NWA, the monopoly airline of Minnesota. Why aren't those planes in the air?
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
News about Tibet
The Tibetan spiritual leader also raised the possibility of himself naming a new Dalai Lama while he is still alive.
New rules declared that any reincarnations without government consent were illegal.
Emily Buchanan
BBC News
New rules declared that any reincarnations without government consent were illegal.
Emily Buchanan
BBC News
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thanksgiving
Got a call yesterday from Kevin L in Iraq! Happy holidays to all those deployed out of country on whatever missions, hope you all got a chance to call home this week.
This is Kevin's second trip to Iraq this year. He thinks he'll be home by Christmas. My brother is safely in the USA, enjoyed his thanksgiving with his family.
Beth and I drove up to Silverdale to spend time with my father and his family. All the children are growing, the old people are slowing, and my eating habits are showing.
This is Kevin's second trip to Iraq this year. He thinks he'll be home by Christmas. My brother is safely in the USA, enjoyed his thanksgiving with his family.
Beth and I drove up to Silverdale to spend time with my father and his family. All the children are growing, the old people are slowing, and my eating habits are showing.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Nexus Pass
A nexus pass is a joint identification and pre-approval system used at the US/Canada border which allows low risk travellers expedited access to the border. My experience at the Peace Arch makes it look like if the lane is open, it saves about 20 minutes getting into the US, and wouldn't make it worthwhile going through into Canada. I don't remember if the Pacific crossing (a few miles inland from the peace arch -- 24 hr truck port of entry) has a lane.
Nexus also has some improvements in US customs access. A similar program is Canpass Air, which gets your iris scan and prints a welcome to canada receipt once you prove you're you.
I shied away from it for a long time since the border is never very hectic for me. Driving home on a Friday from Vancouver might change my tune. Last time I tried, it was so long a man with an ice cream cart was wheeling through the idling cars, like a six flags water salesman (longer the line, the higher the cost!) It's $50 for a five year pass. Not a bad deal. Canpass Air is $50 /year, which was what I expected.
Of course, it may be time for the 2010 Olympics before the shiny new cbsa station at the peace arch is back in working order. By then we may have razor wire pulled for 3000 miles, and nobody gets across without a rectal exam...
Nexus also has some improvements in US customs access. A similar program is Canpass Air, which gets your iris scan and prints a welcome to canada receipt once you prove you're you.
I shied away from it for a long time since the border is never very hectic for me. Driving home on a Friday from Vancouver might change my tune. Last time I tried, it was so long a man with an ice cream cart was wheeling through the idling cars, like a six flags water salesman (longer the line, the higher the cost!) It's $50 for a five year pass. Not a bad deal. Canpass Air is $50 /year, which was what I expected.
Of course, it may be time for the 2010 Olympics before the shiny new cbsa station at the peace arch is back in working order. By then we may have razor wire pulled for 3000 miles, and nobody gets across without a rectal exam...
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Safety
The sense of security more frequently springs from habit than from conviction, and for this reason it often subsists after such a change in the conditions as might have been expected to suggest alarm. The lapse of time during which a given event has not happened is, in this logic of habit, constantly alleged as a reason why the event should never happen, even when the lapse of time is precisely the added condition which makes the event imminent. A man will tell you that he has worked in a mine for forty years unhurt by an accident as a reason why he should apprehend no danger, though the roof is beginning to sink; and it is often observable that the older a man gets the more difficult it is to him to retain a believing conception of his own death.
Wasted Life and its fruits
Ah, watching reruns of Who Wants to be a Millionaire on GSN last week. One man had made it to 250K and was asked what esperanto meant in esperanto. He still had two lifelines, called a friend, and took the 50/50. He didn't want to answer... I guess it proves that the easiest way to stump an American is to ask him a question about a foreign language.
Ironically, esperanto was designed to almost be intuitive to European language speakers. Esperanto itself means "hoper".
Ironically, esperanto was designed to almost be intuitive to European language speakers. Esperanto itself means "hoper".
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Surrender
In laws in for the weekend from Wisconsin... they have a wonderful habit of antiquing all day, which affords an amount of distance. I almost wish there was more time to visit, but I will be at their house come Christmas...
Next week I travel to Winnipeg, and then Bellevue on wednesday. Like any decent employer, mine gives me a four day weekend for thanksgiving. I then go to Big Sky, Montana just north of Yellowstone (where I hope it is warm), staying at the Big Sky resort, and off to Las Vegas for a Friday meeting, Holiday Inn on Polaris.
Week after that, I'm going to Lopez Island in the San Juans. Staying at the Lopez Islander.
Next week I travel to Winnipeg, and then Bellevue on wednesday. Like any decent employer, mine gives me a four day weekend for thanksgiving. I then go to Big Sky, Montana just north of Yellowstone (where I hope it is warm), staying at the Big Sky resort, and off to Las Vegas for a Friday meeting, Holiday Inn on Polaris.
Week after that, I'm going to Lopez Island in the San Juans. Staying at the Lopez Islander.
Dunsey Cass, you creep!
“Oh, I’ve swopped with him,” said Dunstan, whose delight in lying, grandly independent of utility, was not to be diminished by the likelihood that his hearer would not believe him—“Wildfire’s mine now.”
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Locke
Reading First Treatise on Government. Slow, laborious, intriguing and written to be understood. The switch away from fiction should do me some good.
Redmond Traffic
Worked in Redmond this week. Carpooled Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Marginally better than not.
Going solo tomorrow. Got a few loose ends to attend to, and will be returning when they're ready.
Traffic tonight was miserable. It took me 55 minutes to make it 10 miles to Issaquah.
In other news, we almost were selling our house, and now we aren't. Losing a deposit is a nuisance, but the emotional strain of roller-coaster offers is miserable. We plan to take our house off the market for the winter. Time to break the news to the realtor.
She thinks she's coming to suggest lowering the price--again.
Proofread some pages, badly, on pg's distributed proofreading project. There was some interesting reading about jellyfish.
Going solo tomorrow. Got a few loose ends to attend to, and will be returning when they're ready.
Traffic tonight was miserable. It took me 55 minutes to make it 10 miles to Issaquah.
In other news, we almost were selling our house, and now we aren't. Losing a deposit is a nuisance, but the emotional strain of roller-coaster offers is miserable. We plan to take our house off the market for the winter. Time to break the news to the realtor.
She thinks she's coming to suggest lowering the price--again.
Proofread some pages, badly, on pg's distributed proofreading project. There was some interesting reading about jellyfish.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Colbert '08
Already outpolling Joe Biden! 2.3% of Democrats (reported by Inside Edition). In other news, my IQ dropped 15 points watching the show.
Middlemarch
Just finished rereading Middlemarch today on a flight from Calgary to Ft MacMurray.
It's a tender, moving book, and my appreciation for George Eliot grows every time I read (or reread) her works. At this time, they include "Mill on the Floss", "Felix Holt, the Radical", and "Middlemarch". My next will likely be Silas Marner, since I was a good 40 pages into a copy when I left it in the seatback pocket of a NWA flight from Minneapolis.
I think I also have a short book called "The Professor" by Charlotte Bronte, which I snapped up from Beth's collection before repacking them.
Really, shouldn't we be moving soon?
It's a tender, moving book, and my appreciation for George Eliot grows every time I read (or reread) her works. At this time, they include "Mill on the Floss", "Felix Holt, the Radical", and "Middlemarch". My next will likely be Silas Marner, since I was a good 40 pages into a copy when I left it in the seatback pocket of a NWA flight from Minneapolis.
I think I also have a short book called "The Professor" by Charlotte Bronte, which I snapped up from Beth's collection before repacking them.
Really, shouldn't we be moving soon?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Ah, the good old days
þat it please youre highnesse of youre influent grace by the auctorite of þis youre parliament to pardon
and acquite all and euery prest aswell religiouse as seculer of all maner felonie3. of rape done by fore the first
day of Iune next comynge
These guys had the gall to ask for a proactive pardon for sex-crimes by priests?!
The 1440's were a wild time indeed... but they go on:
And also to pardon and relese by the auctorite of the same parliament to all and euerich
prest Seculer stipendiar anuell all yat longeth or apper teineth to youe by wey of forfature of euerich of theim. by fore
the said first day of Iune by cause of takyng excessious selarie contrarie to the statutes theruppon made
Ah, asking to be let off for dipping their hands in the offering basket? Oh, but they offered a fine of 6 shillings, 8 pence to be paid of any of them who were caught...
by cause it touchith þe Immunite and
liberte of þe Chirch. the which þe kyng intendith to kepe withoute hurt or preiudice in alle
wyse. And as touchyng the pardon conteyned in this bille. in cas þe nobles of þe saide preestes be grauntid
to hym in þe said Conuocacions. then þe kyng woll þat the saide pardon stonde in his vertu
and strenght. with oute fyne or fee payng þerfore by auctorite of þis present parlement.
and acquite all and euery prest aswell religiouse as seculer of all maner felonie3. of rape done by fore the first
day of Iune next comynge
These guys had the gall to ask for a proactive pardon for sex-crimes by priests?!
The 1440's were a wild time indeed... but they go on:
And also to pardon and relese by the auctorite of the same parliament to all and euerich
prest Seculer stipendiar anuell all yat longeth or apper teineth to youe by wey of forfature of euerich of theim. by fore
the said first day of Iune by cause of takyng excessious selarie contrarie to the statutes theruppon made
Ah, asking to be let off for dipping their hands in the offering basket? Oh, but they offered a fine of 6 shillings, 8 pence to be paid of any of them who were caught...
by cause it touchith þe Immunite and
liberte of þe Chirch. the which þe kyng intendith to kepe withoute hurt or preiudice in alle
wyse. And as touchyng the pardon conteyned in this bille. in cas þe nobles of þe saide preestes be grauntid
to hym in þe said Conuocacions. then þe kyng woll þat the saide pardon stonde in his vertu
and strenght. with oute fyne or fee payng þerfore by auctorite of þis present parlement.
Yeah, I did it! So what, wanna fightaboutit?
And. yn struglyng be twene hem bothe: he brake of the seales: and so he knoweleched the brekyng ther of: openly
a fore alle the Court / and said these wordes: I didde hit. what wolle ye sey ther to: take youre auauntage:
a fore alle the Court / and said these wordes: I didde hit. what wolle ye sey ther to: take youre auauntage:
Thanks to the Pope
This week the holy father will beatify a conscientious objector who was beheaded in Berlin for refusal to fight in Hitler's army. His martyrdom is an inspiration to us all.
26 Friday
Linz (Austria), Cathedral, at 10.00
Beatification of the Servant of God
- Franz Jägerstätter
26 Friday
Linz (Austria), Cathedral, at 10.00
Beatification of the Servant of God
- Franz Jägerstätter
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Idle Dreaming
A little over half way to Melbourne. Need to rack up 165.000 points on my amex to get two tickets to Melbourne (and we'll need to get to SFO to use it, but that's okay.) Is it fine in September there? If I have 100.000 points now, I need to average about 65000/11 (11 months since I'd need to book at least a month out) = $5909 per month to get this by next fall (or spring, depends where you stand!). Assuming a balanced work schedule, it's just out of my reach. If airfare is suddenly a higher percentage of my spending due to more flights or higher costs, this could be obtainable. Isn't a shame the things I think about. That would also get $1,650 worth of Home Depot giftcards, but what's that all about?
I am a little annoyed at NWA for not linking up with Qantas. The only way to Melbourne on a northwest mileage game is Alaska air to LAX, Air TahitiNui to Papeete, Air TahitiNui to Melbourne. The mild advantage is that a stopover in Tahiti is included. I can't begin to imagine what the cost of this would be in miles.
I am a little annoyed at NWA for not linking up with Qantas. The only way to Melbourne on a northwest mileage game is Alaska air to LAX, Air TahitiNui to Papeete, Air TahitiNui to Melbourne. The mild advantage is that a stopover in Tahiti is included. I can't begin to imagine what the cost of this would be in miles.
Middlemarch some more.
How was it that in the weeks since her marriage, Dorothea had not distinctly observed but felt with a stifling depression, that the large vistas and wide fresh air which she had dreamed of finding in her husband's mind were replaced by anterooms and winding passages which seemed to lead nowhither? I suppose it was that in courtship everything is regarded as provisional and preliminary, and the smallest sample of virtue or accomplishment is taken to guarantee delightful stores which the broad leisure of marriage will reveal. But the door-sill of marriage once crossed, expectation is concentrated on the present. Having once embarked on your marital voyage, it is impossible not to be aware that you make no way and that the sea is not within sight—that, in fact, you are exploring an enclosed basin.
...
With his taper stuck before him he forgot the absence of windows, and in bitter manuscript remarks on other men's notions about the solar deities, he had become indifferent to the sunlight.
...
She was humiliated to find herself a mere victim of feeling, as if she could know nothing except through that medium: all her strength was scattered in fits of agitation, of struggle, of despondency, and then again in visions of more complete renunciation, transforming all hard conditions into duty. Poor Dorothea! she was certainly troublesome—to herself chiefly; but this morning for the first time she had been troublesome to Mr. Casaubon.
...
Both were shocked at their mutual situation—that each should have betrayed anger towards the other. If they had been at home, settled at Lowick in ordinary life among their neighbors, the clash would have been less embarrassing: but on a wedding journey, the express object of which is to isolate two people on the ground that they are all the world to each other, the sense of disagreement is, to say the least, confounding and stultifying. To have changed your longitude extensively and placed yourselves in a moral solitude in order to have small explosions, to find conversation difficult and to hand a glass of water without looking, can hardly be regarded as satisfactory fulfilment even to the toughest minds.
...
With his taper stuck before him he forgot the absence of windows, and in bitter manuscript remarks on other men's notions about the solar deities, he had become indifferent to the sunlight.
...
She was humiliated to find herself a mere victim of feeling, as if she could know nothing except through that medium: all her strength was scattered in fits of agitation, of struggle, of despondency, and then again in visions of more complete renunciation, transforming all hard conditions into duty. Poor Dorothea! she was certainly troublesome—to herself chiefly; but this morning for the first time she had been troublesome to Mr. Casaubon.
...
Both were shocked at their mutual situation—that each should have betrayed anger towards the other. If they had been at home, settled at Lowick in ordinary life among their neighbors, the clash would have been less embarrassing: but on a wedding journey, the express object of which is to isolate two people on the ground that they are all the world to each other, the sense of disagreement is, to say the least, confounding and stultifying. To have changed your longitude extensively and placed yourselves in a moral solitude in order to have small explosions, to find conversation difficult and to hand a glass of water without looking, can hardly be regarded as satisfactory fulfilment even to the toughest minds.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Middlemarch
Women were expected to have weak opinions; but the great safeguard of society and of domestic life was, that opinions were not acted on. Sane people did what their neighbors did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Irreverent Tutorials... I don't like their tone.
Do you know what a typewriter is? Well, a typewriter is a mechanical device which was used last century to produce printed documents. :-)
After you have typed one line of text on a typewriter, you have to manually return the printing carriage to the left margin position and manually feed the paper up one line.
In Windows applications, a new line is normally stored as a pair of characters: carriage return (CR) and line feed (LF). The character pair bears some resemblance to the typewriter actions of setting a new line. In Unix applications, a new line is normally stored as a LF character. Macintosh applications use only a CR character to store a new line.
From W3schools.com XML tutorial. I should complain more except a wonderful explanation of the inner workings of iron ring and drum memory units have been useful to me. Maybe there are people out there who never owned a typewriter. Ah, the joy of being 30... What else didn't people own? I had a slide rule when I was 9, but I never did learn to use it. I had a speak and spell, and a sit and spin, and a slip and slide. I had a mechanical typewriter with black and red ink tape, no built in magic paper well, and the carriage return was separable from the line feed. Two very long arms. I think Typewriter parts look like the magic pieces of a clarinet.
After you have typed one line of text on a typewriter, you have to manually return the printing carriage to the left margin position and manually feed the paper up one line.
In Windows applications, a new line is normally stored as a pair of characters: carriage return (CR) and line feed (LF). The character pair bears some resemblance to the typewriter actions of setting a new line. In Unix applications, a new line is normally stored as a LF character. Macintosh applications use only a CR character to store a new line.
From W3schools.com XML tutorial. I should complain more except a wonderful explanation of the inner workings of iron ring and drum memory units have been useful to me. Maybe there are people out there who never owned a typewriter. Ah, the joy of being 30... What else didn't people own? I had a slide rule when I was 9, but I never did learn to use it. I had a speak and spell, and a sit and spin, and a slip and slide. I had a mechanical typewriter with black and red ink tape, no built in magic paper well, and the carriage return was separable from the line feed. Two very long arms. I think Typewriter parts look like the magic pieces of a clarinet.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Home again
Well,
I picked Beth up from the hospital on my birthday. She is able to walk short distances and doesn't need constant supervision. She has another 10 days of antibiotics to complete, then she should be better.
Hope all is well. Summer is upon us all (or at least those in the north.)
I picked Beth up from the hospital on my birthday. She is able to walk short distances and doesn't need constant supervision. She has another 10 days of antibiotics to complete, then she should be better.
Hope all is well. Summer is upon us all (or at least those in the north.)
Friday, July 06, 2007
A small update
Beth is in the hospital, here in Lakewood. Lots of calls from friends and family. She will not be taking her planned roadtrip back to the old country (wisconsin). We wait patiently (or less so sometimes) for information, and an outlook on her treatment. We do not have plane tickets yet to go to Madison for her sisters birthday on the 14th.
I am turning thirty later this month. Lynda flew out to drive back with Beth, and spent her time as a nurse. I dropped her off at the airport in Seattle at 420AM and went to work. It is amazing how much I can get done when I go to local jobs at 530AM!
I just discovered the hot sandwiches at Safeway. If I hadn't cut in on the deli girls boyfriend I would have had a wonderful experience, and the food was great!
I don't understand the allure of energy drinks. Jolt never cost more than the other canned refreshments.
I am turning thirty later this month. Lynda flew out to drive back with Beth, and spent her time as a nurse. I dropped her off at the airport in Seattle at 420AM and went to work. It is amazing how much I can get done when I go to local jobs at 530AM!
I just discovered the hot sandwiches at Safeway. If I hadn't cut in on the deli girls boyfriend I would have had a wonderful experience, and the food was great!
I don't understand the allure of energy drinks. Jolt never cost more than the other canned refreshments.
Monday, July 02, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Subsidies and Rhetoric
Why is it Amtrak is a subsidy and Interstates are an investment? They both seem like the same principle to me... too bad I already bought my season pass for the interstates, I think I might like trains.
Idiots around everywhere
And I thought the crazies only wanted me to help them get their 10,000,000 US DOLLARS OUT OF ZIMBABWE. PLEASE DISCREETLY SEND YOUR CHEQUEING INFORMATION VIA FAX TO OUR EMBASSY.
From Yahoo finance comments:
sledkane - Sunday, June 17, 2007, 3:24PM ET
mr wheelan you got it all wrong! america has most coal in the ground in the world! if you were to change coal to liquid fuel.america would have enough liquid fuel to last for 300 years. every new technology needs subsidy to get get off the ground! as for environmental ! you said coal is as bad as oil, your absolutling wrong!their are new technology out their now, to turn coal into liquid fuel in a very invironmemtal friendly to the earth! the new technology that can change coal to liquid fuel is very friendly towards the earth! this proven technology will be proven in 3 to 5 years! america have to come to terms! most of the countries in the world are anti america now!they are unfriendly towards america ! example chivas, iran ect.america must find a way to get its own resourse and energy! it has to come from the usa or friendly countries like canada ! america have the most coal in the world in their ground! and turning the coal into liquid fuel is very invironmental friendly to the earth!the technology have been proven already! one barrel of oil cost america $70 dollar a barrel! one barrel of coal to liquid fuel cost america under $20 dollar a barrel! that is a $50 dollar in saving for america! it is a win win situation for america and maybe the world! first it is environmental friendly towards the earth! and consumers win! and america wins !because america does not have to depend on the middle east or unfriendly countries as much as before for their oil or resourse! and most of all america don't have to send their soldiers oversea to unfriendly countries to get kill, because they are trying to protect their interest! it is a win win situation for america and the world! america happy because they got their oil, consumer are happy it is cheap under $20 dollar to produceand it create jobs in a america,!and world happy because it is environmeantal friendly for the earth! at the end mr wheelan coal to liquid is very good for america and the world! because at the end it makes a happier world for everyone that cares.
From Yahoo finance comments:
sledkane - Sunday, June 17, 2007, 3:24PM ET
mr wheelan you got it all wrong! america has most coal in the ground in the world! if you were to change coal to liquid fuel.america would have enough liquid fuel to last for 300 years. every new technology needs subsidy to get get off the ground! as for environmental ! you said coal is as bad as oil, your absolutling wrong!their are new technology out their now, to turn coal into liquid fuel in a very invironmemtal friendly to the earth! the new technology that can change coal to liquid fuel is very friendly towards the earth! this proven technology will be proven in 3 to 5 years! america have to come to terms! most of the countries in the world are anti america now!they are unfriendly towards america ! example chivas, iran ect.america must find a way to get its own resourse and energy! it has to come from the usa or friendly countries like canada ! america have the most coal in the world in their ground! and turning the coal into liquid fuel is very invironmental friendly to the earth!the technology have been proven already! one barrel of oil cost america $70 dollar a barrel! one barrel of coal to liquid fuel cost america under $20 dollar a barrel! that is a $50 dollar in saving for america! it is a win win situation for america and maybe the world! first it is environmental friendly towards the earth! and consumers win! and america wins !because america does not have to depend on the middle east or unfriendly countries as much as before for their oil or resourse! and most of all america don't have to send their soldiers oversea to unfriendly countries to get kill, because they are trying to protect their interest! it is a win win situation for america and the world! america happy because they got their oil, consumer are happy it is cheap under $20 dollar to produceand it create jobs in a america,!and world happy because it is environmeantal friendly for the earth! at the end mr wheelan coal to liquid is very good for america and the world! because at the end it makes a happier world for everyone that cares.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Did I say it was easy
Well, the disillusionment of my choices comes fast. I looked at Vanguard, and apparently there was a bit of confusion. Instead of transferring the funds as asked, they have held to get information, reasonable enough, and maybe required by law, but still an unexpected surprise. The information solely says "Awaiting Client Paperwork," which is rather silly since I gave them instructions and they should follow them. Clock is ticking.
Update... Oh, my faltering faith in companies desire for my money was ill founded. Accounts funded and ready.
I am ready for the first in Stephen Colbert's new segment, Better Know a Presidential Candidate Who Will Talk to Me. Ron Paul, whoo!
Update... Oh, my faltering faith in companies desire for my money was ill founded. Accounts funded and ready.
I am ready for the first in Stephen Colbert's new segment, Better Know a Presidential Candidate Who Will Talk to Me. Ron Paul, whoo!
Carne Asada
The mere mention of Carne Asada makes my mouth water... good in tacos, good in burritos, good on a plato with rice, and good with just about whatever... Steak. It makes me sad I don't live in shady neighborhoods in San Diego where it was a staple, and I could eat for less than five dollars a fat meal. Never had to worry about money when takeout mexican was speedily served. How could one place raise their prices without suffering from the shop across the street. Ah, that there should be plenty of asada for all!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
From Chicago and Beyond
Well, well, a guest blog spot brought to you from Chicago. It was a big weekend here, with Ribfest, Bluesfest, Andersonville Midsommarfest, Old Town Art Fair, and the Printers Row Book Fair. I didn't partake in any of the festivities, but instead, skirted my way around a couple of them instead of paying the $5 suggested donation to walk down the street. Instead, I checked out a potential new apartment (it seems that the people living there have not deemed me suitable to room with, as the ad was re-posted on Craigslist today), ate some delicious carne asada tacos from my favorite taqueria, had some German beer in Lincoln Square, and at at the first certified organic pizzeria in Chicago that opened up here a couple of weeks ago. It was definitely worth the 40 minute bus ride, and a pizza is the perfect size for one person. Plus, they top most of them with fresh veggies, so it makes you feel like you're eating healthy.
Next weekend, Dan and Beth come for a visit, and it is something that I've been looking forward to for a while now. I'm hoping the weather keeps up to foster some outdoors activities. And this time, there will be no debutante balls to drag them to, where they will have to listen to loud music, drink beer, and do shots of Irish whiskey. Maybe tacos will be involved, maybe a Viking breakfast or two, maybe some organic pizzas.
Now why can't I blog in my own blog???
Edited about five minutes later: Turns out the girls did like me, and have offered up the vacant room in their place for me. I am very happy and excited about this!
Next weekend, Dan and Beth come for a visit, and it is something that I've been looking forward to for a while now. I'm hoping the weather keeps up to foster some outdoors activities. And this time, there will be no debutante balls to drag them to, where they will have to listen to loud music, drink beer, and do shots of Irish whiskey. Maybe tacos will be involved, maybe a Viking breakfast or two, maybe some organic pizzas.
Now why can't I blog in my own blog???
Edited about five minutes later: Turns out the girls did like me, and have offered up the vacant room in their place for me. I am very happy and excited about this!
Rain and Sun
I woke up pretty late today (it is Sunday), and just as I got up, a huge blast of wind and rain came falling out of the west. It was loud... and unpleasant. I went to Lowes to pick up more paint, and it started to rain when I got back, just a small drizzle.
Invited contributors
As if having the meaningless details of my life here, I have sent invitations to contribute to Beth and Buzz, since I think they are the only ones reading, why not let them leave more than comments. I don't expect much interest.
Maybe changing the dynamic will give me some discipline.
Maybe changing the dynamic will give me some discipline.
I didn't care enough about the burritos
I guess it shows how little I think about food, as the 2 entry site last updated Jun 06 has gone away. Nobody really cared what I ate at Que Bueno in Denver anyway, least of all me. Plus a dry spell of time in Canada and there was nothing to say. I am, as always, open to new burritos, or old burritos any day of the week.
Oddly, however, I can track all the qdoba orders I've ever made at the Qdoba webpage. It's a little strange to see exactly how many times I got a side of chips and guacamole. Well, they owe me a free burrito someday.
Oddly, however, I can track all the qdoba orders I've ever made at the Qdoba webpage. It's a little strange to see exactly how many times I got a side of chips and guacamole. Well, they owe me a free burrito someday.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Angle of Repose
Beth is always questioning why I don't read anything written more recently than the age of trains... it is a little silly of me to keep reading stories about middle class girls struggling to elevate themselves through love into the upper class. Either the Becky Sharps who do this callously and suffer accoridingly, or the milk maids and governesses whose true loves find them, or the failures of dames like Moll Flanders. I took up reading 18th and 19th century English novels in 2004, on a whim, for the same reason I started to read philosophy at 17. Why read about literature when you can read it. Why settle for analysis when you can take straight from the source. Maybe my opinions of the things I read are less startling than some you may have gotten in college, but I tend to think that an honest opinion; Beth's "Moll Flanders was a whore!" is as clean as anything I'm likely to get from the preface written by some PhD making a name for himself. I quote RT Jones from the recent Wordsworth Edition (bought for a dinar and an half in a Supermarket in Bahrain) "... and in the account of the young Moll's seduction by the power of gold there is a nice contrast between two points of view presented simultaneously: that of the old Moll, who sees in retrospect how she could easily have got a higher price for her favours, and that of the remembered young Moll, for whom the money is valued mainly because it is a thrilling expression of the young man's passion." Surely anybody who read this also had the same thoughts, and laughed at what are very funny moments when the sinners biggest remorse is that she didn't sin well enough.
So tonight I finished Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. Everyone can be proud, here's a man who died in recent memory, writing a novel set in 1970. I was shaking in the last chapter when he is being disrobed by an all too nubile young hippie coed and he is shamed. I was crying when I listened to him scold his wife and admit the traumatically cold facts of his families history. I took it on a recommendation from a local public radio program about 8 months ago, as one of the best books ever written. It's a wonderful book for me, a story of moving out west, dragging a lonely wife along to pursue a dream that will scorn you your whole life, and being cheated by people you are forced to work with to get what you need. There is trust, and distrust, and death, and a beautiful and familiar landscape. The cottage where the character is residing is just outside Nevada City. I went there once, to a church where the basement had no walls, and I opened a door to a dirt slope. It's far and near at the same time. Where can you go that doesn't have Subway and Motel 6? Nowhere that has an exit from the freeway. I am completely satisfied by it, and would thrust it into the hands of anyone I thought might read it to the end.
I read a lot, and I wouldn't normally expect anyone to do the same, dragging their heels through the garbage I choose for myself. I think I would buy anyone a copy of Angle of Repose who could genuinely be expected to profit from it. I hope I did.
So I've moved on, my bookmark is making its way now through Dickens's Our Mutual Friend. The use of allegorical names is one of my favorites. I learned about this struggling through Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and had it reenforced as a dramatic device through a composition class in 2002. Now I try and spot as many possible ways this is used, and its an incredibly common trick. I guess my last English teacher was right, the only advantage to being well read is getting all the inside jokes. When your so well read, you call those allusions.
So, maybe a seed will be planted, and grow into a tree, and I will pay someone to have chopped down that tree and stained it with ink, in a series of marks telling a story. Or maybe necessity will plant its own needs, and the terribly gravity of a body like Dickens will pull me in like a candle ensares a moth.
So tonight I finished Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. Everyone can be proud, here's a man who died in recent memory, writing a novel set in 1970. I was shaking in the last chapter when he is being disrobed by an all too nubile young hippie coed and he is shamed. I was crying when I listened to him scold his wife and admit the traumatically cold facts of his families history. I took it on a recommendation from a local public radio program about 8 months ago, as one of the best books ever written. It's a wonderful book for me, a story of moving out west, dragging a lonely wife along to pursue a dream that will scorn you your whole life, and being cheated by people you are forced to work with to get what you need. There is trust, and distrust, and death, and a beautiful and familiar landscape. The cottage where the character is residing is just outside Nevada City. I went there once, to a church where the basement had no walls, and I opened a door to a dirt slope. It's far and near at the same time. Where can you go that doesn't have Subway and Motel 6? Nowhere that has an exit from the freeway. I am completely satisfied by it, and would thrust it into the hands of anyone I thought might read it to the end.
I read a lot, and I wouldn't normally expect anyone to do the same, dragging their heels through the garbage I choose for myself. I think I would buy anyone a copy of Angle of Repose who could genuinely be expected to profit from it. I hope I did.
So I've moved on, my bookmark is making its way now through Dickens's Our Mutual Friend. The use of allegorical names is one of my favorites. I learned about this struggling through Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and had it reenforced as a dramatic device through a composition class in 2002. Now I try and spot as many possible ways this is used, and its an incredibly common trick. I guess my last English teacher was right, the only advantage to being well read is getting all the inside jokes. When your so well read, you call those allusions.
So, maybe a seed will be planted, and grow into a tree, and I will pay someone to have chopped down that tree and stained it with ink, in a series of marks telling a story. Or maybe necessity will plant its own needs, and the terribly gravity of a body like Dickens will pull me in like a candle ensares a moth.
Stubborn and Sodden
Painted anyway. Garage is 2/3 done with first coat. Ran out of paint. Next trip is 3 gallons of yellow.
Rainy Days in Puget Sound
O, Fortune, what offering have I failed to make? Last weekend there was a string of 80 degree days and sunshine uninterupted, the weekend before that another perfect string of sunshine for our outing in Vancouver. I finally arrange for my father to come down to help spray a coat of paint on the house and it start raining, somewhat harder than normal, shortly after 830 this morning. The lady at starbucks asked what fun things I had planned for the weekend, and asked that it not rain for me... did she make out too well in the tip jar, and her balance of luck skewed me wrong? Did my failure to tip in exchange for 20 seconds of banter offend you so? Fortune gives, fortune takes away! Cruel, cruel fate!
Dissapointment and Renewed Hope
Well, I cashed out my Roth IRA from ING Direct (high fees, low performance, not using the convenience it afforded). I had intended to open an account with T Rowe Price, since I have had mutual fund and brokerage accounts with them in the past, and my 401K is there, I thought I might get more mileage out of online analysis tools if all the money was under one management... but unfortunately, both the IRA account application and IRA Brokerage account applications did not comfortably fit my situations (I took a distribution thinking it would actually be easier to send a check and justify it later to the IRS). It seems Price spends a great deal of time thinking about how they'll get your 401K dollars when you switch jobs, since most people do that often. They would take assets from an existing IRA, or try and start a rollover IRA (none of these were what I wanted to do), or they'll let you make an initial annual contribution (I don't want to make a 2007 contribution! I want to credit my prior year contributions). Well, I fished around, since calling them seemed like a bother (yes, this is me explaining how someone lost my business due to a poorly thought out application), and Vanguard had me set up in five minutes... didn't even ask for Beth's SSN. That's convenient, just check the 'give my wife all my money, since she'll get it through the courts anyway' box, and away we go. When I got to what I started expecting to be an awkward explanatory page, there was a check box for "Money from an existing Roth IRA", with no contribution limits... great!
Plus no fees if you sign up for paperless statements (ING only mailed prospectuses and tax info), and the sweet life is mine. So I just grabbed a few mutual funds, spread the money in the least defensible way, and clicked agree. That really was too easy.
This is reminiscent of the terrible time I had trying to figure out how to get my Federal TSP account into an IRA... I have since come to my senses and realised that there probably isn't a better place for my money, I can expect to be charged less than 0.25 percent and can shuffle between options on a daily basis with no penalty. That and it takes 15 notaries to get your money out. Try to add a beneficiary, it takes two witnesses to sign, neither can be a beneficiary. This is what happens when the federal government gets their fingers on something. Hello privatised social security! Look at all the control we'll have. More like subsidised mutual fund companies... but anything beats having contributions taken out of my earnings every year, with no accounting for where it goes after that.
I would be comfortable with a bankrupt social security if thats what it was. That this ponzi scheme lasted longer than one lifespan (that the first generation born under it will die under it) was only made possible by the Reagan era rebalancing. If the system were made voluntary, who would volunteer? If the system were made private, who would be better off. If the system were abolished, who would feed the old people, who are off in palm springs, playing golf? Forgive me for painting a rosy picture of retirement, most people aren't wealthy when they work, or when the retire, and some don't get to play golf at all. I think that comfortable and affluent retirees, like comfortable and affluent boomers, and comfortable and affluent late twenties fashion magazine editors in the big city, are a Hollywood commodity. They seem more common than they are because they're shown so often. Yes, I have been to orange county, and there are smelly people on the buses there, too. Not everybody has crazy hijinx outside the banana stand. And plenty of old people are alone, lonely, sick, and getting gradual poorer as inflation eats away their fixed incomes. Actually, I know plenty of twenty somethings with the same problems.
Plus no fees if you sign up for paperless statements (ING only mailed prospectuses and tax info), and the sweet life is mine. So I just grabbed a few mutual funds, spread the money in the least defensible way, and clicked agree. That really was too easy.
This is reminiscent of the terrible time I had trying to figure out how to get my Federal TSP account into an IRA... I have since come to my senses and realised that there probably isn't a better place for my money, I can expect to be charged less than 0.25 percent and can shuffle between options on a daily basis with no penalty. That and it takes 15 notaries to get your money out. Try to add a beneficiary, it takes two witnesses to sign, neither can be a beneficiary. This is what happens when the federal government gets their fingers on something. Hello privatised social security! Look at all the control we'll have. More like subsidised mutual fund companies... but anything beats having contributions taken out of my earnings every year, with no accounting for where it goes after that.
I would be comfortable with a bankrupt social security if thats what it was. That this ponzi scheme lasted longer than one lifespan (that the first generation born under it will die under it) was only made possible by the Reagan era rebalancing. If the system were made voluntary, who would volunteer? If the system were made private, who would be better off. If the system were abolished, who would feed the old people, who are off in palm springs, playing golf? Forgive me for painting a rosy picture of retirement, most people aren't wealthy when they work, or when the retire, and some don't get to play golf at all. I think that comfortable and affluent retirees, like comfortable and affluent boomers, and comfortable and affluent late twenties fashion magazine editors in the big city, are a Hollywood commodity. They seem more common than they are because they're shown so often. Yes, I have been to orange county, and there are smelly people on the buses there, too. Not everybody has crazy hijinx outside the banana stand. And plenty of old people are alone, lonely, sick, and getting gradual poorer as inflation eats away their fixed incomes. Actually, I know plenty of twenty somethings with the same problems.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Incovenient Truths about filesharing
from an arstechnica article 10 inconvenient truths
1. Pirate Bay, one of the flagships of the anti-copyright movement, makes thousands of euros from advertising on its site, while maintaining its anti-establishment "free music" rhetoric.
2. AllOfMP3.com, the well-known Russian web site, has not been licensed by a single IFPI member, has been disowned by right holder groups worldwide and is facing criminal proceedings in Russia.
3. Organized criminal gangs and even terrorist groups use the sale of counterfeit CDs to raise revenue and launder money.
4. Illegal file-sharers don’t care whether the copyright-infringing work they distribute is from a major or independent label.
5. Reduced revenues for record companies mean less money available to take a risk on "underground" artists and more inclination to invest in "bankers" like American Idol stars.
6. ISPs often advertise music as a benefit of signing up to their service, but facilitate the illegal swapping on copyright infringing music on a grand scale.
7. The anti-copyright movement does not create jobs, exports, tax revenues and economic growth–it largely consists of people pontificating on a commercial world about which they know little.
8. Piracy is not caused by poverty. Professor Zhang of Nanjing University found the Chinese citizens who bought pirate products were mainly middle- or higher-income earners.
9. Most people know it is wrong to file-share copyright infringing material but won't stop till the law makes them, according to a recent study by the Australian anti-piracy group MIPI.
10. P2P networks are not hotbeds for discovering new music. It is popular music that is illegally file-shared most frequently.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
This can't be that interesting
I wonder if I could come up with a flag to alert potential readers to what might be of any interest... sort of a < content="interesting" > tag.
This of course would involve me being able to identify what that was ahead of time. Well, here's something then.I am going to Nashville on the 11th, flying back to Seattle, turning around a few hours later and flying to Chicago (previous itinerary via ATL), and spending the weekend in Chicago. I then will be flying directly from Chicago to Nashville on Tuesday the 19th, and returning to Chicago on Friday the 22nd. From there Beth and I will drive cross country to Seattle, completing my transcontinental ping pong rally! At least I didn't end up passing through Texas (orignal plans had me going from Chicago to Seattle via Houston, then back to Nashville via Denver!)
html worked
Back in Blogger... apparently the tool I am using doesn't actually set the title, but it does have a top line, that looks suspiciously like a title bar. Shame.
looking at the list items, that seems to be fine. I wonder why the text under the list didn't realign... probably something I am not aware of influencing things.
Found it, I tried to close a UL tag with a /OL closer. That won't work... using the Dashboard in blogger it identified the error and refused it! Go error checking!Back in Blogger... apparently the tool I am using doesn't actually set the title, but it does have a top line, that looks suspiciously like a title bar. Shame.
I won't be inconvenienced.
This is a nice article I just read on Salon about Pelosi's pilgrimage to our far northern neighbor, Greenland. Apparently, the House Speaker is the highest ranking official in our government to have ever visited Greenland. Wow, Greenland... I hear they got their independence recently because the Danes forgot it was a territory of theirs. Now that's a revolution.
Quoted from the article:
How did this happen? Pelosi says "that the American people are way ahead of all of us in Washington, D.C. -- the Congress, the White House and the rest. They know that we need a serious initiative and a serious commitment to making the change that is necessary." I'm not entirely sure that's true. The American people also want cheap gas. More than anything else, the American people don't want to be inconvenienced. But one thing's indisputable, American politicians are now convinced that voters take climate change seriously, enough so that passing a cap-and-trade bill on carbon emissions is seen as strategically advisable.
Quoted from the article:
How did this happen? Pelosi says "that the American people are way ahead of all of us in Washington, D.C. -- the Congress, the White House and the rest. They know that we need a serious initiative and a serious commitment to making the change that is necessary." I'm not entirely sure that's true. The American people also want cheap gas. More than anything else, the American people don't want to be inconvenienced. But one thing's indisputable, American politicians are now convinced that voters take climate change seriously, enough so that passing a cap-and-trade bill on carbon emissions is seen as strategically advisable.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Chronology
What does time have to do with this? How can you make a clean narrative that reads backward in time? What can I say today that measures against anything I have said in the past? How much filtering is appropriate to ensure that only the right amount is written, and that a single idea is expressed, or many ideas with a theme less broad than that they occur to me?
What kind of dedication or curiosity is needed for someone to read, let alone try to understand, what is recorded here. I think I want to try to track what I read, maybe some of what I see, and a bit of what I think. Is it a selfish whim? A compulsive self-involvement...
I mowed the lawn today. Beth is gone, so I needed to witness the short grass myself. It's one of her special pleasures, or at least something I can give her, if it's mundane.
I started to dig a hole in the yard to get at a sewer pipe that has some issues... I don't see the problem, and am torn between continuing to dig, or to start cutting and look inside... neither sounds too good.
What kind of dedication or curiosity is needed for someone to read, let alone try to understand, what is recorded here. I think I want to try to track what I read, maybe some of what I see, and a bit of what I think. Is it a selfish whim? A compulsive self-involvement...
I mowed the lawn today. Beth is gone, so I needed to witness the short grass myself. It's one of her special pleasures, or at least something I can give her, if it's mundane.
I started to dig a hole in the yard to get at a sewer pipe that has some issues... I don't see the problem, and am torn between continuing to dig, or to start cutting and look inside... neither sounds too good.
On the Beach
Watching 'On the Beach'. It's shocking how few Australians had accents in the 60's, maybe there was a softening on account of the war. The creepy 'Waltzing Matilda' score is a bit trying sometimes to handle. It's a shame, since I like the song enough.
Gregory Peck... ah, reminds me of Roman Holiday...
Gregory Peck... ah, reminds me of Roman Holiday...
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Added a new blog.
I don't think anyone will want to view it, but I am now in the process of using flickr to upload photos. Since they only allow you to view your last 200 photos without paying, I will be blogging each photo to another page. This is just to have permanent links to content. FYI.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Me in my Kitchen
About to change my smiling face to something a little moodier... If you think this is a little grungy, you should see my licence pic. I've had that sweatshirt too long, but I can't find another that fits me so well.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Where I'd like to go
Melbourne, Australia, Should have enough rewards points on Amex in a few months for one ticket, and I hope the $400 companion ticket can be applied to this... then its only a trip to San Francisco and G'day, Australia! I think it's about 115000 points from my Amex card... currently just over 70,000, in about a year and a half.
Radium Hot Springs, BC, Canada
Naples -- last time I only saw the sunrise behind Vesuvius on a cold January day (1 degree, nearly freezing). Beth's been, she had all the fun on a trip with Elena.
Seville and Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Prince Edward Island... maybe Mrs Nistler will get me a Friends of Anne magnet once I finish this hajj to green gables.
New Orleans, if it's still there when I make it.
Quito, Ecuador
Mackinaw Island... been on the todo list for a while... what's stopping me?
Radium Hot Springs, BC, Canada
Naples -- last time I only saw the sunrise behind Vesuvius on a cold January day (1 degree, nearly freezing). Beth's been, she had all the fun on a trip with Elena.
Seville and Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Prince Edward Island... maybe Mrs Nistler will get me a Friends of Anne magnet once I finish this hajj to green gables.
New Orleans, if it's still there when I make it.
Quito, Ecuador
Mackinaw Island... been on the todo list for a while... what's stopping me?
Where am I going, where have I been
Upcoming: Kona and Honolulu, Hawaii, 5/21-5/24
Vancouver, BC, May 26-28
Banff, Alberta, June 4-5
Chicago, Illinois, June 15-18
Madison, Wisconsin July 14th
Road Trip to San Francisco July 15-18, stopping in Omaha to see my mother.
Road trip from San Francisco to Tacoma via Redwoods and Oregon Coast, July 19-21
Where have I been... some of these were a while back
Dubai, UAE
Manama, Bahrain
Diego Garcia, BIOT
Victoria, Seychelles
Phuket and Patong Beach, Thailand
Singapore
Darwin and Cairns, Australia
Honolulu and Kona, Hawaii
Dutch Harbor and St Paul, Alaska
St Paul and Minneapolis, MN
Duluth, MN
Tokyo, Japan
Hong Kong, China
Montreal, Quebec
Toronto, Ontario
Winnipeg and Shilo, Manitoba
Fargo, North Dakota
Billings, Butte, Bozeman and Missoula, Montana
Sheridan, Wyoming
Iowa City, Iowa
Kansas City, Saint Louis, and Jefferson City, Missouri
Biloxi, Mississipi
Portland, Salem, Bend, Eugene, Corvallis, and Lincoln City, Oregon
Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, Irvine/Anaheim/Santa Ana, Nevada City, Truckee, South Lake Tahoe, Merced, Fresno, and Pasadena, California.
Mexico City and Mazatlan, Mexico
Vancouver, Kamloops, and Victoria, British Columbia
Edmonton, Jasper, Banff, Calgary, Canmore and Ft MacMurray, Alberta
Gallup, Farmington, and Albuquerque, New Mexico
Prescott, Yuma, and Phoenix, Arizona
Reno, Carson City, Las Vegas, and Laughlin, Nevada
Aurora, Denver, Vail, and Aspen, Colorado
Chicago, Illinois
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Niagara Falls, Schenectady, Brooklyn, NYC, and Buffalo, New York
Allentown, PA
and of course,
Wall Drug, South Dakota
Vancouver, BC, May 26-28
Banff, Alberta, June 4-5
Chicago, Illinois, June 15-18
Madison, Wisconsin July 14th
Road Trip to San Francisco July 15-18, stopping in Omaha to see my mother.
Road trip from San Francisco to Tacoma via Redwoods and Oregon Coast, July 19-21
Where have I been... some of these were a while back
Dubai, UAE
Manama, Bahrain
Diego Garcia, BIOT
Victoria, Seychelles
Phuket and Patong Beach, Thailand
Singapore
Darwin and Cairns, Australia
Honolulu and Kona, Hawaii
Dutch Harbor and St Paul, Alaska
St Paul and Minneapolis, MN
Duluth, MN
Tokyo, Japan
Hong Kong, China
Montreal, Quebec
Toronto, Ontario
Winnipeg and Shilo, Manitoba
Fargo, North Dakota
Billings, Butte, Bozeman and Missoula, Montana
Sheridan, Wyoming
Iowa City, Iowa
Kansas City, Saint Louis, and Jefferson City, Missouri
Biloxi, Mississipi
Portland, Salem, Bend, Eugene, Corvallis, and Lincoln City, Oregon
Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, Irvine/Anaheim/Santa Ana, Nevada City, Truckee, South Lake Tahoe, Merced, Fresno, and Pasadena, California.
Mexico City and Mazatlan, Mexico
Vancouver, Kamloops, and Victoria, British Columbia
Edmonton, Jasper, Banff, Calgary, Canmore and Ft MacMurray, Alberta
Gallup, Farmington, and Albuquerque, New Mexico
Prescott, Yuma, and Phoenix, Arizona
Reno, Carson City, Las Vegas, and Laughlin, Nevada
Aurora, Denver, Vail, and Aspen, Colorado
Chicago, Illinois
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Niagara Falls, Schenectady, Brooklyn, NYC, and Buffalo, New York
Allentown, PA
and of course,
Wall Drug, South Dakota
Flickr
Well, I've started using Flickr... I'm happy with the map data, straightforward, and saves me the trouble of using pushpins. I'm also on Facebook, but apart from being an easy way to find me, I don't use it much. Got a message from a friend in Qatar. That's the beauty of the internet.
View my pictures here
View my pictures here
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Chicago
Traveling to Chicago
Fri 15-Jun-07
Seattle (SEA)
Depart 10:30 pm to Atlanta (ATL)
Arrive 6:07 am +1 day 2,178 mi
(3,505 km)
Duration: 4hr 37mn
DL Delta
Flight: 616
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3Economy/Coach Class ( 42A ), Meal, Boeing 767-300
Sat 16-Jun-07
Atlanta (ATL)
Depart 8:05 am to Chicago (ORD)
Arrive 9:10 am 600 mi
(966 km)
Duration: 2hr 5mn
DL Delta
Flight: 1036
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3Economy/Coach Class ( 36E ), BOEING (DOUGLAS) MD-88
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total distance: 2,778 mi (4,471 km)
Total duration: 6hr 42mn (8hr 40mn with connections)
Traveling to Seattle
Mon 18-Jun-07
Chicago (ORD)
Depart 7:15 pm to Houston (IAH)
Arrive 10:00 pm 933 mi
(1,502 km)
Duration: 2hr 45mn
CO Continental
Flight: 1647
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3Economy/Coach Class ( 20A ), Boeing 737-300
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Houston (IAH)
Depart 10:45 pm to Seattle (SEA)
Arrive 1:14 am +1 day 1,883 mi
(3,030 km)
Duration: 4hr 29mn
CO Continental
Flight: 1461
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3Economy/Coach Class ( 10A ), Boeing 737-300
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total distance: 2,816 mi (4,532 km)
Total duration: 7hr 14mn (7hr 59mn with connections)
Fri 15-Jun-07
Seattle (SEA)
Depart 10:30 pm to Atlanta (ATL)
Arrive 6:07 am +1 day 2,178 mi
(3,505 km)
Duration: 4hr 37mn
DL Delta
Flight: 616
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3Economy/Coach Class ( 42A ), Meal, Boeing 767-300
Sat 16-Jun-07
Atlanta (ATL)
Depart 8:05 am to Chicago (ORD)
Arrive 9:10 am 600 mi
(966 km)
Duration: 2hr 5mn
DL Delta
Flight: 1036
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3Economy/Coach Class ( 36E ), BOEING (DOUGLAS) MD-88
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total distance: 2,778 mi (4,471 km)
Total duration: 6hr 42mn (8hr 40mn with connections)
Traveling to Seattle
Mon 18-Jun-07
Chicago (ORD)
Depart 7:15 pm to Houston (IAH)
Arrive 10:00 pm 933 mi
(1,502 km)
Duration: 2hr 45mn
CO Continental
Flight: 1647
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3Economy/Coach Class ( 20A ), Boeing 737-300
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Houston (IAH)
Depart 10:45 pm to Seattle (SEA)
Arrive 1:14 am +1 day 1,883 mi
(3,030 km)
Duration: 4hr 29mn
CO Continental
Flight: 1461
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3Economy/Coach Class ( 10A ), Boeing 737-300
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total distance: 2,816 mi (4,532 km)
Total duration: 7hr 14mn (7hr 59mn with connections)
Beacon Hill Park
Here is a beach in Victoria. Beth and I watched Kiteboarders playing in the surf. Of course they needed a wetsuit, but as we were on dry land and nearly freezing in the strong sea wind, it must be 'invigorating' to dip into the Pacific.
Victoria in April
Beth's birthday this year we went to Victoria, BC.
This is the ship we took from Port Angeles, the MV Coho. The red flag with the Black Circle indicates it's operated by the Black Ball Transport Co.
A week in May
This week I travelled to San Francisco and to Irvine. My San Francisco job wasn't yet ready, and it gave me the opportunity to do some spur-of-the-moment work. I dropped by a store in Palo Alto which had requested a service visit but did not have any problems, and I travelled to Rutherford, Napa Valley, to address some small issues with a large house.
I understand it is the guest house, the main estate is across the road, along the banks of the Napa River. The roads heading up away from the vineyards are free and western, unapologetically single-laned, and breathtaking! I recommend anyone finding themselves there to try to oakville grade-dry creek road route.
Arriving in Orange County led me to all kinds of angering memories of all that is wrong with the sprawling anonymous corporate parks, with professionally managed properties and groomed landscaping. No indication or reason behind the strip mall, and no guidance at intersections to lead one way or the other. There aren't enough restaurants, and there is no way to find one. Even Silicon Valley doesn't suffer from this bizarre anonymity and emptiness. In Santa Clara there may be a factory or corporate park, but the settling effect of time has planted homes squarely beside it. Irvine is still too new, the plastic hasn't peeled off the windows of the homes, and there is no weathering of the tiles.
Patterns of supply and demand haven't shaken out, and the corner stores are nowhere to be found. Maybe what they really need is one big surge of immigration, entrepreneurial family men who can't help but open a 400 sq ft retail duplication of effort. What else is there for a man who can't understand the culture of work in America, and can't compete in office politics. What better use for a child than to tend shop semi-legally. I guarantee a child who spends his time stacking boxes for his pop isn't out popping pills with little Susie Latchkey.
Dustin and I went down to San Diego to visit a friend of his who lives now in New York near Saratoga. It was a marvellously uninspiring visit, but it put me in contact with small children, and I keep pretty well when there are toddlers at play, lisping and mumbling with all the right vowel shapes and none of the stacato precision of consonants.
When language seems more like a dance of directions and not a sequence of stops. I find my admiration of small children unremarkable and natural, but am constantly being told how conspicuously fond I am of children. Maybe I am in practice for my grandparenthood.
San Diego was all I remembered, with none of the familiar faces. The apartments next to sweetwater HS in Natl City were mere blocks away from the old bachelor pad in Chula Vista, the freeways have gotten neither better nor worse, and the thrill of knowing 80MPH is perfectly normal is a pleasure I hardly know now, with business travel putting me square in city centers during rush hours, and Washington Culture preventing more the 70MPH without the certainty that I am being unpleasant to those around me and asking the State Patrol to pay me a visit.
I travelled over the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. The last time I had business in Marin I came from Oakland on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, but this time I had a long while to occupy myself with the drive, and was coming from just south of San Francisco. It had been some time since I took 19th Av north through the city to the bridge, and I feel like I made it the length of the city with only a stoplight or two getting in my way. Somewhat remarkable how San Francisco stays so functional without an excess of crosstown freeways. The secret is the 3 lanes each way no left turn thoroughfares. I can think of Van Ness, Geary, 19th. To a lesser extent the streets south of Mission, and Mission itself. Better paving and fewer streetcar tracks, it might be a pleasant experience. Beth wins, however, the houses do go right out to the curb, with no lawn. I feel like Brooklyn was greener. Hopefully what they lose in lawn they make up for in parks. Yerba Buena near the metreon/moscone/sfmoma complex is beautiful and lively.
I just missed a standby flight to Seattle. This sets me on the waiting list for a flight over two hours from now. If the 35 folks who didn't get on the flight alongside me are waiting for the next one, I may spend all evening here in San Francisco.
I finished reading George Elliot's Felix Holt: The Radical this week. I read Dubliners a few weeks ago (on the flight to Mexico City). Felix Holt was almost too much to handle, the story of a young doctor's apprentice who becomes a watchmaker, a young gentleman who returns rich from abroad--with much whispering from the Bennett ladies about the size of his fortune, no doubt. And to stir it up, add a pretty young lady, secretly the rightful heiress of the gentleman's estate, and almost Randian in her devotion to Felix's masculine resolve. Everybody lives through to act 5, Felix is jailed and pardoned, and marries a decidedly poor bride, who having tasted the sterile padded cages of upper class domesticity, moves back in with her poorly dressed low-church dissenting minister father.
I stopped in to the Borders in downtown Palo Alto, and wandered through the fiction
section taking calls. I must be a terrible nuisance to the high-browed Stanford set,
wandering aimlessly through the store talking loudly to engineers about projects I'd just as soon be done with. While I tortured myself over several volumes I really didn't want to read, I saw a gleaming new copy of Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose. I immediately picked up the book and walked to pay. It is shaping up nicely, miners, marriage, dirty towns and alienation from eastern culture by a lonely wife, with a considereable deal of avoidance by a very western oriented man struggling to elevate himself in the mining hierarchy. I wonder if it isn't as good a book about life in America as Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance, which should be required reading for HS Juniors in my opinion--much better than Ethan Frome in my opinion. I wonder whether I wouldn't have postponed Hemmingway in order to get more exciting access. Is there a course on teaching Hemmingway to young adults with no significant life experience to base an appreciation on that was running through English schools in the 60's, or did the schoolboards select the titles based on merits of their value with no thought to their emotional accessibility. Apologies here are given to every person who tried to persuade me to separate sentences into small atomic thoughts. Strunk and White are turning in their graves.
The language was clean enough, almost spartan, and I since have developed a great
appreciation for most of Hemmingways works, but plodding through the Old Man and the Sea at 16 years old, 2 chapters at a time with an hour of discussion on thirty pages is torture to someone who has spent his entire life hurtling forward to a future, not yearning yet for a time gone by. How can you begin to understand the life of Santiago at that age? Julius Caesar has greed and struggle, murder, hate and war. These are things a young man can understand. Romeo and Juliet had a grudge, gangs, street fighting, and forbidden love. These are clearly things a 14 year old can relate to. But going fishing with a rotten old man, whose stoic acceptance of his bad luck permeated the whole story, I can't think a healthy american boy without 3rd world relations could sympathise.
I understand it is the guest house, the main estate is across the road, along the banks of the Napa River. The roads heading up away from the vineyards are free and western, unapologetically single-laned, and breathtaking! I recommend anyone finding themselves there to try to oakville grade-dry creek road route.
Arriving in Orange County led me to all kinds of angering memories of all that is wrong with the sprawling anonymous corporate parks, with professionally managed properties and groomed landscaping. No indication or reason behind the strip mall, and no guidance at intersections to lead one way or the other. There aren't enough restaurants, and there is no way to find one. Even Silicon Valley doesn't suffer from this bizarre anonymity and emptiness. In Santa Clara there may be a factory or corporate park, but the settling effect of time has planted homes squarely beside it. Irvine is still too new, the plastic hasn't peeled off the windows of the homes, and there is no weathering of the tiles.
Patterns of supply and demand haven't shaken out, and the corner stores are nowhere to be found. Maybe what they really need is one big surge of immigration, entrepreneurial family men who can't help but open a 400 sq ft retail duplication of effort. What else is there for a man who can't understand the culture of work in America, and can't compete in office politics. What better use for a child than to tend shop semi-legally. I guarantee a child who spends his time stacking boxes for his pop isn't out popping pills with little Susie Latchkey.
Dustin and I went down to San Diego to visit a friend of his who lives now in New York near Saratoga. It was a marvellously uninspiring visit, but it put me in contact with small children, and I keep pretty well when there are toddlers at play, lisping and mumbling with all the right vowel shapes and none of the stacato precision of consonants.
When language seems more like a dance of directions and not a sequence of stops. I find my admiration of small children unremarkable and natural, but am constantly being told how conspicuously fond I am of children. Maybe I am in practice for my grandparenthood.
San Diego was all I remembered, with none of the familiar faces. The apartments next to sweetwater HS in Natl City were mere blocks away from the old bachelor pad in Chula Vista, the freeways have gotten neither better nor worse, and the thrill of knowing 80MPH is perfectly normal is a pleasure I hardly know now, with business travel putting me square in city centers during rush hours, and Washington Culture preventing more the 70MPH without the certainty that I am being unpleasant to those around me and asking the State Patrol to pay me a visit.
I travelled over the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. The last time I had business in Marin I came from Oakland on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, but this time I had a long while to occupy myself with the drive, and was coming from just south of San Francisco. It had been some time since I took 19th Av north through the city to the bridge, and I feel like I made it the length of the city with only a stoplight or two getting in my way. Somewhat remarkable how San Francisco stays so functional without an excess of crosstown freeways. The secret is the 3 lanes each way no left turn thoroughfares. I can think of Van Ness, Geary, 19th. To a lesser extent the streets south of Mission, and Mission itself. Better paving and fewer streetcar tracks, it might be a pleasant experience. Beth wins, however, the houses do go right out to the curb, with no lawn. I feel like Brooklyn was greener. Hopefully what they lose in lawn they make up for in parks. Yerba Buena near the metreon/moscone/sfmoma complex is beautiful and lively.
I just missed a standby flight to Seattle. This sets me on the waiting list for a flight over two hours from now. If the 35 folks who didn't get on the flight alongside me are waiting for the next one, I may spend all evening here in San Francisco.
I finished reading George Elliot's Felix Holt: The Radical this week. I read Dubliners a few weeks ago (on the flight to Mexico City). Felix Holt was almost too much to handle, the story of a young doctor's apprentice who becomes a watchmaker, a young gentleman who returns rich from abroad--with much whispering from the Bennett ladies about the size of his fortune, no doubt. And to stir it up, add a pretty young lady, secretly the rightful heiress of the gentleman's estate, and almost Randian in her devotion to Felix's masculine resolve. Everybody lives through to act 5, Felix is jailed and pardoned, and marries a decidedly poor bride, who having tasted the sterile padded cages of upper class domesticity, moves back in with her poorly dressed low-church dissenting minister father.
I stopped in to the Borders in downtown Palo Alto, and wandered through the fiction
section taking calls. I must be a terrible nuisance to the high-browed Stanford set,
wandering aimlessly through the store talking loudly to engineers about projects I'd just as soon be done with. While I tortured myself over several volumes I really didn't want to read, I saw a gleaming new copy of Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose. I immediately picked up the book and walked to pay. It is shaping up nicely, miners, marriage, dirty towns and alienation from eastern culture by a lonely wife, with a considereable deal of avoidance by a very western oriented man struggling to elevate himself in the mining hierarchy. I wonder if it isn't as good a book about life in America as Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance, which should be required reading for HS Juniors in my opinion--much better than Ethan Frome in my opinion. I wonder whether I wouldn't have postponed Hemmingway in order to get more exciting access. Is there a course on teaching Hemmingway to young adults with no significant life experience to base an appreciation on that was running through English schools in the 60's, or did the schoolboards select the titles based on merits of their value with no thought to their emotional accessibility. Apologies here are given to every person who tried to persuade me to separate sentences into small atomic thoughts. Strunk and White are turning in their graves.
The language was clean enough, almost spartan, and I since have developed a great
appreciation for most of Hemmingways works, but plodding through the Old Man and the Sea at 16 years old, 2 chapters at a time with an hour of discussion on thirty pages is torture to someone who has spent his entire life hurtling forward to a future, not yearning yet for a time gone by. How can you begin to understand the life of Santiago at that age? Julius Caesar has greed and struggle, murder, hate and war. These are things a young man can understand. Romeo and Juliet had a grudge, gangs, street fighting, and forbidden love. These are clearly things a 14 year old can relate to. But going fishing with a rotten old man, whose stoic acceptance of his bad luck permeated the whole story, I can't think a healthy american boy without 3rd world relations could sympathise.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
The power of planting your feet
Change is exciting. Sometimes it is tempting to change for the sake of it. You realise that things aren't ideal, and then you start looking at the options. Some of us who are overly bright may spend years assessing opportunities before making a single move. I think its wild how much fun planning and preparing can be.
I'm currently paying too high a price for an underperforming mutual fund portfolio. If your objective is to meet or exceed the yield of a benchmark, and you have never yet done so, where do you get off charging 1.75% for all that wasted effort? Shame on you! Now the return lags 2.75% instead of the disappointing 1% you started with. Now it's just a question of finding an ideal match. I plan to make this move in the next few weeks. Convenience for something that can be better managed with a little effort is crazy.
Take the same point on a larger scale. Our very comfortable house is ridiculously far from a city we never see as a consequence, but we pay for its 'nearness' all the same. Although my fixed rate mortgage won't budge, and taxes are low, the interest will likely drop below the standard deduction in a year or so, so try not to get all worked up about the deductibility of interest from my taxes. The real annual difference is closer to $300 than $3000. A few trips to the pump more than drains that away. The annual return on real estate in the near term future will likely not be as great as some expect, and may not be disastrous, lets say 2-3% per year.
That's maybe a few thousand dollars, which compared to the price of gas (which will likely as not rise more than that) is still not exciting. Better to move to a rental and take some time to watch what happens.
I'm currently paying too high a price for an underperforming mutual fund portfolio. If your objective is to meet or exceed the yield of a benchmark, and you have never yet done so, where do you get off charging 1.75% for all that wasted effort? Shame on you! Now the return lags 2.75% instead of the disappointing 1% you started with. Now it's just a question of finding an ideal match. I plan to make this move in the next few weeks. Convenience for something that can be better managed with a little effort is crazy.
Take the same point on a larger scale. Our very comfortable house is ridiculously far from a city we never see as a consequence, but we pay for its 'nearness' all the same. Although my fixed rate mortgage won't budge, and taxes are low, the interest will likely drop below the standard deduction in a year or so, so try not to get all worked up about the deductibility of interest from my taxes. The real annual difference is closer to $300 than $3000. A few trips to the pump more than drains that away. The annual return on real estate in the near term future will likely not be as great as some expect, and may not be disastrous, lets say 2-3% per year.
That's maybe a few thousand dollars, which compared to the price of gas (which will likely as not rise more than that) is still not exciting. Better to move to a rental and take some time to watch what happens.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Mexico City Day Two
Today I set my alarm early since no one had contacted me yet. I slept in, woke up to a call from a customer in Seattle, and then got ready. About 920Am I emailed the office since I don't want to pay for the phone calls and international calls are blocked from my cell phone. I got a call not 5 minutes later from the rep agancy here. The woman who called me spoke no English, and the man who she handed the phone to was not involved, so he asked me what I wanted... after another hour or so someone (Arturo) came to pick me up.
We drove through some pretty tony neighbourhoods in the hills, and sputtered along the Reforma (What lanes, oh, the white lines?) before arriving at the customer site. Every building in Mexico seems to have security guards, and patrols, and staff. Costco has a pay to park lot. Oh, we went to lunch at Costco. I had the chicken bake, Arturo had the chicken caesar.
I arrived, nothing worked, I got it 90% functional in an hour, and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to fix the rest. Scheduled some training for tomorrow.
On the drive home, it started to rain. They get serious lightening here. It was impressive. Traffic is amazing. I was giddy with terror! We stopped on Prado Norte for tortas. The sandwhiches aren't any cheaper than they are in the states, but the avocado is free. I washed my hands in a basin in the back (it was the dish sink I think). Single spigot, rinse, get some Salvo (salvo me salva!) on your hands and lather up. It was reminiscent of the granular soap from public schools. No paper towels, no tables, no counters. I had an agua fresca that was made from cranberry juice (maybe?) and was between a sloppy smooth shake and a sherbet. Served in a styrofoam cup, with a styrofoam lid, served out of a ladle!
We drove through some pretty tony neighbourhoods in the hills, and sputtered along the Reforma (What lanes, oh, the white lines?) before arriving at the customer site. Every building in Mexico seems to have security guards, and patrols, and staff. Costco has a pay to park lot. Oh, we went to lunch at Costco. I had the chicken bake, Arturo had the chicken caesar.
I arrived, nothing worked, I got it 90% functional in an hour, and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to fix the rest. Scheduled some training for tomorrow.
On the drive home, it started to rain. They get serious lightening here. It was impressive. Traffic is amazing. I was giddy with terror! We stopped on Prado Norte for tortas. The sandwhiches aren't any cheaper than they are in the states, but the avocado is free. I washed my hands in a basin in the back (it was the dish sink I think). Single spigot, rinse, get some Salvo (salvo me salva!) on your hands and lather up. It was reminiscent of the granular soap from public schools. No paper towels, no tables, no counters. I had an agua fresca that was made from cranberry juice (maybe?) and was between a sloppy smooth shake and a sherbet. Served in a styrofoam cup, with a styrofoam lid, served out of a ladle!
Mexico City
Canada is an independent nation, but it isn't foreign, so long as you can overlook poutine.
Mexico City is a whole other place. Here's why:
NANP? We don't need no stinking NANP! What this means for the tourist is that if your phone works, you may need to figure out how many of those area codes area needed. Plus, my North American phone tries to mangle the numbers into what it assumes are the right groupings. I was unable to call a land line, got a try again message when I tried a cell phone-- which had an extra number. I am unable to make stateside calls.
Clean air? We don't need no stink free clean air! The whole place has a light odour of Hydrogen Sulfide (bad eggs/sewer gas). I adjusted a little too quickly to it.
Ingles? No puedo hablar esta maldita lengua! Funny, their English is almost worst than my Spanish. The 5 star hotel in the ritzy neighbourhood is plenty nice, but if I leave the front door its a whole other world.
Also, the page on blogger where this was created started popping up in spanish once I went to accederla. Lets Publicar y ver el blog.
Mexico City is a whole other place. Here's why:
NANP? We don't need no stinking NANP! What this means for the tourist is that if your phone works, you may need to figure out how many of those area codes area needed. Plus, my North American phone tries to mangle the numbers into what it assumes are the right groupings. I was unable to call a land line, got a try again message when I tried a cell phone-- which had an extra number. I am unable to make stateside calls.
Clean air? We don't need no stink free clean air! The whole place has a light odour of Hydrogen Sulfide (bad eggs/sewer gas). I adjusted a little too quickly to it.
Ingles? No puedo hablar esta maldita lengua! Funny, their English is almost worst than my Spanish. The 5 star hotel in the ritzy neighbourhood is plenty nice, but if I leave the front door its a whole other world.
Also, the page on blogger where this was created started popping up in spanish once I went to accederla. Lets Publicar y ver el blog.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Life in the Third World
Well, I guess it has gotten so bad here, the missionaries have offered to mow my lawn. Mormons are some great neighbors! Too bad about their "Let's go to the locked up church, we can take you in and show you around, and let you see what a service would be like before Sunday." routine.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Ennui.
It's tough to have meaningful things to say about your day when it consists of sitting in front of a computer, drinking a pot of coffee, and reading through confuscated webs of documentation.
I need to read something wittier than the man pages... but check out
I need to read something wittier than the man pages... but check out
man 5 sudoersfor a chuckle. I am a fan of the insult option.
Less Nonsense
Easier to deal with, Beth and I are going to see Once Upon a Time in New Jersey at the Village Theatre tonight. We'll have dinner, and see the play, and drive home, separately, as she is at work today. What am I doing today? Editing this!
Currently reading Felix Holt, Radical. Last read Crime and Punishment.
Currently reading Felix Holt, Radical. Last read Crime and Punishment.
Stable
I have unfortunately been tinkering with my PC for a while. I had broken the habit for a long time, but have recently been jumping between *Nixes on a weekly basis. Currently it is Slamd (Slackware 11) but last week it was NetBSD, a few weeks back it was openSuse... it's sucking up all my time on weekends and I'm never getting beyond basic package installation and configuration before I return to a new system. It is not healthy, and has to stop.
One of the frustrating things I find about x64 based linux is confusing compatibility issues for 32 bit build and binary emulation. The fact that potentially 2 copies of all system libraries has to be maintained separately, and the loader smart enough to know the difference, is exasperating. There will be some reading necessary before I can set up wine, since it requires an -m32 flag.
I want to keep this stable and working. I like Slackware. No clutter. Easy to understand package system. No RPM's. Good.
One of the frustrating things I find about x64 based linux is confusing compatibility issues for 32 bit build and binary emulation. The fact that potentially 2 copies of all system libraries has to be maintained separately, and the loader smart enough to know the difference, is exasperating. There will be some reading necessary before I can set up wine, since it requires an -m32 flag.
I want to keep this stable and working. I like Slackware. No clutter. Easy to understand package system. No RPM's. Good.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
As Meninas
Bom Xibom Xibom Bombom!
wow, was I ever five years late to the scene!
Well, I started dancing all alone this week to as meninas... looks like they were a one hit wonder. Formal request has been submitted to Snoop Dog to make them edgier... dignity and trying to educate their children... maybe they need a little exposure to his doggy-style.
wow, was I ever five years late to the scene!
Well, I started dancing all alone this week to as meninas... looks like they were a one hit wonder. Formal request has been submitted to Snoop Dog to make them edgier... dignity and trying to educate their children... maybe they need a little exposure to his doggy-style.
Daily Activity Log
Just back from Long Beach. Southern California is burning, it was 94 degrees while I was there, I passed a brush fire on the shoulder of the 405 that sent a plume of smoke into the sky at least 100 feet, and slowed gawker traffic for a mile. Got to see Dane and Evan and Adam. Sorry to anyone (Ryan?) that I prioritised away.
Got a call from Carl today. He seems to be pretty well set up in Dodge, said there wasn't a lot of military there anymore, just NCTAMS and the AF det. All the naval air guys are gone, and talking to Adam, he refuelled there without ever seeing the beach. Perfect water. But it's no life for a man who likes more than video games and easy money.
Next week I am remarkably only sure what I'm doing through Tuesday! Monday downtown Seattle, Tuesday downtown Portland. Swing by and see Rachel and Jason, and still be home by dark.
Beth is out in Madison right now. It was lousy getting out of bed without my vanguard to start everything for me. I woke up at 715 and realized I was in no hurry, slept until Carl called at 9:30.
Got a call from Carl today. He seems to be pretty well set up in Dodge, said there wasn't a lot of military there anymore, just NCTAMS and the AF det. All the naval air guys are gone, and talking to Adam, he refuelled there without ever seeing the beach. Perfect water. But it's no life for a man who likes more than video games and easy money.
Next week I am remarkably only sure what I'm doing through Tuesday! Monday downtown Seattle, Tuesday downtown Portland. Swing by and see Rachel and Jason, and still be home by dark.
Beth is out in Madison right now. It was lousy getting out of bed without my vanguard to start everything for me. I woke up at 715 and realized I was in no hurry, slept until Carl called at 9:30.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Life in the Exurbs
Spring is coming! It's been time to cut the grass for some time (probably since new year's), but I think I'm finally coming to grips with it. Next dry sunny day, I can't avoid it.
Travel is a constant trial. This last week I was in Sacramento, Edmonton, and Seattle. I managed to get a lot done, and kept everyone pretty happy. Next week, San Jose, Irvine, back to San Jose, and home. Week after I'll be in Long Beach all week.
I saw Richard 2 weekends ago. Kristi and he are doing well, and the baby is pretty healthy (and only cries when he needs to!).
Travel is a constant trial. This last week I was in Sacramento, Edmonton, and Seattle. I managed to get a lot done, and kept everyone pretty happy. Next week, San Jose, Irvine, back to San Jose, and home. Week after I'll be in Long Beach all week.
I saw Richard 2 weekends ago. Kristi and he are doing well, and the baby is pretty healthy (and only cries when he needs to!).
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Finally
I am now an Uncle to a small baby boy. Beth and I are going to California next weekend (after valentine's) for a few days to visit the petit bijou. Took some doing to avoid flying from San Francisco to San Jose via seattle. A search on orbitz says the cheapest itinerary was Alaska SEA-PDX-SJC, returning United SJC-SBA-SFO-SEA. The only reason to do this is if you want the extra segments toward premier. It's worth $20 to get eight hours of your life back
Photos will arrive once I have them.
Spent the week in Allentown for a meeting at work. Lots of time spent drinking and eating. The nicest thing is the all day coffee pot. I passed through Ohare last night. There was a black bird in the B gates in terminal 1. And sailors, young, with fresh Great Lakes haircuts, on their way to Bremerton and the adventures that wait for them in the fleet.
Photos will arrive once I have them.
Spent the week in Allentown for a meeting at work. Lots of time spent drinking and eating. The nicest thing is the all day coffee pot. I passed through Ohare last night. There was a black bird in the B gates in terminal 1. And sailors, young, with fresh Great Lakes haircuts, on their way to Bremerton and the adventures that wait for them in the fleet.
Fwd: The time has come...
From: kristi lehmer
Date: Feb 6, 2007 5:20 PM
Subject: The time has come...
Date: Feb 6, 2007 5:20 PM
Subject: The time has come...
Hello Everyone!!!
So, the little Uber is loving life in the womb..... still! So, in
about three hours, Richard and I are going to the hospital to induce
the labor.
He should be here by late tonight/tomorrow.
I will be sure to send you all a picture of the (8-10 pounder)
"little" guy. :)
I am so super excited to be a mommy and to make Richard a daddy!!!!!!!
Well, that is all I have for now.
Kristi :)
Fwd: Carson Lee Uber
From: Tammy
Date: Feb 8, 2007 6:38 AM
Subject: Carson Lee Uber
Date: Feb 8, 2007 6:38 AM
Subject: Carson Lee Uber
Arrived this morning at 1:07a.m.by C-Section. He weighs in at 8lbs
12oz. (Opa was too groggy at 3:30 when the call came in to get his
length).
Thank you for your prayers for a safe delivery. Carson, Mom, and Dad
are all well, tired, but well. We thank God for this new blessing in
our lives!
Love,
Oma Uber (Tam)
________________________________
Any questions? Get answers on any topic at Yahoo! Answers. Try it now.
Fwd: Eviction Notice :)
From: Richard Uber
Date: Feb 6, 2007 5:11 PM
Subject: Eviction Notice :)
Date: Feb 6, 2007 5:11 PM
Subject: Eviction Notice :)
Hello everyone!
Kristi and I are going to go into the hospital tonight to force out a
squatter. A 8-10 pound midget has taken up residence inside my wife, and he
is no longer welcome in there. If he's cute, we might let him stay with us
for a while...we'll see.
Wish us luck!
Richard
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Sunday, February 04, 2007
Flamingos
Old news is like new news if you haven't shared it.
These are the Flamingos at the calgary zoo.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Winter
The snow is gone. It stayed for a little over a week. There were a lot of slowdowns a few weeks back, but all is back to fifty degree normalcy.
The moss in the front yard is getting long again. The first spring clipping last year, I cut as much moss back as I did grass. It effects the north side of the house more than the back/south facing yard. Some of the grass has turned brown, and sits in dried tufts as though I lived on the tundra. I am enjoying a few days of sunshine, last weekend was also fine, and Beth and I went to American Lake.
I will be in Sacramento all next week, and then I will be in Allentown for a meeting. My sister in law is great with child, and should burst any day now. I saw my brother and her last week on Tuesday, we went into Monterey and had Vindaloo beside a fireplace. Ah, the life!
The moss in the front yard is getting long again. The first spring clipping last year, I cut as much moss back as I did grass. It effects the north side of the house more than the back/south facing yard. Some of the grass has turned brown, and sits in dried tufts as though I lived on the tundra. I am enjoying a few days of sunshine, last weekend was also fine, and Beth and I went to American Lake.
I will be in Sacramento all next week, and then I will be in Allentown for a meeting. My sister in law is great with child, and should burst any day now. I saw my brother and her last week on Tuesday, we went into Monterey and had Vindaloo beside a fireplace. Ah, the life!
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