News
January 2006
2006.01.30–Alfred, Ohio. Happy Birthday Andy!
2006.01.29–Alfred, Ohio. Gung Hay Fat Choy! May good fortune and prosperity be with you this year.
This morning I found the milk a little sour so I dumped it out and dug back into the back of the refrigerator. We have some Coffee Mate as an emergency backup and I used it instead. That stuff must be several years old. It got me to wondering how that is possible. Everything we know as food goes bad pretty quickly. How is it that my backup box of Rasin Bran can stay of the shelf for a month after being opened and still be edible? What do they put in that stuff? Cookies, bread, fruit, and most things I recognize as food doesn’t last that long. What is that stuff we are eating?
2006.01.28–Morehead, Kentucky. I didn’t wake up so early this morning and felt out of sorts for a while. A few hours working on Nick’s computer put me back together again. What a beautiful bright sunny and warm day it was for late January. Jeanie was watching War of the Worlds when we left. Ever notice the resemblence of those monstrous machines in the movie and cell phone towers? I did… all the way home. :)
2006.01.27–Morehead, Kentucky. Jeanie and I drove to Morehead today to visit with Nick. Jeanie, Nick, Kate, Tara, and I watched Lord of War in his room. It was good to see everyone again.
2006.01.26–Alfred, Ohio. Joe and Angie stopped in for a visit tonight. We shot a couple of games of pool and watched a new episode of CSI afterwards.
The government is trying to force Google to hand over search data. They already publish quite a bit. Look at the Zeitgeist yourself and tell me what you think. They have made a year end zeitgeist each year since 2001 (look in the archives). It contains some interesting info but nothing like what the government is looking for.
Don’t get excited about the arrival of the crate. It just sits there for now.
2006.01.24–Alfred, Ohio. Angie gave a nice review on her blog of “I love you, You’re perfect, NOW CHANGE!” now playing at the Carousel in Akron. Maybe we will be able to see it another time. We ended up at the Regal Cinema 7 in Marietta and watched “Walk the Line”.
The Cinema in Marietta was a very lonely place. Of course it was a Monday night in the middle of January but still, I don’t see how they can make it. The prices (probably normal in the city) seemed to me exhorbatent. I think they would draw many more people if they lowered their prices. Jewelry stores try for four turns a year so they have to make a very large profit on each turn. Movie houses I would have thought would go for volume and relatively low profit on each sale. Not so in Marietta. We will see how they fare over time. I’d bet against them being in business for any length of time.
Easy reading
If you have an extra ten or fifteen minutes, I’d recommend you follow the link below and read the article. Come back to it later if you don’t have the time right now. If you intend to skim though it, don’t bother–skip it. It is good, but only if read. The name of the article is: How to Do What You Love.
If you only have a minute, read this article by Patrick Martino. It was written on August 12, 2005 in Gaungzhou, China. It is mandatory reading if you are young and intend to work for a living.
2006.01.23–Alfred, Ohio. Today is our day.
2006.01.22–Alfred, Ohio. Russell is originally from Pittsburgh I believe. He is currently living in Denver. He writes in his blog that he is going to the football game today. Who do you figure he is rooting for?
Jeanie’s grandma
Gram is not doing real well. Last night most of Jeanie’s family were visiting with her and she was talking and lucid. This morning Kate called and reported that she is unresponsive. Jeanie just left for the hospital and I am headed in shortly. UPDATE: Jeanie called and reports that Gram is up and talking with everyone now.
2006.01.21–Alfred, Ohio. Yesterday the New Horizons spacecraft blasted off on an Atlas V rocket headed for the Kuiper Belt. It is expected to make a three billion mile journey and arrive in the vicinity of Pluto as early as July 2015. That will be to far away from the sun to be powered by solar energy so they are using 24 pounds of plutonium (seems appropriate) to keep it running and send back a few photos when it arrives. This will be the fastest moving machine man has ever made to this point reaching speeds of up to 36,000 mph by using the gravity of the planet Jupiter as a slingshot.
2006.01.20–Alfred, Ohio. Jeanie called this afternoon and suggested we eat in town tonight. We ended up at Stephen’s in Athens. I had the salmon with a pesto sauce and cheese, rice, and steamed vegetables. Jeanie the Fettucini Alfredo with chicken. Both were great! Thanks Steve.
phpbb forum established
Have you ever wanted to leave a comment or start a discussion on this site? Now you can. I’ve set up a bulletin board that you may post to. How about we call it the forum. Use your first name if you register. See you there.
Government vs Google
Thanks Google for resisting a government request to to sift through your data. They have no right to it regardless of what good may be derived from it. I’d suggest that you make it a product and sell information like that to anyone with the bucks. Price it dearly. If the government wants it badly, they can pay for it like anyone else. Do not let them steal it from you.
2006.01.18–Alfred, Ohio. Where to begin? I have several items that I want to write about but little time to do so. An article in the paper last Sunday about China in 2031 really struck me. Rather than just providing a quick rant on the topic, I’ve decided to post my thought on fewer such articles but go into a little more depth for those I write about.
Patrick Martino writes from China
Patrick wrote to me yesterday and gave me permission to publish more of his stories. He has spent the past four months traveling through China. His stories will take a little time to format and publish. He is also getting together a few photos for us. What a coincidence that two of the topics I want to discuss revolve around China.
Oath of Office
Every now and then various people point things out to me. Every now and then, someone has to point something out to me a second time before the significance registers with me. Take this case for example. Have you ever noticed that President Bush has been making speeches about protecting us from terrorists. I had to look up his job description (it is all spelled out quite clearly in the U.S. Constitution) and found that it does not mention anything about our protection. It does very clearly state that he will to the best of his ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
In detail and with specifics…
- Article II § 1 establishes how a president is to be selected and specifies the exact words of the oath of office mentioned above.
- Article II § 2 spells out his duties. In brief, it states that he shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States. He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties… he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for. He shall also have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate.
- Article II § 3 specifies that he has the additional duty from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.
- Article II § 4 states that the President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Listen carefully to what President Bush is saying. He has claimed that it is his job to protect and defend us from terrorists. He appears willing to disregard the constitution to do so. That is not what he promised us when Chief Justice William Rehnquist administered the oath of office to President Bush. He said something like this: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” as prescribed by our Constitution. Read it again. It is his job to protect and defend the Constitution. It is not his job to protect and defend us from terrorists.
2006.01.13–Alfred, Ohio. We have pictures of our children on a wall in our living room. The quality of the photos does not appear to matter. The quality of the frames and quantity of times a person appears in a photo is the primary measure of our love for our children (according to them). That got me thinking about the faces that appear on Frogtails. Oh boy! How many times does a face appear in a photo? Here are the current rankings:
Individuals
- 11 Steve
- 10 Angie
- 8 Jeanie
- 8 Joe
- 8 Mary Ellen
- 8 Nick
- 7 Dave
- 5 Dennis
- 38 all others
By sex
- 70 boys
- 42 girls
I was surprised when looking through the photos that a few were obviously missing from the faces collection. I’ll try to correct that ASAP. To be fair with everyone, I suppose that I also need to get out the camera and go looking for some girls to take photos of. Do I have any volunteers?
2006.01.12–Alfred, Ohio. It turns out that dark chocolate coffee beans are pretty tasty. Imagine this. Sprinkle a few of these babies over neopolitan ice cream and chase it down with coffee. Bzzz…
I also enjoyed listening to Gorillaz. Most of the tracks are pretty interesting. There are a couple of rap ones that I don’t care for but otherwise, I can listen to enjoy them. The track “Fire coming out of the monkey’s head” sounds very much like the beginning of Lothlorien by Samwise to me. “Don’t get lost in heaven” has a sound that is reminiscent of the Beach Boys, so of course I liked that one as well.
2006.01.11–Alfred, Ohio. Vince wrote a rebuttal in his blog to my post about football (NOTE: you will need to use IE browser to view his article and look back to his post on January 6). Here are my thoughts on what I think constitutes a sport. It is an insight into my thoughts that you may not expect.
2006.01.10–Alfred, Ohio. A package arrived today from Doug. It contained a couple of items I had never heard of. Guess that I’ve lead a sheltered life.
Item 1: Dark chocolate coffee beans. I love both. Do you grind them up and brew a mocha with them or just eat them like chocolate covered peanuts?
Item 2: Gorillaz Demon Days. Both a CD and a DVD. Again, I’m totally clueless. Check back in a couple of days and I’ll give you my review of them.
There was another item (that I did recognize) and a card. Thanks, Doug!
2006.01.09–Alfred, Ohio. Do you know the difference between implicit and explicit? Project Implicit is a Virtual Laboratory for the social and behavioral sciences designed to facilitate the research of implicit social cognition: cognitions, feelings, and evaluations that are not necessarily available to conscious awareness, conscious control, conscious intention, or self-reflection. I found it to be an interesting exercise. If you take the link above, I suggest that you try the demo first. It will lead you to a dozen or so tests that you can take (you get to pick). It is fun and only takes ten minutes.
2006.01.08–Alfred, Ohio. We watched the Cincinnati Bengals in the playoff game today in spite of plans to go to a movie. Jeanie overheard me talking with Steve about the game and thought that I wanted to see it.
Football itself is a barbaric game. People get hurt needlessly. I see little difference between this and the Romans tossing Christians to the lions. It is exciting at times. I think it a sick pastime. The excessive training that players go to obtain peak physical condition can not be maintained over a lifetime. Most have dreadful injuries and live a life of pain by the ripe old retirement age of around 30. Most professional players die before turning 60. I watch, but as much from morbid curiosity as anything. No doubt, I’ll watch the Superbowl.
Andy has an entirely different (and very funny) take on the game.
The movies haven’t been much to write home about recently. The news is all about the declining ticket sales. Small wonder. The theater in Nelsonville has ten different movies playing at any given time. Jeanie and I would go more frequently but we often do not see a single movie that either of us would care to see. I prefer the big screen of a theater and enjoy making a night of it now and then, but have settled recently for DVD rentals of old movies. That has nothing to do with piracy, it is due to the lousy movies that are being made. The music industry cries the same song about CD sales. I still buy CD’s but mostly older stuff. There are not many artists today that I care to listen to at any price.
2006.01.07–Alfred, Ohio. Received permission to publish another of Micki’s photos on this site. I had to laugh when I saw this one. Give it a peek.
2006.01.06–Alfred, Ohio. Jeanie, Joe, Angie, Nick, Kate, and I went to Rio Bravo tonight. Resolutions of the new year? What are you talking about?
Looking through the server logs and statistics for this year has I discovered something quite unexpected. Others are using images stored here. Take a look at Kampuchea Crossings by Macapuno Rising and scroll down to the second last photo. When anyone views this page, it pulls the image from Frogtails and registers as a hit. That probably explains many of the visits I was getting from places I couldn’t imagine.
One would suspect that Google images is how that site found the image stored on Frogtails to begin with. It is easy. Search for Bagan.jpg and it appears in the results as the first image on page two. The article it was featured in was well written so I started looking over the rest of the site. Macapuno turns out to be quite an interesting writer so I’ve added a link to the site and offer you a couple of samples of what can be found on the site below.
Shakespeare
Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind…
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry.
Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so.
How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.
—William Shakespeare
Time for Civic Action
Taken slightly out of context perhaps but still worth reading–Dave
U.S. ambitions exceed capacity. Our nation is barreling towards a calamitous disaster–and not necessarily by one spectacular act of terrorism. It is buoyed by our apathy. We have to think beyond party lines, past faith-based divisions, and outside our small bubbles of existence.
Let your legislators know how you feel about this catastrophe, and begin your letter with a statement that you are a constituent. One vote is a valuable asset to your elected officials, especially in the projected overhaul of the political landscape. With midterm congressional elections coming up in 2006 your letters will not go unread.
2006.01.05–Alfred, Ohio. The disaster at the Sago Mine in Tallmansville, West Virginia is really sad… and a bit eerie. Yesterday I went into town to get a haircut (in West Virginia). The local newspaper headlines on the front page said the miners were alive. The long awaited press report was in progress on the TV. You could hear a pin drop in the place. The barber spoke up and noticed the last names of the mine president, Ben Hatfield and the sole survivor, Randal McCloy. A Hatfield and a McCloy… in West Virginia, That is just weird.
2006.01.04–Alfred, Ohio. Nick’s reply to my post yesterday is hilarious. We knew that we had a funny story so we both agreed to write it up from our own perspective. We each wrote and published our story before reading the other. Good fun!
Andy also replied with a new post about religion on his site. He appears to reject my “take it easy” thesis. You have to admire that in a way. A strong mind will naturally want to solve this riddle. We were constructed as problem solving machines after all. I’ll keep writing and placing little chinks in his armor. Others, long after I pass on, will finish the job. Over a lifetime, a person will have many thoughts on the subject. Similar to polishing rocks, the rough edges will eventually wear off. We all yield to some form of an easy answer over the long haul.
Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud. It is another smoke signal from the Bush administration. This administration will likely go down in history as the most corrupt one ever.
2006.01.03–Alfred, Ohio. We had an incident at the house today. Before rumors have a chance to get started about it, I want to take this opportunity to set the record straight. Here is what happened:
Nick and I were sharing some quality time together. You know, the father and son stuff. He volunteered to help me with some chores that needed done. Great! We set up a new light pole and had a little concrete left over. We decided to dump the excess into the concrete blocks of the well top. The well is still covered with loose 2x4’s so we were just nudging them to the edge of the block exposing the holes we intended to fill.
Nick quickly got the hang of what we were doing. Within a minute, he had pushed one too far. Plop! It fell into the well. A look of panic was in his face so I quickly brushed it off as no big deal. We were even able to get a laugh over it. He suggested that I climb down and get it. That was a tempting thought as I have always been interested in what it might feel like down there. I suggested that we might try a rope instead. Then, the idea came to me… I’d just get another 2x4, put a nail on the end, and poke the one in the well like you would gig a frog.
Nick quickly objected. “It won’t work Dad.” I checked the distance and saw that I could reach it. Out came the hammer, a sixteen penny nail and I quickly toe nailed it into the end leaving the point exposed. “Watch and learn young one.” I said. Leaning over as far as seemed safe I thrust the 2x4 towards the one already in the well, and let it go. The look on Nick’s face was priceless. Now we now had two 2x4’s in the well. We both laughed. I claimed that my gloves were wet (they were actually). I let Nick think that it had slipped out of my hands. He instantly felt much better about dropping the first one in.
We went over to the neighbor to see about some rope. Wilma laughed out loud when we told her what had happened. She said that Bim would be home shortly and he would come over to help out. Meanwhile, I just got a longer 2x4 and was able to easily fetch the two at the bottom like I originally intended. Bim came over with a 30′ extension ladder. He enjoyed our story as did Jeanie when we got home. Everyone will soon hear a version of this story. Even Nick is threatening to write about it in his blog so I wanted to make sure that you had an opportunity to read what actually happened.
Steve sent word that they are expecting up to eighteen inches of snow in Boston tomorrow. He and Mary Ellen are less than excited about that prospect. He also sent another photo of their vacation. I recognize the coarse soft sand and the island in the background so am pretty certain that it is from Kaanapali Beach in Maui. Great photo!
Andy wrote about his thoughts on religion yesterday. A while back I considered writing about the topic myself. For those who may be interested, here is the first of what I expect will be a series of articles about our spiritual side.
2006.01.02–Alfred, Ohio. The statistics for the last half of 2005 are in from my ISP. They are hard for me to believe. Anyone who has a web site should take a look at them. Far more people view your site than you might imagine. This year (as of 11:35 a.m. today) Frogtails has already had visits from these high level domains/countries:
- Network–for example, someone from frognet.net
- Commercial–for example, someone from aol.com
- Canada
- Unknown–for example, someone with an unregistered IP address
- France
- India
- United Kingdom
- Japan
- Germany
- Singapore
- Poland
2006.01.01–Alfred, Ohio. Happy Birthday Joe!
A new look for Frogtails
Notice anything different? The layout this year has been tested and validated on several different browsers. It is known to render well in many modern browsers including:
- Mac OS X/Firefox
- Mac OS X/Safari
- Linux/Firefox
- Windows/Firefox
- Windows/Opera
- Windows/IE
It is also known to be viewable on a PDA (a small screen device similar to a cell phone) but could better. I’m looking into it and will see what can be done.
Docuwiki
I’ve also implemented a Wiki. Please give it a try and add your birthday.
Archived materials
The old stuff is still readily available under the archives link in the bar at the top. TIP: you can also just type the year in the URL.
http://www.frogtails.com/2005/
http://www.frogtails.com/2004/
http://www.frogtails.com/2003/
