Slap! Slap! bzzzzzz! Damn it!

So, I am working in the backyard, have a hammer in one hand, a 7/16 wrench in the other. Sprayed down with insect repellent, but it does little good. sweat dripping off my brow, mosquitoes buzzing in my ear. After about ten minutes, I have had it. Still, gotta get the safety net assembled for the trampoline, though.

So now we have a trampoline. And a safety pad around the edge, and a safety net. The kids are really excited about this (Xander, you CAN'T jump on it, cause it is old, and the weight limit is 215 lbs). Just a few more straps to attach the net to the poles, and then all is good.

So, the trampoline makes me think of safety. And the neighbors covered head to toe in long sleeves and hats. To be safe from the bugs and the sun. I think we have become much too safe as a society. Sunscreen, long sleeves, bug repellent. did we have this growing up?

I guess we did have less UV exposure, since the Ozone layer had not thinned out as much. And we didn't have West Nile virus, or Lyme disease. Or mosquitoes that live in the dirt.

Still, If we were to live all of the safety rules, we would get from our climate controlled, filtered house, to our climate controlled filtered car. Oh wait, roads are unsafe. OK, we would all just sit in our houses, watching Fox...

How sad.

Date:	2005-06-20 22:43
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	self-reflection

I was wandering in a bookstore today, and suddenly it struck me. I am old. What did it was the Mangas. Lots and lots of Mangas. Since when did Manga become such a phenom? In a discount bookstore, nonetheless.

I mean, five years ago, I would have known this, would have recognized the sounds of the music playing, what teens and college kids were reading, and would have known at least half of the music considered new. But now, nope. I am now in Dad mode, with two small boys who don't watch that much TV, don't have a PSP, Playstation 2, Nintendo Game Cube or X-Box, and who don't like Yu-Gi-Oh. Just Pokemon. And Legos. A lot of both.

Hmmm.

At one point, I had two nieces. Well, they are still there, but now a very peripheral part of our lives. Adolescence, Anger, accusations and addictions. They are not part of our lives any more. It was not a real healthy time all around.

If either should read this, I am sorry. I still miss you guys, still miss hearing how your lives are going. Although I did see the younger one recently, very briefly, and other than appearing subdued (well, she WAS at work), she sounds like she is doing some great things in school. Keep it up, and be strong!

The older niece, now in college, has a blog that has been **ahem** interesting, and enlightening. Not that I approve of everything she writes about, but it is her life, and she has to live it. If I were to speak to her today, I would say know when things get too deep, and have a safety net, 'cause after college, there is none. And love yourself first, 'cause you gotta live with yourself for an awfully long time. And get out of the house. Really. Time to fly...

So also feeling very reflective today, about lost connections, and long lost friends. Like Anna Sarah in L.A. with her cranky husband and energetic kids. Like Paul in Richmond, or Rick in Phoenix. Or Brad in Ohio. Or Jennifer wherever you are right now. Or Ed in Afghanistan. Do I still know who these people are? or have we all become peripheral in each others lives? Have we all become consumed by work/life to lose touch?

Friends are work, and I am probably just really selfish.

You Are The Wayfarer Guide
"I'll show you the way."

Date:	2005-05-29 22:22
Subject:	What the f*** am I doing with this proposal!
Security:	Public
Mood:	At myself...
Music:	Beatles - Abby Road

The past two days I have been struggling with the proposal for my directed field work in Organization Development. What ever possessed me to go for a 2nd masters, I'll never know.

So, at least I now have a focus on a problem: How to best implement a rapid deployment of a Life Cycle Management process (Huh?). If you know, you know.

So, I am trying to find some decent literature, for the lit review, about rapid deployment of training. Found a good article/thread about organizations being like living organisms, and that they should be near the edge of chaos, and that striving for equilibrium is death. Book called Surfing on the edge of Chaos. Gonna get it Tuesday from the library.

Sue and the boys went to the beach for the weekend to inaugurate Tracy and Tom's new beach house (our rich and getting richer friends. Love that real estate boom), and were having a lovely time until Jared decided to write his name on the wooden table. With a rock. THERE goes the finish... Six year old boys can be both very cute, and a real pain in the ass...And the 8 year old knows this, so is always trying to get Jared in trouble.

Oh, well, time to get back to the proposal and maybe check out the ASTD or SHRM web sites...

Or sleep. Whatever.

And Alex, if you read this, I will set up a sub-domain for you. How about Axelwolfin.veerhoff.net?

And for your amusement, from the BAD web logo department...
http://www.pcsupportadvisor.com/downloads/badlogo.png

Date:	2005-05-27 23:00
Subject:	New toys, old methods...
Security:	Public
Mood:	busy

So, last weekend, Bradley and I decided to do something a little fun, and we made an animated gif using Sue's digital Camera. Then I assembled the stills with a PaintShop Pro Animation Shop 3.

I haven't learned how to use Flash to build stuff yet.

Here is the animation...

Walking LEGO dude

After Brad saw it, he said that it would be better if we did it again, and used a solid color background, and solid different color base to walk on. Then it might look more like animation. I told him to make up a story and we will animate it. Instead, he made a LEGO chess set.

Bradley will be 9 at the end of June.

This past weekend we took the Cub Scouts camping at a local National Park. This particular park was created by the Civilian Conservation Corps, on land managed by the United States Resettlement Agency, one of the New Deal programs. The land in question, within 50 miles of Washington, D.C. had been so over farmed by the 1930's that it was unproductive. Or as the literature stated, it had degraded to "barely subsistence" level. So the government bought it, and set it aside for reclamation, to be used as park land. Then the government created a program where volunteers and unemployed could work to plant trees, build cabins, roads, bridges dams and trails.

Now, it is wooded wilderness, with creeks, dams and trails.

As I read over the history of the park, I was struck by where we must have been as a country then. The banking system had nearly collapsed, one out of every four white workers was unemployed (we weren't accurately counting employment of African Americans then), and countless numbers were underemployed or underpaid. Many families were wandering around the country as migrant workers; living in ditches, abandoned farms, buildings and fields. The top-soil of most of the midwest was blowing away in great dust storms, leaving unproductive hard-pack behind. Many east coast and southern farms had depleted soil as well, unable to grow any more crops than to keep a family alive. The amount of real money the country had was half of what it had been five years earlier. Imagine.

What struck me was how FDR was able to try something, to get people working, and to keep the basic structure of the United States from collapsing. Many of FDR's programs were shut down for various reasons. When this would happen, he started another program. If one of these programs failed, then he tried another, and another. He refused to give up, and refused to pander only to his social class, determined to provide opportunity for ALL Americans.

And then I wondered what mettle we have in our current leaders. Could our current politicians handle a crisis as profound as the Great Depression? Or would they simply devolve into fight? Would they let 25% of the country just stay unemployed, because "that is capitalism"?

Do we, as Americans, still possess the ability to rise up and lift our neighbors out of poverty, to help out in a time of extreme crisis? or has this too been lost in our consumption of cell phones, lattes and TiVOs while we drive our SUVs?

I see every day little yellow ribbon magnets stating "We support our troops". But how do we support them? By buying yellow ribbon magnets? or taking action to get them home quicker? Or by helping support the soldiers families while the soldier is away? I see a lot of talk and bravado, but precious little action.

Date:	2005-03-18 22:10
Subject:	Thoughts for the week...
Security:	Public
Mood:	contemplative
Music:	Emmy Lou Harris - Wrecking Ball

Well, I need to stop paying sooo much attention to what the current regime in this country is doing, and just sit back in ignorance, and be happy that I trust them. They will take care of all of us, you know, just don't ask any questions...

So, what triggers this lovely thought is a series of little articles, statements and news bits that I saw this week. It just continues to reinforce the dangerous path that our current regime is taking us.

Like the U.S. dropping form 1st to 5th in the world in use and development of Technology. Here is the link:

http://www.weforum.org/site/homepublic.nsf/Content/Global+Competitiveness+Programme%5CGlobal+Information+Technology+Report

One possible cause? Spending huge amounts of money on mature technology, instead of new "gee that's cool " R& D ideas. As the article in MIT Technology Review reports in the April issue, there has been a HUGE shift in gov't funded R&D from industry to Military spending:

"The U.S. government’s pre­occupation with security would be less important if the private sector were investing in basic research. It is not: for years, corporate R&D has stressed return on investment through the timely creation of new products. And U.S. venture capitalists have responded to government and corporate demand by disproportionately funding security-related startups. Since 2000, according to Venture Economics, communications funding has dropped 83 percent, and software investment is down 77 percent; but during the same period, defense investment fell only 58 percent. Fields like robotics, nanotechnology, and genomic medicine are underfunded. Venture capitalists have a “lemminglike instinct when it comes to investment themes,” admits Bill Kaiser, a general partner at Greylock Partners in Waltham, MA."

Full link here:
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/04/issue/feature_gp_us.asp

And then there are always the fake news stories that our fine regime feels obligated to peddle as truth. The Government Accountability Office had this to say:
"memo from Comptroller General David M. Walker. Walker wrote that such stories -- designed to resemble independently reported broadcast news stories so that TV stations can run them without editing -- violate provisions in annual appropriations laws that ban covert propaganda."

Full link here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35010-2005Mar14.html

And lastly, for all of you folks out there who like digital entertainment, there is this edict from the FCC...
"Thanks to an FCC ruling [PDF 448k], as of July 2005, it will be illegal to manufacture or import DTV tuners unless they include DRM technologies mandated by the FCC. This means that DRM will be a standard feature on all future televisions, TiVos, and computers that want to interoperate with DTV content."

Full link here:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Video/HDTV/

Lastly, for amusement's sake, check out THIS link...
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0222-22.htm

And we are worried about Gay marriage and Social Security going bankrupt???

Date:	2005-02-27 22:35
Subject:	New pets...
Security:	Public
Mood:	calm
Music:	The Orb - Fluffy Little Clouds

Today we got a new pet for the boys. A guinea pig, which was originally named Tink. The name is either Piachu (a corruption of the PokeMon Pikachu) or Tank, or some other variant of Pikachu. Yes, we are still in PokeMon mode in this house, and I suspect we will be for a few more years.

This animal is 4 weeks old, and especially cute. Plus it is still young enough that we can imprint it. Jared wants to train it to jump through a hoop and stand on its hind legs and dance. And roll forward like a ball. Bradley seriously debates the ability of guinea pigs to be trained to do these things.

We were originally going to get TWO guinea pigs, but that changed. The previous owner couldn't bear to give so many away. She apparently received two males for Christmas, that ended up being a male and a female.

Having one will be MUCH cleaner than having two.

A cute Jaredism from the snow day last week:
"Did you have fun with Mom today?"
"No, she just yelled at us"
"What did she yell?"
"What she always does; Jesus Christ. She's going to hell."

And speaking about snow, they are calling for another big storm starting early tomorrow. Well, we'll see about that...

From Weather.com alert notice:

BY LATE TOMORROW EVENING... AREAS WEST OF THE BLUE RIDGE ARE
EXPECTED TO SEE 5 TO 10 INCHES OF SNOWFALL. EAST OF THE BLUE RIDGE
INCLUDING THE BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREAS... 6 TO 10
INCHES OF SNOWFALL IS EXPECTED.

THERE IS STILL SOME UNCERTAINTY
AS TO THE EXACT TRACK OF THIS STORM SYSTEM. A SMALL SHIFT IN THE TRACK
OF THIS STORM CAN YIELD LARGE DIFFERENCES IN SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS....

Date:	2005-02-21 22:42
Subject:	Oh, a little of this and that...
Security:	Public
Mood:	thankful
Music:	Angelique Kidjo - Oyaya!

I finally finished the second paper for my OD practicum course, and it is not as thorough as I would like. I did not get as specific as I could have, but had to get it in. I can critique it after the fact. I am sure it is fine, though.

My friend Jennifer sent two pics of her chest, AFTER her mastectomy. One was Like three hours, and the other two days after that. It is her way of dealing with it. It was discovered a very short time ago that she had multiple tumors in both breasts, which had migrated to one of the lymph nodes as well. Now she gets to go in for chemo. I pray for her.

She is still firmly in the denial stage, and is staying positive, although she no longer has breasts. Actually, I read between the lines of her e-mail and she is really quite scared, so she has to e-mail everyone about the progress and how well she is doing. She only does this type of broadcast when she is scared.

I am glad I do not have to deal with anything that scary, I wonder how I would react?

After such joyous news and pics, I had to get myself a beer, and chill a little. Enjoyed a Golden Monkey, by Victory Brewing. Link here:

http://www.victorybeer.com/Beers/GoldenMonkey.htm

Clocks in @ 9.5% alcohol by volume...

Lastly, reading yesterday's (or was it today's) Washington Post. Good article about the reports that Richard Clarke submitted to the Bush Admin in Jan. of 2001, outlining the Al-quaeda threat. All I can say is that the current administration is plainly untruthful...
Link here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37102-2005Feb19.html

Still have yet to learn how to modify the look of LiveJournal...

Date:	2005-02-11 14:05
Subject:	First Live Journal Entry
Security:	Public
Mood:	congested
Music:	None - Listening to the washing machine

OK, so here I am @ home playing hooky from work, suffering either from a cold, or the beginnings of the flu. I hope it is just a cold. At least it is giving me time to work on my Organizational Development Case Studues homework. Only 4 more very boring chapters to read, and find the French and Bell book. Then I get to write an analysis of a case study, woo hoo!

So what prompted a blog? Well, I talk. A lot. And I figured I could subject many others to my rants. Plus I have seen some interesting LiveJOurnal entries from others. Too bad AxelWolfin won't read this until AFTER lent. Like we need to hear from him less...

I guess I should get back to studying, and not try to figure out how to make this LiveJournal thing look good...