September 2005

When are we going?

September 21, 2005

I have been given several departure dates and times over the past few days. I dont want to get specific (since it will change anyway) but I am certain that I will be on my way to the middle east within the next seven days. The constantly changing itinerrary is, as you can imagine, frustrating for me and my family. I still need to get used to surfing the unpredictable waves that are military plans.

In the meantime, I will continue to pack my gear, clean my apartment, hang out with friends and family, and take short trips to occupy my time. I went to the Harrah's casino in Illinois last week with some other pilots from work. It was a good day trip. I did not lose much money. I also went to the Jack Daniel's Distillery with Adam. If any of you find yourselves in Lynchburg, Tennessee I recommend the tour. I have an even greater appreciation of Tennessee Whiskey than I had before (some of you know that I already had quite an appreciation).

I am attaching a photo from the trip. You can see me in the back row, five from the left wearing a blue t-shirt and sunglasses. Adam is standing to my right. Our tourguide is kneeling in the front of the group. He pronounced the word "tour" as "chore" and "fire" as "far". As the following story illustrates, he also did not have much of a sense of humor.

The guide showed us Jack Daniel's original office. On the floor of the office was a large, old safe. Mr. Daniel kicked the safe one day after he had difficulty getting it open and broke his toe. The toe became infected and he eventually died. Needless to say, I dared Adam to kick the deadly safe. Once he accepted my dare I, not willing to be outdone, kicked it too (albeit gently). Adam then said to the guide, "I kicked the safe. Will I be OK?" "Were you hurt?" the guide replied deadpan. "Nope," Adam said. "I reckon you'll be alright." The guide said without cracking a smile. I guess some things should simply not joked about.

Senior statesmen

September 19, 2005

While doing a bit of research on a political attack email circulated over the weekend I came across this fact. In 1994 Congress changed the law so a US President first elected after 1997 will receive up to 10 years of Secret Service protection after they leave office. Before the change presidents since 1965 had been entitled to lifetime protection.

There is an interesting related paradox. In the late 18th century, when the United States Constitution was written, the average life expectancy of a newborn baby was 35 years. Now 200 years later the life expectancy of a newborn is more than 80 years. (This simplistic observation does not adequately take into account age-adjusted life expectancy of a person surviving childhood diseases that are much less of an impact on today's statistics than they were two centuries ago.) The point being the founders of the country envisioned the president as not only a mature person but possibly an elder statesman. In this context it is interesting that in more recent times as newborn life expectancies have grown longer we've had some of the youngest presidents yet to serve. Although the late 20th century also brought the oldest American President ever elected so all this could mean very little.

Friends and bobcats

September 15, 2005

This afternoon an old friend called and we had a nice chat. Then on the way home I had the wonderful experience of seeing a bobcat in the wild. Not the landscaping tool sort of bobcat that is prevalent in the city, but the solitary feline sort that is so beautiful to see in the wild. A very nice end to a day in a week full of not-so-great days.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

September 15, 2005

I guess I wont really know if the waiting truly is the hardest part until I get to Iraq. In any case, the waiting is not fun. I am probably less than two weeks from deploying. I go to PT most mornings, sometimes do a little work, and am usually home by noon. This schedule is pretty boring. There have been a few highpoints, however. For one thing, I handed-off the lance last week. Dave has it now. Fortunately for him, he rarely has to carry it because we are rarely at work. Another high point was the 9 mm range. I always enjoy getting to do some shooting (at least when no one is shooting back).

I have packed and repacked and packed again as more items are issued and as the packing requirements change. We are allowed to bring a rucksack, a duffel bag, and a carry-on bag. Everything on our required packing list must fit in these items. It is a challenge but not impossible. This is in additon to the "tough-box" that we were all allowed to send ahead on the ship with the helicopters. My tough box contains such essentials as a foam mattress pad, an x-box, speakers, a frisbee, lots of extra hygene items, some books, and a lot of writing paper.

Its funny to see how everyone's attitudes change as we approach deployment. The general feeling certainly is to live for today. The soldiers around me seem to be drinking more, eating out a lot, spending money, working out less, and generally doing the things they wont get to do much in Iraq. Everyone (myself included) figures there will be plenty of time to work out and eat right and lose weight and study and save money in the desert.

Drupal clustering

September 13, 2005

Drupal clustering has been on my mind of late. (Apologies for not linking to the few mentions I found but the DirecWay connection is up to its no-good again.) There are a few different things that I ultimately mean by clustering. Perhaps the most extravagant gets pretty far beyond what a community/content management system should do.

The recurring dream is that I can publish anywhere, or at least to any of the Drupal sites I have permissions on, and do it easily from a single back-end. When I write something that is suited for multiple sites I click on the distribution list and the content is published to the various sites. Of course it would be great to have some additional content types like outlines and to get the project module whipped into a great task management system (maybe it should be separate from project... a topic for another day).

How did I ever?

September 12, 2005

Over the weekend I finally got around to downloading iScroll2 a two-finger scrolling trackpad driver for older Apple laptops that don't come with the functionality. Honestly I thought I'd play with it a little and decide I didn't care one way or the other. What's the big deal with two-finger trackpad scrolling. I couldn't have been more wrong. It is a fantastic new addition to PowerBooks.

Coloradoan executives resign abruptly

September 8, 2005

Publisher Dorothy Bland and Executive Editor Michael Limon abruptly left the Coloradoan yesterday. Everybody involved is understandably tight lipped. Adding to the mystery senior Gannett Company executives including the newspaper group president and human resources manager were reportedly in Fort Collins.

Update: Adding to the growing mystery Gannett named Christine Chinn president and publisher of the Coloradoan on Thursday, one day after the resignations.

The politics of language

September 7, 2005

China is said to be narrowing the list of possibleastronauts for its second manned space flight. Even the Xinhua News Agency refers to the would-be space travelers as astronauts.

However, when it comes to space travelers from Russia an interesting double standard applies. Look at any story about the International Space Station and you'll see neatly deleniated lines. The crew is divided into cosmonauts and astronauts. Wikipedia lists some additional variations for European and Chinese astronauts.

Certainly there are other words where British and American English differ. (i.e. lorry and truck). However, there are few if any other circumstances where the press is compelled to use two different words to express the same thing.

Labor Day

September 6, 2005

The weekend wrapped up with an enjoyable barbecue at the Sandy Valley Volunteer Fire Department. Along with the traditional burger and hot-dog fare teams took to battling the barrel down the line with fire hoses. A great end-of-summer time in the warmth of the Nevada desert. Clicking on the photo will take you to some more photos of the afternoon.

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