Some are predicting Blue Tuesday, an Obama landslide. While I’m not among them, I’m hoping for it. I’ve become so enraged at the politics of fear being played by the McCain camp (Socialist? Really?) that I’m praying it backfires mightily, taking out McCain, Palin, and any congressional Republicans that happen to be in the way.

The ensuing ( Read more... )

I've finally finished the asian cabinet.  Finished enough to use anyway; it's meant to have some small shelves attached to the inside of the doors.    This was intended to be a short project, to replace a worn and ugly cabinet in our living room.  The casework went together in an afternoon.  But, as usual, time to work on it became short.  The ( Read more... )

Yesterday afternoon I rode my bike for 27 miles without stopping, save for what the traffic conditions demanded.  I wasn’t exhausted by it, nor am I sore this morning.  This is a good sign - that in spite of my current outward appearance I remain relatively fit.  I am determined, this summer, to get my body into better condition.

Over the past ( Read more... )

I've finished another component of my asian inspired living room.  This is the first time I've tried embedding pictures, so apologies in advance for what this may do to your computer screen ;).

The design for these tables came from a picture I found while web-surfing:

( Read more... )

 
I was going to post this as a comment to koba’s religion thread.  But it seems to stand on its own, and it’s tangential to her point anyway.

I’ve been re-reading Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos, about halfway through the second book.  I almost never read things a second time, but I picked it up on a whim one day and haven’t been able to put it down.  ( Read more... )

 
I’ve been out of touch these past few weeks, not even lurking around to see how everyone is doing.  Hope all are well.

The Ottawa trip went pretty well.  The class was informative, and as interesting as such things can be made.  We got to see some of the city, walked around the Parliament buildings and drove by an embassy or two.  Except for the ( Read more... )

 Well the Ottawa trip is a go.  Three days of training from October 11 - 13.  Normally these training trips are halfway between actual work and a vacation, but I don’t think this one will be so easy.  Since it’s just us (me and one other person), we had the class ‘customized’ to skip all the beginner stuff and cram five days of classes into three.  ( Read more... )

With the anniversary of the September 11th attacks, I've received a few copies of popular chain e-mails spreading a couple stories about the 9/11 terrorists.   The e-mails come with a request to forward them to all your friends, urging you not to 'break the chain'.

One of these stories is the claim that, during the Iran-Contra hearings, Oliver North ( Read more... )

Earlier this week, President Bush was soundly (and, I think, rightfully) criticized for drawing comparisons with Viet Nam as reasons to stay in Iraq.  He talked about the Viet Nam debacle as having given us new cultural terms like "Killing fields ( Read more... )

I've been informed by e-mail that the we lost the project that was going to get me out of Moog.   Seems that the customer really liked my resume, so much that they wanted me now, not two months from now when my workload at Moog might allow a break.   None of the options we presented them - part time support, etc., was good enough.   They wanted all ( Read more... )