Way to get in the spirit of the holiday guys.

Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Spider Man. You've pretty much covered all of the media that ever gets talked about at my office. All that's missing is Dr. Who...


Disclaimer on the picture. My phone has a big crack _right_ over the camera lens.

Wordless Wednesday: It's coming...

I know, I know, enough already...

Look at me, 2 posts in 2 days. Don't get used to it, though, my mom tagged me and I knew if I didn't do it right now I'd forget. So here goes:

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. Where is your significant other? 6'away
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? crazy
5. Your father? mellow
6. Your favorite thing? electrons
7. Your dream last night? non-existent
8. Your dream/goal? graduating
9. The room you're in? office
10. Your hobby? biking
11. Your fear? drowning
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Apple
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? graduated
15. One of your wish-list items? Challenger

16. Where you grew up? Orderville
17. The last thing you did? eat
18. What are you wearing? hat
19. Your TV? korean
20. Your pet? non-existent
21. Your computer? unending
22. Your mood? normal
23. Missing someone? nah
24. Your car? Yeti
25. Something you're not wearing? bra
26. Favorite store? amazon.com
27. Your summer? crazy
28. Love someone? much-ly
29. Your favorite color? orange
30. When is the last time you laughed? barely
31. Last time you cried? 2002

Guess what? Not tagging anybody. You're all off the hook. Look at me defying convention.

Where has all the accountability gone?

It's official. Our "Limited Government" government has signed into law the $700 billion bailout bill. Why? Because some clever people found a way to add around $1oo billion in pet project "pork" to the bill.

So who is going to be held accountable? Is it the sub-prime lenders who enabled the mess? Is it the idiots who bought homes well beyond what they could afford because the sub-prime lenders told them they could? What's going on? Allow me to illustrate with an example from Bob Cringely:

Take our current national economic mess, the so-called sub-prime mortgage crisis. I like to think that I'm not a subprime kind of guy, but pretending to work as I do (my kids think I TYPE for a living) the world may not always see me the way I would like to be seen. So last year, in what we didn't know were the waning and idyllic pre-subprime days, I tried to get a new mortgage. Of course I used the Internet to get the loan because, as we all know, when banks compete I win. And within a few days, without having to actually meet with or even speak to another human, I found myself offered a $336,000 mortgage.

It was SO easy. Fill out a few online forms, make some choices, and there I was, about to close that loan. But then I did an odd thing. I carefully read the papers I was about to sign (I'm one of THOSE people). And in that residential loan application, right on line something or other, was a number that didn't make any sense to me at all. It was labeled "total household income" and was almost twice the pitiful amount I actually earn.

From where did that number come? It certainly never came from me. Since my signature would be at the bottom of this application I wanted to make sure everything was correct, so I called the mortgage broker. For the first time we spoke. She was a very nice lady, too, and explained that number was the variable required for all the ratios to be correct so I could qualify for the loan.

"But it isn't true," I said.

"Do you want the loan or not?" she asked.

Not.

I wasn't so principled as cowardly, but maybe that doesn't matter: I did what I knew was the right thing for me, which was to walk away from the loan. But evidently a lot of other people took the other course and today are having trouble paying for their houses, which is a big part of the reason why we are in this current economic mess.

Now there is someone with a brain. "Oh, I don't think I can afford this house, I guess I won't buy it". Which brings me back to the main question: Who is going to be held accountable for this mess? Apparently not the people who made the poor choices, and apparently not the people who made it so easy for them to make that poor choice, but the everyday taxpayer, including those who were not even close to being in a position to make any choice on sub-prime lending, and including those who used their brains and chose wisely.

Oh, there's one more thing. Want to know two of the people leading the fight for the bailout to pass once the pork was added? Oh, a couple of guys named Bob Bennet and Orrin Hatch. Way to represent your constituents, guys.

Oh, and think that this pork that got added was all for the common good? Check this out:

And I probably wouldn't have noticed...

As I was winding down from some programming tonight, Nicole walked over by me and asked, "So are you going to notice, or do I have to tell you?"

Me being me, I looked around my work area and didn't see anything amiss, so she told me to look at the toys on the top level of my desk shelf (that she hates).

I like Star Wars, and I like toys, so I have some Star Wars Lego figures, and little funny Star Wars figurines, and a Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader action figure. Normally, Luke and Vader are in various fighting poses, that I change whenever I get really bored or need a break from programming and nothing else sounds fun. The little figures are usually in some form of opposing situation.

As I looked up tonight, what did I see but Luke doing the Limbo under Darth Vader's light-saber, supported by our DSL Modem. The three little figures are "standing" with their arms around each other, with blue ghost Obi-Wan floating over them approvingly.



Needless to say, Nicole was very amused by her cleverness.

Now what could the person who controls the home network do in retaliation... (if you don't understand the comic, you can look here. You won't understand the explanation, but scroll down to the pictures and it'll be crystal clear)

Summer's last days...

So we just got back (recently) from our annual trip to Newport Beach with Nicole's family. Right at the end of the summer, it's a good break before school starts. And this year, we had a week to recover before school started, so that was even better. So here's some pics of the trip.

Me and Nicole

Chelsea and Awix at the pool

Playing with Jayden

Chucking Jayden

Chucking Chelsea

In the beginning...

The other beginning...

A little mid-day churro goodness

I can't think of anyplace I'd rather read than at the beach.

Too funny to not blog...

I laughed till my face hurt, as did everyone else in the office...

If you've never heard the song, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by The Charlie Daniels Band, you might want to listen to it first. You can listen to it here.




If you so desire, you can find the original (un-edited) version here at the very bottom of the page. Not for those offended by profanity.

It was bound to happen eventually...

That's right folks. I may have been to the ballet, and the symphony, and some musicals, but today we see that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Today, Nicole compiled and ran a C program from the command-line. I've never been so proud. Okay, so maybe I have. But if you're talking about milestones, this one is a pretty huge milestone.

Welcome to computer geekdom, my love. You've taken your first step into a larger world.

Yup, that's right.

I have hacked my iPod Touch. As a result, I have all kinds of goodies that Apple would never allow in the App Store. Here's some pictures of one of my favorites:

Battery mostly drained...

Battery charged...

Totally awesome. Whoever wrote this is a genius.

MUST. HAVE. IT.

Ever see something and think that your life won't be complete without it. I just did. Check it out.



That really is the coolest thing since sliced bread. If only the remote was a little light-saber stored in the top...

Arlington Cemetery

We went to Arlington Cemetery a week ago today, and since yesterday Nicole and Grandma were going to a couple more art galleries, I decided that I'd bookend the week with what was probably my favorite part of the trip: Arlington Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Here are a few pictures and a video.

Since the Civil War, American Soldiers have been buried at Arlington Cemetery. From virtually anywhere in the cemetery, the ordered rows of headstone stretch literally as far as you can see. this adds a little weight to the fact that _very_ many have sacrificed so we can enjoy the freedoms we have in this country.

My favorite part of the cemetery will probably not surprise you. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with its solitary guard, is something I could visit every day. Had I not wanted to serve a mission so badly, the Third Infantry Division (The Old Guard) was one of the 3 things I most wanted to do in the Army.

The metal taps in the guards' shoes have left lines of rust on the stone where they walk their posts and perform their ceremonies 365 days a year, year in and year out. There are no non-straight lines here, and no non-90-degree angles.

The guards themselves are the pinnacle of solitary military precision and discipline. Their uniforms and weapons are flawless. Their eyes are fixed straight ahead. Their movements are crisp. They stand perfectly straight and still until the 21 seconds of each pause expire. The guard I watched yesterday paused for _exactly_ the same amount of time at each pause in his post. (by my watch it was 21 1/2 seconds)

The Sentinel's Creed, posted outside the quarters of the guard detachment, says it all:

Ignore the crappy camera holding and notice the perfect synchronization of the movements of the guards during the changing of the guard ceremony:

Many units of the Army have paid their respects to the Unknown Soldiers of war. These are posted by two units in which my dad served: the first in Germany, the second in Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

George Washington once said, "Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all."

The soldiers of the who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier exemplify that discipline, and are a credit to a profession I am proud to have been a part of.

It _is_ real. I've been there.

Some of you may know that I'm a bit of a Tolkien geek. I am one of those for whom Middle Earth is a very real place. And today we received incontrovertible proof. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Bilbo Baggins Restaurant and the Green Dragon Pub.







Friendly service is, indeed, a hobbit, and as noted in The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo is very much so an excellent chef.

Bonus points (and maybe a small prize) for whoever can identify the secret picture from the book...

P.S. My wife is awesome:

I will be eternally baffled at how this didn't make her top five for today. Talk about right place, right time.

In case you may have been wondering. No, I didn't take this picture. She did.

Memorials in the Dark

I also will be taking some photos during our vacation, but I'm not nearly as compulsively organizational as Nicole and will not be narrowing my selection down as far here on my blog (it'll probably be below 10). These are some of my favorites from last night. I'll be posting the rest of this excursion on Picasa here. More to come from today...