the area. I was in splints off and on, and had a full cast put on on June 24. Since the break, unfortunately, I've been away from work, but have been fortunate enough to be allowed to work from home since June 22.

Okay, history lesson over. We have new stuff today.

When I took my shower last night, some water seeped in to the cast through the cast cover, turning the front edge of the cotton liner into a nasty mush and keeping my skin gooey and wet. (Doesn't that sound appetizing?) I called the doctor's office, and they said I should come in and we'd just take the cast off a week early. So, the good news is, I'm out of the cast and in a walking boot.

I'm still not supposed to put any weight on the injurred leg until about the first part of August, however, but after that, can begin trying to walk. The doctor says to put limited weight on it at first, and maybe use a walker. Then, I'll go back to see him in mid-August, and we'll also start up physical therapy at that time.

Since the telecommuting is working out so far, he's decided he doesn't want me to return too the office on a physical basis until right after Labor Day...So here's hoping we can keep enough projects going for me to keep working from home. That, for me, is the one downside...The delays in getting back out in to society. If it weren't for doctor's appointments and the occasional other outing, I would've forgotten what the sun feels like.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank family and friends for their help and support in this time of chaos.

So, that's where we are. Boot now, walking somewhat by the start of August...Physical therapy in mid-august. Out of the boot and back to work, if all goes as planned, by Labor Day.

Talk to you all soon.

Why President Obama SHOULD Apologize: And It's not Why You Might Think

By now, we've all heard about President Obama's "Special Olympics" joke with regards to his bowling average last night on "The Tonight Show". Anyone who knows me knows I'm not an Obama supporter, or a liberal, in the least. However, as a blind person, and someone who has had many friends in Special Olympics, I did not find the comment offensivve in the least. In fact, I think it showed the US President has a "regular guy" side to him.

However, I do think he does need to apologize, and I think Special Olympics folks have the right to be calling for his resignation. Listeningg to comments from Anthony from the Opie & Anthony show opened my eyes.

Flash back a couple years to April of 2007. Don Imus was fired for simply referring to a women's college basketball team as "nappy headed hos". I guaranttee you 99% of those girls had never heard of Imus. Maybe their grandpas knew who he was, but the girls had no idea. Fast-forward a few months. Opie & Anthony themselves were suspended for comments made by a homeless gentleman on their show with reference to Condi Rice, the Queen of England, and other notable figures. They didn't make or condone "Homeless Charlie's" comments, but as the hosts of a supposedly uncensored satellite radio show, they received a suspension for something that likely offended no one in their actual audience.

These are just two cases of incidents wherre comments made in the context of a comedic setting caused the maker of the comments or the host of the show to lose his job on either a temporary or permanent basis. In the case of Mr. Imus, the charge to have him fired was, naturallly, led by Al Sharpton, a "leader" in the black community. Mr. Imus's comments offended the Rutgers women's basketball team; he was fired. Comments made by a homeless guest of the Opie & Anthony show offended the former Secretary of State, Queen of England, and former First Lady; Opie & Anthony were suspended for a month from their XM Satellite Radio show, which is supposed to be uncensored. In both cases, the people who were offended were less likely to have been listening than a Special Olympics athlete was to have been watchingg our president on last night's "Tonight Show".

As I've said, I am not personally bothered by his comments. However, if leaders in his race are going to demand the firing of Don Imus for supposedly rracist comments made in the context of comedy, and if Opie & Anthony, amongst others, are going to be suspended from their radio jobs for comments made about political figures in a comedic context, why should our president not be held to the same, if not a higher, standard when making a joke that invokes the disabled? I guarantee that if a white, male comic or radio/TV host had slipped in the Special Olympics remark as Mr. Obama did, he would be looking for a job, or at least be on unpaid suspension, and be forced to apologize.

I'm not asking that the president actually step down over this. God knows we don't want to hear the words "President Biden". That might be enough to spark revolution, or revulsion...Not sure which. But I do believe that if people who actually are funny for a living can be forced to apologize, our president should be held to no less of a standard...And if he can find the time in his schedule, maybe he should have a group of SO athletes to the White House for a bowling tournament in the near future. That's all I'm saying.

Wes Derby On the Evergreen Radio Reading Service This Wednesday

For those who are interested, I will be one of the guestts on the Evergreen Radio Reading Service's talk show this Wednesday, March 4, at 6:00 PM. As part of their monthly "Meet the Staff" hour, myself and Alan Bentson, the readers' advisors for the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library will be the guests for the hour.

We'll be taking listener calls, and anyone from around the world can tune in to the web stream. No password required. So, if you're not busy at 6:00 PM Pacific time and wonder what I sound like, check us out. Just Click here and select your preferred media player.

Hope to see you there.

David Paterson: Disgrace to the Blind Community #TCOT

Recently, a friend via Twitter directed followwers to This post by Ben Smith regarding New York Governor David Paterson. I want everyone to read it, and then come back and finish reading what I have to say. I rrealize my title may sound a bit harsh, but I do intend to defend my stance.

If you read Mr. Smith's post, you ssee that Governor Paterson doesn't read Braille, doesn't apparently use any assistive technology products such as JAWS, WindowEyes, or other products that would make his life easier, and doesn't, from what I can ttell, use even a cassette player or digital media player to lissten to memos, notes, and other important materials. Instead, he relies on staff to spend time reading things to him that any other independent blind person, myself included, can easily find ways to read him/herself. I think the reason I find this so disturbing is that I know that, if I were doing my job the way Governor Paterson does his, I likely would no longer have a job.

Face it, folks. Mr. Paterson is a blind person who can't read braille. To myself and many other blind people I know, this is the same as a sighted person who can't read print...Or a partially sighted person who has never learned to read large print. This isn't a guy who lost his sight a few years ago and hasn't had a chance to learn; he's had opportunities, and from what we can tell, hasn't taken advantage of them. If you found out that your governor couldn't read and was relying on staff to read to him, would you re-elect him? No. In my opinion, Paterson should be treatted no differently. At the same time, even if he can't/won't rread braille, there are technology productts outt there that would allow him to do his own rreading. There are scanning programs, scrreenreaders, and many other devices out there, and if Paterson or his aides would do a little research, they would find a world of technology to help him do the job on his own. As an example, in my job, I use a computer with JAWS for Windows for speech, a braille display, and all of the standard Windows programs. I do have a person who takes a look at my mail and emails me necessary information so I can look at it at my convenience. Were that volunteer not available, I could use an off-the-shelf scanner and an OCR program to scan information into MS Word.

Instead of being offended by Saturday Night Live's depiction of Governor Paterson, maybe his office and my fellows in the blind community should be offended by his lack of competence in basic life skills. Maybe New York should be looking for its next Governor, and praying they have someone better to elect when the next election comes around. I'm not sure how this guy got as far as he did with his limited skill set. I'm a very advanced computer user, braille reader, and know my technology pretty well, and am pretty lucky to have a job. Unfortunately, most blind people I know have a lot of difficulty finding work. It's even harder if they can't rread braille or use available technologies. I think that may be why Governor Paterson is such a disgrace in my book.

I know someone will probably come along and say "Can't you just be happy for the guy"? Sorry, but no. He's managed to hoodwink the people of New York. He is, in my belief, a bad representation of the tblind community. I doo fear he will set us back in many ways. What's going to happen if a ccompetent person, who just happens to be blind, decides to run for high office, such as governor, senator, and so on? Is he/she going to have a fair shot, or are people going to say "Remember what happened with that Paterson guy? He couldn't even perform the basic functions of his job without help."

For the record, I'm thrilled for anyone who makes a success of themselves, blind or sighted, when they do it the right way. I was as excited as everyone else when Paterson became Governor and I learned of his blindness. But the more incapable I learned he was, the more saddened I became. He's not helping himself, and he's certainly not helpingg the blind community as a whole.

In closing, these comments are strictly my opinions and do not in any way claim to represent the opinions of any groups with which I may be afffiliatted.

The 2008 First Time Home Buyer Credit: A Bit Misleading, To Say the Least

Ever been given a gift and later found out you'd have to give it back down the line? Or has a relative or friend ever given you money that you thought didn't have any strings attached, and then you later found out it was a loan, albeit with no interest, that you were going to be expected to pay back at a later date? Well, that seems to be what our friends in Congress had in mind with the 2008 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit of $7,500. Admittedly, most of America may have already known about this, but my wife and I didn't learn of it until we were doing our taxes last night.

My wife was using Turbo Tax to work on our 2008 return. This past fall, we were fortunatte enough to finally be able to buy our first home. When she got to the part about the First Time Home Buyer Credit, she mentioned that it said something about us having to pay it back starting in 2010. I told her to go ahead and finish the taxes, figuring there was nothing we could do about it, and figuring maybe she was mis-reading something, but I admit I was intrigued. I mean, I'm a news and politics junkie...I watch Fox News constantly, follow politics constantly, and have followed what's been going on with the economy for quite some time. One of my favorite uncles started teaching me to stay informed back when I was in high school, right around the time Clinton was elected. I'm glad he did, or I might have ended up a liberal, or worse. But I diggress.

So, I did some digging, and found this article on the IRS website, describing the ins and outs of the tax crredit for 2008. Among other bits of information, it says:

Recapture of credit
If a first-time homebuyer credit is allowed to a taxpayer, the taxpayer's income tax is increased by 6 2/3% of the amount of such credit for each taxable year in the 15-year "recapture period." The recapture period begins with the second taxable year following the year of purchase for which the credit is taken.

For example, if a taxpayer is allowed a $7,500 first-time homebuyer credit in 2008, the taxpayer must recapture the credit amount by adding $500 (which is 6 2/3% of $7,500) to his income tax liability each year for 15 years, beginning in 2010.

Acceleration of recapture
If a taxpayer disposes of the principal residence for which a first-time homebuyers credit was allowed (or ceases using it as a principal residence) before the end of the 15-year recapture period, the remaining credit repayment amount is added to the income tax liability of the taxpayer for the year of sale or cessation of use.

Exceptions to recapture
In the case of a sale of the principal residence to an unrelated person, the increase in tax due to accelerated recapture is limited to the amount of gain (if any) on such sale. For purposes of calculating gain, the adjusted basis of such residence shall be reduced by the amount of the first-time homebuyer credit allowed, to the extent not previously recaptured. In the case of an involuntary conversion, recapture is not accelerated if a new principal residence is acquired within a 2-year period. No amount is recaptured after the death of the taxpayer.

In short, this tells me that they're going to take $500 per year for the next fifteen yearrs starting in 2010, unless I sell the house...Then they want it all right away. But if I die or sell the house for a loss, I'm okay.

My purpose in writing this is two-fold. First, if anyone reading this, or any of your friends have purchased a new house and qualify for this credit, let them know what's coming so they're not as surprised as we were. I can't imagine I'm the only American homebuyer who didn't see this one coming. My mortgage broker called me the other day to see how things were going and said nothing about this part of it, and he's a pretty smart guy, so I'm willing to bet that he probably didn't know about this "rrecapture" business either.

Second, in my personal opinion, this seems wrong. Obviously, the feds, especially when the Democrats are in control of the House and Senate, have shown that they can do what they want to the American people. But this one just seems a bit stinky. I've never seen any other tax credit that is then ttaken away from you in the form of a "recapture" starting a couple years later. I'm not trying to complain or whine, but this rreally doesn't seem ethical to me. I work hard for my money, I finally had the opportunity to buy a house. I feel I give the IRS enough of my money each yearr, so I'm certainly happy to get the tax crredit for buying my first house...But don't give it to me, and then like a mafia loan shark, minus the interest charge, keep coming back for the next fifteen yearrs and taking it back bit by bit. It begs the questions: Why did you give it to us in the first place? Do you really think it's going to do that mucch to stimulatte the economy? And finally, what kind of fools do you take the American people for?

In closing, it wouldn't have made it right, but I would've rather seen a bit more transparency on this one. Give us the info up-front on the news. The Congress, or [then] President Bush, should have come out and said "We're giving you this tax crredit. We hope you'll use it to help stimulate the economy. However, in 2010, we're going to start taking it back, piece by piece, until we've recovered all that we've given you."

Maybe it's too late on this one, but if you ffeel so inclined, go to house.gov or senate.gov and find out who your representatives and senators are and write them and let them know how you feel about the government giving a tax credit, and then slowly taking the money back. Maybe we can get this portion of it reversed. Or maybe, the next time they reward someone for buying their first home, that person will get to keep all of his/her tax crredit and not have to worry about it being yanked out from under them a couple yearrs later.

Post-Merger: The State of Satellite Radio From a Subscriber's Perspective

Now that Sirius has merged with XM and we're two and a half months in to the merging of the music channels, and almost four months in to the "best of" packages, let's take a look at where we stand. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm coming at this from the perspective of an XM subscriber who has been signed up since May of 2004. I have three radios, and all are equipped with what is now known as "XM Everything" plus the Best of Sirius. I'll explain those packages in a minute.

First, for those who don't know me or who have never read my writings before, pre-merger, I was very much pro-XM and very anti-Sirius. Don't get me wrong; I felt both were definitely far superior to terrestrial, or AM/FM, radio. But, after a few months of extensive research into the programming of both comapnies, I went with XM in May of 2004 based mainly on the music offerings. At the time, both offered pretty similar news, talk, and sports line-ups, though Sirius had the NFL, which almost swayed me...But their shallower playlists, and in my opinion, inferior DJs and sound quality, made me go with XM. That, and the fact that XM's classic metal channel was adding Eddie Trunk's show that weekend helped seal the deal. A few months later, XM announced the addition of my favorite talkers Opie & Anthony, as well as PAC-10 college sports and Major League Baseball. This solidified my decision, knowing I'd be able to here O&A again after they'd been let go from terrestrial radio as well as my favorite sports teams from Arizona, even though I now reside in Seattle. XM then added the NHL, and the music channels, which were the original reason I signed up, continued to stay strong.

Let's fast-forward to the present. Again, I'm coming at this from the perspective of a loyal XM subscriber, though I am trying to be objective...If you want to see the history of Sirius's moves, and read more about what XM has also done in that time, please check out the only blog I read religiously, Orbitcast. In all seriousness, this is one, if you're interested in Satellite Radio, to save to your RSS reader and check several times a day.

Okay, if you've followed the news the last couple years, you know Sirius and XM decided to merge. That merger came to fruition last summer. We subscribers saw the fruits of that merger beginning in October of 2008 with the Best Of packages being offered from each company. Now, other than NFL radio, having listened to Sirius's programming, I couldn't have imagined anything I would've wanted from them, put I figured I'd pay the $4 per radio and give it a shot. As an XM subscriber, I get NFL Radio plus all NFL games, both Howard Stern Channels, Martha Stewart Radio, Playboy Radio, NASCAR Radio, and I think some other sports play-by-play.

The Pros:

• All the NFL Games
  
• Great NFL talk on NFL Radio. They have some really good hosts, most of whom are former coaches and players who know the game inside and out; certainly more interesting than ESPN's coverage
  
• After not listening to Howard for a number of years, it's actually kind of cool to occasionally flip Stern back on and hear him and Artie Lange.
  
• Thanks to Howard 101, I can hear Scott Ferrall, the guy whose show originally got me into sports talk when I lived in Phoenix and picked him up on a San Francisco AM station when I was in High School.
  
• Sometimes, Playboy Radio is good for a laugh.
  
• In all seriousness, NFL radio and the game feeds make the $4 a month worth it.
  

Cons to the Best Of:

• Martha Stewart Channel. Include this on the regular package. I don't mean to sound sexist, but most of what's been put in the best of Sirius package on XM is geared toward the male demographic, and I don't know of too many women who'd pay $4 for Martha.
  
• This is nit-picky, but NFL Radio's XM feed needs to update its liners. They're still playing promos for XM channels that, since the music channels merged on November 12, no longer exist...Mostly Ethel and XMX. They only tend to play as the first spot in a commercial break; it's odd.
  
• Unlike a Sirius subscriber, XM subs only get one feed for NFL games. The exceptions are playoff games, Sunday Night, Monday night, and Thursday night games. Sirius subs get both the home and away feed. XM subs should get the same thing.
  

For the Sirius subscribers, they get a Best of XM package for the same price which includes college sports, NHL, The Virus (Opie and Anthony Ron and Fez), and a few other channels. For more details on best-of packages, go to the companies' websites, www.xmradio.com and www.sirius.com.

On November 12, the two companies took the next step, merging their music channels. This was controversial for many reasons. I'll get into details shortly, but in short, many subscribers to this day still feel like they got screwed, for lack of a better word. XM subscribers feel like we lost the programmers who made our channels great in many cases, along with their names and playlists. Many Sirius subs feel the playlists on their favorite channels are now too deep in an effort to satisfy the tastes of the XM subscribers. I'm not sure how many subscribers really did cancel, but many threatened to do so on both sides, but mostly from the XM camp. Many blunders, in my opinion, were committed by Sirius XM at this point in time, and many have yet to be corrected, and probably never will.

The first place the companies went wrong was in how they informed, or didn't inform, subscribers of the pending channel change. Now, before any of you terrestrial fanboys start saying "well your favorite FM station doesn't tell you when they're going off the air", I know this. There's a difference. I'm not paying for AM or FM. I do pay for satellite radio. I also pay for cable, and generally, they let you know, at least my cable company does, when a channel may be going away. The only reason I found out what was happening was through This post on Orbitcast. Had it not been for Ryan, I would have been in the dark, so to speak, that any channel changes were coming up. Go to Orbitcast and check out his November archive, and look at the week of November 10. Look at not only the posts he made, but also the comments section, and see the passion with which the subscribers comment. Sure, there are a few idiots in there, but most are intelligent, well-reasoned comments.

The second thing the company did was kill off some pretty popular channels, and in some cases entire genres. They took away both companies' classic hip-hop and classic dance/disco channels. I'm not a fan, but both genres have pretty passionate fanbases. Both returned to the satellites, thanks to fan commentary, on January 14. Unfortunately, they also took away XM's Cross Country, or X-Country as it was known. Outlaw Country has made a valiant effort to shift into its place, especially now that we have enough classic country stations so that they don't need to fill that void for the Sirius listeners, but there's still quite a bit missing. Personally, I've found their program director to be very responsive and to be a great guy.Still a long way to go.

Many of us longtime XM subscribers have noticed that, especially in the rock category, the playlists are much shallower than what we're used to. The Sirius subscribers, at least those who comment on Orbitcast and other sites, don't seem to mind, but myself and many XM subs would like to see them deepen the rock playlists across the board on all of the rock channels. A perfect example of this is my recent post on The return of The Boneyard.

In closing, Sirius XM does have some work to do to fix/improve things. However, it's still much better than anything that's on terrestrial radio. It's nationwide. The reception is great. With my various XM receivers, I've rarely had service drop, and I've taken them all over the western part of the country, and have picked up my favorite XM stations in places where an AM or FM station can't get through. If I had to recommend a satellite package to a newcomer, I'd recommend going with XM Everything plus the Best of Sirius. It's the best value for the money...And if someone asks "Why pay for radio?", I have two answers.

1. The music is commercial-free, and both the talk and music are uncensored.
2. Unlike in terrestrial radio, the program directors actually seem to be interested in what listeners have to say as opposed to what an advertiser says.

So in the end, even with its problems, satellite radio is worth the money. I'd honestly give up my cable before I'd give up my XM.

Sirius-XM Brings Back the Boneyard; Now Let's Fix It!

As part of their post-merger activities, Sirius XM Satellite Radio merged many of their music channels, both to the happiness and annoyance of their subscribers. Channels were gained and lost on both sides. Two months later, the shake-up is still being felt by subscribers.

As part of the combining of channels, one of my favorites as a long-time XM subscriber, The Boneyard, was temporarily lost, replaced by AC/DC Radio. Finally, it was brought back on January 15 on XM channel 53 and Sirius channel 19. In bringing back the Boneyard on XM 53, Sirius listeners lost Buzz Saw, which was a similar channel, and The Boneyard's old home on XM, channel 41, was replaced by Sirius's Hair Nation. This channel, too, is somewhat similar to The Boneyard.

Okay, enough of the background...Now, on to the complaints and how I suggest fixing it after almost five years of having been a happy XM listener, and in particular, huge Boneyard fan.

First, to put it simply, just give me back my old, pre-November 12 Boneyard. Get rid of Hair Nation, and restore the Boneyard to what it had been...A mix of classic hard rock/metal and hair metal, along with new rock from those artists, and new artists still carrying on that sound. Doing this might also allow Sirius XM to bring back another channel lost in the merger, such as the all-punk channel to keep that particular niche satisfied.

I'm serious about combining Hair Nation and Boneyard. In addition to the other channels I listen to (several country channels, Octane, The Virus, NFL Radio), I'm often flipping between the Boneyard and Hair Nation. Boneyard plays a lot of stuff they don't play on Hair Nation, but they both play a lot of the same songs from Dokken, Guns N' Roses, Kiss, The Scorpions, Great White, Whitesnake, Aerosmith and so on. The main difference is that the Boneyard goes further back into these bands' catalogs than Hair Nation.

Even if we can't eliminate Hair Nation and simply combine the playlist with that of the current Boneyard, or give me back my old Boneyard, let's at least expand the artist roster of the Boneyard. I was home sick a good portion of the weekend, and spent a lot of time listening to the channel, and heard an inordinate amount of the same bands over and over again...Though they may be core artists, there is more to hard rock and classic metal than Rush, AC/DC, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Van Halen, and Iron Maiden. I listened for several hours and heard at least one track from each of these bands every hour and a half to two hours. After having had AC/DC radio on the platform for four months, too much AC/DC in particular is being played.

Who would I like to hear more of, or hear at all? That's easy.

• More UFO. I've heard the same couple songs from this band multiple times. They have several albums out. Get anything with Michael Schenker or Paul Chapman, and play those.
  
• Thin Lizzy: Maybe I've missed it, but I've heard no Thin Lizzy at all. The Boneyard of the past used to play tons of great tracks from these guys, and not just "The Boys are Back In Town" or "Jailbreak". There's plenty of material to choose from.
  
• More Rainbow. Again, other than Eddie Trunk's show, we don't hear enough of these guys.
  
• More Michael Schenker/MSG.
  
• Riot: Particularly material off the Restless Breed, although any of that early stuff is fine.
  

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Also, make it easier for your listeners to get in touch with you. When the channel was strictly on XM, the phone number, email, and MySpace address were constantly given out. Interaction is a huge part of satellite radio. We pay at least $12.95 a month for this service, and that's if we haven't added a "best of" package, or don't have more than one radio. Keep the listeners happy; make it easy for us to get in touch at leave requests.

Next, bring back the deeper cuts. Right now, both stations sound pretty much like Z-Rock did back in 1990. Z-Rock was cool back in 1990, but The Boneyard was cooler from the day I signed up for XM in May of 2004 until November 11 of 2008, mixing the radio hits with the deeper album cuts we hadn't heard in a while. Many times, I'd hear a song on The Boneyard and either dig out a CD I hadn't played in years or jump online and order a copy after hearing some forgotten gem from junior high or high school.

Next, let's mix up the DJ line-up a bit. Lou, Matt, and Kane are fine, but seven days a week? It's obvious they're voice-tracked, which is fine...But let's have a bit a variety, and let's add some more day parts. Maybe some different guys or gals on weekends. Let's also bring back some more specialty shows such as Breaking Bone, which is listed at 30 minutes. Bring back Bone Phones, the all-request show. Bring back the shredder show (can't remember what it was called). Maybe add a replay for Eddie Trunk's show.

Again, these are just some thoughts from a die-hard fan. I'm sure the casual listener thinks the station sounds just fine and doesn't need any work, but to those of us who remember what it was even a couple months ago, it's fallen considerably.

In closing, as I type this, I'm listening to The Boneyard on my XM receiver, and they're playing the same Iron Maiden song they were playing at about this time Sunday night, "Two Minutes to Midnight". Just goes to show how much the playlist has narrowed. I love the song, but come on...Let's broaden it a bit.