You should be.

New color theme for this journal, in support of those who wish their voices heard.

Facebook might be robbing some of my blog time. Then again, when I get on a bent politically, like I am over the murder of George Tiller, sometimes I wonder if I'm just talking to air sounding my thoughts on the matter. Then I wonder if I care. Obviously I do, but hopefully the point gets across.

On the plus side of truly local politics (well, as close as I get), I was elected chairman of the Board of Adjustment for the Town of Stanley. Strange name, I know, but we handle appeals claims when zoning ordinances are enforced. It was a bittersweet election, though, as I found out the same day the town manager/planner had resigned his position and as a result our work on a strategic plan for the town of Stanley was put on hold. I hope they fill the position with someone who cared as much about doing things right for this town as Bob did. Unfortunately, in a sleepy little town like Stanley, change can sometimes be considered a four letter word.

Otherwise, life is pretty good these days.

but please include in the "persons of interest" everyone who abdicated their constitutional duty while this country descended into the abyss that Nietzsche described was possible when we fight monsters.

If you were briefed in 2002 on the use of torture (stop fucking calling it enhanced interrogation, Orwell would be proud) and said nothing, you are no less culpable in the crimes against humanity that were committed than the people who were simply "following orders". I don't care what political letter sits next to your name.

9/11 was a tragedy. But the greater tragedy was the number of human beings (including American soldiers and civilians) who were tortured or killed because America lost its soul and decided to become not much better than the monsters we were fighting.

When did we forget that there are 6.7 billion other human beings on this planet? The talking heads of this country speak of spreading liberty to the world, a noble idea indeed. Is such a concept even possible when we are willing to water board someone 83 times?

If the Democratic Party is earnest about wanting to help America regain its moral compass, it should start with Nancy Pelosi not only stepping down as Speaker, but with a new person representing her congressional district. Democrats need to pluck the log from their own eye before speaking of the splinters in others.

Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan's blog.

There is little doubt she is the consumate statesman, in any environment. She absolutely pwns Mike Pence in this video (note: ignore the byline in the video, its the content that matters):



The "concern" over Obama shaking hands with Hugo Chavez is a friggin joke. If our politicians, of any ideological persuasion, were better students of history, they wouldn't look so silly on a public stage.

Not exactly an earth shattering event, but I noticed they removed the "beta" label from Google Mail. Anyone else notice this or am I just slow and its been there awhile?

http://onceuponageek.com/images/56geek_2.jpg

I'll post my choices tomorrow.

fiesta831 summarized it pretty darn well:
Only things I would add is a nice little sunburn from the trailer safety class made my noggin a nice shiny shade of red, Radar absolutely rocked in meeting the new puppy and our friend's children, and I got my 50th geocache this weekend. It was an all-around great weekend.

thank goodness! I received (and accepted) an offer with a big pharma company located in Charlotte. Not sure what the start date is yet, but my job search is officially over. :)

Best of all, it was a job I actually wanted vs. having to settle for in this economy. I consider myself very fortunate in that respect.

Its a great day.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has proven to be a surprising advocate of limited nationalization of certain banks. In an interview with the Charlotte Observer, he describes an approach that I have a  hard time arguing with:


I think this is a pretty pragmatic approach. The only piece I would add is that once banks are recapitalized, some level of graduated capitalization requirements needs to be developed to ensure failures like this can't happen. We said that once before, in the depression. The run on the banks happened because they didn't have the capital to properly secure their investments. That needs to be fixed.

Fixing the banks is a pivotal part of turning this economy around. Without it, too many businesses, small, medium, and large, run the risk of failure because acquiring inventory on credit is at the heart of their ability to survive.

Temporary nationalization may be the only way to turn this part of the recession bus around.

I wonder if it would be legal to limit campaign contributions from these entities during this time. Politics has a nasty habit of influencing some of this decision making at the worst times. (see: Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac).

As a concept, some of me wonders if we would even be in this mess if political campaigns were public financed.

A 4th grade wish list turns into a regional charity for a kid who is now playing hoops for Clemson. I dare you to not like this kid, even if you hate Clemson.

I'm attempting to take credit for its creation, but its entirely possible someone else may have created it. The word of the day is:

IWAC

Ideologue
WIthout
A
Clue

Conveniently is it politically neutral so it can be used to describe someone of any political faith. In short, it is someone who follows an ideology blindly, without ever considering if the tripe they get fed (Rush Limbaugh and Randi Rhodes come to mind) has some basis in fact.

These cretins are often known to utter such statements as:

"The economic crisis was 100% created during the Bush (or Obama) Administration."

"I hope he fails."

"Unless Obama pulls every troop out now, he lied to us."

"Obama has saddled future generations with an enormous debt."

There are countless others, but you get the idea.

I couldn't agree more. Some mild language in case you view this from work.

From the "Facts that may only interest me" department:

Approximately 2 million people will crowd Washington Mall in an effort to try and witness history. To put a perspective on that number (especially for the square footage of the mall), that number is larger than the population of the following states:

New Mexico
West Virginia
Nebraska
Idaho
Maine
New Hampshire
Hawaii
Rhode Island
Montana
Delaware
South Dakota
Alaska
North Dakota
Vermont
Wyoming

In fact, you could take the population of our largest state and add the populations of the decently sized states of North and South Dakota and still not reach the number of people that will be in that relatively small tract of Washington D.C. as I write this.

Andrew Sullivan delivers an insightful perspective on what Obama will try to achieve as President. Try, of course, is the operative word because he will have many enemies of his efforts, from both sides of the aisle. Change is never easy, and it Washington it is exponentially tougher to accomplish.

I was 11 when Reagan took office, so my recollection of the political scene was fairly shallow. But I do recall one common attitude that people seemed to share when he took the oath of office: hope. Change of administrations often brings with it hope for better times even under arguably successful administrations, but, and perhaps its because my generation seems to be stepping up to the plate for their turn, this time, this challenge, seems unique. We face some serious challenges right now, whether it be the economy, the environment, our energy plight, or health care. The list seems endless, possibly because I'm more wired into them than at any point in my adult life.

I don't know that Obama can fix all of these problems in 4 or 8 years, or that he should even try to do so. Doing so might just short-shirt each of those priorities and in the end accomplish little for any of them. Bush (and arguably his predecessors) left him quite a mess to clean up so that serves as a challenge as well.

My advise to Obama is simple. Focus on what can be accomplished, and do your best to deliver.

I think we picked the right person to accomplish that objective, but obviously time will tell. In the end I'm left more hopeful than I have been in some time for our country, but I'll still temper that hope with the reality that Obama is still a politician, and Washington is still...well...Washington.

Good luck.

Au revoir, Circuit City. Most people don't know this franchise was 60 years old. But big box retail, especially for electronics, seems to be falling (Best Buy being the notable exception) to its more nimble competitor, the internet. Its hard to compete with online entities like NewEgg.com and a host of others in the consumer electronics space. Best Buy "gets it" though, and at least on the computer side, has managed to add a service layer that the average consumer has a hard time finding on the internets.

I especially feel bad for the folks who are losing jobs because of this. But, every door closed means another is opening, at least that's what I'm told. I keep listening for my door, I think its opening soon. We'll see...

I won't let the Panthers' brutal performance ruin what was otherwise a terrific day.

It started with a nice walk with the dogs then moved to the barn where Natalie and I rode together for the first time in over a year. In spite of some challenges from Freckles in trying to ride in the pasture, it was a very pleasant ride. I've been really pleased overall how much my work with her has paid off during my hiatus from riding. Hopefully, a ride in King's Mountain will be next on the agenda.

After that Natalie and I experienced scent tracking for the first time with Radar. I can't believe how much fun it was or how good he was at it. I think we may give it a go tomorrow as well.

The Panthers suck, but my life is still pretty awesome.

fiesta831  gave a pretty good summary to 2008, so I won't bother repeating it.

Besides the hiatus from driving and facing the fact that the first episode wasn't an exception, the biggest impact (personally) from having the seizure a year ago was the change it forced on the relationship with my horse.  Riding, at least for then, simply wasn't an option (or smart) until we had a better idea of what we were facing with my epilepsy.

Over time, Nat and I had agreed to keep the hiatus in effect at least thru the end of the year. I consulted with my neurologist and he begrudgingly agreed that as long as I managed the risks, riding my horse was not much different than driving (from a risk perspe. In short, be smart, stay healthy and keep my medication levels regular, and riding might be an option down the road. Obviously, staying episode free is the critical factor as well.

The upside of that change in my life back in January was that it truly focused my relationship with Freckles. Just prior to January, I had already started to refocus on my relationship with her, restricting my riding in lieu of using the Parelli program to focus almost exclusively on my communication skills and learning how to "play" with her.

Over time, others started to notice the change they saw in her as they watched us work/play together. Walking on the trail wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be. My confidence as a horseman and in my relationship with her continued to grow with every barn visit, trail ride, and camping adventure.

All of that work paid off today.

Once it warmed up a little, Nat and I visited the barn with the intent of riding today for the first time in a year. I won't belabor the details, but the session went off almost perfectly. Freckles was just awesome, my mount was solid, and the ride was nearly flawless. I kept it brief for obvious reasons, but I couldn't have been happier with how my time went. Being able to share it with Natalie made it doubly special.

If I had never gotten to ride again, and I have to accept that such a day may in fact come at some point in my life, I think I'll be okay with it. But I have to admit, seeing all that play with Freckles culminate in such a wonderful riding session with her today just absolutely made my heart sing.

Such a wonderful start to the New Year. It gives me hope for great things in all aspects of my life. That's not hard to achieve since I feel so blessed already.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Looks like Radar got the best Christmas gift of all...

I'll back up here. Ever since Radar got his rabies shot, we've been making regular trips to the various dog parks in Charlotte. Those places are solid gold for a puppy. The socialization he gets while there is invaluable in his development, and we get the gift of a tired puppy in return. The experience thus far has been fantastic, with one drawback - distance.

The closest dog park is almost 45 minutes away, so its a major endeavor just to get him out there.

That may be ending soon. We learned a few months ago that Gaston County had allocated land for a dog park near one of the major parks about 12 minutes from us. Problem was, it didn't seem like anything was happening on it. I called the parks and recreation division but had been trading voice mails with the person in charge of the project, so I still didn't know how far along it was.

On a bit of a whim we decided to take all the dogs to Poston Park (where the dog park land was allocated) for a nice hike on its trails. After the hike we saw a lone car coming out of the back of the park with dog hanging out the window. No other cars were at the park (it was late in the afternoon and the sun was setting). So, we decided to investigate.

Much to our excitement, we noticed some fairly new fencing and what appeared to be dual entry gates, a very common feature at dog parks. Sure enough, there were two fenced in areas covering about 4 acres. The park appears to be very close to being ready to open.

Needless to say, Nat and I both are pretty excited at the prospect. I plan to call again on Friday to get the scoop on opening day.

Happy New Year everyone. I'm looking forward to turning the page on 2008 and excited about what 2009 holds in store for me and my family.

The Panthers looked REALLY good tonight against a very good Bucs defense. Williams and Stewart are going to be a terrific running back tandem for many years to come, methinks.

The job search is going ok, not great. I kind of expected slow running in December, so this isn't really surprising. I did have a very good conversation with a potential employer at best, a great network contact at worst. I feel good about the number of irons I have in the fire at the moment, so we'll see how it goes.

I have to admit, being unemployed has given me some serious thought about professional blogging (meaning blogging about your profession, not sitting in my PJ's trying to earn a living as a blogger, though I'd love that job if I could make decent money at it). I had thought several times in the past about doing it, but you walk a fine line in being able to blog about the company you work at. People get fired over that stuff, and I know my company didn't have a lot of experience in dealing with that medium conceptually. That said, I feel like an opportunity was lost. I've been an IT professional for the better part of 15 years and blogging is a medium that lends itself easily to getting your thoughts out there. If I had it to do over again, I would have found a way to contribute without necessarily involving my employer. I'm sure I'm not the only person with that challenge.

I may try and document some of my experiences with Identity & Access Management, but we'll see.

Finally, this chest cold seems to have turned into a head cold and borderline ear infection. It's welcome to leave my body now.