Thursday, September 30, 2004

I heard on the radio on my drive home that President Bush took a nap this afternoon - part of his debate prep. (Later I heard that Senator Kerry got a manicure today. Compare and contrast.)

It’s long been known that the President isn’t a night owl. As a morning person, I can relate. My brain stops functioning well at about 4pm. After 8pm, I’m a mental veggie - it’s why I watch so much TV. And my bedtime is 10pm. But my prime is the morning - I get more accomplished before 10am than many others. From what I hear, President Bush is much the same.

So part of his debate prep this week has been for him to be kept awake later at night and they rewarded him with a nap today. Here’s hoping his usual night-driven malapropisms don’t make an appearance in tonight’s debate. I’m thinking he’ll do OK since he got that nice power nap - that’s good strategery.

George is retiring and we’ve begun the planning for his big par-tay! After many phone calls to local hotels, we’ve settled upon the Ft. Myer Officer’s Club for the shindig - it’s the cheapest place around and we have plenty of former military that can get us in. Although, I learned that any government employee can join as a member - that’s very good to know.

So the A-Chief, my boss, a former Marine deputy, and I drove out to the base to talk to them about booking a room and the menu and stuff. And then we had lunch at the Club - you know, to test the food and make sure it’ll be OK for everyone. It was tasty.

So now the real work begins - notifying pretty much the whole country about this guy’s retirement. He’s a legend (and if you visit the International Spy Museum here in DC, he’s featured prominently in the Aldrich Ames exhibit - or so I’m told) and much beloved, so we’re thinking we’ll have a ton of people who want to come.

Jay and Deb are the proud new parents of Sadie Rose. She’s adorable in the pictures. Congratulations!

Yes, I’m excited to have a baseball team in the local area. No, I’m not excited that it’s in DC. I was one of the northern Virginians who was hoping the team would be on our side of the Potomac. I think Virginia is in a much better financial position and has the infrastructure to support a baseball team and build a stadium complex. And I was willing to put up with the traffic snafus on game nights since the proposed NoVa stadium was going to be out my way.

That said, I’m sure that I’ll catch more DC baseball games than I have Orioles games lately. I’m excited to have a National League team here. And I work closer to the city with a convenient Metro station. A 30 minute Metro ride from the office to the DC ballpark is far better than the 2 hours driving to Baltimore (from the office).

As for the name selection, it needs to be better than Wizards, please. 

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

You are Mackerelly!!  You feel obligated to create
new words just to define yourself as
different… I mean diff-tacular.  Just
remember… ORIGINAL doesn’t necessarily mean
GOOD.


What Weight Watchers recipe card from 1974 are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

[via dave]

A few of us went back to Raaga for lunch today and Dave met us there. We had just started eating when Dave saw a friend and went to invite him over. There followed a pleasant lunch with a good conversation about random medical-legal things that we all had in common.

Dave is a sweetie and I got grilled about his status in my life in the car on the way back to the office (at this point, I’m sure Dave is blushing). I assured all that he’s a good friend - a gal can’t have too many good friends. And I’m happy to say that I know Dave’s secret vacation destination!

It was great to see you again, Dave. We’ll have to get together more often than once a year.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

I just got a call from my boss on my cell phone. I barely heard the phone ringing in the living room since I’ve been in the bedroom. I was brushing my teeth and getting ready to hit the hay early to make up for the late football night last night.

Turns out we were supposed to close out the books today. HUH? I never got an email about that. Apparently, he got a phone call from HQ on Friday with that news and forgot to tell me.

*pause to answer the phone again*

Yeah, that was him again. Things aren’t balanced so he can’t close out until he figures out where about $250 came from. There’s a transfer in the system that we have no supporting documents for in our files. I didn’t do any transfers this month - he did them all, so I can’t help him, but he still keeps asking me about them. I asked if we could close out in the morning and he said no, it has to be done today. Of course, assuming he can find that random $250 doesn’t mean it’s a slam dunk that he can “push the button” - the past few months we’ve had to have the system techie logout the folks who got kicked out of the program without logging out. It’s a weird glitch that when the network gets unstable we get kicked out of the financial system, but the system shows us as still logged in, even though we log in and out again several times after the kick out. And no one else can be logged in except the one person who is going to “push the button.” I’m thinking that the techie isn’t in his office right now and that close out won’t happen until tomorrow AM anyway. But that’s the irked pessimist in me talking.

Anyway, he forgot to tell me that we needed to close out early. I could have done it today easily - I only had one other task to complete that I put off for tomorrow because I thought we had a couple more days. He remembered after he got home and he went back to the office to do it.

I love my boss, but his forgetfulness is a pain in the rear. He forgets a lot of things. I’ve learned that I have to repeat myself several times when I need for him to remember important things. He’s always been a little forgetful; I remember LW complaining about it when I first started, but we think it’s gotten worse in the last year.

So, I’m waiting for him to call me back now, which means I can’t go to bed until close out is done. *sigh* He should have called me as soon as he remembered - I would have rather gone back to the office to be real help than to sit by the phone and be no help.

UPDATE (Wed 10:00am): He never called me back last night. I fell asleep holding the phone and kept waking up all night with possible scenarios of where that money came from. When I got in this morning he told me that someone at HQ cleared out the account and he thinks that it was the result of being kicked out of the system while doing a transfer - those types of transactions are invisible in the system, so it’s not something you’ll be able to see like a regular voucher. The gist is that close out is done and he left a little before midnight.

You thought that since TAR is over, there wouldn’t be anymore TAR posting for a while, right? WRONG!

The TWoP finale recap is up and ready for reading - 27 webpages of TAR goodness. *rubbing hands together in glee*

In honor of Banned Books Week, here’s a list of banned books courtesy of Robert the Llama Butcher. The task, highlight the ones you’ve read. I was surprised how many I have read and that’s why I’m perpetuating the meme.

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Day No Pigs Would Dieby Robert Newton Peck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle - why was this book banned?
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
The Goats by Brock Cole
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
Blubber by Judy Blume
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois CootieBoy
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
Deenie by Judy Blume
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume - yes, I read all of Blume’s books in junior high school along with all of my friends
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
Fade by Robert Cormier
Guess What? by Mem Fox
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright
Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Jack by A.M. Homes
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
Carrie by Stephen King
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume [ OK, apparently I missed one
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
Private Parts by Howard Stern
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford Why? Why on Earth?
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

[via mr. accidental verbosity]

There are many reasons why I’m not a fan of Monday Night Football - chief among them being the lateness of the games here on the east coast. Next in line is that the Redskins suck on Monday night, especially against Dallas. Although I have to brag that I was at a MNF Redskins-Cowboys game in the 90s where Washington clobbered Dallas at RFK. That was fun. Last night’s game was not fun. Trying to get through the day after on half of the normal amount of sleep I get is worse - especially after a dreadful loss like that.

I’ll tell you this much, the Redskins have long been plagued with poor officiating - two botched calls directly impacted the outcome of that game. Joe Gibbs’ unwise decision to challenge the touchdown showed that he still has a lot of catching up to do with the new rules of the game. Why they didn’t challenge the clear case of defensive pass interference that was called as offensive pass interference is beyond me.

Anyway, I said at the beginning of the pre-season that I would be happy with an 8-8 first season of the second Gibbs’ era. I’ll keep telling myself that.

This week’s adage is true enough.

The Devil is not afraid of the Bible with dust on it

Monday, September 27, 2004

I’ve been trying to read more lately. Not that I’m reading anything lofty, but at least I’m reading. Over the weekend I managed to finish Executive Power by Vince Flynn. (Thanks, Tony, for the recommendation of Flynn.) Flynn writes politico/techno-espionage thrillers. I can’t compare him to Tom Clancy because I think he’s better than Clancy (the Clancy of today, anyway), but it’s easiest to lump him in with the likes of Clancy. His characters are pretty solid, the subject matter is very current (almost prescient), and his prose doesn’t get bogged down by too much technical minutae.

His first novel, Term Limits was astounding to me - not just because it was so good, but that it stepped on a lot of lines (moral, PC, ethical, etc.) without quite crossing over to becoming fully objectionable. It caused me to really think how I felt about what his characters were doing. Anyway, if you like this kind of story, then check out Vince Flynn’s novels.

This means I’ve started a new book and thanks to the recommendation of Thinkling Shrode, I’ve borrowed a trilogy of Christian novels by Sigmund Brouwer from my local library. First in the trilogy is Out of the Shadows, which I’m really enjoying so far. This is not your typical second rate Christian fiction and I’m thankful to know that there are some good fiction writers in Christendom who are getting published. But I’m only 5 chapters into the book, so I’ll wait until I finish for the fuller review. After I finish the trilogy, I’ll get back to the newest Vince Flynn novel (which is on hold at my library) and then the rest of The Chronicles of Narnia.

I had picked up most of the Flynn novels at my favorite used bookstore and when I was talking to my friend who is soon to be deployed, I asked him if he had read Flynn. He said he hadn’t and when I described the first novel, he jumped at my offer of the books for his trip.

Senator Ted Kennedy invoked the word quagmire on TV yesterday with regard to Iraq. Others opposed to the war in Iraq have invoked that term as well.

quag·mire n.
1. Land with a soft muddy surface.
2. A difficult or precarious situation; a predicament.

Using the modern politician’s definition of quagmire, then every war through history would fit. War is never won overnight. War is never won without casualties. War is never won without difficulty. War is never won without resolve.

It doesn’t help the soldiers in the field of battle when their political leadership tells them that they’re losing. It doesn’t help the soldiers in the field of battle when their political leadership tells them that they’re fighting for the wrong reasons. It doesn’t help the soldiers in the field of battle when the political leadership won’t let them do their jobs - which is to fight and win the war.

If I were on the Left, I’d be wary of using the word quagmire these days. That word helped our political leadership to lose Vietnam pretty effectively and our country paid dearly for that loss. That word will not help them to gain the White House in 2004 because more Americans believe that Iraq is a war we will and have to win because the safety and stability of the world depends upon it.

UPDATE: Interestingly, I found this comparison of Iraq and Guadalcanal by Powl Smith right after posting.

People love to draw historical analogies because they seem to offer a sort of analytical proof—after all, doesn’t history repeat itself? In fact, such comparisons do have value, but like statistics, it’s possible to find a historical analogy to suit any argument. And Vietnam’s the wrong one for Iraq.

In fact, World War II is a far more accurate comparison for the global war we are waging to defeat terrorism.

[...]

As Japan amassed victory after victory in the early days of the war, America and our allies could see that we had a long, hard slog ahead of us. Americans understood there was no recourse but to win, despite the fearful cost. This was the first and foremost lesson of World War II that applies today: Wars of national survival are not quick, not cheap, and not bloodless.

In one of our first counteroffensives against the Japanese, U.S. troops landed on the island of Guadalcanal (search) in order to capture a key airfield. We surprised the Japanese with our speed and audacity, and with very little fighting seized the airfield. But the Japanese recovered from our initial success, and began a long, brutal campaign to force us off Guadalcanal and recapture it. The Japanese were very clever and absolutely committed to sacrificing everything for their beliefs. (Only three Japanese surrendered after six months of combat—a statistic that should put today’s Islamic radicals to shame.) The United States suffered 6,000 casualties during the six-month Guadalcanal campaign; Japan, 24,000. It was a very expensive airfield.

Which brings us to the next lesson of World War II: Totalitarian enemies have to be bludgeoned into submission, and the populations that support them have to be convinced they can’t win. This is a bloody and difficult business. In the Pacific theater, we eventually learned our enemies’ tactics—jungle and amphibious warfare (search), carrier task forces, air power—and far surpassed them. But that victory took four years and cost many hundreds of thousands of casualties.

Iraq isn’t Vietnam, it’s Guadalcanal—one campaign of many in a global war to defeat the terrorists and their sponsors. Like the United States in the Pacific in 1943, we are in a war of national survival that will be long, hard, and fraught with casualties. We lost the first battle of that war on Sept. 11, 2001, and we cannot now afford to walk away from the critical battle we are fighting in Iraq any more than we could afford to walk away from Guadalcanal.

For the security of America, we have no recourse but to win.

Lieutenant Colonel Powl Smith, U.S. Army, is the former chief of counterterrorism plans at U.S. European Command and is currently in Baghdad with Multi-National Forces-Iraq.

I was flipping between two talk radio stations and the CD player in my car this morning and I happened upon Bo Dietl on the Imus show. They were discussing the election and Dietl was saying how he thinks that voters will be making their decision with 9/11 in mind. And then he said something about the devastationalization of 9/11.

Huh?

I didn’t want to just mock the guy for making up a word without checking. But let the mocking ensue, because it isn’t. It’s both highly amusing and equally annoying when people persist in trying to use large words to try to sound smarter when the smaller word is actually the better choice in the long run.

Just my 2 cents.