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The complaint:

"Question of the day for Luke Air Force Base: Whom do we thank for the morning air show? Last Wednesday, at precisely 9:11 a.m., a tight formation of four F-16 jets made a low pass over Arrowhead Mall, continuing west over Bell Road at approximately 500 feet. Imagine our good fortune! Do the Tom Cruise-wannabes feel we need this wake-up call, or were they trying to impress the cashiers at Mervyns' early-bird special? Any response would be appreciated."

The response:

Regarding "A wake-up call from Luke's jets" (Letters, Thursday): On June 15, at precisely 9:12 a.m., a perfectly timed four-ship flyby of F-16s from the 63rd Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base flew over the grave of Capt Jeremy Fresques. Capt. Fresques was an Air Force officer who was previously stationed at Luke Air Force Base and was killed in Iraq on May 30, Memorial Day.

At 9 a.m. on June 15, his family and friends gathered at Sunland Memorial Park in Sun City to mourn the loss of a husband, son and friend. Based on the letter writer's recount of the flyby, and because of the jet noise, I'm sure you didn't hear the 21-gun salute, the playing of taps, or my words to the widow and parents of Capt. Fresques as I gave them their son's flag on behalf of the President of the United States and all those veterans and servicemen and women who understand the sacrifices they have endured. A four-ship flyby is a display of respect the Air Force pays to those who give their lives in defense of freedom. We are professional aviators and take our jobs seriously, and on June 15 what the letter writer witnessed was four officers lining up to pay their ultimate respects.

The letter writer asks, "Whom do we thank for the morning air show?" The 56th Fighter Wing will call for you, and forward your thanks to the widow and parents of Capt. Fresques, and thank them for you, for it was in their honor that my pilots flew the most honorable formation of their lives.
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Of course, I thought this was just another email urban legend...

Until I did some Googling...

and found the following: http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/wakeup.asp

And no, I don't believe everything I read on the Internet, but when Google returns this many hits to a query, my confidence level increases.

Reminds one both of the sacrifices that are made to protect our freedoms and way of life, and just how easy it can be to put one's foot in one's mouth.

It's really quite a simple theory...

Unit for unit, evil is inherently vastly more powerful than good.

The only thing that keeps evil in check (ultimately) is that there are vastly more good people on earth than evil people and therefore, the sum total of good outweighs the evil.

Unfortunately, one evil person person can negatively impact the lives of many good people. Also unfortunately, sometimes it takes the good people a while to recognize and act on the evil.

Fortunately, eventually good always seems to triumph - although at times it seems that the balance is precarious at best.

I realized today, as I was trying to catch up my inbox, that it had been quite a while since I had received a new request to join the ring, so I logged on to see what was going on.

Long story short, after doing some digging, I realized that "my" ring had been put up for adoption because I had not been responding to new requests. I had not been responding to new requests because, I realized after more digging, that I had not been receiving notifications in my inbox. After more digging, I realized that the reason that I had not been receiving notifications was that because a number of months ago, when I was getting deluged with spam for my blogdom.org domain, I had severely restricted the number of valid email addresses for that domain, and had forgotten to include the email address for managing the webring.

So, thanks to $@!&$@! spammers, not only do I have to spend at least an hour a week removing comment and trackback spam from the blog, but I lost the ability to manage the ring that I created when I first started blogging.

SPAMMERS SUCK!

I pride myself on being tolerant and loving, but as far as I am concerned, it would be fine with me if all spammers just dropped dead, after a prolonged period of intense suffering.

To me, that just seems ungrateful at best.

If I had wanted to send more money, I would have when I made the contribution. Asking for more money in the acknowledgement is like them saying "um, you didn't really send enough - you should have sent more." It really detracts from the initial contribution and makes me want to scratch them off the list for future consideration.

I guess it is age or social conditioning, but I just don't understand why people get piercings.

I can deal with pierced ears - one, maybe two - in the earlobe on a female, and maybe one in one earlobe on a guy - but that's about as far as I can deal with. And then, only if the earring is not a super large, heavy one.

Beyond that, it just seems like mutilation to me.

It always amazes me when I see an otherwise attractive person with one or more piercings in the eyebrow, or lip, or nose. To me, it is ugly.

And I really don't understand getting other parts pierced.

Today, I learned more about the variety of parts that people get pierced than I had ever wanted to. I can't believe some of the places that people choose to get pierced.

This happened by accident. I was talking with a friend who was telling me about recent surgery he had for severe sleep apnea. He was telling me how the surgeon had removed excess tissue from his soft palate, and "that dangly thing at the back of your throat." He couldn't remember what it was called, nor could I. So, I did a quick Google search, and discovered that the anatomical part in question was called the uvula.

Unfortunately, one of the links I clicked on led me to a page full of pictures of pierced uvulas.

Gag!

To my amazement, I realized that there was a very extensive site devoted to "body modification."

For the not faint of heart, and the strong of stomach, if you want to explore - graphically - the world of body modification, the url for the site is:

http://www.bmezine.com

and the page with the uvula piercing photos is at:

http://www.bmezine.com/pierce/11-surface/uvula1.html

I have intentionally NOT made these urls links, as I don't want anyone accidentally stumbling onto this site.

THE PICTURES ON THIS SITE ARE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC.

I was really torn about whether to post the urls at all, but decided to go ahead, as long as I provided a clear warning that most (all?) of my readers would NOT want to visit the site.

I don't understand tattoos either, but I'll leave that wondering for another time.

Why do people do things like that?

Hopefully, I have deleted all of the offensive comments, and now that the e-mail notification is working again, I will be able to spot - and delete - any more such garbage.

By Rush Limbaugh: I think the vast differences in compensation between victims of the September 11 casualty and those who die serving the country in Uniform are profound. No one is really talking about it either, because you just don't criticize anything having to do with September 11.

Well, I just can't let the numbers pass by because it says something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of this country. If you lost a family member in the September 11 attack, you're going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7million.

If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable. Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are the surviving spouse, you get $833 a month until you remarry. And there's a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a screeching halt.

Keep in mind that some of the people who are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it's not enough. Their deaths were tragic, but for most, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Soldiers put themselves in harms way FOR ALL OF US, and they and their families know the dangers.

We also learned over the weekend that some of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11 families are getting. In addition to that, some of the families of those bombed in the embassies are now asking for compensation as well.

You see where this is going, don't you? Folks, this is part and parcel of over 50 years of entitlement politics in this country. It's just really sad. Every time a pay raise comes up for the military, they usually receive next to nothing of a raise.

Now the green machine is in combat in the Middle East while their families have to survive on food stamps and live in low-rent housing. Make sense?

However, our own U.S. Congress just voted themselves a raise, and many of you don't know that they only have to be in Congress one time to receive a pension that is more than $15,000 per month, and most are now equal to being millionaires plus. They also do not receive Social Security on retirement because they didn't have to pay into the system.

If some of the military people stay in for 20 years and get out as an E-7, [they] may receive a pension of $1,000 per month, and the very people who placed [them] in harm's way receive a pension of $15,000 per month.

I would like to see our elected officials pick up a weapon and join ranks before they start cutting out benefits and lowering pay for our sons and daughters who are now fighting.

"When do we finally do something about this?"

This must be a campaign issue in 2004.

SOCIAL SECURITY: Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Congressmen do not pay into Social Security. Many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. For all practical purposes their plan works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die, except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. For example, former Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000 - that's Seven Million, Eight Hundred Thousand), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives. This is calculated on an average life span for each. Their cost for this excellent plan is $00.00. These little perks they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pickup the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Fund--our tax dollars at work!

From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into -- every pay day until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer) --we can expect to get an average $1,000 per month after retirement. Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!

Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. And that change would be to jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us and then watch how fast they would fix it!

The only reason these people CAN make their pilgrimage is because the United States sacrificed the lives of over one hundred of our troops, and spent billions of dollars to free them from an oppressive regime which had restricted this practice for over twenty years. A regime which had inflicted untold horrors on vast parts of the population. A regime which lived in splendor while the majority of Iraqis suffered.

And this is the thanks we receive?

It really pisses me off!

Oh, and while I am at it...

Apparently, all of the looting is our fault too?

Gee, I don't remember hearing of one American who looted anything. From what I could tell, the people doing all of the looting were Iraqis. The Americans were trying to capture remaining hostile forces and keep from getting killed. It seems that just about every person in Iraq has an AK-47. Why didn't some of the people who are decrying our blame for the looting get off their butts and do something to protect their stuff?

It never ceases to amaze me. You try to help and all you do is get spit on.

I guess the old saying is true... no good deed goes unpunished.

I really enjoyed my day in St. Louis - except for the drivers!

On three different occasions, I had to go onto the shoulder of the highway because of a driver in the far right lane who blocked my entrance.

I'm not talking about someone in the right lane who gets in your way due to inattention. I'm talking about aggressive drivers who speed up and refuse to shift over on a lightly trafficked six lane highway!

Comparatively speaking, New York and Boston drivers are sainted driving-school valedictorians.

Sheesh!

That's just what I am doing.

For those of you not familiar with the phrase, it means, when you receive a gift, be grateful for it as-is.

I believe the expression comes from the age old practice of evaluating the age and health of a horse by checking its teeth.

The theory being, if someone gives you a gift horse, don't go checking to see how old/healthy it is - but be grateful for the gift.

Anyway, not too long ago, Logitech had a web contest in which up to 20,000 lucky winners would receive a Logitech Cordless Navigator Duo™.

In a highly uncharacteristic happenstance, I found myself among that group of lucky winners.

Well, I got around to unboxing my new keyboard and mouse today.

I had a little trouble getting the mouse to behave, but that was because of my KVM switch, not the product. I ended up having to turn off all three systems attached to the KVM switch before the mouse would behave on any of them.

Now to the teeth...

Overall, the keyboard is nice. If the spirit moves me, I can now easily move the keyboard to my lap without hassling with a cord. The keyboard has a bunch of built-in quick action buttons, including buttons to launch e-mail, start up a web cam, open a browser directly into one of three different sites, and a suite of "media control" buttons. The play/pause/back/forward buttons are tied to a fairly large selection of players including MediaMatch and WinAmp. Unfortunately, my current player of choice, Media Jukebox, is not one of the supported players. Fortunately, the volume up/down and mute buttons are tied to the master sound controls, not to the media player, so those keys work even with Media Jukebox.

Unfortunately, some of the other keys, including the "F-Lock" keys don't work. These keys are supposed to provide automatic shortcuts for various applications like e-mail. I updated the drivers, rebooted, etc., but still no luck.

The overall feel of the keys is okay, and the keyboard has a nice palm rest. Of course, being cordless, I will have to change batteries every so often. It will be interesting to see how long a set of batteries lasts.

The included mouse is a nicely styled optical model. It is the first optical mouse I have ever used. I have read all sorts of reviews that say that once you've gone ball-less, you'll never go back. To be honest, I just didn't see any difference between the performance of the optical mouse, and that of the mechanical one. Maybe if I were doing highly detailed CAD or drawing it would matter... but, since I don't...

Among my host of peculiarities, is an acute sensitivity of the pad of my right index finger. I have tossed a pile of mice because the mouse button required too much pressure, causing my poor finger to throb in protest. Unfortunately, the left button on the new mouse is such a button.

The good news is that my former Logitech cordless mouse, which has a set of pillow soft buttons, works with the new receiver for the Duo.

The bad news, is that the mouse wheel no longer works. It doesn't work on the new mouse either, so I figure there is a flaw in the receiver or in the driver.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize how much I was using the scroll wheel until it was gone. The "third button" functionality of the wheel still does work, so I can use the auto-scroll feature of the Logitech mouse driver, but I don't like the functionality as much as the scroll wheel.

Before it is all said and done, I might just go back to the old wired keyboard and old wireless mouse - having looked the horse in the mouth and deciding to throw it in the barn with all the other almost rans.

But, for the time being, I guess I'll stick with this mixed-breed setup and be grateful that I got anything at all.

My favorite was a koala bear.

I don't remember ever having a "blanky" for a "paci," but I always liked having a stuffed animal to hug when I went to bed.

Well, I've found something even better - my dog Cali. She's just about the same size as a stuffed animal, but she's warm.

Diego isn't much of a cuddler, but Cali is more than happy to snuggle all I want.

Diego may be more entertaining playing fetch or doing tricks, but when it comes to napping, Cali is the queen.

And I've decided that by definition, new age applies to original compositions, not new interpretations of old songs.

Just because Windham Hill tends to publish legitimate new age music, doesn't mean that by definition anything they publish is new age.

Therefore, the recording that I was listening to was in fact muzak, not new age.

Okay, I feel better...

It didn't take very long at all without power to gain an appreciation of just how quickly life can get very uncomfortable without electricity.

My heart goes out to those who are still without power, and I sincerely hope that you get it back soon.

I received the following in e-mail, and while I don't necessarily believe everything that I read, I am afraid that these sound all too believable.

I just don't understand how juries can find for the plaintiff in these sorts of suits, much less make the kinds of awards that they do.

What kind of morons are they seating on juries these days? Don't they realize that these frivolous suits hurt all of us?

And what does this say about the slime sucking lawyers who file these suits?

Sometimes, I just have to shake my head...

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The Stella's are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonalds. That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States. The following are
this year's candidates:

1.Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.

2.A 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hub caps.

3.Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr.Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

4.Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

5.A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

6.Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

7.This year's favorite could easily be Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the R.V. left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons buying their recreation vehicles.

The Krispy Kreme Doughnut.

If an evil genus had labored to find the perfect device to make you fat, he couldn't have done better than the Krispy Kreme.

What is more tempting than a hot Krispy Kreme? The sugary glaze still dripping from that hot, melt-in-your-mouth, light-as-air taste of heaven?

But how diabolical it is...

The combination of sugar and refined flour conspire to spike your blood sugar as efficiently as mainlining pure glucose.

This of course triggers a massive insulin reaction as your body fights to regain control.

The elevated insulin, finding vast amounts of fat floating around from that deep fried delight, knowing that the last thing you need is to have that fat converted to sugar, dutifully takes that fat and sticks it directly to your [fill in your favorite trouble area - suggestions include: thighs, hips, or my personal demon: gut].

I can't imaging a more efficient way of taking ingested fat and putting it directly where it will look the worst.

And, if that wasn't bad enough, to add insult to injury, since the body tends to never shut off the flow of insulin soon enough to just deal with the spike, when all is said and done, you blood sugar will plummet, leaving you hungrier than when you started.

PS - if you like, you can substitute your favorite brand of premium ice cream in the diatribe above.

PPS - I had wanted to create an 'Ode to the evil Krispy Kreme,' but I wasn't creative enough. Extra credit will be given to any reader who provides one.

Actually, there are a number of you that I consider friends - even though for some of you, I've never met you or even talked to you.

The caring comments, the occasional e-mail, the fact that you take the time to visit - if that isn't friendship, what is?

You share your life with me, and visa-versa. You're not strangers.

That is the conclusion of my totally unscientific empirical study.

I'm not wacko about hits like I used to be, but I do still check most days.

Normally, I average 24 hits a day. But, when I don't make an entry, the numbers drop off very quickly. My guess is that the most likely explanation is the loss of traffic generated by referrals from weblogs.com and movable type on their recently updated blogs lists.

I guess if I were trying to maximize the number of visitors, I would tend to spread my entries out during the day. This would increase the amount of time that the links were visible from the referring sites. But, as we have all seen by now, I tend to write in spurts. And, since I don't care about numbers for the sake of numbers, I have no intention of modifying my habits at this point.

What kind of puritanical morons make up this organization?

They will allow a movie that has gallons of spurting blood and body parts a-flying to get by with a PG-13, but use a few curse words - even in reasonable context - or show certain portions of the human anatomy, and bang, the movie gets a "R" rating.

Of course, the movie industry is loathe to release a movie with an "R" rating, since it severely limits its potential audience, so, we are subjected to the bulk of released mainstream movies catering to the sensibilities of a bunch of de-facto censors with a moral compass stuck in the Elizabethan ages.

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. "Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will
meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say 'hello'.

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain

One night, at 11.30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him.

Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached. It read:

"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."
Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those who serve.

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

"Well how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.

"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream,
paid the cashier and left.

When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish,
were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden
and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse
contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.

The peasant learned what many of us never understand! Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts.

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.

I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her."

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to
her cheek.

Then his face grew pale and his smile faded.

He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?"

Being young the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his
blood in order to save her.

I think that when a person is sent to prison, they should initially be placed in one giant barracks style room.

At the outset, they would be entitled to a bed frame, mattress, and three life sustaining meals per day.

They would also be given the opportunity to perform some job within the prison.

Time worked with satisfactory performance would earn the prisoners credits.

Transgressions would result in losing some credits - the amount based on the severity of the transgression.

Credits in turn could be used to "buy" privileges. Privileges could include access to exercise facilities, better meals, better accommodations, television privileges, and so on.

This system would give inmates an incentive to follow the rules and contribute to the prison "society."

This in turn would help the prisoners learn the behaviors necessary for successful reintegration into our society.

Because you are paying full retail for the first one, but the second one is only "costing" the seller their actual cost.

They are losing the profit off of the second item, but that assumes you would have bought the second, much less the first, in the first place.

What provoked this commentary? I don't remember, I started it over a month ago, but never finished it. I figured I'd better publish it now, lest the thought be lost forever.

I finally broke down and called our friendly HVAC company - Comfort Master - yesterday.

As has consistently been the case since we found them, they were extremely responsive and sent out a really nice man to take a look at our system today. It is a shame that they were not the company that our builder contracted with to initially install the system.

Turns out that the reason the unit was not cooling was that it was low on freon. The reason it was low on freon is that there is a leak in the evaporator coil. The condenser coil has a five year warranty. Guess what? Our system is five years and four months old. So, rather than costing a few hundred dollars in labor to get a new one under warranty, we will get to pay over a thousand dollars to get a new one.

Now, don't you just know that Carrier has a whole room of actuaries who have figured out - to the day - the mean time to failure for each part in their systems? And don't you just know that they have another whole room of business weenies who ensure that the warranty period is just a few months short of the MTTF?

There are probably only a few more weeks until the weather turns cool, so rather than spending the grand now, we spent $68 to get the freon topped off, and we'll hope that it doesn't all leak out before cooling season ends. Then we can wait until next year to worry about making the decision of whether to replace the evaporator coil, or replace the entire unit with a more efficient unit with a new five year warranty.

Is creativity a God given gift, or can it be learned? Is is something that you either have, or you don't? Can it be developed?

Maybe you must have an innate aptitude to begin with. Maybe there are some people that are just born incredibly creative, some people who are born with a spark that can be nurtured into a flame, and some people who are born with no hope of ever expressing the slightest glimmer of creativity.

I believe I fall into that last category - having been cursed with wet sand in the creative fuel department.

I can appreciate creative people, but my enjoyment of their creativity is always diminished by the ugly shadow of envy.

Maybe creativity is like athletic or musical prowess. Those who demonstrate the greatest skill - who make it look easy - are those who have spent countless hours learning, practicing, and honing their craft. I do not diminish the value of hard work to achieve extraordinary execution, but I still believe that you have to have the right raw material to start with. No matter how badly you want to, you just can't turn chicken shit into chicken salad.

Some day, I still hope to find something I can feel special about. In the mean time, I'll try to work on this, yet another, character flaw.

Now that there is a brief lull in the hell that is my job, I have been able to do some web wandering.

Lately, my web wandering has focused on visiting blogs. The wealth of creativity in the blogosphere is staggering. And so many bloggers have multi-disciplinary creativity. There seems to be no limit to the number of people who are gifted in writing and visual design and the technical skills to bring a beautiful, stimulating site to life.

This may be pure hubris on my part, but I figure that people will want to return back from whence they came after they finish their tangential exploration.

And since one link can lead to other links, I don't want them to have to click the back button until their index finger goes numb to get back to my page.

By opening another page, when they are finished wandering, all they have to do is click once on the "x" to close the new window and they're back.

I think all sites should set their off-site links to open in a new browser window. It is easy to do, especially in M-T. One hack to set M-T to always cause a new browser window to be opened when the URL button is used on the entry template can be found in this thread.

I guess the ideal would be to provide a preferences option on your site where you would allow the user to choose their preferred functionality, but that's more work than I'm willing to entertain at this time.

In the mean time, I'll continue to set my off-site links to generate a new browser window, and hope that other sites do the same.

Seriously, TV commercials have to be among the worst offenders.

Ever notice how often the character of scorn or the brunt of the joke is a fat person?

For example, there is a Honda SUV commercial that extols the virtues of their new SUV - including how quiet it is. The commercial shows an attractive, slender couple parked by a stream enjoying the view of grazing deer. All of a sudden, the scene cuts to a large SUV crashing through the woods. The deer get scared away by the noise. The large SUV screeches to a halt next to the Honda, and the driver, seeing nothing, asks "what you looking at?" And the appearance of this obnoxious driver? A fat man.

How about the Ditech.com mortgage commercials? The buffoon loan officer who can't even get his mother to do business with him? A fat man.

And then there's the new Bounty napkin commercial. The one where you see a child "pigging out" on a pile of food drowned in sauce, creating a mountain of napkins because they don't stand up. Then the child is given a new Bounty napkin, and his messy hands and face are tamed by the Bounty napkin. Is the child star of this commercial a good looking sixteen-year-old with a hollow leg? No! A fat child!

Are fat people jeopardizing their heath? Of course - there is irrefutable medical evidence.

Would many people rather hop in the sack with a buff movie star type than with a fat person? Sure.

Does that justify that fat people earn less than their slender co-workers and are many times less likely to be promoted or hired? That they should be the object of ridicule and scorn?

No.

Unfortunately, our society views being overweight as a character flaw. Proof that the person is lazy or weak-willed. That the person doesn't care about him/herself, so why should anyone else.

For most people, those aren't the reasons. Most fat people are fat because of medical or environmental factors. Some causes include metabolic or psychological issues, work environment, hereditary bias, cultural factors, the barrage of advertising by giant food conglomerates, and stupid dietary guidelines that make it all to easy to gain weight while being deluded that one is eating "properly."

Our society is making progress in learning tolerance in many areas. I look forward to the day when a person's weight is one of these areas.

The general societal perception of something "exclusive" seems to be positive. People want to join exclusive clubs - they are "hot" and being accepted means that you, by association, are "special."

But, I just thought about the word itself.

Even if you have noble ideals and are only trying to create a community of people that share a similarity - by definition, an "exclusive" community will exclude people.

That was definitely NOT my intention in creating the "Bloggers Over Forty" WebRing. The intention was to create an inclusive group - a group that included a group of people that had been excluded, or at least overlooked, from all of the other "themed" WebRings.

There are WebRings that attempt to be "all inclusive" - i.e. they don't intentionally exclude anyone, but even those rings are exclusive. Many of them exclude "offensive" sites. Of course, that begs the question of what the definition of offensive is - and regardless, it is exclusionary. And all of them, by definition, exclude anyone who doesn't have a presence of some sort on the web. They also exclude any site that isn't willing - for whatever reason - to include the navigation code for that ring on their site.

There's a good lesson here. I don't know what the answer is, but at the very least, it makes you think; and that is the first step on the road to enlightenment, isn't it?

This may seem a strange question, since my title would indicate that I am one of "them."

While I am a manager, and proud of it, I do not consider myself to be "them" in the Dilbertian sense.

I just can't understand why senior managers, people who are supposedly intelligent, and possessing of leadership characteristics, add so much bureaucracy and obfuscation as to make doing even the simplest task almost impossible. Or at least almost impossible to do in an amount of time that is consistent with the actual work of the task, or at least impossible to do without restraints or heavy narcotics.

And why do they so often set up labyrinthine procedures that are full of missing details, then "cut you a new one" when you don't do things exactly the way they wanted, even though they never told you exactly what it was that they wanted, or gave you a clear, concise set of written instructions for what they wanted done, and how they wanted it done?

Is the old saw really true? "Those who can't do, manage. And those who can't manage, are made executives?"

"This posting is to all those who keep whining about how not enough people read your blog... you know who you are. Seriously. STOP IT. It is the pseudo-intellectual equivalent of throwing a fit at the grocery store in order to get your mom to buy you a packet of pop rocks. I'm tired of wading through postings about how you want more readers, but are unwilling to patiently build a reader base. We all started from a reader of one, or even two if we were lucky. I don't obligingly link people who visit once, comment once about how "I'm soooo linked", and never return. I link the people who are worthy of my time, as does any discerning surfer. As far as I know, the magical "please EVERYONE read my useless postings", site is yet to exist, and honestly, don't you think the rest of the I-have-a-blog-strictly-to-feed-my-ego bloggers would have found it by now if it did?! Sh*t. If you're that worried about it, CREATE THE DAMNED SITE YOURSELF! If you're unwilling to do the above, at least be honest in asking yourself this question: how many readers will be "enough"? 100? 500? 1000? Set yourself an unattainable goal, and you'll soon see how quick the hit-seeking weak are weeded out...

In closing, I beg you to stop guilting people into linking you. Have some pride, write something of substance, and the people will show up. Patience is a virtue, and if all else fails, pull your page like you keep threatening to do... if you're right, no one will care anyway." - SnarkyBitch

I just finished surfing my favorite blogs. Some of them had very touching remembrances marking this second "day of infamy."

I found Dennis' to be striking in its simplicity, and its attention to detail - note the E-cam image, and the black screen shot. The first comment for his entry makes the day even more poignant.

A thought occurred to me after all that I have read over the last few days concerning this special day.

Most of the commentary is directed toward rememberence... of the fallen, and of those who suffered loss.

What I realized is missing is recognition of those who continue to sacrifice to protect our freedoms and our safety.

So, I think I have finally figured out how I will mark today...

In addition to remembering the fallen, and those who suffered loss.

In addition to lowering our flag on the front porch to half-mast.

Today, I will appreciate all of the brave men and women of our armed forces who, at this very moment, place themselves in harm's way and sacrifice physical comfort and time with their loved ones, to fight to protect the very freedoms that the terrorists wish to destroy.

Today, I will appreciate all of those in this great land who serve to protect us from harm, and comfort us in times of crisis - men and women in law enforcement, firefighters, medical professionals, and volunteers to name just a few.

Today, I will appreciate the blessing of living in the United States of America.

My latest management style is: MBIRC: Management by IRC (Internet Relay Chat).

Since I work out of my house, all of the people I manage are physically remote from me.

They are all Unix system administrators, and thus spend most of their work time heads down typing.

Their preferred method of communication is IRC. Even when I was located in an office in a building with some of my staff, with them located in adjacent offices, they would rather IRC me than talk in person. On more than one occasion, when there was something difficult to talk about, they told me that they preferred to "talk" on IRC than talk on the telephone.

I was unfamiliar with IRC when I started this job, but I have come to rely on it as another mechanism for being accessible to my team.

It has become so second nature to me now, that when a friend pings me on IM (Instant Messaging) I'll tend to carry on the conversation typing. Often, all of a sudden, they will type "hey, why don't I just pick up the phone and call you?" To which I reply "whatever you prefer."

For those who don't know better, including those west of the mighty mississippi and the instigators of the war of northern aggression, just as a clarification, tea is meant to be consumed cold and sweet.

Unsweetened iced tea is an abomination, and that phrase is never uttered in polite southern company.

Hot tea may be consumed in times of crisis, usually in the context of life threatening illness, but then only when properly amended with honey and an ample shot of shine or jack.

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Sometimes it's an incredibly useful service.

Sometimes it's the sheer entertainment, or beauty, or novelty.

But, bottom line... it's all about them.

Now, there are many answers, that with just a little bit of rationalizing, would argue that it is not stealing. Some would argue that the real thieves are the people who charge $15-$20 for a CD with only one good song on it. They argue that they would be willing to pay a few dollars for that one decent song, but since that's no longer an option (yes, once upon a time, long, long ago, people could buy just one song - on something called a 45 - which had nothing to do with handguns) it is more fair to acquire that one song through sharing, than to have to pay for a CD's worth of trash.

Some would argue that it is wrong to not allow the consumer to return a CD or software package after it has been opened, and found to not meet the expectations of the purchaser. Therefore, downloading something to "try it" before you "buy it" seems only reasonable.

Some would argue that these companies - especially the Evil Empire - make so much money, that their use of a downloaded version of their product doesn't really amount to a drop of water in the ocean.

The funny thing is, that even if you accept the legitimacy of file sharing, there is another moral question to be answered: is it fair for the creators of the file sharing software to install spyware in their product?

Now, I would guess that the producers of the software would argue that since they are giving the software away for free, they can have it do whatever they want it to. They could also argue that they fully disclose exactly what the software does in the end user license agreement.

One the other hand, many would argue that no reasonable person ever reads the EULAs because only someone who has graduated suma cum laude from a top law school can understand them. They could also argue that the majority of users do not have the level of knowledge about computers to even understand what spyware or cycleware are. Finally, they would argue that no honorable concern would release software that can not be fully uninstalled using the supplied uninstaller included with the application.

What, you say? What are you talking about?

Ah, maybe you didn't realize that many popular file sharing (peer to peer) applications install programs above and beyond the file sharing portion. These programs can run automatically and monitor your computer activities even when the file sharing program is not running. Not only can they monitor, but they can report this information back to a central location.

What sort of information you might ask? Things like what sites you visit and how long you stay just for starters. Potentially, these applications could report anything that you do on your system, or any information on your system.

Another little trick is tapping processor cycles (horsepower) from you system to perform processing tasks unrelated to your activities.

And not only do these unintended "features" do things you did not expect or want. Often, they make you system much less stable, leading to errors in other applications or system crashes.

And finally, some of these applications, when you select the uninstall option, will only uninstall the file sharing application, leaving the spyware and cycleware behind to continue their nefarious deeds.

Well, I'm not wise enough to answer either question as to "right" or "wrong." But, if you are going to venture into the land of file sharing applications, you might want to consider using one that has had the "added" things stripped out.

Of course, that places you in yet another moral dilemma, since the very modification of the application and removal of the "nasties" violates the rights of the author of the application.

So, if you are still willing to step onto this slippery slope, two applications that you might want to try, that have been neutered, are KazaaLite, available at http://www.kazaalite.com and SpywareFree AudioGalaxy, available at http://spywarefreeag.ods.org/agsatellite/.