ABCD II

Work

2007-05-22T13:16:00.000-04:00

I had a highly productive day at work today. I was busy the whole day, which lasted about 10 hours, and accomplished a number of things that needed to be done (not the least of which was helping to replace the broken guy on the foosball table). I felt a good deal of satisfaction about it as I was leaving work and resolved to make tomorrow (now today) as good as today (now yesterday).

The problem began to set in when I was on my way home. My satisfaction was slowly replaced by a sense of pointlessness. So what if I had a good day, what meaning did any of it have? Is this the point of my job? Of my career? My working week should be devoted to doing this for another 30 years? Good grief!

Look, I understand that I have let society convince me that I am supposed to find some sort of meaning from my occupation and that underlies my dis-ease. But what am I actually supposed to do about it? How does one build a personal sub-culture that reject the fallacies of the larger culture that subsumes it? And why do I feel I need to ask another question here?

Backpack

2007-05-22T01:50:00.000-04:00

This looks like a pretty cool tool.

Virtues

2007-05-21T23:34:00.000-04:00

Admirable human characteristics or dispositions that distinguish good people from bad:

Courage
Temperance
Generosity
Goodwill
Patience
Pride
Wittiness
Honesty
Friendliness
Justice
Modesty

This list, of course, is not my own.

I couldn't agree more

2006-08-15T11:41:00.000-04:00

Copied wholesale from Instapundit:

Bush critic Bill Quick writes: "This is one of the most important articles to appear to date in the entire span of the war on terror."

The link to Bill Quick's site doesn't seem to work for me, but I highly recommend the article.

People's Republic of MA

2006-06-20T00:29:00.000-04:00

The deal is all but done. We should be there by August.

As a pair, are there any bigger blowhards in the US Senate than Kennedy and Kerry?

Six Feet Under

2005-08-26T00:16:00.000-04:00

First, a little background.

Emily and I have been watching Six Feet Under together for as long as we've been dating (almost 20 months now). This last season however, we've been having her friend Margaret over to watch with us. (She's a poor grad student who doesn't have cable.) Anyway, what's pretty cool about this is that she kind of looks like Claire. At some point I even started bitching at her during some episode when Claire was doing something stupid.

For the sake of convenience we record every episode on TiVo (well, a very poor imitation...) and watch it later. Usually we'll cook dinner, or at least make some bruchetta, before watching the show. Sometimes when someone is busy we skip a week and then end up watching two episode in what night.

That's what we did tonight and it was the last two episodes of the final season.

Frankly, it was the best television I've ever seen.

Better than the any episode of M*A*S*H. Better even than that episode of West Wing where Will Bailey makes it rain.

Update: Ryan prefers the West Wing episode where President Bartlet names two nominees to the Supreme Court. That was also a good episode, but still pales in comparison to the Six Feet Under finale.

Update: The superb song that was played at the end is 'Breath Me' by Sia. You can download it here.

You don't see that everyday

2005-08-22T07:32:00.000-04:00

I really enjoyed this column in which a blogger blasts the L.A. Times for its coverage of Cindy Sheehan - but mostly because it's in the L.A. Times!

Via Instapundit.com.

The 40 Year Old Virgin

2005-08-20T19:55:00.000-04:00

****1/2

Emily and I saw it today. It was hilarious. Seriously.

Sex Toys

2005-08-19T11:38:00.000-04:00

...now on sale @ Amazon.

.NET blows

2005-08-18T18:20:00.000-04:00

When I'm not busy being an entrepreneur, I spend my days as a programmer. And over the past couple week or so, I've been fiddling with C#, .NET 2.0, and Visual Studio 2005. Specifically, I've been trying to make NHibernate and Spring.NET play nice. Let me just say that it has been... shitty.

This isn't my first experience with .NET. I spent a glorious 5 months working in a .NET shop in Dall-ass about 3 years ago. At the time I even thought it was an improvement over Java (generally speaking). I'm not so sure anymore.

But before I get all nit-picky, let me give credit where it is due. Even with my limited .NET experience, I have found a number of things where MS got it right:

Properties - not a huge deal, but certainly better than the getter/setter bullshit of Java Beans.
Boxing/Unboxing - Java introduced it in 1.5, but most developers are constrained by other (read: business) considerations and can't instantly move to it.
foreach - Again, Java caught up with 1.5.
Delegates - Using interfaces as a function pointers gets tiresome.
using - Not the declaration of namespaces at the top (the using directive), but ability to clean up an IDisposable without a try/finally block (the using statement).
Generics - New to both Java and .NET, but erasure in Java is incredibly stupid.

Again, I'm no .NET guru, so there are probably others. That being said, .NET has a number of issues.

Collections - Knock, knock. Who's there? The ISet interface. The ISet interface who? (that was the punch line)
Visual Studio - I can remember when MS had the best IDE around - it was in a time we like to call the late '90s. Since then, Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA have blown VS out of the water. MS has always been known for their tools, so what happened?
non-virtual methods - All methods are non-virtual by default in C#. Do you have any idea how ridiculous this is? Seriously, this might even be dumber than erasure. Take today for example - I was trying to customize Spring to handle a few peculiar ways we will be using it, but was thwarted several times because I couldn't override certain methods. I seriously had 3 or 4 different solutions that would have been better than what I ultimately implemented, but each was futile because the guys who wrote Spring didn't declare everything virtual. I don't even blame them, they're just following the .NET paradigm. (And please spare me any bullshit arguments about the cost of virtual table lookup. If we were that worried about performance, we wouldn't be running byte code against a virtual machine.)

All this might not seem like much, but it was enough to annoy the shit out of me today. And apparently, I have even more headaches to look forward to.

Poker

2005-08-16T01:48:00.000-04:00

Jeff and I are setting up a poker game (Texas Hold'Em) for next Wed (8/24). Let me know if you are interested in joining us. (Here in Austin, of course.)

Soccer Update

2005-08-13T13:25:00.000-04:00

Emily is out of town, so I had to play our last game of the season without her. I still enjoy it of course, but I'd rather she was there.

Well, we lost 0-4. One of the problems with our team is that we don't have a regular goalie. There are a couple guys who take turns, but none of them are any good at it, and nobody really wants to do it.

So, there we are, down 0-1 at the half, and the guy who was playing goalie wanted someone else to take a turn. And guess who got drafted. Yep, me. Mind you, I've never played goalie in my life and I've only been playing soccer for 9 months.

Anyway, you can do the math and see how many points I let in.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2005-07-18T14:01:00.000-04:00

Emily & I saw it on Sunday. This movie wasn't awful, but it wasn't any good either. I give it 2 stars (out of 5).

Johnny Depp can act, but who wants to see him do a creepy Michael Jackson impersonation?

Alliance of Sodomy Supporters

2005-07-17T22:14:00.000-04:00

Seriously.

Corset Piercings

2005-04-28T12:31:00.000-04:00

Dude, how messed up is this?

The flat tax makes me wet

2005-04-25T11:47:00.000-04:00

I defy you to tell me that this article doesn't at least make your nipples hard.

As an aside, did you know that the US Treasury loses an estimated $380 billion a year because of those who aren't chipping in what they are supposed to?

"The worst, most boring kind of middlebrow horseshit."

2005-04-25T07:32:00.000-04:00

Matt Taibbi excoriates Thomas Friedman's new book The World is Flat in the best review of anything I have ever read.

Sony Ericsson S710a

2005-02-21T12:38:00.000-05:00

My phone is finally out and I ordered it just a few moments ago. I'm so tired of waiting for the damn thing I'm almost not excited. Almost.

This link is R-rated

2005-01-15T19:03:00.000-05:00

But important.

My favorite part has to be "an intimate sacred bond like no other."

ABCDE

2004-11-17T14:43:00.000-05:00

I should have done this before, but I just got around to forming a limited liability company to pass my consulting earnings though. What's really cool is that between having all the forms online, the ability to fax in your documents for filing, payment by credit card, and the expediting option they have, you can have a company set up in a day or two without ever having to leave your home (assuming you have a fax machine, which Jeffrey does).

Before the week is out, I should be the proud owner of ABCD Enterprises, LLC.

So Ronrey

2004-11-17T03:58:00.000-05:00

3am is almost upon me.

Sleeping alone can really suck.

P.S. I hate Daylight Savings Time (DST). What fuck-nut thought of it and what dumbasses thought it was a good idea?

P.P.S. Something about this post put a song in my head. These lyrics might be wrong, but feel free to sing it with me.

Where have all the good men gone, and where are all the gods?
Where's the street wise Hercules, to fight the rising odds?
Riding on the thunder, and rising with the heat
It's going to take a Superman to sweep me off my feet!

I need a hero!
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's got to be strong and he's got to be fast
And he's got to be fresh from the fight

I need a hero!
I'm holding out for hero 'til the morning light
He's got to be sure and he's got to be soon
And he's got be larger than life

[Okay, I went and looked it up. I'm mixing the first two verses together.]

Dallas Evening News

2004-11-17T02:59:00.000-05:00

I'm in Dallas visiting family for a couple days while I'm not working, so posting will be spotty for a bit.

HA! (In case you missed it, that was funny because posting is always spotty.)

Anyway, Jeffrey, Steve (my step-father), and I played Texas Hold'em tonight in a city-wide league they've got here. I finished 16th out of 60 some players, which is better than either of my compatriots and the highest you can finish and still get points for league standing. Because I probably won't be playing much in the Dallas league, I just told them I was Jeff. :)

Even better than that, I acquired a job on the drive up here. I'll be working with Ryan, my best friend from college, at Hire.com. Oddly, I'm really not sure what I'll be doing or how long the gig is for. However, Ryan and I have been trying (and failing) to work together for the last 5 years - since we were graduated from Purdue and both came to Austin - so I'm pretty psyched about it all. (Note to self - call HireStarter and Momentum.)

In other events, I recently posted a comment at someone else's blog (whom I know, but not terribly well) and the experience left me quite unsettled. The post of his I commented on was about politics and it's safe to say that I was a lone voice of dissent. It was one of those "let's figure out how to hold off a nervous breakdown after that idiot Bush and the Republicans conned 60M people into voting for him" threads. Between that and the similar mind set I see in many of my friends, I'm feelling like I'll write a separate post about it all. I'm tentatively titling it, 'Grow Up, You Whiny Little Shits.'

Is that to harsh?

Soccer, game 5

2004-11-15T14:22:00.000-05:00

We lost, again. I don't even know the score - maybe 3-0.

Emily was sidelined during the first half when her calf cramped up for the send week in a row. I managed to finish the game, but didn't get any bicycle kicks in.

mandate

2004-11-12T14:17:00.000-05:00

2 : an authorization to act given to a representative <accepted mandate of the people>

Just so we all know what it means.

Via Merriam-Webster Online.

Ho-hum

2004-11-12T10:09:00.000-05:00

This past Wednesday was the last day on the contract I had been working on. So I am now sitting at home, doing absolutely nothing. And man, am I ever bored.

There is nothing I care to watch on TV. There is little going on in the world I care to read about that I haven't already. I've read all the books I own in which I'm currently interested.

I could be updating my resume, I guess. Actually, I should be updating my resume, but then what do I do half an hour from now?

Suggestions, anyone?

Arby

2004-11-11T15:20:00.000-05:00

This is picture of my dog. Even without the costume, he's a bit of a doofus.

Marriage

2004-11-10T21:05:00.000-05:00

I was a shitty husband.

Not the really shitty kind, of course. I never raised a hand to her. I was not deliberatly and knowingly malicous. But there's so much more to it than that.

I was at times neglectful. Calculating. Cold. Unresponsive. Petty.

I am very sorry for that now.

When I think about it these days, I'm inclined towards the belief that we shouldn't have gotten married at all - we simply weren't right for each other. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret my marriage. I have a lot of good memories and learned a lot from it. I like to think that we are still friends. But while I loved her to the best of my meager and pathetic abilities at the time, it wasn't really enough.

It's unfortunate that I never would have learned some valuable lessons but for the hard way.

Anyway, I just want to say to her, I'm sorry. And thank you.

For what it's worth, I'm doing my best not to make the same mistakes again. I could not have done it without you.

Coli

2004-11-10T20:53:00.000-05:00

A very old friend of mine got in touch with me very recently through Classmates.com. I can't say exactly when I met him - I've never been good with quantifying the passage of time - but I was probably 5-8 years old. Our families both went to the First Baptist Church of Palatine.

I lost touch with him when I moved to Indiana from Illinois with my mother after my parents' divorce. That would have been about 15 years ago. As I told him in one of our e-mail exchanges, I've thought about him several times over the years and wondered how he is doing.

I remember him very fondly, too. He was one of those genuinely good-natured people you have the pleasure of meeting maybe a handful of times in your whole life.

Anyway, I'm very excited about the prospect of remaking a friend. Maybe we'll have nothing in common and after a few more e-mails we'll never speak again. But maybe not.

Who are you? And can you help me with something?

2004-11-10T20:10:00.000-05:00

So I'm curious - who are you? I know of 3 or 4 readers of my blog, but I don't think that quite accounts for my (miniscule) daily hit count. So, if you read my blog regularly, how about leaving me a comment and letting me know who you are?

And as long as you're posting a comment, can you tell why Amazon has cheaper prices on Dell's Inspiron 700m than Dell? I want to know what the catch is.

tendentious

2004-11-10T19:59:00.000-05:00

: marked by a tendency in favor of a particular point of view
: BIASED

Saw it in passing.

Via Merriam-Webster Online.

Soccer, game 4

2004-11-09T00:48:00.000-05:00

We lost. Badly. 3-0.

But wait, it gets worse. Towards the end of the first half, I pulled my hamstring. I tried to play on it briefly in the second half but ended up limping off the field when I twisted my knee on the other leg.

We aren't done yet, however. Emily also quit the game early after being helped off the field with a severe cramp in one of her calf muscles.

It might be worth noting that our opponents didn't score until after I left the field.

I'm just saying.

Travel blog

2004-11-05T14:13:00.000-05:00

I just discovered a travel blog called Gadling. This entry is just my way of marking it without adding it to my links on the left. That is all.

Via Engadget.

Thank you, sir. May I have another?

2004-11-05T12:33:00.000-05:00

Jane Smiley, the author, has a piece up at Slate subtitled "The unteachable ignorance of the red states."

The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 million have not.

Her article goes on to express the kind of hysterics often voiced by the left today to explain their on-going rejection at the polls.

From a pragmatic standpoint, does it seem wise to belittle people whose support you seek? If anyone has a lock on stupidity these days, it has got to be the left.

On the other hand, The Backseat Philosopher has a more cogent argument as to what's gone wrong and how to fix it.

Our error is that we Democrats are far less understanding than we think we are. Our version of understanding the other side is to look at them from a psychological point of view while being completely unwilling to take their arguments seriously. "Well, he can't help himself, he's a right-wing religious zealot, so of course he's going to think like that."

The petty, childish part of me enjoys watching pompous, ass-hatted fools futilely bang their heads against a brick wall. The grown up in me wishes they would stop - it makes a mess and impedes the process of democracy.

ambivalence

2004-11-04T14:23:00.000-05:00

1 : simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings (as attraction and
repulsion) toward an object, person, or action

2 a : continual fluctuation (as between one thing and its opposite)
b : uncertainty as to which approach to follow

Emily was right about this. I got it wrong.

Via Merrian-Webster OnLine.

Good news and bad news

2004-11-04T11:55:00.000-05:00

This is a somewhat belated post. I can be a little lazy.

First, the bad news - Bush won. Yes, I supported him and voted for him, but look at the other choices I had.

And in a blow against freedom, propositions against gay marriages passed in 11 states.

And now, the good news - Kerry lost! Woo-hoo!

Even better than that, I saw a 33% return on my "investments" at Tradesports.com.

But the best news of all is that while Yasser Arafat is still alive, at least he's in a coma! May death come for this monster soon.

Update: He might be dead already!

Update: Arafat is being declared dead by CNN and others. I really like this quote from Jonah Goldberg over at The Corner:

Obviously, my remorse knows bounds. My sadness has a bottom. Words are more than adequate to express my grief.

I'm So Ronrey

2004-11-02T00:35:00.000-05:00

I went out after work today and when I got home, Emily wasn't here. I think she's out with Stevie.

Anyway, I miss her. A lot.

I should have gone home for a kiss first.

I should have voted for Kerry

2004-11-01T02:53:00.000-05:00

Not because I'm Republican, but because anything that sets back the left and today's Democratic party is good.

Okay, okay, even if I had fully bought into this idea, I still wouldn't have voted for Kerry. Since I live in Texas - and Texas is going to go for Bush regardless - my vote for Kerry would have only added to his popular vote tally, which would give him more legitimacy. Definitely not what I would want.

*I'm up this late because I took a nap earlier today and now I can't sleep.

Weekend Update

2004-10-31T22:54:00.000-05:00

Emliy and I saw Team America again today. It was sweet. I think this is the first time I've seen the same film twice in the theaters. I'm going to buy the DVD when it comes out, which will make it number 3 or 4 in my collection. Everyone should have to see this movie.

We also managed to take in a show of a more cultured nature this weekend. Yesterday evening, we saw Omnium-Gatherum at the Zachery Scott Theater. It was enjoyable, but I still don't understand why they were in Hell. This sort of thing is usually lost on me but Emily can't seem to make heads or tails of it either (which makes me feel a little better).

In other news, our soccer game yesterday ended in a tie (1-1). Emily had several shots on goal, but none of them ever worked out. This is most unfortunately since women's goals count for two points.

I didn't have any shots on goal, but I think this had more to do with playing right fullback (this is a defensive position that doesn't often give me reason to be past the half-way point of the field) than any imcompetence on my part. On the other hand, I did have a very nice run up part of the field past 2 different defenders before passing the ball to a teammate with a well place kick. It was quite exciting as it showed considerably more skill than I actually posses. I'm still not sure what happened. Oddly, I managed to do it one more time shortly thereafter when the goalee threw me the ball. My first thought when I realized he was do so was, "Shit. He probably wants me to do that again." I think I'm turning out to be pretty good at this (for a newbie).

The low point of the game had to be needing to take a crap at the park in the middle of the game. I'm not a big fan of public toilets, but my stomach was being very insistent. At least the game wasn't at Zilker Park where they have port-a-potties and not an actual building with bathrooms in it.

If you're wondering why I didn't report on a soccer game last weekend, it's because it was rained out. Emily and I pulled up to Zilker right at 8am (right when the game is scheduled to start) to find no one there and puddles on the field. Quite unfortunate as we were out on the town late the previous night.

That is all for now. Don't forget to vote! (Unless you are uninformed on the candidates and their stances on the issues of the day, in which case, please stay home. You're fucking it up for the rest of us.)

Voting with your wallet

2004-10-25T23:27:00.000-04:00

I voted last Saturday. It was a spur of the moment thing - Emily and I were driving about town and we happen to pass an early voting site. If I hadn't voted then, it might not have happened at all. Slim pickings this year and all.

But the much bigger and important news is...

I have a +10 position at 56.9 on Bush winning the presidential election over at Tradesports.com. Additionally, I have a very small position on Bush getting 300+ electoral votes at about 2-1 odds. I think I'm going to ride these out 'til the end.

Update: Okay, I might need to go back to just reading the news and looking for a new cell phone. My position on the 300+ electoral votes thing just increased by 150%.

Update: Well, I'm now in for almost $150 and it's time to be done. If all my contracts pay out at full value, I stand to make a little over $150.

Determination

2004-10-22T20:20:00.000-04:00

Why I'm supporting Bush:

Last month I had lunch with a dear friend from grad school; he's a monstrously successful real estate developer and a staunch and senior Kerry supporter here in California. We argued about the election, and the war. He understands the war, but isn't convinced that Bush is smart enough to pull it off.

"I don't think that matters as much as you do," I told him. "I'm probably smarter than you are - in terms of IQ tests and grades in school. You're a multimillionaire, and I'm not - even though I've been in businesses parallel to you for as long as you. Why do you think that is?"

"Because I'm more determined than you are," he replied.

"Exactly," I responded.

Soccer, game 2

2004-10-18T21:07:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention before that we won our soccer game last weekend, 1-0. I think this was the first win for the team, also. I was not the one who scored, btw.

For what it worth, I did get quite a bit of action in the last few minutes of the game. I was on defense and we were a man down, so it entailed quite a bit of running around, simple to get to the ball first and kick it away.

Team America: World Police

2004-10-17T14:28:00.000-04:00

Emily and I saw Team America yesterday. I think it's safe to say that this is the best movie of the year. Maybe the whole millennium. Seriously.

However, if you're a bleeding heart who staunchly opposes the war, you probably wont like it. Being the butt of the joke usually makes it less funny.

Here is an excellent review by Roger L Simon. And another here by Sneaking Suspicions. And here you can discover how little Roger Ebert gets it. In fact, the last paragraph is mind-numbingly off the mark.

Update: I was in the bookstore today (10/18) and asked about the soundtrack. It doesn't come out until the 26th.

Boadicea

2004-10-17T14:24:00.000-04:00

Boadicea is the name of the 12th track on Enya's Celts CD. It is the melody of Boadicea that underlies the Fugee's song, Ready or Not.

Boadicea, or Boudicca meaning Victorious, was Queen of the Iceni tribe of East Anglia. She led a rebellion in 60 A.D. against the Romans, destroying the cities of Colchester, St. Albans and capturing London. She was eventually defeated by the Romans, and rather than be humiliated by them, she poisoned herself.
-- Roma Ryan, in Enya's The Celts CD booklet

As an aside, the Fugees originally used the melody without permission.

Merriam-Webster Online says that it's pronounced boo-dick-a, with the emphasis on boo.

Just got around to watching the third debate

2004-10-15T00:40:00.000-04:00

Some days, the utter hypocrisy modern liberalism drives me nuts. But since I'm going to bed soon, this day is almost over...

tiding

2004-10-10T02:26:00.000-04:00

a piece of news -- usually used in plural <good tidings>

I can't remember how it came up (I think I was singing Christmas carols), but I was trying to define this word for Emily. I was pretty much spot on. :)

Anyway, I just thought I'd go ahead and share the word with the rest of you.

Via Merrian-Webster OnLine.

2004-10-09T17:56:00.000-04:00

I just played my first game of soccer with Emily and 'The Zoo' (that's the name of our team). It was a good time, and since I didn't score for either team it was a wash for me personally. On the other hand, the team, as a whole, lost.

Don't start...

2004-09-20T21:21:00.000-04:00

My utilikilt came today, the day after ACL is over.

So I think I'm going to wear it to the movies tonight.

No, I don't make over $200,00 a year

2004-08-29T15:37:00.000-04:00

Twice in the past week, when I've stated that half the reason I support Bush is because of tax cuts, I was told that Bush's tax cuts only affected those who make over $200k. This from two different people who live about 1500 miles apart. It must be a Democratic talking point.

I say to thee, NAY!

Cool medical procudure

2004-08-27T13:03:00.000-04:00

I love things like this for two reasons. One, I'm a tech junky who loves all things new and innovative. Two, my life-style is conducive to needing all sorts medical fixes 20-30 years from now. (Via fark.)

Kerry is a tool

2004-08-26T12:43:00.000-04:00

I don't get how people don't see this.

I spent much of last evening enjoying a beer (or 4) and some political debate with a few friends. There's nothing quite like a 4-on-1 argument. Especially when everyone is drinking. And it's about THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF OUR LIFETIME.

That was a joke. Well, maybe.

My favorite part had to be when Eric said that Michael Moore's facts were beyond reproach. I told him about the doctored newspaper in F9/11 and how Moore was being sued by the paper. His response was to question the validity of my sources. That maybe it was all made up. Oye.

One of the points I was trying to make last night was that, while I'm not a huge Bush fan, I just don't see that Kerry takes the WoT seriously. If he did, I'd really consider voting for a Democrat (wretch!). Or, has N.Z. Bear put it (via Instapundit):

Bush is no prize. But he's the devil we know, and a devil who, for all his flaws, takes seriously the threat facing our nation and appears to be trying to do something about it. With Bush, I expect I will have four more years to quibble with and argue about his tactics in the conduct of this war. With Kerry, once the campaign was over, I fear I'd have a difficult time convincing him there was a war at all.

Anyway, the original point of this post, which I'm going to stand by, is that Kerry is a tool.

[Update:] A fine rant on Kerry.

Oh, THAT liberal media

2004-08-25T09:46:00.000-04:00

On my way into work today I heard Don Gonyea's report on NPR's Morning Edition (scroll down to "Kerry on the Offensive in NYC, on TV") about John Kerry and the Swifties. He describes how Kerry is on the attack against "Bush and his allies."

The report has clips of Kerry talking at Cooper Union in New York - with a gratutious mention of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt also having campaigned there when they were running for President - and appearing on The Daily Show.

After listening, I couldn't help but be impressed by the subtlety of it all. Let's leave aside how nicely Gonyea tied Bush to a 527 to which he isn't directly connected and ignore the association of Kerry with other famous presidential candidates of the past who won. What I really enjoyed was how there were two clips of Kerry on The Daily Show and not even a mention of how he refused to say if he was ever in Cambodia!

It's almost like they're taking sides.

Hot and saucy

2004-08-24T18:49:00.000-04:00

...is a fitting description of my friend, Meghan, who helped get me my last job when I really needed one.

But more to the point she (and her husband) have a website where they sell hot sauce.

End shameless plug.

Canada and my resolving door

2004-08-24T17:47:00.000-04:00

I finally bought my plane ticket to go to Canada for Tina's wedding. It's unfortunate that I'll be all by myself, since I'm going to be staying in a bed and breakfast for the first time in my life. Of course, I haven't done everything yet and still need to rent a car.

And now, for a resolution!

I am going to write something (anything) every day on my blog. Well, I can take the weekend off if other things are going on, but I will still try to put something up even then. The reasons for this are two-fold.

To begin with, there are all the reasons I started the blog in the first place. I'm not going to bother to list them (though I probably should), but suffice it to say, I am not going to get what I want out of this if I don't do it more regularly.

And second, Jeff and I are going to abandon our individual blogs for a group blog. This is truly why I am re-affirming my commitment to throwing any old crap up for your reading pleasure. I can't be letting down the Brothers Davidson team.

Elvis has left the building

2004-08-18T16:57:00.000-04:00

I'm quiting work today. No, I don't have anything lined up yet. I just can't take this job seriously anymore. I'm going to miss the guys I work with. And the work itself. Ah, well.

I thinking about the choices I have in front of me. There are a couple of companies I'm talking to, but maybe I'll get out of software altogether. I have no idea what I'd do then, however.

I considered becoming a beach bum for a couple years, but I burn too easily. Terribly shame, that.

[Update:] I quit. Will be staying on another week to dump everything I know onto Sean. Lucky him. Heh.

Wonders of the web

2004-08-13T17:15:00.000-04:00

Two intersting sites I've seen today:

http://zongrila.net/swirl.htm
http://www.fthevote.com

In other news, Emily is out of town today and she wont be back until Tuesday night. Ain't that a pisser.

What, exactly, is a moonbat?

2004-08-12T14:10:00.000-04:00

Opinion Duel has another great duel up, this time about the Bush administrations handling of homeland security.

Which brings me to my point. Why don't the barking moonbats of the "anybody but Bush" crowd see how ineffective, if not counter-productive, their contribution to the public discourse is? The reasonable objections of Michael Crowley have me once again considering my alternatives to Bush. Compare this to the idiocy of Fahrenheit 9/11, the success of which only leaves me thinking that the left has nothing useful to add.

One last thought. If the Liberals are the smart ones, how come they didn't learn anything from the anti-Clinton hysteria of the right in the '90s? Can we say, second term, anyone?

I've been negligent

2004-08-11T17:08:00.000-04:00

Yes, of you, my reader. I have no excuse and I apologize about that.

And now, for some content.

The housewarming/engagement party went well. Lots of people showed up and seemed to have a good time. The last of the guests left in the neighborhood of 3am. Emily got a little drunk. She's very funny when she's like that.

My brother, Jeffrey (hello, reader!), and his wife, Kristi, came down from Dallas for our party. It was very nice of them and I'm glad they did so. Ironically, they stayed at my ex-wife's place while she was out of town.

On Sunday, after the party, Emily and I met them at Fado's for lunch. Afterwards, we set up the smaller TV in the bedroom and watched The Bourne Identity on DVD. This was all a prelude to watching The Bourne Supremacy Sunday evening.

Let me tell you, it sucked. Contrary to what you might have heard (or might be telling people - yes YOU, reader), it doesn't begin to compare to the first one. Actually, it might not have been too bad, but having just watched The Bourne Identity (which is superb), and expecting The Bourne Supremacy to be better (it wasn't), it was one hell of a let down.

The camera work is jittery, I think to make it look grittier or more realistic, but it's just annoying. The car chase, which seemed like half the movie, seemed like any other car chase you've already seen a million times. And the development of the new characters was disappointing.

My advice is to wait for it to come out on HBO.

Tony might be wrong, but he doubts it

2004-08-03T17:22:00.000-04:00

Jeffrey made a post in response to an earlier post I made. I commented on it in his blog (see his post) and he responded. I had started to respond in his comments section again, but my response has gotten long enough that I decided to make it a post of it's own.

To begin with, here is an article I just came across that seems relevant to this topic.

Now for my rebuttal, directed at Jeffrey, who is probably the only one reading this anyway.

1. It was a commercial, not a speech. I'm am just as sure of that as I am that it was John Kerry in the commercial. I am equally as certain that the text is what I said it was. Questioning any of this - the foundation on which I made my point - makes this whole discussion moot.

As an aside, this reminds me of a conversation I was having with a coworker once. He was making the point that the insurgency in Iraq shows that the whole endeavor was a failure. I pointed out that we had similar problems in Germany after WWII. I thought this would be an effective arguement, especially with him being a native of Poland. His response? "I don't believe you." It didn't occur to me until much later that I should have told him that I didn't believe that he didn't believe me. (Less than 1 minute of searching via Google gave me this, BTW.)

Anyway, I do not state that rebuilding alliances is his first priority. I state that it is the first point he makes which implies that it is a high priority of Kerry's. It is certainly the point I inferred. Regardless, his convention speech bears out what I am saying:

We need a strong military and we need to lead strong alliances. And then, with confidence and determination, we will be able to tell the terrorists: You will lose and we will win. The future doesn't belong to fear; it belongs to freedom.

2. Your assertion is that "strong alliances in all parts of the world are key to our security." Even assuming I accept the basic premise, there is still a matter of degrees. We can't be perfectly secure, so how much is enough? How many allies are enough? How strong must these alliances be? In which parts of the world do we need how many alliances of what strength?

But the answers to those questions only tell us what we want. We also need to consider what we can get. Our potential allies will have their own desires. If they are mutually exclusive to our own, we can't really be allies. If they are orthoginal, maybe we can be allies, but it will probably require some cost to us. Others will gladly pitch in because they seek the same end.

So the pertinent questions that arise from this are (in my mind): how much assistance can we get, how much will it help us achieve our goals, and how much will that assistance cost us? Answers to these questions will give us a cost to benefit ratio from which we can ask, is it worth it? Obviously, this is a value judgement.

My opinion is that the assistance we are currently getting (from the likes of our allies in the UK, Australia, Italy, Poland, Japan, and others) is sufficent for the purposes of Iraq. Futhermore, I contend that the cost of additional help from other potential allies is too high. All of this is of course said in the context of whether going into Iraq is worth it. (Which is itself in the greater context of whether or not the War on Terror is needed.) And on these points, I agree with the Bush administration's views (as determined by their actions) and not with Kerry (as determined by his votes and speeches and from that, how I imagine he would act were he President).

3. He talks about rebuilding alliances. Which allies did we lose with our cowboy approach and several month long rush to war? China? We've never really been allies, so what is there to rebuild? Russia? There has been no deep rift in our relations over Iraq. To the degree that we are allies at all, that's an historically new thing. Austria? How much do we need their military, their money, and their intelligence service and how much should we give up to get it?

The truth is, everything would be a-okay if France and Germany were behind us because then most of the world would have followed along, grumbling like normal, instead of following their lead and finally getting the chance to throw stones at the US for all times we did them wrong in the past.

The truth is, some people hate us and will continue to do so until we are all muslims living under sharia. The truth is, some of our "traditional allies" have their own interests and wouldn't piss on our head if our hair was on fire. The truth is, the outpouring of sympathy after 9/11 doesn't mean a damn thing if those people aren't by our side when we really need them.

4. My point was somewhat ancillary to yours. If you did not consider as such before, please do so now.

Finally, the tone of your post, especially there at the end, got to be a little arrogant, beligerant, belittling, and not, in the least, conducive to having a conversation.

I'm back

2004-07-31T17:34:00.000-04:00

I'm back from Cozumel. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Really.

Let's start with the worst.

I've got swimmer's ear in my right ear this time (I'm convinced that what I had before was also swimmer's ear and not a middle ear infection). It's not quite as bad this time and I know better now how to handle it, but I'm getting pretty tired of being in pain all the time.

Beyond that, Emily and I had a bit of a tiff over vacation. It was pretty bad, probably the worst we've had, but (as usual) we're better off now than before having gotten through it. Still, there were a couple shitty days of it.

And let us not forget the obligatory sunburn on the first day.

But when things weren't bad, it was a blast.

Scuba diving in Cozumel was amazing. We saw a couple nurse sharks, crabs, baracuda, a starfish, beautifully colored coral and lots of clear, blue water. I highly recommend scuba-ing if you ever get the chance. But make sure you use ear drops afterwards.

Also, we had some good food at an Italian restaurant called Guido's on the main strip; we drove the moped we rented around the island a whole bunch (I ran over the only crab I saw in the road (on accident)); and had a lot of fun swimming in the hotel pool (biggest one on the island!).

Anyway, that's all for now. There's some stuff we're trying to do around the house that I want to get back to. The housewarming and engagment part is next weekend.

I'm such an idiot

2004-07-24T13:31:00.000-04:00

Emily is mad at me, I think. Worse, she's sad. She said it isn't me, but I don't believe it. Maybe it isn't just that, but it's part of it.

Not too long before this, we were talking about one thing or another, and the topic of her getting some sun came up. I admonished her not to get too much because I didn't want her getting skin cancer or getting old and wrinkly before her time.

Well, yeah, it seems obvious to you now, but I had no idea then that this is where we'd end up. Alright, alright, I should have known.

Anyway, I have two points I want to make.

First, is appreciation of aesthetics inherently shallow? I love the fact that she's as beautiful as she is and why the hell should I apologize for that? And why is it so bad that I want to cherish it as long as I can? (A: Because I've given her the impression that it's more important to me than is reasonable. Nobody with any sort of depth to her wants to be loved for just her looks. Unfortunately, there are things I've done and said over the course of our relationship that play into this, which is already one of her insecurities.)

Second, I love her for so much more than her beauty. To begin with, she's very smart. She probably doesn't realize that her mind is the thing I love most about her. (Which, of course, is my fault for not making clear.) Beyond that, she's both fun and funny. I enormously enjoy nearly every moment I spend with her and this is the most important part of our relationship, to me. Whether we're playing darts, grocery shopping, holding each other in bed after waking up, watching Six Feet Under, driving somewhere, looking for a place to live, or whatever. She makes life a blast.

And she loves me. I can't begin to describe how good it makes me feel.

There are other things I could (and probably should) list here. But I won't now because I'm feeling totally shitty about the distance I've created between us. That's the worst part. Oye, I fucked this one up.

Intelligent debate

2004-07-22T17:16:00.000-04:00

A good debate that is remarkable free from partisan hysterics is going on at Opinion Duel.

I'm trying not to link to things without anything even seemingly useful to say myself, but this stuff is too hard to come by these days.

Kerry for President

2004-07-21T15:39:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking about voting for John Kerry.

Seriously. No, really, I mean it.

How in the world can this possibly be, you ask. I cannot say I truly understand it myself, but let's take a stab at it anyway.

George Bush sucks.
- Spending. The President is spending money like it's going out of style. Whatever happened to the party of small government? Politicians resounding suck, but occasionally they do something worthwhile. Let's not throw away one of the good pieces of Reagan's legacy.
- The FMA. How does any other person's marriage affect yours? Spare me the collectivist BS about the "institution" of marriage, I want to know how two gay people getting married harms the marriage of any other individual. Regardless, why do you care? Let's all just act like adults and - if nobody is getting hurt - let each other be. If nothing else, God will sort it all out in the end.
- Steel Tarrifs. All politicians pander, but there are better ways. The Highway Transportation Bill is already so pork-laden, I don't think anyone will notice if a bit more graft is thrown in for Ohio/Pennsylvania/whomever else is in the rust belt. (Yes, yes, I know it doesn't work that way, but is there really nothing else that would do?)
- John Ashcroft. There's a war going on and the A.G. is putting resources into chasing down drug users and porn peddlers. I hate to say it, but the bleeding-hearts were right about this man.
- Etc.

The Republicans will (hopefully (sort of)) still controll both Houses of Congress.
- A divided government will be too busy bickering to get in our way. Heaven forbid if the Democrats get back control of the Senate, though. I'm not a big fan of the Democrats running the confirmation process while one of there own sits in the White House. In general, the more opposition to liberal policies, the better.

My vote doesn't count anyway.
- If George Bush were to lose Texas, I think even James Carville would be stunned into silence. It just ain't gonna happen. This gives me a certain degree of latitude in my actions. Not that voting for Kerry will communicate why I'm unhappy with the Bush administration, but at least it will say something.

All that being said, I probably won't. Why?

The War on Terror
- I beg forgiveness for the phrase I'm about to use to start the next sentence, but... If we let the terrorists win, none of the stuff above matters. Period.

The War on Terror
- This is, IMO, the number one issue for this election. George Bush may not be doing a perfect job (though who would?), but at least he understand this. Kerry just doesn't get it.
  We screwed around while terrorist attacked the U.S.S. Cole, bombed U.S. embassies, and tried to blow up the WTC the first time. Bush's WoT policies are sometimes lacking, and his ability to communicate important points leaves a lot to be desired, but he isn't going to appease terrorists or subjugate our foreign policy to those who don't have our best interests at heart.

The War on Terror
- The terrorist who still wish us harm and whose ilk killed 3000 Americans on our own soil would prefer that John Kerry beat George Bush in November. Does that necessarily mean anything? No. Does that say something? It does to me.

Cozumel next week

2004-07-20T15:43:00.000-04:00

This time next week Emily and I will be in Cozumel. Does that kick ass or what? This is where we are staying.

Thanks to Lone Star Hoops for being the impetus for this trip.

The idiocy of political correctness

2004-07-19T16:06:00.000-04:00

Interesting story and followup about a possible dry run by terrorists on a recent flight from Detroit to LA.

The moral of the story is that vociferous idiocy and a lack of political courage, with regard to racial profiling, make it easier for terrorist to kill us again. The terrorist we have to fear are overwhelmingly young, middle-eastern males. To ignore this fact is rank stupidity.

Feel free to bring up Timothy McVeigh at this point. He's the exception that proves that rule.

Commentary on this story by Michelle Malkin here, here, here, and here.

Update: Final word on this whole episode here.

Good bipartisan humor

2004-07-19T12:01:00.000-04:00

One of the many problems with the sort of hostile partisanship that we see now-a-days is the lack of good humor that can equally make fun of everybody.

Fortunately, not everyone has succumbed to this.

http://www.jibjab.com/thisland.html

Last moving post (hopefully)

2004-07-19T11:15:00.000-04:00

Emily and I got our things moved in yesterday and last night was the first in our new home. There's still a lot of crap everywhere and I'm not done dealing with my place, but I'm seriously stoked.

Since we won't have broadband until Thursday (Time Warner blows), blogging might be spotty. [As opposed to normally? -ed. Good point.]

Going home again

2004-07-18T02:43:00.000-04:00

Most of my place is packed now, with the exception of the kitchen, which is a total mess. We've both made a couple trips over to the new place with odds and ends that aren't worth packing.

Well, Emily has made like 4 trips and I'm starting to wonder how well she understand the concept of movers.

I'm glad to be getting rid of a bunch of crap. I've got stuff that's been sitting around in boxes since I moved into my current place. If I haven't used it in a year, do I really need it? Some of it, however, I would have used if I would have ever unpacked it (like kitchen utensils). Partly I didn't do so because I'm lazy, but part of it is, this place never really felt like home. And I knew it wouldn't.

But the new place does, despite the fact that Emily and I haven't even spent the night there yet. Hell, I've only spent a couple hours in the place, en toto.

I have no idea what the next year will bring for us, but tomorrow, I'll be going home for the first time in a long while.

It honks man, it honks!

2004-07-18T02:38:00.000-04:00

Forgot to mention earlier, I was talking to Stephen (Flynn, from flipside) today during Shane's move about our trucks. He drives a '99 Tacoma. Anyway, we were discussing the security system and I mention how I hate that it doesn't beep when I lock or unlock the truck via the remote. He then tells me that you can change it so the horn honks and proceeds to show me how. And now, it honks! How cool is that? I've had that truck for 4 years and had no idea.

Moving and packing

2004-07-17T16:55:00.000-04:00

After helping Shane move her furniture this morning, Emily and I signed the lease for our new place! We have movers coming tomorrow so I will be driving to work on Monday from my new home. I am very excited about the two of us moving in together and about how cool our new place is.

It is a 2bd/1bath in Crestview and it's right across the street from a church. It has good size rooms, a great size kitchen, a screen porch off the back, and a huge back yard (for central Austin).

In other news, we missed the boat party for work today. Probably for the best, since I didn't have to hear our CEO talk. The sound of that man's voice might be enough to make me swim to shore.

And finally, I managed to get a good night sleep despite my ear infection. The doctor gave me some vicodin (sp?) and two of those before bed works like a charm.

Anyway, I need to be packing.

New boss, same as the old boss (I wish)

2004-07-16T12:51:00.000-04:00

My team got a new boss at work today. The VP of Development, who was my boss, is becoming CTO, so my entire team is going to be under the dev mgr for the other dev team.

The new boss is a pretty good guy who's just trying to do his job, but this change is going to cause me to lose some of my autonomy. Most of it, probably. The near-total lack of supervision has been one of the good things about this place. I should probably look for a new job.

Unfortunately, Emily and I are likely going to be moving in a year when she's done with her disertation. Do I really want to find another job, which will certainly have it's own issues, for just a year?

Safe money is on me doing nothing.

My achin' ear

2004-07-16T12:45:00.000-04:00

I started to develop an ear infection 2 days ago. It started hurting pretty badly so I went to the doctor yesterday. She gave me some drops, but I don't know that they are helping. It got much worse last night, and I got maybe two hours sleep. I'm going to the doctor again this afternoon.

I can't hear much out of my left ear and the pain can get excruciating at times.