A strange omen

I have no doubt that my kidlet will travel a similar path to me, although, I figure he will have moments of ethical dilemma... This is a 4 year old normal male child who is firmly ensconced on the couch in the living room, watching the movie Wargames. He LIKES it. I'm sitting there picking apart the technical details, mainly how every key stroke on a computer makes a beeping sound as one types.

My favorite line so far is from the 2 tech guys at the company David visits near the beginning of the movie: "Mister Potato Head! Mister Potato Head! Remember you told me to tell you when you were acting 'rudely and insensitively'? Remember that? You're doing it right now."

What a great movie... a true blast from the past. I also love how the monitors have fluorescent lighting around them. Tres cool.

Back to the kid. Here is the timeline:

• Has own computer - already has one.
• Compiles a kernel - age 6
• Finds a vulnerability - age 8
• Does "something" interesting - age 9
• Becomes a person of interest to FBI, CIA, NSA - age 10.

I guess I should start saving for the lawyer expenses.

The Littlest Geek

Yesterday afternoon, the little guy and I were flipping channels, and he said "Hey, what's that?!" and I realized he was talking about a show on Discovery Science Channel about Mars. He's a space geek!!! YAY! There's another one in the family.

Ooops

I accidentally won an auction tonight on eBay. Well, I guess in a few days I'll be the proud owner of a brand new Pflueger Supreme 8040MG spinning reel, replete with gold accents and 10 bearings and various other bits of bling. Woot!

I bid on a lark, after watching about 12 of these puppies go for around retail price for a week - and I actually lucked out and got a brand new one for 30 bucks under retail, and if I figure in taxes, I'll still be saving around 30 bucks.

Oh, I wonder if I could "accidentally" buy a 42" LCD HDTV and have it installed sometime next week, or maybe a 18'6" boat and have it accidentally left in the garage...

Go Forth, and Do... Important Stuff

I think it's time for me to weigh in on the war in Iraq. My position on this issue has changed significantly in the past year. What happened you ask? I read a book. A very important book. It's called Chasing Ghosts. Click on that for a link to Amazon.com to purchase it. The book is written by Paul Rieckhoff, a former US Army platoon leader in Iraq. I read the book straight through - I couldn't stop reading. Essentially, this Iraq thing is another bureaucratic cluster-f%#!, not unlike our expeditions to the beautiful far east in the 60's and 70's.

Why don't we take the Billions of dollars that we are spending... nay, wasting in Iraq, and do some Important Stuff? Finish the space station. Go to Mars. Improve the lives of those in the US who live in abject poverty. Fund NPR and PBS. (My love of exploration and science makes me wonder if we would have bases on the moon had it not been for the Vietnam war sucking away so much money from the US coffers.)

I know that the war in Iraq has put us in an intractable situation - we are damned if we stay and damned if we pull out. The only thing I know for sure is our damned "leaders" are damned for what they have done. There is far too much corruption in government, whether that be corruption in the way of taking bribes and kickbacks, to basic moral corruption. Since when does it not mean anything to just "do the right thing" all of the time?

I'm a big history buff. I believe that in World War II the U.S. did the right thing - at least most of the time. Our motives were good. I'm proud of all of the soldiers and sailors and Marines that served and especially of those who gave their lives. World War II was a case where fighting and dying was for the greater good of the entire world. Can we say that about Iraq? I'm so angry every time I hear about a soldier being killed - no matter which side they are on. We are all somebody's son or daughter, father or mother, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin or friend. I can't see the moral imperative that brought us to this point where people are being sacrificed.

All that said, I don't know what the answers are. There are simply people that will never get along and try to kill each other because they believe in a different deity that nobody has ever even seen. Some of them just believe a bit differently about the same deity. Why is it that the great forces of religion that teach peace and love always lead humans to destroy each other?

I think what happened in India in the 40's when Pakistan came to be might be a good pattern for others to follow. If you don't like the religious affiliation of those around you, MOVE. Go somewhere else. And quit picking on each other like 4th graders. Just leave each other the hell alone, and pray to whatever or whoever you want, but like I tell those around me - I don't care what your religious beliefs are, but just don't spill any of it on my shoes. I believe what I believe, and don't have a problem with your particular thing - just keep it to yourself.

Oh yeah, and use some of that Iraq money to help the veterans who are so seriously fucked up from all of the stuff that's happened to them, in this war as well as the last Gulf war, and try to make things right with the thousands of widows and widowers and the children who've lost a parent.

Bravo Zulu Capt. Schirra

CAPT. Walter M. Schirra, USN Ret.
March 12, 1923 - May 3, 2007



High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941