Nice Easter weekend in Rochester NY with C's family. Went clubbin' late Fri. night. Saw hot fusion band. Roch is a happenin place. Saturday, big family party. Place was crawlin with little ones. Whole new generation has cropped up. Funny how we used to horse around with our nephews, then our nephews... with our kids, now our kids play with our nephews kids. It just keeps goin' round and round. Of course, I got some pics.

UCONN Lady Huskies - National Champions... what a wild ride, again. Woohooo! And, there are no seniors, they will all be back next year!

Last night, saw Bela Fleck and the Flecktones live... just incredible. Comp tickets from Dave. Enjoying the concert with him made it one great night. Thanks, Dave.

Tonite, I watched American Masters-Joni Mitchell. Joni evokes so many feelings and memories. Listening to each and every album with my sisters Laura and Diana, her anthem to Woodstock, in later years, her collaborations with my heroes of Jazz (Jaco, Wayne Shorter, Herbie, Mingus, Metheny). What an inspiring musician, poet and artist. This TV production gave me incite into her life and art. A great documentary on this incredible woman. Public TV... amazing how they can consistently turn out such high quality productions.

I believe the saying is "The first casualty of war is the truth". This war is no exception. Weren't we led to believe that the Shock and Awe campaign would demoralize the Iraqi army and leaders into giving up this war quickly? Weren't we told that Iraqi military would be laying down their weapons and surrendering in droves? Weren't we told that Iraqi civilians would welcome our forces with open arms? It appears to me that our government seriously miscalculated almost everything about the Iraqi response. Shock and Awe has had little effect. Iraqi military is putting up signifcant resistance. I think the jury is still out on whether our presence is welcomed by the citizens of Iraq, but the initial appearance is that we are viewed as an occupying force. All of this makes me very skeptical of anything our government tells us. Propaganda is a powerful weapon, and it is used extensively by both sides.

I keep seeing images in this war that remind me of Vietnam. I realize that this war is nothing like Vietnam... and god forbid it should ever become that. However, these pentagon briefing, with military officials desperatly trying to set realistic expectations, and bragging about the effectiveness of bombing or ground conflicts, the reporting of casualties, are scary reminders of those awful days. This really hit home as I watched a plane delivering the remains of deceased soldiers back to Britain with full military regalia.

Please, God, make this war end soon. the longer this goes on, the greater risk that this will escalate beyond our control. There are so many opportunities for bad things to happen; terrorism, Syria, Kurds and Turks, Israeli engagement, launch of chemical weapons, just to name a few.

The reality is we are in this war up to our armpits. There is no turning back. I support our troops, I want us to prevail, I want Saddam to leave Iraq... I just want this over quickly.

Seems like one of those significant milestones... traded in the ole' Family Minivan for a hip new (well, used) Jeep Grand Cherokee. The days of Soccer Mom/Dad, are begining to fade away.

Saw George McGovern on Larry King last night. What a great man (and a WWII decorated figher pilot); a reminder of how the Democratic Party once was, and should be. He was very articulate against the war, and what he said rang so true. There are so many motives that have resulted in this war beyond those that we are being told; oil, money, revenge, our inability to capture Osama, politics, economics, etc. The reality is that Iraq has not been a threat to anyone in the last 10 years, the inspectors have not uncovered any chemo-bio weapons, and thus far, our troops have not either.

The best way to support our troops is to get them home and put an end to the death and destruction that is going on en mass. Shock and Awe has begun, the destruction is horrific, and one can only hope that this conflict will conclude quickly before this escalates into a situation that is totally unpredictable and out of control.

Listening to GW Bush's address and ultimatum for war was a bone-chilling experience last night. War is upon us, and that is a serious and sobering thought. I have definetly been staunchly anti-war... but I gotta admit, Bush made an effective argument for the actions to come. Also, following the speech I watched PBS Frontline. They did an in-depth report on Saddam Hussein, and the history of this conflict. This guy really IS a dangerous son-of-a-bitch. He holds Stalin as his hero and mentor, and models his leadership after him. I trust PBS news for delivering the facts, and this Frontline production has tempered my view to the point of accepting the events that are likely to come. Don't get me wrong... my greatest hope is that significant worldwide pressure will come to bear on Saddam in the next 40 hours, and that he will leave the country, and the war will be over before the first bomb is to fall.

Posted my old Palm V and MP3 player on ebay. Put 'em together as a bundle. Hope it sells.

Lovin' my Sony Clie, Personal Entertainment Organizer. Way cool. Palm OS PDA, combined with MP3 player, Memory Stick, HiRes full color screen. Also got Missing-Sync which integrates the Clie with Apple's iLife apps. Specifically it lets you load up tunes from iTunes, and photo's from iPhoto, as well as mounting the Memory Stick as a hard drive on the desktop. Sorry 'bout the geekspeak, but its a great combination of products well integrated for the maximum coolness factor.

Its March... that's one full year that I've maintained my 45 lb. weightloss.

The Pianist - These Holocaust movies just rip at my heart and soul. They are painful to watch, yet I am compelled to watch them. The darkest most demonic works of fiction could not equal the horrors of living through the Nazi occupation of Warsaw as a Jew. Roman Polanski does an incredible job of bringing this true story (based on the autobiography of Wladyslaw Szpilman) to life. You feel the terror, humiliation and despair of Szpilman, as he narrowly escapes the deathly fate of his family and fellow jews of Warsaw. An incredible set design recreates the scene of the Warsaw ghetto during the Nazi occupation.

This is a movie that should be seen be everyone, especially as we find ourselves on the eve of sensless war. It is a reminder of the brutality of War and its effect on the lives of innocent families that must endure such horror. War must be avoided at all costs.

Just ordered myself a Sony Clie. My Palm is on the blink, and I always liked these PDA's. Price just dropped, free shipping and 0% financing from Best Buy, so I bought on-line. Hope it comes soon!

.Mac - Apple's controversial service, once a free perk for all Mac users... now costs significant bucks. Like most users, I didn't like shelling out the scratch, but I have to say, .Mac has evolved into a very useful set of tools, well worth the price, IMHO. I use Homepage to publish my photo galleries with just a few clicks in iPhoto, and iCal calendaring, and iDisk gives me internet based file storage and sharing. Webmail is a great email app and a kenl@mac.com email address. iSync keeps all my contacts and calendaring in-sync between my various Macs and palm PDA as well as making it all available over the Web. There are even more services I have yet to tap into. All beautifully integrated into Mac OS X.... Winblows users just can't appreciate the coolness of all this!

Life is harsh. The economy is in the dumper. There is no security for me and my family. Its freezing cold, the skies are gray, the snow is crusty and filthy. People are nasty, relationships are difficult, friends are hard to find. I can't remember the last time I had a really good time, or laughed out loud. Recently, I've been ripped-off, deceived and disrespected. We are about to engage in a senseless war. I think I need a vacation... bad.

Its nearly the end of January, and I have only posted twice this month. Just nuttin' much to say, I guess. Work is picking up... that's a good thing. Kid's are back to school. Dave made dean's list his first semester... way to go, kid.

Saw some good movies worth mentioning. 1- Focus (rental), good lesson in prejudice and bigotry. Special meaning for us Jewish folk. 2- Adaptation (playing at a theater near you), Excellent, wild and crazy ride for the brain. That was one of those movies I really didn't want to see... went along for the wife's sake... but, Woa! this was really different (in a good way). I like that... when you have no expectaions of seeing something special, and then you are really WOWed.

Tryin' to keep the weight thing under control. Started to gain some weight after the holidays so I've buckled down, took some WW points off the range, back to the gym, and I think I'm back on track.

MacWorld Expo SF. Always cause for celebration for those of us Mac heads. Great announcements of incredible products. I am posting this blog from the new Safari web browser... lean, mean, gorgeous looking, and fast as hell. And those new Powerbooks, big and small, full featured with stuff you won't see on a Winblows laptop for years... like a fibre-optic backlit keyboard that illuminates by an autosensor that measures the ambient light.... whew! Gotta see it to believe it. Much, much more... Damn, I love Apple Computer!!

Women's Basketball. Connecticut is crazy over its UCONN Women's Huskey BBall team. And it doesn't get any better than the Uconn/Tennesee rivalry. Yesterdays game was one of the greatest I have seen... in any sport at any time. Diana Taurasi's 3/4 court shot at the half time buzzer... come back from an 8 pt deficit with 3 minutes to go to tie it up... winning by one point in OT. These girls showed an incredible amount of heart to tough it out for the big win. woohooo!

The holidays have come and gone. Its the last day of the year 2002. To that I say good riddance. Lets face it... this year was a real stinker. Lets review (thats what everyone does this time of year, right?). We grieved the death of my Sister, than got the news that friend Bob B died in a tragic though heroic skydiving accident. My work situation was intollerable. When new management came in, I was forced to drop the axe on a good freind and co-worker, than realized that I had to make a change myself. Going through all that was hell. To make the situation worse, I am still fighting for some of my retirement money that was "with-held" (I am stating that nicer than the situation actually should be described... grrrr). Well, I landed up in a much better professional situation, but the fact is that the economy just plain sucks, and my industry in particular (printing) is spiraling downward. That weighs heavy on our minds, and no one in this business is feeling too secure. My dear wife suspended her dream of going into teaching, and went back to her former profession, lab tech, on 2nd shift. That is a great disappointment, but necessity won out. My folks health is of great concern (particularly Mom's). It has been a trying year for them to be sure, but they have showed courage and determination in facing a lot of adversity.

There are some hilites. Son started college and is doing great, Daughter is smart, happy and excels in her sports. I lost over 40 lbs. this year and got into decent physical shape. It was my way of coping with all the crap going on around me. Thats about it... but I guess that is important stuff.

What does 2003 hold in store? Only time will tell. I have to say, that I am NOT very optimistic. Economy continues to suck, political climate is worse than ever, world situation is reaching critical mass... OYE! I am starting to depress myself, so I will end this commentary here.

To anyone who may be reading this... Have a great, happy and safe New Years. Will see you on the Brain Drain in Year 2003.

Tis the season for shopping... hate it! Luckily, I took Rach along with me. This girl can shop. Like a professional, she approached it with a plan... a stratagy. She executed this plan with adroit efficiency, confidently moving from store to store... just takin' care of business. Left on my own, I would have floundered around for hours, getting the wrong stuff at the wrong places... just like all the other Dad's I saw this evening... Glad I had the pro along this evening.

All 3 of the Laster's Macs now boot up in OS X. (4 including my Mac at work)