Screw that love crap. This is what the world needs more of.
(Loads slow. Be patient.)
Thanks, JS!
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Got him!
[First heard about this last night at the prison Mr. Thompson escaped from. The correctional officers were in a pretty good mood.]
"Prison escapee captured in Vegas
LAS VEGAS - An escaped Carson City prison inmate was captured Tuesday in Las Vegas, three days after his story and photo were aired on a national television broadcast.
Jody Kenneth Thompson was arrested Tuesday by members of the U.S. Marshal Service and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's SWAT team.
According to a Marshal Service press release, an anonymous tipster led authorities to an apartment in the 3900 block of Mountain Vista Street. As investigators from both departments closed in on the address, Thompson allegedly fled and ran to a nearby residence where he forced entry and attempted to hide. Thompson was found a short time later and placed under arrest without further incident.
Thompson allegedly mastered a prison break "fueled by love and a free ride," said District of Nevada Acting United States Marshal Fidencio Rivera.
On the morning of Aug. 25, Thompson and others who were serving their sentences at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center on Snyder Avenue were assigned to load furniture onto a delivery truck going to the Lovelock Correctional Center. At approximately 8:30 a.m. the delivery truck departed NNCC. At approximately 11:30 a.m., Thompson was unaccounted for and believed to have escaped on the truck.
"Ironically he escaped with the assistance of Nevada Department of Corrections employee and love interest Ana Kastner," Rivera said.
Kastner allegedly smuggled a cell phone into the prison and gave it to Thompson on or about Aug. 13, two weeks prior to his escape. Their alleged romantic relationship and her involvement were discovered during the investigation into Thompson's escape. She was arrested on Aug. 27.
He was featured on Fox Network's America's Most Wanted television program Saturday."
[Mr. Thompson will still be in the Nevada Maximum Security Prison in Ely long after my grandchildren graduate from college.][And I don't have any grandchildren.][Yet.]
"Prison escapee captured in Vegas
LAS VEGAS - An escaped Carson City prison inmate was captured Tuesday in Las Vegas, three days after his story and photo were aired on a national television broadcast.
Jody Kenneth Thompson was arrested Tuesday by members of the U.S. Marshal Service and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's SWAT team.
According to a Marshal Service press release, an anonymous tipster led authorities to an apartment in the 3900 block of Mountain Vista Street. As investigators from both departments closed in on the address, Thompson allegedly fled and ran to a nearby residence where he forced entry and attempted to hide. Thompson was found a short time later and placed under arrest without further incident.
Thompson allegedly mastered a prison break "fueled by love and a free ride," said District of Nevada Acting United States Marshal Fidencio Rivera.
On the morning of Aug. 25, Thompson and others who were serving their sentences at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center on Snyder Avenue were assigned to load furniture onto a delivery truck going to the Lovelock Correctional Center. At approximately 8:30 a.m. the delivery truck departed NNCC. At approximately 11:30 a.m., Thompson was unaccounted for and believed to have escaped on the truck.
"Ironically he escaped with the assistance of Nevada Department of Corrections employee and love interest Ana Kastner," Rivera said.
Kastner allegedly smuggled a cell phone into the prison and gave it to Thompson on or about Aug. 13, two weeks prior to his escape. Their alleged romantic relationship and her involvement were discovered during the investigation into Thompson's escape. She was arrested on Aug. 27.
He was featured on Fox Network's America's Most Wanted television program Saturday."
[Mr. Thompson will still be in the Nevada Maximum Security Prison in Ely long after my grandchildren graduate from college.][And I don't have any grandchildren.][Yet.]
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Another Dirty Little Secret
I play backgammon. A lot of backgammon.
Father figure Ken Ingerson taught me the game in the 1970s, but it was this year that I was bitten by the bug. My place of choice is It's Your Turn which offers numerous games at reasonable prices. You can play for free but you're limited to 25 moves a day; you'd be surprised how quickly those 25 moves disappear.
IYT offers eight or nine types of BG, of which I play three:
- Backgammon: this is the regular, traditional game, but with no doubling cube.
- Backgammon Pro: Regular game with doubling cube. First player to five points wins. This is match play, so there can be as many as nine one-point games before a winner is decided.
- Backgammon Pro-9: Regular game with doubling cube. First player to nine points wins. This is also match play, so there can be as many as 17 one-point games before a winner is decided.
You can play in three different environments:
- Regular games, which players can make moves from once every three days to once every 30 days. I always play three-day games because one-month games can take months to complete.
- Ladder games. Players join the game they want with set time limits they want (ex: moves every 28 hour moves to 100-hour moves). Failure to move within the set limit is a forfeit. Players climb the higher in the standings with each win.
- Tournament games. These are elimination tournaments where you play three to four players a round, two games against each player. I justed started tournament play and the highest I've ever gotten was the fourth round (13th place out of about 200 players).
Looking at my games right now...
Active regular games: 26. Most of these are plain old BG. (Only 26??? I'm slowing down.)
Active ladder games: 53 matches. Most of those are Backgammon Pro with one or two BG-9
Tournaments: 10 tournaments of almost all regular BG.
Now the big question: Do I win? Of the nearly 1400 BG games and matches I've played on IYT, I've won nearly 900 times which is two-thirds of games played (895/477/14 draws = 1386 games and matches). Of the three environments, I win about 62% of my regular games, and 70% of my tournament and ladder games.
All of which proves yet again that I need a life.
Father figure Ken Ingerson taught me the game in the 1970s, but it was this year that I was bitten by the bug. My place of choice is It's Your Turn which offers numerous games at reasonable prices. You can play for free but you're limited to 25 moves a day; you'd be surprised how quickly those 25 moves disappear.
IYT offers eight or nine types of BG, of which I play three:
- Backgammon: this is the regular, traditional game, but with no doubling cube.
- Backgammon Pro: Regular game with doubling cube. First player to five points wins. This is match play, so there can be as many as nine one-point games before a winner is decided.
- Backgammon Pro-9: Regular game with doubling cube. First player to nine points wins. This is also match play, so there can be as many as 17 one-point games before a winner is decided.
You can play in three different environments:
- Regular games, which players can make moves from once every three days to once every 30 days. I always play three-day games because one-month games can take months to complete.
- Ladder games. Players join the game they want with set time limits they want (ex: moves every 28 hour moves to 100-hour moves). Failure to move within the set limit is a forfeit. Players climb the higher in the standings with each win.
- Tournament games. These are elimination tournaments where you play three to four players a round, two games against each player. I justed started tournament play and the highest I've ever gotten was the fourth round (13th place out of about 200 players).
Looking at my games right now...
Active regular games: 26. Most of these are plain old BG. (Only 26??? I'm slowing down.)
Active ladder games: 53 matches. Most of those are Backgammon Pro with one or two BG-9
Tournaments: 10 tournaments of almost all regular BG.
Now the big question: Do I win? Of the nearly 1400 BG games and matches I've played on IYT, I've won nearly 900 times which is two-thirds of games played (895/477/14 draws = 1386 games and matches). Of the three environments, I win about 62% of my regular games, and 70% of my tournament and ladder games.
All of which proves yet again that I need a life.
Trina Letter - Fountains of Noise
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Hey, Navy:
I’m typing this in class, which is pretty much on auto-pilot right now. I design my courses so the students work on assignments either from the book or from handouts. Inmates are a different type of student: my theory is they retain lessons much better when the teacher gets out of the way and lets them discover the material for themselves. After several semesters of prison teaching, I ain’t seen nothing to prove my theory wrong, yet.
As for the news around the house, the big story is Uncle Dennis and Aunt-elect Nicki decided to get married in Reno in June instead of Ireland. YM wasn’t surprised and it sounds like your seesters weren’t, either, but they all got passports out of the deal. I don’t know if Lara is taking the semester off, yet, because the main reason she was taking it off no longer applies, but I’m hoping she takes it off. She’s been working real hard and needs a break.
Danielle finished her third manuscript, which I find nothing less than amazing. We’re all going to be related to someone real famous. YM is not enjoying her time in the Hellmouth on King Street (you know how she gets sometimes) but she’s reving up for Christmas. Things are appearing out of storage in the garage, and there are garlands and other Noel things up on the walls. We’re probably getting a tree very soon but I’m thinking that when you get here, we’ll run out and get Charlie Brown tree. Lord knows we’re got enough decorations for two trees.
As for me, life is pretty much the same. I got my annual ear infection so I’m feeling a little light in the head (no smartass remarks, please), and I’m taking antibiotics that are the weight and size of an American quarter. I’ll probably stay home tomorrow and sleep all day. My hearing aid broke and is getting repaired, so my world is pretty quiet right now (except for the usual tennitis). My classes are winding down for the semester and I’m debating with myself whether to teach in the Spring. At one point, I wasn’t, but now I’m told I have three classes. It’s hard to keep up, sometimes.
We got our first serious snowfall of the season and were ‘blessed’ with about an inch on the valley floors. It got so cold, our neighbor’s outdoor sprinkler system blew a valve and water was gushing everywhere, higher than their bedrooms windows, in fact. As Murphy’s Law would have it, they were out of town, naturally. The neighbor around the corner had the tools to shut the water off at their main next to the street. It looks like we caught the fountain in time before it did any damage to their house and foundation, fortunately.
Since I don’t think it’s possible for a letter to get even more boring, I’ll wrap this one up by saying we miss hearing from you and hope you can write/call soon.
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
I’m typing this in class, which is pretty much on auto-pilot right now. I design my courses so the students work on assignments either from the book or from handouts. Inmates are a different type of student: my theory is they retain lessons much better when the teacher gets out of the way and lets them discover the material for themselves. After several semesters of prison teaching, I ain’t seen nothing to prove my theory wrong, yet.
As for the news around the house, the big story is Uncle Dennis and Aunt-elect Nicki decided to get married in Reno in June instead of Ireland. YM wasn’t surprised and it sounds like your seesters weren’t, either, but they all got passports out of the deal. I don’t know if Lara is taking the semester off, yet, because the main reason she was taking it off no longer applies, but I’m hoping she takes it off. She’s been working real hard and needs a break.
Danielle finished her third manuscript, which I find nothing less than amazing. We’re all going to be related to someone real famous. YM is not enjoying her time in the Hellmouth on King Street (you know how she gets sometimes) but she’s reving up for Christmas. Things are appearing out of storage in the garage, and there are garlands and other Noel things up on the walls. We’re probably getting a tree very soon but I’m thinking that when you get here, we’ll run out and get Charlie Brown tree. Lord knows we’re got enough decorations for two trees.
As for me, life is pretty much the same. I got my annual ear infection so I’m feeling a little light in the head (no smartass remarks, please), and I’m taking antibiotics that are the weight and size of an American quarter. I’ll probably stay home tomorrow and sleep all day. My hearing aid broke and is getting repaired, so my world is pretty quiet right now (except for the usual tennitis). My classes are winding down for the semester and I’m debating with myself whether to teach in the Spring. At one point, I wasn’t, but now I’m told I have three classes. It’s hard to keep up, sometimes.
We got our first serious snowfall of the season and were ‘blessed’ with about an inch on the valley floors. It got so cold, our neighbor’s outdoor sprinkler system blew a valve and water was gushing everywhere, higher than their bedrooms windows, in fact. As Murphy’s Law would have it, they were out of town, naturally. The neighbor around the corner had the tools to shut the water off at their main next to the street. It looks like we caught the fountain in time before it did any damage to their house and foundation, fortunately.
Since I don’t think it’s possible for a letter to get even more boring, I’ll wrap this one up by saying we miss hearing from you and hope you can write/call soon.
All my love,
Air Force
Monday, November 28, 2005
BBHOF Class of 2005
The ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame class of 2006 was released today and I will be making fearless predictions soon.
Here's the email I sent a year ago when the ballot for 2005 was released. This is what the Hall would have looked like if I was King of Baseball:
----------------------------------------------------
Below is this year's Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot. IMHO, Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg were sure-locks this year, and everyone else is a toss-up
If I ran the Hall of Fame and my vote was the only one that counted...
- Andre Dawson would get a gimme for the knees he lost playing on AstroTurf for the Expos, a substance that should be banned in the same category as acid rock at a church recital.
- Jim Abbott may not be a baseball HOFer, but he's a true American hero for inspiring a generation of kids for being better than they thought they were. He's in.
- Rich Gossage should be in the Hall, like there's any question, but players with loud nicknames are automatically cool ("GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE!!!"). Ditto for Chili Davis.
- One guy in the Hall has a disease named after him. Let's put one in the Hall that has a career-saving operation named after him. Tommy John, come on down.
- The HOF is for career excellence, but I'm partial to a guy who pitched his team to a World Series victory in a series-clinching game. And the game went into extra innings. Jack Morris is in.
- Dale Murphy was (and is) a Christian gentleman in a sport and time that made bad decisions easy things to do. Oh yeah: he was a league MVP, he played hard, and gave the Braves street cred before their current run of excellence. You're in, Dale.
- Lee Smith was the Mariano Rivera of his time. He'll lose votes because he bounced around baseball. Not a problem here. You da man, Lee.
- Darryl Strawberry is a tough one because the BBHOF seems to care more about character that the other Hall of Fames. Give me a break. We forgave Lawrence Taylor and put him in the NFL Hall of Fame, and he never met a line of cocaine he didn't snort. For Heaven's sake, Ty Cobb is in the BBHOF and his hatred of everyone is legendary. Even so, I'll take a pass this year. Darryl's vices and self-denial impacted his teammates and organizations, both on and off the field. My memory will be a little more faded next year.
- And finally: Steve Garvey. There are probably good reasons to vote him in, maybe, but they'll never convince me. All I can remember him knocking the Cubs out of the NL playoffs in 1984 and running the bases with his fist up high. I get a small amount of satisfaction that he had to do it in a butt-ugly uniform. Even so, he can bite me (I'm not bitter...nooooo....)
Later.
Here's the email I sent a year ago when the ballot for 2005 was released. This is what the Hall would have looked like if I was King of Baseball:
----------------------------------------------------
Below is this year's Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot. IMHO, Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg were sure-locks this year, and everyone else is a toss-up
If I ran the Hall of Fame and my vote was the only one that counted...
- Andre Dawson would get a gimme for the knees he lost playing on AstroTurf for the Expos, a substance that should be banned in the same category as acid rock at a church recital.
- Jim Abbott may not be a baseball HOFer, but he's a true American hero for inspiring a generation of kids for being better than they thought they were. He's in.
- Rich Gossage should be in the Hall, like there's any question, but players with loud nicknames are automatically cool ("GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE!!!"). Ditto for Chili Davis.
- One guy in the Hall has a disease named after him. Let's put one in the Hall that has a career-saving operation named after him. Tommy John, come on down.
- The HOF is for career excellence, but I'm partial to a guy who pitched his team to a World Series victory in a series-clinching game. And the game went into extra innings. Jack Morris is in.
- Dale Murphy was (and is) a Christian gentleman in a sport and time that made bad decisions easy things to do. Oh yeah: he was a league MVP, he played hard, and gave the Braves street cred before their current run of excellence. You're in, Dale.
- Lee Smith was the Mariano Rivera of his time. He'll lose votes because he bounced around baseball. Not a problem here. You da man, Lee.
- Darryl Strawberry is a tough one because the BBHOF seems to care more about character that the other Hall of Fames. Give me a break. We forgave Lawrence Taylor and put him in the NFL Hall of Fame, and he never met a line of cocaine he didn't snort. For Heaven's sake, Ty Cobb is in the BBHOF and his hatred of everyone is legendary. Even so, I'll take a pass this year. Darryl's vices and self-denial impacted his teammates and organizations, both on and off the field. My memory will be a little more faded next year.
- And finally: Steve Garvey. There are probably good reasons to vote him in, maybe, but they'll never convince me. All I can remember him knocking the Cubs out of the NL playoffs in 1984 and running the bases with his fist up high. I get a small amount of satisfaction that he had to do it in a butt-ugly uniform. Even so, he can bite me (I'm not bitter...nooooo....)
Later.
Thunderball and Kidney Stone
Not an overwhelming weekend. Youngest finished her third manuscript and rumor is that all of them are thousands and thousands of words long, which is amazing. The biggest thing I ever wrote was some papers for grad classes, so to be so proficient at such a young age....wow.
Did go to the gym yesterday and this morning, but sort of puttered around without really doing anything. I jogged a little for some variety and used some weights, plus did the usual 100 stomach crunches and 60 leg-lifts. Argh. Created a new game which I modestly call Thunderball. It involves throwing a basketball at a backboard above the hoop from a long distance amd doing that as hard as possible, and repeating many, many times. The point is not to make baskets but to make a loud noise and to have the ball come back at you at high speed. It is satisfying in a testosterone kind of way.
While on the court yesterday, I learned a life lesson. When shooting baskets for real, relaxing is directly proportional to the number of made baskets. The more I relaxed, the more "nothing but net" I got. It got me to thinking about life and achieving goals. Something to mull over some more.
One of my colleague's friends posted this to the Craig's List in Reno:
Kidney Stone for sale! - $20000
Here you go, a once in a lifetime opportunity to own your very own kidney stone.
I have one of these beauties stored away in my left kidney right now. It's an impressive 1.5" in diameter which makes loosing it impossible (it also makes it impossible to pass or even have it broken up by ultrasound). The only way I can part with it is by having a surgeon cut it out. While I have grown fond of the little guy and all the joy it's given me over the last year, I have decided it's time to sell it.
Here is where my loss is your gain.
Since I can't get insurance (pre-existing condition) and I don't have the 20,000 dollars needed up front to pay for the removal, I am selling it off for the cost of the surgery. Whoever pays for it will have this wonderful little gem shipped to them after it's removed.
Be the life of the party. Be the envy of the neighborhood. (If you are a heartless bitch, it's an added incentive to know that this thing has caused a man more pain than a butcher knife shoved into his back and twisted while at the same time having a pair of vice grips clamped onto his private parts).
Act now and I will even attach it to a keychain as an added bonus.
This is no joke. Thanks to our wonderful healthcare system, I am grasping at straws to get this thing taken out before it does any more damage. So if you are a Liberal, here's your chance to work out some of that guilt for being successful in life. If you are a Conservative, here's your chance to help out someone who's taking matters into his own hands.
In a word, eeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Did go to the gym yesterday and this morning, but sort of puttered around without really doing anything. I jogged a little for some variety and used some weights, plus did the usual 100 stomach crunches and 60 leg-lifts. Argh. Created a new game which I modestly call Thunderball. It involves throwing a basketball at a backboard above the hoop from a long distance amd doing that as hard as possible, and repeating many, many times. The point is not to make baskets but to make a loud noise and to have the ball come back at you at high speed. It is satisfying in a testosterone kind of way.
While on the court yesterday, I learned a life lesson. When shooting baskets for real, relaxing is directly proportional to the number of made baskets. The more I relaxed, the more "nothing but net" I got. It got me to thinking about life and achieving goals. Something to mull over some more.
One of my colleague's friends posted this to the Craig's List in Reno:
Kidney Stone for sale! - $20000
Here you go, a once in a lifetime opportunity to own your very own kidney stone.
I have one of these beauties stored away in my left kidney right now. It's an impressive 1.5" in diameter which makes loosing it impossible (it also makes it impossible to pass or even have it broken up by ultrasound). The only way I can part with it is by having a surgeon cut it out. While I have grown fond of the little guy and all the joy it's given me over the last year, I have decided it's time to sell it.
Here is where my loss is your gain.
Since I can't get insurance (pre-existing condition) and I don't have the 20,000 dollars needed up front to pay for the removal, I am selling it off for the cost of the surgery. Whoever pays for it will have this wonderful little gem shipped to them after it's removed.
Be the life of the party. Be the envy of the neighborhood. (If you are a heartless bitch, it's an added incentive to know that this thing has caused a man more pain than a butcher knife shoved into his back and twisted while at the same time having a pair of vice grips clamped onto his private parts).
Act now and I will even attach it to a keychain as an added bonus.
This is no joke. Thanks to our wonderful healthcare system, I am grasping at straws to get this thing taken out before it does any more damage. So if you are a Liberal, here's your chance to work out some of that guilt for being successful in life. If you are a Conservative, here's your chance to help out someone who's taking matters into his own hands.
In a word, eeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Sunday, November 27, 2005
50 Years
What was I doing:
50 years ago: I am still in the future, but the events leading to my existence are coming together. My mother is fifteen years old and is having problems. Although bright and personable, she is battling her parents and teachers constantly, perhaps more than a 'normal' teenager, she confesses to me later, and her school days are quickly coming to an end. She will drop out of high school at 17 and begin traveling, sustaining herself by selling magazines and who knows how else. She will join the Women's Army Corp in time to get some direction in her life and will meet my father along the way.
40 years ago: I am probably still living with my parents and two-year-old sister in 1960s nuclear family bliss. Dad is an army medic and my mother is his second wife. He's already moved this family through four states in four years (Texas, Alaska, New Hampshire, Virginia). Vietnam is shifting into higher gear and my father will be leaving within the year to do a tour in Southeast Asia, leaving us to live in a Reno slum off Denslow Drive (he would eventually do three tours total there). The strain of the constant moving and separation, plus the ongoing fidelity issues between the two of them, would end their marriage four years later.
30 years ago: My mother, her third husband Richard, and I return to northern Nevada after a year in Henderson. If there is a tragic figure in this life of mine, it is him. He was medically and honorably discharged from the Army during Korea for reasons I never discovered, but he is a gentle soul. Because of his soft nature, he is completely whipped and browbeaten by my mother, and I have no respect for him and treat him horribly, one of the deepest regrets of my life. He plays the viola like an angel, but those angels cannot save him from his own inner demons. I come home one day to find he's swallowed a bunch of pills. He survives and my mom divorces him, then remarries him later. They divorce again not long afterwards and he fades from our lives. Richard dies in 1996 at the age of 64 in Santa Clara.
20 years ago: I have my own nuclear family and cannot believe it is possible to be so happy. My wife is pretty and sexy, and my daughter is the smartest child in existence. I have been in the Air Force a little over three years and am already a non-commissioned officer, a fast burner by any measurement. I will be a team chief of a million-dollar data processing facility in the near future, one of the youngest ever, and I'm thinking about going twenty years. But I am not satisfied with my career path. Soon I will pass a test to become an drug and alcohol abuse counselor and leave my family for San Antonio, Texas for schooling. It does not work out for many reasons and I return to Nebraska, the first of many career failures. There is a gigantic silver lining: Liz and I conceive our second incredible daughter shortly after my return.
10 years ago: I graduate with my third associate degree. I've been a civilian for four years and every penny is precious, especially with raising three dynamic and energetic daughters. All are much smarter and cuter than their father, who is silently amazed that his gene pool is even partially responsible for them. If I could, I would reach back and grab those days once again...but they are ten years ago....
5 years ago: I am working at the university where my grandfather dedicated so much of his life, but unlike him, I am not a good fit for this school. The long-established cliques take my hiring as an intrusion into their self-inflated status quo and despite my efforts, the waters are poisoned for good and I will be "invited" to find new employment elsewhere. I will bounce back from this failure, which I take far too personally, but it takes years to rebuild my confidence to the point where I will try new things.
1 year ago: I'm back to teaching college computer classes at the prison. It's actually only one class and although it started with more than 10 students, prison life and a lax drop policy has whittled my class down to three whole students. My grandmother, a longtime family fixture around the holidays, has moved to California and we cannot make the trip to see her. It will be her last Thanksgiving. Eldest daughter has given up on school and is beginning to make noises about the Navy; she will be gone to basic training within a few months. Though I do not know it at the time, 2004 is the last year I will have the complete set of relatives in my life, but that is the way things are. Life moves on...
There are significant events that don't make this chronology because of the timing, notably the abomination that is my mother's second husband. There is also high school, Ken, ROTC, being a Baha'i', and my first real girlfriend, but those are stories for another time.
50 years ago: I am still in the future, but the events leading to my existence are coming together. My mother is fifteen years old and is having problems. Although bright and personable, she is battling her parents and teachers constantly, perhaps more than a 'normal' teenager, she confesses to me later, and her school days are quickly coming to an end. She will drop out of high school at 17 and begin traveling, sustaining herself by selling magazines and who knows how else. She will join the Women's Army Corp in time to get some direction in her life and will meet my father along the way.
40 years ago: I am probably still living with my parents and two-year-old sister in 1960s nuclear family bliss. Dad is an army medic and my mother is his second wife. He's already moved this family through four states in four years (Texas, Alaska, New Hampshire, Virginia). Vietnam is shifting into higher gear and my father will be leaving within the year to do a tour in Southeast Asia, leaving us to live in a Reno slum off Denslow Drive (he would eventually do three tours total there). The strain of the constant moving and separation, plus the ongoing fidelity issues between the two of them, would end their marriage four years later.
30 years ago: My mother, her third husband Richard, and I return to northern Nevada after a year in Henderson. If there is a tragic figure in this life of mine, it is him. He was medically and honorably discharged from the Army during Korea for reasons I never discovered, but he is a gentle soul. Because of his soft nature, he is completely whipped and browbeaten by my mother, and I have no respect for him and treat him horribly, one of the deepest regrets of my life. He plays the viola like an angel, but those angels cannot save him from his own inner demons. I come home one day to find he's swallowed a bunch of pills. He survives and my mom divorces him, then remarries him later. They divorce again not long afterwards and he fades from our lives. Richard dies in 1996 at the age of 64 in Santa Clara.
20 years ago: I have my own nuclear family and cannot believe it is possible to be so happy. My wife is pretty and sexy, and my daughter is the smartest child in existence. I have been in the Air Force a little over three years and am already a non-commissioned officer, a fast burner by any measurement. I will be a team chief of a million-dollar data processing facility in the near future, one of the youngest ever, and I'm thinking about going twenty years. But I am not satisfied with my career path. Soon I will pass a test to become an drug and alcohol abuse counselor and leave my family for San Antonio, Texas for schooling. It does not work out for many reasons and I return to Nebraska, the first of many career failures. There is a gigantic silver lining: Liz and I conceive our second incredible daughter shortly after my return.
10 years ago: I graduate with my third associate degree. I've been a civilian for four years and every penny is precious, especially with raising three dynamic and energetic daughters. All are much smarter and cuter than their father, who is silently amazed that his gene pool is even partially responsible for them. If I could, I would reach back and grab those days once again...but they are ten years ago....
5 years ago: I am working at the university where my grandfather dedicated so much of his life, but unlike him, I am not a good fit for this school. The long-established cliques take my hiring as an intrusion into their self-inflated status quo and despite my efforts, the waters are poisoned for good and I will be "invited" to find new employment elsewhere. I will bounce back from this failure, which I take far too personally, but it takes years to rebuild my confidence to the point where I will try new things.
1 year ago: I'm back to teaching college computer classes at the prison. It's actually only one class and although it started with more than 10 students, prison life and a lax drop policy has whittled my class down to three whole students. My grandmother, a longtime family fixture around the holidays, has moved to California and we cannot make the trip to see her. It will be her last Thanksgiving. Eldest daughter has given up on school and is beginning to make noises about the Navy; she will be gone to basic training within a few months. Though I do not know it at the time, 2004 is the last year I will have the complete set of relatives in my life, but that is the way things are. Life moves on...
There are significant events that don't make this chronology because of the timing, notably the abomination that is my mother's second husband. There is also high school, Ken, ROTC, being a Baha'i', and my first real girlfriend, but those are stories for another time.
My Own 24
I wrote this not long after I had my appendix taken out. To set things up, I had felt a pressure on the lower right sector of my abdomen on the previous Saturday. This was not unusual because I had felt something there for many weeks, especially after working out, and since the pressure never got any worse, I could usually rub down the muscle and it would eventually go away. By the next Monday, the pressure was constant and it was time to be thinking about a couple of scenarios: hernia or appendix.
----------------------------
Thursday, February 25th, 2005:
6:00 AM: Woke up and realized I’d be going to the doctor today or tomorrow. Pressure is still not bad, but it is an “adult moment”: this thing is not going away and it ain’t going to get better by itself.
6:45 AM: Decided in the back of my mind that since I possibly could be on an operating room table very soon, I would break my diet and chow down on the McDonalds Big Breakfast of grease, carbs, and soda. One of the few good decisions I made today.
9:15 AM: Called for an appointment to see Dr. Jones. Nothing is available for a week except for something at 2:50 PM in the afternoon. I take the appointment in a week.
9:20 AM: My lower abdomen twinges. I call back and take the 2:50 appointment.
10:00 AM: Another adult moment. I realize the possibility of surgery is evolving into the probability of surgery. I have one last donut and drink.
1:00 PM: I take the rest of the day off as sick leave. First stop: my other job at the Prison. I need to get a TB test because some correctional officers tested positive for exposure to tuberculosis and all staffers must have a test. Part of my mind realizes that as I’m walking and climbing stairs, my right hand is in my right front pants pocket pushing down and I’m not walking straight up. And I don’t get the TB test because it has to be assessed with 48-72 hours, both of those days landing on the weekend. A wasted trip.
2:00 PM: Stop off at the house to get the checkbook. Two of the daughters are there and I know I should say something…but what? At this point I realize I haven’t told Liz yet, which I know I will pay dearly for later. I call her at work and tell her I’m going to the doctor and there’s a “slight possibility” I may need to go to the hospital. I honestly don’t know who I’m trying to spare: her or me. Danielle senses something amiss but I wave her off with some glib remark and leave early for the doctor.
2:15 PM: My appointment is 2:50, but the nurse has an open room and I spend five whole minutes in the waiting room. She gets the history and vitals. BP is 138/80 (darn good for me, considering) and no high temp. Dr. Jones comes in, lays me down, presses my abdomen, and I make the appropriate noise. Up until now, there’s only been pressure. He pushes the side and it is painful. He’s not fooled by my witty banter and points me to the bathroom for a urine sample.
Oh boy. I haven’t taken anything for four hours and the tank is dry. Running the tap and drinking three cups of water produces…nearly nothing…into a large, clear plastic cup. After fifteen minutes of jumping jacks (okay, I hopped a little) and more water, still nothing. I wrapped my hand around the bottom of the cup to hide my less-than-masculine sample and hand it to the nurse below waist level, trying to subtly hint that this was the best I could do under the circumstances. She holds it up to the light above her head like it’s an Olympic torch and breezes it past her three attractive colleagues at the nursing station, who are strangely mesmerized by my pathetically minimal urine sample. Can it get worse? Oh yeah. I forgot to zip up my fly.
Back to the examining room and Dr. Jones is taking no chances. He is sending me literally across the street to the hospital for a Cat scan. He says while I’m not showing any of the atypical signs of appendicitis (no fever, no nausea), he had a patient yesterday that showed nearly the same symptoms. He doesn’t say, and I find out later, that this patient’s appendix had burst.
2:50 PM: Two minute drive across the street and not a legal parking spot to be found. This strangely occupies my mind more that it should for the next few hours.
3:10 PM: I check in through Outpatient and head for Radiology. There I get the lovely news: in order for the Cat scan to work, I need to drink Barium. Lots of lovely, delicious Barium. Three large drinking glasses of Barium. I start sipping at 3:45 PM. More good news: it takes two and a half hours for the stuff to completely coat my digestive tract. Now I start feeling sorry for myself. The only saving grace is I get to change the TV in the lobby from some chick flick on Lifetime to Patton.
4:00 PM: I offer the nurse at the counter $20 not to let me finish the last half glass.
4:01 PM: $30.
4:20 PM: I finish the Barium, which has to be slowly ingested for maximum effort. One of my fellow patients says the drink used to be a lot worse. How can it get worse than that putrid drink?
5:00 PM: One of the side effects of the liquid: it’s a purgative. Whatever food is left in my system is gone at warp speed. During one of these episodes, Dr. Jones comes in the bathroom and yells over the stall wall that I’m not to leave the hospital until the Chief of Radiology clears me. I hope my responding moan sounds a little like English. Now I’m really down on me.
5:30 PM: The remaining Barium is resting heavily in me and pushing my appendix really hard. Sitting down is no longer an option, and not only am I not standing up straight, I’m bent over to the side (“I’m a little teapot, tip me over and pour me out.”). I let the nurse know it may be getting time for some painkillers. Lots of painkillers. She sends me out to get my IV.
A defining moment in my life. One I will never forget.
The patient ward where I’m getting poked is the same ward where cancer patients get their chemo, and two of them are there today. One patient is with her adult daughter who is knitting at the speed of light (not too hard to figure out why). The other is a young girl half my age. They’re getting their drugs via taps into their upper chests. The girl has no hair on her head and she talking about how the estrogen in her body is transmitting the cancer throughout her system. What follows is the worst needle experience in my life but it isn’t the worst in the room. I take it like a man.
The nurse is experienced in giving IVs but cannot find a cooperative vein in my left forearm, despite a couple of minutes of digging. She gives me a local in my right arm and the vein there agrees to be poked on the first try. I leave the ward thanking God all I have is a bruised arm, a bad appendix, and a more realistic understanding of what is happening to me. I’m done with complaining for the day. The day, though, is far from over.
6:45 PM: The Cat scanner becomes available. I lay down, have some Iodine pumped into me for contrast, and learn I have to hold my breath for six seconds while this $1.2 million thingy spins around me like a whirling dervish (I always wanted to say that). One more time, six more seconds. This is easy. One more time. 23 seconds. Aw crap. I’m so not ready for that. Not only am I turning blue, my lungs are pushing everything down, including my appendix and the remaining Barium.
7:15 PM: Here comes the Chief of Radiology. I have a slightly inflamed appendix. I call Liz to tell her I’m spending the night.
7:30 PM: Off to the ER to get checked in and they are backed up into the hallways, but an appendix is a show-stopper. While they’re freeing up a bed for me, I got outside to clear my head and stop the shakes (I’m getting seriously operated on for the first time in 35 years!). Through the bright lights, there’s a star, probably the left arm of Orion. I ask it to look out for my family. I ask nothing for me.
7:45 PM: Into bed and the hospital gown, and giving the vitals again: By now, I’ve got it down: 6’5”, 260 (ding), no fever, no drinking, no smoking, nothing since 10:00 AM (except Barium (yuck)), and other boring medical history. In all, about twenty people will be hearing that before I leave the hospital.
7:50 PM: Liz arrives. I’ve told her before not to come right away because there was nothing really going on, but I knew there was something. She is worried and more than a little pissed, especially when she hears I’ve been feeling like this for days. I don’t know if it’s the macho thing that kept me from telling her all this time, but we agree we’re going to have a talk later. Long after I give up the advantage of being in a hospital gown and bed. Darn it.
8:05 PM: Dr. Bessette, my surgeon, starts feeling me up and he is perplexed like Dr. Jones. Again, the only symptom I’m showing is the pressure; no nausea, no real pain, no fever. He says he’ll look at the Cat scan, which is nearly foolproof, and the blood work. He’s fairly certain he’s operating on me and says the appendix is coming out, one way or another, and if it looks good, they’ll look around inside for something else. I’ll be completely out under general anesthetic, which everyone in the operating room would agree later, turns out to be a good thing.
The nurse comes to take my blood and, as God as my witness, I don’t feel a thing, not even the needle going in my arm. This is a good sign. I find out later that my blood work is perfectly normal. I’m weirding these people out.
10:45 PM: Time to go to my room upstairs. Because the house is full tonight, I get a private room in the…OB ward. God has a great sense of humor. I start making the dilation and epidural jokes. Nobody is really amused by my show of bravado. Liz is enjoying the rich justice of the moment. As much as she can.
11:40 PM: Things are really moving along now. The OB nurse got me checked in and I got about three minutes to catch my breath, then it was off to pre-op. I talked to Dr. DeReimer, my anesthesiologist, who is a really nice guy. He asks me if I really want an epidural. We have a good laugh. In a few minutes, I’ll be scaring the crap out of him.
11:50 PM: Liz leaves for the waiting room and I have my first panic attack. A few deep breathes and the sedation they gave me helps.
Friday, February 11th, 2005:
12:00 AM: Operating room. My last memory is climbing from the bed to the table. I don’t even remember laying all the way down. The operation officially begins.
Dr. DeReimer told me about what happened later, but he started off by saying, “The first thing we tried didn’t work. That’s okay. Just like an airline pilot, I have back-up procedures.” When you hear that, it’s a clue. It appears I can’t have a normal intubation procedure down my throat because the opening below my voicebox is smaller than anticipated. After a few attempts (and my oxygen level dropping down to 65%), he had to intubate through the nose. The entire process stressed him out a tad, but things worked out okay. I was in the operating room for 90 minutes, an hour longer than they anticipated.
Once I was breathing normally, this is what Dr. Bessette did, courtesy of WebMD:
“Laparoscopic appendectomy: Three or four incisions, 0.25 in.(0.6 cm) to 0.5 in.(1.3 cm) long, are made in the abdomen. A surgeon inserts a viewing device (laparoscope) into one incision. The laparoscope is attached outside the body to a video monitor, allowing the surgeon to see inside the abdomen. Surgical instruments are inserted into the other incisions to remove the appendix.”
What isn’t mentioned they also open another hole and stick a third tube in to blow some air around the organ so they can do the cutting (as I write this the following Sunday, I’m still feeling incredibly bloated with air). Once everything was visualized, Dr. Bessette told me everything went smoothly and he extracted an infected appendix.
While this is all going on, Liz is getting worried in the waiting room. After they take me to post-op (of which I have no memory), they let her come in to see me. I’m a bloody mess from the intubation through the nose and I’m talking. She won’t tell me what I said. After they take me back to my OB room, she finally heads home. It’s about 2:30 AM.
10:00 AM: I wake up. I’m groggy, my mouth is drier than any desert, but there is little to no disorientation. I know where I am, why I am there, and Liz is beside the bed waiting for me (she had gotten two whole hours of sleep compared to my ten somewhat adventurous hours of unconsciousness). My first meal is, appropriately, lots of ice chips. My new nurse, Ronda, hints that my snoring is a tad loud. There’s no justice for men, especially in the OB ward.
11:30 AM: I am getting dressed and getting out of there. Both Drs. Bessette and DeReimer have stopped by with their news and stories. The good news is because of the procedure and the minimal aftereffects, I can resume a normal life with no diet or lifestyle restrictions, and I can go back to work whenever I’m ready. The downside is because of the difficult intubation, I’ll have to wear a MedicAlert for the rest of my life.
As I write this a couple days later, small things start to filter in.
There are little band-aids covering the five small holes they opened in my chest. The hair around those holes do not like me taking off the band-aids.
My jaw line and the muscles under my jaw are sore, probably from when they were holding my head while they were intubating me. When I got out of my hospital bed for the first time after the operation, there was a large Velcro strap in the sheets. They were using that and others to hold me down.
The doctors, nurses, and staff at Carson Tahoe Hospital are the best. I’ll pay those bills gladly. Within reason, of course.
The young girl with cancer was envious of my veins.
Life is feeling pretty damn good right now.
----------------------------
Thursday, February 25th, 2005:
6:00 AM: Woke up and realized I’d be going to the doctor today or tomorrow. Pressure is still not bad, but it is an “adult moment”: this thing is not going away and it ain’t going to get better by itself.
6:45 AM: Decided in the back of my mind that since I possibly could be on an operating room table very soon, I would break my diet and chow down on the McDonalds Big Breakfast of grease, carbs, and soda. One of the few good decisions I made today.
9:15 AM: Called for an appointment to see Dr. Jones. Nothing is available for a week except for something at 2:50 PM in the afternoon. I take the appointment in a week.
9:20 AM: My lower abdomen twinges. I call back and take the 2:50 appointment.
10:00 AM: Another adult moment. I realize the possibility of surgery is evolving into the probability of surgery. I have one last donut and drink.
1:00 PM: I take the rest of the day off as sick leave. First stop: my other job at the Prison. I need to get a TB test because some correctional officers tested positive for exposure to tuberculosis and all staffers must have a test. Part of my mind realizes that as I’m walking and climbing stairs, my right hand is in my right front pants pocket pushing down and I’m not walking straight up. And I don’t get the TB test because it has to be assessed with 48-72 hours, both of those days landing on the weekend. A wasted trip.
2:00 PM: Stop off at the house to get the checkbook. Two of the daughters are there and I know I should say something…but what? At this point I realize I haven’t told Liz yet, which I know I will pay dearly for later. I call her at work and tell her I’m going to the doctor and there’s a “slight possibility” I may need to go to the hospital. I honestly don’t know who I’m trying to spare: her or me. Danielle senses something amiss but I wave her off with some glib remark and leave early for the doctor.
2:15 PM: My appointment is 2:50, but the nurse has an open room and I spend five whole minutes in the waiting room. She gets the history and vitals. BP is 138/80 (darn good for me, considering) and no high temp. Dr. Jones comes in, lays me down, presses my abdomen, and I make the appropriate noise. Up until now, there’s only been pressure. He pushes the side and it is painful. He’s not fooled by my witty banter and points me to the bathroom for a urine sample.
Oh boy. I haven’t taken anything for four hours and the tank is dry. Running the tap and drinking three cups of water produces…nearly nothing…into a large, clear plastic cup. After fifteen minutes of jumping jacks (okay, I hopped a little) and more water, still nothing. I wrapped my hand around the bottom of the cup to hide my less-than-masculine sample and hand it to the nurse below waist level, trying to subtly hint that this was the best I could do under the circumstances. She holds it up to the light above her head like it’s an Olympic torch and breezes it past her three attractive colleagues at the nursing station, who are strangely mesmerized by my pathetically minimal urine sample. Can it get worse? Oh yeah. I forgot to zip up my fly.
Back to the examining room and Dr. Jones is taking no chances. He is sending me literally across the street to the hospital for a Cat scan. He says while I’m not showing any of the atypical signs of appendicitis (no fever, no nausea), he had a patient yesterday that showed nearly the same symptoms. He doesn’t say, and I find out later, that this patient’s appendix had burst.
2:50 PM: Two minute drive across the street and not a legal parking spot to be found. This strangely occupies my mind more that it should for the next few hours.
3:10 PM: I check in through Outpatient and head for Radiology. There I get the lovely news: in order for the Cat scan to work, I need to drink Barium. Lots of lovely, delicious Barium. Three large drinking glasses of Barium. I start sipping at 3:45 PM. More good news: it takes two and a half hours for the stuff to completely coat my digestive tract. Now I start feeling sorry for myself. The only saving grace is I get to change the TV in the lobby from some chick flick on Lifetime to Patton.
4:00 PM: I offer the nurse at the counter $20 not to let me finish the last half glass.
4:01 PM: $30.
4:20 PM: I finish the Barium, which has to be slowly ingested for maximum effort. One of my fellow patients says the drink used to be a lot worse. How can it get worse than that putrid drink?
5:00 PM: One of the side effects of the liquid: it’s a purgative. Whatever food is left in my system is gone at warp speed. During one of these episodes, Dr. Jones comes in the bathroom and yells over the stall wall that I’m not to leave the hospital until the Chief of Radiology clears me. I hope my responding moan sounds a little like English. Now I’m really down on me.
5:30 PM: The remaining Barium is resting heavily in me and pushing my appendix really hard. Sitting down is no longer an option, and not only am I not standing up straight, I’m bent over to the side (“I’m a little teapot, tip me over and pour me out.”). I let the nurse know it may be getting time for some painkillers. Lots of painkillers. She sends me out to get my IV.
A defining moment in my life. One I will never forget.
The patient ward where I’m getting poked is the same ward where cancer patients get their chemo, and two of them are there today. One patient is with her adult daughter who is knitting at the speed of light (not too hard to figure out why). The other is a young girl half my age. They’re getting their drugs via taps into their upper chests. The girl has no hair on her head and she talking about how the estrogen in her body is transmitting the cancer throughout her system. What follows is the worst needle experience in my life but it isn’t the worst in the room. I take it like a man.
The nurse is experienced in giving IVs but cannot find a cooperative vein in my left forearm, despite a couple of minutes of digging. She gives me a local in my right arm and the vein there agrees to be poked on the first try. I leave the ward thanking God all I have is a bruised arm, a bad appendix, and a more realistic understanding of what is happening to me. I’m done with complaining for the day. The day, though, is far from over.
6:45 PM: The Cat scanner becomes available. I lay down, have some Iodine pumped into me for contrast, and learn I have to hold my breath for six seconds while this $1.2 million thingy spins around me like a whirling dervish (I always wanted to say that). One more time, six more seconds. This is easy. One more time. 23 seconds. Aw crap. I’m so not ready for that. Not only am I turning blue, my lungs are pushing everything down, including my appendix and the remaining Barium.
7:15 PM: Here comes the Chief of Radiology. I have a slightly inflamed appendix. I call Liz to tell her I’m spending the night.
7:30 PM: Off to the ER to get checked in and they are backed up into the hallways, but an appendix is a show-stopper. While they’re freeing up a bed for me, I got outside to clear my head and stop the shakes (I’m getting seriously operated on for the first time in 35 years!). Through the bright lights, there’s a star, probably the left arm of Orion. I ask it to look out for my family. I ask nothing for me.
7:45 PM: Into bed and the hospital gown, and giving the vitals again: By now, I’ve got it down: 6’5”, 260 (ding), no fever, no drinking, no smoking, nothing since 10:00 AM (except Barium (yuck)), and other boring medical history. In all, about twenty people will be hearing that before I leave the hospital.
7:50 PM: Liz arrives. I’ve told her before not to come right away because there was nothing really going on, but I knew there was something. She is worried and more than a little pissed, especially when she hears I’ve been feeling like this for days. I don’t know if it’s the macho thing that kept me from telling her all this time, but we agree we’re going to have a talk later. Long after I give up the advantage of being in a hospital gown and bed. Darn it.
8:05 PM: Dr. Bessette, my surgeon, starts feeling me up and he is perplexed like Dr. Jones. Again, the only symptom I’m showing is the pressure; no nausea, no real pain, no fever. He says he’ll look at the Cat scan, which is nearly foolproof, and the blood work. He’s fairly certain he’s operating on me and says the appendix is coming out, one way or another, and if it looks good, they’ll look around inside for something else. I’ll be completely out under general anesthetic, which everyone in the operating room would agree later, turns out to be a good thing.
The nurse comes to take my blood and, as God as my witness, I don’t feel a thing, not even the needle going in my arm. This is a good sign. I find out later that my blood work is perfectly normal. I’m weirding these people out.
10:45 PM: Time to go to my room upstairs. Because the house is full tonight, I get a private room in the…OB ward. God has a great sense of humor. I start making the dilation and epidural jokes. Nobody is really amused by my show of bravado. Liz is enjoying the rich justice of the moment. As much as she can.
11:40 PM: Things are really moving along now. The OB nurse got me checked in and I got about three minutes to catch my breath, then it was off to pre-op. I talked to Dr. DeReimer, my anesthesiologist, who is a really nice guy. He asks me if I really want an epidural. We have a good laugh. In a few minutes, I’ll be scaring the crap out of him.
11:50 PM: Liz leaves for the waiting room and I have my first panic attack. A few deep breathes and the sedation they gave me helps.
Friday, February 11th, 2005:
12:00 AM: Operating room. My last memory is climbing from the bed to the table. I don’t even remember laying all the way down. The operation officially begins.
Dr. DeReimer told me about what happened later, but he started off by saying, “The first thing we tried didn’t work. That’s okay. Just like an airline pilot, I have back-up procedures.” When you hear that, it’s a clue. It appears I can’t have a normal intubation procedure down my throat because the opening below my voicebox is smaller than anticipated. After a few attempts (and my oxygen level dropping down to 65%), he had to intubate through the nose. The entire process stressed him out a tad, but things worked out okay. I was in the operating room for 90 minutes, an hour longer than they anticipated.
Once I was breathing normally, this is what Dr. Bessette did, courtesy of WebMD:
“Laparoscopic appendectomy: Three or four incisions, 0.25 in.(0.6 cm) to 0.5 in.(1.3 cm) long, are made in the abdomen. A surgeon inserts a viewing device (laparoscope) into one incision. The laparoscope is attached outside the body to a video monitor, allowing the surgeon to see inside the abdomen. Surgical instruments are inserted into the other incisions to remove the appendix.”
What isn’t mentioned they also open another hole and stick a third tube in to blow some air around the organ so they can do the cutting (as I write this the following Sunday, I’m still feeling incredibly bloated with air). Once everything was visualized, Dr. Bessette told me everything went smoothly and he extracted an infected appendix.
While this is all going on, Liz is getting worried in the waiting room. After they take me to post-op (of which I have no memory), they let her come in to see me. I’m a bloody mess from the intubation through the nose and I’m talking. She won’t tell me what I said. After they take me back to my OB room, she finally heads home. It’s about 2:30 AM.
10:00 AM: I wake up. I’m groggy, my mouth is drier than any desert, but there is little to no disorientation. I know where I am, why I am there, and Liz is beside the bed waiting for me (she had gotten two whole hours of sleep compared to my ten somewhat adventurous hours of unconsciousness). My first meal is, appropriately, lots of ice chips. My new nurse, Ronda, hints that my snoring is a tad loud. There’s no justice for men, especially in the OB ward.
11:30 AM: I am getting dressed and getting out of there. Both Drs. Bessette and DeReimer have stopped by with their news and stories. The good news is because of the procedure and the minimal aftereffects, I can resume a normal life with no diet or lifestyle restrictions, and I can go back to work whenever I’m ready. The downside is because of the difficult intubation, I’ll have to wear a MedicAlert for the rest of my life.
As I write this a couple days later, small things start to filter in.
There are little band-aids covering the five small holes they opened in my chest. The hair around those holes do not like me taking off the band-aids.
My jaw line and the muscles under my jaw are sore, probably from when they were holding my head while they were intubating me. When I got out of my hospital bed for the first time after the operation, there was a large Velcro strap in the sheets. They were using that and others to hold me down.
The doctors, nurses, and staff at Carson Tahoe Hospital are the best. I’ll pay those bills gladly. Within reason, of course.
The young girl with cancer was envious of my veins.
Life is feeling pretty damn good right now.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Trina Letter - People Are Strange
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Hey, Navy:
The highlands to the west got their first serious snow of the season last night and the snowline itself dipped pretty far into the valley, but not onto the floor. Instead, we got rain which immediately froze to everything. Lucky it was the weekend because there was lots of black ice out there. It looks like it was ‘warm’ at RTC today and it’s still above freezing as I write this (9:15 PM PST). It looks like you’re going to enjoy 50 degree weather at the beginning of the week with some thunderstorms, then back into a below-freezing cold spell.
It was another quiet day in the Moore house. Lara went outside while the sun was shining and did not burst into flame. Danielle was showing off a public service announcement she created which is darn cute and has exceptionally high production values. She can tell you more about it. YM is watching Braveheart, or as she probably calls it, That Crazy Irishman Who Saved Scotland.
I did some schoolwork today, but more interesting (probably only to me), I checked out a pictorial history of Abraham Lincoln. The Civil War trivia is fascinating and some of the photographs are startling, such as the one of the soldier literally torn apart by artillery at Gettysburg. His chest cavity is open to the world and his left hand is…way over there, if you know what I mean. Brutal.
On a cheerier note, here’s some stupid people from the news. Makes me proud to be an American.
- Inmates to Process Moose Meat for Charity: Alaska inmates at a prison work farm are taking on a new assignment: butchering the meat of moose struck by trains each winter along 68 miles of track.
- Man Cuts in Line, Is Wrestled to Ground: Security guards wrestled a man to the ground in a Wal-Mart after he cut in line to get laptop computers that were on sale.
- Baltimore Losing Light Poles to Thieves: Baltimore city streets are getting darker because thieves, some disguised as utility crews, are stealing 30-foot light poles.
- Reno Man Accused of $200,000 Legos Theft: William Swanberg, 40, of Reno, Nev., was indicted by a grand jury, accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the colorful plastic building blocks from area Target stores.
- Drug Smuggler Crowned Miss Penitentiary: South America's latest beauty queen won't be campaigning abroad for world peace any time soon, unless, of course, she's granted early parole.
- Teacher Accused of Anti-Bush Quiz: A high school teacher is facing questions from administrators after giving a vocabulary quiz that included digs at President Bush and the extreme right.
- Bear Bites Hunter Who Shot It: A black bear bit and clawed a hunter who had just shot it four times in what authorities said appeared to be a first.
- Frozen Turkey Used to Break Windows of Burning Car: An elderly Illinois couple was hospitalized after being rescued from their burning car by a man who used his Thanksgiving turkey to break the windows.
- Woman Who Dumped Kittens Sentenced to Night in Woods: Snow and temperatures in the 20s are expected when a northeast Ohio woman begins a 15-day jail sentence by spending a night in the woods.
- Two 'Wives' Fight Over Sergeant's Remains: The final resting place for a retired sergeant may be determined by a judge as two women battle over which was his wife at the time of his death.
- Man Leads Police on Slow Lawnmower Case: Bad idea: fleeing from police in a stolen car. Terrible idea: fleeing in a stolen lawnmower. But that's what police say a "happy drunk" did, a decision that landed the suspect back in prison for violating his parole.
Try to call and write when you can. Thinking of you.
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
The highlands to the west got their first serious snow of the season last night and the snowline itself dipped pretty far into the valley, but not onto the floor. Instead, we got rain which immediately froze to everything. Lucky it was the weekend because there was lots of black ice out there. It looks like it was ‘warm’ at RTC today and it’s still above freezing as I write this (9:15 PM PST). It looks like you’re going to enjoy 50 degree weather at the beginning of the week with some thunderstorms, then back into a below-freezing cold spell.
It was another quiet day in the Moore house. Lara went outside while the sun was shining and did not burst into flame. Danielle was showing off a public service announcement she created which is darn cute and has exceptionally high production values. She can tell you more about it. YM is watching Braveheart, or as she probably calls it, That Crazy Irishman Who Saved Scotland.
I did some schoolwork today, but more interesting (probably only to me), I checked out a pictorial history of Abraham Lincoln. The Civil War trivia is fascinating and some of the photographs are startling, such as the one of the soldier literally torn apart by artillery at Gettysburg. His chest cavity is open to the world and his left hand is…way over there, if you know what I mean. Brutal.
On a cheerier note, here’s some stupid people from the news. Makes me proud to be an American.
- Inmates to Process Moose Meat for Charity: Alaska inmates at a prison work farm are taking on a new assignment: butchering the meat of moose struck by trains each winter along 68 miles of track.
- Man Cuts in Line, Is Wrestled to Ground: Security guards wrestled a man to the ground in a Wal-Mart after he cut in line to get laptop computers that were on sale.
- Baltimore Losing Light Poles to Thieves: Baltimore city streets are getting darker because thieves, some disguised as utility crews, are stealing 30-foot light poles.
- Reno Man Accused of $200,000 Legos Theft: William Swanberg, 40, of Reno, Nev., was indicted by a grand jury, accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the colorful plastic building blocks from area Target stores.
- Drug Smuggler Crowned Miss Penitentiary: South America's latest beauty queen won't be campaigning abroad for world peace any time soon, unless, of course, she's granted early parole.
- Teacher Accused of Anti-Bush Quiz: A high school teacher is facing questions from administrators after giving a vocabulary quiz that included digs at President Bush and the extreme right.
- Bear Bites Hunter Who Shot It: A black bear bit and clawed a hunter who had just shot it four times in what authorities said appeared to be a first.
- Frozen Turkey Used to Break Windows of Burning Car: An elderly Illinois couple was hospitalized after being rescued from their burning car by a man who used his Thanksgiving turkey to break the windows.
- Woman Who Dumped Kittens Sentenced to Night in Woods: Snow and temperatures in the 20s are expected when a northeast Ohio woman begins a 15-day jail sentence by spending a night in the woods.
- Two 'Wives' Fight Over Sergeant's Remains: The final resting place for a retired sergeant may be determined by a judge as two women battle over which was his wife at the time of his death.
- Man Leads Police on Slow Lawnmower Case: Bad idea: fleeing from police in a stolen car. Terrible idea: fleeing in a stolen lawnmower. But that's what police say a "happy drunk" did, a decision that landed the suspect back in prison for violating his parole.
Try to call and write when you can. Thinking of you.
All my love,
Air Force
Friday, November 25, 2005
Trina Letter - Turkey for Everyone!
Friday, November 25, 2005
Hey, Navy:
Have had this letter open on the laptop for a while and it ain’t filling up by itself, so I’ll start with the usual. There’s lots of rain outside at 7:00 PM, and Elaine emailed this morning to say it was raining in the Bay Area, so it looks like we’re entering a wet phase for a couple of days. The ski resorts were doing their usual bitching in the newspapers about how the snow gods were ignoring their goat and baby calf sacrifices, but it appears they will get the white stuff tonight.
YM and L are at what I lovingly call the Carson Rathole Theaters watching Walk The Line, the Johnny Cash biopic. Danielle is writing up a storm in the living room and her bedroom. I’m mentally kicking myself for not finishing my homework from class. Graded some tests, but got sick of looking at the DEEP stacks of assignments that my students have so meticulously produced for grades. I’ll go back to my office tomorrow and spend a lot of time there.
You mentioned to YM that you might stay at a motel while you’re here over Christmas, which you’re welcome to do, though you’re welcome to stay here. Be warned that Danielle has completely taken over your former space so you may have to either (a) sleep in the living room, or (b) bribe your seester.
The Urban Legend web site says that turkey meat does not make you sleepy:
Turkey does contain tryptophan, an amino acid which is a natural sedative. But tryptophan doesn't act on the brain unless it is taken on an empty stomach with no protein present, and the amount gobbled even during a holiday feast is generally too small to have an appreciable effect. That lazy, lethargic feeling so many are overcome by at the conclusion of a festive season meal is most likely due to the combination of drinking alcohol and overeating a carbohydrate-rich repast.
And this was in your local civilian newspaper, the Waukegan News Sun, where it talked about feeding 6,000 recruits at the RTC:
In the past the base has served up 2,416 pounds of turkey, nearly 100 birds. There was also 2,250 pounds of prime rib and 1,680 pounds of baked ham. Recruits can have as much food as they want. For dessert, there were 312 pumpkin pies, and 126 each of apple and cherry pies. The three galleys were festooned with holiday decorations. "The galley puts on quite a show. They have a lot of pride in what they do," said Moody. One reason is that for many of the young sailors this is their first Thanksgiving away from home. "They try to provide a meal that compensates for that," he said.
That latter part applied to you this year. We’ll make it up to you at Christmas. LYL!!!!
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
Have had this letter open on the laptop for a while and it ain’t filling up by itself, so I’ll start with the usual. There’s lots of rain outside at 7:00 PM, and Elaine emailed this morning to say it was raining in the Bay Area, so it looks like we’re entering a wet phase for a couple of days. The ski resorts were doing their usual bitching in the newspapers about how the snow gods were ignoring their goat and baby calf sacrifices, but it appears they will get the white stuff tonight.
YM and L are at what I lovingly call the Carson Rathole Theaters watching Walk The Line, the Johnny Cash biopic. Danielle is writing up a storm in the living room and her bedroom. I’m mentally kicking myself for not finishing my homework from class. Graded some tests, but got sick of looking at the DEEP stacks of assignments that my students have so meticulously produced for grades. I’ll go back to my office tomorrow and spend a lot of time there.
You mentioned to YM that you might stay at a motel while you’re here over Christmas, which you’re welcome to do, though you’re welcome to stay here. Be warned that Danielle has completely taken over your former space so you may have to either (a) sleep in the living room, or (b) bribe your seester.
The Urban Legend web site says that turkey meat does not make you sleepy:
Turkey does contain tryptophan, an amino acid which is a natural sedative. But tryptophan doesn't act on the brain unless it is taken on an empty stomach with no protein present, and the amount gobbled even during a holiday feast is generally too small to have an appreciable effect. That lazy, lethargic feeling so many are overcome by at the conclusion of a festive season meal is most likely due to the combination of drinking alcohol and overeating a carbohydrate-rich repast.
And this was in your local civilian newspaper, the Waukegan News Sun, where it talked about feeding 6,000 recruits at the RTC:
In the past the base has served up 2,416 pounds of turkey, nearly 100 birds. There was also 2,250 pounds of prime rib and 1,680 pounds of baked ham. Recruits can have as much food as they want. For dessert, there were 312 pumpkin pies, and 126 each of apple and cherry pies. The three galleys were festooned with holiday decorations. "The galley puts on quite a show. They have a lot of pride in what they do," said Moody. One reason is that for many of the young sailors this is their first Thanksgiving away from home. "They try to provide a meal that compensates for that," he said.
That latter part applied to you this year. We’ll make it up to you at Christmas. LYL!!!!
All my love,
Air Force
Trina Letter - Short One
Friday, November 25, 2005
YM said she wanted to include pictures of the trip up to the waterfall, but the printer in running low on ink (the living room one is out), so here’s a candid picture of your littlest seester looking at her shoe.
This is being written on Friday morning before we stick this in the mail and, as mentioned, we’re getting light rain this morning. I’m on the way to the office to grade papers.
We’ll probably do more letters tonight that are as equally exciting as this one. In the meantime, you’re in our thoughts.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Trina Letter - I Can't Mooooove
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Hey, Navy:
A battle was fought against the forces of tryptophan, and Good did finally win out over Evil, but there are bodies strewn all over the house, groaning from self-inflicted wounds. Yep, it’s Thanksgiving. Moan.
The picture does not begin to do justice to YM’s usual turkey artistry. It was humongous, juicy, and filling, and we couldn’t begin to finish it. Throw in YM’s stuffing and Danielle’s potatoes and other yummy goodies, and we were barely moving by the end of the night. L/D treated YM and me to a little dinner theater and their singing voices were far more on key than the Phantom, Raoul, and Christine could ever hope to be. Right now, folks are slowly digesting and watching West Side Story. (BTW, I ate a boiled egg in your honor.)
It was a nice day here, but there’s a forecast for the wet stuff tomorrow, so maybe we’ll have something interesting to put in our next letters. YM and I saw that the temps around RTC never got above 5 degrees Fahrenheit today (with wind chill) and you probably got some snow with it. You may not remember this but you spent the first five years of your life ‘enjoying’ Midwest weather just like that. I recall bundling you up so much that when we were done, all that we could see was your nose. Today, the only separating you guys from the Canadian cold coming down from the Artic Circle is a bunch of barb wire on the American border, and barb wire is not known for its insulating properties. Remember your mantra: “Two years in sunny, warm Monterey; two years in sunny, warm Monterey.”
Other than that, not much going on here. Thinking of you always
All my love,
Air Force
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Trina Letter - Set PHaSRs to Tickle!
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Hey, Navy:
A slow day at work. Half of the office was on annual and a quarter was out the door at noon, including everyone else on the Help Desk. I was good with that since I’m taking the week off between Christmas and New Year’s and no one else is. YM says she had an equally exciting day, but she’ll probably say more in her letter. Lara, Danielle and Amanda went hiking up King’s Canyon, and it was quite the adventure. Danielle says she’s taking YM and me up there tomorrow. Aside from that, the kitchen is full of food in anticipation of the Big Feast tomorrow. Guess who we’ll be thinking of? :)
The future is now, according to the Air Force News Service:
11/2/2005 - KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) -- A laser technology weapon will be the first man-portable, non-lethal deterrent weapon intended for protecting troops and controlling hostile crowds. The weapon, developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, employs a two-wavelength laser system and is a hand-held, single-operator system for troop and perimeter defense. The laser light used in the weapon temporarily impairs aggressors by illuminating or "dazzling" individuals, removing their ability to see the laser source.
The name of this weapon is, not kidding, the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response (PHaSR).
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
A slow day at work. Half of the office was on annual and a quarter was out the door at noon, including everyone else on the Help Desk. I was good with that since I’m taking the week off between Christmas and New Year’s and no one else is. YM says she had an equally exciting day, but she’ll probably say more in her letter. Lara, Danielle and Amanda went hiking up King’s Canyon, and it was quite the adventure. Danielle says she’s taking YM and me up there tomorrow. Aside from that, the kitchen is full of food in anticipation of the Big Feast tomorrow. Guess who we’ll be thinking of? :)
The future is now, according to the Air Force News Service:
11/2/2005 - KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) -- A laser technology weapon will be the first man-portable, non-lethal deterrent weapon intended for protecting troops and controlling hostile crowds. The weapon, developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, employs a two-wavelength laser system and is a hand-held, single-operator system for troop and perimeter defense. The laser light used in the weapon temporarily impairs aggressors by illuminating or "dazzling" individuals, removing their ability to see the laser source.
The name of this weapon is, not kidding, the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response (PHaSR).
All my love,
Air Force
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Movin' and Groovin'
I'm was in a "hatin' the playuh" mood yesterday. It probably had something to do with the stress I'm feeling about the college, so I took it out of the Bush administration. But I stand by what I wrote because that's what grown-ups do. Are you listening, other bloggers, who try to rationalize or minimize their written words with the infamous "I was only joking" excuse?
The best way to get a nasty mood or some stress out of your system is EXERCISE. Sitting on your ass and waiting for the crappy chemicals to leave your system on their own does not help. The body was made for motion so I did some motion this morning. I forgot to take shampoo to the gym and with my cowlicks, I look a little like Buckwheat right now, but a little humility is good for the soul.
Thinking about life lessons the other day because I listened to Nat King Cole's version of "Nature Boy," which contains one of music's most famous lyrics: "The most important lesson you'll ever learn is to love and be loved in return." Here's another one: always talk about a person as if they were standing right there listening to you with a tape recorder in their hand.
What else is on my soul this morning? Had to cancel class last night because the prison was in-processing a busload of new inmates (called a "train") and there was no guarantee we'd see our classes before 7:30, so the other instructors and I decided to call it a night. My day job is okay but I have to find a higher paying job or another second job to make up for the one I'm losing. L. is sick and she's on my mind, and D. is kicking butt at the high school, the college, and her writing career. T. is surviving Boot, and Liz is still real sore from her climb on Sunday, but I'm damn proud of her effort and hope she keeps going.
"Williams and Holland's Law: If enough data is collected, anything may be proven by statistical methods."
Sent the below to my fantasy football league.
"Last night, Red Winger Jiri Fischer collapsed on the Detroit bench due to a "cardiac episode." He was successfully revived by EMTs after his heart stopped and he's stable and resting this morning.
The game against the Nashville Predators had been going for seven minutes when Jiri went down, so there was plenty of game to go.
But this is why Hockey is the class act of the four major sports: they cancelled the rest of the game and nobody bitched about it.
"It was obvious to everybody involved that it was the right decision," Predators coach Barry Trotz said. "It was very disturbing to both sides and I think the NHL recognized it, the players recognized it. To be quite honest, the game became very secondary. When a friend or a teammate was in danger like Jiri was in, then the decision was made for everybody to reschedule it."
Somebody send this article to the other leagues and their "star" players who pay lip service to the concept of teammates (you know who I'm talking about).
Hockey is truly a team sport.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2232577
Go Senators!"
And I may be sucking eggs in the OFFL, but my Yahoo! team is blasting the competition. :)
Time: 25:00 minutes
Distance: 5.9 miles
379 calories burned
The best way to get a nasty mood or some stress out of your system is EXERCISE. Sitting on your ass and waiting for the crappy chemicals to leave your system on their own does not help. The body was made for motion so I did some motion this morning. I forgot to take shampoo to the gym and with my cowlicks, I look a little like Buckwheat right now, but a little humility is good for the soul.
Thinking about life lessons the other day because I listened to Nat King Cole's version of "Nature Boy," which contains one of music's most famous lyrics: "The most important lesson you'll ever learn is to love and be loved in return." Here's another one: always talk about a person as if they were standing right there listening to you with a tape recorder in their hand.
What else is on my soul this morning? Had to cancel class last night because the prison was in-processing a busload of new inmates (called a "train") and there was no guarantee we'd see our classes before 7:30, so the other instructors and I decided to call it a night. My day job is okay but I have to find a higher paying job or another second job to make up for the one I'm losing. L. is sick and she's on my mind, and D. is kicking butt at the high school, the college, and her writing career. T. is surviving Boot, and Liz is still real sore from her climb on Sunday, but I'm damn proud of her effort and hope she keeps going.
"Williams and Holland's Law: If enough data is collected, anything may be proven by statistical methods."
Sent the below to my fantasy football league.
"Last night, Red Winger Jiri Fischer collapsed on the Detroit bench due to a "cardiac episode." He was successfully revived by EMTs after his heart stopped and he's stable and resting this morning.
The game against the Nashville Predators had been going for seven minutes when Jiri went down, so there was plenty of game to go.
But this is why Hockey is the class act of the four major sports: they cancelled the rest of the game and nobody bitched about it.
"It was obvious to everybody involved that it was the right decision," Predators coach Barry Trotz said. "It was very disturbing to both sides and I think the NHL recognized it, the players recognized it. To be quite honest, the game became very secondary. When a friend or a teammate was in danger like Jiri was in, then the decision was made for everybody to reschedule it."
Somebody send this article to the other leagues and their "star" players who pay lip service to the concept of teammates (you know who I'm talking about).
Hockey is truly a team sport.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2232577
Go Senators!"
And I may be sucking eggs in the OFFL, but my Yahoo! team is blasting the competition. :)
Time: 25:00 minutes
Distance: 5.9 miles
379 calories burned
Monday, November 21, 2005
Trina Letter - Proud of the Navy
Monday, November 21, 2005
Hey, Navy:
YM and I were talking about your homecoming over chili at Wendys and we’re thinking it’ll be darn good to see you. Please keep us up to date on the details. We got your PIR package today and we’re wanting to be there so bad. YM will remind you about the DVD only a bazillion times so be prepared for that.
Lara has a bit of a cold so we’re medicating her, and Danielle is working furiously with Katie on a video project. Next year’s Ireland trip is on everyone’s mind and Danielle tried to apply for a job today (only to find out she had to go to Reno to apply). YM suggested that I drive down to Monterey and/or the Bay Area while everyone is on the other side of the world, but I’m thinking I’ll wait a while before making any plans of that nature.
Looking at things going on around the internet:
IMDB: In a word, Warner Bros.' latest Harry Potter movie, The Goblet of Fire, was hot. Setting a record for a fall/winter release, the movie grossed an estimated $101.4 million over the weekend, which would make it the fourth biggest three-day gross in history, behind only Spider-Man, Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith, and Shrek 2, all of which opened in the spring or summer. In addition, the movie opened in 19 countries, where it took in an additional $181.4 million. The figures could change significantly when actual results for Sunday are announced later today [11/21].
NEW YORK (AP) -- Matthew McConaughey has been named the "sexiest man alive" by People magazine. For the 36-year-old McConaughey, it's a clear sign that his career is in the midst of an upturn -- and that the glamour of his girlfriend, Penelope Cruz, may be rubbing off on him. "Now I've made it," he told the magazine. "Wait until you see the roles I could take after this. You're going to see my gut hanging over, plus 22 (pounds). It'll be a whole new kind of sexy!" McConaughey is the 20th "sexiest man" for People, who first bequeathed the honor to Mel Gibson in 1985.
And did you hear about this?
GREAT LAKES, Ill (NNS) -- Two Sailors are being praised for their heroic response to a fire Nov. 13 in Chicago. Seaman Recruit Lawrence Attisano, of Franklin, Pa., and Seaman Jared Ayers, of Mulvane, Kan., were the first responders to a fire that started on the 3rd floor of a downtown Chicago building at about 1:40 p.m. They saw smoke from the building while walking down the street and immediately notified the owner, who was apparently unaware of the fire. Attisano and Ayers obtained a fire extinguisher from the first floor and raced up to the third floor. They put to use the fire-fighting training they had received only weeks earlier. Both had graduated from the Navy’s Recruit Training Command on Nov. 10. “As soon as I got a hold of the fire extinguisher I took a deep breath, and everything we learned came into play,” Attisano said. “It all just clicked.”
This is one of many reasons you guys are going through what you’re going through. Go Navy.
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
YM and I were talking about your homecoming over chili at Wendys and we’re thinking it’ll be darn good to see you. Please keep us up to date on the details. We got your PIR package today and we’re wanting to be there so bad. YM will remind you about the DVD only a bazillion times so be prepared for that.
Lara has a bit of a cold so we’re medicating her, and Danielle is working furiously with Katie on a video project. Next year’s Ireland trip is on everyone’s mind and Danielle tried to apply for a job today (only to find out she had to go to Reno to apply). YM suggested that I drive down to Monterey and/or the Bay Area while everyone is on the other side of the world, but I’m thinking I’ll wait a while before making any plans of that nature.
Looking at things going on around the internet:
IMDB: In a word, Warner Bros.' latest Harry Potter movie, The Goblet of Fire, was hot. Setting a record for a fall/winter release, the movie grossed an estimated $101.4 million over the weekend, which would make it the fourth biggest three-day gross in history, behind only Spider-Man, Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith, and Shrek 2, all of which opened in the spring or summer. In addition, the movie opened in 19 countries, where it took in an additional $181.4 million. The figures could change significantly when actual results for Sunday are announced later today [11/21].
NEW YORK (AP) -- Matthew McConaughey has been named the "sexiest man alive" by People magazine. For the 36-year-old McConaughey, it's a clear sign that his career is in the midst of an upturn -- and that the glamour of his girlfriend, Penelope Cruz, may be rubbing off on him. "Now I've made it," he told the magazine. "Wait until you see the roles I could take after this. You're going to see my gut hanging over, plus 22 (pounds). It'll be a whole new kind of sexy!" McConaughey is the 20th "sexiest man" for People, who first bequeathed the honor to Mel Gibson in 1985.
And did you hear about this?
GREAT LAKES, Ill (NNS) -- Two Sailors are being praised for their heroic response to a fire Nov. 13 in Chicago. Seaman Recruit Lawrence Attisano, of Franklin, Pa., and Seaman Jared Ayers, of Mulvane, Kan., were the first responders to a fire that started on the 3rd floor of a downtown Chicago building at about 1:40 p.m. They saw smoke from the building while walking down the street and immediately notified the owner, who was apparently unaware of the fire. Attisano and Ayers obtained a fire extinguisher from the first floor and raced up to the third floor. They put to use the fire-fighting training they had received only weeks earlier. Both had graduated from the Navy’s Recruit Training Command on Nov. 10. “As soon as I got a hold of the fire extinguisher I took a deep breath, and everything we learned came into play,” Attisano said. “It all just clicked.”
This is one of many reasons you guys are going through what you’re going through. Go Navy.
All my love,
Air Force
We Can't Ignore The Man Behind The Curtain
Today's AP news again:
"[Vice President] Cheney pressed the administration's high-voltage attack on war critics, particularly Senate Democrats who voted in October 2002 to give Bush authority to go to war in Iraq and who now oppose his policy, calling them "dishonest and reprehensible."
"The flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight. But any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped or fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false," Cheney said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.
Speaking as a veteran and a father of someone who may be placed in harm's way, I believe:
1. The pre-war intelligence was not fabricated by senior intelligence or Washington political figures.
2. The intelligence supplied to these individuals was flawed from the beginning.
3. In the rush to execute a war on Iraq, that administration officials (notably the 'retired' Director of Central Intelligence) failed to do everything in their power to verify the validity of the intelligence. They got the answers they wanted to hear and acted accordingly.
4. These individuals, whoever and wherever they are, failed in their duty to the men and women of the United States military, the American people as a whole, and to their President.
5. In the rush to invade Iraq, diplomatic means were still available to resolve the issues raised by the flawed intelligence.
6. To continue a war based on flawed intelligence and where diplomacy was and is an option is wrong and continues to be wrong.
Finally, I believe to speak such truths out loud and to the current administration is to risk be publicly labeled unpatriotic, a coward, and dishonest.
This is a different country than I was born into, and I was born at the beginning of Vietnam.
"[Vice President] Cheney pressed the administration's high-voltage attack on war critics, particularly Senate Democrats who voted in October 2002 to give Bush authority to go to war in Iraq and who now oppose his policy, calling them "dishonest and reprehensible."
"The flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight. But any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped or fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false," Cheney said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.
Speaking as a veteran and a father of someone who may be placed in harm's way, I believe:
1. The pre-war intelligence was not fabricated by senior intelligence or Washington political figures.
2. The intelligence supplied to these individuals was flawed from the beginning.
3. In the rush to execute a war on Iraq, that administration officials (notably the 'retired' Director of Central Intelligence) failed to do everything in their power to verify the validity of the intelligence. They got the answers they wanted to hear and acted accordingly.
4. These individuals, whoever and wherever they are, failed in their duty to the men and women of the United States military, the American people as a whole, and to their President.
5. In the rush to invade Iraq, diplomatic means were still available to resolve the issues raised by the flawed intelligence.
6. To continue a war based on flawed intelligence and where diplomacy was and is an option is wrong and continues to be wrong.
Finally, I believe to speak such truths out loud and to the current administration is to risk be publicly labeled unpatriotic, a coward, and dishonest.
This is a different country than I was born into, and I was born at the beginning of Vietnam.
By the way, Mr. President
"BEIJING (AP) -- After fiercely defending his Iraq policy across Asia, President Bush abruptly toned down his attack on war critics Sunday and said there was nothing unpatriotic about opposing his strategy."
No shit, Sherlock. What gave you the first clue?
No shit, Sherlock. What gave you the first clue?
A Soldier, A Marine, and A Sailor
Long ago, in August, I put up a web link from Peter King's column in SI about 1st Sergeant Mike McGuire. Here's an update from Peter:
I think, for those of you who remember Mike McGuire, the Army first sergeant from St. Louis I met on the road this summer, you'll be pleased to hear this update. As Mike prepared for the most dangerous of wartime jobs, piloting a platoon of men hunting for IED's, the explosive devices that make daily living in Iraq a crapshoot, I got an e-mail from him Friday at 5:34 a.m. He wrote: "Mr. King, the day is here. We're out of here in a matter of hours, bound for Kuwait and Iraq. Don't really know what to say, because don't want the last few hours to be sad. So we just go on like a regular day, except this day will last 365 days at least. The family is doing good. (My wife, Pam) every once in awhile will let it hit her that we will be apart for so long, but she is strong and used to me being deployed. The platoon is ready and anxious. Now it is our turn to go I.E.D. (Improvised Explosive Device) hunting. Can that go on a guy's resume when he gets out of the Army? I am glad that you took an interest in the common soldier. Seems like everyone is forgetting there is a war still going on. You are a piece of something that we hold dear to our hearts (next to family) and that is football. Take care and I will e-mail you from Down Range and let you know how it REALLY is. No made up TV interview. Keep all soldiers in your thoughts, Mike McGuire.''
Mike, you're in our thoughts -- mine and, hopefully, everyone who reads your words. Good luck. And folks, if you want to write to Mike and his troops, I promise I'll forward the e-mails. I don't know about you. but on Thursday I'll be thinking of Mike McGuire and his men when we sit down for Thanksgiving. I'll give thanks for men like these.
I am not embarrassed to repeat this. It is people like Mike McGuire, Mike Fay and, yes, Katrina Moore that makes America the best country in the history of the world.
I think, for those of you who remember Mike McGuire, the Army first sergeant from St. Louis I met on the road this summer, you'll be pleased to hear this update. As Mike prepared for the most dangerous of wartime jobs, piloting a platoon of men hunting for IED's, the explosive devices that make daily living in Iraq a crapshoot, I got an e-mail from him Friday at 5:34 a.m. He wrote: "Mr. King, the day is here. We're out of here in a matter of hours, bound for Kuwait and Iraq. Don't really know what to say, because don't want the last few hours to be sad. So we just go on like a regular day, except this day will last 365 days at least. The family is doing good. (My wife, Pam) every once in awhile will let it hit her that we will be apart for so long, but she is strong and used to me being deployed. The platoon is ready and anxious. Now it is our turn to go I.E.D. (Improvised Explosive Device) hunting. Can that go on a guy's resume when he gets out of the Army? I am glad that you took an interest in the common soldier. Seems like everyone is forgetting there is a war still going on. You are a piece of something that we hold dear to our hearts (next to family) and that is football. Take care and I will e-mail you from Down Range and let you know how it REALLY is. No made up TV interview. Keep all soldiers in your thoughts, Mike McGuire.''
Mike, you're in our thoughts -- mine and, hopefully, everyone who reads your words. Good luck. And folks, if you want to write to Mike and his troops, I promise I'll forward the e-mails. I don't know about you. but on Thursday I'll be thinking of Mike McGuire and his men when we sit down for Thanksgiving. I'll give thanks for men like these.
I am not embarrassed to repeat this. It is people like Mike McGuire, Mike Fay and, yes, Katrina Moore that makes America the best country in the history of the world.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Trina Letter - Jet Lag? Seriously?
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Hey, Navy:
Did absolutely nothing worthwhile this weekend. Nada. Zip. Zero. Didn't grade papers because I'm giving tests this week. I'm not important at work to have to work weekends. Didn't exercise because I ate too much at breakfast and couldn’t get of the couch, so I watched football (you Americans call it...football). Did nothing of value that made me or people around me better human beings. YM and D went for a two-hour climb this morning up some hill near King's Canyon and successfully did the passport thing yesterday with your grandparents. They'll tell you about all this in their letters. Lara is seriously considering taking the Spring semester off. She's burned out on school and wants to get a job to earn some money for Ireland
This will be on The Daily Show:
BEIJING (Reuters) - Irked by a reporter who told him he seemed to be "off his game" at a Beijing public appearance, President George W. Bush sought to make a hasty exit from a news conference but was thwarted by locked doors. [A reporter asked the President if he was “off his game” and the President blamed jet lag.] When the reporter asked for "a very quick follow-up", Bush cut him off by thanking the press corps and telling the reporter "No you may not," as he strode towards a set of double doors leading out of the room. The only problem was that they were locked. "I was trying to escape. Obviously, it didn't work," Bush quipped, facing reporters again until an aide rescued him by pointing to him towards the correct door.
And here’s a bad joke:
“A torn and ragged one-dollar bill discovered that it was about to be retired from circulation. As it slowly moved along the conveyor belt to the shredder, it became acquainted and struck up a conversation with a fifty-dollar bill that was meeting the same fate. The fifty began reminiscing about its travels all over the country. Life has been good," the fifty exclaimed. "Why, I've been to Las Vegas, the finest restaurants in New York, political fund raisers, and just returned from a cruise on the Caribbean." Gee," said the one-dollar bill, "you're fortunate to have been able to visit all those places."
"So where all have you been in your lifetime, my little friend," says the fifty?" "Well, I've been to the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Church of God, the Lutheran Church, the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Assembly of God Church, the Brethren In Christ Church, the Quaker Church, the Pentecostal Church, the Charismatic Church, the Mennonite Church, the United Church of Christ, the Church of Christ ..."
"Excuse me," says the fifty, "but what's a Church"?
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
Did absolutely nothing worthwhile this weekend. Nada. Zip. Zero. Didn't grade papers because I'm giving tests this week. I'm not important at work to have to work weekends. Didn't exercise because I ate too much at breakfast and couldn’t get of the couch, so I watched football (you Americans call it...football). Did nothing of value that made me or people around me better human beings. YM and D went for a two-hour climb this morning up some hill near King's Canyon and successfully did the passport thing yesterday with your grandparents. They'll tell you about all this in their letters. Lara is seriously considering taking the Spring semester off. She's burned out on school and wants to get a job to earn some money for Ireland
This will be on The Daily Show:
BEIJING (Reuters) - Irked by a reporter who told him he seemed to be "off his game" at a Beijing public appearance, President George W. Bush sought to make a hasty exit from a news conference but was thwarted by locked doors. [A reporter asked the President if he was “off his game” and the President blamed jet lag.] When the reporter asked for "a very quick follow-up", Bush cut him off by thanking the press corps and telling the reporter "No you may not," as he strode towards a set of double doors leading out of the room. The only problem was that they were locked. "I was trying to escape. Obviously, it didn't work," Bush quipped, facing reporters again until an aide rescued him by pointing to him towards the correct door.
And here’s a bad joke:
“A torn and ragged one-dollar bill discovered that it was about to be retired from circulation. As it slowly moved along the conveyor belt to the shredder, it became acquainted and struck up a conversation with a fifty-dollar bill that was meeting the same fate. The fifty began reminiscing about its travels all over the country. Life has been good," the fifty exclaimed. "Why, I've been to Las Vegas, the finest restaurants in New York, political fund raisers, and just returned from a cruise on the Caribbean." Gee," said the one-dollar bill, "you're fortunate to have been able to visit all those places."
"So where all have you been in your lifetime, my little friend," says the fifty?" "Well, I've been to the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Church of God, the Lutheran Church, the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Assembly of God Church, the Brethren In Christ Church, the Quaker Church, the Pentecostal Church, the Charismatic Church, the Mennonite Church, the United Church of Christ, the Church of Christ ..."
"Excuse me," says the fifty, "but what's a Church"?
All my love,
Air Force
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Trina Letter - Mr. Potter and Capitol Hill
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Hey, Navy:
Finally over that stinking cold that knocked me out this week. I went back to work on Wednesday but was a zombie for a couple of days, and only started to be human again yesterday. Went to the gym this morning and did some miles on the recumbent plus crunches and leg lifts. I’m not brave enough to attempt mountain climbers. :)
You sounded really good on the last couple of phone calls and your four-page letter was great to get. You are a good letter writer, and you express yourself and events around occurring around you very well. Please keep sending stuff our way when you can.
YM was sorry to miss your call on Friday (11/18) but she was happy to hear that you’ll be home for Christmas (song cue). She and your seesters are going up to Reno this afternoon to get passports so they can go to Dennis’ wedding. They all went to see Harry Potter last night; YM was not impressed. Danielle was up bright and early this morning walking up King’s Canyon and working with a video project with Katie.
By the way, the name of the recruit I was trying to remember is [deleted]. This is what her mom emailed me:
“I have received a couple of letters from my recruit and a phone call. It was so great to hear from her. In the letter I received today, she lists the friends she has made in her division. They go by last names, but the one girl, who's last name is the same as yours, has befriended my daughter. I am hoping this is your daughter, and if it is, I thank you. My daughter has always been shy, and to know that she has made friends puts me at ease. Hopefully it will give you some relief, as I think my daughter is a wonderful friend, and I love the idea that they have become close.”
Looks like this will be my last semester teaching at the college. Wish I could say it was a amiable parting, but no. Please keep this in mind if you ever get into education: when faculty and administrators argue, it’s always ends up on the students.
In current events, there’s a humongous battle going on up on Capitol Hill in D.C. about the Iraqi War, so much so that it may have filtered down to you. It started earlier this month when Senator Harry Reid put the Senate into closed session, an unusual legislative procedure, and demanded the Republicans be more open about investigating pre-war intelligence. On Thursday (11/17), one of the most respected and long serving Democratic Congressmen, who happens to be a retired USMC lieutenant colonel (37 years in service) said our troops are no longer serving a useful purpose in Iraq, have become targets for the insurgents, and that it was time to bring them home. The President’s spokesman replied by saying the Congressman was spending too much listening to filmmaker Michael Moore and his fellow left-wing nuts. I tend to side with the Congressman who, by the way, has two Purple Hearts from his time in Vietnam. In any case, Congress has adjourned for winter break, but the debate is not over by any stretch.
Strange news, all from Reuters News Service:
LOS ANGELES - Former "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss, whose previous career running a call-girl ring landed her in prison, is returning to the world's oldest profession -- to open a Nevada brothel catering to women. [In Nye County.]
NEW YORK - A jury consulting firm hired by Martha Stewart to help her battle federal criminal charges two years ago is suing the homemaking trendsetter, claiming Stewart has not paid her bills.
TOKYO - A giant white radish that won the hearts of a Japanese town by valiantly growing through the urban asphalt was in intensive care at a town hall in western Japan on Thursday after being slashed by an unknown assailant.
DES MOINES - Two convicted murderers were able to climb over a wall and escape from an Iowa prison because budget cuts left some guard towers unmanned, a state senator said on Tuesday.
KYOTO, Japan - In the latest sign of their chummy ties, U.S. President George W. Bush gave Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a surprise gift of a Segway electric scooter Wednesday and urged him to take a spin. [At least he didn't puke on him like dear old dad.]
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
Finally over that stinking cold that knocked me out this week. I went back to work on Wednesday but was a zombie for a couple of days, and only started to be human again yesterday. Went to the gym this morning and did some miles on the recumbent plus crunches and leg lifts. I’m not brave enough to attempt mountain climbers. :)
You sounded really good on the last couple of phone calls and your four-page letter was great to get. You are a good letter writer, and you express yourself and events around occurring around you very well. Please keep sending stuff our way when you can.
YM was sorry to miss your call on Friday (11/18) but she was happy to hear that you’ll be home for Christmas (song cue). She and your seesters are going up to Reno this afternoon to get passports so they can go to Dennis’ wedding. They all went to see Harry Potter last night; YM was not impressed. Danielle was up bright and early this morning walking up King’s Canyon and working with a video project with Katie.
By the way, the name of the recruit I was trying to remember is [deleted]. This is what her mom emailed me:
“I have received a couple of letters from my recruit and a phone call. It was so great to hear from her. In the letter I received today, she lists the friends she has made in her division. They go by last names, but the one girl, who's last name is the same as yours, has befriended my daughter. I am hoping this is your daughter, and if it is, I thank you. My daughter has always been shy, and to know that she has made friends puts me at ease. Hopefully it will give you some relief, as I think my daughter is a wonderful friend, and I love the idea that they have become close.”
Looks like this will be my last semester teaching at the college. Wish I could say it was a amiable parting, but no. Please keep this in mind if you ever get into education: when faculty and administrators argue, it’s always ends up on the students.
In current events, there’s a humongous battle going on up on Capitol Hill in D.C. about the Iraqi War, so much so that it may have filtered down to you. It started earlier this month when Senator Harry Reid put the Senate into closed session, an unusual legislative procedure, and demanded the Republicans be more open about investigating pre-war intelligence. On Thursday (11/17), one of the most respected and long serving Democratic Congressmen, who happens to be a retired USMC lieutenant colonel (37 years in service) said our troops are no longer serving a useful purpose in Iraq, have become targets for the insurgents, and that it was time to bring them home. The President’s spokesman replied by saying the Congressman was spending too much listening to filmmaker Michael Moore and his fellow left-wing nuts. I tend to side with the Congressman who, by the way, has two Purple Hearts from his time in Vietnam. In any case, Congress has adjourned for winter break, but the debate is not over by any stretch.
Strange news, all from Reuters News Service:
LOS ANGELES - Former "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss, whose previous career running a call-girl ring landed her in prison, is returning to the world's oldest profession -- to open a Nevada brothel catering to women. [In Nye County.]
NEW YORK - A jury consulting firm hired by Martha Stewart to help her battle federal criminal charges two years ago is suing the homemaking trendsetter, claiming Stewart has not paid her bills.
TOKYO - A giant white radish that won the hearts of a Japanese town by valiantly growing through the urban asphalt was in intensive care at a town hall in western Japan on Thursday after being slashed by an unknown assailant.
DES MOINES - Two convicted murderers were able to climb over a wall and escape from an Iowa prison because budget cuts left some guard towers unmanned, a state senator said on Tuesday.
KYOTO, Japan - In the latest sign of their chummy ties, U.S. President George W. Bush gave Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a surprise gift of a Segway electric scooter Wednesday and urged him to take a spin. [At least he didn't puke on him like dear old dad.]
All my love,
Air Force
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
World's First Working $100 Laptop
"Tech evangelist Nicholas Negroponte wants to outfit the world's children to improve education.
Nov 16 2005
By David Kirkpatrick - Fortune.com
Nick Negroponte would like to sell you a $100 laptop, especially if you're head of state in a large developing country.
That's why he is at the World Summit on the Information Society, the giant UN-sponsored gathering that starts Wednesday in Tunis. Negroponte plans to show for the first time a working prototype of his new device, intended for hundreds of millions of mostly-poor students worldwide. The techies and government ministers in Tunis are his ideal target market.
At the Media Lab at MIT, which Negroponte founded 20 years ago, researchers are working not only on the engineering to make such an inexpensive product possible, but on computer interfaces to enable kids to learn without teachers, and on a curriculum to teach them every sort of subject.
Negroponte's message has a seductive simplicity. As he puts it in an interview: "One laptop per child: Children are your most precious resource, and they can do a lot of self-learning and peer-to-peer teaching. Bingo. End of story."
He's seeking orders in lots of a million. So far, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva has agreed to buy a million, Negroponte says, and Chile, Argentina and Thailand are lining up. Negroponte hopes to start production next year, ramping up to tens of millions in 2007.
The device is a stripped-down affair, with an electricity-generating crank and a swiveling seven-inch screen, for basic word-processing, Internet and communications. It has no hard drive, instead using flash memory like that in a digital camera. The processor, from AMD, runs at a pokey 500 megahertz.
Each laptop will include a Wi-Fi radio transmitter designed to knit machines into a wireless "mesh" so they can share a Net connection, passing it from one computer to the next. Though there is a power cord, that cool crank can provide roughly ten minutes of juice for each minute of turning.
The key to chopping the price to $100: reducing the cost of the screen. Negroponte's chief technology officer Mary Lou Jepsen, who used to work at Intel, has invented a display she thinks could be built for $35 or less (compared with the typical $100 or more).
Negroponte's nonprofit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), which will distribute the device, has raised a total of $10 million, with more on the way. Says Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. contributed $2 million: "Nick's endeavor has the prospect of potentially transforming the lives of millions of children in the developing world." Google also chipped in $2 million.
Even tech titans like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell are talking to Negroponte about his plans. Jobs initially dismissed the laptop as a "science project" but is now contributing ideas. Dell had his staff vet the cost of the device's components. And Gates would like Negroponte to use Microsoft software rather than the free open-source alternatives that Negroponte currently favors.
The impediments, needless to say, are numerous and daunting. "Most schools in the developing world don't even have textbooks," says Allen Hammond of the World Resources Institute. "How the heck are they going to pay for Internet access?"
Even Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD, which gave $2 million to OLPC, says success will require "developing larger ecosystems around ... tech support, application development, training and business models for the Internet service providers." Those elements aren't close to being in place, and Ruiz thinks the laptop's price won't drop to $100 for two to three years. Yet even skeptics are loath to pooh-pooh Negroponte's activism: "If he can pull it off," Hammond says, "my hat's off to him."
Negroponte is currently talking to hardware companies about marketing a pricier version that will subsidize the nonprofit model. His stop in Tunis is just one on a long mission he seems unlikely to give up. "What if we fail?" he asks. "Failure means it's $142.07 and six months late. Failure doesn't mean it doesn't happen or it's a bad idea.""
Nov 16 2005
By David Kirkpatrick - Fortune.com
Nick Negroponte would like to sell you a $100 laptop, especially if you're head of state in a large developing country.
That's why he is at the World Summit on the Information Society, the giant UN-sponsored gathering that starts Wednesday in Tunis. Negroponte plans to show for the first time a working prototype of his new device, intended for hundreds of millions of mostly-poor students worldwide. The techies and government ministers in Tunis are his ideal target market.
At the Media Lab at MIT, which Negroponte founded 20 years ago, researchers are working not only on the engineering to make such an inexpensive product possible, but on computer interfaces to enable kids to learn without teachers, and on a curriculum to teach them every sort of subject.
Negroponte's message has a seductive simplicity. As he puts it in an interview: "One laptop per child: Children are your most precious resource, and they can do a lot of self-learning and peer-to-peer teaching. Bingo. End of story."
He's seeking orders in lots of a million. So far, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva has agreed to buy a million, Negroponte says, and Chile, Argentina and Thailand are lining up. Negroponte hopes to start production next year, ramping up to tens of millions in 2007.
The device is a stripped-down affair, with an electricity-generating crank and a swiveling seven-inch screen, for basic word-processing, Internet and communications. It has no hard drive, instead using flash memory like that in a digital camera. The processor, from AMD, runs at a pokey 500 megahertz.
Each laptop will include a Wi-Fi radio transmitter designed to knit machines into a wireless "mesh" so they can share a Net connection, passing it from one computer to the next. Though there is a power cord, that cool crank can provide roughly ten minutes of juice for each minute of turning.
The key to chopping the price to $100: reducing the cost of the screen. Negroponte's chief technology officer Mary Lou Jepsen, who used to work at Intel, has invented a display she thinks could be built for $35 or less (compared with the typical $100 or more).
Negroponte's nonprofit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), which will distribute the device, has raised a total of $10 million, with more on the way. Says Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. contributed $2 million: "Nick's endeavor has the prospect of potentially transforming the lives of millions of children in the developing world." Google also chipped in $2 million.
Even tech titans like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell are talking to Negroponte about his plans. Jobs initially dismissed the laptop as a "science project" but is now contributing ideas. Dell had his staff vet the cost of the device's components. And Gates would like Negroponte to use Microsoft software rather than the free open-source alternatives that Negroponte currently favors.
The impediments, needless to say, are numerous and daunting. "Most schools in the developing world don't even have textbooks," says Allen Hammond of the World Resources Institute. "How the heck are they going to pay for Internet access?"
Even Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD, which gave $2 million to OLPC, says success will require "developing larger ecosystems around ... tech support, application development, training and business models for the Internet service providers." Those elements aren't close to being in place, and Ruiz thinks the laptop's price won't drop to $100 for two to three years. Yet even skeptics are loath to pooh-pooh Negroponte's activism: "If he can pull it off," Hammond says, "my hat's off to him."
Negroponte is currently talking to hardware companies about marketing a pricier version that will subsidize the nonprofit model. His stop in Tunis is just one on a long mission he seems unlikely to give up. "What if we fail?" he asks. "Failure means it's $142.07 and six months late. Failure doesn't mean it doesn't happen or it's a bad idea.""
Trina Letter - Prison Stuff
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Hey, Navy:
Your phone call yesterday really brightened my day. I was very happy to hear that you’ve adjusted so well and that you’ve been given some responsibility. Who knows? By the time you read this, you’ve been moved to a new job in the division. In any case, I bet it feels really good to get your bitch on, again. :)
I’m started this letter in class Tuesday night while watching students struggle with the mysteries of Office 2003 (Word, Excel, and Access). I design the classes so the students teach themselves the material versus me lecturing from the front of the class (you know from personal experience how boring that is). This gives them a chance to dig into the computers and put some documents together, which is the reason they took the class in the first place. They have other classes in which they can hear teachers talk. In my class, they work. One student told me last night as we were leaving that he has problems in another computer class with another teacher because the teacher talks first then lets the students work. He prefers the hands-on method I use.
And you may not know this about the WNCC Prison Education Program: students/inmates can earn two-year college degrees if they take enough classes. Some students don’t have their high school diploma or GED which all inmates must have by state law, so during the day they go to the prison’s high school with teachers employed by the Carson City School District, then go to the college education area to get credits from college instructors like your old man. I’ve had more than one student going to full-time high school and full-time college (12 credits/4 classes) at the same time.
So why all this detail about something you may or may not be interested in? Dunno. It’s something I’ve invested a lot of time and energy in, and you wanted news about anything, so here you go.
You continue to take care of you. You’re always in our thoughts.
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
Your phone call yesterday really brightened my day. I was very happy to hear that you’ve adjusted so well and that you’ve been given some responsibility. Who knows? By the time you read this, you’ve been moved to a new job in the division. In any case, I bet it feels really good to get your bitch on, again. :)
I’m started this letter in class Tuesday night while watching students struggle with the mysteries of Office 2003 (Word, Excel, and Access). I design the classes so the students teach themselves the material versus me lecturing from the front of the class (you know from personal experience how boring that is). This gives them a chance to dig into the computers and put some documents together, which is the reason they took the class in the first place. They have other classes in which they can hear teachers talk. In my class, they work. One student told me last night as we were leaving that he has problems in another computer class with another teacher because the teacher talks first then lets the students work. He prefers the hands-on method I use.
And you may not know this about the WNCC Prison Education Program: students/inmates can earn two-year college degrees if they take enough classes. Some students don’t have their high school diploma or GED which all inmates must have by state law, so during the day they go to the prison’s high school with teachers employed by the Carson City School District, then go to the college education area to get credits from college instructors like your old man. I’ve had more than one student going to full-time high school and full-time college (12 credits/4 classes) at the same time.
So why all this detail about something you may or may not be interested in? Dunno. It’s something I’ve invested a lot of time and energy in, and you wanted news about anything, so here you go.
You continue to take care of you. You’re always in our thoughts.
All my love,
Air Force
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Trina Called Again
Trina called. She was rewarded with a 30-minute phone call for gettting a perfect score on a test. She said:
- She's gotten about thirty pieces of mail so far and would like more.
- She's not sure if she's in training day 2-5 or 3-1.
- She's having problems with sit-ups, but is the division mascot when it comes to PT (physical training). She's getting a lot of encouragement from her shipmates.
- The division gets up at 0600 and goes to bed at 2200, but she and her shipmates are up at night ironing and doing other chores.
- The classwork is not hard. The recruits listen to lectures and do "fill in the blank" sheets so everyone stays awake.
- She inherited the job of Laundry PO from another recruit who was medically discharged. She's happy about the job because she now has power. (I think this is a sign of things to come.)
- She says she looks pretty sharp in her blues.
- She does PIR on December 22 and gts on the place two hours later. She's pretty sure she can have holiday leave with her family.
- She's gotten about thirty pieces of mail so far and would like more.
- She's not sure if she's in training day 2-5 or 3-1.
- She's having problems with sit-ups, but is the division mascot when it comes to PT (physical training). She's getting a lot of encouragement from her shipmates.
- The division gets up at 0600 and goes to bed at 2200, but she and her shipmates are up at night ironing and doing other chores.
- The classwork is not hard. The recruits listen to lectures and do "fill in the blank" sheets so everyone stays awake.
- She inherited the job of Laundry PO from another recruit who was medically discharged. She's happy about the job because she now has power. (I think this is a sign of things to come.)
- She says she looks pretty sharp in her blues.
- She does PIR on December 22 and gts on the place two hours later. She's pretty sure she can have holiday leave with her family.
Trina Letter - It's All So Strange
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Hey, Navy:
I’m home sick for a second day because of a cold that is almost out of my system. I still have to go to class at night because I’m giving tests next week and I should be able to go back to work tomorrow. Wheee.
Taking a quick look at the Reno Gazette-Journal and the Nevada Appeal web sites, there’s the usual nothing going on. The president of UNR resigned to take a job at Baylor. Governor Guinn of Nevada was selected by Time magazine as one of the nation’s five best governors. The guy that drove into the Michael Hohl’s car dealership showroom admitted he’s been on a two-day marijuana bender. The new Carson-Tahoe hospital is about to open and everyone is impressed so far (but wait till the bills start rolling in). Going to CNN, one of the daughters of Emperor Akihito of Japan left the royal family to marry a commoner. She’s no longer a princess and has to learn to drive and keep house like a “normal” Japanese housewife. Houston Street of the Oakland Athletics won the American League Rookie of the Year award.
Strange news items:
“In September, to preserve "respect and dignity" for newborns, the neo-natal unit of Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, England, officially banned visitors' "cooing" at infants. Said hospital official Debbie Lawson, "Cooing should be a thing of the past because these are little people with the same rights as you or me." To illustrate the rule, officials displayed a doll holding a sign reading: "What makes you think I want to be looked at?" [BBC News]”
“Conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting "intelligent design" and warned them on Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck. [Rueters]”
“A nursing home in [Dublin] Ireland has hit on a cheering way to keep up the spirits of its elderly patients -- by providing its own pub. [Rueters]”
As for the Moores, Danielle caught the interest of a high-profile writing agent and we signed the release for her. Lara has got the yuckies, too, and didn’t got to class today. Her room is momentarily clean and the love seat is stacked with piles of clothes. YM had a disaster exercise at work yesterday which evolved into a fiasco that no one took seriously. Over the weekend, she reorganized the garage to find room for your stuff, but there are still bins in the living room so I’m guessing there was only so much rearranging to do. Maybe if we move the Ark of the Covenant over by the window…
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
I’m home sick for a second day because of a cold that is almost out of my system. I still have to go to class at night because I’m giving tests next week and I should be able to go back to work tomorrow. Wheee.
Taking a quick look at the Reno Gazette-Journal and the Nevada Appeal web sites, there’s the usual nothing going on. The president of UNR resigned to take a job at Baylor. Governor Guinn of Nevada was selected by Time magazine as one of the nation’s five best governors. The guy that drove into the Michael Hohl’s car dealership showroom admitted he’s been on a two-day marijuana bender. The new Carson-Tahoe hospital is about to open and everyone is impressed so far (but wait till the bills start rolling in). Going to CNN, one of the daughters of Emperor Akihito of Japan left the royal family to marry a commoner. She’s no longer a princess and has to learn to drive and keep house like a “normal” Japanese housewife. Houston Street of the Oakland Athletics won the American League Rookie of the Year award.
Strange news items:
“In September, to preserve "respect and dignity" for newborns, the neo-natal unit of Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, England, officially banned visitors' "cooing" at infants. Said hospital official Debbie Lawson, "Cooing should be a thing of the past because these are little people with the same rights as you or me." To illustrate the rule, officials displayed a doll holding a sign reading: "What makes you think I want to be looked at?" [BBC News]”
“Conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting "intelligent design" and warned them on Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck. [Rueters]”
“A nursing home in [Dublin] Ireland has hit on a cheering way to keep up the spirits of its elderly patients -- by providing its own pub. [Rueters]”
As for the Moores, Danielle caught the interest of a high-profile writing agent and we signed the release for her. Lara has got the yuckies, too, and didn’t got to class today. Her room is momentarily clean and the love seat is stacked with piles of clothes. YM had a disaster exercise at work yesterday which evolved into a fiasco that no one took seriously. Over the weekend, she reorganized the garage to find room for your stuff, but there are still bins in the living room so I’m guessing there was only so much rearranging to do. Maybe if we move the Ark of the Covenant over by the window…
All my love,
Air Force
Sunday, November 13, 2005
A "Down On Me" Minute
I read the below entry about today's bike ride and was struck by how inwardly-focused it is, and maybe that's how I've survived this way for so long. There've been times in my life when things have sucked beyond measure and I've had to find coping skills to get me to tomorrow. It's not right or wrong; it's just me, but I acknowledge I lead a lonely existence. I've no friends except for those related to me by marriage or blood (they're stuck with me). I don't meet people for lunch. Folks do not have me over to their house to help them move furniture or paint a room or rake the leafs. I don't even know why I have a cell phone.
I used to have friends. Really. It's true. God knows I need a few now because there are many good points to have friends, among them being the necessary filter you need when you're misbehaving or acting poorly towards others. When you're selfish like me, you don't easily see the hurt you inflict on others with the throwaway sentence or not-too-funny comedic insult. This is probably one of many reasons why people don't call me...
This is why I envy people like this, despite their cancers and deaths. They've endured incredible heartbreaks of all kinds, but they're surrounded by love and hope and friendship. When it appears their lives would seem to suck the most, that's when their lives are at their absolute best.
I'll get over this "down on me" feeling soon, but in the meantime, I'd sure like to share a cup of java with someone other than the San Francisco Chronicle.
I used to have friends. Really. It's true. God knows I need a few now because there are many good points to have friends, among them being the necessary filter you need when you're misbehaving or acting poorly towards others. When you're selfish like me, you don't easily see the hurt you inflict on others with the throwaway sentence or not-too-funny comedic insult. This is probably one of many reasons why people don't call me...
This is why I envy people like this, despite their cancers and deaths. They've endured incredible heartbreaks of all kinds, but they're surrounded by love and hope and friendship. When it appears their lives would seem to suck the most, that's when their lives are at their absolute best.
I'll get over this "down on me" feeling soon, but in the meantime, I'd sure like to share a cup of java with someone other than the San Francisco Chronicle.
A Little Jog
Did a quick ride to burn off the doldrums that come from grading papers. Went north on Ormsby to Albertsons, then south on Carson to the Fifth Street hill. I'd forgotten the mental medicinal value of a nice, quick workout. Instead, I became more focused on the drudgery and the solitude. Fast-bang workouts give a good surge of adrenalin without too much of a sweat.
Distance: 6.2 miles
Time: 29:37 minutes
375 calories burned
Distance: 6.2 miles
Time: 29:37 minutes
375 calories burned
Trina Letter - Teamwork
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Hey, Navy:
By the time you get this, you’ll have been gone nearly a month. Wow! It doesn’t seem that long, but it’s probably been an eternity for you, especially in those moments when the RDCs have locked their laser sights on you. You know deep down that these guys are doing their jobs and trying to give you the tools you need to survive out on the Blue Water, but that probably doesn’t help when they’re in your face and you can smell what they had for breakfast.
We got your first letter yesterday and everybody was so glad to hear you’re doing well. Bummer about the sit-ups but I know you’ll bounce back, especially after seeing what you went through to get to Boot Camp (doesn’t that now seem forever ago?). Sorry that you’re having to do IT. Sounds like there may be a teamwork problem going on.
A former Navy recruit wrote this on EOpinion:
“The hardest part of boot camp overall was learning to work as a team. If Honor, Courage, and Commitment are the three Navy Core Values, then Teamwork is the invisible fourth. You have to rely on your shipmates every move because you and everyone else suffer the direct consequences when someone messes up. When you’re completely independent, as I was, you’ll find that this is the most difficult task to overcome. I knew how to work as a team and all, but the part about getting punished for someone else’s actions didn’t settle too well with me, but looking back, I can see the reasoning. You have to look out for each other and make sure that everyone is doing their job properly because one mistake in the fleet could threaten several lives. For instance, if the watch on ship falls asleep and a foreign destroyer comes along, everyone on the ship would be blown up. Even if you were doing your job properly, you’ll still be killed. That’s why you have to make everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be.”
As for Moore updates: YM is finally moving out of Kinkead in the Spring. Lara’s surviving WNCC and is talking about getting a job. Danielle went to the Navy recruiter about going into ET (YM was SO happy about that, right after you left) plus she’s still getting queries about her books. As for me, I did a 22-mile bike ride on Friday (11/11). It drives YM nuts.
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
By the time you get this, you’ll have been gone nearly a month. Wow! It doesn’t seem that long, but it’s probably been an eternity for you, especially in those moments when the RDCs have locked their laser sights on you. You know deep down that these guys are doing their jobs and trying to give you the tools you need to survive out on the Blue Water, but that probably doesn’t help when they’re in your face and you can smell what they had for breakfast.
We got your first letter yesterday and everybody was so glad to hear you’re doing well. Bummer about the sit-ups but I know you’ll bounce back, especially after seeing what you went through to get to Boot Camp (doesn’t that now seem forever ago?). Sorry that you’re having to do IT. Sounds like there may be a teamwork problem going on.
A former Navy recruit wrote this on EOpinion:
“The hardest part of boot camp overall was learning to work as a team. If Honor, Courage, and Commitment are the three Navy Core Values, then Teamwork is the invisible fourth. You have to rely on your shipmates every move because you and everyone else suffer the direct consequences when someone messes up. When you’re completely independent, as I was, you’ll find that this is the most difficult task to overcome. I knew how to work as a team and all, but the part about getting punished for someone else’s actions didn’t settle too well with me, but looking back, I can see the reasoning. You have to look out for each other and make sure that everyone is doing their job properly because one mistake in the fleet could threaten several lives. For instance, if the watch on ship falls asleep and a foreign destroyer comes along, everyone on the ship would be blown up. Even if you were doing your job properly, you’ll still be killed. That’s why you have to make everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be.”
As for Moore updates: YM is finally moving out of Kinkead in the Spring. Lara’s surviving WNCC and is talking about getting a job. Danielle went to the Navy recruiter about going into ET (YM was SO happy about that, right after you left) plus she’s still getting queries about her books. As for me, I did a 22-mile bike ride on Friday (11/11). It drives YM nuts.
All my love,
Air Force
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Trina Letter - Veteran's Day
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Hey, Navy:
In the middle of a three-day Veteran’s Day here and YM is deep into her annual cleaning of Lara’s room. Did you know there’s carpet in there? I’d heard rumors, but to actually see the floor (she’s gonna be ticked when she reads this).
We just walked over to the middle school to look at their Veteran’s Day memorial and, as you can see, they did a Vietnam War memorial wall this year. Many of the students did current pictures of their favorite veterans versus using the internet or the school library. It was nice to see someone who served in World War II, Korea, or Vietnam with their arm around a student.
And I hope that someone mentioned to you that you are now a member of this 'Band of Brothers' that has served our country. I won’t patronize or embarrass you because you’re living with the reality of military while all of us are out here watching and waiting. All I will say is welcome and thank you.
From the News of the Weird:
"As traditionally domineering husbands reach retirement age in Japan, the wives of as many as half of them may suffer some degree of Retired Husband Syndrome (rashes, ulcers, other stress symptoms), according to an October Washington Post dispatch. Said one morose, 63-year-old woman, "I had developed my own life, my own way of doing things, in the years when he was [working long hours]," but, she told the Post, she now can't stand even to look at her husband across the dinner table and sits at an angle so she can stare out a window instead. According to psychiatrists treating RHS, the numbers may soon explode further unless husbands lower their expectations of spousal servitude. [Washington Post, 10-16-05]
All my love,
Air Force
Friday, November 11, 2005
3 Stores and A River
My body is ingot of solid lead right now and it's my own damn fault. I've been slacking on the exercise this week: didn't go to the gym this week and the last time I did anything strenuous was climb a small hill last Sunday. I'm feeling it now.
Got Dollar out of the shop yesterday after some fairly expensive repairs. The bike dude said the problem was the rear gear mechanism simply...wore out. Looking at the odometer, I put 220 miles on it since August, but you'd think the stuff would last longer. Not the case. He replaced a bunch of stuff and the bill came to half of what I paid for the damn bike in the first place.
But I needed to get out something bad, so Dollar and I hit the road this morning. First uncomfortable discovery: the gear shift on the right is backwards to what I used to. Instead of 1 (one) being the lowest setting, it's now the highest setting. That took a while to get used to, and when I'm done here, I'm taking Dollar back to get that fixed. Second uncomfortable finding: I haven't been working out and I had no stamina. Small hills that I used to climb with no problem were mountains and big hills became sheer cliffs. There were three distinct times in the ride when I had no power in my legs and sort of waffled along until the feeling past. And did I mention the bitchin' headwind coming in from the west?
But I motored on and did Three Albertsons and a River, anyway, because it was a freaking beautiful day out there (thus proving The Bride right: I'm nuts, but oy, am I gonna feel it for the rest of the day).
This was taken from Arrowhead Road looking into the valley next to the Carson River on the other side of Prison Hill.
If you're keeping track:
- Took Richmond to Fifth Street to Curry.
- South on Curry, then east on Clearview, then north on Edmonds.
- East on Fifth, then the Carson River Road to Arrowhead
- West on Highway 50 to Goni, then around the curve to College Parkway to Ormsby
- Around Ormsby to Winnie to Ash Canyon, then home
Distance: 21.8 miles
Time: 1 hour 58:39 minutes
1092 calories burned
Got Dollar out of the shop yesterday after some fairly expensive repairs. The bike dude said the problem was the rear gear mechanism simply...wore out. Looking at the odometer, I put 220 miles on it since August, but you'd think the stuff would last longer. Not the case. He replaced a bunch of stuff and the bill came to half of what I paid for the damn bike in the first place.
But I needed to get out something bad, so Dollar and I hit the road this morning. First uncomfortable discovery: the gear shift on the right is backwards to what I used to. Instead of 1 (one) being the lowest setting, it's now the highest setting. That took a while to get used to, and when I'm done here, I'm taking Dollar back to get that fixed. Second uncomfortable finding: I haven't been working out and I had no stamina. Small hills that I used to climb with no problem were mountains and big hills became sheer cliffs. There were three distinct times in the ride when I had no power in my legs and sort of waffled along until the feeling past. And did I mention the bitchin' headwind coming in from the west?
But I motored on and did Three Albertsons and a River, anyway, because it was a freaking beautiful day out there (thus proving The Bride right: I'm nuts, but oy, am I gonna feel it for the rest of the day).
This was taken from Arrowhead Road looking into the valley next to the Carson River on the other side of Prison Hill.
If you're keeping track:
- Took Richmond to Fifth Street to Curry.
- South on Curry, then east on Clearview, then north on Edmonds.
- East on Fifth, then the Carson River Road to Arrowhead
- West on Highway 50 to Goni, then around the curve to College Parkway to Ormsby
- Around Ormsby to Winnie to Ash Canyon, then home
Distance: 21.8 miles
Time: 1 hour 58:39 minutes
1092 calories burned
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Trina Letter - Having Fun Now
Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Hey, Navy:
Geez, I’m so far behind on my letters. No excuse other than the usual “there ain’t crap happening here” thing.
Just to bring you up to speed: I contacted the folks on your list and, no surprise, Connie and Marilee gave up their home addresses with no problem (Amanda already gave us her home address). Julie had a problem with your request (no surprise, again) and doesn’t want the government to contact her at home. I faxed all the information I had to Ms. Davis and, just to be safe, talked to PO Gibson at Great Lakes PAO. He asked me to fax the information to him and he’d track down Ms. Davis, too. I’m hoping that she has it now.
And I’m sorry you’re having a heck of a time adjusting. You’re sounded pretty darn uncomfortable and who could blame you? You’re in a bunch of discomfort every time you take a step or even breathe. All I can say is that this is all temporary and it will pass. You’re one tough lady and I’ve seen you overcome some pretty high fences. I wish I was there to help, but know this as a fact: I’m sending you all my strength and love, mentally and metaphysically, anyway.
I’m so damn proud of you.
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
Geez, I’m so far behind on my letters. No excuse other than the usual “there ain’t crap happening here” thing.
Just to bring you up to speed: I contacted the folks on your list and, no surprise, Connie and Marilee gave up their home addresses with no problem (Amanda already gave us her home address). Julie had a problem with your request (no surprise, again) and doesn’t want the government to contact her at home. I faxed all the information I had to Ms. Davis and, just to be safe, talked to PO Gibson at Great Lakes PAO. He asked me to fax the information to him and he’d track down Ms. Davis, too. I’m hoping that she has it now.
And I’m sorry you’re having a heck of a time adjusting. You’re sounded pretty darn uncomfortable and who could blame you? You’re in a bunch of discomfort every time you take a step or even breathe. All I can say is that this is all temporary and it will pass. You’re one tough lady and I’ve seen you overcome some pretty high fences. I wish I was there to help, but know this as a fact: I’m sending you all my strength and love, mentally and metaphysically, anyway.
I’m so damn proud of you.
All my love,
Air Force
Heard from Trina
Liz and I got to talk to Trina yesterday, albeit briefly, because the person at RTC did not get the three faxes we sent her about Trina, and T. needed the info ASAP. The daughter was not in a good place and Liz said she wanted to reach through the phone and hug her.
T. says she hasn't gotten any of the mail we sent her yet because her division doesn't have a designated recruit mail petty officer, but that should be resolved soon. Can you imagine the stack of letters she's gonna get?
Yesterday was training day 1-5 (yesterday being 11/5), and according to the web site, Trina got a taste of Navy swimming. This upcoming training week covers the fundamentals of the Navy.
She said she was thinking of us.
T. says she hasn't gotten any of the mail we sent her yet because her division doesn't have a designated recruit mail petty officer, but that should be resolved soon. Can you imagine the stack of letters she's gonna get?
Yesterday was training day 1-5 (yesterday being 11/5), and according to the web site, Trina got a taste of Navy swimming. This upcoming training week covers the fundamentals of the Navy.
She said she was thinking of us.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Just Venting Here...Please Don't Hurt Me, Mr. Hoover
Finished moving desks today. I have a few thoughts about this shiffling things around, but again, I want to keep the paychecks flowing, so I'll express those and other things after I move on.
Ran into a situation over the last few days which I haven't figured out how to unravel it or if I completely wrong. I said that I did not like something and I got vibes from somebody who may have taken offense. I did not say I didn't like the person; if fact, I have a great deal of admiration for the person and the energy they possess. Complicating the fact is this person is not expressive when they are miffed and keeps things pretty close to the chest. What do you think I should do, Lara?
Is this confusing to you? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051107/
ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_torture
PANAMA CITY, Panama - President Bush vigorously defended U.S. interrogation practices in the war on terror Monday and lobbied against a congressional drive to outlaw torture. "There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again," Bush said. "So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law." He declared, "We do not torture."
"Over White House opposition, the Senate has passed legislation banning torture. With Vice President Dick Cheney as the point man, the administration is seeking an exemption for the CIA. It was recently disclosed that the spy agency maintains a network of prisons in eastern Europe and Asia, where it holds terrorist suspects. The European Union is investigating the reports, which have not been confirmed by the White House. "Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people," Bush said. "Any activity we conduct is within the law. We do not torture."
Mr. President, we do torture and we condone torturing when we give prisoners captured by American law enforcement officials and troops to friendly nations who in turn torture on our behalf.
We are the country that makes human rights part of its foreign policy and we have a constitution that declares that certain human rights are inalienable and absolute. Why aren't we doing better than this?
And we keep saying we're at war, yet doesn't it say in the constitution that it takes an act of Congress for the country to officially be at war?
I'm probably going to get a letter from the FBI now. They're going to be so bored with me.
Ran into a situation over the last few days which I haven't figured out how to unravel it or if I completely wrong. I said that I did not like something and I got vibes from somebody who may have taken offense. I did not say I didn't like the person; if fact, I have a great deal of admiration for the person and the energy they possess. Complicating the fact is this person is not expressive when they are miffed and keeps things pretty close to the chest. What do you think I should do, Lara?
Is this confusing to you? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051107/
ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_torture
PANAMA CITY, Panama - President Bush vigorously defended U.S. interrogation practices in the war on terror Monday and lobbied against a congressional drive to outlaw torture. "There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again," Bush said. "So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law." He declared, "We do not torture."
"Over White House opposition, the Senate has passed legislation banning torture. With Vice President Dick Cheney as the point man, the administration is seeking an exemption for the CIA. It was recently disclosed that the spy agency maintains a network of prisons in eastern Europe and Asia, where it holds terrorist suspects. The European Union is investigating the reports, which have not been confirmed by the White House. "Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people," Bush said. "Any activity we conduct is within the law. We do not torture."
Mr. President, we do torture and we condone torturing when we give prisoners captured by American law enforcement officials and troops to friendly nations who in turn torture on our behalf.
We are the country that makes human rights part of its foreign policy and we have a constitution that declares that certain human rights are inalienable and absolute. Why aren't we doing better than this?
And we keep saying we're at war, yet doesn't it say in the constitution that it takes an act of Congress for the country to officially be at war?
I'm probably going to get a letter from the FBI now. They're going to be so bored with me.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Trina Letter - Climbing and Singing In The Rain
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Hey, Navy:
Winding up another weekend of thrills and chills here. Did a short climb partway up C Hill this afternoon (bike’s in the shop) and thought you might want a picture of beautiful downtown Carson City. Gosh. Wow. Try not to get too excited.
There’s a dad on the Navy message board that says his son is in Division 027 and is going to Monterey after RTC. Have you met up with him yet?
YM is at the last day of the Reno Film Festival and is probably either getting ready for or is at the wrap party. She and your seesters went to the Debbie Reynolds Q/A session yesterday and YM says she’s a pretty funny lady. You know who she is: she got her Hollywood break in Singing In The Rain with Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor, and she was Kevin Kline’s mother in In&Out. A classy dame.
Take care of you. Missing you lots.
All my love,
Air Force
Send In The Clouds
You are Franklin!
I don't like on-line quizzes because people who make them tend to take themselves way too seriously (do these folks know the power they have over adolescent minds?), and the people who take them place too much emphasis or belief in these silly amateur-hour quizzes. But this one was too cute. When I was younger, though, I went through a serious Peanuts phase because, in a John Nash kind of way, I thought Charles Schultz was trying to tell us something about us. I may have been more right than I thought.
This is the second internet quiz I took this year and, coincidentally or not, I turned out to be a brother both times. In the other quiz, I was Book from the Firefly/Serenity universe. Considering who these two characters are, I'm good with that.
(BTW, if you're going to take a personality test, have a look at this.)
Had a blah weekend which I attribute partially to the diet. I'm not eating a lot of variety as you can see here, so I had some sweet and sour pork for dinner and feel a ton better (pun intended). My body is still getting adjusted to things, like exercise and less "bad" fast food. That implies there's "good" fast food, which there is: McDonalds parfait, Wendy's salads, and Taco Bell Chrunchwraps (okay, that's not good, but they smell like pancakes!). There's enough healthy variety around so I don't have to live on fruit and yogurt.
The other reason I feel better this evening is I climbed one of the big little hills in front of C Hill (memo to self: when feeling lethargic and down on me, must get off ass and exercise). Dollar is in the shop, so I booted myself outside and hit the hill about a mile south of here. I didn't go all the way to the top of C Hill because there wasn't time before sunset, but I got a workout and a couple of nice pictures.
Dirty little secret among thousands: I like clouds and can watch them all day.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Trina Letter - Mr. Potter
Saturday, November 5, 2005
Hey, Navy:
As I write this, YM and your seesters are in Reno at the film festival, doing the volunteer thing. They’ve been gone since this morning and won’t be back until late tonight. One more day of the festival, then YM can get stressed about the holidays,
Here in Cartoon City, Fall has descended like a hammer. The tree in the front yard and the trees around back are with completely bare or mostly there, and you can’t see the concrete or the bricks of the sideyard for all the leaves covering them. The wind blows fairly steady this time of year and the tree debris in the neighborhood spend their day switching from one side to the street to the other, and the clouds just hang over us, letting through the sunshine only when we don’t want it. The high mountains in the west have their first layer of winter and the resorts are talking about opening soon with fake snow on top of the real stuff.
Just so you know, we ended up sending four references to Ms. Davis: Connie, Amanda, Marilee, and Julie. You should be set there for a while, but let us know if there’s anything more we can do.
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- The fourth, and darkest Harry Potter film so far premieres in London on Sunday, extending a series that is already one of the most successful in movie history and still has three further episodes to run. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is based on the fourth installment of author J.K. Rowling's seven-book series, in which young wizard Harry is tested to the limit in a magic tournament and meets his nemesis Lord Voldemort in a dramatic climax. With death, danger and the first blossoming of teenage love at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the film has been ruled unsuitable for under-12s to watch unaccompanied by an adult, the first of the Potter films to get such a rating.
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
As I write this, YM and your seesters are in Reno at the film festival, doing the volunteer thing. They’ve been gone since this morning and won’t be back until late tonight. One more day of the festival, then YM can get stressed about the holidays,
Here in Cartoon City, Fall has descended like a hammer. The tree in the front yard and the trees around back are with completely bare or mostly there, and you can’t see the concrete or the bricks of the sideyard for all the leaves covering them. The wind blows fairly steady this time of year and the tree debris in the neighborhood spend their day switching from one side to the street to the other, and the clouds just hang over us, letting through the sunshine only when we don’t want it. The high mountains in the west have their first layer of winter and the resorts are talking about opening soon with fake snow on top of the real stuff.
Just so you know, we ended up sending four references to Ms. Davis: Connie, Amanda, Marilee, and Julie. You should be set there for a while, but let us know if there’s anything more we can do.
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- The fourth, and darkest Harry Potter film so far premieres in London on Sunday, extending a series that is already one of the most successful in movie history and still has three further episodes to run. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is based on the fourth installment of author J.K. Rowling's seven-book series, in which young wizard Harry is tested to the limit in a magic tournament and meets his nemesis Lord Voldemort in a dramatic climax. With death, danger and the first blossoming of teenage love at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the film has been ruled unsuitable for under-12s to watch unaccompanied by an adult, the first of the Potter films to get such a rating.
All my love,
Air Force
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Trina Letter - Good Kinkead News
Wednesday, November 3, 2005
Hey, Navy:
Just a quick one. You probably know by now we got you three references (Connie, Marilee, and Amanda) and I faxed them to Ms. Davis at the Navy this afternoon. When you’re back in the outside world, you should drop them a thank you note for responding so fast and supporting you.
And darn sorry we missed your call Tuesday night (11/2). My cell was in another room. And sorry I didn’t do a letter yesterday. Recovering from an allergy problem. All is well now.
Some good news from today's Reno Gazette-Journal:
Gov. Kenny Guinn plans to seek $3.6 million to move about 350 employees and tear down the state's problem-plagued Kinkead Building, located just two blocks from the Nevada Capitol. The Guinn admini-stration will ask the Legislative Interim Finance Committee on Wednesday to tap an emergency fund for the demolition and for leasing private office space in Carson City. Most of the employees in the building work for the state Department of Health and Human Services…State Budget Director Perry Comeaux said it would cost just over $2 million to move the employees and set up a new headquarters in two buildings in northeast Carson City that formerly housed Harley-Davidson Financial Services.
From News of the Weird:
In September, Anthony R. Martin, 52, of Belleville, Ill., became the latest person to call the police and complain that someone had stolen his illegal drugs. But there was more: Martin told the investigating officer that a hostile neighbor had taken his marijuana plants, but when he showed the officer the room where he usually kept them, the plants were actually still there. Martin then said whoever took them must have returned them. He was charged with growing marijuana. (He also admitted that he had been drinking that night.) [News-Democrat (Belleville), 9-10-05][Duh :-)]
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
Just a quick one. You probably know by now we got you three references (Connie, Marilee, and Amanda) and I faxed them to Ms. Davis at the Navy this afternoon. When you’re back in the outside world, you should drop them a thank you note for responding so fast and supporting you.
And darn sorry we missed your call Tuesday night (11/2). My cell was in another room. And sorry I didn’t do a letter yesterday. Recovering from an allergy problem. All is well now.
Some good news from today's Reno Gazette-Journal:
Gov. Kenny Guinn plans to seek $3.6 million to move about 350 employees and tear down the state's problem-plagued Kinkead Building, located just two blocks from the Nevada Capitol. The Guinn admini-stration will ask the Legislative Interim Finance Committee on Wednesday to tap an emergency fund for the demolition and for leasing private office space in Carson City. Most of the employees in the building work for the state Department of Health and Human Services…State Budget Director Perry Comeaux said it would cost just over $2 million to move the employees and set up a new headquarters in two buildings in northeast Carson City that formerly housed Harley-Davidson Financial Services.
From News of the Weird:
In September, Anthony R. Martin, 52, of Belleville, Ill., became the latest person to call the police and complain that someone had stolen his illegal drugs. But there was more: Martin told the investigating officer that a hostile neighbor had taken his marijuana plants, but when he showed the officer the room where he usually kept them, the plants were actually still there. Martin then said whoever took them must have returned them. He was charged with growing marijuana. (He also admitted that he had been drinking that night.) [News-Democrat (Belleville), 9-10-05][Duh :-)]
All my love,
Air Force
"In The Navy, You Can Sail The Seven Seas..."
Had an off day yesterday as a result of a nasty little allergy attack Tuesday night. Probably should have called in sick but oh well. I managed to do my stuff there okay, but didn’t do any personal crap like exercise or blogs.
Trina called last night and left a voicemail about needing stuff for her security clearance. She sounded so official and so Navy, naturally, but she sounded fine. We didn’t get to talk to her. :(
We found her graduation date on the Navy web site: Thursday, December 22. Liz and I are thinking that if they don’t keep her there over the holidays, then they’ll stick her on a plane on Friday, December 23 for either tech school or Reno. The moderators of the Navy chat board have repeatedly said that sailors don’t get to take leave between Boot and school, so my personal bet is she’ll be spending Christmas and New Year’s at Great Lakes because her graduation is too darn close to Christmas and there’ll be no one at her school to process her or have the authority to send her on leave. I took Christmas week off, anyway, just in case.
Today is the German’s 38th wedding anniversary! Many Happy Returns!!!
Distance: 2.34 miles
Time: 10:00 minutes
151 calories burned
100 crunches – 30 leg lifts
Trina called last night and left a voicemail about needing stuff for her security clearance. She sounded so official and so Navy, naturally, but she sounded fine. We didn’t get to talk to her. :(
We found her graduation date on the Navy web site: Thursday, December 22. Liz and I are thinking that if they don’t keep her there over the holidays, then they’ll stick her on a plane on Friday, December 23 for either tech school or Reno. The moderators of the Navy chat board have repeatedly said that sailors don’t get to take leave between Boot and school, so my personal bet is she’ll be spending Christmas and New Year’s at Great Lakes because her graduation is too darn close to Christmas and there’ll be no one at her school to process her or have the authority to send her on leave. I took Christmas week off, anyway, just in case.
Today is the German’s 38th wedding anniversary! Many Happy Returns!!!
Distance: 2.34 miles
Time: 10:00 minutes
151 calories burned
100 crunches – 30 leg lifts
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Trina Letter - Be Careful Up There, Twib.
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Hey, Navy:
Can’t believe you’ve been gone for two weeks. Damn. The "missing you" part is still pretty strong.
Not a particular cheery day in the Moore house: Danielle’s guinea pig got sick and went to play with the guinea pigs in the sky. Danielle said she was fine this morning, but she got sicker, so Danielle and I took her to the vet. The vet examined her, said it was a Vitamin C problem and gave her a shot. It didn’t help and Twibby passed on peacefully.
I’m doing my usual mulling when things like this happen; for example, thinking how much life is like John Irving novel or vice versa. He wrote The World According to Garp and the characters in his book go to great lengths to accomplish something in their lives, and just when they achieve happiness, they meet some untimely end or personal disaster. The reader is left with a feeling of "why should we even bother?", but the point Irving and other writers are trying to make is that sometimes the experience of the journey is the accomplishment, not the destination.
I get the blahs when things like this happen and I take them out on paper. Sorry if you’re bored.
Haven’t given you a local weather report for your area lately. By the time you read this, the nice days of 50 and 60 degree weather will have left Chicago, and the rain and cooler temps will move in to mess up the weekend. The wet stuff should pass on by the beginning of the week (11/7).
From the Best of Craig’s List:
I recently read a posting from a young lady who was wondering why it's so hard to find a date in NYC when there are so many eligible bachelors, her estimate was 2 million. She then went on to describe what she was looking for, the typical tall, dark and handsome, athletic and successful father of her future children.
Here is the breakdown: 2,000,000 available men of whom 20% are taller than 6', average height for men is 5"9. So now we are at 400,000 available tall men. Of those about half have an athletic build, work-out on a regular basis. So we have 200,000 tall, fit men left. Of those men, about 60% are heterosexual, leaving 120,000 available. Of the 120,000 tall, fit, straight guys left only 20% could be considered handsome by the very discerning group of women posting on [Craig’s List], leaving us with 42,000 tall, fit, straight and handsome available men. Of those men only 10% are succe$$ful enough to attract the alpha-[Craig’s List] female leaving 4,200 available. Of those 4,200 only about 5% (conservatively) are reading these postings by the lovely ladies of [Craig’s List], which means only a few hundred men of this type are potentially going to read your posting. Of those only a few brave souls will respond with a picture.
I hope this has been helpful. Good luck. -- Charles Darwin
All my love,
Air Force
Hey, Navy:
Can’t believe you’ve been gone for two weeks. Damn. The "missing you" part is still pretty strong.
Not a particular cheery day in the Moore house: Danielle’s guinea pig got sick and went to play with the guinea pigs in the sky. Danielle said she was fine this morning, but she got sicker, so Danielle and I took her to the vet. The vet examined her, said it was a Vitamin C problem and gave her a shot. It didn’t help and Twibby passed on peacefully.
I’m doing my usual mulling when things like this happen; for example, thinking how much life is like John Irving novel or vice versa. He wrote The World According to Garp and the characters in his book go to great lengths to accomplish something in their lives, and just when they achieve happiness, they meet some untimely end or personal disaster. The reader is left with a feeling of "why should we even bother?", but the point Irving and other writers are trying to make is that sometimes the experience of the journey is the accomplishment, not the destination.
I get the blahs when things like this happen and I take them out on paper. Sorry if you’re bored.
Haven’t given you a local weather report for your area lately. By the time you read this, the nice days of 50 and 60 degree weather will have left Chicago, and the rain and cooler temps will move in to mess up the weekend. The wet stuff should pass on by the beginning of the week (11/7).
From the Best of Craig’s List:
I recently read a posting from a young lady who was wondering why it's so hard to find a date in NYC when there are so many eligible bachelors, her estimate was 2 million. She then went on to describe what she was looking for, the typical tall, dark and handsome, athletic and successful father of her future children.
Here is the breakdown: 2,000,000 available men of whom 20% are taller than 6', average height for men is 5"9. So now we are at 400,000 available tall men. Of those about half have an athletic build, work-out on a regular basis. So we have 200,000 tall, fit men left. Of those men, about 60% are heterosexual, leaving 120,000 available. Of the 120,000 tall, fit, straight guys left only 20% could be considered handsome by the very discerning group of women posting on [Craig’s List], leaving us with 42,000 tall, fit, straight and handsome available men. Of those men only 10% are succe$$ful enough to attract the alpha-[Craig’s List] female leaving 4,200 available. Of those 4,200 only about 5% (conservatively) are reading these postings by the lovely ladies of [Craig’s List], which means only a few hundred men of this type are potentially going to read your posting. Of those only a few brave souls will respond with a picture.
I hope this has been helpful. Good luck. -- Charles Darwin
All my love,
Air Force
50cc of Adrenalin, Stat!
Yawn. Having a low-powered morning with no ambition. Did a quick work-out on the recumbent before work but that didn't help. It probably all started when someone brought in the warm apple and cinnamon cider. Is there a yummier and sleepier drink in the world?
Trina has been gone for two weeks as of today. We haven't heard from her except for a short note on the official Navy letter, but no news is good news. If she was having serious problems, we'd know. And the upside to all this is several people that she doesn't know said they were sending her letters.
Closing the book on October rides. I did 16 rides for a total of 120 miles on the dot, and burned nearly 6500 calories. By comparison, I did 27 rides in September and did 137 miles/6942 calories, so my October rides were longer and harder. When adding the C Hill climb, October was an excellent exercise month compared to years past.
I'm going to Wal-Mart at lunch to get a decent weight scale because the difference between the gym scale and the old home scale is about 3-5 pounds. I like the home scale but am tired of guessing which is right.
And I'm seriously thinking about trading in the teaching gig after this semester for delivering pizzas for Dominos. Wonder if they'd let me use my bike? :)
Distance: 4.67 miles
Time: 20 minutes
302 calories burned
Edit: Remember Sgt Fay, the combat artist in residence? He wrote me this morning:
Hey Bob, Thanks for checking out my blog and for your encouraging comments. I should be heading back out to the field in a week or two. I’ve just been working on finished drawings here a Fallujah. Trying to draw Marines with the new Kevlar helmet on is quite the challenge. It’s one of the wackiest shapes and changes significantly with just the slightest change of light or angle. Again, thanks, Mike
Please check out his blog at http://mdfay.blogspot.com/.
Semper Fi, Mike.