You + Me = Them: Why is that so hard to understand?

Had to comment on this. The local NBC affiliate just ran a story about the proposed "reliever route" that will send truck traffic to the north around Midland thereby reducing such traffic within the city limits. This route is part of the La Entrada al Pacifico project which is being pitched as a way of stimulating additional trade with Mexico.

Anyway, the reporter doing the story threw out this unfortunate observation (which although paraphrased, as I didn't record it word for word, is accurate):

<sigh>

I feel the need for Weed

First of all, I'm not responsible for any conclusions you've jumped to upon reading the post title.

In any event, we're outta here for the weekend, heading for the exotic and mysterious attractions of Weed, NM (population – 30, in the greater metropolitan area...it goes up if you include the spacious suburbs). We and another couple are checking out a bed and breakfast called RavenWind that comes highly recommended by another Midland couple. It looks like a great getaway, and I'm not packing the laptop (and I may not even turn on the cellphone).

Have a great weekend and we'll catch you on the flipside.

Wonder what Ray Charles could have done with something like this?

Check out LEMUR, described thusly:

No price is given for this device, which has an initial shipping date in early 2005. But if a gadget's coolness is indirectly proportional to the average lunk's inability to conceive of uses for it, this puppy is off the chart.

Note the full disclosure in the FAQ, which warns that the device has not been put through its paces by beta testers with more than ten fingers.

Hat tip to the CSS god who walks among men and with whom the only technical expertise I share is the ability to spell our common name, Eric Meyer for providing this link via his "Distractions" section.

Are you ready for some baseball?

OK, let's get cracking with this World Series thing. I'm all set; remote control...check. 13" TV sitting atop busted 35" TV...check. Handspring PDA for playing solitaire during pitching changes...check. Yep, the Fall Classic is what I'm all about. Play ball!

What's that? Uh huh...I see...OK...

Umm...never mind.

Timekeeping Woes Mount

As if to remind me that life is what happens while you're making other plans, the local electric company (Texas Power & Greed, Inc.) apparently read my post about the impending Resetting Of The Clocks, and scheduled a two-hour outage last night. This, of course, required an immediate Resetting Of The Clocks...or, at least, of the ones which didn't have battery back-ups.

I suppose I should look at it as a drill. That's fine; I'm used to getting drilled by the power company.

Blogs and Newsfeeds

A few months back, Bryan over at Arguing With Signposts had a mini-rant about the placement of "syndicate this blog" links. (I'd link to the post, Bryan, but Google didn't recognize any of the search terms I used trying to find it.) He was a bit exercised over the fact that most bloggers tend to put those links in obscure places, usually near the bottom of their main pages, making it hard for folks like him to add those blogs to their news aggregators.

At the time, I thought, "get a life, dude...there are people still using 7 pixel fonts on their blogs and you're worried about the placement of RSS feed links? I mean, who even uses those links, anyway?" [OK, what I really thought was, "huh?", but that makes me seem inarticulate and shallow.]

Well, as of this afternoon, I owe Bryan an apology, as I've walked a mile in his shoes while adding blogs to my new installation of NetNewsWire. In the process, I've found (or not found) RSS links all over the place. I also discovered that my own RSS links no longer worked, thanks to the disappearance of the service I was using. (Don't ask me why I was using an RSS service; I don't know the answer. I guess I liked their icons, OK?)

Anyway, using a newsfeed to monitor my favorite blogs requires some changes in my habits (never a good thing). I like the more accurate way NetNewsWire flags new entries, as opposed to the hit-or-miss ping results from weblogs.com, and I like being able to read excerpts from new posts without necessarily having to jump to the actual blog. But therein lies the rub...

Bloggers want visitors to their sites, and they [generally] want to know where those visitors came from. Using a newsfeed to read a post seems to bypass the mechanism whereby both of those things are usually accomplished. That's not a good thing, from a blogger's perspective.

If I read a post via the newsfeed, there will be no record for the blogger that (1) the post got read, or (2) I was the one reading it...or, rather, someone came to his or her blog from the Gazette.

The former situation can be mitigated by using the excerpt feature of one's blogging software. In MT, that feature is found under the Preferences tab on the Weblog Config page. By entering a number into the "auto-generated excerpt" blank, you can limit what the newsfeed picks up to just that number of words. This number should be large enough to provide a meaningful "teaser" so that the reader will then jump to the actual post to finish it. I'm using 40 words for my excerpts; that seems about right but that's a subjective thing.

Based on my limited sample, most MT bloggers are using the excerpt feature; the default is 20 words, which seems a little stingy to me. Some non-MT bloggers are also using excerpts, but the posts from others are showing up in complete unabridged form (Thinklings and Mysterium Tremendum being two examples).

But that still leaves the problem of the missing or misleading referer logs. If I jump to your blog to read the rest of an excerpted post, you'll never know that someone related to the Gazette dropped in. I'm not entirely comfortable with that, but I don't know that there's anything to be done about it. Heck, maybe it doesn't even matter to anyone else; maybe I'm being overly sensitive to the issue.

Otherwise, though, I think this newsfeed stuff might catch on someday. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go shopping for a new buggy whip.

P.S. I may have apologized to Bryan, but I left my RSS links at the bottom of the page anyway. I'm rebellious like that.

It's the most annoying time of the year

As I contemplate the impending reversion to Standard Time this coming Sunday, I'm reminded anew that a person with more than one clock never knows what time it is, and a household with 30 clocks is seriously pitiful.

I'll be grateful for the extra hour of sleep and the extra morning daylight, but the physical act of turning back the hands of time lost its allure years ago. It seems that nowadays every device that can be plugged into an electrical outlet (and some which cannot) comes with a clock, and the majority of them don't know CST from CBS. Even those which purport to be self-aware when it comes to the chronological metamorphosis really aren't (although it's debatable whether it's the fault of the device or the owner, who, admittedly, is non-fluent in machine language).

Much is being made about the advent of BPL -- Broadband over Power Lines -- which will bring us the wonderful joy of highspeed internet access over the our home wiring. That's all well and good, but what I'm really interested in is TPL -- Time over Power Lines. This groundbreaking technology would not only reset all those clocks automatically, but also keep them synchronized onto the (hopefully) correct time, so that I no longer have to scurry through every room of the house, mentally computing a running average of the displayed times, in order to figure out if I'm early or late.

TPL would then free me up to deal with the lone holdout: the wind-up clock on the mantel, which can only go one hour back by going eleven hours forward. I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned there, but I don't have time to delve into it. Or do I? I never really know, anymore.

Historical Oil & Gas Prices: A Graphical Look

Today's Wall Street Journal provides a fascinating overview of the past three decades of crude oil, natural gas and related product prices, adjusted for inflation.

The five graphs shown in this PDF document (size - 292kb) clearly show what the experts have been telling us all along. With the exception of natural gas, hydrocarbon product prices are still not near their historicals highs (most of which occurred around 1980) when adjusted for inflation. This seems to account for the fact that, despite the wails of impending disaster from various special interest groups and the MSM, the US economy has appeared not to notice the recent run-up in prices.

I mentioned that natural gas is the exception, and it's a notable one. Prices are now running about 10% higher than their previous peaks (again, in the early 80s). However, on a BTU-equivalent basis (assuming a ratio of 6:1), energy produced by natural gas can still be purchased at a slight discount to that produced by crude oil-derived product. In other words, it appears that we're seeing some pricing parity for the first time in decades between natural gas and crude oil. This has implications for price stability on the demand side of the equation, as it tends to reduce the fuel switching options of industrial users, who in the past would move back and forth between natural gas or crude oil, depending on the price differential.

On a related note, my blogger pal John Comeaux forwarded links to a series of articles in Forbes Magazine which clearly described the risks and costs shouldered by the major oil companies in trying to meet the steadily increasing global demand for crude oil and natural gas. As they say, a billion dollars here and a billion there and pretty soon, you're talking real money. In the case of oil and gas exploration, a lot of that "real money" goes underground, never again to be seen.

If more people would take the time to get informed about the facts, we wouldn't have to endure things like the letter to the editor in today's local newspaper where the writer poses this question: "My question is, based on their [the "oil companies"] profits, why does gas and diesel keep going up?"

Lileks nails it...again

I think this speaks for itself:

Read the whole thing.

Non-essential Updates and Pith-less Insights

• Ever had a conversation like this with one of your kids?
  
  Uncle Eric, when are we leaving for school?
  
  Well, when do you want to leave?
  
  Um...I'm supposed to be at school for practice at 7:30.
  
  Quick glance at clock. 7:26 a.m. Hmm.
  
  And I was supposed to know this exactly how?
  
  I guess I forgot to tell you. I didn't notice what time it was. (This from the only 15 year old boy in existence who looks at his wristwatch every ten minutes to make sure he's on schedule.)


• As we pulled into the school parking lot at 7:45, I say to the nephew as he gets out of the car, "You're gonna blame this on me, aren't you?" He grinned and replied, "You know I'd never do that. Translation: You are so blamed for this.


• As we pulled away and headed for the next dropoff point, I asked the niece, sitting in the passenger seat, "You'd blame me for this, wouldn't you? She smiled sweetly and said, simply, "Yes."


• Well, what good is an uncle if you can't blame him every now and then for your own sins? I've read the job description.


• I've gotten a last-minute reprieve from the situation described in this cryptic-yet-oblique post. Seems that Philadelphia is a bit more newsworthy today than Midland. Imagine that.


• I voted yesterday, along with a steady streams of fellow citizens, 90% of whom were women, 100% of whom had grim expressions on their faces. I have no explanation for that phenomenon. For all I know, I had an equally grim expression on my face. However, I always try to smile at the election workers, so they won't judge me too harshly for never carrying my voter registration card. In Texas, we can vote using a driver's license as identification, but it makes the guy look me up on the computer to confirm my address and precinct. I suspect they get tired of that. But, really...expecting me to actually plan my voting activity in advance?


• I suspect that we Americans take for granted the relative ease of casting our ballots. Nobody shot at me yesterday. I didn't have to look around for suspicious vans idling near the polling place with no drivers inside. I'm pretty sure no one was surreptitiously taking my photograph in order to better identify me with my ballot, so my name can be placed on The List for Future "Consideration." Yep, we've got it pretty cush. Easy to take for granted, isn't it?

Texas A&M Athletics: Revenue & Expense by Sport

A couple of weeks ago, I posted some data about Big 12 athletic department budgets and results (measured by championships won). This is a follow-up post that focuses on the financial impact of the various sports administered by the Texas A&M Athletic Department. This data was provided in a fund-raising package published by the 12th Man Foundation, a foundation that provides funding for A&M athletics.

The following data clearly show that most sports are money-losing propositions, from a strict direct cost-vs-ticket revenue perspective. In fact, the only sport that generates positive cash flow is football...but it does so in a big way, enough to more than offset the negative total of all other sports combined.

However, the following numbers do not include "operational expenses" (like overhead, grounds/facility maintenance, etc.), which totaled around $20M last year. They also do not include television revenue.

It's easy to see why football is king in Texas.

Cuddle up with your favorite microbe

Via a trackback to an earlier Gazette post, I found the elegantly-designed White Pebble, and via this post, this link.

These stuffed, um, organisms would make the perfect gift for the hypochondriac on your holiday shopping list, as he or she could literally embrace the bug of choice. I'm particularly enamored of the Ebola virus, which the website describes as "the T-rex of microbes." However, I will thank you to keep the stuffed Shigella microbe far away from me. Having experienced first hand the wonderfully incapacitating effects of shigellosis, I've completely lost my sense of microbial humor for that genus.

Movie Magic Revealed!

Die Hard is one of my favorite movies, well made and acted. Sure, it shows its age a bit nowadays, with references to CB radios and "police RVs," but that's part of the fun of rewatching it.

The FX Network showed the movie this afternoon as part of its series that shows some of the extras found on movie DVDs. It's a way to pick up some of the behind-the-scenes trivia while watching the movie. (Or trying to watch it; combine the DVD extras with the ever-increasing number of commercials and you're lucky to get five consecutive minutes of the film.)

Anyway, one of the tidbits I heard today was that since Bruce Willis spent a good deal of the movie barefooted, he was outfitted with "steel-belted rubber feet" for protection during the major stunts. I had never heard that before, and I wondered if something like that would be more noticeable to an informed audience. Not five minutes later, this scene became indelibly etched in my mind, and I will never again be able to watch Die Hard without noticing it:

Obviously, Willis' pant leg was supposed to cover the seam between his real leg and his rubber foot, but for fast moving scenes such as this one (where he dives over the ledge of the building to escape gunfire from the FBI's helicopter)...well, let's just say that the director probably didn't think anyone would notice.

It was a good plan, because much of magic is about misdirection. In this case, the usual focus will be on Willis' head or bloody arm; no one would normally be watching his feet.

Thanks to FX, that's all I'll see in the future!

I just know I'm gonna jinx him...

A&M pulled another win out of the hat this afternoon, beating the University of Colorado in overtime, 29-26. It was a much closer game than anyone expected, with the Ags having to drive 78 yards to tie with a field goal as time expired in regulation, then winning in overtime by recovering a very non-characteristic fumble by CU back Bobby Purify.

In the process of the win, A&M quarterback Reggie McNeal extended his Big 12 record to 220 consecutive pass attempts without an interception (if I did the math correctly). This is an amazing feat, and he's closing in on the all-time Division I record* of 271 set by Trent Dilfer (Fresno State) in 1991.

For a team that couldn't hold onto the ball last year to save its life, the Ags have made quite a turnaround. Going into today's game, they were leading the nation in turnover ratio, and added two more to the plus column today (and went another game without a turnover of their own).

*Are you a statistical records addict? If so, you probably already have the NCAA Divisions I-A and I-AA Football Records Book Archive bookmarked. Well, don't you?

Playing with Fire?

Consider this scenario. You get an email on a Friday afternoon, from a journalist in a faraway city, asking if you'd be available for an interview in a report she's doing about the "faith and values" of your home town.

Now, you know for a dead certain fact that your "faith and values" are pretty much the opposite of those held by most residents of the journalist's city, and her newspaper can be easily considered to be an active advocate for those "opposing values."

What do you think the outcome of said interview and article might be?

Stay tuned, amigos...

Screen Resolutions

Dan continues to struggle with a new layout for From Behind the Wall of Sleep, as he confronts head-on the web designer's daily frustration with the myriad browser quirks that conspire to prevent a one-style-fits-all spread.

He's got his current layout to the point where he's generally satisfied with it, except for the way it looks on a monitor resolution of 640x480. He's wondering whether he needs to tweak it some more to make it look better in that resolution.

My advice is not to worry about it. According to TrafficGeneration.com, as of July, 2004 the breakdown of screen resolutions by web surfers is as follows:

1. 1024 x 768 - 54.02%
2. 800 x 600 - 24.66%
3. 1280 x 1024 - 14.1%
4. 1152 x 864 - 4%
5. 640 x 480 - 0.6%
6. 1600 x 1200 - 0.8%
7. 1152 x 870 - 0.1%

According to these stats, which are consistent with others I've seen, 640x480 is a rapidly vanishing creature. Just as meaningful is the fact that the trend toward higher resolutions continues. In my opinion, it's not worth a redesign to address 0.6% of the market, especially for a non-commercial site.

Of course, the real wild card of this issue is not small-monitor users, but PDA/cell phone surfers. It makes my head hurt to think about that.

TV Commercials [Lame Post Alert]

As the unflinchingly honest Scott would say, I got nothin'. The weather is dismal...a continuous spitting of rain that ruins any chances of a bike ride...my clientele has evaporated, and -- irony of ironies -- fire ants are taking over the neighborhood. So I'm reduced, intellectually and emotionally, to posting about TV commercials (and that's from memory, because, as you might recall, the TV is busted).

• This has been bothering me for quite some time. You know those iPod commercials, the ones where the flat black people have flat white headphones and dance maniacally in front of flat primary colors? Well, I just want to know how those folks keep those buds in their ears. They must be anatomic anomalies because I can barely keep mine in my ears sitting in an upright and fixed position in front of my monitor. Either that, or they're implants.


• My favorite commercials du jour are the ones HP is running for their digital imaging products. I love the way they morph shots of real people into paper photos and vice versa, and the song that plays in the background is dangerously earwormish.


• Some yahoo from Monahans is running for US Representative in our district (he's a democrat, although apparently ashamed of it as his party affiliation wasn't even shown on his website, last time I looked), and his commercial's closing line is this: "Vote for me and we'll be out of Iraq tomorrow." Well. I assume that he's running for the position of God, since I can't think of another person who could get this done. And while election is certainly a theologically supportable topic for discussion, it basically goes the other direction. I'm pretty sure the Creator of the Universe doesn't have to run for re-election.

Blog Style Guide Proposal

Scott Sala over at Slant Point wants bloggers to start following the old AP Style Guide a little more closely by italicizing blog names in posts.

Next thing you know, he'll want us to spell words correctly and use proper grammar, and hold out our pinkies when sipping our tea. What's the blogosphere coming to?

Slant Point. Slant Point. Slant Point. Slant Point.

I dunno; this may be a solution in search of a problem. Plus, I hand-code my posts, so that's seven extra keystrokes for each blog reference. Actually, it's more than that, as I use a stylesheet rule for <em> to create italicized text...that's nine keystrokes. Anybody else got a preference?

Baseball Irony: Rangers Doom Astros?

I'm sure that others have picked up on this long before it occurred to me, but isn't it ironic that a member of the Texas Rangers ball club has possibly doomed the Houston Astros, if the latter team makes it to the World Series?

If you recall, the Rangers' Alfonso Soriano was the MVP of the All-Star Game back in July, leading the American League to a blowout 9-4 victory over the National League team. That victory in turn clinched home field advantage for the American League in the World Series. And, of course, Houston is in the National League.

Houston is a pretty good road game team, ending up seven games over .500 for the season in away contests. But they are on fire at home, having won something like 21 of their last 22 games in Houston.

Boston ended up only five games over .500 on the road, but they were 55-26 at home. Only the Yankees had a better home field record.

So, if Houston makes it to the Series (and that's a big "if," of course), they will have to play four games in Boston. That's an uphill battle, and if they lose it, you can look back to the performance of some pesky Texas Rangers on July 13 to find the seeds of the defeat.

Update: Michelle over at A Small Victory has a great t-shirt to commemorate the Yankees' historic collapse. Tip of the BoSox cap to Scott at The Fat Guy for the link, and for some great insights to the game and series. I get the feeling that Scott may be ordering a gross of the t-shirts to give away at his next music festival.

Midland Polling Places & Times

I noticed that someone visited the Gazette via a Google search for "Midland polling places." I don't know where else that information might be located, but you can find a complete early voting schedule on the Midland County GOP home page.

Kerry and the BoSox

NYC radio talk show host and blogger Kevin McCullough is hosting "The Carnival of the Cheesy Kerry/Red Sox Quotes" in an effort to predict the ways John Kerry will attempt to hitch his election star to Boston's baseball team following their victory over the Yankees. Here's my contribution:

Unspoken will be the fact that should Kerry be elected, The Curse would not actually be broken, but simply transferred...to the American people!

New Bible Haikus

Here are a couple of new poems to move us forward in our project to do every book of the Bible.

Jasmine (remember her?) tackles Song of Solomon (aka Song of Songs):

Then, Larry Stephey (the original Bible haikuist) offers a take on Isaiah:

As always, you can read all the verses submitted to this point here. If you want to tackle another book of the Bible, just leave a comment here or email me.

Rambling around Santa Fe

Fellow Midland bloggers Wallace and Julie have just returned from a trip to Santa Fe, Galisteo and Chama, NM, and Wallace has a trip report along with some photos of gorgeous fall scenery at Galisteo.

Having taken the narrow-gauge train trip from Durango to Silverton, Colorado, his description of a similar trip from Chama sounds enticing (and even more adventurous...the Durango outing is pretty tame in comparison, although the scenery is still breathtaking).

While you're in Wallace's neighborhood, I recommend dropping by the website of his artist friend, Woody Gwyn. His stylized landscape paintings are intriguing, but I was really fascinated by the mixed media series entitled Skeletons.

Movie Fun: Music in Non-Musicals

I finished watching 13 Going On 30 today during my torture treadmill session. Cute movie... serious lapses in plot (duh)... Jennifer Garner is a revelation. Anyway, my favorite scene in the movie was the "Thriller" dance at the magazine's party. I'm a sucker for the interjection of such scenes in movies that are not musicals, especially if they're unusual or unexpected.

That brought to mind similar scenes in other movies, and so I've decided to create a Top 10 list to see if you can think of any favorites I've missed. Again, the criteria are simple: the scene should involve song or dance, and it should take place in a movie genre other than a musical.

In no particular order, here's my list (the aforementioned "13...30" rounds it out to ten):

• Caveman, the eminently forgettable vehicle with Ringo Starr, Shelley Long and Dennis Quaid had a gem of a scene around a campfire in which music was invented.


• The best scene in My Best Friend's Wedding was during the pre-wedding meal when the group broke out into "Say A Little Prayer for You."


• About A Boy was a surprisingly good movie all the way around, but the finale where Hugh Grant tried to save a really pitiful song was classic.


• People stayed away from Tank Girl in droves, and in doing so, missed a wonderfully incongruous rendition of Cole Porter's classic, "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)," complete with dominatrix.


• Some might say that Chevy Chase, John Candy and Dan Akroyd hit bottom with Nothing But Trouble, but I would point to the hip hop scene with Tupac Shakur, Fuze and Chopmaster J (among others) and ask for a recount.


• My Blue Heaven is an underrated movie starring Steve Martin and Rick Moranis and it features a great scene where Steve's character teaches Rick's how to dance. Rick is a quick learner.


• I debated about this one, but decided that no list of this kind would be complete without Peter Boyle's delicate rendering of "Puttin' On the Ritz" in Young Frankenstein.


• Before I swore off watching her movies, I thought Whoopi Goldberg was a riot in Sister Act, and the choir's rendition of "I Will Follow Him" is fraught with double-meaning. (Here's a bit of unrelated trivia, btw. The nun with the really amazing voice in Sister Act...you know, the cute blonde [can I say that about a nun?]...was Wendy Makkena. She's now starring as Jason Alexander's wife in the CBS sitcom, "Listen Up." Catch her while you can; I predict a short life for this series.)


• The Mask was one of Jim Carrey's best pure comedies, and Cameron Diaz (in her first movie role) was breathtaking during their big dance scene.

OK, your turn. What'd I miss (other than the 25 minutes it took me to write this)?

Minimalist Blogging

Coupla new blogs (to me, anyway) to call to your attention, both with an approach that teases the visitor into making the posts into something meaningful.

The first is One Million Footnotes, self-described as "Footnotes to a nonexistent book, a series of observations, a novel without the plot, the autobiography of an imagination, linked poetry of the everyday world, an impossible goal. The author is on footnote #258; whether one million is a real goal is just one of the mysteries.

The second blog is identical in approach; in fact, the author admits to finding her inspiration from One Million Footnotes. It's called Afterthoughts.

One sentence per day. I could write volumes on the implications.

Tip o'the Hat to People, Books and the Glory of Christ for the pointer to One Million Footnotes.

Kerry finally gets it: Halliburton competent

John Kerry has finally admitted what everyone else knew all along: Halliburton gets big jobs because they have the knowledge, resources, expertise, personnel and drive to get them done.

Speaking in Florida today, Kerry made the stunning admission in a reference to the current worldwide shortage in flu vaccine, caused by a British company's quality control failure:

I think we all need to extend a hand of congratulations to Kerry for finally getting a clue.

How to blog without saying anything - Part 63 in an unending series

As usual for a Monday morning, I can't stay focused long enough to generate a semi-coherent post, so I'll succumb to the stream-of-consciousness impulse.

• If this humble blog is any indication, folks are getting pretty fed up with politics. Even though this quasi-political post generated about 5,000 extra page views last week, this lame post about folding fitted bedsheets has generated almost as much discussion. Personally, I find that somehow reassuring (especially since I excel at lame posts).


• We seem to be singing the same choruses every Sunday morning at our church. Maybe they just all sound alike. Not that I'm complaining (necessarily); I really like some of them. But I'm still just a wee bit uncomfortable referring to the Creator of the Universe as "the Darling of Heaven." That just doesn't seem right, even if the words and melody are by one of the best writers of praise and worship music in the world.


• That reminds me of another thing I don't like in "contemporary praise music" in church services: the mouthing of nonsense phrases. We once sang a chorus that ended with several repetitions of "whoa, whoa, whoa" (not intended to be the horse command, but more along the lines of The Righteous Brothers..."You've lost that loving feeling, whoa, whoa, whoa"). I see no place for congregational recitation of the types of utterances reserved for pop stars. But, I guess I'm old-fashioned that way.


• Of course, perhaps I wasn't the only one. We no longer end that chorus in that fashion.


• We also sang a really dreadful, dirge-like song in Sunday School yesterday, one of those "what a wretched filthy wormlike creature I am, only that gives worms a bad name" kind of songs, written by the otherwise commendable John Wesley back in the 18th century. I'm not even sure it was all theologically correct. It certainly wasn't meant to be sung with only a guitar accompaniment. After four verses, I still couldn't find the melody. But the words lent themselves to monotone mumbling anyway.


• OTOH, a couple of weeks ago in Sunday School, we sang "Dropkick Me Jesus Through the Goalposts of Life," so I suppose it all balances out.


• Our TV went out yesterday afternoon. It's not like we don't have at least four backups, but this is the big boomer in the living room. Still, it wasn't a total loss. I didn't have to see the Cowboys collapse against the Steelers.

Just Discovered: Our Green Room

One of the benefits of having a post attract fairly widespread attention is that I'm finding via my visitor logs some new blogs worth reading.

One of those is Our Green Room, a(nother) blog originating from Lubbock. Chris Green, the proprietor, is a minister and so he writes from a Christian perspective.

I also like the name of his blog, because it reminds me of one of my favorite albums, "Green Room Serenade, Vol 1" by The Lost Dogs. I've added OGR to the Gazette's blogroll; you might want to check it out, too.

Dateline Interview with Rick Warren (Audio)

Update (10/16/04): In the comments to the original post, Lee Schulz provides a link to a video recording of Rick Warren's Dateline interview. I'm going to remove my audio-only version referenced below in deference to the more complete version provided by Lee.

Plus, you'll get to see how cool the combination of Apple's iMovie and .Mac accounts can be!

This post about NBC's Dateline program on Rick Warren and Saddleback Church continues to attract readers, generally via search engines. I've had some readers contact me about locating a copy of the program.

I have a recording of the program on DVD but have thus far been unsuccessful in converting it to a web-friendly video format. However, I have been able to extract the audio and rip it to MP3 for those who want to hear the interview, which aired on Sunday, October 3, 2004.

[links removed 10/16/04]

White Paper: A New Level of Hell

Memo to the Prince of Darkness:

Dear Mr. Pod,

I would like to propose the immediate implementation of a new level of Hell, if you can find the space. I believe that this proposal will provide a uniquely awful form of punishment to the deserving offender, and I know that you will be astonished at its simplicity. I suspect this will set a new standard for low overhead agony, a standard that is not likely to be bested in your lifetime. (I trust that that's not a sensitive issue with you.)

My proposal requires only one item for full and complete implementation: a fitted sheet for a kingsize bed, fresh from the dryer. Well, actually, I suppose you don't really need a clothesdryer in Hell, now do you? ;-) So it's even more simple than I thought.

The agony part comes here -- are you ready for this? -- you make the unfortunate souls assigned to this new level FOLD SHEETS FOR ETERNITY! And the beauty of this idea is this: IT CAN'T BE DONE! No human being can successfully fold a fitted sheet; it's impossible.

I know this, sir, because I've tried. Believe me, I've tried. But the new sheets are like big baggy showercaps, and they have elastic all the way around them. And here's the worst part: they have no corners! How can that be? I don't know, but it's true. Someone (you?) figured out a way to make a sheet with no corners.

When you combine the cornerless construction with the omnipresent elastic, and throw into the mix a piece of fabric the size of Rhode Island, you're left with an amorphous mass that cannot be tamed. Frankly, I've given up trying. I just stuff 'em into the linen closet, and tuck in the edges of the blob so that it appears to a casual observer, say, my wife, that folding has occurred, and then I hope for the best.

The only hitch in my plan is that I haven't yet figured out what sin(s) will warrant such extreme measures. I'll leave that in your capable talons, although you might want to take a look at how those guys who drive for miles down the freeway with their turn signals blinking are currently being treated.

Feel free to take this ball and run with it. I probably wouldn't let Sisyphus know about this proposal, however; he still thinks he's got it bad and I wouldn't want him to feel slighted.

Yours truly,

A Consultant (yeah...that's right; no soul here for you to pounce on!)

The Wall of Sleep gets a new coat of paint

Dan has completed his redesign of From Behind the Wall of Sleep, and he's seeking reader feedback.

He has a Colophon, which is one of my favorite features, especially when my name is included. <blush> In a fit of deliriousness, Dan lobbed me a softball of a CSS question and in that miraculous moment of blind flailing that happens only in sappy movies, I hit it. But I appreciate the nod, just the same.

Dan mentions disappointment that his font of choice, ITC Souvenir, doesn't have oldstyle numerals. The fact that he's looking for a monospaced font rules this out, but Georgia is perhaps the best font around with such numerals, and it was designed specifically for screen display. I've used it on a couple of client websites and it looks classy. Never mind that it was created by Microsoft.

Lileks throws his hat into ring

Please join me in helping James through the Five Stages of Candidacy. He's now in Stage 1 -- Denial, but periously close to Stage 2 -- Anger (the use of caps locks in the page title gives him away).

The sooner we walk him through this, the sooner Minnesota will have the Senator it always deserved.

Dutch TV Special about Midland

Update (10/18/04): After somehow finding this post, Richard Rose's wife, Jan, left a comment setting the record straight about her political preferences. She is a Bush supporter, not a Kerry supporter. She was interviewed for the program, but the producers elected not to include her interview.

However (and I admit this with head hung low), she is shown holding a Bush/Cheney sign while standing next to her husband (see screenshot below), and I have no explanation for how I failed to notice this the first time I viewed the program. My only excuse is that Kerry/Edwards signs are so rare in this part of the country that they tend to distract from anything around them.

Anyway, my heartfelt apology goes out to Ms. Rose for my mischaracterization of her political leanings!

...

Wallace over at Streams calls our attention to a short program about Midland now playing on Dutch television. You can find it here; click on the link entitled "Op zoek naar de wortels van president Bush," which I believe can be translated as "More salamanders defer to president Bush."

Wallace reports some difficulty getting the video to stream, but I had no trouble watching it using Windows MediaPlayer (NS 7.2 for Mac).

It's really an interesting piece, from a couple of perspectives. First, it features people I know, namely Jimmy Patterson giving a tour of the George Bush museum, and Wallace's wife, Julie, who provides commentary in front of the Bush childhood home. (Actually, I don't know Julie except through her blog and Wallace's, but that's just a technicality.) All of the scenes are familiar, being the stock images you always see on such programs: obligatory shots of downtown, pumpjacks, pumpjacks with downtown in the background, etc. It's also amusing to hear a tour of our city conducted in Dutch, but suddenly switching to English for the interviews and seeing Dutch subtitles.

The piece also focuses briefly on a lonely Kerry/Edwards-supporting couple standing in front of their upper middle class home holding campaign signs. They are identified as Richard Rose and, presumably, wife. Rose talks a bit about the discomfort of being a Kerry supporter in the heart of Bush country. One shot shows him vanishing as he closes the plantation shutters of his home, apparently in an attempt to hide from the tar-and-feather mobs roaming the city like packs of feral...um, sorry; I got carried away.

Julie does a great job as a Bush advocate, by the way.

"Cool Republican" Proven NOT to be an Oxymoron

Dawn Eden is the coolest chick I know, and she can prove it. Never mind that I don't understand half the stuff she references (well, actually, that's more proof of her coolness); there's absolutely no misunderstanding where she lands on the issues that are truly important.

Sci-Fi Creature on the Loose!

While sweeping the leaves and acorns off the front drive yesterday (a wasted effort thanks to an unexpected late afternoon thunderstorm) I spotted a flash of green next to the porch. It was a large praying mantis, not exactly rare in these parts but also not an everyday occurrence.

Mantids are cool insects to have around, as they are actually fast enough to eat mosquitos and flies.

I made a mental note to return with my camera, but got distracted for a moment ("oh look...a baby squirrel...") and when I did return, the insect was gone.

Well, if you know mantids (and I know that you do), they're slow-moving except when on attack, so I figured he was still in the vicinity. I inspected the adjacent shrubbery for a few minutes and was just about to give up when he came into view on the brick wall behind a bush, climbing towards the roof.

I put the camera into macro mode, on manual focus and took a couple of shots. This one turned out pretty well, I think, considering my overall lack of photographic skill.

I could be wrong, but isn't that expression on his "face" the same one Brad Pitt reserves for paparazzi?

I noticed that he was climbing in an unusual halting, swaying motion. He would take a step, sway back and forth a couple of times, then take another step or two. I wish I'd stuck around a bit longer to see what he was up to, because later that afternoon, I noticed this under the eave of the house.

Apparently, that halting gait was a sign of labor contractions (?!). Yep, it turns out that "he" is really a "she," as evidenced by the egg case she deposited after I left. I had no idea of their gestation period, but according to this website, next spring I should have my own personal herd of teeny mantids. I hope I'm present when they hatch; those first few moments are so critical to the long-term bonding process.

Thursday Night [TV] Lights

Update: We're in the 4th quarter of the Lee/Permian contest...and it's no contest. Midland Lee is having its way with the visitors from Odessa. I normally wouldn't care one way or the other, but the interview with H.G. Bissinger before the game started tilted me firmly into Lee's corner. He displayed an amazing lack of class in his remarks about the city of Midland and Lee High School specifically, and for that reason alone, I hope Lee extends its current 44-7 lead by a couple more touchdowns. In the other contest, nearing halftime, Southlake Carroll is assuming control after unexpectedly falling behind early in the game.

For those who already think that high school football is overemphasized in Texas, tonight's TV schedule contains some depressing news: not one, but two high school games will be broadcast live nationally.

At 7:00 p.m. (CDT), Fox Sports News will carry the Midland Lee/Odessa Permian game from Midland. At 8:30 p.m., ESPN2 will cover the Southlake Carroll/Denton Ryan game, being played in Southlake (which is a suburb in the northern part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, for those not familiar with Texas).

Although the football junkie can catch the significant parts of both games, here's my admittedly uninformed perspective on what to expect from each. If you're a traditionalist, the Lee/Permian game is the matchup for you. These teams are fairly evenly matched this year, but neither is a powerhouse from a statewide perspective (Lee is 5-1 and Permian is 4-2). Look for the outcome to be the same as the one shown in Friday Night Lights (no spoilers here!).

The Southlake/Ryan game should appeal to those looking for a preview of the state championship playoffs. Southlake Carroll is ranked #1 in the nation by USA Today, and Ryan is ranked #12. I predict a Southlake victory, partly because of the home field advantage but primarily because this team is talented enough to beat a number of college teams. Don't be surprised to see them go undefeated all the way through to the Texas 5-A State Championship.

One final note to highlight the distinction between these two games. I mentioned that Midland Lee is 5-1 for the season. Their only loss was in the first game of the season, when Southlake Carroll handed them a good old fashioned whipping, 45-14.

Gator Bites Now Misplaced Keys

And the chicken crows at midnight.

OK, it's not a spy thing, and the second part is made up. But the first part is true...the blog formerly known as Gator Bites is no more, having morphed into a new husband/wife teamblog called Misplaced Keys. When you get a minute, drop by and welcome Angie and Jon to their new Expression Engine home!

The movie Moore really wanted to make

This is hilarious!

It's an iFilm entitled "Fellowship 9/11," and it's an exquisite satire on Moore's pack o'lies movie, the Movie Whose Named Cannot Be Spoken Lest It Turneth Up On Google.

Hat tip to Peeve Farm

Flu Shots Canceled

My wife just received confirmation of what we were expecting: her employer has canceled its plans to provide free flu shots for employees and their spouses, in light of the expected vaccine shortage.

We've never been particularly susceptible to the flu, but we've taken advantage of the offer the past couple of years just to be on the safe side (recognizing that there are still a few of the tinfoil hat persuasion who remain convinced that flu vaccinations are Communist plots). But I'm sure we'll be OK this year.

Although <cough> now that I think about it, <cough>; I am starting to feel a mite peaked.

<cough>

Hats of Hope: Commendable Cause, Cool Caps

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and many organizations and companies are providing ways to provide tangible support for research efforts and for survivors.

Hats of Hope is one of those companies. Founded by three women, the company sells ball caps with inspirational messages printed inside them, and the word "Hope" under the brim, and they are really quite stylish. (Note to guys: they have unisex models.) The company donates a portion of their sales proceeds to various national cancer advocacy and research organizations (and the American Diabetes Association). Twenty bucks is a small price to pay to get a chic chapeau and support some very worthy causes.

Big 12 Athletic Budgets & Results

I recently received a mailing from my alma mater, Texas A&M, entitled "The Cost of Building Champions." The combination CD/brochure is a slick presentation designed to entice me into giving money to the athletic department via the 12th Man Foundation.

This solicitation presents an unflinching look at how A&M stacks up against its Big 12 competitors in terms of athletic achievement and funding. The picture is not a pretty one, if you're gung ho about such things. Below, for example, is a chart showing the annual athletic department budgets for each school in the conference (amounts are FY2003-04 except for OU, CU & UT, which are 2002-03). The figure in parentheses next to the school name shows the number of regular season conference titles (in all sports) won by that school since the conference was formed in 1996.

A couple of interesting observations can be gleaned from this chart...

• The 12 universities spend almost half a billion dollars on their athletic programs each year.


• UT's championships are the cheapest, costing "only" $1.27M each. Missouri, on the other hand, must surely savor its $34.2M trophy. (It's worse than this, of course. Those budget numbers must be multiplied by some factor to reflect the total costs since the conference was formed. But $200M+ for one championship is too depressing to consider.)


• UT and Nebraska together have won more championships than the rest of the schools combined. However, the combined budgets of those two schools is only 25% of the conference total.

A little research at the Big 12's official website shows that total current enrollment for the Conference is about 361,000 students. Thus, the total athletic department budgets equate to $1,257 per student. From this perspective, A&M is near the bottom of the list, tied with Kansas at $938/student (Oklahoma State is last at $842/student). On the other end of the spectrum, Nebraska spends over $2,100/student on its athletic programs.

The brochure also documents a somewhat ironic situation that adversely affects A&M's athletic revenue stream: its students show up for football games in numbers that dwarf the other schools. Why is this a problem? It's because students get their tickets at half-price. So when A&M has its usual average student attendance of 30,000 at its football games, out of a total of 80,000 fans, well, the math is easy to do. By the way, that 30,000 attendance number is three times as large as the next biggest competitor, UT (at 10,000...surprising in itself).

Up next: A look at how each individual sport at A&M pays for itself, or, more to the point, doesn't.

Gadget freaks, rejoice: Segway strikes again!

This, I could go for. Goofy name; cool ride. Be sure to watch the video.

Tip o' the hat to Gadgetopia (where else?)...

Debate Preparation Done Right

P.J. O'Rourke puts some words in the President's mouth...some very funny words...some very funny-yet-wise words...some very... Oh, go read it yourself!

Tip 'o the hat to The Thinklings.

Kerry's Nuisance Advisory System

In the "gotta laugh to keep from crying" vein, I'm having fun with John Kerry's interview published in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine.

In an amazingly naive statement, Kerry thinks we can go back to a time when terrorism was simply "a nuisance." Here's the complete quote (in context, btw, for you Dem spinmeisters who seem to be protesting just a tad too shrilly for credibility):

Without getting into a discussion about how to break it to past (and future) victims of terrorism that they've really just been terribly bothered, I offer my vision of the new "Nuisance Level Alert System" under the Kerry administration:

[If you want to use this image on your own site, you have my blessing...but please upload it to your server rather than just linking to the image on mine. It's the polite thing to do. Muchas gracias.]

Update: Immense thanks to the scintillating Dawn Eden for pointing out the embarrassing misspelled word in the preceding graphic; it's wonderful to have an ace copy editor for a friend. "What misspelling?" you ask. Never you mind.

Dawn's Horizons Expand

Blogger pal Dawn Eden just discovered that chicken liver actually appears in a form other than a paste.

First, she visits a Baptist church. Now, she's eating chicken livers.

I think she's got a legitimate future as a Texan!

Riding in the Tour de Wino

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, MLB and I traveled 110 miles southwest to Fort Stockton, where the annual HarvestFest celebration was taking place. The attraction of this event to us came in the form of a bike ride to the Cordier Estates winery located 26 miles east of town, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

This sounded interesting for several reasons. First, we'd never ridden much east of town and the landscape warrants closer scrutiny than that provided through a car window on the interstate. Second, we'd never toured the winery...and the facility is now closed to the general public except for special occasions like this. And, finally, after weeks of rainy and/or stormy weather, the forecast was for sunny and calm conditions, and our tandem was begging for a workout. We hadn't ridden much at all lately, but a 52 mile ride didn't seem like overreaching, especially with a nice break at the turnaround.

Saturday dawned clear and cool, as forecast. With temps in the upper 50s, my sleeveless jersey and shorts didn't immediately seem like the wisest choice of apparel, although I was counting on a quick warmup in the bright sunshine. Our plan was to drive to Rooney Park to register at 8:30, return to my parents' house to complete our preparations, then ride back to the park in time for the ride start at 9:30. It was a good plan, but we didn't count on the fact that we were the only ones that had a plan, period.

At 8:30, there was no one at the registration area. At 8:45, someone showed up, only to say that the ride coordinator was participating in the 5K fun run and nothing would happen until he finished the race. Being the adaptible folks we are, and understanding how things work in small towns, we decided to return home, gear up and ride back to the park to register...which we did. Unfortunately, by 9:15, the ride coordinator had shown up but had no forms. (He said that he'd only agreed to be the coordinator because the event organizers had promised him that he wouldn't have to do anything.)

He set off on his bike in search of registration forms, but several impatient riders (mostly from the Midland-Odessa area) decided to begin the ride immediately. By the time the guy returned, forms in hand, only a few of us were still around to take care of the formalities (which included paying $15 per person to cover the sag stop provisions, winery tour and tasting and -- what else? -- t-shirt). We ended up departing around 9:45, which is considered fashionably late in many circles.

The ride to the winery was, in a word, wonderful. Surprisingly, our destination was at a lower elevation than our start...in layman's terms, the ride out was downhill (although there were three relatively steep hills on the route). We also had a slight breeze at our backs. The result of these conditions was that our riding time for the 26.4 miles was almost exactly 90 minutes. That 17.6 mph average was much better than our normal pace, and I suspect most of the single bike riders averaged close to 20 mph. Of course, you are perceptive enough to realize that on an out-and-back course, ideal conditions going one way don't really bode too well for going the other. More about that later.

A wonderful vista...we're riding toward the morning mist.

The scenery was beautiful, in the rugged and sparse fashion of the desert...a desert that had enjoyed significantly higher than usual rainfall during the previous six months. The overall hue of the landscape was green, instead of the more usual beige and brown, and the I-10 service road was lined with thick grasses and wildflowers. We spotted numerous tiny ponds where a month ago, there was nothing but bare rock. Standing water in west Texas pastures are scenes to be treasured.

A micro-oasis...and a rare sight in this area

The winery tour was fascinating. Our guide was the executive manager, a Frenchman named Michel, who didn't seem at all annoyed to be confronted on a Saturday afternoon with more than a dozen sweaty bicyclists with funny accents. He gave us a thorough tour of the operation, beginning with the bin where the grapes were dumped immediately after the harvest, to the warehouse filled with cases of finished product awaiting shipment.

Winery manager Michel talks about the new
premium wine label, Peregrine Hill.

The stats are amazing. With about 800 acres of producing vineyard (out of about 1200 potential acres), the harvest this year was about 3,200 tons. The winery has a capacity of 1.6 million gallons per year, but they have the grapes for only about 600 thousand gallons. Therefore, they bottle wine on a contract basis as well. This year, they have produced wine for French and Australian labels, as well as their own St. Genevieve and Peregrine Hill labels (the latter is a new premium label for the winery).

We ended the winery tour at a table containing six or eight bottles of wine and large fruit and cheese platters. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be considered to be the ideal mid-ride restorative repast, but we didn't really have a choice. MLB and I don't normally drink wine, but we were curious about the end result of the process about which we'd just been educated. Besides, we didn't want to offend our hosts (the chief winemaker herself had joined us halfway through the tour) who were so proud of and enthusiastic about their work.

Lance, one of the riders from Odessa,
is a serious oenophile.

We tasted four varieties: a Chiraz, a Chardonnay, a Merlot and a Blush. Not being oenophiles, we weren't impressed one way or another, but the Merlot seemed to get the best reactions from the other riders, most of whom were enthusiastically draining their sample glasses and holding them out for refills. (Oh, did I neglect to mention that a trailer was available for cyclists who didn't feel up to the ride back to town...for whatever reason?)

About an hour after arriving at the winery, MLB and I excused ourselves from the rest of the group and headed back into town. We stopped several times to take photos, and had a nice visit with the elderly lady who provided a rest stop just down the hill from the old stagecoach stop, about eight miles from the winery. I have to admit that her Gatorade, bananas and Snickers were really a welcome improvement over the winery fare.

This was a stagecoach stop in the 19th century;
it's now a rest area on I-10

The trip back to town was harder -- uphill and into the wind are not our favorite cycling conditions -- but not agonizingly so. We weren't in a hurry, and the weather and scenery were good enough to keep us in a decent frame of mind. Still, we were famished when we got back to the starting point, where hundreds of folks were now milling around the park, enjoying live music, fair food, a car show and the typical festival attractions for kids. Most of the food vendors were local families, and the offerings were uniformly tantalizing: asado burritos, brisket sandwiches, tamales and so on. In short time, we were gastronomically recharged and ready to call it a day. We were a bit of a spectacle riding out of the park, as the only route out went in front of the music stage, but after six years of riding the longest production tandem in the world*, we're used to it. I figure most people thought we were just part of the carnival atmosphere.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day and we're glad we did the ride. I think we'll seriously consider doing it again next year.

But, we never did get our t-shirts!

This is a famous area landmark, recognized and remarked upon by
every 14-year old male ever to live in Pecos County.

*It's weird to join a group of people, none of whom you've ever met, and find out that you've been a topic of discussion. That was the case on Saturday, when we discovered that among the Permian Basin cycling community, our bike is known as "the SS Siegmund."

Back in Town

We're back in Midland following an enjoyable (and tiring) weekend in Fort Stockton. I'm working on a report of our experiences in the "Tour de Wino" but until then, you can watch for a new Abbye photo at right. Just keep hitting reload until you see one you don't recognize.

OK...that's cruel. While you can go the reload route, you can also just click here if instant gratification is your thing.

Mojo Madness

Last night's national premier in Odessa of "Friday Night Lights" was a big deal, at least in Odessa. The movie will undoubtedly focus nationwide attention on west Texas, giving us another 15 minutes of "fame," and reinforcing stereotypes, whether true or inaccurate. The reviews thus far have been predictable: the local reviewers love it, the yankee reviewers (that's anyone outside of the Permian Basin, in case you're wondering) are mixed.

Anyhoo, that's neither here nor there, for purposes of this post. I simply want to draw your attention to this website, sent to me for some unknown reason by an unknown (to me) person who thought that just because I hail from Midland, I would appreciate a site devoted to debunking the Mojo myth.

And, of course, I do.

It's a fairly clever site, all tongue-in-cheek and inoffensive. It actually uses the word "putative" properly, leading me to wonder if the author(s) received a local education <rimshot>. Someone has gone to a fair bit of trouble to build it...and, ironically, that seems to reinforce rather than deflate the power of Mojo.

Which, of course, lends itself to all sorts of conspiracy theories regarding the actual source of the site (think Karl Rove and Memogate). Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves while pondering this question: why was it that all the stars in "Friday Night Lights" had such good things to say about The Barn Door restaurant, but none of them would admit to having eaten there?

Touring the Wine Country...of West Texas

We're heading west of the Pecos later today to participate in tomorrow's Wine Pedal Bike Tour (a truly enigmatic title...is the emphasis on "wine pedal" or "pedal bike," the former being nonsensical and the latter being redundant).

This is one of the events in the annual Fort Stockton bacchanalia known as "HarvestFest." The ride goes 26 miles east of town to the Cordier Estates Winery, owned by the largest wine producer in Texas. Then, depending on your state of mind and body after a tour of the Stomping Werks, you can either attempt to pedal back to town, or hitch a ride with the designated driver bike-trailer hauler. We plan to pedal both ways, in case you're wondering, H₂O being our preferred drink.

The last time we traveled this route, it was by car at 75 mph down I-10. We marveled then at how green the desert landscape appeared. In the month since that trip, Fort Stockton has received another foot of rain (probably to the dismay of the winery), and I imagine the scenery will be even more verdant. Perhaps we'll return with a photo or two to share.

Tragic Lessons

The sad irony in this story about a Midland High School student being struck by a car yesterday is that the driver is a former Midland school board president who helped lead the effort to get the recent school bond passed for the benefit of students throughout Midland.

Knowing only what I read in the news account, it seems that there are two vivid lessons to be learned.

First, it's impossible to provide 100% protection to teens against the consequences of their own bad judgment. There is, to my knowledge, no pedestrian crosswalk in the 900 block of West Wall Street, which happens to be one of the busiest thoroughfares to downtown Midland during what passes for rush hour in our city. There is, however, a traffic light and crosswalk just a couple of blocks east.

Anyone who has driven within two blocks of Midland High during school hours has surely experienced the complete disregard for the laws of physics by MHS students, blithely crossing against the light (if, indeed, they've elected to cross at an intersection), attention focused completely on iPod and/or cell phone and/or friends. We've all made allowances for such behavior, as it is one of the defining characteristics of that demographic...and we can recall our own youthful sense of invulnerability. Unfortunately, the likelihood of bad things happening as a result of such unsafe, if not illegal behavior increases in proportion to the distance from the campus where the behavior occurs. At some point, it's just not realistic to expect that drivers will be on the lookout for teenaged jaywalkers.

The second lesson applies to those well-meaning drivers who apparently stopped to let the victim attempt to complete his ill-advised crossing. Of course, for all I know, the young man was already in the middle of their lane and they stopped to avoid hitting him. I can't fault them in that case. But I've also seen the other situation happen all too often: someone is poised on the curb, leaning forward as if to cross, and a driver comes to a halt in anticipation of the crossing. And all too often, I've seen a driver in the adjacent lane keep moving. It's a recipe for disaster. (If you don't believe this scenario is common, try crossing Garfield Street next to First Baptist Church on any given Sunday morning.)

My hope is that both victims of this incident will be able to completely overcome the physical and emotional damage they each have suffered. It's probably too much to hope that others will learn some lessons from it that will keep it from happening again.

Remembering Lil

Except for this post, the Gazette will be silent today in memory of my wife's mother who passed away unexpectedly on this date last year.

A day rarely passes that I don't think about Lil, and I know that her daughters and husband still mourn their loss. The first anniversary of events like this seem to amplify the emotions. Time and God's grace inevitably soften the blow, but the memories never leave...nor should they.

Why Kerry Is Not An Option

While I haven't been coy with my political stance, up to this point I also haven't gone out of my way to do any serious politicking. I prefer to leave that to others who are smarter, better informed, more perceptive and more articulate than me. People like, say, Bill Whittle.

If you've already decided to vote for George Bush, you can read Bill's latest posts and be awed by his historical perspective and grasp of the interrelationship of events. But it's not really critical that you do so.

If, however, you've decided to vote for John Kerry -- and particularly if you were swayed by the first debate -- I urge you to go to the following links and commit the 20 minutes it will take to read what Bill has to say. His observations might just cause you to rethink your vision of what will become of America over the next four years, based on the outcome of the upcoming election. Just keep this mantra in mind: Wishing does not make it so.

Go ahead...I dare you. Part one is here; part two (if you don't notice the link on his site) is here.

[Tip o'the hat to Charles at dustbury.com]

Note to Dick: .com ain't .org

I didn't watch last night's debate between the VP candidates, but it's widely reported that Dick Cheney gave out a bad URI when he directed viewers to factcheck.com instead of factcheck.org. A visit to the former address immediately redirects the visitor to the website of billionaire ABB wacko George Soros.

Now, it's also being reported that some enterprising soul heard Cheney's mistake and immediately scarfed up the .com address, setting it up with the redirect. That sounded a bit fishy to me, knowing how inefficient the domain name registration process is. And, in fact, that's not the case. It appears, according to the Wall Street Journal, that this domain has been owned for some time by a corporate cybersquatter, Name Administration Inc., a Cayman Islands company. And get this: the redirect was set up by the company because, as they put it, "Individuals within the company are favorably disposed to George Soros's political point of view."

In the end, it hardly matters, as most surfers will be knowledgeable enough to figure out that the right TLD is .org. In fact, enough visitors made the right connection that factcheck.org's server was brought to its cyberknees. I just checked and the site is still giving a "connection refused" message. But then, so is factcheck.com.

I guess we'll have to call this one a draw.

A[nother] Reason to Blog

Like any self-respecting blogger, I spend some time (OK...a lot; there, are you satisfied?) poring over visitor logs and being amazed at the variety of ways people stumble across the Gazette.

As you might expect, a bunch of folks come by way of search engines, and their search terms are all over the map. For example, someone visited a few minutes ago after this post came up in the #2 spot on Google for the term "pomeranian ant." In this case, I fear the seeker was disappointed to find my ramblings about the shoddy quality of Hummers, rather than insights into horribly mutated six-legged tiny dogs that they were obviously seeking.

Such things are a source of endless amusement to someone like me who is easily amused, but I occasionally spot something more sobering. For example, another visitor came today after a search for sites matching "spot on lung found on xray." One can imagine all kinds of scenarios that might give rise to a search like this, and none of them are good.

This person's search led him or her to this post from August, 2003, wherein I began a months long journey through various diagnostic processes to confirm that my lung spot was nothing to be worried about. I hope that my story is similar enough to the seeker's situation that he or she can take hope and comfort from my experiences, as well as from the outcome.

Blogging is a lot of things. It's big stories that affect public careers and it's trivial diversions that kill some time waiting for important things to happen...and occasionally, it's personal stories that might help an unknown soul find a bit of light in an otherwise dark day. I don't aspire to the first; the second comes naturally to me (and for that, I offer yet another apology!). But if I can do the third thing every once in a while, then it's more than enough reason to keep at it.

Funny thing is, you can't predict how your experiences might resonate with someone else. But if you're a blogger, my advice to you is pretty simple. If it's important to you, don't be surprised if, somewhere else in the world, there's another person to whom it will be equally important. Such is the community we inhabit.

Weather Report

We've had rain in 11 of the last 16 days, including today. During that span of time, I've recorded around 5" in my backyard gauge (which is a fraction of what some surrounding communities have recorded). Year-to-date, my backyard micro-environment has enjoyed just over 18" of rain, which is pretty amazing considering that our average annual rainfall is around 13". And, rain is in the forecast for the next three days.

I assume that this abundant blessing is due to the current incarnation of El Niño, the whipping-boy-du-jour for any weather events for which the meteorological community can find no other explanation. According to this map, rainfall amounts in our region during December-March have historically been 150-170% higher during El Niños than during "normal" conditions. Oddly, the September-November period has shown no signficant anomalies in rainfall totals.

All of which leads me to the following conclusions: (1) Everything we know is wrong, except what is accidentally right. (2) The rain will fall, except when it won't. (3) Blog posts about weather are only slightly less boring than those about last night's dream.

Hope the weather in your neck of the woods suits you, especially in Washington where the forecast calls for early morning volcanos, and the heat rash will be followed by the cold slaw (with a tip o'the hat to Walt Kelly).

AirSho Photo Gallery

I don't know much about WWII-era warplanes, but that doesn't keep me from being fascinated by them. They were designed and built with a serious, single-minded purpose, and except for certain liberties taken with their paint schemes, there was no room for frills...no non-essential components.

Last weekend's CAF AirSho was a great opportunity to see and touch these great old birds -- and some newer ones. I filled up a 64mb card with photos, and thought I'd share a few of them with you.

Each of the thumbnails links directly to a larger version of the image, and when I say "larger," that's no overstatement. The full size images run up to more than 200mb in size. In most cases, they also much more of the subjects than the cropped thumbnails.

The first photo shows MLB and her dad inside a B-17, an airplane he served in as a navigator while stationed in London during WWII. He said that he didn't remember the interior being so cramped. Note the machine guns mounted left and right, mid-fuselage. Those gun ports were open, exposing the crew to windchills down to 40 below.

The next photo shows a German Junkers, originally developed as a bomber in the 30s but used by the Nazis during WWII as a transport. The Junkers had a corrugated metal skin, unlike the smooth surfaces of other aircraft.

The next couple of photos show B-25 medium altitude bombers with different configurations. The first plane is configured with a gunnery pod in the nose (and some provocative nose art!). The second photo shows the more usual setup.

If you saw the movie "Pearl Harbor," you might recall the scenes showing General Dolittle's preparations for the suprise bombing of Tokyo. His outfit launched B-25s from an aircraft carrier, something they were never designed to do. These were very versatile aircraft. One of MLB's uncles piloted B-25s in the Pacific Theater.

Next is a photo of the nose of "Diamond Lil," a B-24 Liberator bomber owned by the CAF. It's the oldest flying B-24 in existence. MLB's dad didn't have much good to say about the B-24. He said that the standing joke was that the control tower would radio the B-24 pilots to alert them that they were cleared for takeoff and explosion.

When you think of WWII fighters, you probably think of the next airplane, a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. It looks wickedly competent standing still; imagine how it looked to the enemy in flight.

The following photo is one of my favorites. It's not really detailed enough for study, but the value is in what it represents: the heritage of today's modern fighter jet as found in three WWII vintage fighters. This formation is known as a "Legacy Flight" and groups an F-18 Hornet (lower left) with an F6F Hellcat, an F8F Bearcat and an FG-1D Corsair (upper right). I can recognize the Corsair by the gullwing configuration, and I think the Bearcat is at lower right, but perhaps someone else can confirm this. The Bearcat has a 4-blade prop while the Hellcat has a 3-blade setup.

These four airplanes flew in formation over the crowd, then parted in a sunburst pattern right in front of us. It was a wonderful display.

Speaking of modern aircraft, what AirSho would be complete without a B1B bomber? It's an amazing sight on the ground, and the loudest thing possible in the air. You get a good sense of the massive size of this bird by seeing the crowds lined up for a tour of the interior.

This particular plane belongs to the 13th Bomber Squadron based at Dyess AFB in Abilene, Texas. Also known as the Reapers, the squad's motto is "Mors ab Alto." I'll let you do the translation; I'm glad these guys and this plane are on our side.

There were also some interesting non-flying attractions at the show, including a jet-powered 18-wheeler cab known as "Shock Wave." It claimed 0-300mph in 10 seconds; I can't confirm that, but it was fast, loud and very over-the-top. Incidentally, the full-size image linked below is a side view of the truck.

Ev-less Blogger

Evan Williams is leaving Google and Blogger. If you're thinking to yourself, "who's Evan Williams and why should I care?" then you need to take Remedial Blogging History 101. In doing so, you'll learn that Ev helped found Pyra Labs, which gave birth to Blogger, which was acquired last year by Google.

The hoity-toity among us may sniff at the idea, but Blogger was the first tool that really put the power of blogging into the average schmoe's hands. I cut my teeth on Blogger (not that my blogging teeth are that old, mind you), and many (most?) of the folks linked at right did as well, and, perhaps, still are.

Evan has rightfully earned a place in history, regardless of how this pajama-clad terrorist wacko thing plays out. And, as is the case so often nowadays, I have socks that are older than him.

Hope his next gig works out as well as the last one did, for him and for all of us.

Bites at Apple

The past few weeks haven't exactly provided stellar examples of the vaunted Apple product quality around this household. First, there was the Changing of the Monitor Guard, as I finally gave up on the 17" Studio Display in favor of a NEC LCD screen (which, btw, I continue to love).

Then, my new AirPort Express base station turned all surly and refused to talk to our existing wireless network or any of the computers connected to it. Nothing I tried worked and so this morning I gathered provisions, hunkered down