Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Thanks to Ace (kisses back at ya), who sent me the link to this article about The Amazing Race. There’s some good insider stuff - my favorites:

CBS has bumped Amazing Race 6, which starts in Chicago, until late October or November, when it will likely return on Tuesdays instead of a planned berth on low-rated Saturdays. [Good move, that. - ed.]

Compared with other, more stationary reality series, Race is a logistical nightmare. The travel budget alone for each season is $2 million, and it’s no surprise: Race 5, at 73,000 miles in 29 days the longest yet, started in Santa Monica, Calif., and so far has globe-trotted to Uruguay, Argentina, Russia, Egypt, Tanzania, India, New Zealand and the Philippines.

How do they pull it off? Here’s a peek behind the scenes:

[...]

Q: Have contestants ever refused a task?

A: No. But eating 2.2 pounds of Russian caviar “was very hard for a lot of people. They made it harder for themselves because they decided to pour water in it and eat it like Cap’n Crunch.”

[...]

Q: What does host Phil Keoghan do while contestants are racing?

A: He’s racing to the next pit stop, where he readies the mat that welcomes each team and conducts initial interviews. Unlike the teams - which must rely on clues - “we know where we’re going,” Keoghan says, “but that’s not to say we don’t get lost or get caught in traffic, either. There have been a number of occasions where I’ve been running up the mat from one direction and the team is running up from the other direction.”

On rare occasions, the first-place team departs for the next leg, after a mandatory 12-hour rest period, before the last-place team arrives. Keoghan once spent 14 hours in choppy waters on a Hong Kong junk waiting for a team. Once in a while, a last-place team (Mary and Peach in Race 2, for example) is fetched if all the others have checked in.

I remember reading somewhere a few years ago that Phil and his crew have a real challenge not encountering the teams in the airports. They really don’t want to interfere with the Race, so while they are often travelling at the same time and through the same airports, Phil and crew have to hide if they spot Racers. Crazy.

Finale - 9pm ET tonight on CBS. Woo!

My boss is a great guy, but he’s also one of those who will forward chain email liberally. Today’s missive was a listing of bogus Stella Award winners. So with a quick Google search on “stella awards”, I found the real Stella Awards and replied to his message with both links.

I don’t know why I’m still surprised that people will forward these things without verifying their veracity first.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering what the Stella Awards are?

The Stella Awards were inspired by Stella Liebeck. In 1992, Stella, then 79, spilled a cup of McDonald’s coffee onto her lap, burning herself. A New Mexico jury awarded her $2.9 million in damages, but that’s not the whole story. Ever since, the name “Stella Award” has been applied to any wild, outrageous, or ridiculous lawsuits—including bogus cases!

There was one question that I could have answered two ways. So I did and got these results.

OR

I’m not sure if either fits, really.

[via robert the llama butcher]

Total commute time: 1 hour 50 minutes. Cause: state troopers parked on the right shoulder of Route 50 at the Loudoun County line - there was a marked car and a van with three yahoos standing on the side of the road. It took about 55 minutes to get to that point - that’s about 2.5 miles from my apartment. They had no one pulled over and didn’t look like they were doing anything productive. It’s maddening.

It’s payroll day and because of hurricane Ivan the agency that processes most of the government’s pay was closed last week. So we got this URGENT email yesterday telling us that we had to transmit our time data today. OK, I don’t quite get the urgency about it since Tuesday is always the deadline.

I woke up in the middle of the night after a nightmare about Eugene Armstrong. For a split second I regretted looking at those photos yesterday, but then I was grateful for the nightmare and the reminder that it was nothing compared to the reality for Mr. Armstrong and his family. Interestingly, this morning I caught a bit of yesterday’s Your World with Neil Cavuto when he talked with Dr. Georgia Witkin about how Mr. Armstrong’s beheading isn’t making as much news as Nick Berg’s did in May. She explained that we do get desensitized to that kind of horror as a safety mechanism so that we can go about our daily lives. It’s sad.

So the fiscal year ends on September 30, right? Right, we have to have everything done by Thursday. In two days. On the 23rd. I’m just now being told that and that’s just crazy! Sheesh. OK, so I need to stop procrastinating.

Monday, September 20, 2004

I admit that I had become a little desensitized to the news of more hostages taken, the warnings of beheadings, etc. from over the weekend. How many have been taken in this war? How many have been brutally murdered? I was sick that while on a certain level I was able to acknowledge that it’s wrong and we’ve got to stop these madmen, there was another part of me that had compartmentalized the horror of the reality of what these killings really are. I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t care enough anymore. And so with the news of another American hostage being beheaded today, I decided it was time to do what I hadn’t done before and what I really didn’t want to do - take a look at the pictures.

I’m not linking them. You’ll be able to find them anywhere on the internet. And if you don’t get it, if you don’t get the sick horror of this, then you should probably look at the photos, too. Because after looking at the still photos of the beheading of Eugene Armstrong that nauseating knot that I had in my gut on the day of the news of Nick Berg’s beheading is back in my belly and it’s all I can do to keep the tears at bay.

The still photos are probably not nearly as awful as the video. But they were enough to make me sick - sick to my stomach and sick at heart. My prayers go out to his family and to the families of the other men who’ve been killed and for the hostages who are still being held and their families.

And my resolve about this war is increased - these monsters must be stopped.

This is post #2000. There are 7 9 closed posts in that number - posts that I never published because they were too personal or posts that I closed because I never should have published them in the first place.

So far I’m counting 7389 comments in the previous 1999 posts. A lot are my own responses to what you’ve said to me, but I’m grateful for each comment and the commenters. Thank you for participating in the conversations here.

Here’s hoping there will be another 2000 posts to come. I can’t imagine that there won’t be - I love to speak my piece and after 2 years of blogging, my interest in the hobby hasn’t waned. It’ll be interesting to see how many new people come along to share this journey. I know that I cherish the blog friends I’ve made so far.

All that to say, thanks. Thanks for visiting. Thanks for returning. Thanks for contributing your own thoughts. I appreciate you.

On Friday at worship team practice, our worship leader started playing some chords on his guitar while we waited for the sound guy to fix something. Almost immediately I recognized the tune as being Humble King by Vineyard. So I started to hum along to encourage him to continue, which he did. And then he started to sing the words and after a few words I joined him in harmony. We ended up singing the whole song and when we were done I said, “We could do that as a prelude on Sunday.” He agreed and we talked about using the whole band, but decided to have just his guitar and our two voices. And then we moved on with the rest of our regular practice.

Yesterday, he and I were in a back room off the auditorium, practicing the song one time before the first service when our pastor walked in. When we finished, he asked us to move the song to the end of the service instead, as a benediction to close the service. So we moved it and it was a nice, reflective end to the morning.

Humble King
Author: Brenton Brown [1999]

Oh kneel me down again, here at Your feet
Show me how much You love humility
Oh Spirit be the star that leads me to
The humble heart of love I see in You

You are the God of the broken
The friend of the weak
You wash the feet of the weary
Embrace the ones in need
I want to be like You, Jesus
To have this heart in me
You are the God of the humble
You are the humble King

I expected to get a DVD in the mail from NetFlix last Friday, but when I checked my mailbox yesterday (I didn’t check it Friday night because it we had torrential rains and I didn’t go anywhere on Saturday), it wasn’t there. I was going wait to see if it arrived today, but I just got an email from NetFlix saying that they received it back. So I went to the NetFlix page to report the problem, but my problem isn’t listed as an option and there’s no place to “write in” more specific problems. I think they should know that I never received the DVD before they got it back.

In the meantime, I put the movie back in my queue. At home, I have Oklahoma with Hugh Jackman in the role of Curly. Dad’s still holding Miracle hostage. And being shipped today is 13 Going on 30.

The Amazing Race for Best Reality Program. Woo!

I was worried that The Apprentice might win.

UPDATE: In keeping with the Amazing post, here’s the latest TWoP recap - a must read simply for Colin’s meltdown with the broken ox in the mudpit.

Okay. So. Colin runs out into the field and gets behind the ox with the rope in his hand. Christie, unlike every one of the other seven people who has participated in this task, chooses to stand on the sidelines and do nothing, in an apparent attempt to keep her feet clean. In Stage I (Colin Is Sane, Mostly), he says fairly breezily to Christie when she asks him how he’s doing the task, “I can’t control where he goes, baby.” And indeed, Colin is at the ox’s mercy, as it leads him in a random diagonal cutting across the field. “Be looking, okay?” she nags. In Stage II (Colin Becomes Concerned), he says, “Which way?” “Be looking on the bottom,” she offers, as if it’s a very silly question. In Stage IIIA ("Babe" Is Colin For “B****"), he tightly says with frustration, “You’re not even helping me look, babe, you’re just standing around.” In Stage IIIB: ("Babe" Is Christie For “A******"), she says, “There’s not much I can do, babe. It’s—it’s underneath. It’s in the plowed area. It’s gonna be deep; that’s why you have to really be looking in the plowed area.” Why wouldn’t she at least walk with him if that’s what she thinks? Sigh. In Stage IV: (Christie Pokes The Sleeping Crazy), she says, as if he’s a dimwit, “Do you understand?” In Stage V: (Blast-Off), Colin says, “I UNDERSTAND!” And then he goes back to plowing. But just for the moment.

[...]

In Stage VI (Human-Animal Miscommunication Troubles Us All) Colin shrieks, “Where’s he going?” as the ox wanders off the field. Well, yeah. I mean, the ox doesn’t know the rules. The saying isn’t “smart as an ox,” Colin. In Stage VII (Exploring The Futility of Ordering Around An Ox Who Probably Doesn’t Speak English), Colin hollers at the ox, “NO! In this field!” You know, my parents’ dog is a lot smarter than that ox, and I’m not sure he knows very many words other than “squirrel,” “out,” “walk,” “Daddy,” “Mommy,” and “BlackDog.” (BlackDog is the dog across the street, who is his best friend. He and BlackDog would never Yield each other.) I don’t think the dog would understand “In this field!” Plus, what has Colin done for this ox? Why would the ox listen to anything he says? The dog only pays any attention because my parents pour tomato juice on his food.

In Stage VIII (Colin Instantly Becomes A Legend), he says, “Oh my GOD! My ox is broken! This is BULL****!” Yes. You heard right; his ox is broken. Just his luck, Colin has wound up with the world’s only broken ox working for him. And it’s not broken in the sense that it’s injured, unless he suspects it of having one leg shorter than the others in such a way that it goes in circles. No, it’s broken in the sense that just as you should be able to pick up a Jack-in-the-box, turn the crank, and have the little guy pop out, he thinks you should be able to pick up a rope, tell an ox where to go, and he should go there. And if he doesn’t? Well, he’s obviously broken. Flawed! Colin has been given nonfunctioning equipment!

[...]

In Stage IX (Christie Starts Asking Questions Just To Be A B****), she says, “Colin, is it possible for you to control him? Please answer me when I talk to you. If there’s any way possible that you can not wander aimlessly...” In Stage X (Colin Clings Desperately To The Very Few Marbles He Has Left), he says, “Do you know how hard it is to look down and try to drive him? Do you realize how difficult that is?” In Stage XI (Colin Fastens On The Only Possible Explanation, Which Is Preferential Treatment For Others), he says, “It wasn’t this hard for the other teams. I guarantee you that much.” See, that’s where the arrogance kills. Because if he had any humility, it would occur to him that this was because he might be doing it wrong. And then he might think to himself, “What might the other teams have thought of that I did not?” But I don’t think he thinks that way. Like, ever.

Anyway, in Stage XII (Deserving Each Other, Part One), Christie says, “Grab the plow!” In Stage XIII (Deserving Each Other, Part Two), Colin screams, “I CAN’T GET HIM TO GO OVER THERE!” In Stage XIV (Nothing Says “I Have No Argument” Quite Like “Calm Down"), Christie says, “Calm down.” In Stage XV (Them Animals Scare Easy), Colin screams, “WHY DO YOU KEEP TURNING?” (Ox: “Because you are a lot funnier than writing my name in the mud with my tail again, and moreover, now I am immortal!") In Stage XVI (Provoking For Provocation’s Sake), Christie says, dripping contempt, “Colin, why don’t you learn how to control him?” In Stage XVII (No One In His BMX Club Will Talk To Colin Now That They’ve Heard Him Scream Like A Little Girl), Colin screams, “I’m tryin’!” In Stage XVIII (Having the Upper Hand And Making Sure Everyone Knows It), Christie says, again dripping contempt, “Listen to yourself. No wonder you can’t control it.” Easy to say in the non-plowing role, isn’t it, non-plowing non-plower? “I CAN’T MAKE HIM GO OVER THERE!” Colin shouts again. In Stage XIX (Turning Into A Freudian Mother-Related Nightmare), Christie says, “I don’t want another word coming out of your mouth.” In Stage XX (Unfortunately, Yes, He’s Talking To Christie And Not The Ox, As You Know If You Watch The Insider Videos), Colin doubles over with one hand on the plow and the other on his knee and whimpers—yes, whimpers—“Oh my God, I hate you.” In Stage XXI (She Is A Lovely Person Also), Christie says, “Oh my God, just plow.” And in Stage XXII (Just Plain ... Awesome), Colin leans back, looks at the sky, grimaces as if he is in a movie about eternal suffering, and...waits for guidance? Hopes to catch some rain in his mouth? Tries to look at the front of his own hat and fails? Hard to say.

[...]

Colin continues his Heart of Darkness moment as his ox drags him across the mud field. “Whoa! Whoa!” he yells. “Slow him down, Colin, now,” Christie instructs, as if that’s not what “Whoa! Whoa!” indicates he’s trying to do. “Stupid ox!” Colin snaps, briefly turning into a second-grader who can’t close his thermos. ("Stupid thermos. Stupid lid. Stupid Batman.") “Nooo! Stay in the field!” he yells. The ox now realizes that Colin wants him to stay in the field, and immediately starts trotting in straight lines. No, not really, but wouldn’t that have been tremendous? If the ox had been like, “Yeah, I’m totally trained to walk a grid pattern; I’m just [messing] with you.” “Well, we’re obviously not doing it the way that it’s supposed to be done,” Christie says. Of course, she can’t be expected to do much more to contribute than (1) stand around; and (2) make it worse, so I’m sure that by “we,” she isn’t referring to herself. “Get the **** over here and help look,” he demands. “It’s so deep, Colin,” she hesitates, not so interested in getting down to business when it’s going to get her “Texas” shorts dirty. “I don’t care,” he says right back to her. Heh. “Walk through with your feet until you feel it!” And the editing would suggest that she finds it almost immediately, but I doubt it. They leave and grab the pit stop clue.

That was so awesome, I may need a vacation to recover.

Sadly, we have the finale tomorrow night! Two whole hours of Amazing Race goodness. Who will be Philiminated in the first hour and who will win the $1M? League people, go take the bloomin’ quiz if you haven’t already.

Sunday, September 19, 2004

It’s been a productive weekend - cleaned the apartment, laundry, church, lunch with the ‘rents, the Redskins game (they played like poo-poo this week - what happened?), etc. I spent a couple of hours cleaning up my computer yesterday - purged some stuff, installed and ran SpyBot, installed the upgrades to Firefox and Thunderbird, and managed to catch some interesting stuff on the tube in the process.

First up, on the History Channel yesterday, I caught an episode of Command Decisions and an episode of Decisive Battles. I had seen these shows a few weeks ago - one discussed the legend and battles of Spartacus against the Romans, which I found really fascinating. What was cool is that the show uses video game technology to show what the battle must have looked like. The other from earlier was about the Battle of Waterloo, and what I like is that they lead you step by step through each part of the battle and pause to give the audience a chance to pick from multiple choice questions on which step to take next. Very cool.

Anyway, yesterday the episode of Command Decisions was about the Athenians battle against the Persians. I didn’t realize it until later, but this was the battle from which Philipedes (sp?) ran 26.2 miles to Marathon to report the battle won and then died on the spot. It was interesting to have the battle laid out with the questions periodically about what should be done next.

The episode of Decisive Battles was the Battle of Adrianople - the Romans against the Huns who crossed the Danube River. If they had taught this stuff like this when I was in school, I would have been completely fascinated. At one point, I looked up at the TV to see who the scholar was that was talking to find that it was Victor Davis Hanson. It was kind of cool to see the person whose name I see all over the blogosphere.

OK, so next was mindless fluff TeeVee - a little What Not to Wear in the afternoon. While flipping around the channels, I happened upon a movie with J-Lo and Vincent D’Onofrio that looked really familiar, but I couldn’t think of what it was or what it was called. I just remember that it was pure evil and that while it was visually interesting (and disturbing), I did not like it one bit. Turns out that it was The Cell. Frankly, I’m surprised they were able to clean that one up enough to show on TV at all - it’s quite gruesome.

Later, I watched Panic Room on TNT. For those who may be interested, TNT will be showing From the Earth to the Moon beginning October 1. It’s one of the best miniseries out there - I rank it #2 behind Band of Brothers and just ahead of Lonesome Dove.

I’m debating whether or not to watch the Emmy Awards tonight. I’m only sort of interested to see if The Amazing Race wins again for Best Reality Show. I’m thinking if they won last year, then they have a good shot at winning again this year. Although, American Idol might be in the hunt. Who knows?

Saturday, September 18, 2004

The evening commute last night was a little exciting courtesy of the remnants of Ivan. I was headed west on I-66 when the tornado warnings started being announced on the radio. I was on my way to my parents house to drop off a box of Depression glass dishes that Mom uses for her tea workshops and to pick up some tea samples that I’m sending to someone. Apparently, that was not far from where a tornado touched down. The sky was ominous, but I never saw the tornado. My parents did though - they were out for their usual Friday dinner date and saw the tornado and a local news truck.

Then I got nervous because they said the tornado warning was now in my town. I had worship band practice, so I wasn’t going to be home for a few hours and I was worried about Annie in our 3rd floor apartment and seemingly in the potential path of tornadoes. Since there wasn’t much I could do about it, I just prayed for her safety.

Practice went well and I was home by 9pm. I fully expected to find that the power was out or had been out, but it turns out that things were normal. Very wet from the blowing rain, but normal.

They’re reporting that there were 9 tornadoes that did touch down in the DC area last night. There are a couple of small towns to the south and west of me where there’s some significant damage to homes. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Friday, September 17, 2004

*singing*

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, dear Daa-a-a-a-a-aave!
Happy birthday to you!

I hope it’s a good one.

Yesterday, our agency received an email reminding us of The Hatch Act - the law that prohibits federal employees from actively campaigning while in the capacity of their job. We are allowed to campaign as private citizens, but not as employees. It’s a fine line and according to this article in The Federal Times online, two federal employees are dealing with the the stickiness of the guidelines.

Two federal employees could lose their jobs for allegedly sending politically partisan e-mails at work.
The Office of Special Counsel on Aug. 12 filed separate complaints with the Merit Systems Protection Board against Maureen Taylor-Glaze, an Environmental Protection Agency employee, and Donald Thompson, an Air Force civilian.

The OSC Sept. 8 said Taylor-Glaze allegedly e-mailed a photo of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry at a Vietnam-era antiwar protest with actress Jane Fonda. The OSC said Thompson e-mailed a phony resume for President Bush that lists allegations of incompetence and malfeasance.

Both e-mails advocated those candidates’ defeat in this fall’s election. The OSC said the e-mails violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits executive branch employees from engaging in political activity while on duty, in a federal office, while wearing a uniform or insignia of the federal government, or using any government vehicle.

If the MSPB finds the employees did violate the act, their punishment could range from a 30-day suspension without pay to firing.

“The use of Internet and electronic mail is second-nature to almost everyone, and has become a favorite and effective campaign tool,” said Special Counsel Scott Bloch. “I want to remind federal employees to be vigilant.”

I added the disclaimer to my blog to make it clear that nothing I post here is the policy or whatnot of the federal government, DOJ, or my agency. All thoughts are solely my own. However, I have to admit that I’m a little spooked about these two that are facing potentially severe penalties for forwarding junk email - junk email that’s been forwarded to me by my own boss on numerous occasions. I haven’t considered that what I’ve posted is actually campaigning, but I suppose it might be to some. So I’m going to be more careful about that, and maybe other bloggers should consider it as well.

UPDATE: Ah, I think I’m safe. According to the list of activities that are permitted:

These federal and D.C. employees may-

[...]

express opinions about candidates and issues

Not a great morning so far.

I have a raging headache - probably Ivan-driven.

I just had a long discussion with someone that was needed and so hard to do. I’ve been praying about something for a while now and I’ve really been feeling that I needed to tell this person about it and what it will mean. So I just did that and I know that it caught that person completely off guard and I probably wasn’t as articulate about my position as I could have been and now I know that I’ve added stress to that person, which wasn’t my intention, but was going to happen regardless. I feel badly about that, but I also feel relieved, which tells me that it was the right thing to do. Cryptic, I know. This whole paragraph was for me - I needed to vent a little.

Blogrolling sucks. Not really, just today since I can’t access the rolls for my occasional reading. Their down times are rare, thankfully, but really annoying when they happen.

I’ve been trying to input the data for our large credit card bill for the past two days. I keep getting kicked out of the system about halfway through the process, which means I have to delete what I did and start all over. Not fun. My next attempt will be #5.

I think I missed something crucial on Survivor last night because I was shocked that Chris didn’t get the boot. I wasn’t actively watching, so will someone clue me in on how the other guy was voted off?

Thursday, September 16, 2004

It’s been a tad busy and as a result I haven’t been linking to many posts that have caught my eye. And there have been plenty, believe me. Thing is that I don’t like to just link and leave it at that, because I know that some of you never actually click on the link (*looking at Dad*), you just read what I wrote and are done with it. So I feel a bit of an obligation to add my 2 cents along with the link.

I’m trying to blog less while at work since I’m paid by you, the taxpayers, and I’m a little swamped with end of the fiscal year stuff. And I’m not blogging much at home either because by the time I get home, my brain is done with the thinking thing.

Sooo...all this to say that here’s a little linky-love for you:

Ith has the Chicks for Bush blogroll. There are quite a few of us on the list, btw.

Jay links to one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time, Action Item Hero.

Robert the Llama Butcher has a couple of good posts on saying “no” to your kids. It’s a good thing.

Jared has some snippets from an interview with Frank Peretti that’s perplexing and makes me wonder how the man managed to write some rather extraordinary books back in the day. I guess you don’t have to be completely articulate verbally to be a good writer.

To be honest, I can’t pick just one post from Outside the Beltway. This is a blog that I read several times a day because James provides some good analysis on most things political.

Bryan waxes poetic about The Greatest TV Show On Earth.

Katie the Mango is starting her own carnival - Fiskfest. As the name implies, she’ll collect links of your best fiskings. She has a couple of good ones this week - Mary Beth Cahill’s latest e-missive and an email from Senator Kerry.

Much like OTB, Thinklings is a blog that I’ll just link to as it stands on it’s own and there are too many good posts to link to directly. Just start at the top and scroll your way down - you’ll find anything from intense theological discussions to pictures of clowns and monkeys.