Month: March 2004

You call that a snowstorm? There were noises of this snowfall being somewhat dramatic, with forecasts of up to a foot of snow, yaddayadda. Total snowfall ended up being about 5 inches. Enough to cover the ground, and enough to need snowblowing,
Ahh, the snowblower! What is it about working with machinery that’s so satisfying? I mean, granted, it’s no backhoe, but it’s a lot of fun. This is a Craftsman ride-on tractor, with a 42″ blower on the front of it. We add about 100lbs of weight to it for winter use, with wheel weights and a large bucket o stones on the back.. This, combined with my own not-exactly-insubstantial mass made the whole thing easy to navigate in the snow. The little 18hp engine doens’t have any problems doing the work, the trick is always the traction.
Anyway, snowblowing was successful, the driveway is again safe for navigation (we have a pretty steep hill, it really does need to be cleared).
On to work!

From The Progress Report on www.americanprogress.org….

RUMSFELD DISHONESTY CAUGHT ON FILM: The most vivid display of the Administration’s widening credibility gap came when CBS’s Bob Schieffer asked Rumsfeld “If Iraq did not have WMD, why did they pose an immediate threat to this country?” Rumsfeld retorted, “You and a few other critics are the only people I’ve heard use the phrase ‘immediate threat.’ I didn’t…It’s become kind of folklore that that’s what happened.” Schieffer repeated his question but Rumsfeld challenged the reporter saying, “If you have any citations, I’d like to see ’em.” At that point, NYT columnist Tom Friedman read Rumsfeld his own words, pointing out that the Defense Secretary had told Congress on 9/19/02 that “No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people” than Iraq and that “some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent [but] I would not be so certain.” According to the transcript of the show, Rumsfeld replied “Mm-hmm. It–my view of–of the situation was that he–he had–we–we believe, the best intelligence that we had and other countries had and that–that we believed and we still do not know–we will know.” American Progress has posted a video clip of this exchange.

Other entries follow… I challenge anyone to read this simple summary page, with citations, supporting information, transcripts, and facts gathered together… and contine to have faith that the Bush Administration is worth the American people’s trust.

Continue reading “Would you trust these people?” →

Ahh, day 1 at home full time. Work is getting done, UPS is delivering and picking things up, I’ve had my coffee, and I’m going to get lunch shortly. Clients contacted, emails exchanged, contracts negotiated.
AND 5 FRIGGIN TELEMARKETING CALLS IN THE LAST 3 HOURS!
I responded to every one of them with “Take me off your list”, we’ll see if it helps. Have folks signed onto the National Do Not Call list, and has it worked? This is gonna drive me batshit.

I have to admit, I’m a big fan of Dance Dance Revolution, or just ‘DDR’ for short. In premise, it sounds like a bad joke. “Okay, so you stand in front of this computer, on these pads, see, and it shows you the steps to make in time with the music. When it lights up, you step on the arrow. Keep up with the music and the steps, and your score goes up. You get scored on timing. You can compete against someone else at the same time, too!”
Wow, how… uninviting-sounding.
But in reality, this game is a -hoot-. It’s far more social than I expected (as in, it’s a lot more fun to play when either you’re playing with someone else, or with a group of people). It’s a helluva lot of exercise. A half hour of playing and you’re generally drenched with sweat. Fortunately we have a big room wit a big TV in it, so folks can sit around and watch and have fun, as we did last night.
Arora and I just took a midday break and played for about 45 minutes. Fun! It’s great when the two players are in sync, and keep up with each other and the game.
Now, back to work, but I’m sure we’ll hit it some more later.
For folks who know this game, we’re playing Konamix on a Playstation 1. Absolutely prehistoric by DDR standards, but for us newbies and wannabees, this is just right.

Boy, nothing like having a couple really busy days, then when finally sitting down for First Day On the Job, you don’t get diddly done. *sigh*. Today was nutty with a dentist appt this morning, and 2-3 hours of aftermath where I was hurting a lot more than I normally do after dental work, then a rapid fire series of visits from various in-laws.
Durn. Maybe I can get some quicky code done tonight.
Just ranting. Back to blogland…

Salon has has posted an amazing article on how “Defense Department extremists suppressed information and twisted the truth to drive the country to war.”
What’s also remarkable about this is that Salon has removed their normal ‘you need to watch an ad to read this article’, because they feel this is just too important.

Today was my last day at my fulltime employer. It was harder than I expected to walk out the door, but I still truly believe it’s the right decision for me personally.
I’ll be focusing my energy fulltime on my own business now, and all that entails. Part of that will include doing some contract work on the side to help pay the bills, but it’s all part of Business [tm].
Onward….