The Holidays

Welcome back readers. As I type this, the last work week before Christmas has started. I'm not exactly sure what I want to write about, but figured that since the holiday season is here that I should post something.

Having spent the week of Thanksgiving visiting my father in Florida, the important part of my holiday season is complete. I didn't visit with my daughter this time around, but I hope to get down there in March around my birthday to spend some time with Reagan. Christmas to me the last few years has been more laid back. And that's even before my mom passed away three years ago. For the second (or is it third) year in a row, I didn't bother putting up a tree. But I did manage to get all my shopping done early enough to have time to personally wrap gifts and ship them out myself. In the past I usually ended up having some shipped directly from where I made online purchases from. In addition to gifts, cards went out a week ago.

This year the holidays arrived with some sad news. Before Thanksgiving I learned that my former employer and boss from my time at National Steel Rule was diagnosed with cancer. This past weekend brought more bad news, as his condition is getting worse. Joe was a great boss, and there are times I regret leaving National Steel Rule when I moved to California with a new job in 2000. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying my life here in California. But working at NSR was like working with family.

So what are my plans for the rest of the holiday season? To tell you the truth, not much. I'll spend a nice quiet evening at home Christmas Eve and Christmas. Perhaps enjoying a real wood fire in my fireplace on Christmas Eve. On the day off from work, Monday the 26th, again no real plans. But I am having a buddy over for dinner that evening. The plans for New Years is not much different.

As for you reading this, I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May your holiday season bring joy and happiness.

Isiah 9:6,
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

The Profound Prophecy of Arlo Guthrie

Like many people, I've been a long time fan of Arlo Guthrie. Of course that means I have heard "Alice's Restaurant" many times in my life. On records, the radio, CDs, tapes, and of course at live shows. If you've listened to the song that many times, you will know that he has changed it up a bit from time to time, changing a bit of the story line to fit current events. This is about one of those times, and how the story told is eerily prophetic some 20+ years later.

It was sometime in the mid to late 1980s, Ronald Reagan was President, and a small venue in Roslyn, Long Island, NY was a popular place to see live music. If you were on LI back then, My Father's Place is a name that would be very familiar to you. I had the pleasure to see Arlo live at My Father's Place a few times back then. On one night, around Christmas time, he changed part of the "Alice's Restaurant" story and added a bit related to what was being called the "Star Wars Program" being pushed by the current administration. I don't remember the exact words, but the audience was entertained when he spoke of how the US Military was secretly training the youth of the day through video games (mostly played in mall game rooms or video arcades back then). Although back then he joked that the youth were being trained to fight aliens from another world one quarter at a time, he still gave the picture of all the machines feeding scores to computers hidden in the basement of the Pentagon. Of course, when you got a high score, you happily punched in your name, initials, or whatever into the game. This helped the government keep track of the best players.

So how is this prophetic? Well last night I was watching a show on the National Geographic Channel. It was about the use of the unmanned aircraft (Predator and Reaper drones) in the war against terror in the middle east. Okay, not invaders from a distant planet, but in a command center not too far from the nation's capitol, members of the military fly these unmanned aircraft and attack targets thousands of miles away. It's as if they are playing a video game. As I watched the show, my mind flashed back to that one particular rendition of "Alice's Restaurant" that I heard years ago. And I thought to myself, "My God, Arlo predicted this!".

Iran... Really

Views from Iran!?

I may have some posts going back a year or two, but I am still a relative newbie. While poking around the Blogger site I came across the stats information. I was somewhat surprised to see that after the United States, the next country with viewers listed is Iran. Here is the table as of October 5, 2011.

United States	803
Iran	16
Russia	13
Brazil	12
China	6
Germany	4
Canada	3
Malaysia	3
Israel	2
India	2

I would have guessed that more viewers would have been from Canada or Western European countries than Iran. Then again, this could just be because determining location from IP Address isn't a perfect method. In any case, I thought this particular statistic was interesting and wanted to share it. What I need to figure out next is how to tell if those 16 views are from one or many different addresses.

Random Ramblings

Well, once again a long time has lapsed since my last post. I had good intentions if that counts. Some time ago I started on six drafts. But that was about it. As I've said in a few of my previous posts, I just can't seem to get into the habit of writing more regularly. Odd, I used to enjoy the daily journal that was kept as part of Mr. Cooney's 8th grade English class. Or was that Social Studies?

Now the tricky part is that I don't want to dive into any of the topics that I started on drafts about. At least not too deeply if at all. So I think I'll just give a quick look at what's happening lately.

At work, we had to let one of the Unix/Linux Systems Administrators go a few weeks back. I am somewhat surprised at the lack of qualified applicants applying for the open position. You figure that with 10 or 12 percent unemployment that I'd have people beating down the door. But no. Some applicants are the same that applied for an open position last year, so obviously I'm not the only one who thinks they're not qualified. A couple that had real interesting resumes were quickly unavailable as I was scheduling interviews. They accepted positions somewhere else. Maybe I'm being too picky, but I don' think I am (think the people still looking). But at this point, I may have to revisit some of the resumes that my team and I passed on.

I'm am still digging the Challenger SRT8 and no regrets about purchasing it. Scheduled its 12 month/12K mile service for next week. But the beast has only 4600 miles on it! By the way, I've given her a name. Her name is Arion (or Areion). A horse from Greek Mythology. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areion for more information about the mythical horse. Lately I've been thinking of a somewhat major upgrade to her. A little voice in my head is telling me to buy an Edelbrock E-Force Supercharger. I have to check with the local speed shops and see how much installation would cost me.

I did purchase season tickets for both the SF 49ers and the NY Jets again this year. Haven't made plans to head to NY for a Jet game, and so far I've only been to the 49er home opener. I sold the tickets for the Niners/Cowboys game on Craigslist a couple weeks back. I have a bunch of tickets for both teams listed on both Stubhub and TicketExchange, but no bites so far.

Back in August my good friend JJ Connelly was out this way. We headed up to Arcata for some outdoor type stuff. I had a blast, even though there was a few issues. But I think I'll cover that in more details in a separate post.

As we enter October I am definitely looking forward to my annual trip to Florida for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if I'm going to spend time with my daughter Reagan, but I'll probably go down again in March around my birthday and spend a few days with her before visiting with dad again.

As I'm sitting here watching the season premier of "Fringe", I am running out of things to ramble about. So dear readers I think I'll call this post done at this time. For now, a goodbye and goodnight.

Long overdue post

It's Sunday evening and I'm sitting home, watching National Geographic Channel's 'Shark Men' while I type this. Hard to believe I haven't posted anything since December. But then again, as I've stated some time ago, I just can't get into a good habit of regularly updating my blog here. I don't really have anything in particular to say, but figured I need to fill the void.

I guess the biggest news since December is that I celebrated birthday number fifty in March. I headed down to Florida for the occasion. Spent a couple days visiting with Reagan, and then a few days including my actual birthday at dad's. My sister, niece, and niece's boyfriend were also down in FL. I had a good time. A couple of excellent days with my daughter spent at GatorLand and Universal Studios, followed by just as good days relaxing at dad's and spending time with family.

So what else? I just saw the orthopedic doctor again about my hip. Still it's up to me when I finally get the hip replaced, but the doctor did mention something. Seems if I wait too long, then the damage to the cup part of the joint will make the surgery more difficult and recovery longer. I just don't know. Definitely not this spring or summer, but maybe late autumn or winter? Definitely after the holidays.

The job... I need to make some decisions. I really believe the stress of the management duties is a big part of the problem keeping my blood pressure under control. So do I step back from being a manager? Or seriously look for a new job outside of Northrop Grumman and the USPS? Another thing suffering because of this is the consulting work I've been doing for my former employer back east. Not getting some key projects done adds to the stress from my regular job. Perhaps multiplies is a better word. Either way, not good.

I was going to head to FL to see Reagan in a dance recital next month. Again, work and stress get in the way. I wish I lived closer where travel wasn't a one day thing each way. Right now, I'm feeling a bit too burnt out to plan a trip down FL.

Don't be surprised, the non-running motorcycles are in the same state. I'm still loving the SRT8.

I purchased a bit of gold recently. From the U.S. Mint I ordered a 2011 1 oz Gold Eagle Proof coin. It's now in my safe with the Gold Double Eagle I have. I forget what year, early 1900s though.

Looks like the Shark Men are about to land a large White Shark, so I think I'll call this post done and watch the shark wrangling.

One last thing though, I'd be remiss if I didn't say Happy Mothers' Day.