March, 2005

2005.03.31 — Alfred, Ohio. Jeanie sent a list of stories out today. This one got me.

2005.03.30 — Alfred, Ohio. I plan to take WordPress down this weekend. I don’t have time to fix it and it continues to bombard me and those who contributed to it with spam. That is a pity. Other than the spam, I think it a great product. Maybe there is an update or patch that I can download and apply that will plug the problem. I’ll save some of the better articles and turn them into static pages first.

2005.03.27 — Alfred, Ohio. Happy Easter!

The Terri Schiavo case has helped everyone think about this subject more than they might have otherwise. Therefore, this seems a good day to make my wishes and reasoning known. My desire here is merely to make my own personal wishes known. It is not an attempt to sway anyone in your beliefs or inflame this topic further. Several years ago I made out a living will. Jeanie would know where to find it. When my time comes, I would NOT want to be kept alive using extraordinary means. My reasoning is a little complex so bear with me.

• My beliefs are such that it would be wrong to prolong life in a hopeless situation. Let nature take its course. Reasonable treatment is fine and would be expected, even if full recovery is not possible. E.G. stop the bleeding, a shot of antibiotics, etc. is fine with me. I am willing to live in a somewhat diminished capacity even though a full recovery would not be possible. We simply do not know what joys may await us in such a situation. Many people find meaning in life without full use of their minds or bodies. However, if there is no capacity for acknowledgment of the experience, please pull the plug.
• I would never wish to be an undue emotional burden on anyone else, particularly those that I love the most. The gift of life is precious. It would please me if you would enjoy and experience life. Please don’t spend your days attempting to hold on to something or someone who is gone. Life is fleeting, transient, and always changing. Mourn a little and then move on. You will certainly think about a person now and then anyway after they are gone. Keep those thoughts, but only in moderation.
• I would never wish to be an undue financial burden on anyone else, particularly those that I love the most. A person works over 40 years to save what they can. It was never my intention that it should be given to the medical profession. End of life treatment can be expensive. In Africa, India, or many third world countries, the amount of funds that would be spent on any given day to prolong such a life would appear obscene. Those same funds could be used much more effectively and benefit many people. I have already lived a wonderful life and would object to spending exorbitant amounts on me as a futile case. I would rather it be spent helping others, particularly children, with a future ahead of them. Here is another way of looking at it. Suppose a person is terminal and given three months to live without expensive treatment or six months to live with expensive treatment. I would NOT want the treatment. Jeanie will still need money after I am gone. Please don’t spend it all on me. If there is money to spare, my preference would be to take the money and have each member of my family take a nice vacation after a couple of months. NOTE: there will always be bills that could be paid, a major purchase needed or desired, or investments that could be made… my wish is that you would take and enjoy the vacation. Sing a song in my memory.

2005.03.26 — Alfred, Ohio. Nick called from Cincinnati today. He is back from his Spring break. I look forward to hearing of his adventures and seeing the photos.

Congratulations Mary Ellen on being accepted to graduate school!

Finished reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell today. Every time you read a book it changes you a little. This one took shot at some pretty basic beliefs that are common to most people. The ideas presented are probably worth trying out. It would be appealing to me if changing very small items in ones environment would make substantial differences in our lives.

2005.03.25 — Alfred, Ohio. Finished my homework for week 2 of the photography class I'm taking. The assignment was to take another dozen photographs and note the f-stop, shutter speed, etc. Every now and then, I get a photo that looks pretty nice to me.

2005.03.23 — Alfred, Ohio. NASCAR fans: Lisa sent in her thoughts on the Atlanta Race a couple of days ago. She is building quite a bit of information about the sport on her page. I’m beginning to look forward to her recaps, even though I don’t watch the races.

Lt. Chad Griffith (right) now has a blog. He is currently stationed at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona. If you know Chad, check out his site and send him a note. He is working a lot of “mandatory volunteer” hours and would enjoy hearing from you. He has given me permission to publish his photos and stories so I’ll be picking though his best photos and stories and reprinting a few of them here.

2005.03.22 — Alfred, Ohio. Terri Schiavo is the one in Florida that had the feeding tube removed recently. Congress passed a law to make it a Federal case and President Bush signed it. Today, a federal judge is expected to rule on this very sad case. The will of two branches of government has been made clear. Do you suppose he is feeling any pressure? It will not matter which way he rules, he will feel the wrath of many powerful people and his verdict appealed to a higher court.

No matter what your thoughts are on this particular case, I find it odd that congress met in a special Sunday session and the President flew in to sign this legislation. This case has been around for a long, long time. Rushing into law something designed for a single individual just doesn’t set well with me. Reasoned debate probably did not occur. Rather, the will of a very few individuals, has been run roughshod over any who might object.

Update: 6:28 a.m. The judge refused to reinsert the feeding tube. It will be an interesting day.

2005.03.21 — Alfred, Ohio. Happy Spring!

2005.03.20 — Alfred, Ohio. Federal law now permits you to obtain a credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies each year for free. It is being rolled out depending on what state you live in. Ohio started on March 1. It would not be a bad idea to check your report. Identity theft is the reason the feds got involved. You can obtain all three at once, wait a year and then do it again. My strategy? I obtained one today, plan to get another in four months, and then the other in eight months. Every four months I'll have an update and would be able to spot anything unusual quickly rather than waiting for a year. Interested? Here is the URL from the FTC that explains it all: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm. I suggest you read the page from the FTC and then get your free credit report(s) here: http://www.annualcreditreport.com/

2005.03.19 — Alfred, Ohio. We heard from Nick, he is on the boat and on his way to the Bahamas. Spring break in my day meant an opportunity to a visit home or maybe a trip to Old Man’s Cave. Times change. Speaking of change…

Last night Jeanie and I went to dinner and a movie in Nelsonville. Bad news. During the previews, they put up a screen saying that they were raising the price of the movies and concessions. People in the audience booed and threw popcorn at the screen. Movies Ten opened long ago with a four dollar admission, one dollar small popcorn, and one dollar small pop (soda for Steve and Mary Ellen). They do a great business today. It will be interesting to see how they fare.

We saw Man of the House staring Tommy Lee Jones. It was what you would expect. Jeanie narrowed it down to that or Hostage. I’m sure that we will see Hostage a dozen times when it comes to TV. I don’t really care for all the violence.

2005.03.18 — Alfred, Ohio. CAUTION: The following link would be dreadful on dialup. Finished my homework for a 35mm photography class I’m taking through LVS. Each of the photos are within three miles of my house. The assignment was to take twelve pictures and note the depth of field (f-stop), shutter speed, and focal point or distance. You know that just observing certain events influences them. It appears that I took better pictures than normal just because I was carefully observing and recording everything. Curious.

Nick is heading for Florida tonight. He has made it to LaGuardia in New York but the next flight has been delayed. Oh joy!

Picked up a copy of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and started reading it. It sounds like it may be interesting. I’m not ready to try Tesla again just yet.

2005.03.17 — Alfred, Ohio. Finished reading Essential Writings by Thich Nhat Hanh last night. My interest in things Eastern has slowly evolved over time. Everyone my age has heard of and formed opinions of Vietnam. Few had the opportunity to live for a year with a person from Vietnam while in college like I did. Vinh, from North Vietnam actually, was quite unlike anyone I had known to that point. Having recently read a great book by Hermann Hesse and being around Vinh influenced me to read another of Hesse’s works titled Journey to the East. It was good but a little strange for me at the time.

A few years later while living in St. Louis I met Jwei-Hsing, from Taiwan. Our families have since been friends for many years. When The Analects of Confuscus arrived as a monthly selection of a book club I used to be in, I sat down and actually read it.

Vijay, Nitan, Jitan, Arun, Manik, and (?? - can still see his face but can’t come up with his name) were six contractors from Bombay, India that worked with me on a project once. We often discussed their beliefs. They were mostly Hindu. These people were very talented, worked hard, and were a pleasure and joy to work with.

Shortly afterwards I found a lady, Ruomiao, from China, to give Chinese lessons to my boys and I. She, or her husband Jun, often added stories and details of their lives in addition to the lessons. One of them asked me to read A Dream of Red Mansions (also known as Story of a Stone). I was able to locate and read the first volume. It is an ancient novel written by Tsao Hsueh-chin and Kao Hgo.

Parvez, a Muslim Indian, is another chap I became friends with. We shared many walks and talks over several years. Last year I read the Tao and now this book about Buddhist beliefs. These and many other little encounters with the East have made me a different person than I would have been otherwise. I credit much to that original year spent with Vinh. Without his influence, I’d probably never noticed anything from the East. But today, I say… “Kiss Me, I’m Irish!”

2005.03.16 — Alfred, Ohio. Lisa sent the Las Vegas Race Recap. This one was pretty interesting to me. I wouldn’t have guessed they cheat.

2005.03.15 — Alfred, Ohio. I saw the sun come up this morning and was driving home as it set. Pretty neat. It was bright and beautiful all day. Breathing was less of a challenge today than it has been.

2005.03.14 — Alfred, Ohio. Still fogging up the mirrors being held under my nose. This has been a pretty quiet day. Everyone at work is sick. Who spreads this stuff around? I am home alone with Jeanie and she is napping on the couch. Sooooo… I get to listen to some of my weird music. Tonight’s selection has themes from the far East. Tabula Rasã features Béla Fleck on Banjo, V.M. Bhatt on Mohan Vïnã, and Jie-Bing Chen on Erh-hu. The work is dedicated to Pandit Ravi Shankar and Earl Scruggs. Jeanie is probably having nightmares and wondering why. :)

The music will put me in the mood the finish my book by Thich Nhat Hanh. For reasons I can not explain, I found it easier to go on with the Essential Writings of a Buddhist monk rather than the Tesla stories. Perhaps I’m feeling obligated to it since it was started first and completing things has some merit now and then.

Update: Decided to meditate instead of read.

2005.03.13 — Alfred, Ohio. Congratulations to Angie on the new job! We celebrated at Olive Garden this afternoon. Nick headed back to Morehead afterwards. I went back to bed.

I’ve been reading the news and find it a bit disturbing. Our politicians are crafting video information stories and passing them off as “news”. Worse, the media is sending them over the airwaves without comment. I also read the headlines from a recent poll that claimed seven out of ten people are concerned about the secrecy of our government. The answer to this of course is to skip the media news and focus on reading the writings of real people. I know and trust these people to share their daily dramas and keep us informed of what is important and actually happening in the world.

Bloggers note: It is a good thing to include links on your site to a few blogs that you read. My site is personal site and so I’ve linked to other personal blogs that I read on the readings link. If it were a technical site it may look more like Clagnut (far right column) or Simon Willison (left column). Linking so tends to expand your audience and is a benefit to your readers. If a person is interested in your site, they may well be interested in sites you are interested in but otherwise wouldn’t know about. The links to links become a… world wide web. :)

2005.03.12 — Alfred, Ohio. Nick, Joe, and Angie came over again this evening. I remember a running nose, a few good coughs, watching The Sting, and going to bed. Sorry, still under the weather.

2005.03.11 — Alfred, Ohio. Just registered to take a couple of courses with LVS Online. What a sweet deal these people have going. They offer a boatload of interesting courses that you can take online at very reasonable prices. I took a few several years ago and thought it was a great experience. Recently I stumbled into the site again and wanted to take another couple of courses. Unfortunately I had missed the registration deadline and they did not recognize me as a returning student. I contacted them and expected an automated “We’re sorry note” but instead someone named Vickie quickly responded and offered her assistance. Two emails later and I was registered. Wow! The whole package is great. Good courses, low prices, and great customer service. Easily my pick of the day!

Nick arrived for the weekend followed shortly by Joe and Angie. We had a nice get together this evening.

Aljazeera writes: US report acknowledges peak-oil threat. This US government-sponsored report suggests that global oil production may be in terminal decline. A fascinating read with a troubling conclusion.

Went to town to see about having the liner on my truck repaired. The place appears to be out of business. Why does that not surprise me? On the way home I noticed a large birdlike creature come out of the wood into an open field. It was followed by another and another. I slowed down and watched as about six or eight of them quickly appeared as if from out of nowhere. It was snowing and a little blustery so they were moving pretty fast. Fast enough that they looked as if they could have been velociraptors on the prowl. Most likely they were wild turkeys. Closer to home (in the neighbors field) there were another dozen or so just standing around. I’m home alone today and am aware that I’m moving slower and not so strong as usual since I’m recovering from the bird flu. I am really hoping these are tame turkeys and not some type of hungry critters, particularly since I still have to go out and get firewood in.

2005.03.10 — Alfred, Ohio. Time did a question answer story on President Abbas (the white haired Palestinian who took over from Arafat) this week. I found his remarks very revealing. Time asked in essence about a letter that President Bush wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Sharon discussing the “final deal”. His reply… President Bush can't make commitments on behalf of the Palestinian people. It is our right to say yes or no. Another question Time asked was about having to make unpopular decisions and compromises in order to secure peace with Israel. His response… I promise any compromise will go to a referendum. People will accept it or not. Wow! I am impressed with this guy. He is talking sense. Pray that this man can stay alive for a while.

We are getting towards the middle of March and the daylight is lasting much longer. Warmer weather is just aroung the corner for these parts (sorry Steve and Mary Ellen). A curious item I’ve been keeping my eye on is the small oak tree that we have over by the pond. It still has last years leaves on it. I’m pretty certain that when the new buds and leaves appear that the old leaves will have already fallen. I’m wondering how much longer can they possibly hold on? You wouldn’t expect them to fall one night and have buds in the morning. I’ll track it this year and count the days between old leaves and new. Next year, when the old ones fall, I’ll be way ahead of the game in predicting warmer weather.

Notice to contributors: This weekend I’ll be working on WordPress to stop the unwanted emails.

2005.03.09 — Alfred, Ohio. Had the bird flu (H5N1) today. Came home. Went to bed.

2005.03.08 — Alfred, Ohio. Joe and Angie stopped by this evening to show us photos they had taken in Las Vegas this past weekend. It is a wonderful thing to hear of the adventures of your children. P.S. Best wishes (good luck!) to Angie on her interview tomorrow.

Joe and Angie at the Bellagio in Las Vegas

night and day on the strip in Las Vegas

2005.03.07 — Alfred, Ohio. Last night a saucepan that was lurking overhead in one of our cabinets attacked Jeanie (she is fine). We ended up at our local hospital emergency room at 8:15 p.m. We left after midnight… without being seen. I’m sure they had their reasons for taking people out of order (it makes sense that they take the seriously injured first for example). However, we saw a young sprained ankle case wait less than 30 minutes, two other general illness cases (probably the flu) seen long after we arrived. How a hosiptal could make a head injury case wait over four hours without so much as a quick check is beyond me. If this sounds unusually terse, keep in mind that we didn’t get much sleep last night and yes, I may be a tad grumpy this morning.

2005.03.06 — Cincinnati, Ohio. Enjoyed my visit with Dad this weekend. We went to the Frisch’s in Covington for breakfast and met Dennis there. I explained my gravity device to my brother and he stated quite flatly that it wouldn’t work and politely changed the subject. The ride home was nice and had several nice e-mails waiting for me when I returned. One was from Diane. I had asked her to show Gary (an actual scientist) my idea and give it a five minute reading. She said his comment went along the lines of “when pigs fly” just added salt to the wound. Fortunately, my imaginary friend, Cian from Cork, Ireland, sees merit in the idea so I must persist. Unfortunately, he is probably just an industrial spy looking for ideas to steal or worst case, from the MIB. Oh well, the weather was still beautiful today and the visit was nice. What a difference 24 hours make.

2005.03.05 — Le Château d’Alfred. Woke up to a beautiful snow this morning. Large wet flakes gently blowing about and sticking to tree limbs, snowman weather. Heading for Cincinnati to visit with my Dad later today. It should be a lovely drive.

2005.03.04 — Alfred, Ohio. This morning I had a thought about gravity. I wrote to Cian explaining my idea (my family and peers in this country all think I’m nuts). Cian wrote back within 35 minutes (we had not written to each other in months) with the greeting “Brilliant…” and then went on to add his own take and improve on the idea. Mulling over his improvement I realized that a compressed gas may be useful to us. I did an Internet search for “compressed electricity” thinking that a gas may exhibit the behavior we need. Much to my surprise, and on totally different topics than I expected, the search revealed a site about The Air Car. It is an interesting concept as was the notion purported by the University of Alaska Fairbanks about using compressed air to save energy.

I’ll write up my notes from this morning and present them here soon. Here are my notes from this morning. Shouldn’t I get a patent first? Nope. George Washington Carver is credited with many inventions and never took a patent prefering to gift his ideas to humanity. He inspired me.

Secret lab supplies: 5,000′ 21 guage insulated copper wire, 2 oz mercury, soluble powdered boron containing 20.8% boron as di-sodium octoborate, and 1 kilo of sodium.

2005.03.03 — Alfred, Ohio. Joe and Angie made it to Las Vegas after an emergency landing in Colorado today. They thought a passenger may have been having a heart attack. Hope the chap made it. Here is wishing Joe and Angie good luck and lots of fun while out there. Joe just had to mention that it is warm and sunny there.

I am happy to present this months issue of Thru the Peephole, Oh! Canada!—Unwanted Immigrants by Allan for your reading enjoyment.

The Muse of Alfred (that would be me) has proclaimed March to be a month of frivolity and nonsense. If you have a conspiracy theory, let me have it. Seen a UFO? Share your story with my readers. Heard a new or strange word recently. I’m always adding to my collection.

Congratulations are in order to Steve Fossett. He became the first person to make a non-stop, solo flight around the world without refuelling. He landed in Salina, Kansas and was greeted by a high school band, dozens of media, hundreds of spectators, along with Virgin Atlantic chief Richard Branson who paid for the project. Burt Rutan had a hand in building the plane. These guys are great!

2005.03.02 — Alfred, Ohio. March madness. Permit me to indulge in a little fun this month while we are waiting for the next editions of Allan’s motorcycle musings, Lisa’s Nascar reports, Russell’s ramblings, or Patrick’s travels. The Tesla books have arrived. They appear to be even more bizarre than I expected. Regardless of his strange ideas, he did patent a great many things. I will humor his memory with an open mind while reading his works. Besides, we both share an interest in gravity. I’ll report fragments of what I learn here. Please don’t tell the MIB that I’m reading this stuff or building an experimental lab. They seem to have an unusual interest in anything connected with Tesla.

2005.03.01 — Alfred, Ohio. March has arrived like a lion.