Making a long story longer

Merry Christmas to all

2009-12-24T17:36:00.000-05:00

Engaged

2009-12-22T23:53:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure who still reads this at this point, but I did ask the lovely Staci Smith to marry me this evening, and she said yes.

For you detail people, we have not set a date yet, nor a place.

And chicks sure do like shiny things...

I'm blogging elsewhere these days

2009-10-27T11:38:00.002-04:00

I've devoted most of my free time lately to getting Stronico off the ground, and consequently I've been blogging at the Stronico Blog. I've decided to write about every problem that takes me more than 15 minutes to solve, it's my HowToFix series for Silverlight and related technology.

I'm still alive!

2009-10-19T23:31:00.002-04:00

Not that you would know it by my pathetic posting. Here's some links for you, my loyal and neglected followers

Comparing Modern Education to a Placebo
Ideas and Execution
More from Sivers -
Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece on the back of a deli menu would not surprise me. Meeting a person who wrote a masterpiece with a silver Cartier fountain pen on an antique writing table in an airy SoHo loft would seriously surprise me.

A fancy tool just gives the second-rater one more pillar to hide behind. Which is why there are so many second-rate art directors with state-of-the-art Macintosh computers.
I really liked Never Eat Alone

Why Nerds are Unpopular

2009-08-20T10:51:00.004-04:00

I read this essay Why Nerds are Unpopular a few days ago and feel the need to share it with everyone. I don't agree with all of it, Graham is looking deeply into a shallow pool when he examines the American High School Experience but a lot of it rings true to me. School is the only place to be (outside of prison) where attend by law, with no real method of exit. I remember thinking that I hated life in middle and high school, only to find after I left that I just hated being in school, confined with people I didn't really know for eight hours a day with no option of leaving.

Eric Hoffer has several essays about being useful as the key to self fulfillment. Being in school, you are by definition, not being useful. I'm also reminded of Joel Spolsky's dictum "Happiness is controlling your environment. If you're the socially awkward type, (which I was!) then you have no control over the only environment you have any hope of controlling, which is your social environment.

Well worth reading.

DigitalToolFactory.net launches

2009-07-23T14:57:00.002-04:00

After far too long, I finally got DigitalToolFactory.net up and going - it's my work site for those not aware.

Odd fact

2009-07-17T12:45:00.000-04:00

There is no word for "Heresy" in Hebrew.

Stronico begins

2009-07-09T12:53:00.003-04:00

As Silverlight 3 nears release - so does Stronico - my next killer app, or in this case, a visual contact and private network manager. Hopefully it will be done by the end of summer.

I just finished the home page for the site (albeit it will change in a few days as the logo gets completed. Check it out at Stronico.com

Since it's been a long time

2009-07-01T11:43:00.002-04:00

I think I will check to see if the blog still works.

I'm big in Canada

2009-05-19T17:59:00.002-04:00

Via the Trailer Park Boys, it's hilarious, for me anyway. Apparently I like weed and Enchiladas.

Check it out

The GOP biological problem

2009-05-06T22:04:00.002-04:00

There has been much hubub about Arlen Specter's switch to the democrats, saying they're losing the "Moderate" wing. My theory: The GOP's primary impediment is not ideological, it's biological. They're stuck with their corrupt deadwood, made even more rotted by their brief period in control of the legislative and executive branch. They have no credible voice on the current spending orgy because they haven't been in the credibility business in any form for quite some time.

By getting rid of the old guard (albeit not intentionally) they would seem to be solving the problem.

Keeping the blog alive....

2009-04-18T13:23:00.004-04:00

Sorry, I've been busy lately. Here is a random assortment

Velvet Underground on YouTube
Justice, War, Etc from David Friedman
Interesting article about Crime in Atlanta
A nice profile about a former client of mine.
The Agitator puts it very well with "we’ve reached the point where even jaded libertarian cliches present an inaccurately optimistic picture of what’s going on"
A very good explanatory video by Tim Hartford.

Yet another belated tab clearing post

2009-03-19T18:45:00.002-04:00

Sparse posting and random thoughts

2009-03-01T16:43:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, a happy development has taken up a my free time.

And the random thought - Obama's new "Smarter government, somehow!" push could serve to keep the nags, parasites, and do-gooders busy and let creative people create things, instead of having them filter into the general population as seems to have been the case over the past several years.

An interesting thought

2009-02-21T10:09:00.002-05:00

Via Megan McArdle - I'm not for this, but it would solve the problem.

My lunatic proposal for the day: why not make it easier to move homeowners out of homes they can't afford? Set up a streamlined foreclosure proceeding where a current or mildly delinquent homeowner can simply give the house to the bank and walk away. Do this with two legal provisos:

1. No tax on the forgiven loan

2. No black mark on the credit record. The bank marks the loan as fully satisfied.

Of course, if we decide to actually "fix" the problem we should loosen immigration and get people actually in the vacant houses.

Skank vs Skank

2009-02-10T18:27:00.001-05:00

These two are awesome. Not safe for work

Jargon Database in the google rankings

2009-02-06T19:18:00.003-05:00

I just went and checked Google Analytics for one of my sites, JargonDatabase.com - and much to my surprise, I rank #1 for

and many others, and #2 for

"Military Jargon"."
Normal Good

And many others. Wow.

Line of the day

2009-02-03T18:06:00.001-05:00

Via Megan McArdle "History may not repeat itself, but it stutters like hell."

The funniest thing I read today

2009-01-29T16:54:00.000-05:00

Was this Construction signs warn of zombies - via Scarbrough via Facebook.

Swooning, raptures and Barack Jong Il

2009-01-20T16:34:00.002-05:00

CNN headline - "Cheers greet Obamas on parade route"

What is this, North Korea? It's like the fans of Survivor, American Idol and Sean Hannity all got together and gave each other Eskimo kisses.

I stand by my Bush III/IPod comparison - now more than ever.

The table goes to table heaven

2009-01-11T21:30:00.002-05:00

Where it will listen to different music I'm sure. I finally finished it today after about ten weeks of slow construction - I've been finishing it for the past 3 weeks in fact.

The majority of the time was spent creating and joining all of the pieces of the top together (about 50 or so). You can't quite tell in the below photos but the top is all end grain oak, cherry and walnut. The stain melds the colors a bit.

The wisdom of white people

2009-01-11T20:11:00.001-05:00

From Stuff White People Like

Along with Jazz, white people have also taken quite a shine to The Blues, an art form that captured the pain of the black experience in America. Then, in the 1960s, a bunch of British bands started to play their own version of the music and white people have been loving it ever since. It makes sense considering that the British were the ones who created The Blues in the 17th Century.

Worth reading - Gaza edition

2009-01-09T16:57:00.002-05:00

From Col. Lang - a very interesting post on the structure of the IDF.

Also, lost in all of the moral analysis of the current mess (why must San Diego always get bombed by Tijuana in analogies?) is how Israel benefits from it's current engagement. The rocket attacks were bearable for quite some time - and no one goes to war out of principle anymore. The explanation of doing it while Bush is still in office doesn't seem to be that credible, Obama hasn't said anything different than Bush 43, and he has something to prove, so I imagine he would be even more agreeable to Israeli action than Bush (and as a reminder, Bush stopped the Israelis from bombing Iran a few months ago).

I suppose the War Nerd's explanation of the attacks being used to weaken Hamas so Fatah could eventually win their civil war has the most credence, but that has problems too.

The funniest thing I read today

2009-01-07T12:22:00.001-05:00

Was the War Nerd defining crystal meth as the "Redneck Work Ethic".

Movies everyone should see - Holiday edition

2009-01-03T08:27:00.003-05:00

Since I've been unswayed by the holidays this year, I've watched quite a few movies this year - here's a partial list

Anatomy of a murder - Jimmy Stewart at his best
Dead Reckoning - A Bogart movie I had never seen before - another classic film noir
Touch of Evil - Charlton Heston as a Mexican Fed (which he pulls off well), and Orson Welles as a fat, sweaty hard drinking cop, which he played well, but wasn't that much of a jump.
El Mariachi - a bit dated, but watchable