So Let's Raise Our Glasses

At ten thousand twenty three feet atop Haleakala on Maui, this picture was taken by Chan, my then-fiancee in the summer of '98.

Sometime in the fall of 1996, sometime in late September or early October, I met Grant. My first real memory of him is standing in Alley 7, swinging a bat, getting ready for IH Softball to start. Andy and I were in 225, Grant and MJosh shared the triple next door; Grant came out of the triple and saw me swinging the bat.

"You play ball?" he asked, half intrigued and half already bored with the conversation. "Yeah, I played through high school." At this, his eyes lit up, though I didn't yet understand why.

A few months later I was a waiter and starting shortstop, and Grant and I were fast friends. Along with waiting came drinking, and along with drinking came long, late nights of introspection. In many ways, Grant changed and shaped my life. He was my own personal devil, Mi Diablo. He showed me that I would not, in fact, be struck dead on the spot for having a drink, or two, or ten. And when I did have ten, he stayed up with me, put me in the shower, and made sure I got into bed (and that was even before we were roommates).

Grant and I bitched a lot (mostly to each other rather than at each other). We had problems with women, school, baseball, or whatever, and we overcame the lot. I would have Flamed spectacularly sophomore year if not for Grant. Of course, if Grant could have offered me some protection in the lineup, I might not have walked 27 times in 21 games my junior year; then again, he's the only guy that's ever been hit in retaliation for one of my home runs.

In '98 I got engaged, and moved out in the Spring of '99 (after a tough couple of months where Grant was forced to share Page 201 with me and my fiancee), and another couple of months later he graduated. We drifted apart as I began my married life and he his professional life.

A year or two into my career at BSS, Liz revealed to me in stage whisper that Grant had found a girl... a girl who, somehow, seemed to be cool and seemed to really like him! Liz confided to me the warning that she had given G-Dub: if he and Jamie ever broke up, the "gang" was going to keep her, not him. I have only had the privilege of spending about 6 or 7 hours with Jamie so far; about an hour at Dale and Marie's wedding, another hour here in the 'Burque when Grant came to interview, and a few hours a few weeks back when the four of us hit High Finance and Satellite Coffee. That short time has been more than enough to know that Grant is getting an incredible woman with whom to share his life; and y'all can trust me that Jamie's getting a pretty sweet deal too.

I like to think that by moving to New Mexico, Chan and I have "saved" Dale and Marie and now Grant and Jamie from LA. Maybe they didn't all hate it as much as Chan and I did (and do); for now, we'll still consider it a favor. But it's been great to once again play ball with Grant, Tuesday nights now and softball instead of hardball... but we still put together a wicked outfield-assisted out at home a couple of weeks ago, a trademark of our CIT baseball career together.

Chantel and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary tonight, even as Grant and Jamie were sharing their vows with one another. Now Grant and I can help each other once again: neither of us will miss July 29th of any year to come.

We can't wait to spend a lot more time with these great friends of ours, Mr. and Mrs. Grant and Jamie Williams.

Cheers!

I'm getting a little verklempt

I'm a pretty emotional -- or at least expressive -- guy, except when it comes to tears. There aren't many things that move me to water, but those that do get me almost every time.

This morning at 8:39 MDT I was moved to tears of joy.
NASA/KSC
NASA has successfully put mankind in space again. I almost said "men", but of course the Commander of this mission (STS-114) is a woman! I can remember being in preschool when Sally Ride became the first woman astronaut; she first flew on Challenger, the 7th shuttle mission over all (obviously, she was not on STS-51L, the fated Challenger flight in 1986).

When the Mrs. and I watched Armageddon, I teared up when they launched. The movie was terrible as SciFi goes, but nevertheless they were launching on space shuttles (or something like them), and that always does it for me.

I'll never forget turning on the TV on Saturday morning, Feb 1, 2003 as I was getting dressed for my 3rd CIT Alumni baseball game, only to lose all feeling in my legs. I called to Chan that something was wrong, to come here; I didn't know what it was, but it was bad. The image on TV was live, yet there was no sound, no speaking, nothing, just the American flag waving at half-mast with some sort of body of water behind it. I would later learn that this was the flag outside of mission control; this was how NASA confirmed the suspicion that Columbia was gone. No press conference, no emergency calls; someone just came outside and lowered the flag.

Buncha Savages inThis Town

Update:
Thanks to Dale for this from the Indy Star.

I ain't sayin' he shoulda killed her...
...but I understand.




I just don't get it.

When I was in high school and my friends wanted to go "egg" someone for doing something stupid, I never went with them. To me it was a stupid way to retaliate for anything, let alone for that stupid thing.

Even on Halloween, when people would roam with a carton of eggs or a basketful of oranges, I just didn't get it.

So this morning, when I got out to the Jeep to find a half-dozen eggs coating my dashboard, seats, and windshield (the inside) I was upset. Then I called the police: non-emergency number at 7:15 a.m. only to get passed to this recording: "Thank you for calling the Albuquerque Police. Our hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Please leave a message, and we'll get back to you within 48 hours."

Look, I understand that I chose to call "non-emergency", but 48 hours? Really?

The bottom line is that someone on my block is going to be drawn and quartered this week. The financial compensation that I will demand includes (but is not limited to):
-Full cost of fully detailing the car. I don't care if it's an open Jeep with vinyl seats and no carpet.
-Several hours of my time (final total is TBD) at the hourly wage that Boeing pays me to compensate for the hour and a half already spent cleaning along with the hours remaining of disassembling the dash to get to the yolks that slid down behind.
-The cost of a new stereo (it currently still works, but I haven't tried to play any CDs yet...
-The cost - including shipping - of replacing the floral seat covers from Hawaii.

savages....

This is the third time in the last two weeks that there is evidence of tampering on this Jeep.

Getting Life - and budget - in Focus

This picture is not ours, it's from a member of FocusFanatics.com. Ours (Chan's, that is) is this same color (minus the front end carnage): Grabber Green Metallic Clear, and apparently it's a fairly rare color option. The 2.0L is economical, getting 25 mpg city and 34 highway! It's also peppy, especially once it gets up over about 4k rpm. Interestingly the tach goes to 7k rpm, but there's no redline; I'm guessing the engine computer has a built-in rev limiter? Do all cars have these now? They should... (as long as they are reconfigurable, of course). I'd like to put an MSD 6AL capacitive discharge on the Cougar; the important feature is a swappable rev-limiting "chip". Nice for running hard (you don't destroy things as easily), but the 3k rpm limit chip is essential for valet parking, shipping, or other situations where the vehicle and keys are turned over.

So yeah, for the first time in my life, all of the vehicles in my household are American made. The 1999 Toyota 4Runner is on its way to a used car auction. She was great for a long time; other than the Cougar, I've never owned a car longer than her. We put 67000 miles on her in 3 years and 11 months; roughly 47 miles per day over that time period. When you put it that way, it really seems like a lot.

A lesson we learned: if you're going to sell a car for more than about $2000, you want to make sure that the mileage is below 100k miles, preferable below 80k miles. You see, most banking institutions won't issue a car loan on a vehicle with too many miles; some also have restrictions on age (i.e. 3 years old, 5 years old, etc). Just something to think about and keep track of, as you probably want to make sure you are no longer upside-down before you reach these selling points.

SO, that said, my daily driver is now the '93 Wrangler S... S means completely Stripped down. I love it; I've got a stereo (that we installed) and a heater for the brutally cold NM winter mornings, and two front seats (no rears). Currently the Jeep has 91k miles, but we have no plans to sell this beast. At some point (probably another 50k miles from now) down the road, the 2.5L 4cyl will get tired and I'll do a 85-or-later Ford 5.0L v8 swap. Strangely enough, the gas mileage shouldn't change much! In the meantime, I've gotta get the Cougar running.

You're Glib

Holy crap this is funny, thanks Williams the Elder!

From Condemned by the Space Pope, we get Tom Cruise is a Sith


Someone needs to make one of him doing this to Matt Lauer too. From the transcript of his interview last week: (if you haven't heard the audio from this interview, try to find it. Hearing him say "mattmattmattmattmatt" is hilarious and disturbing at the same time.)


...

Cruise: I've never agreed with psychiatry, ever. Before I was a Scientologist I ever agreed with psychiatry. And when I started studying the history of psychiatry, I understood more and more why I didn't believe in psychology.

And as far as the Brooke Shields thing, look, you got to understand, I really care about Brooke Shields. I think, here's a wonderful and talented woman. And I want to see her do well. And I know that psychiatry is a pseudo science.

Lauer: But Tom, if she said that this particular thing helped her feel better, whether it was the antidepressants or going to a counselor or psychiatrist, isn't that enough?

Cruise: Matt, you have to understand this. Here we are today, where I talk out against drugs and psychiatric abuses of electric shocking people, okay, against their will, of drugging children with them not knowing the effects of these drugs. Do you know what Aderol is? Do you know Ritalin? Do you know now that Ritalin is a street drug? Do you understand that?

Lauer: The difference is —

Cruise: No, no, Matt.

Lauer: This wasn't against her will, though.

Cruise: Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt —

Lauer: But this wasn't against her will.

Cruise: Matt, I'm asking you a question.

Lauer: I understand there's abuse of all of these things.

Cruise: No, you see. Here's the problem. You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do.

Lauer: Aren't there examples, and might not Brooke Shields be an example, of someone who benefited from one of those drugs?

Cruise: All it does is mask the problem, Matt. And if you understand the history of it, it masks the problem. That's what it does. That's all it does. You're not getting to the reason why. There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance.

Lauer: So, postpartum depression to you is kind of a little psychological gobbledygook —

Cruise: No. I did not say that.

Lauer: I'm just asking what you, what would you call it?

Cruise: No. No. Abso— Matt, now you're talking about two different things.

Lauer: But that's what she went on the antidepressant for.

Cruise: But what happens, the antidepressant, all it does is mask the problem. There's ways, [with] vitamins and through exercise and various things... I'm not saying that that isn't real. That's not what I'm saying. That's an alteration of what I'm saying. I'm saying that drugs aren't the answer, these drugs are very dangerous. They're mind-altering, antipsychotic drugs. And there are ways of doing it without that so that we don't end up in a brave new world. The thing that I'm saying about Brooke is that there's misinformation, okay. And she doesn't understand the history of psychiatry. She doesn't understand in the same way that you don't understand it, Matt.

...

Instead of cluttering inboxes, I'll clutter my blog

News Anchor Dan Rather and Peter Jennings, NPR Reporter Cokie Roberts and a U.S. Marine were hiking through the desert one day when they were captured by Iraqis. They were tied up, led to the village and brought before the leader.

The leader said, "I am familiar with your western custom of granting the condemned a last wish. Before we kill and dismember you, do you have any last requests?"

Dan Rather said, "Well, I'm a Texan; so I'd like one last bowl full of hot, spicy chili." The leader nodded to an underling who left and returned with the chili. Rather ate it all and said, "Now I can die content."

Peter Jennings said "I am Canadian; so I'd like to hear the English National Anthem one last time". The leader nodded to a terrorist who studied the United States and knew the music was the same as to 'God Bless America'. He returned with some rag-tag musicians and played the music. Jennings sighed and declared he could now die peacefully.

Coke Roberts said, "I'm a reporter to the end. I want to take out my tape recorder and describe the scene here and what's about to happen. Maybe some day someone will hear it and know that I was on the job till the end." The leader directed an aide to hand over the tape recorder and Roberts dictated some comments. She then said, "Now I
can die happy."

The leader turned and said, "And now, Mr. U.S. Marine, what is your final wish?" "Kick me in the ass," said the Marine." "What?" asked the leader. "Will you mock us in your last hour?" "No, I'm not kidding. I want you to kick me in the ass," insisted the Marine.! So the leader shoved him into the open, and kicked him in the ass. The Marine went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled a 9mm pistol from inside his cammies, and shot the leader dead. In the resulting confusion, he leapt to his knapsack, pulled out his M4 carbine, and sprayed the Iraqis with gunfire. In a flash, the Iraqis were dead or fleeing for their lives.

As the Marine was untying Rather, Jennings and Roberts, they asked him, "Why didn't you just shoot them? Why did you ask them to kick you in the ass?"!
"What!?" said the Marine, "And have you three jackasses call ME the aggressor?"

Got It! All this for only $1/3 Billion!

http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov



After 172 days and 140+ million miles, a man-made-copper-coffee-table crashed into Comet Tempel 1 at roughly 10 kilometers per second. The impact was expected to leave a crater somewhere between the size of an SUV to the size of a football field.

Favorite quote from NASA, post-impact:
I can't believe they pay us to have this much fun! Don Yeomans (Deep Impact mission co-investigator at JPL), 2:06 a.m. EDT July 4, 2005

I can't wait to see the TERABYTES of data that this has and will generate... Hubble and Chandra were trained on it, and the 'scopes in Hawaii were the only terrestrial ones with a view during the impact, so hopefully at least one of the Kecks was watching, as well as those on Haleakala!