Going along with my earlier story around senior prom, there are certain benefits to being married to a full-time teacher. One of them, and probably the most obvious, is that my spouse gets her summers off - which means lots of sleep-in time for her, more home cooked meals for me, and chores may mysteriously get done while I'm at the office by the housecleaning fairy!

Thursday marked the final school day and graduation, and my wife wrapped up the ceremony through emotionally saying goodbye to this year's seniors, who will no doubt be replaced in her heart by next year's seniors in the same fashion. Friday was an administrative clean up day, and the next two months see her out of the classroom and more at home, with time to focus on all those big projects that didn't get done during the school year. It's part of an annual ritual around these parts to see if the condo gets repainted, if things are finally sent to goodwill, or if our furniture will get upgraded. And as with the beginning of every summer, I don't yet have the answer.

In parallel begins the bigger threat of my expanding waistline. Mondays through Fridays might find me coming home to an elaborate home-cooked meal, not seen since August of 2005. While we may have been able to get away with cereal or whatever was in the freezer before, our excuses are gone, and we'll look into buying ever larger belts and slacks as we accommodate the largess.

And somehow, while she recuperates, I keep going, because the office still needs me, and I don't get summer break. It's almost enough to get me looking into what it takes to be a first-year teacher anyhow.

Listening to ''Bigmouth (1992)'', by Underworld (Play Count: 8)

In college, my focus took two dual paths - Political Science and Journalism (though Berkeley called it Mass Communications to gain wider appeal, no doubt). I had reached these focuses due to my interests morphing into study and potential career, as a childhood love for the political process and avid consumerism of media, combined with a proclivity for writing and not taking the surface story for the full answer led me ever closer to being a reporter and avid student of both politics and the media.

But decades before my interest, the two worlds collided violently when Edward Murrow, as part of CBS News took on Communist chaser Joseph McCarthy, lending his position to speak out against the congressional witch hunt. As chronicled in "Good Night and Good Luck", which we saw on DVD from Netflix this evening, Murrow and others risked their jobs and reputation to strike out against what they strongly believed to be wrongful activities and to make a difference, to fight for bigger causes than their own flailing ratings and a desire to serve corporate sponsors.

In recent years, George Clooney, who acted and directed the film, has impressed me as much more astute than I ever gave him credit for when he started his stardom on ER. With Good Night and Good Luck and Syriana, he debuted two of the most strong, challenging pictures that have hit the big screen in recent years, and did so when much more entertaining fare was dominating the box office. Rather than a hunky womanizer we saw him as in ER, or the perennial "Sexiest Man Alive" candidate, his efforts show a real interest in driving toward real stories that have long-lasting impact, and we're lucky that the Edward Murrow story was brought to many more of us in later generations who didn't see the frightening time unfold before our eyes.

Revisiting McCarthyism is also a very interesting effort in these times of "Freedom Fries", and partisan bickering, alongside a federal witch hunt for potential terrorist sympathizers, through wiretaps, private group infiltration, and now, data mining on social networks. We should learn from the past and be wary as to those who overstep their bounds.

Listening to ''DJ Culture (Short)'', by Blank & Jones (Play Count: 10)

Google looks like they're releasing tools out of their labs just about every day now, and this evening was no exception. After business hours today, the Google Blog updated us to let us know they'd issued a Firefox plugin that would synchronize browser information across multiple computers, and tie the two machines together based on your Google ID.

While very useful for Firefox users (myself included), Apple has offered identical functionality within their .Mac suite through iSync for a long time. I share bookmarks between Safari on my home laptop and the work computer, and through iSync, I also can synchronize my AddressBook and schedule through iCal. For Google this is less necessary, as their tools are Web based apps in the first place, and won't need synching, as they lack an offline component.

I installed the Google Browser Sync tool on the home Mac, and like any other Firefox plugin, it installed after relaunching the application, where I was asked to login with my user ID and password, and to choose a specific pin. From there, I could opt to synchronize bookmarks, application history, cookies, and could even synchronize open windows or tabs between the two machines. For me... that's a bit too much, but the bookmark and password synching could be very useful.


The Google Browser Sync Interface
(Click Images for Larger Size)

It's not exactly search, but it's yet another way for Google to get further involved with your computing interface lifestyle. The company's new mantra must be that if it can be enhanced through a Web app, then get it done, and don't ask questions.

Listening to ''The Mix - Volume 3 - CD2'', by Blank & Jones (Play Count: 5)

I don't know if any of you have ever tried to "watch" an A's game by using your Blackberry or wireless phone, refreshing the game page through ESPN or any other providers, but I was doing just that this afternoon when Joe Blanton's putting runners on caught up with him - in the form of Aaron Boone. If you have ever followed a game this way, you know any kind of significant delay in updates, despite refreshes, means something very good, or in this case, very bad, has happened. Boone's 0-0 in-game record quickly filled my screen with the wrong kind of numbers... 1-1, 1R, 1HR, 3RBI.

By the next refresh, the game score read 4-0, and the line below followed with 1-1, 1R, 1HR, 1RBI. For those scoring at home, that was when Grady Sizemore sized up Blanton's pitch as home run worthy and took him back to back... and made me much more interested in finding out if I'd missed any e-mail on said Crackberry instead of seeing if Joe could pull out of it.

Being a good A's fan, I didn't stay away long, but it looks like Joe's 2006 roller coaster continues, even as we get Rich Harden and Esteban Loaiza back to resume their roles in the rotation. Fresh off his complete game shutout (albeit against the Royals), Joe didn't fool many in Cleveland today, and his successors didn't fare too much better.

In my mind, the best play by Cleveland may not have been one of the four home runs the team hit, but instead the unintentional intentional walk handed to Frank Thomas in the sixth inning with the bases loaded. Rather than risking a 6-0 game turning to a 6-4 contest, the Indians would much rather face Bobby Kielty with the bases juiced and the opportunity to turn an inning-ending double play.

Ronnie Mac did his part too, although TV replays clearly showed Peralta didn't come anywhere near second base to get the lead runner. With Frank Thomas hitting well in May and June, raising his average 46 points (from .188 to .234) and slugging 9 home runs, the Indians took the A's biggest threat and snuffed it out. That's what good teams do, and the Indians are a contending team in what will be an intriguing AL Central race this year with Detroit and Chicago.

Tomorrow's game will see Loaiza take on Jason Johnson at 9:05 a.m. PDT. Yes. In the morning.

Listening to ''Signs of Love'', by Moby (Play Count: 7)