Blowing Smoke

New Blog

2010-08-17T18:11:00.000-05:00

If anyone's still following this blog, I've been writing more at a new blog at http://trainingto.blogspot.com/. Hope to see you there!

2009-05-10T21:47:00.002-05:00

I've probably written before on fantasy vs science fiction, but another perspective hit me today. My position's been for a long time that fantasy stories result in their ending because the world works a certain way - actors are important, but only because Powers That Be have set the board. Sci-fi results usually depend on the unique strengths of being human, often a particular type of human (often libertarian, I'm realizing, as I read the older stuff). Horror gets lumped in with fantasy because supernatural threats and especially their exploitable weaknesses are a function of the setting, not the protagonists. Make no mistake - Battlestar Galactica was fantasy that included science.

Sitting in church today, I realized the common name for these categories is religion and science. Famous fantasy writers are notoriously (and unsubtly) Christian: Tolkien, Lewis, L'Engle, Rowling, Card. I must say I don't know much about the religion of science fiction writers - that might be first evidence. I am sure there are exceptions, and I don't mean to question the beliefs of anyone just based on their genre - I just think I see a trend. It also explains to me why I have very few friends who read both sci-fi and fantasy - most of them also pursue one or the other of religion and science primarily if not exclusively. The few I can think of who translate seamlessly also pursue both sets of knowledge (or at least have a respect, not just tolerance, for both).

Me? I like both fantasy and sci-fi. My absolute favorites are fantasy, but I read a lot of both fiction genres. As to the broader knowledge, my science and religion shelves are pretty close to each other, separated only by philosophy (I think - been a while since I looked at the shelves of books I've read). I get a science magazine, but my non-friend blog tastes run to religion. And I really dig into discussions of how science and religion mesh (or clash, if you like).

Anyway, this might be ridiculously repetitive and unfresh, but it struck me today. So I wanted to jot it down. Thanks for reading this far.

2008-12-23T09:39:00.003-06:00

3 Least Favorite Things about the Holiday Season:

1) Having a cold when a song like O Come All Ye Faithful is on the radio. I was in a children's choir for a year (soprano!) and loved singing that song, so I try to sing strongly. And hacking cough follows hacking cough.

2) That hideous Christmas Shoes song. There is nothing redeeming about the over-saccharinized self-celebration of a shopper loaded up with gifts (capitalist crack?) helping someone buy a pair of shoes and feeling like a hero who's done his duty. The music's bad, the lyrics/story possibly worse, and the message is confused at best. And stations seem to want to get a year's worth of playing time into one month.

3) Having to work when most of the office is gone. It's a good time to learn just how interrelated a company's work is, when 75%'s vacations cripple the remaining 25%'s productivity.

That said, Merry Christmas and/or whatever holidays you celebrate! Hopefully everything beyond these 3 annoyances is just plain fun.

2008-12-06T14:11:00.002-06:00

Sadly it takes a liar to get me to post again. See my February 23 and 24 blogs for my first mention of corporate litterers who leave fliers on porches (theoretically on the door). In the comments, the offender, who I'm happy to name now as Directly to the Door, promises not to deliver to me again. Guess what was rolling around my porch today? This flier distribution process has been held up in court only as a necessary evil to prevent the suppression of anonymous political speech, but this was technically illegal as it was not firmly enough attached to my door to keep it from falling to the ground where it becomes ... litter. I'm not going to bother filing a legal complaint because I think the cops have much more important things to do, but here's some free speech of my own. That doesn't litter.

As if their core business wasn't enough of an intrusion onto property and public nuisance, the owner apparently doesn't even mean what he says. So I encourage all to boycott the business he owns The What's for Dinner Studio Kitchen in Round Rock, and the other businesses paying for his litter: PCS Carpet Cleaning, Pagel and Sons Jewelers, Round Rock Health and Wellness Center, Darling's Heating and Air Conditioning, and Rangoli Indian Grill.

I hate to just complain and not offer an alternative. If you want to prepare great meals en masse, try Super Suppers Austin, or for A/C and heating needs, we've had great experiences with Patton's Appliances. I don't have alternatives off the top of my head for the rest, but would be glad to entertain them in comments.

Also kudos to Austin's Pizza for no longer supporting litter (as well as responding quickly to my first complaint)! In case you needed a reason besides their excellent pizza (I'm an especial fan of the BBQ Chicken although they've all been good), here's one!

2008-11-01T08:15:00.002-05:00

Bill Ayers' last criminal act was in 1973. By the time he hosted a coffee for Obama's campaign in 1995 (at which point he had made substantial contributions to Chicago's educational system and 2 years later would be Chicago's Citizen of the Year), 22 years of legal activity had passed. When they served on an educational board together from 2000-2002 27 years had passed.

If the statute of limitations extends that long, shouldn't we still be afraid W's drinking is affecting his judgement?

2008-10-24T10:27:00.002-05:00

I just got a free Austin American-Statesman newspaper delivered to my house. I'm not a subscriber, but apparently Texas State Representative incumbent (and likely winner) Mark Strama paid for this issue so it included a wrapper touting his renewable energy plans for Texas. You know what's not very renewable, takes a lot of energy to produce and deliver, and doesn't help the environment? A newspaper. Especially one whose entire content is available for free online. But I guess this has more cachet than the usual litter-flyer on the porch.

This message brought to you by the local 2008 elections with the apparent theme of "I guess I'm voting despite their efforts to convince me not to vote for them." This is why folks don't vote.

2008-10-11T18:43:00.001-05:00

I was laid off on Wednesday. And yet this is still probably the best week of my 2008.

UT 45, OU 35. In Colt We Trust.

Dynasty my patootie

2008-09-26T10:00:00.002-05:00

Sure the economy's in trouble with no one actually knowing what will fix it. Sure the most promising Presidential election in decades has descended to Know Nothings from both sides hurling mud pies.

But last night USC continued to prove it never lives up to the media hype. All is well.

2008-08-17T21:44:00.001-05:00

Walked 4 miles yesterday and 3 today, so 22/211 for my counts. Would write more, but our A/C's out and my laptop's hot.

2008-08-14T22:24:00.003-05:00

I hit 200 miles with 3.5 on Sunday (and had the Slurpee!), and walked 4 more miles tonight for 204 on the year, 15 for August. That's 134 days for the first 100 miles, 89 for the second. 140 days left in the year, and I want 300 more miles. So I need to average 2.15 miles/day. I have no idea if I can pull this off, but goals are good.

In addition my cousin challenged me to join him on the onehundredpushups program. I'm on Day 2, and it hurts. My stomach muscles hurt, so I know I'm not doing them perfectly, but my arms/chest also hurt, so I know I'm working those muscles well. It is amazing how many I've found I could do - 15 in 5 sets over 9 minutes last night. A long way from 100, but it's a 6-week program. If you want to join, I'll probably have to repeat a week at some point and you can catch up.

Finally finished No Common Power. It was a textbook, but not a bad one. I'm wanting to do more educational stuff - anyone have suggestions on how to keep hold of what I learn? I was never good at taking notes, but feel some system of at least minimal information would be good, especially for programming books. I'm open to any and all suggestions. For less significant progress, I'm still finishing my sixth Deryni book.

2008-08-10T12:54:00.002-05:00

I walked 3.5 more miles on July 27, leaving me with 10 for July and 189 at that point for 2008. Since that I walked 1.5 miles on Tuesday (foot hurt pretty bad), 2 miles Friday (got there late and the gym closed on me), and 4 miles yesterday for a total of 7.5 for August and 196.5 for 2008. I plan to hit 200 today - let's hear it for another Slurpee!

I also finished the original Deryni trilogy and am on the last book of the 2nd trilogy (Legends of Camber) while I continue No Common Power. I saw the movie Charlie Bartlett which I thought was a lot of fun and Mummy 3 which was about as bad as I expected, but I think that's it for cultural experiences. I did enjoy the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, despite my better judgement, and since then the Olympics haven't been a bad background noise.

2008-07-26T20:27:00.003-05:00

Yep it's been a while. Sorry just got tied up with the reunion and then have been tired/busy ever since. Workouts similarly lapsed, although I did make it 3.5 miles on Monday 7/21 and 3 miles today, so 6.5 miles for July, 185.5 for 2008. No idea if I'll make 200 miles by the end of the month, but I hope so.

I've been enjoying No Common Power, but definitely needed something to break it up - I'm still only two-thirds of the way through it. In between I've read Dragons of the Highlord Skies (new Weis/Hickman Dragonlance book - fairly good), The Giver (young adult book that Wife liked when she was in school - good idea but obviously had no idea where to take the story), and am on the third book of the original Deryni trilogy, which is actually better than I remembered.

Moviewise, I've been even more prolific: Wall-E - great animation, enjoyable, but not my favorite animated movie by a long shot; Get Smart - fun, better than I expected; Hancock - excellent story, unimpressive ending, I think a sequel would be better; Dark Knight - truly excellent all around even being so long; The Jacket - surprisingly really good; The 13th Warrior - pretty good once I could tell the Vikings apart; The Kingdom - better than expected; Stealth - surprisingly decent, much better story than expected; Michael Clayton - underwhelming, good performances but very eh ending. Main moral: make sure you see Dark Knight without any young kids.

Will try to post again before too long.

2008-06-29T22:53:00.002-05:00

4 more miles yesterday bringing the month to 46.5 and the year to 179. Unfortunately my dear wife and I are hosting a large family reunion this coming weekend, and my energy has to go to that. I will try to keep walking when I'm less tired than I am tonight, but no way I'm going to hit 200 by Friday. I still plan to hit it next week, and will figure out the next goal then. btw I have now averaged .984 miles a day for the year - we'll see if I can't double that for the second half.

Finished Lysistrata which was well worth reading. I'm having trouble reconciling 2 things. The first is that, while the Greeks obviously reproduced, I thought the entire culture valued love between 2 men as the ultimate love in all aspects. Yet in Lysistrata when the women withhold, the men apparently have no other sexual outlet. I'm missing something here, and am open to any enlightenment from my reader(s). Next up is actually a foreign affairs textbook from college No Common Power. It should be interesting to compare how they pictured the world and American power just after the First Gulf War with the delightful morass that is our reputation now. This will be interspersed with Great Books and probably some lighter reading to keep me moving along.

2008-06-25T21:34:00.002-05:00

Walked 5 miles yesterday and 5 miles this morning (feet hurt!) to get to 175 and 42.5 miles. Looks like it'll be a new monthly record and that I'll hit 200 by the 4th. More importantly I earned a Slurpee today (haven't indulged yet) and will get another next week. And isn't that what's really important?

For those who think that since James Dobson and I read the same (probably) Bible, we have anything in common, well, not just no but hell no. I'd like to say we both follow Christ, but I just can't reconcile his verbal diarrhea with any deity but Self Interest. I hope I'm wrong about that.

2008-06-22T21:26:00.003-05:00

Walked 3.5 miles Wednesday, 5 miles Saturday, and 3.5 miles today to bring my totals to 32.5 and 165. Read The Black Tattoo - good teen fantasy with an interesting story but fairly pedestrain writing - worth reading for the story. Next up is a decent translation of Lysistrata. Saw Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull (very enjoyable) and Kung Fu Panda (unfortunate letdown - nothing especially funny or good) this weekend. Just wrote a long epistemological rant, but Blogger ate it so I'll have to recreate it sometime in the future.

2008-06-15T22:18:00.003-05:00

Last week was slow on the workout front - 4 miles Thursday and 5 miles Saturday bring me to 153 for 2008 and 20.5 for June. I've definitely fallen off the previous pace for 200 by June 4, but it's still very doable. Just gotta get up tomorrow - I don't have many more days I can make up easily.

Started Season 3 of Weeds this weekend - great show. I'd forgotten how funny they make individual scenes, even when the overall plot slows down. Even better TV was the midseason finale of Battlestar Galactica (the second half was delayed by the writers' strike and is supposed to air in January 2009). I only wish it was 90 minutes - much more they could've done with the many plot movements this episode introduced.

This Alien Shore was excellent beginning to end. Following that are 2 Aristophanes plays - Clouds and Lysistrata. Clouds wasn't a bad story, but I hated the translation. It's like they wanted to make sure no one would enjoy reading it. I found a more contemporary translation online I might try to see if I enjoy it more, and can use something besides the book translation for future Aristophanes stuff.

The NBA Finals have been amazing. Great basketball from both sides every game. And Kobe choking in ways that put the Jordan comparisons to rest. Permanently. And I've found a new favorite villain, a role that's been unfilled for me since Vlade Divac. To me a basketball villain is someone who really distorts, even ruins, the game. Divac always managed it by flopping and harrassing refs into taking his side without really doing any shooting, rebounding, or defending. Sasha Vujacic substitutes reckless aggression for defense and then whines whenever someone breathes on him. Another good reason for the Lakers to lose.

2008-06-07T21:45:00.002-05:00

Thursday was 4 miles and Friday 2.5, so I'm at 144 for 2008 and 11.5 for June. No miles today as we went berry-picking in Lexington, and the whole heat/driving combo didn't leave much for hitting the gym when I got back. Still taking tomorrow off as I kinda like having a Sabbath, and Monday we renew the quest. I think I can make it, although I'm not quite on pace.

Watching National Treasure while I take care of things online. Such a campy ridiculous little movie.

The Democratic nominee is finally decided, and congrats to Hillary for a gracious concession speech. Will she end up having worked so hard just to become a Secretary? I hope she does either go to the Cabinet, or put all this energy into legislation to make her and Obama's promises happen.

The money involved in this election is ridiculous. Obama's got more stashed for the general election than McCain's raised, and McCain's speech-giving weaknesses are already hampering him. But there's already been a few hundred million spent on this, and at least two hundred more will be. This could lead to one upside of rising commodity prices - while I don't think oil and food resalers are usually good citizens, if they take up more money from campaign budgets for logistics, less money will go to advertising and political consultants, who are much more parasitical on the body politic and economic. One can hope, anyway.

The Chinese history lectures are interesting - I've made it through 5 dynasties so far. And the one that lasted only 14 years reminds me of the Bush administration - putting the resources of the entire government to further the whims of the ruler. Oh well almost done with this regime - bring on the succession!

2008-06-04T08:09:00.001-05:00

Sorry to disappoint, but just a quick reminder of walking so far this week, so I don't lose count. 2.5 miles each Monday and Wednesday (felt sick Monday night, so turned off the alarm for Tuesday) gives me 5 miles for June and 137.5 for 2008.

2008-05-31T21:03:00.002-05:00

This might seem like a copout, but I ended up spending a lot of time hauling art up and down stairs last night, which made me pretty tired this morning, so I'm giving myself credit for 1 mile yesterday plus the 2.5 miles I made it today, so for the month I'm only 49.5 (so close!) and for 2008 I'm at 132.5.

I wanted to think about the Plato books and find something more to comment on, but I've got nothing. Excellent style, and probably even more notable given the time, but I don't like the philosophy or the methodology. I'll be curious to see if Republic engages me more. For now, though, good new scifi is most excellent.

Sounds like they reached a compromise today in Florida and Michigan - all delegates seated with only half a vote, and Obama gets the uncommitted votes in Michigan (where Hillary was the only candidate who didn't withdraw her name as promised). It pleases the states and gives Hillary something to feel OK about without threatening Obama's still-solid lead. I would've even let the uncommitted's from Michigan decide who to vote for, but I think the leadership really wants this to end, and that could encourage her too much to stay in until Denver. There is no good answer in most of politics, but I think this worked pretty well. Naturally, after winning most of her points, Hillary's campaign is complaining they were robbed - I suppose being handed the keys to the White House is the only thing she'd settle for. Here's hoping issues occasionally raise their head as this goes on.

2008-05-30T13:26:00.003-05:00

2.5 miles yesterday plus 1.5 today (had to get to work early on the bus) makes 46 on the month, 129 on the year. Reasonable chance I'll hit 50 for May, but I'll need 60 in June to have a shot at my goal. One trouble I'm running into is how I can both walk 2.5+ miles in the morning when my 10-minute-away gym opens at 5:30 and still make it to the bus stop by 7:30, including having a decent breakfast. I'll keep working on it.

Alas the Spurs are out of the playoffs. They played well, the Lakers are just actually playing better. I can live with that - can't win the championship every year.

Finished Apology and Crito without any further appreciation of Plato/Socrates. Maybe it's just stylistic - while he's using clever phrases and making opponents look bad, it just seems to me like bright shiny distractions rather than really praising the truth. I understand his respect for law is more of a law vs tyrant distinction than law vs individual rights - maybe I can appreciate that. Still just haven't found much in there.

Before the next reading (from Aristophanes I believe) I'm taking a break for a sci fi novel by CS Friedman - This Alien Shore. Loved her Coldfire trilogy, and so far this one is fun too.

2008-05-28T21:24:00.003-05:00

Oh yeah records are shattered. 2.5 miles today brings the 2008 total to 125, and May to 42 (yep 1/3 of the miles this month, 1/3 January, and the other three months hang their heads in shame). That was a Slurpee milestone I tell you. I now need 15 miles a week for the July 4th deadline - not sure how that jives with my estimates from yesterday but it works. At some point I may have miscalculated. Feel free to double-check me.

I present you with 2 quotes:

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice
and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and
confuses me! Sometimes the honking horns of your traffic make me want to get out
of my BMW.. and run off into the hills, or wherever.. Sometimes when I get a
message on my fax machine, I wonder: "Did little demons get inside and type it?"
I don't know! My primitive mind can't grasp these concepts.

For I am more than seventy years of age, and appearing now for the first
time in a court of law, I am quite a stranger to the language of the place; and
therefore I would have you regard me as if I were really a stranger, whom you
would excuse if he spoke in his native tongue, and after the fashion of his
country...

Given a choice between Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer and Socrates, you can probably guess who said which, but Plato's Apology is not a comedy - it's a philosophical treatise in which Socrates is defending himself in court. This book bothers me - Socrates seems more interested in scoring points on his opponent and using sophistry to declaim sophistry. It's clever, probably exceedingly clever for the time, but it doesn't seem to offer anything besides how to be clever if your audience is 2500-year-old Greeks. There could be some interesting points about wisdom and humility and knowledge, but they're indistinguishable from this desperate cleverness. I know some of my readers are better read than me - I'm open to any explanation. Keeping reading through the Apology and Crito, but I'm just not a Plato fan at this point.

2008-05-27T08:59:00.003-05:00

2 miles today, bringing May to 39.5 and 2008 to 122.5. May is now tied with January for most miles, and I plan on shattering that tomorrow. Missing Sunday has me a bit behind schedule on the July 4th deadline - I need to average 2.4 miles a day between now and then (or 2.7 miles per likely-to-walk day if I take one day off a week), so I think some extra distance on the weekends will be required.

Wife got me my birthday present early on Saturday - 6 courses from The Teaching Company: Augustine: Philosopher and Saint; From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History; Great Debate: Advocates and Opponents of the American Constitution; Particle Physics for Non-Physicists: A Tour of the Microcosmos; Reason & Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages; War, Peace, and Power: Diplomatic History of Europe, 1500–2000. Should be fun commutes for several months as that's 70 hours of CD lectures for lil ole me. Woohoo Wife!

As I continue More Than Human, it's surprising me how much the direction he feels bionics will move us in matches up with the more-evolutionary plotline of the Julian May series I just read - towards a mental sharing and near-unity. I have to admit I can see that, although I'm too cynical to use the possibility as justification. I'm 100% in favor of research for cures, for improving to normalcy, but I still don't like the societal pressures and increasing socioeconomic gap enhancement would bring. Almost done with it, though, and I definitely recommend it for anyone interested in this area. Next up I'm gonna try to tackle Plato's Apology and Crito and see if I can actually start progressing through the Great Books' 10 Year Reading Plan.

And lest my tower appear with too ivory a sheen, every series of the NBA playoffs this year has had memorable games and great performances. Rooting for Celtics-Spurs, I think, but I just want seven games in every series as everyone is peaking at the right time. Antonio McDyess with over 20 points in 2008? Crazy it is, just crazy.

2008-05-25T16:16:00.002-05:00

2.5 miles Thursday, and 5 miles Saturday brings me to totals of 37.5 for the month and 120.5 for the year. I've now doubled my miles since April 10, and am on pretty solid ground for getting the 100 miles by July 4. Missing today (too much else to do) combined with the gym being closed tomorrow brings me a little back to earth, but still good progress.

Finished God's Politics - nothing really hit me beyond what I wrote before. Now reading More than Human, about the potential for genetic enhancement of humans. Definitely not my cup of tea philosophically, but if proven safe, I don't know if I could object to others using them. The problem then becomes what of the people who don't want to use it but can't compete? The author actually mentions the attention-focusing benefits of Ritalin for non-ADD people, and I've had students ask me if they should take it to keep up on SAT scores. There is a marked benefit, and I don't know if people who don't want to take a drug should be effectively penalized. Sorry I do know - they shouldn't. Still, it's a well-thought-out, well-researched book that's enjoyable reading. Kinda the opposite of God's Politics where I liked the direction but not the writer.

2008-05-21T11:18:00.002-05:00

2.5 more miles brings the May total to 30 and 2008 to 113. Since I play too much with numbers in my head, I'm going to see if writing gets them out. 42 more days until July 4 to cover 87 miles, so need to average about 2.1 per day. I'll probably walk (at most) 36 of them so that brings me to just over 2.4 miles every day I walk, which is OK seeing as how I'm almost always walking at least that far. But little room for slippage.

Some of you readers are more conservative than me, so I'm curious on feedback. What about a major national program to improve infrastructure? We desperately need to fix/maintain roads and bridges, so we could start by adding jobs that are impossible to outsource for the most urgent needs. Some money would also go into research to reduce costs for bridge engineering, road materials, and even tire materials - anything that makes the national infrastructure easier to sustain will pay back hundredsfold, and could help the environment. It might be worth investigating bundling other infrastructure needs (water/sewage, telecommunications) into the research and construction as well. Yes it will cost money, but it would seem to improve many lives and impact almost all taxpayers by improving the daily transportation experience, and I can't imagine enough progress ever being made piecemeal. Oh and we might avoid needless disasters like the Minneapolis and Tulsa bridges - that's always nice too. In all fairness, I got this basic idea in a Newsweek column, although I'm not sure who wrote it, and built on it a very little bit.

2008-05-20T23:03:00.000-05:00

Too tired to write much, but another 2.5 miles this morning to get to 27.5/110.5.

2008-05-19T17:28:00.002-05:00

2.5 miles this morning for totals of 25/108. I think I'm going to count on taking either Sunday or Monday off every week - even if I trusted my willpower it's still a bit much to do it between 1 and 6PM Sunday, and then again Monday morning before 7. So that will be a good day of rest.

Finished Julian May's series, and I enjoyed it much more this time. The only problem was that I forgot specific details from the first subseries that came to light towards the end of the last book. Still it rocked. Now back to God's Politics - we're past Iraq, and while I think the author is still self-righteous and as open to dramatic interpretation and exaggeration as his foes on the Religious Right, I'm finding good nuggets out of this.

I saw Prince Caspian this weekend. The overdone Spanish accents kept me thinking of Inigo Montoya. It was better than I expected, and I'm still trying to decide if I liked it. Acting was terrible, and some lines made me laugh out loud (a few even intentionally!), as did some effects. So if you like Narnia and/or the last movie, give it a shot.

2008-05-17T12:49:00.002-05:00

2.5 miles yesterday and 3 miles today, bringing me to 22.5 for May and 105.5 for 2008. I think I'm going to aim to knock out the next 100 miles before July 4. It's requiring a little over 2 miles a day, so might be a little too ambitious, but I'll give it a shot. Unfortunately, I also found out the Rec Center doesn't have 13 of my miles, so I won't get my 100 Miles star until (hopefully) Monday, and I'll have to make it 513 miles for the 500 Miles star - at that point my name goes on a plaque - but if I can make 394.5 miles in the rest of the year, 407.5 shouldn't be too much more. I think if I ended up at 505 and showed them the blog records, they'd work with me. I'd hope.

2008-05-13T09:39:00.000-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, 100 Miles for 2008.

(It is not a goal of quiet desperation!)

2008-05-12T08:50:00.002-05:00

2.5 miles yesterday and 2 miles today, for 14.5 miles in May and 97.5 in 2008. That's also 38 miles in 33 days since I returned to the gym April 10. My previous spurt was 39 miles in 27 days in January, so I haven't matched that pace, but hey gotta have something to aim for. If I hit 100 miles as expected tomorrow, I'm thinking a large Coke Slurpee for breakfast. (Yes, large Coke Slurpee is the only Slurpee worth drinking, but I added the adjectives to allow less-enlightened disciples to visualize my joy tomorrow morning.)

I saw Forbidden Kingdom last night, starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li. It was actually a lot of fun, after the first 20 minutes that will make you miss the dialogue and acting of Karate Kid 3. And it answers so many late-night dorm conversations along the lines of who would win in a fight between Drunken Master and Crouching Tiger dude - that's right, they're not just the actors, they're basically the same roles. It's probably best just to ignore any dialogue or shot with the white guy who's the "star."

2008-05-10T22:55:00.002-05:00

Before all else, a heavy dose of congratulations to Cap'n Mike, who today became Master Mike when he graduated with his Degree in Family Counseling - I may have the degree wrong, but it's graduate level, he's prepared to do the work he wants to do, and he's done, which is all the important stuff. Congratulations good sir - you are neither a loser nor a chump!

3 miles today for totals of 10 and 93. It felt good, too - I'm hoping I can get into a regular habit of 2+ miles almost every day. I actually worked out a schedule to try to get specific amounts of Newsweek and ScienceNews read each day - it's the first Content-Based Workout Plan! Newsweek gets split into first half, third quarter, and final quarter. For my next issue, that comes out to 19, 14, and 12 pages once ads and letters and other stuff are taken out. And those 19 are pretty sparse with lots of photos so it's close to equal. ScienceNews just changed its format so I'll have to try it out to figure out numbers.

I like to calculate too much. You all know this.

I've been watching Battlestar Galactica 4th season (no spoilers - just generalities that grow from the first three seasons), and my main concern storywise is where are they going with all the religion/metaphysics storylines? Is one religion true and the other complete snake oil? Will we snarkily dismiss all unobservationally verifiable beliefs? It's confusing and seems to slow down the main story rather than advance it. Of course I've thought this about other plots and they've worked out well - I will trust the writers' magic for now.

Saw a sign for a "Pfabulous Sale!" this morning. Yep, I'm a pfloser.

According to the election results I was able to find, 2 of 3 bond propositions in Pflugerville failed (pfailed?) today. The library will be expanded, but the new City Hall was nixed (although the board's already approved necessity bond funding if the election didn't work out so the vote was irrelevant), and the new Rec Center down the street from me was voted down. I really wanted that new Center - walking distance is almost as good to me as lots of improved facilities. If people generally didn't want to spend tax money on it, that's fine, but I'm afraid a negative campaign by someone who'd gotten investments to build an overpriced private center swayed the voters. If so, that's sad, because people will now have the "option" of paying $42/month instead of an average of $10 at the new Rec Center - no wonder they expect lower turnout than the current Rec Center (which costs $6/month) gets. I hope this individual's investment goes belly-up in spectacular fashion, which I'm betting it will, as he apparently didn't know the city was planning a new expanded Rec Center. Frackin idiot.

On a side note, the word frackin' might by itself justify the entire Battlestar Galactica series. It's that cool.

I've been working on designing a contacts database for UrbanConnection - it's fun trying to think of all the possible uses for and protections of contact, demographic, and skill/interest data. I'm probably overdesigning it, but as long as I also write the code modules or stored procs to populate/query them, I figure it's my own grave I'm digging. For those afraid I'm going to be supporting junk mail, I'm getting promises from the group that all communications will be opt-in and all data will be securely protected from any user who doesn't need it. Now I just have to make sure that's how the product works. If anyone has suggestions for how to build a data entry/simple reporting interface to this MySQL database (there's no funding for this project so it needs to be free or pretty cheap), I'm all ears. It's for fairly few users, and the data scale will be very moderate.

On the book front, Jack the Bodiless has given way to Diamond Mask, and I'm enjoying this series more every bit I move through it. An excellent description of man's intellectual and social evolution tying into God's revelation to a select people and then through incarnation makes a lot of sense - I get the feeling I might enjoy more Jesuit literature, which seems to be one source of inspiration for this series. Sadly only 2 books left - I will have to try Julian May's other series, and see if this was a one-shot chef d'oeuvre, or indicative of her overall talent.

2008-05-06T22:06:00.002-05:00

3 more miles today, bringing me to 90 for the year, 7 for the month.

I saw Iron Man Sunday - it was good. I always like Downey, and the story moved along pretty well. Looks like tons o watchable movies are coming out soon - we'll see how many beat out always readable books.

Spurs look completely and totally outmatched by the Hornets. I hope their home court rejuvenates them, but I don't know if they can pull it out.

2008-05-03T22:50:00.003-05:00

1/3 of the year down (technically slightly less as this is the fewest days of any 4 months, but still), so figured I'd sum up the progress. January 39, February 14, March 6.5, April 23.5 brings us to 83 for 2008. Way behind what I'd hoped, but 83 deliberate miles better than any of my first 31 years.

4 miles today, making the 2008 total 87 - I could pass 90 tomorrow. Woot woot. There was a league tournament (men, not kids) on the court below me this morning, so I didn't get as much reading done as usual. It was interesting to watch how intense people get over a Saturday morning game - hard fouls, constant whining at the refs. Yay sports. Or something.

To track one additional thing from the beginning of the year, I think I have solidly beat Mike into the ground in our blogging challenge. Yeah yeah 2 kids, getting a Master's, all kinds of excuses. I still win.

I love watching the Spurs. Everyone always says they can't win cuz they're old and they shouldn't cuz they're boring, and they just keep destroying other teams. And somehow not having players accused of crimes related to alcohol, drugs, strip clubs, and/or firearms. Wonder if those are connected. (Side note: I know individuals who enjoy each of those without harm to others or public spectacle - good for all of you. Combining almost any 2 on that list is pretty much asking for it.)

Metaconcert was great. The next Julian May book - Jack the Bodiless - is maintaining the greatness. Since her narrator owns a sci-fi bookstore, I've picked up several excellent recommendations from this reading as well. Haven't seen many movies recently, although I'm eager to see Iron Man. Saw Varsity Blues on cable today, and it was impressively cheesy.

While walking today, I read an old Newsweek article on Obama's foreign policy - he's holding out his time actually living abroad as sufficient experience and possibly even superior to McCain's and Clinton's political experience. Dunno about that comparison, but he's also getting slammed for saying he'd be willing for the country to talk to any other country/government. I don't see any problem with that - not for anyone who calls to get to talk to the President, but why wouldn't we have someone out of the thousands in the administration listen to what another country has to say? Often it might not help, but why not be open to the chance that a country is willing to make concrete improvements if we can talk to them, and agree to reward good behavior? Seems like it could also help resolve our hyperpower hubris, at least in image.

See I'm not just beating Mike because I'll blog my number of walking laps. I have something to say at least occasionally.

2008-04-29T14:40:00.002-05:00

3 miles yesterday lifting me to 23.5/83. I figured out that this weekend I raised my miles/day for the year from .638 to .697 which seemed significant. Of course by not walking today I've already dropped to .692, so maybe I need to focus on bigger-magnitude changes.

Pumped my first-ever $40 tank of gas last night. Ouch. In other news, I took the bus to work this morning.

God's Politics has been an interesting read. I like his counterpoint to the voodoo-economics wealth gospel preached by most political religious groups - I really like his prioritization in the context of Old Testament prophets - but he's really really full of himself. I believe his anti-Bush stance is his personal belief, but it's relentless (and surprisingly repetitive) bashing detracts from the promise of offered solutions rather than politics as usual. He also has a somewhat naive belief that the UN could effectively take over for the US and would be welcomed as liberators - he could be quoting pre-Iraq Cheney with one letter changed. New ideas, yes, but I don't think Iraqis would welcome UN troops keeping the peace and supporting the government any more than Americans. I wouldn't mind being wrong on that point - I just don't think I am. For now, Metaconcert's arrived, so God's Politics will resume after the full Julian May series.

Go Hawks! I like Garnett's Celtics, but I like upsets even more.

2008-04-28T07:08:00.000-05:00

Sorry I don't have more to communicate right now, but 3.5 miles yesterday for totals of 20.5/80.

2008-04-26T22:24:00.001-05:00

2.5 miles today, so 17/76.5. Nothing else to currently report.

2008-04-22T21:54:00.002-05:00

2 miles today (hotel treadmill!), making it 14.5 for April and 74 for 2008. Woot woot.

Would a good foreign policy be to pretend we don't have a superior military? If we weren't confident that we could beat any one and probably two large-scale opponents, how would we try to achieve our goals? I know the leadership usually says the military is the last resort (that is almost evil in its willful denial of so much pain), but they move forward knowing they've got it to fall back on. And we do have it to fall back on, but it seems like being the underdog is what leads to creativity and improvements. Just a lil random thought.

Saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall again with another friend - still rocks. I think one of the things I like about Apatow's movies is there's no one to really be against. Everyone's flawed, everyone's got good points, doesn't make every decision OK, but it's just people without the all-too-easy Good and Bad to force our understanding.

There's an ad for some plasma TV that suggests that when the family's all booked up with school and jobs and activities like sports and play, bring them together to watch TV!!! Avoid any of that exercise or meeting other people or education - sit on a posture-destroying couch to mindlessly absorb mass-produced entertainment in silence. God Bless America!

Yeah I'm cynical tonight. It's been 2 days since I saw Wife, and looks like I have 2 more. I'm sure I'll be in a better mood then.

2008-04-20T00:07:00.002-05:00

3 miles in the gym on Thursday, so 12.5 for April, 72 for 2008. We'll see if I can get anything going while I'm in Dallas. I also finished Colbert's book I Am America (And So Can You!) today, and since I'm headed to Dallas before Metaconcert arrives, I'm picking up Jim Wallis' God's Politics. Should be an interesting read.

Saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall tonight. As with all Apatow movies, there's one scene that seems more intended for shock value than an integral part of the story, but otherwise it rocked. These comedies keep living up to their billing - looking forward to Pineapple Express this summer.

2008-04-16T22:00:00.002-05:00

1 mile today - shin splints kicked in strong so I'll try more stretching and hydration. Appreciate the comment on the last post about the elliptical machine - they're not set up for my weight but I look forward to the day when I can use them. For now, 9.5 and 69 miles.

Finished Surveillance a little too early - only a few minutes into the busride home, leaving me no reading material for the rest of the trip. Alas! And now I haven't been able to find its sequel Metaconcert at Half Price or B&N or at the library. I ordered it expedited shipping from Amazon, and until I get it, I think it's time to read Stephen Colbert's book.

I'm headed to Dallas Sunday. One of our clients has had some scalability issues, so I'll be onsite to deal with any installation issues directly. Gonna miss Wife, but hopefully it will just be a couple days. Worst case is a week. I also hope I have Metaconcert in hand by then. :-)

2008-04-15T15:16:00.002-05:00

2.5 miles this morning, so 8.5 for April and 68 for 2008. And since I renewed my gym membership for $30 (quarterly) last week, each gym visit has cost $7.50. We'll have to see if I can get that under $1 per, or even $.50.

Seems like tax day inevitably brings out all the columnists thundering about how horrible our tax burdens are. I'd never mind paying less, but if we believe there's any benefit to strengthening the weakest link in society, to having resources available to all regardless of "worth," taxes are pretty much what it's going to take. Government could just about always do a better job of handling them, and should improve, but I definitely can't complain about my net. It's funny how we focus on the 15-30% we don't have instead of the 70-85% that's at least partially enabled by the system as it works now.

(Disclaimer: I overwithhold to make sure I don't have to come up with a payment, so this is more of a getting-money day for me, which makes me happy. But the principle still holds on taxes in general.)

2008-04-13T20:26:00.002-05:00

Quiet yet quasiproductive weekend. Watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which wasn't that great for me. I hear the big moments are better on a big screen/audio system. I can accept that - also, like 2001, I think it was much more impressive when it came out. I also saw Lucky You, a poker movie with Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore (and Robert Duvall, who I think should have gotten higher billing) that I don't believe made it to theaters. And it shouldn't have. Quite bad but excellent for in-movie commenting. Tonight I'm watching Return of the Jedi, with possibly the most applicable Star Wars quote for me: "I don't think the Empire had Wookies in mind when they built this thing."

I visited a church for the second time today - I think I like the pastor. Both of his sermons have thrown a new angle at me, and I like getting new stuff to think on. Specifically, in talking about Saul's conversion on the road to Tarsus, he pointed out how much the already-Christian Ananias was tested when he was called on to heal Saul - he had to overcome his fear of Saul turning him over to the Romans and forgive Saul for all he'd done against Christians, based on faith alone. Not an angle I usually hear on that story.

2008-04-12T12:05:00.002-05:00

2 more miles this morning, so the new totals are 6 and 65.5. I was hoping for 4 since it's a Saturday, but the front outsides of my shins were hurting by the first half-mile, so I figure it was a good push. If I can keep up my gym attendance, I'm going to try to throw in some non-walking activities next week and see if that relieves the strain on the shins. On the plus side, I've also made it through an entire Newsweek and Science News in these 3 days, which is always fun.

Last night I finished My Name Is Asher Lev. I was surprised at how much I liked it - it was powerful, but I really disliked the protagonist and didn't feel the climax was a positive experience for everyone involved, not even a character-building one. It could just be that my mindset really isn't that of the artist - I don't know. I'd be interested in feedback from anyone else who read it. I think next up will be Surveillance as I kick off the next Julian May series - this one's only 2 books.

I'm feeling a bit of dissonance with my reading recently. I feel a strong impulse to DO more - get involved with organizations and/or projects, and part of the impetus is from my reading - I'm starting to realize I'm a sucker for the noble biography, even in magazine article form. Yet when it comes down to what I want to do, it's ALWAYS reading. Doesn't matter what kind - I have no trouble settling into magazines, fiction, non-fiction, religion, academic, whatever - but that seems to be my absolute default mode. Being with people in almost any context still surpasses reading, but it surprises me how little importance I end up attaching to other activities. Tough to tell where causes and effects stop in this, and from the inside my analysis is unreliably biased. But I'll see what I can figure out.

2008-04-11T15:23:00.002-05:00

2 more miles this morning, so 4 for April, 63.5 for 2008 (that's 36.5 miles remaining for the next Slurpee, hmph (also since 12oz Slurpees are 30g carbs, they are always legitimate snacks)). I don't know why but the somewhat-symmetry of 63,5 and 36.5 attracts my attention, even though it's meaningless unless you really need to know numbers' relation to 99. 64 and 36 would actually be much more meaningful as it's sum of squares and thus a right triangle. Maybe I paid too much attention in geometry. Yesterday I found myself wondering if I could remember if there were any special properties or rules of numbers that break down to unique prime numbers instead of repeated ones (i.e., 70 is 7x5x2 but 12 is 3x2x2). Couldn't remember any, but I couldn't get it out of my head for at least 15 minutes. I think my wife is now even more afraid of passing along my genes to unsuspecting heirs.

While walking this morning, I encountered a few articles (yeah I read on the walking track - it's an excellent use of the time) that reminded me why I subscribe to Science News despite a lot of fairly boring, technical articles. First was this article explaining that the memory-clearing process that results in Alzheimer's brain plaques is 10 times more active in young adults than in advanced Alzheimer's patients. This suggests the problem isn't that this activity starts/increases in older people, but doesn't slow down to match the rest of the brain's slowing processes. For some reason I connected this to the claim that continued learning should help stave off Alzheimer's and wondered if that's just keeping the intake processes more active to match the not-as-slow destructive processes. This fascinates me, as this is probably my biggest fear about getting older. That story was immediately followed by an article on why tape tears when you try to pull it off something, and then a story on tracking people's cell phones to determine that we still use animals' predatory travel patterns, which is fun for Big Brother implications as well as leading to questions of how different our civilization and all of its infrastructure is from animals in the wild. It's this kind of mix that keeps me interested, and shows how science is more useful than those physics labs where we discovered that our high school's equipment couldn't really measure gravity.

I learned something this morning - namely that monthly bus passes have their expiration printed on the back. That's why the back of my ticket had yesterday printed in vivid purple, as I discovered while trying to board said bus. Fortunately I had a dollar in change in my car, and only had to wait half an hour for the next one. Not my best mass transit day.

2008-04-10T10:14:00.001-05:00

Made it back to the gym in just under a month, for 2 miles this morning, giving me 61.5 on the year. In my mind, that deserved its own post.

2008-04-09T20:40:00.002-05:00

Watching American Idol's Idol Gives Back special tonight. Yep it's contrived, it's packaged, some people involved probably have more PR than philanthropic concerns, but they've raised over $20 million. The genius of this showis that you know exactly what you're going to get from everyone involved, and yet tens of millions of people schedule around it. Same thing with the special - it's as schmaltzy as you'd expect but it raises a lot of money for excellent causes, so more power to it. And Jimmy Kimmel was funny. Robin Williams, maybe not quite so much.

Finished the Pliocene Exile series - it was quite good. Looking forward to May's other 2 series, but taking a scifi break in between with My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. It was a gift from the brother/sister-in-law, and I'm enjoying it so far.

I was one of 71 voters in my precinct to vote in yesterday's runoff - let's hear it for a 2.35% turnout rate!!! Naturally I voted for both losing candidates (although I think I'm glad one of them lost), but still part of the process. At least there wasn't another precinct convention to wait over an hour in. On the plus side, if voting rates continue this trend, someday my one vote will actually matter in some contest.

2008-04-05T21:49:00.002-05:00

It's been an OK week - nothing much that's inspired me to write. My mom's been staying with us while my parents' floors are replaced, and that's been enjoyable conversations and time hanging out. It's also brought up an interesting question that I'll throw out to the peanut gallery before stating my thoughts: what's the purpose of public education? Pre-college, for the purposes of this discussion.

Kansas vs. Midwest in the All-Flyover NCAA Final. Go Memphis. Glad to see Roy Williams still can't win a title with player's he's recruited and trained - I bet he'll cry in the postgame press conference.

We are now caught up through Season3 of Battlestar Galactica. I am sure we'll watch Razor and the first episode of Season4 tomorrow. Tis a great show. Readingwise, I'm still moving through the Pliocene Exile series - if you like scifi, I can't recommend Julian May enough. Another Andy recommendation, although this one from 10-11 years ago - that's how long he's been a cultural authority.

2008-04-01T23:12:00.003-05:00

I realized I didn't give an exercise update in the last post. I haven't been to the gym in far too long, but I will give myself 3 miles credit for Washington walking (I promise it's a very conservative estimate), so that would be 6.5 miles for March, 59.5 miles for 2008. I will try to get these numbers up in April. Still that's 60 more miles than most of my years.

I'm not sure whether Christianity or interpersonal relationships or both are being exploited by this book, but something's getting defamed.

I had an experience on the flight to Virginia/DC that prompted me to try to write a My Turn essay for Newsweek. Unfortunately I've typed it out and thought on it a few days, and haven't been able to get it more than half the required length so I'm just posting it here. Enjoy if you'd like, or just skip it and wait for the next post.

Fellow airline passengers treat each other much like most common travelers. We avoid looking at each other more than we have to; we shuffle through too few lines of traffic; we cut each other off in those lines or getting to the overhead compartment, sometimes offering an apologetic gesture or look to assuage our guilt. I see one major difference though - if I walk through a crowded hall or driving on a freeway, nobody slams their weight into my knees.

On a recent flight, I noticed a teenage girl taking the seat in front of me and thought/hoped/self-deluded she wouldn't lean back. As soon as the plane was in the air, though, that seat came flying back as far as it could while she curled up catlike in the seat. Having experienced far too many seat-slams, I'd placed my knees at an angle and no contact was made. Over the course of the 3-hour flight, I put my legs in a closer-to-straight position (this counts as stretching for me on an airplane), only to discover her faith that the seat could go back farther as she regularly pushed hard against the seat back to see if it would go further. At one point, even the flight attendant noticed the situation and said loudly, "Wow I hope she's comfortable up there!"

I take some of the blame - I'm 6'5", so my knees are closer to the seat in front of me than most peoples'. And the airlines can take their share of the responsibility too, as they constantly take away more and more space from each passenger. However the loudest lamenters of this reduced personal space usually try to increase their own allotment by leaning back into mine. I've had people throw the seat back actually into my knees, and not move even when I yelp audibly. I've had seats come back just after the beverage cart passes through, splashing my drink onto my pants. One gentleman, on being able to feel my knees in his seat, thought they were problems with the seat and ground his elbows into the "lumps."

I have tried to explain this to leaners with a light tap on the shoulder and a friendly request to move the seat forward at least a little bit. The look I get usually implies my knees are invading their personal space, and while they accept a compromise position, they usually forget and repeat the action in an amazingly small span of time.

I'm not asking people to not lean their seats, just to use some courtesy when they do. Look back and check with the person behind you before leaning your surprisingly heavy seat towards them, especially if drinks have been served. I promise to give you as much space as I can, and most of my fellow long-legged passengers will do the same. And all of our knees will live happily ever after.

2008-03-28T23:45:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the prolonged absence - I was out of town for a week and a half without the right timing of Internet access, and then I was just lazy.

Suggs commented on my last post with a link to a transcript of Obama's speech. This is the real deal, folks - win or lose, he's inspired me more than any political figure/speech I can recall, and I hope he has the chance to further these ideas in the Presidency or elsewhere. I'm certainly open to anyone else's political inspirations - leave a comment so I can check them out.

My out-of-town included a trip to DC which was great to catch up with friends. One day we walked around the National Mall and the nearby monuments - walked by Washington, WWII, Vietnam, Lincoln, and within eyesight of the Korean War Memorial. Lincoln always is more powerful than I remember - something about the temple he's in, the marble statue, and the words inscribed - not written, inscribed - on the walls. We also went to the National Portrait Gallery, admittedly primarily to see Colbert's picture by the second floor restrooms.

Readingwise, I finished The Many-Colored Land and through The Golden Torc and am currently on The Nonborn King, all in the same series. Great fun reads.

March Madness is especially satisfying this year, with UT stomping Stanford tonight. It's not so much that they won, but that they beat Stanford at its own game in the paint as well as with the quickness and shooting that Stanford couldn't contest. I like the way the team takes on every opponent at its strongest point, holds on/pulls ahead, and forces them to respond with UT's strengths. I suppose it's risky, but it also seems to work well as UT has beaten so many good teams. Here's hoping this holds against Memphis on Sunday, which would make the third #1 seed to lose to UT this year.

I found out today that a coworker was also raised in the church of Christ, but in a much more old-school one than I knew existed in the 90s. We talked for half an hour about stories of our home congregations, and our religious experiences since - we're both heavily seekers looking for the amazing a capella worship style of coC but with less dogma. She said I'm the first person she's met in a while who grew up coC and is still willing to talk about it.

2008-03-17T21:12:00.003-05:00

CNN has a poll they say shows Democrats prefer Obama for president over Clinton. I think I heard about a similar but more widespread poll: the primaries. But I'm glad CNN's catching up. I'm starting to think Clinton might get the Florida delegates seated - I really don't want to have to sit out the November elections but I'm not voting for anyone who pulls this crap.

Rather than Intervention, I started reading The Many-Colored Land which was May's first book in the Galactic Milieu series - I read this part last when I read these books before so it should be interesting to see how it fares in reverse order.

A joke came to mind in today's Java training class based on the instructor's frequent example. "Where'd you get that object?" "I pulled it out of MyClass." C'mon, techies, you know you laughed before you groaned.

What is required to call something a "new version" of a movie? The new I Am Legend DVD boasts "the version not shown in theaters." Unless Will Smith had a couple of months to film an entire movie that wasn't shown, I'm betting it's 10-15 minutes of "extra" footage? Except for LOTR, never seen extra footage that didn't obviously belong on the cutting floor.

2008-03-15T23:07:00.003-05:00

I'm proud to say I finished A Distant Mirror in just over a month yesterday. It slowed down towards the end, but remained a good book. Lots of good info on the late Crusades and European life high and low. If you ever needed evidence that the Pope isn't a special office maintained by God (besides most of the rest of the history of the office), the schism should handle it. Next I'm going back to re-read some old Julian May - Intervention's next up.

Saw No Country for Old Men tonight. Well-made, good acting (even though Tommy Lee Jones didn't seem to have to do much), and good Coen-style dialogue. My problem is the ending - the last 10 minutes really didn't seem to add much of anything. If I'm missing something, please let me know.

2008-03-15T16:31:00.002-05:00

2.5 miles today, so 3.5 miles today, 56.5 miles for 2008. Woot! We'll see what will happen for the next coupla weeks though as I'm about to travel. I drive to Dallas tomorrow for Java training Mon-Thurs, which should be fun and will let me meet up with some friends. Then we leave (5:40AM departure!) Friday for a wedding in Winchester, VA, and then a few days of vacation in DC. So good times, but lots of moving around.

A friend sent me this story about The Equity Project Charter School, which is paying teachers $125,000 plus bonuses for meeting strict standards. The two most interesting things in the comments has been that the principal only getting $90K seems as exciting to teachers as their salaries, and that all the union folks are strident about this school having to be union. Trust me as a programmer - when the compensation is high enough, the instinct to collaborate falls apart. I really look forward to hearing how this works. I saw one comment from a teacher who would prefer to get $100K and have a half-time assistant handling supplies and other bureaucratic tasks. That sounds like an interesting tradeoff. Anyway I'll be keeping an eye on it.

2008-03-12T22:55:00.002-05:00

Fado's tavern downtown has a St. Patrick's Day sign outside that says "Green Party Headquarters" like a campaign button. Wanna bet they get more customers than the political Green Party gets votes?

Walked 1 mile yesterday, so 1 mile for March, 54 for the year. I was going to walk this morning, but found out yesterday I had to have 37 scholarship applications ranked by today, so I was up until 3AM getting that wrapped up. No shame whatsoever for sleeping in until 8AM. And now I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's selection meeting - should be a lot of fun.

Watched The Weather Man on Monday night. I have an odd tendency to like Nicolas Cage movies - no idea why. Wife can't stand the movie - no plot. I thought it was an interesting character study, and really like Michael Caine's performance.

2008-03-09T16:00:00.002-05:00

I rarely find much to remember in the UT alumni maazine The Alcalde, but there was a good quote in a story about award-winning teacher Joan Shiring. One of her 3 principles is described by this quote from child psychologist Haim Ginott:

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness: gas chambers built by learned engineers; children poisoned by educated physicians; infants killed by trained nurses; women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates. So I am suspicious of education.
My request is: Help your students become more human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.
Reading, writing, and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more humane.

2008-03-08T21:26:00.002-06:00

One thing that bothered me about the primary itself - one of my screens had a "Ballot Pledge". Most of it was the standard not-voting-in-any-other-primary thing, but it started with "I am a Democrat ...". I am pro-democracy and a far more devout democrat than many Democrats I know. I just didn't like the assumption in an open primary. It also reinforces my desire to have primaries/caucuses/anything but the final election out of government hands and pocketbooks - the government should not be dictating which parties are the default choices.

I'm always impressed at what Bush has been willing to veto - in this case waterboarding. Had it somehow eliminated something it shouldn't, great, but he seems more or less dedicated to formalizing torture in our operations. I'd be immensely surprised if we've stopped more attacks by torturing than we've inspired by our high moral standards of torture and lack of civil rights for any non-American (in all fairness, they tried not to discriminate and include American citizens in their POW definitions). Whoever wins, January 2009 can't get here fast enough.

Election Day!!!

2008-03-05T16:24:00.002-06:00

Now I'm all participatory-democracy'd out. Yesterday morning I was there when the polls opened, along with 24 others (3 for the Republican party, the rest of us interested in the real matchup). Another 10 showed up in the first half hour - I know because only 2 of the 7 voting machines were working, and one of the working ones stopped 2 voters in front of me. It took a while, but I like the interface for Hart's voting machines. I'd rather have a paper receipt for accountability, but it was quick and painless. I did notice, though, a set of shelves with flyers for real estate and spring break camps and other non-school-associated groups - I was definitely surprised to see that in a school.

The precinct convention/caucus was a farcus. Supposedly we only had the room for 45 minutes when the Republicans were supposed to get it. Good thing they worked out another arrangement, because the 200+ attendees weren't done signing in for over an hour. It could have been faster except they ran out of sign-in sheets and working pens. We left once people were signed in as there were enough volunteers to be delegates. I'm thinking about getting involved in the Democratic party to see if I can help organize these elections - I was a great Parliamentarian in high school. :-) I still can't stand political parties, but it would be one avenue to get involved, and I find this party's usual goals/methods usually more to my liking than the other one's.

As far as the results, Hillary got a lead of maybe 20 delegates on the day, possibly less as caucus returns come in. It doesn't seem like that's enough of a dent to give her a real chance of winning the primary round, so I hope this will be over by Pennsylvania. Not that I want to disenfranchise those voters, but I'd rather move to the main event than see McCain rest up for a couple of months and keep taking potshots at both of them. If Hillary loses the primaries but wins because of superdelegates, I'll have real trouble voting for her in November. But I won't be alone - I can't imagine her winning the general at this point.

That's about all - not much else going on. I've been slacking hardcore on the working out, and reading's been mostly catching up on magazines in between chapters of A Distant Mirror. Moviewise, I saw The Deer Hunter and The Dark Crystal this weekend. Deer Hunter was good, but not my type of movie. Dark Crystal hasn't aged well, but the story is good.

2008-02-29T22:06:00.003-06:00

Wow it's been a week full of stuff to write about, but it's just been too busy.

First, thanks to Mr. Bezden for taking us off the mailing list. I don't think we'll ever see eye-to-eye on your business practice, but I appreciate your listening to us. Just to run a possible business enhancer by you - what if you actively sought an Opt-Out list? If it's only 10-20% of a neighborhood, I know it's just more work for you, but if you could eliminate 50-60% of people who wouldn't look at your flyer regardless, could that reduce your costs and time and make the remaining addresses more valuable? Just a thought.

Also, the Wife did some research on the littering question. The Supreme Court has protected leafleting as a requirement to protect anonymous political speech, and has explicitly extended that protection to all leaflets, including commercial. They must be "firmly affixed" to the door, and cannot be left where there is a No Soliciting or No Trespassing sign. So I have to compliment the Ron Paul precinct chair on adhering most closely - his leaflet was in a plastic bag secured to my door handle, almost guaranteeing it couldn't fall to the ground. Given Paul's poll numbers, my admission could be the precinct chair's best news of the week. The Surpeme Court has also overturned local laws requiring that leafletters be licensed or require permits to preserve the anonymity, so while some leafleting activity might be against Pflugerville ordinances, those laws would be judged unConstitutional if challenged. I'm not endorsing the laws, just reporting them.

My company laid off six people yesterday, five of which were developers. I'm safe, but it's always an incredibly weird feeling in the office afterwards. Not to minimize what the laid-off endure, but there's a survivor's guilt that infects every conversation.

No working out this week, so I stalled at 14 miles for the month, 53 for the year. Gotta do better in March. It'll be tough to get in too much of a groove as I'm traveling to Dallas for training, and to DC for a wedding, but we'll see how it goes.

Saw a new Hillary ad tonight. It's tough to make an argument that you're not the same-old when you resort to he most pathetic political tactic of all: fearmongering. It's all pictures of kids and threats of middle-of-the-night danger that obviously only one person can prevent. I don't even know that I'd disagree with her point of the benefits of experience, but if she has to depend on this style, that's just pathetic. Before I was voting for Obama - now I'm decidedly against Hillary as well. I didn't vote early so I'll be waiting in amazingly long lines on Tuesday.

2008-02-26T17:45:00.003-06:00

Before getting to my main point, I'd like to thank Travis County District Attorney candidate Gary Cobb for replying to my complaint with an apology. I'm definitely willing to consider him now, although a candidate for District Attorney who doesn't follow local ordinances confuses me a bit (see below).

Well the producer of the door-to-door flyer left a comment on the last post. This is my response (completely in addition to my wife's):

1) A No Solicitation sign doesn't meet our needs. We'd be happy to talk to solicitors and even peddlers, certainly campaign workers. What we don't want is trash left on our property. I appreciate the offer, but if you haven't sent the sign, please keep it.
2) I believe you have quality control in place to avoid No Soliciting signs, but you say you use "the best companies in the business" for distribution, yet your website invites fundraising groups to do the distribution. I'd hardly call them companies, much less evaluated ones.
3) I'm with you on the billboards. Not a big fan myself, although I know some great people in the business.
4) I have a business degree and understand that businesses have to be creative to have their voice heard in the marketplace. I understand if it wasn't intended to be, but the last part of your letter sounds fairly condescending.
5) In all fairness, those are all minor points with your letter. Here's the core of my issue. Those other methods that are more expensive cost more because they are using someone's property - a billboard, airwaves, ad real estate. This is cheaper because you are using MY PROPERTY to advertise to me with no compensation and, quite frankly, no consideration at all. There is nothing in the purest capitalist system that would allow you to advertise on my property without my permission, whether to others or to me. Bring your flyers around and offer one to whoever answers the door - that's great and I'll answer the door and refuse but without any bad feeling. I've checked and as near as I can tell, leaving the flyers on my property falls under the Pflugerville city ordinance against littering as opposed to the peddling that is coming to my door to sell me something. The peddling is controlled by the No Solicitors sign (although also all individuals engaged in such are supposed to have specific permits), but the littering is forbidden to all but the owner.

So I repeat my request: please ensure that your representatives do not litter on my property again. In general, I'd prefer it if you focused on what is by all accounts a good business at What's For Dinner than littering on people's property, but I'll drop my individual complaints if you will respect my property rights.

To anyone who might happen on this blog, does anyone know if the businesses mentioned in the last post as using this service have No Soliciting signs on their stores? That would seem to cross to the hypocritical.

Oh, also, to add to my Littering Hall of Fame, I'd like to nominate precinct captain David Taylor of the Ron Paul campaign, who believes government should stay out of our lives and property, but apparently political campaigns should not have to obey littering notices. Thank you, David, for leaving contact information - if anyone would like to share their thoughts on this matter with him, you can reach him at 762-5066. Amazing how the communication can undermine the message.

2008-02-24T22:00:00.002-06:00

For those who don't read the comments on these entries (and hey I'm just glad you're reading the posts), the owner of Austin's Pizza chimed in on the last one to tell me I can call the offending marketer to be taken off their delivery route. I have done so, and am happy to have an excuse not to boycott Austin's Pizza, especially their tasty barbeque chicken. As to Craig's blatant plug for the scenery-destroying billboards he likes to sell, well, at least he's not advertising them on my front porch.

No workout, movies, or new books today. Got a lot of minor stuff done though - it was a productive day. And now I'm watching the Oscars, which is anything but productive. We also took Andy to dinner for his birthday - I never feel like I have anything to contribute in discussions with Andy - he reads, watches, and learns more than I can imagine keeping up with. Happy 31st!

2008-02-23T21:34:00.003-06:00

It's been a week of not getting much done besides some long hours at work. I walked for 1.5 and 3.5 miles last weekend, not at all during the week, and then 3 miles today, which makes 14 miles for February, 53 for the year. Still nowhere close to where I was hoping I would be at this point, but much much more than any year since I took Basketball for my PE credit my sophomore year of high school. I'll say it for Wife: she was in 4th grade at the time.

Watching Memphis-Tennessee in a 1-2 college basketball game. It's a lot of fun to watch, amazing speed and athleticism, but I'm not seeing much in the way of defense or the ability to control the game. I think they're both great, but I bet neither makes the Final Four. I'm also still glowing as UT is now alone atop the Big12 standings with the tiebreaker over 2nd-place Kansas. I'm sure we'll still lose the conference tourney final to them, but it's fun for now.

Politics is starting to bore me. There are definite differences between Obama and Clinton, and I'm pretty firmly on the Obama side for the primary (although I'm greatly concerned about his seemingly anti-free trade stance which reeks of populist isolationism), but it's turning into allegations and arguing between both sides. Unless there's still something to learn about either of them or their plans, can all the states just vote now and decide this? I am looking forward to the caucus though.

Finished Left Hand of Darkness - never really got what was so great although it had a lot of original ideas in the world she built. Continuing A Distant Mirror and catching up on the magazines I was supposed to read while working out. Saw St. Elmo's Fire this week - Rob Lowe looked really funny. Not a bad flick. Tried to watch A Bit of Fry and Laurie, an 80s British sketch comedy show starring Hugh Laurie of House, and just couldn't get into it. Also watched The Player, which was pretty cool. Was anyone in Hollywood not in that movie?

One candidate for local office, Gary Cobb for Travis County District Attorney, made one vote easy. His campaign left a flier on my door, guaranteeing I will vote for his opponent. I guess it's probably not trespassing, but it is littering and creating a potentially unsafe situation if someone's on vacation and leftover flyers notify anyone walking by of this fact. I encourage anyone voting in Travis County to vote for his opponent, whoever that might be, and if he wins the primary, for the Republican in the fall. If you'd like to let him know what you think of this crass wasteful physical spam (but not as tasty as Spam), feel free to email him at voteforgary@gmail.com, or leave his office a voicemail at 637-7260. I know I will. :-)

Ron Paul's campaign did the same thing a few weeks ago, and would have caused me not to vote for him if I wasn't already sane. I don't have the phone number and email of the precinct captain who did it on-hand, but I will publish it soon.

For those who think I'm discouraging political activism, I would have loved to talk to representatives of either campaign, but even though I was at home, they just littered. Maybe they talked to my door - we'll see if it votes for either of them.

I've also been getting a lot of commercial fliers on my door. Is there any kind of don't-litter-on-my-porch list I can get on? Specifically I've gotten one from a company whose contact info I'm not listing here so they don't get the advertising. But if you disagree with littering spam, please avoid patronizing The Little Gym, Texas Floors, What's For Dinner Studio Kitchen, SpineMed, Round Rock Health and Wellness Center, and Austin's Pizza, who apparently paid for it. I like Austin's Pizza, but will call them next time I order Papa John's to make sure they know why.

Yep, I'm a crank.

2008-02-14T20:03:00.002-06:00

Made it to the gym the last 2 mornings for 2 miles each, so 6 miles for February, 45 for the year. Woot woot.

My biggest accomplishment for the week (mebbe 2008?) is getting mentioned, if not by name, on Ken Jennings' blog: http://ken-jennings.com/blog/?p=723. I'm the ingenious soul mentioned in #1. Bow before my getting-trivia-wrong wit.

I hope everyone had something special and chocolate for VD, or even better owns a business that gets part of the economic spoils of the day!

2008-02-12T22:12:00.002-06:00

Yep UT killed Kansas, and the right way, with rebounding and hustle, not just lucky shooting. Doubt we can do it six straight times in the tournament, but good to see.

Made it to the gym this morning, so 2 miles for February and 41 for the year. Gotta put a dent in my pile o magazines.

Obama swept 3 more states today - he seems to be picking up momentum. And I saw ads for both of the Dem candidates tonight - it's really been a long time since we had national political ads. Now that we're relevant, Hillary will probably drop out, just to revoke our special status. That's what we get for letting Arkansans out of the state.

Heard a Valentine's Day (VD?) ad this morning about not getting your husband a gift to get his heart racing, but a heart monitor to keep it pumping. Possibly the least romantic gift ever. Not that I'm a fan of the holiday, but I'm not a killjoy either. Should other ads encourage buying the husband a Weight Watchers membership to keep him alive longer too? Hmm, maybe I'm overanalyzing and should just be happy anyone brings up buying the guy anything at all.

2008-02-11T21:15:00.000-06:00

At work, we have a bulletin board with every employee's picture and a few pithy facts about each person. One employee's "Likes" are "Reading and Fine Wines." While I applaud not drinking swill, does this mean that the books can be crap, she just wants her eyes moving across text? (I'll beat ya'll to this one: if so, she can just read this blog!)

Watching Texas play Kansas in basketball. We had a 7-point lead that's turned into a 4-point halftime deficit. Looks like we can't rebound this year, and when we have to depend on 3-point shooting, it usually means an early Tournament exit. On the other hand, I consider my team to have a chance against Kansas, so maybe I've just been spoiled by success. As the second half picks up, I'm enjoying watching this Mason guy pull them down - great rebounder, especially at 6'3".

Tonight I was helping a coworker figure out a new SQL view, and came up with a solution that was actually creative, efficient, and (dare I say?) elegant. It's rare I get to do work I'm really proud of pulling together - most of the problems, while challenging, are solved with the same basic tools. I also helped analyze a few bugs today - I feel like I'm really able to contribute something fairly unique here. I've always been part of a small but highly-skilled team, and usually a junior member, so this feeling is kinda new and definitely fun. Still not sure how I feel about the overall company, but that's more social issues than any big-picture concerns, and I'm enjoying the role. It's a good week.

And Obama and Clinton are debating in Austin next week. We never even get political commercials, much less a local debate! I like the weird election year that is 2008. I'm trying to get tickets, but I'm skeptical that it won't be doled out to party supporters. Volunteers, I would understand, but I'm betting it's more donors than worker bees. The Democrats aren't that much different from the Republicans.

Texas is up by 2, and Mason is a Monster on the boards! This is fun to watch. Gonna pay more attention and leave off here.

2008-02-09T13:40:00.000-06:00

Slow week for blogging, and working out. This is my second blog of the week, which means 2 more than workouts. I'll work on that tomorrow.

Finished Trigger, which was better than I expected, especially because of a little epilogue that indicates research will always raise at least as many problems as it solves. Now reading A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman, about the 14th century in Europe - another Andy loan. Pretty good so far, but just dry enough that I'll probably read some in-between books. Descriptions of the plague, the medieval church, and France's conduct of the Hundred Years' War have actually been making me laugh. Anyone interested in this part of history would enjoy it.

Saw Children of Men Thursday night - nothing amazing, but fairly good story. And I always like Michael Caine trying not to be Michael Caine. And got Wife to watch Stardust - she agrees it's awesome. It doesn't have the one-liners to be a cult classic like Princess Bride, but I don't remember a better fantasy movie outside The Trilogy. Like I'd expect from Neil Gaiman, great story elements that I didn't expect or see coming. Tonight we're hoping to watch the end of Dexter Season 1.

Not much else going on - work's a little insane but not bad. Thinking about volunteering for the Obama campaign as Hillary apparently has strong Texas support. I wonder how well he'd have to do in the 7 states that are voting before next Wednesday for her to concede (she's not really campaigning in most of those), but I doubt that would happen. So Texas could actually be important. Yea us!

One spelling note that's been bugging me - seems like many many writers have recently been confusing "rein" and "reign." The first refers to a part of a horse's harness or the attempt to limit or control someone. The second is someone's rule, usually a monarch or deity. Wish I could remember an example, but I've been seeing it often enough to annoy me.

2008-02-03T18:35:00.000-06:00

Surprisingly good Super Bowl so far. Good play on both sides, few penalties, no secret camerawork (that we know of). I still think the Pats will pull away in the second half, but the Giants are impressing. And only one new Peyton commercial so far.

Trigger has gotten much better - interesting political/military/social analysis of what would happen if firearms could be neutralized. Almost done, though - gotta figure out what I want to read next. Fortunately there are so many options.

No workouts this weekend so the quest for February begins tomorrow.

Saw a guy on the side of the road with a cardboard sign saying "Family kidnapped by ninjas. Saving for martial arts classes." That was worth remembering, or so it seemed to me.

The trip to Houston went well, except that we got caught in traffic Saturday afternoon - no fun at all. Makes me appreciate my commute from Pflugerville.

Tomorrow's the deadline to register if you want to vote in Texas primaries on March 4 - and our votes could possibly even matter! You should be able to get and mail registration cards from post offices and libraries. I'll try to send info on local races to the usual email list before the election.

Standard Pacific is truly a great homebuilder. They're completely honoring every one of our 22 points on our warranty claim. Sure, a builder should, but I always hear horror stories. Nice to see a company actually treat customers well.

2008-01-31T21:58:00.001-06:00

A definite workout slowdown for the week, and I finish the month at 39 miles walked + 1 evening of basketball. Not great, nothing close to what I hoped, but more than any month in recent memory, possibly ever. So averaging about 1.25 miles/day. Goal for February: 1.33/day which would get me to 39 miles once again. I'm going to miss the first 2 days while I go to Houston to help out my cousin, but I should be able to make up that deficit easily. Let's hear it for Month Deux!

As for the firing I mentioned in the last post, I finally got the story today. Nothing excitingly legally liable like porn or harrassment, but a decision I can agree with. Not posting the story, of course. Still no official communication from the top, which is kind of disappointing, but then everyone seems to know the story so maybe this was better.

Finished Seeker, and it was quite good. Might try to read all of McDevitt and Scalzi as these were quite enjoyable. Currently reading Trigger by Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Kube-McDowell (which I assume means Clarke might have heard of the book but is being paid handsomely). It's not bad - so near-future it's more fiction with a scientific element than real sci-fi but that's not a bad thing. A good week for reading.

Saw the Enron documentary The Smartest Guys in the Room Wednesday night. Quite good, which probably just means that I agree with them. I am disappointed though - I've always enjoyed mocking California's problems as a result of their NIMBY attitude, but while I think that played a factor, the system was rigged and then gamed to really screw them over. Not as bad as Enron's employees being frozen out of their 401K's while the executives sold their stock, but still unfair. I definitely recommend it for a Netflix.

Also started watching Dexter last week - excellent excellent show! The characters to me are creepier than the dead bodies, but it's just really well-written. We're also in Season 2.5 of Battlestar Galactica, which seems to just get better as it goes on. Good DVD week too.

2008-01-28T21:07:00.000-06:00

3 miles today, so 39 miles + 1 basketball for the month. Yea me.

Watched the first few minutes of the State of the Union, but was too disgusted to keep it on. I have much better-written fiction to read. I probably agree with more of his philosophy/policy than I care to admit, but claiming no one would call No Child Left Behind anything but a complete success? I'm pretty sure its cosponsors have disavowed it. Test scores have gone up - so have SAT scores, but those have been re-centered over 100 points. Focus on a metric, and all you get is superior metrics, not the reality supposedly measured by the metric. Anyway I'm now totally in favor of Congress just making sure his most effective use of time over the next year is to nap. On to anyone but him.

Someone at work got fired today. As in, called into a meeting and I assume escorted out as a foil-wrapped sandwich was left on his desk next to his monitor which appeared to be in mid-program, and his kids' art was still on the wall. Weird feeling around the office as most don't seem to know why - this was a good guy who seemed to be producing good work from what we could tell - which is just guaranteed to produce nervousness. I've already had one question come up that only he knew the answer to. Our execs have seemed pretty good about communication - I assume we'll find out enough to know if it's a general concern for all of us left, or something specific.

2008-01-27T20:02:00.000-06:00

2.5 miles today, so 36 miles + 1 basketball for January so far. My legs have hurt while walking the last 2 days, and I saw something today that advised against eating before exercising, so I hope it's just the result of yesterday's breakfast and today's lunch. Hope is always a good thing.

Started Seeker by Jack McDevitt. It's a far-future sci-fi, but overall fairly realistic - technology's advanced, but not in crazy amounts except for interstellar travel. Seems good so far, and as it's an Andy recommendation, I'm sure it will only get better.

2008-01-26T15:05:00.000-06:00

Following up on my earlier post, I walked 2 miles today, so 33.5 miles + 1 basketball for January. Depending on how much I walk tomorrow, I think I have a real chance at averaging 1.5 miles/day for the month. I think I might count basketball as 3 miles, which is conservative for 2 hours in a humid gym, so I'd be even closer. Any input from my readers? I think it's just Shane and Craig out there, but I could be surprised.

I love fog. Visibility was under a mile this morning, and I just love the effect. All week we've had interesting weather like that. I think it was Monday that clouds were all around the horizon in almost a ring. In every direction, houses were outlined by the dark clouds, but it was still open sky above. Dunno why little things like that get me. I like a lot of the shots my photographer friend has displayed here. I've bought one piece from him, and I'm looking forward to buying more.

Also I finished The Android's Dream this morning, and it did not disappoint even to the last chapter. Good stuff. Always take Andy's recommendations seriously.

Oh, and I figured out some ideas for Wife's birthday tomorrow - we'll see if she's as impressed with me as I am. :-)

2008-01-26T08:03:00.000-06:00

Walked 3 miles Thursday for 31.5 miles + 1 bb for the month. Planning on heading to the gym today too - the magazines are piling up in my car - so we'll see how it goes.

Finished Bowling Alone, which was great analysis but so incredibly vague on recommendations that it almost induces hopelessness. It's optimistic in looking at previous periods of declining social capital that were always followed by upswings, but just gives vague "improve stuff" prescriptions that don't give an individual anywhere to make a start. Still certainly worth the read, though. After that, I've been reading The Android's Dream, on loan from Andy. Now this is good escapism sci-fi - good engaging story, enough character to support the story and keep me interested, and interesting science/world concepts that I hadn't considered before. And good references throughout, as should be obvious when I tell you the cover of the book is covered in sheep.

Wife's birthday is tomorrow, and I haven't gone shopping yet. Planning to today, but I feel kinda weird as I've usually planned more than I have for this one. It's been an insane few weeks, so I don't feel bad about it, but I wish I could've thought of more. Mebbe creativity will strike today. Stranger things have happened.

Thompson and Kucinich dropped out, the most noticeable effect being that their wives will no longer be featured on Daily Show/Colbert. Alas. South Carolina should be interesting - I think Hillary would wrap up the nomination with a win, while Obama could stay in it. If he does, I'm still hoping for electoral chaos. Same with the Republicans in Florida, although I won't mind seeing Giuliani call it quits if he gets wiped out there as well. Isn't it fun watching the end of so many political careers one way or the other?

2008-01-22T22:45:00.000-06:00

I'm tired, so just a workout update tonight. Walked 3.5 miles yesterday, so 28.5 miles + 1 basketball for the month. Didn't make it this morning because I was up after midnight reading scholarship apps. Which is why I'm tired now. Good night.

2008-01-20T22:26:00.000-06:00

Did not make it to work out today due to scheduling. For those worried that my resolve might be flagging, it really has been scheduling issues for 3 straight days. Tomorrow should be back on the horse as I don't foresee any problems.

Dieting sucks. Especially when it's not to lose weight or to look better, but to survive. So many tastes - ironically I think my aesthetic appreciation and distinction in food taste is better than that of my vision and hearing - that I want, and these wants just build. I let a little steam off occasionally, but mostly the wants just keep building. I like food, I love eating. (For those of you saying "So do I! But I control it, and golly gee so can you!" just stop right there. Not that you may not be right, but that's almost as helpful as giving a fish a bicycle.) And I think the closest I could get to eating what I want would require working out as a full-time job. Maybe if I became a rhythmic gymnast (or whatever the tassle twirlers are called), that would give me the activity level I would need. And I'd look mighty fine doing it too. Grr arg.

2008-01-19T22:27:00.000-06:00

No workout today - too much to do hosting family and going to the funeral. Was a great day for talking to and catching up with everyone, and the funeral itself was simple and seemed just right.

Politicswise, looks like Romney, McCain, and Clinton had big days. I think more than New Hampshire, Nevada signals Clinton's ability to resurge in the polls (don't call it a comeback!) given Obama's major recent endorsements in the state. I'm glad to see McCain with momentum in the race - I don't see Romney winning enough delegates, and I think if Huckabee gets enough to decide who wins, he'd pick McCain, even if not for reasons I'd agree with. I like McCain much more than Giuliani, and Romney still has something that doesn't sit right with me, much like Kerry in 04. Still rooting for undecided conventions on both sides!

So now the polls have said that Obama's barely favored in 2 states he's ended up losing. Not that I've heard any evidence, but would it be smart strategy for the Clinton campaign to tell all supporters that if contacted for a survey, say they're voting for Obama to create a sense of urgency for Clinton supporters to get them to vote? Like I said, no evidence, but given the odd pattern of similar predictions/results, something's gotta be happening.

On a final note, I think I forget sometimes how much I really like my extended family. The aunts, uncles, and cousins are really great folks. This weekend's made me more than ready for the reunion in July to just get here.

2008-01-18T23:09:00.000-06:00

Sorry it's been a few days. For the workout record, walked 2 more miles Wednesday morning, so 25 miles + 1 basketball. Haven't had time since, but mebbe tomorrow.

My grandmother died Tuesday night. Probably a good thing - she was in a lot of pain from a recent surgery, and the immediate cause of death was the decision to up her morphine to keep her from suffering. It's been at least 5 years since we first thought this was going to happen, but she just always kept going. Her heart even lasted a couple days longer than they expected on the morphine. That's who she was. And 93 years, 4 daughters, 9 grandkids (including me, which really should've made her life absolutely fulfilled regardless of everything else!), and 7 great-grandkids sketches out a pretty rewarding life.

Trying to think of what to say at the funeral tomorrow. I'm thinking I might go with the theme of what I learned from her:
1) Perception: Even after macular degeneration took hold, she still managed to notice my dad's hair from across a crowded room. If you're not able to perceive everything, make sure you see what counts!
2) Interstate Frontage Roads in Round Rock are One-Way: When turning out of a drive-thru, well, yes, she went the wrong way for about a quarter-mile. Fortunately Texas drivers are friendly (not counting Houston).
3) Patience: When she'd visit Hawaii, she'd sleep in my bed. Having an audience who wouldn't leave, I kept asking tons of questions far later than my parents knew I was awake. No matter how late it went, she answered them all.
4) Loyalty: I was watching Cowboys-Redskins with her once, and just to be ornery, I said "Go Redskins!" Suddenly I realized I was sitting on the floor because this 70-year-old woman had physically kicked me off the couch.
5) Security: She often stayed with me in Hawaii when my parents went to national conventions, and one year a hurricane hit. The lights went out, but she just kept reading my favorite book to me over and over, and I wasn't worried anything would happen because Grandma was there to take care of it.

That's probably more than I need to say, so we'll just see how the flow's going at the service.

In other news, I saw Wall Street on Wednesday. While the computers and phones looked ridiculous, it was great to see many good actors so much younger, and it was a good movie/story. And yet Charlie Sheen's probably made tons more from Two and a Half Men. Gordon Gekko wouldn't be surprised.

2008-01-15T21:24:00.000-06:00

Walked 1.5 miles this morning, so 23 miles + 1 basketball on the month. Planned to go farther, but some leg soreness. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Watched Network this weekend. I suppose it's a sad sign that it seemed like a dumb play on what really happens on TV rather than the satire it was in 1976. Not my favorite Netflix selection. But if I sat through Final Four 2 on Saturday, pretty much anything is watchable.

2008-01-14T20:53:00.000-06:00

Well I tried to play basketball on Saturday. The sides of my feet hurt almost immediately and I had to bail after 5 minutes and walk funny for a couple of days. I definitely need new shoes, which I plan to take care of before Thursday night, when I will hit the court again. Because of the feet, I didn't walk on Sunday, and this morning there was a scheduling issue. Tonight I almost went but decided I'd rather get things done around the house and do it in the morning. So I've held steady at 21.5 miles and 1 evening of basketball for 2008. Hope I'm not letting anyone down just yet.

And my cousin won the bet. Good for him. *mutter, mutter, sputter, cough*

Bowling Alone has a chapter on TV that I would make required reading in every school and ideally for every parent. I don't claim to know how much they're cherrypicking their data, but it seems broad enough that a trend is apparent, and the trend is ugly. Watching TV over not watching TV lowers social involvement from every level from casual friendships through organizational leadership through political awareness/activity. Having it on habitually even when there's not something to watch lowers the numbers even more. These negative correlations are stronger than the impact of financial worries and suburbanization, which are usually the big reasons given for lack of involvement. Anyone know of more recent research (the book was written in 2000)?

And this is a must-click link for anyone who reads this blog: http://missedmanners.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/battle-of-pelennor-fields/

2008-01-12T08:15:00.000-06:00

No workout yesterday - legs abd elbow still hurting from basketball. But I'm headed back to the court in the next hour or so. Hopefully it'll be easier this time.

Wanted to share a quote from Wife (that I'm probably mangling): There's two people out there who are incredibly lucky we married each other.

Signs is on TV right now - I remembered it was an early career boost for Joaquin Phoenix, but I hadn't realized Abigal Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine fame also got started here. I watched Batman Begins last night - it was better than I remembered. Bookwise, Kalif's War finished well, and I'm getting back into Bowling Alone.

My picks for today's NFL playoffs are Green bay and New England. I know that's brave and out there to pick multiple favorites, but the games are what they are. And I like being right.

2008-01-10T21:16:00.000-06:00

No distance today, but did go 2-1 in full-court basketball, including making several shots and defensive"effort." Left elbow and right finger are killing me, but legs are good, and they're the important ones. I don't think my cousin hit the gym, so hopefully it's still 11.5-10.5. Yea gambling!

I took my wedding ring off for the game, and as I walked outside heard it fall out of my shorts pocket. I visualized several Lord of the Rings scenes with people scrambling in the dirt for the precious as orcs approached, but fortunately I found it before I had to start digging through leaves. Whew - still married.

The frustrating coworker was nice today - dunno if I said something, or if someone else did, but I hadn't said anything to anyone at work. But I'll take what I can get. Also we drew partners for the foosball tournament - I got paired with one of the Top3 players. He might be so good that even I can't keep him from losing, but we'll have to see. I'm a heavy, heavy anchor of anti-talent.

2008-01-09T20:11:00.001-06:00

3.5 miles tonight. My cousin made it 3, so the total stands at 11.5-10.5 with 3 days to go. We both have non-distance activities tomorrow, so I suppose it will be Friday and Saturday to decide it. For the month, I'm at 21.5 miles. We'll see how this pace goes.

Buh-bye, Governor Richardson. I liked Governor Bill for a lot of the campaign - the only Democratic candidate with actual appointed executive experience (Hillary-backers are welcome to debate this but he did have a Cabinet post and several high-level diplomatic missions). I thought from last summer that he had no chance to catch up with the better politicians and should just speak only in Spanish. Maybe he still couldn't have won, but it would have been fun to watch. Now I could see him on a VP short list, both for his ethnicity and his experience. I hope he's not done with public service yet.

I know Kucinich's alien masters won't let him drop out, but Gravel confuses me. I'm starting to think someone else signed him up and has just been taking him to appearances without telling him what he's doing, and he just thinks people want to see him. In all fairness, his electoral impact isn't that much less than John Edwards', quantitatively.

The Kalif's War is dragging a bit - it's more of a political book, which means more dialogue and characterization, and those are certainly not the series' strong points.

Ever had a coworker who'd developed such a pattern of insensitivity you just cringe whenever they walk up to you, even before they offend you? I've got someone like that right now who keeps saying things as though I'm not performing adequately. I was instructed to make clear in one meeting that her part was delivered on time. I should point out here my piece was delivered earlier and hers has had just as many mistakes since, but I'll try to keep facts from getting in the way. I can't tell how she'd react to being confronted on this assumption of my incompetence, and I don't really want to alienate someone I have to keep working with, but boy I want to bring out IntimidatorChuck. I'm told he's quite impressive.

2008-01-09T09:04:00.001-06:00

Math is hard. If I had walked 8 miles on Monday and didn't walk any on Tuesday, I had still only walked 8 miles. Still beating my cousin, but I shouldn't inflate the numbers.

2008-01-08T22:02:00.000-06:00

No workout today, but I'm still beating my cousin 8.5-7.5. I'll try to up the gap tomorrow, but I think I'm gonna lose if I play basketball Thursday and/or Saturday.

Why does the government pay for primaries? Shouldn't the parties handle their own candidate selection? It's taxpayer subsidies for only two parties to get more publicity and credibility. I'm sure the media and more direct donors would still fill the function, but I'd rather not have the government involved. Mebbe that's just me.

That's about as deep as I get. Good night all!

2008-01-07T22:26:00.000-06:00

Walked 3 miles tonight for a total of 18 for the month. Taking tomorrow off cuz I'm getting some aches and pains, but I will be back on Thursday. Still leading my cousin 8-5.5 for the week, but I'm afraid of what tomorrow will bring.

Reading The Kalif's War while taking a short break from Bowling Alone. It's the third book in the Regiment series I read in December, and the only one I've missed. Definitely not great literature (dialog and characterization is pretty basic yet efficient), but pretty cool ideas/world and a great distraction.

2008-01-06T17:08:00.000-06:00

"DVDs are harder to burn than books." My wife's opinion on why technology can only improve Williamson County.

Well I was gonna take off from working out today, but then my cousin challenged me to see who could cover more distance in our workouts this week. Well, he made it 2.5 miles this morning, and I ended up with 5 this afternoon, so he's got 2.5 miles to make up already. This should be fun! For the month/year, that puts me at 15 miles.

On a similar note, I'm considering inviting friends and folk to "sponsor" my exercise and pledge per mile or per pound or however they want to towards a good cause. Is that obnoxious? I'd probably suggest a UT scholarship fund, but other sources would still motivate me. Well, most. If there's a nonprofit out there seeking to amend the Constitution to let Bush serve a third term, I don't think I'd want to raise any money for that. I'm interested in any opinions from the gallery.

And Cap'n Mike (Brownbeard on the links) has taken up my blogging challenge, and is posting more or less daily. Read him - he's funny and interesting and despite himself occasionally wise.

Titans up 6-0 in the 3rd quarter - I'd love the upset even though it would be blamed more on Norv Turner's and Philip Rivers' respective incompetencies. Go Vince!

2008-01-05T12:40:00.000-06:00

Now I'm reading a lot about how Hillary's in a desperate situation. I just don't see it - while Obama's definitely got a fighting chance to build momentum, I think she's just too strong in too much of the country to not get the nomination. But how much fun would it be for either party to not have a clear nominee at the convention? Yeah, I'm probably a little too stoked about this idea just because of Season 6 of the West Wing, but I think it would be a much more fun summer.

So 10 miles walking for the month now in 4 days at the gym. Might take tomorrow off as I had some knee and ankle twinges the last couple of days.

Weeds is a great show.

2008-01-03T21:09:00.000-06:00

And it looks like Iowa is going to Barack and Huckabee. It feels like they're the 2 I've been hearing the most about recently, but it's always tough to tell if I'm hearing about them because they're gaining momentum, or if they're gaining momentum cuz even a schlub like me is hearing more about them. The Newsweek Bump.

I'm glad Joe Biden and Chris Dodd are running, if for no other reason that every time Hillary says she's better than Obama because of her experience, they can harrumph to remind her they were working in goverment for decades before she ran for office. I'm pretty sure they'll drop out, if not tomorrow, then after New Hampshire, so I thought I'd mention them now. Tom Tancredo and Sam Brownback, we hardly knew ye before your early exits, but they were still far too late to keep your intolerance from further infecting the race. I'm kinda hoping Dennis Kucinich will step onto a UFO for his exit when he announces his withdrawal. One can hope.

Workout update: 6 miles for January and the year.

2008-01-02T22:03:00.000-06:00

I called the Georgia-Hawaii game, although I didn't think it would be that much of a disaster. Speaking of disasters, Oklahoma seems to be missing their shoplifting lineman as they're trailing West Virginia. I would've thought they'd win this easily, but sometimes I don't mind being wrong.

Gave up on a friend today. Not cutting her off or anything, just disappointed at the passive way she lets people control her life, seemingly against her will. But if she's not going to act on what she thinks or claims to, no point trying to persuade her to change or support the passive actions. Maybe I could convince her friends? btw, if I seem skeptical about my religion, hers are Christian friends exercising impressive amounts of judgement without any leavening of love or mercy. Yea church. Thank you to so many of you who demonstrate the reverse in your lives, regardless of belief.

Ouch, OU's down another touchdown. Would this loss to a team abandoned by its coach be uglier than being outgimmicked by Boise State? I think this comparison is worth serious investigation next time you're in town, Spence.

Workout update: 3 miles for January, 3 miles for 2008. When you get to the gym at 5:30, there are no New Year's Resolvers getting in the way. Unless I am one. That should make me uncomfortable tomorrow morning.

2008-01-01T20:39:00.000-06:00

Saw National Treasure 2 today - also a good movie. Overall I've been very pleasantly surprised with all the movies I've seen during this little vacation. Or maybe everything's just better on vacation. Either way I'm happy.

Bowling Alone mentions 2 kinds of organizations - "bonding" that bring their members closer together by focusing on a commonality that often excludes others (religious organizations, Mensa), and "bridging" groups that bring people who might otherwise never meet together (Salvation Army). Every group has both, but most are decidedly either inward- or outward-focused. I've always preferred outward-looking groups (or at least eagerly welcoming ones), but it makes sense that both functions are useful and good for certain purposes. This has just kinda stuck with me from the book.

I feel like a voyeur in elections. Being in Texas, my vote's irrelevant to national elections as Texas only goes one way, and our primaries will be too late to matter. Being in Austin, my vote usually won't matter in state elections and my congressional district has been tweaked to make sure that vote doesn't matter. I don't know why I'm actually continuing with it, but it feels good to at least be informed. Iowa kicks off the madness Thursday, and I'm looking forward to seeing if there will be any last-minute surprises. I'm not sure those can exist any more - heck, I think the only reason Obama and Huckabee are close is the media's desperation to have a second contender than any real chance - but one can hope.

Time to watch Georgia continue to prove why Hawaii's record doesn't justify a spot in the title game. I'd love to see Hawaii make the upset, but they just don't have the offensive line to play against anyone east of the Rockies. Yes, I'm suggesting that they could hang with the Pac10, just none of the varsity conferences.

2007-12-31T18:48:00.000-06:00

3 days up on Cap'n Mike.

Saw Fast Times at Ridgemont High this morning. Lots of first-timers like Nicolas Cage and Forest Whitaker to satisfy the movie geek in me, but overall I wasn't impressed. There's no going back, I suppose. I hope that won't ruin Citizen Kane and similar movies in my upcoming queue.

I've been reading probably too much about the Patriots' 16-0 record. I know it's just football, and they got flat-out lucky at least twice. But man it must be nice to achieve such a level of perfection. I can't even contemplate what that would be an equivalent performance in my field, much less with that level of visibility. Maybe creating Google?

Workout report: Walked 4.1 miles this morning to make 25 for December. I will be rewarding myself with a Slurpee at some point this week, although the mark for future months will be 50 per month (with some way of determining credit for playing basketball).

Have a Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T00:55:00.000-06:00

Can't decide if I'm happy that Vince Young's team made the playoffs in his second year, or upset that they won the critical game after he was injured (he might be back in time for the first round next week). I'll be happy by next week either way.

I'm not a big New Year's fan. It means 1) no more holidays until May, and 2) now that I'm going to the gym, it will be crowded with even more people who are even less committed than me. The feeling of superiority nowhere near makes up for the added traffic on the walking path. Or maybe they'll all join real gyms and leave my Rec Center alone.

Speaking of the gym, no workouts since last Monday. I was feeling fairly sick - allergies, maybe? - and figured not being able to breathe fully would complicate attempts at exercise. Tomorrow I plan to make my return as I've been able to breathe without incident all day.

Saw Risky Business this morning. Interesting flick, although it felt very slow in a way that reminded me of Blade Runner. I'd continue, but I'm pretty sure Andy's already aiming one of his guns at my head, so I should move on. Also saw the first 6 episodes of Weeds, which lived up to its billing. I hope to see the rest before too long.

And yes this post is dated 12/31, but it counts as 12/30 to those of us still awake. Mike, I've got 2 days on ye already, slacker.

2007-12-29T09:55:00.000-06:00

Challenge! Cap'n Mike (Brownbeard in the links on the right) has issued a challenge for 2008 blogging. While admittedly I haven't blogged in a few months, his last post mentions that his daughter might be born any day now. She's now 9 months old, so I think I might actually have more momentum. Mike's not home until Sunday night, so I assume the challenge doesn't really kick in until 1/1/08, but momentum is good.

Reading: Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam. Sociological study of why Americans have ceased to join organizations of all types - political, fraternal, vocational. Only a few pages in, but looking forward to it. I've also recently read the Regiment series by John Dalmas, which was far better than expected. Can't remember what was before that. Oh well.

Been on a movie-going streak lately too. This week I've seen Walk Hard and I Am Legend (both better than expected), and Juno and Charlie Wilson's War, which lived up to my expectations for good writing and such. Maybe I'll finally watch Blade Runner all the way through with this kind of momentum. Wouldn't bank on it though.

So there's more, but no reason to use up all of my thoughts on one post.

2007-11-06T14:14:00.000-06:00

Today's a pretty minor election for Pflugerville - 16 state amendments (the TX Constitution is FUBAR and probably should be rewritten) and a school bond proposal. Expected turnout is lower than Perry's share of the vote. I can't decide how I feel about that - higher turnout would be better democracy, a truer expression of the people's will. The current lower turnout means there might be an election where I (and the other 50% of winning voters) actually determine a race, and it's easier to find parking.

2007-09-28T07:32:00.000-05:00

A few little things I wanted to share/record.

1) My fortune cookie yesterday told me to "Expand your horizons by reading a new book." It's amazing that after only thousands of previous errant fortunes, the divination of the fortune cookie rang so true.

2) Why do I read? Because in the middle of a fantasy book, the authors footnote a character's colloquialism with "Reference to a popular dwarven drinking game, the rules of which are far too complex to describe and probably wouldn't be believed anyway." How many new dwarven drinking games do you think have been conceived rather than a single one they could have described? That's just good stuff.

3) I enjoyed this description of how stereotypical nerds interpret and apply tact differently from "normals." Worth a quick read.

2007-08-26T22:13:00.001-05:00

I'm watching Return of the King, and in the spirit of Peter Jackson's making this a story about Aragorn rather than a story about the hobbits, I think the story is actually about Aragorn avoiding female entanglements.

"Crap, Gandalf made me come to Rivendell. Um, Arwen, you're elvish - you can't be with me."
"Oh you don't mind? Well, um, I'm going on a hopeless quest into certain doom in the South. No place for a lady like you."
"Sorry Eowyn I've got this elvish lady up North - I'm no good for you."
"Hmm I keep surviving these battles, and Arwen's father is even helping me by bringing Narsil. Maybe I'll try the crevice that no one ever returns from."
"Nope ghost army saved me again. I know, march on Mordor! That'll do the trick!"
"Dangit Arwen ambushed me in public. I'm doomed."

2007-07-10T22:31:00.000-05:00

Yep, it's been a long time. You may wonder what profound thoughts or important events inspired a new post. Is it my new house (woot!)? Is it selling the condo (happens tomorrow)? Is it interviewing for a new job (also tomorrow)? Have I figured out world peace?

Nope. I realized today why JK Rowling used dementors in her books. It's because she wished real life included this particular problem. Not so much the ghostly soul-suckers, but a problem that can be solved by chocolate. Almost everything in the world can solve some problem, but is there anything that chocolate is prescribed for? I'd settle for dementors in the world if only to accrue prescriptions for chocolate.

Was it worth the wait?

2007-05-02T09:32:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry this is what inspired me to post, but I need to vent somewhere.

Office Etiquette: If work has continued but no milestone has been reached, additional "status" emails pointing out that another team has not reached the milestone does not accomplish anything, no matter how many managers/executives you send it to. If it does, change companies cuz your managers/executives suck.

Not that I'm bitter, but I either had to write this or I was gonna flame some people, and I don't want to do that to their obviously self-limiting careers.

Subtle Spam

2007-03-26T10:14:00.000-05:00

I actually received a spam email with the title "Fraudulent Spam." And the filter let this into my inbox - I don't know if it was rewarding honesty or what.

Team of Rivals continues to amaze. Best nonfiction I've read in I can't remember how long. Speaking of inspirational non-fiction, I watched "Good Night and Good Luck" today - the only black and white movie I haven't fallen asleep during (yes that includes Casablanca). Excellent story. My first instinct is to lament the apathetic American mind that allowed TV to turn from harbinger of truth into a somewhat-censored Girls Gone Wild loop, but I haven't flipped to PBS pretty much since Sesame Street. My Tivo programs are all entertainment, and I rail against the injustice of a Presidential address messing up that programming (in self-defense, I don't consider most presidential speeches to bear any more resemblance to the real world than Heroes, and I usually read them online - I just hate the canned Congressional applause and similar trappings). What's the right balance? How can I make better use of my moving-picture box? Too many questions, never enough time to answer.

I don't believe I have much else to share tonight. 107 days until Harry Potter 7!

2007-03-24T23:21:00.001-05:00

I'm watching Peyton Manning on Saturday Night Live. I now know I'm not the worst dancer in the world.

2007-03-24T19:00:00.000-05:00

Well, the cold lingered through Wednesday, but I'm finally more or less well again. Of course, that means Wife has picked it up and is enduring a long weekend. Hopefully it won't keep her down as long.

March Madness is boring - almost a cosmic payback for watching an 11-seed wipe out brackets when it went to the Final4 last year. Good games - just no good storylines. Which will make this very forgettable unless there's still a Duke-Kentucky 1992-level game still to come.

Still reading Team of Rivals, which gets better with every chapter. I was interrupted this week by a push to get a release done at work that kept me up until 4AM. Oy, but it's past, from all indications. The book's pretty inspiring with its early-life biographies of Abraham Lincoln, William Henry Seward, and Edward Bates (Salmon Chase has admirable qualities, but is not one to be imitated). Lincoln carried books around all the time to read in whatever timespans he could. Yeah, probably a lot of people did that I wouldn't want to be similar to, but I'll be selective.

It's also interesting to read over the politics of the 1840s and 1850s. I remember most of the names from middle/high school, but it's interesting to look at it all from a perspective that's not intended to indoctrinate. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster's compromises on slavery that only kept the pressure bottled up longer, John C. Calhoun's decades-long work towards undermining the Union, and the different motivations and effects of the anti-slavery movements.

Slavery came into play in so many seemingly unrelated issues, makes me think what it could be now. Maybe the mixing of church and state. I try to live my life in line with the precepts of the Bible (I'd love to claim it as a literal roadmap but it doesn't take much effort to find contradictions), but religion is a choice, and shouldn't be imposed by society. Period.

I'm also afraid the Constitution is becoming holy writ. I consider the Constitution the best societal contract ever written, and itwas ahead of its time, but not ahead of all times. Part of Lincoln's greatness was adapting the Constitution to stamp out slavery, and establish a more federal republic. I don't think ignoring the Bill of Rights as the Bush administration is the right direction for Constitutional change, but saying we never want to do things differently than rural English farmers did 200 years ago - well, that doesn't make sense either. I wouldn't mind another Constitutional Convention - I just wonder where you'd find a Washington, a Franklin, and writers like Madison and Monroe who try to generate a just system for all rather than enhancing their position. I know many of the Convention delegates were sectarian, but the leaders had a sense of the greater good and the gravitas to bring most of the partisans to compromise. Can you think of anyone to put in that role?

Partially as a result of this reading, I am going to try to learn more. Not just reading, but actually learning and remembering stuff. As an initial experiment, I'm trying to get back the 50 states and their capitals. I've got all the states, but Hartford keeps eluding me until I give up and check it. Any suggestions for good sets of facts to start with? I'm thinking countries w/capitals, seas and significant lakes, get geography down, then maybe hit historical lists.

Yes. I am a dork. Never claimed otherwise.

It's amazing how little movies have interested me in the last 6 months. Many I wouldn't mind seeing, but none that got me to the theater at my own instigation. I'm kinda looking forward to this summer: Harry Potter 5, Transformers (although the most recent trailer suggest Michael Bay has replaced any magical nostalgia with over-effected crap), Spider-Man 3, Dragonlance (that one's actually in the fall). I think there's a couple more, but I can't think of them. And still nothing entrances me more than thinking about the Harry Potter book in July. 748 pages of narrative goodness.

Hehe, to give an idea of how little I'm interested in March Madness right now, I'm watching the beginning of The Day After Tomorrow. Horribly-written movie, but great fun effects.

As always, I appreciate any and all comments.

2007-03-17T13:44:00.000-05:00

The Long Tail was a great read - I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in this newfangled Internet economy. One of the sales guys at my company sent a summary of a speech he'd heard about the new economy at a Web retail convention, and well, I hope the speaker acknowledged Chris Anderson, because it was basically an outline of the book. First book I've read in a long time that seems currently relevant. :-)

Already moved through an interesting novel - Finity. It's based on the quantum multiverse theory that whenever more than one thing could happen, reality splits into as many pieces as it takes for each outcome to happen in one universe. Don't want to ruin the plotline, so I'll just say it's interesting if you like conceptual sci-fi.

And my next book is Team of Rivals, about Lincoln's cabinet. Only 2 pages in, but already I have trouble putting it down.

Er, or I would have trouble putting it down, but it's March Madness time. :-) Only got 24 of 32 in my bracket for the first round, but if Texas beats Florida in the final, I think I still win. Right now I'm watching Xavier launch enough 3s to be up on Ohio State by 8 with 8 minutes to go. It would mess up my bracket, but it would mess up everyone's bracket, so I'll root for chaos. My only regret would be that I'd love to see Kevin Durant show Greg Oden up face-to-face before the draft. Oh well there will be many years of NBA dominance for Durant, and I'll be a fan of his team just like I am of the Tennessee Titans.

Do you think anyone on the selection committee fills out a tournament bracket? If so, do they pick any upsets?

This week I've also had my annual spring-is-coming chest cold. It's more of a sore throat/coughing kinda thing, but the doctor said it's just congestion from the sinuses all the way down the throat. No bronchitis yet - I really prefer to avoid that when I can.

That's about all I've got. It's been a week full of disease, work, basketball, and the patience of the oh-so-kind-and-lovely Wife (I really am a lucky man).

2007-03-10T14:20:00.000-06:00

Finished the French book - it was pretty good. Definite non-fiction recommendation for anyone who might be interested in how a culture in the Western European tradition could be so markedly different from ours, and yet still valid based on its own reasoning.

Now I'm reading The Long Tail, about how numerous niches are replacing manufactured hits in modern media, thanks to the Amazon/YouTube-style commerce where there are no physical limits (shelf space, square footage, etc) to how many titles can be offered. Very interesting so far.

10 years ago today, the first Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired. In honor of it (and, let's face it, to make obscene profits), Alamo Drafthouse is having a birthday party tonight from dawn to midnight. They're showing one episode per season, including (or in addition to) their sing-along with the musical episode. At this point, it appears my adult responsibility is winning out, and I will not be attending. But this got me thinking what episodes I would choose.
Season 1: The Puppet Show - not many great moments this season, but this barely won out over Angel and The Pack
Season 2: Passion - only because What's My Line, Surprise/Innocence, and Becoming are 2-parters
Season 3: Band Candy - funniest episode ever leading to the best scene with Giles at the end of Earshot
Season 4: Hush - simply awesome, although the Yoko Factor might be Spike's high point and Something Blue/Pangs were hilarious
Season 5: The Gift - great conclusion for the series-to-this-point - I wish the DVD had included the "Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer" montage that recapped all 5 seasons
Season 6: Once More, With Feeling - just to show that others share my combination of fandoms, check this out
Season 7: Chosen although there are a few others

To choose a top 7, I'd probably dump Seasons 1 and 7 to be replaced by Surprise/Innocence from Season 2 (although there would be many options).

Yep, this is what I think about.

2007-02-24T12:04:00.000-06:00

Yep I'm sporadic. It's part of the eccentricity that makes me so lovable as to keep you loyal readers checking on my blog. Thanks so much!

So since January 17, what's happened. Work's been insane, Laura turned 25 (and was feted at a surprise birthday wine tasting party), the Colts actually won the Super Bowl - it should be noted Houston had frozen over in the few weeks before that.

Since reading Those Who Watch, I revisited a fantasy series I read as a kid - the Circle of Light books. It is painfully obviously a Narnia/LotR ripoff, and nowhere near as well written. Was ready to pack them up for Half-Price Books (how much of their inventory is people inflicting books they think are horrible on others?), and I remembered I like the philosophy that the ending ties together. Nothing amazingly inventive, just a worldview that I think is kinda ingrained to me now. So for now I keep them.

I also read The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, about how major effects are often the result of small changes at the right place/time. Interesting stuff, although I don't know how you'd test a general theory of it beyond the solid anecdotes he provides.

And now I'm on Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, a book about, well, the French. Apparently some journalists moved to Paris for a couple of years to investigate the French people's response to globalism, and ended up writing about the overall ethnology of the French, especially as perceived by Anglo-Saxons. It's interesting 10 pages in, especially with some good tidbits. For example, the Provost was initially an officer in medieval guilds who visited members who hadn't paid their dues or had otherwise offended the guild and, well, broke their legs. Given that this title is popular for some level of university hierarchy, suddenly faculty meetings sound a lot more interesting.

Watching the vultures gather for the '08 presidential race is fun too. 2 people have already dropped out - not didn't declare, but dropped out after formally announcing - more than 20 months before the election. I'm interested in seeing what Giuliani comes up with - I could be talked into him if Iraq won't be as much of a holy objective for him as it is for W - but I think if I got to pick a Pres/VP at this point, I'd go Edwards/Obama. Edwards' actual work on poverty issues the last couple of years impresses me more than anyone else's commitment to the words they're speaking. But I have no illusions - I'm sure I'll find out more than I want to about any candidate that appeals to me.

2007-01-17T14:12:00.000-06:00

We've been iced in (more or less) for 4 days now. I don't know what most people do with that time, but my wife has developed an addiction. Yes, I left a link lying around, and one hit of Puzzle Pirates, and she was a goner. Quote of the Day: "How does Mom expect me to become a successful pirate when she keeps calling all the time?"

Also heard an amusing commercial which I guess has someone singing through a voice box (my only experience of those being the Vietnam vet on SouthPark) a ditty with the tagline "Cigarettes don't always kill you." (I might've gotten the words wrong but that's the gist.) Somewhat morbid, but as a breather of cigarette smoke for far too many years, I'm game for it.

I took some of the time this weekend to read Those Who Watch by Robert Silverberg, a sci-fi book from 1967 predicting the wonderful electronic world of 1982. Good first-contact kinda book with interesting alien cultures.

And American Schadenfreude premiered last night. It's my name for the first few weeks of American Idol where more truly painful performances are shown than good or even decent singers. This isn't the first-round audition - these people have been vetted for embarrassing performances. And either they're not told of their novelty status, or we have far better actors in America than watching most TV or movies suggests. Of course, I sit here disgusted, but I'm watching.