Here’s a guy who feels the way I do about Christmas (except the part about being Jewish):
The Christmas things all around build on one another. Christmas seems to be trying so hard for me to like it that I can’t help but hate it, as though it were an ad campaign that was constantly in your face. I wish for a time machine that could take me to my in-laws’ house on Christmas Eve, where family, good cheer, and good food really are the most important things. Because then the Christmas carols on the stereo there wouldn’t make me want to put on headphones and listen to my iPod, and I wouldn’t have to force myself to smile every time someone says “Merry Christmas.” I love watching my kids enjoy Christmas, and I don’t want to hate it. But I do.One GeekDad’s Lament: Why I Hate Christmas (and Why I Hate That I Do), Dec 2008
You’ll see what I mean if you read the whole article.
Oh! And lest you think that I’ve gone completely apolitical, dear reader, perish the thought. I found the above linked article when some random surfing around led me to this story about Steven Chu, Obama’s pick for Secretary of Energy.
Most scientists consider the last eight years a tough era in Washington. But President-elect Barack Obama’s reported picks for Secretary of Energy and EPA administrator and the creation of an “energy czar” signal a return to scientific principles in the decision-making process at the federal level.
And it’s about time.
One of the biggest reasons to fill the scientific vacuum in Washington is the pressing need to find new sources of sustainable energy. For this to become reality, Washington needs to step up and support science when industry and academia are unwilling or unable.
Anyone who’s talked to me about this in the last six years or so knows how pissed off I’ve been at Bush’s cabinet appointments, particularly those with any connection to science. He’s had a progression of stooges and cronies, anti-Science types all of them, and it’s seriously hurt our competitiveness in science and technology development. Just when we can least afford it, that idiot managed to take a bad situation and make it worse.
Anyway, thank God that loser only has 36 days left in office. I only wish it was 36 hours.
Days like today - really cold, down around 20 degrees, but with sunshine - don’t get me down. I actually feel pretty good. But on days when there’s nothing up there but a steel grey sky about 1,500 feet up? Yeah, I’m about an inch and a half away from wanting to draw a warm bath and…well, you know. Maybe I should look into one of those special lights or something.
But there are those who love the hell out of winter. I call them “maniacs”. Or maybe they’re like this dog, just making the best of the situation.
It was during a blizzard in the late 1990’s where 54 inches of snow fell in 48 hours near Ward, Colorado. And this dog loved every moment of it. No snow hill was too deep for him to run around in.
The Golden Ears Bridge is really starting to look like something now. I snapped this photo last night from “Jessie’s Lookout” while Diana and I walked along the river just by our house along with Bandit and Cassie. That’s Mt. Baker in Washington state in the background. The span across the river is nearly complete. The trees on the left obscure the unfinished portion. It should be in place by the end of this year. The whole project is scheduled for completion by Summer of 2009.
It’s a pretty big deal around these parts. For us in particular it will open up the lower mainland like never before. Today it would take us a good 20 minutes to reach the No. 1 Highway, and that’s assuming reasonable traffic. Once this project is complete we’ll be on the highway in, oh, 5 minutes. I do a fair bit of mortgage business through realtor partners across the river. I worked an open house on Saturday. It took me about 40 minutes to get there and over an hour coming home (because I chose to take the Albion Ferry across the river rather than drive all the way around). With this bridge in place I would have been there in no more than 10 to 15 minutes.
Is there any question that the guy is a pariah? I feel a little bit sorry for him. He’s been in way over his head for nearly a decade and his legacy is in tatters. I actually do believe that he’s thought he was doing the right thing all this time, but he’s been so egregiously, tragically wrong.
That’s not to say I won’t be grinning ear to ear on January 20th. I pray that Obama will be the inspirational leader we need. We’re hurtling down a dangerous track here, and it’s high time we had some real leadership. I just hope that Pelosi and Reid (ugh, I really hate those two) will get their heads out of their asses and allow the grownups to get some serious work done.
The three carmakers’ chief executives have faced heavy criticism for their performance at this week’s congressional hearings, where they resisted accepting any blame for difficulties they attributed entirely to the evaporation of credit markets. The executives were also condemned in the press for flying private jets to Washington to ask for public money. When asked by Democratic congressman Brad Sherman to raise their hands if they would sell their company jets to prevent bankruptcy, none of the three did so.
I wonder if these execs brought Tiffany designed tin cups with them as well?
I really dig tilt-shift photography. Something about how it all looks like beautifully detailed railroad models is so cool.
Tilt-shift photography is a creative and unique type of photography in which the camera is manipulated so that a life-sized location or subject looks like a miniature-scale model.
When you’re done enjoying the tinyization(?!) of ordinary scenes, check out “Reverie“, a high-def film shot entirely on a Canon EOS digital SLR.
Hear ye! hear ye! We proudly introduce to this tiny corner of the blogging world, our newest addition to the family, Cassie!
Cassie is our second rescue adopted from That’ll Do Border Collie Rescue. You may recall we adopted Bandit from TDBCR in November 06. Both Bandit and Cassie come from the same foster home in West Vancouver. I don’t have permission to mention her name so we’ll just call her Sandy. Sandy is an awesome foster mom and it’s thanks to her that we have Cassie. Sandy was hesitant to contact us about Cassie because she knew that Dixie had crossed the Rainbow Bridge earlier this summer. Somehow Sandy knew that Cassie would be just right for us and Bandit and boy was she right.
Cassie is just 9 months old. She’s a border collie cross (probably Aussie Shepherd), although if you met some of her siblings you’d call her pure border collie as some of them are classic black & whites. Cassie’s coloring is definitely unusual for a BC but that’s where it ends: she’s smart as a whip and full of BC energy. She came to us more or less fully trained: house broken, excellent recall, sit, lie down, stay, shake-a-paw, etc.
Bandit is taking her time accepting Cassie as her new sister but when she feels like it, it’s Battle Dogs®! We’ve had decent weather each day since Cassie came home this past Saturday so we’ve been able to go for a walk along the river every day. Cassie is great on or off leash. It’s real nice to have two dogs again I must admit. There’s been a huge hole in my heart since Dixie passed but I think Cassie will help to fill the void.
