Early Warner Warning

Since I occasionally blog about California politics, I thought maybe those who are interested in politics (as opposed to political stances) might be interested in this NYTimes magazine article on former democratic Virginia governor Mark Warner and the way his presidential chances are lining up against Hillary at this very early stage of discussion. To get a flavor, here's a snippet describing his encounter with the raging Bay Area liberal mentality:

Warner may have glimpsed a piece of his future when he attended a dinner of wealthy Democrats last summer at the Bay Area home of Mark Buell and his wife, Susie Tompkins Buell, well-connected contributors and close friends of the Clintons. Warner made some introductory comments about "the Virginia story," but the first several questions were not about taxes or schools or health care, but about gay marriage (which he's against), the death penalty (which he's for) and abortion (he's in favor of parental notification but vetoed a bill banning all late-term abortions). Warner thought his liberal guests would be interested in his policies to improve Virginia schools and raise the standard of living in rural areas; instead, it seemed to him, they thought that they understood poverty and race in an intellectual way that he, as a red-state governor, could not. Like a lot of politicians, Warner can be snappish when he feels he isn't being heard, and the dialogue quickly grew testy.

At the end of the evening, according to people who were there, as some of the guests walked Warner to his car, one woman vowed to educate him on abortion rights. That was all he could take. "This is why America hates Democrats," a frustrated Warner blurted out before driving away. (Still piqued a month later, Warner, speaking to The Los Angeles Times, summarized the attitude of the assembled guests about their plans to save the country: "You little Virginia Democrat, how can you understand the great opportunities we have?")

Reminds me a bit of attending a Howard Dean house party early in the 2004 election cycle. The most common issue people had was that he was not liberal enough (for example: "I don't know if I can vote for him. He is for the death penalty [gasp>]!!!") Sigh. Me, I am for winning. Ooooh, nooo, I feel myself being pulled into a political rant. Must... sign... off.

To Mow or Not To Mow

Every year at the end of February or beginning of March, I get to choose between mowing about a half acre of weedy mud (or is it muddy weeds?) or waiting for it to dry out while knowing that more rain is on the way. Do it this weekend and it's too early and doesn't help. Wait until next weekend and it's too long and is a nightmare. Or it's too long and it's pouring rain. Yesterday looked like it was going to rain, but the afternoon was sunny and I figured I'd hit the mud this morning and things would be a little drier. Yesterday evening it poured, and this morning it was raining again. I'll just go have another cup of coffee and think about it some more. If only I had some bears rummaging around to use as an excuse.

Blogger's Block

Oscars and the Grouch

Normally I am pretty much anti-Oscars. I get the shivers when all those self-absorbed celebrities celebrate their celebrityness, and the fawning Hollywood press basks in it all. Drawn by the desire to see how Jon Stewart did, I actually sat through the whole thing this year and generally enjoyed it. Using Tivo to skip through the endless thank-yous to agents (and even lawyers fercryingoutloud) helped. I am pretty sure that last year I had not even seen a single movie that won an award. This year I did not fare quite so badly. Kyla and I saw Crash together and really liked it. Dara and I saw Good Night and Good Luck -- great story for those of you longing for a revival of the fourth estate as opposed to state-owned propaganda propagators. The Constant Gardener wasn't bad. I haven't had my Brokeback experience -- I mean seeing the movie, to be more explicit. Personally, on that subject, I enjoyed Larry David's piece that appeared originally in the NYTimes. Dara was not amused. Oh well, she never liked Seinfeld either.

More Blog Hackery

I found this cool Flickr Badge thingy I could put in the sidebar of the blog. Scroll down and you'll see it on the right side below the "Recent Comments" area. If you guys ever post any pictures on Flickr, I'll be able to keep the pointer to them in the sidebar so they don't get lost in the postings as time goes by.

Spring thing

With spring around the corner I am concentrating on the usual clean-up, brush removal, restore the driveway, ect. I took some old feed which was moldy and contaminated with rodent droppings and dumped it out back when I woke up every dog in the neighborhood was barking at 3 bears helping themselves to that pile 1 large bear and 2 smaller maybe a mother and 2 yearling cubs. We have all seen bears from time to time around here so its not unusual but always a thrill, and the sightings usualy occur in early spring when hunger in a barren forrest brings them closer to civilization in hopes of a cheap meal. It was a breif look for me and not much more than a snack for them as the dogs applied a little to much pressure they took off through a thicket behind the house.

It's All in How You Sell It

This NYTimes travel article on Chamonix concentrated on things we were not really into, such as the night scene and my lost chance at going headlong down a glacier. Having read it, though, I'm glad that Dara was not aware that Jon Krakauer (of Into Thin Air fame) called Chamonix the "death-sport capital of the world." That would have been a much harder sell than a romantic snowboarding trip.

Taliban at Yale

I think the fact that Yale has a former Taliban spokesperson as a freshman has received a lot of blathering from the right wing blogosphere. The article in the NY Times is worth reading, though, about his journey from Afghanistan, as part of the Taliban, and adjusting to Yale. Not your normal overachiever or legacy silver spooner from Andover.

Lost Career Opportunity

Back when I was beginning my first career, working on structural analysis, I worked with a guy whose Master's thesis at Cornell was "On the Stress and Deformation Analysis of a Cow's Teat Under Milking Loads." This is a tired, old story around our house. Still, the bounce-o-meter for sports bras (courtesy of BoingBoing) seems like a missed opportunity had I continued in that line of business. The Internet changes everything, eh.

Don't look if your squeemish

Yahoo! News Photo Boxing is a brutal sport, noone deserves an ass whuppin that bad. I am thinking the ref let it go on a bit to long. I havn't seen a shiner like that since Tony Kanigliaro took a fastball in the eye. A career ending fastball.

Geezer Commune

A guy who works with me pointed us at this NY Times front page article featuring his parents' "commune." His father is the physicist in the article who is "perpetually clad in purple socks and sandals." (Growing up, my work colleague remembers poking around Edward Teller's prosthetic leg at his parents' parties, and sleeping in a radioactive sleeping bag in which his father once surreptitiously slept in the desert to observe the Trinity atomic test -- but that is another story.)

Opting for old age on their own terms, they were starting a new chapter in their lives as residents of Glacier Circle, the country's first self-planned housing development for the elderly — a community they had conceived and designed themselves, right down to its purple gutters.

It's an interesting idea, enough to make it to the top spot on the most EMailed NYTimes articles for a while.

If you want smart bugs

When I read the post about the benefits of insects with regards to criminal investigations I thought about thisclick on this htt:www.sciencedaily.com/realeases/2005/10/05/1021120542.htm Then enter key word trained wasps.It seems that insects, wasps in this case, have more value than I had ever imagined. A low tech approach to security that seems promising. In looking for this article I was amazed at all the insect reasearch that was going on particularly at Ga. Tech. This security benefit was only a small part of the things they are doing. Things like the study of insect algorythms and flying robots patterned after insects with the ultimate goal of exploring mars. Their artificial insect won some prestigious science award. Who knew?

Choosing Books

One thing I started doing years ago is to read the opening paragraphs of any book I'm thinking about buying. It's amazing how often that simple gesture can keep you from wasting time and money. If the opening sentence is like something from Bulwer-Lytton, or not really to your taste, you can stop while you're ahead. With that in mind, I thought I'd mention that I read Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. In the book, she basically runs around the country researching the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. Very funny, but perhaps a little too left wing for some of our readership. Her opening sentence:

Going to Ford's Theater for the play is like going to Hooters for the food.

How could you not be hooked after reading that?

Full Circle

The Case of the Grad School Dilemma is one step closer to being solved as Kyla discovered online today that she has been accepted at GW in their forensic science program. You go girl!

The Real Grissom

Since Kyla is taking forensic entomology, I thought she might be interested in this article about what seems like the real Gus Grissom from CSI and an exhibit at LBL in Berkeley.

Before Goff can utter "forensic entomologist," he has whipped out a laptop and cheerily launched a slideshow of gruesome photos of maggots nibbling away at naked, badly beaten, long-dead bodies.

A career opportunity in "maggots and mayhem."

EMail Addresses

I almost posted about the NYTimes article regarding teachers' reactions to students' presumptious use of EMail to demand responses from them. It was interesting. More interesting, though, was a blog article I saw that raised the question of email addresses used by students:

...even though universities give students email addresses, it’s often the case that students won’t use them. Instead they prefer their free hotmail or yahoo or gmail addresses. No problem as such there, except that sometimes the students pick the kind of addresses for themselves that aren’t exactly professional-quality. Frankly it feels a bit odd to correspond with, e.g., missbitchy23 or WildcatBongs about letters of reference or what have you.

This led to a comments section full of "our favorite inappropriate student email addresses". Some of my favorites: pimpdaddy69, creamythighs247, CutieWithBooty81, bigpimp34, chunkymonkey, sexylegs, jesus_sucks_my_penis, and a variety of AOL screen names: aqua-anus, Igotoohard, hardnowsoftlater, virusspreader, lepercolony, no69ismyfav, eatdung69, and the ever popular failingschool. The funniest comments are from people teaching resume writing classes. For the record, though, I figured Garrett's "demonted" email address was a net positive when applying for a job at a game store.

More on Social Networking

Now that we have you all up to speed on Facebook, you might want a little more education on the subject of social networking courtesy of The Daily Show. Or, if the comedic approach (or the plug-in) doesn't work for you, you see corporate America's take at Business Week. P.S. In the Daily Show report, he mentioned something Dara and I never heard of before, emo rock. Keith, Dan is going to be educating you on all of these subjects before long.

UVA vrs YALE

Kirsti and I want to go but have some conflicting plans on the 18th unless the game is in the evening in which case we can most likely make it. Of course we blocked out the 19th since Yale is the odds on favorite to win the first match, so we look forward to joining in the Yale/Kyla cheering section regardless. Please send us any schedule info as it becomes available.

You might be a redneck if

Fuel for Growth While reading this article you realize your neighbor has an ethanol plant in his barn. In the print version of this article they breakdown the process by which ethanol is made and as I read it I began to realize that it is the exact process my neighbor uses to concoct his home brew whiskey. I have tasted it as a courtesy to him, not bad but I wouldn't make a habit out of drinking it. I may take that jug he has been offering me and dump it in my gas tank just to see what happens.

Its no space elevator

There was no nano ribbons or hydro-carbons but Dan's version of the Wooden-Generator managed to win 3rd place at the RMA science fair he didn't want me bragging unless he won 1st but what the heck. He also managed to make the principles list this semester with a solid B average. He has a couple of teachers that are "cool" and the rest are in the "nice" catogory.

Yale's Sex Week

It's no coincidence that this Yale event doesn't occur during Parents Weekend.

Yale's event, which ends Saturday, includes lectures from dating specialists, a sex therapist and a discussion of homosexuality with a former Roman Catholic priest. More provocative sessions include a panel of porn stars and stripping lessons from a Playboy Channel hostess.

Ever mindful of perception, one senior observes of the panel of porn stars:

It would seem like we were trying to intellectualize sex if we didn't have something on the other end of the spectrum.

And then there is the kid who realizes his mom is going to hear about it:

In planning it, I'm saying, "Could I justify the educational value of this to my mom?" If we can, we're in good shape.

Something tells me he should worry about his Saturday night plans, not his mom.

New Sport?

After watching the first ever Olympic snowboard-cross race tonight, I've decided that this is the next step in snowboarding for Dad and I. We might have to take a few terrain park lessons first though in order to prepare for the gigantic bumps on the courses. If you missed out on the men's races tonight you should definitely check out the women tomorrow night, it's really exciting to watch - speed, jumps, and the inevitable crashing!

Going Up!

Have you guys ever heard of a space elevator? It's one of those ideas that has been around for a while and seems to come from science fiction. NASA sponsors a contest in this area, and it looks like the idea is on its way to becoming reality. Here's how it works, from the company's web site:

the space elevator will consist of a carbon nanotube composite ribbon stretching some 62,000 miles (100,000 km) from earth to space. The elevator will be anchored to a specially designed ocean going vessel named, "The LiftPort" near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, and to a small man-made counterweight in space. Lifters (robotic elevator cars) will move up and down the ribbon, carrying such items as satellites, solar power systems, exploration probes, factories, and eventually people into space.

Now that would be cool.

The Next Family Vacation

After dude ranches and alpine snowboarding, it may be time to try something a bit different. Obviously, this may require some discussion with the kids and wife. I will keep you posted.

The pioneer spirit and frozen bozos

It doesn't snow much here but you can usualy count on at least one good one every year, and last weekend was our one good one I hope. The forcast of 18" set off a panic of buying at the grocery store and by 8;00 fri night there wasn't a gallon of milk or a roll of toilet paper in the whole county. The snow actualy started sometime sat afternoon and by midnight we had about 4" thats when our power went out. Another 6" or so finaly fell before it was over. It was a beautifull snow, the type that sticks to all the trees and creates a winter scene only seen on x-mas cards. The power situation was sort of fun at first,since we heat with wood we were not freezing, and the chores of melting snow for water to wash dishes and playing an assortment of nonelectronic games was fun for a while, but the pioneer spirit began to wear thin after 12 hours or so. Fortunately I have a generator which I eventualy got cranked up and provided a few of those frivolous comforts to make it through the next 12 hours, about 24 hours without power in all, How did those pioneers make it without X-Box. We spent quite a bit of time on our 4 wheelers, the traction in the snow provides a whole new dimension to the experience. Dan is now expereinced enough to let him loose on his own, a priviledge we are both enjoying. Throughout the entire weekend I never felt the need to store a snowball for properity.

Round Up Guilt

For many years I have subscribed to the school that elbow grease was the best gardening tool. Of late I have given in to the use of Round Up to deal with the tedious chore of climbing around the walkways and driveway on hands and knees, pulling crabgrass from between cracks. Oh well. When we first moved into this place, we looked around for a gardener to do the routine maintenance (something that never happened). One looked around and suggested spraying the entire grounds with Round Up. I don't think I'm ever going to go there, but thought I'd publicly display the guilty feelings I have even doing this much. Yours in tree huggery.

Graduation Details

Aside from the dinner we're planning on Sunday, here are the details on the Yale College commencement schedule and activities.

Oldest Snowball

When you live in a place where a thunderstorm makes the front page of the paper, and a frosty windshield is taken care of by spraying water from your hose onto your car, actual snow is a major event. The last time we saw any snow in San Francisco or San Jose was thirty years ago. You can imagine the kids running around making snowballs and sticking them in the freezer. One of those snowballs is a local legend apparently.

The last week has been a whirl of 30th anniversary events. Forget Super Bowl Sunday. At the Shamus house it was Snow Ball Sunday -- a party with snowball cookies, snowball balloons, snowball cutouts, a collection of old photos and newspaper clippings and a big sign celebrating the icy icon's longevity.

Jeff, 44, marked the occasion by launching a Web site, www.oldestsnowball.com, to sate those hungry for snowball news.

"It's just kind of a stupid Web site," says Jeff, chief executive of a small software company. "Some people will find it amusing."

I thought this story was funny. However, I thought the followup was even funnier.

"I hate to burst the lady's bubble [...] but I also have a snowball in my freezer from that snowfall. And there are probably about another 500 people in the valley that do, too."

Next you'll see them on EBay.

Regionals at UVa

For those of you interested in seeing another Yale polo match, I recently found out our team will be traveling down to UVa for the regional competition the weekend of March 16th through 19th. The women are currently scheduled to play on Saturday the 18th and then if we win that match (which we expect to), we'll play again in the finals on Sunday. I don't know the exact timing of the matches, but I'll pass that along when I get it. Mom is planning on coming out to watch the matches and it would be great to get as much support as we can get, the girls and I are working very hard to win this regional competition and go on to Nationals.

Thus Began Our Longest Journey Together

Via my favorite left blog, here is a pointer to a fascinating story about Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird. I know Mom always loved the book and thought she might be interested. I didn't know a thing about Harper Lee myself.

Her book on racial injustice in the South may have sold 10 million copies and she is a key character in the Oscar-nominated film Capote, to be released this month, but Lee herself disappeared from public life for more than four decades. She followed the well-trodden path of literary recluses like JD Salinger and Thomas Pynchon. All had written huge hits and then shunned fame by withdrawing from the world. Harper Lee was just another mystery.

A key character in a film about Truman Capote?!?!

Her first brush with fame came when she worked as Truman Capote's assistant on his seminal work In Cold Blood, the exploration of a multiple killing in Kansas. Six years in the writing, the book, which created a genre of crime writing, was dedicated to Lee; Capote, who had been a childhood neighbour of Lee, credited her for doing 'secretarial work' on the project.

Amazing. With this kind of obscure trivia, I'm now feeling better armed for that Jeopardy tournament.

Trip Report

Once work stopped for me on Friday evening, we took a nighttime walking tour of old town Geneva. Here is a plaza down near the lake that we liked because of the funky lights built into the ground. The next morning we met a van at the airport and arrived at Chamonix before lunch.

The inn was up a very steep hill from Chamonix proper. The town and valley is at around 3,000 feet, while the mountains surrounding it top out at over 12,000 feet. Glaciers tumbled down the sides of Mont Blanc as seen from the balcony of our room. We had arranged for "half board" at the inn, which meant we had a delicious formal French dinner from chef Henri every evening (which must not start before 7:30!), and breakfast in the morning.

The main ski area a short walk away from the inn was Le Brevent. Most of it sat on the shoulder of the mountain, in the sunshine at 6-8000 feet facing Mont Blanc. You took a cable car up to get to the starting point. You could go on intermediate runs linked to another ski area (La Flegere) by another cable car, which I did one day. Dara stuck to the blue intermediate runs, while I also took excursions on what they call the "red runs," which are not quite the killer runs, but were a challenge.

On Tuesday we took a couple of cable cars up to the Aiguille du Midi. At the 12,500 foot summit, you can look down on Chamonix and the ski area we had been on (which is below the first ridge line behind Dara). We were light-headed at the top and even had a tough time navigating the staircases. The idea I was going to jump off at this height and take on four hours of snowboarding down a glacier was a bit of a joke after seeing the place in person.

Wednesday was a short day snowboarding for me, meeting Dara down in the town. Thursday was our travel day on three different trains to Paris, including the famous TGV high speed train into Gare de Lyon. I spent much of my time examining the train bathrooms rather than the scenery (an affliction I passed on to Dara for the flight back on Saturday.) However, we had an action packed tourism day in Paris on Friday. We took a tour bus around town seeing the various neighborhoods, and a boat to Isle de la Cite to see Notre Dame. We spent the afternoon enjoying impressionist paintings from Monet, Van Gogh, and the rest of that gang at the beautiful Musee d'Orsee. After escaping uninjured from a fender bender in the taxi on the way, we went up the Eiffel Tower in a snowstorm at night. The next morning started at 4AM to get back home and reality.

I posted all the pictures on Flickr, with titles to tell you what they are if you're interested.

Italian Superbowl

I read 2 books recently that have had a strange effect on me, neither book was particularly good in fact they both were pretty boring and predictable. One was the mafia thriller Prizzis Honer the other was the new paperback by John Grism The Broker. The common thread in both books was the colorfull and detailed descriptions of the Italian cuisine the characters all enjoyed. I found myself looking forward to their next meal more than the actual story. I was hoping for one last dinner before Vito Prizzi got hit, and I new that stupid broker wouldn't leave Italy before lunch. In both books I found myself more interested in what wine they were going to have than the resolution to any of their conflicts. That damn food sounded so good I may have gained a couple of pounds reading. Inspired by those wonderfull meals I have decided to take a stab at whipping up some Italian cuisine of my own, I bought a nice Italian cook book and plan to make my 1st attempt on superbowl sunday. The menu is going to look something like this, depending on available ingredients; Antipasti-Panzanella, then a pasta butternut squash Ravioli, followed by the main course of Brasato al Borolo. I hope to have it prepared and eaten by gametime so I can enjoy the game. By the way I am picking Pittsburg in a 24 17 victory over Seattle.

I Know What She Means

Frozen Bozos in Europe

Dara and I have been vowing to do more getaways, but with some of the traveling I'm doing, we're trying to see how mixed business and pleasure trips work. I am focused on work when working, to the point that if I stay home and work, Dara would just as soon I be at the office instead. Even with the last trip to Florida before my business trip, the weight of the upcoming work hung over me like a cloud. So, we're trying it the other way around this time. I have a set of meetings next week in Amsterdam, followed by Copenhagen and then Geneva. Dara and I are going together to Amsterdam on Monday. I am taking off to Copenhagen on Thursday, while she continues the tourist scene there and then meets me in Geneva on Friday. At that point, work is supposed to be done for a week! It's off to the French Alps on Saturday, to the Chamonix valley and Mont Blanc, about an hour and a half away from Geneva. We'll see about some snowboarding (I can't decide if I'm up for this recommendation from a French colleague) and soaking up some of the famous apres ski atmosphere. The world cup downhill starts there on Friday, and since we are not competing and couldn't get a room anyway, we're taking the train to Paris on Thursday for a whirlwind tour. Then it's back home.

The End of Hunting

I have read the article Steve blogged some time ago. It was interesting and informative although I doubt Christina Larson is much of a hunter she has certainly done some research and crunched some numbers. Where I live there is plenty of land to hunt on, both private and public. There are all kinds of hunters and most fall way short of Tony Dean when it comes to principles and philosophy about land managment and hunting. I love watching those ESPN hunting shows where guys view 50 or 75 animals before carefully selecting their victim then shoot and kill a once in a lifetime trophy all before lunch then squeeze in some world class trout fishing and call it a day. If Tony is so worried that hunting will become a pastime for the elite he should try hunting public land all season. It can be exciting but there is more to it than a pay hunt. Game goes where the food is, making private land ie orchards,corn fields rich grasses, exct more productive. Given a choice people will go where they can have the most success killing wild game. My experience with private land is the more game there is, the more the owner wants to charge for a lease. Regardless of all the wildlife managment and land lease contraversy hunting is great fun, for the average hunter your success rate is tied more closely to the amount of time you are willing to spend in the woods and your scouting ability ,than where you hunt. Unless you get invited on ESPN Outdoors.

Books

I may pick up Conspiracy of fools for my next read the subject interests me but I usualy get bored with too much detail of financial trickery. I read a couple of books some time ago about the insider trading scandal that took over wall street and found them fairly interesting but hard to get through. I recently read Ship of Gold which Steve favorably mentioned and Al commented he enjoyed it, after purchasing Shadow Divers Amozon also recomended it. I found it to be a great read and would reccomend it to anyone as well. Steve the book you mentioned about the guy moving to New York to raise dogs seems borring to me also but I heard that guy interviewed on the radio and his character and persona on air was enough to spark some interest. He expressed a keen interest in his dogs but seemed to be well grounded in the reality of proper training. He also had some kind of ability to see things from a dogs point of view and it wasn't as warm as fuzzy as most people think, statements like "give me a week and a case of liver treats with your dog and he will forget you ever existed" were shocking to a host who previously stated she didn't think she could live without her best freind and pet a golden retriever.

The geek squad I'm not

Computers are great when they work ! When they don't ,around here they just lay around and collect dust or serve as a hat rack. Today I blew off the dust and spent several hours debugging my broken puter. It was touch and go for a while when I temporarily lost even the things I had managed to preserve before it broke, in the end I think I have prevailed over a cluster of problems infecting my system. It was the automotive equivelent of removing the air filter messing around with a few loose screws cleaning everything up then putting it back together to find that you somehow fixed evrything. I don't know exactly what I did but I'm thankfull for my luck. And just in the nick of time it seems I have quite a backlog of computing to do. I really missed the blogg and the family interaction. It looks like I have a bit of reading to do to catch up.

Book Review -- Conspiracy of Fools

I'd been waiting for Kurt Eichenwald's book on Enron, Conspiracy of Fools, to come out in paperback, and it just did. Weighing in around 650 pages plus 80 of notes and appendices, you might want to practice your clean-and-jerk before picking it up. It's well worth it, though, if you're interested in what really went on at Enron. It started as an interesting idea -- a pipeline company forming a marketplace for buyers and sellers of energy to replace the traditional "buy from producer, mark it up, pipe it to utilities, mark it up, deliver electricity to consumers" cycle. That transformed Enron from a pipeline company into a financial marketplace. Add a dollop of arrogance, a heap of incompetence, a healthy dose of criminality and greed, mix together with a side of conflict-of-interest, and then ask your combination accounting and consulting company to keep things on track, and you're well on your way to the biggest bankruptcy in America. Ken Lay comes out as the chief fool in this book rather than the criminal mastermind. We'll see soon enough how that defense works for him.

I really enjoyed Eichenwald's previous book on the Archer-Daniels-Midland price fixing scheme, The Informant. Sure I know it might sound boring, but both books are cases where real life is more astounding than anything you could make up. When you look these up, I see Amazon serves up a suggestion of A Civil Action. Great book. If you're in the frame of mind, you don't want to miss Barbarians at the Gate either.

Next Big Game?

Garrett has a way of predicting the next big thing. Of course, if he was really conscious of it, he wouldn't have the right touch. At some point I've lost count of the things I had no clue about, thought were unappealing when he told me about them, and then turned out to be the next big thing for people his age. Not that he's ever said, "Dad, this is going to be BIG!" mind you. So, when he came home with the Guitar Hero video game the other day, I thought I should at least let Keith know. And here I am, suburban rock star.

As Garrett explained, the vendor of this game came into the store to show it off. Everyone thought it was a bit stupid, and besides, this wasn't some big name video game company. Later on they tried it and decided it was completely addicting.

It's basically like Dance Dance Revolution (the flammable version of which I talked about before. As a song plays, color coded blocks move down the screen. As they cross a certain line in time with the song, you have to play the guitar by holding down the colored fret on the neck near my left hand while "strumming" the lever below my right thumb. There is an extra bar hanging off to make exotic noises and get extra points. If you hold the guitar vertically at the right time, you score more, which enhances the illusion of actually playing. Hit the notes correctly, you get points. Miss them, you lose points and eventually "fail" the song. The action takes place in smoky bars or other venues, and your adoring fans cheer you when you do well. If you look closely at the picture, you'll see one of my shy groupies in the lower right hand of the picture.

Keith, you and Dan might want to check this one out. Of course, the guitar controller makes it even more expensive than the usually exhorbitantly priced games. The music ranges from oldies but goodies like Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple to things Garrett is into, like Franz Ferdinand and Queens of the Stone Age.

Class Day Speaker

For those of you planning on coming to my graduation, they just announced our Class Day speaker - Anderson Cooper. The Class Day activities take place at 2pm on Monday, May 22nd.
Also, for anyone curious about my current knitting project, I've completed one of each of the type of blocks I intend to use for my afghan and promise a picture as soon as I can figure out how to get them to lay flat for me...

Tom Daschle

While I realize it must be the equivalent of going to see Benedict Arnold speak for certain members of our esteemed readership, I thought I'd mention that we have higher brow taste than Gallagher around here, too. Last night Dara and I went to hear Tom Daschle talk as part of the Peninsula Speakers Lecture Series. Okay, so someone gave us the tickets, but that's beside the point. You know, it must be like a drowning man coming up for air for a (former) liberal politician from South Dakota to visit someplace like the SF bay area. I mean, what can the guy say wrong around here? Probably his biggest round of applause was when he spoke about the NSA wiretaps and the Congressional authorization provided to the President right after 9/11 -- and the fact that they explicitly limited the extraodinary powers to use overseas, and refused domestic authorization. In spite of that, this reporter has to say that the Republicans are in no danger of being swept out in a fever of Daschle supporters. John Kerry is definitely Mr. Charisma compared to Daschle.

Apres Gallagher

The birthday cake.

A picture is worth a thousand words!

FaceBook

I know Kyla is a fan of Facebook. I actually don't think facebook.com existed when she started at Yale, but they had a Yale version of the "face book". Like Google, it has evolved into a verb: when someone says they're thinking of setting you up with their friend, you facebook them to see what they look like and find out who their friends are. So, I thought maybe Kyla would enjoy this story (courtesy of BoingBoing again):

As far as Kyle Stoneman is concerned, the campus police were the ones who started the Facebook wars. "We were just being, well, college students, and they used it against us," says Mr. Stoneman, a senior at George Washington University in Washington. He is convinced that the campus security force got wind of a party he and some buddies were planning last year by monitoring Facebook.com, the phenomenally popular college networking site. The officers waited till the shindig was in full swing, Mr. Stoneman grouses, then shut it down on discovering under-age drinking.

Mr. Stoneman and his friends decided to fight back. Their weapon of choice? Facebook, of course.

Once again they used the site, which is visited by more than 80 percent of the student body, to chat up a beer blast. But this time, when the campus police showed up, they found 40 students and a table of cake and cookies, all decorated with the word "beer." "We even set up a cake-pong table," a twist on the beer-pong drinking game, he says. "The look on the faces of the cops was priceless." As the coup de grâce, he posted photographs of the party on Facebook, including a portrait of one nonplussed officer.

See what fun GW would be, Kyla?

Don't Annoy Me

Okay, you can annoy me. But you better sign your name to it.

Yours truly,

- The Blogmeister

Smashup Comedy

Garrett and I both figured we were in for trouble when Dara got him tickets to see Gallagher and then managed to con us into going together. ("It will be a male bonding thing," she said sweetly.) The feeling of impending doom increased as we found our way to the 2nd row, right smack in front of the table used to smash things upon. The first 25 or so rows in the theater were covered in plastic, as was the entire stage and two levels of balconies on the side. Luckily we came equipped with cheap ponchos to wear. Those who hadn't come prepared could buy ones out in the lobby. And you needed them!

The show was a mixture of standup comedy and smashup comedy. He brought along dozens of pie tins and any number of foods to smash. The assortment included the traditional watermelons, but also mayonnaise, mustard, corn, beans, tofu, yogurt, mashed potatoes, rice, rice krispies, syrup, jello, apples, soy milk cartons and juices, and an array of canned items like pumpkin. As he assembled them, he explained the science of smashing things -- the shape and size of the pie tin, putting the "explosive material" in the middle and the shrapnel on the outside. In conclusion, about 15 people who were supposedly having birthdays went on stage. Instead of blowing the candles out on a cake, they gathered round as he smashed a white cake with mayonnaise on top, followed by a chocolate cake with chocolate syrup on top, followed by a pie of mustard. Then they all got to take turns smashing the remainder of the items as we ducked.

Garrett and I huddled in our ponchos, trying to avoid eye injury while at the same time trying to witness what were some spectacular explosions. When we were done, we left the ponchos there. The guy next to us had been to see Gallagher seven times before. He wore a tee shirt with a target on it, with no poncho. He and his girlfriend took before-and-after pictures of Garrett and me, so if they arrive in EMail, I'll share them.

In the end, probably the most interesting thing to come out of this experience will be seeing what Garrett gets Dara for Christmas next year.

Graduation Update

It seems there is no set limit on tickets, so the more the merrier for May 21st. That is a Monday, but there is also a Berkeley College (that's the all-important residential college Kyla's in) ceremony on Sunday the 20th. We made dinner reservations for Sunday evening at Mory's, shown above, with the expectation of seeing quite a few of you there!

Mixing Hunting and Politics

Keith, if you've managed to get back online (he told me he was fixing something last weekend), you might enjoy this article from the Washington Monthly.

This hunt for a spot to hunt is increasingly a part of the sportsmen's pursuit today. In the terminology of those who follow the problem, "access" is the buzzword phrase. "When you ask hunters directly what their biggest concern is, out of 20-odd possible choices, land access is most often number one," says Mark Duda of Responsive Management

Coming from a political rag, the article has its own slant (an opportunity for progressives, of course!), but not being a hunter myself, I learned a few things from it. There is quite a little storm brewing over paying for access, and the way it runs counter to hunting tradition here in the US.

Tony Dean, a sort of Walter Cronkite of Midwestern sportsmen, who mixes walleye recipes with political commentary on the popular "Tony Dean Outdoors" show, says he fears a day when hunting and outdoor recreation become pastimes of the elite, something only the well-to-do can afford to enjoy. "Our forefathers left a European system in which wildlife and land belonged only to landowners," Dean told me. "We don't want to go back to being like the Europeans."

Check it out.

Blustery Weather

This is a view of the eight lane highway between Sacramento and San Francisco that greeted Kyla and her friends on their return from a soggy snowboarding trip yesterday. They were routed off the highway onto the city streets of Fairfield and had to resort to Google Maps mobile on a cell phone to find their way out. While this was going on, under the rather thin disguise of wishing us a Happy New Year and expressing their concern for our well-being, Mom and Dad called up to gloat over the fact that the the weather they were seeing on television wasn't in Florida for once. Not that we didn't appreciate the concern and good wishes anyway ☺. We're all safe and sound here as the next storm from the Pineapple Express roars in this New Year's Day morning.

Sudoku and Wikipedia

Watching Dara struggling with a difficult Sudoku, I was speculating that it would probably only take a few hours for a decent programmer to write a program to solve the damned thing. She did not seem to see the same appeal in this approach as I did. To me it seemed like one of those "teach a man to fish" kind of things. See why we get along so well?

As a result of this conversation, I looked around for computer programs to solve Sudoku puzzles. You will be happy to know that I am not going to bore you with any of that stuff, though. Instead, I thought I would point you at the absolutely fascinating Wikipedia entry on Sudoku. Aside from puzzle solving techniques (and computer programs for solving them!), it covers the history of the puzzle, the mathematics of it, and the ways puzzles are put together by various vendors. Check it out! Skip past the parts you're not interested in, because there is a lot there. And always remember: 字は独身に限る. If you read far enough, you will find out what that means.

Ankle Biters

Making the rounds of the local news shows tonight was a story of an east bay cop who was attacked by a pack of angry Chihuahuas when he returned a kid home after a traffic incident. I see the AP got right on it. The cop seemed a bit embarrassed. I wonder why.

Even Further Than Ottawa

I thought this story of a 16 year old running off to Baghdad to work on an "immersion journalism" project was great.

Maybe it was the time the taxi dumped him at the
Iraq-Kuwait border, leaving him alone in the middle of the desert. Or when he drew a crowd at a Baghdad food stand after using an Arabic phrase book to order. Or the moment a Kuwaiti cab driver almost punched him in the face when he balked at the $100 fare.

But at some point, Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old from Florida, realized that traveling to Iraq by himself was not the safest thing he could have done with his Christmas vacation.

And he didn't even tell his parents.

Mother's reaction was predictable, though:

"I don't think I will ever leave him in the house alone again," she said. "He showed a lack of judgment."

End of Year Reading List

I had a hard time locating the last reading list and mini reviews I made, but I thought I'd do another and maybe it will overlap.

• A Question of Loyalty, by Douglas C. Waller. The story of Billy Mitchell, popularly known as the father of the modern air force. The centerpiece of the story is his court martial, where he was tried for making disloyal statements when he wrote an over-the-top public critique of the state of the air corps. It was interesting to read about something I had never heard of before, but the book was a bit dry.


• Persistence of Memory, by Tony Eprile. Want to know what it's like to be a Jewish kid growing up in South Africa around the time when apartheid was coming down? Probably not, and neither did I by the time I was done with this book. In fact, I couldn't even remember why I was interested in the first place.


• An Unfinished Life, by Mark Spragg. Great story with engaging characters. I always hesitate to pick up a book that says "Now a movie from..." but I really enjoyed this story of a young, single widow and her kid who ends up going back to live with her crusty father-in-law. Takes place roughly in Wyoming, so it's a kind of modern western type of theme.


• Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons. This seems to be a re-release of an older book about a tough young girl whose mother dies and father tries to abuse her, but who knows what she wants in life and makes it happen. I liked this one quite a bit. It reminded me a bit of A Complicated Kindness that I got in Canada and which I now see in stores here.


• The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri. A story of what it's like for children of parents from India to be born and raised in the US. I work with many people from India, so to me this was interesting. Well written, fun to read. The main character ends up going to Yale, so it had that hook for me too.


• Harbor, by Lorraine Adams. The story of Arab immigrants in the US. Puts the human touch on the situation, with people escaping from really lousy and dangerous conditions to come to the US, as with many immigrants. Mixes it up with some terrorism-by-association and some real terrorism to paint a murky picture that is probably reflective of the difficult tradeoffs we all face between security and civil liberties. This book is a lot more enjoyable than I made it sound!


• Codex, by Lev Grossman. Lightweight mystery mixing computer games and rare books. I was glad it was over when I finished, but I did finish.


• The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth. I've read a few Philip Roth books over time, but this was by far the best. Chillingly realistic story that postulates that well known anti-semite Charles Lindbergh wins the election against Roosevelt ("It's war with Roosevelt or peace with Lindbergh!"). Off the country goes into its isolationist mode, figuring out clever ways to assimilate Jews into mainstream America for their own good. Great story, followed by details of what the real people in the story really said and did, because it's hard to tell reality from fiction at certain points.


• Blood Done Sign My Name, by Timothy B. Tyson. This non-fiction book centers around the killing of a young black man in Oxford, North Carolina in the early 70's. The author is about my age, and the book starts with his friend telling him that the friend's father "killed 'em a nigger last night." The book is told too much from the author's personal point of view perhaps, but the personal angle is also what gives the book much of its appeal, especially since I was about his age while a lot of the racial violence of the late 60's and early 70's was going on.


• Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford. Dara still doesn't believe me, but Ghengis Khan has really gotten a bad rap in history. Turns out he was a self-made man from lowly beginnings who overcame the tribalism of Mongolia and founded an empire based on free trade, meritocracy, and religious freedom. Of course, if you were not his faithful servant, you were a dead man, but hey, life was more difficult back in the 13th century. A bit dry as biographies go, but how often do you get to read about Ghengis Khan?


• Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson. I think this is one of those books that book reviewers love, but that nobody else does. The theme really is about the pull of being a "transient" in the lives of two sisters being raised by their wacky, wandering aunt. Takes place in the middle of nowhere in the west. I'm sure there was lots of symbolism and deep meaning I missed, so fill me in if you get it all sorted out.


• The Dogs of Bedlam Farm, by Jon Katz. Overly introspective middle aged white guy buys a farm in the middle of upstate New York for the express purpose of raising his three sheepdogs and contemplating the meaning of such a meaningless life and the role of dogs in it. Since I am a middle aged white guy who likes dogs, and I didn't like this book, I guess it is targeted at more introspective types.


• Arc of Justice : A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, by Kevin Boyle. Non-fiction story of a black doctor who buys a house in a white neighborhood in Detroit in the late 1920's. The "neighborhood improvement association" gathers people on the street in front to drive them out, one of the 11 people inside shoots into the crowd, killing one person and wounding another. All 11 are arrested and charged with 1st degree murder. Clarence Darrow, a few months off of the Scopes monkey trial, takes on the defense. Great story, well-paced, about a period of time I didn't know much about.

Enjoy!

Day Tripping

Since Kyla won't be back for Spring break, and she doesn't have time for frivolous activities like snowboarding while at school(!), we've been trying to find the right day to go to the snow while she's here. Yesterday she and I left the house at 4:45AM to go to Kirkwood. It has been so warm here that we were afraid if we didn't go now, it would only get worse. We've had maybe 4 inches of rain in the last week or two, which normally would be 4-5 feet of snow where we go, but the snow levels have been at least 8,000 feet. The base of Kirkwood is 8,000 feet. Snowboarding in the pouring rain is just a bad idea, and that's what we would have gotten the day before. Turns out it was beautiful. It was right around freezing when we got there, which made all the runs pretty much a sheet of ice. Still, as the sun got higher, it softened up like it does in the spring. It wasn't crowded, and while we kept an eye out for snowboarding Santa, we didn't see him.

Here's what "the backside" looks like on the way up. They opened it around 10:30. See the kind of rivulet formations running down the mountainside? This was a byproduct of the rain the day before, and if it's frozen, you want to stay the hell off of it. However, by the time things opened, it was soft on top, so off we headed to the ungroomed parts before too many people chopped them up.

And here is Kyla after a calf-burning traverse over to the wide open ungroomed spaces. If you look at the picture above, I took this picture on the slope at the upper left corner.

Sudoku Craze

In the unlikely event that anyone missed it, Sudoku puzzles have been popping up everywhere. Kyla and Dara are pretty much obsessed. I suppose all it takes is a relatively trivial computer program to crank them out. No need to employ those high paid crossword designers. What do you suppose is next from the Japanese?

Breathtaking Inanity

I was going to call this posting "Harrisburg Is Safe For The Harrises," but I loved this catchy phrase from the judge's decision (pdf) that came out today. Just to close Chapter 1 (as I'm sure there will be many more) of the legal attempts to shove Intelligent Design down our collective throats, I thought I'd share some pieces of the decision that are conveniently floating around the blogosphere:

To be sure, Darwin's theory of evolution is imperfect. However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions.

Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID, who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy. The breathtaking inanity of the Board's decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.

In addition to this readable conclusion, there are 139 more pages of supporting legalese and cross reference to things like the Wedge Document and St. Thomas Aquinas' views on the great designer.

Fire Dance With Me

The same guy at the office who did the fire eating class went to Burning Man a few months back. Burning Man is an annual new age art festival in the middle of the desert. Thirty five thousand people show up and camp, with no supplies provided. The festival features every crazy kind of art display you can imagine, with much of it centering on the general fire theme. He brought back pictures. The thing that was most interesting to me was the video game Dance, Dance, Immolation. It is a takeoff on Dance, Dance, Revolution (more fondly known as DDR by those in the know, like Garrett). DDR is that video game where you follow dance steps on a special mat or platform as a song plays on a screen in front of you. You rack up points for hitting them correctly, and you lose points when you miss the beat or the proper step. The variation here is that the dancer dons a full protective suit including forced air breathing apparatus, and when he or she misses a beat, a flame thrower blasts a propane torch. This was funny enough, but apparently when they asked for volunteers, my colleague at the office nearly got knocked over as people jockeyed for a chance to do it!

DSL Under the Weather

Literally. Since the last big storm came through over the weekend -- finally some snow in the Sierras -- we have not had phone service, and our DSL connection has been mostly off. It happens once every couple of years, but the phone company seems to be confused this time on the cause being on the pole across the street. Interestingly enough, though, it was more upsetting to the Harris family to be without Internet connectivity than a land line phone. The times dey is a changin'.

D'Or Bells

I didn't want to miss out on what I hope will become a Christmas blogging tradition.

Update: From Dave Barry's Holiday Gift Guide, you dog lovers out there (or those of you thinking of getting a dog) might want to consider a tasteful pair of pajamas to complement the Christmas hat modeled by D'Or.

there is no more thoughtful gift that we can think of this holiday season than a pair of these quality dog pajamas, which come in a variety of "fun" prints. We guarantee that when you put these pj's on your dog, it's going to give you a very special look -- a look that says, "Some night, when you least expect it, I will rip out your throat."

Garrett's Jury Duty

Now that Garrett is of age, so to speak, he gets to enjoy all the benefits -- like being called for jury duty. He managed to squeak out, but only after spending four full days sitting through jury selection for a civil trial that was supposed to last for two months! They had a pool of something like 60 people, and I think he ended up being in the last dozen who didn't eventually make it before the bar to be quizzed by the lawyers. Next up, Dara in a few weeks.

Wikipedia Again

In the wake of the last note about Wikipedia, I thought I'd point out:

1. The guy who libeled the Siegenthaler was identified and has since lost his job. However, the fact that someone could identify this guy relatively easily was a byproduct of him working in a small company and doing the work from there. To identify, say, me as the culprit would have taken a court order to Pacbell.
2. Via BoingBoing again, a scientific study sponsored by Nature has shown that Wikipedia has about four errors for every three in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Oatmeal -- Steel Cut vs. Quaker

Having learned a while back that my good cholesterol was looking bad, or my bad cholesterol was looking good, or whatever translates to "Here, take these statins," I have been pretty religiously eating oats. Sure, I'd been reading those little blurbs on the Cheerios box, but who believes that stuff. Kyla told me it really worked, though, so I gave up my longtime yogurt for breakfast and switched to oats. It seems to have done the job. I'm still on statins, but not as much as I would be otherwise.

Now that I am an oat afficiando, I wondered if anyone else has tried steel cut as opposed to the standard Quaker Oats route? Oprah seems to like steel cut oats, so how could you go wrong. On the other hand, she can afford them. And she must have someone to cook them for her, too, because they take about 20-30 minutes to cook as opposed to 5 with Quaker (or 1 minute if you can stand those 1 minute kind, which I draw the line at). Anyway, steel cut oats (or sometimes labeled Irish oatmeal) are pretty good! Dara can't stand to be in the same room as cooking oatmeal. Oh well, give it a try anyway. It's Cheerios for me most mornings, though, as I'm too lazy for much else.

People Making Asses of Themselves

Isn't making a xerox of your ass kinda like putting a lampshade on your head in terms of party flair? If so, that doesn't seem to be stopping people from doing it.

Photocopier supplier Canon is warning customers to take better care of their office equipment during the Christmas period, claiming that the festive season traditionally leads to a 25 percent hike in service calls due to incidents such as the classic backside copying prank.

Partly in response to this trend--or perhaps because of the "supersizing" of the western physique--Canon has now increased the thickness of its glass by an extra millimeter.

It seems the cracks are causing cracks.

A Park By Any Other Name

I could not understand why Australians suddenly thought it was a good idea to have your baby sleep with a dummy. It even seemed mildly perverted to me, but hey, who am I to judge.

Parents who give their sleeping babies dummies during their first year of life cut the risk of cot death by more than 90 per cent.

The findings suggest dummies provide a much bigger protective effect than previously thought. However, dummies remain controversial.

Having read the article, I suppose the British and Australians are just as mystified why we would call a dummy a pacifier.

Terrorist Golf

Putt the ball through the windmill and into Osama's mouth. It seems that a local miniature golf course made it on to the double super secret list of likely terrorist targets. They were surprised. Their congressional rep could not even get confirmation one way or another because the list is so secret. Referring to another local tourist attraction, someone from the golf course said:

I just hope nobody was upset or scared away by us being on the list. I heard we were 17 on a list of 18 sites, in order of the terrorists' favorite targets. We're small potatoes. They'd probably rather go for the Winchester Mystery House.

Be careful out there.

Frozen North

I am on my last east coast tour for a bit. I tried to get it in before it really got cold up here in Ottawa. Still, it's snowing right now. I did manage to get here under the wire of the storm that was dropping snow on Keith a bit earlier. Aside from the more civilized approach to elections they have here, I thought it would be worthwhile reporting that the Canadian national curling trials are underway, with what seems like continuous reporting on cable.

Don't blink

I havn't been monitoring the blog or my E-Mails since thanksgiving I knew I was missing some things but I was surprised the way the posts and mail piled up. I would like to comment on some of the posts but ther is just to much there to get started on. This time of year for me is about as good as it gets with hunting season, football, and keeping up with Dan's activities I don't have much down time. I recently took an interest in running and have been increasing my distance a little each week, this new hobby has come at the expense of mountain-biking which I enjoy but is starting to seem a little risky for an old-timer like me. I attended the annual Grousland dinner again this year and it was just as good as years past. It started with a lively debate between the former mayor of FR, and a guy many consider to be the town drunk. The subject was the best way to prepare and serve a snapping turtle. It all ended up with a reenactment of the 1959 performance of the Strausburg Drum and Bugle Corps, complete with marching and some pretty pittifull sound effects. If these guys arn't the good ole boys I don't know who is. I laughed till tears came out I guess you had to be there. We enjoyed a great family event at Sue and Moussa's over thanksgiving Its always fun to get together with everyone. Ken and Sharon's grandchildren are beautifull and getting bigger evry year. Sue's dogs were of great interest to Dan, after dinner he tried his hand at herding sheep with their help he only managed to corner them long enough to breifly touch each one. I continue to be impressed with their home brew wine and hope to get a bottle next time over. It is snowing here now with about an inch on the ground and another 4 inches in the forcast, it is beautifull but makes for quite a mess at work.

Polo and Missy's Visit

Since Dad requested that one of us report back on this weekend (and I haven't posted in awhile anyways), I thought I'd oblige him :) The weekend went really well. Missy got in Satuday afternoon, but because it gets dark so early we didn't have time to see any of campus before heading out to dinner. Sunday morning we awoke to find that it was snowing! Despite the snow we walked around campus and I got to tell Missy some of the stories about the campus while admiring the architecture. After that I had to go join my team for our team brunch and organize the tacking and game prep.
The game itself was amazing! We played the University of Connecticut women who are the current reigning national champs (and did not graduate a single player from that team). These girls are the team to beat this year and we came incredibly close, eventually losing by only 2 points. Despite having lost, we feel really good about our performance and are now super optimistic about the rest of our season. The only downer to the game was that one of my favorite ponies went lame halfway through the game and I had to play another horse instead with an unfortunate lack of brakes or steering.
All in all it was a great weekend. It was so nice to see Missy and to have her there cheering me on for such an awesome game. There are a lot more home games next semester to come watch and we should also be heading down to UVa at some point to play them. When I get a date for that game I'll let everyone know.

Politicalization of Narnia

Along with Little House on the Prairie, the Chronicles of Narnia were one of the staples of the Harris children growing up, but particularly of Kyla. I must admit that with all the good intentions of my parents, I have not a religious bone or inclination in me. Still, does that mean you're not allowed to enjoy a great CS Lewis story unless you're a card carrying member of the religious right? It seems the answer is: yes. Hold on, everyone, we're in for yet another manufactured news event, much like the current fiction that somehow Christmas is under attack. It's not because you evil secular humanists are objecting to the CS Lewis, it's because we're telling you that you can't enjoy it without embracing the religious underpinnings of it. This isn't politics, it's just absurdity. It's just creating a strawman controversy so talking heads on television and online have something to pontificate over, while the rest of us just go to the movies and eat popcorn. My advice is to enjoy the popcorn, or better yet, eat popcorn while reading the books. Hell, you can even stay home from church to do it.

Manufacturing News

I was very busy for the last few weeks getting the news out about some collaboration between various competitor companies, ours being one. I've done this quite a few times now in various forms, and it's interesting to see how successful the companies are in getting their messages across. So, I found this article from BoingBoing to be fascinating, instructive, and somewhat depressing. It's one thing to push for visibility and play of a corporate message, but it's another to see the same thing done with more general "news," scare quotes intended.

Freakonomics Revisited

I picked up the hardcopy of Freakonomics from Mom while in Naples, after Keith's recommendation. She said she thought Levitt was "just wrong" about some things. My main reaction is that the whole thing was just too glib, a problem with a lot of the science-for-the-layman books as a category. You're not an economist, and you have to trust someone, and since I have a popular book out and great credentials you're in no position to question, trust me!!! Same goes for political crap -- caveat emptor. Just as a reminder of how you shouldn't necessarily trust what you read, and that -- we can always hope, in spite of the last five years -- science is an open process of continued questioning and review, I noticed this article in the Economist (you may have to put up with an annoying advertisement before getting to it). A couple of economists looking into the claim that abortion is the root cause of crime reduction inspected

the authors' computer code and found the controls missing. In other words, Messrs Donohue and Levitt did not run the test they thought they had—an "inadvertent but serious computer programming error"

Ah, the old garbage-in-garbage-out problem. That wasn't all that was wrong, either.

The New Oxford English Dictionary

Did anyone read The Professor and the Madman, the story of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary? It was a bit tedious, but the way they actually produced the thing was fascinating. The guy running the project got a bunch of people to read a bunch of books and locate words to put in the dictionary, and then they spent something like 75 years collecting and defining the things. The modern equivalent is Wikipedia. It's a collaborative effort where people enter information into an online encyclopedia. I have found it to be very useful. It's the place I turn to first when I want an answer to "what is... something", rather than Google. Via my favorite lefty blog, I saw a pointer to this article about the dangers of the unpoliced community model for Wikipedia. Interesting.

Polo Visit

I hear from Kyla that Missy is going to be there for the home game with UConn. I expect a report from New Haven or Northeast or both.

California Leftovers

Kyla is arriving back in Connecticut via Chicago as I type this, so it's just us leftovers here.

No backseat driving on the gravy making operation allowed!

Shortly after we returned our previous visitor, we got another one, because Kyla was so disappointed to miss him. This little guy, Roo, is about 4-5 weeks old, lineage inderminate, but still high on the cuteness quotient. Here he is with Garrett, lineage fairly well determinate if you don't count Ned Boone.

A better look at Kyla and the puppy.

Florida Thanksgiving

We picked up Joe and spent Thanksgiving at Ken and Sharon's. Justin was there with wife Dina and kids. Elliott is three and a half and a real charmer. Her little brother, Jude, is 9 months. It took Sharon to point out that we had the oldest and the youngest living Callaways in our midst. Another photo-op that eluded me. Dinner was delicious and Dad lasted almost until dessert before deciding it was time to go home. We talked to Keith and Missy and others at the Virginia celebration, and thought of the California and Hawaii contingents. A lot to be thankful for this year.

Frozen Bozo Fashion

Did George Mallory just end up freezing his ass off after climbing Everest? A re-creation of the climb in the same clothing might help clear things up.

"The typical myth of Mallory was that he was under-equipped and amateurish," said Mary Rose, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Lancaster University in the UK, who was inspired by the discovery of Mallory's body to attempt a recreation of his wardrobe.

In fact, she said: "We've found that he understood his clothing probably better than modern climbers.

"It was quite an advanced system; the silk gave wind-proofing, and the silk and woollen layers moved off each other so it was quite easy to climb."

One of my favorite fictional frozen bozo books is Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica. The story centers around "adventure vacations" in which people recreate famous journeys -- Scott and Amundsen's trek to the pole, Shackleton's journey to South Georgia, etc. You wouldn't want to recreate Scott's journey too accurately, but it maybe something for Missy to look into.

Steve and Joe's Seating

The upside is that we would be protected from the sweet potato pie missiles. There's a bit of California-Florida family politics in Joan Ryan's column, too, if anyone is up for it.

Turkey Day

I have enjoyed Keith's stories about hunting wild turkey, so I thought he might enjoy this article about turkey Berkeley style. Kinda takes the fun out of the whole thing when you have to shoo them away. Of course, in politically correct Berkeley, people will name the turkeys and defend them before engaging in any population control.

Texting

Dara pointed me at this article, noting that she had tried to get Mom turned on to the text message thing but to no avail.

"The key factor in whether you like to do this is age," says Lewis Ward, an analyst for IDC, a worldwide market research company. "Teenagers and younger adults are more likely to do text messaging and IM (instant messaging)."

I used to think, "Who needs yet another way to communicate. I've got a phone, a cell phone, email, and instant messenger. I need another way to stay connected like I need a hole in the head." Still, I think we're finding text messaging to be more useful and less obtrusive than a cell phone call, so we're doing it quite a bit. After this article, I can feel young and trendy while I'm at it. These factors are not to be underestimated as I home in on the big five oh.

Fun and Games

I admit I was pissed after tha Tampa Bay Game, yesterday I spent a full day in the woods in a tree with temps around 20 and saw no horns, that was also frustrating. Today We are going to fed-ex field to see the skins play Oakland. Its not likely but even if they lose and I fell into some deep dark depression over my lack of sporting success over the last couple of weeks I can assure everyone I won't go under the knife. When things don't go my way in these matters I always quote Dad "Its just nice to be out there". When you think about it, win or lose it is nice to be there. My fantasy team is another story, if I slip one more spot on the standings I may at least shave or get a haircut. When you lose at that you can't even say you were there to enjoy it.

Sports Obsession

Via BoingBoing, I thought I'd pass along this story of an obsessed sports fan who castrated himself when his team won (you can watch an annoying ad to read the story without registering).

Geoffrey Huish, 31, performed the impromptu self-surgery in February when his beloved Wales beat world champions England.

After performing the deed, Mr Huish put his severed anatomy in a bag and took them to his local social club to show fellow fans.

After watching Tampa Bay beat the Redskins last weekend, I offer this as a warning to Keith.

Paranoia Explained

I bet Kyla's senior research project was not as fun as this study at MIT on the effectiveness of aluminum foil helmets in blocking radio signals. The conclusion was shocking, though:

The helmets amplify frequency bands that coincide with those allocated to the US government between 1.2 Ghz and 1.4 Ghz. According to the FCC, These bands are supposedly reserved for ''radio location'' (ie, GPS), and other communications with satellites (see, for example, [3]). The 2.6 Ghz band coincides with mobile phone technology. Though not affiliated by government, these bands are at the hands of multinational corporations.

It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings.

Don't say we didn't warn you.

Home Sweet Home

We had a nice but brief visit in Naples. Plenty of hurricane blogging material there -- a veritable gold mine of stories about uprooted trees and damaged roofs all going to waste. Unfortunately, we didn't bring a camera, and I didn't see Mom or Missy armed with one either. Uncle Joe and I had a spirited discussion about -- gasp -- politics. Some people!!! I suppose you might find most of middle America somewhere between where we each stand on almost every issue, but we agreed that the lost art of talking about things was a loss to all. From there it was on to Atlanta for me. I gave a keynote at a conference. I would give myself a C or C-. The lesson is that you should only do keynotes on topics in which you really have deep knowledge or experience, and I was only about halfway there on this particular conference's theme. On to Raleigh from there to visit with the group I have there, which was the highlight of my trip. Then to NY for a bit of excruciating negotiation on a business deal. I stayed in the Hudson Hotel. So chic-chic that it does not have a sign outside, and the lobby and rooms are incredibly dimly lit. The room was 59 degrees when I arrived, which would have been bad enough if I didn't have to get some work done sitting in the metal chair that was just as cold. I had Internet connectivity, but the phone did not work, and there was a half inch gap between the double-hung windows letting the strong wind blow in. After a $30 hamburger via room service, the night came to a little over $500. New York, gotta love it!

Off to Naples

It will be yet another whirlwind tour, but it's off to Naples tomorrow with Dara. Garrett, that workin' man, will be holding down the fort and the visiting puppy. Dara heads back on Monday while I go to Atlanta, Raleigh, and probably NY. As Dad says, you can rest when you get home. Yeah, like that'll work.

Unclear on the Concept

In my ongoing rant regarding intelligent design, I thought I'd note that Kansas, in (re)approving their agenda to downplay evolution in favor of intelligent design, has decided to redefine science.

In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.

In the good news category, though, residents of AJ and Ursula's new home decided to eject all the existing school board members who voted in favor of including intelligent design in the curriculum.

Dalmation Plantation

Well, maybe not dalmations, but we sure have dogs!!! This one followed Dara and Garrett home from Pets In Need today for what is believed to be a week long stay before being put up for adoption. It's hard to see her coloring, but she looks a lot like an Australian shepherd with a full tail.

Election Day in Kahleefawnyah

Ahnold's approval ratings seem to be tracking W's lately. If you don't know, though, we have a "special election" coming up tomorrow. That's the same kind of special election that brought us Ahnold a while back. He didn't want to wait to a regular election to try to push through a set of propositions for his so-called reform agenda. Propositions are what we use out here so the legislature doesn't have to make any difficult decisions. My general philosophy is to vote NO on everything, but occasionally I will get sucked into one, such as the stem cell research that is currently undergoing legal challenges in a thinly disguised effort by the religious right to tie things up. Sigh. I figured I can violate the no politics rule when it's about a state that all of you consider to be looney anyway.

One interesting and annoying phenomenon this time around has been the number of recorded messages coming our way. So far we've heard from Ahnold himself, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. John McCain, a distraught mother whose daughter had an abortion without telling her and feels a spankin' new law is just the trick to fix things, and today... Warren Beatty. It's pretty sad when you listen to the news and find that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Warren Beatty, and Rob Reiner would be in a three way tie if an election was held today. Personally I'm holding out for Martin Sheen. Or maybe Alan Alda or Jimmy Smits or Geena Davis.

Fall Family Weekend

I mentioned we were going to participate in Fall Family Weekend at Dan's school RMA, so I thought a short report was in order. It started off with a parade and flag ceremony which we chose not to attend, we got in the picture just in time for the speeches and introductions by faculty and administrators. Then mercifully it moved on to reportcard distribution and a little time to praise or reprimand your kid whichever was in order, fortunately for us it was all praise. This was followed by parents taking on their kids schedules and attending each class for a sort of group conference with the teachers. You could tell it was a tight spot for the teachers as they seemed to apreciate the abreviated schedule. That part was interesting to me just to see and meet some of the other parents and observe some very tough questioning by parents and the diplomatic skills of the teachers most were quite good. A nice lunch was served at the upper school then 1 on 1 conferences with the teachers, this is Kirsti's area of expertise, she knows the right questions and I sort of stand back and take in the results with an occational question or comment. The overall picture there for Dan seemed quite positive he is barely clinging to a B average but his grip is steadily improving as time goes by. The classes are challenging for him and the skills neccesary to do well are mostly new and he appears to be rising to the occasion. We were very pleased that in every class his participation grade is at least 98%. He has a generaly good attitude twoard school and is showing a real effort in all areas. So far Kirsti and I consider RMA to be one of our best decisions and couldn't be more pleased with the whole thing. It is still relatively new to Dan and us but are hopes are high for continued success.

Adventure Cruise

In case you thought cruise ships were just about endless buffets and lounge acts -- certainly my preconception -- it seems you can spice it up a bit if you cruise the Somalian coast:

A cruise ship sailing off Somalia has beaten back gunmen in speedboats who opened fire on it in an apparent pirate attack which terrified passengers.

At least two boats closed in on the Seabourn Spirit, reportedly firing automatic weapons and a rocket-propelled grenade.

But crew took evasive action, repelling the attackers without returning fire.

One crew member was lightly injured in the early-morning incident in waters notorious for pirate attacks.

There may be a whole new class of adventure cruises coming out of this.

Flying Spaghetti Monster in Harrisburg

Did anyone else notice that the cornerstone legal case regarding schools teaching intelligent design is happening in Harrisburg, Pennsyslvania, the future home of AJ and Ursula. As I discussed before, at least they are working according to plan:

Phase III. Once our research and writing have had time to mature, and the public prepared for the reception of design theory, we will move toward direct confrontation with the advocates of materialist science through challenge conferences in significant academic settings. We will also pursue possible legal assistance in response to resistance to the integration of design theory into public school science curricula. The attention, publicity, and influence of design theory should draw scientific materialists into open debate with design theorists, and we will be ready. With an added emphasis to the social sciences and humanities, we will begin to address the specific social consequences of materialism and the Darwinist theory that supports it in the sciences.

Expect a ruling on the case in Harrisburg in January.

Marking wildlife

Danny is now seriously into paintball, I know this because it is one of the first things he willingly spends his own money on. Where did that kid learn to be so tight? Anyway last night we went out for some target practice, it was fun and he was a pretty good shot also, we were not able to get close enough to the neighborhood deer for a shot but ther are a couple of well colered rabbits in the woods out front and some very nervous rats down in the barn.

ohmmm

I went to hear the Dali Lama speak this morning. He was at Stanford University and the students signed up for a lottery to be able to buy tickets. A friend of mine, David, a student who works with Kyla at the lab in the summer asked if I wanted to go as he had won two tickets. Turns out they gave the students the best seats on the floor and we were so close the security guy was blocking us sometimes. It was fascinating. He mainly emphasized knowledge and compassion as a way to inner peace. I also learned they are constantly reevaluating their truths and concepts as experience shows them if something they had believed turns out to be false. The most surprising thing was how funny and jovial he was. Who knew the Dali Lama was such a card!

Boney's Tooth

Does anyone else remember Uncle Howard's Napoleon obsession? I saw this article about one of Napoleon's teeth being up for auction:

A tooth believed to belong to Napoleon Bonaparte is expected to fetch up to £8,000 at a Wiltshire auction.

The tooth is thought to have been pulled in 1817 when he suffered from a mouth inflammation diagnosed as scurvy.

What I remembered was seeing a magnifier of some kind at Mary&Howard's house inside of which was reputed to be one of Napoleon's hairs. Weird.

More Research in Support of the Obvious

You have to hand it to Wal-Mart that they seem to be taking an open look at what the real effect is of their race-to-the-bottom approach to wages and benefits. I have a feeling that maybe their marketing department may now reconsider the honesty-is-the-best-policy approach, though:

One study concluded that Wal-Mart's giant grocery and general merchandise Supercenters brought little net gain for local communities in property taxes, sales taxes and employment; instead, the stores merely siphoned sales from existing businesses in the area.

David Neumark, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, found that "residents of a local labor market do indeed earn less following the opening of Wal-Mart stores."

Worse yet, he wrote, is Wal-Mart's influence in the South, where it has its greatest concentration of stores. There, Neumark and his coauthors found, Wal-Mart has decreased retail employment and total employment.

Michael Hicks of the Air Force Institute of Technology and Marshall University found that each employee of Wal-Mart caused "the average state to expend just under $900 a year in Medicaid benefits."

This is outrageous. Clearly the solution is to cut Medicaid benefits.

Baby Time

My former business partner, Hal, and his wife LuAnn just had a baby. Suffice it to say that it's been a long journey for them, so it is great to see such a lovely result. Three pounds, ten ounces, but her lungs are in good shape and all signs are positive. I suspect there will be some dissention on this blog regarding Hal's comment that their new baby is "the most beautiful baby that ever was". You can click this link if you want to see his blog post about her, but even his new baby posting isn't suitable for the no politics rule here.