Meet the Life Hackers - New York Times

Meet the Life Hackers - New York Times: "This is part of the reason that, when someone is interrupted, it takes 25 minutes to cycle back to the original task. Once their work becomes buried beneath a screenful of interruptions, office workers appear to literally forget what task they were originally pursuing. We do not like to think we are this flighty: we might expect that if we are, say, busily filling out some forms and are suddenly distracted by a phone call, we would quickly return to finish the job. But we don't. Researchers find that 40 percent of the time, workers wander off in a new direction when an interruption ends, distracted by the technological equivalent of shiny objects. "

American Kitchen: 2 Raccoons Still Alive

ahhh doggone it.... spilled my coffee all over the floorboard of my car this morning... swerving off to the shoulder of the road trying to miss two raccoons crossing the road.

well i missed them at least. my wide-based coffee, sitting in on the floor, tipped over and i didn't realize it till i got all the way to work. 2 coons crossing and i suddenly come upon them... hitting the brakes at the same time and pulling over into the gravel shoulder of the road the first one decided not to continue and turned back. ironically i didn't spill my other cup of coffee i was holding in my hand... building up speed i drove off thinking, "wow... that was a good job. calm. smooth. still got my coffee."

i immediately started worrying about the raccoons and the next car or cars coming down the road.


American Kitchen: Dead Animal Survey

The Resurrection and the Postmodern Dilemma by N.T. Wright

I thought this was a great description of the present cultural and intellectual crossroads we find ourselves in today. Throw Christianity into the mix and you've got a real good story.

*******************************************

The Resurrection and the Postmodern Dilemma by N.T. Wright: "Postmodernism. To oversimplify, this has focused on three areas."

First, knowledge and truth. Where modernism thought it could know things objectively about the world, postmodernism has reminded us that there is no such thing as neutral knowledge. Everybody has a point of view, and that point of view distorts. Everybody describes things the way that suits them. There is no such thing as objective truth. Likewise, there are no such things as objective values, only preferences. I heard somebody say at a meeting in 1996, “Today, attitudes are more important than facts—and we can document that!” That statement trembles on the brink between modernity and postmodernity. The cultural symbols that encapsulate this revolution are the personal stereo and the virtual-reality screen; everyone creates their own private world.

Second, the self. Modernity vaunted the great lonely individual, the all-powerful “I,” symbolised perfectly in Descartes’s cogito ergo sum and in the proud claim, “I am the master of my fate. . . the captain of my soul.”1 But postmodernity has deconstructed the self, the “I.” The “I” now may be just a floating signifier, a temporary and accidental meeting place of conflicting forces and impulses. Just as reality collapses inward upon the knower, the knower deconstructs itself.

Third, the story. Modernity implied a narrative about the way the world was. It was essentially an eschatological story. World history had been steadily moving toward, or at least eagerly awaiting, the point at which the industrial revolution and the philosophical enlightenment would burst upon the world bringing a new era of blessing for all. This huge overarching story—such overarching stories are known in this postmodernist world as metanarratives—now has been conclusively shown to be an oppressive, imperialist, and self-serving construct. It has brought untold misery to millions in the industrialized West, and to billions in the rest of the world, where cheap labor and raw materials have been ruthlessly exploited. It is a story that serves the interest of Western industrial capitalism. Modernity stands condemned of building a new tower of Babel. Postmodernity has gone on to claim, primarily with this great metanarrative as the example, that all metanarratives are suspect. They are all power games.
Collapsing reality, deconstructing selfhood, and the death of the metanarrative—these are the keys to understanding postmodernity. It is a ruthless application of the hermeneutic of suspicion to everything that the post-Enlightenment Western world has held dear. It corresponds exactly with the microchip revolution, which has generated and sustained a world m which creating new apparent realities, living in one’s own private world, and telling one’s own story, even though it does not cohere with anybody rise’s story, becomes easier and easier. This, on one level, is what the Internet is about. We live in a cultural, economic, moral, and even religious smorgasbord. “Pick-n-mix” is the order of the day.

IN MATTERS OF JUDGEMENT

...wrote a poem on the way to work this morning ...simply dealing with the "definition of Self" conundrum as initiated by Descartes and his mind/body dualism and as answered by John MacMurray and as painfully experienced by every thinking Westerner ever since... it's simple but pure - but heck, i'm not a poet - so there. :)

IN MATTERS OF JUDGEMENT
(breaking out of the knot-thought mess of Descartes)

It's what I do
  Not what I say [that matters]
 It's what I say
   Not what I feel
  It's what I feel
    Not what I think

     (what I think hardly matters)

    What I do
   Is what I am
  And what I am
 Is what I do

I do therefore I am

Steve Irwin - A Saint for the Wildlife

A true hero. A man among men. A champion of earth's wild creatures.

Living the life that every boy dreams of.

These are the things of Steve Irwin.

One thousand years into the future, with whatever Christian/Catholic/World-Religion evolves, I hope that Steve Irwin will be designated as a Saint for all mankind. He should be.

I hope they make little statues of him and place them on dashboards and have little shrines to St. Irwin. His image should include a snake around his neck, a crocodile along-side him, and a lizard in one hand and a bird in the other with maybe a monkey or a koala bear on his back. He should be gazing forward with a courageous but loving look and a wide-eyed wonder for all things alive.

I would vote for him for Sainthood if I could. He could replace St. Francis of Assisi.

And whatever creatures we have left running around in whatever minimal wilderness we might have left at that time - we could then pray to and thank our God for the inspiration left behind by Saint Steve Irwin for all the future ages to come.

May wildlife continue for as long as man rules this earth.

God Bless Steve Irwin.

(And may God have mercy on what's left of our wildlife.)

Notes From an Underground Drunk

I'm being channeled

Lesson #1:
[set to music]
THERE ARE MANY SOULS OLDER THAN ME

Rule #2
It don't matter how far it goes out, as long as it comes back

I'd hate to impregnate the third hippy (infiltration, revolution) generation

Thought:
I never had so much fun in 10 years

"No. I [am] stronger than Adam."

One of the major rules of the game is - "If you're not that good - step off to the sidelines."

How can I be so romanticized by the hippie legend?

I'll do that because I'm robotic enough.

I'd rather have something 5 times as good, than 5 things 1 times as good.

The trick is to live like you could not live tomorrow.

Everyone wants to get away from everywhere they're feeling watched.

Which would you rather be?
Samson or Delilah?
- for to me.

I hope that was a good enough excuse - I was drunk!

I can't decide till tomorrow (laugh)

The '70s: We realized it wasn't gonna work - so we just got high. ('it' referring to the 60's revolution)

Promoting democracy and modernisation in the Middle East is not a solution to jihadist terrorism

Neoconservatism has evolved into something I can no longer support

"Promoting democracy and modernisation in the Middle East is not a solution to jihadist terrorism. "

huh? did i read that right? i thought Bush just said last night on tv that that was the answer?!

who said this?

-one of neo-conservatism's charter members and a scholar most responsible for establishing its post-Reagan policies - Francis Fukuyama.

I have to agree:

What we need are new ideas for how America is to relate to the world - ideas that retain the neoconservative belief in the universality of human rights, but without its illusions about the efficacy of US power and hegemony to bring these ends about.

HOW TO LOSE THE WAR ON TERROR PART 5: The politics of indignation

HOW TO LOSE THE WAR ON TERROR PART 5: The politics of indignation

There is a growing angst presented in this article that somehow we in the west still aren't "getting it" and thus have this nasty feeling in our gut that though we know the evil the caused the towers to fall on 911 was sheer evil, we do not know still how to fight it.

The assumption has been, that just like the Soviet Union fell because it was a house built upon hollow principles the radical Islamists will also fall from implosion with just a little continued pressure and military might.

What if we are wrong?

The Blanco River is Dry

We're in a 2 year dought now here in central Texas hill country. The river behind my house is all dried up. We went down and tried to save a few fish from the buzzards. We caught one maybe 7 lb. Appaloosa type catfish and a few bass and perch. We took them to a bigger hole.

All this area for the last 3 years I've been here has been swimmable water over your head in a lot of places.

Chief Dan George

Chief Dan George: "If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other."

I just like this quote. I didn't know Chief Dan George - the humourous indian who acted in "Little Big Man" with Dustin Hoffman (a great movie by the way) was an actual chief.

The rest of the quote goes on to say "...if you don't talk to them, you will fear them. And what you fear you will destroy."

Have you ever known anyone who was actually at Woodstock in '69 ?

dude... so i've finally met someone who actually was at theWoodstock Festival in 1969 ... we partied last night with some friends and it came out that Tom Mullen, a quiet unassuming obvious old hippie, was there... he recalls it as "we were just hanging around and we heard about this concert so we went to it ..."

he remembers hearing the "FISH" call out... but we asked asked if he was naked and he just smiles and says "probably".... i asked him about the rain... (kind of a test question) ... he just looked down kind of said drearily remembering and says, "yeah... it rained a lot." :)

for the record.... he didn't really remember Hendrix or Joplin ... but he remembered Joe Cocker. (Which in fact when I look up the hisotry in Wiki was the opening act the third day at 2:00 PM... right before Country Joe and the Fish.)

Later, Tom - this counter revolutionary living remnant of Americana past, tells me he was also a biker (he mentioned San Bernardino, CA) and did some hanging out with the "Angels" but "never got his colors" he shamefully admits.

He remembers this writer that liked to hang out with "the Angels" at the time.... says he was writing a book. His name was Hunter S. Thompson but didn't think much him at the time.... "he was just a writer" is all he says.

I quizzed him with all I knew and he seems straight up. I'll quiz him more tonight and this weekend over a Margarita and whatever (and whoever) else shows up. If he wasn't so non-chalant about it and didn't actually look like a remnant hippie/biker type of guy, I probably wouldn't believe him.

Which conviences me even more, that all the hippies settled down in Austin and then the best of them moved on finally to Wimberley.

:)


Should be fun :)

We Can't Make It Here Anymore

the scariest essay i've ever read mostly because it rings so true... this should probably be read while listening to James McMurtry's "We can't make it here anymore" song... you can downloaded it for free if you don't have the CD yet. (it's a great CD, by the way, so you should get it.)

2 big hogs, 3 big fish, and 2 big cats

Ok... i know this is old-skool web, but hey it's fun. Here's a few photos i've snagged off the web that i've had for a while and have meant to post 'em as a page of "Big Animals". I'll probably never get around to it, even though i have the data, names, and such of where these animals came from somewhere deep in some file on some computer somewhere.... probably in my barn on an old hand-made box i used to use on my old ISDN line back in Houston... (whew... those were the days).

Anyway, here's 2 big hogs, 3 big fish, and 2 big cats. Click 'em and save 'em to disk or something.... just fun to look at.

One of these days i'll drag up the actual "python eating a man" picture. But its pretty gruesome.

Charles Bukowski Poems

I'm not a poetry reader but these were actually fun to read. Charles Bukowski was a horrible fellow who lived what I would call a horrible life that wrote good poetry. He eventually made some money at it, but I don't think he ever quit his job at the post-office.

Here's the one I liked the most.

NIGHT SCHOOL
from Dangling In the Tournefortia

in the drunk driver's class
assigned there by division 63
we are given tiny yellow pencils
to take a test
to see if we have been listening
to the instructor.
questions like: the minimum sentence for a
2nd drunk driving conviction is:
a) 48 days
b) 6 months
c) 90 days
there are 9 others questions.
after the instructor leaves the room
the students begin asking the questions:
"hey, how about question 5? that's a
tough one!"
"did he talk about that?"
"I think its 48 days."
"are you sure?"
"no, but that's what I'm putting
down."
one women circles all 3 answers
on all questions
even though we've been told to
select only one.

on our break I go down and
drink a can of beer
outside a liquor store.
I watch a black hooker
on her evening stroll.
a car pulls up.
she walks over and they
talk.
the door opens.
she gets in and
they drive off.

back in class
the students have gotten
to know each other.
they are a not-very-interesting
bunch of drunks.
I visualize them sitting in a
bar
and i remember why
I started drinking
alone.

the class begins again.
it is discovered that I am
the only one to have gotten
100 percent on the test.

I slouch back in my chair
with my dark shades on.
I am the class
intellectual.

Ease of Alteration Creates Woes for Picture Editors

This is old news, but in case you don't know the details, "Little Green Footballs blog" bustered a Reuters photographer for doctoring his photographs. Here's an example where he took two photos and merged them into one to make an American soldier seemingly waving off a father with one hand while holding a machine gun. The father is holding what appears to be a possibly wounded small child.

This is also the same blog responsible for revealing the details that led to the resignation of Dan Rather.

Now it seems that some photographers are actually staging photographs even to the point where they are digging up buried children.

Maybe Too Much Nature in this Texas Hill Country

Yesterday as I'm sitting down to eat supper I see through the window a baby deer crashing into the corner of the my back fence frantically looking for a way out. I knew in a heartbeat the dogs were chasing it and it somehow got stuck in my fenced four acres of woods.

I jumped up, hollared at my wife, found a couple of leashes and went running into the back shouting for my dogs.

After much hollaring and screaming and watching this spotted fawn run to and fro, I got the dogs leashed (who really were not in as hot pursuit as I thought) and figured I could chase the fawn from the corner where it now stood trying to squeeze between the fence and the rock wall and possibly out the front gate.

When I walked up to it, its face squeezed into the gate, I could see it injuries were probably not fatal but not pretty either. It let me pick it up (I folded its legs under to avoid getting kicked) and it bleeped helplessly like a sheep or a goat. I saw its mother a few minutes earlier at that corner looking worried, but she was now scared off into the woods. I picked the baby up over the fence and let her go. She went running out after her mom.

We were stressed. I went back and ate my cold supper. I told my wife, this hill country may just have a little too much wildlife.

It's starting to wear on my nerves.

Petting the Cat

I grew up with a mother who was obsessed about fat people and making fun of them. As kids we couldn't go to a family restaurant without my mom invariably pointing out some hefty person and their large order of food. It was embarassing but funny.

This is just funny.

A Dog Fight

I broke up a dog fight the other day... between Phoebe my American Bulldog and a Pit Bull a family member brought to the house. It was pretty ugly. My wife was screaming at the top of her lungs and I was trying to pull them apart. My hands were all bloody.

The Pit got a hold on Phoebe's neck but Phoebe couldn't get a grip back. Of course it was all fast and furious. She'd chomp down on my hand and I could feel her teeth sinking into my flesh and then feel her pull them out again. I could tell (it was kind of like slow-motion) she'd realize the taste and feel in her mouth was my hand so she would let go while spinning and turning and try biting again - usually right back my same hand.

The Pit latched on and started shaking trying to kill instinctively but only had her neck skin. She wasn't big enough to actually shake Phoebe to death. I couldn't rip them apart since it'd only tear up Phoebe's neck worse. The Pit wasn't about to let go.

My wife's father ran up all the way from the cabin welding a small log and clobbered the Pit Bull over the head. It let go and started to turn on him for a second. He threatened it with its life. After that it circled around to try and attack Phoebe - which I was holding back by the collar.

I guess it was my mistake for ever letting the two dogs come into contact in any kind of uncontrolled situation. They were peaceful with each other earlier. My wife's father - a born and raised Alabama man who grew up around country dogs - says, "In a situation like that, a dog doesn't understand anything but more pain."

Beauty and Pain in Nature

The Painted Bunting is to me the prettiest bird in nature. We've been seeing a few in our neck of the woods and I finally got my binoculars on one for a while.

Beautiful.

Adena found one dead in the road while walking the dogs. Probably hit by a car.

I came home from work yesterday to a very upset wife and two dogs that did their best against a local porcupine. (They pretty much lost.) We drove down to Blanco - calling ahead to the Vet and asking him to stay late.

$250 later, the dogs were ready to go and to my dismay the Vet told me the dogs usually don't learn too well and will more than likely do it again when given the chance.

Phoebe had them quills in her lips, gums, and a big batch of them stuck in the roof of her mouth. We pulled a few out with pliers, but there was just too many.

Hank had one all the way through his tongue.

Dumb dogs.

Beauty and pain in nature. Hmmmmm. I'd love to have seen the porcupine. I bet he was a pretty animal actually.

Dogs didn't think so though.

soldiers reduced to the status of a smart soccer mom?

How to appear smart articles are a signpost of a degenerative culture - superficial and shallow at best. One of the tips is to speak with an English accent. To the credit of the zine, book reading is good but mostly because "people will respect and admire you for possessing some [culture]".

Now I know why I like to read.

I was going to comment on the struggles Iraq war veterans are having re-assimilating into American life and the general loss of masculinity in our culture along with places to express it. Returning soldiers "missed the exhilaration and camaraderie of the war zone" when returning to banal American life finding that the "passivity of consumerdom is not enought to keep society sane".

My son is in Iraq and says he won't have any trouble re-adjusting when he gets back to civilization. He also says he's stayed this long because he likes making the big money and is a consumer at heart: likes to buy lots of stuff.

Maybe it won't be hard for him. I hope not.

Lost in self-referential thinking?

Eyesore of the Month by James Howard Kunstler

This is an interesting visual self-reference where one should not be needed. Be sure to check out the other architectural eyesores and comments. Well worth it.

Magritte would appreciate this I think. (Or not.)

Magritte's Label and Mickey Mouse's Soul

The first visual semiologist - Magritte himself has finally been named.

I've always been fascinated with the mystery of language and the emphasis and confusion surrounding words, images, their meanings within contexts and the separation between things in one's mind versus "things" in the world.

This leads one to study things like General Semantics, modern Physics (the philosophical implications), Zen, and to appreciate novelists like Walker Percy and directors like David Lynch.

Something to do with the disjunction of superficial socially required survival tactics and the underlying or at least disjointed bulk of reality - it constantly comes up around me.

Recently, Magritte's paintings speak enough to me that I've decorated my work cubicle with ironically easy enough to snatch from the web and print on a two-cubicle-next-door printer and then pin-cushion them to my my short pseudo wallish separating panels. (You can call them walls if you want - but they're not.)

Of course no one consciously appreciates this art. But how could someone living 8 hours a day in a cubicle not understand the apple in a box picture? Or keep a toothbrush, comb, and snack in their drawer without relating to the accessories in a cube painting? Or even the fact that these people put up pictures of outside views when they themselves have no window and don't see true daylight ever during their long work shift? This should at least cause them to appreciate any of Magritte's framed paintings or pictures of people floating in clouds.

Its all a mystery to me.

Today I feel like the guy with no face that's simply seen as another apple. A commodity with no essence. No different than any other consumable piece of fruit. (I started this looking for that picture to pin up on my "wall".)

You know the writer Bukowski said that he hated the image of Mickey Mouse? He said it was a completely soul-less character. Is that the warning hidden within? That if we ain't careful, we can turn into faceless, soul-less, Darth Vaderish semi-human objects with all our meanings wrapped up in words within our minds or on our tongues while losing our own spirits?

My son recently told me he read Brave New World and could relate to the savage whom everyone admired but who could not himself assimilate into modern society.

I can relate to him also. And this Brave New World depresses me. Many an artist saw it coming. That's fascinates me.

And I never did like Mickey Mouse now that I think about it.

(I like Magritte's paintings though. They tell me that I'm not the only one stunned by these mysteries.)

Great Movies

I snagged a list of my netflix 5-star movies and thought I'd post 'em here for grins and giggles.

Some of them I deemed 5-star (outta 5) because they are just so culturally required - Wayne's World (1992), The Jerk (1979) and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). Some are just pure art genius - Pi: Faith in Chaos (1998), Run Lola Run (1998) and Zelig (1983). Still others just because they are great movies - Cool Hand Luke (1967), Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996), Friday Night Lights (2004).

And remember what my daughter always says. There's no time to waste on good movies, when there's so many great movies to see.

(The same goes for books.)

Enjoy.


********* 5 Star movie list by Mitch Sanders - 05/17/2006 **************

About Schmidt (2002) R Drama
Adaptation (2002) R Drama
American Splendor (2003) R Independent
Army of Darkness (1993) R Horror
Austin Powers 2 (1999) PG-13 Comedy
Barton Fink (1991) R Comedy
The Believer (2001) R Drama
Blazing Saddles (1974) R Comedy
Braveheart (1995) R Drama
The Butterfly Effect: Director's Cut (2004) R Thrillers
Caddyshack (1980) R Comedy
The Color Purple (1985) PG-13 Drama
Cool Hand Luke (1967) UR Classics
The Cowboys (1972) PG Action & Adventure
Deconstructing Harry (1997) R Comedy
Desperado / El Mariachi (1995) R Action & Adventure
Ed Wood (1994) R Drama
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) R Comedy
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987) R Horror
The Experiment (2001) R Foreign
Fargo (1996) R Drama
Friday Night Lights (2004) PG-13 Drama
Groundhog Day (1993) PG Comedy
A History of Violence (2005) R Thrillers
Husbands and Wives (1992) R Independent
I Heart Huckabees (2004) R Comedy
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) R Comedy
The Jerk (1979) R Comedy
Key Largo (1948) UR Classics
Kingpin (1996) PG-13 Comedy
The Last Picture Show (1971) R Drama
Lost in Translation (2003) R Drama
LOTR: Return of the King: Extended Ed. (2003) PG-13 Action & Adventure
LOTR: The Two Towers: Extended Ed. (2002) PG-13 Action & Adventure
Love and Death (1975) PG Comedy
The Machinist (2004) R Thrillers
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) PG-13 Action & Adventure
Manic (2001) R Drama
Million Dollar Baby (2004) PG-13 Drama
Monster's Ball (2001) R Drama
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) PG Comedy
My Own Private Idaho (1991) R Independent
Napoleon Dynamite (2004) PG Comedy
National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) R Comedy
Office Space (1999) R Comedy
Oldboy (2003) R Foreign
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) R Drama
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) PG Action & Adventure
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985) PG Comedy
Pi: Faith in Chaos (1998) R Independent
The Princess Bride (1987) PG Romance
Pulp Fiction (1994) R Action & Adventure
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) PG Comedy
Rio Bravo (1959) UR Classics
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) R Comedy
Run Lola Run (1998) R Foreign
Sideways (2004) R Comedy
Six Feet Under: Season 1 (2001) TV-MA Television
Sleeper (1973) PG Comedy
Spaceballs (1987) PG Comedy
Stand by Me (1986) R Drama
Terms of Endearment (1983) PG Drama
Thelma & Louise: Special Edition (1991) R Action & Adventure
To Sir, with Love (1966) UR Drama
True Grit (1969) G Classics
The Truman Show (1998) PG Comedy
Twin Peaks: Season 1 (4-Disc Series) (1990) NR Television
Wayne's World (1992) PG-13 Comedy
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996) R Comedy
What About Bob? (1991) PG Comedy
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) PG-13 Drama
When We Were Kings (1996) PG Documentary
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) UR Drama
The Wizard of Oz (1939) G Children & Family
Zelig (1983) PG Independent

*********5 Star movie list by Mitch Sanders - 05/17/2006 **************

Dog Kills Deer "Go Spot. Go!"

My bulldog apparently killed a deer yesterday.

I was patching a screen door that my other dog (Hank) was trying to scratch through in his panicky reaction to some thunder earlier.

My wife screamed, "There's a dead deer in the back!"
Phoebe was standing guard over her kill - growling to tell Hank not to come close.

Phoebe was visibly traumatized and shaking. I don't think she knew if what she did was good or bad. She was waiting for praise or reprimand from me. My wife was hollering and trying to calm her down at the same time. Hank would come around and Phoebe would growl. She was either still hyped about the kill or was trying to guard her kill (or both.)

I finally got the wife and Hank to go into the house and told Phoebe nonchalantly that everything was okay.

We went to investigate the dead deer.

The deer’s neck looked to be broken with her head bent back giving her a terrible looking frozen "J" shape. Her face and body was bloody but not punctured. She'd been dead for several hours and the flies and ants were starting to settle in.
There were signs of struggle since the fence was bent up and the ground around her was dusty.

I greeted and calmed Phoebe down some as we talked it over. Phoebe was proud and excited and looking for some "what do we do with it?" leadership. We stood over the deer some and just savored the primal moment.

I went and got a rope from the barn, tied it around the deer’s neck and dragged it some three acres into the woods. Phoebe bit, pulled and growled at the dead deer trying to help in a general way.

We left it in the woods to rot and feed the opossums, buzzards, and any other interested scavengers. Phoebe came back with me reluctantly but insisted on sitting by the fence closest to where we drug the carcass off to - so as to keep an eye as best she could over her conquest.

After coaxing her into finally coming in last night, she returned to her vigilance first thing this morning - staring off into the woods.

She knows exactly where we left her kill.

Oh the joys of dog ownership and living in the wild.

My Ethics Quiz

Today is "Ethics Day" at the company I work for. They left on our desks a wrist-bracelet-rubber-band that says so. They have an ethics quiz you can take also.

Questions are things like:

1) One of your team managers has had a few too many drinks at your team's holiday party at a local restaurant—she’s loudly telling the group an inappropriate story. Is her behavior just fine because she’s at an off-site, non-Company event?
a. Yes, since the party is outside of work, the Code of Conduct doesn't apply.
b. No, because your manager’s behavior should set an example for the team.

2) Your bank account shows that your payroll deposit from [your company] is unusually large. It’s probably best to:
a. Use the extra money for your upcoming vacation.
b. Send a note to your manager asking her to look into your monthly statements.
c. Call the [Company] Ethics hotline.
d. Give the money to charity.

Answers:
1)b
2)b or c


But I've been thinking about the ethical questions that I really have to deal with and I decided to write my own Ethics quiz. Here it is:

*********************************

Ethics Quiz (real issues that i struggle with daily)

1. A lady in a few cubicles down from me has a big bowl of Hershey's kisses on her desk next to her opening. It looks like they're available for anyone. I've never met her or talked to her face-to-face. She's not in her cubicle and i walk by and really want a piece of chocolate.

Is it right or wrong of me to reach in there and grab one? What if she came around the corner and saw me?

2. There's a nice litte poster notice on the bulletin board in main hall that says something like: "Kickboxing: A few of us get together for excercise and kickboxing fun in room 242 every Wednesday at 9:00. Anyone is welcome to join us."

I'm real tempted to scribble on there when no one is looking: "Yeah, and we'll kick the shit out of you too."

It would be funny. But would that be the right thing to do?

3. I am supposed to work 8 hours a day and I'm scheduled for 8 and a half (to take a half hour lunch.) Most always I eat at my desk and kinda do work at the same time. I've been leaving earlier (and earlier) each day since i figure i probably can knock off that half-hour. But now its starting to get a little fuzzy whether i'm now actually working a full 8 hours or not.

Should I:
A. Let it be fuzzy and leave as early as I can each day?
B. Count only the time that I'm actually chewing food as time when i'm not working?
C. Stay here a full 8 and half hours, and look like i'm working the whole time? (eat and do other things as much as i want)

Answers:
1)a.right b.don't make eye-contact
2)Yes
3)A, B, or C

Typical Austin Thursday

... already did have a good weekend really.

... picked up the wife and a bottle of Arrogant Bastard Ale after work and drank it outside at Whole Foods, walked to Waterloo Records and picked up the new Black Angels CD (a local band popular at least in Seattle - they played in the store two days earlier), caught the tail end of a Matt Costa show and drank some free Saint Arnold's beer (the patron saint of beer brewers - really), went on over to South Austin Music and saw some cool banjos and guitars and lap steels and old Stevie Ray photos (picked up some strings and a glass slide), went on down to the Shady Grove, ate and drank and saw a free show (good too!) put on by James McMurtry (son of the Pulitzer Prize/Academy Award winning Texan Larry McMurtry) and went on home from there.

... all and all a pretty fun weekend (weekday?).

...even if it was typical for a Thursday in Austin.

Is it New Age or New Science?

If you wanna go and reconsider all your basic assumptions of reality this is a good reading list to start from. I got the best explanation I've ever had of Einstein's theory of relativity and the nature of light in this one, a reaquaintence with authors Karl Pribam and David Bohm (premier original scientists if nothing else) from this ariticle, and good general reminders of some the great thinkers of our time such as Grof and Koestler.

And by the way... if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it - it does NOT make a sound. (as science understands it today)

I just learned that too.

Go figure.

Grandmothers and Bulldogs

My American Bulldog was named after my G-G-Grandmother who's maiden name was Phoebe Dove. My Grandmother smoked a corncob pipe and used to earn money fortune-telling to local people and railroad men passing through town. She lived to a ripe old age and got to see many great-grandchildren born. Once the local doctor used her kitchen table to amputate a boy's leg who got hit by a train.

She was a tough ole' lady and for that I named my female American Bulldog after her in hopes that she might live long and be strong.

My dog's registered name is actually "Mitch's Lona-Girt-Pearl" which is a combination of the names of the grandmothers who were exceptionally gritty in my life.

Lona was my father's mother. She taught me to swim in a lake and took me fishing as a boy. Girt was my wife's grandmother who had a heart of gold, but cussed like a sailer. Every kid and most every adult was scared of her in the neighborhood, but I fell in love with her and saw her deep gruffy caring spirit right off. She loved me too. Pearl is my wife's other grandmother who was just naturally classy, southern and gritty having been married to a share-cropper in Alabama and raising five boys on virturally no money and whatever crop they could raise.

My dog is of course spoiled but still gritty. She whimpers like a pup sometimes. She nags me like crazy - barking when she's outside wanting me to come out and play. Her "play" is "tug-o-war" with a rope or a basketball that she's demolished. It lasts about one minute before you're wiped out. She always wins. You can't wear her out.

Her other favorite game is tearing up trees. I'll hook up a tire and use her aggression to actually pull stumps around the property. But sometimes she quits pulling and just starts clawing and chewing the stump to death.

When I was cutting timber and using logs for building the cabin, I taught her to strip the bark of the logs by exciting her and saying, "Strip 'er down, Stip 'er down!" and she'd tear into it for an hour just gnawing and pulling bark off of them cedar logs. You had to be careful you didn't get your hand in there. She seems to go into a "zone" when she starts to get wound up. I have to be very careful and not get her too excited. I really wouldn't want to see it.

She loves to swim and fishes by herself splashing about on top of the fish she spots while wading in the water. She caught a squirrel once. We couldn't get it away from her. She carried it around proudly for a few days and eventually ate it.

Time It Never Rained

...looks like the Texas hill country drought may be over... its been over a year since we've had decent rainfall... checked the rain gauge this morning and got nearly 2 inches.

...the practical side of this for me is two years ago (fall of 2004) i planted about $40 worth of bluebonnet seed and maybe $20 or $30 worth of wild flower seed. Maybe a few dozen sprang up and a year later about the same... this year nothing but maybe a dozen bluebonnets so far.

I also planted about $60 worth of native prairie seed in the fall of 2005. I haven't seen any of it pop up yet.

It hasn't rained enough to soak the ground here since Dec/Jan of 2004/2005. (about 15 months ago)

my land looks like it was hit by a nuclear bomb after we dug up enough rock to build a 200' wall - 4' tall X 2' wide - last summer. I've been planting grass and agave and cactus waiting for things to green up some.

I've been hand watering my cactus by hauling 5 gallon buckets out to the front.

well ... the drought (i think) is over now... Praise God!

i read some history of Wimberley, TX a few months back... during the 50s there was a 5 year drought around here (7 years in West Texas) ... one of the ranches that survived was the Sites Ranch about 3 miles up the road from where i live. They did it by switching over to raising mostly goats and a few sheep... they're still around. they're about the only ones around here that survived that drought. all the other ranches folded up, sold off their cattle - cashed in and died out.

The Sites Ranch survived. Good for you guys!

Everyday I drive by and love seeing those goats in the field and every once in a while I see a cowboy or cowgirl out there movin' them between fields.

two of the lovliest longhorn cattle i've ever seen used to live up the road. I admired them every day as i passed them in the morning and evenings. their gone now. haven't seen them in a month or two.

the best cowboy story i've ever read gives you a good feel of how those days were and how men survived and didn't survive them. it is The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton.

I just finished reading it yesterday... as i sat out on the porch, listening to the rain.

Sanders "Edge-of-Civilization" Ranch

We moved into the Sanders "Edge-of-Civilization" Ranch Sept. 11, 2005. I realized I never put up any pictures of the new addition. (By new addition, I mean two rooms - one of them a bathroom.) So here is a few pictures showing the beautiful woodwork done by Ike Lovvorn - the incredible "Do-it-all" man - (Adena and I helped) ... and a few pre-addition pictures too.

Ya'll come by now, hear? And bring yer pa!

I caught you a delicious bass, Ariel

I caught you a delicious bass, Ariel.

At 5 1/2 pounds and 23 inches this is the biggest bass I've ever caught. I caught him on the Sanders "Edge-of-the-Civilized-World" Ranch between Wimberley and Blanco here in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. I used my traditional black rubber worm with my own special no-weight, embedded-hook, and light-tension line technique. I caught him April 2, 2006 in the Blanco River. He's possibly a record Largemouth for this river.

He's getting stuffed to be added as another interesting fixture to my classy cabin decor.

Just more proof that I've gone completely hillbilly and am reaping the benefits. Yee haw!

A Normal Day in Baghdad

[below is an email from my son who puts out car bombs in Iraq]

Hey dad, here’s some pictures of my day today. Basically you can kind of see the general process of when a VBIED (car bomb) hits the checkpoint on the inbound lane to the IZ. This one was a stolen suburban like from a private security team, it had tinted windows and even with a sign like “keep back 200 feet” tried to sneak in like they do but of course didn’t get very far and blew up. The guy was handcuffed to the steering wheel so I don’t think he was to happy but whatever.

So you can see me in a lot of the shots, I’m wearing firefighter bunker pants and a black flak vest and black Kevlar helmet with sunglasses. Well in the beginning I’m not because I’m fighting the fire but later I take my pack off and stuff. So it’s pretty simple, car blows up, army secures the scene and goes far up the road to blow up or shoot any more traffic coming in (they shoot off a lot of warning shots so it’s kinda nerve racking when you’re working and they start shooting like crazy up the road.) then the forklift guys come in and clean up the cars so we can wash the roads down and pretty much that’s it. The rest of the time we’re walking around BSing and helping Army folks look for larger body parts. Of course we’re walking in body parts the entire time because the people are blown to a million chunks but some of the larger ones like limbs and torsos can travel pretty far and have to be accounted for. So beware I’ve thrown in a few gory pics just so you can get a little sense of reality.

This is a pretty usual routine, we were doing this like every day at certain times - like last summer was pretty crazy. But then again nothings really gotten better, as you can see this was just today, atleast 5 people died but I sure haven’t seen anything on any of the news organizations. Ok well enjoy the tour!

Oh yea the big guy is my fire chief, he’s been here longer than anybody and he’s a really great and extremely hilarious guy. The other white helmet is our assistant chief.