Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The Good Life
Look at that picture. Could anybody possibly think that she needs to steal food to get her daily nutrition?
Friday, September 26, 2008
Free Association Friday
My whole brain was out of tune I don't know how to tune a brain, do you? Went into a brain shop
They said they'd have to rebuild the whole head
I said "Well, do what you gotta do"
I don't know how to fix a brain, do you?
When I got my brain back, it didn't work right
Didn't have as many good ideas
Haven't really had a good idea since I got it fixed...
- Here's somebody who strikes me as a genius, but not in a math sort of way. Seriously, that's impressive. Now would somebody please tell the guy to breathe!
- For those who are more into the whole "math" thing. Scientists really don't know what's going on. Hey, neither do I. But I recognize that fact, and allow God all the room He needs to fill in the gaps.
- To the two kids who wanted to join my coworkers and I in our ongoing game of football at the park the other day: I appreciate your commitment to the great sport of football, and your confidence in asserting you could add value to our game of two hand touch. However, you couldn't have been a day over 12 years old, and we'd already had some accidental full speed collisions. Nothing that damages adult 185 pound bodies, but I'm pretty sure all the king's horses and all the king's men would have been unable to get you back in the game if you were accidentally steamrolled. Finally, while I think a man should welcome the opportunity to act kindly to the young, we all knew you were really just trying to play to impress the 3 girls who were standing 10 feet behind you.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Cause For War
THOSE ARE YELLOW JACKETS! THEY'RE MAD AND THEY'RE STING-CRAZY! FIREARMS ARE USELESS AGAINST THEM! SAVE YOURSELVES!
I beat a retreat that was beyond hasty. The phrase "asses and elbows" comes to mind. I was stung twice, in the back and on the ear. That being said, I was very fortunate. I had decided to wear blue jeans instead of shorts. I had hiking boots instead of sneakers. I had kept my shirt on through the laborious effort. I picked a bunch of yellow jackets off my pants that could easily have stung me had I worn shorts.
This is why today's entry is under "What's The Good Word". Today's phrase is casus belli. It is a key event that justifies war. It's one of those neat Latin phrases, and fit just that neatly into my frame of mind at the moment. I had all the justification I needed.
Oh, and one other thing turned out in my favor. I had TWO cans of hornet spray in my backyard shed. I got to roll back in, heavy, with twin cannons. Many hornets fell, and I figured I got the entrance to they're little hornet Hades inside my leaf pile pretty good. Nonetheless, I was forced to beat a hasty retreat a few more times due to the hostile vigilance of the beefed up security perimeter.
I backed off from the wasptropolis and finished the rest of my outdoor chores and let the angry insects simmer down a bit. After about an hour, I returned (only one can of insecticide, the other was newly empty) and shook a stick into the leaf pile. A beautiful column of yellow jackets, one after the other, began erupting from the hole in the pile. And they met a sublimely foamy stream of invertebrate death sentence in midair, every last one of them. I must have dropped 50 of those suckers during that little skirmish. It was our Turkey Shoot to the preceding and more close-run Midway, if you will.
I am not foolish. They survive, perhaps even survive under that leaf pile. They may even bee (get it?) subterranean. I could have left them alone, but this aggression will not stand. In the bleak darkness of winter, I will scatter that leaf pile into nothingness when it is so cold that their blood runs like motor oil. They will die, separated, alone, and frozen into little waspbergs of ice. And my heart will be just as bitter.
"...and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, AND SUBDUE IT: and have DOMINION over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." -Genesis 1:28
Dominioning complete.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
iNDIAn Summer
It was a fascinating experience. The people-watching opportunities were priceless. The admirals cut through the crowds in scythe-like fashion, polite but unconcerned and accustomed to deference. Captains swirled about the admirals like pilot fish or remoras. Industry executives flittered about, landing on whatever flower offered potential for self-endorsement or improved networking. The scientists lingered on the fringes, disheveled and confused by their inability to penetrate the culture of "normal people". The engineers paraded around in uncoordinated outfits and hammered, simply hammered the free food. There was a dinner the first night that featured so much meat that I think my kidneys and liver have accumulated protein crystals that they don't know how to dispose of. In order to NewEngland the bejesus out of the festivities, dinner was:
- clam chowder
- steamers (a small clam)
- shrimp
- 3/4 pound of spicy sausage
- 1 1/2 pound lobster
Seriously. I didn't even bother with dessert, and I only had 3 beers. That's right only 3 FREE beers. That, I think, conveys what happens when you feast on crustaceans until you hate yourself. Let's move on.
The first day was all a "plenary" session, which is Latin for "let everybody sit in one lecture hall so that we all feel important in the presence of greatness". It was basically a round robin of peacocks for the powers that be. We met at a local hotel to ride onto the Navy base, and I discovered, to my chagrin, that my khakis and tie were trumped by the full business suit of EVERYBODY ELSE ON THE BUS. The situation once we arrived was a little more business casual (just like we were told it was supposed to be), but you get the idea. Anyway, after that first day and the following dinner, the admirals and executives found more important places to be, and the geeks got down to business. The highlights:
- This country has many very stupid people, but some of the presentations I saw convinced me that the extremely smart people just maybe balance out the many dumb ones. "Wicket smat", in the local vernacular. I was really humbled.
- My approach of not being overly focused on career advancement and being oblivious to other people's feelings leaves me the perfect person for networking at these affairs. I don't think most of the people I met with really cared about me, but they will definitely remember me, because I always speak with nothing to lose.
- The Chinese are evil. Well, except for Jackie Chan, I Tell You What
- Newport News Shipbuilding is evil. No exceptions.
- Ever read The Hunt For Red October or Red Storm Rising? Our Navy is way, way, way past the technology you read about in those books. The funny part, from my perspective, is that all the new technology is being added to platforms (the boats themselves) that are little changed from 40 years ago.
- The best presentation by far was an innovative use of the trash disposal unit. Existing hardware packaged to gain additional capability at very low cost. Bravo.
- I love presentations on war gaming. I would really like to challenge some of the Navy guys, just to see how I'd do
- Who new weather and current simulation were so important?
- If somebody with a 30 minute presentation on computer networks can't make it, and you are selected to do the presentation in their stead, do us all a favor and be either very entertaining/charismatic or a fast reader
- The enlisted personnel I encountered on the Navy base were an absolute pleasure to deal with. Very encouraging to see that our society can still produce 20 year-old men and women with dignity.
Monday, September 15, 2008
The Money Maker
I KNOW YOU! YOU'RE THE GUY FROM THE RECRUITING VIDEO! I WANT TO BE YOUR DEAR FRIEND...
I'm going to see it coming from a mile away, but I don't know how to respond or, better still, cut off the inevitable "I know and understand you because I've seen your face before." Any thoughts out there?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Incomplete Sentience
- The University of Michigan offense is about as consistent as coach Rich Rodriguez's sense of ethics. All I can say to this point is that we are 2 games closer to the end of his tenure.
- The Detroit Lions. In general. Pick your reason. I will cheer because I am beholden by honor, but I am not deceived.
In the meantime, there is a Sunday night game about to get going. I need to watch.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Doints
- The slapdash manner in which modern weapon systems is designed has not gotten any better, but isn't much worse, either. In the 1970's Adm. Rickover's manic obsession with the nuclear reactor lead to it dominating the boat, all for a few precious knots of speed. In setting the specifications for the new fast attack submarine (now the 688 class), he ended up with a boat that was not very fast, couldn't dive very deep, was heavy because the nuclear reactor had poor power density, and was not as quiet as it could have been. But that was not a big deal, because it was expensive! His power grab in the submarine design community occurred at a time when the last vestiges of WWII combat experience were fading. That knowledge base is now gone, and we can only rely on best guesses as to what will be most critical in the next real naval battle. Submarines have evolved into such complicated monsters that nobody can realistically set specifications and know what it's going to cost to actually attain them. Throw in some feudal spats between segments of the Navy with opposing interests, and what the author accurately termed "ad hocism" reigns. I've seen this firsthand, where answers like, "we're not sure how much Option 1 or Option 2 will cost, but the one with fewer parts should be cheaper" run rampant. This may be unchanged from the beginning of industrialized weaponry (I'm thinking about those beautiful but not entirely useful battleships built in the 1930's), but it is galling to observe.
- I tell you what, those shipyards used to be nasty places. While things have been cleaned up, for the better in my estimation, maritime construction is still hardly a place for those who can't make do with the best the shipfitters can give them. I actually had a request today to install a 20" lever backwards because "it looks like it will work". That was a rare case where I told the shipyard to scrap the part. It is still interesting, though, to work in a place unique enough to have a book written that recognizably describes the buildings, smells, and behaviors of your workplace.
- One of the contributing factors to cost overruns in the late 1970's was an increase in the fundamental costs of doing business. Metals and energy both became significantly more expensive in a very short period of time. Just like 2006-2008!
- Some of the characters that have careers ruined are probably not so bad. In fact, many of the men who were ground into a fine dust while working as shipyard managers or accountants were very intelligent, and had decades of experience to inform their decisions. But that was not enough to save them from external forces (labor unions, politics, bad executive management...) that were overwhelming. This is why, to me, it seems foolish to make many decisions based on how they will affect career advancement. There are just too many men who are willing to go to just about any length to get a leg up on the next promotion, and too many external forces playing a role, to make it worth committing my life to that. As the book showed, even when you get to "the top" you may find yourself miserable. Work hard, show everybody how capable you are, and let the chips fall where they may.