Sir Colin's LiveJournal

I went as a chaperone with Z's 3rd grade class to the Kennedy Center for a kid's concert this morning. While they were getting all the schools to their seats they had musicians walking around the seats letting the kids see their instruments and to play requests. We had a young guy with a french horn. He ended up playing Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells, Star Wars theme and what my son asked. Z asked the guy to play "Smoke on the Water". I love my boys.

• 12:27 My back is killing me; week 2 of operation "fat daddy" sees my general fitness going up but my weight hasn't budged. #
• 15:34 Allergy tests show I'm allergic to my bed and pillows. My dust mites is off the chart. And those special mattress covers are expensive #

...live, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

So I was explaining the results of my allergy test to one of my bosses today...

Me: "Seems I'm allergic to dust mites."

Boss: "Where do dust mites come from anyway?"

Me: "You see, when two dust mites love each other..."

Interesting...so my (potentially) last trip while on this international project will take me to Orlando in December. Just found out the detains on our team dinner on Wednesday night...

(Company sponsoring) is pleased to announce that we will be hosting the team dinner for the (project name) business week in Orlando at the Grand Floridian Resort in Walt Disney World on Wednesday, December 3, 2008. Our dinner reservations are at 6:00 PM to 7:15 PM. As special dinner guests of the Grand Floridian Resort that evening, we will be escorted to the special viewing area following dinner for the “Wishes” nighttime spectacular. "Wishes" is the largest fireworks display ever presented at Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom, and explodes with vivid color, sound and gut wrenching emotion. We have arranged for motor coach transportation for everyone from the (conference center) to the Grand Floridian and return to the (hotel) that evening. We look forward to seeing everyone in Orlando!

And to think I've been begging for them to get me off of this assignment...

Global Warming my old friend...great to see you back again...

A new Irish film claims that climate change guru Al Gore is an alarmist and that those who think they are saving the planet are only hurting the poor

IF THE ADVANCE publicity is anything to go by, Not Evil Just Wrong will do for Al Gore what Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 did for George W Bush.

...their latest film - which takes on what are described as global warming alarmists - is "the most controversial documentary of the year". Indeed, it could very well be the most controversial. And Al Gore and Hollywood may well not want you to see it. And in that respect, Gore and co are actually succeeding for the moment. Because there is no completed film. Not yet anyway.
----
IN BRIEF, THEIR other main assertions are: there has been no global warming since 1995; the polar bear population is not under threat from climate change but from human hunters; they also say that the Arctic and Greenland glaciers have been receding since 1850, long before the invention of SUVs; and, finally, that the UN's International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) takes issue with Al Gore's contention that sea levels will rise by 20ft (more like 19 inches, says the IPCC). More...

It will uses a similar 3 act approach as Expelled to laying out its case:
1) Looks at previous "scares"
2) Explores the "flaws" in the climate change argument
3) Measures proposed to tackle climate change will cause crisis and chaos

If you believe like most sane skeptics of the global warming crisis that the science isn't in and it's not at all sure what could be done to change the climate at this point you should consider funding this work. Buy stock! It will provide you a better return than GM at this point.

• 09:19 @FOXPhotog Yup, back to Worldgate. 3 days in a row and while my body is soar it is a good soar. #

...live, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I think my son saved my life…sort of.

Wednesday morning I woke up and decided that I was going straight to the gym and renew my membership. I took my gear with me, signed up, and have been working my way back up to a full regular workout with stretches, cardio, and weight machines. When I get home at night I’m inviting the boys to take a walk around the neighborhood with me just to get the heart pumping a little why Sue is working on dinner. I’ve gone to the gym now every day for the last three days and I’m trying to decide if I’m going over the weekend as well. As 6:30am normally comes too darn early I’ve been trying to figure out why all of a sudden do I have this overwhelming desire to exercise, eat better, and tone up.

I finally figured it out and it was shocking on how subconscious it must have been but it's the only thing that makes sense. Tuesday night at the dinner table we were talking about how it was important that the boys eat so they could grow. Z is built like his mother and has not a spare ounce of flesh on his body. We were jokingly telling him he’s too skinny and needs to eat more of his dinner. His brother M says he’s eating enough because he’s “fat like daddy” …and he’s happy to be big like me. Course, M isn’t fat…he’s got some chunk to him but he’s a solid brick and clearly not obese. So I kind of laughed it off, told him he wasn’t fat, and reminded him saying stuff like that wasn’t nice. I also didn’t think about it again.

But I must have. And what I must have thought was I didn’t like the message my youngest son was receiving by my appearance and by my exercise habits; which was to say none. My weight had been slowly creeping up but I have been holding steady at a place I didn’t like but dieting (really, just watching what I hate) wasn’t getting me anywhere. I know my metabolism has slowed a lot and that I have to work harder just to maintain but I have my son to thank right now. He made me get off my ass and do it not only for myself but to be a good example to him and his brother.

And if self drive isn’t enough to get me into the gym I’ll take a little guilt (I was raised Catholic after all) and the respect of my sons to get my ass on the elliptic machine. I'm not going to kill myself by overdoing it but I will kill myself if I don't do something.

• 09:01 Hit the gym for the second day in a row to had off seasonal illness. Funny I think it is working and I have a little more pep in the step #
• 09:02 @soucyn Dude! How can you say that about Aradd? #

...live, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Help me my friends! I don't know what to do this week! Need 2 WR, 2 RB, and one WR/RB flex...

WR (2)
1. Santana Moss (Was - WR) Dal
2. Muhsin Muhammad (Car - WR) Det
3. Bernard Berrian (Min - WR) @TB
4. Roy Williams (Dal - WR) @Was
5. Marvin Harrison (Ind - WR) Hou

RB (2)
1. Marshawn Lynch (Buf - RB) Cle
?. Jerious Norwood (Atl - RB) Den
?. Mewelde Moore (Pit - RB) SD
?. Willie Parker (Pit - RB) SD

Flex (1 from above)
1. ???

(If you need me to explain this you probably can't help :P)

Oh the irony...

It is known that camp Obama pretty much turned off protection on the online donations that would have prevented the type of fraud we know occurred. But they won't be audited and McCain will.

This in part thanks to the law McCain helped pass. McCain will have to pay millions to pass the audit and camp Obama gets a pass on the questionable $300 million in small donations that we had no visibility into.

Don't care what party you belong to; that's a damn shame and should be fixed. It won't of course but I promise you the days of candidates accepting government financing is over.

So during the election the Obama campaign enjoyed ribbing McCain as “more of the same.” After months of this finally the McCain camp declared that it was Obama who would continue the economic policies of the Bush administration. “Barack Obama’s only answer is to double-down on the Bush Administration’s legacy of out-of-control-spending.” Camp Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor responded with, “The fact is, over the course of 20 months of campaigning and three debates, McCain hasn’t offered a single thing that he would do differently from George W. Bush on the economy or foreign policy.”

This is another of those times where irony creeps in. In an effort to reach across the aisle where does Obama turn?

Defense
Richard Danzig, an adviser to Obama on national security and a former navy secretary, said: “My personal position is Gates is a very good secretary of defense and would be an even better one in an Obama administration.” Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution in Washington, a foreign policy adviser to Obama, said: “Robert Gates is one of the best defense secretaries we have had in a long time and it makes a lot of sense to keep him.”

Totally gives him cover to blame the first year’s mistakes on a guy that was "never really part of the program but necessary during these troubling times."

Military
In assuming control of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama must work with Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was appointed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates for a two-year term that will end in late 2009 and, by tradition, can expect to be appointed for a second term as the president's top military adviser. Mullen shares Obama's belief in focusing more on Afghanistan but is wary of a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Traditionally not a position that Obama “should” turn over and for the same reason he can carry Mullen through the end of 2009 then either keep him as a token Republican appointment or blame him for the failure in Afghanistan. So many yummy options here.

Economy
In confronting the financial crisis and weakening economy, Obama must turn to Ben Bernanke, a Republican and former chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, who will lead the Federal Reserve for at least the first year of the new administration.

Again, traditionally not a position that is turned over immediately but anther excellent fall guy in place. Please note that Alan Greenspan has already fallen on his sword over the current economic crisis but the only thing better than one Fed chairman committing harry caray is two chairman giving the next administration a pass on economic issues.

Justice
And in guarding against terrorist attacks - while correcting what he considers the Bush administration's excesses - Obama will rely upon FBI Director Robert Mueller, whose term expires in 2011.

Really? The head of George Bush’s secret police? I would have thought he’s have to be the first to go what with the FBI ensuring we haven’t been attacked in more than 7 years.

Don't get me wrong. Each one of these "makes sense" and I don't disagree but it is hardly the sweeping change we were looking for. I thought the only good Republican was a fired Republican?

There is a chance that key Obama friend and supporter Valerie Jarret will replace President-elect Obama in the Senate if the Governor follows his wish. If this does occur, someone needs to let her know that Presidents don't "rule" they "lead." Still there are worse choices so I'm not too bummed. Rumor has it the Governor of Delaware will appoint someone to hold the Senate seat for Biden's son who is currently serving in Iraq but will be eligible once he returns.

We have a very brave boy. He’s very allergic to a lot of stuff but wants to be less so. He understands that there is a chance that if he starts allergy treatment now at his age he might grow up and not be allergic to all this stuff.

We asked him if he wanted to do it and he said yes for 3 reasons:
1) He wants to be able to go to friend’s houses that have dogs and cats
2) He wants to be able to stop having to use a nebulizer year round (he’s allergic to most alive green things)
3) He wants a dog again (we haven’t had one since he was 2)

So, the trick is that there is only a 50% chance that this will work to permanently overcome his environmental allergies. The REAL trick is that he’ll have to get 3 shots a week for the first year and then 3 shots every other week for a total of 5 years. That’s a lot of shots on a chance that it might not work on a permanent basis. It’s not going to be cheap and there is going to be a lot of pain involved but as a parent with a brave son willing to do this I feel like it is important to do this for him now because this option is not available once he grows up. He’s a brave boy and I’m very proud of him. I love both my boys...

Who wrote this? (Justus cannot play)
--------
"There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use hard power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have hard power -- and here I think you're referring to military power -- then sometimes you are faced with situations that you can't deal with.

"I mean, it was not soft power that freed Europe. It was hard power. And what followed immediately after hard power? Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe? No. Soft power came in the Marshall Plan. Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. We did the same thing in Japan.

"So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others I think is clear. And I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world.

"We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we've done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works."

Ah, looks like 91 year old Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, will step down as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Mr. Byrd is a revered figure in the Senate but has had a series of health problems and thus not a good fit to run the most powerful committee on a daily basis.

Thank you Robert Byrd for your service. Someone please let that man retire...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Those that read my Expelled review and laughed saying science would NEVER make the mistakes of religion must now read the following article and despair!!!! Thank you, thank you Mr Dawkins...you polemicist pontiff you. :)

“About once every hundred years some wiseacre gets up and tries to banish the fairy tale.” Why? “It is accused of giving children a false impression of the world they live in. But I think that no literature that children could read gives them less of a false impression. I think what profess to be realistic stories for children are far more likely to deceive them. I never expected the real world to be like fairy tales. I think that I did expect school to be like the school stories. The fantasies did not deceive me; the school stories did.” - C. S. Lewis

Update: for those worried about my sanity I stumbled across this article last night and found it particularly ironic. It was just one of those things that struck ME as funny and I know full well I didn't explain the context enough (and still haven't) for everyone to get the joke. Sorry about that :)

Hmmm. Glad they are being upfront with this and not hiding it. I'll let you read it and decide. From change.gov

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

Interesting. Require huh? Ask me if this raises a couple of red flags...

Update: The page had included the above quoted language has been changed this evening such that you can no longer find the word "required." If you go there now it says "goals." Maybe this is a good thing...

Still, lest people think I made it up, proof that it use to say "required" is here:


and here

Wow, when even the DailyKos comes out against an Obama appointee I think this one is DOA. For those that don't know, RFK, Jr has been under consideration for head of the EPA. Based on his positions on a supposed link between thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) and autism I'm hoping he doesn't get the nod. In case you haven't heard, this has been debunked over and over.

Stick with me, there will be some technical cool stuff coming…

So we live in a 3 story townhome that when initially built had one cable line going to each floor. The bottom floor is the family space (kitchen, living room, library), the second is the parent’s space (master bedroom, computer/office space), and the top floor is the kid’s space (bedrooms, computer/play space). When we moved in we got Directv so I could watch Carolina Panther football games without leaving the house. We wanted to get Tivo which meant we had to run additional cable lines to the top and bottom floors, this is pretty easy to hide all things considered. The cable outlet on the second floor is where our cable modem connects to the fiber optic network and provides broadband internet to all levels of the house.

This might not be clear where I’m going but wait, I’m almost there. You just have to look below the cut. :)

So I like to watch news both in the morning while getting ready for work and while getting ready for bed (multitasking is cool). But how do I get a quality signal to an old TV we had sitting in our room (with a VRC/DVD combo hooked up for occasionally watching old movies when laid up sick). Well, I figured that had to be some technology and I was right. I went to Best Buy and found this Terk Leapfrog. I hooked up a transmitter to the bottom floor’s HD DVR that pushes a slightly less than HD signal to a receiver on the second floor. It also passes a remote control on a different signal that jumps the signal back to the unit. This is cool! No wires, no having to pay for an additional Directv receiver. Only down side is that the bottom floor and second floor have to watch the same thing. Which for me is a benefit for a number of reasons anyway.

So we got this to work and while occasionally we’ll get some interference that adds static it’s pretty good. We did find that one of the four channels it can transmit across does interrupt our wireless network so you have to play with it. At some point Sue’s grandmother had need for a small TV so we gave her this one so the device went idle for a time. We then got the boys a Wii for Christmas that complimented their old PS2; both on the top floor. For a while all was good but eventually it became clear we needed to divide the units up and bought a new HD TV for the bottom floor and moved the older model to the master bedroom where the kids would come to play PS2 games…and I got my Terk Leapfrog news in the morning back!

But then guess what? The PS2 died.

At that point I decided we should look at going PS3 but only if we could find a model that played old PS2 games (that is another story). We finally got it and I enjoy the quality of videos it plays and have played a couple of mature/first person shooter games on it but I was unimpressed with its internet browsing or online story pricing.

ENTER THE COOLNESS!

I’ve been waiting now for this newest tech and as a beta tester I’m loving this new software. It’s called PlayOn by MediaMall. If you have a computer, a PS3/Xbox/Wii(end of 2008), and a broadband network you can transmit RSS feeds you could view on your computer to the PS3 and thus to your TV. MUCH nicer than sitting at your computer watching a movie. It currently supports streaming Netflix, Hulu, CBS, YouTube, and ESPN programming. You use a very simple interface to pick from any programming that interests you by channel, category, or alphabetical order. For Hulu we watched some of season 1 of Babylon 5. From Netfix (which we have an account that allows unlimited streaming video watching) we watched Expelled. I’ve tested the YouTube, ESPN, and CBS streams as well and the quality isn’t bad at all. Not HD mind but sound and video is acceptable. They are working to add other channels as well which is cool because Sue and I never finished watching Lost Season 4.

Anyway, both the TerkLeapfrog and the PlayOn technologies are worth looking into if you already have the components in place.