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Recent Changes to This Blog

You may or may not have noticed, but I’ve been making quite a few changes recently here. I changed the layout using a WordPress Theme called Limau Orange. This layout uses space more efficiently than my old theme and has a sidebar on each side of the content, which I really like. I’ve tried to put the more relevant “widgets” near the top where they are more likely to be seen. Recent additions are three randomly selected pictures from our photo gallery and ten recent links that I’ve saved to del.icio.us. You may have also noticed that I’ve added a few “Pages”, which are always available at the top of the left sidebar. “About This Blog” and the three articles beneath it offer a short history of how this blog came to be as well as describing what I write and what’s available in the sidebars. There are a few other useful pages and I expect to be adding more eventually.

What do you think?

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What is “The Surge”?

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has been criticizing Barack Obama this week for not supporting “the surge.” In a controversially edited interview on CBS News on Tuesday, McCain took Obama to task for saying that the so-called Anbar Awakening should be credited for helping to decrease violence in Iraq over the last 18 months. According to McCain “the surge” was responsible for the Anbar Awakening:

I don’t know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane (phonetic) was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that’s just a matter of history.

Unfortunately, as critics would later point out, McCain chose exactly the wrong time to invoke the word “history.” The awakening began in late 2006, at least three months before President Bush went to Congress and the American people in January of 2007 to announce a new strategy in Iraq. This strategy had a working title of “A New Way Forward” but became generally known in the press and with the American people as “The Surge.” Given that it wasn’t announced, much yet implemented when the awakening began, McCain is horrendously wrong, right?

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Deep inside we’re all the same

Thomas left for Camp Baldwin on Sunday and will be gone for a week with Troop 820. Tina and Graham just got back last week from three days at Gilbert Ranch with his den in Pack 4. Tina blogged extensively about the latter starting here. While she was there, she twisted her ankle again but I think it’s been healing pretty well since.

I hurt my back while at our neighbor’s BBQ over the weekend and spend all day Sunday laying flat on my back hoping for the best. It no longer hurt to stand up on Monday morning but it still feels a little “tight” at times. I have to be careful not to strain it any further. As I’ve mentioned before I heal much more slowly since I turned forty.

Continue reading “Deep inside we’re all the same”

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Fun with Wordle

According to their description, “Wordle is a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide.” Also called a “tag cloud“, a word cloud summarizes the frequency with which certain words in a blob of text appear. Words that appear more often, are displayed larger while words that appear less often are smaller. Unlike the tag cloud for this blog (which appears in left sidebar), Wordle’s clouds are adorable. Their cloud editor is very easy to use and lets you change many aspects of the cloud. I used it to analyze the recent editorials that the Presidential candidates submitted to the New York Times about future Iraq policy.

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Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2472
Van odometer: 153074
Weight lost (in pounds): 0
Aches & pains: left shin (still healing)
Current reading: The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk, Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy
Recent listening: News from Lake Wobegon, Fresh Air, Science Friday
Recent viewing:  Numb3rs, Pardon the Interruption, Mo’ Better Blues, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte
Recent playing: Chain Factor
Recently accomplished: sold G4, mowed lawn, cleaned cat boxes, resolved various online purchase problems, ordered replacement LCD for Thomas, attempted to fix The Doctor (GPS), recycling, got rid of junk (bed, mower, microwave)
Imperative To Do: Get rid of junk (couch, vacuum cleaner), buy trailer for van, activate new Tivo, oil change for van, weeds, clean garage, moss, new muxtape, upload pictures

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Forcin’ a light into all those stony faces left stranded on this warm July

After a busy day cooking and cleaning on Independence Day, we’ve been a lazy bunch around here. We really enjoyed ourselves on the 4th, though, and were happy to have the company of so many people. The fireworks were fun and I think everybody was entertained. Next year I need to buy fewer ground blooms and more mortars.

Last week I started out the week by traveling to Foster City, CA, for some training at EFI headquarters. Because of the Northern California wildfires, my direct flight was cancelled and I was forced to take a flight through Seattle. By the time I arrived in Seattle, the connecting flight had been delayed and I didn’t arrive in San Francisco until 1:30. Unfortunately, my luggage (a change of clothes and my CPAP) was on another flight which did not arrive until quite later in the day. After waiting in line for at least an hour at the United luggage service counter, I left them orders to deliver the bag to my hotel after it arrived. It was eventually delivered to my hotel while I was at dinner that night.

I was glad to join my friend, Rob, for dinner both nights that I was in California. On the second night, we ate at a nice French restaurant before Rob dropped me off at SFO for my late evening flight home. There were no complications this time and the plane was only half full making it almost enjoyable.

Continue reading “Forcin’ a light into all those stony faces left stranded on this warm July”