Year: 2015 Page 7 of 13

The Senior Developer

By Dad

On Tuesday, June 16, 2015

In Software, Technology, Work

The guy who has been most responsible for the success of the company for which I currently work sent me an article titled The Role of a Senior Developer. In the world of factory automation, there is a phenomenon that repeats itself on all large projects no matter the company, client nor industry. The phenomenon is this: A finite, specific amount of time is negotiated to deliver the product, the mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and assemblers all use a little more time than they were allocated and the software engineers are expected to make up the time that was lost. A Senior Developer who has the ability and will to “own” the technical decisions and guide the more junior members of the team is essential.

Matt Briggs, the guy who wrote the article completely nails the situation with respect to the Senior Developer. It is not enough to be smart. A senior developer has to be able to work under the pressure of impossible deadlines with management and customers looking over his shoulder. He has to make judicious use of all the resources available to him. If he does not get it done, it will not get done at all. He has to have both the will and the knowledge to make the decisions about the technology and application of technical resources. It is not for the faint of heart. I love it that Briggs identifies one of the core qualities of a Senior Developer as the realization that he cannot do it all and his job is one of service and empowerment of others and (my word) humility. Here is the core truth of the whole matter as explained by Briggs:

A senior developer understands that you cannot do everything yourself, and that their primary role is to help their team get better, in many of the same ways they themselves strive for personal improvement.

A senior developer understands that leadership is not about power, it is about empowerment. It is not about direction, it is about serving.

Full disclosure: While I have worked as a developer, I in no way believe I am the kind of Senior Developer described in the article. Really, I am a Research Engineer and develop new technology so, while I have difficult deadlines sometimes. It is nothing like what is described above. All of us who work in the factory automation world depend on Senior Developers’ for our jobs.

Betty Blonde #347 – 11/13/2009

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Can you have blue eyes and be Mexican?

By Dad

On Sunday, June 14, 2015

In culture, Politics

Blue-eyed Mexican girl I LOVE Sarah Palin. The following is from her Facebook post about Rachel Dolezal, the white chick who claimed to be black so she could get a good job in the NAACP and the other white chick who claimed she was “native American,” so she could get a good job as a professor at a politically correct university. This is almost a perfect storm. It is old now, but the meme going around the internet right now that goes “An Indian and an African walk into a bar… Just joking, it’s just two liberal white women” really IS funny. Here is part of what Palin said:

Ok, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh… this hard. I know this isn’t a victimless crime, what this white chick perpetrated. But it’s a most crystal clear picture of so many screwed up things we’ve let society adopt as the norm. Namely, the practice nowadays of judging someone not based on character, but on skin color. Our original civil rights freedom fighters are rolling in their graves over the backward steps we’ve taken lately. It’s politically incorrect to call out Elizabeth Warren for falsely claiming she’s American Indian, or dinging Obama for just making up his former multi-ethnic girlfriend, and I guarantee I’ll be branded a racist for laughing at this Rachel Dolezal story. Whatever. Dolezal is an unsatisfied lily white leftist who believes the only thing less politically correct than being a white girl is to be a white guy today.

Kelly is the blue-eyed Mexican girl in our family. The funny deal is that the Mexican side of the family has as many or more blue-eyed, light-skinned people as my lily-white, Anglo-Finnish side of the family. Her first language is Spanish and her mother’s family has been in Mexico for centuries. She has actually gotten called out on here racial insensitivity toward Mexicans by white women at school on a semi-regular basis. One of my favorites was when a girl got offended and told Kelly off because she was not offended by some cafeteria workers wearing sombreros and fake mustaches on Cinco de Mayo. Kelly embraces the affirmative celebration of all things Mexican. How can you not love sombreros and fake mustaches on Cinco de Mayo.

The jokes about these posers are a ton of fun. The subjects of derision could not be more worthy.

Update: Lorena just sent another hilarious one: Click here.

Update II: Found this link to the sombrero and mustache incident (described above). Great fun was had by all!

Update III: This just in from our favorite government school teacher, (lily white) Trisha via text message:

I am thinking about going back to college… I think I can afford it if I claim trans-race. I don’t look it, but I feel Mexican! Affirmative Action and all that. I thought I might claim some imaginery children as dependents…because, although I don’t have children, I fell like I do! I am working on making some salsa and getting a tan! Thoughts?

Trisha, this is a slam-dunk! You are blood related to Mexicans! You EAT salsa and some people you know have kids! You are in with the win!

Betty Blonde #346 – 11/12/2009

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Sometimes it seems like things are getting really bad

By Dad

On Saturday, June 13, 2015

This article reminded me of I Kings 19:18. There is a lot of evil in this world. It has been that way since antiquity. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Marcus Borg, Bart Ehrman, Tony Campolo and David Neff are wrong, intellectually dishonest, self serving and on the wrong side of history.

Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

Elijah was discouraged. He thought he was the only one left. He was not. It is all good. God IS in control.

Betty Blonde #345 – 11/11/2009

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Biscuits and gravy, trains, and a visit from Kelly

By Dad

On Friday, June 12, 2015

In Cooking, culture

Pam's Farmhouse (Raleigh) menu Pam's Farmhouse (Raleigh) biscuits and gravy I think my buddy, Troy, sent me these images just to torture me. We regularly met at Pam’s Farmhouse in Raleigh on Saturday mornings before we went into the lab to work on the GaugeCam project at NCSU a few years back. Very high on the long list of benefits of living in Raleigh is the stellar quality of the biscuits and gravy generally available in the South and the very specific benefits of Pam’s Farmhouse Restaurant where they only take cash, they serve their iced tea in Mason jars and the waitresses call you “Hon.” There might be a place here in Oregon that does biscuits and gravy right, but we have not found it yet.

Kelly goes back to University of Washington

That little bit of nostalgia was the latest in a series over the last couple of days. The anniversary of Lorena’s father’s death was a big part of it, but Kelly’s visit on the train got me to thinking about the several momentous train trips I had taken–A trip to Klamath Falls from Albany to visit cousin Merle when the kids were little (we saw a herd of elk a couple of feet from the train while moving slowly up a steep grade) and a trip from Portland to Idaho where I met a Catholic priest who became a lifelong friend.

I had completely forgotten about a great train trip my buddy Curt N. and I took from Boise to Denver on the train to visit our friend Karen K. That was one of two trips Curt and I took together to visit Karen, but the second one was a New Years eve trip to Seattle. Both trips were momentous high marks of my (relative) youth. The thing that triggered the memory of this trip was Karen K’s comment on the tribute post to Grandpa Lauro. I was so happy to see Kelly is maintaining the family tradition as is just as inspired as us about the train. It really is a great way to travel and all this brought a tear to my eye (especially the part about the biscuits and gravy)!

Betty Blonde #344 – 11/10/2009

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Missing Grandpa Lauro for a year now

By Dad

On Thursday, June 11, 2015

In Christianity, Family

Grandpa Lauro and Mattias One year ago yesterday, Grandpa Lauro died. He was 71 years old. The photo to the left is of Grandpa Lauro and his youngest grandson, Matias. I was trying to think of a way to describe him and it is hard. Of course he was a genuinely Christian man, but that word has been diluted greatly in our day and age so it just does not say enough. After considering it for awhile, about the best I can do is describe some of his accomplishments. There is not time nor room to describe all his accomplishments, but I will try to describe what appealed to me.

He was extremely erudite. His erudition probably was a result of voracious interest in, among other things, music, art, history and theology. He did not have a high level of education, but three of his sons graduated from world class engineering Universities. His fourth son is an entrepreneur and on the verge of earning a law degree. He participated in his community and was politically active, mostly at a local level. He earned a diploma in Music with a focus on Violin from the local University.

His greatest accomplishment, though, was the impact he had on those around him, particularly his family, but also the people with whom he worked, his neighbors and many life long friends. He gravitated to “the least of these.” He loved them and they loved him. His funeral was the most amazing funeral I have ever attended with hundreds and hundreds of people who came to show their respects. A special letter arrived from a man who had not seen him since he was a little boy but on whom he had a profound positive influence. He had this same impact on others when he was young as he had on me as a middle age and older man. The attendence and reverence of the people at his funeral were a manifestation of that influence.

I respected him very, very much. The thing I respected most about him was his fierce love for his God and a fierce dedication to the greatest commandment of them all, to love others as Jesus loved them. We miss him and look forward to the day when we can be together again.

Betty Blonde #343 – 11/09/2009

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Does it DO good or does it just FEEL good

By Dad

On Wednesday, June 10, 2015

In Christianity, Politics

Dennis Prager wrote a great little series of articles (here, here and here–so far) on the differences between the political left and the political right. His third article really nails it. It starts with the following:

A fundamental difference between the left and right concerns how each assesses public policies. The right asks, “Does it do good?” The left asks a different question.

He then goes on to give great examples of this exact phenomena describing the different ways liberals think about the minimum wage, affirmative action and the “peace” movement. His final example is the granddaddy of them all:

Perhaps the best example is the self-esteem movement. It has had an almost wholly negative effect on a generation of Americans raised to have high self-esteem without having earned it. They then suffer from narcissism and an incapacity to deal with life’s inevitable setbacks. But self-esteem feels good.

Betty Blonde #342 – 11/06/2009

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Research on how to be happy

By Dad

On Tuesday, June 9, 2015

In Christianity, culture

I laughed when I saw this article on research about happiness. Here is a couple of quotes from the article that tell the story:

“If you lead your life always waiting for a great thing to happen, you probably will be unhappy,” Tamerin said.

“You can choose to live focusing on what is not right in your life,” Dr. Sood said.

And perhaps one of the biggest hindrances to being happy is too much thinking about one’s self, research shows.

“Complainers are never going to be happy,” Ketchian said. “Happiness is a decision.”

I think this research was already in at least a couple of millennia ago. Not surprisingly, there was nothing in the article about holding to a Christian worldview to help facilitate these kinds of behaviors and attitudes.

Betty Blonde #341 – 11/05/2009

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¡La Fanny!

By Dad

On Monday, June 8, 2015

Fanny de Rigo y Minita
Esa niña es la sobrina mas niña de Lorena y yo. Se puede ver que es una niña hermosísima. Siento muy contento que soy su tío. Aun mas que eso, soy su tío favorito. Esa foto estaba tomada en un viñero cerca de la ciudad de Querétaro donde vive la familia de Fanny. Solo quería poner la foto para presumir que tengo una sobrina tan hermosa como ella.

All the brilliant children

By Dad

On Monday, June 8, 2015

This is the time of year when graduation ceremonies and parties abound. I love graduations and celebrations of educational achievement. One thing with which I struggle, and I know this is MY problem, is the idea that all the children are brilliant. Here is an article in The Atlantic that describes the different ways parents describe their children in different countries. Europeans tend to describe their children as having qualities like “happy” and “easy” while Americans tend to describe their children as having qualities like “intelligence” and “asks questions.” I think this says a whole lot more about the parents than the children. Hard work, faithfulness to God, graciousness, kindness, obedience and love did not make any of the lists.

I do not know which is worse, a life focused on one’s own happiness or a life focused on being the smartest guy in the room. Intelligence is not immutable. A life focused on the pursuit of personal happiness or ease is a choice, not to mention a wasted life. The measure of a life well lived has nothing to do with any of these things. Happiness is often a bi-product of hard work, helping others and doing the right thing. Thankfully, the measures of a successful life are not happiness and/or intelligence–they are things over which we have direct control like self denial, hard work and love of others. Jesus, Mother Theresa and even Abraham Lincoln personified that. While happiness and intelligence might have entered the picture in their cases, they were certainly not the defining characteristics of their success.

Individual brilliance at math, art, writing, sports and music are so commonly attributed to high school students at their graduation that the meaning of that word has been sorely diluted over the years. People really cannot know whether they are great at math until they have studied Real Analysis, Abstract Algebra and beyond. They cannot know they are truly gifted musicians until they play their instrument side-by-side (even if only figuratively) with others who have practiced their violin eight hours per day for the last fifteen years. With art, well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As for sports, a state championship in virtually any sport still leaves the student untested even at the lowest levels of college athletics which are no where close to the pros or the Olympics. I hope the best for all those people in America who believe their children are brilliant, but it is a disservice to give them the idea they are gifted when ninety percent of the gift is just really hard work after they have gotten past the basics.

I guess part of my high dudgeon is a result of the offense I took when someone made light of my belief that our children are not super intelligent. I was actually told I was just being silly. It is petty of me, but our children are in a good place academically because they worked hard for a long time. Their current success is way less a result of any innate intelligence than that hard work and tenacity. Assigning their accomplishments to something over which they have little control belittles their efforts. Maybe they are intelligent, but again, if they are, it is more because of that hard work and what might be characterized as “earned” intelligence.

Betty Blonde #340 – 11/04/2009

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Our car got towed this morning — The experience was not all bad, just most of it

By Dad

On Friday, June 5, 2015

In Health, Politics

Train to Beaverton Our car got towed this morning because we did not have a sticker from our apartment complex to park there. Unfortunately, we had never gotten one even though we had asked repeatedly. Fortunately, if you do not count all the notarizations, hassle, faxing emailing, use of public transport and associated costs, we were not charged for the towing and storage because the apartment complex acknowledged they were the ones who caused the problem. Of course, they will not do anything about the crazy hassle they caused us, but as I tell my kids, “don’t whine!”

There was some educational benefit to this exercise. We learned that it is pretty easy to take the wildly expensive (to the tax payer–not so much for the ridership) train to Beaverton from Wilsonville. If we ever really needed to go to Beaverton, that would be a good thing. From the image Lorena took inside the train, it does not look like the train is going to make up that huge tax deficit with fares anytime soon. If the freeway system around Portland wasn’t broken so badly, they might have not ridership at all.

The one GOOD thing that came out of this was that I learned it is quite enjoyable and even convenient to walk to work. It is even a semi-safe walk. I am going to try to start making the walk to and from work as frequently as possible. That is one great way to lose weight, not only with the exercise, but with the more limited amount of time available for eating because it took you so long to walk.

Betty Blonde #339 – 11/03/2009

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Did politically correctness kill the Liberal Arts with the help of the College Board?

By Dad

On Thursday, June 4, 2015

In Education, Homeschool

GW Thielman, in an article at The Federalist helpfully titled The Liberal Arts Are Dead, Long Live STEM, makes the point that what goes for a Liberal Arts education today has become incredibly illiberal. STEM, of course, being the acronym for fields in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. He believes the focus of “liberal arts” education these days is more about the politically correct zeitgeist of the day than the preparation of students to think critically. He gives a great explanation of this point I have tried to make frequently on this blog.

STEM curricula have been critiqued for supposedly neglecting the humanities, but students who major in STEM obtain more credit hours in languages, arts, and human interaction than their humanities counterparts obtain in scientific fields. Rhodes College professor Loretta Jackson-Hayes has explained the benefit of liberal arts for STEM students, but liberal-arts students could likewise benefit from cross-training in the more exacting disciplines.

Students who pursue STEM majors are also better at the humanities than liberal-arts majors are at the sciences. Harvard law professor Harvey Mansfield in The New Atlantis observed, “Science students do well in non-science courses, but non-science students have difficulty in science courses. Slaves of exactness find it easier to adjust to the inexact, though they may be disdainful of it, than those who think in the realm of the inexact when confronted with the exact.” Perhaps envy subtly contributes to liberal arts defensiveness against STEM.

This is precisely why our children earned STEM undergraduate degrees. One went on to graduate work in STEM, but the other was accepted for a PhD at a great school in a non-STEM field specifically because she had an undergraduate degree in a STEM field. Theilman goes into this in detail with some excellent supporting links.

Right after I read his article, I ran into another article by Stanley Kurtz in National Review titled How the College Board Politicized U.S. History. I believe it is about precisely the same problem. The article discusses how the College Board, the company that makes standardized examinations like CLEP, the SAT and high school AP tests is degrading their AP materials by politicizing in a disturbingly politically correct, left-wing way. He is not the only one. You can read more about a group of highly credentialed historians made a statement denouncing this revisionism in this article at Real Clear Politics titled College Board’s Reckless Spin on U.S. History.

This is precisely why we are so grateful we homeschooled our children and sent them on to do STEM degrees and why I continue to push back on this kind of revisionism whenever I get the chance.

Betty Blonde #338 – 11/02/2009

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Pride goeth before a fall

By Dad

On Wednesday, June 3, 2015

I found an email note from my South American friend Jon in my inbox when I woke up this morning. It was about this article in the New York Times*. The article is about the resignation and apparent fall from grace of an old guy (79 years at this writing), Sepp Blatter who has, in the words of the Times, “run FIFA like a dictator for the past 17 years.” FIFA being the regulatory body that runs the (soccer) World Cup. It kind of gives me joy that I have to explain that this World Cup is the World Cup of soccer because a good chunk of the people who read this blog might not know that. We Americans do have one or two things right.

I have been thinking about it ever since. I think the condition of my elder father with Alzheimer’s has gotten me to thinking about how I am going to be if and when I get old and start losing my filters. The preeminent thought in my mind is “there but for the grace of God go I.” The author in, what appears to be overt glee, characterizes Blatter as having displayed extreme smugness on winning reelection to his position only four days before his seemingly unrepentant resignation–only doing it for his love of the sport. At the age of 79, I surely hope I do not have such a strong sense of entitlement that my failures create great joy in those around me. It is really uncomfortable if it happens even once, but in my case, I fail a lot. It makes me want to practice good behavior and maybe even more than that, a good attitude.

Update: This article that came out today at Sultan Knish describes huge problems created by this same sense of entitlement, but at the other end of the economic spectrum.

*Standard New York Times caveat: We are normally (wildly) underwhelmed by the veracity and unbiased reporting as practiced by the New York Times, but this article had some merit.

Betty Blonde #337 – 10/30/2009

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Back to Community College

By Dad

On Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Anyone who has read this blog for any time at all knows we are big fans of the American community college system. It just seems more right than just about any other part of our educational system. The whole purpose of the system is to educate people as inexpensively as possible according to the needs of local communities. In general, community colleges have close to local business, local government schools, the local elderly community, municipal and county government, local fire and police services and on and on and on. Part of the reason they are so good is they are so connected to the local community. In many ways, the are the local community.

Lorena met with an academic counselor at our new local community college yesterday. She had a great experience. She found she needs some specific credits to finish her four year transfer degree, but that she has way more credits than she needs to graduate. It just feels great to have someone in the family back in the community college. It will be a ton of work and the classes are not easy classes, but it appears she will be able to take most of her classes either on line or at the satellite campus here in our little town just a couple of miles from the house. There is so much other stuff going on she plans to continue to take it slow, but just continuing is more than half the battle.

Betty Blonde #336 – 10/29/2009

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Delayed gratification, sometimes even if you do not understand why

By Dad

On Monday, June 1, 2015

Here is a great article on delayed gratification. It describes a longitudinal study that eventually became known as The Marshmallow Experiment. The study itself is pretty fun and even funny. Children are put into a room and told not to eat a marshmallow put in front of them. They are told if they resist, they will be given a second marshmallow. The amount of time they resist is measured and recorded. But the really interesting part is the follow-up studies that showed the students that were able to delay gratification longest were much more successful (at least in some aspects of their lives) later on in life.

I have been confronted with an opportunity to exercise the quality of delayed gratification in my own life. I do not imagine the kids in that experiment thought too much about the why of their situation, but I have found I often let that get in my way when it comes to my work life. I think it must be pride more than anything else that causes the problem. When I am given a task, it is really nice to know where that task fits into the bigger picture and who the results of my work will be used. When I do not know those things, it is harder to put my head down and work.

The problem with that is I am frequently ill served by not just putting my head down and doing what I have been given to do even though I have no view to the end goal. It is like all the laborers in Matthew 20 who all got paid a penny even though each worked a different amount of time. The hard part for me is that it is absolutely not necessary for me to know. This is not my problem and I should not make it the problem of the people for whom I work. My employer should not suffer in any way from diminished output on my part just because I think I need to know certain things or be valued in a different way. There should be no complaints, but, more than that, there should be no consideration or attitude of complaint. I signed up for the penny and should do the work, have a great attitude and leave it at that.

Incidentally, this has nothing to do with my day job.

Betty Blonde #335 – 10/28/2009

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State of the blog: Some stuff I’ve learned

By Dad

On Sunday, May 31, 2015

At the beach shortly before we restarted our homeschool I have blogged now for over eleven years. The picture at the left is from a trip to the beach shortly before we restarted our homeschool adventure within a month after I started writing. I wrote because I wanted a record of the things we did and it helped me order my thoughts.

We had very specific goals and it was easy to find blog topics because we were very interested in doing things well, so we studied, shopped, traveled, worked and thought about very specific things that had to do with those goals. Frankly, though, I have struggled some since the kids went off to graduate school with finding topics about which to write.

The funny deal is that the blog following continues to grow. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I have moved up to the top of the Google search results for certain categories of questions like Why Not Skip High School, which math program to use, CLEP testing and several other topics. We are starting to get more and more hits on the series I am doing on Our Homeschool Story, too.

I am more encouraged than ever about continuing to blog. When we finished homeschool I got a little discouraged because I was so used to writing about homeschool and I struggled finding topics about which to write. We succeed beyond anything we might have imagined after making a ten year plan. Our specific goals were abruptly over. So abruptly that we were caught unaware. We have struggled to know what to do next. That has diminished somewhat now for a several of reasons. My parents’ entry into memory care and our need to return to Oregon to help gave us some sense of mission, but we know (or at least hope) that will be short term for everyones’ sakes.

While this was all going on, it dawned on me that I had learned, over these years, what kinds of blog posts and content works best to drive up page hits and unique visitors. That would be very important if I had not decided I wanted to write for other reasons than to have a large readership. I know how to link to the right news articles and blog posts, use the right words and do a few other things to gives myself spikes in readership. I do that some times just to see if it still works, but have decided that is not my reason for writing.

I am sure I will have the urge to write something every now and then to drive traffic to the site. It is fun, but not the motivation behind the bulk of my efforts. The biggest thing that helps me continue to write is that I like it now and it is part of my daily routine. We DO have a few specific goals. Lorena has been accepted at the local community college and plans to start classes as early as this summer. We have a few fun trips planned. Our kids continue to advance their careers. We plan to move someplace closer to Mexico to retire when your current responsibilities here in Oregon end. It is all good.

Life has currently put us into circumstances where it is very difficult to plan to achieve longer term stuff. That is not a bad thing, but it is not my comfort zone. I like to have something specific to do. Now we have an indeterminate period of time in front of us where we need to be available to help care for my parents (Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah) who are in memory care. I think it is very good for me. Lorena is much better at living in the moment than I. Maybe this will help me. I think, going forward, that will be more and more important in our lives. I surely do not plan to bore anyone with that, but I do plan to learn to enjoy the indeterminate.

Betty Blonde #334 – 10/27/2009

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Too close for comfort

By Dad

On Saturday, May 30, 2015

In culture, Politics

It seemed kind of crazy to me that the following two posts appeared on Lorena’s Facebook one right after the other. The first is of our buddy, Karl at a Colosseum somewhere in or near the Middle East. The other is a from the Drudge Report. Is it a coincidence? Maybe not.

Karl on Drudge?

Betty Blonde #333 – 10/26/2009

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Homeschool program uses “A Patriot’s History of the United States”

By Dad

On Friday, May 29, 2015

In Education, Homeschool, Politics

We used A Patriot’s History of the United States as our principle text for the study of U.S. History during homeschool. We had not planned to do that, but needed something after we were sorely disappointed by our experience with Joy Hakim’s politically correct and simplistic A History of the US provided by the Sonlight program. This was the one glaring weakness in what we feel is a stellar homeschool offering. Hakim’s screeds were just a bridge too far in terms of both focus and dumbed down content. Hakim’s highest earned degree is a Masters degree. Her undergraduate degree was in Government and I could not find the area of her Masters degree so who knows whether she has any formal training in History.

Two profoundly more knowledgeable, professional historians wrote the New York Times #1 best selling A Patriot’s History of the United States. Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen are both college History professors with long lists of refereed journal articles in their curriculum vitae. The book was more readable, less agenda-driven and covered U.S. History more deeply and broadly than the Hakim books. I found an article on a talk given by Larry Schweikart about the book. The article featured a photograph of four homeschoolers who used his book as a text for their homeschool study of U.S. History and were impressed enough with the book they wanted to come hear the author speak. It is nice to know we are not the only homeschoolers that used this book. We have hope Sonlight will eventually see the light on this and make the switch, but it has been several years since we raised the issue.

Betty Blonde #332 – 10/23/2009

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Sultan Knish on David Letterman

By Dad

On Thursday, May 28, 2015

In Blogging, Politics

I have never really had a desire to be a political blogger. I write about some political stuff sometimes, but that is more a function of my worldview than any allegiance to a political ideology. That being said, it is hard to get to the news of the day without passing through the political filters of the reporters and commentators. Television news is the worst. The knee-jerk, brain dead, hard left orientation of the “mainstream media” is the worst and the country club republicanism of what postures as a more balanced choice is only marginally better. It makes me thankful we do not have a television. Radio is just as grating. I ride silently in my car these days. I probably should have been doing that all along.

So, I am relegated to getting my news from the Internet. There are actually quite a few places now from which I feel comfortable getting my news. The news aggregation sites are good because one can preview the source before they consume the product and there are often links to commentary that are worthy of a read. I found the Sultan Knish blog at one of the news aggregation sites I frequent and now I try to read everything written there. The blog author, David Greenfield, makes me kind of sad because he is not only way smarter than me, I am very confident I will never come within a country mile of being able to write as well as him. He is kind of like Mark Steyn in that regard.

I wrote this post specifically so I would have a pointer to the blog on my website and because he captured my exact thoughts on David Letterman. The following quote gives you a flavor for the whole article, but I hope you read the whole thing.

He was not a liberal by conviction, but out of laziness. When challenged by guests like Bill O’Reilly, he quickly folded. His politics were not thought out, they were unthinking. For all his pretense of eccentricity, he was a conformist who understood that if he played the game, he would get paid. His comic personality, the folksy skepticism and detached disdain served up in measured doses to viewers, was calculated to cover up this essential attribute that defined his enormously lucrative career.

Letterman is a professional sycophant who limos off into the sunset to the strains of the sycophantic braying of a dying industry. As audiences dwindle, the media has become its own audience, mourning the passing of its glorious past by taking hits of nostalgia from its heady days of power and privilege.

Betty Blonde #331 – 10/22/2009

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Kelly gets her first (co-authored) academic journal publication accepted

By Dad

On Wednesday, May 27, 2015

A quote from Kelly’s facebook timeline:

My first real academic co-authored paper got accepted for publication!!! Only second author but STILL! It’s a big deal for me!!!

Betty Blonde #330 – 10/21/2009

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Christian arrives in Oregon

By Dad

On Sunday, May 24, 2015

In House and home

Christian -- home from Tempe to Oregon Christian flew in yesterday from Phoenix via Palm Springs. It was a typical spring day up here in Oregon–clouded over, but what, to us was a nice comfortable temperature. No rain. The thing that gave us confidence that Christian is getting acclimated to his new clime is that he was cold as soon as he stepped out of the plane. The picture to the left shows him right after we got to the apartment, studying Probability Theory with his sweatshirt on under a comforter. Lorena and I were in short sleeve shirts feeling quite toasty.

The picture at the bottom shows the really big difference between Lorena and Christian vs. Kelly and I. When he opened his suitcase, this is what it looked like. Well, it is a little less organized than it was when we opened it because some stuff got moved around. We just thought it interesting that everything was so organized. His apartment is like that, too. Kind of amazing and even mysterious to the likes of Kelly and I. It seems like entropy is just thwarted when it enters Christian’s apartment.

Christian's suitcase 2015 Memorial Day

Betty Blonde #329 – 10/20/2009

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