Monday, March 27, 2006
Las Uvas de la Ira
Recently I've been listening to some podcasts. I don't have an ipod or other mp3 player so I have been depending on desktop software for playing the podcasts. This past weekend I downloaded a podcast listener called Golden Ear. Its kind of neat, the screen looks like an old Bendix table model radio. The software comes with a list of podcasts. One of the podcasts listed was "Really Learn Spanish." It is done by a guy named Johan van Rooyen who at one time lived in Spain and taught English. I listened to his first podcast this weekend. He gives points on learning spanish that you would not normally find in a formal course. One of his suggestions was to start reading "blockbuster" novels in spanish. His argument seemed convincing to me. I googled 'blockbuster novel' and one of the first hits I got was Grapes of Wrath. Now I have read Grapes of Wrath in english and watched the movie a couple of times so I thought, why not let that be my first spanish book. I found "Las Uvas de la Ira" (Grapes of Wrath, in spanish) on Amazon and ordered a copy. This time next week I should be reading Las Uvas de la Ira.
Time To Re-Think The War On Drugs
Another well written analysis of the counter productive war on drugs.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Uncommon Expressions
My good friend David Coleman, who died a few years back from cancer, hailed from the same part of the state that I do. Even though he grew up just a few miles from Miller’s Garage, I never knew him until after we had both moved to Birmingham. For awhile, David and I worked in adjoining cubicles and when things were slow, we would compare notes about expressions we heard growing up. Expressions that you don’t hear now or at least you don’t hear them in Birmingham.
One of David’s favorites was the use of the word ‘count’ to mean quality. As in 'Now that cornbread is some count'. I’ve also heard people say it 'some account', but you have to listen closely to hear the 'a' sound and most folks just said, 'count'.
Another word that had a special meaning in Coosa was the word 'curious' pronounced cours. As best that David and I could determine, it meant that someone had strange ideas and was highly opinionated. Overbearing was also an adjective that seemed to be linked to 'cours.' The usual usage would be 'he’s a cours old SOB.'
Some expressions defied analysis. One particular one that I remember hearing someone say when they were frustrated with a situation and did not know what to do was, 'I don’t know whether ToShitOrGoBlind.'
When I was very young, I remember hearing old people use the word ‘hope’ instead of the word ‘helped.’ As in ‘He hope me fix my fence.’ Don’t know where that came from, but David agreed that he had heard a lot of older people say it when he was young.
Today, with national TV, radio and the internet, expressions like these are seldom heard, but back when and where David and I grew up they were common place.
One of David’s favorites was the use of the word ‘count’ to mean quality. As in 'Now that cornbread is some count'. I’ve also heard people say it 'some account', but you have to listen closely to hear the 'a' sound and most folks just said, 'count'.
Another word that had a special meaning in Coosa was the word 'curious' pronounced cours. As best that David and I could determine, it meant that someone had strange ideas and was highly opinionated. Overbearing was also an adjective that seemed to be linked to 'cours.' The usual usage would be 'he’s a cours old SOB.'
Some expressions defied analysis. One particular one that I remember hearing someone say when they were frustrated with a situation and did not know what to do was, 'I don’t know whether ToShitOrGoBlind.'
When I was very young, I remember hearing old people use the word ‘hope’ instead of the word ‘helped.’ As in ‘He hope me fix my fence.’ Don’t know where that came from, but David agreed that he had heard a lot of older people say it when he was young.
Today, with national TV, radio and the internet, expressions like these are seldom heard, but back when and where David and I grew up they were common place.
The Republicanskis and The Democratskis
Back when Ronald Reagan was president, I was working for a company in downtown Birmingham that had a coop program. For those of you that don’t know about cooping, it is where a student, throughout his or her college career, alternates between classes one term and working for a company the next term. When I was going to Auburn, I thought cooping was a great idea. There were only two objections. My father, who along with my mother was paying for my education, said that it would prevent me from working for him during the summers and he did not think that the cooping would be worth as much money as I could bring in at Miller’s Garage. The other objection was from the Coosa County draft board who said that if I choose to coop, I would have to use their plan, which was one term in Vietnam, followed by another term in Vietnam until my tour of duty was finished. Needless to say I did not enter Auburn’s or the draft board’s coop program.
Anyway, as I said before, the company where I worked in the mid 80’s had a strong coop program. One summer term, we had a female coop from UAB and a male student engineer from Mississippi State. Student engineer was what they called summer temporary employees that happened to be engineering students. This particular student engineer had been in the coop program but his work terms had been completed and he still lacked enough credits to graduate. He was a good worker so some manager recommended that he be hired as a student engineer for the summer. Both of these employees ended up working in the department with me. Prior to that time, I had directed the work activities of our coops and student engineers, but my responsibilities had changed and they were reporting to someone else. For some reason, maybe because of my prior dealing with coops, these two students took a liking to me. We would go on break together and I would offer up my ‘sage’ wisdom. Everything went along pretty well until one day they got on to the subject of the Soviet Union and centralized government. I don’t remember exactly what was going on at the time, but something had whipped these two into a patriotic furor. They were ranting on the wrongs of the evil empire. When they finished, I agreed with them that it was just as bad as they said, but unfortunately, our political situation in this country wasn’t much better. In fact, I said, about the biggest difference I could see was that in the Soviet Union, the communist party picked a few of its members, put them on the ballot, everyone had to vote for them, and they ran the country. In this country, the republicans and the democrats, picked a few of their members, put them on the ballot, everyone had to vote for them, and they ran the country. I added that if the communists were to divide their party into the republicanskis and the democratskis, our systems would be nearly identical.
My observations brought some strong objections from the summer student and the coop. They gave me a pretty good verbal dressing down and left the table almost immediately. If I recall correctly, they never went on break with me again. That was 20 plus year ago. I still think of this when someone starts talking about national politics. I am more convinced now that I was then that what I said was correct. I wonder how those two young people feel about it now?
Anyway, as I said before, the company where I worked in the mid 80’s had a strong coop program. One summer term, we had a female coop from UAB and a male student engineer from Mississippi State. Student engineer was what they called summer temporary employees that happened to be engineering students. This particular student engineer had been in the coop program but his work terms had been completed and he still lacked enough credits to graduate. He was a good worker so some manager recommended that he be hired as a student engineer for the summer. Both of these employees ended up working in the department with me. Prior to that time, I had directed the work activities of our coops and student engineers, but my responsibilities had changed and they were reporting to someone else. For some reason, maybe because of my prior dealing with coops, these two students took a liking to me. We would go on break together and I would offer up my ‘sage’ wisdom. Everything went along pretty well until one day they got on to the subject of the Soviet Union and centralized government. I don’t remember exactly what was going on at the time, but something had whipped these two into a patriotic furor. They were ranting on the wrongs of the evil empire. When they finished, I agreed with them that it was just as bad as they said, but unfortunately, our political situation in this country wasn’t much better. In fact, I said, about the biggest difference I could see was that in the Soviet Union, the communist party picked a few of its members, put them on the ballot, everyone had to vote for them, and they ran the country. In this country, the republicans and the democrats, picked a few of their members, put them on the ballot, everyone had to vote for them, and they ran the country. I added that if the communists were to divide their party into the republicanskis and the democratskis, our systems would be nearly identical.
My observations brought some strong objections from the summer student and the coop. They gave me a pretty good verbal dressing down and left the table almost immediately. If I recall correctly, they never went on break with me again. That was 20 plus year ago. I still think of this when someone starts talking about national politics. I am more convinced now that I was then that what I said was correct. I wonder how those two young people feel about it now?
Easter Cold Snap
My mother's people were farmers. When I was growing up, my family had a garden. People who plant things are much more observant of the weather. One of the things I remember from those years was looking for the Easter Cold Snap. Around this time of year, in late February and early March, it gets spring like in central Alabama, but winter always seems to manage to get one more shot. Since Easter usually falls somewhere in this time frame, that last shot of winter is referred to as the Easter cold snap.
This morning when I got up to let the dogs out, I noticed that my front yard and cars were covered with a light frost. Seems like that last night we had our Easter cold snap.
This morning when I got up to let the dogs out, I noticed that my front yard and cars were covered with a light frost. Seems like that last night we had our Easter cold snap.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Hyperinflationary Depression
In this piece, Bill Bonner predicts it, but doesn't do a lot to describe it. A Google search seems to indicate that it is what happened to the German economy between the world wars.
I am certain that anyone over the age of 10 reading this has heard the classic story about the German economy during that time, but for those that have not, here it is:
A man in Berlin went to the bakers to buy a loaf of bread. The quantity of marks required to purchase the bread was so great that he had to carry them in a wheelbarrow. When he got to the bakers, the wheelbarrow was too wide to get through the shop door so he parked it on the sidewalk. He went into the store and bought his bread. When he returned to the sidewalk to get the marks to pay for the bread, someone had dumped the marks on the sidewalk and stolen his wheelbarrow.
The main thing to remember is, with apologies to an old Oldsmobile commercial, "This Ain't Your Daddy's Depression."
I am certain that anyone over the age of 10 reading this has heard the classic story about the German economy during that time, but for those that have not, here it is:
A man in Berlin went to the bakers to buy a loaf of bread. The quantity of marks required to purchase the bread was so great that he had to carry them in a wheelbarrow. When he got to the bakers, the wheelbarrow was too wide to get through the shop door so he parked it on the sidewalk. He went into the store and bought his bread. When he returned to the sidewalk to get the marks to pay for the bread, someone had dumped the marks on the sidewalk and stolen his wheelbarrow.
The main thing to remember is, with apologies to an old Oldsmobile commercial, "This Ain't Your Daddy's Depression."
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Deer Sausage
I have several friends that deer hunt. Occasionally they offer me some venison. I always take it because I like deer meat. Last year one of my friends gave me several packages of ground up venison. I've use it in meatloaf, spaghetti, chili and mixed it half-and-half with ground beef and fried it up in patties for hamburgers. It worked well in all of these but I am an experimenter at heart. In my ramblings, I have acquired a sausage stuffer. The other day I got to thinking that it might be good to stuff some of that deer meat into a casing and smoke it. I did a google search and came up with www.sausagemaker.com. Not only did they have the casings, they had kits that included spices and a how to video. I ordered the sampler pak with seasonings for salami, pepperoni, kielbasa, summer sausage and trial bologna. So far I have only made the salami, but I am impressed. I used mostly venison with a little ground beef and ground pork. I followed the instructions on the tape and voila, I made some salami that I would say is better than what I can buy in the store locally. If you have access to some ground venison and like salami, I suggest you give it a try.
Seedlings Everywhere
The seeds that I planted on March 13 are coming up. This morning I went out and looked at the white oak patch and it is covered in tiny little seedlings. I probably won’t get a lot of stuff out of this patch. Seems most of my gardening results in food for assorted bugs, but the satisfaction of planting those seeds and seeing all those little leaves pop through the soil into the light of day really puts me in a better frame of mind.
A Nation of Screwups?
When I was growing up, I used to notice how older people were very critical of the way things were being done. They seemed to see most change as being a bad thing. I promised myself that I would not be like that when I got 'old'. I have tried to live up to that promise, but as I get older, I realize that while none of us particularly like change, and complaining about it is not productive, it is important to complain about bad changes.
It seems to me that in the past, I remember a time when people took pride in a job well done. Even if it was what some think of as a menial task, it was still important that it be done correctly. I sense that ethic is slowly being replaced with a ‘get by’ mentality. I site the recent screw up with the SAT tests as an example. I realize that mistakes are made, after all we are human. What troubles me is that after the initial mistakes were uncovered, apparently little effort was made to determine if there were any more problems.
Now it comes to light that additional, more extensive errors of omission were involved. I would have liked to think that as soon as the original mistakes were found that the entire process would have been reviewed. Apparently that was not the case. Maybe there was a review and it has taken this long for the facts to come out?
It’s not just the SAT test scoring either. Seems that everywhere I look, someone is screwing up. I am a drive thru person. I know fast food is not good for you, but its what I eat. Locally we have a couple of McDonalds, a Hardees, a Wendy's and a couple of Chicken places. I am heavily into McDonalds, but lately I have been branching out. In particular I have been trying Wendy's as some of their new menu items come highly recommended. Unfortunately, the folks at the local Wendy's seem to lack the capacity or the desire to take and fill a drive thru order. It has gotten so bad that I am tempted to go up to the order speaker and when they say can I take your order, tell them "just throw something in a sack and I will come pay you some money and pick it up, cause that is what you are gonna do anyway."
I know, I know, one less order of fries or a missing Frosty is not gonna stop the world. It surely doesn't match the damage done to those poor kids who had their SAT scores messed up, but to me, it is a local example of what is happening nationwide. We seem to be becoming a nation of screwups. Sure, we can do anything we want we just can't do it right. And when we or someone else discovers the screwup, we fix it, but don't ask ourselves what caused this mistake, are there other associated mistakes?
I guess I have become one of those old people that find fault. Looking back, maybe I just came into the process in the middle, maybe the decline had already started and those previous old people were just taking note of their generation's decline toward mediocrity.
It seems to me that in the past, I remember a time when people took pride in a job well done. Even if it was what some think of as a menial task, it was still important that it be done correctly. I sense that ethic is slowly being replaced with a ‘get by’ mentality. I site the recent screw up with the SAT tests as an example. I realize that mistakes are made, after all we are human. What troubles me is that after the initial mistakes were uncovered, apparently little effort was made to determine if there were any more problems.
Now it comes to light that additional, more extensive errors of omission were involved. I would have liked to think that as soon as the original mistakes were found that the entire process would have been reviewed. Apparently that was not the case. Maybe there was a review and it has taken this long for the facts to come out?
It’s not just the SAT test scoring either. Seems that everywhere I look, someone is screwing up. I am a drive thru person. I know fast food is not good for you, but its what I eat. Locally we have a couple of McDonalds, a Hardees, a Wendy's and a couple of Chicken places. I am heavily into McDonalds, but lately I have been branching out. In particular I have been trying Wendy's as some of their new menu items come highly recommended. Unfortunately, the folks at the local Wendy's seem to lack the capacity or the desire to take and fill a drive thru order. It has gotten so bad that I am tempted to go up to the order speaker and when they say can I take your order, tell them "just throw something in a sack and I will come pay you some money and pick it up, cause that is what you are gonna do anyway."
I know, I know, one less order of fries or a missing Frosty is not gonna stop the world. It surely doesn't match the damage done to those poor kids who had their SAT scores messed up, but to me, it is a local example of what is happening nationwide. We seem to be becoming a nation of screwups. Sure, we can do anything we want we just can't do it right. And when we or someone else discovers the screwup, we fix it, but don't ask ourselves what caused this mistake, are there other associated mistakes?
I guess I have become one of those old people that find fault. Looking back, maybe I just came into the process in the middle, maybe the decline had already started and those previous old people were just taking note of their generation's decline toward mediocrity.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Keystone, AL
When I was growing up, there was a little wide spot on US Highway 31 just north of Alabaster called Keystone. By the time I moved to this area in the late 1970’s, Keystone was gone, Pelham had swallowed it up when Pelham incorporated. North Shelby country has come a long way since then. Lots of improvements, and some changes that were not improvements. The three towns of Helena, Alabaster and Pelham have expanded until now they make up one big ‘geographic’ city, but with three city governments, three fire departments, three police departments, etc, etc. There appears to me to be a lot of inefficiencies in this arrangement. I think it is time to bring back Keystone. Merge the cities of Helena, Alabaster and Pelham into one city named Keystone. There is a vacant former Wal-Mart building right in the middle of where Keystone was located. Make that the city’s main building. Eliminate duplication, and hold new elections to fill the Keystone city government offices. Now to me, that would be a real improvement.
Good News from the Commerce Department
Last week the Commerce Department announced that core consumer price inflation is mild. I would feel a lot better about that if I didn't now that they exclude food and energy from their calculation. Also judging from what I hear about people paying for medical treatment they exclude that as well. So lets see, if you don't eat, drive, heat or cool your home or go to the doctor, you will have plenty of money that will last you for a long, long time. Do I really need the Commerce Department to tell me that?
Cable HiSpeed
I have Charter HiSpeed. My daughter had it installed when she lived here and I have maintained it since she moved. All and all I am fairly satisfied with it. Previously I had used dialup and then satellite. Cable is faster than dialup and not as much trouble as satellite. I do have one little peeve though. I keep seeing Charter's advertisement where they claim to have speeds of 3 Mbps. I even received a card in the mail a few days ago urging me to abandon dialup and step up to Charter's 3Mbps service. The problem is that their actual speed is no where near 3 Mbps. I just checked it a few minutes ago and the upload speed was 117 kbps, download was 371 kbps. Now don't get me wrong, 117/371 are quite respectable speeds but it seems to me that if you advertise 3 Mbps you should at least come close to that, say 2.5 or greater.
SunRocket
During the first week of this month I ordered phone service from SunRocket. They got the Gizmo, which is like a small router or switch and the phones right out to me. I had no trouble hooking everything up and have been using it now of a couple of weeks. So far so good. The quality of the connections seems to be excellent. I have had a few dropouts but nothing I can't live with. The best part is the price. $199 for 1 year unlimited calls to anywhere in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.
Check them out at www.sunrocket.com.
Check them out at www.sunrocket.com.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Quotes by Einstein.
This page contains an excellent compilation of quotes by Einstein.
Some of my favorites are:
"Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age."
"As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."
"Only a life lived for others is a life worth while ."
I have heard some people attribute the definition of insanity,
" Insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting different results."
to Einstein but I am fairly certain he did not originate that saying.
Some of my favorites are:
"Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age."
"As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."
"Only a life lived for others is a life worth while ."
I have heard some people attribute the definition of insanity,
" Insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting different results."
to Einstein but I am fairly certain he did not originate that saying.
I Made One 'A' At Auburn
Yes, in the two and a half years that I spent at Auburn, I managed to make an ‘A’ in one course.
It started eight years earlier, in 1959. That was the year I went to work at Miller’s Garage. It was the summer I turned twelve. Miller’s Garage was one of those country shops where you were just as likely to be working on a farm tractor or a pulpwood truck as to be repairing an automobile. Trailers, motor graders and one river ferry were also included in the list of things that we repaired, or ‘patched up’ as my dad would say. There was only one type of machine that was prohibited and that was the chain saw, but that is a story for another time. Often the repair involved welding, especially if the subject of the repair was a farm tractor or pulpwood truck. Since there was a good bit of welding to be done, the shop was well equipped with welding apparatus. It had an oxygen/acetylene set up for cutting, brazing and welding. A Lincoln ‘buzz box’ for electric welding and a Hobart DC welder mounted in an old bread truck for mobile work.
At first I just observed what the other mechanics did with the welders, but I was itching to try my hand. About this same time, my grandfather was building a farm pond on his property. One of the mechanics told me that you could make an ‘excellent’ boat out of two 1948 Chevrolet hoods welded together. Miller’s Garage kept a considerable number of donor vehicles parked on a lot near the shop. Just so happened that there were two fairly decent 1948 Chevrolet hoods available. After some discussion, it was decided that I could learn to weld and make a boat at the same time. A suitable piece of sheet metal was located to fill in the Vee where the hoods came together and I started welding. Very soon into the project, my father began to have reservations. Not about the boat itself but about the amount of oxygen, acetylene and steel rods the project was consuming. There wasn’t much he could do about the gases, but he did substitute wire coat hangers for the mild steel rods. I couldn’t tell much difference. Finally after several days work, the boat was finished. We put about a quart of tar on the seams and took it to the pond. It held together and worked pretty well. I was now a welder, at least by Miller’s Garage standards.
Somewhere along the way I graduated to electric welding. I was allowed to apply hard surfacing to plows and other wear surfaces and once I even fabricated a trailer hitch for a local painters pickup truck. My welding had a style of its own. My dad characterized it as being “like a bull’s ass sewed up with a grape vine, it ain’t much on looks, but it is hell for stout.”
I continued working at Miller’s Garage during the summers, Christmas holidays and AEA. By the time I reached Auburn in the fall of 1967, I had done my share of rough welding. That first year at Auburn, one of the courses that I had to take was called Welding Lab. It was taught over in one of the old shop buildings and while it was called a ‘lab’ it was actually a course of its own. A graduate assistant taught the course. A pleasant guy whose name I do not recall. There was very little lecture. This was a hands on class. The first day, he took us out to the welding shop to show us what we would be doing. As a group, we followed him from one station to the next. He would set up a project (spot welding, brazing, etc.) and do one as an example. Then he would call on some student to try their hand at it. Of course he made it look easy and the student, not yet knowing what they were doing made a mess of things. Finally we came to the electric welding station. He took a couple of pieces of flat steel and told us we were going to attach them with a lap weld. Then he started to demonstrate, but someone had been using the electric welder and changed the settings and when he struck an arc, there was very little welding and a whole lot of sputtering and popping. It took him a few adjustments and false starts but eventually he got the machine set just right and made his weld. Then he turned to me, as I was one of the students standing nearby that had not had a turn at a project and handed me the gloves and the rod holder. You want me to weld, I asked? He said yeah, just run a bead on this flat piece of steel. Well I put on the helmet, hollered “eyeballs” so that everyone would cover their eyes, and proceeded to lay as pretty a two inch flat weld bead as anyone could ask for. When I finished, the lab instructor looked at the weld, looked at me, looked back at the weld and said. That is good, that is very good, in fact that is better than most of you will be able to do after you have finished this course. There were still projects to do and tests to take, but that day, I had made my ‘A’ at Auburn.
It started eight years earlier, in 1959. That was the year I went to work at Miller’s Garage. It was the summer I turned twelve. Miller’s Garage was one of those country shops where you were just as likely to be working on a farm tractor or a pulpwood truck as to be repairing an automobile. Trailers, motor graders and one river ferry were also included in the list of things that we repaired, or ‘patched up’ as my dad would say. There was only one type of machine that was prohibited and that was the chain saw, but that is a story for another time. Often the repair involved welding, especially if the subject of the repair was a farm tractor or pulpwood truck. Since there was a good bit of welding to be done, the shop was well equipped with welding apparatus. It had an oxygen/acetylene set up for cutting, brazing and welding. A Lincoln ‘buzz box’ for electric welding and a Hobart DC welder mounted in an old bread truck for mobile work.
At first I just observed what the other mechanics did with the welders, but I was itching to try my hand. About this same time, my grandfather was building a farm pond on his property. One of the mechanics told me that you could make an ‘excellent’ boat out of two 1948 Chevrolet hoods welded together. Miller’s Garage kept a considerable number of donor vehicles parked on a lot near the shop. Just so happened that there were two fairly decent 1948 Chevrolet hoods available. After some discussion, it was decided that I could learn to weld and make a boat at the same time. A suitable piece of sheet metal was located to fill in the Vee where the hoods came together and I started welding. Very soon into the project, my father began to have reservations. Not about the boat itself but about the amount of oxygen, acetylene and steel rods the project was consuming. There wasn’t much he could do about the gases, but he did substitute wire coat hangers for the mild steel rods. I couldn’t tell much difference. Finally after several days work, the boat was finished. We put about a quart of tar on the seams and took it to the pond. It held together and worked pretty well. I was now a welder, at least by Miller’s Garage standards.
Somewhere along the way I graduated to electric welding. I was allowed to apply hard surfacing to plows and other wear surfaces and once I even fabricated a trailer hitch for a local painters pickup truck. My welding had a style of its own. My dad characterized it as being “like a bull’s ass sewed up with a grape vine, it ain’t much on looks, but it is hell for stout.”
I continued working at Miller’s Garage during the summers, Christmas holidays and AEA. By the time I reached Auburn in the fall of 1967, I had done my share of rough welding. That first year at Auburn, one of the courses that I had to take was called Welding Lab. It was taught over in one of the old shop buildings and while it was called a ‘lab’ it was actually a course of its own. A graduate assistant taught the course. A pleasant guy whose name I do not recall. There was very little lecture. This was a hands on class. The first day, he took us out to the welding shop to show us what we would be doing. As a group, we followed him from one station to the next. He would set up a project (spot welding, brazing, etc.) and do one as an example. Then he would call on some student to try their hand at it. Of course he made it look easy and the student, not yet knowing what they were doing made a mess of things. Finally we came to the electric welding station. He took a couple of pieces of flat steel and told us we were going to attach them with a lap weld. Then he started to demonstrate, but someone had been using the electric welder and changed the settings and when he struck an arc, there was very little welding and a whole lot of sputtering and popping. It took him a few adjustments and false starts but eventually he got the machine set just right and made his weld. Then he turned to me, as I was one of the students standing nearby that had not had a turn at a project and handed me the gloves and the rod holder. You want me to weld, I asked? He said yeah, just run a bead on this flat piece of steel. Well I put on the helmet, hollered “eyeballs” so that everyone would cover their eyes, and proceeded to lay as pretty a two inch flat weld bead as anyone could ask for. When I finished, the lab instructor looked at the weld, looked at me, looked back at the weld and said. That is good, that is very good, in fact that is better than most of you will be able to do after you have finished this course. There were still projects to do and tests to take, but that day, I had made my ‘A’ at Auburn.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
IF
IF the congress passes a bill to amend the constitution so that W can run for a third term and
IF the states ratify that amendment and
IF W runs again and
IF is only opponent is Mike Tyson,
I'll vote for Mike Tyson and
IF his only opponent is Paris Hilton
I'll vote for Paris Hilton and
IF Hitler did excape the bunker intact and
IF he is living in South America and
IF he comes out of hiding for the election and
IF W's only opponent is Hitler
I'll abstain from voting.
IF the states ratify that amendment and
IF W runs again and
IF is only opponent is Mike Tyson,
I'll vote for Mike Tyson and
IF his only opponent is Paris Hilton
I'll vote for Paris Hilton and
IF Hitler did excape the bunker intact and
IF he is living in South America and
IF he comes out of hiding for the election and
IF W's only opponent is Hitler
I'll abstain from voting.
Monday, March 13, 2006
Back to Gardening
For the last couple of years, I have not done any gardening. Year before last I did have a few tomato plants, last year nothing.
This past fall I planted a couple of patches of turnips. Last week I tilled up one of the turnip patches. The other I am gonna let go to seed, just to see what happens. I also tilled a small patch adjacent to where the white oak tree fell back in 2001.
Today I planted lettuce, spinach, radishes and onions. The lettuce and spinach are in the "white oak patch" along with some turnips I planted last week. The other items are in the "satellite dish patch". Later on I am gonna plant some tomato plants and pepper plants in that patch. Granted these little patches won't cure world hunger but they should make a nice addition to my menus.
One of these days, I am gonna plant some potatoes again like I did before I retired. Potatoes are a fun crop to grow and harvest.
This past fall I planted a couple of patches of turnips. Last week I tilled up one of the turnip patches. The other I am gonna let go to seed, just to see what happens. I also tilled a small patch adjacent to where the white oak tree fell back in 2001.
Today I planted lettuce, spinach, radishes and onions. The lettuce and spinach are in the "white oak patch" along with some turnips I planted last week. The other items are in the "satellite dish patch". Later on I am gonna plant some tomato plants and pepper plants in that patch. Granted these little patches won't cure world hunger but they should make a nice addition to my menus.
One of these days, I am gonna plant some potatoes again like I did before I retired. Potatoes are a fun crop to grow and harvest.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
A New US Capitol
Where I grew up, the county seat, the site of the county government, was located in a town near the geographic center of the county. Seemed like a good plan to me at the time. It still does. Now I realize that when the District of Columbia was hacked out of Maryland and Virginia to serve as the site for our nations capitol, it was pretty much centrally located. A lot has changed since then and I think that it is time for the capitol to be relocated. In years past, I’ve made a couple of trips across this country and recently I’ve been doing some map pondering and I have decided that the new capitol needs to be located near Hoxie, Kansas. Not in the town mind you, but near it. I think that the US seat of government should be moved to a parcel of land located in a cornfield just off US Highway 24, near Hoxie. What with terrorist and all, I think that the capitol should be small so it can be easily defended, say about 100 sq. feet. It should be surrounded with a 20-ft thick, 10-ft tall concrete wall with 3 feet of razor ribbon along the top. The wall needs one 6-foot walk gate that will be locked 24/7 365 and guarded by at least a dozen employees of Homeland Security armed with automatic weapons. A new DNA sample and retina scan should be required each time a government official enters the capitol.
Now since the workings of the US Government are the business of the people, the entire area should be under floodlights all the time. No less than 4 cameras should be trained on the complex and sending continuous real time pictures to 4 new 24 hour a day cable channels, C-Span 3, 4, 5 and 6. One other thing, since this will be the US capitol, I think we should make it the law that ALL business of the various branches of the government must be conducted in this new capitol and that the president, congress, supreme court, et. al. must be in the capital when they do their job. The rest of the country can be turned loose to do pretty much like we please. After all, even if the terrorists get into the country, they will be picked up long before they reach Hoxie. I’ve thought long and hard about this and I believe it is a good start toward curing many of our national problems.
Now since the workings of the US Government are the business of the people, the entire area should be under floodlights all the time. No less than 4 cameras should be trained on the complex and sending continuous real time pictures to 4 new 24 hour a day cable channels, C-Span 3, 4, 5 and 6. One other thing, since this will be the US capitol, I think we should make it the law that ALL business of the various branches of the government must be conducted in this new capitol and that the president, congress, supreme court, et. al. must be in the capital when they do their job. The rest of the country can be turned loose to do pretty much like we please. After all, even if the terrorists get into the country, they will be picked up long before they reach Hoxie. I’ve thought long and hard about this and I believe it is a good start toward curing many of our national problems.
A Rose by Any Other Name
Shakespeare had Juliet say “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Important point there, things are what they are regardless of what we call them. Living in these UberPC times, that is a fact that can be easily forgotten. If we call a garbage man a sanitation engineer, he still picks up garbage, although in my neighborhood he is actually a truck driver and lift operator. No one actually touches my garbage can now but me. I bring up this subject of name versus reality because I see it as the starting point of what I perceive to be a bigger problem. At first we started calling things by different names as if that made them better or different. I believe this lead us to taking a valid concept of self improvement, the talking about things we intend to do as if they had already been done, and bastardizing it.
Don’t get me wrong. I think that positive affirmation in an effective self-improvement tool. I personally think it has worked for me in the past. But, it is only a tool. No hammer ever built a house unless some carpenter swung it. No ratchet ever tightened a bolt unless some mechanic turned it. A tool helps us accomplish a task. Somewhere along the way, that fact seems to have been lost. Now, many people apparently seem to think that all you have to do is say something to make it so. I suppose in their mind that works. I have heard that if you tell a lie long enough you begin to believe it. My point is that if you are a member of a football team that does not practice well, does not play well and does not win any games, it is silly to stand on the sideline and yell we are number one. It is even sillier to actually believe that you ARE number one. Saying it doesn’t make it so, working hard to accomplish it makes it so.
Another fact that we seem to have lost sight of is that doing it one time only makes it so that one time. Just because you were on top in the past, does not make you a winner today. Today as a nation, we spend a lot of time basking in the glory of our past deeds. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear someone bragging about how great we are. I think that the time for basking and bragging is over. We need to quit talking about how great we are and take a long hard look at what we have become. A popular challenge for someone who is resting on their laurels is “Yeah, but what have you done for me lately?” I think it is appropriate for us to ask ourselves the similar question, “what have we done lately?”
Don’t get me wrong. I think that positive affirmation in an effective self-improvement tool. I personally think it has worked for me in the past. But, it is only a tool. No hammer ever built a house unless some carpenter swung it. No ratchet ever tightened a bolt unless some mechanic turned it. A tool helps us accomplish a task. Somewhere along the way, that fact seems to have been lost. Now, many people apparently seem to think that all you have to do is say something to make it so. I suppose in their mind that works. I have heard that if you tell a lie long enough you begin to believe it. My point is that if you are a member of a football team that does not practice well, does not play well and does not win any games, it is silly to stand on the sideline and yell we are number one. It is even sillier to actually believe that you ARE number one. Saying it doesn’t make it so, working hard to accomplish it makes it so.
Another fact that we seem to have lost sight of is that doing it one time only makes it so that one time. Just because you were on top in the past, does not make you a winner today. Today as a nation, we spend a lot of time basking in the glory of our past deeds. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear someone bragging about how great we are. I think that the time for basking and bragging is over. We need to quit talking about how great we are and take a long hard look at what we have become. A popular challenge for someone who is resting on their laurels is “Yeah, but what have you done for me lately?” I think it is appropriate for us to ask ourselves the similar question, “what have we done lately?”
March Makes Me Think Of Graduation
The privet bushes in my backyard are putting on bunches of tiny new leaves, that means it is March in Central Alabama. It was during March in 1970 that I finally graduated from Auburn University. I had started to Alex City State Junior College in the fall of 1965 and transferred to Auburn in September of 1967 so I should have graduated in 1969, but I had to repeat several courses during my time on the plains.
I love Auburn. It is a great school and I would not take anything for having gone there, however I can’t say that I have a storehouse full of fond memories of my Auburn education. It was tough. My grades were marginal. Thanks to the Vietnam War and my local draft board, each quarter I was taking at least one more course than I could successfully handle. I had done fairly well at ACSJC and had a transfer grade point of about 1.67 on a 3 point system but I was always on the raw edge at Auburn. So much so that when I went to the Registrar’s office in early 1970 to apply for graduation, my Auburn grade point was a 0.98. At that time, the minimum grade point for graduation at Auburn was 1.00. My overall grade point, including my transfer work was comfortably over 1.00. Unfortunately, transfer grade points were assigned the value of 1.00 until after graduation.
At the Registrar’s office I talked to a very nice lady whose name has long ago left me. She looked at my folder, she looked at me, she looked back at my folder, and finally she said you know that you have to have a 1.00 to graduate. I said yes. You have a 0.98. I said yes, I guess that means I can’t graduate. She said not necessarily. You have a 1.67 transfer grade point. I said yes. So when the two are combined you have a (don’t remember the number, something like 1.24 I think). I said yes, so does that mean I will graduate. She said not necessarily. Your transfer work is only counted at 1.00 until after you graduate. I said I know, does that mean I won’t graduate. She said not necessarily. Based on your current grades you will probably have a 0.99 grade point at the end of the quarter. So does that mean I won’t graduate. She said not necessarily. By now I was frustrated. I looked at her and said, am I gonna graduate or not. She said, I think so.
I went on to pass everything that quarter and by my calculations I had a 0.99 grade point. I was standing in line in the coliseum waiting to get my diploma and wondering if I was gonna get up there and they were gonna say, wait, you have a 0.99, you can’t graduate. When the time came and they called my name and I walked over and got that diploma cover, I knew that I had made it. That was 36 years ago but when the new little clusters of leaves pop out on the privet bushes in Central Alabama, it all comes back to me just like it was yesterday.
I love Auburn. It is a great school and I would not take anything for having gone there, however I can’t say that I have a storehouse full of fond memories of my Auburn education. It was tough. My grades were marginal. Thanks to the Vietnam War and my local draft board, each quarter I was taking at least one more course than I could successfully handle. I had done fairly well at ACSJC and had a transfer grade point of about 1.67 on a 3 point system but I was always on the raw edge at Auburn. So much so that when I went to the Registrar’s office in early 1970 to apply for graduation, my Auburn grade point was a 0.98. At that time, the minimum grade point for graduation at Auburn was 1.00. My overall grade point, including my transfer work was comfortably over 1.00. Unfortunately, transfer grade points were assigned the value of 1.00 until after graduation.
At the Registrar’s office I talked to a very nice lady whose name has long ago left me. She looked at my folder, she looked at me, she looked back at my folder, and finally she said you know that you have to have a 1.00 to graduate. I said yes. You have a 0.98. I said yes, I guess that means I can’t graduate. She said not necessarily. You have a 1.67 transfer grade point. I said yes. So when the two are combined you have a (don’t remember the number, something like 1.24 I think). I said yes, so does that mean I will graduate. She said not necessarily. Your transfer work is only counted at 1.00 until after you graduate. I said I know, does that mean I won’t graduate. She said not necessarily. Based on your current grades you will probably have a 0.99 grade point at the end of the quarter. So does that mean I won’t graduate. She said not necessarily. By now I was frustrated. I looked at her and said, am I gonna graduate or not. She said, I think so.
I went on to pass everything that quarter and by my calculations I had a 0.99 grade point. I was standing in line in the coliseum waiting to get my diploma and wondering if I was gonna get up there and they were gonna say, wait, you have a 0.99, you can’t graduate. When the time came and they called my name and I walked over and got that diploma cover, I knew that I had made it. That was 36 years ago but when the new little clusters of leaves pop out on the privet bushes in Central Alabama, it all comes back to me just like it was yesterday.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Bye Bye BellSouth, Hello SunRocket
A couple of weeks ago, I saw an ad for SunRocket. It is a VOIP phone company, very similar to Vonage. They currently have a deal where they will provide you unlimited home phone service plus two Uniden cordless phones for $199 per year. I ordered their service and the phones came in via UPS yesterday. I hooked them up and have made several phone calls. So far I am very impressed. I have applied to have my home phone number transferred over to my SunRocket account. They say it may take as long as 60 days to accomplish the transfer, so sometime around the middle of June, I will be saying bye bye to BellSouth. Nothing against BellSouth personally, but since I have hispeed internet through cable, I can save at least $200 per year by switching my phone service to SunRocket.
I Wonder When We Will Get Like This?
Here is the Blog I am referencing. The article is currently on top, but for later on when new entries are added, it is entitled "Cement Bag" and dated Tuesday 7th March 2006. You probably noticed that I said I wonder "when" will we get like this and not "if" we will get like this. I say that not to be overly pessimistic, but to reflect my lack of confidence in the people in postions of authority in this country. They are not as bad as President Mugabe yet, but give them time. By the way, at around 3:00 PM CT today (11 Mar 2006), $1 US equals $99,202 Zimbabwe dollars so the amount she gave the man was the approximate equavilent of 40 cents in US currency.
Friday, March 10, 2006
How To Live A Long Life
Be born with good genes. This article from the AARP Bulletin tells how Dr. Nir Barzilai is trying to use info from folks with good genes to help the rest of us to live healthier lives.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Bush's Legacy
I come from a part of the country that thinks that "W" hung the moon. Personally I am a lot less enamoured with the guy. Whether you like him, dislike him or ignore him, one thing is for certain, his legacy is gonna haunt you, your kids, your grandkids and probably your great grandkids. I read the other day that under his watch, federal spending has increased by half. I took that to mean that for every dollar we spent before, now we are spending a dollar and a half. Unfortunately, it is money we don't have .
We are quickly becoming a nation of indebted servants. I know that the Congress is equally to blame since they are the ones that come up with the spending bills, but everyone knows what to expect of Congress. Mark Twain said it best. "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself." The trouble is "W" has yet to issue a veto. He can't seem to find a government expenditure that he does not love. I see where now he is asking for a line item veto. Maybe if they give it to him he can finally find something to not spend money on, but I fear that it is gonna be way too little, way too late. I wonder how all those black "W The President" stickers are gonna look to us when we are sitting in the poor house.
We are quickly becoming a nation of indebted servants. I know that the Congress is equally to blame since they are the ones that come up with the spending bills, but everyone knows what to expect of Congress. Mark Twain said it best. "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself." The trouble is "W" has yet to issue a veto. He can't seem to find a government expenditure that he does not love. I see where now he is asking for a line item veto. Maybe if they give it to him he can finally find something to not spend money on, but I fear that it is gonna be way too little, way too late. I wonder how all those black "W The President" stickers are gonna look to us when we are sitting in the poor house.
Mr Head quoted Lincoln.
When I was in junior high school, I had a very wise man for my eighth grade math teacher. He later became principal of the high school. His name was Albert Lee Head. Mr Head had a lot of quotes that he liked to use. One of his favorites was by Abraham Lincoln. Now Lincoln is not my favorite president by a long sight, but I too like this quote.
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
The current administration has a lot of folks fooled on a lot of things, but looks like some of them may be waking up.
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
The current administration has a lot of folks fooled on a lot of things, but looks like some of them may be waking up.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
An Interesting Website
I saw this morning that the House had passed the reauthorization of the so called Patriot Act. I was interested to see how my congress critter Spencer Bachus had voted, so I did a little googling and found this website. You can use it to see what your congress critter is voting on and how he or she is voting. By the way, for those of you in my district who are interested, Bachus voted for reauthorization.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Old Letters
I am still sorting through the junk for my folk's house. Today I looked through a box of old letters. The earliest were from the early 1960's, the latest from after my father's death in 2002. Right now, I don't have time to read all of them but I did read several and it got me to thinking. Now that we have email, old letters don't sit in yellow envelopes in boxes in closets. They reside on hard disks in computers. Computers that are obsolete in 5 to 7 years and are replaced with newer computers with clean hard disks. I suspect that most of the old emails are lost with the old computers. I know that mine are. So while we have all those old letters from the last half of the twentieth century to remind us of how things were, most of today's emails will end up in a landfill somewhere on the corroding disk of an obsolete hard drive. Is that a problem, or an advantage? I'm not sure of the answer.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Lower your salt intake and die sooner
Seems that the benefits of lower salt intake may have come from the same camp that gave us the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Here is a WebMD article from CBSNEWS.com that gives the details.
The Economy Is Like A Drunk At Closing Time
Back in my younger days when I went to bars and sometimes stayed late, there was an expression that the proprieters used to signal closing. They would say to the hangers on, "you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." I think that pretty well sums up the state of the US economy. There is really no specified direction that it has to take from here, but most people agree that it is definitely not in a steady state position. Kevin Duffy has an interesting take on what may happen next.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Dead Horse Theory
My apologies to the original author of what follows. I found it as a text document with no references. It's just too good not to post. If you are the author, let me know at khmiller@yahoo.com and I will give you credit or update this post as a link to your site:
Dead Horse Theory
The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."
However, in government, education, and in corporate America, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse's performance.
10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.
11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
And of course....
13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
Dead Horse Theory
The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."
However, in government, education, and in corporate America, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse's performance.
10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.
11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
And of course....
13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
In the future I will abstain from voting
Lately I have been seeing the road signs indicating that its politicking season. Time for the May primaries and the November general election. Immediately when I see those signs I begin to ask myself, who am I gonna vote for. Today I have the answer, none of them. That’s right, I am not gonna vote for any of them. Why you ask? Because they are all a bunch of parasites. Good honest, hard working people don't run for public office because they are out working hard. The folks that do run are mostly lazy carpetbaggers or manipulative psychopaths. Which one am I gonna vote for the carpetbagger or the psycho? It’s my duty as a citizen to vote you say. Bullshit, I say. I have no duty to sanction the actions of people who's only interest is to line their own pockets with money forcible taken from others or the actions of control freaks that want to manage every action of their fellow man right down to how much water he can use to flush his toilet.
No the time for my participation in the farce called the political system is over. I'll still show up at the polls to vote on specific proposals like a tax increase, or a state lottery but the days of me standing in line to chose between two losers who probably both ought to be in prison instead of in office are done.
No the time for my participation in the farce called the political system is over. I'll still show up at the polls to vote on specific proposals like a tax increase, or a state lottery but the days of me standing in line to chose between two losers who probably both ought to be in prison instead of in office are done.
What Causes AIDS?
The CDC says that it is caused by the HIV virus, but the CDC is run by the government so you can pretty well figure they are wrong. Rebecca Culshaw offers some insider insight on this subject.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Multiculturalism GoodBye
Looks like the Dutch are taking the Popeye approach to multiculturalism, ( "I've stands all I can stands, I can't stands no more.")
Harry Browne 6/17/1933 -> 3/1/2006
Harry Browne was a great pragmatic libertarian and we are going to miss him.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Kinda What I Expected
Having spent a significant portion of my previous career crunching numbers, I am always skeptical of determinations of any kind made solely on the basis of numbers. Granted, some numbers count. If the number in the right hand column of your check register is less than zero, you had better quit writing checks. If the pointer on your speedometer is on 70 mph and you are not on the intersate, then you need to be concerned with the presence of cops. Other numbers that today play a big part in our daily lives my not be as clear cut in their meaning.
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