Monthly Archives: July 2011

No Great Thoughts Today

Posted on July 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

No lofty thoughts or grand pontifications today.  Although there’s still over a month left before school starts in Virginia, we had to make a shopping run with the kids.  I find it a good sign that they are willing, nay anxious to get their school supplies started this early.  Adam claimed last year was his best year ever and I suspect he’s hoping next year will top it.  Katie is a bit more laid back, at least in some ways, but she still excels.  In her case the most important item was finding just the right shoes for the new school year.

Adam and I continue to work on his computer (the one built like Frankenstein’s monster from pieces parts.)  While it’s coming along nicely he naturally hopes I’ll upgrade my computer so that he can take my current system.  I found a newer operating system disk in the hall closet that will help his system work better, so we’ll just have to see how that works out.

Many of my technological gadgets are dying.  Unfortunately many of them are ten to twenty years old and have been patched, updated, reconfigured, etc. to the maximum level possible.  My poor weather station apparently has rheumatism problems – whenever it rains it gets cranky and creaky and cannot accurately measure the rainfall. 

My computer has a terabyte secondary hard drive that acts as a backup and sharing site for the other computers in the house.  As the number of computers and their use has grown, the available disk space has shrunk – especially since I store photographs on it.  I suspect being team photographer for my daughter’s soccer team may have some effect thereupon.

Yes, I picked up a larger hard drive during the shopping run.  My plan is to disassemble most of these systems over the next month or so as I move them from the room next to the front door to a less visible part of the house.  As I disassemble each item I’m going to carefully examine what I have and decide whether to reinstall, repair, abandon or replace.  That will be quite the exercise in prioritization.

So that’s what I did today.

I’ll try to think of something brilliant for tomorrow.

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Posted in Uncategorized

The Congressional debt Ceiling Fight – Chapter 793

Posted on July 29, 2011 | Leave a comment

I guess it’s fair to say that Congressional antics have superseded Casey Anthony as the fiasco du jour.  While I have great respect for the importance of freedom of the press, I have to wonder whether the current financial issues would unfold the same if there weren’t reporters and camera operators around every corner in Washington, DC.  Heaven knows we don’t want Congress working behind closed doors, but it’s almost as bad to give them an audience.

The motto of the United States may be “In God We Trust,” but the motto of our Congress seems to be, “Look at me!  Look at me!”

It’s kind of like the old joke that gives the most common quotes before a car crash, alledgedly in chronological order:

  1. Hold my beer!
  2. Watch this!
  3. Oh, shit!

We seem to have moving from the second to the third in rapid fashion.

When we were kids, we often demanded that our parents “Look at me” as we showed them our amazing new swimming maneuver or bicycle trick.  I call them amazing because they were amazing to us, not to our parents.  Fortunately most of us grew up.

I believe in life there are people who actually accomplish things and then there are people who talk about them.  This has led to such iconic sayings as “Those who can, do.  Those who can’t, teach.”  It might be more appropriate to say those who can’t legislate.  In the movie “1776” John Adams bemoans the fact “One useless man is a disgrace, two are called a law firm and three or more become a congress.”

Many businesses fail because they focus on the cost side of the business equation.  Cutting costs is attractive because if you cut $100 the bottom line increases by $100.  It is sometimes necessary but usually a lazy way out with long term repercussions.  In business the costs they tend to cut are marketing, research and development and people.  When the economy turns around the company has weakened its market position, has no new products to offer, and has to assemble a new team and get the new people up to speed.  Many times the company does not return to its previous level of success. 

On the other hand, successful companies often focus on increasing revenues.  It’s not as easy because if you increase sales by $100 the bottom line may only increase by a few dollars.  However, long term it works.  Maybe this is why the Sacramento Business Journal has an article the “Apple Has More Cash Than Treasury.”  New products customers are anxious to see and buy at premium pricing is its hallmark.  Apple has clearly focused on the revenue side of the equation.

At the risk of repeating myself, here’s my recommendations:

  1. The government’s primary revenue stream is from taxes.  People pay taxes on their incomes.  Most of us derive our income from our jobs.  Therefore employment is a key requirement.
  2. Corporations also are expected to pay tax on income, but some such as General Electric do not.  Part of this is based on the logic that companies will create jobs if they have excess funds.  Every parent knows that when you promise your kids a treat if they perform a chore, the chance of the chore being done if the treat is given first is non-existent.  Maybe we should reward corporations for the jobs they create after they create them.
  3. In the past when the government needed money they sold War Bonds and Savings Stamps.  Might be a good idea to recycle that idea and offer a better rate of return than the modest return on savings accounts – say prime + 2%.

This problem, like all problems is solvable.  Of course the first criteria is that one has to actually WANT to solve it.

 

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Posted in Business, Government, Taxes

Community Service

Posted on July 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

When my older son was in high school in Louisiana, one of the prerequisites for graduation was to make some contribution to society in the form of community service.  As a ham radio operator he worked with me to provide communications for the American Red Cross in emergencies and for public service events.  At the time I thought that it was a great idea to get young adults acclimated to the idea that they owed something to their neighbors and the community.  That life wasn’t just about them.

Now, when you hear of “community service” we tend to think of some celebrity being forced to give a free concert or such; this is so celebrities don’t have to go to jail when they do something the rest of us get punished for.  That’s a shame.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many celebrities who perform service out of a sense of purpose or obligation.  The USO benefits from Charlie Daniels or Gary Sinise’s “Lieutenant Dan’s Band.”  Sheryl Crowe just donated a classic 1959 Mercedes Roadster to be auctioned off for the benefit of Joplin, Missouri schools to help them recover from the devastating tornado that destroyed the town.  That is what community service should be.

I firmly believe each of us owes something to those around us.  I also believe that most of us plain, ordinary people tend to feel this way.  You see the volunteers at church, volunteer coaches at kids’ sporting events and lined up at the blood drive.  (Okay, you do get cookies after giving blood, but they aren’t THAT good.)  You see people helping out at bicycle races or fun runs.  You see volunteer firefighters, Coast Guard Auxiliary and volunteer Paramedics.  That’s community service.

Maybe we need a new label for either what the good guys (you know, us “little people”) do or else a new one for what is doled out in lieu of punishment for those with high priced attorneys.  Personally, I believe that the good guys have seniority on this issue, so they should get to keep the name, “community service.” 

Therefore we will need to rename what Lindsay Lohan and company are sentenced to.  Maybe we should call it “slumming with the little people in lieu of jail.”  It’s an honest, if not particularly attractive description. 

I heard a story in which a celebrity was discussing his contract with his agent.  The celebrity believed that if he earned money from an activity not negotiated by the agent, he would not have to pay the agent his commisssion.  The agent set him straight by telling him, “If you get a blood transfusion, I get my percentage of that.”

Maybe it would be good if the celebrities’ agents would be required to perform their percentage of “slumming with the little people in lieu of jail” alongside their clients.  Could prove to be a great incentive to help their clients stay out of trouble.

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Posted in Celebrity, Culture, People, Philosophy, Wealthy

Occupational Thoughts

Posted on July 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

People spend years preparing themselves for a professional career being educated and perhaps serving some type of internship as a part of the process.  However, many find themselves surrounded by others who by divine stipulation or natural talent are ready, willing and able to tell them how to do their job.  There’s a quote that Snopes.com believes might even be correctly attributed from the Civil War that illustrates this phenomenon.

“It appears we have appointed our worst generals to command forces, and our
most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers! In fact, I discovered by
reading newspapers that these editor/geniuses plainly saw all my strategic
defects from the start, yet failed to inform me until it was too late.
Accordingly, I’m readily willing to yield my command to these obviously
superior intellects, and I’ll, in turn, do my best for the Cause by
writing editorials – after the fact.”

- Robert E. Lee, 1863

It happens to all of us, not just military leaders.  Artists throughout the range from music to theater have critics who feel competent to judge from on high as opposed to competing.  Physicians not only have to deal with patients who are quick to point out what their friend’s doctor recommended but also the legions of advertisers who urge us to “ask your doctor if this is right for you.”  Those of us who studied management know that every single employee believes that they would be a better boss.

It almost makes sense that everyone ends up in the wrong profession.  How many of us choose a career direction at 18 or 20 with absolutely no idea what the real world is all about?  How many young people get their future chosen by parents?  Some insist that the children go into the family business.  Others proclaim that their children can do whatever they want once they finish medical or law school.

Perhaps it would be more productive to randomly assign people to occupations after they have completed their classroom education.  This would not only reduce anointing members of the next generation but might also encourage a more well-rounded education.  It might also result in people being more satisfied with their jobs because they could be thankful for the jobs that they might have been assigned but weren’t.  Something like, “Being a teacher isn’t so bad; I was scared to death that I’d be assigned to be a mortician or a doctor.  I faint at the sight of blood.”

Of course there’s a more outrageous possibility as well.  We could give people the benefit of the doubt on the job they’re performing and admit that being a war time military leader or a chef or a police officer or such is a difficult job.  Maybe the person doing the job is trying to do it right with the resources available and with those constraints it can’t be done much better.

After all, each of us does the best job we can.  Maybe the others do too.

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Business, Culture, Education

The Black Hole of My Office

Posted on July 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

 

 

As I have mentioned in the past, my office seems to have an overabundance of gravity.  Now I realize that physicists rate gravity as one of the weaker forms of energy, but in my home it seems to exert great influence.  The kittens, who have already realized that they rule (in the classical sense of the word), have taken to occupying my chair, thereby making it difficult for me to write.  Subtle hints are wasted on the kittens, and overt force leads to them leaving in either a snit or a huff and I’m not speaking of expensive imported automobiles.

There are three issues to be dealt with here:

  1. Everybody ends up moving into my little corner of the house and therefore world.
  2. The kittens know they can get away with it, but they do not realize that they will not be kittens forever, but instead will grow up to be CATS!
  3. The only legitimate, full time occupant of the office is Alex.

 

 For some strange reason, Alex is not overly pleased with two soon-to-be-cats moving into his soverign territory.

 

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Posted in Culture, Family, Humor

The Power of Positive Smog

Posted on July 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

The Virginian Pilot picked up a story from the Washington Post written by Juliet Eilperin.  In this article, it discusses a theory published in Science that particles in the air have an effect on the earth’s temperature.  While the article tends to lean toward the effect of volcanic ash, it also discusses soot from fossil fuels.  The particles in the atmosphere block sunlight, thereby potentially reducing global warming.  This is not a new idea since one of the fears of nuclear war was the “Nuclear Winter” that would follow as the sun’s energy would be blocked by clouds of dust generated by the explosions.  The nuclear winter was feared because it could drastically reduce crop and vegetation growth with resulting starvation on the planet.

Global warming and things that influence it is a complex issue.  Various causes and associated remedies have been proposed, however this article causes me to think that other factors may be at play.  A pet peeve of mine is when people come up with easy answers for complex problems.  A danger sign is when someone prefaces their suggestion with, “All you have to do is just…”  That’s right up there with “This won’t hurt a bit.”

When analyzing a situation and proposing a solution, some people fail to do two things.  The first is that they fail to create some type of feedback mechanism.  Now that I’m trying my proposed solution, am I getting closer to the goal I set?  Part of this is due to the fact that it can be very tempting to move away from a problem rather than toward a solution.  If a problem were a point in space, there would be an infinite number of directions away from that problem.  Only a finite number of these move toward a viable solution.  This tells me that it is important to define a solution toward which you can move and then check your progress.  Of course, this also means that if your solution is not working, you need the ability to admit that fact and to try something different.  When trying to solve a problem the goal is the solution, not stroking someone’s ego.

The second problem is that people tend to ignore the rule of unintended consequences.  By addressing one problem other problems that did not exist before come to be.  I know of a man who lived near a national forest and the raccoons were able to find bits of food outside his home.  When he left on vacation, the raccoons came looking for food and did not find any, so they managed to break into the house.  They opened every box in the cupboards and pantry.  They managed to get the refrigerator open.  When he returned his house was a wreck and he had to pay to have the raccoons live trapped and relocated.  The trapper ended up catching 28 raccoons within the house.  (The mess was bad enough, but can you imagine the smell?)

There’s one other issue that often impacts problem resolution.  If the problem does not affect me, I may believe that I don’t need to worry about it.  Or if it affects me differently than others then my priority is strictly to be concerned about myself. 

I worked for a company that sold diagnostic medical equipment such as CTs, MRIs and X-Ray machines.  The X-Ray machines did not produce much profit because it hasn’t changed much in decades and is almost a commodity; one company’s machine is pretty much like all the others.  Frequently hospitals would be interested in a package deal such as 2 X-Ray machines and an MRI scanner in order to negotiate a better price.  The Vice President of MR was unwilling to lower his margin after the X-Ray equipment had been heavily discounted.  As such, he maintained a high margin on a sale of zero dollars as opposed to a smaller margin on a sale of several million dollars.

In the Navy we know that even if all the damage is at the other end of the ship, when that end sinks the whole ship will be lost.

After reading the article I had to ask myself if our efforts to reduce air pollution over the past 50 years has had both positive and negative results.  We’ve reduced smog and are able to breathe better which is good.  However, have there been unintended consequences as well?  I’m sure there are.

Any good navigator would tell us it’s time to compare our current location against where we think we should be.  We may find we are exactly where we expected to be.  If so we can ask if we are headed toward the correct destination – if so then we should continue.  However if either our current location or our intended destination is incorrect we need to make some changes.

Weather is complex; environment even more so.  However, if we can learn about these and become better at coming up with better problem solving skills, it will be a great advance in two significant areas.

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Posted in Culture, Energy, Philosophy, Solving Global Warming

A Great Night

Posted on July 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Years ago I tried to interest my older son in amateur radio.  There was no way in the world that he was going to be interested in my hobby, no matter how I begged, bribed or cajoled.  I love to see my kids share my interests and take on academic or technical hobbies but it was not to be.  However, one day his best friend stopped over to our home and came downstairs to where my ham station was located.  He was fascinated!  It turned out that he and his father had both been interested for quite some time but didn’t know how to get started.  I gave them some suggestions as to how to learn about the hobby and in record time both father and son had prepared for and taken their first ham tests.

Suddenly my 13 year old son was interested.  Not interested, obsessed.  There was no way his friend was going to succeed and leave him behind.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic.

It’s un-cool to be interested in what your father likes, but totally cool to share interests with your best friend.

My younger son got his ham radio license when he was 11.  At that point, doing things with Dad was cool.  He’s a little reticent about letting anyone know that he is “geeky”; this from the kid who’s an all A student who plays 3 musical instruments, plays upper level soccer and took high school algebra in 7th grade.

His current interests are with some video games and exchanging experiences on the internet.  In order to do that in the way he wanted, he needed a computer.  Now we have several, including one that is only minimally used because it started out as a laptop but the screen stopped working.  It’s now a sort-of, kind-of desktop – a role which it performs admirably.  However, that was not the direction he wanted to take.

I always tease his older brother about saving his computer “hand-me-ups” for me.  As a fixer, I love making things work that otherwise would be discarded.  As a matter of fact that is where the laptop that became the desktop originated.  This time around he mentioned that he had a motherboard and a CPU that he had never used.

Suddenly his younger brother began a quest to which I was recruited.  We had two key parts toward achieving a greater good.  There was a challenge to be addressed.

We salvaged an old case and power supply from the storage shed in the back yard.  We have extra keyboards and mouses (mice?) and there’s a monitor or two upstairs.  There was also a hard drive that could be dedicated to the task.  I did mention that the laptop cum desktop might meet his needs, but that was not what he wanted.

He wanted to know what pieces did what; where the CPU and RAM interfaced.  How the BIOS worked.  What the operating system provided.  What the MHz of the processor meant in comparison to the Mb of the memory.

We built most of a computer tonight.  It needs a disk power cable and some RAM, which eBay will provide.

All in all it was the type of night that fathers live for.

If your night was half as good, it was a great night.  I hope you enjoyed it.

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Posted in Family, Technology

Role Models

Posted on July 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

Who is the hero after whom I should model myself?

Like most Catholics, I’m named after a saint; in my case, St. Stephen the first martyr.  He was a man of unquenchable faith who suffered death by stoning (still another particularly gruesome way to die) at the hands of the Jewish leaders.  While I am happy to call upon St. Stephen to put in a good word for me when it suits my situation, I’m afraid that the resemblance ends there.  I confess that faced with a mob carrying rocks with ill intentions I would not only have turned and run; I would have been screaming at the top of my lungs an octave or three higher than my normal speech.

So, although I admire the saints, I do not claim any particular identity with them.

As you know, I also admire this nation’s founding fathers, so I looked there for someone with whom to identify.  We all start with George Washington, but other than serving in uniform we unfortunately have very little in common.  Then there is John Adams, with whom I at least share a physical resemblance; neither of us are truly tall, dark and handsome (or thin.)  However, his mind was keen on legal matters, which tend to cause my blood pressure to rise and my attention to fall.  Thomas Jefferson?  Far too organized and quiet to have a kinship with me.

So as I cast about, I tried to come up with the best role model for someone of my age.  There was only one choice.

Benjamin Franklin.

He was prolific! (i.e. his attention wandered from subject to subject; from optics to furnaces to electricity.)

He was educated! (Although most of his useful knowledge came from his own studious pursuits that reached beyond the teachings of the day.)

He was a family man! (Except for the minor fact that his son and he were on opposite sides of the Revolutionary War.)

He was a true American who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution! (However, he seemed to fit in best during his time as Ambassador to France.)

Here’s the prototypical American.  Spread too thin among a number of occupations and vocations, prone to writing, although not necessarily serious material and certainly not the most cautious person (remember the kite and thunderstorm incident?)

He and I have a great kinship!

Now if I could just develop his talent.

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Posted in Culture, History

Politics As Usual

Posted on July 17, 2011 | Leave a comment

The Sunday Virginian-Pilot has expanded political coverage.  I try to keep an open mind about political issues, although my leanings have generally been conservative.  By conservative, I mean that I believe such things as government isn’t the answer to everything; usually business can do a more effective job, but if business cannot, then it becomes the government’s job.  The US Interstate system is one such example.  I believe that America owes everyone a chance to succeed, success is the individual’s responsibility.  I also believe that for every right there is a commensurate responsibility.  I also believe that “We the People” (that’s a catchy phrase) have and continue to come together to create, sustain and empower this nation rather than the other way around.

As I read the paper this morning before church, I was struck by two thoughts:

  1.  When we elect people to represent us, there is the expectation that they will be smart enough and pragmatic enough to figure out how to make things work.   Rhetoric has its place, but it is results that count.  In the sixties we said, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”  It seems like the congressional politicians who are getting the most press are not part of the solution.
  2. I don’t particularly like taxes.  Neither do I like to undergo any medical procedure that involves either fiber optics or electrocoagulation, however some such procedures are necessary.  The same is true of taxes.  If over the past few years the wealthy had been creating jobs, I think most of us would enthusiastically support continuing their tax breaks so that they could create even more jobs.  However, the unemployment statistics show a very different story, and it would appear that much of the wealth that exists has not been put to work.  We are all stewards; when we are granted a gift, we are expected to do something of value with it.

In the New Testament, there is a parable of a master who gives three servants “talents” to oversee.  Two invest and manage to return double the value to the delight of the master who rewards them.  The third buries his out of fear and is punished for being lazy.  Seems like there are a lot of buried talents these days.

There are many who can impact the economy in a positive way, but have chosen not to.  Large corporations claim it is not them, but small businesses that create jobs.  Others claim that they are afraid to create jobs, because they don’t know what regulations the government will create.

America has always honored and benefited from those who achieved things.  Thomas Edison created new industries with jobs for workers making electrical lights and appliances as well as the motion picture and recording industries.  Henry Ford created jobs with the automotive assembly line.  Charles Lindbergh helped create the airline industry. These men were far from perfect but they tried and persevered and we benefitted from what they achieved.

Wonder if there are any Americans today who will get us back on track.

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Posted in Business, Culture, Government, Politics, Taxes, Uncategorized, Wealthy

My Writing Assistant

Posted on July 16, 2011 | 1 Comment

Assistant Junior Editor Smokie

If you’ve ever owned a cat, and you’ve noted that my 2 youngest have each adopted a kitten, you’ve probably been waiting for this.

Smokie, my son’s cat, has started to learn to type.  Like all good cats, she sees a keyboard as a place to recline or something on which to dance.  Given it’s height above the floor the keyboard also makes a great location from which to pounce on her sister. 

If there are some strange errors of the sort that a spellchecker might miss, please accept that as Smokie’s contribution to the blog.

I don’t expect to be writing much else today since it’s moving day for my older son and I expect to be otherwise engaged in that activity for the rest of the weekend.  Better him than me.

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Posted in Blog, Family

Now For Something Completely Different

Posted on July 15, 2011 | Leave a comment

(With apologies and homage to Monty Python)

 

I haven’t written about cooking for a while.  For those new readers, I enjoy cooking but do so for enjoyment with the claim that “I only cook for those I love.”  Cooking is not only an art but almost a religious experience in the very real sense.  At Catholic Mass, the bread and wine are offered; the bread, “which earth has given and human hands have made” and the wine, “fruit of the vine and work of human hands.”  Food is a gift we receive, add a little of ourselves and then share in order to nurture others.

In my case it is also a form of expression.  I vary my recipes according to mood, whatever else will be at the table, and a variety of other factors both real and imagined.  Here is a simple recipe that I came up with (although I’m sure it is so basic that to many people it may be a staple.)  However, as summer begins to yield garden produce, I thought it would be an appropriate time to share.

Our garden is giving us tomatoes, summer squash and zucchini, which are the key ingredients.  After surviving the winter on Roma or canned tomatoes, the flavor just screams “Summer!”

Steve’s Ratatouille-ish Vegetable Dish

1 Onion, Chopped

2 TBS Minced Garlic

Olive Oil

Tomatoes (3 or 4 large or 3 cans of diced tomatoes) If you use fresh tomatoes remove skins.

2 TBS Jalapenos or Green Chiles, chopped

3 grocery store sized Summer Squash and/or Zucchini Squash.  Chop into ¼ – ½ inch slices, discarding both end pieces.

White Wine

Cajun Spice Mix (I prefer Tony Chachere’s Extra Spice)

Fresh Ground Black Pepper or 1 tsp. Green Peppercorns

 

In summer I make this in a wok on the side burner of the grill in order to keep the kitchen cool.  The wok has the advantage of needing less oil than flat pans, and the base ring fits perfectly on the burner.

 

Heat the olive oil until it just starts to smoke with the burner set to high.  Add garlic and onion and sauté until caramelized.  Add Squash slices and sauté together for a few minutes.  Use a small dash of white wine to deglaze the pan.

 

Add diced tomatoes and reduce heat.  Let simmer for about 20 minutes stirring from time to time.

 

This is the basic dish, but it needs some character.  Here are some ideas as to where you can take it.

 

Italian:

Add Mushrooms and sliced black olives.  Season with basil, oregano or mixed Italian spices.  Serve with Italian bread and seasoned olive oil for dipping the bread.

 

Chinese:

Season with ginger or five-spice and add sliced water chestnuts and bean sprouts.

 

There are an endless number of variations; please feel free to post your ideas to the comments.  The key is to make it personal and to cook something outside other than just the usual burgers so you can enjoy a cool kitchen in which to dine.

 

 

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Posted in Culture, Family, People

Move Along

Posted on July 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

My older son and his family are moving.  The good news is that they’re moving closer to us – although they lived within an hour’s drive (even during rush hour) in the past.  They’re moving from a rental to their own home, which is also good.  However, even when moving to a dream home, moves are never fun.  I’ve moved too many times.  It is my stated intent to only move from this house when they take me out feet first.  Anything else and they’ll have to drag me out kicking and screaming.

As creatures of habit, home tends to be a place of stability where we go to recharge.  During a move, everything familiar is disrupted; to a normal person this is traumatic.  During the move itself, if whatever you need is not in your pocket or purse it might as well not exist.  As a matter of fact it’s worse than if it didn’t exist because you KNOW you have a nail file or a box of band aids or whatever, but you just have no idea where they are at the moment.  When you get to the new place generally key items are placed in a comparable place to where they were before in order to restore that essential sense of order.  It may not be the most optimal location, but if it feels like home, that is the determining factor.

In Up the Organization, Bob Townsend said that for a business three moves equals a fire.  Things get lost or damaged or won’t work in the new location so just like in a fire they’re for all intents and purposes gone for good.  Likewise the couch the previous tenants had in the living room in the new place that fit so perfectly was just a bit longer/shorter/taller/deeper than your own couch.  Not only does your furniture not fit but now the whole room looks a bit odd.

Then there are those boxes that contain items with which you won’t part, but will never be unpacked.   They are carefully sealed, clearly marked, transported to the new place and then relegated to the attic, the basement, the garage or some other out-of-the-way location.  These boxes and their contents – great grandma’s pictures, your high school diploma and a collection of faded newspaper clippings may find themselves passed down through the generations without anyone ever peaking inside.  (Hmmm. Could explain Jimmy Hoffa….)

But there are good parts to a move.  You can find out who your real friends are by virtue of who will help.  Family should be a no-brainer, but that’s not always the case.  The younger your social circle the more likely you are to have people assist.  As we get older time gets more precious, muscles get tired more easily and we can assume that NewJob Inc. is paying to have the family moved professionally.  However, those who do help contribute moral support more than the brute muscle capability.

And of course the best part of moving is being able to settle into a new place that matches your new life and celebrates a new beginning.  The move may have a destination, but life is more complex – life is a journey.  It’s always a journey, not a destination, so the best thing to do is learn how to enjoy the ride.

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Posted in Culture, Family, Friends, Future, People, Philosophy

Congressional Priorities

Posted on July 13, 2011 | 2 Comments

There’s an interesting comment by Roland S. Martin on CNN  in which he compares the aggressive attitude toward investigating athletes for possible steroid use to the virtual avoidance of investigating those who created the economic crisis we are currently (and STILL) experiencing.  Click on the link above to read the short article. 

Apparently, the athletes are being prosecuted for lying to Congress.  Isn’t that what politicians do to each other (and us) every day?  What is going on?  Is it the result of politicians’ desire to be in the limelight at any cost?  Is it a sports fetish of some type?  Or, is Congress trying to distract us so we don’t realize that they’re all on the take? Excuse me, I guess I should say that they are benefitting from the current laxity in the campaign contribution system (also known as on the take.)

The following is a letter that you may wish to send to your congressperson.  You may not even find it necessary to personalize the salutation.

Dear Congressman Pinhead:

Please have the federal justice system investigate the thieves and scoundrels who bankrupted our economy, and required that we taxpayers bail them out.  These ingrates are reaping outrageous profits and obscene bonuses while we taxpayers are losing our homes, unable to find decent jobs, or working twice as hard for the same pay.  I know the budget is tight, so to offset the cost of this, you can stop the investigation of various athletes.  While it’s unfortunate that they took performance enhancing drugs and lied to you, prosecuting them won’t do a damn thing to correct the current economic disaster most of us whom you allegedly represent are suffering.

By the way, in case you don’t know, professional athletes get paid for playing a game.  It’s a game you probably played at recess or after school when you were a kid.  Yes they get paid for it but it’s still a game.

On the other hand, ever since the American taxpayer bailed out the various financial wizards, they’ve been sitting up nights thinking up great new ways to fleece every one of us.  Maybe we can’t undo the damage they’ve already done, but doesn’t it make sense to minimize future damage.

I am waiting with irrational exuberance for your support in this matter.

 

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Posted in Business, Celebrity, Culture, Government, Leadership, Politics, Wealthy

Mid-Life Crisis!

Posted on July 12, 2011 | 1 Comment

Omigosh!

I forgot to have a midlife crisis!

I knew I should have written it down.  I should have planned for it back when I was in my twenties or thirties, but I feared I’d just lose the paper.  I know that you couldn’t buy calendars this far out, so it’s really not my fault.  Besides, it would have been embarrassing for someone else to find a yellowed piece of paper with faded writing reminding me to have my midlife crisis.

I was reminded of this failure by a Car Talk column this past weekend.   A man wrote to find what type of classic sports car would be good for HIS midlife crisis.  His initial choices were shot down by the Magliozzi brothers because of the high likelihood of those models spending all their time in his garage needing repair.  Doesn’t every guy dream of someday buying a thirty or forty year old car, lovingly replacing most of the parts in order to return it to mint condition?  True, the cost is equivalent to what it would take to send every kid in the neighborhood to top-notch college and it would require tons of effort and gallons of sweat.  But after all is said and done, you get to drive (drum roll please) a thirty or forty year old car!

Some guys see their midlife crisis as the opportunity to go carousing with hot young babes (HYB).  These are the same guys who either couldn’t get dates in high school or who thought every female should love them as much as they loved themselves.  I met my HYB a number of years ago and fortunately, the astigmatism that made me look tall and handsome wasn’t corrected until after we had two kids and a mortgage.  We really do want to get out and carouse but we have to fit it in around soccer, t-ball and music lessons.  

So here I am the anti-hero with regard to midlifery.  No sports car – I take a perverse pleasure in driving a Ford Focus.  I’m madly in love with my wife.  I’m busy with my kids.  I gave up wearing most of my gold jewelry years ago – about the time when people said, “Mr. T Who?” 

I checked with my financial advisor to see what I should do.  She told me that since I’ve got grade and middle school kids at home I’m not technically eligible for a midlife crisis.  The best she could recommend in my case was to get a small parrot; since I already have one, that’s as good as it gets.

When I was younger I acted like I was never going to grow up.  In a way I haven’t, stopping at the “Parent of School Age Children Stage.”  (Personal note to Manoah’s Wife (http://manoahswife.wordpress.com/) – I didn’t just steal your blog idea.  I actually was working on this blog when I realized that this part of it sort of fit into your idea.) 

I’d like to wallow more in my self-pity, but I don’t have time.  Apparently there’s a cicada on the trampoline in the back yard and that I need to remove it because; a) it is scary looking and b) the kids don’t want to hurt it.

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Posted in Culture, Family, Humor, People

Something to Read

Posted on July 11, 2011 | 3 Comments

Some evenings after the day is gone I get a chance to unwind by reading.  Sometimes almost anything will do while at other times I know that I must find the perfect item to read.  As I thought about this, I realized that there is a common thread running through my reading choices at such times.

I like to read science fiction, but not just any science fiction.  I like a relatively straightforward story without multiple plot lines and without devious twists and turns.  I tend to like a relatively small cast of characters who are distinct and relatively easy to keep track of.  Think the book equivalent of the very first Star Wars.  There are only 7 key characters, counting robots.  The names are not complicated – Darth Vader and Obiwan Kenobi are the toughest and they’re a piece of cake.  It’s kind of like the span of control concept in business – there are only so many employees you can directly supervise effectively; it’s about the same small number for story characters as well.

Sometimes I like to read technical books or magazines.  Naturally amateur radio magazines are one possibility; another favorite is Make magazine.  The contributors to this magazine come up with all manner of unique gadgets, many of which include full instructions to construct them yourself.  Make also focuses on how to modify existing products to do all sorts of wondrous things.  The concept is that if you can’t take something apart and improve it you don’t really own it.

I enjoy comedy, of course, but there are few really enjoyable comedy books.  I guess that this occurs because so much humor is topical in nature; a parallel would be music – “Alice’s Restaurant” was hilarious in the sixties; it’s not quite the same today.  Few books are able to carry comedy on a long term basis.

I mentioned that there was a thread, and it was so obvious that I never realized what it was until recently.  What I really look for in my reading choices is something that engenders hope.  Good science fiction often is based on the concept that things can and will get better.  Yes, technology will change and make certain things not only possible but also commonplace, but it is the human spirit that truly holds the key.  The same is true of Make.  Real people can do innovative things and then share them with others.  This brings to mind the days of Tom Edison or Louis Pasteur; ideas were shared with others and great things were the result as opposed to today when the first priority is to keep a new idea secret until it can be patented.

There is always hope, we just refuse to see it at times.  There are always possibilities.  There is always something exciting or interesting if we just keep our eyes and minds open.  That’s what I enjoy in life and what I seek in my reading choices.

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Posted in Culture, Philosophy, Technology, Writing

The Final Frontier

Posted on July 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

The final launch of the space shuttle has now been relegated to the pages of history.  In too few days he shuttle will return and like her sisters be relegated to museums scattered around the country.

I remember when the world was shocked by Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s flight.  We played catch up and soon the American space program had us riveted to our transistor radios and portable TVs (a portable television in those days was any black and white television with a handle mounted on the top regardless of how much it weighed.  Of course the difference between a portable television and a large screen was also pretty much inconsequential.)  A launch day was one day in which every student paid close attention in school.  We all knew we were watching history being made.

In school, everything would stop as the broadcast of each launch took place.  It was the top story in the paper before the launch and the next day after the capsule recovery.  Eventually we reached multiple astronaut capsules with multiple days of orbit.  Then we landed on the moon.  Suddenly we no longer seemed very interested.

Was it because President Kennedy challenged us to get to the moon within the decade, we did and therefore it was all over?  Did we lose our enthusiasm because we now had Tang and Teflon and other spinoffs from the space program?  Regardless of the reason, space travel – which had fascinated us from early times and which was stirred up by Jules Verne, Walt Disney and Arthur C. Clarke, was pretty much abandoned.

Personally I’d expected that after the 2nd or 3rd moon landing, we’d say something like, “I think the neighborhood looks good.  Let’s build a home here.”  Instead, the moon was treated more like Carlsbad Caverns or Wall Drugs; been there, done that got the bumper sticker.  No reason to go back.

The hope is that space travel will be handled by commercial interests and the government will contract with them.  This is not illogical since much of the development of near earth space has successfully migrated from the government to the private sector.  Commercial satellites carry telephone signals and television programming for both cable systems and homes.  Although the GPS orbiters were originally for the benefit of the military, Americans rely on the GPS system for their cars, aircraft and cell phone location finding.  I’d be remiss, of course, if I didn’t mention that amateur radio has a number of satellites in orbit as well.

Perhaps the problem was that the space program has been pretty limited as far as people go.  Astronauts and cosmonauts get to go into space as well as the occasional billionaire.  It’s interesting that although America is the ultimate proponent of capitalism, it was the Russians who have cornered the market on space tourists.  In any case, since there’s virtually no chance that most of us will personally travel into space, it is easy to lose enthusiasm.

So the US Space Station Freedom became the International Space Station and has hosted fewer people in its entire life than a small Holiday Inn will in an average week.  The United States, the first nation to put a man on the moon is waiting for the return of its last shuttle after which it will become a museum piece.  In order to get to the space station, the US will have to contract with Russia. 

Too bad the space industry couldn’t have been used to help the economy recover.  I’d have rather seen the money go there rather into some investment banker’s bonus.  I guess I just never got over Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, much less Star Trek.

Space is a huge quantity of nothing. Dreams are nothing.  Perhaps that is why space is the stuff of which dreams are made.

 

 

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Posted in Culture, History, Science, Space

But It’s a Matter of Principle

Posted on July 8, 2011 | Leave a comment

It was a crazy day today.  The lawn tractor my neighbor gave me suddenly developed an aneurysm on one of the front tires.  I believe this was in protest for leveling the mower deck, although I cannot prove that and the tractor refuses to comment except off the record.

As you probably know, this country is overrun with roving bands of trucks containing ultrasound machines that will diagnose aneurysms in people (Disclaimer: Not all aneurysms can be detected. This service is not covered by insurance.  Prices (like some people) are slightly higher west of the Rockies.  Tax, title and dealer preparation charge not included.  This offer may be withdrawn at any time.  If you experience a bulge in your aneurysm for more than 4 nanoseconds, contact your physician or undertaker immediately.)

Alas, no one checks for tire aneurysms, especially on lawn tractors.

I had done my share of tire repairs while working for a SOHIO station back in the late 1960’s.  (Yes I still remember that long ago.)  I know there are special tools, mounts, etc. that make this easy. I used them back then to repair tires for the princely sum of $2.00 per tire.  Apparently no one has developed a similar set of these tools for lawn tractors, or if they have they are a tightly held secret known only to the CIA and the National Security Agency.  Rumor has it that President Obama is kept in the dark in order to maintain plausible deniability.  Besides, with his fondness for smartphones and Twitter, the Secret Service is trying their best to keep him away from any tools that are capable of being improved by Tim Allen.

So my 13 year old son and I, armed only with basic tools tackled the treacherous lawn tractor tire.  I’m proud to announce that neither of us did either ourselves or the other any permanent damage.  However, between the tire replacement and the subsequent lawn mowing, there was little time or energy for anything else.

So, in typical male fashion we spent twice as long repairing a tire on the lawn tractor than it would have taken to mow the lawn with the push mower.  Likewise, we could have bought a tire already mounted on the wheel for about $20.00 more than the unmounted tire.  Both of us left the field of battle exhausted, dehydrated and in ill humor.

Or in other words………

TESTOSTERONE 1  LOGIC 0.

 

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Posted in Culture, Family, People, Technology

Entitling

Posted on July 7, 2011 | 3 Comments

Although I write many things in many styles, the one thing I have always had difficulty with has been titles.  Technical articles are easy, with such examples as “Comparison of Anatomical Landmarking of Positron Emission Tomography Between Multi-Slice Computerized Tomography and Single Slice Computerized Tomography.”  Of course if you were promoting the multi-slice CT it would be “Benefits of Anatomical Landmarking of Positron Emission Tomography Of Multi-Slice Computerized Tomography Over Single Slice Computerized Tomography.”  The title is descriptive and pretty much negates the requirement to actually read the article.  That is unless you are a fellow researcher whose ego is demanding to know if you are quoted or at least included in the bibliography.

When I wrote for a couple of magazines, the editors happily discarded my proposed titles in favor of far superior ones they created.  After a while I didn’t worry about titles because I knew they’d take care of it.  Besides, for some reason I believed that I’d be better served by concentrating on the content of the article and let them worry about the title.  They already picked any illustrations, so it made sense – after all the illustration could influence the article title.  If a picture can say a thousand words, it can surely suggest an appropriate title.

On blogging, though, the title is not only up to the author – it’s critical to attracting readers.  I admit, I’ve been tempted just to resort to something like “READ ME!” (think Tommy Lee Jones going back for his favorite gun in “Men in Black”….)  However, that would only work once or twice.  I’ve also considered the way that the military names certain operations – having one list of random adjectives and a second list of random nouns.  However, that leaves the possibility of having a blog inadvertently named something like “Logical Salami” or “Bodacious Kitty Litter.”  While these would have made great names for rock groups in the late sixties or early seventies, they don’t fit well with today’s expectations.

I would like to borrow some tabloid titling styles; can you imagine “ALIENS RETURN ELVIS ALONG WITH WEIGHT LOSS SECRETS” or “PRINCE CHARLES AND CAMILLE CAUGHT SHOPPING AT THRIFT STORE”?  It really wouldn’t matter what the rest of the blog said because it just couldn’t compare to the title.

So I guess you’ll just have to bear with me as I try to come up with the best excuse for a title that I can.  Although you may not be able to tell from today’s blog, I will continue to concentrate on the blog content rather than the title.

Really.

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Posted in Blog, Communications, Humor, Writing

Upon Awakening

Posted on July 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

I thought I felt funny when I woke up this morning.  It would be understandable, the air-conditioner that cools the bedrooms had died on Independence Day making sleep nearly impossible.  The choices were to try to sleep in the recliner downstairs where it was cooler or try to tolerate the heat and sleep upstairs.  The recliner lulls me to sleep with a false sense of comfort, but I wake up stiff and with obvious lack of circulation to my distal extremities.  The weather outside had changed from a heat index of over one hundred to a shower and mid-seventies, so I opened every upstairs window and hoped for a breeze.  I got humidity instead of a breeze.  Sleep was almost impossible. 

Last night although the air-conditioner was fixed, I had a lot on my mind, so it was later than normal when I fell asleep.  It would not be unexpected to feel a little funny after such events.  However, after a cup of coffee I realized I really didn’t feel funny.

Pity.

I have no problem writing serious blogs, trying to be insightful and philosophical, but sometimes I just prefer to write something funny.  Too bad I don’t feel like it.  When I wrote a series of satire columns for Administrative Radiology I had a cast of characters and a stage to put them on.  The column was placed in a fictional hospital called Pandemonium General and once I thought up a scenario the story was easy to write.  I knew the characters’ personalities and foibles; when one writes a monthly column for nearly 20 years that’s bound to happen.  I just started to write, explained the opening scene and the characters led me from there.  Sometimes the columns would make me laugh as I wrote them. 

But unfortunately, even though I thought I felt funny when I woke up, I don’t now.

Pity.

They say a sculpture takes a block of stone and just removes all the pieces that don’t look like they’re part of the statue.  A writer, on the other hand, is faced with a stack of blank paper (okay, a blank computer screen; work with me here, images are important!) but a writer can’t just remove everything that doesn’t look like a word.

Okay, maybe those who write the United States tax code do.

So, since I don’t feel funny my options are limited.  I could write an essay on the how one of the smallest components in an air conditioner – the capacitor – is important enough to bring the entire system to its knees.  I could expound on how that is a metaphor for life.

I don’t think so.

I could write a sonnet.  However, given how the lack of air conditioning has affected my wife, I do not believe she would be receptive to such an effort.  She’s seen my poetry – count it among your blessings that you have not.

I could write a treatise explaining the current economy and what it would take to correct it.  That would be easy since no one has a clue as to what is going on or what will happen.  I might even stumble on to something useful out of pure dumb luck. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy economics in college and the condition never improved.  Besides, after the Laffer curve and the trickle-down effect I think all the funny parts have been taken.

So, in desperation…

Rush Limbaugh, Al Gore and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad walk into a bar. 

The bartender looks up and says, “What is this, some kind of a joke?”

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Posted in Bill Roentgen, Humor, Philosophy, Politics, Writing

Happy Independence Day!

Posted on July 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

The Virginian-Pilot like many newspapers printed the Declaration of Independence today.  I’d love to know how many readers actually take the time to read or better yet re-read this unique document.  Unfortunately, I suspect that many people don’t take the time.  I also suspect that most people ascribe statements to the Declaration that are not contained therein, or if they do quote from it they only remember something about “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Perhaps it would be useful for newspapers to take a section each day between Flag Day (June 14) and Independence Day and explain the Declaration in detail and put it in the context of the latter half of the eighteenth century.  The bulk of the document, of course, addresses the grievances the colonies had with King George III of England.  Some of the actions to which the Founding Fathers objected were perhaps not as unreasonable as those whose study of history was limited to those mandated by the school board.  Great Britain had spent considerable amounts of blood and treasure in defending the colonists against the French and the Indians.  This “Seven Years War” was a global conflict and the North American portion of it (what we call the “French and Indian War”) actually ran longer.  To the crown it seemed reasonable that the colonists should pay a fair share of the costs of Great Britain had incurred for their defense.  The colonies were, after all, attractive because of the richness of resources and opportunities.

Unfortunately the matter was not handled in the most diplomatic of manners by the British, and the relations continued to devolve.  Independence was not a universally popular choice with many remaining loyal to the monarchy and others hoping for a reconciliation between the crown and the colonists.  John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, a member of the Continental Congress was a moderate and didn’t believe that the colonies had the military (or economic) capacity to win.  He warned that if the Declaration was approved the colonies would “brave the storm in a skiff made of paper.”  He abstained from voting on or signing the Declaration but did serve in the Continental Army and went on to have influence on the early nation, including being a supporter and a signatory to the US Constitution.

We’re so used to seeing the Founding Fathers in a certain light of invincibility and omniscience that we ignore the real meaning of the last line of the Declaration;

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” 

Many patriots had their property burned or seized (including, incidentally, property owned by John Dickinson.)  If the revolution had been lost, George Washington certainly would have been taken to London in chains and drawn and quartered – a particularly gruesome form of execution imposed on traitors.  The risk to these men and their families was far more real and significant than we realize.

I do have to comment on one particular complaint levied against the king in the Declaration;

“He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.” 

I guess we still haven’t figured that one out.

There is one other aspect of the Declaration that strikes me.  There was great news coverage when people were informed that the Declaration had been adopted; I’m sure there was some coverage of the workings of the Continental Congress, but nothing like we see today.  The emphasis was on the final product, not the political infighting and posturing that always occurs in such situations.  It was that results that counted.

In today’s sound bite 24 hour news world the changing of “inalienable rights” as written by Thomas Jefferson to “unalienable rights” by the printer possibly with influence by John Adams would be “breaking news” and spawn a myriad of conspiracy theories.

However, the bottom line is that the Declaration was the first step on a journey.  We Americans continue that journey today.  Let us take time to honor the work of those who started the process and pledge our Lives, Fortunes and our sacred Honor to continue the process in a manner in which we and they would all be proud.

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Posted in Culture, Education, Government, History, Immigration, Leadership, People, Philosophy, Politics, Writing