Category Archives: Musings

Attention, John! Speakeasy has renewed their free Xbox or PS2 offer: buy residential DSL service from them, get a brand-new, free console from EBgames. Disclaimer: My free Xbox is still in its box because I’m trying not to fall behind on the book.

However, a little natural gas in the fireplace is a helluva lot more dangerous.
I decided to test our gas fireplace to make sure it worked properly. I opened the damper, checked it for instructions, cranked the gas valve halfway open, stuck the piezoelectric igniter under the andirons, and pulled the trigger. Whoomp! A big ol’ fireball came out, neatly depliating my right hand and scaring the fool out of me. There’s still a noticeable aura of burned hair around me. On the positive side, David (who was watching) is a lot more respectful of the fireplace now.

I can’t decide whether to be pleased or irritated when the Great Grey Lady reports on Cajun culture. This article (“Born on the Bayou With Little Urge to Roam”) is a great example. On the pleasing side, it paints a picture of a warm, self-sufficient, happy group of people with strong family bonds and an aversion to much of the cultural bad stuff in modern America.
On the irritating side, it perpetuates the stereotype of Cajuns as poorly educated (“Higher education, in fact, is threatening the stay-at-home stability of the entire state.”), insular (“Vacherie is a stupendously static exception to the American rule of wander. With an almost total absence of population mobility…”), and racist (“Blacks and whites agree that race relations in Vacherie are stuck in a kind of 1940’s time warp, with little overt racial animosity and little racial mixing.”)
Me, I think I’ll take the good stuff and leave the bad.

This is an awesome deal. Where else but in America can you buy bandwidth and get a killer console game system to boot?
Here’s the deal: Speakeasy is offering your choice of a brand-new, free Playstation2 or Xbox console to new subscribers. You have to buy one of their “gamer” DSL packages, which are basically indistinguishable from their SOHO and home-user packages, and you have to sign up by 9/30.
I’d already placed a DSL order with them last month. It was due to be installed on Friday. When I learned of this promotion yesterday, I called them and asked them to switch my order– and they did! They didn’t have to, but they decided to go out of their way to delight the customer– how often does that happen?
If you’re interested, go here or call 800-556-5829 and ask for Nathan at extension 336.
DISCLAIMER: if you sign up through the link above, I get $25. Do or don’t, it’s OK with me either way.
The only remaining problem: how is Arlene going to clean the front window after I spend the next week with my nose pressed against it, watching for the delivery truck?

I’m now a guest blogger at Sgt Stryker’s Daily Blog, a military-themed blog mostly created by current and former military members. Warning: the site is what my old gunny would call a ground-combat language area. Some of the folks are pretty salty.

Last night it got down to about 47 degrees. This morning, I can’t get more than a 19.2Kbps dialup connection. I don’t know whether these events are related or not. Thankfully, Speakeasy tells me that my DSL should be up by week’s end. I sure hope so.
Of course, the cool weather is welcome, because it’s the result of a cold front that blew through and left absolutely beautiful weather in its wake. Saturday morning, we had our weekly soccer game (a 3-3 tie), then we went to Harrison Rally Days. This is an annual Perrysburg street fair that commemorates a political rally for William Henry Harrison (I think in 1806); even though P’burg had a population of only about 1,000 people, more than 25,000 people showed up for the rally. We had a great time out in the sun.
In the afternoon, the boys & I went fishing on Lake Erie with Dad & Tim; Tom caught a piece of seaweed, but he and David were so excited about the live minnows we used for bait that our lack of results didn’t faze them. Last night Arlene cooked up a big pot of red beans and rice, and Dad & Tim came over for supper. The subfloor is laid in the upstairs bathroom. All is good with the world.

I just posted a review of Owen West’s Sharkman Six. The summary: well worth a read.

No, I’m not talking about Iraq. However, September 19th is “Talk Like a Pirate Day“. Since pirate talking has long been a Robichaux family staple, it’ll be hard to tell that the 19th is any different from a regular day. Now, where’d I put that eyepatch?

Over at Salon’s blogging department, Scott Rosenberg is acting surprised that the Pentagon is telling US soliders in Afghanistan to start shaving and dressing in proper uniform. The fact that Rosenberg finds this surprising surprises me. I would have thought that an American journalist would understand the process very well, and it will certainly be familiar to anyone who’s ever served in the US military.
It goes like this. First, military forces do or allow something unusual (like let their special ops troops “go native” with beards and local clothing). This departure from SOP is usually for a sound tactical reason; sometimes it’s a goof, but usually not. Second, the media reports on the unusual behavior. Third, the media reports come to the attention of some chair-dwelling commander, who is Outraged and Horrified and orders The Despicable Behavior to Stop at Once! This has happened so many times before (uniforms in Somalia, women’s attire and the display of Christian symbols in Desert Shield, to name two off the top of my head) that it’s not a surprise; this cycle is part of the reason why so many military personnel dislike the media so intensely (of course, the endemic suspicion and anti-military bias betrayed by so many journalists doesn’t help, either).
There’s a telling comment from the CO of the Kandahar airfield, who is quoted as saying

“An Irish guy with a beard is still an Irish guy,” Col. James L. Huggins, commander of the base, said in an interview. “I don’t know what they are trying to achieve.” . That tends to make me think that a) he’s unsympathetic and b) he doesn’t understand why the policy was relaxed in the first place because c) he’s a garrison CO. I hate it when that happens.

Here’s a guy who’s set up a site to let visitors drive him insane over the Internet. Apparently he doesn’t have any small children, so he needs someone else to randomly turn things off and on, rearrange things, and generally increase the entropy level in his immediate area. Hmmm. Who else do I know who a) loves X-10 home automation, b) has no small children, and c) would do something like this? I wonder…

I just got off the phone with Ameritech. If they’re not the slowest phone company in North America, they’re #2 and trying hard. This time I had to call to ask where our phone books were. The answer: “oh, we’ll send some out; it will take 10-15 business days.” That’s right: three weeks to mail me two lousy phone books. Why does it take so long? Aren’t businesses all over the world supposedly re-engineering their processes to improve them?
No. Actually, they’re re-engineering process to make money, either by reducing costs or improving revenue. I can’t come up with a single example of a process retooling that was done solely to improve customer service or response time. I suppose that’s to be expected from a business culture that values profitability over everything else, but as a consumer it’s mighty frustrating.

So, now we’re in Ohio, temporarily staying with the folks while we wait to close on the house. It’s been thoroughly cleaned, and the trailers should arrive sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, we’ve been dealing with the 1,001 minor-but-important details: transferring utilities, buying David’s school supplies, double-checking the roofer’s references, looking for a new microwave, and so on. This to me is the most aggravating part of moving, since it never seems to stop. On the other hand, all the parts of moving have been aggravating so far. We’ll all be happy when we’re in the new house, even though it will take a while to get settled in.

Sometime today (hopefully around noon), we expect to see 2 28′ trailers magically appear, and the Great Move of 2002 will officially begin. Several friends from church are coming over to help us load this afternoon, then we’ll have a second shift of after-work folks this evening, and more tomorrow. I’ll try to post some pictures of the moving process (nothing like seeing a bunch of sweaty Mormons carrying boxes!) but I doubt I’ll be near the computers for the next couple of days.

Found a more-worthwhile-than-usual political self-tester at www.politicalcompass.org. It’s a short multiple-choice test that asks you a bunch of questions to determine where you fall on two axes: authoritarian vs. libertarian and economic left vs. right. Here’s the site’s self-description:

On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It’s not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can’t explain. Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as ‘right-wingers’, yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook.

So, take the test and post a comment to let the rest of us know where you stand.

Did the stork bring it? Sorry, but no.
The National Security Act of 1947 created the Air Force. As part of the politicking that followed its passage, the so-called “Key West Agreement” was struck: the Army could have helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft of less than (IIRC) 12,000lbs, and that was it. The Army wasn’t supposed to arm any of their fixed-wing aircraft, either, although eventually that restriction was de facto relaxed. That’s how the Army ended up with cool planes like the OA-37 Dragonfly and the OV-10 Bronco.
As time passed, the Air Force began to lose interest in the boring close-air support mission, instead spending more of its time and budget on strategic deterrence and air superiority. Over time, this focus has changed somewhat, with air mobility becoming (rightfully) more important than in the past. However, the fact remains that the Army and the Air Force would probably both be happier if the Army got the fixed-wing CAS assets and formed an organic air support capability, just like the Marines have. Of course, one reason the Navy-Marine Corps relationship is so successful is that the Navy knows their place: moving the USMC from point A to point B.