» On 8/16/2025 06:33:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
Tap Anywhere© To Silence Alarm? 

When your phone alarm goes off, do you struggle to find the button that stops it? Tap Anywhere© is a feature that could be incorporated on any platform - iOS, Android or other - to make it easy for groggy users to silence their alarms. It allows you to turn off an alarm by simply tapping any part of the phone's touchscreen.

Advantages:
Convenience - easy to silence or snooze an alarm, especially when half-asleep.
Accessibility - helpful for users with visual impairments who may find it difficult to locate small buttons on a screen.

UPDATED THREADS: Apple (nuked: "not constructive") ~ Android (nuked: "irrelevant") ~ FB (shake to silence) ~ IG ~ LI
©2025 Alan C. Baird

Labels: ta

 
» On 8/01/2025 12:05:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
Famous People With Myasthenia Gravis. Plus Anecdotes. 

[I was diagnosed with MG in June.] According to Wikipedia, Aristotle Onassis (billionaire who married Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968) died in 1975 at age 69 of respiratory failure, a complication of the myasthenia gravis from which he had suffered the last years of his life. MG affected his ability to keep his eyelids open. [classic Onassis anecdote] [Rembrandt]

Other famous people with MG include Sir Laurence Olivier (film actor, 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989; Age 82), Suzanne Rogers (tv actress, b. 9 July 1943; Age 82), and Monica Seles (tennis great, b. 2 December 1973; Age 51).

Also, the character of Sleepy (from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs") was reportedly inspired by a friend of Walt Disney who had MG, exhibiting the well-known symptom of drooping eyelids.

The following interchanges are from a book called Disorder in the Court and were actually said in court, word for word, taken down and published by court reporters...
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid.
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.

 
» On 7/01/2025 12:01:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
Mestinon® - is the treatment worse than the disease? 

I've been suffering from double vision, droopy eyelids, and slurred speech since the fall of 2022.
And I've had other autoimmune issues since the spring of 2006.
So I've had 19 years of various tests: MRI, MRA, CT, blood, urine, EEG, EKG, X-rays, cerebral angiogram (roto-rooter, up through my crotch).
And I've seen many different kinds of practitioners - allopath, osteopath, homeopath, acupuncturist, hypnotherapist - who have all been unable to track down my ailment.
But early in June, I found a neurologist who correctly diagnosed myasthenia gravis.
It's a chronic autoimmune disease, incurable but not too serious, in my case.
So now we're searching for the best way to manage it.
First up is pyridostigmine bromide, the generic version of Mestinon® ("M®").
But 3-hydroxy-1-methylpyridinium bromide dimethylcarbamate (M®) has been implicated as a causal factor in Gulf War syndrome.
In military settings, M® is used as a pretreatment for exposure to nerve gas.
Possible side effects of M® include: nausea, frequent urination, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, cramps, muscle twitching, and erectile dysfunction.
And my wife is preparing herself to deal with a possible myasthenic crisis and/or a cholinergic crisis.

But... when I began taking M® last week, MY DOUBLE VISION STARTED TO CLEAR UP, for the first time in 2½ years! The eyelids stopped drooping, and my peripheral vision and balance started coming back.
M® is NOT a cure. It's a test, and a band-aid. I'll know more when I see the neurologist again, in a couple of weeks.

 
» On 6/15/2025 05:30:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
Please, No Photographs. 

[This is the last of five essays (https://snzltr.blogspot.com/search/label/zoe) intended as a sort of love letter to Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope.com Virtual Studio, which is closing tonight, after a glorious 25-year run. Thanks, Francis - you improved a whole lotta lives!]

In 2006, someone on the Zoetrope boards posted the link to a Variety article, announcing a new TV pilot by Kevin Williamson (Dawson's Creek, Scream 1-4, The Vampire Diaries). Shooting was set to take place in the city where I was working as the Online Editor for Palm Springs Life magazine. After doing some digging, I realized I could audition for an under-three-line acting gig. The experience would be good fodder for PSL's online magazine "The Life," so I went for it.

Gail O'Grady (NYPD Blue's Donna Abandando) was one of the stars of Hidden Palms, and she had an ice-tea-sipping interlude with two other women on a country-club patio. Look for me and my blue polo shirt - it plays a crucial backup rôle in that scene.

Side note: The director moved me around many times, probably looking for the precisely-right combination of Gail's lovely blonde hair and the blue of my shirt: "Hey, you in the blue polo, move right a bit." After a couple of orders like that, the AD came over and asked for my name. For the rest of the scene (45 minutes of on-and-off filming), it was: "Hey Alan, move right a bit." By the end of the scene, you'll notice that I was on the other side of Gail's head. The director treated me well, for a lowly day player. I was the envy of all the other extras. 😉

Video: http://9TimeZones.com/cz.htm


Celebrating A Volcanic Eruption Of Creativity

Labels: zoe

 
» On 6/14/2025 06:30:00 AM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
The Inside Pitch. 

In the summer of 2005, a program description appeared on the Zoetrope.com boards. It was billed as a TV taping of two ICM execs, listening to screenwriter pitches and giving them feedback. I really suck at pitching, but I thought maybe I could learn something, so Anikó and I went to the event, down in Culver City. The execs were very entertaining, and everybody was having lots of fun, so after watching several other writers stumble through their pitches, I worked up the courage to give it a shot. My presentation was as crappy as I expected, but they were nice enough to include a short clip of my stumbling in the DVD credits.

Here's the DVD description: "This Emmy nominated, award winning program is a fast paced, engaging way to learn the art and business of selling a script in Hollywood. An American Idol for screenwriters, this program appeals to anyone interested in the behind the scenes workings of the movie business. The program features ICM executives, Christopher Lockhart and Jack d’Annibale fielding aspiring screenwriter's pitches and giving their honest, sometimes harsh, but often hilarious critiques."

Labels: zoe

 
» On 6/13/2025 01:00:00 PM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
Books 'R' Us. 

In early 2004, a Zoetrope.com member posted a link to a "Librarian For A Day" writing contest on the discussion board. Anikó promptly submitted her essay, a touching paean to libraries in general, and to Glendale's in particular. During July 2004, we moved two hours east, out into the Palm Springs area. Near the end of October 2004, when Woman's Day magazine notified Anikó that her essay had been chosen from 500 submissions to receive one of their two Grand Prizes, they assumed her day as a librarian would be spent at our new local library.

But when my headstrong wife insisted on relocating the event back to our former library—-the place which had inspired her winning essay—-rejoicing broke out in Glendale (pop. 205,300). GPL generously offered to put us up in a fancy Glendale hotel, so we wouldn't have to make the four-hour roundtrip drive in one day. They treated Anikó like a queen, and even lassoed a City Councilman into presenting a Mayor's Commendation plaque.

It was an eye-opening day, full of positive energy that kept sparking more and more good vibes. One small example: the library's collection of Magyar books (which had recently eased Anikó's transition into American culture) had been painstakingly assembled years ago by an employee who hailed from Budapest... and Kati was now able to hear firsthand about the extraordinary impression her efforts had made on a fellow Hungarian.

According to WD's photojournalism crew, their magazine has over 20 million readers. Anikó's two-page layout appeared in their March 8, 2005 issue.

PS: Anikó just told me that she remembers the makeup artist WD hired for her: "The first and only time in my life that I didn't have to do my own face! They even gave me fake eyelashes - Woo-Hoo!!"

More details: http://9TimeZones.com/a/wd.htm

Labels: zoe

 
» On 6/12/2025 04:00:00 PM Mountain Standard Time, Alan wrote:
The Hungarian Connection(s). 

(I) Some of you will remember that back in the Second Millennium, the Internet was a curiosity. Lots of journalists were writing about this new medium, and magazines were springing up, specializing in tidbits from The World Wide Web. One such magazine, based in Hungary, was called Internet Kalauz ("Guide"), and Andrea Wesselenyi was one of its top freelance writers. In 1998, Andrea was a member of Francis Ford Coppola's first writing workshop (workshop.lather.com), along with my wife-to-be and me. Anikó and I had not yet met in real life, but we had just finished writing a screenplay+book, and we were searching for ways to promote them. Andrea noticed our postings on the workshop's discussion board, and cleverly saw the possibility for an article about this online collaboration and love story. She exchanged a flurry of eMails with Anikó, and the resulting interview finally appeared in the 12/1999 issue of Internet Kalauz.

(II) During the summer of 2002, my new wife received an eMail from the production staff at Frei Dosszié (Dossier). They had seen her interview in Hungary's leading cyber-issues magazine, and wanted to tape a segment about us for an upcoming broadcast on "Sex & Love." To them, our transatlantic courtship sounded exotic.

I had never heard of Tamás Frei, the host, but Anikó was well-acquainted with his work. He began his career as a traveling reporter, visiting more than 100 countries, and later became Hungary's foremost war correspondent. Frei Dosszié is produced for one of the two commercial TV networks in Hungary, and the program's top episodes have aired in more than 25 countries. Tamás is a two-time Hungarian Pulitzer Prize winner and is one of Hungary's most famous and respected television personalities.

Tamás certainly impressed me: he speaks four languages fluently, and has interviewed Nobel Prize winner Nelson Mandela, Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the Maharaja of Jaipur, computer mogul Bill Gates, Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Antonio Banderas, Sharon Stone, Danny DeVito, David Duchovny, David Copperfield, director Oliver Stone, tenor Luciano Pavarotti, and the entire cast of Desperate Housewives... among many others.

So a foreign celebrity was visiting our home. Our interviews didn't take very long to shoot, but we spent the next nine grueling hours with László Balassa, Frei's director of photography. László was in charge of shooting the segment's background footage and went to extraordinary lengths to get it. I vaguely remember him hanging outside the window of our car while taping some roller-coaster views on the hairpin mountain curves up in Angeles Crest. He was grinning madly and shouting, "Faster, faster!"

The segment aired in Hungary on November 4, 2002, and my Budapest in-laws had a *lot* to talk about for the next few months.

Labels: zoe