April, 2004

April 30, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. hmmmm… I’ asked a couple of people to write and allow me to post it on this site. No replies. None. Not even a negative response. I can imagine people not wanting to write, it takes time, it seems terribly personal at first, any number of reasons. But I would have expected something other than silence… particularly when I consider those that I’ve asked. Oh well. I’ll open up the offer to others.

Here is what I am looking for. I’d like to have ordinary people write about ordinary events. Oddly enough, that could become very interesting if the people are a little diverse in geography, age, culture, philosophy, wealth, etc. and started talking about each others thoughts. What type of editor am I? Well, here is a snippet of what I’ve been saying in my request for writers.

I’m the easiest editor you will ever work with. No deadlines. No rules. No format. Write about anything you like. No editing. Unfortunately, all of this freedom comes at a pretty steep price… no payment for all your efforts. Well, you might gain a little (and I mean very little) exposure and you may find something inside that makes it worthwhile for you. You get the idea. Nearly anything is fair game. Three areas that I find touchy around most people are politics, sex, and religion. I’d encourage you to write about other topics before delving into those. We can do those if you want, I’d just be a little cautious around those subjects at first.

Writing actually changes the way you look at things a little. To express an opinion, I have to struggle over the words sometimes changing them a half dozen times before I am happy with them. I am a far worse critic of my own writing than any grammar teacher I ever had. In the process, my own thoughts seem to become more clarified on the subject. I suppose that is why writing was once thought to be important (as in reading, writing, and arithmetic). Give it a try if you like. Since I own the site you can bet that I'll work around your schedule and topics. If it turns out that you write for a while and want something changed or deleted, I can do that. Unfortunately, once it has been posted in public, others can easily copy/paste it into their site so you do have to consider posterity when writing for the web. If you have any political ambitions, I'd steer clear of it. If your children, grandchildren, or other distant relatives have any interest in politics, just say no!

Interested? Send a note to this address: dave.weeks at(no spam) frogtails.com. Please include only original works and permission to publish on this site. We can start you as a guest writer or even one time columnist.

April 29, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. Today it is supposed to get up to 81 F.

April 28, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. Last night we had dinner with Steve and Mary Ellen. Today they are heading for Boston. Nick is still in Florida on his senior trip and my brother is in Texas for work. Gosh we are a mobile bunch.

This morning we had a HARD FROST. Hopefully it will be the last of the year and I had left my strawberries long enough that it didn't hurt them any.

I want to talk about the truck for a moment and point out a couple of funny thoughts. First, recall that I’ve driven old vehicles for a long time and have gotten used to having the right of way. Huh? Yes, whenever you have a newer vehicle and an older vehicle both trying for the same spot on the road, the newer vehicle will always yield the right of way. It sounds funny but it is true. If you are driving something newer, notice how much leeway you will afford someone driving an older one. Old people generally will give the younger drivers a lot of room but if you have an old person driving an old vehicle (me) and a young person driving a new vehicle (you), you will see that the younger person in the newer vehicle will invariably yield the right of way. I’ve noticed driving slower, yielding the right of way, and parking away from others every since I began driving the new truck. Well that is pretty funny but at least it kind of makes sense. Newer vehicles hassle you in other ways that you might not think about. Scratch or dent an old vehicle and you probably won’t notice and certainly won’t care. I know that I never have. Do the same with your nice new one and you will probably lose sleep over it.

A fellow I work with thought that was pretty odd actually. He knows that I intend to drive it until it stops and questioned me about what difference a ding or nick would make to me now as opposed to ten years from now. He has a point actually. It certainly hasn’t bothered me over the years when other old vehicles had bad things happen to them. Why should I care if I ding my door now? He is of the opinion that most people are thinking of the re-sale value and that is why they stress over such events. Given that I don’t intend to sell it, why worry? I don’t know why and worse, will probably stay awake tonight pondering the thought.

April 27, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. According to a friend of a friend, we are about to hear lots of news coming from Afghanistan. At the moment, a Google news search on the word Afghanistan brings back 22,900 hits. By contrast, Iraq currently is showing 96,200 hits. Stay tuned.

April 26, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. Nick should be in Orlando, Florida by now for his senior trip. The senior prom turned out much better than he expected but I don't think he or Jeanie got a lot of sleep as they were both pretty grouchy when he was getting ready to go last night.

Tea drinkers, I just purchased a box of Kalahari Red Tea. It is a South African Rooibos Herb Tea and is naturally caffeine free (the only ingredients is rooibos or aspalathus linearus). My first sip was pretty good or I wouldn’t mention it.

The news coming out of the Middle East does not make for pleasant reading. Many people of Iraq do not see the U.S. troops as anything but an occupying force. An article I read recently pointed out that many of those being killed are people who are contractors attempting to build water, electric, and other projects of basic infrastructure. The hatred of the West, and the U.S. in particular, must be on a scale that I am unable to imagine. When people are willing to die to prevent what could only be seen as something good, you should start to think about why is that so. How can it be that people could so intensely hate those who would help them.

My memories of the Middle East go back to the six day war in 1967. The U.S. was in the middle of Vietnam at the time. Since then I have seen countless peace plans, countless assassinations, and any number of political figures come and go. If anything, the situation is far worse today than it was back then. My own thinking has started to evolve about the situation. Ever so slowly it is beginning to dawn on me that the current rage evident in Iraq may indeed be a direct result of the problems between Israel and Palestine. In fact, when I proposed my own plan for peace in the Middle East my writing addressed this very issue. It is clear that as far back as December 2001, I could see a relationship between peace in the Middle east and a solution between Israel and Palestine. The announcement by George Bush this past week siding with Israel further strengthened a question that has been popping up in my mind from time to time. Why does the U.S. support and favor Israel in this conflict?

Here is a quote that sums up better than I can the way I am starting to feel about the Middle East. “A good listener tries to understand thoroughly what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but before he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with.” – Kenneth A. Wells

April 25, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. We received a calendar from North American River Runners (NAAR) sometime this past week. This calendar brought a smile and a few good memories to me. Receiving this calendar was similar to receiving a Burpee catalog in the middle of the winter. Both are enjoyable in their own right and help you start thinking about the pleasant weather and enjoyable times to come. NARR is the company that I’ve used in the past to book several whitewater rafting trips with. If you have ever considered rafting but not gone, I would recommend that you go ahead and take the plunge. It is a lot of fun and NARR does everything they can to make it safe, enjoyable, and easy. They have several levels of rafting available so it doesn’t matter if you are timid or adventurous or somewhere in between. If you decide to go, make it a group. This is a day you will want to share with family or friends. DISCLOSURE: I do not own stock or have any financial interest in NARR. Nor do I have any personal friends or relations that work for NARR. I just think they do a good job. Spending a day on the river with them is a good time and worth the time, effort, and expense.

April 24, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. This morning we got up early to walk for MS. As a family we were able to raise several hundred dollars and had near perfect weather for the three mile walk. I don’t care for fund raising but will admit that this was a pleasant walk.

This evening is prom night for Nick. He looked good. All three of our boys look good when they get dressed up. It is a wonderful sight to see your children coming of age and looking like they will do well in life. It is possible that this will have been our last prom. Tomorrow he leaves for his senior trip to Florida. We are counting down the last few days before he graduates.

April 22, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. I took an hour and a half of vacation today so I could leave work a little early. We had parent teachers conferences and of course the teachers want to have the conferences soon after school rather than later in the evening. That is OK with me. I am happy to take time off work to spend a few minutes with them. After all, these people have more influence on the growth of my children than anyone next to Jeanie and I. Most of the teachers have been amused to see us stop in. Our children have done well in school and have really not ever been much of a problem. I am happy to say that I am on a first name basis with nearly every teacher my children have ever had. The teachers my children have had have been wonderful people who are really interested in teaching. We have been attending these conferences for eighteen years and have rarely missed one.

I told you that story so I could tell another one. You don’t have to be anyone special to attend a parent teacher conference, you just take a little time off work now and then. When my boys were young, we had an older couple that attended every PTO meeting. It turns out that they were the grandparents of a child. I decided then and there that if they were willing to do that for a grandchild, certainly I could take an interest in the school and the teachers of my children. I hope that anyone who reads this and has children will feel inspired as I was when I first met those grandparents so long ago. By the way, this particular parent teachers conference was a special one for us… it was our last one.

April 20, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. In these parts, the Bradford pears and cherry trees are about done. Now, the dogwood trees and redbud are in bloom. It is beautiful!! I see the birds and other animals just singing and enjoying themselves and wonder why people ignore such a lovely time of year.

April 18, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. It looks to be another beautiful day. I fixed the riding lawn mower and Jeanie and I gave the lawn a trim. Later in the day I washed and waxed the truck. The weather is so nice that it was pleasant just to spend a day at home doing routine chores. Everything certainly looks better around here as a result of our efforts today. I removed the straw from around the blueberries and they look good. I'm thinking it may be time to remove it from our strawberries. Last year I took it off too soon and the first batch were nipped by the frost. The flowers bloomed and began to form the berries and they all turned black. It was a disappointment to see all of those berries go bad. Of course I’m hoping to do better with them this year.

April 17, 2004 — Morehead, Kentucky. We enjoyed another lovely day of beautiful weather. Nick has decided to attend Morehead State University. We took a tour of the campus and sat through freshman orientations today. It was fun to watch his excitement and see where he intends to spend his college days. We notice a slight Southern accent that Nick finds amusing and appealing. It seems a tad strange to me given the widespread availability of TV and the fact that it is only three hours by car away from our house that our spoken language would still have a regional sound to it. On the way home we imagine how the holidays will sound at our house. Nick will have had time to develop a little Southern sound while Steve and Mary Ellen will have had time to pick up a New England accent. It sounds like fun.

April 16, 2004 — Morehead, Kentucky. Beautiful weather. This evening we drove to Morehead State University. It is an attractive campus and the people we have seen all seem very pleasant. Travel Tip: If you happen to find yourself in this town when the school is having a lot of out of town folks in, I would recommend that you make a reservation first. There are plenty of nice hotels in the area but they were all booked up. We found a room… but I’ve stayed in nicer.

April 15, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. The date alone says it all.

Here is an interesting E-mail written by Jim Heikkinen… while serving in Iraq.

April 14, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. Steve and Mary Ellen stopped by last night. Both have job offers in the Boston area. Naturally, I am very proud and happy for both of them and wish them well should they decide to take the offers. What parent would not be happy that their son or daughter has a job offer before they graduate. Another side of me feels concern for their well being. What parent would not be concerned that his son or daughter is taking a position that will work out for them in a location that they will be happy in. This or very similar scenarios must be playing itself out in thousands of families all over the world as the school year comes to an end.

April 13, 2004 — Washington, D.C. The meetings went well and I fight the weather and head West. Just before Cheat Lake on I68, the traffic slowed down to 20 m.p.h. due to the fog. It is good to be home.

April 12, 2004 — Frederick, Maryland. I am on my way to Washington, D.C. for a meeting in the morning and decided that I could stop off and visit with my sister Frederick. We walked around her yard and she pointed out everything that has changed since my last visit. We enjoyed a good chat and she gave me a bottle of wine that she and Gary pressed from grapes. It looks as good as anything I’ve every bought. Gary works with precision (molecular biology) and would know how to follow a recipe so I expect it will taste as good as it looks. Thanks!

How mobile we have all become. Steve and Mary Ellen returned yesterday from a couple of days in the Boston area. My brother, Dennis, is heading for Dallas today. He will spend the next three weeks there training for his new job. The weather was dreadful on the way over. At high elevations you had fog in addition to the rain.

April 11, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. Happy Easter! Joe and Angie brought dinner to our house last night and we enjoyed a game of cards afterwards. Today I expect to visit Jeanie’s family for dinner. I hope your holiday will be as pleasant as mine.

Unfortunately, it would appear that some people would take advantage of our natural inclination to gather with family and friends during a holiday. When so occupied, we tend to allow our attention of world events and politics dwindle. A better time for potentially bad news could not be found than say last night… when the White House declassified the August 6, 2001 top-secret memo (President's Daily Brief) that apparently warns of al Qaeda plans to strike within the United States. It didn’t seem all that important when I was younger, but as I age, I have come to appreciate the value of the first amendment. Here is the text of the memo. You may form your own opinion.

Declassified and Approved for Release, 10 April 2004

Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US

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Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and “bring the fighting to America.”

After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a ########### service.

An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an ############ service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative’s access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.

The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin’s first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.

Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.

Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.

Al-Qa’ida members — including some who are US citizens — have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa’ida members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.

A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim–American youth for attacks.

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ############ service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of “Blind Shaykh” ’Umar ’Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.

For the President Only 6 August 2001

Declassified and Approved for Release, 10 April 2004

April 8, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. Added a few pretty neat photos from inside the attic and bell tower of Cutler Hall.

Have you ever used Google? I have. A couple of days ago I mentioned a new feature they are planning, GMail. Here are a couple of quick facts for you to ponder. They use 100,000 server to service 150,000,000 searches each day. The average response time is a quarter of a second. If you have any interest in Google, artificial intelligence, or computers in general, this brief article about Google (and numerous associated comments afterwards) is required reading and thoroughly interesting and entertaining.

April 7, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. The April 5, 2004 edition of Computerworld has an article by Thomas Hoffman and Patrick Thibodeau (hotlink 45736) that I found interesting. The article made a couple of interesting points about compensation for Information Technology (IT) workers worldwide and what people are doing to get those jobs. In India, "Everyone wants his son or daughter to become a programmer someday". The emphasis on education is striking to the authors and reminiscent of what the U.S. used to be about. I found those comments very troubling. It is not uncommon for families in India to made great sacrifices so that their children can obtain an education. I have personally worked with several people from India on a project over 10 years ago. They are decent, well educated, hard working people that I found to be very pleasant to be around. Keep in mind that each year India will produce over a quarter million new graduates and then look at how the average salary for a programmer stacks up in the world (table below). According to a former GE buddy that I talked with tonight after work, they are laying two ocean cables as we speak, to cut the communication costs. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that our future may be much different than our past. What to do? Well, doing nothing will assure us of one path… that much is certain.

April 6, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. Oh boy! Steve and Mary Ellen (rectangle–today, square–back when) stopped by this evening and the topic of religion came up. I'll pass on that topic for now and try something tame. How about politics?

Like it or not, politics makes a difference in your life. Make it clear, I am not running for office nor am I endorsing or campaigning for any particular candidate or party. I merely want to express my views on a subject that seems important and timely. In order to get to the essence of the problem, ask yourself what is, or ought to be, the purpose of any government. Once you have that settled in your mind, then the parties and personalities become a little easier to understand. So what do you think? Is it a black or white thought? Likely not. In my own mind, I can not only see shades of gray, but also colors, intensity, degrees of luminescence, and properties other than merely color. Why do we settle for two political parties to represent us then? It seems to me that it tends to lead us to extremes and I think we are witnessing that in the world today.

We should entertain the notion of having three or more political parties. With only two parties we end up with a lot of party line votes. That is absurd to me. We make it nearly impossible for our representatives to represent us. In practice, it appears to me that whichever party wins the majority, has free rein to do as they please until they are booted out. With three parties, a simple majority would require more than a simple party line vote and may open a person to truly represent and vote his or her true beliefs and not necessarily the party line. That could open the door for much more interesting and honest debate. Given our current situation (bad and seemingly getting worse) I propose that it is a serious idea worthy of your consideration. If you have a better idea, I am interested in hearing it. Think about it and propose something better. I did. In fact, I came out with an off the wall idea back in 2000 that was submitted as letters to the editor of several local newspapers and published in several. So give you a reason to care? In a couple of days (April 15) I can give you over 20,000 reasons that I care.

April 4, 2004 — Cincinnati, Ohio. 04.04.04—neat!. I had breakfast in Covington, Kentucky with my Dad and brother this morning. We put up a new flag today, Dennis fixed a clock that had been troubling Dad, and had a real pleasant day. Dennis is heading out in the early morning for Texas.

8:10 a.m. Albany, Ohio. Driving home I saw a beautiful full moon. The last two days have been cloudy and clear at times but cool and windy.

April 3, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. This morning I picked up the Sports Illustrated rather than the National Geographic. How queer. I have subscribed to National Geographic since 1975 and have always enjoyed looking through it and reading a few of the articles. We started the SI subscription for the benefit of my children a few years back when they were in school playing sports. Sports have never meant a lot to me and so I found it curious to see myself reading, with interest, an article about the Cubs having a chance at the world series this year. In fact, I’d like it if they won this year. Having read the article, I think that they just might do it. I even know who Rick Reilly is by now (the guy who writes the article on the last page) but only because my children have pointed him out to me a dozen times and explained to me that he did something or other in sports when he was younger.

My plans for today are to build a Windows 2003 server and place it into operation for the school and then drive to Cincinnati and visit with my Dad. Don’t expect any new posts until I return.

April 2, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. Record gas prices may foreshadow coming oil shortage, worldwide crisis by Alejandro Eggers Moreno of the Pacific News Service. I found this article in my local alternative newspaper and thought it worth linking to. It basically states that the oil reserve estimates are just that, estimates. Worse is the thought that there may be reasons for them to be inflated. In fact the USGS admits that it calculates its own figures for US oil reserves based on non-technical considerations. In effect, they attempt to figure out what we will be needing and figure that we will find a way to extract that much and use that figure as our reserves. Other countries and large multi-nationals have economic reasons to do likewise. That means that there may be far less oil in the world than we think. Uh, oh!

Another article that came my way via a technical web site that I routinely read is probably old news to many but it was new to me. Courtney Love has a lengthy discussion of the recording industry. I found it on Salon and will warn you that you will have to wade past a fair amount of obscene language so I didn’t provide a link. She wrote the article back in 2000 but it still seems appropriate. You may find it funny but two weeks ago I would not have recognized her name. Her recent antics have kept her on the news enough that even I have now heard of her but don’t know that I’ve ever heard one of her songs.

GMAIL by Google has also been in the news. It is only in beta testing and I was not able to obtain an account. Here is the idea. They will give you 1 gb of storage for your e-mail. They will also provide search capability on it. That doesn’t sound too awful bad to me just yet. If you have ever tried to locate an email you received long ago you know the difficulty it can present. Imagine just searching for it. A lovely idea really. I assume that you would only be able to search through your own email and not other peoples stuff. In order to search it, it has to first be indexed. This is where it gets interesting. Google would have programs scan every e-mail you send/receive and index it. They claim no humans would actually be involved. Of course once it has been scanned, they intend to embed a couple of relevant text ads. Again, for many that is not bad. I actually think it is genius the way they provide the text ads based on your search criteria. It really targets the ads to people who obviously are interested in the subject and may be potential customers. They are off to the side and easy to dismiss if you aren’t buying anything and they are also easy to use if you are in a shopping mood. For others, this idea of scanning personal e-mail is a little creepy and feels like big brother. I’ll try it and see what it feels like to me before passing judgement.

Friday, so soon? The skies began clouding up Monday evening. It rained through the night an by Tuesday morning everything was wet. Wednesday morning everything was even wetter. Thursday morning… soaked. This morning, I noticed the birds were really singing away. Perhaps they were doing a little sun song trying to chase away the rain. It even looked like there were fewer clouds in the sky and I had great hopes for the weekend. It rained all day, continues on into the night, and appears to be here to stay. I've not seen the sunshine for far too long.

So, looking at the cloudy side of things. The moisture is probably really good for all of the plants that have been struggling to make it through the winter. It cleans a lot of dust and pollution from the air and just about everything else has been thoroughly washed as well. It helps alleviate the drought conditions we have had over the last five decades or so in these parts. The rain is also reminiscent of the rain forest I saw near Hilo, Hawaii back in January. It rains every day in Hawaii and they have a saying that sums up their outlook about it, “No rain, no rainbows”.

April 1, 2004 — Alfred, Ohio. Happy 15th Anniversary to Diane and Gary.

The following was posted this morning before work and meant as an April Fools joke. I apologize to those who called or wrote seriously thinking that I was injured. I tried to make the story believable but thought that by throwing in the turkey towards the end everyone would surely see the humor. My bad… but it is reassuring to me that people were concerned about my well being.

Our sidewalk is a series of concrete flag stones lined with brick on either side and filled with number nine limestone. Each concrete flagstone is a different shape and most have been molded with a relief. One is a gargoyle, another a snail, a frog, a lotus flower, etc. The sidewalk follows the contours of the land so their are curves and hills that you navigate between our house and the driveway. This morning while walking out to the truck (in another day of rain), I slipped and fell on it. It knocked me out and probably broke a few bones. I've heard that turkeys will sometimes open their mouths to the rain and don't have sense enough to stop and will sometimes drown that way. I've been called a turkey before and way laying unconscious with my face up in the rain. Fortunately for me, Nick was leaving the house on his way to school and found me or I may have drowned turkey style. I'll let you know more about my injuries once the pain killers ease a little.