New Blogger Version

I am not sure, but due to a change in the Blogger service hosting our blog, you may have to create a Google account to post now. I'm thinking this is the case because I switched myself and Dara over, but nobody else's name shows up in the new list of "contibuters" on the right. It should be painless to switch over. You just put in your regular EMail address and a password, and they'll send you a confirmation message to that EMail address. Click the link in the EMail to confirm the account. When you log in to post in the future, then, you need to log in using the Google account (your username is the EMail address, not the old one you used in the past). Send me a mail if you have any problems. Everyone who could post before should be able to post, and although a new feature allows me to restrict who sees the blog, I left it publicly visible (just for you, Iva!). I may muck around with the layout some later.

Apple Sabotage

Less interesting and a lot less rewarding than Fantasy Football are my adventures with trying to run Windows on our new iMac. I had it all running beautifully using a Beta version of something Apple calls Boot Camp. It lets you choose whether to boot up into Windows or into the Mac operating system, OSX. Dara's game, Titan Quest, only runs on Windows, and if we could not run Windows, we would have gotten a different computer. Everything was fine until the automatic "software update" feature on OSX suggested I download and install a new version of firmware -- basically software that gets burnt into the hardware of the computer. After I did that -- poof -- no more Windows. Three weeks of pretty serious geeking, Googling, and fretting have left me a bit wiser, but with no joy. I am reduced to haunting message boards of German hackers. Dara is even less joyous. Perhaps worst of all, I have lost some of the aura of computer geek invincibility I used to have around the house.

Cookie Decorating

Kyla, Jody, Garrett, and Dara show off their mad cookie decorating skilz.

Intrepid Traveller

I remember when Mom, Dad, Dara, and I made our great offshore trip from NC to the Virgin Islands, we called back home. We had nearly killed ourselves, so we were certain that everyone was worried. Maybe it was Missy we called, I can't remember. What I do remember is the response: "Oh yeah! I forgot you were doing that. How was it, anyway?"

It's always disappointing to find that you're the only one worried about you. This was not the case with Kyla's trip out here. She was booked to fly from BWI through Denver, leaving at 5PM Eastern today. Yesterday afternoon Kyla thought her flight had been cancelled. We talked with United, and they said it was "not cancelled yet." Last night there was "no scheduled opening" for the airport. They opened the first two runways at noon Denver time, and CNN reported that thousands of people were going to be stranded for days. Kyla got on the plane and took off on time. Having located the proper web sites to monitor the situation, dozens of text messages, a phone call or two, and several thousand page refreshes later, we can see that she's in the air and on her way here. Off to the airport for what looks like a happy ending to a tense day or two.

Noodling in Dorking

A long while back I blogged something about the extreme sport of “Noodling.” This is where some very brave (but not too bright) folks feel their way underwater along the sides of a riverbank until they feel a hole, then shove their arm in that hole in hopes a monster-sized carp (and not a snapping turtle) will bite onto their hand. The WSJ on Wednesday ran a story about the Polish obsession with carp in the town of Dorking, England. The Poles don their wetsuits, grab a spear gun or net, and search the English rivers for these wily creatures, leaving the English in an uproar over the Poles' unsportsmanlike like fishing conduct. As it turns out the Brits are willing to pay up to $40 a day to fish stocked private ponds in search of the choicest of carp specimens. Then there’s Mike, fishing front the back of the “Lucky Girl,” with the look of disappointment in his eyes as he pronounces, “It’s only a carp.” Come to think of it, I never hear Keith, Dan, or Steve bragging over their carp catches either. Maybe we’ve all overlooked the finer attributes of Cyprinus carpio.

Messiness Is Next to Godliness

Dara pointed me at this NYTimes article about the goodness of messiness.

Irwin Kula is a rabbi based in Manhattan and author of “Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life,” which was published by Hyperion in September. “Order can be profane and life-diminishing,” he said the other day. “It’s a flippant remark, but if you’ve never had a messy kitchen, you’ve probably never had a home-cooked meal. Real life is very messy, but we need to have models about how that messiness works.”

In our house, the saying goes that being messy isn't the same as being dirty. And given the state of my desk at work, I've been known to say "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what is an empty desk the sign of?"

Madison Ave Stunned

When rural construction worker defeats fantasy football favorite and advances to final round of the playoffs. One more game and I'm going to disneyworld.

Knowing Thine Enemy

Via my favorite lefty blog, there is a very interesting article in the New Yorker by George Packer, the guy who wrote The Assassins' Gate I wrote about earlier. Like many New Yorker articles, it's wordy, but even if it takes you two or three reading sessions, it's worthwhile. He profiles people in the Pentagon (most notably David Kilcullen) who are charting out new strategies for dealing with "global jihadism."

One night earlier this year, Kilcullen sat down with a bottle of single-malt Scotch and wrote out a series of tips for company commanders about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is an energetic writer who avoids military and social-science jargon, and he addressed himself intimately to young captains who have had to become familiar with exotica such as “The Battle of Algiers,” the 1966 film documenting the insurgency against French colonists. “What does all the theory mean, at the company level?” he asked. “How do the principles translate into action—at night, with the G.P.S. down, the media criticizing you, the locals complaining in a language you don’t understand, and an unseen enemy kill-ing your people by ones and twos? How does counterinsurgency actually happen? There are no universal answers, and insurgents are among the most adaptive opponents you will ever face. Countering them will demand every ounce of your intellect.” The first tip is “Know Your Turf”: “Know the people, the topography, economy, history, religion and culture. Know every village, road, field, population group, tribal leader, and ancient grievance. Your task is to become the world expert on your district.” “Twenty-eight Articles: Fundamentals of Company-Level Counterinsurgency”—the title riffs on a T. E. Lawrence insurgency manual from the First World War—was disseminated via e-mail to junior officers in the field, and was avidly read.

There are some smart people out there, and they're on our side. Somehow, though, I doubt this new kind of thinking maps to our current, er, notion of "victory." Sigh.

Don We Now Our Gay Apparel

Dara and D'Or all dressed up for a wild night of Christmas barking.

Gift Ideas from Dave Barry

Dave Barry's web site is one long running set of short snarky comments about the often hilarious links people send to him. I get tired of clicking through the links to find out what the heck he's talking about. Still, his annual Christmas shopping list is always worth a look. My personal favorite this time around is the Marie Antoinette action figure.

A Poor Attempt at the Harris Holiday Bread

When the west coast Harrises came for the holidays a couple of years back Steven made his outstanding bread. I've made it 2 times since with great success. However - last night I made the bread and got it to where it sits in the bread pans and left it until this morning to bake as it was way past my bead time. Now - the tops are hard and crusty - what did I do wrong??? Not enough kneading, not enough butter on top? It's too late now but inquiring minds want to know...

Also, it took 3 tries & 15 eggs, but my Eggnog Flavored Italian Merange Buttercream Icing ROCKS!

Ba Humbug

10 days to xmas and I have only been shopping 1 time, that was when I snuck out of work at 8;30am, went to Walmart and practicaly had to fight for a Xbox 360. Yesterday I had to go to a place in the big box shopping district of Winchester and I thought I was going to spend the night in the truck because the traffic was so bad. I have always been a last minute shopper, in recent years I have only been able to pull that off by shopping at 2;00 or 3;00 AM when the crowd is thin. More and more I am finding internet shopping is the way to go, but I'm not easily sold on an item I can't touch and look at in 3d. In the end I know there is going to be at least 2 twighlight trips to Walmart, 1 to get some ideas, and one to actualy buy stuff. Sunday Dan and I will make our anual trip to flood plain below the house and cut down a tree for the house and put up a few decorations thats when I usualy start to get the xmas spirit. Shopping just doesn't do it for me.

A Visit from AJ

It was only three days--Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning--but we had a wonderful visit and Dad was feeling better than he had in a while. AJ was a lot of help, doing useful things like taking all the ceiling fans apart and cleaning and repairing them. He expressed interest in the blog, which I tried to encourage but didn't get the feeling that this was going to last very long.

He walked with me and complained about trying to keep up, he told lots of great stories about Thomas, we had lunch at Harold's and breakfast at Skillet's, and then it was time for him to go. We are trying to plan a later trip that will include Ursula and Thomas.

When he left I felt bereft, which happens every time one of you comes and goes.

Still in

The Flyinng Lemurs narrowly escaped a 1st round elimination last night and move on to round 2 of the playoff action. Fantasy football changes the way you watch and cheer for football. I used to watch a game and want someone to win, last night I didn't have anyone in the game but my opponet had 4 guys 3 on the bears and 1 on the rams so I found myself rooting against both teams, seems wierd, when I found myself rooting against the Redskins earlier this season I knew I had a problem.

Wii the People

Garrett left his Nintendo Wii here at the house, and I've been playing it. Since his prediction of the Wii kicking the ass of the PS3 seems to have come true, I thought I'd let you in on the details. It's all about the controller -- the thing you hold in your hand to play the game. Instead of the usual two-handed, multi-button approach used in every other game system, the main thing you use with the Wii is a wand-like thing you hold in one hand. There is a slim sensor that you put on top of your television, and the two together are capable of telling where you're pointing it and how you're moving it. The result is really strange. For example, you can play tennis by swinging it like a tennis racket, or golf by swinging it like a golf club. It really works! It's sensitive enough to be able to tell a slice in your golf swing or a spin in your tennis swing. Weird and highly addictive. Also a bit dangerous if you don't hold on or you have things in your way when you play. So, follow Garrett's advice, and if you're in the market for a new game system, save your money and buy the cheaper and cooler Wii.

Fantasy Basketball

Buried within the NYTimes magazine's review of good ideas from the last year was a story of how Cal supporters screwed with the head of the top UCLA forward, Gabe Pruitt, before their critical match. They managed to get his instant message ID, impersonated a hot co-ed they called Victoria, and got him to provide his phone number to them.

On game day, when Pruitt went to the foul line for the first time, Cal students began chanting: “Victoria! Victoria!” and reciting Pruitt’s phone number. Pruitt, a 79 percent free-throw shooter on the season, missed both shots and had one of his worst games of the year, shooting 3 for 13 from the field. Cal won the game by 11 points and went on to the N.C.A.A. tournament.

College students can be so cruel.

Surfing in Harrisburg?

If you can surf in Cleveland, maybe there's hope for Harrisburg.

Surfers watch their friends for signs of hypothermia, urging them to leave the water when their eyes glaze over and their words slur. Ear infections are a common affliction.

To reach the lake, surfers drag their boards across snowdrifts and beaches littered with used condoms and syringes, Mr. Ditzenberger said. The most popular surf spot is Edgewater State Park. It is nicknamed Sewer Pipe because, after heavy rains, a nearby water treatment plant regularly discharges untreated waste into Lake Erie.

The Susquehanna is looking better all the time.

Polonium News

We used to have polo news. Now it's all polonium all the time. I was relieved to see that Litvinenko's room was on the 4th floor of the Millennium. I remember my room, because it was -- believe it or not -- room 666. Morbidly amusing to me at the time.

Random Bits

• I see that seven bartenders at the Millennium Hotel have tested positive for Polonium.
• I heard on the radio today that it's critical for the space shuttle to launch soon because they don't want it in orbit over New Year's. They seem to be worried that the shuttle software can't handle the rollover. A Y2.006K problem. I don't believe it.
  
• Two things were interesting about this article in the NYTimes on real estate prices. First, when they put houses up for sale via an auction, the prices dropped by a lot more than the calming information about a "soft landing" we're all hearing. They attribute this finding to the use of the auction as a way to discover what people are really willing to pay, while the statistics you're always reading about exclude the houses that sellers are unwilling to drop the price on as they continue to live in denial. Second, it was all about house prices in Naples. House prices are ridiculous out here, but the speculation out there is just downright shameful. Any place that has a real estate channel to support all the speculators is in trouble.
• In the category of "necessity is a mother," I thought that the use of Silly String as a way to detect trip wires on bombs was innovative.
  

Fantasy Update

I have bored you in the past with my 2 loosing fantasy seasons. Now I'll try something new, after yesterday's NFL action I am the winner in my division and going into the playoffs with a very strong and healthy team. I can hardly believe it but, The Flying Lemurs ,(team name) are on the road to glory, or a 1st round elimination ,either way its a proud moment for me .

Reading Update

As Keith noted, River of Doubt, by Candice Millard, was terrific. The others in my stack o' books lately include:

The Assassins' Gate, by George Packer. I wanted to read this in hardback when it came out, but I bided my time. I've read a number of books on the Iraq mess and the history behind it. This one was written by a believer in the cause -- at least originally. It follows the whole adventure in chronological order from a reporter's standpoint. Much of it takes place in the country as he interviews natives, neocons, soldiers, and bureaucrats in real-time. The book ends shortly after the election and the spiral into sectarian violence. Definitely a different perspective and worth reading.

The Darwin Conspiracy, by John Darnton. This is one of those "what if" mysteries that builds around the notion that Darwin's depression later in life was due to the secret circumstances surrounding a hidden rivalry between Darwin and a shipmate. It sounded more interesting than it turned out to be. It was fun to learn some about Darwin and the voyage of the Beagle, but in the end I just could not buy into the whole conspiracy basis for the book.

The Traveler, by John Twelve Hawks. I'm thinking of changing my name to Steve Twelve Hawks. But I digress. The book was kind of a non-religious DaVinci Code meets Robert Ludlum meets The Matrix type of novel. The bad guys are after controlling all of us, even though we don't know it. The good guys are trying to make sure that there is still some chaos and unpredictability in the world, and of course the best way to do that is to be incredibly techno-savvy, be an expert in martial arts, and carry a sword. A good story if this kind of thing appeals to you, but I think this is only book one of four planned.

Acts of Faith, by Philip Caputo. This is the same Phil Caputo who wrote the Vietnam war memoir, A Rumor of War. I also read Horn of Africa years ago, and he has a very gritty, realistic style I enjoy. I really liked this book that centers around the Darfur region and the strange mixture of religious types and do-gooders trying to both help and convert the natives in the region. There are a number of sub-plots, including one that follows a band of black rebels fighting the Arab muslims from the north. One of the cover quotes mentioned this book as being like Graham Greene's Quiet American. The comparison is apt, and the book will make you as uncomfortable about the good intentions of Americans in today's complex political situations as that one did for Vietnam. Thought provoking in any case.

The End of Faith -- Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, by Sam Harris. I would characterize this as more of a well organized, thoughtful rant than a book. It's basically an argument in favor of reason prevailing over religion, and the increasingly destructive and dangerous role that religion plays today in the world. (9/11. Need I say more?) I have to say that having a president who believes he is executing on a mission from God, and that all the true believers will be taken up to heaven leaving their clothes and fillings behind is, er, extremely scary to me personally. Moreover, the notion that those are reasons why people voted for him to have his finger on the button is even scarier. So maybe I'm more sympathetic to this book than others will be. I'm at least glad that someone wants to have the conversation.

The Last Expedition, by Daniel Liebowitz and Charles Pearson. An entertaining non-fiction account of Stanley's wild dash through the Congo in an effort to rescue Emin Pasha from the Islamic jihad in the Sudan that killed British General Gordon in 1887 or so. Stanley was a megalomaniac, whacko explorer, most famous for finding Livingstone. When the Muslims took over the Sudan and killed General Gordon, Stanley hatched a scheme to rescue Gordon's lieutenant, Emin Pasha. The scheme included breaking ground through a jungle that Tarzan would have been scared of, going from west to east across Africa. By the time the rescuers found Emin, they were the ones who needed rescuing. Fascinating story. I read this just before Acts of Faith, and it covers some of the same physical locations separated by 120 years.

No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy is pretty harsh, maybe a western Jack London who uses shorter words. I enjoyed this book, but if you're looking for an uplifting modern western, you should look elsewhere. It's the story of a drug deal gone bad, and a local boy who finds a bunch of cash among the dead bodies surrounding some pickup trucks in the desert. He's no fool, but the bad guys are on him, and bad doesn't really capture them properly. The sheriff who tries to keep things in control is the main character, and he's someone you can identify with.

The Tender Bar, by J.R. Moehringer. I liked this non-fiction memoir about a kid who grew up in Long Island and whose life was dominated by his experiences in a local bar and the characters who inhabited it. I'm not exactly a fan of glorifying drinking, so the book had to have a lot more in it than a series of bar stories. He was raised by a single mother, and ended up going to Yale. Part of the book covers his time at Yale as a poor public-school-educated kid among the blue bloods. I would cut and paste part of it and point Kyla at it if I could, because I feel sure she could relate. Also interesting was the part that covered his getting a job and adventures as a copyboy at the NYTimes. Offbeat and interesting.

River of Doubt

While Steve was out checking for palonium in the UK I was home reading the book he left for me, River of Doubt. I have to say, that is one of the more interesting and entertaining books I have read in some time. I knew nothing about Teddy Rosevelt and what a hoss he really was. I never thought of any of our presidents as the explorer/ adventurer type at least not to the extent Teddy was willing to go. Being president of the US was a virtual cake walk compared to the challenges faced in the Rainforest. Rosevelt was a great man on anyones scale of greatness, I can't think of anyone in today's world that has come close.

UK Update

After a relaxing Saturday out at Keith's, I did a quick and hectic loop through the UK. The news about Alexander Litvinenko's Polonium poisoning was all over every news station out there. You'd think it was about something important, like Michael Jackson. The only problem with my flippant attitude was that I was briefly staying in the Millennium Hotel in which the Polonium was found. Interestingly enough, the place was packed. Some of the local scuttlebutt centered around speculation that the whole thing was a publicity stunt for the new James Bond movie.

I visited some customers in the west country, driving past Stonehenge on the way. I ended up staying at the Moonfleet Manor in Weymouth. Standing near one of the world's greatest natural harbors (home to famous smugglers and the launching spot for much of D-Day), I am sure I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't arrived after dark and left before sunrise.

One of the events they had set up for me to participate in was a techie debate at the Groucho Club in Soho. They have a strict no-cell-phones rule because of all the celebrities that hang out there. You can imagine how well I fit in. A couple of people commented that they had seen Howard Marks. Never heard of him myself, but he's pretty easily Google-able, and he was coming in while I was waiting for a cab back to the radiated hotel.

Nice to be back home!