True, I haven't been very visible online for a while. I've hoped to get better about that. To some extent, I've been working in the background on various things. Honestly though, I got sick for a while and had crud at work to deal with.

Speaking of work, it's amazing how many people at work still seem to fear me because of this blog. The blog is but a very small part of my web sites. And any content related to local politics or local government has been minimal for the last year or more. Despite this I have been told by at least three people in the last week that several elected officials, law enforcement administrators and citizens with questionable motives remain terrified of my first amendment rights. All I can say is that if find it very hard to imagine. My counsel does tell me that one citizen with questionable motives does indeed have reason to fear, but that has nothing to do with this blog.

Moving right along....

Many of you know that Debbie turned over the financial management role to me after more than ten years. I took three days over my Xmas break and set up a spreadsheet for a budget. Payments to credit accounts (ones charging interest) began getting weekly payments. I set things up on a very conservative system, being conservative both on income as well as payments. The thing wasn't perfect, I've made a few adjustments and tweaked it a bit to fine tune. But it allowed me to automate payments and....I'm now nicely on target to elimination of all debt in just about one year. give or take, it can always be adapted for life. Life is pretty flexible and constantly changing. I've finally realized that a budget has to recognize that.

Anyway.....  read more »

It's been quite a week so far!  I won't even go into all the changes and drama at work (especially the "pending litigation" crap).  But yeah, there's been lots there too.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, having completed 90 orbits around Sol, has departed.  One must assume that he's headed in the same direction as Heinlein and Asimov.  Maybe also in the company of Elvis and Morrison and Garcia.  I wonder if they're finding the next life to be everything they imagined.  Clarke sure had a way of writing.  I had many a daydream in my youth, flying my spaceship at near light speed, all because of his excellent books.  I remember how Rendezvous with Rama kind of freaked me out when I first read it.  Then 2001 freaked me out even more.  Good stories though, all of them.  Some of his later ones focused on the ocean and they were just as wonderful as the ones that focused on space.  They all actually focused on people, on the community of humans who will one day populate this universe.

Then there's the stock market.  Beautiful timing.  I've wanted to open a trading account for a while now and, just a couple of weeks ago, I finally did it.  With the means to trade I prepared myself to invest consistantly to build for an average profit in a few years (it's just a mad money account intended to pay for some crazy thing like a house down payment).  Then, for once in my life, the bargains begin to fall into my lap!  This could be like winning the lottery.  Not that I have much to invest but....I'm trying to buy as much as I can right now while they're pretty much giving away stocks.  I hope the prices stay low for a while.

Our friend Katie got a job today.  I won't steal the thunder there, see Bill's site for details.  But that's excellent news.  read more »

Read into this what you wish.  There's meaning here.  Count on it.  This song has been a favorite since I was a kid....oh yeah it's got meaning.  Thanks Phil.

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When I first got my 1998 Isuzu Rodeo, it sounded pretty darn cool.  After driving a four door four banger for ten years, the smooth power of that V6 was wonderful.  It seemed like the more I drove it and the harder I drove it the better it sounded.  It wasn't long before I noticed an almost jet engine like intake sound and a sudden increase in power that had the tires smokin' at half throttle.

As it turns out, cracked intake gaskets are a common problem with that engine.  After investing $40 in parts and an hour of my labor the power was under control (darn it) and the engine purred like a kitten....one who has learned he'll get smacked if he's too aggressive with the ball of yarn.  Whatever, it still had a cool sound.

Under heavy acceleration there was still a noticeable squeal.  Again, the more I drove it, the more badass it sounded.  By the time we were ready to leave for Minnesota this sound had refined itself so that most people thought I had boosted the engine somehow.  The sound didn't show up at idle, only under load at half or more throttle....just what you would expect of some sort of turbocharger.

Yeah, I'm cool.

My first clue should have been in North Dakota at a rest area when I noticed that the cool sound had gone away and a new sound had developed at idle.  Whatever, drive 'er 'till it develops.  Good ole flight line mentality.

Two thousand miles later, with Katie's entire collection of possessions loaded in my trusty Isuzu, we were about to do the tourist thing at Devil's Tower in Wyoming.  I would love to have seen that up close.  We stopped at an historical marker, took some pictures, and then got back on the road to the tower.  Suddenly my cool sound, and the not so cool sound, were both gone with a BANG!  read more »

There is a great amount of interest in this year's presidential elections, as everybody seems to recognize that our next president has to be a lot better than George Bush. The Democrats are riding high with two groundbreaking candidates, a woman and an African-American while the conservative Republicans are in a quandary about their party's nod to a quasi-liberal maverick, John McCain.

Each candidate is carefully pandering to a smorgasbord of special-interest groups, ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender people to children of illegal immigrants to working mothers to evangelical Christians.

There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.

His common traits are that he isn't looking for anything from anyone, just the promise to...

Now this is just hypothetical, just a "what if" for everyone to ponder or discuss.

Suppose that someone "accidentally" sent you an email, only they thought they were sending it to someone else. 

Suppose you and someone else had agreed to have a confidential conversation in email.  Suppose that person decided to break confidentiality by forwarding that email on to a third party.  Now suppose that person screwed up and wrote that third party but hit "Reply" instead of "Forward" and sent the email to you instead.  Imagine that.

Then imagine that you start getting email from this person on a regular basis, almost as if you're being blind copied on every message they send.  You now seem to be privy to all of their email conversations.  Some of what you see in the emails alarms you.

Just to make things really interesting, imagine that you suddenly start getting blind copied on emails from another person.  Not all of his emails, just ones that this person seems to think you would be interested in.  More email that alarms you.  Assume, for the sake of our hypothetical scenario, that this person never told you they were going to do this, they just started sending you the emails.  Some of these emails are about you.  Some of these emails show the unhealthy motives of several people including the other person who is sending you email.

Ponder that if you will.  Maybe contribute your thoughts here.  But keep in mind that while this situation is wildly hypothetical, there is a possibility that it could be very real.  Stranger things have happened.  read more »

Not since I was in the 57th AGS (an Air Force unit) have I ever had a job I loathe as much as this.  Normally, even with the ugliest of jobs, I look forward to the day ahead of me.  Even when the tasks are unpleasant, sometimes because they are unpleasant, I just can't wait to dig in and work to make things better.

Lately though, I dread the thought of going to work.  Those who knew me in '89 knew how severely my job in the 57th affected me, I feel I am close to that point again.  This morning when I woke up and realized that I would have to go back to this job, I was physically ill.

Don't get me wrong, there's still good work to be done.  There are juicy technical projects that a geek like me can really enjoy.  And all of those projects have the potential to improve the quality of life for either the citizens of the county or for county employees.  If it were just for the work alone, this job would still thrill me.

I don't want to say that it's the people, that would give the wrong impression.  Most of the people I work with are good people with good hearts.  There are some who are simply there to do a job and collect a paycheck, and that's fine.  Most of the people have upbeat attitudes and make it a pleasure to show up each day.  Most realize that we are part of a team and conduct themselves as team players.

The sad part is that a few individuals are in control.  They aren't even county employees and one, amazingly enough, is "retired".  These people, rather than working as team players toward what the public expects is our common goal, these people are more about territory and disruption.   read more »

              I wrote the following for Servo Magazine but those folks never paid. So here it is for free.    

You may have heard of Thomas Moray, PhD. The good doctor lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s around the time of Nicola Tesla. Like Tesla, Dr. Moray spent his time wondering about electricity. He claimed to have found a way to harvest electrical energy far from power lines, rivers or windmills. Witnesses said he got enough power to cook a turkey. The aroma must have been enticing!

    Since Nikola is off with the upperclassmen somewhere getting a swirley I thought it would be appropriate to sit you down and share more info on the Global Al correspondence course, How to Win Friends and Influence Innocents.

    Pull up a stool and listen to Grandpa. Click appropriately :