"It is a luxury to be understood."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

ODD
Friday, December 28, 2001
03:41 p.m.

After the Sept 11th attacks I was inspired with three (3) graphic design ideas. The first...

I displayed on my window at work and on our Family's web site.

The second I realized in fabric in the form of a 'Romanesque' banner which I displayed during our cultural diversity "Festival of Saturnalia" at work. I've never done a graphic image in cloth before and am especially proud of how it turned out...

I learned at the festival that folks either 'got it' or did not and it semed roughly half the folks who saw it knew what it was and half did not.

I recently had a bunch of family in for the holidays. I did not mention the banner but it was clearly displayed, yet not a single person mentioned it. ODD, I thought!

Oh, the third image...
I have not brought it into being yet...
I may or may not!

It's the pronunciation, stupid!
Tuesday, December 4, 2001
11:09 p.m.
Would somebody please teach our President how to pronounce 'nuclear'? It's "new-cle-er". Every time I hear him say "new-q-lur" I cringe and all I can think is, "What a honkin' dumbass!" and then I don't hear another thing he says.

Synchronicity
Sunday, November 4, 2001
09:50 p.m.

On Saturday morning October 20th, my brother Joe called down to my hotel room and said, "Do you watch Sponge Bob and Square Pants?" This past week I walked into an office at work where a fellow employee's son was drawing pictures. After saying hello, he said, "Do you watch Sponge Bob and Square Pants?" The same question in the exact same words about something I had never even heard of before 10/20! Guess I'll have to check it out.

Yesterday, I was reading Carey Kinsolving's column, titled "Learning the meaning of 'Don't cast your pearls before swine'" in our local paper. The column went into the context of this biblical quote, explaining that later in his ministry, Jesus spoke of religeous leaders who were offended by what he said: "Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch"(Matthew 15:14). Later in the day, I came to page 446 of Stephen King's "Hearts in Atlantis" where he has a Vietnam vet quote the same verse!

I love it when those things happen!

Ben Sargent cartoons
Wednesday, October 31, 2001
10:13 p.m.
Click here to view,
and here for another of my faves,
and here for another.

Kris and Diane
Sunday, October 28, 2001
09:35 a.m.

"A daughter's a daughter all her life; a son's a son till he takes a wife."

On October 20th my son, Kristen married Diane. So by the words of the above quote I have returned to my (natural?) Ronin state.

Congratulations, you two - may every happiness be yours!

Patriotism
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
03:15 p.m.

Anyone with eyes and ears has no doubt noticed a tremendous surge in overtly expressed patriotism among the populace of the U.S. since 9-11.

But...

What's with "Corporate America"?
It dosen't seem very patriotic to lay off tens of thousands of workers just to save the bottom line and a few cents per share for stockholders! Now, it appears Bayer is prepared to make trouble for other companies which make CIPRO (the Anthrax fighting antibiotic) citing patent infringment!

Adding my voice
Sunday, September 16, 2001
09:46 p.m.

OK, I think I can now give voice to some of my thoughts...

Like everyone, I'm stunned but I've been careful to not draw hasty conclusions and to take the time to digest what has happened. I never can remember all the stages of grief, I think this week they have all been 'pancaked' like the floors of the WTC anyway. Like everyone I've experienced them all simultaneously!

It hurts and I'm afraid!

I'm not scared of terrorism (hell, one of the few certainties in life is that it will end in death anyway) they introduce nothing new and it was not unexpected. News junkie that I am, the possibility was obvious. I am afraid instead of what this act will do to us as a society.

Don't give them a victory!

If we stoop to their level of killing innocents, they have won. I know we are in strange territory when Rush & Saddam start making sense %-)

Rush Limbaugh has called for restraint on the part of our country's military response. (I don't have the quote, I heard it second hand from a trusted source)

Saddam Hussain, "If you rulers (Western) respect and cherish the blood of your people why do you find it easy to shed the blood of others..."

I'm flying flags and burning candles but I want to go on record that mine is not a show of 'America right or wrong' patriotism. I will not glorify or choose to ignore the wrongs perpetrated by this country and the GREED of some of it's BUSINESSES and citizens!

In my youth, old men sent boys off to war for ill defined, poorly articulated and/or reasons many of us believed to be wrong. I believe we cannot allow this 'culture of terrorism' to continue. If we leave that door open, we will never be safe again but I cannot endorse committing the younger generation to fight against it if they do not agree.

I hope and pray our leaders will choose to respond wisely to this attack. This whole 'survival of the fittest' thing ain't workin' out so well. I recommend we flip the brawn/brain thing over and change the evolutionary imperative to the survival of the wisest.

I ordinarily oppose the death penalty but I guess it was just a matter of degree as I have no problem with killing those responsible for this week's action. I would much rather see us bring those responsible to justice than to kill more innocents in military assaults, however. Btw, why is it OK to risk civilian casualties when sending cruise missiles into a city to blow up a leader's facilities and not OK to send a squad in to assassinate just him?

I ain't givin' in

If we allow fear of terrorism to substantially change our way of life we allow them victory. Some think our open society is too open and that we are going to have to give up some of our civil liberties. I urge extreme caution on this subject! Consider the words of founding father Ben Franklin, "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor justice". Consider also that trading in our freedoms is giving victory to the terrorists! I think this is where great courage is needed - this may be where we, as so many before have done, may have to put our lives on the line in defense of this country's greatest ideals. This is what I am expressing in lighting candles and displaying the flag. I hope and pray that it is for this type of patriotism the rest of America is flying their flags (and that I have the courage to live up to my words)!

I have made a point to stay busy this week. I have borrowed from the Brits in their reaction to the Battle of Britain in WWII, carrying on as normal a life as possible, not giving any measure of victory to the terrorists.

Musings on the Media:

Seems CNN was all over the significance of the OK City bombing date but I have not heard any of the following from them or the other news outlets I've plugged into this week.

• On Sept. 11, 1922, a British mandate was proclaimed in Palestine, despite Arab protests. It lasted until 1948, after the United Nations authorized a partition of the territory and the state of Israel was established.
  
  
• On Sept. 11, 1972, the troubled Munich Summer Olympics, also remembered as "the Olympics of Terror," ended. For 21 hours under live television cameras, hooded gunmen of the Palestinian faction "Black September" held Israeli athletes hostage, killing 11 of them during a botched getaway and airport firefight with German antiterrorism squads.
  
  
• I heard also, that this was the date of the Camp David Accords.

The best thing I've heard all week was a piece by Marion Winik on Thursday's All Things Considered called Taking Action. It expresses the need for applying caution in our responses very well.

Theories:

It has been asked, "What are we supposed to 'get' from this attack?" I don't think the message was for us. Bin Laden has long asserted that the US was vulnerable while other terrorists organizations have avoided direct attacks on us for fear of our military prowess. The success of this attack may now enable him to recruit more people and donations and embolden terrorists the world over.

While the M.O. of this attack has bin Laden written all over it, the scope, targets and timing make me think Hussein is involved, too. The resources involved are beyond bin Laden alone and the planning seems to go back to the time of The Gulf War. Why wait for the 'new' Bush administration when many of these operatives have been in this country for 7-8 yrs.? Could it be to smack the son of the man who smacked Hussein so hard in The Gulf War? And for Biblical ramifications, what about "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children..."?

Seems appropriate for a Sunday to quit upon a Bible quote.

Physica Conservo a Acrozmatis Philosoph
Monday, September 3, 2001
10:30 p.m.
I was reading the referenced article (click on the title above) on the progress of including 'physics engines' in video/computer games when it occured to me that there must be a natural law governing conservation of physics in entertainment. I had not realized that game designers were going for more realism by tapping the power of today's computers to add the laws of nature to their products. I had noticed a loss of physics from other entertainment products, notably movies. Consider the flying in films like "The Matrix" and "Crouching Tiger..." and the insistance of the players in "Space Cowboys" that, "It's only necessary to boost yourself halfway to the moon, after that the moon's gravity takes over". (I don't want to begin to list all the physics missing from "Armageddon") It must be that there is a finite amount of physics available to the entertainment industry and as gaming incorporates more of it into their products the other media have to make do with less. ;-)

Thank-you Mr Sorkin!
Sunday, August 26, 2001
11:25 p.m.

Aaron Sorkin, the writer and chief creative force behind Sports Night, HBO and The West Wing, NBC consistently keeps my idealism alive!

Over the last several years institutions I've come to trust and believe in have let me down. First it was the TV news outlets, who (to a network) reported Bill Clinton's private affairs as though they were news, or had something to do with governance or were any of our business. Then (in lockstep) came Congress, who were persuaded by certain of their members that Clinton's personal affirs had something to do with governance and were therefore their business. Fortunately, Congress as a whole (or was it just the Senate) drew the reasonable conclusion that his affairs had nothing to do with governance. Finally (I hope) the Supreme Court abondoned any semblance of objectivity and appointed a President who had not won a clear majority in the disputed state of Florida and had in fact lost the popular vote in the nation as a whole.

In the midst of all this, came The West Wing. I had grown enamored of Mr. Sorkin's writing on Sports Night but wondered how his wry, comedic touches would work in a political drama. I'm happy to report they work fine and he has shown great depth as a dramatic writer as well. The show never ceases to reinforce my feeling that we can be better people, more involved citizens and a greater Nation. I know it is fiction but if characters with this much intelligence and heart can be imagined, then it is possible for them to exist in the real world, too. Aaron Sorkin's optimism in the nature of man and for the people we choose to lead our nation gives me hope for the future.

Thank You, Aaron Sorkin!

Bob Zemeckis is forgiven!
Tuesday, August 21, 2001
11:03 p.m.

I came away from Forrest Gump with bad feelings toward its director, Robert Zemeckis. I guess it was a cute idea to have Forrest present at or actually responsible for many pivitol events in the latter half of the 20th century but to take credit for "Imagine" away from John Lennon was unforgivable!

I know I've seen his later movies out of sequence but Castaway was such a good film I began to want to forgive him. Now, I've just seen What Lies Beneath and am fully willing to forgive him for Forrest Gump.

What Lies Beneath is such a lovingly conceived and executed homage to the great Alfred Hitchcock that it has turned this fellow 'Hitch' fan around. Bob, you are nearly forgiven - you didn't actually take anything away from John. I just hope no one who was not here at the time believes someone else came up with "Imagine".

Insight
Sunday, August 5, 2001
11:18 p.m.

Recently, I posted photos on our MyFamily.com web site. They were photos I took over the Memorial Day weekand at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (which I abbreviated MoFA) where the National Air and Space Museum's traveling "Star Wars, The Magic of Myth" exhibit had made a stop. My Mom replied...

Jul 24, 2001 - I don't understand these photos. Guess because I'm not a Star Wars fan. What is MoFA Houston

Of course if she had just entered 'MoFA, Houston' into "Google" she could have found out quicker than typing the question to me and I could have just told her so but, hey, she's my Mom! So, I went to all the trouble to create the following response...

Mom,

In it's National Air & Space Museum the Smithsonian Institution houses (among others) an exhibit of Star Wars 'artifacts' presented as a window into the world of myth. The exhibit crosses the Star Wars films with Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth weaving its mythology with modern and historic myths and legends from many cultures. The exhibit is currently on a national tour of major U.S. museums. It was most recently at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MoFA) where Kris, Peg and I took an opportunity to see it over the Labor Day holiday weekend.

These are some of the better photos I took.

...taking great pains to include appropriate hyperlinks, codeing html tags and carefully verifying all the links so the message would be as informative as possible and lead directly to further information. But, I erred in stating which weekend we had seen the exhibit.

Jul 25, 2001 - Wow! You really are in another galaxy. Labor Day is still ahead in this galaxy.

And it has been this way my entire life!

Paul Harvey is just wrong!
Thursday, July 26, 2001
08:41 p.m.

I recently received a forwarded 'chain letter' (ugh) quoting Paul Harvey...

>>>>> What's mainly wrong with society today is that
>>>>> too many dirt roads have been paved. There's not
>>>>> a problem in society today: crime, drugs, education,
>>>>> divorce or delinquency, that couldn't be
>>>>> remedied if we just had more dirt roads.
>>>>> Dirt roads give character.

That brought the following response...

Just wondering, does Paul Harvey really think all the above described evils can be cured by pulling the pavement off our roads? Surely even he isn't that naive! So, I guess he has just fallen back on that tired old crutch of so many older folks choosing to rely on rosey, backwards gazings upon the "good old days".

"Our ignorance of history makes us vilify our own age." - Gustave Flaubert

Well, I've got to question just how much is being hidden by his rose colored glasses. Were the good old days really so good? Few roads were paved during the Cival War when brother killed brother fewer still were paved during the American Revolution when so many died for just wanting freedom. The Trail of Tears was not paved and neither were the slave routes out of Africa. Few European roads were paved during the Black Plague or the Irish Potato Famine. And on & on...

Nostalgia is OK but I don't think it should be used as an excuse for not doing anything about today's problems. The arrow of time only moves toward the future and we cannot go back. If we want OUR world to be better we must ACT now not click our tongues and long for yesteryear - it ain't coming back!

"Progress is the mother of problems." - G. K. Chesterton

Sure our modern problems are monumental that's why I think it wise to not dwell on the overall picture. The old advice, "brighten the corner where you live" still applies. I'm reminded of Oprah's celebrations of "random acts of kindness" and of the philosophy presented in the movie Pay it Forward. There is also the concept of CareWare

Here's to brighter tomorrows!

Love/Hate
Sunday, July 22, 2001
04:37 p.m.

I love the fact that my phone line now brings me the world through my Internet connection, but, more and more I'm coming to hate the voice aspect of the telephone...

I want to go on record here as really resenting the "tyranny of the ringing phone". I hate its insistance that I attend to it when the caller wants me to. It rather reminds me of an infant screaming, "give me your total attention, NOW!" This is most annoying with interruptions I don't want like wrong numbers and sales calls (Caller-ID and "opt-out" cards have helped cut down on unwarranted use of my leased phone lines as an ad medium).

I have enjoyed the genteel luxury of e-mail since 1994, relishing the ability to 'get to it' at my own pace and reply with the leisure to compose reasoned responses. Telephones are so 20th century - I don't want to go back!

I try to treat others as I would like to be treated and not presume my schedule should preclude theirs. So I seldom intrude on other folks time with phone calls.

Love/Hate
Sunday, July 22, 2001
03:57 p.m.

I love some of the music used in some car commercials on TV. It seems VW started the trend with the "Da Da Da" (by Trio)commercial, then continued with Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" and turned a rock classic into an advertising classic with Styx, "Mr Roboto".

Currently the Mitsubishi ads grab my attention the best. Loved the Rod Stewart-Faces, "Ooh La La" (Wish that I knew what I know now...) and the current one with the WiseGuys "Start the Commotion" (Put the body in motion...)

I've also got to mention last year's Lexus ads with Dinah Shore's "Shoo Fly Pie..." I don't know if it was the song or the gorgeous dark headed women who populated that ad, but I couldn't get enough!

And I guess since my son, Kris drives a Mazda, I should mention that the "Zoom Zoom" song and kid are pretty cool.

As much as I like those ads, I just can't stand the Burger King ads that use old rock songs - go figure!

Sunday, July 15, 2001
05:13 p.m.

"It is a luxury to be understood" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

In pursuit of this luxury, I begin this 'blog'!